It isn't really hard and fast. The problem with dungeons is that they are basically combat zones - you find the baddies, you kill them. Nothing wrong with that, but if that is all there is in a game it can get a bit dull and repetitive. If there is something else running in parallel, then it is fine, and with the group here there is almost always something running parallel, perpendicular, and wherever, due to the eccentric nature of the PCs.
I just remember DM'ing RttToEE and feeling quite oppressed by the extent of the Crater Ridge Mines. To be fair, that group were fairly crap and didn't know the rules well, so it was a bit of a grind DM'ing for them (not their fault, plus I was pretty new to the 3e rules at the time too and not especially experienced in DM'ing either). That section of the module is really of the find-baddies-kill-them-repeat mould, and I got bored. In addition, the plot kind of got lost and I was left wondering what people's motivation was (including mine). I guess that is the key - if I feel motivated as a character to go down a big dungeon, and stay motivated, then it is probably fine. So it probably needs to have plot developed while I am actually down there as well as just creeping about slaying things.
As a practical example, I guess my tolerance in my Eberron game is kind of begining to niggle with the Triune's warren (the issue is my design of the adventure, I hasten to add, not the way it has been played, which is always exemplary and a joy to participate in) but I know where you are in that and so I'm fairly relaxed (assuming everyone else is happy - I can move it along otherwise). But I'm also feeling an urge to get you back to the mean streets of Sharn and push the plot along. I'm glad in a sense that rescuing Norn has taken a while, for two reasons - firstly, to give the impression that the distances involved, and the dangers faced, are not to be trifled with, and secondly, to get you up some levels so I can chuck some really nasty opposition at you (heh heh). But...
I get it. Sometimes, you settle down into a certain what-you-call-it "module" or "mission" and it bogs down and becomes a chore that is being dealt with, rather than an exciting rollercoaster ride into the realms of high fantasy.
It's nice to have the framework of a massive mission, or dungeon, or what-have-you, but it's a fine line between that setup and a long drawn out slogfest.
I'm enjoying the one we're doing right now; it's like I have ample time to milk each room for what it's worth. It's hard to read you guys, but then I remind myself have copious time to work around it or react to it. Or then I throw an event (like the rotgrubs), and everybody throws in their 2cents, and I laugh my ass off, and Gittik's doing wrong surgery, or Riese is petting the druid,...
Or Harvak decides it's time for a barfight, and I have 2 days to come up with something; then Gittik needs a romantic hook--I give the youngest daughter a bottle of formula, and think about it, and..."bingo! I'll name her....Jane, as an homage to ERB's Tarzan. I'll remember the name that way."
150 exp each now.
Sniffing empties and laughing at Harv's pain. Sweet.
As for the above. I can hack and slay all week. A little mystery and roleplaying does me better though.
Right on. I try to throw out a mix, but...if it gets boring, Dostoyevsky said to have some badguys kick in the door, didn't he?
That might have lightened up Dostoevsky. For some reason I attribute that quote to Raymond Chandler, talking about use of Deus Ex Machina to resuscitate a plot. May be wrong on that though. I keep thinking it was a guy whose last name begins with B. C is pretty close. F#+!ed, that.
I thought it was Mickey Spillane, but neither goog nor wiki is giving me no ready answers.
I just thought Crime and Punishment might've been a little easier to digest if they had a shootout every once in a while or something.
Well, we both think it was a detective novelist, so that must be right.
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Riese is good. I like the way he is now. I have been kinda trying to deepen him a bit and I thought a bit of dry, sometimes sarcastic humor was in order. I figure with his social graces that his humor should be a bit 'off' or uncomfortable at times. I think he is gonna make a point to stroke the big cat every chance he gets.
I usually like a good mix of play styles in a game, usually a bit less in the mystery department and a bit heavier on the action. But with that said I could do a really long-drawn out Mystery-investigation section as long as it is kept interesting.
You are doing damn good in my book, Heathy if you are asking. Seems like my PBP characters from here, Aubrey and Beeler's games are my favorite PCs out of 3E so far and probably since I started gaming.
Good stuff.
Yih; I think the timing on these things really pushes for roleplaying. I couldn't personally do half the crap I do, DM or Player-wise, at the table spontaneously.
The action has to wait sometimes, but one can always pop off at the mouth, or stroke a cat or something. ;)
Oh, and that cat deal....I kept reading that post over and over and laughing all day yesterday.
Glad I can serve as a CAT-alyst for fun and roleplaying! :P
(Oooo! The puns are coming! The puns are coming!) :D
Good work Heathy, just keep it up, and we'll keep trying to entertain you in the meantime!
(lol) you're a good sport, dude. ;)
My feed on the game thread is dead.
My feed on the game thread is dead.
What happened? I don't understand.
Loving this game man. Whatever you're doing, it's working.
Cool. I'm rusty; but I'm getting shinyclean...
My feed on the game thread is dead.
My live bookmark feed was dead; Gary has some kind of bot bug now.
Yeah, cos anyone who gets about all day in their pyjamas...
It kills me how people here in central China will go to the grocery store in the jammies and slippers. You guys should see it, it would crack you up.
Let me know out of those sinister pdf's if there's anything you guys are all hepped up about and whatnot. I intend to download on them some time soon.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
It really is Awesome
"ARRRRG its fun!"
I gotta crash; give time for Gittik, Stiggy and maybe Becton to add to the carnage.
Dude... for a minute there, I was like, "did I f#%& up and put them up against too hard a creatures?"
Four massive ogre skeletons with greatclubs...
Intimidating to say the least.
They're toast.
Well, they might crit...
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Good.
We defended a cart of beer from goblins, drank the beer, rescued an old lady from bandits, looted her house, helped her move, fought some smegma monsters, drank in a bar, got in a big bar brawl in another bar and are currently dealing with ghosts, rot grubs and giant skeletons in a haunted house.
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Good.
We defended a cart of beer from goblins, drank the beer, rescued an old lady from bandits, looted her house, helped her move, fought some semgma monsters, drank in a bar, got in a big bar brawl in another bar and are currently dealing with ghosts, rot grubs and giant skeletons in a haunted house.
Quite a list of deeds. Anyone levelled up? I noticed that you guys are already pass your 600th post mark.
Yup what he said.
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Quite a list of deeds. Anyone levelled up? I noticed that you guys are already pass your 600th post mark.
We're all at level 2.
Other notable deeds:
Altai has made peaceable contact with an extra-dimensional life-form;
Becton has agreed to go on a quest for a rival church;
Beldan picked up;
Elgan has been petted several times by another party member;
Gittik almost picked up;
Harvak almost lost his arm to overzealous comrades going after a rot grub - plus he just dealt 48 points of damage or something in one hit;
Riese has faced down - and beaten - his mortal enemy;
Stigwold has drunk enough beer to kill most men;
Tenser has no doubt almost solved the mystery of the haunted house.
And that's over 1600 posts on the game thread in 5 weeks.
Tenser rocks.
RAGS:
I use an Adobe Illustrator template file with the grid pre-made, and everyone's avatars ("save picture as") stored so I can just grab them and move them around as I wish. If I want to shape something like a room it takes a few seconds, I make it on the layer under the grid, and bang. Maybe ten or fifteen seconds for a room like that. Altogether about a minute to get the map posted.
I'm pretty sure you can make comparable maps (maybe with a different look) using GIMP, which is what Fabes has been using.
If you want my A-Z/1-36 coordinate grid on a transparent background let me know, you can put it on a layer over any kind of terrain drawing and get coordinate squares for a pbp. Plus there is my basic battlemap, which I think you've seen. Both of them work well with GIMP.
If you want to make this stuff it just takes some free time and an idea of what you want to do. There are lots of GIMP tutorials that will help you do the stuff you need.
Thanks Kruelaid, I completely forgot about GIMP, I have it on my old machine.
(I used it to make a set of SPELLFIRE cards based on an old game we played.)
It is a pretty cool program. I'll bet I could figure it out with that.
Not that I have time to mess with it this week, but,...
Would you mind emailing me a copy of your already-constructed grid map?
If that's ok,...
ragadolf@veeshan.com
Thanks!
Rags, linkified:
The grid overlay is here, in Photoshop format, which GIMP can open.
Rags,
I think you've probably seen this, download the full hi res version on the right menu.
I think Gary made it even better. I mean worse. I mean more ravenous.
I think Gary made it even better. I mean worse. I mean more ravenous.
More Shark-God-like
Fakey--you do construction, right?
Would a masoned wall like I described, with two outer brick surfaces and a center zone of chaff rock-type stuff make sense for a basement? I don't know much about "loads" and "settling" and that kinda thing.
I'm out of my element, talking about things my grandfather knew but I never learned.
I guess from your standpoint, you just want to know where that roach went; he could be anywhere.
Fakey--you do construction, right?
Would a masoned wall like I described, with two outer brick surfaces and a center zone of chaff rock-type stuff make sense for a basement? I don't know much about "loads" and "settling" and that kinda thing.
I'm out of my element, talking about things my grandfather knew but I never learned.I guess from your standpoint, you just want to know where that roach went; he could be anywhere.
I know you didn't ask me, but.... I've rather a long history of exposure to construction.
I've never done foundations.... okay wait I did one, but it was a small cabin... I have done retaining stone walls and my understanding is that it makes sense although perhaps it's over-engineered. The stones and crush between the inner and outer layer would be very jagged and the load would probably be shared by the inner and outer layer, meaning there would be half meter slabs at the top resting on both the inside and outside. That would support a very large building.