PJ's page

Stay tuned: something big is coming.

Ok... Dudemeister we're waiting impatiently.

A question has been addressed obliquely on a couple other threads, and I thought I warranted discussion on its own.

I'll admit to changing up some things on some modules or scenarios I've run. For example, this past weekend, I ran:

Master of the Fallen Fortress
** spoiler omitted **

Goblinblood Dead
** spoiler omitted **

Cyphermage Dilemma
** spoiler omitted **...

Honestly, a GM has carta blance on just about everything that you run. You know your players like no one else does. I change everything I run sometimes just a little sometimes you may not even recognize it as the same module. Who cares! If the module helped you if just to spark your creative juices then it did what it was supposed to do. I thought everyone makes everything 'their own' don't they?

LOL... sounds like the GM decided who he wanted to be king. TBH, I would not be happy if NPCs got to pick the ruler of the kingdom. It is not called president maker, its called Kingmaker. However that being said, leaders who are elected because they are nice typically have a short rule, at least in my world. To wit:

“The world is built by killers” – The Hound

“You have what you hold” -The first River Freedom. The Stolen Lands have been uncivilized for hundreds of years because of the failure to heed this “law”. If you leave any of your power laying around or fail to protect something you value, someone will notice and take action.

None of these say whoever kisses the most babies should be the ruler. :)

That being said, you should be an awesome diplomat.

me neither. Friggin npcs :-)

Or you could get the bandits from the Camp intercept them; if their purpose is to secure the northern frontier for the Stag Lord, they'd get in a lot of trouble if the party reached the fort, so if they learn of the parties intention, they'd hunt the party down.

A night raid to kill/steal the horses and burn/poison the food would be a good start.

If the players reach the fort, maybe a party of robbers just return home, and they see the column of twenty or more riders enter the fort. If at that point they continue, they deserve to die.

I love the story twist. I actually had the bandits hit Oleg's while the party was gone. They ended up taking a lot of prisoners.

Azmyth wrote:

Not to wet blanket on your idea, but I prefer to Role Play treaty negotiations instead of governing them with crunch and mechanics.

As treaties provide a mechanical benefit to a kingdom the do need a mechanical creation device. Otherwise it's just a hand wave, which is not always bad but at that point any mechanical benefit should be null.

I'd probably do both. If they roleplay well I give them a bonus on the roll.

I have added many, many new NPCs, mostly small parts that move in and out of the game as the party explores or visits Oleg's Trading Post. Of these additions, there are a few notables.

- I changed the guards at the trading post to five level 3 warriors, I gave them names and personalities, and I allows the party to choose if and when they interact with them. There is one evil guard who I can use to cause trouble if I need to spice things up. There is also a female guard that I have yet to really do much with.

- There are about a dozen hunters or trappers that I have created that move through the trading post and the area. The area that is being explored isn't the only place they would be, so half of them will only be encountered at the trading post. Some of the hunters have traded for information on the area, making exploration easier, but the party is yet to hire one as a guide.

- Hirelings, or at least possible hirelings, have also come and gone. There is a Varisian gypsy following the group, but mostly to provide the party with healing and very minor magic items (she is an adept.) There are two porters hired out, and they both have been good tools to use in adding more flavor to the game. The party can choose to hire as many as they want, and there are always more to choose from.

- I gave names and personalities to all of the bandits at the camp, and then kept track of who died and who survived. This gave their capture and execution a little more realism. A few reformed and became possible hirelings, but they have mostly moved on to other places in search for honest living.

- I changed how travel, exploration, and encounters are done completely.
You can find the rules here.

- I added dudemeister's party roles system, but changed them slightly.
You can find those here.

- I took and...

I forgot about these. I like em and will pitch it to my group.

Arasmes ibn'Fayad wrote:

Hope he feels better! I have to head to bed myself. Great chatting with everyone.

Bah - who needs you! I can play with myself for 1.5 hours! Oh - wait... that doesn't sound too good...

I like the story thus far Dain.

CHA 20 start

26 with headband +8
Persuasvive and Skill focus +5
20 ranks Diplomacy +20
Ioun Stone +5
Masterwork tool +2
Circumstance bonuses +2 (wine and dine)
Bard song bonuses +5
Aid another? Lets just say ONE +2

I got +49 here without trying. I know there are spells etc that add to diplomacy as well as class features.

You forgot + 3 for class skill, +2 for trait.

I also roll during the game. My players had just finished wiping the floor with Tuskgutter, and they got attacked by 4 regular boars in the very next hex. We declared that they were Tuskgutter's piglets out for revenge and had tracked the PCs, and the poor level 1 party was nearly killed by the vicious animals.

Nice. I've done both. It's just easier to do it ahead of time plus if a roll doesn't make sense, I just put it where it does make sense.

James B. Cline wrote:

Fantastically amazing challenge

Holy cow, this is unbelievably cool. Most of my PCs are serious powerhouse damage-dealers, so I'm always looking for different ways to challenge them other than throwing high-HP foes at 'em. I haven't looked at chase rules since the GMG came out, but I'll look them over and possibly run through a test version, trying to predict how my PCs would fare. We have an oracle rather than a cleric, so there's a real weakness in the positive/negative energy department, but she still has access to powerful healing spells, so I'm really curious to see how it would go.

No joke, I got all excited just reading over your description here. It would look so amazing! I can't stop picturing my PCs engaging in heroic feats of bada$$ery on the back of this beautiful monstrosity. I do somewhat fear that it would overshadow more plot-important boss fights later on, because, seriously, how do you compete with Shadow of the Colossus? I gotta say, though, this is a great blueprint if you want your PCs to confront more of the Tane in post-KM adventures.

What CR were you thinking for this crazed creation? My PCs are already a level ahead of where they should be, and I don't really need to hand over any extra XP, but it would totally be worth it to see the looks on their faces as I describe this thing to them...

Great idea I hope it doesn't overshadow bad V!

I'm intending to have the players approach the tomb as V releases his dread zombie army, one of those, "the sky gets dark and lighting crackles across the sky moments" and zombies pour out.

But just to foreshadow this I'd love to have the Linnorm rip itself free from the ground as they are exploring the hex. Make it one of those epic moments... something unique. The burning skeleton template looked promising.

A skeletal mammoth army.... is there some creature that is just a conglomeration of walking bones?

Edit: I'm thinking I might try and go shadows of the collosus or god of war moment here and use the "chase" rules for them to run up the massive creatures body to do battle with something on its heads animating it..... to cheezy? Maybe have haunts along the way.

Great visual ... keeps us posted.

A quick side question to all this... I have been looking through the army creating rules and there's a quick note in the sample armies section that says:

** spoiler omitted **

So how exactly do I determine the availability of armies? The rules for custom armies above tell me nothing about costing the armies appropriately or what kind of loyalty checks are there to make... The sample armies seem to indicate that their availability is based on the size of the kingdom... why can't you conscript people from the cities? You can easily have a city of population 10,000+ with a kingdom size of 10 (eg 2500 rural population). So I'm a bit confused on how that works.

Additionally, What if my PCs want an army of 100 lvl 10 fighters instead of 2000 lvl 3 warriors? How do I cost something like that? What are the loyalty checks to be made? Are there any guidelines around for this?

I think book of River Nations does a much better job of explaining Army build rules with minimum populations being a great 'meter' stick for what you build. The 'story' part of what you are asking about is if you made friends with the centaurs you can make a centaur army. Or if you befriended the kobolds; ala kobold army.

Hey all,

The page Three WIP is up to gander at, as always, feedback and critique is very much appreciated!

Respectfully,

Anthony Ian
Anthonyian.blogspot.com.

Holy crap! I'm blown away! We truly have some very talented peeps on these boards.

CaspianM wrote:

Is there anywhere/how to boil this thread down into some kind of document? I read this thread several months back but I can't face having to reread the entire thing to remember things I have forgotten.

A lot of it shows up in the River Nations book, although the later stuff (obviously) didn't make it in. It also doesn't address the magic item economy at all. But it's a good starting point.

I let my group use the River Nations Book. I like the bonus material.

I had this happen early in a campaign -- barb critted and did something like 36 points of damage.

I told him he had taken his opponent's head off with a single blow "and the head flies off, bounces, bounces, and then rolls to a stop. It still has a surprised expression. The headless body stands there for a moment, blood spurting from the neck, then topples over."

He loved it so much that, ever after, every time he critted he wanted to hear a nice gruesome description.

Doug M.

If you want to multiply it instead of rolling it 3 times who cares? If that works for your group, Awesome! As long as the pcs know that it works both ways.

Sieges

With the inclusion of siege engines, naturally one wants to use them to lay siege to something. These are cities or "fort-cities". In the event that you don't have any siege engines, or you don't have very many (or lose them due to enemy Special Forces action or to the siege breaker tactic), you certainly don't want to needlessly feed your men and critters into the meat grinder that assaulting a fortified and defended city represents. It’s cheaper - much cheaper - in terms of lives to lay siege to such a city instead. Simply isolate the city from supply and it is a matter of time before they surrender.

Naturally, nothing is as easy as it sounds. A single adept, cleric or druid (not counting other spell casters) can indefinitely take care of hundreds of gallons of potable water a day, let alone the assorted wells, cisterns and other water storage that is generally available. Food is the biggest concern (besides plague and fire - those are handled by Kingdom events already, so we won't worry about that here.)

The first step to emplacing a siege is investment: surrounding the city and isolating its methods of resupply. The waterways have to be isolated in some fashion as do the roads leading into the city. Cavalry patrols control the terrain between road and water. Field fortifications are erected first facing the city walls, then facing outward to protect against any enemy forces attempting to relieve the besieged city. Supply of the invested forces and communications have to be established.

Isolating the city and getting the basic logistics takes a day. Erecting the investment field fortifications takes longer. The longer the siege, the more developed these become. If a besieged enemy is going to attempt to sally forth and strike a blow, the first days are the most crucial. +2 DV on the first day, +4 DV after the first week (with storage for one additional week of the besieging armies’ consumption costs possible), +6 DV after two weeks with the furthest degree of improvement attained at a +8...

Wow Turin! I appreciate your extensive work on this. Thanks again.

If Paizo announced tomorrow: "Hey, we're stepping in and not only reworking level 21+, but we're recommending some changes to the game from 15th+" (or even 13th+)

My response would be: "Hells Yeah."

Everyone gets hung up on the 20th level ceiling. We shouldn't lose site of the big picture — all of the higher levels need a little design help.

HELLS YEAH! **********