Out of Character discussion:

load previous
Jan 30, 2021 2:11 am
If you haven't watched the documentary "Sand Wars", you're missing out. Windows are just a small part of the picture, but it's amazing that we still use the ancient alchemical transformation of sand to glass.

That said, I will maintain that it is canon in my games that wizards make windows. The image of mad mages shooting off fireballs in a factory with terrified attendants running through trying to collect the product... well, that's just too amazing to leave out.
Jan 30, 2021 2:21 am
Lol! Like a deadly, terrifying Willy Wonka of glassmaking.

Yeah the Google search said we've been using glass in one way or another since ancient egypt, but that windows specifically came to popular use in Rome circa 2nd century
Jan 30, 2021 5:17 pm
Aldrusian says:
Wow, that's so cool. I only know of one amateur wrestler. He was in the news fairly recently. Does the name Dan Gable mean anything to you? He wrestled at Iowa State and coached at the U of Iowa. I think he may have only lost one match in his entire career and, as a coach, his teams were perennial national champions. I don't know of any amateur or collegiate wrestling programs for females. But these days they're starting let women play on men's teams and men play on women's teams. It's all just a little too much for this 73 year old to digest.
OOC:
Yeah, I know Dan Gable. Two of my teammates growing up were brothers and both wound up getting scholarships to University of Iowa. One of them was a National Champion his senior year there. So every summer my coach growing up would get all these Iowa guys so come to this huge weeklong wrestling camp and show us stuff, so I met a ton of great wrestlers from there, including Gable.
Quote:
Are glass windows in D&D created by factories that utilize the latest alchemies, or by warehouses filled with sand and fire-maddened mages flinging fireballs frivolously?
OOC:
I don't know about historically, but in the Pathfinder Adventure Path module Rise of the Runelords, there's a big chunk of the first adventure that takes place at the Sandpoint Glassworks, and it's this huge warehouse where glass in made alchemically. No real magic is used to make it. Just a lot of sand, these big furnaces, and they att different chemicals in the glassmaking process to make different-colored glass.

Anyway, I was going to make a post when I got home the night before last, but when I got there I wasn't feeling too hot, and spend most of yesterday wiped up after a bout of food poisoning. So I mostly just slept all day, and by evening I went and watched my daughter wrestle another match in a duals against our crosstown rivals, and then went home and back to bed. Thanks for your patience. I'll have a post in the official in a few minutes regarding the room Gilly opens.
Jan 31, 2021 5:34 am
I'm playing in a RotRL game right now and we are in the glassworks! Haha what a coincidence.
Jan 31, 2021 6:38 am
Oh jeez, I hope I didn't spoil anything...
Jan 31, 2021 2:38 pm
funfungiguy says:
Oh jeez, I hope I didn't spoil anything...
Nope, I've GMed up to book 3 lol.
Jan 31, 2021 7:39 pm
I was gonna say something about that but I didn't want to spoil anything for anybody. No I see it was not a spoiler at all. I'm in the same game.
Feb 1, 2021 6:45 pm
If this conflict keeps up, there's a good chance Eltrezar is going to blow up on Loken. This doesn't mean that I want the feud to stop, just that he's had a long day. A message like this wouldn't be necessary if you could see how much I'm grinning with each snide comment.

I remember that area from my RotRL game! I was playing a Muscle Wizard who kicked so much butt.
Feb 2, 2021 6:59 pm
cowleyc says:
If this conflict keeps up, there's a good chance Eltrezar is going to blow up on Loken. This doesn't mean that I want the feud to stop, just that he's had a long day. A message like this wouldn't be necessary if you could see how much I'm grinning with each snide comment.

I remember that area from my RotRL game! I was playing a Muscle Wizard who kicked so much butt.
I was just thinking how far can Eltrezar be pushed.....but then wine was mentioned.
Feb 2, 2021 7:12 pm
Just you wait, he'll start keeping a Sleep spell in his back pocket just for Loken. Or Charm Person, I guess.
Feb 2, 2021 7:37 pm
Oh man, charm person on a PC could be soooooo funny...
Feb 6, 2021 8:52 pm
Good gods! 13 giant rats?? The designers of this module DID NOT want anyone to survive. Someone throw some food in the room or we ain't getting out of this. I'm halfway to rolling up my third cleric! It's going to become suspicious just how many of the local clerics are tied up in this old fort...
Feb 6, 2021 9:01 pm
The moathouse, the land that Cuthbert forgot!

I'm not sure Eltrezar has enough daggers for this...
Feb 6, 2021 9:59 pm
To be fair, Giant Rats come in large numbers (typically 3d6 at a time, but this module specifically says "13" for this encounter), but they're also pretty darn squishy. Like, if you picked them up by the tails and threw them at Eltrezar, probably two or three rats would die before the wizard finally did.
Feb 6, 2021 10:42 pm
Nothing is squishy to 1st level B/X characters... Especially anything 13 at a time!

Nah it's like this for most of the B/X modules, while this one has more swarms of baddies (same with Keep on the Borderlands) they all feature death around every corner. I feel like there was a paradigm shift around 2nd edition where it was less about player vs DM (or less about seeing if you could survive the mod) and became more about character development and the story arc. The change was even more pronounced with 3rd edition and now it's just silly in 5th.
Feb 6, 2021 10:45 pm
Seriously though, someone throw some food in the room.
Feb 6, 2021 10:53 pm
Hrmph! "I have gathered enough guano, and so I propose we run for the hills until we can return as level five adventurers! A fireball would come in handy just about now."

I don't think I ever truly lost that mindset. I started with 2nd edition, and the groups I have run with have always had that GM vs Players mentality. It's hard to keep that mindset in 5E, though, since the players are so hard to keep down! But that doesn't stop me from trying...
Feb 6, 2021 11:24 pm
I can definitely see the DM vs Players mentality in B/X, especially when playing rules as written. In the IRL (well, Discord voicechat) game I run, I have a reputation for throwing ridiculously overpowered monsters at the players, but the thing is we play a very strict Rules As Written campaign, and wandering monster rolls in wilderness travel are insane! I think in the last two weeks of play the party of four 1-2 Level PCs have encountered an ogre, a dragon, and a large roc (which is a freakin bird that can kill dragons). And those were straight out of the book random wandering monster monster rolls. And the PCs managed to kill the ogre by having the thief squeeze a a bag of holding over its head while the others hacked away at it, and they escaped the dragon (threw a bandit they were taking prisoner out for it to eat), and sneaked past the Roc.

Even though B/X tries to create a DM vs Players feel, I always root for the players, hoping they'll either win or figure out a way to survive to fight another day, and I always try and remind the players that not everything they encounter should be fought. Especially at 1st Level.
Feb 7, 2021 12:33 am
Yeah I hear ya, the wandering monster charts have always been crazy.

As for not fighting every battle... Ahem, anyone got a wheel of cheese on them?

KCC

Feb 7, 2021 1:17 am
Anyone have fire? Oil? Maybe we can bar the door with one of the long tables?
load next

You do not have permission to post in this thread.