| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
OK, let's be blunt: We game at least 3 days a week, and frequently 4 or 5. I am the GM for two weekly campaigns, two "when time permits" campaigns, and a "when we can get back to it" campaign. And I'm writing up journals for three of those campaigns.
Whine whine whine.
The point is, when I agreed to run Jade Regent, I made it *VERY* clear that I wouldn't be writing up a campaign journal for it.
Then came the goblins.
As those familiar with my Rise of the Runelords journal are well aware, I like to let my boys (now 10 and 13) play the goblins.
The resulting Battle of Brinestump Swamp is the stuff of legends, and my players begged me to write it up in all its infamy.
Here, without apology, and with likely many errors, is the tale of the Battle of Brinestump Swamp.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The Cast Members:
Nickolai (Nick), human paladin of Rae'Sheleth (mythic paladin of Sarenrae). Redemption is big with him.
Hayden, human ranger. Favored enemy: Goblins.
Mi'Nou, catfolk summoner, with a voice and a sense of humor inspired by Yzma of "The Emperor's New Groove" fame.
Ro'Ahrr, eidolon. I know it will horrifically offend Mi'Nou's player, but I kind of think of him as Battle Cat from He-Man. Big, growly, kind of goofy, and more than eager to jump on things and rip them to meaty pieces. His form is of a large white saber-tooth tiger with black stripes.
Marzbarz Silvertongue, halfling ("Call me a hobbit!") bard. Gets along wonderfully with Ro'ahrr because they're both followers of Cayden Cailean.
18 random Licktoad goblins, 9 "skins" and 9 "skulls" (based on my minis), so each kid would get to run an equal number of goblins.
Chief Rendwattle Gutwad, chieftan of the Licktoad goblins
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
i can't wait! the battle was super epic for us as well, get used to it:)
Jade Regent has some of the most awesome encounter areas that have epic potential!
you're gonna love it!
ha! you have a Catfolk too! my daughter saw the picture in Bestiary 3 she literally said exactly like Tina Fey "i want to be these" she's a Ninja tho (turns out theres a secret Catfolk Ninja Clan in SandPoint, who knew:p)
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
The party, continuing their search of the goblin fortress, saw many signs of a struggle: Many of the buildings bore the marks of weapons upon them, the front gates were smashed down, and many goblins had been cremated in a fire pit at the front of the fort. They first looked below the raised walkways and buildings (every walkway and building was on stilts 5 feet above the ground, presumably to keep out the water at high tide), but found and heard nothing. Next, they climbed a short, shoddily-build ladder up to the walkway and entered the first building, a ramshackle little hut that was obviously used as a poor man's lookout tower. Scouting the village, they still saw nothing, though Mi'Nou and Hayden picked up the patter of little feet fleeing them.
Nick called out, "We do not mean to harm you! If you come out, we mean you no harm! We only want to talk!"
Both Hayden and Marzbarz scoffed at this, but Nick didn't notice. Hello? Paladin!
Exiting the opposite side of the "watch tower", they walked along the wooden walkway to the next hut. Inside, even the paladin could hear the whispering voices. He knocked loudly on the door. "I'm going to open the door. Please surrender. We don't want to fight you. We just want to talk to you."
GM Note:Unfortunately for him, the goblins spoke nothing but Goblin, which no one in the party could speak or understand.
He opened the door, and combat ensued.
Round 1: Mi'Nou, Ro'Ahrr, and Hayden waited for Nick's OK to do something. The very first goblin, run by my wonderful 10-year-old son, took one look at the assortment of lethality in front of him, yelled, "Seizure!", and collapsed to the floor, twitching. I made him make a Bluff roll. He rolled a natural 19. The paladin's Sense Motive came up a 2, and the paladin believed that the poor goblin was suffering from a horrific seizure brought upon by the terror of seeing adventurers.
Goblin #2, obviously understanding, "The Plan", spent his round lighting a firework.
Goblin #3, not wanting to be in the front line, attempted to Bull Rush goblin #2 forward to block the door. He failed miserably.
Nick was at a complete loss as to what to do. He was blocking one door, and the goblins seemed relatively harmless, except for the poor one twitching on the floor, who might need help. He repeated his insistence that they were only there to talk, and went total defense.
Marzbarz sighed. Not for the first nor the last time.
Round 2: Mi'Nou, Ro'Ahrr, and Hayden continued to wait for something to happen. Goblin #1 continued his spectacular seizure, taking a 5' "seizure flop" across the floor. (Believe it or not, my son laid down and demonstrated exactly how this works. And it really does work!) Goblin #2 opened one of the back doors to run away, then realized he was holding a burning firework and pointed it out the door. It took some questioning, but I determined that he wanted to point it out the door with the paladin in it, but NOT hit the paladin. In a beautifully-clear moment of goblin logic, he said, "If I'm the first one who hits the paladin, he's going to hit me first!"
One spectacular attack roll later, the firework discharged harmlessly over the paladin's head. Goblin #3, fed up with the whole thing, kicked the seizuring goblin #1, opened the other back door, and fled.
Nick, tired of waiting for the goblins to do something, and a bit worried that the firework might actually hurt someone, walked up and clocked goblin #2 for nonlethal damage, dropping him (and the firework) on the floor.
The rest of the party gazed in wonder at this lunacy, but warned Nick that there were 3 more goblins coming up the walkway behind goblin #2's door, and one of them was lighting a firework.
Round 3: Now that there were more goblins, the rest of the party started moving around the walkways, trying to find ways to reach them. Nick picked up and extinguished the firework. Seizure goblin chose not to take the attack of opportunity, but frothed about on the floor some more. The goblins yelled, "Flank! Flank!" and then inexplicably the goblin carrying a lit firework opened the door, taking the attack of opportunity to try (and fail) to shoot the paladin with the firework. Again, the paladin dropped him in one nonlethal blow, and the goblins started chanting, "paladins OP"! Goblin #3 returned for the flank, and managed the first damage of the fight, a whopping 3 points in the back of the paladin.
This turned the rest of the party loose, though they had trouble getting clean targets as the goblins scurried about the walkways.
Rounds 4+: For the rest of the fight, I had 3 goblins arriving every other round, letting the kids take them over once they were on the map. Memorable moments:
- The goblin that Nick dropped on Round 3 had his firework go off and light one of the buildings on fire. In a spectacular bit of goblin mayhem, the goblins completely ignored the fact that their village was on fire and left it for the PCs to put out.
- Ro'Ahrr obliterated one goblin (critical bite, critical claw, claw), then charged across an open area to two others. I suggested that they could both take five-foot steps and attack the beast, and instead when I asked the first one what he did, he replied calmly, "I play dead."
"Uh, what?"
"Tigers don't attack you if you play dead."
"That's bears!"
"Oh, well, it might work."
Sure enough, the other goblin attacked Ro'Ahrr and he put his full attentions on eviscerating that one. While standing on the "dead" goblin. Who then decided it would be a good idea to stab the tiger. While lying prone underneath him! Yeah. It was short, but funny.
- The goblins and their fireworks. I have no idea what they were planning on doing with them, but they sure as heck had fun lighting them. In the entire battle, ONE goblin hit the paladin with ONE firework. This equals the total damage to the goblins, as one goblin found himself in an enclosed room with a firework at the end of his move, so stuck it down his pants to prevent it from lighting the room on fire. Ouch.
- In more, "Fun with the tiger-shaped eidolon," one goblin ended up on a walkway above the eidolon. Rather than doing something sensible, like shooting the eidolon or something, he put the lit firework in his teeth, jumped down, and tried to ride the eidolon. His hopelessly-inadequate CMB check resulted in yet another goblin prone on the ground right next to an angry eidolon. The eidolon fed well that day, let me tell you!
- Towards the end of the fight, the paladin was left alone in the room with "seizure goblin", and proceeded to roll a natural 20 on his Heal check to realize that there was nothing wrong with the goblin. He spent the next two rounds tying up the goblin.
The most significant point? "Seizure goblin" was the *only* goblin in the entire battle who took no damage whatsoever; he just got tied up. So, since goblins are very clever, I now envision the entire tribe of goblins, on seeing an enemy, going into horrific seizures a la fainting goats.
There was much, much more nonsense, and I'm hoping my players can chime in. There were non-goblin antics. Hayden's player's background included that he'd been one of the Varisian kids in the caravan that was nearly slaughtered by goblins in the previous campaign. So the first time a goblin went down in his range, he shot it anyway, rolling a natural 20 and criticalling the poor unconscious goblin. The paladin objected, but was busy with more goblins at the moment, so Hayden snuck about, coup de gracing goblins and shoving them off the walkway, intending to tell Nick that they had "fallen". How they got multiple stab wounds while falling, we'll never know...
Where were Marzbarz and Mi'Nou through all this nonsense? Well, since Ro'Ahrr doesn't have opposable thumbs, she was following him around, opening doors for him. Marzbarz valiantly tried to be useful by performing and casting spells, but soon realized his efforts were completely unappreciated. He added even more comedy relief when his +11 Acrobatics skill barely allowed him to jump off the walkway (our house rule is -5 on a natural 1, so he rolled 1 + 11 - 5 = 7 on a DC 5 jump), and he failed entirely to get back up (another natural 1 on a DC 10).
His final triumph was to run into the burning building to try to kick out the burning planks from the inside (he was too short to reach them from outside). He went in, Hayden, in a fit of concience, walked to the outside to try to put the fire out, and Marzbarz made a spectacular Strength check to knock the burning timbers down onto Hayden. My only disappointment of the night was that Hayden made his Reflex save and didn't catch fire.
Even after the kids were done and I took over Chief Rendwattle and his final minions, they weren't done. After the first minion goblin dropped, the second took a 5' step to replace him in order to allow Rendwattle to continue with his withering arrow fire...
...except he fumbled and got the dreaded, "Critical threat on nearest ally" card. I rolled in the open, and he hit Rendwattle. Not only that, on the 1 his dogslicer broke. So if you've ever seen, "Kung Fu Hustle", imagine the scene where the guy reaches back to throw the knife, sticks the blade into his friend, and then hurls the hilt at his enemy. I figure that was about what happened to the goblin.
----
Now THAT is how goblins should be played!
can i post GM specific stuff here if i use spoiler tags?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Absolutely. But definitely use the spoiler tags, as my players might be adding their memories here.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
"I be epic goblins!"
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
*Slow Clap*
*Slow Clap*
Slow clap Indeed!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
LOL. Yes. I believe my absolute favorite statistic is that the party fought 18 goblins, with 3 coming in every other round, and I believe they took a grand total of 7 points of damage because the goblins were too busy lighting fireworks, trying to make Acrobatics checks, running around under the walkways trying to hide from the intruders, and otherwise completely forgetting the fact that they had dog slicers.
Then the group fought Rendwattle and he dropped the paladin in two shots, crit the ranger and nearly killed him, and ended up in an epic hand-to-hand battle with Ro'Ahrr. Yeah, Marzbarz was in there too hacking away, but couldn't hit to save his life, while Ro'Ahrr's player was routinely rolling 16-19's on almost every die roll. At 3 attacks per round, Rendwattle only got to down one potion before he succumbed to the excessively-good rolling of the eidolon.
i took it easy on ours, first campaign, my daughter was almost 8, and my wife expressly told me "nobody can die in this, our first adventure!" anyway they got thru the 18 goblins but by then they had 9 hit points between the four of them, no spells, no fireworks or arrows and Gutwad had the We Be Goblins goblins with him, since no one in our party was human (a Gnome, a Dwarf, a Halfling and a Catfolk walk into a bar...) Gutwad made a deal, long story not as long he is now part of their entourage:)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I forgot to mention we played We Be Goblins beforehand, so the whole time we're in the ruined village Penny is stressed out asking "is Squeely Nord ok? Where's Rita Bigbad?" good times:)
3 posts in a row! i'm not going to make your campaign explode i hope, crossing the streams and all, ah well worked for The Ghostbusters:)
anyway i added fun little tweaks to our campaign i'll post a few,
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
LOL. The purpose of this particular thread is to share goblin lunacy. As I said, I have no intention of providing a blow-by-blow of the Jade Regent campaign. So we'll see where this thread wanders, if anywhere...
Oh I know, I just like to share:) dont get to share much of this as a stay at home dad in the midwest, if it doesnt involve sports or drinking most people here tune it out:)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Entirely unrelated I just got book 1 of Iron Gods and now desperately want to watch s@~%loads of x-files then run it halloween weekend with party of Investigators and vivisectionist alchemists sent by andoran to check it out:D
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Entirely unrelated I just got book 1 of Iron Gods and now desperately want to watch s%%@loads of x-files then run it halloween weekend with party of Investigators and vivisectionist alchemists sent by andoran to check it out:D
Don't forget to have them travel two by two, with hands of blue.
I feel compelled to point out to the OP that when you roll a 1 on a skill check it is NOT an automatic failure.
It's just a number like any other.
So your fellow with the +11 to climb rolling a 1 gets a 12, like any other skill roll, and easily made it up there.
Also, unless he was being threatened in combat, he could easily take 10 on the roll and get a 22.
It's saving throws and To hit rolls that are auto failures on a 1, not skill checks.
==Aelryinth
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I feel compelled to point out to the OP that when you roll a 1 on a skill check it is NOT an automatic failure.
It's just a number like any other.
So your fellow with the +11 to climb rolling a 1 gets a 12, like any other skill roll, and easily made it up there.
Also, unless he was being threatened in combat, he could easily take 10 on the roll and get a 22.
It's saving throws and To hit rolls that are auto failures on a 1, not skill checks.
==Aelryinth
He doesn't rule them as such, they have a -5 house rule (which houses are entitled to), not to mention, that that same character had just rolled a 1 on getting down and didn't fail because even with the -5 he still exceeded the DC.
Goblin melees dont follow rules of logic, reason or physics, much less pathfinder:)
you just do the best you can and hope to keep the injuries outside the game to a minimum, which especially with kids is exceptionally hard:)
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
i'm pretty sure there's probably like 15 online etiquette rules i'm breaking by doing this, however it is so funny i had to share, it won't take long and is totally worth it:)
my mom is a newspaper reporter (at nearly 70! no slowing down!) so she's over complaining about some anonymous government drone thats been giving her crap with open records laws, our son Milo, who is 3 and absorbs every word said in his vicinity like the sponge, even if you think he isn't listening.
anyway, he hears grandma getting worked up so he says "man, what an A*~*%*+!" clear as day! she looks at him, smiles and says "now where did you learn words like those?" he puffs out his chest, smiles proudly, sticks his nose in the air as far as it goes and adopts his best Squidward voice and says "I watch Public Television!" she cracked up so hard! LOL
He doesn't rule them as such, they have a -5 house rule (which houses are entitled to), not to mention, that that same character had just rolled a 1 on getting down and didn't fail because even with the -5 he still exceeded the DC.I feel compelled to point out to the OP that when you roll a 1 on a skill check it is NOT an automatic failure.
It's just a number like any other.
So your fellow with the +11 to climb rolling a 1 gets a 12, like any other skill roll, and easily made it up there.
Also, unless he was being threatened in combat, he could easily take 10 on the roll and get a 22.
It's saving throws and To hit rolls that are auto failures on a 1, not skill checks.
==Aelryinth
Aaaaaand I of course noticed that. The only reason you would have such a rule is that if a 1 was an automatic failure, as a -5 still lets you succeed.
Which would only apply if you didn't know that a 1 was just a number on a skill check.
Unless, of course, he's just being completely random.
And I'm not saying he's WRONG to do what he's doing. I'm just pointing it out in case he didn't know. It's literally an unnecessary rule.
==+Aelryinth
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
He doesn't rule them as such, they have a -5 house rule (which houses are entitled to), not to mention, that that same character had just rolled a 1 on getting down and didn't fail because even with the -5 he still exceeded the DC.I feel compelled to point out to the OP that when you roll a 1 on a skill check it is NOT an automatic failure.
It's just a number like any other.
So your fellow with the +11 to climb rolling a 1 gets a 12, like any other skill roll, and easily made it up there.
Also, unless he was being threatened in combat, he could easily take 10 on the roll and get a 22.
It's saving throws and To hit rolls that are auto failures on a 1, not skill checks.
==Aelryinth
Aaaaaand I of course noticed that. The only reason you would have such a rule is that if a 1 was an automatic failure, as a -5 still lets you succeed.
Which would only apply if you didn't know that a 1 was just a number on a skill check.
Unless, of course, he's just being completely random.
And I'm not saying he's WRONG to do what he's doing. I'm just pointing it out in case he didn't know. It's literally an unnecessary rule.
==+Aelryinth
What a... strange series of statements.
In RAW, for skill checks both 1's and 20's are "just rolls", they are no different from any other roll. Yet in attack rolls and saving throws they are automatic successes and failures.
We don't care for this complete disparity, but we don't want 1's to be auto-fails either, so we go for a middle ground, where a 1 is painful, but not an automatic fail, and a 20 is awesome, but not an automatic success. Hence the "-5 on a 1, +5 on a 20" for skill checks house rule.
Yes, as all house rules, you can deem it "unnecessary", but we find it adds a bit of fun for extreme rolls. I don't understand the "literally an unnecessary rule" statement at all. It DOES change the game, so it's not overridden by other rules somewhere else.
Same thing with the take 10 -- he was trying to perform an acrobatic maneuver as part of a move action during combat. Not, "In place of a move action," but, "I want to jump down and keep moving as part of my move action."
From RAW: When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted, you may choose to take 10.
Again, you can call it a house rule, but the way I read that is that if you're not dedicating your full attention to it, you can't take 10 on it.
But I prefer this thread remain a "funny goblin (and apparently 3-year-olds) stories" thread rather than a "How NobodysHome runs his home games" thread.
EDIT: Sorry, but I was just imagining the player in question looking at me with a straight face and saying, "I realize there are two melee combats and a burning building within 50 feet of me, fireworks going off everywhere, and goblins running about both above and below these walkways looking for victims, but I am not distracted."
My other players would laugh so hard I wouldn't have to say a word...
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
This is Bucko's former game....
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
This is Bucko's former game....
THAT'S the kind of stuff we're looking for! Woo hoo for Bucko! Hey! Leggo my leg, Bucko! Ow! Ow! Shoo! Git!
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
After reading this and Bucko's thread I want to play nothing but goblins from now on.
He doesn't rule them as such, they have a -5 house rule (which houses are entitled to), not to mention, that that same character had just rolled a 1 on getting down and didn't fail because even with the -5 he still exceeded the DC.I feel compelled to point out to the OP that when you roll a 1 on a skill check it is NOT an automatic failure.
It's just a number like any other.
So your fellow with the +11 to climb rolling a 1 gets a 12, like any other skill roll, and easily made it up there.
Also, unless he was being threatened in combat, he could easily take 10 on the roll and get a 22.
It's saving throws and To hit rolls that are auto failures on a 1, not skill checks.
==Aelryinth
Aaaaaand I of course noticed that. The only reason you would have such a rule is that if a 1 was an automatic failure, as a -5 still lets you succeed.
Which would only apply if you didn't know that a 1 was just a number on a skill check.
Unless, of course, he's just being completely random.
And I'm not saying he's WRONG to do what he's doing. I'm just pointing it out in case he didn't know. It's literally an unnecessary rule.
==+Aelryinth
What a... strange series of statements.
In RAW, for skill checks both 1's and 20's are "just rolls", they are no different from any other roll. Yet in attack rolls and saving throws they are automatic successes and failures.
We don't care for this complete disparity, but we don't want 1's to be auto-fails either, so we go for a middle ground, where a 1 is painful, but not an automatic fail, and a 20 is awesome, but not an automatic success. Hence the "-5 on a 1, +5 on a 20" for skill checks house rule.
Yes, as all house rules, you can deem it "unnecessary", but we find it adds a bit of fun for extreme rolls. I don't understand the "literally an unnecessary rule" statement at all. It DOES change the game, so it's not overridden by other rules somewhere else.Same thing with...
Um, follow this logic.
You put in a 1=-5 rule and 20=+5 rule so that the 1 auto failure and 20 auto success don't apply.
Except those rules don't apply to skil checks, anyways.
The reason you would put in such things is to remove the 'automatic' portion of the check.
Skills have no automatic portion of the check.
THus, using that rules for skills is literally unnecessary, since there's no automatic success or failure to replace.
The only reason you'd normally have such a check is if you thought skills had the same 1/20 rule that attacks and saves had. They don't, so it's unnecessary.
But you instead are 'further penalizing' and 'further helping' skill checks with this modified 1/20 rule...which seems to be against the very kind of principle you are trying to accomplish.
as for 'distractions', the only one that is relevant to skill checks is being threatened in combat. Otherwise, you are believed to be able to concentrate enough on what you are doing to ignore lesser distractions.
BUT, if you want to rule otherwise, it's your game. I'm just pointing out the rules as they are...and there are a LOT of people who think the 1/20 rule applies to skill checks, which is why I posted in the first place.
===Aelryinth
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
You put in a 1=-5 rule and 20=+5 rule so that the 1 auto failure and 20 auto success don't apply.
Here is where your supposition is incorrect.
He put them in BECAUSE the auto fail/success don't apply. And he WANTED some kind of enhanced failure on 1s/enhanced successes on 20s, but not to go so far as making it completely automatic.
See here:
We don't care for this complete disparity (between Attacks and Saves having 1 autofail/20 autosuccess and Skills not), but we don't want 1's to be auto-fails either, so we go for a middle ground, where a 1 is painful, but not an automatic fail, and a 20 is awesome, but not an automatic success.
I saw that. But, he doesn't note that the ruling is limited to skill checks, he simply notes skills are different then attack/saves.
His follow up sentence makes me think he doesn't like how the attack/saves work, so he's modifying THAT...and then including skill checks as an afterthought, so they all follow the same rules.
Nothing makes me think that's not what he's doing. Or is it still the 1/20 for attacks and saves, but revised only for skills?
It's hard to tell from what he has posted.
==Aelryinth
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I think you're doing something to confuse yourself. It's perfectly crystal clear for me: he understands how attacks and saves work, and is altering skill checks to match, but making a slight variation so that instead of automatic success/fail, it's simply a nudge in one direction or the other.
He hasn't stated if it applies to attacks and saves as well because 1.) nobody asked, and 2.) because that's not what this discussion was about, it was about his skills houserules. (Well, once it stopped being about crazy goblin fun.) I think your comment about "follow up sentences" is a result of you assuming an implication where none was intended.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Not sure we were epic goblins, but 8th level is pretty high for goblins.
If anyone looks closely we had another game that started with we be goblins.
Also a thread what would goblins ask a human in an interview is fantastic...
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I saw that. But, he doesn't note that the ruling is limited to skill checks, he simply notes skills are different then attack/saves.
His follow up sentence makes me think he doesn't like how the attack/saves work, so he's modifying THAT...and then including skill checks as an afterthought, so they all follow the same rules.
Nothing makes me think that's not what he's doing. Or is it still the 1/20 for attacks and saves, but revised only for skills?
It's hard to tell from what he has posted.
==Aelryinth
OK, last attempt and then I'm giving up on this strange derailment.
The -5/+5 applies to skill checks and initiative rolls to make 1's and 20's more meaningful. My players like it.
We use RAW for all other rolls. (Attacks, saves, etc.) Auto-successes and auto-fails apply as specified in the rules.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I say!
did somebody say "Derailment"?
Egads! that is a Ghastly sight now isn't it!
a cup of Tea perhaps, maybe a crumpet?
I say, are those Hounds i hear......
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Goblin hounds, though they err really big swamp rats tha gots tah swimmin in goblin swill an now we rides em likes herooos."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
well thats a relief!
for a minute I was afraid it twas the Curr Foxglove again, ready to finish The Hunt, but I wont go without a fight wot, wot! And Tea, one cant run thru the woods madly without a spot of Tea, where's Jeffrey now....
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I say!
did somebody say "Derailment"?
Egads! that is a Ghastly sight now isn't it!
a cup of Tea perhaps, maybe a crumpet?I say, are those Hounds i hear......
Sic 'im, Bucko!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Egads! Why does this always happen on a friday!
i say, i seriously need to review my hunting schedule....
i wonder where Tangent went to?
usually you can count on him for a witty quip or some "Fun with Math" moments:)
quick somebody start a "What Point buy should i use" thread, maybe he'll come back:)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Reginald, stop taunting the animals, for Heaven's sake! Don't you ever learn, old boy?
I always recommend carefully weighing ones options.....especially regarding a haircut....
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
While I'm not keeping a campaign journal for this campaign, I do like spreading little vignettes.
The group finished Book 1 yesterday, and for the most part it ran very much as-written. There were a few delightful (or disturbing) variations):
- On their way to Brinewall, I rolled up a stag beetle as an encounter. At night. I wondered, "What would a stag beetle be doing approaching a caravan at night?"
Then, it came to me... and the party had to defend one of their wagons from the amorous intentions of a horny beetle. This involved fireworks, and not in a good way.
My favorite part? We were YouTubing the other night and saw a clip of a HUGE boar trying to get amorous with a VW. So apparently I was mimicking real life without realizing it...
- The guy playing the paladin of Rae'Sheleth is just killing me. They opened the door to the fungus-filled room in the castle. He looked at me with a straight face. "I get between the bard and the fungus."
Then he turned to the bard's player. "I know that you are tempted to eat that fungus, but please do not. I must stop you from doing so."
The look on the bard's player's face was priceless (he wasn't one of our RotRL players, so it was a big, "WTF?!?!?" moment for him).
- Speaking of just killing me, when the bard asked whether there were any single rich women in town, the paladin replied, "Absolutely. You just met one of the richest single women in town when you visited the Rusty Dragon."
Cue the bard romancing Bethana, THEN realizing his mistake. We all fell out of our chairs laughing at that one.
And yesterday he learned that Ameiko is heir to the throne. His facial expression was awesome. And the paladin's player didn't help. "So, you could have romanced the heir to the Minkai throne, and you decided to romance the hobbit. Nicely done!"
- Proving that my group is still my group, the paladin refused to kill any of the troglodytes or their monitor lizard, instead doing nonlethal damage to all of them, capturing them, and (through Spivey) negotiating to let them go with the understanding that the party might need to enter their lair. When the party returned, I set troglodyte-appropriate conditions ("Let us kill your tiger and eat his heart, or one of you must engage our leader in naked unarmed one-on-one combat to the death"), and the party simply went around them and managed to finish Book 1 without having to slaughter them.
- Our catfolk summoner is "inpired by" Yzma; in particular, her voice and mannerisms. During their initial assault on Brinewall Castle they were fighting the dire corbies on a narrow walkway on the second floor. I, a clever GM, tried to use the corby's jump pounce attack to surprise the group. Instead, I rolled a natural 1, missing the check by more than 5, so the first corby facing them simply appeared to jump off the building for no reason. "Well, I didn't expect THAT," she deadpanned. (And yes, I did indeed roll a second natural 1 when it tried to land without hurting itself, so it was just a pathetic piece of corby incompetence.)
However, my absolute favorite moment was the three chests. I really didn't want to "play favorites" by specifying items for specific PCs, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out items related to "destiny", so instead I let them be little "mini wish" boxes.
The bard opened the first, so I took his player into another room and asked, "Honestly, if you think about it from your PC's point of view, what, in his heart's desire, would be in that box?"
"Honestly? I think he'd love to find a really great bottle of scotch."
Cue the creation of the Decanter of Endless Scotch. The bard is happy.
So, *knowing all this* and knowing that there was a second box, the party still let the tiger-shaped eidolon open the second box.
Cue the creation of Gloves of Opposable Thumbs.
Yes, even knowing full well that they could have any magic item they could imagine, my players chose to give a tiger opposable thumbs.
I love my players!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
5 bucks says they get to the end of the campaign
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I’m enjoying your vignettes very much - I hope you can continue to post them! Our group is currently part of the way through Book 2 of my not-entirely-as-written Jade Regent campaign. (So far, I’ve managed to keep my campaign journal up to date here: link.)
The PCs decided to try bluffing their way past the outer walls of Brinewall Castle. They hadn’t made plans beyond that point, and accidentally got themselves hired by Kikonu. (They kept their jobs as “minions of evil” for nearly a day, and no troglodytes were harmed.)
Our catfolk summoner is "inpired by" Yzma
Oh heck this must be hilarious.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I’m enjoying your vignettes very much - I hope you can continue to post them! Our group is currently part of the way through Book 2 of my not-entirely-as-written Jade Regent campaign. (So far, I’ve managed to keep my campaign journal up to date here: link.)
** spoiler omitted **
I love it! Yes, I do plan to keep posting as entertainment shall happen. It's a LOT easier to do a few bullet points rather than the whole storyline I do for Second Darkness, Rise of the Runelords, or Wrath of the Righteous.
In fact, now that I know people are watching I'll try to do quick "session updates" of stuff here. Maybe 15 minutes of writing instead of 4 hours.
But as I mentioned, the Jade Regent is much more of another "As time permits" game, so who knows how often things will appear?
My biggest disappointments of Book 1 were not getting to roleplay out the true cray-cray nature of Kikonu and Buttersnips.
Zaiobe met the party on the outer walls during their initial assault, and they agreed to help her take out Kikonu (with a few minor conditions set by the paladin. Things like, "He has to be evil, I have to decide he needs to be slain, etc.") Rather than beat around the bush, they summoned Zaiobe and Kikonu to battle it out at the start of their second assault, and Zaiobe won the aerial battle handily, then turned on the party as she was at near-max health. A crit on the paladin had me thinking I'd overestimated the party's strength and I had a TPK in the making, but Spivey shot up like a little nuclear star and Zaiobe couldn't make a save against Spivey to save her life, and a late crit by the ranger kept her from getting away.
But that whole thing meant all they heard from Kikonu was cackling about betrayal and how that wasn't how the story was supposed to go. They DID find his play, and I got some nice reactions from that.
Buttersnips was far, far briefer but creepier. I described her dress in loving detail, had her cry out, "Oh, you'll make a BEAUTIFUL specimen!" as she tried to poison the paladin, and once she was unconscious described a room filled with tortured-and-stuffed animals and humanoids. The paladin didn't even ask the other party members. He just looked around the room, looked at her dress, walked up, and coup de graced her. It was definitely one of my favorite RP moments from the paladin. He's always REALLY careful about whom he executes, and he just looked around the room, said, "Erm, no," and lopped off her head. Fun times!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Our catfolk summoner is "inpired by" YzmaOh heck this must be hilarious.
Oh, geez. It's GothBard. She is *awesome*. The dual nature of the prim, above-it-all catfolk (Yzma) and the big, lumbering, goofy, tiger-like eidolon (Cronk) is an absolutely spectacular dynamic, and she's roleplaying them both with great gusto.
She even has the summoner worshipping Desna, and the eidolon worshipping Cayden Cailean.
It's always a pleasure having her run a PC with meat in her bones (Raesh, anyone?), and having her play two PCs who play off of each other is just priceless.
EDIT: And we are *ALL* eagerly anticipating when she inevitably gets hit with Pup Form (it HAS to happen, right?) so she can say, "Is that my voice? Is that MY voice? Ah, well..."
Buttersnips, for us:)
its still, 3 years later, hands down our favorite pathfinder battle ever!
book 3
yes fun times indeed! :-)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oh, I *did* love the dire corby cleric casting Darkness, only to learn that the tiger-shaped eidolon had darkvision and loved to eat birds. All the rest of the party heard was crunching and smacking, then the eidolon, mouth full of feathers, dragged her body into the light.
"She didn't make it..."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
And here's the "railroad, WHAT railroad?" summary of Saturday's session:
- The party was attacked by 12 Ulfen warriors while encamped, but dispatched them easily. We used the "blue glowy" method of combat this time (all the NPCs and a good portion of the warriors turned into "blue glowies" and their combat was resolved off-screen, so the combat was only the PCs), and this was better-received than the, "Have a bunch of NPCs to run," combats we did before. From here on out the "caravan combats" will probably be run this way.
- On questioning, some of the warriors exploded. (Well, took 12d6 of damage to their 18 hit points.) Mi'Nou correctly identified it as some kind of geas. So they tied up the surviving prisoners and threw them on the boat.
- Once again, Marzbar the bard proved his (apparent) mettle by last-hitting two of the warriors. That means Kelda saw him down a troll and two warriors. She took an interest in him. 'Nuf said.
- The group arrived in Kalsgard (some by ship and some by caravan) and those in the caravan learned of the Ulfen's mistrust of Varisian caravans. They took offense and refused to stay in an inn, instead sleeping in the caravan. So much for all the, "While you were away from the caravan," stuff!
- They had Kelda return the ship and its prisoners to the guildhalls. I didn't see a possible way the guildhalls wouldn't know the ship belonged to the Rimerunners, so they returned it there, earning a bounty for the ship but learning it had been stolen just before the raid.
- They sold all their loot from many weeks of adventuring, gave Kelda her fair share, and let her go on her way. She returned the next day with her weregild for being rescued, but then departed the party permanently (I assume).
- They took Spivey to the shrine to Desna, where she met a second lyrakien azata and the two are "keeping temple" together.
- They visited the Hunting Serpent, where both Ro'ahrr and Marzbar were made VERY welcome, bought drinks for the house, and learned the armbands belonged to one Asvig Longthews, though there was doubt expressed that Asvig even had 40 men to send in an attack! Both claiming false kinship and boat theft are capital offenses in Kalsgard (in my Golarion), so the group was convinced there was something far darker afoot. I should definitely have done more to play up Asvig as unwelcoming of guests, but instead I played the info very closely to what's written. So they didn't understand how much he hates uninvited guests.
- They walked up to Longthews' house in broad daylight, had a *massive* fight, and emerged victorious. Questioning the thralls at the longhouse, they let Kelva and the thralls go, but had the thralls hold the surviving warriors prisoner at the house for a day to prevent word from getting out about the attack.
- They learned that Asvig had RENTED the ship from the Rimerunners, and the men WERE his! Something was rotten with the Rimerunners.
- They also learned that a northern guide named Ulf *and* the ancient Amatatsu sword Suishen had been stolen by Asvig, and Ulf was likely to be burned in Snorri Stone-Eye's funeral ship at dawn!
- Returning to the caravan to get what rest they could, they met Uksahkka, Ulf's partner, and she told them a fog would come in, preventing the funeral from occurring 'til evening.
- The party rested and planned a shopping trip.
=====
GM Notes:
- Eliminating NPCs from caravan combat worked well. I'm going to try to shuffle off NPCs as often as possible; the PCs should be the stars.
- The whole section in Kalsgard is, in my mind, horrifically poorly thought out. Of COURSE the group is going to investigate the ship and the armbands first, and of COURSE they're going to find out about Asvig. Assuming that they're going to do more investigation about him in town, or that they're going to sneak out to his place at night puts a huge amount of pressure on the GM to figure out how to pressure the PCs not to go out there without giving away too much information. So they had a huge fight that the book says they will most likely lose. If they're not supposed to go to Asvig's by day, why not provide some hints of that somewhere? In hindsight, Asvig should have talked to them and sent them on their way. But the border guard traps and the description kick off the fight immediately, and it was a nasty, nasty fight.
- There's this similar sense of constant urgency through the rest of the section. Kidnappings, arson, assassination attempts; the PCs are put in a mindset of, "Do something RIGHT NOW or something bad will happen," and then all of the encounters are, "If the PCs do something right now, they're going to lose." Not a good combo at all.
- As a result, I'm having to re-think all of the events in Kalsgard to better suit my group's behavior. I don't like to have to rewrite full sections of an AP, but Kalsgard is such an unabashed railroad, with such an attitude of, "If the PCs step off the rails, punish them," that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Better to adjust what's happening and let the PCs do what they will.
- Don't get me wrong -- I'm *loving* all the political intrigue and machinations going on in Kalsgard. I would just far rather let them play out on a grand stage as they deserve, rather than handing the PCs a step-by-step guide to, "Here is the order in which you must find things out and defuse things." We'll see how it all plays out, but they generate Notoriety Points SO fast and they are rushing hither and yon SO quickly that I'm supposed to dump half a dozen events on them in a single day. Seems silly and excessive, but the constant sense of urgency is preventing them from slowing down at all...
[/rant off]
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Here’s another variation from our group …
I decided against using Notoriety Points. If I were using them, the PCs would probably have picked up a few during our most recent session …
After concluding that they needed to search the funeral ship, the PCs spoke to Uksahkka. She had already told them that the launch was likely to be delayed, and now she mentioned she could get kayaks for them. Instead, the PCs asked for directions to the tavern where they would have the best chance of finding a lot of drunken pranksters.
With some impressive diplomacy and oratory, the PCs persuaded a group of locals to accompany them to the funeral ship in rowing-boats and help them cut the ship loose from its mooring while it was still under heavy guard. From outside the ship, the PCs chopped a way through to the hold. At the same time, some of their new companions went to the river bank and started a “distraction”, which eventually led to a large brawl between drunken pranksters and drunken feast-goers. (So the funeral ship ended up being launched and set on fire ahead of schedule. Bits of the brawl may still be in progress.)