Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
man, some of the art in Monster manual 3 is okay to not good. there is a few pieces i liked, but the rest. Was the theme "Normal things but more evil"?
okay. hoping to god i get a job as a dishwasher or something. waiting until i move to vancouver, pretty much.
Wasn't there some fuckery with your student loan stuff? Did that all get sorted?
you might be thinking of neville. i did have some problems but everything's on track academically. now my concerns are purely financial.
yeah, my financial stuff is definitely in fuckerysville.
neville on
0
Options
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
edited June 2010
alright, so here's the skinny - putting it in spoilers since it has a lot to do with Thunderspire Labrynth module
so I've been running a pretty steady campaign for like six months or so now. Going pretty good, we were playing pretty regularly and got a lot done. Started off with a custom-written adventure or two to keep things fairly light, then moved into using some of the pre-written Chaos Shard adventures from DnDI, stringing them together with a rough plot. Gave the players time to get a feel for their characters and the party dynamic. They moved to high 3rd level, things were solidifying, and things at school were picking up in pace, so I grabbed Thunderspire to help ease my workload and give us a nice long run of adventures without a ton of homework. In the process of doing the Chaos Shard stuff, we really managed to get a great party dynamic and story going, got a great feeling of inter-party roles and even managed to write in a companion character that became a great source of hooks.
An interlude - the companion character was a level 1/2 halfling slinger, with a few custom stats. He was written as the nephew of the Halfmoon family that lives in Fallcrest, who had disappeared some time back. The party rescued him, but since they had no way to get him home right away, they took him on as a party member. I gave the stat sheet to our bard, who sort of adopted him, and he turned otu to be a great little minion slayer.
Until the ice tower.
The ice tower was, at one time, the home of a wizard who had been studying the elemental chaos, and who had inadvertantly tapped into the plane of elemental frost. He had also set up a number of experiments throughout the valley, including a small house where the Staff of Earthen Might adventure took place (see DnDI, if you don't know about it). The tower was now abandoned by the wizard, who may or may not be dead, and was now encased in a huge dome of ice. The players found a way in, killed a bunch of ice demons and shit, then fought a gigantic yeti beast on top of the tower, four stories up. Just before they killed him, the beast managed to blast the halfling off the tower, killing him. His limp body flew off the roof and hit the inside of the ice dome, sliding down in a bloody streak only to freeze eight feet above the ground. Then the yeti did the same to the bard, knocking him four stories down to the ground where he landed on his back with one hit point left (lucky roll on his part). THe bard, knocked senseless, managed to recover just in time to open his eyes and see his adopted companion's corpse frozen to the wall just above his face.
And then the dome came crumbling down.
Knowing that the bard was basically fucked, the ranger came up with a plan where the swordmage would hold one end of a rope and the ranger would leap down, surfing on huge icy boulders to the ground, grab the bard and pull him to safety. Normally that would be fucking ridiculous, especially for third level characters, but it was fucking awesome and cinematic, so I said, "Yeah, go for it, make an acrobatics check."
And he rolled a 1.
I let him plummet to the ground, he takes a severe hit, but he's still standing. I tell him, "Okay, you make it to the ground, dust yourself off and you can see the bard. You have enough time to grab him and dive out of the way of a falling boulder of ice the size of a bus. Make another acrobatics check."
And he rolls a 1.
Splat.
The rest of the party runs down just in time to see them fail their last death save, then dig them out and haul their corpses to a teleportation circle they uncovered that could get them back to Fallcrest at long last, where they spend every dime they have and sell half their gear to rez the bard, the ranger and, in an amazing act of kindness, the halfling, as well.
They go on to have a few other short adventures to get some cash together, then we decide to start running Thunderspire.
They managed to get through nearly all of it - they stormed the first three-tiered keep stronghold thing in valiant style, and in doing so managed to rescue ten of the twelve prisoners. The last two, including the halfling from before, are the captives at the end of the Well of Demons.
And that's where we're at now. It is now summer term, and most of us have really light workloads, but our warlock is being rather difficult about scheduling. All of us have things going on, summer jobs or classes or family obligations, that's fine, but we've literally had two encounters to go to finish this neck of the adventure for like four or five weeks, and we can't fucking agree on times. Our warlock is being dodgy about when he can play,a dn the rest are eager to get this going, but one player is holding us back, and we really need everyone together for this last finale to the campaign so far.
It is killing me the most - depending on how things go, I've got three different branches to the plot that can occur from this next fight, and then two more branches depending on how they finish the last adventure of the module. I know the general direction I want to run this (assuming they survive - if not, I've got plans for that, too), but I can't really start writing in earnest until we get this branch out of the way.
Plans are as follows:
* They all die: They are transported to a minor circle of Yeenoghu's own personal plane and have to fight their way out, with the assistance of demons of Baphomet and Demogorgon, who want to see Yeenoghu suffer. When they do, they move on to the following branch. This particular branch will include the bard having to challenge a demon to a rock-off.
* They survive but the ritual succeeds: The gnoll priest manages to complete his ritual, turning the temple to baphomet to a temple to yeenoghu. This is part of a large effort by the gnoll followers of Yeenoghu to establish a stronger base near the underdark to begin their assault on both the Shallows of the Underdark and the surface world, starting with the Seven Pillared Hall. This means that the Seven Pillared Hall's defenses will have to be pulled from their guarding against the Underdark to having to fight this new menace, which is more then they can handle.
* They survive and stop the ritual: They've made a very vicious enemy of Yeenoghu and Baphomet grows slightly in power, which means a resurgence of minotaurs who seek to reclaim the labyrinth as a stronghold. They may end up assaulting the seven pillared hall, who they view as enemies for allowing the underdark trade with the surface world, which cost them their labyrinth so long ago.
Either way, they first need to finish the campaign, then they'll escort the surviving refugees back to Fallcrest. This will involve a wagon chase I'm writing rules up for, borrowing from Gabe's Dusk adventure he posted and the combat rules from GW's Gorkamorka. Then they'll need to convince the duke of Fallcrest to supply troops to help push back the enemies in the Seven Pillared Hall in an extended skill challenge that will span a number of encounters, both combat and non-combat. The more refugees survive the wagon chase, the better their starting position in the challenge will be.
BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS IF I CAN'T EVEN GET THESE FUCKERS TOGETHER TO FINISH THIS SHIT OFF.
Rankenphile on
0
Options
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
edited June 2010
oh shit what's up chris
what's going on with your financial aid shit? I saw you were having some kind of bullshit to deal with, but never heard the details.
Rankenphile on
0
Options
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
I have yet to see a game of mouse guard being run. This is a goddamn travesty.
The one game I played was pretty great. We almost burnt down a small hideaway full of mouselings, but our GM's barely concealed grin was a giveaway.
I was the Tenderpaw and another friend was my Mentor for the game. I put a shitload of points into useless skills, since I wasn't really sure how the game would go. Before long, I was full on combat successes and he was full on combat failures. So, during our turn, we decided to practice dueling. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be better than me, and I was injured, he simply could not beat me. I'm just that much of a hoss.
Unknown Armies is rad, I'm going to be running a game on another forum. Stolze writes the best goddamn books, and going through the rules is a real treat.
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
That reminds me, I picked up Don't Rest Your Head and Don't Lose Your Mind.
These are some well-written books, and I love the madness and exhaustion talent mechanics.
"When pain dominates, pain dominates" fuck yes, you sound like a fun game to GM. It's like if every time a PC set up a cascading set of critical hits due to careful feat, class, and paragon path selection you got to kick them in the balls.
Marshmallow on
0
Options
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
My game board is currently a 28x40 inch magnetic whiteboard. It is fucking sexy as hell.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
My game board is currently a 28x40 inch magnetic whiteboard. It is fucking sexy as hell.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
My game board is currently a 28x40 inch magnetic whiteboard. It is fucking sexy as hell.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
I was thinking some kind of washable grid would be ideal. Probably two of them for changing location without slowing down the game too much.
I downloaded the demo of the character builder and that's what I'm using to get all my players started. It's so much easier to explain how the game works that way, and they're all starting at level 3 which is the max level in the demo. I looked into the Insider thing and it looks pretty great. I'll try that next pay check.
I'm going out today to try and buy supplies, but I hadn't even thought of ebay. I'll look into that for anything I can't find.
With wet erase markers you're not as likely to smudge/smear stuff when you're moving minis around. I also like combining them with the Dungeon Tiles held in place with a couple of dots of blue tack.
We have a Paizo gridmap. It was like $10, and it cleans very easily, but doesn't give off. For a while, we used the Sock of Cleaning +2 to clear off encounters.... Using some mini's for your mans does really help the experience though.
Also, if people are looking for alternative ways to roll dice to determine what mans do, I will heartily recommend Rogue Trader. One book is all you need, and it's fun being High Nobility in the Grimdark.
I would love to make some of my stuff like the Dwarven Forge stuff.
NotASenator on
0
Options
ArtreusI'm a wizardAnd that looks fucked upRegistered Userregular
edited June 2010
We just use whiteboards. For figures we just use little tokens. Minis would be good if we played more often.
Not D&D, but I am also involved in a game called Savage Worlds that looks like it will be pretty fun. Your characters are generally built around their flaws (hinderances) and edges. It is a neat system we have only made characters so far.
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
My game board is currently a 28x40 inch magnetic whiteboard. It is fucking sexy as hell.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
Have you used the Compendium yet?
Frequently.
It is fantastic.
I got my players to each toss in three bucks for a month subscription, so we'd all have a legit copy of the character creator, and the subscription lapses in like two days. They're down to toss in again, though, they know how much easier it makes my job, and they get good use out of it too.
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
My game board is currently a 28x40 inch magnetic whiteboard. It is fucking sexy as hell.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
Have you used the Compendium yet?
Frequently.
It is fantastic.
I got my players to each toss in three bucks for a month subscription, so we'd all have a legit copy of the character creator, and the subscription lapses in like two days. They're down to toss in again, though, they know how much easier it makes my job, and they get good use out of it too.
Does it have the rules from all of the books in it? Because that's what it seems like.
Last night I tried at hand at DMing for the first time, and got all of my room mates to play. Only one of them had ever played before, but it went really well! The session lasted nearly five hours and everybody wants to keep on playing. I think that's a good sign! And I really enjoyed being a DM.
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
My game board is currently a 28x40 inch magnetic whiteboard. It is fucking sexy as hell.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
Have you used the Compendium yet?
Frequently.
It is fantastic.
I got my players to each toss in three bucks for a month subscription, so we'd all have a legit copy of the character creator, and the subscription lapses in like two days. They're down to toss in again, though, they know how much easier it makes my job, and they get good use out of it too.
Does it have the rules from all of the books in it? Because that's what it seems like.
More or less, yes.
I'm tempted to reup if we manage to get a game off the ground up in here.
Posts
HINT HINT the answer is yes you do.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Nah, I'll just run a homebrewed pokemon rpg PbP on the neopets forum if it's all the same to you.
those sure are some forums
What do you guys use for grid/minis? We found Hero Quest for dirt cheap and just used stuff from that, but we're pretty limited on that front. I was thinking tiny stand-up cutouts of characters and enemies would probably work well. But having miniatures is awesome. Any recommendations?
yeah, my financial stuff is definitely in fuckerysville.
An interlude - the companion character was a level 1/2 halfling slinger, with a few custom stats. He was written as the nephew of the Halfmoon family that lives in Fallcrest, who had disappeared some time back. The party rescued him, but since they had no way to get him home right away, they took him on as a party member. I gave the stat sheet to our bard, who sort of adopted him, and he turned otu to be a great little minion slayer.
Until the ice tower.
The ice tower was, at one time, the home of a wizard who had been studying the elemental chaos, and who had inadvertantly tapped into the plane of elemental frost. He had also set up a number of experiments throughout the valley, including a small house where the Staff of Earthen Might adventure took place (see DnDI, if you don't know about it). The tower was now abandoned by the wizard, who may or may not be dead, and was now encased in a huge dome of ice. The players found a way in, killed a bunch of ice demons and shit, then fought a gigantic yeti beast on top of the tower, four stories up. Just before they killed him, the beast managed to blast the halfling off the tower, killing him. His limp body flew off the roof and hit the inside of the ice dome, sliding down in a bloody streak only to freeze eight feet above the ground. Then the yeti did the same to the bard, knocking him four stories down to the ground where he landed on his back with one hit point left (lucky roll on his part). THe bard, knocked senseless, managed to recover just in time to open his eyes and see his adopted companion's corpse frozen to the wall just above his face.
And then the dome came crumbling down.
Knowing that the bard was basically fucked, the ranger came up with a plan where the swordmage would hold one end of a rope and the ranger would leap down, surfing on huge icy boulders to the ground, grab the bard and pull him to safety. Normally that would be fucking ridiculous, especially for third level characters, but it was fucking awesome and cinematic, so I said, "Yeah, go for it, make an acrobatics check."
And he rolled a 1.
I let him plummet to the ground, he takes a severe hit, but he's still standing. I tell him, "Okay, you make it to the ground, dust yourself off and you can see the bard. You have enough time to grab him and dive out of the way of a falling boulder of ice the size of a bus. Make another acrobatics check."
And he rolls a 1.
Splat.
The rest of the party runs down just in time to see them fail their last death save, then dig them out and haul their corpses to a teleportation circle they uncovered that could get them back to Fallcrest at long last, where they spend every dime they have and sell half their gear to rez the bard, the ranger and, in an amazing act of kindness, the halfling, as well.
They go on to have a few other short adventures to get some cash together, then we decide to start running Thunderspire.
They managed to get through nearly all of it - they stormed the first three-tiered keep stronghold thing in valiant style, and in doing so managed to rescue ten of the twelve prisoners. The last two, including the halfling from before, are the captives at the end of the Well of Demons.
And that's where we're at now. It is now summer term, and most of us have really light workloads, but our warlock is being rather difficult about scheduling. All of us have things going on, summer jobs or classes or family obligations, that's fine, but we've literally had two encounters to go to finish this neck of the adventure for like four or five weeks, and we can't fucking agree on times. Our warlock is being dodgy about when he can play,a dn the rest are eager to get this going, but one player is holding us back, and we really need everyone together for this last finale to the campaign so far.
It is killing me the most - depending on how things go, I've got three different branches to the plot that can occur from this next fight, and then two more branches depending on how they finish the last adventure of the module. I know the general direction I want to run this (assuming they survive - if not, I've got plans for that, too), but I can't really start writing in earnest until we get this branch out of the way.
Plans are as follows:
* They all die: They are transported to a minor circle of Yeenoghu's own personal plane and have to fight their way out, with the assistance of demons of Baphomet and Demogorgon, who want to see Yeenoghu suffer. When they do, they move on to the following branch. This particular branch will include the bard having to challenge a demon to a rock-off.
* They survive but the ritual succeeds: The gnoll priest manages to complete his ritual, turning the temple to baphomet to a temple to yeenoghu. This is part of a large effort by the gnoll followers of Yeenoghu to establish a stronger base near the underdark to begin their assault on both the Shallows of the Underdark and the surface world, starting with the Seven Pillared Hall. This means that the Seven Pillared Hall's defenses will have to be pulled from their guarding against the Underdark to having to fight this new menace, which is more then they can handle.
* They survive and stop the ritual: They've made a very vicious enemy of Yeenoghu and Baphomet grows slightly in power, which means a resurgence of minotaurs who seek to reclaim the labyrinth as a stronghold. They may end up assaulting the seven pillared hall, who they view as enemies for allowing the underdark trade with the surface world, which cost them their labyrinth so long ago.
Either way, they first need to finish the campaign, then they'll escort the surviving refugees back to Fallcrest. This will involve a wagon chase I'm writing rules up for, borrowing from Gabe's Dusk adventure he posted and the combat rules from GW's Gorkamorka. Then they'll need to convince the duke of Fallcrest to supply troops to help push back the enemies in the Seven Pillared Hall in an extended skill challenge that will span a number of encounters, both combat and non-combat. The more refugees survive the wagon chase, the better their starting position in the challenge will be.
BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS IF I CAN'T EVEN GET THESE FUCKERS TOGETHER TO FINISH THIS SHIT OFF.
what's going on with your financial aid shit? I saw you were having some kind of bullshit to deal with, but never heard the details.
this is something I am expressing interest in taking part in
I fucking never get to play anymore, I'm always running the games
It is and it isn't
Saturday
The one game I played was pretty great. We almost burnt down a small hideaway full of mouselings, but our GM's barely concealed grin was a giveaway.
I was the Tenderpaw and another friend was my Mentor for the game. I put a shitload of points into useless skills, since I wasn't really sure how the game would go. Before long, I was full on combat successes and he was full on combat failures. So, during our turn, we decided to practice dueling. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be better than me, and I was injured, he simply could not beat me. I'm just that much of a hoss.
Seriously.
Unknown Armies is rad, I'm going to be running a game on another forum. Stolze writes the best goddamn books, and going through the rules is a real treat.
If you or any of your friends play Warhammer, those make great minis. The stuff Reaper Miniatures puts out looks amazing, too. I'd have some Reaper minis already but I want to wait until everyone in my group decides on one or two they want so I can save on shipping.
I just got a Chessex battlemat which is a vinyl gridded mat with hexes on the back for other RPG systems. For now I'm going to use the hex map for a world or city map for the dudes to explore. I think I got it for around 22 bucks at a board game and RPG shop around here. I haven't played with it yet but I've tested it out and it is so sweet.
These are some well-written books, and I love the madness and exhaustion talent mechanics.
"When pain dominates, pain dominates" fuck yes, you sound like a fun game to GM. It's like if every time a PC set up a cascading set of critical hits due to careful feat, class, and paragon path selection you got to kick them in the balls.
Before that, I usually just drew up maps on white paper, or would print out grid paper at 1-inch intervals and attached them to clear plastic panes I got at Tap Plastics.
As for minis, I raid all sorts of places for them, but when I want specifics I go on ebay (the Troll and Toad ebay store has a great selection) and pick out like $30 of individual minis. If things get tight I ask my game group to each toss in like five bucks for supplies, which I can do since I have a rather dedicated group I run games for, but I really try to not press that.
If you enjoy DMing, I highly recommend getting a DnD Insider account at least for a month, getting the character creator adn adventure tools, and really going to town. They're amazingly useful.
I might be down for this... Just maybe...
Lots of interested parties...
Twitch (I stream most days of the week)
Twitter (mean leftist discourse)
Have you used the Compendium yet?
I was thinking some kind of washable grid would be ideal. Probably two of them for changing location without slowing down the game too much.
I downloaded the demo of the character builder and that's what I'm using to get all my players started. It's so much easier to explain how the game works that way, and they're all starting at level 3 which is the max level in the demo. I looked into the Insider thing and it looks pretty great. I'll try that next pay check.
I'm going out today to try and buy supplies, but I hadn't even thought of ebay. I'll look into that for anything I can't find.
Thanks, both of you!
With wet erase markers you're not as likely to smudge/smear stuff when you're moving minis around. I also like combining them with the Dungeon Tiles held in place with a couple of dots of blue tack.
but I'm posting it in here to make it more official
http://www.dwarvenforge.com/index.php/products
In case any of you are ridiculously rich.
I fucking wants it, my precious.
Oh and I guess I'd also need some people to play with
Also, if people are looking for alternative ways to roll dice to determine what mans do, I will heartily recommend Rogue Trader. One book is all you need, and it's fun being High Nobility in the Grimdark.
Not D&D, but I am also involved in a game called Savage Worlds that looks like it will be pretty fun. Your characters are generally built around their flaws (hinderances) and edges. It is a neat system we have only made characters so far.
Same here. You see that Tastes Like Spelunky mod? Pretty cool.
It is fantastic.
I got my players to each toss in three bucks for a month subscription, so we'd all have a legit copy of the character creator, and the subscription lapses in like two days. They're down to toss in again, though, they know how much easier it makes my job, and they get good use out of it too.
Does it have the rules from all of the books in it? Because that's what it seems like.
More or less, yes.
I'm tempted to reup if we manage to get a game off the ground up in here.