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No biggie, the mod is monster-heavy so conversion isn't a pain. What did you do about the crocodile though?What about the crocodile?
In 3.5 a giant crocodile is CR 4 & huge sized, an appropriate challenge at the 4-5 tier. In PFRPG the standard crocodile is CR 2 and size large (no challenge), but the dire crocodile is CR 9 and size gargantuan (overwhelming challenge). So I was wandering if he advanced the croc.
In this case, I'd just use the 3.5 MM crocodile and call it a day.
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I will be running Mists of Mwangi this weekend for the Columbia Mo PFS game at Valhalla's Gate. So come on by!
Here is a map I made for game play. Hopefully I can get it printed out in time.
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Not that it matters (because the chronicle sheet has the correct amount of gold), but the Tier 1-2 reward found in Saldak's desk lists platinum pieces (pp) instead of gold.
Anyone know if Lugizar Trantos has appeared in any other scenarios?
No, he's assumed to have died shortly after leaving the museum while betraying the Society. I think it would be fantastic if he'd re-appear in a later Mwangi scenario.
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I ran Mists of Mwangi this weekend and it was a definite success! Everyone had a good time.
The scenario ran fairly fast, 2.5 hours, and that was with 5 players, a fair amount of roleplaying, and 2 of the players were not only new to PRPG but also new to roleplaying in general.
I made a number of adjustments to the scenario to make it more interesting.
1) The Snake in the bathroom.
In my session, the snake didn't eat Sheg. Snakes take days to digest something of that size. When digesting someone whole, the snake becomes quite huge and immobile and can't fight. The snake needs to be able to fight.
In the room, I put the snake hanging from the ceiling (covered by the mist...), over top of the bathroom door. He dropped on the last person in the room, wrap around him (think the movie Anaconda), and then pull him up to the vaulted ceiling (his legs were still within reach of the party however, the snake wasn't). It was great fun, we had the rogue actually climb over and on top of the constricted player to stab the snake and we had 3 other people grabbing the constricted legs to assist him in his grapple check and bring him down to the floor. Good times and it made an otherwise boring encounter fun and memorable.
2) Background info
It made no sense to have Knowledge Local dictate information about Lugizar's sister, so I had K:Local give all of the (fairly useless but colorful) background information on the Blakros museum and the family that owns it.
Captain Adril Hestram mentioned Lugizar's sister couldn't be found, but with Gather Info (which is now Diplomacy), a PC was able to use their contacts to find her and bring her outside the museum for questioning.
3) Mist effects in general
I didn't have anyone affected by the mists attack immediately. I made them crazy, I made them potentially violent, paranoid, loud, and ready to break at a moments notice, but you could talk to them somewhat (as long as you were really sensitive, lol).
Most of the time, they ended up attacking eventually, but not before some good roleplay moments.
Oh yeah, and they ran around naked. I skipped roleplaying this part.
4) Mwangi Exhibit
I had a small monkey with a knife threatening to kill Nigel a few rounds after the party is noticed. This was especially important since I had 5 people and I wanted something everyone could do to feel important, even if it was dispatching a 4hp monkey.
5) The Honored Dead
I had the door lock and the party surrounded on all sides by the 4 undead once they entered the room deep enough. The seer actually spoke to them and said they were "going to suck their souls to satisfy the Tik Taan".
6) Mist Template
My players were smart (and they had someone with K: History) and were never in danger of being possessed by the mist.
If they were I'd pass them this text:
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You are now mental equivalent of an angry ape. You are temperamental and somewhat hostile and violent. Your eyes are bloodshot. You feel the urge to shed your armor and clothes.
Stats: Int & Chr 6 max
+1 attack/damage
Cannot use weapons but you have a Slam attack (D4+str)
+5 climb / acrobatics / jump / Stealth
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That's about it, a really short and sweet scenario!
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Played this module last weekend and it sounds like I got a different flavor from it then discussed here.
Three of six party members were caught sniffing the mists and only seemed to want to smash things but on a whole they fought as normal. We never encountered a croc even though we travailed the whole entirety of the museum.
The gorilla fight at the end was over in 2 hits from a fighter and barbarian - 18 points of damage. There were no other monkeys in the room but we were almost killed by 3 animated objects - a shovel, vase, and something else.
The guy we supposed to find was on top of the ziggurat looking like he was to be sacrificed but we never found out who was doing the sacrificing. I assumed in was the giant gorilla. I'd be interested in reading the module now that I've played it.
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Played this module last weekend and it sounds like I got a different flavor from it then discussed here.
(And other stuff)
It sounds like your GM may have chosen to abandon a lot of the module's flavor. Mists is a great module because it drips with so much cleverness and oddities. It's supposed to illicit feelings of "A Night at the Museum" which can be done by playing up the non-combat elements (the monkeys for example).
He may have also been confused or frustrated with the mists. They require some player PvP, but the rules state player PvP isn't allowed. Some GMs (especially those that don't come here) often have problems with this.
P.S. - You probably didn't fight the croc because it was on a different tier.
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Played this module last weekend and it sounds like I got a different flavor from it then discussed here.
(And other stuff)
It sounds like your GM may have chosen to abandon a lot of the module's flavor. Mists is a great module because it drips with so much cleverness and oddities. It's supposed to illicit feelings of "A Night at the Museum" which can be done by playing up the non-combat elements (the monkeys for example).
He may have also been confused or frustrated with the mists. They require some player PvP, but the rules state player PvP isn't allowed. Some GMs (especially those that don't come here) often have problems with this.
P.S. - You probably didn't fight the croc because it was on a different tier.
In fairness to the GM, I believe he was new to GMing and may not have had a lot of time to prepare since he had to constantly read from the module to tell us what was going on. Since there were 5 other groups playing at the same time in a relatively small space I believe he may have suffered from not being able to hear very well. Several times we said we wanted to listen at the door and then were magically able to tell what was in the room and the dimensions of it (as if we had already entered the room). :>
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In fairness to the GM, I believe he was new to GMing and may not have had a lot of time to prepare since he had to constantly read from the module to tell us what was going on. Since there were 5 other groups playing at the same time in a relatively small space I believe he may have suffered from not being able to hear very well. Several times we said we wanted to listen at the door and then were magically able to tell what was in the room and the dimensions of it (as if we had already entered the room). :>Played this module last weekend and it sounds like I got a different flavor from it then discussed here.
(And other stuff)
It sounds like your GM may have chosen to abandon a lot of the module's flavor. Mists is a great module because it drips with so much cleverness and oddities. It's supposed to illicit feelings of "A Night at the Museum" which can be done by playing up the non-combat elements (the monkeys for example).
He may have also been confused or frustrated with the mists. They require some player PvP, but the rules state player PvP isn't allowed. Some GMs (especially those that don't come here) often have problems with this.
P.S. - You probably didn't fight the croc because it was on a different tier.
Was your GM an older gentleman?
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In fairness to the GM, I believe he was new to GMing and may not have had a lot of time to prepare since he had to constantly read from the module to tell us what was going on. Since there were 5 other groups playing at the same time in a relatively small space I believe he may have suffered from not being able to hear very well. Several times we said we wanted to listen at the door and then were magically able to tell what was in the room and the dimensions of it (as if we had already entered the room). :> Was your GM an older gentleman?
Yep. Doug, we already spoke at Burger King about this. But after having more time to think about our experience we came to the conclusion that the experience was kind of boring. That's why I checked out what the module was actually supposed to be like. I wanted to be fair to the GM taking in account the noise and his newness to GMing. And the noise from the other tables clued me into the fact that we weren't having the same experience. That can also be attributed to the group that we were in and not solely on the GM.
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Was your GM an older gentleman? Yep. Doug, we already spoke at Burger King about this. But after having more time to think about our experience we came to the conclusion that the experience was kind of boring. That's why I checked out what the module was actually supposed to be like. I wanted to be fair to the GM taking in account the noise and his newness to GMing. And the noise from the other tables clued me into the fact that we weren't having the same experience. That can also be attributed to the group that we were in and not solely on the GM.
In fairness to the GM, I believe he was new to GMing and may not have had a lot of time to prepare since he had to constantly read from the module to tell us what was going on. Since there were 5 other groups playing at the same time in a relatively small space I believe he may have suffered from not being able to hear very well. Several times we said we wanted to listen at the door and then were magically able to tell what was in the room and the dimensions of it (as if we had already entered the room). :>
Sorry, I lost track of your ID and thought there was an issue with the 3rd table of Mwangi. It was a crowded slot in a small room. I wish I could have everyone sit at my table. With an increasing player base it becomes a challenge to keep the product quality as high. However, without some bland experiences to compare to, my GMing wouldn't seem so exceptional.
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Several times we said we wanted to listen at the door and then were magically able to tell what was in the room and the dimensions of it (as if we had already entered the room). :>
A good note for anyone running this module: first paragraph of page 4 -
"Adril does give the PCs a map of the museum"
Thus, when I ran this one, I dumped-out the full grid-map in the middle of the table and briefly went-through what each room was labeled as. I.e. Bathrooms, Offices, Exhibit Hall, etc. The PC's shouldn't know EXACTLY what's inside each of them, but they should have some clues. This also makes it a bit easier on the GM to not need to maintain the 'Fog of War'.
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The older gentleman is a regular GM and usually does a better job than that. He was brought in at the last minute as a backup judge because the player count had jumped from and average of 18-20 to 28 that day. He has probably run it before a year ago, but might not have got any prep time and ran it cold.
Doug Doug on the other hand can run Mists in his sleep. I am curious as to if we can get him to admit how many times he has run this scenario. I am sure it is more than the total number of games I have GM'd.
Next time will be better. I can assure you of that. We had five 3-4 star GMs there, two 1 star GMs (including me) that are getting the hang of things, and then the one at the center of attention. As an example, our talent pool is so rich, two of our guys are running off 700 miles to Atlanta, just to GM. I don't think these two understand the meaning of the word "regional". ;-)
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We had five 3-4 star GMs there, two 1 star GMs (including me) that are getting the hang of things, and then the one at the center of attention. As an example, our talent pool is so rich, two of our guys are running off 700 miles to Atlanta, just to GM. I don't think these two understand the meaning of the word "regional". ;-)
re·gion·al (rj-nl)
adj.1. Of or relating to a large geographic region.
2. Of or relating to a particular region or district.
Points of correction:
I don't think there is another 4 star GM in all of PFS.
I won't be 3 star until after U-Con.
Both Frank and Den have 2 stars, but are likely well on their way to 3 (I only have one until PaizoCon or GenCon get entered *cough*)
Regional is relative. It's only ~600 miles to Atlanta.
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I am going to be running this scenario in a few weeks time, and I am looking for an appropriate piece of mood music. Something with ominous jungle drums, and possibly indistinct chanting, just to really play up the weirdness of the mists. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Use the soundtrack for "The Ghost and the Darkness".
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I plan to run it at Dragonmet UK end of the month.
The plan is to build it up using DwarvenForge Den of Evil (to give it a creepy look) and then fill it half way up with some Disco smoke. So minis really should walk up to the hips into some real fog.
I still need to do a few tests with the fog - don't want to be responsible to trigger the fire alarm - and also need to check how long the fog lasts at the table (still waiting for the spray can).
I will make photos if possible. Always difficult if you GM/organize.
Thod
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This is a bit late in the conversation to start throwing in opinions, but where does it describe anywhere in the scenario that mist-tainted PCs should attack other PCs?It doesn't explicitly say this, as far as I know, but given that the museum employees have all spent the last few hours hunting and killing one another, I gather that this is what would happen to PCs as well. When I played the sceanrio the party turned on itself, but when I ran it it did not and I didn't force the issue. I think it's an effective template with either result.
Mark,
Doesn't this violate no PvsP?Even if you feel that killing another PC is in character for your PC at this particular moment, just figure out some other way for your character to express herself.
It seems that a better way to handle this would to assume that it was the longer exposure to the Taint which made the NPCs attack eachother and have the PCs still care somewhat about party welfare and success of the mission but with an apish mentality.
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This is a bit late in the conversation to start throwing in opinions, but where does it describe anywhere in the scenario that mist-tainted PCs should attack other PCs?It doesn't explicitly say this, as far as I know, but given that the museum employees have all spent the last few hours hunting and killing one another, I gather that this is what would happen to PCs as well. When I played the sceanrio the party turned on itself, but when I ran it it did not and I didn't force the issue. I think it's an effective template with either result.Mark,
Doesn't this violate no PvsP?
Even if you feel that killing another PC is in character for your PC at this particular moment, just figure out some other way for your character to express herself.It seems that a better way to handle this would to assume that it was the longer exposure to the Taint which made the NPCs attack each other and have the PCs still care somewhat about party welfare and success of the mission but with an apish mentality.
Not really. Since the Mist-Tainted template changes their minds, and how they work, it falls more under the dominated part of the PvP rule.
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Not really. Since the Mist-Tainted template changes their minds, and how they work, it falls more under the dominated part of the PvP rule.
So then the part about...
In short, you can never voluntarily use your character to kill another character—ever.
Means you can not leave the descision if tainted PCs attack eachother in the hands of te players. So the GM must either say they attack or they do not due to the taint.
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I was thinking about using a mechanic sorta similar to confusion (in a way). Give them a certain percent chance to attack others based on:
a) when they are first afflicted, they could just go rage-tastic and attack
b) when they are injured, they could go into an uncontrolled rage attacking random adjacent targets
c) when their target is killed, a chance that they get bloodlust and attack an adjacent target
Should this be a % roll like confusion (if so, what percents. I was thinking maybe a: 50%, b: 25%, c: 50%). Or should it be something like a Will save?
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Criik, I like what you are suggesting. Just be aware that changing or creating mechanics in a scenario can be received the wrong way. It's a delicate dance. If you do it right, everyone has a good time. If you do it wrong, the finger-pointing begins. There is a fair portion of the player population that believes the GM is "out to get them" and your mechanic could be blamed if a player loses their PC.
I've run this scenario 17 times and it is one of my favorites. I've only seen players attack each other ONCE. Fortunately it wasn't with great axes or curve blades. At my tables, I try to leave it up to the players to interpret the effect of the Mist. I make them pre-roll Will saves and randomly choose which one is against the Mist. Failure gets them this handout:
Please make the following adjustments to your PC:
Reduce Intelligence and Charisma to 6
If you rely on either one of those scores for your spellcasting ability, it is now gone!
+2 enhancement bonus to both Strength and Dexterity
Immune to fear effects
+5 circumstance bonus to Acrobatics and Stealth
+10 circumstance bonus to climb checks
Climb speed of 20’
Natural weapon (slam attack) 1d4 damage for Medium creatures
Role-Playing Notes:
You degenerate into a raving madman, little more than a bloodthirsty animal. Go with it.
Note: Your alignment does not change. Nothing compels you to attack your party members unless you think that’s what your character would do. You simply feel all your inhibitions leave you, all higher thinking skills are gone, replaced by base instincts. You are a mean-tempered monkey who has escaped his cage.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16
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I've posted this before, but here is the text of the handout I give the mist-tainted. I find that by emphasizing silly ape-like shenanigans, I discourage PvP. While a bit of inter-party brawling could be fun, I don't want to risk that something bad might happen to a character at another PC's hands. If someone's 7 HP sorcerer were squished dead by a fellow player's mist-tainted barbarian, they would likely take it amiss.
The Mist-Tainted
Overcome by the mist’s bizarre, corrupting influence, you begin to degenerate into a raving madman, little better than a jungle animal.
Strange ideas course through your mind: Bloodthirsty urges to smash those who oppose you, discomfort at your constraining garments and armor, and the need to find any tiny parasites inhabiting your fur and that of your friends. You would enjoy eating a banana, if you had one.
You have gained the Mist-Tainted template:
• Both Intelligence and Charisma go down to 6.
• You gain +2 to Strength and Dexterity. This gives you +1 Initiative, +1 Armor Class, +1 to Attacks, and +1 Damage.
• You are immune to fear effects.
• You have +10 to Climb checks and a climb speed of 20 feet.
• You have +5 to Acrobatics and Stealth checks.
• You gain a slam attack. It does 1d4 (+Strength Bonus) Damage.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16
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This is a bit late in the conversation to start throwing in opinions, but where does it describe anywhere in the scenario that mist-tainted PCs should attack other PCs?
It doesn't explicitly say this, as far as I know, but given that the museum employees have all spent the last few hours hunting and killing one another, I gather that this is what would happen to PCs as well. When I played the scenario the party turned on itself, but when I ran it it did not and I didn't force the issue. I think it's an effective template with either result.
When I've run it, I've suggested that the employees were actually emotionally-repressed nerds with a lot of pent-up aggression toward each other. The office staff were always chaotic evil, but normally expressed their malice through passive-aggressive sniping and rumormongering. Once their inhibitions were surpressed, they began to indulge their latent evil sides.
Lacking such bottled-up hostilities, player characters don't necessarily feel the need to kill each other.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16
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Mind if I borrow that James? I'm prepping to run this in a week, and I don't want pvp encouraged when a few newbies are coming. At least, not to lethal levels.
Of Course! Add some art depicting apes or ape-men and make a handout for your players. I'd include the sketch I used on the handouts I made, but I don't have the artist's authorization for that.
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Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant
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I think a lot of why the employees are raving is that they've been in the mists all day.
I've made my own cards that I hand out. I put Da'Tunga's image on the right, and have the changes to be made on the left. Its worked out well, and without any influence from me, many of those infected have quickly started acting like monkeys.
I felt sorry for the gnome sorceress, but she did a wonderful job at playing the int & cha 6. :D
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Great suggestions. When I played the mod, the GM had the mist-affected become NPC/dominated characters that attacked the rest of the party. My fighter (on his way to becoming a melee alchemist) was knocking party members around with his dorn-dergar. Luckily, an Obscuring Mist bought the remaining party member the concealment they needed to move around the fringes to bring people back up in order to subdual me down.
I think I'll use the text from Doug or James. I love Blakros Museum scenarios. Just ran them through The Penumbral Accords last week. Might follow Mists up with a good old Voice in the Void for the trifecta (are there any others in the Blakros Museum?). Personally, I just played in The Blakros Matrimony and am playing in Day of the Demon tomorrow (more Blakros goodness).
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At the low tier it's a skeleton, so it's safe to assume that bit didn't get added into the high tier stat block. This is backed up by the DR 5/Bludgeoning and the Improved Initiative feat all standard skeletons have.
The way I run the encounter is to describe the room. The Scarab Seer looks like a mummy laying in an open sarcophagus. The Qadiran Warrior of Old is prone in a horizontal display case. The Proto-Kellid Warchief and the Bronze Legionnaire are posing in fighting stances, propped up with rods and wires in a display case. In previous cases, the Osirian/Grand Lodge PCs will run up to the sarcophagi and search for their faction mission. This triggers initiative, usually when the ghoul suddenly grabs for the curious PC's hand. If not, when the PCs are halfway across the room the undead stand up/break out of their displays. I treat this as a move action. If there is a PC adjacent, they attack until a closer target presents itself.
I hope that helps you.
