Have You Ran This Module?

I just finished running The Twilight Tomb for my players. Yes, we are still playing 3.5e. I thought it read better then it played. There was a lot of information contained in the pages that made it a fun read for the DM, but I found difficult to include in the story without narrating stories to the players that their characters had no possible way of knowing. It was combat heavy almost to the point of a TPK (total party kill) but offered little reward. I was a little dissapointed with it over all. My players also found the boss fights anticlimatic. Have you ran this module or one like it? Care to share your experiences?

NEW (old) BOOK OF THE WEEK

This rare guide is the "go to" book for anyone's 2e Spelljammer Campaign. I just received it today and after a brief perusal, I am floored by the amount of information, rules for Groundlings in space, new races and a chapter on Campaign design, all make this a great book to add to anyone's collection.

New (old) Book Of the Week

Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb is the new (old) book of the week. Since I have not be able to get my hands on a copy of Deities and Demigods (1e) I am not sure how it compares with the discussions of the Planes But I have found it to be a fount of information on how to travel about the planes. My personal favorite is the descriptions of the Outer Planes

"GOLD" EPISODE 1 IS HERE

GOLD: Episode 1 (SD) from David Nett on Vimeo.

New (old) Book of the week

Even though I haven't been playing, I still shop for books and here is the coolest one I received lately. Oriental Adventures was Gygax's take adventuring using Asian cultures. It just arrived and I am looking forward to reading it. BTW I got it off of PaperbackSwap.

The Big Bad Blue Club

One of my favorite "primitive" weapons is the gunstock club from Last of the Mohicans seen above. Watching Chingachigook just devastate Magua with it always gives me great pleasure. I am wondering if anyone would care to suggest D&D stats for this weapon. I really would love to hear your opinions. Please don't feel like you have to limit your answers to one edition either i.e. 1e, 2e or 3.5, all editions are welcome here!

My Turn Behind the Screen, Part IV

It has been awhile since I have updated my current run as DM. I guess that it has been going so well that I haven’t felt the need to regale you all with tales of it. We left our players in the first of 4 crystal towers, fighting both the undead and living enemies.

The players learned quickly about dealing with the mindless undead. They swiftly set up gauntlets for the skeletons and zombies so that they could destroy them with limited risk. The party suffered their worst injuries so far in a battle with three shadows. Soon after that an encounter with a wraith left the party seriously imperiled. I am starting to think that stat damage is a deal breaker at low levels. The party was having some trouble and no way of recovering the strength damage.

The party did subdue an orc in their battles. He confirmed their suspicions about there being multiple groups battling for control of the towers. The orc was helpful until the party started arguing and discussing how they would kill him. In a last courageous effort the orc yelled his defiance and attacked only to die under the repeated blows of our heroes. Once the orc died and the stairway issue was resolved (There was some confusion on my part as I read a stairway incorrectly and thought they party had reached the top level. That was swiftly remedied), the party moved to the next level. To their surprise they ran into a grizzly bear and his Thorn master. A battle ensued and even with prep time the thorn had a disappointing run, firing sleep arrows past the bear and into the party. Sadly, the heroes hit by the thorn’s arrows were immune to sleep. The bear was defeated and after some rule checks and die rolls, for battling while standing on top of the bear, the thorn was also defeated.

By examinaing the corpses they discovered that the thorn was twisted by evil magic as was the grizzly bear. Inside the room the party found a half finished wood font, fey runes inscribed on the rim, a saucer like bowl of dark wood leaned against it. The party used their knowledge of the arcane (and everything else they could roll for) to attempt to determine the nature of the liquid in the font. As close as their studies could bring them was that a positive energy and possible healing powers infused the water. The chosen guinea pig (elf fighter) used the bowl and drank a dose of the water, lo and behold damage was healed and the earlier stat damage was repaired. Even with that timely blessing there seemed to be more to that mystical water then has been discovered. The party dosed themselves and packed the remaining liquid into bottles with the arcanist (read Warmage) remembering to refill the font before they left the thorns chambers.

The party had a little difficulty with a party of well disciplined and highly trained orcs in their next encounter. The rear members of the orc band threw javelins over the head of the front line attackers with the Orc Sergeant bellowed and bolstered their moral. The running battle took two rooms and drew reinforcements from a third area. The battle was done and the party looked around and realized the first tower was cleared with only a prisoner left to interrogate. The orc prisoner, scared to the point of pissing himself, answered any question placed to him. The party was able to put more names to their foes and the elves finally recognized the name of the their undead enemy. Childhood stories flashed through their memories and visions of an evil elven spellcaster, that killed his own noble family with his heinous experiments haunted their thoughts.

After coup de' grace-ing the orc, the party was left looking at a bridge that the living creatures were defending; they found themselves deeply in need of a rest before moving forward. During the last combat the Elf fighter noticed a hidden door and the party went to explore. Looking into this room, it was stocked with rations and water, apparently the towers original occupants had found a way to store food for long periods of time without spoiling. The party searched the room and hiding their tracks behind them they moved into the large storage room. The door secured the party took to eating, recovering and preparing for the battles ahead.

As they rested dreams of a three eyed, three armed, three handed, three fingered creature disturbed the party’s cleric/healer. The visions of the three cold eyes over a gaping maw was enough for him to inform the rest of the party of the possible threat. The party did not know if this was a warning from the cleric’s god or a spell cast by their enemies to confound them and make them fearful. Secure in their courage and faith they moved forward crossing the bridge to the new tower the visions of evil beings lingered in the back of their minds.

Heel vs. Heal: A tale about a player and their wolf.

My girlfriend is playing in a game I am DMing and this leads to questions about rules while I am trying to go to sleep. I don’t mind really, I am just glad she is playing. The following is just a funny little anecdote about new players and what they hear.

The party is in combat with a small, vicious fey creature and his very large, vicious bear. A few people are wounded and the Druid/Rogue is in the back of the party, away from the action, due to an earlier strength draining encounter with a shadow. The Cleric is out of healing spells and someone reminded her that she can “heal”. She chimes up “I heal him”. “Ok roll the dice.” That is one of her cure light wounds (CLW) spells. A round later “I heal him again.” That is two cure light wounds spells, she only has two in her inventory at this point. Another player falls back wounded, who would of thought a bear would do this much damage, and she says “I heal him too.” I look at her “How?” “You have no more CLW spells.” She replies “Spells, I thought I was using my heal skill?” “No, you were using your spells” “But the Favored Soul guy is ‘Healing’ stuff. How do you heal stuff without using your healing?” “That is through spells” I respond. “Can I use my heal skill anyways and oh, my wolf can heal too?” I look at her “Huh?”

At this point I am distracted by another player and I honestly thought she was pulling my chain, until we got home. We are lying in bed and she asks me about the differences in feats, skills, castings, etc and I go on to describe the differences. She brings up that often the Cleric will say “I heal you for this amount of damage.” “Why doesn’t he say I cast CLW?” My answer is not very helpful “I don’t know. I think it is because we all know what he is doing when he says that” Once again she brings up the “Heal.” She explains it to me that it upset her she could not find any spell that said heal on her character sheet but she could find the heal skill, so she thought she was “healing” people with that.

Here comes the kicker, She then says “Well, my wolf can heal too.” My response for the second time that day is “Huh?” “It says it on his sheet, under tricks; you told me to write down heal.” “At this point I am trying not to laugh “I said heel, not heal, darling.” She starts cracking up; she explains that, during the game, it was making her furious that we were not letting her wolf heal people.

(related here with the express permission of my girlfriend, thank you:)

Why I hate ebay!

I hate to lose. I am a competitive person and I have found that I can no longer allow myself to shop on eBay. I get very, very upset. One part of me knows that items will be back and that deals will come and go. But each one for me is the last. I will never see it again. Every role-playing item that slips from my fingers wounds me and I hate it.

I am not someone who bargains well because I don't want to have my pride force me to walk away from an item I want. Maybe that makes me a sucker? My last loss hurt the most; I lost a full collection of 15 1e books in great condition. Money was tight that week.

Now, I will get stuff for the “Buy now” price and avoid the pain. Have you had similar experiences? GAME ON!

The Dragon Dowager Lassanthra Dalgren

This is a bit on Zinthalion's grandmother:

38 years ago

The Lady Lass was 50 years old, a widow and the head of the minor noble house of Dalgren when a flight of marauding dragons attacked the capital city. While the battles raged, most of the city was evacuated to include her only son and heir Samthalion. She refused to leave and stayed in the house with her two most loyal and oldest servants. As the city burned most of the defender’s congregated within the palace walls, other’s hid in basements or the sewers. Lass ordered a chair placed on the upper most roof of the house, known as widow’s walk, where she could see most of the city. Her servants begged her to leave or to hide within the crypts beneath the house but once again she refused. The dragons had not reached her house yet. Her Late husband’s high-backed chair was placed on the walk and Lass ordered the servants into the crypts below. They complied and moving towards the stairs they saw the Lady Lass place a pillow on the seat and gracefully sit down as if she were to hold audience.

The rest of the story is a bit blurred due to only a few people seeing what exactly happened, they being too frightened to recall most of the details, and Lassanthra refuses to give a full account of what happened next. People fleeing say they saw her sitting as cold and regal as a marble statue. For a half a day she sat, when at dusk one dragon had broken off his looting and set his eyes upon house Dalgren. His fly over revealed the odd sight of the old woman sitting in the throne-like chair upon the walk. One can only assume that curiosity caused the dragon the land upon the edge of the walk, tearing the roof stones up and causing the timbers of the roof to groan under his great bulk.

All that is known from that point on is that there was a conversation, lady and dragon. People fleeing recall the strange sight of the dragon and the Lady Lass perched upon the rooftop speaking. Reports are that all through the night the lady and the dragon talked and as the sun rose the dragon left his perch. House Dalgren remained untouched. The battle raged for another two days. Finally the dragons taste for destruction was sated and with full bellies rose into the sky. Almost half of the city had been burned or destroyed by pillaging dragons searching for loot but not one dragon had attacked House Dalgren.

As the story spread, the tale brought the Dragon Dowager into being. It was often asked “What woman could be so vicious that she could scare away a dragon?” House Dalgren was able to help feed the populace and rebuild the city with their trade contacts and un-plundered wealth. This caused the elevation of the house to one of the most powerful families in the nation. It is not know what the lady and the dragon talked about, what was offered or what promises were made to have the dragons spare the House of Dalgren. The King, upon the houses elevation, ordered a silver dragon's head be added to the Dalgren’s sable coat of arms. They are the only family in the Kingdom to be allowed a dragon on their standard other then the royal family.

My Turn Behind the Screen, Part III

This is the email I sent to my players for a quick recap since we play my campaign every other Sunday:

Well Met Adventurers!

Time for the re-cap:

Arriving at Silden-Yar “The City of Bridges": Silden-Yar is actually two cities separated by a river, tall bridges cross to the other side. Their exceedingly high arches are remnants of an age past. Silden is the larger and more prosperous of the two. While Yar is slowly being reclaimed by the marsh surrounding it and respectable people have long abandoned it. Tired from the road and running out of money, you find an inn in Silden that caters to adventuring/mercenary types. Bedding down in the inn seemed easy enough, until the late night appearance of the push gang. Having paid the Innkeeper enough to watch out for your small band he gave you the only escape route, through the common room and kitchen and out the back. Trapped by the buildings surrounding the inn you took the only path available, which lead to the front of the inn. Peering around the corner you could see the gang’s leader waiting. During your next attempted escape, perhaps it would not be the best idea to let the fiery-eyed Cleric announce his presence with intimidating display of swordsmanship. Neither was it a good idea killing the bully-boys (whose compatriots may or may not be gunning for you), but oh well, luckily for you the city guard showed up when they did.

The speed at which you were arrested, processed and placed in front of the Lord of the City of Bridges , whose cold eyes and serious lack of a sense of humor still gives you chills, made your head spin. It seemed that this was a well rehearsed maneuver, which also makes you think you were not the first group to be "employed" using this method. What about the seeming absent-minded sycophant Simkin. Though he tries to hide it behind his facade of mindless obeisance you could see a feral intelligence in his eyes. He looked at each one of you and wrote your names onto your charter (which you have noticed will not tear burn or otherwise be marred). At least now you're a legal adventuring band employed by the crown and you can give all who pass your group’s current fearsome title, Troupe #27.

Onward to the Forest and the mysterious ring of stones: After speaking with the tribe of Half-elves, perhaps they forgot to tell you that when walking the forest at night, they would often walk into the standing stones' clearing and have no idea how they arrived there. Oddly, the trail behind them remained the same. What was the darkness that grabbed your cleric and drug him away causing the rest of you to follow, was it a mindless thing grabbing a random person in the forest? Or perhaps was it after the black crystal shard that Simkin gave you along with your mission kit?

Whatever it was, it did its job and having been transported by the stones, you are now wandering through these glowing crystal towers. The horrid occupants seemingly divided between living and dead and each room shows signs of recent battle. Will there be more like the creature you last fought, the animated pile of dead skin, which was slowly flaying a hobgoblin when you interrupted it? The seeming contention of undead and living makes you wonder if perhaps, there is dissension in the ranks of those aligned against you? But who and what they are still eludes you. This lack of knowledge leaves you worried and wondering why you are here, if you can reverse the gate that brought you and in the end find you way home.

See you all Sunday! GAME ON!

My Turn Behind the Screen, Part II

How did my Sunday game go? It went well, everyone showed up early to finish up character creation and this is our line-up:

J is a War Mage with a fiendish ancestry,
JB is a classic Elven Archer,
W is a Dragon Shaman with a fetish for bronze,
M is a Favored Soul and a fiery eyed prophet of a new god,
B is a Druid/Rogue who is more Rogue then Druid but loves her faithful wolf companion.

Yes, I know I didn’t really stick to my restriction of the PHBII but all the players are happy and seemed to get along well. Did I tell you that my Non-Gaming Girlfriend is playing (insert maniacal laugh). I have gotten her addicted to Travian and now she is playing D&D. To encourage her I bought her a PHB, dice and some female rogue minis. Her character the Druid/Rogue has the bad habit of getting the killing shot on enemies. So much so I started showing one player the HP left on the creature before she attacked it. I didn’t want the other players to think I was catering to her. I guess it is the rogue’s job to sneak around and get that backstab in. I will have to call her my Gaming Girlfriend from now on ;)

I am running a Forgotten Realms Module for 3rd Level Characters and it has shotgun combat feel (a lot of combats one after the other). One of my favorite things is that the learning curve for players, when starting their character at low levels, is a lot faster. In my opinion the higher the starting level the longer it takes for a player to be comfortable with all their characters skills and abilities, i.e. which spells/attacks work best, who needs to be in front and who does what skill in the party. So, just after an hour into the adventure the group was working well together and had started working out some basic tactics. When we decided to stop for the night (total game time was 3 hours) the group felt confident and excited for the next session.

Now we just have to see if their characters can get along. All-in-all they seem to like it and I am having a great time. GAME ON!

My First Dungeon and Borrowing Inspiration

It was the summer of 1988 and I was neck deep in monster guts on my first dungeon crawl. As I mapped it out I noticed that it looked a lot like level one from The Legend of Zelda. Both my DM and I played more video games than RPGs at the time so some bleed over was to be expected. But it was a great dungeon and lots of fun for a newbie. So here are some thoughts for the day. Take any video game/movie/book that uses area maps or descriptions then grab some graph paper and start mapping (With movies just follow the characters). Game designers, set designers and authors get paid to develop interesting areas. Why not borrow them? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. GAME ON!

Let me tell you about my birthday and the S.A.V.D.S +4

The night before my birthday I asked my girlfriend if she would play D&D with me. Surprisingly, she said ok as a B-day present to me she would play (She had sat in on my regular Sunday game earlier that week so she understood what was to transpire) but only if she could play a Half-Elf Ranger/Druid with a wolf animal companion. I hadn't realized her knowledge of the game had expanded that far.

Excited and realizing that I didn't have a DM’s Screen I set myself to cutting up a cardboard box. (Note to self, cutting stuff after a few glasses of wine is not the best of ideas.) After completing the cutting, with no injuries to my person I might add, my girlfriend asked if I was going to put anything on it. Now, I know and she knows I cannot draw, my people are sticks and my cows look like dogs and dogs like cows, etc.

In my wine addled brain I decide to collage it. I take pages of pdfs’ that I have printed out and begin to tape them to the cardboard. As I drank another glass of wine, I decided I need a base coat of pages to begin with, like when your painting something. So, with my handy packing tape dispenser in hand I start spackling on pages. My Girlfriend, at this point walks into the kitchen, (normally her territory) where I have commandeered the island for my “Super Awesome Vorpal DMing Screen +4”, and asks me “What are you doing?” I reply simply “Collaging my S.A.V.D.S. +4” She looks on perplexed. “Have you ever collaged anything before?” she asks. “Sure” I reply, thinking that time in third grade should count. She set down her wineglass, smiled that smile (the one that says “You would be hopeless without me.”) and asks “Why don’t you let me do this” I look to the scissors “O.K.”

She sent me away for more pages, pictures and another pair of scissors. From the Abyss (the room in our small house where we store everything) I hear the sound of paper ripping as she tries to undo the mess I made. I grab a large stack of paper and hurry to help her. She busts me down to cutter duty, where I cut out pictures for her and she then decides the placement. The color scheme is black and white and she decides she wants a darker tone to the screen. I start cutting.

I sometimes forget how handy she is at crafts and things. She is the one in the relationship who owns power tools. I have an all in one tool kit that I bought where everything has the same colored handles and its own carrying case. We spend the next couple hours collaging, well really she spends it collaging, and I just cut stuff.

At this point I would like to thank my girlfriend for her assistance, understanding and willingness to participate in my hobby. Below are some more pictures of our handiwork. Enjoy and GAME ON!

p.s. my girlfriend did play D&D with me on my birthday and I think she had fun...

Hear ye, Hear ye! The Duskblade Spell List is ... Where?

One of my player’s wants to play a Duskblade in our upcoming game. When he produced his spell list I was like “Those aren’t Duskblade spells!” Luckily, I have patient players and he politely corrected me. I must be nuts or blind! All this time I never knew that the actual complete spell list for Duskblades was on page 24 of the PHBII (Player’s Handbook II). All this time, staring me right in the face. I always wondered why they had the Channel Spell ability at third level but didn’t have any touch spells available. If I had tried to play a Duskblade I'm sure I would have found this out sooner but better late then in the middle of a horde of Orcs. GAME ON!

The Man Who Made Me Rethink the Survival Skill

I happened to be watching the Discovery Channel when my new favorite show came on. “Man vs. Wild” with Bear Grylls. Just a little bit about Bear Gyrlls, according to his website, which you can find at http://beargrylls.com/, “After breaking his back in three places in a parachuting accident, he fought his way to recovery, and two years later entered the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest aged only 23.” He was also a member of the British SAS (Special Air Service) and that gives him some mad street cred’.

Now on with the show! The premise of “Man vs. Wild” is that Bear Grylls drops (literally jumps off moving aircraft into water, or parachutes) into treacherous locations around the world and shows us normal folk how to survive in the wild. Ultimately he achieves his goal and is “rescued” or he escapes to a more hospitable location but not before some interesting displays of his superior survival skills.

Watching Bear as he bit the head off a snake or dug for insect larva in a rotting tree made me re-think the Survival skill in RPGs expressly Dungeons and Dragons. The survival skill says that a Survival check at DC 10 (DC= difficulty check) will allow you to hunt/forage while moving at half your normal movement rate and you can provide food and water for one other person for every two points over ten (the DC) on a successful roll.

Now having seen Bear in action made me wonder about how to add a little spice to the survival skill. Do the players find a water source in the desert or do they have to drink their own urine? (Yes folks, Bear did this) Or, what kind of food are they surviving on. Are they eating grubs and beetles or can they catch an animal and what kind of animal is it? What about gear? Are they adequately supplied with blankets and bedrolls, tents and tinder?

My mouth is watering at the thought of all the fun to be had. GAME ON!

Below is a video of Mr. Grylls in action. Enjoy:)

My Turn Behind the Screen

By some trick of fate I have never DM'd 3.5e. I soon will have my chance. I have decide to run a campaign on every other Sunday for my current D&D group where I am just a player. So here is the guidelines I sent out to my potential players:

Well met and Welcome,

For those of you who plan to join my 3.5 game here are some guidelines for creating your characters.

Ability Scores: Roll 4d6, drop the lowest, place where ever you wish. Please note that no score over 18 will be allowed so watch your racial adjustments.

Races: All base races from the PHB (Player’s Handbook) are allowed.

Classes: All base classes from the PHB and the PHB II (Player’s Handbook II) will be allowed.

Level: All Characters will be Level 3. (i.e. Fighter 3, Rogue/Wizard 1/2)

To avoid problems I expect there to be at least one character from the four basic archetypes: Fighter, Wizard, Rogue and Cleric.

Alignment: No EVIL Characters!

Money: You begin with the basic starting amount for a 3rd level character. Please equip your characters appropriately with all necessary adventuring items, weapons and armor (For the Fighter types, the highest armor you can own at third level is Half-plate.)

Spell books and Components: Arcane casters please contact me and we will discuss spell books, components and your known spells.

Please email me your top 3 picks for Character Class and I will try to accommodate everyone.

I will expect back stories for each character and everyone start thinking about a name for your party.

If you know someone from our regular gaming group did not receive this email please forward it to them.

Our first game will be this coming Sunday, September 21, 2008 at 5:00pm

GAME ON!