JRRNeiklot
First Post
thundershot said:
Better? That kicks ass, already!
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Hall of Many Panes
- Thread starter S'mon
- Start date
Better? That kicks ass, already!
JRRNeiklot said:
The Pane where the PCs become living acorns on entry is Pane #1. I definitely won't be starting the scenario with it (you're allowed to start with any pane). In fact I very much doubt I'd make the PCs go through every pane, though I may use unused ones for other cross-planar adventures. This is hindered though because AFAICS the Panes aren't set up as living worlds but as tests by ol' Xagyg purely to torment the PCs, so they don't necessarily make any sense.
NojBad
First Post
Hi gang! 
As the chap who prepared the d20 material for HOMP, with the highly beneficial assistance of John Troy and Craig Peters, I thought I ought to chime in on this thread.
Firstly, to anyone having queries in regard to any aspect of the d20 material, please feel free to email me at nojbadthebad@aol.com or ask questions on this thread.
A few points I think I can address straightaway:
The adventures and all their creative excellence were the work of Gary Gygax, the d20 stuff (and any criticism of it) is mine.
The stat blocks were thoroughly checked and are, afaik, as error free as they could be. I did the d20 work prior to the release of 3.5 but John Troy and others worked very hard to update the material.
Gary reviewed all d20 additions to the material and is, afaik, pleased with all such work.
Please be sure to read the introductory material, it is recommended that underequiped NPCs have their CRs lowered and advice is given on adding extra equipment if such is felt to be necessary.
As far as specific groups of NPCs are concerned I am at a bit of a disadvantage as I have not yet received my copy of HOMP. If anyone has a specific query ask away but please indicate which pane/encounter you are asking about (I do have a pdf of the module).
Mongol-types were a tough and hardy bunch well able to best european knights. I hope the Riders of the Horde stat blocks reflect that. They are presented as 8th lvl warriors armed with scimitars and composite short bows.
There is much in the way of combat in HOMP as well as puzzle solving and direct interactive character-based role playing - there are also many puns but I am innocent of all such affronts to human dignity and you must blame the ever mirthful Zagyg
As far as I'm concerned I think Gary's read aloud passages are evocative and creatively inspiring, they are designed to be read out as play continues with breaks as necessary for player input and the DM certainly does not have to read it all out non-stop - those parts which indicate character actions merely inform the GM of likely player responses and give handy descriptions of what characters might see/experience should those actions take place. Obviously if the players don't do something the GM should not read out the result of actions they did not take!!
As I said, please feel free to email me with any problems/queries or ask here. I am more than happy to give my reasoning for the presentation of any NPC group, monster, magic item, spell, etc. And doubly happy to help you get the most enjoyment possible out of what I believe to be an excellent adventure.
Cheers!
Jon (Creffield)
As the chap who prepared the d20 material for HOMP, with the highly beneficial assistance of John Troy and Craig Peters, I thought I ought to chime in on this thread.
Firstly, to anyone having queries in regard to any aspect of the d20 material, please feel free to email me at nojbadthebad@aol.com or ask questions on this thread.
A few points I think I can address straightaway:
The adventures and all their creative excellence were the work of Gary Gygax, the d20 stuff (and any criticism of it) is mine.
The stat blocks were thoroughly checked and are, afaik, as error free as they could be. I did the d20 work prior to the release of 3.5 but John Troy and others worked very hard to update the material.
Gary reviewed all d20 additions to the material and is, afaik, pleased with all such work.
Please be sure to read the introductory material, it is recommended that underequiped NPCs have their CRs lowered and advice is given on adding extra equipment if such is felt to be necessary.
As far as specific groups of NPCs are concerned I am at a bit of a disadvantage as I have not yet received my copy of HOMP. If anyone has a specific query ask away but please indicate which pane/encounter you are asking about (I do have a pdf of the module).
Mongol-types were a tough and hardy bunch well able to best european knights. I hope the Riders of the Horde stat blocks reflect that. They are presented as 8th lvl warriors armed with scimitars and composite short bows.
There is much in the way of combat in HOMP as well as puzzle solving and direct interactive character-based role playing - there are also many puns but I am innocent of all such affronts to human dignity and you must blame the ever mirthful Zagyg
As far as I'm concerned I think Gary's read aloud passages are evocative and creatively inspiring, they are designed to be read out as play continues with breaks as necessary for player input and the DM certainly does not have to read it all out non-stop - those parts which indicate character actions merely inform the GM of likely player responses and give handy descriptions of what characters might see/experience should those actions take place. Obviously if the players don't do something the GM should not read out the result of actions they did not take!!
As I said, please feel free to email me with any problems/queries or ask here. I am more than happy to give my reasoning for the presentation of any NPC group, monster, magic item, spell, etc. And doubly happy to help you get the most enjoyment possible out of what I believe to be an excellent adventure.
Cheers!
Jon (Creffield)
NojBad said:
Why didn't you list appropriate NPC CRs yourself? You have a lot more time to think about it than does the harried GM who's just run the fight & needs to tot up XP.
If the read-aloud text had been broken up into "If PCs do X then read out Y" I wouldn't have a problem with it. The (IMO) overly long text blocks was part of what ruined Necropolis for my group, so I guess I'm particularly sensitive on this.
Edit: My basic position is that EGG's writing is what is, I'm not complaining about it. HomP rather reminds me of the tales in Night Arrant, which I enjoyed. I just think the editing should have been more aggressive, eg by breaking up the text blocks into manageable chunks, with additional GM guidance.
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NojBad said:
There's some good advice in there AIR about giving NPCs more gear to toughen them up if you want to raise the Encounter Levels for the scenario.
I do think the stat block problem could have been avoided if you had set the scenario for a lower level (say 3-6th), or had used Castles & Crusades.
thundershot
Adventurer
Yes, I don't hate it as well, but as our group only plays D&D/d20, I want to get the maximum use out of it, and have the players be able to make decisions on their own, and actually let them use their character's racial and class abilities to their fullest. There are many parts where those abilities are completely irrelevant.
Saying that, I have NOT fishished even the first book, and have only skimmed the others...
Chris
Saying that, I have NOT fishished even the first book, and have only skimmed the others...
Chris
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