GenCon 2009: Thursday
Ugh, the day started early. 7am is earlier than I’d normally drag myself from slumber, but for tickets to fun, I suppose I could do it. Signed up for a Diplomacy game at 10am, a SF film by Richard Garriott and others actually filmed in space, and picked up 10 generic tickets at $2 apiece for use all over GenCon.
The line took forever. If it’s possible to line up generics beforehand, that’s the plan for next year. I mean, sheesh, why waste valuable time in line!?!? Luckily, this gave me time to figure out my schedule for the next few days. Also a good thing that I tried to sign up for things on Friday afternoon, so the dude behind the counter could remind me that the Civ game is actually Friday, not Saturday. Good thing he told me or I’d have missed it!
Then off to games, and the exhibition floor. I found the floor a bit overwhelming, with all these vendors pushing their products with vim and vinegar. Nice to see the gaming world pushes ahead full throttle despite the many reports of a dismal economy out there. WotC had a glossy exhibit; Crazy Egor had a nice warehouse of all you’d ever want feel. There was everything in-between. Next year, we may try to get a table if we start printing our modules. Stay tuned for news of this over the coming months.
Got into a few games over the course of the day, including Diplomacy, Pompeii, and Junta. I’d say the Junta game went best, with everyone really getting into it. Pompeii is a nice 45 minute fire-and-forget kind of game. Diplomacy is hard if people come in as a strong voting block. I got screwed by a strong Turkey/Austro-Hungary alliance and my Russian people were forced to take Berlin at the cost of losing Sevastopol to Turkey, Warsaw to Austria, and St. Petersburg to Britain. Can you say “squeezed?!?”
Back to the focus of this blog. I was excited to see so many role players, people dressed up (photos perhaps to follow), and general goodwill toward gamers all in the first day of the con. Looking forward to tomorrow, where I hope to get in some good old fashioned role playing after an 8 hour Advanced Civ game. Where else other than GenCon can you get in a game?
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged GenCon 2009 by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
GenCon 2009: Wednesday
Today, three of us from Unicorn Rampant hopped flights from Austin to Indianapolis. Had to figure out Indy’s public transit system, which isn’t terribly well documented. In the end, I discovered the Green Line 7, which heads from the airport to the downtown area, passing by the Convention Center and most of the hotels, including the Hyatt where I’m staying for the next few days.
We’ll be running a few games, most notably For Love of Evil all day Thursday and Friday. Though it’s already sold out, this is highly recommended for you 4th Edition gamers out there! We’ll be releasing this as a module soon.
After an okay meal at a sports bar across from the Convention Center, we headed back to get tickets to get involved in some fun. There were a number of things already going on Wednesday; if I’d known this, I might’ve flown out late Tuesday night to partake. Unfortunately, they cut off the line right in front of us, so we weren’t able to get into the Wednesday night games we’d hoped to play. But we did get in a Battletech session in a two-on-two battle which was almost resolved.
Now to get a (mostly) good night’s sleep before getting up by 7 to get in line for tickets!
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged GenCon 2009 by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
GenCon 2009 Preview
For those of you heading to GenCon, Unicorn Rampant will be running two sessions of our new 4th Edition adventure, For the Love of Evil, one on Thursday from 8am-10pm, and one on Friday at the same time. We’ll be running a Battletech game, Arena of Death on Saturday from 1-10pm. Come join the excitement!
Posted in news and tagged GenCon 2009 by Stephen Hilderbrand with no comments yet.
Boots of Certain Gravity
Level 28 Magic Item
Kard thought he had his foe, Percivin, backed against the wall. That is, until Percivin ran up the wall to the ceiling!
Item Slot: Feet
Price: 2,125,000 GP
Property: Gain a climb speed equal to your speed. You can use this movement across any solid surface. You must end your movement on the ground or else you fall.
Power (daily): Free. Choose a direction. That direction becomes down for you for the duration of the encounter or for 5 minutes. You may dismiss this effect and return down to its regular direction as a free action.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged equipment: magic boots by Adam A. Thompson with 1 comment.
Broken Camp
The following is a preview of our latest 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure “What’s Mine’s Yours”, now available here.
In this encounter, while traveling through the wilderness to root a group of kobolds out of a mine, the party’s slumber is disturbed by a group of kobolds intent on protecting their claim.
Encounter: Broken Camp
The PCs are attacked in the night, during second watch.
The evening’s fire dies down to a few embers, with most of the party drifting into a weary traveler’s slumber.
Skill Challenge: The PCs who remain awake on watch will have to make DC 15 Perception (to hear the rustling in the leaves) and DC 15 Endurance (to stay awake) checks. Each of these two checks will have to be succeeded two out of three rolls.
Success: If the PCs remain awake and perceive the kobolds:
The sound of a twig breaking on the ground brings your attention to the uphill side of the camp.
The PCs on watch will have time to wake the rest of the party before the attack below.
Failure: If not:
The sound of bowstrings startles you on your watch, as arrows fly through the camp, casting fast shadows across your companions’ faces.
See tactics below for more information on starting this combat.
Creatures: 2 Kobold Slingers (p168 MM), 2 Kobold Skirmisher (p 167 MM)
Tactics: As the PCs slumber, on second watch, the kobold sneakers will make their way to positions where they can deliver critical missile attacks upon the stronger party members. Those on watch can make perception checks to notice the sneakers moving into place and call an alarm, disrupting their plans. The two brawlers wait for the arrows to be fired, then charge into the fray, the darkness and smoke of the dying fire providing cover for their actions. They will start by attacking the stronger member of the party, hopefully weakened by the first volley of arrows. If the sneakers are discovered, the four kobolds attack as normal.
Development: When the kobolds are defeated, one will notice the party, cursing, “You greedy ssscum, you’ll get yoursss!” If the party carefully checks them over in the morning or with a strong light source, they will notice the Guild’s logo branded onto them.
XP: 400
Posted in 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons / d20 fantasy / Pathfinder, Encounter and tagged kobolds, What's Mine's Yours by Adam A. Thompson with 1 comment.
New Adventure – What’s Mine’s Yours
What’s Mine’s Yours is a 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure for 1st level characters. This adventure begins in the marketplace in the town of Fort Wood, where the players are approached by representatives of the Guild, a Merchant collective heavily invested in mining operations. They are escorted to a courtyard at the Guild headquarters in Fort Wood, where they are provided with the setting. Kobolds have taken control of a mine of great importance to the Guild. Their task is to free the mine of the kobolds. Over the course of the adventure, the party discovers there is a more sinister story surrounding the Guild’s doings in the mine.
This adventure easily serves as the first adventure undertaken by a new party of 1st level characters.
Buy it here for $2.99 — cheap!
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged What's Mine's Yours by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
New Comic!
I’ve been enjoying Mike ‘Mortellan’ Bridges’ W.o.G. comic for some time now, and am pleased to announce that he’s given us permission to run it here on Tailslap!
I know it may seem weird to run a comic that focuses on Grayhawk in a magazine for 4th edition D&D, but it’s all D&D to me, and for me all D&D goes back to Grayhawk. And on his site Mike muses quite humerously about those old adventures and supliments.
So without further ado: this is the first of the W.o.G. “Cultist” comics, which chronicle the hijinks of a couple of Cultists of Tharizdun in their misadventures across the multiverse.
Mike’s inspiration for the comic, and the rest of his work can be seen here: grayhawkonline.com/greyhawkcomic
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged comic: W.o.G. by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Ceevok
Ceevok is one of the characters available for the players in the upcoming 30th level game we’ll be running at GenCon next month. The rest of the characters are available to view here.
Silent and mysterious, Ceevok speaks only on matters of life and death. As one of the greatest warriors in the grim and mysterious Shadar-kai society, this does not come as much of a surprise. With bow in hand, she has been responsible for slaying some of the most heinous monsters in five planes. At this time, she is entrenched in a quest to release the Chained God, Thardizum, from the Abyss. The vision for this goal came in a dream to her from the Raven Queen, who told her that beings from the Realms beyond the stars threatened the Universe. Only Thardizum has the power to defeat these utterly foreign beings, and must reluctantly be released.
Ceevock
Female Shadar-kai ranger 30 Size: Med
Initiative: +26 Senses: Passive Perception: 32 Passive Insight: 32 Low-light Vision
HP: 173 Bloodied: 86 Surge Value: 43 Surges per day: 9
AC: 43 (45 vs opportunity attacks) Fort 38 Ref 41 Will 38
Resist 15 cold and fire
Speed: 7 squares
Class Features
Style: Archer Ranger Paragon Path: Battlefield Archer Epic Destiny: Epic Trickster
Prime Shot: +1 to attack against a target if you are nearer to it than any other ally.
Hunter’s Quarry (+3d8)
Powers:
At will: Nimble Strike: +33 vs AC / 2d10+ 13, Twin Strike +33 vs Reflex (two attacks) / 2d10 + 6
Encounter: Combined Fire(p), Triple Shot, Manticore’s Volley, Lightning Shot
Daily: Quarry’s Bane(p), Great Ram Arrow, Tiger’s Reflex, Three in one Shot
Utility: Yield Ground, Weave Through the fray, Expeditious Stride, Momentary Respite, Safe Stride, Archer’s Glory (P), Epic Trick (E)
Feats:
Defensive Mobility(free)
Heroic: Lethal Hunter, Escape Artist, Durable, Jack of all trades, Weapon Focus: Longbow, Improved Initiative, Paragon: Blood Thirst, Iron Will, Danger Sense, Great Fortitude, Sly Hunter, Point Blank Shot, Epic: Unfettered Stride, Triumphant Attack, Flanking Maneuver, Skill Focus: Dungeoneering and Perception, Armor Specialization: Hide.
Skills: Acrobatics: +30, Arcana +20, Athletics +22, Bluff +17, Diplomacy +17, Dungeoneering +25, Endurance +28, Heal +22, History +20, Insight +20, Intimidate +17, Nature +25, Perception +22, Religion +20, Stealth +25, Streetwise +17, Thievery +23
Alignment: Unaligned Languages: Common
Str 16 (+18) Con 16 (+18) Dex 24 (+22) Int 16 (+18) Wis 20 (+20) Cha 11 (+15)
Equipment: Vicious Longbow +6 (+6d12 per critical hit), +6 Trollskin Elderhide (+5 masterwork), Star Opal Ring, Flying Carpet, Cloak of Survival
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged creature: epic lurker, For Love of Evil by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
For Love of Evil
For those readers who will be playing in “For Love of Evil” at GenCon in a month, we have finished the PCs.
Follow the link below for the D&D Character Builder and PDF versions of the 10 evil 30th level characters. They would also all make suitable villains in any game.
http://unicornrampant.com/ForLoveofEvilCharacters.zip
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged For Love of Evil, GenCon, news: convention by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Astral Archers
You conjure two ghostly, elven archers armed with radiant bows. They fire along with the caster, providing a volley of arrows that deal divine damage to enemies.
Daily • Conjuration, Divine, Implement, Radiant
Standard Action • Ranged 10
Effect: You conjure two elven archers, each occupying 1 square within range. When the caster makes ranged attacks, the conjured archers also fire. If the caster is successful in his attack, the archers also hit, dealing 1d10 + Wisdom modifier radiant damage.
You can move one archer or both a total of 3 squares as a move action. Creatures can move through the spaces occupied by the archers. The archers last until the end of the encounter.
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged power: heroic cleric by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.