-Elemental planes, in Planescape = marioworld
-Caverns of Thracia--players having rumors, some false, good way to skip boring bits, incl. speaking some of the language as possible rumor roll result
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-DM DESIGNERS KIT:
-villain weakness: lack of familiarity, love, secret embarrassment, villain related to hero
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-Unsung Heroes of rpg art: nicholson in the Folio, people in slaves to darkness & lost n damned, guy in tmnt Camelot and tmnt Australia.
-Fiend Folio: Why doesn't your new monster have some weird new power? What's the point?
-Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in Polish--I can't read polish why do i own this
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Caverns of Thracia
-illusory walls-boring? maybe. think about it. decide.
-"Unless cut open, there is a 05% chance that the egg sack will burst open, unleashing a torrent of mouse and rat-sized baby spiders. Most of the youngsters will busy themselves with eating each other, but 10 - 100 will attack something else, adventurers most likely. Each baby spider has I - 2 hit points and is AC: 7."
-item in room A affects conditions in room B. Usually visit B first (otherwise who cares?). There are always monsters between A & B.
-PCs find ancient unconscious adventurer with WTF are you talking about interpretation chart
-"The frescoes in this room are intact also and show images of a giant winged Lizard Man (the Immortal King) devouring huge numbers of Humans, Lizard Men and Dinosaurs"
-TRAPS CREATE MYSTERY OUT OF PROPORTION TO THE MYSTERIOUSNESS OF THE MECHANISM itself because they make everybody look at every dungeon feature from then on sideways. Everything gets poked w/stick.
Density of traps required to provoke this reaction is Classic Dungeon design.
-Room 87).
"An ... Empty Room: Yes! In every dungeon complex there has to be at least one. A room with nothing interesting in it. A space to rest momentarily from pursuit. A place no monster would think to look. This is one of those places. Except for a giant pair of baleful, glowing amber-colored eyes on the north wall and secret doors hidden in the east, west, and south walls, disguised as unadorned marble panels, there is nothing here. Did I mention that the eyes radiate a definite feeling of evil and seem to chill the very soul? Well, they do. Any character staying in this room more than 3 melee rounds must save vs magic or he will think he is being paralyzed (a delusion"
-At this point jacquays seems to go mad. 87 rooms into the module the writing gets real "loose"...
-A dog brother, Wark, AC: 6, Move: 12", HD: 4, Damage: sword for 1-8 and bite for 1-4, HP: 20, is being entertained by a trio of comely (to another dog brother) young dog sisters, Flashtail, Prettyclaws and Pinkfang,
First of all: Mandy would totally name a PC Flashtail, Prettyclaws or Pinkfang. Maybe not Flashtail.
More disturbingly: This is an old school module, therefore tableaux aren't supposed to arrange themselves in rooms just because the PCs showed up to see them. Therefore this must mean Wark is being entertained by Flashtail, Prettyclaws and Pinkfang all the time.
-"the walls will seem to sprout hands on long arms. The hands will be the temperature of rock but will be fairly soft. All they will do is feel anything passing through them...The hands are harmless unless they are attacked" Seriously the girls would attack them.
-"The Mysterious Missing Chamber: Look as you might you will not find this room on the map. It never was there and exists only in the mind of the designer, who refuses to admit that he may have made an oversight when numbering his creation and doesn't feel like sticking the number "102" somewhere on the map and letting it go like that" see?
-"of skulls and scrapfaggot green"
-Mordenkainens Big Adventure...
-"Arley says they are socks of fire walking. They are actually socks of sweating." Damn!
-"Within this area are two large chests, positioned across from each other along the east and west walls." I know the feeling, Rob.
-Fiend Folio: tirapheg. show them the Tirapheg picture. They will be disturbed.
-Book of Lairs I: rakshasas
-PTOLUS:
"The Ptolus Campaign is the d20 rules with the volume turned all the way up. I created this world with the game rules in mind. The conceits of the game were the conceits of the setting. The feel of the rules was the feel of the city. If the rules suggested that something might happen a lot, then in Ptolus, it happened a lot...
I loved it when one day a player of mine said, “I polymorph myself into a troll and run out into the street after the thief.”
Another player said, “Dude, you can’t go out there like that!” And the first player replied, “Don’t worry about it! This is Ptolus—they see this stuff all the time.”
I knew then that the first player really got Ptolus....
Every player should have a copy of this guide to learn about the place and get a good feel for the setting. This Player’s Guide is required reading for a player creating a character for the Ptolus Campaign."
all that is pretty much the opposite of what I got planned...
"If you like Ptolus, you'll hate the Vornheim City Kit".
(shouldn't tell Raggi, he'll stick it on the front of every copy...)
*<----ASTERISK
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Mordenkainens Whatever Adventure
-"a whip shaped like an octopus tentacle" why just "shaped like"?
-"This is where Tomorast readies himself to visit Kerzit, the demon of the caverns. Tomorast always dons the vestments seen on the table: a pure black undecorated robe, a solid silver face mask (worth 450 gp)carved in the likeness of a leering wolf-head"
-"Then, resuming his chant, he returns it to Key #67b. His stamina wanes-if he makes a but a single mistake (1% chance upon initial entry and 2-127’0 upon his return), the demon will attack him with great vigor."
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Dwellers of the Forbidden City
"Unlike many other adventures, a party may find the presence of a druid helpful."
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*Since this is the fucking internet I feel compelled to point out that despite all that, I think Ptolus is a fine and impressive piece of work with some good ideas in its 7 million pages. It's just the overall conception is totally different than what I'm aiming to do. Blah.
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12 comments:
I bet WFRP in Polish looks ubergrimdark.
@coopdevil
Kinda bland actually, it's not even 1st ed.
"If you like Ptolus, you'll hate the Vornheim City Kit".
As if I didn't want a copy already, this line alone would've done so.
But will the Vornheim City Kit be of any use in stunning a burglar?
@kelvin
YES!
You: "Look, everything you need to run an Urban Dungeons & Dragons campaign in only 64 half-normal-size pages!"
Burglar: "Seriously? I'm stunned!"
Touché!
"More disturbingly: This is an old school module, therefore tableaux aren't supposed to arrange themselves in rooms just because the PCs showed up to see them. Therefore this must mean Wark is being entertained by Flashtail, Prettyclaws and Pinkfang all the time."
That exact situation also occurs in module G1, area #19 (with hill giants). One can infer from the rest of the module that adventurers have entered the stronghold just as a feast in the great hall has commenced in early evening.
"More disturbingly: This is an old school module, therefore tableaux aren't supposed to arrange themselves in rooms just because the PCs showed up to see them. Therefore this must mean Wark is being entertained by Flashtail, Prettyclaws and Pinkfang all the time."
In addition to what Delta said, there is also the owl bear in Keep on the Borderlands, forever sleeping and digesting the gnoll it catches every dawn, or the bugbear guards who are eternally eating skewers of meat.
@delta and faoladh
for some reason the eternal 4way orgy seems much more intriguing than any of those examples
Ptolus also makes a handy bludgeon!
@ Coopdevil and Zak
it's the most depressing RPG game ever
[I]-"Within this area are two large chests, positioned across from each other along the east and west walls." I know the feeling, Rob.[/I]
Wonder Rob has written a module where the party explores huge tracts of land? (Heh. "Random encounters.")
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