Tag: Pathfinder 1E

BoT Post 19: Pathfinder 1E Encounters: Borrow This, Steal That, and Action Economy Everything

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Burials of Teganshire Post 19 of 30

Bound accuracy is the D&D 5E concept in which the escalator ramp of bonuses caps out, thereby simplifying game attributes like armor class, attack bonuses, skill checks, what have you. It’s cool, I like it, and Pathfinder 1E doesn’t have it, and I don’t care. So, why bring it up?

Bound accuracy dramatically simplifies things for the player and DM. Still, it muddies the waters when it comes to designing 5E encounters because it places a significant burden on the DM for making things hard and challenging. Pathfinder 1E, with well-established escalation calculations, it does not suffer, for the most part, from this design burden.

But we can steal other concepts from 5E. We just need to be a mite bit careful because of that very lack of bound accuracy.

Recap: the Pathfinder 1E Action Economy Dominates Everything

Three conical sources explained the Pathfinder 1E action economy, available some time ago:

ACTION ECONOMICS 101: https://gamingeveryman.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/55/

ACTION ECONOMICS 102: https://gamingeveryman.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/action-economics-102/

And the highly recommended parent, original PDF: https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1460/77/1460773144850.pdf

All by Alexander Augunas.

The gist is summed up here:

4. The game is built with the assumption that the PCs will win an encounter, and it isn’t until CR +4 that the encounter is a fair fight between the PCs and their opponents. We can prove this because placing a party against a Linear Guild party is always a CR +4 encounter.

5. The most effective way to design challenging encounters is to overwhelm the action economy in the antagonist’s favor. When the enemies have more actions than the PCs or the PCs’ actions are restricted, encounters are challenging.

Just like in 5E, the “Deadly” encounter CR (CR+4) is where the killing monsters portion of Pathfinder becomes fun.

Tweak the Pathfinder Action Economy for Your Villains with these 5E Mechanics

In Pathfinder, talking an Encounter from CR+4 to CR+5 can result in mass casualties at your game table due to the absence of bound accuracy (as noted above). But as the three articles by Alexander explain, challenging your PCs really starts with putting the antagonist ahead of the action economy curve. Using 5E Legendary, Lair, and Villain actions are a great way of maintaining the CR+4 encounter math and ramping up the difficulty.

As long as we avoid the pitfall of raising the CR with extra attacks.

Pitfall First

In Pathfinder, a CR+4 encounter probably has enough attacks to seriously damage a party. Adding additional attacks on initiative 20 (Lair actions), and after a PC (Legendary actions) can elevate the encounter beyond the CR+4 rule-of-thumb, more so than 5E. Depending on party class makeup, however, your PCs may be able to absorb that.

Add Legendary Actions to the Primary Monster

Either solo or with some buddies, Legendary Actions ramp-up the BBEG Action Economy:

At the end of another creature’s turn, a creature can use a legendary action. A creature with legendary actions has separate actions it can choose from. Each one costs a different amount of “actions.” Only one legendary action can be used at a time, and the creature cannot use legendary actions while incapacitated. The creature regains its legendary actions at the start of its next turn.

Legendary Actions Example

Here are some Legendary action examples that aren’t concerned with dealing a ton of damage. Every round, the BBEG gets 3 Legendary Actions:

  • Performs a swift action (Cost: 1)
  • Casts a cantrip (Cost: 1)
  • Move rated movement speed without provoking an attack of opportunity (Cost: 1)
  • Remove all detrimental conditions such as grappled, stunned, prone, etc. (Cost: 2)
  • All enemies within 15ft. are automatically pushed 15ft away from the Legendary creature (Cost: 3)
  • Target an enemy with a ranged attack without provoking an attack of opportunity (Cost: 1)
  • Webs fall from the ceiling in a 30ft. diameter area (Cost: 2)
  • BBEG goes invisible and dimension doors (Cost: 3)

Legendary action reference: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=5E+legendary+action

Add Lair Actions to Monster Lairs

Lair Actions occur on initiative count 20, (losing all ties). The monster can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row.

Lair Actions Example

Let’s use the lich from the 5E System Reference Document:

  • The lich rolls a d8 and regains a spell slot of that level or lower. If it has no spent spell slots of that level or lower, nothing happens.
  • The lich targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. A crackling cord of negative energy tethers the lich to the target. Whenever the lich takes damage, the target must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the lich takes half the damage (rounded down), and the target takes the remaining damage. This tether lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round or until the lich, or the target is no longer in the lich’s lair.
  • The lich calls forth the spirits of creatures that died in its lair. These apparitions materialize and attack one creature that the lich can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw, taking 52 (15d6) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. The apparitions then disappear.

We can modify that for Pathfinder 1E:

  • The lich rolls a d8 and regains a spent spell that level or lower. If it has no spent spell of that level or lower, nothing happens.
  • The lich targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. A crackling cord of negative energy tethers the lich to the target. Whenever the lich takes damage, the target must make a DC 20 Fortitude saving throw. On a failed save, the lich takes half the damage (rounded down), and the target takes the remaining damage. This tether lasts until initiative count 20 on the next round or until the lich, or the target is no longer in the lich’s lair.
  • The lich calls forth the spirits of creatures that died in its lair. These apparitions materialize and attack one creature that the lich can see within 60 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 20 Fortitude saving throw, taking 30 points of negative energy damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a success. The apparitions then disappear.

More on Lair Actions: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=5E+lair+actions

Add Villain Actions to Your Villainous Villains

What’s a villain action, you might ask? Watch this video, and it explains all. I’ve seen Matt use it and I’ve also used it, and it rules. Literally!

Ahem, sorry. Rule of thumb: pretend the monster is only going to last three rounds. Design accordingly. While this video is 5E specific, the majority of it applies to any D20 D&D derivative, such as 3.5 and Pathfinder 1E.

Action Conclusion

In Pathfinder 1E, there are tons of monsters, tons of villains, tons of adventure modules, tons of just about anything a GM could ever want or need.

The mechanics of the action economy does not change with all of those resources. CR+4 is your gold standard, and consider Legendary, Lair, and Villain actions an easy way to add not just flair, but adds actions to keep ahead of the PCs’ action curve.

And read Alexander’s PDF.

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BoT Post 18: Use the D&D Magic System to Introduce a Pervasive Magical Cold War to Your Campaign

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Burial of Teganshire Post 18 of 30

In D&D and its derivatives, like Pathfinder, the designers, all the way back to Gygax and Anderson, developed a complex, highly detailed magical system that permeates everything. Low magic or high magic, epic magic, or gritty, it’s a beautiful system to play a fantasy roleplaying game.

And right from the get-go, a Dungeon Master (DM/GM) can use the system to add conflict to their campaign. This post is about Cold War-style conflict, that added undercurrent to the main events going on that add tension, tone, and drama.

A hot-war will take over the campaign. The Magical Cold War will add flavor to it.

Set the Stage to the Magical Cold War

D&D 5E has a magical system around these core concepts:

  • Arcane magic—direct from the weave of magic
  • Divine magic—magic from the gods
  • Druid magic—drawing on the divine essence of nature itself

You know what that looks like on the surface? It seems like three factions. Factions are a great way to add theatric sub-plots to a campaign setting. A low-level hum of struggle against the backdrop of PC actions that inserts authenticity onto the environment.

Defining the History of Magical System Conflict

Now that we have the three factions let’s see why they oppose each other.

Arcane Magic Users

Some time ago, demons corrupted a group of powerful sorcerers. These sorcerers started to take over small provinces to the Empire in secret. They built up considerable momentum but were found out by the Providence Magisters (similar to court wizards) in the more significant imperial regions. Events spiraled out of control, and rather than bring in divine help from the various churches, the magisters turned to infernal support through bargains with archdevils. Many of them turned themselves into liches.

Eventually, the wizards prevailed, only to be turned upon by the divine churches of the Empire.

Divine Magic Users

Caught unaware of the demon-devil conflict in their midst using wizards and sorcerers as their proxies, the churches of the Empire fought both and held the Empire together with sheer will, divine magic, and large numbers of men-at-arms. They fought a cataclysmic war with both arcane factions, but suffered heavy losses and the Empire collapsed into fragmented, waring kingdoms jockeying for power and survival. A dark age came upon the Empire, and they could not stop it.

Druidic Magic Users

The hierophants of old stepped into the power vacuum, and each regional archdruid organized what little remained of civilization into pockets of peaceful, relatively safe areas. They instituted monarchies to quickly assemble the remanents into a usable hierarchy. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the past, they installed themselves as the overseers of food production, the surviving paladin orders as Inquisitors, and forced arcane magic users into a caste system of serving the people, banned from holding positions of power.

However, over time, the monarchies became powerful nations. Eventually, they instituted the position of the Court Wizard, in which wizard schools, formally wizard prisons, reported to the Court Wizard, who in turn pledged fealty to the King.

Just an Example

This is just an example of the historical conflict. The idea is to be brief—this happened long ago. That also allows the DM the flexibility to flesh out more lore as needed. As long as the three factions had a conflict in the past, it’s all good. And it doesn’t even have to be true. It could be just what people believe and what is in the history books.

Define the Current Magical System Conflict

Now that we have our history, what are our three factions up to? Apparently, shenanigans. Many shenanigans. Since this is all about conflict and drama—have some struggle and tension.

Arcane Magic Users

At one point, arcane magic users chafed under the yoke of Inquisitor tyranny (from their point of view), but that was long ago. Wielders of the arcane enjoy state-sponsored rights and protections for the “privilege” of policing their own—making sure the younger mages and sorcerers toe the line. However, these factions cross national boundaries, and over time, the Court Wizards formed a Council of the Arcane. While the nobility of the various nations deploys power through their feudal system, it is the Council of the Arcane that rule behind the scenes, now working to bring back the glory of the Empire by appointing an Emperor of Nations.

Two groups stand in their way—the Inquisitors that prevent the churches from falling in line and the Druids that run the nations’ agriculture systems.  Yet in some rural areas, there are wizards and other arcane users who believe the Council to be an oppressive organization dedicated to stripping away freedom and dignity, all in the name of law and order.

Divine Magic Users

The churches of the nations, sharing the same pantheon, do not want to change the system that gives them power, money, and influence. Things are fine just the way there are, now that they’ve clawed their way back from the brink of annihilation.

Some paladin orders, however, stick to the old school way of doing things, which includes (but not exclusively), the Inquisitors. The Inquisitors aren’t buying the Council of the Arcane at all and undermine them at every opportunity, including waging 4th Generational Warfare in nations that have given their wizards more power than they should. They’ve been here before and see where this is going: a Cabal of Liches, plunging the realms into darkness one more “to save the people’s souls from demons once more.”

The Inquisitors have tried to engage their previous allies, the Druids, to no avail. Some think they’ve been compromised by witches and cultists.

Druid Magic Users

No one could say exactly when the nobility came to be the top of the hierarchy over the archdruids, but that’s what happened. Most druids have forgotten their contribution to putting together the pieces of the Empire back into a small modicum of civilization. Many wonder if that was a good idea, given the large Cities of Men and the power of churches. Churches are more concerned with coin and station than the divine souls of their subjects.

Regardless, the new Council of the Arcane seems precisely like an organization the Inquisitors of old, organizations the archdruids founded long ago, were supposed to prevent. Still, all indications are the Inquisitors are sitting on their hands without church backing or any semblance of higher organization, each Inquisitor chapter acting like a coven of witches or a cultist cell.

Now Engage the Magical Cold War

There you have it. The gist of the Magic Cold War is:

  • It is background conflict and drama
  • No one except a few want to see it turn into a Hot War
  • Each faction has a history
  • Each faction has a current description of why they are in conflict

That’s the recipe. DMs interested in fleshing out their worlds now have a framework on how these magical groups interact with each other, and it’s all conflict and drama. Each faction even has sub-factions that cause issues within the bloc and without, and there are also small groups that could ally themselves with like-minded members to the “enemy” factions.

The idea is here is that there are paladins who hate wizards and sorcerers. Why is that? And why do the druids have power over food production? And why is there some underlying conflict in cities with strong wizards, etc., etc.?

The Cold War. It’s everywhere. And sometimes it seems nothing can stop it from becoming a Hot War. Put that in the back of your campaign world and see how your players react. And it’s an excellent DM vehicle for tension.

Or, perhaps, a vehicle for lighting the nations on fire.

PC Wizard: Where is Lord Drake? We’ve returned from our quest.

Paladin: I hung Lord and Lady Drake for being witches consorting with demons.

PC Wizard: …

Paladin: …

PC Wizard: We’re not demon consort, um, consort-ers.

Paladin: That’s why you’re still standing here. I am Inquisitor Johanson of the Order of the Platinum Oath, and by the authority given unto me by the First King, I demand you help me save the souls of this demesne.

PC Cleric: You have no author…

Paladin: Quiet acolyte, the adults are talking.

PC Wizard: Why do you even trust me?

Paladin: Because I heard you speak against the Council. Because Bahamut told me to. Now, do you want this spellbook we’ve been keeping in our reliquary for hundreds of years or not?

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BoT Post 13: 2d10 Encounter Tables for Traveling on a Road in a Fantasy RPG

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Here at Griffon Lore Games, we love us some random encounters. Set up ahead of time, the dice adds that element of “game world interjection” that can (and often is) better than a planned encounter or static location. In this post, you’ll find two helpful tables of random road encounter goodness.

DMs can use the random encounter ability to interject lore into their campaign without the Terrible Lore Infodump™. A handy framework would look like this:

  • Geographical regions have their own table segmented out by locations. For example, Overland in the Viscounty of Kandra, On the Imperial Road, The Road Between Terganshire and Tegan’s Bridge,
  • Random encounter tables should have a day and night version
  • Random encounter tables should have a normal version and a hard version

Triggering the Random Encounter

Use one of the unsung dice heroes from RPG land, the d12. Roll a d12 when:

  • The players are moving overland, or in a large city, from point A to point B
  • Players arrive at point B
  • Every four hours
  • Players do something that generates attention

Resist the temptation to fudge the roll. The entire worth of the random encounter is the D&D game’s ability to mix things up in exciting and unexpected ways.

An 11 triggers an encounter. A 12 triggers an encounter from a table modified for difficulty. Roll 2d10 to select the encounter.

Many of your random encounter tables should have simple entires. When the area is short on monsters (in a civilized land), a more robust table provides flair.

Random Encounter: On a Semi-Patrolled Road

The Empire paved the Old Imperial Road in the Viscounty of Kandra—and now the horse-lords maintain it least their commerce traffic drops, and they lose tax income. However, in the land of the horse-lords, merchants are responsible for their own safety. While men-at-arms formally patrol the road, they are there to deal with issues after-the-fact, not to intercept trouble for weak and lazy travelers.

Once an encounter triggers, replace it with a new one for the next session, with “nothing happens,” until you replace it.

The below tables, while set in the Kingdom of Lothmar, are mostly generic with lore that a DM can easily change to suit their setting. And note these are encounters on a road, not camping in the woods at night! Unless the PCs are camping right next to the road itself.

Semi-Patrolled Road: 1d12 with an 11 Result

2d10

Day

Night
2 A passing merchant from the opposite direction with a horse and two mules, flanked by a gnome guard riding a war dog A camp-fire can be seen from a popular campsite, off the road, and on a bluff.

Camped there are a well-armed merchant and a competent guard—a gnome with a massive war dog. They’ll share a meal with friendly folk, but not their site
3 A letter courier, riding a swift horse, overtaking the party. He does not stop, but does wave. A letter courier, riding a swift horse, from the opposite direction. He stops and trades road conditions and regional gossip before moving on

 
4 A cloud of mosquitos hovering over the road A cloud of annoying mosquitos attracted to any light source

 
5 Four men and a watchful guard making a road repair The road here was obviously recently repaired

 
6 Circling vultures off the road. Upon investigation, a grizzly bear is munching on the corpse of a deer

 

 A grizzly bear wanders into camp but will leave if shooed away.
7 An odd and unexpected change in the weather No change

 
8 An extensive merchant wagon train traveling in the same direction, complete with six guards Off the road, a wagon train with six guards camps for the night

 
9 A patrol of six lancers and their sergeant. They ask if the PCs have seen any trouble on the road. If the PCs look like they are the trouble, they attempt to arrest the PCs and take them back to their lord for questioning A patrol of six lancers and their sergeant. They ask if the PCs have seen any trouble on the road. If the PCs look like they are the trouble, they attempt to arrest the PCs and take them back to their lord for questioning.

If the PCs are friendly or indifferent, the patrol offers to camp with them, and share the elk they shot earlier
10 A local lord with his twenty men-at-arms, armored and armed to the teeth and all on horseback. If the PCs are wanted criminals, they give chase Several men, looking hungry and grim, armed with inferior quality weapons, ask the PCs if they can spare any food. The men are from a city, wanting to go somewhere else due to reduced employment opportunities. They have been contemplating banditry, but are not that desperate—yet

 
11 A merchant with a broken wagon, berating a lone guard trying to fix it A dead merchant and a broken wagon, filled with supplies for the general store in the next village. The merchant died of sword wounds

 
12 A trio of foxes chasing a hare run across the road A trio of domesticated foxes are on the side of the road, waiting for some food scraps

 
13 An old elf walking down the road. If questioned, the elf claims he is going to die soon, and always wondered where this road went. He asks PCs not to spoil it

 

 A dead elf leaning against a tree by the road, a smile on his face. He died of old age
14 Over 200 King’s Soldiers marching down the road from the opposite direction. A scout on horseback asks the PCs if there is anything unusual from the direction they came from

 

 Camped alongside the road is a small army of professional soldiers wearing the King’s livery. They do not approach the PCs. If approached, they state they are on King’s business, and the PCs need to move along
15 An apple tree in the middle of the road, out of place, and undoubtedly odd. When the PCs investigate the tree, it disappears, and faint giggling can be heard
off in the distance		 A group of pixies with a well-lit fruit stand. Payment must be made in silver only.

The fruit is fresh, even if out of season. If questioned on where they got the fruit, the pixies say, “the archmage gave us a few boxes in return for some dust.”
16 A ranger on a mighty warhorse with a rather large sword, a dual-bolt crossbow, and a hunting falcon, coming from the opposite direction, with a younger man. The ranger looks grim and capable, and the young man needs better shoes.

If questioned, the ranger indicates he and his nephew are going to visit a friend in a nearby city to talk about some religious matters

 A beautiful woman and a young man, from the opposite direction, walking a rather large warhorse. They ask the PCs if they’ve seen their pet dire wolf.

If questioned, the woman indicates she and her nephew are going to visit a friend in a nearby city to talk about some religious matters
17 Six bandits chased by 20 men-at-arms. If the soldiers catch them, they hang them on the nearest tree

 

 No change
18 Traveling in the same direction, a farmer, his son, and his comely daughter with a wagon of vegetables and fruit bound for the next town.

If questioned the farmer is friendly, and claims crops were so good this year he has more than he can sell locally

 Two dead farmers and an overturned wagon of fruit and vegetables. If the PCs search, they find a torn dress
19 An old, ugly woman traveling in the same direction. If the PCs stop and question her, she claims to be an “old witch with tired feet and needing to save her spells.” She requests a ride if the PCs have horses or a wagon, as far up the road as the next town.

As a reward, the Old Witch gives either the prettiest woman a philter of love, with a wink, or the most handsome man a bag of 100 gold pieces, coin of the realm from one hundred years ago.

If attacked, she teleports away with a rude gesture

 No change
20 A pack of dire wolves decides the PCs look like lunch A fog rolls in and deposits an encounter:

(Party Average Level) +4 Challenge Rating undead

Time to roll for initiative

Semi-Patrolled Road: 1d12 with a 12 Result

2d10

Day

Night
2 A group of merchants and their guards in a heated argument about business practices, ready to come to blows Off in the distance, PCs can easily hear an argument about business practices. If they investigate they find a group of merchants and their guards, ready to come to blows

 
3 A letter courier, riding a swift horse, overtaking the party. He is wounded and asks for healing, warning that behind him are a “group of nasty stirges” A letter courier, riding a swift horse, overtaking the party. He is wounded and asks for healing, warning that behind him are a “group of nasty stirges.”

Said stirges show up and attack
4 A cloud of mosquitos hovering over the road A cloud of annoying mosquitos attracted to any light source. If they come into contact with a PC, they turn into a giant mosquito swarm and attack

 
5 Four men and a watchful guard making a road repair. They flag the PCs down and ask for help, which will take the rest of the day.

The guard is really a local knight. He won’t bother the PCs if they refuse, but he sure will remember their faces

 The road here was obviously recently repaired, and five tired men, one of them a guard, are resting near the repair.

If the PCs offer them beer or wine, the “guard” tells the PCs to stop by his manor home for a dinner served by his wife and with their “three marriage age” offspring.

The knight has significant funds
6 Circling vultures off the road. Upon investigation, a dire grizzly bear is munching on the corpse of a deer A dire grizzly bear wanders into camp and will eat all the PCs food. If attacked, he becomes enraged and attacks first every round

 
7 An odd and unexpected change in the weather for the worse:

Spring: Downpour

Summer: Summer storm with lightning

Fall: Hail and sleet

Winter: Blizzard

 The same except with 90+ MPH winds doing 1d4 damage per round to any unsheltered PC, animal companion, or mount.

The effect lasts for 1d4 hours
8 An extensive merchant wagon train traveling in the same direction, complete with six guards.

One of the wagons is on fire. In 1d4 rounds, it blows up, doing fireball damage to anything nearby

 An extensive merchant wagon train camped on the side of the road, complete with six guards.

One of the wagons is on fire. In 1d4 rounds, it blows up, doing fireball damage to anything nearby
9 A patrol of twelve lancers and their sergeant. They ask if the PCs have seen any trouble on the road. If the PCs look like they are the trouble, they attempt to arrest the PCs and take them back to their lord for questioning A patrol of twelve lancers and their sergeant. They ask if the PCs have seen any trouble on the road. If the PCs look like they are the trouble, they attempt to arrest the PCs and take them back to their lord for questioning.

The patrol warns friendly PCs that traveling at night without a light source is an arrestable offense. Any PCs guilty of this are simply given a warning.

If the PCs are friendly or indifferent, the patrol offers to camp with them, and share the elk they shot earlier
10 A local lord with his twenty men-at-arms, armored and armed to the teeth and all on horseback. If the PCs are wanted criminals, they give chase.

Accompanying the party is a squad of rangers, one with tracking hounds, and a mid-level druid

 Six paladins and their men-at-arms stop the PCs. They seem cautious and wary, and claim they are “looking for an aberration.”

They ask each PC to take a test—a pinprick on the finger to see if their blood is red, and they will also do the same in return.

f the PCs ask about the Paladin’s quarry, their leader says, “You don’t want to know.” If the PCs persist, the paladins will claim they are chasing some type of “uber slaad.”

If the PCs insist on helping the paladins, sometime in the night, the party is attacked by 2d4 Death Slaad.

If the PCs refuse the blood test the paladins and their men-at-arms attack—they try to subdue the PCs until one of their own dies in combat, and then, as they say, it’s on.

During a lethal battle, the 2d4 Death Slaads show up and attack both groups.
11 A merchant with a broken wagon, berating a lone guard trying to fix it. The guard suddenly stands up and attacks the merchant A dead merchant and a broken wagon, filled with supplies for the general store in the next village. The merchant was staked naked over a fire-ant hill

 
12 A trio of foxes chasing a pixie with a broken wing across the road A trio of domesticated giant foxes with halfling riders stop the PCs and ask them if they have seen “an old elf walking down the road.”

Thus far, the PCs have not
13 An old elf walking down the road. If questioned, the elf claims he is going to die soon, and always wondered where this road went. He asks PCs not to spoil it.

If the PCs spoil it, he says “ah, man,” and dies of old age right there

 A dead elf leaning against a tree by the road, a smile on his face. He died of old age.

If the PCs deal with the body in the local elf tradition, a courier delivers a package from an anonymous shipper, addressed to the PC that first suggested to take care of the body. Inside is a suit of elven chainmail +2
14 Over 200 King’s Soldiers marching down the road from the opposite direction. A scout on horseback asks the PCs if there is anything unusual from the direction they came from Camped alongside the way is a small army of professional soldiers wearing the King’s livery, secured by a lot of guards.

They ask the PCs pointed questions about the region, seeing if the PCs are local or not. If the PCs refuse to answer, the guards tell them to bugger off down the road or be set upon.

If the PCs do not bugger off, the entire camp will attack them. ¼ are awake right now
15 An apple tree in the middle of the road, out of place, and undoubtedly odd. When the PCs investigate the tree, it falls over, making a mess in the middle of the road An apple tree in the middle of the road, out of place, and undoubtedly odd. When the PCs investigate the tree, it turns into a confused treant.

If the PCs attack the confused treant, 2d4 other treants animate from a nearby copse of trees and attack.

If the PCs help the treant, it gives them all apples that when eaten, cures any diseases or poisons
16 A ranger on a mighty warhorse with a rather large sword and a hunting falcon, coming from the opposite direction, with a younger man. The ranger looks grim and capable, and the young man needs better shoes.

If questioned, the ranger indicates he and his nephew are going to visit a friend in a nearby city to talk about some religious matters.

Insightful PCs will realize this party is composed of ghosts, acting out something that happened to them hundreds of years ago. If confronted as such, they fade away

 A beautiful woman and a young man, from the opposite direction, walking a rather large warhorse. They ask the PCs if they’ve seen their pet dire wolf.

If questioned, the woman indicates she and her nephew are going to visit a friend in a nearby city to talk about some religious matters.

Insightful PCs will realize this party is composed of ghosts, acting out something that happened to them hundreds of years ago. If confronted as such, they both fade away, and a pack of dire wolves follow the party for a few miles, sadly howling if approached—before they too, disappear
17 Six bandits chased by 20 men-at-arms. If the soldiers catch them, they hang them on the nearest tree.

One of the bandits is armed with a wand of fireballs

 Six bandits chased by 20 men-at-arms. If the soldiers catch them, they hang them on the nearest tree.

One of the bandits is armed with a wand of fireballs, and one of the men-at-arms is a high-level ranger
18 Traveling in the same direction a farmer, his son, and his comely daughter in a wagon of vegetables and fruit, bound for the next town.

If questioned the farmer is friendly, and claims crops were so good this year he has more than he can sell locally.

Insightful PCs will note that the daughter seems distressed. The farmer says pay that no mind, she is always skittish around strangers.

The young woman suffers from a brain injury and doesn’t like to travel. Everything the farmer and his son says is true. What also is true is that the farmer can’t find a husband for the girl, so he is going to sell her to a brothel

 Two dead farmers and an overturned wagon of fruit and vegetables. If the PCs search, they find a torn dress.

PCs will have a hard time tracking what happened, as the farmers were set upon by a vampire. He plans to make the young woman he took his vampiric paramour
but wants to cure her first.

If the PCs manage to confront the vampire, he first offers the PCs a bribe to leave him be. Failing that, he will offer to cure the young lady and give her back to the PCs if the PCs in turn pledge to not tell the local authorities of his existence.

And failing that, he’ll tell the PCs what he found out—the farmer and his son were going to sell her to a brothel (true), and that the vampire knew he shouldn’t have killed the farmer and his son, but the injustice of it all “just turned my crank, if you know what I mean.”

And if that doesn’t go anywhere, he simply teleports away, leaving the farmer’s daughter behind
19 An old, ugly woman traveling in the same direction. If the PCs stop and question her, she claims to be an “old witch with tired feet and needing to save her spells.”

She requests a ride if the PCs have horses or wagons, as far up the road as the next town. She will also tell curious PCs that “You don’t want to know what my business is, so I’m not gonna tell you.”

As a reward for a ride, the Old Witch gives either the prettiest woman a philter of love, with a wink, or the most handsome man a bag of 100 gold pieces, coin of the realm from one hundred years ago. If attacked, she reveals her form as the Goddess of Love. She curses the party and departs in a clap of thunder.

Curse:

PCs that were married find themselves still married, but their spouses hate them. Unmarried PCs with lovers have them turn bitter at a perceived, terrible insult and will hire an assassin to have the PC killed.

One (and only one) PC without a paramour eventually finds out they are married to three argumentative, but attractive young women. Once a month, each will demand the PC divorce the other two, becoming more belligerent with each refusal. The PC is unable to convince any of the wives that he or she has chosen a favorite.

If the PC survives this for a year, the wives stop collectively trying to browbeat the PC, tell the PC that next time be nice to old ladies, and reveal themselves as witch-priestesses. The PC then has the option of ridding himself of the trio or staying married

 No change
20 A giant green dragon flies over the PCs and sits on a road, and demands the PCs cook her bacon. If the PCs don’t have bacon, she will tell them there are plenty of wild boars in the nearby woods.

Refusal of bacon results in one angry dragon

 A giant green dragon flies over the PCs and sits on a road, and demands the PCs camp and share their dinner with her after polymorphing into a beautiful human maiden. She just wants a good meal, but will respond to flirting with “Seriously? Just stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

The dragon knows a surprising amount of local gossip, along with regional history.

If the PCs refuse or attack the dragon, she disappears, leaving behind a 60ft x 60ft death cloud

 

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BoT Post 12: Burials of Teganshire Fully Funded on Indiegogo! Come Get Your Copy!

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

 

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We passed the 100% funding mark last night–thanks a ton for those who backed!

Let’s keep this train of awesomeness going! Head on over to Indiegogo and back if you haven’t already. The Indiegogo price is a significant discount off our retail offers, and funds collected now help us by paying for the production costs of the next project.

Friends, the printed book will be spectacular in quality. It’s thick, premium paper with a color interior coming off a digital offset press with one of the best covers in the industry. Back today, if you haven’t already, and if you already have, our heartfelt thanks!

This is the start of a product line of first-class adventures for 5E and Pathfinder 1E. How exciting!

Best Regards,

Anthony, Christophe, Anna, and Etta

 

Burials of TeganshireCrossbow Man appreciates your patronage

 

Gruesome deaths, arcane wards, ancient rituals, and an old bridge: a 5E & Pathfinder 1E adventure.

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BoT Post 10: When the PCs Lose the Players Will Win—the Hero’s Journey

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Burials of Teganshire Post 10 of 30

Here at Griffon Lore Games, we’re big fans of grim, gritty hard fantasy.

That isn’t navel-gazing, nihilistic, and “subverting expectations.” In other words, heroic fantasy. A DM can attach heroic fantasy to any game world, and most line of products, and I encourage you to do so. Genuinely heroic fantasy is all about choices and the consequences of decisions. Decisions made by what players believe is the right thing to do given the circumstances and what they know.

First, let’s talk about Hollywood, the comic industry, and the book publishing industry shooting itself in the foot, first. I call it—the Triad of Suck.

The Triad of Suck–a generation of crap

Hollywood’s Three Decades of Crap

Current RPG products, for the most part, have avoided the pitfalls expounded by Hollywood’s fascination with navel-gazing, nihilistic fiction since the early 90s. By its very makeup, a fantasy RPG game is composed of players running PCs, in a story of their own or the DMs making. Since milquetoast conflict doesn’t sell RPG products, players, by and large, play in an environment where the stakes are significant, conflict abounds, and heroes live and die by both their choices and the whims of the dice. Since it’s a game, players recognize dice whimsy as part and parcel of RPGs.

It’s not all bad in Hollywood, but a lot of it is. Then there are the books.

Genre Book Publishing’s Three Decades of Crap

Current RPG products, for the most part, have avoided the pitfalls expounded by traditional book publishing’s fascination with navel-gazing, nihilistic fiction since the early 90s. By its very makeup, a fantasy RPG game is composed of players running PCs, in a story of their own or the DMs making. Since milquetoast conflict doesn’t sell RPG products, players, by and large, play in an environment where the stakes are significant, conflict abounds, and heroes live and die by both their choices and the whims of the dice. Since it’s a game, players recognize dice whimsy as part and parcel of RPGs.

Is this sounding familiar? It’s not all bad in traditional publishing, and independent publishers have rushed to fill in the gap.

But a lot of it is self-serving, non-entertaining drek. Then there are comic books.

Comic Book Publishing’s Three Decades of Crap

Current RPG products, for the most part, have avoided the pitfalls expounded by comic book publishing’s fascination with navel-gazing, nihilistic fiction since the early 90s. By its very makeup, a fantasy RPG game is composed of players running PCs, in a story of their own or the DMs making. Since milquetoast conflict doesn’t sell RPG products, players, by and large, play in an environment where the stakes are significant, conflict abounds, and heroes live and die by both their choices and the whims of the dice. Since it’s a game, players recognize dice whimsy as part and parcel of RPGs.

Detect a pattern here? It is, indeed, the triangle of suck. And the commonality between the three is the departure from the hero’s journey.

The Hero’s Journey is the Foundation of Conflict

And without foundation, all the fun factors in a fantasy game have no root. In a narrative, the hero’s journey is about the conflict that drives character growth.

In a D&D game, it’s all about the opportunity to overcome the conflict as a game. Players will grow their PCs as players will. Either they progress their PC through role-playing, or they don’t. This is where “DM as a referee” is better than “DM as a story-teller.”

Now I know what you’re thinking. We’re talking D&D, and D&D is a game, so where do the foundations of mythology come into play?

When Campbell was describing the hero’s journey, he wasn’t pulling a trope out of his butt—he was explaining life writ large via an archetype, a distillation, of if you will, of legend and mythology. Ignoring it, making fun of it, wishing it would go away, is only a blip in the grand entertainment universe. It’s never going to change because it’s human nature, stamped with the approval of Human History.

But, the “Triad of Suck” did impact D&D, less for what it did, but more for removing the concept from gameplay and game design.

Hitting (multiple) Rock Bottoms is the Hallmark of the Journey

The Hero’s Journey in graphical format:

Graphic provided by wiki commons

See the Abyss? That’s the low point that makes what’s next all the more delicious. How applicable is the singular hero’s journey to D&D? If a DM uses it as a blueprint to a campaign—highly relevant.

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’m talking about a STORY-TELLER CAMPAIGN when D&D is a GAME. SHAME ON ANTHONY. But that’s just it—you can use the format in an open-world, sandbox, player-driven campaign. It just needs some thought. Let’s use two examples.

Two Examples of the Hero’s Journey in Player-Driven Plots

Example One: Count Torc Mac Ceti

The PCs are the vassals of a stern, but highly-supportive, wealthy, and influential baron—their lands’ border another Barony, one Count Torc Mac Ceti. The PCs are in charge of the crossroads town Kamshire, and Torc Mac Ceti has made several inquiries that he would covet the PCs alliance—but the PCs, involved in a series of adventures for their baron, have declined him thus far.

One day the PCs receive word that one of their woods in now infested with a rather large green dragon. Indeed, the dragon sends them word he would like to meet with the PCs (gulp). The dragon seems like an amiable fellow—he cleaned the woods out of monsters and bandits (something the PCs always meant to do). In return for a safe wood, he requires, uh, a cow. A fat cow. Once a month. And a barrel of wine. To go with the cow. PCs are left with the impression this dude is old (and a bit lazy) and would rather avoid conflict.

Now, the vast majority of the players will think this dragon is an impressive addition to their PCs’ lands. And obviously, if the DM wanted to use the dragon to kill them all, then he would have done so. A dozen cows and barrel of wine a year for a dragon buddy? Heck yeah!

Aaaaaand there it is.

Several months go by, and the relationship works. Sure, the dragon has an evil streak, but then again, the PCs are no choir boys themselves. To protect their baron, they’ve gotten their hands dirty. The dragon sends word—he’s captured a wanted criminal, someone the baron has been looking for. The PCs take delivery of the rascal and give the dragon a magic item as thanks. This relationship seems good. Healthy even.

And then one month the dragon says, hey. This month I’ll need a virgin maiden instead of a cow.

the dragon

Whoops.

Now, the PCs refusing the dragon or not, it doesn’t matter. If they deliver the virgin, the dragon screams, “She’s not a virgin!” as he drops her body in the town square and destroys Kamshire. If they fail to deliver the virgin, the dragon attacks and destroys Kamshire. If they try to kill the dragon, he is way above their league, TPKs the party, and destroys Kamsire. It’s a dragon. They are mid-level PCs. If they die, the bewildered baron, their liege brings them back, using up all his influence with the church to do so. Or the PCs roll new characters—1st Level survivors of the Terrible Dragon.

This is a low point for the players but a high point in the campaign world! And the dragon isn’t the real villain here, only a weapon. He’s demanded a virgin because Count Torc Mac Ceti paid him a lot of money to do so. Mac Ceti is the party’s nemesis, and he’s just getting started.

But was that organic?

Not really, but Count Torc Mac Ceti sure is a villain. How the PCs deal with such a tyrant will be interesting, considering they still don’t know the real reason the dragon went off in the first place. Killing the monstrous beast is only the start (uh, nothing personal, guys, it was just business. You’re not still mad, are you?). Depending on the direction they go, the destruction of their town, and the death of all their friends (and possibly loved-ones) was just the beginning of a terrible, terrible time.

This kick in the gut works because the DM didn’t plot the campaign.

He just plotted the PCs’ downfall. It’s up to them to crawl out of the hole—and start their heroes’ journey.

Example Two: Organic Your Way into Jail

Let’s back up the clock. The PC’s noble sponsor (let’s call him Baron Winstead) is besieged and mired in dirty politics at every turn. He’s been having the PCs do some things he can’t have traced to himself.

The players are having fun. Each adventure is a backdrop in politics and drama, and their PCs are getting rich in the process. The rewards go beyond the coin—the baron gives them influence, marrying one of his daughters to a PC.

And then, they get arrested and thrown into the King’s Dungeon. All the DM had to do is keep track of their legitimate mistakes, and when one was made that was serious enough, well, that was it, then. The PCs are stripped of their lands and titles, their sponsor’s hand slapped. They’re tossed in a dungeon designed to hold adventurers such as themselves, with the key thrown away.

In this example, the PCs committed crimes against bad guys but got caught—a less dramatic but certainly more organic route to the heroes’ journey than the dragon melting everyone’s face off in town with acidic clouds of doom.

And the DM has many drama options here, for example—the marriage of the baron’s daughter, a PC’s wife, was annulled and she was married off to the Count next door, one Torc Mac Ceti, and the PCs know him to be one bad dude.

This is a journey of self-discovery. In this campaign, just who are the bad guys? How do they get out of jail that they so lawfully belong in, and then what? How do the PCs go from zeros to heroes?

Beyond the Plot Tick—Failure Mechanics

Even if the DM doesn’t nudge the PCs into a catastrophe, the PCs can go on a hero’s journey by acting heroically in the face of failure. A DM needs to have both, really. He both needs to push the PCs into a state where only the heroic survive, yet give those heroes a chance for setbacks so they can learn to become heroes.

Failure Mapping NPCs

The easiest way to start planning for the PCs’ downfall is to map out what happens when the PCs fail with people by tracking dispositions: what happens when these NPCs are Unfriendly, and what happens when they are Hostile?

  • Local Nobility
  • Merchants
  • Townfolk
  • Bartender
  • Guards
  • Bard
  • Landlord
  • Innkeeper
  • Hunters
  • Thieves
  • Beggars

Failure Mapping Modules

Once the NPCs are mapped to their two fail states, the next step is to map out failure conditions for every adventure, which necessitates choosing experiences where it isn’t “all or nothing.” If you possess such a module (and I have dozens), it’s easy to change the tone of the module by putting in failure conditions:

  • The PCs never get there due to a random encounter—what happens?
  • The antagonist defeats the PCs and drives them off—what happens?
  • The PCs commit a category error (they went through the adventure thinking the problem was one thing when it was another)—what happens?
  • The PCs obtain a partial victory—what happens?
  • The PCs meet all their objectives, but the bad guy gets away—what happens?

“What happens?” should be a state that adds tension:

  • The PCs stop the investment of the abandoned castle but know the escaped bad guy is going to seek revenge, probably at the worst possible time
  • The PCs clear out the castle and kill the bad guy, but on the way home, they notice flying scouts above the castle. Again. They always have the option to go back and just raze the place to the ground and fill the dungeon with lava.
  • They never made it to the dungeon, and now the ogre magi fortifies it and stocks it with armored ogre shock troops in heavy armor (ha, ha, ha)
  • The PCs capture the bad guy, turn him in for King’s Justice, only he plays a political game, and someone lets him go!
  • The PCs TPK and the bad guy get their gear and use it to terrorize the region. Hello, new PCs, you’re in for a rough ride.

Rule-of-Thumb

As a rule of thumb, adding at the minimum four conditions to a module, half successes, and half failures, to various degrees, is an excellent way to turn even the most rail-roady module into engaging campaign action. And if the PCs keep hitting all cylinders, then they should reap the rewards—and the DM should ratchet up the difficulty until a single failure becomes catastrophic.

Failure creates high stakes and tension. Successes bracketed by failures create a game table of righteous D&D. If your PCs aren’t failing their way to success—then why bother playing a game if they can never lose?

Put players on a hero’s journey. By switching a mentality to “the module is the game” to “the player’s success and failure is the heroes’ game,” organically creates a world that is a journey of their own making.

Let them fail.

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Crossbow Man takes failures personally. Without subverting expectations.

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BoT Post 9: Ghost Wagon Encounter: Introducing the Lothmar Meta Mimic for Pathfinder 1E

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

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Let’s depart the campaign and adventure philosophy and dive into encounters. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, the Lothmar meta mimic for Pathfinder 1E. Yes, it’s a mimic of a mimic. Ha. Ha, ha, ha, AH HA HA AH MWA HAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem.

Encounter: The Old Man and the Ghost Wagon

On any road the PC party is traveling on, they find a wounded, delirious old man in the ditch. He claims that a “wagon with no horse or riders,” came across their own wagon in the opposite direction. When the animated wagon got closer, it “screeched like the damned, laughing and giggling” as it attacked the horses, and then the other occupants of the old man’s wagon.

This is the extent of his knowledge. He claims it was a “haunted ghost wagon” and doesn’t have any details of how it attacked or if the rest of his companions are alive or dead. He says the wagon took a bite of him and then yelled, “Begone, old fool, least GHOST WAGON kills you too!”

The old man is thoroughly traumatized and is suffering from post-traumatic stress. Still, PCs with a Perception check of 13 or higher will reveal that he wants to deliver a helpful description, but no longer has the mental faculties to do so. Giving him some water and tending to his wounds will go a long way into calming him down, but the old man, who says his name is “Old Jim,” is helpless if left outdoors by himself.

Medieval Wagon

The Battle Site

It doesn’t take long for the party to find the gruesome battle site: a broken wagon, two dead draft horses, and two dead men, all four mostly eaten, body parts everywhere.

A Heal DC check of 15 reveals the wounds from a large mouth with sharp teeth. A DC 20 shows sticky, goo-like substance from the meta mimic’s adhesive. A DC or 25 reveals the men also suffered from some other type of catastrophic damage, the meta mimics cosmic damage delivered by its bite. Only a Knowledge Arcana DC of 25 or more will type the damage as “cosmic damage from the void beyond.”

Wagon tracks go down the road (without horses or oxen to pull them), the ghost wagon seemingly heading back from which it came. No tracking roll needed.

Combat Encounter

The Ghost Wagon will not be hard to find. It is moving at 30 ft. per round (using its movement for both its action and movent phases). Touching it or using ranged weapons will start combat. The meta mimic, while battling the PCs will periodically go “Oooooooo!” and “Mwahahahaha GHOST WAGON WILL EAT YOU!” It also taunts any healer in the party if another PC dies, calling them a “loser” and blaming them for the PC’s death.

It fights to the death. If the PCs only use ranged weapons, it turns into its true form, flies above the archers/crossbowmen, and then turns into a wagon to fall on their heads.

The meta mimic is reasonably intelligent. If it incapacitates a PC, it will keep attacking the PC until the PC is dead.

Combat variation

A fiendish DM can dramatically bump the encounter difficulty by having two regular mimics, as chests, hitching a ride in GHOST WAGON. All three of them think this is hilarious, and as the GM, you should find it pretty funny, too.

Your players, however, as play-testing revealed, will not think it funny at all.

Pathfinder 1E Lothmar Meta Mimic

Lothmar Meta Mimic | CR 5 | XP 1,600
Lothmar meta mimic | NE Huge to tiny aberration (shapechanger)
Init +3; Senses greensight 120 ft., see in darkness; Perception +12

Defense

AC 18, touch 10, flat-footed 18 | hp 90
Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +7
Immune acid, mind-affecting effects; Resist negative energy 5
Weaknesses vulnerability to force effects, vulnerability to sonic

Offense

Speed 15 ft., fly 30 ft. (good)
Melee bite +10 (1d10+6), pseudopod slam +10 (1d10+6 plus adhesive grasp effect)
Space 0 to 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
Special Attacks cosmic acid constrict (1d10+6) on adhesive grasped victims

Statistics

Str 18, Dex 8, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +6; CMB +12; CMD 21 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Improved Initiative, Step Up, Throw Anything
Skills Acrobatics -1 (-9 to jump), Climb +15, Disguise +0 (+20 when mimicking objects), Fly -1, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +12, Perception +12, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +2; Racial Modifiers +20 Disguise when mimicking objects
Languages Common, Undercommon, Aklo
SQ cosmic shapechange

Special Abilities

Adhesive Grasp (DC 18) (Ex) Automatically grapple, those grappled cannot get free while the meta mimic is alive. Victims can make a contested Strength roll to remain in place (the meta mimic has a +4). Otherwise, the meta mimic will draw the grasped victim in range of its mouth to bite. Anyone attempting to grapple the mimic is automatically grappled in return.

Cosmic Acid Constrict: When the Lothmar meta mimic grapples a creature, it uses its strength and connection to the void to do 1d10+6 void damage. If already grasping a victim, the meta mimic can generate another pseudopod to slam other opponents. It can do this an unlimited number of times (once per round), although once constricting a victim the meta mimic will not attack it with an extra pseudopod—preferring to bite it instead.

Cosmic Shapechange (Ex) The Lothmar meta mimic can use its action to polymorph into an object (huge or smaller) it can see or sense, making an exact duplicate of the object in both form and function. It can also shapechange back into its pure form, a viscous, semitransparent blob-like cloud of smoke. Its statistics are the same in each shape (although the Lothmar meta mimic can only fly in its smoke form). Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Immunity to Acid The Lothmar meta mimic is immune to acid damage.

Immunity to Mind-Affecting effects The Lothmar meta mimic is immune to Mind-Affecting effects.

Energy Resistance, Negative energy (5) The Lothmar meta mimic has Energy Resistance against Negative Energy attacks.

Vulnerability to Force Effects The Lothmar meta mimic is vulnerable (+50% damage) to force effects that deal damage.

Vulnerability to Sonic The Lothmar meta mimic is vulnerable (+50% damage) to Sonic damage.

Fly (30 feet, Good) The Lothmar meta mimic, when in smoke form, can fly.

See in Darkness Sees perfectly in darkness of any kind, including magical darkness.

Greensight (120 ft.) (Su) Senses through thick plant matter as if it was transparent.

Step Up When a foe makes a 5 ft step away from the meta mimic, it can move 5 ft to follow them.

Throw Anything Proficient with improvised ranged weapons.

Description

Thoroughly malevolent, witty, and annoyingly snarky, the Lothmar meta mimic is an evil aberration from “somewhere else.” Often confused with regular or giant mimics, the meta-mimic is much more dangerous due to its innate ability to copy objects it can sense, including complex objects composed of smaller pieces, such as a wagon.

Meta mimics seem to bend the laws of physics to copy objects, and they can mimic anything from a tiny teacup to horse carriage to a wine barrel. They cannot “invent” objects to copy; they must see or have seen an object to polymorph into.

Mistaken Identity

Explorers and their like often confuse a meta mimic with an animated object or construct, that is, up until the meta mimic reveals its mouth with sharp teeth. Compounding the problem is the meta mimic will “hang out” with animated objects, mimics, or giant mimics, and striking at the most convenient time for maximum comedic effect, according to the mimic.

Cruel Monsters

Meta mimics are cruel, but only insofar as amuse itself with its morbid sense of humor. For example, a meta mimic would think it’s quite funny to suddenly lunge at an adventurer in armor standing over a pit of alligators, in hopes of having them slip and fall in surprise. Then it would attack anyone coming to rescue, or, if the adventure is alone, extend a pseudopod to help, but leave the legs to the alligators as it feasted on the “top part.”

Unknown Ethereal Origins

Little is known about the meta mimic, other than it is susceptible to force damage, lending evidence to its origin being the Ethereal Plane. While it can speak (often to taunt people that it is munching on), it never reveals anything about its culture (if it has one), origins, or anything of import. Some guess that the meta mimic originally came across an actual mimic, and copied as much as its form and attributes as it could.

Survivors of the Lothmar meta mimic describe it as having some “soul-sucking, void attack from the beyond.” They also specify that it is not concerned with its safety or any natural functions, and seems only to exist to kill, maim, and taunt surprised victims.

It is also unknown why Lothmar meta mimics are bothered and damaged by loud noises. If the meta mimic knows, it isn’t telling. They even don’t seem to have a brain or at least a normal one, and they are entirely immune to psychic damage (nor do they respond to telepathy).

When a meta mimic dies, it reverts to its non-object form and dissolves into smoke until gone.

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BoT Post 7: Adding Personalized Content to an Adventure in 10 Minute Slices

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

 

Burials of Teganshire post 7 of 30

All it takes is several 10-minute slices of prep time per adventure to personalize the content in a module and have the PCs dive deeper into the game world as a result. Previously we covered the benefits of keeping the campaign world barony sized (or, 30-mile hex sized) for most of the campaign.

Designing adventures is a lot of work. A prudent DM, even one with plenty of development time to devote to his campaign, can also use commercial adventure modules to add to the campaign world—indeed, this is more likely than not.

When running a campaign to keep it personal to the PCs, it takes more than just tweaking the plot so it makes sense. A McGuffin at the bottom of a dungeon the PCs need to retrieve to get closer to their nemesis is a popular pastime with DMs. It doesn’t take a lot of prep for a DM to add more investment in any adventure. Let’s go over one method—spending 10 minutes at a time.

The Personalized 10 Minute Slice Per Player

In a campaign, player drives vary. Some are interested in role-playing, some just want to show up, others like the idea of min-maxing their PC, others want to live out the fantasy of being a feudal lord, etc., etc.

I have a spreadsheet that tracks each PC. It contains any background info, which includes a 5E or Pathfinder background and their backstory (and half of my players didn’t start with a backstory). I also track things they are interested in, or plot points they bring up or anything usable by a DM.

In Excel, notepad, or 3×5 cards—it only takes about 10 minutes per player to add to adventure content that is personal to the player.

Example

Player 2 is one of the players that provided a backstory, which contains information about his grandfather’s disappearance one stormy night. In the adventure, there is an encounter location that contains treasure in an abandoned desk.

The DM puts a clockwork timepiece (aka a pocket watch) in the desk that the PC recognizes as his grandfather’s. It holds some type of enchantment, too, but the party’s wizard can’t figure it out.

The DM plans to have the investigation of the watch reveal more details of what happened to grandpa, cumulating in an adventure to bring back his bones to rest next to grandma.

Another Example

Player 3 didn’t provide a backstory but has the Acolyte background. In a room discovered while running the module, the party finds a trio of bodies—all wearing the acolyte livery that the PC used to wear.

Here the DM is playing it loosey-goosey. He listens to the player’s banter and guesses about what these acolytes might have been doing before here and see if the player in question has anything to say about his time in the church. The DM files exciting tidbits from the discussion for use at a later time, picking the best outcome (it’s always great when the players add their own lore!). There are some personal belongings on the bodies, so between the time the PC returns the items to the church and the adventure, the DM has a chance to come up with additional details as needed to advance this personalized plot—the main goal, however, is to snarf tidbits from the player discussion.

The Personalized 10 Minute Slice: Locality

It’s not just the players that should get 10 minutes each. The DM should also spend some time on the intrinsic parts of the localized game world. Harken ye back to the campaign plotting chart:

NPCs should have some type of interaction in the adventure based on their motives and dispositions to the party/PCs:

  • The mayor asks PCs, on their way to an adventure and passing through the next village, to deliver some letters.
  • The blacksmith hears about the PC’s trip and asks them to show any ancient weapons or metal armor that they find.
  • Nisha, the barmaid, the girlfriend of one of the PCs, is super mad the PC is going away again, and says to come back with a present, or at least flowers, or don’t come back at all!

There should also be setting interjections:

  • Winter is arriving, and the DM decides there’s just going to be a rip-roaring snowstorm. Because, why not!
  • The PCs have been hunting quite a bit with the local lord. They run into a druid that asks them politely to dial it down before the tasty fauna loses too much population to sustain itself.

Also, interjections based on prior Party Actions:

  • The party cleared out an old wizard tower, but when they ride by it, there’s a blue light in one of the windows!
  • The PCs, in their very first adventure, helped a hurt dire wolf. Now the wolf shadows them, seemingly wanting to join them at the campfire, but still skittish.
  • There is a bit of lore that says that periodically on a clear night, ghostly wind chimes are heard in an abandoned orchard outside of the village. The PCs hear this while preparing to sally forth.

And finaly, 10 minuites for the Villan:

Assuming the current adventure isn’t directly about the bad guy, spending 10 minutes adding some detail for the PCs to discover or experience is time well spent. Example:

  • The PCs don’t know it, but the undiscovered vampire that bought a local farm is waiting for the PCs to leave so she can charm some of the critical villagers, starting with the loud-mouth barmaid that gossips about her.
  • The vampire arranges for the local priestess to be out of the village for a couple of months. A low-level acolyte that doesn’t know anything about anything replaces her, dramatically decreasing the threat of receiving a blast of radiant damage to the face.
  • Despite her best efforts, the vampire finds herself enamored with the PC Bard (of course). Before the party leaves, she anonymously sends the local bard a rare and old poetry book.

Recap

A localized campaign requires a small time commitment per adventure (commercial or otherwise), along the lines of:

  • 10 minutes per player
  • 10 minutes for the localized campaign plotting
  • 10 minutes for the villainous villain

Note that all this prep was mostly about things the PCs did, about the PCs, or the villain. Little of it had to do with lore, and really, your lore should simply be a backdrop to action and drama.

Finding sand-boxy adventures to put in your localized game world makes things a whole lot easier when it comes to the players generating content for you. But even a rail-roady type adventure will seem all that more personal—when the DM personalizes it with local, and PC, flair.

Back Burials of Teganshire on Indiegogo for some excellent local maps and start adding that bit of detail to keep your players coming back for more.


 

Crossbow Man recognizes one of the runes on the bridge as the same rune on his brother’s sword. Isn’t that odd?

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BoT Post 6: Wind Up Your PCs with Your Villain and Let Them Go

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Burials of Teganshire post 6 of 30

So, yesterday was all about the bad guys—who are they and what to do they want. We had everything from a possessed sword to a dragon lich. Some people had favorites, some didn’t like one or two, and the real question on the table is—how do I bring this villain home to the PCs?

How do you make it—personal?

And this is where an open-world (and sandbox) campaign shines. Because of the organic nature of how your PCs deal with problems in a localized campaign vs. “the BBE is gonna kill everyone!” style of adventuring, it does, indeed, make it personal.

Wind up your PCs with the villain

Ever see one of those toy plushies with wheels and a windup key? Where you wind it up and then set it down? You have a vague idea where it’s gonna go, but then it just zooms, hits a wall, and careens off into a direction you were not expecting.

Yeah, that’s that plotting you want, adjusting to the PCs’ actions. Let’s give an example with a villain from yesterday, Lord Marthous the Betrayer:

5. Lord Marthous and the Lady

Lord Marthous and his wife are on the lam, hiding from the King’s Men. Lord Marthous recently found out he was the bastard son of the king and confronted the nobleman he thought was his father and also his mother for her discretion. The confrontation escalated out of control, and while fighting his step-father, his mother interjected herself in front of a mighty sword blow and died. Marthous in a rage then slew his step-father.

Hunted, despised for patricide, Lord Mathous and his wife fled but ran into a trio of paladins hunting them, the three not realizing that the Lady was a sorcerer with powers of her own. The duo slew the young knights.

Now Marthous is done running. He plans to clear his name by usurping the throne. He will replace the King, the man in his mind, the cause of all his troubles. He makes an impassioned plea for the PCs to help him. If the PCs join him, when he is successful in his plot, he will reward them with betrayal! He will blame them for the atrocities committed to ascend the throne (guilty or not) in order to appease the nobles still on the fence.

If the PCs refuse him upfront, he becomes a bitter enemy, and the King solicits their help in the dispute.

Either way, the PCs at some point will probably ask—are we the baddies?

Example Series of Events

  1. Lord Gwain Marthous, newly installed in his manor lands after his “father” expanded his holdings, awaits the arrival of his bride in his new manor home in the obligatory arranged marriage.
  2. Still moving in, short on time, men, and knowledge of the area, he hires the PCs to deal with “a particularly aggressive brown bear.” He pays them well.
  3. Said bear turns out to be a Dire Bear. And it’s rabid. It mauls the Level 1 PCs, but they emerge victoriously.
  4. Lord Marthous is taken aback at the PCs mauling. He doubles their reward and gifts them a hunting cabin in the nearby woods, an excellently furnished vacation home the PCs now can call their own.
  5. Gwain comes calling with a small cask of brandy. Everyone gets drunk. Gwain lays out three things he needs to handle, asking the PCs if they can help him out again. PCs pick one.
  6. During the adventure, the PCs have a random encounter—the abandoned campfire.
  7. Picking up the gold from Marthous, the PCs mention the campfire. Gwain tells them his falconer is overdue.
  8. Adventure ensues to find the lost falconer.
  9. No sooner than they investigate the falconer (some unusual fey thing killed him), Gwain comes to the PC in a panic. A passing merchant found his bride’s carriage overturned, the guards missing, blood everywhere!
  10. This adventure revolves around the PCs’ particular strengths, tailored for their backgrounds, prior contacts, and knowledge of the politics of the area thus far. Bandits kidnapped the Lady (paid by the political enemies of his “father”).
  11. An epic, drawn-out slugfest occurs, and the PCs return the Lady to her Lord. The Lady, who saved her sorcerer powers for just the right time, helps the PCs in any way she can. The DM uses that to save a PC’s life at just the right moment.
  12. Marthous says he can award one PC with knighthood and titled lands befitting his or her new station. He can then make the other PCs official Lord’s Men, men-at-arms with special privileges.
  13. The DM designs a small “bachelor party” adventure, complete with shenanigans and stealing the Bishop’s prized poodle.
  14. Wedding!
  15. Here the DM interjects two or three small adventures/encounters that revolve around the PC’s backstories, drives, or outright stated plans. Homebrew or off the shelf modules work well, here.
  16. Marthous finds out about his real father, and the events outlined in the villain’s description proceed.

That’s just one example of how to tie a bad guy up with the PCs, and this particular route would make Lord Marthous’s betrayal all the more painful. And Marthous is following the despot’s script: after the revolution, to preserve the state, someone must be punished for doing what had to be done, and the ones that did it must fall lest they do it again.

And let them go

A Picture of War

For Marthous’ betrayal to hit the players in the gut, they need to be invested in both him, his friendship, and the shared hardship or they all could hang for a tragic mistake. While the above is a linear progression from “Here’s an NPC” to “and now everything goes sideways,” there are numerous spots where the path wanders between a random encounter, a “pick your own adventure,” and adventurers according to PC actions/desires before the festivities start.

But, more importantly, there is a choice. And the PCs might choose to side with the King. And if they do, they have the terrible task of bringing their friend in for justice so he can be drawn and quartered for not only patricide but treason. Indeed, picking this route makes Lord Marthous all the more ruthless. He has nothing to lose and no friends to watch his back.

This is a campaign arc where there are no winners. The campaign starts in earnest with the Bastard Son’s Rebellion and should contain the majority of the campaign’s action cumulating in the only way it can: the PCs facing their former friend in a showdown for the Kingdom. It’s messy, bloody, and personal. At the end of the campaign, the PCs should be the last men and women standing. They are either the hero or the antihero, but whichever path they choose, they were not a lead-by-the-nose zeros.

And now, my friends, at the end of this arc, would be the most excellent time to introduce an outside threat—just when the Kingdom recovered from a rebellion. At her weakest, her real enemies attack.

Tomorrow we’ll go over how to use commercial modules to make them more personal for the players.

And for some villains with motivations other than twirling a great mustache, back Burials of Teganshire on Indiegogo today!

Burials of Teganshire

Crossbow Man would stick by his friend through thick and thin,
and betrayal would fill him with a righteous burning vengeance!

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BoT Post 5: Six D&D Villains That Bring it Home and Make it Personal

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Burials of Teganshire Post 5 of 30

So much has been said about making good villains for the D&D campaign that rehashing Villanous Design Philosophy is both superfluous and probably dull. Let’s just give you some! Here are six villans with motivations and that personalized touch to keep your players interested in the campaign world. We follow that up tomorrow with some villain integration tips—the mechanics of inserting the PCs nemesis into the game world.

Shall we begin?

The Dead Knight Harakan

The PCs Personal D&D Villains at Home

The Villainous Villains await!

1: CheryLynn, Vampire at Large

Long ago, a charismatic but lonely vampire stayed at the local inn, and, enamored with one of the peasant girls, engaged in a torrid affair that resulted in CheryLnn becoming a vampire herself. Ashamed at turning another woman into a damned thing, the master vampire fled, chased by an enraged CheryLnn. She eventually caught up to him and slew him. CheryLnn, wandering here and there, decided after a long while to research her affliction to cure it.

Lady CheryLnn is now an educated, but wicked, vampire with extensive wizard capabilities. She is convinced the path to a cure is running experiments on people related to her. After all these years, that is a considerable number of the local area’s inhabitants. All she wants is to be the girl she was so long ago and will let nothing stand in her way.

2. Ranger Gifford the Vigilante’s Sword

Witnessing a crime from a minor noble, the ranger Gifford took it upon himself to avenge the innocent outside of the King’s Law. And he got away with it. He’s been an unsung hero since, righting wrongs and punishing the guilty behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, Gifford’s actions are the direct manipulation of his corrupted, mighty longsword that whispers to him while he is sleeping, invading his dreams and replacing his original personality with one of its own choosing. Now it is turning Gifford into a captivating cult leader, to “gather the righteous for the True Inquisition.”

3. Yonson the Werewolf

Yonson is an anomaly of sorts—when he turns into a werewolf, he has a modicum of control over his great rage and viciousness. He plots to quietly take over the region, convinced that he is chosen to lead people into a better state of existence. Yonson is also motived by a series of odd images he received. After dragging a deer into a cave behind a waterfall to munch in private, he touched an old magical tablet and received a vision. Something thoroughly malevolent and destructive will be coming to the area, an ancient prophecy coming to fruition.

Yonson, in his mind, is doing all the right things, at any cost. If the PCs defeat him, they will have to deal with his nemesis alone, without the werewolf army.

4. The Dragon Duo

Moving into the local forest is a young green dragon, bent on turning the whole into a “proper wood where only the strong can tread.” Cagey, avoiding direct conflict, and devious, the green causes no end of trouble for the region.

When the PCs figure it out and decide to deal with the dragon, they are approached by a woman with a silver streak in her hair. She tells them the green is the last offspring of a famous, ancient green, and she was tasked to make sure nobody kills him before he’s able to learn the ways of men and avoid the King’s Dragon Hunters and preserve his great lineage. She claims to be a silver dragon named Missy and wants the PCs to capture the green and move him somewhere else without implicating her involvement.

If the PCs thought the green was bad, Missy is completely bad, a mighty dragon lich wanting the green for her own fell purposes. She is telling a half-truth—the green is the last of his line, but the forest contains a powerful warding stone against the undead. Missy wants to dupe the PCs to be her unwitting servants, turn the green into a lich, and destroy the warding stone.

5. Lord Marthous and the Lady

Lord Marthous and his wife are on the lam, hiding from the King’s Men. Lord Marthous recently found out he was the bastard son of the king and confronted the nobleman he thought was his father and also his mother for her discretion. The confrontation escalated out of control, and while fighting his step-father, his mother interjected herself in front of a mighty sword blow and died. Marthous in a rage then slew his step-father.

Hunted, despised for patricide, Lord Mathous and his wife fled but ran into a trio of paladins hunting them, the three not realizing that the Lady was a sorcerer with powers of her own. The duo slew the young knights.

Now Marthous is done running. He plans to clear his name by usurping the throne. He will replace the King, the man in his mind, the cause of all his troubles. He makes an impassioned plea for the PCs to help him. If the PCs join him, when he is successful in his plot, he will reward them with betrayal! He will blame them for the atrocities committed to ascend the throne (guilty or not) in order to appease the nobles still on the fence.

If the PCs refuse him upfront, he becomes a bitter enemy, and the King solicits their help in the dispute.

Either way, the PCs at some point will probably ask—are we the baddies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU

6. Fey Gone Wild

Teamai, the elf druid, has in her possession a fey stone, a magical device that lets her summon fey to do her bidding. She has decided that she wants to take over her people’s ancestral lands, the place where the PCs are from. Young, idealistic, and charismatic, she wages a passive-aggressive war against the region, to have the populous rebel against the “wicked tyranny of the nobles” and replace them with her “rightful, benevolent rule.” It escalates, and people die.

PCs can convenience Teamai to stop her reign of terror or defeat her, but the fey stone has other ideas, turning to dust and seeping into her brain to directly control her (either alive or dead). Complicating matters a powerful elf matriarch shows up and pleads with the PCs to save her daughter, the rest of her children perished in war and Teamai is all she has left. And the nobles have plans of their own to protect themselves by doing away with the elves, who will respond in kind. Now, in addition to battling the fey stone zombie that is Teamai, genocide is staring at them in the mirror.

Want some more D&D or Pathfinder 1E Villains?

Back Burials of Teganshire on Indiegogo and get on some tragic villainy!

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I bet Crossbow Man thinks the monster at the bridge is the real enemy.

 

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BoT Post 4: Plot Points on the Localized Campaign

Posted on by Anthony Pacheco

Burials of Teganshire Post 4 of 30

Your D&D/Pathfinder games (and others, but Griffon Lore Games is currently only on these two systems) are not Hollywood.

The Hollywood-style dramatic plot doesn’t work for the D&D game table. The players may have a fantasy movie running through their heads, and the DM made have a fantasy movie in his head, but D&D is an interactive game. The story you want to tell is a bunch of friends getting together and laughing at just how bad the player rolled his wizard’s saving throws and had his PC fall into a pit of cow dung that was lit on fire, not some grandiose Game of Thrones mega-plot. That falls apart on Season 8 (ahem).

Plot Points in a Localized Campaign

“But Anthony! You just went over Characters and Setting! Now, this is a Plot post! That’s like a novel, Dude.”

Well, my friends, that’s life. More specifically, human history. There is nothing more compelling than human history. In history, we have people, we have places, and we have things that happened.

In a localized campaign, the goal is to make a small portion of the game world come alive, and “what happens in the world” should drive the “plot” of the campaign.

  1. NPCS have their motivates
  2. Players have their game drives—such as leveling their PC, having their PC get a Staff of the Magi, etc. Some players just want to show up and drink beer and roll dice. Obviously, their contribution to the plot will be small
  3. Setting changes—the king’s wayward sister rides into town. A flood. An earthquake. Bad draught. Diseased fauna. Etc.
  4. The main antagonists have his own motives

 These four localized history drivers look like this:

Now that the DM has a history of his world, shaped by players, NPCs, setting, and a bad guy, he or she can move forward with rolling dice and killing monsters. And that’s where adventures come in—a DM can run their own, pull one off the shelf, or, most likely, do a combination thereof. In a localized campaign:

  • Modules that have robust win and fail conditions fit in better than a “win at all costs or we failed the module” adventure
  • Adventure paths can offer a “road” for the PCs to drive down while the other portions of the game world churn. That is, it’s not that the PCs took care of the bad guy, it’s that they solved a problem so they can convince the mayor to back their village expansion. Or mining expedition.
  • Conflict is more personal. An attack on the village’s bridge on the trade road is an attack on the village. If the PCs don’t care about the village, because the description of it and the people in it are flat, or that they are going to “Level and Leave” then the adventure, the roll dice and kill monsters portion of your game, descends into murderhoboism.
  • Lore is only used insofar as applying detail for the PCs to add their own lore. Lore impacts everything and shapes everything. If you find your lore driving the plot, well, that’s not a player-centric game. That’s just you as a DM. Which is fine, as long as you know what you’re getting into.

The Story Thus Far

We’ve talked about avoiding giving the PCs the excuse to disconnect from the campaign world. We’ve also spoken about crunchy NPCs with minds of their own, not some convenient plot-forwarding device. Then we went over the setting, talking about maps and random encounters attached to the map.

“What comes next,” is a combination of all of that, and that’s Griffon Lore Games’ goal: give the DM a module that he or she can run with the tools that support the players feeling like it’s their game and their world, and that they aren’t just cogs in a storytelling machine to advance a plot.

Your PCs are making history. Use that history to give them conflict. Conflict causes action. And who doesn’t like an action-packed adventure?

Next, we’ll depart from the general concept of campaign philosophy and talk about villains. Because who doesn’t like a great villain? Villains are delicious. Let’s feast!

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Back Burials of Teganshire on Indiegogo today and see just what plot shenanigans Crossbow Man faces

 

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