How about some levels for Tenser? With the amulet of intelligence I reckon he actually has the smarts to pull off some basic skills.
Also, I haven't scored any loot lately and I think Stig really needs some magic armor.
Was there loot after Jag Doom's clone?
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Heathy; if you are indeed running the adventure I think you're running, this page may interest you, if only to snag a description of at least two certain creatures, in certain locations...
I was a little nipper when I first read 'Lost Worlds, Volume One', and I started D&D not long after. I couldn't believe it when I saw the writer of X2 had referenced Smith's work! Oh, wow! This adventure is cool as f+%#!
I tried to turn 'The Coming of the White Worm' into a Call of Cthulhu scenario once; something about the crimson ice-stalactites formed from the drops of blood oozing from the tear-ducts of the obese, lethargic maggot-creature, in his chamber atop the floating iceberg castle, littered with the wrecks of dozens of ships, whose sailors sit frozen at their oars, except for those passengers with sorcerous potential, who are compelled to climb the icy staircases to throw themselves prostrate before him and be forced into blasphemous rites of obesience, just wedged itself firmly in my brain.
Total warped genius!
I pulled Castle Amber out of a hat and we're just doing a few things there. The Brain Collector is cr gazillion in 3.5, so he's kinda out; I've switched this and that around a bit....
I've been borrowing from that C A Smith website what I can here and there....I used one of his little ghoul statues to represent a clay cup of cognac or something...just to see if Stiggy would drink out of it...
Oh....and this I'm proud of for some reason....
they got there through a Mordenkainen's Magnificent doublewide in a dilapidated gnomish trailer park (the trailers have metal chicken legs like Baba Yaga's Hut) that is inhabited by Hool Marsh swampfolk...
I had to insert a trailer park in Greyhawk somehow...necessity/invention, wot wot...
What do you think the lizardman is? I'm just curious.
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Initially, I thought it was one of those jacked-up extraplanar lizardmen from one of the new Monster Manuals (the name escapes me) - they are just tougher, nastier lizardmen with better stats and natural armour.
But after a bit of pondering, I just think it is a half-dragon (red, obviously) lizardman. Still, he's probably immune to fire, so most of our explosive spells won't bother it too much and we'll need to slog it out in close combat.
Crazy stoopid busy,
Should be back by tomorrow night,
Laters,...
Weee!!!
I took tomorrow off of work, so I'm around some.
Looks like nobody else is....
que sirrah, sirrah.
Huh?
I'm at work.
GET TO WORK SCUM!!! ;)
Roger that.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! HO HO HO!
gathered up all my Savage Tide Dungeons, and related Dragons and rereading them. The development of the Isle of Dread begins in ernest.
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Cool - I'm off until the 5th, but it's a busy round of socialising. And my wife has set us up to see Manon (a ballet) and The Sound of Music (the musical, but I guess you know that) next Saturday - so, men in tights and men in leather shorts, all in one day!
Sounds like fun.
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I'm at the airport now, about to leave for my holiday. Don't know how much posting I'll get in over the next several says, we'll see.
Just statted up fakey's Christmas present.....mwahahahahaaa!
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!
Traveling, time and access both more limited than I thought.
Should be back and back to 'normal' by the 3rd.
(Whatever 'normal' means!)
Thanks for understanding,
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Laters,...
Right on; the blonde that turned into a green hag scored a critical touch attack on Elgan....it's a fondle.
Well, a nat 20 touch attack's gotta count for somethin'.
I've, like, slapped together 8 stat blocks in the last two days; some might need some more fleshing out, but....dayum!
I think I'm good for the next two months, give or take.
Naah....nothing so elementary as hobgoblins with class levels.
Actually, it seems that amped up (advanced or 1-2 class leveled) or templated MM monsters go a lot faster than a slew of classed n.p.c.'s.
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Agreed. If I ever get to go home to Norway, I'll dig up some of the freaky things I constructed back when I first got my hands on Savage Species - the multiheaded insectoid fire giant or the tauric ettin/rhino centaur or some other weirdness.
Cookin' up monsters is fun. Which, incidentally, is one of the reasons I didn't like 4. Ed when I saw the previews for it - not enough monster-cooking mayhem for my tastes.
I don't think I came up with anything that wild; one's pretty good but...
I think the Isle of Dread'll have to be populated by some weirded out stuff though.
Hey Heathy. Would you object to me asking you a few quetions about how you manage your PBP? I figure that you have learned a few things by now. ~pulls out my checkbook~ And how much do I owe you?
(missed this earlier)
Sure; ask away.
To keep a fight going, I DON'T go on personal init rolls; one side wins or loses and everybody goes whenever they're around to post.
I don't know if it jacks with the....reality or goodness of the fight, but it makes a fight go in 3-4 days if everybody's pretty current.
I've been experimenting with little side deals for people who are gone for a week (RL issues/vacations) but I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that it's pretty difficult.
I also level everybody whenever one guy hits the next level; I know magic items cost xp to make but I don't think it bends stuff up too much. It can take a few days for some folks to get around to levelling, and if everybody was doing it at around the same time, I feel a game could grind for a good month like that.
Sometimes, there's a fight, and one guy is gone a couple days; we'll let somebody play him for a hit or two to keep things rolling good.
From Aub's campaign, we draw a map naming squares A-Z or whatever across the top and 1-25 or whatever across the side; then I describe it out. I'll try to keep things simple with respect to cave walls/ not straight lines/ it causes more trouble than it's worth imho.
Finally, I like to distill a printed adventure down to maybe.....1/3 of the encounters/rooms therein....I keep everything CR party +1 as a minimum; a bunch of little winky dinky encounters slows things down if you're taking a week or two sometimes to resolve a combat. I also allow rest a lot because of this; 3-4 grinder fights and the wizards are casting light spells and the fighters have 3 h.p.
I also like to dole out a wand of CLW so the poor healer doesn't have to blow all his spells on being a paramedic.
My problem is this: I don't think I entertain the rogues and the clerics enough; I'm trying to figure that out, but the fighters and wizards seem to have plenty to do.
That's just off the top of my head; anything else let me know.
Thanks for the info Heathy. You have covered most of my questions.
No problem.
There was a thread; I think it might've been Tarren Dei was asking for advice on running these things; a guy came over who ran a lot on enWorld and gave this advice essay that covered everything I learned over six months the hard knocks way and more; I'll search for it.
No problem.
There was a thread; I think it might've been Tarren Dei was asking for advice on running these things; a guy came over who ran a lot on enWorld and gave this advice essay that covered everything I learned over six months the hard knocks way and more; I'll search for it.
That would be super, my friend! For this I will hold off on harrasing you for a month. ~wry smile~ Or at least I will try to hold out!
I'm looking, but it's hard to find.
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I'd add another one - make sure there's some treasure for everybody, and be reasonable about selling and buying stuff. Nobody wants to do serious bookkeeping, and if everybody gets useful things, there will be less intra-party squabbling. It hasn't been a problem here, but Aubrey's RotL game has had some disagreements about who gets what.
I'd add another one - make sure there's some treasure for everybody, and be reasonable about selling and buying stuff. Nobody wants to do serious bookkeeping, and if everybody gets useful things, there will be less intra-party squabbling. It hasn't been a problem here, but Aubrey's RotL game has had some disagreements about who gets what.
Sounds good. I had planned to change some of the stuff to be more along the needs of the party. I also will make sure that there are enough spells for the wizard to copy into his spellbook.
This thread is the beginning of a pbper's bible.
Thanks my friend! A bonus 500xp for you.
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I'd add another one - make sure there's some treasure for everybody, and be reasonable about selling and buying stuff. Nobody wants to do serious bookkeeping, and if everybody gets useful things, there will be less intra-party squabbling. It hasn't been a problem here, but Aubrey's RotL game has had some disagreements about who gets what.
Heh heh....I've tried two things:
1) ask people what they want for loot and figure how to snake it in there and
2) I NEVER give out a treasure like this:
"2,500 sp, 150 pp, 2(500 g.p.) rubies, a (1,500) g.p. diamond tiara, a fine ball gown (1,500 g.p.), a masterwork codpiece, 12 masterwork arrows, and then THE MAGIC STUFF YOU WANT..."
It's always "3,500 g.p. in coin, gems and trade goods, a statue of a nubile nude woman with a preying mantis head which isn't worth much but might be an interesting conversation piece in your keep in 10 levels, and THE MAGIC STUFF YOU WANT."
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Yup. "Some nice shiny stuff, 2000 gp and a nice-looking sword; anyone want to cast Identify?" is far, far better than "ah, lessee... it's a ... citrine worth blah blah blah."
I've actually never felt that treasure is that big of a deal, but it becomes really important if there's a lot of DR/something monsters. We've struggled mightily again relatively puny monsters with DR 5/something we didn't carry, as well as plowed through supposedly tougher opponents because we had the right stuff. Which serves to remind us that "objective" CR is often subverted by certain tactics (see Alwyn smoking 14 ghouls in two rounds in the RotRL game - those would have been great fun withot a cleric) or overcome by good playing; on the other hand, some modules are really, really tough, and players might just not stand a chance without the "correct" combo of items and spells. Thus, you'll probably need to modify the existing adventure.
Oh, and one more thing - tone down the traps a bit. I can't think of a more dreary thing than Tomb of horrors (which is already more than bad enough) as a PbP. The medium doesn't translate well for endless iterations of Search and Disable device.