Apparently there’s a carnival in town…

So, Donny began the second edition of an RPG Blog Carnival.  The topic this week: Homebrew.

I read his original post, and then NiTessine’s post on a campaign world I really, really want to play in some day.  And between the two, they inspired me to share my own dip into a homebrew world.

It was when I first started GMing, which was admittedly not that long ago.  I was trying to run the group through the WotC adventure “City of the Spider Queen.”

Now, this wasn’t the first time we had tried to get through this particular adventure, nor was it the last.  Not all that far in we were sick of it again, myself especially.  So we wandered back out of the Underdark, and I switched dimensions on them.

(Note, during this swapping of worlds, before they got to the other one, I also managed to spring a Wight Dragon on them, followed by a Gold Golem.  I also managed to send them through a reality-warping series of hallways on their way.  I realise now that I wasn’t so much bored with CotSQ as bored with standard fantasy tropes in general, and wanted to mix it up a bit.)

This new world had next to nothing written about it, and most of what was written happened after the group arrived there, but I had it all made in my head.  I even made a map within a few weeks.  I dubbed it Generica, since there was nothing specific or extraordinary about it.

But I was wrong.  Looking back now, I see that in my desire to escape from standard fantasy, I had actually created a very different, very unique world.  The portal to this world deposited them in a desert.  As they crossed a dune, they came to an arabian-inspired city… of Dwarves.

The Elves were plainsmen, I believe.  The Halflings, savage jungle-dwellers (if I remember correctly).  I basically took every standard fantasy trope I could think of and turned it on its head.

The main plot was centered around dragons, and could have been quite good with a bit more work.  We stopped playing that game before we got too far, though.

In the time since, whenever musing about where to set the next game, I’ve often gotten had a player suggest Generica.  I always assumed it was in jest, and perhaps it is.  But someday, maybe I should call their bluff, and return them to the land of Generica, where everything is most definitely not generic.

Pathfinder 22-23 – Many options, obvious choice

Phew!  Two sessions to report on this time.  Both took place in the same dungeon.

I said last time that I post faster if I have things to rant about.  That holds true, as the last two weeks were quite good.

If you remember, last time, the party stood at the mouth of a swirling portal, about to enter the demiplane of Runeforge.

Present for session 22:

• Nonnie, Halfling Sorcerer
• Reza, Dwarf Cleric
• Thorbar, Dwarf Barbarian
• Eretri, Aasimar Warlock

The group stepped through the swirling vortex and emerged in a hallway.  The portal closed behind them, leaving no sign of an entrance of any sort, and no visible way of getting back.

I’ll note that for this dungeon, you are supposed to assign each PC a primary sin.  They then gain bonuses when in that sin’s area, and take penalties in the areas belonging to opposed sins.

This was in-fucking-credibly easy for our group!

• Nox – Greed (“Lewtz!”)
• Thorbar – Wrath (Barbarian who likes to smash things.)
• Nonnie – Pride (If you aren’t sure about this one, wait for the pride section below and it will be clear.)
• Eretri – Gluttony (Also includes lust for power.  Greed and wrath were also possible, but both of those, for Eretri, are in the search for personal power.  Also, Warlock.)
• Ristan – Lust (Bard.  ‘Nuff said.)
• Reza – Envy (This one was difficult, as Reza was actually fairly virtuous, or at least not exceptionally sinful.  Especially not in any one specific way.  But I then ran it by the other players once Reza’s player left during session 22, and we decided on envy, due to, well, comments like this one. 😆 )

They followed the hall to a central room with seven statues in front of seven hallways and a bubbling pool of prismatic liquid in the center.  Thorbar pulled a rat out of his bag of tricks and shoved into into the pool, splashing some of the scalding hot liquid onto himself.  The rat screamed in pain and skittered off once released.  Nonnie’s further examination revealed that the pool was used for enchanting items.  On this, Eretri dipped his mace in, getting splashed with burningly cold liquid, with little other effect.

Hot… cold… sufficiently confused, the group turned their attention to the statues and hallways.

The seven hallways each are valid options from the players’ points of view, and of course they pick the ones that I had spent the least amount of time prepping.  The seven rooms take up 2/3 of the adventure in this book, however, so it’s difficult to adequately prepare.

That said, the hall they chose should really have been obvious.

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Pathfinder 18-21 – Fuck, it’s been a while

Yeah… so it seems that “a day or two” translates to a month, when I’m working 10 hour days.

So, we’ve had 4 sessions in that time.  I’ll go through them as if they were one, and I’ll be fairly quick about it.

One thing I noticed, though, is that I blog much faster when the module really pisses me off, which it hasn’t been doing as much recently.  Huh.  I wonder what that says about me.

When we last left our intrepid heroes, they had finished off an annoying part of Book 4, and were continuing on after a room of zombies.

From there, they entered a hallway with a big inscribed (locked) door at one end.  They ignored it, assuming it to be Mokmurian (Stone Giant leader), and went the other way first.

(I should note, if you haven’t figured it out yet, that my players tend to play D&D like Diablo or NWN.  Perhaps a comparison to WoW raids could be made, but I’m not the one to do it.  Explore and loot everything before hitting the boss to end the dungeon.  This will possibly change once we’re playing 4e and they realise how treasure works in that edition, though that’s doubtful.  ^_^   (Note for my players who read this, most enemies don’t have magical treasure in 4e.  You won’t walk out of a dungeon with 50 +1 rapiers to sell.  You’ll walk out with a smaller number of more useful items instead.))

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Pathfinder 16 & 17 – Good sections, but…

Hey look!  I’m not dead!

That’s right, this writeup will include two sessions.  This is for two reasons.  First, it will get us up to date.  Second, the last session was rather short.

Present for both of these sessions:

• Nox, Changeling Swordsage
• Reza, Dwarf Cleric
• Nonnie, Halfling Sorcerer
• Eretri, Aasimar Warlock

So, we teleport as close as we can get to the destination.  This means the giant landmark at the base of the Storval Plateau, the Storval Stair.

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Final thoughts after marathon 4e release day events

In no particular order:

TPK in a casual release game with casual players unattached to the characters, which wins us prizes and status as the (likely) first post-release 4e tpk in Winnipeg = awesome!!!

People have dissed Splug the goblin for trying to be Meepo (Sunless Citadel) for 4e.  Well, for the short time we were with him, he was better!  Not only did the PCs take to him as a slave quickly, he soon assisted in combat (hitting the enemy none of them were hitting, by swinging a bag of rocks), and then saved our Warlord’s life with a heal check to stabilise her.  After this encounter, someone else took over DMing the game, and I joined in as Splug the goblin cleric, inspired to do more healing!  So much fun!

We played 4e with a random pickup group for 18 hours, as level 1 characters.  Never in that time period did the game stop being fun.  That says something.

We played Keep on the Shadowfell for 18 hours, with 2 DMs, without either of us ever having read the adventure.  The town RP was tricky, but not bad.  But the game never slowed down because of this, especially in battles.  The 4e game is just that easy to pick up and DM.  I predict that 4e will see the return of the true D&D pickup game.

Level 1 has never been so interesting.

People have been complaining about things conceptually online a lot, but these complaints disappear once you’re in the game.  Minions fucking rock, and make the battle that much more fun!  The at-will/encounter/daily power split works perfectly.  Clerics and Fighters are cool again!  I would play either again by choice.  Dragons!  Oh, dragons are so much fun!

The complaints:

Not everything is explained perfectly in the books, causing a bit of confusion.  These are minor, however, and just call for a quick ruling most of the time.

Paladins are… well, unimpressive.  I mean, they’re alright and they do what they’re meant to, but I much prefer the battlefield control powers of the Fighter.  This is a personal thing, though.  I probably won’t play a Paladin any time soon, but someone in my group (or yours) might love it.

That about covers it for now.  Caffieeeeeeennnne!!!!!!!!!!

32 Hours of 4e D&D!!!

Well, here we go. Today is the release date for 4e D&D, and we’re having our giant gaming event at Gameknight.

Today is opening up the books and playing for 24 hours. Tomorrow, I’m DMing for D&D Game Day. And the whole time, I’ll be posting occasional updates here with impressions, rants, and notifications of TPKs. Oh, and despite Dave’s assertion, we’ll see just how high level we can get in 24 hours of straight gaming.

You can read the updates here. If you use Twitter, you can also get them at http://twitter.com/ve4grm

(If the widget below doesn’t show up, just refresh the page, or use the link above. Twitter seems to be sketchy sometimes, but it’s the best way I know of to do this from a cell phone.)

Pathfinder 15 – Holy fuck, it’s a dragon!

Now that we’re finished with Book 3 of the adventure path, I want to make my feelings about this campaign series clear. Book 2, as anyone who reads the site regularly knows, had some serious issues, both in the writing and in the monster balance. Some of these were to the point that I was almost ready to give up on the adventure path altogether.

And then we hit Book 3, the Hook Mountain Massacre. Though it isn’t the type of adventure I’d run regularly (it’s a bit too… disturbing at times), this book saved the path for me. It’s creepy, flavourful, fun, and just plain awesome. The writing is great, the monsters are great (including the second Lamia Matriarch), and Nicolas Logue is one warped writer.

As such, the game is still going strong. Book 4 looks to be pretty solid as well. We should be done it this weekend, and aside from one minor issue (which I’ll go into next post), I have yet to see any major problems.

Present this session:

• Nox, Changeling Swordsage
• Nonnie, Halfling Sorcerer
• Reza, Dwarven Cleric
• Thorbar, Dwarven Barbarian
• Eretri, Aasimar Warlock

The party had decided to stay in Fort Prefect, their new home.  The winter passes, cold but enjoyable.  They enjoy their much-deserved downtime.

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To 4e, or not to 4e

Yeah, imaginative title, I know.

It’s not really the question, anyways.  Our group has been pretty excited about 4e since the announcement.  Well, at least I have, and my excitement can tend to be contagious.

We’re finishing off the Pathfinder series in 3.5e, still.  Unless everyone rebels and demands an upgrade, which I doubt will happen.

But the big topic right now is the release on Friday.

Our FLGS, Gameknight, is hosting an event for the release.  Starting Friday morning at 10 am, they’re keeping the store open for 24 hours of D&D.  At 10 am on Saturday, D&D Game Day begins.

Grand total?  32 hours of D&D.

I’m planning on being there for the whole time.  Playing and DMing for the 24-hour event, and DMing on Game Day.

Should be fun.  I’m going to need a lot of this.

In addition, I’m considering doing a bit of live-blogging during the ordeal.  I doubt we’ll have wireless internet access, so I’ll make a post when I leave for the day, with a Twitter feed embedded in it.  I’ll update it via SMS every so often with news and happenings.  I’ll grab pictures as well, and post those afterwards (or during, if I can figure out a way).

Sound like fun, everyone?

Awesome.

Pathfinder 14, part 2 – We finally bought a boat!

Yep.  This session was 8 hours long, and finished off Book 3 (and thus half of the adventure path), and the fact we got a boat is my title highlight.  Damn straight!

So, with the town saved and the floodgates opened, the party set about rebuilding their newfound fort.  Within a couple days, they had a visitor.

A tiny, high-pitched visitor.

Zipping into the fort came a tiny winged man.  A hyperactive, worried pixie.

Named Yap.

He was worried about his mistress, who has fallen into some deep depression since her lover disappeared.  He came to the PCs because they were friends with the lover.

The party, however, has no idea what he’s talking about.

…until they ask what kind of creature this mistress is.

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Pathfinder 14, part 1 – And I was actually up to date, too

Well, I’m a week behind again.  No problem.  We’ll get back on schedule.  Y’know, eventually.

Everyone was present for this game.

• Nox, Changeling Swordsage
• Nonnie, Halfling Sorcerer
• Reza, Dwarf Cleric
• Thorbar, Dwarf Barbarian
• Ristan, Half-Elf Bard
• Eretri, Aasimar Warlock

This was a holiday weekend here in Canada.  May 19th was Victoria Day.  Since we play on Sundays, we decided to make this a long session, and we played from 2:00 until around 10:00 or 10:30.

After last session’s adventure in driving off a giant sea monster, the party headed up to Skull’s Crossing, the upstream dam, to investigate the cause of the flood, and attempt to open the floodgates to prevent further damage.

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