stevelabny
Explorer
ok, so I like cheesy things. I like cliches, I like comic books, I like video games, I like Star Wars and Buffy and all the stuff in the middle. This is what you get when you mix cheese with DMing. Its also how to have fun with a cheap webcam, photoshop, and your minis.
And this year I returned to DMing by running 4 mostly new players through most of the WOTC 3.0 mods. I tweaked them to update them to 3.5, try to draw a better connection between them and just for whatever I thought was fun.
The baddie in Speaker in Dreams was replaced by Devis, an irritating bard.
The party liked him as an ally, hated him as an enemy and dispatched him all too quickly. But Devis was nothing if not a good planner, so I quickly went to work on his plan B...as his "clone"d self started plotting revenge.
Devis used to communicate to the players through dreams and has started to do so again. He has dropped hints that he is gathering an A.C.A.D.E.M.Y. of Evil. He has been visited the sites of the party's past adventures. And he sends them notes or visions corresponding with each "clue" that underline one of the letters of the word.
Now, the Academy is complete. I already gave some of the party the dream information, and the rest of them will get it first thing today. THIS is what they see in their dream:
(clickable for the big photo)
The roster of the Academy consists of the most memorable NPCS theyve encountered so far.
Aoket: mummy monk from Nightfang Spire. He killed the party monk once. The party monk killed him once. And then took all his stuff. I'm chalking up his return to the necromantic seepage and the necromantic energies from the collapse of the spire. Deal
Calcryx: white dragon from Sunless Citadel.The party actually returned Calcryx to the kobolds alive. While they were still in the citadel, Calcryx killed all the kobolds and escaped. He will be all growned up now.
Alawyn: drow ice-wizard. I tried to make some sense of the Deep Horizon module by making a small group of renegade drow responsible for all the different goings on as they tried to regain their lost city. I used an evil Drizzt with sidekicks named "Twinkle" and "Icing Death" knowing that I would probably reuse the Alawyn aka IcingDeath as my other A. At the battle with the drow, she rolled 19s and 20s on every save, resisted tripping, and tripped the monk. She was the last left standing so she surrendered and was let go. Memorable and alive and I'm very happy.
Devis, human bard. The mastermind. He fights with twin rapiers called Thunder and Lightning. (CHHEEEEEESE)
Eye of Gruumsh, orc barbarian. Between Speaker in Dreams and Nightfang Spire, we skipped Standing Stone. To make up for some of the lost XP, i dumped all the orc-minis on the table and made an orc army. The Eye was their leader and scared the party to pieces, before he folded like a deck of cards rolling 1s on multiple saves. Oh well.
Meepo, iconic kobold from Sunless Citadel, because EVERYBODY loves Meepo.
and now he's being brainwashed by Devis. poor widdle Meepo.
and Yaros Hellseeker (formerly Daros Hellseeker) tiefling cleric from Speaker in Dreams who almost single-handedly achieved a TPK.
The pic was taken with a cruddy webcam pointing at the minis against a white background. (minis are Mummy, Large Silver Dragon, Drow Wizard, Devis, Eye of Gruumsh, Kobold whatever, and Tiefling Captain) Then my gf used Photoshop to turn them into complete silhouettes, added highlights and color, and drew in Devis' second rapier and the tieflings flail.And the shadows for ultimate cheese.
I was thrilled with the end result, and all the players dug it too but I'm curious just how stuff like this would fly in other groups,
Comments?
And this year I returned to DMing by running 4 mostly new players through most of the WOTC 3.0 mods. I tweaked them to update them to 3.5, try to draw a better connection between them and just for whatever I thought was fun.
The baddie in Speaker in Dreams was replaced by Devis, an irritating bard.
The party liked him as an ally, hated him as an enemy and dispatched him all too quickly. But Devis was nothing if not a good planner, so I quickly went to work on his plan B...as his "clone"d self started plotting revenge.
Devis used to communicate to the players through dreams and has started to do so again. He has dropped hints that he is gathering an A.C.A.D.E.M.Y. of Evil. He has been visited the sites of the party's past adventures. And he sends them notes or visions corresponding with each "clue" that underline one of the letters of the word.
Now, the Academy is complete. I already gave some of the party the dream information, and the rest of them will get it first thing today. THIS is what they see in their dream:
(clickable for the big photo)
The roster of the Academy consists of the most memorable NPCS theyve encountered so far.
Aoket: mummy monk from Nightfang Spire. He killed the party monk once. The party monk killed him once. And then took all his stuff. I'm chalking up his return to the necromantic seepage and the necromantic energies from the collapse of the spire. Deal
Calcryx: white dragon from Sunless Citadel.The party actually returned Calcryx to the kobolds alive. While they were still in the citadel, Calcryx killed all the kobolds and escaped. He will be all growned up now.
Alawyn: drow ice-wizard. I tried to make some sense of the Deep Horizon module by making a small group of renegade drow responsible for all the different goings on as they tried to regain their lost city. I used an evil Drizzt with sidekicks named "Twinkle" and "Icing Death" knowing that I would probably reuse the Alawyn aka IcingDeath as my other A. At the battle with the drow, she rolled 19s and 20s on every save, resisted tripping, and tripped the monk. She was the last left standing so she surrendered and was let go. Memorable and alive and I'm very happy.
Devis, human bard. The mastermind. He fights with twin rapiers called Thunder and Lightning. (CHHEEEEEESE)
Eye of Gruumsh, orc barbarian. Between Speaker in Dreams and Nightfang Spire, we skipped Standing Stone. To make up for some of the lost XP, i dumped all the orc-minis on the table and made an orc army. The Eye was their leader and scared the party to pieces, before he folded like a deck of cards rolling 1s on multiple saves. Oh well.
Meepo, iconic kobold from Sunless Citadel, because EVERYBODY loves Meepo.
and now he's being brainwashed by Devis. poor widdle Meepo.
and Yaros Hellseeker (formerly Daros Hellseeker) tiefling cleric from Speaker in Dreams who almost single-handedly achieved a TPK.
The pic was taken with a cruddy webcam pointing at the minis against a white background. (minis are Mummy, Large Silver Dragon, Drow Wizard, Devis, Eye of Gruumsh, Kobold whatever, and Tiefling Captain) Then my gf used Photoshop to turn them into complete silhouettes, added highlights and color, and drew in Devis' second rapier and the tieflings flail.And the shadows for ultimate cheese.
I was thrilled with the end result, and all the players dug it too but I'm curious just how stuff like this would fly in other groups,
Comments?
