Mike Lowder's page

I was very busy at gencon so I didn't have time to read it all, but the surface of the thing is gorgeous. I read a bit of the lore about Thassilon and a bit of the adventure itself, and these seemed good. The bestiary was very well done.

One complaint I have is that the pre-gen characters had some superscript numbers for which I could not quickly find a legend. If I hadn't already seen the feat that was referenced in the player's guide, I would have no idea what it does.

Anyway, Paizo's booth was excellent and pathfinder looks very cool.

Pathfinder's Gen Con only edition (different cover) made it into my luggage. Awesome product.

The Paizo booth and staff were great and watching the guys GM on the awsome Dwarven Forge setups was a lot of fun.

Nice job everyone!

I would love soooo much to attend GenCon...but I would owe so many blue chips to my wife...I'd have to attend a week-long Gottschalks shopping spree... oHHH...what a world, what a world...

Yeah I'll be kissing up for another year but it was sooooo worth it.

A pleasure to meet Erik, James, Jason, Lisa and especially Wes. Thanks for the autographs. You guys are stellar. See you next year!

DeadDMWalking wrote:

Looking at the next issue of Dragon, I found this caption: Bandits in the Path of Fame

by James Lowder
A headstrong princess and her mysterious companion trek to a fallen city, once ruled her family. Can she face the evils surrounding herself and overcome the ancient tests that ward her ancestral throne?

I'm not a big fan of fiction in Dragon. I'd prefer it kept to an absolute minimum, as I get plenty of fiction from other sources.

This particular story struck me as fairly bland and
ninteresting, and I only read it because basically I'll read any story put in front of me.

However, the twist at the end really impressed me - I never saw it coming, so that'll teach me to pay more attention when reading Dragon. I'm glad I did read it, and if anyone hasn't bothered doing so yet I recommend that you give it a go.

So, I'll put in a request for more fiction that I enjoy, and less fiction that I don't enjoy!

I really enjoy Jim's work in general. I was sorry we haven't seen much more than occasional review by him since issue #208. Jim's work usually includes those nasty little hooks and twists that stop you in your tracks. Obviously, however, I'm not unbiased.

Cunningham's short stories and the ones Greenwood did were great as well. These people are far more creative than I and if I can take bits and pieces or even ideas to make my campaign more interesting..........all the better.

Elven light bread

ASEO wrote:

So it's a frat party?

ASEO out

If I told ya, well, you know. Plot device. Go refill the popcorn and get your girlfriend some jujubees... the intermission's almost over!

Back to our regularly scheduled program... :)

Can somebody please unpause this thread?!

Mike McArtor wrote:

Dram looked again. He then turned to Gar, standing over the Faceless One...

Dram: "Vyth is dead. Kill him."
Gar: "Vyth is dead?"

Aw, man! Vyth was cool.

Our ninja who art in Valhalla, Vyth would be his name...

Sleep well Vyth.........

39, this is my first post and thought this was a great thread! Brought back a lot of memories. I began playing when my cousin visited from Ottawa and introduced me to the Steading of the Hill Giant Jarl when it first came out (1978?). Man, those hill giants were bad asses. I was hooked, played 1e with a group in high school, then university and even founded a group in the mill town I worked in! Haven't played much in the last 10 years but have subscribed to Dungeon since issue 97 (1st shackled city adventure, no mere coincidence). This month, an old D&D buddy and I have been trying out Fantasy Grounds. Very cool. 3e and 3.5 are ok but I miss the elegant, abstract simplicity of the 1e rules (what the hell is THAC0?)

You're right. This thread is a blast. Besides where else can you find a bunch of "thirty somethings" (Wasn't that a TV show?) who know what the hell a THAC0 is? By the way, wasn't Jarl a frost giant? My memory is shot........

If ya'll are wondering who the younger generation is.... I'm 21 (and a half!), and have been playing ever since my 5th grade teacher taught my friends and I how during our lunch hour. (If only he could see me now! Working for Dungeon and Dragon, writing adventures, no longer eating the paste....)

And yes, one does take a certain amount of ribbing from working in these offices and being born after things like Greyhawk and Dragonlance were released. :P

-James

Thanks for that James. How about all those Editors on High that you work with/for? I know they are well beyond their years in Wisdom but what do the birth certificates say?

If we all started when we were munchkins and we're all now further along the age curve, what happened to those coming after us? What happened? Where are they? I would hope that there are younger generations playing and that they will push it further along. What are the ages of the magazine staff? Anyone know?

I'm 20 myself and just got into it this year, first time around as DM. Three of my high school (and now college) buddies are in the game as well, ages 21-23. Also in the game we have a couple of 17 year olds. So we've got a pretty below-average group for this thread. I'm fairly sure that when I snag a wife you'll be able to add her and my kids to the fold. Poor kids. . . .

Wives aren't always easy to add to the fold.........trust me on this one. Kids aren't too bad if you have the patience. I'm not sure how someone didn't murder me when I was younger...

Just "found" this thread again and did a new calculation:

38 people gave their age.
The youngest being 13 years old and the oldest being 45!

So the average age of a Dungeon reader is... 31.657 years!

My god, I am above average (at least once in life ;)

Wow! Strange.........I'm 31.45 years myself. Very close to average. Been playing since early 82' when my best friends older brother introduced us to the glorious red box and the enigmatic Keep on the Borderlands. I played an elf. Arguably the best box set class. What I remember most is a complete misinterpretation by our 14 year old DM of what a warhammer was and Brother Ray (named after Ray Charles of all things) who was our nearly blind npc cleric. Stranger still is the fact that my own uncle, author James Lowder, had already been playing for 5 years, went on to work for TSR, and we still have never delved dungeons together..............something I should rectify.

By "Bam!" I think Rob means:

It's online.

--Erik

Erik, Rob and everyone else..........thank you.

Thursday Update

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

Overload is laid out, proofed, and will go to WotC this afternoon for approvals. This could take ten minutes, or it could take a couple of days (I'm guessing 10 minutes). Either way, aside from uploading the file to the site, the approval is the absolute final stage, so we're getting veeeeery close, now.

Thanks all for your patience.

--Erik

Okay Okay 10 minutes is up. Where is it?! Arrrgh!

or that stupid

In the last couple of decades I've run across many, many well thought out and nearly perfected min/max characters. Yes they can be one dimensional and yes they can deal extraordinary amounts of attacks/damage but in most of my long term campaigns and adventures, the DM has used that character to set the bar and be the barometer for the difficulty of combat leaving two different outcomes. The rest of the party starts number crunching in a big hurry to catch up or the rest of the party, being slightly annoyed by repeated drops into unconciousness, leave a lone character to run around and save them all while still being attacked. If everybody min maxes to some degree than the halfling rider works, just beef up the difficulty. If everyone else is annoyed by the halfling then be creative and "enlighten" him on the problems you have with his character. Who made it mandatory that you use CR8 encounters for 8th level characters? Creativity is the key.

The subject of Demon and Devil lords, while dark, do add a contrasting look to campaigns that seem to often get too lawful goody goody. More in depth storytelling and background on Demons, Devils, and Greater Undead would be a welcome addition. Especially for those which are purely of "role- playing" origins.

After making a comeback from the post collegiate real life diversion (10 year) I'm back playing in a weekly group. It contains 2 female players (I didn't know they existed). But since I'm snapping up 3.5 rule books like candy and have begun reimmersing myself, my thirteen year old stepson keeps asking me what's up. Today I said, "Well my boy..........I think it's time someone showed you what it's all about." I know it's not my original three book boxed up '83 version but I think he'll manage.