Monday, December 29, 2008

D&D session 7

After a couple of weeks off (from meetings, not posts.), the group got back together to continue the adventure. Kami still has not found his dice, or he rolled so well last time that he just wanted to use my dice again. Anyway, to the adventure.

The last we saw our heroes, they had defeated a group of goblins that had set a trap for them. They walked down a hallway and saw three doors, in order to decide which way to go Aiur suggests that they play "spin the drunk" as Rameus consumed quite a bit of booze to fuel his arcane powers. Rameus, even in his inebriated state, did not enjoy the idea, which led Nieen to pick the door to the right. She lead the way down a hall, curtains hanging on the other side of the room, when they got to the room two goblins at a table were looking up from their card game at them. The goblins fumbled to ring a bell, alerting nearby goblins that there were intruders, and then rushed towards them. The goblins fell quickly, but more soon came, Marric jumped on the Table, knives covered in blood, and started taunting the goblins that were pouring out from behind the curtains.

yeah, I've been reading too much OOTS.

As the goblins came into the room, our heroes mowed them down. Eventually in their third wave the goblins began to overwhelm our heroes with their numbers, but a few well placed hits began to solve that problem. Aiur Cut the goblins down before they got a chance to hit him, as Marric stabbed away and Nieen and Rameus dealt out damage from the back row. Just as the goblins were just about done for, a few more pulled the curtains down on one side. Behind it were three goblins, two that seemed to be similarly undernourished as the rest of the goblins, and one that looked like he must be in charge and got to eat as much as he wanted, a goblin called Balgron the fat.

At this point, where Balgron enters, the conditions for Balgron to run away had already been met. Luckily what happened next... happened.

Aiur, seeing the last newcomers appear, Let out a devastating roar that weakened the knees of two of the goblins, and caused Balgron to flee. The two goblins surrendered, and Marric ran around the room to cut Balgron off before he could escape. Aiur charged past his new prisoners and brutally attacked Balgron with his axe, and then strikes him again, nearly killing him in two strikes.

Aiur makes a intimidate check, natural twenty. Thats why the goblins, who usually fight to the death, just drop their weapons. then he runs down the hall, hits Balgron, then uses an action point to hit him again.

With their prisoners captured and tied, Marric goes in to interrogate them about any treasure that they have, and fearing to see the outcome, Nieen walks around the corner. Balgron pleads for his life, offering a key to a chest in the next room, this pleases Marric and he takes the key to search for the treasure, leaving the goblins in Aiur's hands. Aiur is conflicted between his devotion to extinguishing evil and upholding the laws, such as how to deal with prisoners, and he decides to pray to Bahamut for guidance. Given no reply, he looks to his old friend Rameus, who douses the goblins in his booze and magically ignites them, long ago having learned to not trust most things.

Although this was fun to develop the NPC characters, I really should have let the players decide what to do. It really showed Marric's commonly shown greed, and Rameus's occasionally shown mistrust of anything that is not a part of his team. Though, it did do a little bit of development of the PC's characteristics, as Nieen went around the corner not caring of the goblins' fate, which might fit, since she worships the goddess of nature, and Aiur's conflict. kinda touching, both could have been better managed by me, had I thought of it at the time. marric found the treasure, i think Rameus got a new +1 wand.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Fantasy Setting Name

Whats in a name?

don't believe any nonsense about a rose smelling as sweet even if it was not called a rose. Names can have power.

"Then he explained the name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley."
-Wesley, The Princess Bride.

And so I have a bit of a dilemma, I obviously cant go on referring to my fantasy setting as "fantasy setting," especially since I actually have two of them now. So what should the setting be called?

This is the point where if I had any readers, I'd ask them. Soon followed by them pointing out that I haven't actually told them much about the setting. You non-existent jerks...

Well, its kinda a normal fantasy setting... except not.

I don't explain things well.

All I have is the setting and groups of characters. No actual adventures for them to go on. I am the worst writer ever.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

"Lost" the RPG

Dang it, I have a terrible idea.

But its so funny!

Ok, here's the idea: get a bunch of players to play a lost-ish RPG where they are stranded on an island in the middle of the ocean, they think that they have to survive and figure out whats going on on the island.

The twist is: Its a Gilligan's Island RPG

Somehow, Gilligan is the antagonist, accidentally at least, and whatever they do, as long as it relates to escaping from the island, Gilligan will mess it up. It would be even better if i made the characters for them and they did not catch that there is the first mate, the Skipper , the Millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the Professor and some eye candy random girl.

And then I'd go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like "a three hour tour."

A three hour tour....

Thursday, December 18, 2008

4e size rules Grumbles & Races for my Fantasy Setting

I like 4th edition D&D.

It's not perfect, but I enjoy playing.

One of the imperfections is that in its simplification, it has removed a lot most of the rules and info for sizes. I'm sure that this does not bug many people, but it bugs me. Why? Because I'm weird. Most playable classes are of the Medium size category, with a few exceptions that are small sized (four out of the twenty five playable races), and the only difference between medium and small races is a small box labeled as "being small."
BEING SMALL
Small characters follow most of the same rules as Medium
ones, with the following exceptions.
✦ You can’t use two-handed weapons.
✦ When you use a versatile weapon you must use it two-handed,
but you don’t deal additional damage for doing so.

The only other mentioning of size rules was in the monster manual where it explain how many squares creatures of different size fill. This is a pretty large difference from the 3.5 rules for size, where it was in the race description that they have a bonus to AC, attack rolls, and hide checks, but got smaller weapons and could only carry 3/4 of what a medium sized character could. Also in the 3.5 PHB, is a table explaining the sizes (not just in squares) and has a handy diagram showing the sizes in relation to each other. The main reason I have a problem with the size rules in 4e is that I want to create races that are not medium or small in size, although the over simplification of the small size rules bugs me as well. I mean, they don't even have size rules for monsters!

But anyway, I wanted to post the races in my fantasy setting, according to the ages they first show up in (I'll explain those later), odds are that nobody will want to ever play the first few ages, but you never know. The three central planes: Avion (the main setting), Avito, and Avire. All of these are "material planes."

First age: age of kingdoms- Humans fighting amongst themselves, ends when one king takes over all of the known lands and continues to expand until he runs into elf and dwarf lands.
Humans-
as PHB, from Avion

Second age: War between Elves, Humans and Dwarves, ends when they finally make a truce.
Elves-
as player's handbook(PHB), from Avion
Dwarves-
as PHB, from Avion


Third age: First age of exploration- meeting of the little folk, races and cultures mix, ends when the three inter planes collide.
Halflings-
as PHB, from Avion
Gnomes-
6" tall "lawn gnome" type of gnomes, tiny but fierce warriors, almost feral but speak common and gnomish, from Avion. Still working on the tiny size rules for these.
Ellobin-
6" tall Snails, more intelligent than most medium sized people, tendency towards arcane magics. Still working on the tiny size rules for these, somehow found on all the main planes.
Portal Cats-
Looks like an ordinary house cat, but is intelligent and can create small portals that it can leap through to somewhere within 30 ft. Portals are only about 1ft in size, but some say that when large numbers of portal cats gather, they can make larger portals that can go further, and even go to other planes, which explains how they are on all of the planes. Just came up with them before writing this post. Still working on the tiny size rules for these.
Half Breeds-
half-elf- Half elf and half human, as PHB
Half-Dwarf- Half dwarf and half human. Looks like a short, stocky human. Rules to come.
"Dwelf" (tentative title)- Half elf and half dwarf, looks unnervingly human, and yet quite attractive to elves, dwarves, and humans alike.

Fourth age- After the planar collision, people (and large chunks of land) from all of the planes are sent to the other planes. Some believe it to be an invasion, others that it is the end of the world. War begins between the grouped races of each plane, a war that is fueled by confusion and fear, the age ends as the war ends and portals between the worlds are opened.
Orcs-
As Monster manual(MM), from Avire.
Hobgoblins-
As MM, are decedents of goblin/orc pairings, ancestors were slaves, from Avire.
Goblins-
As MM, From Avire.
Imps-
Tiny, bat-winged humanoids with red Fur, thought to be demons when they were first seen by people from Avion. from Avire.
Beastfolk-
A collection of many different animal-like Humanoid races. Each Animal-type has several sub races. (dragonborn count as dragon [or maybe lizard] type Beastfolk.) From Avito.
Kobolds-
As MM, The ruling class of Avito, built many powerful kingdoms.
Pixies-
Small winged humanoids with tribal tendencies, usually ignores intelligent creatures unless they steal their prey, attack them, or they are in need of food enough. Still working on the tiny size rules for these.

Fifth age- The new peace allows people to explore their planes as well as new planes that they discover- the elemental planes
More half-breeds

Sixth age- *Top Secret*


Playable stats on the new races and more details on old favorites later on, as well as more of an explanation of the planes.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

D&D session 6

First of all, I'd like to point this out, second one down if my favorite. ^^ So true.

Anyway, here is the sixth session Of keep on the Shadowfell that I am running my players through. Kami has lost his dice and has to use my extra set, but that doesn't really have anything to do with anything.

Last we saw our heroes, they had just returned to town with Douven Staul. Once there, they notice that the locals seem to be a little out of sorts, when asked he simply replies that something doesn't feel right, as though someone was walking over his grave. Aiur goes to the town lord to ask him about the people acting strangely, but he hadn't noticed anything since he spends most of his time in his office. Nieen went to Val at the tavern to ask him the same thing, and he was a bit more helpful, saying that it might be because of the rift being opened at the keep. Before leaving town, our heroes went to the market square to sell some extra equipment they had acquired and buy several potions.

It was about this time that they figured out that the potions were the only magic items in their price range, potions work somewhat oddly in this version, but I suppose that it makes sense given how the new healing system works. Healing potions are basically: "use a healing surge and gain X HP" where X varies on the type of potion it is. its sort of a way to A) heal yourself as a minor action, B)heal yourself more times per battle, and C) possibly heal yourself for more HP than you would normally.

After Purchasing supplies, the group heads towards the keep, noticing that the scenery slowly changes to dull colors, and all noises are muted with even the wind not making a sound. Now understanding why the locals say the place is haunted, they get to the ruins of the keep and see a path cleared leading to the entrance of the keep, and cautiously they enter. Descending a flight of stairs, they emerge into a square room with four pillars. Aiur cautiously moves forward into the center of the room, setting off a pit trap. He falls to the bottom of the pit and is immediately swarmed by hungry rats, as goblins peer into the room and start lobbing spears at the heroes.

Heh heh heh... I don't think they expected the trap and, as it turns out, Nieen is afraid of rats. Had I known that, I might have made her fall in. >: ) Wait... A cleric of the goddess of nature... Afraid of a rodent... Seems mildly silly now that I think about it...

Aiur tried to fight off the rats, with little luck. Nieen, eager to dispose of the rats scorched them with her Sacred Flame as Rameus and Marric attacked the goblins. Once Nieen finished off the Rats, Aiur did a Rage fueled jump straight out of the pit and ran down a hallway to smash one of the shocked goblins, who now believed the dragonborn could fly. He then let out a roar and took down another goblin, finally letting his rage subside. Rameus, who had been drinking since before the gobs had attacked, was now pretty tipsy and was burning and magic missiling the gobs left and right, and Marric was stabbing the goblins as much as he could. Nieen Jumped behind a wall to avoid a flying goblin spear and accidentally used sacred flame after she was behind cover and burnt herself a little. Eventually the goblins all fell, and our heroes breathed a sigh of relief.

Natural twenties are a sight to behold. Sure they are not extremely rare, with one in twenty odds, but an automatic hit is just something to enjoy. Kami looked at me and stated that he (Aiur) wanted to jump out of the hole, I told him to roll the d20, and he did. A natural 20. I think the pit was supposed to be ten feet deep, but I did not actually ever specify that to them, and I let him Jump straight out of the pit, run down the hall, and attack a gob. He hit and then rolled the maximum damage possible with his weapon. I don't feel as though I am doing this even justice in its telling, but oh, it was fun when it happened.

This session seems really short, and it seems like we don't get very far in our sessions, only during one session we got two encounters and that was because they were one right after the other. I can't help but wonder if I am doing something wrong, as the DM, but I'm running the game as best I can. I try to keep it fun and interesting for my players, what else can a DM do?

And it suddenly occurred to me that the villain's motivation is not really discussed (as far as I have noticed) in the module beyond the implied "he fanaticly wants to release his master/ become powerful by releasing a powerful entity on the world." Then I realized that he had been made fun of at wizard/cleric school (I don't actually know which he is...) and they called him "Kalarel, Borrower of Souls!"

Ok, I lied, I came up with "Borrower of Souls" and wanted a way to put it in here...

Current Ideas

currently there are three ideas going through my head at this time.

1. Broadswords and Boomsticks (B&B)
characters fight a number of unnatural, super natural, and extraterrestrial entities trying to take over or destroy the world or just plain be evil.
possible media for this include:
table top RPG
Video game (3rd person shooter/hack and slash or tactics-type RPG are my top ideas)
graphic novel/webcomic
novel

2. My fantasy setting(s)
I have half a post on a new fantasy setting, involving a lot of planes. Think of what would happen if technology had advanced a couple hundred years after a typical D&D setting. Something like that.
And for my other setting, I have been thinking about a religion system which I will post when I get the chance... and get a little more solid.

3. After my players make it though the current module, I plan to make a continuing story of what happens to them after- discoveries are made, and the heroes will try to make the world a safer place. I can't say any more because my only reader is one of the players.

Dang... that brings me up to... five posts that I plan to write. Two D&D sessions that I need to catch up on, the religion stuff for my fantasy setting, the post about the other fantasy setting (fantasy setting 2?) , and a post about some character ideas I have for my fantasy setting... Six if I am gonna make a post about B&B... Well, I had better get writing...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Presidential Vacuum Squad (PVS)

Ok, assuming that it will one day be possible, when cloning gets advanced enough to create exact copies of people, will there be a group of people that follows the president around with vacuums to collect all of his skin cells to keep anyone from getting his DNA to make a clone for them to control?

I swear, with ideas like this I'd be an evil genius if not for my conscience. It occurred to me that I could use these talents to fake an attempt to take over the world, in hope of causing a hero to emerge and lead the people (or at least a small group of adventurers) to fight my "evil" growing empire. All in the intents of creating heroes, i have no desire to take over the world because once you do that then you have to RUN the world. Despite how much fun it would be to take over the world, I really don't want to be in charge of the whole world, and I certainly don't trust anyone to control the whole planet, so its not like I can just have my own little island to sneak off to and give away supreme ultimate power of leadership. Meh, I'll probably wait for Kami to make his attempt to take over the world and then be the hero myself. Then again... I'll probably find someone else to be the hero and just support him while hiding in the background. At least to the press.

Wow, this was supposed to be a short post...

Monday, December 1, 2008

Epic

D&D's most greatest weapons ever.

Its so awesome, I just had to link to it. Some of these are on par with Punpun

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Archivist

Have you ever wanted to play a character that knew a lot of information, be it about monsters, old lore, legends, history, or even life, the universe, and everything?

Most people will point you to a bard.

What if you don't want to be some spoony bard, all singing and music playing? You could tell everyone that you have a dark character, that sings dirges and gives dirty looks, but nobody would take you seriously, you're just the spoony bard, bein' spoony.

But if you were to look through some of the source books for 3.x you might find the Archivist. Archivists are seekers of dark lore and knowledge, they are similar to clerics, mostly in spells they are able to cast, though they can cast any divine spells, given that they can find a scroll of it. The class's abilities have to do with knowledge, for example, dark knowledge lets them give their allies bonuses against certain monsters based on knowledge checks based on the type of creature. Its an interesting class, and when I next get a chance to be a player, I will definitely consider it, even if its 4th edition.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post- a character idea

A lawful neutral archivist, the leader of his group of good aligned characters, even though he is borderline evil. He is not really evil, he wouldn't kick a puppy... Not if he was not benefiting from it anyway. He is the party's leader in the sense that he makes sure they get paid. Sure they can do whatever they want, but if they won't be well paid or have somewhere to loot, he directs the party to greener pastures if possible, and follows along unwillingly if there is no gain in terms of money, powerful items, or knowledge. For all of these things give him more power.



Now, if you excuse me, I have a druid playtest to read up on.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Best Terrible Idea I've Ever Had

The other day, my mother and I determined the most efficient morally-questionable profession ever.

But I can never tell, for I cannot unleash such a concept on the world.

You mundanes have no idea what a burden us imaginatives have.

Monday, November 24, 2008

D&D session 5

I need to post sessions before the next one happens. Anyway, after defeating the kobolds and Irontooth in their cave, they were so close to leveling that I decided to have them go on the side quest to rescue Douven Staul to get that last bit of EXP. But first, we wrapped up the end of the kobold cave.

Having just defeated the kobolds and Irontooth, Aiur searched the cave to see if it is safe to stay the night and recover from the battle as Nieen tended to her injured teammates. As he searched, he found a large locked chest that he dragged into the main room of the cavern. He could not pick the lock, and Marric was unconscious, so as he was about to "pick" the lock with his axe, it occurred to him to check the bodies for a key. On Irontooth he found a pouch that contained a key that opened the chest as well as a message to Irontooth. Inside the chest was dwarven chain mail and over 400 pieces of gold.


We continued right where we left off, finishing the battle. I had to "hint" to my players that someone might have a key...


The Heroes triumphantly returned to Winterhaven, and go to the town lord's manor to let him know that the kobolds have been taken care of. The lord thanks them, and gives them their reward, which Marric does not take a share of. Aiur, Nieen, and Rameus leave while Marric stays behind and discusses his own debt with the lord. As they were leaving, a woman came up to them and asked them to go look for her husband, Douven, who should have come back home to check in by now, or at least sent a message. They agreed to look for her husband... but not before stopping by the tavern!



Worst adventurers ever. I really thought they were just going to head straight out and rescue the guy, but they decide to go get a drink first! >.<


While there, they talked to Valthrun "Val" the Prescient about
the pendant they had found. He looked at it and recognized the symbol on it as one of the symbols used by Orcus's worshipers, the Death Eaters. About this time, Marric entered the tavern with a bevy of halfling women, telling tales of his daring adventure, fighting an army of kobolds, and going one on one with the hobgoblin "Ironfang," Rameus right behind, agreeing with everything he says for a few free drinks. Val goes on to tell Nieen that if the Death Eaters are in the area, they would want nothing more than to reopen the rift and let Orcus into the world. With the old empire no longer around, nothing would be able to stop Orcus's flood of undead creatures from overrunning the town and establishing a kingdom of undeath in this world. Nieen and Aiur agree that it is their duty to stop this cult, no matter what. Aiur drags Rameus out of the tavern and Nieen asks Marric if he will help them save the world, and not wanting to look bad in front of the ladies, agrees. Once outside, he asks whats in it for him, to which Nieen replies that they are going to go to a keep full of treasure and he will get a fair share.


For how much of the area is humans, Marric sure found a large amount of halfling gals, and yes, halflings are represented in my campaign as they are in Dominic Deegan. Gnomes, as you will later see, are their evil cousins, and hard to tell apart unless you are too close or know halflings and gnomes enough. I really did think they would just go run out and save the guy, but they just had to go to the tavern! Now they are supposed to go save some guy instead of saving the whole world. They should have just gone to save the guy first! >.<


Even though they need to stop the Death Eaters from releasing a great evil onto the world, they had promised the woman that they would go look for her husband. They go to the dig site she had told them he is working at, trying to dig up the remains of an ancient dragon. Once there, they find several people, two of them halfling sized, along with two drakes in the center of the dig site looking at their findings. One of the shorter men called out to them, saying that they had to be down there to truly appreciate what they had found. Our heroes get about half way down the slope when the talkative one, now recognizable as a gnome, yells out, "NOW!" With that, the people in the dig site suddenly attacked them, catching them off guard. Aiur slid down the side of the ramp as the gnome commanded the drakes to attack Nieen. Rameus, who had already started drinking as an alternative to looking at whatever had been dug up, scorched one of the human rabble that the gnome had hired as Marric and Nieen prepared to do some damage. The remaining rabble tried to thwart our heroes best they could, but they quickly fell to their weapons, and the other gnome stayed back while slinging stones at Aiur. Eventually the gnomes met their end, and the group began looking for Douven.


The second gnome was actually a halfling, but I decided that gnomes and halflings dislike each other, since in my D&D setting (slightly off from typical D&D setting) gnomes are closer looking to halflings and evil and therefore would not be working together. Also, with this battle, the characters got to level 2!


Nieen hears a noise coming from something covered with a blanket, upon investigating it they find Douven tied and gagged. After releasing him, he tells them that the gnomes were there looking for an artifact in the dragon's hoard- a mirror. He tells them that he is not quite sure what it is from or for, but that the gnomes seemed happy to find it. They checked the bodies and found some gold, and Douven went over to one of the gnomes and took a locket off of him, opened it up and smiled. He then walked up to Aiur and explained that the gnome had taken the locket with a picture of his wife from him, and after removing the picture, gave it to Aiur saying that it was a magic, protective item, which Aiur accepted graciously. The party then escorted him back to town, much to the happiness of Douven's wife.


Phew! finally done! Now to do the next one before we have another session!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Blog Status

Wow, its hard to believe that this blog is already in it's 3rd month...

Even harder to believe that I feel like the quality is slipping, considering it was not that great to begin with.

I am two sessions behind on posting the tales from the D&D game that I am running, and got far too lazy with the "Shifty Shifter" and the "PHB2 Speculation" posts. Over the next few days I will catch up on the sessions, and rework those posts I just mentioned. I know I don't have many readers (if any), but I would like to keep things up to a certain level of quality.

If anyone reads this, post a comment and let me know what you think. I'd hate to think that even my friends don't read this. : (

Edit:
Alright! I got both of the posts reworked (though I may add more to the Shifty shifter post) and posted one of the sessions. Almost there!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

D&D Fun: Player's Handbook 2 Speculations

It is still a ways off, but while hanging out with some fellow geeks, we got onto the topic of the next player's handbook. Several of the classes and races were excluded from the first one and we were wondering what was going to go into PHB2. This will be the third form of this post, the first being speculation found on forums, the second being a condensed version of that, and the third being whatever follows.

First, lets start with classes. Personally, I am expecting two divine classes, two arcane, and the addition of four primal. This would balance out the first four power sources: Martial, Divine, Arcane, and Primal, giving them all four classes each(or six for arcane, if you include swordmage and artificer), or as I have come to think of it, enough for a supplement book. Beyond that, you could get into the argument of what roles they will make the new classes, but I have a chart for my own personal use and am not going into it any further. At least not here. I believe that the next PHBs will have the other power sources, named in the first PHB as Ki (monks), Psionic (psions), Elemental, and Shadow.

Currently there are two classes available for playtest on the D&D website that are not expressly mentioned to be in a different book. Those classes are Barbarian (primal) and Bard (arcane), while Druid (almost certianly primal)and Invoker ( expected to be divine and is an entirely new class), have been announced for playtest in December. Other classes that have been mentioned are sorcerer (expected to be arcane), shaman, warden (both expected to be primal), and avenger (expected to be divine).

Races seem to be all figured out, given the clues. Five new races: Gnomes, Half-Orcs, Shifters, Goliaths, and Devas (the 4e name for Aasimar, which are the angelic equivalent of Tieflings), although some of them do not really count as new, hainvg been in the monster manual. While looking around for information about them it seems that they are considered to be as good as confirmed. To be honest though, none of the new races really interest me all that much, Devas are cool, but the new name is kinda lame... especially since they changed it because "aasimar" made them think of the word "ass" too much, from what I understand anyway. But now I cant help but think that if I ever make one, I'll end up RPing him as a 'fabulous' Deva...

Moving on though, since the races in the PHB2 don't really interest me, I am looking forward to the Monster Manual 2, to see what new playable monster races it has... But since that is still a ways away, its nice to know that December's Manual of the Planes is supposed to have a new monstrous race entry.

This guy has a compilation of all the information that has been released about many of the books, so definitely something to watch.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Barbarian with a thesaurus

Ok, what do you think about this:

A barbarian who talks at about Tarzan level, "Me Tarzan, you Jane." but every once in a while throws in a really complex word, "Krug exterminate tiny gob!" Maybe even more exaggerated, by using words that the other characters may have not even heard of, using it perfectly: "Krug extirpate tiny gob!", "Krug hit infinitesimal gob!" and the like.

I think it could be pulled off. Probably not by me, but it could be.


Do I actually have any readers? you can post comments, you know. And its about time that I post about something that isn't specifically D&D.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

D&D fun: Shifty character

I was going to make a post about PHB2 speculations, but I got distracted.

When the character creator finally getting released, I decided that I would work on a character idea I had thought of: extreme shifter!

Basically, a character that moves around enemies like nobody's business. When a character shifts, they do not provoke an attack of opportunity while passing or moving away from enemies. This would make a character who could get past stronger enemies and get to weaker ones, or move in, strike, and move away without giving the enemy a chance to him them.

Using the character creator and the D&D compendium I found everything that would make a good shifter.

Shifty Races:
kobold: best choice, can shift at-will as a minor action.
goblin: second choice, can shift when missed by an attack.
elf: third choice, can ignore difficult terrain while shifting, not great, but fits to some extent.
shifters, longtooth and razorclaw: has shifter in the name, good for a "shifty shifter" title. otherwise pointless.

I decided to make my character a kobold, as being able to shift one square every turn as a minor action seems the best option.

Shifty Classes:
The only good option here is ranger, and personally I think the two-weapon fighting style is perfect for this.

Ability Scores:
A ranger;s main ability scores are Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom, but since Dexterity is mainly for ranged attacks, it is not as much of a concern, and the kobold's racial bonus gives it a boost anyway. Several of the shifting abilities let the character shift a number of squares in relation to his Wisdom modifier, so that becomes the main stat for this character. Damage is the next largest concern, making Strength next, followed by Dexterity for defense, Constitution for health, and Intelligence and Charisma as dump stats.

Wis - 16 (+3 mod)
Str - 16 (+3 mod)
Dex - 13+2 racial bonus = 15 (+2 mod)
Con - 11+2 racial bonus = 13 (+1 mod)
Int - 10 (0 mod)
Cha - 8 (-1 Mod)


At will powers: Hit and Run and Twin Strike.
Hit and run effectively works as shifting for the first square when moving away, and although Nimble Strike lets you shift, it requires a ranged weapon, so doesn't work with the close combat purpose of this character. Twin Strike works perfectly fine for more damage or careful strike for accuracy, this guy is going for damage, so I pick Twin Strike.

LVL 1 Encounter: Evasive Strike
Before or after the attack you can shift (1+Wisdom modifier) squares, before or after you attack. Perfect!

LVL1 Daily: Sudden Strike
On hit, shift 1 square and make a second attack against the target.

LVL1 Feat: Agile Hunter
Lets you shift as a free action after getting a critical! A good way to add insult to injury.

Equipment:
Adventurer's kit, every adventurer needs one.
Hide armor, light armor so Dex Mod is added to AC.
2 Scimitars, oh what fun!
Short bow + 30 arrows, just in case.

Fluff:
Name: (only time will tell)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Deity: Bahamut
Height: 3'8"
Weight: 70 lb
Age: 25


Level Ups:

LVL 2 Utility: Yield ground
An immediate reaction that lets you shift away (wis mod) squares.
LVL 2 Feat: Fluttering leaf style
Allows you to move an extra two squares after using hit and run. (from the gladiator article in dragon 368)

LVL 3 Encounter: Cut and Run
Make two attacks, and shift (1+wis mod) squares after the first or second attack.

The Character creator only goes to third level, though I may have another post to have the character progress further.


Other Shifty feats:
from players' Handbook:
Avandra's Rescue: if you want to multiclass into cleric, this would let you switch places with another party member by shifting, not great, but works.
from the gladiator article in dragon 368:
Deft Footwork: allows you to shift in the place of an opportunity attack.


Shifty Paragon paths:
Beast stalker: has action shift, which lets the character shift as a minor action for the rest of the encounter as a minor action (Good for everyone but kobolds, unless you can talk your GM into making so that you can shift 2 as a minor.) Hunters grace lets you shift up to your move if you go first during an encounter (and it helps you get there if you have training in stealth), but the other abilities don't really work, as they are for ranged weapons.
Draeven Marauder:
for those who multiclass into fighter. although its made for using spears, it has a feature and two abilities that let you shift 3 squares. (this is from dragon magazine 365, look for the cormyr section)


It would be a fun character to play but eventually the DM will get tired of it and decide to squish you how ever he can.

anti-shifting monsters:
Cyclops Hewer, death knight, dragonborn soldier, githzerai Cenobite, Hippogriff Dreadmount, kobold dragonshield, Orcus, Aspect of Orcus, spectral panther, Rakshasa warrior, Sahuagin raider, longtooth hunter, skeletal tomb Guardian, sword wing, and war troll.

I make people think twice before using my ideas.


Edit: Ah! I found that the water soul Ganasi from the forgotten realms guide has a shifting racial power as well!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

D&D session 4

So it is now official that the group is now just down to me, Ky, and Kami. This would not bug me as much if that did not mean that there is an equal amount of players and NPCs in the adventuring group, and for a short time more NPCs. But the game must go on. Now, where were we?


When we had last seen our heroes, they had just defeated a kobold ambush and were recovering from the battle. Amongst the kobold's possessions, a necklace with an obsidian dragon figurine that had a skull with ram's horns etched into it. Despite their religious training, Nieen and Aiur did not know the significance of the symbol, Luckily, Rameus recognized it as an abstract symbol for the demon god Orcus. About that time, another kobold walked up to them and casually attempted to make conversation.


Lol, religion checks. Its pretty bad when the wizard has to tell the cleric and paladin the religious significance of something. Enter new character.


The kobold, who had gold colored scales, introduced himself as Firebeard, the dwarf sorcerer.

The party stared for a while, then Aiur stated, "But you are a kobold."

Firebeard, somewhat flustered, mumbled something about people thinking he was a kobold a lot lately, and then replied that he was, in fact, a dwarf. Aiur quickly devised a test to see if he truly was a dwarf, and asked him what his favorite drink was, to which Firebeard quickly replied that it was Ale. Nieen realized that this was a somewhat silly way to check if someone was a dwarf, and remained unconvinced. The arguing continued for some time, and tempers flared, but Firebeard convinced them that he wanted to help them eradicate the kobolds and that he knew where the kobold camp was. After they finished their resting, they continued on towards the kobold camp.

Ugh... When I had my other players (they had one, quick session separate from these characters) met Firebeard, the accepted him quickly. These players, on the other hand, would not accept him, Aiur called him a faker. FIREBEARD BELIEVES HE IS A DWARF! Firebeard was my masterpiece! A truly interesting character, with a complex background, and they couldn't get over the fact that he was a kobold, sure they have fought nothing but kobolds up to this point, but he had gold scales... maybe i did not stress that enough... Bah, I'll just kill them next session... Heh, heh, heh... By a gnome no less! XD

Once they reached the camp they found that the kobolds had set up their camp next to a waterfall, and quickly made plans for their attack. They jumped out of the bushes surrounding the camp, catching the kobolds off guard. The party began to slaughter the kobolds, first going after a larger one that stood inside a magic circle. Reinforcements quickly came to the aid of the fighting kobolds, but were quickly cooked to a crisp by Firebeard and drunken Rameus, who found that drinking seemed to help his magical abilities. When he realized that they were losing, one of the kobolds screamed that 'Irontooth' needed to be warned, and began to flee towards the waterfall. Firebeard shot a frostbolt at the kobold, freezing him in place, giving Marric a chance to finish him off.

Wow, it seems like I am only talking about the NPCs... XD The PCs are pulling their weight, but to be honest, they just aren't as interesting to write about. Although Nieen learned to use her ranged attack, its much more entertaining to note that Rameus had somehow become the drunken master of wizardry. In case you are wondering how I have a character with the sorcerer class (I know you aren't) I'll put it in later in this post.

After the last of the kobolds were defeated, they peeked behind the waterfall to find that the kobold's base continued inside. Once again they got the jump on the kobolds, catching them off guard and killing some before they had a chance to react. Once they took to the fight, they fought hard, knowing that failure meant death. Our heroes fought back harder, quickly wearing down the kobolds, who were calling into the shadows of the cave for help. And they got it. More kobolds appeared, lead by a tough looking, battle scarred goblin who taunts the party, calling himself Irontooth. Aiur challenges Irontooth, and instructs the rest of the party to take care of the rest of the kobolds. Marric has a knife fight with one of the kobolds, Rameus takes care to not torch his teammates while doing as much damage as possible, and Nieen hits whatever kobold she can while keeping her team in top condition. Nieen manages to notice that one of the reinforcement kobolds is none other than Dak Ness, the black scaled kobold.

Ah, the plot thickens! The boss emerges and Dak Ness returns! I don't even think that my players even though much about the fact that the kobolds were being lead by a gob... (which may be why I am ever so subtly putting it here) The whole idea of Dak Ness was further embraced when I came up with the idea for Firebeard (you will see why soon) but the heroes were not really trusting the 'dwarf' sorcerer, so it kinda put a dent into those plans... We'll see what becomes of ol' Dak.

While the battle raged on, Dak Ness noticed Firebeard, and called out to him, calling him Bryt. This seemed to confuse Firebeard, who decided that the best coarse of action would be to fireball Dak, causing the two of them to battle, ignoring all else, except for one occasion where Nieen yelled at him to attack another one of the kobolds. Eventually most of the kobolds were felled, and while nearing death, Firebeard realized that he was Bryt Ness, a member of the kobold tribe they were attacking. The very powers he had mastered to protect his tribe had scarred his brain, making him forget who he was... He apologized to his brother Dak, and the party, telling them to tell his sweet heart that he loved her. He then ran to the far side of the room, and took his own life. In death, the magical energies consumed his body, erupting in an explosion that burned Irontooth, and pushed Dak back into the shadows of the cave.

*sniff* He had the heart of a champion... *sniff* and the worst part is... he never actually told them who his sweet heart was... Her name is Bonnie, she is one of the local dwarf farmers, and had found Firebeard, starving and having forgotten who he was. She felt sympathy for him and nursed him back to health, and told him he was a dwarf named Firebeard. He worked on her farm for a while, eventually learning how to control his powers, which Bonnie figured must be sorcery. Eventually the two fell in love. When the kobolds started attacking the farms in the area, he decided that his powers needed to be used to stop the kobolds before Bonnie's farm got attacked. More on Firebeard's elaborate back story later, back to the story!

The party finished off the last of the kobolds, and focused their attacks at Irontooth. He got in a few good hits, but eventually he fell to our heroes. After the final blow was dealt, Irontooth cries out, "Kalarel! Lord Orcus! Prepare my way!" The party was so weakened by the battle, that they had to camp in the cave after making sure it was safe.

We ended the session there, and called it a night.



Anyway, the rest of Firebeard's back story-

It was prophesied that when two kobolds were born from the same egg, one with golden scales and one with pure black scales, the two would eventually fight, and the winner would determine the fate of the tribe. if the golden one survived, then the tribe would flourish, if the black one lived, the tribe would fall into ruin. when the twin kobolds were born, Never being told of the prophesy. The golden one was taught the ways of kobold magic, powerful but unstable at best, and the black scaled one was made a lowly servant. One day, the magic backfired on the golden scaled one and erased his memories, causing him to wander until he was found starving by a local dwarf farmer.

Nobody ever said that the prophesy would not be fulfilled when the battle between the brothers was happening.


Firebeard was mostly based on the kobold wild mage from dragon magazine 364 with a few changes- I never actually used wild surge, just wild magic, as an attack, and I never had him use wild teleport. I lowered his stats, hp, and defenses, I don't recall why, maybe I was trying to use the normal character rules or make him level one.

HP- 31 bloodied- 15
surges - 6 surge value - 7
INIT- +1 Speed- 6
AC- 14, FORT-10, REF-12, WILL-15
STR- 8 (-1), CON-10 (0), DEX-12 (+1)
INT- 10 (0), WIS-12 (+1), CHA- 16 (+3)

melee attack- dagger- standard, at will, weapon
STR vs AC; 1d4 + STR damage

ranged attack- wild magic- standard, at will, implement and fire, cold, lightning, or poison
ranged 10 CHA vs REF; on hit roll 1d4 for effect-
1- flame bolt; 1d6 + CHA fire damage and ongoing 3 fire (save ends)
2- frost bolt; 1d4 + CHA cold damage and immobolized (save ends)
1- lightning arc; 1d6 + CHA lightning damage and dazed (save ends)
2- venom bolt; 1d4 + CHA poison damage and ongoing 3 poison and slowed (save ends)

wild blast (when brought to 0 hp)
when slain, explode- close burst 2; +10 vs REF 2d6 + CHA fire, cold, and lightning damage

shifty- minor, at will
shift one square

RIP, Firebeard...

Sunday, October 26, 2008

D&D session 3

Finally I got the group together (and by group i mean two players, the regulars) for another session of D&D, hard to believe its only the third session... but basically we decided that we would go on without the rest of the group. Now it has been a week and the session is not quite fresh in my memory, but its was a short session, so lets go!

When we last left our heroes, they had just returned to town after saving a farm that got attacked by kobolds coincidentally while they were there. As they were leaving town, a halfling came up to them, he introduced himself as Marric Flatley. He then proceeded to explain to them that the lord of the town sent him to help the group find the kobold cave. So then the group, with their new help, left to take down the kobolds.

Marric "Lord of the Dance" Flatley was a last minute addition to the game, and I pretty much just named him during the game. I came up with Marric and Kami suggested Flatley after Michael flatly, the lord of the dance, I am lead to believe. I didn't want the group to be too weak against the monsters.

While traveling along the path, the group was ambushed by kobolds! They Defeated the kobolds!


I know it says its been a week up there, but I didn't finish it then, and now its been two or three weeks and I don't actually remember anything that happened in that fight... I think that's all that happened that session...

new Dungeons and Dragons session!

We finally had another D&D session, now I just need to remember what happened and post it!

I also had some other idea, and then promptly forgot what it-
Oh!
A role playing card game! A RPCG!

You collect cards and then you make characters with them! I have not worked out the details, but that's my idea. Maybe you get cards of races, classes, and abilities... and then you use those to build your character!

Oh, and I am also working on making a 4e adaptation for my fantasy setting...

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

D&D- more missed sessions...

Well, it seems that every time that we are all supposed to get together, people either don't show or are sick, or something else. As it is, I may just stop trying to get everyone together and give up on the game. Maybe I'll have someone else DM.

ren faire!

There's nothing like a renaissance faire!

The food!

The entertainment!

The sharp things!

And of course, I am nerdy enough that I dressed up for it! So me (peasant), the pirate captain, his wench, and a fair maiden spent our Saturday down at the park. To be honest, I was a little disappointed by the lack of stores selling sharp things, but the whole event seemed smaller than in previous years. Though it was still enjoyed by all, and the fair maiden even got some archery practice in.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Fantastic Contraption

The Fantastic Contraption is a flash game where you build things to try to get a certain block to a certain area. Its funner than I describe it.

anyway, here are some of the ones that I have made (and in some cases was surprised it worked!

One, I did not think this would work.
Two, does a flip XD
Three, the whole level seemed like it was not possible!


yeah, its a fun time waster, but I cant play, I have work to do!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Its not Lupus

Ok, now imagine a murder mystery with Dr. House as one of the characters. The murderer, it is quite obvious, is a man named Lupus, but House refuses to believe that it's Lupus. One by one, the various characters get killed in gruesome ways and eventually it is down to House and Lupus, causing House to come to this conclusion: If its not Lupus, then he, himself, must be the murderer.


That or House would tell him that his name is not Lupus.


Now imagine what kind of ideas I would come up with if I did drugs.

Oh, and that reminds me of something I wanted to try: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Starwars, Startrek, Heroes... Ok I cant think of any more, now lets see if I get some traffic... Heh heh heh...

Thursday, September 25, 2008

D&D session 2

The second session, and I am already forgetting to prepare ahead of time. Well, no surprise there. Turns out that one of the players that actually made it to the first session was out of town and neglected to tell me, but I eventually talked to him on the phone and he said he didn't care if someone else used his character. The two players that missed the first session had another birthday party to go to, so they were gone as well. Down to two players (Kami and Ky). After watching back to the future part two (and getting a phone call saying we could use his character) we decide to play a quick encounter before it gets too late. When we left our heroes there were making plans to visit a boy who had claimed he had seen the kobold cave. I quickly doodled a map on some graph paper I had handy, and have them place themselves on the map

Our heroes leave the town, passing many farms on their way to the home of the child that they heard had made claims that he had seen the kobold's cave. While passing through the farmland, Rameus enlists Nieen's help to distract Aiur, so that he can swipe a few ears of corn for later. As they neared their destination, they noticed a pillar of smoke by the farm and hurried to see what had caused it.

Don't worry, the farmers are fine, I just wanted to get the players to get into the game a bit more. I don't think it worked, but it was worth a shot. Also, when you miss a session (and your character has been introduced) the other players get to make suggestions as to what you do, like stealing corn.

As they get to the farm, they realize that the smoke was from a bonfire that a woman and her two children were cooking dinner over. The two children notice them first, the girl hides behind her mother and the boy watches them curiously. The mother walks up to the adventurers and asks them if she can help them, Nieen tells her that they have heard rumors that the boy had seen the kobold cave. She tells them that he had just made up the story to impress the older kids, but his story had some inconsistencies and the other kids exposed that he had made it up. Aiur introduces the group and politely asks that he can speak with the boy. The woman introduces herself as Caitlyn Greywalls, and her children as Abby, and Eddy. She calls Eddy over to talk to them and he excitedly greets them.

Actually, I have very little recollection of the names I used, I didn't even give the daughter a name, but I am fairly sure the boy's was Eddy... or Edward... or something like that. so these name are the ones I made up, but they are now cannon! Since this place was not actually in the pre-made adventure, I had to make it all up myself. Oh, and it worries me how well I can play the character of a little boy.

Eddy's over excitement made it difficult for Aiur to get any information from him, so he promised that if he would answer Aiur's questions truthfully that he would answer Eddy's questions afterward. Eddy agreed to this and told Aiur about telling the older kids that he had seen the kobold cave and how they had caught him. Thinking that maybe Eddy would talk more freely without his mother there Nieen pulled her aside while Aiur continued his conversation. Aiur ask him about where the kobold camp was supposed to be and how Eddy would take care of the problem. Eddy tells about the rumors that just about everyone has heard and then goes into explaining how he would gather several adventurers and take the kobolds out. Nieen Asks Caitlyn about the kobold camp, and if there is anyone who would know how to find it, Caitlyn tells her that nobody knows exactly where it is, but she has heard of a dwarf who may have been there. A dwarf sorcerer named Firebeard. During this whole time, Rameus has been entertaining Abby, and himself, by making shapes in the bonfire smoke with his magic.

As this is going on, in between acting like a little kid and trying to get my players to STOP MAKING TOWERS THEIR DICE, I occasionally roll my D20. Not for any specific reason. I just feel like rolling it as if it will tell me how soon the next event happens. To be honest though, I just got tired of acting as the Greywalls. The Firebeard character is someone I plan to introduce later... sort of as a GMPC. Oh, and the best line ever: Caitlyn: "They say he is a sorcerer..." Nieen: "Why do they say that?" Caitlyn: *slight pause* "Because he is a sorcerer."

Suddenly, several kobolds jump out of the corn field, but stop because they did not expect to see any adventurers, except for a black scaled kobold who came out of the corn field a little further down and did not notice them. Caitlyn yells at her children to go inside, and follows them in as our heroes ready their weapons. Aiur wastes no time in using his acid breath attack on two kobolds who manage to dodge out of the way, leaving them vulnerable to Rameus's fire magic. Nieen attacks while doing her best to stay close to Aiur, having learned her lesson from the last battle. The black scaled kobold has yet to notice the battle and is actively chasing a chicken as his group tries to attack the adventurers, with not much luck.

You may notice that the account of this battle is not as detailed as the previous one, I took longer to get around to writing it down and the session was started later which may have kept me from remembering it as well. It went well though, felt to me that it was too easy, so I threw in a second wave. Heh heh heh...

The kobolds were quickly falling, and when only the black scaled kobold and the strongest of the group remained, the strongest called out to the black scaled kobold for help, calling him Dak Ness. Dak finally noticed the battle and joined it as another group of kobolds jumped out of the corn field. The heroes fought on, finishing off the leader from the first group and the weaker kobolds from the second group. Rameus hits Dak with a magic missile with enough force to cause him to go flying into the distance. As their numbers dwindle the leader of the second group flees into the corn field, followed by Aiur. Nieen finishes off the last of the weaker kobolds and moves towards the corn field to help Aiur, but the kobold runs back out of the corn field, expecting to surprise Aiur. What he doesn't expect is Nieen's staff hitting him on the head, finishing him off.

It's kinda shortened, but that is at least the highlights of the battle. when Dak Ness gets hit by the magic missile Aiur's player, Kami, makes a comment about how the kobold's name must be darkness, referencing the Dead Alewives skit "dungeons and dragons." I could not resist telling them that the kobold had black scales and was named Dak Ness (so I kinda retconed that information in), but I like having my players feel like they are adding to the world somehow. That and I realized that he would help develop another character I was planning on introducing.

After the battle, the heroes gathered the weapons from the kobolds, throwing the spears into the bonfire, and giving the two short swords to Caitlyn. She thanks them and tells them that she has no way of repaying them for defending their farm, but our heroes would not have accepted a reward. They walk back to town to plan their attack on the kobold cave and try to find some information on the mysterious dwarf, Firebeard.


And so it was getting late, we called it a night.

Little known fact (AKA, I just thought of it), but the Greywalls are actually the descendants of the original builders of the walls around Winterhaven, and part of the family works to keep the wall in good shape. When they need extra help, they call the extended family to come in, which is where Caitlyn's husband was at the time of the attack.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

just a quick post....

I got a terribly silly idea...

If you were to get shrunk and put into someone's body in a fantasy world, would you fight hemogoblins and hellcatalase?

It's so bad, but I cant help finding it funny... XD

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Premade adventure and minions

Originally I was going to make my own adventure to put my friends through, but then I realized that when I try creating a world I tend to go overboard. Way overboard. From what I had so far, the characters would: make a treaty with the kobolds, help them in their war with the goblins, and eventually they would fight the world's ultimate evil: Gnomes. Despite all the improvements 4th edition made to DMing, I still felt like this was going to be a monumental task... So I decided I would use a pre-made adventure.

The first adventure, H1 Keep on the Shadowfell, was released before the core rulebooks (The Dungeon master's Guide, the monster manual, and the player's handbook) and had a shortened rule book, which helps since I haven't been able to save up enough to get all the books yet. The adventure has all that you need to get the characters (premade ones that come with the adventure or ones that the players made themselves) from the first level to the third. Monsters, their tactics, and their items are all described, and maps for the encounters are included. To think I was going to do all that work by myself.

The 4th edition comes with plenty of content to place into your own adventure, but for a new GM like myself, I recommend using the premade adventure. Everything may be there already, but that does not mean I have to stick to it exactly, why call them cultists when "death eaters" always gives the players a quick laugh? Considering that the players in my group are split into two groups right now, it seems I may get to get a bit creative. Monsters need to beware Moblin Firebeard, the dwarf sorcerer, an NPC not included in any premade adventure.

Now that I have played through a session as DM, not that we got very far, I have found my favorite thing about 4th edition: Minions. Minions are exactly what they sound like, cannon fodder. They take one hit to dispatch, making them useful to fill an encounter while not making the enemy force too powerful. they are so easy to kill, in fact, that they probably don't like to go out on windy days, for fear of their lives. To really put it into perspective, remember the putty patrol from the original Power Rangers? Those are 4th edition minions. One hit and they are gone.

My only problem with them is that some of their attacks have set values, so how does that work with the new critical damage system? Normally you would use the maximum value of the dice you would roll and use that as damage, but it doesn't really make much difference when it it just a 4 damage hit. It broke my heart to have to tell that poor little kobold that his critical hit did normal damage... I'll give him a magic item or something to make up for it when he comes back to fight during the next session.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

D&D session 1

I have done it.

I have achieved geek greatness.

I am... a Dungeon Master!

After wrangling as many of my friends as I could get to sit down for long enough (with promises of pizza and caffeine) I began my second attempt (We don't talk about the first attempt...) to create an adventure that the players will be proud to say they were apart of. well, not so much create, since I am using a premade adventure, but you get what I mean. Unfortunately two of the players called to say they couldn't make it at the last minute, two more seemed like they were never going to show up, and I started getting nervous. Eventually the two late members showed up- I only had three players, yet we still forged onward.


I seated my players at our table, a wizard, a paladin, and a cleric. The one playing the wizard is a D&D veteran, but was new to 4Th edition, the Paladin and cleric both were playing for the first time. Looking at the adventure book, The Keep on the Shadowfell, I started to explain the hook, and since I had the players meet previously to develop some character relationships it became quite simple to pull them into my (mildly) twisted vision of this fantasy world...

Nieen Featherflight (the human cleric of Melora), has been given a quest to investigate the rumors of a cult near the town of Winterhaven by the church of Melora. She enlisted the help of an old family friend, Aiur (the dragonborn paladin of Bahamut) as her guardian. Along the way they met a wizard friend of Aiur's named Rameus Yusef who joined them on the quest.

It did not occur to me until part way through the first encounter that there were only 3 members in the party in an adventure made for a 6 member party, and that I should have nerfed the encounter. By then it was too late and I did my best to keep it fun without letting the monsters overpower them on their first encounter, and I had to get creative. I described the enemies as it says in the adventure book, but unable to control their meta-gaming, they all said, “oh, kobolds,” and thus began the first battle.

When nearing the town of Winterhaven, the trio was ambushed by a large group of kobolds. In her inexperience, Nieen rushed into the attacking kobolds, but was quickly rescued by Aiur who torched several of the attackers with his dragon breath. Despite this their numbers began to overwhelm the paladin. Rameus conjured a pillar of flame on the kobolds, but that was not enough to deter them from their attack. The kobolds were able to knock out Aiur, causing Nieen to go into a panic trying to revive him while Rameus kept the kobolds at bay with his flames. Nieen thanked Melora as she pulled Aiur back to consciousness, but that small victory was short lived as he soon fell again to their attackers. Rameus then had a "Magical dysfunction" and all he could manage was sparks from his fingertips, which luckily set a pair of kobolds into fits of laughter giving him and Nieen a chance to strategically fall back.

I said I had to get creative, I never said I was good at it. The players seemed to find it believable... or at least they seemed to appreciate it.

The kobolds laughter made them prime targets for Rameus's next attempt to conjure fire, which made them a good deal crispier. One of them managed to survive and charged in a fiery rage (excuse the pun). Before the angry kobold made it to our heroes, Nieen was able to call upon her spirit guardian to distract and then attack the kobold. After they finished off the last of the kobolds, Nieen tended to Aiur's wounds and the group looted the kobold's weapons and continued to town.

Phew... I think I was as relieved as them when that battle was over, but I did my best not to show it. They went to the town and what was their first order of business? Selling the unwanted loot. Typical.

After resting and recovering their strength, the group went to the local blacksmith to talk him into giving them gold for the junk they had found, Aiur sweet talked him into a good price for two short swords, but he told them that he had no interest in buying kobold made spears. He directed them to an old man that hangs out at the tavern called Eilian the old, who was a bit eccentric and took an interest in the kobold spears, happily buying them. Since most of the locals tend to avoid Eilian due to his eccentricities, the barmaid gave them a round of drinks for spending some time with him. Rameus gave his to Aiur, due to trust issues, and Aiur gladly quaffed the two drinks. While enjoying their drinks, they asked the barmaid if she had heard anything about the cults in the area, she told them that she seriously doubted it, and eventually directed them to the town lord, named Ernest Padraig, at his manor across the small town. They asked him about the cult rumors, but he simply laughed it off, not thinking it would even be possible. Since they were already in town they asked him if there was anything for them to do. Padraig told them about the recent kobold attacks and asked them to take care of the problem at its roots- the kobold's lair. He gave them a map of the area and points out a general area where the lair is believed to be. The group asked if they could get a guide, and Padraig told them of an elf hunter at the tavern that might be able to help them.

They went back to the tavern and met Ninaran, who, despite her knowledge of the area seemed unwilling to talk to them, much less guide them. After a short conversation, they met and talked to an elderly chap named Valthrun the Prescient. He seemed knowledgeable about the history of the town so they asked him about the cult, he said it seemed to be quite unlikely, but told them of cults of the town's past, one small one and a larger one about two hundred years ago who called themselves "The Death Eaters". Then they asked him about finding a guide and he told them that the local youths knew the area well and if they could find a thrill seeker they could try to hire him as a guide, but would rather they didn't for fear of the youth's safety. After talking to some of the younger members of the town they hear of a boy who claims to have seen the kobold's cave. They rested for the night, and made plans for visiting this boy in the morning.

I was disappointed that they didn't make it to the second encounter. Considering that the first one took two hours due to everyone getting used to their characters, we all decided it was time to call it a night. Later, after thinking about it, I realized that some of the players were not quite using their characters to their full potential. After kicking myself for not helping them while we were playing, I decided I need to try to help them find some way to organize their powers and show them which are minor actions instead of standard. Over all, everyone said they enjoyed it and I managed to pull it off better than I expected to.

I plan to get my other two players (a rouge and a warlock) caught up with a small encounter sometime before the next session, then pull the two adventures together. Hopefully that wont be too hard to manage. I'll post their misadventures as soon as I can.Oh, and just a side note: The best part of DMing was making thing up as I went. I know I mispronounced at least one NPC's name, forgot some things that another NPC was supposed to say, but the things I did do on purpose were the best part of the game. During the fight, there was a kobold with a sling, he tried to make a shot with it over a character's head and one player pointed out that the shot was not physically possible, the roll was really low anyway so I told them that the kobold suddenly remembered about physics and launched the bullet right at the ground. The kobold was also unlucky enough to crit-fail when using a fire pot and dropped it on himself, burning himself for a few rounds. heh heh heh... well, next session the battles will be more balanced so I can do better at being the Monsters.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Post Zero

Hello everyone!
Welcome to my blog. I plan to write out a lot of my ideas here including:
Stories for my fantasy setting (don't ask, your happier not knowing about all the overly complicated systems put into play while setting up this setting.)
Stories for my superhero setting (not a typical one, i think so anyway)
Random ideas!
Tales of my D&D group (expect an update for that fairly soon)
Ideas involving my secret building project.
Whatever else I think of.

If you are here to read about whats going on in my life, don't bother. You shall find none of that here.