The Pink Dice Chronicles

A large group of orc soldiers are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a sand dune. "One dwarf is better than ten orcs!" The orc commander quickly sends 10 of his best soldiers over the dune, where upon a fierce battle breaks and continues for a few minutes, then silence. The voice then calls out "One dwarf is better than one hundred orcs!" Furious, the orc commander sends his next best 100 troops over the dune and instantly a huge firefight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again silence. The dwarven voice calls out again "One dwarf is better than one thousand orcs!" The enraged orc commander musters one thousand raiders and sends them across the dune. Explosions and cries of war ring out as a huge battle is fought. Then silence. Eventually one wounded orc fighter crawls back over the dune and with his dying words tells his commander, "Don't send any more soldiers, it's a trap. There's two of them!"

Unfortunately I have had a bit of a bad spell and I am in bed for my back again for a few days.  Lots of gaming thoughts are percolating.  I've also been a bit more active on twitter. If you get a chance to read the twitter feed as of late, there are some cool #PungeonCrawl and #GMConfessions.  I even got a retweet from the infamous Dungeon Bastard, and a favorite from my favorite GM, Chris Perkins.  I've picked up a few new followers, so hopefully they find their way here in time. Somebody over on Reddit noted that we are coming up on the 50th anniversary of Dune next year.  It is cool that it coincides with me adding a space element to my Pathfinder postmodern cyberpunk extension.  Someone recommended looking at Fading Suns for a Dune-like game, so I decided to pick up an older copy of the d20 version of the books for it.  That will be some good reading when it arrives. I've also recently gotten copies of FATE and FATE Accelerated to read, and ...

Dear Torin, I hope this letter finds you well, as I was unable to check in with you before leaving.  I have been named a member of the Lords Alliance of Magnimar and been sent by the mayor with the others to check out lost contact with Fort Rannick.  I fear evil has taken another stronghold there. I have been named heir to the Foxglove Estate and it has been added to our party's expanding holdings.  It is good to be in business for the days ahead when I no longer wish to collect knowledge in the world but turn to times of studying secrets from books. We have stocked up here in Magnimar and plan to head to Sandpoint to check in on Bold Intentions.    I own an inn there now too, and I wish to check on it, as well. From there we cut across the plains to catch the ferry.  In a couple of weeks we hope to reach Turtleback Ferry and then head on to Fort Rannick.  I fear what we may find.  Still, my blade and crossbow are as  fast as ever, so...

I don't know about other GMs, but I like to end epic campaigns with epic battles.  Sure there might be a big bad that the the PCs need to take out, or a dragon, or both, but have armies fighting in the background just makes for a cool final battle. It also is a good plot point to have throughout the campaign -- building up allies for the final showdown.  However, how does one GM a large final battle? The problem is simple to understand.  If you use the same mechanics that you use for normal battles, you will never reach the end.  The mechanics just weren't built for this many characters in play.  Instead of running the battle with a character vs character level of detail, you need to run it with a group vs group level of detail. To do this, you group allies and enemies except for special NPCs and PCs.  A typical group can be from 5 to 12, though more or less may work depending on the overall size of the encounter.  Each group takes and does damage ...

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Torin, I hope this letter finds you well.  I am unable to check in with you until we've cleaned up all of our most recent mess.  We have uncovered a cult responsible for the recent murders and killed their leader, a vampire who was holed up in the old Shadowclock Tower.  I am unable to share much more about the situation, as certain people involved were charmed and are people of power.  They, luckily, were happy to have our assistance in escaping this evil plot.  I think our efforts have also went well enough that I shall be named heir to the Foxglove Estate which will be managed by our company of 4. I need to search our knowledge base on a ring I have acquired.  With each use, the ring speaks to me.  It steals away my own energy to negate spells.  I am somewhat fearful that it may at some point unleash something best left out of our world. Regards, Llarm Blacksword.