My third encounter for my Spirits of Eden campaign had me really pumped. It was the climax of the adventure, with the players having reached the grove of Cybele, the mistress of the forest, and ready to confront her for the curative flowers that would help save the small child back in the village the PC’s set out from. There was some nice roleplaying at the outset, but quickly the fight degenerated into a string of misses.

Cybele’s defenses weren’t unreachable – the PCs just kept rolling so low they wouldn’t have been able even to hit level 1 minions. The alarming amount of bad luck in the climactic fight made me invoke dormant house rules to give them a fighting chance. This string of bad luck wasn’t really what I wanted out of the fight – I wanted the PCs to enjoy and clearly they weren’t and they were frustrated with this random dice wraith haunting them.

I invested a good bit in this fight and didn’t want it going belly up and being “that” moment in the campaign that players will hate forever. Thankfully after that, everything went pretty smoothly, and Cybele went down well enough as an NPC that even the unfortunate battle didn’t taint the moment.

Before the stats, lessons learned from the encounter:

1) I have to stop trying to live up to some contrived ideal of the “perfect DM” who never fudges, never invokes narrative power, always uses player input on everything, follows the RAW to the letter and always creates just the right challenge, and is afraid what people might think if he ceases to be perfect. I’m not that guy, and I won’t be. What matters is that players are enjoying the game, however the hell I manage it.

2) I need to make smaller maps. My players don’t seem to be a mobile bunch, and I like map elements that encourage people to go to them and do stuff with them (as you’ll see). Either that, or I need to have Spirits teleport and fly around more to make players move.

3) I really want the time to play with Maptool more. God damn you college education. I love making maps!

Now for the stuff. First off we have the map, my very first Maptools map. It’s not print quality, but I love it.

Sorry about the marked-up map, I use it in a Play-By-Post, so I put it through photoshop and mark it up for tracking encounter movements. If people are interested in my little maps, I’ll be sure to save the originals from now on.

Anyway, the three “plant surrounded by water” areas are terrain powers. Basically, players could move to them, gather up some, and use them. Each plant had a once per encounter power, expended by the first player to use it:

Rimefire Berry
A half-frosted, half-warm berry the size of one’s largest toe; if many are shaken and thrown together, they can become a deadly, far-reaching projectile.
Encounter @ Fire, Cold; Standard Action, Area Burst 1 Within 10 Squares, Each creature in burst; +10 vs Reflex; 2d8 + 5 cold and fire damage. Miss Half damage.

White Bifolia
A soft, sweet-smelling white flower. It has incredible medicinal properties.
Encounter @ Healing; Minor Action, Personal or Melee touch, One creature; The target spends a healing surge and makes a saving throw.

Lecher’s Lilly
These peapod-like legumes, if separated from their parent plant during infancy, then shaken and thrown, quickly wrap in large vines, tightly around whatever object they strike before withering away.
Encounter; Standard Action, Ranged 5, One creature; +8 vs Fortitude; 1d10 damage and the target is restrained until the end of your next turn.

Cybele’s stats reflect her borrowed purview. As a Spirit, her powers are actually aligned with the sky, and speed, as she is a Bird spirit. However, her interest in plants gave her plant powers that she prefers to use. Spirits in Eden aren’t entirely constrained by their nature at birth. They can “borrow” purviews, so Cybele is a spirit of Plants and Birds because she took an interest in, and “borrowed” plants.

Coincidentally, Cybele is also an example of a non-evil Villain in Eden. She has a low view of mortals and refused to help the players with the medicine they needed, instead opting to toy with them, challenging them to a mock duel. However, during the duel, the fight reminds Cybele of a person she loved very much, a woman who became a cleric, but was killed by the villagers she and Cybele protected, when they raided Cybele’s grove for medicine to survive a disease. The woman became Cybele’s cleric when she challenged Cybele to a duel and fought her to a standstill.

The players also find out that the woman was resurrected, but without her old memories, as Reimi, the spirit from the last encounter. Overall, my summary of this storyline sucks, but I thought I did pretty good with it, and the players enjoyed it. Without further ado:

Cybele, The Legendary Fish of the Green Sea Level 7 Solo Controller
Medium Natural Humanoid (Spirit) XP
Initiative +9; Perception +11; Darkvision
HP: 248; Bloodied 124
AC: 21, Fortitude 18, Reflex 20, Will 23
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6, Fly 7 (Hover)
Action Points 2
[MB] Wingblades (Standard; AW)
+12 vs AC; 1d8+7 damage
[R] Black Lotus Influence (Standard; AW)
Ranged 10; +10 vs Reflex; 1d6+7 damage and Cybele slides the target 2 squares.
[C] Gilded Lotus Spark (Standard; 5-6)
Close Blast 5; Each creature; +10 vs Reflex; 3d8+7 damage.
Miss: Half damage
[C] Silver Lotus Field (Standard; 6) @ Poison
Close Burst 4; Each creature; +8 vs Fortitude; 1d6+7 poison damage and the target is dazed until the end of Cybele’s next turn.
Effect: The burst creates a zone of debilitating poison spores until the end of Cybele’s next turn. Creatures in the zone at the start of each of their turns take 5 poison damage and are dazed during that turn.
Sustain Minor: The zone persists.
[C] Bloody Lotus Crisis (Immediate Reaction First Bloodied; Encounter) @ Fire
Close Burst 10; Each creature; +10 vs Reflex; 1d10 + 7 fire damage and the target is pushed 5 squares.
Miss: Half damage and the target is pushed 3 squares.
Unaligned; Common, Supernal, Elven
Skills: Perception +11, Insight +11, Religion +13, Nature +13, Diplomacy +15
Str 13 (+4) Dex 22 (+9) Wis 17 (+6)
Con 15 (+5) Int 20 (+8) Cha 25 (+10)

The players were accompanied by Aseem in this battle, the giant crow from the last encounter. Aseem was the past ruler of the Green Sea, but ceded his title to and also became servant of Cybele, the new ruler. However, here Aseem fought in his humanoid form. He had a grudge with Cybele due to her treatment of Reimi – she was pained by interacting with someone who looked like, but wasn’t, the cleric that she lost, and was distant with Reimi. Cybele’s treatment of mortals, as well, bothered Aseem. Though he knows he stands no chance at her, due to old age slowing him down, and the fact that she has defeated him in single combat before (twice), he helps the PCs anyway.

Aseem, The Past King Of The Green Sea Level 9 Companion
Medium Fey Beast (Spirit) XP400
Initiative +9; Perception +10; Darkvision
HP: 50; Bloodied 25
AC 17; Fortitude 17, Reflex 20, Will 20
Speed 6
[MB] Longsword (Standard; AW) @ Weapon
+11 vs AC; 1d8+6 damage
[M] Strong Slash (Standard; Encounter)
+11 vs AC; 2d8+6 damage
Miss: Half damage
[M] Extremespeed (Standard; Encounter) @ Weapon
+11 vs Reflex; 2d8+6 damage and the target is marked until the end of Aseem’s next turn. If it violates the mark Aseem teleports to a square adjacent to it and it falls prone and becomes slowed until the end of Aseem’s next turn.
[S] Pains of Old Age
Aseem’s initiative result is always 11.
Unaligned; All languages
Skills: History +12, Religion +12, Nature +15, Arcana +12, Diplomacy +14, Perception +15, Insight +15, Heal +15
Str 10 (+4) Dex 17 (+7) Wis 22 (+10)
Con 08 (+3) Int 17 (+7) Cha 20 (+9)

The ending to this saga has Cybele slowly beginning to open up to mortals, and putting behind her grief, and accepting and taking Reimi under her wing as she should have from the beginning. The PCs got the medicine they needed, saved the child in the village, and so far, everything seems to be going well for them…

I’ve never found alignment to be a useful construct in any way, shape or form. Whenever I DMed a game I would always discard it entirely and just ask players to give me some short, three or five word character motivations. “Gold,” “The spouse and kids,” “glory,” “pride,” etc, and then ask that they expand upon them a bit later. What was your character’s attitude about these motivations? And I would not punish with an alignment black-mark for say, being greedy, or trying to use diplomacy on the Devil as opposed to smiting and cleaving it.

These ideas are also present in the Spirits of Eden in a way. Everyone’s free to DM it as they want to – but I was recently asked “how would you play an evil campaign in The Spirits of Eden” and the answer I would give is “you wouldn’t.” At least not traditionally. What this typically means is “campaign in which everyone writes ‘evil’ on their character sheets, and picks race and class options which are ‘evil’, and then do things which are ‘evil’.”

You can’t just pick an Orc as your race and go around town slaughtering peasants. Well, you could, but you wouldn’t get very far. Being an Evil PC in Eden means committing selfish actions toward a personal agenda. Chaotic Evil people in Eden die, they die fast and they die meaninglessly, because they turn the entire world against them. Maniacal people in Eden fail, they fail because they are trying to control something too far out of their scope. It is nigh impossible to take over the entire world of Eden. No artifact will grant you that amount of power. The spirits won’t let you get that far. The world itself and its essence flows and karma won’t let you get that far.

Remember that you would be playing a Point of Darkness in a Sea of Light.

Mercenaries, criminals and assassins are effective evil characters in Eden. They can commit evil actions towards surreptitious goals that can create a dramatic campaign. They can kill politicians to raise their patron or themselves to power. They can be greedy and double-dealing in a scope which can display their cunning at its utmost.

Intrigue characters are effective in Eden. They could aspire to control certain titles and objectives via political power or courtship or through magic. They could eliminate or humiliate rivals and make critical, subtle moves towards their hidden ambitions. They could be out for vengeance, even dealing it themselves using hidden identities.

Extremists are effective evil characters in Eden. They could be under the employ of governments such as Vedaria and Sargasso which have certain repressive policies, or governments in which there are corrupt elements like Periterim’s and Andaliel’s. They act in the interest of flawed authority to carry out what they see as good.

Cultists are effective evil characters in Eden, if they try to bring about the coming of a spirit creature which does have the power to wreak havoc upon the world (such as the scourges of eden, like Kuannei). Unfortunately the campaign will end on a bad note, as your cultist will also be destroyed or subjugated along with everything else.

One final interesting kind of evil game in Eden would be for the players to play evil spirit monsters like Asura and have to deal with groups of heroes. This could be a reverse of the mythological campaign type, where the mythical hero fails to defeat the mythical beast, or the mythical beast has to hunt down the mythical hero instead of it being the other way around. It would undoubtedly be a short game, as the PCs might get bored of their unchanging monster stat blocks after a while, unless the DM is willing to let them change those from time to time.

These are only examples, but the point is that evil should be approached differently in Eden.

On a final note, remember that this only applies to Evil PC characters in Eden. You can certainly have heroic PCs find and defeat Chaotic Evil NPC creatures, maniacal villains or something generic like drow priestesses and chaotic evil goblins – after all, your heroes are proving why these sorts of people fail at what they do, by defeating them.

Like I’ve said before, I like making up 4e house rules for fun. Shifting gears: one of the things I like best about Cthulhutech are the Drama Points. Drama Points are a slightly weird meta-game way of having the players be just that darned special, because only really important characters (players and certain NPCs) get Drama Points, and Players always get the most. Drama Points in Cthulhutech manipulate the dice pool. You can add to your pool or subtract a dice from an enemy pool for every drama point you spend. You could still fail, but it certainly gave you much better chances. Especially if you subtracted from enemies.

You might be thinking that we already have action points in 4e. What’s the big deal? Well, in Cthulhutech, Drama Points are a big pool that refreshes per session. “Per Session” is a rather strange timeframe in game terms, but the idea of starting out with a big pool of tokens that I can spend on pumping different things always seemed more interesting than just having an action point give an extra action. The 3.5 Eberron action points were nifty that way.

That being said, the appeal of Drama Points is you have loads. You have 10 every session to ration out, so you get to decide how to spend them. You could blow a lot in one scene, or use them sparingly, depending on the needs of the moment. Since 4e isn’t a dice pool RPG, to add a mechanic like this, we need to find out beneficial things you’d want to spend points on, and figure out how much to charge for them in points, since we can’t manipulate a dice pool. We already have the action point mechanic, so we can have extra actions. I also have a few other ideas.

Starting each session with 10 points:

3 Points – Extra action.

2 Points – Roll a saving throw or spend a healing surge.

1 Point – +2 bonus to an attack or damage roll or skill check before you know if it’s successful.

1 Point – -2 penalty to an attack or damage roll or skill check made by an enemy. (Immediate Reaction)

Some contingencies can help to regulate and expand drama points in 4e:

•Set a per encounter limit. Three would be a good start. Five for a high power game.

•Set a per turn limit. Three would be best.

•Give out less drama points, like five per session.

•Have a milestone hand out a drama point.

•Have a system where a player can take a penalty to something, like defense against an incoming attack, in order to gain a drama point next turn for the sacrifice.

•Allow 4-5 drama points to give a reroll, but have races which already grant rerolls gain 1 extra drama point in exchange for being just a little less special because other people can reroll too.

•Solos get 10 drama points. Elites get 5 drama points.

•Further challenge: Standards and Minions get 1 drama point.

I think it’d be a pretty nifty mechanic to port over.

Edit: As a bonus, here is my interpretation of the rule (yes, I re-interpret houserules which I have already proposed in one form, to other forms, that’s how much chaos I like in my houserules) which I told my gaming group. This is for an admittedly high power, high fantasy Spirits of Eden campaign, however, and with players that have pretty bad luck with dice, hence my leniency and eye towards Rule of Cool:

You have 10 Drama Points per “session”. I’ll tell you when they refresh. There is no cap on how many you can spend each encounter, but you can only use one effect each combat round. Each milestone, you regain 1 drama point.

Drama Points do the following:

1 Point: Minor Action: +2 to your next d20 roll or damage roll.
1 Point: Immediate Interrupt – an enemy’s attack roll gains a -2 penalty against you or an adjacent ally.
2 Points: Free Action: Reroll a failed attack roll. You must use the new result even if lower.
2 Points: Minor Action: Roll a saving throw.
3 Points: Free Action: Gain an Extra action.
-Special: Can only be done once per encounter.
3 Points: Free Action: Spend a healing surge.
-Special: Can only be done once per encounter.
3 Points: Minor Action: Your next attack roll scores a non-critical success on a d20 roll of 9 or higher.
-Special: Can only be done once per encounter, and then additional times after 3-point dramatic sacrifices.

Dramatic Sacrifice: You can choose the following actions in order to gain drama points, and can do each once per encounter. You may be allowed to do them more often depending on, well, how dramatic the encounter is.

1 Point: Take a -2 penalty to all defenses against an attack.
2 Points: Fail a saving throw voluntarily.
3 Points: Take extra damage equal to 1d6 + enemy’s level from an attack.
3 Points: Willingly miss a standard action attack and grant combat advantage to the target from that miss.

Still in the testing stages. There’s no rules for this last clause, but to be sportsmanly, please spend at least 2-3 points each encounter. Don’t just dump them all on the final encounter of the day.

Solos have 10 Drama Points of their own. Elites have 5 drama points. Some standards may have 1. Monsters can’t make dramatic sacrifices, since they’re assumed to always have full DPs anyway if they have them. NPC companions can make dramatic sacrifices, but the penalty for them is slightly harsher (as befits the situation).

NPCs have 5 drama points.

Certain encounters will have special Dramatic Sacrifices or Drama Point Actions.

–Wyatt

I know a lot of people have been asking me for something like this, so I thought I would try. This is an outline for an adventure that sort of illustrates what sorts of things I think about when coming up with ideas for games in this setting, and maybe what sorts of things you could be thinking about when you do so as well. It is divided into 3 parts, this is the first one. The adventure will take players from an agricultural land, to a forest, and then to a palace in the sky.

This outline assumes mid Heroic Tier, around level 5 or 6ish. Refer to the Monster Manual and to the Monsters of Eden: Those Earthbound article when reading. If there’s any trouble or concerns, I will edit around to fix them – or if anyone wants some more information. That’s the good thing about blog posts, you can edit them. However I won’t be adding statblocks – that really takes too much space here.

–Wyatt

In the nation of Sargasso there exists a stretch of rural countryside where much farming is done. It is called the “Ramuan”, a place of plenty, sitting beneath the watchful blue skies.

People there revere the spirits of the water for bringing life to their crops, to the soil, to the forests and for helping to birth their children and carry their goods aloft in its many veins. But this was not always so. Some spirits remember a time where the people revered the Skies as the bringer of life, not the water. The sky spirits in their palaces helped bring rain and cool air down to the people below. They helped move boats with air and pulled children softly out of the wombs of their mothers.

But Rashine and the water are what is worshiped now in the palaces of the mortals. The water spirits sometimes wonder how the sky spirits they supplanted are doing. They are rarely ever seen anymore. Even the Muikara who themselves fly very high in the sky, but are wind spirits by nature, do not know what has become of the sky spirits for the longest time. But they do not worry about their predecessors. For the people, it is harvest time, and the spirits of the water again rejoice in the population’s gratitude.

The Premise:

The Ramuan is a large expanse of fields, grassland and hills on the north-central area of Sargasso, used to grow maize and wheat. It is host to many small villages and farms composed of wooden and brick homes. Many of the farms are also a day or half a day’s travel to the outlying Utur Forest in the north and west, where fruits and nuts are plentiful and the spirits and animals shy. The Hean river marks the Easternmost border of Ramuan. Stretching from the Meridian, the river delineates the common boundaries of this territory, going around and through the Ramuan and into Utur, giving both areas ready access to the water they need.

However, the growing season has brought the area much hardship.

The skies above Ramuan seem almost clear of clouds. The sun has gotten all the harsher and the people can barely stand it. Even for people used to a tropical climate, the heat has become dangerous. The elderly and children are routinely drinking water and even the stoutest of people are suffering. The water spirits they worship so greatly are becoming dour and suppressed by the heat, and feeling more protective of the resources they so happily shared before. This has made the troubles caused by the heat altogether worse.

Introductory Hooks:

•Mercenaries: The PCs are hired to investigate by a group of Ramuan farmers. The farmers individually don’t seem capable of affording such aid, but together, and tapping into family treasuries and important keepsakes, they can attempt to sway even the most callous coin-counter.

•Heroes: The PCs hear tell of the blight upon the Ramuan and decide to head there (or if they are in another Nation, take pilgrimage to Sargasso for this purpose) and see what help they can offer the locals. Perhaps at least one cleric or paladin in the group was sent by a church.

•Residents: The PCs are part of the Sargasso army, or are notable people in the capital city of Austrand, perhaps arcanists or clergy of small acclaim, or owners of their own dojo. At any rate, they are called upon as resources to their country and asked to investigate.

The First Phase: Ramuan

Knowledge And Culture

If the almost cloudless skies don’t seem suspicious to the PCs, they will become suspicious in talking to locals. The PCs can visit the farms and villages, none of which are more than a few hours on foot from each other, talking to the people and spirits in each farm and place they choose to visit and trying to piece together the local problems.

•Religion: The people of the Ramuan deeply revere the spirits of the water, many of which reside in the forests just about a dozen hour’s ride uphill from any of the farms and plains.

The water spirits themselves have become rather childish from being doted upon. Their elders have passed away, and the new crop of spirits are young by the Spirits’ own standards and perhaps a little naive about their purposes. The water spirits take different forms, but most can turn into Damakran or humanoid forms (decorated with blue skin, fins in odd places, and sometimes even tentacles). They act like the precocious, yet powerful children that they are.

Yet their helpfulness and their connection to the greater spirit Rashine and the royal religion of Sargasso has brought them a prestige they have been enjoying. Many have become quite carefree and playful, helping the harvests almost as a sort of game. When the game turns painful or hard, they become upset.

Other spirits common the Ramuan are Muikara (wind spirits), who can be seen flying by at times, or residing in the forest. Plant spirits and earth spirits are also common, especially in nearby forest lands.

The religion of the region has changed over time. Once, the spirits of the sky were revered above all. As Sargasso became an independent nation and the worship of Rashine and the royal religion became more widespread, Water was viewed as the singular most important lifegiving source – rather than believing the Sky brought them water and breeze, they worshiped the water itself.

•Nature: Most farming villages are some hours away from each other on foot. Traveling from one edge of the forest, through the Ramuan, to another edge, takes a two or so days, faster on horseback.

The dangerous plains wildlife of the Ramuan is kept in check by the village spirits. Some farms even have their own spirit helper that watches over the crop directly. Most, however, just help with mixing herbs that keep away bugs, or erecting magical barriers and performing rituals which help drive away insects, beasts or monsters, or other unruly spirits.

Lately the skies have become strangely near cloudless and some of the wildlife and spirits are restless. The village spirits are afraid – they can keep away a wolf or some bugs, or a small drake, but a volume of angry creatures greater than that will be trouble for them to handle.

Dangerous animals include snakes, wolves, smaller drakes, and griffons. A young bulette has also been known to surface, but further from the farms and nearer to the forest, and isn’t known to prey on people. Some hushed voices speak of a true Dragon in the Utur as well, but this is rarely brought up in conversation. They have seen large trees snapped and huge prints on the ground, seen once-plentiful natural orchards plundered overnight, but keep quiet.

The people of the Ramuan are mostly Iomadi and Setah, races said to be descended from fox and wolf spirits respectively and thus quite comfortable in the wilderness, despite not actually being spirits themselves. Deeper in the Utur, Lizardfolk have been known to make home, their villages hidden from civilization.

•Arcana: The arcane magics are not practiced in the Ramuan. Not out of a disdain for them, but because arcanists in Sargasso have more interesting places for them than the rural country. For the arcanist willing to spend some time experimenting, there is a treasure trove of information in the air – the essence of the Ramuan, its very living aura, seems to be being tampered with in general on an almost constant level. The heat seems as though stoked by some unknown hand, and the cloudless skies are the work of some power or another.

•History: Can be used to glean some of the above information.

•Perception: For the past few months, the clouds have been slowly receding. Only Spirits would notice this, and unless asked about the condition of the sky, they wouldn’t have said anything. One formation of clouds near to the Sun has always remained, however. A PC with very sharp eyesight wouldn’t notice it during the day, as it would still mean looking straight at the sun. But at night, that same PC could find it if he or she studies the sky.

The Concerns Of Heat

The main reason the PCs would remain in the Ramuan rather than taking their act on the road isn’t just information there, but rather the dangers that the heat has indirectly brought to the land. Here are a few encounters and scenes you can use to emphasize conflict and inject danger and immediacy into the game.

•Combat Encounters: Irritated spirits and animals, driven quite mad by the heat, are causing trouble around the villages and roads. Many spirits might have been driven from the forest by the heat in search of easy sources of water in the villages and farms, now that the Water Spirits have become paranoid. Creatures of the deep forest, such as lizardfolk and perhaps even hidden bands of goblins, could have also been driven from the water there by the spirits.

The biggest concern is the Bulette, lone king of the food chain in this area.

As the PCs travel across the Ramuan they could find themselves in  “random encounters.” These can be triggered by travel or as part of other scenes. Success in such battles can help the PCs gain the trust of the locals and stabilize the situation so they can more easily unearth information as to what is going on. Remember the cultural taboos of Eden. The Spirit-Killing taboo for example, is not easy for anyone to overlook, especially in Sargasso which is deeply religious. A few sample encounters:

Level 5: Apekar (SoE) (raise level by 2), 3 Dire Wolf
Hook: The Apekar has become rather annoyed by the lack of water, and takes the pack he made himself leader of in search of more. If a few mortals have to get hurt along the way, so be it.

Level 5: 1 Muikara Wind Deva (SoE), 3 Muikara Wind Child (SoE)
Hook: A small flock of Muikara from deeper in the forest are tasked with seeking out water for the rest of the flock, by any means necessary, to avoid quarrel with the water spirits. If the mortals are the unfortunate owners of the only remaining water, the Muikara shed no tears.

Level 5: 1 Rage Drake, 1 Marsh Mystic, 1 Darter, 1 Hunter (Greenscale Lizardfolk)
Hook: The Lizardfolk of the forest had premonitions of great danger when the sun began to heat up. They send some of their best warriors and a shaman to the Ramuan to discover the source of the problem – and to eliminate anything that seems like its the source of the problem.

Level 6: 1 Bugbear Warrior, 1 Hobgoblin Commander, 1 Goblin Skullcleaver, 1 Hobgoblin Archer, 1 Goblin Underboss, 1 Sikara (SoE)
Hook: A small, hidden cell of goblin terrorists, they were beaten away by the water spirits when they tried to restock their canteens. Their hired Sikara teleports them to the Ramuan in search of water. They seek the smallest, least defended village – water with plunder as a bonus!

Level 6: 2 Vinehorror Spellfiend, 1 Mosir Zeal of the Land (SoE)
Hook: A particularly aggravated Mosir uses its spirit magic to animate some local flora into its servitude. With its bodyguards, it heads for the nearest well to soak its roots in and avoid quarrel with the water spirits, and nobody will tell it otherwise.

Level 7: Young Bulette (decrease level by 2, reduce defenses by 2 more, upgrade to solo)
Hook: As expected, the immature bulette is greatly distressed by the heat and has gone on a rampage.

•Helping The Weary: The PCs stumble upon injured, ill or dehydrated people in need of their aid. This challenge has Characters using the Perception, Nature, Heal and Endurance skills. They could also use Daily healing powers or consumable items to help such people. One item that does not seem to work well in the heat are Everlasting Provisions (or other instant food and water items). This item gives less than half  as much water (2 creature’s worth instead of 5) as it normally would in the Ramuan: a clue that the heat is supernatural.

•Fortifying The Farms: Drafted to help set traps and defenses against the creatures roaming around, the PCs use their Athletics, Acrobatics, Nature, Arcana and Religion skills to help whatever villages and farms they can to prepare against eventual problems – including the fear of the Bulette becoming just as aggravated as the rest. In reality, it is really that bulette that they prepare for. It is the most dangerous creature they can imagine in this valley.

•Crucial Lifelines: The shifting moods of the Sun, and of the water spirits affected by it, mean that resources are starting to become scarce in the places closest to the forest – and it is these places also in the most danger from angered beasts. The PCs must help transport supplies like water, food, weapons and materials from villages closer to the river (which are the ones better off in the heat) to others which have been hardest-hit.

•Peacekeeping: The root of the problem isn’t the water spirits, but they have exacerbated it by driving creatures away from the river and ponds. The water spirits, save for those very attached to the villages, are greatly disturbed by the heat. They fear that their ponds and rivers will dry up (which they may, if things continue the way they are). If the PCs can convince them to allow others access to their water, then the Ramuan can find some measure of calm.

Upping The Ante: You can give a greater sense of urgency (and challenge) to your encounters by having players lose a healing surge after each (or when bloodied) due to the intensity of being active under the unnatural heat. Do this only if the PCs are out in the open and under the sun, however – if they are in shade, acting at night, or under cover, it should not affect them as much. This method can allow you to use up PC resources on less encounters, and make sequential encounters more tense. It can also serve as a reminder of the larger problem at hand.

Gathering Information

Getting all this information can be easy, or not; necessary, or not. You can make the roleplaying come front and center by having the PCs roll the appropriate knowledge checks while talking to people rather than just on their own – these can represent convincing people to speak, or the PCs own memories being jogged, or information being given freely to them. Arcana checks can involve the casting of minor rituals to examine essence or the presence of strange magic. Diplomacy or Streetwise can also be used. Everyone can become involved in some way.

If you go this route, some conversations will logically be more fruitful than others in certain ways. Talking to kids will be less informative than talking to the elderly, for example, as far as history is concerned. But the youngsters can be a valuable insight on the current affairs, and any rumors and tales that the older folk may discard outright. A keen eye can find information in the most unlikely places.

If the PCs fail skill checks, they haven’t lost information forever. They can ask multiple people, or try to detect essence in multiple different areas, or convince people to talk after they have let some time pass. Failing rolls can be a reason to travel, roleplay and explore more of the area than they would if they got a fast string of successes, so you can make the rolls comparatively harder if you want more time spent in this phase.

You could even remove rolling outright, and just have the PCs succeed if they ask the right people or ask the right questions, or if they go to the right places.

Eventually, the PCs will know enough about the Ramuan to realize that maybe the answer to the supernatural heat problems lie elsewhere. They might’ve seen the sky and wanted to investigate the cloud formation, but nobody can get them there, at least not anybody they can find the in the Ramuan. They might have heard about the Dragon and thought to investigate Utur. But the main reason to remain in the Ramuan is not just information, but the troubles.

The PCs can explore Utur before the Ramuan. Spirits of the forest are mysterious and shy unlike those of the villages. Finding information in the Utur is more difficult than in the Ramuan, but not impossible. If the PCs go to the forest first and ignore the situation in the farmlands, the second part, Utur, will have more information on that subject.

Handling The First Phase

Keeping Track: You could set a number of needed “successes” for this entire phase, be they encounters or skill checks or roleplay “scenes” that are needed before the PCs stabilize the area and learn enough to head into the forest well-prepared. Or you could play it naturally and just have the PCs wander, fight, roleplay until they feel they have gathered enough information. At any rate, they will at some point have to comb the forest more deeply, but before that they’ll have the situation in the farmlands to distract them.

Utur First?: It is possible your PCs will entirely ignore the Ramuan and just go into the Utur. To recapture their attention, make the situation in the Ramuan more urgent. Have more lizardfolk, or goblins, or spirits or even a second bulette, and make them feel that there will be death and destruction unless they helped. If they still ignore it, well, move on to Phase 2. But the PCs have just allowed much destruction and a significant bit of death. That’s not altogether very heroic of them, and it will be made known soon enough.

Too Much Roleplaying?: In general, you want the PCs to spend some time traveling, see and hear some of the concerns of the people, and meet the aggression of the wildlife first hand. You want them to talk to people, you want them to move around and explore. But it is also possible to turn the entire affair into a series of skill checks with some quick narration to sum up the travel and meeting people, glossing over anything unwanted. Intersperse a few fights and non-combat encounters with quick info gathering and you can breeze through this phase.

It all depends on your style of play.

Sample Locations: Ramuan

Here are some examples of the sorts of locations one could find in the Ramuan, including some information that can be gleaned through conversations or skill checks.

Terrowin’s Farm: One of the larger and more successful farms, with a vast field of corn to its name, a modest house and barn, and some healthy animals in a small stable. Old man Graze Terrowin is the middle-aged Setah owner of the farm handed down his family for generations. His ancestor is said to have been one of the original settlers of Ramuan, having won his land in a bet with a spirit – Terrowin believes that a spirit residing in his farm right now is the direct descendant of the spirit that gambled the land in the first place, and feels some sense of pity for it.

Terrowin is gruff and temperamental and his crops have yet to die due to his farm’s close and easy access to water, so he believes the whole thing going on with the heat is but a big fuss. Despite this, his wife and children are on their way out of Ramuan, at his behest, to visit some family beyond the forest. Terrowin fancies himself a busy, important man with a lot to do, and will likely direct any inquiries to Gust, his spirit guardian – despite her inability to answer coherently. If pressed, or shown a sign of competence, or otherwise prodded in the correct ways, he can give a lot of insight into the going’s on. He’s not easy to befriend, but he is quick to help any friends he does make.

•A possible hook to Terrowin’s farm could involve the PCs meeting with Terrowin’s wife and children, their wagon besieged by beasts or monsters, as they travel from one place to another. If they rescue them, they will surely earn the favor of Terrowin, who may even give them some small amount of equipment or lend them Gust as a guide.

Kialo Village: Located off the western edge of the Utur, Kialo is a small community of about twelve families. Their wooden homes are arranged around the town well, which is at first glance greatly over-decorated with caligraphy scrolls and bells, painted red and gold. It is actually also their shrine where their local spirit, a water spirit, lives and spends most of its time. The locals grew and gathered fruits and nuts as well as working as farm hands in nearby fields. But their way of life has become greatly disrupted.

Due to the recent problems with wild animals, the adults of the village have begun leaving their children indoors, in the care of a young ainyu man who serves as the physician for the town. Most of the younger women of the village have traded places with the men, going to work in the fields in their husband’s and brother’s places, while the mothers and men remain to lay traps and fend off animals. The proximity to the Utur hasn’t helped them any.

•A possible encounter in Kialo could be the mentioned young bulette. The PCs could force the bulette into traps set by the villagers or just meet it in straight combat. If they succeed, they will have little trouble getting information and aid from the village.

Fume’s Pond: Fume is a water spirit with a problem. He was rarely worshiped or offered any tribute before, so he’s rather spiteful of people and hasn’t taken well to them. He has a large pond just off the center of the Ramuan, and everyone can see it, and everyone knows him. And he doesn’t want anyone to go near it. That about sums up his problem. But with the heat, his waning magical power has prevented him from doing much but keeping the water level of his pond high and scaring away the occasional passerby.

He fears that there’ll be pitchforks and arrows coming his way soon, but he remains stubborn in his resolve. The once large, fish-finned damakran-like brute now looks like a boy, reflecting his current emotional maturity, and he hides in the middle of the pond, launching harmful shots of water and ice at anyone who tries to jump in.

•In reality, the farmers have better and more important sources of water to be protecting than Fume’s pond. However, if the PCs can talk Fume into letting others drink from it, especially wayward spirits, it could relieve some of the troubles for the village. Fume will quite possibly agree to letting spirits and animals drink from the pond and wash in it. He trusts them far more than he does mortals, after all. But he’ll have to get over making that sort of deal with a bunch of mortals in the first place. If Fume is convinced, he can lend a hand in other peacekeeping efforts, so long as he is primarily helping Spirits and animals, and not the villagers.

Sample NPCs: Ramuan

Gust Bristlewind: Her name is roughly the Muikara equivalent of Jane Doe, a generic attribution, and this female wind spirit fits the moniker well. Gust is a laid back Muikara, dressed in an old, slightly ratty mauve robe with long sleeves and plunging neck. Interspersed in her green and white hair are numerous feathers, and her complexion is chalk-white as that of most muikara. Her feathered arms always seem to be hanging limply at her side, and she is more likely to yawn than she is to reply to an inquiry.

Despite this, Gust is a very long-lived spirit that has inhabited the same corn field on Terrowin’s farm for many years. Looking at the sky and sleeping are her “hobbies” and when Terrowin found her asleep in his field, after giving her a good whack with his rake, he allowed her to remain if she protected his crops. Gust speaks in a slow voice and seems almost unable to open her eyes more than halfway, but she can point out the trajectories of every cloud formation in the sky for the past month. And if prodded enough, she might even talk about how the clouds gradually began to leave, save for one curious formation…

Senjou Kufune: A young Damakran man who grew up in Kialo village, Senjou gave himself the last name of the great hero of the folk tales, Kufune, to replace the names of the parents he never knew. Senjou admires the hero traditions, and trained with the hunters of the village. Having nobody to teach him the sword, however, his chief weapons are a mace and a sickle, and a crossbow he uses for hunting. In the absence of the older hunters, he was left in charge of the village while traveled the Ramuan in search of aid.

Senjou is respected in the village despite his age. He admires adventuring travelers and expects them to be the heroes just like he has seen in the tales. He is eager to prove his worth to eyes outside his village, and especially to be trained in using what he considers a “real” weapon, like a sword or a string bow.

Arndorf Stake: The hobgoblin leader of a small cell of goblin terrorists, they hide in the Utur waiting for orders to commence the Second Great War of Goblinkind, orders unlikely ever to come. They doubled as raiders, but a rather ineffective bunch – they mostly stole from resting caravans through stealth, rather than risk frontal attacks. But even his motley crew has had moments of glory.

They lately stole enough to hire themselves a Sikara. She is entirely unafraid of them, though they’re rather apprehensive around her. The spirit serves as a transporter for the team, teleporting them places. But Arndorf and his crew are rather unimaginative. Rather than teleport elsewhere to find water when they found themselves barred from in the Utur, they teleported into the Ramuan, where there’s still no water for them – unless they take it. Which they are quite willing to do.

Though he and his crew are criminals, they are not suicidal. They will surrender if they see enough strength displayed, and probably grovel and beg for their lives. The Sikara won’t beg, but she’s being paid to stay around, otherwise she would teleport away. They could be bought off as unorthodox aid to the PCs efforts, keeping the Ramuan in some state of calm after the PCs have left. Their lives are worth that much effort, they feel.

Alyn Donar: A middle-aged Cuporo woman and a retired merchant, Alyn bought some farmland in the Ramuan when travel began to get to her and she figured she’d turn her business eye to a calmer profession. She is tall for her race at 5 feet, and has bark-brown skin and hair the colors of both leaves and honey. She smells like mint at times. Her age hasn’t worn her at all yet, and she’s found a husband (one rather taller than her Cuporo self, to some awkwardness) to help her realize her goal of turning around the broken-down place they’d received. Unfortunately, not long after, the sky began to obstruct her, and now most of Alyn’s young crops are dying off.

Her farm is situated near the center of the Ramuan and relatively away from danger, but Alyn is a common sight in the villages among the edges of the Utur, her keen, curious eyes interested in the forest and the people. She knows a lot about the region and tries to make a bit of extra money, and save herself some extra trouble, by being friendly to travelers and letting them stay in exchange for some gold or work. She has the space, given she has yet to have any children…though who knows, one might be on the way.

Stauff: Known as the “old man of the forest”, Stauff is a rather out-of-place Dwarven Ranger who trades furs, precious stones from the river, spiritual objects found in the forest, and any rare plants or fruits with the villages in exchange for food and materials. Though hardened, he’s not unsympathetic. He ventured out of the forest precisely because he sensed danger in what was happening, and he accurately predicted how the capricious water spirits would react to heat. Having seen nothing like this in his life, Stauff ventured in the Ramuan. He can be used for information or as a companion, and could be encountered in the Utur – perhaps to lead the PCs back to the Ramuan where he would think their help is most needed at the moment.

Karin Apuleius: A Iomadi Wizard, Karin was sent by the government of Andaliel to check into the events in the Ramuan. Karin, a somewhat short, youthful, good-looking, easily-intimidated girl with shoulder-length mauve hair is well-recognized for the many books she has written. Unfortunately, she is known for coming up with solutions for problems but not necessarily enacting them, at least not without help.

Karin can be found both hopelessly lost and halfway dead from the heat somewhere on the roads around the Ramuan. She can give the PCs some of the information she knows, and perhaps join them as a companion if they are missing a player and the DM wants to balance his encounters around 5 characters. Karin is nearly impotent without someone’s help, and if she’s the last person standing in a battle, she will surrender. However, she can be quite brave when properly supported.

Next time is Phase 2: Utur.

I decided to do a new column (with its own category) where I round up a month’s worth of the best posts from Spirits of Eden that you should check out, and some of my own thoughts of the month. These are posts that either I really like or that I would like to bring more attention to because they were relatively ignored. Not necessarily popular posts – I mean, if they’re popular, I don’t need to mention them again, do I?

•Nations of Eden: The Dromidae: My expansion article on the Dromidae Empire in the Spirits of Eden and their spacefaring culture. The Dromidae are a subject that rarely came up in Eden before, but I did this first because it offers kind of an alternative to the wuxia and mythology-inspired storytelling of Adel’s surface. Off of Adel’s surface you get this sci-fantasy, alien world with a strange culture, deadly secrets and incredibly magi-technology.

•Combat Style Feats: Because the like 600 powers I had already written for the 8 player classes in Spirits of Eden wasn’t enough, I made these Combat Style Feats, which allow your character to select a fighting style and be able to gain powers from it, some of which scale with level to be useful throughout the character’s career. Many of these powers are not as “strong” as powers directly from a class, but they allow for greater flexibility, and some effects you would not otherwise be able to get, since they can use different ability scores for attack and damage.

•Feats of Eden: One of the things about Spirits of Eden is that it only uses the first 3 D&D 4e books and nothing more, so to create variety, I had to work hard. Hard as in “write over 100 feats” hard. And these are only the general feats, there are also racial feats for the new races of Eden and class feats for the 8 supported classes. One of the big things I try to do is make more weapons viable. Even things like the Scythe and Sling which nobody would look at otherwise.

•Characters of Eden Nefer Ravanam: I wrote up a sample Spirits of Eden character as a possible NPC, pregen or just to give people ideas and inspirations as to what sorts of characters they might write in Eden. It didn’t receive any comments or much attention so I don’t know if there is interest for the series to continue. What would you rather have in its place, or what should I do with it to make it more interesting? Maybe create a personal power for every character?

•A Punishment Ill Fit IV: The 4th installment of my ongoing Spirits of Eden story, which will probably be wrapping up in the next two parts, before I start another one! I tried to have the relationship between Frederick and Nienna be playful but mature and genuinely caring. I’ve never been much of a romance writer – I’ve always wrote fairly cynically about the subject. However, I hope my attempts to create these characters and their relationship has come off better than that. Exarse seems to be the favorite character, and who could not love his girly-looking germaphobe quirkyness.

You can find the other installments here: I, II, III.

Overall I think it’s been a great month. What would you like to see coming up on Spirits of Eden? Should I do some more skill challenges, or try my hat again at writing an adventure or encounter? More fiction? Sound off, and check out and comment on the articles you might’ve missed! All feedback is necessary for me to get better and more for you.

I didn’t do anything special on the blog for Halloween, mostly because I really wanted to write that Dragons of Eden I post. The next Dragons of Eden will include some sample dragon NPCs/Monsters (about two whole Dragons, meaning humanoid and dragon forms of two creatures) as well as storytelling and combat tips for running dragons in Eden.

So now with that bit of news clear, on to the week’s interesting 4e posts.

•Over at Dungeon’s Master, they posted the revision of their Necromancer Wizard powers. I applaud them for their effort and for taking the time out to incorporate feedback and go at it again. I’m always in support for more 4e homebrew content, and I think they have some pretty cool ideas. They should try to come up with an implement mastery for necromancers too!

•NewbieDM does a review of Dungeon 170. Dungeon has always been hit or miss for me, and most of the stuff Newbie points out there doesn’t really interest me personally, especially the Raven Queen article. We seem to have Raven Queen stuff in every issue of every magazine these days. I want some Asmodeus!

•Dave over at Critical Hits provides an article with his tips on running a dungeon delve. I’ve always made my own sort of delve-y encounters but never really ran any of Wizard’s. Didn’t find them all too interesting. But still, its worth a read just because it’s good advice for practically anything you’re running, not just Wootsie delves.

•Sly Flourish wrote an article about optimizing your monster combinations. His combination of Wights + Bodaks tends to ensure that about as many PCs as there are Bodaks will be dropping on the floor. This seems like an interesting series even if you aren’t fond of the monsters and I look forward to seeing what other combos he comes up with. This is good for homebrew monster builders, because it gives you ideas for putting together your own custom critters.

Of all the creatures upon Adel’s surface, few can match the size and majesty of dragons. Though the smallest dragon is the size of a man, the largest can be the size of an island. These massive reptilian spirits exude an alien feeling that seems not entirely of this world, and the feeling is half-true. Dragons are the most visible remnants of a past world, the world destroyed by the Cataclysm and which then became the Eden known today.

Dragons Of The World Before

It is believed that the world before was destroyed when its inhabitants abused the limitless magic given to them by the aberrant gods which they worshiped. Dragons were no different from the other inhabitants of the world in this case. Dragons utilized great sorcery, and even the youngest knew some kind of magic trick they could perform with little restriction. Dragons were greedy and monstrous, and populated the world in large numbers.

The ancient empires of that world, according to the few dragons who remember, vowed to exterminate dragonkind. They rightly viewed the dragons as a threat to them. Why would their gods concede to the dragons power greater than they gave to their subjects? It is hardly much of a question now – the old gods were beings concerned only with sowing chaos, and pitting the dragons against the races of men and beasts created a more exciting chessboard for them.

The dragon war that raged then saw dragons in their last, greatest unified majesty. Horrifying hosts of red dragons flew over the empires, burning them to the ground. The skies were rent with the lightning of blue dragons. The rivers flowed with the poison of green dragons and the swamps boiled with the acid of black dragons. An undying winter crept upon them by design of the white dragons.

There was no winner to this conflict. It is said that there was a lull in the battle, a time of peace. Then the cataclysm swept them all away before anything could become truly settled.

Dragons In The New World

The Dragons survived the cataclysm and the war, but their numbers had dwindled to nothing. It is said that only thirteen dragons of each type, for a total of sixty-five dragons, survived to the dawn of the new world. All of the adult and elder dragons had passed, and only one of each ancient dragon remained. The dragons saw the spirits remaking the world and they pleaded to them for aid and favors. But the spirits would not favor them. Seeing the power of the dragons, they offered them a choice to make amends, but they would not return them to their former glory.

Dragons became spirits. By binding themselves to the same unwritten laws as the Spirits, dragons were unbound from their shared destiny and divided in each direction to help in the recreation of the world – ensuring that they would never again be able to join together under the same banner again. The red dragons left to the tend to the earthly fires, helping to regulate them. The white dragons left for the mountains, covering them in the ice that once cloaked them. The blue dragons roared in the sky, giving it back its electric life. The green dragons headed for the forests, overseeing the death of the evil plants of the old world and the growth of the new, natural flora. The black dragons, most ruthless and distrusted of them all, were confined to the swamps, where they would fight and destroy whatever aberrant monstrosities remained hidden to safeguard the new world.

And so, the dragons played their part in the coming of the new Eden. When the work was over, like all Spirits, Dragons looked upon a new world with new eyes. Like all Spirits they were given the freedom to think again and discard their worldbuilding duty, and be released. They remained in whatever areas were convenient to them. Spirit and Dragon were divided by one fact, however.

Man found Dragons first, then Spirits. Before even the Intolerable War, the great culture of the new humanoids on Eden made contact with the Spirits, the creators of their new world, for the first time. Dragons, displeased at finding their old nemesis, reacted brashly, and their reputation as monstrous was cemented. But it was a reputation they would come to shed. The Dragons all behaved very differently.

•Red Dragons, prideful and bold, decided to make use of people. They gave favors and asked for favors, they shared the wealth they easily amassed from their prior and current lives, and took pleasant forms to be suitable to talking and interacting with people.

•White Dragons, cold and brutish but indifferent, isolated themselves from people. They hid in the coldest regions of the world where people would not follow them, and they frightened away anyone who came near. Only in the rarest circumstances did they lend any help.

•Blue Dragons, territorial but honorable, lived lives in the deserts and in the lightning-lit skies, far away from people. They decided they would decide depending on the situation what to do with people. They really did not care – all that they wanted to do was to fly contentedly into the twilight of their race.

•Green Dragons, cunning and intelligent, hid in the forests where they would be sure to meet with people on a regular basis. At times they frightened, at times they helped, at times they tempted and led to ruin. Capricious and with lack of ambition, they decided to toy with people.

•Black Dragons, violent and begrudging, distrusted of people. They remembered well how their race was nearly finished thanks to the folly of men, and would always remember it. They hid in the swamps where men rarely came, and whenever they did, they were repelled with merciless strength.

But eventually, all dragons of all types grew to respect the strengths of certain individuals. This is because, as Spirits, Dragons’ attitudes and even their forms were slowly shaped by the will of the mortals, as the natural order decreed. It is possible now, if one has a compatible disposition, to seek help from any type of dragon.

Dragons in Eden, being intelligent Spirits, can change their shape to a humanoid form at will. Young dragons often turn into a form which represents their emotional maturity, so a child dragon will have a child humanoid form. Some dragons can turn into other types of beasts, but this is very rare.

The Dragon Bosses

There are few dragons of each type any more. Dragons rarely die of violence, however. As Spirits, it is taboo to kill them, unless they have performed a sin so great that their lives become forfeit. However, many dragons have been killed nonetheless, particularly by heroes who view breaking the taboo as a noble sacrifice, or because they genuinely sought out death by performing a horrible deed.

There are no longer any age category divisions of dragons. Young Dragons may have acquired power on the level of old depending on what lore they’ve found, what spirit powers they’ve courted, what human worship they’ve acquired, and even what magic they’ve studied. As Spirits, their age determines nothing, and the circumstances of their birth determines only some of their power. Fate handles the rest. Their old sorcerous nature is also not entirely gone.

Much like the Spirits have the Nine Greater Spirit Powers as their most potent individuals, so do the Dragons have Gods among their own, though the Dragon’s most powerful are still nowhere near the strength of even one of the Nine Greater Spirits. However, these mostly stationary, mostly approachable Dragons are respected as the leaders of their kind, and worthy of worship and favor.

Boss Bolg

The boss of the Blue Dragons, Bolg is an old, rather lazy creature who’s lightning strikes have lost their youthful speed, and who’s scales look dulled blue from age. Bolg has only one adult female mate, Trevita, who resides with him and handles his “public relations.” Bolg has five grown children, the whereabouts of which he does not care for, and two small ones which do reside with him. He dotes upon them as much as he can.

Bolg’s notable characteristic is that his Draconic speech is almost gibberish to other dragons thanks to his strained, babbling drawl, which Trevita interprets for others. Bolg rarely moves from his home in a low-lying crack in the wastes of Vedaria. He relies on his lackeys to do things for him.

Generally, Bolg is more generous with money than he is with favors. He has lost his lust for gold and jewels in his old age, and would rather pay away his lackeys than have to do them favors. If he absolutely cannot send Trevita to complete the favor, he will go himself – and despite his lack of energy he is a fearsome opponent, who can revert to his youthful fury for just enough to defend his lackeys.

To become a lackey of Bolg’s, a prospective member must perform an important task for Bolg that he or Trevita might have had to go out and do. Money cannot buy Bolg’s protection. He does not care for it. He only cares for deeds.

Bolg’s greatest assets for prospective lackeys include a network inside of Vedaria’s government that can give information, smuggle goods or sneak people into critical facilities. Outside of Vedaria, Bolg’s lackeys also have access to many substances and materials illegal in other nations, such as certain drugs or explosive arcane reagents or tomes of forbidden magic. They can produce these in Vedaria (where they are legal) and sell them elsewhere where there is demand. All of Bolg’s lackeys are branded with a scar of lightning. To any not aligned to Bolg, the scar would look like any other burn mark. It has illusory magic that allows lackeys to see it as a lightning bolt.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other, but Bolg hates bosses Urg and Crag most, perhaps for slights done to him as a youngster. In humanoid form, Bolg looks like a dark-skinned, well-built, balding middle-aged man in meditation, with his eyes almost always closed, wearing fine clothing.

Boss Dalv

The boss of the Green Dragons, Dalv is a cunning, hands-on creature and one of the two female dragon bosses. She has no mates personally with her, but has had three adult children who have since left her, and is raising a small female as a successor of sorts. She inhabits the jungles of Selvage, having excavated herself a large, many-chambered tunnel of sorts in the center of the Fey Jungle, which she is quite aware of how to navigate properly.

Dalv takes great advantage of the war between the tribes of Selvage and the Vedarian conquerors. Her lackeys are either mercenaries, smugglers or guides in the jungles, playing both sides for their coffer’s worth and fueling the fires by provoking more attacks and more warfare. Lulls in the combat mean less gold and jewels for her, so Dalv might even attack a settlement personally to instigate more fighting. She is wary of the illegitimate elven communities in Selvage and tries not to become involved with them.

Even so, it is difficult not to kill a meddling elf or two while in the midst of the conflict in Selvage.

To become a lackey of Dalv’s, intelligence and cunning are required. Dalv cannot afford to hire fools. The operations she runs are extremely delicate, and as such she does not have the networks of lackeys other dragon bosses have, instead opting for small groups of intelligent and capable people. The benefit of working for Dalv, is the work itself – it is dangerous, but pays very well. Dalv has little honor for her lackeys – she is not above unknowingly pitting them against each other or having them killed by an opposing group as part of a greater scheme.

However, one thing Dalv does honor is a request to leave. She does not need anyone to remain reluctantly. Dalv has a special frozen chamber in her lair where she keeps a Remuko spirit that can erase the memories of people before Dalv lets them go. The Remuko is paid in fine silk robes and increasingly gaudy jewelry, as well as having Dalv and Dalv’s daughter for companionship, which suits her fine. Dalv’s lackeys are not specially marked – they learn hand signals and tells they can use to identify each other instead, but these are not always very easy to recognize.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other, but Dalv specifically hates Crag, whom she believes to be nothing but a vain and worthless creature. In her human form, Dalv is a beautiful blond-haired woman with frightening green eyes dressed in a silk and green-scale robe.

Dalv is the only Dragon boss with little to no control over the remainder of her race. Her adult children, and unrelated green dragons, all dispersed to different corners of the world, and they supplant her place there, hiding in the forests and giving and receiving favors far removed from their great mother. Dalv is too focused on Selvage, and has completely lost touch with the universe outside her own schemes.

Boss Urg

The boss of the Black Dragons, Urg is a brutal, raucous beast living in the Rotgulch Swamp of Periterim. He lives with his six female children, whom are also his mates. Any new children made have a rather rough life ahead of them. Males are thrown out by Urg himself. Females are kept by Urg to grow into fresh meat for his desires – but female wyrmlings are likely to be abused by the other females, who see no attachment to the little creature save as a rival. Urg’s mates are constantly bickering with each other.

Urg is a dragon boss with no real initiative and few lackeys. Lackeys who come to him do so out of desperation. Urg is not hard to please. An exotic trinket, a payment of gold, or an epic deed in his name; pleasing his ego is all that’s really needed. Urg is also the poorest of the bosses, in that he is rarely any help for the prospective lackey. He might impart upon them some magic, or share with them an object from his horde, or protect them from another dragon boss’ lackeys. But that is the extent of his help.

Urg has no real goals or initiative, therefore has no need of lackeys except for the bragging rights. He is quick to brutally kill any disrespectful lackeys – after all, he has no need of them, only their reverence.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other – except Urg. Urg is loud, brash, annoying and universally despised by the dragon bosses, but his lair is heavily defended, with him and his six mistresses. Most dragon bosses do not have such devoted children, and as such cannot make war on Urg’s draconic host without incurring heavy loses. Urg especially hates Crag and Dalv, believing them to be females who never had a proper male put them in their place.

When in humanoid form, Urg appears as a massive, muscular man and wields a jagged sword. He enjoys physical combat in humanoid form, unlike the other dragons who use their forms mostly to socialize. His mistresses appear as a harem of tan-skinned women and sometimes, to the disgust of visitors, children.

Boss Crag

The Boss of the Red Dragons, Crag is a vain, royal and arrogant creature that makes her home in the Fern Isles of Shadash north of Andaliel. She lives with two of her children, male and female twins Vut and Lok, who get along surprisingly well for “children” competing for the attention of a perfectionist mother. Of the bosses, she is the most approachable but one of the most demanding. Crag demands not only constant tribute from her subjects, but also constant flattery. The smallest slip can be taken as an insult.

Crag is greedy, but without much of a goal. She lives in a mountain hideout in Shadash that she is constantly having lackeys dig, making larger and more lavish rooms for her loot. Crag has the largest hoard of all the dragon bosses, and also the employ and admiration of numerous kobold lackeys who pamper her and her children. Prospective lackeys can expect to be allowed to borrow some of her items, or have one of her children take action to help, but Crag herself rarely sticks her neck out for a lackey any further than that. She does leave her hideout however, often to travel to market places in a human guise. Her favorite things are astral diamonds, of which she has only a single, precious one hanging around her neck or under constant guard, protected by runic ritual imprints.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other, and Crag herself does not consider anyone an enemy. Though she does not consider them friends either. She knows the other bosses have some problem or another with her, but considers them not worth her time. Killing them won’t yield her any more treasure than she would have to spend to commit the act. She considers them beneath her.

When in humanoid form, Crag takes the form of a dark-skinned woman with an amazing figure and long, lustrous red hair, growing to cover her left eye and ears, and is always dressed in the sharpest, latest, most glorious fashions.

Boss Firl

The boss of the White Dragons and the oldest of the bosses, Firl inhabits the Hetuku Mountains between Emdereur and Sargasso, but he leaves his hideout fairly often and does not keep much of a hoard. He has had numerous children, but none of them have allegiance with him, and he fears that most of them are dead. Firl is in a constant search for a female mate. He is getting desperate enough that he might proposition Crag, despite their being different races of dragon, whom he feels would be easier to mate than Dalv. It is unknown what Crag feels about this.

Firl’s organization is in shambles. He has few lackeys and has to keep them pleased. What he wants most of all is a mate to rebuild the population of White Dragons, since he knows not what fate it has undergone. He may even be the last of the White Dragons. Under these circumstances, any lackey that can spot another White and lead Firl to it would be greatly rewarded. The reason Firl has not been wiped out by stronger bosses is one of inherent respect.

Firl is the oldest of the bosses. Some legends say he survived the cataclysm alone and forgot he did or how. Despite his age (or perhaps because of it) he is a formidable fighter, and none dare challenge him to single draconic combat. He is like a father to dragons, no matter how much other dragons might begrudge him.

All dragon bosses are mostly cordial to each other and Firl even more so. He seeks no enemies and deals no slights. He believes in the spirit’s laws. Aside from that, he also has better things to do than petty quarrels with the remnants of their extinguished race. He realizes that Dragon’s follies in a world now dominated by more subtle spirits and by humanoids has caused them to reduce greatly in number.

Firl seems to have taken a fancy towards Crag, and visits her every so often to give gifts, hoping she might allow him to mate her. Her children seem to like him, but Crag herself seems ambivalent about the attention. Firl’s humanoid form is of a tall, pale, formidable man dressed as though a monk. When visiting Crag, his robe is more grandiose and he carries a decorated falchion behind his back.

I wrote once that I use alternate monster maths when designing my 4e monsters, which means when designing the vast, overwhelming majority of my encounters. I believe I have used a monster manual monster exactly once and it was zombies. Because I couldn’t be arsed to come up with a bold new take on shambling corpses that punch you to death. Maybe I will someday. But mostly, I make my own monsters in D&D 4e.

One of the things about 4e that grated slightly on my nerves was the fact that a lot of the monster math was tied to these immutable monster roles. Brutes would always have the wimpiest attack bonus. Soldiers would always have overwhelmingly high attack and defense values, good HP and good initiative bonuses. After a while I stopped using 4e’s monster math and decided to make my own, as I say in the article above.

Of course, making your own monster math is dandy, but the problem comes in applying it. If you break open the monster roles, how do you design a monster anymore?

I utilize the 4 core roles 4e players have. Leaders lead, Defenders defend, Controllers control, Strikers strike. I still call them by their monster counterparts because I know I couldn’t get away with writing “Level 5 Defender” on a monster block and not get a few people screaming at me or asking me if I misunderstood how monster making works.

So what’s the process? What do you do?

•First I have to actually have an idea for a monster, and this begins with the story and situation the monster pertains to.

•I think about the role my monster is going to have, akin to player roles. A Leader monster gives bonuses and temporary hit points and (rarely) healing. You don’t want to give out too much of the latter though. A controller monster weakens the opposition. A Defender monster has a marking attack, or is beefy enough to guard other monsters. A striker monster focuses on dealing damage and moving around to deal more damage. This flows from the above most of the time.

•I divided my bonus progressions in my previous article into three. I think about the monster, both its abilities, its role, and its personality, appearance and other story concerns. I assign high, medium or low values this way. Rarely do I assign a low value, however, unless the monster has a “one true weakness”. Rarely do I assign High HP, especially to Solos or Elites. These are just personal concerns – I’ve eschewed them in the past.

•The rest of monster making goes the same way it always has. Using what I’ve laid down, I make up powers, I assign skills, etc, as I always have. Ability scores can cause the math to fluctuate, so the progressions I made up for my own use are not entirely immutable. Someone with a “high” defense progression might have low ability scores in that section, putting its defenses into an average range.

•The last really big change is how I handle extra damages. Rolling extra dice has always slowed me down a little, so I cut them out, and I add static damage in its place. I also believe Solos and Elites should be stronger than other creatures by default, not just by HP, so I give them +1 bonuses to attack rolls and damage rolls. I give every monster the ability to deal +1 damage with combat advantage as well. The focus on higher static damage has made monsters in my games a bit scarier and more deadly, offset by their general loss of HP (they now have HP on par with PCs).

I find also that being able to use whatever progression I want rather than looking at a Role to determine that for me has sped things up. But I don’t (and won’t) use software to write my monsters, so probably none of this really applies or matters to you. You’re already sped up!

Finally, I’m thinking of doing some “wavecasts” where I write a monster or a power or item or something Eden and 4e-related for an audience and they can look and talk and see what I’m doing. If you’d be remotely interested in that, let me know.

I’ve been doing Play-by-Post for over 5 years and that makes me completely unqualified to give you advice. But I’ll do it anyway. For those unfamiliar with Play-By-Posting, my series of posts on the Chatty DM about online gaming can help you get up to speed (check my About page at the top). But I wanted to tackle the fine art of the Game Ad once again.

It is an under-appreciated art. I know that, in any given forum, you can gather a bunch of potential players by doing very little work on your own part. But you can snag those people by doing anything. If you put more work and love into your game ad, you can also pick up people above and beyond those poor souls who just crave Keep On The Shadowfell and need it right now.

Like me – unless I am pretty impressed by a game ad, I won’t join a game, or even conceive of humoring that the person running it might actually make for an entertaining time, unless he or she is a personal friend, which shows my bias towards my friends rather than their ad-creation skills.

The game ad, in my view, is where you show strangers how dedicated and creative you are.

Starting The Thread

Do

•Denote which game system you are using in your title. Some PBP places have labels that do this automatically.

•Title your thread like you’d title a novel. Dramatic (or appropriate) names hook people into actually clicking on your topic.

Don’t

•Post the name of the module you’re going to run in your title. In fact, don’t mention it anywhere if at all possible.

•Use exclamation points, emoticons, boldface (if it’s even possible) etc in your title, it looks goofy.

The title is the means by which you get people to actually click on your ad in the first place. No matter how awesome a DM you are, people can quite easily glance over “Need Players For Keep On The Shadowfell.” There’s nothing there to hook me or anybody. There are, in fact, probably a dozen clones of your title gallivanting around ready to duel to see who is the real one.

Especially true for adventure modules. Everyone and their grandma is running, has run or will run these products. You have a lot of rivals for players if you’re running a module, because you and everyone else who is running the module is fundamentally hosting the same thing. So you have to work to distinguish yourself in other ways in the eyes of possible recruits. Not only that, even barring those concerns, telling them what module you’re running is just asking them to metagame. This is a PBP. They could have the module right next to them all the time as they post.

Fattening Up: Thread Content

Do

•Clearly define the rules and etiquette of your game.

•Leave yourself open to questions to cover anything you might have missed.

Don’t

•Forget you’re playing a game that has a setting, plot, and characters, no matter how wafer-thin.

•Come off as a demanding, obsessive nutjob.

The thread ad is not a procedural document that is triple-stamped, signed and turned back into you for review. It is your shot to show your DMing chops outside of the game. You absolutely need something there besides procedures, but let’s go over those first, because it’s important that you know some of the basic things you should ask for as a DM.

1. Post an application form which a player fills out to you. It should have things like their character’s Name, class/build/template/skills/whatever, and some story hooks like why the character would participate in the events that open the campaign, what the character did in the past, any enemies or allies that’d give the DM some fodder for plots, and so on. As much of it as you want or are comfortable with.

2. Demand a character sheet. No ifs, ands, or buts. This is your right. You will have a completed character sheet in your inbox or somewhere else by the end of this. If you don’t have one, don’t accept the player. There is simply no reason in an online game for the DM not to have ready access to every character.

3. Keep your applications reasonable. Regardless of what your formal PBPing education in freeform forums (shudder) taught you, the guy who can write a 6 page single-spaced character backstory in Word is not the superior roleplayer. It also does not guarantee he will be faster or more dedicated than anyone else. In fact, when you’re constantly reading 2000 word posts one after the other, you may just come to regret your decision. If backstory is mandatory, don’t also force it to be massive. It needlessly complicates the recruiting phase and turns away players to have such daunting requirements.

Especially if the DM doesn’t have impressive amounts of story or setting content in the ad to help guide this madness. If you’re going to ask for 6 page backstories, you better be ready to have six pages of your own crap right there and visible to show everyone that you’re putting in just as much effort. Otherwise you just look bad.

4. Include distinguishing content. Setting information, basic starting plots, a short story, a map, something, anything that you made yourself, can make all the difference in the world for a game ad. Like I said, there are people who don’t care about who’s DMing and just really are crapping themselves in anticipation to play Kobold Hall for their own bizarre reasons. But putting in the extra effort can bring in people like myself who want to see something of the DM beforehand. Some modicum of effort and creativity will be what truly distinguishes your thread from all the other ones. This shows that you, as the DM, have invested some effort above and beyond what was required of you. This is a good show. It is appreciated and it starts you off on a good foot with your players, and motivates them to work too.

Getting On With The Game

Do

•Have an in-character and out-of-character thread ready when recruitment is over. Link your players to them.

•Check out other posts or games in which your player participated for research.

Don’t

•Be lackadaisical – you have to keep the energy levels up at all times.

Before you choose your players, e-stalk them. Check other posts by them, because your player might be a saint in the play-by-post forum, but he might be the legendary troll of the general forums, and you don’t want that kind of time bomb on your hands. Ask people you trust on the same forum if they’ve heard of player X. Take what you hear with a grain of salt (e-grudges are all too common) but don’t dismiss it outright. All this is stuff to keep in mind. I’ve done most of the precautions before and then still recruited some horrible players because I didn’t ask my bros on the forums about the player beforehand, and they would have told me everything I painfully came to discover on my own.

Above all else, you need to keep the energy levels up. Don’t miss your deadlines. Don’t put off the game start until three weeks later. Don’t start off the game without there being any threads up anywhere. You need to be faster than everyone else. You need to be the example, the pillar. Transfer that energy to your players in the form of prompt posts, being ready for them when they’re ready, and being stern. If a player is slow to send you a sheet, nag at them. Not in a mean-spirited way. But because you have to be the electricity of your game, because nobody’s going to be that for you.

The game starts with recruitment – recruit right, and you save yourself headaches later!

Are you unsure if you’re Wyatt-material? Well, it’s finally time to put that question to rest, and put your player ‘ttude to the test. These are the serious, no nonsense questions you need to answer. I am so totally super serial guys.

Thanks to the NewbieDM for the idea.

Basic Concerns

1. What is your name?
2. What is your favorite game system?
3. What is your general attitude about playing games outside of your favorite system?
4. What do you expect out of your gaming?
5. Do you foresee any kind of scheduling problems on your end?
6. Would you consider yourself “old school” or “new school”?
7. Do you prefer to roleplay in the first person or the third person?
8. Are you willing to contribute to roleplay exercises like character journals?
9. How much “system mastery” would you think you have in the game system for this campaign?
10. Have you played Maid: RPG? Would you consider playing it if we are short on players for the regular game?

Non-Basic Concerns

11. Would you describe your character as a baller?
12. If so, how ballin’ would you say he or she is?
13. Do you hate poetry in all of its forms (answering incorrectly could lead to harm)?
14. How clothed do you consider your female characters to be?
15. If I asked the question “What is your favorite loli?” do you believe you would be able to answer? If so, answer.
16. Name at least 3 internet memes you feel you could bring to the table or innovate upon.
17. Write a 2 paragraph essay on the relevance of the following lyric from “The Adventures of Duane and Brando”’s Megaman rap and its relevance to today’s RPG culture: “If I’m gonna win I’ll have to upgrade my shit–”
18. Do you believe anyone who plays Maid: RPG is a pedophile (answering incorrectly could lead to harm)?
19. Would you expound upon your character’s sexuality with long in-game monologues, and if so, would you allow the DM to launch household appliances in your direction should dire need to quiet you arise?
20. Select a theme song for your character, which must comply with the following randomly-generated genre of electronic music in some way, shape or form – clowncore.

Really Important Concerns

21. How far does your suspension of disbelief go?
22. Can it go farther than that?
23. Do you consider anything remotely Asian (which includes India) in themes or origin to be “anime” or are you cultured enough to make some form of differentiation?
24. Are you old school? (This question will be conducted at gunpoint.)
25. If your character acquired a crystal skull which is then stolen from him or her, would your character desperately raise all manner of hell to retrieve the skull?
26. Do you know what an eroge is and have you played one? Name it. (If it sucks, you’re not getting in.)
27. Do you endorse yukkuri violence? Or are you a believer in yukkuri rights?
28. Are you a user of an illegal substance, and if so, how easily and cheaply can you procure large amounts of it?
29. Which Dan Brown novel would you consider to be at least halfway decent?
30. Write a question which you believe I should have asked you, and then answer it. This question cannot be used to create an infinite loop of questions.