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Mors Rattus posted:...in the RPG materials.
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Sep 15, 2020 08:15
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Terrible Opinions posted:I mean the 6th ed Vampire book I got feels several steps less silly than the stuff currently on display. Whereas this feels a lot more like a 40k codex. 6th edition came out 20 years ago mate. I think a lot of the current style is what most folks have been playing with.
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Sep 15, 2020 08:33
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I somehow think that people still preferring Warhams Fantasy over AoS are the last people to be mad about their game being old. Like Age of Sigmar the thing being discussed is already half a decade old. so given the horrendous speed GW released army books at any given example is going to be a decade or more old. The last Bretonnian army book was released 17 years ago for sixth edition, Tomb Kings was 9 years ago.
Terrible Opinions fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Sep 15, 2020 |
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Sep 15, 2020 08:46
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MonsterEnvy posted:We do have details on that stuff in Soulbound, and you can play pretty much anything you want given that creating Archetypes and freeform character creations is super easy. One of my players in my current Soulbound game is a doctor who is good at punching people. (With a back up Blunderbuss) I confess some bias, because when you can start as a Kurnoth Hunter or a Stormcast, it just seems the game isn't tooled for ratcatchers. Now, if you told me it was a game about shitkickers and if you died awesomely you got to reroll your character AS a Stormcast? (And I'm not discounting that this scenrio was in the Soulbound review and I completely missed it and I'm looking like an idiot right now) THEN I'm onboard.
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Sep 15, 2020 08:54
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  Bamboo in the Dark This adventure is for 3-5 players and a very wide level range from 5th to 10th. It is different from the others we encountered so far in that it’s an open-ended plot in the vein of heist films. Taking place in the unnamed City, a big festival dedicated to folk hero Thánh Gióng is underway, and an auction of smuggled artifacts is being held in an undisclosed location. It’s possible that a stolen cultural treasure valuable to one or more PCs is up for sale; or they could be working for the local Magistrates (voluntarily or not) seeking to bust up the ring; or they could just be your typical murderhobos out for a quick gold piece. Regardless of their reasoning, not only do they need to find the hidden auction and get the artifacts, they have to get out of the city with their lives and freedom intact! There’s a mini-system known as the Reputation Scale and Adversity Track, representing how covert the PCs have been overall. These are not binary states, but give general outlines for minor boons and complications that can affect each other to minor degrees. Reputation reflects how easy it is for PCs to covertly contact information sources, to what extent locals will be inclined to aid or hinder their ability to hide from authorities and/or criminals, and to what extent they’ll give up or sell minor items and favors. Adversity Track is akin to the “alert phases” of various stealth video games, where PCs who do a sloppy job will get more people on their tail. This has a sliding scale of negative consequences, from rumor mongering locals negatively affecting reputation, Magistrates looking to bring them in for questioning,* a contact becoming compromised, increased security at the auction, and/or the criminal factions sending out hit squads to kill the party. *PCs working with them may get a talking-to about being “a loose cannon” and waste several hours on a first offense, although further offenses will get them tossed in jail for being an unreliable asset. As you can tell, this is the kind of adventure where the fewer fights the PCs get in, the better things can work out. A clean get-away with nobody the wiser is an ideal solution, but the writer realized that making everything go pear-shaped as soon as initiative is rolled is not fair either. For that, a house rule for Stealth Combat is employed. What this means is that presuming the PCs aren’t being intentionally loud and flashy, characters beyond 30 feet of a fight when initiative is rolled will not notice provided that the following conditions are filled: the PCs have surprise on an enemy, combat lasts no longer than 2 rounds, and no spells higher than 2nd level are cast barring cases of the DM’s discretion. Additionally, most people do not want to die and will seek shelter if combat turns against them. Given the sheer crowds around town, it’s not amiss for PCs and NPCs to disappear among the chaos of the crowds or simply outmaneuver pursuers, and people’s memories aren’t perfect for finer details when in a panic or fleeing to safety. Furthermore, failed skill checks “fail forward” rather than hitting PCs at a dead end: a failed Investigation may give a lead or clue but give the party less time to prepare should they follow up on it, while a poor Charisma-based skill check may impact Reputation/Adversity. The adventure is divided into 3 chapters, although given the open-ended nature are less about locations and encounters and more the general phases of a heist set-up. Chapter 1: the Legwork outlines the City and ways of traversing it, the 3 adversarial factions, and sample contacts. The City’s divided districts which are typical for fantasy settlements: Sticks are the haphazard urban slum, the Scales are the docks, the Temple Ward has shrines and festival rituals, etc. But a notable feature is that waterways criss-cross through most of the districts and “water taxis” regularly ply their trade ferrying people when going on foot would be too slow, crowded, or otherwise impractical. The seven Sources of information all use Commoner stats, but they all can tell the PCs different things and have preferred stomping grounds should the party be in need of finding them. There are three Adversarial Factions, albeit one of them may be allies of convenience for the PCs. Each faction has 4-5 NPCs, with their own names, stat block references, and brief personality traits and physical descriptions. Furthermore, they all have goals which put each other at cross-purposes which clever PCs can use to their advantage. The Smugglers are the ones bringing in the artifacts for auction and are organizing the events under the guise of a legitimate business. Statwise they tend towards martial pursuits (Assassin, Bandit, Veteran) although their boss, Lien Phan, is a Mage who has a unique jade longsword she is proficient with and can use as an arcane focus. The Magistrates all share the Knight stat block and represent the local government. They are aware of a smuggling ring operating in the City but do not know the location, and are rather conspicuous in their uniforms and positions. They will prioritize safety of civilians, even if it means letting criminals flee. The Rival Crew are a group of adventurers after the same things the PCs are, and act at a cross-purpose. Although it’s possible to team up with them, they have no intention of sharing and will betray the PCs when convenient. Their stat blocks are the most versatile and closest to a typical adventuring party: they use the Priest, Gladiator, Veteran, and Spy archetypes. All of these stat blocks are freely available on 5esrd, and there’s a few commonalities. None of them have very high Passive Perception scores, ranging from 10 to 13 on average with the Spy stat as the highest at 16. The spellcasters’ magic isn’t optimized to guard against enchantment and illusion spells, which I assure you players will pick for their PCs if running this adventure as a one-shot. Granted this isn’t going to make things trivial, particularly when the whole party has to roll for sneaking around, but rather the most common opposition aren’t geared towards thwarting thief types which seems rather odd. *Detect Magic and Dispel Magic are the most obvious options, but would be the types deployed once they realize that something is wrong. Chapter 2: the Job centers on the Deck, a high-class invitation-only club. The auction takes place at 9 PM after a big fireworks festival begins which the PCs can learn during the Legwork phase. If the Magistrates are in cahoots with the PCs they will tell them to infiltrate the place and confirm any suspicious activity. They don’t have a warrant and thus cannot just barge in and risk the guilty parties fleeing. If they’re blackmailing the PCs they’ll order them to make arrests and confiscate the evidence themselves. If the party’s willingly working with them they’ll be on standby for a signal of some kind, but in either case if the Deck is in a state of “high alert” then the Magistrates will raid the Deck 10 rounds after alarms are raised.  The Deck itself is a two-story, 13 room building filled with civilians and a few NPC guards in addition to the Smugglers. Rival Crew members will be in disguise and/or staking the place out, barring any interventions the PCs done that may change up their tactics. PCs disguised as civilians will be patted down by guards looking for hidden weapons, and they’re canny enough in the magical arts to identify spell component pouches and staves disguised as “an old man’s walking stick.” High-security areas or ones with heavy traffic will have a pair or more of guards by default, and there are various events and distractions for PCs to take advantage of: examples given are waiters on smoke breaks, laborers carrying in crates of food to smuggle things in, a storage space where confiscated items are kept, and so on. There’s also a password-only secret casino in a back room, and an adjacent high-security vault room that contains the smuggled items. Said vault can also be accessed via the banquet hall via dumbwaiter. This is how said items are transported up for the auction. In cases of high alert the vault will be reinforced with a magical Alarm spell, and if a fight breaks out that’s not Stealth Combat there’s a list of who shows up first and in what order based on rounds the combat lasts. The items for auction range from non-magical jewelry and art objects to a forged map and plate armor with magnanimous stories behind them. But the two items most of interest to PCs include the magical staff Tre Dang Nga, a weapon once wielded by Thánh Gióng, and the unnamed McGuffin personalized to one or more PCs’ backstories. The bidders are rich and the gold piece values can easily run into the five or six-figure digits for the most valuable items, which more or less precludes simply buying them. Chapter 3: the Getaway is the shortest of the chapters and includes brief advice on how to resolve things once the PCs get their hands on the valuables. The book advises against letting them easily exit the way they came back, both for drama’s sake and to show that no plan survives contact with the enemy. A grease fire in the kitchen may block off that section of the Deck for escape, for example, and if the PCs were sloppy in covering up evidence (tampered/destroyed locks, unconscious bodies, etc) then a 1 on a 1d6 roll per vulnerability means that someone discovers it and puts the Deck on a state of heightened alert. If the PCs need to lie low then the DM should ask them what plans they have in mind for safehouses, rendezvous points, friendly contacts, etc. Such scenes would not be RPed out individually, but if the players have a convincing enough argument that may let them bypass one or more obstacles when fleeing the City. There’s also mention of a standoff/showdown with one of the rival groups as a climax after the PCs escape and are enjoying their just desserts, albeit it’s an optional suggestion more in line with heist movies. I don’t really watch that subgenre, so I cannot comment on how appropriate this is or not. Personally I feel that a successful getaway is it’s own reward. The Tre Dang Nga staff has its own stats. It requires attunement by a Lawful Good character, but once attuned is quite powerful: a +3 quarterstaff with the Versatile and Reach properties, can cast a small array of spells, grants a bonus attack when alone and outnumbered in melee, and extra speed for your mount. It can unlock even more spells if the character is attuned to Thánh Gióng’s legendary armor, but said item is not detailed in this adventure and meant to be found as a plot hook for future adventures. Thoughts So Far: I really like Bamboo in the Dark due to the fact that it’s unconventional and open-ended in how it can be resolved. I have not played it so I cannot speak to the quality of the Reputation/Adversity system, but it seems that the adventure did a good job of covering the most pertinent information and outcomes for the Dungeon Master. If there are any weak points, it would be the fact that the adventure could use a second editing pass. Although not a constant, there were sentences which were either too long or constructed oddly in that the information delivered was not clear: Example posted:Rail thin, his own person is disheveled to the exact point one imagines is the exact degree of unkempt he can get away with without being reprimanded, and is accompanied by a perfectly groomed happy-go-lucky white haired Pekingese-Shih Tzu mix named Tazz who Sgt. Hoang does not seem to mind draws most of the attention. So does Sgt. Hoang (a Magistrate NPC) not mind that his pet draws more attention than him, or is it an animal whose annoying ways don’t bother him but bother everyone else? Beyond this, the adventure requires a more specific party set-up than others. Although it’s possible to go in loud, the fact that the heist must be accomplished within a specific time frame means that classes and archetypes focused around short rests instead of long ones will shine better. Furthermore, the large number of NPCs that can get involved in combat at once means that a rather unsubtle party can get in over their heads and risk an enemy faction getting away with the goods if they tip their hands too early. To the adventure’s credit it advertises this in the initial pitch, but if running Unbreakable as a series of adventures for the same group it may take some tinkering in case you have one too many Fighters and not enough Arcane Tricksters. Join us next time as we go on a firebending dungeon crawl in Hearts Aflame at Lan Biang! Author’s Notes & Acknowledgements posted:Much thanks and love to my friends & family who listened to me stress over this project and helped workshop and playtest the many versions of this module. And thanks to the Unbreakable team for the opportunity to share my first written adventure and helping bring Asian stories by Asian people to the tabletop space. Author Bio posted:Kevin Nguyen is a 2nd generation Vietnamese-American in Orange County, California quietly running & designing (but rarely finishing) tabletop games, painting miniatures, and trying to reconnect with his roots.
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Sep 15, 2020 10:09
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Bamboo In the Dark seems like a pretty good adventure idea that only has one problem which is that they're using the DnD system to run it and thus magic is stuck in the binary state of amazing/useless but also almost always better than whatever the thief can do once you get past level three.
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Sep 15, 2020 10:59
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Since time immemorial, fiends have fought the Blood War over The Deck of Encounters Set Two Part 69: The Deck of 347: Blood War #1: Dangerous Offers Two hooded figures (actually balors) approach the PCs at night to hire them for a “skirmish,” ambushing some business rivals. They’ll pay 2,500 gp to each PC up front, but the coins are stamped with a creepy leering face, and they immolate and melt away if the PCs break their deal. The two get very offended if anyone tries to see under their hoods by any means. Though I’m not sure why, because either these two are twelve feet tall with enormous wings and also on fire, or they’re magically disguised somehow. 348: Blood War #2: Business Rivals Same place, ten minutes - the PCs are approached by a pit fiend in disguise, offering them a job as guards. Just backup, in case things go south in a certain encounter. “This offer sounds more honorable than the first,” but the dude still radiates evil if you’re receptive to that kind of thing. He offers 3,000 gp “in otherworldly coinage,” and these coins don’t even combust. 349: Blood War #3: Smack Dab in the Middle So the baatezu and tanar’ri meet at the appointed time, and they’re mostly evenly matched with their demons and mortal recruits, and obviously both demand that the PCs join them in the fight. They’ll send two balors and one pit fiend after the PCs if they don’t commit to a side, while the rest of the evil creatures duke it out. The card suggests that the PCs might be able to escape to the holy ground of a local church, but of course they’ll have earned some outer planar enemies; or that they might even be able to talk their way out of it, though “the PCs must be exceptionally glib and persuasive to manage this feat.” And this isn’t 3rd edition, so you can’t just stack Bluff ranks and bonuses. Ehhh. This is some pretty petty, pointless Blood Warring, which I guess is on-theme, but still. I wish the PCs could get something more out of it than some money - something that would make it worth pissing off a bunch of fiends. Jury? 350: A Hungry Man He Was In an isolated part of a dungeon, the PCs find a man named Plonno, who is constantly lamenting… at least, in between bites of food drawn from a magical bag (everfull bag of feeding. He was cursed with eternal hunger by a Racist caricatures aside, this seems maybe okay, but… why is he sitting in a room in a dungeon? That… doesn’t tie in with anything at all. I’m passing because I'm not sure how to make this work as a random card encounter that says "Dungeon" on it. 351: Death Giggles A pleasant market day is interrupted by a comic book supervillain - Emirikol, Master of Death. He was a neutral 15th-level wizard, but “a failed experiment has driven him insane,” presumably also making him lose all his hair. He wears a colorful robe and a metal mask, a wand of fireballs, and he unleashes spells on the townsfolk while engaging in an evil monologue. That’s the encounter. The guy’s also got AC 6 and 29 HP, so one round should be plenty for this 10th+level party to take him out. So, uh? Is this cool or puerile? I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and keep.
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Sep 15, 2020 16:03
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Emirikol has a history.
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Sep 15, 2020 17:09
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Have the PC’s get recruited into the blood war, but in non-combatant positions. Can you survive a night cooking up HELL MREs and running them to the line? Cpl. Demon’s squad needs 200 units of winter boots stat, but the quartermaster refuses to issue them without signed signatures from each demon general with an apostrophe in their name. The demon parking lot needs to be policed of cigarette butts, but the demon roach colonies are going to be pissed you’re stealing their largest form of income.
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Sep 15, 2020 17:57
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I'm just amused at the image of disguised demons offering self-debasing currency, only for disguised devils to make the same offer ten minutes later.
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Sep 15, 2020 18:03
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tokenbrownguy posted:Have the PC’s get recruited into the blood war, but in non-combatant positions. Can you survive a night cooking up HELL MREs and running them to the line? Cpl. Demon’s squad needs 200 units of winter boots stat, but the quartermaster refuses to issue them without signed signatures from each demon general with an apostrophe in their name. The demon parking lot needs to be policed of cigarette butts, but the demon roach colonies are going to be pissed you’re stealing their largest form of income. get peeling
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Sep 15, 2020 18:09
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Call of Cthulhu 5th Edition We interrupt these weird fish for a play report So, I am also going to cover the pre-made adventures for the back of the book (aside from probably the Madman, because I can already tell you that one is no good and I don't want to run it) in part by running them for my regular WHFRP group! We played the first one last Sunday, and it makes for both a good reason to skip ahead from the Catalogue of Weird Fish to cover The Haunting now and a good time to talk about how a more recent experience playing alters some of my impressions of the system for review. So, the Haunting is a beloved Call of Cthulhu adventure that has apparently been included with the line from the very first edition. It is something of Call of Cthulhu's equivalent of the Rough Night at Three Feathers, an institution in the game line that has been continually updated and republished since the 80s. Unlike Rough Night at Three Feathers, I believe it thoroughly deserves its reputation. It is a genuinely good introduction adventure that does a fine job at setting the tone of play, encouraging players to investigate, research, gather info, and only later nearly get murdered by horrifying events as the worst possible explanations and theories turn out to be true. It's short, but well paced and an excellent introduction for fresh PCs to the world of nightmare horror. Clues are meaningful and help to build tension and a growing sense that something very strange really is happening and that something really is very wrong with the property the PCs have been hired to investigate. The one weakness I'd say is that the conclusion could use more meat, more ways to use information against the malefactor responsible for the haunting. My group was able to overcome him with bare violence, which seems to be the expected route, though another is suggested but has few hints it might work in the adventure itself. But while the moments of physical peril added a lot to the adventure and confronting the evil feels like a fine climax, simply having to fight and kill the villain in the end instead of having learned weaknesses you can use against him or something by investigation feels a bit off. But some background. The adventure happens in 1920 Boston, though it can be shifted to any time period without much difficulty. A local landlord has bought a dubious property, but on realizing that the last family that lived there suffered terrible accidents and left so quickly that they left the pantry full of rotting food and almost all their possessions behind, he begins to worry the rumors of some kind of haunting or disaster might be true and to assuage his worries hires a team of PCs to go look into the property and make sure nothing is wrong. I added in an extra bit of a hook to explain our specific group and why they had a lawyer with them: Mr. Paxton (I named the landlord) had discovered that the history of tragedies on the property had been concealed from him by the realty corporation that sold him the building. He thus wanted to gather evidence to see if he had a case that he had been defrauded or sold the property on false premises. Our heroes were thus: A conman named Daniel Reynold (Danny to his friends) who talked his way into this job on the idea that it'd be easy money since ghosts aren't real and property law can be lucerative, a PI named Calum Briggs who took the job because hell, looking into property disputes and gathering information for civil cases is what PIs usually *do*, a young and rather-less-closested-than-expected-for-1920-gay-men author named Malcolm Driscoll, who had recently been disowned by his wealthy family and was taking this job as the closest thing they had to an occult expert to keep the bills paid, and Lt. (jg) Nathaniel Dunford, a US Coast Guard warrant officer and accredited lawyer moonlighting while his ship was in drydock for refit post WWI. All PCs were rolled on 2d6+6, as the book recommended it as just fine and I gave them the choice between normal 3d6 down the line (except for Siz, Int, and Edu) or the 2d6+6 version and the group asked to use the latter. Between them, Malcolm was surprisingly agile and dodgy and good with languages and liberal arts and libraries, Calum was steady-minded, strong armed, and experienced at being a PI (and breaking and entering a little), Danny was naturally rather social, a good driver, and okay with a handgun or crowbar in a pinch, and Nathaniel was good at law, seamanship, beating the poo poo out of people, and using a machine gun. You've got to be able to fight the sailors a little to be able to get them out of prison for getting in fights. Most of the PCs had a few points put in one or the other flavorful combat skill; Malcolm had at least gone hunting before and knew which way was up on a rifle (35%), Calum had enough practice and police training for a 40% Handgun skill and carried an M1911, Danny knew how to bludgeon someone (Club skill 50) and could shoot a little with a revolver (Skill 38), but Nathaniel was the 'fighter'. Good at both unarmed and using an MG (75% in both). Also, did you know in 1920 a BAR was actually fully civilian legal? This would come up. They had a BAR in the trunk of their car but were reluctant to bring it out until events merited. In general, the idea is that the Big Gun would be something the group only fetched when a situation had come to clearly call for it; one does not merely carry a goddamn 20 pound light machine gun firing full rifle-caliber 30.06 around downtown Boston openly, legal or not. The adventure has plenty of good clues for the players to find; they can interview the former occupants (which mine did, taking care to consult with their doctors after their conditions, make note of any physical injuries when they were admitted to the Roxbury Asylum, etc) and learn from Mrs. Gabriela Macario that there was some kind of evil presence that would menace her when she woke in the night and that hated and attacked her husband, they can look up newspaper clippings and property records in the Boston Globe and the local library, and in so doing learn quite a lot about the background of the property. More families had tried to live in the property and every time they did, there were stories of sickness, attacks, strange phenomena, and terrible accidents that would drive them out or kill some of them within a few years of moving in. Suicides, broken furniture, stories of things moving on their own, all these went back to 1835, when a Walter Corbitt purchased the property for a song after its builder fell terribly ill. He had lived in the house for 31 years until his death, despite numerous complaints from neighbors, and had somehow acquired the legal right (potentially) to be buried in his own basement in 1866. The executor of his will was the Reverend Michael Thomas, the pastor of a strange local church called the "Chapel of Contemplation." My players did all this background work, though we ran into some annoyances with the very binary pass-fail nature of the investigative checks. They also learned about the Chapel, and later learned that in 1912 it had been raided by the police in a large operation, but most of the congregation had been released. Excepting Pastor Michael Thomas, who was surely an old man in 1912, and yet escaped from prison in 1917 and was still on the run. Again, all this is in the material, with good directions on how to do the groundwork to go seek it all out. The group decided to check out the chapel first to finish their groundwork, and when at the ruins of the building near the Corbitt house, fell afoul of falling through the floorboards, seriously injuring Calum. The fall does d6 damage if you fail a Dodge check to grab onto something or land right (Malcolm made his; Malcolm's Dodginess would be surprisingly relevant to this adventure!) and this was the first encounter with the fact that d6 damage is no joke in CoC, when even tough characters like Calum and Nathaniel have 14 HP and when taking 1/2 Current HP in damage causes a Con roll or pass out/be disabled for a time. But down below they found a secret cellar, with a strange and badly damaged book, a damaged copy of the Liber Ivonis, which they naturally took with them. As well as two long dead cultists' skeletons and a strange symbol. And a log saying it was *very important* to the cult that Corbitt be buried in his basement. For his wishes and the wishes of The One Who Waits in the Dark. I added an extra detail: They found a curious, golden-hilted ceremonial dagger among the dead, a little hook for investigating later after this adventure. Though it already leaves plenty of hints for follow up hooks on its own, another point in its favor. After fishing Calum and Malcolm out and managing to bandage up Calum a bit, they finally headed to the Corbitt house, now knowing he was likely buried in his basement. Though they stayed in character and didn't jump to a supernatural conclusion yet. Their working theory was actually that perhaps this Pastor Michael Thomas was squatting or hiding out in the house, and perhaps had been menacing it a long time while he lived nearby. Improbable as that may be, it was the most likely explanation they could think of. They entered the house carefully, and the house is genuinely fun to run as the Keeper. It's full of spooky little details, but very little of substance happens beyond an aura of malaise until the players either try to go into the basement or get lured upstairs. Corbitt is playing a game where he has limited magical power to use, and has to use it up to make supernatural things happen. He's a cruel and vicious sorcerer who likes hurting and tormenting people, slowly transforming into something more terrible and powerful in a hidden room in the basement. As the four poked through the rosaries and religious icons that the Macario family had brought in to ward off evil, and noticed how quickly they had left from the terrible smells in the kitchen, Calum suggested they check the basement first. As soon as he did that, Corbitt began to make his move, realizing they seemed to know something and that he needed to distract and probably murder these interlopers. They heard a strange creaking and thumping upstairs, from the master bedroom, as if someone was walking around. Fearing it might be the villain Michael Thomas, Calum drew his pistol and took the lead as the team made their way upstairs. There they found another of Corbitt's tricks: A spreading pool of blood (extracted from one of the rats come to eat the leftovers of the pantry) sliding out from under the door. They quickly rushed into the room, ready to confront some murderer or crazed pastor, only to find there was nothing there but the blood itself. They filed into the room to inspect the furniture and look for the source of the noise, and then heard a scratching at the window. One of the few windows on the property not boarded up. Nathaniel immediately went to rip the curtains aside, expecting to find their lurker, and that's when the goddamn bed threw itself at him. This is, in fact, The Big Trap in the upstairs bedroom in the adventure. The bed comes at anyone who inspects the window, and if they fail Dodge (which Nate did!) they get flung out the window and take 2d6 damage from the broken glass, the fall, and being loving ambushed by a goddamn bed! Remember up until this moment everything had been quiet. Maybe a little spooky and tense, but they'd been gathering info and thinking for 2 hours, and now their lawyer had been punted out the window by a bed, taken 10 damage, and only narrowly remained conscious. The rest of them couldn't see what happened to him or if he was okay, but I had the door lock and the Bed continue to move around the room. I decided this was the moment Corbitt was GOING HAM. Between Danny's crowbar and Calum shooting the lock, they were able to break down the door and escape further furniture attacks, only to emerge into the upstairs hallway with a floating ceremonial dagger with a rusty blade waiting for them. Normally this waits until they get into the basement but I wanted them to feel trapped in the moment, like everything was going nuts. Malcolm thought fast and lured it into charging him, then dodged aside and got its blade stuck in the wall. They thought about trying to fight the knife while it was stuck but settled on running like hell. They had no idea if even more was waiting. Meanwhile, downstairs, the bleeding, battered lawyer had walked to the car, opened the trunk, still with broken glass jutting out of him at a couple points, grabbed the MG, and kicked in the front door. Nathaniel had no idea what was going on but he was pretty sure it merited the BAR now. This was how they confirmed he was still alive and conscious, him breaking down the door as they fled the upstairs. They grabbed him despite his protestations and fled the house with him, getting him to a hospital instead to receive First Aid and Medicine while they regrouped. They realized, after regrouping, that the lure had come the moment they tried to get into the basement. They reasoned it may, in fact, be *Corbitt* down there, somehow. Perhaps his ghost, perhaps something else. They resolved to return first thing in the morning, bring the MG, and explore the basement. They brought proper flashlights and so didn't have to deal with the dark stairs trap (you can trip and fall for d6 damage if you don't have a light), and came face to face with the flying wizard dagger again. This time, Nathaniel emptied a 5 round burst into it and blew it apart. They were in NO MOOD for wizard daggers today. Normally, when they try to break through the false wooden wall into Corbitt's resting place the PCs face a tide of terrified rats fleeing the walls, but I ruled Corbitt had used a lot of mojo yesterday and needed to recharge, so instead they found the basement floor carpeted with bloodless rat corpses. They broke in the wall and came to Corbitt's office/hiding place, seeing his journals and scrolls and maps, and the strange, too-tall, gaunt, taloned corpse with skin of iron laying in a pallet in the center of the room. Corbitt will only rise if he knows he's been discovered; it takes him magical energy to move personally. But he knew they knew he was not merely a corpse, so he stood, and they faced SANITY. Only Nathaniel failed, which could have been disaster as he had the big gun, but he got a 1 on the d8 Sanity loss and kept his cool. Corbitt was kind of a badass; he had an 18 Pow, some mean wizbiz (including a major shield which causes all damage to bounce off until he's taken all the shield's HP damage, which means he effectively can give himself extra HP, and an ability to take control of a PC by matching Pow vs. Pow on the resistance table), vicious claws that have terrible diseases, and a great deal of physical strength. His undoing was his Dex of 7. And the readied M1911 and BAR. His shield took most of the BAR fire, and I described bullets whining off his iron hard skin like it was nothing until one of them punched right through, and his skin turned to leather. As he stared in shock, Calum shot him in the head with a max damage shot that did exactly enough to kill him. Which was good, because he was going to take control of Nathaniel if he managed to and tell him to shoot the others. You're also told that sunlight might kill him, but there's no way to find this out anywhere, really. I wish there were more ways to deal with and counter Corbitt besides bullets, blades, and blunt instruments. It still makes a good climax, but it feels a bit off and I'd say it's my one fault with the adventure. Killing Corbitt, they couldn't tell if they'd actually gotten him until ten minutes later, when his body dissolved into ash. Malcolm also took his strange pendent to investigate, and was horrified when it melted into his skin (it does this whenever a PC touches it). But the only effect was giving him +1 Pow permanently. They gathered any writings that didn't dissolve, searching the house for more and finding Corbitt's journals in the storage rooms upstairs. They retreated to tell Mr. Paxton what happened, and were surprised he believed them and paid them. His reasoning was the story was too specific and weird (and had too much evidence, in writing, about stuff like the Chapel) to be made up. Now, between adventures, Malcolm is reading what he can of the Liber Ivonis, thrilled and terrified by the suggestion of the existence of an ancient and unknown civilization called Hyperborea that predates the fertile crescent, and studying the journals of Walter Corbitt, as the others try to understand what they've experienced. Nathaniel also noticed that the charts found in Corbitt's lair indicate an island off the coast of Massachusets, and they've resolved to get to the bottom of what the hell they just saw. And perhaps hunt down Michael Thomas for more answers. It's well paced, it's interesting, it gives enough information for a satisfying conclusion without overexplaining what the Deal is with Walter Corbitt, and it makes an excellent introduction to the setting. It's honestly one of the better pre-made intro adventures I've run. It also occurred to me after running it that that may be a strength of CoC's system. It is a good system to put premades in. You're running mysteries, so a crafted plot without too many random events is necessary. You can always roughly tell how 'powerful' Investigators are because they don't change scale like, say, WHFRP PCs going from 1st to 2nd or 3rd tier. PCs are easily replaceable since their Skills and Sanity are the most important things on their sheet and your biggest infusion of both is at character creation. One thing my players commented on a lot was that the physical danger was exciting and frightening when it suddenly popped up because things had been quiet and slow prior, and because the low HP made any damage feel dangerous and made their PCs feel fragile. It helped them feel like ordinary people who are genuinely afraid of knives and guns, let alone dark sorcerers and weird events. They are excited to do more and had a good time, and I enjoyed running it, and I think that's one of the best bits of praise an intro can get. The 'tone' mechanics in CoC really do leave a mark; Sanity might have its issues with its implications but the fear of losing it as bad things happen in the moment does add something. And the physical frailty makes players genuinely cautious of traps and dangerous actions. I just wish the actual mechanical investigating had more meat and less 'roll Library Use to continue plot'. Next Time: Back to Fish.
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Sep 15, 2020 18:59
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Bieeanshee posted:I'm just amused at the image of disguised demons offering self-debasing currency, only for disguised devils to make the same offer ten minutes later. This should be what the scenario plays up. The PCs accidentally get a reputation amongst the Hells as badass mercenaries and keep getting hired. Can they turn this to their advantage and perhaps even save some innocents, Yojimbo-style?
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Sep 15, 2020 19:21
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Dallbun posted:347: Blood War #1: Dangerous Offers I'd keep these, they're a decent opportunity for PCs to get into some trouble and the rewards can be fun for the DM too.
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Sep 15, 2020 22:42
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Dallbun posted:347: Blood War #1: Dangerous Offers I'd put them in the Quest pile, because this is a hilariously weird setup but also really unlikely to go according to plan. The characters are almost certainly going to do something much weirder with this blood war meeting, which sounds fun, but also like it's going to end up a whole session instead of a quick random encounter.
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Sep 16, 2020 04:23
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Night10194 posted:Also, did you know in 1920 a BAR was actually fully civilian legal?  No Illicit trait on here, so yes. Also that play session was awesome to read us usual for your stuff Night, though I may be biased because running around the house dealing with stuff, getting slapped around, eventually pulling out your heavy weapon, figuring out the monster is in the basement and then going down there to apply gun to forehead is more than one Arkham Horror scenario I've played. And the military dude responding to defenestration with "Welp, that merits the machine gun" is almost one-for-one with how you usually play one of the card game's investigators.
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Sep 16, 2020 05:22
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He actually went so hard at them because they were beelining for the basement before they heard the noise upstairs and he could tell they were on to him. Corbitt's goal is to keep you out of the basement and get you to leave. The interesting bit is him having limited power and ability to affect the house, and an actual objective in deceiving, killing, or scaring off the PCs. He could also choose to do something like convince them that room is the center of the haunting, let them do an exorcism or something, and stop doing weird phenomena to make them think it worked so they'll leave. Having a clear objective for the monster, ways he'll try to deceive or kill the players, limits on what he can actually do, and information they could have found that can help them if they got tricked or let them know they need to check the basement is one of the reason the actual House section is really good.
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Sep 16, 2020 05:41
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 Hearts Aflame at Lan Biang So far our adventures explored a treacherous mountain pass, a polluted river, a flooded town, and a fantasy heist in the middle of a big city. But we’ve been missing something iconic lately: a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, and this adventure is ready to deliver for a party of 4-5 6th level PCs! The mountain of Lan Biang is famed for its temple’s everburning flame and the order of mystics protecting it. But the fire’s been out for three days, and the nearby village fears an ill omen has come to pass. The adventure starts up at the village, and the PCs can learn a bit about the temple: it’s home to a group of monks famed for being able to manipulate fire in supernatural ways. As the party ascends the mountain steps they encounter a jaguar...on the run from something even more vicious, a bipedal crystalline monster! Two rounds into combat a monk by the name of Ai Hoang joins the battle. When the monster’s reduced to less than 50 hit points its heart is exposed (a hint at its weakness) but eventually it dies. The crystals around its head crack off, revealing the face of a person. It is one of the senior monks, who tells Ai and the party that a dire curse afflicts the people of the temple by transforming them into crystalline monsters. He hints that “as long as our hearts burn with hope, darkness can never take us.” After giving him a tearful farewell and decent burial, Ai joins the party. She’s a younger and more impulsive member of the order, and can fill them in on the basics: they’re ascetic martial artists who learned how to manipulate fire to do supernatural feats, that said element represents hope to them, and that she initially thought the monsters were invaders who trapped the rest of her order (she was away at the time the curse fell). The day the flame was snuffed out was when another order of white-robed monks visited the temple and gave a silver chalice as a gift to Lan Biang, and she suspects a connection. Before we go any further, there’s a bit of an unconventional game mechanic for saving the monks instead of killing them. Crystalline constructs are new monsters who come in 3 varieties: hulking, spear-throwing, and small. They’re more or less straightforward dumb bruiser monsters, although the former two are actual possessed monks, while small versions can pop off of the hulking one and thus aren’t ‘people’ of their own. When they’re reduced beneath a certain number of hit points they go berserk and their heart becomes exposed. A heart is attacked with disadvantage, but someone wielding Lan Biang fire that deals 20 or more damage in a round to it turns the monster into the original unconscious character. So what’s the deal with Lan Biang fire? Not just any mundane or magical flames will do: special braziers in the temple are lit or can be lit by a Lan Biang monk, who can carry said fire in their bare hands and deal additional damage with it on their attacks. Other people can carry the flames as well, although they automatically take more fire damage every round and it doubles for every turn they hold the fire in their hands; the monks only suffer 1d6, but can avoid this damage if they drop or get rid of the fire before the end of their turn. It’s possible for the PCs to save up to 6 monks beyond Ai. While the adventure claims that the combat gets harder “because they have more people to keep safe,” the monks all share the same stat block and are rather capable fighters in their own right. Due to action economy it shouldn’t be very hard for them and PCs to overwhelm their opponents, even if the amount of brazier flames in a given room are limited. The dungeon has four rooms, each with a lit and unlit brazier and a number of crystalline constructs to fight. The temple entrance is a rather flat and featureless plane, although the reliquary room has spear-throwing constructs with the lit brazier on a second-floor balcony. The third room is a narrow hallway with a gauntlet of crystal constructs of all kinds, where one must take the lit brazier at the start through up to two unlit braziers at the respective middle and end portions of the room. The final room is the high altar at the top of the mountain, with five unlit braziers and a silver chalice sitting where the Lan Biang’s eternal fire once burned. The artifact pulls a One Ring and telepathically promises offers of ultimate power and riches, and Ai begins to fall to temptation as crystalline growths slowly appear on her body. She needs the moral support of the PCs to resist the urge via goold role-playing or an appropriate DC 14 check that increases by 1 for every retry. The chalice will summon ectoplasm to fashion into a large transparent body bound by silver spiked chains. This adventure’s boss fight is a pretty cool one, and the terrain alone has quite a bit of variety: the dry detritus can light the entire area on fire if exposed to enough Lan Biang fire damage, and it is possible to knock people off the ledge which the chalice spirit is eager to do as it can teleport back into the arena if it itself is knocked out of the ring. The chalice spirit has a pair of spiked chain reach weapons that can grapple on a hit, and a recharge ability to summon small crystal constructs or heal them if it reaches the maximum summon number of six. It can also automatically snuff out multiple braziers per turn based on a die roll. As a reaction it can send tempting visions to a target to stun them for 1 round on a failed Wisdom save, and as a Legendary Action can do the same thing but to all Lan Biang monks at once once when it drops below 65 hit points. All in all a rather creative climax with a variety of options on both sides. Once destroyed any remaining crystalline constructs shatter, the threat dispersed for good. The monks are not a wealthy people, but can part with some funds up to 2,500 gold (which makes them sound pretty wealthy) and can teach the PCs their secrets if at least one monk survived. Said special ability teaches the Control Flames cantrip, and also gives a character a 10d6 dice pool that can be spent as a bonus action to spend any number of dice from the pool to reduce incoming fire damage by that amount. The latter ability is recharged after a long or short rest while within sight of an open flame. Sounds really neat, although given that it’s a bonus action and not a reaction means that it requires some foresight in order to use. It also doesn’t specifically state if the spent d6s eventually fade if not used in time. Thoughts So Far: It’s a rather small dungeon, and it doesn’t have much in the ways of traps or treasure, but the ‘puzzle monster’ aspect as well as the climactic battle with the chalice spirit makes up for it. My main concerns are that a party that realizes the riddle of the heart weak point can gain a significant advantage if they successfully rescue multiple monks. One thing that springs to mind is the off chance that the party contains a Monk with the Way of Four Elements subclass, particularly if they have fire magic. I can see such a player making the argument that they should be able to manipulate the Lan Biang brazier flames with reduced risk. While it may not be rules-legal, I as DM would allow such an option considering that the Four Ways Monk is an overall underpowered class and that this can give them a chance to shine. Join us next time as we cover the Lost Children, a Nepalese horror story! Author’s Notes and Acknowledgements posted:It’s never too late to reconnect with a piece of your familial or cultural history. Author Bio posted:Steve is a recent addition to the Toronto-based podcast Asians Represent. Specifically he’s part of their actual play Dungeons & Da Asians where the crew plays in an unabashedly Asian-inspired setting. He works full-time as a business consultant and spends the rest of his time pursuing cooking, lifting heavy stuff, crossfitting (with relatively few injuries), talking about education, and working on D&D module design - often all on Twitter (@DeeEmSteve). Sometimes he also sleeps. If you asked him what he likes most about TTRPGs, he’d say it’s their capacity to help build empathy. If you asked him after a few drinks, he’d make a lot of loud noises and start flexing on you. He means well.
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Sep 16, 2020 07:14
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Im loving these Unbreakable writeups, and author credits. I also really like that adventure because its got gimmicks to the monsters, progressive iterations of the combat but still fairly short, and an excellent final boss fight with tons of stuff to learn and master, and a permanent actually is a feat feat which is the best thing to get after a quest. Definitely my jam A++ Blood War I would make card one and two simultaneous so its like a player auction. I'd let the players know, too the higher the negotiate the more dangerous the fight will become as the side that pays them will have less money left to buy more sword arms.
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Sep 16, 2020 11:52
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JcDent posted:OK, what happens when you get killed - again - in Shyish? Also, can you die, go to Shyish, then go back home via a realmgate? I believe if you’re a shade in Shyish and die, you just...are gone. With some notable exceptions - inside an underworld that runs in Valhalla-style rules, shades can come back to life each day. But yeah a host can travel to other realms. The problem is they’re still a ghost.
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Sep 16, 2020 13:56
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In basic D&D, the weight of items was measured not in pounds, but in The Deck of Encounters Set Two Part 70: The Deck of Obnoxious Peddlers and Beholders 352: Obnoxious Peddlers #1: Magic for Sale! The PCs are accosted by a peddler who claims to be selling magic items, and seems to have a good, high-quality selection. But they’re all illusions made by a wand of illusion, which is the only magic item this 12th-level illusionist really has. I guess the point of the wand is that it’s more surreptitious than casting spells…? This is a “gotcha” encounter that also hinges on there being a “magic item economy” which is an uninteresting D&D trope. So I wouldn’t use it, personally. Pass 353: Obnoxious Peddlers #2: The Kid “After a quick errand slaying wild boars for a village, the PCs are lauded as heroes.” That part doesn’t matter, so forget it immediately. A kid comes up to the PC and pesters them to let him sharpen their swords. He is terrible at it, and even magic weapons need to make a save vs. death magic to avoid damage. Then he’ll brag to everyone about how he’s the heroes’ “squire.” If they’re in any way mean to the kid, the town will shame them and turn unfriendly, and he’ll come back to try to steal something in revenge. Acceptable vignette, though I wouldn’t destroy a magic item with it, and I don’t want to get too carried away with this kind of thing lest the players start thinking “why are we bothering helping all these jerky villagers?” Keep, I suppose. 354: Obnoxious Peddlers #3: Coppers for Conjures The PCs pass by a stand by the side of the road near a bridge. It’s a small wooden enclosure with a countertop arrangement in front,” and even if it’s not accurate I’m picturing Lucy’s psychiatric booth from Peanuts. It’s manned by a surly old guy selling magic items - they look like cheap, gaudy junk, but he’ll confidently identify them as various highly-desirable things such as a girdle of frost giant strength, wings of flying, a vorpal blade, etc. (There’s a whole list.) They’re being sold at low prices, but they are all clever fakes, except, randomly, for the decanter of endless water. I’m imagining a Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade-style situation where it’s not nearly as over-decorated as everything else. He and the booth disappear when the PCs leave, or when he’s threatened. Weird. Charming? Maybe. It kind of works better if there isn’t normally a magic item economy in your game. Keep? 355: One Mean Drunk “This occurs in a bar in the city frequented by spelljammers,” because of course you’re running a game with spelljammers in it. And the PCs are working part-time there as bouncers, because they just are, okay? And it’s one of those bars that caters to mortal enemies and expects them all to get along, and the PCs definitely have no problem with that. There’s a drunk beholder who the PCs need to get out of the bar safely. It’s pretty drunk and might damage the bar or patrons. The card cites that there are some big mirrors around that can reflect eyebeams, but that the DM would roll to see where those rays ricochet to. If the PCs do a good job they get 350 gp each, some exp, and maybe can keep working as fantasy bouncers? Because that’s what your 12th-level characters really want to do? Pass, this setup is far too specific. If I was running a Planescape game, though, I’d consider throwing it in as a quest - I would just present it as an offer of temporary work, or a friend calling in a favor, rather than declaring that the PCs are bouncers now. And they could take the job or leave it. EDIT: After chastisement by forumgoer 90s Cringe Rock, I realize that this encounter is pretty awesome and I shouldn't let me annoyance at the framing distract me from that. Keep and just have the PCs wander into a terrified bar where the drunk beholder is. 356: Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue The PCs enter a mirrored chamber in a dungeon, which is the lair of… Barikand Lorewise, Bard of the Silverbird Guild! Who is actually a delusional beholder who is not affiliated with a bardic college real or imaginary. It forces the PCs to listen to bad poetry until they seem to enjoy one. (The sample line given is “your eyes, so round, so perfect,” which is pretty choice.) There’s an anti-magic zone in the room that does not affect the eyestalks; I would say it’s some kind of beholder mirror-magic, and it only operates as long as the beholder’s central eye is undamaged. Cute. Keep. I might outsource the spontaneous composition of bad beholder poetry to the players themselves. Dallbun fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Sep 27, 2020 |
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Sep 16, 2020 18:43
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Dallbun posted:There’s a drunk beholder who the PCs need to get out of the bar safely.
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Sep 16, 2020 20:03
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Since sociable beholders are so incredibly rare the one in both cards has to be the same one, the poor guy keeps going through periods of mania where it has pretensions of artistic worth followed by depressive episodes where it drinks heavily.
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Sep 16, 2020 21:04
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90s Cringe Rock posted:I can't believe you've done this. I'm suddenly ridden with self-doubt. The overly-specific setup got to me, but upon reflection it's 100% better if you drop all of that and have the PCs wander into a bar and find a drunk beholder while everyone else present is very quietly freaking out.
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Sep 16, 2020 21:15
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By popular demand posted:Since sociable beholders are so incredibly rare the one in both cards has to be the same one, the poor guy keeps going through periods of mania where it has pretensions of artistic worth followed by depressive episodes where it drinks heavily. I want to see the bar where beholders drink alongside humans and elves and such. Kinda like a hosed-up D&D version of Cheers. "You want to go where people know... people are NOT all the same." Gynovore fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Sep 16, 2020 |
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Sep 16, 2020 21:24
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Gynovore posted:I want to see the bar where beholders drink alongside humans and elves and such. Kinda like a hosed-up D&D version of Cheers. The bartender can be a fire squid with the voice of Ted Danson.
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Sep 16, 2020 21:27
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Everyone: "M'norg!" M'norg waves with his eyestalks.
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Sep 16, 2020 21:27
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By popular demand posted:Since sociable beholders are so incredibly rare the one in both cards has to be the same one, the poor guy keeps going through periods of mania where it has pretensions of artistic worth followed by depressive episodes where it drinks heavily. This is a good idea and I say take it even further. Have the beholder latch onto the PCs as the only people who've truly appreciated its poetry (or just not outright run away from it) and have it 'invite' them out for a night on the town. The PCs have to escort a raging drunk beholder from one seedy dive bar to the next as its friends. Along the way it pays generously with fistfuls of uncut gemstones and lumps of precious ore that it stores in its gut. Do the PCs get the beholder so drunk that it vomits up its hoard or do they just try to escape from its domineering friendship at the first opportunity?
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Sep 16, 2020 22:19
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Gynovore posted:I want to see the bar where beholders drink alongside humans and elves and such. Kinda like a hosed-up D&D version of Cheers. By popular demand posted:Everyone: "M'norg!" gently caress I want to see this. Like a villain bar, from comic books.
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Sep 16, 2020 23:35
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By popular demand posted:Since sociable beholders are so incredibly rare the one in both cards has to be the same one, the poor guy keeps going through periods of mania where it has pretensions of artistic worth followed by depressive episodes where it drinks heavily. OMG this reminds me of an adventure I ran when I was in college, a long, long time ago. The party was hired by a local wizard to obtain a beholder eyestalk, to make a wand or something. The wizard had done some scrying and discovered an eyestalk in some nearby ruins. The party goes there, and after a few encounters, finds the eyestalk... attached to a live beholder. The party is level 5, so fighting is not an option. Fortunately, the beholder turned out to be friendly. His name was Horatio; I played him with a California surfer accent. It turns out Horatio needed an item retrieved from some nearby caves, so the party agreed to get it in exchange for an eyestalk. The party got the Macguffin and returned, but Horatio was a massive wimp who couldn't bring himself to allow the fighter to chop off one of his eyestalks. So, they decide to get Horatio likkered up. The party hid him inside a nearby crate, which he levitated into the town. This was complicated by the fact that Horatio was a massive lecher; whenever the party ran into a woman, he extended an eyestalk out of a hole in the crate and up her dress. The party bought a few casks of wine from a bar, found a backroom, and got Horatio drunk... at which point he busted out of the crate and flew around town, using his Charm eyes on every woman in sight and sticking eyestalks everywhere. (we were all guys IRL, so no one was offended). After much fun and games, he sobered up somewhat. We took him to the wizard's tower and fixed the wizard with his anti-magic eye, at which point the wizard hastily agreed to pay for all the damage to the town and double our eyestalk-retrieving fee.
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Sep 17, 2020 00:20
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Barudak posted:Im loving these Unbreakable writeups, and author credits. I may not have illuminated as much on this, but I liked these elements too. I realize that I can be more talky on things to be critical of at times. But yeah, Unbreakable's clearly a work of love, and I give massive props to highlighting the authors beyond a name in the credits section.
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Sep 17, 2020 03:51
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 The Lost Children This is one of the darker adventures in Unbreakable, with a bit of a horror tinge to it. It is designed for 3 to 7 characters of 5th thru 10th level, which is a pretty wide range; albeit the adventure says that it is optimized for 5 PCs of 8th level. The Lost Children takes place in the environs of Kankala Lake Village and the surrounding mountainous terrain, with Nepalese inspiration throughout. A pair of shapeshifting monsters known as lakhey preyed upon orphaned children of the village for generations, spacing out their murders over time so as not to tip people off too much. Although an old woman who escaped them long ago, and a village girl worried about the loss of her adopted brother, will put the PCs on their trail. The adventure opens up as the PCs are going through a mountain pass. Coming upon a stray goat with a tag stating its ownership and home, Kankala Lake contains the closest center of civilization. The people here are subsistence farmers and herders, and have little to give besides food and a place to sleep. The goat belongs to Kiran, a farmer and father of five plus the orphan boy Imay. An elderly couple also passed through the village days ago, commenting upon being childless and wishing they could adopt a child like Imay before leaving for the lake. Not-so-coincidentally, Imay disappeared not long after. Kiran is already stretched thin tending to his biological children, and PCs may pick up that a part of him is relieved that he has one less mouth to feed. Further investigation will lead the party to Punthakhu Maincha, an elderly woman selling marionettes in the shape of people, animals, and demons. If the party’s polite enough to sit around for a spell at her behest she will speak of times past, including various hints about the lakheys and how the intelligence of animals is often taken for granted. She’s dismissed as being senile by other villagers, but her tales have a hint of truth, for in reality Punthakhu Maincha was one of the few children lucky and skillful enough to escape the lakheys’ capture. Eventually the proper adventure hook will come in as Daxa, one of Kiran’s daughters, approaches the PCs to find Imay, believing that the elderly couple kidnapped him. She has no money or items of worth to pay the party besides a doll, so ideally the PCs will be the more charitable types in seeking out this danger. In reality the elderly couple are just a pair of normal good-intentioned people, but the lakhey fear that they may expose them, for they already killed Imay. One of them took the boy’s form to accompany them out of the village and plans to drown the couple in the lake. The majority of the adventure is a wilderness trek with several set-point encounters that lead the PCs closer to the lakheys. The monster at one point will try to misdirect and trick the party by taking on the form of Daxa, although only one of them will do this at a time. There are points when canny animals in the area will warn the PCs of trouble directly or otherwise, such as a crow giving warning caws as the PCs approach a shallow graveyard full of the lakheys’ victims. Said corpses are now undead skeletons of children who aren’t initially hostile, but can be appeased and laid to rest via good role-play. The skeletons are mute and thus pantomime, and give the PCs hand-puppets imbued with single-use spells as a reward, along with their spirits aiding the party in combat with the lackeys later on. The next major encounter is a bamboo hut where the lakheys live, and the ghost of a mouse can offer the party information in exchange for food, telling them about the lackeys. The hut is also home to the ghost of Ratna, Punthakhu Maincha’s sister who was unlucky enough to die and can offer to help the party if they play a game of Bagh-Chal with her. She’s a bad player and sore loser and will attack the party if her ego’s bruised. If peacefully parlayed, Ratna will explain how she and her sister had an abusive mother and did not believe Punthaku Maincha about the lakheys after she escaped. But her mother believed the part about the lakhey’s hut bearing treasure, and sent Ratna out of the house to steal from it. Ratna died at the monster’s hands when they took the guise of an elderly couple promising to give her a better life.. The final encounter takes place down at the lake, the elderly couple are bathing down by it. The lakheys, disguised as Imay and Daxa, are near a second bamboo hut and will try to trick the party into distrusting the elderly couple. But they do not trust the PCs to do things properly should they seek to kill the “monsters,” and will try to trap the party in the hut which they’ll then set on fire before going down to the lake and doing the dark deed themselves. That is, unless the party escapes and catches up in time. The waters by the lakeshore are home to a strong whirlpool, and the lakheys will use the murkiness of the water to conceal themselves from attacks if possible and shapechange out of sight to further confuse the party. If the PCs managed to pacify the skeleton children, their spirits will manifest as a damaging aura attack that hurts the lakheys and halves their speed. Statwise the lakheys are fiends who can see in the dark and have advantage on saves versus all magical effects. Their primary means of attack is via multiattack with claws or a manifested glaive which can cause the target to bleed on a failed Constitution save. Said glave deals more damage with every strike it makes against such a wounded target. They can shapechange into other humanoids, but besides this they don’t have much in the way of other major attacks or abilities. There are two major ways for the adventure to resolve. Either the lakheys are defeated, or they trick the PCs into killing the elderly couple. The latter has a grimmer resolution, as the party receives news several weeks later of the village being wiped out,* but if they brought the monsters to justice then they can lay Ratna’s soul to rest. Three new magic items are also provided at the adventure’s end: Animal Friendship Bracelet (discovered at the grave) that can allow communication with animals; Chattering Coal (lakhey’s hut) that acts as a magical voice recorder that is activated when spit upon; and Bowl of Nourishing (reward from the elderly couple) that can turn a single grain of rice placed inside into a bunch of yomari dumplings that can feed five people. *kind of wondering what caused the lakheys to go nuclear, considering that they’ve been the type to play the long con for decades. Thoughts So Far: This adventure is more of a side trek or encounter in terms of its brevity. There aren’t really any mandatory fights per se, and all of them can be resolved either via role-play or in the last case the party falling for the monsters’ trick. This means that PCs may very well nova the final fight by dumping their major spells and rest-based abilities then and there. Another factor is that due to being fiends, a party with a paladin may very well easily see right through the lakhey’s trickery, although given that the second one is located at the lake near the end it’s not so much an adventure bypasser as the party having an advantage: “okay you know this child’s actually a shapeshifting devil, but now you have a shapeshifting devil on your hands!” I did like the lake fight, which makes up for the enemy’s lack of ranged attacks by dividing the party’s attention between safeguarding the couple and defeating the monsters. Join us next time as we overthrow a rakshasa tyrant in the midst of a dreadful monsoon in the Lost Rathi! Author’s Notes & Acknowledgements posted:This adventure was inspired by the Nepalese folktale Dhon Cholechā. It takes place decades after Punthakhu Maincha supposedly escaped from the lakheys. Author Bio posted:Kat Kruger is Dungeon Master on the actual play podcast d20 Dames and Chief Wordsmith at Steampunk Unicorn Studio. With over ten years’ experience writing in the entertainment and gaming industries she offers a wide gamut of storytelling, workshop, and publishing services. Her D&D adventures from d20 Dames and Adventurer’s League can be found on DMs Guild. She is also the Story Architect for Multiverse. Follow her on Twitter / Instagram @katkruger.
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Sep 17, 2020 07:42
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Its easy to point out flaws for a long time but hard to be effusive because quality can speak for itself. This is a dark adventure (poor Imay) but its well constructed minus the weird lose a boardgame thing and while it seems short this absolutely an entire gaming session worth of plot and action which puts it head an shoulders above a lot of adventure write ups where I see several 3+ hour sessions sunk on a sidequest. I really like the creativity of the boss fight, again, which is something that so many bloody adventures drop the ball on. And the treasure! Its good treasure, its not 8,000 random pieces of poo poo its evocative items with neat uses that your players will absolutely hold onto*! *Not the food maker. I have a player who would shiv the entire party into giving that to the village ASAP.
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Sep 17, 2020 08:16
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quote:Centuries ago, Emirikol had a lover named Leotah, who was also a powerful wizard. Emirikol basically dumped her to focus on Chaos.
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Sep 17, 2020 12:35
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Gynovore posted:... he extended an eyestalk out of a hole in the crate and up her dress. sounds epic, op. Glad that you were all guys and so the sexual harassment monster and the mind control rape magic didn't offend you.
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Sep 17, 2020 12:48
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The most inspiring work in Appendix N is The Deck of Encounters Set Two Part 71: The Deck of Dungeons and Dragons 357: Lookin’ for Trouble The PCs are on their way out of a dungeon of some kind, but in between them and the exit is an enraged beholder, blasting things with its disintegration eye. “Its lair was just sacked and its offspring killed by humans.” Hmm, that may or may not make any sense depending on where the PCs are and how hard it was to get to. But I guess it’s acceptable. Keep. 358: Carthrag Goes-a-Courtin’ The PCs have been seeking out a red dragon named Carthrag for some slaying purposes, but have fallen prey to the clever traps in his mountain home. Congratulations, card, you’re already unusable. I am not going to try to engineer that situation for you. Anyway, goblin servants take their weapons and armor, and Carthrag offers to spare their life if they deliver a golden trophy to a female red dragon living nearby, and convince her to accept a social call. He threatens to hunt them down if they don’t follow through. If they succeed they can come back and pick up their stuff. Dragon courtship is not a bad topic, but this is not a good execution on an encounter card. Pass 359: Brackish Waters Run Deep Adventure summary ahoy! The PCs are visiting a nameless alchemist friend who lives by a swamp, but a black dragon attacks in the evening, because she thinks the alchemist hired the PCs to take her children for potion components! Presumably the PCs drive her off and then try to find the dragonlings, who have been captured by professional monster-catchers who are “generally equivalent to the PCs,” to deliver to a different nameless alchemist. They’re using potions of black dragon control to bring the dragons along, but those last such a short time, how does that even work? Not a random encounter, not fleshed out enough to be an adventure. Pass. 360: Ben Franklin Never Met a Dragon A tinkerer named Heinral is out in a thunderstorm. The card seems to assume that the PCs are friends with him already, and have come out to help test his device that pulls lightning from the clouds. (He suggests they leave metal armor behind). Lightning is drawn down to Heinral’s metal box… which crackles and shoots it back up toward the sky! Where it hits a passing young blue dragon! Which descends, annoyed! “The PCs must talk fast to avoid combat - especially if they've been convinced to discard their armor. The dragon is interested in the device and breathes electricity on it, marveling when the bolt is reflected back. Heinral and the dragon discuss the nature of electricity as the storm dies down, leaving the PCs scratching their heads.” So, did I just introduce an NPC as a friend of the PCs, just so I can set up this scenario where they stand around as irrelevant extras in a cutscene? And then they have access to a weird non-magical lightning redirector? I get that it's cute, but pass, I think. 361: Let Sleeping Dragons Lie The PCs have followed “a badly-drawn map into a wooded wilderness.” (Look, let us figure out why the PCs are in a forest, that little addition adds nothing at all.) And the path goes through a large forest clearing, and in the clearing are FIVE FRIGGING DRAGONS. One mature adult, four young adult green dragons, and they’re all having a snooze after a round of hunting. Their lairs are nowhere near. It’s open-ended, at least. And... unexpected. Keep. 362: Shadowstruck! Strange stormclouds suddenly gather, releasing bursts of light and darkness instead of lightning. A shadow dragon swoops down out of it, demanding tribute lest it destroy them with the shadow storm it has raised! In fact the shadow storm is a harmless natural phenomenon and the dragon is just taking advantage of the opportunity. I’m not a fan of “monsters demanding treasure from the PCs” encounters. It just always seems so dumb of the monsters! Also I’m not a big fan of introducing a rare natural phenomenon for this one specific occasion, specifically to trick the players. Pass.
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Sep 17, 2020 17:15
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Dallbun posted:The most inspiring work in Appendix N is I dunno, ditch the forced trap, change the dragon color to blue (or something else Lawful and/or non-evilish) have the PCs be not quite high-level/tough enough to take him and just have him meet them as they're going through some appropriate terrain. At which point they can be his delivery boys or his lunch for "trespassing." But if they pull it off well enough maybe he gives them a little something from his horde.
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Sep 17, 2020 18:25
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Dallbun posted:359: Brackish Waters Run Deep I could see keeping all three of these, especially the angry black dragon. All you need is a reason for PCs to visit an alchemist, which shouldn't be hard because 'this is the only place to by healing potions' is a pretty easy contrivance when wandering the wilderness.
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Sep 17, 2020 22:21
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 The Lost Rathi This adventure takes place in the South Asian-inspired city of Nagajari, and is a rather dramatic power increase in being designed for 4 PCs of 15th level. The set-up is that crown prince Raja Harkesh Divyaali is in need of some elite help in dealing with a warband approaching the city. He’s heard word of a legendary warrior known as the Rathi living in the city’s slums, who he hopes to recruit in defending the city with their martial prowess. The reality of the situation is much darker. The sitting Raja is a rakshasa in disguise that murdered the true prince and now wears his form. Although the city was oppressive before in having segregated tiers breaking people up by castes, the prince’s policies have only grown worse since. The vaunted warband are actually a group of holy warriors who received a divine vision of a hidden evil within Nagajari, and the rakshasa hopes to manipulate the Rathi, a champion of the oppressed, into fighting against them. Better that his enemies fight among themselves than realize the true danger. There’s yet another party that can throw things for a loop independent of the various power players and factions: Mother Nature herself! The Monsoon Die is a rather important game mechanic that persists throughout the entirety of the Lost Rathi, representing an incoming tropical storm that will do great damage to the city and the surrounding environs. The die begins at d20 and is rolled with the advent of every new scene and important combats, with lower results representing the gradual worsening of weather. A cumulative penalty modifier is applied the more results that are the same to ensure that things won’t remain calm and pleasant forever, and the Monsoon Die itself gets smaller and smaller depending on how the PCs interact. Violent, cruel, and otherwise dishonorable actions downgrade the d20 to a d12 to a d10 and so on, to a minimum d4. The adventure’s onset is an investigatory one, with an interview with the Raja and the promised payment for finding the Rathi (600 GP plus 1 personalized magic item per PC). The major leads in this investigation point to the slums where the lowest castes live, and most people go out of their way to avoid the party due to negative experiences with the government and its representatives. They’ll even refuse monetary bribes, knowing that it “is a tool for the rich and poison for the poor,” which seems...a bit strange. I can get refusal for fear of the money making them a target to others especially if offered openly in the street, or protecting the Rathi out of principle given his guardianship of the district. But the adventure contradicts itself on this point, saying that most NPCs the party interact with make a deal for monetary or information gain unless otherwise stated in order to leave the city or climb higher in the caste system. But honeyed words and skill checks of that kind can get the PCs farther, although using Intimidation and failing or getting into fights will cause everyone to flee the streets as the Rathi appears as the last man standing face to face with the party. Yes, failing forward can bring an early end to the investigation! Otherwise, there are three major areas for sleuthing. The first is an alleyway shop home to a firbolg merchant by the name of Vistal. His wares all come from a magic bag that can draw a single non-magical item form anywhere in the world provided that said item exists somewhere. He does not deal in coin, and for those seeking information or his wares he will ask for each PC to relive an emotional moment. As they tell him their past, they will suddenly remember him being there as an observer and in that memory he will tell them where to find the Rathi. They can also get the same information for using violence, although he’ll disappear in a puff of Exhaustion-causing smoke; the party will relive a memory of Vistal meeting the Rathi earlier today, discussing meeting in Kapoor’s Kitchen. The second place is the Red Makaan, a haphazard public housing unit. The Rathi lives in one of the rooms, and the PCs can get entry to it via either convincing the local clerk to let them in or breaking in via skullduggery (this lowers the Monsoon Die). The Rathi’s room has a Glyph of Warding trap and a hidden compartment containing coded notes and maps revealing robberies against the Raja’s various assets (both ones that already happened and in the planning stages). The final place is Kapoor’s Kitchen, a local restaurant. The owner is a terrible liar and will try (and most certainly fail) to convince the party not to explore the kitchen. The Rathi and his dog eat in the back for privacy rather than the normal tables. PCs who gain her trust learn that the Rathi is part of a vigilante network who steal from Nagajari’s government and dispense the funds to much-needed charitable causes. The fact that the Raja has earlier cut funding to said causes out of spite and is taxing the poor even harder to the point of violence is the reason why much of the slums tolerates the Rathi and support his cause. Regardless of how they go about things, eventually the PCs will come face to face with the Rathi, or he’ll find them first. But before the PCs can talk with or subdue him, shouts erupt and bells start ringing throughout the city warning of the warband’s imminent arrival. The Rathi will state as much, and his attention will quickly move to leaving the city post-haste to confront them. Although the Rathi has stats (a souped-up Assassin with better stats all-around and can make 4 attacks per round), the adventure gets a bit rail-roady in that the PCs are incapable of keeping up with him and must make Survival checks to follow his trail, but the result is the same as they will eventually catch up with him as he is let past the front gates by a sympathetic guardsman. These are 15th-level PCs we’re talking about, fast travel in three dimensions is easily within their capabilities! So what happens if the PCs realize that they set out in doing what the Raja wanted and decide to report back for their reward? The adventure sadly, does not have an answer for this scenario. When approaching the warband the Rathi is the slash first, ask questions later type, although a successful skill check (either Persuasion or identifying the warband’s banner as belonging to that of Bravika, a peaceful and righteous god) can stay his hand. If they fail these checks...well the rest of this encounter presumes that the PCs make peaceful contact with the warband. The warband are in fact holy monks who came here after experiencing a shared vision of an evil presence residing within Nagajira’s walls. Their leader, Nima Kolivan, is a middle-aged woman (no stats are given, but the in-game text identifies her as a paladin) who will explain as such to the party, and offer to share this vision with them should they desire. As she’s aware that the unknown evil will notice this ritual, Nima suggests that a few PCs stand guard while the others participate in the trance. The Rathi will be among the guards in this case. The vision and the ensuing combat technically take place simultaneously, but the adventure advises the DM to run them one after another or at the same time depending on what works best for their table. The vision involves the party going through a dreamlike Nagajari as a shapeshifting imposter leaves a trail of ruin before it comes to inhabit the palace. The only real danger is damaging psychic screams from tormented spirits that pop up when the party fails skill checks as the vision progresses. In the real world, the Raja dispatched six hell hounds to follow the magical residue from the ritual-vision and slay those partaking of it. The pilgrims will disperse as the Rathi guards the NPCs, leaving the PCs standing guard to prevent them from attacking Nima. If she’s hit, then the PCs in the vision will suffer psychic damage. At this point the party will become aware that the current Raja is the source of the evil, and the monsoon begins in earnest. Nima’s order sneaks all of her warriors into the city one at a time (how big is this warband? How can they do this so quickly? Is high-level magic involved?), and the PCs are tasked with performing open-ended skill challenges describing how they prepare the city’s slums to withstand the storm. Given Nagajari’s tiered nature, the low-caste districts will flood first and the worst. Regardless of their efforts, Nima and the Rathi will accompany the party to the Raja’s palace to overthrow the pretender-king. The rakshasha already knows the jig is up and has a retinue of hell hounds and loyal guards at his side when they arrive. The Raja dramatically shapeshifts into his true form by breaking an amulet in his hands, and during the battle the monsoon will get more violent. This will cause both NPCs to depart combat to save more civilians, albeit not during the same round. Depending on the result of the skill checks one or both friendly NPCs may either live or die due to the monsoon. The Lost Rathi’s resolution has four different outcomes, depending on the surviving NPCs and the overall success of the party’s skill challenges. The best outcomes grant the Raja’s granted monetary reward plus a bonus magic item from Nima, the Rathi, and/or grateful citizens, with less rewards for worse results. The absolute worst outcome causes most of the city’s inhabitants to die from the flood, and the surviving citizens had enough of the upper class’ poo poo and lead a violent revolution against the rich. Thoughts So Far: I like the concept of the adventure, as well as the Monsoon Die mechanic. The investigatory route has a bit of a node-based mystery design which I like, and while brief is just the right size for what is intended to be a single-session one-shot. However, the adventure itself can use a little more polish, particularly in handling circumstances where the PCs go off the beaten path or resolve things in ways the plot didn’t intend. What if the party attacks the warband? What if they subdue the Rathi and bring him back to the Raja? What if after learning about the government’s brutality, the PCs decide that they’re being used as pawns and give up the hunt for the Rathi to instead confront the Raja? Nima is also in need of a stat block or stat block reference, and the Rathi is surprisingly a glass cannon for the level at which he appears. Four attacks per round and sneak attack is nothing to sneeze at, but his low Armor Class and Hit Points mean that the average 15th level martial character is probably a better fighter than him. Join us next time as we enter a high-stakes mahjong tournament in the Den of Broken Tiles! Author’s Notes & Acknowledgements posted:Thank you to Kyle Allen Devich for consistently encouraging me to take the next step. Thank you to Sam Miller for reminding me that words can be magical, even when it felt like magic was gone. Thank you to my roommate from college for introducing me to TTRPGs, none of this would have been possible without you choosing to share your passions with us. And as always, thank you to Benjamin Vargas, gone, but always by my side. Author Bio posted:Russ Wilde is a South-Asian nonbinary person from Pennsylvania. They are the GM for Prism Pals, an All-Ages LGBTQ+ D&D 5E podcast. They are outspoken about their experiences as an QPOC, and will continue to fight for equity and justice as long as they can. You can find them on twitter @RussWildest.
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Sep 18, 2020 06:58
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Has there ever been a successful 5e module for PCs over level 10? Every one I've seen is either a boring combat slog or an adventure that doesn't account for just how much a high-level party is capable of, especially with casters and magic items.
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Sep 18, 2020 12:19
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