Theme Parties: The God Squad

Lawful Good, Pious and tough as nails. When things look bleak the Church calls on these guys, The God Squad. I'll leave the levels be, usually I make heavy hitters like this about L12 but they can be adapted up or down as needed.

Ravi: Female Human Paladin

Rel:' Ravi's Twin Brother, Paladin Divine Defender

Sen: Male Human Sanctified Rogue

Paul: Male Human Empyreal Bloodline Sorcerer

Naine: Female Human Cleric

Dor: Male Human Inquisitor

Theme Parties: 6 Arrows

This group is a unit of military archers, all clad in green uniforms and bearing a sheath of arrows banner.

They are much in an upfront fight but if you want to break up a pike block or reinforce skirmishers or the like, there are few better.

Vlad L9 Fighter/Archer

Raven L9 Scout/Archer variant

Cole L9 Marksman Adept

Hauser L9 Ranger/ Archery Combat style

Vi L9 Arcane Archer Core

Stalis L9 Huntsman

Theme Parties: Dragon's Claw

Hailing from the Dragon empire, this group are all Dragon Touched in some way or other, all by the same Dragon Prince. They can be found almost anywhere performing misions for their partron or sometimes adventuring for fun.

For those without access to the WOTC books, the Dragon Shaman and the Dragon Fire Adept can be replaced with a Witch with the appropriate patron and a Sorcerer or Battle Sorcerer,


Fel -- Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer L10

Big Lester -- Fighter 3, Sorcerer 2, Dragon Disciple 5

Otan Vaka-- Cleric of Dragon Prince L10

Ray -- Dragon Fire Adept L10

Tala -- Dragon Rider L10 (Genius Guide)

Penn -- Dragon Shaman L10

Theme Parties: The Enduring Storm

The Enduring Storm is one of the odd parties in that their name was given to them by the various groups they fought against rather than self selected. None of the members are all that fond of it but as it brings in work,they live with it

This group is noted for their extreme endurance , stubbornness and the rare presence of a Warforged on the team.

This material requires Book of Nine Swords and Ebberon which are of course closed content.

Nico , team leader Crusader 8

Dain , War Blade 8

Maya the Dancer , Sword Sage 8

Unit 443 aka Tom Mithril Shelled Warforged Warlock 8

Grey Cat Factotum L8

Martin Longbow Marksman Adept L8 (here)

Durn Longbow Huntsman L8 (here)

Theme Parties: D.A.R.T.

D.A.R.T (direction action response teams), the successors to the unfortunately named F.A.R.T. (fast action response teams) are the Lawbringer Nations answer to Earth S.W.A.T. and consist of highly trained Church professionals that deal with dangerous individuals and situations the regular military and Church police have trouble with.

The configuration below is a standard one though other groups, say PC parties or the like may have different membership.



Team Lead: Lawbringer Cleric L6-L8

Tactical Officer: War Master L6-L8 (Genius Guide)

Investigative Lead: Inquisitor L6-L8

Liason: Fighter/Investigator L6-L8 (Crime and Punishment)

Point Man: Factotum L6-L8 (Dungeonscape)

Sentry: Oath Taker L6-L8 (Arcane Unearthed)

Apprehension Specialist: Bounty Hunter L6-L8 (Fistful of Denarri)


In addition each unit may have several squads of L3 Warriors or any personal retinue of the Tactical Officer gained from the leadership feat

For persons without access to the additional books, make the War Master a Bard, the Point Man a Rogue, the Sentry, a Monk and the Apprehension Specialist a Ranger. The Investigator class can be had here at the Grand OGL wiki thanks to Atlas Games.

Why all the Theme Parties?

Simply, they are fun to write, easy to transfer to other games and give readers an idea of what kind of encounters might be had in my games.

Also even without stats they beat the heck out of the old Rogues Gallery tourney style parties

Sqig Punanmer, Xagyg Bad Ref, Fatman Dwarfbeer and so on might have charm in a 1e kind of way but they are really only useful as they were intended, for tournament play.

Theme parties, even if you have to do the grunt work, at least root you in the world.

Theme Parties: The Rippers

The Rippers

Signified by a clawed red hand marker , this group is feared more for their sneakiness and cruelty than actual face to face effectiveness.

Generally lazy they can be occasionally found robbing tombs or when money is low can be hired to send a painful lesson to someone.

Marik -- L9 Joad Harrier

Severina -- L3 Rogue, L6 Archivist, Scholar of pain feat (advances sneak attack and lore abilities)

Kane - L9 Vivisectionist Alchemist

Happy Doyle L9 Arcane Trickster Core

Bay L9 Rogue

Theme Parties: The Six Fingered Hand

I haven't done one of these in a while and I am pretty sure this is my 1st villain group.

The Six Fingered Hand is probably the most feared group of malefactors on Midrea. Tomb Tainted and capable of any crime or depravity, unlike most evil groups this group is truly dedicated to one another. If they could be said to have any redeeming trait or affection, their genuine friendship to each other is that. Of course thats no consolation to anyone else ...

Unless noted all of the member of the groups are human (well sort of) and possess the Tomb Tainted Soul feat which allows them to treat negative energy as positive as vice versa.

Charis, L12 Anti Paladin. The groups leader and immoral center

Sen L12 Cleric Undead Domain

Mala Fallen Star ,L12 Order of the Star Mystic Ranger (uses extended Arcane and Ranger magics)

Fayer, L12 Dread Necromancer

Skit, Tomb Tainted Greater Tiefling Fiendish Inheritor L5Rogue L7Assassin (3.5)

Calik, L12 Warlock

How Grilled Cheese Broke My Deadlock

And no, this hasn't becoming a cooking blog I promise. ;)

What happened is simple, I read an excellent book ,Great Grill Cheese by Laura Wirlin in case you were wondering which enabled to finally master the grilled cheese sandwich.

After I finally made a nearly perfect sandwich I had a moment of Zen came to a realization that would enable me to make great adventures.

How?

Simple... Look at the problem a new way .. My problem was the sandwiches were not cooking the way I wanted them too .. The solution I learned in the cook book was to take an extra step and plane the cheese so it cooks quickly enough to keep the bread just right

Say I apply the same basic idea, add another prep step find a a new solution to this problem

I've run out of ideas and I have no idea how to come up with new ones and I can't borrow fantasy ideas without everybody will catching the references ...

A tough nut eh?

Well suppose that you add an extra step and change the idea twice before you run it ...

This muddies the waters enough that, so long as you are careful, they players won't figure out the borrowing and resort to bad cliches



For example, 4 vague ideas come up that I'd consider borrowing, from Sci-Fi to Manga then to Fantasy

#1 Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles
#2 Star Trek
#3 Battle Star Galactica
#4 X Files

They become

Invincible Robot Girlfriend Cameron

Astronaut Space explorer Force Go!

Lost Home Struggle against the Robots

and National Phantom Police


Now I reconvert them to

A Chosen one with a Guardian Golem fro another time (the distant past)

A group of Spelljammers on a Mission of Exploration (in true Japanese style drop the military aspect)

a caravan fleeing an army of the demons lead by shapeshifters (Ogre Magi, and other sorts make the demons less spiritual and less physical)

and last a group of Crown Investigators exploring magic crimes in a world that no longer much believes in magic with a bureaucracy to contend with (which gives it an Anime flavor)

rip off a few favorite episodes and viola, instant campaign...

Non Retro Non Pathfinder Character: James Algernon Boothroyd Peel

Still gaming related of course. I was digging through my old files when I came across an old unplayed character of mine.

James was designed for an old Pyramid setting called Polymath Prep, basically a high school on island where all the students were super geniuses. I was quite take with the setting so I came up with an against the grain character for it.

The system used is a kind of generic "write up language" not a true rules set but it would pretty easy to convert to any system one might choose.

I'd probably use Risus, by S. John Ross (who I think authored Polymath Prep as well) but then I use it for most silly games anyway.

So without further ado ...

James Algernon Boothroyd Peel
aka Spook

James (never Jimmy) is the illegitimate love child of James Bond and Emma Peel. Instead of a normal life he was raised mostly at MI6 and MI7. He regards most of England's top spies and gadgateers as his Aunts and Uncles and the world of Super-Spies as the regular world.
This has given him a rather jaundiced view of how things work and has made him mildly paranoid and a tad prone to aggressively proactive responses.
While working together during the Malachite Crises his Mother and Dad finally agreed on something and James was sent to Polymath Prep as a "learning experience"
Needless to say Spook is not a happy camper and other than his friend Jocko (1) is probably the least happy person in the school. Still orders are orders


Expert;
Q Branch Technology

Good
Trade Craft
Sciences

Average
Liberal Arts
Combatives

Poor
Understanding Civilians

Notes
Many things James has are also gadgets of some kind. None of the weapons are lethal however (Uncle Q's orders) but many of them are plain nasty.

(1) Jocko is a canon setting NPC, a polymath like the others but with an interest in sports which goes against the settings Clichés