Sorry for the complete lack of updates over the past several months. I generally wrote articles and updated while at work when on break and the like but last October due to the crazy weather situations work got insanely busy and I was pretty much full throttle until a week or so ago.

I’ve kept up the campaign and there has been an evolution in player lineup, major plot points have been uncovered, and tasty treats have become a weekly routine. So please accept my apologies for the lack of posts and look for new and exciting articles and chronicles of gameplay to come your way soon.

-DM

Thank you all for following this blog! Its surprising we have 50 followers, especially since this isn’t the blog of a hot nerd girl (I’d say it was but my bluff skill is far too low). Your feedback is always appreciated and your questions and submissions are highly anticipated. Now to go level up and distribute my skill point (Hint:Tomorrow this blog might start being ran by a hot nerd girl).

Thanks again, everybody!

Alignments can become a sticky subject and can end up railroading players into making actions they don’t really want to, or causing group cohesion to fall apart. Rather than use them as a strict rule for a character think of it more as a general philosophy and take on the world. In addition it’s often hard to find good examples of each. We will be covering the 3.5e alignments today but within them contain the 4e alignments so it applies to both.

Lawful Good – This character is the by the books cop. She fights for what is good while upholding the law. Examples: Superman and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Lawful Neutral – Your average citizen. For the most part they follow the law and do what’s in their best interest, or perhaps they follow the law because it is in their best interest. Examples: Bounty hunters and Judge Dredd.

Lawful Evil – He wants to commit acts of villainy, but breaking the law or personal code is unacceptable. Again, self preservation might be the motivation or he might have an extremely strict set of rules guiding him or could have superior officers keeping him in line. Examples: Darth Vader and Dexter (his “code” being considered law).

True Neutral – This character does as they wish, if it is convenient they might steal but they don’t go out of their way to make a point of it. They are the Switzerland of alignments. Examples: Doctor Manhattan, mindless animals, and referees.

Chaotic Good – She fights for what is right but doesn’t mind doing some wrong for the greater good. Often take up an extremist cause. Examples: Robin Hood, Dr. Horrible, and Batman.

Chaotic Neutral – She is out for herself. It’s a very gray area which allows players to be selfish without having to take a fully neutral stance. Examples: Han Solo in the beginning (he later can be considered Lawful Good when he comes back to help on the Death Star assault), Wario, and the Joker (arguably).

Chaotic Evil – She wants to wants to maim and slaughter and do all sorts of evil deeds, and she will not be stopped by any laws. These characters are villains at their most pure. Examples: Serial Killers, Simon Pheonix of Demolition Man, and Darth Sidious/Emporer Palpatine.

We had a week off due to an overwhelming schedule on my part but will resume this Wednesday in full force, with plenty of combat and (I suspect) celebratory shenanigans… if they succeed.

The group arrived at the destination, a house in the city and found it inhabited by a rather charismatic albeit borderline arrogant man. He opened the box and removed a brooch which he then placed upon himself instantly turning him a little more likable. He introduced himself as Nuance Nor, stating that he was of minor fame for being the city’s arena announcer and gave his thanks for giving the box to him just in time. He then proposed to them that he could get them into the games so long as 10% of the prize money was given to him as a finder’s fee. The group managed to talk him down to 8% and the deal was made.

They then made their way to the registration office, and then to a third party bookie so that they could bet on themselves. In this town there is official betting at the arena however to bet on yourself you must go through a 3^rd party. The Paladin, Sorceress, and Scout pooled together 6g at 3:1 odds hoping to triple their money, the Rogue obstained and the Druid was acquiring a new animal companion.

The group then split a bit more with the Paladin visiting a temple then helping to feed the needy, the others besides the druid hit the bars in search of booty and free board. The Rogue managed to bag a gentleman who was a 3/10 but bad luck struck more than once. Upon asking her performance she rolled a 1 on percentage dice. At that point before I could even say something she asked if she was raped. At that point I really had no way out and said that, that was in fact the case.

The next day after hearing about the rape the Sorceress, Scout, and Paladin decided to confront the man. He answered the door but quickly shut it after the commotion. The Paladin upon realizing he could not enter illegally decided to go get some guards while the other two decided to barge in after the man and assault him. The Sorceress made it clear the area she was aiming for and managed a crit. They left quickly and the Paladin and the police arrived shortly after to find the man curled on the ground crying and shouting inaudibly.

…to be continued.

We started this session with the players eagerly awaiting their reward for slaying the ghouls. Once the mayor had collected items and presented them to the group the Paladin declined saying that the town would need any supplies more than they would, to the dismay of the other players. They then set on their journey to Noonday, the capital city of this island-state Arkus.

During the way they decided to camp very near to the path after rolling low on a survival check. During the first watch something was heard and the Druid cast Light onto an arrow and the Scout shot it in that direction, the noise scurried off and they went back to sleep. The second watch was not so lucky, after failing their listen checks they were ambushed by a handful of Derro. Derro are dwarf like blue creates that dwell underground and in my opinion look like a blue version of the Leprechaun from the Leprechaun series.

They managed to win the fight mostly with the Druid using her healing abilities for the first time and help from an NPC. Everyone in the group acquired a +2 short sword which provided the Rogue with a better weapon and everyone else with a backup weapon.

They made it the rest of the way without incident and soon arrived at the sprawling port city. Due to geography they are the primary place for ship repairs, and due to the mining operations on the volcanic (dormant) south end of the island it was rather booming. As they entered the heart of the city their NPC gave them a small box to deliver and said he would return with the final payments.

To be continued…

Critical hits as per the book state that to make a critical hit you must roll within the crit range of your weapon. To confirm a crit you must roll within your weapon’s weapon range then then pass another attack roll. This is the official take about criticals in 3.5e. That said I have never played with a group where you had to roll to confirm a crit. In the same respect I’ve never played with a group where a natural 1 was not considered an epic failure or fumble.

These two house rules in combination add some unpredictability to the game. In any given battle there will likely be at least one critical hit or failure. A critical hit does as the book states; you apply your weapon’s critical modifier to your damage. As for a critical failure, that gets a bit more variety.

Generally speaking when you critically fail your weapon either breaks or leaves your hands and you get an attack of opportunity from any adjacent enemies. One DM recently bought a directional die, and uses that plus a d4 and your strength modifier to establish where the weapon lands. This really only works well for melee weapons. For ranged weapons a break of some sort is often the answer whether it is the entire gun or just a string. Another option is a misfire which hits a friends target if they happen to be near the intended target.

In my early days as a player, I joined a group and rolled a critical failure which hit a tentatively allied NPC who then turned on us. It essentially shifted the entire route of the campaign. While these can often shift the momentum of a battle they spice up the combat considerably, and there is no greater proof than the giddiness a player gets after hearing that he has just ruthlessly decapitated an ogre.

For session 3 and I decided to try some new music. After browsing the last.fm gamer stations I found that most of them were not all that great. After an hour or so of trying I decided to quickly try and find a John Williams station but because it was mid game and I was DMing at the time I settled on the Classical/Contemporary station. I have to say that it worked extremely well.

More than once someone would mention how fitting the music seemed, and indeed so when I had the players fighting ghouls in a graveyard it set the scene very nicely.  I think it fit better than the Minibosses station, and for tonight’s session I will attempt to find a John Williams station prior to starting.

(sorry for the delay)

That night they decided to investigate the graveyard, as they entered they hear eerie moans and soon discovered they were ghouls. One by one the ghouls emerged from the tree line until 6 of them were present, followed by a larger ghoul. The fight was close, and I admit was the first fully honest fight I’ve given them.  Metagaming become an issue, especially with one player. I ended up having to speak over him on several occasions and it became quite frustrating at times.

In the end the paladin was knocked unconscious but stabilized quickly. The druid fell right as well; right before they downed the large ghoul (loud cheering occurred). Since nobody else in the party had a healing spell to stabilize them the party searched for her potions while she attempted to stabilize. They ended up breaking one healing potion and then feeding her a potion that made her vomit. In the end she stabilized at -5.

The group went back to town dragging the paladin and druid, went to the house they were staying in while their main NPC berated them for doing something like that. In the morning they woke up and essentially demanded a reward from the mayor who was cooking them breakfast despite none being offered previously. She said she would ask around town to see what they could offer and that’s where the party left off.

I felt that for the first time the group felt as though their characters were in mortal peril. This is exactly what I planned for and hope that I can recreate that sort of feeling with the full group. Previous fights had all been made rather easy to allow them to get used to combat, and while they were unconfident in their ability to survive they seemed at home with their spells and attacks.