JoeGKushner
First Post
Well, just started Shackled City yesterday.
I'm using Action Points, pretty much from Eberron with some slight Unearthed Arcana tweaks to 'em.
I'm allowing a wide variety of stuff to be made, but for the most part, characters were pretty standard.
Elan Soulknife: I told the party that I'd be interested in playtesting one of the weapons from Weapons of Legacy that a soulknife can use and well, one of the playes took me up on it. Good for him!
Human (Suel) Ritual Warrior: Ah, this player is an old friend of mine from High School and since I'm like 34 know, that means I've know him for like half my life. Scary stuff. Anyway, he and I both enjoy some of the old Elric bits, so perhaps I'll pass on Black Razor to him at a latter date or do something with the old Prince of Swords with him since his character is a little like Zolo from One Piece in that he's striving to be the best swordsman. The Ritual Warrior is from Arcana Evolved. I allow it but everything he takes has to come from Arcana Evolved or Transcendance or have some conversion notes. Harsh? Perhaps ,but it's something he wanted to playtest and there are enough potential breaks in the wealth of d20 material without making more of them.
Elf Wizard: Ah, this is the player who wanted to just get started. I told him that if he's going elf, he should take the subsitution levels from Races of the Wild as that's a good deal, but he decided to just go with the flow. I did give him a bonus feat in leiu of his familiar since he didn't want to deal with it. There's some flaw in Dragon mag but I figured I don't need the name of the flaw, just no familiar for you!
Halfling Rogue: Busy at work this week but afte reading some of the bits over here, I decided to just award the character the same XP to reduce bookkeeping on my part.
Human (Suel) Scout: Using the character class as a mechanical means of building a skrimisher. Good deal and good idea so far. This is a new player I snagged from RPG.net to help offset the loss of another regular whose real lime commitements keep him from the game. So far so good and we'll see if he continues to show.
One thing I like about the Shackled City's start is that like good fiction, it starts by grabbing you by the throat. Almost as soon as the GM sits down to read things, the players are involved in the action.
one thing I didn't like, is that like some other low level bits, the variety of enemies seems a little weak at first. Boy, the party sure hates Skulks now I tell you. they haven't gotten to the Dark Creepers yet.
In terms of minis, I've used quite a few, just using human rogues for the skulkers as I don't recall them having any real miniatures to use. Did buy a whole bunch of dark creepers and own a dark stalker though, so those factions are taken care of.
In terms of preperation, I've read the book a few times and made a few notes, and still forget to give the character's their 'background' elements from the back of the book.
I allowed the characters to use elite arrays from Green Ronin's Advanced book. Man, they are an ugly group with 8 CHA for nearly every character, escept the Elan whose got a 6 and the elf who has a 14. That's okay though, it made finding information difficult for them and added to my enjoyment of mocking their grumbling ways. Next time I'll put the one with the lowest stat of 10 as the minimum! Strangely enough, a few peopel took INT as a dump stat too which really cuts down on the skill points.
Party has been going through open doors and hallways in the old gnome city so they haven't meet with many of the traps... at least yet. They just retreated to the surface to get some supplies and healing potions as no one made a cleric, and I didn't feel like introducing one as a PC back up at this time. Maybe in the future if they continue on but for now, I'll skip it.
Other experiences? Comments? Miniature suggestions for the skulks?
I'm using Action Points, pretty much from Eberron with some slight Unearthed Arcana tweaks to 'em.
I'm allowing a wide variety of stuff to be made, but for the most part, characters were pretty standard.
Elan Soulknife: I told the party that I'd be interested in playtesting one of the weapons from Weapons of Legacy that a soulknife can use and well, one of the playes took me up on it. Good for him!
Human (Suel) Ritual Warrior: Ah, this player is an old friend of mine from High School and since I'm like 34 know, that means I've know him for like half my life. Scary stuff. Anyway, he and I both enjoy some of the old Elric bits, so perhaps I'll pass on Black Razor to him at a latter date or do something with the old Prince of Swords with him since his character is a little like Zolo from One Piece in that he's striving to be the best swordsman. The Ritual Warrior is from Arcana Evolved. I allow it but everything he takes has to come from Arcana Evolved or Transcendance or have some conversion notes. Harsh? Perhaps ,but it's something he wanted to playtest and there are enough potential breaks in the wealth of d20 material without making more of them.
Elf Wizard: Ah, this is the player who wanted to just get started. I told him that if he's going elf, he should take the subsitution levels from Races of the Wild as that's a good deal, but he decided to just go with the flow. I did give him a bonus feat in leiu of his familiar since he didn't want to deal with it. There's some flaw in Dragon mag but I figured I don't need the name of the flaw, just no familiar for you!
Halfling Rogue: Busy at work this week but afte reading some of the bits over here, I decided to just award the character the same XP to reduce bookkeeping on my part.
Human (Suel) Scout: Using the character class as a mechanical means of building a skrimisher. Good deal and good idea so far. This is a new player I snagged from RPG.net to help offset the loss of another regular whose real lime commitements keep him from the game. So far so good and we'll see if he continues to show.
One thing I like about the Shackled City's start is that like good fiction, it starts by grabbing you by the throat. Almost as soon as the GM sits down to read things, the players are involved in the action.
one thing I didn't like, is that like some other low level bits, the variety of enemies seems a little weak at first. Boy, the party sure hates Skulks now I tell you. they haven't gotten to the Dark Creepers yet.
In terms of minis, I've used quite a few, just using human rogues for the skulkers as I don't recall them having any real miniatures to use. Did buy a whole bunch of dark creepers and own a dark stalker though, so those factions are taken care of.
In terms of preperation, I've read the book a few times and made a few notes, and still forget to give the character's their 'background' elements from the back of the book.
I allowed the characters to use elite arrays from Green Ronin's Advanced book. Man, they are an ugly group with 8 CHA for nearly every character, escept the Elan whose got a 6 and the elf who has a 14. That's okay though, it made finding information difficult for them and added to my enjoyment of mocking their grumbling ways. Next time I'll put the one with the lowest stat of 10 as the minimum! Strangely enough, a few peopel took INT as a dump stat too which really cuts down on the skill points.
Party has been going through open doors and hallways in the old gnome city so they haven't meet with many of the traps... at least yet. They just retreated to the surface to get some supplies and healing potions as no one made a cleric, and I didn't feel like introducing one as a PC back up at this time. Maybe in the future if they continue on but for now, I'll skip it.
Other experiences? Comments? Miniature suggestions for the skulks?
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