Lylandra
Member

Well done getting in Lya's thought process. I always read these session reports and think how amazing it would be to play with your Zeitgeist and WotBS groups, and then I realize that I probably would not be able to keep up on the role playing front. Seriously, great work to you and Lylandra.

I think that because my group seems to not have a way to learn the song of forms anytime soon (or maybe never...) I will follow the route of Lyceum´s magicians coming up with the enforced flesh spell. Maybe I will have my group fight Madness and seeing that they stand no Chance as Long as the creature is incorporeal. Together with the magicians they can then develop the spell. Lylandra could you please point me to where exactly to find the 4e Tiljann´s Quest concerning Etinify? I am willing to buy the mentioned supplement if I just knew which one it is :) So now my group will get some answers (even though just vague ones it seems) in Seaquen. I think I will message them and ask in advance whether there is more they´d like to investigate concerning the background so that I will be prepared in advance. BTW: maybe someone could just tell me what is common knowledge about the Torch itself?

...rs (not saying hard choices are limited to any level; just they often do not show up so early in a big story). That the players ran with their choice and kept the role play going is great. :) There likely will be frustration as they reach Seaquen and most of their questions go unanswered. That should be short-lived as they are sent on a few side quests to acclimate themselves to Seaquen. Even then, helping the refugees work together or rescuing the dragon's egg can be more nuanced than a traditional "go kill something" quest. One of the things I really appreciate about WotBS and Zeitgeist is the nuanced and multi-layered stories and villains. The sheer amount of short- and long-term treachery in Shelter from the Storm is impressive. As for the Song of Forms, the wizards at Lyceum could produce enforced flesh, but they probably need more information (madness' attack) before they could make real progress. It might not be ready until they return from Castle Korstull. If you read Lylandra's game reports, you really get the sense of how The Fire Forest of Innenotdar is "training wheels" (as tough as it is) for what comes later in terms of negotiation and dealing with NPCs.

I think I saw someone tweaking it for FR and it was centered around Thay/Rashemen. However, I don't think it necessarily requires a parent setting as there is much established lore and regional history in the adventures and guides and the campaign is designed for level 3-20 anyway. What the adventure setting lacks though are distinct deities. Yeah, I added a sidebar regarding the lack of an established pantheon. The adventures and guides refer to deities by their domain. So a GM can choose a pantheon and then use an appropriate deity as necessary from the pantheon. EDIT: This was for those unfamiliar with the adventures and setting. I think @Lylandra 's knowledge of War of the Burning Sky might only be topped by @RangerWickett. ;)

...re is a core adventure path that runs directly from levels 3-20 while leaving enough room for the DM and players to take it in different directions. There are several big battles, but instead of turning into a wargame, the PCs embark on key missions to influence the battle to success or failure. RangerWickett was the campaign manager for both this and Zeitgeist (and wrote several chapters of each) and did a great job on both adventure paths. It includes chapters written by: Jacob Driscoll Wil Upchurch Wolfgang Baur Andrew Kenrick Jeremy Anderson Ari Marmell Ken Marable Shane O'Connor I do not know every adventure path out there, but I think this may be the closest a DM can get to a Record of Lodoss War​ style campaign in a prepackaged adventure path. For further information: wotbsadventurepath.com You can also follow my campaign which is only a couple of sessions in: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?631729-Tormyr-s-War-of-the-Burning-Sky-campaign-spoilers-abound @Lylandra is running the 3.5 (or 4e?) version, is over halfway through, provides exceptional session writeups, and is reviewing the 5e product before it goes to publication. http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?493652-Lylandra-s-War-of-the-Burning-Sky-continued

I was not a 2e guy - so I did not realize that! <turns and shakes fist at that book> Yeah, I just posted on the sister thread about best purchases that among my favorite purchases were the 2e books Lylandra mentioned. They cut a lot of the stuff that made those books really good, leaving some of the leftovers for the 3.x book, and then adding the (pretty useless) 3e avatar stats. Now the 2e books did have avatar stats as well, but they were much less complex, thus leaving extra room for more interesting stuff, unlike those bloated 3.x epic stat blocks...

...ault folks for not being unaware - nope but I do fault folks who are aware and then consciously choose to continue to support racism as if it being in a game makes it some how less real and thus an okay thing to do. I wonder how they would feel if someone started using their personal subject of racism in a game and belittled it just as equally. Would it be okay then? Some how I doubt it. Personally I feel we should judge a person by their character not by the color of their skin, or their height, or their weight, or their <insert some physical characteristic here>. Or as the German individual pointed out how folks keep equating Germany to a small window of time of its existence compared to the totality of its existence due to a stereotypical form of racism. This might get a little sticky I presume if what you are trying to portray is that time period of Germany's history but perhaps they are only meaning in cases where that is not the specific case -- not sure on that one perhaps @Lylandra will clarify what they mean.

If you assume that halflings are built to the same body plan as humans, then yes, you are correct. They probably only weigh 30 pounds, and that severely limits maximum strength. You might assume that halflings are no more strong than toddlers. However, humans are built along one of the lowest strength to mass ratios of any animal their size - built for caloric efficiency and endurance, not power. A typical 80 pound female chimpanzee is stronger than a typical 200lb male human. Supposing that halflings are built along the same body plan as chimpanzees, with relatively thicker bones and larger attachment points for muscles, and more fast muscle and less slow muscle gets us a very different answer. Such a body plan might also explain why halflings are afraid of water in the source material - they don't have near neutral buoyancy the way humans do, and instead sink like rocks. It also explains why halflings would be so athletic for their size. Interesting. I remember @Lylandra mentioning something similar early on in the thread. At the outset I'm no expert in this field, so my response is purely from a layman's perspective. I realise you are not disputing me on this but for the sake of the debate, the reason I'm reluctant to follow the chimpanzee/thicker bones or muscle idea is due to the following factors: (1) Physical characteristics of halflings resemble humans. (2) The lifestyle and movement style of a chimpanzee is different to a halfling. The halfling moves and lives much like humans do. (3) In the 2e Gnome & Halfling's Handbook the book is filled with numerous references about how quick wits and agility are their defense against brute strength which would certainly reflects that a strong physiology doesn't even enter the equation as a factor for defence. Furthermore every Halfling (including Kender) except for the Athasian Halfing has a maximum STR of 17 or 16. In 2e the 17 STR would provide a +1 to hit/+1 dmg whereas humans could go as far as 18/00...

Ok, here it goes. 1) Ogres usually are smaller than giants, and usually there's room for them to maneuver and such. Otherwise, it may look as silly as chainmail bikinis. 2) It still is a too big stretch for many people. Also, trolls regenerate. Humans do not - same with elves, dwarves, etc. Not without magic. 3) Because this process justifies anything, including chainmail bikinis.* Gamers have to deal with that in electronic RPGs. Those who defend it use the exact same argument as you. Honestly, I have dubious preferences for realism, but I can see their point. 4) Honestly, every race being equally capable at every class is just too bland. This especially 4) But @Lylandra your RL explanation of Adamant is really good, I always thought adamant is kind of forged diamond, now I know better. On your preferences, the last thing I want to do is calling your opinion badwrongfun don't get me wrong on that. I think that you are from a younger generation than I am and you probably got conditioned by the stereotypes of the MMPORPG hype, just as us oldschoolers rather grew up with the classic in ways totally unbalanced RP Systems. The good thing about it is 5E allows each of us to use their preferred style and that is most important. With my players I had to adopt a bit in your direction, as they are a bit younger than me and grew up mainly with 3rd edition although I think in the beginning they did some Ad&d. So I did accept a barbarian dwarf, the only condition was he had to use a great axe and not a halberd, and he did that for my better emersion to the game. In fact I put the timeframe on this campaign to 1000 A.D. so halberds wouldn't exist in that setting....

...e brigands that live there." or B) You hear reports of banditry in the area and the local constabulary is unable to locate the thieves. The town guard has put out a call for help and is offering a reward for anyone that can eliminate this menace. You learn that the bandits always leave a strange mark on their dead victims. After patrolling the roads you come across an unfortunate carriage. The footman and guards are dead, each marked with this strange symbol. A symbol that looks very familiar to the ranger. In fact, you're pretty sure that it's the same symbol that the men that stole your sister were wearing on their tunics.... When I am a player, I often worry that I'm annoying or bugging the DM. I frequently talk to them about what's happening in the campaign, how my character reacts and what I see him doing in the future. And it's not that I want to be the center of attention, in fact I can be shy at times, but I know that as a DM I crave that feedback so much. EDIT: Lylandra do you know what changed between campaigns? Was it a difference in styles? Did someone smack him upside the head? I was in a campaign recently where we had a chaos monger similar to yours. Every time the DM tried to meet that player half way he rejected whatever storyline she proposed. "Hey, this looks like it might have some info on your missing brother." "Nah, that's okay. I go drinking and gambling instead."

Hah, they didn't suspect Nina was up to something? She'd have an easy time swaying the King and the proxies against the party after they left then ( "See, they immediately left for Gallo's lands. They must be in league with that traitor") Well, of course they suspected Nina in the first place, especially when Relder starts to appear confused and starts babbling about secret meetings, poison, etc. But the author did a wonderful job when Nina herself says that the suspect appears to have been "confused" what instantly made her at least in the eyes of my players, appear as an honest person...

Thinking about the article again, I guess it would be fair to call these entries a column or an opinion, but not an article per se. Most of us agree that many of the the statements in this entry were rather poor researched and one-sided. The tone wasn't the best as well, but guess what? That's fine for a column. These can be polarizing and all about one person's opinion on a given topic. For an article, I expect at least a bit amount of research on the topic and a certain degree of objectivity.It would have gotten a warning as a post here, so I don't understand how it's okay as a column/article here.

While most crtiticism has already been brought up, I especially disagree in terms of pacing. "Good pacing (in novel and film terms) calls for alternating lows and highs, to make the highs that much more effective." I wholeheartedly agree to this statement, but as Lew already pointed out that New School RPGs tend to try emulate fiction or movies and give both GM and players tools for doing so, New Schools seem far more fit to create good pacing. "Fail forward" is an extremely effective method to create "lows" (that do exist in fiction all the time) while still keeping everyone onboard and offering them ways out of their misery. But it only works if GM and players are ultimately cooperative and trust each other. For example, if one of my characters were to be captured and tortured, that'd be okay (and, depending on the setting, a pretty fine "low" or "fail") as long as I can trust my GM that it will contribute to a greater storyline and isn't just inserted there as means to cruelly slap me (th...

This is the best one I found in our archives 104049 Great, thanks! :o

If you want a short introductory adventure, then you could let them play the Ragesians who try to storm castle Korstull...then fire raining from the sky and all hell breaking loose. Ooh, intriguing! A very dark opening to the campaign -- I like it! Thanks, Lylandra and RangerWickett, for the suggestions.

Umm... so M:TG could do a Hearthstone move and introduce a D&D themed set? Sounds interesting :) Honestly, I've always thought of that as a matter of "when," not "if."

But...but... he *is* basically a toddler who hasn't learned how to not step on his minifigs yet and who doesn't understand the concept of death. His whole story so far is terribly tragic :/ I wonder what the agents are going to do, if they ever confront an awakened Borne. Auryn would probably like to adopt him or something like that. I am looking forward to what the other nations think about their security, if Risur has a 104 meter colossus at their disposal ......

I've been skeptical about this since its announcement, but bringing eSports "VIPs" as a selling point? We really don't want to bring the toxic elements of eSports to the TTRPG community, do we? Im skeptical too. But it not like we, or anyone really, have any say what others do. They don't need our permission and we certainly don't get a vote, other than with if we chose to watch.

You, OP, want to play realistic or pseudo-realistic RPGs, I get that. But how often is death the consequence of failure in a realistic scenario? In today's real world? Not very often at all. In a dog-eat-dog halfway-lawless fantasy world full of extremely dangerous creatures, i.e. most typical RPG settings? Pretty often. :)

Because they'll be sent to Ycengled by the Shahalesti who are usually more or less your opponents. There they'll witness that those people they will most likely be working for have committed real atrocities in the past and are trying to brush it under the rug. So there will be a huge moral dilemma once they meet Fayne. Freeing Liat might be easier though. On the up side, they ought to be sure of having Shalosha on their side in the temple. Any help is welcome in that fight :)

Well, if you wish to end the adventure on a slightly higher note, you could let Shalosha use Seaquen as base for her future operation. This would give the party the opportunity to connect to the new Shahalesti rulership as she's quite a likeable character and would contrast well with Telshanth. This also means that Lady Namin (who's a fan of the Shahalesti) might be the go-to contact in Dassen. And she'd love to be the future queen, possibly giving the 4th adventure a whole new touch. Edit: Regarding adventures 5 and 6... The Shahalesti will most likely send an investigation team to Ostalin once they get more information about Lee and the orb of storms. So this part doesn't need to change at all. As we never know what happens to the other team, let Shalosha accompany the party to Magdus' encampment. They can be her diplomatic attaches. This would make the "ragesian conflict" at the end of adventure 6 pointless, but this wouldn't matter anyway as Shalosha wants to be allied with the r...

so they deliberately missed the play? Or did they simply forget to track the time themselves? If it was the latter, then maybe you should let Katrina's vision just be some doomy foreshadowing. Especially when they are trying really hard to make sense of the storm. Yeah, this sounds fair. They are indeed trying very hard to grab what is going on with the storm. So maybe I will have Simeon send them a message that their attendance is required and let Katrina´s vision be somehow connected to the storm itself or maybe some disturbance in tapping the Fire Tomb´s energy for example.

As I'm pretty sure we'll get to Time in adventure 12 in our next session, I asked myself about the connection of Jiese, his echo (Time) and the dragon/draconic spirit in the Toteth Topec tale. More specifically: Is the dragon spirit who vowed to defend the mountain of Toteth's sacrifice Time? Background is that my players wanted to do and did some research on the Pyromancer who's buried beneath Seaquen and I decided that this guy was actually the Pyromancer who accompanied Toteth on his journey. Which also meant that the legend of Toteth Topec had some truth in it. So there truly was this geomancer who sacrificed himself to heal the world some millennia ago who as accompanied by three other elemental mages (yeah, they each got their respective graves and rings and now I'm facing Captain Planet jokes every now and then). So I know one of my players is definitely going to talk to Time. And I'd need to know if Time would know about Toteth. Hm, I think I am going to keep this in my back poc...

Thanks, and you're welcome! Looking forward to reading about your Lee someday. Our chars are trying to wrap their head around his big secret(s) as well. Oh and I'd love to get such a poster. But I fear my favourite artist is notoriously busy and it would be quite expensive. What'd be a total dream come true were small illos (even sketches) of our most powerful or emotional scenes. I can totally visualize them, but unfortunately I'm lacking the 10.000 hours of drawing practise. Depending on your budget, you might want to look at fiverr.com. there are several character art artists available there.

weapons can be standard (+0), expert (+1), master (+2) and legendary (+3) and you simply add that bonus to your attack roll. Magic enhancements DON'T increate your hit, they add weapon dice based on the + bonus. Magic enhancements (potency runes) do provide an item bonus to hit. However, since it's an item bonus it doesn't stack with the bonus for the weapon's quality. So an expert longsword would have +1 to hit and deal 1d8+Str damage, while a +1 expert longsword (generally you'd not write out the quality if it's the minimum for the potency rune's level) would have +1 to hit and deal 2d8+Str damage.

Don't want to derail too much, but... wait, what? So many aspects of ancient era Europe survive to this very day. The idea of democracy became popular in ancient Greece. Most of our law procedures stem from the Roman law system to the point where law students are required to take courses in Roman law. Greek philosophy was widely popular and even considered state of the art in the Rennaissance. Our basic mathematic principles that we still use today were discovered by greek mathematicians, these guys even calculated the circumference of the earth before it was cool (take that, flat-earthers!). They also invented star-based navigation which was a thing until very recently. Ancient Greek architecture is still popular in high-class houses and museums (mediterranean style with all these columns). Heck, even the Olympic Games and the idea of competitive sports are old as dirt. So while we indeed have no 1:1 Ancient Greek culture, all of our western culture evolved from these Ancients. Call it ...

FYI, I'm German and we tend to have very strong opinions on Nazis and how to represent them in the media. I'm also very astonished every time I see how people from other (most often non-european) countries almost fetishize this dark aspect of the 20th century to the extend that we see Nazis and Nazi references everywhere. A significant number of Americans love to lampoon the Nazis, to turn them into tragic comedy figures, or to use them as safe villains. A very small proportion idealize them — about the same proportions as in Germany, so I have read — but here, they make the news. Regularly. And are very vocal in their political movements. Reich Star, for example, is a decent game, and a "What if the Nazis had won WWII and then discovered a hyperdrive in the 21st C." It paints them as "still evil"... and predicates fighting them in the flavor text. My players, including a Jew and a Romany, plus me being ethnically and religiously Ukrainian, chose to play resistance hiding inside the ...

"Never forget, never again" is basically a mantra that is taught through various means in school and trying to understand what made some of our grandparents or grand-grandparents commit such horrible crimes or openly celebrate the burning of books or the declaration of war is tough at least. Which is why many people over here see it as "our" duty to prevent the rise of another fascist regime at all cost. Which is why we usually don't want to make Nazi comparisons without true reason, lest we'd trivialise what happened in the Reich. That is a good principle. I wish that more people in my nation learned how to question the decisions of our grandparents and great-grandparents, how to recognize when they made mistakes or made evil decisions, and how to recognize the same choice when it happens again. How to make a different decision, next time. One of my distant relatives was an officer in the German army, in the 1940s. He eventually tried to assassinate the Reichsfuehrer. It is easier to thi...

These reasons are very, very, very different and I don't wish to write an essay about the hows and whys and also would love to not Godwin the thread about freakin' cross-gender play any further. FYI, I'm German and we tend to have very strong opinions on Nazis and how to represent them in the media. I'm also very astonished every time I see how people from other (most often non-european) countries almost fetishize this dark aspect of the 20th century to the extend that we see Nazis and Nazi references everywhere. I don't really think there is much to say about cross gender play. In a world which the DM is trying to portray, it is necessary to have both male and female characters, and that often means the DM ends up portraying female characters, when I'm a DM I often do it third person, as I feel more comfortable playing a narrator and describing the female characters actions, and saying "she says," every time she has something to say to the PCs. I am not going to try and speak in a false...

I agree. Combating and dealing with prejudices ingame can be fun if everyone is on board. Same as dealing with ideologies and means of government- we once had a PC with a noble background who didn't think that democracy could work at all and that it would doom the society he lived in. Despite the fact that their noble houses just ended a near-fatal war a few years ago. I'd rather direct prejudices etc. at everyone (not necessarily all at once), depending on the circumstances. Not just at PCs belonging to one kind of group. Well Democracy seems to be failing after less than 100 odd years as universal democratic ideal (since 1893 here). Monarchy was stable for centuries. I live in a liberal democracy with a monarch as head of state, when I was younger I was anti monarchist, now once I look at Republics maybe having an educated hereditary head of state is not the worst thing in the world. The Queen can fire the NZ prime minster theoretically so if we elected a pumpkin who was a disaster the ...