Behold the dice

Monthly session: Salamanders, salamanders everywhere

2014-05-22T05:25:00.002-07:00

The party found themselves in the room where they defeated the fire elementals last session. By now, all protection spells had worn off, and the pary started to feel the burn of the extremely hot environment. In order to dig deeper, the party decided to rest, heal and up the protection again the next day.

The next day

A large semi-natural corridor connected in the back of the elemental room. The adventurers followed the corridor looking for traps as they went along. After a few minutes, Martijn found a rune that looked suspicious. Some investigation learned that the rune was a rune of stunning, and quite some time was spent debating what to do with the rune. When Zull remembered the stunning lasts a minute or so at max, Budrik and Bronco decided to just trigger the rune and see wat happens. It turned out it was an old defensive rune with no active defense mechanisms left. After some waiting the team continued further down the corridor.

That smells like BATTLE!

After decending for another few minutes, the corridor connected to a new room. Martijn cautiously investigated this room, but had difficulty seeing here because of the turmoil in the air from the extreme heat. One thing was clear here, though. There was a sizeable battle being fought here. When we came closer, it became apparent that a group of salamanders was battling a fire giant. Although the fire giant was not in any real immediate danger, we decided to step in and help him, to come on his good side. Just to be sure, Martijn hid and kept a firm lock on the giant with his bow.

The battle that followed was short but fierce, mainly because of the superior grappling skills of the salamanders. The battle was harder in terms of combat mechanics than in challenge rating. When the Salamanders were extinguished, we tried to reason with the fire giant. We learned that he was part of a scouting party although he would not say what they were scouting for. He was uninterested in temporarily joining our ranks to het a mutual benefit. The discussion lasted until Martijn, who remained inactive during the preceding battle, lost his temper and shot the giant. Budrik and Zull tried to persuade the DM that cast pit and wall of stone is an excellent deadly combo, but he was not convinced. So, as an alternative, Budrik casted airwalk on Martijn, who walked over the pit and finished up the giant.

Salamander city, population: 1000

Continuing through the back of the rook, the adventurers soon learned why the fire giant was stuck at this side of the dungeon. behind a small blockade of stones lay an entire village of salamanders. Bad news. Agains better judgement the party decided to try and bargain with the salamanders. They cut off the giants head and Magnum took the honors. This was.... bad. He tried his very best, but the salamanders were not convinced and started to get more aggressive with each succeding argument. Things went horribly bad then Magnum tried to intimidate the captain of the guard, who ended that night's session with the words: "Boys, get him!".

Outstanding questions and actions

What is this holy symbol of Beorn and why is it so important
Why does Magnum always have to get caught
How are we going to free him in a city of salamanders
How can we get past the salamander village without murdering each and every one of them
Or could we get away with that?

Monthly session report: Down the dwarven forgery

2014-04-22T12:23:00.002-07:00

So, during my sabbatical I missed a lot. The party had put up base in the city Sundabar. In the Silver Marches region of Faerun. The city has been under siege by shadows in the last few months. The quest has been a continuing struggle against these shadows as well as some side quests cleaning out dungeons.

The session began by Magnum waking up in an alley without any of his gear. He missed the last session, so as is customary he was held captive in some stupid place. This time local street kids had stolen his gear. Unfortunately for one of the kids, Magnums patience was not endless as he threw his hammer through the punks head trying to retrieve his geiser. Yikes! Fortunately, some local priests were willing to raise the boy for free, otherwise he would have been in a more nasty situation.

Meanwhile, Budrik, my dwarven priest of Tyr, was summoned to the town hall by Helm Dwarf-Friend for a quest. He was offered 50000 goldpieces to retrieve the holy symbol of Beorn, that is presumed to be lost in the dwarven forgeries beneath the city. Budrik seeks out a party willing to help him on this quest. By great coincidence he finds a party hanging round in a local pub who are willing to take on this quest for 40000.

The forgeries are normally closed off and guarded, but the adventurers are let in by the city guard. The temerature of the complex begin to rise the deeper they come. After some time, the group is ambushed by three fire mephits. Zull sees this as the perfect opportunity to try out his new cloud kill spell. And with much effect. All three mephits were killed on the spot.

Several levels down we found a sort of anvil or table that had a faint trace of magic still lingering. Connected to the table were two empty sockets where orbs of about 10 cm could be placed. Guessing this would be the best lead to go deeper into the forgery we went looking for the orbs. The first we found in the possession of a bunch of steam mephits. It took some battle, but this one was quickly in our posession. The second was located in a water bassin we found behind a hidden staircase. A careful perception check revealed that the bassin was not empty, so we suspected that there would be water mephits living in the bassin.

Nobody particularly cared for some fresh under water combat, zo Zull summoned a large shark who had the mephits for lunch. The water mephits had the second orb, so we went back to the magic anvil. When the orbs were inserted into the sockets, the anvil table began to drop revealing a round staircase. The staircase led to a big hall, in which the temperature was even higher than in the level above. As soon as we set foot in the chamber we were attacked by 10 medium sized fire elementals. The battle that followed was long, but thanks to the protection spells cast, not too damaging.

The session ended when we defeated the last fire elemental.

Back from sabbatical

2014-04-14T12:13:00.001-07:00

Last year and some more I did not sit at the game table. After almost 25 years of playing RPGs I guess I was tired of the same old grinding. But that will end next friday. I will join the old party for a good old game of Pathfinder.

And, in addition, this is also the 100th post on the blog, go figure :p

Pathfinder session 3: The Golden Baby

2012-03-04T03:26:00.001-08:00

Tracking the white light

Standing in the debris of the battle, the adventurers decided that the best lead they had was the white lights. They searched the battlefield for valuable remains , and set off south again.

Fighting the owlbear

After some hours on the forrest, Rupert spots a bear-like creature with small, pointy ears. Cautiously he sneaks back and informed the party. It is decided that the safest thing to do is to rid the forrest of the animl. So, Bronco and Gladwin do some massive damage, Rupert is an owlbearhat richer and there was much rejoicing.

The crater

During one of his scout flights, Edgar found a big crater in the forrest. The party went and investigate it. It is clear that whatever it was, it must have made a big impact. The crater was a couple of meters deep and trees in the perimeter were knocked down.

Following the wolf

The party was observed by a wolf. Rupert approached the wolf because he sensed that the wolf was trying to communicate. The wolf moved deeper into the forrest, amd the party followed. After a while they arrived at a large open spot in the forrest with a big old oak in the middle. Around the oak, a large number of animals was gathered. Amongst the animals were wolves deers, and even a unicorn. The animals were all facing something in the middle of the circle

Golden baby

Upon closer investigation, the adventurers saw a baby near the base of the oak. The child was surrounded by a golden glow. Zull thought is was of etraplanar origin, but couldn't figure out which plane. Suddenly, a dryad emerged from the oak. She asked whether the adventurers were worthy to guard the baby. Rupert explained that they were as loyal as the highest bidder, and stayed loyal to them for the duration of a quest. Apparently economics had not entered the forrest in this region, as this explanation was met with stale glances.

The quest

Instead, the dryad transported the party to a forrest nobody recognized. Some explorarion revealed a little village nearby. The people in the village were very friendly, and received the party for dinner. They knew nothing about faerun, its lands or cities, so we either were not on faerun anymore, or in some very remote area. After a simple meal, one of the villagers sounded alarm about a living fire in the forrest. The party went to investigate and found an unusual fire elemental. The battle almost cost Bronco's life (again), but they manage to slay the elemental. Only problem: it went out with a bang, setting a portion of the forrest on fire.

Too pragmatic to guard a baby

With the forrest still ablaze, a portal appeared. Zull did not have to think long to take the portal. Rupert quickly joined him. After some hesitation(dont split the party) Bronco and Gladwin followed. The portal led back to the Dryad. She was dissappointedthe that we didnt put out the fire and deemed the party unworthy for protection of the celestial baby. Bad luck for the baby, good luck for us as we managed to grab a good load of xp.

Back in Thurmaster

With no options left, we set directions for thurmaster to report to Thauster about the events.thauster warned the party that a whole lot of nasty people wanted to get their hands on the lantern, and it would be a matter of time before they would get to us. The party decided that the current best plan was to go and search for clues in ...

Outstanding questions

why did the dryad want to give the baby to the party
who is the silent observer?
What is the golden baby
Who was Malnoc?
Is anything known about Lisara's vampire family?
What about the noble in Everlund?

Traveller - the last past months

2012-01-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

So, where do we actually stand in the Traveller campaign. Here a writeup from the gamemaster about the major events of the campaign. Pending are the smuggle runs of the last two sessions.

Chapter 1 - Rat Hive Exodus

The Travellers are in the backwater Inchin system, in the Spinward Marches. Inchin is a poor desert planet owned by a guy named Iarl Rowri, an eccentric rich guy who bought his own planet, sure he could make a lot of money there. He has met a lot of setbacks and has not succeeded as of yet. Inchin now has a kind of totalitarian regime. Rowry apparently lives in a palace at the only town on Inchin, called Rowri's Folly by people off-planet.

Takeda Station orbits Inchin, clutered with neon signs. All the Travellers are stranded there one way or another. It used to be a mining/industrial base, but Rowri sold it to the mysterious Takeda because he needed the money. This was 15 years ago. Takeda station has the greatest bar this side of the galaxy, Murphy's Bar and Grill, completely filled with old-earth memorablia and culture. He even has a radio station that broadcasts Solomani songs (especially Creedence and Hank Williams).

Of course there is a rat problem in the cellar. The Travellers find the (radioactively mutated) pests, extend the range of the radio station and discover that Takeda Station contains a lot of scrap metal, including pieces of a huge ship called "The Galactic Dragon".

Chapter 2 - Beetlejuice

Old man Finkle is a drunk and completely broke. He loses his ship, Beetlejuice, to the Travellers in a poker game (but his pilot and stripper slash mechanic daughter keep their share). The Travellers also inherit the mortgage on the ship.

The Beetlejuice is a weird, green, 100 ton experimental ship, without jump capabilities. It is filled with non-standard tech.

In the meanwhile the only Traveller with a set goal is Max. A few years back, he received a mysterious marble of mercury-like substance through his girlfriend (later referred to as “Vril”). He researched this material at his university, far away in another sector. All his research, including the strange material, was stolen however. He traced the crime back to the Inchin system, and wants to retrieve his life's work.

Chapter 3 - Spacetruckers

Together, the Travellers launch the “Lone Star Trading Company”. Their first job entails doing some mining runs for an independent group of miners. These old geezers try to keep independent from the League of Miners and Prospectors, which slowly destroys their business. During the mining runs, the Travellers are bugged by a trader named Bachus, who owns a 500 ton far trader "Predator" and works for the League.

Chapter 4 - The Lion and the Dragon

Security Inspector Reichmann of the Inchin Police asks the Travellers check out Bachus, because he appears to deliver weapons to the Inchin resistance. They break into the Predator to discover a small ships boat inside, which could be used for smuggling runs. The Travellers engineer a makeshift tracking device with short range. They want to try to catch Bachus red-handed.

More importantly, the Travellers discover that their ship, the Beetlejuice, used to belong to an alien (Aslan) named K'syah. He discovered the ship in the system, at a dangerous place he refers to as the "Galactic Dragon". His journal claims that there are many more parts available for the ship at that location. The Travellers conclude that it must be a vessel, because Takeda station contains scrap metal belonging to a ship with the same name.

The Aslan apparently was murdered about 10 years ago, right after he hid the Beetlejuice on a Junkyard moon. It's unclear who murdered him or why, but he was very paranoid just before he was murdered, saying he was being followed because of something that had to do with the ship.

Furthermore, the Travellers discover that K'syah had a girlfriend (Pam) who might still be on the station. She should be employed at the upper section, which is off limits to lower section residents. She is the only lead who might lead the Travellers to the Galactic Dragon, to upgrade the Beetlejuice with parts that might be present there.

Chapter 5 - Deadly Choices

Bachus approaches the players in person, and asks them to make a delivery to Inchin. He has discovered the tracking device the Travellers planted on his ship. He assumes, however, it was put there by the Inchin Police. He intends to kill two birds with one stone by sending the players to make his final delivery.

At the drop-off point, the Travellers hide and wait for the “resistance” (who are plain smugglers and drifters) to pick up their shipment. They follow them into a large canyon. The smugglers inhabit a large technical facility, long since abandoned. The Travellers start their assault on the drifter’s base.

In the meanwhile, Bachus flees the system.

Chapter 6 - Assault

The Travellers continue to gain access to the facility. After defeating the drifters located there, they discover it used to belong to a cooperation named TechNet. They also find out that it's a back up power station to another facility. They follow the power traces to that second facility, deep in Inchin's dessert.

Chapter 7 - Biodome

The Travellers clear out the second abandoned TechNet facility on Inchin, which has been overtaken by insectoid predators. Their hivemother resides in the giant bio dome in the centre of the facility. They kill the aberration by flooding the dome. After that they discover the main function of the site: it's an archeological dig, a huge shaft that descends deep into Inchin. They discover that the site is meant to recover ancient artefacts. More specifically, they dug for the same strange substance that was stolen from Max by Takeda. It is reffered to as "Vril". Furthermore, they mine the computers and find an intact datalink with the Galactic Dragon, enabling them to find its current location.

They return to Takeda station and find that Bachus has fled. Instead, they are approached by a beautiful woman named Pam. She was the Aslan's girlfriend, before he got murdered by Takeda. She tells them Takeda is after them because they have information about Vril in their possession. The Travellers flee the station, accompanied by Pam. They locate the Galactic Dragon in the Inchin system, with the information they obtained in the TechNet facility, and decide to pay it a visit.

Chapter 8 - Enter the Dragon

After Baron Rowry of Inchin discoverd the presence of TechNet sites on his planet, he attacked the sites and destroyed most of them. The TechNet employees sent SOS messages, and the cooperation responded by sending their prime vessel, the Galactic Dragon. But the paranoid Rowry anticipated retaliation, and invested heavily in surface-to-space defence systems. While their mission was diplomatic, Rowry attacked the Dragon the moment it was in range. The vessel was not equipped for warfare on that scale, and was destroyed. The loss of the Dragon was the downfall of the struggling TechNet cooperation. Remaining employees were fired, the main assets were sold, and everything else was abandoned.

When the Travellers visit the Galactic Dragon, they discover it has since then become a town of sorts, home to Spacecowboys, Drifters and Pirates. It's led by a one armed Pirate named Ramsey. They trade with the locals and upgrade the Beetlejuice. Also, they hack the ships database and find out a lot more about their ship. It was an experimental TechNet ship employing the power of Vril as an alternative to normal Jump Technology.

The actual drive that is needed to jump with Vril was present in the Dragon, but it was sold to the three notorious junkers, and brought to their Junkyard moon of Elthan. Coincidentally, this was the same Junkyard where the Aslan hid the Beetlejuice, some 10 years ago. Luckily, one of the brothers visits the city, and takes some of the Travellers and Pamela to the moon to get the so-called "Fridge". With that device, the Travellers will finally be able to jump.

Chapter 9 - Takeda

On the Junkmoon of Elthan, things go horribly wrong. While Jack and Stacey are lifting the Vril drive into the spacetruck, Charles is out riding a space bike with one of the brothers. They discover a small fighter vessel, which attacks them. At the same time, Pam reveals herself to be Takeda. Obsessed by Vril technology, she attacks the Travellers on the junkmoon. Powered by Vril, her cybernetic body is capable of immense feats. Two of the brothers die in the battle, but in the end the fighter crashes into the junkyard, and Takeda is defeated with a huge amount of explosives. The Travellers flee the blazing moon, leaving the charred cybernetic remains of Takeda, but not without retrieving the piece of Vril that powered her. After returning to Dragon City, the Vril Drive is installed on the Beetlejuice, along with a gatling gun. They've defeated their opposition and are free to go where they want.

Session 10 - First Jump

When making the jump, it becomes apparent that jumpspace is fundamentaly different when using the Vril drive. Halfway the jump, the Beetljuice co-exists with another vessel for some 8 hours. The laws of physics are abandooned completely as they are able to pass through walls between the two ships. They explore the other ship, a huge, abandonned generation vessel from centuries ago. The horror ammounts to a climax as the see the shape of a huge, leather clad soldier through one of the doors. They escape the ship, and safely return from Jumpspace in the Tarsus system.

Another Youtube treasure

2012-01-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

See here another Youtube treasure. A seriously misguided, tendentious, piece. Kind of funny to see after all these years. Nowadays it's video games taking the blame, but back then it was Dungeons and Dragons.

Have half an hour to spare, look at the following review of Mazes and Monsters:

Longbow vs Crossbow

2012-01-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

Magnum, the dwarven ranger of our party is currently wielding a crossbow instead of a longbow. Hopefully, the next clip will pursuade him to change to longbow.

Unless he opts for the following weapon: Badass Automatic Crossbow, or even this one.

The first two sessions

2012-01-13T12:49:00.000-08:00

The partymembers were busy repairing their keep following the defeat of the orc warlord Gruumsh. One night, Zull was studying the stars when he saw a bright white light passing some 60 ft over his head. This light was also seen by Rupert devaillier de fleur, a halfling rogue that was travelling the lands in search of experience and new tales. The day following the light, the adventurers are visited by Thauster, Jelleneth and Rupert. Thauster requests to investigate the strange light, and the adventurers, bored stiff, happily comply.

Battle for the Caravan

After travelling for a few days, the party spotted a caravan that was under siege by a group of bandits. The adventurers quickly chose sides with the caravan and managed to fight off, actually kill, all of the attackers. During the battle, Rupert saw a figure silently observing the battle. Assuming the figure was the spellcaster of the attacking party, he attacked him with his slingstaff. The pellet stopped in mid-air and fell to the ground. The figure smiled at Rupert, waved and then dissappeared. The battle was a hard one, especially because Bronco was stunned. Fortunately, Zull came to the rescue with his pit-spell, entraping some of the attackers. When Gladwin was inspecting the battle site, he found out that his detect magic spell did not function near the wagon.

The caravan consisted of three wagons and an armoured carriage. The armored carriage was made of thick oak wood, and did not have any windows. Members of the caravan included: - Lisara, a noble on her way to her uncle Flavius - Lenore, het maid - Phinneas, the personal bodyguard of Lisara. Phinneas has worked as a mercenary before he selleled down as guard with Lisara's family. - Thomas, A very cocky and cowardly member of the caravan. Easy to get in conflict with

The caravan was set up in a circle and the party spend the night there.

Ambushed

The next day, the party decided to travel south with the caravan. Several days were uneventful, until one of the party members spotted an ambush. It quickly became clear that this ambush was not staged by the same group as had attacked the caravan several days before. These were mercenaries in uniform, all had the same red skull on their breast. The adventurers decided to use stealth over strength and to ambush the ambushers. Unfortunately, Gladwin stepped on a twig, setting off the events too early. During the battle, the party was aided by a dwarven ranger, who chose sides with the party after some observation. The battle was a particularly hard one on Bronco as he was knocked out and was brought to the brink of death. Fortunately, Gladwin brought some healing potions with which Bronco was revived. All of a sudden, the woods where the party was ambushed were filled with smoke. Some investigation by Zull learned that the smoke was not magical in nature, but was some simple alchemic mixture. When the smoke cleared, the party became aware that the caravan itself was under attack, so they rushed there to help. They found the armoured carriage in flames and rushed in to stop the fire.

Clearing up the mess, Gladwin realised that his detect magic spell was working in the proximity of the carriage. He mentioned this to Phinneas, and they requested an audience with Lisara. From her he learned that the magic cancelling effect was due to a magic lantern that was hanging on the carriage. It was an old family artifact, that was crafted hundreds of years ago by the wizard Malnoc. It seems like the magic item was the main target of the ambushers as the offence stopped the moment the item was stolen.

Naturally, the party offered to track the lantern to help Lisara. Zull ordered his familiar Edgar to scout for the fleeing mercenaries. With the aid of Edgar and the tracking skills of Magnum, the party soon found their trail. This trail led to an old ruin. Rupert sneaked up to the ruin. About halfway there he saw a boundary made of ash or salt. Since he doesn't have any spellcraft skills, he sneaked back to check with Zull and Gladwin where that was all about. Zull knew that these kind of barriers are commonly used to lock out outsiders, such as demons or devils. Reassured that it is not a trap, Rupert apporached the ruins once more and learned that there were about 20 mercenaries in camp. The leader of the mercenaries was clearly recognisable, a tall and exceptionally broad woman. She was accompanied by a cleric, who was carrying the holy symbol of Lathander.

Rupert decided that their best chance was to approach the opposing party in the open. He together with Zull and Magnum approached the camp with their hands above their heads. They told Chiva, the female leader of the mercenaries and Markos the human cleric of Lathander that they were escorting the caravan, and that they were searching for the magic lantern. But, that, on seeing that the mercenaries were supported by a cleric of Lathander, they realised they were fighting for the wrong side. The party and the mercenaries negotioated a trade of information. The party gave information about the caravan, the mercenaries about their mission.

It turned out that the mercenary corpse, the red company, was hunting down the caravan because Lisara killed a nobleman in the nearby city of Everlund. Chiva also told that the quiet maiden look of Lisara is just a facade. In reality, she is a vampire, kin to a family of vampires. To make matters more complex, this particularly family of vampires is known to worship demons. Thats why the mercenaries have taken the necessary precautions to lock demons out of the camp using the salt barrier.

The day after, the party helps the mercenaries in their attack on their former allies. When they arrive at the spot where they have left the caravan they find all of the caravan members murdered. The armoured carriage is searched by Bronco. He smashes the floor of the carriage and finds a double floor with a coffin underneath. Lisara is nowhere to be seen, however, the party finds a charred skeleton with a stake in its chest.

Outside, the rest of the party sees the silent observer again. He uses an area spell to kill off all of the mercenaries in one blow, with the exception of Chiva, their leader. Again, the silent observer is spotted, but unlike during the first encounter, he summons an aberation, smiles and moves away. What followed was a fierce battle with the aberation. During the battle Chiva died, leaving only the cleric of the original mercenary squat.

Outstanding questions:

who is the silent observer?
What is the white light
Who was Malnoc?
Is anything known about Lisara's vampire family?
What about the noble in Everlund?

Update: Some corrections and additions by the DM, and with some links to Forgotten Realms lore

DnD Next: A new edition of Dungeons and Dragons

2012-01-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

The word is out, Wizards are working on a new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. After Basic Dungeons and Dragons, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd edition, 3rd edition, 3.5 and 4th edition, the stage is now for DnD Next. Below are some of my favorite comments on the news (will add new ones when i find new favorites):

ENworld. Morris was building up anticipation for a long time, only to have the NY times negate the embargo, but still, he has the best story!
The escapist: Speak Your Mind in the Next Version of Dungeons & Dragons
Sarah Darkmagic's take on the news
Robert J. Schwalb explains why he has been quiet on the blog lately
Excellent in depth discussion on must have features in DnD:Next
MJ Harnish has a more sceptical approach on Wired's Geek Dad

Personally, I'm excited to see where this goes. I'm a big fan of 3rd edition (and Pathfinder for that matter), and never really cared for 4th edition. I'm excited to see where the player input is going to take us. I'd love to see at least the following points:

Respect for the content of previous editions.I understand that support for settings as Al Quadim and Ravenloft is not commercially viable, but I would like to be able to integrate the stuff into my campaigns with not too much effort.
I'm a big believer in the OGL. I think that the major revival of RPGs in the last 10 years is thanks to this mechanism. I hope Wizards bring it back
I hope they let go of the tight integration with a battle map. I don't like playing with miniatures too much, and to my taste this gets too much emphasis in 4E

I like the following quote from the original wizards article:

Our mission is to ensure that D&D enters its next 40 years as a vibrant, growing, and exciting game.

A great positive thing about todays news is the amount of commitment that Wizards shows to the future survival of Dungeons and Dragons. If you want to join the discussion, Twitter is on fire at the moment. Look for the hash-tag #dndnext. And look at the #5Erumors hashtag for the more humourous contributions UPDATE: Enworld is collecting al the information about the new edition on a single page

The Dungeons and Dragons Experience

2012-01-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

Browsing on youtube I found the documentary The Dungeons and Dragons Experience. The documentary is originally showed at Gen Con. The resolution is fairly low, but it is still amazing. Do yourself a favor and watch it:

RPG.net has a review of the DVD edition of this documentary.

We Be Goblins! - The face behind the random encounter

2011-09-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

We all know them, the random encounters that spice up the dull backroads of a beat-down forrest or the stench of a too average sewer. But what stories lie behind these poor creatures that we kill for a few copper pieces and some XP?

We be goblins
The great folks at Paizo let us take a look behind the screens, and let us experience what it is like to be a random encounter. This adventure is an adventure for four (or more, just add water) 1st level goblin characters, for Pathfinder.

The adventure begins in the village of the Licktoad goblins of Brinestump Marsh. They have found some treasure that has them excited beyond the max: Fireworks! The goblin that found the treasure has been exiled from the village for writing (bad, bad, bad, stealing words from poor goblins heads, that cannot be tolerated). A party is gathered to follow the map of the exiled goblin to a shipwreck full of fireworks.

In the course of the adventure the heroes fight lots'o'legs, cannibalistic goblins, and, mostly, themselves. Armed with their dogslicers and filled with visciousness they go on their path to seek out this great treasure.

What follows is a great adventure that lends itself perfectly for an evening of beer-and-pretzel gaming. We had so much fun with it that we decided to start up a series of oddball campaigns*), and make this one a continuing campaing. You can download the adventure here for free (or buy the print version).The adventure serves as a preview for both Pathfinder Player Companion: Goblins of Golarion and the Jade Regent adventure path. After this adventure, I'm very much looking forward to both these products!

*)I will blog about the oddballs later, they will include Army Ants, Gamma World, Turtles, Kobolds ate my baby and more...

Back from the dead

2011-06-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I had any new posts on Behold the Dice. Offline priorities, choices, inspiration, etc.

Posting will continue any day now, beginning with an account of what you have missed in the Traveller and Pathfinder campaigns

Traveller - Into the great divide

2011-04-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

Friday night was Traveller Night. Here a quick write up of the events of the evening: The last episode ended with the group trying to start the loader they found. Unfortunately the loader did not have any fuel cells left. So the search for fuel cells was on.

Destroyed settlement
The arm in which we found the abandoned loader turned to an end after 50 meters. We knew that there were no cells to the left, as that was the canyon leading to the steel door. So we investigated the canyon straight ahead. About half a kilometer, we saw a small settlement of three bio-dome tents. Cautiously we brought the raft nearer to investigate. One of the tents was shredded to pieces. Behind the tent was a large hole in the ground with, which looked like, a generator on the bottom. Jack jumped from the raft and tried to open the door. When the combination lock did not work, he became impatient and put his shotgun against the tent, destroying the tent in the process. Inside we did not find the sought-after cells.

Insectoids
From upon the raft it was clear that the generator still worked. So that became our main interest. Again, the impatient nature of our friend Jack nearly killed him. He descended from a steel staircase that was fixed to the side of the hole. Halfway the stairs, two large, praying mantice-like creatures emerged from pigeonholes in the side of the hole. Startled by this sight, jack descended the stairs as quickly as possible. On the bottom of the hole he took his shotgun and blasted one of the creatures to a gooey paste.

Fortunately for him, Ed was rushing in to do his part in the slaying. This could not prevent the insects from taking a few good bites from Jack. On the brink of death, Jack was, once again, saved by Dr Max Alder.
[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="488" caption="Saviour of the day"][/caption]

Using the Loader
Charles climbed onto the loader and tried to steer the thing towards the metal plate. Fortunately for him, the wind shield on the loader was as good as bullet proof. The gun turrets we encountered earlier fired their ammo full blast on the loader. Suffering from the same impatience bug as Jack, Charles started charging into the wall. This did not have the effect he hoped. Studying the controlpanel he noticed a button protected by a plastic cover. Always good news! He pushed the button and saw a sonic blast building up at the tip of the pinchingarm of the loader. He aimed the blast at the soft rock to the left of the metal plate. This was enough to bring the heavy plate down.

Fighting the guard
Once inside we saw that the canyon led to a large open-roofed cave. The cave was heavily guarded by human guards and gun turrets. Swift action of Ed ensured that the guards could not use the turrets against us. No all to serious injuries were sustained in the battle that followed.

Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society

2011-04-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

In the seventies and early eighties, Traveller had it's own, dedicated, magazine. The magazine was called after the society in the original Traveller universe which aided wanderers across the galaxy with low-lost hostels in starports, and by providing a sort of Hitchhikers guide.

24 issues
The magazine was started by GWD. In total 24 issues were made. After the 24th issue, and the demise of GWD, the magazine continued as Challenge. The magazine featured new rules, adventures, fiction, background materials and Traveller news (see the free table of contents for a complete overview).

Online magazine
Currently, Steve Jackson Games publishes a bi-weekly online Traveller magazine, also called the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society, or JTAS for short.

Reissue as PDF
The complete run of the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society can be found at RPGnow

The best of the RPG blogs - week 16

2011-04-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

The challenge of making money
Monte Cook, one of the epic heroes of RPG writing talks about his experiences with making money as a freelance RPG writer. The way he describes it, the DC must be at least 35. So, even if you "take 20", which you can't if you're going professional, you have to be seriously skilled. Bottom line: It's hard making a living as a RPG designer, so don't quit your day jobs, boys and girls!
Link

Gamma World: Europe in 2162 Part I: Geography

2011-04-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

The year is 2162. 150 years ago a scientific experiment conducted in Geneva, Switzerland went terribly wrong. This event would be known as The Big Mistake. Instantly, all possible parallel worlds were condensed into one single reality.

In a series of posts, Behold the Dice will sketch a vision of what is left of Europe in Gamma World

The big changes
The costal regions of north-western Europe have fought a battle against the invading sea for centuries. In the events following the Big Mistake, the sea got the upper hand and claimed vast stretches of land. This has changed the coastal line of western Europe dramatically. In addition, several large cities, in particular the cities of Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin are nog submerged some 10 to 30 meters below sea level.

Temperature
Gradually over the past 150 years, temperatures have been rising as a result of the more corrosive atmospheres on some of the merged worlds. Seasons still hold, with hot and damp tropical summers, and bleak and wet winters. Autumn and fall are not well defined. Both are a periods of 1 or 2 months in which the weather slides from chilly to hot and vice versa.

The landscape
With the loss of a substantial part of society, nature has taken back control again in Europe. The costal region consists of mixed forrests and plains. In central Europe, vast pine forrests, ranging from the German western border to well within Russia have become dark and dangerous places.

Islands
The changes in coastal line have produced a series of new islands. Ireland has split into two islands of equal size. In addition, Bretange has become an island, and the south of Sweden has become an island. The most important new island is the city of London that is surrounded by seawater. The suburbs of the city have been taken by the sea, but the majority of the city rises proud above the waves.

Mountain Ranges
On the peaks of Europe not much has changed, apart from the glaciers, which are by now almost extinct. The cooler climate high in the Alps and Pyrenees have drawn several clans.

Amazon.com Widgets

Traveller inspiration

2011-04-19T04:58:00.000-07:00

Space: 1970 is an excellent blog that features artwork, photo's etc. from science fiction shows and films from the 1970's. Take a look at this wonderful picture of a capital ship.

The picture is from the 1979 science fiction film The Black Hole. The film tells the story of the crew of the Palomino that boards the long-lost ship Cygnus. Here they have to stand up to faceless robots that have unhealthy plans for the visitors.

The best links of week 15

2011-04-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

It's Link-sunday again here on Behold the Dice. Reading the gaming blogs so you won't have to.

Adventure Design Deskbook
The Underdark gazette takes Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook Volume One for a testdrive. They show how an adventure is made using the random tables from the book. I'm really curious about the book!
Link

Thousand Suns
James Maliszewski talks on Grognardia about his Sci Fi RPG Thousand Suns. It's a game with limited background information. He talks about the challenges you have to face as a DM running an open ended sandbox campaign in the SciFi genre, while your characters have their own starship.
Link
Thousand Suns can be bought here from RPGNow and here from Rogue Games themselves.

Languages
Kobold Quarterly has a great post on the working of the Speak Languages skill. The skill doesn't work as a skill, since you either know a language or you don't. In the blog, the skill is modified to work as a skill, with examples of DCs for different tasks etc. I never really thought of this one, bu I like it! This will be employed in our campaigns.
Link

Traveller inspitation
The Zhodani base links to 5 free ebooks from the project Gutenberg to use as inspiration for your Traveller game. It's old stuff, but good stuff.
Link

Some of my own books for Traveller inspiration:

Amazon.com Widgets

Gamma World adventure
Sly Flourish has an exciting Gamma World adventure on his blog. Go check it out!
Link

Review: Kobold Quarterly 17

2011-04-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

This month, the 17th number of Kobold Quarterly was released. For those of you unfamiliar with Kobold Quarterly, Kobold Quarterly is a quarterly magazine focussing on Pathfinder, Dungeon and Dragons 4th edition, Dragon Age, and system neutral materials. Since the demise of Dragon, it is the sole torchbearer of quality RPG magazines.

Kobold Quarterly 17 is packed with ideas and resources for your games, review of fiction, and questions and answers. A few highlights of issue 17 are:

Rules for archenemies
This article from Michael Kortes describes a series of rules to make the recurring villain in your campign even more memorable. A really nice approach is to give characters certain benefits, such as improved diplomacy when aquiring information on the villain, or an extra 5 foot step to represent the extra mile characters are willing to go to slay the villain.

Interview with Jeff Tidball
The interview with Jeff Tidball (twitter) focusses on the practical aspects of game designing and working as a freelancer in the games industry. Very valuable to see a little bit of the inside of the industry.

Secret of the Four Golden Gates
This article describes new societies and new items for monks. A monks weapon that is presented in the article is a magic prayer wheel. Somehow it's a funny thought seeing a monk beating the living daylights out of a drow using a prayer wheel.

Fireworks
Jonathan McAnulty writes an article on fireworks, and the magical effects they can have. These effects range from being blinded to sustaining damage, and finding the way north in the wilderness.

Kobold Quarterly shows that there is an important place for print or PDF magazines in addition to all the online content that is out there. The articles and artwork in this issue generally are of a higher quality and higher editorial standards than blogs and other online content.

Kobold Quarterly is available in print and pdf

Farewell 2nd edition

2011-04-13T02:28:00.000-07:00

A little over six months ago we started a 2nd edition advanced Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The reasons we started the campaign was out of nostalgia for our old books, and to be able to play Night Below in the original edition. Now, six months later, we decided to leave 2nd edition and move to Pathfinder.

Amazing
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition is amazing! The history of the game, the depth of the products, the quality of the boxes, maps and artwork are all top notch. At the risk of contributing to the Edition Wars that are fought on forums and blogs alike, let me explain why we made this depatrure.

Rules
Playing 2nd edition again, after many years, really made me admire the work and effort that went into Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition. Advaced dungeons and Dragons is an organic ruleset, grown and adapted over many years, and the rules reflect this. In our group we had the growing sensation that the rules did not facilitate the game. Let's face it, the rules of 2nd edition aren't really all that streamlined or balanced. Now, this may not be a bad thing. A lot can be attributed to playing, and DMming style, etc. but still. I can say that 2nd edition isn't really all that suited to govern our playing style.

Playing style
We like to play a fast-paced game. Both in terms of style during sessions as in terms of character advancement. Our style can be characterized as epic or heroic, or pulp-fantasy if you like. The ruleset of Pathfinder natively supports this style, 2nd edition not so much. For instance, we like to use a lot of skills. Let's face it, its fun to roll dice, and we like to succeed. The thrill of succeeding a tumble check to get past an opponent, followed by an jump and acrobatics check to swing from a chandelier, and to finally make an attack against the villain on the balcony. That kind of stuff.

Living system
Last, and certainly not least, I want to be part of a living system again. 2nd edition with it's huge legacy is amazing, but largely static. It doesn't have the creative energy of the retrogaming community. Nor does it provide the thrill of buying brand new books and incorporating them in the campaign. Again, not for everybody, but it is something that appeals to me in Pathfinder.

To conclude
2nd edition is amazing. However as of the next gaming session were converting Night Below to Pathfinder. I'm very much looking forward to it.

*) Picture of edition wars is by the Weem, check him out!

The best links of week 14

2011-04-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Each week Behold the Dice brings you the best blogposts of the week delivered in a nice crispy package. Without further adue:

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
The hopeless gamer features a review of the graphic novel Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, a graphic novel published by Dark Horse comics. As a fan of Fritz Leiber I'm very much looking forward to this one.
Link

Pricing
There has been some debate on pricing of RPGs, following Adamant Entertainment’s very low pricing of their products. Long story short, initially Adamant Entertainment sold more copies of their products, but the beneficial effect did not last long. Inkwell Idea's explains what they think is a suitable price for RPGs in PDF-format.
Link

Kobold Quarterly 17
The good folks at Kobold Quarterly have released another issue of Kobold Quarterly: Number 17. Look here for the contents.
Available here

Larry Elmore Western Art
We all know Larry Elmore's art from the elaborate dragon paintings he did. Grognardia posted some pictures from a different genre: Western. Fantastic to see this master in another genre.
Link

The best links of week 13

2011-04-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

Pole arms
You think you know your weapons, right? Especially the pole arms hold no surprises for you. You know your halberd, glaive, spear, even the exotic naginata. Well, think again. Do this test at Wizards to see where you stand. My score? An 8 out of 22
Link

Artwork from MERP
Tales from the tower http://iguanaslair.blogspot.com/ regularly publishes artwork and maps from the Middle Earth Role Playing game (MERP). Look at this wonderful collection of drawings:
Link

Space 1889
Frank Chadwick started a blog on Space:1889, and the steampunk genre in general. In the first posts he talks about France in the world of Space:1889, and on the position of steam punk in the pubishing industry.
Link

How to survive a gaming convention
Sly Flourish http://slyflourish.com/ Has a funny and insightful post on how to survise a gming covention.
Link

Traveller: Summary of first five chapters

2011-03-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

You are in the backwater Inchin system, in the Spinward Marches. Inchin is a poor desert planet owned by a guy named Iarl Rowri, an exentric rich guy who bought his own planet, sure he could make a lot of money there. He has met a lot of setbacks and has not succeeded as of yet. Inchin now has a kind of totalitarian regime. Rowry apparently lives in a palace (!) at the only town on Inchin, called Rowri's Folly by people off planet.

Takeda Station orbits Inchin. It used to be a mining/industrial base, but Rowri sold it to Takeda beacause he needed the money. This was 15 years ago. You have no idea who or what this Takeda guy is.

You've all arrived at Takeda station, killed some rats, bought a weird ship (without a jumpdrive) named Beetlejuice of an old geezer named Finkle.

You don't really have a purpose here, but are bound to the system because you have no transport. The only one with a purpose here is Max. His research was stolen, and after some investigation it appears the assignment came from the Inchin system. He has no other clues.

You did some mining runs for an independent group of miners, opposing the League of Miners and prospectors and a trader named Bachus, who owns a 500 ton far trader "The Predator".

Security Inspector Reichmann of the Inchin Police asked you to check out Bachus, because he appears to deliver weapons to the Inchin resistance.

It turns out your ship belonged to an alien (Aslan) named K'syah. He found the ship right there in the system, a dangerous place he refers to as the "Galactic Dragon". He doesn't want you to know where it is, because it's a dangerous place. You did discoverer this Galactic Dragon must be a large vessel.

This K'syah person was murdered about 10 years ago, after he hid the ship. It's unclear who murdered him or why, but he was very paranoid just before he was murdered, saying he was being followed because of something that had to do with the ship.

K'syah had a girlfriend who might still be on the station, but she's employed at the upper section, which is off limits to lower section folk. Maybe she could lead you to the location of the Galactic Dragon.

You broke into The Predator to discover a small ships boat inside, which could be used for smuggling runs. You planted a tracking device with a range of 1000 miles. Maybe that way you can catch Bachus red-handed.

Sessions so far:
Chapter 1 - Rat Hive Exodus
Chapter 2 - Beetlejuice
Chapter 3 - Spacetruckers (in Dutch)
Chapter 4 - The Lion and the Dragon (Dutch)
Chapter 5 - Deadly Choices

Traveller: From the files of Max Adler

2011-03-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

The laboratory was in shambles. Max just stood there, perplexed. His papers were all over the place. His set-ups lay on the ground, shattered. Geiger-counters were ticking like mad. He didn't have to look to know that it would be gone. The object of his research, the thing he affectionately called his "marble of wonder". And sure enough, the container lay on the ground, taken from the freezer. It had been opened, and both the marble and the protective box it came in were gone. Years of research... all in vain. He had been so close to unlocking it's secret. Who could have stolen it? Who even knew it existed, besides a few members of the university? It had disappeared just as mysteriously as he had received it.

Isis
Isis was her name, a beautifull black physicist working on the university, who he had never spoken to before. They had a brief relationship, and she asked him to take a look at an object with strange magnetic properties. She had received it from a friend, she said, and apparently someone had been murdered for it. It wasn't the only victim the object would claim. Isis had not been careful enough during her first contact with the quicksilver-like liquid, shaped like small sphere. She contracted strange radiation sickness and died two months after Max had met her. He had retained the object and examined it ever since.

Max spotted something on the container the marble and the box had been in. Some sod had taken the thing from the freezer with his bare hands! These must have been dumb ruffians, working for somebody else, who had no idea the container would be extremely cold. Small patches of skin stuck to the metallic cylinder. At least he had some DNA to go on...

From the files of Max Adler:
"Topological states with non-Abelian anyons describe a new phase of matter. When there are excitations in the topological quantum liquids, there are gaps between the excitations and the ground state. The topological origin and the gap protect the anyons from environmental decoherence." ~Max Adler

Love, Max

Traveller: Chapter V - Deadly choices

2011-03-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

Friday night was our group's monthly Traveller night. We're playing the fifth session.

Baccus' request
There we were, hanging out in Murphy's again. Hank Williams was playing on the jukebox, and we were enjoying our beers. "You boys and girls want a drink", Baccus asked. "Sure, anytime. Sit down", our reply was. It turned out Baccus needed us to make a run. Apparently, he was double booked for this week. Yeah right! As if it had nothing to do with making smuggle runs to the planet. I guess he is feeling Reichman's heat, and doesn't want to burn himself this time. What he doesn't know, or seems to know, is that, for the time being, we are in the same ballpark as Reichman. Anyway, a gig is a gig, and this baby would earn us 10.000 credits in a day, half up front. Perhaps we find some useful information to sell back to Reichman as a nice bonus. If we're real lucky we can even nail that bastard Baccus, we'll see.

Making the run
For 10.000 credits we have to deliver two 250 kg heavy crates to some predefined coordinates on Inchin. With the crates loaded Jack can't hold his curiosity any longer, and has to try the activation code of Baccus' ship, 5382, on the lock on one of the crates. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, and the light display on the crate seems to indicate that attempt one of three has been used.
We decided not to meddle with the crates any longer. The run into Inchin's atmosphere was a smooth ride, thanks to the excellent flying skills of Jol Nar.

At the delivery point, no one was waiting for us. We decided to drop off the crates and to fly the beetle juice to a nearby mesa were we could spy on the spot without a too large change of being spotted in return. After a while we see a raft approaching the crates. A group of X, presumed rebels pick up the crates and leave in the direction they came from. We had our own raft ready, and pursued the rebels to see if we could learn something interesting.

Steel plate
Going 140 km per hour through a narrow canyon required the full attention of Jol Nar. We came across a crossing with a second canyon, but did not give it much thought, and went straight ahead. Just around the corner of a slight curve in the canyon a big steel plate, the size of the canyon, was blocking our way. Jol Nar managed to stop the raft just in time before getting crushed on the surface of the plate. All of a sudden we heard the familliar buss of gun turrets targeting. Jolnar took the raft in full reverse while Ed and Charles were emptying their combat riffles on the turret muzzles.

Contacting Reichman
Back at Takeda station we contacted Reichman. The information we told him was not necessarily new information, but we did manage to get a new assignment. Even if this amounts to nothing, we still have our backs covered as far as the authorities are concerned.

Going back
We took the beetlejuice back to Inchin and got the raft out. following the exact trail as the first time, we arrived at the junction between the two canyons. Instead of going straight to the metal wall again, now we decided to take a turn for the left. Here we found an enormeous loader. Figuring this might come in handy when approaching the steel wall, we tried to start is. Alas, the power cells were drained. Next session we have to look for a way to power the loader. But, with Max and Stacey combined, that shouln't be too much of a challenge.

The sessions we played so far:
Chapter I - Rat Hive Exodus
Chapter II - Beetlejuice
Chapter III - Spacetruckers
Chapter IV - The Lion and the Dragon
Chapter V - Deadly Choices