#RPGaDay2021 - Day 06

Today's topic is chase.

Do you tend to include chase scenes in your games? While I don't do it often, I like to include a cool chase scene now and then. When I do, I often use the format presented in the often maligned 4e for skill challenges.  The format really works. Allow players to describe what they are doing during the choose and have them make associated skill checks (if pertinent). After they make a predetermined amount or ratio, then end it. It's simple, it's fun, and it works. 

 

Succubus Sunday - Naberius Sain

Naberius Sain is a succubi mentioned in a 4E article. She runs a a devil embassy (remember succubi were devils in 4E) in the exalted city of Hestavar.

Giant Miniatures and 5E

This past week I was getting minis ready for Storm King's Thunder and I noticed a slight problem with the giants.

All of the standard giants in 5th edition are huge. In 4th edition giants were typically large and titans were huge. In third edition and Pathfinder, most giants are large (with the exception of cloud and storm). Between myself and my friend Stew, we have quite a few giants of nearly all varieties. However, most of our giants aren't the appropriate size. Stew is going to make some cardboard huge bases to put them on, but it's still a nuisance.

Each booster of the new set of D&D minis comes a giant. Every giant in the set is appropriately sized. Something that does bother me slightly is that frost and stone giants have already been released in the 5th edition line of minis. The minis themselves are appropriately sized, but the bases are one size too small. I searched the net to find a few pictures to show what I'm talking about.

Large Frost Giant (5e) next to a Huge Ice Titan (4E)

Large Stone Giant (5e) next to a Huge Death Titan (4E)

None of this is the end of the world and I've already figured out a way to fix the problem, but it's still odd and a bit frustrating.

I Play D&D

This is not a post to say that Dungeons and Dragons is the best game ever. I'm also not saying that I only play Dungeons and Dragons, because D&D's not my favorite tabletop. This is just about an observation I made.

I have two biweekly games. One of them is a Freeport game using Pathfinder rules and the other is a D&D 5E game. However, if I'm talking about them, I talk about the D&D games I run. Recently I've been seeing people getting a bit worked up about D&D memes using Pathfinder artwork. I just kind of chuckle at that. Not to take away anything from them, but they're all just different versions of D&D. Unless I'm "talking shop" with another gamer, I'm just going to refer to it as playing D&D with my friends.

Did this need a whole blog post, probably not, just something I was thinking about today.

Wicked Fantasy Factory

Wicked Fantasy Factory was Goodman Games attempt to crank your D&D game up to 11. These were the selling points:

• E-Z stat blocks, formatted to put the important combat statistics at your fingertips
• Finishing moves, with rules to make characters more heroic
• Mooks and big bosses, with rules to make combat more dramatic
• Over-the-top action, for adventures that don't slow down!

0-3 were written for 3.5. They have an over-the-top action aesthetic that is fantastic. Temple of Blood was a teaser that takes place in the sewers. Rumble in the Wizard's Tower sees the adventurers attack a fortress in the middle of the city to prevent a war. It also features a time being and the D&D equivalent of bullet time. In Against the Iron Giant they must race towards a colossal moving fortress and stop the mad cleric of a forgotten mechanical god. Throwdown with the Arm-Ripper, well the name kind of says it all. All of the adventures are formulaic. The mook monster stats are basically the equivalent of 4E minions, and I enjoyed using them when I ran the Temple of Blood. 

As you can see from the cover art, A Fistful of Zinjas is a different beast entirely. Unlike the others, it's statted out for 4E. The book and adventure has an extremely anime-esque style. If that's what you're looking for in your game, I recommend it, but personally I preferred the style of 0-3.

I'm currently running a modified version of Arm-Ripper for my 5E group. It's been really easy to convert. I think adventures 0-3 would be a great way to kick off a campaign. These adventures are relatively inexpensive and if you're looking for something a little different, give them a shot.

The Tarnished Jewel

"Punjar...

Throughout the Known World, no city is half so notorious. Blackened by fire, soiled by pestilence, and scarred by war, its sandy collection of spiderwebbed tenements and rat-ridden bazaars have birthed some of the worst rogues and villains to ever stalk the storied thrones of the north.
But Punjar is also a city of chance and adventure, where fortunes are won in a night and lost before dawn. Where gems glint and flare in the lamplight, the might of magic knows no bounds, and a warrior's quick blade and shirt of mail are his best defense.

So loosen your sword, keep a hand on your coin pouch, and take these first steps into its shadowy, torch-lit streets. A black mist is rolling in off the salt marsh, and the ancient city beckons...

Welcome to Punjar, The Tarnished Jewel!"

Punjar is a city that I've been in love with since the early days of 4E. I snagged a copy of Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel on Free RPGDay 2008. It's just a dirty city with a lot of character, much like a Freeport (one of my other loves), just without the piracy (but with the evil of slavery which is something forbidden in Freeport).

I've picked up all of the Punjar adventure path (pictured above). I also have a few Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures that feature the city, notably Jewels of Carnifax, Mists of Madness, and The Jeweler That Dealt in Stardust. According to the blurb on their latest DCC Kickstarter, Harley Stroh is doing a Punjar city setting.

While I am planning on running Tyranny of Dragons for my first 5E game, I think Punjar is a setting I'd really like to use for my second. I will probably start converting the Punjar adventures I have (monster, magic items, and traps) to 5E and posting them here.

#RPGaDAY 4

Day 4 - Most Recent RPG Purchased

I decided to post my two latest rpg purchases. The first are my new Reaper Bones Strumpet and Eye Beast minis. They look great and I got both of them for less than six bucks. My friend Drea will be painting them for me.

Saturday I picked up a pdf up Goodman Games Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire. The book has everything you need to create a criminal organization from the ground up and how to run it once you've got things going. The book is statted out for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, but could be used with any edition with a little modding.

Grandmaster Training, Divine Boons, and Legendary Boons

I liked with 4th edition. I didn't think it was the greatest rpg of all time, but I definitely had a lot of fun playing it.

The 4E Dungeon Master 2 introduced alternate award ideas and I thought they were really cool. The three coolest were legendary boons, divine boons, and grandmaster training. Here's a quick description:

"Divine Boons 

Individuals who aid a deity’s holy cause receive wondrous, divine gifts. A particularly blessed character, or one who earns a deity’s gratitude, can gain a divine boon.

Legendary Boons
Great deeds can confer wondrous powers on individuals. A character could earn a legendary boon by bathing in the blood of an ancient dragon, reading a tome of esoteric knowledge, or solving the riddle of an immortal sphinx.

Grandmaster Training
The absolute master of a craft, such as an archmage or the greatest living swordmaster, can teach techniques and abilities that transcend a character’s normal limits."

Drizzt grandmaster training appeared in
the Neverwinter Campaign Setting

Mechanically in 4E, these rewards gave you new powers and bonuses like any other magic item. They were even statted like magic items. That being said they seem so much cooler to me than regular magic item. A +2 magical staff is cool, but learning one of Merlin's signature spells is cooler. Yeah I'd dig a magical sword, but I'd rather have D'artagnan teach me how to to an leaping sword attack.

I doubt these kind of pc rewards appear in the initial 5th edition books, but I think I'm going to include them. Expect to see homebrew boons and training in future posts.

The Shadowfell

Wednesday I picked up the 4E Shadowfell boxed set (still sealed) for 14 bucks at Half-Price Books. I don't really play much 4E (or any for the past year), but I still occasionally pick up the books when I find them at good prices. This is one of the books I've really wanted to look at. While I am a Planescape fan, one of my favorite parts of 4E was the cosmology. The idea that the Shadowfell and Feywild were reflections of the prime material plane was a really cool to me. Plus the Shadowfell had real character. The negative energy plane was just there, the Shadowfell seems more alive (intentional ironic statement). 

The boxed set itself is nice. There's a campaign guide (mainly focusing on the city of Gloomwrought and it's inhabitants), an encounters book, a poster map of the city (that can be flipped over for a battle mat), two pages of thick monster tokens, and a despair deck (which is an easy way to deal with the affects the plane has on visitors).

I enjoy the product overall. The box itself is basically a glorified slip case with a lid, but other than that I have no real complaints. Though Ravenloft isn't named, the demiplanes of dread and dark powers are mentioned in passing. There's some really good setting info here and personally I think I'd like to see Gloomwrought and the Shadowfell in my 5E game.

Tyranny of Dragons

I know it's a bit of old news at this point (originally announced a little over a week ago), but Wizards has released info for it's first 5th edition story arc, Tyranny of the Dragons. The story will center around the Cult of the Dragon and the rise of Tiamat.

I think this sounds like a lot of fun. My main issue with it is that the last regular game I played in, a 4E Forgotten Realms campaign ran by my favorite GM, Wirty, basically had the same plot.

I know it seems like a game like this might get monotonous. Dragons and dragon cultist do sound like they could get old,  but there's quite a bit of room for variety. Each of the dragon type has a different personality, environment, and element.

I know some of the blogs I follow have discussed using Tiamat before. The two that come to mind first are Tim at The Other Side and Zak at Playing D&D With Porn Stars. Both have made some interesting posts about Tiamat and/or her cult, so you could probably get some good ideas there.

Even if I don't run it, I'm interested in what Wizards does with this. There's a lot of potential.

Christmas Contest

Hey guys, I was looking through my things and I found a sealed copy of the D&D Encounters season "Lost Crown of Neverwinter." This 4E adventure is for 1st level characters and is a tie into the Neverwinter novel and sourcebook. I also found a few other extra 4E things I have left over from when I ran encounters at my old comic/game shop. I thought I'd have a simple little contest as a thank you for reading this blog.

All you have to do to enter is follow me and leave a comment. If you have a blog, go ahead and the url in the comment. I subscribe to many of my followers blogs, but I'm sure there are one or two I'm missing.

The contest will end December 20th. I will randomly select a winner (probably by rolling a die, depending on how many people enter). Also, I'm a broke bastard, so I'm going to limit the contest to people in the States (sorry).



30 Day D&D Challenge, Day Three: Favorite Playable Class

Day 3 - Favorite Playable Class

Fighter/Wizards have always been a favorite of mine. It goes back to the Complete Book of Elves (again) and the bladesinger kit. I've played various versions of the combo, multiclass fighter/wizards (2E and 3E), bladesinger prestige class (3E), magus (pathfinder), but 4E's swordmage is my favorite. They're capable fighters that have some really cool magic tricks. My favorite 4E character was Tomkin Tealeaf-Tosskettle, my halfling swordmage. Seriously, these guys are just a lot of fun. Whether they're protecting their allies with arcane shields or teleporting around the battlefield like some sort of D&D/DBZ hybrid, swordmages rock!

Just a Thought

Well I’ve talked with the folks I’m preparing to DM and instead of Spellcraft and Swordplay or one of the other old school styles and D&D they want to play something newer, like Pathfinder. I’ve got no issue with this and we sat down to make characters. As of now I have a human rogue, a dhampir inquisitor, and a human barbarian (that I will be npc’ing a when the player is busy). They’re really into their character concepts.

 This is fine. I played a lot of 3.0/3.5 and have a descent Pathfinder collection. However, I was looking through all my gaming books I came across all of my 4E stuff. It gets a lot of hate (and if that’s the only reason you’re going to comment just do us both favor and don’t), but I enjoyed it.  This morning I picked up a copy of Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale for 6 bucks (still sealed). I can get several more books through the library (they don’t circ as much).  My two regulars could still make their characters (one being a human rogue and the other using the vampire class or vyrloka). Sure that’s two strikers but the character I have to npc could be a paladin or fighter instead (giving them two strikers and a defender… with a little healing if I go the paly route). They've also played the Ravenloft board game (which I’ve been told is 4E lite).

I haven’t run this idea by them yet, but I think they’d be open to it. I’d probably use the Nentir Vale as the default setting (since I have the Threats book and Hammerfast). I also have the three Goodman Games Punjar adventures and I think I might use them too, placing them to the south of the Vale.  I also have several shorter heroic tier adventures I could add.

Don’t get me wrong, if they want to stick with Pathfinder, I’m totally cool with that. If I stick with Pathfinder, then I’m going to update some basic/osr adventures (like Keep on the Borderlands and Death Frost Doom).

Still, can’t hurt to ask.


Edit: Forgot to mention I have another player that was going to play a Pathfinder witch, I'm sure he can find something to his liking (and he's played 4E quite a bit).

Live and Let Live, Geek and Let Geek

If you want to be play old-school games, play old school games. If you're excited about D&D Next, that's cool too. It's okay to love Tom Baker and Matt Smith. You're not a poser for wearing a Green Lantern shirt while reading a Spider-Man comic. Just because you like one thing, doesn't mean you have to hate another. It's okay to only like one thing. It's okay to like a multitude of things. 

It's not cool to make other people feel bad for disagreeing with you.

"But if you want to be a Superman show me. Stop with all the pointless battles like Don Quixote."

The Lady of Pain - 4E

Planescape is my all-time favorite published fantasy setting (Green Ronin's Freeport is a close second).While messing around on tumblr earlier I found this. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I didn't make these but I wouldn't to share. If you have any familiarity with 4E and Planescape, you'll probably appreciate it to.

Vampire Bite Blog Hop - Vampires and Dragons

Welcome visitors, I’m sure most of you stopping by because you’re participants in the Vampire Bite Blog Hop. In honor of this, I had my good friend, Devan, create a piece of vampire art just for this post.

I have always loved vampires (especially vampire movies). While I like modern vampire stuff, gothic/fantasy vampire stories are my favorite. The Hammer Horror flicks, in particular, have a special place in my heart. This love tends to bleed over (pun intended) to my other major hobby, gaming. Typically, when I do vampire related posts I stat out some sort of of monster or npc (non-player character) for game masters to use in their games. I didn't think that would be as appropriate today since many visitors will be unfamiliar rpg's. Instead I thought I would point readers (and potential gamers) to resources that would allow them to play vampiric characters with the "World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game"  (aka Dungeons and Dragons and its clones/off-shoots). All of the books (and pdf's) I'm mentioning are ones that I personally own and/or have used. I'm separating them by editions of the game (as there are a few). 

Basic D&D, Labyrinth Lord, and other retro clones

Vampire Class: Fellow blogger (and blog hop participant), Tim Brannan, has created an excellent  vampire class for use with Basic D&D and it's retro-clones. The class, like others from this edition of the game, doesn't differentiate between race and class. You can find it (for free might I add) on Tim's blog, The Other Side. I'm also going to take a moment to mention that if you'd like to try Dungeons and Dragons (but don't want to spend anything) you can download a free (no art) version of the D&D retro-clone Labyrinth Lord.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition

Requiem: The Grim Harvest: This 2nd edition boxed set for the Ravenloft campaign setting is the culmination of a series of adventures. However, that aside it also has rules for creating undead player characters, including (but not limited to) vampires. I will admit that I own this one, but have never actually used it.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.0/3.5 Edition

Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead: This is one of my favorite rpg books. It has some really interesting (and at times just plan nasty) material. If you want to play a vampire the book features a "monstrous" vampire class, as well as feats and prestige classes that are vampire-centric. 

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition

Player's Options: Heroes of Shadow: This book contains multiple vampire options. The first (and most obvious) is the vampire class. This "striker" class is built around stealth and various abilities attributed to vampires. If that's not your style there's the Vyrloka race, which are a family of vampire-blooded nobles. Finally there is the Dhampir bloodline.

Pathfinder

Bestiary 2: While this massive manual of monsters doesn't contain much vampiric info for players, it does introduce player stats for dhampirs. If playing Pathfinder you might also want to pick up Player Companion:Blood of the Night, though I can't vouch for it, because I don't have it.

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With the products I just mentioned you can create your own anti-heroic (or villainous) vampire character, no matter what edition of Dungeons and Dragons you're playing.

Read other contributions to the blog hop by using the links below: