Unruly Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 How well known are you thinking? Are you wanting him to be someone that even people who don't watch the fights will know about, or just someone who might be a name people who aren't interested have heard but can't associate with anything? I'm talking the difference between being Wayne Gretzky or being Henrik Zetterburg. Just about everyone knows who Wayne Gretzky is even if they've never watched hockey or weren't even born when he was playing, because he's one of those names that's synonymous with hockey. Sort of like how Michael Jordan is synonymous with basketball or Tiger Woods is with golf. Henrik Zetterburg, on the other hand, is someone who's name might come up in a conversation about hockey, but unless you're a fan you probably couldn't say "oh, he's the captain of the Red Wings and he's blah blah blah" let alone put a face to the name. If you're wanting him to be Wayne Gretzky, then give them some kind of Int roll, and give advantage if the character has previously expressed interest in the pit fights. If you're wanting him to be Henrik Zetterburg, have them roll an Int check with disadvantage unless they've expressed interest in the pit fights. Heck, you could even take their background into account. A charlatan or criminal may have reason to roll with advantage or at least lose disadvantage because they know bookies and others who talk about how much money he's making them with his fights. An entertainer, and especially the Gladiator variant, might know him because of popular songs/stories about his fights and/or keeping tabs on the competition. A noble, a soldier, or a sailor might have a better chance of knowing because they're the type who likes to gamble and he's someone who's built a reputation as a "sure bet." That sort of thing. You could go a bunch of different ways with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 No, I think pit fights would still be a reasonably niche market. He'd be more of a Bas Rutten I guess. But they might have heard tales of him (the bard especially), perhaps even encountered him with an entourage at a tavern... Two of my players are rangers with the outlander background so they're the least likely to know... I probably wouldn't even let em roll... That leaves bard and cleric of Dionysus.... Guess I'll have to inquire how likely they'd be to hang out on the bad side of whatever towns they visited. I kind of like the idea of the character being a gloomy character of Fantasy Equivalent Of Transylvania origin but I worry keeping the name and look might give away that he is important. But I'm also coming up empty on good "reskins" to do with the guy. Can't go viking, there's already Hrundor of Midgarn showing up later in the adventure.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Sundseth Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 The good news about thugs/strongman fighters is that every culture seems to have a stereotypical type: sumo wrestlers, circus strongmen, drunken louts, soccer hooligans (but I repeat myself), stone lifters, caber tossers, .... Switch out anything that doesn't fit your world, but keep the stereotypical elements and you should be good to go. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 8 hours ago, Doug Sundseth said: The good news about thugs/strongman fighters is that every culture seems to have a stereotypical type: sumo wrestlers, circus strongmen, drunken louts, soccer hooligans (but I repeat myself), stone lifters, caber tossers, .... Switch out anything that doesn't fit your world, but keep the stereotypical elements and you should be good to go. Hey, watch out for those circus strongmen - sometimes they turn out to be archaeologists.... (I so what a Chronoscope miniature for him....) The Auld Grump 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted May 18, 2017 Share Posted May 18, 2017 Character generation for both of the replacement games for Beyond the Borderlands has just been finished. One replacement is Curse of the Crimson Throne, the other is Kingmaker. (I wanted to do the Orc & Elf War, but that involves updating the thing to Pathfinder.) The Auld Grump - I like black powder in my fantasy.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Huh, Megan finally got around to telling me why it was so important that we watch that episode of Jack of All Trades.... She wants to do a semi-pseudo-sorta shared character... each of us creating a Vigilante, then giving them a shared alter-ego - one an Avenger, the other a Stalker, but wearing identical (and gender concealing) disguises. Mind you, I loved the fact that no one could notice the difference when the female lead in Jack of All Trades wore the costume for the Daring Dragoon.... (Despite being pretty obviously female....) The Auld Grump - we enjoy Jack of All Trades entirely too much.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unruly Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 3 hours ago, TheAuldGrump said: Hey, watch out for those circus strongmen - sometimes they turn out to be archaeologists.... (I so what a Chronoscope miniature for him....) The Auld Grump Or chocolatiers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Sundseth Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 8 minutes ago, Unruly said: Or chocolatiers! Indeed. Nice fellow, btw, but, like most rodeo cowboys, he's pretty quiet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 I think I'll keep Izek as Izek. Chris Perkins' portrayal of him in Dice Camera Action gives me a decent framework to start from. Just need to find a nice top-down character token for him. (and since he's aligned with the cult I'll probably have to find a miniature for him as well. Open to suggestions) Speaking of suggestions I still need to populate this adventure. I bought some lovely jungle maps from the Roll20 marketplace and want my money's worth. Plus this is meant to take them from level 5 to 6 so it needs enough things to run into. This is what I have down so far in the order of encounters: Premise: Young white dragon the players fought before is out for revenge. Him and a number of lackeys and allies, mostly kobolds and gnolls, attacked a small primitive village that was protected by one of the player character's cousins who bore a striking ressemblance to the PC. He thinks he killed the PC so he's been setting up a lair deeper in the jungle and his acolytes have been dwelling about. Small ford crossing: Obviously not the first encounter map, but after some adventuring deeper in the jungle they come across this small ford. A plesiosaurus is there, nesting, and also eating some humanoid remains, a kobold and a gnoll who though they could beat it. Beatable by the party but not a hostile, so if they leave it alone they can venture further down and cross the river there. But further down there's also two Awakened Trees, courtesy of the green hag that allied herself with the dragon, as the dragonborn's presence was hindering her evil machinations. Defeating the trees reveals another path, down to the murky swamps. Swamp part 1: The hag dwells there. She will sense the party arriving and change her form to that of a lovely young woman in rags and play the damsel in distress. Plenty of beasts (crocodiles, snakes, centipedes of both the giant and swarm varieties) and even a Will O Wisp. When the party gets close enough she'll strike, and she also has a gift from the dragons, a White Guard Drake, aiding her. Swamp part 2: The hag's other pet, a nasty Otyugh, lurks in the deeper parts of the swamp, and typically takes care of the corpses the hag kills. He also guards her treasure. River crossing: The ford was easy enough to cross through but the river is a different beast. Fortunately there is a bridge. Unfortunately, an onyx Helmed Horror guards it. A magic mouth spell on it delivers a single ominous warning: "None shall pass." Higher river: The trail kind of keeps hugging the river a bit. Further up they run into a stranded man in robes on the other side. Ran into a ruffian who was trying to cross with a log, got conked in the head with a greataxe and then the ruffian kicked off the log and the rocky formations make it dangerous to backtrack back down to the bridge. The man is a Warlock, in cahoots with the dragon, and once he realizes who the party is, he'll try to kill them. But he's stuck on the other side, so the party can just leave him to his fate. Winding trails: We're nearing the villains' encampment and the kobolds set up a number of traps around them. Right where the path branches off both ways there's a small foot-wide pit. When the paths reconverge, a tripwire sends a large boulder tumbling down from atop a rock. Further down, a larger 20 foot pit trap. And last, a trigger that'll send an opening bag containing a swarm of angry beetles. The encampment in the ruins: Set up in three encounters, the path leads right in the center of the wide ruins, where the koblolds have set up. A couple of kobolds with some velociraptors, plus a dragonshield with a deinonychus and a scale sorcerer. Upon beating them, the cackling of the gnoll flesh gnawers will alert them to their presence. There is an ancient archway between them and the gnolls, and there's a chance they'll trigger the trap that sends the archway crashing down on them. Defeating the gnolls, they'll realize that's not it yet as a Redcap and its pet Ghast make their presence known by digging around the kobold and dinosaur corpses. Izek is also there, right by the entrance to the ruins. Smoking his pipe. He'll notice the players instantly but never act hostile towards them, not even alerting the kobolds to their presence. The battlefield: There was a battle here. So fierce a giant tree came down. Might put an encounter there but really this is more a place for the players to play detective. There's a trail of blood and some footprints leading off, but they're seeking a dragon. The wounded barbarian: Here is where the party meet the ruffian mentionned by the warlock. He is Hrundor, a barbarian the characters encountered twice. Hardly a good kind of person but he owes his freedom to the party two times over now and felt indebted to them, so he tried to kill the dragon. He also has the pet panthers he took from his last employer (the main villain of a previous adventure). Seeing that the dragonborn PC is still alive... Well, he might still help the party defeat the dragon... but he wants dibs on its scales. The dragon's lair: Self-explanatory. He's dwelling in a cave somewhat up north where it's cooler, obviously. Will probably set up a few more traps around his lair. And then there's the four maps I still need to use: A sparse clearing. A bit of a hill-y map. Another hill-y map with a prominent rock face. A different trail in thick brush. I kind of want at least two maps before the ford crossing. Anyone have any ideas? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 Oh boy, we finally returned to the main campaign after three weeks of one-shots and cancelled games! The puzzle with the snakes was a bit harder for the players to figure out but they managed it. The fight with the Histachii was a bit more brutal, fortunately the next two encounter with undead remains of yuan-ti were less challenging. The found a Handy Haversack, though... But since it just looks like a backpack, the person that found it, who's also the designated Bag of Holding carrier, just asked if anyone needed a backpack... and when the answer came back in the negative, but before a player could chime in with a "Wait I think it might be..." she... put in in the Bag of Holding. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unruly Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 16 minutes ago, BlazingTornado said: The found a Handy Haversack, though... But since it just looks like a backpack, the person that found it, who's also the designated Bag of Holding carrier, just asked if anyone needed a backpack... and when the answer came back in the negative, but before a player could chime in with a "Wait I think it might be..." she... put in in the Bag of Holding. Uh oh. They just lost all their stuff... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, Unruly said: Uh oh. They just lost all their stuff... They did. And got stranded on the Astral Plane... All except the Beast Master Ranger's pet giant wolf spider. The cleric of Dionysus tried to pray to his god for guidance of help... And then things got interesting. Edited May 21, 2017 by BlazingTornado Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 (edited) On 5/18/2017 at 8:35 PM, TheAuldGrump said: Huh, Megan finally got around to telling me why it was so important that we watch that episode of Jack of All Trades.... She wants to do a semi-pseudo-sorta shared character... each of us creating a Vigilante, then giving them a shared alter-ego - one an Avenger, the other a Stalker, but wearing identical (and gender concealing) disguises. Mind you, I loved the fact that no one could notice the difference when the female lead in Jack of All Trades wore the costume for the Daring Dragoon.... (Despite being pretty obviously female....) The Auld Grump - we enjoy Jack of All Trades entirely too much.... Going for the sillier possibility for this character - this is the Vigilante side of the character when I play him - And this is the vigilante side of the character when Megan plays her - As you can see, it is nearly impossible to tell them apart! The Auld Grump *EDIT* By any objective standard, Jack of All Trades was a terrible, terrible show - but it is so damn much fun! Edited May 23, 2017 by TheAuldGrump 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 On 5/14/2017 at 4:31 PM, TheAuldGrump said: The Goblin Dungeon undergoing some big changes - and by big, I mean that it is getting another level, a Queen, and another King - with none of the monarchs actually being Goblins. The first King is the barghest, soon to be greater barghest, the second is a Hag that can shapechange, and the third is a hill giant - the goblins call him king, feed him good, so he does what they say... (The two factions play him off against each other.) At least one Stupid Goblin Trap that will involve a goblin log rolling on top of a barrel of Alchemist Fire, while carrying a torch - the gobbo will have to make Acrobatics checks - if he succeeds then he can ride it all the way to the bottom and light it on fire - ending up in flames. (*Boom!* Crackle, crackle, crackle!) If he fails then he falls off, and ends up chasing the barrel to the bottom, where he throws his torch into the now shattered barrel - ending up in flames. (*Whoosh!* Crackle, crackle, crackle!) If he fails by five or more then he falls off in front of the barrel, which rolls over him... (*Squish!*) The barrel will burst when it reaches the bottom, but with no torch to set it off just spays unlit alchemists fire everywhere. (Which may mean naptha soaked PCs later on, if they don't clean it off - so if they catch a fireball while soaked in naptha... Crackle, crackle, crackle!) If he fails by ten or more then the he falls off in front of the barrel, which rolls over him, then gets stuck and catches on fire from his torch. (*Squish!* *Boom!* Crackle, crackle, crackle.... But the PCs are safe. ) Pathfinder goblins are silly creatures.... The Auld Grump - any ideas for more Stupid Goblin Traps? The trap did not work at all as planned - what happened was I described the slope, and told the kids about the goblins rolling out the barrel, and the wizard immediately shouted 'Ohcrapit'sabombFIREBALL!' All as one word... then rolled a twenty on Initiative - so I am pretty sure that was also what came out of the wizard's mouth in game. There were two more barrels of alchemist's fire up there when the fireball went off - the whole party took 1D6 fire damage, halved for a successful REF save - but that was to make it look like the wizard had just saved them from a death trap... because it was funny! In the process, the wizard also killed the goblin alchemist that was going to be throwing fire bomsb at them, after the barrels went *BOOM*. They had all taken some pretty crispy damage by the time they retreated for the night - and when we left off, the party had decided who was going to be keeping watch - good thing, since the goblins will be hunting for them, come nightfall.... And the Barghest is hungry. The Auld Grump 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted May 24, 2017 Share Posted May 24, 2017 23 hours ago, TheAuldGrump said: Going for the sillier possibility for this character - this is the Vigilante side of the character when I play him - And this is the vigilante side of the character when Megan plays her - As you can see, it is nearly impossible to tell them apart! The Auld Grump *EDIT* By any objective standard, Jack of All Trades was a terrible, terrible show - but it is so damn much fun! A command from She-Who-Knows-Me-All-Too-Well - No Adam West impersonations! The Auld Grump - what can I say - she knows me, all too well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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