Instant NPCs and Monsters for v.3.5
I love 3.5, it is my favorite incarnation of the rules. I love the versatility, the level of detail, and the infinite variety of ways in which one can leverage the rules. I also am aware of its shortcomings.
One of the system’s biggest issues (beyond polymorph and grapple) is the sheer amount of time it takes to generate NPCs or monsters. Sure via advancement in class levels or any of a wide variety of templates you can achieve anything, but it seems to take forever. Especially if you are creating something complex, say an Axiomatic Bipedal Dire Lion for instance.
Dingle’s Games to the rescue! With their online DND 3.5 Monster Generator they have given valuable hours back to the DMs of the world. Check out this screencast to see how it works, I guarantee you’ll be glad you did. Creating a complex creature with class levels now only needs to tak up about 10 minutes instead of two hours. Granted you can’t dig deeply enough into it to assign individual skill points, but the choices the software makes have so far been acceptable.
I encourage players in my campaigns to use this when creating followers from now on. Gary, this one’s for you!
Thanks to Killrbeez for using Creative Commons! Love the NPC T-Shirt!
The Dungeon Master’s Creed
We, the undersigned……
- Demand a rules system that is consistent, clear and concise in all respects
- Want one book that contains character generation, the game rules and a wide and inspiring selection of opponents
- Expect regular supplements which take the game in fun, exciting and unexpected directions. Give us new monsters, new rules and new ideas, not formulaic repetition and rehashes of previous material
- Need published adventures created by the best minds in the industry that are fun to run and don’t require multiple rule books and monster manuals open at the table just to run a simple encounter. Give us all we need to run the encounter straight off the page
- Demand a system which works with (but doesn’t demand) miniatures, an internet connection or an electronic gaming aid. Let us choose how we play rather than be dictated by the financial interests of your company. Get this right and the profits will follow. Have faith in your customers, and they will have faith in you
- Want a combat system which can scale with the number of opponents, whether it’s a single foe or a thousand screaming goblins.
- Expect to be able to be able to create and customise monsters and NPCs simply, whether we be planning a scenario or sat at the table mid-game. We demand simplicity.
- Want stat blocks which take up a few lines of text, not a whole page
- Demand character generation that is as flexible and unrestricted as possible
- Expect the rules system to reflect the genre, not mould the genre into it’s image
- Want game designers who listen, not preach; improve, not re-invent; and inspire, not promote.
- Require a freely downloadable Test Drive Preview of the game with which we can run a sample adventure from start to end.
In return, we will…..
- Advocate, promote and play this game at every opportunity
- Make this game our game through customization of the classes, features and game world
- Introduce new players to the game, and thereby expand the hobby and profits of the company
- Buy the game, buy the supplements and buy the adventures, for they will be good, and worth our hard earned cash
- Have fun and be very, very happy indeed!!
signed
Greywulf, ardent gamer.
(add your name in the comments and/or cross-post in your blog if you agree).
Planejammer Image Sharing Group Debuts
Open to all current and former participants in any of the Planejammer series of Campaigns. Click the bar above to check it out!
Sanctuary: The House Rules
Since we are bringing in new faces for this campaign I thought it for the best to post these right from the outset:
Gaming Group Guidelines
1. The primary law for Face-To-Face games: Everyone’s on their honor in the game. Many of the following suggestions are to help maintain player-player trust within the group, but in general, everyone’s on their honor to track their hitpoints, spells, magic items, equipment, et cetera.
2. Non-PC Tomes: No player may reference non-player-oriented tomes (ie the DMG or the various Monster Manuals) during the game without express permission of the DM. It ruins the full impact of the scenario for you and for the DM.
3. Die Rolls: All rolls must be witnessed by at least one other player. No rolls may be made ahead of time, but only when the DM requests it. Warm-up rolls will be accepted, but they must be clearly announced before the dice leaves your hand, if they are not pre-announced then it counts as your roll.
4. Out-Of-Game Comments: Please try to avoid non-game conversations once the game has started. If you must do so, then I ask that you take non-game conversations away from the table. It disturbs the game.
5. New Members: Once the campaign has started, new members to the gaming group require unanimous approval of current group members, after three sessions to get a sample of how they roleplay.
6. Attendance: I will not run a game based in the current campaign if more than 2 of the players are not present. (We may still run an isolated one shot, but it won’t be to the detriment of the normal campaign.)
7. Absenteeism: During periods where there is a waiting list to play in the campaign, any player that misses three sessions in a row (or three sessions during any rolling period of six sessions) is considered to have voluntarily resigned their seat at the table, and offers to play are extended to those on the waiting list. This automatic resignation can be overridden by unanimous approval of the current group.
8. It is the player’s responsibility to create a character that can work and play well with others. If the character can’t, then the player shouldn’t be playing that character in my game. If the party has to split up, the amount of time each “side” gets will be proportional to the number of members in that group, modified by the importance of the group’s activities as they relate to the group’s goals. For example, rogues that are always going off for breaking and entering, or pickpocketing, that isn’t in line with the party’s goals will get very little “air time,” compared to the rest of the group and their pursuit of the party goals.
9. Please clean up after yourself. If you bring food or drinks to the game, throw your trash away at the end of the night. Flush the toilet when you’re done; that kind of thing. If it’s my house, I’d prefer not to have to clean up after everyone. If we’re gaming somewhere else, I’d hate for us to lose the ability to game at a particular location because we didn’t give the host the respect of cleaning up after ourselves.
-Flynn, rebooted by Loki
RPG Wiki Tool – Cool Stuff
Main Page – Abulafia: “Abulafia is a special kind of wiki. Instead of just adding articles and entries about whatever, you can use it to generate random bits and pieces for whatever kind of fiction you’re working on. It was designed with Role-Playing Gamers in mind, but would work equally well for playwrights, authors, and so forth. Besides the regular content available on a wiki, Abulafia has two special kinds of things you can put in pages here. The first is a Story Generation Table, where you can put loads of cool content that you might want in your fiction. The second is Story Generation Display, where you incorporate random results from various tables into the way a page on Abulafia is displayed”
The NEW Demonweb
to go with the Fiendish Codex I WOTC gives us an updated demonweb here>
Map-A-Week: Fiendish Codex I — The Demonweb
Backtalk