Shaelrick - Player Introduction

Back in the days when we played with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set, I had a drow character who used her wealth to build a city named Shaelrick. The name was a combination of three aliases my disguised drow had used while adventuring with the party. 

Her primary disguise was a female elf wizard-thief named Shandral. Her second disguise was Rick, a human ranger. Her true drow name was Elsodia D’Hunnet. By blending these names, I came up with Shaelrick. 

 For our Pathfinder2E campaign, I decided Shaelrick would serve as the primary base of operations for the orphan characters. Here is the introduction to the campaign. 

  Player Introduction Welcome to the bustling city-state of Shaelrick, where shadows dance with the light of political intrigue, and secrets linger in every corner. As you embark on this journey, your characters will take on the roles of children who have faced tragedy and now seek refuge and new beginnings in the heart of the city. 

 Synopsis: Your characters were once residents of the coastal village of Eldrithorn, where your families lived peaceful lives. However, tragedy struck when the village was attacked by undead-like monsters, resulting in the loss of your parents. In the aftermath of this devastating event, you were brought to Shaelrick by Brother Aldric Shieldheart, a compassionate figure who took you under his wing.  

Although you were spared from the horrors of the attack, the memories of that fateful day linger in your minds. Now, as you settle into life in Shaelrick, you find yourselves assigned to different schools based on your interests and talents. Despite the challenges you face, you are determined to build new lives for yourselves in this city of opportunity and intrigue. 

As you navigate the bustling streets of Shaelrick, you will forge bonds with your fellow orphans, uncover secrets about your pasts, and embark on quests that will shape your destinies. Together with Brother Aldric, who serves as both a mentor and a father figure, you will confront the shadows of your past and embrace the promise of a brighter future. 

 Prepare yourselves, brave adventurers, for the City of Shadows awaits your arrival. May your courage be your guide as you embark on this epic journey. You can find more details about Shaelrick here: 

https://1drv.ms/b/c/645400dee2db1de7/EV55OpgIm41FqoNDKoBeOToBqRtWNSyJq2fz7yqoLn3JEw?e=J6fCmc

4E Pre-Adventure - Creating the Orphans

To help transition our group from D&D 4E to Pathfinder 2E, I ran a 4E adventure as a prologue. The NPC Orphan survivors of that adventure become the player characters in our Pathfinder 2E campaign. 

 I felt this helped give the players a vested interest in the new Pathfinder characters they would create. 

 Below is the game log for the pre-adventure. 

20240127 Against the Necro Ghouls and the Old Ones - Helping the Temple of Torm 

DM- Ross 

Sonya (Half Elf Warlord) - Stuart 

Sagitarius (Human Rogue) - BK 

Hystan (Half Elf Ranger) - Vic 

Gizmo - (Githyanki Avenger) - Art 

Galbreath - Human Fighter - Steve T 

Chopper (Human Fighter) - Jae 

Ebok - Human Warlock - Kobe 

 In the coastal mission station of Eldrithorn, our brave party encountered a plea for help from Brother Aldric Shieldhart, a priest of Torm. The mission: to thwart undead-like monstrosities menacing the village. 

Promised magical rewards, the heroes agreed and were swiftly directed to meet at the beleaguered Eldrithorn.  

Upon arrival, the village appeared deserted, its homes ablaze. Unbeknownst to them, the missing villagers had been transformed into Living Ghouls, triggering a gruesome confrontation. Despite vanquishing most of the fiends, the elusive Ghoul King managed to evade the heroes. 

Tragically, all members, save for Sagitarius, were infected by the Ghouls' bites. Brother Aldric revealed the horrifying truth: they were doomed to become Ghouls unless their bodies resisted the transformation. Determined, the party embarked on a perilous journey to Newport's Library of Oghma, hoping for a cure. 

A night at an inn turned into a nightmarish revelation as signs of Ghoul transformation manifested. Arriving at Newport Library, a conclave of priests discovered the Living Ghouls hailed from another dimension. With no cure in sight, the clerics cast spells to enhance the party's bodies, fortifying them against the disease. Miraculously, the heroes resisted the affliction, returning to their former selves. 

 In the aftermath, Brother Aldric sought the party's aid to escort him and the orphaned children to the distant city of Shaelrick, home to a Temple of Torm. 

Aboard The Rogue Mariner, captained by Blackfin Morgan, the party faced a series of unexpected challenges. A surprise attack by inter-dimensional sea creatures, known as "Old Ones," hinted at a connection between the Ghouls and a mysterious book found by Brother Aldric. 

 With the dangerous tome secured in a Dimensional Box, the party completed their journey to Shaelrick, delivering the orphans and Brother Aldric to the safety of the Temple of Torm. The city's mysteries deepened, leaving the heroes with questions yet unanswered.

Switching to Pathfinder 2e

Our gaming group has primarily been playing Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition since its release. We've also dabbled in D&D 5E, Savage Worlds, and even tried Star Trek Adventures a bit. However, I've been feeling a bit bored with 4E lately, especially since there hasn’t been much new content for it. 

To shake things up, I decided to start a new series of adventures within our campaign world using Pathfinder 2E. 

 After exploring various character builder options, I decided to go with *Wanderer’s Guide* because it offered solid campaign management tools and an integrated encounter builder. 

Once we started using it, we realized we were working with the “Legacy” version, and at that time, the new version didn’t yet include all the latest information. 

Eventually, everyone had to remake their characters in the new version, but the transition went smoothly. 

With its three-action economy, Pathfinder 2E has a playstyle that feels reminiscent of D&D 4E, making it an easy adjustment for our group. 

I’ll be sharing our adventure logs in the next posts—stay tuned!

DnD 5e - Starter References for Beginners

I recently began Dungeon Mastering 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons for my kids and their friends. The ages range from 9 to 12-years old.  None of them had any of the books or any knowledge of D&D, so I had to start them out from scratch.

I created this reference guide for them as a starting point.  I hope you find some use from it as well.



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Dungeons and Dragons Website:     https://dnd.wizards.com

Basic Rules (Printable Rules):     http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

Basic Online Rules:     https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop/players-basic-rules

Character Sheets:     https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets

You can play the basic game with the just the above resources, but if you want to play more than just the 4 basic classes and 4 basic races you will need the below books.

You can find Books on Amazon or local gaming/book stores. You may be able to find them at used book stores, but make sure the covers look like these.  There are 4 previous versions of the game that have different rules.

• Player's Handbook
  
  For Players and DMs
• Monster Manual
  
  DMs Only

• Dungeon Masters Guide
  
  DMs Only
• 
  
  Boxed Set for beginners.* 

DnD 4e - Initiative Cards

When I was preparing the first adventure for my Spelljammer campaign I ran across the initiative cards I had previously been using, and wondered how much I actually used the information contained in them.  

Old Initiative Card:

Really, the only section I used was the name and initiative. Furthermore, I'd always have to refer back to the monster manual when attacking PCs. So all the work I put the player through, not to mention my work of transferring monster data from books to cards, I deemed unnecessary.  

I heard about a new way of tracking initiative on The Tome Show podcast, which was to take index cards and fold them in half, placing players, as well as NPC/monsters, names on each side of the folds, creating a kind of stand up sign. This way as you run your game you can easily shuffle your initiative around. I had my friend try this on one of his adventures and it worked really well. Players could tell when their turn was coming up, and people who delayed or had readied actions could easily be reintegrated into the initiative.  

During my friend's adventure, I noticed he was referring to the Monster Manual constantly. I didn't want to do that. I always prefer to move the information to sheets of paper when I run my adventure, but instead of looking through a book, I'd be looking through pages. Very little difference between the two. So I decided to combine it with the initiative card.

I went ahead and used the smallest font I could read and printed the monsters out on the DM side of the initiative card. If it was long I could always fold it underneath a few times. I also decided I could keep track of all of the monsters Hit Points right on the initiative card. 

I found another problem though. The card stock paper I had (90#) didn't hold ink very well. It would kind of flake off, especially in the folds. So I just printed it out on regular paper. It ended up cheaper and much easier to read, especially with that small font. Also, when I folded it stayed perfectly folded and standing as if it was card stock.  

Instead of placing the name of the monsters on the player's side of the initiative card I decided to put a picture of the monster on it. The players liked seeing the monster pics so much I decided to place pics of their PC's on the back of their cards as well. The player cards are the ones with names above the pictures. Here is how they turned out.  

If you give this a try let me know how it works out for you. Also, if you can improve on the process I'd love to hear your idea.

DnD 4e Spelljammer - SlaveShip (1.08 Ship Repair House Rule)

The Slave Ship, the Drudge, will be subjected to many battles, therefore I needed some way to repair it, after and during battles. Searching around I couldn't really find anything, so I decided to make up some house rules.

When I opened it up for discussion with my group they all immediately said, "Thievery". So I proceeded to make up rules for it. However, as I read the Thievery and Disable Trap description it became apparent that it didn't make sense to use it. 

So I went through all of the skills, and none really went towards full-scale repair, skipping the Heal skill as well as a few others. So I went through again, but this time read through Heal. It stated, "You know how to help someone recover from wounds or debilitating conditions, including disease." The rules in the Adventurer's Vault almost treat vehicles as living objects. They can be damaged, immobilized, slowed, and restrained.

So I figured how about using First Aid on them, but after reading through that it didn't quite fit either.

So House Rule Time:

Ship Repairs

Standard Action
Primary Skill: Heal (Wisdom)
Assist Skills:
PC's assisting in Ship Repairs must be within 3 squares of the Primary PC, but do not have to have a line of sight. However, they must be able to converse.

• Acrobatics (Dexterity) - You are able to get to the hard to reach places that need repair.
• Athletics (Strength) - You use brute strength to move the debris out of the way and to the repair pieces into place. 
• Insight (Wisdom) - You get an idea of what damage is more serious, and how it might affect the other parts of the ship.
• Perception (Wisdom) - You quickly assess the damage and point the repair crew into the right direction.
• Thievery (Dexterity) - You know how to do the detailed repair work.

DC: Base DC 15 (up to 4 people can assist to give a maximum +8 bonus)

• Success: 1 hp repaired + 1 additional per point over the DC (a maximum of 20 hit points can be repaired per round)
• Fail by 5 or more: Ship gains ongoing damage 1 until the ship has a successful Ship Repair roll.
• Fail by 10 or more: Ship loses 2 Hit Points, gains ongoing damage 1 until the ship has a successful Ship Repair roll, and slows by 2 spaces until the ship has a successful Ship Repair roll.

Note: PC's assisting can Fail during their assist skill check inflicting the appropriate repercussions onto the ship.

Unspecified damage inflicted on the ship can be repaired from anywhere. However, if the damage is specific (a specific mast, rudder, etc), the Primary PC must be adjacent to the damaged part.

DnD - Miniatures (Cheap Dragon Figurines)

My friend has been running a campaign where Dragonborn is trying to create a city for their race, as well as dragons. Our PC's are working for them to do things like clearing lands, assisting the Dragonborn King in political espionage, spying, etc. And so far our Paragon PCs have found 4 dragons. We have been using Legos for the dragon mini's which just don't seem menacing, so I had been searching for a dragon figurine. 

Going on eBay I saw that Dragon's of Huge size are selling for $40 and up, which is way over what I wanted to spend. So I decided to give up on the idea of getting one. 

Then last weekend I was at my local Michaels Arts & Craft Shop with my wife and two kids, who were doing some pumpkin decorating. As I wandered around with my youngest, waiting for them to finish I found some 6" tall plastic knights with horses. Eh, way too big for D&D, and they didn't even look good enough to be giants.  Then on the next shelf, I found them...Red Dragons, in a pose almost exactly like that in the 2nd edition Monster Manual. Rooting through the box a bit more revealed a Green Dragon that was a little bigger than the Red.

I immediately broke out my iPhone and pulled up a ruler app. The claws would fit perfectly onto a 3" diameter. Just the right size for a huge size base. Each dragon was only 50¢, so it was a good price as well.  I ran around the store searching for something I could use as a base, or for materials to make a base. After a long search, I found 3" diameter wooden disks, probably useful in making doll tables or something, but they were a perfect size. So I grabbed a pack of them, which contained 6 bases, as well as two dragons. When I got home I painted the bases using green spray paint I had from making gaming terrain. then after some drying time, I super glued each dragon to a base and Viola! cheap awesome Dragon Figures.