When last we left our party, they had just vanquished the powerful goblin Irontooth. After rummaging through his belongings and the treasure there in the cave, those who were present decided to return to Winterhaven. Once again, the party arrived just before the gates were closed at nightfall.
The next day, reunited with Digron (who'd spent the previous day with Sister Linora, alternately aiding the townsfolk and debating the finer points of Avandra vs. Pelor), they sought and were granted an audience with Lord Padraig. Shocked to hear the news from the note but otherwise glad to be rid of the immediate menace, Padraig bid them keep this new information to themselves. On the way out, the party took their meager reward from the village's coffers.
Then, our heroes found ourselves wondering where to go next. Remembering their unfinished business regarding the mirror with Valthrun, they decided to pay the sage a visit. They found him still fumbling through his many books, but with progress to report – during the reign of the Nerath empire, a keep had been built to seal in a rift to a particularly nasty part of the Shadowfell, an area ruled over by Orcus, demon lord of the undead. After correlating this information with the note they found on Irontooth, the party suspected that this is the site of Kalarel's nefarious work. Valthrun also told them of the last lord of the keep, Sir Keegan, who (under the rift's influence, perhaps) had systematically slaughtered every inhabitant including his own wife and children.
They decided to go search the keep soon, but not so soon that they couldn't get in a little bit of shopping. In the hopes of finding a way to stop the rift from being open Raistlin decided to stay with Valthrun – he might make an important discovery, but either way he can study some of the old man's rituals.
The shop of the boisterous Bairwin Wildarson was the party's destination, as they remembered that during their first night the man had mentioned selling healing potions. Though dubious as to their veracity (the supposed ex-adventurer claimed to not know where exactly he got them), the party purchased 4 of them and decided to make the best of whatever they turned out to be.
The journey to the keep itself was uneventful. Well, what was left of the keep anyways, as everything above ground had been ravaged by the storms of time and, quite possibly, the efforts of thieves and borrowers. The party did find a way into the keep's underground area, however. Whether through the grace of Pelor or keen eyesight, Digron proved that wisdom can be just as good as intelligence sometimes when he saw and told the party of the pit trap directly in front of them.
Through similarly blessed efforts, the party made particularly quick work of the goblins who were on guard at this entrance. Cassandra, in particular, made quick work of one of her opposite number with an arrow splitting the wretched thing's head down the middle as she dashed around the pillars trying to stay undercover. One of the snipers managed to escape down the hallway though and the party followed.
They found nothing but a trio of locked doors. To the West, nothing but a storeroom – to the shame of the brute force required to open the door. Taking the door to the North however, the party hit the jackpot as who should stand before them but the injured sniper. He was no longer alone, however, and the room they just entered appeared to be a torture chamber of sorts.
Balasar charged into the room letting loose his lightning breath, killing the already wounded sniper, leapt over a table and pushed the torturer into his own fire pit. Not one to be daunted by this, the torturer struck back with hot pokers from that very same pit, lighting Balasar on fire. For a brief period, the goblin did something with his armor that appeared to make himself impervious. Digron and Levcis pursued several other goblins around the room, while Cassandra and Sil shot arrow and bolt after the fleeing figures. Despite the fact that it essentially trapped them, several of the goblins took to hiding under the tables and launching attacks from that advantageous position.
In the corner of the room, one lone sniper succeeded in trapping Balasar, inciting his Dragonborn Fury, despite its futility. Not able to free himself, the fighter allowed the others to clean up the rabble while shooting the occasional pellet from his sling to aid them.
Having cleared the room and beginning to take stock of what was around them, the party heard a voice down the short hallway to the west. It turned out to be Splug, a goblin who had been locked up by his fellows – he liked to cheat at cards – after much begging, the party decided to allow him to accompany them. He may lie, but he wasn't lying about his offer of aid as he desperately wanted his freedom.
August 4, 2008
Keep on the Shadowfell, Part 4
August 1, 2008
Dogs in the Vineyard, Three
There's two more pieces of advice in Dogs that I find helpful, to varying degrees if you're playing something other than Dogs.
The first is to drive play towards conflict. This is especially important in Dogs, but it holds for other games too. If the PCs don't struggle to reach their goals or get their beliefs called into question, they gain little from the experience. This doesn't mean you (the GM) have to be adversarial: the PCs can create conflict for each other.
The second is to "escalate, escalate, escalate". In Dogs, this has two meanings: to escalate conflicts in an attempt to determine how far your PCs are willing to go and to escalate the source of the conflict to figure out how strong the PCs convictions are. The first is whether they're willing to fight (or pull a gun, especially pull a gun - guns are the only way to die in Dogs without a chance of medical intervention). The second is only useful once your players have grown into their characters and you know what they feel strongly about (say, "love is always righteous," to use an example from Dogs). Then you can change to the cause but keep the result something that could be covered by their conviction ("really? how about this sin/sinner?") but that is/seems far worse.
July 31, 2008
Dogs in the Vineyard, Two
I finished reading through Dogs last night. It's nice and short - only 140 some-odd pages.
It's also the source (but not the origin) of the oft repeated, "Say yes or roll the dice." It may not work in all kinds of games, but the idea is important: unless something interesting is going to happen along the way, the players succeed at what they want to do. If they want to go somewhere, and the trip is uneventful, they get where they were going. If they're searching for something, and not finding it doesn't present an interesting option, they find it.
Some of this is facilitated by the style of game that Dogs presents, though. The game isn't about the story or the search or the fights - it's about how the Dogs decide to resolve the town's issues and what that reveals about their characters. People are going to come to the Dogs with their issues in the town, because they know the Dogs are supposed to do something about it. Whether that turns out the way the NPC wants it to is whole separate matter.
July 29, 2008
Dogs in the Vineyard, One
I'm numbering this because I may want to talk about this later.
For now though, I'll just link to the source.
July 24, 2008
Combat Tracker
http://code.google.com/p/4ecombattracker/
That's where you can find my combat tracker. It's totally non-functional (the trunk version, anyways). I'm using "/branches/initiative/" to get the basic turn order stuff working.
Hopefully putting this out there will be a good experience. Plus, I'm trying out VisualSVN to handle my stuff. It's basically a VS plugin to handle source control via TortoiseSVN. I'm just on the trial now, but if it works out, I'll buy it.
July 23, 2008
Combat Tracker
My creative functions are being seriously consumed by efforts to create a 4E combat tracker. It would work for other things too, just not so easily.
That and watching the end of the latest series of Doctor Who.
July 22, 2008
Keep on the Shadowfell, Part 3
We join our intrepid heroes after a restful night in the inn. Pondering the cryptic message given by their mentor but more driven by the strange mirror that Agrid and his crew were crating up, they went to visit Valthrun in his tower.
Not a very tall building, but tall in the scale of Winterhaven and its environs, the tower stands five stories tall. The group climbed the staircase up to the fourth floor before finally getting an answer - for future reference, the sage only occupies the top two floors of the tower - from Valthrun. After much study among his library, he finds the runes that match the mirror: they are the signature runes of one of the great wizards of Nerath, the ancient human empire that used to rule these lands. He offers to take the mirror off of the adventurers hands - Valthrun's a bit of a collector of lore and artifacts - but, being a rush, they left the mirror with him for the time being, under the assumption of a deal to be made later.
With nothing else particular to do and a desire to gain a name in the region, our heroes - minus Digron, whom the party assumes has been called away by Pelor to spread his word - take off in the direction of the kobold lair.
Upon reaching a clearing, Cassandra noticed a group of kobolds just on the other side of the tree line near a waterfall. Raistlin made several attempts to distract by magically projecting his voice, but these attempts were only met with moderate success.
From their vantage point behind the trees the party decided to mount a surprise attack on the band of kobolds, who appeared to be guarding something (the mouth of the cave in this case). The surprise was imminently successful as a combination of attacks from Balasar (Lightning Breath!, aided by furious attacks from Levcis) and Raistlin took out most of the kobold party and the follow-ups from Cassandra and Sil wiped out the rest of the forward guard. The attack did not, however, succeed in preventing warning from reaching the cave, as a kobold (who had failed to either set Balasar on fire or glue him to the ground on two subsequent attacks) fled inwards shouting, "Irontooth must be warned!"
The party rested briefly before venturing forth into the waterfall hideout. Levcis and Balasar split up, which had the unfortunate side effect of Levcis being overwhelmed and flanked by kobolds who dropped him but didn't finish the job. Balasar persevered through this onslaught despite being briefly stuck to the floor by the kobold who had fled the previous fight and through accurate placement of his fiery sphere, Raistlin took out many of the small creatures.
Cassandra and Sil helped Balasar with his batch of kobolds while Raistlin took out most of the ones who'd slaughtered Levcis. Then, through a miraculous recovery, Levcis managed to get up off the ground. Short thereafter a bellowing roar came from the back of the cavern and several more kobolds and a goblin - Irontooth - emerged from the shadows.
Wielding two battleaxes, Irontooth made for a monstrous opponent, but the party was smart and managed to avoid the brunt of his attacks. Taking shots where available, maneuvering Raistlin's fiery orb into a flanking position, and using hit and run tactics all got the goblin to the point where he was seriously injured. Cassandra struck the final killing blow with her longbow, but not before he knocked Balasar and Levcis unconscious. As he died, the goblin cried out, "Kalarel and Lord Orcus, prepare my way!" Some quick first aid from Sil and Raistlin kept them from perishing.
We leave our party as they rest and search through the place to see what they could find. Read More......Random Thoughts (D&D 4E)
So, one of my favorite things in 4E is the ability to bring down the PCs without seriously endangering the party. Well, without necessarily being a TPK anyways.
My group of players barely managed to take out Irontooth last night. They took good care to stack damage on top of him fairly well. He did manage to take out two of their party members though.
July 18, 2008
Keep on the Shadowfell, Part 2
Our intrepid heroes (minus Balasar), fresh from a night of rest and morning of haggling, decide to go after their mentor, Douven. Before they get more than a mile outside of town, however, they're ambushed by another pack of kobolds.
These kobolds are no weaklings, but turn out to be far less than a match for our group. A fiery blast from Raistlin and a radiant blast from Sil sends one of the skirmishers fleeing, while Levcis and Digron boldly protect their less armored companions from attack by the kobolds front line. This should daunt the remaining kobolds, but their vicious wyrmpriests bolster their companions' courage through an incitement of faith. After beating back the opponent to his last man and surrounding the remaining wyrmpriest, the priest launches an orb of energy angrily at Digron. This backfires, however, as he leaves himself open to attacks from all sides. He manages to launch the attack but, being overwhelmed, he misses. With the fight concluded, the party searches the corpses and they find a necklace on one of the wyrmpriests - one that Raistlin recognizes as a crude idol to Orcus, demon lord of the undead.
The party then ventures forth into a montage! as they attempt to find the dragon burial site based on Eilian's map:
- Digron helps out Raistlin and provides first aid for the wizard when he nearly breaks his ankle in a hidden hole in the ground…
- Levcis rushes to the top of the nearest hill to get a better view and spots something likely…
- Raistlin consults his knowledge of the area's history to judge which direction to travel when they come a fork in what looks like an ancient path…
- A little further in, Cassandra climbs up tree to get a good a view and they get closer…
- Sil looks deep into the hearts and minds of his companions, but can't tell whether they're going in the right direction or not…
- As the party encroaches on the location of the burial site, they start to find increasing marks (broken twigs, light footprints, disturbed branches), and finally find themselves at an opening into the burial site…
Meanwhile, back in the village, Balasar goes around town, introducing himself to as many of the townsfolk as he can. None seem to know him, but they're all a little repulsed - whether they detect something vicious within the young dragonborn or merely don't trust him is a mystery. He then takes off into the forest after the people who helped him make it into town.
No dragon awaits them, however. Instead, a band of humans led by a gnome and a halfling and protected by a pair of nasty looking drakes (think dragonkin hounds, in this case) starts up a conversation. Even though Agrid, the gnome, tries to pretend that he's a companion of Douven's, Sil sees right through it and the fight begins. But not before Balasar makes it to the edge of the clearing.
From there the combat flows in a blur of furious action: the guard drakes charge after Balasar when he sends a rock flying over their heads; Raistlin takes a bold step forward and kills two of the humans with a blast of fire; Cassandra moves to better vantage point and attacks the Agrid, winging him. Through Pelor's merciful healing - courtesy of Digron - and Levcis's encouraging words such as, "Way to use your head!" after Cassandra is knocked unconscious by one of the halfling's slung rocks, the party survives. Balasar crushes in the skull of one of the drakes with a brutish blow; Sil tries and repeatedly fails to hit the halfling; Raistlin summons a sphere of fire that manages to harm Agrid (Cassandra gets the final blow). After ganging up on the halfling, Raistlin's fiery sphere kills it.
Tied up in the corner of the dig site, the party finds their mentor, Douven. Surprised at his rescuing party (he thinks correctly that his wife must have sent them), he thanks them profusely - he rips an amulet of health from Agrid's unconscious neck, takes out a picture of his wife, and gifts it to the party. Then, apparently in a rush, he teleports away - apparently an arcane casting, but neither Sil nor Raistlin can see the inner workings of it - but not before leaving these words in the air: "Keep an eye on the dragonborn, for he can be your greatest ally, but he will also lead you to a dire foe."
Puzzled (and wishing for rest), the party searches the site, finding a non-magical mirror carved with mystic symbols and a robe of firebrand armor. They then return to town, uneventfully, arriving just before the gates are closed at nightfall. Read More......Encounter Design
So I mentioned the difference between 4E NPC/Monster and PC design yesterday, and today I'm going to talk about 4E encounter design.
First of all, throwing together or adjusting an encounter to smaller/larger groups is easy with a simple XP per player "budget" for each encounter level. If you need adjust an encounter to your group size, you just add or remove monsters to fit the budget.
The harder part comes in if your group doesn't have an "ideal" makeup - which is to say, it doesn't have all four of the Leader, Defender, Striker, and Controller roles covered. Then you might have to adjust the kind of monsters you use (if using a published adventure). There are suggestions for how to handle this, and it basically boils down to this:
- If you're missing a leader the team will hurt in terms of bonuses, but you can give out healing potions to compensate for the healing.
- If you're missing a defender, your leaders are probably going to need to step up to the front lines. You may also need to limit the number of "brute" and "soldier" monsters that you put in your encounters because the party is less able to deal with the threats they represent.
- If you're missing a striker, you don't actually have to do much. Your party may need to retrain themselves so that they focus more on damage output though.
- If you're missing a controller, you may wish to use fewer minions in your encounter due to your lack of AoE. It can be partially made up for by a Fighter with Cleave or a Dragonborn character that can take being in the front lines (they have a breath attack they can use each encounter).
July 17, 2008
NPC and Monster Generation
One of the biggest differences between Character Creation and and NPC/Monster generation in D&D 4E is the difference in the shear number of powers available to them.
You're free to create NPCs the same way you do characters, but unless you want them to be an incredibly powerful nemesis (most monsters/NPCs don't have the same pool of powers as characters), you're not supposed to. Instead they build from the same set of powers, but have fewer. Less flexibility overall, in fact.
July 15, 2008
Keep on the Shadowfell, Part 1
Even though it was skirted by, our intrepid heroes came across a dragonborn soldier with no memory other than his name: Balasar.
Then came an encounter with a band of kobolds, who were largely annihilated by the dragonborn's lightning breath (to the shock of both Balasar and some of the other party members - they knew this was possible, but had never seen it before), and scorching blast of fire from Raistlin kept him in the fray.
In an attempt to disable a foe who had snuck her blade under his ally's armor, one of the sneakier kobolds rooted Cassandra to the place she stood. This could stop the comparatively young elf, however, and once her nearby foes were vanquished - with the aid of a dizzying attack from Digron, as well as some healing - she switched to the longbow that childhood with her people had taught her to use. That same kobold, continuing to lurk around the edges of the combat, set Sil on fire before attempting to flee.
Not to be daunted by a lowly fleeing kobold, Balasar, Levcis, and Sil followed in hot pursuit. Levcis struck the final blow with sword, but remained dazed for several minutes. The party decide to strip the kobolds bare and the resulting haul brought them great fortune.
Now in the village of Winterhaven, our heroes have found what comparatively little word they could of Douven Staul, their mentor. Of course, this doesn't amount to much - merely a map to where the burial site he was investigating should be, according to the amateur historian of the village, Eilian the Old. They've also been hired by the town leader, Lord Padraig (descendant of the Lords of the village from back when this was still part of an ancient human empire), to dispatch the kobold menace for which they shall be rewarded greatly. As greatly as such a meager village can afford, at least.
For the time being, however, Balasar is going to search the walled village and surrounding farms for clues to his past. Meanwhile the rest of the party prepares to venture forth, but towards what goal? Read More......July 12, 2008
Where Does the Good Go?
Wow...I did it again. That's what I get for transcribing character sheets all night.
I've apparently created some sort of monster with this D&D thing. Let me tell you why I say this.
A character that was just a plot hook to get the party into the right general area (their mentor in the ways of excavating and dungeon-diving), has gone from being the man who raised several of them into a mysteriously ancient figure. This is due at least in part to the fact that he rescued the dwarf (who's 161) as an infant and yet is somehow still alive.
Our elf and our half-elf took my suggestion that they could be half-siblings, and I think they both hate their father for leaving their families behind.
We also have at least two non-sibling sibling rivalries going over the attentions of the mentor.
It's really nutty.
July 11, 2008
Keep on the Shadowfell, Character Creation
Ok, that was the first time I've missed a post, but be honest: a lot of my posts aren't worth the bits they take up.
Last night was the character creation session for my D&D game that's going to start with Keep on the Shadowfell (H1). Here's the party we have:
- Levcis, Tiefling Warlord - This is the most adventurous character we have, as he's actually possessed on occasion by two Demons
- Digron, Dwarven Cleric of Pelor
- Raistlin (I may have to get this changed, but it's kind of funny), Human Wizard
- Balasar, Dragonborn Fighter (with Expanded Lightning Breath!)
- Cassandra, Elf Rogue (motto: "Take Him!" *points at ally next to her*)
- Sil, Half-Elf Star Pact Warlock (he took the wizard's Ray of Frost for an encounter power)
I left them with as close to cliffhanger as I can, leading them right into the ambush that makes up the first encounter. I plan on rolling back the clock just a little bit so we can get a bit of roleplaying out of them as no one should expect the Spanish Inquisition.
I can already see some corrections and additions I need to make to some of the character sheets, but that's ok because even I was overwhelmed. Someone really needs to come up with a step by step way to fill out character sheets, or at least make such a way more prominent. Also, and I don't know if this is normal or not, but I'm assuming that classes that use implements have non-magical, non-enhancing implements that they use to channel some or all of their powers through. Read More......
July 5, 2008
Social Contracts
They're everywhere, whether explicitly written or implicitly known. In most situations, it's generally common sense (well, assuming that you were raised in the society in question) but at the gaming table, it can be a really big deal.
But just like most human societies, there are parts that are sort of implicit. Adherence to the rules of the chosen system, save where they don't cover what's happening or where group has agreed not to abide by them, for instance.
Others aren't, otherwise there wouldn't be a whole lot of point to this post. In many groups, the parts that you'd wish were more explicit are still implicit which can cause problems. It can be important to get some of this stuff out there to get everyone on the same page (more).
Monster Creation
So, I've been reading through the 4E DMG and MM and I just want to say: encounter, monster, and potentially combatant NPC creation seems easier than ever.
Encounters are just an issue of sticking monsters together until they hit a certain XP goal for your party's size and level. So, no more "two CR 5 monsters equal a CR 7 encounter" which is just a little insane.
Unless you need to make a really custom monster, there are simple enough creation rules in the DMG. Of course, there's still an option that's always been available to DMs: re-skin them. Call an existing monster something different, change any relevant descriptions and voila! Instantly new monster. What's great about this is that now it's actually suggested in the DMG.
NPC creation is similar, but there's one great thing that's out there now with the way that PC powers work. No longer does a special power mean that the NPC has to have a magic item providing it (or a spellbook including it), which means there's no obligation to provide such an item as loot.
Even better: the DMG spells out the expected item loadouts per character level, so there's not guessing and there's no "I should XXXXXXgp worth of items".
July 3, 2008
Good Advice
If you're interested in running a D&D (or, really any kind of roleplaying) game, there are a few sites out there that can help.
- Dungeon Mastering
- Gnome Stew (previously Treasure Tables)
- Roleplaying Tips
- Musings of the Chatty DM
July 2, 2008
Woohoo!
I think I might actually be getting my D&D game off the ground. Now let's just hope I can keep it going once it starts.
I'll be running Keep on the Shadowfell for certain, and maybe H2 as well (hell, H3 if it's out in time to use it).
June 20, 2008
More Darkmagic
Episode 4 of the Penny Arcade/PvP D&D 4E Podcast is online.
It's a bit of a cop-out post, true, but here it is anyway.
June 13, 2008
Bad Rollers
Apparently, cartoonists can't get a break, at least when it comes to rolling d20s. Part 3 of the Penny Arcade/PvP D&D 4E podcast was posted yesterday.
Read More......