PlanetADnD.com

And that ends the second chapter.

Sorry if that was kind of boring for everyone but possibly Jerrard. The game divided things up into two sections, the first being the Trials, and the other being the Diversions (hence "Trials and Diversions"). The Diversions part was for the other party members, and included a little sidequest to Palanthas that would have included some foreshadowing of things to come. But everyone decided to stay and watch the Trials, so I'm afraid there won't be much XP to go around. Well, gives Erastin a chance to catch up with some of the others, I suppose.

In the module, none of the candidates are named or given personalities, or the DM is encouraged to make some up. Hence Geffin, Erik, and Farkas. I don't know if the Grandmaster even has a nephew, although he has several siblings, so it's pretty likely. I made Geffin his nephew to see if it would make Erastin hesitate any during their fights.

McKennen, however, was played straight from the module. I think maybe the author of the module had watched Full Metal Jacket right before writing this, I'm not sure.

Anyway, Erastin did pretty well. He made every check and never took a single point of damage, temporary or otherwise. The scene where Erik challenges McKennen was supposed to be for Erastin, if he failed any of his endurance checks. He didn't, so I recycled the scene anyway, because it revealed some bit of McKennen's hidden depths.

So, any feedback, questions, thoughts, opinions, criticisms, etc. so far? Everyone having fun, I hope? The next day is much more inclusive, at least.

I kind of felt bad that I had all the action, and the rest of the group were "bit actors" but hopefully that has changed now.

I have to say I like the additions of the NPC's, the names worked and yes, I did think about hesitating, but, I decided not to.

Oh, didn't mean to leave before Galenye responded by the way!

Yes, the remainder of the module (and the next one) should be much more inclusive. Now to begin solving the mystery of the missing sword!

Now all we need is a van! Zoinks!

(I would suggest interrogating that Old Man Withers. Something about him seems off to me.)

Bah, I thought I did good rooting him on and keeping my dwarfish $0.02 in the interesting parts.

But, by all means, move ahead

I managed to cobble together the profile pics of the party from the module. Some are of better quality of others, but I thought I'd share it nonetheless.

From left to right, first row is Erastin, Galeneye and Karathos. Second row is Jinali, Selowen, and Targin.

Too bad they equipped Karathos with that comic strip mouth. I would have liked to play him with mimics closer to what bovines can do, that's while he does a series of quick nods when a human would grin.

Ha, I didn't even notice that. Well, just an artist's interpretation.

That picture is actually from the second module, I chose it because it was much clearer. There's another one in the first module, though.

That looks more like it. I'll have a look at my pics, maybe I find a bovine head I like. I've seen a fair few in the Alps, naturally, but I don't know if I have photographed them, like I did the donkey that "became" Dekker.

You know, now that I think about it (after looking at those pictures), this is the least human-centric game I've ever run. Only two humans out of six, plus a dwarf, minotaur, elf and half-elf. Even the characters nobody chose were an elf, kender and dwarf!

I wonder if that was intentional or just coincidence? Every other game I've run in the past, whether it's homebrewed or a module, has always had at least 50% of the party as human, usually more.

Once more, I'm looking for info. Minotaurs are none of the standard races listed in the PHB. Of course, I know what they look like and I have the stats, but do they have special abilities like infravision or other keen senses? Can someone point me to info?

I shall dig out "Complete Humanoid" Although the DL books should have them... where did my DL Adventures PDF go.... hmmmm

I'm looking through the Tales of the Lance sourcebook, and I can't find any reference to minotaurs having infravision or any other keen senses.

Agreed, neither the Tales of the Lance or the Adventures say anything about Infravision or the like.

So I can just continue to play Karathos as I do? Using my imagination and common sense?

Yeah, you've been doing fine so far.