Accordions in the Deep

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  Especially if you're one of my players.

I've spent most of the evening playing Weird Al songs for my son.  I can only believe that this will have a positive effect on my megadungeon.  Planning to do a bit more stocking of it now.

Your books are overdue.

Beast of the Week: Jubokko

It's a Japanese plant monster this week. 

Jubokko
AC: 0 (20)
HD: 10**
Move: 0 (0)
Attacks: 2
Damage: 3d8 each
No. Appearing: 0 (1)
Save As: Fighter 10
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: E
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 2300

Jubokko, also known as vampire trees, are sentient evil plant monsters.  They are immobile (but see below), but have several means of luring victims to them.  Once a human, demi-human or humanoid is under their branches, they strike one or two targets, entangling the victims with branches if their attacks succeed.  Entangled victims are drained of 3d8 hit points each round.  Each round after the first, victims may make a saving throw vs. dragon breath to escape before they are drained again.  Jubokko can use the following spells: growth of plants 3/day, hallucinatory terrain 3/day, dimension door 3/day.  They may also control plants, as the ring, at will.

Eureka!

I re-scanned the Flying Swordsmen map this morning.  I gave up on trying to find a print shop that had a big enough scanner to digitize the whole thing at once, and settled on the fact that to get a good scan I'd need to fold the original and use my home scanner.

Which I did.  I spent about an hour piecing the two scans together and more or less removing the seem, which was much easier to do than last time.  Anyway, my netbooks' almost out of power, so I'd better upload it here to show it off before I run out of battery.

Year of the Dragon Begins!

It's the Chinese New Year today. Happy Year of the Gold Dragon, everyone!

Yesterday, we had a marathon session of Brian's Pathfinder game. Lots of stuff happened, some good, some bad. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next game in two weeks.

As for the players/cast, Robbie was sick so he couldn't make it, leaving us without Toki the Sorcerer and his meddlesome ways. Marc, who had played Ragnar the Dwarf Cleric for one session, seems to have dropped out (Marc, if you're reading this, and you're still interested, of course you're still welcome to play - but as you'll read below, you'll need to roll up a new character if you do!). We were joined by Dean, who will also be playing in Adam's upcoming Birthright game. Brian and Jesse quickly rolled up a Cleric of Wee Jas for Dean to run, since the whole mission is to help out the death cultists fighting the undead. Dean named his PC Brother Repose, and played him as an oddball ascetic who could cast some spells, but not do much fighting.

Jeremy is still playing Oxide the reckless and vicious Warforged Fighter. Greg started out playing Plato the Half-Elf Rogue, but for in-character reasons sent Plato off mid-game and switched to his backup, a Half-Orc Cleric of Olidamara named "Red." Jesse continues to play his Half-Orc Alchemist Zesser.  I'm still playing Elwood the Human Paladin (and still skirting those pesky alignment issues in the hopes that I can do some good).

SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you plan on playing through the Age of Wyrms Adventure Path, spoilers will follow.

So we started the session with a long tactical discussion of how to take on Kullen (it's spelled with a K, apparently) and his goons.  When we finally got down there, Kullen wasn't around but his lackeys were.  We actually got the information we needed without a fight, but Jeremy had Oxide stick around discussing potential employment with them while the rest went out.  Then Oxide started a fight, just as Elwood and Zesser returned to drag him out again.  Turns out the thugs weren't nearly as tough as we'd thought they would be.  We killed two, captured the other and looted them for masterwork weapons, some potions, and a couple of other minor magic items.

At Allustan's house, we met our new companions Red and Brother Repose, and got the loot identified.  We decided that we didn't need Filge (another mis-spelling corrected!) the Necromancer, since we'd need to go knocking on the door of Balabar, the town's big boss to get him.  So we headed out to the graveyard and met with the Wee Jas priests.  They'd been ambushed by both the worm zombies and some creatures in the darkness shooting black, poisoned arrows.  Zesser ID'd the poison as a Drow sleep toxin.  The high Priestess asked us to try to find the source of the zombies, and prevent any more attacks.  We also learned that fire seemed to stop the worms from spreading, so we decided to head back to town to stock up on oil, alchemist's fire, and such before heading to the Dwarven mines of Dourstone, where Filge had told us he'd gotten the worm he was investigating.

We were ambushed by kenku on the way, but killed some and routed the rest.  They were using black poisoned arrows.

In town, all Hell broke loose, as zombies were attacking along the docks.  We spent some time helping the town guards hold them off until Allustan and the local Paladin arrived with more reinforcements.  During the battle, Murlynd showed his displeasure with Elwood's behavior when I tried to activate the section of the Staff of Law (Rod of 7 Parts part 1) to aid us.  I blew myself up again.  Such is life.  I also got a worm infection, but managed to get it out with a Heal check before it got too far toward my brain.  Allustan berated us for wasting time trying to save the town when we needed to be headed to the mines.  We took the hint and booked it, since we'd barely made a dent in the zombie hordes anyway.

At the mines, there was an elevator with three marked levels, and one unmarked.  We headed straight to the 'cleverly disguised' fourth level, and were ambushed by tieflings or half-demons or something of the sort.  We found a pool of slime and a key in one room, and three corridors with locked doors, each with one of the trio of evil deities (Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna) that the Ebon Triad cultists worship.  The key led through the Hextor door, and we ended up in a MASSIVE battle with the high priest and his minions.

Luckily, we managed to carry the day.  I ended up using all 5 of my daily uses of Lay on Hands on myself only during the battle, and Smite Evil on the lead priest of Hextor (got the final swipe in on him), but still ended the battle with negative hit points thanks to the lackey clerics.

We'd already played beyond the venue's closing time.  The owners are cool dudes, and the one working let us hang out and game while he had dinner and read a book.  We bought a ton of drinks (Jeremy mostly!) so they had a good day, I'm thinking.  He also offered to open up early on our gaming days if we give them a heads up.  Might be good, as the place got really noisy for a while.

Some of Dean's female co-workers also were there, and came over to ask about the game, but decided they didn't want to get involved with games that took multiple hours over multiple weeks to play out.  They offered to play Settlers of Catan with us one of these days, though.

All in all, a good session.  And we leveled up, so Elwood will be a 4th level bad-ass the next time we play, and hopefully won't get kicked around so much (both in combat, and with the difficult balancing act of trying to keep his companions - and himself - on the good side).

"D&D Next"

So the working title for 5E is "D&D Next."

Damn, they better come up with something better than that before release time. I've never studied marketing, but that sure sounds like "buy this crap now, we'll be selling you more crap later" to this customer.

Ug, not again!

We've got our next Pathfinder session tomorrow. I finally got around to completing my backup PC this afternoon while my son and I watched sumo and played with toy dragons. All I had left to do was buy equipment, so it didn't take that long.

But now, despite all the fun I'm having playing Elwood the Paladin, this new backup (made only in case Elwood doesn't make it in the big coming dust-up) is looking really fun, too. And Jeremy's got the same itch, judging from his posts about his backup PC on Facebook.

Back when we played Classic D&D, this feeling would hit us too. We'd get some idea, or read some book, or watch some movie, and want to make a PC from that inspiration. And then we would. All of us had a large 'stable' of PCs, and living in really rural Illinois, whenever we would play there's a good chance it would just be the DM and one player, so we'd run a small squad of PCs (even the DM would bring a few along). So having plenty to choose from was never an issue. But then with the more episodic nature of those old games, it didn't matter. We'd almost always leave the dungeon at the end of the session, so if a different lineup went in next time, there were no problems.

But these days, when a player gets that itch to play a new character, not only does the character building process take longer with the newer editions, there's also the more 'literary' (to use a kind word) plot lines of modules or DM created adventures. That makes it a lot harder to work new PCs into things.

What's usually called "Gamer ADD" is mostly referring to game masters getting the itch to start new campaigns or run different rule systems, but it's a problem for players, too. Someone (sorry, can't remember exactly who, and can't find the link) was pointing out the other day that they read about LOTS of people starting Pathfinder Adventure Paths, but never reads about anyone finishing them.

Have we gotten that bad, both as players and as DMs, that we can't stick with something to the end? Granted, high level d20 play is a pain in the ass, but still, I think it's the fact that both players and GMs have ALL THESE OPTIONS staring them in the face that it's hard to avoid a "grass is greener" feeling when considering them.

Yes, Elwood is an awesome character, but Hogan the Red may be cooler! Still, I'll do my best tomorrow to keep Elwood alive, even if that means Hogan never ever gets to see the light of play.

Zak's been asking questions

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

Probably my unique magic items series. It hasn't really affected my occasional players yet, but as a DM it gives me all sorts of inspiration to have a limited number of unique magic items in a campaign, rather than just popping in whatever the random charts spit out, and having the only things with stories attached to them be artifact level items.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

When was, it, last October? November? Ran a couple sessions of my Megadungeon with Classic D&D.

3. When was the last time you played?

Jan. 8, 2012 in Brian's Pathfinder game

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Terminator: The War Against the Machines (all that future stuff you only see glimpses of in the movies) run with Star Frontiers (minus the Dralasites and stuff).

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Sometimes pay attention and try to think of ways to turn their ideas back on them. Usually, though, I'm going through my adventure notes one more time to jog my memory of what's probably coming up.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

In Japan, we always seemed to get MacDonalds takeout for games. Here in Busan, it's mostly just some chips and whatever drinks we prefer (beer or baekseju if I'm drinking, Coke or Mountain Dew if not).

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No. Mentally exhausting sometimes, though.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

In our PF game I've been running a Paladin who is trying to clean up the town, scour the dungeon, keep the party from tearing itself apart from internal rivalries, and when I've got a spare moment, visiting my favorite prostitute. He's a busy dude.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

I tend to end up making my (rare) serious settings unserious all on my own. I've yet to have players turn my (much more common) unserious settings serious on me.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Stick them in dungeon rooms, sometimes with some treasure, and usually a few notes on interesting things they are up to.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

See my Beast of the Week series, turning monsters from myths and legends into monsters for the game.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

Lots of them, but the first one that came to mind was in our Gamma World game last year, where Jeremy's mutant bull character bull-headedly blew himself up by trying to bash through a trapped security door with his horns. Josh kept telling him how much damage he'd done and asking him every so often if he wanted to keep going. He did, and at 1000 points of damage, BOOM!!!

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

In real life, the 2E Monstrous Compendium, for stocking my Megadungeon. On the computer, the 3.5 Complete Aracane for building my Birthright PC for Adam's upcoming game.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

I grew up with Elmore art in my BECM and Star Frontiers.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

It has a few times, but as mentioned above, I rarely run serious games so such occurrences are rare.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

Hard to say, but it was likely either with "Isle of Dread" or "Crash on Volturnus," as I ran both of those modules several times.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

Good sized table (plenty of room for character sheets, books, snacks & drinks, plus minis if necessary) in a large room, comfy chairs, adequate lighting, and few distractions.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

I'm liking Pathfinder well enough as a player (doubt I'd like it as a DM after my experiences with 3E), but I also like silly little indie games like "All Outta Bubblegum" or my own "Presidents of the Apocalypse."

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

The Castlevania video games, and Three Kingdoms, the classic Chinese novel.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Smart, adaptable, with a sense of humor, well-read and well versed in pop culture (to get my lame jokes and odd references used as clues in the dungeon), and willing to play an Old School version of D&D.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

The first time I went to Japan, I visited Kakegawa Castle. I turned the floorplans to that castle into a location in an OA game and had the players' Ninja PCs infiltrate it. Having actually been to the place, and then using it in a game worked well for me in visualizing and describing it.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

A version of the Rules Cyclopedia without the tacked on skill system and expanded Mystara setting, but with the missing tournament rules, and with the original Elmore/Easley art instead of the Terry Dykstra art that's in the RC.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

My (foreign) coworkers, and my adult conversation students. With the coworkers, it's usually just a "what did you do this weekend" sort of thing with maybe a few questions about how the game works here and there. With my adult students, it's mostly a curiosity thing - they usually don't know what I'm talking about so they ask lots of questions, but usually don't show any interest in playing.