"Better Nate than Never." (Excerpt from "Finger Food for Oozes Cookbook" included)

Hey all,

For the past two sessions of my Caen campaign, our heroes have been a lil' bit busy. Their sword arms were working overtime and in the matter of a day, they had already cleaved off the head of the dictator, Mib Tranor and indirectly caused the death of their long-time nemesis - Nate Bankers after encountering him in the underground dungeon of Greenich.

Our resident transmuter/rich man's son/wayward gayboy was trapped by the party, and ravaged by hungry oozes in the cavern that he had been hiding in for the past week . They must have felt that Nate was quite a delicacy, as there was almost nothing left of him, except a partially digested lizardman decoration earring.

Kind of a mixed feelings thingy, as the party wanted to bring Nate back to Maya for trial. Technically, Nate is "still" going back to Maya, except that he would be testifying as a bone ornament in a tiny bottle I suppose.

As of now, we will be taking a short break from Caen, while allowing Shell to start a bit of his new campaign (slated all the way to Epic, I heard.) I will be bringing you more of the happenings, including 9d20's New Year's stuff for gamers.

Okay, now for the Finger Food for Oozes excerpt that I had promised to show you.

Enjoy and cook well, all.

Ooze's Babi Ponteh (Page 82: Simple Underground Delicacies of the North)
Ingredients
A slab of Human or Boar (Human preferred for tangier taste), Ooze's acidic goo, a dabbling of common salt, three teaspoons of vinegar, and grounded mud granules.
Directions
1.Take the slab of something and hack it into comfortable munching bite-sizes.
2.Fry the pieces in a pan for about six turns. Add in the common salt and the mud granules, taking care to dabble evenly on the exposed parts of the human/boar.
3.The vinegar should be added next onto the active stack. Let it simmer in the pan, allowing it to take ongoing fire damage (5) for another ten turns.
4.Finally, throw in the acidic goo as an aggressive afterthought, and serve the dish as an immediate reaction to a hungry stomach.
5. Done properly, the OBP should be gobbled up in no time at all , until save ends. (with a -2 penalty)

"Heroes Encapsulated. It now comes in more munchable bits!"

Hey all,

One chapter. Three months. Twelve sessions.

That is the format that I will be aiming for my ongoing Caen campaign next year. It will allow me to pace the action properly and move the storyline along a definite path, littered with several sidequests.

For my current chapter, it has lasted about half a year and the time is ripe for a conclusion. The players themselves have grown considerably, and experienced the DnD system first-hand.
They now have a better grasp of the rules and how/what they might want to play in the years to come.

My players will be able to continue with their original characters next summer (with their items and where they left off). They also have the option to make totally new characters who will be buffed up to a certain control level, and given stock magical items to compensate for the loss of their original custom items.

Update
In the current Caen chapter, our party of six have now tailed Nate all the way to the village of Greenich-a collection of repressed villagers protected by their local "hero" Mib Tranor. Mib let slip that Nate had dealed with him a few days before. He allowed Nate access to his private dungeon, and has no idea where he was down there.
The party climbed down a deep hole in the ground as directed by Chriss- the architect, and were appalled by the conditions of the cramped and hastily built underground mudwalk. And being only able to walk in a single file, and running the risk of hurting allies with their ranged attacks added to their frustations. And everyone know that in small packages lies great surprises. (or something along that line.)

Can the party survive this wooden underground coffin of a place and find the pesky banker? Check out this space for more.

"Okay. Let's have a recap..." - xoxo, Gossip Girl. (1.06)

I have to admit that I am a fan of drama serials, even those crappy-ish ones, e.g. Gossip Girl, One Three Hill. I also love Laguna Beach when it first came out on MtV and its later editions. Who can resist LC, Jason the jerk etc. ( I draw the line at The Hills though, which sucks royally to the core.)

And my adventures, hooks and inherent pacing and cliff-hangers, yes, are of course influenced in a way or other, by all these drama-mama stuff.
That is why I ended one of my recent sessions at the start of a fight involving a bunch of "woodcutters". The players will be left hanging on a thread for a week or so wondering what they are up to, or at least have the opportunity to wonder why things happen the way it is.

I like to start my sessions with a lengthy recap. As we play once a week, it is good to re-tune the party's thoughts back to Caen. And of course, reminding the players of exactly what had happened a week ago, is not exactly a bad thing to do. Everybody has a life outside of the game and they may forget or not remember everything in its entirety. A recap is just good for everyone, and so is Robotech. (But that is another story altogether.)

As our chapter draws to a conclusion, I realized that I have learnt a lot from my first attempt as a 4th Edition DM. These are but some of the little "life" gems that I will take along with me for the upcoming rides.
(Do remember: This is not a jibe at any of my players. I value their participation above all else, and we have to recall that this is our first try at a new game. In all fairness, this is a first-child experiment to help our other adventures in the future.)

• First and foremost, I learn that in future, to play with people that I will enjoy DMing, and not just because I want a certain number of players in a campaign etc. Bad vibes from certain players who are not enjoying the game will sour the experience of those who are genuinely trying to enjoy the game. Now that I have seen things in a clearer light, I am wiser on sending invitations for a run in my future adventures. "Yes, Freddy! I am looking at you! Get a good shift job or something so you can start rolling!" (A similar analogy is likened to a choice between a bright but sulky/bad-attitude student or a dimmer but happy/willing-to-learn student. Give me the latter anytime.*)
  

• I see real-life personalities on the gaming table, and sometimes, they can be downright ugly. There is no "must-d0-or-you-are-stupid" because you are playing in the skin of another character. He/she might be that stupid. Thus, it should not be treated as a race to uberness. It is more about developing a strong party bond with different character types and forging ahead together at the expense of the unlucky baddies. Learning together. Sometimes, even dying together. But ultimately, having fun together. Something that I cannot stress hard enough. A general rule of thumb: Have fun, play fun. Fun is infectious, and goes a long way.
  

• I cannot point a finger at the players for not enjoying the game. My campaign is not everybody's cup of tea, and I respect that. And of course, I am not expecting everyone to think of Caen or Maya every day, every minute of their real-life week. I do feel that for the session's length at least, the players should try to get more involved in the proceedings , let go of their inhibitions in real-life, and play freely and happily in another skin. Players should at least know the gist of their skills/powers, remember to bring their own character sheets/dice/figurines, or just act interested for the few hours. It is not about basic courtesy for the DM or the game. Just think of it as indirectly smoothening the session for everyone there. (Likewise on the DM's side, if he is ill-prepared for the week, or is in a generally frustrated or disinterested mood, he will also adversely affect the session.)
  

• Everyone plays a part in helping the experience. Even Neekor. Be it noting down the initiative of the combat, helping with the book-keeping, tracking the gold, taking note of the hooks and clues that an important NPC gives instead of treating it like "Bah, another thing to note down, you do it then...". Players also play a part in shaping the world by developing the background of the character (discussing which part of Caen do they come from etc. They can even come up with their own names etc and check with the DM if it fits the campaign.) In many aspects, both the DM and the players play a part in making DnD an enjoyable experience.

• Sometimes, we must take a step back, and actually remember that I, the DM, am essentially just trying to tell a story, with my players as the focal point. We have fun on the journey, together. It is not supposed to be something whereby, the players sit around a table and expect everything to fall from the sky, with the DM as a separate entity. It does not work that way. Maybe I am equating a player's fun to how involved he/she is in the campaign, as there are many types of players in the world, as shown in the DmG. But think about it. If you enjoy something and is directly related to the storyline itself, won't you do a little bit extra to help make the experience better for everyone involved?
  

• You may think that "Damn if it is all gloom and doom as mentioned, why in the name of Black Zenith's arse are these guys still running the game?". Simple answer. It is not always like that. In fact, we have loads of fun most of the time, goofing about and role-playing serious stuff too. Many hours have been spent with them discussing amongst themselves on whether to partake certain quests/lines due to their differences in alignment. And better things are yet to come. --------->
  

• Shihao's upcoming campaign will be our group's new revised foray into DnD 4th Edition. Discussions are on the way. Shihao and me were discussing time-limit checks (2 minutes for the whole party to decide on their actions, to cut down on combat time). A bag with individual tiles numbering 1-20 for skill checks is in the mix too. It will be a brilliant hybrid between letting the player choose his own fate, but yet not knowing if what he chose is good enough to successfully finish the intended action. He will also be doing detailed encounters with much terrain in the mix, which is something my battlemap lacks at times. More power to him, and I look forward to playing my Mind Flayer.
  

By the way, this is me voicing out my thoughts and calling the situation as I see it. From a DM's point of view. I like to think that improvement is always possible and that nothing is perfect. So with these points in mind, we can make future DnD runs even more enjoyable.

Okay, okay. Enough of thoughts and on to something non-humane and cowabunga-ly cool.

*cups hand to mouth and whispers*

I have managed to get my hands on a Palladium System "TmnT" Core Rules RPG in pdf. form. ( Thanks to Kizul from the US of A!) A TmnT campaign can be set in a ancient/modern/post-nuclear world; whereby the players are actually mutated animal-heroes/villains in every form imaginable. -------->

(Think mongeese Ninjas, owl scholar-scientists in a genetics-engineering lab, or Elephant Yakuza gang-members touting AK-47s. You get the idea.)

The character-rolling process is brilliant and TmnT is actually one of the rare games I do not mind making a character with the random generator. I will be able to bio-modify it to my tastes in the end, after finding out what the creature the system has picked for me. You will never play the same way twice and adds to a lot of replayability.

Pongtau is nice enough to help me print and bind it (Thanks man!), and I dare say that it might be one of the best books he will ever bind in his lifetime. *chuckles* Do give it a go when you guys have the time. You will not regret it.**

'Til we meet again next time, and remember- "The grass is always greener on the other side only if there is no shit on it."



* No, Freddy. You are not any of the students that I mentioned.

**If you are a fan of the Fallout series, TmnT, Wasteland, post-aplocalyptic stuff, Freeway Fighter, steampunk etc.

"Have a Merry lil' Christmas in Maya..." (Part 1 of quite a few parts)

Woah. Its fast approaching the end of the year, and like real-life people who are preparing for the stock markets to hit rock-bottom, Mayians like-wise, are preparing for something of a different kind :

The Annual Mayian Fair.

Yeap. When Maya was founded about twenty odd years ago, then-leader Hevok and his right hand man- Khelid Kadashim worked hard to establish her foundations. Maya was flanked by the aggressive Lizardmen in the nearby swamps and kobold-kind in the brushland, while the dry desert north did not provide much refuge. What Maya did have was hardworking settlers and several parcels of farmable lands at the southern tip of the dry desert.

Hevok started the Scattered Brains Society- a peasant union, to develop the farms, while Khelid fronted the Mayian Trade Council. At first, Hevok was in charge, but he soon realized that while he was a leader by example, he was not adept at commercial dealings and subtle diplomacy. In less than a decade, Maya was soon a thriving fishing port, blessed with a great geographical location in the Caen mainland.

The Mayian people work hard all year round, and the harvests are bountiful at the end of the year. Hevok personally bought out a couple days' worth of crops and catches, and organized a small party in the centre of the town, now known to most as the Town Square.
This idea was overwhelmingly popular, and over the years, the tradition persisted. But this time, everyone came with a bit of what they had or could produce. Some even set up temporary stalls. These paved the way for the layout of the stalls at the square you see nowadays. During the festivities, you could buy foodstuff or exotic merchandise at a discounted rate.

The next edition of the fair is upon us in a couple of months. Hopefully, everyone will be able to forget Black Monday at the beginning of the year, and the current Northern killing spree; with the culprits still unknown. Tongues wag, saying that the Sccorian twins are at it again, as the burns look similar to that of the fire at the slums.
No one knows, but at least, the Lizardmen and Kobold threats have lessened, and the purple haze across the river quelled. One guy, a dwarf to be exact, is happy with these events.

Arlon.

His investment on the six fledging adventurers who had come to him at the start of their journey has come good. His business at Arlon's Finest is improving by leaps and bounds, while Guy, Fel, Trog, Dre, Emo and Weilian come back to him every few days- alive.
Which means they are gaining valuable experience while ridding Maya of another threat. It can only spell better days ahead. Ahem. And...
Not to mention the success of his own book- "Arlon and the Battle of Nowand4ever." (yes, the 4 is not a typo.)
It is a short story set in the northern plains of Destre, spanning only three chapters, depicting him as an orc-bashing war veteran in the epic Battle of Nowand4ever. The book would have been great if only the battle did not last so long (read: Forever.) and had sensibly ended by the end of the book.

Back to the meat and potatoes of the menu tonight.

Will the party ever expose "N" and his devious manipulations? What do they do with the escaped fugitives in their own ranks- Neekor and Weilian, when they return to town eventually? And is Penisters actually alive somewhere in Caen swigging spiced wine with Bakkor and Suanor? (or making sweet three-way love to them?)

Keep your eyes peeled in the coming few weeks for the conclusion of this chapter in our Caen campaign!



p/s: New comments on the left in the grapevine, and early Christmas gifts to be sent to the address in my profile. A hearty Thank You to the generous souls!

The Truth about Mary (4th Edition, I mean.)

I still maintain that WoTC should never have got their hands on the DnD franchise.

* This is not a rant. It is by no mean a definite review of 4th Edition either. I am trying to look as objectively as I can, dissect the good and the bad, with the final product being a superior home-brewed 4.1E *

These people, creative and cool as they are, can really card-dify and rule/errata this classic game into an early demise. Randy Buehler, an okay professional Magic player (but more known for his "innovative" decklists- READ: boring but effective, a bit like Liverpool's style of football), is the President and the overall in charge. He is, and always will be, in my mind - a CARD player first, and DnD geek/sucker, second. 4th Edition, with some of the powers' effects looking like really lousy current Type II Magic cards, reeked of Randy and the rest of the MoTG "cannot-make-it-in Professional Magic-so-I- move-on-to-DnD" motley gang.

I see my players playing Power Cards- cheap Magic commons with the particular power's effect printed on paper, glued to the cardstock, and slotted into trading card sleeves. Yes, I do agree it helps simplify the process, and the players get to remember if they used up their third daily, second encounter, or an obscure custom power.
But wait a minute and think.
Why did they need to simplify the process again?
Mmhmm.
The rules and effect itself was tedious to remember. Thus, book-keeping to a minimum? Nah.

So, in a nutshell,

• 4th Edition combat is streamlined, but clunky. It is really time-consuming due to the myriad of effects and data involved. (e.g. "He marked who?", "Please remember the ongoing damage AND that you are stunned until the END of MY minion's next turn, not your next turn, which IS the case on some of the other powers.")
• WoTC, I feel, is trying to make 4th Edition earn lots of gold for themselves. Due to the restrictive powers concept, which is time consuming to homebrew an entire class, it makes the masses buy more official stuff to play their dream class, instead of relying on inspiration, and trying their hand out at creating one of their own. There were many times I wanted to make a new class for the 4th Ed world but gave up after wondering about the many many powers that I will have to come up with just to make the class workable. (The 4th Ed. Monk is still a work in progress. I think I did a rather good job of overhauling the original forum version though.)
• The success/failure based skill challenge is a failure. It needs a complete overhaul to make it more natural. I say that because the current situation is always too artificial and set-up. DMs around the world are saying stuff like,"You guys are now in a Skill Challenge to find the path to Mount Nevermind. Six successes versus three failures. Good Luck on finding the correct primary and secondary skills.". In fact, I recommend a checkpoint system where the DM, at certain pre-determined parts of the challenge, will assess the situation and see how to continue. In future posts, I will present the Checkpoint System for general feedback.
• DnD is still cool. Except you need an internet connection to optimize your character choices or you might "lose" out on extra powers/paths.
• The DM is placed in a neutral position rather than one of power nowadays. We are supposed to say YES remember? *sniggers*
• I do not like to be referred to as a male "bitch". So, let me harp on the positives. I like the skill-pool system in the game. That is a simplification of the previous editions and yet, not detract from gameplay at all. In fact, its better.
  

Overall, ADnD 2nd edition is still my favourite incarnation of the game. You really only need a couple of books and you are good to go. We rely more on intuition and on-the-fly decisions rather than relying on rules for EVERYTHING. (Acrobatics or Athletics? I want to jump over the table, man.)
4th Edition is a breath of fresh air but somehow, I am still not certain if that is the air I want to breathe. For now, it is the only air out there, so what the heck.

p/s: Shihao gave us the hand-out to his new campaign loosely based on FR. It is looking promising and I see good things coming next year. Alex and PT are also working on their adventures. Theirs should be out by this decade.

Thrall and Error - or "How Maya was Birthed."

This campaign was my first proper try at DMing since my days at Soulcraft. On Sunday afternoons at the shop, there were regular sessions fronted by various DMs like Beavis, Frank, and me. And even though it was my own shop, I could never DM much myself, as customers were filling in at odd intervals, interrupting the sessions quite a fair bit.
My longest streak lasted like three weeks. I then politely disbanded the party, asking them to join the other DMs instead, as I could not stay at the gametable for more than ten minutes at a time.
Was I frustrated? Yes. But I knew there was to be a better time, a better day.

Six facts you wished you never knew about Maya

1. It was originally named Baya, and was located in Bloody Bay. In my initial design, I mis-spelled it as Maya in my eagerness to create the MoTG (Mayian Official Thieves' Guild).
   
2. Maya was heavily inspired by Phlan, the starting town in Pool of Radiance, a SSI Gold-Box game in the mid 80s.
3. It has nothing to do with the cursed dark-skinned girl who carries the same name in Heroes: Season 2 (she was the one with the close burst 50 necrotic aura which yes, hurts creatures- friends and foes alike.) And no, there will be not be a nearby brother-town called Alehandro.
   
4. The poisoned swamps and the blighted beach were purely coincidental and not meant to draw similarities to Maya (the cursed girl) in any possible way.
   
5. I wanted to put Maya next to an active, inactive, dormant but, active volcano, nestled away in some hot, yet cold highlands. But I thought twice about blasting Maya to bits in about six minutes of game time after spending more than that amount of time creating it.
6. Fact 5 was a complete lie.
   

I was very pleased with myself when I finished the current campaign's background of Maya and Sccor. It was simple; yet rewarding to see that an adventure could be run just by providing a sub-regional background and a basic point-of-light origin.
Ameriza was to be brought in gradually, and the ensuing relationship between an entire island empire, a powerful city-state, and a developing fishing town should provide enough meat for a long time.

For my long-term project, I will be working on a proper map of Caen, once I find an appropriate cartographer-based program on the net. Then slowly bit by bit, the actual scale and detail of the different regions can be graphically depicted as professionally as my limited skill allows.

In future milestones, I will be posting my own home-brewed version of the 4E Monk character class. These ascetic beings have always been my favorite DnD class of all time (Bard comes a close 2nd), and it is only natural that I propose my take on it.
I will also be regularly updating session highlights, and supplying more random "Behind The Scenes" information like the Maya stuff above.

Last but not the least, if anyone has any cool custom stuff they want posted on the site, do drop me a PM or a message on the grapevine, so that I can feature it for our reading pleasure and honest critique.

This site is ours, so we can all contribute in our own unique way, and make 9d20 a whopping cool place to hang/type out.

P/S: Dre solved the mystery of the Thrall/Follower puzzle . You have to register as a Blogspot member to become a Thrall. So, please proceed to the Brain-cutting Chamber and get an ID. Thanks! (100 xp for the minor quest completion!)

"Fie your mind, and the rest will follow." - Confiecus, 1420

Welcome one and all,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Alfie the DM, otherwise known in various alternate realities as Ah sHiN, Jean-Paul Van Damme (JPvD), Yu-Fie-Oh! the BeSM cardflopper, Kharisma K. Karpenter- Mind Flayer Starlock Intimidator, and sometimes even Piccolo Picadilly P'rane; the ill-created 4th edition noob Dragonborn Fighter. (I took Potent Challenge as a feat. Nuff said.)

I am currently DMing a DnD 4E Campaign for six of my buddies, namely: Shane (my brother), Vek, Shihao (Shell), and three of my former customers-turned-friends- Kat, Pongtau and Gari.

It was about three and a half months ago, in the middle of June, on a Saturday night in Simei at my condominium.
Since then, we play in the open as much as we can. Also, we start sessions at midnight usually and it can last all the way up until six in the morning at times. Thus, the cool night breeze and a view of the swimming pool next to us is quite refreshing; especially during the longer sessions.

The players roleplay as Sccorians who got acquainted on a sea-bound journey to Maya, a small fishing town south of Sccor- Jewel of the North. They have heard much about it, with word spreading that Maya was an ideal stopover, en-route to the established Sccor Int'l Port Facilities.
With the western slave empire of Ameriza providing two-way trade and commerce, including their most valuable export- sparkpowder, and the mining settlements of the Southlands; with their mineral rich resources shipping Caen-wide everyday, Maya was slowly emerging as a viable alternative to merchants who had always resented having to travel far north to trade their wares.

The original party comprised of Sir Guy- a charismatic and righteous Halfling Warlord, Trogdor the young and mentally tormented Dragonborn Paladin of the Raven Queen, Pennisters the Human Spiked-Chain Master (aka Lv1 Fighter), Emoticus the quiet but effective Human Warlock, Dre the very careful Tiefling Rogue and last but not the least- Weilian, a blind elven ranger with a dark agenda.
Pennisters went missing a month into the adventure, and was replaced by Fel the Eladrin Swordmage, who dabbled in the forbidden Blood Arts and was banished from his homeland for good.

The campaign plays out the party's trials and tribulations, and their quest to make a name for themselves in a new environment- Maya. The fishing town is bustling with trade and commerce, but the six soon find out that not everything is as rosy as it looks. There is murder, politics, and conspiracies galore, as ultimately, someone in control of Maya could become very powerful, such is the untapped potential of this town.

I am running out of time, as tuition beckons. Meanwhile...
Any comments, ideas or rants? Please leave a message at Leeto's Grapevine.
Remember to vote for Pennister's fate, and show your generous support of this wonderful site;

"Do your part. Be a follower. Be a Thrall." (tm)

(Edit: Hmm. Making Thralls is not an easy job. The links seem broken. *tinkers*)