I've been wanting to get involved in something tabletop for years now, but it seems like whenever I've had time I haven't had people around who were interested, and vice versa.
I have a bunch of Shadowrun books that I read through once in a while, and a friend was working on a Pathfinder campaign for a few of us but I ended up having to move before we could get it going.
It kinda sucks!
Move back to Asia and we'll start a 6 man group.
With you and me and everybody else I got we'll only need
Lancer was in that itch.io bundle, so I'll probably try to find a game of that somehow.
I think I'd probably end up rolling as some sort of support since no matter the game, groups tend to be short of those, but right now I'm kinda curious if a crit build is possible. You crit if you get a total of 20 or higher on your to hit roll, which I think includes any modifiers beyond the d20 roll. So far the only modifiers I know of are grit, which is a flat bonus that increases as you level, and accuracy, which is a situationally granted thing where you roll xd6 where x is the amount of advantage you've gotten and pick the highest roll. So, between those two you can get up to +12, but I've been meaning to look through gear and abilities to see if you can crank it higher than that.
FYI, the next D&D book is Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden. Apparently it's a survival horror adventure where you're stalked by multiple incarnations of an evil winter goddess.
One of the co-authors had this to say on Twitter:
I'm so honored to share that I co-authored RIME OF THE FROSTMAIDEN. 🎉 Working on this book, alongside the most amazing team, was a dream come true. This is a special book that couldn't be more timely: it's about climate change and the powerful magic of collective action.”
Lancer was in that itch.io bundle, so I'll probably try to find a game of that somehow.
I think I'd probably end up rolling as some sort of support since no matter the game, groups tend to be short of those, but right now I'm kinda curious if a crit build is possible. You crit if you get a total of 20 or higher on your to hit roll, which I think includes any modifiers beyond the d20 roll. So far the only modifiers I know of are grit, which is a flat bonus that increases as you level, and accuracy, which is a situationally granted thing where you roll xd6 where x is the amount of advantage you've gotten and pick the highest roll. So, between those two you can get up to +12, but I've been meaning to look through gear and abilities to see if you can crank it higher than that.
There are few flat bonuses in the game outside of Grit and Deaths Head. Accuracy as the highest D6 rolled of the pool usually averages to +3, but the more accuracy you have the higher the average so look into various accuracy sources like Lock On. Remember that crits just let you roll your damage dice twice and select the higher rolls, as well as whatever on crit effects you have in weapons used in the attack or talents.
Your two major schools of crit fishing are Deaths Head with a weapon that rolls a buncha dice, or a frame with multiple weapon mounts like Main/aux and aux/aux so a barrage is four chances to crit.
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Goose!That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered Userregular
Anyone watching the GOT DND session that @World as Myth is DMing? It's super cool to say that.
Silly things you definitely shouldn't use in your game:
Defenestration Mimics.
Unlike normal, run of the mill mimics, Defenestration mimics take the appearance of a door, window, or other aperture over looking a long drop of some kind. Should something be so foolish as to to look out or even walk throguh, the top layer of the aperture will wrap a noose of tentacles around the poor soul's head and then yank them out said aperture.
Hanging promptly occurs, at which point the Defenestration mimic will proceed to reel the body back in and happily devour it, spitting the bones back into the abyss.
Box of Dehydrated Piranhas
This is a box of flash dehydrated piranhas. Any exposure to moisture will result in them a: rapidly re-hydrating, and b: being very upset and taking it out on whoever's closest.
(...apparently in the friends game i invented this for, one of the adventurers found a box, pulled one out, and licked it. Why, i'm not sure)
We're doing a six month timeskip in our game and I'm having trouble thinking up the details of what my character is doing during that time to progress our Senate-mandated corruption investigation. The GM gave us an outline/checklist laying out the goals but even with that not much is coming to me.
Hopefully complaining about it will cause my brain to have an idea. It's the same thing as venting about a difficult area in a game, right? The universe runs on irony.
Like some others in the thread I’ve also been running Curse of Strahd. My group is brand new to the game , but I’ve been DMing a long time. This session the main plot finally got started, with the card reading and taking Ireena to Valaki.
I put the book in the church with Doru to get the ball rolling on Strahd and his backstory. The sword is with the order of the silver dragon and I gave them the mad mage ally. The amulet of ravenkind is at the winery, with the wereravens.
So the party refused to get into the carriage to go to the castle, but decided to check out old bonegrinder.
Where they promptly started a fight. At level 3.
Now I know fighting three night hags is basically impossible for a party of that size, but they engaged the first one alone and managed, through sheer crazy luck. Get the hag down to barely any HP when the other two arrived. So what I did was essentially allow the one to die and had the other two use their planar shift to escape. Now I know technically Barovia stops planeswalking, but I figured Strahd would allow them to do this.
This works out really well because the party took the dead hags heartstone. I’m going to bring them back much later with a plot to ressurect their sister
I would like to run some game nights on Tabletop simulator since in-person stuff is...not happening for a while.
I would love to play more Tabletop Simulator. What games were you thinking of hosting?
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
edited June 2020
I mentioned it here a while ago but my friend did a very successful Kickstarter for her product called Gelatinous Cube Soap. Big 4" cubes of homemade soap with a full set of polyhedral dice inside. She tripled her Kickstarter goal and has had regular orders since then through her website.
Anyway she just told me the new product she's developing is the "Fireball Bath Bomb". A cinnamon scented bathbomb with 8d6 inside. She's a genius.
I mentioned it here a while ago but my friend did a very successful Kickstarter for her product called Gelatinous Cute Soap. Big 4" cubes of homemade soap with a full set of polyhedral dice inside. She tripled her Kickstarter goal and has had regular orders since then through her website.
Anyway she just told me the new product she's developing is the "Fireball Bath Bomb". A cinnamon scented bathbomb with 8d6 inside. She's a genius.
I know what I'm buying my group for Xmas gifts this year.
Curse of Strahd GM questions, especially for those who have run or are running this campaign! Please do not read if you are currently playing my Strahd campaign DUCK
So some of the advice I've seen suggests playing Strahd as trying to tempt certain party members into betraying the rest of the players, especially if that player is already playing as a rouge-ish character who cheats the rest of the party or is playing it as out for themselves over others.
I do have a player who fits this bill, and I'm interested in messing with him a bit. If Strahd makes an offer (subject to later betrayal of course), would you do this with the other players at the table, or in a separate session with just that player? Any advice appreciated.
I mentioned it here a while ago but my friend did a very successful Kickstarter for her product called Gelatinous Cute Soap. Big 4" cubes of homemade soap with a full set of polyhedral dice inside. She tripled her Kickstarter goal and has had regular orders since then through her website.
Anyway she just told me the new product she's developing is the "Fireball Bath Bomb". A cinnamon scented bathbomb with 8d6 inside. She's a genius.
Hey, I see their soap all the time in the Facebook dice goblin group I'm in! That's totally rad
I picked up that Gloomhaven: Jaws of The Lion game today
Seems to be a good way to prepare for regular Gloomhaven, which is still sitting on my shelf waiting to be played!
Ooh - what's that?
It's a 'lighter' Gloomhaven, designed to evidently slowly introduce you to the game's mechanics until you're playing full Gloomhaven. I think it's a Target exclusive - link here.
From flipping through the rulebook, it seems like the first 5 scenarios or so are one long tutorial. Also, instead of map tiles, the maps are printed in the scenario book.
Edit: Also there's 25 scenarios in total, so it's not just a tutorial game, it seems to be a legit game itself.
So I joined a 5th ed group that's spinning up and we're putting together characters. Still waiting to hear from the bard, but the other 5 characters have a total Charisma modifier of ... +3. And that's with me switching my character's stats around to have a 10 for +0
So our mean average would have roughly these stats:
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 9
Which I guess in theory that isn't that bad, it's just so very strange for me to be in a game where anybody dumps Cha, because most of the folks I end up playing with (and it's fairly randomized samples from my FLGS and these boards!) love putting points in Cha, to a degree where I rarely put much if any.
So I joined a 5th ed group that's spinning up and we're putting together characters. Still waiting to hear from the bard, but the other 5 characters have a total Charisma modifier of ... +3. And that's with me switching my character's stats around to have a 10 for +0
So our mean average would have roughly these stats:
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 9
Which I guess in theory that isn't that bad, it's just so very strange for me to be in a game where anybody dumps Cha, because most of the folks I end up playing with (and it's fairly randomized samples from my FLGS and these boards!) love putting points in Cha, to a degree where I rarely put much if any.
I think this is pretty close to what you would get if you averaged every 5E character on D&D beyond.
Maybe Int and Cha would switch, but generally, 5E stats just are not balanced and that lack of balance leads to some trends in character creation.
I just came up with a couple of concepts for my yuan-ti focused Exandria campaign that I'm kinda proud of:
- The secretive gnome chronurgist Fortenk the Time Collector is being manipulated by an agent of Zehir. The yuan-ti is interested in traveling to the floating city of Draconia months before it was destroyed by the Chroma Conclave, establishing a sect of Zehir worshiping dragonborn, and getting the converts help to ensure at least a piece of Draconia remains aloft in the present to serve as a floating fortress and wyvern aerie. The time-traveling slaad lord Norsar the Many, who had previously become fond of Fortenk and granted him unique time-related abilities (of dubious usefulness), takes notice and is displeased with the exploitation of his friend. He wants to find allies to take back in time and aid Fortenk, and as a reward Norsar will honor one future request for travel to and from the past.
- A special red steel called orium is produced in Vudra, the Abyssal layer of Shaktari, the queen of the mariliths. Weapons made from orium can generate the poison called serpent's venom and can enhance other injury poisons, but they are also capable of transforming into awakened giant poisonous snakes to unexpectedly attack undesired wielders.
- A yuan-ti follower of Zuggtmoy has been found out by the worshipers of Zehir. Rather than be executed, the Zuggtmoy worshiper is forced to devise a strain of deadly fungi that specifically targets drow for use in clearing out Lolth's followers in the Underdark below Tal'Dorei, freeing the yuan-ti to search for evidence of a Pre-Calamity yuan-ti empire. Zuggtmoy is actually pleased with this development as she considers Lolth a rival of hers. Unfortunately, a drow vampire who worships Orcus is also planning to wipe out vast numbers of his kind to dedicate to Orcus as undead slaves.
- Baelzra, a minor archdevil and daughter of Mammon, was exiled to Avernus after it was discovered she possessed a way to negate the Nine Hells' claims to the souls of mortals who had entered into Infernal contracts (for a fee, of course). It was believed Baelzra would quickly be destroyed on the battlefield, either by invading demons or devils who viewed her as an abominable traitor to the Hells. The yuan-ti who had taught Baelzra her traitorous talent, Seghulerak, saved Baelzra from certain doom by summoning and binding her. Baelzra now dwells in the den of vice known as the Avenue of Chains, located in the Shadowfell city of Gloomwrought. She is protected by hired mercenaries, chain devils, and yuan-ti, all of which allow her to continue to ply her trade of freeing mortals from their obligations in Infernal contracts. Baelzra splits her profits between herself, Seghulerak, and even her father Mammon, the latter of which she hopes will use his influence to cut down on the number of devils looking to hunt her down and enforce the Hells' brand of justice. Seghulerak knows that Baelzra resents being forced to pay the yuan-ti priestess for her continued aid and takes multiple precautions to prevent the devil princess' disloyalty.
Another bit of brainstorming for my yuan-ti focused Exandria campaign:
A secret alliance has been struck between the Zehir-worshiping yuan-ti of the Vanguard of Zannad and certain Cerberus Assembly members of the Dwendalian Empire. The Vanguard stages a major attack on the city of Gloomwrought in the Shadowfell, one so seemingly overwhelming that the Cerberus Academy is contacted to lend aid. The Academy mages defeat the invaders, whose leaders are surprisingly quick to retreat (and whose forces are largely filled by unwitting conscripts that were captured and forcibly transformed into yuan-ti). The Fane of Shadows, a previously existing temple in Gloomwrought devoted to Zehir, is spontaneously destroyed by the living city itself as its adherents relocate via secret portals to the Mausoleum of Ssra-Tauroch in a more remote region of the plane.
This accomplishment gives the Academy a foothold in Gloomwrought. Tensions rise in the city as the local Tenebrous Cabal mage school supported by Gloomwrought's nobility is overwhelmed by the Cerberus Academy, which finds support from the Erathis worshipers at the Aposkos temple who had long been unhappy with the state of the city.
The Academy's primary goals are to use Gloomwrought as a new staging ground in the war against the Kryn Dynasty of Xhorhas (which is especially easy in Gloomwrought, a living city that changes itself to suit its most influential occupants and to oppress unfortunate) and to utilize the city's mysterious chronurgical clocktower in researching dunamancy.
The Vanguard of Zannad themselves view a Gloomwrought controlled by Dwendalian interests as one that will help take care of the Kryn Dynasty for them and be easier to conquer later. The major yuan-ti city of Sariss off the coast of Wildemount's Blightshore is close to multiple Shadowfell planar bleeds, and it could be possible to summon demonic allies from the mariliths' home Abyssal layer of Vudra through the nearby Cauldron Sea of Blightshore and bring them to Gloomwrought as well. Dwendalian influence in Gloomwrought would also likely increase the city's human population, creating more potential yuan-ti converts, as well as drive out the undead and non-Zehir worshiping cultists that the city's government has traditionally permitted or turned a blind eye to.
I'm particularly proud of this. It allows me to use various elements of the Wildemount campaign setting, including the central war between the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty, incorporates the 4E setting of Gloomwrought fairly seamlessly by examining how the Dwendalian Empire's values (such religious restrictions) would conflict with Gloomwrought's (which is very permissive), and uses the geography and features of Blightshore as presented in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount to justify a way to get both the yuan-ti and their demonic allies to Gloomwrought. Plus it brings in an obscure region of the Shadowfell mentioned only in 4E's Open Grave as well as referencing events in the 3E Ghostwalk setting, where a yuan-ti army attempted to attack a city where the living and ghosts mingle only to be driven off by powerful mages.
My plan is to have the party encounter Gloomwrought earlier on and become accustomed to its original state (including learning about the open Zehir worshipers at the Fane of Night) before having the mock battle between the Cerberus Academy and the Vanguard (I'd like to set things up so that the party already has an established Cerberus Academy ally so that the players themselves might be the ones to suggest calling the Cerberus Academy for aid). Afterwards, the party will have to decide if the changes happening to the city are for the better and whether they believe rumors and accusations from members of Gloomwrought's nobility that the yuan-ti attack was staged so that the city could be effectively occupied by the Cerberus Academy and the Dwendalian Empire.
So I joined a 5th ed group that's spinning up and we're putting together characters. Still waiting to hear from the bard, but the other 5 characters have a total Charisma modifier of ... +3. And that's with me switching my character's stats around to have a 10 for +0
So our mean average would have roughly these stats:
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 9
Which I guess in theory that isn't that bad, it's just so very strange for me to be in a game where anybody dumps Cha, because most of the folks I end up playing with (and it's fairly randomized samples from my FLGS and these boards!) love putting points in Cha, to a degree where I rarely put much if any.
I think this is pretty close to what you would get if you averaged every 5E character on D&D beyond.
Maybe Int and Cha would switch, but generally, 5E stats just are not balanced and that lack of balance leads to some trends in character creation.
Yeah I guess I was just surprised because when I played 4e there was always just so much Charisma. So I always rolled Wis instead.
Yeah, and sometimes you'll get a group that has a Bard, a Paladin, and a Warlock, and suddenly everyone's competing to see who gets to try the Persuasion check first.
I mentioned it here a while ago but my friend did a very successful Kickstarter for her product called Gelatinous Cube Soap. Big 4" cubes of homemade soap with a full set of polyhedral dice inside. She tripled her Kickstarter goal and has had regular orders since then through her website.
Anyway she just told me the new product she's developing is the "Fireball Bath Bomb". A cinnamon scented bathbomb with 8d6 inside. She's a genius.
Oh he'll yeah, I didn't know that was your friend, I backed that kickstarter!
So Erik Mona at Paizo put up a statement about the upcoming Agents of Edgewatch Pathfinder campaign, and how its focus on the players being a group of detectives solving a mystery might not be something people in their audience would want to experience right now. Or indeed, probably wouldn't have wanted to experience even before now.
I think it's pretty good. Seems to be a sincere acknowledging of mistakes he made and how they will do better going forward.
It's a good statement, especially with promising suggestions on how to play non-police adventurers in the player's guide and admitting people brought concerns about the AP to him that he should have paid more attention to.
Lawful Evil. Believing in a strict hierarchy. Twisting the laws of the land to punish those they don't like while shielding those they do from any consequences of lawbreaking. 'Those they don't like' are often categories of people by race and class.
What alignment best represents Guards? Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, or Chaotic Evil?
since this is the tabletop games thread and it came up in the context of a fantasy rpg setting, why would the guard need to have the same failings as police in the USA. EG: say something like the night watch in Terry Pratchett's novels.
one might argue that it is not the time to make any law-keepers or thief-takers into anything but villains. and I can see the appeal there. but you could also look something like Pratchett's night watch as fantasy that in a better world things do not have to be as they are here. a lot of the stuff with Vimes in those books is about how a policeman should be and Vimes and fighting against the the legacy of the city watch that failed to measure up.
edit: by which I mean (if you haven't read them) the books about the night watch involve the slow rehabilitation and reform of the watch that a generation previous had been corrupt and violent. at the start the watch had been nearly disbanded, was down to just a few of the lowest ranking people, and is built back up into something good for society (and not by somehow fixing or reforming the corrupt officers and rank-and-file, it has to be rebuilt from nothing).
RiemannLives on
Attacked by tweeeeeeees!
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
I mentioned it here a while ago but my friend did a very successful Kickstarter for her product called Gelatinous Cube Soap. Big 4" cubes of homemade soap with a full set of polyhedral dice inside. She tripled her Kickstarter goal and has had regular orders since then through her website.
Anyway she just told me the new product she's developing is the "Fireball Bath Bomb". A cinnamon scented bathbomb with 8d6 inside. She's a genius.
Oh he'll yeah, I didn't know that was your friend, I backed that kickstarter!
That's Kat! You've played with her! She plays Dmitri the Communist fighter who dual wields a hammer and sickle.
Posts
Move back to Asia and we'll start a 6 man group.
With you and me and everybody else I got we'll only need
four more people.
Okay, yeah, this sucks and is hard.
I think I'd probably end up rolling as some sort of support since no matter the game, groups tend to be short of those, but right now I'm kinda curious if a crit build is possible. You crit if you get a total of 20 or higher on your to hit roll, which I think includes any modifiers beyond the d20 roll. So far the only modifiers I know of are grit, which is a flat bonus that increases as you level, and accuracy, which is a situationally granted thing where you roll xd6 where x is the amount of advantage you've gotten and pick the highest roll. So, between those two you can get up to +12, but I've been meaning to look through gear and abilities to see if you can crank it higher than that.
It's a DC 5 Int check to realise that there not a human, but screw that, I'm the GM
If my party hire them next session, only the most junior person in any given group of NPCs will realise they're not a perfectly normal human
but they're not a man, they're three kobolds boo
It's still d8+STR+rage damage abstracted, but that's how I described all my damage.
There are few flat bonuses in the game outside of Grit and Deaths Head. Accuracy as the highest D6 rolled of the pool usually averages to +3, but the more accuracy you have the higher the average so look into various accuracy sources like Lock On. Remember that crits just let you roll your damage dice twice and select the higher rolls, as well as whatever on crit effects you have in weapons used in the attack or talents.
Your two major schools of crit fishing are Deaths Head with a weapon that rolls a buncha dice, or a frame with multiple weapon mounts like Main/aux and aux/aux so a barrage is four chances to crit.
Defenestration Mimics.
Unlike normal, run of the mill mimics, Defenestration mimics take the appearance of a door, window, or other aperture over looking a long drop of some kind. Should something be so foolish as to to look out or even walk throguh, the top layer of the aperture will wrap a noose of tentacles around the poor soul's head and then yank them out said aperture.
Hanging promptly occurs, at which point the Defenestration mimic will proceed to reel the body back in and happily devour it, spitting the bones back into the abyss.
Box of Dehydrated Piranhas
This is a box of flash dehydrated piranhas. Any exposure to moisture will result in them a: rapidly re-hydrating, and b: being very upset and taking it out on whoever's closest.
(...apparently in the friends game i invented this for, one of the adventurers found a box, pulled one out, and licked it. Why, i'm not sure)
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
Hopefully complaining about it will cause my brain to have an idea. It's the same thing as venting about a difficult area in a game, right? The universe runs on irony.
So the party refused to get into the carriage to go to the castle, but decided to check out old bonegrinder.
Where they promptly started a fight. At level 3.
Now I know fighting three night hags is basically impossible for a party of that size, but they engaged the first one alone and managed, through sheer crazy luck. Get the hag down to barely any HP when the other two arrived. So what I did was essentially allow the one to die and had the other two use their planar shift to escape. Now I know technically Barovia stops planeswalking, but I figured Strahd would allow them to do this.
This works out really well because the party took the dead hags heartstone. I’m going to bring them back much later with a plot to ressurect their sister
I would love to play more Tabletop Simulator. What games were you thinking of hosting?
Anyway she just told me the new product she's developing is the "Fireball Bath Bomb". A cinnamon scented bathbomb with 8d6 inside. She's a genius.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
I know what I'm buying my group for Xmas gifts this year.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I do have a player who fits this bill, and I'm interested in messing with him a bit. If Strahd makes an offer (subject to later betrayal of course), would you do this with the other players at the table, or in a separate session with just that player? Any advice appreciated.
Seems to be a good way to prepare for regular Gloomhaven, which is still sitting on my shelf waiting to be played!
Hey, I see their soap all the time in the Facebook dice goblin group I'm in! That's totally rad
Ooh - what's that?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
It's a 'lighter' Gloomhaven, designed to evidently slowly introduce you to the game's mechanics until you're playing full Gloomhaven. I think it's a Target exclusive - link here.
From flipping through the rulebook, it seems like the first 5 scenarios or so are one long tutorial. Also, instead of map tiles, the maps are printed in the scenario book.
Edit: Also there's 25 scenarios in total, so it's not just a tutorial game, it seems to be a legit game itself.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
So our mean average would have roughly these stats:
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 9
Which I guess in theory that isn't that bad, it's just so very strange for me to be in a game where anybody dumps Cha, because most of the folks I end up playing with (and it's fairly randomized samples from my FLGS and these boards!) love putting points in Cha, to a degree where I rarely put much if any.
If you don't have a wizard LOTS of people dump int and a group trying to find clues or solve puzzles without Investigate is pitiful.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
But since we rolled for stats in that game it was still a 15.
My last D&D group didn't have a wizard and my fighter/ritualist moth with like 14 int was the highest.
5e basically hates int as a stat unless you're a wizard.
I think this is pretty close to what you would get if you averaged every 5E character on D&D beyond.
Maybe Int and Cha would switch, but generally, 5E stats just are not balanced and that lack of balance leads to some trends in character creation.
DIESEL
Against the Fall of Night Playtest
Nasty, Brutish, and Short
- The secretive gnome chronurgist Fortenk the Time Collector is being manipulated by an agent of Zehir. The yuan-ti is interested in traveling to the floating city of Draconia months before it was destroyed by the Chroma Conclave, establishing a sect of Zehir worshiping dragonborn, and getting the converts help to ensure at least a piece of Draconia remains aloft in the present to serve as a floating fortress and wyvern aerie. The time-traveling slaad lord Norsar the Many, who had previously become fond of Fortenk and granted him unique time-related abilities (of dubious usefulness), takes notice and is displeased with the exploitation of his friend. He wants to find allies to take back in time and aid Fortenk, and as a reward Norsar will honor one future request for travel to and from the past.
- A special red steel called orium is produced in Vudra, the Abyssal layer of Shaktari, the queen of the mariliths. Weapons made from orium can generate the poison called serpent's venom and can enhance other injury poisons, but they are also capable of transforming into awakened giant poisonous snakes to unexpectedly attack undesired wielders.
- A yuan-ti follower of Zuggtmoy has been found out by the worshipers of Zehir. Rather than be executed, the Zuggtmoy worshiper is forced to devise a strain of deadly fungi that specifically targets drow for use in clearing out Lolth's followers in the Underdark below Tal'Dorei, freeing the yuan-ti to search for evidence of a Pre-Calamity yuan-ti empire. Zuggtmoy is actually pleased with this development as she considers Lolth a rival of hers. Unfortunately, a drow vampire who worships Orcus is also planning to wipe out vast numbers of his kind to dedicate to Orcus as undead slaves.
- Baelzra, a minor archdevil and daughter of Mammon, was exiled to Avernus after it was discovered she possessed a way to negate the Nine Hells' claims to the souls of mortals who had entered into Infernal contracts (for a fee, of course). It was believed Baelzra would quickly be destroyed on the battlefield, either by invading demons or devils who viewed her as an abominable traitor to the Hells. The yuan-ti who had taught Baelzra her traitorous talent, Seghulerak, saved Baelzra from certain doom by summoning and binding her. Baelzra now dwells in the den of vice known as the Avenue of Chains, located in the Shadowfell city of Gloomwrought. She is protected by hired mercenaries, chain devils, and yuan-ti, all of which allow her to continue to ply her trade of freeing mortals from their obligations in Infernal contracts. Baelzra splits her profits between herself, Seghulerak, and even her father Mammon, the latter of which she hopes will use his influence to cut down on the number of devils looking to hunt her down and enforce the Hells' brand of justice. Seghulerak knows that Baelzra resents being forced to pay the yuan-ti priestess for her continued aid and takes multiple precautions to prevent the devil princess' disloyalty.
I'm particularly proud of this. It allows me to use various elements of the Wildemount campaign setting, including the central war between the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty, incorporates the 4E setting of Gloomwrought fairly seamlessly by examining how the Dwendalian Empire's values (such religious restrictions) would conflict with Gloomwrought's (which is very permissive), and uses the geography and features of Blightshore as presented in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount to justify a way to get both the yuan-ti and their demonic allies to Gloomwrought. Plus it brings in an obscure region of the Shadowfell mentioned only in 4E's Open Grave as well as referencing events in the 3E Ghostwalk setting, where a yuan-ti army attempted to attack a city where the living and ghosts mingle only to be driven off by powerful mages.
My plan is to have the party encounter Gloomwrought earlier on and become accustomed to its original state (including learning about the open Zehir worshipers at the Fane of Night) before having the mock battle between the Cerberus Academy and the Vanguard (I'd like to set things up so that the party already has an established Cerberus Academy ally so that the players themselves might be the ones to suggest calling the Cerberus Academy for aid). Afterwards, the party will have to decide if the changes happening to the city are for the better and whether they believe rumors and accusations from members of Gloomwrought's nobility that the yuan-ti attack was staged so that the city could be effectively occupied by the Cerberus Academy and the Dwendalian Empire.
Yeah I guess I was just surprised because when I played 4e there was always just so much Charisma. So I always rolled Wis instead.
I expect this level of charisma from the group.
Oh he'll yeah, I didn't know that was your friend, I backed that kickstarter!
I've never been in a group with anyone that charismatic before, but I gotta say I like his style
I think it's pretty good. Seems to be a sincere acknowledging of mistakes he made and how they will do better going forward.
since this is the tabletop games thread and it came up in the context of a fantasy rpg setting, why would the guard need to have the same failings as police in the USA. EG: say something like the night watch in Terry Pratchett's novels.
one might argue that it is not the time to make any law-keepers or thief-takers into anything but villains. and I can see the appeal there. but you could also look something like Pratchett's night watch as fantasy that in a better world things do not have to be as they are here. a lot of the stuff with Vimes in those books is about how a policeman should be and Vimes and fighting against the the legacy of the city watch that failed to measure up.
edit: by which I mean (if you haven't read them) the books about the night watch involve the slow rehabilitation and reform of the watch that a generation previous had been corrupt and violent. at the start the watch had been nearly disbanded, was down to just a few of the lowest ranking people, and is built back up into something good for society (and not by somehow fixing or reforming the corrupt officers and rank-and-file, it has to be rebuilt from nothing).
That's Kat! You've played with her! She plays Dmitri the Communist fighter who dual wields a hammer and sickle.
Like I said, she's a genius.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.