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• Aug 5, 2019

  How I Accidentally Hijacked a D&D Campaign and Turned it Into GURPS

  There’s a very important reason for the increasing delay between my Let’s Read Hell’s Rebels posts: for the past few months I’ve been GMing a Dungeon Fantasy campaign.

  It all started, ironically, when a friend of mine invited a bunch of people to start a D&D 5th Edition game. He had just acquired a copy of Tales From the Yawning Portal, the book that adapts a lot of older adventures to 5th edition, and wanted to make a casual campaign out of it. I accepted because I liked the idea of participating in a game as a player for once and I didn’t actively dislike vanilla D&D 5th.

  This was a weekly game, taking place over Google Hangouts every Sunday morning. It went relatively well for a while. We plowed through Sunless Cidatel and much of Forge of Fury in pure dungeon-crawl mode. One day, though, it happened that only the GM, me, and another player managed to make it into the session, and we found out the hard way how essential numbers are in this edition of D&D.

  A fight that should have been something of a speedbump to a party of 4-5 turned into a nearly fatal encounter for a duo, and so we became convinced that it was pointless to make a go at any of the actual set-piece encounters in front of us.

  So I ended up proposing an alternate game for when we didn’t have a full party for D&D. I had just acquired both the Dungeon Fantasy RPG boxed set and the original Ravenloft module for AD&D, so I proposed a game of DFRPG Ravenloft.

  I figured DFRPG delvers would be strong enough to make some progress even when we had a reduced party, and I had a handy list of GURPSified Pathfinder Iconics for them to pick from so that was character creation taken care of.

  Pretty much the whole D&D party picked their DFRPG characters - we had Valeros the Fighter, Harsk the Ranger, Kyra the Cleric, Ezren the Wizard, and Seelah the Paladin. The week after that, I GMed the introductory session following the guidelines in the module, and went all-out in roleplaying it and narrating things.

  They loved it. It seems at least one of the players was genuinely scared. I’m not bragging about my own skills - rather, I’m saying OG Ravenloft is that good.

  There was never an officially announced decision or anything, but our “D&D” group never played another D&D session after that. The backup GURPS Ravenloft game became our main event. I never set out to do this intentionally, but I can’t say I’m not happy with the result.

  Tune in next time to learn how Ravenloft claimed yet another party of unwary adventurers.

• Aug 1, 2019

  Let's Read Hell's Rebels Adventure 2: Conclusion

  

  This article is part of a series! Click here to see the rest.

  In the last post I said it was time to finally end Turn of the Torrent, but that was a little hasty. The last post covered the big dungeon - this one is the denouement.

  Clearing the Lucky Bones hideout completely and reactivating the magical pump makes the place usable as the official home base of the Silver Ravens, increasing the maximum power of the rebellion. Over the course of this adventure the PCs have also likely gained the support of the Torrent Knights, earned a number of favors from a powerful Navy captain, and caught a notorious serial killer.

  Those last three goals are supposed to help cement the Silver Ravens’ reputation as heroic protectors among the people of Kintargo. Catching the Temple Hill Slasher is obviously a big PR coup, plus I guess the contact networks of the remaining Torrent Knights and Captain Sargaeta would be pretty dilligent in spreading the good word about the PCs, making the people like them more even as Barzilai’s administration likes them less. All of this forces Barzilai to officially acknowledge the existence of the Silver Ravens, and to be diplomatic about it.

  Thrune hosts an award ceremony at the Kintargo Opera House and issues a very public invitation to the PCs. During the ceremony he makes a speech praising their civic-mindedness and hands out valuable gifts.

  While The Barzilai has it out of the PCs, he will not try to hurt them here, and will do his best to appear civil. The gifts are even magic items tailored to be useful to the PCs! The trick here is that the items are distinctive enough to be tracked via locate object (D&D) and Seeker (GURPS), which will likely come to bite the PCs unless they’re very crafty. Really, the best thing they can do with these “rewards” is ditch them far away from the Lucky Bones, but there’s a good chance they won’t think about the tracking angle and keep them.

  And speaking of crafty, PCs who don’t try to pick a fight during the ceremony gain a XP reward for being discreet. According to the book, stabbing Thrune in front of a crow of thousands might be satisfying, but is unlikely to be productive at this point in time.

  The book also says that Barzilai has completed one of the rituals necessary for becoming a genius loci not long before the public ceremony, and so is looking a bit haggard and pale. He’ll be back in top form in time for the fight against the PCs, of course.

  After the ceremony, you should give the group access to the full map of the Lucky Bones basement, secret passages and all, and let them have fun turning it into a deathtrap dungeon using the resources of the Silver Ravens. The defenses they install here will be very relevant if/when Thrune discovers its location and orders his goons to mount an attack.

  Going Off the Rails

  The book seems to treat the award ceremony as sort of a closing cutscene in this adventure, but if you think about it a bit more there are a few things that can make it go off the rails. Here I’ll discuss these things and how to adapt if they happen.

  Thing 1: Silver Who?

  It could be that your PCs were so good at covering their tracks that they performed all the deeds the books consider flashy and public in a very discreet manner. Maybe they let someone else take the credit for catching the Slasher and otherwise did their utmost to prevent their Notoriety from rising. On the one hand, Thrune would know almost nothing about them. On the other, he’d have no reason to host the ceremony, preventing the “tense encounter”.

  I imagine it’s actualy better for the PCs in the long run if it doesn’t happen, as the Silver Ravens should gather at least some fame and notoriety for their deeds. The people of Kintargo can’t support you if they don’t know who you are! Still, if your PCs are this committed to being stealthy ninjas, the ceremony would either not happen at all, or it would have whoever the PCs pinned their successes on as the guest of honor. This would also change a few other things down the line.

  Thing 2: We’re Not Going to the Fucking Opera House.

  The PCs could simply not show up to the ceremony! Even here they could do this in one of several ways, from simply ghosting Barzilai to issuing this section’s title as a public statement.

  However they handle it, this is sure to have a polarizing effect on Kintargo’s citizens. People who already liked them will love this, people who already liked Thrune will hate it, and some of those who were on the fence will fall to whatever side they were closest to. Mechanically, this is an increase both in the rebellion’s number of supporters and its Notoriety score, modified by the specific response the PCs chose to give and by their actions in this adventure.

  Interestingly enough, this shouldn’t have much of an impact in the future direction of the campaign. The biggest one is that PCs who didn’t attend the ceremony are sure to not be carrying Barizilai’s trap items when that becomes relevant.

  Thing 3: Hi there! Prepare to Die!

  What if your PCs do stab Barzilai in front of a crow of thousands? The book tries to discourage this by describing Barzilai’s entourage, which includes a dozen beefy hellknights, Kintargo’s High Priest of Asmodeus, and two very large three-headed hellhounds. This might work as a deterrent on Pathfinder, since it sends the message that “this encounter would be much higher level than your party”, but it might not be enough to dissuade a party of foolhardy Dungeon Fantasy delvers from having a go. It would likely still not be an easy battle, but hey, Barzilai is less than three feet away, he’s weakened from his sinister ritual, and if he dies anything but a natural death his master plan is foiled! Fast-Draw, behead, profit!

  Should the PCs succeed in killing Barzilai Thrune here, they haven’t exactly “won” Hell’s Rebels yet. They still have a rebellion to conduct and that just got a lot harder. Kintargo will be thrown into open conflict much earlier than the books predict, as Thrune’s cronies will have the perfect excuse to go fully genocidal on the citizenry and the central Cheliax government will feel pressured to send an army to respond to this event even though they didn’t like Barzilai all that much. All of the things that needed to happen for the overall revolution to be successful now need to happen a lot faster, and likely without the help of those friendly factions that conditioned their support on the PCs not being violent hotheads.

  In other words, the overall challenge level of the campaign will swiftly rise to match the level of power and audacity of a party that manages to kill Barzilai in the ceremony and get away with it. If the players aren’t confident that they have that level of badassitude, then the PC that goes up to shake Barzilai’s hand had better not be Impulsive and/or Bloodthirsty.

• Aug 1, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Carrion Crawler

  

  The first version of D&D I ever player was one of the many Basic boxes, and I remember carrion crawlers being there. It’s quite likely they’ve been a thing since the beginning.

  Back then I had a hard time seeing why they were dangerous, since their main attack did no damage and their bite was weak. This is because I didn’t know what a big deal paralysis was, being a kid and new to the game. If you have fond memories of those BECMI-or-earlier crawlers, you’ll be happy to know they still paralyze here.

  Carrion Crawlers are present on both the Manual and the Vault. The Monster Vault has updated versions of both crawlers that show up on the Monster Manual, plus two new varieties, so you don’t loose anything by going with the Vault versions only.

  The Lore

  The Monster Manual blames a Cocaine Wizard whose name is lost to history for creating the first crawlers. The Vault elaborates on that story a bit more: this wizard didn’t create the monsters, she opened a portal to the Far Realm in an attempt to learn its secrets. A whole lot of bad stuff went through and destroyed the city she was in. The crawlers came through on the wake of that main wave drawn by all the corpses.

  The Vault also has a bit more to say about their habits of these tentacly worms. They feed on carrion but don’t like to compete for it with other scavengers, to they lair in places where food is plentiful but mobility is limited for the competition: caves, sewers, dungeons, swamps choked with vegetation, and so on. They’re also drawn to battlefields and cemeteries. A city dealing with a siege or plague is in even more trouble than usual if it has crawlers in its sewers.

  Carrion crawlers are territorial and will attack any trespassers. It’s also possible for a crawler to follow a party of adventurers from a distance and, when they meet other monsters, rush in to help them along the way to becoming carrion.

  The Numbers

  Let’s go through the crawlers as presented by the Monster Vault. I’ll note any differences between these and the MM versions as appropriate. All crawlers except for the last one are Large Aberrant Beasts and have darkvision. They also have a climb speed equal to their land speed with the “spider climb” special that also allows them to cling to ceilings.

  First we have the MV-only Carrion Crawler Scuttler, a Level 5 Skirmisher with 63 HP. It’s the fastest of the lot, with Speed 8. Its basic attack is a bite that does extra damage to stunned targets. It can also attack with its tentacle, which target Fortitude, have a bonus to hit prone targets, and do no damage but stun on a hit (save ends). After stunning the target, the scuttler can shift its speed and pull them along. As a move action it can perform an Unsettling Scuttle, shifting its speed and making an attack targetting Fortitude against anyone whose space it goes through. On a hit, this does no damage but knocks the target prone.

  This is how it fights: scuttle next to someone to knock them down, hit them with the paralyzing tentacles and scuttle away with the victim to chomp at them in peace. In the proper terrain, this makes it as dangerous as an horror movie monster.

  The classic Carrion Crawler is a level 7 Soldier with 81 HP. Its basic attack are the tentacles, which target Fortitude, do damage plus ongoing poison damage and slow. The first failed save worsens this to immobilized, and the second to stunned. All the while, the target is still taking that poison damage - this variety’s poison is less paralytic but more toxic. Even on a miss it still slows for a turn. It also has a bite.

  This one exists in both books, and the main difference is that the MV crawler’s tentacle and bite damage has been fixed - the original’s was extra-low for some reason. On the other hand, saves against the MM crawler’s tentacles took a -2 penalty.

  Next is the Carrion Crawler Putrefier, a level 15 soldier with 148 HP. It emits a Nauseous Stench on a 3 square radius that does ongoing poison damage and slows anyone who starts their turn in there (save ends both). Its tentacles target Fort , do necrotic damage and allow the crawler to pull and immobilize the target. This worsens to stunned and ongoing necrotic damage on the first failed save. It bites too, but that’s just physical damage.

  Finally, we have the Enormous Carrion Crawler, which I guess is what you get when a classic crawler has a few decades to grow. It’s a Level 17 Elite Soldier with 332 HP. Its tentacles and bite are up-gunned versions of the classic crawler’s, and it also has threatening reach 3. Additionally, it can attack with either two tentacles or a tentacle and a bite in its turn, and it can use a Tentacle Flurry to hit everyone in a Close Blast 3 with its tentacles. The flurry recharges once the crawler is bloodied, so it can be used twice per fight.

  The MM version is the same, with much lower damage and a -5 penalty on saves against tentacle effects.

  Encounters And Final Thoughts

  I guess the MM versions of the crawler are the ones who best capture my BECMI memories, because they do piddly damage but their paralytic poison is particularly dangerous. I can see why they changed it, though.

  Stunned is right there with dominated as one of the most hated conditions in 4e. It’s the condition that best represent paralysis - you can’t do anything until you save. This makes the lowly carrion crawler scuttler one of the scarier monsters in the MV lineup, because it can stun instantly and carry you away. Fighting it in terrain where it can scuttle out of reach of the PCs while carrying one of their friends is going to be unnerving.

  Since most crawlers are standard monsters, they won’t be found alone. You might not want to pit the PCs against an equal number of crawlers (or scuttlers!), though, since that has the potential to stunlock the entire party. On the other hand, that was a real danger in the BECMI days too.

  The proposed encounter in the MV is level 7: two crawlers and three othyugs. Makes sense, since they could share an habitat and not compete for food.

• Jul 25, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Cambion

  

  I clearly remember Cambions existed in third edition, though I don’t know if they date from earlier than that. They’re only statted up in the Monster Manual.

  Cambions are the offspring of devils and “depraved or unwitting” mortals. This wording is interesting because it specifically excludes violent rape. The mortal in question is either aware and willing, or being seduced by a “beautiful stranger” who later vanishes in the night. It fits the devil idiom in 4e.

  It appears Cambions are usually raised by the mother, either in the World or in the Nine Hells. In either case they’re evil and vicious from childhood, taking on the worst traits of both parent species. I guess it’s technically possible for there to be a non-evil cambion, but the ones in the book aren’t them.

  Cambions look like red-skinned humans with wings and horns. The book presents us with two varieties. They’re both Medium Immortal Humanoids (devil). The “devil” keyword marks them as official devils, and has a few rules attached: devils breathe and eat, but do not sleep. They are however not immune to sleep effects.

  Cambion Hellsword

  This guy is a Level 8 Brute with 106 HP. He has darkvision, resist 10 fire, speed 6, and a flight speed of 8 (clumsy). The “clumsy” keyword means he takes a -4 penalty to attacks and defenses while flying, so he only uses the wings to go from point A to point B. He wears mail and carries a flaming greatsword.

  The hellsword’s basic attack is, well, the hell-sword which does physical damage and ongoing fire damage. When he charges he can make a sword attack against every enemy in range, and gains 5 temporary HP whenever he bloodies an enemy or reduces them to 0 HP.

  The hellsword fights like a bowling ball, charging groups of enemies and then focusing on whoever is closer to being bloodied or taken out.

  Cambion Hellfire Magus

  This gal is Level 18 Artillery, and is all about setting things on fire. She possesses the same darkvision and speed as the hellsword, but her fire resistance is 15.

  Her basic melee attack is with a quarterstaff, and as usual for artillery monsters it’s useless. Her main at-will attack is the Hellfire Ray, which targets Reflex, does fire damage, and knocks prone on hit. She can also use Soulscorch, an area attack that also targets reflex, and does both immediate and ongoing fire damage. That one recharges on a 5-6.

  The hellfire magus also has a passive Soul Mantle power, which gives her +4 to AC and Reflex against ranged attacks.

  Her tactics are simple: keep away and shoot fire. Her traits make it both desirable and difficult for PCs to close to melee with her.

  Encounters

  Predictably, Cambions can be found hanging out with devils or with the sort of evil being who likes to hang out with devils. The suggested encounters are:

  • Level 8, four hellswords and a succubus. One happy family?

  • Level 18, 2 hellfire magi, a rakshasa noble, and 2 rockfire dreadnought elementals. A rajah and his advisors plus some summoned muscle.

  Final Thoughts

  Back in the 3e days it took me the longest time to figure out what made cambions different from tieflings. Both are descended from devils, right? Apparently the difference was that cambions were direct offspring, while tieflings were who knows how many generations removed from their fiendish ancestor. In 4e, of course, tieflings are humans mutated by a diabolic pact their distant ancestors made.

  If you want to make a custom cambion, their “signature” traits are the devil keyword, the fire resistance, and the wings with their clumsy flight speed. Their attack powers seem to show a strong tendency towards fire, but there’s no specific fire power all cambions have.

  Story-wise, I’d say people don’t really summon cambions despite them having the devil keyword. Rather, cambions arrive at a place by themselves and tempt other people into diabolism.

• Jul 22, 2019

  Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Bullete

  

  Bullettes, or Land Sharks, have been a part of D&D since the very beginning. As legend has it, Gary Gygax got the inspiration for them from a cheap plastic “dinosaur” toy he had lying around. They look like a cross between a rhino and a mole with, yes, a bullet-shaped head. Their bodies are covered in tough plates.

  They’re on both the Monster Manual and Monster Vault: the MM has a normal Bullete and a Dire Bullette. The Vault updates these two and adds a Young Bullette. If you have the Monster Vault you can safely use only its versions of the monster without missing anything. The lore below is combined from both books, with the Vault containing the most detail.

  In 4e, land sharks are naturally occurring predators. They’re both always hungry and dumb as a bag of hammers. The creatures will arrive at a region, eat everything that moves, and move on in search of more food. When this happens near a human settlement, the usual response from the humans is to pull up stakes and move away.

  Bullettes hunt by detecting prey with their tremorsense and bursting out the ground with great force underneath the chosen victims. They’ll try to eat anything smaller than themselves, and to fight anything larger out of sheer orneriness. These beasts are solitary, but might “accidentally” become part of an encounter with other monsters by bursting out of the ground mid-fight and trying to eat everyone.

  All bullettes here have darkvision, tremorsense 20, a ground speed of 6 and a burrow speed of 6. When they burrow or emerge from the ground, the squares where the transision happened become difficult terrain. The longer a fight against a bullette goes on, the more messed up the surrounding terrain becomes.

  Young Bullette

  The young bullette still hasn’t fully developed the boundless stamina of an adult specimen. It’s a Medium Natural Beast and a Level 7 Lurker with 68 HP.

  Their basic attack is a somewhat weak bite, which becomes a lot more damaging when used as part of the Snapping Jaws power. To use it, the monster must be underground. It burrows up to its speed and emerges adjacent to an opponent, making a much more damaging bite attack as it does so. This doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

  The youngling can them disengage with Submerge in Earth, an at-will standard action which allows it to shift one square, burrow up to its speed, and recharge Snapping Jaws.

  This strong-bite/disengage/strong-bite pattern is what makes the Young Bullette a lurker. It’s not trying to hide from you, it just needs a little run-up to properly tear your head off.

  Bullette

  The classic model, a fully developed specimen. It’s a Large Natural Beast, and a Level 9 Elite Skirmisher with 200 HP.

  The adult Bullette’s basic bite is a lot stronger than that of the youngling, and does extra damage to prone targets. It can optionally jump up to 5 squares before using it, without provoking opportunity attacks. Climbing a tree will not save you!

  If it’s underground, it can use Rising Burst, burrowing up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks and attacking on a Close Burst 2 when it emerges. This is a little less damaging than the single-target bite but still does half damage on a miss.

  All of the three attacks above are at-will standard actions!

  As a move action, it can use Earth Furrow, which allows it to burrow its speed at a depth of 1 square (again without provoking OAs). If it passes beneath an enemy space, it makes an attack against the enemy’s Fortitude, which does no damage but knocks the enemy prone on a hit.

  All of these abilities can come together to make an impressive alpha strike: Earth Furrow to enter the fight while knocking people around, and then a Rising Burst followed by an Action Point-fueled Leaping Bite. “A bullette bursts from the ground and catches 25 feet of air with the wizard in its mouth!”

  The Monster Manual version is pretty much the same, but buggier. Slightly lower damage, oddly lower accuracy, and it forces you to reference the rules for standing long jumps to figure out how far it leaps. MM bullettes can also use a Second Wind once per encounter, which recovers 51 HP and gives them a temporary defense boost.

  Second Wind on monsters is an early mechanic that quickly fell out of favor with players and designers. It’s pretty much just a more convoluted form of giving monsters an extra 25% HP, and generally only serves to make fights last longer.

  Dire Bullette

  Every natural predator has a dire version. The bullette is a natural predator. Therefore, it has a dire version. This nightmare is a Huge Natural Beast, a Level 18 Elite Skirmisher with 350 HP. Its ground and burrow speed are 8.

  It fights exactly like the “common” bullette, with increased damage appropriate to its level. Its leaping bite allows it to leap 7 squares instead of just 5, and the Rising Burst has a radius of 3 instead of 2.

  Being Huge, it’s likely to make the whole battlemap into difficult terrain before the PCs manage to slay it.

  The MM version even has similar differences! As with the common bullette, you don’t lose anything by using the MV version at all times.

  Encounters And Thoughts

  The suggested encounter in the MM is level 9, a bullette intruding on a fight with a group of 3 trolls.

  A bullette is kind of a one-note monster. However, it plays that note very well indeed. I like it!

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