X51's page

Grace Jones
was ferocious in
Conan the Destroyer
with
Mako

Scott Glenn
was pretty serious in
Firestorm
with
William Forsythe

James Woods
lent his voice to
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
with the voice of
Donald Sutherland

Lynn Redgrave
was in
The Next Best Thing
with
Neil Patrick Harris

Paul Le Mat
was in
American History X
with
Edward Norton

Banning YouTube or similar distracting websites I can understand... Banning laptops altogether I think is going a little too far imo. This should be a universal house rule. While I know table banter is fun you gather at the table to play a RPG. Everyone should have mutual respect for everyone else at the table, even more so for the DM who has taken time to prepare a scenario for the characters to overcome.

As for me I use a laptop at the table all the time, all of my books are here, links to websites that I use for game purposes, dice rollers, etc. Gone are the days of packing around 40+ pounds of books and boxed sets and dice (at least 40 pounds I walked miles and miles throughout the week before I had a car), all in the name of having fun! Ah, the memories...

Leading up to this.. well they have a few side quests in NON familiar territory. In the last session they did take out a Giant Minoutor... Hill Giant....minatour qualities that is.. It was a fiendish Giant... so its not like they were taking on peasants before.

The DM's immersion and discriptions are not boring but very informative and creative... We are not playing a video game here and story is pretty important, at least I think so...

Anyways the description of the Humanoid flying out of the Monk ruins was this... Humanoid shape with large Black Cloak, pale complexion, red glowing eyes..... UHHH all I had to say was HELLO... no one did a Religion check, or really said nothing until he blasted the party with 4 magic missles, enervation, and Globe of invulnerability.

But you people are right... there was no time limit, the party had all the time they wanted.. your right, they should have used their resources more wisely.

That doesn't sound boring to me at all, or too easy.

I have had my share of players not using their skills... Knowledge, Spellcraft, etc. and landing the group in a world of hurt, all because they were not listening (doing something on their comps., nose in a book looking to pull a fast-one on the DM), and have been guilty of it myself. I don't know if they failed their listen checks at the table or just didn't care. Hopefully it's a lesson learned... At least until the next time it happens :/

I agree that it was legit. Perhaps like you mentioned, your party was bored. Nothing quite as exciting as pushing to the edge of performance.

Were the encounters leading up to this event relatively easy? If so perhaps your DM did this on purpose to bring out their inner cockiness, then as soon as they do something foolish the DM hammers them.

Regardless this is something I would have enjoyed participating in :)

Ravingdork: How well do you know these people? Have you been with the group long and has it always been this way? Have you tried talking to them directly about this situation? If you talk to them be sure to do a good share of listening.

Perhaps they feel insecure or inferior to you superior intellect… Not saying that they are imbeciles in any way, but that they feel threatened.

I agree with LoreKeeper somewhat on his advice, but not everybody is a chameleon and some people would have comfort or even pride issues about who they are. LoreKeeper gives you a good starting point with speaking less and more simply. You should give it a go if you don’t feel comfortable talking to your group about how you feel mistreated.

I agree with Werecorpse on his homerun bit. Excellent points. And with his way of saying ‘Tables are not very effective weapons.’ Your fellow party members are seeing your characters actions in a certain light.

Keep track of their math either mentally or written on a piece of paper for the purpose of knowing when to remind them of their bonuses from your spells. For example; without any bonuses from you, (provided you can see it) RogueX rolls a 13 on a d20 and declares a result of 18 (GM declares a success), you know that he has a +5 (for that action). Now if you can, keep track of the bonuses you provide. When RogueX rolls a 11 on a d20 and declares a 16 (GM declares a failure), remind RogueX that he has a bonus from ‘X’ effect
(say +2) which makes 18 (success). However only remind them if it is going to make a difference and before the GM moves on too far. I'm not saying keep full copies of their characters but try to gauge it I guess. You'll come to know which people are forgetful and which ones are on top of things.

Stay creative. Nice try with the table bty! :)

My group has encountered this problem many times. We have since started using a DM screen full time. The players don't want their characters to die and neither do you, especially if you have an investment in resources, contacts, etc. The screen is so you can fudge your rolls of course, so I hope you have a poker face or at least can fake one. If the party is doing so poorly that you can see your party laying in pools of their own blood, this is where the fudging begins. A critical fumble, or a series of missed attacks can save the day.
Don't have money for a screen or (like me)hate using them because they are too tall and in the way? Make your own. You don't need all the info on them anyway. Cut out a big enough piece of cardboard to your desired height, length, and fold the ends. You're ready to lie!
Now I know this doesn't solve the problem if it still happens, but you certainly have an edge in preventing it from happening.
From the get-go you can use a character tree, have several characters for each player. When the PCs don't come back from their latest foray, curious friends or relatives start poking around and eventually all come together for the same reason. It would be up to the DM to suck them further into the story from that point.

I don't post regularly, but I thought I would give my interpretation of this final piece of cover art. It is not my favorite piece, but I like it.

The browning leaves behind the dragon signals a change of the times. The position of the sun rising/setting symbolizing the rise of the new era and the fall of an old respectively. The fantasy background is just that, but I think these are places where all of us have been and we are still there. The dragon and it's mistress/dominatrix are looking at something. I think that the dragon is looking at the single window that has a light, knowing that it should be there in the room reassuring it's friends in the dark times to come. Or that it should be there at the end of an all-nighter with all of us. Regardless, the light will stay on should the dragon ever return. The mistress/dominatrix/Wizard is looking at the dragon trying to justify in her mind what she is doing to it. And the dragon handled electro-rod which she has a white-knuckle grip on represents the change to electronics. Or it could just be a fancy dragon prod and she is saying, "Time to go old girl." ZAP!

As above, I like it. It makes me reflect, but I also would rather like to have seen something more "in the face of Wizards". Someone had a similar view.

An evil Wizard in the throes of maniacal laughter. Prostrated before him/her a great dragon held helpless by ghostly chains of electricity. The dragons life force flowing into a crystal cube that glows with that familiar pale light which we are looking into this very moment. There in the background is a rusty cage trapping the masses of.... Normal people?

Over the top mellow-dramatic? I don't care, I had fun writing!

Both publications will be greatly missed. :( Through all the years everyone has done a great polishing job on a great product!

Hey that is OK! I would prefer a Quality supplement.

I know what you mean Dave. My problem was that I ordered some back issues to get the full Greyhawk map and my issue #119 came with out a map. I wrote 3 times to try and get it solved. The first two I got responses from Jeremy saying that it would be taken care of. After it nevered showed over a period of about 5 weeks (the course of the first two Emails).So I wrote a third, (that one burned down fell over and then sank into the swamp). It definately indicated that I had not recieved it yet and that I was getting a little impatient... Nothing. I have thought about oredering a second issue #119 for the map, but rather I hope some one there is reading these posts and we will be heard and taken care of proper... Can I have my map yet or do I need to eat all of my vegetables first?

Actually the onset delay is 3 rounds. You could just change the onset delay to 1 round or to instant. One round would give you a little drama and instant would would put a damper on a party that is doing really well. Another option if you would like to up the ECL and the drama a little you can have the Lurking Strangler attack immediately with a one round onset delay for the trap. This will make for a tough encounter. The lurking Strangler could possibly hear the PCs approach and ready an action, as soon as the block falls it strikes with its sleep ray. At the top of the next round the gas trap goes off and the Lurking Strangler uses its Cause Fear ray causing PCs to flee back to area 9. I agree the onset delay on a "never miss" trap is kind of funny..."Hey, wait! We need to wait for the trap to get us."