Pies of the world
Alright folks! As promised, here are all entries in our Mini Contest: Stat a Pecan Pie, Win a Pecan Pie. Being the arbitrary and judgmental S.O.B that I am, I’ve ranked these from tenth place all the way to first.
RANK: 10th place
Submitted by: Grim
Original Entry:
PECAN PIE
F: Shift 0 (0)
A: Shift 0 (0)
S: Shift 0 (0)
E: Feeble (2)
R: Shift 0 (0)
I: Shift 0 (0)
P: Shift 0 (0)
He: 2
Karma: 0
Popularity: 90
TALENTS
Yummy: +1 Column Shift on Popularity FEATS.
POWERS
Deliciousness (Incredible 40): Pecan Pies may make a power FEAT roll in order to entice nearby PCs and NPCs into eating it. Green results in them moving one area towards the pie, yellow means two areas, red means three areas. If a PC or NPC already occupies the same area as the pie, then they eat it.
Nutty Armour (Feeble 2): Pecan pies can be nutty, offering some protection against being eaten.
Dan’s Thoughts: I ranked this one tenth place for two reasons.
- It was a ‘non-entry’ entry put on the blog instead of in an email to me. Grim wasn’t interested in winning the delicious pie, but he was interested in sharing his stat block.
- I have no idea what system this stat block is for. That’s right, my ignorance is a reason why this is in tenth place.
RANK: 9th place
Submitted by: John Callingo
Original Entry:
A pie with a warm golden-yellow crust and stuffed with a dark brown filling consisting mostly of pecans, this pie is a rare delicasy in most places.
A pecan pie consists of 6 slices, each slice rendering the consumer dazed for 1d4+1 rounds as a result of it’s deliciousness. Creatures which lack a taste sense (lack a tongue, or do not eat) are not effected by this as they can not consume the pie.
A pecan pie can be created with a profession: cooking check of DC 21.
Price: 5GP
Dan’s Thoughts: This was a pretty good entry, but spelling and grammar count. Also, there’s no mention of what system this is for. It’s clearly a D&D system, but which D&D system?
RANK: 8th place
Submitted by: Mark Lewis
Original Entry:
Poison Type Initial Damage Secondary Damage Price
Pecan Pie Filling Ingested DC 13 Haste for 10 minutes Fatigue for 1d4 hours 50 gp
Pecan Pie Filling: This poison is a careful combination of specially prepared nuts from the Carya illinoenensis and large amounts of sugars and syrups. While a full dose can be hidden in someone’s meal with a DC 12 Sleight of Hand check, the preferred delivery method involves disguising the filling with a delicious, flaky pie crust, which provides a +4 bonus to this Sleight of Hand check.
Characters from the southeastern region of Yu’ess take a -2 penalty on fortitude saves to resist the primary and secondary damage of Pecan Pie Filling.
Dan’s Thoughts: Having spent close to a decade in the southern Yu’ess, I can attest that yes, there is a -2 penalty on fort saves to resist Pecan Pies.
RANK: 7th place
Submitted by: Chuck Benscoter
Original Entry:
D&D 0 Edition
Monster Type: Pastry
Monster Name: Pecan Pie
Number Appearing: 1-2
Armor Class: 10
Move in Inches: —-
Hit Dice:special – 6 hit points per piece or 48 per pie. There are never more that 8 slices in a pie. Some rare species come is 6 or even 4 slice sub-types. Adjust the hit dice and attacks accordingly.
% in Lair: 50% Holy Alter of the Fridge / 50% Serving Tray of Temptation.
Treasure Type: P (1% chance of random magic ring)
Note:The Pecan Pie is a crafty and skilled opponent. A pie has two possible attacks.
The first is the Temptation of the Sweet which can cause a character to move at maximum speed toward a pie and then defend it with his or her very life, even to the point of sacrificing all treasure and magic items to keep the pie safe. Once the pie is safe the character then eats 1 or more pieces which then triggers a second attack.
The second attack is more insidious. It is a slow acting curse that causes the character to out-grow all of their amour and wearable magic items and loose up to 5 points of dexterity. This will happen in 6 months, minus one month for each extra piece eaten.
If the pie is shared, which almost never happens, the second attack causes each additional eater to blame the character for sharing. The character will then be required to pay for all alterations to magic garments and equipment so that they can continue to be worn.
A unique sub-type exists that has a halo of Whipped Cream. This terrible beast has caused whole parties to go on quests from which they have never returned.
Dan’s Thoughts: I love the part about the unique sub-type with the halo of Whipped Cream. What delicious fate befell those who dared to quest for such a confection? Only the winds know. Only the winds.
RANK: 6th place
Submitted by: Arlene Medder
Original Entry:
Pecan Pie (D&D 3.5): Consumable, 8 doses (or 4, if those 4 are greedy
pigs), acts as Haste Spell for 3 rounds, or until the sugar buzz wears
off. If eaten hot, with vanilla ice cream it lasts for 3 minutes.
Dan’s Thoughts: I really like vanilla ice cream.
RANK: 5th place
Submitted by: Matt James
Original Entry:
Dan’s Thoughts: Matt’s submission is good. Very good. But is it slap yo’ momma good? Let us ponder this as we look at 4th place.
RANK: 4th place
Submitted by: Joel Hoffman
Original Entry:
The pie golem is the delicious and deadly creation of the Mad Baker, an anonymous pastry chef who went insane and began toying with dark magic in order to improve the flavour of his traditional pecan pie. The magic had an unfortunate side effect; it animated the pies, which formed what is now known as the pie golem.
It is said that the Mad Baker created other dessert-based monstrosities, once he realized his success with pecans. There are rumours of the existence of the Mousse Swarm, and the highly explosive Boston Cream Giant.
Dan’s Thoughts: Look at that stat block, that Pie Golem is not joking around, that is a seriously warped confectionary. And look! Backstory! I LOVE BACKSTORY! There’s a Mad Baker, mousse-y swarms, and cream filed IEDs. This is the kind of delicious atrocity that a party of PCs can really sink their teeth into.
RANK: 3rd place
Submitted by: Anthony Rauseo
Original Entry:
Professor Paddington’s Perfectly Preserved Pecan Pie! (Patent Pending).
Prof. Paddington’s pies appear and taste like any other pie save for a small smokey after taste. The secret of the preservation process that keeps the pies fresh no mater were they are transported is the Ghostrock used during the baking process.
Anyone who eats even a portion of the pie must make a Spirit roll to avoid addiction to the confection. Each time the check is failed the victim feels compelled to seek out another pie. The difficulty increases with each check by a factor of two. (-2 for the second pie, -4 for the third, etc).
The pies themselves can be found throughout the weird west in general stores and at trading posts and retail for around five dollars.
Dan’s Thoughts: A little alliteration alleviates life’s ails. Also: Deadlands. I love Deadlands. If you haven’t played it, you don’t know what you’re missing. This was our randomly chosen winner, by the way.
RANK: 2nd place
Submitted by: Paul
Original Entry: Click here to see Paul’s entry.
Dan’s Thoughts: The only entry to link to an Obsidian Portal campaign, it was nice to see that his work made it into his game world.
RANK: 1st place
Submitted by: Daniel Oquendo
Original Entry: Download the pdf
Dan’s Thoughts: Pages of stats, notes, and a system still under playtest. What more could you possibly ask for?
So there you have it people, let’s hear it one more time for the 10 fantastic entries to our last pie contest! Yay them!
New System Thursday: Maid RPG
It’s New System Thursday! Every Thursday we add a new system to our list of over 145 supported game systems and settings. Finish your chores and sharpen your sword, because this week we’re adding MAID The Role Playing Game.
Maid is an light comedy anime-themed tabletop role-playing game for three or more players. The very easy to learn rules-light system, complete with random events which drive the story forward, will have you playing the game with friends only fifteen minutes after opening the book. Maid is also the first ever Japanese role-playing game to be translated and released in English.
Well?! What are you waiting for? Grab some pocky, a Japanese English dictionary, make some tea, take off your shoes, get some friends over, take off their shoes, and make a MAID The Role Playing Game campaign now!
Mini Contest: Stat a Pecan Pie, Win a Pecan Pie!
UPDATE: A winner has been chosen! Congrats to Paradox Hazard, you’ve won a Pecan Pie with the following submission:
For Deadlands: Reloaded
Professor Paddington’s Perfectly Preserved Pecan Pie! (Patent Pending).
Prof. Paddington’s pies appear and taste like any other pie save for a small smokey after taste. The secret of the preservation process that keeps the pies fresh no mater were they are transported is the Ghostrock used during the baking process.
Anyone who eats even a portion of the pie must make a Spirit roll to avoid addiction to the confection. Each time the check is failed the victim feels compelled to seek out another pie. The difficulty increases with each check by a factor of two. (-2 for the second pie, -4 for the third, etc).
The pies themselves can be found throughout the weird west in general stores and at trading posts and retail for around five dollars.
You have 24 hours to stat a Pecan Pie in the game system of your choice. The winner will get 1 Old-Fashion Pecan Pie from Priester’s Pecans: http://bit.ly/cSfEOh
We’ll pick a winner at random on Tuesday April 6th at 5pm EST. Email your submissions to [email protected], and we’ll put the winner (along with our favorite submissions) up here on the blog first thing Wednesday morning!
Contest Results for the Stats & Art Contest: HamSTAR 2099
We had some very interesting results for this last Stats & Art contest. Let’s get right to the winners!
Stats:
First Place: Owen K.C. Stephens (download the pdf)
Second Place: David Kammerzelt (download the doc)
Third Place: Arlene Medder (download the doc)
Art
We only had one entry for art, but what an entry it is! Thanks so much, Nicole Jekich!
All of our winners for the Stats will get $25 Amazon Gift Certificates, and Ms. Jekich will get $75, since she was the only entrant! Lucky her!
The Westerlands
Obsidian Portal: How much of the campaign/system is original content developed by you and your players?
Gnunn: My campaign universe utilizes the core rules from D&D 3.5 including the Greyhawk Pantheon, but beyond that the setting and plot have mostly sprung out of the brains of myself and my players. I’ve incorporated a couple of pre-published scenarios into the storyline, but only when they seemed like a good fit for furthering the overall plot.
I also recently started incorporating some elements of the Eberron campaign setting into my game world. I did not even know what Eberron was until my game had been running for some time, but when I found out about it, I thought the magic-as-technology elements were a good fit for the long-lost Gnossian civilization in my world. So, I started stealing ideas for my own purposes. In a way my setting is to Eberron as the Renaissance is to Ancient Greece and Rome, with the knowledge of the ancients in the process of being re-discovered… if that makes sense.
Obsidian Portal: Your campaign looks great, and I see that you share a lot of your info on the forums. Can you tell me more about it?
Gnunn: Well, I have a background in museum exhibit design with some training in instructional design, which has helped inform the aesthetics of the wiki. I also absolutely love to learn new things, and I believe that some of the deepest, most lasting knowledge can be gained through play and experimentation.
My impetus for starting my Obsidian Portal wiki was partially because I just thought it would be neat to learn how to program in Textile. I have taught myself to do many things in this way… on a whim… from Excel, to Google SketchUp, to learning how to roll a quarter across my knuckles. The best part is, this learning through play has occasionally paid off in other areas of my life. For example, the company I work for recently started building a wiki to store our internal knowledge base, and I was able to jump right in to start setting up pages for my department!
As far as my activities on the boards are concerned… In addition to loving to learn, I also love to help others learn. I used to work in the education departments at a number of museums in the Seattle area, and teaching just became a habit. On Obsidian Portal, I don’t think of it so much as teaching as I do creative collaboration… but it fills the same intrinsic need to share knowledge. Besides, the folks who use this site are great, and I love to see all the innovative ways people have come up with to use the wiki structure.
Obsidian Portal: Where do you get your inspiration for the story?
Gnunn: I beg, borrow and steal inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. The initial seed for my whole campaign came from the song, “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse. The inspiration germinated into the concept of a civil war between an order of paladins who had been divided by a moral dilemma and things grew from there.
Other elements of my campaign are based on everything from real-world history, the writings of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, H. Rider Haggard, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Shakespeare, movies and even internet phenomena (e.g. Catfolk in my campaign are essentially manifestations of Lolcats.)
My players also provide a major source of inspiration for my campaign. Nickvu2’s decision to create a 1/2 orc monk named Santiago provided the inspiration for the kingdom of Pais’suria, which shares many characteristics with medieval Spain (monastic culture, deeply religious, subject to invasion by other civilizations). The woman who plays our paladin provided the basic inspiration for the Order of the Spiral Horn when she chose to roll up a Paladin of Ehlonna. I really enjoyed the challenge of modifying a paladin’s code to fit the goals of a neutral good nature goddess.
I am really not shy about co-opting anything that strikes my fancy and incorporating it into the campaign world. I enjoy it, and though my players often roll their eyes and groan (Lolcats!?) they also seem to enjoy it too. When they heard two Catfolk NPCs refer to the Paladin, Brahm as though his name were a meow, they adopted that pronunciation as their own.
Obsidian Portal: How well do you know your players?
Gnunn: One of the beauties of my game group is that we are all close friends. It started as myself, my girlfriend (erbassett) and three of our close friends who had never played before (naughtsauce, LividLiquid, and one other woman who hasn’t set up an OP account… yet.) Our real life friendships originated out of LividLiquid’s weekly karaoke show and have grown from there. Soon, we added another friend from the karaoke group (galgacusferox) and then a friend and coworker of naughtsauce’s (nickvu2) and a friend I had met through my grad program (rethis).
And my players are a group of characters in and of themselves. One is a nationally-ranked Rubix Cube solver, we have a woman getting her degree in Chinese medicine, a karaoke host, a teacher, and a woman who runs an artisan cheesecake business on the side.
Obsidian Portal: What kinds challenges are you faced with in your campaign?
Gnunn: Hmmm… as galgacusferox put it, “it seems like this is one of the easiest groups of people a DM could possibly hope to run sessions for.” There are no personality conflicts or lack of enthusiasm among the group. Honestly, the biggest challenge we have faced is really just that all our players have very busy lives outside the game. Two are currently in grad school, two have jobs with unpredictable schedules and all of us have interests outside of gaming.
I think one of the things that has kept this campaign running despite everyone’s busy lives is that I established very clear-cut rules for how we handle absent players. Simply put, if less than half the group is missing, we play and either myself, one of the other players or a guest rolls for the absent member(s). If you’re absent, you get 1/2xp but can’t die, though you could return to find your character naked with six dead companions in the middle of nowhere needing to figure out how to resurrect them.
As a DM, I feel my biggest challenge in game is accounting for the creativity of my players. They very frequently approach a challenge I have set up in a way I absolutely did not foresee, and I just try to roll with it. It’s tough, but I love it when my players come up with unique solutions to a problem I’ve thrown at them.
Obsidian Portal: What aspects of your campaign are you really proud of?
Gnunn: I am especially proud of having successfully hooked four brand new players on D&D. They were all hesitant at first when I approached them about starting up a campaign. My original players only agreed to give it a try because we were all good friends who liked hanging out anyway. A year later, it is common for someone to say, “We’re going to play this with our kids when we have them, right?”
I also really enjoy watching the player characters grow in terms of depth and in their inter-character relationships. Our cleric struggles with her calling as a healer vs. her desire to destroy undead in vengeance for those who took her parents. Our ranger and paladin have grown into a sort of brother-sister relationship where they are always giving each other crap for their individual foibles. Again, these are characters mostly played by people who had never played the game before this campaign began.
Finally, I was especially pleased last night when my players informed me that they feel their choices really affect the game world and that they do not feel they are being railroaded… it just means I am good at disguising the rails… just kidding!… maybe…
Obsidian Portal: What have been the highlights of the campaign according to your players?
Gnunn: When I talked with my players about this after this week’s game, they mentioned that they like the extra touches I put on the game, like full-color battle-mat printouts, paper-craft items and the fact that I seem to constantly be hunting for new ways to improve the game experience… like a shark… of improvement.
They also said they like that I embrace their creative solutions to the challenges I present. If they want to try something totally zany, I roll with it, rather than forcing them to follow my pre-conceived ideas.
Also, several mentioned that they enjoy the variety of challenges I have thrown at them (e.g. the puzzles I have worked in as traps or locks) and galgacusferox summed it up by saying that he thinks I have:
“…done a really good job of varying the kinds of challenges our characters face, from different tactical situations in combat encounters, to environmental or interpersonal conditions which really take us off-guard. It creates an atmosphere where anything’s possible, which I really believe is important for an enjoyable D&D experience.”
I really take that to heart considering it is coming from someone who has played a lot longer than I have.
Oh, we all also sat around and laughed about Ashii the kobold, an NPC the group rescued from his zombified clan and then convinced to become a ward of the Church of Pelor. The thought of an evil, light-sensitive lizard creature becoming a cleric of a sun god is really amusing and they told me they would love to run into him again some day… perhaps I will grant their wish… perhaps.
Updates to the TOS (seriously…)
I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday’s April Fool’s joke. The lack of response tells me it was either unread or not funny enough, but I’d prefer that to having to backpedal and explain that it was only a joke.
Still, it serves to remind me that I need to update our TOS a little. It’s been unchanged since we first launched, and there’s a good reason for that: we’d rather write code than write legalese. To that end, we just took the WordPress TOS (available under a Creative Commons license) and modified it ever so slightly. The end result was a good looking TOS that cost us no money and only a little bit of time. Thank you WordPress!
Unfortunately, rumors still persist that we’re in the business of quietly collecting all your content with some nefarious future purpose, like selling adventures or rules supplements. This is categorically untrue. Our business model is the same now that it always has been: Be the best campaign management tool there is, and charge subscriptions that people are happy to pay, since the tool is indispensable to their gaming.
So, my plan is to update the TOS with the following preamble. I’m going out on a limb a little and skipping legalese and just going with plain English. I don’t speak legalese, so I’d probably muck it up anyway.
Preamble – Intellectual Property Rights
Since it is by far the number one question regarding this Terms of Service, we would like to immediately address any concerns related to intellectual property rights to the content posted on Obsidian Portal.
We make no claim of ownership over the content you post. You created it, and you retain all rights to it. The only right we reserve is to use your content in order to promote Obsidian Portal. At no point will we publish a book or otherwise sell your content without your permission.
We can’t say it strongly enough: It’s your content. You own it.
