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Yesterday I did more gaming during a 12-hour period than I have since last century.

The evening had our usual DCC game. Dealing with the after-effects of our trip to the Deathlands, and my wizard Tianna's return to life. Then winged gorillas showed up, which led to us prepping for invading a wizard's tower.

The earlier part of the day was a bit more noteworthy, at least from my perspective. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by someone who was looking for a DM for a half-dozen teenagers who had never played any RPGs before. He's the father of two of the kids, who had ran across his old copy of the old Basic player's book (the one with the Elmore cover); between that and having seen stuff like Critical Role they were interested but didn't know where to start. The father had only played a little bit back in the day, and didn't feel comfortable trying to run something for them.

One of the ladies from our regular gaming group who knows him through work mentioned me as a possible solution (she just happened to be wearing one of her old Pathfinder t-shirts at one point, it hadn't come up to him before that she was a gamer). So we grabbed some coffee and talked for a bit. I figured out pretty quickly that he was feeling me out, trying to make sure I would be okay in dealing with said kids - as it turns out several of them are GLBTQ, and a couple of them are quietly looking into a religious path that isn't Christian. After I reassured him that none of that would freak me out, we also talked about how most of these kids aren't exactly swimming in money, and they wanted to see if this was something that they really wanted to get into before investing in ordering the current Player's Handbook off of Amazon. I suggested to him that since some of them had already read through the old Basic book, that I could run something using a similar ruleset, and that they wouldn't need to get any new rules just yet (since I don't know enough about 5e to run it anyways).

So I ordered from Amazon enough copies of the Basic Fantasy rulebook to give a copy to each of the kids. BF is probably my favorite of the Basic clones (there are changes, yes, but the changes made are ones I actually don't mind), and since they're sold at cost they're cheap enough that I was able to get a half-dozen copies affordably. Printed out some of the extra options I would allow (like rangers and illusionists), hashed out some basic house rules (which I tried to keep to a minimum), and mocked up a homemade DM screen using a couple of three-ring binders.

When we all met up at the father's house, the kids were thrilled when I gifted them with the copies of the BF rulebook. We chatted for a bit while I tried to make sure that they felt at ease around me, and also tried to manage expectations a bit (spoiler alert - I'm not Matt Mercer). I had them roll up characters, and then proceeded to run them through a slightly-tweaked version of Tomb Of The Serpent Kings. We got not quite half of the way through when one of the characters died, and they decided to return to town so that they could return the body for burial and get a replacement character to join them.

We'll pick things up next week, where we should be able to finish the adventure. They seemed pretty enthusiastic, but we'll see if they want to continue on after that.
 
Yesterday I did more gaming during a 12-hour period than I have since last century.

The evening had our usual DCC game. Dealing with the after-effects of our trip to the Deathlands, and my wizard Tianna's return to life. Then winged gorillas showed up, which led to us prepping for invading a wizard's tower.

The earlier part of the day was a bit more noteworthy, at least from my perspective. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by someone who was looking for a DM for a half-dozen teenagers who had never played any RPGs before. He's the father of two of the kids, who had ran across his old copy of the old Basic player's book (the one with the Elmore cover); between that and having seen stuff like Critical Role they were interested but didn't know where to start. The father had only played a little bit back in the day, and didn't feel comfortable trying to run something for them.

One of the ladies from our regular gaming group who knows him through work mentioned me as a possible solution (she just happened to be wearing one of her old Pathfinder t-shirts at one point, it hadn't come up to him before that she was a gamer). So we grabbed some coffee and talked for a bit. I figured out pretty quickly that he was feeling me out, trying to make sure I would be okay in dealing with said kids - as it turns out several of them are GLBTQ, and a couple of them are quietly looking into a religious path that isn't Christian. After I reassured him that none of that would freak me out, we also talked about how most of these kids aren't exactly swimming in money, and they wanted to see if this was something that they really wanted to get into before investing in ordering the current Player's Handbook off of Amazon. I suggested to him that since some of them had already read through the old Basic book, that I could run something using a similar ruleset, and that they wouldn't need to get any new rules just yet (since I don't know enough about 5e to run it anyways).

So I ordered from Amazon enough copies of the Basic Fantasy rulebook to give a copy to each of the kids. BF is probably my favorite of the Basic clones (there are changes, yes, but the changes made are ones I actually don't mind), and since they're sold at cost they're cheap enough that I was able to get a half-dozen copies affordably. Printed out some of the extra options I would allow (like rangers and illusionists), hashed out some basic house rules (which I tried to keep to a minimum), and mocked up a homemade DM screen using a couple of three-ring binders.

When we all met up at the father's house, the kids were thrilled when I gifted them with the copies of the BF rulebook. We chatted for a bit while I tried to make sure that they felt at ease around me, and also tried to manage expectations a bit (spoiler alert - I'm not Matt Mercer). I had them roll up characters, and then proceeded to run them through a slightly-tweaked version of Tomb Of The Serpent Kings. We got not quite half of the way through when one of the characters died, and they decided to return to town so that they could return the body for burial and get a replacement character to join them.

We'll pick things up next week, where we should be able to finish the adventure. They seemed pretty enthusiastic, but we'll see if they want to continue on after that.
My DM from childhood who was pretty awesome but apparently stopped D&D after he left for college. Anyway he found out his daughters were playing something like D&D at school. He reached out to me to ask what to do. I also recommended BF and that apparently went over as well with his kids as it did with the ones you're working with. It's a great starting point.
 
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My DM from childhood who was pretty awesome but apparently stopped D&D after he left for college. Anyway he found out his daughters were playing something like D&D at school. He reached out to me to ask what to do. I also recommended BF and that apparently went over as well with his kids as it did with the ones you're working with. It's a great starting point.
Being the nice, kind soul I am, I'd have recommended DCC or something similar... :devil:

I'm glad Basic Fantasy (which I'm not familiar with) worked for you two, though:thumbsup:!


I'm just not sure how Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl managed to do "more gaming during a 12-hour period than since last century"...but I'll assume that was just a turn of speech:grin:!
 
Being the nice, kind soul I am, I'd have recommended DCC or something similar... :devil:
Don't think I didn't consider it! Actually, the art I used for my DM screens came from some of the b&w illustrations inside the DCC rulebook.

But besides some of them having at least an inkling of how Basic works, I wanted to use something that they could all have the rulebooks for. BF was the obvious choice, since I don't have a lot of excess money to burn.

I'm glad Basic Fantasy (which I'm not familiar with) worked for you two, though:thumbsup:!
The first hit is free!

And the second, and the third, and the fourth...

I'm just not sure how Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl managed to do "more gaming during a 12-hour period than since last century"...but I'll assume that was just a turn of speech:grin:!
Sorry, poorly phrased on my part. What I meant was that the last time I did that much gaming in a twelve hour period was back in the 90's.
 
Not gaming related, but I took an extra day off to give myself a four day weekend. Last night I went and saw Blue Oyster Cult for the first time in 8 years. Still a great live band. They've been around 48 years now, and still going strong. Today is NXT: Takeover Portland. NXT is really the only WWE I watch, so being able to see them live is a treat. I saw their last show back in October (right before Street Prophets went to RAW). It wasn't packed with all their main members like today is. This is an important show leading up to their next event before Wrestlemania.

After that, I will hopefully make it back in time to see Harley Quinn at the theater.

Still making my way through Strange Tales of Songling. Digging it so far. If all goes well, I will run a one shot of this for the Babies With Knives podcast. I've run a game for the before (Simply Supers) which you can check out on their Youtube channel. For some inspiration, I started watching The Bride with Painted Skin on youtube (I found a quality video copy that has audio that drops out. Thankfully it has hardcoded subtitles, so when the audio drops, I can still follow). May have to pull out my old DVD's of A Chinese Ghost Story (the original) and Mr. Vampire too
 
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My DM from childhood who was pretty awesome but apparently stopped D&D after he left for college. Anyway he found out his daughters were playing something like D&D at school. He reached out to me to ask what to do. I also recommended BF and that apparently went over as well with his kids as it did with the ones you're working with. It's a great starting point.
It really is. Not only are the PDFs free and the books dirt-cheap, but they're reasonably clear and well-written, and cover pretty much everything you need for a wide range of adventures.
 
Don't think I didn't consider it! Actually, the art I used for my DM screens came from some of the b&w illustrations inside the DCC rulebook.

But besides some of them having at least an inkling of how Basic works, I wanted to use something that they could all have the rulebooks for. BF was the obvious choice, since I don't have a lot of excess money to burn.
Yeah, I know this feeling...except for the part with wanting to use something they're familiar with :smile:.

But basically, that's how I ended up using StarORE for a wuxia game that I was running for some newbies :wink:. This might have been the better idea in retrospect, because the wuxia system I was reading back than was LotW, which probably isn't the best example of rules you should use for newbies. But I admit that StarORE wasn't my first, or even second, idea for a ruleset, and at the end won purely on account of being free, short and using the One-Roll Engine, which I like.

And the second, and the third, and the fourth...
Seems like a time-tested strategy for getting new buyers to your materials...:thumbsup:
Well, except for the part where the second and subsequent hits are also free:devil:! But I guess they're selling adventures and supplements?

Sorry, poorly phrased on my part. What I meant was that the last time I did that much gaming in a twelve hour period was back in the 90's.
Eh, I wasn't asking about an explanation! After a bit of deliberation, I decided you probably mean something like "so much intensity", or something of the sort:shade:.
(But then I decided not to switch the "surprised" reaction to your post, purely because I like the surprised face it displays :tongue:!)
 
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Second session of Forbidden Lands on Wednesday. It's a really smooth system and a wide-open sandbox.

What I thought was a gimmicky dice-pool system turns out to be really solid. Roll dice equal to attribute plus skill plus gear bonus, sixes are successes. Success is tough, but the game encourages you to retry and rewards you with Willpower points if you roll skulls (damaging the attribute as well). You need those to drive your exceptional talents and magic. And gear damage is tracked by the bonus dice - easy and slick!

The only criticism I have is pehaps the mental trauma associated with failure (skulls rolled) - "gee, guess you were crushed by your failure to track the orcs". Feels a little more forced than physical damage.

Also, you have a Pride and Dark Secret. The former can power one extra D12 on a single roll per session, and if you still fail you lose the Pride. Special artifact dice (d8 - d12) and the Pride dice add extra successes at 8, 10 and 12. The Dark Secret is a roleplaying hook that you gain XP for engaging with.

We went through char gen. That went fine - only one racist serial killer in the party - and started a simple mission to locate an overdue merchant caravan. We got the hang of skill rolls and pushing failed rolls.

The other thing we tried was the adventuring game day. Each day is split into 4 periods, and you can do one thing in each period - hike, lead the way, keep lookout, forage, hunt, build camp or rest. Hunger, thirst and fatigue are punishing, and the players really got into planning things tightly, and understanding that sacrifices may be necessary. Never seen a party get so into wilderness adventure so quickly, and make big decisions so seriously.

Arrows, torches, food and water are tracked by dice, again D6 to d12. Roll a 1 or 2 and the dice goes one lower until it falls from d6 to nothing. When you collect food, you have the choice to eat it now and not roll today, or "chef" it and it becomes a dice raise (so may last several days). Again, sacrifice and choice are built into the system.

Wednesday will see us try out combat. Looks quick and bloody - armour works like skill rolls, so you may not block any famage. Damage is removed from stats, and you take a critical when one falls to zero.

Only thing that feels off is that the crafting specialities, from mining to cooking, use the same talent system as the fancy special effects and magic, but we'll see. They're not expensive in xp or slow to learn.

The random encounter tables consist of about 40 specific adventure seeds - nice idea, but I will use the D&D tables too!

A deceptively simple game with a lot of thought behind it.
 
https://www.basicfantasy.org/downloads.html
Seems like a time-tested strategy for getting new buyers to your materials...:thumbsup:
Well, except for the part where the second and subsequent hits are also free:devil:! But I guess they're selling adventures and supplements?
Actually, their various adventures follow the same model of free PDFs and being printed at cost. They don't seem to be interested in making money off of it, just getting their particular flavor of OSR out to as many people as possible.
 
In other news, I finished the dungeoncrawl I'd started with First Son. He killed the vampire wizard by accidentally exposing it to sunlight :devil:!

Stupid vamp had it coming! I mean, he made his throne - shaped like a couple of stone dogs with him sitting on their backs - come alive and attack the hero!
Well, it worked. But you don't do this if the hero is strong enough to grab one of the dogs and throw it through the window, because a stone dog is heavy enough to break any shutters:shade:!

No similarities at all to the Citadel of Chaos gamebook, of course! Who would believe such a thing:dice:?
 
Last night was our fourth session of Starfinder, (not including session zero). It's been going pretty well so far. My Android Mechanic is level two. My Mechanic specializes in power armor... making them and wearing them. Imagine an android Tony Stark. We've been fighting the Swarm that's invading and conquering the planet the group are on. We had our first vehicle combat last night. I was a gunner. We eventually blew up a small Swarm starship after it killed our vehicle's pilot, (an NPC). One of the other Mechanics (we have three Mechanics in the group), removed a flack cannon from the vehicle and is saving it to attach it to my character's power armor once my character reaches level five. Not sure how that'll work. :grin:

The game is definitely more crunchy than I'm used to, but I'm getting a better handle of it and the other players in the group.
 
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Got invited to play Mōdiphiüs' Star Trek Adventures next weekend, so I'll get to see what the much-derided 2d20 system is all about. Watched a YouTube tutorial to get an idea of what to expect.
 
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Last Thursday's Savage Worlds session with the HEPCATS went well, although it was shorter than I would have liked. The advantage of Thursday night games is that most of my players are consistently available, but the downside is it's a work night for most of them, so it means right as I'm really getting into my GM groove... we have to stop. Definitely beats not playing, though!

I'll do one of my usual session write-ups later. Right now I'm too tired, because, as usual, Monday night D&D went really late. I'm a decade-plus older than everyone else in the D&D group, so I think it wears on me a bit more than them.
 
I'm going through and making a random monster encounter for Mythras White Plume Mountain and I wanted some things that wouldn't be quite as restricted by the 10' wide corridors. Current table is
  1. Black Pudding
  2. Undine (the standing water in WPM gives you a blinding disease if you get immersed in it)
  3. Flaming Skull
  4. Invisible Stalker
  5. Cannibal Spirit
  6. Wraith
  7. Giant Centipede
  8. Leech swarm

i'm quite happy with it. it's different from the stock one a lot, and has a lot of unique things in there. really torn between the leech swam and the cannibal spirit as my favorite right now. the undine was my favorite last week.
 
Found their free "quickstart" rules online, so I'm perusing them. Watching one of their "actual play" videos on YouTube makes the rules much easier to understand--I find the explanations not particularly well written and important details seem rather buried in the text.

 
Arr! How do ye have a game called Pirate Revenge in yer photo and not know that be of far greater interest than yer shiny box of chess and checkers, ye scurvy lubber?
Pirate Revenge is a game where you torture a cat by dressing it up in pirate clothes, the revenge part coming later when the cat pisses on your bed.
 
No one showed up for the library Savage Worlds game today :sad: . Which was a bummer, but it gave me a chance to work on the home Savage Worlds game, and continue reviewing the rules to the Mutants and Death Ray Guns minis game.
 
Been playing in a 5e Ravenloft game. I've watched and read a bunch of reviews (after I started playing), I don't care what they say Curse of Strahd Ravenloft is a horrible module. Granted the DM is 'newer' It has been so bleh. We are level 6.
Fully admit the Dm is a major part of the problem, but they need the bumps experience to be better. Whomever wrote that module needs fingers broken. It's downright stupid.


Started playing PF2, got 4 sessions in so far. Last session we switched over to their Age of Ashes AP. Funny thing every session someone has changed classes. I changed to a character that has darkvision cuz that was gonna be the way of the campaign. No sense trying to sneak around if I'm human in the underdark Darklands.
 
Been playing in a 5e Ravenloft game. I've watched and read a bunch of reviews (after I started playing), I don't care what they say Curse of Strahd Ravenloft is a horrible module.

Whomever wrote that module needs fingers broken. It's downright stupid.
Care to share more about its failings?
 
So... my Talislanta game is abruptly coming to a close (but with the intent to revisit). I have two *relatively* new RPG players (one has some D&D5e experience the other is a completely new)... and ultimately they're intimidated by the the scope of the game, and the depth of play has them paralyzed.

The setup was very much like fantasy "Star Trek" where they were members of a Skyship touring the continent of Talislanta on behalf of the Seven Kingdoms. But the new players quickly fell into the "Chekov" roles where so much stuff was happening their lack of experience in sandboxing and "playing their character" became a hindrance. They were used to "My class is my character" in their mentality of play. And the nature of the game was very role-intensive, so it facilitated looking at their "roles" as their characters without getting into the meat of where we like to go - they were a little intimidated to engage.

In discussion my veteran players came to me and said "We need something more intimate that will engage them on a personal level rather than them playing a bird-man with a stutter (alas poor Aeriad... it is a thing). So the suggestion came up: classic Vampire the Masquerade.

I haven't run Vampire in at least a decade. But I've run a *lot* of World of Darkness in the past. And I admit... it's had a lot of positive results for me dealing with new players in getting them a bit deeper into roleplaying, because of its modern conceits and the way I run World of Darkness. I try to really challenge player's in their assumptions about their characters in relation to the setting(personal horror being a relative thing). So I relented and we hashed out some ideas for the setting - 1989, Santa Cruz California.

So V20 it is. I'm back in the World of Darkness... what an interesting turn of events.
 
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Care to share more about its failings?
With an experienced DM nearly all of it wouldn't have been an issue. An Experienced DM would be able to recognize when things are not jiving.

Take for instance if you start at level 1 they have a 'Death House' that is used to get the group up to level 3 where it's supposed to be started at? If the Death House is run by a DM who doesn't pull punches, roll in the open, them be the results type. It would be a revolving massacre.
1. All the windows are bricked up; the bricked-up windows and the outer walls are impervious to the party's weapon attacks and damage-dealing spells.
2. All the doors are gone, replaced by slashing scythe blades. A character must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to pass through a blade-trapped doorway unscathed. A character who spends 1 minute studying the blades in a particular doorway can try to take advantage of a momentary gap in their repeating movements and make a DC 15 Intelligence check instead. Failing either check, a character takes 2d10 slashing damage but manages to pass through the doorway. Any creature pushed through a doorway must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take the damage. The blades can't be disarmed.
3. Every room that contains a fireplace, an oven, or a stove is filled with poisonous black smoke. The room is heavily obscured, and any creature that starts its turn in the smoke must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or take 1d10 poison damage.
4. The interior walls become rotted and brittle. Each 5-foot-section has AC 5 and 5 hit points, and can also be destroyed with a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. Each 5-foot section of wall that's destroyed causes a swarm of rats to pour out and attack. The swarm won't leave the house.
That is how you have to get out (at level 2) once outside you gain level 3.
Here's the rub. To exit your start in the cellar and go up in one of two spots, both spots have condition #3. heavily obscured = blind condition.
So you are blind, having to make DC10 poison save every round or suffer 1d10 damage, if you find the door make an immediate DC 15 Dex save or suffer 2d10 damage.
You can study the blades having to make 10 DC 10 poison saves...wait it's heavily obscured which is the blind condition. that wont work.
That is after having to engage with a Shambling Mound at level 2. The Shambling Mound is, if played decently by a DM, a TPK for a level 2 group.

The exchange rate is horrible, items in Ravenloft cost 10x the normal price or 5x if you know the right people.
If you are a stickler for material components i.e. Revivify need diamonds worth 300gp which are consumed, that makes it 3,000gp to cast if having to purchase the diamonds.
 
With an experienced DM nearly all of it wouldn't have been an issue. An Experienced DM would be able to recognize when things are not jiving.

Take for instance if you start at level 1 they have a 'Death House' that is used to get the group up to level 3 where it's supposed to be started at? If the Death House is run by a DM who doesn't pull punches, roll in the open, them be the results type. It would be a revolving massacre.
1. All the windows are bricked up; the bricked-up windows and the outer walls are impervious to the party's weapon attacks and damage-dealing spells.
2. All the doors are gone, replaced by slashing scythe blades. A character must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to pass through a blade-trapped doorway unscathed. A character who spends 1 minute studying the blades in a particular doorway can try to take advantage of a momentary gap in their repeating movements and make a DC 15 Intelligence check instead. Failing either check, a character takes 2d10 slashing damage but manages to pass through the doorway. Any creature pushed through a doorway must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take the damage. The blades can't be disarmed.
3. Every room that contains a fireplace, an oven, or a stove is filled with poisonous black smoke. The room is heavily obscured, and any creature that starts its turn in the smoke must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or take 1d10 poison damage.
4. The interior walls become rotted and brittle. Each 5-foot-section has AC 5 and 5 hit points, and can also be destroyed with a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. Each 5-foot section of wall that's destroyed causes a swarm of rats to pour out and attack. The swarm won't leave the house.
That is how you have to get out (at level 2) once outside you gain level 3.
Here's the rub. To exit your start in the cellar and go up in one of two spots, both spots have condition #3. heavily obscured = blind condition.
So you are blind, having to make DC10 poison save every round or suffer 1d10 damage, if you find the door make an immediate DC 15 Dex save or suffer 2d10 damage.
You can study the blades having to make 10 DC 10 poison saves...wait it's heavily obscured which is the blind condition. that wont work.
That is after having to engage with a Shambling Mound at level 2. The Shambling Mound is, if played decently by a DM, a TPK for a level 2 group.

The exchange rate is horrible, items in Ravenloft cost 10x the normal price or 5x if you know the right people.
If you are a stickler for material components i.e. Revivify need diamonds worth 300gp which are consumed, that makes it 3,000gp to cast if having to purchase the diamonds.
Thank you:thumbsup:!
And now I want someone to run this for our group by the book and rolling in the open...:shade:!
 
Ran my Silk Road adventure last night. The PCs are traveling in a caravan and acting as part of caravan security. During second watch, a Blood Shaman sacrificed his last servant and gained quite a bit of power thereby. The Kshatriya Mage PC, whose name I always forget heard the servant's dying scream and went to investigate. Neither Ivan nor Narita heard the muffled scream but they saw their colleague head purposefully toward a tent and moved to back him up. Roxanne, having seduced the princess they were escorting, was busy.
The Blood Shaman sensed that someone was coming to investigate and released the spirit of his murdered servant to delay them while he prepared something more elaborate.
The newly-made Undead was easily dealt with while mesmerized by the Mage's "Distracting Sight or Sound" and Narita rushed into the Blood Shaman's tent before the ritual was complete. For his trouble, he took a crossbow bolt in the chest but he did cut down the Shaman. Then, the venom hit him and he was lying beside the Shaman. He recovered, with the help of the Mage and a saving roll.
 
Ran my Silk Road adventure last night. The PCs are traveling in a caravan and acting as part of caravan security. During second watch, a Blood Shaman sacrificed his last servant and gained quite a bit of power thereby. The Kshatriya Mage PC, whose name I always forget heard the servant's dying scream and went to investigate. Neither Ivan nor Narita heard the muffled scream but they saw their colleague head purposefully toward a tent and moved to back him up. Roxanne, having seduced the princess they were escorting, was busy.
The Blood Shaman sensed that someone was coming to investigate and released the spirit of his murdered servant to delay them while he prepared something more elaborate.
The newly-made Undead was easily dealt with while mesmerized by the Mage's "Distracting Sight or Sound" and Narita rushed into the Blood Shaman's tent before the ritual was complete. For his trouble, he took a crossbow bolt in the chest but he did cut down the Shaman. Then, the venom hit him and he was lying beside the Shaman. He recovered, with the help of the Mage and a saving roll.
Was the Blood Shaman a PC :smile:?
 
No. I've only had one blood shaman PC and she was an apprentice who rejected being a blood shaman, helped kill her master and free the tribe from him and became a Sun Shaman, without the massive power of a blood shaman but also without the need to sacrifice small animals, your enemies, your friends, relatives and lovers.
 
Last night was the first episode of Mythras White Plume Mountain, where they are finding 3 weapons of power to assist in a war effort. If I do say so myself, it went off stunningly well.

We start with the party entering down into the dungeon, and I made sure to lay on the atmospherics quite a bit. A few got stunned by a Symbol of Stunning which allowed the gynosphinx to propose her riddles. They chose the east corridor, and answered wrongly on the riddle. Thus, they suffered the Symbol of Pain, but all made their saves. Notably though, they actually had the right answer in their discussions, but a) some of them didn't agree with it and picked something else and b) they chose a different, but related answer.

they head down the east corridor through foot and a half deep murky algae (and disease) infested waters. They somehow manage to avoid most of the serious damage from the green slime (I was sad) and didn't get a random encounter right away. They around the corner and go to the room of globes - except they are a bunch of pansies about it and only a few go into the room, while the minotaur cleric stands in the door and the wizard stands outside. After 3 times of asking if they are going into the room, the door closes, and the minotaur is unable to make is brawn check to keep it open. He gets locked in with the party and the wizard is stuck outside by himself

That's when I roll the random encounter - a giant centipede. Not one of these rinky dink little 2 foot jobbies, but a HOLY SHIT WTF CENTIPEDE that is 10 meters long!

At the same time, the party inside decides they need to start breaking globes and cracks one with an air elemental in it!

So now we have a pair of fights going on, the wizard against a giant centipede with mandibles nearly the size of two handed swords and dripping poison against 5 party members against an air elemental.

Fortunately for the party, the cleric had the foresight to cast protection from evil 10' radius and the air elemental didn't do much - he couldn't land a blow on them, and I was sad.

But the real battle was out in the hall. The wizard looks at the centipede and rolls his Bachelor's in Monster Studies roll, crits, and realizes the centipede can sense vibrations, so neither mirror image nor invisibility is really going to help here. He decides the right choice, with the centipede 70' away, is shield, then to try and survive is blows.

Bad move, Mr. Wizard. This is a Monster Island Giant Centipede, and he Brooks None Of Your Elf Bullshit.

Centipede senses his prey and moves in
Wizard starts casting Lightning Bolt. Note, this is the wizard who cast lightning bolt into a pool of water with an aboleth and 5 party members in it, 3 of whom were in metal armor.
Centipede gets to wizard. Rolls, hits.
Wizard proudly proclaims his 4 points of shield armor and 3 points of elven chain on several locations, but Bravely decides he doesn't need to parry or evade
I pull out 1d10+1d12 :devil:
3 for location - right leg
16 for damage. That's enough damage to SEVER HIS LEG AFTER ARMOR
luck point is spent to make it a serious wound. Leg stays, and he makes his endurance roll to continue casting the spell

now shit is serious. He knows he's in a bad way and needs to put this thing down and NOW. He fails his paralytic venom resist - leg is gone numb, and body is going to shut down shortly.

He summons is Arcane Power and pulls out THE MOTHER OF ALL LIGHTNING BOLTS. Intensity 11, 1d8+1d6, and crits the casting roll for half cost! This is the biggest damn thing he can muster in lightning. It has a range of 550', and can fill the entire corridor. I rule that it can hit every location on the HSWTF centipede.

Coincidentally, I also think very strongly about the whole 1e/2e reflection of lightning bolt thing. Me and and heterosexual life partner start making eyes at each other, because we know about this.

There is a discussion around the table - there is no guidance, only tradition. If it reflects, this bolt will likely pass through him at least 3 times, blow through the door, pass through the other party members twice, and likely killing much of the party.

I decide he gets an Arcane Knowledge roll to control that thing.... he makes it and contains the range component down to rational, and prevents party death. Unfortunately, his damage is not enough to drop any location of the centipede. He rolls 1 POINT SHY.

Then the round renews, and action points refresh. Initiative says he goes first! Hope!

He pulls out magic missile! A risky gambit, because he can't control the locations hit, and there are a lot of non-lethal locations on a HSWTF centipede.

He succeeds in casting
He rolls damage! Big Beefy Magic Missiles of 7 points each
He rolls for location
2 hit the head!!! Huzzah! the thing takes enough damage in that shot to knock it from full hit points, and enough after the lightning bolt, to easily kill it.

He collapses, paralyzed, just as the door opens - the party has found the key - and . the minotaur cleric lays his poison curing and healing on him.

End result - party is down a fair amount of magic (wizard is at like 1/3 I think, cleric is down 1/5), wizard is OUT of luck points (he spent six), and they are in an unnecessary detour into the dungeon. They are going to feel the challenge now. Ahead of them is a set of flesh golems (they will get this easily, very math focused group), a mimic disguised as a gate (will cause some damage, but ultimately not serious), the platforms on chains (flying acrobat rogue shouldn't have an issue, neither should the wizard with fly, but the rest of . the party may struggle), and then a vampire with Whelm! They are almost certainly going to want to go back to town, as that's how they refresh luck
 
No. I've only had one blood shaman PC and she was an apprentice who rejected being a blood shaman, helped kill her master and free the tribe from him and became a Sun Shaman, without the massive power of a blood shaman but also without the need to sacrifice small animals, your enemies, your friends, relatives and lovers.
Why shouldn't they stick to sacrificing their enemies :evil:?
 
Why shouldn't they stick to sacrificing their enemies :evil:?

Because then they have only the Power of an ordinary Initiate of any god. The Power source for the Blood Shamans gives them much more power for sacrificing beings that they value and it increases their capacity for power to hold whatever bonus you got for sacrificing a valued ally or a beloved wife or whatever. So, you become a very powerful horrible person.
 
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