Nice! I see henchmen in Rage Claw's future...
That’s what he was angling for as well. I think he began thinking that the village might well be something he could sway to taking him as its leader…
Not a session report, just a bit based on my recent visit to the Dain Tree rain forest and what it made me think about wilderness adventuring.
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/rain-forests-and-gaming/
Great points regarding rain forests, and elves.
It made me ask myself, "when did elves become Native Americans?" I think Shadowrun was the tipping point.
I think you are right.
I think it’s interesting that elves were, at least in some mythologies, basically gods (Norse, I’m looking at you). And of course that’s certainly an influence that Tolkien drew upon for making them the whole immortal, better-than-you version we get. Even the european fae influences were beings of such power they shaped the world around them rather than being ‘part of it’.
Over time, gaming has really watered them down. Certainly, a variety of influences have shaped them (native american stand-in definitely being one of those).
But whether they are gods, or elemental spirits, or magical apex-predators, I just don’t get the ‘hippy’ stereotype.
Hey, another great update! Quick thoughts on the questions you raised:
1. Cleaves with multiple attacks is definitely powerful. At level 2-3 it's going to be very powerful because most of the monsters will still be killable with a hit or two, and three chances to hit makes a big difference. It balances out over time, though. From experience, in the Auran Empire campaign, we had a Centaur PC from level 1 to level 10, and while iitially his hoof attacks were envy-provoking, it wasn't a dominance that lasted...
2. Infravision is a 3rd level spell because it lasts 24 hours. You could make a lower level version with a shorter duration.
3. 3 creatures with one-handed weapons or any piercing/stabbing weapons can fight side-by-side in a 10' corridor. If the creatures are wielding two-handed weapons, then only 2 creatures can fight side by side.
In practice, you can end up with, e.g., 2 fighters in the front row with great axes, with a second rank of 3 spearmen. They might face off against 3 enemies with short swords with a second rank of 3 pikes. Etc.
Awesome! Hope you don’t mind, but that answer (about fighting side by side) is going straight up on my blog!
It’s Sunday, it must be Session Report time!
Rage Claw’s dream of a lizardman dominion go a bit sour…
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/sundered-empires-session-report-14/
Newest Session Report is up!
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/sundered-empires-session-report-15/
Great report! A few things that jump out at me:
1) I love how you're able to contextualize the Mortal Wounds effects in the game-world. How often do you find you really have to contort yourself to come up with an explanation as to what happened? I find that 85% of the time it's easy and then 15% of the time it's ridiculous. :)
2) Are you using Group Initiative? I just noticed from your narrative it seems to be "I go, you go".
3) Moria alone is sufficient justification for me to set all of my campaigns in Arabian Nights-themed settings, going forward, forever.
Hey Alex!
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Thanks! Sometimes, it is really difficult. For example, in a recent game Guido (a hireling) got stabbed with a spear and went down. When they got him up, the Mortal Wounds said, basically, he’d been stabbed in the junk. That just… I don’t know, it took some contortion for us to wrap our heads around.
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We use individual initiative, and I’ve vascilated between players rolling for all their hirelings individually, or rolling a single die and applying different modifiers to the number. Monsters go as a group(s). The narrative when I go back to it doesn’t necessarily reflect that, but often I find that with Dex, Class, and Prof mods, PCs tend to go first a lot. I suppose this is a bit of a survival mechanism for them though so that’s not all bad.
3)I absolutely know what you mean… 
Expect to see more of her later.
I just spent part of last night and this morning reading your campaign play logs, fantastic!
As the permanent GM of all three groups I am associated with I would love to know what beyond the B series you cobbled together for this…or was it all B books?
I like the world color as well, especially the Mage Guild and I will be yoinking that! One of the Gods that I use is one I made up as well a long time ago and I thought he would fit very well into your pantheon.
Horath God of Knowledge and the Dead. He is someone who is very lawful and very much against the Undead. I have had player’s have a wonderful time playing Clerics of his and I am going to be starting a new basic type game here in a bit and I will be adding some of your stuff to mine, thanks!!
Thank you so much! I can’t tell you how happy reading this made me!
I’ve been cobbling together a bunch of disparate modules for the campaign. I’ve drawn up a map and have loosely placed a few key points. I kind of expected more sandbox exploration, but so far, they’ve been more ‘site based’ adventurers (which really is my fault but hey ho).
Things I’ve used:
B2 (of course)
The Lichway (where we meet our lovely Otho) from White Dwarf magazine, waaaaaay back (like 12 I think? I have a best of magazine with it).
A one page module from Fight On! magazine (the one where the goblins have taken over the dwarves house).
A one page dungeon from Dyson (great maker of dungeon maps!)
Castle Caldwell from B…something, I forget.
Modified version of a Lair from the Judges Guild book of Lairs (the encounter with Ranshin the bandit)
All of this stuff I pass through my world filter to modify or update it. In addition, I have a few group of characters with their own plans right now. The ones the players have discovered so far are:
A loose confederation of Chaos cults
A dragon which has been seen in the area around the Keep (and thanks to a wandering encounter they stumbled into last session).
Someone or something calling itself ‘The Undying’
Now, what any of these groups are up to, the players don’t know. In the case of the cults and the dragon they know they are attempting to ally, but to what end they don’t know yet.
So, I try to connect some of the modules to one or more of these groups (while intermixing adventures that are unrelated). It makes for a more satisfying campaign to me, for there to be mysteries and threats to uncover, many of which are proactive and not simply waiting for you to knock on their door (like cough cough B2 cough cough). In fact, most of this came out of me trying to make sense of Gygax’s monster hotel in the Caves of Chaos.
I’m glad you enjoy the world details. I have some more of those that I’ll post eventually.
I like the sound of your god. It mirrors one of my (Chaotic) ones; Mausolus, the Lord of Secrets and Undeath. He is one of the Three Greater Gods of Chaos.
I’ve never had Gods of ‘proper’ death, just sort of assuming that the Gods dealt with their individual followers. It’s something that occasionally bugs me (like I feel I’ve missed a trick).
The next session report is up. This time with 50% more Otho! And Gelatinous Cubes! Everybody loves cubes!
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/sundered-empires-session-report-16/
Newest report is up. A character leaves, a new one is introduced!
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/sundered-empires-session-report-17/
Next session report is up!
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/sundered-empires-session-report-18/
That fish-man picture is the creepiest thing I've ever seen - where did you find it?!
Also: I'm so sad that Rage Claw has left the campaign! We just added a Thrassian Gladiator into my new home campaign, "Opelenean Nights," inspired by Rage Claw!
Yeah, we are sorry to see him go too. Hopefully, when new fatherhood calms down, he might be able to join us occasionally. Or possibly if I run some more skype adventures.
Though I think some of the players aren’t sad at seeing the character go so they don’t feel so underpowered compared to it!
Would love to hear about your new campaign!
Oh, fishman pic… I did a google search for ‘Deep One’ and found it as a piece of art on a blog about Lovecraft and Cthulhu. Couldn’t figure out who made it though.
Mauro D’Elia Matheus:
- http://maurodelia.cgsociety.org/gallery/
- http://maurodelia.cgsociety.org/gallery/1046041/