The Pink Dice Chronicles

I spent around 3 hours on Saturday driving all over checking out possible options for a gaming venue.  I was amazed how many people were really excited that we might want to use their space.  I checked out two library branches and both had meeting rooms available free of charge with free wifi for similar timeslots as two of our planned game times.  We also stopped at a couple of game stores and the story was what I expected -- we have lots of tables open and available any time except Friday.  That doesn't surprise me -- Friday Night Magic is big business and at least they were up front about it.  So I guess finding new places to play was easier than expected.  There is also Roll20.net for doing an online game.  The only snag is that the Friday Night Pathfinder game is going to have to move online or change days. Of course, the real test is to see how many players will follow the games.  We've lost one person on Friday, but that was somewhat expe...

I waited a day to post this since I like to let emotions cool first.  This might seem a bit off-topic at first, but I think there needs to be a deeper reflection on the impact that gaming every week has on a person.  Its true that it is just a hobby for most, but it plays an important part in their lives, taking up precious time and being an escape from the stress of daily life. - I was all ready tonight for a cool new section of the dungeon for our Friday night game.  I packed up my Friday night GM backpack, collected together the specific miniatures I was going to use tonight.  I grabbed up the dungeon adventure that I had worked to prepopulate with stats this week.  I packed in my box of dice and shut down my laptop and packed it in too.  I also grabbed my copy of Elder Evils that was going to play a special role in tonight's encounter, if we got that far.  I was also looking forward to maybe buying a copy of the NPC Codex tonight, if they still h...

Reading this article , I felt that the "Best Fantasy Roleplaying Game" discussion was a good overview, but needed a little more.  The author mentions Pathfinder, Dragon Age, Swords and Wizardry, D&D 4th Ed, Tunnels and Trolls, and Runequest 6th ed, and points out that there are many others.   I think he had a good overview of what he included, but here are some salient points I think I would add to the mix: There are kits for getting started with  D&D Red Box and Pathfinder Beginner Box .  For getting started in a new RPG, these boxes are a good way to go, including starting with pregen characters and a reduced rule set.  I'm not sure if there are others, but these starter kits are a good way to introduce new players. Savage Worlds is a nice rules-light RPG that can easily be used for fantasy.  When I went looking a light rule set, this one seemed well-supported and very flexible. When we speak of best Fantasy RPGs, you can't leave out Burnin...

New Player this week playing Sarith -- another magus -- this one is a male human. The other magus, Kyte, was absent this week. --- This week started off with the group recovering in the hold from 'the bloody hour' which got them all whipped by Mister Plugg.  He enjoyed it. The crew started trying to make friends this week: Jacen talked to Sandara, and Sadara offered to watch over Kyte who was recovering from the whipping. Jacen managed to start a sing-along with Rosie who played the fiddle. Jacen had a good chat with 'Fishguts', the cook.  Fishguts left him alone just long enough for him to grab a short sword. Sheena was able to get her katana back from Cut-Throat Grok by claiming it was cursed. Sheena was also able to snag a lock to lock up her katana. Durgen, the half-giant who thinks he is a dwarf, tried to talk Cut-Throat Grok into giving him his hammer back.  Instead, he ended up seducing her. Durgen met up with Cut-Throat at night in the quarterma...

I just really like the backstory of the Wormwood Mutiny, and though it isn't the campaign I was to run, the first book is an excellent resource to introduce players to pirating.  I take my own artistic license to GMing it though. So the group starts out in the Cutlass tavern in Luskan.  Jacen, a human rogue, and Kyte, a maenad magus, have arrived in Luskan looking to join a sea-faring crew after escaping as slavers in the Blinded City, the city of the followers of the four gods Myrkul, Bane, Bhaal, and Cyric that is found in the Anauroch Dessert.  Vladyr Stormwalker, a dwarven druid, has come to the tavern, as well, looking for a home on the sea.  A half-giant fighter name Durgen who thinks he's a dwarf is also present with a siege weapon strapped to his back, wanting to find a crew to join.  Sheena, a human ninja, also awaits for a chance to hit the waves. At the appropriate time, Captain Johnston of the Wormwood, calls the sailors-to-be out to test for the...

It seems that there is a slight discrepancy between 1 on 1 CRs of fighter-style classes vs magic classes.  A CR 1 mage is going to get taken out by a fighter.  A CR 6 fighter and mage seem on equal ground.  Above CR 6, the mage seems to have the advantage.  If this is the case, maybe the APL should really take this into account. Consider my barbarian attack.  The barbarian encounter was meant to be a tough encounter at CR 8 with the party APL at 5 / CR of 6.  However the APL was closer to 3 with a party of 6 ending in a CR of 4.  But with the bard and sorcerer, the CR of the party is probably only 3.5.  CR 8 vs CR 3.5 = slaughter, which is exactly what we saw. If I half the number of barbarians, the CR drops to 6 and is probably still too hard because of the low level bard and sorcerer.  Drop another barbarian and it should be about right.  We should test on this one. I need to keep this in mind in the future.  And we'll revis...

I have a hard time keeping track of spells and abilities and special items. So the other day in an office supply store I picked up and index card box and a bunch of graph paper 4x6 index cards, along with some index tabs. Now I am having all the players give me a list of their special abilities, spells, and special items.  Each one gets written on a card.  Now when I need to remember how something works, it is at my fingertips without trying to wrestle through books and indices during the game.

Briff Stonehammer meets with adventurer's in a tavern to ask them to perform a task for him.  The town he previously lived in was swallowed by the earth.  In this town, a magical forge existed that was used to make magical weapons to fight against the Duegar.  Briff has recently located the entrance to a cavern which he believes leads underground to the town.  Unfortunately, a wyvern has taken the entry cavern as a home, so he needs a group to go in, get past the wyvern, and investigate.  If the forge is found, Briff provides a ward to place on it that will teleport the 1000lb piece back to the surface.  The adventurers are offered 10,000 gp if the forge is found and returned.  The adventurer's may also keep anything they find.  Briff hints that since the forge runs on gold, they may find both gold and magic weapons. The group now consists of: *Lino, half-eld paladin, played by P. *Dahlia, human rogue, played by K. *Jerry, human barbarian, pl...

The campaign totally dragged tonight.  The adventure starts out at the entrance to Innsbruck.  The PCs just wander around, talking to people, not taking any new jobs, not really getting anywhere.  After multiple NPCs drain my voice and distribute clues, the party finally get underway to the local fort. The fort comes with immediate excitement.  A set of caravans come rolling in on the Fort, bandits chasing them.  But suddenly things turn strange.  The bandits and escorts peel off the wagon and it crashes through the fort, setting it on fire.  It was all a trick. The local troops are busy fighting the fire, so the adventurers are left to fight off an equal-matched set of bandits. The new group consisting of a human barbarian, a gnome bard, the previous ranger, rogue, and paladin, have to fight a group of 3 archers, a bad-ass cleric, and two sword fighters.  Hitpoints are falling on the table. Finally just before bedtime, the PCs prevail and t...

We started out with D&D 3.5e Basic Game and added the Player's Kit. Some recap of the experiences: Mechanics take a little getting used to.  Practice made perfect. Mechanics get in the way of role playing, but are a necessary evil to get started. Early PC deaths are inevitable, but they teach the importance of NOT doing stupid things as a player that get your character killed. The elvan mage who draws fire from a dragon so the fighter doesn't get hit. "Over here.  Over here"  Elf gets fried by 50 points of lightening damage and is dead. Yelling is a big problem,  We got a stuffed d20 and now only the person with it can talk, unless it is placed on the "conference square". Venue is important.  Playing at the dining room table caused players to be irritable and cranky.  Playing at the living room coffee table let everyone relax and the game went more smoothly. Some early lessons: Players have a hard time letting go of dead characters. ...