bshugg's page

I know the pandemic caused disruptions. Has there been an announcement on how these will be obtained? I'm a completionist and don't like to have holes in my collection.

Thanks!

Hi all,
Huge mini collector nerd. I have about 2,000 extra figures from the prepainted D&D, Wizkids and Pathfinder lines that are just gathering dust. I figured I could trade them or sell them for stuff that I'm missing and help out the other Gamers out there. Send me a message if you are interested in seeing pictures or trade lists.

Thanks!

My party has finally reached farshore and my gaming books are in a bit of disarray. Was there a fold out map included with the magazine of farshore? I know that there is one of scuttlecove and Sasserine. Just wondering if I lost one along the way.

I'm currently running Savage Tide for my DnD group, but have been itching to try the Shackled City as well. I had an offer to run a second group once a month so I decided on it, but there's one problem: It's too long!

There is no way I will be able to run it and get anywhere near to completing it so I want to run a condensed version. I'm going to run 5 adventures from it and just fill in the group with back story on what happens between each episode.

So starting with Adventure 1, what 4 other adventures would you pick to run?

I normally run my campaign very tight on available races. PHB is just about it. The PC's in my campaigns over the past 5 years have gotten used to it and don't even ask to play anything "unusual". The Savage tide campaign has gotten me interested in doing something unusual. I was a bit concerned about PC deaths when the party was out in the jungles unsupported and came up with this twist:

The only races allowed are:

Olman (native)- Human with a -2 int +2 wis, preferred class cleric (they are very spiritual), with only access to wooden, bone, or stone equipment.

Arenea (preferred class Sorc)

Lizardman (preferred class Barbarian)

Phanaton (preferred class rogue)

Rakasta (preferred class ranger)

I expect that it will be an interesting change of pace for them for a while.

I just finished rereading Honor for the third time prepping for my group and was amazed by how much gold there was. A group with questionable ethics and good diplomacy could easily end up with 25,000 or so gold worth of treasure by the end. Thats not even including the magic items. That seems high for an adventure for 1st and 2nd level.

I know I can cut it back a bit easy enough, I was just suprised. Anyone else amazed by that?

On our groups private message board was this response from the party cleric as they just returned to Hap (my Forgotten realms mining town) to discover Ilithane's attack on the city. They had just returned from Hillsfar (my free city) where they didn't do so hot.

The entire post:

Perhaps the alternative is to kill Illithane and Oxnard and destroy Hap? At least that would be playing to our strengths.

In Lucy's short time with this band, we have:
Unleashed the Ebon Aspect, heralding the age of Worms and Darkness,
Converted an entire generation of lizardfolk into Kyuss spawn, and
Destroyed Hillsfar.

Go team!

I just got the third set of Fantastic locations and they look incredibly sexy. I've been itching to work them into my AoW games but as of yet haven't done so. Any one else find a good place to use one?

I figure I can turn some of the "boss" fight areas into the maps for a special occasion battle. So far we are in Sodden Hold and theres been no wide open areas beyond blackwall keep. Which we of course had already completed before the nice ruined keep maps came out. :(

When the new set of minis came out for DDM's I was pretty excited. Then I saw the Aspect of Hextor.... Man was I bummed I had already ran 3 faces of evil. Its a large 6 armed giant that works great as the avatar. Sure its got weapons but if you wanted you could clip off 3 of his hands and leave them as stumps (as the description says). I wouldn't be mutilating mine but if you wanted to be accurate I suppose.

Instead I had to use an Aspect of Bane and just say "pretend he has 6 arms" :(

So check him out if your still running 3 faces. Its a heck of a cool mini.

Prince of Redhand is a great adventure. It looks interesting and has some really cool events and characters. Theres just one problem:
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Who in their right mind isn't going to try to chop a certain white haired female into bits as soon as they meet her? She's female, pretty, mysterious, and has her own full page picture your supposed to show the PC's. That just screams big nasty evil person thats going to destroy the party somehow. Why would they listen to a word she says or agree to meet with her? Every pretty female in DnD is evil, we all know that! :)

The rest is great though. Kudos to Paizo and the writer.

My group is done with 3 Faces, and just getting ready to start blackwall. Even with me having the magazine out behind the screen, showing them pictures right from the magazine, etc, etc. They just now realized I'm using a Dungeon Magazine adventure.

They learned when one of them was reading Dragon Magazine and came across a worm food column. When he read the words whispering Cairn, and Faceless one he about fell over dead! He immediatly went to our private message boards and screamed that he was on to something. Much panic and hysteria soon followed. :)

I was pretty amused that they finally learned that they were involved in something larger than my little campaign story about vengence for their dead mentor. I'm going to have to read my Dragon mag's to see if any spoiler info was given away. If so I will gleefully change things for the worse for anyone who tries to read ahead. DM's got to represent and all....

Thanks Paizo! AoW campaign is a great springboard and is doing a wonderful job of revitalizing my game.

Im slightly frustrated with my group. Be careful there may be SPOILERS AHEAD
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So my group joined the AOW at 4th level as I was already running a campaign and incorperated the two. I skipped whispering cairn and planned on jumping them right into 3 Faces. That way I didn't have to heavily tweak every module for the rest of the setting. To make up for the information gap I included plot hooks that would give them all the information from Cairn as well as the important items. It also dovetailed nicely into a meeting with the free city champions, my version of allustan, filge and his twisted observatory and lead them right to the mines.

So what does the party do?

They make it to Hap (my version of diamond lake) hot in pursuit of a Cleric of Bane that is investigating the Ebon Triad (of which some members of the church of bane had left to join) They discover his journal that tells them:

a. he hired filge then fired him as he was crazy
b. he hired the freecity champions but they left after the whispering cairn and took off with the talisman of the sphere
c. He investigated strange green worms
d. He discovered the cultist were at the mines and set off for them (and never returned)

SO they go after filge and stop him, and won't even talk to him despite his attempts to talk before hand, and after they were whooping on him and he escaped for a bit and tried to surrender information for his freedom. 0 information gained. THey overlooked the green worm in his lair, despite heavy handed clues that this is the worm being discussed.

Alustan like person offered his services, and acted very helpful and interested in their goals. The party asks if he sells magic stuff, and when he says no, but offers to identify anything they find, they ignore the request and just decide to leave.

THey encounter the free city champions, and KNOW that they worked with the cleric of bane (they are looking for) and investigated the whispering cairn AND had the talisman of the sphere needed later. The extend of their conversation (paraphrased a bit):

party: Hey
freecity champions: Hey, and well met! what brings you guys out this way?
Party: Um looking for stuff
freecity champions: what kind of stuff, maybe we can help?
party: doubtful, see ya
freecity champions: Thats odd, your out in a remote area, you must be after SOMETHING?
party: um just looking for ruins and stuff.

They had the paladin cast detect evil, so knew these weren't enemies, and knew that they left the bad guys because they were disgusted with their evil ways. Yet they made up a story and left. So they again have 0 information (AGAIN!), and despite the journal clearly saying how the whispering cairn was looted by the clerics of bane, they are off looking for it.

How do you deal with such thick headed players? All of them are teenage or older (45 is the oldest) and the young players all attend a highschool for the gifted and talented. They just don't seem to understand how to get information from anything despite me trying to throw it at them at every turn.

On a side note, in filge's observatory is a 10x10 cell with what is described as a "unremarkable open empty chest". They of course spend 15 minutes of game time searching every knook of it taking 20's the whole time then ended up dismantling it looking for compartments. sigh......

[/rant] Thanks for letting me share. :(

I'm running a DnD game at a local convention in november and am playtesting it a bit. I had a curious question regarding what players people will pick. I will give you guys the info they will have, and I want to see what what PC's you would pick for your group. It will help me balance them a bit.

based on what they know and personal preference, what 5 PC's would you choose for a balanced party?

Here's the info they will have:

Escape from the Lost Island
The war has ended. Now you prepare for the long sea journey home. But when disaster strikes the sailing vessal, your lives are put in danger. Washed ashore in a hostile land with just your wits and friends to survive. Can you escape from the Lost Island? 3.5 conversion of a classic. Roleplaying emphesized, Characters provided

They also will be told that characters will have spells preassigned, and be given useful equipment and magical items. All characters are designed to be balanced and useful. In fact all of them could be considered invaluable to the group.

Here's the player choices and all the information they will have:

Amur Human paladin lvl 1, noble warrior from the sand people tribes, fights with an enchanted blade of his homeland. Was a leader among his unit.

Drake Dwarven Barbarian lvl 1, Last of his kind, hopes to die in glorious battle that legends will be written about. Incredably strong and known to rage in combat.

Tromble Human Cleric lvl 1, Joined the war to end suffering among his people. A healer at heart, but realizes that sometimes battle is the only way to end suffering. Prefers defense to offense.

Spout Human Rogue lvl 1, Dissappointed that the war ended before she could properly loot the fallen. Looks for opportunity at every encounter (to get rich!) Deadly with a bow.

Mykul Half-elven Bard lvl 2, The heart and morale booster of his unit. Quick witted and known for his diverse talents. recieved high merits in combat, despite his lack of training.

Piper Halfling Wizard lvl 1, Often belittled for his stature, but well liked by all. Recieved his wizard training at the Bonadil school known for its unusual methods.

Zilas Elven Sorceror lvl 1, Joined the war as a representative of his people. Even at his young age is a hardened battle mage.

Now which 5 PCs would you choose for your party? What if you could choose 6? Which one would you NOT want in your group?

I just read some more about Ravnica, and found it very intreaguing. If your not familiar its the new "world" that the next three magic the CCG is using as its theme. Here's some links before you read on:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/ravnica/home

click on the ravnica logo for some world info, and then the 4 guild logos for more info.

It looks very cool to me and I was wondering if anyone else noticed its RPG potential. Magic cards will give us 300 or so peices of art to use, as well as subplots and characters from the actual card stats and flavor text.

The idea of a world entirely made of 1 big city sounds cool, but the fact that parts of the city are ruined, or over grown, and that there are 10 guilds fighting for control just puts it over the top in coolness for me.

Hi all, Im running the AoW in Forgotten Realms, but anyone with a bit of talent is welcome to help. The party is consulting a Cleric of Bane for some advice and I need help making him a "cool" npc. Basically I have some text responses from him that I need help making sound more like a zealous cocky high priest of the god of Tyranny would say.

Heres what I need to be perked up, feel free to go nuts. He is a zealot after all:

Regarding why the party goes to Diamond lake for 3Faces of Evil:
The viper spawned god Torm destroyed Bane during the time of troubles, and his glorious return a score years later caused a rift in his church. Not all his old followers accept Bane in his current form. A heretic sect of the church of bane has been building a following in a town called Diamond Lake, South of the Moonsea. I have received visions from Bane about an Ebon Triad That will be a harbinger of darkness on the world. Bane will not share his world with anyone so has decreed that the Ebon Triad be destroyed. About a month back I sent one of my priests and a group of men at arms to Diamond lake to locate and put an end to the ebon Triad.

Regarding the Ebon Triad:
"The visions from Bane are not clear on the Ebon Triad. The name suggests the dark three, which are the fallen gods Myrkul, Bhaal, and Bane before his ascension."

Why should the party help a priest of Bane:
There’s no reason our causes can’t join for the common good. My visions have shown me that a dark time is coming to the realms. I have seen battlefields littered with the fallen armies of many nations. Both allies of mine and yours will be brought low if this darkness comes to pass. I don’t wish to expend my resources dealing with this threat to Bane’s might and you do not wish to see the death’s of many innocents.

How the party discovers where to go in 3 Faces of Evil:
I sent a group of my servants to investigate the cult, but they never reported back to me. They were to stay at the “Filthy Dog” tavern. My servant Turik Fellhand kept a journal that he was supposed to bring to me once his mission was completed. Locate him or his journal. It matters not to me.

I was reading through the AoW overload, and they suggest Waterdeep as the location for the Free City. Size wise its correct, but it seems like gladiator combat is a huge part of an upcoming adventure, something that Waterdeep is decidedly lacking in.

The only city that has gladiator combat that I can recall is Hillsfar, is that a better match for the Free City?

Didn't want to reveal it in the title, but a particular aspect of the AoW seems extremely nasty.

Spoiler Alert, turn back before its too late...

last chance...

Do the slow worm potions seem particularly wrong to you as well? My players find potions, and detect magic on them and then either use them or get them identified. A hiding worm would have a 0% chance of being detected by them, making for a dead character in a short amount of time. Also with out knowing where its coming from, they would have no chance of fighting it. The adventure doesn't mention anything unusual about the potions, does that seem fair? Is there a clue later on that lets them realize whats in them before its too late?

I have picked up the first 3 of the series and am really happy with what I have seen so far. Im incorperating it into my campaign, but am having a bit of a problem. I have 7-8 players (!) and the party level average is currently 4.

I was going to start with 3 faces, but the party took so long with their current adventure that they leveled passed the starting point. The first adventure looks like it can be easily skipped as long as the notes and relevant info is passed on to the party. They will be given a "diary" of a group of adventurers that completed the 1st adventure.

My problem is how to resolve the level issue for 3 faces and beyond? The suggest tweaks for higher level games is useful, but theres going to be problems when the party has access to 3rd level spells. Lightning bolts, fireballs and dispel magic can really put a damper on some of the scenarios. I fear the same in part 3 "blackwall keep"

Whats the best way to overcome this?