Sea Princes: Azure Bound and Down

ADVENTURE! So last Monday I ran the continuation of my Sea Princes campaign. This one was extra special since it was played around Halloween time so as an added bonus to my players, I DMed the session dressed as a scurvy pirate! I used to be against cosplay at the game table, but I think years of seeing costumes at GenCon has softened me to the notion. I believe the session was a success since we managed to finish my latest storyline based on Smokey and the Bandit. All in all it was a goofy, fun, romp across the Azure Sea like you'd expect.

Here is some plot points and thoughts I took away from running this adapted plot in Greyhawk:

1. The Provincial Navy makes a great villain or power group. Naturally, given the plot my main antagonist was a rear admiral based on Buford T. Justice.  he is a variant paladin of Hextor whose evil brand of maritime law is perfect for chasing offenders way out of his jurisdiction. There is many seafaring nations on the Azure and the South Province is arguably the most tyrannical of the lot, yet they are still a stable, lawful nation so I built them up as an economic force in addition to a military might by blockading Irongate from exporting beer to Keoland. Their fleets' presence on the sea is a threat to pirates and merchants alike. However, Hextorians aren't known for sea based warfare, so I played them as terribly inept compared to an experienced Sea Princes crew. The sight of a yellow flag with a crowned boar's head is now forever ingrained in my players mind as a bad guy. They will appear again.

2. True Strike plus siege weapons is bad news. When it comes to ship to ship combat, I tend to keep it vague and cinematic, I don't like to get bogged down in ship stats and would rather get on to a boarding action or evade a pursuer entirely. However players will throw you curves and the first level True Strike is one of those 3.5/Pathfinder era spells that just needs to go away. True Strike when applied to a siege weapon I think is OP and I'm sure I'll find out later that it doesn't work on these devices, but for now it's cutting into my thrill of ship combat.

3. Always try to say yes to players' actions. When running a swashbuckling adventure, players tend to try things and take risks that they normally wouldn't in a static dungeon setting. I used to be a hard-nosed DM who tried to keep things grounded, but on the open sea with that much rope hanging around why not let the players do some crazy acrobatic things.

Curses! I didn't crit anyone. Arr!

4. If you use critical results use fumbles too. For a long time now I've been all about Pathfinder Critical and Fumble cards. The variety of things that can happen in a 52 card deck is so much better than most charts I've seen or boring damage multipliers. But I can't stress enough that if you allow crit effects you need to balance it with fumbles. Fumbles keep things tense and unpredictable unlike crits which are assumed in most games. And since this is a high seas adventure, any little hiccup in the middle of a fight only adds to the danger. Try it.

5. Maps are essential, especially if you're going to run a sea-based campaign. This may seem like a no-brainer, but its easy to forget that visual aids help in player immersion. I could have easily led the players on a rail-road journey from Irongate to Gradsul without use of one, but knowing that they needed to get there in 13 days; being able to see their progress charted out in front of them kept them on edge to the very last day of the mission. For DMs it's also a quick way to teach the setting to new players. I learned Greyhawk by Darlene's map and exploring it with my eyes before I ever played in it.

6. Communication at sea is helpful in moving the story. In the real world there is ways to communicate at sea; signal flags, lights at night or even yelling. In a world of magic there is even more possibilities like the spells Whispering Wind, Sending and so on. For this campaign certain ships were equipped with magic figureheads that could cast Sending to any other figurehead once a day. What this simulated was the CB communications from Smokey and the Bandit. Not every ship had these, but I made sure the main ships did.  

That's all for now!

Tomb of Horrors Minis Unboxed

It's been two Gen Cons ago, but I've finally got the inclination to put together my Tomb of Horrors mini set by Gale Force Nine. What I should be doing of course is painting my Lolth mini I got from three Gen Cons ago, but we all know that isn't going to happen. I digress.

This set is pretty cool, it's a miniature reproduction of the green cover of S1 The Tomb of Horrors which shows full bodied Acererak facing a cleric with his holy symbol and a fighter the set includes, the "mummy" Acererak, a "true form" Acererak as a floating demi-lich skull, the Fighter, the Cleric and wait...another mummy mini?

Well great, it's supposed to be a female Paladin mini (not depicted on the original ToH cover, but neither is the demi-lich). This mini is pretty cool and I'm positive my friends would love to use that in actual play, so I'll be contacting GF9 about a replacement. Anyhoo, back to the minis.

Assembling these were quite easier than ol' spindly legged Lolth. The demi-lich is skull and base; the cleric is base, body and arms/holy symbol; and the fighter is base, body, sword and a nifty helmet like the Mighty Thor. All easily glued in their designated places. The sculpts are incredible as always and there is little flashing that needs cut off in preparation-though you do need to be careful removing them from the sprue since these resin minis are fragile.

The mummy mini however gave me a bit of trouble, the body is in two pieces for some reason (at the hips) but I got that down on the base no problem then the arms for some reason wouldn't stay in place, but that was probably me. Overall it looks menacingly cool (I wonder if this mini could have a second career in Blood Bowl?).

I still highly recommend this line of classic minis. Their latest run is demon lords coinciding with D&D's Rage of Demons story line. I've got my Graz'zt and Zuggtmoy already so be ready for another mini unboxing probably year from now!

Update 06/15/2021: I still have not opened Graz'zt and Zuggtmoy. That is all.

Castle Greyhawk: Icy Death

Welcome again followers of Greyhawk! I'm proud to one again promote a new page in the third chapter of our ongoing Castle Greyhawk graphic novel. Check out page twenty-nine plus follow some potent prose by crafty conjurer Scott Casper. On our site you can also check the archives and follow the entire Castle Greyhawk story from the very beginning.

Artist's Commentary: This entire chapter has been an artistic mountain climb and drawing a white dragon in combat against the heroes is a new summit for my career. I'm enjoying the process a lot and at times I can feel the fear in these characters that I don't normally get when fighting RPG dragons I think. It's as if seeing a visual illustration of a dragon in action (or a movie dragon) captures the threat more than words. For instance, reading how bad ass Smaug was in the Hobbit was cool but seeing it in animation only reinforced that even if the dragon didn't actually do much but talk.
At any rate, I hope you all enjoy my meager draconic artwork. Let's see how they fare next page...

Brainstorming Ull Project

Welcome back readers. It's a rainy, gloomy day on the fields of Ull and I'm currently taking a break from drawing the Castle Greyhawk comic to write a new post mainly because it's been a few days since my last one. With little to comment on (D&D news is sadly all FR) this notion struck me, why not go over my list of unfinished Ull articles? In fact, I have enough material topics that if I got off my butt I could do a whole source book! Let me know what you think and maybe it'll spur my mood to write again:

Gazetteer Material
Ulakand City of Horses (Finished but unpublished and no map yet) This is a complete write up on the capital of Ull and it's neighboring locations on the mesa. I'm sure this one will go over big and it was written as a template for my next idea in the Ull Source Book.
Kester, the Pit City Following up on my old Canonfire articles about this town, I need a city map to go with it as well. I also would like to devise a random gladiator generator since the town is built around fighting pits.
Okkand and Kurukand. These two minor villages have lie on the roads between north and south. Each should have their own unique characters and dangers.

Threats of Ull
A series of articles or chapters for a sourcebook involving dangers and encounters in Ull, that I've yet to write up, such as:
The Children's Gang. Kester has many dangerous factions, but this one may be the most underestimated.
Water Stealers. Who are these fiends and who do they serve?
Briar Golem. A new construct to infuriate your players.
Stone Ettin. There are more than ogres to contend with in the Ulspure Mountains.
Creature from Beyond the Barrier. There are some creatures that sages haven't seen before.

Magic of Ull
Some themed items that I need to throw in someday. We haven't had any Canonfire Postfests in a long for me to write these up yet.
Polearm of (x). Because south Ull loves their polearms.
Saddle Blanket of Ulakand. A simple utility item that buffs a horse perhaps?
Turban of the Khans. Probably a leadership or combat related head gear.
Headband of (x). Similar buff item or protective gear.
Amulet of Kester. A warding device of some sort I'm thinking.

That's all for now!

Update 06/10/2021: Hmmm, a lot of ideas left on the table, this should be my blog retirement project!

Another Greyhawk Item

Not long ago I was wish listing a bunch of Greyhawk related merchandise that I'd like to get. In addition to the Bigby t-shirt, my friend @GamerstableEric pointed out this shirt design that I just have to get for next Gen Con. Not sure if it's new, but it is to me! Check it out he had Blackrazor!

Update 06/10/2021: I don't have the Bigby, but I DO have the Gygax shirt. I need to wear it more often!

Greyhawk Map: Azure Sea

Click to zoom in

What did you guys do last weekend? I was busy making a Greyhawk map of course. This hand-drawn map is typical for my campaigns, focusing on areas that I primarily have the players running around; in this case it's my ongoing Hold of the Sea Princes game. If you haven't seen my other handmade maps, I have a thing for the south seas.

I recently had their characters hauling off from Keoland in the west to the other side of the Azure Sea to pick up some dwarven ale in Irongate and bring it back for the duke's party in Gradsul. Unfortunately the South Province currently has a blockade on this port and will give chase when they try to leave for home. Yes, I'm running the plot Smokey and the Bandit in Greyhawk.

This "nautical chart" is drawn at the Darlene map scale of 30 miles/hex using paper provided by Black Blade Publishing. I drew the coastline in pencil from existing source material and inked it with the same pens I use on the Castle Greyhawk comic. Then cause I'm always in a rush, I colored it with my old Prismacolor pencils that I've had for probably over 20 years. As a final touch I added dashed lines to indicate trade routes. For my own amusement I thought about naming all these sea lanes with things like the "Gryrax-Scant Run" or the "Olman Passage". Still pondering this, but I'm open to suggestions.

One thing I've taken away from making this map, the Azure coast is freakin huge. Maybe not huge in real world terms but for fantasy maps of it's kind, I bet it has more coastline than the Sword Coast or Middle Earth. Also, looking at the Azure with trade routes in mind, there is no logical reason for sailors to cross over the middle of this sea. Many of the credible ports-of-call on the Azure are in easy in coastal distance of each other. Only a crazed pirate coming from the southern isles would be in a hurry enough to zip across to the Gearnat Sea in the north. I can only imagine the dangers natural or magical that lay in the middle of that vast body of water...

Castle Greyhawk: Roar

Welcome back followers of Greyhawk! It's a good day to promote a new page in the third chapter of our ongoing Castle Greyhawk graphic novel. Check out page twenty-eight plus follow some potent prose by crafty conjurer Scott Casper. On our site you can also check the archives and follow the entire Castle Greyhawk story from the very beginning.

Artist's Commentary: This is a great milestone in our joint project! Scott has woven a story that has had it's share of dangers from giant centipedes to ogres to violet fungi. Now after running around in a dungeon for three chapters we get to the other "D" in D&D. I hope the party can handle this newest threat.

From an artistic standpoint this page was a delight. I can't say for certain how many dragons I've illustrated in my life but I'm going to guess I can count the number on my fingers. For those old school D&D enthusiasts this monster is entirely based on the illo by Dave Sutherland in the first Monster Manual. Needless to say I put most of my mojo into drawing that panel and I'm quite pleased. I only hope I can repeat the success next page. :-s