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Red_Rob
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Post by Red_Rob » Sun Aug 09, 2015 2:46 pm

> AcidBlades wrote:Here is a rough recall of my First DMing session about 4 months ago. I want to see where I fucked up somewhere.

Okay, let's take a look...

> I said that it was a gestalt game, and that people could join. My first admitted mistake was in bringing in that game whenever I was only supposed to host that game for a single person...
> I made it so that the three frogmen (Grippli) characters that the bartender was serving was harassing her and generally being a bit rawdy and lewd in a rude, rapey way. Yes I get that it is creepy...
> I set up a situation where gypsy elves were conning patrons from outside of the Bartender's Saloon...
> I said it was a total wipe...
> What could I have done to not fuck up.

Hoo Boy. Well, firstly any game where the first session ends in a TPK has probably not gone well. Ideally any situation that leads to the death of the entire party should only come about through extreme player stupidity, such that the players think "we really had that coming" afterwards, or else through incredible back luck that everyone agrees couldn't have been foreseen.
Something important to remember about RPG's is that the only concrete information about the game world the players have is what you have told them. Everything else they will infer or assume based on previous knowledge and their own expectations about the game. Due to this it's possible for players to have a quite different assessment of a scene to the GM, which can lead to situations like the one you described.
If one of my players is about to do something that is, to my mind, suicidal or stupid I will usually highlight the danger and ask them if they still want to proceed. Often the player had a different assessment of the threat or their own abilities, or just the likely outcome of the action. For example, if my players decided to Drizzle the half giants, I'd say "Are you sure? They look pretty surly and wouldn't take kindly to that". I'd also have them get angry with the party before actually coming to blows, giving the PC's a chance to calm things down with a Diplomacy check and some good RP. If it did finally come to blows, assuming they were in a settlement I'd have the Half Giants start with unarmed attacks until someone drew a weapon - throwing water on someone is grounds for a beating, but to instantly start stabbing women in the street for throwing water seems like the actions of a psycho.
Something to remember is that a fantasy game like D&D is basically a power fantasy structured as a series of obstacles the PC's are expected to overcome. It is therefore not surprising when players tend to see anything that looks like an obstacle as a challenge to be defeated. In my experience you have to careful introducing challenges that can outright kill the party because the default reaction of all too many players is to start fights and ask questions later.
Simplified Tome Armor.
Tome item system and expanded Wish Economy rules.
Try our fantasy card game Clash of Nations! Available via Print on Demand.
“Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities” - Voltaire
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:38 am

I did the bad thing again and started a campaign without a world in mind. Which is stupid, in general, but especially because of the whole "the gods disappeared" conceit of the campaign. I sort of settled on the Greyhawk Default thing.
But the current adventure takes place in the home demi-plane of The Oracle, which the gods long ago created as a sort of middleman between them and the alien quasi-sapient multiverse then promptly locked up in said Demiplane. And because the Oracle is a sort of embodiment of the Multiverse the place is supposed to represent the planes. Mostly I rep the elemental planes there, but I'm trying to rep all of them.
Which has me sitting down to figure out my world's cosmology after the fourth session. Because I'm dumb like this.
Anyway. I've got a couple questions-
First, why the fuck are the Ethereal and Astral planes different-fuck-places? In the source material, they represent the same concept, the Astral plane is a plane of existence postulated by classical/medieval philosophers and new age crack pots, through which the soul can travel, in which angels and spirits dwell and the stars hang. Ether is an element in Greek thought that fills the universe outside the earthly sphere. They're the same fuck thing, for all practical purposes at least. What was the purpose in D&D for them being different places?
Second, I have my own conception as to what planes people care about, but I'm curious to hear what planes people think matter, or what people have done for their own cosmologies. Because the Great Wheel is fucking bullshit with its 16 outer planes that can't be listed from memory and yet don't even manage to cover all the shades of alignment.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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deaddmwalking
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Post by deaddmwalking » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:35 pm

Is there a thread with commonly used phrases/abbreviations on the den? I thought I remembered one being created, but I can't seem to find it.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:37 pm

There's some of that here but I don't think there's one specific thread of Denisms. It'd be good to make one, though.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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deaddmwalking
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Post by deaddmwalking » Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:39 pm

> Prak wrote: Anyway. I've got a couple questions-
> First, why the fuck are the Ethereal and Astral planes different-fuck-places? In the source material, they represent the same concept, the Astral plane is a plane of existence postulated by classical/medieval philosophers and new age crack pots, through which the soul can travel, in which angels and spirits dwell and the stars hang. Ether is an element in Greek thought that fills the universe outside the earthly sphere. They're the same fuck thing, for all practical purposes at least. What was the purpose in D&D for them being different places?

Ethereal allows you to move on the plane you're currently on but pass through solid objects. It's basically how they do 'immaterial'. The Astral is really a totally different place and while it connects all the planes it doesn't let you move through the plane you're on. If you combine them, you have the potential of your short hop (like blink to suck you in to a completely different world, I guess.

> Prak wrote: Second, I have my own conception as to what planes people care about, but I'm curious to hear what planes people think matter, or what people have done for their own cosmologies. Because the Great Wheel is fucking bullshit with its 16 outer planes that can't be listed from memory and yet don't even manage to cover all the shades of alignment.

Personally, I like the idea of making planes 'interesting places'. If the place you're making can't fit on the world that you're creating, tuck it into it's own plane. Planes could be other planets/worlds or truly other planes. The actual underlying cosmology isn't particularly important - how you get from place to place is what matters.
I like travel the Shadow-plane as a real-world analogous place that you can use to travel quickly (time passes differently) but you can still have 'days of travel' so potentially interesting encounters.
I don't like 'infinite' planes - every plane has boundaries - probably like earth - a sphere where you can travel far enough in one direction and end up coming back to where you started.
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radthemad4
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Post by radthemad4 » Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:45 pm

@ddmw
This was made in 2007
Surgo's wiki has some terms I've seen thrown around here as well.
Last edited by radthemad4 on Mon Aug 10, 2015 1:49 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Nebuchadnezzar
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Post by Nebuchadnezzar » Mon Aug 10, 2015 2:28 pm

> Prak wrote:First, why the fuck are the Ethereal and Astral planes different-fuck-places?

Neo-Theosophy had both, and Gygax conflated the notion of an etheric body with aether/akasha/quintessence so as to have a way for parties to travel to the Plane of Fire.

> I'm curious to hear what planes people think matter, or what people have done for their own cosmologies.

Although I can't remember the names I used years ago, one I didn't mind had Shadow/Dream coterminous with the Prime Material, while across the Astral lie the NI Godland, itself balanced upon the Hells, each bounded in size yet infinite in number, with pockets of elemental what-have-you strewn throughout. So something like Airavata riding demon turtles the whole way down and gazing upon a pulsar.
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nockermensch
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Post by nockermensch » Mon Aug 10, 2015 2:35 pm

> Prak wrote:Anyway. I've got a couple questions-
> First, why the fuck are the Ethereal and Astral planes different-fuck-places? In the source material, they represent the same concept, the Astral plane is a plane of existence postulated by classical/medieval philosophers and new age crack pots, through which the soul can travel, in which angels and spirits dwell and the stars hang. Ether is an element in Greek thought that fills the universe outside the earthly sphere. They're the same fuck thing, for all practical purposes at least. What was the purpose in D&D for them being different places?
> Second, I have my own conception as to what planes people care about, but I'm curious to hear what planes people think matter, or what people have done for their own cosmologies. Because the Great Wheel is fucking bullshit with its 16 outer planes that can't be listed from memory and yet don't even manage to cover all the shades of alignment.

In the default cosmology these two planes are somewhat muddled. One could posit a better cosmology to make these planes more distinct, and that would be nice.
As for homebrew cosmologies, I ran some campaigns with an Yu-Yu-Hakusho Disgaea eastern mysticism-inspired triple world: Angelic world, human world and devil world. I think this is the barest minimum setup you can get by for D&D, that still keeps iconics like Plane Shift and Monster Summoning.
Cool vistas from the lawful planes can be countries on the angelic planet. If the Court of Ultimate Law rules from palaces on massive, interlocking golden gears, it shouldn't matter much if these gears are on the angelic planet's clouds or Lagrange points instead of on a dedicated, infinite plane. Likewise, Devil World can be full of caves / layers, for all your different demonic / fiendish needs.
@ @ Nockermensch

> Koumei wrote:After all, in Firefox you keep tabs in your browser, but in SovietPutin's Russia, browser keeps tabs on you.

> Mord wrote:Chromatic Wolves are massively under-CRed. Its "Dood to stone" spell-like is a TPK waiting to happen if you run into it before anyone in the party has Dance of Sack or Shield of Farts.

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Prak
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Post by Prak » Mon Aug 10, 2015 3:49 pm

I sat down and worked on cosmology in general a bit.
By my reckoning, the planes that people conceptually care about are

- Material: "What where we adventure'n'stuff"
- Shadow: "What where spooky shit is that isn't undead. Also it looks dark, but it's really just dark colored."
- Astral/Ethereal: "What we travel through to get some place interesting and have mind battles and find dead gods in and oh yeah I guess ghosts are here"
- Elemental Plane: "Weird constant fires and waterworlds and eternal skies and shit. Conceivably one plane, but then the question is begged how is it different from the prime."
- Celestia: "What where celestials come from. We go here to ask gods for shit."
- Limbo: "Almost the same idea as the Astral/Ethereal, but Giant Frogs and super monks are here, and it's the birth place of chaos."
  - Pandemonium:[/b] "A windy tunnel plane that's sort of chaotic and almost but not really evil."
- The Abyss: "What where demons come from. We go here to kill evil shit."
- Hell: "What where devils come from. We go here to get scammed by evil shit, and make the Face feel important with high stakes social encounters."
- Mechanus: "What where law is born and I guess there's robots."

Then you have the alignment champions-

- Celestials
- Angels (any good)
- Archons (LG)
- Eladrin (CG)
- Guardinals (FurryNG)
  Fiends
- Demodands (NE)
- Demons (CE)
- Devils (LE)
- Yugoloths (NE)
  "Axions" (lawfuls)
- Formians (LN)
- Inevitables (LN)
- Modrons (LN)
  "Apaths" (neutral)
- Rilmani (N)
  "Anarchs" (chaotics)
- Slaad (CN/CE)

And each of these guys needs a home. Well... I say each, but you can probably get rid of Rilmani, unless you really care about Neutrality. And honestly, Inevitables and Modrons can be part of the same society since they're both Lawful Robot Men. Demodands can be pitched, because Yugoloths are a more interesting way to cover the NE thing. I would only keep Demodands as a fallen offshoot of Slaad, which could be interesting.
And I sketched up the great wheel and made the three planes for each partially N actually distinct, so you have something like-

Celestia (LG, both Strong) | Bytopia (Strong G, Mild L) | Elysium (Strong G) | Beastlands (Strong G, Mild C) | Arborea (CG, both Strong)
Arcadia (Strong L, Mild G) |  |  |  | Ysgard (Strong C, mild G)
Mechanus (Strong L) |  | Outlands (Strong N) |  | Limbo (Strong C)
Acheron(Strong L, Mild E) |  |  |  | Pandemonium (Strong C, Mild E)
Hell(LE, both Strong) | Carceri (Strong E, mild L) | Hades (Strong E) | Gehenna (Strong E, Mild C) | The Abyss (CE, both Strong)

So that Celestia is equally interested in Law and Good, by Bytopia cares more about Good than Law and Arcadia cares more about Law than Good.
What I'm tempted to do is have the Inner planes mimic this set up so you have something like

Smoke (Air/Fire) | Air | Cold(Air/Water)
Fire(Air/Fire) | Material | Water
Magma(Fire/Earth) | Earth | Ooze(Earth/Water)

And then have the Astral be a column that connects that to the "Outer" planes, or use the Elemental Plane of Wood as a sort of world tree that's rooted in the PoEarth, is surrounded by the Prime, and grows into the EoAir, with the Astral/Ethereal as the void everything hangs in.
Last edited by Prak on Mon Aug 10, 2015 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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OgreBattle
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Post by OgreBattle » Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:06 pm

Where does the idea of a "Plane of Fire filled with fire monsters in fire palaces" come from? A novel or older mythology?
There a good guideline to when spot checks are made and what kind of information it should convey?
Last edited by OgreBattle on Mon Aug 10, 2015 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Shiritai
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Post by Shiritai » Tue Aug 11, 2015 1:06 am

> OgreBattle wrote:Where does the idea of a "Plane of Fire filled with fire monsters in fire palaces" come from? A novel or older mythology?

Norse mythology, likely.
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Shrapnel
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Post by Shrapnel » Tue Aug 11, 2015 1:59 am

So, something I've always wondered is why are spell names always italizied?
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:58 am

Probably to make them easier to spot on the page.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:25 am

So, what I'm thinking of for my campaign world's cosmology is basically having only two planes, and then some layers and regions.
The Fundament is the plane of material. At the center is the Prime, where mortals live. The Prime has three layers, the proper Prime Material, and then the Ether and Shadow, which are coexistant with the prime and each other. Basically, there's the mortal world, and then there's a shadow realm and a ghost realm which work like Silent Hill. Bordering and surrounding the Prime are the Elemental regions. They are each coterminous with the Positive and Negative energy realms, and two other elemental regions. There are four primary elemental regions--Air, Earth, Fire and Water--and then there are the quasi- and para-regions that aren't really distinct regions, just the places where two elemental regions, or an elemental and energy region meet.
The Firmament is the plane of ideal. It is very similar to the Fundament, but instead of elements there are four regions of Alignment, and then border regions where alignments mix. So there's the Evil region Hades and the Chaotic region Limbo, and between the two is the border region known as the Abyss where demons come from. At the center of the Firmament is a region that is in someways a coexistent layer of the Prime, the Outlands, a neutral ground used by gods and champions of alignment to meet and discuss terms.
And then all of this hangs in a void that is called the Astral.
I figure it's commonly envisioned as a sort of gyroscope.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Meikle641
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Post by Meikle641 » Tue Aug 11, 2015 6:46 am

Anybody know any good freelancers for layout and design? I've found some pre-made templates online, but most suck or just don't quite fit what I'm going for. Trying to find someone that can do the exterior and interior design on some modules/books.
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:49 am

> Prak wrote: Second, I have my own conception as to what planes people care about, but I'm curious to hear what planes people think matter, or what people have done for their own cosmologies. Because the Great Wheel is fucking bullshit with its 16 outer planes that can't be listed from memory and yet don't even manage to cover all the shades of alignment.

I'm still hammering down the details for my cosmology but in addition to the details I mentioned before about space travel, I have a few additional notes:
* The Ethereal plane is divided into two distinct zones, the Near and the Deep Ethereal.
*The Near Ethereal connects the prime with the elemental planes: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. It is also where ethereal based predators such as Phase Spiders and Xill live.
*The Far Ethereal borders the plane of Shadow. Travel through the Shadow plane is potentially faster because even though superficially it's almost exactly like the prime it's smaller. Popping into the shadow plane for travel then popping out is a great way to save on travel time, however many dangerous beings live there; Kyton, Nightshades, and others live there. It is mildly suffused with negative energy (although not enough to cause any serious harm to prime travelers).
*Nearly every inhabited planet projects into the astral plane. Many species keep permanent outposts on both the Astral and the Ethereal (astral bases tend to welcome travelers and act as customs outposts, although some do poach the souls of the dead on the way to the afterlife for various purposes. Bases on the ethereal are typically designed to quarantine ships travelling through the Shadow plane to make sure the travelers coming in haven't gone Event Horizon, also it is generally considered suspect that someone traveled from the shadow plane when astral travel exists for the planet in question).
*There are places where planar boundaries are not distinct (the Maelstrom Nebula and many of the planets in the Tanar'ric Hegemony are notable examples of where planar boundaries are thin), other places have rigid borders to the point where FTL travel is nearly impossible (One has to travel on standard drives well outside the gravity well of Baator Prime to make a jump out, although the Baatorian Empire has safeguards in place to make it easy to jump in. Territory held by the Inevitable Collective has no such safeguard in place; jumping in or out is nearly impossible without specialized drives in place)
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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OgreBattle
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Post by OgreBattle » Tue Aug 11, 2015 12:51 pm

> Meikle641 wrote:Anybody know any good freelancers for layout and design? I've found some pre-made templates online, but most suck or just don't quite fit what I'm going for. Trying to find someone that can do the exterior and interior design on some modules/books.

Could try this website out, but I don't know how reliable it is:
http://www.guru.com/d/freelancers/c/des ... ultimedia/
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:00 am

So far, my current campaign has been about returning the gods to power after an Ur Priest figured out how to take all their power, instead of just some.
Tonight, I thought about having the UP kill the gods and the aim shifting to the characters becoming gods themselves.
At the moment, the characters are in a timeless demiplane, and the gods are in a "safe" demiplane somewhere else, that they historically used to meet together on neutral ground. This makes it a bit difficult to say "while you were gone someone murdered the gods." Since there's no "while" when you're on a timeless plane.
However, here's what I'm thinking- When the UP found a way to steal all the gods' power, he became a God of Heresy. In my campaign, gods have immediate knowledge of their purview, which means the UP cum God of Heresy has immediate knowledge of any attempt to blaspheme or upset the gods' power. Which means he knows about the PCs and what they're doing. He can travel to their location just as a god of fire might teleport to a particular flame.
Gods can also make magic items, so I was considering having him find the PCs and put a Contingent (spell that kills people) on them that triggers when they return to the gods, and lashes out to slay them. Wail of the Banshee is too expensive, and Circle of Death is too weak. Destruction is an option, but I'd have to MTP the de-powered gods failing their saves.
So I looked up Frank's list of Spells That Fvcking Kill People and found Trap the Soul. Which has no save if you put it on a trigger object. The UP can disguise himself, find the PCs and say he wants them to take some tokens of faith to the gods. When the players do this, the gods' souls are immediately trapped, and a Contingent Instant Summons whisks the soul gems away to the UP.
My question is this- is it too fucking DM evil to have the players kill their characters' own gods through NPC trickery? Or just DM evil enough?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:20 am

Other than having more edge than bismuth, I have no complaints. 8/10, would play.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:37 am

"Why not just kill the PCs?" Typical villain hubris. Also, more amusing to the UP this way.
"Why do the PCs want to restore the gods?" Because the gods in my campaign were highly interventionist and played Logistics and Dragons with high level D&D magic for ten millenniums to improve peoples' lives, and now people are completely lost and dying a lot for lack of magic since no one got higher than 4th, and the priest casters were adepts before the gods disappeared.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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rampaging-poet
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Post by rampaging-poet » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:04 pm

The two biggest problems I can see with it are that the PCs might recognize the effect early and that the gods all need to take their tokens at the same time. A strong aura of necromancy on those "tokens of faith" is rather suspicious, and the spell magic aura isn't absolutely guaranteed to hide it (they might make their Will save). Also, if one god gets a token of faith and immediately disappears, the other gods will probably be reluctant to pick up the obviously booby-trapped offerings.
EDIT: I guess you could MTP around the first issue the same way old cursed items flat-out can't be identified though. The second is harder.
Last edited by rampaging-poet on Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

> DSMatticus wrote:I sort my leisure activities into a neat and manageable categorized hierarchy, then ignore it and dick around on the internet.

My deviantArt account, in case anyone cares.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:24 pm

The tokens at the same time thing can be solved with "Contingent Trap the Soul (when all tokens reach their intended)". They'd still have an aura, just as a magic item instead of a functioning spell.
Because gods get their "phenomenal cosmic power" ability through at will wish limited to thematic effects, the God of Heresy could use a heightened Magic Aura so that the save is higher, and the PCs are only sixth level. I mean, granted, one is a paladin and one is a dual classed druid/wizard, so their saves are decently high, but it's workable.
Note: The absolute best way to hide object aura is to animate the object and then cast Mind Blank on it.
Edit: Trap the Soul is actually a conjuration effect (weirdly) and the trigger (a focus) is a separate object from the gem (a material component). It's arguable whether the trigger would even detect as magic, but if it did, it would be strong conjuration.
Last edited by Prak on Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Prak
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Post by Prak » Fri Aug 14, 2015 8:51 am

So, I've been mulling over the deicide thing today and there are a couple ways for me to do each part-
The set up is that as a new God of Blasphemy and Heresy, the Ur Priest is immediately aware of the PCs being contacted by the former gods, specifically Pelor, Heironeous, Boccob, and Ehlonnah, that they may regain their power, as it would defeat him. The PCs were picked up by Fharlanghan, who retained travel powers as an embodiment of travel*, and he and Heironeous are the only gods not worshipped by someone in the party, and Heironeous is there as the resident military expert. Fharlanghan's the only former god that can still get around quickly and easily. The party spent a bit of time with the former gods in Neutral Ground, which means that the UP had an opportunity to prep some stuff. The former gods know that they aren't receiving mortal worship even though it's still there, but they don't know why. So they asked the PCs to ask the Oracle to find what's happening. The Oracle is a creature created by the gods to act as an interface between them and an alien, quasi-sapient multiverse which scared them. They also sealed her up in a demiplane known as The Orrery, which incorporates a powerful magic circle to keep her there. People can visit and leave, but she can't. She's not fond of the gods, having been sealed up in a home that's just under three football fields wide. It's divinely morphic, including by her, but it's still a relatively small place to spend eternity, especially when you have an quasi-sapient thing whispering in your ear. The UP is a full-fledged god, so he can port around as much as he pleases.
So there's the hand off, the triggers, and the gifting.
For the hand off, the options are:

- the UP appear himself, in disguise and give the PCs the triggers. They can make spots and sense motives to discern that something is going on, but the UP is a Wiz5/UP10/Defiler of Temples5, so he has a high bluff and can do a reasonable disguise with magic.
- The UP sends a mindraped servant with a form that won't arouse suspicion. If a celestial shows up and gives the PCs tributes of faith to convey to the gods, they'll probably take it at mostly face value. The servant can even be mindraped to believe the tributes come from the celestial houses, so that even a sense motive of umpteenjillion will still show "they show no sign of falsehood or lie."

For the triggers-

- For reference: Trap the Soul is strong Conjuration. This won't necessarily tip anyone off. But then there's the fact that it actually has two physical components- a gem (material, repository for soul) and a trigger (focus, just some specially prepared token or item). A contingency on the activation is being assumed because that's doable (Even if it requires making these a spell trap), and it's ideal for full efficacy.
  Then the options are-
- Trap the Soul's trigger isn't a functioning spell effect, it's more like a prepped spell in physical form. The final word, and the target's name are inscribed on it, and it's completed when the intended target touches the item. This means that there's really nothing to detect on the trigger item. And the item can be anything. So the items can be finely carved statues in the image of the gods, with their names inscribed on the bases, and the final word of the spell incorporated into a slogan or quote of some sort. This would, at least theoretically, allow for a Kn. Arcana check, but it'd be pretty obscure, I'd think.
- Conceivably, the triggers could be treated as if they were the primary form of magic in physical form- magic items. This would mean that they have a strong conjuration aura. That alone will be odd, and possibly raise eyebrows, but much less so than the previously mentioned Necromancy. They could then be subject to a heightened Magic Aura, masking their aura entirely, and a heightened Misdirection, making them detect as something else, either normal objects, or, to be cute, the PCs. The DCs for these illusion spells could range from 23 to 30 or 35, depending on the exact stats of the UP, and the PCs all have Will saves over 10. If Soul Trap triggers detect as magic items, it would stupid to not put these counter measures on them.

The gifting is just a matter of whether I go with the "Contingency: when all triggers have reached intended" or not. The latter obviously is more stupid of the UP, but allows for the PCs to kill only one god accidentally.
Looking for input on how I should handle this. I want it to work, but I also want to be fair.
*
I decided that godhood in my campaign was a two step process. Step one is to become an Embodiment. A creature makes some representation of a concept, phenomenon, or thing a part of themselves, such as by meditating under a fountain of the elements for a day as it continually deals damage to you, they come to embody it. This conveys expert access to a relevant sphere, the at will ability to Analyze Dweomer with respect to their purview, an at will Detect Spell appropriate to their purview, and the knowledge/awareness of all instances of their purview.
Once an embodiment begins receiving mortal worship, they become a god. A god keeps their embodiment powers, but also can cast touch spells at medium range, use their faithful and instances of their purview as the origin point for their casting, at will Greater Teleport, Gate and Planeshift, the ability to share spells with and see speak through faithful and their purview, and at will Wish, albeit with the limitation of their purview's theme (So a fire god can mimic any fire spell, but not water spells, make items associated with fire, etc), and give mortals inherent bonuses to the three highest stats of the god (15/10/5). Raising dead and adding powers to an item both require planar currency, but the item can be increased beyond the 15kgp limit.
WTB a CR adjustment value for this or at least someway to judge its effect on power level
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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radthemad4
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Post by radthemad4 » Sun Aug 16, 2015 2:36 pm

> K wrote:

> > Lago PARANOIA wrote:That's actually pretty interesting, K.
> > In your opinion, which are the best Dungeon adventures and why in your opinion do you think that they are the best?

> The adventures I liked the best tended to be Sandboxes of one sort or the other.
> So for example, there is this great low-level adventure where you are supposed to Scooby Do in this hamlet for half the adventure and meet and greet the locals, and then head off a gnoll invasion by storming their cave lair. It has a lots of memorable NPCs, many of which are not involved in the current adventure.
> Then there is this other high-level fetch quest that is part of an adventure path, and it takes place in an Abyssal location and the backstory for that spot could easily be the focus for a whole campaign.
> I also liked their one Vile adventure that was used as a showcase for the Book of Vile Darkness because they took several pages to talk about the pirate town, the relevant NPCs in town, and the various backstorys. I could totally do a campaign there. (As a side-note, I also got a kick out of the fact that they took the same location and did a cut-paste into one of the adventure paths and didn't even talk about its Vileness despite it being a cut-paste. That Erik Mona is a card.)

Anyone know what these adventures are?
source
I have a patreon. If I get enough, I could quit my day job and do stuff full time
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Longes
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Post by Longes » Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:15 pm

Why do people like Traveler?
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