praetorian's page

I made some patches for the first challenge and would love to share them if I could figure out how to put jpgs on here

I have a gunslinger in my campaign who has been using his musket to cold cock people for d10 HP.

Re reading the rules for pistol whip I asked him if that should not cost a grit point each time He said only if he was going for the surprise attack thingie.
I countered that at best a musket would be an improvised weapon and would take a penalty to hit (Esp at d10 damage!!) He said as a gunslinger using it as a melee weapon is a skill, but I cannot find the rule stating that.

Am I missing something?

Gun slingers already have it hard paying so much for ammo and slow loading, but using the stock of your gun in the real world is a good way to split it quickly.

Searched the boards (Like 650+ entries for pistol whip) but could not find anything about using fire arm as melee without using a grit point. I have suggested a bayonet!
Thanks
Les

We were playing on a battle map so I turned the map to line up with the squares and placed the building atop the battle map aligned with the squares below. Using the map underneath we could approximate movement and placement etc. I sued a tape measure to measure missile and spell ranges.

One change I made was to add a pulley and chain to drag the blubber tot he second floor. The grates had holes in the center large enough for a person to slip through (Which the druid and her flaming hand DID after getting a critical card with "knock back 5 feet) the resulting splash of super heated whale oil, now ignited and sending splotches of napalm like fire over to the other two boiling vats made the final fight on the roof even more dangerous as the building was catching fire beneath them!

I also moved the ladder to the opposite end of the second floor so the PCs could not climb from ground floor to the roof without crossing the (inhabited by angry terrorists) 2d floor.
I also assumed the steam from the boiling blubber gave some concealment and decided on a 30% miss chance if over 10 feet away.

The PCs climbed up (the very slippery) chain at one point but failed the last roll and got stuck, thus creating a "pinata" situation for the two freedom fighters armed with clubs right by the chain.

The party managed to defeat the enemy and keep Gellick (Who was the wonder hostage) from dying, they slow walked away while the plant exploded behind them.

They had already ticked off the government while meeting with them to discuss sponsorship of their expedition (Two of the PCs are Mawangi natives and do NOT like the Apartheid-like ways of the colonial government. and were very vocal about it) When they wrote the letter to decline sponsorship, the Oracle doing it rolled a "1" for diplomacy. The PC they showed it to also rolled a "1" and therefore thought calling the government a bunch of hyena raping goat suckers was the height of decorum. So now the Baron wants their heads on pikes for destroying a valuable, long standing business. The pathfinders are trying to get them out of town as fast as possible while trying o soothe ruffled feathers.
For me, the building will become scenery for war machine....

When I read the write up for the battle at the whale processing plant my brain went NUTS thinking how I was going to represent it on the board.
First off, I am not sure WHAT the heck it is about drawing maps that have all the buildings at an angle to the grid. I swear all of Sandpoint was drawn that way. OK rant over.

I became fascinated with the cinematic concept of fighting in a place that was
A)Slippery with oil and blubber
B) Had good cover and fields of fire (With hundreds of seagulls providing miss chances)
c) Was extremely flammable

Since I have five players I knew I needed to up the encounter to keep them from breezing through. I added a 4th level Druid of Gozreh who had a hatred for the whale killing foreigners and a vulture animal companion

Her main focus was fire spells. Produce flame would allow her to pinpoint fire, and flaming sphere would roll around catching the blubber, waste and spilled oil on fire in wall patterns. And she would use her 2d level summon nature's ally to summon a small fire elemental. I had multiple fire markers ready including a couple of fire-walls to represent the path of the flaming sphere.
I knew I could not easily represent the three levels of the flensing house so I built one.
Since I cannot post pics here (Or cannot figure out how) I will direct you to my webshots page that has the images of the flensing house, boiler vats etc
http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/50236/2140627060101629488S425x425Q85.jpg

[IMG]http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/50236/2140627060101629488S425x425Q85.jpg[/IMG]

ghargh6969@comcast.net I love hero labs Thanks in advance!

So I am getting ready to run this and I must say the resources in this thread have been fantastic. My only comment so far is why does Jask look like a cool Rastafarian outlaw in his picture (Made me think of that Vin Deisel movie where the murderer gets stranded on the planet with the passengers from the ship) when in reality he is a middle aged, pasty faced weakling? I'm going to need a new picture to show the players!

So here is my payback tot he group. It is the picture I am going to use on the front of my notebook and on the message board I use to do between game chats. Reading the first book made me think of a certain reality show my wife loves...

go to smuggler's shiv survivors

I do custom mini painting and conversion. I have had some totally crazy requests for weapon swaps and such and most are doable with a bit of thought. Use a jewelers saw to cut the weapon off the hand flush. Drill a small hole and insert wire Clip the hilt off the weapon and drill a hole in that and the wire in weapon and hand will keep them sturdy enough for gaming]
The reaper weapons and accessories are provided in their whole form so they could be used for dioramas etc as well. You almost always have to cut the hilt of a sword, shorten the axe handle, and remove the grip on a pistol to make it work.

here are a few conversions I have done for customers

http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/572239672mzNCma

Good luck!

I added a concept for a bit of extra fun. Since these guys are the toad lickers and each has a toad companion, I thought it might be fun to expand why. Enjoy the extra craziness it can cause!

Toad Licking
The swamps near the little burg of Sandpoint have little to offer the casual visitor save bug bites and possible disease vectors. The flora and fauna there are on the whole unremarkable with one exception. These swamps are the singular home of a species of toad called the “Skull-back toad”. The black and red patterns on its back do resemble a humanoid skull. These toads continue growing until predation or disease or mishap ends their lives, thus some locals have reported seeing one large enough to swallow a sheep whole, and rumors abound of man eating ones deeper inside the bogs.
Their secret to survival is a substance they secrete from wart-like glands on their back. The effects of this toxin vary by the individual toad and how frightened or excited it is, and the biochemistry of the consumer. Vomiting, disorientation, penalization, and temporary blindness have been reported. The toxin seems to lose potency once removed from the toad’s back, but alchemist have tried raining them to harvest the toxin with little effect.
One of the local goblin-tribes discovered the odd properties of the toad. What first started with “I dare you to lick that” and laughing at the results soon elevated to keeping them around for entertainment. From there the goblins began to build up a tolerance for the toxin. Now they often lick them to attempt a religious trance (Where things glow or you can see snippets of the future, though usually just a few seconds into the future). Young goblins are forced to lick the toads at an early age, while the older ones squeal in delight as they puke, stagger, drool, and go stiff as a board.
The toads can be licked in combat (A standard action) and sometimes will give the imbiber a sudden boost of strength or even heal wounds and fatigue.
The effects of the poison worsen the more that is consumed. Thus the first “lick” of a day (Sleeping 8 hours purges the toxin from the body) is a DC 13 fortitude save. The DC increases by 2 with each successive lick.
For someone who has never been exposed to the Toads toxin, the DC begins at 17.
DC 13 fortitude save.
If successful roll a d6
1- Strength increase +4 for 5 rounds
2- Dexterity increase +4 for 5 rounds
3- Constitution increase +4 for 5 rounds
4- Heals d6 hit points
5- Can see all magic auras for 5 rounds
6- Cures d8+1 Hit Points and removes any conditions (Including blindness and deafness)

If failed roll a d6
1 Spend 1 round projectile vomiting then shaken for 3 rounds
2 Dazed for 3 rounds
3 Sickened for 3 rounds
4 Confused for 3 rounds
5 Blinded for 3 rounds
6 Paralyzed for d4 rounds (But you see the most amazing things. Roll a d20 and add your wisdom bonus If it is equal to or above 13 you gain a +3 insight bonus to any d20 rolls you make for the next d4 rounds.)
Toad Lickers capture fingerling toads fresh out of their tadpole stage and tame them. Hours a day are spent finding particularly juicy bugs, and later mice or birds for the larger ones. A particularly good toad may be fought over as spoils after a goblins death. Some aficionados amongst the tribe feel that a diet of certain types of insects brings on certain effects most often. Each diet is a closely guarded secret.

Just read through this and cannot wait to run it. I plan to run it once for kids aged 11-15 and again for my adult group aged "We all bought the original D&D boxed set"
One question came up with the Goblin Alchemist. He has a book with his formula. Are we to assume it is all pictures as he could not write anything without incurring the wrath of his tribe.

For all those wanting an all Goblin adventure, the difficult thing would be buying supplies and magic items since there are no high level goblin friendly merchants.

1979, I was a senior in High school. I had loved miniatures since I was in like 3rd grade and got hooked on Airfix HO scale army guys. The gaming store in Davenport Iowa was called "The Thinker's Emporium" and Iw ent there mainly to buy magic illusions as I was a performing magician who actually got PAID for shows ! I saw they had these metal miniatures from a company called Ral Partha. I snagged a few Lord of The Rings miniatures (Some Orcs and the hobbit set)
Over the next few weeks I bought and painted more (Using Testors enamels and a HUGE brush because that was all we had- I still have those minis now to remind me of how badly I painted back then)
As I was buying another 6 bucks worth (Did I mention how cheap minis were back then?) the owner said "Man you guys must really be into D&D!"
We looked puzzled and he explained the concept of the game to us and we bought it sight unseen. My friend was driving so I tore open the plastic and pulled out the first book. I flipped it open to the monster section and read aloud the description of “gelatinous cube”. We almost died laughing at the thought of being eaten by giant jello!
The dice were hideous and we could not for the life of us figure out the yellow d4 which had only ghosts of numbers imprinted on it, and whose edges were uneven. We rolled the d8 and divided by 2….
We were in ready to play though. A few weeks later I had recruited the few kids who were fantasy readers in my tiny Midwest high school to come and play. I was DM, Ted was Elric the Half Elven, well…an elf. There was Edina with Elbereth Gilthoniel the elf, and Bill with Zoltar the Wizard.
There they stood outside the first introductory module as I read the flavor text about how this dungeon had been built many years ago by a wizard and a fighter, and had been sealed up since they vanished and now they were ready to enter……
As the doors opened I rolled for a random encounter….Berserkers. As they defeated them the questions began. If this was sealed up, where did the berserkers come from? I had not actually read the module to the end, so I was flipping through trying to see.
Several random encounters later, with goblins, human bandits, and a few orcs the questions as to where they came from, how they ate, slept, got water, and even where the bathrooms were had me terribly confused as the DM. Then they found a stuck door. On the other side was a werewolf. As they bashed the door I imagined the werewolf waiting to pounce. When it opened I described the werewolf slavering etc and the elf asked “Is she friendly?”
I said “She is a werewolf!”
But the rules say you are supposed to roll to see how they react. Sure enough here was a chart. I rolled and got “Friendly”. So now the werewolf is begging them not to kill her, and I am scrambling for a reason…”because I am not a true werewolf, an evil sorcerer named Malthus turned me this way, only if he is slain can I return to my natural form, a beautiful elf maiden.”
So now the party had a werewolf named Lila Swiftbow with them. Soon they encountered ANOTHER friendly monster in Bort the wereboar who I figured had the same story. Now the party vows to find Malthus and make him pay! They are thinking this is in the module but I am making it up on the spot!
In the lower level (Where the wizard points out they should all be dead for lack of ventilation and how are those wall torches still burning by the way?) they found a magickal talking sword named Max (Or blue max since he glowed blue) I decided Max had been a peaceful cleric and had been transformed by Malthus into a sentient sword as the ultimate punishment. Max had an old Jewish man accent and screamed when he fought and begged everybody to quit fighting and try to talk things out. The party broke into gales of laughter as I screamed “OYVEY! Not to be shticking me in that filthy orc! Do you have any idea where he has been? Quit with the swinging me around, OW! this armor is hard! Don’t use me on that statue- are you M’shuggna??”
When the pre packaged module was done I decided to design my own dungeon with more clues as to Malthus whereabouts. Turns out he was an acolyte of the Cult of Cthulhu. I put in water sources, sleeping quarters, ventilation, dining rooms all the things the players had complained were missing in the other pre-fab dungeon crawl. Lila and Bort and Max became fast friends with the trio as they tracked Malthus through the Lord-of-the-Rings meets Elric meets Conan meets H.P. Lovecraft world.
We had all night sessions until the summer after graduation we all split different ways. Gaming was and is an important part of my life. Almost all my best friends I have met through gaming. I still have those first figures, the torn, cheeto and coke stained character sheets, and even a few of the hideously malformed dice to remind me of the exhilaration that came in that little flat box.
Les Seabolt. Westminster CO