Robert Gamble's page

Ok.. So here's my take on this.. I haven't read the whole thread, but enough to get the gist. If I had a player who had an ability that could take out my BBEG too easily in the final fight, here's what I would do:

Give the BBEG an opportunity to find out about the ability and then do something about it. Presumably, the players will be tangling with the BBEG's minions.. word should get back eventually that there's a witch in the party. Assuming the BBEG is remotely intelligent, they'll do their homework and discover something that could protect them. I wouldn't make it a 100% chance.. Say something like an illusion spell to get the witch to target the wrong thing (making a minion look like the BBEG), something to increase the Will save, etc... This can apply to its minions too. If the BBEG thinks the minions on an important mission will be targeted by the party, it might use minions with higher Will saves, provide items that will protect them, etc.

It should be realistic, don't just give every minion a +10 Will Save ring, but assume that the BBEG is going to be proactive in combating threats it sees. If the party somehow completely hides that there's a witch in the party (by killing any possible survivors, making sure that no one outside of them who could talk knows the character's a witch, avoids being scryed, etc) then the BBEG shouldn't be able to prepare specifically for a Witch.. but I'm guessing there are very few parties who can completely cover their tracks!

I realize that the original post didn't even refer to a BBEG, but as the party's reputation increases more and more of the groups they go up against should have taken at least some preparations.

So, does the $100 pledge include BOTH PDF books as well as the physical edition? If not, I assume it's possible to order the physical copy in one form (Pathfinder), and the PDF in the other (S&W)?

Just a bump...

A bump with just a bit more info:

The campaign would be titled: Legacy of the Silver Dragon

The backdrop is a small town on the outskirts of human civilization that had a protector in the form of a Silver Dragon named Eliaesel, who lived in a mountain nearby. She was effectively the ruler of the town, although she empowered a council to overrule her rulings if 3/4 of the members agreed to do so. The council was made up with equal numbers from all facets and races of society.

And then Eliaesel vanished (not sure how long ago, likely 5-10 years before the start of the campaign). The town hoped she would return, but none sent to the mountain to search for her were able to find her lair, or if they did - none that did returned. Instead they found hostile humanoids, which had left the town alone due to its protector.

Currently the town is in a state of flux. The Council attempts to hold onto its power, but without a strong leader over it, they get little done. They have called for a vote by the populace to elect such a leader, and numerous people have thrown their hat into the ring.. but the politics have grown fractious, and no matter who wins - large portions of the populace will likely be unhappy.

And, those aforementioned hostile humanoids are beginning to realize that the town is no longer as well defended as it once was... Caravans need guards, the town's threats need to be scouted, and there are rumors of items in ruins and caverns in the mountain which could be used to protect the town.

So, awhile back I ran a PbP on another board and generally enjoyed it. Things died due to RL issues both for myself and some players. I'm interested in starting up another PbP, but this time instead of going with a somewhat rules heavy game (as the Midnight/D3.5 game was), I want to switch to an old school rule set, namely Swords & Wizardry (which is basically the original D&D three brown books updated to the present - with a couple of add ons, like the Thief class.. there are some interpretations of the original rules that may not be exactly the same, but generally these were for rules that were too ambiguous.. and there are some changes to the original rules, for instance all weapons no longer simply do 1d6 damage :) ).

The setting will be my own, but influenced by Necromancer Games' sandbox modules, the Wilderlands, and the like. I want to give the players quite a bit of freedom to decide where to go, but I also have an idea for an underlying theme or two that I think will be quite cool if the players focus in on it.

If you want to see the kind of style I prefer, here's part of my old PbP:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/playing-game/189751-midnight-shadow-gods-chapt er-1-a.html

Basically, I would love to find players who are willing to write more than just "I go 20 feet down the hall and kick in the door.", and would also love players who are willing to interact with each other during periods when I may not be around (and this will happen once in awhile for 1-2 weeks or so), to keep interest in the thread going.

I'm looking for 3-4 players who are willing to check in at least every 2-3 days. If there's interest with whatever players I end up with, I may set aside times for the PbP group to be online to crank through a fair bit at once, but at least initially I'd say that I'd plan for things to be low key as far as how often players will be expected to check in/post.

If there's interest, let me know. And if you don't know Swords & Wizardry, a link to the free PDF for the Core Rules is at:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=62346

Ok, so if the Pathfinder Chronicles stuff has to be 64 pages each, then my concept still works. Just halve the number of monsters. So for instance, the Classic Monsters book would have 5 monsters represented with a few additional pages for each showing a location, key, adventure ideas and hooks.

Or if the mix/matching doesn't work for everyone (I'm sure there are people who want just the monsters), offer 'event/location books' matched to the monster books. Since all the Pathfinder setting information for the monsters would be in the monster books, only the stat blocks would replicate information between books.

Keep in mind I'm not saying that this is a better way of doing something, only that I would be even more enthusiastic about the monster books if this kind of thing were included or put into a stand alone.

To the OP, sounds like an annoying player, and I wish your group the best of luck in working out its problems.

Regarding the 'fix' above that someone suggested, while using the word 'revenge', I actually don't think it's a bad concept. I think the use of the word 'revenge' was misplaced though. Imagine this scenario:

Players refuse to go along with the main plot. Assuming the DM doesn't just say "Ok, then I'm done DMing" and comes up with something else for the players to do, they do something they all enjoy (hopefully).

They come back to town and run into another group of adventurers who'd just completed the job they were supposed to, bragging about the cool stuff they got (preferably items you KNOW the players would love to have, especially the more problematic ones) and the awesome fights/events they were in (hopefully fights/events you know the players would have enjoyed). Townspeople are fawning over them. Women want to be with them. Men want to be them. And vice versa.

A couple of things work out nicely here. Assuming it's not done TOO heavy handedly the players will realize, "Hey, y'know, we could have had a lot of fun doing that adventure." Secondly, the 'adventure path' is still on track. Nothing says that the NPC group of adventurers have to be around when the 'next event' occurs and the PCs can pick things up again.

This obviously won't work if a player is completely unwilling to compromise in playing a character which would have no interest in an adventure. One way around that might be to allow those players to make two characters. The one he or she really wants to play, but who might not want to participate in every adventure. And a second more or less traditional character who does things to help people, get gold, fame, etc that can be used if the primary character just wouldn't go along with a mission. Assume that each character gains experience doing something else, at the same rate as the one that participated.

IDEALLY, players and DMs should be willing to compromise. If the DM is running more or less railroaded adventures (let's be honest, this is what most games are to some extent) the players need to be made aware of this and the DM and the players need to work out why the character might participate. It might even be helpful a few days before a game to give the setup by e-mail (characters approached to scout for weaknesses in a group of giants terrorizing a town) so that players can think of reasons why they would participate. Or, give them this info at the end of a game session when you know what the next game session's hook will be. The players can then say 'Well, my character wouldn't be interested in going along because of this.. but, if this happened, she would be.' The DM might think the idea wouldn't be workable due to any number of reasons, but he could come back with another possibility until one works.

I have less sympathy for the players because generally being a DM is more challenging and time consuming. It is however the DM's job to know his group and what they want from roleplaying. If they just don't like being railroaded, then the DM has to find ways to give them choices (or at least the illusion of choice). If they don't like playing characters who are motivated by gold for themselves but have family that their characters are purportedly attached to, have something come up that so that their family needs the gold. The DM's job is all about doing your homework, and the MOST important bit of homework a DM can do is to make sure that he knows what the players want, otherwise someone's going to be unhappy.

Sorry, I didn't mean 4-5 pages total, I meant 4-5 pages (or 3-5) per monster, depending on number of monsters and reaching the next cutoff point of 96 or 128.

Robert Gamble wrote:

Just one minor comment about "Classic Monsters". Generally I really liked the product, but one thought I had might kick it up a notch. Keep everything the same but add three to five more pages. A 'small encounter' map for the monster/race, a key, and ideas how to use it/hooks/etc. Of course it would make the book larger than the apparently 'standard' 64 pages, but it would set Paizo's monster books even further apart from the norm.

You can't just add 4-5 pages to a book. The publishing industry is built on 32-page "signatures" that can be sometimes broken in half or in quarters (although there are cost issues to dissuade that).

And knowing is half the battle. ;)

Just one minor comment about "Classic Monsters". Generally I really liked the product, but one thought I had might kick it up a notch. Keep everything the same but add three to five more pages. A 'small encounter' map for the monster/race, a key, and ideas how to use it/hooks/etc. Of course it would make the book larger than the apparently 'standard' 64 pages, but it would set Paizo's monster books even further apart from the norm.

I had a couple of minor complaints in an otherwise excellent book:

1. A very strong focus on low level creatures. Yes, it makes the first creatures that players are likely to go up against more memorable than the stereotypical goblins, orcs, kobolds, lizardfolk, etc, but that's four 'monsters' that the players will outgrow very quickly. One other, the Minotaur, seems almost too specific. Perhaps a giant race would have been a useful replacement?

2. A slightly missed opportunity to make a truly special book. One thing I was thinking was that the book was too short. I really didn't want more information about each race, as what was there was quite good and sufficient. I really didn't want a huge number more races in the book itself (though I might have quibbled a bit with the actual makeup of the races). Instead, it may have been fun to have an 'encounter site' with a key for each included monster, some hooks for adventurers, etc. In other words, not a full fledged adventure, but something a DM could use more or less intact in an adventure.

Nevertheless, I found this to be an excellent little book and a great read.

I've run two campaigns before. The first was 15+ years ago. In that one, it was everyone in a tavern. If I recall, I had 11 players (long story, but the short of it is the D&D group I was a player in didn't want to do Rolemaster - which is what I wanted to GM.. and then suddenly wanted to join the game after I scrounged together other players). Effectively, they each came up with their backgrounds while talking to each other. Funniest moment was when the two thieves (players didn't know what classes anyone else was) sat at the same table and then each passed me a note saying "I'm stealing off the other guy." Eventually one of them rolled a 100 on their attempt, and I decided that he'd stolen back something that was initially his to begin with, leading to some amusing RP.

The second campaign was in Midnight (by Fantasy Flight Games) on a message board. I did an extensive prologue with each player, leading to their decision to join the resistance against Sauro... errr.. Izrador (Midnight can basically be described as: "What would have happened if Sauron had won?"). Each character then was taken in game to a 'ghost raft' (group of ships/rafts on an inland sea) where I had one cell of resistance fighters. There they received their first 'mission', working with a more experienced group which would evaluate their skills and the kinds of future missions they would be tagged for (a nice way of being able to let the players decide the kinds of things they want to do down the road). It worked really nicely, but unfortunately the campaign itself died due to time constraints by some players, relatively quickly.