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New year, new thread  I've finished reading The Eternal Boundary adventure, and I've decided to do it next because 1) It introduces important information on the Dustmen, and 2) It has some bad structural problems. Nothing  worthy, but this is definitely not something to foist on beginning players.Meanwhile, the campaign box will be wrapped up in the next week or two.
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Jan 7, 2014 18:30
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 13:26 |
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pkfan2004 posted:Woe betide the Troopers who only have to handle less people than the minimum; that means that the rest of your arrests and terminations will have to be fulfilled by harassing and accusing the general populace before the mission is complete. Are you kidding, that's the best part about being in a position of authority 
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Jan 7, 2014 18:57
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Does anyone remember Dicefreaks' self-published supplement on the Nine Hells? It contains a lot of the terrible tendencies seen in other reviewed material (really broken mechanics, over-edgy 'GRIMDARK GRIMDARK' writing, a fair bit of  ).
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Jan 8, 2014 05:17
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 Gettin’ Started in Sigil The next section covers campaign quick starts. These are not full adventures, but seeds which let the DM work out the details. Actually, the framework is pretty thorough and provides stats for important encounters. And all the DM really needs to do is stat out the other NPCs. Many books have campaign seeds structured like the ones presented here. There are two seeds, both designed for characters at 1st-3rd level. The first one deals with how to bring adventurers from a Prime Material World to Sigil. The background story is that a thieves den in Sigil have found a stable portal to a Prime world and are now ripping off it’s residents. The catch is that the gate key to go back to Sigil is a freshly cut rose, and a nearby noble’s garden has an ample supply of those. That’s where the PC’s get involved. The noble lady, wondering about her roses and unable to rely on her servants, asks the PCs to get to the bottom of who’s messing with her rose garden.  Okay, maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but think that most players would think that the DM must of had a brain fart or something. But whatever, let’s assume that they’re aware the DM just bought this new campaign setting and he’s said this is how he’s going to introduce the players to it. So the PCs stand guard that night, and a githzerai mage-thief named Yangol steps through the portal. His tactic is to try to hit them with the sleep spell, then cast change self and go about plundering the manor. This itself should encourage the PCs to try again to catch the bugger. If the spell fails, Yangol tries to grab a rose and go right back through the portal. Whether he gets away or the PCs catch and interrogate him (it doesn’t take anything for him to talk, but he’s gonna use lots of planar slang), they’ll have a good idea of how to use the portal from their end. Nothing left to do but go through the portal. The portal will land them in the Lower Ward, not far from the Great Foundry. While the rose opened the portal to Sigil, it won’t work the other way. So the PCs are stuck until the DM gets tired of the setting. The DM is encouraged to describe the crowd of strange and otherworldly residents passing the PCs by. Before they can do anything constructive, they bump into a spinagon (a type of baatezu, described in The Planescape Monstrous Compendium, but not, y’know, in the adventure that introduces him!). The little devil acts like an rear end in a top hat to the PCs, but before anything serious can happen, a Free League Bariaur named Stronghoof calms the situation down. Being the helpful sort, he’ll clue the PCs in on where the gently caress they just stumbled into. After that...it’s really up to what the DM wants to do. If this is a one-off adventure (in which case the DM should be thinking about why he bought an entire box set and ran an adventure that requires yet another supplement), then the immediate business is to track down Yangol and/or his gang. If this is the start of a campaign in the Planescape setting, then the portal disappears or moves somewhere else. The PCs now have to get their bearings, probably by deciding on a Faction or whatever other hook the DM has.  The other adventure is for a party of planar characters. Like the last adventure, it’s meant for low level characters. There are some recommendations of party composition: specifically that the party should be Good-aligned, and should include a priest. The background deals with the Chinese Power Yen-Wang-Yeh, whose realm was introduced earlier in the book. While the god is off meeting with the Celestial Emperor, his underlings lose track of a recently arrived petitioner that’s wandered off to Sigil. The minor clerk that’ll likely get blamed for the cock-up is now trying to track her down. Meanwhile, the petitioner in question has decided that she quite likes Sigil and has no interest in returning. The PCs become involved when they spot the clerk, named Faithful Servant Li, blundering around town asking if anyone has seen a woman and acting obviously out of place. Hopefully the PCs realize they should help this guy out before he gets shivved in an alley, but if it doesn’t he goes up to the PCs and bugs them for help. Unfortunately, two factioneers overhear Li’s description of his problem-a Dustman and a Mercykiller. And both have philosophical reasons for going after the petitioner themselves (the Dustmen want to study her, and the Mercykillers see her as a fugitive). Meanwhile, the petitioner herself (named Morning Glory Radiance) has been taken in by the Bleak Cabal, who see a fresh petitioner as a great opportunity to impart their philosophy on what is effectively a blank slate. Stats are provided for Li, M.G.R., and agents of the Dustmen, Mercykillers and Bleak Cabal. However the actual adventure is structured is pretty much up to the DM, but the book encourages an investigative structure to let the PCs explore the city. If the DM doesn’t realize it, the book spells out in the last part that this adventure seed sets up a nice exploration of the differences between the Factions in the city. Besides that, it creates a nice conflict between helping out an increasingly nervous civil servant and respecting the wishes of M.G.R. Next, the book describes two new spells that are pretty important in this setting. The first one is Surelock, a 4th level Priest spell that keeps portals from appearing or working in the spell’s radius. Pretty important for keeping a bunch of smelly, bloody planewalkers from suddenly strolling into your gala ball. The one issue is that it’s radius is 60-feet, so you need a lot of castings to cover a large structure. Fortunately, it lasts a day per caster level. The second spell is Warp Sense, a 2nd level Wizard spell that can locate portals. Further investigation (represented by making a saving throw versus...spell, I guess, for each piece of info) reveals where the portal leads or what the spell key is. Finally, the book ends with an appendix on Cant, the slang used in Planescape. I won’t include all the terms introduced so far. Many are just faction nicknames, while others are easy to figure out in context. But here are some of the more confusing ones: -Addle-cove, Berk, Leatherhead: an Idiot -Bob, Peel: to con someone -Bub: booze. A Bubber is a drunk -Cross-Trade: illegal business. A Knight of the Cross-Trade is a liar, cheat. -Pike it: gently caress off -Out-Of-Touch: outside the Outer Planes -The Leafless Tree: the gallows -Case, Kip: a place where a person lives  Next Time: It’s not about smashing and looting, but we’re giving you stats anyways SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Jan 10, 2014 |
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Jan 9, 2014 04:22
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Reading this, I came to the sudden realization that Planescape, a campaign set in DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS FANTASY HEAVEN/HELL, does a better, more tasteful job portraying an urban setting than most of the bollocks published by White Wolf. I've read in a few places that at least in part the setting is taking the piss out of TSR's number one competitor.
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Jan 9, 2014 17:30
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Halloween Jack posted:I hate it when I don't get any response to my writeups, so I want you to know that yours are appreciated. I just pretty much read 'em and say "Yep, it's D20 90s Television Show." It's got all the problems of D20 but it's not balls-hanging-out crazy. To be honest, d20 Modern felt downright sensible next to 3rd Edition D&D. Then again, I probably have less exposure to different systems than a lot of folks here (I just want to tell everyone how cool Planescape is, is that so bad?  )
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Jan 9, 2014 23:12
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Modronous Supplement - Meet the Modron! The last booklet in the Planescape Campaign box is the Monstrous Supplement. This introduces a variety of new weirdos for the PCs to interact with. These are all presented in the standard 2nd Edition stat-block, and each entry is laid out with a physical description and summary, details of the monster’s combat abilities and tactics, what their habitat/society is and how they interact with the ecology. In practice, only the section on combat has any consistency throughout the series (or indeed through 2nd edition). The rest is an amalgamation of fluff and mechanics that don’t fit under combat. As the title of this update suggests, the most memorable entries are the Modron, the Planar denizens of Mechanus. But there are some other important entries. I’ll be doing a brief summary of all of them in alphabetical order, going into detail about the ones I think need it. Aleax: The physical manifestation of the vengeance enacted by a power. If a PC really pisses off a deity, particularly one that he purports to serve, then the power will send this guy after him or her. An Aleax looks exactly like the offending PC, and has the same stats and abilities. When enacting revenge, it is immune to attacks from anyone but the Aleax’s target. The Aleax can regenerate 8hp per second, but is very vulnerable to critical hits (x2 damage on a 19, x4 on a 20). If the Aleax “kills” the offending PC, then the bloke is presented before the peeved god and has two choices: death (and cannot be raised), or performing a penance per the Quest spell, plus loss of levels, treasure and a bunch of other things. If the PC wins, then in lieu of xp he absorbs the Aleax and gets some benefits, but at the cost that the Aleax sometimes asserts control. tl;dr: it’s not a good idea to piss off a deity. Astral searchers are the manifestation of a strong emotion on the Astral Plane. They’re a pretty dickish encounter for low level characters, as they can only be harmed by +1 weapons or better and have 50% MR. Also, this entry involves optional psionic rules, so gently caress it in the eye socket.. Also, characters killed by these can’t be brought back short of a wish. Next are Barghast, wolf-goblin shapeshifters from the Plane of Gehenna. Never really found these guys all that interesting. Cranium Rats appear as rats with exposed brains. The more in a pack, the smarter they become, and with such gain spells and abilities. Amusingly, the recommended encounter size listed means that any random encounter is too small for these abilities to manifest.  Dabus! These servants of the Lady of Pain are tall, slender beings in flowing robes and with horns and Don King hair atop their heads. We get stats for them, but they’re not the important part. The thing you got to remember is that while dabus can understand any language, they only talk in rebus. Strange images appear in front of them when they want to communicate, like so:  Translation: There is no mistaking dabus, nor do they try to hide themselves. Oddly, their speech is just a string of symbols I got mixed feelings on the Dabus. I think they’re cool, but they’re a prime example of one of the problems with Planescape-it presents stuff and ideas that sound really cool, but in practice are a pain in the rear end to implement. Here, the Supplement offers three options. First is to have a nearby NPC do the translating, which begs the question of why you included Dabus in the scene to begin with. The second option is to actually prepare Rebeses beforehand, but this supposes that you know exactly what the PCs are going to ask. Still, if the DM just wants them to deliver a message, it works. Finally, what I think is the best compromise (if pretty awkward) is to answer the PCs questions by charades. Personally, I feel this option is so obvious I’d have made the charades the actual way Dabus speak. One other neat thing about Dabus is that ‘they neither fly nor walk, but exist on the boundary between each.’ What this effectively means is that they are immune to spells that affect the surface beneath them, but aren’t treated as flying creatures. Magmen are goblin-like natives of the Paraelemental Plane of Magma. There’s really isn’t anything special about them. The aptly-named Minion of Set are proxys of the Egyptian power Set. They appear as people but have the ability to transform into snakes, crocodiles, cave bears, giant hyenas or giant scorpions. Their defensive abilities include immunity to spells and abilities that cause fear and/or doubt. 1 in 20 minions are Shadow Priests, able to cast spells as a priest of Set (level 1d4+5). Now, the Modron. They are natives of Mechanus, and are governed by an impeccable and alien logic. The section of Mechanus they occupy is known as Regulus. The entire race strives to perfectly organize the multiverse, although in practice they can’t even keep Mechanus totally free of chaos. The most common modron are simple geometric shapes with limbs attached. Rarer, more powerful varieties take on more bizarre shapes, with the most powerful and rarest looking almost human. There are 15 variety of Modron presented in this supplement, and they are organized by a strictly linear hierarchy. Interestingly, modron do not acknowledge the existence of higher ranked types except the one immediately above it. The 15 species are subdivided into 3 categories. Base modron act as general labor and rank-and-file troops. Hierarch modron are supervisors and officers. At the very top of modron society is Primus, The One and the Prime, who is the equivalent of a greater power. As exemplars of lawful neutral, modron society is highly bureaucratic. For non-modrons, this is especially frustrating because modron also have no sense of self, so it’s impossible to tell if the modron you are talking to today is the same as yesterday. To get around this, cutters that come regularly to Mechanus paint symbols to tell them apart. Unless ordered, the modron won’t wash these symbols off. All modron are immune to illusions and magic that affects the mind or otherwise influence emotions. The supplement states that it is possible for a modron to ‘go rogue’, somehow corrupted by the chaos it is trying to stamp out. While the rest of the modron will stop at nothing to destroy these deviants, to non-modron they are still infuriatingly logical.  The next entry are the Nic’Epona, intelligent planar horses who descend from the celtic horse-goddess Epona. They have the innate ability to planeshift and can walk on any surface and even the air. If PCs can befriend one, Nic’Epona provide as good a way of getting around the setting as any if you get sick of hanging out in Sigil all the time. A Spirit of the Air is a minion of air and wind powers. They look like dandy orangutans with bat-like wings instead of hands. Overal, they seem like really chill guys. The ecology section says ‘they feed upon the happiness of others, sharing it like bread freely broken, and they sleep amongst the sunbeams.’ Probably owing to the influence of WW, this monster entry and a lot of others in Planescape have short stories that are either an origin myth or a description of an encounter by a traveler. Fortunately, each story alone isn’t long, but they can add up.  A Vortex is not so much a monster as it is an environmental hazard, most often found on the Elemental Plane of Air. It appears as a miniature tornado that moves about randomly can entrap anyone hit by it or within 5 feet of it (this is before tile-based combat was fully supported in D&D). An attack roll ignoring worn armor is made to determine if a target becomes trapped. Aside from taking a small amount of damage, there is a cumulative 5% chance each round that the victim with be instantly killed. A player that loses a character to one of these is completely justified in kicking his DM in the nutsack. The final entry is a lesser yugoloth called a Marrenoloth. This species of fiend is particularly important on the Lower Planes because they are the only creature capable of navigating the river Sytx. For all intensive purposes, they are the Stygian Oarsman of greek myth. Because of their abilities, they are extremely important to anyone that wants to get involved in the Blood War or otherwise get around the Lower Planes. In fact, both the Baatezu and Tanar’ri will put up with them despite the not-rare chance that they betray their passengers. Marrenoloths are somehow aware of all their kin, and so peeling one means that the cost of every Marrenoloth’s services is much more expensive (while the chance of betrayal goes up too).  And that’s a wrap on the Planescape Campaign Setting Box! I’ll probably take a break to get familiar with the supplements that I didn’t have back in the day. But my next project is going to be the first published adventure for Planescape, The Eternal Boundary. SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Jan 11, 2014 |
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Jan 11, 2014 03:48
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Planescape Module: Eternal Boundary - A Synopsis I've decided to not do a full write-up of Eternal Boundary. Basically, rewriting and breaking down stats doesn't hold my interest. Also, While I bought a lot of Planescape material back in the day, I never had a group to play it with. As a result, my understanding of 2nd Edition mechanics are not hard-coded. So instead, I'll just do a synopsis of the plot, the major pieces of lore introduced, and what I see as the good and bad parts of the module. Eternal Boundary introduces us to The Illuminated, a cult based out of Plague-mort (that's the Gate Town to The Abyss, for those that don't recall). Their beliefs is that it is philosophically correct to control as much as you can. As The Big Lebowski says, "At least it's a loving ethos." Their current scheme is to infiltrate the Factions of Sigil (this module is where the word Kriegstanz is used to describe the inter-faction conflict). To do this, they have a gang that roams the Hive and casts feign death on barmies, then leaves them for the Dustmen to pick up. One of their agents in the Dustmen arranges for the bodies to be dumped through a portal to the Plane of Fire. In fact, on the other side is an abandoned efreet fortress that the Illuminated have taken over and set up protections against the environment. Once their, they dispell feign death and use magic to restore their sanity and make them think that a Power is giving them a second chance at things. Once they're convinced of this holy purpose, they are sent back to Sigil to join a specific faction. This module is meant for players of level 1-3. Keep this in mind. The PCs get involved when a higher-up in their Faction or an independent contractor asks them to go look for a particular barmy in the Hive. After searching around, they find out that he's been put in the dead book, but when they report the bad news, they find out the guy was last seen hanging out with the Doomguard! From here, the PCs have to unravel the mystery, leading them to the Mortuary and eventually to the Plane of Fire. The first half of this module is actually pretty good. It gives some advice on how the different factions would view the events of this module (most are naturally pissed that someone is trying to mess with them). It also provides a good set of encounters in the Hive that I think could be used in any adventure or campaign. The motives and actions of the antagonists are pretty well thought out, if sometimes a bit fiat. Things only begin to deteriorate when it's time for the PCs to go to the Mortuary. My big problem with this part is that the difficulty is greatly influenced by whether or not one of the PCs is a Dustman. If there is one, then the section is pretty easy. Otherwise, the place is a death trap. The issue is that the Mortuary is laid out in a pretty non-linear fashion, and it calls for the PCs to do exploration while snooping around. But there are several rooms that, going by their descriptions, are well above what a lvl 1-3 party can handle. For example, while searching for wherever the Dustmen send off corpses, the PCs might stumble into the office of the Factol. Factol Skall is in fact a level 19 Lich. Yeah. At least the module takes into account that the PCs might get captured, either by the Illuminated or the Dustmen, and it sets events up so that the PCs can still progress to the next part of the adventure despite this setback. The writers are kinda condescending about it though ("sure, go ahead and give them another chance if they gently caress up, if you want to be a softie  "). But one way or another the PCs are on the Plane Plane of Fire. The goal of this part (that is to fully foil the plot and get full credit) is to destroy the enchanted gem that's holding back the hostile environment. Not that the PCs know this or would realize what the gem did if they found it. While there isn't any Lich here, there is a Stone Golem that the villain controls. Obstensively, it's there to keep the natives from mucking the place up. Still, it seems like a beastie well above what a level 1-3 party can deal with.If the PCs manage to foil the Illuminated, the modules tells the DM to reward them 1000xp, "reducing it if you had to hold their hand through the module." gently caress you, Eternal Boundary. Next Time: Monstrous Compendium - Planescape. Or: Heaven is OP
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Jan 18, 2014 18:58
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Sheeet, I had no idea that this game was designed by a fellow Chicagoan. I might need to get in touch with this guy. (also, I'd pay real money for a Chicago flag smilie)
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Jan 20, 2014 16:53
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this sounds like whateverthehell is on that time-cube website.
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Jan 21, 2014 19:03
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I've discovered something peculiar while reading the Planescape Monstrous Supplement, and need assistance to see if my hunch is correct: At the beginning of the book it says that it revises and reprints entries from the core game's Monstrous Compendium (which were printed as hugeass reams of paper you had to put into a 3-ring binder). But looking at the monster entries it appears there are two different standards. One group would that was reprinted from the main game, and the other group that is all new monsters. The evidence is that the latter group appears more concisely written with the setting being presented. Anyone know more about this and if my hunch is correct?
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Feb 12, 2014 00:12
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I suspect that WLD must be part of some sort of celestial Insurance Scam.
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Feb 13, 2014 00:14
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oriongates posted:(after all, the chaotic good guardinals would certainly have different opinions on how prisoners should be treated than the LG archon), Ahem, guardinals are Neutral Good. You're thinking of pre-4E eladrians 
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Feb 13, 2014 17:22
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 13:26 |
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One thing I appreciated about the Eladrin is that it separated the two Elven archtypes inherited from LotR rather than having both in the same package. Sort of a late apology for "The Complete Book of Elves".
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Jun 11, 2015 18:55
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