It's a Darkmantle!

So, we watched those two D&D movies, and I have to say, that they sucked so bad that I almost ripped my eyes out. That's 'nuf said of those abominations.

So, into the game. LuvMina found the bad behaving apprentice's lair at the sewers, she and her NPC companion killed 10 rats and got ready to open the door in next session. NPC thief had no problem lockpicking the door open so they entered the room.

Room contained a table, bookshelf, bedroll and three cases of mushrooms (my random mushroom table what we rolled after examination). But the ceiling of the room looked really dark and shadowy.

I had trouble figuring out what kind of monster there was captured as a guardian, so when I flipped back and forth Monster Manual and found Darkmantle, I grinned. Same monsters were in the movie (so I had good visual image how they will be) and they are CR 1 encounters. Darkmantle there will be!

Ten rats were a trouble, so I decided only to put one Darkmantle against level 1 wizard and level 2 rogue. My player knew what there was lurking at the ceiling, before her character saw the monster dropping down. First attack for Darkmantle, and a miss. Slowly it began to hover back onto the ceiling to drop again, so heroes had their attacks. LuvMina missed her Magic missile, and rogue had no more luck with throwing a dagger. So Darkmantle did a new attack (I rolled D6 to see which of them it would attack. As rogue was last to attack, it was 1-4 against 5-6 to him with D6). Darkmantle attacked again and covered the rogue under it's blanket-like body.

I am not sure how Darkmantle's attacks work, but I figured out that first attack is simple melee attack what deals damage, and after it Darkmantle does damage every turn IF its victim cannot shrug the monster off. So in first attack round when rogue was hit I dealt damage as shown on the MM stats but Darkmantle did not last to another round, as LuvMina shot it with her Frost and rogue stabbed it inside (I gave -5 to attack roll though) and the Darkmantle died.

When LuvMina's player realised that the opponent will be Darkmantle, she was wery concerned how many of those there is, and even if only one attacked, she really thought there will be more. Even though the monster was killed the second round, I liked the mood, that player (and the character) was really concerned about their survival. So I quess that one Darkmantle did a good job. It did not kill anyone, dealed some damage to rogue and was easy to kill (after those rats). Still, there was fright about other similar beings lurking on the ceiling.

So, Darkmantle was a succesful monster. Worth a "ding" (in mmorpg we yelled "DING" in guild chat when leveled up). They found some documents and grabbed two kinds of mushrooms (third was result 4 in size, huuuge one but character did not bother to slice a piece of it. Actually she wasn't interested in the mushrooms at all).

Back to mage's guild and report the mission. We ended the game when character was rewarded the ring.

Next session she will learn what is the magical effect behind the ring. +1 to spear attacks. Player has whined about how her character sucks in spear, so I give this +1 ring to spear attacks to her, so she is only at -1 melee bonus after it).

Oh, and the halfling rogue did sneak into mage's guild to see and hear what LuvMina is doing there reporting her quest. My halfling rogue is like a kender from Dragonlance. Sneaky, stealing, annoying, blabbering and likes magic alot!

[D&D] Rats are menace

First mission for LuvMina. There is one mage's guild apprentise who doesn't go the way guild wants. And now he's disappeared. And who goes to investigate? Character of course. Character takes his NPC friend halfling thief Francis with him and they go to sewers where the map Luv gained shows this evil apprentice's lair is.

First fighting encounter! Rats, I thought, as it is a sewer. I checked that rats are 1/4 CR so there will be... um, 10 of them. Sounds good. They do 1D3-4 damage (I had no idea what that means... are damage dice exploding? Whether they are or not I have already decided so. But they were rats guarding the lair so I decided if they hit they do 1 HP damage).

What did I learn. I have always laughed at computer games (Morrowind, I am watching you) where you have to save at the beginning of the game before entering the cellar with rat problem. Rats do kill characters in computer games, and that is silly imo. So I thought, it cannot be the case in roleplaying games. How wrong I was.

Rat's didn't kill the characters. Halfling thief level 2 dropped from 9 HP to 4 and LuvMina had 2 points of damage total before she used Mage Armor spell. After that, rats didn't hit her anymore. Fight was furious. LuvMina has -2 to melee attacks so she didn't hit with her spear. I whispered her, that her character is a spell caster not a fighter, and response was that she won't waste her spells on some rats (I thought those will be character's last words).

But they managed to kill all 10 rats. Wounded, but did it. Luckily halfling has 4 healing potions worth of D8 HP (emergency kit of DM, as I am beginner in Dungeons & Dragons and not sure how hard some opponents are, those can fix the aftermath) and they both used them.
Rat guardians killed, reinforced door waiting to be lockpicked.

Next time some monster (gotta look MM) what is guarding bad apperentice's lair. Mushrooms (check my previous post) and turning quest back.

Those rats were worth of 375 experience points for first level sorceress LuvMina. Way to go. Only few exp to level up.

[DnD] Oh, it was too easy

LuvMina has now hook for adventuring. She want's to be a part of mages guild, but she needs to proof herself to be qualified as she actually is sorceress. So, quests to do.

First quest was simple. One apprantise of mages guild was sent to a mission but he forgot to return a book to guild's library he had. So LuvMina had to obtain it back. To apprentice's home she went and examined house of two rooms from outside and decided that she tried to make her way in from backdoor, as there was a lock on front door.
Back door was closed inside with a hook so she took a stick from a planting and slided it in from door crack and started to jerk the hook off. She did observe her surroundings in case of anyone seeing. I didn't tell her what the DC is but asked her to roll and based on the roll I told her how likely she thinks no one is seeing. This way if she did score lower result she wasn't so sure, but more higher the score was more higher the notice rate. After that roll I rolled 1D6 and decided that results 1-3 there is no one and with results 4-6 someone could see. LuvMina was quite sure no one's watching (but she failed the roll) but my die result told there's no one. Second try she got in.

I decided that apprentice has 0-level spells and went them through and I was a bit disappointed. No warding spells. Backroom was bedroom/working room and book wasn't there. Second room LuvMina got result of 21 and her familiar snake 19 (as she told her familiar to search for the book also) so she found it. Back out, placing hook back and returning the book.

50 experience points for this, as it was too damn easy. And she got also 10gp what I awarded also as 10 exp o 60 exp total for this piece of cake.

Next time some action, or I'll be damned as Dungeon Master. She has to get rid of some monsters or critters, I just have to figure out why. Or the reason is that she is told to do so to gain reputation but why and where are those monsters. City is a big one, so maybe there is some aberrant apprentice's summoning tests gone wrong at secret laboratory, and LuvMina is told to clean it up.

Also halfling Francis who's place LuvMina is now staying at is investigating that beggar thing, but LuvMina still isn't interested in it at all. Bugger.

[D&D] How to give missions to player?

Storytelling games... well they are different. You don't necessarily do quests in those. I mean, while I write this I am watching Elder Scrolls: Oblivion gameplay from cloned TV screen and in computer games you run here and there, talk to people and you can find missions and quests everywhere. Someone has serious rat problem at their wine cellar, someone lost his wedding ring, someone is concerned about those orcs making a camp near the city border...

There is always something to do. Hard part is, that I and my player must get rid of this WoD-ish mindset and tune our mind into fantasy-roleplay-adventuring. If you go to pub, there is always this cloaked guy who has something interesting to say.
There are always raiding bandits or orcs troubling some city.
City well, yeah, poisoned.
Monsters in sewers? Yes, kill them and find out who is behind. And kill him too.
Seal of earth-thingie. And a rumour of a door with earth-thingie. Find the cave and the door inside. Combine. Profit (after killing monsters).
There is attempt of assasination to duke/king/merchant/cow and you must solve it/prevent it/commit it.

Or you couldn't give a shite about any of those quests and find new ones.

And play reporting from my D&D campaign.
Last time LuvMina and his halfling friend found out secret loot of guy who discuises as a beggar for reason unknown. Halfling Francis want's to know why is he doing that, but Luv is not interested.
Bummer. There could have some investigation thingies (actually, man wanted to get into thieves' guild and he had to steal x amount of gold to get in as an apprentice) but playercharacter doesn't care about it.
Ok, I remember that hey, she has now enough gold to do familiar and off she goes buing supplies. (insert here long conversation and lots of googling about how that familiar summoning/making actually goes. PHB only tells you buy 100gp worth of stuffz and spend a day doing it and you get it. We wanted to know what does familiar need. How does it manifests or comes by.) She went to Wizards street, bought snake scales, strange powders and stuff and found the Guild of Wizards. Decided to go and see what's it about.
Okay, now Luv wants to join a guild. But she is sorceress, not a wizard. But one fellow at guild told, that maybe LuvMina could join as an apprentice but she wouldn't benefit from her membership alot (she don't learn spells from reading and cram up on them and will propably not fit in). But she wants to see wizards and to belong in somewhere and become an adventurer (that's the reason she left home in the first hand anyways).
Okay, she meets the guy next day. But before it, some familiar summoning.
Mixing stuff and chanting and things all magical and snake squirms in.

This evening in game is that next day. We start game when LuvMina meets the dude from wizards' guild. And I am SO pleased. Perfect reason to give quests to character.
"So, you want to join our guild?"
"YESSIR!"
"You have to prove yourself."
"YESSIR!"
"First [insert quest here] then we'll see again."
"YESSIR!"

Continue that patter few times, 1-2 levels worth of experience. If you don't have a plot by then...

[DnD] Half-way there to lvl up, what happened and thoughts about DnD

Yesterday was a serious experience bomb for character. I quess. Don't know how fast does character gain lower levels, or how much experience points should an individual get after a session. Player was happy though, and that's what matters.

LuvMina (the character) had 35 experience points from sessions one and two. He agreed to halflings deal. There's that beggar with lots of money. He does beg and has gained great wealth from it. But he is also extremely stingy. That's why he is still a beggar, but a wealthy one.

As that rich beggar doesn't need gold as he just stacks it, Francis has thought that he could share that gold with him. Francis thinks though, that he isn't willing to share his gold with him that easily, so he's asking LuvMina to help him. This way he could pay his dept of 1 goldpiece wasted for ale and he promises that LuvMina get's her share of 200gp.

Off they go to streets where Francis knows beggar is. They find him and start following. Beggar is not suspicious, so following check is DC15. Both success (well, tell me if halfling thief with 4 ranks on sneak can like _ever_ fail sneaking or hiding?) After a corner of the house they have lost sight of him, but Luv's eyes spot rags and quarterstaff that beggar was using. So they now are following different looking guy who they haven't yet seen.

They decide to split up and meet later. LuvMina starts her search and finds by ragged shoe-kind-of-things the right guy and continues following. Guy gets out of the slum to moderate area and on his way he has dropped one piece of his tattered cloth every once and now until he looks like a normal folk.
So, he is normal person, living in a small one room house where is no lock but guard dog instead.

LuvMina isn't wondering about beggar that much (I suppose, that he is member or wants to be a member of thieves guild. Yes, he wants to join thieves guild but must collect x amount of gold first to qualify) but hurries to go and tell Francis what she discovered.

Okay, plan. Only way inside is dog. But it is propably guard dog (there's money inside, no lock as they are clumsy, hard to obtain and damn expensive). LuvMina knows sleep spell but doesn't want to use it. Francis wants to see some spell action (actually me as DM wanna see player using spells, so she understands how they work and what they do). Anyways, they get inside, guard dog is just little white poodle with BIG barking noise, LuvMina casts sleep-spell. Dog falls asleep and luckily Francis' will save is a success. They tie up the dog and put it in a sack.

Yes, simple room. Searching and halfling's eyes (I rolled 20 yey) spot hidden door under a rug. Listen check and they hear something moving below the floow. Player asks can they open the hidden door and I say yes. Player says her character crack the door and cast speel inside. *Thumb* the thief goes and they loot his place. As LuvMina is just level 1 sleep spells effect is 1 minute. Hurrying they gather bags (total of 5) and rush out. That poor thief has no even idea what just happened.

I decided that that thiefing stuff (well, whole session) was CR1 encounter, but as there was 2 characters encounter itself was worth of 150 exp for LuvMina. She got around 300 of gold (random treasure table, no items).
I quess 1 gold equals 1 xp... or is it already concidered in CR1 xp (CR1 monster has 300 gold is 300 experiences worth). Well, what ever, this time she had around 450 experience points. And second session she didn't get any experience points as some "find that thief and rob him" adventure was unfinished.

Anyways. Again was fun and I hope that my player learns to actually do stuff. We have played games about storytelling, not that much action. And if you just sit there hands pocketed in D&D, nothing's gonna happen. And if you just say "I roll to hit" it's both boring _and_ you cannot survive all encounters like that. Or kill everything you see.

That sleep spell using was great. Also sorcerers are cool.

Dungeon Master's Desktop + First (second but reseted) gaming session

So, here is basically what DM needs. I don't have combat grid and minis, so they don't count.

1. Rulebooks. As you can see, my D&D books are for third edition. I also own Forgotten Realms Campaign setting, but thought that as we play we develope our own sandbox world (too lazy to read yet another book as I gotta finish reading Player's Handbook and DM's Guide).
2. Some dice. I got D3, several of D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. I got also lots of D10s for World of Darkness games, but they are separated. Watching my dice cup I realized that I most definately need more dice!
3. Paper, pens, ruler for notes.
4. Laptop. Can find pictures with google to show player who is a bit D&D and fantasy noob (she is a vampire afterall) and we play via msn to record every. single. word. to describe the situation, mood or character conversations.
5. Cola drink.

About session

Everything started when LuvMina (yes, that's the way how her sorceress' name is spelled) walked towards the great city of Lankhemaar. Walking towards it she noticed a farmer in trouble. His cartwheel was busted by a rock and all his pumpkins all over. And his ass (animal, not butt) was eating grass smirking. LuvMina decided to help him (non-combat encounter + quest).
LuvMina got to city, but found it big and confusing. Luckily halfling* decided to help her find the way to carpenter... for 2 sp. I rolled opposite (or competive or something) check for halflings thieving and LuvMina's spot.

- This is the part I am not sure how rules work, but I figured it out that if:
 -LuvMina successes but halfling fails LuvMina detects that attempt of thievery
 -Halfling successes but LuvMina fails halfling can snatch her purse/money pouch
 -Both success, then highest number wins (no tie in this situation that halfling can get her pouch but  - - - LuvMina spots it. That would be if LuvMina won the contest)
- Both fail and nothing happens, but halfling could try later again. 

Halfling (now named Francis Fanfingers) succeeded to snatch her purse (with result 20). So halfling got 2sp for taking LuvMina to carpenter and also got her purse. Nice deal! When they got to carpenter, LuvMina asked Francis to wait for her outside, but Francis insisted that he has something to do quickly, but he will be back. Detect motive roll for LuvMina wich she succeeded so LuvMina found that really, really, extremely suspicious. Still, she left Francis and went inside to do some cartwheel buying.
When paying, she noticed that her purse is lost! Damn you halfling! She asked from carpenter, does he know that halfling named Francis Fanfingers and I rolled D20 to determine, has carpenter heard rumours or knows him. 20! Yep, he is not allowed in carpenter's shop because he is a thief. Carpenter also knew two possible places Francis could be hanging out. So there LuvMina goes.
Tavern called Two Cocks Tavern (Kahden Kukon Kievari in finnish) was the place she first checked out and she could hear the noises of laughter and fun-having behind the door already. There halfling was ordering rounds for everyone with LuvMina's money.
LuvMina takes halfling to address him and even present town guard asks what's that all about. Halfling doesn't want to deal with guards (well, he is a thief) so she whispers to LuvMina that if they could sort it out somehow. LuvMina agrees.

That was our first session. No combat, little quest helping farmer with his broken cart (totally optional, he was there with his pumpkins and trouble just for mood. Idea was that everyone was ignoring that poor sod. But character's, they are opportunists and try to do everything you describe). Few dice rolling and LOTS of fun.

As much as I have hated D&D/D20 (previous rants here) I have to admit I loved it! It was fun. No vampires with plans and angst, no spacetravel from trouble to trouble. A bit more computer gamish adventuring what is not so serious still being genre realistic.

And big inspiration for D&D is now blog Playing D&D with Porn Stars. Great read, and Zak has so many good ideas. Very creative DM he is.

Also I am going to try out his city creation idea with writing down numbers as streets and areas and stuff. That sounds fun.

So, today second session of D&D! What kind of deal halfling has for LuvMina to pay his dept of lost money he spent in tavern? Does farmer get his cartwheel before he dies in old age waiting? What happens next?

DnD + Perfect World... well screw that!

Okay, I was really excited on doing my DnD campaign on mmorpg Perfect World, but screw that. Don't get me wrong, but there is too much in a world to handle.

I decided, that our hero sorceress Luv Mina who wanted to see world did not go to some lame camp at the middle of nowhere, but instead went to a city.

If you have lived your whole life in a small town or inn and everytime you saw those heroes wanted to be something, and when finally you leave home wouldn't you go to a place where actually is happening something? Answer is: Yes.

So, city it is. Forget Perfect World. City shall be named... well, I think I bash my head on the keyboard on that and twist the result a bit to get something intelligent and readable.

But how to make the city then? Using this:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2009/12/urbancrawl-rules-for-slacker-dms_21.html

It'll be fun, I can prepare it in advance or randomly generate it during playing.

What is good in city there could be many different encounters, sewer systems go as dungeons, mansions, cults... and you can always get out and find that lovely countryside dungeon to raid.

So, onwards to new start with DnD!

So, I need a reason for going into a dungeon

I already have a world map and knowledge and image of different locations, as has my player. We did launch our Dungeons & Dragons game yesterday, a bit like introduction.

Character arrived to town what is actually now made of four barricated tent supplements. At the south from these four tent compounds what are now called: Sumer Camp. Sumer Camp is located to the west for human capital Sword city in the Victory plains.

Before Sumer Camp, there was Sumer City. But it was raided by hobgoblins and people living there had to flee. They bledged help from King of Sword City, but king was not interested in sending army to protect that farther side. And there is a river separating Sumer City, so it has almost no value for Sword City.
Residents of Sumer City decided to fight back the hobgoblins who had taken their city and made it their own. But citizens of Sumer City couldn't attack, but they are strong enough for defence.
That is how Sumer Camp was found next to the city they had lost for horde of hobgoblins. They don't want to move away, are powerful enough to defend their camps and wait for a good opportunity to take their City back.

A: Sumer Camp tents are above each other. Northest is where common people live. Second north is guarded mediocre and there are some services as blacksmith, tavern and so on. Below that is military camp what mainly guards the Sumer City's borders. Just below Sumer Camps military camp is their main camp where the Chief of Sumer City/Camp lives.
Every tent is fortified with long logs cutted from the forest near to the south west.
B: Outside camp. This is temporary camp for travellers. It is quite safe, as hobgoblins mainly roam at behind Sumer City walls and at north west part of Victory Plains.

C: Sumer City. Northern of two cities is one where Chief had his moderate mansion as commoners did live. Souther is Sumer City's old military base now heavily guarded with hobgoblins who have no courage yet to attack Sumer Camp.

D: To the east from Sumer Camp is a hill where is old guard tower. It is manned by few Sumer guards. The view from the hill is good for every direction, and on the top of guard tower is a bell what is gonged in the sight of danger.

E: Old Sumer City fields and windmills. They aren't currently used because of hobgoblins which doesn't hesitate to attack workers and Sumer Camp cannot afford any of it's guards for the people in the fields.

Sumer Camp Services

Sumer Camp Guards

Sumer Camp Duke

Guard Tower

Fields

North-East of Victory Plains

Hobgoblins of Sumer City

GOTTA KEEP A BREAK! WILL CONTINUE LATER!

DnD character Luv Mina - short motivational story

Okay, now we got clear image of what we will play with DnD. Perfect World (previous posts). I think we will make the adventure from the scrap. Won't detail world too much but will use the knowledge of mmorpg and colour the rest ourselves.

We had discussion just few minutes ago about this campaign and agreed about it. I was keen to start right away. It's a bit late, so not much time to play but just to... open the cork for this game.

I asked my player (Countess Samael) to write a small text about Luv Mina so we have some idea where she is coming and where she is going. She is a bit tired and wasn't that interested into doing it. So I asked her to put few sentences together so we can start.

And here is introduction to Luv. I suppose he will write her character more detailed later though.

(Originally this text was written in finnish, poor translation here is by me.)

I was born in poor family at Eremites Village. My elf father worked at the village as blacksmith and supported our family with his slight income. As the only child I was my parents wanted to give me the most experience rich childhood, so my mother went to Pengchang Inn to work as a sort of guide and I was with her.

Penchang Inn is a large fortified inn with services like stables, blacksmith and leatherworker of it's own with small fields inside it's walls what also leads travellers to humans main city, Sword City.

Pay wasn't that good, but I had a change to see all those different travellers from ordinary people to real warriors. Many shiny armors both from scales of dragon to ones made of leather. Most valiant of those warriors rode past the inn with their large horses and watching them ignited a spark inside me.

My parents couldn't offer me that all I would have wanted and even though my father was an elf, he was not that respected amongst his kind so he couldn't have better work at his home town.

When I grew older, I started to spend time more and more with my mother at Pengcheng Inn and it's surroundings and I learned I possess powers my parents dont. I could cast spells. My days went fast secretly practising and learning to control my skills.

Later I started to work and earn small income what I used to buy myself a spear, crossbow and other supplies. I had seen adventurers so often and wanted so much to be one of them. My parents didn't know about me leaving as I didn't tell it for them. I just left a note, where I told my lust to see the world. I guess I broke their hearts but I had to follow my heart.

So, one night I left with my equipment to see the world my first goal to reach Sumer Camp across the river. Maybe there I could find something for young sorceress.

D&D character and campaign planning - World map

As in previous posts I have planned, my DnD campaign will be loosely set in mmorpg Perfect World. Here is awesome map of the area I will use:

I will do modifications to map. Point areas where what race lives, what city belongs to whom, point out places of interest et cetera. But that is base for our campaign.

Source for map: http://janelh.wdfiles.com/local--files/world-map/World_Map.jpg