literati's page

It's been four years, and I wish I had news. Sadly, this group broke up when I finished grad school in May of 2007. The monkey ex-beholder, though, still tugs at my mind. I'm running a different group through this campaign path now, and they are up to City of Broken Idols, just past the docks and skinwalker massive assault.

I'm thinking that when they get to Scuttlecove, I will have to introduce the monkey. Somehow...I'm thinking the ex-beholder monkey found his way to the Cold Captain, and now serves with him.

I think I'll see how that fight goes before screeching, dagger wielding monkeys fall from the sky and start sneak attacking for 6d6 (or more) though.

While I won't be officially boycotting Wizards, this recent decision of their's will severely curtail my spending on 3.5 books. I haven't been entirely happy with the last 2 or 3 books I purchased, anyway...

They are making a mistake. I plan on letting everyone I game with know the depth of this mistake, and let them decide if a boycott of their product is a way to go. I have no plans on purchasing any of their products now, anyway - about the only thing that would change my mind would be if they started a massive World of Greyhawk push, with talented people at the helm.

I read my first Dragon issue in 1981, and ran my first Dungeon adventure in 1989. These magazines will be deeply missed by me, and hopefully this situation is a temporary one (but probably not...).

After 21 years of gaming, I finally decided to subscribe to Dungeon a few months back (my first issue was #144). I'd bought one or two in the distant past, but never really had the discretionary income to justify a subscription until this winter. I was amazed by the skill and talent that went into the issues, and knew I'd be a regular subscriber from then on.

So it goes.

I think Wizards is making a mistake. Perhaps not a huge mistake, but one that I think will affect them negatively. I have no desire to receive adventures strictly online - I'm one of those who likes receiving a magazine in the mail every month, going over it again and again, enjoying the artwork, so on. Online publishing is just not the same thing, and while I have purchased a few adventures online, I do not have a favorable opinion of them overall and have no plans to do so again (unless forced into a corner).

Bring on Pathfinder. As someone else has said, I'll go where the talent is.

I've been thinking about this, and have decided on something. The memories of the monkey's previous life as a beholder are going to come back in fragments, like a dream sequence. The monkey will slowly shift alignment to Neutral Evil from Neutral. At some point in the campaign - the monkey will betray the party.

"I used to be an all powerful creature that was feared! Now I'm a simian in a striped shirt! You will pay for what you've done!"

Or am I too evil a DM if I do that?

Man, if I were a player in your game I'd be tempted to drop my character and play that guy? Who could have a better background than a ex-beholder awakened monkey? And he wears pants? That is just priceless.

I forgot to mention - there were some low powered magic items floating around, rolled from the beholder's treasure and those four trog priests.

The monkey is in possession of Bracers of Armor +1 and a Wand of Shocking Grasp (21 charges). He can't use the wand just yet, but I think Monkey will max out his Use Magic Device when he starts gaining rogue levels.

It just makes sense.

I started running The Lightless Depths tonight for a party of five. It was going pretty well; the bard flubbed his perform check when summoning the Glutton, but then rolled tw0 20's when using diplomacy. All was going fairly well. They got past the weak sentry, and made their way to the Trog village. Freed the Olman who was feebleminded, and decided to high tail it out of there back to the ship for now, as they were unprepared to face the trog priests and couldn't cure the feeblemind. No problem.

Heading back, I rolled for a random encounter. They got one, so I rolled on the chart and a 02 came up, a beholder. I considered it, and decided to go ahead with it. They all failed their spot checks, and the beholder descended from a natural chimney in the cavern and caught them flat-footed.

But, they continued to roll well, and in that round, all that happened was one slowed sorceror. A little frustrating for me, but hey! Plenty of more rounds to go, I thought.

The druid won initiative for the new round. The player was whining and moaning about a beholder ("That's at least 3 CR's higher than us! We're gonna die! Moan moan, complain complain.") He decided to cast a Baleful Polymorph, just for the heck of it (I allow it in my campaigns, even though it's all kinds of broken, with the understanding that their enemies will make use of it as well...and often.) Heh, okay. The beholder's central eye was still closed from the previous round, so whatever.

I rolled a 1 for his fortitude save. I rolled a 2 for his will save. *Presto* One monkey with beholder HP. Huh. Well, the dice fell the way they fell. I had the monkey start to scurry off, and just get away. But the bard wanted a pet monkey, so he chased after it and cast Speak With Animals. Another 20 diplomacy check was rolled, and the monkey was suddenly very friendly and hopped up on his shoulder, curling its tail around the bard's neck.

But that's not the end.

The druid decides that casting an Awaken spell would be a hoot. The now monkey ex-beholder fails that save as well (I was not rolling well tonight), and now they have a monkey with a 12 int who speaks common, beholder HP and physical stats (and saves), and an affinity for two party members (the bard and the druid). The monkey demanded pants and a shirt, and asked to accompany them, if they wouldn't mind too much (after asking some questions as to how it got there and what was going on).

Shoot, I'm rolling with it. I've decided that the monkey is going to get some rogue levels eventually, maybe even ninja levels or something. It's garb is that of a cabin boy, as those were the only things on the ship that came close to fitting its little body.

I've been playing for over 20 years, and not once did it ever enter my mind that this sequence of events could ever possibly occur. That's why I love this game.

Intelligent ex-beholder monkey rogues dressed as sailors and speaking in common. What could be better?

So...maybe no evil pig farmers who sacrifice the innocents to "Du-Roc", for a Bar-Row enhancement?

...sorry, grew up on a pig farm, that was one of my first adventure ideas back in 1987...

Actually, my first three ideas aren't on the instant reject list, so that's encouraging. I have to admit, though, it does take a bit of creativity to think outside the "dungeon crawl" box. I don't think I'm quite there, yet, but I will be pouring over these forums for the next few weeks to catch up.

Thanks for the link - that was the noob place I was looking for.

A meeting! A meeting! Oh, Lords! Not a meeting! So much gets done when editors meet...(they bs back and forth for thirty minutes, while inhaling diet soft drinks, somebody finally says "maybe we should do something, huh?" - editor in chief. A random goth player shuffles the submissions, and weeps gently on the stack; where the tears land - a Dungeon writer is born).

Thanks for the advice, bookmarking now. I swear, I'm not that melodramatic in real life. My protag's name is R'qqet, and he wields duel tridents...

I guess I have a lot to live up to, considering my chosen nickname.

...great...Who would have thought that role-players were literate?

(you best turn off them sarcasm detectors, they gonna 'splode).

DD

edit - It's not "theif" anymore? ...dang it, don't hit me!

I might add - make sure the 2nd ed module is decent to begin with. I recently converted a 2nd ed module to 3.5 (spent a good deal of time with the conversion, too), only to find out that the module wasn't all that good to begin with. I don't want to say which module, but it was set in Ravenloft.

3.x and 2nd ed are different creatures, and the expectations from players are not quite the same. The module I tried to convert was very heavy handed, very leading, and since my entire group (except for me) was raised playing 3.x, they found it unsatisfying. 10 years ago, it wowed a group I ran it for. This group found it frustrating and annoying.

I loved 2nd ed - I plan on running a modded "Faction Wars" for this group soon, as I think it's open ended enough for them to enjoy it. But be careful, and consider the group. Even though I loved "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" 20 years ago, that doesn't mean the current RPGer will (although I think they might...).

DD

This seemed like the most appropriate place to pose this question, if not - move or delete the message.

I've decided to submit some adventure proposals, but have never done so in the past. I have submitted work to other places (other genres), but it was always on a hard copy by US mail. When submitting multiple adventure ideas, is it best to attach all the files on one email, or send out an individual email for each proposal?

My current experience with publishing is limited to literary journals, and the wave of technology (a la 1998) is just starting to reach them.

After a few years of trying my hand at literary short stories, I've decided to try my hand at a 20+ year hobby. I hope to succeed in both arenas, but am very much a noob when it comes to the RPG industry. I have ideas, and very much would like to see if those ideas have any merit...Jeez, I need to do *something* with these humanities/social science degrees I'm not using!

Thanks for a heads-up, or any advice an regular submitter/author can toss my way, I appreciate it.

Darin Dunphy