Valiant Swords of Greyhawk - Session 10: The Gnoll Fort

 

Our Heroes:

• Braeden (Human Ranger) played by Battletech Terry
• Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
• Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
• Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike
• Inigo Vulnstack (Elven Rogue) played by Invisible Paddy

 All are level 2 or 3 at this point. This account is mainly written by Malice.

Malice rejoins the Valiant Swords, arriving at camp in the morning. She trusted her ability to be sneak through the wilderness, and she trusted the camp to stand out. She arrives just as Xyzzifax is having Bubo fly over the gnoll fortress, to give us a literal bird’s eye view of their encampment. A rough count of gnoll activity across an hour. There’s a pair on the wall at all time, and we identify at least ten different gnolls come in and out of buildings. In the hour he observes, none leave the fort. We discuss the possibility of waiting for a hunting party to leave, if only so that we can split their numbers by killing them. We decide that even if they have night vision, attacking at night is our best bet.

We watch throughout the day, and into the night. We watch for a full night as well. There are a few fires that are made in the fort. We decide that those of us who are sneaky will get close to see what we can do to thin them out, whereas the heavy armored people are holding back. Xyzzifax will fly over their camp, and drop the cask of oil, and start a fire to draw their attention, so we can rush the gate without drawing all the ranged fire in the world. The plan goes off without a hitch – after dropping the bomb, the fire starts on one of the smaller buildings. And the Valiant Swords take off towards the gate.

Xyzzifax hears a bunch of howling and barking as he flies off. We manage to get closer to the gate at a full run, and they fire a pair of bows at our charging group. Sir Lantor is hit with a glancing blow. Xyzzifax drops out the the sky, forming a sword of crackling red lightning – terribly scorching the beast. Jaric charges forward, a holy flame encircling the same gnoll. Inigo launches a firebolt into the fort, and sprints between the gap in the walls. He discovers, much to his misfortune, that there was a pit trap that had been prepared. He falls, twenty feet into the hole. But he’s good at this kind of thing, and rolls when he hits the bottom.

Braedon rushes forward to Jaric’s side, pausing to shoot the misfortunate gnoll, killing it. Samson likewise charges and fires his crossbow – there is only one gnoll remaining on the wall at the moment, and it sprouts a crossbow bolt. Xyzzifax closes with that gnoll, and the sword hissing and crackling, the gnoll takes a terrible wound. The mage flies over the head of the gnoll, down into the pit with Inigo. “Grab my ankles, knife ears!” Malice charges forward, and is shouting, calling out the positions of the gnoll and the beasts in the pen that she can see. Inigo is pulled out of the pit by Xyzzifax, and Malice calls Lantor and Kentor forward.

Sir Kentor charges to the berm, and scrambles up the earthen wall, and glows as he calls a shield of faith around himself. Sir Lantor is close on his heels. The gnoll was ready for this pair, though, and he gives a loud, yipping bark. Then, he inexpertly withdraws, and pays for it with his life, as both knights carve him into several pieces. His body falls in more than two directions. The beasts in the pen rush the wall, baying and howling – and one chewing on the dead gnoll.

The Valiant Swords all make it to the top of the wall. Xyzzifax commands that the gnoll be kicked down into the pen, with what we can now see are giant hyaenas. Malice asks are we killing the hyaenas or going to the stairs – the group agrees stairs and we rush that way, Sir Lantor obligingly dropping the gnoll. As we rush to the stairs, Malice casts light on Jaric’s shield, and Verminax glows brightly as well.

Rushing down the stairs, ten gnolls come out of the nearest stone buildings, one of them quickly taking charge of their motley group. Braedon decides that the leader needs to be taken out, and starts by landing a very good shot with his longbow. Blood gurgles from the wound. With howls, a pair of gnolls charge the knights. Sir Lantor is hit, but only takes a bruising blow. Two others throw spears at Inigo and Braedon. They are both, unfortunately, grazed by the attacks. A trio of gnolls rush to the hyaena pens, opening the gate, and whistling out to them. And, the final two rush to their boss’s aid.

The stairwell is crowded, and Inigo is jostled as he tries to tries to shoot, causing his shot to go wide. Xyzzifax takes into the air, and shoots a firebolt at the gnoll leader. That is enough to lead to his fiery death. Jaric calls forth a spiritual hammer, but the gnoll is able to parry the blow. That leaves him open to be slashed by Sir Kentor, though. And Samson follows it up with a crossbow bolt – but the gnoll is still on his feet! Malice shoots out a trio of scorching rays, but only one manages to land on one of the gnolls at the hyaena pen. Sir Lantor slices both of the gnolls on the front line, leaving them both reeling from the force of his blow. Braedon fires another arrow into the scorched gnoll, killing the one that Malice had wounded.

The pair of bleeding gnolls fall back from the front line, and the next two nearest gnolls come forward. Once again, Lantor gets the worst of it, actually bleeding from this slash himself. The pair of gnolls that were with their leader charge forward, and throw spears at Braedon. One hits – its only a flesh wound. That same gnoll makes a shrill laugh, and Braedon is psychically impacted by the blow. The two that were left near the pen, flee back deeper into the fort.

Inigo shoots one of the pair that had closed to melee. Xyzzifax flies forward, and creates an illusion of a fat, white rabbit to distract the giant hyaenas. Two of them push on the fence, trying to get to the illusory bunny. The other two come out, though only one rushes towards the stairwell. Jaric summons forth a spiritual hammer on one of the pair that had been fleeing, and the holy might is enough to kill it!

Sir Kentor stabs the gnoll in front of him, and Verminax tastes the gnoll’s blood! Malice firebolts that same one in quick succession, dropping it. Samson joins Jaric in shooting the other fleeing one, and kills it. Sir Lantor slams hard on the one gnoll remaining in melee, who manages to take the blow. Braedon, drawn in by the echoing laughter of the gnoll, charges it, drawing his shortswords. He slashes the gnoll thrice, and though all three blows connect, the laughing gnoll stays on his feet.

The gnoll in front of Sir Lantor tries to stab him, but the blow is parried by Sir Kentor, who follows with a riposte, slaying the gnoll. Another charges Lantor, and their weapons clash. The gnoll in melee with Braedon stabs him, leaving the Ranger wounded once again. Malice had healed him, but they opened the wound exactly as if it had never been healed. Xyzzifax flies down to the giant hyaena, and the lightning sword reignites, and he drives it into the beast. It snaps at the mage, but Xyzzifax is able to stay up and out of his way. Then, it follows up with a yip at the one remaining gnoll, almost sounding like he’s talking to the gnoll.

Once more the spiritual hammer flies through the air at Jaric’s command, slamming into the giant hyaena. Then, he charges the creature, slamming into it with the staff of striking. There is a crack of power, and the sound of the hyaena’s ribs breaking. Sir Kentor swings at the last remaining gnoll, and he gives a response bark to the hyaena. He dodges the knight’s blow, magic between it and the hyaena keeping the blow from landing. Malice steps up, lunges with the glaive, but it is not enough to overcome the magic. But that is enough to leave an opening for Sir Lantor, with a pair of well executed slashes, the unwounded gnoll is killed at once. And Samson, with only a single target left, puts a crossbow bolt into the giant hyaena.

Braedon steps up to beside Jaric, stabbing the giant hyaena twice. The beast has been hit so many times that it staggers, and falls over with a slump. Inigo rushes forward, and slams the pen shut. Ths is enough action to draw the attention of one of the remaining giant hyaenas from the illusionary rabbit. Xyzzifax flies to the roof of the nearest hut, deactivating his sword. Sir Kentor hurries to Inigo’s side. Malice moves much less quickly, throwing a firebolt at the giant hyaena, singing it. Braedon goes back to where he’d dropped his bow, sheathes his sword, and takes up his missile weapon once more.

A pair of gnolls come back around the corner, rushing with them is a half dozen of normal sized hyaenas. Inigo gives them an arrow of greeting, shooting at one of the gnolls, and then he backs off – leaving the knights on the front line. Xyzzifax flies to the roof nearest to the gnolls, and hits one of them with a firebolt. The giant hyaena that Malice shot climbs right over the face, and charges towards her. But, the knights are between her and it, and Sir Kentor’s shield is able block the blow. The spiritual hammer bobs forward, chasing Jaric towards the giant hyaena. Once again, he unleashes the power of the staff of striking, slamming into the head of the beast, leaving it dazed. He then follows it up with another jab, leaving the beast stagger back. Sir Kentor follows up with a a clean slash, killing the giant hyaena.

Malice continues her walking pace, and flings a firebolt at the gnoll that Xyzziafax had targeted. And then Samson hits it with a crossbow bolt. That gnoll is looking in terrible shape, and Sir Lantor charges, flinging a dagger as he run. Malice speaks a quick word of magic, and the dagger finds its mark, finally killing the gnoll. Braedon gets closer to the rest of the Valiant Swords, and shoots the only gnoll still standing. Sadly, the arrow just grazes him. The gnoll says something in his own language.

Sir Lantor is swarmed by the pack of hyaenas, and the gnoll. Sir Lantor is hit not only by the gnoll’s spear, but three hyaenas are able to find places not sufficiently covered by armor. Still, the knight staggers under the barrage of blows. Inigo shoots at the gnoll – the arrow is lodged in the gnoll’s armor, leaving only a bruise. Inigo flies over the group, and slams down with a thunder wave – it doesn’t cause a lot of damage, but the hyaenas are scattered all over the place as the blast knocks them through the air.

Jaric charges the nearest hyaena, but it manages to be able to stay away from the terrifying staff. Sir Kentor is quick on Jaric’s heels, killing the hyaena as he rushes past it, and he gest to Sir Lantor’s side, taking up a guarding position. Malice and Samson each fire into the fray, one with a firebolt and the other with a crossbow, but neither of the pair find their mark. Sir Lantor brings down his mighty blade onto one of the hyaenas, killing it. Malice gives a word in the back speech of Iuz, and some of Sir Lantor’s worst wounds heal. Braedon moves up to Jaric and Malice, and puts an arrow into one of the hyaenas, killing it.

The gnolls and hyaenas attack the knights, and with an amazing bit of luck, one manages to actually bite the west of Sir Kentor. But, he reacts by slaying one of the hyaenas that attacked Sir Lantor. Inigo takes a quick shot, killing the hyaena. Xyzzifax reactivates the crackling lightning sword, and leaves a scarring wound from the electricity. The last giant hyaena finally loses interest in the rabbit, and rushes across the pen.

Jaric and his spiritual hammer take just a few steps, and slams over the edge of the pen, cracking into the giant hyaena. Compared to his earlier blows, this is not nearly so impressive. Sir Kentor runs the gnoll through, and then hurries to Jaric’s side. Malice moves to Sir Lantor’s side, and slays the last of the normal sized hyaenas as she looks appraisingly at the knight’s wounds. Samson puts a crossbow bolt into the giant hyaena as Malice mutters in the black speech, and more of Sir Lantor’s wounds heal. Sir Lantor, Xyzzifax, and Malice can see that there are more coming from up the street. Braedon moves to here he can back up that trio, but then spins to put an arrow into the giant hyaena.

Coming into the light, we can see a half dozen gnolls following a leader, another giant hyaena, , and a trio of normal hyaenas. Inigo shoots the giant hyaena in the pen, and finally that is a shot that is noticable. The huge beast gives a paid yelp as the arrow hits its soft underbelly. Xyzzifax puts a firebolt right into the lead gnoll.

There is a flurry of activity at the pen, as the giant hyaena tries to bite Jaric, but Sir Kentor blocks it with his shield, and then slashes with Verminax. The gnoll leader tries to shoot Xyzzifax with a bow, but the wily mage stays out of the way. Jaric slams down on the Giant Hyaena with the spiritual hammer, and as the beast expires he moves towards the approaching gnolls, hurling a sacred flame into their midst. Sir Kentor hoists his shield and takes Sir Lantor’s side. But, it is for naught, because Sir Lantor charges forward, throwing his dagger. Neither it, nor Malice’s firebolt are able to strike true. Samson sprints, coming around all of the buildings. It means that he has a front row seat to see Sir Lantor being completely overrun by the group’s enemies.

At some point in here someone utters the phrase "form the meat wall" - it was probably not Lantor or Kentor ...

The hyaenas attack in concert, two of them managing to draw blood. Three of the gnolls are able to get inside his defenses, as well, their spears stabbing him time and again. Sir Lantor, though, in defiance of all of the gnolls, keeps standing! Inigo is the last of the Valiant Swords to come out from behind the buildings, and he shoots a gnoll, Xyzzifax flies over the group, chanting to give a much more powerful thunder wave. All three hyaenas are killed right out. One of the gnolls is killed as well. Most of the gnolls are knocked around, bones breaking, ears bleeding.

The gnoll leader and giant hyaena both charge Sir Lantor as well. There is a quick yip from the hyaena to the leader, and then he bites Sir Lantor. The blood loss has the knight staggering, but miraculously his has not yet fallen. But the leader’s glaive is enough to finally drop the knight to the ground. Jaric points at one of the gnolls and utters a quick prayer, and the sacred flame ignites on one of the wounded gnolls.

Sir Kentor strides up to beside the fallen Sir Lantor, and announces that the leader of the has been judged. He slashes, but the large gnoll is able to block with his glaive. Malice rushes to Sir Lantor’s side, and heals him. As the knight gets to his feet, Samson fires into the crowd. Sir Lantor slashes with his greatsword, not once, but twice. Both times, the huge blade hits, leaving deep gashes in the leader.

The gnolls rally, and attack the knights and Malice. Their spears find Malice’s range, and she is stabbed by both of them. She gurgles, bleeding from her wounds. Sir Lantor is able to block one of the attacks, and then kills the unfortunate gnoll. Inigo puts an arrow through the throat of the lead gnoll. He is standing, but his death is inevitable. And then Xyzzifax makes it official, he lands behind the gnoll, and drives the lightning sword into him. The giant hyaena tries to bite Xyzzifax, but he is able to bring up a shield spell.

Jaric closes into the swirling melee, swinging with his spiritual hammer and staff. He doesn’t manage to finish off any of the gnolls, though. Sir Kentor drives Verminax deep into the giant hyaena. Malice spreads her fingers, and sends forth a cone of fire, killing a pair of gnolls. Sir Lantor drives his greatsword into the giant hyaena, killing it. Braedon shoots the wounded gnoll, leaving only one left standing. It turns, and flees from the fight – it earns him a slash across the back from Sir Lantor. Inigo gives chase, and puts an arrow into him. Xyzzifax sneers, and blasts him with a pair of magic missiles, killing him.

We search the grounds, and discover that the sturdiest of the buildings is an old defaced temple. They’ve been performing some profane rituals here. Once upon a time, this was a temple to the gods of the old faith, but they have been desecrating it in the name of the demon lord of gnolls. Malice spends a few minutes casting a healing ritual, for herself, Lantor, and Braedon. And then Jaric uses miracles to further heal Sir Lantor. Searching the camp, we’re able to find some coinage and small jewelry. And, the pack leader’s glaive is magical! Malice quickly claims it for her own. We return to Hommlet, to sell what we can.

That was a lot of fighting and a lot of gnolls! They did have to work for it some but it went pretty well. This was a nice change from the prior - and future - dungeon crawling that makes up most of the adventure. It's also nicely modern in the sense that it's not just a random monster lair - there's a story here about what it was before (a human farming community overrun by gnolls) and also what's going on with the gnoll tribe (their troops are being poached by the temple and the leader is not happy about it). It may not matter at all but there are details there to be found if your party cares.

If it was basic gnolls it could have gotten a little dull but they have an interesting ability in ToV:

This is another 4E-style ability that can change up a potentially static fight. It is only DC12 - but it is Charisma, so many characters will not have much of a bonus on this. A little damage and some forced movement can be fun. It only went off a few times here but it was great when it did.

Managing 8 PC's with as many options as they have is challenging but this session was not that bad. This being a raid on a hostile camp was sort of one long running fight with some scouting and recon before and then some exploration afterwards so it had more action than just rolling to hit. Being a defined location but outdoors allowed for more movement and gave ranged abilities a chance to show off. 

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk - Session 9: The Moathouse Epilogue and the King’s Road

 

Our Heroes:

• Braeden (Human Ranger)played by Battletech Terry
• Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
• Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
• Inigo Vulnstack (Elven Rogue) played by Invisible Paddy

 All are level 2 or 3 at this point. Grognard Mike is out this week so Malice is hanging out in Hommlet , where we begin this session ... 

The player version - written from a particular point of view:
(and yes, he calls them minions sitting around the table too)

• The MIghty Xyzzifax, played by Alex
• Minion Braeden played by Terry
• Minion Kentor played by Steve
• Minion Lantor played by Brandon
• Minion Samson played by Will
• Minion Jaric played by Dave
• Minion Inigo played by Paddy

Back in town, Malice continues to suffer from a horrendous case of food poisoning from the Paladin’s undercooked chili. The party, now flush with cash from the liberation of the moathouse from the clutches of the temple cult, opts to do some shopping.

The Generous Xyzzifax pays 100 gp to the innkeeper to cover the bill for his room, and purchases a scroll of invisibility from Burne.

Minion Braeden visits the Jaroo the Druid, checking to see of any useful herbs to acquire.

Minion Kentor asks around and manages to acquire a suit of full plate armor by bartering with Otis, a local. The price is negotiated to include the beginning of a potential courtship of Otis’s granddaughter, Matilda.

Minion Kentor arranges to have the armor re-sized, and later in the evening, treats the maiden Matilda to the finest feast the Inn of the Welcome Wench has to offer, a seven course meal, and the most expensive wine in Hommlett. Matilda is infatuated. The next day, minion Kentor is uncharacteristically slothful, with bags under his eyes, and claims to have been up all night “polishing his new armor”. Xyzzifax is not sure whether minion Kentor is laughably Vain or a cunning liar.

Matilda is now a recurring NPC in the campaign.

The party ventures forth, returning to the moat house, on a mission to eradicate the remaining bugbear infestation. Upon initial observation, the Porticulis has been raised. Minion Bubo is sent to scout further, and is unable to detect the presence of bugbears where they were previously located. In fact, it appears that the entire Moathouse dungeon is empty, until minion Bubo is unfortunately intercepted in mid air. Xyzzifax feels his familiar’s life force’s sudden absence, but he knows his faithful servant will return within the hour.

The Mighty Xyzzifax directs his minions to the room where minion Bubo met his unfortunate end, and the party is faced with two carrion crawlers, feasting upon the bodies of the now decomposing gnolls. The first two fall easily, but three more appear! Kentor and Lantor are paralyzed, and minion Jaric unveils his new staff of striking, which after two strikes, explodes a carrion crawler, covering the group in its bug guts. One carrion crawler escapes down the long passageway leading out of the dungeon, with the final crawler killed by an expertly aimed crossbow shot from minion Samson as it too, attempted to flee. and the group now sees that every interceding door (two of which were previously wizard locked) have been smashed down. After a quick survey, the party finds that the remainder of the dungeon is now empty.

Bubo's demise was to a carrion crawler on the ceiling. I have to put some familiar-risk into it here and there and creatures not particularly bound to the floor seemed like a a good way to do it. 

Paladin Steve on whiffing and blowing his save:" I used all of my good rolls on a date."

After some debate the party elects to follow the high road into the forest, in the direction of Nulb, a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

As the party travels along the road, minion Braeden senses something amiss, but he is unable to tell exactly what it is. His ranger senses are tingling. The party takes defensive positions, with Xyzzifax flying into the canopy, and minions Jaric and Samson direct the cart and minion donkey forward. The trap is sprung as an ankheg erupts from the ground, and devours faithful minion donkey!

The party launches into action, and with combined strikes, and a powerful magic missile attack from the Mighty Xyzzifax, the ankheg is felled. The fight is not over however, as two more erupt from the ground, flanking the cart. They begin by spraying minions Kentor, Lantor, and Jaric with acid breath, but the group manages to avoid the worst of the spray. Xyzzifax produces his trusty wand of lesser petrification, and uses it on on of the ankhegs. However, the wands magic seems to sputter, utterly expending, barely getting the spell off before the wand itself turns to stone.

The second ankheg ferociously tears into minion Samson’s shoulder, spitting acid into the wound. Samson briefly screams before losing consciousness,as the large insect, with two free legs, scrapes a shallow hole into the ground, deposits minion Samson into it, then covers him. Seemingly saving him for a tasty snack later!

Minions Kentor and Lantor yell in a rage, and together, slay the wretched beast. The final remaining insect, suffering from being turned to stone, suffers attacks from minions Inigo and Jaric. Minion Jaric who once again displays the power of his staff of striking, unleashing powerful strikes. Staggered, from this mighty blow, the final beast falls to another salvo of magic missiles from Xyzzifax.

They were pretty shocked when the ankheg buried Samson. This is a new ability these things have in the Monster Vault and I knew it would be fun - it was immensely entertaining. Giving monsters interesting abilities beyond claw/bite/cast a spell was a lot of fun in 4E D&D and it is really encouraging to see that kind of thing returning.

The Temple Campaign - Time to Catch Up

 

The campaign has continued weekly but I've been slacking on posting about it here. With the end of the campaign in sight it's time to catch up. I used to be fairly rigorous about posting session summaries here but it feel tougher to do that now for some reason. My players have been really good about putting summaries up on the Obsidian Portal site though so I'm going to lean on that: I'm going to repost their take on things and add comments of my own to give my future self and anyone who cares the "full take" on what's happening. 

I will start this tomorrow but as a prelude to that here are a bunch of links to what has been presented so far:

• Session Zero - Nailing down the framework and the PCs
• Session One - The Terrible Tower of Saltmarsh
• Session Two - Beneath the Tower of Zenopus
• Session Three - Hommlet Ho!
• Session Four - The Moathouse
• Session Five - In the Dungeon of the Moathouse
• Session Six - Bugbear Battle
• Session Seven - Ghouls, Guards, and a Giant Crayfish
• Session Eight - The Moathouse Finale

We just ran session 42 last weekend so I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm aiming for 2-3 per week until I catch up. but even at that pace it may be over before I get there.

Prior research/decisions:

• Greyhawk setting talk
• Rules talk about Tales of the Valiant
• Leveling Expectations for the Temple in a 5E game
• Part 1
• Part 2

Pathfinder Adventure Path Changes - They're Quarterly Now

 

I bought a lot of Adventure Path books during Pathfinder's 1st edition. A quick count says I have at least 10 complete AP's, plus the various supporting themed books and map packs and possibly card decks if I really liked one ... it's a lot of material at 70+ books. They started out at $20 for a 96 page full-color softcover adventure with some supporting material. Typically there were six books in each series taking Pathfinder characters from level 1 to somewhere in the teens, possibly all the way to 20. These were released monthly and if you subscribed you got the PDF for free which was a nice touch as not everyone did (or does) that.

One thing that I think is often overlooked is that by doing this Paizo established that a company could sell adventures regularly and consistently - which was not something we really saw much before and for the last 25 years has been stated to be a non-viable type of product for a larger RPG company. They showed everyone it could be done.

Good things about the AP approach:

• You got a nicely presented adventure with locations, maps, NPCs, a new monster or two, and some information on the part of the campaign world (Golarion) where it was set. That's a pretty decent package.
• The 6-part format meant that the adventures were connected and - ideally - focused on a larger situation than you might find in a one-off adventure. The format also meant that you had a guaranteed long campaign if you wanted to stay with it.
•  Making it a known monthly effort also meant that you knew there was a new episode coming and eventually a completely new path a few months down the road if you didn't like the current one. They were very good about describing each one well in advance, at the very least something like " a big pirate adventure set in X part of Golarion", or "an AP where advanced technology shows up along with robots and a crashed spaceship", or " an adventure set in an Egypt-like land with pyramids and mummies."
• They also put out a free Players Guide for each one early on describing some of the big concepts and how different races and classes and alignments would fit it - or how they might not fit in particularly well. This was a big help in getting players lined up for a new campaign.

Not as good things about the APs:

• Seeing a description about a new AP gets the DM excited. Part 1 comes out and looks good so you start a campaign. However you haven't seen parts 2-5 yet and so it's hard to lay any groundwork for the future, bring in or emphasize certain NPCs or organizations, or local features. I mean, it's my game so if I want the local druid circle to be a factor then I can do that regardless but it's still usually better to know the big picture before you start. In that case you end up waiting six months for the whole thing to come out and you may or may not be ready to run a new campaign at that time.
• To get these things done on schedule different authors wrote each part. Sometimes one would write two parts, like #1 and #4, but even if they did there could be dissonance between parts, seeming misunderstandings about the overall focus of the thing, plot points and NPCs disappearing completely along the way, and just a lack of coherence in some cases. A good DM can fix a lot of this, but many of them did need some work to really tighten them up.
• The fixed nature of the "six parts per AP" sometimes meant we got filler. Not every adventure needs this many pages ... but it's going to get 500+ pages regardless because that's how it works. I think the thieves' guild oriented one ended up around 11th-12th level while Wrath of the Righteous was trying to pack in a 1-20 run across other planes and including a bunch of Mythic stuff along the way. Not every concept was a great fit for this format.
• If you don't like the concept then you get to wait six months for the next one. This was not always a bad thing as it was extremely unlikely you were going to be able to complete one of these in a six month window - so they start to stack up on the shelf.

Now I did like them most of the time so I have quite the pile on the shelf and I will probably end up adapting several of them to PF2E or some other game like Savage Worlds. I haven't bought one since the first one that came out for second edition. "Age of Ashes". The reason I stopped was because I wanted to do my own thing with the new system. I did, and then we stopped playing and have yet to hit it again in any serious way. 

In the interim they went to a new approach of 3-segment adventure paths. I believe this began with Starfinder and then was carried over to Pathfinder. This made a fair amount of sense to me as it lets you do more different things. They mostly covered levels 1-10 with some covering 11-20 and a few doing odd level ranges like 5-14. I think most people liked it as you still had big adventures covering the entire Pathfinder level range but you could change them up more easily. it also gives a DM some fun in connecting different paths and laying some groundwork and rumors about what else is going on that the players could decide to pursue. So this seems like a good move.

Last month though they announced another change to the format: Instead of monthly, they are going to quarterly releases that will cover material comparable to 3 monthly releases in the old format and instead of softcover they will be hardbacks. 

Now that's a big change and the primary concern online seems to be cost as instead of 3x$30 purchases a month apart it's going to be a single $80 purchase every three months. I get that it's a bigger chunk at once but it is technically less overall and it's a nice sturdy 256 page hardback. it seems pretty reasonable to me and this feels like less of a change than the prior one - this is just a change on format, the original switch to 3-book APs was a real change in approach. Additionally they have been publishing hardback collections of many of their more recent APs and those seem to sell well so why not just make them "hardback collections" from the start?

This also addresses a lot of my negatives from above, starting with having the whole AP on hand from the start. Considering it's what WOTC and a lot of 3rd party publishers do for 5E adventures, why not give it a try? 

I may have to look into these again now. Not sure about "Hellbreakers" yet but I will be looking them over.

And if you're interested in a description of all of the adventure paths someone has put together a pretty serious breakdown of all of them here. 

Checking in on Warhammer+ with Kill Lupercal

 It's been awhile since I mentioned Warhammer+. GW's subscription service that includes a TVshow/animation app and a separate set of game tool type apps. Frankly, not much has changed. There are a few more animations than there were in 2022 - but not that many. In 2022 I noted there were 10 episodes of Hammer and Bolter, for example. That's their traditional animation series about various random topics. Some of them are really good. Now, 3 1/2 years later there are 16. Not exactly prolific there are they? There are some more lore shows - available for free on many YouTube channels these days, even if not "official" GW takes. The games have all moved to new editions since launch and the apps were suitably revised. So ... sure. It's fine.

The big new thing recently was "Kill Lupercal", a CGI animated "series" - all of 3 episodes - which was hyped up as this an awesome new production. Set near the end of the Horus Heresy it's all about a titan battle group that heads out in less than optimal condition and ends up on a mission to take out the Warmaster Horus Lupercal. The concept is fine and the animation looks good. The problem is the execution.

The whole thing is made up of three 15 minute segments:

• Part 1 is the extremely drawn-out build up of the titan being repaired and various discussions of it's condition and what can be fixed and the Mechanicus doing Mechanicus things ... it's a bunch of standing around and talking and it takes half of the episode before out titan actually walks. They get out of the hanger, shoot up some traitor marines, and then at the end they encounter a lone mysterious titan. That's it, that's 1/3 of our story done.
• Part 2 is a discussion with the mystery titan, getting the other tians in the group introduced and lined up, and then everyone heads off to kill Horus. There is a fight with some superheavy tanks and then more discussion about what they should do.
• Part 3 finally gets to the point of the exercise and we get a real fight against traitor titans and the resolution of the whole Horus thing. This one is pretty good.

This show is analogous to Warhammer+ as a whole: too little too slowly and often focused on the wrong things. 

While the individual shows are better about this, the multi-episode series tend to plod along, especially at the beginning. I'm usually a fan of the gearing-up sequence in a movie or show but there are limits. They also need to realize that most of the people paying for this service are already invested in the 40K universe - they're not newbies. You don't need to explain what sisters of battle, or titans, or for goodness sake Space Marines are - we know. We want to see them doing stuff, not a lore-dump about what they are supposed to be doing. Some of this stuff feels like a cutscene intro to a videogame we're never going to play - let's get to the point, especially if we're going to have less than an hour to work through this story! We don't need minutes and minutes of characters standing around talking about auspex readings and how bad things are and what the Emperor would want  - it's 40k! How about we have those conversations while we're jumping into the action?

Besides the shows being slow, their rate of production is terribly slow.  Under the "Animations" banner on the site there are 12 entries:

• Astartes existed before this was a thing so it doesn't really count as a W+ production
• Angels of Death was their first CGI series and is still the best. Extra points for Blood Angels. It's from 2021.
• Hammer and Bolter was also a year 1 effort and has actually added some new episodes over the years - not many, but some.
• The Exodite is another 3-part CGI series that takes a while to get going and runs 30-something minutes total. Again it looks good but there just isn't that much there. Points for being Tau vs. Eldar and Imperials. It's from 2022.
• Interrogator is a 9-part series using traditional animation that has 15-20 minute episodes and ends up being around an hour and a half total. It's black and white too and a pretty serious dive into the grim dark civilian life of 40K. It's decent and it's from 2022.
• Blacktalon is a 6-part series using traditional animation set in the Age of Sigmar worlds. There are 20+ minute episodes and so you get an actual story here. It's from 2023.
• Pariah Nexus is a 3-part CGI series from 2023 and is one of the better offerings. It ends up being a little over an hour of story.
• Iron Within is a 30-minute CGI one-shot with guard and dark eldar and chaos marines that's more buildup than action. I think it's supposed to be more "horror" than action but ... we all know what the dark eldar are about, and we all know what chaos marines are about so you're not going to surprise anyone with the various bad things that happen. Even the title spoils what could have been one interesting wrinkle. I was disappointed with this one. It's from 2023.
• Broken Lance is a 30-minute CGI one-shot about a knight household. Once it gets going it's not bad. It's from 2024.
• The Enemy Without is a 5-minute glorified CGI trailer about the deathwatch and I'm not even sure what the point of it really is. It does at least get right to the action, so there is that. This one is from 2024.
• The Tithes is a 3-part CGI series from 2024 that totals up to about an hour. There is some interesting variety here.
• Then Kill Lupercal is the lone entry from 2025

So the output has not been great. Nor has it been consistent with formats and story lengths jumping all over the place. Some of this stuff is interesting and even good but there is just not that much of it. Someone could subscribe for a month and watch everything without breaking a sweat.

I really like this one

The rest of the offerings are battle reports, painting guides, lore videos, and pretty much the kind of thing you can find all over YouTube and the rest of the internet. I would not pay a subscription fee for these.

I suspect that most people pay a sub here for the 40K and AoS apps - those are actually handy and useful for building an army and playing some games and encourage one to maintain it. There are alternatives there as well.

There is an annual miniature that's free to subscribers and those are usually pretty cool and this is the only way to get them. Not sure I would pay just for that but it's one benefit to sticking with it.

Also very cool

For now I will be continuing my own subscription here, despite my problems with the service. I do use the apps, I do like some of the shows, and I keep hoping it will get better. We will see.

Deadlands: Dark Ages Crowdfunding in September

 

So they have been talking about this one for a while now but Pinnacle made it official this week: the next setting for Deadlands is coming next month. Weirdly enough I have mixed feelings about this one. First, let's review what's out now:

• Deadlands: The Weird West - this is the original setting and the one where we met the whole concept of the Reckoners creeping in around the edges of reality, Servitors helping them do it in exchange for power, and a need for people to take a stand against them. It's one of the greatest settings in RPG-dom and one of my personal favorites. It gives a good set of reasons for cowboys and other old west types to fight monsters without having to transport them to a D&D campaign and it is brilliant. We've had original flavor, a second edition of that, a d20 version, a GURPS version, and then a couple of editions for Savage Worlds. There is a ton of supporting material, much of it with a regional focus so you can pick up the core book, figure out what area of the west speaks to you, grab something on that and get to rollin'. I've run multiple campaigns with it and will run more in the future.
• Deadlands: Hell on Earth  - The other original system game and the one that bumped Gamma World and Twilight 2000 aside as my favorite overall post-apocalyptic RPG setting. It was also ridiculously well-supported and made the jump to d20 and then Savage Worlds as well. I haven't run nearly as much of this as I have Weird West games but I want to. I suspect it has been overshadowed a bit these last few years by Rifts as the other big post-apoc setting that seems to get a lot more attention. I ran through the basics here, Reloaded here,  and then the supplements here, and here.
• Deadlands: Noir - In my opinion the first big misstep for Deadlands. It's the 1930's as the future of the Weird West setting which seems on the surface like a fairly rich vein with gangsters and weirdness (to start with) but from what I've seen it largely ignores the world-hopping Indiana Jones type options which would really amp it up. This is in keeping with the Deadlands games as a line being focused on America, particularly western America, and not really going beyond Canada or Mexico as the more distant parts of the setting. It makes sense in the prior two games but here we have a functioning society, the potential for international intrigue, and airplanes! This is the one setting book for Deadlands that I do not own as the concept just never clicked and never pushed my buttons for wanting to run a campaign - given the chance I'd rather run either of the two other games. There are only a few supporting products for it so I assume I am not the only one who felt the same about it. I remember thinking it sounded super-niche-y when they first announced it and I've seen nothing since to change my mind.
• Deadlands: Lost Colony - A spin-off from Hell on Earth that is set on a distant space colony that is dealing with ... a lot of the same problems we were dealing with in Weird West and the Wasted West. It's pretty self-contained as it's cut off from earth - it's more Weird West with lasers or tech guns instead of six-shooters and native aliens instead of native Americans, plus more Reckoner trouble. I appreciate it's potential for being the place where you finally finish off the Reckoners but I always saw it as more of a supplement for HOE than as a setting on it's own. I've never run this. I likely only would as the finale to a Wasted West campaign where you could really close things out. 

Such a great take on this genre

So there we have two great settings and two less-great settings in my eyes. Now we get the apparent awakening of the Reckoners in the new prequel where we're going back to Camelot to fight them:

From the Weird West to the Dark Ages

Dark magic rises in the time of kings and knights.

Ride with Merlin’s Paladins, battle Morgana’s minions, face the Great Wyrms, and confront horrors from beyond history. From Pictish undead to the Cult of Dagon, the Reckoners are stirring for the first time -- and Britain’s fate hangs in the balance.

Dynamic melee combat, legendary heroes, ancient ruins, and terrifying abominations await in Deadlands: Dark Ages, a brand-new setting for Savage Worlds from the creators of Deadlands, Deadlands: Noir, Deadlands: Hell on Earth, and Deadlands: Lost Colony.

Well, I am just not sure how to feel about this. Sure, it's a new Deadlands setting and there will probably be some cool stuff in it but ... it's a fantasy campaign. The very heart of tabletop RPGs! Calling it "saturated" is an understatement. My initial question is "what makes it different from all of the other fantasy rpg's out there and especially all of the other Savage Worlds fantasy games out there? Hellfrost, Beasts & Barbarians, and Shaintar are off the top of my head, not to mention Pinnacles own Pathfinder conversion line! I get that it's "Deadlands" so we will be fighting Reckoners and Servitors on some level but is that enough to really set this one apart?

I'm also not at all sure about that note on "Merlin's Paladins" - I don't think I've ever seen it phrased that way. Is this post-Camelot's fall? But it sounds suspiciously like a forced PC-aimed do-gooder organization which is something I am not a fan of in my games. Hopefully it's not "the PC organization" but we will see. 

Such a great update on the original

I know they've been working on and wanting to do this for a long time and Mordred does tie in to some other Deadlands history - don't ask, but it's a thing - so I get the need to get it out there. Speaking as a longtime fan of Deadlands and Savage Worlds too I'm just not all that fired up about this one. I'm also not lit up with anticipation for yet another Pinnacle crowdfunding effort - especially when I am still waiting on the last Deadlands campaign for "The Abominable Northwest" which was supposed to deliver books this month but has been delayed, and still waiting on "Rifts Europa" for Savage Worlds as well which is supposed to deliver in October. Then there is their about-to-complete Kickstarter for Doom Guard which I did not buy into but which is still being managed by this same team of people along with a couple of other efforts. I know crowdfunding is the way things work these days for small publishers but it still feels like there are a lot of balls in the air right now.

It's also up against the "if I decide to run a new Savage Worlds campaign am I going to run this over Deadlands, Hell on Earth, Rifts, Necessary Evil, or one of the other campaigns I already have on the shelf?" Not to mention other RPGs in general.

Maybe as some details emerge I will feel better about it. Time will tell.

Monsters, Challenge Ratings, and Encounter Balance in RPGs

 

It's a quirk of the modern RPG scene that there is so much concern over "Balance". It really falls into two areas - 1) Character Balance and 2) Encounter Balance. It's almost an obsession in some corners of the internet and while bouncing back and forth between various Supers RPG and running a D&D style campaign I thought it was worth discussing here. We did Characters yesterday so let's talk about Encounters.

Thinking back to the beginning early D&D didn't really care about encounter balance - the most we saw there was making sure a given dungeon level had monsters that matched that level which meant that it should be appropriate for characters of that level. Other early RPGs really didn't address much beyond this either. Runequest, Gamma World, Traveller, and Star Trek were all pretty light here. The idea mostly was "well, here is the setting, here are some potential opposing forces, drop your characters in and see what happens." There was also an assumption that your players knew to run when things got too hot and that might even require some extra effort like throwing out rations to distract pursuing monsters or having the chief engineer make some warp drive engineering roles to push the ship above it's normal maximum.

Later we get to D&D 3E and we first start to see encounter balance as a concept introducing challenge rating and encounter level as part of the game. I don't think this is a bad idea but I think it's doomed to  disappointment much of the time as one tries to codify a certain mix of hostile capabilities versus a generic player character power level. 

This is from the 3.5 DMG. Find the encounter level you want on the lefthand side, then decide how many creatures you want in the encounter moving to the right and it will show the CR you need to aim for to create a balanced encounter. Theoretically anyway.  

This is the Troll statblock from the 3.5 MM. Now trolls aren't particularly complex most of the time - though in this edition you could give them class levels and that could get weird fast. The only complication here is their regeneration - it's ignored by Fire and Acid. This version was a little more complicated but later editions have it so that taking any fire damage in a round shuts off the Trolls regeneration for that round - period. So if your party has a bunch of fire or acid type attacks then the troll's regen effectively does not exist. Challenge rating is affected by special defenses so the reason this guy is a "5" is at least partly because of that. Maybe if you ignore his regen he should only be a "4", maybe even a "3" which immediately wrecks the math, especially if you have a group of them. Considering in later editions wizards get fire bolt as a standard attack power, clerics get sacred flame, and flaming oil isn't hard to come by you can imagine this is not a particularly difficult thing to overcome. It's come up a lot in my current campaign and so I discount the rating for trolls a bit as they are effectively just like an ogre for the most part. Even one character landing a fire attack that round means all of the other characters normal attacks "stick" - just like any other monster. This is the kind of thing you have to do as a DM to keep these numbers relevant. 

I mean, he shouldn't be happy about this ...

This also ignores things like terrain, light conditions, weather, etc. There's a big difference between encountering something in a set of 10' wide corridors vs. out in the open country.

So taking these kinds of systems on faith is a mistake - if you really care about this stuff. I'd say 4E D&D did the best job with its math but even then I had to eyeball a fair amount of things. I did love the process of determining what kind of area this was, what kinds of encounters would be present, using the numbers to build an encounter and then tuning it up for my party - it was a great way to organize setting up a ruined city waiting to be plundered. 

Ultimate balance ...

But once you go outside of the D&D-O-Sphere there just isn't much like this approach. For point based systems (mostly supers for me) you could use the points but mostly you just use the power caps (active point limits/power levels) as a guideline. There's no larger framework though for calculating numbers for multiple opponents vs. party size. A few examples:

•    Looking at some superhero games there just isn't much math. 
• Icons is great talking about creating adventures and campaigns but doesn't burn any pages discussing encounter math.
• The Sentinel Comics RPG covers a lot of this as well and does talk about timing and challenges - the Green-Yellow-Red thing is important here - but it doesn't get into "enemy math" either.
• The M&M main book doesn't talk about numbers at all - it discusses encounters as part of an adventure or how they fit into a villainous plot. The Gamemaster Guide though, actually has a few paragraphs on balancing encounters and actually does mention power levels - every 2 PL increase means they are roughly twice as powerful so a PL12 villain is a good fight for two PL10 heroes. That's as far as the math goes.
• The Marvel Multiversal game is one of the newer entries and while it does have a page and a half on balancing encounters the only number advice in the entire section is to put your players up against opponents of the same tier - of which there are six. 
• Beyond strict superhero games entries like Savage Worlds have no real encounter guidelines. The only notes are that some creatures are wild cards but the game doesn't stick ratings on it's monsters beyond that.
• Star Wars!
• FFG Star Wars mentions that when using multiple opponents they should be a die or 2 lower on their abilities. That's about it.
• d20 Star Wars, Saga Edition specifically here assigns a challenge level number to every monster/npc entry in the game and this is used to determine both encounter balance and XP awards. Not terribly surprising with it being heavily 3E/4E based.
• d6 Star Wars - 2E Revised and Expanded in this case - has no time for encounter balance. The designing adventures section talks about pacing, different types of encounters, and "making it Star Wars" but does not put any numbers on opponents or award XP based on that kind of things. 
• The Trinity Continuum system has no encounter guidelines either. There are levels of threat as in minor-major-colossal, etc. and there are caps on their dice pools for each given level but there is no corresponding link to what level of character experience is an even match for that. There is a fair amount of material about adventure or story design but it's largely math-free.

I hope those are mostly minions ...

The one thing that many of these systems do is provide a two to three-tiered framework for opposition with normal opponents, minions or mooks, and then maybe some kind of master level opponent that is stronger than normal and possibly designed to take on multiple PC's. Mooks, almost universally, are designed as massed opponents that drop out of a fight with a single hit.  That can give a different flavor to a combat encounter and saves the GM a lot of work. Bosses tend to get extra actions or some kind of fate points to help them mitigate bad rolls or to guarantee success. Saving the complexity for the medium to boss level encounters helps a lot in running a game while letting the players feel like they are accomplishing something. 

Not a minion!

So this emphasis on encounter balance and the numbers associated with tracking and measuring that is pretty much a D&D thing. Other games don't worry about it much if at all. The only game that definitely has one on this list is the version of Star Wars published by the D&D people. Why don't more RPG's use this kind of approach? I will close with a paragraph from the M&M 3E Deluxe Gamemaster's Guide that I think sums up my feelings on it really well:

Character Balance in RPGs

 

It's a quirk of the modern RPG scene that there is so much concern over "Balance". It really falls into two areas - 1) Character Balance and 2) Encounter Balance. It's almost an obsession in some corners of the internet and while bouncing back and forth between various Supers RPG and running a D&D style campaign I thought it was worth discussing here so let's do Characters today and Encounters tomorrow.

Character Balance shows up in a couple of places and in a couple of ways.

First up I see a ton of discussion around this with D&D 5E-style games. Playtest classes for upcoming expansions, new classes for new games like Tales of the Valiant ... as soon as something comes out there will be immediate numerical breakdowns of damage per round and similar CharOp metrics at different levels and given certain feat or weapon choices and honestly these days it's just tiresome most of the time. It's not as important as you might think.

 This kind of thing mainly got going during D&D 3E and became it's own mini-industry for some people while completely ignoring the RP part of the RPG. This became especially evident in mid to late 3E when "experts" were recommending ridiculous combinations of classes and prestige classes as the "optimal" choice that were never going to happen in any real game with an actual DM trying run even a semi-coherent campaign. They were only even slightly likely to be achievable via one of the Adventurer's League type games where there was no central DM and no need to play out how your human fighter/cleric/ranger managed to join and train with the elves' arcane archers. You still see a degree of this even now with some of the multiclassing recommendations that get posted as the optimal build for today's games. Again, what DM is going to just let that happen in an ongoing campaign?

It also tends to ignore the non-combat abilities of a character and class and that's a huge miss in my opinion - it's not just about combat! We do other things too! At least 5E made some effort to categorize three areas of the game with combat, exploration, and socialization within the rules. Whether they succeeded is something people like to debate but they at least put it in the book and hopefully 5.5 is doing an even better job. If you are playing in an ongoing campaign, with a steady group of other players, in a setting that is supposed to be a "real" fantasy world with some internal logic, then DPR and other number-crunched metrics are one of the least important things to worry about. Because once in the game who cares which character does more damage by a few points here or there? Why does that matter? You're not competing with the rest of the internet and you aren't really competing with your own party members - you're supposed to be on the same side most of the time when a fight breaks out. Are you happy with what your character can do in a fight? Are you happy with what they can do outside of a fight? If so then you probably made a good choice - regardless of what the various forums, Discord channels, and social media groups say. 

Point-based games are kind of built around this concept - the points are mainly for the PCs. The DM doesn't have to use them at all. If all  the PCs are using the same points totals then they are all equal on some level within the game system. That said this type of game, even more than D&D style games, need DM supervision to reign in extreme character choices. Things like active point limits in Hero and power level limits in M&M help, but there are still ways to break things - with the great freedom that point-based games give you comes the need to work within the framework of the specific campaign. Not everything needs to be optimized. Not everything needs to be a variable power pool or a multipower or put in an array. With this type of game if one character does more damage than another that should be the result of deliberate choices on the part of those players and there is nothing wrong with that. 

If this stuff matters in your group it can be discussed in the good old session zero - "I really want to play a tank this time" or "I want to play a sneaky DPS guy" - I think most people get what this means now. My group still discusses classes and races (if applicable) when we start a new game and possible roles within the group if it's a less-structured game like Savage Worlds but it's done in a very open way and we don't really have anyone that thinks there can be only one of a type or class within the party or that wants to compare DPR numbers. They will find combos and they will absolutely break classes but it's not a competitive thing because they don't care who is the "best" most of the time. That said the cleric and the paladin in my current game trying to top each other's armor class has been pretty entertaining. 

Then of course there are games that absolutely do not care about balance between different classes or character types. Old school D&D doesn't care much at all, certainly not math-wise. Traveller doesn't care - one character might have 4 levels of "Bureaucracy" and "Pistol-0" if they're lucky while another may have Combat Rifleman - 5 and Cutlass - 3. Both are viable because combat isn't the only thing in the game - personal combat is only one of several options for combat - and it's a big universe with a lot of things to do. Getting your guns onto that  planet with law level 9 is going to take some Bureaucracy skill - probably some Bribery skill as well.

Really any game where random rolls are a major feature of character creation has an inherent lack of concern for character balance. If I end up with an 18 strength and you end up with an 8 we are headed in different directions with D&D combat. D&D, Traveller, Villains & Vigilantes, Cyberpunk, Gamma World, Runequest - all of these have random character generation, many beyond just determining ability scores, and yet we played them all, sometimes for years, and no one argued about this.

The game most openly, brazenly even,  unconcerned with balanced characters in my opinion is original recipe Rifts. Random stat generation then your race/class choice dictates everything else and on no level are they balanced. In a game where you could play a Glitter Boy, a more general robot or power armor pilot, a juicer, a wizard, or a dragon hatchling I have seen people choose to play the Rogue Scientist - sort of a post-apocalyptic Indiana Jones who's signature feature is that they get a lot of skills. No special combat abilities, no extra luck, no magic, no power armor, and the same standard equipment options everyone else gets. 

People make choices in these games, even when given obviously more powerful options, to play the things they want to play, the things that call out to them. My take on the "truth" of character balance is that as much as it's a feature of online discussion and debate it really doesn't matter all that much in actual play in an ongoing campaign. Sure, people will optimize or power game some things sometimes but they tend to do it with character types they are already interested in beyond whatever the numbers say. The prospect of living with the same character for months or years brings perspective that goes beyond the numbers.