Markdoc

Re: D&D 4th Actually "exploit" is the official term for the combat-related powers. It is easy to mock, but in this case I wouldn't because an MMO style effect - right down to language - is clearly exactly what they were aiming for. I don't think it's fair to tease them for achieving exactly what they set out to do. I am thinking it's a good thing Gary Gygax went to another plane when he did, though. cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th

Re: D&D 4th

Re: Defences against the stun of KAs Remember that a club also has to take into account nonresistant DEF so at the low end of the scale, a light club is unlikely to do much. But in general, clubs (and similar impact weapons) are heavier than swords or pointy weapons, so they will pack more momentum - which translates to stun. So a 1+1d6 HKA will likely weigh 3 lbs, versus 5 lbs for a 4DC club. That's where your extra stun comes in. cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th

Re: D&D 4th Nah, more the sarcastic anime-hero type. He talks too much to be Jet Li. cheers, Mark

Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters Hey, our pleasure! cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th

Re: And off we go! Glad you guys like it! I've got another 17 pages of handwritten notes (not counting the GM's notes/maps) which represents the last 8 months or so of gaming and I'm going to try and post them all over the next 3 weeks or so. I planned to write another couple of sessions up tonight but I just bought Hero designer and am busy: 1. Trying to work out how to use it 2. Draft a template with my house rules in place (Think I've got that now) 3. Enter all the characters into it so that I do a better job from now on of keeping everything digital and backed up. cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th Balance? This! is! D&D! (try shouting it whilst wearing leather speedos ) In principle, of course, I agree, but in D&D3.5, the difference was extreme - a competent fighter by 6th level should be capable of dishing out 30+ hp of damage per round with extreme builds able to at least double that and more extreme builds tripling it. The best a bow-armed fighter could do is perhaps half to a third of that. As it stood, being an archer was mug's game: in our last session, the climactic fight ended suddenly as our 6th level fighter hit the chief baddy doing 96 HP in one wallop - and that wasn't even max damage.

Re: Defences against the stun of KAs

Re: Defences against the stun of KAs Here's an idea that possibly addresses both of these points and simplifies things slightly from where we are now. 1. Leave the mechanisms for KA exactly where they are - in other words, a killing attack costs 15 points per d6 (or 3 DC) and does 1-6 BOD. This answers the problems about balancing killing attacks off against forcewalls, entangles, etc. 2. Change the killing attack multiplier to a full d6, but only apply it against BOD that goes through resistant defences. Killing attacks completely ignore nonresistant defences. This means that against unarmoured targets a killing attack is unequivocally superior - it does more BOD (on average) and more STUN - on average. In gritty settings a guy with a sword is far more likely to take you out than a guy with a baseball bat, which seems about right. It is however, much more variable, reflecting the way killing attacks work in real life. What this means is that killing attacks remain the preferred way of doing BOD to a target - across any range of rDEF, they still do more damage than a normal attack of equivalent points. However, their ability to do STUN rapidly degrades, though it remains more variable. And a character with more rDEF than the attack can dish out is essentially immune to it, since 0 BOD will get through to be multiplied. The advantages of this approach are: 1. Minimal differences from existing rules - therefore remains balanced against other powers 2. Killing attacks are good for killing people, not so good for stunning people 3. Killing attacks are more variable. 4. Slightly simpler math (instead of "count body, multiply by d6-1, subtract rDEF from BOD, subtract rDEF+DEF from STUN" you get "count body, subtract rDEF from BOD, multiply by d6 for STUN") 5. You can now simplify hit locations to use the same multipliers for normal and killing damage. 6. It allows a relatively simple way to build "bullet-proof bricks" and "bullet-proof vehicles" without rendering the target impervious to harm. Conceptually, it also makes sense. Imagine an armoured target like Iron Man taking a hit from a high powered rifle (3d6 RKA). It goes "ping" and at most staggers him a little. Now imagine the same target being hit by a 9d6 punch from (say) another armoured suit. It has even less chance to penetrate his defences than the RKA, but it is very likely to do do knockback, hurling him several metres away. In that case, it's reasonable that more STUN is done as the target is mashed up against the inside of his armour (and his brain is bounced off the inside of his skull). The only disadvantage I can see is that at the heroic level, smaller killing attacks will become ineffective against heavily-armoured foes. That's not actualy unrealistic - late period knights on foot were almost immune to arrow fire, and it would place a premium on the kind of weapons actually used by knights of that era (picks, polearms - any sort of AP weapon). For modern games body armour would be very effective against small arms, but a hit to an unprotected bit would take you out right smart. That's also not unrealistic, but in both cases, it would alter game balance significantly. The cost of STUN multiplier would also need looking at: with this system, it might be better priced at +1/4, but I haven't played around with the numbers enough to say. cheers, Mark

Re: Am I The Only One Here Jonesing For Atlantean Age? I'm planning on getting it. Based on Tuala Morn (which I was really looking forward to), I suspect it won't make me want to run the setting as written (too dry) but that it will have plenty of crunchy bits I can use for my own games. cheers, Mark

Re: Defences against the stun of KAs I'm not sure that's a bug rather than a feature: in gritty games, killing attacks are supposed to be dangerous. In high-point supers, they aren't supposed to be dangerous. Look at Wolverine, pretty much the poster boy for "I go stabby". How many times does he actually kill named characters with his "cut through anything" claws? Sure, he chews up the scenery (in both meanings of the phrase), but he rarely kills anything more important than ninjas with his claws, and they die like flies against almost anyone. cheers, Mark

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Re: D&D 4th Actually, it's been like that for a while - if you wanted an archer-type, your best bets were Ranger or Cleric (though by and large, archery sucked in D&D anyway) and Ranger was also the standard entry point to all the two-weapon melee classes. You were better off with magic for ranged attacks and up close and personal for physical harm. One of the things that they got right with 4E (IMO) is that they have balanced the amount of damage you can do with a bow better against melee damage. It's still less, but it's not waaaay less. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! The PCs penetrate into the mine which is even darker and creepier with no miners working there. They reach the carving cave which is dark and silent and then pause. Aquila slips forward and stealthily feels his way forward through the darkness. He sees a light and soon, a miner on guard with a heavy hammer, but coming on them out of the darkness, managed to take him out before he can make much noise. Lamoniak and Khatz lead the charge into the cavern beyond wearing their witch-charms, followed by Gen and Belllona. They are met by two more miners who are swiftly cut down, but Gen, looking into a shadowed cleft in the rock, looks straight into the Lady Arran’s eyes and is swiftly charmed. A quiet whisper from her and he leads the others away from the spot, while she darts away. A miner who was guarding her also runs out to cover her retreat. Khelsen however spots her and charges in and strikes her a mighty blow. His blow throws her back against the wall and she collapses. Lamoniak engages the last miner and somewhat to his surprise, the man sinuously dodges his attack and in return strikes him in the face sending him reeling back stunned. An instant later Lamoniak is seized, hoisted over the miner’s head and hurled at Khatz. They both go down. The form of the fallen lady Arran shimmers – and turns back into a dying miner. The players realize the only miner still up is actually the Lady Arran, hidden by a magical disguise. Bellona tries to intercept her but at an arcane gesture her clothes start to writhe, her chainmail tries to strangle her and her swords twist in her hands like snakes. This slows the lady Arran down enough for Castor to grapple her and Khelsen strikes her another mighty blow while Gen shakes off his enchantment with an effort of will. The “lady” suddenly shimmers and turns into a creature half scaly woman and half giant snake, with draconic wings: Castor recoils and the creature screeches “Why are you persecuting me?” before launching itself into the air. It flies over Castor’s head, just barely scraping the cavern roof and disappears into the darkness, back into the mines. The PCs give chase but soon break off the pursuit realizing that they cannot catch it. They search the cavern, bind the wounds of the surviving miners and carry the dead and wounded back to the surface. When they arrive they find the crowd milling about and soon find out that the creature flew out of the minehead, but that as it came out into the sun gave a terrible screech, looked at though it burst into rainbow coloured flames and then few or dropped out of sight behind the houses. The Chamberlain has led a squad of soldiers in pursuit and the PCs rush off in support. The miners taken from the cavern are carted off to the temple – they do not seem to be charmed any more. After a couple of hours the players admit defeat: they cannot find the monster and word has gotten out that there is a monster loose in the city. They have a meeting at the castle, where the Chamberlain tells them that the Lord Thorn does not seem to be any different. He’s at his wit’s end and asks the players to find and kill the creature. During the discussion, the PCs note that Lamoniak’s neck wound has finally stopped bleeding, which they take as a good sign. At that point, some guards turn up to say that many townspeople have come up to the castle – it seems that quite a lot of families are missing children, and the parents – some of them now apparently uncharmed – are frantic. The players mention the smelly sinkhole in the mines and the chamberlain quickly goes off to get together a search party of soldiers and miners to check it out. The players go to the big inn by the docks to get something to eat and drink and as soon as they enter – it’s packed – people cry out to know what going on. Khatz tell sthe whole story in dramatic fashion and asks if the monster was cut out of the rock in the mine – but no one knows. The story of the missing children comes up and the PCs try to persuade the crowd to bring all the children to the market square so that those missing can be identified – there’s some debate over this. When the players ask about strangers, the crowd turns ugly and two traveling peddlers narrowly escape a lynching before order is restored and people found who can vouch for them. At that point the soldiers and miners turn up with sandbags and equipment. Everyone goes back into the mine and after searching fruitlessly through the monster’s caverns, they sandbag the stream to divert it and lower Aquila on a rope into the sinkhole. After a minute or two he comes up with a small child’s skull. He says there are others down there and perhaps some other large bones – caught in a narrow gap. He guesses anything smaller washed through – now the water is not flowing, there is an evil smell coming up out of the hole. Grimly the miners retrieve the bones and then the PCs and the soldiers carry away several large chests and some fine carpets from the creature’s cave. They finally emerge and show the bones to the chamberlain (who calls a general assembly) and to the locals who are deeply shocked, with several women breaking down. While that’s going on the PCs go to the temple. The priestess of the Crying Woman, the local healer has turned up (she’s been away on a circuit of outlying villages the last couple of weeks). This causes some suspicion which requires several rounds of divinatory spells to sort out and ensure that everybody present is, in fact, human. Then they go about getting the chests (which are beautiful and were apparently made by a local carpenter – the man whose body they earlier saw) open. After checking for traps and secret doors, Aquila gets them open and they are found to contain beautiful jewellery and clothes – for both men and women, plus scrolls. Some of them have poetry, some are written in a language no-one can read, although the priest of the Black Man identifies it as being the script of the northern continent far away across the Great Shallows. Also in the chest they find a hairbrush with several radiant hairs in it. Khatz uses his magic gift “the Hound Inescapable” to scry these and sees a dark, dank cellar with chests and boxes. They hasten back to the castle. First they check the castle cellars, but find nothing. Half the weary soldiers go house to house searching cellars, but find nothing as nightfall approaches. The other half also go house to house checking on missing children: it seems that some of the townsfolk are still charmed and the disturbing discovery is made that in houses with missing children, many of the women are pregnant. The chamberlain orders a curfew. Tonight only the PCs and guard will be on the street – no-one is to be alone - and they will be ordered to kill anyone else they see. While the guard searches cellars the PCs go to the carpenter’s house where he was found dead. The place is a mess. They search the cellar and find nothing, then go upstairs. In one bedroom the shutters are still open and in the bed in that room, they find several small iridescent scales. The PCs shudder at the thought of the thing slithering in through the window, curling up in the carpenter’s bed and sucking his blood. They find his journal, which recorded journeys into the nearby forests to get specific types of wood. Did he meet the creature there? There are many strange things in the deep woods (GM’s note: that is what happened. The creature, a Leanne Sidhe – also called a lamia – charmed him and he opened his window to it. Typically a lamia drains the victim’s blood while he or she sleeps and may also consort with them in illusionary form. This gives the victim wild dreams and awakes a fervid creativity but eventually kills them. This particular lamia had another plan. Instead of draining its victim to death, it consorted with multiple victims, keeping them alive for longer, sating its life hunger on the children, and hoping to stay in the town and feed for a long time). The players go back to Lamoniak’s house to rest before the night and to re-equip. They suddenly realize that this house also has a cellar – which hasn’t been searched. They haul up the trapdoor in the kitchen and Khatz confirms that this is the place of his vision. The PCs slowly enter the cellar and find a young man hiding behind a box. He comes out, with his hands up saying that he didn’t know why he was here – he just had a strong compulsion to come here. As the party encircle him Castor uses his mind reading spell and shouts “He’s not a human!” Khatz and Bellona attack, hacking into him and the “man” disintegrates into a roughly shaped figure of mud, which collapses. At the same time, Gen feels a sword prick his back and a voice hisses “Draw back or he dies – if you attack I’ll run him through”. The party draws around but not too close and the monster tries to parley with them swearing to leave and never come back if they will let it out, now that the sun is sinking. When they refuse guessing (correctly) that it would simply go elsewhere to prey on people, the creature tries to bargain saying that it is ancient and wise, that it knows what they seek – 6 Samadrians bent on finding an ancient ruined city in the far south and that it will tell them what they need to know if they let it go. Several people in the party seem to be considering thisoffer so Gen shouts “Remember the children!” and tries to run away. The monster thrusts its sword right through his back and out his chest, despite his light armour and he goes down in a spray of blood. Castor tries to staunch his wound and is attacked by the monster, but Bellona gets a solid cut to its head and another blow slices its forearm off. The monster screams, the sound being so intense that Castor and Khatz are stunned, but the Monster is also stunned and in a flash Bellona takes one sword in both hands and slices its head off. Instantly the creature turns to stone, looking like an old and much battered statute, and then it shatters into chunks. Khelsen scoops up the dying Gen and they sprint to the temple where the high priestess is able to heal him just before he expires. Everyone is relieved but both Khatz and Lamoniak also feel a deep sense of loss – and the artistic talents they had begun to show vanish: they find that neither of them can sketch worth a damn anymore. They are not the only ones. As several of the PCs head to the castle through the twilit streets to inform the Chamberlain what has happened, they hear sobbing and lamentation from several houses that they pass.

Re: And off we go! The PCs decide the next day to go visit the witch. They visit the merchant who stayed with her as a boy to get directions and buy a basket of the goodies she is supposed to like. They then set off over the river bridge and along the coast road, which runs inland of the swamp. By late afternoon, they reach a cromlech where the road splits and find an old iron post hammered into the crossroads. The main road runs eastwards, a smaller trail heads south into the hills and a faint trail leads downhill towards the swamp. The players scout the place out and Gen finds that it looks like people have been dancing round the cromlech, though not recently: everyone finds this disturbing, for some reason. Eventually they head down the faint trail, quickly coming to a largish, low cosy-looking house with a thatch roof and white plastered walls. It has a wicker fence and curious gate that forces you to turn sideway to get through it. There’s a brass bell on a post next to it which the players ring and suddenly an old woman’s voice speaks out of the air to them asking what they want. Khatz replies that they want a countercharm and that they bring delicacies. They are invited inside where they are met by a young, comely woman who introduces herself as the old witch’s apprentice. It was she who spoke to them at the gate - she shows them how she can make her voice sound like an old lady’s by speaking through an enchanted brass ring. The witch is currently away gathering special herbs in the heart of the swamp and will be back in a few days: but she is willing to help the PCs if she can. Inside, the house is neatly polished and cleaned, with lots of sun through the broad low windows - not at all what the players expected. She takes the food and wine the players give her to the kitchen and then comes back and casts a spell on Lamoniak – who is still protesting that he’s not charmed and that hopefully, this will finally convince the other PCs that he’s perfectly all right! However the young witch tells the others he’s under a charm. She will break it for them in exchange for the gifts they brought. The young witch says they are welcome to wander about and stay the night but not to go outside at night – which is fast approaching. Also they should refrain fro looking out the windows after darkness if they want to sleep well. The PCs eat a hearty meal and after the meal, the young witch retires into the workroom. After about an hour she comes out, kisses Lamoniak on the back of the next then jumps away as he goes into a cursing fit, realizing at last that he has been charmed. After some discussion, the PCs ask her about protection against charm spells and she allows that she can make such things but that it will take a couple of days and that she would welcome the PCs company – she says she hasn’t seen anyone but the old witch for 2 years. After some haggling, the apprentice agrees to make two charms – one for 40 sp and the second for Khatz for free. She seems to have taken a liking to him and drops some pretty broad hints about where he could sleep if he likes. In the end, the PCs sleep where they can fin space – Khatz and the apprentice in the old witch’s bedroom, which has a big comfy bed. Gen walks into the kitchen and finds a small hunched hairy figure cleaning up (a brownie) – after that he flees and sleeps in the stables, where he discovers there is “something” in the rafters: he doesn’t get much sleep. The next day he finds out it is “probably just a pooka” which doesn’t make him feel happier. The apprentice works all day in the workshop while most of the PCs lounge about in the sun, talking. They find the backyard fence has similar “walk-sideways” gate and a glass bell. Gen and Lamoniak ride the horse back to town to fetch another basket of goodies and more wine Talking to the merchant in town, he is worried – the lad who does his deliveries has disappeared. In fact, the merchant says, the streets seem to have very few children. Gen and Lamoniak immediately rush to the temple, talk with the high priest and then go to the castle and meet with the castle chamberlain. They decide to check what’s going on, and go into town and visit several families. They soon learn that many families are keeping their children indoors “because something’s not right” - but other families (those with parents who have suddenly become “artistic”) have no children in the house. They give vague explanations – “Oh they’re probably out playing” or “They’re probably fishing” etc. Some of the children concerned are quite young so this seems implausible, but the parents don’t seem worried by the children’s absence. The PC and the steward are very worried, though. On the way back, Gen notices that Lamoniak’s small neck wound has still not healed. They get back – with some anxiety – just on nightfall and while they talk with the witch’s apprentice about the fey folk of the swamp a real feast is whipped up by the things in the kitchen. They ask her about the missing children and the young witch seems upset – she says it might be a Leanne Sidhe – a kind of fey, but that she and the fay had made a deal to leave the town alone. She advises the PCs to get some cold iron and gives them the charms she has made – necklaces of woven flowers and herbs. She and Khatz retire, the rest bed down in the main room by the fire. GMs note: Khatz didn’t tell the other PCs about this, but he wakes up in the morning to find himself sharing a bed with a raddled, fat old woman who bears more than a passing resemblance to a giant toad. She cackles and tells him she’s been well paid for her work, but that it’s exhausting keeping her glamour on especially while – as she puts it – “distracted”. She invites him to stay longer if he likes and that she can give him a drink to take the memory away, but Khatz flees the bedroom in horror and the party is soon up and on the road. Back in town, they meet with the chamberlain who has had men searching the town in the meantime. There is no doubt that children are missing and he is now prepared to help the players however he can – without asking Lord Thorn. They lay plans. The Chamberlain calls up all the guards he considers “reliable” and arranges them to block off entrance to the mine from early next morning so no miners go in. The players will then enter the mine and deal with whatever’s in there. The chamberlain also manages to provide several sheafs of arrows with cold iron heads, reserved for “special targets”. The players gather their equipment and prepare as best they could and stay the night in Lamoniak’s house. Early the next morning before it’s fully light, they go to the minehead where a wall of soldiers is keeping the miners out. The miners are unhappy but make no effort to push through. Guided by Duras the miner, the players light lanterns and head into the dark and forbidding mine. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! OK, months ago I bought a new hard drive and reformatted the old one - forgetting that I hadn't backed up the player's story and adventures 2-6 (tears hair). I've finally gotten around to writing some up from my notes, but it'll take me a while to catch up - there's many pages of notes cheers, Mark

Re: Alignments Matter of opinion, I guess, which is what makes any discussion of alignment tricky. To me he starts out leaning Lawful, ends definately lawful (he's talking with the Gods of Law after all, they are actively helping him and he is actively helping them, and in the end he dies for their cause) and in between his behaviour is definately a mixture of chaotic and lawful. Elric's world, to me, is a perfect example of one where a D&D style alignment matrix for characters doesn't make much sense: there's an axis of supernatural powers, but it is not matched by a philosophical axis of behaviour. See above: the distinguishing feature of D&D alignment for me is the way it ties philosophy/behaviour together with physical aspects like the detect spells you mention above. Another good example is protection from alignment X spells. These not only give alignment specific bonuses, but prevent physical movement across the ward. In the Elricverse magical barriers exist, but they block all supernatural creatures. There's no evidence of an aligned spell - or an alignment specific item for that matter - in the series: Stormbringer and Mournblade are definitely evil, but anyone can touch them without physical damage. cheers, Mark

Re: Alignments That's a bit odd - the rules suggest that he should be chastised for straying. Specifically, a Paladin and even unwittingly committing an evil act (or doing it while mind controlled, according to the rules) can lead to the loss of power until an atonement spell is used to restore them. Earlier versions of D&D were even more drastic, with the GM encouraged to track behaviour against alignment with loss of powers, and even loss of levels a consequence of "acting out of alignment".

Re: [Campaign] The Black Watch

Re: Alignments No, because in the Witch world books, the various factions are just that: factions. In D&D alignment physically marks you: people can identify your alignment like it was bloodtype, no matter what you're thinking or doing at the time, you develop an allergy to certain aligned items and other function differently in your hands, it specifically defines even your choice of careers. In the Andre Norton series referred to, many people see the witchborn as "evil" - and although they might be physically marked (like, for example, Kerovan) they can be good, evil, or - like most people, a mixture of the two. People can (and do) switch factions: they don't suffer functional problems - they have to watch out for former associates who feel betrayed. In the example given above, the Paladin who thought he could do more good associated with a Chaotic Evil church couldn't even walk into the building without taking a hit on his powers, no matter how noble his intentions. To me, that's alignment: it's a physical aspect of the world, not just a worldview. I've never bothered to build it into my game, but I don't see it as especially illogical. It's just a GM decision that the game universe operates that way. The Elric books, the same. Elric is not "Lawful evil" - he's arrogant, self-centred and impulsive, and his actions are motivated primary by revenge, love, lust and hatred rather than "I fight for good" - even if he actually does try to do good when he can. This is a setting (actually THE setting) where law and chaos are actual manifest forces, but still, none of the major characters behave as though they had an alignment and would be chastised if they strayed from it. When Elric did "good things" he might anger his Chaotic patrons, but he didn't lose his magic, he didn't start "detecting" any differently and he could still use his evil artifact sword just fine. So my objection is really more that the two things are quite different "Alignment" in the D&D context has a specific meaning that I don't really see in any fantasy fiction that I've read: like D&D magic, it's become its own thing. cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th I'm not familiar with that prestige class: what's the progression like? cheers, Mark

Re: What source material informs your fantasy gaming? EEE! You've named all the books I would never use! De gustibus non est disputandum and all that but I can't bear "comic fantasy"! My inspirations are Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Lyonesse series, Zelazny's Amber series, plus Jack of Shadows and Creatures of Light and Darkness, Norse sagas, pretty much anything RE Howard wrote and a horde of largely unremembered British writers of "Ripping Yarns for Boys" plus bigger names like Haggard and Kipling. The feel I am trying for is "Pulp Swords and Sorcery with a little more intellectual involvement". So the characters generally start out as doughty swordsmen, with the occasional largely combat-ineffective mage/sage, rather than powerful heroes. And rather than episodic adventures, things are tied into a larger backstory with "things" lurking in the shadows. cheers, Mark