Temporary Hit Points Podcast?

Temporary Hit Points is going to be turning into a podcast/blog that deals with the Actual Play of our current home group, following the exploits of the PCs attempting to thwart the cult of the Dawn Titans who are trying to resurrect the eponymous titans.

We will also feature a little DM discussion on some of the tips and tricks that we use in our game to make the play experience better.  I have never claimed to be an expert, but I think that I have a few good ideas.

A few ideas that we will be exploring:

• Dungeon Delves (previewed as Delving Deep on The Power Source Podcast)
• Fantastic Terrain
• Wondrous Items
• PC Builds
• Story Progression
• Reviews of Products

I hope to have an episode or two up before Origins 2010, which I will be attending.

Finally, any questions, comments, or concerns can be put up on the site here, or emailed directly to me at temporaryhitpoints@gmail.com

Ten Characters

I am going to be writing some Dungeon Delves using Masterplan.  In fact, at the time of writing this, I have not only written two Delves, but I have recorded and submitted segments for a podcast and sent them to Jared at The Power Source, one of the many (many) podcasts that I listen to.

Granted, Jared did a very smart thing: he held a contest.  He is giving away a Player's Handbook 3, a copy of The Jester, and a copy of The Explorer, both of which are classes that he came up with.  The entry: a segment for his show.  Curse you, Jared, for making me actually record and possibly get me started in podcasting!

Anyway, as I was starting to say; I am going to be writing some Dungeon Delves.  These will be of various levels, and will be tailored to parties of 5 PCs, and can be inserted into a variety of campaigns.  I am doing this not only to get my own creativity flowing, but to hopefully share some fun games that other DMs can pick up at a moment's notice if they haven't had time to get their game prepared for the week, or if they are going to run a one-off game for a new group.

To this end, I want to create a pool of ten characters that can be chosen and used for any of these Delves.  These characters will span all of the PC roles, and if the DM decides to have a one-off, can just print off five of these PCs at the appropriate level and head out to the game.

Are there any suggestions for a must-have PC?  I have a tentative list in my head, and I plan on taking a class or two in a fairly unlikely direction.  For instance, instead of an elven archer ranger, I plan on doing something with a dwarf for my ranger build.  More on that later...

My Thoughts on Succubi

No sir, I don't like 'em.

More to the point, this is in reflection of Justin's encounters.  The first encounter was a good setup, and fit well for the story, but it was kind of a cakewalk.  I was actually disappointed that I didn't have to use any of my cool encounter powers, because dealing more damage wouldn't have made a difference.

The second encounter was set up well.  Before the first encounter began, I was in a market square, and ended up moving around the battlemap to help some trapped shopkeepers.  This set the stage for the second encounter, where I assumed that it was a "protect the townsfolk" mission from the Infernal Armor Animi (Animuses?) and the Spinagon.  Little did I know that they were actually Succubi playing the part of townsfolk.  After a hard fought battle, I was down to one Succubi, who, unbeknownst to me, only had one hit point remaining.  She kept dominating my people, and they weren't able to target her with an attack while dominated.  I decided to take the metagaming out of it, and roleplay it a little, so I tried to shake it off, and Justin let me try that.  Eventually, all 4 of my characters were dominated, and the Succubi was leading them off to her domain, where they would be hers.  Justin took pity on me and had a shopkeeper that I rescued come up with a bow and shoot.  Rolled a 19.  He got a little smile on his face and said, "An arrow erupts from the base of the Succubus' throat and she looks down in disbelief at it, and falls down on to the cobblestone road, and breathes her last."  Then the fog in our minds lifted, and the shopkeeper tells us where they have been coming from -- the fallen tower.

I will let Justin talk about the third encounter first before I get to it, but this was the first TPK of the three encounters we had.  Sheesh, it's like it was a competition or something.

Oops, yeah that wasn't supposed to happen ...

Ok, so first thing is first ... sorry. After a bit of reflection I have decided that killing your entire party, um twice, was a bit harsh. On an up note, I did learn a couple things.
First off, when designing an encounter for a specific party, make sure you look for areas that your PC's may be weak in and try not to exploit it.
Second, don't use a monster that you think is cool because it can eat one of the PC's on its turn.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
The first encounter was more of a setup for the story than a challenge for Dave's party. I had the party in a random town checking out the marketplace when the lone wizard's tower, a mile or so away, basically exploded raining down fire and signifying round one.
As the town square emptied of people, a crew of 16 Legion Devil Grunts approached, broke ranks and attacked. While sixteen creatures look a bit scary walking up to the party, the fear quickly dissipated when Dave discovered that they were all minions. One well placed huge fireball took care of pretty much all of them. At this point we made a couple of jokes about how he is going to breeze through all three encounters.
We were horribly wrong. Cue Slapchop remix. Cause it is awesome.
The second encounter began fairly typically. A couple of monsters posing as injured humans lure the party in then change into horrible, um monsters. The monsters were as listed:

• 1 Spined Devil (Spinagon)- Very cool monster that can fly and fling spines(like people think porcupines can but actually can't) that catch fire and can give ongoing poison damage.
  
• 4 Infernal Armor Animus- Basically Hp bucket minions that give Hp to other monsters as they die. Pretty much useless unless you protect them like your virginity.
  
• 2 Succubusses? Succubi?- TPK machines. Yep I said it, Succubi are TPK MACHINES!!!!
  

This post is running on a bit so I'll stop for now, more soon.
In the meantime, put a Succubus in an encounter and let her do her thing. Then let me know what happened.

A Little Friendly Competition

There are two of us in our group who sit behind the screen.  I am usually the one running the world and trying to maim the players in innovative ways, but sometimes, including the next few sessions, Justin takes the helm.  Our schedules have been wonky lately, and we haven't been able to get together on our once-normal night, Monday, due in part to Real Life and me being put back on full time (yay!).  So, in order to scratch our itch, Justin and I decided to run a little advanced board game type scenario with D&D 4e.

We both have Insider accounts, and I made a proposal, from which rules followed.  Here is the premise, followed by the rules.

Premise:

We each take turns running through a 3 combat encounter dungeon delve of the other's design.  The one with the most living characters at the end wins!

Rules:

1. Each party will consist of four pcs, each at level 6.  They must be made using the Wizards Character Builder, and excludes the use of races from the Monster Manual.  They may be outfitted with, in addition to mundane gear, one magic item of each 5th, 6th, and 7th level as well as 1,000gp for additional purchases.
2. The race, class, and build of each character must be disclosed, but details are optional.
3. Each dungeon will consist of three combat encounters of increasing difficulty.  The first will be worth 1,000xp, followed by 1,200xp, and 1,400xp, give or take 75xp on each side, with a total xp budget of 3,750xp to spend between the three.
4. Battle maps for each encounter may not take more than 16x16 in size.
5. The creatures chosen must be of an appropriate level for the party.
6. The theme and cohesive qualities of building a dungeon and populating it with monsters may be taken into account.
7. There will be no more than 3 terrain features per map to trip up the players.
8. Each player will get the opportunity to play through each encounter, and will alternate running the game and the players.  Who goes first will be decided by a d20 roll.  Winner chooses.
9. There will be no loot awarded over the course of the dungeon.
10. The party starts the delve at full power, and no extended rests are allowed.  Short rests are allowed between encounters.
11. Monsters used for the encounters may not be custom; they will be from the Wizards Compendium.
12. Encounters and the delve as a whole will be written using the Masterplan program.
    

I believe that is a good start.  The goal of this exercise is not only to use these tools that we have, but to learn how to run games more efficiently, how to write a more effective set of encounters, and to familiarize ourselves with the other character classes that we may not be using on a normal basis.

Keep tuned to this page for more information as it comes to pass.

Ultimate Geek Paradox

I was listening to the This Just In... From GenCon! podcast today when I heard mention of an event that made me think...  There is a couple who is going to be getting married at the con, complete with gamer onlookers.  This presented a quandary:

1.  Stereotypical geeks live in their mother's basements, are male, and are usually overweight due to a diet consisting of, but not limited to, Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and pizza (the bigger, the greasier, the cheaper, the better).
2.  Getting married in a nontraditional setting (a Renaissance Faire, et cetera) would be very geeky.  Marriage at GenCon, arguably Geek Mecca for anyone in the role playing field (my apologies to anyone of the Islamic faith, no offense intended), is like turning up the Geek dial to 11.

Here comes the paradox part...

3.  A geek, who by definition in this limited space, should have difficulty speaking to a female, much less tricking her into marrying him!
4.  She happens to be referred to on the podcast as the "Chainmail Bikini Chick."  This means that she is attractive, and can pull off such a getup.

It took me a few seconds to try to wrap my brain around that, and then I started looking at it in a personal way.  Sure, the two stereotypes don't add up and play nice with each other, but how accurate is a stereotype?  It is based on myopic, antagonistic views of people or issues, and that never tells the whole story.  I mean, I am quite the geek, but I am a well-adjusted, social adult who is married to a beautiful woman, and we definitely don't live in my mother's basement.  I applaud the couple and wish them the best; may you always roll 20s.

Besides, if we all lived in mom's basement, how could anybody afford to go to Indianapolis unescorted and in the bright, bright sunshine?

GenCon Indy 2009 D&D 4e Announcements

This is all gathered from the twitter feed #gencon and I cannot claim any breaking news.  I am just putting it together for us all to see.  Most of this is courtest of @GeeksDreamGirl's twitter feed.

1. DDI subscribers will have 1/3 to 1/2 of PHB3 before it is released.
2. 3D dungeon tiles come in March.
3. Primal Power hits in October.
4. The Underdark book hits in January 2010.
5. Books for each of the races coming at $10 each.
6. Somehow, Gabe & Tycho have been holding out on us -- there is a Player's Strategy Guide coming that has art from them in it.  June 2010.
7. Ravenloft makes its triumphant return, in the form of a board game.
8. Dark Sun is the campaign setting for 2010.  No surprise, with all of the Psionic stuff.  WotC_Rodney can finally announce that he is the lead developer of the project.
   
9. PDFs to return from WotC, in some shape or form.