Munchwolf's page

Darkmidget, can you clarify your pronouns? It looks like you are saying the vampire befriended the other half of the party (without Dominate), and two of your party members tried to kill you (again, without dominate).

It also looks like the vampire has left for good, so the net result is you are out of action until the Dominate wears off (which could be a day with the right save if she doesn't spend the time maintaining it, and why would she? or it could be a few weeks).

How long have you been playing this character? How long is this campaign expected to run for? Your question was if you should make a new character, and the answer to these questions would help.

and since it is the 'cube' it is in an alternative dimension, which should handle any teleporting issues.

When they become ghosts, can they just pass through the walls and leave?

On a side note, this makes me think of the CUBE movies, and that could be an interesting idea.

Players are in a cube room, with six exits (one on each wall/ceiling/floor). Any room they move to is identical, except it has a single card from the deck you mention (each room has a different card, and they trigger for random reasons, like: second player to enter, first player trying to leave, looking at the card, touching the card, being in the room for 5 minutes without touching the card, coughing, or any different trigger for each room). Their goal is to escape (which is done by meeting a pre-set condition, like exploring X number of rooms, or X number of characters dying, or traveling each direction once, or something else)

Mostly because the party has a habit of continuing on adventures as long as need be, and we've split up a couple of times, so they won't find it strange for us to be gong, to be honest.

And the woman killed a cohort, and likely wants me to kind of be ruined as long as possible. I just don't picture the effect ending soon.

Again, it has only been minutes/hours since this happened, and you want to roll up new characters already?

You say this will only last two weeks. Is the plan for the campaign/adventure to be completed within that time frame? Or is most of the action going to happen within that time frame?

Have you already played more than two weeks of in-game time?

Are you saying that the party is ok with exploring a tomb, being separated from fellow party members, and then going two whole weeks without worrying about other party members disappearing? That's a crappy party.

(side note: you have stated the vampire was fleeing, and that's why she used dominate. it was not intended to make servants, but as a delaying tactic to escape. I do no image the vampire will come back for you or give new commands, or even bother with the once a day concentration for the next two weeks until dominate wears off. So you know dominate will wear off, and if/when the party finds you, they can help end it earlier)

Another vote for Sheldon. That was my first thought when I read the OP

it sounds like it has been minutes/hours since you've been dominated, the party hasn't found you yet, and the vampire has left (which means it will wear off eventually) .... and you are wondering if you should give up?

really?

Yes

Munchwolf wrote:

So if you discarded it because of taking damage in that location, you would also bury it?

The location rule does not specify or exclude any particular reason for discarding, so I would say yes.

If an Ally card discarded by damage is buried (something anything can do), then why do people think there is a special case for Seoni's discarding to trigger a power?

A bulky artifact that belongs to the drow/duegar is in a vault in Magimar. They would use stealth, but the item is too big to sneak out. It is also only important to them, but the council of Magimar (or maybe just a rich lord who hasn't told anyone he has it) doesn't want them to have it. Maybe it is an Altar of Fleshsculpting or Lolth's Infernal Loom.

Watch Ratatouille

MightyJim wrote:

As per the OFFICIAL rules - are you allowed to go back to the beginning, and solo a new/replacement character through the intervening secnarios, in order to be back up to speed with the party?

obviously this would be a time-consuming option, I was just curious as to how it was viewed by the designers.

I've not yet had anyone die further in than Poison Pill (it took me a while to get the hang of the game), but I figure I out to consider the options fully before I do.

Yes, you can play catch up.

If you play an earlier scenario, do you remove more advanced cards back to the ones originally allowed during that scenario? Ie, remove 1,2,3 when playing Poison Pill? I would think if you were soloing, it would be harder if you didn't, but if you played with the party it would be easier if you did.

How do you handle cards like Mercenary when replaying earlier scenarios? What value do you add to them, the current adventure path value, or the highest reached adventure path value?

So if you discarded it because of taking damage in that location, you would also bury it?

We're merging Glorion with Faerun, to add a lot more depth to Varasia. The King of Varasia has a number of side "projects". One of which is a permanent solution to the ever present issue of Goblins attacking his people. Should a peaceful tribe not only exist, but it's values and civility permeate all tribes, then one day Goblins could be as a lesser race like Half Orcs and Kender. He kept it on the down low, since most people would say "Pfffft, let the king take that risk near somebody else's town and family." and then go slaughter the Goblins themselves.

The King has a backing parliament who develops and Ratifies new laws, and deals with issues around the land. The King himself is the final word on the matter, and he's part of an old Monarchy. He has 3 advisors

I'm just surprised the king has time to ignore everything else happening in the kingdom and address the issue with the players for mucking up a minor 'side project' on a moment's notice. Doesn't he have advisers for that?

From reading other people's accounts, the Mayor of Magimar is too busy to deal with the players in later adventures, and this is when he has personally requested their aid.

You don't have to know the answers to the questions right now. The questions are just a guide to get you thinking creatively about possibly solutions until you find one you like.

Why are the hobgoblins sieging Cein? Are they trying to destroy it? Are they trying to harvest resources, so that they will leave most of it around, just destroy the military? Are they looking for something specific? Are they doing it for revenge? Is Cein built on lands they claim to own?

If you know why they are attacking, it will help determine how they attack or when.

Maybe there is a dragon demanding tribute of humans, and is too lazy to get them himself. The hobgoblins need to gather up slaves as food, and would focus on quick raids to less fortified positions (small villages, or travelers), while leaving the main city alone to repopulate (for future raids). This also sets up a future villain for after the hobgoblins are defeated, as the dragon will want to know where it's food supplier went.

Maybe the hobgoblins want to raise the city to the ground as they hate neighbors. The goblin attacks are more for information gathering as the hobgoblins are overly cautious. Maybe the Dwarves and Elves have found ways to hide in the mountains/forest, since they know of the hobgoblin's xenophobic ways. This would also make them less trustworthy of strangers, lest they lead the hobgoblins to their doorstep (but they would be great info for about the hobgoblins).

Maybe Ogres have forced the hobgoblins from their land, and this is a refugee army. They want to take this city for their own as it is the easiest one in the area to take. Maybe there is a way to peacefully deal with them, and help them against the ogres.

Simple rule, for every element you add, ask questions, then answer the questions, and ask more questions. At some point stop on a question, and move on to a different element, leave some questions open. This will flush out your kingdom.

You start with a kingdom, besieged by Goblins and Hobgoblins. Ok, how are the goblins and hobgoblins organized? Are they small independent tribes, or a large uniformed army? Where are they attacking from generally (the hills in the east .. oh, look, now we have hills .. in the east, or from caves deep underground). How are they attacking? Is it small bands, wolf riders, with ogres as leaders? Do they only attack in spring? If so, what are they doing the rest of the year? Maybe they migrate like mongols? Or they attack in the spring since they never plan out their winter food supplies properly and are starving ...

Next you mention a tavern, with a food list. Nice. This will give an idea of what wildlife and plants are in the area, and what is not in the area. Is lobster on the list? Then an ocean source with plentiful bounty is nearby and easily accessible. What about other seafood? Or do you limit to boar and deer? Are there other animals in the area that are not on the menu, and if so, what and why? Maybe deer are off since only royals by law can eat them. Why is that? How does the tavern get the food on it's list? Are there a lot of local hunters? Is there a brewer nearby for drinks, or does the tavern make their own? Why is there only one tavern? Is it in the city, or is it a waypoint between the city and somewhere else?

You have a magic shop. Where does he get his supplies? Does he make the potions himself, or trade for them, and if so, with who? You mention he trades with another kingdom, how is that trade handled? Does he close up shop and personally travel to that other kingdom, or does some middle man handle the trades? Answering these questions can add flavor and adventure hooks if something happens to the trade process.

You have a church of no specific denomination that I find really interesting. To establish a church you usually need a sponsor (it could be the priest trying to self-establish, or get financing from a local lord). What is the priest's denomination? What is his sponsor's denomination? Why the stipulation of no denomination for this church instead of supporting the sponsor's deity or the priest's deity? Does the church help supply the magic shop with potions? Maybe the magic shop was established by an ex-adventurer who is just trying to offload the trinkets he's collected throughout the years and doesn't need anymore. He helped establish the church as a source of easy low level potions, and since he isn't divinely interested he demanded the no specific denomination clause. Maybe the priest has some resentment that this wizard has lordship over him, or maybe the priest was also an ex-adventure who traveled with the wizard, and is doing this out of friendship? What other ex-adventures are in the area, and what businesses are they running? Why are they no longer adventuring?

You also mention dwarves and elves in the area, having more advanced item creation than the current kingdom. Same question as the goblins, how are they organized? How are they related to the other groups? Why aren't the goblins attacking them? How big are their kingdoms? Why are they more advanced? Assuming the tavern keeper / priest/ magic shop owners are not dwarf/elf ... because if they are, why are they at this kingdom and not with those groups? Even if they are human, if there are better established kingdoms of dwarves or elves in the area, why aren't they there? Is there racial prejudice? How will this factor in with the kingdom trying to grow?

Again, add an element, then ask questions about that element, then answer those questions, adding more elements, and keep working back and forth. Ask how elements relate to one another even if they seem like they shouldn't. And switch up which element you focus on so every so often as not to get burned out on just one.

any actions by party aligned npcs should be controlled by the players. otherwise avoid bringing in GMPCs.

137) An old, completely naked man is sitting in the middle of the tavern. He has feathers in his hair, and he is chatting away with a cricket that is sitting on a plate at his table. No one seems to notice him.

Maybe it is cursed, unless you know the secret about it (a command word that removes the curse and lets you reuse the girdle later?) The dwarf just happens to know the secret, and it will go with him to his grave.

Aside from the timing issues, and the "why would they tell anyone?" question, I would ask why they are going to have a trial at all. I mean, this is a goblin village that the government actively hid from the party and the general populace. They decided that the best way to protect the village was to keep it secret, to the extent that when sent out a group of adventurers to kill off the potential goblin threats in the area they didn't tell them.

Having a public trial just doesn't make sense here. This is the end result as I see it:

The general populace thinks the government is incompetent for denying people vital information from the people who needed it. Sandpoint just had an initial attack from goblins, and the Mayor and Shalelu (who certainly are in the know) sent the PCs out to figure out what is going on and stop the goblin threat. Which means the government sent out a group to sort out the situation but denied them vital information. This is gross incompetence of the government. Say the town gets razed by goblins during the trial. Well, that means that the government chose to prosecute the PCs, the town's best hope of survival, for killing allegedly good goblins (post-razing, the only good goblin would be a dead goblin and the government is the only source of information regarding the goblins' good-ness). So the government enabled the destruction of the town by denying them their best source of protection by bringing them up on trumped up charges.

The end result will be extreme animosity to the government from the people in the region, possibly extending throughout Varisia as they see how the government cares more about justice for an allegedly good tribe of goblins more than safety their own citizens. Peasant revolts and a possible revolution may ensue, and Cheliax could think, "Hey, I always wanted more control of Varisia . . . let's send some Hellknights there". A very cool turn for a campaign to be sure, but it sends the campaign completely away from the AP plot.

So, in my mind, any type...

Good point, any action by the government against the PCs would lead to the villagers revolting against the government.

To reiterate: Goblins attack, PC's kill some goblins, leaders have a secret alliance with those goblins. Alignment is a game mechanism. The population in general cannot detect good or evil except from observing behavior. Since they only know of evil goblins, they would believe these goblins were evil, and the government was in a secret alliance with evil. If the government punishes the players for doing what they were hired for and was needed, you would have a revolt against the government.

The players never failed Burnt Offerings because they weren't even playing Burnt Offerings.

Mulet, no one has run into this because the situation you contrived is not in the module.

...and yet he complains about players wandering off script ...

Your players had a bard capable of talking goblin its a shame that he stayed in town that day but it happens both IRL and out of it.

In another thread the OP is looking for a way to punish a player for not following 'the script' (ie, not hanging out with the group). That player is the bard. I believe this scenario not only handles the troublesome paladin, but also is meant as a lesson for the bard player.

If that doesn't spell trap, dunno what does.

I can see why people are doing Sense Motive checks on the OP.

In previous posts he asks for advice on how to handle a Paladin, and how to handle a character that goes off script. It seems in one scenario you figured out how to do both. Create a situation where the Paladin will fall without realizing it is a trap, and have the one play who could disarm the trap need to be there, knowing he probably wouldn't (that'll teach him to leave the group).

And yes, I use the word trap. When I first read this post I was against the idea of it being a trap, but the more I read the OPs responses, and the more I look at previous posts, it is obvious it was.

So the question is, is the purpose of this post to really find a solution to the issue, or is it to justify the actions of the GM?

In a previous post in which the OP asks for GM advice, there is this nugget of wisdom:

This are some of my "Commandements" while GMing:

3) Don't play against your players, but with them, your goal is to let everyone have fun, not killing your group.

This this this, a thousand times this. You are not the adversary of the players. Sure, they think you are their adversary, but you know you are not. You are another player, helping to advance the story.

When you start targeting players for punishment, then you are not advancing the story.

So, let me see if I understand. These are good goblins, working with the leadership of Sandpoint to bring peace to the area, and NONE of the goblins speak any words in Common?

Even the evil goblins speak Common, and they don't need to.

wait, no one but the PCs knows this happened, and you're already planning on having a trial in three days? The world does not work that fast, even in the age of internet.

jimibones83 wrote:

You guys make fair points. The GM handled it as badly as the players, I can agree with that. But still, creatures running and begging as they are slaughtered should be enough to immediately question whether they are evil or not. They should have stopped and evaluated the situation, but they didn't and the paladin should certainly pay the price for that. I suppose it does sound like everyone handled it poorly, and I also suppose that I can see an explanation to both sides, though neither is good enough to justify their actions lol.

I disagree about comparing to real life though. If not compared to real life, then what standard is there? Nothing solid

So running away equals not evil now, really? O.o

I have my bad guys run away when they are getting their butts kicked Some of the AP's suggest the GM's have bad guys run once their hit points get below a certain point or X number of their buddies are killed.

So tell me with GM's like myself and the official games using the same idea, but still having the bad guys be evil, how does your point stand?

PS: If the PC's get a surprise round in my bad guys might retreat so they can regroup, so not fighting back is by no means a sign of "not evil", ESPECIALLY, among creatures that do nothing but cause trouble.

Erm, killing a fleeing target is usually an evil act. Subduing a fleeing target is not.

I see other people have suggested it, but it is the first thing I thought of when I read the original post, so I'm going with Dragon Plague (and no, not a plague of dragons, but a plague affecting dragons). Imagine the black death, lethal only to dragons, but moreso in not only does it kill them, but it brings them back as undead ... mmm, zombie dragons. It is highly contagious to dragons, and they don't have a cure. Maybe instead of zombies, they are intelligent undead (vampire dragons?), but the intelligence is not the same that inhabited the living body.

Why do the players care if zombie dragons are roaming around? Or if all dragons become zombie dragons? Well, the zombie dragons eat anything, and attack settlements ... or maybe a dragon shape changed to a person before dying, and now the plague is affecting people?

One flaw with the age of the Internet (aka, real life), is you get used to instantaneous communications. Fantasy worlds can mimic this with magic, but for the most part do not have this luxury.

Who witnessed this attack? Is it just the players telling people in Sandpoint? An inquiry/investigation will need to be made, which will take a few days (if someone is available at the moment).

Then it will take a few days to get a proper message off to Magimar for suggestions on course of action. Then it will take some counseling on that side, and a few more days for a request for more inquiry to come back to Sandpoint. Maybe at this point magic might be used to speed things along, but is that a prudent use of resources? Just because this tribe was important to the King, doesn't mean it is the most important thing in his docket. It could take days after reaching Magimar before it even gets before him, and would probably bounce between advisers for a while first.

In a nutshell it could take at least a month before a warrant is issued from Magimar for this action. People in Sandpoint would not have the same info as the King on this tribe being important, so they would have no reason to lock the players up. Maybe give them a warning to not stray far from town while an investigation happens.

In a nutshell, there's no reason for the players to be shipped off to Magimar within the next 8 days, and they should be around for the attack. Maybe by helping with the attack they will get some leniency, since there are evil goblins in the area.

How soon into the act does the Paladin fall? Does he fall after killing the first good aligned goblin, or after everything is said and done?

If he falls as soon as he transgresses, it might have been a hint that the party was screwing up, and his atonement would have been less.

I was going to suggest the same reward, but specifically each player can look through the item deck and take any potion they want.

Each player should get no more attention than proportional to the number of players. Lets say you have five players. That means no more than 1/5th of the time should be spent focusing on one player. This doesn't mean they get that much time, that is just the maximum amount of attention they get, they will most likely get less. If a player wants their character to split off from the group, let them know that it will be a few hours before you get back to them, and when you do get back, they only get a very limited amount of play time. This should help keep players together.

I like this website for RPG stories
http://www.tabletitans.com/tales

Minmax from Goblins comic is the best example of trading in unused abilities:
http://goblinscomic.wikia.com/wiki/Minmax

Well, you have three basic questions:

* Why did he kill the mayor?
* Why did he create a decoy body?
* Why did he become the new mayor?

He could have had any petty reason to kill the mayor, but that he got rid of the body implies a strong motive (because he didn't want people resurrecting or interrogating the dead body).

This suggests the mayor knew something, something the rakshasa needed other people not to know.

Maybe the mayor knew something that the rakshasa didn't, so he kidnapped the mayor, and placed the fake body so no one would look for him while he was interrogated. Or maybe the rakshasa needed to find out how much the mayor knew.

This suggests the rakshasa had plans ... maybe he was trying to awaken an elder god, or find an artifact, or help a surprise raid on the country, and the mayor learned of them through some scouts or a lower level adventuring party (whom have already been taken care of, or may appear later to help hint at motive). The mayor was kidnapped to find out what he knew, and who he told.

But why become the new mayor? Most likely as a delaying tactic. The king ordered scouts to explore several towns searching for something. It is just that this group turned out lucky (or unlucky) and got word to the mayor to signal the king. The rakshasa got to him before the message could get out, and is now playing mayor to stall or deter more scouts from the area. Maybe there is a rise in the number of bandits, working for the mayor, trying to follow up on the scouts leads (either to prevent more scouts, or find them, or what they knew).

Overall this hints at a greater plan on the part of the rakshasa, but he needs more time to finish it, and the role of mayor will help his get the resources to do so, or help prevent other people from learning of his plan.

In real life, think of a trained dog and what you can get him to do. Now think of an untrained dog, and what you can get him to do. Undead are somewhere in-between on that scale.

Now imagine having a pack of such dogs, while people are charging at you, and trying to micromanage them.

Bard ... with a lute

The gravestone has a date ten years in the future. They must strike it three times. After the first strike, the date changes to five years in the future. After the second strike, the date changes to one year in the future. Do they strike it a third time?

Where in this card game do they ask for a 1d100 roll?

Speaking of Junk Beach, it gets items after closing. Does it still have the ability to banish and draw random items after close?

Usually to signify a location is closed, I flip the card over, and some cards have text if they have an ongoing effect after closed. Junk Beach does not have such text.

if you lose to the first check, do you still make the second?

I have not played this scenario, but the biggest problem I see that people have with it is they only do random open locations. These points needs to be stressed:

* when you select the random location for Black Magga to eat from each turn, empty and closed locations are still possibilities.

* team up and get some locations empty quickly. If she eats from an empty location she gets no cards.

No

If you close due to a henchmen, search through to see if the Villain is in that pile. If not, banish all cards (and the location is closed). If it is, banish all card but the Villain (and the location is not closed).

When you close due to a Villain, the cards are banished, normally leaving that place empty. It makes more sense in the second scenario, where cards are added to some locations after close.

Well, the first weirdness is there are not enough cures for all the Lems, so they would have to specialize (healer lem, zappy lem, detector lem, etc). I think that's how the smurfs got started.

You can replay a scenario, and except for the Henchmen and Villain, there is no guarantee that it would have any of the same cards.

This is no different than replaying a scenario in any other game that uses scenarios.

You replay because it is fun.

Even though closed location cards are banished, I'm assuming at the end of game, temp closed location cards are NOT banished but returned to the box.

For making your own scenarios I would like to see generic cards (for example, a card that just says Villain, and a few cards that say Henchmen). Then when you make your own scenario, you just have a reference sheet so when the Henchmen comes up you look at the sheet for what it is, and same for the Villain.

I know you could just use a specific Villain and Henchmen as proxy, but I think there would be less of a disconnect with a generic card than with rethinking a specific card.

In theory, eventually your characters will settle out to the proper spellcaster type, as they randomly gain cards of their type and can't banish them, but then they would also randomly gain cards of the other type, and if they don't cast those (maybe discard for damage or to trigger another effect), then they can keep those cards at the end and slough off cards of their type.

The only reason I thought of it is normally an adventuring party has duplicated classes (multiple fighters or thieves).

Although, a party of 6 Lems would be very bizarre.