Thomas Austin's page

On page 425 there's a haunting, evocative painting of a green dragon in some sort of forest ruins.

Is that taken from another Paizo product? If so, I want to run it!

The end of the year is a good time to look back on your life and see what might have gone better, so open up, you're among friends here.

*What's the worst gaming thing you've ever done?

*The most munchkin-ed PC you've run?

*Worst rule misinterpretation you went with for years?

*OOC behavior at the table that makes you cringe now?

*Shameless plagiarism you passed off as original? (I'm looking at you, Driz'zt clones!)

*Character concept you're most ashamed of?

I'll start:

I DM'ed a group of players that killed Asmodeus (1E version) in about a half-hour adventure. I let the party gate right into his throne room, neglected to have any minions around, forgot about magic resistance and let them strangle him with Bigby's Crushing Hand.

I'm trying to understand the thinking behind making UMD part of the rogue's abilities - I grew up in 1E and I don't remember it being a part of the class back then.

Is it crunch-based (gives them an extra benefit to balance out other classes) or fluff-based (rogues are deceptive, so they can "fool" a magic device)? I can't think of examples of this kind of skill in much fantasy literature, so I wonder where it came from.

Looking through my ancient and battered copy of Deities and Demigods (the original 1E printing), I saw in the Celtic Mythos section the entry for the Wild Hunt and realized that it would be a great addition to Kingmaker.

I see that there are stats for a CR27 (!) version of it HERE, but the original 1E Huntsman was a 15th-Level Ranger with 20 hounds of about 6-10 HD each, so that's a little more in line with the power level of this AP.

Anyone out there built some Pathfinder stats for this force of Nature?

Now I just have to figure out when to put it into the campaign....(rubs hands gleefully)

I'm a sucker for static defense problems, everything from Rorke's Drift to the defense of Minas Tirith. I'd love to plan something like that for the early chapters of KM. (Before the mass combat rules are introduced, as I want max player involvement so they enjoy it as much as I will.)

Here are the two options that come to mind:

- At the end of KM #1,
--Site: Oleg's
--Enemy: Humanoid Bandits (after the defeat of the Stag Lord, or maybe with him leading the bandit assault)

- Near the end of KM #2
--Site: Oleg's or the Stag Lord's fort (whichever one isn't a city yet)
--Enemy: Hargulka and his troll band (This would replace the crawl through the troll outpost.)

I'll need to establish a motivation for the enemy and get the PCs just enough warning to prepare, but not enough to move major forces around the map.

Thoughts welcome.

Is there a Pathfinder version of the Swashbuckler class, either official Paizo content or 3rd party?

A bunch of my old NPCs are swashbucklers and I'd really like to convert them for an upcoming adventure - also to give PCs the option to run them.

I searched these forums before asking and , but I didn't see anything definitive - mostly comparing Duelist vs. 3.5 Swashbuckler.

Thanks!

How tough would it be to run Kingmaker using 3.5 rules?

Players and I haven't made the switch to PFRPG yet, but Kingmaker would fit soooo nicely in my campaign that I'm itching to try it anyway. How much conversion would be necessary?

I'm getting rid of a bunch of my old gaming stuff. Lots of old Dragon, some 1E books in excellent shape, and a few other things.

Where's the best place to sell them? I haven't seen a Marketplace for used stuff here at Paizo. Is eBay best? Anywhere at ENWorld?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Tom

I gotta get this. The original Twilight:2000 was one of my all-time favorites, probably second only to D&D.
Free Teaser

Sure hope it doesn't suck.

I have to integrate a new player into an existing party, and I'd like to run her through an adventure to gain some XP (current PCs are mostly 2nd level or almost there) and provide some backstory.

Most of what I've found searching for solo adventures are the "solitaire" kind where you're the DM and the PC. Any suggestions for good one-PC stuff? My FLGS had two from Expeditious Retreat, but those were L7-9.

TIA,

Tom

Given its usefulness against evil outsiders (particularly since they get no saving throw and no SR) and the frequency of same in this AP, Holy Storm seems like an excellent battlefield-shaping spell for use in the Savage Tide, especially as it's just 3rd level. Anyone been using it?

OK, confession time.

I've been playing since Christmas, 1979, and DM'ing most of that time. In all that time, I've never seriously run a wilderness adventure. Now I may have to to get my players where they need to go.

How do you run the "table talk" (or maybe narration) in the wilderness? I'm comfortable with "You open the door, it's a room about 20x20 with a fire pit in the center..." and the transitions from location to location, but I'm clueless about wilderness.

I know that you don't narrate each tree and stream crossing, but do you just say "you travel through the hills for 8 hours with no encounters"?

How do you transition from travel to tactical-level detail? Every stop, or just for fights?

Do these questions make sense?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Tom

Ragnarok, Armageddon, Tarmon Gaidon.....

Has anyone played through the end of their world? I'm toying with a cosmology that predicts a great battle at the end of all time, but the scale of running such an event (other than just a bunch of narration, which wouldn't be much fun) is a little overwhelming.

Any experience or ideas?

Dark Conspiracy - GDW
I found this game book in my attic stash. I bought it, made up some characters (I've always liked GDW's character generation - Traveller, Twilight 2000) but never played it.

Anyone else ever play this one? Did it turn out to be as good as it seems?

Tom

I've seen that lots of folks have played this module. Since the armies of the Hobgoblin King play a big role in my homebrew world, I'm thinking of trying to fit RHOD into the current campaign.

Did y'all like it?
What style of play does it favor?
Does it need a lot of modification?
Is it heavily dependent on any one setting?

Thanks,
Tom

I'm developing my homebrew world, and I'd like to give PC's from some cultures bonus feats or skills.

What is a good rule of thumb for good game balance here? I don't think that 2-4 points of Ride for the Whirlwind Rider nomads will unbalance things, but what's too much? Should this kind of bonus avoid combat skills and feats?

TIA,

Tom

The Vulgar Unicorn, the World Serpent, the Welcome Wench, even the Boar's Head. These names are often more famous that their patrons.

What are some of your favorite bar names from D&D, fiction or even real life?

Hang's Bar in a nameless mill town in the Eastern Frontier is from my homebrew campaign, which also has the Silver Mermaid. .

The Slaughtered Lamb is a real bar in NYC. Werewolf theme.

Anyone here do conversions of mythos adventures into any version of D&D? I know that there's a d20 Cthu, but that's all modern, right?

I'm most interested in the two old big ones: Shadows of Y-S and Masks of Nyarl..

I'd like to hear your RP lessons learned as well as game mechanics.

Thanks in advance...

Tom

It's probably too late, but...

Dragon #351 featured, on the editor's page, what looked like a bar coaster from the World Serpent Inn. Any chance that Paizo's selling these and I just missed them?

Those would be the ne plus ultra for my bar.

Thanks,

Tom

Still learning 3.5, still thinking in 1stEd terms:

Whatever happened to broadswords?

Does anyone allow scimitars to be considered a light weapon?

Is there such a thing as a sabre in 3.5? Maybe with all of a rapier's stats but doing slashing damage vice piercing?

I'm fond of weapon speed factors. Any surrogates in 3.5? I'm thinking of light weapons =+2 initiative, heavy/2-handed weapons -2. Anyone tried something like this?

Me, while shopping at the local Big Box Bookstore:
"Do you have this month's Dungeon? It's not on the shelves."

Counter Girl, checking computer:
"No, it's sold out. Wow, we'll have to order more of these next year; it looks like they've been selling out a lot recently."

Me, sad:
"..... Don't bother."

First off, I loved the St. Cuthbert Core Beliefs article in this month's Dragon. I have one point of disagreement, however. I'll admit up front that this may be due to my misunderstanding of 3.5's cosmology and the assumptions underlying deities' relationships with their worshipers, as it seems to be a prevalent theme in many discussions of gods and clerics.

How can there be sustained heresy in a world that posits activist deities? The article describes a heretical sect of LE worshippers and an entire arm of the church dedicated to wiping out heresy.

In a world where clerics receive their spells from the deity daily, how do the LE worshipers get their spells if St. C. doesn't like their alignment? Similarly, if a sect is espousing new doctrine that runs counter to orthodoxy, a schism is not necessary. Either their doctrine is acceptable to their god (and they get their daily spells)or it isn't. If a point of doctrine is unclear and is dividing the church, Contact other Plane or a similar spell is probably available at some level of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the issue can be decided in short order.

This might not be the case for a very chaotic-aligned deity who enjoys seeing his followers trying to figure out what he actually meant in his holy writings, but probably not for most deities and definitely not for the lawful, simple and straightforward Cuthbert.

I think that these ideas are carrying forward underlying assumptions from our world, in which most religions' gods would be described as quietist (vice activist) and deviations from orthodoxy do not receive immediate divine punishment and doctrinal questions have no independently verifiable divine answer.

Thanks for any thoughts.

OK, I'm stuck. Looking for your ideas, hunches, and hare-brained schemes.

This takes place in my homebrew campaign, but it's a conventional Greyhawk-ish world, but with younger civilizations building on and exploring the ruins of an ancient realm that passed away somehow. The PCs (low-mid levels) have been adventuring around a small coastal village doing Good Adventurer Things.

I got a flash of insight that the Strange High House in the Mist (that's not what they call it, but that's how I think of it-HPL influence) has been bought by a wealthy young man, a merchant trader, who is fixing it up, ending the evil influence and entertaining the local notables, taking special interest in the PCs. He's actually a Young Adult Bronze Dragon, who loves the sea-side location and plans to.....

and there the flash of insight ends. I'm thinking of him mentoring the PCs as they progress, but I can't figure a good motivation for him to settle in this backwater hamlet.

What's he looking for? Sunken treasure? Defending the region against some impending evil? Mating season? Nothing seems to fit.

Help?

Here are the baddies:
21 generic lizardfolk
3 Warrrior1 lizardfolk
1 Fighter3 lizardfolk

What do y'all think? The RAW about CR seem to break down with these large numbers.

TIA,

Tom

Several campaign journals have made references to "Hero Points". This is a new concept for me, although it kinda sounds like "Good Stuff" points from the Amber diceless RPG.

Can someone explain the rules here? Are these found in a pub somewhere or are they house rules?

TIA,

Tom

Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides is one of the best and creepiest pieces of historical fantasy I've read. It's worthy of Lovecraft without being derivative. Zombie pirates, ghosts, evil wizards and witch doctors are wrapped up in a compelling story with three-dimensional characters.

For STAP purposes, vodun zombies are much spookier than the stock version or the ravenous Parrot Island kind, so I'm trying to figure out how to work some in there.

Amazon Link

Enjoy!

It looks like my players will be running through another set of adventures before they might get into the STAP. (I'm doing only moderate railroading, so their initial decisions are putting them on a path farther north than Sasserine.) By the time things take them down toward the Southfens (which is where Sasserine is in my campaign), they'll probably be in the 3rd-5th level range. What would y'all recommend?

- Stick them into the STAP at a level-appropriate point - Bullwug Gambit or Sea Wyvern's Wake?
- Start them off at TINH, beef up the encounters per Scaling sidebar and count on some slower level progression to catch the adventure up to their levels after a few sessions?
- Something else I didn't think of?

One P.S.: This is a small group, probably just three PCs (Bard, paladin and druid or sorcerer if they all survive) and maybe an NPC.

TIA for suggestions...

Last week I bought Issue #146 (Serpents of Scuttlecove) at Barnes & Noble. The bag was intact, but there was no "Giant Poster Map!" inside. When I took it back to B&N, neither of the two issues still on the shelf had the maps either!

Anyone have suggestions on a way for me to get a replacement map, other than buying a whole new issue from the back issues part of this site?

Thanks,

Tom