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I have a slightly different trouble with the Gyrrona cultists, mainly being that I have a PC who has decided she is one :)

Sounds like quite the potential for fun there. If I were running the game I would alter the event a little to make the cultists more of a problem. That way, no matter how the PCs resolve the event the spotlight will wind up back on your cultist and may have to seriously reconsider where their allegiances lie.

Or you could have her become contacted by the cult leader and join in and get caught red handed.

I'd say that if the PCs try to bring her in as an official, have a trial where she is proven innocent first or give the kingdom unrest because the populous is upset that known evil baby-snatchers are now in the government.

Edit: For the building I would have him make profession checks to see how well the tavern is running, and he can take a percentage of that. If he has no ranks in profession(inn keeep/whatever you think would fit) he should hire someone(s).

I like the idea about the unrest for the monster. I might have it go away after a while once the PC's get the kingdom's loyalty high enough. Eventually enough people would accept it if he saved them enough, well maybe not, but it makes sense that they might come around.

That is a good idea with the profession checks. I think I'll do that. I had completely forgotten about that as a possibility.

As for the encounter, they had simply seen what they were up against earlier, and came very prepared. Two PCs died, and all the rest were nearly dead when it was all done, but they pulled it off. I'll also admit I fudged the monsters' strategy to give them an edge. I realize it was a mistake now, but I didn't want the TPK they so eagerly sought.

So I'm running this currently and the players are doing pretty well with it. As they get more comfortable with the kingdom rules they are wanting to stretch them a little here and there. Here are some of the questions I'm having to deal with.

First, one player wants to have a background with the Scarzni and build a tavern in the kingdom to serve as his front. He and I agree that the Scarzni will want to take a cut of all proceeds there, but what I'm not sure of is how I should do this mechanically. I'm torn between handwaving a reasonable percentage of profit from the tavern, and having the PC make some kind of check to hide the bad accounting. I'm also not sure if this isn't a good place for faction points to go too. What suggestions do you guys have?

Second, my players went to Candlemere

Third, one of my players was turned reincarnated into a Troglodyte. I'm thinking about giving one Unrest automatically and then have them do a Diplomacy check during their event phase to keep it from continuing to generate for keeping a "Monster" in nobility.

Basically, what are your thoughts on those things, and what neat things have popped up in your kingdoms?

So when I ran this encounter I was a little overwhelmed by all of the stat blocks. I made sure to take the time to make some notes about all of the unique NPCs and how to run them, and then let the players go.

Here's the synopsis. In an earlier random encounter with the bandits they were exposed to the pass phrase, and managed to learn it then. So they decided to rebuild one of the catapults at Oleg's, and lay siege to the fort while another group would sneak in the day before and try to disarm some of the guards and open the gates.

Now I expected a complete disaster when they split up, but that wasn't the case. The two that snuck in delivered the alcohol, had role-playing encounters with the bandits and spent their time seducing, gambling, and faking getting drunk with them. Around dawn they opened the gate to let the rest of the group in.

Meanwhile the other group had two and some horses dealing with the catapult and another who was a cavalier preparing to charge. Well the two on the catapult didn't follow the path and were attacked by zombies before dawn. One PC died, the other only barely lived but had to run around in the dark.

By the time that had all happened, the Cavalier had charged right in mowing a bandit down, and everyone was so confused and the two disguised players rolled well on their bluffs to maintain their disguise as the bigger NPCs went into action attacking and releasing the Owlbear.

The Owlbear killed more of the bandits than anyone else because the cavalier went straight to the back room where he fought Aikros and then the Bandit Lord alone. The other PCs who were still disguised quietly made their way out, and Auchs who wasn't known for his smarts tried to jump down on one of the PCs, missed their check and became a wrestling partner for the Owlbear before it turned on the other bandits.

Basically, my advice is just know that there is potential for some serious crazy to happen.

Oh, they also knew about the guy downstairs, but just boarded his hole up. Now they keep him as a prisoner in their kingdom and throw prisoners down to him and see who lives. They also kept a patch of zombie grass. Why? I suppose for the zombie apocalypse kingdom event.

I was running a game where the characters were fighting a creature who was more or less insane. One of the players tagged it with Alchemist's Fire and the creature focused on him instead.

So the creature ran up and grappled him and killed the player by burning to death, and collapsing on the player burning him too. The creature was 2 size categories larger than the creature.

That scenario has gotten me thinking. It was no stretch at all to say that all of his scrolls and normal possessions had more or less burnt up, but if he had more flasks of things, potions, etc, wouldn't they all break/shatter/pop upon the creature's collapse on him, or being set on fire?

Also, a lot of players I play with wear the Adventurer's Sash to keep their potions and Alchemist's fires handy. A smart, malicious NPC (In my mind) could make a touch attack on the sash to burst the alchemist fire on the PC and suffer the splash himself. I'd melee would be like making a non-lethal attack and suffer the -4, but only hit touch AC since you're actually only aiming for an exposed "Bomb". Ranged, I'm not sure what penalty they'd suffer to do the same.

So here's the question, what on earth do the rules say, and how would you all rule a situation where characters were purposefully smashed/wrestled into the ground or have their exposed flasks broken?

Seems to me that grappling could be very dangerous/interesting.

Could someone post a link to this statblock tool? Does it actually make macros for the monster's attacks, saves, etc?

Because for me, doing this takes a lot of time. The previous poster is right, importing the maps is pretty easy.

When I think about how getting a finished campaign file would really help me, it's mostly the time it takes me tracking down monster art/making token macros that I think about.

Also, did someone say that there are icons/images for all the monsters in the bestiary available somewhere? That would also be super useful.

Thanks,
Ken

Ken,

Go to the MapTools forum and search for Pathfinder. You'll find a framework that has a bunch of macro buttons that will do nearly everything for you including attacks. You'll need others for magic use (I don't use them). The statblock importer is compatible with that and I think it's referenced somewhere else in that same thread.

Sorry I don't have links to give you. I'm lazy.

I use MapTools pretty heavily for my PF stuff. I love it. For the main map to explore there should be a tool (I forget the name) that will pull out images from layers in PDFs which will get you blank maps without words. You can use those as base maps, cut out the words and locations. Make them tokens and put them in the hidden layer.

That shouldn't take much more than an hour and then you have the entire map ready.

Other location maps have already been discussed, but thats simple.

One of the biggest time savors I found is for making monsters there is a great MapTool macro (Again, I don't know where in the MapTools site) for importing monsters via statblock. It's not perfect but it gets 80% of the monster done in one big copy/paste action. You still have to add it's combat stats manually, but everything else gets done.

I use that stat block thing to copy text out of adventure paths, bestiary, prd, etc. And then I have the monster named, xp filled in, etc super easy. When I copy and paste out of columns like in adventure paths I just paste into a text file, trim out the crap I don't need and then I have the stat block ready again.

I like the overall plot and setting. I think it stands to give a really good experience for players to be somewhere this exotic.

It seems to me though, that the assassins don't really feel like assassinating much. If they have infiltrated so highly into the palace then they probably know that there is a lot of outside investigation. That to me, would escalate the assassination. Also, there are an awful lot of warnings the PCs can get from the assassins without much else. I would rather see a serious attempt on their lives than just arrows, notes, and such.

The last thing is a personal gripe of mine. I wish there were less cult/temple encounters. They are so heavily done, and while I realize that it makes the most sense because cults do tend to congregate at temples, I would like for it to change up a little.

For example, I would have really liked that this temple be in use for many people and the cult happens to run it. The PCs enter and have to figure out what to do in a temple that is full of innocent people. I would also like to see a more puzzle based challenge to something like this or the clues.

Despite my nit-picking, this is a really solid submission. Good job.

Without sounding really rude, I was really pumped about this until the adventure started. Pirate battles, a city rising from the sea, odd time effects. That all had me glued.

Unfortunately, after that it felt like a standard dungeon crawl. Don't get me wrong, you present and hint at a really interesting place with many areas not following the rules of time.

In the end though, they are in a city to loot it, but somehow get sidetracked to killing the Oguuth and erasing timestorms instead. I think I would have much rather seen this work like stepping into memories or echos of souls where they experience what happened, and all of that like the haunts in Rise of the Runelords. I think that would have created a better vessel to reveal the past and create Oguuth as a villain instead.

I do like the choaking cloak. It is about time there were some items that were cursed.

I'm not an expert in all of the things that are already out there, but I can say that I've never read or played a game like what was presented here and that, to me, is fantastic.

I think the choice of environment makes for a really unique experience that very few adventures are brave enough to present. While it may be true that mid level adventurers aren't going to be as bothered by environment than your lower leveled group, I would put money down that at least half of them would be in dire straights right from the start. I've never seen players or GMs pit the players against nature like this adventure threatens to do. I think that very distinction will make for a more intense experience.

The plantation to me steals the spotlight of the show. The miserable undead aristocrat sets up such a powerful figure in the game that will make the players remember him and the encounter with him for a long time. Sure, most players will probably burn his fields, kill him, and set his house on fire. That is completely expected, mundane, and would be quickly forgotten. However, fighting your urges to kill everything you see, and actually engaging him would set up a memorable experience. I can very well imagine the whole scene in its decadence and being put in a tense moment where the tension could be cut with your steak knife.

I saw there were some concerns with the poison meals and whatnot. That is great to me too. To me, the aristocrat is miserable with his eternal life, and to suddenly have mortal guests arrive would surely stir some emotion in that bag of bones. I can very well imagine his jealousy at their mortality and freedom, and find some amusement at putting them in harms way at the meal.

Anyway, I think those are the best points of this adventure, and while the Ogre Mage is not a super memorable villain, who says he needs to be? You've got a much more powerful character to make a memorable experience with in the plantation.

Well, everyone has had fantastic responses to a thread I thought would disappear in the masses quite quickly.

So some people have asked specifics about allowed books, game, etc. We are playing Rise of the Runelords right now using Pathfinder rules. This was meant to be a warm up for everyone as it has been years since they have played. I took up the DM mantle because I enjoy it, and I have not stopped playing in the years that they have.

I was told to only allow the core Pathfinder materials for the game, but I allowed nearly all 3.5 sources to be included. I immediately disallowed Exalted Deeds and Psionics, and quickly Unearthed Arcana.

I got a fair amount of whining for knocking out Unearthed Arcana, but it was a book of house rules, and I didn't like where everyone's characters were going with it in play.

That leaves a huge amount of material for the players to use (and abuse).

Someone brought up an interesting point of letting him DM. He was my first DM and does a surprisingly good job at it. His weakness as a DM isn't that he makes things up, but that he can't seem to make it past a 3rd session in a campaign. The other point about him DMing is that he is entitled at that point to fudge rules to make a more interesting game. I think there is also an assumption that I, or someone else, would give him a taste of his own medicine. While I've considered that, I don't see any positive upshot. He may see how it is from a different perspective, but it would mean being a jerk, which only strains things.

Anyway, lets move off my specific situation and open it up to yours. What rules or techniques have you all used to bring groups in balance, curb cheating, and make better players? Everyone has rules for dice, what are they? What about modifications to other things to give positive reward or discipline?

I'll offer something. I require that my players write a, "Motivation,"statement. This is a 1 or 2 sentence thing that boils who there character is and is the defining force behind them. I ask that players give me that instead of alignment because I'd rather they think more about their character than that. It helps me track metagaming as well, and if someone is going to pilot someone else they have a good foundation to play their characters off of. It has been very easy to see someone's Motivation statement and translate that to an alignment. It has also been very easy to track which players are struggling with character interactions.

I know this is some pretty well travelled territory in most regards, but I think we could all benefit from having a place we can all look (If not in a book that those wonderful people at Paizo publish) to see how these scenarios have been handled in the past.

I'd love to see this turn into a repository of successful positive techniques that help DMs and players enhance their games while weeding out so many of the things that can ruin games and friendships.

A note about powergaming. I think that some people will consider this cheating and others won't, so for those of you who do, simply look at this as unbalancing the game.

I'll begin with my scenario, what I've done, and what I'm considering next. I have a player who builds excellent characters. They have depth, goals, personalities, and even when the temptation is there, doesn't metagame. He does, however, build overpowered characters. His characters always outshine everyone else's in combat. My way of handling that is to make small subtle consequences that are a result. For instance, he casts a lot of fire and explosive spells in a house, it collapses. He melts the bad guy and so does the treasure. He kills a PC he is brought to trial.

Now, that isn't my problem. My problem is that he feels it is justified, if not encouraged, to change the rules to suit his needs. This includes making new spells, feats, etc. He does this without my knowledge or consent most of the time.

To his credit, he does try to be as fair as he can with these liberties, but I have found issues with all of his creations to date, and I have only found out about them after he has used them, and not before.

I handled this by pulling him aside and saying that, now that his character is in an immediate danger of dying, that we need to talk about his new character. I told him that I realize that he gets a tremendous joy from finding weird and powerful combinations in the rules, and what while that does unbalance the game, he is an exceptional role-player, and I think that is fantastic. I also told him that I cannot allow him to take any more liberties with the material that is written. That it was cheating to do so, no matter how small and fair he feels his adjustments are. I ended it with saying that while I may not allow whatever it is he is looking at, that he has to tell me, because it is my job as DM to make those calls, and not his.

His response was that every book makes it very clear that the rules are only guides and should be changed to fit what is fun. He doesn't feel this is cheating, and I would love to find a printed definition of what he was doing to say that he is cheating, but I have never seen anyone describe this as a problem.

My next step is, while I would love to reach a perfect understanding with him on this, to just tell him that I am adamant about this, and I will not allow it.

That is my scenario, and I would be very interested to hear all of your opinions on this and other instances of cheating and how you think it is best to solve them.

As much as I would like to just send out the work I've done, it is pretty clearly a violation for me to do so. I've contacted Paizo to see what they'll be happy with me doing. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime, there is a great Pathfinder macro library available for Maptools. It by itself is worth it's weight in gold.

Okay, before everyone lynches me for saying that I think alignment is one of the weakest areas of the Pathfinder RPG, please allow me to explain.

Alignment, should be, a foundation for a character to base their actions out of, and a DM to pass judgement on those actions. A character that is Lawful Good that steals candy from a baby should be an immediate red flag to both DM and player. However, alignment is only addressed in a very quick and topical manner in the rules which leaves huge sweeping interpretations on what all of the various alignments really mean when it translates into player actions.

It could be that your group doesn't really dwell on alignment and the ramifications of it, but I think that it is a crucial tool for players to build interesting characters.

So, the rules are combat heavy in Pathfinder. That is intentional and I don't disagree with that choice. However, I would like to bounce two ideas for managing alignment off the minds of everyone.

First is something we'll call the alignment slider. Essentially all it is is a cross that has the steps for alignment, the vertical axis could be Good/Neutral/Evil, and the second is Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic. Players would put chips on the two axes for their character and slide them appropriately as the game progressed. Now, the crux of all of this and the entire thing is what defines Good/Evil Lawful/Chaotic in terms of actions. Well, that should be a group decision. I think that the DM needs to complete a list of actions for type of alignment. For instance, a list of actions that are unmistakably Good and cannot be confused with Neutral or Evil. That list should be worked on with the players so they understand the basis for the system.

Now, the reason I say that there should be sliders is so that players can better see what is happening with their players. Being able to touch something makes it a lot more real and significant than just writing it down. The slider and the chips will bring a tremendous amount of focus to a player and their actions as it relates to alignment.

Second, is a system I am currently using and I basically stole the idea from another system and tweaked it. I don't let players write down alignment at all. Instead I have them write a simple sentence or two that is their character's core concept/motivation. Those two sentences serve as the purest essence for who the character is and what they will always tend to do. A DM can then secretly translate that into alignment. Inevitably some people's motivation will not easily translate into a single alignment, but that will probably still be fine.

What I found with this system is that when the chips are down for the players, and the temptation to metagame their sorry butts out of a tight spot, I can read that statement to them, and they wind up playing to their characters.

I allow them to change their motivation after any serious or traumatic event occurs after a session to reflect any changes that their character might have undergone. For example, I had a cleric that as a player, doesn't grasp the concept of good and evil, but has aligned themselves with a Good god. Her first motivation statement was, "Set everything on fire and heal it!" So I worked with her so that she understood that if that was who she was, she would be evil and her god would forsake her very quickly. She then picked one that was much more appropriate and it focused around protecting the hurt and healing their wounds. Now, she violated that twice. First she tortured someone, and brought them back to life to torture them again. Second, she watched someone murder an innocent child. She lost her god's favor after that, but she understood why because she could look at her motivation as her character and immediately see how she violated it.

I've written far too much at this point, but I'd love to hear anyone's criticism on these ideas and hear your own!

I just finished up the Rise of the Runelords: Burnt Offerings adventure and am now working on the second.

I use MapTools and Skype. I'm sure I'll be making someone with legal responsibilities cringe when I say this, but I can share my campaign file that is now completed for the first adventure. The downsides to it are that the players have run through it, so it is littered with dead monsters, but they are all there and can simply be removed and added in fresh.

Of course I'm not claiming ownership of anything, just the presentation of the fantastic material Paizo has already produced.

All the maps exist with lighting and vision.

I would personally love to see pre-packaged campaigns/tokens for these programs. Imagine using a projector with MapTools or any other tool and seeing the beautiful maps, pictures, handouts, and monster images without pausing to pass books around.

I will say that I'm new to DMing, but I really enjoy what MapTools gives me in terms of tools. Its great to have players actually not be able to see the Sinspawn hiding in the dark corner. They get creeped out by things like that, and it's exactly the way it should be.

I'm not saying everything is great and perfect, some things don't translate well. For instance, I don't use any of the Magic tools that come with it because they aren't very intuitive and my players prefer to do it themselves. Some players I trust to use their own dice instead of the built-in roller.

I think it does give you all the flexibility you need to run an extremely effective game. We've been able to keep our sessions down to 4 hours a piece and it took them 7 to get through Burnt Offerings. I think I can chalk a lot of that success up to Maptools streamlining a lot of the combat process through tokens and macros.

To make my life easier I give my players bonus experience for making their own tokens and sending them to me. That way I can just drop them in.

While I agree with some people that it has a lot of head-turning qualities, I don't necessarily feel that they are a problem.

I think, specifically, this monster creates a need in the party to be prepared to deal with situations that can't be solved with simple knowledge checks and after-encounter healing potions and channeling energy.

I can very well imagine an encounter with a group of these and having a party member fall after having larvae put in it and the party going into full panic trying to figure out what to do, and having to come together to do surgery to save their ally.

Thats a fantastic moment for great memories and RP and far too infrequent when people can rely so heavily on magical healing.