Michael Griffith's page

My wife, playing a chaos monk, took a AoO on a commoner running by and just dropped him. It was a memorable moment

I'm not familiar with chaos monks, but by "dropped him" you mean knocked out and not killed, I hope.

Issue #320: "The Roaring Dragon House".

-- George Krashos

THAT'S the one!

Thanks! 50 XPs for the help.

Oh wait, I'm not your DM.

:)

I just wrapped up that adventure.

I did not use all four brothers, instead having two of them take care of more mundane matters in the family business (cleaning, sales, etc.) and they only had an inkling of what was really going on. They did not enter the fray and were not in the rending house when the battle went on.

I did this as much to add a bit of flavor to the NPCs as to thin out their ranks for the sake of the PCs.

----------------

Note: My players really enjoyed the opening of this adventure, as did I. I got the chance to RP some of the locals and the zombie (when it came) shook things up quite a bit. The chase scene was fun, too.

A great low-level adventure!

Hi,

Can someone please tell me which issue of Dragon had an article by Ed Greenwood covering a gambling den outside of Waterdeep?

The issue would have been printed between 2001 and 2006, if memory serves, and the article was one of the Volo/Elminster ones.

Thanks in advance for your help!

:)

Nicolas Logue wrote:

Ah, but what an Eberron adventure! ;-)

Ahh, that's what I like to hear. I actually like Eberron and will be running it for the first time in a few weeks, but found that most of the WotC adventures weren't all that great, or any good infact (apart from Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, and Eyes of the Lich Queen) and so am turning to the Dungeon Eberron adventures to fill the gaps between the two adventures.

Out of curiosity, what Lv PCs is the adventure for?

I enjoyed and later ran Fallen Angel.

Of course I can not find the issue, now that I want to talk about it.

I adapted it for a generic setting, and it worked well.

The PCs I ran through it were 5th level.

Maybe someone can tell you which issue it was in, if you are interested in checking it out.

Sure. Doesn't everyone?

Matt

Man, IF I had the time and skill...

Very nice work!

Yes. In the original manuscript there was an overall description of the Pagoda and a "random encounter chart" (which you can find here at this link) that allowed the DM to fill in some of these more unexplored nooks and crannies.

Hope that helps,
Matt

WOW!

Do you create pages like that for ALL your adventures?

That was really great!

I feel for you, Jake.

I felt the same way many moons ago when I would go to great lengths to create what I thought was an exciting, engaging adventure, and most of my players were more interested in the paint brand I used on the miniatures or the latest Warhammer 40K rules from White Dwarf magazine.

I finally had to lighten up (as the prior poster advises above) and try to embrace the FUN of being with my friends, even though they seemed to care less about the game and more about getting together and chucking some dice for a while.

We took breaks now and then to play boardgames and wargames, since they were a little "easier" than RPGs, since there was less to imagine as we played, and that helped prime us for upcoming adventures, too.

You could also post on message boards or advertise in your local gaming store for players who are as serious as you are about the game.

Good luck in your gaming, Jake.

As long as you are willing to accept that there are a group of dwarves that run a bank in your setting, it shouldn't be too hard to convert.

That said, there are two ways to go about it. The first is to use the adventure pretty much as is, other than changing the locations etc. The stat blocks tell you everything you need to know to run them.

The second would be to change over the npc stats etc, replacing feats and classes that are Eberron specific. It's a lot more work, but there are lots of analogues, especially if you use any other extended source books. Frex, Complete Arcane has a lot of feats that give spell-like abilities similar to Dragonmarks.

A middle ground would be to replace npcs with others that you have stats for from other resources. I frequently do this with Dungeon; I steal statblocks from one adventure to modify another one quickly.

The dealbreaker is the concept; if you don't want a bank in your setting, it's pretty hard to work with. Personally, I don't feel that a bank strains the limits of most settings in the same way as say, the lightning rail would.

I'd be happy to help with the conversion if you like.

Craig Shackleton

Thanks for the ideas, Craig.

Looks like I know what I will be buying on my next trip to the gaming store!

Hi all,

I have only skimmed over the adventures in issue 147.

My gaming taste, and that of my gaming groups, is for low to mid-level adventures, so the 17th level part of the Adventure Path holds no real allure for me.

The last part of the Greyhawk 3-parter is somewhat of interest, but the lynchpin to my buying this issue or not rests with the lower level Eberron adventure.

Since I do not own or use the Eberron setting, I am wondering how easily the adventure can be converted to a generic setting.

Thanks in advance to anyone who offers their thoughts.

Is there any way for those of us who bought these issues at a local game store to get the "subscriber only" adventures? (Besides to buy back issues, that is...)

If this has been asked and answered elsewhere, forgive me for repeating this.

What is the status of items Paizo has created or stocked for D&D, such as Dungeon back issues and the Dragon Compendium? Will these be gone once they are gone, or will they continue to be available for some time to come?

Erik, I don't doubt the quality of Paizo's work. What I'm concerned with is having each monthly issue being just one adventure path. It would be nice to have Low/Med/High repeated in Pathfinder. That was once thing about Dungeon that I found so endearing.

I feel the same way.

The way I game with various groups, I NEED shorter adventures that I can drop into a variety of settings.

I can't see that need being met with Pathfinder.

It is now harder for non-pros in gaming to become pros and get published, since Pathfinder will reply on talents of those who have come before.

With Dragon and Dungeon, people were encouraged to contribute to the magazines, and a fair number of those who post here have seen their names in print in the magazines.

Now...?

Couldn't Paizo continue with its own OGL magazine? Maybe it could take themes from both Dragon and Dungeon and combine them into one AFFORDABLE magazine.

I say AFFORDABLE, because while Pathfinder looks interesting, and likewise, looks to be doing that which I've suggested, at $20 a month, that's pretty damn expensive.

Friends, I suspect what's happening here is that WotC may be feeling the pinch that TSR suffered in the not too distant past. With so many books being released monthly, they may be over-extending themselves. (Hecks, we're on version 3 of d20 for Star Wars already!) Perhaps they see a corner on the market by taking back Dragon and Dungeon.

Yes, $20 a month seems steep.

And yes, it is SO hard to keep up with WotC, product even if you stick with non-campaign setting books. This month alone we have some adventures which look good, the magical compendium, and Dungeonscape (and there could be more I am missing). At $20-$35 a piece, that gets pricey and a lot to read in a month or so until the next crop comes out.

Heck, I still haven't gotten Cityscape yet!!

$20 a month?...

If I subscribe that cuts the price down to $14 a month, about the same price I would pay for both Dungeon and Dragon on the newstand, and yet I am getting less pages and potential content I could use in my various campaigns...

I will give issue 1 a good look-see at my gaming store (will Pathfinder have distribution through Amazon or big stores like Borders) before I decide to subscribe or not.

You will NEVER buy another WotC product if they do not give Paizo the rights to publish Dragon and Dungeon?

Really?

And would WotC really feel it?

Retailers will feel it first and hardest, and therefore the boycot will hurt THEM much more than WotC or Hasbro.

--------------------------

Make phone calls to WotC. Write well-thought-out and empassioned letters to them. THOSE they wil feel. Go to big cons and talk to them (if you can).

Support Paizo.

But a boycot?

I like being able to carry them, and set them on the table when we game.

How is WotC going to replace this experience for me? This is what gets the cash flows from me. I am certainly not going to pay to read .pdf's on the web.

I feel very sick.

I agree 100%.

I don't know what to say.

While I no longer own every issue of Dungeon, I was there from issue 7 on, and had back-issues from 1 to 6.

It has been a part of my gaming life for SO LONG!

Dragon, even longer (since about issue 73).

Good God...

=================

Pathfinder sounds good and all, and sure, web content is nice...

But this is a passing of an era.

What's next, Marvel Comics giving us Spider-Man ONLY on the web?

Do you work for the company that puts out Cliff's Notes?

:)

================

Great review, as always, and I just have to go a little off-topic here and say that I hope to see some more letters in Scale Mail in future issues. I miss seeing 3 or so pages of thoughts, and message boards, as fun as they are, are a bit different than letters pages in magazines.

Admitting to gaming is like admitting you are a drag queen.

I love it, I can't quit it, but I sure as hell won't admit to it.

Wait...

You're a drag queen?!

:-0

(Sorry - j/k!)

Thinking about it, I now know what bothers me about James Sutter's editorial.

The lines about fans who labor over old cars and ham radios does not sit right.

While true that the cars and technology of yesteryear are no longer in use to a wide number of people, hobbyist of those things LOVE those things.

No duh, right?

But what did not sit right with me while I read Mr. Sutter's views was echos of my early days as a gamer (back in '83-'84). I remember going to hobby shops and looking through modules and miniatures and wargamers would sneer at me and make comments about how childish D&D was and how I should step up to their table and try a "real" game.

I tried them, found them boring (for the most part - later I fell in love with Car Wars and Battletech and were told by those same wargame snobs that those were also not "real games), and kept right on RPing.

I get the same feel from what James Sutter says about Hack and Slash. True, it IS lowbrow gaming, but most of our popular entertainments are pretty lowbrow. And thank goodness, too!

Hack and Slash has as much a place in gaming as does LARPing, RPing sessions where not a single die is thrown, a wargame involving chits re-fighting the battle of Bunker Hill, a game of Clue or Scrabble, and so on.

I sensed a little bit of elitism in James Sutter's comments, and while he pobably had no intention of coming off as an elitist, some of his comments came off that way to me.

But hey, the young'un had his say, as he will have again in the future, for one day he may be the Head Honcho at Dungeon.

I find The Portant hit and miss.

I have never been a fan of Downer, and since I love Kyle's spot art, I WANT to like Downer, but really, I wish another strip would take its place (sorry, Kyle).

I like Mt. Zogon a lot, and hope to see it back soon.

Any chance of getting Order of the Stick in Dungeon or a D&D adventure strip (maybe something like Downer without the attempts at humor and something that flowed a bit more like a classic comic book style strip)?

Short of gaming while in high school and college, almost all of the gaming friends I have had have held down successful jobs/careers/relationships.

The cliche of the gaming geek is sort of like most cliches and stereotypes: overblown with a shade of the truth at the core.

And this comes from an old school 1st edition "hack and slasher" - who always found the RPing aspects of D&D as fun as chucking dice - along with all my gaming friends.

I found the editorial a bit off on its view of gaming and the gaming culture, but James Sutter is making money from gaming, I am not (though I used to run conventions and own a gaming store). He almost certainly has a more acute view than I do. Still, something just seems a bit "wrong" with the views expressed in the editorial. I wish I could put my finger on it, but I can't.

I currently game on RPoL and if I can fit your posting rate schedule, I'd be very interested in joining the group.

I could post about three times a week most weeks.

I'm fine playing any PC race or class and prefer low to mid-level play.

Tim sure packed a lot of good gaming in his adventure, and you're right about potential for future use of the setting and its denizens.

I just finished reading this adventure today, and am looking foeward to using it in one of my campaigns soon.

Kudos to Tim Hitchcock!

I especially liked the trap (I won't say where it occurs, since it may be a spoiler for some readers) and the ettercap in sheep's clothing (as it were).

Some very nice surprises in this adventure!

I broke down and bought this issue, and I am now golad I did. I can get a lot of use from the Core Beliefs article and enjoyed the Class Acts articles more than I thought I would.

And I am glossing through the Modron article and actually seeing where I could use these strange critters in my games.

So while this is in no way a great issue to me, it IS worth buying.

Now to track down issue 353 to make my collection complete.

My original post from 4/12/07 in this thread is missing, so I will re-state what I said.

I have to list two golden oldies for my choices of favorite adventure site from Dungeon magazine (sorry, Eirk).

These sites are favorite for two reasons: Tey are just plain good and they hold a lot of fond memories for me and my gaming friends.

The first is The Isle of the Abbey from around issue 36.

This is one of the first adventures I ran my wife through when she was learning RPing, and we had a lot of fun in the adventure. I later sed the skeletons in the sand motif in various other adventures throughout the years and even later updated the setting for 3.5 to use in a short adventure at a local gaming convention. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the ol' isle!

The second is The Spottle Parlor from issue 12 or so.

I used the setting and the game Spottle in the middle of a campaign I was running waaaay back when and the players had a great time. They had so great a time they asked to keep returning to "The Spottle Spot" time and time again between adventures to have some R&R. The unique NPCs in the adventure, as well as any others a good DM can throw into the mix as well as the game Spottle itself make the adventure wonderful and the site a great one for any game. We used a big rubber toy frog for the Spottle toad, poker chips for gold, silver, and copper pieces when we bet, and created fun memories each and every time we revisited the parlor.

What I look for in a great adventure site is adaptability and future use. Mileage, to use a term I applied before. Can I get a lot of good use from a particular site? If so, the site is going to be a winner for me as a busy DM.

Cool topic, James!

Now fingers crossed my post won't disappear again!

Hi,

I posted in several threads on 4/12 and now the posts are gone.

In no way did I write anything objectionable, so I am wondering what might have happened to the posts.

Tell ya wut...

Two updates:

Issue 145 JUST CAME! It was mailed out ages ago, and it arrived JUST TODAY!

It was to be the first issue in my re-upped subscription, and I was worried I would miss it, since my local game store and Borders no longet have copies.

At least I did not miss it.

==================

I e-mailed Customer Service and Jeff replied within hours, saying that he would send me out a replacement map from issue 146.

There is NO BETTER Customer Service department ANYWHERE, so far as I am concerned! Cosmo, Jeff, and the rest ROCK at their jobs!

I will keep his soul in my special intentions during tonight's Easter Mass.

I hope you and your family can find peace soon.

erm, what about the bookstores/newsstands selling copies before street date? (yes, it's petty and mean of me.. but I like having those subscription perks of getting the adventure early ;-) )

When I subscribed, it was about 50%/50%. I'd sometimes get my issue a good week or even 2 before Borders did, and sometimes the same week or up to a week after Borders did.

Once it got so bad that the issue was at Borders and local game stores THREE WEEKS before my issue arrived, but that was a fluke, I think.

I dunno...

This issue (and moreso last issue) contained so little that would be of use to me that I skipped them.

While the Core Belief article would be a fun read, and the smaller bits (Scale Mail, three of the Class Acts articles) would make for good light reading to me, there simply was not enough in this issue (and especially last issue) for me to buy them.

Not every issue can appeal to all gamers, I know.

I'm really hoping next issue will be the one to get me back into Dragon.

(Creature Catalog!!! YAY!!!!)

None of the issues at the Borders in Scranton, PA (Home of NBC's "The Office") had the map - at least no maps can be seen outside the issue.

I bought the issue in large part for the map and the details on Scuttlecove (I love urban adventures!) and I hope Paizo can somehow supply the missing map to those of us who picked up the issue at the newstand.

In none of the cases were the issues' plastic packaging tampered with.

The Lost City is about as isolated as the Isle of Dread so I kept it Core Rules (or Paizohawk if you will) and didn't set it anywhere but "in a desert somewhere". The final map places it about where it appeared in my old Known World game, in midwest Ylaruam.

Hope that helps and hope you like what you see,
GGG

I do not run Greyhawk, but instead run games set either in the Forgotten Realms or a generic setting of my own design. I appreciate being able to take adventures and the dungeons, ruins, castles, etc, involved in them and be able to easily insert them into one of the two worlds.

And this adventure and its setting and NPCs will be good fits for my future use.

This looks like a great starting point for a campaign.

I would rank B4 the Lost City amongst my 5 or 6 most favorite adventures from first edition, and I am very pleased to see someone do something with this gem. I hope to see more done with it in the future.

Echo that! It was a fun adventure to play in, and this update of a favorite location is really fun to read, too!

I am hoping to start a new campaign using it as a start.

Good work, GGG!

Seems like many folks have already gotten theirs, and it is in local Borders stores.

Waaah....

Is it too soon to contact Customer Service?

Dragon still accepts new monsters, but doesn't run the Bestiary at this time. They do periodically run monster articles, and I think the plan is to do a Creature Catalog every year, but I'm not sure since I live on the other magazine.

Maybe Dungeon needs to steal the Bestiary from Dragon as a new page in the campaign workbook?

It makes a lot of sense to feature new monsters in Dungeon magazine.

Heck, if a new monster appears in an adventure, there should be a Monster Manual-style page devoted to that monster somewhere in the magazine (at the very end of the adventure is where they used to put them in older issues).

The adventures should be easy for Mr. Richards or someone at Paizo to convert to 3.5 edition.

Great work, as always, Mr. Richards!

And if so, are they likely to accept queries/submissions for it?

I sure hope so. I have 2 articles ready to go, if so!

It seems like a good site (though the guy's grammar could use some work).

Woah... I was driving back from lunch today, and this squirrel was crossing the road, and he went under this moving SUV, and he paused under the middle of the SUV, and the SUV kept moving, and the squirrel waited then ran the rest of the way across the road completely unscathed!!!

Total true story.
Squirrel ninjas? Yup.

Seen that happen around here, and had that happen to me once as a driver.

I was sure I'd hit the little fella, but nope; he waited and then ran.

Now if only we had ninja DEER around here, I'd feel alot better.

(or would I...?)

WAAAAY back in the 1e Player's Handbook (I think - mine is in storage and I can't check it), there was the picture of the paladin who subdued a black dragon and there were rules (probably in the DMG or MM) for subduing a dragon.

Those filled my head with a lot of ideas as a player.

And then my DM hit us with a REAL dragon, and those thoughts pretty much fled. Two PCs died in the first round!

Anyway, be that as it may, the idea of subduing a dragon, especially a young one could justify a rider on the back of a dragon, or dragons could be bred for such uses as in Dragonlance.

Then again, I am in agreement with the last poster: Keep dragons rare and terrifying things, and all this half-dragon whatzits is a bit over-done.

I my games, the mere thought that a dragon circled the party's camp as they slept and only one of the PCs saw it, or the rumor of a dragon in the area is enough to make the players' and their PCs' blood run cold.

Dragons -- the ultimate power!

(Ducks the flying chairs and dice and plaster to enter...)

I just wish I could justify the price of DF items in my gaming.

And I will NEVER forget one convention I GMed at. The GM next to me had the most impressive DF-like scenery. One of the gamers at the table got up to get an order of nachos, he somehow managed to drag the tablecloth with him and WHAM! The whole side of the dungeon came crashing to the floor, shattering in a thousand pieces.

I thought the DM would cry, and when his wife came to collect him (and his broken dungeon setting), I think he DID cry.

I know DF is made of tougher stuff like that, but the sight and sound of the dungeon-crash still haunts me.

While reading Challenge of Champions 6 in the latest Dungeon, I can't help but think it would be cool to have all 6 of the Challenge of Champion adventures in one bound book.

Even though I have most of them in issues of Dungeon, I think these fun adventures would make a great soft/hardbound book with player handouts, sample PCs, maybe even maps for use with miniatures.

Anyone agree? (or disagree?)

Of all their products, it seems the Scarred Land various Creature Catalog books were the best sellers White Wolf had in their fantasy line.

There is a proven track record for monster books of all types, so I'm sure a monster book from Paizo would seel very well.

(and I would jump on it, by the way!)

Perhaps you could explain to me why there is such a short window of opportunity to run "Dungeon" adventures and earn points? I bought the magazine in good faith. What differennce does it make to RPGA whether we run a game out of the latest edition of "Dungeon" next month or next year?

My group just started playing "The Whispering Cairn" a couple of months ago, and everyone is eagerly anticipating the unfolding of the entire adventure path. Obviously no one in my group will be able to earn points for at least a couple of years.

The Savage Tide AP looks great too. However, unless we quit AOW and begin running the new AP when it comes out a couple of months from now, we'll get no points for that either.

Many DMs (myself included) love the downloadable extras that are available for each of the adventures published in the magazine. They add so much to the playing of the games that most DMs will wait the month or two (or more) that it takes for Paizo to make them available. However, any DMs who wait for the downloads will of course be unable to earn RPGA points for the running of the adventures in "Dungeon."

So what is the point of offering these RPGA points, if so few people will be able to acquire them? I don't get it. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

I've had similar concerns and thoughts.

Don't Living Greyhawk core (and other RPGA) adventures have a "shelf life" of a year? Why should Dungeon adventures be any different?

I'm reading the adventure now, so this thread is a real help!

Peter: Great maps, and thanks for the link! My mind is already racing with ideas for maps/illustrations like these and that website for games I run on-line.

Did you send them to Paizo with your adventure submission?