Song World Playlist: Highway To Hell by AC/DC

In the Club after a trip to Hell Our Heroes enjoy some time in the bar after the battles and adventures. Morrigan tries to teach Socks how to dance, the serious fellow and the valkyrie talk by the bar.

Hahaha!! I'm so glad you made this & you are in the group, Lex. That is really fun and funny. I love the color lighting and the couches in the nightclub. It's really a new look for the typical D&D "You meet in a tavern". I'll add a Highway To Hell screenshot and my followup post on the session, to this thread, later. I plan to message Andy and reach out, too. I am sorry that he left the game session, caused by my hyper DM'ing at the time, and want to encourage him to come back and play again.

I'm just scratching that itch to journal! You know what I am like haha

As DM, this Song World campaign is so delightful for putting PC's quickly into heady situations/settings/scenarios. Normally a party doesn't "go to Hell" until extremely high level, if ever, probably never, but we have already been-there and done-that (Highway to Hell). Another earlier week, the PC's woke up buried alive in their own coffins (Children of the Grave). Another week, Silk's PC drank "the blood of some forgotten god" (Dead in the Water). And you all are "only" 6th-7th level! *Grin*. Plus we're in a colorfully lit Discoteque at the start of every session! That's so much fun to me as a lover of music and dance. Speaking of Dancing, Lex, I'll collaborate with you more to refine how the dancing-for-spells works for Morrigan, a Spellsinger. I love your PC dancing out the spell and during the spell and on the battlefield. The dancing is very appropriate for the tone and theory of this campaign. I don't love the mechanic where-in you have to wait rounds for your spell effect to go-off.  I'm intent on each Player's Round in the initiative to be an opportunity to allow the PC to actually do something that affects the game. I don't want the feeling/sound of "I pass" or "I don't have anything to do". I'm happy with giving "2 rounds" worth of actions on 1 round, and with allowing Movement or Search/Perception/NWP checks even after your hit-rolls, within the same round, standardly, for all PC's in this campaign. If we need to refine the Spellsinger mechanic we can figure a different penalty that's not waiting "Spell Level # of Rounds".  I really don't want her to Dance for 3 rounds for a 3rd level spell (like Fireball) and then find-out that the battle ended on Round 2. I'll take a look at the Spellsinger description. You can think about it and pitch alternative mechanics ideas too. I'm thinking of something like (getting rid of the time delay), and the better you Dance, the more effective the Spell is. The worse you dance, the worse the spell is.  Your dancing quality is determined by a d20 check, try to roll low, with my standard rules for "super success" and "normal success" and "failed roll".  In this idea, instead of waiting X rounds for your spell to go off, the one thing that is added is you'll need to Dance 1d20 each time you cast a spell. When you roll a natural 20, the spell fails entirely, and you trip and mess up in clumsy dancing. One of my favorite scenes from this week's game was when Morrigan (a sucuubus spellsinger PC) used her charismatic persuasion to get past a Bone Devil Police Officer in Hell. That sentence is bang-on with my definition of EP1C111 AD&D. That is the tone I'm trying to set for Song World gameplay.

Gold said: As DM, this Song World campaign is so delightful for putting PC's quickly into heady situations/settings/scenarios. Normally a party doesn't "go to Hell" until extremely high level, if ever, probably never, but we have already been-there and done-that (Highway to Hell). Another earlier week, the PC's woke up buried alive in their own coffins (Children of the Grave). Another week, Silk's PC drank "the blood of some forgotten god" (Dead in the Water). And you all are "only" 6th-7th level! *Grin*. Plus we're in a colorfully lit Discoteque at the start of every session! That's so much fun to me as a lover of music and dance. Speaking of Dancing, Lex, I'll collaborate with you more to refine how the dancing-for-spells works for Morrigan, a Spellsinger. I love your PC dancing out the spell and during the spell and on the battlefield. The dancing is very appropriate for the tone and theory of this campaign. I don't love the mechanic where-in you have to wait rounds for your spell effect to go-off.  I'm intent on each Player's Round in the initiative to be an opportunity to allow the PC to actually do something that affects the game. I don't want the feeling/sound of "I pass" or "I don't have anything to do". I'm happy with giving "2 rounds" worth of actions on 1 round, and with allowing Movement or Search/Perception/NWP checks even after your hit-rolls, within the same round, standardly, for all PC's in this campaign. If we need to refine the Spellsinger mechanic we can figure a different penalty that's not waiting "Spell Level # of Rounds".  I really don't want her to Dance for 3 rounds for a 3rd level spell (like Fireball) and then find-out that the battle ended on Round 2. I'll take a look at the Spellsinger description. You can think about it and pitch alternative mechanics ideas too. I'm thinking of something like (getting rid of the time delay), and the better you Dance, the more effective the Spell is. The worse you dance, the worse the spell is.  Your dancing quality is determined by a d20 check, try to roll low, with my standard rules for "super success" and "normal success" and "failed roll".  In this idea, instead of waiting X rounds for your spell to go off, the one thing that is added is you'll need to Dance 1d20 each time you cast a spell. When you roll a natural 20, the spell fails entirely, and you trip and mess up in clumsy dancing. One of my favorite scenes from this week's game was when Morrigan (a sucuubus spellsinger PC) used her charismatic persuasion to get past a Bone Devil Police Officer in Hell. That sentence is bang-on with my definition of EP1C111 AD&D. That is the tone I'm trying to set for Song World gameplay. hmm I am sure we can come up with somthing interesting. 

So looking at the Spell Singers Rules, if we get rid of having to dance rounds equal to the level of the spell cast we should keep the can cast spells of any level but has a +4 added for every level above the charater So she could try to cast a level 9 spell but would take a +9 to her dance roll, also we can add dice penalties if she is in combat or hitting people while dancing.  This way she becomes a game of risk and reward!

Ok that sounds fun. Would she be able to access 9th level spells even before her level is high enough to cast 9th level spells? If so then the penalty/risk should be pretty severe, because 9th level spells has things like WISH that are ultra-powerful.  Granted a +9 penalty is very challenging on your roll, but I'm guessing you have ultra-high DEX because of my EP1C ability score dice roller. If she has DEX of 19, for example, even a +9 penalty would still give you roughly a 50/50 shot of succeeding, and that's too tempting for "Wish" spells and the like.  The penalty should probably be low for spells that a 7th Level Mage would have access to cast, but the penalty should be higher for spells that are beyond the normal spell-levels to access for an equivalent-level Mage.

Yeah with a traditional spell singer kit she could cast spells before her level range. She has a dex of 17 I think, we could increase the penalty as x2 the level of the spell per level above her experience level. So she is level 7 and wants to cast a level 9 spell, it would put a +18 penalty on the dice throw. Also if she is being attacked in combat she eather cannot cast or we put a firther + penalty on the roll. Also we could make higher level spells do horrible things if the dance is failed or stopped before the spell is cast? Or we can just have her cast spells for her experience level. It does say that DM's should not let new players use this class as they might try and spam wishes, I would absolutly NOT do that at all. Infact we could restrict her to only casting one type of spell a day, so she cannot cast the same spell more than once per day? The Spell Singer is in Wizards and Rogues of the Realms book.

We played a Song World quest on the "Highway To Hell" (song by AC/DC) in tribute on the week of the passing of AC/DC rhythm guitar and songwriter Malcolm Young. Using Roll20 Dynamic Lighting, the party of Player-Character-Tokens explored 9 Hells top-to-bottom x10 Levels deep. The goal, of course, was to get to the last room on the bottom level and defeat the devil there in order to find the planar wormhole to go back to the discoteque club in hopes of finding a way home (our episodic theme that refits each week according to the song contents). Some PC's got Lost in Hell for 100's of years, or excruciating minutes, or seconds that crawled by, or hundreds of generations of mankind. I made a randomizer using Roll20 Rollable Tables. The players used Roll20 drawing tools to circle treasures and X-out ghosts and devils they slayed in Diablo-paced encounters. In certain rooms (highlighted on the GM Layer), they faced more RolePlaying encounters or combat scenarios with named evil denizens of the plane (AD&D stylized from MM, D&DG, and 2E MC). Fastest Explorer medal went to Soren (SolidHybrid) . Best encounter solution was when Lex had Morrigan the Succubus Spell Singer PC use her charisma-based negotiation and speaking skills to convince a Bone Devil Police-Man to let her pass. Screenshot of "Highway To Hell" adventure in Song World 2E on Roll20. 9 Hells x 10 Levels deep Listen to the song, Highway to Hell with lyric on YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBjwMSIC7ik" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBjwMSIC7ik</a> Highway To Hell on Spotify: <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2zYzyRzz6pRmhPzyfME" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/track/2zYzyRzz6pRmhPzyfME</a>... Lyrics -- may contain clues to the D&D adventure version that we played. Highway to Hell by AC/DC Living easy, living free Season ticket on a one-way ride Asking nothing, leave me be Taking everything in my stride Don't need reason, don't need rhyme Ain't nothing I would rather do Going down, party time - My friends are gonna be there too! I'm on the highway to hell On the highway to hell Highway to hell I'm on the highway to hell No stop signs, speed limit Nobody's gonna slow me down Like a wheel, gonna spin it Nobody's gonna mess me around Hey Satan, paid my dues - Playing in a rocking band Hey mama, look at me -I'm on my way to the promised land, whoo! I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell Don't stop me I'm on the highway to hell On the highway to hell I'm on the highway to hell On the highway Yeah, highway to hell I'm on the highway to hell Highway to hell Highway to hell And I'm going down All the way - Whoa! I'm on the highway to hell Songwriters: Ronald Belford Scott / Angus Mckinnon Young / Malcolm Mitchell Young (Song World quest in memory of AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, born January 1953 – died November 2017) Highway to Hell lyrics &copy; BMG Rights Management US, LLC

Was a really great sesson! I'm working on my new charater, I'm not sure about the bard. I think with the power of some of the PC's he might struggle to shine.

lex said: Was a really great sesson! I'm working on my new charater, I'm not sure about the bard. I think with the power of some of the PC's he might struggle to shine. It's Song World so Bards will get plenty of advantages and opportunities. I would encourage you to keep the theme of the heavy metal ghoul. It's going to rock. We'll just be using more of my custom 5d20 Bard / Performance mechanic. It's pretty easy, especially if you have a good Charisma or prime ability. For any performance, or action in a round, as a Bard, you roll 5d20. The 5 rolls represent sections of your song or skill: 1st = Introduction, 2nd roll = Early Part, 3rd = Middle Part, 4th = Late Part or Bridge, 5th roll= Coda / Outro / or Ending of the Song. The rolls are compared to an ability score. Natural 1's are wildly successful sections where you get extra bonuses and whatever you narrate is generally what happens. Natural 20's are cartoonish mistakes and trip-up fail forwards, which are split for the DM or the Player to narrate. Any other number is compared to an ability score, with the highest success coming when you roll the exact score (18) or score minus one (17). All other rolls are a general success (2-16), or a general failure (19). When you face-off against another Bard or Performer, both sides do opposing 5d20 rolls each round, and the PC-or-NPC with the most # highest successes and least fails is the victor of that round. When you succeed on a Bardic check, you accomplish -- pretty much whatever ability you want to do as a Bard, including enhanced and narrative abilities that are not covered in the rule books. Imagination and mechanics. You can add Boons to your party (buffs, advantages, protections), or confuse and overplay your enemies (loud damage). Sorry about Morrigan dying off though! She should have had more chances. But that silenced, Improved Invisible, dragon with a sand cone trap set-up, which she walked right into, token-wise, was too much against Adult Dragon chewing damage. Keep the new Ghoul Bard. It sounds really cool and fitting for this campaign.