Little is now known of Phlothor the Artificer except that he was rather popular in the court of the Green Empress, contemporary writers praised his genius for creating magical constructs and vehicles, and that he was killed in a dimensional rift explosion that eradicated his personal magical library, most of his creations, and both of his apprentices.
But one thing he created survived and was copied at least once - his Carriage
Showing posts with label treasure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label treasure. Show all posts
Thursday, July 27, 2017
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Play Report: Brigid's Diary, Part 2 - Return to Richacre
Real time: played in two parts, 10/4/14 and 10/18/14
Je. played Brigid, a 1st level human barbarian
J. played Athanasius, a 2nd level human cleric
A. played Starkiller, a 1/1/1 half elven fighter/cleric/mage
S. played McCloud, a 1st level human druid
N. played Thoren, a 1/1 half-orc fighter/thief
[Note: The entry is written 'in-character' and changes in tone and such reflect the character at different points during play]
DM notes are in [brackets], player notes in (parentheses)
After my first adventure, I came back to Oldbridge with Starkiller. We sold our treasures, and I made enough profit that I was able to put many gold pieces into the Baron's bank for safe keeping. I carefully compose a letter to my family, telling them of my good fortune and assuring them that I will return once I have saved enough to replenish our family's coffers.
I write in our family's code, so as not to raise any suspicions with anyone who may read the letter as it travels, both for my own protection, and that of my family's.
I find that before long, I begin to thirst for more adventure. The rage inside me has been very quiet, and I am hopeful that I am learning more self control, but I still long to further my skills, and increase my fortune. Just as I was about to get very restless in town, I received a very strange letter.
I write this diary and my letters home in the script of Eiru, but I am not able to read much of the common language. I ask Starkiller's cleric friend Athanasius to help me read the letter. It is from Toril, the headman of Richacre. He pleads for help, as there are strange doings going on in his village. I remember the kindness of the people of Richacre, and also remember the unfinished business we left there, the strange seal of evil in the tower basement. Combined with my restless thirst for more adventure, I know I must go.
I convince Starkiller and Athanasius that we should travel with all haste to Richacre to assist them in their hour of need. We find two others, friends of Athanasius, who wish to travel with us, the druid McCloud and the half-orc, Thoren. McCloud is another follower of the strange gods that I don't trust, but I can't deny the usefulness of his skills. Thoren is an interesting fellow, very dim of mind, but strong, and cunning in his own way.
We agree to leave the very next morning, after replenishing our stocks and equipment.
Day 1
We follow the familiar route to Richacre, passing through the village of Ham-on-Wye and stopping at the Sad Wolf Tavern. And later, we enter Stowanger and stop at the Tankard and Bowl Tavern. Finally, we approach Richacre. The charcoal huts on the outskirts are empty and obviously were hastily abandoned. Then, I notice that the wooden tower on the palisades is shattered, and the gate is wrenched open, hanging broken and precarious. Through the opening, we see bodies scattered around, and the town is dreadfully, terribly silent. No one comes to greet us, there is no bustle of a town's work, and I fear the worst. Thoren and I decide to go ahead of the others, as we are tough and strong and better able to weather any threats that remain inside the palisades.
We see terrible, terrible things. Some bodies seem untouched with no obvious cause of death, but with looks of abject horror forever frozen on their faces. While others - oh, the others! Some bodies have organs ripped out, some have huge chunks of flesh missing, others appear to have fallen from great heights. We see one house that seemed to have taken a lot of damage, and it has a large hole ripped through it, but with the edges of the hole as smooth as glass.
Suddenly, someone calls my name. My heart is in my throat before I realize that it is Bertrand, the Hedge Mage, blessedly alive. He calls me over and hurriedly tells us that two nights ago there was something in the sky, that lights came from the sky, and whatever the lights touched, died. He was injured by the light reflected off a mirror. Now, he has seen the gargoyle in the sky again, and is fearful that he is too badly injured to escape. We assure him that we can help, tell him to stay hidden while we go get our friends and search for other survivors. We find one other man who seems to have survived, and Athanasius casts some healing spells to heal both men. He also casts detect magic, but finds nothing magical in what is left of the village.
We continue to search through the village, and we find the Widow Schumacher who was mentioned in Tardill's letter. We also find a severed arm, holding a few pages from a journal. It must belong to the madman that Tardill indicated the widow sheltered. The journal pages are cryptic, yet terrifying, indicating he was a Mage, and mentioning a map of the cultist's temple, and finding the library of Skull Mountain. The last page seems written much later than the first, and the poor man had obviously gone mad. Mentions "devilfish", "Them", and "Lurkers", indicates he had been kicked out of the Duke and Count's courts, priests had tried to cure him, but they obviously failed as he continues his rants for at least several more paragraphs. I wonder what he had to do with the destruction wrought on the poor village of Richacre?
I convince Athanasius to copy the pages here in my journal so that we can remember what it says. He added those pages later.
Meanwhile, Starkiller recognizes that the wounds on the dead seem to be those of a "reversed" spell of healing. And Bertrand is very, very worried about the return of the Gargoyle. We assure Bertrand that we will take care of the gargoyle, and he gives Thoren an amulet vs. charm, and gives us a scroll that "enchants a weapon", giving it a temporary increased chance to hit and damage (+1/+1). Meanwhile, darkness is falling, so we hide as best as we can, and get some sleep.
Day 2
We wake up the next morning and notice that some of the houses on the far side of town have been trashed overnight. We head out to check on the tower, figuring we will find the gargoyle there, and we can also check on the evil seal in the basement, figuring it might have had something to do with the town's destruction.
We approach the tower directly, assuming that the gargoyle will be stone during the day, and thus, not a threat. Thoren approaches the door to the tower and is picking the lock when the gargoyle drops on us from above! The gargoyle savagely attacks Thoren [DM- taking him to -1 HP]. We immediately attack the gargoyle, Starkiller and I land blows. Athanasius casts a light spell, blinding the gargoyle. I attack and kill the gargoyle, making sure to take an extra, final blow to ensure its death. Meanwhile, Athanasius casts two cure spells on Thoren, saving our friend from certain death. I say a quick prayer of thanksgiving for good clerics. We talk amongst ourselves, debating as to whether we should go back to the village, or forge on to discover what is going on with the evil basement seal.
While we are talking, the door behind me opens, and a Kobold wearing strange, cobbled together, almost full plate mail appears. Thinking fast, I try to talk with him. I tell him we killed the gargoyle, and he says he is glad, tells us that they hated the gargoyle. We ask if we can come in and see the basement, and he tells us no, that they now worship those gods. Before he can say anymore, we attack. The Kobold lands a minor blow on me, but I manage to kill him.
We grab the head of the gargoyle and his backpack, and we notice he is branded - it almost looks like an eye surrounded by smaller circles. We also grab the Kobold, and decide to go back to the village to prove to poor Bertrand that we killed the gargoyle. We return to the deserted town of Richacre and tell Bertrand all that has happened. We go through the gargoyle's backpack, and find great treasures. Copper and electrum pieces, a silver bracelet with an amber crucifix, a Druidic scroll which we give to McCloud, he tells is it has animal friendship, animal growth, commune with nature,and cure critical wounds. There is also a broadsword - my weapon of choice! As I pick it up to admire it, it is tarnished and dull, but I notice the hilt has a carving of a beautiful women, head bowed, covering her eyes.
Suddenly, the sword starts speaking! It speaks in the language of my childhood, Airu, and tells me it's name is Mor Altach, which means "great fury". It says that it can also speak in Orcish, Kobold, and Ogre, and it's blows do not cease to hurt (which makes me believe it is a sword of wounding). It also says that it can detect traps and magic within 10', though it has to be able to speak about them. Starkiller detects evil on the treasures, and nothing, including the sword, seems evil. Everyone agrees that the sword should be mine. The sword tells me it does not like my other sword, and I assure it that I will get rid of it as soon as we can get back to a town where I can sell or dispose of it safely. The sword reluctantly agrees that is ok, but I get the sense that I had better to be true to my word. I am unsure how I feel about my sword talking to me, but since it speaks to me in my beloved Airu, I rest a little easier. We try to question the sword about the gargoyle, and how it got here, but the sword was captured long ago, and has spent almost the entire time in the depths of the gargoyle's backpack, so it has very little information. So, we decide to rest for the night, and head back to the tower in the morning.
Athanasius insists that we must deal with the kobolds, and we also really need to check on that evil seal. I hope, that with good rest, and focus, I can continue to keep my inner rage in check.
Day 3
When we woke up the next morning, Thoren told us about a strange dream he had. The bracelet we found spoke to him in his dream, saying that it was weak now, and Thoren was the only one who could save it. When he awoke, the bracelet was on his wrist. I find that very eerie.
As we head back to the tower, we notice smoke off in the Briars, almost like from a bonfire. It is far enough away we feel it is safe to deal with the tower without worrying about the smoke. I wonder what it is, though?
We arrive at the tower, and thankfully Thoren checked for traps, because there is a nasty pit trap at the base of the stairs to the entrance. We are able to work around it, and Thoren goes up to check on the door. Suddenly, a rock is thrown at him from directly above! We look up just in time to see two kobolds duck back inside. We retreat away from the door for fear of the rocks, and we make a plan. We march up to the tower while firing arrows at the kobolds above, and quickly bust down the door and enter the tower. Inside we find three kobolds, and rather quickly kill two of them. We ask for surrender from the final Kobold, and then we knock him out and tie him up, figuring to deal with him later after we assess the rest of the area.
We enter the stairwell, and find boulders coming down the stairs. We duck back out of the stairwell, wait for them to pass, then quickly rush up the stairs. We pass three closed doors, and then on the roof, we see two kobolds pushing boulders towards the door. I have to hurry, or they will knock us all down the stairs! I make a charge attack - and miss horribly. I quickly whip back around, and McCloud has killed one, then I kill the other.
We go back down the stairs, and sense evil behind one of the doors. We open the door, and capture and tie up another Kobold, then head to the basement. There is a trap by the door to the basement, Thoren attempts to disarm it, but fails. Starkiller uses his spear to reach over Thoren's shoulder and poke the door open. A sapling whips out from the corner of the room with a dagger on the end of it. It just misses slicing Thoren's face!
Then, before we can even blink, a giant weasel attacks Thoren! It immediately bit down and started sucking his blood. Starkiller and McCloud and myself attacked the weasel and Athanasius cast healing spells on Thoren to keep him alive. Finally, we kill the weasel and save Thoren. I look down and notice my sword is gleaming. The woman on the hilt has changed! Her hands are no longer covering her eyes, they are crossed over her chest, and she has a beatific look on her face. She has long, flowing gold hair, and her eyes are brilliant sapphires. I'm not sure what this means, but I feel a kinship with my Airu sword that makes me feel less homesick. We take the dagger from the trap after our battle with the weasel, and we feel certain it is magical. We find the secret door and go into the other room.
There, we see 3 kobolds and a Kobold shaman who is casting a spell. I immediately charge the shaman, and to my shame, I miss, once again. But, on my next attack, I kill him instantly! The other kobolds attack and injure me, Thorin, and McCloud, but we manage to kill them all.
(In the heat of battle, McCloud calls Athanasius the "Altar boy" - DM says 25 extra EP!)
We enter the room with the evil seal, and find 2 humans tied up with another Shaman standing over them. I charge and kill the shaman - finally, I hit during a charge! As we release them, the two humans tells us their names are Allen, a peddler, and Gerb, a porter. Allen immediately pledges fealty to me, who saved his life by killing the shaman. When we get out of this tower, I am going to see if I can convince Gerb to stay with me, too, since the two are apparently life long friends. I find that I am more proud of saving the lives of these fine men than I am excited about finding treasures to send back home. My need for revenge has been so strong for so long, I'm not quite sure what to make of my new attitude.
As we are standing there talking with Gerb and Allen, some of us see movement out of the corner of our eyes, and we go to investigate. We quickly realize that some Kobold women who must have been in hiding have escaped - and they took our two tied up captives, too! We decide to track them, as we can't let them get away. We find them fairly quickly, and rather than kill them, Athanasius tries to convert them to the truth of our faith. All evil can potentially be used for God's advantage!
He succeeds in converting the kobolds, but knows their faith is weak. We negotiate with them, and convince them to shelter at the Abbey southwest of Ekull. A little time with the consecrated brothers and sisters will certainly strengthen their faith!
(From the tower, and the kobolds we killed, we do find some treasures. Five pieces of Amber, a gourd jar with a paste that we later identify as a pagan potion of Hill Giant strength, and the magical dagger is identified as a +1 dagger/+2 vs. smaller than man size. We also find a fair bit of gold, so after paying our expenses and dividing it up amongst all of is, we each get 376 GP and a piece of Amber.)
I decide to hire Allen the merchant and Gerb the porter. I know they will be loyal to me if I treat them well, and certainly they will help me amass my fortune and figure out how to get it back to my family. And meanwhile, my new sword gazes at me with those sapphire eyes whenever I look at it. I wonder what it all means? I believe I must rest for awhile, study and hone my skills. I suspect I have something more important to do than send my family my fortune.
(GM indicates 1360 EP per character. Brigid will level up to 2nd level.)
Letter Received by Brigid
To Miss Brigit of Eiru, with all blessings,
Fair maiden, I write to you with trepidation. You and your companions recently saved our small village from great evil and for that we can never repay you. But odd things seem to be afoot in our village again. Roald Collier recently found a madman wandering in the forest, tattered and bruised from wandering through the Briars. This poor wretch babbled about starnge things in the mountains above the Briars (which, truly, are enough to break a man's mind) and scribbled in a book. The Widow Shoemaker took him in and swore to nurse him to sanity.
Since his arrival, however, the forest has been unquiet. Shadows move under the trees, the animals are fearful, and I have strengthened the palisade guard. I have written to the Count, but you are 4 days closer. Is there any chance, Miss Brigit, that you or your friends could succor us?
Yours in Hope,
Toril, headman of Richacre
Page from beginning of the stranger's journal
decided to take my mentor's advice and begin a journal of my travels.
It is strange, I must admit, to be far from home and from the library and lab of my mentor. I thought I was a grown man when I began apprenticing as a mage, then learned I was not once my mentor proved how much I had to grow. Then I thought I was a man when I mastered my first spell, until my mentor proved that a single cantrip is no more than a drop of water beside the sea. Now that I am no longer an apprentice but a full mage I fell I am a man. Am I to be show wrong again?
But my mentor tells me this journal will help me understand my growth in knowledge and experience. That by looking back at my thoughts I will gain more insight than by merely living them once. I hope he is correct. We will see.
Tomorrow I depart for Oldbridge to meet with the rest of my companions. With the map we have of the cultists' temple we think we might succeed where so many others have failed. Imagine – finding the Library of Skull Mountain, the accumulated tomes of a score of looted libraries, the research libraries of a dozen mages, and the writings of other worlds! Thought destroyed in the final battle my friend Jonzar swears that it survived and he
Last page of the stranger's journal
Last Deepwinter, but as you know all who know of the devilfish must die! The death of Zhonquil the Mage was no feud between wizards, it was an assassination by Them, the lurkers, the slaves to those foul creatures! I tell you truly, my knowledge of the truth is a blessing and a curse. Yes, I know we are all playthings to them, the secret masters, the ones from beyond. But that knowledge threatens to shatter my mind. And I am surrounded by fools! Can they not see?! Worries about bandits, orcs, and dragons, pfagh! All distractions, all to blind us to the slow, creeping horror of the devilfish as they corrupt more and more. The Duke threw me from his halls and the Count tried to have his priests “cure” me. I damn them all to the slavery they deserve. Yes, those who cannot recognize the Truth I speak and my genius deserve to be eternal slaves to the slime!! One day the king, the dwarves, even the haugty elves will bend their knee to me, ashamed of their arrogance in refusing to obey me as I fight Them! Who else can do so, the weak-willed king? The blind priests? The naïve paladins? NO! Only I have the wisdome, the knowledge, the vision, and the courage to save the world from slavery and worse than slavery from thos abominations from beneath the
Je. played Brigid, a 1st level human barbarian
J. played Athanasius, a 2nd level human cleric
A. played Starkiller, a 1/1/1 half elven fighter/cleric/mage
S. played McCloud, a 1st level human druid
N. played Thoren, a 1/1 half-orc fighter/thief
[Note: The entry is written 'in-character' and changes in tone and such reflect the character at different points during play]
DM notes are in [brackets], player notes in (parentheses)
After my first adventure, I came back to Oldbridge with Starkiller. We sold our treasures, and I made enough profit that I was able to put many gold pieces into the Baron's bank for safe keeping. I carefully compose a letter to my family, telling them of my good fortune and assuring them that I will return once I have saved enough to replenish our family's coffers.
I write in our family's code, so as not to raise any suspicions with anyone who may read the letter as it travels, both for my own protection, and that of my family's.
I find that before long, I begin to thirst for more adventure. The rage inside me has been very quiet, and I am hopeful that I am learning more self control, but I still long to further my skills, and increase my fortune. Just as I was about to get very restless in town, I received a very strange letter.
I write this diary and my letters home in the script of Eiru, but I am not able to read much of the common language. I ask Starkiller's cleric friend Athanasius to help me read the letter. It is from Toril, the headman of Richacre. He pleads for help, as there are strange doings going on in his village. I remember the kindness of the people of Richacre, and also remember the unfinished business we left there, the strange seal of evil in the tower basement. Combined with my restless thirst for more adventure, I know I must go.
I convince Starkiller and Athanasius that we should travel with all haste to Richacre to assist them in their hour of need. We find two others, friends of Athanasius, who wish to travel with us, the druid McCloud and the half-orc, Thoren. McCloud is another follower of the strange gods that I don't trust, but I can't deny the usefulness of his skills. Thoren is an interesting fellow, very dim of mind, but strong, and cunning in his own way.
We agree to leave the very next morning, after replenishing our stocks and equipment.
Day 1
We follow the familiar route to Richacre, passing through the village of Ham-on-Wye and stopping at the Sad Wolf Tavern. And later, we enter Stowanger and stop at the Tankard and Bowl Tavern. Finally, we approach Richacre. The charcoal huts on the outskirts are empty and obviously were hastily abandoned. Then, I notice that the wooden tower on the palisades is shattered, and the gate is wrenched open, hanging broken and precarious. Through the opening, we see bodies scattered around, and the town is dreadfully, terribly silent. No one comes to greet us, there is no bustle of a town's work, and I fear the worst. Thoren and I decide to go ahead of the others, as we are tough and strong and better able to weather any threats that remain inside the palisades.
We see terrible, terrible things. Some bodies seem untouched with no obvious cause of death, but with looks of abject horror forever frozen on their faces. While others - oh, the others! Some bodies have organs ripped out, some have huge chunks of flesh missing, others appear to have fallen from great heights. We see one house that seemed to have taken a lot of damage, and it has a large hole ripped through it, but with the edges of the hole as smooth as glass.
Suddenly, someone calls my name. My heart is in my throat before I realize that it is Bertrand, the Hedge Mage, blessedly alive. He calls me over and hurriedly tells us that two nights ago there was something in the sky, that lights came from the sky, and whatever the lights touched, died. He was injured by the light reflected off a mirror. Now, he has seen the gargoyle in the sky again, and is fearful that he is too badly injured to escape. We assure him that we can help, tell him to stay hidden while we go get our friends and search for other survivors. We find one other man who seems to have survived, and Athanasius casts some healing spells to heal both men. He also casts detect magic, but finds nothing magical in what is left of the village.
We continue to search through the village, and we find the Widow Schumacher who was mentioned in Tardill's letter. We also find a severed arm, holding a few pages from a journal. It must belong to the madman that Tardill indicated the widow sheltered. The journal pages are cryptic, yet terrifying, indicating he was a Mage, and mentioning a map of the cultist's temple, and finding the library of Skull Mountain. The last page seems written much later than the first, and the poor man had obviously gone mad. Mentions "devilfish", "Them", and "Lurkers", indicates he had been kicked out of the Duke and Count's courts, priests had tried to cure him, but they obviously failed as he continues his rants for at least several more paragraphs. I wonder what he had to do with the destruction wrought on the poor village of Richacre?
I convince Athanasius to copy the pages here in my journal so that we can remember what it says. He added those pages later.
Meanwhile, Starkiller recognizes that the wounds on the dead seem to be those of a "reversed" spell of healing. And Bertrand is very, very worried about the return of the Gargoyle. We assure Bertrand that we will take care of the gargoyle, and he gives Thoren an amulet vs. charm, and gives us a scroll that "enchants a weapon", giving it a temporary increased chance to hit and damage (+1/+1). Meanwhile, darkness is falling, so we hide as best as we can, and get some sleep.
Day 2
We wake up the next morning and notice that some of the houses on the far side of town have been trashed overnight. We head out to check on the tower, figuring we will find the gargoyle there, and we can also check on the evil seal in the basement, figuring it might have had something to do with the town's destruction.
We approach the tower directly, assuming that the gargoyle will be stone during the day, and thus, not a threat. Thoren approaches the door to the tower and is picking the lock when the gargoyle drops on us from above! The gargoyle savagely attacks Thoren [DM- taking him to -1 HP]. We immediately attack the gargoyle, Starkiller and I land blows. Athanasius casts a light spell, blinding the gargoyle. I attack and kill the gargoyle, making sure to take an extra, final blow to ensure its death. Meanwhile, Athanasius casts two cure spells on Thoren, saving our friend from certain death. I say a quick prayer of thanksgiving for good clerics. We talk amongst ourselves, debating as to whether we should go back to the village, or forge on to discover what is going on with the evil basement seal.
While we are talking, the door behind me opens, and a Kobold wearing strange, cobbled together, almost full plate mail appears. Thinking fast, I try to talk with him. I tell him we killed the gargoyle, and he says he is glad, tells us that they hated the gargoyle. We ask if we can come in and see the basement, and he tells us no, that they now worship those gods. Before he can say anymore, we attack. The Kobold lands a minor blow on me, but I manage to kill him.
We grab the head of the gargoyle and his backpack, and we notice he is branded - it almost looks like an eye surrounded by smaller circles. We also grab the Kobold, and decide to go back to the village to prove to poor Bertrand that we killed the gargoyle. We return to the deserted town of Richacre and tell Bertrand all that has happened. We go through the gargoyle's backpack, and find great treasures. Copper and electrum pieces, a silver bracelet with an amber crucifix, a Druidic scroll which we give to McCloud, he tells is it has animal friendship, animal growth, commune with nature,and cure critical wounds. There is also a broadsword - my weapon of choice! As I pick it up to admire it, it is tarnished and dull, but I notice the hilt has a carving of a beautiful women, head bowed, covering her eyes.
Suddenly, the sword starts speaking! It speaks in the language of my childhood, Airu, and tells me it's name is Mor Altach, which means "great fury". It says that it can also speak in Orcish, Kobold, and Ogre, and it's blows do not cease to hurt (which makes me believe it is a sword of wounding). It also says that it can detect traps and magic within 10', though it has to be able to speak about them. Starkiller detects evil on the treasures, and nothing, including the sword, seems evil. Everyone agrees that the sword should be mine. The sword tells me it does not like my other sword, and I assure it that I will get rid of it as soon as we can get back to a town where I can sell or dispose of it safely. The sword reluctantly agrees that is ok, but I get the sense that I had better to be true to my word. I am unsure how I feel about my sword talking to me, but since it speaks to me in my beloved Airu, I rest a little easier. We try to question the sword about the gargoyle, and how it got here, but the sword was captured long ago, and has spent almost the entire time in the depths of the gargoyle's backpack, so it has very little information. So, we decide to rest for the night, and head back to the tower in the morning.
Athanasius insists that we must deal with the kobolds, and we also really need to check on that evil seal. I hope, that with good rest, and focus, I can continue to keep my inner rage in check.
Day 3
When we woke up the next morning, Thoren told us about a strange dream he had. The bracelet we found spoke to him in his dream, saying that it was weak now, and Thoren was the only one who could save it. When he awoke, the bracelet was on his wrist. I find that very eerie.
As we head back to the tower, we notice smoke off in the Briars, almost like from a bonfire. It is far enough away we feel it is safe to deal with the tower without worrying about the smoke. I wonder what it is, though?
We arrive at the tower, and thankfully Thoren checked for traps, because there is a nasty pit trap at the base of the stairs to the entrance. We are able to work around it, and Thoren goes up to check on the door. Suddenly, a rock is thrown at him from directly above! We look up just in time to see two kobolds duck back inside. We retreat away from the door for fear of the rocks, and we make a plan. We march up to the tower while firing arrows at the kobolds above, and quickly bust down the door and enter the tower. Inside we find three kobolds, and rather quickly kill two of them. We ask for surrender from the final Kobold, and then we knock him out and tie him up, figuring to deal with him later after we assess the rest of the area.
We enter the stairwell, and find boulders coming down the stairs. We duck back out of the stairwell, wait for them to pass, then quickly rush up the stairs. We pass three closed doors, and then on the roof, we see two kobolds pushing boulders towards the door. I have to hurry, or they will knock us all down the stairs! I make a charge attack - and miss horribly. I quickly whip back around, and McCloud has killed one, then I kill the other.
We go back down the stairs, and sense evil behind one of the doors. We open the door, and capture and tie up another Kobold, then head to the basement. There is a trap by the door to the basement, Thoren attempts to disarm it, but fails. Starkiller uses his spear to reach over Thoren's shoulder and poke the door open. A sapling whips out from the corner of the room with a dagger on the end of it. It just misses slicing Thoren's face!
Then, before we can even blink, a giant weasel attacks Thoren! It immediately bit down and started sucking his blood. Starkiller and McCloud and myself attacked the weasel and Athanasius cast healing spells on Thoren to keep him alive. Finally, we kill the weasel and save Thoren. I look down and notice my sword is gleaming. The woman on the hilt has changed! Her hands are no longer covering her eyes, they are crossed over her chest, and she has a beatific look on her face. She has long, flowing gold hair, and her eyes are brilliant sapphires. I'm not sure what this means, but I feel a kinship with my Airu sword that makes me feel less homesick. We take the dagger from the trap after our battle with the weasel, and we feel certain it is magical. We find the secret door and go into the other room.
There, we see 3 kobolds and a Kobold shaman who is casting a spell. I immediately charge the shaman, and to my shame, I miss, once again. But, on my next attack, I kill him instantly! The other kobolds attack and injure me, Thorin, and McCloud, but we manage to kill them all.
(In the heat of battle, McCloud calls Athanasius the "Altar boy" - DM says 25 extra EP!)
We enter the room with the evil seal, and find 2 humans tied up with another Shaman standing over them. I charge and kill the shaman - finally, I hit during a charge! As we release them, the two humans tells us their names are Allen, a peddler, and Gerb, a porter. Allen immediately pledges fealty to me, who saved his life by killing the shaman. When we get out of this tower, I am going to see if I can convince Gerb to stay with me, too, since the two are apparently life long friends. I find that I am more proud of saving the lives of these fine men than I am excited about finding treasures to send back home. My need for revenge has been so strong for so long, I'm not quite sure what to make of my new attitude.
As we are standing there talking with Gerb and Allen, some of us see movement out of the corner of our eyes, and we go to investigate. We quickly realize that some Kobold women who must have been in hiding have escaped - and they took our two tied up captives, too! We decide to track them, as we can't let them get away. We find them fairly quickly, and rather than kill them, Athanasius tries to convert them to the truth of our faith. All evil can potentially be used for God's advantage!
He succeeds in converting the kobolds, but knows their faith is weak. We negotiate with them, and convince them to shelter at the Abbey southwest of Ekull. A little time with the consecrated brothers and sisters will certainly strengthen their faith!
(From the tower, and the kobolds we killed, we do find some treasures. Five pieces of Amber, a gourd jar with a paste that we later identify as a pagan potion of Hill Giant strength, and the magical dagger is identified as a +1 dagger/+2 vs. smaller than man size. We also find a fair bit of gold, so after paying our expenses and dividing it up amongst all of is, we each get 376 GP and a piece of Amber.)
I decide to hire Allen the merchant and Gerb the porter. I know they will be loyal to me if I treat them well, and certainly they will help me amass my fortune and figure out how to get it back to my family. And meanwhile, my new sword gazes at me with those sapphire eyes whenever I look at it. I wonder what it all means? I believe I must rest for awhile, study and hone my skills. I suspect I have something more important to do than send my family my fortune.
(GM indicates 1360 EP per character. Brigid will level up to 2nd level.)
Letter Received by Brigid
To Miss Brigit of Eiru, with all blessings,
Fair maiden, I write to you with trepidation. You and your companions recently saved our small village from great evil and for that we can never repay you. But odd things seem to be afoot in our village again. Roald Collier recently found a madman wandering in the forest, tattered and bruised from wandering through the Briars. This poor wretch babbled about starnge things in the mountains above the Briars (which, truly, are enough to break a man's mind) and scribbled in a book. The Widow Shoemaker took him in and swore to nurse him to sanity.
Since his arrival, however, the forest has been unquiet. Shadows move under the trees, the animals are fearful, and I have strengthened the palisade guard. I have written to the Count, but you are 4 days closer. Is there any chance, Miss Brigit, that you or your friends could succor us?
Yours in Hope,
Toril, headman of Richacre
Page from beginning of the stranger's journal
decided to take my mentor's advice and begin a journal of my travels.
It is strange, I must admit, to be far from home and from the library and lab of my mentor. I thought I was a grown man when I began apprenticing as a mage, then learned I was not once my mentor proved how much I had to grow. Then I thought I was a man when I mastered my first spell, until my mentor proved that a single cantrip is no more than a drop of water beside the sea. Now that I am no longer an apprentice but a full mage I fell I am a man. Am I to be show wrong again?
But my mentor tells me this journal will help me understand my growth in knowledge and experience. That by looking back at my thoughts I will gain more insight than by merely living them once. I hope he is correct. We will see.
Tomorrow I depart for Oldbridge to meet with the rest of my companions. With the map we have of the cultists' temple we think we might succeed where so many others have failed. Imagine – finding the Library of Skull Mountain, the accumulated tomes of a score of looted libraries, the research libraries of a dozen mages, and the writings of other worlds! Thought destroyed in the final battle my friend Jonzar swears that it survived and he
Last page of the stranger's journal
Last Deepwinter, but as you know all who know of the devilfish must die! The death of Zhonquil the Mage was no feud between wizards, it was an assassination by Them, the lurkers, the slaves to those foul creatures! I tell you truly, my knowledge of the truth is a blessing and a curse. Yes, I know we are all playthings to them, the secret masters, the ones from beyond. But that knowledge threatens to shatter my mind. And I am surrounded by fools! Can they not see?! Worries about bandits, orcs, and dragons, pfagh! All distractions, all to blind us to the slow, creeping horror of the devilfish as they corrupt more and more. The Duke threw me from his halls and the Count tried to have his priests “cure” me. I damn them all to the slavery they deserve. Yes, those who cannot recognize the Truth I speak and my genius deserve to be eternal slaves to the slime!! One day the king, the dwarves, even the haugty elves will bend their knee to me, ashamed of their arrogance in refusing to obey me as I fight Them! Who else can do so, the weak-willed king? The blind priests? The naïve paladins? NO! Only I have the wisdome, the knowledge, the vision, and the courage to save the world from slavery and worse than slavery from thos abominations from beneath the
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Experience Points - Yeah, I am going there
The release of 5e has also released the discussion of experience points, leveling, classes, etc. You know, the only things we talk about more than alignment.
BTW, the nine alignment system is great.
But the discussion is seemingly focused on experience points. More specifically that in 5e you go through low levels fast. My published comment on this on my first read-through was,
I think one of the interesting arguments about the level progression is that the designers of 5e wanted to give players time to make it to high level. Yeah, I'll bet that people getting to high levels is much more common with these rules! I suspect that designers and such as well as a lot of bloggers think most people don't get past about 10th level because of time constraints.
Of course, I disagree. I think the fact is most people prefer to play low- to mid- level PCs and those that don't can just hand out experience and play Forgotten Realms-style.
But also lurking about out there is the age-old 'hey, I kinda' get experience points for killing foes, but why do we get experience points for money and magic items, anyway? What about X.P. for skills, and being clever, and those sorts of things?'
The answer is - plenty of game do! Rolemaster springs to mind as a system where all sorts of things associated with skills can earn you experience points. Since you can take the various elements of Rolemaster (Arms Law, Spell Law, etc.) and 'plug them into' AD&D why don't you just do that?
[Note: then you'll be playing Rolemaster, not AD&D]
Let's spend a minute talking about alternate experience points systems or, more precisely, one alternate system in particular and how it affected campaign and play.
For a number of years I have used an alternate experience point system for my AD&D 2e S&P campaign that is based upon one used by Lew Pulsipher. The mechanics of it are, well, Byzantine;
First, determine the average level of the party. Multi-class and dual-class characters add 1/2 the value of their secondary classes (.5 rounds down) together.
Example: The party consists of: Jerczy (7th level fighter), Annirara (6th/5th fighter/magic-user), Urisone (8th level thief), Brother Reynaud (7th level cleric), Lorlimar (7th level magic-user), and Omac the Ready (5th/5th/6th fighter/magic-user/thief). The average level of the party is [(7+8+8+7+7+10)/6=7.8, round to 8] 8th level (Annirara counts as 7th level and Omac counts as 10th).
Then you determine which individual class present in the party requires the most experience points to advance from the party's average level to the next level.
Example: In this case the classes in the party are cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief. The party's average level is 8th meaning the amount of experience needed is;
Cleric: 30,000 XP
Fighter:125,000 XP
Magic-user: 45,000 XP
Thief: 50,000 XP
The fighter requires the most experience to advance from 8th to 9th level so the 'XP Target' is 125,000.
Now we get to the really fun part! I determined that advancing from one level to the next should take the square of the average level of the party with a minimum of 4 adventures and a maximum of 50. Why? we will get to that later! So in this case;
Example: The party has an average level of 8, the square of which is 64. This means that it should take the average party of 8th level an average of 64 adventures to progress to 9th level. I call this number the 'Base Progress Number'.
Now that we have that we simply divide the XP Target by the Base Progress Number
(125,000/64)
This gives us what I call the 'Base XP Award' - in this particular example, that number is 1,953.
Then I determine my (admittedly subjective) evaluation of both the difficulty of the adventure and the performance of the team as a whole. The adventures are rated from Very Difficult ( I expect the party to need to retreat and recuperate at least twice to overcome this threat) to Very Easy (they might barely notice that it was a serious threat) and the group performance is rated from Excellent (innovative use of resources, great planning, top-notch roleplaying) to terrible (missed obvious clues, blundered into ambush after ambush, played out of character, etc.).
They both have a number rating:
Adventure Difficulty Group Performance
Very Difficult: = 1.5 Excellent = 1.5
Difficult = 1.2 Good = 1.2
Average = 1 Average = 1
Easy = .8 Bad = .8
Very Easy = .5 Terrible = .5
At the end of the adventure I multiply the Adventure Difficulty by the Group Performance to get the Award Modifier.
[brief aside - yes, I really do all this after each adventure]
Let's say the party faced a Difficult adventure (a large number of foes, for example) but they were clever and had a cool plan so they pulled it off without needing to regroup, doing Good. That is
(1.2 x 1.2 = 1.44)
So the Award Modifier is 1.44.
Almost done!
Now we take the Base XP Award and multiply it by the Award Modifier to get the XP Award;
(1,953 x 1.44 = 2,812)
So each character receives 2,812 XP for the adventure!
Does that seem complicated to you? Let's just say I have very clear memories of spending 4 hours on a Sunday adding up each and every monster in the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl that had been killed by the party , every copper of treasure they had hauled off, and all of the magic items pulled out or used and calculating the xp all by hand because my parents' calculator was broken. "Just doing some math" sounded like a great idea!
But there was a serious problem. When my 2e party reached about 5th level the players were disgruntled - eventually this led to them confronting me over the paucity of treasure and (especially) magic items in the campaign. Sure, they all had great NPC contacts! yes, they had wonderful roleplaying opportunities! The magic items they did have were unique, interesting, and woven into the tapestry of the campaign, absolutely! But they still very few magic items and were on the edge of penury.The player of the mage told me he had wanted a henchman for 3 levels but couldn't afford one!
This confrontation led me to realize that I had been neglecting to put what the players wanted into the campaign. Yes, the adventuring was fun; yes, the NPCs were fun; yes, the roleplaying was fun.
But heroes get rewards! The players did not feel that they were getting to enjoy the spoils of success.
But what does this mean? I mean, what are experience points really for and about? Yes, I know we like to talk about experience reflecting some sort of learning and development by the player characters. Sure. Fine. That concept is baked into the name we use (experience points) for the idea.
But that is merely a justification.
In my opinion experience points serve a three-fold purpose:
One, they are a key element in motivating players to actually play
Two, they are a key element in rewarding players who actually play
Three, they are a key element in controlling the tone and pace of play.
Let me explain what I mean.
Motivating players: Yes, there are plenty of players who like to play RPGs for all sorts of reasons. But have you ever played a game you can't win? How about a game where nothing interesting happens? We tend not to play them too long, do we? Even in "pure" storytelling games imagine a game where NPCs never change or develop and the changes and development in your PCs have no effect on the campaign - not very satisfying. All RPGs have in them, somewhere, a reflection of the desire of the players to change, grow, and progress via their characters. Some players want to progress mainly through a character narrative, others through the accumulation of (in game) power or wealth, others through skill development, etc.
But within the paradigm of D&D and related games the primary method of character advancement is via experience points. This is one of the reasons the three pillars of Gary's experience points are beating monsters, looting vaults, and getting magic items - these reflect defeating evil, getting rich, and acquiring cool stuff. While that certainly is every motive behind players, it sure does cover most of them! This also means that the primary method of motivating players is also through experience points.
Rewarding Players: I started covering this, above. Since character advancement is the ultimate goal of RPGs getting to advance is the primary reward of RPGs. Now, for one player it might be gaining an artifact, for another establishing a stronghold, for a third overthrowing the demon overlord that enslaved his realm, in the end the mechanic within the game the reflects this in anything approaching a concrete way is experience points.
Controlling Tone and Pace: As I have mentioned many times before, I believe the 'most fun' range of levels for AD&D 1e and 2e is 3rd to 7th; with the custom experience point system I detailed in excruciating detail above it will take a party an average of 8 adventures to get to 3rd level then 9 more just to get to 4th, 16 more to get to 5th, etc. All told it should take an average party doing average in average adventures 135 adventures to go from beginning at 3rd level to making 8th level. My 2e campaign met about 48 times a year so it took us about 3 years of heavy play to go from level 1 to level 8.
This obviously reflects my desired pace! I am able to tightly control the pace of level advancement while literally not caring what the official XP value of any monster is other than to eyeball if it is too weak or too powerful for the party.
The great thing, too, is let's say suddenly the group could only meet every other month, 6 times a year. Do I really want it to take us more than 23 years to get from 'wet behind the ears' to 'I can almost establish a stronghold'? Well, I could easily cut the Base Progress Number in half (or more) and radically speed up level advancement. By increasing the difficulty of adventures the party cold also get better modifiers, also accelerating advancement.
But there was a serious problem with that experience point system as I ran it, wasn't there? In the end the cost of me radically changing the method of advancing meant that the players were not happy. AD&D is based upon certain assumptions and some of those are that a fair amount of money and magic items pour through the hands of player characters. The players had trouble getting their characters to 'fit' into those assumptions when I wasn't allowing for them.
But another, more serious, problem was more hidden. It is that in the end character advancement was based solely upon my personal opinion of how fast they should advance. I determined the 'adventure difficulty'; I determined the performance level. If the party killed 20 more kobolds this time than last but I thought they weren't very clever about it? No change in experience points between the two adventures! The party killed 20 less kobolds the time after that but I thought the plan was really clever? No change in experience points between the three adventures!
My players are clever; they knew, at lest unconsciously, that I was more in charge of their characters' advancement than they were.
Remember how important character advancement is to players? Well, not having that advancement taken w\away from them is pretty important.
The same players from my 2 e campaign are in my 1e campaign. In 1e I use the original XP methods from the DMG. The party is much happier with advancement in that system. They can't articulate why, but I know it is because the rewards are for defeating foes and accumulating wealth and for gaining wondrous items and because now experience point awards are impartial and consistent.
Yes, it is very easy to modify experience point awards and system. It always has been! Just please, keep in mind the impact it is going to have on your game.
BTW, the nine alignment system is great.
But the discussion is seemingly focused on experience points. More specifically that in 5e you go through low levels fast. My published comment on this on my first read-through was,
"You either FLY through low levels or crawl through higher levels"And it seems I wasn't alone.
I think one of the interesting arguments about the level progression is that the designers of 5e wanted to give players time to make it to high level. Yeah, I'll bet that people getting to high levels is much more common with these rules! I suspect that designers and such as well as a lot of bloggers think most people don't get past about 10th level because of time constraints.
Of course, I disagree. I think the fact is most people prefer to play low- to mid- level PCs and those that don't can just hand out experience and play Forgotten Realms-style.
But also lurking about out there is the age-old 'hey, I kinda' get experience points for killing foes, but why do we get experience points for money and magic items, anyway? What about X.P. for skills, and being clever, and those sorts of things?'
The answer is - plenty of game do! Rolemaster springs to mind as a system where all sorts of things associated with skills can earn you experience points. Since you can take the various elements of Rolemaster (Arms Law, Spell Law, etc.) and 'plug them into' AD&D why don't you just do that?
[Note: then you'll be playing Rolemaster, not AD&D]
Let's spend a minute talking about alternate experience points systems or, more precisely, one alternate system in particular and how it affected campaign and play.
For a number of years I have used an alternate experience point system for my AD&D 2e S&P campaign that is based upon one used by Lew Pulsipher. The mechanics of it are, well, Byzantine;
First, determine the average level of the party. Multi-class and dual-class characters add 1/2 the value of their secondary classes (.5 rounds down) together.
Example: The party consists of: Jerczy (7th level fighter), Annirara (6th/5th fighter/magic-user), Urisone (8th level thief), Brother Reynaud (7th level cleric), Lorlimar (7th level magic-user), and Omac the Ready (5th/5th/6th fighter/magic-user/thief). The average level of the party is [(7+8+8+7+7+10)/6=7.8, round to 8] 8th level (Annirara counts as 7th level and Omac counts as 10th).
Then you determine which individual class present in the party requires the most experience points to advance from the party's average level to the next level.
Example: In this case the classes in the party are cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief. The party's average level is 8th meaning the amount of experience needed is;
Cleric: 30,000 XP
Fighter:125,000 XP
Magic-user: 45,000 XP
Thief: 50,000 XP
The fighter requires the most experience to advance from 8th to 9th level so the 'XP Target' is 125,000.
Now we get to the really fun part! I determined that advancing from one level to the next should take the square of the average level of the party with a minimum of 4 adventures and a maximum of 50. Why? we will get to that later! So in this case;
Example: The party has an average level of 8, the square of which is 64. This means that it should take the average party of 8th level an average of 64 adventures to progress to 9th level. I call this number the 'Base Progress Number'.
Now that we have that we simply divide the XP Target by the Base Progress Number
(125,000/64)
This gives us what I call the 'Base XP Award' - in this particular example, that number is 1,953.
Then I determine my (admittedly subjective) evaluation of both the difficulty of the adventure and the performance of the team as a whole. The adventures are rated from Very Difficult ( I expect the party to need to retreat and recuperate at least twice to overcome this threat) to Very Easy (they might barely notice that it was a serious threat) and the group performance is rated from Excellent (innovative use of resources, great planning, top-notch roleplaying) to terrible (missed obvious clues, blundered into ambush after ambush, played out of character, etc.).
They both have a number rating:
Adventure Difficulty Group Performance
Very Difficult: = 1.5 Excellent = 1.5
Difficult = 1.2 Good = 1.2
Average = 1 Average = 1
Easy = .8 Bad = .8
Very Easy = .5 Terrible = .5
At the end of the adventure I multiply the Adventure Difficulty by the Group Performance to get the Award Modifier.
[brief aside - yes, I really do all this after each adventure]
Let's say the party faced a Difficult adventure (a large number of foes, for example) but they were clever and had a cool plan so they pulled it off without needing to regroup, doing Good. That is
(1.2 x 1.2 = 1.44)
So the Award Modifier is 1.44.
Almost done!
Now we take the Base XP Award and multiply it by the Award Modifier to get the XP Award;
(1,953 x 1.44 = 2,812)
So each character receives 2,812 XP for the adventure!
Does that seem complicated to you? Let's just say I have very clear memories of spending 4 hours on a Sunday adding up each and every monster in the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl that had been killed by the party , every copper of treasure they had hauled off, and all of the magic items pulled out or used and calculating the xp all by hand because my parents' calculator was broken. "Just doing some math" sounded like a great idea!
But there was a serious problem. When my 2e party reached about 5th level the players were disgruntled - eventually this led to them confronting me over the paucity of treasure and (especially) magic items in the campaign. Sure, they all had great NPC contacts! yes, they had wonderful roleplaying opportunities! The magic items they did have were unique, interesting, and woven into the tapestry of the campaign, absolutely! But they still very few magic items and were on the edge of penury.The player of the mage told me he had wanted a henchman for 3 levels but couldn't afford one!
This confrontation led me to realize that I had been neglecting to put what the players wanted into the campaign. Yes, the adventuring was fun; yes, the NPCs were fun; yes, the roleplaying was fun.
But heroes get rewards! The players did not feel that they were getting to enjoy the spoils of success.
But what does this mean? I mean, what are experience points really for and about? Yes, I know we like to talk about experience reflecting some sort of learning and development by the player characters. Sure. Fine. That concept is baked into the name we use (experience points) for the idea.
But that is merely a justification.
In my opinion experience points serve a three-fold purpose:
One, they are a key element in motivating players to actually play
Two, they are a key element in rewarding players who actually play
Three, they are a key element in controlling the tone and pace of play.
Let me explain what I mean.
Motivating players: Yes, there are plenty of players who like to play RPGs for all sorts of reasons. But have you ever played a game you can't win? How about a game where nothing interesting happens? We tend not to play them too long, do we? Even in "pure" storytelling games imagine a game where NPCs never change or develop and the changes and development in your PCs have no effect on the campaign - not very satisfying. All RPGs have in them, somewhere, a reflection of the desire of the players to change, grow, and progress via their characters. Some players want to progress mainly through a character narrative, others through the accumulation of (in game) power or wealth, others through skill development, etc.
But within the paradigm of D&D and related games the primary method of character advancement is via experience points. This is one of the reasons the three pillars of Gary's experience points are beating monsters, looting vaults, and getting magic items - these reflect defeating evil, getting rich, and acquiring cool stuff. While that certainly is every motive behind players, it sure does cover most of them! This also means that the primary method of motivating players is also through experience points.
Rewarding Players: I started covering this, above. Since character advancement is the ultimate goal of RPGs getting to advance is the primary reward of RPGs. Now, for one player it might be gaining an artifact, for another establishing a stronghold, for a third overthrowing the demon overlord that enslaved his realm, in the end the mechanic within the game the reflects this in anything approaching a concrete way is experience points.
Controlling Tone and Pace: As I have mentioned many times before, I believe the 'most fun' range of levels for AD&D 1e and 2e is 3rd to 7th; with the custom experience point system I detailed in excruciating detail above it will take a party an average of 8 adventures to get to 3rd level then 9 more just to get to 4th, 16 more to get to 5th, etc. All told it should take an average party doing average in average adventures 135 adventures to go from beginning at 3rd level to making 8th level. My 2e campaign met about 48 times a year so it took us about 3 years of heavy play to go from level 1 to level 8.
This obviously reflects my desired pace! I am able to tightly control the pace of level advancement while literally not caring what the official XP value of any monster is other than to eyeball if it is too weak or too powerful for the party.
The great thing, too, is let's say suddenly the group could only meet every other month, 6 times a year. Do I really want it to take us more than 23 years to get from 'wet behind the ears' to 'I can almost establish a stronghold'? Well, I could easily cut the Base Progress Number in half (or more) and radically speed up level advancement. By increasing the difficulty of adventures the party cold also get better modifiers, also accelerating advancement.
But there was a serious problem with that experience point system as I ran it, wasn't there? In the end the cost of me radically changing the method of advancing meant that the players were not happy. AD&D is based upon certain assumptions and some of those are that a fair amount of money and magic items pour through the hands of player characters. The players had trouble getting their characters to 'fit' into those assumptions when I wasn't allowing for them.
But another, more serious, problem was more hidden. It is that in the end character advancement was based solely upon my personal opinion of how fast they should advance. I determined the 'adventure difficulty'; I determined the performance level. If the party killed 20 more kobolds this time than last but I thought they weren't very clever about it? No change in experience points between the two adventures! The party killed 20 less kobolds the time after that but I thought the plan was really clever? No change in experience points between the three adventures!
My players are clever; they knew, at lest unconsciously, that I was more in charge of their characters' advancement than they were.
Remember how important character advancement is to players? Well, not having that advancement taken w\away from them is pretty important.
The same players from my 2 e campaign are in my 1e campaign. In 1e I use the original XP methods from the DMG. The party is much happier with advancement in that system. They can't articulate why, but I know it is because the rewards are for defeating foes and accumulating wealth and for gaining wondrous items and because now experience point awards are impartial and consistent.
Yes, it is very easy to modify experience point awards and system. It always has been! Just please, keep in mind the impact it is going to have on your game.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Magic Item of the Week - Magekiller
No, not all of my magic items are low power or non-combat.
One of the most terrifying NPCs in my Blackstone campaign is the Undying Witchking, Emperor of Zangara. The legends surrounding him are many, but they all agree - he is not undead but he can't die. He's been stabbed, punctured, burned, decapitated, and more and always appears fresh as a daisy a few rounds later. He has also ruled Zangara with an iron fist for 2 centuries and does not appear to age (he is ostensibly human).
Note: Since he is one of the top BBEGs of the campaign and I assured the party I follow the rules very closely for NPCs a major meta-plot was them doing serious rules research to figure out how I did it. I am proud to say that, as hard as it was, they did figure it out.
Two generations ago a conspiracy of Zangaran wizards and clerics worked for decades to create a weapon capable of destroying the Witchking regardless of the methods he uses; the result was Magekiller. The conspiracy was betrayed and killed before they could locate a hero to wield the weapon. The last survivors of the group, a father and son, fled in a ship that was destroyed by water elementals summoned by the Crimson Watch, the Witchking's personal guards (various wizards, clerics, thieves, and fighters). Magekiller was thought lost to the sea.
Just a few years ago a barbarian warrior in a frontier district of the continent of Ansar began to rise in local prominence, eventually founding his own small fiefdom on the utmost border of civilization. He is a swordsman of great renown, considered by some to be the greatest living master of the zweihander. The sword he wields is rumored to be Magekiller, returned from the sea.
Note: the Blackstone campaign is AD&D 2nd edition with all player's options books.
Magekiller
+3 two-handed sword; +4 vs. creatures with spell-like abilities; +6 vs. any creature capable of casting arcane spells, summoned or conjured creatures, animated objects, constructs, familiars, and golems.
Int: 17 Ego: 25 Alignment: Neutral Good Special Purpose: Destroy evil arcane spellcasters
Can communicate telepathically with its wielder, can speak, read, read maps, and Read Magic
Can speak and read: Bandur (the Western Common tongue), Kadathi (the language of arcane spell casters in the campaign), Zanzur (the Eastern Common tongue), Borelath (a creole common to elves, gnomes, and halflings), Low Pidgin (a language common to orcs, goblins, kobolds, etc. with no written version), and Denek (dwarven)
Magekiller can see normally out to a range of 60' and has mystical sight that allows it to see normally in complete darkness (but not magical darkness) up to 10'. Magekiller has a field of view roughly equal to that of a person but can 'look around' like a character by altering its direction of sight. Magekiller cannot see through solid objects, etc., although it is possible to, for example, extend the sword's blade past a junction so that it can 'look around the corner'. Anything seen by Magekiller must be communicated to the wielder or spoken aloud; it cannot share its senses.
Magekiller likewise automatically senses all magic within 30'.
Magekiller can automatically detect if a creature has spell-like abilities or can cast arcane spells within 10'.
Magekiller can detect alignment on arcane spellcasters (only) within 10' automatically.
Much like vision, Magekiller must communicate what it senses to its wielder.
Lastly, Magekiller automatically knows if its wielder is under the effects of a Charm, Quest, Geas, or similar spell.
When worn or held Magekiller;
-Acts as an Amulet of Proof vs. Detection and Location
-Grants its wielder 20% magic resistance
-Grants its wielder a +4 on all saves vs. magic
-reduces all damage from spells or spell-like effects/abilities by 2 h.p./die (to a minimum of 1 h.p. per die); if the attack is set damage, etc., the damage is reduced by 1/4th.
When held and the blade is bared the wielder may choose to activate the sword's power of Spell Turning. This is identical to the Ring of Spell Turning. While this power is active Magekiller does not grant any magic resistance, saving throw bonuses, or reduced damage from spells. The wielder also cannot engage in melee combat with Magekiller while Spell Turning is active, although he can move or fight with other weapons.
When fighting evil arcane spellcasters Magekiller may invoke its special power of Cancellation when it strikes such a target. When used the weapon's blow does no damage but all spells and spell-like effects active on the creature struck are 'turned off'; the creature struck gets no save vs. this spell although magic resistance does apply at 1/2 strength. Cancellation may only be used once a day and only when Magekiller itself decides to use it.
Example: Lord Doomsman and his companions had finally penetrated the catacombs beneath the Obsidian Fortress and cut their way through the hordes of undead - all that remained were the Necromancer Lord Pathin the Foul, his henchmen, and their personal guards.
As the two groups closed with each other Bishop Darkwalk and Mournglow the Mage immediately began casting, their personal henchmen guarding them, while Ember the Pyromancer, always unpredictable, cloaked himself in fire and charged with his flaming sword bared, his henchmen trailing behind. Stardust had simply vanished, as usual. Doomsman charged the cluster of men surrounding Pathin, eager for battle, his lieutenants guarding his flanks as he cut down enemy mercenaries.
The vast cavern flashed with terrible magics as the Death Priests and Necromancers sought to hold off the forces of good. Doomsman saw a Death Priest cast a warding upon Pathin as the necromancer lord drank a foul brew. A blast of shadow swept over Doomsman, Magekiller protecting him from the foul curse. He saw Stardust appear from nowhere and slit the throat of a Plague Priest before she vanished back into the darkness. Mournglow and Darkwalk were both blasting foes and protecting each other from counter-attacks. Ember was laughing with joy as he cut down enemy spellcasters with the cleansing flames of his blade and cloak.
Doomsman and his men slammed into Pathin's personal guard like a hammer, cutting through rapidly. Some of his men froze, gripped by spells cast by the Death Priests, but Doomsman felt the magic glide past him like a breeze as Magekiller shielded him again. Pathin, obviously afraid of the tall barbarian lord, cast a spell that caused him to be surrounded by a shell of shadows.
Doomsman was finally through the last guards and lunged toward Pathin. The necromancer also leaped forward with magical quickness, touching Doomsman's arm; there was a muted flash of green light and, once more, Doomsman felt Magekiller protect him. As Doomsman's first stroke lashed out he heard Magekiller's voice in his head,
"Strike true"
The blade hit but Pathin was unharmed; instead the shell of shadows, the green nimbus on his hands, and all the rest simply vanished [Magekiller Cancelled the spell effects of Prayer, Aid, Bless, Spirit Armor, Ghoul Touch, and Contingency as well as the effects of a Potion of Speed]. Pathin recoiled in terror as Doomsman's backstroke slashed across his torso, almost disemboweling him. The spellcaster staggered back and opened his mouth but the third stroke decapitated him before the scream could start.
Magekiller's personality is very subdued; it almost never speaks aloud and is very taciturn even with its wielder. It will not allow itself to be wielded by an evil creature nor a creature capable of casting arcane spells; in the former case it 'turns off' it powers and uses its telepathy to make the wielder uneasy and fearful of it until it is sold or given away. For the latter it will telepathically urge that it be given to 'someone more suited' as well as 'turning off' its powers.
Magekiller prefers to be wielded by fighters, then multi-class fighters (not including fighter/magic-users or such!), and then those clerics that can use a two-handed sword.
Magekiller will usually only come into conflict with its wielder if the wielder has been Charmed, Geased, etc. If that occurs Magekiller will attempt to 'take over' and force the wielder to seek out counterspells. Note that Magekiller cannot use its Cancellation power on any creature that cannot cast arcane spells!
Magekiller could potentially also come into conflict with a wielder who refuses to oppose arcane spellcasters at all.
Anyone wielding this powerful weapon should expect to fact threats ranging from other who desire to own it to the enmity of virtually every evil mage to the machinations of the Crimson Watch.
[The party that has it is justly paranoid of 'Witchking Infiltrators'].
Some sages suspect that if Magekiller were to destroy the Witchking that the sword itself may become 'depowered', its purpose completed.
Example: Lord Doomsman and his companions had finally penetrated the catacombs beneath the Obsidian Fortress and cut their way through the hordes of undead - all that remained were the Necromancer Lord Pathin the Foul, his henchmen, and their personal guards.
As the two groups closed with each other Bishop Darkwalk and Mournglow the Mage immediately began casting, their personal henchmen guarding them, while Ember the Pyromancer, always unpredictable, cloaked himself in fire and charged with his flaming sword bared, his henchmen trailing behind. Stardust had simply vanished, as usual. Doomsman charged the cluster of men surrounding Pathin, eager for battle, his lieutenants guarding his flanks as he cut down enemy mercenaries.
The vast cavern flashed with terrible magics as the Death Priests and Necromancers sought to hold off the forces of good. Doomsman saw a Death Priest cast a warding upon Pathin as the necromancer lord drank a foul brew. A blast of shadow swept over Doomsman, Magekiller protecting him from the foul curse. He saw Stardust appear from nowhere and slit the throat of a Plague Priest before she vanished back into the darkness. Mournglow and Darkwalk were both blasting foes and protecting each other from counter-attacks. Ember was laughing with joy as he cut down enemy spellcasters with the cleansing flames of his blade and cloak.
Doomsman and his men slammed into Pathin's personal guard like a hammer, cutting through rapidly. Some of his men froze, gripped by spells cast by the Death Priests, but Doomsman felt the magic glide past him like a breeze as Magekiller shielded him again. Pathin, obviously afraid of the tall barbarian lord, cast a spell that caused him to be surrounded by a shell of shadows.
Doomsman was finally through the last guards and lunged toward Pathin. The necromancer also leaped forward with magical quickness, touching Doomsman's arm; there was a muted flash of green light and, once more, Doomsman felt Magekiller protect him. As Doomsman's first stroke lashed out he heard Magekiller's voice in his head,
"Strike true"
The blade hit but Pathin was unharmed; instead the shell of shadows, the green nimbus on his hands, and all the rest simply vanished [Magekiller Cancelled the spell effects of Prayer, Aid, Bless, Spirit Armor, Ghoul Touch, and Contingency as well as the effects of a Potion of Speed]. Pathin recoiled in terror as Doomsman's backstroke slashed across his torso, almost disemboweling him. The spellcaster staggered back and opened his mouth but the third stroke decapitated him before the scream could start.
Magekiller's personality is very subdued; it almost never speaks aloud and is very taciturn even with its wielder. It will not allow itself to be wielded by an evil creature nor a creature capable of casting arcane spells; in the former case it 'turns off' it powers and uses its telepathy to make the wielder uneasy and fearful of it until it is sold or given away. For the latter it will telepathically urge that it be given to 'someone more suited' as well as 'turning off' its powers.
Magekiller prefers to be wielded by fighters, then multi-class fighters (not including fighter/magic-users or such!), and then those clerics that can use a two-handed sword.
Magekiller will usually only come into conflict with its wielder if the wielder has been Charmed, Geased, etc. If that occurs Magekiller will attempt to 'take over' and force the wielder to seek out counterspells. Note that Magekiller cannot use its Cancellation power on any creature that cannot cast arcane spells!
Magekiller could potentially also come into conflict with a wielder who refuses to oppose arcane spellcasters at all.
Anyone wielding this powerful weapon should expect to fact threats ranging from other who desire to own it to the enmity of virtually every evil mage to the machinations of the Crimson Watch.
[The party that has it is justly paranoid of 'Witchking Infiltrators'].
Some sages suspect that if Magekiller were to destroy the Witchking that the sword itself may become 'depowered', its purpose completed.
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Magic Item: The Woundrous Fruit Basket
Created by my fourth son, who is 11 years old. He calls it 'cleric in a basket'!
This a large wicker basket, much like an American picnic basket, about 16 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 8 inches deep with a large handle and flip up lids. It always weighs one pound. The basket makes all saves as wood.
When a basket is first discovered it contains the following fruit:
1d4 kiwi
4d4 bunches of grapes
1d6 cantaloupes
1d6 apples
1d8 grapefruit
1d4 bananas
2d2 mangos
These each have wide variety of magical effects that occur when eaten:
Each kiwi removes 1d4 years of age.
Each bunch of grapes heal 2d4 hit points.
Each Cantaloupe counts as an entire day of food and water.
Each apple acts as a Neutralize Poison spell.
Each grapefruit acts as a Cure Disease spell.
Each banana acts as a Remove Curse spell.
Each mango counts as Cure Blindness/Deafness spell.
All fruit fits easily into the basket and the desired fruit is always on top if any is left; the fruit is always fresh and delicious. Eating a 'dose' of fruit takes one round. Nothing else may be placed into the basket.
When all the fruit is eaten, The basket vanishes only to appear in a random location in the world full of the above fruit.
This a large wicker basket, much like an American picnic basket, about 16 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 8 inches deep with a large handle and flip up lids. It always weighs one pound. The basket makes all saves as wood.
When a basket is first discovered it contains the following fruit:
1d4 kiwi
4d4 bunches of grapes
1d6 cantaloupes
1d6 apples
1d8 grapefruit
1d4 bananas
2d2 mangos
These each have wide variety of magical effects that occur when eaten:
Each kiwi removes 1d4 years of age.
Each bunch of grapes heal 2d4 hit points.
Each Cantaloupe counts as an entire day of food and water.
Each apple acts as a Neutralize Poison spell.
Each grapefruit acts as a Cure Disease spell.
Each banana acts as a Remove Curse spell.
Each mango counts as Cure Blindness/Deafness spell.
All fruit fits easily into the basket and the desired fruit is always on top if any is left; the fruit is always fresh and delicious. Eating a 'dose' of fruit takes one round. Nothing else may be placed into the basket.
When all the fruit is eaten, The basket vanishes only to appear in a random location in the world full of the above fruit.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Back From Break - Magic Item of the Week - the Staff of Death
This item is one I first saw in Lew Pulsipher's 1e campaign back in, oh, 1987.
When a Staff of Death is found it invariably has 9-13 charges and many believe they cannot be recharged. The Staff of Death is made of black wood and bound with black iron bands. It has no bonuses to hit but can hit creatures only struck by +3 weapons and makes all saving throws at +3. It has the following powers;
Cause Serious Wounds - 1 charge
Cause Critical Wounds - 2 charges
Harm - 5 charges
When activated the Staff is wreathed with a terrifying, unholy black nimbus. Once activated the wielder has 3 rounds to attempt to strike a target - if a successful hit is scored the target suffers all of the effects of the appropriate spell with no saving throw and then takes normal quarterstaff damage. If the strike misses or no attempt is made within 3 rounds the magic fades and the charges are wasted.
When a Staff of Death is found it invariably has 9-13 charges and many believe they cannot be recharged. The Staff of Death is made of black wood and bound with black iron bands. It has no bonuses to hit but can hit creatures only struck by +3 weapons and makes all saving throws at +3. It has the following powers;
Cause Serious Wounds - 1 charge
Cause Critical Wounds - 2 charges
Harm - 5 charges
When activated the Staff is wreathed with a terrifying, unholy black nimbus. Once activated the wielder has 3 rounds to attempt to strike a target - if a successful hit is scored the target suffers all of the effects of the appropriate spell with no saving throw and then takes normal quarterstaff damage. If the strike misses or no attempt is made within 3 rounds the magic fades and the charges are wasted.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Magic Item of the Week: The Minion's Sword
I like henchmen in my campaigns.
The Minion's Sword (also called the Lieutenant's Sword or the Companion Blade) is typically either a longsword or broadsword but can be any type of sword, including scimitar or falchion. It is made of high-quality steel, has an excellent balance, and feels comfortable in the hand. The blade has decorative etchings along the center, a hilt wrapped in silver wire, and its crossguard/hilt is either chased in silver or gilt. The hilt further has a number of small precious stones (garnets, topaz, or similar) and the pommels has a larger stone (amber, amethyst, etc.) but none of the stones are ever 'top quality' like diamond or ruby.
When unsheathed and held the sword sheds light in a 20' radius. It is immune to rust and makes all saves at +2. The sword has no bonuses to hit or to damage but can strike any creature (i.e., the sword can inflict damage on, say, werewolves or iron golems as if it had the required to hit bonus). The reason for its name is its magical effect upon the weilder. If wielded by a henchman or hireling the wielder has a +5% loyalty and +10% morale bonus while wearing or carrying the sword. If the Minion's Blade was given to the henchman or hireling by his employer as payment or reward those bonuses increase to a total of +15% loyalty and morale bonus and anytime the wielder is compelled to harm his employer (from the effects of a Charm Person or similar effect) the wielder gets an immediate save at +2 to end the compulsion.
The Minion's Sword (also called the Lieutenant's Sword or the Companion Blade) is typically either a longsword or broadsword but can be any type of sword, including scimitar or falchion. It is made of high-quality steel, has an excellent balance, and feels comfortable in the hand. The blade has decorative etchings along the center, a hilt wrapped in silver wire, and its crossguard/hilt is either chased in silver or gilt. The hilt further has a number of small precious stones (garnets, topaz, or similar) and the pommels has a larger stone (amber, amethyst, etc.) but none of the stones are ever 'top quality' like diamond or ruby.
When unsheathed and held the sword sheds light in a 20' radius. It is immune to rust and makes all saves at +2. The sword has no bonuses to hit or to damage but can strike any creature (i.e., the sword can inflict damage on, say, werewolves or iron golems as if it had the required to hit bonus). The reason for its name is its magical effect upon the weilder. If wielded by a henchman or hireling the wielder has a +5% loyalty and +10% morale bonus while wearing or carrying the sword. If the Minion's Blade was given to the henchman or hireling by his employer as payment or reward those bonuses increase to a total of +15% loyalty and morale bonus and anytime the wielder is compelled to harm his employer (from the effects of a Charm Person or similar effect) the wielder gets an immediate save at +2 to end the compulsion.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Magic Item of the Week - Figurine of Wondrous Power, the Hematite Badgers
I know, it hasn't been very long since my last magic item, but this is a new one the kids came up with this week.
The Figurine of Hematite Badgers appears to be a small puzzle ball about 3" across. Close inspection reveals the ball is made of 5 small badger figures that interlock. When activated the Figurine of Hematite Badgers transform into 5 badgers of maximum hit points that obey the commands of their owner. If 'killed' the badgers revert to figurine form.
The Figurines of Hematite Badgers may be activated once a day for up to an hour at a time.
The Figurine of Hematite Badgers appears to be a small puzzle ball about 3" across. Close inspection reveals the ball is made of 5 small badger figures that interlock. When activated the Figurine of Hematite Badgers transform into 5 badgers of maximum hit points that obey the commands of their owner. If 'killed' the badgers revert to figurine form.
The Figurines of Hematite Badgers may be activated once a day for up to an hour at a time.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Useful Magic Item of the Week - Tinker's Hammer
I love the Mending spell; useful out of combat, sneakily important if you want a homunculus, and a spell no magic-user with an Intelligence under 16 would waste a slot on. I am half convinced that spell was put in the Player's handbook just for me.
But of all the magic-users you know, who ever takes it?
The tinker's hammer is a small tool hammer weighing less than 1/3 a pound. In desperate circumstances it could be used as a weapon, but things need to be pretty bad (speed 2, damage: 1 h.p.,, -2 to hit chain armors, -4 to hit plate armors, proficiency as club). It is, pure and simple a light tool.
Once per day the Tinker's hammer can cast a Mending spell as a 12th level magic-user. The Tinker's Hammer may only repair metal items. If used by a skilled person (in 1e someone with a secondary skill like blacksmith, in 2e the appropriate non-weapon proficiency) the effects of the Mending are increased (and DM's discretion) to repair greater damage or to even restore hit points to full plate armor.
If wielded by a spell caster that knows the Mending spell the Tinker's Hammer can be used an additional time each day by uttering the word 'damn' while using it. No Tinker's Hammer may be used more than twice in 24 hours.
Similar items (the Seamstress' needle, the Leatherman's Awl) exist to repair items not made of metal.
But of all the magic-users you know, who ever takes it?
The tinker's hammer is a small tool hammer weighing less than 1/3 a pound. In desperate circumstances it could be used as a weapon, but things need to be pretty bad (speed 2, damage: 1 h.p.,, -2 to hit chain armors, -4 to hit plate armors, proficiency as club). It is, pure and simple a light tool.
Once per day the Tinker's hammer can cast a Mending spell as a 12th level magic-user. The Tinker's Hammer may only repair metal items. If used by a skilled person (in 1e someone with a secondary skill like blacksmith, in 2e the appropriate non-weapon proficiency) the effects of the Mending are increased (and DM's discretion) to repair greater damage or to even restore hit points to full plate armor.
If wielded by a spell caster that knows the Mending spell the Tinker's Hammer can be used an additional time each day by uttering the word 'damn' while using it. No Tinker's Hammer may be used more than twice in 24 hours.
Similar items (the Seamstress' needle, the Leatherman's Awl) exist to repair items not made of metal.
Monday, October 14, 2013
New Magic Item - Mage Gauntlet
I invented the mage gauntlet waaaaaaaaaaay back in 1983 - 30 years ago! It was later part of the loot from my adventyre 'The Island of the Gauntlet Mage' about the ruined fortress of a powerful magic user that mafe many unique gauntlet and glove items and spells. I referred to this as a 'metamagic item' when I first made it because of its function.
Mage Gauntlet: These are always found singly; 80% are for the left hand. Typically a mage gauntlet appears as a common leather glove for riding, but some (less than 10%) are either richly decorated with wmbroidery or resemble a battle gauntlet with metal plates over the knuckles (DM's choice). Whatever the appearance, the gauntlet has no effect on A.C., spellcasting, etc. A mage gauntlet will magically change size and shape to the fit the hand of any humanoid from halfling to ogre size. The gauntlet fits snugly and comfortably
The wearer of a mage gauntlet may wer three magical rings at the same time; two on the gauntleted hand and one upon the other hand.No more than one mage gauntlet may be worn at a time. Attempting to place more than two magical rings on the gauntlet will cause it to cease functioning for a full day (i.e., only one magical ring can be worn on the gauntlet during that time).
Mage Gauntlet: These are always found singly; 80% are for the left hand. Typically a mage gauntlet appears as a common leather glove for riding, but some (less than 10%) are either richly decorated with wmbroidery or resemble a battle gauntlet with metal plates over the knuckles (DM's choice). Whatever the appearance, the gauntlet has no effect on A.C., spellcasting, etc. A mage gauntlet will magically change size and shape to the fit the hand of any humanoid from halfling to ogre size. The gauntlet fits snugly and comfortably
The wearer of a mage gauntlet may wer three magical rings at the same time; two on the gauntleted hand and one upon the other hand.No more than one mage gauntlet may be worn at a time. Attempting to place more than two magical rings on the gauntlet will cause it to cease functioning for a full day (i.e., only one magical ring can be worn on the gauntlet during that time).
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
When is Treasure not Treasure? NPCs as Campaign Rewards
For the last two game years the main party of my campaign has been building a joint stronghold - the soon-to-be-12th level Fighter is creating a large concentric castle which will contain a cathedral for the 9th level Cleric and two towers for the magic-users. The Thief will have a hidden fastness across the river, overlooking access to the castle. As usual I am using this as an excuse to vacuum wealth out of the characters' pouches, but it is also a huge use of treasure that isn't treasure.
That's right; the characters are calling in favors, goodwill, and connections.
The Dwarven architects and master masons? Working at 1/2 normal fee because the party did their king a favor game years ago. The troops protecting the place? Barbarians saved from a curse when the party was 4th level. The ship bringing in exotic materials? Doing it as a favor since the captain paid for the ship with treasures given by the characters. There are more examples, but you get the idea.
But this only works if the DM is creating opportunities for players to build relationships between characters and NPCs. I started the (new, young) players out gently with a friendly publican named Boz. Garrulous and connected, Boz introduced the characters to their first 3 adventures - but he also introduced them to NPCs that didn't need rescuing or mercenaries, just people who lived in the city and frequented the same pub. Once they realized interacting with Boz was valuable in and of itself, they started doing the same with other NPCs.
Soon they were friends with the officers of the merchant ship they had hired to carry them to a distant city. After fighting pirates together on a different trip (and having the 2nd officer save the life of a character) the crew of the Black Parrot became a fun part of the game with characters corresponding with the NPCs about matters like in-game family and trade. A mission to retrieve a rare component for a reclusive Diviner and her warrior husband led to the wizards of the party passing on information and even minor magics to her and, in return, receiving the occasional prescient letter from her. When she and her husband died it was much more than a plot point!
When the party realized that they faced a foe too powerful for themselves they quickly sent dispatches to bishops and war chiefs, barbarian kings and crime lords, soon forging an impromptu alliance to save the world - all by utilizing their connections.
So - how does a DM do this? Here are a few tips;
1) Think about NPCs and flesh them out. I know, I know, this is about the most common advice to DMs ever. But it is repeated often for a reason. If the party is chartering a ship, name all of the officers and senior enlisted. Allow the party to interact with them. Same with Inns. And with caravans. Etc.
2) Keep notes. I have 'the NPC box': a small filing box full of 3 x 5 cards arranged with alphabetical dividers. If the players have anything approaching meaningful interaction with an NPC I jot notes own during play. After the game that NPC gets a card in the NPC box that looks a bit like this;
NPC Name NPC Location
Level/Profession/Alignment/Alliances
NPC Stats, H.P. A.C.
Gear, Magic items, etc.
Characters Known
When met, how met, where met
important information the NPC knows (if any)
Notes (may continue on back)
Then I keep track of all future interactions on the card. Once every 2-3 months I go through the box and determine if any NPCs contact the characters. I also keep track of relationships between NPCs this way, especially if the NPCs were introduced by the characters!
I keep a box for each of my campaigns.
3) Have some NPC interactions pay off immediately. Did the party just rescue an Elven warrior from becoming the main course at a Hobgoblin convention? He might offer service to his rescuer (instant henchman) and, if that is refused, he might still stick around to help for an adventure or three. If sent off he might just send a bit of coin, or a weapon, or something to the party once he gets home.
4) Have some NPC interactions pay off much later. The 4th level party just saved King Snurri's lands from a horde of Goblin wolfriders? King Snurri pays them the agreed upon fee and rides off to rebuild the border forts and the characters sail back home, over the sea. That's it, right?
Maybe. Or, maybe, King Snurri sends the now 9th level party an envoy to give them a book he found on a dead necromancer, a book with a few rare spells in it. he was too busy at the time to feast with them but he never forgot the party. Do this once or twice and at least some players won't forget NPCs, either, maybe sending off letters or gifts to NPCs to build that relationship.
5) Don't be Galactica. What I mean by this is, while it can be fun and shocking to have a seemingly-innocuous or friendly NPC turn out to secretly be a bad guy, don't overdo it. Have I ever had a damsel in distress turn out to be a Shapechanged Greenhag? Yes. ONCE. Was the friendly linkboy in town secretly a wererat? Yes. ONCE. Keep the shocking twists to a minimum or the players will never trust any NPC.
6) Don't count on it working out for the NPCs you think it will. I spent weeks lovingly crafting a Mage's Academy in the home city of the campaign. Fully developed members; names and stats for 12 servants; maps; unique magic items; rare spells; you name it. I had a score of plot hooks lined up and ready, even potential romances if the players wanted to go that route. I slowly introduced the NPCs and made their potential benefits obvious and...
Zip. The players yawned rather collectively. The characters never met all the wizards let alone the multiple maids, butlers, and hostlers I had written up. Remember how I mentioned Boz the innkeep above? Yeah; he is a key NPC because I had to have someone give hooks to the players after they completely blew off all my hard work. I hadn't even named 'the guy who owns the Inn near the mage Academy' when the party decided that is where they were going to congregate.
With a little hard work and some luck pretty soon your players will be part of a gaming world that includes a lot of 0-level NPCs that they really care about.
That's right; the characters are calling in favors, goodwill, and connections.
The Dwarven architects and master masons? Working at 1/2 normal fee because the party did their king a favor game years ago. The troops protecting the place? Barbarians saved from a curse when the party was 4th level. The ship bringing in exotic materials? Doing it as a favor since the captain paid for the ship with treasures given by the characters. There are more examples, but you get the idea.
But this only works if the DM is creating opportunities for players to build relationships between characters and NPCs. I started the (new, young) players out gently with a friendly publican named Boz. Garrulous and connected, Boz introduced the characters to their first 3 adventures - but he also introduced them to NPCs that didn't need rescuing or mercenaries, just people who lived in the city and frequented the same pub. Once they realized interacting with Boz was valuable in and of itself, they started doing the same with other NPCs.
Soon they were friends with the officers of the merchant ship they had hired to carry them to a distant city. After fighting pirates together on a different trip (and having the 2nd officer save the life of a character) the crew of the Black Parrot became a fun part of the game with characters corresponding with the NPCs about matters like in-game family and trade. A mission to retrieve a rare component for a reclusive Diviner and her warrior husband led to the wizards of the party passing on information and even minor magics to her and, in return, receiving the occasional prescient letter from her. When she and her husband died it was much more than a plot point!
When the party realized that they faced a foe too powerful for themselves they quickly sent dispatches to bishops and war chiefs, barbarian kings and crime lords, soon forging an impromptu alliance to save the world - all by utilizing their connections.
So - how does a DM do this? Here are a few tips;
1) Think about NPCs and flesh them out. I know, I know, this is about the most common advice to DMs ever. But it is repeated often for a reason. If the party is chartering a ship, name all of the officers and senior enlisted. Allow the party to interact with them. Same with Inns. And with caravans. Etc.
2) Keep notes. I have 'the NPC box': a small filing box full of 3 x 5 cards arranged with alphabetical dividers. If the players have anything approaching meaningful interaction with an NPC I jot notes own during play. After the game that NPC gets a card in the NPC box that looks a bit like this;
NPC Name NPC Location
Level/Profession/Alignment/Alliances
NPC Stats, H.P. A.C.
Gear, Magic items, etc.
Characters Known
When met, how met, where met
important information the NPC knows (if any)
Notes (may continue on back)
Then I keep track of all future interactions on the card. Once every 2-3 months I go through the box and determine if any NPCs contact the characters. I also keep track of relationships between NPCs this way, especially if the NPCs were introduced by the characters!
I keep a box for each of my campaigns.
3) Have some NPC interactions pay off immediately. Did the party just rescue an Elven warrior from becoming the main course at a Hobgoblin convention? He might offer service to his rescuer (instant henchman) and, if that is refused, he might still stick around to help for an adventure or three. If sent off he might just send a bit of coin, or a weapon, or something to the party once he gets home.
4) Have some NPC interactions pay off much later. The 4th level party just saved King Snurri's lands from a horde of Goblin wolfriders? King Snurri pays them the agreed upon fee and rides off to rebuild the border forts and the characters sail back home, over the sea. That's it, right?
Maybe. Or, maybe, King Snurri sends the now 9th level party an envoy to give them a book he found on a dead necromancer, a book with a few rare spells in it. he was too busy at the time to feast with them but he never forgot the party. Do this once or twice and at least some players won't forget NPCs, either, maybe sending off letters or gifts to NPCs to build that relationship.
5) Don't be Galactica. What I mean by this is, while it can be fun and shocking to have a seemingly-innocuous or friendly NPC turn out to secretly be a bad guy, don't overdo it. Have I ever had a damsel in distress turn out to be a Shapechanged Greenhag? Yes. ONCE. Was the friendly linkboy in town secretly a wererat? Yes. ONCE. Keep the shocking twists to a minimum or the players will never trust any NPC.
6) Don't count on it working out for the NPCs you think it will. I spent weeks lovingly crafting a Mage's Academy in the home city of the campaign. Fully developed members; names and stats for 12 servants; maps; unique magic items; rare spells; you name it. I had a score of plot hooks lined up and ready, even potential romances if the players wanted to go that route. I slowly introduced the NPCs and made their potential benefits obvious and...
Zip. The players yawned rather collectively. The characters never met all the wizards let alone the multiple maids, butlers, and hostlers I had written up. Remember how I mentioned Boz the innkeep above? Yeah; he is a key NPC because I had to have someone give hooks to the players after they completely blew off all my hard work. I hadn't even named 'the guy who owns the Inn near the mage Academy' when the party decided that is where they were going to congregate.
With a little hard work and some luck pretty soon your players will be part of a gaming world that includes a lot of 0-level NPCs that they really care about.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Magic Item of the Week: The Portable Cottage
As I have admitted before, I love non-combat magic items. I also love 'variant' items where you take a classic item and change it a bit to make it fit your campaign better.
This is a magic items I came up with after reading the Secure Shelter spell many years ago; it is a variant of the Instant Fortress, of course.
Magic Item - the Portable Cottage: Unactivated, this item appears to be a wooden cube 1" on a side with the rune for 'house' on one face. When placed on the ground and the command word uttered it transforms into a well-made cottage. The Cottage is 20' by 15' on the interior with a large door in the middle of one long wall and a smaller door at the edge of one of the short walls. The interior ceilings are 8' high. The walls and floor are of dressed planks. There is a fireplace and hearth opposite the main door. The long walls each have 2 windows with heavy shutters and the short walls each have one similar window.
The Cottage is furnished with 2 bunk beds and a larger bed, a table and 6 chairs, a padded chair, a footstool, a large chest, and a side table. There is also a large bin for firewood and a water barrel. The bin can hold 1 days worth of wood for the fire and the barrel up to 50 gallons of water. When activated the large chest contains clean linens for the beds - anything else placed in the chest will be dumped on the ground when the Cottage is deactivated. Likewise, water may be stored in the barrel and wood in the bin - anything else is dumped on the ground when the Cottage resumes its cube shape.
Any living creature inside the Cottage when it is returned to its cube form must save vs. Wands - if the save fails they are stunned for 1d4+1 rounds and take 2d4 damage; if successful they are stunned for one round and take 1d4 point of damage.
If attacked treat the cottage as being identical to a large round tower for its resistance to spells or siege engines. If damaged the Cottage recovers one structural point per month is remains in cube form.
This is a magic items I came up with after reading the Secure Shelter spell many years ago; it is a variant of the Instant Fortress, of course.
Magic Item - the Portable Cottage: Unactivated, this item appears to be a wooden cube 1" on a side with the rune for 'house' on one face. When placed on the ground and the command word uttered it transforms into a well-made cottage. The Cottage is 20' by 15' on the interior with a large door in the middle of one long wall and a smaller door at the edge of one of the short walls. The interior ceilings are 8' high. The walls and floor are of dressed planks. There is a fireplace and hearth opposite the main door. The long walls each have 2 windows with heavy shutters and the short walls each have one similar window.
The Cottage is furnished with 2 bunk beds and a larger bed, a table and 6 chairs, a padded chair, a footstool, a large chest, and a side table. There is also a large bin for firewood and a water barrel. The bin can hold 1 days worth of wood for the fire and the barrel up to 50 gallons of water. When activated the large chest contains clean linens for the beds - anything else placed in the chest will be dumped on the ground when the Cottage is deactivated. Likewise, water may be stored in the barrel and wood in the bin - anything else is dumped on the ground when the Cottage resumes its cube shape.
Any living creature inside the Cottage when it is returned to its cube form must save vs. Wands - if the save fails they are stunned for 1d4+1 rounds and take 2d4 damage; if successful they are stunned for one round and take 1d4 point of damage.
If attacked treat the cottage as being identical to a large round tower for its resistance to spells or siege engines. If damaged the Cottage recovers one structural point per month is remains in cube form.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Magic Item of the Week: The Blessed Ring
Magic Item- The Blessed Ring: Crafted from silver and usually set with a religious medal. When worn by a Cleric of Good alignment it allows its wearer to cast Cure Light Wounds once a day at their level of spell casting. Further, it grants a level-based bonus to any healing or curing spells cast by its wearer that restores hit points. This bonus is +1 at 1st level and increases by +1 for each additional 2 levels (i.e., +2 at 3rd level, +7 at 14th level). At DM's discretion a Blessed Ring may grant its healing bonus to Religious Brothers, Paladins, Rangers, or other Good-aligned classes capable of casting Clerical spells.
Blessed Rings are obviously useful and a direct example of my fondness for items that grow with characters.
Blessed Rings are obviously useful and a direct example of my fondness for items that grow with characters.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Items that Grow with your Characters
Years ago I was struggling with a dilemma - when players start out they have no magic items. Them through adventuring, they find weak magic items but keep 'trading up' as they advance in level. Not a big deal, really, but I had two problems - would you really just sell/cast aside the sword you did so many heroic deeds with because the new one is shinier and where did all those magic items come from?
Then, while I was considering this, I re-read the entry on Rings of Elemental Command.
That was it - items that grow with your characters.
Keep in mind , this was more than 20 years before Weapons of Legacy was printed and 30 years before I read that book!
Anyway, I came up with two major ideas that have crept into and out of my campaigns over the decades since.
First, some magic items are magic because of what they are and how they've been used rather than from being enchanted by a mage or cleric.
Example: At 2nd level Lyon the Paladin finds a well-made sword forged of an alloy of meteoric iron and mithril. Although not enchanted, it is +1 to hit and damage because of its excellent quality. At 3rd level Lyon is part of the defense of a remote border fortress when waves of Orcs attack. When catapults finally punch through the outer curtain wall Lyon stands in the breach, alone, holding it against the Orcs until archers can drive them back. After the battle he kneels and praises God. Now his sword is still +1 to hit and damage, but it is a magical bonus. Further, if Lyon is fighting alone against multiple foes he gains a +1 to A.C.
At 5th level Lyon is part of an expedition against a demonic chapel. During the fighting an evil cleric uses a magic item to summon a horror from the Abyss. Undaunted, Lyon fights bravely against the fiend. Although badly wounded, he still prevails. Bathed in the ichor of this magical creature the sword is now +2.
Over the years Lyon engages in a duel with an anti-paladin, overthrows a tyrant dominating a small Halfling nation, and slays a kraken after being dragged beneath the waves. At 14th level his sword is now a +4 Defender and almost as much a companion as a weapon. Now, much older and wiser, he once again faces a terrible foes from the Abyss. Chanting a litany Lyon closes with the fiend and does battle. After a long struggle Lyon severs the fiend's whip hand and then shatters the demon's sword, finally impaling the demon through the heart. The demon topples forward, snapping Lyon's sword in two under it great bulk.
Lyon, knowing it is but a tool, struggle to push the sadness from his heart - the sword has been with him for so long! As he struggles with the warring emotions a winged figure appears. In a few moments it is holding Lyon's sword, as whole as ever, in its hands before returning it to the erstwhile paladin. Trembling, Lyon grasps the +5 Holy Sword of Demon Slaying and thanks God for his mercy.
This sort of arc can take all sorts of directions - a thief's gloves slowly become Gauntlets of Dexterity; a cleric's mace becomes, eventually, a Mace of Disruption. Just beware of two things - don't go too fast and don't use it as an excuse to railroad players! How I try (and sometimes fail) to use it is as an encouragement to heroic action - when the players know that dramatic actions can have a direct effect they are encouraged to make the broad gesture, to take the great risk.
Second, some magic items need to be activated in stages, over time. This was the first idea I had, from the Rings of Elemental Command. I though that, rather than have one event trigger all the powers each power needed a different event. This can be very simple, such as needing to discover different command words. It can also be complicated, such as, oh, this
Example: When 1st level Korbok the Mage finds a wand with a scrap of paper that has the word 'emburn' on it. An Identify spell indicates that it is a Wand of Burning Hands with 98 charges and, well, maybe more; the results were a little murky.
At 4th level Korbok is going through the library of an evil sorcerer that his party had defeated when in a book of arcane lore he finds a reference to 'emburn' and 'fulmose'. With a bit of (very careful) experimentation Korbok learns that the Wand will also cast a Wall of Fire with the second command word at the cost of two charges.
At this point Korbok suspects that there is even more to the wand so he travels to the City of One Thousand Islands to visit the various libraries and search out sages. After a few weeks (and a few pounds of gold coins) he knows that there is another power in the wand and a way that might unlock it. He returns to his villa and goes through a process almost identical to researching a third level spell. After the proper expenditure of time and money Korbok succeeds in his roll but instead of learning a new spell he unlocks the wand's third power - the ability cast a Fireball at the cost of a charge.
Now, I certainly don't do this is every magic item in the campaign. Far from it. But I do make it common enough that the players look at every single magic item with interest and (my main goal) a sense of wonder. Since I use a lot of unique or non-standard magic items it returns that sense of potential I think magic items should have. Is that just a +1 dagger or a Dagger of Orc Slaying that needs to be unlocked? Is this a Robe of Armor, A.C. 4 or a Robe of the Archmage?
It also allows me to introduce fewer magic items into the campaign without the players feeling under-rewarded for their efforts.
Last, and certainly far from least, these simple mechanics are a toolbox of plot hooks, quest openers, and ways of separating players from treasure!
Is anyone else trying anything similar?
Then, while I was considering this, I re-read the entry on Rings of Elemental Command.
That was it - items that grow with your characters.
Keep in mind , this was more than 20 years before Weapons of Legacy was printed and 30 years before I read that book!
Anyway, I came up with two major ideas that have crept into and out of my campaigns over the decades since.
First, some magic items are magic because of what they are and how they've been used rather than from being enchanted by a mage or cleric.
Example: At 2nd level Lyon the Paladin finds a well-made sword forged of an alloy of meteoric iron and mithril. Although not enchanted, it is +1 to hit and damage because of its excellent quality. At 3rd level Lyon is part of the defense of a remote border fortress when waves of Orcs attack. When catapults finally punch through the outer curtain wall Lyon stands in the breach, alone, holding it against the Orcs until archers can drive them back. After the battle he kneels and praises God. Now his sword is still +1 to hit and damage, but it is a magical bonus. Further, if Lyon is fighting alone against multiple foes he gains a +1 to A.C.
At 5th level Lyon is part of an expedition against a demonic chapel. During the fighting an evil cleric uses a magic item to summon a horror from the Abyss. Undaunted, Lyon fights bravely against the fiend. Although badly wounded, he still prevails. Bathed in the ichor of this magical creature the sword is now +2.
Over the years Lyon engages in a duel with an anti-paladin, overthrows a tyrant dominating a small Halfling nation, and slays a kraken after being dragged beneath the waves. At 14th level his sword is now a +4 Defender and almost as much a companion as a weapon. Now, much older and wiser, he once again faces a terrible foes from the Abyss. Chanting a litany Lyon closes with the fiend and does battle. After a long struggle Lyon severs the fiend's whip hand and then shatters the demon's sword, finally impaling the demon through the heart. The demon topples forward, snapping Lyon's sword in two under it great bulk.
Lyon, knowing it is but a tool, struggle to push the sadness from his heart - the sword has been with him for so long! As he struggles with the warring emotions a winged figure appears. In a few moments it is holding Lyon's sword, as whole as ever, in its hands before returning it to the erstwhile paladin. Trembling, Lyon grasps the +5 Holy Sword of Demon Slaying and thanks God for his mercy.
This sort of arc can take all sorts of directions - a thief's gloves slowly become Gauntlets of Dexterity; a cleric's mace becomes, eventually, a Mace of Disruption. Just beware of two things - don't go too fast and don't use it as an excuse to railroad players! How I try (and sometimes fail) to use it is as an encouragement to heroic action - when the players know that dramatic actions can have a direct effect they are encouraged to make the broad gesture, to take the great risk.
Second, some magic items need to be activated in stages, over time. This was the first idea I had, from the Rings of Elemental Command. I though that, rather than have one event trigger all the powers each power needed a different event. This can be very simple, such as needing to discover different command words. It can also be complicated, such as, oh, this
Example: When 1st level Korbok the Mage finds a wand with a scrap of paper that has the word 'emburn' on it. An Identify spell indicates that it is a Wand of Burning Hands with 98 charges and, well, maybe more; the results were a little murky.
At 4th level Korbok is going through the library of an evil sorcerer that his party had defeated when in a book of arcane lore he finds a reference to 'emburn' and 'fulmose'. With a bit of (very careful) experimentation Korbok learns that the Wand will also cast a Wall of Fire with the second command word at the cost of two charges.
At this point Korbok suspects that there is even more to the wand so he travels to the City of One Thousand Islands to visit the various libraries and search out sages. After a few weeks (and a few pounds of gold coins) he knows that there is another power in the wand and a way that might unlock it. He returns to his villa and goes through a process almost identical to researching a third level spell. After the proper expenditure of time and money Korbok succeeds in his roll but instead of learning a new spell he unlocks the wand's third power - the ability cast a Fireball at the cost of a charge.
Now, I certainly don't do this is every magic item in the campaign. Far from it. But I do make it common enough that the players look at every single magic item with interest and (my main goal) a sense of wonder. Since I use a lot of unique or non-standard magic items it returns that sense of potential I think magic items should have. Is that just a +1 dagger or a Dagger of Orc Slaying that needs to be unlocked? Is this a Robe of Armor, A.C. 4 or a Robe of the Archmage?
It also allows me to introduce fewer magic items into the campaign without the players feeling under-rewarded for their efforts.
Last, and certainly far from least, these simple mechanics are a toolbox of plot hooks, quest openers, and ways of separating players from treasure!
Is anyone else trying anything similar?
Friday, May 31, 2013
Separating Characters from their Ill-Gotten Gains
Experienced DMs know that there are two easy ways for the DM to ruin interest in the campaign; the first is too little loot; the second is too much loot.
That's a lot of pressure.
I have clear memories of a Palladium RPG campaign I ran for 2 years in the early '80's. It had a detailed world with rich history; well-rounded NPCs; a compelling arc with a logical progression that made sense. I know these things because the players praised me for them and thanked me for the hard work I put into the campaign. It was a 'fixed duration' campaign (meaning it had an overall arc with an end that also ended the campaign) so everything built to the final adventure and the Big Reveal. When the Big Reveal happened I was greeted with actual gasps of surprise from the players before an epic battle where they (barely) prevailed, literally saving the world.
After the destruction of an Evil from Beyond the Walls of Reality the players ensured they were truly victorious and sailed off for home. Post-game there was a lot of talk about the epic game, the story, the villains, the plot twists - and all the players seemed unhappy. Finally I asked what was wrong and, reluctantly, Frank said,
"Well, for such an amazing adventure and powerful villain we really expected better loot."
Huh. They players didn't enjoy the conclusion of the campaign because in the last battle of characters they would never play again in a campaign world I would never use again (well, not with them, at least) because the final loot, which they would never use or spend, was inadequate.
Saving the world from enslavement to cosmic horror just wasn't as fulfilling without also getting a +4 sword.
Here's the thing - the previous sentence isn't sarcasm, it is part of game planning. In a FRPG saving the world from enslavement to cosmic horror just isn't as fulfilling without also getting a +4 sword!
Of course, this varies a lot. If you are running a low fantasy Conan-style campaign with no orcs or dwarves, wizards are largely mumbo-jumbo and priests have healing skills instead of spells, then some rubies, a nice warhorse and a jeweled sword are great loot. But in a high fantasy game where the city guard rides hippogriffs, the bazaar has 3rd level magic-users selling trinkets and there are competing magic-item shops in villages along the route to the dungeon the loot needs to be a bit more high fantasy, too.
Of course, too much loot is just as bad! I will admit, in my youth I once ran a campaign where each of the 6 PCs had an artifact or relic by the time they were 9th level and went on to get real items by the time they were 12th level.
In my defense, I was 15.
Thing is, my players didn't enjoy that campaign. In fact, they enjoyed it less than the players with too little loot.
Now, I am certainly not the first RPG blogger to notice this or point this out, but it bears repeating - while there are no "winners" in games with no winners or losers, players like to feel that they have succeeded and this is often measured, emotionally, by the loot. But if the loot is too excessive it both loses its emotional appeal and can make the players feel as if they success was because of items, not characters or playing. Or, the shorter version - there are reasons the first paragraph in this post is true.
So what does a DM do about this? I am not totally sure, but I will tell you what I do. First, I tend to give very little, if any, loot in random encounters. In the typical encounters in a scenario I limit the loot to a relatively small amount of valuables (coins, etc.) and minor objects like potions. For the bigger encounters I lean heavily toward scrolls, potions, charged items, and such because they go away.
You know why Gary didn't put rules for recharging most things in the DMG? They aren't meant to be recharged, they are meant to go away. Wands are the disposable razors of dungeon crawlers.
I also include non-standard stuff in the loot: the journal of a famous mage that drops clues to the arc and gives a bonus on researching a particular spell or two; a prisoner of the orcs who turns out to be the daughter or a barbarian chief who now owes the party a favor if they treated her well; a box of rare/expensive spell components; etc.
I will write another post about what I call 'long-term magic items' which I use to build tension over time, too.
But in all of this how do you deal with money? After all, characters like a piles of gold under the dragon, right?
Well, I limit big hauls of money to big encounters and then give the players so many ways to spend money they get the rush of a big haul and then still feel poor.
And how do I suck the money out of the PCs coin purses?
1) Make magic-users research spells they want. Let them find the occasional Scroll of Protection or of Unseen Servant etc., but if they really want Fireball they may just have to research it. Do they have a research library? No? Well, the local NPC wizards are going to charge a lot for access to theirs - and that is in addition to any standard costs, of course. And make sure they are paying for every single spell component they need in advance. They only spent 200 g.p. on components for a spell which costs 50 g.p. to cast? The fifth time they try to cast it, point out they are out of components and can't.
2) You can just make clerics give it away. Alms for the poor, orphanages, widows, a local church with a leaky roof, you name it. What's that you say? Your player made a Dwarven cleric of commerce that thinks the poor deserve their lot in life? First,interesting pantheon. Second, all you need are a few bad investments, an additional tithe from him to cover caravan guards, and the requirement that he provide an ostentation display of wealth and success (i.e., new, expensive, fashionable clothes all the time) and you're in.
3) Thieves have overhead; informers, personal guards, middle-men, lookouts, bribes for the watch, bribes for the magistrate, bribes for the soldiers, a cut to the guild, another cut to the guild, how much does the guildmaster spend, anyway?, whadda' ya' mean I gotta' buy the guildmaster's son a birthday present, I just gave 33% of my take? Of course details on the security of the temple of the dwarven god of commerce is worth a little consideration, etc. In one campaign I had an evil guard captain that shook down thieves for money to such an extent it was a plot driver.
4) Fighters can be tricky. Sure, paladins and rangers are really easy, but fighters can be tough. First, consider the entourage effect that I describe below and then have a campaign expectation that successful fighters are generous. Saxons expected good fighters, war-chiefs, and kings to be generous. If you weren't generous, you must not be that good! This should range from rounds of drinks to new armor and weapons for 'friends' or even celebrating a great victory with horses for all his 'friends'!
5) Upkeep. I am putting detailed rules on upkeep into my next supplement, so-far titled Far Realms, but consider just a flat 100 g.p. per level per month, as Gygax suggested. This is everything from ink and holy incense to trainers and weapon oil and is in addition to everything else.
6) An entourage. Do your characters still cook and clean for themselves? How successful can they be? I mean, if they were really good, why are they tending to their own horse and cooking their own gruel? You can work on this is a number of ways ranging from an increased chance of getting parasites from poorly cooked food until their hire a cook to having a fat fee slip away when the NPC hires a different, lower-level, party - a party with a standard bearer, and henchmen, and cooks, and such. To really drive it home, have the lower level party try to 'sub-contract' the PCs for 1/3rd the fee the NPCs are receiving!
6) Henchmen. See 'entourage'. I also do little things like, oh, make spell research faster and more likely to succeed with the help of henchmen, or point out that a cleric henchman can 'stack' Chant spells, etc. And if that isn't enough, do what I call the 'Horatio Hornblower trick' (from a scene in that series of books). here's a sample
The Kingdom of Anglia is at war! The hobgoblins and their allies overwhelmed the smaller border kingdoms two years ago and the forces of Anglia and its allies are only now preparing for a true counter-attack. In the preparations the party's fighter, Beorn, is summoned to meet the king.
Beorn is a high level fighter and is really looking forward to this meeting. Will he be asked to lead the vulnerable left flank? Command a mission to destroy the hobgoblin baggage train? Lead the main charge?!
Finally Beorn is presented to the king. The king looks Beorn over and says,
"Your reputation is strong and word of your prowess has reached our court. Are you willing to take on a job of great personal importance to me?"
"Of course, Your Majesty, I am ready for any task you need me to accomplish."
"Well said. Lord Uffingdale shall introduce you to your charge, Sir Beorn."
Beorn... no, SIR Beorn, follows Lord Uffingdale into a nearby chamber where a young man, no more than 18, stand in silver-chased chain mail wearing a sword whose hilt glitters with emeralds. Behind the boy stands a man is the black robes of a priest of the Stern Lord, a Master of Discipline. Lord Uffington bows deeply to the boy, who dips his head in return. Lord Uffington then turns to you,
"May I present His Highness Jory, surviving prince of the Kingdom of Alsatia. His kingdom was overrun by the hobgoblins in the early days of the war while he was here under the care of his uncle, the King. The King hopes that a warrior of such strength, skill, and courage as you would be perfect as mentor to his nephew in anticipation of the day he will reclaim his own throne. Since the Prince currently only speaks Alsatian his religious tutor, Brother Kane, will accompany him to translate for you until he is more fluent in Anglian."
In other words - BAM! instant henchman. And a henchman you can't leave to die or ditch because he slows you down. A henchman with expensive tastes, too. And the best thing is, he's also a walking plot hook and incentive. Further, if Beorn's player roleplays it properly he could end up being the beloved mentor of a king!
7) The players' own laziness. Start making the players roleplay out going through treasure in the dungeon. Talk about how long it takes to sort and count all the coins, to catalog everything. Unless you have a particularly focused party they will almost certainly soon take to just shoveling everything into a bag to be counted 'later'. Then have an NPC, like a money changer, offer to do that for them for a small fee! Before you know it '6,237 g.p., 12,102 s.p., and 40,002 c.p.' becomes '4 mules worth of coins' becomes '6,000 g.p. after exchange and sorting costs'.
8) Uncertainty. Don't tell they players they found a 50 g.p. ring, tell them they found a silver ring with a pearl. When they try to sell it, have the fence, uh, merchant offer them 30 g.p. and see what they do. Then start charging them above book price for new goods ('inflation'). What is the party to do? Why, hire an NPC merchant to negotiate for them! All he needs is a small monthly fee and a percentage of the savings he makes for you. heck, he'll even count and catalog the treasures for less than the money changer! [Again, I have detailed rules on this coming in Far Realms].
9) Knowledge. Information should cost. Don't tell them where the Lost Tomb of the Golem Master is (its lost, remember?), have them find a plate covered in runes that turn out to be magically garbled. They have to find or research a spell to un-garble them. Then they have to find someone who can translate and obscure ancient language (travel to where he is and pay him) or find/research a different translation spell. Then it turns out the writing is a poem full of odd imagery. With more research (travel, fees, buying books, etc.) they find out it might be part of a poem from a lost empire that was originally in a totally different language, so they have to travel again to see the only sage that is familiar with the poetry of this long-gone empire in the hops he can explain the imagery, but he needs a book found only in a library in another distant country to be sure.
You get the idea - turn it into 3-5 adventures and an excuse to vacuum out the PC's money pouches.
If done properly, this process has two very important effects - it ceases being 'just loot' and becomes an integral plot element of the campaign. And while every copper is now precious (do these for a while and see if anyone but the paladin leaves a single coin behind!) no amount of treasure is too much.
That's a lot of pressure.
I have clear memories of a Palladium RPG campaign I ran for 2 years in the early '80's. It had a detailed world with rich history; well-rounded NPCs; a compelling arc with a logical progression that made sense. I know these things because the players praised me for them and thanked me for the hard work I put into the campaign. It was a 'fixed duration' campaign (meaning it had an overall arc with an end that also ended the campaign) so everything built to the final adventure and the Big Reveal. When the Big Reveal happened I was greeted with actual gasps of surprise from the players before an epic battle where they (barely) prevailed, literally saving the world.
After the destruction of an Evil from Beyond the Walls of Reality the players ensured they were truly victorious and sailed off for home. Post-game there was a lot of talk about the epic game, the story, the villains, the plot twists - and all the players seemed unhappy. Finally I asked what was wrong and, reluctantly, Frank said,
"Well, for such an amazing adventure and powerful villain we really expected better loot."
Huh. They players didn't enjoy the conclusion of the campaign because in the last battle of characters they would never play again in a campaign world I would never use again (well, not with them, at least) because the final loot, which they would never use or spend, was inadequate.
Saving the world from enslavement to cosmic horror just wasn't as fulfilling without also getting a +4 sword.
Here's the thing - the previous sentence isn't sarcasm, it is part of game planning. In a FRPG saving the world from enslavement to cosmic horror just isn't as fulfilling without also getting a +4 sword!
Of course, this varies a lot. If you are running a low fantasy Conan-style campaign with no orcs or dwarves, wizards are largely mumbo-jumbo and priests have healing skills instead of spells, then some rubies, a nice warhorse and a jeweled sword are great loot. But in a high fantasy game where the city guard rides hippogriffs, the bazaar has 3rd level magic-users selling trinkets and there are competing magic-item shops in villages along the route to the dungeon the loot needs to be a bit more high fantasy, too.
Of course, too much loot is just as bad! I will admit, in my youth I once ran a campaign where each of the 6 PCs had an artifact or relic by the time they were 9th level and went on to get real items by the time they were 12th level.
In my defense, I was 15.
Thing is, my players didn't enjoy that campaign. In fact, they enjoyed it less than the players with too little loot.
Now, I am certainly not the first RPG blogger to notice this or point this out, but it bears repeating - while there are no "winners" in games with no winners or losers, players like to feel that they have succeeded and this is often measured, emotionally, by the loot. But if the loot is too excessive it both loses its emotional appeal and can make the players feel as if they success was because of items, not characters or playing. Or, the shorter version - there are reasons the first paragraph in this post is true.
So what does a DM do about this? I am not totally sure, but I will tell you what I do. First, I tend to give very little, if any, loot in random encounters. In the typical encounters in a scenario I limit the loot to a relatively small amount of valuables (coins, etc.) and minor objects like potions. For the bigger encounters I lean heavily toward scrolls, potions, charged items, and such because they go away.
You know why Gary didn't put rules for recharging most things in the DMG? They aren't meant to be recharged, they are meant to go away. Wands are the disposable razors of dungeon crawlers.
I also include non-standard stuff in the loot: the journal of a famous mage that drops clues to the arc and gives a bonus on researching a particular spell or two; a prisoner of the orcs who turns out to be the daughter or a barbarian chief who now owes the party a favor if they treated her well; a box of rare/expensive spell components; etc.
I will write another post about what I call 'long-term magic items' which I use to build tension over time, too.
But in all of this how do you deal with money? After all, characters like a piles of gold under the dragon, right?
Well, I limit big hauls of money to big encounters and then give the players so many ways to spend money they get the rush of a big haul and then still feel poor.
And how do I suck the money out of the PCs coin purses?
1) Make magic-users research spells they want. Let them find the occasional Scroll of Protection or of Unseen Servant etc., but if they really want Fireball they may just have to research it. Do they have a research library? No? Well, the local NPC wizards are going to charge a lot for access to theirs - and that is in addition to any standard costs, of course. And make sure they are paying for every single spell component they need in advance. They only spent 200 g.p. on components for a spell which costs 50 g.p. to cast? The fifth time they try to cast it, point out they are out of components and can't.
2) You can just make clerics give it away. Alms for the poor, orphanages, widows, a local church with a leaky roof, you name it. What's that you say? Your player made a Dwarven cleric of commerce that thinks the poor deserve their lot in life? First,interesting pantheon. Second, all you need are a few bad investments, an additional tithe from him to cover caravan guards, and the requirement that he provide an ostentation display of wealth and success (i.e., new, expensive, fashionable clothes all the time) and you're in.
3) Thieves have overhead; informers, personal guards, middle-men, lookouts, bribes for the watch, bribes for the magistrate, bribes for the soldiers, a cut to the guild, another cut to the guild, how much does the guildmaster spend, anyway?, whadda' ya' mean I gotta' buy the guildmaster's son a birthday present, I just gave 33% of my take? Of course details on the security of the temple of the dwarven god of commerce is worth a little consideration, etc. In one campaign I had an evil guard captain that shook down thieves for money to such an extent it was a plot driver.
4) Fighters can be tricky. Sure, paladins and rangers are really easy, but fighters can be tough. First, consider the entourage effect that I describe below and then have a campaign expectation that successful fighters are generous. Saxons expected good fighters, war-chiefs, and kings to be generous. If you weren't generous, you must not be that good! This should range from rounds of drinks to new armor and weapons for 'friends' or even celebrating a great victory with horses for all his 'friends'!
5) Upkeep. I am putting detailed rules on upkeep into my next supplement, so-far titled Far Realms, but consider just a flat 100 g.p. per level per month, as Gygax suggested. This is everything from ink and holy incense to trainers and weapon oil and is in addition to everything else.
6) An entourage. Do your characters still cook and clean for themselves? How successful can they be? I mean, if they were really good, why are they tending to their own horse and cooking their own gruel? You can work on this is a number of ways ranging from an increased chance of getting parasites from poorly cooked food until their hire a cook to having a fat fee slip away when the NPC hires a different, lower-level, party - a party with a standard bearer, and henchmen, and cooks, and such. To really drive it home, have the lower level party try to 'sub-contract' the PCs for 1/3rd the fee the NPCs are receiving!
6) Henchmen. See 'entourage'. I also do little things like, oh, make spell research faster and more likely to succeed with the help of henchmen, or point out that a cleric henchman can 'stack' Chant spells, etc. And if that isn't enough, do what I call the 'Horatio Hornblower trick' (from a scene in that series of books). here's a sample
The Kingdom of Anglia is at war! The hobgoblins and their allies overwhelmed the smaller border kingdoms two years ago and the forces of Anglia and its allies are only now preparing for a true counter-attack. In the preparations the party's fighter, Beorn, is summoned to meet the king.
Beorn is a high level fighter and is really looking forward to this meeting. Will he be asked to lead the vulnerable left flank? Command a mission to destroy the hobgoblin baggage train? Lead the main charge?!
Finally Beorn is presented to the king. The king looks Beorn over and says,
"Your reputation is strong and word of your prowess has reached our court. Are you willing to take on a job of great personal importance to me?"
"Of course, Your Majesty, I am ready for any task you need me to accomplish."
"Well said. Lord Uffingdale shall introduce you to your charge, Sir Beorn."
Beorn... no, SIR Beorn, follows Lord Uffingdale into a nearby chamber where a young man, no more than 18, stand in silver-chased chain mail wearing a sword whose hilt glitters with emeralds. Behind the boy stands a man is the black robes of a priest of the Stern Lord, a Master of Discipline. Lord Uffington bows deeply to the boy, who dips his head in return. Lord Uffington then turns to you,
"May I present His Highness Jory, surviving prince of the Kingdom of Alsatia. His kingdom was overrun by the hobgoblins in the early days of the war while he was here under the care of his uncle, the King. The King hopes that a warrior of such strength, skill, and courage as you would be perfect as mentor to his nephew in anticipation of the day he will reclaim his own throne. Since the Prince currently only speaks Alsatian his religious tutor, Brother Kane, will accompany him to translate for you until he is more fluent in Anglian."
In other words - BAM! instant henchman. And a henchman you can't leave to die or ditch because he slows you down. A henchman with expensive tastes, too. And the best thing is, he's also a walking plot hook and incentive. Further, if Beorn's player roleplays it properly he could end up being the beloved mentor of a king!
7) The players' own laziness. Start making the players roleplay out going through treasure in the dungeon. Talk about how long it takes to sort and count all the coins, to catalog everything. Unless you have a particularly focused party they will almost certainly soon take to just shoveling everything into a bag to be counted 'later'. Then have an NPC, like a money changer, offer to do that for them for a small fee! Before you know it '6,237 g.p., 12,102 s.p., and 40,002 c.p.' becomes '4 mules worth of coins' becomes '6,000 g.p. after exchange and sorting costs'.
8) Uncertainty. Don't tell they players they found a 50 g.p. ring, tell them they found a silver ring with a pearl. When they try to sell it, have the fence, uh, merchant offer them 30 g.p. and see what they do. Then start charging them above book price for new goods ('inflation'). What is the party to do? Why, hire an NPC merchant to negotiate for them! All he needs is a small monthly fee and a percentage of the savings he makes for you. heck, he'll even count and catalog the treasures for less than the money changer! [Again, I have detailed rules on this coming in Far Realms].
9) Knowledge. Information should cost. Don't tell them where the Lost Tomb of the Golem Master is (its lost, remember?), have them find a plate covered in runes that turn out to be magically garbled. They have to find or research a spell to un-garble them. Then they have to find someone who can translate and obscure ancient language (travel to where he is and pay him) or find/research a different translation spell. Then it turns out the writing is a poem full of odd imagery. With more research (travel, fees, buying books, etc.) they find out it might be part of a poem from a lost empire that was originally in a totally different language, so they have to travel again to see the only sage that is familiar with the poetry of this long-gone empire in the hops he can explain the imagery, but he needs a book found only in a library in another distant country to be sure.
You get the idea - turn it into 3-5 adventures and an excuse to vacuum out the PC's money pouches.
If done properly, this process has two very important effects - it ceases being 'just loot' and becomes an integral plot element of the campaign. And while every copper is now precious (do these for a while and see if anyone but the paladin leaves a single coin behind!) no amount of treasure is too much.
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