The Pink Dice Chronicles

So after more thought I have decided to revisit expected damage. Consider the case with a 20/x2 critical, which is reasonably standard. Probability of Hit (No Critical) ~=  (20-(AC of target - attack of attacker))/20 Minimum is always 1/20, maximum is always 19/20 The probability of a critical hit is always 1/20 Mean Damage = (Max Damage + Min Damage)/2 Expected Total Damage = Prob of Hit * Mean Damage + Prob of Crit  * Mean Damage In our 20/x2 case: Expected Total Damage = Mean Damage * (21-(AC-Attack)/20 Consider 3 undead (+3 attack, 2d6+2 damage) attacking an AC 14 PC Expected Total Damage = (14+4)/2 *(21-(14-3)/20 = 9*10/20 = 4.5 With 3 undead, this means expected damage of 3* 4.5 = 14 damage per round If we ignore criticals, the answer would be only 12 damage per round, a 17% difference! Generically we can expand the formula for any critical hit as follows: Expected Total Damage = Mean Damage *((20+Critical Rolls*(Critical Damage Multipli...

Yeah, I was one of the luck few to get the Tome of Horrors Complete  bundle hardcover and PDF.  I saw it, I got it, and by the time I got home from work it was sold out. The best part is that I was able to download the rather large PDF already, and the content is really cool.  Demons, undead, planar beings, animals and plants, playable races, trainable creatures, templates... it is all good. In fact, already in honor of this new addition (edition too! lol) in my hoard of Pathfinder Stuff, I already have a new adventure brewing. There will have to be time on a ship, time in the jungle, time underground, time near a volcano, and traveling of the planes. I can't wait.

Chelsie gives the stormtroopers a thumbs up.  I should have known she wasn't a rebel. Krista goes undercover as a stormtrooper.  Aren't you kind of short for a stormtrooper? Sarah is captured by the empire. Krista saves Leia. And so does her friend Kiersten. Chelsie too Sarah too And Veronica too Veronica is definitely too short to be a stormtrooper. Chelsie is captures as a rebel spy.  Sarah and Darth Vader join forces.  Veronica also gets captures as a rebel spy.   Turns out she and the empire are old pals. Highlight of the con:  meeting the creator of Ghostrider!

So tonight we tried playing battletech.  I didn't remember how complicated the rules are, yet how very reasonable they seem while playing. We played for an over an hour and got through the rules and two full rounds of combat with 4 players each with two mechs.  I ruled out modifiers for moving, terrain, and eliminated all 'hand-to-hand' style combat for simplicity.  It was just move, announce, fire for damage, calc heat. Sarah hid her mechs behinds some trees.  Veronica barely got off a single shot. Chelsie and I blasted each other. Then after we played a couple of rounds I announced the 'fun' part I remembered as a kid:  not only can you battle the mechs versus each other, there are also rules for building your own.  Chelsie and Veronica seemed interested.  Sarah was bored with the whole game. I suspect we'll try to play again sometime soon and see how it goes then.

5 adventurers -- a half-orc rogue brute, a halfling female rogue, a large human barbarian, an elvan wizard, and a half-elf druid. "My uncle, a fellow monk, has gone missing.  He was hired to identify an artifact found by a group of local miners.  If you could find out what has happened I can offer a generous reward.  Most imprtantly, my uncle has a key of great importance to our monastery.  If you can find it, it is important.  You will know my uncle Traylon by his short round stature, his balding head, and the bright sun embroidered on his robes." The group of beginners (level 3) found their way into the mine entrance, an old cave.  Unfortunately it was in use by a group of wolves that attacked the group.  The group overcame them quickly before the wolves injured their party. A few steps down the corridor found a storage room.  The barbarian, Rondo, rushed in without hesitation and found large stones falling from the ceiling clobbering his ...

So we're making the transition to Pathfinder.  To make things easier, I decided to invest in Herolab for Pathfinder.  With secondary licenses, I was able to make it available on multiple computers so the girls can work on their own character sheets without having to dig through tons of books.  Here are my first impressions of Herolab: Positive: Always being updated Extensive content Thorough.  For example, it is easy to generate companion animals D20 integration in Pathfinder so I don't have to leave everything old behind Nice looking character sheets Lots of options for including / excluding extra content (like the Advanced Players Guide) Negative Out of the box, it didn't set the starting gold properly for the level.   I had to look it up. The portrait view cuts off the picture even though the character sheet doesn't. The dossier thing looks like it makes me print everything separately (spell description separate from character sheet).  ...

I think every gaming group sooner or later takes a vacation.  We've taken a bit of a break lately as spring has come around and the warm weather has drawn us outside.  Still, with rainy weekends ahead, we are getting ready for more gaming.  Some things underway: I bought 3 ogre miniatures that I'll be painting over the next month or so. I passed along this article to the players for review.  I have a feeling some dragon culture is going to be arising in the next part of the campaign and delves. I am brainstorming some new ideas for game play.  I think giving the PCs some new options could be a key part of the next series of dungeon runs. Still looking over Pathfinder to decide how and when to incorporate it.