OK, so here's the deal, yo...

Started a new group last night. When I say new, I mean *NEW*

Six players, plus me running gives us a full group. Of the players, one other has extensive experience, one other has good experience, and three of the others are familiar with Console/Computer RPGs. The last knows almost nothing about gaming. On the whole I am positive about the group, all bright eyed and bushy tailed as it is We actually have one more player on the sidelines but I am very very against 7+ parties. I think 5 is perfect, but 4, or 6 can be good too. 3 is tough, but also doable. 7... yeah, why don't you three go smoke for about two hours while we finish up this sidebar... Not fun at all.

Ok, so I decided against pre-gens based on the groups massive inexperience. I was talking with some other friends and the idea of walking the players through their characters creation, leaving the decisions to them will allow them to immediately get a grip on the system and become entirely involved in the game. As opposed to pushing a cardboard cutout of 'their' character.

Here is what they came up with: Dual Kukri wielding Human Fighter, Great Sword Human Fighter, Dual wielding Half-elf Paladin, Half-orc Rogue with a Greataxe, Half-elf rogue and a Human Cleric of Saranrae (Fire/Heaaling Domains). The Player with the cleric was going to play a Sorc, but changed when he saw the party did not have a medic. In that change, his Cleric is going to be one heck of a Medic, too. Starting with a 17WIS and a 16 CHA, he could also easily be the party's face.

After we set up their characters we talked a bit about Alignment and Background. I am not too worried about Alignment, but I do want the guys to set themselves up with solid back stories. It connects them better to their PCs and gives me fodder for sidequests in the future So far, this is what they have collectively: They are all from the same village, some of them had gone thier own way for a time, but were back home for a visit. All six of them went with their village's market wagons to sell the village's wares. When they returned, they found the village burned to the ground-no survivors. The Temple of Saranrae was torn down, brick by brick. Even the foundation was cracked...

Here is what I have planned: Long Term I will be running "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" So, to give continuity from their backstory to the ToEE, the village was sacked by a band from the ToEE. The local temple of Saranrae was destroyed because the Reliquary beneath the church (that even the local priest did not know about!) held some ancient evil device that the ToEE needed. The parties first quest: Explore the reliquary and discover the secret of the ToEE.

Let me know if I should publish updates. We are planning on playing twice a week

GNOME

You magnificent bastard. I hate you very much right now. I really do

What levels you starting them at? ToEE was pretty nasty if I recall right.

Played a game in that dungeon. At some point in the beginning of the dungeon, if I recall correctly, there are two massive mithril doors. Wizard casts 'Item' to turn them into small, light weight objects, and we walk out with all the treasure we need.

--DF2K

Updates please! I ran my group through that back in the day.

They carried a lantern into the Mill...

*squee*

Right now the part is 1st, and we have only rolled up characters. I will run other, simple AtoBtoCtoD type adventures to get the players used to playing

In regards to the Item'ing of the Mithy Doors: quick adjudication--They are warded. Make a Caster Level Check against a 15th level Caster so, some luck would pull it off, but it's not a gimme. However, if the players did that, Heck yeah! Good thinking. Congratulate them. And then nerf the loot from that point on. So, at the end of the quest they get a whole lot of +1 Daggers and Potions of Cure Light Wounds It's not about 'revenge' but about balance...

OK, updates it is. Battle Reports if you will. With some pics, too.

Orcboy, it's not too late to enlist! and with your education you could come in as an E4! Sounds good, no? Then you could come to Durkadurkastan with and game with us

GNOME

Put me down for updates too

re: Mithral Doors

Events like this turn the campaign into 'Dungeon's and Money Management'. Can you find someone with enough money to buy the entire door? Do you need a super skilled blacksmith to separate pieces for sale, without ruining the metal? If you keep them small and portable, how do you protect them from being pick pocketed? If you leave them big, who stays behind to guard them? The easiest way I can think of to deal with this horribly unbalancing bit of creativity, would be for the party to essentially be forced to put them in the biggest 'bank' for a somewhat steady savings account/small income trickle. Of course its highly probable that someone higher level or the local lord would just take it.



On the plus side, that's a few months of game content, provided to you from the players.

We took the doors to a dwarf clan, who made us magical gear out of one door, and we payed them with the other. It was also 2nd edition, or AD&D as it was called. Oh, THAC0, how I've missed thee.

--DF2K

Antimagic shell on the doors should be a given, no?

Either that, or some sort of reflective charm that bounces the spell back at the caster.





Always fun to walk around with an ex-wizard chesspiece in your pocket...

Oh, 3rd Edition Ring of Spell Turning, how I miss thee.

These were the days that if it wasn't in the book, it didn't exist. It was more roll-play than roleplay. Plus, if you stump the GM, you should win a prize, right?

EDIT: Then again, there was also the time the older players (I was only 15 at the time) got drunk. Quickly it was noticed that, "Hey! They have muther F-ing Geese in the PHB!" Needless to say, soon there were over 1,000 geese crammed into the nearest inn with us... I've moved on to bigger and more mature games, but the memories remain.

--DF2K

To add to fond memories, a group I played with several years ago ran a one-night quest as a break from the norm. We had a party of 4 pregens for us...they were a group of 3 ogres led by an ogre mage. The quest was we were infiltrating a human castle to steal some relics and cattle for food. I played one of the ogres. We each had our own pre-gen back stories and mine was I was the son of the former chieftain who was killed and replaced as tribe head by the ogre mage who was an outsider who joined our tribe and used big words to win support.

So the mage laid out an elaborate plan of stealthily sneaking in, disabling guards, and making off with the goods. Well, you know what they say about plans and first contact with the enemy and do you think that applies any less to a group of ogres? I think the stealthy part lasted about 5 minutes before all hell broke loose and we were running a muck in the castle pillaging the women and raping the cattle...or was it supposed to be the other way around? (Ogres forget these things).

Anyway, the quest ended with most of the humans hiding in terror and all the ogres smacking each other around for various selfish and background appropriate reasons. At the end the mage was the sole survivor and fled into the night with no loot for his troubles.

We have our first two casualties One was a guy (new, half orc rogue) decided he din't want to play. Bye. The other was a bit more frustrating. The guy (new, human fighter) got moved onto an opposing shift. He works at least an hour after we stop That one sucks.

However...

The party realizes the village is burning and hurry into town. After a quick search they realize there are no survivors and not enough bodies. Also the temple of Saranrae (Fire and Redemption) has been torn apart, brick by brick, and the foundation has been cracked. Under the crack there is a stairwell, exposed just enough to clamber into. Once the party gets below they realize they are in a secret Reliquary. Obviously, whoever attacked the village was after what was under the Church. The party explores and finds an empty and desecrated altar guarded by several goblins. They also find a living area with a couple of illuminated books describing an unknown hero of Saranrae, that for his works was blessed with long life and health. They also found clues that the priest that tended the temple was the same hero from 400 years before! On further exploration they find a cleric studying scrolls and books. When the party attacked her, her two guards burst out of a side room and attack the party as well. After a close hard melee in which two party members were knocked out, they slew the priestess and her two berserker guards. They found a 'book of prayers' written in Gibberish; the rantings of a madwoman. They also recovered some minor loot-A set of Chainmail, a masterwork heavy mace and two greatswords. The party also neted 330xp.

I am using the +10% to best RP and +10% to MVP. The party concensus was that the Cleric was MVP-he had some timely healing bursts and kept everyone alive if not exactly safe. The RP went to the Human Rogue: he did veery little (three locked doors, all broken when he couldn't get the lock) but, he tried

GNOME

Second Session:

I admit I was in a foul temper on this one: We started late for two reasons-An unseemly long meeting that made me 45 minutes late topped by interference from bad guys. Everyone's safe and we got started

The party knows the village of Hommlet is to the North, but not exactly how far. On the road, they stop at a place called Kingsholm and are approached in the tavern... "Please help us!" and, in the interest of *going* the party conceded yes, we will go, and asked only one question, "How much?" Like I said, I was in a bad mood and chose *not* to try to RP the encounter. I feel bad about it, in that I failed to encourage PC/NPC interaction and just got to the "throw dice and kill shit" phase... OK, regardless, the party moves out to the graveyard that is very well tended and has not seen any disturbance in living memory-and with the Demihumans in the village, that's about 100 years! When they get there, they find a pair of guardsmen savaged my animals and the animals that did the savaging. A pack of three wolves definitely made the party sweat (mainly because my *low* die to Trip was a 16!). Once they got inside they found a set of 'guards' two zombies and three skeletons... Whack/Slash and voila, fight's over. The party sweated the Wolves and cake walked the undead. Dice will be dice

Now, we play again on Sunday night. Hopefully we can get a solid 4-5 hours, but we will see how it pans out

GNOME

It's always a pain when events conspire against you.

In those sorts of scenarios, I would advise against continuing any story/RP heavy adventuring.

For example, in this instance you could have held the village off til next time, but still had the wolf encounter or a red herring party of travelling bandits (no story advancement, but lots of killing followed by creative searching and a lead into the village).

Obviously this is easy to think of or suggest in hindsight, but it's something to consider for the future - keep a small non-story addy handy for times when you're not on form.


..of course you're spannered if your players don't want to do sidequests...

A good session last night...

We got off to an easy start. Most of us arrived a bit early, and we waited as we have another new player. She says she loves D&D so I assume she has some clue about what she's doing. She was a no-show, but I don't want to count it against her; her invite was rather informal and I do not know what she was told...

So, the party cleans up from their fight against the zombies and skeletons and headed out. After investigating a corridor they opened the door to an immaculate crypt. The crypt looked like it had just been cleaned; the sarcohagi were polished, the floor spotless and no dust anywhere to be seen. There was a reason the room was immaculate: the Clockwork Tenders that guarded the room. Looking like giant wasps, about 6" long with buzzing metal wings and wicked stingers these janitors from hell assaulted the intruding party. All told the party took about 8 total points of damage and about 10 total points of DEX damage! A nasty nasty encounter for level one PCs... However, they survived if at great pains to themselves and recovered the broken clockworks as well as some minor jewelry from the bodies in the sarcophogi. Next the part moves down the adjacent set of stairs and finds two skeletal wolves at the bottom of the stair! This fight was a lot closer for the party than it had any business being; the party was canalized on a narrow stair and the wolves were dead accurate, the party was not. The party was also hurt from previous encounters, and these two wolves were fresh (do not pardon the puns ) I took a pause in-game to talk about Triage in RPGs. I explained that the cleric's efforts were mislaid: he would be better off letting the weaker/less productive PCs to stay on the ground, dying and focus on keeping the pirme damage dealer on his feet. Once he did that, the tank was able to lay out the wolves and open some battle space. I think in that fight, the party inflicted about 30 points of damage (the wolves had 13 each) while they themselves took about the same... not a good plan to have that poor a trade off. So, after that, the party rested and recovered some DEX and HP. Also, the clock advanced to about Dawn so the Cleric got his spells and Channeling ability back.

Notes: Get a damned shield! I don't know how many times I hit a character by exactly, or by 1! the two points of Shield Bonus would save this party a lot of grief. Especially on the Cleric. Weapon flexibility! The only Fighter in the party now is a dual wielder-and all he has are his two Kukris. No bow, no basher... When it was suggested by the party that he take a bow they had looted from a skellie, he was like, "Why?" I about wanted to pull out my hair. So you can fight in *ANY* circumstance!!! *sigh* and that guy is *not* one of the novices...

Did I ever tell you I would rather play than run? If I do get to play, I may go ahead and run a Battle Cleric, or maybe a Melee Wizard... hmmm... Eldritch Knight...

GNOME

If your party wants to play a more swashbuckling "high magic" campaign, as opposed to a low magic gritty combat campaign, it could be useful to know

One of the better gaming groups I played with a few years back, fell apart because the GM's vision of the campaign (combat-heavy, high fantasy, gods-and-demons, episodic, and epic in a comic-book sense) consistently did not match the intent of any of the players (character-driven, dark/gritty, low fantasy, and highly local), and eventually the incongruity came to a head in a rather nasty spat, with the result that none of the players really felt like playing again.

I've just started up a campaign with several novice players, and the first session was a traditional dungeon crawl; the second was your standard "wander around town, hang out at an inn and interact with NPCs, learn about he adventure hook and go off and kill the monster" bit. They all had a lot of fun, so I asked them if they wanted to continue the campaign in that vein, or go off on on an untraditional, weird direction that I described as "LOST meets The Twilight Zone meets Land of the Lost meets The Prisoner." They enthusiastically voted for the latter, but if they had wanted the former, I would have kept that going.



One of my players has an elven assassin, but he chose a glaive (a freaking polearm!) and a scimitar for his starting weapons--no stereotypical swords or bows. I rewarded him for doing something so refreshing with his character. Another player--a relative newbie, remember--decided to play a priestess of Hanali Celanil, the elvish love goddess. She's already used her awesome Charisma to sweet-talk the local king into giving her and the party a hefty reward for killing the monster that had been eating the merchants along one of the roads leading to town.

Well, I delayed getting this dispatch out, but here it is:

I TPK'd the group.

Harsh, I know, but I roll the dice in the open (except for traps and secret doors and some other 'secret' rolls)

The situation was the party had just finished off the two skeletal wolves and then rested. The Cleirc, the Rogue and the Fighter all leveled to 2. They still had some damage, but not too much. They approached the next set of stairs and saw a HUGE zombie! The kukri fighter was up front, and though he wasn't surprised, he was flat footed. The OZ charged and *SWAT* bashed the fighter, leaving him with only a few HP. The Fighter assumed (without me prompting) the Zombie needed a bashing weapon to bypass it's DR. So, he spent most of his first turn getting a morning star from the Paladin. No one else was in position to maneuver to help, and the Ogre bashed the fighter again, putting him down. The Paladin stepped up and cut the zombie a good one, but paid for his efforts by getting clobbered. He dropped. The Druid (did I mention the guy that replaced the second dropped player? oops.) and her cat moved in to help, the cat tried to scramble past the ogre, but failed it's acrobatics roll and got smacked-it did not go down. The druid cast CLW on the fighter and the Cleric Channeled Positive to get the fighter back on his feet. All of naught. The zombie from this point on hit each character one time and laid them out, the cleric unfortunately was the first in this series of pain. The party never got into a decent position to fight the Zombie, and they paid the price. However, it was a 'fair' fight.

It was a CR3 Mob that had the tactical advantage over the party that was average level 2, and had five members. The party made some bad tactical decisions and it cost them. However, the players were all like, OK! they were not sore from what had happened, quite the contrary. The players were excited to see how the game worked, and that the game was not 'pointclickwin' system. One of the players said, "Now that I know the game a little better, my next character will be better." That is an amazing attitude. Oh, and he was one of the n00bs!

So, the rest of our session was making new PCs. And me handing off the reigns. Our former rogue is now the DM And, everyone has new PCs.

Half Orc Barbarian--He is a beat stick. Great axe and tough as heck. Human Fighter--Spiked Chain Weilding technique fighter. The player and I debated the pros and cons of Chain over Flail, and though I disagree on the details, he has a solid build and should be able to make bad things happen to bad guys. The guy that last had the Paladin is now the Cleric; and he is set to be a rock solid heal-bot. Not much form physical stats, but an 18 WIS and 16 CHA! Our 'caster' (I use the term loosely) is a Draconic Sorc that is looking to Dragon Disciple. He is going to be a melee monster as he levels. And I have the rogue. If she survives, she is going into Duelist at character level 9. We will see.

Over all the party has a very high level of beat down available, and sometimes that works. *crosses fingers*

Our party backstory is such: Alayna (the Rogue) is from a place called "The Shackles." The Shackles is famous as a pirate/salver haven. The whole 100mile+ coastline and associated islands are filled with a more murderous hive of scum and villainy than even Mos Eisley. Well, the story goes, Alayna decided "Screw this, I am leaving" and her and her Barbarian friend tried to free the Draconic Sorc that was being sold into slavery and got caught. Their punishment was to be left on a rock in the middle of the sea that goes below high tide... Fortunately, there was a ship that sailed by and they signaled it. The ship was host to a senior priest of Iomadae (Justice, Honor...) and his Acolyte. The senior priest knowing he had these obvious refugees over a barrel insisted that to be saved, they needed to submit to a Geas to assist his Acolyte on a very important mission. So, the de facto party leader is the cleric of Iomadae and we are his 'aides' I think it's awesome!

We play later tonight

GNOME

Sounds awesome Gnome! This is making me want to start or join a RPG game around here...of course I hardly have the time to get in a game of 40K with Cam, let alone start a PnP RPG game.

Sounds like an awesome group if they reacted to a TPK like that.

mmm, death...

Last night's game had very little structure. It was just weird. Without explanation we were in front of a large tavern hosting a big gambling tournament. So, having a swashbuckley type I paid to enter and then promptly lost my wages! In any event, a group of badguys made a play for the prize chest. In a blast of Color Spray three out of five of us were blind, and the bad guys started their plan. However, the Sorc and the Cleric were not so affected. The Sorc got into the middle of their robbery and made use of his Intimidation (+10 at level 1!). Once we got clear of our blindness, we quickly finished off the villains. We captured one and she was rather unhelpful about why it had happened....

Now, a breakdown on "motivation". The published adventure the DM is/was running (he has not decided to stay with it...) assumes that the PCs will stay in place and 'work for' the bartender. In many cases, sure. But, as the parties 'motivation' is based entriely on our Cleric's belief that we are striving for the Right it's hard to justify being bouncers in a tavern...

So, not having a good reason to protect the bar itself, Alayna figured we could get paid and have a place to stay if we 'used the tavern as a base to fight crime in the local community'. One of the guys said, 'like superheroes' and got a high-five for making me laugh With this idea in mind, you know, fighting crime, we made our way to the Docks where a band of half-orc cutthroats did their work. We found their hangout and walked right in. (Swashbuckler, arrogant...) Alyana picked a fight and though we won it, she got badly hurt. It was good though, the party is using much more sound tactics now than before, focusing on getting flanking shots and blocking for the Cleric.

Over all we netted a substantial amount of cash and some decent xp (already to 700 of 1330 to level )

GNOME

Sweet!

Gobbo,
You are right: it's a good group that works well together. We all know each other from being in the same unit, though we work in different areas. When novices learn that the game has in-game consequences, they work harder and understand better that cooperation is to their benefit It's almost as if the TPK was the best thing that could have happened to them. Now, they are looking more broadly at what is going on in the game: "what can I do that will work best?"

For my part, I work on letting them play and supporting them. I have to rein myself in and let things happen. This is doubly important as it is *our* game, not my game and I am not the DM anymore Last session I did a mediocre job of this. At sometimes I would give rules advice unasked (bad!) but, when my PC was unconcious, I din't add much (good!). I can do better. It's about remembering that these guys won't learn if I also do for them. My biggest issue is in that I have seen what works and what doesn't, and I tend to be rather opinionated (say it aint so!).



GNOME

Opinionated? Our Gnome? Never!

I'm very jealous sir. There are times when I'd kill for a proper RPG group (I need something for when I'm not BBing, heh)

Well, Gobbo it's not to late to enlist: we do have a good number of British Army and RAF here where I am! We even have an Aussie assigned to our unit

I think good groups are to be had, you just have to be *very* fussy about who is invited. And set simple group-based ground rules that everyone understands. You know, "this is a game, have fun." "there is no 'winner' in this game." "GM has final say and is the *only* arbitrator; the DMs decisions are final." "Just play!"

I know, those are hard to do with folks that have bad gaming habits. Let's just say that the GNOME that Tiger met so many years ago would not be welcome at GNOME's table today... Mature attitudes in Gaming are not about experience and knowledge: it's about understanding the purpose of hanging out with with friends and enjoying their company. Suffice to say that if we could, I am sure we could pull together some amazing groups from the Gate's Pool of Personalities.

GNOME

About last night...

Well, we played again. This time the DM was *a lot* better organized. In a bit of DM Magic we decided to work for a local regent to clear for settlement a remote corner of the world. We have license to hunt bandits, humanoids and other monsters. We also have the license to enforce our own justice. But, we have been warned that banditry is still punishable by death

Our first stop was a small trading post operated by a man and wife. When we arrived they told us that there were bandits that had been coming and collecting a 'tax' like clockwork the past three months. And that tomorrow the bandits were due! So, we asked the couple to hide in the main house and we would handle it. Our plan was simple while the bulk of the party hides in the stables, with one of them ready at the door to slam it closed at the key moment. My job (the rogue) was to convince them that they needed to be in the stables to get what they want-cash, or lootz. So, the Barb was on guard duty and saw the bandits a mile out, approaching on horse. The Sorc cast mage armor on me (so I did not have to give away being an adventurer by wearing armor) and himself. Everyone hid and I pretended to work on a wagon. The bandits rolled in like they owned the place, paused and then asked...
Bandit: "Where's the old man and his wife?"
Me: "You mean Oleg? He said he was tired of living out here and I offered to buy the place. He and his wife moved back to the city"
B: "Oleg hates the city. *pause* How do you have enough coin to buy him out?"
M: "Oh, me and some friends found a hoard in some nearby ruins. I decided to not keep on the adventurer's road and retired early"
B: "Hoard you say?"
M *backing up a step, wide eyed* (BLUFF!) "Oh, uh... I mean..." *start moving towards the stables*
B: "Kill her and take her coin" *shoots once with a bow*

Once they pursued me into the ambush, the door was slammed closed after the second of five bandits. The two that made it into the stable died quickly and messily. We reopened the doors and immediately dispatched the next two (one was subdued) and the leader made a run for it; mounting his horse and turning tail. The sorc drilled the Horse with a Ray of Enfeeblement and it was no fast enough to get away... the last bandit died with my sword in his back.

Once our prisoner came to, the party rolled a collective Intim (the sorc has a +10, the Barb a +9, and I have a +5 and we did the Aid Another...). We explained in great detail what a Catherine Wheel is, and suggested it may take *days* for him to die once all of the bones in his limbs were cracked by a hammer through the spokes of the wagon wheel. He cracked. He spilled his guts. We now know that there is a powerful warrior woman in the woods and that she pays tribute to a man (?) known as The Stag Lord. After he was so helpful, we fed him and gave him a stack of coins. We suggested that he do what he can to change his life, to use his good fortune to become a better person. He took the money and ran as far from us as he could. On his way out, the half-orc was lurking outside, hiding. He jumped out of the bushes with a *RAAAR* When the bandit jumped, frightened, the orc tells him in a slurry snarl, "That just reminder. We watch you now."

GNOME

That deserves a 'Bwahaha'....


Bwahaha!!!

Great, just great. Almost a cinematic dispatch of bandits

As for the army, RAF, I'd absolutely love to join. Sadly, not sweating makes that an issue for me. Something about sometimes being deployed in hot/humid climates and needing to NOT be a burden on your unit

I think the best catchphrase for any gamer should always be, "That'd look good in the movie!"



GNOME

It's great to hear it's going so well, I'm enjoying reading this.

I love reading this, the updates are exciting, and I look forward to reading more about your groups' adventure!

The party rested over night and got ready to go out into the wilderness searching for the bandit camp. We have several days worth of food, and two folks that are at least vaguely competent in the woods (both the Fighter and the Barb have ranks in Survival...) After several hours in the woods we came across a hermit's hut; he was a bit cantankerous, but he offered to sell us potions *and* he told us about his 'no good bastard of a brother' that had done some murdering and escaped into the woods many years ago. So, we are *also* looking for a hollowed out tree where his brother had his hide out. Well, just past that we found a patch of rough but open ground covered in skeletal remains. Near the center of the area we could see a faint outline of a door that was designed to be camouflaged. The Barb walked up to it and found himself suddenly face to face with a pony-sized spider; the spider was fang deep in the Barb's leg... After beating it down, the rogue dropped into the spider's lair and found a fairly fresh corpse that had a treasure map tucked into a boot. So, yet another side quest! We gathered our gear and went on our way (I think that the adventure is written more like a Console/PC RPG in that there are lots of side quests...) After we left the spider's hole we were ambushed by a big group of 12 Kobolds; that was a fast, one sided fight. By this time we were tired and had accumulated a fair bit of damage so we healed up and then rested.

Our night guard apparently was 'oiling his whip' and didn't notice the frog-men ninjas that snuck up on us! The fight started by both the rogue and the Sorc getting drilled; but at least they were awake! The Barb kept snoring with a d20 roll of 1, -1 for poor WIS... (lol he was dreaming about a bloody steak and a beer?) The fight was close and tight; the Whip wielding fighter (that botched his Perception...) was a winner: his persistent Trip attacks and attacks of opportunity to keep bad guys on the ground was an amazing display of Crowd Control by Melee. The Cleric was solid, too. He was patient in his heals and focused on the right targets. The Sorc fought the whole fight with his new found Wand of Shocking Grasp.

However, for all of that, we are still only 1st level. Did I ever tell you I hate Lowbies? A lot? *sigh* we are within 200 xp of level at least...

GNOME

I love playing in and running campaigns with "side" quests. The trick is to have enough to keep things busy without overloading the PCs. Typically I have run groups with the main adventure and some times a side venture that is either just a side track from the main story or will lead to the next main adventure after the current is complete. I also will sometimes have minor side plots that will only involve one person from their background as that is some times interesting to see how that distracts their focus from the group's objective.

This is a great read, Gnome. Your campaign sounds like a lot of fun. Keep reporting, please!

LOL, I just bought and read this module, Gnome, so I recognize some of the adventure details. Absolutely awesome.

Ok! but no spoilers!

We play again tomorrow night and we may have our sixth seat filled... However, the person that may come to play is the supervisor of the DM. He has already said that he would rather not run with his boss at the table Maybe I will have to run again? We will see.

GNOME

No worries, Gnome. Just be sure to stay away from any job offers extended by the Valiant Prince who wants to hire you to fake a kidnapping of his fiance and sail away across the ocean. And DEFINITELY stay away from anything involving good-looking, mysterious young men in black.

INCONCEIVABLE!

Loving the updates Gnome! I restarted Baldur's Gate fo rmy PC last night where I left off over a year and a half ago. Fun times!

*shakes fist* Damn you!

Which brings up the question of s Standard WIS penalty for all adventures: How little sense do have to have in your head to think, "It's only a tribe of goblins, we should be pefectly safe." Of course we'll kidnap the princess so she can elope... and *of course* she is not going to be assassinated, and *of course* we are not going to be assassinated to close the loop

GNOME

Orion, you make wanna Amazon the BG series I liked BGII the mostest.

GNOME

Orkboy - You haven't been reading Darths and Droids recently, have you?

Jen -- but of course.

Speaking of D&D (Darths & Droids, that is), this one is, IMHO, the best one they ever did.

We did not play this past Wednesday: the DM was involved with moving his office from one building to another.

And I have a conundrum... I invited someone to fill our last seat, but she is the at-work supervisor for the DM. He has stated explicitly that he is not comfortable running if she is playing. It has to do with the potential for abuse, either in game, or at work (if she gets a good piece of loot, "it's only cause she's your boss!", if she gets killed, "It's only cause she's your boss"; or, if he has to work late, "It's only cause I killed your character...") I disagree, but then, I am not one to get walked on, or pick on/raise up one player over another. But there you have it, if the new invitee comes to play, I run it.

This is bad. As I have said before I much much prefer to play. I can run the game, and I have (as we discussed here). This is bad, because I *hate* lowbies. Nothing irks me more about any RPG than level 1. The quests are so predictable because the party has such limited resources. So, if I run it, I will have the players make PCs level 3-5.

What do you think of giving some perk/drawback to being either under-or-over level? My idea was to have each player roll d3; 1=3, 2=4, 3=5. All PCs get 4th level Cash to buy loot. No repeat loot in the party (ie, only one STR Item, only one +1 Weapon, only one +2 Weapon...). The intent of that bit is to make the loot more varied and not so static. Pro/Con for 3rd level: +1 to one Random Stat/Under Level; no modification to 4th level; Over Level/Half Cash for 5th Level. Or just make them take the level they get and 4th level loot, and not worry about being fancy.

What I *want* to do is rescind my invitation and move on with the current DM. I am going to go over and ask Mary if she is planning on coming to play. I will leave it in her hands

GNOME

PS: I love you guys

I settled on just runing it.

I hate teetering and foot shuffling. No one would say what they *wanted* except the Alt DM not wanting to run if his boss was in the group.

So, the party is: Human Fighter 5; Human Sorc 5; Half Elf Cleric 4; Half Orc Barb 3; Human Fighter1/Sorc2. I gave the 3rd level and 5th level PCs 3,000 gold to buy gear with, and the 4th level 6k. The 3rd levels also got a +1 to a random stat; INT for the Fighter/Sorc and DEX for the Barb. Everyone bought some gear except the Cleric (he had a long day and bailed a bit early).

On an off note, we got into a discussion I didn't want to have when the Fighter/Sorc asked "Can I be Lawful Evil?" Wow. No, you may not. Here is why... *One* evil PC leads to one of two results: 1) The whole party turns evil, or 2) the party (and likely the group) disintegrates under the "would my good aligned PC allow that?" dilemna. The player that asked if he could be evil did not catch the whole "evil" thing; he keyed in on the 'may have certain restrictions like not letting children come to harm...' He then tried to say that *anyone* that kills, under *any* circumstances is evil, so since *all* D&D characters end up evil why not start as evil? He dismissed the idea that Evil is about intent; evil is about "the ends justifies the means."

More in a bit...going to eat dinner

GNOME

I ran a 1e AD&D campaign for 15 years and in that time, there were two half-orc PCs: one a LE assassin, the other a NE fighter/assassin. They caused me and my gaming groups no end of problems. So for my new campaign, I've ruled that there are no evil PCs, and no half-orc PCs, either. It takes a mature gamer to play a half-orc without using the race as an excuse to be a jackhole; I have a bunch of neophtye teenager gamers, and I'm not giving any of them the opportunity to hump things up for everyone else.

(And anyway, the party I'm DMing now is 4 elves and a halfling, so a half-orc wouldn't be a good fit)



Then by his logic, a police officer shooting a guy who was shooting up a schoolyard full of toddlers is just as bad as the criminal. I foresee some problems with this guy.

*nods* The Sage has spoken.

Yeah, he didn't get that Lawful Evil is the abuse of authority. It specifically says (in the Pahtfinder description, and IIRC the 3.5 description, too) that even if a LE character will not kill 'innocents' he has no compunctions about an underling doing it. He also did not understand that in a law-driven (lawful) society, evil can be done 'in the name of...' ie, Taliban acid/face on 'disobedient' women; destruction of property, ghettoization of Jews in Nazi Germany... it was as if he *chose* to not hear the arguments. He skipped over the part about victimizing persons based solely on things such as faith, race, place of origin. Again, he *only* read the 'might not let children come to harm...' and extrapolated that they are really heroic kind, benevolent people that have a spine of steel when it comes to resolving difficult issues. Which, of course, brought us back to the "ends justifies the means" approach. He seems to make the assumption that Good implies weak. How so? It's *harder* to be morally courageous!

Also, I see playing an evil party/PC is a cop out. It's a way to label *everything* in game as a target. After all, even a child is worth 1 xp!

GNOME