Using D&D adventures as a basis for a story/webcomic

Stories about games that you run and/or have played in.

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Judging__Eagle
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Using D&D adventures as a basis for a story/webcomic

Post by Judging__Eagle »

I'm thinking of using and finishing a rather large campaign (runs from lvls 1-20, with all of the areas past the lvl 1-3 area come in pairs).

The party is starting at lvl 3 when they enter the lvl 1-3 zone, have them in two groups of 3 PCs and see how it goes.

General Rules for the game:

Overall: ToF, ToN, Dungeonomicon, RoW, BoG; Some other TGDMB stuff; some of my own stuff (feats mostly)

Combat Styles:

2-Handed Weapons: You add your Str again to damage (no 1 1/2 str)
Sheild Users: Add Con mod to Sheild AC [Possibly add to all saves?]
TWF: Add Dex mod to your To-Hit [NO, you DON'T get an extra attack, you need a feat for that]

[I'm thinking that the TWF should be capped at up to your BaB of your Dex mod being added to your To-Hit]

Stats: Elite array, with 3 pts to spend afterwards; add racial mods after.

HP: Maxed per lvl, b/c I'm lazy and don't want to introduce new characters or help make new ones.

Skill pts.: When you get more Int, you get skill pts retroactively. It makes being smart and getting smarter worthwhile.

Group so far:

Group 1
-Enters 1st

Human Rogue/Bard/Fighter Ronge
-Trap killer//Skill monkey
-Bow Sniper
-Stealth monkey//Senses expert

Story: Used to be a happy-go-lucky apprentice bard. Lost his mentor when they were ambushed by a mixed race group of bandits, joined some other low lvl adventurers (Fayruz and Kaplan) that saved his near-dying corpse. Ronge is covered in scars thanks to what happened to him.


Old Aasimar Cleric Child Necromancer Tomot
-Good-aligned cleric
-Child Necro, Body Assemblage
-Rides his childhood pet hound (it's a zombie)
-Has lots of pets, Corollaxes, Rabbits, Song Birds, Weasels, etc.
-Has built.... 'moving cages'; really large skeletons (owlbear skeletons that both carry his Field Provisions Boxes, the pets, and .... are made out of his pets that have died of old age or sickness; so they're both horribly creepy, but they're also sort of touching; they can break down into little skeletons and "assemble" into the larger ones when a fightan's goin' on; or if the group is travelling and his pets need to be carried along)
-relies on casting stuff like Ray of Enfeeblement and Blindness/Deafness
--3 Troglodyte "skeletons" (Zombies from the MM) (only has 1, maybe 2)

Story: Had a pet dog that died when he was just a tyke, he cried and cried and wouldn't let anyone take the dog away. He wished that his dog would come back; a cleric of Nerull sent by his god came to Tomot and told him that his dog could come back from the dead, but said that Tomot might never grow up. Tomot said that he didn't care; and the dog came back as a zombie. Tomot has been wandering around with his 'pets' for a long time as a cleric and has spent a large part of his life in exile in Sylvan lands where he took care of his pets and when two lycanthropes and a human crossed the forest looking for people to help fight a half-fiend sorcerer that has been rampaging with all sorts of `team monster` humanoids; he decided to join them.

Nymph Wizard Priya
-lose druid casting, grabbed wizard casting instead
-many Nymph abilities are non-abilities, since she'll kill her allies (or the allies pets or cohorts or w/e) so I'm fine with just removing the ability
-dimension door 1/day also removed
-abilities are made with the "subract Elite Array from base creature stats" so it's more like +4 to all mental stats and +2 to all physical stats
-lose a bunch of skill points (lose 4/lvl due to wiz HD as opposed to 6/lvl Fey HD)
-Charms enemies or uses Illusions, or summons monsters

Story: When you live in the middle of Sylvan lands and there are so many Nymphs that more than one can guard the same location, then some of the Nymphs may branch into other fields of expertise. How to crush the skulls of interlopers or wanton hunters from the Spirits of the Land or more vicious Ents. Dedication to specific nature gods from clerics that hang out at the nearest sacred grove and perform regular services to their dieties. Specializing in not being seen and killing reckless creatures with the help of sprites or Forest Gnome commandoes. Learning wizardry from all the elves that live like, just around the corner and who ask your Dyrad friends for branches to make `magic wands`.

Priya left her homelands with Tomot and rest of the group recently for several reasons. Her other Sylvan friends wouldn`t let her leave their homelands alone, since it`s dangerous out there. Tomot is trusted by the elves and fey, since he takes care of animals, and has remained with them for decades just raising and caring for animals; also the elven wizards really like the bone statues that he makes when they can`t bear to be parted from a now dead animal companion. The Fey and Elves figure that letting Priya travel with a pair of lycanthropes that aren`t evil and a Cleric that they have known for years is probably fine.

Priya wanted to leave the forests and find out what else she can learn to expand on her magical knowledge; having Elven wizards teach her is awesome, but she wants to know what it`s like to actually use a Colour Spray to incapacitate a bunch of Orcs that you (or the rest of the party) proceeds to gank. So, when Tomot saw Fayruz and Kaplan and said that he`d go help them with healing, Priya said that she`d go and help them with what she had learned from the Elven wizards.


Group 2

Illithid Grapple Wizard Surume Keishou
-Uses Making a Grapple Wizard (Monks Suck) for the build
-An octopus head wearing an octopus on its head is just too much.
-I'm really tempted to get this character to be a Psychoanalyst relying on literally tasting the problems in their patients problems and having them hope that it doesn't actually eat their brains; but that's an idea that I got now and too late at this stage to suggest
-Illithids utterly destroy any threat within 500 miles of their home city; often engaging threats or assisting locals as they make their way back home from a "feeding mission" as such this character could still be a brain-eating monster, and be a respected member of it's region, since they rally the townsfolk to round up and kill rampaging Ankhegs and don't want to eat the Farmer's Daughter's brains (most people don't even know that they eat brains, most people think that they prefer to eat monster brains only or that 'humanoid' brains don't nourish them at all)

Story: Keishou, or Kei, just loves to eat Walrus and Whale brains. They`re so cool and refreshing minded and keep It in top shape. Since It has a very picky and specific choice in Its food, Kei is often wandering on Its own on both feeding and returning home adventures.

On one such trip back It found out that someone has been organizing orcs, lesser giants, goblins, troglodytes and kobolds (as well as some other creatures) into a personal army.

On his trip back Kei has killed any of the above that he can find and has helped a pair of villages organize their defenses while he was passing through on his way home (to tell them what`s going on so that a proper Illithid strike team can show up to kill or enslave these rampaging brigands).

Keishou was fighting some goblins and orcs in a general free-for-all brawl when the rest of the other characters came along and helped to dispatch the remaining enemies. They then all helped Kei run away from the Troglodyte reinforcements that were forced into fighting by a Hobgoblin commander. They then ran away to regroup (mostly by Fayruz carrying Kei on her shoulder, since Keishou was pretty badly beat up in the fight). Keishou has been not so creepy as most would expect of an Illithid to be. This is mostly b/c It prefers the minds of water-dwelling creatures over land-dwelling ones.

Also, Kei has also been eating a lot of `normal`food lately, since he can`t go around eating brains.

The fact that Priya is a "water Nymph" sort of dawned on me now, but whether that becomes an issue later on could be interesting.

(Do Mindflayers have proper genders?)


Half Orc Barbarian or Ranger Fayruz

-Panther Lycanthrope (really, just a CR 1/2 riding dog; so minor mods for 0 HD)
-Going to be a retarded melee-monkey: adamantine armour, Lycanthrope DR and Barbarian Rage DR should help keep her alive while blitzing
-Outdoorsy person
-melee person
-probably a barb
-has a scarred pet wolf as a pet (can`t fight, yet)
Story: Fayruz met Kaplan while they were both hunting down the roaming bands of goblins, orcs, troglodytes and kobolds that a some-what effective half-fiend wizard has mashed together into an army. Fayruz seeks them since her own orc tribe was scattered or killed when they went toe-to-toe with the mixed army (she`s got a grudge to pick with the Ogres that work with the Orcs in the enemy army; since the ogres were the ones that were up-close and personally responsible for killing a lot of her orcs and half-orc tribe members).

Lycanthropic Catfolk-Direbat Kaplan
-Tiger Catfolk from Minis Handbook
-Direbat lycanthrope
-Lycanthropy adds animal HD based on the animals CR (+2 in this case)
-3 HD character with 30 dex, 20 con and DR 10/Silver
-Will take Knight lvls, since insane AC (40 or so at lvl 3) and DR will make the Designate Opponent feature work even when being attacked


General tactics:

Melee Threats:
Ronge, Fayruz and Kaplan deal with melee threats directly. Priya, Tomot and Kei support at range with spells. Tomot`s "skeletons" (trog zombies right now) also help in combat, mostly by helping with flanking or guarding a flank.

Single Toughest Enemies:
Since Keishou joined the group, singly powerful opponents aren`t much of a threat to the group. It`s an expert at taking down and killing enemies in as quick as 18 seconds (one round to establish a grapple, one round to attach all 4 tentacles, one round to destroy their brain)

Ranged Threats:
Priya and Kei lay down Webs, Fog Clouds, Colour Sprays or Priya summons monsters every round and Kei fires Scorching Rays, Tomot casts Rays of "Reduce Stat" (Enfeeblement, Clumsiness, Stupidity, Foolishness, Self-absorption)

Traps: Ronge can disable them; and he`s always taking 10 due to Dangersense, so he`s always got a minimum of: 23 search, 17 Spot and 17 Listen. Fayruz can simply just hype herself up and will probably soak any damage that a trap could deal; and Fast Heal any damage that actually injures her. Kaplan can also soak traps, but magic traps will bypass all of his DRs.

Diplomacy: Ronge, Priya and Kaplan are the diplomats

Sense Motive: Ronge and Tomot have actual ranks in this

Sneaking around: Ronge, Kaplan, and Fayruz are capable Priya and Kei are able to sneak around as well

Knowledge: Priya has the most breadth and depth (nearly all at max ranks), Ronge has a wide range of knowledge (and with his high int and Bardic Knowledge he`s got a lot more than his ranks would indicate); Kei, Fayruz, Kaplan and Tomot have more depth in their respective fields (Dungeoneering, Arcana), (Nature), (History), (Religion); so all knowledge skills are covered by at least 3 people.

Healing: Priya and Kei can`t do spell Shenanigans yet, but Fayruz can fast heal and Tomot can actually heal.

Crafting Stuff: Kaplan`s a craftsman and Ronge knows how to build stuff; the rest are all smart enough to lend a hand if they just take their time (they`re all smart enough that they can use the Aid-Another action and get over a 10).
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus »

So what's the tone/personality for the characters and, come to that, the story itself?

The characters make it sound comedic.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

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JonSetanta
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Post by JonSetanta »

Please please please don't pull a Dominic Deegan plot.

If anything, go for more Atland. http://www.realmofatland.com/index.php?p=1
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Judging__Eagle
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Dominc Deegan.... no.

Settingwise in DD: While there is limited "special bullshit magic", and no Psionics. There's no internal consistency either. Which is sort of annoying.

I find that in any of my logs for games that I've played in, it's the random shit that occurs over the course of game play that will probably result in both hilarious and tragic occurrences in the game.

Atland... it's good, really good. It doesn't use cheap and weak alliteration (two pairs of alliteration is fucking weak imo) to punchline jokes. Heck, Atland doesn't use proper punchlines; the reader has to figure out the jokes as it all goes along.

In any case, I'm not really aiming for humor. I just want to see how well this method works for long-term story creation.

Right now the characters are statted out at lvl 10 and lvl 3. I built all but the half-orc at lvl 10 first, so I know where they're going, but they're not set in stone (in game actions may change builds and such). Then built them at lvl 3 to focus on their most basic and important abilities.
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Post by JonSetanta »

I see your objectives now:
Consistent setting
Unpredictable character interaction
Mostly serious plot

Keep in mind the 'retraining' option for builds so the characters don't get stuck with, say, Dodge or Endurance early on just so they can get cool PrCs and feat chains later.
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Judging__Eagle
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

No feat chains, scaling feats; so that shouldn't be a real problem. Good point though.

I've actually made a point of telling people in games that I've run that it doesn't matter if they're not happy with their character; we can rehash out the build later on.

I'm not so sure if unpredictable character interaction is what I want; I want more unpredictability in character actions themselves. The ranger that tries to jump onto a table, who trips on spilled beer and and smashes his crotch into a chain before smashing his head onto the table, or the monk that can't be hit by a half dozen equal CR melee-centered enemies.
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Some quick character sketches i did last night.

Image

Image

Image

Image


Other idea: Photograph the shots

This morning i was toying with the idea of using my minis on a board and photographing the scenes as they play out; then PS the text in later.

benefits: much faster than drawing

problem:

I can't get the char designs that i want;

there are no large, strong female minis in my collection nor any thin lanky male rogue-types; which partly b/c few of those minis made in the DDM collections and I also never thought to buy them if I saw them lying loosely around. Then again i didn't do more than buy already closed boxes and I had no real choice over what was inside of the DDM boxes.

I might photograph combats for reference later.


Other notes on reconciling character design and drawing a story out:

-tomot is essentially a "party" on his own and clutters the story; I'll just keep him and his zombie dog as in-game characters; his other created zombies or skeletons will still have the stats and HP and AC and Attacks of whatever he can create; however they are centered on his location and are now a collection of tiny skeletons/taxidermied pets.

So... use the stats of say, a Trog Zombie; but it isn't shown as an actual "big" creature that needs drawing and thus cluttering the drawings. Instead it's more like a "wall of bone" that has it's own stats and moves to whereever the cleric character is.

Mechanical upsides; zombies can move faster, but would still only have one action (if the PC moves, the zombies can't do anything except be ablative HP); the PC gets a lot of ablative HP (which he would have got anyway from the created undead).

Mechanical Downsides: the UD can't be left to do something, they are 'part' of the PC now.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Yeah, I'm trying to think of ways to speed the production process as much as possible; that's why I was thinking about other non-drawing methods (photographs, copypasta of flash-drawn images etc.) in order to do so.

I'm trying to make the characters as simple as possible as well; mostly b/c if not it will just be a pain to draw them and that will not be in line with the idea of drawing a lot.
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