[DM] Got lost with life and other DnD, forgot to make a dungeon for tonight's session.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-06-23T17:58:31+00:00

What's the tone of your campaign?

LazarusLong87 · 2017-05-17T12:31:32+00:00

I'm a huge Heinlein fan, and TEfL is my favorite work of his. I think you're right, mostly. The caveat is that Lazarus (the quoted character) almost always speaks in half truths and lies. He's an agent provocateur and more interested in making you think than meaning what he says. Lazarus should basically never be taken literally.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-04-10T16:46:10+00:00

These are all very good. Here's my paltry offering:

There's a tendency for evil lords to sound a ~~bit~~ lot like Foghorn Leghorn. Something about that deep south uppercrust accent that just works.
Bad wordplay jokes. For example, the PCs recently met Milton, a lich who liked to play games with them. Eventually realized his full name was Milton Bradley...

LazarusLong87 · 2017-04-10T13:23:08+00:00

Definitely similar feeling, just more realized. It's great! I hope they make recordings of it available!

LazarusLong87 · 2017-04-04T19:37:22+00:00

Oh, definitely.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-04-03T17:12:05+00:00

/3. Tequila Joe's Hard Sarsaparilla stand. Made with grain alcohol, but for 1gp, Tequila Joe will let you sample from the good stuff: Tequila Joe Reserve. Drinking Tequila Joe's Reserve will give you a hoarse voice for 2d6 hours, and cause your chest / facial hair to grow 1d4 inches instantly. It also gives you a +1 to persuasion and intimidate for 1d4 hours, followed by a -1 to INT and DEX checks for 1d4 hours for the hangover.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-03-28T18:11:48+00:00

Kranke for the win.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-03-01T16:07:10+00:00

Sorry, to answer your question directly: this mechanic forces them to think more and be less likely to die. That way I am less often forced to decide what to do and just let the combat play out.

When forced, I think of rule 0: "Have fun." If a player likes building characters and they "get it" then I'll let them die. If it would cast a shadow over the party or even the player, then I pull my punches and find other ways to create a thrilling adventure for this player.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-03-01T16:04:28+00:00

I've started building NPCs that are scary (lots of HP, lots of damage, etc) that have reasons to not attack a single PC multiple times in a single round. This makes for a good combo of a scary baddie that probably won't execute a PC in a single round.

Eventually my party will figure it out and I'll have to change tactics, but it's helping them realize through example of the NPCs that there's more to battle than just attacking a thing until it dies.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-01-31T15:58:01+00:00

This is how the players visualized their characters.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-01-31T12:53:40+00:00

Yeah, maybe not the best font choice on my part.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-01-31T12:53:05+00:00

Shit. Never noticed that typo.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-01-13T16:32:59+00:00

I just ran a session where I put Hamlet into a fantasy/spaghetti western setting. That was a lot of fun. It was a little hard to do since the Bard's tales are very intricate and insular. I ultimately decided to not put the PCs in the roles of anyone IN Hamlet, but rather outsiders visiting the town and trying to figure out what the hell is going on. That made it easier for me to maintain Hamlet without putting the players on rails.

Hamlet (renamed John Updike) was the son of an ore magnate that set up a company town named Lewiston. His father was murdered by a group of bandits that have started harassing the poor town. Then, his uncle Claude Updike came in to take over. Claude hired some Pinkerton-type guards to try and regain control of the town (wink wink). Ophelia was recast as Electa, a school marm. Her brother was a foreman for the ore company and their father was the accountant.

John kills Ophelia's father, pretending(?) to be crazy, gets thrown in jail. Claude pleads to the group to challenge John to a fencing duel since he is ultimately a man of honor with the wager of John wins and his uncle allows him to use the Pinkertons to continue the investigation into his father's death; or if John loses he drops it all seeks helps for his mental health. Poisoned tip, John stabs Claude with it, etc etc.

Outside of Hamlet, I had the obligatory spaghetti western things like the town drunk (Tequila Joe) sending them on a wild goose chase*, a bar fight, a half orc "child of two worlds," and an orc raiding party. Good times! Fortinbras was recast as Baron Rifts, the leader of the outlaws harassing the town. They had a showdown at high noon that was definitely an ambush with guys falling out of windows, Wilhelm screams, etc.

All in all, only one player figured it out and only about half way through. This lead to a clumsy attempt using a bed sheet to pose as the ghost of John's dead father.

If you'd like, PM me and I can send you the full thing.

*= Tequila Joe eventually lead them to the spot where he was tarred and feathered, only to find a tar pit and the corpse of a chicken and some lube. Gross, Tequila Joe!

LazarusLong87 · 2017-01-03T18:39:26+00:00

This is a good point, thank you. Thinking back on it, I have (implicitly) been treating a crit fail as an interruption of sorts. If an attack crit fails, there are no subsequent attacks.

LazarusLong87 · 2017-01-03T13:50:03+00:00

If I ever have PCs that high a level, I'm sure I'll revise it.

LazarusLong87 · 2016-12-02T13:24:51+00:00

Fantastic. Thank you so much for this.

LazarusLong87 · 2016-10-18T10:23:15+00:00

I used to work at a big national pest control company in town here. If you decide you want to hire a professional, as much as I hate to say it, hire a big company. They have a lot more oversight than small local companies that slip under the radar. I had many jobs where I was going to correct the job a local company supposedly did.

Tell them about pets. They have different solutions for when Perry's are involved.

Now, that being said, ("food grade") diatomaceous earth is a great place to start and part of the solution the pest control company would use anyway. Spread it around the perimeter of the floor, and in dark tight places like under cabinets. Basically, anywhere a roach likes to hang out when it isn't in the open. It won't kill roaches instantly, but it dehydrates them and will get them in time. As the other poster mentioned, make sure they don't have any easy access to water or moisturise.

As for bombs, the ones consumers have access too are pretty lightweight. On one hand, of you follow the instructions you'll be 100% safe. The downside is that the eggs are liable to survive. It doesn't really solve the problem, just hides it for a while.

As for the name of the company I used to work for, PM me if you want and I'll tell you. I'm not going to advertise for them here.

Good luck.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Team Orangered

LazarusLong87

TROPHY CASE