mike smith 853's page

Nick,

I've run a number of your games at this point. I never preordered anything, but I would have bought everything Sinister put out. At least I don't think I did. It doesn't matter. I've never been upset or angered, I was, however, worried about you. That's the strange thing about gamers. At some point you begin to get attached to the creators and writers. I've never met Clarke Peterson, Bill Webb, or Greg Vaughan, but I've walked the dusty halls of Rappan Athuk, and looked out towards the city of Tsar. And I don't know James Jacobs, Richard Pett, you, or any of the other Paizo staff, but we've shared the village of Sandpoint, helped bring about fights with hillbilly Ogres and evil Queens against our beloved PC's together, and we all helped make a make believe world seem lived in together. Gamers have a strange attitude towards loyalty and togetherness. We're a fringe group and we have to stick together.

And for better or worse, the internet has changed us all. When I was a kid, Tolkien was a name on a book. Now Stan Sakai is my facebook friend. That's crazy. For the record: Usagi Yojimbo is the greatest story of a hardcore samurai rabbit known to man.

My point is that even though many of the people on this board might not ever meet you, we do have a bond. Each one of us understands each other in some geeky way.

Sorry if this is sappy. It's been one of those days.

It is good to see you back. Best of luck with everything and I hope to read your next adventure soon.

I try to let players use one type of mini (maybe painted plastic or metal) and then use paper minis for villains. I've been using pawns for animal companions or summoned monsters. That's been working pretty well recently.

If I were you and your friends, I'd return to the beginner box and do the adventure as written one more time. One thing to keep in mind is that the adventure is not a traditional adventure, but a rules tutorial. It's not trying to give you a strong motivation of why you are looking for Black Fang, instead it's trying to teach you how to play.

Also, even though I think it's great that you had access to the Core book, not using the beginner box premade characters on this adventure most likely is a bad idea. The Monk for example is a much harder class to play than the Fighter. And I'm not going to say that the premade characters are perfect, but they are solid characters and I love the rules sidebars on the character sheet. Where the rogue character comes with the rules for Flanking for example. If nothing else, have those rules right in front of you. Not only do they speed up play, but they remind you to do other things than just roll dice.

The next part goes into the stats of the premade characters and the goblins. It talks about how the premades should work against the goblins and gives away some DM information about the adventure.

Check out the part six paper minis, there are some very large minis that look great.

For the record, what impresses me the most about this product is that when the Beginners Box came out a thread was started saying how much they liked the Pawns in the box. And then they made more.

It can be difficult for a company to be connected enough with their customers that they can find out what people want and then create it for them. Will everyone be happy? No. Someone will want this and others won't want that. But as one of the people that asked for this product, I'm really glad you're making it. It's like it's for me.

I ordered the Fantasy Flight Plastic Stands and I can use them with the Beginner Box pawns with no problem. Honestly they work a bit better because they'e just a tad bigger and they are easier to get on and off. But not so much that they will fall off.

And you only need as many stands as the maximum number of creatures in one area. So for example in the beginner box adventure, you only need five-six stands to run the game.

Hmm, an art book, a buff deck, and this. Paizo, you're so good to me and so bad to my wallet. But I forgive you.

I was thinking about the Gorilla Kings contest. I wanted to know what would happen if you take the pregenerated characters and have them attempt these tasks. I will admit that the characters would be higher level by the time they face the king, but still.

I had a bunch of stuff to set her up.

First I made a huge deal over the grave robbery and even a mild conspiracy over the death of her and her father. I had the PC's in charge of the investigation and so they we're already wondering about how that connected.

I took someone else's idea here on the forums and made one of the NPC artisans sculpt an image of an angel using Naulia as the inspiration. That way they knew what she looked like.

Next I added a scrying mirror to the Cathedral of Wrath, where the PC's fight the imp. I had Naulia in a mask appear and speak to them for a bit. I made sure they knew it was a woman.

And finally I used the awesome Tsuko notes on the community forum page, where someone had drawn Naulia out.

So by the time they actually faced her, they knew to hate her.

Frankly the one that kept coming back was Tsuko. They didn't kill him so I had him escape jail and had a lot of fun attacking and hiding or escaping the PC's in Thistletop.

My Rise of the Runelords campaign thus far.

I’ve got seven players, but thus far only six have attended sessions. As such I wanted to make certain that I had a challenge for each of them.

First off I altered character creation a tad bit. I asked people to first choose a background that would tie them in more to the story. This is what I gave the players before they made characters.

Character Origins

Character 1: This character is attached to a newly constructed temple in the city of Sandpoint. This character can be a cleric or paladin of one of six gods in the temple or a druid, or you could be a worker, any character that has taken Craft: Stone-masonry. You have only been in the city for less than a year, so there are a lot of mysteries that you are still uncertain of, including the exact reason for the destruction of the last temple. This character can be any class, but works best as any of the Divine classes.

The Temple has shrines and head clerics (no higher than 4th Level NPC's) for these gods: Desna, CG Goddess of Dreams, Stars, Travel, and Luck. This Goddess is extremely important to the native Varisians. Abadar LN God of Cities, Wealth, Merchants, and Law. Sarenrae NG Goddess of the Sun, Redemption, Honesty, and Healing. Shelyn NG Goddess of Beauty, Art, Love, and Music. Gozreh N Deity of Nature, Weather, and the Sea. Erastil LG God of Farming, Hunting, Trade, and Family.

Character 2: This character is a scholar. He must have Knowledge History. This character is from a larger city called Magnimar, second largest city in Varisia. This character comes from a very rich and politically powerful family. The expectation of the family was that their son/daughter would become an aristocrat and merchant, instead this character became fascinated with the monuments of the city and now seeks out ancient runes. The character has come to the town of Sandpoint both to explore the Old Light, a broken light house that was built in the time of the empires of old. This character should be a Bard, Monk, Cleric, or Wizard.

Character 3: This character is a traveler. This character comes from the very small town of Turtleback Ferry, located far from Sandpoint in the ogre and giant infested Hook Mountain Range. The character is a failed member a group of rangers and hunters known as the Black Arrows. The character spent their youth in Fort Rannick, the castle that houses the Black Arrows. For reason that we will have to figure out, the character is no longer connected to the Arrows and is now a traveler, perhaps a mercenary for hire, working as a caravan guard that has recently come to the town of Sandpoint, or something to that effect. This character needs to be willing to help others in need. This character works best as a Ranger or Fighter, but could also be a Rogue, Barbarian, or even a Sorcerer.

Character 4: This character has the most specific origin. A native Varisian human born into a member of a criminal organization known as the Sczarni, a mafia style crime family all over Varisia. This particular branch of the Sczarni were located in the city of Riddleport. This character's mother was the leader of her gang, and his/her father was one of her many lovers, the exact father is unknown. This character was raised within the organization and so has some amount of understanding of the criminal world. Five years ago something happened leaving most of the gang dead, the character scarred and missing one eye, and with the knowledge of who caused the destruction of his gang: his/her mother. Riddleport and most Sczani gangs do not treat the character very well, the stigma of what the mother has done follows him/her around where ever the character goes. The only exception is his cousin Jubrayl, who runs a gang in the small town of Sandpoint.

Character 5: This character has grown up in Sandpoint their whole life. Family is most likely made up of fishermen or farmers. You would know most of the semi secrets of the town, but not all of them. You still have memories/nightmares about Chopper, the serial killer that haunted the town in your youth. Now you crave adventure and to do something important with your life. You have considered joining the town militia, but you haven't done so yet. Any Class is fine with this origin.

Character 6: Something interesting that ends with you going to Sandpoint, if for no other reason than a festival.

I posted the group in the rooster thread, but here they are again:

Option 1: Kelvin Mason, Human Cleric of Nomus (God created by player) Nomus is an ancient god from Varisian past. A God of Strength and Craft. His designs will appear all through out the game in ancient Thassilon ruins. Kelvin was born in the town of Ravenmoor. His god exists and travels on the Material plane and Kelvin spent years as his apprentice. I plan to use flashbacks of this time with him to show areas of Varisa that are difficult to show off. Definitely I want to have at least two moments at Rimeskull to better set up Runeforge later on. A riddle with no way for a player to solve always seemed lame to me, by showing the location a few times he might be able to get the riddle without rolling a knowledge check. That’s my hope at least.

Option 2: Bumpus Windsong, Halfling Bard. Pretty much exactly what the option stated. His father, Waylan Windsong is a rich merchant and member of the Council of Ushers in Magnimar. Waylan will become more important in the second book. I haven’t decided what I’ll do quite yet. At least a kidnapping if not more.

Option 3: Fletcher Greene, Human Ranger. This player’s rolls were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Two 13’s and the rest were 17 and 18’s. Amazing. Sadly his poor d20 rolls have shown that high stats aren’t always enough to be effective at level 1. His background is really neat and I’m really looking forward to how it will play out. The idea he had was that he committed some crime (perhaps he did it or maybe framed) and now he’s on the run. He’s left the details up to me. I’ll have to use a lot of flashbacks to make this work. Right now I’m thinking that he discovers part of the truth of the Paradise. Maybe he discovers that the owner is evil and tries to kill her. Not sure but something like this. I definitely want to have a trial. I’m thinking it will happen in Turtleback Ferry and that’s what brings them into Book 3.

Option 4: Mannis Malocci, Human Fighter. This character is based on a NPC in Book 6. I want the Champion of Shalast to have a much bigger part. Some of my ideas include a trip after Book 2 to Kaga Maer to track down rumors of the swords of sin. He’ll find out in Magnimar that it was there that his mother found her golden sword. Later on in my major change to Book 4 (the weak link in the story for me) she will be a leader in the Army of Jorgenfist.

Option 5: Pad Pelton, Human Rogue. Young farm boy turned adventurer. He really wanted to be a victim of Chopper, someone who was supposed to get killed but somehow survived. We’ve already had one creepy flashback moment. His story is going to hopefully really add to all the horror aspects to the campaign. In my third session I had a ghost story involving his dead brother and a trickster spirit that was feeding off all the negative energy.

Option 6: Alister Wise, Human Sorcerer. A spy and bodyguard hired by Waylan Windsong to watch over his son. Don’t know much more about this character. The player and I have to get together and talk more.

The game thus far:

First major change was that I added some games and festival moments before the attack. We spent most of the first game just role playing, which was a lot of fun. One of the best roll playing sections was an arena style cage match between Pad and his two NPC best friends and three NPC ‘bad guys’ named the Bugun Brothers. I had each of the players play an NPC. All six going at it with crappy warrior stats. No tactics just fighting. Very silly and a lot of fun. It was a really effective first fight. One of my players is playing d20 for the first time so this game had an aspect of training to it.

During the festival I introduced Aldren Foxglove, the young boy Aeron and his dog Petal, and even a moment with Orik. Admittedly Orik was unnamed. A giant tower shield in the shape of a face is pretty noticeable.

One big change I made to the game is that I had an NPC cleric named Sister Lynn that has a small shrine dedicated to Father Tobyn and his daughter. In my mind she was in love with him. During the fight with the goblins the human villains (Orik, Naulia, and Lyrie) travel to Sister Lynn’s and kill her to gain the artifacts of Tobyn. As fate would have it the only person to both make his perception roll and be close enough to hear the disturbance in the temple’s residence house was Mannis, who had seen Orik earlier. The two almost killed each other in a small hallway before they decided that neither of them would gain anything from each other’s death. Great little moment.

Due to the high numbers and power levels of the characters I had to increase the numbers of goblins significantly. They still destroyed them fairly easily. I increase the number of normal goblins by two and added a couple of better than normal goblins, including a smart Goblin Fighter/Rogue, consistently annoyed by his stupid cousins. As it turned out the rest of the goblins got killed off so fast he fled the battle. The players thought he added a lot to the fight. Highlights of the fight included the bard summoning a pony on top of the goblin warchanter. The player (the one that has never played dnd before) had no clue as to the goblin’s insane fear of horses and I had them all panic and lose an action. I admit that did make the fight much easier, but I think it was worth it. I tried to add Bruthazmus in a significant way by placing him and a goblin archer on a rooftop during Die Dog Die, but the party killed off all the goblins and goblin dogs so quickly I had him take the better part of valor. (I added two more dogs and an extra warchanter to the fight). Now he’s pissed and wants revenge.

The next two games focused on the town and some character development. I did these games because I wasn’t going to have a full party for them and people still wanted to get together.

Session 2
Mannis gets hired by Jubrayl to get rid of some thugs from Magnimar that are using the chaos after the attack to muscle in on his territory. The group is known as the Pale Dogs, and for those who know Ptolus they are based on Toridan Cran’s low level gang in the mini adventures in the back of the book. My Fighter, Ranger, Cleric, and Bard destroyed the gang with ease. I need to really pull out the nasty on these PCs, they’re really difficult to harm. But even still I almost killed the Fighter twice.

I also included the first of many mysteries. I had the party find out that two graves had been disturbed in the attack, Father Toybn’s and his adopted daughter’s. I also let them know that Goblins had been seen coming out of wagons placed around town. I put sand and different types of minerals such as tin and cobalt in the wagons as well.

I also started to have the party hear rumors of an army of monsters in the Storval Plateau. As the game continues I really want to play up Jorgenfist and their leader known as the Rune Master. My players already know the name of the adventure, I figure why not use some subterfuge and misdirection.

Session 3
Only had the rogue and the ranger for this one. I started the game with a flashback of the Ranger, Fletcher Greene’s life. I’m going to do my best to flashback on each game giving more details on past events. I figure there is so much concern in this game on the past, it only makes sense. I had Fletcher and his best friend, Elon on the shore of the Claybottom Lake looking over at Paradise. Elon convinces Fletcher to enter the boat and to help him find evidence of wrong doing. The two move towards the boat and we flash to the present. I focused the main plot of the night on the rogue, a local boy who’s sister has been unwell for a while now. He notices that his bed ridden sister has dirty feet and asks her if she’s been outside to which she says no. He spends the next day training with the ranger, learning skills on how to fight. During the first session he purposely played the character like a commoner, very few combat skills and knowledge. The two continue to look into the mystery of how the goblins got into town and I make sure they know that Sheriff Hemlock has sent out for assistance from Magnimar.

The next day the rogue Pad discovers mud on his sister’s feet and so he decides to watch her on the next night. While he’s waiting he returns to town and I had the two players do the Monster in the Closet. Very effective and gross. They didn’t kill this goblin and so they took him to the Turandarok Academy. I really played up the mad scientist role for Isoari. During the course of this game we jumped around in time, getting to a week after the Festival by this point in the story. So the night that Pad wants to watch his sister’s activities the Magnimar forces come to town. But it’s not what the Sheriff was thinking of, the reinforcements are thirty Order of the Nail Hellknights. I know that their presence in Magnimar is supposed to be small, but I wanted them in the story. At any rate that night Pad’s sister is possessed by some strange force to travel back to Sandpoint (as a farmer I had Pad house two miles from town). Pad tries to stop her but can’t and figures that since she’s following main road maybe he can get to town first and get aid. The Hellknight at the gate will not let him pass. Now Pad has to sneak into town and get past Hellknight patrols to get aid. By the time that he and Fletcher get back to the main gate, Pad’s sister has already killed a guard and knocked another unconscious. The ranger is able to find her tracks and they follow her to Chopper’s Isle.

The two of them enter a spooky underground lair where I have Pad revisit the location from his flashback, showing him a few glimpses of what he went through in the past. Since the player doesn’t know everything that happened to him this scene was foreshadowing future flashbacks, which is very strange and I love it. I decided that Chopper had at least eight other victims that were never found, including Pad’s little brother. Pad and Fletcher discover a secret passage that leads to an ancient cavern. Lot of collapsed sections of buildings and an old nearly broken runewell. Lots of undead fights and a variant version on the Attic Whisper with Pad’s brothers voice. Very creepy, very fun. I ended it with the runewell waking up and having the two see a strange communication between a black skinned creature (Erylium) and a figure in a fox mask (Nualia in a priest’s mask). The two were speaking Abyssal, a language that neither player can understand. I’m really trying to play up the communication aspect of the runewell. Also I feel that it introduces two villains early without harming the plot or the characters.

That it for now, I’ll post up more as well go.

Here are some Ideas for the future:
-the Boar Hunt. Highly extended. Bruthazmus and a group of Goblin Rangers stick outside the town waiting to find the PC’s. They follow them to Tickwood and ambush them. I’m going to try my best to play up the fear factor of the bugbear.

-The Jorgenfist Army. I want to combine Part 4 with the Red Hand of Doom. I think the Red Hand is the best dnd war story I’ve ever read and I really think that Jorgenfist needs to leave the fortress. My idea is that the army is here to pave the way for the new regime. They will concur Varisa for their lord and master. That just makes more sense to me than just sitting around waiting to be killed.

-a few others not worth posting right now.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Thanks.