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Post by Meph on Feb 6, 2015 2:08:27 GMT
I don't really see any problem with a DM doing as they wish with any monster. I have no idea why you keep mentioning their wings but if someone wanted to remove them then go right ahead. Maybe the dragon was captured as a hatchling and imprisoned in a dungeon to serve as a guardian protecting something. The dragon has grown too large to ever escape the dungeon but being confined since hatching it's wings were never able to develop. You're the DM, you can come up with any story you wish. If you want a Vampire than walks in the sun, so be it. That Vampire just got infinitely more powerful with that one ability. Maybe you give the players a reason for it, maybe you don't.
You mentioned players playing impartially. In my experience, guys like the one in my group not only like to read the DMG to memorize magic items and the Monster Manual to memorize strategies, they also like to read modules if you happen to run one. They don't do all that so they can "educate" themselves and play impartial. They do it to give themselves an advantage by basically cheating. It's sad that there are players out there like that, but there are and I have one in my group. As soon as I start to describe a monster and he immediately knows what it is and how to kill it, then I change up its abilities on the fly.
I do hate that Tyranny made dragons so common and that I had to spend money on so many redundant large creatures. If there ever made a set with 12 unique large minis I would be in heaven. I already pre-ordered a case of Elemental Evil and it already looks like there will be a bunch more dragons in that. There looks to be some nice stuff in there too though like Ettin, Owlbear, Chimera, Fire Elemental, and Griffon. All of those will be great additions to my collection.
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Post by Meph on Feb 5, 2015 11:36:27 GMT
Very nice. I am the same as you. I am concerned with painting well enough for table play. I am not one to setup big display cases and such, I just want to wow my players when I pop down some new beast. The one issue I have with all the Dragons from the Tyranny of Dragons set is they are small. I need to pickup something more along the lines of the one you are using. I might have to check ebay for one. Thanks.
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Post by Meph on Feb 5, 2015 0:49:16 GMT
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 19:55:50 GMT
Really awesome job. I6 is one of my favorites. My group has already been in Ravenloft once for Night of the Walking Dead. After they finish this mini dungeon in a couple weeks we are switching back to the other dms campaign for a while. I might have to take that downtime to tackle Castle Ravenloft. It just looks so damn cool laid out. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 16:22:33 GMT
Has anyone ever tried the rolled cork? You can get a large sheet of it rolled and I thought about painting it and getting a tube to roll it and store it, but I am really doubtful of its durability. My 12x12 mats go in a case when not in use and should last a LONG time barring an accident but I am just wondering if the cork will crack from rolling and laying flat each week.
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 15:05:57 GMT
I would love to see your vision of the dragon sgtslag. I am one of those guys that never feels confined by what the "accepted" view of a monster is. I never understood on Dragonsfoot when someone asks a question about something and gets told "you can't do that". My game, I can do anything I want. When it comes time for them to encounter my dragon I might decide its NOT a Black Dragon and make up some totally new type. I have one player that loves to memorize the Monster Manuals. They already have gotten hints of a Black "Wyrm" that is commanding an army of Troglodytes so I am sure he is already reading all up on Black Dragons. All the more fun to change it up on them. =)
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 14:45:09 GMT
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 2:28:10 GMT
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 1:28:28 GMT
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Post by Meph on Feb 4, 2015 1:06:19 GMT
Hope you enjoy it. I was kinda just going on autopilot the first half of it. Wasn't really back into the swing of DMing again yet but now things are flowing well. Have been making a lot of changes to the dungeon, some on the fly, making it more my own. It was written with Basic rules so a lot of the monsters in it you have to look back for them. Robber Flies, Living Statues, White Worm, Veterans, etc. Some I changed, some I just looked up in my Basic book. Either way its a fun dungeon crawl with a lot of potential. The very bottom ends at an underground lake. Or course I plan to make that a beginning to a whole new underground campaign focused around the 22 new Duergar minis I just picked up. =)
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Post by Meph on Feb 3, 2015 11:07:41 GMT
Seriously, first time. I wish I was lying and had some hidden skills but I am just learning this as I go. DMScotty and DMG videos have been a great help along with all the pics and tutorials here from everyone.
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Post by Meph on Feb 3, 2015 4:14:22 GMT
Thanks. It's kinda given me the urge now to go buy some real paints and brushes. I have really been wanting to pickup one of the Reaper Bones kickstarter sets off ebay. 240 minis at about $1 each is tempting. Painting them has been what has held me back. I really enjoyed doing this one though so I think it might be something worth tackling. I can assume after a couple hundred Reaper Bones I should have some good techniques down. =)
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Post by Meph on Feb 3, 2015 0:10:08 GMT
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Post by Meph on Feb 2, 2015 15:51:21 GMT
Gold glitter. I bought it at Walmart in their craft section. They had a bunch of different ones. I stayed away from glitter glue. This one also has large, round glitter which looks just like gold coins.
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Post by Meph on Feb 2, 2015 14:57:03 GMT
My group has always been big with taking a picture or two of our gaming sessions but in the last couple weeks since finding this site, my players have gone nuts with pictures. They absolutely love the 2.5d and 2.5d Next systems. Prior to this we just used a Chessex mat and some markers. Our first week I brought out a single tile of a large room with multiple encounters in it and they really loved it. In the following week I made my walls for 2.5d Next and unveiled them last night. It was a HUGE hit and all the players said it was like our games moved to a whole new level with the visuals. Our group originally had 3 rotating DMs. One didn't really want to DM, one the players didn't really like, and one who used to switch on and off with me back in the day. This group has been going strong now for 2 years after almost a 20 year break from gaming entirely. Back in November the DMing role was literally thrown in my lap about an hour before game time one week so I had to scramble to come up with something. I ended up starting the group with the Spider Farm adventure from Dragonsfoot and then moved them into an 11 level "mini" mega-dungeon. It's 11 total levels but each level is small enough to be completed in one game session (about 5 hours). The adventure is free and called Dyson's Delve if anyone is interesting. My players have liked it some much I think I am going to purchase his Adventure packs. You can check out the 11 level dungeon at the link below. Its just an old fashioned dungeons crawl but it has some serious dangers in it. rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/dysons-delve-deluxe.pdfIn the last 3 sessions the party has had to deal with a fighter using a Helm of Alignment change (in a party with a LG Cleric and Paladin) and that same character turned to stone by a crazed imprisoned Medusa. The prison level was abandoned of all by living stone and crystal guardians and the imprisoned Medusa. After all the warnings including the huge written warning on the door NOT to open it, they opened it and faced her. It's been great getting back to DMing. Has taken a few months to finally get myself into the swing of it but I am finding myself really adding my touches to the dungeon and making up a lot on the fly lately which is how I used to play. So enough talk, I am going to use this thread to update with my weekly pics of our session as my 2.5d & 2.5d Next systems expand. As the players descended a 40' spiral stair case down to level 7 they encountered the Evil priest they had been chasing who has stolen the helm from the church. This weeks session began where they left off on level 7 but I also had my 2.5 Next walls to bring into play. I had it setup before most of the players arrived. Suffice to say, they were dazzled! =) There was a staircase on level 7 leading back up to a separate section of level 6 which was the abandoned prison wing. To my amazement as soon as I laid out the main hall one of the players pulled out the "treasure" map from a few weeks before and started to piece it together. I really thought they would miss it entirely. The have to pass through a locked steel door to a chamber with 2 stone guardians who immedately attack them as they approach the prison door. Written on the door is a warning not to open it. The map also had a warning for the room. Can you guess what they did? I kept her to the back of the room in the shadows and had her parlay with them trying to draw them in. Of course the fighter with his altered alignment decided to rush right in. As soon as he was in range she showed herself, gazed, and he failed. They left the stone fighter behind as they continued to the area on the treasure map marked as the old wizards chambers. The chambers are guarded by 3 crystal guardians and a trapped explosive wardrobe, but the room is stripped of anything of value. They do find the secret door leading to his stash which includes the other helm stolen from the church. So they have a way to return the fighter, they just need to figure out how to return him to flesh. Btw, that is one of the fighters in blue just blindly opening the wardrobe setting off a 2d6 fireball in the room right after combat dropping the paladin to 0 hp and the thief to -2. Good fun. So a couple levels ago the party ran into a gelatinous cube which had an undigested staff inside it. The staff was identified as a Healing staff. I decided to make it a custom priest only item that allowed the priest to channel "spell levels" through it Cure Moderate Wounds, remove poison, paralysis, or other movement impairing effects once per day. I also gave it a greater ability to channel his full spell levels through it for a small chance to raise dead, restore levels, or turn stone to flesh but the downside is that it completely drains the priest for 3 full days and has an equal chance to destroy the staff if it succeeds. Needless to say he tried it on the fighter and failed, so at that point the party decided to leave the dungeon and get back to the city. 3 days in there, half dead, with no healing wasn't their idea of fun. I decided to give them a break and let them get back to town in one piece. They begged the church for help. I have managed to keep the party pretty poor. They are literally scrambling each time they have leveled to barely come up with enough money combined to train. They get by but have never had excess. This last 2 weeks they piled on the gold. Unfortunately the church was willing to help for a moderate donation. For a mere 10k gold they were given the opportunity to buy a wand of stone to flesh with 3 charges! After the wand and a couple characters training, the party walked away with 1800 gold combined =). The wand works out well because on the 8th level of the dungeon there will see random stone statues around the level, the results of the roaming cockatrices. I am sure those 2 charges wont last too long. So finally after returning to the dungeon they were able to restore the fighter and return his alignment. While I have given my players a lot of chances to live, they are learning quickly that death is coming if they don't play smarter. Of course they don't seem to be learning quick enough because on return they moved on to level 8 of the dungeon. They encountered 2 Ogres in the first room which they had no troubles with but then proceeded down a narrow hallway all together. The 2nd to last in line set off a floor trap hitting him and the person behind him with 3d4 darts. The party then moved into the big room on the left which was a huge dark cavern (I dont have any cave walls yet). As the party spread out to explore it they spotted a HUGE old grizzled bear. He was very old, arthritic, moving slow and VERY pissed off/hungry. The party could have easily just avoided him but one of the players charged to engage this 7HD Bear. 1d6/1d6/2d6 attacks almost made the party crap their pants. They barely survived the encounter and that was where we ended...it was Superbowl time. So hope you enjoyed the pics/summary. I am planning to update this thread regularly as we play. Hopefully next week I will have a lot more crafted stuff to show.
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Post by Meph on Feb 2, 2015 11:28:39 GMT
I bought my cork mats at walmart. $5 for 4 12"x12" mats. They were in the craft isle, near the foam board. Can also buy them at any office supply store.
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Post by Meph on Feb 1, 2015 16:10:28 GMT
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Post by Meph on Jan 31, 2015 20:31:58 GMT
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Post by Meph on Jan 31, 2015 11:29:41 GMT
Nice job. I don't know that I would have the patience for that much detail work making those wheels
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Post by Meph on Jan 31, 2015 1:29:28 GMT
Today I wanted to come up with a way to easily store and transport my walls and cork boards. It wasn't the cheapest but I picked up this case at Walmart for about $30. I used a small sheet of black foam core to make dividers for the case. I made the bottom section tall enough to fit 8 cork mats on top and just fill the case. I made a cover for the bottom section and then dividers on top to keep the cork mats in place. The way this is setup I can carry this case by a handle on the sides and EVERYTHING stays exactly as I put it. It worked out very well and I still have a lot of room in here for lots of props and even some large minis that wont fit in my tacklebox. After taking this picture I added another divider on each side to keep everything in place. Nothing moves at all. The lid with dividers to keep the cork mats secure. There are (8) 12"x12" mats in there.
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