Forum: Public Forum

In Rochester NY since yesterday early morning (1.00 a.m. local time).
Happy to be here, but no luggage!

Merry Christmas,

Laurent,

Glad to hear you made it.... I've been listening to the travel reports hoping that you managed to get away eventually....

Happy festive season, everyone. Erastil bless us every one.

Got my piece of luggage two hours before Christmas from the Delta guy at our door.
Now this was an unexpected present!

Laurent,

was it just the handle and the front cover of the suitcase?

glad to hear you made it and hope you have a good time.

Ian,

I have not learnt proper English to end up talking like an American about my "baggage", luggage as you know it comes in pieces.

As for the good time, everything is going wrong. We wanted to visit New-York, and... our flight has been cancelled twice (the original one and the re-booked one). The friend I wanted to meet there is stuck in Boston anyway. The reason is obviously a nasty blizzard, which as we all know is due to cold weather... due to "Global Warming".

Laurent,

Dear Players,

Gaming group.

As we all know, Paul can no longer play on Wednesday nights. He had informed me of this before the last game session. He has a new job, so his quitting is to be filed under "life event", like many former Rise of the Runelords players before him.

Since everybody but Paul (of course) was here yesterday, we already know that we have potentially two new players coming next week. This happy coincidence will spare me the call for new players on the website. A party of seven is a bit of an odd number, technically seven is an odd number , so I will add 75% to the HP total of a named NPC, unique or storyline related monster, and sprinkle about three quarter more gribblies too for group encounters; as usual, nothing really set in stone, but do expect big HP bags that last for some rounds.

Introducing the new PCs will be pretty easy, and again, as with the time when Nagri joined the party, the game is at a stage when the party is actually about to rescue some prisoners. So this is cliché without being cliché, but yes, the new PCs are about to join the party who came to free them!

Last encounter.

Low initiative can be a killer for a monster as was proven yesterday. I should have hidden Lokansir in the soil when he heard the noise at the door, then again, the party succeeded at the first STR check to open the door. Still the poor chap lost 2HD in his Pathfinder RPG translation, thus lost one attack!

Preparation.

I will need to clean up the old PC sheets, get you your gear and get back into running the adventure proper. Last night's session was not too bad in the end, considering I had not touched anything D&D for a couple of weeks. We are close to finishing the adventure though, just a couple of pages to go to hit Mokmurian who is "only a Wizard". .

Game page updated and event set for next week.

Laurent,

So as not to start a flame-war with the 4e/4e-ess aficionados I shall mention the info here only and allow myself maximum sarcasm allocation.

It looks like WotC is going to churn even more money by turning the D&D franchise into a Tragic the Garnering hybrid.

For those who remember Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords and the rumour at the time that it was a preview of 4e within 3.5 (daily/per encounter powers); there is not much of a stretch to allow for a conspiracy theory to develop: "Is this 5th Edition being previewed within the mechanics of 4ed/4e-ess?"

Note that the fortune card webpage seems aimed more at retailers than at players. I got the link from an EN-World newsletter. I like the mention of "not really needed for D&D... but they will be compulsory anyway." as in For some Wizards Play Network programs aimed at experienced players, Fortune Card purchase will be a requirement to participate, but our broadly-appealing programs like D&D Encounters will feature their use without such a requirement.

8 cards for $4, which will likely become 8 cards for £3 for us (if not £4!) who would have thought that paper was that expensive to print in China?

These will be "themed" as well, so expect multiple releases a year.

D&D has certainly evolved over the years. It used to be one guy with a funny little rule-book, a story, a couple of friends to play in it, and a bunch of dice. Now, the average "fully licensed player" needs:

• Books.
• More books.
• Miniatures.
• Markers.
• WotC online subscription.
• Expensive collectible cards.

Yep, I know, we have card accessories for Pathfinder RPG but these are not collectible and they are definitely optional. Not all Paizo card systems are great either I must say.

Laurent,

Cough cough *Harrow deck* cough cough

I want a 'Deck of Decking' with cards with different pictures of wooden decking and other wooden patio solutions. This could be an epic game of timber-based garden domination....

Andrew,

Card decks accessories.

Yes, the Harrow Deck is not really up to the task. It is complicated even when one reads about it and when I tried it - long ago in Sheffield in my first go at RotRL - I managed to fluff the whole thing, which confused the players, so we dropped it.

I had the Plot Twist deck in mind when I was typing the previous post though. To me it scores as "A bit meh" as Bart Simpson would say.

As for the collectible card approach for the item card sets, Paizo listened to its customers/subscribers and dropped the idea pretty quickly. I guess there is a critical mass threshold for potential customers for a collectible card set to be successful. The number of those who buy the product should always be above that who moan about it. WotC should easily sell their D&D Fate Cards at whatever price they want though because they can rely on a still consequent fan-base. This is a great business idea by the way, they effectively merge two of their leading brands: MtG and D&D thus can exploit their means of production to the hilt: They already print cards, they already produce a monthly hardback... so MtG players could soon expect monthly rulebooks and minis!

Adam.

You should work at WotC, you have good design ideas.

Laurent,

still yet to hear from our new players yet, hopefully they will turn up earlier and I can check their character sheets or help them speed build a character

Andrew,

New player(s).

We will play with five players only tonight then. It does not really matter. We shall also discuss the need to recruit for the empty seat.

Preparation.

I am fully prepared for tonight! , at least three encounters ahead. This is going to be a room by room progression as soon as you hit the lower level. There is a bit of non-linearity, with monsters that have Earth glide (even in worked stone) so they can pop-up anytime which could be fun; but otherwise you are on rails with the lame excuse of "this corridor/door is buried under rubble" in most of the rooms.

The item cards have been selected, which makes me think about using the shatter spell with all these potions and all.

Level.

I assume you are all LV11. A subtle divvy of the XP may allow some of you to hit LV12 before fighting Mokmurian… who is only a Wizard.

Laurent,

I say we bypass Mokmurian and instead go after the real Murian....

Adam,

Some people have been known to lose XP or even levels for less than that!

Laurent,

Dear Players,

Gaming group.

Nick has agreed to rejoin Rise of the Runelords and asked about the type of character he should play. I hope you will agree that the facts are as follow:

• Pretty well covered on the "flankers" point of view with one Thief and a Fighter/Thief.
• One Druid, or is it a bat that casts spells? .
• A tin-can heavy hitter of evil things, Paladin.
• An Arcane and Divine spell battery, with a staff and a collection of scrolls and potions: Mystic Theurge.

Technically all magic types are covered except the Bard and Ranger only spells. The party could do with another meat-shield (Fighter, Barbarian), but again you should play what you like. The Advanced Player's Guide is allowed so an Inquisitor and Cavalier could also be taken as a meat-shield. Anti-Paladins should be out though as the party already has a Paladin.

So overall, the party does not really need another flanker type (Thief, Monk, Ranger).
The game table is already replete with spells every single round, but if you insist you can still play a spell-slinger.

The party could benefit from a support class (Bard, Cavalier).
An archer built (Ranger or Fighter) could also mesh in nicely but should be going with Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, etc as outdoor combat is not going to be dominant.

New character.

The new PC would come in at LV11, which allows for a Prestige Class built.

The restrictions are:

• No multi-classing with the APG base classes, unless a specific PrC (from the APG) calls for such a mix (those that do are not overly powerful).
• Once entered a PrC must be taken all the way.
• Self moderation on "optimisation" so as not to have a one-trick pony PC.

I am pretty happy with the contents of the APG, except the very last bits on expanded rules (dirty tricks, etc); so feats, magic items and whatnot from this accessory are welcome in RotRL.

If Human or Half-elf the new arrival would be a captured noble/rich merchant from Sandpoint, with the family name Scarnetti. If not, the PC could be a bodyguard, servant or retainer of a captured Scarnetti from Sandpoint.

Last night's game.

For once I have no regret about the monsters' tactics. I would have like the Dragons to last at least one more round so as to have the Lamias active with them for at least that round. My rolls, while not really atrocious (no fumble), where decidedly below par and the party's saves were generally above average, which did not really help the cause of the Lamia priestesses. We are about three sessions away from finishing this adventure I figure.

Game page updated.

Laurent,

Spell Battery!!! I claim nothing of the sort, Valekern is a mighty mage whom has suffered greatly at the hands of evocation magic and has only a few trinkets around him reminding him of his misfortunes also i feel that the mighty 4 points of damage from my telekenetic fist was truely justified...

Might have a look into using that wand of magic missile though, 5d4+5 it's going to go off like a shotgun.

Oh and welcome back to the fold Nick, knew you couldn't stay away for long? You going to bring back Mage-a-pedia or something completly different? I think a fighter-ish character might be awesome as we have one body bag walking in front and he's already jesus'd himself back to life once already

Andrew,

Not to be picky, but Our Lord and Saviour never technically brought himself back to life. He suffered death, was buried and, on the third day, rose again. You must have meant Lazarus. Anyway, you should burn in hell for taking His name in vain, even worse within the context of a once satanic game!

The name is Valekern, okay, I thought it was "Valakan", one day I will need to actually read those PC sheets! The individual is still a spell obsessed personage.

Laurent,

Excellent news on Nick's return....

I think we're fairly well balanced as a party (though not, of course, as individuals), so anything except another rogue should be fine.

I don't trust that Druid, though. Once he's used up his magic, I think he'll flee into the dawn and leave the rest of us in the lurch. Or, in other words, like a bat out of spells he'll be gone when the morning comes....