I am pleased to report that we successfully chased this campaign into the barn on Saturday. Vanir had accurately predicted based on my Friday post that they had some interesting times ahead, and to my mind the three aforementioned endgame elements played their roles superbly.

Caution: The following contains some description of my campaign and/or characters involved and how our Friday post applied directly. If you hate that kind of thing, head on over to one of our many blog affiliates/buddies on the right hand side today. Also, lighten up a little.

The Big Event

Going up against the goddess of pain and suffering – it doesn’t get a lot bigger than that! An interesting sidenote: Kanati and I elected to play our god/goddess rules a little more… uniformly than the actual rules dictate. I prefer goddesses to have a certain uniqueness to their magic, attacks, and damage descriptions than your standard rules imply. Suffice it to say the goddess of pain and suffering tends to be a little… extreme.

Kanati also did an excellent job of reigning our cast into an area where they couldn’t explicitly use the environment to their benefit… the group was escaping through underground caverns with a small group of rebels and got trapped by oncoming hordes in an area known as “The Hub”… essentially the middle of a bike-spoke set of caves. The baddies poured in from all sides and cornered them while our goddess made her big entrance.

This ticked off our party and got them to initiate battle… and what a battle it was!

Suspense

Those of you reading along have likely followed our troubles with managing epic characters. I decided to bring about our element of suspense in a different way in this session: hit them hard, fast, and not give them much time to rest. In fact, our end confrontation occurred with most of the party on partial rest, so they were looking a wee bit nervous when she showed up.

The second way we added suspense was with the end of the encounter. The deal was this: whoever took the final blow against our goddess was brought before our pantheon of gods, and told that the only way to stop the goddesses reign of terror was to strike her down and take her power (it really wasn’t quite as Highlander-esque as it sounds, but go with me here).

The rest of the party way left scratching their heads as our paladin and the goddess faded from their sight. We led Sir Geekelot, our paladin’s player, downstairs and told him this information and he put a lot of thought into his decision but ultimately made the sacrifice to save the world. It was somewhat poetic that he be the one to take the final shot, as the ethical dilemma was heightened because of his strong allegiance to a good aligned god.

The Epilogue

Without going into much further detail, our epilogue was FANTASTIC as a result. Vanir (and Bat Loaf, his character) were so involved in roleplaying the interaction with our paladin/new god that I actually had to ask him to take a few seconds of a break to find out how everyone else in the party was reacting or if they wanted to do anything.

Then it was right back to the roleplaying. I was very proud of our group, how in character they stayed during this portion and how much care was taken to actually react as their character would. We had some of our more “goody goody” characters acted as expected and wanted out of this situation post-haste. Our neutral characters (both of which were very close to our paladin during the course of the campaign) elected to remain around him as he took on his new role as god.

The Conclusion

Happily, my formula appears to work pretty well. I hope all of our players had as much fun during the closing sessions of our campaign as we did creating/running them, and I hope that you have gained a few new ideas for how to execute the final sessions of a campaign!

One final note: never, ever, ever introduce a dead gold dragon on a whim to your epic level players. They will only find ways to befriend/reanimate/abuse this relationship.

That is all!

Tonight should be the night! Barring any further tomfoolery from Vanir and our intrepid bunch of adventurers, we will be looking at the endgame of our campaign! I thought I would share three things that I feel are required to craft a decent final session:

1. The Big Event – Whether it be a major ritual, the ascention of a new pantheon, destruction of the Big Bad, or the out-and-out death of your party you should really save something big to go out with. Even if you want to leave the door open for some follow-up adventures, you should mark the end of each story arc with something significant. (Hint: this usually means significant rewards/treasure too!)
2. Suspense – Nobody likes seeing the plot coming from down the block, so be sure to keep a few suspense cards in your hand for use during the final session. You want to have that brief moment where things look bleak, the battle becomes more difficult or emotionally significant, or something unexpected occurs to really climax the story.
3. The Epilogue – I have taken to requiring some sort of epilogue. My job as DM is to tie up the loose ends of the plot, describe the world after The Big Event and frame up any further opportunities for adventures. After that point, I like to turn things over to my players so they can tell me what the immediate future holds for their characters. Will they go home to their families? Continue adventuring in search of the next elusive treasure? Change professions and bake scones for a living, never raising their blade in anger again? This gives both you as DM and the players closure and an opportunity to bid farewell to their characters.

I know there are a possibly unlimited list of additions that should/would/could appear in the final session of a campaign, but I think those three are key components to have some level of success.

In case you can’t tell from the general overtone of Stupid Ranger’s last post, we had a rather crunchy session over the long weekend. Not just any crunchy session, but a particularly epic flavored crunchy session.

Our group of epic adventurers showed the terrible dracolich what death tasted like, however as the rest of the evil armies pressed in on them they called upon an unexpected (to Kanati and I) escape route. They had earned a favor from a particularly old Gold Dragon, and they called on him to provide an expeditious retreat from the invading forces.

After Kanati and I had finished soiling ourselves, we determined that an evil horde of this magnitude would maintain the services of a black dragon. This led us to a utterly fantastic aerial battle that would’ve never happened if not for working on your spontaneous recovery skills.

There are two takeaways from the above scenario:

1. Take good notes regarding what favors your characters are owed, or what non-standard magical items they have at their disposal. This is more important if you have infrequent gaming sessions like we do. It will prevent the unexpected “oh crap” moment, and that undetermined loss of a few seconds of life as your heart tries to leap out your neck.
2. When the unexpected happens, try to recover in the most elegant way possible. Commit to your approach and go with it, often if you keep the action up the group will be less likely to question whether or not the evil horde had a black dragon before they realized they could summon their gold one.

Hopefully we will continue getting better as we chase this campaign into the barn, expect more soon!

Last Sunday, we finally got the chance to make some good, forward progress in our campaign. And we know that our next session (hopefully Friday) will be the Big End Battle. Sitting at this vantage point, knowing what is coming next, it’s important to be as prepared as possible. Here’s some thoughts to help you get ready for that battle:

1. Read your character sheet: Before heading in to battle, it’s a good idea to review all your equipment: weapons, armor, and miscellanea. Especially take a look at the miscellanea. Take note of the wands, scrolls, rings, etc that you may have collected. Review the attributes of your magical equipment to see if you have any magic you overlooked; for instance, did you forget that your armor had spell resistance. Make sure you are familiar with everything you’re carrying because during the battle, that simple little thing you forgot you had, like a spare weapon or a potion of spider climb, might make a huge difference.

2. Review your capabilities: I think this may be one of the most important pre-battle checks. Be aware of your attack and damage bonuses; knowing the numbers can make the actual battle less frustrating because you’re not trying to do complicated math on the fly. Take a look at your feats and review the ones that may affect your battle skills. For the magic users, be aware of your prepared spells, as well as the spells you can prepare. If you’re anything like me, your spellcasters have had the same spells prepared for goodness only knows how long; if that’s true, you might want to review and adjust your spells to better suit the upcoming battle.

3. Brainstorm with the rest of the party: You’ve been traveling together for a long time, and you’ve been fighting together for a long time. It doesn’t hurt, however to review everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. How can your spellcasters’ buffing spells can be coordinated for everyone’s benefit? Are your fighters going to all rush in together or are they going to wait for the Big Bad to approach? Who has healing capabilities, and how can those individuals be distributed for the best coverage on the battlefield? Considering strategies like these and others can make sure you are approaching the battle as a team instead of a bunch of people who just happen to be hanging out together.

4. As a player, make sure you have everything you need: Make sure you have all your references (character sheet, notes, reference books, websites, cheat sheets, spell lists) and paraphernalia (dice, pencils, calculator, scratch paper). And, of course, make sure the fridge is stock with the appropriate beverages and the requisite snacks are plentiful!

A thousand apologies for the lack of a post yesterday, the Stupid Ranger crew were heavily busy with some much needed R&R, home repairs, and moviegoing (Iron Man woot!).

In addition to our standard fare, I am happy to report that both SR and I ordered our GenCon badges yesterday! We’re optimistic for a great time this year, we’re making a distinct effort to get to meet and greet our fellow D&D bloggers.

This morning Yax has posted an interesting read over on DungeonMastering about having an “innovation party” for fellow DMs, and I think the whole premise (in addition to his article) is a wonderful idea. In fact, we have been known to (somewhat) regularly get the Stupid Ranger crew together to brainstorm ideas for articles, roleplaying stuff, t-shirt ideas, etc. and it usually turns out well for us.

Yax also stresses the importance of having a motivation or reward for these type of events, and I agree that whether I’m doing this for my campaign, this site, or a project at work it really helps to have a near-term “slightly delayed gratificiation” reward for getting through the effort. That level of focus and release is really what helps you get real productive ideas on the table without too much of the “I’m bored of this let’s B.S. for an hour” interruptions.

Regardless of my $0.02, his article is a great read. Go check it out and reward yourself with a cheeseburger or something!

I’d like to take today’s post to herald the dawning of a new and truly excellent roleplaying and game mastering blog run by some pretty talented folks: Gnome Stew, the Game Mastering Blog.

All Hail the Honor Guard of Game Mastering!

Those of you that have been paying any attention whatsoever in recent years will recognize many of the names, the Gnome-in-Chief is none other than Martin Ralya. Until very recently, Martin maintained (in my opinion) the gold standard of all GMing blogs, Treasure Tables.

The rest of the gnomes are a formidable bunch as well, several of which have honored us with their opinions during our relatively short tenure in the blogosphere. A quick glance at the front page of Gnome Stew pretty well tells the tale… you get a broad perspective on all things gaming, from conventions to gaming systems to game mastering tips… there’s a ton of great information there already and they’ve not even been open a month yet!

It’s going to be great to see what they have in store as months unfold, head on over there and see what good stuff they’re laying down! I’ve added them a big, hairy link in our Featured Links section… because, lets face it… with an honor roll like that there’s no question their site is going to rule! Good luck, you guys!

In case you can’t tell from Stupid Ranger’s last post, we had some fun with Deathshriekers (from the Monster Manual III) last session. For those of you that don’t know, their primary mode of attack is a scream that persists for three rounds.

Woo, what do they do?

Each round requires a DC 26 Will save, or else you suffer the following effects: round 1 – deafness for 1d4 rounds. Round 2 – stunned for 1d3 rounds. The final round (and the most delightful) is the spell Insanity as if cast by an 18th level sorcerer. This and this alone is what forced most of the party against one another.

That’s not all… because of the extreme power of our party, we elected to ignore the bit in the statistic block that indicates that these creatures are solitary and we threw two of them at our group.

Let’s just say it was entertaining results. Entertaining for us!

The result

The party lived through it, but they expended a considerable amount of resources. Several characters were killed, later to be revived by the Staff of Life that one of our PC’s bought with their in-between-campaign moolah.

As we’ve previously mentioned, this convenient return to life may be considered as unbalanced, but the more charges they use off of that staff the quicker it is removed from service permanently. Besides, shouldn’t the stakes be higher at epic levels? I think that they should.

The fact that our characters are internalizing the encounters in the way that they are indicate that we have a good set of roleplayers. They actually feel conflicted when a spell forces them to do something that they otherwise might not do, and this is a very good problem to have as a DM.

Dear Fighting Friends –

After recent experience with some Very Nasty Things, I write to encourage you to please do something to ward your mind against attacks. Sure, the shiny armor protects the skins, but what safeguards have you employed to protect your mind? Herein I’ll share with you the story of the Very Nasty Things, that through my tale of suffering you might better understand the dangers against which you must guard your mind.

In the deep, dark caverns below Castle Perilous, we disturbed the subterranean pond of two skeleton-like shrieking creatures. As I was distracted by my battle with the animated statue, my mind was suddenly assaulted by a horrible shrieking sound from the skeletons. I could no longer hear the sounds of battle around me as the shriek reverberated in my head.

The statue was quickly defeated, but the skeletons were continuing their attack against my mind. Then, before I knew what was happening to me, I was compelled to attack the nearest person, which was not a troublesome skeleton, but our good cleric. I don’t know what came over me, but I could not stop my attack against him, though I knew he was not an enemy.

The battle ended in a blur of activity, most of which I was unaware. I continued my uncontrollable attack against the cleric, then I lost the ability to communication sensibly and babbled incessantly. Before I knew what had happened, I found the cleric dead at my feet, and I couldn’t even explain to the rest of the group why I had killed him. The compulsion ended, but the emotional scars will take a great deal of time to heal.

So, my friends, find some means to protect your mind before the Very Nasty Things take it over and force you to commit unspeakable acts. I can’t actually tell you what to do, mostly because I haven’t recovered the ability to speak, but please read this letter and heed its contents before it’s too late!

Sincerely,

Sar’Ruaselari

This weekend was rather interesting for several reasons entirely unrelated to roleplaying. I elected to do some yardwork, and in the process elected to employ the water hookup at the front of my house to wash my siding. Shortly after engaging said hookup, I noticed that water was pouring out from underneath my siding and the water pressure was low through the hose, so I decided it prudent to turn the water off and move forward using the water hookup from the back yard.

The Plot… Wettens

I didn’t think anything of the leak until I went downstairs to prepare the area for D&D. I got my bar all cleaned up, and then I noticed that the floor was a little cooler than normal by the stairs. Then I heard it… the sound of water dripping onto leather.

Looking up, I found that the water from the hookup had… well… ruined a few areas of the finished ceiling in my basement. I immediately employed the use of large fans and a dehumidifier and called the plumber.

Help arrives in the form of Albus Plumberdore

The short bearded man arrived today, looking very much like a workingman’s version of Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore and proceeded to fix the water hookup (apparently called a hydrant). After knocking a hole in my ceiling (*wince*), he had to go to the local hardware store to get some parts, and curiosity getting the best of me I went down to see what he was doing.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Now, I’m not going to get too far into it now, but suffice it to say that I really, *really* like Lord of the Rings and have subsequently decorated my basement with all sorts of accouterments from the films (never fear, I will post more fully on this once I can take some better photos). Luckily, none of my displays were harmed by the water, however I did vacate the wallhanging stuff from the affected area.

Very near to where the hydrant was leaking, I had United Cutlery’s Staff of Saruman hanging on its hanger. I relocated the staff to my bar for safety, and hilariously, I found this in its place:

Apparently, in the process of knocking the hole in my ceiling ol’ Albus Plumberdore needed a third hand to hold his hammer and he elected to use the staff hanger as his proxy. Not only that, but he fell victim to the strange entropy field that exists in my house and affects only contractors, because this is the second hand tool that has been inadvertently left at my house by someone doing maintenance. I was delighted to find that my $299 service fee has earned me One Hammer to Rule Them All!

It’s almost going to be difficult to take it down once my ceiling is repaired…

At long last, we finally had another session on Saturday night! Interestingly, Kanati and I had devised a partial plan for our intrepid bunch of adventurers before the long, long hiatus so it was just a matter of brushing up the plan and heading right into it. We made a few last-minute additions that really made the session excellent and partially solved our “these epic characters are too strong” problem.

The answer is more obvious than you might think!

This may seem elementary, however in our scramble to keep our plotlines straight I often got into the habit of glossing over the abilities of these high challenge rating creatures that we kept introducing. Unsurprisingly, this led to our player characters being able to trounce them with very little expenditure of resources, causing us a continual problem.

This week, however, we had enough time to actually look at the abilities for the creatures (in this case, Ancient Deathshriekers, woot!) and devise a battle plan that included fully exercising their skills. Now, the resulting chaos might not have been extremely fun (at one point it involved an entire sofa-full of players having to pit their insane player characters against one another) but it certainly used up their skills in the appropriate way.

The battle took most of the evening, when combined with our groups standard propensity to talk and goof off on the first night back from a long hiatus but I think it was a great exercise in us DMs learning what to do in the case of epic characters.

Use all those monster skills and your life will be much better (and your PCs characters will be much, much worse)!