I have been reading online about Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. A little reading about older D&D, since I didn't start playing until mid 3.5, has given me a lot to think about.
It seems like in their game, and in other older games I have read about, there was no Adventurer class in their fantasy worlds. If you were a PC, you were a vassal of a king, a footman, a magic user, but adventurer was a . . .subtitle.
Naturally, this got me thinking about my own gaming experiences, and how they relate. They *don't*. Not at all. I think that every one of my characters, fully fleshed out back stories to one shot shadow puppets, is an adventurer first, and everything else second.
So I decided to change that. From now on, I will endeavor to give my PC's goals. Goals wholly separate from adventuring. For instance:
- My current PC is a Gnomish Illusionist. Until 10 minutes ago, his only real motivations were story driven. Who killed me? Why? Where is my next reward coming from? This is not really satisfying. A good goal for him to have would be to establish an Academy of Illusion in Khorvaire, to compete with the Academy of Summoning. Since he had a bad experience there, living in poverty just to attend, I can see this as a legitimate goal for him.
- My previous PC (who is at this moment playing chess in a bar in Hammerfast with his good friend Arlarond), had met his only goal, to catch up to his friend. What now? He is a warlock, so his goals could be fulfilling the desires of the powers that hold him to his pact. Perhaps the fey demigod or primal spirit wishes him to build a shrine in a key location in the real world, strengthening their power in the Feywild? Maybe he would like to investigate the accident that caused him to be mired away from the real world. Since I am not playing him, this is all just a mental exercise...
- My backup PC for our Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign is a Warforged. Owned by Dwarves for the first 50 years of his life, and now free to do what he wills, why would he adventure? To prove his worth as a living being? To establish a legal place in this world?
I think the adventurer label is bad. It oversimplifies things. Why does your character need to sink all of his gold into gear upgrades, why not tithe, or build, or loan, or. . .something new? I believe these kinds of things can add flavor to your character.
Jay
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Curse of the Crimson Throne 3 & 4
This will contain spoilers.
Again, our party consists of:
Raiche - Elven Avenger (Mike)
Saturnine - Tiefling Sorcerer (Scott)
Beor Stoneblood - Dwarven Fighter (Dan)
Renn - Gnomish Wizard (Jay)
Saul - Half Elven Bard (Colin)
Kilhan - Eladrin Cleric (Rob)
Lars - Kalashtar Paladin (Jesse)
DM - Josh
All level 5. Not everyone was present for both sessions. Our next mission from Field Marshal Cressida Kroft was to track down several missing people. Our investigations uncover the fact that they were all jurors in a trial 10 years ago. In fact, all 8 surviving jurors are missing. We travel to the site of the old courthouse.
Turns out that not long after the trial the courthouse was condemned. An adjoining building had fallen into it, and it had not been used since. We split up, and Beor, Saturnine, Raiche, Renn, and Kilhan went inside.
What followed was an impossible to relate mystery/horror story. We found the jurors, and over the course of the night, they all died (save 1). We uncovered a story of corruption and murder, vindicated a wrongly convicted man, and killed a lot of undead. Or re-killed. And fought this horrific intestine/tentacle beast.
While some of us ran around trying to save doomed extras, Saul met up with our new ally, Lars, and they began running down leads outside the courthouse. They followed the judge to his bank, where he withdrew a large amount of money. He met the prosecutor and they entered the courthouse, where we had just had our climactic battle with the intestines of a juror and the intestine controlled bodies of the rest of the jurors. In the confrontation that followed, we solved the mystery, the prosecutor died for his sins, and we captured the judge so he could hang for his crimes.
After a quick prestidigitation to wipe the bile from our lips and feces from our boots, we return to miss Kroft and tell her our story.
Remarkably, she elects to send us on another errand. This time, she has a third party interested in our abilities. Vincarlo Oracini wishes us to expose the sins of the Ambassador from Chelliax. It is well known in the underworld that Darvain, the Ambassador, is a deviant, but our job was to bring evidence of it to light, harming his reputation.
Our initial information directs us to a part of town known as the Eel's End. A series of boats all owned by one man, the King of Spiders. These boats all serve as dens of sin, from prostitution to gambling, and more if you have the coin. We wandered in, and started our attempts at gaining an audience. Lars went to the card table, and after showcasing a great talent at gaming, proceeded to loose his new found wealth to the house, gracefully.
Renn challenged the gaming hall to a game of knivesies. A wrestling game with a couple twists, the diminutive old gnome was a dark horse, but the party all bet on him, and made quite a profit when he tricked the big man he was fighting into stepping off the table and losing.
Still not interest from the King of Spiders, so we shed the cloak and dagger and went straight to his personal boat. A bribe got us in, and some superb roleplaying and die rolling from our faces (bard and paladin, abc this fall...) meant that we didn't even get knifed on our way out. 1000gp of someone else's money bought a sheaf of incriminating papers.
We were sent on another errand by Marshall Kroft. The Queen had announced the name of the King's Assassin. His portrait painter, Trinia, was being accused of poisoning the King over the long period while she was painting his picture. The Marshall was worried that if the Queen's goons got to her before the guard did, that we may never know the truth of what happened. She sent us to pick her up and bring her in first.
This was a skill challenge. We found her apartment, and she was already out the window and fleeing across the rooftops. The game went like this:
The cards laid out are from the Harrow deck. It is a deck of cards made specifically for this adventure path. It can be used like a Tarot deck, or in other ways. Each card is associated with one of the 6 main abilities. To move forward, after the fleeing Trinia, you can make skill checks. The number of checks depends on the number of cards you want to advance. Each card is roughly 1 move action.
The other row represents the ground. If you fall, you move to the other track, and can make checks to get back on the roof, or follow on the ground at a slower pace.
It worked well. Josh chose skills for each ability that came up, so in one case someone had to remember a shortcut (streetwise) and then know that a certain church had a feature they could use to cut even more distance off (religion).
We caught her, and returned her to the guardhouse. We were met by a group of the Queen's men, who took her (over our objections). Field Marshall Kroft was also upset, but there was little we could do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good sessions, both. The courthouse mystery would have lost so much in the telling that it was not worth the effort of typing it out. We spent all of one session and the first 1/3 of the second on that one quest.
It is a good example of my love/hate opinion of published adventures. Things like the courthouse mystery are shining jewels of creativity, but there are the dark pits of garbage sometimes. So far, this one has been good. Having a very capable and creative DM helps.
Not everyone enjoyed the skill challenge. There were spots where not many had the skill trained (endurance) and falling down was tough, as it required an athletics or acrobatics roll to get back up. I applaud the method though, and hope we see it again.
Sadly, I missed the final quest in this book. It involved recovering a boy's body from an evil necromancer, and ended with the supposed assassin being rescued by a mysterious man. Next week, we resume with a DM change, Dan will run, and Josh will bring his evil demon of melee doom.
Jay
Again, our party consists of:
Raiche - Elven Avenger (Mike)
Saturnine - Tiefling Sorcerer (Scott)
Beor Stoneblood - Dwarven Fighter (Dan)
Renn - Gnomish Wizard (Jay)
Saul - Half Elven Bard (Colin)
Kilhan - Eladrin Cleric (Rob)
Lars - Kalashtar Paladin (Jesse)
DM - Josh
All level 5. Not everyone was present for both sessions. Our next mission from Field Marshal Cressida Kroft was to track down several missing people. Our investigations uncover the fact that they were all jurors in a trial 10 years ago. In fact, all 8 surviving jurors are missing. We travel to the site of the old courthouse.
Turns out that not long after the trial the courthouse was condemned. An adjoining building had fallen into it, and it had not been used since. We split up, and Beor, Saturnine, Raiche, Renn, and Kilhan went inside.
What followed was an impossible to relate mystery/horror story. We found the jurors, and over the course of the night, they all died (save 1). We uncovered a story of corruption and murder, vindicated a wrongly convicted man, and killed a lot of undead. Or re-killed. And fought this horrific intestine/tentacle beast.
While some of us ran around trying to save doomed extras, Saul met up with our new ally, Lars, and they began running down leads outside the courthouse. They followed the judge to his bank, where he withdrew a large amount of money. He met the prosecutor and they entered the courthouse, where we had just had our climactic battle with the intestines of a juror and the intestine controlled bodies of the rest of the jurors. In the confrontation that followed, we solved the mystery, the prosecutor died for his sins, and we captured the judge so he could hang for his crimes.
After a quick prestidigitation to wipe the bile from our lips and feces from our boots, we return to miss Kroft and tell her our story.
Remarkably, she elects to send us on another errand. This time, she has a third party interested in our abilities. Vincarlo Oracini wishes us to expose the sins of the Ambassador from Chelliax. It is well known in the underworld that Darvain, the Ambassador, is a deviant, but our job was to bring evidence of it to light, harming his reputation.
Our initial information directs us to a part of town known as the Eel's End. A series of boats all owned by one man, the King of Spiders. These boats all serve as dens of sin, from prostitution to gambling, and more if you have the coin. We wandered in, and started our attempts at gaining an audience. Lars went to the card table, and after showcasing a great talent at gaming, proceeded to loose his new found wealth to the house, gracefully.
Renn challenged the gaming hall to a game of knivesies. A wrestling game with a couple twists, the diminutive old gnome was a dark horse, but the party all bet on him, and made quite a profit when he tricked the big man he was fighting into stepping off the table and losing.
Still not interest from the King of Spiders, so we shed the cloak and dagger and went straight to his personal boat. A bribe got us in, and some superb roleplaying and die rolling from our faces (bard and paladin, abc this fall...) meant that we didn't even get knifed on our way out. 1000gp of someone else's money bought a sheaf of incriminating papers.
We were sent on another errand by Marshall Kroft. The Queen had announced the name of the King's Assassin. His portrait painter, Trinia, was being accused of poisoning the King over the long period while she was painting his picture. The Marshall was worried that if the Queen's goons got to her before the guard did, that we may never know the truth of what happened. She sent us to pick her up and bring her in first.
This was a skill challenge. We found her apartment, and she was already out the window and fleeing across the rooftops. The game went like this:
The cards laid out are from the Harrow deck. It is a deck of cards made specifically for this adventure path. It can be used like a Tarot deck, or in other ways. Each card is associated with one of the 6 main abilities. To move forward, after the fleeing Trinia, you can make skill checks. The number of checks depends on the number of cards you want to advance. Each card is roughly 1 move action.
The other row represents the ground. If you fall, you move to the other track, and can make checks to get back on the roof, or follow on the ground at a slower pace.
It worked well. Josh chose skills for each ability that came up, so in one case someone had to remember a shortcut (streetwise) and then know that a certain church had a feature they could use to cut even more distance off (religion).
We caught her, and returned her to the guardhouse. We were met by a group of the Queen's men, who took her (over our objections). Field Marshall Kroft was also upset, but there was little we could do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good sessions, both. The courthouse mystery would have lost so much in the telling that it was not worth the effort of typing it out. We spent all of one session and the first 1/3 of the second on that one quest.
It is a good example of my love/hate opinion of published adventures. Things like the courthouse mystery are shining jewels of creativity, but there are the dark pits of garbage sometimes. So far, this one has been good. Having a very capable and creative DM helps.
Not everyone enjoyed the skill challenge. There were spots where not many had the skill trained (endurance) and falling down was tough, as it required an athletics or acrobatics roll to get back up. I applaud the method though, and hope we see it again.
Sadly, I missed the final quest in this book. It involved recovering a boy's body from an evil necromancer, and ended with the supposed assassin being rescued by a mysterious man. Next week, we resume with a DM change, Dan will run, and Josh will bring his evil demon of melee doom.
Jay
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Curse of the Crimson Throne Sessions 1 & 2
These posts will have spoilers.
We all started with a connection to Gaedren Lamm (as suggested by the adventure path). Due to that connection, we all began the session in the Grey (the graveyard district. . .) having risen from the dead to seek revenge on our killer. So, like zombies, but with more cognition, we follow conspicuously placed notes from our pockets to meet at the home of a fortune teller.
We are:
Mike - Raiche the Elven Avenger
Scott - Saturnine the mysterious Sorcerer (Tiefling)
Dan - Beor Stoneblood the Dwarven Fighter
Jay - Renn the Gnome Wizard
Colin - Saul the Half Elven Bard
Josh - DMing, also running an Invoker/Shaman NPC
We are joined in the next several adventures by:
Rob - Kilhan the Eladrin Cleric
Jesse - Lars the Kalashtar Paladin
This party meeting is awkward. Everyone is roleplaying their characters well, and as such there is less in the way of "Hey, you are a PC, we get along!", and more "Hey, I don't have time for small talk, my world has recently come to an end!". After we all arrived, the fortune teller came to the front room and told us our fortunes.
It was one of those moments where you can tell that the game designer (and the DM) had good intentions, but where the venue just didn't suit the great new idea. We all took turns getting our fortunes told by Josh. Fun times, when you were up, but downtime while you were waiting.
We all get to know that Gaedren Lamm is behind our individual miseries. Raiche, who was wronged grievously (and is murderous. Never piss of a murderous person) leaves the shop to confront this guy. We all follow, and end up outside a fishery in a bad part of town.
Through Raiche's mysterious knowledge of the interior of the place, we know what to expect. Renn's familiar scouts out the front room, and we enter. Things slide back to killing pretty quickly, and we hack our way to the floor of the processing plant. There, Gaedren's two lackeys fight us, surrounded by kidnapped children. We prevail, but our quarrel was not with his lackeys, so we press on. We find the entrance to the lower level of the fishery through a decrepit old boat filled with spiders. It is then that the Spiderman trap gets sprung on us:
Crappy labelling courtesy of MS paint, since I am at work. We enter from the bottom left door, and Gaedren has a child suspended over a pit. Inside the pit is a crocodile. If we leave, kid will be fine (just a slave is all). If we enter, kid becomes croc chow.
Predictably, we enter and kick his ass. Raiche has a key part in this fight, as he is able to teleport the crocodile out of it's pit and onto the walkway, where Beor keeps it busy. Saul pretty much solos Gaedren at first, but we mop the floor with him and his silly crocodile. The boy is fished from the water, but before we can interrogate the slime, he leaps into the water. The shark infested water.
Session two began with the end of the world. All hell was breaking loose, and Saul, as a loyal servant of the crown, felt that he was needed at the castle. As we ran there, we learned that the king had died, and that magic was returning to the world. Our quest to aid the king was interrupted by an otyugh and some rats that had burst free of the sewer. Again, we had little trouble defeating them, but a couple of us contracted some foul disease in the process. We decided to call it a day, and spend the evening recovering in an Inn. Our ears to the ground find us a place where we can get some possible cures for the diseases, and after we take care of that we head to the castle for a meeting with the queen.
During the night one member of our party let slip that he recognized some of our treasure as belonging to the queen. Thinking to use this as a way to gain an audience with her, we easily get into the castle, and are soon standing before her. She is happy to have her property back, and in addition to paying us, sets us up with a guard captain in the city. This captain has a lot to handle with the recent chaos, and even with the Queen calling in the Hellknights it is too much for her to keep the peace in her part of the city.
And so we meet Field Marshal Cressida Kroft. She does indeed need our help, and our first assignment is to root out a former guard causing dissent in another part of the city. He had taken over an old butcher shop (All the World's Meat) and was handing out free food to citizens and swaying them to his way of thinking. He hated the Queen. On top of that, he financed this operation by hiring his men out as mercenaries. Both destabilizing influences had to go.
After some halfhearted information gathering, we entered the front pretending to be customers. Little did we know that the men had seen us approaching, and loitering, and had a funny feeling that the heavily armed and armored men he saw did not need mercenaries.
The fights could have been short and straightforward. Some guards, some boars, and some caged otyughs. Instead, we managed to alert the guards, Saturnine ran through the boar pen, and Saul and Renn opened the door keeping the otyughs locked up.
Luckily Saturnine is tougher than he should be, and Renn burned a daily to knock the monsters down so the door could be shut. That just left the big boss and his two henchmen at the top of a narrow staircase. It took all or our collective battlefield control to get past the impromptu barricade and into melee with them. We prevailed, and returned to the Field Marshall to report our victory and collect our reward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lot more happened. Raiche headbutted a bum and got filth fever. Of course, he swore his oath on the bum first, so he could roll twice. We learned a ton about the backstory and nature of the city that I will be omitting. We had a spat about how much time we were spending investigating rumors. Saul became a Bard, after starting as a Rogue.
The big thing was the head of the fortune teller we found under the former fishmonger/gangster's hideout. Discovering that she had been decapitated for several days, we deduced that the deck of cards she had used to tell our fortunes, the Harrow Deck, was very powerfully enchanted. The only enchanted item we have encountered in the world, so far. It kind of helped to mitigate that feeling I sometimes have. You know it, after a key event you wonder what is motivating your character to stay with this group of miscreants if their goal is accomplished. The Harrow deck has touched us, raised us from the dead, and we are bound to it.
Of course, that means that new arrivals and character death just got a little stickier. Josh has threatened us with death quite a bit so far, and has not followed through with it yet. I imagine it will only be a couple more sessions before he starts pushing the boundaries of what we are capable of handling. It works out well this way, since without magic items we are a little underpowered.
Parts 2 & 3 to follow. . .
We all started with a connection to Gaedren Lamm (as suggested by the adventure path). Due to that connection, we all began the session in the Grey (the graveyard district. . .) having risen from the dead to seek revenge on our killer. So, like zombies, but with more cognition, we follow conspicuously placed notes from our pockets to meet at the home of a fortune teller.
We are:
Mike - Raiche the Elven Avenger
Scott - Saturnine the mysterious Sorcerer (Tiefling)
Dan - Beor Stoneblood the Dwarven Fighter
Jay - Renn the Gnome Wizard
Colin - Saul the Half Elven Bard
Josh - DMing, also running an Invoker/Shaman NPC
We are joined in the next several adventures by:
Rob - Kilhan the Eladrin Cleric
Jesse - Lars the Kalashtar Paladin
This party meeting is awkward. Everyone is roleplaying their characters well, and as such there is less in the way of "Hey, you are a PC, we get along!", and more "Hey, I don't have time for small talk, my world has recently come to an end!". After we all arrived, the fortune teller came to the front room and told us our fortunes.
It was one of those moments where you can tell that the game designer (and the DM) had good intentions, but where the venue just didn't suit the great new idea. We all took turns getting our fortunes told by Josh. Fun times, when you were up, but downtime while you were waiting.
We all get to know that Gaedren Lamm is behind our individual miseries. Raiche, who was wronged grievously (and is murderous. Never piss of a murderous person) leaves the shop to confront this guy. We all follow, and end up outside a fishery in a bad part of town.
Through Raiche's mysterious knowledge of the interior of the place, we know what to expect. Renn's familiar scouts out the front room, and we enter. Things slide back to killing pretty quickly, and we hack our way to the floor of the processing plant. There, Gaedren's two lackeys fight us, surrounded by kidnapped children. We prevail, but our quarrel was not with his lackeys, so we press on. We find the entrance to the lower level of the fishery through a decrepit old boat filled with spiders. It is then that the Spiderman trap gets sprung on us:
Crappy labelling courtesy of MS paint, since I am at work. We enter from the bottom left door, and Gaedren has a child suspended over a pit. Inside the pit is a crocodile. If we leave, kid will be fine (just a slave is all). If we enter, kid becomes croc chow.
Predictably, we enter and kick his ass. Raiche has a key part in this fight, as he is able to teleport the crocodile out of it's pit and onto the walkway, where Beor keeps it busy. Saul pretty much solos Gaedren at first, but we mop the floor with him and his silly crocodile. The boy is fished from the water, but before we can interrogate the slime, he leaps into the water. The shark infested water.
Session two began with the end of the world. All hell was breaking loose, and Saul, as a loyal servant of the crown, felt that he was needed at the castle. As we ran there, we learned that the king had died, and that magic was returning to the world. Our quest to aid the king was interrupted by an otyugh and some rats that had burst free of the sewer. Again, we had little trouble defeating them, but a couple of us contracted some foul disease in the process. We decided to call it a day, and spend the evening recovering in an Inn. Our ears to the ground find us a place where we can get some possible cures for the diseases, and after we take care of that we head to the castle for a meeting with the queen.
During the night one member of our party let slip that he recognized some of our treasure as belonging to the queen. Thinking to use this as a way to gain an audience with her, we easily get into the castle, and are soon standing before her. She is happy to have her property back, and in addition to paying us, sets us up with a guard captain in the city. This captain has a lot to handle with the recent chaos, and even with the Queen calling in the Hellknights it is too much for her to keep the peace in her part of the city.
And so we meet Field Marshal Cressida Kroft. She does indeed need our help, and our first assignment is to root out a former guard causing dissent in another part of the city. He had taken over an old butcher shop (All the World's Meat) and was handing out free food to citizens and swaying them to his way of thinking. He hated the Queen. On top of that, he financed this operation by hiring his men out as mercenaries. Both destabilizing influences had to go.
After some halfhearted information gathering, we entered the front pretending to be customers. Little did we know that the men had seen us approaching, and loitering, and had a funny feeling that the heavily armed and armored men he saw did not need mercenaries.
The fights could have been short and straightforward. Some guards, some boars, and some caged otyughs. Instead, we managed to alert the guards, Saturnine ran through the boar pen, and Saul and Renn opened the door keeping the otyughs locked up.
Luckily Saturnine is tougher than he should be, and Renn burned a daily to knock the monsters down so the door could be shut. That just left the big boss and his two henchmen at the top of a narrow staircase. It took all or our collective battlefield control to get past the impromptu barricade and into melee with them. We prevailed, and returned to the Field Marshall to report our victory and collect our reward.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lot more happened. Raiche headbutted a bum and got filth fever. Of course, he swore his oath on the bum first, so he could roll twice. We learned a ton about the backstory and nature of the city that I will be omitting. We had a spat about how much time we were spending investigating rumors. Saul became a Bard, after starting as a Rogue.
The big thing was the head of the fortune teller we found under the former fishmonger/gangster's hideout. Discovering that she had been decapitated for several days, we deduced that the deck of cards she had used to tell our fortunes, the Harrow Deck, was very powerfully enchanted. The only enchanted item we have encountered in the world, so far. It kind of helped to mitigate that feeling I sometimes have. You know it, after a key event you wonder what is motivating your character to stay with this group of miscreants if their goal is accomplished. The Harrow deck has touched us, raised us from the dead, and we are bound to it.
Of course, that means that new arrivals and character death just got a little stickier. Josh has threatened us with death quite a bit so far, and has not followed through with it yet. I imagine it will only be a couple more sessions before he starts pushing the boundaries of what we are capable of handling. It works out well this way, since without magic items we are a little underpowered.
Parts 2 & 3 to follow. . .
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Curse of the Crimson Throne
If it is not obvious by the two month hiatus from blogging, we did indeed fall victim to the 6th level curse. At least this time, I can kind of see what sent wrong. No chance of me preventing it in the future, as it just seems to be an artifact of me being too nice combining with the nature of pen and paper gaming.
So, our friend Josh started up a new group. He is back in a place where he can and will DM again, so he took the reins back and began converting the Paizo adventure path The Curse of the Crimson Throne to 4e. This is despite his well know bias against it.
Which brings me to my primary reason for the lack of blogging. We are running a published adventure path. It is one thing to share the adventures of players in a homebrew world, and quite another to narrate our progress down an adventure path. I do not think I will be writing up detailed reports on what happened any longer. I will try to stick to observations about the game, it's mechanics, and the quirks of the group. Emphasis on try. In addition to that cop out, my motivation to blog about this is pretty low, since I am not DMing at all. As stated previously, I viewed this blog as a tool to help me be a better DM.
A couple of changes for this group:
- Set leveling schedule.
- Low magic
- Shared background
We are advancing in level every 2 sessions. If we game nearly every week, that puts us getting through epic in about a year. I like this for our group. We have dinked around in low levels for far too long. As long as we can avoid the curse (no certainty of that happening) we will be getting to paragon levels around October. It will be nice for a change.
Of course, to balance that out, Josh has pretty much eliminated magic items. Our group has played 4 sessions now and not found a single magic item. This puts us behind the curve as far as ac and to-hit goes, but we haven't noticed a problem yet. I was kind of irritated at first, since I am playing a Wizard (Gnome Illusionist ftw?). I had planned to make him a strong ritualist, but I will wait and see what the future of magic in this world is like, maybe I will go a different direction with him.
The Adventure path suggests a common link for the PC's, and we have gone with that suggestion. All of us have had dealings with a common enemy, and our initial quest was tied wholly to him. Things have developed beyond that, but I'll touch on that when I start with the writeups.
Jay
So, our friend Josh started up a new group. He is back in a place where he can and will DM again, so he took the reins back and began converting the Paizo adventure path The Curse of the Crimson Throne to 4e. This is despite his well know bias against it.
Which brings me to my primary reason for the lack of blogging. We are running a published adventure path. It is one thing to share the adventures of players in a homebrew world, and quite another to narrate our progress down an adventure path. I do not think I will be writing up detailed reports on what happened any longer. I will try to stick to observations about the game, it's mechanics, and the quirks of the group. Emphasis on try. In addition to that cop out, my motivation to blog about this is pretty low, since I am not DMing at all. As stated previously, I viewed this blog as a tool to help me be a better DM.
A couple of changes for this group:
- Set leveling schedule.
- Low magic
- Shared background
We are advancing in level every 2 sessions. If we game nearly every week, that puts us getting through epic in about a year. I like this for our group. We have dinked around in low levels for far too long. As long as we can avoid the curse (no certainty of that happening) we will be getting to paragon levels around October. It will be nice for a change.
Of course, to balance that out, Josh has pretty much eliminated magic items. Our group has played 4 sessions now and not found a single magic item. This puts us behind the curve as far as ac and to-hit goes, but we haven't noticed a problem yet. I was kind of irritated at first, since I am playing a Wizard (Gnome Illusionist ftw?). I had planned to make him a strong ritualist, but I will wait and see what the future of magic in this world is like, maybe I will go a different direction with him.
The Adventure path suggests a common link for the PC's, and we have gone with that suggestion. All of us have had dealings with a common enemy, and our initial quest was tied wholly to him. Things have developed beyond that, but I'll touch on that when I start with the writeups.
Jay
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
3/16 Actual Play: Werewolves, Ooozes, and . . .chessboards?
One less this session, and Phedre had a change of heart about her name. Her new name has some kind of D&D reference.
Berend - Jesse's Fighter/Cleric, our only melee character.
Blackleaf - Formerly Phedre, Jessica's Elven Ranger who likes killing.
Bennethost - Jay's Fey Warlock, the glass cannon of the group.
Nim - Dan's Bard, proving that 4e Bards are like 3.5 Bards in name only.
We began right were we left off last week, with Team B rescuing Team A from the dungeon. We put them on our mounts and took them to Hammerfast. We were ambushed by followers of The Hunter during our trip, and managed to get a couple of our A team killed (PC's that would not be returning, giving Colin a convenient way to remove them from the campaign).
In Hammerfast the Dwarf went to talk to his leader about the werewolves. Nim, Bennethost, and Blackleaf went to the local Inn to unwind. At this point Benn remembered the enchanted chessboard from the dungeon and challenged Nim to a chess game.
He set it up, and immediately a skeleton appeared across the table and challenged him to a game. Benn went first. The skeleton made a move and then disappeared. Shrugging, Benn asked Nim to take his place. What followed was one of the more entertaining roleplaying experiences I have had. Dan and I took turns playing "chess", and I set a precedent by using cantrips (hedge wizard's gloves ftw!) to double my number of queens. Dan fought back, and soon we were using every devious illusory and underhanded trick to get the edge. Bluff checks, Insight checks, Intimidation checks, and straight Intelligence checks were thrown around, and all told an hour or so of real time was taken up. I always feel a little bad when my character is in the spotlight that long, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it didn't seem to matter that this bit of action did little to further the story.
In the end Benn managed to squeak out a victory, and we put up the board. Berend had learned that the answers we sought about The Hunter were possibly hidden in the catacombs under the city. We set out exploring. A couple days of hand waved searching later, we finally stumbled upon something.
We climbed down a ladder and into a large room. Berend sets out and runs smack into a gelatinous cube. Combat was long and tough, we were matched against some Azure Oozes, and the Elite cube. Benn proved his utility by teleporting Nim out of the corner, and then proved his ineptitude by dazing Blackleaf. Berend spent the first half of the encounter in and out of the cube, finally escaping long enough to get away. Nim put the final nail in the coffin with a curse that dazed the cube if it moved closer to him, and the combat ended. Session over after that.
Berend - Jesse's Fighter/Cleric, our only melee character.
Blackleaf - Formerly Phedre, Jessica's Elven Ranger who likes killing.
Bennethost - Jay's Fey Warlock, the glass cannon of the group.
Nim - Dan's Bard, proving that 4e Bards are like 3.5 Bards in name only.
We began right were we left off last week, with Team B rescuing Team A from the dungeon. We put them on our mounts and took them to Hammerfast. We were ambushed by followers of The Hunter during our trip, and managed to get a couple of our A team killed (PC's that would not be returning, giving Colin a convenient way to remove them from the campaign).
In Hammerfast the Dwarf went to talk to his leader about the werewolves. Nim, Bennethost, and Blackleaf went to the local Inn to unwind. At this point Benn remembered the enchanted chessboard from the dungeon and challenged Nim to a chess game.
He set it up, and immediately a skeleton appeared across the table and challenged him to a game. Benn went first. The skeleton made a move and then disappeared. Shrugging, Benn asked Nim to take his place. What followed was one of the more entertaining roleplaying experiences I have had. Dan and I took turns playing "chess", and I set a precedent by using cantrips (hedge wizard's gloves ftw!) to double my number of queens. Dan fought back, and soon we were using every devious illusory and underhanded trick to get the edge. Bluff checks, Insight checks, Intimidation checks, and straight Intelligence checks were thrown around, and all told an hour or so of real time was taken up. I always feel a little bad when my character is in the spotlight that long, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and it didn't seem to matter that this bit of action did little to further the story.
In the end Benn managed to squeak out a victory, and we put up the board. Berend had learned that the answers we sought about The Hunter were possibly hidden in the catacombs under the city. We set out exploring. A couple days of hand waved searching later, we finally stumbled upon something.
We climbed down a ladder and into a large room. Berend sets out and runs smack into a gelatinous cube. Combat was long and tough, we were matched against some Azure Oozes, and the Elite cube. Benn proved his utility by teleporting Nim out of the corner, and then proved his ineptitude by dazing Blackleaf. Berend spent the first half of the encounter in and out of the cube, finally escaping long enough to get away. Nim put the final nail in the coffin with a curse that dazed the cube if it moved closer to him, and the combat ended. Session over after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm kind of burned out on the longer, more detailed write ups. I did take some pictures, I might put some up later if I can. This campaign is looking dead in the water. No progress in awhile, we will not be playing this week and I am out the following week, putting me at a month with no D&D. Sad. We played some Shadowrun a week or so ago, but we are stopped in the middle of a job.
Bennethost has been, in his short experience, my favorite 4e character to play. Not really much of a striker (the least damage potential in the group, behind the Bard and Fighter), he falls somewhere in the controller/leader range.
I'm not sure where this blog is going. . . .with the game sort of falling down, I'm not sure what to do with it. I started it solely as a way to put up these play sessions. First because I find them useful when trying to remember what happened to tie in old events. I don't DM much, but hopefully the other DM's in our group use it. Second, because I enjoy reading the playthroughs of others, and I thought I could contribute my own.
I read a post on a different roleplaying blog a few weeks ago that has kind of kept me from posting. It was basically a rant against just the type of blog that I have. If I do not have anything groundbreaking to contribute, I should not be blogging. I guess breaking out of that required me to remember that I do this primarily for *me*. I like writing. I don't devote enough time to it. If the best I can do right now is to elaborate on a gaming session, so be it.
That guy can bite me.
Jay
Friday, May 15, 2009
The 6th level curse
I feel like I have been cursed. I have been at or around 6th level a handful of times, and each time the campaign has dissolved, and been replaced by a new 1st level campaign. Some examples:
K'rrul - My 1st character ever, a Kobold Rogue/Invisible Blade managed to just get into 7th level before our campaign ended. Even that was kind of a gimme, as the campaign had fallen apart once at around 5-6th level, and had picked up again, only to be destroyed again.
Haggar - Halfling Paladin. Made it to around 5th before that campaign ended.
Some wizard - I don't even remember his name. Red Hand of Doom, we got to 5th-6th levels and the campaign ended.
Klaus - Human Cleric of the Sovereign Host. Possibly my most enjoyable character. Just made it to 7th when we lost at D&D and the campaign ended.
Therryk - Dragonborn Paladin of Erathis. This current campaign has this cloud of doom hanging over it. Spotty attendance and disinterest seems to be bringing it to a close. Therryk is currently 6th level. We will see how many sessions we can get through before the curse ends us.
The thing is, each of these endings were big. Not just a change of DM, most of them involved 2 or 3 people leaving the group. I am guessing this next explosion will be the same. Some people will leave, and we will start over again. Maybe 1st level, maybe 4th level, but we will not get much past 6th level before the curse strikes. I'd like to point the finger and say that none of these were my fault. After all, *I* didn't leave, I'm right here. But perhaps this pattern shows that I do have a problem. Me and the surviving core of the main group, currently three people strong, are good, solid gamers in my opinion. And nice guys on top of that. What is the reason for this curse?
The only way I see to beat it is to start at a higher level. My next campaign will be 11th level. How's that curse!? Eat it!
K'rrul - My 1st character ever, a Kobold Rogue/Invisible Blade managed to just get into 7th level before our campaign ended. Even that was kind of a gimme, as the campaign had fallen apart once at around 5-6th level, and had picked up again, only to be destroyed again.
Haggar - Halfling Paladin. Made it to around 5th before that campaign ended.
Some wizard - I don't even remember his name. Red Hand of Doom, we got to 5th-6th levels and the campaign ended.
Klaus - Human Cleric of the Sovereign Host. Possibly my most enjoyable character. Just made it to 7th when we lost at D&D and the campaign ended.
Therryk - Dragonborn Paladin of Erathis. This current campaign has this cloud of doom hanging over it. Spotty attendance and disinterest seems to be bringing it to a close. Therryk is currently 6th level. We will see how many sessions we can get through before the curse ends us.
The thing is, each of these endings were big. Not just a change of DM, most of them involved 2 or 3 people leaving the group. I am guessing this next explosion will be the same. Some people will leave, and we will start over again. Maybe 1st level, maybe 4th level, but we will not get much past 6th level before the curse strikes. I'd like to point the finger and say that none of these were my fault. After all, *I* didn't leave, I'm right here. But perhaps this pattern shows that I do have a problem. Me and the surviving core of the main group, currently three people strong, are good, solid gamers in my opinion. And nice guys on top of that. What is the reason for this curse?
The only way I see to beat it is to start at a higher level. My next campaign will be 11th level. How's that curse!? Eat it!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
3/9 Actual Play: Team B gets a shot at some werewolf tail.
Due to much drama and some bad timing, we have not played our main campaign in awhile. With the long break, and with attendance at the last session not great, we decided to break out our B team.
So, same setting, same basic history, only these new (sort of) PC's don't know anything of it.
Berend - Jesse's Dwarven Fighter/Cleric, worshiper of Moradin.
Delg - Chris' Dwarven Invoker, also affiliated with the temple of Moradin
Phedre - Jessica's Elven Ranger, says she is French, sounds Romanian. Likes Dwarves and killing things.
Nim - Dan's Gnomish Bard, the only holdover from team A (but his second PC; Arlarond remained in Fallcrest)
Bennethost - Jay's Eladrin Warlock, Nim's friend from the Feywild.
Nim strolled into the Dwarven city of Hammerfast at dusk. He made his way to the nearest inn, and had a seat at the bar. He scanned the patrons, looking for some that looked like they could take care of themselves, and saw Berend sitting near him. He was wearing his Scale armor and had his axe and shield propped up by him. If that doesn't scream adventurer (or paranoid?) I don't know what does, so Nim approached him and made an offer.
He had been part of a group sent to investigate the disappearance of a caravan in the Harkenwood. His party had discovered that werewolves were behind it, but had not been able to defeat them. He had escaped and his companions were captured, and now he was looking for some able bodies to assist him in rescuing them.
Berend agreed to help when Nim pointed out that the threat to Hammerfast was real, since the werewolves were preying on caravans that brought goods North to Hammerfast. They walked together to his home, the Temple of Moradin, while they discussed this. Present in the temple were Delg, who was acting as a priest at the time, and Phedre, who had come to worship. After explaining the situation to Delg he agreed to help, and Phedre who was eavesdropping put her hat into the ring.
Bennethost stopped by the temple on his way to his nightly pursuits and saw Nim. He had been looking for Nim for about a year, ever since they had become separated on their journey out of the Feywild. He ran over and gave Nim a hug, and they caught up. He was going to join them, of course, though his motivation was more for selfish reasons.
Phedre has a horse, and she offers to ride with Nim, so the rest of the party obtain horses from the Temple and they travel South to the last known location of Nim's companions. The entrance is marked by a large unnatural tree.
The tree is enormous, redwood sized, and has a malevolent, oppressive aura. While it is healthy, trees in the vicinity are dead and dying, as if they had suffered through a long drought. Phedre is fascinated by the tree, and spends awhile examining and exploring it. She breaks of a small branch, and instead of sap, the tree squirts out blood. She climbs up it, to the first major branching. As she climbs, she feels a peculiar pulsing through the bark, almost like a heartbeat. When she gets to her goal, the hair on her neck stands up. She knows she is at a place of peculiar magical power, but as we are unable to discover more, we persuade her to come down.
Not before she can get herself a souvenir. She decides she is going to cut off a branch. She chooses one about as thick as her thumb, and cuts. Blood sprays everywhere. Despite her best efforts she gets it all over her hands and her chest.
She washed up in an almost dried up creek, and we enter the ruined temple.
We cautiously start exploring the entryway, and are quickly ambushed by a fey panther. It bolted out the open door, and must have retrieved it's master, because soon we were fighting 4 big men, and a creepy caster came out of the closed door and began casting spells at us.
Berend is our only melee fighter, so he had his hands full with a fight that had two fronts. The quarters were tough on Phedre, who excels at ranged combat. Delg was in his element. Most of his attacks are area attacks, and the small room made it easy for him to catch multiple enemies in it.
The fey panthers and the soldiers got right in the middle of things, and the wizard stood in the door and cast his spells. His big mistake was the huge darkness spell he threw down. While it netted his panthers a couple of free attacks, we all cleared the area and moved to the walls. Bennethost and Nim used the opportunity to get into melee with the wizard. In a round or two, tables had turned mightily, and the surviving members of his posse were clustered in the middle of the room. Easy pickings for us, and the end of the fight went quickly.
Searching the remains was mostly fruitless. The caster had a fancy staff, which we took, and a holy symbol made of silver and shaped like a wolf's head. Berend seemed to remember that this holy symbol had a connection to a cult that worshiped some arch fey, but did not know much more than that. Bennethost saw the symbol and fell into a trance. He had a vision of several baying hounds on a hunt, with bestial werewolves riding on nightmarish chargers right behind, and a shadowy giant figure with enormous antlers at the rear. He shared this with his companions. We knew that we were dealing with the right people at least.
The next room had a strange fountain. As Nim and Bennethost examined it, they determined that it was a fountain of arcane energy. Nim figured out how to activate it and was flooded with power. Bennethost followed soon after. Tingling with power they continued to explore the ruined temple.
The right pass was barred with rubble piled to block something in. We took the easy road and turned left. That room had a couple tables, some chairs, and a trapped and locked treasure chest. After Nim defeated both, we found a very fine chess set inside, and Bennethost was able to determine that it had magical qualities. We put it in the bag for later.
The next room had a very large block of stone. A dark stain covered the top. It was quite obviously a sacrificial altar. The bookcase in this room was a treasure trove, and after Nim used the arcane power he had absorbed from the fountain to cast comprehend languages, he read the only book we could not otherwise read, the one in Primordial.
It was the story of a hunter, told by him, of his role as leader of this cult. He had come to know about a powerful arch fey called The Hunter. He gathered to him local rangers and woodsmen, and formed a cult dedicated to this hunter. The book told of a quest to find and slay a white stag deep in the Harkenwood, one that enabled them to plant a special tree. This tree, when fully grown and tended with the proper rites and sacrifices, would act as portal to the Feywild. Since the temple had been build at a location where the barrier between the worlds was already thin, this portal would allow The Hunter to pass through and enter our world. He would hunt and kill all living in the region, and grant much power to his acolytes who had served him.
Sobered, we moved on. Berend picked a door apparently at random, as he had been doing so far, and kicked it down. A short hallway led to another door, this one heavy, iron, and locked.
Nim made the lock less effective, and the door swung open. Gnolls, a slayer, and a creature made of vines were ready for us inside a large natural looking cavern. At the far wall were some people bound and unconscious. Nim's companions. Initiative!
Our position crammed in a hallway was hardly ideal. Were we facing mostly enemies who attacked in melee we would be in a very good place. The Vine Horror opened up with a bang, though, and blinded three of us with his ranged attack.
Early on we realized the pits were not useful to us. The first enemy we knocked down there was lifted out by the vines and roots that seemed to cover the walls. We knew that they would do us no such favor, and so we kept well away from them.
Berend moved into the room to create a new front, allowing us to get at the Vine Horror and hopefully shut him down. Delg managed to make it out of the hall, but was knocked into bloodied and was only kept up by Nim's healing powers. Berrend was pushed next to a clump of mushrooms, and their spores attacked him, keeping him confused. As a result he attacked Delg instead of the Gnolls. Phedre had put her Hunter's quarry on an enemy who had quickly moved aside. Now he had cover and she could not choose another quarry, since he was the closest to her.
Bennethost changed the battle somewhat when he used fey magic to swap places with Delg, who was surrounded by Gnolls and not having an easy time getting away, and then he attacked and teleported away, towards the captives on the other side of the room.
Berend shook off the effects of the spores and plugged the hole again. The Vine Horror was dropped, and the battle clearly turned in our favor. With Phedre filling the hallway with her arrows, and Nim and Delg incapacitating the Gnolls, the battle control was all in our favor. It lasted only a few rounds longer. We ended as soon as it was over.
So, same setting, same basic history, only these new (sort of) PC's don't know anything of it.
Berend - Jesse's Dwarven Fighter/Cleric, worshiper of Moradin.
Delg - Chris' Dwarven Invoker, also affiliated with the temple of Moradin
Phedre - Jessica's Elven Ranger, says she is French, sounds Romanian. Likes Dwarves and killing things.
Nim - Dan's Gnomish Bard, the only holdover from team A (but his second PC; Arlarond remained in Fallcrest)
Bennethost - Jay's Eladrin Warlock, Nim's friend from the Feywild.
Nim strolled into the Dwarven city of Hammerfast at dusk. He made his way to the nearest inn, and had a seat at the bar. He scanned the patrons, looking for some that looked like they could take care of themselves, and saw Berend sitting near him. He was wearing his Scale armor and had his axe and shield propped up by him. If that doesn't scream adventurer (or paranoid?) I don't know what does, so Nim approached him and made an offer.
He had been part of a group sent to investigate the disappearance of a caravan in the Harkenwood. His party had discovered that werewolves were behind it, but had not been able to defeat them. He had escaped and his companions were captured, and now he was looking for some able bodies to assist him in rescuing them.
Berend agreed to help when Nim pointed out that the threat to Hammerfast was real, since the werewolves were preying on caravans that brought goods North to Hammerfast. They walked together to his home, the Temple of Moradin, while they discussed this. Present in the temple were Delg, who was acting as a priest at the time, and Phedre, who had come to worship. After explaining the situation to Delg he agreed to help, and Phedre who was eavesdropping put her hat into the ring.
Bennethost stopped by the temple on his way to his nightly pursuits and saw Nim. He had been looking for Nim for about a year, ever since they had become separated on their journey out of the Feywild. He ran over and gave Nim a hug, and they caught up. He was going to join them, of course, though his motivation was more for selfish reasons.
Phedre has a horse, and she offers to ride with Nim, so the rest of the party obtain horses from the Temple and they travel South to the last known location of Nim's companions. The entrance is marked by a large unnatural tree.
The tree is enormous, redwood sized, and has a malevolent, oppressive aura. While it is healthy, trees in the vicinity are dead and dying, as if they had suffered through a long drought. Phedre is fascinated by the tree, and spends awhile examining and exploring it. She breaks of a small branch, and instead of sap, the tree squirts out blood. She climbs up it, to the first major branching. As she climbs, she feels a peculiar pulsing through the bark, almost like a heartbeat. When she gets to her goal, the hair on her neck stands up. She knows she is at a place of peculiar magical power, but as we are unable to discover more, we persuade her to come down.
Not before she can get herself a souvenir. She decides she is going to cut off a branch. She chooses one about as thick as her thumb, and cuts. Blood sprays everywhere. Despite her best efforts she gets it all over her hands and her chest.
She washed up in an almost dried up creek, and we enter the ruined temple.
We cautiously start exploring the entryway, and are quickly ambushed by a fey panther. It bolted out the open door, and must have retrieved it's master, because soon we were fighting 4 big men, and a creepy caster came out of the closed door and began casting spells at us.
Berend is our only melee fighter, so he had his hands full with a fight that had two fronts. The quarters were tough on Phedre, who excels at ranged combat. Delg was in his element. Most of his attacks are area attacks, and the small room made it easy for him to catch multiple enemies in it.The fey panthers and the soldiers got right in the middle of things, and the wizard stood in the door and cast his spells. His big mistake was the huge darkness spell he threw down. While it netted his panthers a couple of free attacks, we all cleared the area and moved to the walls. Bennethost and Nim used the opportunity to get into melee with the wizard. In a round or two, tables had turned mightily, and the surviving members of his posse were clustered in the middle of the room. Easy pickings for us, and the end of the fight went quickly.
Searching the remains was mostly fruitless. The caster had a fancy staff, which we took, and a holy symbol made of silver and shaped like a wolf's head. Berend seemed to remember that this holy symbol had a connection to a cult that worshiped some arch fey, but did not know much more than that. Bennethost saw the symbol and fell into a trance. He had a vision of several baying hounds on a hunt, with bestial werewolves riding on nightmarish chargers right behind, and a shadowy giant figure with enormous antlers at the rear. He shared this with his companions. We knew that we were dealing with the right people at least.
The next room had a strange fountain. As Nim and Bennethost examined it, they determined that it was a fountain of arcane energy. Nim figured out how to activate it and was flooded with power. Bennethost followed soon after. Tingling with power they continued to explore the ruined temple.
The right pass was barred with rubble piled to block something in. We took the easy road and turned left. That room had a couple tables, some chairs, and a trapped and locked treasure chest. After Nim defeated both, we found a very fine chess set inside, and Bennethost was able to determine that it had magical qualities. We put it in the bag for later.The next room had a very large block of stone. A dark stain covered the top. It was quite obviously a sacrificial altar. The bookcase in this room was a treasure trove, and after Nim used the arcane power he had absorbed from the fountain to cast comprehend languages, he read the only book we could not otherwise read, the one in Primordial.
It was the story of a hunter, told by him, of his role as leader of this cult. He had come to know about a powerful arch fey called The Hunter. He gathered to him local rangers and woodsmen, and formed a cult dedicated to this hunter. The book told of a quest to find and slay a white stag deep in the Harkenwood, one that enabled them to plant a special tree. This tree, when fully grown and tended with the proper rites and sacrifices, would act as portal to the Feywild. Since the temple had been build at a location where the barrier between the worlds was already thin, this portal would allow The Hunter to pass through and enter our world. He would hunt and kill all living in the region, and grant much power to his acolytes who had served him.
Sobered, we moved on. Berend picked a door apparently at random, as he had been doing so far, and kicked it down. A short hallway led to another door, this one heavy, iron, and locked.
Nim made the lock less effective, and the door swung open. Gnolls, a slayer, and a creature made of vines were ready for us inside a large natural looking cavern. At the far wall were some people bound and unconscious. Nim's companions. Initiative!
Our position crammed in a hallway was hardly ideal. Were we facing mostly enemies who attacked in melee we would be in a very good place. The Vine Horror opened up with a bang, though, and blinded three of us with his ranged attack.
Early on we realized the pits were not useful to us. The first enemy we knocked down there was lifted out by the vines and roots that seemed to cover the walls. We knew that they would do us no such favor, and so we kept well away from them.
Berend moved into the room to create a new front, allowing us to get at the Vine Horror and hopefully shut him down. Delg managed to make it out of the hall, but was knocked into bloodied and was only kept up by Nim's healing powers. Berrend was pushed next to a clump of mushrooms, and their spores attacked him, keeping him confused. As a result he attacked Delg instead of the Gnolls. Phedre had put her Hunter's quarry on an enemy who had quickly moved aside. Now he had cover and she could not choose another quarry, since he was the closest to her.
Bennethost changed the battle somewhat when he used fey magic to swap places with Delg, who was surrounded by Gnolls and not having an easy time getting away, and then he attacked and teleported away, towards the captives on the other side of the room.
Berend shook off the effects of the spores and plugged the hole again. The Vine Horror was dropped, and the battle clearly turned in our favor. With Phedre filling the hallway with her arrows, and Nim and Delg incapacitating the Gnolls, the battle control was all in our favor. It lasted only a few rounds longer. We ended as soon as it was over.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was some good role playing this session. The beginning, where we all were introduced had a lot of in character chatter, which I love, and certain parts of the dungeon had some good interactions.
You may notice in the shots above the map we are using. Colin drew it out on cardboard, added a grid, and cut it out. He cut the dungeon into pieces, and then added them as we explored. He has these cool little props, things like doors, chairs, and bookshelves, that he places where appropriate. We went at exploration in a more organized manner, with us moving our mini and saying what we were doing, and then letting the next person go. I think that in some groups, where there is a clear prima donna, attention hog, or rogue (usually the rogue is a prima donna...) this could help keep everyone in the game. It worked pretty well, and since this was only our first time trying it out, I think it can only get better.
Since this is *my* blog I wanna talk about my character for a sec. I like fey pact warlocks. But they are not strikers. I am really trying to chose powers and feats that add to his controller side, but in combat his contributions were kind of sub-par.
I don't care though. He is not min-maxed. He was a class chosen to play a person that I would like role playing as. I wanted a high Charisma, high Intelligence character that could participate in all parts of the adventure. My previous character was not much use outside of combat, and most role playing felt kind of flat. My Shadowrun character is pretty tightly focused, and again not much use outside of combat. Benn is a success. Fun to role play, and entertaining in combat, even if he is in no way the star.
Jay
There was some good role playing this session. The beginning, where we all were introduced had a lot of in character chatter, which I love, and certain parts of the dungeon had some good interactions.
You may notice in the shots above the map we are using. Colin drew it out on cardboard, added a grid, and cut it out. He cut the dungeon into pieces, and then added them as we explored. He has these cool little props, things like doors, chairs, and bookshelves, that he places where appropriate. We went at exploration in a more organized manner, with us moving our mini and saying what we were doing, and then letting the next person go. I think that in some groups, where there is a clear prima donna, attention hog, or rogue (usually the rogue is a prima donna...) this could help keep everyone in the game. It worked pretty well, and since this was only our first time trying it out, I think it can only get better.
Since this is *my* blog I wanna talk about my character for a sec. I like fey pact warlocks. But they are not strikers. I am really trying to chose powers and feats that add to his controller side, but in combat his contributions were kind of sub-par.
I don't care though. He is not min-maxed. He was a class chosen to play a person that I would like role playing as. I wanted a high Charisma, high Intelligence character that could participate in all parts of the adventure. My previous character was not much use outside of combat, and most role playing felt kind of flat. My Shadowrun character is pretty tightly focused, and again not much use outside of combat. Benn is a success. Fun to role play, and entertaining in combat, even if he is in no way the star.
Jay
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