D&D 3.5 Quest for Glory I Campaign

[Uhtred]

My buddy, recently back from a long tour of duty in Cuba, has about a year or so before he's in danger of being deployed again, and is eager to get back into D&D, so he's asked me to DM a 3.5 basic campaign for him and his wife (herself a D&D veteran) and a couple of newcomers who have never ever played D&D before. The criteria was simple: We want a classic fantasy campaign, with all the classical races either mentioned or directly involved. We need the campaign to be short, about five two-hour sessions apiece, not necessarily combat-heavy, but with a good bit of thinking involved.
My mind immediately jumped back to 1992, when I was 7 and obsessed with Quest for Glory I.
All the monsters in QfGI are in MM1, goblins, trolls, dinosaurs, human brigands and the like, and I'm having a good time translating everyone you meet in the game into NPC's.
The question being, how best do I turn the random encounters you have in the woods with monsters, typically 1-on-1 encounters, into ones suitable for an entire party of adventurers? Turn those single monsters into mobs of like monsters?
And has anyone who's familiar with QfGI got any advice for turning it into a D&D campaign?

[Crossblade]

You have the monsters be lower level than the players (aka have the players be higher level). That way multiple ones will equal the CR of the party. If you want stronger versions of them, give them class levels.

[some guy]

My buddy, recently back from a long tour of duty in Cuba, has about a year or so before he's in danger of being deployed again, and is eager to get back into D&D, so he's asked me to DM a 3.5 basic campaign for him and his wife (herself a D&D veteran) and a couple of newcomers who have never ever played D&D before. The criteria was simple: We want a classic fantasy campaign, with all the classical races either mentioned or directly involved. We need the campaign to be short, about five two-hour sessions apiece, not necessarily combat-heavy, but with a good bit of thinking involved.
My mind immediately jumped back to 1992, when I was 7 and obsessed with Quest for Glory I.
All the monsters in QfGI are in MM1, goblins, trolls, dinosaurs, human brigands and the like, and I'm having a good time translating everyone you meet in the game into NPC's.
The question being, how best do I turn the random encounters you have in the woods with monsters, typically 1-on-1 encounters, into ones suitable for an entire party of adventurers? Turn those single monsters into mobs of like monsters?
And has anyone who's familiar with QfGI got any advice for turning it into a D&D campaign?


If I remember right, QfGI had a difficulty that scaled as you got more experienced. I'm actually no fan of that.
But I would make an encounter table something like this (with percentages):

fox
white stag
small goblin gang (1d4+1)
goblin gang (4-9)
goblin warband (10-24)
brigand ambush (3-10)
Ogre
Ogre gang (3-4)
Deinonychus (1)
Deinonychus (2)
Deinonychus pack (3-6)
T-rex
Antwerp
Elasmosaurus*

Give easier encounters a higher chance. If the group has gained a few levels you could adjust the chance, making it more likely to encounter ogres or t-rexes.
Random encounters could make your game more combat-orientated though.

*In the remake of QfGI, you could find Nessie in Mirror Lake.

[Kol Korran]

my main suggestions is to have the party at level 3 (a few more options, and still quiet not too complicated). as to monsters: either have mobs, or have mixed groups with 2-3 roles (goblins and brigands, perhaps some of them ranged, perhaps one higher level, maybe even a mage at higher levels) or one tougher monster (this is true especially of beasts such as ankhegs and the like)

you got 5 sessions, so my suggestions is this:
1- get to know the town people, and prepare a few possible hooks they may pursue, ones that might give some sort of bonuses for the future (the potion maker and her ring, the giant and his apple cider, maybe something for the witch) make sure none of these are necessary for the plot, but that they involve a bit of combat, a lot of thinking/ skill use.
2- the party (now more experienced and renowned) is told about the missing son and daughter, and they find some hints about the son. they may follow on one other trail from last meeting, but this meeting moslty focuses on finding the son. the ogre can be replaced by a tougher ogre, or some other types of giant. maybe even a real giant, just make it slow and stupid. the kobold can be a bunch of kobolds with 2-3 sorcerers.
3+4- the search for the daughter, mainly doing some extra quests, and gaining all the materials for the antimagic potion. the dryad could replaced by some other fey that is less restricted. you get bonus points if you include the mage and his wizard's challange somehow.
5- infiltrating the brigand's camp- a very small dungeon through the secret passage, and through the traps of the joker. adapting it EXACTLY will be very annoying and not fun. i suggest you change most traps and situations to be more amusing and lightly frustrating other than deadly. beware, this part of the game is VERY railroady!

if the party has time, run an encounter with Baba Yaga, perhaps using the mirror not to turn her to a frog, but trather nullify some immunity she has. if not, well... you can always wave it to them as a bait for next adventure!

anyway- i loved the game, good luck to you!

[Daftendirekt]

2 hour sessions? Man, the way my group plays, nothing at all would get done. Our tuesday sessions are 4.5 hours, and that's short enough...

<3 our 8 hour sessions on sundays.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

I have done exactly this. Keep in mind DnD allows things like going into areas not 'mapped' in HQ QFG1. I had an illithid that decided to eat some brains while they stayed the night in the castle.

Also, if you have space and are doing anything with your session over the internet, I'd love a PM.

[Uhtred]

If I remember right, QfGI had a difficulty that scaled as you got more experienced. I'm actually no fan of that.
But I would make an encounter table something like this (with percentages):

fox
white stag
small goblin gang (1d4+1)
goblin gang (4-9)
goblin warband (10-24)
brigand ambush (3-10)
Ogre
Ogre gang (3-4)
Deinonychus (1)
Deinonychus (2)
Deinonychus pack (3-6)
T-rex
Antwerp
Elasmosaurus*

Give easier encounters a higher chance. If the group has gained a few levels you could adjust the chance, making it more likely to encounter ogres or t-rexes.
Random encounters could make your game more combat-orientated though.

*In the remake of QfGI, you could find Nessie in Mirror Lake.

Is the Antwerp a legit monster in D&D? If it is, that's AWESOME! Otherwise, do I just use the stats for some manner of ooze, give it a natural +50 to jump, and a 6d10 slam attack? :smallbiggrin:

The game also featured cheetaurs, big flying manta rays, and trolls, if I recall, and there were other monster heads in the Adventurer's guild, like Griffins and Sierra's signature moose, which may well meet my players in-game as a quest of some kind. I know there are stats for trolls and the manta rays, maybe use stats for catfolk, or centaurs, but give them claw attacks instead of the hoof attacks?

[Uhtred]

my main suggestions is to have the party at level 3 (a few more options, and still quiet not too complicated). as to monsters: either have mobs, or have mixed groups with 2-3 roles (goblins and brigands, perhaps some of them ranged, perhaps one higher level, maybe even a mage at higher levels) or one tougher monster (this is true especially of beasts such as ankhegs and the like)

you got 5 sessions, so my suggestions is this:
1- get to know the town people, and prepare a few possible hooks they may pursue, ones that might give some sort of bonuses for the future (the potion maker and her ring, the giant and his apple cider, maybe something for the witch) make sure none of these are necessary for the plot, but that they involve a bit of combat, a lot of thinking/ skill use.
2- the party (now more experienced and renowned) is told about the missing son and daughter, and they find some hints about the son. they may follow on one other trail from last meeting, but this meeting moslty focuses on finding the son. the ogre can be replaced by a tougher ogre, or some other types of giant. maybe even a real giant, just make it slow and stupid. the kobold can be a bunch of kobolds with 2-3 sorcerers.
3+4- the search for the daughter, mainly doing some extra quests, and gaining all the materials for the antimagic potion. the dryad could replaced by some other fey that is less restricted. you get bonus points if you include the mage and his wizard's challange somehow.
5- infiltrating the brigand's camp- a very small dungeon through the secret passage, and through the traps of the joker. adapting it EXACTLY will be very annoying and not fun. i suggest you change most traps and situations to be more amusing and lightly frustrating other than deadly. beware, this part of the game is VERY railroady!

if the party has time, run an encounter with Baba Yaga, perhaps using the mirror not to turn her to a frog, but trather nullify some immunity she has. if not, well... you can always wave it to them as a bait for next adventure!

anyway- i loved the game, good luck to you!

This is all fantastic advice and I appreciate all of it. Funnily enough, the Wizard Erasmus and his familiar, Fenrus, already have places in my game and I've worked out, for now, how to play Mage's Maze, sorta. It's going to involve using Reduce Person on the group's sorcerer and having her legitimately go into the maze to face off against Erasmus in a series of magical contests, where clever application of her spells (The ones she's selected) will win the day. If she runs out of spells before reaching the center of the maze, she loses (unless she at that point drinks a mana potion, which I've re-tooled to simply replenish your daily spells by consuming the potion using a full-round action.).

And as to the two-hour sessions, my buddy and his wife are also parents of a 10-month old, whose bedtime is at 7. They reckon that, being parents, they can probably go until like 9 or 9:30 before calling it a night.

I'm looking forward to running this campaign. Thanks, everyone for all the helpful advice! I'm glad that people remember Quest for Glory!

[Essence_of_War]

I did basically what you're saying for a group I was DM'ing for. They were amused by a lot of the humor, and I tried to set everything up as "sandbox like" as possible to maximize their options to chase down leads.

Things that ended up on the cutting room floor:
1 - Erasmus and Fenris
2 - wiz/fighter challenged
3 - all of the thief stuff - the players weirdly never took the bait of the giant ogre guy standing on the trap door in the tavern...and even the rogue stayed way clear of the glimmering coin in the alley.
4 - Some of the puzzles - Yorrick's room doesn't translate to IRL as well

Baba Yaga made it in, I gave her a triggered hold person spell that triggered on anyone entering the hut. I gave the PC's a 1 use magic mirror from Yorrick that allowed them to throw the "polymorph" spell back at her at the end and they really enjoyed it!

They seemed to like Abdulla Doo and the Kattas so much that I let them ride to Shapeir to continue their adventures. Shapeir actually required MUCH more work to port to DnD because unlike QFG1, which is largely sandboxed, QFG2 is very railroad-y.

[some guy]

Is the Antwerp a legit monster in D&D? If it is, that's AWESOME! Otherwise, do I just use the stats for some manner of ooze, give it a natural +50 to jump, and a 6d10 slam attack? :smallbiggrin:

The game also featured cheetaurs, big flying manta rays, and trolls, if I recall, and there were other monster heads in the Adventurer's guild, like Griffins and Sierra's signature moose, which may well meet my players in-game as a quest of some kind. I know there are stats for trolls and the manta rays, maybe use stats for catfolk, or centaurs, but give them claw attacks instead of the hoof attacks?

Oh, man I forgot all about the cheetaurs and manta rays. Those were killers. I would say use cloakers (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/cloaker.htm) for the manta rays, but with different abilities.
I never encountered the Antwerp in any book. I would base his attack on falling damage (with a reflex save for half. Maybe give it damage reduction 10/slashing and immunity to falling damage?

[Uhtred]

Cloakers seem perfect. Figure give 'em Hide in Plain Sight, Lightning Bolt as an at-will spell-like ability, remove some of their other nausea-based abilities, keep the shadow-based ones, and the fly speed. That's great.
Are there legit cheetaur-like creatures in D&D, or am I best off just using Centaurs and changing their natural attacks? I'm not too familiar with the monster manual, although I have borrowed a copy from a friend and have curled up with it for a couple hours.
And give the Antwerp immunity to fall damage, but have there be an effect where the damage that it WOULD take when falling it then transfers to the person it landed on? :smallbiggrin: I like the idea of the players' party's impetuous Paladin running forward with his Elven Courtblade and having the Antwerp have a readied action to leap as high as it could, then land on the astonished Paladin and squishing him prone and dealing big damage.

[Cieyrin]

Are there legit cheetaur-like creatures in D&D, or am I best off just using Centaurs and changing their natural attacks? I'm not too familiar with the monster manual, although I have borrowed a copy from a friend and have curled up with it for a couple hours.

The closest I can think of is Faerun's Wemics, which are basically Lion centaurs. You can find 'em in Races of Faerun, as well Monsters of Faerun.

[LibraryOgre]

I still use the music from Erana's Peace to help me sleep; Mark Seibert has some things posted that will help set the mood.

Generally, though, you're probably going to want to expand the size of Spielburg valley to match a "larger world"... consider each screen to be closer to a square mile, or even three miles on a side, with the screens you see just being the "interesting bits", and the town and castle shrunk to reasonable sizes for all that.

I tend to agree with some guy on the sorts of things you want on your random encounter table, but I wouldn't call a Saurus Rex a T-Rex... they're bigger than man sized, but they're not house-sized.

For Cheetaurs, I'd be less inclined to go with a "real" race and simply stat them as tigers or lions; their "rake" attacks involve the front claws, rather than the rear, and there's not really any indication that they're intelligent.

For trolls, I'd go with a much tougher ogre... more HD, more Natural Armor. Maybe something like the Mineral Warrior template that I hear so much about.

For mantrays, I wouldn't give them a full-on lightning bolt power; maybe a scorching ray, but more likely a 1st-level equivalent at-will. Probably akin to a shocker lizard with a fly speed.

[Uhtred]

At the same time, though, you don't encounter Cheetaurs, Mantrays, Trolls, or Saurus Rexes until much later in the game, when you're capable of fighting them. My party are starting as lvl 6 characters, so they've got some nice abilities under their belts, and will probably be capable of facing really powerful monsters like T-Rexes and Lightning Bolt Mantrays and the like by the third or so session when I finally allow them to face them. And the more I think about it, the more I think I have to blend the three storylines from the game, fighter, thief, mage, to suit the party with its Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Rogue, so that no one party member feels as though they've gotten the shaft, and as I vaguely remember that if you played your cards right (putting points into Parry and Magic while starting as a Thief) you could do all three. Beat the Weaponsmaster, beat Erasmus at Mage's Maze, AND rob all the houses in town. I'll just have to set it up that way and let them do as they please.

[Uhtred]

I've built a lot of the NPC's for the town and surrounding environs. Kinda tempted to give some of them, like 'Enry the 'Ermit and Bruno, class levels to make them more interesting. I know that's a slippery slope, though, and soon I'd be giving Sam the Beggar, the Butcher, the Baker, and Kaspar levels, too.:smallwink:

[Cieyrin]

And the more I think about it, the more I think I have to blend the three storylines from the game, fighter, thief, mage, to suit the party with its Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Rogue, so that no one party member feels as though they've gotten the shaft, and as I vaguely remember that if you played your cards right (putting points into Parry and Magic while starting as a Thief) you could do all three. Beat the Weaponsmaster, beat Erasmus at Mage's Maze, AND rob all the houses in town. I'll just have to set it up that way and let them do as they please.

I certainly would combine, as Quest for Glory is aimed at single heroes, not parties, so you can certainly have elements available from each storyline to give everybody a chance in the spotlight.

[abadguy]

Weren't there wyverns? and Killer Bunnies? Or was that only QfG4? (the best IMHO)

[Kurald Galain]

Weren't there wyverns? and Killer Bunnies? Or was that only QfG4? (the best IMHO)
That's the fourth game.

The third has giant ants, more big lizards, a huge burrowing wurm, and Arne Saknoosen. The second has jackalmen, ghouls, yet more big lizards, a griffin, and all manner of genies.

[The White Knight]

I've been wanting to do the whole QfG series (minus 5; haven't played that one) with my group for AGES. I request a game journal on here if this goes down.

[Uhtred]

We start on Saturday, minus a Rogue and plus a Pixie with no class levels. My little sister has been curious about this D&D thing I've been doing, so she's invited herself to play, under the condition that she gets to be an LA +6 Pixie, so she gets Otto's Irresistible Dance. That just means I need to change some stuff around, because I doubt that even Brauggi will be very intimidating if he's jigging about uncontrollably. I think I'll alter the story so that she's their in to see the Faeries at the Mushroom Ring, and maybe even the Dryad or the Spitting Spireas. She'll be playing a 6-year-old Pixie, though, which will be fun, and ought to provide a level of challenge to the other players. Once she starts taking class levels, she's going to be a Bard. :P
And the Rogue has decided he maybe wants to be a Ninja instead. Read about Sudden Strike and decided he wanted it. The Thieves' Guild under the bar is going to LOVE him.

[The White Knight]

Just be sure to have optional backups for encounters that Irresistible Dance would completely bork. Give Brauggi a big Siberian Tiger as a pet to make him more fearsome. Have a kobold on deck to dispel on behalf of the ogre. The SLA is only 1/day, so you just have to make her prioritize.

I wouldn't do this for everything though. For example, using it on the goon in the bar to gain entry instead of using the thieves' guild password would be an appropriate tribute to the humor of the series.

[Cieyrin]

We start on Saturday, minus a Rogue and plus a Pixie with no class levels. My little sister has been curious about this D&D thing I've been doing, so she's invited herself to play, under the condition that she gets to be an LA +6 Pixie, so she gets Otto's Irresistible Dance. That just means I need to change some stuff around, because I doubt that even Brauggi will be very intimidating if he's jigging about uncontrollably. I think I'll alter the story so that she's their in to see the Faeries at the Mushroom Ring, and maybe even the Dryad or the Spitting Spireas. She'll be playing a 6-year-old Pixie, though, which will be fun, and ought to provide a level of challenge to the other players. Once she starts taking class levels, she's going to be a Bard. :P

Pixies have the 1 HD conversion rule, so you can start her off as a Bard 1 so she can actually do stuff beyond her spell-likes.


And the Rogue has decided he maybe wants to be a Ninja instead. Read about Sudden Strike and decided he wanted it. The Thieves' Guild under the bar is going to LOVE him.

I'd be wary, as the Ninja isn't exactly the best written class and can get rapidly boring when you run out of ki.

[LibraryOgre]

At the same time, though, you don't encounter Cheetaurs, Mantrays, Trolls, or Saurus Rexes until much later in the game, when you're capable of fighting them. My party are starting as lvl 6 characters, so they've got some nice abilities under their belts, and will probably be capable of facing really powerful monsters like T-Rexes and Lightning Bolt Mantrays and the like by the third or so session when I finally allow them to face them.

Oh, Ok. I thought they'd be starting at 1st; if they're 6th, then, yeah, lightning bolts are scary but not the end of the world. I'd probably still avoid the T-Rex (too big, IMO), and be more inclined towards Scorching Ray (touch attack), but 6th level changes the playing field a lot.


as I vaguely remember that if you played your cards right (putting points into Parry and Magic while starting as a Thief) you could do all three. Beat the Weaponsmaster, beat Erasmus at Mage's Maze, AND rob all the houses in town. I'll just have to set it up that way and let them do as they please.

Indeed you could. I've done that recently, because the game is pretty awesome.


Weren't there wyverns? and Killer Bunnies? Or was that only QfG4? (the best IMHO)

Really? May I ask why? Part of my problem with the game was the numerous bugs and Windows conflicts, admittedly, but I can't think of it holding a candle to QfG1.

[The White Knight]

Really? May I ask why? Part of my problem with the game was the numerous bugs and Windows conflicts, admittedly, but I can't think of it holding a candle to QfG1.

My favorite parts were that the combat system was more interactive, the NPCs were varied and fun and got more spotlight, and the Paladin receiving guidance from Piotyr's ghost was all sorts of cool.

The bugs were definitely killer though. The hoops I had to jump through when I played it in DOSBox on my mac a few years ago...

[Essence_of_War]

Mark Hall,

I was never able to complete the game due to the various processor speed/windows issue until recently, but I discovered it actually works really nicely on DosBox if you're able to find a copy of it!

I thought the story for qfg4 was far grander, and did a very good job of balancing the series humor with the machinations of an eldritch abomination worthy of Lovecraft.

[Cieyrin]

Mark Hall,

I was never able to complete the game due to the various processor speed/windows issue until recently, but I discovered it actually works really nicely on DosBox if you're able to find a copy of it!

Find a...DosBox is open source, you go to their website and download. Bam, done! :smallconfused:

[JohnnyCancer]

I absolutely adore QfG, favorite series ever. Something to think about though is that in QfG you could improve your prowess by exercise and practice whether that meant climbing a tree, shooting a target (or casting spells at it), throwing rocks, or even picking your nose (very risky :smalltongue: ). I don't know if that translates to D&D at all. QfG 3 was literally shoehorned in just so you could train your character to be tough enough for QfG4 (the plot of which was going to be the original QfG3).

[Uhtred]

[QUOTE=Cieyrin;10439652]Pixies have the 1 HD conversion rule, so you can start her off as a Bard 1 so she can actually do stuff beyond her spell-likes.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does that mean?

[Cieyrin]

[QUOTE=Cieyrin;10439652]Pixies have the 1 HD conversion rule, so you can start her off as a Bard 1 so she can actually do stuff beyond her spell-likes.

Forgive my ignorance, but what does that mean?

Fey and Humanoids that normally have 1 racial hit die can swap it out for a class level when they get one. Pixies are one of those that can do that.

Here we go:
A pixie character exchanges its 1 HD of fey for its first class level.

[JohnnyCancer]

You might consider using the prestige Paladin rules from Unearthed Arcana.

[Essence_of_War]

Find a...DosBox is open source, you go to their website and download. Bam, done! :smallconfused:

I should have checked my syntax a little more carefully. Yes, DosBox is open source. Qfg4 however, although it is abandonware, is copyrighted and Sierra (or whatever company owns Sierra's assets) still holds that copyright, so if one is trying to play qfg4 legally, one would need to procure a copy of the game legally. This may be non-trivial.

[Cieyrin]

I should have checked my syntax a little more carefully. Yes, DosBox is open source. Qfg4 however, although it is abandonware, is copyrighted and Sierra (or whatever company owns Sierra's assets) still holds that copyright, so if one is trying to play qfg4 legally, one would need to procure a copy of the game legally. This may be non-trivial.

Ah, yeah, that's a horse of a different color, certainly.

[Uhtred]

Fey and Humanoids that normally have 1 racial hit die can swap it out for a class level when they get one. Pixies are one of those that can do that.


Forgive me, please, I'm just trying to clarify specifics with my jubilant little sister who is now looking forward to "Summon Instrument," but what exactly does she lose when she swaps a level of Fey for a level of class? Does she lose fey characteristics, or just one dice's worth of hit points? I've heard on this forum of people trading levels of LA for class levels or something, but it's always been fuzzy to me how it's done.

[Mikeavelli]

I've actually run a group through the QFG 1-4 stories before, it works out fantastically!

Every single one of them needed some alterations to make them not-so-railroady and account for the fact that it's D&D, not a puzzle game where you happen to be able to fight things.

Things that worked out well:

- Expanded the goblin threat, added a goblin stronghold / tunnel system in the vein of tucker's kobolds. Just more amusing and less lethal.

- Expanded the presence of Fairies in the game world. When the players encountered some fairies who demanded they dance - the Barbarian threw a spear at the leader-fairy and killed it in one hit. The rest of the fairies ran away crying, but came back later for revenge.

- When players find a ferocious guard bear chained up in a cave, they will attempt to kill it. Some hints will be necessary.

- Be willing to alter the bandit stronghold heavily. The players will wonder why the Baron's guards aren't helping them. Obvious answer is "they are, they're engaging the bandits while you go take care of the leader."

[hr]

The generic story of QFG 2 is hard to work into a campaign. I ended up mixing in elements of Al-Qadim: The Genie's curse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qadim:_The_Genie's_Curse) and had the players dealing directly with Noble Genies. The end result looked nothing like QFG2 except for the Arabian Nights atmoswphere, and the fact that they were trying to stop Iblis from being released.

[hr]

I skipped most of QFG 3 completely, but introduced the gigantic world tree location for an unrelated adventure.

[hr]

QFG 4 is probably the best game to adapt into a D&D Style game. A few more logical questions came up:

- If the monastery is dangerous, and everyone knows you should stay away from it, why haven't the peasants torched and pitchforked it down yet? My players were never satisfied with it existing inside the town limits. Recommendation is to move it into the swamp, where everyone thinks it's abandoned.

- Expand the Chernovy cult and give it a speaking NPC or two to explain their (twisted) half of the backstory. You're going to have to be a lot more subtle about Katrina talking to the players than the game was, because they're going to catch on that this servant girl is a vampire, and stake her in the second conversation.

- On that note, the players are going to kick down the front door of the castle and start smashing things. Be prepared for that to happen.

- The "Igor is missing and we think the gypsy did it" sideplot works VERY well. Definitely include it.

- The rituals gathering doesn't translate well. Players have no motivation to do it on their own, and get angry when you railroad them into being duped. I changed things so that big book at the bottom of the monestary (the one that kills you if you look at it) contained all the rituals, and the plotline centered around the Vampires trying to steal\extort the players into giving it to them.

- Similarly, the puzzle-based dark one cave chambers don't translate well, I just made them all into gimicky combat maps and put crazed aberrations in them instead. Also made it sequential instead of a hub, and had the vampires be the ones actually performing the rituals, not the players.

[hr]

Oh yeah, and if you want to see the whole series, but can't get a copy, there's a fabulous Let's Play of the entire series over the course of 100+ videos up on Youtube. Half the fun of the games is playing through them yourself, but if you have no other options, you'll get to see the rest of the story that way.

[Cieyrin]

Forgive me, please, I'm just trying to clarify specifics with my jubilant little sister who is now looking forward to "Summon Instrument," but what exactly does she lose when she swaps a level of Fey for a level of class? Does she lose fey characteristics, or just one dice's worth of hit points? I've heard on this forum of people trading levels of LA for class levels or something, but it's always been fuzzy to me how it's done.

It's really not that hard. Just have her build a Bard 1 with the Pixie racial traits, which is at the bottom of their entry, under Pixies as Characters. No conversion or anything required. Here's the link to the d20 SRD Pixie Entry: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/sprite.htm#pixie. That's all you need.

[The White Knight]

It's really not that hard. Just have her build a Bard 1 with the Pixie racial traits, which is at the bottom of their entry, under Pixies as Characters. No conversion or anything required. Here's the link to the d20 SRD Pixie Entry: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/sprite.htm#pixie. That's all you need.

Doesn't that make her 1 ECL higher than not having the Bard level though?

[Coidzor]

Doesn't that make her 1 ECL higher than not having the Bard level though?

No. Because there's no Fey HD. It's Fey HD 1 + LA 4 = ECL 5 = Bard 1 + LA 4.


Pixies As Characters

A pixie character exchanges its 1 HD of fey for its first class level.

So you have a 1st level bard with the addition of everything after that bit I quoted.

[Uhtred]

So it'll be the same with the LA 6 Pixie, the one with Irresistible Dance? Fey Hit Dice 1 + LA 5 = ECL 6, then swap out that Fey Hit Dice for Bard, without losing the ability to make things dance uncontrollably? Sold!

I'm looking forward to this campaign more and more. I've got minis selected, my battlemap is all kitted out as the Central Goblin Training Ground, and since everyone in the party is an Elf except my Pixie little sister, the legit map of Spielburg Valley is labeled in Elvish. I've got three pages of campaign notes for the first day, where hopefully they'll meet all the shopkeepers, Brauggi, the Centaur Farmer, and get the Healer's ring back to her. I'll introduce the Baron's curse next session, because I think the Adventurer's Guild hall will be closed this week.

But we'll see what they do. Game log for sure.

[Essence_of_War]

Nice! Let us know how it goes!

[Cieyrin]

So it'll be the same with the LA 6 Pixie, the one with Irresistible Dance? Fey Hit Dice 1 + LA 5 = ECL 6, then swap out that Fey Hit Dice for Bard, without losing the ability to make things dance uncontrollably? Sold!

Almost. It'd be Fey HD 1 + LA 6 = ECL 7 = Bard 1 + LA 6. LA doesn't include racial HD. Irresistible Dance usually isn't worth an additional +2 LA but YMMV. If she really wants it, more power to her, I guess.

[The White Knight]

No. Because there's no Fey HD. It's Fey HD 1 + LA 4 = ECL 5 = Bard 1 + LA 4.

Oh geez, right. I think I was thinking of CR.

[Uhtred]

So today's session was kind of awesome. Neither the Pixie nor the Ninja was able to make it today, so they got some help from my NPC's, Brutus the Mace, a dual-warmace-wielding Warforged Fighter 5/Warforged Juggernaut 5, and Crystal the Generously Endowed, an Elven Bard 4/Rogue 4/ Shadowdancer 2 that was a friend's character in another campaign. It started in an Elven Kingdom to the east of the Valley of Spielburg, and brought them all together (Since they were all Elves) to escort Brutus out of their kingdom and into the supposedly cursed Valley, where they were to abandon him at the gates of the town. As they came through the pass going east, they were attacked by Brigands, one of whom used a thunderstone and set off the avalanche that then blocked the eastern pass. Welcome to Spielburg.

They dithered for a bit at the gates of the city, while the Ranger made a Knowledge (Local) check and, with 15, confirmed that she'd heard Spielburg was cursed, but not why. The Paladin made a Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) check and found out with a 19, that the valley was ruled by Baron Stefan von Spielburg, a widower with two kids, one of whom was a Baronet poised to succeed him as Baron of Spielburg. I also got to use an Easter Egg in the game while they were standing about outside the town gates, when the Sorcerer decided she'd make a Spot check. I told her that the bare earth patch outside the town gates looked as though a map-seller's stand once stood there, then handed them the map I drew of the valley, telling them it was trampled in the dust. Then, after more dithering about what they should do, Crystal vanished into the town, and Brutus stood outside the town gates because, as a Warforged Juggernaut, he prefers to distance himself from organics. On an unrelated note, Brutus talks like HK-47.

They talked to the Sheriff and Otto and found out about the Guild Hall, then bypassed all further conversation with him to go to the Guild Hall, where they signed the logbook and talked to Wolfgang Abeneteur a bit. He told them the Valley was cursed, and that they should check the job postings if they wanted to learn more. They took all the fliers and read them, and decided they wanted to help the Healer find her ring, and to talk to the Gatekeeper about the Brigands and stuff. I also introduced a few original NPC's: Isaac the Immovable, a Dwarven Battlesmith who runs the blacksmith shop at the end of the street by the tavern, and Devon Aidendale, who runs the Dry Goods store, through job postings I invented for the game. Isaac wanted a chunk of starmetal that had fallen to earth near the CGTG, and Devon wanted back his shield which he had lost near the Kobold's cave. The Paladin wanted to do the starmetal job, the Ranger wanted to find Devon's shield, so they went and introduced themselves and explored that part of town. They talked to the Centaur's daughter, went into the tavern and found the note on the floor (The Paladin tried Dragon's Breath and he got incinerated after failing a DC 30 Fort Save. I was nice and gave him a do-over.) and found out more about the curse from Zara and Devon. Then they went to retrieve the starmetal for the Dwarf.

They passed the healer and the Ranger succeeded on her Spot check to see the healer's ring in the tiny pterosaur's nest. Unfortunately, none of them had any ranks in Climb, so the Sorcerer used Mage Hand to get the nest and ring down, which they then returned to the healer for four healing potions and six golds, which they assumed was a piddly reward until I told them the potions were seriously good juju, then they shut up. Then they proceeded through the Centaur's farm to the Central Goblin Training Grounds.
I set up twenty standard goblins from the Monster manual, using those stats, and then set up three custom Goblin Clerics that were all about level 5 and gave them a few fun spells on scrolls and prepared. They walked right in, failed some spot checks, and a few goblins on the periphery noticed them, but Brutus killed them before they got an alarm off, which I counted as a surprise round. Then, rolling initiatives, the Sorcerer went first, followed the by Ranger and the Clerics, then the other Goblins, and Brutus went last. The Sorcerer took out a pretty good chunk with a fireball, then the Ranger used Rapid shot to kill three more with her Energy Bow, while her Wolf animal companion stood guard under the tree she had hidden in before combat started. The Clerics then looked at Brutus and the Paladin and pulled some scrolls and read from them, with no discernible effect, then the Paladin summoned his mount, pulled out his lance, and charged, at which point he delivered 17 points of damage to himself because of the backbiter spell the Clerics had cast. The goblins ran into their cave and brought out an Ogre, who Brutus then proceeded to smash the heck out of, because Backbiter only works on wooden weapons, apparently. I'll be looking that up later. The Ranger and Sorcerer proceeded to wreck more goblins with arrows and a well-placed Scorching Ray, while the Clerics got another Backbiter on the Paladin, who dealt a further 9 damage to himself. The battle turned around in the goblins' favor when it didn't seem like much they could do could hurt the Clerics who would use their turns to put backbiter on the Paladin and then heal themselves, when I had Crystal arrive and use Slashing Blades in conjunction with a poisoned Chakram that killed all of them. They got some good random loots (and some cruddy ones, a box of hair and a jar of...purple...?) but the Sorcerer ended up with a Luckblade (she rolled REALLY well, and I was looking at the "Specific Weapons" table when she rolled) with 1 wish on it that could come back to haunt me. They gathered up the starmetal and, realizing that night was falling and both the Centaur and the town had closed down for the evening, spent the night in Erana's Peace. They gathered fruit and flowers the next morning (I implemented the rule that you can eat one piece of fruit, but not two, and it's so delicate you can't bring it with you, like in the game) and they went east to the Kobold's cave.

I wasn't ready for them to try to tackle that part of the storyline yet (It'll be either the second or third session before that's the case) so instead of an Ogre standing guard outside the caves, it was half a dozen hill giants, so the party legged it hardcore, saw the spitting flowers, then went back to the healer to sell her the flowers, then back to town to give the Dwarf his starmetal. He promised to make a magic shield out of it for the Paladin (it'll be done in the fourth session) and some arrows for the Ranger (done at the same time) and taught the Sorcerer how to enchant weapons, essentially granting her the "Craft Magic Arms and Armor" feat for free, but no real treasure. They sold their random loot and got some pretty good cash out of it, except the Luckblade. They kept that.

Then they went south to talk to the Gatekeeper, who just gave them the rundown on Baba Yaga and the Baron's curse, and that if they want the legit wording of the curse, and maybe the countercurse, they had to talk to the magician in the east of the valley in his wonky castle. He also told them the Brigands had fortified the southern pass and were holding it fast, and that if the Brigand Leader and Warlock were anywhere, it would probably be there. So off south they went, past the Antwerp ("Weird, but if it isn't attacking us, we won't attack it?") and to the Brigand Ambush, where there were archers and spearmen. They made some rash demands, the Brigands chased them off with overwhelming numbers, and they legged it all the way to the faerie ring, where they gathered magic mushrooms as though nothing had happened and wondered what the faeries were going to do to them for stealing mushrooms. They encountered the white stag, too, but didn't follow it.
They went to the Meeps instead, and that's where we ended it.

Not bad for a first session, right? There was a lot of humor and a lot of jokes from the original game that were included, but I put my own spin on things and added some new side-quests. So that was today. I think it went splendidly. Next session they're gonna go talk to Brauggi and the fox, and I might have a couple more jobs for them. They might see Erasmus, too.

[Cieyrin]

You probably want to separate those paragraphs out a bit, as it's very IMPENETRABLE WALL OF TEXT right now that's kind of off-putting.

Otherwise, sounds like your group enjoyed themselves, so that's the important bit, so initial success! :smallbiggrin:

[Uhtred]

So today we played again, introducing a new character, a Halfling Rogue of a Chaotic Neutral bent. His player and I decided he'd be a local, and a member of the Spielburg Thieves' Guild, and had been following the party because, let's face it, whenever a Paladin sets out to adventure in a mostly neutral and chaotic party, hilarity ensues. They left the Meeps and backtracked through the Central Goblin Training Grounds, which had, of course, reset, with the Halfling following along behind (Acing every Move Silently and Hide check I threw out him).

They blew through the CGTG last session in three rounds without really so much as taking any damage at all, so I decided to give them fewer monsters, but with class levels. Where before they'd faced twenty goblins and three goblin clerics (level 5 or so for spell purposes) this time they were facing ten, all level 3 fighters with Improved Initiative, Power Attack, and Weapon Focus (Warhammer), four archers, also level 3 fighters with Improved Initiative, Point Blank Shot, and Precise Shot, and the three Clerics, brought down to level 3 with Improved Initiative, Quickdraw, and Weapon Focus (Flail), worshipping Hextor, with the Destruction and War Domains, and the necessary scrolls of Backbiter. I equipped them according to WPL with really basic stuff, no magic weapons, average health, upped their Dex some so they were more on par with the players, so the Fighters all had an average AC of 21, while the Archers had one of 19 and the Clerics had 20 or so, 30hp on average.

It was CRAZY.

The Paladin couldn't get a hit in, got frustrated, and summoned his mount in the hopes that, between the two of them, they could maybe kill some goblins. They got maybe 1 kill. The Ranger did slightly better, accounting for three melee gobs and two ranged ones. The Sorcerer used her Fireball, blasted a cluster of melee gobs straight down to 6 or 7 hp, then used her Raven to deliver Ghoul Touch to one of the Clerics, who failed his Fort and Will saves (I didn't know offhand which the save for Ghoul Touch was, so I rolled both) and thus was paralyzed, being in close proximity to the other two Clerics who failed THEIR fort and will saves, and so became nauseated and were taking THOSE penalties, at which point the Halfling pushed a goblin archer out of a tree he was hiding in, then dropped onto him and attacking him with his 2 sleeve blades (which we found in Complete Scoundrel) in addition to dealing fall damage to the unfortunate Ranger, screaming about how the Goblins had stolen something from him.

When the Halfling arrived, the fight ended pretty quickly. Where the three of them had been hard pressed to defend themselves against the Goblins (Who were evidently just too much for my hapless three) the Halfling tipped the scales. The then proceeded to loot the crap out of goblins. They ALL looted the crap out of goblins, and got some pretty nice treasure. Then the Halfling's player announced he wanted to go home and sleep, and the Ranger had to leave for work, so they ended the session no further into the story than when they had started. Six rounds of agonizing combat took close to three hours to complete, with various interruptions and side discussions that are necessary to plot.

Hopefully next week we get the fox, Brauggi (Whose original rhyming dialogue I printed out in preparation for this week!) and Erasmus and Fenrus.

[Cieyrin]

Typical adventurers, always ruining your carefully laid plans. :smallwink: