A Company of Fools - Blog

[EvilGinger]

Pregenerated charactors first level charactors no one the Squire

Name Ranjazar Epaliren

Varazzan human fighter

Attribute rolls

STR     12-33

INT      15-76

WIS     12-07

CON   09-76

DEX    16-29

LKS     07-43

CHA    14-51

A good set which I will not rearrange so 90 build points

I will however spend 3 build points to bring the con to 10/06 and 26! To take LKS up to 10/03

Human fighter – costs 20 Build points

This leaves me with 40 build points without quirks and flaws, that I will do next getting the following

058 – First – Animal Phobia   - canines                       30

795 – Second – HackFrenzy                                                 19

Other Priors and particulars

Gender female

Age 19

Height 66â€�       

Bmi = 19.5

Wt 120lb

Handedness - Right handed

Family

Birth – legitimate with two loving parents +4BP

Two Siblings – sisters both alive not twins

Youngest of three

One devoted

One natural

Build points – 93

Weapons

Long sword                              2

Horseman’s pick                      2

Lance                                       2

Dagger                                     1

Bare handed                             0

Club                                         0

                                                                                                                                                            86

Ride – horse                 ML 3                           12 roll 2+7+1   skill 22

Diplomacy                    ML 2                           8 roll 3+5        skill 22

Recruiting                     ML 1                           3 roll 10          skill 24

Resist persuasion          ML 1                           3 roll 6            skill 18

Etiquette and manners   (Varazzarus)                5

                       

                                                                                                                                                            55

Weapon specializations

Long sword +1 all specializations                  20

Horseman’s pick +1 all specialization          20

+ 2 speed                                                        10

+1 speed dagger                                             05

                                                           

Bonus Build points from stats

Int – 10 bp

Literate Varazzan      ML2    roll 10+9         skill34                         8  

Language Kethian     ML1    roll 19              skill 34                        2

Wis – 2bp

Current affairs ML1  roll 22                          skill 34                        2

Cha -6 bp

Persuasion ML2 roll 10+4                             skill 28                        6

Free fighter skill

Appraise weapons & armour ML1 roll 11 skill 25               free

Native language Varazzan  37 +15+15 +roll of 12 skill 79

Finally Hit points                    roll 7    so hp =27       

Source: Pregenerated charactors first level charactors no one the Squire

[EvilGinger]

Pregenerated Charactors at first level  no two the sneak

Sellanirio Dajari

Varazzan human thief

STR 13-34

INT 14-15

WIS 09-09

CON 08-24

DEX 14-04

LKS 07-69

CHA 14-25

A good set which I will not rearrange so 90 build points

I will however spend 24 build points to get the looks to 10/09 as 07-69 is ugly enough to be memorable which not a good thing is for a thief; it also rather damages his very decent Charisma. I did think about fixing the wisdom a bit but its not that bad it’s a major problem and I have found Thieves tend not to get surprised all that much as they are the ones who initiate the action in many cases

Human Thief– costs 20 Build points

So that gives 46 build points to spend before doing priors and particulars and quirks and flaws

Quirks and flaws

321 Foul Mouthedgives five build points

Other priors and particulars

Gender male

Age 18

Height  66â€�

Bmi 23

Wt 142 lb

Handedness Right

Family

Birth – Legitimate, two loving parents +4 BP

Siblings five youngest of them

Male – dead

Female – live – devoted

Male – live – devoted

Male – dead

Female – dead

Build points 55

Short bow proficiency                           3bp

Knife                                                                free

Dagger                                                             free

Bilingual                                                            5bp

Hiking load marching                                        4bp

Skinning and tanning                                         2bp

Labourer                                                          1bp

Maintenance upkeep                                         5bp                                                                              20

Observation ML1         Roll     1d12-1= 8 so skill = 17                                    4bp

Hiding ML1                  Roll     1d12+2 = 23 so skill =37                                 6bp

Sneaking ML1             Roll      1d12+2 = 6 so skill =20                                   8bp    

Hunting ML1               Roll      1d12-1 = 8 so Skill = 17                                  4bp

Survival ML1               Roll      1d12-1 = 4 so skill =13                                    5bp

Direction sense ML1    Roll      1d12 -1 = 9 so skill = 18                                  2bp

Scrutiny ML1               Roll      1d12+3 = 5 so skill =14                                   4bp

Fire building ML1         Roll      1d12-1 =2 so skill = 11                                    2bp

Free skills as a thief

Hiding              ML1    roll 1d8+2 =3 so skill =40

Sneaking          ML 1   roll 1d12+2=10 so skill = 30

Identify trap      ML 1   roll 1d12-1 =1 so skill = 10

Lock picking    ML1    roll 1d12+2 =5 so skill = 19

Bonus build points

Int -6BP

Ancient History ML1                roll 1d12+2 =13 so skill = 27

Botany ML1                             roll 1d12+2 = 12 so skill =26 

Literacy (Varazzan) ML1          roll 1d12+2 = 11 so skill =25

Wis – are you kidding?

Cha-6 bp

Persuasion ML1                       roll 1d12+2 =12 so skill = 26

Recruiting ML1                        roll 1d12+2 = 12 so skill = 26

Native language Varazzan  37 +14+14 +roll of 18 skill = 83

Native language Kethian  37 +14+14 +roll of 3 skill = 68

Finally Hit points                       roll 3    so hp =21        

Source: Pregenerated Charactors at first level  no two the sneak

[EvilGinger]

Pregenerated charactors at first level charactors no one the Squire

Name Ranjazar Epaliren

Varazzan human fighter

Attribute rolls

STR     12-33

INT      15-76

WIS     12-07

CON   09-76

DEX    16-29

LKS     07-43

CHA    14-51

A good set which I will not rearrange so 90 build points

I will however spend 3 build points to bring the con to 10/06 and 26! To take LKS up to 10/03

Human fighter – costs 20 Build points

This leaves me with 40 build points without quirks and flaws, that I will do next getting the following

058 – First – Animal Phobia   - canines                       30

795 – Second – HackFrenzy                                                 19

Other Priors and particulars

Gender female

Age 19

Height 66â€�       

Bmi = 19.5

Wt 120lb

Handedness - Right handed

Family

Birth – legitimate with two loving parents +4BP

Two Siblings – sisters both alive not twins

Youngest of three

One devoted

One natural

Build points – 93

Weapons

Long sword                              2

Horseman’s pick                      2

Lance                                       2

Dagger                                     1

Bare handed                             0

Club                                         0

                                                                                                                                                            86

Ride – horse                 ML 3                           12 roll 2+7+1   skill 22

Diplomacy                    ML 2                           8 roll 3+5        skill 22

Recruiting                     ML 1                           3 roll 10          skill 24

Resist persuasion          ML 1                           3 roll 6            skill 18

Etiquette and manners   (Varazzarus)                5

                       

                                                                                                                                                            55

Weapon specializations

Long sword +1 all specializations                  20

Horseman’s pick +1 all specialization          20

+ 2 speed                                                        10

+1 speed dagger                                             05

                                                           

Bonus Build points from stats

Int – 10 bp

Literate Varazzan      ML2    roll 10+9         skill34                         8  

Language Kethian     ML1    roll 19              skill 34                        2

Wis – 2bp

Current affairs ML1  roll 22                          skill 34                        2

Cha -6 bp

Persuasion ML2 roll 10+4                             skill 28                        6

Free fighter skill

Appraise weapons & armour ML1 roll 11 skill 25               free

Native language Varazzan  37 +15+15 +roll of 12 skill 79

Finally Hit points                    roll 7    so hp =27       

Source: Pregenerated charactors at first level charactors no one the Squire

[EvilGinger]

lead in to adventure

Group Background

The company was founded late last summer by the last surviving hero of the Giant wars of a generation ago the many storied Erened Varnia as he felt that a threat was coming to the northlands as it had had when the giants and their allies or as the now liberated half giants would have it slave soldiers had come down from the ice and mountains in the utmost north scattering the Kethian tribes and invading civilized lands, with much slaughter. They had only been stopped when after many tribulations and great deeds and his companions who amongst other things had started a revolt amongst the Half Giants, rallied at least some of the intensely superstitious and often xenophobic Kethians tribes and clans to the cause and finally located and bested the Jalakirr king of the giants in his iron halls.  After that the small band of heroes that survived largely settled down and with all of them being human and with time taking its inevitable toll they are reduced to the crippled Erened Varnia in Torn hold.

The company has known each other since then and have trained together under the tuition of Erened Varnia since and are familiar with each others strengths and weaknesses and favoured approaches to problems. The Company are aware that Erened Varnia had some fairly strict recruitment criteria and that more than they came to Torn hold and attempted to join and some of these would be members still linger about the town.

Now with the coming of spring he deems them ready and has sent them all to Angrad, a couple of days ride north and west of Torn hold where the master smith Khonnir will craft them an item of equipment or weapon as a reward for reaching this level of acquirement in the demanding old mans eyes. The plan then is for them to return for further training, before commencing on whatever task he has in mind, what this task might be is something he has so far kept secret. That those of the company given to such nonsense are speculating about it has not elicited any answers.

Source: lead in to adventure

[EvilGinger]

Pregenerated Charactors at first level  no three the sword master

Name Azikiri Mori

Varazzan human fighter

STR 16- 91

INT 10-18

WIS 08-41

CON 14-41

DEX 10-26

LKS 12-57

CHA 12-87

This is a very good set especially for a fighter so I am not going to rearrange them so get a base of 90 build points.

I am rather tempted to roll his Strength over to 17/01 but that can solve itself in a level or two for free and sixteen is good any way. The stat that needs sorting out is his wisdom as the last thing you want is a fighter who is slow to react; especially given the lethality of the system raising it to 10/01 costs 16 build points

Human Fighter costs 20 Build points

So that gives 54 build points to spend before doing priors and particulars and quirks and flaws

Quirks and flaws

662 Superstitious – roll 4, about the dead and death grants 15bp

Other priors and particulars

Gender male

Age – 20

Height  – 68â€�

Bmi – 24

Wt – 157lb

Handedness – Right

Family

Birth – illegitimate – child of a rape – Abusive Parent – disowned by family

Additional flaw as a result of upbringing 933 Pocking and acne scaring on face and neck which reduces his LKS to 11/57

Build points 69

Two Handed Sword                                                                             2bp

Long Sword                                                                                         2bp

Dagger                                                                                                 1bp

Short bow                                                                                            2bp

Talents

Level one specialization great sword                                          20bp

Level two Specialization great sword                                                     40bp

Skills

Survival urban ML1      roll 1d12 gives a 5 so skill = 15             2bp

Free Skills and proficiencies gained as a Fighter

Appraisal weapons and armour ML1                roll 1d12 gives 4 so the skill is 14

Weapon Proficiency – club and bare handed      

Bonus build points

INT      None

WIS     None

CHA    1 bp

Distraction ML1           the roll of 1d12 +1 gives 4 so the skill is 16

Native language Varazzan 37 +10+10 + 4, roll of d20, = 61 

And finally Hit points 14+10 +1d10 (5) =29

Source: Pregenerated Charactors at first level  no three the sword master

[EvilGinger]

Pregenerated Charactors at first level  no four the priest

Doleshimir

Dwarven cleric of the BRIGHT ONE

STR 13-94

INT 12-53

WIS 11-100

CON 15-79

DEX 15-98

LKS 15-38

CHA 13-50

Good set of stats again so no need to rearrange things I feel so a full 90 build points, granted I could have swapped something higher into his wisdom but on the final analysis did not think it worth the Build points the swap would cost. I did however roll his Dex over to 16/03 at the cost of one build point his wisdom to 12/05 at the cost of one build point and his strength to 14/04 at the cost of two build points and his Con to 16/04 at the cost of five build points. Applying these and the modifications for being a dwarf gives

STR 14/04

INT 12-53

WIS 12/05

CON 20/04

DEX 16/03

LKS 12-38

CHA 11-50

In the end I spent 11 build points on attributes and with the 35 being a cleric as a dwarf costs that leaves me with 44 to spend before Priors and Particulars

Quirks and flaws

113 chatterbox 10bp

Other priors and particulars

Gender male

Age 58

Height  54â€�

Bmi 38.5

Wt 159lb

Handedness – ambidextrous

Family

Birth legitimate abusive mother and ill-equipped father – fear of heights as a result

Siblings two, both younger than him

Female – alive – very close

Male – alive – natural

Build points 44

Weapons

Dagger             2bp

Cross bow       4bp

Talents

Extra hit points              20bp

Illusion resistant                        10bp

Poison resistant +2                   8bp

Free skills and proficiencies gained as a cleric & dwarf

Weapon – Mace

Armour – heavy and shield

Skills

Fire building ML1 roll 1d12 of 5 so skill =17

First aid ML1   roll 1d12 of 8 so skill =20

Literacy (Dwarven) ML1 roll 1d12 of 8 so skill =20

Mining ML1 roll 1d12 of 3 so skill =15

Religion (Bright One) ML 1 roll 1d12 of 1 so skill = 13

Devine Lore ML1 roll 1d12 of 19 as it penetrated so skill = 31

Bonus Build points

INT – 2bp

Language (Varazzan) ML 1

WIS –2 bp

Fire Building ML1

CHA – none

Native language – Dwarven roll 37+12+12 +1d20 rolled 10 so the skill is 70

Hit points 10 size +20 con +1d8 +1d4 becomes 30+2+3 =35

Source: Pregenerated Charactors at first level  no four the priest

[EvilGinger]

A History of the Shambles

Introduction & history

In the new town of Vayham there is a district which is known as the Shambles it has an interesting origin around a century ago after the building of the dye works its builder decided to build a fine house up wind of his works and the adjacent tannery's but on the cheap land outside the then town walls. There followed a period of economic boom forth and the whole area which is now the Newtown grew considerably. In due course the builder of the dye works died and his heirs who had grown even richer from the income form the works amongst other things decided that grand as the stone house was they did not want to live adjacent to what was now a relative slum as the second tannery had been built by this time and workers houses for it and the exiting tannery and growing dye works clustered thickly about them. They moved closer to the north gate where all the other wealthy towns’ folk lived and still live to this day. 

The sold the old house to the Kalamarian engineer who had been bought in by the then Count to deal with the problem of the growing effluent from the Tannery’s and dye works not to mention the water run off from the regular rain. There was a fear that this run off might contaminate the water supplies for the whole town and poison every one. The Engineer lived in the house during the building of the new town drains though the area was not called that then as this was before the walls where built. He continued to live here and use it as a base of operations as he worked in other towns in the region after the drains where built and the wall was extended until he did not return form one of his trips. His staff dispersed when he did not come back and he seemed to have no heirs.

The abandoned house was shortly inhabited by squatters and more squatters’ moved into and built shacks in the houses gardens forming the beginnings of the area now know as the shambles. At some point in the intervening sixty or so years the old house succumbed to neglect and  collapsed, but the ruins where quickly mined for building materials and then over built by more huts and shacks until in the current day no surface trace of the house remains except perhaps a bit of a mound in the middle of the shambles.

The shambles today

The Shambles today is a warren of single story huts sheds and lean-tos’ with no road or even lane penetrating it just an ever changing maze of the narrowest of alleys so as to allow its residents access to their usialy squalid hovels. Life here where the poorest of Vayham’s poor dwell was never easy and its inhabitants where afflicted with near starvation chronic unemployment and poverty even in the best of times with the coming of the goblin troubles and the towns population being more than doubled in a very short time. The wealth refugees displaced the poorer townsfolk form the better lodgings elsewhere in town as  they could now no longer afford inflated rents and the poorer refugees once the poor house was full where forced to find shelter where they could, many so displaced found their way to the Shambles and swelled its population disproportionately. The area which was already over crowded and a breeding spot for disease has become more of one and the occurrence of large and aggressive rats on its alleys at night is becoming more frequent. To make matters worse when the goblin siege started the goblins crude siege engines made the area within a hundred feet of the town wall uninhabitable as the first fire pots caused a severe fire the town militia where hard pressed to deal with and burned down almost a third of the place and only the most daring or desperate have rebuilt in this area  as the goblins are still dropping bags of flints and fire pots over the wall into the area and such rebuilding is even more ramshackle than before being mostly crude tents.

Source: A History of the Shambles

[EvilGinger]

more is on its way folks

 Ginger

[EvilGinger]

Experience awards for Episode Twenty two

Introduction  

Not that much got done largely as the session time got consumed  in the administration of levelling up and in any event much of the session gaming was going to be consumed in setting things in place for the next session however stuff got done and experience honour and fame needs to be handed out for that

Episode XVIII – a merging of ways

In which the two companies form Vayham and from outside meet for the first time

	Experience	Honour	Fame
The fight at the   west Gate (I   had intended to role play this in detail, but did not get a chance to in the   end )
Oliver	10	+0	+1
Nyassor	15	+1	+2
Sondan	15	+1	+2
Coradoc	10	+2	+0
At the Hospital
Coradoc scrounging	15	+1	+0
Healer and Siskin	10	+0	+0
Oliver dropping in	5	+0	+0
Out and about town
Dvorn spreading his legend (Dvorn)	15	+3	+3
Rest of the original company	0	+1	+1
Lalia around town	5	+0	+0
Telec around town	5	+0	+0
Aeltred around town	15	+1	+0
Aeltred gathering up the strays	5	+1	+0
Aeltred Succeeding & being a smug git about it	+0	+1	+0
At the Temple of   the True
Fawlit Being a good Guard	5	+1	+0
Telec arguing with the assistant priest	15	+1	+0
Telec good use of clerical magic	15	+1	+0
Arguing with the high priest of the true	5	+0	+0
Failing in his objective	10	-1	+0
The Meeting at the   Hospital and the high priests Briefing
All the original company except Telec	5	+0	+0
Siskin	10	+1	+0
Telec for being late	0	-1	+0
In group discussions and planning	5	+0	+0
Miscellaneous role   playing
All characters whose player was present	+5	+1	+0
Original company being loyal to their friends	+5	+3	+0
Original company being associated with undesirables, the   dwarves and the Half Orc	+5	-3	+0
Doing stuff off camera Heradin & Thans	10	-1	+0
Doing stuff off camera Nyasse	30	+5	+0
Siskin, Healer and Coradog for amusing the GM  in assorted ways	10	+0	+0

Source: Experience awards for Episode Twenty two

[EvilGinger]

Against the Robots

As my proposed solo Adventures elsewhere on line game is taking rather a long time to take off owing to my Darling Nieces ailments and myriad of distractions and I have been paying Roll20 for  a mentors subscription and not using it . I decided to bite the bullet and try to get another game off the ground on Roll 20 and as I am often taken by the quality of Paizio's Pathfinder game and have been a fan of Science  Fantasy since I got over the Vegapigmies eating my favourite character to date in the module S3 

more about which is to be found here  

 As I never owned a copy of this module but I have since acquiring Pathfinders Wrath of the Righteous adventure path become a fan of the Adventure path concept 

I decided to use Pathfinders newly started adventure path Iron Gods as at least a launch point for the game as I liked the idea and fancied the challenge of building a lot of home brewed monsters, which is all John Belmonte's fault as I have been having such fun with his in the Strange world of Random Doom something which I am sure I have had occasion to mention on here.

I quickly sketched out a bit of background, to replace Numeria the Pathfinder setting for this and have the beginnings of a home brewed world and am now ready to run at leas a character generation session. and I hope see where it goes for there. I don't know how close to the original story arc we will stick but there will be a lot of fun to be had finding out.

Source: Against the Robots

[EvilGinger]

More annoyances

Computers Grrr...
once again my consolidated experience page is refusing to update when I try to update it and if it continues to do so I am going to have to work out an alternative way of hosting what are becoming rather large documents ... Computers Grrrr....

Source: More annoyances

[EvilGinger]

More annoyances

Computers Grrr...

Once again my consolidated experience page is refusing to update when I try to update it and if it continues to do so I am going to have to work out an alternative way of hosting what are becoming rather large documents ...

All of which using valuable time when I should be working on articles and posting more stuff here 

Computers Grrrr....

Source: More annoyances

[EvilGinger]

on a positive point

Cool new stuff incoming 

see here

and much more on this an on

Source: on a positive point

[EvilGinger]

I need help

I have signed up for Twitter,  as EvilRpgGM  I think I may well have completely lost the plot but the intent is to raise the profile of this blog and promote and fund raise for Burton Wildlife Rescue, which as you should know I sport here  hence amongst other things the Adverts and the posts with pictures of rescued animals in which I will alos be tweeting about or whatever its called

 
I have also added a twitter gadget to my blog so re-tweet the cools stuff as well
 

Source: I need help

[EvilGinger]

Review - Legacy of the Elm King  Adventure

A review of  the Legacy of the Elm King reposted form the Kenzer forums

PDF Cover

"I'm gonna be pretty purposefully vague so as not to give away too much  info as spoilers, but still if you're not remotely likely to GM this,  and much more likely to just play it, probably don't read any further.  Just know that you can recommend this adventure to your GM unreservedly.  It'll be a lot of fun to work through from both sides of the table.

If you are a GM this adventure will fit in perfectly with a story set in  the Frandor's Keep area. It's built upon a previous adventure "In the  Realm of the Elm King" but can be run without any problems by parties  that missed that first leg. It can also be imported without any problem  into much any other setting, as long as there's a likelihood of Kobolds  living around and a somewhat pastoral farming community. It'd probably  take a pretty long session or 2-3 smaller sessions to get through.

Generally, this adventure is fun and easy to read. Important for GM's!  Stats are laid out in a precise and easily understood manner, and I  rarely found myself confused or flipping back and forth to remind myself  of what was what. Fun to read, should be pretty straight forward to  run.

I don't usually look for straight dungeon crawls because I often find  them rather one dimensional, repetitive and rather broken from a  story-telling perspective (I often find myself asking "why are these  creatures even here in the first-place and why the heck is there all  this valuable loot lying around unattended?"). LoEK does a great job of  building homegrown plausibility that fits right into its regional  setting (Vew, near Frandor's Keep). From the hooks to the setting  descriptions, I found myself right in the lay of the land, believing  what I was hearing and ready for more. In now way did I feel the setup  to be contrived or out of place, as hooks sometimes can feel. That's  important to me cause I try to keep players involved in a consistent  setting-feel, which can be broken, and thus belief unsuspended, so to  speak, if setup is "off."

While the dungeon crawl itself is "just another Kobold lair" for me it  wasn't "just another Kobold lair." It had a really neat unique feel to  it, largely thanks to the well thought-out layout of the warren and the  interesting little descriptions (rocking-chair thrones and a scepter  fashioned out of a yarn-festooned ladle is awesome). From a  technical encounter standpoint, this crawl (literally) will likely have  your players feeling claustrophobic and paranoid (with a little bit of  skilled delivery) and ready to get through the dam thing so they can get  the erf out. The layout makes this crawl a potential meat-grinder.  Complacent players and those expecting "just another Kobold lair" will  find themselves in some tight spots, and pay some penalties. I wouldn't  be surprised to see a PC kill or two. Awards are pretty straightforward  and pretty generous too for parties able to take full advantage. That's  another cool aspect, as there's lots of stuff that PCs might easily miss  if they're just running through rough-shod (or scared).

My only constructive criticism is that there were a few sections where I  wasn't totally clear on what Kobolds should be where in certain  circumstances (want to leave this vague ala spoilers) ... for example,  should there be 6 behind the barricades if A happens, or none? If none,  then where are they and what are they doing? But really, these details  should be pretty easy for the GM to extrapolate and make decision on  without exact guidance.

I'm quite looking forward to hooking my table in the mouth with this  little adventure! I'm thinking I might even offer it as a detour to  their present mission, though I doubt they'll bite right now cause what  they're after is vitally important and they know it. Still, some day!  Cheers"

Original post is here

Get it from here

Source: Review - Legacy of the Elm King  Adventure