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Topics - Spence

#1
Miscellaneous / Genetically Modifying Animals for food
October 02, 2010, 09:21:17 PM
In my area this has become a large debate and it's only now becoming a large debate because some scientists want to make pacific salmon that grow to maturity twice as fast and grow twice as large or larger.  These fish are triploid.  That means genetically altered, sterile and generally kept out of natural habitats.

People seem to look past the fact that we are already eating genetically modified animals and vegetables, but when a certain iconic animal gets selected it raises alarms and everybody gets up in arms about it. 

My vote is for this, i have many reasons, i will post on them later when we get a good discussion going.

Keep it civil please!

Spence
#2
The Art of the Game Master / Map generating software
September 26, 2010, 06:19:45 PM
Heya folks...it's been a few years since ive been here.  Got pre-occupied with life.  Anyways, i'm looking for some map generating software (preferably something free, im on a really tight budget) to use to create maps for my future DnD setting.  I came here hoping somebody would be able to direct me to something free and easy to use. 

Thanks in advance!

Spence
#3
General Discussion and Questions / Broken Links
May 15, 2006, 05:01:22 PM
Since i'm going through the critters i get to test links here and there and i've found a couple of broken ones so far:

Mura
Stone Beak

Both in the Grassland section of Fauna.

Spence
#4
http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3story.html?sid=6149638

It would seem that Blizzard entertainment, one of the better PC video game creators IMO, is planning a movie.  I'll be reserving my judgements until more information is released, but it should be interesting.
#5
Role Playing Discussion / The Land of Carrikos
May 09, 2006, 09:12:20 AM
I was just reading up on the nation of Carrikos and some quandries struck me.

1) It says mostly that weapons and armor are considered illegal.  What would they do if a fellow Carrikos worshipper walked into town in fullplate carrying a (sheathed) magic weapon? 

2)  In the above example, what if said Carrikos Worshipper is a Paladin/Blackguard of Carrikos?

3)  In the above example, what if the worshipper in question was actually a cleric/priest of Carrikos?

In the above example i'm assuming the character in question is a foreigner.

4)  It says Carrikos has a strong Black Market.  Assuming the character in question is a Blackguard of Carrikos, would anybody even look sideways at him/her if he/she went looking for poisons?

To explain a little bit...on Dathkandra we've ruled that Carrikos is a Lawful Neutral Deity, and since he's Lawful Neutral he's capable of attracting Paladins to his cause, and he's capable of attracting Blackguards to his cause.  I think Carrikos is the only one we have capable of doing that and i think it's because of his status as a Greater Deity.

The Land of Carrikos seems to be a Mage/Priest's wet dream, and if somebody was to actually be a Champion for Carrikos, whether for good or evil, i think they would receive a warm welcome...but i'm not entirely sure if i'm getting the feel of that nation entirely well.

I had more questions about the Nation of Carrikos but i've forgotten them already, so they couldnt have been too important.  Anyways, if i remember them i'll reply back here to see about getting them answered.

Spence
#6
Yes, we know there are issues logging in.  I experience them every day.  I have 3 browsers, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Netscape.  We have an issue we call "The Red X of Death" where the java applet will not initialize.  This is really annoying and we do know of it.  The admin of the site, Joshua Woodruff is a really busy man, but it doesnt seem to be a problem with the server itself, it seems to be a browser or java issue.

As of right now, all i can say to help, assuming you try to get onto Exodus, Dathkandra in particular, is to make sure your java is updated completely, and if that doesnt work, cycle through browsers until one works...that's what i have to do...
#7
Gaming Tales / Dathkandra Storylines
May 04, 2006, 10:55:33 AM
I currently have one open storyline and one open adventure.  I'll modify these as the storyline and adventure progress, as of right now i dont want to give any further information away to those that play on Dathkandra that are here on the forums.


The Torgat Hunt

Early spring, before the snow had even melted from the ground, huge lizard footprints were found all around farm country.  One cattle farm in particular had many such footprints around it, but no cattle...sometime in the night, something huge had eaten every last cow on that farm.  Folks were sent to investigate quickly and some experienced Rangers and Druids came to the conclusion that it was a Torgat...but this far north this time of year?

As word spread, so did the rumors.  Then sightings started to happen all around the area, Farmers left their farms and headed inside the city walls for protection, demanding the city do something before their livestock and livelihoods were eaten by that beast.  Then it disappeared for a few days.

People started relaxing, thinking the Torgat had moved on.  Then the cities alarm bells starting ringing and the guards on the walls were panicing.  A brave group of adventurers ran to the wall to see what was happening, just in time to witness the Torgat bend over the 20ft walls and have a peek at what was going on in the strange "stone hill".  Some of the adventurers had previously been on a torgat hunt where they'd killed a smaller one, but nobody anywhere had ever seen a Torgat so big!  It was easily 60ft tall. 

A local druid then noticed some things about the torgat.  Puss ran continuously from several gaping holes in it's teeth, one eye was a milky white and the torgats belly was terribly distended.  Casting a spell she began to speak with the Torgat hoping to convince it to leave.  Sick, and not able to contend with some of the torgats from where it was orginally from, this Torgat found the hunting here easy and refused to leave.  Then it smelled lunch and turned, running after a small herd of Elk.

The torgat hasnt been seen since, but people still want to hunt it down and kill it, it was far too close to Dathkandra to be safe.


Ogres at the Walls

Yesterday a caravan of ogres stopped outside the walls of Dathkandra.  They were all undernourished, partially dehydrated, and every last one of them exhausted.  The Guards briefly thought of attacking, but this rag tag group of Ogres was no threat to the city.

A very old Ogre, leaning heavily on an ironwood quarterstaff asked to be allowed entry so that he might speak on behalf of his people, the small group.  He was taken inside and nobody can agree for certain where he was taken to, some whisper that he was taken to see the Dutchess, others say he was taken to see somebody with power behind the scenes. 

Meanwhile the Ogres opened up their caravans and began bartering with the citizens of Dathkandra...but the ogres didnt want any money, they were bartering for food and water.  Some donations were made, and the first of the food stuffs were given to a group of children that were hidden inside one of the non-merchantile wagons.

Rumors run rampant, as they are oft to do.  Why are the Ogres here?  Why are they starving?  Why are these people, notorious for their combative ways, here begging for Sanctuary?  Very few people in Dathkandra speak Ogrish, but those that do whisper that something very bad happened..something that has even the Fearless Ogres running and afraid.  But as to what...nobody is for certain.

Update: Adventurers have begun buying items from the Ogres with food.  Little bit by little bit they've uncovered what happened to the Ogres.  In southern Normidia a band of orcs have apparently sold their souls to demons and/or devils and are attempting to amass an army.  These orcs have gained strange powers, extreme strength, speed and a higher understand of magic.  With a will bent on destruction and chaos, these "chaos" orcs have destroyed the Ogre tribe, only a small smattering of the tribe is left and they are on the move.
#8
Miscellaneous / Attention Guests
May 04, 2006, 09:52:35 AM
We can see you all coming in and poking around.  We would like to invite you to register on these forums and come say hello, maybe even get involved with some discussions, it's not too difficult, just register, log in and say Hello, sit a spell if you would like.  You dont have to stay if you dont want to, but we would all appreciate it if you'd just pop in and say hello.

Spence
#9
Role Playing Discussion / Holy Symbols
May 03, 2006, 01:19:59 PM
In most standard games, holy symbols for priests are merely a focus to draw power on, and even a lowly starting priest/cleric can manage to start off with a better than average holy symbol.  This is fine if you're not planning on structuring the temples/clergies of your campaign too much.  But if you are planning to create a strong structure and heirarchy, then you might want to reconsider allowing PC's needing them to even buy them.  Instead, use a structured system to enhance the roleplay aspect.

I'll use classic DnD as an example.

1rst - 2nd level:  PC starts off with a free Wooden Holy Symbol for their deity.  They are considered novices in the church and their holy symbol reflects on this.

3rd-4th level:  The PC now gains a holy symbol made from stone or a cheap metal.  They are acolytes in their church.

5th-6th level:  The PC now gains a silver holy symbol and are considered more than an acolyte, they are given more responsibilities that have further meaning than meager tasks.

7th-8th level:  The PC is given a Silver Holy symbol with a gem or two indicating higher status within the church.

9th-10th level:  The PC is given a solid gold holy symbol and is considered a ranking member of the church, being saught out occasionally for advice.

11th-12th level:  The PC is given a solid gold holy symbol with two or three gems, and is saught out more often for advice, and given greater tasks and responsibilities (such as trying to recruit new worshippers, or turn evil doers from the darkness to the light or vice versa)

13th-15th level:  The PC is given a holy symbol made of a rare metal and is one of the highest ranking members of the church.

16th level +:  The PC is given a holy symbol made from the rarest of metals, imbedded with several gems, he/she is now officially a greater power in the church and may leave the heirarchy to start a new church someplace else if so desired.

This system makes it so that a PC never has to spend anything on a holy symbol, and always has one.  However as they become more powerful, their holy symbols become more valueable, making them targets of theives.  This can make for interesting side-plots as they try to recover their holy symbol, and sometimes have to buy it back from a merchant who purchased it from a thief.
#10
Hello hello,

This post is more or less directed to David himself as he's on the DM egroup for the Dathkandra chat.

I've been putting stats to creatures from the Khoras setting, but the one thing i'm lacking in creating the stats for them is insider information.  When i read from the site to get idea's for a creatures statistics i generally end up comparing them to certain monsters from WotC's books on them (Monster Manual 1, 2 and 3, Monsters of Faerun, etc etc), and then basing them off of a similar creature or in some cases two or more.  But i'm not sure that i'm giving them the right feel for what was intended.

David is there any way you could monitor the creatures i post to the DM list to see if they're close to what you intended?  Or would you rather i post them here, or in a direct email?  I'd very much love to have your opinions on the monsters so i can get them as close as possible to giving off the feel you try to detail.  I'll post one here as an example if nobody minds.  My main reason for wanting to get your opinions is due to Dathkandra being online, with both the Khoras site and Dathkandra linked to each other i'd very much like to maintain the feel of these creatures, as you see and portray them on Khoras, on Dathkandra as well.

I'm using the Arachnicon as my example here.  When i read the entry for it i immediately compared it to a Drider, but not just a Drider, i also felt it also was similar to an Ettercap.  So i used the base stats for a Drider then copied abilities from the Ettercap as well as a racial bonus to the Craft: Trapmaking skill.  I've left the weapons there as they're definately intelligent enough to use them and i think they'd be able to use them functionally as well, at least these ones...

On Dath we use standard HP's of 75% with the ability to "buy" full hitpoints with Karma Points (points tied to an account for helping us, RPing well, and can also be banked by spending off extra experience).  With that in mind i also use the 75% hitpoints for monster hitpoints as well (when i remember to do that when i post it on the list lol, sometimes i forget).

Arachnicon

Large Aberration

Hit Dice: 6d8+18 (66 hp)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares), climb 15 ft.
Armor Class: 18 (–1 size, +3 Dex, +6 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+10
Attack: Dagger +5 melee (1d6+2/19–20) or bite +6 melee (1d4+1 plus poison) or shortbow +5 ranged (1d8/x3)
Full Attack: 2 daggers +3 melee (1d6+2/19–20, 1d6+1/19–20) and bite +1 melee (1d4+1 plus poison); or shortbow +5 ranged (1d8/x3)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks:  Web, Poison
Special Qualities: Low-Light Vision, Immunity to Poison
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +8
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 16
Skills: Climb +14, Craft: Trapmaking* +9, Hide +10, Listen +9, Move Silently +12, Spot +9
Feats: Combat Casting, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (bite) Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, or Collective (6-10)
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: Double standard
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +4

Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 15, initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 2d6 Dex. The save DC is Constitution based and includes a +2 racial bonus.

Web (Ex): An Arachnicon can throw a web eight times per day. This is similar to an attack with a net but has a maximum range of 50 feet, with a range increment of 10 feet, and is effective against targets of up to Medium size. The web anchors the target in place, allowing no movement.

An entangled creature can escape with a DC 14 Escape Artist check or burst the web with a DC 18 Strength check. The check DCs are Constitution-based, and the Strength check DC includes a +4 racial bonus. The web has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

Arachnicons can also create sheets of sticky webbing from 5 to 60 feet square. They usually position these to snare flying creatures but can also try to trap prey on the ground. Approaching creatures must succeed on a DC 20 Spot check to notice a web, or they stumble into it and become trapped as though by a successful web attack. Attempts to escape or burst the webbing receive a +5 bonus if the trapped creature has something to walk on or grab while pulling free. Each 5-foot-square section has 6 hit points, hardness 0, and takes double damage from fire.

An arachnicon can move across its own sheet web at its climb speed and can determine the exact location of any creature touching the web.