He's been pretty trustworthy - they are the Heroes of Sandpoint after all, but his recent behavior has caused concern from the public, and the Scarnettis have been running a lot of anti-hero propaganda. The party's half-orc mated with the Vinder girl, for example, and the whole party is non-human, so there's a good bit of open racism now that the half-elf Tsuto turned out to be evil. Tensions are high in 25% of the population, while the rest love the group. BD-09, though, has always been a bit awkward and strange to people, and some would argue that he's a sociopath with his cold, robotic world-view.
Ok, so I have a sticky situation and I would love some advice as to how to handle this: We have a very interesting character in the campaign: a warforged Druid/Mage named BD-09. His background: "A relic from the ancient Thassilonian empire, the malfunctioning botanical drone BD-09 spent thousands of years awake but immobile and exposed to the elements, where his subroutines degraded and restructured, rewriting themselves into a personality. Having only been recently excavated, he imprinted on the man that rescued him from his peaceful solitude, only to lose him several years ago during a spree of murders that haunted the town of Sandpoint. Since then, BD-09 has spent his days as the groundskeeper for the Turandorak Academy, adapting to life as a sentient creature." He is slowly gaining access to corrupted data banks as he levels up, and remembers parts of his original history (so he doesn't know much about the runelords, etc). His personality is rather clueless with regards to social norms and he's quite literal. His sin is Pride, in the sense that he believes he was designed to be superior to most organic units. He's part plant, part ceramic, part flesh, part insect. Here is his profile page (with pic) As you can see, he has the sihedron rune emblazoned on his chest... He has been a curiosity in the town that most know about. He also collected the books from Thistletop, including a book on Lamashtu. During our downtime, he's been openly reading this book in public. See awkwardness in comic form Ok, so going into the Skinsaw Murders... He has been chosen by the Skinsaw Man as the object of his obsession (Envy) since the Skinsaw Man noticed the Sihedron Rune on his chest and BD-09 is "immortal". So when Hemlock approaches the party...
Ugh. I could arrest BD-09 but I don't want him to sit out the session. What do?
We are making some significant changes to 3.5 and Pathfinder rules. Most notably is the way weapons and armor work. Slashing, Piercing, and Blunt attacks now matter more. Weapons now have three additional attributes such as Accuracy, Penetration and Crush ratings. In general, slashing weapons are more accurate, piercing weapons have penetration, and blunt weapons have crush ratings. It's not absolute as some weapons have attributes of others, but it makes an axe different than a sword. Let us know what you think of our changes!
About the Half-Wolfwere: I should note that the 5-level class is only for the more bestial nature of the wolfwere: Stat modifiers, bite, survivability, and DR/cold iron. The song of lethargy, speech and shapechanging are delayed or even removed (the song). The race is a half-breed and will never be seen as a true Wolfwere by other wolfweres. The Prestige class isn't designed yet but may require him to be evil, have several ranks in perform, and either go Bard or perform some sort of Rite of Passage in Kartakas involving Meekulbrau and murder - which I don't think he will ever do because he's generally Good and doesn't really want the song.
Link above to the character pages seems to be having issues. Here's the updated one: http://sites.educatedgamer.net/ravenloft/pcs
Dreaming Psion wrote: Looks like an interesting set up. How are you handling Weskot mechanically? Did you make a special Savage Species-esque class for him based on the monster? Yes, pretty much. We are playing it by ear and I can't say that this class is entirely balanced for other campaigns or play styles, but it works for our group and party makeup. Here is a working copy, though it is subject to change as we progress. Keep in mind that the player is VERY flexible with this, and a GM as well, so he understands game balance. LINK: Half-Wolfwere Racial Class I believe he intends to take Barbarian for his lvl 3 class, and then go into Bard around 6th or 7th.
~=Dramatis Personae=~ sites.educatedgamer.net/ravenloft/pcs Click on the character names to explore their pages.
Hello everyone, I've started my Ravenloft/Pathfinder (Mistfinder) D&D campaign and we are a few sessions in already, but if you follow us, you'll be up to speed in no time. We are proceeding through the Carrion Crown adventure path, with a major focus on character development and story. We have set up a campaign wiki at: http://ravenloft.educatedgamer.net
I plan on posting updates to our campaign on Google Plus, as well as here. For the next couple of weeks, I'll be highlighting areas of our campaign, such as the Player Characters, backgrounds, handouts, and session recaps. Add us to your Circles to keep up with the campaign news. Our Google Plus Page: Carrion Crown (Ravenloft) on Google Plus
When characters are raised in my campaign, they receive some sort of scar, injury, or permanent disability. Generally this is in the form of a "negative feat" associated with their death. Thus a character that was slain by a fireball may have vulnerability to fire, -2 to reflex saves, or perhaps just -4 to fire. Since I plan to run this in Ravenloft, the price of returning to the land of the living is steep. Players coming back will incur a Dark Power. New characters are created at Party Level -1, which discourages re-rolling.
Cesare wrote:
Sorry about that - I certainly didn't want to take credit for the work. I pulled Watcher's maps for that reason - I didn't want to look like I was taking credit for work that was not mine. I've credited you on the site, but I can easily pull the file if you want. Again, sorry - when I pulled Watcher's maps I should have pulled your stuff as well.
Hey guys! Watcher, I removed them from Creative Gremlins (my new map host) because they were listed as my art - Whoever uploads them is listed as the artist - and I didn't think that was fair. If you want a free account with Creative Gremlins, I can hook you up. It's about 1 GB of storage and you can upload the maps to the RotR gallery yourself. I meant to post on here after I removed them to invite ya, but forgot. Also, the invite still stands for an account at my 4E site. Again, I didn't want to post anything without anyone's permission. If you want, I can upload them there. So CG or my Google site - I'll hook ya up!
Ok, another small contribution. This is a battlemap (at 100dpi) for the Graul's yard in Hook Mountain. The one in the PDF/module is too low resolution for a proper battlemap. This was done last night when I realized I didn't have a suitable map for that encounter with Crowfood. It's not great, but functional.
Hello everyone! Well, I'm back from a very very long absence, and it looks like people are still making more content for this AP. We are starting back up on Hook Mountain tomorrow and I'll be turning my mapping eye to Fort Rannick - It looks to be a challenge. Holidays are coming up and I might have time to do some work. Just don't expect the same level of detail that I put into Misgivings. That one simply inspired me. Oh, glad to know that the mold gave some the heebie-jeebies. It was intentional. :-) Oh, I think I have a solution for our hosting and aggregation: I have Google Sites on my domain (educatedgamer.net) and have about 10GB of storage directly on the site (not to mention we can link off-site). I can create free accounts for anyone who wants to directly contribute to the project on the site (creating pages, uploading files, etc) and can even send invites to gmail addresses if you would rather have that. In summary, if you have a gmail account, I can invite you.
We can have multiple authors editing the site, and it's very easy to do. I'll get started on setting it up if people seem interested. I would start sometime this next week, during Thanksgiving break. To get an idea of what it would look like, check out where I am currently hosting my RotR content - on another Google Site:
If people seem open to the idea, I would create a new one (perhaps at runelords.educatedgamer.net) and we could start fresh. Glad to be back!
Ok, I uploaded the maps.
The Dalesman wrote:
Hey Dalesman, if you need the d20pro files (maps with 4E creatures and room keys already good to go on the map), just let me know. I can upload them to my 4e project site in no time. Also, if you or anyone wants a demo or training session of d20pro (30 mins demo, 30 mins Q&A) just email me: rivera.ga (at) gmail.com and I will be glad to assist. Oh, and here are some custom sounds & about 2000 character portraits for you http://www.divshare.com/folder/530743-d31
I went ahead and did a VERY basic map of Foxglove's Townhouse. I basically converted the existing map as faithfully as I could. I didn't put in any extra details (like scattered books or damage to the house), as I focused entirely on speed mapping and simplicity. This has the secondary benefit of making the map reusable for other adventures! It's at lesser scale (100 dpi) and is, in my opinion, the standard quality that I would expect for most maps in an Adventure Path (if a third party were selling them). My thoughts are that these maps can be created fairly quickly and could make the bulk of combat maps, with one or two High Quality maps per adventure. Anyways, here are the links:
Note that I'm now hosting my maps at Creative Gremlins.com - specifically, the Gallery. If anyone has Watcher's maps, send them to me and I can post them.
Thanks for the compliments. I agree that there needs to be some sort of solution. Maybe I can help contribute to that solution, but we'll see. I went ahead and did a VERY basic map of Foxglove's Townhouse. I basically converted the existing map as faithfully as I could. I didn't put in any extra details (like scattered books or damage to the house), as I focused entirely on speed mapping and simplicity. This has the secondary benefit of making the map reusable for other adventures! It's at lesser scale (100 dpi) and is, in my opinion, the standard quality that I would expect for most maps in an Adventure Path (if a third party were selling them). My thoughts are that these maps can be created fairly quickly and could make the bulk of combat maps, with one or two High Quality maps per adventure. Anyways, here are the links:
Note that I'm now hosting my maps at Creative Gremlins.com. This is a small company that I've help start which focuses on getting together independent artists and content producers to sell their RPG materials. Of course, we will have free stuff for the fans, like these maps.
Watcher wrote:
Yes that was me! Oh, Watcher (and anyone else here really) if you need a place to host your maps, email me: tintagel (at) creativegremlins.com I have a free map hosting (and possible business) solution for all artists on these boards.
baron arem heshvaun wrote:
I noticed the link to the JPEG, but not the SKP file (that is, the actual 3D model file for Google Sketchup). That would be great. If I can get some time, I will look at doing the roof and start tackling the tower, but no promises. I'm still working on getting Creative Gremlins off the ground and updating my powercard templates to include the PHB2 classes. http://educatedgamer.net/powercards.htm Too much to do, too little time...
Thanks Karui! I intentionally enlarged that cave a bit to have a bit more maneuverability in the possible fight. My players didn't even fight the Chuul down there (4E conversion). :-( If you want, I can create an account for you on my site, so you could post your own content there - it's meant to be a collaborative site, and frankly I was hoping that our Community Created Content could all be hosted there in one place. But either way, if you want access, just say the word. You could then upload the files or even link to them. Of course, I could do that for you if you feel more comfortable that way. Just let me know. Btw, the invite goes for anyone on these boards.
Note: This is an endorsement for a product, but it's one that I believe in, and relevant to the topic at hand. I've tried several VTs out there: Klooge, Maptools, Battlegrounds, Fantasygrounds... and they all left a bit to be desired for me. I think a good VT needs to display maps of any size or resolution, needs to handle GM and player knowledge (fog of war, hidden rolls, hidden units, etc), and be able to accommodate house rules. In addition, it needs to scale and be as simple or advanced as the user wants. In the advanced end of the scale, it should handle initiative, hp, and ongoing effects with little muss or fuss. The VT I use is d20pro, and it does pretty much all of that. I'm currently using it to run my 4E Runelords game.
Digital content has so many benefits:
I'll weigh in here a bit, if you all will tolerate it. I use not only VTs, but several other digital tools for my game, and they are life-savers. I use a VT exclusively and I can say that there is no going back to traditional minis once you fully embrace the digital. My main campaign meets in person at my house and we use a projector and laptop. My players love it, and I love it. As a DM, I use the following tools: Google Sites: http://dnd.educatedgamer.net
PHPBB Forum: http://forums.educatedgamer.net
Evernote: www.evernote.com
What's great about Evernote is that it's searchable - even within images! Yep, evernote detects words in an image (like the powercards) and catalogs it. I've been working on several maps for the Rise of the Runelords AP. You can see my conversion site here, which includes not only battlemaps but also a Google Earth Placemark and 4E conversions. That's all for now. Next post I will discuss my VT solution - the best out there imho. :-)
Thantrax wrote: I hate you for doing such amazing work and being exactly one step behind me. I found your postings for this the night after I ran the first two thirds of Foxglove Manor. For the upcoming game, I need the caverns and the sawmill. Looks like I'm relying upon my considerably less formidable talents for this... Ah, I'm sorry Thantrax. I'm currently in a topsy-turvy stage in my life. My job is going away as of June, so I'm hunting for one, but still working. I'm trying to get a small startup off the ground (mapping related) so that I can approach Paizo about doing just this kind of work as a 3rd party developer. And I'm also doing some free work for Mindgene, the company that makes d20pro VT software. Oh, and I have a wife and wonderful 16 month old girl. I'm afraid that I have a harder time justifying free map work, so I'm really focusing on the real juicy ones that I want to see for my own personal reasons. That said, I hope to work on the catacombs a bit tonight, but that might be too late for you.
Gr4ys wrote: Tintagel is the figure in the broken stained glass window the king from a well known BBC adaptation of a fantasy classic? Heh, yeah he is. The stained glass windows were "value adds" and blatant Google Image Search ripoffs, but my players will appreciate them. None of them have seen much BBC stuff either. The sorceress in the stained glass is also very well known, I'm afraid. You will also notice that I added a new version of the Iesha painting. The one in the module is great, but it just didn't match the description of this young, beautiful gypsy woman. That one seemed much more... matronly? I dunno, but the one in the module looked like she could break me in two... At the request of my wife (of all things), I substituted a picture of Monica Belluci (Matrix, Brotherhood of the Wolf) instead.
Well, we game tomorrow (today, actually - it's past midnight) - and I just hope they don't go down into the caverns yet. Luckily, we are just starting Skinsaw Murders today, so I don't think they will get that far. I still have to map the caverns, then I am taking a bit of a break from mapping probably. I'm considering constructing the clocktower in 3D using Sketchup, but I'm not sure yet. Scott, I just finished looking at your Misgivings conversion information and WOW... It's a complete lifesaver. Thanks a thousand times. P.S. Karui.... LOL!
Misgivings Basement (200dpi)
Reminder: Don't forget to check the link at the beginning of the post for all the stained glass images, for your players
I've started a new thread for the Skinsaw Murders maps. I really should have done this a while back, and I apologize, Gr4ys for taking up so much of this thread on that. This thread is probably best served as an aggregation thread so people can quickly see what has been made and visit those respective threads, not to discuss one particular project. Please continue to update your list so we can all find great works from the community!
Misgivings Level 3 (200dpi)
Anyways, several hours and lots of Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana, Castlevania, and Dracula Soundtrack... plus coffee. Lots of coffee - and I'm done! :-P Now I just have to delve into the basement... **shivers**
Misgivings Level 2 (200dpi)
Misgivings Level 1 (grounds and house - medium res: 100dpi)
Misgivings Level 1 (just house, 200 dpi)
Player Handouts - Stained Glass Windows & Notes
FARMS Hambley Farm
Cornfield 1
Hello everyone, Some of you probably know that I'm already mapping several locations for the Skinsaw Murders, and posted many on the community created content thread, but I think this is a big enough project to warrant its own thread (rather than hijacking what is supposed to be an indexing thread). I want to welcome everyone so post on this thread any comments or battlemaps that you have done for the Skinsaw Murders too. Hopefully, Gr4ys will continue to catalog updates on his thread to have a concise place for all content (map, models, handouts, etc). Without further ado, here is all of my content for the Skinsaw Murders:
If you'd like a more graphical layout, check out my gallery: http://educatedgamer.net/gallery. Click on Map Sets, then Rise of the Runelords: Skinsaw Murders. Individual maps are discussed below. IF IT'S BLUE, It's a link!
Karui Kage wrote:
Well, I wish. Seriously, I'm working on getting some mappers together and making a serious proposal to Paizo about a 3rd party battlemap solution, but time is my enemy. I have a 1 year old, a wife, a job, and I'm trying to finish mapping Misgivings. Somewhere in there I am establishing Creative Gremlins for the purpose of bringing little-known artists and writers together into a creative community. Right now, we just have a forum up and the beginnings of a main page (which is closed for building). CG Forums Oh, and I'm looking for a job, as mine ends in June. :-S P.S. Thanks for all the kind words. Your enthusiasm keeps me motivated (since I'm not getting paid for this - yet).
Actually, this is one that I already mapped but forgot to put on my conversion site. Thanks for reminding me - I just uploaded the map to my gallery and Google site. RotR project page - Burnt Offerings - Scroll down to the High-Res battlemap section, last entry.
omen2zippo wrote:
Sure we are. You can grab all of the ones I have done on my RotR 4E project site: Educated Gamer - Rise of the Runelords Project Site If you would rather browse the maps visually, you can also get them at my gallery site:
Just click on the first section: Map Sets
Also, this thread has more community created content - including some battlemaps.
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