Phelanar's Den

An update of sorts.

2011-02-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

I know. I haven't updated this blog in a while. A long while. I've moved at least some of it over to RPGMusings.com and that's where most of it will remain. I think I'm going to keep this one going too, but for more... I dunno if I can call them personal posts, but stuff that might not be of interest to the wider public or things that are more controversial. Almost wish I'd posted my "Play at your own pace" article here, but what's done is done.

But the thing I most want to post here is my campaign logs, along with links, maps, and the sort. So you can steal the encounters or maps for your own or just watch a campaign unfold in more detail or see my thinking behind encounter, map, or story design. Some of the encounters and areas will be the same as in my earlier posts, but some will not. If you're one of my players? Please don't go read those old ones. :P You'll enjoy it more in the long run to be surprised.

Which brings me finally to the point. I rebooted my campaign this week. Rebooted and relocated. I had been running this campaign locally, this was my modified Rescue at Rivenroar thing. But the group fell apart. And what's more, the campaign was just not going well. Some of that is on my head. Rivenroar itself is too much of a grind. It's a very long dungeon without a lot of unique or interesting fights and there were far too many combats even if they all were interesting. I did what I could on that count, cutting some combats and changing many more. But ultimately, it was too long and too much of the same thing. I was not at my best at all. The players also shared some of the blame, some of them uninterested in the story, others hating the system, and none of them at all seeming all that engaged in the campaign. They were more than happy to let the NPCs they rescued fade into the background and be ignored and I couldn't make anybody care about what was going on. And that utter lack of enthusiasm sapped and eventually killed my own. I didn't want to run a game anymore for the group. And almost 4 months later, I still don't, outside of one-shots or similarly short adventures/stories. But that's not important right now.

So what did I do? I decided to take my game online. I would find a group of players that I thought would be more enthusiastic and interested in what I was doing. I would take the lessons I'd learned in my first try at running the campaign and make things better for this go. I would put in more effort and try and coax that same level of effort out of my PCs, using Obsidian Portal. I would try and do interesting and unique things to make it different from other campaigns the players might have been in, for example doing a video trailer for the campaign like you'd see for a movie.

I don't want this campaign to fail and I'm going to work hard at it not doing so. I've assembled a really good group of players and I think there's some good chemistry brewing even in just the first two sessions (only one of which was a play session).

So, soon I'll post things like links to the Actual Play podcast sessions we're doing, links to the relevant adventure logs from players on Obsidian Portal, as well as PDFs with maps and monsters for each encounter. I hope you will enjoy them.

A Little of Everything: Deciding Between Random Treasure, Wishlists, and Inherent Bonuses

2010-10-26T20:14:00.000-06:00

The question of how to distribute equipment, specifically magic items, has always been kind of a problem with D&D. How much do you give out? How powerful? How often should they get it? What should be given out? But they aren't easy questions to really answer. So while there have been many answers, none of them have really been ideal. With D&D4e comes the infamous parcel system (which I will not be getting into here) and wishlists (which I obviously will be). The wishlist system (if you can really call it that) has taken a great deal of flak. Mainly from people who dislike 4th Edition, but also from more than a few who do. It's been something argued over a great deal since 4e came out, by both players and DMs. I've got my own opinions on the subject, but first I think it's worth getting into what's good and bad about wishlists as well as the good and bad about some of the alternatives.

So what's good about wishlists? They're easy. On both DMs and players. The player looks up exactly what they want and need, gives it to he DM, and at some point the DM gives it out as treasure. Not a lot of effort involved beyond the small investment of time to create and then update the list and the DM's only effort is to make sure the item fits in with what he wants his campaign to be. It also keeps the players happy. They get exactly what they can use for their characters. At no point will a player get really excited to get a new magic item only to find out that it's really crappy for their character. That's a feeling that's arguably worse than not having gotten anything at all.

So, wishlists have some upsides, but why do people hate them so much? They're immersion/realism breakers for some people. I know, it's a game about elves, dragons, and wizards and I've said as much on Twitter. But I can see where people might find the contrived coincidence of finding an exact item that fits a character perfectly worthy of an eye roll. Especially when you're talking exotic items or strange locales. Further, the game math needs players to get upgrades fairly often to keep up with monster defenses and attacks, so it feels even more artificial. This isn't a problem limited to wishlists, but the wishlists tended to feed into a constant turnover of magic items because as soon as a player got one item off their list they would likely update it and add something else.

Alright, what are alternatives? Random magic items. The option of choice for older editions. What's good about random items? It encourages player creativity and open-mindedness , for one thing. If they often have to make due with what they have, players might find new and interesting ways to use them. It also may allow them to see something as being good even if it didn't fit exactly what they'd had in mind for their character. It also keeps players from getting too complacent and cynical about magic items since they're never sure what they're going to find. Lastly, it might encourage more roleplaying or questing from players as they try to take what they do have and use it to find what they actually want or need. Whether it be haggling with a merchant for a trade, asking an enclave of scholars where a particular magic item may be found, or having to steal something from a sinister baron, players and DMs might be surprised to find what happens in the search for magical gear.

You know there are going to be drawbacks to random items too, right? Although random items might encourage creativity, open-mindedness, roleplaying, and/or questing, at some point players might get upset if they don't find stuff they want. Not just "can use", but "want". The party Paladin may be able to use that +3 Songblade short sword, but chances are he or she won't be all that excited about it. Players might get bored or frustrated having to take the stuff they get and turn it into stuff they want, whether it's because it's tedious, unnecessary, or just taking away from the main story or goal of the campaign. It's difficult to argue that sometimes the time spent on getting or finding "good" magic items might be better spent doing something else.

What about another alternative? Okay, the DM's choice. It's an uncommon method and for a good reason. This involves the DM picking items that he thinks will be good for the party. This is what I initially did for my game. I stopped after a fairly short time when I realised the reason that very few others did it: it's a lot of time and effort for the DM and may not make the party happy anyway. Having to guess what 3-6 players are planning for their characters or what works with their build (and what doesn't) is too much to ask of a DM who already has to do a lot for a campaign.

Then there are more radical alternatives, first of which is the inherent bonuses first mentioned in the DMG2 and again in the Dark Sun campaign book. It's a good sort of simplification and it fits some campaigns well. It's a very predictable progression and doesn't rely on what the DM does or does not give out. On the other hand, some campaigns or groups might not like missing out on magical items. It might lead to a lesser sense of tangible mechanical progression. In magic rich settings it might not feel quite right either. I can't imagine using inherent bonuses for a Forgotten Realms campaign, for example. Divine boons and martial trainings are other alternatives first mentioned in the DMG2 and while I really like them and think that they are a very natural or PC driven reward respectively, Wizards really hasn't followed up very well with them and the selection of either is very poor. This leads to a lot of DM and/or player heavy lifting to create more and not everybody either wants to or has the spare time for that sort of design work. But the concept for both of them is good and a group or DM willing to put the work in might find it worth it.

So, what am I doing for my game? A little of everything. I’ve asked all of my players for a wishlist. One armor, one neck piece, 1 weapon, and 1 misc item (could be a shield, holy symbol, whatever). I’ve told the players outright that they have to choose carefully because these are the core pieces of equipment they will have for the entire game. Won’t that put them behind the math curve for attacks and defenses? It would, if I left them at +1 items. Instead, the items themselves will increase in power, not unlike the inherent bonus option. Outside of those core items, however, I’ve told players that everything will be completely random. Level appropriate, but I won’t be paying attention to whether the items are going to be great for the group or not.

So what does this get the group? Well, the players get at least some of what they want. I’ve thrown them a bone up front. They can’t complain that they don’t have something that is perfectly suited for their characters. They get the exact bonus powers, properties, and abilities that they want for 4 pieces of equipment. They also get to be surprised by the random items that will show up and get to use items that they might not have considered using before since they’re not optimal. They also don’t have to be behind the math curve at any point due to the fact that their gear is growing in power as they are.

As for me, I get a much simplified prep. I have to give out a lot less treasure so I can focus more on things like the story, encounters, or NPCs. I also get to incorporate what equipment they ~do~ have into the campaign and ongoing story. For example, I think the Paladin in my game is going to pick a Sun Blade for his weapon. As he goes up in level and fame, the players will start to hear stories of Allayad, Champion of Bahamut with his glowing silver blade that has struck down many foes of the Platinum Dragon. I can also incorporate quests related to their equipment, like sending them to search for a way to enchant their weapons to defeat a certain foe or to power up their gear (like maybe turning the Sun Blade into a Holy Avenger or something).

Is my suggestion a really radical one? No. Sarah Darkmagic further pointed out that there was no reason that characters with inherent bonuses couldn't use magic items. You get the higher of the two bonuses and you get all the properties and powers of the item being used. So that works too, right? It does. I think my idea is more straightforward and easier to keep track of, but that’s not to say that doing it the other way is bad.

So what should you do for your game? Whatever works best for you, your group, and your story. If you’ve got a game like Dark Sun or you want to have a campaign that’s more Conan the Barbarian than Tolkien, inherent bonuses with the occasional low level magic item are definitely the way to go, for instance. If your group loves the thrill of getting magic items, whether they can use them or not, throw out random treasure as you need to. If everybody is happy with wishlists and surprisingly appropriate items in the most random of places, by all means start picking your stuff to give to your DM. If you want to mix it up, try my suggestion from above. Not every available option is going to make everybody happy, but if you’ve got a good group with mature players, you can find something that will let everybody forget the nitty gritty of things like how you get your items and get back to things that are more fun for everybody.

Phantasmal Harmony - Homebrew ritual

2010-10-16T15:30:00.005-06:00

This was an idea that I came up with in conjunction with a couple of other players (people playing a Wizard and Bard, natch) sometime last year. The ideas are a combination from all three of us, but the mechanics are nearly all mine. I have admittedly never used this ritual. It's not gotten any kind of playtesting. I'm not even sure it will be interesting for the majority of people who play D&D4e, but I thought it would be fun to (re)post anyway. First up is the ritual, then I'll post commentary on it after the mechanics and description.

Phantasmal Harmony
Level: 6
Type: Deception
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Duration: Special (see description)
Component Cost: 500gp
Market Price: 2500gp
Key Skill: Arcana (special)

Description: When activated, Phantasmal Harmony brings into being a full illusionary band of up to 5 people as well as appropriate lighting, sound, and and entertaining light show/fireworks display. The exact song and nature of the display is decided by the bard at the time of activation. This show provides morale bonuses for all allies within a close burst 5 radius with a duration determined by the Arcana check made at the time of casting. The exact nature of the bonuses is also determined at the time of casting. Although the bonuses last for a limited duration, the illusionary aspect lasts for up to 10 minutes or can be ended as a free action by the activating bard.

Casting the ritual for Phantasmal Harmony requires two people, a wizard and a bard. The average of their Arcana checks determines the duration of the morale bonuses as determined by the following chart:

19 or lower = 1 turn
20 to 29 = 2 turns
30 to 39 = 3 turns
40 or more = 4 turns.

On a natural 20 on the Arcana check by either the wizard or bard involved with the casting, the two rolls are instead added together to determine the result. At the time of casting, the nature of the morale bonuses is also decided. The bard may pick from any two of the following: +1 to all defenses, +1 to attack rolls, or +1 to saves.

Once the ritual has been cast, it is not activated immediately. Instead the ritual generates a small, tear-drop shaped piece of solid magic that, when thrown to the ground by the bard or wizard who participated in the ritual, will begin the effects. This item has no selling value and disappears if handled by someone other than the participating wizard or bard.

Commentary: So where do I begin to head off the criticism that I would expect? First, yes, it's a ritual that directly impacts combat. I don't remember seeing any of those in official sources (though I may be wrong) and I do realise that rituals generally are supposed to be more utilitarian magic. Combat magic is largely the domain of powers, not rituals. This is operating off pure Rule of Cool and not really the expected design parameters. The image in my mind is the bard or wizard activating this ritual, epic music ringing out with brilliant lights to inspire the PCs (or maybe demoralize the NPCs, depending on how you want to look at it. +1 to attack rolls can also be read as -1 to enemy defenses after all) for a few short, but important, rounds.

I expect that some people feel that there are too many bonuses and they're too large. At level 6 when the ritual can first be learned and cast, they are indeed hefty. But I deliberately avoided providing rules for scaling it up (it wouldn't be hard. At level 16, bonuses are +2, at level 26, bonuses are +3) so that as the characters advance in level, the ritual becomes less of a "must have" and more of a "nice to have" without ever completely being rendered useless. The save bonus becomes the best part of the ritual as a campaign progresses since it doesn't need to scale and that was again a deliberate design choice.

I feel the radius for the effect is solid. it's a wide radius, but not so big that allies couldn't find themselves out of it by chance, choice, or enemy actions. I also feel the duration is good. One of the balancing factors at lower levels is that, barring a crit, it would take an excellent roll from 2 characters to go more than 2 turns. Higher level characters will have an easier time getting more turns, but they're also getting less mechanical benefit per turn out of it except for the save bonus.

So there you go, Phantasmal Harmony. It's not a ritual for every game. Very serious games might find it inappropriate to the tone and setting. For the game that this ritual was developed for, there was a difference in opinion even from everybody involved. The DM pictured it as a more period/fantasy appropriate performance, while all the players who worked on it envisioned it more as a fantasy rock band event.

But it's ~fun~. That's why it was developed, that's why people should use it. I'm just picturing a bard's player saying "Okay, I'm using Phantasmal Memory" at the start of a fight and someonewith a mp3 player or laptop cueing up "Princes of the Universe" from Queen. Would that be awesome? I certainly think so.

Neither Straightjacket nor Sandbox – Role and Class

2010-10-14T13:57:00.000-06:00

This stems from yet another big conversation that originated on Twitter. Feeling that my thoughts on the subject were far too expansive for 140 characters at a time, I put off discussing it for the most part until I could write a blog post about it. The focus of the conversation was about classes, class roles, how to play your character, and how you should be able to play your character. The thinking seemed to boil down to two sides. The first felt that your class role should completely define your character. If you’re playing a Defender, you are expected to defend. You’ll mark, you’ll take hits from enemies, you’ll keep the rest of the party safe. If you do anything else, it’s a bonus, but you’d better make sure you can fulfill that main role as best you can. The other school of thought was that you should be able to take any role with any class. If you wanted to play your Rogue as a Defender, there should be options for that. If your Wizard wants to be a Striker, she should be able to.

My thinking is that both of these lines of thinking are right. Which, of course, makes them both just as wrong. I think that classes and roles are guidelines, a path to lead you to your character. But they’re guidelines that have some reasonable flexibility in how you get there or even what your exact destination character will be. Your character can be the same role and class as what someone else has without being very similar in mechanics or in flavor.

The problem with the narrow interpretation is that it ignores that almost every class dabbles in some other role other than their primary. Many individual builds or powers dabble in secondary roles. It’s possible to build a Defender that has a lot of Striker feel to it and still be a reasonably effective Defender. Your Leader may have a lot of ways to venture into Controller territory and still be perfectly good at being a Leader. Some people will point out that a Defender who takes Striker-esque powers or a Leader who takes Controller powers won’t be as effective as a pure Defender or Leader, but I will disagree. It’s all about how you look at it. A Defender who can pump out a fair bit of damage gives monsters more reason to target them over other PCs. A Leader who can move people around the battlefield or buff/debuff can help PCs avoid taking damage in the first place (either through helping kill enemies faster or avoid attacks). It’s performing the same role in a different way.

So how do you deal with the situation where people expect you to go with a “pure” build? Talk with your group. Let them know that you’re going outside the narrowest view of the class or role. Explain what your goal with the character is and what you want out of it. Let them know what you ~can~ do so you can give them the chance to adjust their characters so that the party melds together well. For example, in one of my online Skype-based games, I’m playing a Dragonborn Swordmage with the Aegis of Assault. This is a character which is oriented more towards Striker than Defender. But within the group, another person is playing a Warden, so the group is okay with me being only a secondary Defender. It’s just as important to let your DM know as well so encounters and adventures can be tweaked to take into it account. For example, as a DM I might consider giving the party just a few extra Healing Potions if someone playing a Leader was also taking a few pages out of the Defender or Controller playbook. As with a lot in D&D or RPGs in general, the key is communication.

Other people will point out that you’re still limited and restricted. This is the second point of view, that you should be able to do anything you want with any class. Rules as written, you will have a really difficult time making a Fighter who is even a secondary Leader. A Fighter might not have enough power options to make a very consistent secondary Controller either. This is true. But it begs the question, if you really want to play a character who has Leader or Controller as a secondary role, why are you playing a Fighter? The restrictions help define what a class is. The limitations tell you as the player and the group you’re playing with a general idea of what they can expect when you sit down at the table and tell them “I’m playing a Fighter”. Which is important. D&D, as well as other RPGs, are about having fun as a group and if you play just any random thing or your character doesn’t perform like the group expects, you may be having fun but your group may not. So I think that classes and roles are a good starting baseline to let everybody know a general idea what to expect, if not a specific one.

So the question becomes, what do you do when you want to play one thing and the rules tell you that you can’t? What if you want to make that Fighter who can be a Leader as well? What if that Wizard who can dish out serious damage is your thing? There are options. The first is that if the class you’ve chosen doesn’t fill the role you want, look at the other classes. The second is that if the role you want doesn’t fit the class you’ve taken, look at the other classes. The third is that if the fluff you like doesn’t fit the role or class you’ve chosen, look at the other classes. You’re sensing a theme here at this point, I hope. There are a lot of classes out there and it’s entirely possible you can find something more suitable to what you want if you just look for it. That Fighter who wants to be a Leader? Hi, my name is the Warlord and I would like to have a chat. Oh Wizard who wants to deal out damage? My friend the Sorcerer would like you to have a look at her.

Okay, so what if you’re attached to the fluff or some other feature of a class that makes you reluctant to change classes? There are still options available to increase the range of things your character can do. In all the talk on Twitter on this subject, I was astounded to see that nobody ever brought up multi-classing. Though debatably not as flexible as previous editions of D&D, multiclassing can still add new dimensions to a PC. Even just the baseline multi-class feat can be quite useful or add flavor by way of a skill training or extra (albeit limited) ability, let alone getting into the feats that let you swap one classes powers for the others. If that’s not sufficient, there’s always the option of using a hybrid, which was also not brought up to my knowledge in the Twitter conversations. Hybrids are more complicated to build in some ways than a standard or even multi-classed character and the character might initially suffer from the jack-of-all-trades problem at low levels, but the flip side is that you can also make a character that’s closer to what you’d like if none of the other options are what you’re interested in.

I think no matter what side of the fence you fall on, what your thoughts on class or role, the important thing is to talk to your group. See what everybody wants and expects. If your group is happy with unusual builds and playing-against-type, that’s great. If your group likes people to play what their class or role indicates they should be, that’s great too. If some of your group is one camp and some is in the other, that’s okay too. So long as everybody agrees to do it that way and everybody knows what’s coming.

The whole point to D&D is to have a good time with your friends and what exactly that means can only be determined by you and your group. If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right. Whether you’re playing a Rogue/Fighter Hybrid with a cutlass, an eyepatch, and a parrot or you’re playing the most optimal healing build Cleric that can be pulled out of the Character Builder.

Pregens: Dragon's Rest

2010-10-07T18:19:00.000-06:00

I, for some reason, end up making a lot of pregen characters. Maybe it's because I like making characters. Maybe because I like to be helpful and offer to make them for people who need them. Maybe it's because I like being ready in case I need to run a one-shot game or mini campaign. Either way, it's been recommended to me that I share my bounty of pregens for those of you out there. Use them for NPCs, use them for a delve night, make one of them your NPC, or whatever you need them for.

First up on the pregen slate are 6 that I created for my own home game for a story interlude which will affect the main party in (hopefully) big ways. They are all standard builds out of the Character Builder and I've included both a PDF copy as well as the character builder files so you can make adjustments. I've uploaded each character individually, as well as a zip file with all six.

The background for this group of characters is that they're all at a mountain fortress-monastery of Bahamut known locally as Dragon's Rest (which I'm working on writing up for the blog as well). They've all got different and diverse reasons for being there and equally diverse personalities and motivations. You obviously don't have to use Dragon's Rest in your game, it's just there as a unifying factor if you so choose.

Corrin, Halfling Druid (Download)
Riya, Deva Avenger (Download)
Garel-Kai, Genasi Swordmage (Download)
Keira, Human Cleric (Download)
Perra, Dragonborn Sorceress (Download)
Naram, Shardmind Invoker (Download)

Click here to download all six pregens.

Feedback and comments are, as always, welcome and encouraged.

Quality Encounters, Not Quantity of Encounters.

2010-09-25T20:01:00.000-06:00

When I was running my players through Rescue at Rivenroar, one thing that struck me as I did my session and campaign planning was the sheer number of encounters to be found in the adventure. Almost every room had a combat encounter and it turned into a grinder of predictable combat. My experience playing other adventures like Keep on the Shadowfell and Thunderspire Labyrinth were similar. Even more recent products and adventures have a lot of combats. Although 4e combat is fun and it's far easier to write an adventure with combat than it is to write one with roleplaying (because it's hard to predict how players will roleplay and what they will do), it can make for a dull adventure if not done well. I always knew that myself, but my time spent with Rivenroar reinforced the lesson like few other things could. So I want to share what I think about this aspect of encounter design.

Make Every Encounter Mean Something
One of the major problems a lot of modules have is that they have combat encounters that don't really mean anything. Either by themselves or in the context in which they're presented. Combat for the sake of combat is rarely a good idea. For that matter, skill challenges for the sake of skill challenges are no better. The better way to approach encounters is to have a point to them. Encounters should always add to the adventure in some way. It may be thematic (establishing an undead area by PCs running into some), narrative (the PCs are attacked by assassins from the Big Bad), strategic (the orc raiders have scouts out on patrol), environmental (the PCs have triggered an ancient magical defense system), reactionary (the kobold who fled a fight has set off alarms in the warren), climactic (the players face off with the mastermind of an evil plot), or whatever.

Ask yourself why the players might have this particular encounter. Ask yourself "why" as many times as you need to until you either have a good reason or no reason at all. If you can't come up with a good solid reason for it, you should reconsider having that encounter right at that point. And honestly? Sometimes the reason might very well be "Because it's a cool encounter and my players will like it." As long as everybody is having fun, you're doing it right.

Make Every Encounter Unique
Sometimes even adventures with encounters that answer the question of "why" still end up feeling flat, dull, or boring. One possible pitfall is using too many of the same sorts of monsters. This can actually be a big problem, especially for someone like me who likes a strong theme to an adventure. You can very quickly run out of new monsters of the appropriate type to throw at the players and surprise them. Sometimes you want to broaden your theme or scope of the adventure to give yourself some leeway. To use my own game as an example, if I could have I probably would have just used goblins and hobgoblins for most of Rivenroar. But I would have found myself using the same enemies over and over. So I added in a reason to have undead around and I was able to better create encounters that all felt different from one another. Adding a different sort of monster from the ones that PCs have been fighting can be a breath of fresh air.

Another way to make encounters unique is the environment. An encounter can be drastically different in feel and result depending on where you place it. Add environmental effects like rain to cause penalties for ranged attacks. Let the terrain shape the battle by placing fields of boulders and rocks which count as difficult terrain. Put incentives and objectives like a magic circle which gives +1 to attack for creatures standing in it. Add in dangerous effects like a fountain which spews necrotic acid at random intervals. Add shelves that players can push over onto bad guys or to use as cover. If you make an encounter more than a simple straight up fight to the death, they're more likely to enjoy it.

Make Every Encounter Memorable
This can be both the easiest and hardest thing to do when making and playing encounters. Players should walk home from the game thinking about how fun, cool, or interesting it was. You want something they'll be talking about between each other for a while or that makes them want to go on a message board or Twitter to describe. Sometimes, making an encounter memorable can be nothing more than good roleplaying or description from the DM. Orcs who shout battlecries and taunts, mad necromancers who lecture and rant at the players, grim and silent assassins who use elaborate maneuvers and hand signals as they attack, feyborn creatures who laugh and sing as they draw blood, or whatever.

Altering the conditions of victory is another option to consider. If the players have to stop an evil ritual by destroying six magical idols while holding off mad cultists, that can be more fun than just going in to kill the cultists outright. Enemies who fight with hit and run attacks can leave the players excited to finally get the chance pin down and have it out with their tormentors. Encounters where players have to protect something can also be exciting and nerve-wracking. Put the players on the other side of the ritual example from earlier and have them defend a magical ritual from those disrupting it. Have the players fend off slavers trying to capture panicked townsfolk.

Throw the characters a curveball every once in a while, just to keep them on their toes and not take anything you present them for granted. A fight where high winds scream through the area, pushing people and knocking them prone every few rounds, can shake things up. Throw in an occasional fight in the air or under water where players have to think and act in 3D. Run an encounter where players are defending a town and have access to things like siege equipment or burning pitch but have to fend off enemies with ladders, ropes, and siege towers.

Conclusion
Are following these ideas guaranteed to get you awesome encounters every time? No. Sometimes even the best ideas and efforts will fall flat at the table. Sometimes what you thought was awesome, players will find boring. Sometimes your carefully crafted encounter will be undone in moments by bad DM rolls or good player rolls (or both). Sometimes either the DM or the players will be having an off night and end up with encounters that don't live up to their potential. However, I think that if you really try to incorporate these ideas into your adventures and encounter design, players and DMs alike are more likely to have a good time by eliminating flat or dull encounters that do little more to add to the adventure besides fill time and provide some experience and loot and replacing them with something which will hopefully be more interesting and engaging.

Guest Post: Random Me This

2010-09-22T19:29:00.001-06:00

This is an awesome guest post that I'm happy to host here. My contributions can be found, but most of the credit is not mine. Comment and enjoy! - Aaron

Empty rooms and lint-stuffed pockets make for quite the boring D&D encounter. Snooze city, we say. Any RPG world setting has things worth keeping…whether they’re valuable or not. And nearly any item can be used to an adventurer’s eventual advantage if the player is creative enough.

The late great George Carlin said it best, “Everyone has their own pile of stuff. So, why in Dante’s Inferno would your monsters and NPCs be any different?

To celebrate and embrace the things’ obsession, we’ve created a helpful randomized common items table for your D&D gaming pleasure. You can download the 72 different choices in a single takeaway sheet here and a generic version here.

The initial instructions are rather straightforward: On a successful perception check of more than 12, the character then performs two different rolls on the chart for the result. Roll a d12 to first determine the item set. Now roll a d6 to determine the actual item found.

There’s real rhyme to every reason in this sheet. We’ve purposely picked common items that a gamer, who’s got his thinking helm on, can turn into his advantage. For example:

Chalk: mark spots in the dungeon to increase your skill check on finding your way back.

Metal Toy Knights: A perfect bribe for streetwise information

Rigged gambling dice: The possibilities are endless.

Black Powder: Gather components for single spell working for or against you on a cast.

And for zestier randomization, we’ve added 2 heck-yeah items and 2 oh-no items:

Whestone +2: To attack and damage for 1 encounter. It’s a classic.

Potion of Healing: Can you ever have enough?

Mold trap: Goop gets on your weapon for a -1 to attack/damage for a day.

Pressure Gas Release trap: Sealed for too long – d12 damage ensues.

Finally, there’s a couple for a DM’s discretion:

Music box: Yes but what type of figurine is in there and why?

Tiny hand-stitched doll: Who/what does that doll look like? What happens when poked?

We’ve purposely left the traps open-ended. You can increase the damage, add an effect, determine the range, etc. Flush these out how you deem fit. You could even put in a whizz-bang effect with no real damage (ya know – just spook ‘em).

The entire chart truly built for your flexibility. A 1 in 72 chance leaves lots of re-playability. You can easily swap ‘em out as time moves on. You can even describe them differently on a re-use. We wanted to ensure the sheet had some real legs.

For added fun, print out item descriptions from the WotC character builder and make cards to handout. Mix those with Paizo item cards for even more awesomeness.

Have fun with this one. Let us know how it goes. Share additional item ideas with us. If we get enough, who knows? You may just find a second sheet.

So about that dead monster, I search him and this room and I find…

- Ben

About the Guest Author
Ben Bertrandt is the co-founder of Gamers’ Inn in Mesa, Arizona. He also co-created and currently maintains Ben’s RPG Pile – a social network of D&D gaming goodness. You can enjoy his weekly blog of product reviews, watch a how-to video on YouTube and read his endless banter on Twitter.

Stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
Common Items Table
Blank Items Table
WotC character builder
Paizo item cards

Gamers’ Inn: http://store.gamersinnaz.com/
Blog: http://www.bensrpgpile.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/bensrpgpile2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bensrpgpile

After Action Report #4: Finishing Rivenroar

2010-09-18T20:04:00.000-06:00

After the disaster for the party that was the Von Jallach Crypt, the party moved on. They didn't take an extended rest or even ask me to, figuring that I probably wouldn't let them take a third one while in Rivenroar. I actually might have in this case, given where they were at. Serd, the goblin who wiped the floor with them, wasn't liked and was more or less left to his own devices there in that crypt, but the players had no way of knowing that. So they didn't. They were in bad shape. As I think I mentioned before, I'd penalized them in exchange for not outright killing half the party. The penalty being that they lost 5 healing surges (but were at full HP) and anybody reduced below 0 healing surges would be weakened until they got an extended rest. The runepriest tried to argue, saying that if he removed a condition from someone, they should be fine. But I pointed out that this was a special circumstance and the most he could do would be to remove it for a single turn in combat or 5 minute span outside of it. Nobody except the monk and wizard were below 0 healing surges and they actually weren't even around for one session of this report. The party decided that they would instead be safeguarding the still living NPCs as well as removing villagers bodies from Rivenroar to where they could be buried outside.

First up after Von Jallach was heading up the stairs to the second floor to see what was around there. They found an unlocked set of doors and some laughter and jeering coming from behind them. Even as they listen to the door, something big thumps into it hard. They open the door, finding a beat up and bloody female tiefling there. The tiefling is a bard, a new PC added into the campaign. The players are all over the surprised hobgoblins, lizards, and goblin and the fight generally goes badly for the bad guys. Even with the bard not at full effectiveness despite being freed by the rogue, the party just walks over this fight without too much trouble.

After the fight, they find the bodies of several more villagers, all of them still warm and clearly having been killed in the last 2 hours or less. This was part of the consequences for them taking multiple extended rests. These were villagers the PCs could have saved and although at the time they kind of blew it off, I'll be sure to reintroduce it later. I'm thinking it might be fun to have a grieving son/daughter or husband/wife show up aligned with the bad guys because, for right or wrong, they believe that the PCs could have saved their loved one and didn't. I'll probably introduce this character by way of some crying and angry person in Brindol before they start on the next part of the campaign.

Anyway, they do find another still living captive beyond the bard and free her. She's been terribly beaten and is barely able to even stand, though is in no immediate danger of dying. This is where the PCs decided to have the (absent) wizard and monk escort the NPCs from the complex and gather all the dead villagers/farmers for burial while the rest of the party continues to push on the remaining goals.

The PCs make their way to the Rivenroar Audience chamber next. I hacked out the Honor Guard Crypt encounter in the interests of speeding things along. That said, the players did investigate it and were worried about a recurrance of the Portal Room encounter. They did find a Necklace of Keys for the rogue though. According to the module as written, they would have found the guard captain's son here, but I didn't want to do that right yet, so I moved him elsewhere.

The Rivenroar Audience Chamber didn't go as I'd hoped. The players, despite given the opportunity to RP with Dulan, were not interested. The Paladin tried a little, but the Paladin's player sometimes thinks he's playing in a historical fiction game instead of heroic fantasy. So it was kind of a bust. And the encounter was supposed to be reasonably difficult, but they didn't have much trouble with it either. It just didn't work on either level and I went home from that session feeling pretty unhappy with how things were going.

Starting the next week, we had a full house. The wizard and monk were both back. I introduced the wizard to a token found on Dulan's body, indicating that Dulan was a member of an arcane group called the Covenant of Ivory. The Covenant was something that the wizard's own teacher was a member of and had wanted to recruit the wizard into. I tried to do a lot of setup for later in this session. Also of note was that the PCs found that Dulan's body had disappeared. They'll be seeing him again, though they don't know it. Then the PCs went exploring. They found the scrying pool, but since they were too scared to actually touch it, they didn't actually see anything. They found the black tile sun and I played this up a lot. I want them to feel that there's a lot of bad stuff going on here. I did the same for the audience chamber, telling them that there's a definite seep from the Shadowfell there. At this point I started making stealth checks for the guard captain's son, who is shadowing the PCs to see if they're trustworthy. The kid rolled gangbusters and the PCs passive perception wasn't enough for quite a while.

The Crypt Guardian chamber was fun, because the PCs were worried that the demon (which I described as much bigger and nastier than what the module would have had you fight) would be able to get out and attack them. Or they would be pushed in there with it. It was at this point that they finally began to notice the dragonborn boy following them, but they didn't see him, only heard him. Which was made harder by the Paladin taunting the long crazed and trapped demon. They managed to talk the boy into coming over to them. More specifically, come over to the Paladin, seeing that he was decked out in symbols of Bahamut. There was actually some decent RP here, thankfully, which was fun. They got the boy to hide for a while longer and the Paladin managed not to tell the kid that his dad was dead (the kid was asking about his dad practically from moment 1). The Paladin told the boy that he'd be back in less than an hour.

Then they went into the Shrine of the Obelisk. Something funny happened here. The PCs came in and saw the dungeon tiles that had been put down, and decided that the obelisk was in fact a statue. So I ran with it. I said it was a statue of Orcus, eventually indicating that it was put up before Sinruth got there, but after the original builders had built the place. Just to add a little mystery. Given the party makeup, they actually wanted to pull it down and shatter it, so I let them MacGuyver a way to pull it down.

Before long, the party found themselves at the door heading up to Sinruth's Abode. Like any reasonable person, I moved this fight from the tiny little room where it's supposed to happen and into the menhir room. I added a few effects on the night that I didn't have in my write up. The menhirs were light absorbing, I decided, giving the room a very dark and sinister feel. I also decided, after the PCs decided to start blasting them, that they would do more damage the more they were hit and if they got up to 6 hits, a random one would burst out cold damage. The PCs very wisely stopped blasting them that after I described how the menhirs were humming (all of them) as they got hit by magic.

This fight was close. Very very close. Objectively, the PCs did incredibly well here, spending very few resources and walking away from it. Only the wizard even dropped during the fight. Of course, the reason they spent very few resources was because they had very few to begin with. The PCs walked into this fight just barely functional. Almost nobody was full HP, they had 7 healing surges between the 6 of them (and 4 of those were held by the bard). Many dailies had already been spent. On the upside, they all had an Action Point and I'd given all of them a +1 to any roll during the night for roleplaying or other things (like making me laugh). They needed every little bit of help they could get. Even then, I cut them slack by not having the menhirs damage them like I'd intended. I tried to coax some roleplaying out of them by, quite frankly, playing Sinruth like a deranged Klingon. Obsessed with battle, victory, and worthy opponents. At one point he laughed at the monk (who had just killed 4 minutes and punched Sinruth himself with a daily) and said "You are a worthy opponent! Your skull will have a place of honor in my collection!" which was fun to do and got the players in the right mood.

Eventually, the PCs put Sinruth down, laughing and enjoying the fight all the way to his last breath. They collected a lot of plot related things. A couple of maps showing other hobgoblin strongholds in the area, a note from a mysterious benefactor offering the services of the Stormcrows if Sinruth attacked Brindol to Dulan's and the Stormcrow representative's satisfaction, and the remaining museum pieces stolen from the Hall of Glory in Brindol. At this point, I leveled everybody up to 3 and called it a night.

Next time? The "Meanwhile..." night of encounters and story.

PAX Prime Recap

2010-09-09T13:13:00.000-06:00

I was one of the lucky few (and by "few" I mean "about 68,000") people who went up to Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle last week and I'd be totally remiss to blab about how awesome it was. I admit, I kind of skimped on the video game side of things and instead focused a lot on the tabletop side. Although I didn't play any D&D or any other tabletop games while there, I went to a lot of panels and events about them. Even the video game panels I went to had appliciablity to tabletop. So let's get into the details, shall we?

Friday

Friday started with the Keynote done by Warren Spector of System Shock, Deus Ex, and (soon) Epic Mickey fame. Actually, it started with the queue for the Keynote, but if I mentioned a queue every time I was in one, it would take up half this writeup. Anyway, the speech was pretty good and I liked it... but I didn't enjoy it as much as the one from last year by Ron Gilbert. I can't point you specifically to why, but it just wasn't a speech that I wouldn't mind hearing again like I did with Ron Gilbert's.

Next up was a panel about women in gaming. It was an interesting discussion even if I'm a guy and one of the panelists really really annoyed me. After this panel, my friend and I spent some time on the expo hall floor, just wandering around and taking a look at things. I picked up some more dice from Chessex at this point. Did I need them? No. Did I get them anyway? Yes. We only actually played 1 game when we were out there: Super Scribblenauts. If you liked the first one, this one is even better. Fixed the often problematic control scheme.

Next up was another panel: Making Stories Worth Playing In. This was not at all what I expected, though to be fair I can't articulate what I did expect and why this was different. That said, it was very interesting. There were a lot of adventure/interactive fiction people on the panel and there was some good ideas thrown about. Even if it was aimed more at video games, the stuff mentioned could have easily been applied to writing any sort of story, whether it be a novel, a video game, or a tabletop campaign.

Our next stop was "Beyond Pen & Paper: RPGs, Video Games, & The Mainstream". I want to say that it was an awesome panel, but it really was just kind of okay. Despite Jeff Grubb on the panel, they just didn't talk about anything all that terribly memorable or amazing. It wasn't horrible and I don't regret going to it or anything, but as these things go I was not as impressed as I was with other panels or events over the course of the convention.

A quick jaunt to the expo hall got me to meet Mike Robles, who works for Wizards of the Coast. He hooked me up with a D&D Rules Compendium, which is awesome since it's not due to be released for a couple more weeks yet.

No more con stuff for Friday, but back at the hotel there was hanging out and playing both Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice, both of which were a big hit with everybody.

Saturday

Saturday was a busy, busy day. We started off by going to the "Game Masters vs. Rules Lawyers" panel. Again, it wasn't what I expected. This time I think I expected a more clinical discussion, but what we got instead was much better. The panelist (Corvus Elrod) had a really excellent panel on things like conflict resolution (and I mean between people, not between PCs and monsters), left brain/right brain thinking, and story sharing. This panel was recorded, so I hope it makes it online for others to look at or listen to.

I headed off to the line for Acquisitions Incorporated and boy was I glad I got there when I did. This was arguably the worst line to be in for the entire weekend. Not only lots of people, but lots of people crammed into a confined space. Which made us all very hot and uncomfortable. That said, in the end, it was worth it. It really is tied for the best thing I saw or did all weekend. It was clear that everybody up at the table was having a great time that everybody in the audience had a great time. The interactions between them all were amazingly funny and fun. Chris Perkins is an amazing DM. The whole setup was great and everybody, at the table or in the audience, was really into what was going on. Being able to choose what was going to happen at certain points was fun too because at times it really made a difference as to what happened. Really, although I'm sure people will be able to watch/listen to what happened at some point (they'll need to, since the next podcast will pick up right where this one left off), it can't beat actually being there in person.

It's appropriate that I followed up Acquisitions Incorporated with the only other thing during the weekend which could have been as good: the Saturday night concerts. Ignoring the ridiculous queue (again), I'll say that it was an incredible time. Opening with the 4th round of the Omegathon, then having MC Frontalot, then following up with Paul & Storm, and finishing off with Jonathon Coulton was a hell of a lot of fun. I admit, I felt like a little bit of an outsider since I didn't know a lot of songs from the different artists, but I still had a really good time. The only bad part? Now whenever I hear those songs, I think of PAX, the fun I had there, and the friends I was around there that I'm not around now.

Sunday

After meeting some friends for crepes from the place right outside the convention center (really, if you're in the area you should try them out), we went up to the Art of the Dungeon Master, where I met with another friend of mine. This was another really fun panel. It was a star-studded affair. Chris Perkins, Greg Bilsland, James Wyatt, Mike (Gabe) from Penny Arcade, and Mike Fehlauer (also from Penny Arcade). I wish there'd been more panel and less Q&A on this one though. This year it seemed like the panels were about 30 minutes of panelists talking and then 30 minutes of Q&A. Last year it seemed more 40-45 minutes of panelists and less Q&A and I liked that better. I want to hear thoughts from panelists, not the often rambling or self-aggrandizing questions from the audience.

At this point we found the room for Cardhaus, a local game store. I bought Castle Ravenloft there for $45 and also got an Arkham Horror expansion for another $20. I wanted to get a Red Box, but they were long out of them at this point. We then ran by the Privateer Press booth to get myself a bag (Ravenloft is fucking big and heavy).

Next was the Retronauts panel about the 25th birthday of the NES. Not a bad panel there either, though again it seemed to suffer from not nearly enough panel time and too much Q&A time. It was pretty fun to listen to aside from that. There were some fun stories and some few things that I didn't know... but not many.

Then there was a while spent waiting to get stuff signed by the Penny Arcade guys. Arguably the worst line of the convention, just because it meant standing up for 90+ minutes. Other lines at the con may have been longer (upwards of 2+ hours), but most of those you could spend a fair amount of time sitting, which made it bearable.

That was the last of the actual con events we went to. We hung out (on the floor) and chatted with some friends and their friends, then jaunted back to the hotel before joining those same friends for a post-PAX meetup at a restaurant/pub that was awesome (Elephant & Castle). It was a good way to end a good weekend.

I missed a lot this weekend. There was so much going on, so many cool things. No one person can see everything. Not a prayer. I missed panels, I missed events, I missed people. The funny thing is that now that PAX is over, I still miss the panels, the events, the people. Just in a different way. It's hard to come back to a normal and mundane life after so many days packed with good times and good friends. However, there's always other cons to come. I'm planning on being at GenCon next year. I don't know if I can make both that and PAX, but either way I hope to meet more people and have more fun next year.

Continued Campaign Planning, part 2

2010-08-31T21:16:00.000-06:00

So, when last I left off the campaign plan, the PCs will have just finished at the Remorhaz's Rest (aka, the Halfway Inn) and will probably head up the rest of the way to the monastery of Bahamut.

I imagine that at this point the PCs will be cautious about what to expect here, but that's okay, because I'm learning to work around that. Player caution can make for really dull fights. So even though they're being cautious, the environment itself will help spring the ambush I have planned. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself. The PCs will find that the monastery is a big hulking thing and can guess (correctly) that it used to be a fortress. The large, heavy, and thick gate will be barely still attached to the walls, clearly blasted apart by something powerful. There's a big courtyard beyond and the snow is pretty deep.

That's where the ambush comes into play. Snow covered zombies! Reanimated monks, reanimated minions of the Big Bad, and maybe a wight that's been left there specially for this trap. The first my players will realize anything is still there is when their foot crunches through snow, reaches the bottom, and is grabbed by something waiting there. I'm torn about the snow. I think I want to just make it difficult terrain, but I was at times considering making the PCs slowed for the duration of their time in the snow. Charging, running, or double moving will require an Acrobatics check or the PC instead falls prone. I want a good mix of ranged and melee zombies here, plus a few minions to slow the PCs down.

The second attack will come when the players are inside, probably not in the first room (empty rooms make them nervous), but in the second. And it will come in two parts. The PCs will find more undead waiting for them in the room. No skeletons though. In the second round, more undead will come out of one set of side rooms. In the third round, more will come out of the other set. So the first set of undead have to be pretty tough (or some tough and some sneaky) so that I'm not feeding the subsequent waves into a meat grinder.

The third fight will be the most interesting, because this is where the players will fight the remnants of the pregens that they'd tried defending the monastery with before. They'll be notably warped and changed, the clearest indication yet that some disturbing magic or effect is at work. I want this to be a hard fight because it's the climax (though not the final battle of this chapter of the campaign).

Once the PCs are done fighting, they can try and put together what's happened here. What has actually happened is that the monastery had some bit of lore that the Big Bad needed, which was basically who had been entrusted to guard pieces of the Far Gate and where they were located. That's why the Big Bad attacked Brindol. Just as a distraction from the real target: the monastery. If Brindol had been able to reinforce the monastery, it's possible that it might have been just as potent a fortress as it used to be. The players won't be able to realize this directly, either his objectives or even the fact that he's related to the goblin attacks. But they will be find the library ransacked, some books burned or destroyed, others missing. With enough rolls and checks, they'll be able to put together some names of books, some names of people, and basically get general idea of what they were looking for so that they can continue searching later, elsewhere.

Heading back down the mountain, I want to have 2 encounters. One I've mentioned before, the Winter Court fae attacking the PCs at the bridge. The other one I want at the Dawn site. I want the players to feel reasonably secure, then run into one last trap that the Big Bad left behind, which is some sort of shadowy stalking assassins. I'm going to hint to players the whole way down the mountain that they're being followed and then hit them when they think it's safe. The NPC guide which has been with them all the way up and then most of the way back down? His grisly death will announce to the players that they have trouble. This should be a hard fight too, but not as much so as the one that finishes the monastery.

Then the PCs get the rest of the way down the mountain and back to Brindol, which will finish up this chapter of the campaign. Eight "real" encounters, p[lus the 3 pregen encounters, plus extra experience for quests and the like. That seems pretty reasonable to me for a big chunk of story.

Continued Campaign Planning, part 1

2010-08-29T19:21:00.000-06:00

So, I've theoretically planned my campaign through the completion of Rivenroar. I've got tentative plans for afterwords. Some of those have changed since I first started drawing up the campaign. I'm going to start to go into the details now because before too long I'm going to need them.

The general plan for the immediate events following Rivenroar have changed. I've actually got a really interesting idea that I want to run with before I proceed with the main story. It's related to the main event and I've been referring to it as a "Meanwhile..." cutscene. I will give the players pregens at level 6. And with those pregens, the players will have 3 encounters as they try to defend the monastery of Bahamut from a determined and powerful group of attackers. This is the same monastery that the players will visit with their regular characters. In any case, the players will fight and should win against 2 groups of enemies, but then they'll be killed and destroyed by the third, which happens to include the Big Bad of the Heroic tier. I want to do this sort of thing for several reasons. First being that it gives players a taste of more power, given that they're only at level 2 and the pregens will be level 6. Second is that I love the idea of the players having to explore the aftermath of an event that they've already scene and having to roleplay their reactions. They won't know the context of the attack in any way, but the players themselves, if not hte PCs will hopefully be invested in finding out more. Third being that I really enjoy the idea of introducing the Big Bad in such a manner, effortlessly killing a group of characters controlled by the players in a Hopeless Boss Battle. A taste of what the regular PCs will face when they square off against him later.

Once the "cutscene" has finished, the regular PCs return to Brindol, likely as heroes to some degree or another, and after meeting with the Councilman who hired them, have an audience with the Marquis. He'll explain that the situation is still dangerous and that Brindol will need help until reinforcements can be sent from the capital to help repel any further attacks. To that end, the Marquis wants to contact the monastery of Bahamut in the mountains and see what assistance they can spare. They've traditionally been friends of Brindol, to the point where they each have a special magical device that allows short communications every day between them. Since the original goblin attack, the Marquis has tried to contact the monastery, but has received no response. The Marquis wants the PCs to take a guide and head to the monastery in person to investigate the situation and, if possible, deliver a message requesting aid.

The monastery is up in the mountains to the north of town. It's the middle of winter. It's going to be snowy, windy, cold, and unpleasant. It's also about a 3 day journey just to get to the monastery, but it's part of a well known road/path that's traveled much more often in warmer months. To that end, there are well prepared locations for travelers to rest over night. The first, going north into the mountains, is the Dawn site. Whether by design or by accident, the Dawn site is located at almost the exact point where the average traveler would reach by sundown if they left Brindol no more than a hour after dawn. It's a campsite located in the remnants of a long ruined tower. There's not much of the tower left, but enough of the protective magics remain to keep away most wild animals and other creatures. There's a shrine to Avandra here, which many travelers leave offerings at in hopes that the magic there will continue to protect the area. My players will definitely stop here and camp here, but despite all my hints that they'll be attacked in the night, nothing will happen. At least on the way up. On the way back down, the PCs will be attacked by creatures powerful enough to push past the protection.

Along the way, I expect to have a "running" encounter. I'm going to make a bunch of cold, air, and fae themed enemies and make a really really big encounter from them. Too much for the PCs to take on at once. But instead of having that happen, I intend to have the PCs come under attack for a few rounds at a time and just by some of them at once. Just long enough for the PCs to kill 2-3 monsters before the creatures retreat. Then I expect the third encounter with all the creatures left to be a fair fight that will last until either the PCs are dead or the monsters are.

I also have another encounter planned, but this might also be on the way back down. In fact, it probably will be. I don't want many battles on the way up. In any case, I envision that the whole road network was built hundreds of years ago, before the Empire of Nerath even existed, and that it's lasted this long in good condition due to potent magic. The road, up in these mountains, included a large stone bridge over a wide and deep chasm. It's still in good condition as is the road around it, but it makes for the perfect place for an ambush. There'll be lots of snow and ice and I have an idea for a "gusts of wind" mechanic that will threaten to push PCs off the bridge or the path before it. In this case, the battle will include the fae master of the creatures the PCs killed on the way up will be waiting to chastise them for ruining his sport.

The next place the PCs will stop is an actual inn that is, again, almost exactly a full day's travel from the Dawn site. This inn sits at a fork in the road, one of which will take the PCs up to the monastery. The Inn is called the Remorhaz's Rest (with picture of dead remorhaz on the sign), but most everybody calls it the Halfway Inn. The inn is actually a really sturdy and fortified building. It's got heavy stone walls around a courtyard and half of the inn is actually built into the cliff face behind it. There's an enclosed stables area as well. The inn is surprisingly high quality and comfortable, considering where it's located. What the players, or anybody else, don't know is that when the Big Bad came by this way heading for the monastery he and his forces overwhelmed the owners and others lodging there. Further, they did it so quickly, quietly, and easily that the inn was almost completely untouched. Seeking to delay anybody, like the PCs, from learning about the attack on the monastery, the Big Bad brought back the owners as undead under his sway and left other agents behind to keep the appearance that everything there was fine. In reality, anybody who admits that they're traveling to the monastery will be murdered in their sleep if possible. I will attempt to get PCs into as many different rooms as possible, which will be easy as no room holds more than 2 beds. I will attack all PCs simultaneously, forcing them to fight in groups of 2 and trying to regroup. I think this will make a great battle dynamic. Then they'll fight once more in the common area against the remaining agents of the Big Bad.

Okay, that's enough planning for now. Next time I'll plan out the PCs encounters at the monastery (I only want about 3, plus maybe a skill challenge) and then detail any further encounters I want to include for their trip back to Brindol. If and when I draw out my maps on graph paper, I will try to scan them in so that I can show my fully built encounters as well. Otherwise I will do much as I did with Rivenroar and describe the enemies that I'm using and how I adjusted them.

Cataloging the collection, part 2

2010-08-29T10:30:00.000-06:00

Time to continue posting my RPG book collection. I'm undoubtedly missing a lot and I'll have another post coming at some point, if only to tally up my Shadowrun and Heavy Gear stuff.

Exalted

Exalted Core Rulebook
Manual of Exalted Power: Lunars
Manual of Exalted Power: Abyssals
Compass of Celestial Directions: The North
The Books of Sorcery: Black and White Treatises
The Books of Sorcery: Wonders of the Lost Age
Scroll of the Monk
Caste Book: Dawn
Caste Book: Twilight
Aspect Book: Air
Aspect Book: Wood
Cult of The Illuminated
Blood and Salt
Ruins of Rathess
Scavenger Sons
Manacle and Coin

Older D&D stuff

Players Handbook 3e
Dungeon Masters Guide 3e
Monster Manual 1 3e
Manual of the Planes 3e
Players Handbook 2e
Complete Psionics Handbook 2e
Eberron Campaign Setting 3.x
Eberron: Five Nations
Eberron: Sharn, City of Towers

Misc White Wolf

Werewolf: The Forsaken
Werewolf: The Apocalypse 2e
Werewolf Players Guide 2e
Vampire the Masquerade 2e

Misc Games
Legend of Five Rings 2e
L5R Clan Book: Dragon
d20 Dark*Matter
Serenity RPG
Big Eyes, Small Mouth 2e Revised
Uresia: Grave of Heaven
d20 Slayers RPG
Mutants and Masterminds 2e
Dragon Age RPG
Dark Inheritance d20
Dresden Files RPG Book 1: Your Story
Dresden Files RPG Book 2: Our World
Mekton Zeta
Mekton Zeta Plus
Eclipse Phase Core Rulebook
Eclipse Phase: Sunward
Ex Machina
Mechwarrior 2e
Battletech: Field Manual Draconis Combine
Star Wars d20
In Nomine
Jovian Chronicles 1e
Marvel Universe RPG
Bubblegum Crisis Megatokyo 2032
KULT RPG

Cataloging the collection, part 1

2010-08-28T21:32:00.000-06:00

I think there's a tendency for a lot of people who like RPGs, especially people who run a lot of games, to collect tons of books. I know when talking to Sam (aka DM Samuel, one of my fellow podcast hosts) that we collect stuff that we've never been able to play and sometimes even buy things knowing that you never ~will~ play it for one reason or another. So, because of my talks with Sam, as well as @Justified on Twitter and his blog posts over at http://wanderingdamage.wordpress.com/, I'm going to start posting my own collection. It's probably going to be incomplete and I'll have to post it in multiple parts, but it'll be fun anyway. Let's start with D&D4e and go from there. \

D&D4e
Players Handbook 1
Players Handbook 2
Players Handbook 3
Dungeon Master's Guide 1
Dungeon Master's Guide 2
Monster Manual 1
Monster Manual 3
Dark Sun Campaign Setting
Dark Sun Creature Catalogue
Forgotten Realms Players Guide
Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
Eberron Players Guide
Eberron Campaign Guide
Adventurer's Vault 1
Adventurer's Vault 2
Psionic Power
Divine Power
Primal Power
Arcane Power
Player's Strategy Guide
The Plane Above
Draconomicon: Chromatics
Draconomicon: Metallics
Underdark
Open Grave
Dragon Magazine Annual
Vor Rukoth
Hammerfast
Players Handbook Races: Dragonborn
The Slaying Stone
Tomb of Horrors

Given that I generally don't buy modules (Tomb of Horrors aside. Even The Slaying Stone I won in a contest), I'm not missing a lot of books. The Manual of Planes is on it's way to me from Amazon as we speak. After that, I'm missing Plane Below, Martial Power 1+2, Demonomicon, Monster Manual 2, Players Handbook Races: Tieflings, Dungeon Delve (which I see less as a module than I do encounters I can steal), and that's about it.

Star Wars Saga Edition

Star Wars Saga Edition Core Rulebook
Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide
Jedi Academy Training Manual
Starships of the Galaxy
The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide
Scum and Villainy

I'd really like to get the complete set of SWSE books. It's not a perfect system, but it's fun.

Warhammer 40k Roleplay

Dark Heresy
Dark Heresy: The Inquisition Handbook
Rogue Trader

Definitely want more of these. Going to get Deathwatch when it comes out, so at least I'll have all 3 core rulebooks for the 40k RPGs, then start filling in all the extra stuff.

Cthulhu/Mythos games

Call of Cthulhu
Trail of Cthulhu
Arkham Horror
Cthulhutech Core Rulebook
Cthulhutech: Dark Passions
Cthulhutech: Vade Maceum

Badly want more Cthulhutech stuff. I honestly am not sure how much more Call of Cthulhu stuff I want, aside from the super awesome big adventures like Masks or Horror on the Orient Express. I'd like some more Arkham Horror expansions as well as some of the adventure books for Trail of Cthulhu though.

So many books yet to come yet. All my Shadowrun books, Heavy Gear, Exalted, and many more.

Warhammer Fantasy RPG impressions

2010-08-28T12:25:00.000-06:00

Last night we were going to be short some players for our usual game. 2 of them would be off at a local con. I would have also probably been at the con, if it weren't for the fact that I'm going to an even bigger con up in Seattle next week (Penny Arcade Expo, for those of you wondering). I asked if everybody wanted me to run D&D as we otherwise would and the response was generally that they didn't, not with so many people gone. We threw out some of our usual options, like Talisman, Arkham Horror, and other board games. I had an idea though and suggested it to the group, who were also interested in the idea. Last night, we would be playing the latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. My friend had bought it and some extras for it like the Winds of Magic expansion and he's been wanting to run it, so he agreed to run a one-shot of it for us last night.

Now, I've never played ~any~ version of WFRP, though I'd read through some books of previous editions years and years ago when I was at the height of the period in my life where I gave Games Workshop entirely too much of my money (oh, to go back and tell my younger self to stop buying GW stuff). So I won't be making direct comparisons to the older games. Or any other games, for that matter.

The first thing I thought when my friend opened the box? Holy shit there are a lot of little things. This edition of WFRP comes across as much a board game in some respects as it does a standard tabletop roleplaying game. I made the joke that it felt a lot like Arkham Horror in that respect and it really did. There are a lot of cardboard markers. There are also a lot of cards of different sorts.

To start off with, we chose a player card. These kind of define something which can be considered your class. There are old staples like the rat-catcher and commoner, things like the troll slayer or the apprentice wizard, and a whole lot of other options. All of them are viable and can bring something to a party, even a commoner. Some are just better at some aspects of the game than others. The way the game wants you to choose your player card is to pick 3 at random from the pile and then choose 1 of those 3. We end up choosing our own, plus one of us had to be an apprentice wizard for the sake of the adventure we were playing. I ended up as a Trollslayer, which I'd definitely wanted to play. My friend Eugene took the wizard and our other friend Sean ended up taking a rat-catcher.

Character generation was pretty simple. Every race starts with a set of base characteristics and extras. There are several characteristics such as Strength, Toughness, Intelligence, Willpower, etc. As dwarves, Sean and I started with slightly higher Strength and Toughness. Eugene, as a human, didn't start with any higher stats. Sean and I also got some extras for playing as dwarves, like an extra skill training and a couple special rules. Eugene missed on these as well for playing a human. Then all the players get character points to use to customize their character. You spend the points to determine how wealthy you are, how many skills you have trained, how many action cards you get, and so on. You can also up your characteristics with these points. This is where Eugene made up for missing out earlier, as he got 25 character points and Sean and I only got 20.

The action cards thing is a slightly odd mechanic. Which is pretty funny coming from someone who plays D&D4e with all the power cards. Anyway. Every player that meets the requirements gets a set of basic action cards. These reflect things that the character can do all the time. These are things like melee strike, parry, dodge, assess the situation, and so on. In addition, you also get a pool of action cards that you can play. How many depend on how many character points you spend. These can be things like spells, attacks, siccing your dog on someone, etc. These are the only things your character can do in combat. If you don't have the attribute high enough so that you can use Parry? Sorry, you're out of luck, you can't parry.

You also get other cards for your character which are harder to define. On the side of each player card are several "slots" that you can put cards on. I'll use my Trollslayer as an example. I had 2 Tactics slots and in character creation I bought 3 Tactics cards. I could have 2 of them active at any time because that's how many slots my card had. These cards sometimes had passive effects, sometimes you could actively use them for some sort of benefit. Not all of them are combat related, though in my case they were. For example, the wizard had a card that let him add an additional die when he made Observation checks.

Oh, and about the dice. WFRP3e does not use your standard dice. There are d6s and d8s, but they all have different custom symbols on them. There are different colored dice, each which have different purposes. I'll have a combat round example later because trust me, an example helps make sense of everything a little better. But before I get to that, let me explain the different dice and how they're unusual. There are good dice that you want to roll and bad dice you want to avoid rolling. Going from worst to best, there are challenge dice, misfortune dice, characteristic dice, stance dice, fortune dice, and expertise dice. Instead of numbers, there are symbols for different things, again some of which you want and others you don't. From worst to best again, they are Chaos Star, bane, challenge, success, boon, and Sigmar's comet. Banes negate boons, challenges negate successes. Depending on the card you're playing or the action you're performing, what you end up with can have different effects. Again, example later.

There are some other small fiddly bits at this stage and some of it is hard to describe without a book in front of me to read from. Every action card has 2 sides, a conservative side and a reckless side. Every character card indicates how reckless or conservative that character is, this is described as their stance. This is represented by an encounter tracker. For example, my Trollslayer had 1 conservative slot and 3 reckless slots along with the neutral slot that everybody starts with. At the beginning of your combat turn, you must move your marker up and down the encounter tracker to determine if you're getting more conservative or more reckless and thus how your powers work.

I know, it probably sounds like chargen and everything is is really complex. To some extent, it is. There are a lots of bits and pieces and things to keep track of. That said, once you get used to it, it's not bad at all. The three of us playing last night picked it up fairly quickly.

But here we go, a combat example. This is based off what happened last night, slightly changed. It won't cover everything I mentioned and it won't mention some things at all, but it'll get most of it as well as somethings like wounds and crits that I didn't.

We are facing a mutant thing which used to be human, but has sprouted feathers, a beak, and claws and is unhappy to see my Trollslayer. The fiend wins initiative, rolling 4 characteristic dice for Agility and getting 3 successes. I only have 2 successes, so the enemy goes first. Range is abstract in WFRP, described as engaged, close, medium, and far I believe. The fiend started off at close range and uses a maneuver to move to engagement range, then uses another one to attack. I play an action card, parry. This adds 1 misfortune dice to his dice pool. Since my character is trained in Weapon Skill, it adds a second misfortune dice to his pool. And finally, my Trollslayer has a Defense of 1, which adds yet another misfortune dice to his pool.

The fiend rolls and hits! The fiend does 5 wounds to me. My Trollslayer has a Soak of 1, so I only take 4 wounds. My Trollslayer is considered lightly wounded now and will be so until I either have no wounds or if my wounds go over 15, crossing into the next wounded category. However, because of all the misfortune dice I added to the monster's pool, it has also rolled several banes. It still hits me, but it has a complication. In this case, there were enough banes that I could choose to put a recharge token on the attack it just used. Most, but not all, action cards have a recharge value. When you use the card, you put a number of tokens equal to that value on the card and you can't use it again until they're all gone. You remove 1 token at the end of your turn. For some cards that have sustained effects, the effect actually lasts until all the recharge tokens are gone. The parry card I used earlier has a recharge of 2, so I would have 2 tokens on it, keeping me from using it again for 2 more combat rounds. But back to the example, now the monster couldn't use that particular attack on me again next turn because my parry had helped throw it off balance or something.

Now it's my character's turn. To start my turn, I must move my stance. I'm a Trollslayer, so I want to move from neutral to 1 deep in Reckless. That means all cards I play will be use the reckless side. Reckless side will hit less often, but it has more dramatic effects when it does. I decide that I'm going to use Double Strike. It has a recharge of 2, so I set it aside and put 2 tokens on it. I build my dice pool. Double Strike uses Weapon Skill. Weapon Skill is based on Strength, so I get a number of characteristic dice equal to my Strength, in this case 5. But I'm 1 deep in my Reckless stance, so I replace one of those Strength dice with a Reckless die. If I'd been 3 deep into Reckless, I would have replaced 3 Strength dice with Reckless dice. I have Weapon Skill trained, so I get an expertise die. I'm using a hand weapon and I happen to have a specialization in hand weapon, which gives me an additional fortune die. Double Strike also has a difficulty die to use it, in this case I have to add a misfortune die to my pool. I also have to add one more misfortune die for the monsters defense.

So my dice pool for this attack consists of 4 characteristic dice, 1 reckless die, 1 expertise die, 1 fortune die, and 2 misfortune dice. I roll and get 2 successes, 1 challenge, 1 Sigmar's comet, 1 boon, and 2 banes. As I said, challenges negate successes and banes negate boons, so my final roll is 1 success, 1 bane, and 1 Sigmar's comet. If I'd rolled 2 banes, the Double Strike card tells me that there would have been a penalty, in this case I would have picked up 1 Fatigue (something which I didn't and won't get into), but since I only rolled 1, I'm okay. If I'd had more boons than banes, I would have read what the card says for having those. Sigmar's comet happens to have a special effect when using Double Strike, in this case I could strike another enemy combatant engaged with me with my main hand weapon. But since there are no other enemies, I can instead choose to treat it as a success. So now I have 2 successes. I read what the card tells me for 2 successes. In this case, I do damage with my main hand weapon, my off hand weapon, and bonus damage equal to my strength. I'm using hammers, which have a damage rating of 5. So I do 10 damage right there, plus 5 more for my Strength score for a total of 15. This is a pretty nasty hit and ends up killing the monster outright as it only had 14 wounds.

Critical hits work different and I'll explain using another example. Let's say that instead of 2 banes, I'd rolled 3 boons. Every weapon has a critical rating. If you roll a net number of boons equal to your weapon's critical rating, you can turn one of the wounds you cause into a critical wound. For example, the hammers my Trollslayer was using have damage rating 5 and critical rating 3. Let's say I hit and have 3 boons. I can use my boons to play an effect on the card, if there is one, or I can choose to make it a critical hit. If I make it a critical hit, the monster takes 5 wound cards as normal, but one of them is flipped over to reveal what nasty effect it has. These were, as far as I can tell, mostly things like adding challenge or misfortune dice to the pool of the creature affected for certain actions. In cases where the GM decides that the effect doesn't really apply to a creature (like blinding a creature with no eyes, I suppose), you instead take the severity rating of the critical wound and treat it as that many more wounds. So let's say that my critical hit has a wound effect that doesn't really affect the monster and that critical wound card has a severity of 3. The card would then act as though it added 3 more wounds. In this case, for a grand total of 8 wounds from this attack.

Okay, that about wraps it up. I can't claim to be an expert at the game and it's entirely possible there are some errors. After all, everybody at the table was new to the game. Even the GM. Overall? I think it's a pretty fun game. I'm not sure it's one I personally would like to play as a long term campaign, but I can very easily see it as something I would play for a few weeks as a mini campaign. I'm not sure of it's viability as a 1-shot game either, unless everybody is already familiar with the system. We spent a long time last night just learning the system and creating characters. Once we got playing, things were great, but it was a lot of time invested in getting to that point first and that's not good for a game you're going to play only one or two nights. But generally speaking I think the game's quite a bit of fun despite the fiddly bits and the learning curve.

Mental Health and Gaming

2010-08-22T09:30:00.001-06:00

This may be something of a more serious and personal post from me. I've wanted to talk about this for a long time, but I was never sure where to start or what to say. Even right at this moment as I'm typing away, I'm not sure how I'll really say what I need to say or if I'll be able to help people understand my situation. I'm not even sure why I'm writing it. Catharsis, maybe. A plea for people to be patient and understanding, perhaps. I don't know.

So let's get it out of the way up front. I've been diagnosed (by a doctor mind you, not self-diagnosis with help from the internet) with a number of mental health disorders. Clinical depression (or dysthymia depending on the doctor or therapist you ask), social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and so on. They affect my life on some level on a daily basis. Some days, honestly, I'm not fit to be around people because of my problems and I can be a really hard person to deal with. So why write about it here on a gaming blog? Why not on a personal blog or site? Because there are times and situations where they affect even a hobby like playing tabletop or board games. In my case, it even affects the things related to the hobby that I do like posting on twitter or podcasting.

Social anxiety is best described like having the worst case of shyness that you can imagine. I feel very uncomfortable around anybody I don't know. I have a really hard time making small talk with people. I hate being the center of attention in a social situation. I very very easily get embarrassed. Some days are better than others. At times I can be almost like any other person. I can talk with strangers, make small talk, and to some extent be okay with being the focus of a situation. Some days I can push past my anxiety and at least act normal even if I don't actually feel that way. Similarly, some days are far worse than others. I've had days where even driving to the grocery store is too much for me or I've been scared to go pay a bill or even going in to work has been completely terrifying to contemplate.

So how does this apply to gaming? Tabletop games and even board games are a social experience and my social anxiety hurts me a lot there. I'm not a strong roleplayer. I hate to admit it, but it's true. I can think of what a character would do and do what a character would do, but it can be hard for me to act in character. Doing voices, accents, and sometimes even talking in character is difficult. I have a tendency to do things like "[NPC] tells you X, Y, Z" as a GM and "[PC] asks about X, Y, Z" as a player. It can be difficult to run a game because, as I said, I hate being the center of attention. And if I mess up, say something stupid, or make a mistake, I get embarrassed about it. And all of this is just with my home game. Today was Worldwide D&D Game Day for Dark Sun and I didn't go. Part of the reason was just that I was busy with other things, but a good part of it was just being scared to go and play in a game that was likely to be filled with people I don't know and play in a public place.

Depression isn't quite as easy to describe as the social anxiety. It doesn't effect everybody the same way and not everybody expresses all of their symptoms at the same time or the same way. For me, it generally means that I often feel down or unhappy, often with no real reason to feel that way. Related to that is that if I do have a reason or reasons to feel upset or unhappy, the depression often magnifies it considerably. It effects my concentration and focus. It seriously compromises my self-esteem and self-confidence. Sometimes it makes me feel very tired. There are days where it's an uphill struggle just to get out of bed and do the things that I ~have~ to do and I don't always win those battles.

It's also not quite as cut and dry how this affects me and my gaming. Sometimes it just means that I'm a little more quiet and distracted during a game, not as prone to make jokes or whatever. Some days it's meant that I've canceled out entirely because I can't handle being myself, let alone being around other people. It also means that I'm very very hard on myself. I second guess the things I do as a DM like the plots I come up with, the encounters I create, or the whole campaign that I'm running. As a player I can feel like I've made a crappy character, mechanically or otherwise. Or I might feel like I'm not helping out enough with things going on in the game, like I'm too stupid to follow investigations or whatever.

To some extent, playing RPGs helps me with my issues. I can't eliminate them, but being able to go and play with friends is a very badly needed social outlet, distraction, and way to relax for me. The podcasts that I work on are similarly helpful, even if working on them isn't face-to-face. It's never easy though. Some days my mental health issues effects what I'm doing no matter how hard I try to keep it otherwise.

When you listen to the latest episodes of 4 Geeks 4e and DM Roundtable (show #4 and show #7 respectively), listen to how quiet I am for both of them (we recorded them back to back). I normally have to assert myself and push myself a lot for the podcasts. I'm just naturally a quiet person and I don't like to do things like interrupt or impose myself in a conversation. I have to push myself to keep up with both Sam and Thadeous, who are both strong conversationalists and will dominate a conversation. But with those shows, I'm much more quiet. I state at one point in 4g4e that I'm not saying much because I don't have much to say, but strictly speaking that's not true. I was feeling really down that night and it shows. I'm too distracted, feeling too messed up in the head to push myself to be the conversationalist that I normally try to be for the shows. In the latter half of DMR, when NewbieDM joins the recording, I'm even more quiet. Because at this point not am I only feeling depressed, but I'm feeling anxious. I've only had very limited time recording with him, he's got a strong personality, and he's much more well known than I am. I felt like I was a little kid trying to join the adult table at a big family dinner. So I all but disappear for a huge amount of time in the last part of the podcast. I even had my mic muted almost all that time. Then when it eventually comes back to me, I take a shot at myself because I don't feel important or necessary to the conversation.

Is there a point to all this? I don't know that there is. As I said at the beginning, I don't have answers myself. This was really hard to write. I don't usually put myself and my personal life out to be read about like this. On some level though, I think it needed to be written so people can read it. I don't know if it'll do any good, but I can hope.

After Action Report #3

2010-08-21T18:52:00.001-06:00

I've had 2 more sessions of running my game, but I saved them both up to go in one entry. Quite frankly, my players have not made a lot of progress in those 2 sessions and there were a lot of issues to sort out. So there was little point in writing an AAR after each session. Previously, my players had cleared and explored through the Spiderweb Landing, rescuing one of the kidnapped citizens of Brindol, and were ready to continue searching for others.

Because I'd tried to make the enemies at least a ~little~ proactive, the Rivenroar Family Crypt was completely empty. The enemies that had been there previously attacked the PCs as they tried to rest. Of course, the players didn't know this so, they were really cautious and careful, expecting an attack at any moment. I, of course, played this up for all it was worth because I think it's funny to subvert player expectations. I called for several stealth checks, several more perception checks, and I rolled a lot of random d20s. Sometimes several at once, to make it feel more like there were hidden monsters lurking everywhere.

Eventually the PCs went down to the hallway to the Fresco Room. They were expecting an ambush from the rear at any time when they opened the door. Which is sensible of them and I hope they forget to do that at some point so I can do exactly that. :) The PCs were again very cautious, ridiculously so. The rogue scouted the room, but alerted the bad guys there and then retreated, apparently hoping that my monsters or I were stupid and would happily run right along into the readied attacks that the PCs had waiting.

Side note. My PCs seem to want to start fights like that. Have the rogue stealth in, attack once to alert the monsters, and then retreat so that the monsters are basically walking into an ambush. They've done this, or tried to, several times. It reminds me of nothing so much as pulling mobs in an MMO. Something which I know quite a bit about as I was a top-flight Hunter in WoW. As the GM, I've already gotten tired of it because, as I said before, it means that the players think that either I'm stupid or my monsters are. I'll play stupid creatures as they need, but many are going to recognize the PCs tactic for what it is. As these did.

So the PCs took several turns, hoping that the monsters would oblige them and run out. When they didn't, the PCs went on the attack. Sorta. The combat went poorly for the PCs. Part of this was just bad tactics/decisions on their part. Part of it was bad rolling for them. Part of it was good rolling on my part. The players really tried to downplay the bad tactics and decisions, but it really was the biggest part of how this very nearly turned into a TPK. Yes, I rolled well, but I also had one of the enemies (the one with the close blast 3) continually beat up his own allies in his efforts to hit the PCs. It'd be fair to say that one enemy did as much to win the encounter for the PCs as the PCs themselves did. In the end, I had 4 PCs down and dying with only the wizard still up. The wizard barely managed to take out the last monster and the players got themselves back up.

The PCs took another extended rest here. This time I was more willing to allow it. The reasoning being that Gomd, the blast happy goblin in the room, was notoriously cranky and wanted to be left alone. So any roving patrols would leave the PCs alone so long as they stayed in the Fresco Room. Is it a flimsy reason? Yeah, a little. But if I'd played monsters halfway intelligently in Rivenroar, my party would have died very early on. An alarm would have gone up and the PCs would have been swarmed with almost every remaining intelligent enemy as they tried to take their first rest. In the interests of fun, I let both of the extended rests go. Also in the interest of fun, I'm not doing another realistic thing and having some fights "respawn" when outside patrols and reinforcements show up (as they should be). Later on, in another dungeon, the PCs might not be so lucky. I don't want players to feel that once they have an encounter in a room that it's the only encounter they can have there and that monsters are going to sit around waiting for the PCs to show up and attack them.

Instead of moving up to the second floor, the PCs decided to check around the rest of the castle first. Eventually they ended up in the Mushroom Chamber. This fight ended up decently, but not as interestingly as it could have been. My PCs once again turtled up in the entrance of the room and tried to get the enemies to come to them. Feeling that the monsters would do exactly that, the fight ended up ignoring all the mushroom terrain in the room and it lost some of the unique aspects to the fight. I ended up deciding that there was a pile of bodies in the far corner, where the goblins were putting most of the dead villagers and farmers until they could be turned into undead. The PCs rescued the old woman in the next room and I had a lot of fun with her. I had her berate the PCs for not rescuing her earlier, insulting their manhood, their skills, their intelligence, and everything else short of their penis size. I had a lot of fun with it. The Paladin rolled brilliantly on Diplomacy and the old woman took a shining to him, so the berating of the players instead turned into comparing them unfavorably to the Paladin saying things like "Why can't you be smart like this lovely young man here?" and so on.

Next the PCs went to the Von Jallach Crypt. This... went badly. Really badly. I know I built the encounter to be very dangerous, but even I underestimated how brutal it really was going to be. The Paladin was dead first turn. Not down and dying. Stone dead. Eventually the Rogue followed him into death. The Runepriest was one lucky die roll from death (he had 2 failed death saves, but then rolled a nat 20). The Wizard was down to 3 HP. The Monk was down and dying. The PCs won, eventually, but at terrible cost.

After the encounter, I talked with some of the players. It was pointed out that I could have outright killed a PC every turn if I'd rolled well. In the end, I agreed to a retcon. If I'd dropped the damage that the tiles did to, say, 1d4 or 1d6 damage as I probably should have, the PCs likely would have one. I'd have still kicked their teeth in, I'm sure, but they likely wouldn't have had any outright deaths. So in the interests of fun for everybody, I declared that the PCs retroactively got their ass kicked but won. They'd lose at least 5 healing surges (plus any that actually got spent in the fight). If this brought PCs below 0 surges, they would be weakened until they had an extended rest.

So that's where things left off. I'm going to allow another extended rest, but at the cost of the remaining villagers being killed. The PCs will find the bodies, very recently dead. I've been generous allowing the players to take rests, but they should also realise that their choices have consequences. They might have to explain to families why those NPCs are dead, explain why they weren't saved. I'll pull some guilt tripping here later where the PCs have weeping families thanking them for bringing a body back when the PCs will know damned well that that NPC should still be alive. Further, they will not get the full reward in XP or treasure that they would have for rescuing everybody.

Dark Sun Campaign Setting impressions and info

2010-08-10T20:42:00.001-06:00

Let me get this out of the way up front. I like Dark Sun. When it was announced as the next campaign setting being released from Wizards for 4e, I was excited. Dark Sun has been a wonderful almost post-apocalyptic counterpoint to the typical high fantasy that D&D usually embodies. It's dangerous, it's grim, it's black and grey as opposed to black and white. There have been other attempts to emulate that same style, but Dark Sun was unique. Even if things veered into the weird, the silly, or the ridiculous at times with Dark Sun, it was a great setting. So I loved seeing it come up again for 4e and eagerly ran down to my FLGS when they told me that they had my copies in stock.

Note that this is not a review and I probably won't write one. As you may have determined by my Vor Rukoth review, I don't do things by halves when I'm reviewing something. It'd be dishonest of me to throw something out on the site having not done a thorough job. That said, as much as I might want to review this, I'd rather direct my efforts elsewhere in light of the fact that there are already more than a few good reviews up and I'd not like to be just another voice in the crowd. Vor Rukoth was different in that it was being drowned out by Tomb of Horrors and it needed the love.

Digression over. Time to dig in to Dark Sun.

I like that the book starts off by telling you basically that Athas is not your typical D&D world and gives you a list of things that are important to the setting that might be taken for granted elsewhere. A brief overview of society and the cosmology are good too, especially before you get into the crunchy bits. It's worth noting for fans of the setting that a lot of the "metaplot" aspects of the old edition have been rebooted. The setting presumes that your game starts shortly after Kalak is killed in Tyr according to the events of the first Dark Sun novel (The Verdant Passage), but before the events of the second novel (The Crimson Legion) takes place. A lot of the history of the world is left vague enough so that a lot of the sillier elements of the older editions can be ignored, though that also leaves out some of the things that were good about the history as well.

First up with the crunchy bits are the races. Two new ones, as expected. Muls (which they clarify that pronouncing it "mull" is more correct than "mule", though neither is technically incorrect) and thri-kreen. I really like the 4e iterations of both races and I'll be playing a Mul Monk when my local Dark Sun campaign gets started. Aarakocra or Pterrans do not make a playable race appearance, though aarakocra at least appear in the Creature Catalogue. Next is a very good thing, which is describing how the already established races fit in to Athas. Like many people, I wondered how they would include things like Dragonborn, Eladrin, and Tieflings. I think they've done an excellent job of it on all of them, making them fit as naturally to the setting as anything else. It also goes in small detail how you could handle races or classes outside of the normal Athasian ones (either that didn't exist in 2e or were explicitly forbidden). I know that the issue of "canon", especially as it relates to Dark Sun, was a hot topic on Twitter, forums, and even a podcast that I was on. It's nice that Wizards acknowledged that not everybody treats canon as law and offered some flexibility, however small. So there are small sidebars on unusual races or divine classes and the like for people who want to branch out.

More crunchy bits start with more racial paragon paths, one for goliaths as half-giants, as well for muls and thri-kreen. Then it's on to themes. I think themes are great. They are essentially the heroic tier equivalent of paragon paths and epic destinies. There are 10 of them and they are for the most part Dark Sun specific. I hope that eventually there are more general ones created. Each theme automatically bestows an extra encounter power and has several other powers that can be taken in place of class powers. The themes are generally wide enough so that they can be applied to many different classes, though obviously some classes will be better suited to a theme than others. They really do help you define and differentiate your character even further. Each theme has a couple of paragon paths associated with them. There are some restrictions, but nothing terribly binding.

Next are new character options. First is the arcane defilement power, an at-will free action that will make your party hate your guts if you use it. It allows you to reroll an attack or damage throw (taking the second result) at the cost of hurting everybody within 20 squares for half their healing surge value. Powerful yes, but again, if you use it your party is going to cave in your skull before too long. I think that it's a wonderfully flavorful option though. There are 10 wild talents next, which are optional. It's written that players can just choose one, but I like far better their suggestion that players roll a d10 and pick one. The wild talents aren't terribly powerful, but they are a nice touch to again make characters unique and Athasian. They're less powerful or versatile than Prestidigitation, to give you an idea of what they're like.

There are several new class builds available: Wild Battlemind, Arena Fighter (which is awesome), Animist Shaman, and Sorcerer-King Pact Warlock. There are more epic destinies as well, starting with the classic Avangion and Dragon-King then adding in Hordemaster, Mind Lord of the Order, and Pyreen. Next up are feats, a lot of them. There are racial feats, class feats, theme feats, arena feats, and general feats. A lot of variety and a lot of very interesting things to look at.

Next is some information about magical rituals in Athas, followed by equipment information. This is a big deal given the lack of metal in Athas. Despite what early reports indicated, there are 2 optional rules for weapon breaking. The first is that any natural 1 with a non-metal weapon breaks it. The other is the much publicized one where you can reroll a natural 1 but the weapon breaks immediately after (a metal weapon only breaks if the reroll is a 5 or less). Also included are optional rules for wearing metal armor and the effect it will have given the intense heat. There are several new types of weapons, new adventuring equipment, living costs, more weapon enchantments, and other magical items.

Then on to the atlas of Athas (catchy, huh?). There's good, though rather brief, information on each of the major city-states as well as the other important geographical areas within the Tyr Region. The book focuses there and doesn't go terribly far afield from it. Which is probably a good thing given the amount of information they already have to cram in to what's there. My major complaint here is that there aren't enough maps scattered through the text. Each city has a map, but the other areas are... problematic. Let me give an example. The part of the book entitled "Estuary of the Forked Tongue" has a small bit of map. It talks about the towns of North Ledopolus and South Ledopolus. Are either of those towns on the map? No. Further, even the city-states don't have a map to indicate the region surrounding it, only a map of the city itself.

The next section is about running a Dark Sun game, mainly pointed towards DMs. Things like desert movement and travel, dealing with the sun, making uniquely Athasian encounters (like arena bouts) and skill challenges. There's also a few pages on treasure and rewards, which is a good thing to cover since the usual 4e method wouldn't really fit in quite as well in a world where metal is scarce and arcane magic is a bad thing. I like what they've got presented. I like that they've added more boons and secrets like were introduced in the DMG2.

The book ends with a standard 3 encounter delve which seems suitably Athasian, if nothing tremendously unique or awesome. It'd be a good intro to the setting or maybe to a campaign if expanded further. Finally, there's a large foldout map of the Tyr Region. It's nicely detailed, well drawn, and has a lot of useful information on it. It's also a little more necessary than it should be given how few good maps are found in the book itself.

Anyway, despite some rough spots, it's a damned good update to Dark Sun for this edition and I can't wait to get in and play it. Given the wealth of interesting and detailed Dark Sun material in 2e, my only real wish is that they could have included more of it here, but that will likely have to wait for Dungeon and Dragon magazines or scavenged from the old material.

Rescue At Rivenroar Revised, part 4

2010-08-07T12:01:00.000-06:00

Time for the 4th and final part of my rather extensive retooling of Rescue at Rivenroar. I'm hoping that people found something to enjoy about it. I hope that new DMs will see how you might change a published module to fit your own story. New DMs also might take away information about encounter design, I'd hope. Everybody else, I hope found it interesting to watch me revise so much about a reasonably well known adventure module. I'll continue posting my encounters from my game online, but it won't quite be the same as what I've done here. Now, onto the changes.

Sinruth's Abode - Originally, Sinruth's Abode has just 1 monster in it: Sinruth himself. I admit that in 4e, solos rarely seem to work as well as I, and probably the designers, would like. They rarely make the kind of epic, interesting encounter that they're meant to. They're getting better, but Sinruth is an old school solo and so needed changes. Dropping him to an elite allows me to add many more monsters to the encounter. Shifting the site of the encounter would also help make things interesting. As written, Sinruth starts in room 21 which is frankly dull and not interesting. Room 20, with the damaging menhirs, makes a much more dangerous and fun battlefield. To accomidate all the changes, I've bumped the encounter up to 715xp from 625xp, which makes it a level 3 encounter.

1x Sinruth, Hobgoblin Elite - Originally, Sinruth was a level 2 solo soldier. I've changed him to be a level 3 elite soldier. He's got about 70 less hp, 1 less action point, and weaker saving throw bonus. But he's got slightly better defenses and attacks so he actually feels somewhat more of a threat as an elite than as a solo.

1x Ferak Draconian - One of the representatives of Sinruth's allies, he is completely unchanged from the monster builder. I love using draconians. They're fun monsters. Dangerous when they're living, but just as dangerous to kill.

1x Hobgoblin Warcaster - Another unchanged monster, but one that will work very well in the menhir battlefield. Gives the enemy group some needed ranged capability.

3x Hobgoblin Grunt - I like minions and these provide a little danger. But more importantly, the Phalanx Soldier synergy with each other and Sinruth is important.

Crypt Guardian Chamber - This encounter was tied with the Portal Room in WTF factor when I read it. It's so ridiculous. Wererats magically run out of the next room at precisely the right time, happen to know how to let go the trapped demon, and the demon doesn't attack them as well as the PCs? There are so many problems here that I honestly didn't know where to start. So I just took the entire encounter out. It serves no real purpose and quite frankly, Rivenroar could stand to lose an encounter or 2 anyway. I prefer to think that instead of the demon, this room held construct guardians that the goblins had to smash to get to the chapel beyond. You can describe the room as having parts of golems and other things scattered around it. An alternative is that the demon is still there, trapped behind the magical barrier that nobody living or dead can bring down anymore.

Shrine of the Obelisk - Gnomes ~and~ wererats as written, so you know that I was never going to let this stand as is. That said, I really wasn't sure that there needed to be an encounter here. In my home game, I dropped it entirely. I'm planning on playing up the light absorbing properties of the obelisk and making the players expect an undead attack at any time like I did in my revised Portal Room, but in the end nothing will happen. For people who want an encounter here, I'll elaborate. I designated this as the living quarters for Sinruth's personal guard and most trusted advisers. In my game, these people are already with him at the moment the players are exploring. If you want an encounter here, instead Sinruth's personal guard is a little bit bigger and some of them are here too. My version of this encounter is 476xp instead of the 450xp listed as written.

1x Hobgoblin Subcommander - Straight out of the monster builder. A nice monster with some interesting leader abilities.

2x Hobgoblin Mercenaries - Also right out of the character builder. Can stay back and shoot arrows decently from behind cover at range before charging in with swords.

2x Hobgoblin Grunts - Straightforward, but surprisingly difficult, minions.

Rivenroar Audience Chamber - Actually, as written, this isn't a horrible encounter. I just wanted to shake things up a bit and I needed a place for Dulan, the Death Priest ally of Sinruth. I'd already used a wight earlier, so it was easy enough to switch that out. I also thought that this encounter would benefit from the same environmental effects that I used in Spiderweb Landing, namely the necrotic mist that provides cover and is difficult terrain for living characters. So scatter some patches of it around the room and make it random and fun. I again bumped the XP value of the fight, from 500 to 562. Nothing major, but worth noting.

1x Dulan, Death Priest - Dulan began as an Emerald Claw Necromancer, a level 3 artillery. I bumped it up to level 4 to get Dulan, but really made no other changes.

3x Decrepit Skeletons - Untouched. The encounter as written actually has 5 of these, but I dropped it to 3.

2x Pack Zombies - Straight from the monster builder. I added these purely for fun and to add some variety rather than have so many skeleton minions.

1x Skeleton Trooper - Out of the monster builder. A solid monster, though nothing tremendously special. Mostly worth the look on players face when they whack what they probably think is a minion and see it still standing.

1x Dread Protector - Another monster untouched. I really like this creature and wouldn't mind having players encounter similar ones at higher levels. It really forces the players to work hard to get to and defeat Dulan since they almost certainly have to put the Dread Protector down entirely first.

The podcasting continues!

2010-08-05T17:27:00.000-06:00

Episode 3 of 4 Geeks 4e has been released. It was a great show about D&D Monsters, specifically relating to the changes relating to the Monster Manual 3. We could have kept talking for ages on the subject. NewbieDM made a special guest appearance.

I put in another guest host appearance over at the DM Roundtable podcast too, for Episode 6. I think that I qualify as a "regular guest host" given that I've been on the show 50% of the time. This show was also really interesting. We started off talking about players who seem excessively bloodthirsty, the possible reasons for it, and some ideas for things to do with it. Then we transitioned into talking about the Dresden Files RPG, talking about the setting a bit, some unique features of the game, and otherwise interesting bits.

You can find links to both shows off to your right. Enjoy, comment, and rate them.

Rescue At Rivenroar Revised, part 3

2010-07-31T10:56:00.000-06:00

So, now that I'm actually back to running my game after a bit of a hiatus, it's time to get back into detailing the changes I've made to Rescue at Rivenroar.

Fresco Chamber: This was another encounter that I completely swapped out. As I think I mentioned before, I was on a quest to eradicate the gnome presence from Rivenroar and that meant that these had to go. The rats were still appropriate to the dungeon, but quite honestly Dire Rats are kind of boring creatures, whether they have a disease or not. They don't have a lot of interesting powers or abilities. So off they went as well. My new vision of the area/encounter was this. One of Sinruth's spellcasters, a goblin named Gomd, was given what amounts to a tome of magic by Dulan, Sinruth's necromancer ally. Gomd was ordered to study the tome and learn the death magics within so that he could help create Sinruth's undead army. Gomd took over the fresco chamber as a place to study in relative quiet and moved in with his pet drake and his guardian statue. Gomd appropriated one of the prisoners to have someone to experiment on and kick around. Sinruth ordered Nork, a kind of loony goblin, to watch over Gomd and the prisoner. So with all these changes, I've taken a kind of meaningless fight that had no real purpose in the original module except as bags of XP for PCs to earn and given it story and a reason for existing. This is important to me. I don't like combat for the sake of combat. There needs to be a reason behind it. Digression over. Now on to the combatants.

1x Gomd, Goblin Shaman. Gomd began life as High Shaman Sancossug, a level 3 solo from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. I simply dropped him from a solo to a regular enemy. That should have been fine, in theory, but if you're going to do the same thing in your game you really really should adjust Gomd's defenses downward. Probably by at least 2 across the board and even 3 wouldn't go too far. When I ran this encounter, Gomd only had 46hp but he had the defenses of the solo and players had a hard time hitting him. This made his multiple big damage, big area blast attacks that much more dangerous because he stayed alive to use them often.

1x Nork, Goblin Bodyguard. Nork started off as a Norker Berserker, a level 4 elite. Like Gomd, I simply dropped him to a regular enemy first, then I dropped him to level 3. Unlike Gomd, Nork does not need any adjustment to work perfectly fine as is.

1x Spitting Drake. Straight out of the monster builder, no adjustment made or needed.

1x Stonefist Defender. Also straight out the monster builder, no adjustments.

Tactics: Gomd is going to blast the crap out of stuff, even his allies (though he'll try not to blast his pet drake too much). Anytime more than a couple of PCs group up, Gomd is going after them. His Stonefist Defender (in the shape of an idealised goblin warrior) stays next to him at all times so Gomd can take advantage of Misdirection. Nork hurls himself into melee and goes after a random selection of targets (he's a loony as I mentioned earlier and the random targeting keeps players guessing). The drake stays near Gomd if it can and spits at PCs who get too close to Gomd.

Mushroom Chamber: If you've guessed that I've done a complete swap for this encounter, you would be correct. My thinking was very simple. If this is a room called the mushroom chamber and it's got lots of little mushroom things around... why aren't the enemies things like oozes, plants, and fungi? Why are there rage drakes? So away went the drakes, in came more "appropriate" enemies. I think they're more interesting enemies too, honestly. More variety of creatures, more variety of powers. The only question this raises is one that most players (and DMs) aren't going to ask. That question is "how do Sinruth's guys get past the monsters to drop off the prisoner?". My answer is that they'd throw a haunch of deer or some other animal to distract the critters for a while while they moved through. Anyway, on to the creatures.

2x Fungal Bloodthorn Vine - Only a Bloodthorn Vine from the monster builder, just with a different name.

3x Myconid Gas Spores - Straight out of the monster builder, no adjustments.

1x Grey Ooze - Also straight out of the monster builder.

Tactics: They're not exactly the Roman Legions here, so it's straight forward. The Vines try and grab players, trying to take advantage of PCs who are slowed and going through concealed squares. The spores don't even do that much, just moving into combat with the nearest PC. The ooze is a bit of a surprise at first, as it moves above the group of PCs and drops down on them in the first round.

Von Jallach Crypt: This encounter as written has a gnome. So of course I'm changing the whole thing. This was actually pretty fun to come up with. I liked the needlefang drake swarms in general, but I had something different in mind for the room. This is the room with Serd, the infamous Goblin Buttmonkey. I decided that Serd is kind of the whipping boy for Sinruth's group. They all treat him badly, bully him, pull pranks on him, and assign him crappy duties. Which is why he's here, in a room that will zap the crap out of you if you trip and fall in the wrong way. Serd is so pathetic and emo that he's attracted fell taints from the rest of the crypt who enjoy the atmosphere around Serd. This could and should be a pretty hard fight. Serd is the group Buttmonkey, but in this room he's very dangerous. Onto the monsters now.

1x Serd, Goblin Whipping Boy. Serd started off as a Goblin Acolyte of Maglubiyet, a level 1 controller. I bumped him up to level 2 because he was just too fragile at level 1. I removed the Maglubiyet references from him (ex. Maglubiyet's First became Fists of Fury) and called it a day.

1x Fell Taint Wisp - Straight out of the Monster Builder

1x Fell Taint Defiant - Again, no adjustments here.

1x Fell Taint Cold Darter - Slight adjustment here. This is a regular Fell Taint Darter brought up from level 1 to level 1 and renamed.

Tactics: Serd will start off with the Fists of Fury, dragging 2 PCs into the zappy runes and he'll continue to drag PCs through them as often as he can, using Hand of Force until Fists of Fury recharges. If a PC closes with him, he'll use Life Scourge to get back to range and continue sliding PCs. The Fell Taint Defiant tries to get right in the middle of the PC group or to the rear where ranged characters are hiding. The Fell Taint Wisp stays near the Fell Taint Defiant to help make it tougher. The Cold Darter lingers the edges of the fight, moving in to attack isolated PCs or PCs that it can flank.

Von Adrez-Kauthin Crypt: This is actually one of the rare encounters that I didn't mess around with, not even a little bit. It's themed appropriately to the dungeon and should be a solid combat encounter. It admittedly may not be the most wacky, memorable, or unusual fight, but it serves a good purpose as it is so I left it alone.

Honor Guard Crypt: Two untouched encounters in a row. I know, it's odd, but what I said for the Von Adrez-Kauthin Crypt goes here too. It fits the goblins/undead theme of the dungeon that I want and although it may not seem to be an encounter that will be incredibly memorable, it's solid and fits. It can actually be made memorable if you play the ghouls right. With their high Stealth check, they could very easily lurk around, attack a PC for a round or two, then run away to hide again. If you want to highlight that feeling, I suggest ditching the zombies though. Pair the Ghouls with another good Lurker like a Griefmote or Shadow Stalker.

That's the end of part 3. In the next part, I'll go into my changes for the final four encounters left with Rescue at Rivenroar.

Review: Vor Rukoth

2010-07-24T13:19:00.001-06:00

Strangely, I haven't seen any reviews for this come out of the places I usually read, so I figure I'd throw my hat into the review ring with Vor Rukoth. I picked it up last week along with copies of Tomb of Horrors and Players Handbook Races: Dragonborn. I think that Vor Rukoth has been kind of buried in the, rather understandable, excitement for the 4th Edition version of the famous Tomb of Horrors adventure. I personally think that's a shame because Vor Rukoth has a lot to offer DMs.

Vor Rukoth is the latest in the Adventure Site series of D&D4e products that started off with Hammerfast. Hammerfast was a relatively safe place, quite possibly a home base for players, and a hub for plot hooks that would frequently send players outside of Hammerfast. Vor Rukoth is, to some extent, just the opposite. It's a dangerous and deadly city ruin that plot hooks will send players into. But before I get into the content, let's start with the basics.

Vor Rukoth is a 32 page, full color paperback supplement written by Greg Bilsland detailing the fallen Tiefling city of the same name. The book has a suggested retail price of about $15. Similar to Hammerfast, the cover is not attached to the document allowing Wizards of the Coast to have a black and white map of Vor Rukoth and the surrounding area set at a scale of approximately 1 square = 275 feet. Although I like the map and I liked the one for Hammerfast as well, I honestly don't like how the cover isn't attached. It makes transporting or storing the entire thing feel messy, for lack of a better term. Also included with Vor Rukoth is a double-side full color poster map portraying two different environments.

The poster map is pretty sizable and quite good looking. The first side is a vividly red throne room or greeting hall and looks pretty good. If using it for combat, it'd be quite wide open without a lot of cover or terrain to consider. Because of some of the detailing, it might be a little hard to use "as is" to portray anything other than a demonic or dark throne area. You'd have to handwave why there's a giant depiction of a devil stabbing a dragon with a trident taking up an area 40+ feet in diameter on one side of the room. The other side is much more friendly to import to other uses. This other side depicts a section of ruined town and is really well done. There are ruined buildings of all sorts, statues, dead trees, even fountains and what appear to be wells. It doesn't feel nearly as Vor Rukoth specific as the throne room side, so DMs who are looking to get the most out of this product will be able to use it to represent any long abandoned and ruined town.

Moving on to the book itself, Vor Rukoth begins with a page and a half introducing the city and giving some background information about it. The gist of it being that Vor Rukoth was a city of the Bael Turath Empire and, in the waning days of the war with Arkosia, it was overrun by devils in a desperate attempt to save the city from the Dragons and Dragonborn. This, obviously, did not go well. The next approximately two pages discuss the outpost of Coyote's Refuge, a small tent town outside Vor Rukoth which acts as a jumping off point for expeditions into the ruins. Coyote's Refuge definitely has a wild west feel to it with quite a hard edge to it. Though it's safe compared to Vor Rukoth, I think characters should feel like they need to watch their back and their coin purse while in Coyote's Refuge. This is where the adventure and plot hooks start showing up. Several of the important NPCs in town are listed and some of them have a hook associated with them that can get players off on an adventure.

The next five pages are devoted to the different factions to be found in the area. There's some good variety, ranging from a consortium of merchants & explorers, to a group of mages, to agents of the Raven Queen. Each faction has a general overview given as well as some of the key NPCs involved in the faction. Some of these factions could probably be transplanted untouched into nearly any campaign, either as antagonists or potential allies. Some would need some work to pull away from the Vor Rukoth setting, but I don't think it would be terribly difficult. All of the factions also have plot hooks associated with them, but they're not listed here. Instead they're listed in the area of Vor Rukoth where the hooks would send the players, which I think is a good choice.

Next is about a page of "Events", things that can happen in or around Vor Rukoth to shake things up. If players have been venturing in and out of the ruins for a while, this could alter the landscape that might be getting a little too familiar to the players. Now, on page 11, we finally get to the ruined city of Vor Rukoth itself. The ruin is broken up into eight different areas, each of which gets about 2-3 pages devoted to it. Within each area, between two and six (usually about four or five) potential adventure sites are listed as well as any plot hooks that may be be luring the players to those areas. Many of these plot hooks are directly related to the factions listed earlier, so there may be a little flipping back and forth between the two parts of the book. Though the ruins as a whole have a demons and undead sort of theme, each of the areas further refines things to their own particular feel. My personal favorite areas are the Obsidian Spires, which is an area of ruined arcane towers, and the Lost District, which is an area of underwater and half-drowned houses and buildings.

There aren't a lot of game stats or mechanical bits to be found in the book, and I think that's actually a good thing. It gives DMs free reign to do what they like with the area without feeling like there's a way things "should be". That said, there are still crunchy bits to be found in Vor Rukoth. There are monsters, items, traps, and poisons ranging from about level 9 to about level 15. Many of them could probably used quite easily outside of a Vor Rukoth centered campaign.

As far as a Vor Rukoth campaign goes, you could probably quite easily run a short campaign set entirely in this area. A self-motivating group of explorers especially could have a great time going on expeditions into the city, either as the result of one of the plot hooks given or just as players wanting to see what can be found. There's a wide cast of NPCs given that they can interact with, either in the city or in Coyote's Refuge which can add a needed social dynamic to that sort of campaign. I think a more likely scenario for most people is that Vor Rukoth will be a short term stay before players and the campaign move on elsewhere and the book is well suited for that too. Lastly, there's the people who like to get things that they can mine for ideas, items, or monsters to use in their homebrew campaigns. I personally think that there's a lot to like about Vor Rukoth from that perspective. It's true that there aren't a lot of crunchy bits to take elsewhere, but to make up for it most of them are quite easy to transplant. There's very little Vor Rukoth specific that needs to be filed off, so to speak. Beyond that, there's a wealth of ideas to be taken from the book. Coyote's Refuge could prove to be a template for a hard and dangerous frontier town. Many of the ruin's areas could be turned into a more standalone element, like turning the Lost District into a separate half-sunken town, or incorporated into something else, like using the Ruby Throne as the centerpiece of your homebrew city.

In conclusion, I really like Vor Rukoth. I think that it's a great product and I think that it's definitely worth buying. My only real gripe is the cover, as I mentioned before. Beyond that it's full of things that a good DM can find useful in whatever kind of campaign they're planning to run. Unless it's Dark Sun, but Dark Sun kind of breaks a lot of rules that way. The poster map is an excellent addition, especially the versatile ruined town side. Vor Rukoth is not a book that you want if you're not looking to do a little work, however. It's very much a sandbox that a DM can create their own encounters, monsters, and designs in and doesn't act like an adventure module. I think that's the best thing that can be said about Vor Rukoth really. It gives you the tools, the backdrop, and plenty of ideas then turns the DMs loose to see what they can do with it.

shakes off the dust

2010-07-24T11:13:00.001-06:00

I've been a little neglectful of this place in the last couple of weeks. So let's get back into it, shall we? Let's go into what I've been up to in the last 2 weeks.

The second episode of 4 Geeks 4e has been posted. In it we talk about some of the reasons that we play D&D4e. The nice thing is that between the 4 of us, we covered all the reasons that I like to play it so I don't even really have to elaborate with things that I didn't get to say on the show.

I was a guest host on 2 episodes of the DM Roundatable podcast, specifically episodes 3 and 4. These were a great deal of fun to do, not least because we can talk about things that would be beyond the scope or length of a typical 4 Geeks podcast. And we really did, especially on episode 4 which clocks in at nearly 2 hours.

I have a one-shot D&D game schedule for this Sunday that I'm looking forward to. I've rolled up a bit of an odd character (a Shardmind Avenger of Pelor) but it should be quite fun. I will live-tweet the game if I'm able to.

It's not D&D related, but I've joined a Dresden Files RPG group with some great people and I'm very much looking forward to that. Once we get started, I'll probably have more than a few posts about it.

Also on a not-D&D note, we had our first Call of Cthulhu casualty last night. Probably won't be our last. A giant snake just demolished our Vietnamese gangster PC. One bite, 14 damage, dead PC. The doctor PC kept him from dying from blood loss... only to have him die of the extremely potent poison.

After Action Report #2

2010-07-11T11:47:00.000-06:00

At the end of the last AAR, my players had just arrived at Rivenroar Castle itself. I allowed them to take an extended rest. I'd told them that they'd spent most of the day getting there, so the sun was starting to go down when they found it. I'd thought about a random encounter there, but ultimately decided against it. It might have made sense for them to run into goblin sentries or wildlife, but even at this point I was starting to get the feeling that there might be a few too many combats looming ahead in the castle. So in the interest in avoiding combat for the sake of combat, I passed.

The first encounter inside the castle was, surprisingly, really hard on my players. The hobgoblin soldiers bottled up the players near the stairs while the goblins in the back had target practice. The nifty little braziers which spat fire were fun, but didn't factor too much into the fight. The Paladin got blasted by them once, but that was towards the end of the fight when things were finally turned in the PC's favor. They took a beating getting to that point, however. I dropped the monk for the first time in this adventure, but it wouldn't be the last time.

The second encounter just wasn't fun. From the entrance, the players went left and ended up at the Goblin Warren battle. I wrote about this one here and my opinion hasn't changed. I should have adjusted the terrain or adjusted the monsters because even as I was setting up I knew it wouldn't be an enjoyable fight. The PCs didn't mind it because they got enjoyment from obliterating my monsters, but this was easily the low point of the entire campaign for me. No fun to be had at all. The one interesting thing about what happened in this fight? One of the Goblin Sharpshooters escaped, something which would haunt the players a bit later.

The next encounter was the Portal Room encounter. I've already posted how I've changed that and I'm still glad I did. It was another very hard fight for the PCs. They started the fight virtually surrounded and they were pushed hard to the end. They burned action points and daily powers here. That said, I think they had fun with it because it was an interesting fight and they really had to earn their victory. Later on, I told them what the fight was actually supposed to have and they all agreed that my changes were definitely for the better. Not just the monsters, but ditching the inexplicable portal too.

From the former-Portal Room, the players again went left (citing Tomb of Horrors, natch) and wound up at the Von Urstadt Crypt. This... didn't go as it should. I missed that this room was supposed to be completely dark. This would have changed the dynamic at least somewhat. Credit to my players though. They had a very solid plan of engagement and executed it well. Combined with some really miserable rolling on my part, they didn't have a great deal of trouble with this encounter.

Here's where things veer off the track a bit. The players, at this point, had pretty much been put through the wringer. They had to cast a Comrade's Succor ritual just to get healing surges to the Paladin and Monk. I expected them to have to take an extended rest at some point in the dungeon, but I hadn't expected it nearly this soon. The players told me that they were going to take an extended rest in the Von Urstadt Crypt at which I immediately asked for initiative.

Some of the players protested, saying that they were just talking about taking an extended rest, but I distinctly heard at least two people say "We're taking an extended rest". The reason for initiative? Remember that Goblin Sharpshooter that escaped earlier? Well, he went to alert the hobgoblins living in the Rivenroar Family Crypt area and they all went looking for the PCs. I like having proactive monsters, it's just not always easy to do. There's already a lot for a DM to keep track of without something like that.

So the encounter at Rivenroar Family Crypt has essentially turned into a pincer assault on the PCs in the Von Urstadt Crypt. Half of the goblins came in from the west entrance and half through the est. Things looked bad for the PCs initially. The Monk went down for the third time in Rivenroar and I was starting to think of how I could salvage the situation. Thankfully, my poor dice rolls after the first couple of rounds helped save the party.

At this point I let them take an extended rest. Honestly, I shouldn't have. Their chosen spot still wasn't very secure and it was directly in a spot that would have to be passed through by any creature going from the 2nd Floor to the outside world. I told them I was doing it in the interests of everybody having a good time and they acknowledged that I really shouldn't be letting them doing it. In other circumstances, I might not have allowed it, regardless of how badly they need it and I think they understand it.

After the rest, they went to room 6, where they found the first captured citizen of Brindol. They talked to him and see what he knew. In the cell next to him, they found a bunch of random equipment, like the goblins were just using it as a storage area. Among things in there was the first magic items that the PCs have received. In this case it's a +1 Sun Blade longsword.

The final encounter thus far has been the totally redone Spiderweb Landing. I was very interested to see how this fight went because of how much I'd changed it around. The PCs had a pretty hard time, though it wasn't the most difficult fight they've had so far. I think they enjoyed everything going on. The monsters, the dragonborn spectre apologizing and begging to be put down, the necrotic mist, and the way the wraith was messing with the party. All of it. The players said that it was a cool fight and I had a really good time running it. I explained to the party what was supposed to be there and they agreed that the ettercaps would have been rather silly.

That's it for now. I don't run D&D again until the 23rd, but in the meantime I've still got the rest of my Revised Rivenroar to post.

After Action Report #1

2010-07-10T18:56:00.000-06:00

So at this point, my campaign has gone on for I believe 5 sessions. The characters are at about the halfway point in the Rivenroar module, if not Castle Rivenroar, and I think it's worth taking a look at how things have gone to this point especially in light of how many changes I've been making.

My group consists of a Human Wizard named Velwyn, an Elf Rogue named Vares, a Human Paladin of Bahamut named Allayd, a Warforged Runepriest named Purg, and a Human Monk named Yama the Grain of Sand. There have been some changes to the group since we started. Vares used to be a Half-Orc and Purg used to be a Minotaur. Both Vares and Purg have had their names changed since their players were trying to be clever/funny in a juvenile way and instead just annoyed me. Naming a character "Idgas" and then telling me it stands for "I Don't Give A Shit" just isn't going to fly with me. There have been other minor changes with different characters as well. At this point, I think everybody is pretty much settled in to their characters. As of last night, they had finally hit level 2 as well as received their first magical items. So I'll go down and give a recap of each part of the module as they went through it.

Things started off well. The Bar Fight! encounter was a smashing success for the PCs. They did a good job of bottling up the enemies and keeping the fire from being a problem. In retrospect, I just wish I'd done two things. One is mechanical and that is I wish I'd had the goblins attacking the tavern from multiple directions at once. It would have made things more hectic and chaotic and the NPC bar patrons would have factored in more. The other thing I would have done is presented more reason why the goblins were attacking this particular tavern. As it was, the players understood (later) that the goblins were there causing havoc and damage, but it would have been nice to have something more specific earlier on.

The Ogre Bombardier battle was also quite fun for everybody. The players didn't waltz through this one as they did the previous fight. In fact, they really got pushed to the edge here. It made things pretty exciting.

After the ogre fight, I had a bunch of social interactions. The PCs spend a few more hours helping put out fires and help injured people and basically did the sorts of things that decent people do in that situation. Since their inn had burned down and in appreciation for their help, one of the city guard officers offered them a place to stay at the barracks, which the PCs accepted. The next morning they were awoken by a messenger from Councilman Troyas and asked to meet him at noon. The players go to the mess hall, have some breakfast, and chat up some of the guardsmen about things before heading to the market. Two of them ran across the captured hobgoblin in the Stockades and went to go talk to him, but the guards kept the players away, pointing out that there was more than a few people who would like to take justice into their own hands and they wanted the hobgoblin alive so they can kill him within the law. Then they were off to their appointment with Troyas. I didn't run the optional skill challenge. It didn't seem all that necessary, interesting, or well designed honestly. After some talk, the Councilman explained the situation with the kidnapped people and stolen trophies and the PCs agreed to take care of it. Troyas suggested they interrogate the captured Hobgoblin, which my players thought was funny given that they'd tried to do that earlier.

The hobgoblin interrogation was a catastrophe for the players. Absolute catastrophe. Which means that it was really really funny. They took just 4 skill rolls to come up with the 3 failures needed to fail the entire challenge. 3 Intimidation failures just made it hilarious. The Hobgoblin, in the stockades, facing death or a lifetime of labor, was not impressed with the players. Even the town guards were chuckling at the players. In the end, the Hobgoblin actually had pity on the players and told them where to go. It would take them near a Hand patrol, but the players didn't have to know that.

The Tracking The Goblins skill challenge went much better for the players. Very straight forward for them, though since they got the bad map from the hobgoblin, they were still going to run into the goblin ambush. This fight went about as well as I could have hoped for. Better, really, considering that I put it together on the fly. I'd literally just gotten in some forest Dungeon Tiles the day before, threw together a battlefield with them, and picked a fight from later in Rivenroar and copied the monsters to use. It was just hard enough that they didn't tear through it like wet paper, but it didn't really push them all that much either. It felt just right for a fight that was, strictly speaking, not necessary to have.

I'll continue about what happened in Rivenroar itself in Report #2

Rescue At Rivenroar Revised, part 2

2010-07-07T22:09:00.002-06:00

Time to go over the next 4 encounters in Rescue At Rivenroar Revised. I didn't add monster stat blocks here, but I do have them as image if people want me to post them.

Portal Room: This is where things really start to change in Rivenroar. When I first read this encounter, I shook my head. In the context of this dungeon, of this adventure, it makes no sense. Why is there a one-way portal here? Why is it to a castle in a swamp? Why? I don't understand what was going on when this encounter was designed. Maybe there's a good reason. However, for me it had to go. First thing to go is the portal itself. I can't see any reason to keep it. Instead, I placed a magical mural on the entire wall where the portal used to be. This mural showed the outside world, the lands that Rivenroar stands in, like a picture window. The walls to the east and west had several burial spaces carved into the walls. Next to the doors leading east and west are two sets of ceremonial armor on stands. The ceremonial armor has already probably told most of you about part of what will happen here. After a couple of minutes of poking around, a disembodied voice will ask PCs their business and state their relation. It will do this 3 times, then the combat encounter begins. If the PCs start defiling anything in the room (by pulling skeletons out of the walls to search or by messing with the armors), the combat encounter begins immediately. The goblins still don't linger in this area. Dulan hasn't been able to bend the undead in here to his will yet either. Gone are all of the monsters listed in the module. Instead, they're replaced by these.

2x Bladebearer Guardians. Originally a monster called "Chib Naersaar, Bladebearer Zombie". I made some serious changes. I changed the role from Skirmisher to Soldier, dropped the level from 4 to 3, and removed the zombie weakness. Finally names were changed and the scimitar was changed to a longsword. I described these as arcane energy filling the ceremonial armors and animating them.

2x Spellwrought Tomb Guardians. Originally a monster just called "Spellwrought Guardians". Obviously the name was changed. Further, keywords and monster type were changed. Originally a Medium Natural Humanoid (Living Construct), the version I used is now Medium Shadow Humanoid (Undead). They are otherwise unchanged.

4x Wisp Wraiths. Straight out of the Monster Builder unchanged.

Tactics: The two Bladebearer Guardians obviously start next to the doors to the east and west. The Spellwrought Tomb Guardians appear out of nowhere, seemingly stepping right through the magical mural to appear in the room. The wisp wraiths come out of the walls to the east and west, 2 from each wall. This will probably catch the PCs in the middle. The wisps can shift about, slowing PCs and causing problems. The Tomb Guardians are best served charging right into the middle of combat, then using their energy burst. The Bladebearers can use their mobility to gang up on a weakend PC (or focus on a tomb defiler, if one of the PCs went poking around). When I ran this fight, it was a tough, tense encounter for the PCs. They got pretty beat up, but I think they felt it was an enjoyable encounter.

Von Urstadt Crypt: This encounter I made some changes to, but not the whole thing. The gnomes are gone. I didn't like having the gnomes in Rivenroar. The reasoning for them being there didn't hold water for me. I had a hard time seeing gnomes and goblins allied to one another. This won't be the first time that the module has gnomes and I kick them out. The magma claws stay, stats intact. Their reasoning made some sense, plus I think they're interesting monsters. However, I changed how I described them to the players. I described them as brass scorpions glowing with heat and bursts of fire coming out of their animated joints. This was more a interesting visual to me than the lobster-looking thing that they show in the Monster Manual. The gnomes are replaced with:

2x Goblin Redblades. These are essentially the "Goblin Blackblade" monsters found elsewhere in the module, except bumped up from level 1 to level 2. As easy as can be using the Monster Builder.

Tactics: The goblins "summon" the magma claws as soon as they're aware of the PCs, then hide until they show up. At which point, they let the magma claws distract and burn PCs while the goblins get into position to flank and backstab as much as they can. It's a fairly straightforward fight.

Spiderweb Landing: This is, along with the Portal Room, one of the encounters I changed the most in Rivenroar and it's one that I'm the happiest with. Originally, the module has 3 Ettercaps in this room, along with a lot of spiderwebs. As with the gnomes, just didn't see why the ettercaps needed to be here. I'm not sure I've actually read any explanation for their presence. So the ettercaps had to go. I wanted to replace them with undead, to strengthen that theme in Rivenroar. That left a small problem. The spiderwebs presented an interesting tactical situation for PCs to deal with. Half the squares in the room were difficult terrain for them, while the ettercaps could move around with no problem. I wanted to preserve that element and eventually came up with the idea that the room would be filled with a mist infused with necrotic energy. As the PCs pass by, hands form themselves out of the mist to grasp and claw at the PCs and slow them down. These hands wouldn't really be a bother to the undead, so I've preserved the tactical situation. Players could use fire to burn away cobwebs before and now they can use radiant energy to do the same to the necrotic mist. Using a radiant energy power dismisses the mist from a close burst 1 area around the person using the power until that person's next turn, at which the mist returns. As for the ettercaps, they get replaced with:

1x Dragonborn Spectre. This is straight out of the Monster Builder, stats unchanged. That said, I think the story behind it needs to be elaborated on. As the module indicates, the body Guard Captain Kartenix is in here. I decided to make Kartenix into a Dragonborn and devotee of Bahamut. So Dulan decided that the ultimate humiliation for Kartenix would be to have his spirit bound to fight and defeat the enemies of Tiamat. Dulan has intentions to raise his physical body as a zombie later as well, but he hasn't gotten to it yet. So Kartenix's spirit begs the players for forgiveness even as he's attacking and asks to be set free from his imprisonment. I think that it's really an excellent and dangerous monster, but with a story behind it I think it's that much more interesting.

1x Deathlock Wight. Again, straight out of the Monster Builder. It's a good monster, I think. I kind of envision the wight as the leader of this little group, both controlling passage up to the next level and ensuring Kartenix's continued torment. The wight taunts the spectre (and the players) as the fight goes on and when the spectre is destroyed, the wight brings it right back again.

2x Bound Shadow Guardians. These used to be a monster called a "Dark Hammer" in the Monster Builder. I liked the mechanics, so I changed the keyword from Construct to Undead and changed the name to something that seemed more appropriate. I really want to bump them up from level 1 to level 2 (and I have a level 2 version in the Monster Builder). The reason I'm not sure about it is that this could already be a quite difficult fight and I'm not sure it's really necessary to make the Shadow Guardians tougher. If you choose to take that option, it does only add another 50xp to the fight.

Tactics: This seems fairly straight forward as far as tactics go. The Shadow Guardians want to get right into the thick of things and make trouble. The Dragonborn Spectre will catch as many enemies in the breath as possible as early as possible, using mobility and invisiblity to set up the attacks. The wight stays back and blasts away, pushing back any PCs who get too close too quickly.

Rivenroar Family Crypt: Completely unchanged. It strongly fits the "goblins or undead" theme that I've been trying to emphasize and isn't a bad fight. The only thing I'd change, if I were to change anything, would be to replace the Hobgoblin Archer as written with another ranged attacker. The Hobgoblin Archer gives a bonus that nobody else in the fight really is equipped to take advantage of. It feels like kind of a waste.

Rescue at Rivenroar Revised, part 1

2010-07-07T15:03:00.000-06:00

I have to say, up front, that I generally like the Rescue at Rivenroar module. It’s not perfect, but few written adventures are. I like the concept, where heroes have to go rescue innocent people kidnapped by goblin raiders who have attacked a town. I don’t see the “rescue” plotline all that often and I liked it here. Although I’m not, and never was, planning on going through the entire Scales of War adventure path, I thought that Rescue at Rivenroar would be a good place to start my campaign. I had to start my game on relatively short notice and didn’t have a lot of time to get started.

But (you knew there was a “but” coming, right?), there was a lot to the encounters that I didn’t like. Some of the monsters just didn’t seem to belong. The module attempts to explain why there are gnomes, wererats, and ettercaps allied with the goblins and hobgoblins of Sinruth’s revived Red Hand, but they never really rang true to me. Other encounters just seemed out of place, contrived, or just plain unnecessary. Finally, at least one or two encounters just seemed dull or uninteresting. I admit, even some of the things that I kept really don’t make sense. I don’t know why the goblins would have all of their prisoners spread out through the complex, for instance, but I’ve that sort of thing alone.

So things had to change. Not everything, however. The basic premise would remain the same or quite similar. Sinruth is still reviving the Red Hand. He’s still attacking the town of Brindol to kidnap people and steal treasures from the Hall of Valor. He’s still made alliances which lead him to make the attack on Brindol in the first place.

In my game, some of the small details are a bit different. Sinruth has made an alliance with a necromancer named Dulan and a Draconian named Kraz. Kraz and Dulan are worshippers of Tiamat, who sent them to assist Sinruth. Kraz and Dulan know that Sinruth is a tool to be used to advance Tiamat’s schemes in the area. Sinruth has already succeeded in one aspect of that just by attacking Brindol, though he doesn’t know it. His raid was just a distraction from another mission that other followers of Tiamat were undertaking nearby. If Sinruth actually succeeds with his ambitions to take over the area and become a powerful warlord, that’s just fine with Kraz and Dulan too.

To assist Sinruth, Kraz has promised mercenary reinforcements to Sinruth’s 100 or so goblins and hobgoblins after they’ve proven their worth by raiding Brindol and taking trophies from the Hall of Valor. Dulan is taking another route and is teaching one of Sinruth’s goblin shamans how to use necromancy to summon or create undead. This is why villagers were kidnapped and brought to Rivenroar. They are intended to be killed and turned into undead soldiers for Sinruth’s army. To that end, in my game, many more than just 7 villagers have been taken. In the raid alone, nearly 20 are kidnapped, though only 6 still are alive (as per the module as written). Another 10-15 have been taken from isolated farms or careless travelers in the last couple of weeks prior to the raid and all of these are dead as well.

Sinruth lost about a dozen goblins in the attack and there are 2 other "strongholds" nearby that have 20+ goblins in them. Sinruth's plan is that the other strongholds be distractions and soak up any casualties from an attack launched from Brindol, leaving Sinruth alive to counter-attack. Or, if necessary, just leaving Sinruth alive to flee for his life. This explains why there's not an overwhelming number of goblins to be found within Rivenroar itself.

Now on to more details about how I have (or haven’t), changed encounters. I’ll try and provide my reasoning for the changes where I can as well as any other tidbits that came up while doing the changes.

The attack on Brindol (both the attack on the tavern and the Ogre battle after) are pretty much unchanged. These are generally fun and interesting combats, so nothing really needed to be done. I played up the property destruction angle and generally made it seem like the goblins were on a terror raid, not material.

The results of the interrogation skill challenge has changed. In interrogating the captured hobgoblin, success leads to correct information as well as a fairly direct route to Rivenroar. Failure, however, means that PCs have deliberately been given a route that will lead them into the path of a hobgoblin patrol in the woods. The goblin ambush is a Level 1 Encounter worth 500xp that uses the same enemies as the Goblin Warren encounter in Rivenroar (1 Hobgoblin Soldier, 2 Goblin Sharpshooters, and 4 Hobgoblin Grunts). I thought that failure leading through the kruthik nest was actually a fine idea, but I had a better use for it.

The following skill challenge has also had the results changed. If the characters succeed, they arrive at Rivenroar as expected. Though if they failed the interrogation challenge, they run into the goblin ambush as mentioned earlier. If the characters fail the wilderness challenge, they run into the kruthik nest that was originally intended as punishment for failing the previous skill challenge. I really didn’t like what was planned as written. A level 6 Elite Brute bear? While it makes sense to run across that in the woods, it would be a boring fight. The bear, as written, is a giant pile of hit points without any allies or abilities to make it interesting. It would be a dull grind.

Now we’re at the Rivenroar castle/tomb complex itself. Rather than go by room, I’m going to continue to describe things per encounter (as they’re described in the module), as well as any changes I’ve made to the area the encounter takes place in.

Chamber of Flame Unbound: Unchanged. This is a solid encounter. It’s got goblins and hobgoblins, which are one of the main themes of the dungeon that I want to emphasize. It’s also got a fun little thing going with the streams of fire.

Goblin Warren: Part of me really wanted to change this fight. It wasn’t fun when I ran it and the PCs had a cakewalk. That said, it’s not a hideously bad fight and I can’t think of anything better to replace it with.

I'll continue more in another post. I don't currently have access to all my notes and some of the biggest changes I made in the dungeon are next on the list to be discussed.

Card Rewards for Players

2010-07-06T12:32:00.000-06:00

Partially inspired by what I've seen at events like D&D Encounters and the most recent D&D Game Day, I want to create a group of bonus cards that I can hand out to players as rewards for things like excellent roleplaying during a session, providing food & drink for everybody for a night, giving other players rides to the game, or anything else that I, as the GM, feel deserves some recognition and reward.

Some cards will be better than others, but I don't intend on tailoring cards too specifically for any particular role or situation. I don't want cards that are only useful to Leaders or Defenders, let alone for specific classes. I know that the cards as written are pretty potent and that's deliberate. I typically award small bonuses reasonably often, so the cards need to be powerful to make the players appreciate them. Other DMs may want to avoid the best effects or tone them down, depending on the needs of the game.

Here's some of my tentative rules for the reward cards.

When you play a card, you turn it in. It's not like the D&D Encounter cards where you hold on to them and can play them every week.
You have to use the card the next session after you receive it. If you don't, you lose it. I don't want people hoarding cards, whether it be because they don't want to waste it or because they're waiting for a "boss" encounter. This encourages people to use them quickly.
Can only use one card on any given action.
Card effects do not stack with any other similar effect (by GM's discretion)
Cards may be traded once. Meaning that Player X can trade it to Player Y, but Player Y cannot then turn around and give it to Player Z.

Here are some of the ideas I've got for cards. I'm sure I'll have more later.

Until the end of the next turn, a players attacks crit on a 19-20. A 19 is still not an automatic hit.
Until the end of the next turn, a players attacks crit on a 18-20. A 18 or 19 is still not an automatic hit.
Player may treat their next dice roll as a natural 20.
Player may treat their next roll as a 20. This is not considered a critical hit for purposes of attack rolls, but is an automatic hit.
Player gains resist 2 to all damage as an immediate reaction until the end of their next turn. This increases by 3 at Paragon and 3 more at Epic.
Player gains resist 5 to all damage as an immediate reaction until the end of their next turn. This increases by 5 at Paragon and 5 more at Epic.
Player may shift 2 squares instead of 1 until the end of their next turn.
Player may reroll any die roll and take the better of the two.
Player may reroll any skill check, but must take the result of the second roll.
Player may add +5 to their next roll
Player may add +5 to their next skill check roll
Player can choose one type of damage. Until the end of their next turn, any attack they make inflicts +1d6 of that type of damage in addition to normal damage. The damage increases to +2d6 at 11th Level and +3d6 at 21st level.
As a minor action, player may spend a healing surge.
When the player regains HP through the spending of a healing surge (theirs or from someone else), they regain an additional 5 HP. This increases to 10 at Paragon and 15 at Epic.
Player may choose to make a saving throw at the beginning of their turn. If they take it at the end of their turn, they may make it with a +2 bonus to the roll.
Player may choose one expended Encounter power and use it again.
Player may reroll all damage dice from an attack, taking the better result of the two.

D&D Encounters: Tweet Effects for Season 2, week 4

2010-07-03T15:55:00.000-06:00

I am, once again, quite late with these. It's just an archive though, so I don't think anybody particularly cares if they're late or not.

A strong wind blasts across the area, scrambling the dust devils. For the session dust devils can't make opportunity attacks
Ralo takes cover shouting words of encouragement. For the session, as long as Ralo is conscious PCs get +1 bonus to hit.
Adversity to opportunity! Sand mites infested your supplies – each PC may spend 1 survival day to regain 1 healing surge.
A cloud covers the sun, creating a cool shadow - Regain +5 hit points for healing surges spent at a short rest during this session

Now For Something Different

2010-07-03T10:05:00.001-06:00

I have written, and will continue to write, mostly about D&D4e here. No surprise. It's my game of choice in the last couple of years. Hell, in the last couple of years, I've not played much else. Some Shadowrun, some Star Wars Saga Edition (which is only a small step from D&D4e anyway), and precious little else. That's not to say that I don't like other games. Gods, I have a lot of games that I want to be playing. So I was pretty excited when my local group that plays on Friday decided to play Call of Cthulhu every other week, alternating with the D&D4e game that I'm running. I haven't played Call of Cthulhu since 2002, not long after I bought my first core rulebook. It's only a short campaign, designed to take us to when Dark Sun comes out, but sometimes that's the best kind of campaign, no matter the game.

It's such a refreshing change to play Call of Cthulhu after all the other games I've played in recent years. We've had no combat. At all. It's seemed likely at a couple of points, but instead it's stuck to some fun investigation and socializing. A lot of good roleplaying from everybody. I'm playing up the quirky and poorly paid borderline-community college professor quite a lot. For example, I gave the students in one of my classes a 15 page paper just because I needed to spend time reading the journal of a dead architecture student.

The story so far is that we're in 2008. A bunch of us from different walks of life have become friends from hanging out at a kind of strange, but fun, bar called the Muddy Pig. An acquaintance/friend, a professor from a nearby college, came into the bar one night seriously upset. A student that he had known had died after throwing himself out of his 7th story window. We (meaning the other players as I was on vacation in Canada for this session) offered to look into the apparent suicide for the professor and pretty quickly started noticing some things that didn't add up. As we've dug further, things have made less and less sense. The student's father has been acting very oddly. The things the student was researching were quite odd. We've run into strange symbols. Even the building where the student had lived had a history that got our attention. Now, someone who was warning us away from this whole thing has turned up dead and in a highly public fashion. Our only hope is to get to the bottom of it as fast as possible before even worse things happen.

Surprisingly tense moments or at least worried moments despite the lack of combat, which is the joys of Call of Cthulhu. One of the few games where you get worried just when you're about to start reading a book, of all things. I admit, it's a lot harder for me to get creeped out or scared during a CoC game. I've read the rulebook, I've read a lot of Lovecraft fiction, I'm pretty familiar with the Mythos, and so on. All of the other players aren't, so it's all new to them, which makes it creepier and scarier for them. That said, our GM Derrick does such a good job that even I feel the tension. And it's only going to increase. Right now we're still just scratching the surface with our investigation.

I can't wait to play again and that's, I think, the sign of a good game.

I'm in a podcast! 4 Geeks 4e is unleashed today

2010-07-01T20:40:00.000-06:00

Something more than a couple of months ago, I was talking with two fun and interesting RPG bloggers/writers on Twitter about the possibility of doing a podcast together. I've wanted to do an RPG podcast for over a year now, but had never really had the opportunity. I wanted to do a D&D4e focused show, which left out at least one person who I'd otherwise jump to have a podcast with, and I otherwise couldn't find people I wanted to host with. However, I thought that ThadeousC and DMSamuel would be good partners and thus we got to working. It was secret for a while, but I think most people could figure out what we were working on.

We've had some fits and starts. We originally recorded our first episode over a month ago, before I went on a vacation. We weren't happy with it. Which is why you're not going to hear it (sorry). We had some discussions, rethought some things, and decided to rerecord the first episode. And due to a technical issue... you won't get to hear our second attempt either. Even we don't get to listen to this one again. This one really is a shame though, because we had some good stuff in that lost recording. However, the fact that we did have problems meant that we got to bring in SarahDarkmagic into the podcast as a regular host and I think that will be good for the show.

So, now that I've prattled on about it, go listen! You can find the show at 4geeks4e.com. I'd personally like to thank Jessica (you know who you are) for giving us the name for the show. Thanks also to Candice, for giving me (and therefore the show) some good feedback and being supportive of me in general.

What A Difference A Place Makes

2010-07-01T20:13:00.001-06:00

In my local D&D game, I ran what amounts to the same encounter two weeks in a row.. Both were level 1 encounters, 500 xp, and consisted of 7 monsters. 1 Hobgoblin Soldier, 4 Hobgoblin Grunts (minions), and 2 Goblin Sharpshooters. The first week, the fight took place in a forest as part of an attempted ambush. In the second week, the fight took place in the Rivenroar catacombs. The ambush in the forest was a pretty exciting fight. The fight in the catacombs, well I somehow knew from the moment I set it up that it wasn't going to be that fun. For me at least, as the DM, it wasn't.

So what was the difference?

Location. Last week the battle took place out in a forest clearing along a faint path leading from the town of Brindol to Rivenroar. There was plenty of cover and difficult terrain for both sides to deal with. The two Goblin Sharpshooters were perfectly in their element, well hidden and able to snipe away at the PCs. The area made it an interesting battle.

This week was different. The room was largely wide open. The minions couldn't take advantage of cover to help keep themselves alive long enough to do even a little damage. The goblin sharpshooters were easy meat, unable to hide well and take advantage of their special abilities. The lone Hobgoblin soldier, who used terrain to guard his flank and hold off the PCs from finding or attacking one of the sharpshooters, was quickly surrounded and demolished.

The PCs had a great time in this fight, don't get me wrong. They walked all over this fight with barely a few scratches. Even if I'd rolled better (I rolled quite poorly), I don't feel they would have been all that seriously challenged. But it wasn't much fun for me and I don't mean that because the PCs had a pretty easy time. There was no real kick to the fight. No spice. Although my monsters had special abilities, they didn't have any chance to really use them because of the terrain. Could I have done things different? Yeah, it's certainly possible. However I'm not sure that in the end it would have made a lot of difference.

I knew before, in the back of my mind, that terrain can really impact a fight. Whenever I'd designed encounters before I'd done my best to make the terrain interesting, unique, or something to be wary of tactically. I feel I did a decent job at that. However, I'd never had quite such a vivid demonstration of how much a terrain can make or break a fight as I did tonight.

Looking back at D&D Encounters Season One

2010-07-01T20:06:00.001-06:00

Now that the first season of D&D Encounters has wrapped up, I think it's a good time to look back at those 12 weeks and collect my thoughts, both good and bad, on what went down.

In general, I like the idea behind D&D Encounters. Although I don't think that I'm the target audience for it (it feels more directed towards newer or more casual gamers), it still appealed to me. I've already got 2 full nights of gaming each week and I don't know that I want to add another one. So the idea of getting together for just one encounter and have the rest of the night free was a good one. How well it succeeded at that was... inconsistent. Some days we wrapped up in about an hour. Two encounters went more than two and a half hours. Another thing that needs to discussed is that I still haven't seen a compelling reason why it must be one day a week and only that one day. I've seen many reasons given, none of which has satisfied me and I still believe that there should be some flex. It should still be consistent from week to week (no having it on Wednesdays one week, then Friday the next), but if a store wants to run it on a day other than Wednesday they should be encouraged to do so.

I think something has to be said about the difficulty of the encounters. Some were extremely and painfully difficult. Infamous Encounter 10 was one of them and it actually kind of drove off one of our players, who didn't enjoy how unfair it felt. Other encounters were walk-in-the-park easy. Encounter 11 was like that. Some of the encounters we felt penalized for not having certain kinds of characters. At least 2-3 encounters would have been much more manageable if we'd had players who could do Radiant damage, for instance. Without those characters, those fights were considerably more difficult and 2 of them nearly lead to a total party kill. Only by sheer luck did we avoid them. The final encounter wasn't very fun for those of us playing melee characters and wasn't the first fight which seemed designed for a group stacked with ranged-capable PCs. I know there was no way for the author to predict what sort of characters would be used, but it still felt frustrating at times.

Despite my reservations about pregens, ultimately I think Season Two has the right idea in only using them. It (hopefully) allowed the author to ensure that players have the right toolset to deal with monsters in a fair and fun way. Pregens also remove another possible sore spot for me, which is the potential for huge disparity in expectations and experience of the players. I'll use my own game as an example. I'm an experienced player and I made several characters for the game, 3 of which I used at some point or another. All of my
characters were pretty optimized. Not to a great degree, but I definitely made very mechanically sound characters. Another player had an Avenger that just screamed Munchkin, doing more damage than any other Striker in the party and tanking better than any Defender. Finally, there were other players who made characters which were not put together that carefully or which were designed more with flavor/concept in mind than mechanics. My characters could potentially overshadow that last group of players at times and the munchkin ~did~ overshadow those players more often than not. Several players quit coming early on, at least one of which mentioned that he did it because his character felt like a sidekick to the more powerful characters. Pregens will level this playing field.

Back to good things. I basically liked the idea of the renown points. It was fun to try and collect them by performing those specific actions. Though there was a bit of a mixed feelings when some players hurt the group (figuratively or literally) trying to get them. I liked the reward cards and have worked on adapting the idea to my own home game. Online support for D&D Encounters was excellent. The Twitter effects are a great addition to the game and can really change a fight or spice it up. There's been plenty of communication with WotC people about D&D Encounters, including at least one instance where it was pointed out that there were errors in the printed module. Fixing those errors turned that particular fight from completely unfair to merely brutally difficult, but was still appreciated.

So my overall feelings for D&D Encounters? It's not for me, in the end. I like my D&D with more roleplaying and other activities outside of combat. That said, D&D Encounters isn't necessarily bad. It's flawed, certainly, but the 3-4 month running schedule per season gives WotC time to make adjustments and fix problems going forward. The idea behind the whole program is a good one, it just needs to be refined, polished, and tweaked.

Working with Rituals

2010-06-30T18:46:00.000-06:00

Rituals are one of those things that, much to my surprise, have not gone over all that well with a great many people who play D&D4e. If you look or ask around, you find a lot of people who are happy with it. However, you’ll also find more than a few who don’t like it for one reason or another. I’ve seen a lot of reasons given, some of which I entirely sympathize with even though I’m generally a fan of rituals as presented in 4e. So I'm going to address some of the ones I've seen and see what advice, information, and house rules I can give on the subject.

One of the things that I see most complained about are the costs of ritual casting. Not only for buying the rituals themselves, but for the materials needed to cast them. Not an unfair assessment. Rituals themselves can be quite expensive, especially as you advance in levels and get access to new ones. Further, nearly every ritual casting requires some amount of ritual materials which also cost money. For most players, spending money on these things directly takes away from the money available for magical items like weapons or armor. How can this be remedied?

As a DM, it’s not hard to encourage more ritual casting by giving out scrolls or books with rituals in them. Don’t give them out strictly according to the treasure parcel rules, just throw in one or two per level. Finding materials also shouldn’t be really hard. If your players are wandering around an abandoned wizard sanctuary, who is to say that they can’t find some things that would work in an Arcane-based ritual? Or trekking through the wilderness finding a few gold worth of materials for Nature-based rituals? Another option is to just cut prices all across the board. If everything costs half as much (or whatever you decide), then players don’t have to devote as much money towards it. A third option is to rule that some ritual materials are reusable. Yet another option would be to allow players to spend a healing surge to reduce the materials cost by some amount. However, as a DM you have to be aware for the potential for abuse. Generosity in giving out rituals and materials should only reduce the additional financial burden on a player to encourage them to use the feature more often. If they're abusing it or still choosing to ignore the use of rituals, the benefits should taper off.

As a player, your options are more limited. Talk to your DM, explain the problem, and suggest some of the solutions that I’ve presented above. Creative roleplaying or problem solving may also encourage DM generosity. If you act out your character’s prayers to Bahamut for a Religion-based in an interesting enough fashion, maybe the DM will not expend materials or even say that Bahamut is impressed with your devotion and grants you divine knowledge (i.e. another ritual). Or maybe you hand drew the Arcane circle and symbols that your character uses for a particular ritual. The DM could then say that during the prep for the ritual, your character has gained insight into another way to twist the arcane fabric of the universe. Or maybe you make a pesto sauce to bring to the game and shamelessly use it to bribe your DM by saying that it represents the herbs used for a certain Nature ritual. Use your imagination and see what you can get out of your DM. Even if you don’t get anything out of it, it would make for a more unique and interesting gaming experience.

Most rituals have at least a 10 minute casting time and many have much more than that. While in a town or village, or even sometimes out in the wilderness, this might not be a tremendous concern. But player groups who are in the middle of a dungeon full of creatures who want to kill, enslave, or otherwise do unpleasant things to the PCs may feel that they shouldn't sit in one place for 10+ minutes at a go. This goes double if the PCs are under a time constraint. If they have 2 hours to find and capture an assassin before he poisons the king, there's a good chance they aren't going to want to spend a good chunk of that time on a ritual casting. Even an otherwise useful ritual might be passed over because the players are in a bad place or have a deadline to follow.

So what can you do as a DM if you find that players are passing up opportunities to use rituals? Especially in situations where it would have been interesting or useful? First, remind them about their rituals. Some players, especially if they haven't been using them very often, might even forget they have them or they might forget which ones they have. Second, try and give them a chance to use their rituals without being interrupted... too often. It's exciting to have to try and cast a ritual under fire, just look at all the delves and adventures where your PCs have to disrupt NPC rituals. If you turn things around, you may have a memorable encounter as the PCs try to hold off bad guys as someone desperately tries to finish their casting. However, if you do it too often players may feel it's not worth the effort. If players make a reasonable attempt to hide themselves away where they won't be stumbled upon easily, let them have the time they need. Make it tense and seem like they're about to be set upon at any time (have footsteps come near, then move elsewhere for example), but let it pass.

If that's not enough, what are other options? Time to break out some house rules. Halving or otherwise reducing the time needed for most rituals might some of the problems players have. You may not want to do this as a blanket method across the board for all rituals, however. You may allow other methods of time reduction. Players may be able to trade more powerful effects for reduced casting times, to give one option. For example, maybe a ritual requires a minimum DC of 15 to take effect and then is more powerful with a roll of 20, 25, and 30. If the player rolls a 22, maybe instead of the more powerful DC20 effect, he can choose to take the DC15 effect and reduce the casting time by 25%. Another option is to allow a PC to spend a healing surge to reduce the casting time, representing exhaustion from the effort, reckless handling of arcane energies, or even some sort of blood sacrifice.

Another method is to allow a ritual to be cast in advance. Not perfect, as it means that players have to guess as to what might be useful, but I personally like that sort of uncertainty. One idea I'd had would be to allow a caster to have a number of "prepared" rituals based on tier. 2 for heroic, 3 for paragon, and 4 for epic. This could be easily adjusted up or down depending on what a DM feels is appropriate. These rituals would still cost the indicated time and materials, but then could actually be invoked later (probably with a Standard action in combat). Another suggested method is to have each prepared ritual require the spending of a healing surge, representing the effort that holding on to such primal/divine/arcane energy can have on the body. This one bears close DM watching and may need to be combined with the earlier tier-based limits. It would be very easy for many ritual casters to put themselves dangerously low on surges with even a small number used for rituals.

What can you do as a player to help with the problem? Still not a lot, I'm afraid. Talk with your DM about the problems you're having with rituals or the things you'd like to try. I'm not sure that roleplaying above and beyond would really be of help as it is with the costs, but it may be worth a try depending on your DM and his or her willingness to play along. From an in-character standpoint, if you or your group has to use a ritual, try and do so in the most secure or hidden place you can. Depending on the ritual you want to cast, it may be worth retreating temporarily so it can be cast with less chance of interruption.

Taking the Safety Padding away from D&D4e

2010-06-29T21:47:00.003-06:00

A couple of days ago ThadeousC posted a seemingly innocent tweet that
asked the following: “In OD&D running from monsters is often a valid
option over fighting, does it ever happen in your 4e game?”. The
ensuing discussion was spirited and occasionally intense. I wanted to
get involved, but 140 characters was far far too limiting for a topic
such as this. So as part of a blog carnival, here's my own feelings on
the subject.

Here's your blog carnival rules.

1. Your post must be on topic.

2. The first person in the list of bloggers who are participating who
replies to each post will be responsible for writing the next piece.
(Don’t reply if you are not ready to write it with in the next 24
hours.)

3. You must ad a link to all of the previous authors carnival posts at
the end of your post.

4. No name calling.

What the question ultimately boils down to is that do you, as a DM,
ensure that every encounter is level appropriate for PCs to fight? Or
do you allow for there to be places, encounters, or situations where
the PCs are over their head? It further begs the question of ~should~
you do one or the other on a regular basis.

To me, in D&D4e there's a definite feeling that the game wants you to
use level appropriate encounters. Every fight should be one that the
PCs can win. To that end they've even made some of their most iconic
or interesting monsters available at a wider variety of levels so
that, for instance, your group of level 5 PCs can fight a beholder or
dragon without being in over their head.

This isn't a bad thing, necessarily. In many ways it's a good one.
However, I think that in the end it makes for better storytellng,
player immersion, and tension if you take away the safety rails and
let players know that the world does not revolve around them. The
campaign might, but the world does not. When a sign says "Here there
be monsters", PCs should be appropriately cautious. Players should be
nervous when they head in to a cave to negotiate with a dragon, not
knowing if they're powerful enough to come out alive if things go
badly. The tension and fear of the unknown can really make a good
session into a memorable one and a solid campaign into a great one.

I'll use an example from an old 3e game I was in about 8 years ago.
Our party was investigating a ruined city that was being used by an
evil cult for nefarious purposes. Our goal was to get in, rescue
someone, kill the cult leader if we could, and get out. We learned
early on that if we were to try and fight our way through, we were
going to end up stone dead very very quickly. So we used stealth,
trickery, and well placed ambushes to make our way through the city,
knowing that if we screwed up we were toast. The tension was
incredible and the sessions were memorable, all because of the threat
of doom hanging over our head.

I think that taking the safety padding off a campaign nudges some
players to attempt things that they otherwise might not. After all,
why would a group try to sneak through an orc stronghold if they can
just kill everything in it? Why try diplomacy with the chief of the
barbarian raiders if you know you can take him and everybody else in
the camp in a straight up fight? It also brings up scenarios that
might not come up as much in other games. The heroic sacrifice where a
PC valiantly holds off a group of powerful monsters to let the others
escape. A fighting retreat from an overwhelming horde of creatures. If
every fight is balanced around the idea that the PCs should fight it
and win, all of these things might never come up in a game.

However, even though I think it's a good idea to make a game world
more of a living place that poses danger to the PCs, I think it
shouldn't just be done on a whim. Not every group of players is going
to take well to the notion that there are some places they shouldn't
go until they're more experienced. They may not want that immersive
quality, they may just like to kill things, or they may just want to
feel more like high fantasy heroes. Not every campaign even needs to
add the more sandbox styling that this adds. If your players are
content to follow your campaign well and explore where you intend for
them to do so, you may never need to consider what happens if they
stray from that story path.

If you're going to do it anyway, make sure you give the players all
the information they need to make good decisions and encourage them to
gather as much of that information as they can. Let them know before
the game even starts that you're going to have this sort of campaign.

Don't try and trick them or give them misleading information. If you
throw a beholder at a level 5 party, don't try and make it seem like
it's a level appropriate monster when it's really a much higher level
one.

If they're going to stumble into the hunting territory of some horrid
creature which would feast on their eyes and dance on their corpses,
let them make skill checks to notice this. Let them make rolls to
learn from a local village that the cave they're planning on going to
is inhabited by an elder dragon.

Further, make sure to have an "out" built in to any particular
dangerous encounter or area. Something that the PCs can do to emerge
alive and (hopefully) wiser. To use the negotiations with a dragon
example again, maybe if the PCs absolutely blow their diplomacy they
can be spared only in exchange for doing an unpleasant or difficult
task for the dragon. Powerful humanoid monsters or enemies may very
well capture the PCs instead of outright killing them, allowing for
daring escapes, rescues, or other plot twists. As Thadeous pointed out
in his post, maybe the monster beating up on your players becomes a
target by something even bigger and nastier. This will get the message
across as to how dangerous an area they're in quite well.

If the players really are going to make a run from some big nasty that
they've stumbled across, let them get away. Make it tense and seem
like a close call, but let them go. Running away is a humbling
experience in and of itself for most players. If you run them down
while their characters are fleeing, there's a chance that people might
get upset.

Even though you're making a world where PCs very well might run into
something far too powerful for them, you should be careful to limit
how many of these hopeless encounters the PCs get into. If players are
running away or getting their ass kicked all the time, they'll feel
less like adventuring heroes and more like a DM punching bag. The game
is still about having fun after all.

Let me repeat that last phrase as my final point. The game is about
having fun and everybody, DM's and players alike, should be on the
same page before making such a change to what I feel is a primary
assumption to D&D4e.

Here are the rest of the blogs on this topic.
Never Fear: Sandbox vs. Safety Rails by ThadeousC
Taking the Safety Padding away from D&D4e by WolfSamurai (here)
Sandbox vs. Safety Rails by Obsidian Crane
Safety Padding or Just an Illusion by dkarr
D&D: Sandbox vs. Safety Rails by Adam Dray
Know When to Fold’em by Tracy H.
Sandbox vs. Safety Rails: A Mini Blog Carnival by Deadorcs
Blog Carnival: Deliberately Overpowered Encounters by Brian Engard
As the World Scales by NewbieDM
Overpowered Sandboxes and Just-Right Rails by DM Samuel
Setting The PCs Up to Fail by the Angry DM
Sandbox v Safety Rails by Colmarr
Unwinnable Encounters by Azaroth
Beneath The Raven's Wing by Ryven

D&D Encounters: Tweet Effects for Season 2, weeks 1 through 3

2010-06-29T21:37:00.002-06:00

An odd choice of old material to get up, you might think. You wouldn't be wrong. I'd like to get something actually written by me up tonight. And I will. But I think it's a good idea to get the full list of Season 2 tweet effects up soon because the latest batch is going up over at @Wizards_DND tonight and pretty soon I'll need to post the current week's (4) effects.

Week 1's effects

Supplies tumble within easy reach - Once per PC this session
retrieving supplies from the cart is a free action instead of a minor.
The silt runner inciter is obviously well fed - Once he is dead one PC
may collect his body for 1 day’s supplies as a minor action.
A howling wind swirls around the caravan whipping even more sand into
the air - Creatures 3+ squares away from you have concealment
A blast of wind whips shards through the air with greater force.
Creatures exposed to the storm take 3 damage instead of 2
Gusts of wind shift the sand underfoot - At the beginning of each PC’s
turn they may slide 1 square

Week 2's effects

Delicious kank meat - Once this session after the kanks are defeated,
each PC may feast on the kank meat to regain 1 healing surge
Invigorating strike - Once this session, each PC deals +1d8 damage to
1 target on a melee attack hit & regains 10 hit points
Potent healing fruit! Any PC consuming healing fruit this session
regains hit points without spending a healing surge
The Spirit of the Flame is with you! Once this session each PC deals
+1d6 fire dmg to 1 target on a hit & regains 10 hit points

Week 3's effects

Inspiring recovery! Once this session, when you spend a healing surge,
up to 2 allies who can see you also regain 5 hit points.
Another drake soars overhead its shadow menacing the goblins - Goblins
not adjacent to their spiretop drake grant combat advantage
A sprinkle of foul liquid rains down-it's refreshing but revolting.
For this session PCs use their second wind as a minor action
The primal spirits of the area bless your healing fruit - For this
session healing fruits restore +1d6 hit points.

Setting up shop

2010-06-29T21:05:00.002-06:00

So, welcome to my new RPG blog home. I quite honestly hadn't intended to move my blog from the home I'd made for it over at Loremaster.org, but with Matt James needing to blow up the site because of the problems he was having with the software, my blog went away. It's still a great site and I will definitely continue to contribute and comment there, but I think it's probably best if my blog set up shop here. Thanks though have to go to Matt for allowing me to get my feet wet in the RPG blogging world and featuring a few of my blog posts on the front page of the site.

I did get all my old blog material salvaged and I will be posting it here. Maybe not in the same order that it was posted before, but it'll all be up eventually. I look forward to getting writing again and hope that everybody will enjoy what I've got to say.