Osakaben's page

First off, no offense meant to anyone who DOES want to play a cleric.

I GM a group 4 players, running Runelords. I want everyone to have fun and to be able to build their character however they like. No one wanted to be a cleric, but the party needs the healing, channel energy, and knowledge religion. I REALLY don't want to force anyone to be a cleric, but one is almost a necessity if you don't twist things around a bit. Other classes can pitch in a bit, but it's not the same as having an actual cleric. I don't want to punish the party for not having one. So I'm looking at various twists.

We had another player come into the game late. I asked him what he wanted for his character. He said whatever will help the party. I said we needed a cleric but didn't want him to feel like he had to be one if that's not what he wanted. He said fine, cleric it is. Then built a cleric that strongly suggested he would have rather been a swordy fighter.

He's since dropped out of the game due to family and work obligations. The players don't want to give up the cleric so someone else has been running him. That doesn't sit too well with me, as he is more of a tool (in the non-slang sense) than a character. I have a hard time getting my players to develop their character's personalities as it is, and running 2 characters, one of which isn't really "yours", doesn't help.

So to recap, I really want the players to be able to develop their characters how they want to, and no one wants to be a cleric. But going without a cleric is a big disadvantage, and I'm not thrilled with having the cleric on as a secondary character for someone. Ideally, I'd like to adjust things so a cleric is less necessary.

Here are some options I've come up with:

1. Just take the cleric out of the game, too bad for the party. This is a little too harsh for me.

2. Continue on as is, let someone run the cleric as a secondary character. I don't care for this because of the things I've outlined above, but it's not the end of the world. Just a game, and all that. Not my ideal but I can live with it if I don't come up with something better.

3. Take the cleric out but sprinkle a few bonus appropriate abilities among the other characters to make up for it some. I don't want to make things too easy for them but this seems like a viable option, just have to be careful not to overdo it.

4. Add in enough extra healing/channeling items to make up for not having a cleric. Again seems viable.

I was wondering if anyone else has been in this situation and how they've handled it. Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

Ben

I'm not sure if it would be better to put this in the Community Created Stuff thread or here in a separate post, but figured it might be good to have its own thread title.

To add some atmosphere and set the the stage for Misgivings, I wrote up some visions or reactions the players have when the mansion first comes into view, and gave one to each player when the party got to the right spot. It made for some interesting interaction when they figured out that everyone experienced something different and they described it to the others in their own words, so I thought I'd share:

1. Upon first seeing the house, you experience an overwhelming wave of revulsion and dread; you DO NOT want to go in that place or even approach it. It’s all you can do to suppress the urge to break and run in the opposite direction. This sensation fades away over the next few seconds but it was so strong that it leaves you shaken, unsettled, and on edge.

2. You see a structure that was obviously once a fabulous mansion, but is now old and decrepit. Roof lines sag and the whole house is a little crooked, but there is something more. Something beyond the simple disrepair. It just looks wrong, but you can’t quite put your finger on why. You take a close look at the individual details, and then once again at the house as a whole, and you still can’t place just what it is, but something – something is wrong.

3. You see a magnificent house on the top of a hill, overlooking the surrounding countryside. Even from this distance you can tell that every detail is crisp and the place is meticulously maintained. It obviously belongs to rich nobles who take a great deal of pride in it, maybe a little too much, even. Then suddenly this vision dissipates, and before your eyes the paint fades, the roof sags, and the house morphs into a decrepit, disrepaired, outright creepy version of the fabulous mansion you first glimpsed. You catch your breath as you realize that this shambling structure is the true form of the house.

4. You see a strange, blackish fog surrounding the old mansion, partially obscuring it from view. It strikes you as odd that any such vapors would cling to the top of the hill with the house instead of settling down into the lower lying areas. As you watch, it almost looks as if the dark mist is being slowly sucked into the house. But certainly that can’t be. You shake your head and look again, more closely this time, and catch the last wisps receding into the structure. Did that really happen? You get the vague impression that you can’t trust your eyes, and now see only an old, broken down mansion that must have been quite a lively spectacle in its day.

5. As you look at the battered mansion up on the hill, it strikes you that the two front windows together with the front door and broken approaching steps almost form a semblance of the eyes, nose and jagged teeth of some phantom face, and the vision makes you gasp and look away. When you turn your head to look again the image of a face doesn’t seem nearly as strong. You can still see it if you push your imagination a bit, but now you feel almost surprised that you even noticed it.

6. As you approach the old mansion, you notice a faint rotting smell seeming to come from that direction. As you get closer, it gets stronger until it’s overbearing, the stench of hundreds of rotting corpses. Then suddenly it starts to fade away. You can still just detect it. Or are you just imagining that you can? You aren’t sure.

I hope these prove fun for others.

Ben

Hey there Customer Service,

The last couple of years the Great Golem Sale accounted for most of my Christmas and I was looking forward to it again this year. I've been watching my email for the announcement but so far nothing. It's late enough now that I've lost hope and figure you're not doing it this year for some reason.

I figured I'd check in and ask for the scoop before I went ahead and made other Christmas plans. I realize there is some stuff on sale, but nothing to compare to the $1 modules, $5 adventure paths and card decks, etc. from the Great Golem!

Thanks,

Ben

My players needed a little nudge to Thistletop after the Catecombs of Wrath, so I had a quick message come in from Shalelu asking them to go check out Thistletop while she was away looking into some other stuff. They made their way there and through the passageways leading up to the bridge. They fought Gogmurt but he ran off before they could kill him, and he had heard them coming so he sent his warning wren or whatever it was. When they got to the bridge they saw the goblins on dogs on the other side and decided to cut down the bridge from their side to trap the goblins there and then observe what they are doing as best they can for a while. I didn't want to railroad them so I let them do it, but now I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas to get them back on track.

Given the context of what the knew or thought they knew about the upcoming bigger attack on Sandpoint and all I don't really think it was a dumb thing to do, just not what I expected, so I don't want to punish them for it. I need something to entice them to go over, even though they know the occupants know they are coming, and some way to either physically restore the bridge so they can go over, or have some alternative method of access. I don't think having them make the climb from below is realistic.

I could have the goblins restore the bridge, which could lead to some comic falls and splatters. I could do something to let them know they need to go over and then they will have to figure out how to fix the bridge themselves. Anyone have any good/fun/creative ideas of how to handle this? I'm hoping to have something that could reasonably fit the motivations of both the occupants and the characters, but haven't come up with anything yet.

Thanks,

Ben

I'm putting together a gaming group of old friends. Some of us used to play AD&D back in the day, "the day" being about 30 years ago... Ouch! So we aren't exactly new to the whole thing but we are hardly up to speed either. There will be one player who has never played an RPG.

I bought the core rulebook and have read through much of it (skipping all the detailed spell descriptions for now) but don't really feel like I have much of handle on things yet. I've referred the others to the online rules but doubt any of them will realistically get around to reading anything there before our first session, which is set up for a week from Friday. I skipped the beginner's box because we don't need a bunch of the stuff in there, overall cost of re-entering the hobby is an issue, and I figure we'll move on to the complete rules eventually anyway.

I was wondering if there any kind of rules cheatsheets or quick start guides floating around out there that summarize the rules some and would help us get on our way with a little less pain. Since I have bought the rulebook (and some other stuff as well) I hope such a request is acceptable.

I did find the the 1-page Basic Rules CheatSheet that covers Roleplaying Shorthand, Character Elements, and Combat Basics and Actions floating around somewhere and while it will be helpful I'm hoping to get something with a little more detail than that.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For the record, I did search this forum for "cheatsheet". If there is a relevant thread somewhere I'd be happy to go there. These forums seem to move pretty fast and I'm not sure the best way to find info yet.

Thanks,

Ben