babomb
First Post
There are some interesting ideas in 4e, but I'm SICK OF READING ABOUT THEM! But I need to read about somethin'! Tell me favorite in-game stories. Here's mine:
It all started when I managed to into a conversation with some of my players outside of the game that cyanide smelled like almonds and, by the way, it's called CYANide because it's blue. I don't remember how it came up. You'll see why it's important later.
Now, this was a few sessions into the campaign, when the PCs were 2nd level. The players were all new to D&D and all but one new to tabletop RPGs. They were my friends who I roped into D&D by having them watch The Gamers at a movie night. I didn't have a lot of prep time that week, so I decided to run WoTC's The Burning Plague, an adventure I had played through long ago when 3e had just come out.
Here is the rules text for the eponymous Burning Plague:
I also decided that anyone who died from the plague would rise as an undead creature. So I replaced some of the encounters with skeletons, some of whom were still doing their mining work. Otherwise, I played the disease by the quoted rules, but being rather more generous about repeated contact. In fact, I was more generous than that because I misread the rules and thought they if they made the first save they were immune for the next 24 hours.
With a preface like that, you know everything's going to go horribly wrong.
They rushed off to the cave for reasons other than the plague, before I had a chance to have an NPC tell them about it. When they first encountered the skeletons, I asked for a fort save with no explanation, which made them a bit nervous. The only character who failed the DC 13 check was the human paladin, who, thanks to 3.5, wouldn't gain immunity to disease until next level. They played through the rest of the adventure, nothing terribly noteworthy happening until the boss fight. It was a pretty neat fight, with the PCs rushing up a ramp to the top of a pillar while being pelted with spells and crossbow bolts. The paladin took some pretty heavy damage.
Among the loot were some potions, one of which was blue and smelled of almonds. You see, I had decided that all potions of the same type would have similar physical properties, and I made healing potions like cyanide for my own amusement. Now, the paladin's player was reluctant to drink it even after the sorceress identified it as a potion of Cure Light Wounds with a good Spellcraft check and determined that it was in fact magical with a casting of Detect Magic. But he did, and was rewarded with the healing of his wounds, accompanied by an uncomfortable burning sensation. You see, I had also decided that healing ought to HURT. It sends your body's healing abilities into overdrive to the point of causing pain. And remember, I hadn't forced the others to make additional checks for the plague, so only the paladin had it.
Anyway, the go back to town and rest, and I wrap up the adventure. I walk out the door, remember something, turn around, walk back in, and hand the paladin's player a d20. He fails the fort save again. "When you wake up the next morning, you feel terribly ill. Take 2 Con damage. See you next week."
They hung around the town a while longer on business, some of which was interrogating alchemists about poisonous healing potions, for which I was quite unprepared, but with my terrible improv skills and having an NPC say "Who the hell would make a healing potion out of a poison?", they soon got the hint that they were barking up the wrong tree. They shortly found out about the plague and the paladin got one of his priests to cure disease on him.
But not before the dwarven druid caught it from him! She made her next two saves and so took no damage. But by then sorceress and fighter had caught it from her! (I didn't make the paladin or druid make any further checks, because I could see this getting out of hand, and I didn't want a TPK from a disease!) They end up a few days out from town, the paladin with still a little Con damage, and the sorceress and fighter almost dead from Con damage, wanting to turn back and get cured, but not sure if they could make it in time. And that's where I ended that session.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
I was told the next week that they very nearly forced me to run another session early, which I thought meant at least I was doing SOMETHING right, and may be why this is my favorite event in my D&D history. I decided that, what with them being new players, I ought to have pointed out that they could make heal checks to help with the disease, so I let them make a few retroactively. That got them enough Con back to feel like they could probably make it back, and they did, one of them finally making two saves in a row and curing herself, the other getting cured by Holy Hookers.
So that's my favorite story in D&D: almost killing half the party with a disease I had expected to be a non-issue. What's yours?
It all started when I managed to into a conversation with some of my players outside of the game that cyanide smelled like almonds and, by the way, it's called CYANide because it's blue. I don't remember how it came up. You'll see why it's important later.
Now, this was a few sessions into the campaign, when the PCs were 2nd level. The players were all new to D&D and all but one new to tabletop RPGs. They were my friends who I roped into D&D by having them watch The Gamers at a movie night. I didn't have a lot of prep time that week, so I decided to run WoTC's The Burning Plague, an adventure I had played through long ago when 3e had just come out.
Here is the rules text for the eponymous Burning Plague:
I also decided that anyone who died from the plague would rise as an undead creature. So I replaced some of the encounters with skeletons, some of whom were still doing their mining work. Otherwise, I played the disease by the quoted rules, but being rather more generous about repeated contact. In fact, I was more generous than that because I misread the rules and thought they if they made the first save they were immune for the next 24 hours.
With a preface like that, you know everything's going to go horribly wrong.
They rushed off to the cave for reasons other than the plague, before I had a chance to have an NPC tell them about it. When they first encountered the skeletons, I asked for a fort save with no explanation, which made them a bit nervous. The only character who failed the DC 13 check was the human paladin, who, thanks to 3.5, wouldn't gain immunity to disease until next level. They played through the rest of the adventure, nothing terribly noteworthy happening until the boss fight. It was a pretty neat fight, with the PCs rushing up a ramp to the top of a pillar while being pelted with spells and crossbow bolts. The paladin took some pretty heavy damage.
Among the loot were some potions, one of which was blue and smelled of almonds. You see, I had decided that all potions of the same type would have similar physical properties, and I made healing potions like cyanide for my own amusement. Now, the paladin's player was reluctant to drink it even after the sorceress identified it as a potion of Cure Light Wounds with a good Spellcraft check and determined that it was in fact magical with a casting of Detect Magic. But he did, and was rewarded with the healing of his wounds, accompanied by an uncomfortable burning sensation. You see, I had also decided that healing ought to HURT. It sends your body's healing abilities into overdrive to the point of causing pain. And remember, I hadn't forced the others to make additional checks for the plague, so only the paladin had it.
Anyway, the go back to town and rest, and I wrap up the adventure. I walk out the door, remember something, turn around, walk back in, and hand the paladin's player a d20. He fails the fort save again. "When you wake up the next morning, you feel terribly ill. Take 2 Con damage. See you next week."
They hung around the town a while longer on business, some of which was interrogating alchemists about poisonous healing potions, for which I was quite unprepared, but with my terrible improv skills and having an NPC say "Who the hell would make a healing potion out of a poison?", they soon got the hint that they were barking up the wrong tree. They shortly found out about the plague and the paladin got one of his priests to cure disease on him.
But not before the dwarven druid caught it from him! She made her next two saves and so took no damage. But by then sorceress and fighter had caught it from her! (I didn't make the paladin or druid make any further checks, because I could see this getting out of hand, and I didn't want a TPK from a disease!) They end up a few days out from town, the paladin with still a little Con damage, and the sorceress and fighter almost dead from Con damage, wanting to turn back and get cured, but not sure if they could make it in time. And that's where I ended that session.
I was told the next week that they very nearly forced me to run another session early, which I thought meant at least I was doing SOMETHING right, and may be why this is my favorite event in my D&D history. I decided that, what with them being new players, I ought to have pointed out that they could make heal checks to help with the disease, so I let them make a few retroactively. That got them enough Con back to feel like they could probably make it back, and they did, one of them finally making two saves in a row and curing herself, the other getting cured by Holy Hookers.
So that's my favorite story in D&D: almost killing half the party with a disease I had expected to be a non-issue. What's yours?
