Shawn Merwin's page

I think they really should be in a situation were they have several months content all lined up and ready to go. Does not really seem to be the situation they are in.

I can only speak from my experience, but my adventure--which was one of those released in this issue--was submitted in final draft form before DDXP this year: so it has been done (at least the text portion) since February.

Shawn

At the risk of over-simplifying, there seem to be two types of Greyhawk fans (with all the various shades of gray in between): those who just want to play D&D in the World of Greyhawk, and those who could care less about the game itself and want to debate and treat the setting like it is real history.

Now if I may over-simplify even further, a majority of the RPGA's Living Greyhawk players I know of fall much more to the former than the latter. Yes, they like the setting, and love the ongoing storylines and NPCs, and they take it seriously, but they more enjoy the chance to play the game in the place they have always loved (or grown to love).

With the RPGA's support of Living Greyhawk, the setting is alive and well. At least a version of the setting is alive and well, I should say. People seem to think that LG players are going to howl and revolt if some "official" version of Greyhawk was published that did not take into account the content of the LG campaign. I have met a LOT of LG players over the years. I know several of the writers and administrators of the campaign. I know a few people who might grumble about decisions for areas of the setting they worked on extensively and have grown to love. On the other hand, those few are less than 1% -- the rest would celebrate and jump at the chance to purchase a new "official" Greyhawk product, whether published by WotC, Paizo, or any other company. LG players would be the most enthusiastic, supportive, and numerous audience.

The people I would worry about are the latter group I talked about at the top of the most: the people who separate the setting from the game and treat it like it is something scared. Now I know and am friends with many people like this, and I do not say this to pass judgment on them. But they can be a huge detriment to the potential success of a Greyhawk product. For my money, I'd look to the LG players, the people who are taking the time to add to the setting and enjoying the playing of the game in that setting, to support further resources published, even if it is outside of the LG campaign itself.

Let me first say I ran "Mad God's Key" for 4 different groups, and each one of them had a blast. Jason really outdid himself with that one. "Key to the Grave" was a solid adventure, but it did have problems. It's been a long time since I ran it and played it, but I seem to remember that there was a major problem that often happens in investigative modules. Basically, the PCs have a large area to explore for clues at the start of the day. Then, at night, there is a trigger event that is needed to move the plot forward.

If I remember, a lot of groups spent several hours of real time playing the well-written investigative scenes, more hours than are given for normal RPGA play, and they still have to wait for the trigger event at night. In fact, thinking about it, there may actually have been another trigger event the next night.

Pacing is something that is ultimately controlled by the DM, but some adventures make it easy to control the pacing, and some make it hard. Investigative mods are tough to write because ultimately you have to not just make the investigations fund and important to the game, but you need to make sure the pacing works as well.

That's correct. I don't see it as much as a problem though.

Maybe you don't. I do. The RPGA would have to start changing the terms of the contracts. If I knew that they were going to start making more money off my work (LG's Origins 2004 Core Special, Mark of Heroes' Winter Fantasy 2005 Special Delve, Mark of Heroes' GenCon 2005 Special Delve to name a few) through alternate publication methods, that would significantly change things.

Only members with official herald DM status can download the adventures, and they are only available for a brief period of time (usually 2-3 months). You also have to sanction an event in order to download them. There are certain adventures that are only available as premiere events at conventions.

While partially true, mods are still not difficult to get for free, even for non-members of the RPGA. Want a MoH adventure? They are sold to gaming stores, and usually available for a few bucks on eBAY. LG mods are available for up to two years, and simply going on an LG-related bulletin board or Yahoo group and asking can get you one. Legal? Not really. Common? Yes. And even now the premiere events at cons are being released more and more to other cons or as home play events.

I don't know what benefits the RPGA and Paizo get from including this type of material into the magazine. Sure it is great for the people who want it, but I don't know if the demand is high enough, and if the parties involved benefit enough, to make it happen. If they did, I'd guess they'd be doing it more.

Regards,

Shawn

This introductory adventure for all factions will be available in August at GenCon. If the RPGA provided you with the adventure in the next month or two, would you be willing to review it for consideration?

Although I am the first person who would love to see some of the quality RPGA material published in Dungeon, there are some problems:

1. The RPGA/WotC buys the rights to the adventures, so they would have to be the one to submit it. The author(s) cannot. I would love to see some of the past Special Delve adventures for Living Greyhawk or Mark of Heroes get considered for Dungeon.

2. The material is free for RPGA members. It may take a bit of time and energy to join the RPGA, but once you do you can pretty much download any of these mods that you want. The aforementioned Special Delve adventures are the only ones that have a limited release. LG regional modules are limited by geography, but people still share them.

What would work better for everyone involved--the RPGA, WotC, Dungeon, the players--is if this was done in the other direction. Good adventures from Dungeon should be worked into the RPGA campaigns. They did this with "Mad God's Key," and WotC is going to be doing this with their published adventures.

Regards,

Shawn

The new stat blocks, at least in my experience, aren't all that terrible to use or create. The tough part is going back and forth between the two for different projects. The RPGA's Eberron: Mark of Heroes campaign uses the new one, but the Living Greyhawk campaign uses the old one, but Dungeon has switched over to the new one, etc.

James is correct in that they are easier for most DMs to find things (or at least they will be once judges get used to them), so we writers are just going to have to bite the bullet and start getting used to them.

Shawn

Joshua Randall was on the right track with his post, and other people have also made a good point: how to scare the player depends mostly on the players. One way to lead them toward that fear if they are a pretty stoic bunch is to take them out of their elements as players. Just some thoughts below.

--Force them to make saving throws and skill checks without telling them why.

--If you don't already do this, keep track of their hit points for them, and don't tell them exactly how many they have left.

--Describe conditions they might have in descriptive rather than game terms. If they have a strength drain, describe the effect but don't say how many strength points they lost. Just describe the weakness.

--In general, take away some of the normal meta-gaming clues the players have and up the tension.

--I ran a game that took place in a haunted house, and kept modulating my voice to a shout at certain times, then a whisper at others. After the second shout, the players were tense, waiting for it to happen again, and it definitely added to the atmosphere.

--Create a really likable NPC who is a good friend and very helpful to the PCs. Then kill that NPC in a horrible way while the PCs watch but are unable to help. (Don't railroad, though. Do it organically within the flow of the game.)

Great thread! Thanks!

Shawn

No, I believe you are correct Bram. Spells with a range of "personal" aren't valid targets for potions. Otherwise there's very little reason fighter-types wouldn't run around with a case of potions of true strike. ;)

Correct. To give everyone a reference, DMG 3.5 on page 286, second paragraph under "Creating Potion": "Spells with a range of personal cannot be made into potions, so spells such as shield never exist in potion form."

For articles about new monsters, follow the formatin whatever the most recent monster book uses. For now, that's Monster Manual III (which is pretty close to the base Monster Manual). In fact... you can pretty much just follow the Monster Manual format and we can take care of any fine tuning if the article is accepted.

James, if we are familiar with the new formatting (I used it for some things I've written for the RPGA), can our submissions include the new stat block formatting?

Thanks,

Shawn

I passed the RPGA Herold level test so that I could get RPGA Credit for Dungeon Adventures. But haven't recieved anything in the mail from the RPGA. When I do DM a Dungeon adventure, will I be sent the RPGA certs and the like for that adventure to give to my players?

Dungeon adventures do not have "certs" as they are not tied to any specific RPGA campaign. The playing of those adventures do not count in any way of the "Living" campaigns or the D&D Campaigns like Eberron or Green Regent.

The only current exception is "Mad God's Key," which can be played by first-level Living Greyhawk characters. The certs for that adventure are sent to you automatically when you order that particular adventure from the RPGA site.

As for email communication with the RPGA, it is a hit or miss prospect. Some emails I've sent in the past have just never been answered, and others have been answered almost immediately. When you basically have one part-time employee to answer tons of email, that's what happens. If you want to complain about it, right to Wizards customer service directly and not the RPGA, as the RPGA gets its funding, or lack thereof, from Wizards.

Regards,

Shawn

Can anyone tell me how to report the adventures in dungeon to the RPGA?

James,

The RPGA just doesn't seem to interface smoothly with some third-party material providers. For both Dungeon and Bronzehead, the "scenario codes" are provided like they are the most important thing, when in reality you don't even need the codes.

To report the table, the first thing you need to do is log in at the RPGA site and go to your member section. Then set up your game day just as you would for any other RPGA game, ordering the Dungeon adventure from the list of available scenarios. Then when the date of the game day has past, the link appears where you can report the game.

Regards,

Shawn

If anyone plays Living Greyhawk, look for the upcoming home play release of the Origins 2004 LG Special Event "Here There Be Dragons," which takes place in the Land of Black Ice.

Shawn