Depends.  Is it a PC in a game of Og?

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/valk/OG_REV.html

OK. I know this is a crossover question but, how many of you could
relate to a PC named Thrak Kaa Zoog?

Hey I have a bunch of RPG-related novels I'm not going to read again.  I'm
wondering if any of you have a shred of interest in 'em and might have some old
RPG adventures you're not going to run again, and might could trade.

Pointer to the list:  http://jlhlinnell.livejournal.com/137440.html

Actually, unless you can get an affec that gives you moretemp HP than you
previously had, you don't get any more, once you have say 5, then all the
1's,2's,3's, and 4's don't matter.

A friend is asking me, so sorry if I'm shy on details.  In dnd 4.0, if a
Warlock kills someone they had used Warlock's Curse on, but they're full up on
Hit Points - do they gain extra temporary hit points, or does it have no
effect?

I told him that if I think about in terms of DND 3.0, I'd guess "nothing
happens."

But if I think of it in terms of DND 4.0's "allow it if it's fun" attitude, I'd
guess that they're temporary HP that last for the duration of the encounter.

That's the funny thing:  the one PC has already a halfling ranger/rogue to help
aleveate that kind of problem in the future.  Still waiting for the other 3 to
flush theirs out.

I often volunteer to sneak up front with her, Lisa's a straight rogue, I play a
ranger/rogue.

You really need a thief. They're disposable fodderscouts.
Our thief pockets any treasure she gets to first. I have no problem with that;
to me, it's hazard pay.

Bodhi>  They saw the encounter (made spot checks), but the aboleth came up two
rounds into combat.  The skum wouldn't have been bad if the aboleth hadn't
dominated the party mage, who had initiative over the rest of the party.  Being
on a stone walkway, with water on either side,  it was pretty messy, in the
end.  Only good part, they had a good time.

Forrester>  Yeah, you live and learn.  Well...the Dm did anyhow.  The PCs...not
so much.

Hopefully the addition of another player, even a part time one (my wife is
going to join occasionally), and a different above ground mod is sure to cheer
them up.  Maybe Return to the ToEE?  (they are restarting at 4th level.
call it a pseudo-reincarnation)

Apparently, you didn't take into account the strength of the characters . . .
big difference between 4th level and 5th level when it comes to a lot of the
classes, and there only being three of them is a big deal as well. You start
rolling lucky, and that's that.

Did you foreshadow what they'd be up against?  Did they have some idea how hard
this fight would be?  Once they had an idea how hard the fight would be, did
they have an out?

They definitely had some options that could have taken them away from the whole
thing.  They debated on it several times.  That was the session before.  3.5
hours of them sitting in town, cashing out their treasure and figuring out
where they wanted to go.  and then before the fateful encounter, a merchant
gave them some advice on possibly going a different direction.  Don't know how
much more you can ask for.

Oh, and as a DM, I never feel guilty because I don't believe in taking all the
options away from the players.  So, if they choose one option that gets them
killed, that's theri problem.

Team work outways what's written on the sheet any day.
If the players in a group don't know how to work as a team, an encounter
designed for a much less powered group can wipe them out and vice versa.
Never pay attention to what a module says is the right size encounter because a
module writer can never anticipate how well your team works together.

The party is a very expensive computer.
the rogue is the fifty cent fuse.

If the party died fighting the aboleth, the thief isn't doing his or her job.

The thief should be way ahead of the party, with the ranger. Those two should
be screaming for backup, nto getting ambushed with the rst of the party.

I understand challenging.   But I also took into account the strength of the
characters.   And honestly, I can see that encounter wiping out a large number
of groups I'm been a part of.

Anyhow.  Just my 2c

So you were surprised that an encounter designed to be challenging for a group
of four 5th level PCs ended up killing three 4th level PCs?

Hmmmmmm . . .

Yeah, I'd feel guilty.

D&D3.5>  Have anyone seen any mods that are rated for too low of a PC level vs
the encounters in the mod?
I ran "The sinister spire" as a stand alone, to possibly move to the next mod
in the story.  It's rated for 5th lvl PCs.  I had a party of (3) *strong* 4th
level pcs.  TPK in the 2nd combat.  CR *7* encounter.  An aboleth of all
things, and 4 skum.  Needless to say, my 5+ hour gaming session lasted all of
*2*.
2nd question-As a DM, do you feel guilty for doing things like this to your
PCs?  I mean, granted, there were some really timely *20*s on my part, but
still.  I do all my roles in the open (especially when the pcs die, it helps
them feel better that I'm not f***ing with the rolls to kill them), but DAMN.
So, needless to say, new characters and 2 weeks, the PCs are rethinking how
things are going to go.

Thanks

King Action - http://www.nypdrecruit.com/NYPD_BenefitsOverview.aspx (nn, ws)

Getting ready to start up a new game, was hoping for some details.
I know when someone becomes a police officer they are printed for records, but
are they now also collecting DNA for records?

Anyone know of a site that lists pay ranges for a police officer based on rank
and location?  Specifically NYPD.

Gist is that there are four potential threats:

1) Planet-based flora and fauna -- basically, in SMAC there's not too many
types when you restrict it to land-based fungus -- just mindworms of different
sizes, and spore launchers. I've fleshed them out a lot, made a bunch of
different varieties, like the mindstealers.

2) Native inhabitants that aren't connected to Planet in any psychic way, they
just live on the surface -- those were the 'mutons' he refers to -- the first
batch had been killed and re-animated, the second was just a little part of a
tribe that was wandering around. These don't exist in SMAC at *all*. I just
added them for some flavor.

3) Other tribes (like Yang, who is basically Kim Jong-Il with a 190IQ, that
should be an interesting visit)

4) Cult of Planet, who is just another tribe in SMAC, but in my game, is more
advanced, as they actually came to Planet a good 100 years or so before
everyone else did. CoP in SMAC basically hates everyone else, blames them for
destroying the old world, and wants to keep the new world pure. Same with the
CoP folks here -- un(?)fortunately, they are all Shadai-kar, i.e., goth
assholes.

CoP has basically warned all of the other leaders to not wander around Planet;
they've also figured out a lot of Planet's secrets, like what the monoliths do,
etc. -- they were the ones that tried to mortar the entrance shut, set up the
crossbow trap, etc. They didn't build the monolith, they've just taken it for
their own. To a large degree I'm going to play them like I'd play drow --
uber-cheaty arrogant assholes who think -- no, *know* -- they are better than
you. On that note, the battle with the two of them that the party had was a
couple of bad rolls away from a TPK.

Forrester> Thanks for posting.  I really need to see if I can get that
re-loaded on my system just so that I can follow along better.  It's been
years...

I ran the first session of my SMAC 4E game today -- went extremely well! I
think someone here said I should run a blog . . . I may, I may, but I'd rather
let my players do it for me :).

Check out http://jeffwik.livejournal.com/434179.html . .

Party started at 1st level (is now 2nd level):
Dragonborn Warlord, Rhogash
Bugbear Fighter, Grog
Bugbear Barbarian, Throg
Human Wizard (and author of the guide), Fletch

Very short backstory:
Toril go boom, some escape, including the ancestors of the party members --
they are members of the first generation built on this new world, which was
accessed right before the Toril-Boom by a magical (and one-way) gate.

They are on a mission to visit Yang to see if he has something that will help
out their leader (they live in what they call "Valley". It's a valley.) Their
leader, Zhauronn, has been having horrible dreams, and has not slept more than
an hour at a time in months. His second in command, Santiaggro, encouraged this
little mission . . . and may or may not be planning a coup-d'tat while they're
gone . . . for the good of Valley, of course.

Oh, and another guy playing, who was in decadent-era France, chose to
recruit Oscar Wilde as an initiate and underling into his chthonic
occult tradition.  Along with a twelve-year-old Parisian rent-boy who
was actually a cross-dressing girl.

So on Saturday I got to playtest Acts of Evil with the author, Paul "My Life
With Master" Czege, himself.

It's become a pretty sweet, and rather creepy (instead of outright revolting)
game.

I got to retrieve four of the thirty pieces of silver that Christ was sold out
for, and melt them down in my hand with an acetylene torch, before the
horrified eyes of the pious man who was trying to collect them all to save his
church from the tyranny of a liberal president.

actually, that gives me an idea.
tauric creature. uper half is kobold, lower half is dingo.
the Baby Eater tribe of koboldingo barbarians!

Or a shark riding on an elephant, trampling and eating everything it sees.

"If you were to try to make a vampire mummy it wouldn't work, because a mummy's
type is undead."

That's the problem with putting a shapechanger on top of a shapechanger.
You get idiotic silliness, like a werewolf getting infected by a wererat
infected by a wereboar.

Your GM sounds retarded.