I'm not happy Bob. Not... happy. Ask me why. Your enemy makes me unhappy, Bob! This drow... she doesn't make any sense. If she has a pathological hatred of deep gnomes, then I'm sure there are places she could have gone to mess with them, rather than skulking around a ruined city for several decades, grubbing for loot. She's just another version of the wight that is presented in Chapter 3 - a weak excuse to have a drow show up.
There just isn't enough rationale for a drow to be obsessed with conquering Blingdenstone (in the case of the wight) or with fucking over the svirfneblin (in the case of Talabrina). I mean - they're GNOMES! Nobody really likes them or thinks they are cool, but by the same token, when have they ever pissed anybody off enough for a 40-year vendetta? It's like an unprovoked nuclear strike against Sweden.
All this went through my mind while I was reading the adventure, but then I came upon Gak Fixen. A "twisted and evil" surface gnome who worships Urlden and plays a mean flute! Ahah, I thought! The Cult of Urlden is just the sort of seriously evil and fucked-up bastards who would get a whole gnome city destroyed, then hang around and just enjoy the wreckage afterwards. Serious Joker-style bastards. Guys who just want to watch the world burn, then roll around in the ashes.
So that got me thinking. If the Cult of Urlden is involved, how are they involved? They've always been involved is the obvious answer. The Cult has always had a presence in Blingdenstone, and now they want to reclaim the city, their ancient temple and maybe kill some folks while they are at it. So for your enjoyment
Appendix 3 Revised - Claws in the Dark.
As presented here, it is fairly likely that the Cult will have a presence in Blingdenstone after the city has been reclaimed from the underdark. I'll follow-up with more information about the Cult, as well as some adventure ideas for after the standard Blingdenstone adventure is finished.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Thoughts on Traps in DnD Next
I’ve been reworking Ch 2 of Reclaiming Blingdenstone, and
since there are kobolds involved, there are obviously a lot of traps.
Actually (as my 3-year-old would say) there aren’t a lot of
traps. There are basically just nets
that drop from the ceiling. Over and
over and over and C’MON PEOPLE. TRY A
BIT HARDER. There is also a pit trap and
some kobolds leaping out of holes in the walls!
Oh they are soooooo crafty.
But something is confusing me a bit with the checks involved
in traps. I also noticed this with the
secret doors in Chapter 3.
Let’s quote:
Falling Net Traps: Characters can attempt a DC 15 Wisdom check
to spot either the net stretched above the passage or one of the tripwires near
the floor. A character actively searching needs to make a DC 13 Intelligence
check instead. If a character finds anything, the adventurers can search to
find the three tripwires with three successful DC 13 Intelligence checks and
avoid the trap entirely.
I’m sorta OK with the DC 15 Wisdom check. It means that a rogue with find/remove traps
will find it automatically (take 10 and +6 bonus from +3 default and +3 trained
skill). Is that good? Less
rolling means more streamlined play… But
that means that all these traps are basically no threat to a party that
includes the pre-gens… Which it’s
assumed they will… Sure a lot of text
here for something that seems unlikely to ever threaten the party. But anyways, forging on.
What I don’t get is "3 successful DC 13 Intelligence
checks". Why are we switching back and
forth from Wis (useful for spotting things) to Int (useful for making you pretentious
to talk to at parties)? And why 3?
And why DC 13?
If the party has a rogue, these are found automatically
(Take 10 and +3 check default). If they
don’t have a rogue, they have to roll 3 times?
Why not just 1 roll with a DC of 15 to accommodate the fact that they
have to find 3 tripwires? More waste of
rolling, and why would the mage (generally speaking) be theoretically better at
finding tripwires than the rogue, who presumably does this in order to keep on
living? Makes no sense to me.
The whole thing is even worse in Chapter 3 with the secret
doors and pit traps:
A successful DC 15
Intelligence is required to find this secret door. A successful DC 13
Intelligence check made while searching
the wall at the end of the long alcove to the north reveals a pressure plate. Pressing
the plate causes the door to slide open. Otherwise, the door can be forced open
with a DC 17 Strength check, which breaks its mechanism.
WHY INT? Now the
rogue doesn’t find it automatically at least, but Int? I can see maybe the Int check to figure out
how the door opens. I like the idea of
the wizard glancing over, then saying offhand “l expect that the pressure plate
down at the end of the hall there opens the secret door. That or the elvish word for ‘friend’”, then
going back to doing whatever he was doing. But spotting it using Int makes no sense to
me.
The pit traps are even WORSE:
Anyone searching for
traps can find it with a DC 13 Intelligence check, and it can be jammed closed with
two DC 15 Dexterity checks. Otherwise, the trap triggers when a character
reaches the center of the hallway, dropping everyone in the hall into the pit.
Those who are near the outer edge can attempt a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw to
leap to safety.
More INT checks. Was
this written by a different person? Are
they paying attention to their own rules?
Who can say? It’s like they don’t
even know about the find/remove traps skill.
And now we have moved to Dex checks to jam it? 2 of them?
Adding to the fun, on the map their appears to be a 10-foot walkway on
either side of the pit that isn’t included in the description… If you’re going to recycle maps, at least try
to pay attention to them.
It doesn’t do any good to bitch about this stuff if you don’t
try to fix it, so here are my alternative takes on traps and secret doors:
Pit Traps: This
hall contains a covered pit trap. The pit will be noticed with a DC 17 Wisdom
(or find/remote traps check). Anyone specifically
searching for traps can find it with a DC 13 Wisdom (or Find/Remove Traps) check,
and it can be jammed closed with a DC 15 Dexterity (or Find/Remove traps) check.
Otherwise, the trap triggers if 2 or more characters are standing on trapped squares, dropping everyone in the
hall into the pit. Those who are near the outer edge and are wearing light or
medium armor can attempt a Dexterity saving throw (Light armor DC 12, Medium DC
15) to leap to safety.
Secret Doors: A successful DC 17 Wisdom
check is required to notice this secret door.
Anyone specifically searching the hallway will find it with a DC 13 Wisdom
check. A successful DC 13 Wisdom or Int check
identifies a pressure plate at the end of the hallway that opens the door. Pressing
the plate causes the door to slide open. Otherwise, the door can be forced open
with a DC 17 Strength check, which breaks its mechanism.
Net Traps: Characters notice either the
net stretched above the passage or one of the tripwires near the floor with a
DC 17 Wisdom (or Find/remove traps) check. A character actively searching needs to make a
DC 13 check instead. If the trap is
noticed, a DC 15 Wisdom (or Find/remove traps) disarms the trap.
If a net
falls, characters in the twenty-foot diameter area of the net must make edge can
attempt a Dexterity saving throw (Light armor DC 8, Medium DC 10, Heavy DC 15) to
avoid being restrained beneath the net. A restrained character can cut the net with a
slashing weapon (2 rounds) or escape with a DC 13 Strength or Dexterity check
(1 round).
Friday, August 24, 2012
More Bling(denstone)!
It occurred to me last night after I went to bed that with this DnD Next, I can basically use monsters from any edition with very little conversion. This has always been kinda-sorta true, but it felt a lot less doable with 3e and 4e than it does with Next.
I'm going to have to give the Blingdenstone and Underdark encounter tables a much more thorough going-over and use some interesting 2e stuff. I'll also probably modify the Random Events table, too. I picked up the incredibly massive Monstrous Collection (2.1) from internet sources that shall remain nameless (and shut down by massive DNS attack), and it looks like I can use a lot of it right as written. Which is handy, as the monsters in the playtest, as I mentioned earlier, are weaksauce.
So, continuing with what I started in Blingdenstone Enhanced:
Right now the party is exploring the Town Center (Chapter 3), so I'm going to do two different treatments for that. First one is to use the existing map and encounters, but rework them slightly to make it a bit more interesting/challenging. Second one is to totally rebuild it with a functional map that makes a modicum of sense, but with similar encounters.
Updated Chapter 3
Totally Different Chapter 3
I borrowed the map for the different version of Chapter 3 from the amazing Dyson Logos, over at Dyson's Dodecahedrons. It's a fort, which makes more sense to me as a Town Center/Castle. I basically used all the same encounters, but moved them around a bit.
Either way, Chapter 3 is now a bit more challenging and interesting.
Oh, and if you want to run Blingdenstone using a digital tool, here are a couple of handy maps:
Map of Blingdenstone
Town Center Map
Now my to-do list just looks like this:
Stat out the major NPC's.
Rework the Wormwrithings (Chapter 2) encounters to reduce repetition.
Add more adventure hooks to Mantol-Derith (Chapter 6)
Rework the pregens, add a couple of new ones.
Enemy activity page for the drow chick.
Modify Journal notes to make them more interesting.
Enemy activity page if you want to use the Cult of Urlden as the overarching antagonists.
I'm going to have to give the Blingdenstone and Underdark encounter tables a much more thorough going-over and use some interesting 2e stuff. I'll also probably modify the Random Events table, too. I picked up the incredibly massive Monstrous Collection (2.1) from internet sources that shall remain nameless (and shut down by massive DNS attack), and it looks like I can use a lot of it right as written. Which is handy, as the monsters in the playtest, as I mentioned earlier, are weaksauce.
So, continuing with what I started in Blingdenstone Enhanced:
Right now the party is exploring the Town Center (Chapter 3), so I'm going to do two different treatments for that. First one is to use the existing map and encounters, but rework them slightly to make it a bit more interesting/challenging. Second one is to totally rebuild it with a functional map that makes a modicum of sense, but with similar encounters.
Updated Chapter 3
Totally Different Chapter 3
I borrowed the map for the different version of Chapter 3 from the amazing Dyson Logos, over at Dyson's Dodecahedrons. It's a fort, which makes more sense to me as a Town Center/Castle. I basically used all the same encounters, but moved them around a bit.
Either way, Chapter 3 is now a bit more challenging and interesting.
Oh, and if you want to run Blingdenstone using a digital tool, here are a couple of handy maps:
Map of Blingdenstone
Town Center Map
Now my to-do list just looks like this:
Stat out the major NPC's.
Rework the Wormwrithings (Chapter 2) encounters to reduce repetition.
Add more adventure hooks to Mantol-Derith (Chapter 6)
Rework the pregens, add a couple of new ones.
Enemy activity page for the drow chick.
Modify Journal notes to make them more interesting.
Enemy activity page if you want to use the Cult of Urlden as the overarching antagonists.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Blingdenstone Enhanced
The Blingdenstone adventure that is packaged with the DnD Next playtest is quite good, conceptually speaking. It's sandbox-y, providing 6 short adventures that can be accomplished in any order, with a combination of combat, dungeon-crawl, exploration and role-playing. There are also a number of places to add extra adventure hooks that can allow things to spin off into a larger campaign - which is what I may do if it holds our interest.
That being said, there are a number of weak points, too. The maps in particular are lacking, notably the Town Center map in adventure 3. The overall cavern map is pretty sparse, too - but it fits with the sandbox ethos in that it lets you develop quite a few of the details as you see fit. The encounter and tunnel maps are a nice shout-out (well, copied from, to be honest) to the old blue maps - these ones come from Vault of the Drow, I think.
The adventure has quite a bit of material in it, and the organization isn't that great. The occupied sections of the ruins aren't presented first, but are interspersed with other caverns, and random encounters for specific caverns are only detailed in their entries, which are all scattered in the first 5 or 6 pages of the module, so the first thing I did to make it easier to run was write myself out a couple of reference pages. These will allow me to track events in Blingdenstone more easily and keep me from having to constantly flip through the adventure to reference things. Having this kind of cheat sheet is essential to running a sandbox, I find - if only because it allows me to respond almost instantly to things the group wants to do.
Ultimately, I put together 3 reference sheets.
Blingdenstone Summary Sheet
Orc Summary
Gnome Summary
The orc summary is basically just compiled information from the adventure - crib notes, essentially, where I can track how many have been killed and look them up.
The Gnome and Blingdenstone Summary are a bit more interesting. The whole idea behind this adventure is the reclamation and rebuilding of Blingdenstone, so what I wanted to do was set up a system where the gnomish position, and the gnomes themselves, get stronger as the different adventures are completed, or get weaker if the characters dawdle too much, fail to complete adventures or certain random events happen.
The main thing here is stats for individual gnomes, because curiously enough, other than the stats for the guide to the Wormwrithings in Adventure 2, there are no stats provided for the gnomes anywhere in the module. In some cases, the gnomes can be expected to fight alongside the PC's (such as when orc raiders attack the barricades), so having stats for them is important. I'm also tracking the number of healthy/injured gnomes in Blingdenstone, the same way I'm tracking the number of orcs.
As you can see from the sheet, successfully completing some adventures causes additional gnomes to arrive, or the gnomes to get better equipment or more HP and morale. This is a bit more bookkeeping, but it makes the impact of the party more obvious and concrete. I'll also stat out the major NPC's for use in the events, but for the moment, I'll treat them like normal gnomes.
I also added a couple of cool things to the summary - enlarged Blingdenstone and Underdark encounter tables and a random major event table which can alter things in the city in a major way.
Other things I'm doing that I'll detail more later:
Stat out the major NPC's.
Rework the Wormwrithings (Chapter 2) encounters to reduce repetition.
Add more adventure hooks to Mantol-Derith (Chapter 6)
Reduce XP values of monsters substantially (20% of current, approx)
Rework the pregens, add a couple of new ones.
Enemy activity page for the drow chick.
Update Town Center Map for digital tools.
Modify Journal notes to make them more interesting.
Add Cult of Urlden adventure hooks
Change encounters in Chapter 3 (more zombies, more skeletons, wight from drow to gnome king).
That being said, there are a number of weak points, too. The maps in particular are lacking, notably the Town Center map in adventure 3. The overall cavern map is pretty sparse, too - but it fits with the sandbox ethos in that it lets you develop quite a few of the details as you see fit. The encounter and tunnel maps are a nice shout-out (well, copied from, to be honest) to the old blue maps - these ones come from Vault of the Drow, I think.
The adventure has quite a bit of material in it, and the organization isn't that great. The occupied sections of the ruins aren't presented first, but are interspersed with other caverns, and random encounters for specific caverns are only detailed in their entries, which are all scattered in the first 5 or 6 pages of the module, so the first thing I did to make it easier to run was write myself out a couple of reference pages. These will allow me to track events in Blingdenstone more easily and keep me from having to constantly flip through the adventure to reference things. Having this kind of cheat sheet is essential to running a sandbox, I find - if only because it allows me to respond almost instantly to things the group wants to do.
Ultimately, I put together 3 reference sheets.
Blingdenstone Summary Sheet
Orc Summary
Gnome Summary
The orc summary is basically just compiled information from the adventure - crib notes, essentially, where I can track how many have been killed and look them up.
The Gnome and Blingdenstone Summary are a bit more interesting. The whole idea behind this adventure is the reclamation and rebuilding of Blingdenstone, so what I wanted to do was set up a system where the gnomish position, and the gnomes themselves, get stronger as the different adventures are completed, or get weaker if the characters dawdle too much, fail to complete adventures or certain random events happen.
The main thing here is stats for individual gnomes, because curiously enough, other than the stats for the guide to the Wormwrithings in Adventure 2, there are no stats provided for the gnomes anywhere in the module. In some cases, the gnomes can be expected to fight alongside the PC's (such as when orc raiders attack the barricades), so having stats for them is important. I'm also tracking the number of healthy/injured gnomes in Blingdenstone, the same way I'm tracking the number of orcs.
As you can see from the sheet, successfully completing some adventures causes additional gnomes to arrive, or the gnomes to get better equipment or more HP and morale. This is a bit more bookkeeping, but it makes the impact of the party more obvious and concrete. I'll also stat out the major NPC's for use in the events, but for the moment, I'll treat them like normal gnomes.
I also added a couple of cool things to the summary - enlarged Blingdenstone and Underdark encounter tables and a random major event table which can alter things in the city in a major way.
Other things I'm doing that I'll detail more later:
Stat out the major NPC's.
Rework the Wormwrithings (Chapter 2) encounters to reduce repetition.
Add more adventure hooks to Mantol-Derith (Chapter 6)
Reduce XP values of monsters substantially (20% of current, approx)
Rework the pregens, add a couple of new ones.
Enemy activity page for the drow chick.
Update Town Center Map for digital tools.
Modify Journal notes to make them more interesting.
Add Cult of Urlden adventure hooks
Change encounters in Chapter 3 (more zombies, more skeletons, wight from drow to gnome king).
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Some Thoughts on our D&D Next Playtest
I've gone off 4E. And I've also played Rules Compendium, 2e and (VERY briefly) whatever the frack it is the Alexis over at Tao of D&D runs. Plus Warhammer Fantasy and TMNT.
And they are NOT DOING IT FOR ME.
I like pieces of each of them. As a DM, I like encounter building in 4e. I feel like I can create cool and challenging combats very easily in that system - so much so that I'm having a LOT of trouble with something like TMNT which basically has NO rules for building encounters or monsters.
I like the faster combat in Rules Compendium, but the character building is just uninteresting. I don't need 3e or Pathfinder complexity, but Rules Compendium is a bit too bare-bones. Warhammer Fantasy is good - gritty, fairly lethal - not too hard to make encounters... but I'm not used to that system, so it's a challenge to run for the moment.
2e is a bit of a sweet spot for me, as it's what I spent most of my earlier DM years running, and to some extent, that's what the DnD Next Playtest feels like. Some might think that's a bad thing, but it's 2e with the rough stuff filed off, and cracks plastered over with lessons learned from 2 subsequent editions. It isn't spotless yet, but I had more fun running it than I have in quite a while.
That being said, it's obviously a playtest version. Some things definitely could use more thought, but the foundations seem really solid to me.
Pros:
Unified, easy-to-remember mechanics. Tying everything to modified checks using stats is really smart. Clean, flexible and easy-to-remember. A couple of characters wanted to vault a rubble barricade. DC 13 Dex check, please. No fuss, no bother.
Saving throws as checks tied to stats. Yaay. I have always hated saving throws. Simple - easy to remember and flexible enough that I can on-the-fly them. WotC, I salute you.
I'm a bit less in favor of Contested checks. They can end up with a LOT of rolling - like trying to sneak around a number of enemies seems to require contested checks against each. Not going to do that. But the basic premise is sound and fits well mechanically with the rest of the rules.
Combat is quick, dangerous (sorta) and doesn't encourage the 3-minute adventuring day. In our game, I played a PC in addition to DMing, and each player had 2 PCs, for a total of 5 - and they STEAMROLLERED the encounters - but limited HP and healing made the hits they took feel consequential.
Reclaiming Blingdenstone. This is a really good adventure. Miles better than Railroad to the Shadowfell. If it is indicative of the settings/adventures that WotC is working on for this edition, I'll start buying modules again. In fact, I'd forgotten how much I like using a good sandbox module. There are plenty of good adventure hooks, a real feeling of progression and some nice variety in things to do. Best module I've seen since reading the Pathfinder Adventure Paths.
Character creation is easy and interesting with neat background ideas and lots of good stuff for roleplaying, hooks for DMing and generally neat stuff. I handwaved most initial equipment purchases, so I'm not sure if the money system actually works. My suspicion is that it don't.
Cons:
Monsters need all kinds of work. They are boring. And xp value is WAY out of whack. 460 XP for an orc? 200 XP for a zombie. With 9 hp, 20 spd and one attack for d6+2? What the what what?
I threw 1600 XP worth of zombies at the party in an "undead rise from the ruins all around you" ambush. They took 7 hp damage total. 2 encounters (one with 3 orcs, the other with the zombies) and some rp'ing awards and the entire party of 5 characters leveled...
I heard that Zak from DnD with Pornstars is consulting on DnD Next. Mearls - please deposit the entire stack of monsters on his desk (not that he has a desk) and tell him to "turn this heaping turd pile into metal awesomesauce, and do it forthwith". Him or scrap princess from Monster Manual Sewn from Pants. Or BOTH! Oh god I just had a small monster-manual induced orgasm at that though. Too much? Too much.
Light and Vision needs some attention... I don't like the whole darkness/shadows garbage, and I don't like low-light vs darkvision and that shite. Simplify this down and use the cover mechanics or something. Also, the pregen halfling rogue has no low-light or darkvision. So he's stealthy but USELESS as a scout in dark areas. Like the Underdark. Where the first adventure is set. Focus WotC. Focus.
In fact, the whole rogue class needs work. 3 skills is insufficient for what has traditionally been the skill-based class. AND WHY DOES THE PREGEN HALFLING ROGUE HAVE NO SLING? Easy to fix, though. Still, weird.
Town Center Map from Blingdenstone. WTF? How hard would it have been to just come up with something that looks like it could actually be used for town centering? (Do gnomes vote? Do they have voter ID laws? Can you tell them apart on photo ID?) I'm all for a mini-crawl, but c'mon, let's at least try to build a map that represents an actual building that somebody would use. Plus the scale is wrong - everything in this game uses 5 ft squares, and all the tiles here are 10 ft. So clearly recycled that it's annoying, but I'll use it and grit my teeth.
Summary:
Obviously a playtest, but miles better than the first one. I like the core rules, I like the modular nature and how the Backgrounds and Specialties slot together to make interesting characters.
Some bits need work, but checks, cover, saves and basic combat seem to hang together OK. Monsters are super-thin, but that's OK for the moment.
Good adventure, some rough bits to it, but interesting to DM and a major, positive change in adventure direction for WotC. Successful night, fun game. I'll be playing this again.
And they are NOT DOING IT FOR ME.
I like pieces of each of them. As a DM, I like encounter building in 4e. I feel like I can create cool and challenging combats very easily in that system - so much so that I'm having a LOT of trouble with something like TMNT which basically has NO rules for building encounters or monsters.
I like the faster combat in Rules Compendium, but the character building is just uninteresting. I don't need 3e or Pathfinder complexity, but Rules Compendium is a bit too bare-bones. Warhammer Fantasy is good - gritty, fairly lethal - not too hard to make encounters... but I'm not used to that system, so it's a challenge to run for the moment.
2e is a bit of a sweet spot for me, as it's what I spent most of my earlier DM years running, and to some extent, that's what the DnD Next Playtest feels like. Some might think that's a bad thing, but it's 2e with the rough stuff filed off, and cracks plastered over with lessons learned from 2 subsequent editions. It isn't spotless yet, but I had more fun running it than I have in quite a while.
That being said, it's obviously a playtest version. Some things definitely could use more thought, but the foundations seem really solid to me.
Pros:
Unified, easy-to-remember mechanics. Tying everything to modified checks using stats is really smart. Clean, flexible and easy-to-remember. A couple of characters wanted to vault a rubble barricade. DC 13 Dex check, please. No fuss, no bother.
Saving throws as checks tied to stats. Yaay. I have always hated saving throws. Simple - easy to remember and flexible enough that I can on-the-fly them. WotC, I salute you.
I'm a bit less in favor of Contested checks. They can end up with a LOT of rolling - like trying to sneak around a number of enemies seems to require contested checks against each. Not going to do that. But the basic premise is sound and fits well mechanically with the rest of the rules.
Combat is quick, dangerous (sorta) and doesn't encourage the 3-minute adventuring day. In our game, I played a PC in addition to DMing, and each player had 2 PCs, for a total of 5 - and they STEAMROLLERED the encounters - but limited HP and healing made the hits they took feel consequential.
Reclaiming Blingdenstone. This is a really good adventure. Miles better than Railroad to the Shadowfell. If it is indicative of the settings/adventures that WotC is working on for this edition, I'll start buying modules again. In fact, I'd forgotten how much I like using a good sandbox module. There are plenty of good adventure hooks, a real feeling of progression and some nice variety in things to do. Best module I've seen since reading the Pathfinder Adventure Paths.
Character creation is easy and interesting with neat background ideas and lots of good stuff for roleplaying, hooks for DMing and generally neat stuff. I handwaved most initial equipment purchases, so I'm not sure if the money system actually works. My suspicion is that it don't.
Cons:
Monsters need all kinds of work. They are boring. And xp value is WAY out of whack. 460 XP for an orc? 200 XP for a zombie. With 9 hp, 20 spd and one attack for d6+2? What the what what?
I threw 1600 XP worth of zombies at the party in an "undead rise from the ruins all around you" ambush. They took 7 hp damage total. 2 encounters (one with 3 orcs, the other with the zombies) and some rp'ing awards and the entire party of 5 characters leveled...
I heard that Zak from DnD with Pornstars is consulting on DnD Next. Mearls - please deposit the entire stack of monsters on his desk (not that he has a desk) and tell him to "turn this heaping turd pile into metal awesomesauce, and do it forthwith". Him or scrap princess from Monster Manual Sewn from Pants. Or BOTH! Oh god I just had a small monster-manual induced orgasm at that though. Too much? Too much.
Light and Vision needs some attention... I don't like the whole darkness/shadows garbage, and I don't like low-light vs darkvision and that shite. Simplify this down and use the cover mechanics or something. Also, the pregen halfling rogue has no low-light or darkvision. So he's stealthy but USELESS as a scout in dark areas. Like the Underdark. Where the first adventure is set. Focus WotC. Focus.
In fact, the whole rogue class needs work. 3 skills is insufficient for what has traditionally been the skill-based class. AND WHY DOES THE PREGEN HALFLING ROGUE HAVE NO SLING? Easy to fix, though. Still, weird.
Town Center Map from Blingdenstone. WTF? How hard would it have been to just come up with something that looks like it could actually be used for town centering? (Do gnomes vote? Do they have voter ID laws? Can you tell them apart on photo ID?) I'm all for a mini-crawl, but c'mon, let's at least try to build a map that represents an actual building that somebody would use. Plus the scale is wrong - everything in this game uses 5 ft squares, and all the tiles here are 10 ft. So clearly recycled that it's annoying, but I'll use it and grit my teeth.
Summary:
Obviously a playtest, but miles better than the first one. I like the core rules, I like the modular nature and how the Backgrounds and Specialties slot together to make interesting characters.
Some bits need work, but checks, cover, saves and basic combat seem to hang together OK. Monsters are super-thin, but that's OK for the moment.
Good adventure, some rough bits to it, but interesting to DM and a major, positive change in adventure direction for WotC. Successful night, fun game. I'll be playing this again.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Warhammer Session 1
Play Summary:
After only 45 minutes of technical wrangling, we had everyone on Skype, connected to the Maptools server and basically playing. A new record for a first session!
Thank you Hamachi for that.
Playing ended up being pretty smooth, thanks to the very good Maptools Warhammer 2e Campaign template I downloaded. We still had some rules lookups, but compared to the first session in other games, it seemed to go pretty well.
The party consists of:
Otto Delschaft (James) - Human Protagonist. All I could think of when I read the character sheet was "Lucius Vorenus". James seemed to agree, although a critical success on a fellowship roll allowed his crude advances to be interpreted as lovable gruffness. I'm not convinced, though.
Elise Reitsmann (Russ) - Human Bounty Hunter. Handy with a crossbow and pretty lucky. Her father sent her out into the world with the immortal advice "try not to get killed, and if you become a whore, don't come back to town." Nice guy, her Dad.
Felix Pallenburg (Mark) - Human Barber/Surgeon. Drives the wagon, swings a mean club, and may possibly be able to patch you up if you are hurt.
Gotrek Durginson (Perry) - Dwarf Rat Catcher. Seems to think he's a warrior, but appears to be a thief on paper. Owns small vicious dog named "Rat". Possible latent death wish.
Flacwise (Greg) - Halfling Layabout - proficient with sling. Not martially inclined but sneaky and seems knowledgeable. In stark contrast to Elise, his Mom sent him out into the world with a pat on the head and a bag full of pies.
Session Summary:
While spending another uneventful evening in the farming village of Gattenburg (population: who cares?) by propping up the local bar with their heads, something interesting actually happens.
A mysterious elven woman named Talline arrived at the inn and informed the shocked innkeeper that the Road was once again open.
Jorg, the innkeeper at the Two Stones, seemed impressed and excited, and explained to the party that his Uncle used to be a trader on the ancient road passing through town that goes to.. other places. He explained that the road had been closed or broken for many years, but that it used to bring strange travelers and wealth to the village.
He explains that Talline needs an escort to the end of the road, and that he's also very interested in reopening trade and exploration. He offers to provide some supplies and equipment, in exchange for information about the road and the right to resell anything that the party brings back.
Rather than enjoy life in Gattenburg, the group agrees. Jorg supplies them with a wagon, some supplies and a couple of draft horses and in the morning they set off down the road with Talline.
A long day's travel sees them across the river and entering the forest. With night falling, they elect to press on, finally reaching the standing stones that mark the end of what Talline calls "This section of the road" by midnight.
When they arrive, Talline explains that there are several ways to open the gates and shows the party a magical ritual which seems to transform the space between the stone pillars into a rippling horizontal pool of water. Before the group can pass though, they are interrupted by a horseman who comes out of the woods.
The armed and armored Elf seems to know Talline, explaining that he's been looking for her. After a brief exchange which confirms that they are brother and sister, Talline invokes some kind of protection agreement, seemingly based on the fact that she is travelling with the party, who are travelling on the road. It seems flimsy, but it appears to work - her brother grudgingly agrees that he cannot attack her directly. He then disappears into the forest, but seems to summon a host of staggering zombie bandits as he vanishes.
Lumbering forward, the zombies encounter a hail of sling and crossbow fire from the party, felling several of them, but the rest press on, led by a massive, hulking specimen. Gotrek and Otto form a battle line, and Felix defends the wagon, with Elise and Flac falling back to continue firing. Talline stands by - seemingly paralyzed by fright.
After a close battle which sees Gotrek, Otto and Flac injured and more zombies emerging from the woods on both sides, Talline begins hurling magical missiles and the party manages to destroy the undead.
Talline thanks the party for their assistance and explains that she is going to use a more powerful spell to temporarily link the gate to a different location than usual - someplace called the "White Palace". She gives the party a reward of 50 gold coins and a scroll with details about the magical ritual used to open the gates. She also explains that each gate opens on a particular stretch of road - usually an area that is visually spectacular or which contains an isolated town or inn that travellers can use.
With that, Talline steps through the gate and disappears, leaving a slightly battered party in the woods at night, staring into a magical gate.
On the Game System:
Pretty straightforward. One of the advantages of WHFRP is that
it's pretty simple. Russ did take the time to read the rules, so things
like Fortune Points, parrying and reload times were brought up. It's the
first time any of us have played that system, but the Maptools Campaign
template I downloaded from http://www.gitzmansgallery.com made things a
lot easier.
I did forget to make fear checks when everyone was fighting the zombies
- that would have probably made a difference. Also, for speed of play I
didn't bother with critical hits for monsters - 0 wounds meant dead. I
may adjust that in the future. No players got crit'ed, but if they had,
this tool is really neat: http://gonensworld.com/crits/wimp/index.php?t=Bullet.
On the Technology:
Skype had a lot of feedback - maybe we'll try Googe+ hangout next time.
Maptools worked pretty well when combined with Hamachi. The port
forwarding is a pain in the ass otherwise. I went so far as to spend 20$ for a
32-person license for Hamachi, as the free 5-person one wouldn't work for our
6-person setup. As I mentioned above, the Maptools template was great,
and the monster pack with stats that I also got from the Gitzman's site made
DMing a ton easier because I didn't have to look up monster stats.
Overall: Good session - bit of role-playing and setup, bit of
wilderness travel, bit of combat. I think WHFRP 2e is a good choice for
the game I want to run.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Flash Fiction Challenge: Operation Legendary Eyetooth
- Operation Mountain Troll
- Operation Legendary Eyetooth
- Operation Shitting Mob
- Operation Irate Hajj
- Operation Prepare to Be Destroyed by Our Bullet
"You dick.
Remind me again why you're sitting the warm car while I'm soaking wet
under a fracking bridge?"
Even over the sound of
the water rushing by inches from his feet, Aaron could hear Travis snickering
through the phone.
"C'mon man,"
Travis replied, obviously fighting to keep from laughing in Aaron's ear,
"think of it as a mission in one of those crap shooters you always play.
Operation Duty of Warfare or something."
"Besides," he
continued, "somebody has to keep an eye on the road to make sure he
doesn't come back while you're inside. We played for it, and you lost,
fair and square. Your 'good old rock, nothing beats rock' technique needs
work, though."
Aaron heard a truck
start inside the compound, and his stomach clenched
up, adrenaline tightening his whole body. "Shut up,"
he hissed into the cell, covering the screen with his hand, "he's coming
out."
The truck came closer,
and Aaron could see the headlights illuminate the bushes on either side of the
wooden bridge, throwing bars of light down through the planks of the
bridge and striping the muddy creek.
Then he heard the gate above start to squeek open, pulled on rusty
wheels by some sort of humming motor.
Then the truck rumbled
overhead. Aaron held his breath,
listening to the bridge groan from the weight of the truck.
‘Embarrassing way to
die,’ he thought to himself. ‘Crushed by
shit-ass bridge built by stoned dope grower’.
But the bridge held, and
the truck rumbled away down the twisting logging road. Gritting his teeth, Aaron pulled himself out
from under the bridge, scrambled onto the gravel road and trotted through the
gate, ducking to the side as soon as he got inside the fence.
The gate itself was
already rolling closed as he got to the shadows. “Hope Travis is right about being able to
open it from the inside,” he thought, trying to fight down the nausea brought
on by mingled terror and excitement.
Standing in the
darkness, Aaron let his eyes adjust for a few seconds. When he could make out
the shapes of the surrounding trees and rocks and see the brighter line of the
logging road he shrugged his backpack up a bit and started walking quickly up
the road.
“I’m inside,” he said
quietly into the cell phone. “Is he
gone?”
“Yeah, he’s gone,”
replied Travis, the laughter gone from his voice now. “Hurry it up, though.”
“I’m fucking hurrying.”
The road climbed
steadily for a couple hundred feet, then flattened off as it broke out of the trees. The flat area was obviously an old
clear-cut. Even in the darkness Aaron
could make out tangles of stumps and old slash that hadn’t been properly
burned. Alongside the road up ahead was
his destination, an old trailer tucked alongside the trees and hung over with camouflage
tarps.
Speeding up to a trot
hustled to the trailer, going up the rickety wooden steps in a bound. The lights were off, but he could hear the
hum of a generator from the woods behind the trailer. Standing in the dark, he listened carefully,
straining to hear any noise from within the building.
Nothing. Nodding, he slowly turned the doorknob and
was more than a little surprised when the door clicked open. Pulling his flashlight from the front pocket
of his hoodie, he clicked it on and slowly opened the door, keeping the light
aimed at the ground.
Inside, he could make
out a dirty floor, boots and pieces of garbage lying around. Still listening carefully he slid in the
door, shining the light around to see more.
The old living room was full of large white buckets, filthy and piled
together, but all empty.
Frowning, Aaron played
the flashlight left, towards the kitchen area.
The beam lit up a confusing tangle of glass flasks, pipes and plastic chemical bottles covering the entire kitchen counter. The stench of chemicals burned Aaron's nose as he slid further into the trailer.
Reaching into his pocket, he flipped the cell back open and pressed redial. Travis answered on the first ring. "Man, what the fuck?" whispered Aaron, "There's no plants in here, you asshole. Just a bunch of chemicals and beakers and shit."
"He keeps them all in big white buckets, the place should be full of them," replied Travis, sounding confused.
"The buckets are here, but they're all empty." snarled Aaron, trying to let his anger out without making too much noise.
"Fuuuckkk... maybe he harvested. Look around - the dope should be all in big wrapped bundles."
"You said.." squawked Aaron, his voice rising to a near-shout before he managed to bring his voice back down. "Alright, I'll look around."
Moving carefully, Aaron headed towards the back of the trailer, sweeping his flashlight back and forth to light up the grubby hallway. The door at the back end of the trailer was open a crack and he nudged it open with the toe of his boot.
The back room had a big table and under the table was the jackpot - square bales in saran wrap. Unslinging his pack, Aaron moved forward quickly, crouching and stuffing the first brick into the bag. He was about to stuff in another when a slight sound made him glance up.
His eyes locked with the red reflections in the eyes of the huge rottweiler as rose from the dog bed in the corner behind the desk.
"Holy SHIIIITTTTTT!!!!" Screaming, Aaron clutched the bag to his chest and bolted out of the room, hearing the clatter of the dog's claws at it tore down the hall behind him. Realizing he wouldn't get to the door in time, he deked left as he got to the kitchen.
The massive dog slid sideways as it tried to follow, then leapt at him. Still shrieking, Aaron dove forward, clearing the kitchen sink and sailing over the counter into the living room. The dog didn't quite clear the junk on the counter and bounced back into the kitchen, smashing glass and scattering bleach and chemical bottles.
Rolling to his feet, Aaron hurled himself out the door, trying to slam it behind him. The dog was too quick, jamming its head between the door and frame, snapping wildly at him. Aaron pulled desperately on the door as the dog's jaws closed on him and it began to thrash it's head from side to side.
For a horrible moment, Aaron was tossed from side to side. He clung to the door, waiting for the pain to hit, until he realized the dog had the backpack, not his flesh in its teeth. Raising his arm, he smashed his elbow down on the dog's snout. Hammering once, twice, until the dog sagged back slightly.
Wrenching himself back, he lashed out with his heavy hiking boot, knocking the snarling dog back through the door, then slamming it shut, seconds before the dog hit the door with a shattering crash.
Sitting on his ass on the porch, Aaron stared at the door, listening to the dog snarl hurl itself at the door. Then the animal hit so hard the whole door shuddered, bending outwards. That got him moving again.
He crossed the clearcut at a sprint, hearing the door give way just as he got to the treeline. He flew down the road with the barking getting louder behind him. Angling to the side of the road, he hurled the backpack over the fence, then hit the chain link without slowing down.
Halfway up the dog hit the fence below him, almost throwing him off. He felt its teeth close on the back of his boot and shrieked again, kicking desperately to throw it off before the weight of it pulled him off the fence. For a horrible second he strained, then the sole of his boot gave way and the dog fell off.
He ripped his hands and pants on the top of the fence, but didn't notice until later. Landing on the other side of the fence, he looked up to see headlights. For a horrible moment he thought he was caught, but then he saw Travis waving from the driver seat of his shit Chevette.
"Holy shit man!" Travis yelled as Aaron threw the pack into the car and jumped in after it. "That was LEGENDARY. You left your phone on. I heard the whole thing."
Too exhausted to talk, Aaron leaned his head back and took deep, shuddering breaths. He barely heard Travis' excited chatter as he turned the car around for the drive out of the bush. One thing caused him to look over. "What do you mean, what is that?" he asked, as Travis stared at the backpack.
It took him a second to recognize the massive tooth stuck in the pack - a canine's canine, he thought, almost drunkenly. Then he leaned his head back again. Just like one of the wargames... Operation Legendary Eyetooth...
Reaching into his pocket, he flipped the cell back open and pressed redial. Travis answered on the first ring. "Man, what the fuck?" whispered Aaron, "There's no plants in here, you asshole. Just a bunch of chemicals and beakers and shit."
"He keeps them all in big white buckets, the place should be full of them," replied Travis, sounding confused.
"The buckets are here, but they're all empty." snarled Aaron, trying to let his anger out without making too much noise.
"Fuuuckkk... maybe he harvested. Look around - the dope should be all in big wrapped bundles."
"You said.." squawked Aaron, his voice rising to a near-shout before he managed to bring his voice back down. "Alright, I'll look around."
Moving carefully, Aaron headed towards the back of the trailer, sweeping his flashlight back and forth to light up the grubby hallway. The door at the back end of the trailer was open a crack and he nudged it open with the toe of his boot.
The back room had a big table and under the table was the jackpot - square bales in saran wrap. Unslinging his pack, Aaron moved forward quickly, crouching and stuffing the first brick into the bag. He was about to stuff in another when a slight sound made him glance up.
His eyes locked with the red reflections in the eyes of the huge rottweiler as rose from the dog bed in the corner behind the desk.
"Holy SHIIIITTTTTT!!!!" Screaming, Aaron clutched the bag to his chest and bolted out of the room, hearing the clatter of the dog's claws at it tore down the hall behind him. Realizing he wouldn't get to the door in time, he deked left as he got to the kitchen.
The massive dog slid sideways as it tried to follow, then leapt at him. Still shrieking, Aaron dove forward, clearing the kitchen sink and sailing over the counter into the living room. The dog didn't quite clear the junk on the counter and bounced back into the kitchen, smashing glass and scattering bleach and chemical bottles.
Rolling to his feet, Aaron hurled himself out the door, trying to slam it behind him. The dog was too quick, jamming its head between the door and frame, snapping wildly at him. Aaron pulled desperately on the door as the dog's jaws closed on him and it began to thrash it's head from side to side.
For a horrible moment, Aaron was tossed from side to side. He clung to the door, waiting for the pain to hit, until he realized the dog had the backpack, not his flesh in its teeth. Raising his arm, he smashed his elbow down on the dog's snout. Hammering once, twice, until the dog sagged back slightly.
Wrenching himself back, he lashed out with his heavy hiking boot, knocking the snarling dog back through the door, then slamming it shut, seconds before the dog hit the door with a shattering crash.
Sitting on his ass on the porch, Aaron stared at the door, listening to the dog snarl hurl itself at the door. Then the animal hit so hard the whole door shuddered, bending outwards. That got him moving again.
He crossed the clearcut at a sprint, hearing the door give way just as he got to the treeline. He flew down the road with the barking getting louder behind him. Angling to the side of the road, he hurled the backpack over the fence, then hit the chain link without slowing down.
Halfway up the dog hit the fence below him, almost throwing him off. He felt its teeth close on the back of his boot and shrieked again, kicking desperately to throw it off before the weight of it pulled him off the fence. For a horrible second he strained, then the sole of his boot gave way and the dog fell off.
He ripped his hands and pants on the top of the fence, but didn't notice until later. Landing on the other side of the fence, he looked up to see headlights. For a horrible moment he thought he was caught, but then he saw Travis waving from the driver seat of his shit Chevette.
"Holy shit man!" Travis yelled as Aaron threw the pack into the car and jumped in after it. "That was LEGENDARY. You left your phone on. I heard the whole thing."
Too exhausted to talk, Aaron leaned his head back and took deep, shuddering breaths. He barely heard Travis' excited chatter as he turned the car around for the drive out of the bush. One thing caused him to look over. "What do you mean, what is that?" he asked, as Travis stared at the backpack.
It took him a second to recognize the massive tooth stuck in the pack - a canine's canine, he thought, almost drunkenly. Then he leaned his head back again. Just like one of the wargames... Operation Legendary Eyetooth...
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