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Thankyou for all your hard work to the entire crew. Dungeon drew me in to 3.0 D&D as an experience roleplayer who'd never tried D&D before - Paizo is (*still is*) the only place to go for D&D material that matches 80s era (good) TSR and often outstrips official books in creativity, artistry and games design.
I describe the module as Castle Greyhawk meets Lost, in that the opening scene sees the PCs and a dozen NPCs trapped within an ancient multi-dimensional dungeon. The infinitely expandable dungeon and the trapped characters become the setting and cast for an ongoing campaign in which the PCs attempt to escape the dungeon (or perhaps settle it). Interesting - I had intended to run The World's Largest Dungeon in that Lost style, with NPCs to look after and the mechanics of feeding and housing them within the vast inescapable dungeon as stuff for the players to worry about. I'll look out for this, however it surfaces.
So what's james Jacobs' secret project? Care to stoke the fires by saying it's Greyhawk related?
I think those who "really love" Greyhawk had best be careful lest the pressure on a fellow fan to be our Lawful Good Messiah gets a bit much and he decides not to bother any more.
If it's not too personal/professional a question, how many words is the Secret Squirrel and how long did it take you to write it?
This is a little tangential, but IMC I seemingly subconsciously read all of those references to "the realms' capital city" as meaning Greyhawk - even though that's not precisely true. Wishfull thinking I guess.
I'd like to point out, since I don't think anyone has yet on either thread, that actually there aren't *that* many Good aligned powerful NPCs in Greyhawk; Tenser (and his gang, Agrach the high priest of Celestian for example) is one of the only notable examples - the Circle of Eight are neutral aligned, and all work towards Mordenkainen's philosophy of balance, which means that good and evil acts must both occur to keep everything ticking along smoothly if you will. The reason Tenser is no longer in the Circle is that he disagreed with Mordenkainen's views and feels he should use his great power to do good. Forgetting LG there are probably less than 5 NPCs in the Flanaess apart from the PCs with the kind of power needed to defeat Kyuss.
I'm not entrely sure about this - I love the idea, and will be picking up pack one as soon as I can find a FLGS that stocks it, but, in a similar way to ye olde DDM, random booster packs of stuff are just not terribly convenient for roleplaying; I like the idea that it'll be easier to acquire multiples of small stuff, but I just see myself buying packs and packs to get a particular item I want to give out next session - good for paizo's bank account, but bad for me.
(Rolls on wandering monster table ..) "Dammit, a troll *again*?"
1 rejection and 1 resubmit for me - my first of both, and I'm pretty darn pleased with myself, dated December 1st. 5 more proposals on the drawing board. Onwards and upwards! :-)
The Tassilo picture is superb; but that almost goes without saying.
Just checked back and I have two proposals sent in on Dec 1st. Crosses fingers.
And I do believe they were named after our Kyuss. If you're looking for music with Worms references, Antichrist Superstar by Marilyn Manson is, err, crawling with them.
I'm pretty sure Vhalantru from Shackled City will rate highly on a few people's lists.
Erik, sorry to attention whore at you, but ... Not having read Maure Castle (DL'd the PDF and Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure today), are the Seekers mentioned here and in AoW (as it pertains to Greyhawk) anything to do with the Seekers you mention in Baklunish Delights? Just a coincidence of naming and, well, seeking something?
I'm in the thread - I sent in my first ever two adventure proposals this morning, neither feature angry druids or borg, and not one is a murder mystery in Sharn. Crosses fingers.
http://www.againstthegiants.blogspot.com Including some Shackled City in Greyhawk stuff and my ongoing conversion of C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.
Ok, I have my proposal down from 1,225 words to 922, which is two pages (about 1 and 3/4s to be more precise), double spaced and in 10 point type ... With a final self edit, it'll be with you guys on Saturday. The first of many, I hope.
I have little idea of its quality, and I'm assuming it would have to use SRD creatures, but I believe Necromancer Games' "The Mother of all Encounter Tables" might be up your proverbial street.
A quick question to the editors and regular contributors: How strict is the 1/2 page limit for proposal outlines? I'm currently editing down my proposal to fit on two double spaced pages, am aware of the editors' positive opinions on hitting word counts, but don't want to cut too much out and make the proposal seem less appealing. Any hints or insider tips? Much appreciated; Martyn.
Surabar was a human - but you're right, given that he seems to have been a very powerful magic user meens he could have changed form, altered the course of a pregnancy, or even just had a bunch of different lovers, some of whom weren't humans - I believe the background trait suggests that Surabar is a remote relative, so there's no reason why a PC would have to be either human or a half-breed of some kind to take it.
Back when I was a teenager I'd never played D&D (except in one of those schools tournaments, which is a story for another day), but was involved in a Marvel Superheroes Campaign that went on to last about 3 years ... back then, there were articles on Marvel Superheroes in Dragon - I'd flick through them, often find that they would have been useful for my game, then put the magazine back on the shelf, because hey, why spend 3 pounds on a magazine with 5 pages about *my* game and the entirety of the rest of the pages about something I never played. Just sayin' is all.
Sasserine is one of the elements that have been intentionally left blank to allow DMs to insert the AP into their home campaigns - make of it what you will :-)
Because if one month you only get decent Forgotten Realms/Eberron/Greyhawk/Whateveria articles, the people who don't use those campaign settings write in or post on your message board complaining? ;-)
Just about to enter the Malachite Fortress: Human Monk
-All are level 3 as we speak-
I believe that it is roughly a year after the Shackled City Adventure Path. I remember reading that but I can't remember where. It may have been in the first issue featuring the Age of Worms Adventure path. Indeed, in the knowledge check box for the Ebon triad, it reveals they conspired to destroy Cauldron one year ago ... By my reckonning, that's 594 CY,Greyhawk time.
My main question is - How long (presumably) after Shackled City does the Age of Worms adventure path occur? -M-
I like first watch; it makes me feel like part of a wider D&D/even wider gaming community, which for folk who don't play that often or don't have a group is a really important function of a magazine like Dragon. I missed Knowledge check last issue, and was glad to see it back this time ... I'll probably pick up the UDON Exalted comic, I'm interested in playing Navia Drapt from a few issues back, and I like that it gives the Dragon team an excuse to highlight other D20 products they like - I got a (very useful) Fiery Dragon BattleBox because of it's mention First Watch. That being said, First Watch was amongst a fairly small amount of "for me" content this month - I did indeed find myself skipping an awful lot of the Realms stuff. i could have done without the Greenwood interview and the fiction. But that being said, if it had been an interview with Gygax, Gygaz fiction and a bunch of Greyhawk content, I'd have been freeking out and partying, rather than worrying about the poor FR fans, so i figure I'll have a light read of Dragon this month and look forward to next issue - no biggy, it happens with magazines from time to time.
of course it can, I use 1e material all the time in my campaigm, but it's still ridiculous to expect Paizo to publish stuff for a game many years out of print. -M-
Is that Iconic Scout Dram Cicaeda I see braving Swamp Dangers in #126? :-)
IIRC the magic item itself is based on polymorph rather than simulacrum. -M-
Cool as. Did you introduce the Adimarchus/Athux story before the adventure?
In the UK it's pretty much interchangable with "s$&%" - i.e. Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk/Eberon is cack. ;-)
The sad thing is, is that most of the anti-Realms spam and most of the Anti-Eberron spam (and even sadder, most of the anti-Wil spam) comes from a hardcore of Greyhawkers. I love Greyhawk to bits, and would find much more use for a Greyhawk article that a Realms or Eberrron one. That being said, I want a magazine in continueing existence that can print these articles, and generic ones, much more than I need the mag to be full of Greyhawk. Erik is doing us a big, big favour, and I can imagine potentially putting his job in jeopardy, by going to the wall for Greyhawk as much as he does. Just because he listens to our feedback, don't take advantage. M
I disagree. Players of WotC D&D have more than enough product support. Players of TSR's D&D deserve more, not less. And players of WotC Greyhawk have products *oozing from every orifice*.
I'm kinda new to this Greyhawk thing, and other than from Gary himself, I've never heard such a vigorous objection to Rary the Traitor before ... what's the issue? -M-
1) Will the book use the 'new' stat blocks as introduced in DMG II and the newer Dungeon magazines? I believe James said no - the change-over occurred too close to the deadline to changes however many hundreds of pages of stat blocks to the new format 2) Will there be an overall index of shops, NPCs and locations? I think yes. 3) There were 2 different 'Faces of Cauldron' art in different Dungeon issues, will this be reproduced and will ther be more NPC images? I don't know - but there is new art that isn't maps, so hopefully.
The pertinent changes that James has pointed out up to now basically amount to Having Vhalantru show up whenever you feel is dramatically appropriate during the slave auction, rather than definitely at the end, and making Kazmojen a 2nd lvl fighter IIRC rather than 4th, since he tends to grind parties up a little in his current state. I say start - believe me, I learned the hard way that it will take *several* sessions to complete Life's Bazarre. Happy gaming; -M-
Without wish to spam the board with pointless comments, both of these are absolutely peerless pieces of RPG background writing. I almost wish I hadn't just started my group in the Shackled City :-)
I'd grab Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio.
How about an illustration of 3-4 NPCs, the background of which you could make up from whole cloth, or they could be used to inspire characters ... a page you could hold up and say "The Dromite priest of Hextor looks like this!" M
I like the "Back to Life" idea - Necromancer did a book similar to this a while back ... Would be especially good if it was tied into the adventures in that issue of the magazine, but generic to be adaptable elsewhere (but, as Han Solo once said "that's the trick"). OK, another one, no snappy title as of yet, but a series of ideas on how to bring characters into adventures/settings similar to the ones in the Diamond Lake background; ex. Fighters could work for the local sherrif, be stationed at a nearby military garrison, deserters from a bloody war in the next kingdom etc... M
A few initial ideas - some of thesae infringe on other parts of the magazine, and as I said, they're just my initial thoughts, so take with +1 Grain of Salt: "This Week In ..." Take an one of the comics in the issue and expand an idea/plot/theme/item/NPC from it - how to run an Underdark campaign like Downer, stats for a magic item from Mt. Zogon, etc ... "IMC" (In My Campaign) - Sort of like the text boxes in Unearthed Arcana, one of the designers talks about a particular event, race, artifiact, class etc ... and how it fitted or was modified to fit into their campaign - could have modified races or subraces, how you put Warforged or Ninja into Greyhawk or whatever. "Where It All Started" A D&D regular (designer/staffer/Gygax-style legend) talks about the first time they played D&D, and what got them hooked. "A Thousand Roads" Short article discussing how the adventures in this issue could segue into (or out of) previous or future Dungeon adventures. Could also discuss how to use this (or previous) Dragon's material with the adventures. "D&D Theatre" Cribbed from Andy Collins website, and from Silicon Sorcery to an extent - grabs something from a film and explains it as a feat, dungeon, NPC, class, race etc ... could also talk about how to play a character similar to one in a popular movie in D&D terms. "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap" One pager describing a group of hirelings the players could recruit/exploit, or a group of mercenaries to bolster a villains compliment of evil minions.
My group is fifty/fifty male/female (I DM, 1 male player and two female players). IMO Girls tend not to game because of the way *most* girls are brought up and the attitude toward fantasy and escape therein - boys get free reigh pretty much, but girl's play is often tailored towards them aspiring to realistic (or at least semi realistic) female archetypes - Boys can want to be like Han Solo, but girls are encouraged to be like their Mom; this is reflecte in the toys they get - boys get D&D or GI Joe, girls get toy kitchens or vaccuum cleaners. The flipside of this is:
Not sure where I'm going with this now - but - check out B1 Palace of the Silver Princess (original version, DL'able from WotC site) for a good, early example of bringing in "girls fantasy" to D&D. M
Me too - it was almost in character :-)
What DelvesDeep said ...
Jesus f&$&ing christ. I have no problem with anyone "criticising" anything in Dungeon; I don't think anyone on the staff or on these boards would have a problem with that. in a way, that what these boards are for - Erik has repeatedly thrown stuff out to us and got our input, be it critical or not. *But* the Failed Wil Save thread got out of hand - the result, the loss of the column, isn't really the issue since it seems like Wil and Erik came to some agreement to let it go; the issue really is the intensity of the campaign against it - firstly, a bunch of people didn't like Wil Save, they expressed that, and that's fine - what we don't need on these boards (IMO of course) is 500 posts of: ----------------------------------------------------------------
Wil Save Sucks because (x) -Poster 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Poster 2: Well you know, I kinda like it because of (y) - Poster 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Poster 1: Nope, it sucks because of (paraphrase of x) - Poster "Wil Wheaton is a cock" 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Ad Almost Infinitum. Having a say in the magazine's direction is one thing, but abusing that is another. There would be serious trouble if someone started a "Die ASEO/GVD/Yamo Die" thread, and that's what Failed Wil Save became. So let's not act like spoiled little children to Kyle Hunter, please. M
I've recently started putting a small group of players through Life's Bazaar, we're having a ball, just about to descend into the malachite fortress. The bits that my players have enjoyed most thus far have been the roleplaying encounters - they loved interogating the guards in the first scene, discussing what might be going on with Jenya, talking to the kids at the orphanage, and (particularly) trying to find out what Keygan Ghelve was hiding. What scenes in the rest of the adventure and in subsequent adventures should I try to expand to keep up this kind of roleplaying? Are there NPCs from later in the series I could introduce early to keep the players talky skills amused? Any ideas much appreciated. M
I'm really bad at writing flamey comments - this is why I've stayed away from the high-school b~@$&fest that was the "failed wil save" thread. I'd like to reiterate one of the earlier posts in saying that the thread is like an ugly cancerous growth on the friendly and interesting community Paizo have created here. The childish part of me hopes those amongst you who regularly spewed your vitriolic b@*%$@$# into the thread find its replacement even more distasteful. Oh well, at least I tried.
"My fiance GM'd an "adventure path" campaign just using modules in one issue of Dungeon, issue 90. Totentanz
Me too. Damn that was a good issue.
ah, Wayne Reynolds, a man blessed with the ability to make anything look cool. The ninja are great; I'll be getting this and later getting my Sho Kosugi on fevrishly. M |
