Campaign Chronicles

Where: Mount  Uungau, the Jungle of Klesh, the World of Nehwon When: October 16, 2015 (in real life) What Was Going On: the Party had entered the Volcano's caldera in an effort to prevent an entity known as the Devourer (a divine, sentient Orb of Annihilation) from draining all of the magic from the World of Nehwon. Inside the fiery mountain, the party came face-to-face with a powerful Great Wyrm Red Dragon.  NOTE: Several rounds of the battle have already occurred. The dragon is battling a huge number of adventurers when Romulus blasts it with a cone of cold right after Drax hits with a sneak attack. Post edited to focus on what happened during Romulus' death specifically so other party members' actions are not included.  For reference, Romulus was a Wizard 16/Archmage 5/Druid 2 at this point in his career (he had begun taking levels in Druid after an incident with a magical staff left him stranded in Chauntea's realm minus his right hand but that is a story for ano...

There are many underground pit fighting arenas in Sigil.   The (SPOILERS!!!) “ Eternal Boundary ” adventure module says that the most infamous of these is the Blood Pit.   The Blood Pit is scattered throughout a series of warehouses and is run by a filthy little gnome named Felgar. The 3.5 update I got called “ Sigil: The City of Doors ” lists the Bottle & Jug Tavern as the place to go if you are in the mood for bloodsport.   This establishment is operated by Barl Hoxun. At first, I thought that I must have missed something, that perhaps a change of management had occurred or that maybe one club has pushed the other out.   But, then, as I put more thought into it, I said to myself, why can’t the two be in competition?   I envisioned a clash of pit fighting rings with one organization absorbing all other competitors in its path – much like the WWE did to the NWA, ECW, and WCW.   Which gave me another idea… The Bottle and Jug tavern’s fightin...

A few summers back, I decided to run a very simple campaign for my children.   They had been obsessed with my copy of d20 BESM for months and wanted desperately to make characters of their own.   I said cool and sat down with them, helped pick out their classes and skills and everything else and the end results were a party of pre-teen adventurers based in the city of Eveningstar in the Kingdom of Cormyr.   They were: Alyssa Jewel – a human female Shapechanger.   Her ability to change form was limited to cosmetic modifications only, about half of the effect you would get out of a Change Self spell.   By the end of the second adventure, she has also capable of minor elongation.   Jackie Woo – a human Ninja.   His mother had emigrated from Kara-Tur while he was still very young and found work as a washer-woman in a house of one of the kingdom’s more affluent families.   He had prodigious leaping abilities and carried flashbombs that he ...

Those of you who have been reading the blog know that I don’t post the character’s actual health during battles – just a percentage number instead.   Well, any player with basic math skills can quickly determine just how many hit points he has left and I feel like that can take away from the “immediacy” of a combat situation.    I have been toying with the idea of switching to a more “descriptive” set of terms to give th e group an idea of just how badly they have been injured. I am thinking something like… 100% - Uninjured 91-99% - Flesh Wound 81-90% - Bloodied 71-80% - Bruised 61-70% - Battered 51-60% - Injured 41-50% - Hurting 31-40% - Mangled 21-30% - Maimed 11-20% - Mauled 01-10% - How is thig guy still standing? What do you think?  I'm looking for suggestions here.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

Sunday, when you get up to celebrate Easter, search for colored eggs, filch candy you got for the kids from their baskets when they are not looking and biting the heads off of chocolate bunnies, I'd like to remind you that sometimes the bunnies bite back. With that in mind, I present to you my picks for the Top Ten Deadliest Rabbits of All Time. 10. Bunnicula the Vampire Rabbit: Instead of a rabbit's buck teeth, Bunnicula inexplicably has fangs, which enables him to bite vegetables and suck the juice out of them.  He also has the unusual ability to get in and out of his cage without using the door, and can open a refrigerator door by himself.  So far he seems harmless to everything besides vegtables but heed the warning of Chester the Cat "Today vegetables, tomorrow the world!" 9. The Trix Bunny (a.k.a. Silly Rabbit): This master of disguise preys upon children by continually attempting to trick them into giving him a bowl of Trix cereal.  He is di...

My very first character was a Dark Elf Ranger/Magic-User (don’t judge, I’d been playing for about 5 minutes and hadn’t read any of the novels) named Gray Wolf. I didn’t really know much of anything about Dungeons and Dragons at the time, just what I’d read over the shoulder of the kid who sat in front of me in Mr. Quick’s Sophomore English class. I had decided that I was going to use flails as my primary weapon.   I had visions of Gray Wolf going all Bruce Lee on his enemies, smashing and bashing and nuchuking them to death in the most awesome of ways. Sadly, this was not to be. My very first encounter was with a bear.   I’d seen Crocodile Dundee.   I knew how Animal Empathy was supposed to work.   I held out my hand and made cooing sounds at the bear but apparently, holding out your hand and making cooing sounds at a bear translates into “Please, maul me”. The bear was happy to oblige. I was shredded before I could even lay a hand on my weapons to defend...

I was just a fledgling Dungeon Master.   My stories and the characters that inhabited them were fairly one-dimensional.   That is, they were, until one player came up with the idea of Kiki. Kiki was, in most respects, a fairly standard wizard with one exception.   She was a witch.   According to “The AD&D 2 nd edition Complete Wizards Handbook”, witches gain their magic by making a deal with an extraplanar entity, usually a demon or a devil.   Her player and I worked out a story where Kiki was the servant of some sort of serpent spirit and was plagued with nightmares that were caused by glimpsing into the entity’s inhuman mind.   For us, this was pretty advanced stuff – up to this point our adventures consisted of me flipping open to a random page in the Monster Manual and having us fight whatever appeared therein. Kiki joined an adventuring party (I can no longer remember who her comrades-in-arms were) and the group set out on a quest.   They m...