Entries by The Mad Giggler

My little twins are all grown up!

Well, we survived our trip to the dangerous foreign land of TJ. I've posted the pictures that I took in the gallery, but Daboo's brother has a lot more as well as some videos I'm hoping to post soon. For those who've forgotten, you can get to the pictures by clicking here.

Also, Wren kept turning her head when I tried to get pictures of her at the wedding, so I have a gallery of my many failed attempts.

Don't think you can slide that Colts favicon past me buddy boy!

It's official. We're shooting for a Forgotten Realms setting. I have come into possession of the FR books. For whatever reason, the "supplier" has asked that I keep it on the down low. I'm assuming that with my LG status, I just don't want to know. My supplier did ask that I pass on the following:

Supplier:
From page 28:
A character in the F.R. campaign is more than just a class and race. Your homeland determines...what sort of abilities you have. In game terms, character regions...allow you to learn special feats...and enable you to start out with some extra equipment based on the way people in that region live.
Me: huh
Supplier: So I thought you should quietly circulate that link and have people review the book to see what region they want to come from, as it might change what race/class/feats/equipment they choose.

So, there you go. Email me for more info.

So, I've now talked with Daboo and Radar about this, and I wanted to kind of put this out there for everyone else. Normally when generating stats for a character, you'd roll 4d6 and subtract the lowest roll, repeating this for a total of six times. While this adds to the dice rolling fun, you don't always get a character with stats that match the role-playing aspects you'd envisioned.

I humbly submit an alternative.

In both Neverwinter Nights 2 and Icewind Dale 2 the developers use the 3.5 ruleset as part of their game engine and they've made a change to character creation that I really like. Basically, you start out with all 10s. Racial modifiers are then applied, most likely giving you a 12 and an 8 somewhere. Then you have a certain amount of points to increase your stats. The more points you put into a specific category, the more points it costs to increase that stat.

If this kind of system interests you and you don't have access to one of those two games, feel free to finish up your character creation at the beginning of our first session.

Also, if you have strong feelings against this method, please indicate that in the comments with an explanation for why you think it's a bad idea.

Update. I noticed this in the PHB 4e Lite, "Use the 28 point‐buy system from 3.5E, DMG page 169." I'll try to verify if this is the same at lunch.

Update #2. Confirmed.

Details at penny-arcade.com (warning: lots of vulgarity to be found there).

Mine

Got nerfed, rolled an alt, got nerfed again, emoted displeasure.

Reported for foul language, argued with GM, lost my shoes.

Gnome bit my ankle, but an undead patched it up.

Feared by warlock, stunned by rogue, capped flag.

I stealthed into the flag room only to be ice-trapped.

"My ankle is bleeding!" he cried, glaring at the gnome.

"Those are mine," he sneered, accompanied by his hulking infernal.

"Cute couple. Her beautiful tusks match his cold, undead skin."

For sale: shiny paladin armor, slightly coated in murloc slime.

Some from Daboo:

This village was the most beautiful refuge, before Arthas came.

He writhed in her icy grip. "Just kidding! Undead rock!"

For sale: Hunter pet, velociraptor, very sharp teeth. Slightly disloyal.

"Oops," he thought frantically, "Tauren don't appreciate Troll love songs!"

Plans within plans within plans.

I am going to be DMing for the first little while until we feel comfortable with the mixed offline/online group dynamic. My understanding is that the Death Trap will be hosting the offline contingent and that we're shooting for Tuesdays starting May 13. If any of that is incorrect or you have an issue with it, please let me know by posting a comment below.

In the meantime, it would help me customize my campaign if everyone could post a little about the character they'll be playing. An example of what I mean:

Glim Glammerstrom
Gnomish Bard
Glim is a typical gnome. About four feet tall, blonde hair, tan skin. He keeps his hair short and has no noticeable scars or tattoos.
Backstory: Glim is a young gnome who went out to seek his fortune as the apprentice to an aging bard who visited his clan's settlement. Unfortunately, Glim's curiosity got him into one too many scrapes and his master abandoned him.

By the way, Glim is not going to be a PC in this group.

He Said It

MG:
so you're coming up for Rock Band and Racquetball, right?

AoD:
OH, YES

MG:
great

AoD:
That's like asking someone if they're up for a great meal, a nice hotel, and awesome sex. Clearly Ming's is the great meal, I'll leave you to deduce the other two relationships

My lords, my ladies (and everybody else here not sitting on a cushion! ) let me present a link to a comment AoD made this week.


Continue reading "From the New Game Show"

It's time.

Time for a rebirth of D&D adventures in the Homestarmy.

Option 1) IRC/Vent-Teamspeak

Benefits: No traveling. Fewer distractions. No cheating on dice. Can play in your pajamas.

Disadvantages: No hugs. Can't throw dice at people telling "feat" jokes.


Option 2) Getting together at some central location.

Benefits: Hugs all around. Can throw dice at people telling "feat" jokes. Funny faces as part of the role-playing experience. Cosplay.

Disadvantages: AoD lives freaking miles and miles and miles away. Wren and Daboo "catching up" for three hours. Have to arrange food most likely.

Option 3) Separate groups for those who can/will do one of the above but not the other.

Benefits: People get what they want.

Disadvantages: Two groups can be confusing. Won't get to play with everyone.

Option 4) Combining 1 & 2

Benefits Don't have to split groups. Everyone gets to enjoy Wren's delightful campaign (we assume it's delightful).

Disadvantages Might be a little awkward passing around a microphone for those gathered together. Many of the benefits of online-only will be lost. No hugs for people online.



Please vote your preference in the poll and leave comments in the appropriate location.

The Lakers are a negative half game behind the Hornets.

Ragefur led me stealthily home where we found an inconsolable Hedy being rocked slowly by Mother. I ran and hugged Hedy.

I told her, "We're going to run away to Northshire tonight. It's not safe here anymore. Those men are criminally insane."

Hedy replied, "I can't."

I was taken aback. "Wha-what do you mean?"

"I have to stay. I'm going to burn this village to the ground and make sure every last one of those self-righteous, sheep kissing bastards dies just like my mom did." Continue reading "Josla (denouement)"

When he saw them, he grabbed me. I could see the fear in his eyes. He remembered now. I tried to pull him along but he grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. "NO!"

I don't know which of us screamed that. Maybe both of us did for different reasons. It was pretty obvious to me what had happened. Hillman stopped at the Watering Hole at the end of day when all the men were drinking. He told them about his encounter at my house and as they got more drunk, they became more angry at the "arrogance" of John and all his household and how now it was affecting my mother. Of course they decided to march over there and see what was so special about this priest that was too good for our little village.

Hedy told me later that her mother came over hoping to brainstorm with my mother about how best to sneak Ryatka out of town. She apologized profusely both to Mother and Ryatka. I knew that Harika had studied with the warlocks in Stormwind. What I didn't know was that they walked out in the open with their demons, so a Draenei wouldn't cause more than a mild ripple of interest in the streets there. So of course Harika didn't think twice about sending the first available priest to our village, even though she was from the Exodar. Apparently, Marlee didn't know about it either nor did she know about Hedy sending to Harika for help. But she was determined to help. They decided to smuggle Ryatka out of town as soon as dark fell. Continue reading "Josla (Part 5)"

I wandered all over the forest trying to find him. On any other day, I'd have run into him without meaning to, but he was nowhere to be found. I searched near bear caves and foxholes for hours, but he wasn't in any of the places I'd normally see him. It was beginning to get dark so I decided to head back when I found him. He was sleeping up in an old oak tree. I called to him but he just kept on sleeping. Hedy had told me some of her father's stories of the old Druids going into "hibernation states" for long periods of time and I was worried that he wouldn't wake up at all, so I picked up some fallen acorns and began throwing them at him. What can I say, I was getting desperate. One of them hit him in the head and that seemed to have the desired effect. I'm not sure how he didn't fall out of the tree, but he started blinking and rubbing at his head where the acorn had impacted.

"Wha's all this?" he sleepily inquired.

"I need your help Ragefur! There's a Draenei in the village and I'm worried what the Mayor will do if he finds her. Don't you remember when he caught you shifting into your bear shape?!" I was panicking at this point. The sun had gone down and there was definitely going to be trouble. Continue reading "Josla (Part 4)"

The knock came early in the morning. Far earlier than I would have liked, but I heard Hedy hissing my name, so I got up to see what she was doing at that ungodly hour. I peeked out a window and saw her standing next to an extremely tall, cloaked figure. It was even taller than the Druids, and they were all taller than any man I'd ever seen. As soon as I let them in, Hedy started saying something about "scaring the living daylights out of Mom" when the figure started to take off its hood and I started to scream. Hedy tackled me and put a hand over my mouth.

"It's ok. This is Ryatka. Allyriel pulled some strings for Harika and had her sent here. She's a priest."

In my defense, she looked exactly the opposite of a priest. There she was. Taller than any person I'd ever seen. I looked her up and down, taking in the dainty hooves, the satyr-looking legs, the traveling leathers, and finally the great horns rising up out of her forehead. If ever a demon I'd seen, she was it. I mean, she could have been taken straight out of one of Friar Lynn's books.
Continue reading "Josla (Part 3)"

The days after our village's adventurers were carted off to Northshire weren't all that different from the normal routine. There were still chores to take care of and classes to attend. Commerce in the town square continued as usual, but it seemed as though the world had been tipped on its side to me. Hedy was a whirlwind. She seemed determined to double her normal number of scrapes and to drag me along as a surrogate for her sister. Her fights with Friar Lynn seemed more impassioned than usual, but it was hard to tell, because when she wasn't having it out in class, she was prepping herself with me as a stand-in - this while we hiked all over the nearby forest. I would have asked her why she chose me to fill in for Harika, but I was having too much fun to question my good fortune.

It must have been just eight or nine days after the recruits' departure that the first letter arrived. Hedy and I were racing from the schoolhouse back to her place when we burst through the front door and saw her mother quietly rocking in the front room, an unrolled parchment in one hand, with a slightly bemused expression on her face. She extended the parchment to my companion and said, "She's doing great, Hedy. Here, read it."

Hedy carefully took the paper over to the window to read. Her eyes quickly scanned the brief few lines before she returned it and turned to me. "Come on, Josla. Let's go! Mom, we'll be back for supper." And back out the door she raced. This time we visited a bear cave (which was fortunately empty) and followed some strange tracks around for an hour before catching up with a young (well, they all seem ageless actually) druid. Her name was Lyla, and she showed us the properties of an herb she was collecting. We enjoyed our conversation with her so much that we nearly missed the evening meal entirely.
Continue reading "Josla (Part 2 of 5?)"