Maha-Sam-atman's page

yea Totally - Maybe even keep the npc in the game if they need some backup, but have him just be the mute keeper of the spirit cave, who taggs along as a bonus reward, rather than giving him the spotlight.

Jorgen & Asphesteros, that's a great idea. I am totally stea... Er, paying homage to that when my group gets there!

Don't forget that there's a pair of doors down there too—if the PCs discovered the shipwreck, they should have a pretty good chance at noticing some submerged doors in a deep tide pool as well... Unopened doors are a great way to lure PCs, especially if they think that they're not supposed to go there! :-P

All good ideas, thanks everybody. They spotted the doors and figured it out.

Ah... Players.

My party has defeated the cannibals and the ghouls, has found the clues to the Tide Stone ritual, seen the lightning that erupted from the Tide Stones, and found Yarzoth’s tracks leading from the stones and walking straight into the water.
 
They stopped there, decided that they don’t want to mess with any ancient serpent folk magic, and are hoping to ambush Yarzoth when she comes back from wherever she went.  Last I heard, several of them thought she was lairing on the sunken ship in the cove below the Tide Stones.  The one that Ekubus lives on.
 
I don’t think they realize what the Tide Stones do and they don’t have any intention of activating them and following Yarzoth.  Ack!  My railroad is going off the track!
 
Any suggestions?  The best I’ve come up with so far involves either letting them catch a glimpse of the very top of the temple doors at low tide and try to encourage their curiosity or maybe finding a way to have Ekubus talk to them about the 'scary person'.

I dig this idea :)

Dilov Youn wrote:

New Idea

Rewards Cards
Based on the Hero Point System of PFRPG I was thinking on a deck of cards on which every GM could reward randomly to players (instead of giving points)... Also the Plot Twist Cards gave me this idea.

This is very like the cards used in Torg. They were used like hero points and plot twists and more, lots of fun. I would love to see a variation of that.

We'll announce details when the apps become available.

I would strongly urge people to dial back their expectations a bit on this, frankly. We wanted to put our toes in the water with these apps, and so we began relatively modest.

Curse your reasonable response to my demand for instant gratification, Erik Mona!

So I'm guessing Hero Lab hasn't been ported to iOS yet. Oh well. We'll live. I will, however, raise my Vulcan-like eyebrow in your direction if it ends up being a die-roller or something. :)

Thanks for responding on your day off.

Has anyone entered the encounters from the island into Hero Lab? I'd like to try them out but don't have quite enough ambition to do the whole thing myself.

The first two apps have cleared in-house development and are on the way to Apple for approval!

Is there an ETA on the announcement of what these wondrous apps will do for us?

:)

Every aspect of life in Hermea is strictly regulated, and breaking the rules can see you torn from friends and family and cast out into a strange and untrusting world--but if you play by the rules, you are sheltered, well-fed, safe, and happy.

To be sure, it is a chilling place; a Caileanite would certainly be justified in seeing it as a sort Cheliax with fancy gilt, and even a Paladin of Abadar might have reason to pause in considering the civilization Mengkare has created. But the dragon's intentions are honest, benevolent, and forthright, and though he walks a line day in and day out, I find it most compelling if he hasn't crossed it...yet, at least.

This thread makes me wish that we could get Joss Whedon to drop in and tell us what alignment he thinks the Agent from Serenity was... He is working for a better world- but there will be no place in it for someone who has done what he has done.

Matthew Morris wrote:

Re: Mengkare

** spoiler omitted **

Seriously--if you go into the dungeon where a monster (either intelligent or not) lives and try to take its stuff, and it attacks you, does it justify your killing it? Seems to me most American home-defense laws would say that the monster has the right to attack you, guilt-free.

I'm fine with the idea that certain outsiders (demons/devils) are moral abstractions and therefore totally, irredeemably evil. But for the vast majority of monsters, well... it seems that the concept of Manifest Destiny is built into the alignment system.

Which is why alignment is awesome. Because it's fun to go down the metaphysical rabbit hole, both in-character and out. :)

But... "they were all bad"

Dark Mistress wrote:

Sean likely has the best compromise above.

+1

This variant of spell casting seems like it would be extraordinarily boring in higher level play. Essentially, if every spell caster is just spontaneous, then I would think all encounters featuring an enemy spell caster would just devolve into counter spell locks. With no need to actually have the right spell prepared to counter then I would think every enemy caster would just sit around and negate everything the PC players would cast. At least, I don't imagine it working any other way. Even a caster a level or two lower than the PCs would be able to effectively negate almost all their spells, or at least contest them with dispel magic for the higher level ones.

Just my thoughts.

•boggle• ... now *that* I never thought of. That's a great idea!

I am about to start GMing for a group that believes that all prepared spellcasters are severely underpowered and have been using a set of house rules for (apparently) decades which allows Wizards and Clerics to spontaneously cast almost any spell known.  (It’s basically casting as a Sorcerer but with Spells Known limited to 3 * the number of spells that you can cast per day per level)
 
I’m told that if I change this house-rule back to rules as written (or even too close to them) I will have a player revolt and they won’t want to play.
 
To answer the inevitable first response, yes, I would prefer to compromise on this somehow and run the campaign, it would be more fun than putting my foot down and/or hitting them with Mr. Fishy’s stick and then not getting to play.
 
However, I am concerned about the effect that this will have on game play, especially on the balance between casters and non-casters.  Does anyone have any thoughts on how to deal with this system as a GM?  Or ideas on how to change the system to tone it down a bit (but still sound almost as good!) 
 
I believe that they have been balancing the Wizard by charging much more than market price for scrolls and very strictly limiting what spells are available to put into the spellbook.  But the Cleric isn’t restricted at all as they technically ‘know’ every Cleric spell in the book.  I think that the Cleric is considered to be so weak that this doesn’t matter.