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One of those funky not-quite-half-casters

Don't you mean "smite slots"?

full caster

ALL THE CASTING (class & racial features)

half caster

just limited to racial abilities or class features

non-caster

I'm undecided

[Gyrre]

Wow!
Seriously.

Way further than what I've got. Right now I just have two loose setting ideas:

• One is a world dominated by the reptilian races with the only mammals being small rat-like creatures. So the player races would be limited to dragonborn, lizardfolk, pterafolk (the pterodactyl people), Tritons, kobolds, Yuan-ti pureblood, and maybe Aarakocra. Lycanthropy is still a thing, but it's dinosaurs instead of the standard ones. WereYutyrannus would likely be the equivalent of the werebear. Wererats being feared solely because the hybrid form shrinks the individual a size class.
  I haven't even got the slightest semblance of a plot for this one. Just thought it might be interesting.
• G'do, a massive desert that's a sea of sand. Plenty of Underdark monsters have adapted to living in the sand sea along with some new monsters.
  For a possible explanation as to why the G'do desert is like this, I was thinking that the Underdark could slowly be collapsing or filling in somehow. The air would be escaping from tons of tiny cracks throughout the desert floor. Thus causing the sand to act as a liquid. It's more interesting than the nebulous explanation of "it's magic" or "a wizard did it".
  The rough plot for this one is a bit Moby Dick mixed with a bit of Treasure island. So, sand pirates and sand ships. The Ancient Drake Eater a few posts up happens to live in this world and function more as a plot-point than something to actually fight. Namely one called Maalasii, who devoured the dragonborn city where the totally-not-a-Captain-Ahab-ripoff lived with his family. The pirates are after one that looks to have golden teeth and thought to have eaten a massive treasure ship.

[Gyrre]

Random thought at ten-til-six in the morning; pick 3 racial abilities you'd like to have from any player race. They don't all have to be from the same race.

[hedgie]

I'll have to get back to you on the racial abilities one.

I'm starting to feel sorry for the GM after what happened last night.  Negotiations with the orcs went well enough, since the cleric used tongues to deal with the language barrier, and the dwarf and I limited ourselves to knowing glances and what ever small gestures and whispers we could get away with, so the orc leader allows us to go into the castle of undead unmolested to find his girlfriend who went in on some foolish barbarian test of strength, and sends a human summoner who was trying to get their permission for weeks if not months to keep an eye on us.[1]  Of course, trying to go in the front entrance triggers a bunch of undead soldiers coming at us… which quickly becomes pets of the necromancer.  Apparently none of the undead in this place have any knowledge of this place beyond their little area, leading me to conclude that the necromantic aura around this place is what's activating them and possibly what's sustaining them.

We soon have to abandon our new friends after seeing that the main entrance has a bunch of nasties we can't really get to, and after the comical deaths of several summoned woodland critters, that maybe we should try going in the long way, which happens to be on the other side of a lake of boiling water.  Between our casters with water walking, and those who could fly, we were making our progress across the lake when a maker (but not great maker) sized worm bursts out of the water to attack those on the surface and is promptly charmed by our new cleric.  Unfortunately, it is too dumb to be usefully controlled, so the GM joking about her being Mua'dib was not as cool as it could have been.  A bigger worm was (of course) waiting near the far end, and fell victim of the narcolepsy epidemic that seems to follow my witch around.  We find the secret door just as the water walking is about to fail, and after leaving the pet direwolf and horse temporarily transformed into a kirin outside since they couldn't fit, ventured in.

Once inside, we're in a lovely ballroom, which was described in copious detail and as we start looking around and a bunch of dancing ghosts start descending from the ceiling.  Almost half the party (including my pet) failed their saves[2], and got swept up in the dance which acts like "Irresistible Dance", but drains Con as well.  The undead thing at the centre of it all makes a grand debut, knocking the monk down 9 Con in the first round.  Of course, when the cleric tries to control it, it manages to fail its save[3] and is now making small talk with the necromancer and asking who in the party it is allowed to make into an eternal dance partner.  Still, a rather anticlimactic end to the encounter after all the build-up.

[1] A summoner who is currently the reason I have a feeblemind prepped, knowing full-well that it's useless against the undead.

[2] We got *very* lucky, since it was a difficult save.  Two people got natural 20s, and one was saved only via previous contact with an artefact that had granted a few of us a permanent +4 bonus to anything mind-affecting, as well as the bonus from the "Heroes' Feast" I cast every morning

[3] Which it had about a 70% chance of succeeding on

[hedgie]

Wow!
Seriously.

Way further than what I've got.

Once I came up with the idea of making a tidally-locked world, a bit of research and a map generator allowed me to get a better handle of what I was working with.  I'm stealing enough ideas for the light and dark side (Dark Sun and Frostburn respectively) from other sources that I largely get to focus on the middle.  And for that, it helps that I was able to dig up a bunch of notes from ages ago including a 5000 year timeline, from the last time I was working on a setting.  Much of the material is stuff that I can adapt fairly easily.

Right now I just have two loose setting ideas:

• One is a world dominated by the reptilian races with the only mammals being small rat-like creatures.

<snip>
That seems like a pretty cool idea, and I presume that either the lizardfolk or Yuan-ti would be considered the human analogue.

• G'do, a massive desert that's a sea of sand. Plenty of Underdark monsters have adapted to living in the sand sea along with some new monsters.
  For a possible explanation as to why the G'do desert is like this, I was thinking that the Underdark could slowly be collapsing or filling in somehow. The air would be escaping from tons of tiny cracks throughout the desert floor. Thus causing the sand to act as a liquid. It's more interesting than the nebulous explanation of "it's magic" or "a wizard did it".

Hmm.  The Dark Sun setting had a giant sea of silt, and the desertification literally *was* that a wizard did it, or rather that all the wizards did it since arcane magic is the fossil fuels of the setting.  Some of the old 2nd-ed books on that setting may have some useful info in terms of helping with the world-building.  Then again, since I don't plan on publishing any settings, I figure I'll take anything that's not nailed down from anywhere.

[Gyrre]

So far, things are going suprisingly sane. We got the two kids an apprenticeship on the ship my swashbuckler came came on and I dropped off a ruby beetle.
We're currently fighting cloakers trying to try to get into a gnomish city.

EDIT: And the dwarfish cleric just Thunderwaved to get 3 cloakers off of him. He also cast it at 4th level with Channel Divinity. Which killed two of them.

And the warlock just cast Toll the Dead.

EDIT: we killed them! This was a CR40 encounter with 6 lvl 8s. We've unlocked the Gnome City!

[Neko_Ali]

Hmm.  The Dark Sun setting had a giant sea of silt, and the desertification literally *was* that a wizard did it, or rather that all the wizards did it since arcane magic is the fossil fuels of the setting.  Some of the old 2nd-ed books on that setting may have some useful info in terms of helping with the world-building.  Then again, since I don't plan on publishing any settings, I figure I'll take anything that's not nailed down from anywhere.

I steal heavily from all sorts of sources as well. Not only are the countries in my home brew world of Myrion drawn heavily from real-world European and Asian countries, I borrow heavily from other D&D settings and outside as well. For D&D I use a lot from the Eberron, Spelljammer and a little from the Dark Sun setting. One big influence outside D&D is the Warhammer Fantasy universe. I have a somewhat Egypt inspired country called Sekhaat which is an evil empire that uses undead (mostly skeletons) as their army. It's a little bit Egypt, a lot Dark Sun though it occupies the rough land mass of India and the Mediterranean. Once they were demon worshipers and a pact with Asmodeus brought about the tiefling race. One of the mages there got ambitious though... You might have heard of him. His name is Vecna.

A major component of my game is that gods are ascended mortals and extraplanar beings. When he was mortal, Vecna aspired to greatness. An arch necromancer, he became a lich and started drawing life from the land of Sekhaat, ala Dark Sun. He has a fair bit of Nagash from Warhammer mixed in... Eventually he mostly drained the life from Sekhaat, turning it into a massive desert. Not that he cared, since the undead could worship him just as well. The remaining mortals mostly live in city states, ruled with iron fists by their Sorcerer Priests. Worship of Vecna supplanted the worship of Asmodeus when he ascended, causing a great hatred between the two.

So yeah.. borrow heavily. Nobody's going to judge and when you use things people are already aware of you don't have to spend hours explaining every detail.

[hedgie]

I've actually found that creating gods is the difficult part.  Creating religious sects is easy enough, but a balanced pantheon, it's still very much a work in progress.  I ended up firing up Krita so I could start drawing and not have to worry about having to scan something later (and crap, I'm rusty at drawing with a wacom tablet).  So far, I've come up with a goddess of life and death who is the primary nature deity, and a deity of magic and artifice as the creator gods, and that the others were either created, or raised from being mortal as the need arose.  It was actually easier for me to create religious cults (which may or may not follow an actual divine being) than it was the "lesser" gods.[1]

[1] Both the head gods are true neutral, the secondaries are some strain of neutral, then the more "extreme" alignments come from them.

[Neko_Ali]

I'm mostly using the Dawn War deities from the DMG and a few traditional standards like Asmodeus and Lloth. I had originally thought to create an original pantheon for each nation but decided against it. Instead focusing on more immediate cultural, technological and magical concepts for the nations, as well as designing maps and adventures. Things that the players would interact with regularly. The god-building can wait until it becomes relevant.

I have created a few unique gods at this point, as they are relevant to characters or stories I want to tell. A lot of the existing countries have a specific patron deity that played a crucial role founding or shaping the coutry. Gods like the Everqueen, who founded Erawyn, my steampunk Victorian England style countries. Or the Green Lady, who guides the country Yvaine. Which is a Warhammer Bretonnia/Arthurian legend land of noble knights and Chivalry. And I already talked about what I did with Vecna...

Another thing I have done is use gods to memorialize certain characters. The god of good natured mischief in my world is a purple tiefling names Mollymauk.

[Gyrre]

That seems like a pretty cool idea, and I presume that either the lizardfolk or Yuan-ti would be considered the human analogue.

I was thinking the lizardfolk would be the human analogue, while the Yuan-ti would be akin to elves. Kobolds would loosely equate to a mix of gnomes and dwarves, and dragonborn a loose mix of dwarves and goliaths in terms of equivalence.


As for the desert's explanation, it's based on an actual thing IRL (fluidized airbeds) to bring a bit more realism to it. It'd probably have to be the whole of the Underdark that's filling in though for it to have been a fluidized airbed roughly the size of Alaska for the past few thousand years. Maybe magic would just be a better explanation.

[hedgie]

I think it's good that you're giving a nod to science and real world phenomena.  It's like the lake of boiling water I mentioned from last game, when one of the clerics casts water walking on everyone, I had to pointedly ask about the whole convection issue.  I think that you have a good instinct for where you want to take this, and both Neko_Ali and I were thinking of something that you might be able to poach extra ideas from.

Edit:  I like using lizardfolk for humans and the yuan-ti as elves.  I hadn't even thought about the latter.

[sitnspin]

My role play group is going to be playtesting the new edition of Pathfinder. I am completely new to the system. I will be playing a goblin alchemist, which is totally different from any type of character I've played before. The Girl is going to be playing my character's half-orc barbarian girlfriend. I am already referring to us as adorable mayhem.

[Neko_Ali]

I'd like to try the playtest out... But my group is already doing three nights a week for five different campaigns. And my room mate is absolute dead set against anything Pathfinder because there are 'too many options'. She doesn't like all the splat books and optional rules...

[Gyrre]

I think it's good that you're giving a nod to science and real world phenomena.  It's like the lake of boiling water I mentioned from last game, when one of the clerics casts water walking on everyone, I had to pointedly ask about the whole convection issue.  I think that you have a good instinct for where you want to take this, and both Neko_Ali and I were thinking of something that you might be able to poach extra ideas from.

Edit:  I like using lizardfolk for humans and the yuan-ti as elves.  I hadn't even thought about the latter.

Had another idea for the fluidized airbed. Ties in with the Treasure Island plot aspect. Perhaps some incredibly successful and infamous drow pirate had a bunch of wizards and druids cast a permanent Gust spell on the floor, specifically for making his treasure cache horribly difficult to find. If wizards did it, then there should be some reason for them doing so.

[sitnspin]

I'd like to try the playtest out... But my group is already doing three nights a week for five different campaigns. And my room mate is absolute dead set against anything Pathfinder because there are 'too many options'. She doesn't like all the splat books and optional rules...

I've never played the system, so I'm no expert, but isn't the point of optional rules that they are optional? If you don't like them you don't have to use them, right?

In the play test rules there's only like 10 classes. It's no more complex than d&d. I'm not saying she has to play anything she's not interested in playing, but if her complaints are about rule, option, and book bloat, now would be a good time to give the game a shot since they are starting over with a new edition.

[Neko_Ali]

I'd like to try the playtest out... But my group is already doing three nights a week for five different campaigns. And my room mate is absolute dead set against anything Pathfinder because there are 'too many options'. She doesn't like all the splat books and optional rules...

I've never played the system, so I'm no expert, but isn't the point of optional rules that they are optional? If you don't like them you don't have to use them, right?

In the play test rules there's only like 10 classes. It's no more complex than d&d. I'm not saying she has to play anything she's not interested in playing, but if her complaints are about rule, option, and book bloat, now would be a good time to give the game a shot since they are starting over with a new edition.

I mean, that's what I said and it makes sense to me but she's apparently had bad experiences and just isn't interested in trying again. Her big complaint was all the additional classes and such that came out... but like you said, if you're running the game you always have final say in what's allowed. She's not even interested in giving Starfinder a try and I really want a go at magic space adventures. I tried to pitch it as an option for our Sunday game but people mostly wanted to play Shadowrun. Which I don't mind since I love the setting and system.

[sitnspin]

Interesting. Shadowrun is wicked clunky and rules heavy. I was a fan of the world building and aesthetics of SR, but when it came to mechanics and game design, it was woefully disappointing. But that's just mho.

[oddtail]

Interesting. Shadowrun is wicked clunky and rules heavy. I was a fan of the world building and aesthetics of SR, but when it came to mechanics and game design, it was woefully disappointing. But that's just mho.

It all boils down to personal opinion eventually, but elaborate rules of SR work if you run it as a fiddly game where everything needs to be planned, down to the tiniest detail. Which works if the game is played as a series of assignments, each of which has to be meticulously planned. Then, I think the fiddly bits reinforce the feeling. Simple, streamlined rules just wouldn't allow for every single detail to be pored over, not as far as game rules go.

In other words - to me, SR is not meant to be a thrilling action game, not exclusively. It's a game about planning a heist or an attack, and for that, game mechanics that have as many moving parts as possible are expected or at least acceptable.

I'll agree the game is more than a little unwieldy. It's certainly a pain. But I've played unwieldy games that I thought were great, in the past. I moved on from Pathfinder to D&D 5E because as a GM, I felt Pathfinder was an absolute nightmare to prepare for. Still ran a campaign of three-and-a-half years in PF before moving on 

[sitnspin]

Fair, although I think there are games that do the whole heist thong far better than SR does. But, as you said, ultimately it comes down to a matter of personal taste.

[Neko_Ali]

I can't really argue with how fiddly the Shadowrun system is, especially compared to something like D&D 5e. For some background I played Shadowrun 1-3 when they were current and in an era when fiddly games were the norm. D&D 2-3.5, Palladium games, Hero System games, that sort of thing. So I didn't feel that it was any more or less complicated than other games I played. Fast forward a significant gap of years when I wasn't playing RPGs and I wind up playing D&D 5e again. Which is a lot more rules streamlined than I remember. And some members of my group expressed an interest in playing Shadowrun, so I agree to run for them. I took a look at 5th edition and found the character creation rules to be a bit of a nightmare. And the book I got was coming apart after only a few days of gentle use, so I wound up sending it back. So I decided to run 4e instead, since I already had books for it.

For those that don't remember or don't know, 4e was the point where the game was handed off to a different developer because FASA went under, and the way the game worked went under some major changes. It still felt Shadowrun, but there was more rules added to it, how dice checks were made was different and all sorts of things. 5e doubled down on some of that, and better explained some things. Matrix rules in 4e are.... Not good. They are still somewhat over complex I feel in 5e, but they are at least better defined.

Now me... I run games with a narrative basis. Telling an interesting co-operative story is my priority and as such I'm happy to bend or ignore the rules for that sake. I like games best when they provide more options for the players, rather than tightly codify what they can or can't do. I remember being able to do that fairly easily in early editions of Shadowrun. A few sessions in and still learning 4e, I'm not sure how true that is anymore. And I kind of wish I had pushed a little harder for Starfinder.

[hedgie]

I mean, that's what I said and it makes sense to me but she's apparently had bad experiences and just isn't interested in trying again. Her big complaint was all the additional classes and such that came out... but like you said, if you're running the game you always have final say in what's allowed. She's not even interested in giving Starfinder a try and I really want a go at magic space adventures. I tried to pitch it as an option for our Sunday game but people mostly wanted to play Shadowrun. Which I don't mind since I love the setting and system.

I've found that for me, at least, learning the pathfinder system was pretty easy, especially that my prior gaming background was 1st/2nd ed AD&D (the systems were compatible so could be blended), the players' and GM's entire library of splatbooks, AND the labyrinthine mix of house rules and GM rulings that resembled something approaching Common Law.[1]  In comparison, the entire Pathfinder ruleset is a breath of fresh air.  That said, once I finish with the world building, I will end up paring and altering the class list to adapt it to what I want.

IMO, the full list of options for players isn't that bad if there is a GM, and there are other players willing to walk one through the process.[2]  Our newest player, who hadn't played since High School a dozen or so years ago wasn't actually intimidated by the classes, since she knew what role she wanted to serve, but jumped into the deep end of the pool by not only rolling a cleric, but doing so in a game where she'd be starting at 14th level.  Once various options were explained to her and with assistance with the details, she's been able to build something that she seems happy with, and has been *very* effective in just the first session where she's been statted up.

[1] Our resident rules lawyer actually had a binder full of precedents with their dates for easy reference, and despite that, we still talked shit about Shadowrun being so clunky that one combat round was the entire gaming session.

[2] Rather than punish min-maxing, my group's GM helps the players do so effectively.

[Neko_Ali]

Ehhhh.. I don't see how one entire combat, much less one round could take an entire session in Shadowrun, unless everyone was reading the entire combat rules for the first time while trying to do it. Even then.... I assume it's hyperbole. Or people repeating second or third hand shit-talking they've heard about the system. Combat will take longer than D&D or Pathfinder... Those mostly boil down to two rolls. Either attack or saving throw, and damage. And you usually can throw both at the same time to make it faster. Shadowrun each attack is going to involve 2-4 rolls. Attack vs Defense, the Body and Armor to resist the damage. Plus Drain if the attack was with a spell. Once you know the rules even roughly you should know how many dice to throw at each step and it moves along pretty swiftly. The only time I've felt the game bogs down is dealing with Matrix combat.

With long experience in D&D 3/3.5 Pathfinder is simple for me as well. Naturally since it grew out of that game system when Wizards put out 4e. A lot of people complained that there were too many options... which in part is where my room mate's hate comes from. But I like player options. Because I understand that they are just that... optional. And when my players come to me with something that I don't think will fit with the game, or I think is too overpowered or something I have no problem saying no. Nine times out of ten though I have no problem with saying yes so it doesn't come up all that much. I would imagine my room mate would go along with playing, if the majority of the group wanted to. And probably have fun doing so. Especially for Starfinder since the 'too many options' isn't really an issue in a game with only one player rulebook so far....

[Gyrre]

Jab this is all way over my head.

As for the question I posed for racial abilities, I think I finally have my answer.
Ghostwise halfling's silent speach: yell at braindead co-workers with zero evidence of it.
Air Genasi's endless breath : sit at the bottom of the pool
Firbolg's Speech of Beast and Leaf: have all of the insects understand when I tell them to piss off or die? I'm in!

[hedgie]

We got further into the Castle of (un)Death last night, and things are not looking the greatest for our heroes.  The shadows were basically mooks, but the surprise attack meant a bunch of people got some con-drain.  We proceeded by some empty rooms (no baddies, but no loot, either), into a room where a couple of people started hallucinating baddies (if there was a gazebo indoors, it'd have been shot up bad), and as we're about to exit it, a side door that we barred got busted through by some female-orc looking thing[1].  Our rogue tries to talk to it in orcish, but as I've mentioned before, she has no diplomacy, and rolled shittily.  the orc looked fairly aggressive, but hadn't attacked yet.  Our archer prepped to let loose if she did anything violent, but I (foolishly) tried the diplomatic approach, and stepped forwards with my hands out to show that I wasn't holding a weapon and saying in orcish that we were sent to remind her that she was needed at the camp.  I promptly get charged, smacked with an axe and dinged for four temporary negative levels on top of the damage we took.  Thankfully, our more tanky people surrounded her and I was able to withdraw.  I didn't want to burn my better spells to take her down since we had far more to travel, aoe spells would hit too many friendlies, so I was limited to attempting to hit her with my retribution[2] hex and licking my wounds.  She dropped quickly enough once we were in position, and rolled poorly enough that only the archer and rogue got dinged by level loss after that first charge.

So we decapitate her and have the necromancer's skeleton pet put this energy draining axe into a bag of holding, and I burn a Limited Wish to restore myself to full strength[3] We start proceeding, and the archer notices a sound coming from behind us.  Apparently this orc was undead, had healed, and was starting to put her armour back on.  One of the clerics recognises it as a type of undead that only stays down if it is killed by glass or obsidian (neither of which we have).  We knock her down again, and I signal the group to back the fuck up, and drop "black tentacles" where the body was, and sent my imp out to break some of the mirrors we saw earlier.  I figured that if she did get back up again, being grabbed and crushed by a giant unkillable tentacle would at least delay her.  Thankfully, the imp got back before the tentacles ended, and our gunslinger cut her head off with a shard when she started to twitch.  Unfortunately, I didn't put the bottles of whisky that the female characters pass around when the boys are doing something stupid on my character sheet, or I wouldn't have bothered with the tentacles and just glassed her. 

Meanwhile, our rogue was missing.  Apparently, despite criticising the dwarf for running off down unexplored passages and checking things out on his own, she decided to do precisely that to look for glass, DESPITE the fact that I had told my pet to go to a known source and take care of it.  Thankfully, there was only one place she could have gone from here, and our necromancer sent her skeleton to get her, though by this time, she was a drooling vegetable in an airtight gimp suit.  We manage to get the mask off, and she's breathing, but with all the IQ and personality of a turnip (int, wis, and cha all drained to 0).  At this point, we're out of time, and we'll see more in two weeks.

[1] We had been allowed in on condition that we find the orc tribal leader's girlfriend.

[2] If it had succeeded, she'd take ˝ of the damage that she dealt physically, bypassing her damage reduction.  Since she was whirlwinding, it had worked, it'd have fucked her up bad

[3] Since all three of the group's casters are potential healers, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that we're the highest priority when it comes to healing that sort of stuff.

[Neko_Ali]

*scribbles down DMing notes furiously* And people accuse me of being evil when I run games.

[hedgie]

It was a pair of ghosts in similar gimp suits that did that to her, both of deformed humans, one a little person, another a "giant" that were doing the ability damage with a performance designed to look like they were trying to communicate something by pantomime.   it wasn't until most of the group was dinged by their ability that the good cleric was able to figure it out with a perform check.  I'm sure our necromancer would have gotten it eventually, but who knows much damage they would have done before that happened.  I think that for me, two consecutive natural 20s used up my luck, so I'm glad that we were able to turn away from them and shut the door, as it seems as though the creatures here are bound by whatever magic is on this place to a specific area.  This is helpful since we've mostly been having our necromancer briefly take control of whatever undead was around then the group running to the next area (this isn't a hypothesis, one of the controlled undead confirmed it).

Worst place is that my pet had to shut off constant detect evil and detect magic sight because both were going off like a Geiger counter at Chernobyl.  Same happened to the necromancer when she cast detect undead.  This place is seriously nasty.  Don't want to rest here, but unfortunately, our egress vanished when the necro lost control over the nasty in that room, so it means busting through a tower and some minotaur skeleton warriors to have somewhere to land, since it's dimentionally locked as well, I can't just use my teleports.

 I'll strongly push for this next session, although I *know* the necro is against it, since I was chatting with the player this morning.  She thinks that it should be a lesson for people to not just blow spells or 1x/day use abilities, but I think that given that one of our players is newish, and now we have a better idea of what's actually here, regrouping and better preparing would be better than slowly being ground down due to a lack of restoration spells.

Edit:  And it turns out that the reason the axe reappeared in the orc thing's hand is that it was a cursed item, so at least the second time around, she was without armour.

Edit again:  Neko, for the most part, he isn't truly evil, but does give us enough rope to hang ourselves and is good at exploiting a character's (or player's) personality.

[Gyrre]

Wow.......

  Was the safe word  "ow"?

[Neko_Ali]

Edit again:  Neko, for the most part, he isn't truly evil, but does give us enough rope to hang ourselves and is good at exploiting a character's (or player's) personality.

That's what all good evil GMs do and why my players hate me sometimes. Because they know in the end... They really did it to themselves. I was just helping things along.

[Gyrre]

Edit again:  Neko, for the most part, he isn't truly evil, but does give us enough rope to hang ourselves and is good at exploiting a character's (or player's) personality.

That's what all good evil GMs do and why my players hate me sometimes. Because they know in the end... They really did it to themselves. I was just helping things along.

You didn't push them in front of the bus, but you didn't say anything as they walked in front of the proverbial bus.

EDIT, typo fix.

[hedgie]

I posted some ideas about a game world upthread somewhere, and now I'm actually trying to make it.  I forgot how much work was involved in the whole process.  Right now, I'm working on the main pantheon, and even with only 15 gods, it's a lot of work.  I'm on page six right now, and only putting in a paragraph or two for each one.  I expect by the time I have everything fully fleshed-out, each one might take up a page to itself.  I guess when I get bored, I can always switch to cities or countries (I already have that mapped out), but part of me wants to at least get to a point where I can finish for now.

[Gyrre]

I posted some ideas about a game world upthread somewhere, and now I'm actually trying to make it.  I forgot how much work was involved in the whole process.  Right now, I'm working on the main pantheon, and even with only 15 gods, it's a lot of work.  I'm on page six right now, and only putting in a paragraph or two for each one.  I expect by the time I have everything fully fleshed-out, each one might take up a page to itself.  I guess when I get bored, I can always switch to cities or countries (I already have that mapped out), but part of me wants to at least get to a point where I can finish for now.

Pantheons are a lot of work.

I looked into it for the lizard world one I mentioned above, and I'm honestly tempted to just reskin one of the existing pantheons with a bit of mixing and matching.

[Gyrre]

We're at the final boss. Right now it's unconscious, but after this round, it's probably going to wake up.


EDIT: It's awake and it's called Galdier Vallik, Destroyer of Worlds. He's a White Wyrm's head attached to plants and insectoid parts.

EDIT:ugggghhhhhhh! It was created by a Dr. Gero! And it's got 2 siblings.

EDIT: We TALKED our way out of the fight!

EDIT: ...........a tarasque just joined our party. A TARASQUE JUST JOINED OUR PARTY!!! The tarasque is over 400 years old so it's mellowed out a little.

[hedgie]

Pantheons are a lot of work.

I looked into it for the lizard world one I mentioned above, and I'm honestly tempted to just reskin one of the existing pantheons with a bit of mixing and matching.

That they are.  I've fifteen down, and think I need to add some more so that there are more than one deities for the neutral alignments (excepting true neutral, which has 3).  Going to get to that later since I'm working on the map right now.

[ZoeB]

40 years ago there were no websites. There was no web in 1978. There were the functional equivalents though, APA (amateur press association) magazines. Contributors would handwrite or type (on a manual typewriter - word processors didn't exist) their contributions, post them by snail mail (sometimes internationally) where they'd be mimeographed, and copies sent to all subscribers.

A page from Alarums & Excursions Magazine, November 2018 so written in early October.



Here's the index for that issue. Some might recognise a few of the authors.

[Gyrre]

2018, So it only recently folded?

Wow.

[pwhodges]

word processors didn't exist

True, but only just.  Norsk Data had a fully-functioning word processor within five years of that, and HTML-formatted email by 1985.  By 1978, you could already type in a computer editor with "run-off" commands which would format your output when printing - I wrote some manuals that way.

[hedgie]

Not quite word processors, but hasn't TeX been around for about 40 years?

Edit: Of course, access to computers at the time, especially networked ones was quite limited.  I suspect that a lot of folks didn't have access to BBSes or newsgroups in the early 80s.

[ZoeB]

2018, So it only recently folded?

Wow.

Nope, it's still going. Wow Indeed.

PDFs of past issues are available too, at $2 an issue. See http://www.conchord.org/xeno/aande.html

Some contents, describing events that happened in 1977. "Phil" is Phil McGregor, who later went on to author a number of RPGs and supplements. I introduced him to D&D, he introduced me to Traveller.

https://www.amazon.com/Phil-McGregor/e/B00J6VGPJE

Well, it happened this way....Hippolyta (Phil's experienced character)  was leading or attempting to lead a gaggle of Turkeys down the first level of High Dudgeon's Dungeon. After KOing a group of Orcs, some by Sleep, some by Clerical sleep (a mace just behind the left ear), the party came to...a Door! Out stepped an old Gent who ummed a bit, aahred a bit and Proclaimed himself *the* 10th ' level monk. (HINT! HINT!) On the first level.

Did the party ask for ID? No. For some reason--probably because my Dungeons have an (unwarranted?) reputation for deadliness, Hippolyta was not suspicious. The old man told the thief if he would just step inside, he would be told something to his advantage. (HINT! Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly..)

AT THIS POINT Hippolyta became suspicious due to Phil's knowing my motto is TANSTAAFL. Hippolyta was dissauded from taking action at sword point by Democratic Vote. The thief went in, the Doppleganger . neatly swiped off his head and spent several minutes getting his features good enough to stand a close inspection.' (HINT! HINT!)

Finally the Doppleganger came out and the party proceeded. Hippolyta frantically pleaded that in the streets of Denmark there was an odor of Decay. The Doppelganger, being an intelligent, hardworking, SURVIVING monster insisted on taking a position in the rear. Hippolyta was Of Course the Target For Tonight. The Thief stabbed her in the back, pleaded a pre-emptive strike since Hippolyta wanted him tied up, and because of popularity was forgiven.

After staging a few diversions (stab Run, run,a monster!" "Whewl Where's Fred?" "The Minataur lizard/ Balrog/ Orcs / Hydra got him.") (Massive hints all the time) Finally the Doppelganger hoisted the Jolly Roger and massacred the pitiful remnants of the depleted party.

[ZoeB]

Not quite word processors, but hasn't TeX been around for about 40 years?

Yes, it was being developed at the time A&E #39 was being written.

Edit: Of course, access to computers at the time, especially networked ones was quite limited.  I suspect that a lot of folks didn't have access to BBSes or newsgroups in the early 80s.

Usenet was invented in 1979. The first BBS went online in Chicago in 1978. So BBSs and newsgroups post-date A&E 39. Fast transmission speed outside a LAN was 75 bd.

[Gyrre]

Impressive that it's still going!


BTW, our DM corrected me. Our party has formed a "temporary alliance" with The Grand Dutchess Super Baroness Vulcanism Ultra Magus (Beryl named her).  Assuming we somehow win and don't have to press the cosmic reset button The Stranger° offered us next week, TGDSBVUM will try to eat us. Thankfully, Two-Tongues managed to get the diamond unicorn back to the ship at harbor and now he's headed home. So I'll be introducing my halfling bard Jonah High-Hill  and playing him for one session.

°Said cosmic reset button rewinds time to the beginning of the campaign. It costs all of our party's money (individual & group funds), everyones possessions, and there's a 50/50 chance for each character in tbe group being erased from existence.

[Gyrre]

Well, we had to reset the world. Barely did it just in time, too.

Lo-Kag and Saravore were erased from existence, but everyone else survived. However, since we were all starting as slaves this time, we had to make new characters. I went with that dumb character idea of a surfer-dude/stoner barbarian Tortle. Mainly so I didn't have a bard die in the first 10 minutes of the second session again. Tato Po is from the Wyrmtail clan (great great great great grandpa is a red dragon), so he's got nubby horns that resemble bear ears, a more pronounced beak, and a long tail. I decided to go Path of the Totem Warrior on account of this being a super deadly campaign, but it was really hard choosing between that and Storm Herald. Despite the red dragon ancestry, Po's family are mostly hippy-dippy druids hence him learning Primordial for his bonus language (and also him being a stoner). He's a former sailor, and now former dock worker (tavern brawl got him arrested). And he's also the first party member to get rid of the cursed brand (slave lo-jacking!) all the party members started with.
After the Purple Worm strafe, we managed to break our chains and get some healing. Then, the 3 more magically inclined party members Disguised themselves and got into the city while the other 4 (including Po) waited outside of town. They managed to convince some rich guy to give us 300 gold (Friends) and they buy some group supplies and tracked down the job board which included a bounty for a "Demon Child". Meanwhile, Po and Marius (lycan bloodhunter) noticed a "floating cloak with mechanical arms" going from building to building through the alleyways carrying a sack that seemed to be getting bigger with each exit. Upon the party reuinting, Evard Blackheart (Tiefling gunslinger) showed everyone the bounty poster he'd found. Po and Marius had in fact seen the "Demon Child". So, Po asks Prof. Cerulean (variant human alchemist) if she could make one of the tracking brands sticky if it were cut off so they could throw it at the "Demon Child" and try to catch them at a later date (read level 10). She says yes, and Po takes the dagger he was given and cuts off his brand. Thankfully just passing his wisdom save to not rage. And the getting the wound healed by Prof Cerulean.

Also, for flavor, Po's great club is a surfboard with a handle.

[hedgie]

Our last session wasn't as exciting as the one before.  We realised that we were pretty fucked-up after what happened last game, having one comatose PC, and others with level drain (and our clerics didn't pack enough Restorations), and managed to make our way to a courtyard.  The dwarf was back, and really should be put on a lead/leash because he wanted to explore the well and possibly bash down a door where there was *something* on the other side.  Thankfully, saner minds successfully convinced him that it was time to fly out (stupid dimension-lock), and we landed back in the orc encampment.

Now, the PC in charge of negotiations was deafened, and I had to use my pet to telepathically relay everything the chieftain said to her so that they wouldn't see that anything is wrong.  We spun a story about how his gf died honourably enough that the castle took her, and that the undead thing she became was amazingly fearsome and presented her head (why we took the head instead of the whole body when we have two bags of holding and a dwarf capable of carrying several tonnes is beyond me).  This was done diplomatically enough that we were invited to the funeral feast.  Turns out, though, that she ended up as part of the stew, so that the tribe could take her strength into it, and we rolled poorly enough that only two of us knew what the secret ingredient was (and they did *not* share the information).  If my character finds out what she sampled, she'll certainly be washing her mouth out with the "decanter of endless whisky", purging her stomach contents, and then drinking about as much whisky as she can while still retaining the ability to cast spells.

The next day, the orcs said that we couldn't come back without bringing the skull of the dragon that was seen flying about overnight, so we wasted half a day finding a halfway decent cave, though our stay there was interrupted by a crazed necromancer who decided to join up with us (we took the extra time because it was late enough in the day that we assumed that storming the castle would be worse at nighttime, so we rested another night (also allowing the clerics to be back at full spells after burning through their restorations).  This also gave me an opportunity to identify items.  The orc/undead-thing's spirit is now living in her ax, and now it is both intelligent and allows the wielder to access her barbarian rage if she approves.  We also found that the longsword is a cold-iron, holy weapon, and would be extremely powerful against what we're fighting in the right hands.  Unfortunately, it fell into mine since I was the only one who can both use longswords and is of good alignment.  Yay to finally having a magic weapon, but boo to it going to the witch.  In the morning, we fly back into the courtyard to discover that the defenders were waiting for us with undead minotaurs armed with huge crossbows.  Thankfully, they were more intimidating than dangerous, so we made short work of them without more than superficial injuries. 

Attempting to get to the dragon, we went into the ground floor of the tower that the damned dwarf had told us hosted the dragon.  As is typical in such situations, we saw a series of doors, and decided to go through them one by one, starting at the furthest left, which opened into the kitchen quite close to some scary ovens.  As expected, the ovens shot a massive fireball[1] and then spawned four "cinder ghouls" which promptly entered the lungs of one of our clerics.  Our evil cleric promptly took control over them, and we started up the stairs to encounter 5 spectres, which managed to level drain a few people.  Thankfully, we were powerful enough to make short work of them, and made it to the top of the stairs with little difficulty.  In the next room, we encounter (surprise) another undead, who is pacing around the room with milky white eyes.  Our necromancer blurts out "are you blind or just scary?", and he muttered something about needing to defend the castle before attacking… at which point, it was the witching hour, and we broke game.  Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention that the last undead was bound by four chains.  We had found previously due to the dwarf's vision (long story) that there were four chains leading to anchors that were drawing energy from a fifth anchor of über-importance to sustain the castle and the undead.  The undead we are starting to fight is at the centre of the chains, and bound by them.  The GM let it slip that this is the big-bad.  To make things worse, two players will be absent next session, including our top DPS (the gunslinger), so it'll be difficult, even with the NPCs taking a more active role.

I'd say that all went well aside from having to eat the other green meat, and the IRL problem of one of our clerics taking the better part of an hour to get her spell list done.  It always introduces a long lag, taking about 1/2 an hour of prep time, then maybe another 15 minutes of people still talking about other stuff since conversations start when things aren't moving along.

[2] An illusion, but neither saved to disbelieve

[Gyrre]

Illusory fireball damage-- the mind is indeed a powerful thing.

Here's hoping you can nab a feat that let's you cast without dropping your weapon. Maybe the castle has a library with certain special books?

Best of luck in your next encounter. Successful History checks may help.

[hedgie]

I don't *think* there's a rule saying I can't cast with a weapon in my hand, but I'm still pretty ineffectual with it due to being a squishy caster and having a strength penalty.  The GM did say that I could take a feat to use weapons with my prehensile hair, and I may do that somewhere down the line, since my hair has a strength bonus equal to my int bonus.  Given what we're dealing with, this place is fairly low on both the quantity and quality of the lewtz, so even a +1 holy sword is a big thing.  I just hope we can turn the gunslinger good, since he's pretty good at melee as well.

[Neko_Ali]

It depends on what system you are running... I'm not sure about Pathfinder offhand and don't want to dig up the rules, but I know in 5e you are supposed to have a hand free to cast spells with somatic components, with some exceptions. If you are using a focus you can cast the spell with the hand holding it. The Warcaster feat specifically allows  you to cast while holding a weapon, among other things. That said, it's one of those rules that's generally glossed over or ignored. I personally don't bother with it unless it's especially relevant. Since I reduced drawing/changing weapons to a bonus action anyway, I assume if you have both hands full you can just set aside to trace the magic symbols with the weapon in hand. And Warcaster means you can use your weapon as an focus, besides it's other effects.

[hedgie]

Thankfully, a longsword is one-handed, so I'd still have the hand free, and since I'm rolled an arcane caster, I can ignore most focus requirements (witches get some of their spells off the druid and cleric lists).

[Gyrre]

I don't *think* there's a rule saying I can't cast with a weapon in my hand, but I'm still pretty ineffectual with it due to being a squishy caster and having a strength penalty.  The GM did say that I could take a feat to use weapons with my prehensile hair, and I may do that somewhere down the line, since my hair has a strength bonus equal to my int bonus.  Given what we're dealing with, this place is fairly low on both the quantity and quality of the lewtz, so even a +1 holy sword is a big thing.  I just hope we can turn the gunslinger good, since he's pretty good at melee as well.

Prehensile hair???
Oh! Any luck tracking down a flying broom? Imagine flying in wielding the sword with your hair !

Best of luck with the gunslinger. If need be, a chaotic good party member could find something to blackmail them with (i.e. sleeps with teddybear/security blanket, something whispered while sleeping, embarrassing stories,etc).

[hedgie]

It's a hex that can be used by witches for 1min/level per day, and I took it so I could deliver touch spells with a 10' reach.  Technically, it's supposed to be a secondary natural attack, but I've been allowed to use it as a primary since I haven't been using other weapons or physical attacks.  Here, I've been using it to deliver healing spells to both friendlies and the undead (to harm them) without having to actually touch the latter.  I'm pretty sure that I'll take flight as my lvl 16 hex, which will free up a couple of spell slots (no broom needed).

[Neko_Ali]

Are you playing Pathfinder, Hedgie? I forget. I'd kind of like to find a Witch class for 5e. I've considered adapting one from Monte Cook's old Arcana Unearthed book.

Also, I have prepared a nice little ghost story for my players for Halloween. Depending on how long it takes them to wrap up their current adventure stopping a demon worshipping cult tonight, we might be starting into that. It's a grand adventure about love, betrayal, ghosts, zombies and an animated gazebo that I hope to be entertaining....

[hedgie]

Yes, it's Pathfinder, and a pretty useful class.  At even levels, witches get hexes, which allow a fair bit of customisation, and give some non-spell abilities that can be used.  The spell list itself is a strange grab-bag, but does include the various cure spells, and then "Patron spells" which function in many ways like having a domain.

[Gyrre]

Class features woot!

On the note of terrifying combat encounter imagery, I recently came across a few tables for Aasimar anatomical variations. I decided to make a College of Whispers Aasimar bard named T'hom T'zindar. He's got skin that looks like black marble, eyes that glow bright purple, heatless flames for hair (also purple), long arms and legs, extra long digits, and a slender frame.