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Calvin Garcia

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In the D&D group I play with one of the players insists that when you reach a new level you have to zero your experience. However when I checked the PHB1 there is no reference to this. PHB1 uses the term Total Experience when talking about leveling up.

Which is correct?

Gamer Forge Response:

Say, whaaaat? DCR says:

No. no, & no. Your friend is either severely misinformed, or feeding you a line. Experience points (XP), is a progressive jackpot. It would take forever to gain levels if your XP total reset each time you "ding". Hence the term, "grinding".

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Steven Cowan

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When in Ravenloft, would the town in question know that the Dark Lord is indeed, say, a vampire? That he or she would be the real ruler of that Domain?

For example: Barovia. Strahd has been there for a long, long, very long time. How do the villagers see him? Simply an undying ruler (if a ruler at all)? For what he is, a powerful vampire? The real ruler of Barovia? His castle… simply a haunted castle that's been there since the beginning of Barovia? Or that the Castle Ravenloft is the home of the Vampire Dark Lord?

I guess it could vary from DM to DM, but I have always wondered how would you explain it. Are the people in each domain in denial, would they know by now, etc.?

Gamer Forge Response:

We have no witty segue into this one. DCR says:

1.  What's the alternative? Maybe the citizens put up with a vampire lord because the surrounding area is at least ten times worse than in the domain of the castle. You head into the surrounding countryside and you are threatened with death all day, every day. While the land around the castle is, at the very least, protected. Thus, the villagers put up with the occasional abduction/sacrifice.

2. Again, the alternative: maybe the villagers are totally okay with their undead ruler. Maybe the town sees the need to give up one of the town's virgins to ensure the safety of the rest of the population. Who knows? Maybe the vampire offers excellent health insurance and a 401k. So where does this leave the heroes? This idea might be best left for when you're ready to throw a curve ball at your players.

3. The easiest thing to take into account would be time frame. What point on the timeline will your heroes be making their appearance. If they are early in the canon, then maybe the villagers don't know for sure what rules Castle Ravenloft. Later on, you can easily justify the townsfolk knowing more about what goes on up there. Your heroes might not be the first heroes to show up...

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School Teacher

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[email protected]

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Dear Dungeon Crawlers Radio,

I work with students that have a lot of difficulty performing roles that benefit the group as a whole. Their mentality is that they all want to be the winner or at least play the most important part, and so they struggle with the fact that everyone is important and plays a role in success for the group. I am asking here because my knowledge of any kind of RPG where roles are assigned and must be performed is extremely limited. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have 10 year-olds, usually 8-10 of them. Fantasy is fine, but probably need to stay away from demons and black magic. My initial thought that started this was an economy type rpg.

What I'm really looking for is a game where the students are required to perform a role that differs from everyone else's, and if they don't perform it well (as in trying to do someone elses "job") they fail as a group.


Thank you,


Gamer Forge Response:

Hmmmmm....DCR says:

1. Try splitting the class into groups of no more than four, then give each group a choice of character to which the group decides actions. Then, the whole class becomes a controlling interest in the party, and every important decision is made by the class and success/failure rests on the students. Pre-generated characters will most likely serve you best, but at least consider letting the groups generate a character. That way they make more decisions regarding the outcome. No, seriously. Use the link above. It's free and saves you a bunch of time.

2. This isn't tee-ball! If you enter with the mentality that failure cannot happen, for whatever reason, then you are depriving your student of the most important life lessons. Namely, coping with failure. Ideally, the students will succeed and the adventure continues. We say, make a big deal about the big decisions, and if the "character" doesn't quite succeed, make it light hearted, move on quickly, and bring the focus back to the story, not on the failure. Trust us, the students will feel it, and internalize those feelings. But they must learn to cope with the failure, not just success.

3. Don't get too mundane. Its a good opportunity to incorporate lessons on economy and the barter system. Just remember not to let mundane events become the focal point of the game.




*Bonus XP:  If you need a more educational reference about antagonists and how they rule, remember that during the American Revolution (you know, the one that made the United States of America), good people still supported England, even though they colonists hated being taxed like they were. Not necessarily out of loyalty, but because England was still trying to take care of it's colonies. Sure, it wasn't exactly a bang-up job, but what do you expect from an Empire that was growing too large to manage.

Are you ready?

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ARE YOU READY?
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Spork the King

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You know maybe this one is just as simple as it sounds and I am just making it far to difficult then it really is.

So let me explain my problem, you've got, let's say, an air elemental you want to kill, and it's basically made of air. How do you kill it? Simply by hitting it with any weapon seems a little bit illogical to me - it's air and you can't kill it with a nonmagical spork... Or can you?

Gamer Forge Response:

We put the "mental" back into "elemental". DCR says:

1. Seek alternative solutions. What sorts of things can you do to air to neutralize it? Carry a bellows as part of your standard adventuring gear. Just suck that air elemental into the bellows and throw it wherever  you wish. Use Teleport Without Error to transport it directly into the freezing vacuum of space, where air doesn't exist. If you wanna go extra "meta", freeze the room to zero degrees Kelvin. Now you have the molecules frozen completely solid and the air elemental good and truly trapped.
2. Magic weapons are the more practical solution. As it is mostly incorporeal, magic weapons are needed to damage it reliably, circumventing (get it, venting? Air? Har, har!) it's damage reduction.
3. Beware shrapnel. Loose objects laying about the room become instant weapons for an air elemental, and nothing is more humiliating than getting your day ruined by a shrimp fork to the eye.

Gamer Forge Listener Email:

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Harold Johnson

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I’m unsure how poisons work in Pathfinder.

For example: black adder venom. From the frequency of the poison, am I required to make a saving throw per minute for every six minutes? Each time I fail a save, do I take 1d2 str damage? Or do I take all the strength loss once all failed rounds are finished/frequency is over? It just looks like quite a chore referencing each round for ability score drops and I am really unclear on the rules.

If I succeed at rolling a saving throw, do I no longer need to check? And to remove the poison effect (strength loss) I will need to be cured through the various tools offered?

Another type is this:

Sting—injury; save Fort DC 10; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect sickened for 1 round; cure 1 save.

I just really cannot seem to figure out how poison works. Does this sting/sickness stack each round I fail a save?

Gamer Forge Response:

When picking your poison, DCR says:

1. Yep. The poison runs its course through your blood for the length of time stated on the stat block. So each minute, you make a saving throw against it. Each time you fail, you take the strength damage indicated. If you lose all your strength, then you die. If the poison says it's cured by making even one saving throw, then that's when it ends. Your body is strong enough to fight of the effects.

2. Reality check: The venom of a Black adder is <expletive deleted> deadly! The only reason you get a chance to survive it is because your character is exceptionally tough. Heroically tough. Count your blessings for being heroic.

3. The great equalizer. The benefit (or gamble) of using poisons is twofold. Success means you've crippled a stronger opponent and made him/her flush for the kill. Failure leaves you vulnerable to counterattack. More so, venom can be a cost effective way for a cutthroat to do his job. Simple venoms and toxins can be crafted from plants and animals. Rattlesnake venom and mandrake root are great starting points.


*Bonus XP: To give your elementals an air of extra mystique, describe them without using the word elemental. An earth elemental could be called a "golem". An air elemental can be a "will-o-wisp". A water elemental should be depicted as King Triton in "The Little Mermaid". Make the effort to not use the clinical definition so your players can be a little more immersed into the world you've created. Besides, "elemental" as a description is lame. Lame with a capital "Twilight".

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Nevin Oswald

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Hey guys I'm sitting here writing hoping you remember our little group. We are the group who'd DM wrote in about his group that went into the under-dark and made some choices and ended up stuck facing a Red Dragon and then we wrote back giving our side of things.

Well i'm writing in to give a report and then ask for your help.

So i'd like to say your help was great we were able to work things out and we did survive the encounter with the dragon but not in any amazing way and no dragons were hurt in the success of our escape. Basically our DM allowed our wizard to make a check and found a magical item that would allow us to transport our of the cave to one location of the wizards choosing. So the wizard cast some invisibility spells, a spell of heat resistance, and a masking spell to mask our location and sent form the dragon. We were able to rush across the distance and get to the item and teleport out moments before being found by the dragon.

So now here is the problem I am facing. My character is a cleric and some of the things we have seen and faced have changed him. Not only that but some of the things that have been going on have been changing the gods themselves because they are having to do things that they normally wouldn't do to save all life. So my cleric has found himself at odd with his owe feelings and those tenets of his priesthood which he feels his Good has betrayed. Which honestly is really awesome! But some of the other players are saying that my character would accept the changes and be willing to embrace the changes in his good. Which would allow me to work more at ease with the group then opposed to some of the more chaotic actions of some of the group. My cleric is a Lawful Good alignment and my god has become more of a Chaotic Good because of the wars with the other goods and forces of evil and events that have changed him.

My question is do I change with me God and accept what has happened or do I keep to my character, his tenets, and remain conflicted while searching for another God to follow?

Gamer Forge Response:

Maybe we should start having a word count limit on questions, seeing as we only have a set amount of time to answer them? But when it comes to a crisis of faith (or lack thereof), DCR says:

1. Remember that a set of tenets are adopted by the person in question. You have willingly accepted them to be the right way to go, and incorporate them into your identity. There is no law, no rule, no nothing, that says you have to change with your deity. Indeed, your character's choices are yours, and yours alone, so don't bend to the whims of anyone, not even your DM.

2. This crisis can be a truly great story to add to the mythos of your game. Now, it may mean that you lose favor with the deity, and will need to either select a new religion, or start down a new path. Don't see this as a failing of the game system or the DM, or even yourself. Make it a point to tell the story of how this cleric made a difficult choice and came out stronger for it. Maybe your fellow players will learn a lesson from your trials.

3. Show a little respect! Your friends around the table may want to have a bit of sympathy for your plight. There's no need to give him a hard time for it; that's just mean. Especially because if he decides to stay a "cleric", he will be responsible for healing you should you almost die.



*Bonus XP: To make sure you understand just how important and awesome it is to support your local adventuring cleric, watch The Exorcist here. It's his/her duty, nay, choice to throw themselves on some landmines in order to stem the tide of corruption and evil through the land. Your cleric works hard for her money, so you better treat her right!