Phil C.'s page

Have you guys seen these?

I'm interested in your thoughts, as DMs, on using a product like this.

Thanks!

--Erik Mona

I looked at them, but they seem mildly generic. I understand that it's necessary to do so, but what if the dagger they find isn't so decorative? I think it's a bad idea to give someone a picture that doesn't actually correspond to what they've got. Handy for keeping track of items, though.

Well, I just fount out about it anyway.

ERIK'S BEEN PROMOTED! WAY TO KICK @$$ AND TAKE NAMES!

Story over at GamingReport.com

Hey, just read that. Congratulations Erik! You do a fantastic job and apparently it's paying off. :)

It's doubtful we'll use the delve format even for one encounter, especially if that encounter is the last in the adventure, since this encounter is likely to be the most complicated one in the adventure.

I'd be curious to see how huge "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" would have been (and how expensive) if it had been presented in the delve format. I doubt I'd be able to afford it myself.

The delve format seems like a waste of paper, IMO. It seems perfect for a dungeon crawl in that, as someone said earlier, paint-by-numbers way. Also, I know they're pumping the minis game, but while the delve format is initially attractive, it just makes me nervous that it's going to be there to pump the minis and thus discourage cool art, stifle DM creativity, etc.

I think the heal check is for if the party somehow manages to make peaceable contact and examine the infested lizardfolk--they'll realize he's got a case of K-worms. Though how the party is supposed to think of doing a heal check, I don't know. IMC, I'm planning to have the lizardfolk raid a village near Blackwall Keep, and a patrol from the garrison, with Marzena accompanying, kill a lizardfolk who has drunk one of Ilthane's "cure" potions. The worms crawl out, Marzena notices and collects a sample, and writes to Allustan. This is my main hook for EBK, but will also clue the PCs in that something really fishy is going on with the lizardfolk. This might lead them to take a more diplomatic approach at their lair, and thus have a chance to make said heal check.

(I must say, I'm not sure how you would find evidence of a slow worm with a heal check, since they don't chew their way through the skin--but if they do CON or INT damage, perhaps there are some visible symptoms--wasting, intestinal bleeding, slow reflexes, dilated eyes, or something).

That's why the heal check is for the dead Lizardguy, I think. Or, once you see them spill out, you can cure him. Once you do that you can do the heal check. I'm just worried my party is going to slow worm themselves to death 'cause of all of Ilthane's potions.. oi.

Fun stuff.

I think the Heal check is to understand what the PCs find when the dead lizardfolk starts spewing dying worms.

IMC (last night, in fact), there was no one to run and tell the shaman and king b/c the party wizard fireballed the entire group. I described the worms as already half "worm paste" because of the nature of the lizardfolk's death (though no one picked up on any possible use of the remains). The worms came up in discussion with the shaman, who then recalled the incident with their last clutch of eggs.

Given the king's association with Ilthane (and his actions against the battle mage), I would think that he would try to accuse the PCs of somehow being behind the slow worm (and perhaps the infestation 2 years ago, for that matter). As he is described, it seems unlikely that he's , unless perhaps the PCs played to his desire to remain in control of the tribe.

Yeah, the picture I got was that basically the King finds out they're there and prepares to kill them, but ye olde Shaman wants to work with them. So the idea, then, is that the Shaman says "shucks, that happened with our old clutch of eggs," and if they didn't fireball 'em (that is, there are living Lizardfolk) you can work out a tenuous peace and get your peeps back? That sounds realistic.

Any other input into running this adventure?

I'm sure this question has been asked, but would any prominent cartographers feel like stepping forward and giving some ideas of how one actually goes about creating Dungeon quality maps? That is, do you use Photoshop and layers? Do you draw things by hand? Do you start out with a beige background, a grid over that and then draw on top of that? How does all of this work? I guess a minor tutorial is what I'm looking for.. I think it would be tremendous fun to do. Thanks.

Ok, so in the Lizardfolk lair there's a guy infected by a slow worm. He's in 6c, I believe. When you kill him, he explodes with worms and everybody runs off to the tell the Shaman and the King. Here's what I'm confused about:

One of the lizardfolk in 6c is an unsuspecting host of an undead parasite. [...] In a few days he'll succumb to the parasites and turn into a spawn of Kyuss, but if killed by the PCs he falls dead and one round later the desperate worms crawl out of his flesh and die on the floor. Any other lizardfolk that see the worms are horrified, remembering the loss of their eggs two years ago, and flee to tell the shaman and king what happened (to the point of ignoring the PCs). [...] A DC 20 Heal check reveals the infestation for what it is. Remove Disease or a similar effect can save the lizardfolk. If the PCs cure him, any lizardfolk in the area are impressed enough with their actions to encourage the PCs to seek out the shaman Hishka to report their findings.

So, wait; what are the King and Shaman's reactions? The shaman wants peace, but as detailed in his section, at the cost of killing the King. Does the King react violently either way? Is the only way to get peace by killing the King? Also, if the lizardfolk is already dead, how does the heal check work? Is it suggesting that the PCs would heal him when the battle stops, or do a Heal check to see what's going on?

How was this handled in your campaigns? Or how would you handle this?

Playing several hundred RPGA games in about a dozen states across the USA and interacting with international gamers as the co-founded and campaign manager of Living Greyhawk, I have a deep appreciation for the different ways people play D&D.

Age of Worms is my chance to give a hurrah for the type of game I was raised playing, and the type of game that was most popular when the game itself was most popular. Given the demographics of the magazine, I think a large number of our readers probably appreciate what we've been doing, at least in part because of nostalgia.

And, really, you're getting in on things like Dragotha now. I think it would be cool if, in 20 years, someone who got started with this run of Dungeon published a "return to the Age of Worms" or some sort of follow-up that continues to build on a shared mythology that is now more than 30 years strong.

That said, we'd be foolish to follow up the Age of Worms with twelve adventures along the same bent, so expect something different for the next Adventure Path.

--Erik

I think it's cool that you're in a position where you can do that, and you're right, I'm totally getting into this campaign. These adventures are great, and as I said in my letter, these are some of the best issues of Dungeon and Dragon that I've ever seen.

I'm not sure why I felt compelled to make the post, but I just thought it was interesting to sort of see that generational gap that has appeared in Dungeon/Dragon material. If you think about everything as cyclical you see certain things coming around for a second swing every 20 or 30 years. In pop music that means you have bands like Franz Ferdinand or The Killers who have an 80s New Wave bent to them. In D&D it means Dragotha rises from the mists of old school Dungeons & Dragons. But then, there's always a disconnect for some people.

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my observations. I just thought it was curious. I don't feel like it was selfish to point this out because in some ways I was writing for an entire generation of gamers who missed the early stuff.

The OP made a good point here. My oldest D&D memorys are some Forgotten realms SSI computer games on the Commodore 64. I asked my players what they consider "the ol`D&D days". A lot of them said "The epic adventure in the Baldur`s Gate computer game!" (PC).

Think about it! "D&D - The next generation"

I've got a feeling that the "next generation" of designers are probably going to be guys like me who grew up on that late TSR stuff. In many ways, I think that 3e gives us the tools to do what couldn't be done then. I find it interesting that D&D has sort of "reverted" to an earlier style, when you truly can be so much more epic, so much more fast paced.

Not that I'm not having a good time with this stuff, as I said before. I really am enjoying it and I'm sure I'll have fond memories of it in the future. It just doesn't tug on the heartstrings.

I read your editorial piece in the new Dungeon and I thought to myself, "I have connection to none of these things." I had never heard of Dragotha, I never played in the Tomb of Horros. The first Forgotten Realms thing I bought was the revised campaign setting in the late days of TSR. For me "classic" D&D (from middle school, when I was in my height of playing) is the original Dark Sun adventure series, Dragon Mountain, Undermountain, and Player's Option books. While I understand your desire to design the classic D&D campaign, for me it doesn't have that same feel. This isn't classic D&D. For me, until 3e came out, this was the D&D of the old guys who wouldn't leave the old game behind (though, oddly, the same guys entrenched themselves even deeper when 3e came out).

Now this isn't a negative critique. The Age of Worms is awesome, as I wrote to you a couple of months ago. I just wanted to remind you that D&D isn't the same thing for all people and I, for one, miss some of the more epic things that TSR was trying to do in the late days (even if they weren't exactly succeeding at them). I feel like the Greyhawk setting is generic and my love of D&D wasn't forged in the dungeon crawl style, but rather in a Dragonlance or Dark Sun style of epic adventure. While I love the Age of Worms, it really never tugged any of those heart strings that connect me to the old games.

Keep up the good work. Go Vikes. ;)
-Phil

Actually, an Underdark campaign would be totally cool, if niche.

Wow! That sounds awesome! I'm very much looking forward to DDO and I'm totally interested in getting involved.

Wow! Thanks for the great responses everybody! I've finally read and re-read them all and I've got a good idea of how I'm going to handle this. Hopefully they'll go more smoothly in the future. All of the advice you guys threw out there was excellent. Thanks again!

Cheers!
-Phil

The maps are great ... and if there were anyway to present them on mini scale that would fantastic!

Let me say the biggest boost to my game has been the npc portraits. Giving the pcs a picture of key npcs has really raised their sense of the world they are playing in.

Well.. I think we HAVE our official answer. =P

I am a Vikings fan, and will always be a Vikings fan (I might move back home some day, dontcha know?). Not sure how I feel about Tice getting fired last week. I was impressed with the six-game winning streak that nearly pulled them from oblivion, and since he had a good relationship with the players I thought maybe he was worth another year or two. Let us remember, "the Sheriff" Denny Green didn't exactly get us into the Super Bowl either. I thought it was pretty dumb to trade Randy Moss, too. I think a lot of locals get too caught up in the "good citizen" aspect of their atheletes. I think a lot of Minnesotans were pleased when he got cashed out, because he didn't really subscribe to "Minnesota nice" and hence had somehow violated the public trust. With the squaking local media filtered out, you don't hear so much about that stuff out here, so it's easier to focus on the football. Trading Randy Moss was a real strategic risk, from my vantage.

Amen brother Erik! I thought it was a poor move to lose Moss, but I don't think that Tice was working out. Frankly, I'm still bitter about them sacking Green. ONE losing season and, to quote John Madden, *BOOM!* gone. I thought it was a bit silly. What REALLY irks me is that they didn't even TRY to go after Tony Dungey (sp?). The man had just been released by Tampa Bay, he was one of the reasons that the Vikings were so good in the '90s and yet no one bothers to go drag him in? What kind of planning/thought is that? I was terribly offended.

In other "football" news; I'm so going to be in Europe for the World Cup in 2006! Woooo!

Oh and uh.. "Cake for breakfast, cake for lunch, we're the ____ Edina bunch!" Haha, that's a blast from my childhood. ;)

Also, I just wanted to say thanks for the kind words of support in the above posts for our work at athas.org - they are greatly appreciated. Apart from the satisfaction and enjoyment that comes with helping to keep the DS setting alive, positive feedback from the fan community is the best reward that we could receive. Thankyou!

I also have to agree with the assessment about some of the artwork - there are places where the quality could be upped a notch or two. Unfortunately, zero budget for art (or anything, really) is part and parcel of being a fan site (no matter how "official" we are). Mind you, we recently appointed a dedicated art director who has been scouring the globe for talented artists - there are a couple of really promising candidates in the mix, so hopefully we will see the standard of the art improve over the course of the coming months.

Anyway, do keep an eye on our site for fresh updates (we are due a revised release of "Terrors of Athas", our monster manual, before very long) and stop by the Dark Sun forum on the WotC site and say hi!

Hey Kamelion-

Firstly, you're welcome. I've been a huge fan of DS3E for a long time and I've tried to get involved to no avail. ;)

How would you feel about someone with a little extra cash commissioning some DS artwork for you guys? Who would one take that up with?

These cities are technically Greyhawk, aren't they? If not, is Paizo slowly but surely creating their own campaign setting?

Frankly (on the subject of articles that aren't actually adventures), I've found that pretty much anything that Monte Cook writes is absolutely gold. The man is a genius. Every article I've ever read by him has made me go "Oh yeah!" Not to mention, if I find something that he suggests that I've been doing, it makes me feel like a really good DM. =P

Bill Gates Grants Self 18 Dexterity, 20 Charisma

June 18, 1997 | Issue 31•21

REDMOND, WA—Microsoft head Bill Gates, already considered by many to be among the most powerful men in the world, further increased his powers Monday, augmenting several of his key statistics to near-immortal levels.

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, one of the most powerful businessmen on the Prime Material Plane, recently granted himself powers normally available only to deities and demigods.

Among the most striking increases were a +2 raise in dexterity to 18, and an overwhelming charisma increase to an above-human score of 20, placing Gates in the realm of deities and demigods.

"I am pleased to announce that I have boosted my already impressive statistics," Gates said in a statement to shareholders Monday. "As we develop the technological framework that will dominate the 21st century, these augmentations--and others to follow--will be powerful wards against competition from the likes of Netscape, Oracle and Melkor who is named Morgoth."

"Microsoft is the software-industry leader today, and tomorrow it will also dominate the realm of information access, as well as the content being accessed," Gates said. "The continued growth of our Corbis Media archive, the successful development and launch of MSNBC, and my mastery of the shield spells of the Elven King Lagolin are only the beginning for Microsoft."

Gates, who raised his intelligence to 20 in 1990, is fast becoming the most powerful CEO in American media. Experts place him above Fox's Rupert Murdoch and Disney's Michael Eisner, both of whom hold over 1.2 million hit points. Gates is also rumored to be in possession of a bag of holding containing one terabyte of information, as well as over 100 billion gold and silver pieces.

Analysts see Monday's statistical boost as extremely beneficial to Gates in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

"This is a very shrewd move on Gates' part," PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak said. "His vastly increased charisma--the prime stat of a chaotic evil executive--will help him tremendously in his ongoing struggle to convince skeptical Microsoft stockholders that his ventures into television and his massive content-buying spree will pay off in the long run. The extra CHR will also assist him greatly in dealing with wary CEOs of companies he wishes to invest in and cast spells over, like Comcast."

"It hardly seems fair, but he will now be capable of near-invisibility in behind-the-scenes business dealings," Dvorak added, referring to the stealth augment which comes with a dexterity gain. "And at the same time, he'll wear Mordekainen's Spectacles of True Sight, which provide +6 insight gains into long-term Windows marketing strategies."

While few question the wisdom behind Gates' stat increases, there remains a possibility that the Federal Trade Commission, which in 1996 ruled his licensing agreement with computer manufacturers to be in violation of anti-trust laws, will challenge the move. Even if the FTC rules against Gates, however, industry analysts believe that he should easily recover, thanks to his above-average 15 constitution.

Gates' rivals expressed frustration over his ability to achieve invulnerability in a supposedly competitive market. "Combining this augmentation with last month's purchase of the Polo Shirt of Thalkettoth, which grants a +5 saving throw against anti-trust litigation, Gates should now be seen as operating outside the law," Apple CEO Dr. Gilbert Amelio said Tuesday. "One more sorcerous potion of Gain Market Share, and we might as well declare bankruptcy."

"Anyone can be a Santa Claus DM and give out unearned stats," Oracle president Larry Ellison said. "I'm surprised he didn't just go ahead and give himself a 20 in everything."

With overpowering statistics in all six ability categories, with the exception of strength, Gates is widely considered to be primed for the Kingship.

"Certainly his campaign could be crushed if he made a mistake," ABC computer correspondent Geena Smith said. "But let's be realistic. He's got 40 million experience points dating back to when he dropped out of Harvard. His party has done nothing but kill and acquire for 22 years. He knows when to cast versus when to hack-and-slash. He will be the emperor lich of 21st century media."

God bless The Onion. ;)

I had to chuckle at a previous poster's comments regarding their BA in English, education, and councelling courses but now working for a phone company...identical to my situation! I wonder if they're as confused as I am as to how that happened...

When I started my Sociology major I knew that I had no other choice but to get a PhD with it. I want to be a professor so that wasn't a tough decision to make, but I think these days the way to make it with a degree in the humanities is to get a doctorate and stick it out in academia.

Phil C. wrote:

Erik Mona wrote:

Oh, we are legion.

Graphic Designer Sarah Robinson is from St. Paul, and the company's owner and CEO, Lisa Stevens, lived in Minnesota for a time.

But she is a Packers fan, so she hardly counts. :)

--Erik

PS> Jason Bulmahn, over on the Dragon side, is from Milwaukee, but we try not to hold that against him.

I always thought it was cool that TSR was located in Wisconsin when I was a kid. In some ways, growing up in Minnesota and then moving to Wisconsin, D&D always felt like a midwest thing to me. I was actually pretty offended when they moved GenCon. While I'm sure they had their reasons, it just felt like they were taking away the only good thing Wisconsin had to offer. =P

Hey now.. we got other good things.. like umm.. beer.. and delicious cheese, sausage, and the safehouse. I too was saddened when GenCon moved. I used to be able to see the convention center from the roof of my house. One bus or short ride and I was there. Those were the days.

Anyway...

Jason Bulmahn
Managing Editor of Dragon

I have to say that I have been hard on Wisconsin. I've actually really enjoyed living here, especially once I moved to Madison. The beer SELECTION is great. Even in Minnesota they just have crap on tap, in Wisconsin it's like a whole new universe of beer choices. Especially if you go to places like the Great Dane where they brew their own! Anyway, I do also enjoy the cheese and the sausages, and I've never been to the Safehouse. But I do enjoy the trees and the hills. Something that Minnesota is lacking in the south. ;)

I get Dungeon and Dragon, but I rarely have time to really read either unless I put myself to the task. I also read Sociological and Anthropological journals, but since those are expensive I only read them at the library. Also, I take full advantage of JStor and scholar.google.com to read cool articles on stuff I like.

Most of the time is spent reading for school.

I'm working on a B.A. in Sociology and Scandinavian Studies. I plan on getting a PhD and it'll probably be in Sociological Theory.

I want a lower magic adventure path which starts off as street-level encounters and moves onto a mecenary or military campaign with lots of tactical battles, seeing the players as soldiers or army lads, featuring objectives like capturing the enemy, stealing plans and seek and destroy missions.

I want all this to allow the players to win medals, earn ranks and order troops around.

The last few adventures would lead to a war, or invasion. BIG battles!

get cracking dungeon-boys, make it so!

Frankly, I'd like to see if they could get Keith Baker to do an Eberron Adventure Path. I think that would be totally awesome.. instead of having "how to convert to Eberron" sections work in the other direction. I'd like to see what ol' boy would do with it.

I've found two key steps to make a published adventure work.

1) Preparation - It sounds stupid, but reading through a mod a few times before you run it is key. Especially passages you'll need to read aloud, and of secondary importance the stat blocks of monsters and NPCs. Even in the finest quality pre-fab mods there are typoes or stylistic errors in passages that make them hard to read aloud. Familiarity and an editing pencil will help quite a lot, here. The secondary part of preparation is to focus on the stat blocks - do you know the effects of all special abilities and spells your opponents have? Make notations in the borders of the module.

So, do you think it's just a good idea in general to just take some external notes? Use notecards, make rule notes, familiarize yourself with everything you're going to need and have a good set of notes to run from? What's funny is that in some ways it sounds like more work than my other games. But it makes sense..

2) Know your audience - If your players will be bored to tears by a passage, or if something is inappropriate for your group (E.g. if you run games for your kids and they're young, you might want to remove really grisly or adult details from a description), modify the adventure. Nobody says you have to stick to the script. I've been running Age of Worms for a few months, and I took some liberties with the first module to make it fit my players more.

Actually, that worries me. I'm going to be running this on GhostOrb, so I have NO idea who I'm dealing with. I'm sure it's all well and good, 'cause they're all gaming enthusiasts like me (says he who hasn't played a D&D game in 3 years), but the fact is, part of being a good DM is feeling out the group. And if you don't know your players.. that's not so easy.

Both of the above sound elementary, but they're worth brushing up on. Green Ronin Games' "Advanced Gamemasters' Guide" gives lots of other great tips for adapting pre-fab adventures. (In full disclosure, I was a playtester for that book.)

They're both things I sort of figured, actually. I just asked in case anyone had any tricks of the trade they wanted to share. I definitely appreciate the input. Nice plug for Green Ronin by the way. ;)

Don't forget the House on the Rock.

--Erik

What more need I say?

Hey-

So I've been DMing for a long time, but I've never been very good at running published adventures. They have a tendency to seem contrived and I have a tendency to pause during them and re-read descriptions and stuff. I'm used to being able to write down stats on a page, sketch out a basic map with some basic info on it, and do most of it from the noggin', as I see it. Players love that style, but frankly I just don't have the time to do it anymore. These styles also convert poorly. ;)

But that's where I need help; how can I make an adventure seem fluent, natural, home-brewed? What are good ways to remember all of the necessary information so I don't need to go reviewing room descriptions half-way through an adventure? How does one go about making a published adventure seem like it's ones own? Give me some help here. I worry that I won't be able to do the Age of Worms justice if I don't put some serious thought into how I'm going to run them successfully.

Thanks,
-Phil

Hey guys-

So I've been DMing since I was knee-high to an Arcturan Megagrasshopper, but I have this one, tiny issue. The issue is I can't recall having ever actually successfully run a published adventure. I was trained in the hardcore DMing camp, which is all about originality. This is wearing a bit thin as I grow older and busier. I don't have much time to sit and homebrew a campaign, I'm busy (and I'm out of liver of knewt).

So I'm left in an apprehensive spot. As stated above, I have never had success with published adventures. They've always felt foreign, contrived, etc. Or, in my opinion, they've just been bad adventures. But then I started reading the Age of Worms. I want to run them, but I'm nervous about doing them justice or about them falling flat on their face because I goofed it up somehow. Working from a homebrew script gives a guy a lot of freedom to function with story, and pretty easily from memory. One of the major issues is that I have trouble concentrating on published material. I find myself not remembering something important and having to read descriptions again, etc., this obviously wastes time, makes me look totally unprepared, and the game quickly breaks down into tangenting. Frankly, in the past, the games have not been fluid like my other games are. I don't get the same reactions that I'm used to illiciting from players, and this is all frustrating.

But let's face it, that liver of knewt shortage is pretty bad and I'm also extremely busy, so there's hardly any way that I can run games if I can't run published adventures. So, help me out here! What are some tricks for running published adventures and making them seem fluid, alive, homebrewed? What are some good tips for preparing the adventures so that I'll remember the details I need and won't end up having to re-read or stop play? How can I really make these adventures seem like they're right out of my noodle?

Thanks a lot,
-Phil

Oh, we are legion.

Graphic Designer Sarah Robinson is from St. Paul, and the company's owner and CEO, Lisa Stevens, lived in Minnesota for a time.

But she is a Packers fan, so she hardly counts. :)

--Erik

PS> Jason Bulmahn, over on the Dragon side, is from Milwaukee, but we try not to hold that against him.

I always thought it was cool that TSR was located in Wisconsin when I was a kid. In some ways, growing up in Minnesota and then moving to Wisconsin, D&D always felt like a midwest thing to me. I was actually pretty offended when they moved GenCon. While I'm sure they had their reasons, it just felt like they were taking away the only good thing Wisconsin had to offer. =P

I am a big fan of the online content! However, I noticed that you're putting more than one thing on a page. Wouldn't it be more conveniant for DM use if you were to put one map to a page? What's the concensus on this?

Hey-

I posted this months ago and I've heard nothing about it. I was wondering if this was at all a possibility. I still think this is a great idea, obviously, and I figured I'd rib you guys about it a little more.

I also thought I'd bring up the idea about high-resolution maps again. It doesn't COST you anything more to put it in super high res, does it? It does take a bit more cartographer power, I'm sure, but I would surmise that these are, in fact, coming into the office at a very high resolution level anyway, right? For those of us with a desire to use minis, it would be totally awesome if you did it.

Hope you guys don't mind me revisiting this point. ;)

Athas.org has some good rules material and some background stuff as well. Just about all of it is available for download free of charge. It also links to some fan-sites that are worth checking out.

While I was initially excited to see the DS stuff in Dungeon and Dragon, I was let down. In reality, the Athas.org stuff is far higher quality, and in my opinion, more true to the original setting. I violently love Dark Sun; it was the first campaign setting that I ever bought. I believe that it is the most ingenious campaign setting to date (granted, I've not read Eberron, so I can't entirely back that statement up until I do).

While the original DS stuff has tons of inconsistencies, the very basics make for one of the most original and interesting role-playing experiences a player can ever have. My only complaint about the fan stuff is that no one has shelled out any cash for good art. Nothing against fan art.. well, actually, I do have something against fan art. Frankly, it's bad. Getting good art isn't that difficult if you're willing to put up a little cash for it and my guess is that if athas.org asked for some donations for art, people would gladly chip in. I sure would.

And Shroomy: do you play DS? You're in Madison, right? I'm in Madison. Get the hint? ;)

Having grown up in Minneapolis (and actually, I was accepted to the U of M--Twin Cities, but elected Madison because of the Scandinavian Studies department) I have trouble getting over the Twin Cities. I love them dearly and spent a good part of my life going to Twins games and spending tons of unnecessary money at the Shinders in Rosedale (it was within walking distance of my home). In fact, were it not for Shinders (and my brother's older friends) I would've never come across my very first copy of the AD&D 2nd Ed. PHB, which I still have.. duct taped binding and all.. I miss the blue art. :'(

As a student in Madison, I also have trouble whole-heartedly cheering for the Badgers (but we keep that on the DL during homecoming week.. haha) because I grew up cheering for the Gophers. The one and only hockey game I've been to was in the old Gophers hockey rink before they quit playing there. I didn't realize there were any Cities natives working at Dungeon. It must explain your exquisite taste in adventures and design ideas. ;)

Madison is a cool town. I always used to enjoy driving through on the way from Minneapolis to Gen Con. I really miss that annual road trip, although I'm glad I can take a plane from the West Coast.

Is that Rocky Roccoco pizza place still in operation in Madison? They used to be all over the cities, but they've died one by one over the last ten years or so, and now all that remain in Minnesota are empty husks with faded colors that remind me of delicious, delicious bread sticks and wonderful fast food pizza.

But the Gophers are way better than the Badgers.

--Erik

Hey Darin-

Thanks so much! I'm glad to know that there are like-minded individuals out there in the Madison area (I'm actually a student at UW-Madison--Soc and Scand Studies major, but you found me via e-mail, so you know that). I, too, had really been burning out on Dungeon and Dragon, but with the reboot and the Adventure Path ideas, I'm more into it than I've been in a long time.

So yes, yes, yes, I would LOVE to be involved in a game. I'm especially up for Eberron as I've not played it yet, but it look so fun!

I e-mailed you back, by the way.
Happy Chrismahanakwaanzinewyearika. That about narrows it down.
-Phil

Phil -

You hit the nail on the head with Dungeon magazine, sometimes I get a little burned out on Dragon. I've just recently renewed my subscriptions to both and the new Dungeon I got yesterday was awesome! I can't wait to actually sit down and read through it page by page.

BTW, I wanted to drop you a line noticing that you are in the Madison, WI area. My family and I have recently moved here as well. In the next few weeks I will be starting up an Eberron or GH campaign and you're welcome to join!

dfurgeson AT pharmacy.wisc.edu

Happy New Year!

Darin

I've noticed all of this before (and as you've said, this discussion crops up anew every few years). I think it's interesting, however, that in my experience the majority of female gamers are playing stuff like White Wolf. I think that there are other things that turn women off to D&D. For one, there's the nitpicky attention paid to movement rules, excessive amounts of time spent in battle/dungeon crawls, and in the published material (at least in my opinion) there is a tendency to lack real story depth/personal involvement in the reality of your characters. For the most part from simply reading the books (and talking to a lot of players) D&D is a fantastic escape for kids with no friends who want to make themselves feel better by living vicariously through their 14th level fighter and bickering with their friends over combat rules. This is just a different demographic, in essence, than the people playing White Wolf. Vampire is advertised as a "personal" game. Right there, I think is a difference.

Now granted, this doesn't mean that women aren't into D&D at all and that these are the reasons. It could very well be the inherent objectification of women and/or sexism that appears in the non-WotC material (WotC and Paizo have both been excellent about that in their OWN material, IMO).

Phil C. wrote:

what are the chances of you guys releasing just the maps in a super high-resolution format so that they could be enlarged to miniature scale?

Hmmm. That's an interesting idea.

Mike

I, of course, think it's a great idea! If you could pull it off that would be totally cool, 'cause it would not be very much hassle and it's not very expensive to get this stuff up blown up at Kinkos. It really enhances the game to have good, solid maps to play with your minis on.

Thanks again for you consideration, btw. ;)

Both points well taken.

Thanks,
Mike

I must also say, so you know, that I appreciate the fact that you guys actually read, acknowledge, consider and act upon our ideas and criticism. I am happily downloading and printing the new .pdf for #123 two weeks earlier than I was anticipating having access to it! Thanks! :)

That said, what are the chances of you guys releasing just the maps in a super high-resolution format so that they could be enlarged to miniature scale?

I am a big fan of the online content! However, I noticed that you're putting more than one thing on a page. Wouldn't it be more conveniant for DM use if you were to put one map to a page? What's the concensus on this?

Also, I hadn't really been paying much attention, but is it standard that the online content isn't released until the month after it's been sent out to subscribers? I know you're busy, but the sooner the better, if you know what I'm saying..

Phil,

Did you try the appropriate section, i.e. Customer Service?

Edit : ugly messageboards won't automatically create links off URLs or allow PHBB tags. ;)

I did. I've yet to receive a response. I'll be following up on that a bit later. Thanks for your effort. ;)

Phil C. wrote:

BTW: I thought this was a great adventure! I plan on running it as the first in a new game. :)

This is a great adventure. I plan on running it at a higher level, as soon as I take over Dming duties again. I may have to put it in the middle of a large, saltwater lake, considering where the PCs are when I last left them, but I don't care. . . the kraken attack is too cool.

Yeah, I thought the peak of this adventure totally ruled! It's going to create a very awesome session, IMO.

>> Just like in real life, sometimes things fail. The characters can't open the box. What's the big deal?

You're correct, sometimes players can't do something. It's the WHY of how they can't do it that is an issue. If the WHY falls within the rules of the game, that's understandable.

If the WHY is simply "because the DM says so", in violation of the rules, then that's not so good. It makes the players feel the DM is out to screw them, it's unfair that the players play by the rules and the DM doesn't, and destroys the "reality" of the game.

If you can trust your players around those magic items, then the stats for the magically treated box is a better solution. Or if you don't trust them, the ideas for treasure that is valuable to the merchant but not to the PCs is a good solution as well.

I agree with James position though, sometimes the DM will just have to break the rules. This wasn't one of those cases though.

I'm not really seeing how the DM is breaking the rules here. If the players REALLY WANTED TO they could get into this box. Even if it means holding onto it 'til they're higher level and not following the "real" outcome of the adventure. I guess I don't see any bastardization of the rules going on here.

Also, honestly, a DM "breaking the rules," happens pretty regularly, in my opinion. Sometimes the outcome is just way cooler if you fudge a dice-roll or two. What the players don't see doesn't hurt them, and in this case all they know is that it's too powerful for them. It's not like it says in the adventure "when the PCs try to open the box tell them that you're enacting zero rule and that they can't open it." It gives relatively reasonable, feasible ways for the players to not be able to open the box.

As I said above, no big deal.

sorry, I me[a]nt issue #123

I, unlike you, really DID never receive issue #122! How does one remedy such things?

In the interest of continued excellence here at Paizo, ;) I have created the online supplement for Dungeon 122 WITH untagged maps. It should be up and ready for download later today.

Check for download here: http://paizo.com/dungeon/resources/downloads#v5748eaic9jxs

That's great! What's the schedule for putting up the online supplements? Is it standard to wait 'til early in the next month?

Frankly, I don't think the "problem" of the box is a problem at all. While, certainly, adventurers should have the chance to try anything that they want, sometimes things can't be done. Just like in real life, sometimes things fail. The characters can't open the box. What's the big deal? They're not supposed to, anyway!

BTW: I thought this was a great adventure! I plan on running it as the first in a new game. :)

I'm also a little disappointed that the handouts and maps from #123 haven't been uploaded yet. :(

It's already been noted that maps will now be produced with layers so that one could turn off the DM information layer and print it.

That's awesome!

In any case, for me at least, D&D is about having fun, not about letting everyone in the party die and a whole campaign be lost, just to stick to the rules.

I'm with you here. A character dying here and there makes characters fear you as a DM (let's be serious here.. if characters NEVER die, what's the point?), but to kill of the entire party is usually extreme. But if the characters are being really stupid, I say give 'em what they ask for. ;)

To answer the initial question: yes, I think I would be more likely to cut the characters a break so as to run the whole campaign arc.