Module: Death By Chocolate

Overview:
This is a just-for-fun one-shot Halloween/Easter module that doesn't take place in any particular universe or time period. This module's major gimmick is that it uses various types of candy instead of miniatures, and players get to eat what they kill.  It is not designed for any particular setting, though it does mention magic, Half-Orcs, Gnomes, and Half-Elves.  Even so, the story could easily be converted to most settings.

Preparation:
For starters, you'll need to buy some candy. What kind is up to you, though you do want pieces that can fit in 1x1 squares, as well as a few 2x2 sized candies. A variety would would be good, to represent the different kinds of monsters in the module. You might want to check with your players first to see if they have any special likes/dislikes or dietary restrictions. For sanitary reasons, I would use wrapped candies.  Good choices would be Hershey's Kisses, Starburst, Reese's Minis, and Rolos.

My suggested grocery list:
Hershey's Kisses (10) [Chocolate Zombies]
Reese's Miniatures (4) [Lesser Choclan]
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (2) [Choclan]
Reese's Big Cup (1) [Greater Choclan]
Rolos (4) [Carm Hounds]
Starburst (5 total; 4 must be different flavors)  [Fruit Imps]
Chocolate Bunny or other 2x2 chocolate character [Boss]
Ring Pops or Chocolate Coins [Treasure]

The Module:
"For whatever reason, your party has been traveling together for a few months now. You're on the road one night, and it's starting to get late. You're thinking about finding a good place to set up camp, when you see a side road. The road leads downhill into a valley, where you see a tiny town surrounded by farmland. The town wasn't on your map, probably because it's so small. But it looks like a good place to spend the night; better than sleeping in the woods, anyway."

"As you walk down the hill, you pass a sign that says 'Welcome to Hushley. Home of the World Famous Hushley Chocolate Factory.' Anybody want to give me a History check?" (Medium DC) Success: "You actually remember Hushley chocolates from when you were a kid. But you haven't seen them in years; you thought they'd stopped making them." Failure: "You've never heard of Hushley chocolates."

"The road leads straight into downtown, which is basically a single street lined with houses on both sides. Some of the houses double as businesses, with small signs that say things like 'Barber' or 'Blacksmith'. A few have candles flickering in the windows, but the only building that actually looks lively is the inn. The inn is about three houses down on the left. As you look farther down the street, you see that eventually the houses end, and the road starts to go back uphill. Farther up the hill, the road ends at a large mansion. There are no lights on in the mansion, and it looks to be in a state of disrepair. Most of the windows are broken, the shutters have fallen off, and a new paint job couldn't hurt."

Hopefully the PCs will stop at the Inn before checking out the mansion. However, if they head straight for the mansion, have someone stop them. Make up an NPC, possibly one of the patrons from the Inn below. "Hey, you! What are you doing? Don't go in there!" When the PCs ask about the mansion, have the NPC offer to tell them all about it, if they'll come to the inn first. Or just have the NPC tell them the whole story right here.

The Inn:
"All eyes are on you as you enter the inn. You see a bartender, a waitress, and eight patrons, all of whom stop their conversations as you walk through the door. They don't look angry or suspicious, just curious. This town probably doesn't get a lot of visitors."

The Bartender is friendly and offers the PCs a cheap room. The other patrons are eager to meet the out-of-towners, and some offer their various services to try to earn a little money. Eventually the PCs will probably ask about the mansion or the Chocolate Factory. It doesn't matter much who the PCs talk to, they all know the history of the town, and they all love to retell the story. As one patron relates the story, other patrons constantly interrupt with the parts they want to tell. If you want to expand this roleplay portion of the adventure, give each of them unique personalities and their own insights into the events.

The Inn Staff and Patrons:
William Leaubrau (Bartender) Human, Male. Very friendly and likes to tell stories.
Veruca Leaubrau (Waitress) Human, Female. Daughter of William. A bit lazy and distracted; tends to get drink orders wrong.
Augustus Durtham (Farmer) Human, Male. Doesn't say much, mostly grunts and nods. His sheep have been getting slaughtered lately.
Josephine Fitchpork (Farmer) Human, Female. Factory widow. Since her husband died, has been seeing her farmhand Gene.
Gene Strong (Farm Hand) Half-Orc, Male. Works for Josephine. Big and strong. Not very bright, but good heart.
Violet Lawton (Sheriff) Human, Female. Factory widow. Promoted from deputy after Sheriff Marlow died investigating the factory.
Michael Lennon (Clothier) Human, Male. Factory widower. Very manly (overcompensating), likes to show off his muscles.
Georgina Honeycutt (Barber) Human, Female. Factory widow. Always commenting on other people's hairstyles.
Charles Cook (Chef) Half-Elf, Male. Used to work at Chocolate Factory, had the day off when accident occurred. Always snacking.
Dodo Hushley (Undertaker) Gnome, Female. Niece of Reese Hushley. A bit nuts, but honest.

The History:
"The mansion once belonged to an old Gnome named Reese Hushley the Third. He was born rich, a bit on the eccentric side, and was something of a dabbler. His favorite hobbies were magic, alchemy, and cooking. He was a master dessert chef, who was always inventing new types of candies and chocolate confections. He found ways of using magic to invent new flavors, which were unlike anything anyone had tasted before. He liked to call himself a 'Choclomancer'.  He built a factory in his basement, and he became hugely successful. He employed more than half the town, and his chocolate creations were exported to cities all over this continent."

The Disaster:
"But one day he made a mistake. We're still not exactly sure what happened. He had been talking all week about some new flavor he'd discovered, and how it was going to be he greatest creation. He called it 'Planar Chocolate' and said that some of the ingredients were from another dimension. It's all he would talk about."

"Then the day finally came to start producing it. Nobody knows what went on inside the factory, but just a few seconds after the morning whistle blew, there was a 'BOOM' that shook the whole town. The windows blew out of the mansion, and brown smoke filled the air. A single worker staggered out of the mansion with burns all over his body, but he only could only say a few words before he fell over dead. His last words were, 'Don't go in there, it's loose.' Half the town's population died that day. The sheriff went to check out the wreckage, but something killed him. When we found his body, it was covered with large bite marks... and chocolate."

"That was ten years ago. A few months later, we hired a Wizard to place a binding spell on the grounds, to keep whatever is in there from escaping. In the years since then, a few people have gone into the mansion. Most never returned. The few that made it back told wild stories about monsters in the dark. These days we try not to think about it. Every few months some foolish treasure hunters will pass through town and have a look for themselves, never to be seen again. But now we think the Wizard's barrier is starting to wear off, as we've seen some strange shapes lurking in the darkness lately. Some of the farmers have reported their livestock getting killed. We're starting to fear for our safety."

Tips For Other Settings:
If you run this in a less magical setting (such as Gamma World), change all references to magic into technology.  The binding spell becomes a force field, the Wizard is a scientist, and the magic rings (mentioned under "Possible Questions", below) could be "Personal Disruption Units" or something similar. 

The Treasure:
"There's rumors of a big treasure down there. A few years before the disaster, Mr. Hushley had been talking a lot about alchemy. He claimed to have invented a method of turning sugar into gemstones. He said he owned the world's largest ruby, but he refused to show it to anyone. He said he didn't want his method to get out, because it would ruin the world's economy. Legend has it that Hushley's Ruby still sits in the safe in his office, deep below the mansion."

Possible Questions:
Where is the Wizard who sealed the grounds? "We hired him from out of town, so who knows where he is now."
What was the Wizard's name? "Oh... I think his name was Cadbury."
What have you seen in the dark? "We haven't gotten a good look, but we get the impression of large, dark people, with claws."
Where did you see them? "Usually near the mansion, but some of the farmers say they saw them in their pastures."
Is there a reward for stopping this evil? "This is a poor town, but we'll see what we can get together. And of course you can have whatever treasures you find there."
Once we get into the mansion, how do we find the factory? "There's a service entrance around the back of the mansion."
How will we get past the Wizard's ward? "It's only designed to keep things in, not out."
How will we get back out? "Well, like I said, the spell seems to be weakening, so it shouldn't be a problem. However, the Wizard did give us some rings that allow the wearer to step through the barrier. I'll go find some." Have the Sheriff return to her office to get a ring for each PC.  If the players don't bother to ask, then don't worry about it.

Setting Out:
Once the players decide to go into the factory, they head towards the mansion. It's late by now, unless they spend the night and try the mansion in the morning. At night there is a full moon, causing a low-light environment. It is still low-light in parts of the mansion, from the moonlight coming in the windows. The underground factory will be pitch black no matter what time of day. The descriptions below assume the PCs have some sort of light source.

"At the end of the street, the road goes uphill a bit until it gets to a metal gate. On the other side of the fence, the grass is much higher, since no one has tended to the grounds in years. The fence itself glows slightly from the Wizard's warding spell." (Open gate) "The gate is unlocked, and creaks loudly when you open it. You think you see what used to be a path leading up to the front door. The remnants of a side path go around the back of the house."

If they go through the front door: "The door is unlocked, in fact the door is hanging from one hinge." (Enter) "The place is a mess. There are pieces of charred furniture everywhere. The walls are grey with soot. There is black dust on every surface. You see the remains of a grand staircase in the main hall, but it has collapsed." If they explore the first floor of the mansion, or climb up to the second story, they don't find much of value. Everything was destroyed by the initial blast ten years ago, and has just been rotting since. If they find the bedroom on the second floor, they might uncover a locked fireproof safe containing a small amount of gold. If they explore the kitchen area on the first floor: "This looks like it used to be the kitchen area. You also find a staircase leading down. On the wall next to the stairs, there is a metal sign that reads 'To Factory'."

If they go around back to the service entrance: "You push your way through the tall grass and make your way around the back of the mansion. Eventually you find a door with a sign that reads 'Service Entrance'." (Open it) "The door is unlocked and opens easily. It looks like you are in what was once the kitchen. There are pieces of charred furniture everywhere. The walls are grey with soot. There is black dust on every surface. You see two doorways leading to other rooms of the mansion, and a staircase leading down. On the wall next to the stairs, there is a metal sign that reads 'To Factory'."

Once they go down the stairs to the Factory: "The stairs go down a very long way into the darkness. As you get close to the bottom of the stairs, you hears some noises coming from the room below." (Listen) "You hear some shuffling, some movement. Occasionally you hear a low moan." (Go down stairs) "This appears to be the factory floor. It is a very large room with a high ceiling. To your right you see the remains of several large machines. To your left you see some giant vats, with words like 'chocolate' or 'molasses' painted on them. You see some broken tables in front of you, and at the far end of the room you see a doorway. Suddenly there's a movement to your right."

"You see a slow-moving creature shamble out from behind a candy press. It looks like a walking corpse, still wearing a factory worker uniform. However, this zombie appears to be covered from head to toe in some brown substance. As the zombie turns toward you, you become aware of more moving shapes all around the room. You quickly realize that this room is infested with the creatures."

Encounter 1: Factory Floor
10 Chocolate Zombies (Hershey's Kisses)
1 Choclan (Reese's Peanut Butter Cup)

Don't place the Choclan on the board yet. Roll initiative for all creatures. During the Choclan's first turn, read the following: "Suddenly you hear a loud pounding sound from one of the vats. As you look in that direction, you see one side of the vat deform as something pounds it from the inside. With one final crash, one side of the vat is ripped open. You see a large brown shape standing in the opening. It is large humanoid, probably 13 feet tall. It looks like a statue carved out of chocolate."

As soon as it can, the Choclan will charge the nearest PC.  The first time a player does damage to the Choclan, make a point of mentioning that its insides look like peanut butter.  "As your weapon penetrates the creature's brown outer shell, a lighter brown substance spews from its wounds.  You think you smell peanuts."

After the battle, if they decide to search the bodies, they find a few gold coins in the pockets of the factory workers.  You might want to hand out chocolate coins to represent the gold.

On the North wall next to the door, the PCs will see a map of the factory. There is a hallway to the North which leads past the break room, and into the packaging/shipping department. From the packaging room there is another hallway which leads to Hushley's office.

If the PCs search the bodies of the zombies, they find a few gold pieces (consider passing out some chocolate coins to the players as rewards).  The Choclan has no treasure.

Encounter 2: Employee Break Room
4 Fruit Imps (Starburst, different colors)

"You're now in a 10 foot wide hallway. To your left you see a door to the break room. You see another door to the break room further down the hallway, also on the left. At the end of the hall, you see a door marked 'Shipping'."

If they decide to peek into the break room door: "You see four small winged creatures sitting around chattering to each other. They look like some type of imp, but each one is a different bright color."

If they decide to burst into the break room:  "As you enter the room, four brightly-colored imps fly into the air and prepare to attack. Roll initiative."

If they decide to walk past the break room, have the party make a medium DC stealth check. If they make the check, they pass by both doors without incident. If any of them fail the stealth check:
"You walk pass the first break room door. Suddenly, the second one bursts open and a brightly-colored imp flies out. Another imp then flies out the first door behind you. You see two other imps hovering in the doorways."

Encounter 3: Packaging Department
1 Choclan (Reese's Cups)
1 Greater Choclan (Reese's Big Cup)
2 Carm Hounds (Rolos)
1 Fruit Imp (Starburst)

This isn't a very important encounter, so if you are running short on time, skip to Encounter 4. However, you still might want to have the PCs pass through this room so they have the opportunity to go through the crates and find some candy. Or hide the candy in the break room instead.

"This room is full of broken crates, and the floor is covered with debris. There is another exit on the right wall. In the center of the room, you see two large brown creatures pacing around and talking to each other in a strange language. They look like the monster that came out of the vat earlier, but one of these is much larger than the other." (If the Choclans see the PCs) "Both of them turn their heads and gesture threateningly. The smaller one makes a loud call, and soon more creatures come running through the other door."

After the encounter, if the PCs examine the crates, they will find some snacks. "The crates are full of chocolate bars and other assorted candies. Most of it has been destroyed, and a lot of the candy has melted. But you do manage to find a few pieces of edible candy."  These things have a shelf life of 30 years, so they are still edible.  Different items will give the PCs different effects.  Possible items:

Hushley's Chocolate Bar - Gives 6 temp hp.
SillyDillyicious Bar - Until the end of the encounter, your speed increases by 2.
GummiGooey Gumdrops - Burst 1 in 10, creates zone of rough terrain that lasts until end of encounter. Creatures that start their turn in the zone are slowed (save ends).
SugarDumbos - You may take one additional Standard action this turn.

Encounter 4: Hushley's Office

1 Caxaodemon (Bunny)
2 Carm Hounds (Rollos)
4 Lesser Choclans (Reese's Minis)

"You enter a small waiting room. There are doors to the right and left marked 'Restrooms', and Hushley's office is straight ahead.  Standing in front of the office door you see three chocolate beings.  They look like the ones you fought earlier, but smaller."  If they stealthily opened the door: "They don't see you yet, but one of them will probably look in your direction soon." If they just opened the door normally: "All eyes turned towards you as you entered, and the room's occupants prepare to attack. Roll initiative."

This fight may or may not make enough noise to attract the creatures in the office.  This could end up being one large encounter or two smaller ones.

Whenever they enter the office: "It appears to be a nice large office. There is a desk in the center of the room, with a bearskin rug in front of it. In the far back corners, there are two large bookshelves.  The one on the left seems to be sticking out from the wall slightly, and you can see a bit of light coming from behind it."

After the battle they might search the room and check out the bookshelves.  The left set of bookshelves has a secret passage behind it.  Since it is partially open, there is no search DC to notice it.  If they go through the secret passage, they find a room containing a large machine with lots of levers, all different colors. Next to the machine is what appears to be a magic portal.  There are two more doors on the back wall.  One of the doors leads to Hushley's private restroom, and the other door leads to a closet.  In the closet they will find the body of Hushley.

The machine has 10 levers, each a different color:  Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, Pink, Black, White, and Brown.  If players start pulling them randomly, the first lever always does nothing, the second lever zaps them with electricity.

Example: "I'm going to pull the black lever." "You pull the black lever to the 'down' position. Nothing happens." "Now I'm going to pull the blue lever." "You pull the blue lever to the 'down' position. A bolt of lightning shoots at you from the portal." (10 vs Reflex, 1d10 Lightning Damage) "Both levers go back up to the 'up' position."

If they try to touch the magic portal without deactivating it, they will get shocked.  1d10 Lightning damage (no attack roll; they touched it), and they are pushed back 1 square.  It's a one-way portal, so there's no way for the PCs to use it to get to the other dimension.

If they don't open the closet door right away, mention that they see some blood seeping out from under the door.  When they open the closet door, they find the body of Hushley.  In his pockets they will find a key, a small amount of gold coins, and a journal full of notes.

"Looking through Hushley's notes, you find out a little more background, and you're able to fill in the gaps yourself. Hushley discovered a way to access a dimension where the most common elements are sugar and chocolate. What he did not realize is that these elements are also the building blocks of life in that dimension. Hushley's machines were designed to open up small portals and pull ingredients directly from the other dimension. When he started up the factory on the day of the disaster, too much matter came through at once, causing the explosion. This left some portals stuck open, and candy monsters have been coming through ever since. Additionally, some of the extraplanar living chocolate has inhabited the bodies of the factory workers, reanimating them into chocolate zombies."

"His final entry states: 'I've figured out how to reverse the portals! All I have to do is pull the red lever, followed by the green. Unfortunately, I can't make it to the machine. I fear that if I try to leave this closet, they will rip me to shreds. Perhaps if I just wait long enough, I can make a break for it, but some of these creatures don't even sleep. If you find this note, please do not judge me too harshly. All I wanted was to make the world a sweeter place.'"

If the players do a thorough search of the office, they might eventually stumble across a trap door under the bearskin rug.  This leads down some stairs to Hushley's most private vault.  "At the bottom of the stairs, you find yourself in a small empty room.  On the far wall of the room is a large metal door."  If the players didn't find the key on Hushley's body, they will need a moderate Thievery check to pick the lock, or a very high Athletics check to break down the door.  Once the door is open, they find a room with metal walls.  There are a few shelves full of various gems, with a total value of about 1200 gp.  There is also one particularly large ruby that is worth another 1500 by itself.  (Hand out Ring Pops and/or chocolate coins to represent the treasure.)

Beastiary:
The Choclanic Plane is a very harsh environment, and survival is difficult. The most common form of life is a living chocolate-like substance called caxao. Caxao symbiotically bonds with other creatures by covering their entire bodies for life. This gives the caxao the mobility it needs to find food, and gives the host creature a tough outer shell required for protection. Here's a list of the Choclanic creatures used in the module. In parentheses I put what candies I used in the pictures above, but of course you can use whatever you like.

Stat the monsters however you like, based on the level you want the module to be.  The Caxao Corpses should obviously be based on Zombies.  The Choclans are brutes, so base them on big strong things like Orcs, Dwarves, or Golems.  The Carm Hounds are basically Wolves or other animals.  The Sucrademons are Imps, but give each color a different type of magical attack - for example, cherry could be fire, grape could be darkness, etc.  The final Caxaodemon can be pretty much any "boss" creature.  My attempt to stat the encounters is in this file, based on a level 1 Gamma World party. 

Caxao Corpse, aka "Chocolate Zombie" (Hershey's Kisses): These are the bodies of the Hushley factory workers, reanimated after being covered by caxao from the Choclanic Plane.

Choclan (Reese's Peanut Butter Cups): These are humanoid creatures from the Choclanic plane. They are sapient, but easily confused and quick to anger. They come in a wide range of sizes, but even the smaller ones are incredibly strong. Their natural form is a soft peanut-butter-like matter, but their outer shell of caxao is very tough.

Carm Hounds (Rolos): These dog-like creatures are made of a gooey caramel-like substance, held together by a thick outer shell of caxao. They are often kept as pets by Choclans. Carmhounds are vicious hunters, and are very loyal to their masters.

Sucrademon, aka "Fruit Imp" (Starburst): These are small demons from the Choclanic Plane. They rarely bond with caxao, as the bond would limit some of their arcane abilities. Instead they have developed other defenses which allow them to survive. These Imps don't usually get along with Choclans, unless they have a common enemy.

Caxaodemon (Chocolate Bunny): While most Choclanic demons avoid bonding with caxao, occasionally a very powerful demon will find away to do so without sacrificing their magic potency. These rare unions result in very strong beings with a great mastery of spells.

Unlikely Heroes: I'm A Lumberjack And I'm Okay

Game Date: 9/24/2011
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Adrilar (Greg): Elf Sorcerer
Davor (Ted): Half-Orc Sorcerer
Durp "Fisto" DuDerp (Cliff): Half-Elf Bard
Glynnyn (Tamara): Elf Druid
Keyanna (Chere): Half-Elf Dragonblood Sorcerer
Nishallivexiania "Vex" Corman (Matt): Half-Elf Monk
Ranell (Michael): Halfling Barbarian

The Session:
Last session ended with us preparing to tackle a room full of kobolds.  We began today's session facing the Kobold King, along with a pair of his finest guards.  The King was sitting on a giant dead centipede, wearing a stone crown.  He offered to give us the honor of being his sacrifices, but for some reason we turned him down and attacked instead.

The King cast a sleep spell which knocked out several members of our party.  On Keyanna's turn, she figured turnabout was fair play, and cast the same spell.  Her spell incapacitated the King and one of the guards, after which the battle ended pretty quickly.

Ranell put on a lot of the King's best equipment, and we proceeded down a side hall.  We found the King's consort, but she surrendered and we decided not to kill her (yet).  Down another hallway we found a sacrifice being performed.  A kobold shaman, guarded by two warriors, was ritualistically killing a couple of prisoners.  He tore the heart out of a sorceress, and was about to kill a young boy when we attacked.  After the battle, we looted the area, and found that we'd searched everywhere we knew to look.  Still no Jevra.

Ranell then slit the throat of the kobold consort before anyone could object, and we headed back to the upper levels.  We had a bit of trouble climbing back up the well, but eventually we made it (thankfully without disturbing that Forge Spurned creature).  As we entered the courtyard, Jevra came running up to us.  While we were thankful for her return, we had a bit of trouble believing her story.

Jevra had been showing off, and took the kids to see the ruins of the old orphanage.  But that area had proven too dangerous, so the kids went to the monastery instead, where they were captured by kobolds and separated.  That much of the story we already knew from the other children.  Jevra went on to tell us that she'd managed to survive by killing two kobolds and hiding.  Granted, kobolds aren't the scariest entries in the monster manual, but it still seemed an unlikely accomplishment by someone as young as Jevra.

We pressured her on it, and finally got her to admit there was something she hadn't been telling us.  As it turns out, her parents had been killed by werewolves, and Jevra herself had been bitten during the attack.  So she might be turning into a werewolf herself.  Ranell wanted to kill her right there, but we've decided to do whatever we can for her.  We knew that the local druids have been known to work with the werewolves, and we wondered if they might be able to help us.  They might not have an actual cure for lycanthropy, but at least they might know a way to help Jevra control it.

As we searched through the woods, hoping Glynnyn could find signs of druidic activity, we saw a hill giant.  We tried to hide, but several of the party members failed miserably, so we decided to try diplomacy instead.  The giant staggered as he walked, and we noticed he was crying.  We greeted him and asked him what was wrong.  The giant said that he'd been out drinking with some ogres, and had taken off his wedding ring so he could hit on some hot ogresses.  After that he must have had a lot to drink, because now he couldn't even remember where this drinking had taken place.  He was afraid to go home and face his wife without his wedding ring.

We offered to find the ring.  It wasn't difficult to track his path, and soon we found some smashed kegs and dead ogres.  His ring was easy to find, and we returned it to the giant.  He thanked us, then promptly regurgitated on Ranell and Keyanna.  He told us his name was Kardoblog, and he said that he'd remember us.  We won't hold our breath, but you never know.  Sometimes these "thorn in the paw" encounters pay off.  On our way back to town, we noticed some unusually large crows in the distance. 

We reached town just as they were getting ready to lock the gates for the night.  Once inside, we split up and started working on different tasks.  Orders of the day included baths for the puked upon, bartering for the loot-laden, inquiries of druidic activity, and lycanthropic security.  We took Jevra to the church and reported Jevra's problem.  The priestess first offered to kill Jevra with fire, but we talked her into just chaining Jevra up at night.

Over the course of the next few days, we got a few things done.  Jevra's friends gave us a tip about druids in the forest south of town.  Durp got his stone hand uncursed.  And we finally got to see the inside of the tower we're planning to rent.  It's three stories tall.  The first floor is made of stone, and the higher floors are made of wood.  There's also a basement.  The place hasn't been lived in for a while, so it's in a bad state of disrepair.  While exploring one crawlspace, we discovered the tower's trash/sewage system - several holes that drop into the lair of an Otyugh (a waste-eating monster).  The party is currently looking into hiring people to fix up the tower.  We're drawing up a floor plan that will hopefully give everyone enough room, so we can have a decent base of operations.

One morning there was a knock at our doors.  Kreed, the town's most influential citizen, wanted to see us.  We were rude to him as usual, because we don't want to end up as his lackeys.  Kreed told us that one of his lumber camps had been attacked, and many lumberjacks had been slaughtered.  While we detest being in Kreed's employ, we accepted the job due to the nobility of the mission... and the money was just too good.

Kreed sent a small army of lumberjacks with us, which we immediately deemed to be cannon fodder.  (Lumberjacks wear red shirts, right?)  He also sent his right-hand man, Payday.  Along the way, we came across a flock of large crows feeding on a dead horse.  Keyanna cast sleep on a few of them, causing the rest to fly off and start making lots of noise.  We didn't stick around.

After several hours we came across the lumber camp.  Some of the buildings were on fire.  While we stood around debating on where to look first, some of our group was struck by lightning.  We quickly ran behind some of the buildings.  It soon became apparent what had attacked the camp, as we were ambushed by kobolds.  Adrilar, already injured by the lightning, was reduced to 0 by the first kobold attack.  It seemed like a good enough cliffhanger, so we ended the session there.

Reminders:
Next week is WingFest, and the week after that is Nashville Zombie Walk, so there's no game until October 15th.

Unlikely Heroes: Girl Power

Game Date: 9/17/2011
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Adrilar (Greg): Elf Sorcerer
Davor (Rusty): Half-Orc Sorcerer
Durp DuDerp (Rusty): Half-Elf Bard
Glynnyn (Tamara): Elf Druid
Keyanna (Chere): Half-Elf Dragonblood Sorcerer
Nishallivexiania "Vex" Corman (Matt): Half-Elf Monk
Ranell (Michael): Halfling Barbarian
...and Jerry Mathers as "The Beaver"

The Session:
We're still exploring the cavernous sublevel of the Dwarven Monastery. The session began with us exploring a room full of stalactites.  Or possibly stalagmites.  Or stalagsprites.  I vote for stalagFreds.  Anyway, shortly after entering the room, a dark form swooped down from the ceiling.  It was a Dire Bat, who was quickly joined by two Shadows.

This encounter lasted longer than it should have, due to a lot of bad die rolls.  Adrilar went down early in the encounter, but he survived.  The Shadows could only be harmed by magic weapons, which few of us possessed.  So once the Bat was dead, those of us who couldn't assist retreated back into the hallway so the magic users/wielders could be in front.

For the record, Glynnyn killed the Dire Bat, Davor killed one Shadow, and Keyanna killed the other Shadow.  Due to the badassery shown by Glynnyn and Keyanna, we declared it to be our "Girl Power" session.  (Sorry Davor, I guess you're a girl this week.  That's what happens when you miss a session.)

We took a long rest in the stalac-whatever-filled room, and proceeded to search the rest of the level.  We found one hallway that led to a caved-in dead end.  There were a couple of dead kobolds near the cave-in, and the following was inscribed on the wall in Draconic: “Darky-dark below, and whispers soft and low. Evil lurks, its lipless mouth smirks. Do not go! Only death below!”

We left this alone for now, and searched until we found last unexplored section of this level.  We were about to enter the room shown below (and Rusty was already starting to root through the Kobold minis) when something came up and we had to end the session early.

Afterthoughts:
This was a short session.  One player was out, another arrived too late to play, and the game was cut short due to real life issues.  But after a couple of weeks without a game, it was still nice to get a gaming fix.  And it's really better this way, as the absent player won't have missed as much.

I hate to say this so early in the campaign, but I'm starting to get a little bored with Pathfinder.  This isn't anyone's fault; the campaign itself is great, the story is great, the DM is great, and the players are great.  It's just that I went into this wanting to try something new, and well, Pathfinder is just D&D 3.5 in a new hat.  There's nothing wrong with that, and I respect Pathfinder for keeping one of the best versions of D&D alive, and even improving it. But it's nothing I haven't played before.  I am having fun, and I do plan to stick out the campaign.  But I hope our next campaign is something very different.

Dragon Age: Tabletop RPG

I've been rambling a lot lately about finding the perfect RPG for me (here), and comparing the ones I've played most so far (here).  A while back I was at The Great Escape and saw a good price on the Dragon Age roleplaying game.  I only picked it up because it was cheap, and I was looking for something to read on my trip to Dragon*Con.  I'm funny that way, when I can't get in the mood to read an actual novel, I like to read gaming books.

Reading through the Player's Guide, here's some of the things that jumped out at me:

Simplicity - The player's handbook is only 64 pages, and from what I've read it looks pretty easy to learn.  Unfortunately a few of the most important rules were found in strange places (IMO), and were hard for me to find by just flipping through.  It wasn't until I actually sat down and read it straight through that I managed to catch up on some of the basic fundamentals.  So for me, anyway, the book almost has to be read in order.

Races/Classes - There's only three races and classes in the basic set.  First you also have to pick a background, which effects which races/classes are available to you.  Players of the video game should be familiar with the selections, and already know about the limitations of the universe (for example, Dwarves can't be mages).  I'm not sure if more races or classes are available in the other books.  Of course, each class is somewhat customizable, so your warrior might not play anything like your friend's warrior.

Stats/Skills - There are eight stats: Communication, Constitution, Cunning, Dexterity, Magic, Perception, Strength, and Willpower. Instead of full stats and stat bonuses, you just have lower stats. So instead of stats ranging from 8 to 20 (with bonuses of -2 to 5), your starting stats generally range range from -2 to 4 (with the occasional 5 if the conditions are right). Your skill checks are generally done using the governing stat, but you have Focuses that give you an additional +2 to specific skills  like Leadership (Communication) and Stealth (Dexterity).  The game does ask you to roll your stats randomly, in order, so you may not end up with decent numbers for the class you wanted to play.  But you are allowed to swap one pair of stats once you're done rolling, so you at least have some level of control.

Feats - Talents are pretty much feats.  Some let you wear better armor, some improve your skills, and some improve your ability to use specific weapons.  Each class starts with one or more Talents, and you gain an additional Talent at odd-numbered levels.  Each Talent has two levels, so instead of taking a new Talent you might choose to upgrade an existing Talent from Novice to Journeyman.  For example, if you take the "Horsemanship" Talent, at first you're a Novice, and the Talent just allows you to mount a steed as a free action.  If you later upgrade Horsemanship to Journeyman, it also gives you a +2 bonus to speed when riding.

Dice - Each player needs three six-sided dice, where one is a different color than the other two.  These are the only dice used in the entire game. The odd-colored die is called the "Dragon Die", and is used for special circumstances, such as Stunts.

Stunts - When you roll doubles on your attack rolls, you get stunt points which you can immediately spend to add a little extra oomph to your attack.  Depending on how high you rolled on the Dragon Die, you can do things like hit a second target, shift, knock your target prone, disarm, change your position in the initiative order, etc. For spells, the stunt points can be spent to do things like reduce the mana cost, increase the damage, and so on.

Armor - You have both a Defense score and an Armor score.  Defense works like AC - you have to beat that number to hit the target.  Armor works like damage reduction - you subtract your armor score from whatever damage you take.

Healing - The healing system seems to be a good compromise between hardcore and video gamey.  In addition to the mage's heal spell, all players can attempt to heal other players for a few hit points (standard action, must pass ability test, heals 1d6+Cunning).  However, this heal skill can only be used once until the victim takes more damage.  You can recover a few more hit points during a 5 minute rest (5+CON+Level), but you can only do that once after every combat.  So you can't just keep taking 5 minute rests until you're full.  You can recover even more hit points with a full night's rest (10+CON+Level), which I think is a pretty good average between D&D 4e's cheese (recover everything) and Pathfinder's stinginess (1 or 2 hp per night).

Magic - Funny, I was just saying how I'd like to try a PnP RPG that worked this way.  Dragon Age uses mana points, just like most video games.  Different spells cost different amounts of points to cast, and you keep track of how many points you have left just like your hit points.  You get some mana back during a short rest, and all of it back with a long rest.  Additionally, mages also have one basic ranged spell (Arcane Lance) which uses no mana, so they're never completely without magic. 

Distance - The game measures everything in yards rather than feet.  If you use miniatures, it suggests letting each square or hex represent two yards.  This could get confusing at first, but I think I'd get used to it.

Death - There is no such thing as negative hit points.  If you hit zero, you stay at zero and are considered dying.  If no one heals you within a certain number of rounds (2+CON), you die.  I haven't come across anything about resurrection; so far it looks like death is permanent.  The good news is that everyone has the ability to heal, so if you just stay near each other, somebody should be able to heal you.

I have read a few reviews, but they vary a lot. Most were positive. Of the bad reviews, some complained it was too much like the video game, while others complained that it wasn't enough like the video game.  The reviews that weighed the game on its own merits (as opposed to comparing it to other formats) were generally the most positive.

Since I've yet to actually play the game, I can't say whether or not I recommend it yet.  I wasn't expecting much when I picked it up - it is based on a video game, after all - but now I'm actually looking forward to trying it sometime.  While there are some things in there that wouldn't be my preference, it still looks like an interesting game that should be a lot of fun to play. 

Dragon*Con 2011

So, this was our second time attending Dragon*Con.  The first time was in 2008.  All we really did that time was walk around and take pictures.  We only did a couple of things that actually required our badge, and in the end decided we'd wasted our money.  Not that it wasn't worth it, it's just that our favorite parts of the trip were free, such as the parade. (2008 Facebook Pictures: Here.  Parade Video: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Come to think of it, this is actually the fifth con we've been to, if you count Star Wars Celebrations.  We went to SW Celebration 2 in 2002, SWC 3 in 2005, GenCon Indianapolis 2007, and of course Dragon*Cons 2008 and 2011.

But Dragon*Con is our favorite.  Every year when it looms closer, we consider the following options:
1. Nope.
2. Be complete cheapskates.  Either get a cheap hotel Friday night, or just drive down very early Saturday morning.  Don't buy tickets.  Just watch the parade, walk around the hotel lobbies taking more pictures, then drive back up Saturday evening.
3. Pay, but make it worth it.  We still wouldn't pay for all three days, but whichever day we do pay for, make sure we actually attend some of the symposiums we paid for.  Come back with a couple of souvenirs.
4. Go whole hog.  Get a room in one of the actual hosting hotels, and pay for the entire weekend.

Maybe someday we'll do #4, but that plan might involve winning the lottery.  But this year we at least managed to scrape together enough for #3.

After poring over the event schedule, we decided to attend the con itself on Friday.  We attended two symposiums.  The first was Star Trek related, and was hosted by Garrett Wang (Voyager).  The second was a discussion of Doctor Who continuity.  We also bought some souvenirs at the vendor hall, walked around an art gallery, and took lots and lots of pictures (here).  On Saturday we returned to the con to watch the parade (pictures here).

It wasn't all about the con, though.  We got to visit with my cousin, and we went to the Atlanta Zoo (pics here).  We had a great time, and we're thoroughly exhausted.

D&D 4e vs Pathfinder... in a Steel Cage!

My week off continues, and so do my ramblings.

So, I've been playing Pathfinder lately, and while I've been jotting down a few of my thoughts after each session's blog, I thought I'd take some time to make some more in-depth comparisons between it and D&D 4e. These are just my opinions; I know darn well that a lot of people prefer a more hardcore simulationist game than what I enjoy.

Realism
Winner: Pathfinder
From what I've seen so far, I would definitely say Pathfinder is more realistic than 4e.  However, realism is not always my first goal in an RPG.  I live a fairly humdrum life, and I like my fantasy to be, well, fantastic.  Realism already goes out the window the first time somebody casts a fireball.  Most of the time I don't want to roll to see if I successfully do the laundry, but sometimes that level of compulsiveness helps me get into my character.  Pathfinder doesn't quite go as far as that, but compared to 4e's heroism (see below), Pathfinder is much more down-to-earth.

Heroism
Winner: 4e
In my opinion, D&D 4e is practically a super hero game with a medieval setting.  Sometimes I think they should have marketed it that way in the first place.  They should have kept 3.5 going, and made 4e a spin-off called "D&D Heroes" or something.  So while I don't think 4e should have been WOTC's flagship product, I am glad it exists, and I do enjoy playing a heroic character. 

Healing Surges vs Slow Healing
Winner: 4e
It's no secret that I dislike slow healing. Since I believe hit points represent stamina, not wounds, it just makes sense you could recover them by resting. D&D 4e's healing surge system is great at getting you back into the game so you aren't constantly heading back to town. The system is still a little clunky, IMO, but it's better than Pathfinder's "1 hit point per night" healing.

NADs vs Saving Throws
Winner: Tie
So the DM rolls a die against the player's Reflex, rather than the player rolling a save against the attacking spell's DC... I think 4e's method is slightly simpler, and simple is generally better. But overall I'd say it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Negative Effects
Winner: 4e
In older editions, there's several spells and effects that cause you to lose a level, or make one of your stats go down for a while. When this happens, there's a lot of re-mathing your character sheet, figuring out how that stat is going to affect your attack rolls, AC, saving throws, hit points, etc.  4e has a lot less of that nonsense.  When we reach the point where every gamer at the table is using electronic interactive character sheets on their netbooks/smartphones, automatically adjusting all their numbers instantly when they're hit by such a spell, then I'll be okay with it.  Until then, I prefer the simplicity of 4e.

Stat Advancement
Winner: 4e
I like how all the stats go up a notch, twice in your career. I've never bought into the idea that just because your character concentrates on STR and CON, you never get any smarter. 

Skills Advancement
Winner: Pathfinder
I liked assigning my skill points manually each level. It bugs me that my 30th level 4e Lawful Good Paladin, who never lies, still has more than 15 points in Bluff. It also bugs me that my high-level 4e Fighter doesn't have more points in Intimidate.

Skill Selection
Winner: Pathfinder
I've stood up for 4e on this one in the past, but I have to admit I missed options like Crafting.

Diagonal Movement
Winner: 4e
So what if a square is slightly longer diagonally than lengthwise.  When it comes to measuring distance for tactical combat, there's a lot of bad, complicated systems out there.  4e is probably the least realistic, but you know my feelings on realism.  4e wins for now, but I still haven't played a game that uses hexes.

Powers vs Basic Attacks
Winner: 4e Essentials
4e's way of giving Fighters more to do was nice. But Fighters already could do more than just attack if they really wanted to. Any time you roll a d20, you can flavor that attack as anything you want. If it's the same damage, then nothing needs to be changed.  Instead of just saying "I hit him with my sword", feel free describe it as a backhand swing or a sudden forward thrust as you roll your d20.  If it's something that actually affects the outcome (i.e. "I'm aiming for his left elbow so he'll drop the idol"), the DM can ask you to subtract a couple of points from your attack roll to simulate difficulty. The ability was always there, 4e just added more mechanical rules for it. And by doing so, they seemed to have shorted out some players' creativity, because those players don't seem to understand that the effects of Reaping Strike don't have to be described exactly like it says on the power card. I think Essentials represents a decent compromise between 4e powers and the basic attacks of previous editions.

Combat Length
Winner: Pathfinder, by a mile
This is the chief reason I've been enjoying Pathfinder lately. It is such a joy to get through an entire dungeon level in a single night. Sometimes when I was playing 4e, I would look up at the clock and just roll my eyes. "Has it really been 3 hours since we entered this room? Seriously?" There are ways to streamline 4e combat, but they take work, and some people just find it easier to switch to another game system.  I don't blame them.

Magic System
Winner: 4e
I haven't actually played a Pathfinder Wizard yet. But I've looked through the Player's Handbook, and I've played a lot of computer games based on D&D 3.5, and I honestly think preparing spells is for the birds. The whole "you can cast three 1st-level spells, two 2nd-level spells..." system is just more complicated than it needs to be.  Give me At-Wills, Encounters, and Dailies any day.  Someday I'd like to play a PnP RPG that uses a mana system like you see in a lot of video games. Just another number like your hit points, which will go up as you level. Different spells would cost different amounts of mana to cast, and your mana replenishes when you rest. Simple.

Roleplay vs Rollplay
Winner: Tie
Others disagree, but I really don't think the system matters much when it comes to the quality of roleplay. One of the chief criticisms of D&D 4e is the focus on combat, and lack of roleplay rules. But frankly, I'm not even sure what a "roleplay rule" is. Heck, roleplay probably works best when there aren't a lot of rules. Still, 4e's tactical combat probably attracts more action-loving players, which could have a detrimental effect on roleplay. On the other hand, I have seen roleplay done really well in 4e.

Character Customization
Winner: Pathfinder
I have a friend who loves to play 2-weapon rogues. In 3.5, that was no problem. Pretty much any class could take the two-weapon feats, and get an extra attack per round. So when he tried to build one in 4e, he was disappointed. Oh, sure, anybody can wield two weapons in 4e, but you can't use both in a round, so what's the point? Only a couple of builds feature true two-weapon effectiveness. D&D 4e has a lot of classes to choose from, and those classes have a lot of builds. All told, there's over 100 builds now. And yet, it still feels like each build is just a predesigned character built by someone else. 

Multiclassing
Winner: Pathfinder
D&D 4e Multiclassing is a joke. The Hybrids are an even bigger joke. 'nuff said.

Balance
Winner: 4e... if you're into that.
4e was built on balance.  One could argue that it was the primary focus of the system.  If any class is discovered to have an overly desirable power, WOTC's errata police sniff it out and blandify it immediately.  This can be a good thing; spellcasters in older editions were downright frustrating at early levels.  But people who managed to keep their mages alive earned bragging rights.  Meanwhile, most 4e classes have similar difficulty, which probably contributes to the common complaint that the classes are too much alike (see below).

Class Uniqueness
Winner: Pathfinder
In older editions, your first character was a fighter.  Once you got the hang of that, you had to relearn the game a little bit the first time you tried a spellcaster.  But with 4e's powers system, all the classes pretty much play the same.  The ranges and effects might be different, but a fighter's Encounter Powers follow the same rules as a wizard's.  It's hard to say whether this is good or bad.  It does make the game easier to learn, and balances the classes.  But it also makes you wonder why we need so many classes and builds, when so many of them are similar.  Essentials throws a few wildcards into the mix, but it still doesn't beat Pathfinder.

Death and Dying
Winner: 4e
4e wins because it's harder to die.  I am not a hardcore player.  I like it when I can play the same character long enough to really know them.  I get sick of old school grognards who whine that "Death used to mean something in this game!"  I'm sorry, but I disagree.  When you die all the time, death becomes meaningless.  When your first 20th-level character is killed in an epic battle with a dragon, death means something.  When your twentieth 1st-level character is killed by an orc, death becomes cheap.  Once I've actually had a few 20th-level characters, I might change my mind on this.  But right now, the more I die, the more these characters just seem like scribbles on paper.

Money
Winner: Tie
In both editions, 100 copper pieces equals 10 silver equals one gold.  So it's pennies, dimes, dollars. Simple!  However, a 4e platinum piece equals 100 gp, while a Pathfinder platinum is only worth 10 gold pieces.  Neither is better than the other, but I do wish game designers would keep it a little more universal.  It's not like they're even the worst offenders; for example the Dragon Age RPG has a system where 1 GP = 100 SP = 10,000 CP.  People who go back and forth playing different game systems are liable to get confused. 

Overall Winner
Undecided.
To be honest, I think "Edition Wars" in general are a bit dumb.  Do apples taste better than oranges?  Is hang gliding more fun than water skiing?  Is Star Wars more entertaining than Star Trek?  It's okay to like Pepsi more than Coca-Cola, and it's even okay to wear Pepsi T-shirts and to post on your blog why Pepsi rocks.  But when you get into internet debates arguing why Coca-Cola sucks, you've probably gone too far.  People need to learn the difference between "better" and "more enjoyable to me".

That said, I prefer Pathfinder's character creation and quick combats, but 4e's fast healing and simplified rules. I really wish I could play a 4e campaign, but with shorter combats, and with Pathfinder characters. Essentials goes a long way towards granting the last part of that wish, with older-style characters that are fully compatible with the 4e system.  I really like Essentials, something I'm reluctant to admit on a public blog.  There are places on the internet where I'd rather admit to being a transsexual than to tell them I like Essentials.  Heck, just saying you like 4e at all is like telling people you enjoyed the Star Wars prequels.  Showing support for Essentials is like saying your favorite Star Wars character is Jar Jar Binks.

There are a lot of things that annoy me about Pathfinder.  But despite Pathfinder's flaws (and really, they're not flaws so much as things I don't prefer), I'm really enjoying the campaign. Bottom line is, I don't need to know that I'm playing the "best" system out there.  It don't eat my favorite food for every meal, I don't go to my favorite city every vacation, and I don't wear my favorite outfit every day.

I'm fond of saying that the system doesn't matter if the story's good. That's not entirely true; I'm sure there's some systems out there that I'd hate if I actually got around to playing them. And a good story could easily be killed by an incompetent DM or bad players; but I've been pretty lucky so far where that's concerned.  I've been blessed with a wonderful DM who makes things interesting no matter what we're playing.  (But he does read these blogs, so lest he think I'm sucking up I should probably say something negative soon.  Perhaps I'll make fun of the way he pronounces "archetypes".)

It's "ahr-ki-tahyps", not "Archie types."

In any event, 4e and Pathfinder appeal to different parts of my brain. 4e is like a board game where I can empathize with the pieces. Pathfinder is like a storytelling game with a bit of gambling thrown in. Sometimes I'm more in the mood for one than the other, but I think I'll always enjoy both.

ToEE: Afterthoughts

Another unnecessary rambling encouraged by my having a week off.

So, our 4e Temple of Elemental Evil campaign is officially over, even though we didn't quite make it to the end.  We finally called it quits after too many cancelled sessions, combined with some of the group's dissatisfaction with 4e.  I also finished the computer game and the novel a while back.  Just for closure reasons, I thought I'd post a few afterthoughts on all three.

The tabletop campaign:
It's probably our fault, but I was expecting more plot.  Based on my meta-knowledge of the campaign, we missed a lot of opportunities to interact with the villains, and instead opted to systematically take out each room one by one.  The difference between being in town and being in the Temple itself was like playing two different RPGs; you could almost hear the *click* as the players switched from roleplay mode to fight mode.

Still, I had fun.  It was a little off-putting at first, but once I realized how it was going to be, I embraced it whole hog.  I even switched to a more front line character so I could get the most out of the action.  But it also made me realize that I needed to try a few other gaming systems.

The novel:
The book was nothing to write home about, it's just your typical cheap paperback.  It had the usual assortment of party member stereotypes, but few characters I actually cared about.  It didn't always follow the same path as the module or computer game, but it was always neat when it would describe a familiar-sounding room and I'd think, "Uh oh, watch out for the skeletal gnolls!"  It was brief, but fun to read, and I will probably read more module-based novels if I find them.  But it didn't have any particular writing style, and it's the kind of book you immediately forget about once you finish it.

The computer game:
The ToEE computer game is a bit dated by today's standards... Okay, fine, it was pretty ugly five years ago.  It's easy to see how rushed it was - it was released in 2003, a full year after the much superior Neverwinter Nights.  While NWN features 3D environments, for some reason ToEE uses pre-rendered static backgrounds and feels like a throwback to older computer games like Baldur's Gate.  Sometimes I don't realize how spoiled I am until I get frustrated over my inability to rotate the camera to see behind the house.

I really wanted to take my time with this one, talk to every NPC, find all the subquests, and pick up all the plot we skipped with the tabletop version.  But that got boring after a while, and I kept screwing things up and/or running into quest-breaking bugs.  For example, I might attempt to join one of the temples and do some jobs for them, but sooner or later a faction script would mess up and the wrong NPC would attack me.  This would either break the quest sequence entirely, or cause the entire temple to go aggro.  So eventually I just decided to kill everything and make my way to the end.

Towards the climax of the game things got really frustrating.  The visits to the elemental planes used SFX that would frequently lock up the computer, so I had to save often.  Keep in mind, my computer is several years newer than the game, and way more powerful than ToEE should require.  Even so, I had to turn down a lot of the graphical settings just to complete those areas.  Also near the end I discovered a Good Bad Bug that I couldn't resist.  Basically, each of the four elemental bosses drops one of the four gems you need to get to the final boss.  Those gems can also be used to summon monsters to help you... but some of those summoned monsters drop additional gems if they get killed.  So you can end up with multiple copies of each of the elemental gems, allowing you to summon lots of crap and cast several of additional spells during the final battles.

But other than a little Save Scumming and Level Grinding, that was the only time I really cheated my first time through.  I beat the final boss, watched the underwhelming ending, and reloaded to try some different options.  There's some choices you can make towards the end that change the ending slightly, but all the endings are equally boring.

Now that I'd played it through semi-legitimately, I decided to go back through and smash the world to bits.  I built a party of five destructive cheaters.  I named them War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, and Cindy.  I used some cheat codes to raise all their levels to 10, set all their stats to 50, unlocked all the spells for the casters, and made them rich.  I used the crafting skill to make some ungodly powerful items, weapons which would often cause instant death, wielded by characters who attack several times a round.  I had them make some uber armor as well, but I quickly discovered that even the best armor couldn't come close to their DEX bonus, so my evil party rampaged au naturale. 

I made it my goal to kill every single NPC in the game.  Making sure I first spoke to enough people to unlock all the locations I'd need later, my five horsewomen of the apocalypse left a bloody trail of naked horror all across the kingdom.  I actually managed to kill everyone in Nulb, and I probably got about halfway through Hommlet before I got bored (that's a lot of ground to cover).

Yes, I have issues, why do you ask?

Essentials, Edition Wars and Whiny People

Note, I'm off work this week, so I'm trying to clean out some of my half-written blogs.  I actually wrote most of this a while back, when Essentials was first released.  I didn't post it because I wanted to see how long the Essentials uproar took to die down.  It mostly has, though I do still see the occasional post complaining about it.  So if it seems like I'm getting annoyed by stuff that happened six months ago, that's why.

If there's one group of people who like to complain, it's gamers. They are the epitome of the "Unpleasable Fanbase" trope. If you release a new edition, people will complain. If you make a feat overpowered, people will complain. If you fix that feat through errata, people will complain. If you make any changes at all... or fail to make changes, or release too many books, or don't produce enough books, or even breathe the wrong way... people will complain. If WOTC announced tomorrow that they were going to start mailing out $100 bills to all their customers, people would still complain.

So it's no surprise that Essentials has such a bad rap. With all the errata and splat books that have been released for 4e, Essentials represents the most drastic change. Except, it's not really a change at all, since it's entirely optional. The Essentials line basically contains simplified versions of existing classes. But - and this is the important part - it doesn't replace anything. There is absolutely no reason your Essentials Knight can't fight right alongside a normal 4e Great Weapon Fighter.

Now, it is true that when Essentials came out, a lot of errata was released with it. WOTC wanted to get as much errata out of the way as they could, so that the rules would be as final as possible when the Rules Compendium was released. This makes a lot of people blame Essentials for the updates, even though those updates would have happened anyway. Another sticking point with some people is that the Compendium - the most up-to-date printed version of the D&D rules - is technically an Essentials product, which makes some people think Essentials is non-optional.

Whiners had been wanting to declare the game 4.5 for a long time. Long before Essentials, I'd see message board posts that said, "There's so much errata out there, it's 4.5 by now!" So Essentials finally gave them something definitive, in their minds. Personally, I'll call it 4.5 if and when WOTC calls it 4.5, and even then it's just a number. I realize there's something of a stigma there (when 3.5 was released it caused an uproar), but to me it's just a way to let you know you're buying the newest version of the book.

The complainers would only need to flip through the Compendium a little to realize that the core game hasn't really changed. Other than the corrections and balance fixes that would have happened anyway, the game itself is still the same. All that's different is the addition of some new classes which play a bit different from the original 4e classes. Essentials, in my opinion, feels like you're using a 3.5 (or earlier) character in 4e. This is how WOTC tries to please everyone - by letting the 4e-hating grognards play classic characters alongside normal 4e characters (sometimes referred to as "AEDU" characters). Of course, when you try to please everyone, all you really do make both sides mad at you.

But they did manage to please me. I've only played a couple of Essentials characters so far, but I've looked over most of the classes and I like what I see. They're not always going to be my first choice; in fact, I'm probably going to alternate between Essentials and normal characters in campaigns that allow it.

Generally speaking, Essentials characters focus less on the 4e "powers" mechanic, and replace it with other bonuses at each level. But each class handles this differently. Fighters use basic attacks combined with stances. Rogues use basic attacks but have At-Will movement powers. Spellcasters are the most similar to normal 4e characters. This variety gives it the classic flavor. In the past, some have criticized that all 4e classes are alike, but Essentials classes break that cycle.

Despite the new classes being optional, some people complain that Essentials is turning 4e into 3.5. Am I the only person in the universe who likes both 3.5 and 4e? Is one edition better than the other? Is basketball "better" than football? Why can't people enjoy both, for different reasons? Every edition has highlights and flaws, and different people enjoy different things about the game. Personally I think 3.5 is better for roleplaying and simulationism, while 4e has a more interesting combat system. But I'd be more than willing to play either edition, regardless of whether it's a roleplay campaign or a hardcore combat game. (I won't go much earlier than 3e, though, for risk of running into my dreaded arch-nemesis THACO. Or that STR 18/99 thing. If your Strength is 18, it's 18. Period. I don't know what that /99 means, but if you write it on my character sheet, I'll stab you in the eye with your pencil. But I'm getting off the subject here.)

By all rights, everyone should be happy now. If you never liked 4e, then try playing an Essentials character. You might find it fixes some of the stuff you hated (unless your complaints are about something 4e-centric like Healing Surges, in which case you're a douche and your opinion doesn't matter anyway). If you liked 4e just fine the way it was, then keep playing with the old classes; they haven't changed. The bottom line is, you can like Essentials or simply don't use it. But. Please. Stop. WHINING!

I Need A Hero

One of the many complaints against D&D 4e is that the characters start out practically superhuman. Well, super whatever-race-you-pick, anyway. From what I've witnessed, our DM tends to favor the "start out as average nobodies, and gradually become heroes" style. I can certainly see the appeal. I enjoyed that "Dungeon Crawl Classics" game we played a while back. However, I play these games to get a break from normal life. It's great to be able to sit down and live another life for a while. I already emulate an average person 6 days a week.

Of course, you could argue that it's still a change of pace. You're not just a normal person, you're a normal person in a medieval setting. Great... so now I'm a normal person who doesn't even have indoor plumbing. Yay.

I don't claim to be typical, though. I know people have different reasons for playing. Some players like the stories, some like the combat. Some like collecting XP, gold, and other virtual treasures. Some like how it feels like gambling. For some, gaming is just a way to socialize, no different than having a weekly poker game or book club.  Some use gaming to escape real life, to fill a different set of shoes for a few hours, like virtual cross dressing.  For most players, it's probably a combination of several of these. For me, it's all of the above.

I've heard people claim that powerful characters kill roleplay. I can see why they'd think that, but I still disagree. Optimization doesn't kill roleplay, optimizers do. It's more about group dynamics than the system itself. If the DM and all the players are roleplayers, then the DM can throw easy encounters at the group, but still make them scary through theatrics and plot twists. But if you have even one optimizer in the group, then you have to make the encounters harder, lest his character rip the enemies to ribbons and take all the drama out of every fight. And if you make the monsters tougher, then all the other players have to optimize their characters to compensate, or they'll have to cower behind the optimizer every time a fight starts. One bad apple ruins the bunch. While you can roleplay in any edition, 4e seems to attract a lot of combat lovers.

I think people should have a lot of freedom when building their characters. But I also wish more players would use this freedom to do interesting things, rather than just squeeze out every possible point of damage. I'd love to see more characters built around an unusual weapon, even if it's not a very damaging one. Heck, I would have built more interesting characters for myself in the ToEE campaign, but I was afraid the optimizer in the group would yell, "She doesn't do enough damage, I don't want her in our party!"

I am having fun with our current Pathfinder game, where we randomly rolled our classes. It's kind of cool not knowing what your character is going to be. We're seeing some players run classes they wouldn't usually play, and building combinations we wouldn't normally try. There's nothing we're doing that we couldn't do if we'd picked our own classes... but would we? It's basically like saying, "You wouldn't normally build a Half-Orc Sorcerer, so I'm forcing you to, because it's interesting."

I like to think I actually would choose an unusual race/class combination without being forced to. But only if I knew it was going to be the kind of group where creativity is encouraged more than combat prowess, and only if I knew the campaign was going to be survivable without optimized characters. And that's the logical fallacy of the hardcore DM: he discourages optimization, but you won't survive his sessions without it. In a plot-heavy campaign, I'll be glad to wear a tutu and wield a large rubber fish if it makes sense for my character. But when I see teammate after teammate fall in battle, I'm more likely to spend my feats on crunch than fluff.

This is also why I don't like rolling stats. For example, if my Pathfinder monk had decent stats, I could take more personality-related options instead of using every feat to make up for her lack of hit points and AC. So while some say optimization killed roleplaying; I say optimization had the potential to enhance it if it hadn't also attracted too many optimizers.

This argument came up a lot back when I played NeverWinter Nights. I was on a persistent server called the Silver Marches, which focused heavily on roleplay. They were very picky about how people acted while playing on their server, to the point where eventually it felt like a police state. Anyway, one of their complaints was people building very specific characters in order to get certain benefits. For example, taking only one level of ShadowDancer just to get Hide in Plain Sight. In that particular case I somewhat agree, but they tended to criticize a lot of people for more benign leveling choices as well. Basically, they didn't want you to plan your character's path ahead of time, as that would be out of character. But some of the prestige classes had prerequisites that were so specific, that you couldn't qualify unless you'd planned ahead.

Personally, I planned out my characters ahead of time anyway. I'd generally level up in the middle of a dungeon somewhere, and I didn't want to have to spend much time thinking about what to pick before returning to battle. Of course, the server mods would have preferred we head back to town before clicking "Level Up" anyway, to represent the training we do to get our new feats... but clearly these people were nuts. Besides, is it really better roleplay to assume your character has no life plans? In real life, some people know what college they want to attend before they even enter high school. By the time they graduate high school, they sometimes know everything they plan to study in the next four years, right down to the electives. So is it really bad roleplay to assume my character knows in advance that he's going to practice certain fighting moves someday?

I'm actually not very good at RPGs, whether on the computer or at the table. If I built characters completely based on their personalities, I'd spend all my time in-game yelling "Save me!" to my teammates. This would be allowing my out-of-character incompetence to influence the in-character actions of my toon. So I usually try to build hardy characters in order to help me stay in-character.

That's why I tend to like my RPGs a little on the easy side. I'm more interested in the story than the combat, so I don't want the story bogged down by having to roll up new characters all the time, or spending three sessions in a near-coma while my companions take a sidequest to cure my Filth Fever. I'm not a teenager; I'm not out to prove that I'm the baddest by building an awesome megacharacter or by rolling higher than the DM. All I want is to build a character around their personality, taking roleplay feats like "Linguist" if I want to, without being splattered into paste next combat for my lack of optimization.  I'm simply not hardcore.

Fourth edition lets you build tough characters. It gives you higher starting hit points, At-Will powers that are better than basic attacks, more healing options, and so on. Even the weakest classes are tougher than they ever were in previous editions. But with tougher players, you have to have tougher monsters, otherwise combat-lovers will complain there's no challenge. And when you have tougher PCs facing tougher monsters, you have longer combats. Which attracts combat-loving players, which lowers the quality of the roleplay... so I can't win. I'd love to roleplay in 4e, but I think I'm better off with Pathfinder.

That said, I have seen 4e roleplay done really well. My first 4e campaign, Tantris, was heavy on the roleplay. We generally only had about one combat per session, and those combats tended to take about 5-10 minutes. The DM didn't try to build a balanced encounter that challenged our resources, instead he built plot-specific encounters filled with realistic enemies. Most of the fights would be considered too easy by some standards, but we were all new to the game so none of us had optimized characters. The harder battles usually had other plot-related ways out. Heck, the DM even told us up front that he wasn't going to kill our characters. That was the only campaign I've played where I didn't feel the need to play a hero; I would have been just as happy playing a non-classed NPC. I know a lot of this would turn some players off, but I have yet to see better roleplay in an RPG, and I applaud the DM for making it work.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a Bonnie Tyler song that I must purge from my brain.

Unlikely Heroes: You Can't Make A Kobold Omelette...

Game Date: 8/20/2011
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Adrilar (Greg): Elf Sorcerer
Davor (Ted): Half-Orc Sorcerer
Durp DuDerp (Cliff): Half-Elf Bard
Glynnyn (Tamara): Elf Druid
Keyanna (Chere): Half-Elf Dragonblood Sorcerer
Nishallivexiania "Vex" Corman (Matt): Half-Elf Monk
Ranell (Michael): Halfling Barbarian

The Session:
Last session left off with a bit of party in-fighting, culminating in the deaths of Moxie and Snidely.  We began the session in mourning, as we said our final goodbyes to our brave companion (and Snidely).  Davor took it the hardest, as he has lost a brother.

On the bright side, this is no longer incestuous.

But people need us, so we had to carry on.  We rested a bit at the forge where we fought the Forge Spurned, but we had to leave when we discovered he was reforming.  We fled the forge, then started to look for areas we had yet to explore. 

One room featured a prominent fountain, and we encountered a pair of lizards.  We tried to walk around them, in the hopes that they weren't hostile.  Yeah, right, in this universe?  Fortunately, we rolled well, and two crits later they were both dead.

Next we came to a room full of statues.  It was a wide room, with three statues on each side, with weapons drawn in ominous poses.  Being the genre-savvy players we are, we did not go barging into the room without a plan.  First we decided to toss one of the lizard bodies into the room, to see if it set off any traps.  Unfortunately, in stepping into the room to throw it, Davor and Vex fell victim to the very trap we were trying to expose.  (Note, whether we actually stepped into the room was a potential point of contention between the players and the DM, but we chose to pick our battles this time.)

The entire room turned sideways, spilling Davor and Vex to one side, where we impaled ourselves on the statues' weapons.  Meanwhile, the statues from the other side of the room rushed downwards towards us, but we managed to get out of the way in time.  We walked along the wall-turned-floor, and climbed up the other side towards the room's other exit door.  Once the room righted itself, we started experimenting to see what sets off the trap.  During the course of getting the rest of the party across the room, we learned that walking around the edges of the room is a lot safer than walking through the middle.

We ended up in a small room that looked like a dead end, until we found a trigger that opened a secret door.  The next room had a trumpet-like tube sticking out from one wall.  Listening through it, we heard some kobolds in another room, arguing in Draconic.  There were also some other holes in the walls that could be used with the trumpet-tube, but we didn't hear anything through them. We found another secret door and proceeded down the next hallway.

Soon we found someone's personal quarters.  It had a rather uncomfortable-looking stone bed (though Vex probably felt right at home), a desk, and an anvil upon which rested a Dwarf skeleton.  The skeleton wore a couple of magic items, but as we approached, an imp appeared and warned us to stay away from his master.  We asked the imp a few questions, wondering why the Dwarf's death didn't release the imp from his servitude.  We also learned that the Dwarf's name was  Gristogar Ashbreath (though in grade school I bet the other kids called him "Assbreath"; no wonder he joined a monastery).

Seeing no way to free the imp, we started to mosey out of the room when the imp attacked Durp.  The bard managed to kill the creature solo, and therefore treated himself to the skeleton's belongings. From the skeleton Durp took a magic gauntlet and a pair of slippers.  Upon donning the gauntlet, Durp's hand and forearm became solid stone.  Durp tried to remove the gauntlet, but we couldn't find a way to reverse the effect.  This has since become the source of many jokes, most involving self-gratification.  The slippers were more favorable, granting Durp the ability to walk on walls.

Up another hallway and around a bend, we found a room with two kobolds, the same ones we'd overheard from the trumpet.  Easy kill.  Back down the hallway and through another door, we found a room with a large obelisk.  As Davor approached the obelisk, he was hit with a bolt of electricity.  The exit doors closed, trapping Davor and Vex in the room.  Two more doors opened, revealing a pair of Vargouilles.  Though I'd never fought one before, OOC I remembered them from one well-known list of stupid D&D monsters, where the Vargouille comes in at #2 out of the top 5.  (Maybe next session we can fight a duckbunny.)

Davor tried to cast a spell, but he fumbled, injuring himself, and dropping him.  Vex did her best to hold her own, but it was two against one.  Keyanna finally managed to get the doors open by turning her hands into dragon claws (bet that freaked the kids out), and we soon won the fight.  Now we faced another dilemma.  We had explored every room we could find on this level, and we still hadn't found Jevra.

However, we did remember seeing a well in one room, and even saw a kobold use it to escape.  We headed straight there.  The well held a large cauldron suspended by a heavy chain.  The cauldron was large enough to hold four people.  So naturally, we put our four best people in it - Davor, Durp, Keyanna, and Vex.  The rest of the party (mostly the children we were escorting) stayed around the well.  An important note to all reading this - just because the DM says something is big enough to hold four people, does not mean it's a good idea.  The chain broke, and we fell to the bottom with a painful crash.  This took Vex and Davor into the negatives, leaving Durp and Keyanna to check out this large room.

Moments later, a pair of kobolds came charging down a tunnel, riding on on the backs of Slurks (saber-toothed frog mounts, which somehow did not make it onto the aforementioned list).  Durp fumbled on his first attack, but they still managed to survive the encounter, thanks to Keyanna's cunning use of Sleep (quickly becoming her favorite spell).  Durp and Keyanna turned the cauldron over on top of their fallen comrades for safety, then explored the next room.  There they found a poisoned Choker, and healed it.  They tried to ask the Choker some questions about the area, but the creature couldn't speak, so they didn't learn much.

They dragged Vex and Davor into the room, blocked the door as best they could, and we all rested.  Later, Durp called up the well to make sure the children were okay, but he got no answer.  Hmmm... that's troubling.  Come to think of it, the well was only a couple of rooms away from the Forge Spurned.  Somewhat concerned, Durp used his new slippers to climb back up to the top, but the children were no longer there.  He finally found a message scratched into one wall, explaining that they'd gone back to town.  Durp descended once more and we got a bit more rest.

Later, Kimi (one of the kids) showed up with some new friends.  She had taken the others back to town, where she met a few new adventurers to bring back to the monastery.  This finally added Adrilar, Glynnyn, and Ranell to the party.  Now that we had the safety in numbers thing going for us, we began exploring a few tunnels.  In one tight passage we were attacked by javelins, being thrown at us from over the walls.  With no way to fight back, we just quickly moved through the area.

Next we fought several more kobolds in a cramped set of tunnels.  This fight was especially difficult simply because there were so many of us, keeping us from getting at our enemies.  Some of the kobolds attacked us from ledges, forcing us to either climb up or use ranged attacks.  The final showdown between Glynnyn and a kobold took a while, but Glynnyn was determined to finish him off despite his offers to surrender.

At one end of the passage we found an egg chamber.  A female kobold asked us to please not harm the eggs.  Our group consists of several personality types, both IC and OOC, so we had a bit of a discussion about whether to kill the female and/or destroy the eggs.  It was suggested that she might starve to death anyway with all the other kobolds dead, to which, um, someone replied, "Nah, she's got eggs if she's hungry."

Down another passage, up some stairs, and we saw two more Slurks with riders.  One rider was dead, but the other one fled down another tunnel.  We followed, until we reached a large room with another bunch of kobolds.  Davor and Ranell rushed into the large room, and each was soon surrounded by enemies.  The rest of us got stuck in the entrance for a few rounds.  Keyanna took a few out with another use of sleep, and eventually we managed to clear the room.  We broke there for the day.

Afterthoughts:
I get the impression that we didn't go quite the way Rusty expected us to.  Last session, Tamara spent the entire game waiting for us to meet her character, but we never did.  Today, Tamara, Michael, and Greg spent half the session watching from the sidelines.

OOC, we knew that Adrilar and Ranell were back in town, and that we would probably meet them when we returned to rest up.  And as hurt as our party was at the beginning of today's session, it would have been perfectly forgivable for us to go that route.  But we're also playing our personalities (even if it kills us), and it would take a lot for Vex and Davor to give up the search for Jevra.

Sometimes it's hard to get things back on track when the players raid your dungeon in the wrong order.  I'd like to think that if I'd been the DM, I would have found ways to introduce the new characters a bit sooner.  I don't like making players sit around and watch longer than they have to.  On the other hand, a while back I wrote a blog about my own failings when I run games, not the least of which is my inability to think on my feet.  So it's just as possible I would have waited too. There's only so much you can plan ahead of time, and sometimes it's hard to recover when your players throw you for a loop.

Unlikely Heroes: PvP Zone

Game Date: 8/14/2011
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Davor (Ted): Half-Orc Sorcerer
Durp DuDerp (Cliff): Half-Elf Bard
Keyanna (Chere): Half-Elf Dragonblood Sorcerer
Moxie (Michael a.k.a. "Stud Duck"): Half-Orc Fighter
Snidely (Greg): Halfling Rogue
Nishallivexiania "Vex" Corman (Matt): Half-Elf Monk

The Session:
Last session, we explored some of the lower level of the Dwarven Monastery to find several missing children.  We ended the session after rescuing a couple of the kids from kobolds. Today we continued our search for the rest of the missing children.

First we found a room full of rows of cells.  Each cell contained a skeleton.  Whenever someone would try to walk past the cells, the skeletons inside would either try to grab them, or would throw their heads at the PC.  Davor was nearly killed by some of these attacks.  Once a few of the party members made it through the gauntlet, they heard a meowing from behind an anvil.  It turned out to be one of the missing kids - Savram - who was holding a cat (actually a familiar).

In another room we encountered four ghouls eating a kobold.  During the course of this battle, Vex was paralyzed, and Durp and Davor went down.  Moxie finally finished off the rest of the ghouls, and we managed to get Durp & Davor back on their feet.

In yet another room, we found five kobolds, one of which had wings (Dark Talon).  As in the previous session, some of the kobolds kept shouting "Glintaxe!" when they saw Moxie.  One kobold critted Vex, causing her ongoing damage, and she spent most of the battle unconscious.  Actually, a lot of the party spent a good deal of this session lying on the ground.

As the battle neared its end, Snidely was attacked by a Forge Spurned (Chain Demon).  It was a tough creature, but we survived.  Once it was dead, a few of us explored the smoky tunnels it had come from.  They found a forge, and another one of the missing children.  This left us with two more to find.

Next room, we fought several more kobolds led by a mystic.  They hit Davor and Moxie hard, and they went down early in the fight.  The kobolds closed the doors to the room, sealing themselves in with the downed Half-Orcs.  Sensing a losing battle, Snidely fled down another hallway.  Worried for their safety, Vex ordered the children to follow Snidely.

Vex was still at -2 hp from the previous battle.  She was able to stand, but any strenuous activity required her to make a saving throw or else collapse from exhaustion.   Nevertheless, she pushed open the door and finished off one of the kobolds.  This still left four kobolds, and it looked like a losing battle until Keyanna cast a Sleep spell.  This turned the tide, though one kobold did manage to escape out the side door.

After the battle, we got our fallen back on their feet, and Snidely and the children returned.  Durp made sure to inform Moxie of Snidely's cowardice.   This led to a fight between Snidely and Moxie, the Rogue taking advantage of the Fighter's rare moment of weakness.  Although Vex and the children pleaded for them to stop, they couldn't prevent Snidely from killing Moxie.  On Vex's next turn, she took the Halfling down with a well-rolled Flurry of Blows, and Durp finished off the dying Rogue.

With two party members dead, it seemed like as good a time as any to end the session.

Reminders:
We still have two children to find, including our ward Jevra.  Those of us still alive are low on hit points.  Vex is still at -2.  Next session we will introduce two new characters to replace Moxie and Snidely.  Michael will be playing a Halfling Barbarian, and Greg will be playing an Elf Sorcerer.

Afterthoughts:
In-party conflict can be an awesome thing, provided that all members of the group are okay with it. The Tantris campaign I was in had a ton of it, and we all had a great time. We were very good at keeping our IC and OOC knowledge & feelings separate. My character was a goody-goody naive Cleric who'd had a sheltered youth, and was the type to see an advancing orc and say something like, "Sure, it's a big axe-wielding snarling brute... but maybe it's a big axe-wielding snarling brute in need of our help." Some of the other party members were low-life scoundrels, who were constantly doing shady things behind my character's back. Quite often I'd find myself saying things like, "It's okay if you do that, but please make sure my character doesn't find out about it." It was actually a lot of fun keeping track of who knew how much about what and when.

But in the Artifact Hunters campaign, we saw the flip side to in-party conflict.  We had one player who despised all types of mounts and companions.  He was constantly letting his OOC feelings on the subject influence his IC play.  Things came to a head in one session when he tried to kill another player's giant slug mount.  His character had no IC reason to do such a thing, and he did it while the rest of us were in battle, taking advantage of the owner's distraction when he should have been helping us fight. Now, I like it when people play their character's personality. Even playing a jerk can be entertaining as long as it's done just right, and as long as everyone in the group agrees it's okay.  But in that case it was clearly the player's own prejudices influencing his character's actions.

Today's conflict was pretty good.  Both players stuck to their character's personalities, they didn't appear to bring any personal grudges into the game, and they both left in a good mood.  This is a fight that had been building for a while, and if it hadn't happened today, it probably would have happened eventually.  And I have to admit, while IC Vex probably considered it a necessary evil, OOC it felt pretty good pounding Snidely's face.

Worldwide Gameday: Neverwinter Campaign Setting

8/6/11 - Next Level Games

DM: Rusty

The Party:
Belgos (Matt) - Drow Hunter
Brandis (Cliff) - Human Cavalier
E.J. (Andrew) - Warpriest
Fargrim (Rick) - Dwarf Slayer
Gorak (Bryan) - Half-Orc Slayer
Nameless One (Michael) - Elf Hunter
Shecky Greenbaum (Greg) - Elf Thief
Zandara (Chere) - Human Mage

Today's Gameday was based on the new Neverwinter Campaign Setting for D&D 4e. As you can see, we had a rather large party, but that doesn't mean it was easy.  Several times we came close to losing party members.  This was my first time playing the Hunter class.

Our characters were hired to be bodyguards, on a sea voyage from Waterdeep to NeverWinter.  The voyage itself went without incident, but when we arrived at the dock, we were attacked before we could even get off the ship.  A large number of aquatic zombies crawled out of the water and climbed aboard the ship, and we found ourselves surrounded.  This was especially difficult for ranged characters like mine, because there wasn't a whole lot of maneuvering room. 

The second and final combat had us fighting a Necromancer in a graveyard.  At first the boss was only accompanied by a pair of gravehounds, but he soon summoned a bunch of zombies to surround our party.  Once again, my character started the battle in a difficult position.  However, once I was able to get away from the enemies, the Hunter turned out to be a really interesting class.

Early in the battle, the boss teleported into the middle of our party, in order to effectively use his aura power.  It was an Aura 2 which did 5 damage each turn, so we all did our best to keep our distance.  Additionally, the boss had the ability to steal energy from fallen PCs, and could even recover from death itself.  But again, we had eight party members, so we managed to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.  A couple of our party came close to death, but we were all on our feet at the end.

This wasn't a particularly long session.  We only fought two combats, though I'm told we avoided at least one more potential battle.  It was a fun module, if a bit forgettable.

I have, however, reached my personal limit on Essentials-only events. It's not actually so, but it just feels like this is the 14th time in a row I've been in an event/campaign/whatever where someone said, "Hey, you know what would be a neat change of pace? Let's all play Essentials characters!" Don't get me wrong, I actually like Essentials. In some ways, I prefer it. However, as of 8/6/2011, the concept of the Essentials-only event has officially been done to death. It is no longer creative or different, it's just restrictive. By my count, Fourth Edition has 26 classes, over 100 builds for those classes, only 11 of which are Essentials builds. Asking us to only consider 10 percent of 4e's wonderful content is like giving us wings and then throwing a net over us. In recent months I've found that one of my favorite things about Essentials characters is how well they integrate with "classic" 4e builds. At this point, Thief is just another build, and can be played right along next to the original PHB's Fighter and Wizard. So come on, DMs and event organizers, it's time to showcase that ease of integration, and let players have their freedom back.

Part-Time Players

Poor DM. All he wants is to run a coherent storyline with a consistent cast. And yet, real life keeps getting in the way. If one player's not going to a beer convention, another player is having a baby or catching a cold or getting kidnapped by aliens. What happened to the days when everyone respected the game? Well, we're no longer teenagers, that's what. Adults have different priorities and less free time. The unfortunate result is that you just can't find six people who have the freedom to commit to every single week.

The DM books always have a few tips for what to do when a player can't make it. Things like have their character fade into the background, or have someone else run the character, or just have the character split from the party temporarily.  These are all acceptable methods, but what do you do if you know from the beginning that a player is only going to be able to make every other session?

Of course, some DMs don't mind just hand waving their absence, concentrating on the story more than the actual characters present.  But other DMs really want to account for every character's location at all times.  If it were me, I'd want to use it. Why just apply duct tape to the problem, when the problem itself is a potential plot hook? There are several good ways to integrate sporadic absenteeism into the story.  For example:

Shared Character
Early in the ToEE campaign, we had two players who were only planning to make alternate sessions. The DM's solution? Make a character they both like, and have them share. Unfortunately it didn't work out as well as it looked on paper (one of the players didn't like the character, and the other player never joined the campaign), but it was still a good idea. Still, let's spice it up a bit. This game takes place in a world where magic is common; why let it go to waste? And why try so hard to make a character that both players like? Here's some of my alternatives:

Peppy the Halfling Rogue and Bjertha the Dwarf Cleric are a pair of treasure hunters. One day they happened upon a witch's treasure. The witch caught them and demanded they remain as her slaves. Peppy, being a smooth talker, persuaded her into just taking one of them. But which one? Finally they decided to split the punishment, so the witch placed an unusual binding spell on them. The result is that one character is always tending to the witch's needs, while the other is out questing with the party. At certain points in time, they magically switch places. Perhaps there could even be times at which she temporarily lets them both free, for the rare occasions when both players show up. It could even be part of the campaign's story arc to free them from the witch's control.

Or how about this one? Doctor Jackel is a Human Mage who was experimenting with a new spell, when it backfired and cursed him. Now, at random times, he is transformed into the monstrous Mister Clyde, a Half-Orc Barbarian. When one player makes the game, he's the good doctor. When the other player makes the game, he's the brutish Clyde. And then there's the Ladyhawke method - Gelf is a Wizard with a hawk familiar. The hawk sometimes changes into Zia, a Beastmaster Ranger. Zia's pet wolf is really Gelf... but they're never both humanoid at the same time.

Of course, the above ideas only work if you're in a very specific situation, where you know two players are going to alternate their attendance (or you have someone always ready to sub for the one who misses a lot). If you just have one problem player, here's a few more ideas.

Glorified NPC
This is what we're doing in our current Pathfinder campaign. We have a couple of players who aren't really into gaming just yet, so we're letting them contribute as much or as little as the feel like at the time. Our party has a couple of guides, who double as MacGuffins when the plot demands it. Our situation isn't quite the same as the focus of this blog, but it's not a terrible solution for players who miss a lot. Just have the DM run the character as an NPC when the player isn't there. The downside: If it's just a torchbearer, then the player can't really build a kick-ass character. Also, you'd want a way to explain the character's personality changes... why does he join the fight some weeks, and just stand back other times? Eh, we can get a little more creative than that. How about...

Were-Creatures
Rexx is the victim of a werewolf's curse. But rather than changing with the moon, he changes randomly. He's human when the player is there. When the player is absent, the wolfman runs off into the woods (or the DM runs him as an NPC when plot-appropriate). Of course, this also gives many opportunities for side quests as the character tries to break the curse. It also adds a lot of potential conflict as the rest of the party deals with the hostile wolfman and keeps him from attacking other NPCs.

Malfunctioning Warforged
The party finds an old automaton - it could be a rock golem, or an enchanted suit of armor, or even a gnomish clockwork man. It still works, but only sporadically. Sometimes (when player isn't there) all it does is follow the party around, maybe holding a lantern. Other times, it is a mighty war machine. Maybe one member of the party takes responsibility for it, and is constantly polishing the mechanoid and tinkering with its settings.

Animal Companion
If the oft-absent player doesn't mind playing an animal, perhaps he could actually be another player's pet or familiar. For whatever reason, this particular animal can only be summoned at random times, to coincide with the player's attendance. Fluffy is a large talking mastiff, who wanders away to hunt at random times, tracking and rejoining the party whenever Fluffy's player attends a session. Shelly is a sapient armadillo who has to spend a certain number of hours a day rolled up into a ball, carried around by another character when the player isn't there. Perhaps they work more like Drizzt's kitty, being summoned from a small statue or magic gem. Maybe they even spring from a Pokeball-like device.

Object Curse
After a nasty encounter with an evil Wizard, Rocky was transformed into a small stone. His friends managed to work out a counterspell, but it only works for random amounts of time. Whenever he's a stone, another party member carries him around in their pocket. Or perhaps he's trapped in the reflection of a pocket mirror, or contained in a magical amulet, or even lives in a magic lamp.

Prisoner
River is a convict who lives in a magical prison. She has found several ways to escape, using a magic portal which always transports her back to her party. But her captors are able to track her, and usually manage to catch up to her after a few hours.   Then they teleport her back to her cell, increase her sentence, and fruitlessly hope she won't escape again.

Ghost
Viva was killed by a mystical trap, but her will was too strong to be completely pulled into the other side. She now lives a part-time life, phasing in and out of existence. Sometimes she is a normal human, and just as solid and vulnerable as any other party member. Other times she is in a ghost form, invisible and intangible, and can do nothing but follow her friends around and watch.

These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there's many more ways to explain a character's absence. You might even come up with an explanation for every member of your party, just in case they miss.  If you have any favorite methods of your own, please post them below!