But what about numbers?  Say you have a large group of 8 PCs.  Or maybe some of your players didn’t show up and you’re down to three PCs for the evening.  How do you go about scaling those stock encounters that were designed for 5 PCs?

It will be very protagonist in nature, yet pretty gruff. The ship will be the means of doing missions that are behind the scenes ways of keeping the politics of the world in line. (think the movie Wanted, James Bond, XXX, and any other organization with a behind the scenes mentality.) The overall campaign will be very secretive and the crew members will be looked at as outcasts and lawbreakers much of the time.

A small hatch opens into a large room that is perfectly spherical.  Intricate piping adorns the entire surface of the sphere.  In the center of the sphere is a small console with an array of controls.  Radiating from the platform with the control console are six walkways that lead either up or down to six installations which each house three special containers.  These containers, upon investigation, contain pure essential elemental matter or energy.  Each installation is dedicated to one of the six basic elements (earth, air, fire, water, positive energy, and negative energy).  Radiating from the central platform in a separate but related pattern are four support pillars and four walkways, one leading from the entrance, two to other doors, one to a complex ring mechanism.

What concerns us are the ring mechanism and the control console.  The other two doors lead to supply rooms.  The workings of the elemental containers can be figured out without too much trouble.  The ring is very complex, with a multitude of moving parts.

The top two rows of controls are identical sets of ten switches, each switch having four distinct states, each marked with the same four symbols in the same order.  The three right-most switches on each row have their symbols inscribed on the opposite side of the switch, however.  Below these rows of switches are controls, listed from left to right: a button, a switch, a dial, a switch, and another button.  The dial has 145 distinct notches, with every sixth notch longer and every twelfth notch including a bump at the end of the mark, including both the first and last notch.  The dial only has 270 degrees of movement centered on vertical.

Here’s a basic notation: the ten switches in a row will be a number, 1-4, for the four states, going from bottom to top.  So, if they are all in the bottom-most position, the row would be 1111111111.  The dial will have a value of 1-145, indicating which notch it is set at, going clockwise starting at the first notch ("1") you reach past the dead zone.

The starting state of the control console:
Row One: 1121441231
Row Two: 1224411311
Left Switch: up
Dial: 65 (this is a normal notch)
Right Switch: down

What do you do?  Also, specify if you want to continue from someone else’s progress point, or if you want to start your own.

I need ideas for an airship name in my campaign. I figured that instead of scouring the net for ideas this time, I could prompt you guys for ship name ideas.

Attempt at compilation:

Barracuda
Bob
Breaking Wind
Checkmate
Curtain Call
Death from Above
Enterprise
EVA
Excalibur
Executor
Exia
Final Judgment
First Blood
Flying Star
Gnomplotation
God’s Hammer
Godslayer
Harried Harridan
Interceptor
Justice
Last Hope
Light of Day
Lone Wing
Longbow
Nostromo
Our Savior
Phoenix Rising
The Pink Cameron
Ptolemaios
Ragnarok
Rauluk’s Revenge (I don’t know who Rauluk is)
Reaver
Resolve
Ring of Fire
Ring of Lightning
Shaft of Light
Sharper Dagger
Shooting Star
Silver Wing
Sky Blade
Small Rod
Stick-in-a-Hole
Sulaco
Swiftwind
The Avenger
The Black Pearl
The Grand Dragon
The Moldy Crow
The Myth of Syphilis
The Nest
The Ravens Claw
The Seaward
Thor’s Hammer
Vae Victis (woe to the conquered)
Valiant
Vengeance
Whose Ship
Wish Star

*Edit: Entered up to post #12

Minor KOTS soilers....

So I’ve started with Keep on the Shadowfell, in a world of my creation, but I have no desire to run the other modules in the H series, so I’m thinking of using the evgents in KOTS to lead in a different direction.

After BBEG fails to open the rift to the shadowfell and the PC’s clear the place and kill him, his actions have other physical consequences… he does in fact open a rift after all, just not the one he was ultimately hoping for.  He split the world open.  Canyons form, the world changes physically, earthquakes, etc…

Due to his actions, the world is facing an assault from the Underdark, a previosuly unknown underworld.  The earth splits in several locations, and Drow start spilling out into the world, as an invasion army.  Word spreads through the land that hundreds of these strange and unknown dark elves are invading villages, towns, taking slaves, food, and basically taking over the world…

The Eladrin and Elves are not looked at kindly for keeping secret their evil kin’s existence, and the PC’s, known in my world as the “Dragonslayers of Fallcrest” for the Kobold Hall victory, are faced with the task of eventualy saving the world. 

Obviously at the low levels there won’t be much to do, but secret little resistance missions here and there as the races band together to stop these drow invaders, but at epic level it could be an all out epic fight for the world’s survival....

I see it kind of like the movie “Red Dawn”, (I am dating myself big time here), those that have seen it, you get the idea…

What do you think, getting past the cliché?

Black Feather of the Raven Queen
Level 8+
This onyx feather transforms the life force of a slain enemy into cold energy that can be unleashed upon another adversary.
Lvl 8 +2 3,400 gp
Lvl 13 +3 17,000 gp
Lvl 18 +4 85,000 gp
Lvl 23 +5 425,000 gp
Lvl 28 +6 2,125,000 gp
Implement (Holy Symbol)
Prerequisite: To use this symbol, you must worship the Raven Queen.
Enhancement: Attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 cold damage per plus
Power (Daily Cold): Free Action. Use this power when you reduce a target to 0 hit points or fewer with an attack using this holy symbol. One creature within 5 squares of the target takes cold damage equal to your Charisma modifier and is immobilized (save ends).

This not only gives us some flavor to use in our games for the PHB specific deities, but also templates to work from for other deities as well. We also get a glimpse at a couple of wands, like this one:

Master’s Wand of Magic Missile
Level 3+
Your magic missiles impact a foe with the force of a bull rush.
Lvl 3 +1 680 gp
Lvl 8 +2 3,400 gp
Lvl 13 +3 17,000 gp
Lvl 18 +4 85,000 gp
Lvl 23 +5 425,000 gp
Lvl 28 +6 2,125,000 gp
Implement (Wand)
Enhancement: Attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d8 damage per plus
Property: Any target you hit with the magic missile power is pushed 1 square.
Power (Encounter Arcane, Force, Implement): Standard Action. As the wizard’s magic missile power (PH 159).

Again, we get some added flavor from magic items. In this case we see specific powers being modified, which will give us template to be able to create our own magic items. I am more and more impressed with this book after every excerpt. I can wait to look through the whole thing.

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We also get some feat previews from the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide. I normally would rework the table and reprint it here, but it is a long table this time so I will pick a few that caught my eye:

Ghostwise Heritage
Prerequisite: Halfling
Benefit: You and and ally both use the higher result of your Perception checks.

Shield the Fallen
Prerequisite: Dwarf
Benefit: Grant bloodied, unconscious, or helpless ally +2 to saving throws and all defenses.

Wild Elf Luck
Prerequisite: Elf
Benefit: +1d4 bonus on reroll when using elven accuracy.

“My tribe used to worship a Black Dragon until we ate him one year.”
—Zorr Lizardfolk fighter. 3.5

“Just because I’m twelve doesn’t mean you can treat me like a child.”
—Ayame 12 Year old human Telepath

“Moo!”
—The last thing the Kender said to the Minotaur

“Got Milk”
—Because dying the first time didn’t teach him a lesson.

Along the lines of the old school Traveller but with the ‘Points of Light’ theme instead of Traveller’s ‘everythings cool’ theme.

Classes would have two aspects:  An aspect when they are in the ship, and an aspect when they are on the ground doing missions.  Thus, the Warrior would become a Gunnery Tech while on the ship, and an ‘Arms Tech’ when on the ground.  The Engineer would be ‘hacking’ the ship to repair damage and to boost certain parts of the ship during ship to ship battle and would be the controller for the 1 or more bots while on the ground.

Tell me what you think…

-- Hirahito