[30 Days of DnD] Day 30: Best GM you ever had

I have been lucky to play with many GMs. With various degrees of experience and skill and enthusiasm. However, I do have an answer and I did not have to think too long about it.

This one goes back, WAY back. I had to be just out of high school when my cousin called me for a game one of his friend, a guy called Alex, whom I knew only tangentially was running a game of Rifts. He was a buddy of my cousin, in the days you gamed with the people you met through intermediaries.

I showed up and he was running what can best be described as "Rifts: Aliens". We had twelve people to start and over the course of two days whittled our numbers down to two. Me and "Sim" made it to the escape shuttle, only to realize that neither of us could pilot it. So Sim flew it out with his related Pilot: Airplane skill.

I have never been riveted to my seat before. His mastery of the GMing art was leaps and bounds above what I ever experienced before. Even though we knew what the adventure was, he played to the genre and really made the whole thing come alive.

It was a revelation in my life, and ever since them I wanted to be as good as he was. Bring in and atmosphere to the game that made the players feel like they were right there.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 29: What is the number you always seem to roll on a d20?

One less than what I need to make an awesome roll. So 18 when I have a crit range of 19-20 or 14 when my crit range is 15-20.

I seem to do a lot better as a GM - though it might be because I get to roll a lot more dice.

I don't really know.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 28: A Character you will never play ever again

The Pathfinder gunslinger. Tried it, hated it, don't want to play that again.

I recognize that others love 'em and I'm fine with that. They just did not do it for me.

Oddly enough, I have no problem playing such a character in a Western Game - such as Deadlands. Peanut butter in my chocolate?

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 27: A character you want to play in the future

I would really like to play in a game set in Saggakar. I have been thinking about a cambion paladin as a nice idea, or a skythian ranger.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 26: Favorite Non-Magic Item

Armor. I like armor.

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[30 Days of DnD] Day 25: Favorite Magic Item

My trusty +1 weapon.

Truth be told, I don't really have a favorite item. I got burned by the wackiest of them back in high school that I now favor the simple stuff. That is a good story I'll have to tell you one day.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 24: Favorite Energy Type

Fire!

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[30 Days of DnD] Day 23: Least Favorite Monster Overall

Hummm again there are so many. I have to say monsters that make no sense (like the flumpf) never appear in my game.

However, orcs are overdone and are usually boring random thug encounters. They are flavorless monster that wait to get killed by the dozen. I dislike 'em.

On the other hand, Orks are AWESOME!!! Once you go green, you never really need or want to play another army...

D&D orcs=suck, GW orks=awesome!

WAAAGH!

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 22: Favorite Monster Overall

One of the elements that drew me back to 3e was the fact that dragon once again became scary. They were not the pushovers they were in 1e and 2e. Now taking on one of them is indeed an adventure.

I still have nightmares of my buddy Sebastien-M who walked into the room with a sleeping red dragon, kicked it awake then proceeded to one-shot it using the red dragon slayer sword he found in the previous dungeon. (Thanks DragonLance). They really sucked in 1e... But they were really brought up to par in 3e+.

Even 4e dragons were no joke. They had staying power and some decent offense...

Even a white dragon is no gimme anymore.

Dragon. The name of the game! Are my favorite monsters!

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 21: Favorite Dragon Color/ Type

I think the Gold Dragon. I like their scholarly interests and their mix of ability that makes them great in a variety of roles, from combat to support to mentoring to employer. They can work with the PCs as scholars, as mentors, as non-lethal opponents.

Plus their shape-shifting abilities makes them extremely useful for infiltration. I was able to write the story of a family of them in Living Greyhawk and really thought it was a fun addition.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 20: Favorite Monster (Humanoid/ Natural/ Fey)

A difficult category here... Very vast.

If pressed for a race I like to use best, I'll go with the skythians from Saggakar. Created and bred only for war, they since evolved and are trying to come to terms with their nature versus what they discover of the world.

Conflict and story potential in one.

This makes the fun to write for as their inner nature is to give in to mayhem and slaughter, but they have more. In some way, I see them as teens trying to find themselves, who they are and what their role is in the world. As a writer, I have a lot of freedom with them. Some may go one way, others another all the while keeping to who they actually are without changing or creating a bunch of oddball character concepts.

Fun to write about, fun to play. I like 'em!

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 19: Favorite Monster (Elemental/ Plant)

I am a big fan of the basic four elementals: air, earth, fire and water. They are just beat sticks that pound PCs to the ground quite effectively. There is nothing but raw, brute, power in these creatures.

They may not have all the coolest bells and whistles that others - like the genies, but adding them to an encounter means the PCs have to worry about them.

And they scale throughout the PCs' own careers, from the small at low levels to the elders of higher levels.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 18: Favorite Monster (Immortal/ Outsider)

A difficult one... But I have to go with the Erinyes devil might win the cake here. Their look as fallen angels draw me to their story more than most of the other creatures of this type. They are archers that also make awesome warriors.

Yet with their core abilities as warriors, I have also seen them used successfully in a variety of other roles: diplomats, spies, and concubines.

For more beat-stick I do like elementals, but these are mostly as straight-up combat brutes.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 17: Favorite Monster (Animal/ Vermin)

I have to say I am extremely partial to spiders. Mostly because they immediately creep out most people simply by mentioning them or hinting at the way they move.

Spiders are creepy, but they are so much worse when they are five feet high.

Now if I had to chose an animal I like because I like the animal... I would have to say canines (such as dogs and wolves) or bears.

I like bears. I was given the totem of bear when I was in the boy scouts.

I am a brown bear.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 16 Favorite Monster (Aberration)

This one is easy, the rust monster. Nothing spreads terror through a group of PCs like this little tentacled beetle. It is priceless and awesome.

Blast it from orbit!!! is something I heard once or twice.

Music to my GM's ears...

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 15: Favorite Monster (Undead)

I have used a lot of skeletons and zombies in my days. However, my favorite undead is the classic mummy. Mummies are intelligent, have a nasty curse, pack a punch and they can serve roles similar to a lich, but at lower levels.

Versatile and interesting

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 14: Favorite NPC

Again there are a lot of choices here. I will pick one I was able to portray a number of time: Lord Dane, the Lord Chamberlain of the County of Urnst - the prime minister if you will. Something of a stickler for protocol and a man with ambition, he was a man who knew his place, but still used it to advance the County and himself.

I especially liked him because his mother (often played by D'Anne) arranged to have him be named as consort to the well-like Countess Rachel (Nice job D'Anne!). An agreeable man who appeared quite often in the last two years of the Living Greyhawk campaign. He was broad, tall and blue-eyed... Almost like a description of someone...

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 13: Favorite Trap/ Puzzle

As an engineer, I like traps that make sense. The needle in a chest is fine, but I'd rather through all the thieves into a pool of acid and merely hurt them. Although I disliked their implementations, the encounter-traps that appeared in late 3.5 had the right idea. By the same token, a trap must have a way that people who live in the dungeon must be able to bypass easily (even if the answer is "they use the secret entrance").

However, I am not a big fan of puzzles in DnD. I do not write too many of them in my adventures.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 12: Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

I have to say "the castle". Having had the chance of visiting quite a few, they always fascinate me and still do to this day. Not only did they have a military vocation, but they were places where common, everyday people lived and breathed (some would say breed, which is also true).

Their construction fascinate me: their location, the materials used, the time it took, the skills required, the engineering requirements, and the ingenuity required fascinates to me. Definitely my favorite.

JP

[30 Days of DnD] Day 11: Favorite adventure you ran

Again a lot of choice. I will go with 93-LC-03 Sugar and Spice and see the PCs screw themselves knowingly. It is a delightful adventure to run as a GM. The NPCs in that adventure are also quite meaningful with goals that are very relatable. In many ways, it is one of the adventures I would love someone to write for me...

If I were to specify an adventure that had been written by someone else... I would think of Ron Lundeen's TUS3-01 Haunted House of Bin-Khadij, and I also loved the lore and story of Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. I'd have to go with those two.

JP