Best Version of DnD?

[TheAuldGrump]

27 minutes ago, Pingo said:

 

I was going to say WOW you're a Stan Freberg fan!

 

(Ever see his Looney Tune, "The Three Little Bops"?)

Yep, and I used to have a three DVD set of his commercials. (How many folks can it be said that their commercials were funny enough to be collected on DVD?...)

 

Jacobsen Lawnmowers - Faster Than Sheep!

 

And, of course, his interview with the abominable snowman....

 

 

Which reminds me - I have never introduced Megan to The Firesign Theater....

 

The Auld Grump

Edited July 21, 2017 by TheAuldGrump

[BlazingTornado]

Hey guys, I need some ideas.

 

I decided to run White Plume Mountain for my players when they reach level 8, and instead of just tossing money at em I'm having the owners of the weapons offer them some special things. Chief amongst them, the owner of Blackrazor is a king and will give them a keep. But while it's been abandonned for some time, it seems there's some recent, nefarious activity happening in there that they'll need to clear out.

 

I sorta got inspired from three directions really. Critical Role and Greyskull Keep, the fact that in the "old days" at 9th level player characters were usually at the point where they WOULD get a stronghold, and the Deck Of Many Things' card that grants the players a keep, but that they have to clear out of monsters before they can claim it.

 

Problem is I'm kinda drawing a blank and could use help figuring out just who or what could be dwelling in that keep, and to what ends...

 

(I could also use ideas for nice castle or keep battlemaps, I'm considering this nice full ruined keep by Gabriel Pickard but its rooms are so bare I'm not even sure their functions)

[Unruly]

I'm always a fan of hobgoblins for something like that. They have wholly valid reasons for wanting a keep, would likely put the keep to use as a keep, and could actually be in the process of expanding and repairing the keep. Give them some class levels and some casters, make them be aware of the players approaching(maybe even going so far as to welcome them until they to claim ownership), etc. Basically, just treat them as any other humanoid race who might have seized control of a keep and started to exert influence over an area.

 

As for ideas for the keep's layout, look at historical castles and such. There was also an old D&D book called DMGR2: The Castle Guide that has some sample castles. There's also the Castle Sites book, which has floor plans for 7 or so castles. Both are available on DM's Guild.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Unruly

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

6 hours ago, BlazingTornado said:

Hey guys, I need some ideas.

 

I decided to run White Plume Mountain for my players when they reach level 8, and instead of just tossing money at em I'm having the owners of the weapons offer them some special things. Chief amongst them, the owner of Blackrazor is a king and will give them a keep. But while it's been abandonned for some time, it seems there's some recent, nefarious activity happening in there that they'll need to clear out.

 

I sorta got inspired from three directions really. Critical Role and Greyskull Keep, the fact that in the "old days" at 9th level player characters were usually at the point where they WOULD get a stronghold, and the Deck Of Many Things' card that grants the players a keep, but that they have to clear out of monsters before they can claim it.

 

Problem is I'm kinda drawing a blank and could use help figuring out just who or what could be dwelling in that keep, and to what ends...

 

(I could also use ideas for nice castle or keep battlemaps, I'm considering this nice full ruined keep by Gabriel Pickard but its rooms are so bare I'm not even sure their functions)

Some of my favorite inhabitants for abandoned keeps (on the Boarderlands or not)

 

Orcs, hobgoblins, humanoid monsters.  As unruly above.

 

Bandits, rebels, mercenary army.  Good choice where you can set up situations where it is not "gank the monsters" if the party usually the murder-hobo type.  Can be resolved peacefully or not.

 

A wizard did it.  Some sort of wizard has moved in to use it as his sanctuary, laboratory or base.  Maybe he is breeding abominations or magical beasts, summoning demons or undead or just working on developing new spells and doesn't want to be disturbed.

 

A vampire coven has moved in and are using it as a base of operations while they feed on the local villagers.  Perhaps it is haunted by the previous inhabitants and the party has to figure out how to put the ghosts to rest before they can get any NPCs in to repair/maintain the keep.

 

Cultists.  When doubt, go with cultists.  Dragon cultists, demon cultists, devil cultists, cultists of the Elder Gods, football hooligans; bonus if some are members of the court, members of the community; then the party has to deal with the ramifications of killing the nephew of the Duke, or the wife of the guy who owns the local magic shop.

[PaganMegan]

On 07/02/2017 at 11:17 AM, Pingo said:

Now I want to hear you sing that. 

 

He wasn't just singing it to her, he was dancing with her in a slow circle.

 

If I tried that she would NEVER stop crying.

 

With Grump she was happy as a clam, making noise in time to his voice.

On 07/02/2017 at 11:17 AM, Pingo said:

Now I want to hear you sing that. 

 

He wasn't just singing it to her, he was dancing with her in a slow circle.

 

If I tried that she would NEVER stop crying.

 

With Grump she was happy as a clam, making noise in time to his voice.

On 07/02/2017 at 11:17 AM, Pingo said:

Now I want to hear you sing that. 

 

He wasn't just singing it to her, he was dancing with her in a slow circle.

 

If I tried that she would NEVER stop crying.

 

With Grump she was happy as a clam, making noise in time to his voice.

[TheAuldGrump]

Wow, I can tell that you were on The Worst Wi-Fi In The World ^(TM) .

 

I have never seen what it does to tablets before....

 

The Auld Grump

 

 

[TheAuldGrump]

On 7/19/2017 at 7:36 PM, TheAuldGrump said:

She is a second generation gamer - and is already building a catalog of 'No broccoli, there I was' stories.

 

The party has come to hate the pirates in charge of the ship - and are forging alliances among the crew - week after next... there will be Mutiny.... (Rumble, rumble, rumble! Mutiny, mutiny, mutiny!)

 

Also, next week, the rest of the players get back.... Back up to a full crew of a dozen.... Oy!

 

The Auld Grump - I'm surrounded and outnumbered!

 

*EDIT* Wow, putting in 'Rumble, rumble, rumble! Mutiny, mutiny, mutiny!' made me remember how much I miss the late, great Stan Freberg.

Sam is a second generation gamer on both sides. Mommy and daddy both.

 

And her older sister is also a gamer - it runs in the family, I guess.

 

The Auld Grump - back to beautiful Korvosa....

[BlazingTornado]

15 hours ago, Unruly said:

I'm always a fan of hobgoblins for something like that. They have wholly valid reasons for wanting a keep, would likely put the keep to use as a keep, and could actually be in the process of expanding and repairing the keep. Give them some class levels and some casters, make them be aware of the players approaching(maybe even going so far as to welcome them until they to claim ownership), etc. Basically, just treat them as any other humanoid race who might have seized control of a keep and started to exert influence over an area.

 

13 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

Orcs, hobgoblins, humanoid monsters.  As unruly above.

 

Bandits, rebels, mercenary army.  Good choice where you can set up situations where it is not "gank the monsters" if the party usually the murder-hobo type.  Can be resolved peacefully or not.

Decent choices, but I feel trouble of that type would overt enough that the king would've sent his own men in.

 

13 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

 

A wizard did it.  Some sort of wizard has moved in to use it as his sanctuary, laboratory or base.  Maybe he is breeding abominations or magical beasts, summoning demons or undead or just working on developing new spells and doesn't want to be disturbed.

 

A vampire coven has moved in and are using it as a base of operations while they feed on the local villagers.  Perhaps it is haunted by the previous inhabitants and the party has to figure out how to put the ghosts to rest before they can get any NPCs in to repair/maintain the keep.

This is more like it... Vampires in 5th edition are a bit over-powered for a 9th-level party unless I populate it with nothing but spawns. Wizard's always good, and perfect to just throw in all the weirdest stuff. Shame I already did a Wizard's Tower crawling with abberations last week, but I'm sure a bunch of freaky monsters'll suffice.

 

13 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

 

Cultists.  When doubt, go with cultists.  Dragon cultists, demon cultists, devil cultists, cultists of the Elder Gods, football hooligans; bonus if some are members of the court, members of the community; then the party has to deal with the ramifications of killing the nephew of the Duke, or the wife of the guy who owns the local magic shop.

The problem is that a cult is already a big part of the ongoing campaign, starting with, fittingly, Keep on the Borderlands and now in the island city-state of Izmir. So I don't want to over-do it on cults.

 

16 hours ago, Unruly said:

 

As for ideas for the keep's layout, look at historical castles and such. There was also an old D&D book called DMGR2: The Castle Guide that has some sample castles. There's also the Castle Sites book, which has floor plans for 7 or so castles. Both are available on DM's Guild.

That sounds cool, but the thing is the way I've run is overly-dependent on VTT battlemaps so I need something good I can fit on a Roll20 grid.

That's a big reason why I had to cancel convertiong Dwellers of the Forbidden City, really. Couldn't find some good immersive battlemaps for it or even get the old B&W maps in the module to scale up to a grid. :(

[PaganMegan]

3 hours ago, TheAuldGrump said:

Wow, I can tell that you were on The Worst Wi-Fi In The World ^(TM) .

 

I have never seen what it does to tablets before....

 

The Auld Grump

 

 

Nope! That was me forgetting to recharge the Fire, then hitting Submit when it didn't respond a few times.

I've played a bit of 2nd edition, and a lot of 3e and 3.5.

 

I definitely like Pathfinder best.

 

I can come up with a concept, then bounce it off you to get how to do it.

[Auberon]

58 minutes ago, BlazingTornado said:

17 hours ago, Unruly said:

I'm always a fan of hobgoblins for something like that. They have wholly valid reasons for wanting a keep, would likely put the keep to use as a keep, and could actually be in the process of expanding and repairing the keep. Give them some class levels and some casters, make them be aware of the players approaching(maybe even going so far as to welcome them until they to claim ownership), etc. Basically, just treat them as any other humanoid race who might have seized control of a keep and started to exert influence over an area.

 

14 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

Orcs, hobgoblins, humanoid monsters.  As unruly above.

 

Bandits, rebels, mercenary army.  Good choice where you can set up situations where it is not "gank the monsters" if the party usually the murder-hobo type.  Can be resolved peacefully or not.

Decent choices, but I feel trouble of that type would overt enough that the king would've sent his own men in.

 

14 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

 

A wizard did it.  Some sort of wizard has moved in to use it as his sanctuary, laboratory or base.  Maybe he is breeding abominations or magical beasts, summoning demons or undead or just working on developing new spells and doesn't want to be disturbed.

 

A vampire coven has moved in and are using it as a base of operations while they feed on the local villagers.  Perhaps it is haunted by the previous inhabitants and the party has to figure out how to put the ghosts to rest before they can get any NPCs in to repair/maintain the keep.

This is more like it... Vampires in 5th edition are a bit over-powered for a 9th-level party unless I populate it with nothing but spawns. Wizard's always good, and perfect to just throw in all the weirdest stuff. Shame I already did a Wizard's Tower crawling with abberations last week, but I'm sure a bunch of freaky monsters'll suffice.

 

14 hours ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

 

Cultists.  When doubt, go with cultists.  Dragon cultists, demon cultists, devil cultists, cultists of the Elder Gods, football hooligans; bonus if some are members of the court, members of the community; then the party has to deal with the ramifications of killing the nephew of the Duke, or the wife of the guy who owns the local magic shop.

The problem is that a cult is already a big part of the ongoing campaign, starting with, fittingly, Keep on the Borderlands and now in the island city-state of Izmir. So I don't want to over-do it on cults.

 

17 hours ago, Unruly said:

 

As for ideas for the keep's layout, look at historical castles and such. There was also an old D&D book called DMGR2: The Castle Guide that has some sample castles. There's also the Castle Sites book, which has floor plans for 7 or so castles. Both are available on DM's Guild.

That sounds cool, but the thing is the way I've run is overly-dependent on VTT battlemaps so I need something good I can fit on a Roll20 grid.

That's a big reason why I had to cancel convertiong Dwellers of the Forbidden City, really. Couldn't find some good immersive battlemaps for it or even get the old B&W maps in the module to scale up to a grid. :(

 

You could throw a curve ball.  The keep is full of...

• Plague victims.  They've been kicked out of their homeland (or are just fleeing period) and have congregated at the keep.  No one wants to deal with them sooooo... just "gift" the keep to some PCs.  Oh, it's a highly contagious magical plague you say?  And the PCs are likely infected now too?  Sounds like its time for a quest.
• Refugees.  Sure the PCs have nice keep, but it turns out the neighbor is a bit of jerk.  Maybe they're willing to work for their new lords, or maybe they'd like to go back home.  Either way there's still the neighbor to deal with.
• Spirits.  It's not abandoned, just a little haunted by the previous residents.  They might just be angry and hostile, but they might be looking for someone to help get revenge against who/whatever sacked the castle.  Maybe a VIP close to the king if you like a little intrigue.

[BlazingTornado]

All swell ideas but sadly won't work.. Kinda gauged my players who don't metagame and a big part of the appeal wasn't just getting the keep, but getting the keep and getting stories to tell about the wicked things they fought in order to gain the keep.

 

"And this is the room where we had to slay no fewer than FIVE owlbears. And you won't believe what we had to fight in the dining hall!"

 

So this kind of needs to be a dungeon crawl more than a morally gray area.

 

 

Anyway, this session got a last-minute cancellation (family emergency) so with two players... they were kind enough to focus the session on very non-combat oriented things.

Starting with the relentlessly chaotic ranger taking a quick step off to try to find some drugs to slip the rest of the party during a feast thrown in their honor. She asks the first shifty guy she spots... and he immediately recognizes her as a totally easy mark.

So one quick alleyway transaction she spends... god, 500 or a thousand gold or so on about 75 gold's worth of a cooking spice called fusaka (blatantly stolen from Critical Role so the other ranger's player, a big CR fan, can be in on the gag). And at the feast she's trying to think of a way to slip it to people and inquires with the dwarf cook party tagalong (old friend of the bard character) who's just excited at the fact that she bought some, so she starts putting some on the others' meats, and the cook and the halfling sorcerer NPC filling in for an absent player are discussing the spice casually and it STILL hasn't dawned on the player that she got played until dessert time and it hasn't affected anyone.

So she tries to get revenge... takes the other ranger with her under some false pretenses ("I got mugged!"), they find the tracks of one of the people, wait until it's even later in the evening before striking the house where the trail ended... fail their stealth checks, an old lady comes out of the house and starts berating em and a few failed deception checks later the chaotic ranger decides to tackle and try to punch the poor middle-aged lady. Botch, punches a rock instead, breaks the grapple, so now the other ranger jumps in, and one of the swindlers jumps out, unaware of who's causing trouble but just knowing his aunt is being harrassed... so he runs to the streets and shouts for guards. Players hightail it out of there.

THE NEXT DAY

So, one thing down... Now the players are once again figuring they'll take on RP and skill check tasks to lighten my load encounter-wise. Chaotic Ranger nabbed some bounties off a bounty board in a seedy part of town the day prior.

Out of the three, they took interest in two. Apparently the fierce half-dragon warrior, they realize he's clearly out of their league. But not the Wolf... Whom they know nothing about. Even the bounty post is nebulous. Really the only bounty that's worth taking and succeeding at doing at their level is the dwarf barbarian who's wanted for owing some money. But the Wolf. Man they want him. They'll never get him. He's a master thief, a gentlemen thief, a thief who meticulously picks his targets, what to take, plans everything against every eventuality... and only takes the ill-gotten gains of the corrupt rich. IE the stuff that they couldn't even report as stolen by the authorities.

Anyway, so they try to inquire in some seedy parts of the large city, find a gambling den... go in with a plan. Two of the party members will go in as hotshot high rollers, the other two, Chaotic Ranger amongst them, will play servants/slaves... And then everyone but Chaotic Ranger is just meant to hang at the gambling tables while she pokes around and tries to use Thieves Cant to get info, but all she can say to gain the attention of people who'd understand the language is "gee I sure hate my boss (ie Other Ranger) wish someone would kill him" which only gets a supposed assassin to offer to take the hit, so she has to backpedal quickly. Then she tries to sneak in the upper floor that's members only, fails the check, and gets thrown on her broccoli.... Then goes back to the bar and outright ask the bartender about the Wolf. One secret signal later and she first, and then the entire remainder of the party, go Jazz out the Banks house.

[TheAuldGrump]

Make it very haunted - ten generations or more of a family with mixed moral perspectives - the ones keeping everybody out being Evil, with a few Chaotic Neutral thrown for flavor. Not just the Keep itself, but the lands surrounding it - all bound to some dark shackle, within the keep.

 

But a few Caspers and Neutral types as well - Great Uncle Didymouse may stalk the halls in the East Wing by night, carrying his head beneath his arm - but he can tell you of the fiend that cost him his head, and bids him walk by night. While Father Erasmus in the Chapel Tower would be willing to provide healing to those that can bring his beloved chapel back into shape.

 

But the Dullahan upon the Coaching Road is friend to none - and if he takes your head, then so shall you walk those cold halls.

 

The Auld Grump

Edited July 23, 2017 by TheAuldGrump

[TheAuldGrump]

Been a while since I ran the game with all the kids - and something popped up that I hadn't noticed before, though I am pretty sure it was there.

 

What is really going on is that there are three sub-groups - two that do their own thing, and the third joining with whatever looks the most interesting at that moment - a fair amount of... politics, really. Low key, with no animosity - but negotiations to get the committee party moving in a given direction....

 

Which, strangely, seems to take a whole lot less time than it takes the grownups.

 

Gave the kids that were already in the scenario a chance to be heroes of a sort - the rest of the players being slaves in the hold of the ship that the pirates captured.

 

They were given The Choice - join, or be cargo.

 

And with a short interlude on a desert island - when the Captain did something unseen by the PCs, with Iain again surprising me -

Iain: My evolution includes a club!

TAG: You read Larry Niven?

Iain: You recognize Larry Niven?

 

The kid has been getting into his dad's science fiction.

 

Not a huge surprise, in a way - it explains why he knew the word Orrery.

 

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

Sam wants to know if I would be willing to run BOTH Pathfinder games for the kids - she wants to play both her Faerie Princess and her Kitsune.

 

Next game, she gets to reveal that she has been a fox-girl all along - as well as her several fluffy tails. ( Nine Tailed Scion Racial Trait. ) Right after the Mutiny.

 

But... I already have way too many games rolling - two Pathfinder games for grown ups, one for the kids, and the Paranormal Romance for Megan's writers group.

 

I do sleep, sometimes.... (I haven't slept with my eyes open in months!)

 

The Auld Grump - four games is really pushing it, as it is... fortunately, the paranormal romance game is going to have short Seasons.

Edited July 30, 2017 by TheAuldGrump

[BlazingTornado]

Today I learned a lot of the Adventurer's League modules for organized play have unique NPC and monster statblocks not used anywhere else.

 

And I dunno about the rest of you but I think stat blocks for a Mob Of Villagers (gargantuan swarm of medium humanoids) should be a must for any DM and any adventure so for it to be delegated to a sole "episode" of an Adventurer's League "season" is kinda lame.