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Endday Interlude: Wandering Encounters in 4e

There’s a word for people who don’t like wandering monsters. They’re called “players”. GMs (those I’ve talked to, anyhow) love ‘em as it adds just a little randomness into what is otherwise a preset chain of encounters. The last sessions of the Endday Campaign I experimented with adding Wandering Encounters to the mix, with pretty good results. Here’s how.

But first, a short history lesson. Once upon a time, Wandering Monsters were an important part of D&D. In a dungeon setting, these were the guys who were going from point A to point B and generally living out their monstery lives until they happened to cross the path of a bunch of adventurers. The GM rolled to see if a random encounter took place (in Moldvay D&D, a roll of 1 on 1d6, check every 2 turns), set the encounter distance (2d6×10 feet away) then rolled against a table to see what the monster the hapless party would face. Each dungeon level has its own table, and many a GM would spend happy hours creating and customizing Wandering Monster Tables that here appropriate for their dungeon and gameworld. I know I did.

When it comes to Fourth Edition, it’s better to think in terms of Wandering Encounters rather than mere monsters. Instead of the party stumbling upon 4d4 Kobolds, they could instead meet up with a preset Kobold encounter with a variety of monsters and roles in the mix. This is more in keeping with the 4e philosophy of “think of the whole encounter, not the individual monster”.

Encounters in 4e are normally made up of three things: Monsters, Terrain and Traps/Hazards. When if comes to Wandering Encounters though, it’s best to think purely of the monsters first, and consider the terrain only when you bring them into play. Save the traps for the preset Encounters – a Wandering Encounter should provide action, but not slow the game down while the heroes try to disable or escape a difficult trap.

Encounter Frequency
Which die you roll to check for encounter frequency will dictate how often they occur. For the Endday sessions I rolled d6 each time the heroes took a Short Rest, and modified it by +1 for each Short Rest taken since the last Wandering Encounter. On a result of 6 or above, a random encounter takes place. If you want to reduce the chance of Wandering Encounters, use a d10 or d12 instead.

Have the encounter take place anytime appropriate. Hit them while they’re still resting if you want, or save it until they are travelling. This is a great way to use otherwise “dead zones” in a dungeon map – an Encounter in a narrow corridor is a very different beast to one in a large room.

Encounter Distance
Roll 2d20 for the number of squares between the party and the closest Wandering Monster. This sets the encounter distance between 10′ and 200′ away. Don’t forget to take into account visiblity (a torch-bearing Human can only see a distance of 5 squares, PHB262), and check for surprise. I used the PC’s Passive Perception versus the monster’s Passive Stealth to keep the dice rolls to a minimum.

The Wandering Encounter Table
I created a small table with just d6 encounters for the Endday sessions – two Easy, two Normal and two Hard. For full dungeon crawl level I suggest creating a full d20 table with 6 Easy, 10 Normal and 4 Hard Encounters. Use monsters appropriate to the style of the setting, though don’t be afraid of including elements that seem out of place – they could be teasers of what to expect in the future, or red herrings.

Keeping with the “Demonic Cold” theme, my encounter table looked like this:

  1. 2 Chillborn Zombies, 6 Zombie Rotters, 728XP
  2. 5 Dretch, 2 Zombies, 1 Chillborn Zombie, 875XP
  3. 1 Ice Troll, 3 Gnaw Demons, 1000XP
  4. 4 Rotwing Zombies, 1 Ice Troll, 1200XP
  5. 3 Harpies, 2 Spined Devils, 1250P
  6. 2 Neldrazu, 2 Chillborn Zombies, 4 Zombie Rotters, 1652XP

Final thoughts
Wandering Encounters are a great way to disuade players from taking Short Rests too frequently, and helps to reinforce the impression that they are the ones in enemy territory. Staying in the same place too long only attracts danger! They are also a way to encourage the players to press on – don’t forget that they gain an Action Point for every two encounters between Extended Rests, so it might be worth setting them a random encounter so they have Action Points to spare for the set-piece battles.

Till next time!

EDIT: I forgot to mention – Asmor’s 4e Random Encounter Generator is a great tool if you want to create a Wandering Encounter Table! There. I done said it now.

EDIT 2: There’s the free Monster Manual Encounter pdf I put together too. Ok. I’ll shut up now.

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Posted 20 February 2010 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (5) ° Also tagged: , ,

Endday Update: Baby it’s cold outside

Our heroes finally arrive in Chicago where the worst winter on record has hit, hard. It’s like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow, and only the hardiest Chicargo residents (Chicargoids?) are braving the weather. The heroes have to ditch the bus on the outskirts and trudge through snow to the comfort of their hotel. But, before they get there…..


Yeah. Just like that.

The two sessions covering events of 9th and 10th September were FUN! Picture the scene: a snow covered all-but-deserted city where the Demon Lord Jack Frost holds court. Three lone heroes (and their luggage). And a LOT of wandering ice-themed monsters. This is the streets of Chicago like you’ve never seen them before! We had battles against Chillborn Zombies in a mall, Ice Trolls up Central Avenue and a Shardstorm Vortex Elemental Wendigo strike as they near the business district. Looming over everything like a gigantic edifice  is Willis Tower, a vast structure covered entirely in ice. Jack Frost’s palace, and portal to the Plane of Winter itself!


This, only with better Photoshop skills.

Over the two sessions, there were six encounters in total – three planned, and three Wandering Encounters. I’ll write about those, next time.

Here’s my brief notes for the three set-piece encounters. Even though we’re playing High-Speed D&D, I’ve included XP values and level as a general gauge of difficulty.

Shopping Mall, 1977XP
Objective: Find snow-shoes and cold weather clothing, fast!
Terrain: All difficult until they find snow-shoes
Trap: Level 8 Pit Hazard (Ice breaks, fall to lower mall level, 350XP)

  • 4 Chillborn Zombies (Level 6 Soldier, 250XP)
  • 4 Zombie Rotters (Level 3 Minion, 38XP)
  • 2 Gravehounds (Level 3 Brute, 150XP)
  • 1 Corruption Corpse (Level 4 Artillery, 175XP)

Notes: There’s nothing worse than Ice Zombie Mallrats. Picture your typical zombie, cover it in frost and cheap jewellery, and you’re there. This is a small group of mall shoppers who got caught in the harsh cold of demonic winter and are too dumb to die. Maybe the mall was built on Native American holy ground or something. I dunno. Seriously, putting them out of their misery is the humane thing to do. 4e Zombies are great fun because you can build whole encounters with them (like this one) and not feel short-changed. Even just using the ones from the Monster Manual you’ve got Brutes, Soldiers, Minions and even Artillery. You’ve got everything from tough zombies who just will not stay dead (I’m looking at you, Zombie Hulk!) to ones that hurl “black globs of necrotic filth”. Yuck! My favourite is the Chillborn Zombie. First it freezes you, then it smashes you. Add in the Chillborn Aura (which, unlike most Auras, is cumulative!) and they’re like a walking Refrigerator of Doom. Oh yeah!

Ice Trolls on the Avenue, 2000XP
Objective: Make it to the city centre
Terrain: Difficult in snow drifts, normal otherwise with snow-shoes. Plenty of deserted cars and trucks for cover (and for the Trolls to smash).
Trap: Any car caught in the blast of an area fire attack has a 25% chance of exploding (Burst 2, 3d10+5 damage).

  • 4 Ice Trolls (Level 7 Soldier, 500XP)

Notes: This was an easy encounter, and that’s what made it fun. I should have added more variety into the mix, but sometimes it’s not a bad thing to toss in an encounter where the heroes can really let rip and feel like they’re in charge for once. The Ice Troll stats from MM2 aren’t the best monsters in the book; they can regenerate, do a load of damage with their Mace and are vulnerable to fire, and that’s about it. Their Aura should really do more than just Slow anyone in it’s area of effect. Whoop-de-do.
When your adventuring party has a blasty fire Wizard (such as Annette Weber), Ice Trolls are a walkover. Especially when the team realized they can blow cars up. After almost getting creamed by the Mall Zombies, This was a welcome change of pace. Kudos goes to Daniel for successfully Sneak Attacking a Troll. That’s badass.

Wendogos in the Windy City, 2400XP
Objective: Make it into the hotel!
Terrain: Difficult in snow drifts, normal otherwise with snow-shoes.
Trap: None.

  • 3 Shardstorm Vortex Elementals (Level 7 Skirmisher, 300XP)
  • 2 Ice Trolls (Level 7 Soldier, 500XP)
  • 2 Chillborn Zombies (Level 6 Soldier, 250XP)

Notes: This was one tough encounter! When one monster can Slow you, another Immobilize you and a third toss you around like a ragdoll and reduce your defences, it’s not going to be an easy fight, and it wasn’t. I gave the Shardstorm Vortexes the Cold subtype and made ‘em Large instead of Medium (because, frankly, a Medium-sized Elemental is just wrong) but otherwise this was a straight by-the-book encounter. High point of this battle was Caroline going toe-to-toe with a Shardstorm Vortex and scoring a crit with her Flaming Spiked Chain. If there was ever a mental image that deserved to be turned into a Boris Vallejo picture, that was it!

I had planned to only have one session inside Chicago proper before they approached Willis Tower, but as we were having so much fun killin’ cold things on the streets it stretched to two. As the next is the 11th session, this puts Daniel, Annette and Caroline (and a new hero!) into the Paragon Tier and ready for their trip into the pits of Wint’ry Hell!

The first thing they need to do though, is work out how to get inside.

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Posted 17 February 2010 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Endday Interlude: Epic is a state of mind

So far, our D&D Endday Campaign has been anything but D&D. We’ve had timeslips into Vietnam, out of control planes on a collision course with Hell, Angels pinned to the ceiling of unassuming bookstores and much, much more. The closest we’ve come to a classic Dungeon crawl involved playing hide-and-seek with a Neldrazu in an abandoned junkyard. And we’ve not even left Heroic Tier yet. Just imagine what’s waiting for them up the road……..

One of the things I wanted do to with this campaign was throw away the concept of “start small, get bigger”. Instead, I wanted to start big, then get frickin’ HUGE! I have massive scenes in my mind for what’s coming up in Endday. The entire of Chicago covered in ice is just the beginning and I’m expecting one heck of a battle up the side of a frozen Willis Tower in a few sessions time!

But enough of that. Let me ask you a question.

As a DM, what is your special effects budget?

$10? $10 thousand? A hundred million? Dude, James Cameron has nothing on you – your budget is unlimited! You can drop earthquakes at will, blow whole planets up, turn children into slime critters and back, summon a horde of crawling ghosts that appear through the dungeon walls (Goblin Cutter. Add Resist:Insubstantial. Done.) and more. If you can think it, you can do it – without needing a gazillion green screens, stuntmen, supercomputers and CGI specialists along the way.

That’s not to say you should use all of your infinite special effects budget all the time, of course. Any movie director knows that you need a calm before every storm and you have to include the low-key scenes to give the action scenes more impact. A movie that’s just all-action, all the time is just mush. If you want proof, go watch any Van Damme movie. See what I mean? Mush. Now watch any Die Hard movie. They’re not exactly the heights of cinematic excellence, but they are 100 times better because there are gaps in the action, slower sections which serve to counterpoint the action sequences.

A great game session (or series of sessions) should be like that. Mix high action with dialog and (dare I say it?) solid role-playing, and you’re onto a winning combination. Then turn the volume on your special effects up to ten. At least.

Here’s a quick example. Let’s say you’re running a classic dungeon crawl. The heroes have defeated the Evil Sorcerer. They take a breath then pick the Enormous Ruby of Quib from the ornate stand. They have reached their goal. Do you stop there and call that the end of the adventure? NO!

“The entire room – no, the entire dungeon – starts to shake. The ceiling begins to cave in and the walls buckle under the weight of the three dungeon levels above you. What do you do?”

Cue tense last minute Skill Challenge (and the music from Indiana Jones) as our heroes try to escape a collapsing dungeon! Let them use Acrobatics, Athletics, Dungeoneering, Intimidate (Perhaps against each other – “Get outta my way, Gnome!”) and any other skill they can come up with a use for as they flee. Knock off a healing surge for every failed check (hey, being hit by a dungeon HURTS!) and award them XP if they make it out alive. If not….. well, the dungeon claimed it’s last victims. That’s something, I guess.

Epic? Oh yes.

That, my friend, is what I am talking about.

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Posted 28 January 2010 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (5) ° Also tagged: , ,

Endday Session Eight: Fly me, I’m demonic

In game time it’s the 8th of September, barely a week since the Unnatural Storm on the 405 and the beginning of the Endday Campaign. Our Heroes have fought Rupture Demons in ’60s Vietnam, battled Neldrazu made of snow in an abandoned junkyard, conversed with a dying angel and confronted Runespiral Demons in LAX. It’s been quite a week, all told.

Now, they’re on their way to Chicago to confront none other than Jack Frost himself, demon lord of winter who has set up his own private hell-on-earth in the Windy City.

But first they need to get there, and that means a return to Los Angeles Airport. Unlike their previous fog-bound visit it’s a bright clear day and there is little evidence of their previous adventure – just a cordoned-off door awaiting repair and a few scorchmarks on the runway. Human nature has kicked into overdrive and wiped clean the evidence of anything it doesn’t fully understand.

Departure is quick and efficient (hey, this is fantasy, right?) and Oscar, Annette, Daniel & Caroline are soon cruising at 30,000 feet sipping cocktails – Daniel has generously paid for 1st class tickets for them all. Hey, it’s not every day you set off to save the world.

That’s when IT happens.

IT, in this case, begins with turbulence. Bad turbulence – the kind which makes those little yellow masks fall down like underfed jellyfish. The kind which make you think you’ve boarded a rollercoaster and not an aeroplane. The kind which makes you look out of the window and see a completely otherworldly vision of a grey and torn landscape filled with unnatural spires and a blasted orange sunless sky. Yes, that kind.

Dude, this isn’t even Oz any more.

There’s a thump on the outside of the plane, then another. And another. Then a smash from the front and the sudden swift rush of air. Panic, predictably enough, ensues. Our Heroes valiantly make for the front of the plane – no mean feat in itself. It’s a level 1 (4 before 3) Skill Challenge to get there which demands a subtle mix of Athletics (leap the drinks trolley), Perception (find a path through the crowd), Insight (convincing the Shouting Man to get back in his seat), Intimidate (forcing the Angry Woman outta the way) and Heal (calming the Hyperventilating Man and fixing his mask) to get there.

They make it (just!) and open the cabin door to find themselves staring face-to-face with five Vrocks who are merrily chowing down on what’s left of the Captain, Co-pilot and a Stewardess. Oh, and the plane is plummeting to the ground. Nice.

Vrocks are normally Level 13 but I’ve dropped ‘em to 8th Level and one at 10th as the bigger, slightly smarter leader. Does this make them Vrocklings or Vrockettes? I dunno. Either way it’s a fairer challenge for my humble 8th level Heroes. Or it would be, if they weren’t about to die a fiery death in an aeroplane hurtling toward hell itself.

But I digress.

“Can anyone fly a plane?

[...]

Does anybody want to learn really really quickly?!?”

In the close confines of a plane at least the Vrocks can’t use their Flyby attack, which is handy. Unfortunately they can use their Spores of Madness which affects the closest two rows of seats – and Oscar. The chaotic swell of people blocks the other heroes’ path as one of the Vrocks grabs Oscar in his beak and flies out of the plane. He’s last seen when one small speck on the horizon (the Vrock) drops another tiny speck (Oscar). Does being dropped thousands of feet onto the plane of Hell count as a Very Messy Death? Why, I think it does.

What can I say? There were a lot of poor rolls. At least the Vrock (which Oscar had at least managed to seriously injure) didn’t return to the fray. Four Vrocks remain and Annette is cursing herself for not taking Spectral Ram as her 7th level Spell. That does decent damage, knocks the foe back 3 squares and sends them prone – a perfect Spell for those times when you’re stuck on a crashing plane with demons and you need to get them outta there, quick. Alas, she took Fire Burst which isn’t nearly so good at the whole Pushing thing.

Things are not looking good for Our Heroes. They’re doing (and taking) damage, but nothing they try is able to get those motherfreakin’ demons off their motherfrerakin’ plane.

That’s when Daniel strikes one for the Home Team. “If this was Mutants & Masterminds I could spend a Hero Point to gain a one-off use of a Power. Can I do the same with an Action Point?” he asks. “Don’t see why not.” I reply, figuring they need all the help they can get, and it’s a great use of an Action Point. I’m all for that.

“Mob Mentality! I’m going to sway this crowd of passengers to work with us and force these Vrocks off the plane together!”

Oh yeah.

Mob Mentality is a Very Cool Power indeed. Page 120 of the PHB. Look it up. That’s 50 square feet of crowd control right there, and in the tight confines of an aeroplane that’s an awful lot of passengers. I grant them a DC10 Intimidate check to help Heroes giving them a roughly +20 on their Intimidate rolls, each. The passengers are right behind the heroes all the way, and the Vrocks…. well, they know when their food supply is about to turn ugly. They fly out of the cockpit window with their demonic tails between their legs.

There is still the matter of the crashing plane though.

They are now at 6,000 feet and cabin pressure is critical, calling for Endurance checks all round. I figure Pilot is an INT-based skill so Daniel and Annette take the controls while Caroline tells the passengers that the “terrorists” (non-heroes can’t see demons, remember) have been dealt with and they’re to return to their seats.

How do you stop a crashing plane? Page 42 of the DMG is your friend. A DC19 skill check should do it. Annette is at the controls with Daniel using Aid Another to lend a hand. He makes the DC10 check and Annette rolls a total of 26! The plane stabilizes, blue skies appear and they’re back flying over normal land once more.

Phew.

The radio crackles to life and Our Heroes are successfully talked through landing procedure on a remote airstrip where they are later shuttled into Chicago by bus – all local air traffic is suspended due to intense cold weather.

But more about that, next session.

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Posted 18 January 2010 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (8) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Angels and Demons and gingerbread skyscrapers oh my

From the You-Gotta-See-This Dept.: Christa made a kickass awesome snow covered gingerbread skyscraper today complete with Demons on the rooftop and Angels protectively circling down below.

Oh yes.

Some of my D&D minis are now covered in icing, but that’s a small price to pay.

Totally Endday Campaign? You betchya.

See it here and tell her Greywulf sent you!

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Posted 16 December 2009 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

Endday Prelude: Plotting and expectations

With the Endday Campaign on temporary hold, I have a little more time than usual to plot the next few sessions. I’m planning a big climax to the end of the Hero Tier where events begin to take on a larger scale than the current isolated demonic incursions. It’s going to get awfully dark out there……………

But that’s for later.

Session Eight is the next one scheduled (though the when is a little in the air right now). Talking of air – this session is entirely set in (and around!) a plane en route from Los Angeles to Chicago. Expect 30,000 feet of mayhem involving a large tin box full of people, an electrical storm and snakes some very angry demons. The first one to say “Get your ************ demons off my ********* plane!” gets a gold star.

When (and if) our heroes land at O’Hare they’re greeted with the coldest winter on record. Jack Frost himself has taken over the Windy City and he’s brought some friends.

This arc is going to cover Sessions Nine, Ten and into the Paragon Tier at Session Eleven where our heroes cross into Jack Frost’s home turf to battle him on the Plane of Ice and Snow. Narnia, this ain’t.

For Jack Frost himself I’m using the Needle Demon stats straight from Monster Manual 2 with the Wizard template applied. Add one Cold theme, and we’re done. Damn, I love 4e monster customization rules. He’s a level 12 Elite Controller with a retinue of Ice Trolls Ice Demons and Shardstorm Vortex Elementals Wendigos. Among other things, but I’m not going to reveal all my secrets just yet, ok?

This all leads in to the run up to Session Fifteen when…………. I’ll tell you about that another time.

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Posted 04 December 2009 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

The Endday Chronicles: Days Six and Seven

Oh man I’m so far behind on my campaign write-ups. To those who are only just tuning in we’re playing 4e D&D set in the modern day where our heroes battle demons on the run-up to the end of the world. There’s thirty sessions covering thirty levels so we’re gaming at a breakneck pace where 6 billion souls are (literally) at stake. So, no pressure then.
We left our heroes returning from a field trip to a junkyard in the middle of nowhere where they had battled Neldrazu made of snow. No, really.
The following day finds them back at Annette’s bookstore which has rather unfortunately been trashed while they’ve been away. Nailed to the ceiling is what can only be described as an angel (mainly because that’s what it is), and its blood is making one heck of a mess on the carpet. More of a mess, that is. Books and angelic blood everywhere. Lovely.
In short, this is Laezarn, an almost-but-not-quite dead Angel of Valor who fills our heroes in about the whole “Demons and Angels are really forgotten gods” http://blog.microlite20.net/2009/10/31/endday-interlude-angels-and-demons/ thing when they manage to get him down. This was one heavy role-playing session which primarly revolved around the characters, Laezarn and lots of research in Annette’s tomes. Laezarn’s final words leave them with a chilling warning; “Stop Jack or the world will end too soon………”
The next day throws the spotlight on Daniel Giddens. While the others are trying to identify a demon called Jack he’s trying to get his life back in order over in the corporate law firm. That didn’t go so well and ended up with him being called to a private meeting at the home of James Clovis, the firm’s president and all-round imposing figure. He’s also rather inconveniently being held by his Household God – now a Barlgura – and it’s cackling demonic underlings. This is a straight by-the-book encounter right out of the Monster Manual (page 54) with Gnoll stats serving admirable duty as faux lesser demons.
Ok, it’s by the book-ish except I spread the entire encounter across an entire freakin’ mansion and run the first part of it as a Skill Challenge for Daniel alone as he tries to avoid and survive the demons before the rest of the heroes arrive. It’s 5 successes before 3 fails and he fluffs the third check just as Annette, Oscar and Caroline turn up to see him being trussed up and carted down to the cellar.
Running 4e D&D as a bad horror movie? I love it!
Incidentally, I love the idea of the old Household deities – Hestia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_deity and the like – becoming angels and demons under the new religions and having to choose a side in the battle between good and evil. That’s something I’m definitely going to explore further. Imagine a powerful Cofgodas in an ancient British castle becoming a mighty demonic force. Hmmmmm….
Meanwhile, a series of pretty bloody combats around the house (not to mention substantial property damage) later and Daniel is free to join in the fray once more and between them that make pretty short work of the Barlgura and co. James Clovis, Daniel’s boss, looks destined to spend the rest of his life in a heavily sedated state – when his external wounds finally heal, that is. But hey, at least Daniel’s job is safe.
To speed things along, I reveal that Annette and the others hit upon the identity of the demon Jack by cross-referencing mythology with anomalous world-wide meterology reports.
Their next stop is Chicago to face off against none other than Jack Frost, the forgotten god of early winter himself!
And yes, there will be Wendigos in the Windy City.

Oh man I’m so far behind on my campaign write-ups. To those who are only just tuning in we’re playing 4e D&D set in the modern day where our heroes battle demons on the run-up to the end of the world. There’s thirty sessions covering thirty levels so we’re gaming at a breakneck pace where 6 billion souls are (literally) at stake. So, no pressure then.

We left our heroes returning from a field trip to a junkyard in the middle of nowhere where they had battled Neldrazu made of snow. No, really.

The following day finds them back at Annette’s bookstore which has rather unfortunately been trashed while they’ve been away. Nailed to the ceiling is what can only be described as an angel (mainly because that’s what it is), and its blood is making one heck of a mess on the carpet. More of a mess, that is. Books and angelic blood everywhere. Lovely.

In short, this is Laezarn, an almost-but-not-quite dead Angel of Valor who fills our heroes in about the whole “Demons and Angels are really forgotten gods” thing when they manage to get him down. This was one heavy role-playing session which primarly revolved around the characters, Laezarn and lots of research in Annette’s tomes. Laezarn’s final words leave them with a chilling warning; “Stop Jack or the world will end too soon………”

The next day throws the spotlight on Daniel Giddens. While the others are trying to identify a demon called Jack he’s trying to get his life back in order over in the corporate law firm. That didn’t go so well and ended up with him being called to a private meeting at the home of James Clovis, the firm’s president and all-round imposing figure. He’s also rather inconveniently being held by his Household God – now a Barlgura – and it’s cackling demonic underlings. This is a straight by-the-book encounter right out of the Monster Manual (page 54) with Gnoll stats serving admirable duty as faux lesser demons.

Ok, it’s by the book-ish except I spread the entire encounter across an entire freakin’ mansion and run the first part of it as a Skill Challenge for Daniel alone as he tries to avoid and survive the demons before the rest of the heroes arrive. It’s 5 successes before 3 fails and he fluffs the third check just as Annette, Oscar and Caroline turn up to see him being trussed up and carted down to the cellar.

Running 4e D&D as a bad horror movie? I love it!

Incidentally, I love the idea of the old Household deities - Hestia and the like – becoming angels and demons under the new religions and having to choose a side in the battle between good and evil. That’s something I’m definitely going to explore further. Imagine a powerful Cofgodas in an ancient British castle becoming a mighty demonic force. Hmmmmm….

Meanwhile, a series of pretty bloody combats around the house (not to mention substantial property damage) later and Daniel is free to join in the fray once more and between them they make pretty short work of the Barlgura and co. James Clovis, Daniel’s boss, looks destined to spend the rest of his life in a heavily sedated state – when his external wounds finally heal, that is. But hey, at least Daniel’s job is safe.

To speed things along, I reveal that Annette and the others hit upon the identity of the demon Jack by cross-referencing mythology with anomalous world-wide meterology reports.

Their next stop is Chicago to face off against none other than Jack Frost, the forgotten god of early winter himself!

And yes, there will be Wendigos in the Windy City.

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Posted 19 November 2009 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

Endday Interlude: Angels and Demons

Where do campaign ideas come from? Sometimes their plots are ripped from the pages of books or are inspired by That Movie (that movie, all too often, being Star Wars). There’s a lot to be said for transplanting plots across different genres – imagine, for example – playing a scenario based on Speed, using Eberron’s Lightning Rail system. Or running The Matrix in the Forgotten Realms (“There is no wand,” muttered Elminster under his breath).

Many campaigns have no over-arching plot, and that’s not a Bad Thing. Our own superhero sessions are all based in the same multiversal reality and is a shared setting with no particular long-term thread running through it. Some storylines can take many sessions to resolve (if at all), but there’s nothing particularly to tie them all together, by design.

Endday is different. There’s a campaign plotline running through it from beginning to all too destructive end.

And it all began with me asking myself two questions.

Where do Demons come from? and Where do Angels come from?

The answer to the first question is easy: Demons are Fallen Angels who rebelled against the heavens and were cast out. So: Demons are Angels with a difference of opinion.

It’s the answer to the next question which shakes things up. Where do Angels come from? According to one theory all the major religions have subsumed the beliefs of faiths they’ve conquered, adapting their ceremonies and holy days into themselves to better convert the people to their way of thinking. Hence Christmas and Easter, among others.

Also – and here’s the important bit – the major religions have often taken the gods of the other religions and demoted them, making them lesser beings but subservient to the True god or gods (whichever gods that happened to be at the time). This is how Ra rose to supreme power in Ancient Egypt and how the Cult of Zeus afforded him the title of Father over all the other gods.

This is where Angels come from. They are gods, demoted. They are the ancient spirits of the wood and tree and brook and forest and glade. They are the gods of the early winter frost and the garden pond. They are the spirits of the hearth and home, of the harvest, love and hate. They are animism, ancestor worship and the mythos of countless forgotten peoples.

Which means that Demons, by extension, are also gods, demoted then cast out for wanting their power back.

Truth be told, who can blame them?

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Posted 31 October 2009 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

Endday session five: Oh the weather outside is frightful, 5th September II

“It starts snowing.”

With those three words, my players pause then utter a collective expletive. In the previous session they found out that extreme weather heralds the arrival of new demons, and here they are battling just one to a standstill in a junkyard in the middle of nowhere.

Priority one becomes finishing the Neldrazu off, and fast. They’re 5th level and most of the players have burnt their best Dailies already. The demon is immobilized (thanks to Web) and bloodied. Now Web is a great spell if you want to stop a critter in it’s tracks, but it’s less useful if you then want to get up close and personal too – they end up Immobilised as well if they’re in the zone. Our two Fighters and Rogue don’t have much of a choice though so in they go. Daniel Giddens makes the mistake of taking front point, makes a great Sneak Attack but takes a shedload of damage in return for his trouble. Two rounds later though, and it’s over.

The Neldrazu drops and his remains dissolve into a watery puddle on the floor. They don’t get much time to think about that though as the snow is coming down at a tremendous rate. It’s already settling in some areas, and odd mounds are forming around the junkyard. Odd larger-than-human shaped mounds.

“Hit the snowmen!” Oscar shouts, and our heroes end up running ’round the junkyard making Perception checks and whacking at any pile of snow that looks like it might turn into a demon any time soon. One old filing cabinet takes a hefty critical from Caroline’s Spiked Chain, but many of the snowpiles collapse with an otherworldly shriek of fury.

One Neldrazu makes it to full form before they reach him. The demon erupts out of the snowpile straight at Annette Weber. This critter is Level 6, and weakened from it’s arrival from Hell – he starts Bloodied at 30hp until he gets time to rest up a while. Not that he’s going to get chance. It misses the attack. Oscar hits then Annette shoots off Burning Hands straight at him. I tell her that’s an extra 5 damage due to Vulnerability to Fire (but not why he’s vulnerable), and it does 20 in total.

The Neldrazu’s body explodes, and our heroes are showered….. with snow. Clues, more clues.

The only problem they’ve got now is that they’re snowed in, 3 miles from the nearest motel. Time to start walking.

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Posted 15 October 2009 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

Endday session five: Three little words, 5th September

One of the greatest sensations any GM can feel is to know that you have completely, utterly and totally scared the living pants off your players. That’s what happened last session, and I’m still getting warm fuzzies about it. What’s more, I did it with just three words.

First, a quick recap. Our heroes had travelled to an old junkyard in Agua Dulce where a demon had been killing folks and leaving their remains in impossible to reach places. Turns out it’s a Neldrazu, and he well and truly hands the PCs asses to them on a plate when they try to battle it.

They manage to get away (the Neldazu didn’t pursue them – I figured they deserved a break) to lick their wounds and return with a plan. That involved them working out what went wrong, and making sure it doesn’t happen again. Yeah. Planning.

The thing is that what went wrong basically boils down to three things: lousy dice rolls where they mattered most, the Wizard being taken out of the picture early on and general overconfidence. I mean; these guys had so far beaten freakin’ hordes of demons so how tough can one guy be?

Poor dice rolls can afflict anyone, but when it’s make-or-break attacks then the key thing is to skew the odds in your favour. I’ll say again: Aid Another is your friend, darling players. If you NEED to hit with that attack to nullify a monster’s mojo (for example, if you want to Daze, Restrain or Immobilize a certain demon to stop him being able to Teleport and attack on the same round – just sayin’) then get one or more other players to assist you. They make an attack at DC10, you get a +2 to do your thang.

That’s a perfect example of where 4e’s mechanics do a great job of translating a role-playing setup. The other heroes are harrying, herding and overbalancing the foe to put him into just the right place for that key attack to strike home.

You can combine using your Action Points with Aid Another too. Make your own kickass signature move then spend an Action Point to gain another standard action. Use that to Aid Another and you’ve set the next player up for his own kickass signature move. He then does the same, and so on. It might sound like a suboptimal use of an Action Point, but if it means the difference between four Daily Powers all hitting on the same round, and them… well, not then it’s Action Points well spent. Plus you end up with one combat round the players will be talking about for months!

The thing is my players all know this stuff. They’re right tactical baskets who are well used to using Every Trick in the Book – the book mainly being Mutants & Masterminds, which is The Bible when it comes to using Action Points and cunning tricks in combat.

Last session they forgot it all in a fit of sublime overconfidence. But not this time. As we’re playing High-Speed D&D the heroes all return older, wiser and a level higher. True to her name, Annette Weber (Wizard) takes Web - the perfect spell to help take down Mr Neldrazu. Combine that with Caroline MacAulney’s (Fighter) rather nifty Pinning Spiked Chain +1 and they should be able to Immobilize the demon and give time for Oscar Marcinelli (Fighter) and Daniel Giddens (Rogue) to do their thing.

I should mention that as per our House Rules if you’re Immobilized you cannot Teleport. That’s flying in the face of what it says in black-and-white on page 277 of the PHB, but makes a helluva lot more sense to us. More on the hows and whys of Teleporting in D&D though, another time.

So, fightback time. They find the Neldrazu still in the junkyard, rather disconcertingly chewing on a human arm. I describe it crunching down on a Rolex (“I hope it’s fake,” mutters Daniel) and the battle begins.

Within a handful of rounds it’s a completely different story to the previous session. Our heroes have taken a few hits but the Demon is Web‘d, snarling and well and truly Bloodied.

That’s when I drop in the twist with just three innocuous little words.

“It starts snowing.”

Next: One is bad. Many is worse.

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Posted 12 October 2009 † greywulf § RPG ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,