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You can sacrifice someone to get "Dark Craft XP" which can be used in the creation of magic items. That's in the Book of Vile Darkness. Though I'm not sure that's what the druid had in mind when he offered to help...

The infamous Ron Edwards said something way back that I think has been true in my experiences: you either focus on the conflict inherent to the setting (and build PCs around those conflicts), or focus on the PC's internal conflicts (and build the setting around the PCs). Numenara seems like it...

Great write-up! Just a thought - that should be taken with a grain of salt since I don't have 13th Age - could you only allow the extra damage to kill more mooks if it does line up with the fiction? My guess is that the players would throw themselves into the fray against mooks a lot more...

I'd also like to see a play report.

I use a strange little method to write up dungeons. It helps speed up generation (for me) and, so far, they've turned out pretty good. First of all, I have abbreviations for what each room is about: E(3) - empty - nothing much there, just dungeon dressing M(3) - monster M$(2) - monster with...

That's true. To me, in the situation you describe (not necessarily the original poster's situation), it sounds like the people involved don't want to play the same game. If that's the situation, then I think the group should fold. They have fundamentally incompatible desires.

Maybe, but then the problem's solved, right? If they want the easy game, they pick the easy game. They've got nothing to complain about. As DM, you can use the medium dungeon as the next adventure, and the hard one after that. Your prep time hasn't increased, just shifted to front-loaded.

My first thoughts are that, if the players are "build" focused and into system mastery, and they expected balanced encounters, then results like those they experienced - not trouncing the encounter - are seen as losing. They got an average grade in class; they want straight As. If that's the...

Merz and Frick are inside the Middle Fane, alone, with a pissed-off Hedrack. Hedrack plans to cast Geas on Merz once he overcomes her and then he'll have her suitably punish Frick for his insolence. Much pain awaits the PCs - if they can even survive. The PCs lead off with a wall of ice that...

The PCs head back into the Temple of All-Consumption and meet Tessimon face-to-face for the first time. She's pissed off at them for their lack of support during the battle. Well, that's just her excuse - she's Evil and Chaotic and doesn't really need a reason. She plans on using the PCs to...

As the PCs are making the trek to Mount Stalagos, Tessimon's Scrying breaks through Zod's defences. She Calls a succubus to make contact with them and act as a go-between. The PCs tell her their story and Tessimon asks them to meet her in the Fire Temple. Into the main gate. Mereclar is on...

After freeing the slaves, the PCs went up into the mountains to find Mount Stalagos. They came up with a plan to blame Naquent for the missing slaves - they were from another (secret) temple nearby and heard that Naquent was planning to take all the slaves there and become the high priestess...

I started taking notes a while after this, so let's see what I can remember. The PCs went back to the moathouse to kill Utreshimon, and did (Zod struck the final blow). They heard noises below but wanted to rest up before proceeding. That allowed the cultists time to leave. They rested up...

Yep, that was always my problem with skill challenges. That's why I don't use them in my hack; everything is too detailed to make it work. Except social challenges. To repeat myself, I think that's why they are so good at social challenges: there's no way the DM can "map out" the personality...

One of the reasons I like 4E is because of pg 42 - it'll tell you what you need to roll to do strange stuff like that. I've incorporated a "luck" roll into my 3E & 4E hack games, based on wandering monster rolls: If, as DM, I'm not sure what the outcome is going to be, and the outcome is...

To continue on with my last post, let me recall an encounter with a clay golem. The PCs were not that well equipped to deal with it. One of the PCs thought that, perhaps, having her summoned earth elemental Earth Glide into the golem, then try to possess it, would work. Now I seem to recall...

Cut it down to the Security Council and any other topically important members/outsiders - Arafat comes to mind.

I always think... Drugs.

This kind of reminds me that I just recently learned how to play 3E: enforce the system on an ad-hoc basis.

My guess is that skill challenges work better when they are resolving an abstract situation. If you have all the details of the situation nailed down, then it's difficult to change those details based on the result of a skill check. You can't introduce a secret door, a wandering monster, or a...