Forum: Public Forum

Dear Players,

Another adventure done.

The session yesterday evening was due to be the last one for Sins of the Saviours and indeed it has proven to be so. Personally, I was expecting a bit more tension from the fight, I guess it was challenging after all, however I intended for the Demon to be the last monster standing. Oh well, you seemed to have enjoyed it so that will have to do. As the GM I have not killed a PC for a while now... mmmh...

Nick out of the game.

Well, as usual, if you want to come back later, you are welcome. Bester can teleport so I guess it would not be too difficult to literally drop him in the middle of Xin Shalast if need be.

Ian's bad role-playing.

In every game he plays, whether it is in the Serenity game violently killing a sheriff or in RotRL; Ian just cannot help it, he forsakes every chance at role-playing and goes for kill, kill, kill.
The Shemhazian Demon could have been a misunderstood creature, forced by its evil peers to commit acts of destructions, such as the massacre of Elven settlements. The poor soul, whose name the party did not even bother to know, could have been tortured by angst at its past and implied disposition. Nobody even bothered to ask the Shemhazian if he could wield twin scimitars for Heaven's sake!
Obsessed players like Ian just do not care, they act out of jealousy for their peers (remember when he opposed Andrew's character gaining a Pit Fiend as a friend?), contempt for the game and a driven hatred for the GM's toys!

Next adventure.

I shall prepare Spires of Xin Shalast by Greg A. Vaughan but I do not expect to start it until the session after next. As mentioned yesterday, I would like you to all choose an archetype from the Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Magic or Ultimate Combat. Considering the current number it should be easy to find one corresponding to your style of play and your particular PC. Those of you who want to rebuild their character to get into a prestige class are also free to do so.

Basically, Xin Shalast is not going anywhere in the next few game months so I intend to give the party many months indeed. The motivation being that there could be some funny behavioural changes in some of your PCs who could in turn lead to some funny in-character discussions. Also, game-mechanic wise a relatively long period of time would explain whatever character sheet rebuilt one might be interested in. On a logical point of view, Xin Shalast is high up on the Mhar Massif in the Kodar Mountains thus it is going to be pretty cold up there, let alone in Winter. Hence the party must plan for a Spring expedition.

Book-keeping.

The party should be able to unload all the crap collected in Runeforge and buy or improve their belongings.
Note that this will be the last time in one of my game that I will allow free rein in buying and selling. My next game will be more "believable", without "Ye Olde Magick Shoppe" where the party can flog the loot or buy specific magic items. I will try to adopt the system found in the Game Mastery Guide where only a limited number of items are available in a given place depending on its size (thorp, town, city, etc.).
Anyway, this will still be a free for all, so you may peruse your books to find what you want.

The starting level for Spires of Xin Shalast is 14 and like Sins of the Saviours this will be a one way trip, no more shopping before shaking hands with Karzoug.

See some of you tonight for David's game.

Laurent,

Dear Players,

I cannot run Rise of the Runelords this week. I also need to cancel all my other gaming commitments.

You must have all received an email.
James if you read this, you may ask the others why.

Laurent,

legacy game will be on this wednesday.

Dear all,

Things will be back to normal for me on Thursday. I shall be flying out of the country tomorrow - Sunday December 4th - back on Tuesday and attend a conference in Teddington at the National Physics Laboratory on Wednesday (for work).

In other words, Rise of the Runelords is on next week and I shall be able to make it on Monday (December 12th) for whatever board-game is on.

Laurent,

Hello,

I do not really know where to post this, creating a new thread could lead to a flame war; so I am using my own game thread.

Ryan Dancey's three great posts on ENWorld:

• On the D&D business overall and why Paizo is not technically in the same business as WotC, weird but logical.
• The concept of acquisition engine.
• Pre-4e history at WotC.

A page that links to interesting bits on D&D past, present and future.

I personally like the view of D&D as a brand and not a game. It makes sense, the analogy with Marvell and the comic books vs. movie franchises is quite good I think.
Until I read the aforementioned pieces, I was not aware that Paizo and WotC are not in the same business at all. They sell similar and competing products, but WotC handles a "brand", Paizo makes money from subscription products. Again, Ryan Dancey puts this into words.

See most of you at Ian's game on Wednesday and the return of Rise of the Runelords next week!

Laurent,

Dear Players,

Of flying machines and Frost Worms.

We had to start the adventure somehow and what is best but a thematic not-so-random encounter. Thanks to our fire obsessed Druid the encounter turn into a tactical terrain encounter too. I should have brought the two Frost Worms together to get the party to sweat a bit more, but the terrain change antics made the encounter sufficiently enjoyable methinks.

The last RotRL adventure.

It is an odd feeling, having run Rise of the Runelords more or less forever to think that we are getting closer to the end with every page turn on my adventure book. Let's no draw too lyrical though as this is a mammoth adventure in terms of encounters of the fixed-, side- and random- variety. Many game sessions ahead, never fear!

New header post.

Back in the days of the move to the current website, I had not realised the trick of having a generic first post on a thread as it repeats itself at the beginning of every new page. Not wanting to lose the post itself, I have merely lengthened it a bit by adding the piccy of the Rise of the Runelords adventure being played and a link to the game page.

Laurent,

Dear Players,

A game with only four out of five PCs last night and a late start due to various card games and a Bloodbowl tournament. That being said, the session was quite amusing.

Weather, landing, snow and monsters.

The game day started with a D100 roll for the weather.
David rolled a 96, which led to a snowstorm brewing. Adapting the roll to the situation, I judged that the snowstorm would hit soon but that there was still enough time to fly to the Vekker brother's cabin.
I then asked for a DC 20 piloting roll from the mystic theurge Valakan Ian rolling for Andrew bravely announced: "I need a 3 or higher".

The result was a 2.

As the GM, I decided not to be too nasty and only mention that the airship drifted in the wrong direction and sadly toward the bad weather, but that another DC 20 check would allow landing and at worst a fight under wintry conditions if a monster was to be at the cabin.

Another roll of 2.

Well, that was it! The airship was in the storm, a couple of people got bruised (non-lethal damage) when smashing against the walls of the airship cabin, but the Druid Thorak managed to concentrated while casting a control weather spell, which of course ended the storm and allowed a safe landing.

Cryohydra and mean undead Treant.

As mentioned after the fight, I should have sent the two monsters together. Still the Treant special abilities could have proven mean had I manage more average rolls than the meagre selection of 4s and 3s.

Levelling-up a Hydra from CR5 to CR12 on the fly must have made me forget a few things about AC and to-hit modifier. Oh well, your strategy of ignoring the special monster rules for the heads and go instead for the body all the time would not have changed much had I rebuilt the beast properly.
I got the HP right, and probably the right to-hit and damage values too, not so sure about the AC. Oh well, as I said before, this adventure allows for the inclusion of all sorts of weird and unusual monsters, so I intend to carry on with "not-so-random" encounters as I see fit.

Haunts as story telling tools.

The various traps and haunts to be found in the cabin are not meant to be too dangerous, but to tell the story of what happened decades ago to the Dwarves and the party they brought from Janderhoff.

The Rise of the Runelords page has been updated.

Laurent,

Dear players,

I am a bit late for the update due to a nasty cold.

There goes the Mystic-Theurge.

I had mentioned that the haunts in this part of the adventure were easy and mainly there to tell a story... well they are easy up to a point. Had the party followed the D&D adage "Do not split the party" or its corollary: "If some PCs in the party are having an encounter, make sure the others come in support even when not needed." Because if the other half of the party decides to split even more and opens doors by themselves more than a round of movement away from potentially needed assistance, things can go bad.
As I said during the session, I had not got up that morning thinking about killing a character, but it happened. After an underwhelming Cryo-Hydra last time, which read as a threat on paper, I was, like everybody else I guess, surprised to see Valakan dropping in one round.
In my next campaign I will try to devise rules to combat involuntary min-maxing, in this case the "min-" side was the problem. I just find it hard to believe that an LV14 PC has an AC of 10.

Also, you are a bunch of penny-pinching adventurers, at these wealth-per-level earnings the party should invest in scrolls of Resurrection and not the basic, more LV5 like, Raise Dead + Restoration.

Anyway, as we had realised a long time ago this particular Mystic-Theurge was not exactly ticking in sync with the party. If Andrew is indeed considering a Cleric of Shelyn, there is a good article on her in Nights of Frozen Shadows.

Railroady sandbox.

You need to be warned that this adventure may seem a bit disjointed once you arrive in Xin-Shalast, i.e. "sandboxy" in a not very nice way. However it would have felt too "railroady" before that. The background story is decent and I will do my best to let the PCs find out about it.
Spires of Xin-Shalast suffers a bit like most, if not all, of Paizo's "end of adventure path" adventures. We all know the BBEG is coming and everything between now and when you meet him is going to feel a bit like speed bumps. I am not saying that Xin-Shalast is merely a big random encounter table though, just that it will not have the refinement of The Hook Mountain Massacre or Sins of the Saviours.

Literary references.

Back in the days, the Paizo editorial team was not too sure about stepping on the IP of Chaosium, so the Lovecraftian references will sound a bit muted. Those in the know will certainly realise that The Plateau of Leng is pretty much coterminous with the highest regions of Xin-Shalast.
Because Pathfinder has now become a bigger fish and people at Chaosium have been very friendly with them, the Carrion Crown adventure path has been far more open with Lovecraftian creations.

Laurent,

due to unforseen and tragic circumstances RotRL will not been on this week and i will be running LoF instead. exact details will be given in person if you require them

ian

Dear players,

I have asked again Ian to run his Legacy of Fire game on Wednesday (March 14th).

Let's just say that lady luck is not smiling at the moment. I shall rejoin/resume the games as soon as possible, which could be a matter of weeks.

Laurent,

Dear Players,

Barring any more personal drama, Rise of the Runelords will be run on Wednesday, March 28th.

So fingers crossed and things shall be back to normal and I will get to use that Wendigo

Laurent,

Dear players,

I have a meeting at 4.00 p.m. on Wednesday, I usually dread those four o'clock meetings as they tend to last forever. I will do my best to free myself around five.

Assuming we will not be playing until 8.00 p.m as it is now the standard start time, the aforementioned meeting should not delay me; but I will still need to eat of course!

Laurent,

Dear players,

Alright, the start of the meeting is delayed by half an hour, not a good sign.

My aim is still to be at the shop around quarter to eight. I shall text Andrew and Ian if world events turn against Rise of the Runelords again.

Laurent,

Dear players,

Well, that was quite a session wasn't it?
Next time, we shall try with character sheets...

I have posted the two Rise of the Runelords events for April.

The Family Business card game was fun though. We have all discovered the true nature of Adam who, underneath his "honest guy" looks, hides the cold and calculating mind of a ruthless mobster.

After looking pretty ridiculous with my RPG session without PC sheets, I was nonetheless able to claim a resounding victory at Braggart, thus I have no shame to BRAG about it.

Laurent,

Hi all,

I sadly won't be able to make tomorrow's game, hope it goes well.

Ding

David,

Noted.

Too bad, I had the intention to add a brand new component to my game tonight:
CHARACTER SHEETS!

Laurent,

What, Wait are we playing tonight?! does ginga know since this is his day off and he is shut? what are we going to do tomorrow night now?
see you tomorrow night (wednesday) for the game Laurent.

Well, yes, tomorrow, sorry.

Dear players,

While reading some old entries on the Paizo blog, I have found this bit of FAQ on the mirror image spell.

I am pleased to say that both Ian and I have ruled it accordingly, we used to say: "All the images and the creature count as one target". This is pretty much what the FAQ entry says too.

Basically if a PC is annoyed at mirror image, they'd better get a proper countering magic option such as true seeing if they wish to see through the spell.

Laurent,

Dear Players,

A game at last.

Well, I was about to play a joke on the party and have Karzoug and all the opponents due to be encountered before the big fight to show up at the door of the cabin saying "Could you hurry up please? We have been waiting for you for months!"

Anyway, with the character sheets in my backpack, it was indeed possible to play.

Session.

A quick summary of what happened:
While waiting for the shop to be closed and particularly noisy customers to leave, we played the Wendigo's nightmare ability. Luck obviously decided that Marcus was to suffer the effect.
He failed both saves, once against the nightmare, and the second one against the Wendigo psychosis effect. Fortunately the Paladin made used of his mercy ability and managed to remove both the fatigued and the cursed conditions with only a couple of tries. Marcus is now only suffering from his 1D4 (4 of course!) wisdom drain.
The new Cleric, a "Separatist" archetype, has arrived and is showing Dagar a strange way to worship Iomedae.

Two encounters during the session:

• One random one with pathetic Kuchrimas. They could have been more of a challenge had not the encounter taken place in bad weather, forbidding the use of range weapons. They typically are monsters specialised in archery.
• The other encounter was with the Ghost of Karivek Vekker. This could have been challenging had I rolled better.

The next step is to bring back the bones of Karivek Vekker to the friendly Ghost of his brother once back at the cabin.

The game page has been updated.

Laurent,