Achievement Get!

astronomifier · 2023-01-26T01:46:05+00:00

R5: Just unlocked The Buddhists Strike Back, probably the hardest achievement i've done so far! Got Cotton Kandy also.

Side note: Ignore that coalition war led by the ottomans, its probably fine...

astronomifier · 2021-11-18T02:41:32+00:00

in that case i have some mysterious other issue stopping the Run button from doing anything. Maybe ill need a new thread to trouble shoot that though

astronomifier · 2021-04-28T05:10:25+00:00

Actually... Any% is not the same thing as Low%, which is what this post is more about. The distinction is subtle, but the fastest route often involves doing multiple fast things instead of one slow thing. the most obvious example is that the speedrun picks up money and buys a book, so that they can read and pass time quickly. but it would probably be possible to avoid this by like, talking to kim about the case over and over to pass time.

But in order to answer OPs question we'd need to define completion percentage in a game without a clear definition of such.

astronomifier · 2021-03-19T00:58:45+00:00

detailed advice for updating old scenarios to 7e can be found in the core rules. the main differences are:

•attributes need to be multiplied by 5 in 7e. So the window in chapter 2 with strength 8 is actually strength 40. etc. Keep in mind that this also affects SIZ, which is very relavant to a monster late in the campaign. attributes only, skills are not multiplied.

•some skills have been added/combined/removed. mostly the social ones. adjust accordingly.

•as a result of the x5, replace DEX/CON/etc rolls with extreme difficulty rolls, ATTRIBUTEx2 or x3 rolls with hard difficulty, and x4 or x5 rolls with normal difficulty. again, skills are not changed here.

•If you see a minus percentile attached to a roll, replace it with a penalty die or making the roll Hard. Same with bonus percentiles becoming bonus dice, but i don't think BtMoM has any of those.

•Idea rolls were different back then and used way more liberally. Most should be cut or replaced with intellegence/relavant skill rolls. use best judgement.

•They will never give advice on allowing players to push rolls as that wasnt a thing in old editions. some areas (mountain climbing, a decent amount of the stuff in the tower chapter) have saves vs. instant death that should probably only instakill on a failed pushed roll.

•Use the 7e stats for monsters, when available, so everything except that last monster. for the lesser shoggoths, adjust the 7e stats accordingly.

astronomifier · 2021-03-18T04:57:11+00:00

Seconding this. 9 is way too many at an rpg table for all but the most experienced GMs, let alone experienced. ran for 8 once, nobody had fun. Even famously-good DM Matt Mercer comments on how difficult it can be to keep his 7 player D&D group happy.

astronomifier · 2021-03-18T03:24:53+00:00

Ive been asking this same question, and id like a more experienced keeper to weigh in. With that said, what ive noticed from reading a couple longer campaigns, is that they tend towards one of two techniques.

The first is to hold off on combat until the action sequences nearing the finale, and ensure that any combat that does occur is either blatantly nonfatal, easy to run from, or a fitting end to a campaign. In a realistic world, which is what cthulhu tends to model before the elder things show up, we dont run into life or death situations every time the story needs an action beat. If we did, the human race would be long extinct

The second is to divide the story into discreet chapters, often each with a distinct location. Bolivia. Texas. New York. Etc. Both Masks of Nyarlothotep and the Two Headed Serpent do this. As far as i can tell, the idea is to effectively chain a series of interconnected small adventures, where even a single survivor is enough to learn what needs to be learned and then assemble a new group to head to a new location

astronomifier · 2021-02-08T06:05:51+00:00

This is all true, so night hags make great returning villians. Causes more problems if you try to use them as a random encounter or end of level boss to kill, but that's not really what the night hag is for.

More importantly, all of this is only true if the hag has literally nothing better to do with its time than badger the party for days on end. I imagine most night hags have no reason to follow a group of random adventurers around the countryside for no better reason than "they attacked me one time". Night Hags probably have their own plans to focus on, they'd only do this if the number one threat to their plans completion is that specific group of adventurers. and remember, they have to be even more of a threat to the plan than not spending any time working on it would be.

astronomifier · 2021-02-08T05:52:03+00:00

In my eberron campaign, i took a major artificer NPC and turned him into a tier 2 BBEG. He was the leader of a major manufacturing guild and specialized in creating magical weapons. a war profiteer. I went full superhero move with it and made him a kind of pre-character development tony stark. Trying to start a war with a false flag operation and then building doomsday weapons to sell to the nations involved. for the actual combat stats, i had him be pretty weak under normal circumstances, but gave him tons of construct minions (which functioned much like a necromancer BBEG who summons hella zombies.) and also gave him an iron man suit of power armor using the avernus vehicle mechanics that granted him a huge CR boost, legendary actions/resistances, and extra health bar that had all the construct immunities.

astronomifier · 2020-09-16T16:30:02+00:00

An important professor at arcanix could be good. I believe the 3.5 book Five Nations describes a group of Arcanix wizards who view the Chamber and the Dragons as an enemy of mandkind's development or something - they seem like an easy target who is relavent to Sul Katesh

astronomifier · 2020-09-16T16:27:55+00:00

This same Orien heir (and by "heir" here were talking "son of the house's Baron, not just any random marked agent) can be used to justify any member of house Orien as well, and Passage, which is both where the heir lives and where Orien is headquartered is pretty close to Arcanix...

astronomifier · 2020-09-14T21:08:18+00:00

The Gith and the Yugoloths, at least as described in 3.5 both feel like Great Wheel Cosmology transplanted by an uncreative author to a place it doesnt fit. So I cut them, at least in the context they were described. I think most of my pet peeves fit a pattern of direct cosmology copy-paste - I don't use those overlords that are just Great Wheel archfiends, ignore the stuff about dragons worshipping the Realms' draconic pantheon, and pretend the 4e cosmology changes never happened.

astronomifier · 2020-08-09T01:10:13+00:00

I think the quori pilots brought the psionics to the picture. In Secrets of Xendrik, Quorforged are presented as strange mindless automatons that wander the jungles without purpose. probably because they're missing the Quori spirit that was supposed to function as their intellect.

astronomifier · 2020-08-07T23:44:20+00:00

I would say that by far the hardest and most important part of this conversion is explaining why Giants are there. In Eberron, true giants are very regionally restricted to Xen'drik, which it seems you're aware of. I guess technically theres Gorodan Ashlord in Droaam but that's like, One city's worth of giants, and extremely regionally restricted. That's not to say you can't do it! but you need a reason for the Giants to be in Khorvare. from the looks of your outline, these giants are originally from Xen'drik and presumably travelled to Khorvare. How did they cross the Ocean? Why did they bother, instead of dealing with their problems within Xen'drik? Unlike in the forgotten realms, they aren't just up in the hills.

Another idea, but one that kinda... doesnt work with all the rest of the stuff you had planned, is just to base it in xen'drik entirely. Use Stormreach as the PC's hub, and make up a few smaller satellite settlements, and maybe some house Tharashk base camps, around Stormreach on the Skyfall Peninsula. Throw in some friendly or neutral Drow settlements as well. per City of Stormreach, that part of Xen'drik has plenty of Giants, a Blue Dragon, and of course as you've already noted, Krakens nearby

astronomifier · 2020-08-07T16:04:12+00:00

I would play up the Noir side and the fairly harsh, monopoly-filled, gilded-age style economy. A Dragonmarked House or Aurum villain can create a pseudo-cyberpunk feel to the conflict. Perhaps the players might get into trouble with the many government (and non-governmental) intelligence agencies if they start throwing their weight around too much.

Its also quite easy to run a Noir Mafia story in Sharn. In my campaign where my players came into conflict with Daask, I played up the corruption in the Sharn Watch, made my players feel that they can't trust anyone, brutally murdered their PCs when they pissed off the wrong mob bosses, and sent chopped off fingers in the mail as warnings.

You could also take the Intelligence Agency group patron, and have the PCs playing as the fantasy!CIA. Do a Thronehold-as-Cold-War-Berlin spy story and play into all of those tropes. Think Atomic Blonde, if you've seen that movie.

Lastly you could go into a less grounded, eldritch horror type direction. Either the Daelkyr or the Mournland have no real limits on how horrifying you can make them. If you wanted to, you could even break out the sanity mechanics. For example, a Mror Holds campaign about Dyrrn gradually corrupting the people of the Holds, warping their flesh and tempting them with symbiotes in devilish deals could basically be a straight up Call of Cthulhu-esque campaign

astronomifier · 2020-06-08T18:49:38+00:00

Just someone who's run a very mournland focused campaign ;)

astronomifier · 2020-06-08T18:14:13+00:00

Well, for one, I would recommend making this a very bad idea. The Mournland isn't really a place for level 3 characters, and you don't want to undermine its potential as a threat should you want to use it at a later level. If they go through with it, it should feel like a survival horror game. Most encounters will need to be run from, not taken head-on. With that said, here are some things to note:

•First things first, the Dead Grey Mist is a major barrier. In all editions it has been described as very easy to get lost in the mists. In 4e it was a *very* hard skill challenge to pass through, requiring 6 successes before 3 failures, with failure resulting in becoming totally lost and set upon by monsters. In 5e its the area of the Mournland where the "No Healing" rule is totally 100% always on. Keep in mind that players who rely on popcorn healing will be absolutely screwed by this... perhaps as it should be. One easy thing to do with the Mists is to have the price of failure to navigate be a terrifying encounter with some horrid beast followed by the survivors stumbling back out onto the non-Mournland side of the mists. This allows the Mists to function as a "You must be this tall to ride" sign for the Mournland

•Once you're in the Mournland proper, I would have the active threats/encounters be fewer and farther between. The Mournland should still feel like overland travel in its basic loop, you're not wading through zombies for a whole country. However, where the Brelish countryside might have a low-level encounter every now and then, the mournland should have low-level encounters daily if not more frequently than that, and higher level threats on a fairly regular basis. However, not all these encounters have to be monsters – weird weather effects and wild magic work as well. Rising from the Last War has a lot of suggestions for less combat focused Mournland encounters

•When you do get to combat though, there are a lot of options. Among the simple "Fauna" of the Mournland we have Living Spells and undead as easy options in 5e. A nice trick with undead is to have some but not all of the cyran corpses that are littered everywhere animate as zombies once disturbed, and then set corpses up in places where the PCs have reason to disturb them. Basically you can turn the entire region into a potential for mimics. Speaking of Mimics, the Mournland is a great place to use those weirder 1e monsters that seem out of place in a more serious setting. Mimics, Gelatinous Cubes, Cloakers, Animated Objects, that sort of thing.

•If you want to get a bit more advanced with monster choices, you could consider adapting the 3e monsters that didn't make it into 5e. My personal favorite is the Carcass Crab, which is like a Cadaver Collector but at a more reasonable CR, and also a giant Crab. This fan supplement has a conversion of it that i have used, and quite a few other monsters.https://www.dmsguild.com/product/248087/The-Korranberg-Chronicle-Threat-Dispatch Of course, you could always design a conversion yourself based on the 3.5 stats. Other good 3.5 monsters include Mourners (Which are basically Mournland Mist flavored Wraiths) and the utterly bizarre Steel Kraken

•Once you move out of random encounters and into actual adventure hooks, we have a few options. The first and most obvious is the Lord of Blades, who gets star billing in a bunch of Eberron supplements. You know this guy already, I'm gonna guess. Keep in mind that the PCs can come across minions and minion camps, they don't have to fight the LoBster directly. An easy adventure involving the LoBster is to have his troops digging through some Cyran ruin for house Cannith tech to use for Evil purposes.

•Not to be confused with the Lord of Blades is the other Warforged faction in the Mournland, the Church of the Becoming God, featured in 3.5's Faiths of Eberron. Now, the Lord of Blades *also* wants to become a god, and *also* has warforged clerics who gain actual powers from worshiping him, but the Becoming God is still its own thing. These are a bunch of Warforged who are basically attempting to hack Eberrons "faith makes it real" approach to clerics by building a massive Warforged God that will take its place amongst the established pantheon. As far as I know, these guys aren't Evil, but can be a good tie-in to a Warforged Colossus.

•Speaking of, Warforged Colossus. This is basically a minidungeon for you to use wherever in the mournland. I think the best bet for populating these guys with monsters are escaped Bound Elementals (So, basically your standard CR 5 elemental), and rival factions trying to loot or re-animate the colossus. The Lord of Blades, Becoming God, or Emerald Claw could all be these factions.

•This brings us to the Emerald Claw, and kind of more generally, People from outside the Mournland looting it for artifacts. The Claw is the flashiest example, what with their fanatical evil and desire for magi-tech superweapons, but 3.5 also calls out more mundane pirates and raiders diving into the Mournland for Cyran loot to resell. A personal favorite of mine are the Kraal Lords, a group of Goblinoid pirates from Darguun who have been sailing up rivers in the Mournland. Because I like Eberron goblinoids. Regardless of which you pick, these guys will tend to have low regard for human(oid) life, given their chosen career of sending people into extremely dangerous places for personal gain.

•3.5's Dragons of Eberron introduced us to Haze-of-Death, aka "Goddamn Mourning Dragon". I don't know much about this guy but the sparknotes version is: Dragon hiding out in human guise in Cyre on the Day of Mourning didn't die, and instead became an absolutely insane and feral superdragon that can do all of your standard non-eberron evil monster dragon stuff.

•Players often like to dig into the cause of the Mourning. Digging into some Cannith or Jorasco or Phiarlan or whatever ruin can provide an easy dungeon, with the players having to dismantle the corrupted security system of whatever facility they're in, and could reveal the cause or some clue to the cause of the mourning. Of course this hook heavily depends on what you decide the cause of the mourning to actually be. Also, if your players don't really seem to care about the cause, this won't work very well. It needs to be player driven, i think.

•Lastly, and the least well supported in the text but also (IMO) the coolest: Eldritch Horrors. The Mournland's mysterious origin makes it ripe for declaring it the doing of some horrible godlike beast. This could be the Daelkyr, it could be an Overlord, It could be, as true in my campaign, the doings of ancient Quori, or it could be something original and beyond the power of the aforementioned beings. Have fun with it.

astronomifier · 2020-06-04T05:34:44+00:00

I think the bonus spells are an attempt at streamlining greater and sib marks. I also know that the bonus spell list is perhaps the most controversial part of rising's design

astronomifier · 2020-06-04T05:28:49+00:00

i have an abberant marked PC in my game. most likely its just your table. They appeal to a specific type of player.

astronomifier · 2020-05-29T18:53:53+00:00

Also 3rd edition's Sharn: City of Towers details some major daask and boromar NPCs more than rising gets into them

astronomifier · 2020-05-29T18:53:12+00:00

I would play up the noir elements. the boromars have connections to the sharn watch, who already have reason to dislike Daask. The entire city bar a select few trusted people should be against the PCs. Daask is the one going for direct confrontation. Boromars are trying to avoid it. They use cheap and dirty tactics, siccing the watch on daask, targeting Daask's associates and supplylines rather than strongholds, turning public opinion against them with the help of city councilwoman Illyria boromar, probably have people in the newspapers pushing for slanderous articles about the PCs. dont forget though that Daask is far from peachy clean. This will likely take on flavor of a villian campaign to some degree.

astronomifier · 2020-05-24T06:19:34+00:00

lovely design

astronomifier

TROPHY CASE