Thought Eater Podcast: Top Three Tuesdays: Traps, Undead, and Horror Movies

Back again with more top three lists! Rob C from Down in a Heap wonders what my fave undead are, RFED asks about traps, and then I ramble a bit about my favorite horror movies. I also field calls from Evil Jeff of Minions and Musings and Angus from Kirby's Kids!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!!!

During the podcast, I also mention a 5e zombie adventure that I did a while back; you can download that HERE!

If you enjoy my free zine, podcast, and/or blog, please consider supporting my work for only $1 per month. 

Meet the Poisonous Tree Frog

Happy Friday. Today I thought I would share another 4e Forever monster. This time its the Poisonous Tree Frog. I am still working on the fluff, so it is just the stats for now. This little guy uses his absurdly long tongue to pull creatures adjacent and into his highly poisonous secretions. This is a very fun monster to DM; use a large encounter area and spread these guys out so you can pull PCs all over the place. Hope you like it!

The Poisonous Tree Frog

A Little Friday Trap Action

Hello. A very short post today just to show you a few more examples of the traps from my upcoming zine. I posted some ideas a bit ago about it. The basic idea is that traps don't scale; the same trap can threaten PCs of all levels. Instead of traps rolling to hit PCs, the PCs roll saving throws. The damage expressions stay constant regardless of tier, so you don't need 30 different pit traps. I hope you like them!




Hallucinatory Gas
“Get them off me!”, he screamed. “They are crawling all over me!”
-Detect: Perception to notice small vents in walls.
-Disable: Thievery
-Trigger: A creature enters a trapped square, triggering the gas.
-Effect: Each creature that breathes within a given area must roll a saving throw. A creature trained in
Endurance gets a +2 bonus to the roll. On a failed save, each creature is slid adjacent to their nearest ally, making an At-Will attack of the DMs choice against them as a Free Action.

Magnet Trap
The next thing I knew, I was hurtling towards the center of the room. I smashed into the
the pillar, cracking a rib.
-Detect: Typically the magnetized object will be in plain sight.
-Disable: The magnet must be destroyed by repeated blows or avoided.
-Trigger: A creature wearing metallic armor enters a space within 10 squares (50 feet) of the magnet.
-Effect: The creature must make a saving throw. A creature trained in Acrobatics gains a +2 bonus to the roll. On a failed save, the creature is pulled rapidly towards the magnet, crashing into it for 20 damage. A creature can move at half-speed away from the magnet, but must make a saving throw at the end of each of its turns or be pulled back again.

Acid Spray
My nostrils were burning..then I realized my arm was missing. I screamed...
-Detect: Nature to identify smell from a distance; Perception to notice jets.
-Disable: Thievery
-Trigger: A creature enters a trapped square, triggering the jets.
-Effect: Each creature within a given area must make a saving throw. On a failed save, a creature drops to its bloodied value and permanently loses a limb. Roll 1d4 (1-2=Arm, 3-4=Leg).

Giant Stag Beetles, Strongholds, and Other Updates

I thought I would drop a couple of minor updates. First I have a new monster for you to check out, the Giant Stag Beetle. The reason I wanted to share this one in particular is that it has some "Memorable Mechanics" in the form of extreme forced movement. Picturing these guys tossing your PCs to and fro makes me happy. You will have to wait on the mag for the fluff.

Speaking of the mag, I have made a lot of progress and I am almost done with my portion of the writing. I still cannot give a set date of release, but I think that before the end of the year is not unreasonable. It has kind of swollen in size, and has two adventures I have written, dozens of new monsters, and lots of other surprises that I will talk about more in coming days.

Please don't forget to check out the first playtest. I have gotten a lot of good feedback, so thank you for that. I have gotten to run a couple of tests of it myself and I am working on scheduling the third. I have already made a lot of tweaks based on feedback, and it has helped tremendously, so again, thank you.

Lastly, I want to hear from any armchair designers like myself that have worked on their own "stronghold" systems for 4e. I am toying with some ideas about acquiring and managing them, doing something almost identical to OD&D, keeping it fairly simple, but with the prices adjusted to 4e levels.

I am interested in any stories you might be able to share about using them in your games. Leave a post!

Memorable Mechanics Part 1: Forced Movement

Hello, this is the first in a series on this blog about using unusual mechanics in your games. I decided to break it into parts so it wouldn't be too much of a wall of text.

The past few days I have been thinking about player assumptions in 4e. Basically, 4e has codified conditions; they do the same thing table to table. This is good, bc you can just tell a player they are slowed and everyone knows what that means. On the flip side, with limited conditions in the game, a player can basically prepare for everything. I have a high level fighter that can avoid daze, stun, immobilize, restrain, slow, etc etc. and that's absolutely fine, but this series is about defying the usual mechanics and bringing things your players have never seen to the table. In this first part we are looking at forced movement.

Forced movement in 4e games is usually something you see more from a players side, like that mage that has the At-Will slide 7, or a polearm build that slides, marks, and prones. Monsters usually only do a push 1 here or a slide 2 there. I urge you to shock your players with forced movement. Take their expectations and rip them apart.

Crazy pulls

Here is one from my home game. I had a frog-like beast that had a ranged 10 tongue attack that targeted 2 creatures. On a hit it obviously did damage, but also pulled them up to 10 squares into an auto-damaging Fly-Vomit Aura. Another idea I am working into the 1st 4e Forever adventure involves a powerful magnet. Any PC with metal weapons or armor gets pulled to it, regardless of distance, taking damage as they slam against it. Pull the PCs completely across the battlemat; the whole table will love it.

Absurd control

So here is another way to use forced movement to startling effect. The next time you have the PCs facing a controller type, shock them with cartoonish control. Try a power (possibly named "Can You Fly, Billy?") in which the PC takes damage from an attack and is hoisted 6-12 squares in the air. At the start of the PCs turn, he falls. You can also use wind or other environmental features to add some wild movement to an encounter. Perhaps the PCs have to roll an Acrobatics check at the start of their turns or be tossed into the air and over a cliff.

Push PCs into things 

To get more flavor out of a push (or slide), push the PCs into things, and push them far. For example, consider the push actually pushing them across the mat and several squares into a wall. It damages them greatly obviously, and costs them extra movement to climb out of the wall. The squares around the new hole now have rubble and stone (difficult terrain) from where the PC smashed into it.

Teleport the hell out of them

Teleport the PCs into bad spots. Think about this when you design your terrain. For example, instead of giving them a save by teleporting them into a lava river, teleport them onto the small rock in the center of the lava river. Teleport them next to other monsters. Teleport them into a cage.

Use helpless PCs as weapons

The psion has a power that allows it to use an enemy as a living missile to attack other creatures. I love it; it is great flavor. The next time you have a strong creature, say an ogre or dragon or what have you, have them grab, damage, and daze a PC on a hit. Then allow them to throw the PC at his allies. The further you throw them, the better. Maybe an area burst 1 within 10. Use the PC as a weapon.

I hope you have enjoyed reading these ideas. I am sure many of you have used some things like this in your home games, so please leave a post and tell me about them! Look for part 2 of this series coming soon!