I want this semester to be over so we can play again! Tomorrow is the last day, and then I'm going to be able to pay more attention to the various projects I've been wanting to handle.
Of course, we'll probably still wind up sitting in a circle on Fridays and playing Dawn of War rather than rolling dice.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
SPACE MARINES GET SOME
With the considerable hiatus the group has taken, I've had some time to think about the Deathwatch game John ran for us to fill in the gaming void. The game was quite interesting and a lot of fun for me as a player. Playing a character that is a hulking mass of genetic engineering, unnatural resilience and power, and a brain like a supercomputer - all of this wrapped in a tank-like shell of neigh-impenetrable power armor and sporting some of the nastiest weapons ever designed - was a nice change of pace from the roleplay-heavy campaigns I tend to run.
There were some pretty awesome moments that came out of it, but I'm glad it was a short-lived campaign. Not because it was bad, but because playing as these inhuman warriors turned out to be fairly far removed from the epic waste-laying and slaughter I had envisioned. Once we had enemies of similar ability and power to fight, the game quickly went from "kill EVERYTHING that blinks!" to "who here isn't dead and still has functional armor/bodies?".
Now, we as players could have probably done more to increase our survivability - but really we were all looking for astronomically overpowered mindless combat as a way to break up the more complex political campaign I had been running. All in all, it was a good experience and certainly something that would be worth playing again (but with a lot more player planning and tactical thought involved).
There were some pretty awesome moments that came out of it, but I'm glad it was a short-lived campaign. Not because it was bad, but because playing as these inhuman warriors turned out to be fairly far removed from the epic waste-laying and slaughter I had envisioned. Once we had enemies of similar ability and power to fight, the game quickly went from "kill EVERYTHING that blinks!" to "who here isn't dead and still has functional armor/bodies?".
Now, we as players could have probably done more to increase our survivability - but really we were all looking for astronomically overpowered mindless combat as a way to break up the more complex political campaign I had been running. All in all, it was a good experience and certainly something that would be worth playing again (but with a lot more player planning and tactical thought involved).
On Spell Components
So I've been seeing a lot of stuff about the use of spell components and whether or not they play a big part in the game. There seem to be a few basic opinions on this issue.
1. This group prefers to assume that a magic user has whatever they need to cast their spells, UNLESS the component in question either has a monetary cost or is extraordinarily rare/magical in nature, such as the components for the spell Repulsion:
2. This group believes that spell components should be treated as ammunition - if the magic user doe snot take the time to at the very least visit an apothecary or go foraging then he has no way of replenishing his stock. In this case components are logged and tracked much in the same way that projectile ammunition or potions are. This is seen as a way to keep the powers of magic users in check by limiting their ability to spew powerful spells that require fairly simple components (Fireball, for instance).
3. This group thinks that spell components are extras - and therefore not necessary to the casting of spells. However, if a player takes the time to gather the listed components, they can be used at the time of casting to amplify or extend the effects of the spell in some fashion. The components are still used up in the casting, but this allows a magic user to keep a reserve of components for when his spells need that extra boost.
I'm a fan of the easy route, or opinion 1. It is generally assumed in my campaigns that the magic users have a catch-all bag of components that they can draw from, and I still have them go the extra mile to find, buy, or otherwise obtain components that are bizarre or rare. I've considered other methods of dealing with spell components, but the players seem to be okay with what we have agreed on and I see no reason to change it yet. Maybe in another campaign.
1. This group prefers to assume that a magic user has whatever they need to cast their spells, UNLESS the component in question either has a monetary cost or is extraordinarily rare/magical in nature, such as the components for the spell Repulsion:
The material component of this spell is a pair of small magnetized iron bars attached to two small canine statuettes, one ivory and one ebony. (PHB pg. 86)In the case of some spells (generally those that are either very high level or a necessary part of the adventure) a small quest or some form of sacrifice or difficulty is presented, effectively treating the spell in question as a reward of sorts.
2. This group believes that spell components should be treated as ammunition - if the magic user doe snot take the time to at the very least visit an apothecary or go foraging then he has no way of replenishing his stock. In this case components are logged and tracked much in the same way that projectile ammunition or potions are. This is seen as a way to keep the powers of magic users in check by limiting their ability to spew powerful spells that require fairly simple components (Fireball, for instance).
3. This group thinks that spell components are extras - and therefore not necessary to the casting of spells. However, if a player takes the time to gather the listed components, they can be used at the time of casting to amplify or extend the effects of the spell in some fashion. The components are still used up in the casting, but this allows a magic user to keep a reserve of components for when his spells need that extra boost.
I'm a fan of the easy route, or opinion 1. It is generally assumed in my campaigns that the magic users have a catch-all bag of components that they can draw from, and I still have them go the extra mile to find, buy, or otherwise obtain components that are bizarre or rare. I've considered other methods of dealing with spell components, but the players seem to be okay with what we have agreed on and I see no reason to change it yet. Maybe in another campaign.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Finally...
I finally finished getting everything squared away that happened last session. I also finished the prep for tomorrow's game, and I'm hoping it should be a killer series of events. Maybe not killer for the party, but in fun levels. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean.
But yeah, the party almost TPK'd last Friday, in a display of I don't even know what. Mr. Theeves Cant Spell decided to blow everyone up, everyone but the ranger...and the ranger only had 1 hp left. 1. It was bad.
I'm ready to put that all behind us, however, and plow into the combat-fueled killfest I have written up.
As long as they don't bite the dust en route.
But yeah, the party almost TPK'd last Friday, in a display of I don't even know what. Mr. Theeves Cant Spell decided to blow everyone up, everyone but the ranger...and the ranger only had 1 hp left. 1. It was bad.
I'm ready to put that all behind us, however, and plow into the combat-fueled killfest I have written up.
As long as they don't bite the dust en route.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Inspiration
I've been doing a whole lot of inspirational reading the last few weeks, to try and find something I can twist to work with my AD&D 2e game. Though I read a lot of fantasy stuff, I don't find that material working its way into my campaigns. When I read things, a lot of my inspiration comes from the characters in the literature. The personalities and conflicts make for good starting points, and from there it is easy to piece together a fully-formed character. The boastful general that is secretly a coward? Jack Gladney from Don DeLillo's White Noise. The shy character that is terrifying in battle? Robert Cohn from Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. The insane, religious, sexist dictator? Commander Fred from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. There's so much material out there it can be hard to keep track of, but that's part of the fun.
One of my favorite characters of all (besides Capain Ahab, of course) would be Minister Hooper from Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil. Over the course of a few pages, the character goes from a kindly minister to a ghoulish presence amongst the townsfolk, a sinister character that is shunned for his choices in clothing. The character is so interesting and so well-written that he makes for a really interesting fellow to pull ideas from.
I've always had a hard time with settings, rather than characters. I can't design a city worth a crap, but I can populate them pretty well, I like to think. I get to introduce a character I've been working on for a while during tomorrow's game, so I'm pretty stoked about that.
For now, it's back to statting up some monsters. Boatloads of fun.
One of my favorite characters of all (besides Capain Ahab, of course) would be Minister Hooper from Hawthorne's The Minister's Black Veil. Over the course of a few pages, the character goes from a kindly minister to a ghoulish presence amongst the townsfolk, a sinister character that is shunned for his choices in clothing. The character is so interesting and so well-written that he makes for a really interesting fellow to pull ideas from.
I've always had a hard time with settings, rather than characters. I can't design a city worth a crap, but I can populate them pretty well, I like to think. I get to introduce a character I've been working on for a while during tomorrow's game, so I'm pretty stoked about that.
For now, it's back to statting up some monsters. Boatloads of fun.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Brief Update
So we've managed to pick back up on my AD&D 2e game pretty well. The guys got right back into the swing of it after a 6 month (roughly) hiatus. It was a pretty big relief, as I was expecting it to be a difficult transition from Dan's 3.5 game and John's Reverse Dungeon minicampaign (both of which were excellent) back into mine, but aside from a few minor details the guys slipped right back into character and picked up where we left off.
We're still in Ravenloft, and the characters have found a bunch of really ancient books in an underground library, while trying to figure out how to combat the highly addictive edible slugs (which happen to be the only food available) and being tasked with organizing and cataloging a prehistoric armory.
I'm hoping to get out of Ravenloft within the next two or three sessions, so hopefully I can pull that off and get into the real meat of the campaign as I have it planned so far.
In other news, James (Theeves Cant Spell) and I have begun work on our yet-unnamed post-apocalyptic utopia epic. Maybe we'll post some chapters or dialog when we get further into it. It's shaping up pretty well and we're really optimistic about it.
That's all for now, back to Transporter 3 on Showtime.
We're still in Ravenloft, and the characters have found a bunch of really ancient books in an underground library, while trying to figure out how to combat the highly addictive edible slugs (which happen to be the only food available) and being tasked with organizing and cataloging a prehistoric armory.
I'm hoping to get out of Ravenloft within the next two or three sessions, so hopefully I can pull that off and get into the real meat of the campaign as I have it planned so far.
In other news, James (Theeves Cant Spell) and I have begun work on our yet-unnamed post-apocalyptic utopia epic. Maybe we'll post some chapters or dialog when we get further into it. It's shaping up pretty well and we're really optimistic about it.
That's all for now, back to Transporter 3 on Showtime.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
On Naming Characters.....
I know lots of people have trouble with names, but there are many easy ways to pick up some quick names for characters and NPCs, or even locations. Here's a few that I've learned over the years from some good people:
1. For somewhat modern-sounding names, a good place to pick up names is the spam folder in your email. I know a lot of people don't go in there, but there are some gems if you have the patience to look. Just a few from my spam folder, right now: Dena Lorna, Albert Faith, Karie Sammie, Jack Marietta.
2. For a name that sounds a little out there or fantastic, look to works both out there and fantastic (especially if your players won't go near it anytime soon). Now, I'm not saying that you should name all of your dwarves Gimli or all of your wizards Harry Potter, but in classic tales there are some great names. From Beowulf: Hildeburh, Aeschere, Herebeald. From The Canterbury Tales: Wilkin, Janekin (Jenkin), Alisoun (Allison), Phoebus. From The Iliad: Menelaos, Andromache, Priam. From Le Morte d'Arthur: Baldwin, Tristan, Urian, Mark. (And of course, Merlyn/Merlin!) From The Divine Comedy: Megaera, Cagnazzo, Apulia.
3. Name your characters after things or noises or something. We've had many characters named silly things like Scribbles, Crunchy, Thouch, etc.
It's a lot of fun to find new ways to name your characters, in some cases more fun that playing them. :)
1. For somewhat modern-sounding names, a good place to pick up names is the spam folder in your email. I know a lot of people don't go in there, but there are some gems if you have the patience to look. Just a few from my spam folder, right now: Dena Lorna, Albert Faith, Karie Sammie, Jack Marietta.
2. For a name that sounds a little out there or fantastic, look to works both out there and fantastic (especially if your players won't go near it anytime soon). Now, I'm not saying that you should name all of your dwarves Gimli or all of your wizards Harry Potter, but in classic tales there are some great names. From Beowulf: Hildeburh, Aeschere, Herebeald. From The Canterbury Tales: Wilkin, Janekin (Jenkin), Alisoun (Allison), Phoebus. From The Iliad: Menelaos, Andromache, Priam. From Le Morte d'Arthur: Baldwin, Tristan, Urian, Mark. (And of course, Merlyn/Merlin!) From The Divine Comedy: Megaera, Cagnazzo, Apulia.
3. Name your characters after things or noises or something. We've had many characters named silly things like Scribbles, Crunchy, Thouch, etc.
It's a lot of fun to find new ways to name your characters, in some cases more fun that playing them. :)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Party Dynamics
In any given RPG, there is some idea of how a functional party should be built. There seem to be are some stereotypical roles that classes get lumped into, regardless of system. Keeping with the general theme of D&D, we have a few classes that fill particular roles, and I'm going to look at some in 2e and 3.X, namely the roles of tank (the meat shield), damage (the cannon), support (the fix-it guy), and healing (the resurrection guy). With a lot of parties I have played in or DMed, there is a very solid mix. Take, for instance, the current 2e group:
Al the Rogue: Support
Caelrath the Ranger: Damage
Elirail the Ranger: Damage/Tank
Erikr the Paladin: Tank/Damage/Healing
Florio the Rogue: Support
Skurn the Cleric: Support/Healing/Damage
Theophilis the Wizard: Support
In this seven-person party, there is a good mix of characters who can take a hit and are usually up front, characters that can dish out a good amount of damage, characters who can heal in a pinch, and characters that are utilitarian enough to take care of other tasks (setting up camp, tracking people,pissing off NPCs being diplomatic, etc.). This party usually works well enough to handle the situation at hand, no doubt because the party is multifaceted enough to adapt readily. In situations where the expertise of one character is needed but the other characters would be useless, the party finds ways to compensate. In last session's game, the party was setting up an ambush and had the guys in bulky heavy armor and big weapons hide while the others drew the ambushees in. Could this have worked the other way around? Probably. But it played out well and after some initial confusion the party was successful.
In many other systems we have played, the dynamics of the party are more malleable. When we had our little forays into All Flesh Must Be Eaten, there was ultimately no impact on the group makeup. In one campaign, we had almost entirely norms and we played it out until we got tired of the campaign. In another, we had a mix of survivors and norms, and again the game was successful. It wasn't until the historical and amazing campaign James ran that the party truly had a lot of problems, being nearly all survivors (and Jamesbeing a moron not knowing what he had gotten himself into) we ended up going the route of "we are all badasses and can handle this, Duke Nukem style". This obviously got us killed by the Director giving up and using a stupid vault door thing giving us no way to go once we reached a certain point.
I think it will be a lot of fun to play around with a few more systems and to see what can happen when a group of people tries to play a new system without any class coordination.
Hmmm.....
Al the Rogue: Support
Caelrath the Ranger: Damage
Elirail the Ranger: Damage/Tank
Erikr the Paladin: Tank/Damage/Healing
Florio the Rogue: Support
Skurn the Cleric: Support/Healing/Damage
Theophilis the Wizard: Support
In this seven-person party, there is a good mix of characters who can take a hit and are usually up front, characters that can dish out a good amount of damage, characters who can heal in a pinch, and characters that are utilitarian enough to take care of other tasks (setting up camp, tracking people,
In many other systems we have played, the dynamics of the party are more malleable. When we had our little forays into All Flesh Must Be Eaten, there was ultimately no impact on the group makeup. In one campaign, we had almost entirely norms and we played it out until we got tired of the campaign. In another, we had a mix of survivors and norms, and again the game was successful. It wasn't until the historical and amazing campaign James ran that the party truly had a lot of problems, being nearly all survivors (and James
I think it will be a lot of fun to play around with a few more systems and to see what can happen when a group of people tries to play a new system without any class coordination.
Hmmm.....
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Stuck in Ravenloft. Cue spooky music.
This place rules. Or does it? I dunno. It is proving to be a challenge for me as a DM because everything is so cut and dry as is. As with many other prepublished materials, it is somewhat difficult to adapt my style of DMing to the material and vice versa. I guess we'll have to stick it out and see where it leads.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Follow the rules, kid
So, here we are in Ravenloft. Wait, what?
I get turned into a lizard and die, find out I have a mansion, have said mansion broken into (not a proud moment) witness a brutal mass-murder at the hands of a peaceable country bumpkin, and find myself swimming in some bizarre, trans-planar doppelganger bullshit, all within the first few weeks of knowing these assholes? And now this? If I hadn't seen that Rugmoth guy summon giant horde-slaying statues, I'd be cursing his name right now, for lack of the name of another god.
Granted, I find that running around with these guys is sharpening my skills; you know, trying to steal shit from under the nose of a fledgling paladin and a thief-hating magical midget has its challenges, but still, is it really worth it? I don't have a choice in anything I do, much less did I have a choice to charge headlong into mists what make everyone crazy, or the trees what make everyone crazy, or the asshat crazy shopkeeps what try to kill you. Gods, screw this place.
Straightaway out of the mists we found ourselves getting poisoned by the locals. Some crazy fucking lady in a farmhouse, don't ask me. I put on my best manners, though. Ericker made sure of that. Even when I was puking all over the table and myself, he was all "Don't steal anything, you filthy little kid." or some other such paladin nonsense. Were it up to me, we'd have gotten the information that we needed at the point of a blade. But then, the last time I didn't listen to them, I got turned into a fucking lizard.
After trying to talk to the mute crazies in town, we got a map and get the fuck out... and immediately walked into a crazy man killing forest that only half of us could see. Oh yeah, and there where giant cats that tried to kill all of us. Great. Good thing we have a psychopathic statue-wielding half elf in our party to literally break their faces off.
On the plus side, we do have that stupid wrinkle bag, Theophitits in our party, so I'm not the most useless pile of shit in this gaggle of retards, and at the end of the day in this insane place, at least I have that.
I get turned into a lizard and die, find out I have a mansion, have said mansion broken into (not a proud moment) witness a brutal mass-murder at the hands of a peaceable country bumpkin, and find myself swimming in some bizarre, trans-planar doppelganger bullshit, all within the first few weeks of knowing these assholes? And now this? If I hadn't seen that Rugmoth guy summon giant horde-slaying statues, I'd be cursing his name right now, for lack of the name of another god.
Granted, I find that running around with these guys is sharpening my skills; you know, trying to steal shit from under the nose of a fledgling paladin and a thief-hating magical midget has its challenges, but still, is it really worth it? I don't have a choice in anything I do, much less did I have a choice to charge headlong into mists what make everyone crazy, or the trees what make everyone crazy, or the asshat crazy shopkeeps what try to kill you. Gods, screw this place.
Straightaway out of the mists we found ourselves getting poisoned by the locals. Some crazy fucking lady in a farmhouse, don't ask me. I put on my best manners, though. Ericker made sure of that. Even when I was puking all over the table and myself, he was all "Don't steal anything, you filthy little kid." or some other such paladin nonsense. Were it up to me, we'd have gotten the information that we needed at the point of a blade. But then, the last time I didn't listen to them, I got turned into a fucking lizard.
After trying to talk to the mute crazies in town, we got a map and get the fuck out... and immediately walked into a crazy man killing forest that only half of us could see. Oh yeah, and there where giant cats that tried to kill all of us. Great. Good thing we have a psychopathic statue-wielding half elf in our party to literally break their faces off.
On the plus side, we do have that stupid wrinkle bag, Theophitits in our party, so I'm not the most useless pile of shit in this gaggle of retards, and at the end of the day in this insane place, at least I have that.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A character for every system I: Mouse Guard
I decided to do Mouse Guard because.....it kicks ass. I rolled up a Patrol Leader named Faolan, I would really like to run this game at some point. Here you go.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
War Is Upon Us
Thursday night we continued our D&D 2E campaign. In preparation for the session, Max and I wrote two parts to a story of Skurn praying (which you'll get to read later). Also, it's been decided that Ackerman's druid, Uskilian, was pretty much a weak and extremely useless character, so Ackerman rerolled a wizard named Dr. Marshal Theophillis. But we'll get to that later as well.
We started the session picking up right where we left off. Abidan and Aremar, having just arrived to the Trigatha grove, get to work locating and talking to the High Druids while the party takes time to regale each other with what's been going on the past few days. The two high power NPCs return to inform the group that it's time to prepare for war, so they go off and begin building siege weapons while the group trains the druids in basic combat. At the same time, Skurn wanders off to go pray and returns very late that night after receiving a response. The next few days are spent traveling to Treeshade, allowing the group time to train up some proficiencies.
After reaching a safe place to rest and prepare for battle, the party is called to action by Abidan. He informs the group that he has learned of prisoners being held by the elves of Treeshade. He wants to rescue them before they are accidentally smashed by the siege weapons in the morning, or just the DM using an excuse to give us more stuff to do. Either way, Abidan sneaks off that night towards Treeshade with Erikr, Caelrath, Althor, Elirail, and a few red shirted elves. Before they leave, Abidan gives Skurn a ring to wear and asks him to stay up and keep watch.
At the 20 foot wall surrounding Treeshade, it is decided that only three will go over in order avoid too much noise. Caelrath, Althor, and Elirail are chosen. After spending some time trying to decide how to get up, Caelrath decides to just climb up with which he has no problem doing. Althor and Elirail follow after a few more moments are wasted discussing how Althor could have just climbed up and lowered a rope to his less agile companions. Once on top of the wall the trio find that the prison they are looking for is conveniently located right in front of them. So they climb down and Althor attempts to unlock the door. After several failures, Althor successfully breaks one of his lockpicks in the keyhole, thus preventing any further chances of a stealthy entry. Elirail, being the strongest, is volunteered to kick down the door which he does with ease. Althor and Elirail enter the dark prison while Caelrath remains at the doorway, facing out, to keep an eye out for any trouble. Althor spots a guard on the other side of the room who failed to hear the splintering of the wooden door while he continued to walk in sleep land. Althor, still a little frustrated from his failure with the locked door, decides to employ some stealth. He sneaks up on the guards and frees him of his binds to his now lifeless body. Althor plucks the keys from the dead elf and hands them to Elirail, who happily frees the four prisoners: a useless elf, a strong looking half-elf, a badly injured elf, and a frail looking human carrying a book.
Having completed this side-quest, the trio plus their quartet of jailbirds climb back over the wall. Delicate care is given to the injured elf who is handed down to Althor who amazingly balances on a on 10 foot pole and carries the elf down, using the notches in the pole. After everyone reaches the base of the wall safely, noise is heard over the wall as Erikr says its time for them to go. As the partyflees bravely runs away, they are chased by some of the residents of Treeshade who follow them all the way back to the camp site. Fortunately, help is waiting as Skurn was warned by Abidan through the magical ring. The injured elf and other prisoners are led to safety as Erikr, Caelrath, and Althor turn around and take shots at their pursuers. Skurn blesses his companions as Althor manages to kill one elf while Erikr is able to shoot down two more. Caelrath, proving his worth, takes down four elves and ensures none return back to Treeshade. With the immediate threat solved, the escaped prisoners become the next issue. Skurn attends the injured elf while the frail, book-carrying human introduces himself. He claims to be a doctor (whatever that is) and says his name is Marshal Theophillis. He says that he was captured and stripped of all his possessions except for his "medical" book. Knowing another PC when they see it, the party welcomes Dr. Theophillis to the party. Dr. Theophillis quickly proves his worth by informing the group that the arrows being used by the elves of Treeshade are necrotic magic and bewizarded to cause continuous bleeding. With all this done, the party goes to sleep in hope of gaining some rest before the big battle.
The next morning is filled with preparation, as war is upon us. With Erikr and Skurn out front, the siege weapons begin to fire on the great wall of Treeshade. After they successfully crumble a good portion of the wall, the ground begins to shake. To everyone's amazement three 12 foot tall iron dwarves rise from the ground in front of the siege weapons and begin marching forward. Without hesitation, the party and the assumed forces of Trigatha and the other groves follow behind. As everyone races forward, sounds of a dwarf are heard trailing the giant wonders screaming out whoops and praises to Rhugarth. The intimidating dwarven triforce reach the gap in the wall first, since no one in the party wanted to get in their way, and annihilate the first two rows of the opposing army. Caelrath takes shots as he continues running up, dropping a couple more elves. Dr. Theophillis produces pretty lights that causes three other elves to drop unconscious. Then, before anyone else can reach the remaining forces, the three iron giants put away their axes, pull out their shields, then release cones of fire into the now fleeing army of Treeshade. With no one left standing their ground and victory insured, the 12 foot iron dwarves sink into the ground.
Leaving cleanup to the NPCs, the party marches forth to the home of the High Druid of Treeshade. Erikr kicks down the door and stomps around the house searching for the leader of Treeshade. While everyone else checks the rooms, Althor goes thieving and snags a thin, book-sized piece of glass from one of the rooms and places it into his bag with no one noticing. Finding nothing, the group begins to doubt anyone is home when the sound of crackling alerts them to one of the rooms. The group runs in to find a fire forming into a humanoid form heading towards them. Skurn tried to extinguish the flame many times, all with no effect. Fortunately, Caelrath more rationally runs outside to get the help of one of the druids who runs in and tells everyone to leave the room. After closing the door behind them the party is almost immediately hit by a shockwave that knocks them all unconscious. Erikr, who managed to withstand the wave's impact, drags everyone outside, including the unconscious druid in the now fire free room. Skurn and Dr. Theophillis wake up right away. Caelrath takes minutes to wake up, the victim of undisciplined dice, and Althor takes just as long, the victim of unskilled rolling. The druid wakes up as well and informs everyone that he returned the fire elemental to where he came from and suggests that the High Druid is still inside somewhere.
The party proceeds to gather some more druids and they encircle the house. They concentrate and are able to make the High Druid appear. The group reenters the house and confronts him. The tricky druid turns Althor into a gecko for having a smart mouth. After half-assed role-playing the druid is convinced to go outside and talk with the High Druids of the other groves. After turning Althor back, he takes a few steps outside before he sinks into the ground. As he disappears into the dirt, lighting fills the sky and strikes at the party. Skurn, despite being in fullplate, is able to avoid any of the strikes. Caelrath and Erikr avoid any major harm but Althor and Dr. Theophillis are greatly wounded. Althor, now a crispy corpse, is dragged inside as well as the weak body of Dr. Theophillis. As the group tries to figure out what to do, they hear commotion outside. The High Druid is floating in the air attacking a group of about 40 druids, who are losing badly. Erikr and Caelrath step outside and get to work firing at the airwalking druid with arrows and bullets. Skurn, feeling useless, gets an idea and throws his knife at the druid (which misses wildly). He then rushes inside and grabs all the knives off the dead thief and runs back out to throw them pathetically as well. Thankfully, Erikr was able to lodge a few bullets into the druid allowing Skurn to heat them up, finishing off the druid. With the now very dead High Druid taken care of, the party attempts to help some of the injured druids. They in turn help the party by resurrecting Althor who had a 67% chance of surviving the spell.... and rolled a 67!!!! (Keep in mind James has rolled horribly the entire night but the one time that it matters... he succeeds...just barely. It was a very intense moment.)
With the party whole again, the matter of figuring things out begins again. With help of Aremar, the group learns from some of the captured elves that the necrotic arrows came from a hooded female who travels through the forest about once a month and sells to Treeshade. Not wanting to sit around for a month, Erikr asks the druids to keep an eye out and inform him if they see this mysterious lady again. In the meantime, Brother Barik has come to see how things went and learns about what happened. After Brother Barik hears about Rhugarth's mighty hand in the victory, the party learns from Aremar that Althor's parents have a house in Unity. All quite curious, Aremar transports the party to the gates of the house, while returning Brother Barik to the temple.
At the gates of Althor's home, Aremar suggests Althor opens the doors first and invite everyone in. The house is found to be in perfect condition. Three floors of a beautiful home with expensive and rare plants surrounding it. Inside is found multiple rooms, a nearly floorwide master bedroom, and a combination lab and library on the third floor. While everyone takes time to eat and relax in the kitchen, Althor, Dr. Theophillis, and Aremar head to the lab and examine the glass object Althor took from the High Druid's house. Aremar informs the thief and the "doctor" that the glass allows one to remove magical text from scrolls, runes from books and other objects, and leaves the source material blank. Althor is awed by the object as a fireball is used to demonstrate the glass sheet's power. Having learned what the object can do the three return downstairs where the rest of the party waits for the next session to find out what happens next.
So what did we learn in this session?
1. Training large groups of elves doesn't provide training experience.
2. Side quests are useful tools to introduce PCs, even on the eve of battle.
3. Sometimes the DM is too lazy to move a jail away from the easy access wall.
4. Coup de grâce is okay as long as no other party member sees you do it.
5. We get it, the pole has notches in it. Whoop di do.
6. Necrotic arrows are heavy because they are evil.
7. Sometimes prayers are answered with giant metal dwarves that do all the hard work, ending a battle in a few rounds.
8. Paladins aren't easily knocked unconscious by banishing fire elementals.
9. Never trust a druid, even if he just wants to go outside.
10. If you have to make a roll, rolling the exact number you need to survive your resurrection is a good one.
11. Make sure no one in your party is a vampire before you invite them into your spell protected house.
PLEASE NOTE: I'll post links to the story written to Skurn's prayer later. Right now, it's late.
We started the session picking up right where we left off. Abidan and Aremar, having just arrived to the Trigatha grove, get to work locating and talking to the High Druids while the party takes time to regale each other with what's been going on the past few days. The two high power NPCs return to inform the group that it's time to prepare for war, so they go off and begin building siege weapons while the group trains the druids in basic combat. At the same time, Skurn wanders off to go pray and returns very late that night after receiving a response. The next few days are spent traveling to Treeshade, allowing the group time to train up some proficiencies.
After reaching a safe place to rest and prepare for battle, the party is called to action by Abidan. He informs the group that he has learned of prisoners being held by the elves of Treeshade. He wants to rescue them before they are accidentally smashed by the siege weapons in the morning, or just the DM using an excuse to give us more stuff to do. Either way, Abidan sneaks off that night towards Treeshade with Erikr, Caelrath, Althor, Elirail, and a few red shirted elves. Before they leave, Abidan gives Skurn a ring to wear and asks him to stay up and keep watch.
At the 20 foot wall surrounding Treeshade, it is decided that only three will go over in order avoid too much noise. Caelrath, Althor, and Elirail are chosen. After spending some time trying to decide how to get up, Caelrath decides to just climb up with which he has no problem doing. Althor and Elirail follow after a few more moments are wasted discussing how Althor could have just climbed up and lowered a rope to his less agile companions. Once on top of the wall the trio find that the prison they are looking for is conveniently located right in front of them. So they climb down and Althor attempts to unlock the door. After several failures, Althor successfully breaks one of his lockpicks in the keyhole, thus preventing any further chances of a stealthy entry. Elirail, being the strongest, is volunteered to kick down the door which he does with ease. Althor and Elirail enter the dark prison while Caelrath remains at the doorway, facing out, to keep an eye out for any trouble. Althor spots a guard on the other side of the room who failed to hear the splintering of the wooden door while he continued to walk in sleep land. Althor, still a little frustrated from his failure with the locked door, decides to employ some stealth. He sneaks up on the guards and frees him of his binds to his now lifeless body. Althor plucks the keys from the dead elf and hands them to Elirail, who happily frees the four prisoners: a useless elf, a strong looking half-elf, a badly injured elf, and a frail looking human carrying a book.
Having completed this side-quest, the trio plus their quartet of jailbirds climb back over the wall. Delicate care is given to the injured elf who is handed down to Althor who amazingly balances on a on 10 foot pole and carries the elf down, using the notches in the pole. After everyone reaches the base of the wall safely, noise is heard over the wall as Erikr says its time for them to go. As the party
The next morning is filled with preparation, as war is upon us. With Erikr and Skurn out front, the siege weapons begin to fire on the great wall of Treeshade. After they successfully crumble a good portion of the wall, the ground begins to shake. To everyone's amazement three 12 foot tall iron dwarves rise from the ground in front of the siege weapons and begin marching forward. Without hesitation, the party and the assumed forces of Trigatha and the other groves follow behind. As everyone races forward, sounds of a dwarf are heard trailing the giant wonders screaming out whoops and praises to Rhugarth. The intimidating dwarven triforce reach the gap in the wall first, since no one in the party wanted to get in their way, and annihilate the first two rows of the opposing army. Caelrath takes shots as he continues running up, dropping a couple more elves. Dr. Theophillis produces pretty lights that causes three other elves to drop unconscious. Then, before anyone else can reach the remaining forces, the three iron giants put away their axes, pull out their shields, then release cones of fire into the now fleeing army of Treeshade. With no one left standing their ground and victory insured, the 12 foot iron dwarves sink into the ground.
Leaving cleanup to the NPCs, the party marches forth to the home of the High Druid of Treeshade. Erikr kicks down the door and stomps around the house searching for the leader of Treeshade. While everyone else checks the rooms, Althor goes thieving and snags a thin, book-sized piece of glass from one of the rooms and places it into his bag with no one noticing. Finding nothing, the group begins to doubt anyone is home when the sound of crackling alerts them to one of the rooms. The group runs in to find a fire forming into a humanoid form heading towards them. Skurn tried to extinguish the flame many times, all with no effect. Fortunately, Caelrath more rationally runs outside to get the help of one of the druids who runs in and tells everyone to leave the room. After closing the door behind them the party is almost immediately hit by a shockwave that knocks them all unconscious. Erikr, who managed to withstand the wave's impact, drags everyone outside, including the unconscious druid in the now fire free room. Skurn and Dr. Theophillis wake up right away. Caelrath takes minutes to wake up, the victim of undisciplined dice, and Althor takes just as long, the victim of unskilled rolling. The druid wakes up as well and informs everyone that he returned the fire elemental to where he came from and suggests that the High Druid is still inside somewhere.
The party proceeds to gather some more druids and they encircle the house. They concentrate and are able to make the High Druid appear. The group reenters the house and confronts him. The tricky druid turns Althor into a gecko for having a smart mouth. After half-assed role-playing the druid is convinced to go outside and talk with the High Druids of the other groves. After turning Althor back, he takes a few steps outside before he sinks into the ground. As he disappears into the dirt, lighting fills the sky and strikes at the party. Skurn, despite being in fullplate, is able to avoid any of the strikes. Caelrath and Erikr avoid any major harm but Althor and Dr. Theophillis are greatly wounded. Althor, now a crispy corpse, is dragged inside as well as the weak body of Dr. Theophillis. As the group tries to figure out what to do, they hear commotion outside. The High Druid is floating in the air attacking a group of about 40 druids, who are losing badly. Erikr and Caelrath step outside and get to work firing at the airwalking druid with arrows and bullets. Skurn, feeling useless, gets an idea and throws his knife at the druid (which misses wildly). He then rushes inside and grabs all the knives off the dead thief and runs back out to throw them pathetically as well. Thankfully, Erikr was able to lodge a few bullets into the druid allowing Skurn to heat them up, finishing off the druid. With the now very dead High Druid taken care of, the party attempts to help some of the injured druids. They in turn help the party by resurrecting Althor who had a 67% chance of surviving the spell.... and rolled a 67!!!! (Keep in mind James has rolled horribly the entire night but the one time that it matters... he succeeds...just barely. It was a very intense moment.)
With the party whole again, the matter of figuring things out begins again. With help of Aremar, the group learns from some of the captured elves that the necrotic arrows came from a hooded female who travels through the forest about once a month and sells to Treeshade. Not wanting to sit around for a month, Erikr asks the druids to keep an eye out and inform him if they see this mysterious lady again. In the meantime, Brother Barik has come to see how things went and learns about what happened. After Brother Barik hears about Rhugarth's mighty hand in the victory, the party learns from Aremar that Althor's parents have a house in Unity. All quite curious, Aremar transports the party to the gates of the house, while returning Brother Barik to the temple.
At the gates of Althor's home, Aremar suggests Althor opens the doors first and invite everyone in. The house is found to be in perfect condition. Three floors of a beautiful home with expensive and rare plants surrounding it. Inside is found multiple rooms, a nearly floorwide master bedroom, and a combination lab and library on the third floor. While everyone takes time to eat and relax in the kitchen, Althor, Dr. Theophillis, and Aremar head to the lab and examine the glass object Althor took from the High Druid's house. Aremar informs the thief and the "doctor" that the glass allows one to remove magical text from scrolls, runes from books and other objects, and leaves the source material blank. Althor is awed by the object as a fireball is used to demonstrate the glass sheet's power. Having learned what the object can do the three return downstairs where the rest of the party waits for the next session to find out what happens next.
So what did we learn in this session?
1. Training large groups of elves doesn't provide training experience.
2. Side quests are useful tools to introduce PCs, even on the eve of battle.
3. Sometimes the DM is too lazy to move a jail away from the easy access wall.
4. Coup de grâce is okay as long as no other party member sees you do it.
5. We get it, the pole has notches in it. Whoop di do.
6. Necrotic arrows are heavy because they are evil.
7. Sometimes prayers are answered with giant metal dwarves that do all the hard work, ending a battle in a few rounds.
8. Paladins aren't easily knocked unconscious by banishing fire elementals.
9. Never trust a druid, even if he just wants to go outside.
10. If you have to make a roll, rolling the exact number you need to survive your resurrection is a good one.
11. Make sure no one in your party is a vampire before you invite them into your spell protected house.
PLEASE NOTE: I'll post links to the story written to Skurn's prayer later. Right now, it's late.
Monday, January 4, 2010
One of those late-night discussions
I've just gotten back from Ackerman's place, where I was hanging out with Ackerman and James. We had a long discussion about our respective histories with RPGs and our views on several different aspects of gaming.
While I may be a young guy, I've had a pretty good range of experience playing and DMing games over the last 11 years or so. I know that isn't long compared to some of the guys I have spoken with, but I can't really help my age. I've developed a lot of ideas about roleplay over the years, and I've noticed that I lean towards what is considered "old school" gaming. I love good RP, and I'm a big fan of groups RPing out a situation instead of simply rolling dice to bypass whatever is going on.
An example I like involves D&D 2e, 3.x, and 4e.
In 2e, you walk nto a tavern and smoke clouds your vision momentarily. The bartender glares at you as he methodically cleans the same mug with the same dingy rag over and over again. Your contact sits in the back of the establishment, cloaked and shadowed, puffing on a pipe. His broken and battered armor shows through his torn clothes, and his rusted, well-worn blade peeks out from his belt. He is gruff and scarred, but smiles at you and gestures for you to approach. His only contribution to your quest is just a whisper of a rumor.
In 3.x, you walk into a bar. You can immediately locate the guy you need to find. He is obviously powerful - why else would he have stuff floating around his head like that? His armor glows faintly and is worn openly. His large bag o magical trinkets sits on the floor next to him, and his weapon is easily 6 feet tall, glowing all sorts of weird colors and made out of a rare and powerful metal. He doles out heaps of magic items to help you on your quest.
In 4e, you don't walk into a tavern or pub or bar unless you want to fight something. Who cares about the RP?
Of course, this is very exaggerated, and it does largely depend on the style of the guy running the game. I'll probably post more on this later, when I'm not about to pass out on my keyboard.
While I may be a young guy, I've had a pretty good range of experience playing and DMing games over the last 11 years or so. I know that isn't long compared to some of the guys I have spoken with, but I can't really help my age. I've developed a lot of ideas about roleplay over the years, and I've noticed that I lean towards what is considered "old school" gaming. I love good RP, and I'm a big fan of groups RPing out a situation instead of simply rolling dice to bypass whatever is going on.
An example I like involves D&D 2e, 3.x, and 4e.
In 2e, you walk nto a tavern and smoke clouds your vision momentarily. The bartender glares at you as he methodically cleans the same mug with the same dingy rag over and over again. Your contact sits in the back of the establishment, cloaked and shadowed, puffing on a pipe. His broken and battered armor shows through his torn clothes, and his rusted, well-worn blade peeks out from his belt. He is gruff and scarred, but smiles at you and gestures for you to approach. His only contribution to your quest is just a whisper of a rumor.
In 3.x, you walk into a bar. You can immediately locate the guy you need to find. He is obviously powerful - why else would he have stuff floating around his head like that? His armor glows faintly and is worn openly. His large bag o magical trinkets sits on the floor next to him, and his weapon is easily 6 feet tall, glowing all sorts of weird colors and made out of a rare and powerful metal. He doles out heaps of magic items to help you on your quest.
In 4e, you don't walk into a tavern or pub or bar unless you want to fight something. Who cares about the RP?
Of course, this is very exaggerated, and it does largely depend on the style of the guy running the game. I'll probably post more on this later, when I'm not about to pass out on my keyboard.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Group updates for the new year...
So, due to some work schedules and all that, we're not entirely sure when we can get the whole group together to play our 2e campaign. I've been going through a lot of my old gaming materials, and the nostalgia for some good old superhero roleplay. I've decided to run a Mutants & Masterminds game for the group, which has gotten a pretty good reception. We decided to run M&M on days where one or more people can't make it to a game. So far, Dan has created a large-sized guy with super-strength, crazy melee abilities, and limited teleportation. John's character will be an insane inventor who has a helmet that transforms him into a superhero. No word on the other guys' characters.
Anyway, Dan and I are about to head out to a concert, bt I'm going to give you an item from my Tobor campaign.
I can't find it though, so nevermind.
Anyway, Dan and I are about to head out to a concert, bt I'm going to give you an item from my Tobor campaign.
I can't find it though, so nevermind.
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Year's Madness.....nah.
2010. A new decade or something.
I'm going through some of my old gaming notebooks right now (cleaning out the gaming bookshelf) and I've found a few funny things from games past. Since there's nothing else for me to really write about, I'll share a little bit.
Rodin: Rodin was a human cleric from a D&D 3.0 game ages ago. He managed to live until level 8 (quite a feat in that particular campaign). Rodin's claim to fame was that he was terrible with any weapon he wielded (a gross understatement) and he could never manage to stop himself from getting impaled. He met his end at the hands of a modified troll creature that hurled a spiked chain THROUGH a layer of plate, the cleric's body, and another layer of plate. The troll then proceeded to swing Rodin around and slam him into every painful surface around.
Renkjar: Another D&D 3.0 character, Renkjar was a half-orc barbarian who was terribly afraid of heights. He could only use greataxes effectively, but often found himself using whatever he could find easily. His claim to fame was massacring a small kobold army, dual-wielding a chair leg and an empty tankard. Renkjar was also a clumsy fellow, and once took out his entire party while they were trying out an experimental zeppelin-like airship. The ship was boarded by some guys riding bats or some such, and Renkjar grabbed a sword and charged at them, trippng and sending the greatsword straight into the weak air bag. The attackers broke off, the ship fell into a forest, and the party never made it out of the wreckage. Renkjar, however, survived. He finally met his end trying to scale the wall of an evil noble's keep, only to fumble horribly and hang himself in his own climbing gear.
Titanium Nuke: A Champions character, Titanium Nuke was a power-armored brick, with horribly customized mechanical powers including the Megaton Punch. With his hands emanating a controlled field of radiation, armored enhancements, and natural strength, the Nukester could hit enemies with enough force to implode their entire family tree. The rest of his abilities were fairly useless. His movement was slow, his flight sucked, and he was only really good at punching things. Titanium Nuke was responsible for destroying his entire team as well as their headquarters when he was experimenting with his armor and clapped his hands in frustration.
Slash'n'Burn: A Mutants & Masterminds character often called "SB", this guy was a combination of the worst superhero archetypes. He was an experimental warrior with weapons contained in his skin that he could use Wolverine-style. These included elbow blades, fingernails, wrist blades, knee blades, etc. While he could only have one set of blades out at a time, his combat style evolved to allow him better control over which part of his body would be used in his next attack. He could flow from elbow jabs to kicks, withdrawing one set of blades and projecting the next in the time it took for the attack to connect. Secondly, he had impeccable control over fire. He eventually learned to create fire, and then to utilize his creation ability in small bursts, wrapping the blades with flame. This guy actually lasted a long time and I really liked him, but he was accidentally killed by his teammate Cryon (a guy in a power suit that had several different ways to freeze people, such as liquid nitrogen sprayguns) during a fight against our team's arch-nemesis, Deathshade.
Testicles: It's pronounced testicleez, much in the way Heraclese and Peraclese are. This was a D&D 3.5 character, a paladin/fighter multiclass who wore no armor and fought unarmed. I made this guy because it seemed like something the guy DMing would hate. Testicles had a large selection of mobility-related feats, allowing him to leap forward 30+ feet and land huge attacks at the end. He spent most of combat leaping around, crushing enemies from above into smoldering craters. I eventually got fed up with the gaming group and we parted ways, so Testicles only lived for about 3 sessions.
Havelock Dakka: A Hive-World assassin in one of the first real games of Dark Heresy I'd ever played. We didn't have time to do much, since it was only a session or 2. His claim to fame was shooting a party member less than a yard from a PC arbitrator. The arbitrator failed every skill test to notice the lasgun shot, but saw the body of said party member virtually explode. Havelock smoothly explained that the other guy shot him in the leg, then mysteriously exploded. The arbitrator again failed every skill test and somehow believed the story. Keep in mind that this whole event happened in the confines of a room of a ship's barracks, just slightly larger than a hallway. Havelock and the rest of the team met their ends when the party began arguing in a dropship en route to a planet's surface. They began firing at each other from their strapped-in positions, and someone shot open the airlock. It was not a pretty way to go.
That's all for now, but there's a good amount of character sheets left. I'll post more at a later date.
I'm going through some of my old gaming notebooks right now (cleaning out the gaming bookshelf) and I've found a few funny things from games past. Since there's nothing else for me to really write about, I'll share a little bit.
Rodin: Rodin was a human cleric from a D&D 3.0 game ages ago. He managed to live until level 8 (quite a feat in that particular campaign). Rodin's claim to fame was that he was terrible with any weapon he wielded (a gross understatement) and he could never manage to stop himself from getting impaled. He met his end at the hands of a modified troll creature that hurled a spiked chain THROUGH a layer of plate, the cleric's body, and another layer of plate. The troll then proceeded to swing Rodin around and slam him into every painful surface around.
Renkjar: Another D&D 3.0 character, Renkjar was a half-orc barbarian who was terribly afraid of heights. He could only use greataxes effectively, but often found himself using whatever he could find easily. His claim to fame was massacring a small kobold army, dual-wielding a chair leg and an empty tankard. Renkjar was also a clumsy fellow, and once took out his entire party while they were trying out an experimental zeppelin-like airship. The ship was boarded by some guys riding bats or some such, and Renkjar grabbed a sword and charged at them, trippng and sending the greatsword straight into the weak air bag. The attackers broke off, the ship fell into a forest, and the party never made it out of the wreckage. Renkjar, however, survived. He finally met his end trying to scale the wall of an evil noble's keep, only to fumble horribly and hang himself in his own climbing gear.
Titanium Nuke: A Champions character, Titanium Nuke was a power-armored brick, with horribly customized mechanical powers including the Megaton Punch. With his hands emanating a controlled field of radiation, armored enhancements, and natural strength, the Nukester could hit enemies with enough force to implode their entire family tree. The rest of his abilities were fairly useless. His movement was slow, his flight sucked, and he was only really good at punching things. Titanium Nuke was responsible for destroying his entire team as well as their headquarters when he was experimenting with his armor and clapped his hands in frustration.
Slash'n'Burn: A Mutants & Masterminds character often called "SB", this guy was a combination of the worst superhero archetypes. He was an experimental warrior with weapons contained in his skin that he could use Wolverine-style. These included elbow blades, fingernails, wrist blades, knee blades, etc. While he could only have one set of blades out at a time, his combat style evolved to allow him better control over which part of his body would be used in his next attack. He could flow from elbow jabs to kicks, withdrawing one set of blades and projecting the next in the time it took for the attack to connect. Secondly, he had impeccable control over fire. He eventually learned to create fire, and then to utilize his creation ability in small bursts, wrapping the blades with flame. This guy actually lasted a long time and I really liked him, but he was accidentally killed by his teammate Cryon (a guy in a power suit that had several different ways to freeze people, such as liquid nitrogen sprayguns) during a fight against our team's arch-nemesis, Deathshade.
Testicles: It's pronounced testicleez, much in the way Heraclese and Peraclese are. This was a D&D 3.5 character, a paladin/fighter multiclass who wore no armor and fought unarmed. I made this guy because it seemed like something the guy DMing would hate. Testicles had a large selection of mobility-related feats, allowing him to leap forward 30+ feet and land huge attacks at the end. He spent most of combat leaping around, crushing enemies from above into smoldering craters. I eventually got fed up with the gaming group and we parted ways, so Testicles only lived for about 3 sessions.
Havelock Dakka: A Hive-World assassin in one of the first real games of Dark Heresy I'd ever played. We didn't have time to do much, since it was only a session or 2. His claim to fame was shooting a party member less than a yard from a PC arbitrator. The arbitrator failed every skill test to notice the lasgun shot, but saw the body of said party member virtually explode. Havelock smoothly explained that the other guy shot him in the leg, then mysteriously exploded. The arbitrator again failed every skill test and somehow believed the story. Keep in mind that this whole event happened in the confines of a room of a ship's barracks, just slightly larger than a hallway. Havelock and the rest of the team met their ends when the party began arguing in a dropship en route to a planet's surface. They began firing at each other from their strapped-in positions, and someone shot open the airlock. It was not a pretty way to go.
That's all for now, but there's a good amount of character sheets left. I'll post more at a later date.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Adventure Continues...
Last night the group restarted the D&D 2nd Edition campaign that Max created and we started playing during the summer. The campaign is focused on a human paladin named Erikr (played by Pete), an elven ranger named Caelrath (played by John), and a dwarven cleric named Skurn (played by myself). There is another member of the party, an elven druid named Uskilian (played by Ackerman, but since he's out of town his character is off humping a tree somewhere). Also, soon to join the party is an elven rogue named Althor played by our newest member James. In fact, this would be James' first time playing D&D so we were looking forward to breaking his RPGing hymen.
So, after familiarizing ourselves with our characters and the world known as Arnor in the common tongue, we jumped into a new morning. The party awakens after a night of celebrating a ceremony held for Skurn the night before in which he become a Purifier of Rhugarth, the dwarven god of warfare. The group is in the barracks of Skurn's clergy. Caelrath awakens hungover, a victim of dwarven ale. Brother Barik brings a letter to Caelrath from Aremar, his father, informing him that his brother is at his father's house in the city above. (As a quick note I'll explain that the city "above" is the same as the city the party is in now. They are one city composed mostly of dwarves and elves and is named Unity) The letter stresses trouble at the Trigatha grove nearby, requiring assistance. Seeing the hook for a new quest before them, the party picks up their bags and marches to the surface.
After nearly a day of travel, the party reaches the home of Aremar. Elirail, Caelrath's brother, is found here with a bandaged arm and tells the group of the oddities going on in the local forest. Animals are being hunted, seemingly for sport, by unknown persons using elven arrows. These same unknown people also fire upon anyone attempting to leave the grove, which is how Elirail was shot and injured. Erikr notices that the bandage around Elirail's arm is bloody. Skurn, remembering that he's a cleric, offers to examine the wound, which is bleeding as if freshly made. Attempting a healing spell, the cleric feels a strong resistance that has the negative effect of causing Elirail to fall unconscious. As Aremar tends to his son, Skurn scans his Purifier's Tome, which he received in last night's ceremony, and locates descriptions of spells of similar effect. Wanting to try out one of the long rituals of healing recommended by the book, Skurn asks Aremar for a location to take Elirail and pray. Aremar offers a special room of his that is filled with piles of magical artifacts. Erikr and Caelrath take the unconscious elf on a cot to the room and close the door, leaving Skurn alone with him to pray.
While the dwarf does his clerical stuff, Erikr asks Aremar about a sword he left there a few days ago for him to study. Aremar explains that he examined the sword but was unable to determine the nature of its magical properties and offers it back to Erikr. Unsatisfied by this news, Erikr returns the sword to his possession. With that taken care of, and having eaten dinner from a cabinet in Aremar's kitchen that to Erikr's amazement provides endless amounts of food, the group heads to bed.
The next morning everyone is amazed to find Elirail at the kitchen table awake and eating. Caelrath realizes that Elirail is eating at a furious rate, consuming anything that comes out of the magical cabinet. After being asked about this Elirail comments that he just can't seem to stop. Hoping to find an answer, Erikr asks about the location of Skurn. Elirail says he didn't see him when he woke up. Erikr and Caelrath head into the room where Skurn was doing his prayer and can't locate him. They tell Aremar about this who thinks for a second before rushing back into the storage room and returning with a simple silver chain necklace in his hand. He informs the party that this necklace, which was located in the room with Skurn, isbewitched bewizarded to send someone of strong faith to another realm to be sacrificed. Detecting the evil of the necklace, Erikr asks as to why Aremar would suggest the cleric enter a room with such an item. To this Aremar presents the point that this magic, although evil, could aid in transportation if it were properly studied. This ignites bickering between Erikr, Caelrath, and Aremar goes for about 10 minutes before Aremar reveals that the necklace's magic will probably kill the cleric in a day and a half. More bickering occurs as the group tries to decide how to save Skurn. Finally, a solution is found by consulting another wizard who informs them that they simply have to disconnect a part of the necklace and the spell will end. Doing so, the party returns to the room to find Skurn there praying.
After Skurn fights back his anger over learning the circumstances of his near-death experience, the necklace is destroyed. Skurn informs the party that Elirail's wound appears to be fine but he is unsure as to the cause of the heavy eating. Aremar offers to look into it while the party heads to the forest to investigate the problem plaguing the grove. The party takes leave, but not before Skurn stops by the Twisting Delver tavern for some Holy Annihilation.
The journey to the forest is a quick two days and Elirail catches up to the party with a nice new haircut. He explains that after his father cut his hair, whatever spell was over him vanished. Before reaching the edge of the forest the party dons their respective armors. As they approach hawks fly overhead, which is unusual since Caelrath has noticed the lack of animal activity since they left the city. Thinking nothing of it the party enters the forest and is ambushed by a group of elves. The opening volley of arrows hits everyone in the party, doing minor damage. Skurn quickly places a prayer on the party before more shots are fired. Caelrath and Elirail fire back while Erikr loads his gun. Amongst the attacking elves is a young rogue named Althor who doesn't fire and steps back into the shadows. Dodging more arrows, Skurn picks up rocks and begins chanting a prayer. Elirail is hit by a few arrows but still manages to return fire, making a kill and inflicting some pain unto others. Caelrath avoids being shot but also avoids hitting anyone while Erikr takes a couple shots, making a couple kills in the process. Althor, wanting to end the fight, removes the arrows from the quiver of one of the attacking elves before attempting to hide again. After completing his prayer, Skurn throws the rocks in his hand at the last of the elves, killing one with a glancing blow from a rock, the elf having been injured previously. The other two stones ignite into flames before hitting another elf, igniting his clothes and burning him to death. Erikr runs in to face the last two elves. Caelrath manages to injure one of the elves while he attempts to grab another arrow from his empty quiver. The rest of the party closes in on the two elves and gets them to surrender. They tie them up before they head over to question Althor who is attempting to hide despite being covered in sunlight. Althor explains that he has no association with these elves and was merely being forced to work off a punishment for trying to steal a ruby in Treeshade. Interrogating the surviving elves and the thief, the party learns that the elves of Treeshade, a community that was once a grove, is killing animals to force the inhabitants of the various groves to spread further in their search for food, where they can easily be picked off and killed. The group decides to continue to the Trigatha grove with the prisoners and allow the council of elders to decide their fate and inform them of the recent information.
At the Trigatha grove the party discovers the elders have left for a large gathering of High Druids from all the groves. After spending five days training to pass the time, the elders return and inform the entire grove that they are going to war against Treeshade. Caelrath volunteers to fight, forcing the rest of the party to aid him in fear of splitting the party. Erikr, wanting to help, talks with the High Druid and convinces him to delay the fight for five days while he and Caelrath return to Unity to search for his Uncle Abidan for help. Before they leave, the prisoners are turned over to the druids while Althor joins the party so that he can be watched to ensure he doesn't continue in his thieving ways, or at least that is the excuse we are using. Skurn stays behind and with the help of a very powerful spell from the High Druid is able to inform his clergy of what is happening in the forest and ask for aid. When Erikr and Caelrath reach Unity they go to Aremar to inform him of the situation as well and in hopes of finding Abidan. Aremar, despite being held to certain rules for wizards, is convinced to help them and transports them to the Temple of Rhugarth where Abidan is arguing with Skurn's clergymen. Investigating, the party learns that Abidan is enraged because the dwarves are choosing to pray instead of raise arms due to their belief that this is great test for their purifier clergyman. Failing to convince the dwarves, the party, with Abidan and Aremar, magically return to the forest, thus ending the session.
So what did we learn in this session?
1. Elves and dwarven ale never mix well.
2. Sometimes a bloody arm is very evil.
3. Don't enter a room full of magical items without being prepared to be sucked into another dimension by one of the said items.
4. Wizards don't like the word "bewitch".
5. Using a d20 that you know rolls low for a saving throw vs. spell isn't very smart.
6. You can end excessive hunger by getting a haircut.
7. Seeing hawks probably means something.
8.It helps to have a higher level character around to take all the hits from enemy fire.
9. When trying to hide, go for the shady spots instead of the one well-lit location
10. If no one in the party has rope, the NPC with you will be happy to supply it.
11. Trees are the ears of a High Druid.
12. Spells involving druids will dehydrate you and will probably give you a bloody nose so bring a Gatorade or something to quench that thirst.
13. When a wizard offers to transport you somewhere and asks you to take his hand, don't. Only take his hand if he says, "No, seriously this time."
So, after familiarizing ourselves with our characters and the world known as Arnor in the common tongue, we jumped into a new morning. The party awakens after a night of celebrating a ceremony held for Skurn the night before in which he become a Purifier of Rhugarth, the dwarven god of warfare. The group is in the barracks of Skurn's clergy. Caelrath awakens hungover, a victim of dwarven ale. Brother Barik brings a letter to Caelrath from Aremar, his father, informing him that his brother is at his father's house in the city above. (As a quick note I'll explain that the city "above" is the same as the city the party is in now. They are one city composed mostly of dwarves and elves and is named Unity) The letter stresses trouble at the Trigatha grove nearby, requiring assistance. Seeing the hook for a new quest before them, the party picks up their bags and marches to the surface.
After nearly a day of travel, the party reaches the home of Aremar. Elirail, Caelrath's brother, is found here with a bandaged arm and tells the group of the oddities going on in the local forest. Animals are being hunted, seemingly for sport, by unknown persons using elven arrows. These same unknown people also fire upon anyone attempting to leave the grove, which is how Elirail was shot and injured. Erikr notices that the bandage around Elirail's arm is bloody. Skurn, remembering that he's a cleric, offers to examine the wound, which is bleeding as if freshly made. Attempting a healing spell, the cleric feels a strong resistance that has the negative effect of causing Elirail to fall unconscious. As Aremar tends to his son, Skurn scans his Purifier's Tome, which he received in last night's ceremony, and locates descriptions of spells of similar effect. Wanting to try out one of the long rituals of healing recommended by the book, Skurn asks Aremar for a location to take Elirail and pray. Aremar offers a special room of his that is filled with piles of magical artifacts. Erikr and Caelrath take the unconscious elf on a cot to the room and close the door, leaving Skurn alone with him to pray.
While the dwarf does his clerical stuff, Erikr asks Aremar about a sword he left there a few days ago for him to study. Aremar explains that he examined the sword but was unable to determine the nature of its magical properties and offers it back to Erikr. Unsatisfied by this news, Erikr returns the sword to his possession. With that taken care of, and having eaten dinner from a cabinet in Aremar's kitchen that to Erikr's amazement provides endless amounts of food, the group heads to bed.
The next morning everyone is amazed to find Elirail at the kitchen table awake and eating. Caelrath realizes that Elirail is eating at a furious rate, consuming anything that comes out of the magical cabinet. After being asked about this Elirail comments that he just can't seem to stop. Hoping to find an answer, Erikr asks about the location of Skurn. Elirail says he didn't see him when he woke up. Erikr and Caelrath head into the room where Skurn was doing his prayer and can't locate him. They tell Aremar about this who thinks for a second before rushing back into the storage room and returning with a simple silver chain necklace in his hand. He informs the party that this necklace, which was located in the room with Skurn, is
After Skurn fights back his anger over learning the circumstances of his near-death experience, the necklace is destroyed. Skurn informs the party that Elirail's wound appears to be fine but he is unsure as to the cause of the heavy eating. Aremar offers to look into it while the party heads to the forest to investigate the problem plaguing the grove. The party takes leave, but not before Skurn stops by the Twisting Delver tavern for some Holy Annihilation.
The journey to the forest is a quick two days and Elirail catches up to the party with a nice new haircut. He explains that after his father cut his hair, whatever spell was over him vanished. Before reaching the edge of the forest the party dons their respective armors. As they approach hawks fly overhead, which is unusual since Caelrath has noticed the lack of animal activity since they left the city. Thinking nothing of it the party enters the forest and is ambushed by a group of elves. The opening volley of arrows hits everyone in the party, doing minor damage. Skurn quickly places a prayer on the party before more shots are fired. Caelrath and Elirail fire back while Erikr loads his gun. Amongst the attacking elves is a young rogue named Althor who doesn't fire and steps back into the shadows. Dodging more arrows, Skurn picks up rocks and begins chanting a prayer. Elirail is hit by a few arrows but still manages to return fire, making a kill and inflicting some pain unto others. Caelrath avoids being shot but also avoids hitting anyone while Erikr takes a couple shots, making a couple kills in the process. Althor, wanting to end the fight, removes the arrows from the quiver of one of the attacking elves before attempting to hide again. After completing his prayer, Skurn throws the rocks in his hand at the last of the elves, killing one with a glancing blow from a rock, the elf having been injured previously. The other two stones ignite into flames before hitting another elf, igniting his clothes and burning him to death. Erikr runs in to face the last two elves. Caelrath manages to injure one of the elves while he attempts to grab another arrow from his empty quiver. The rest of the party closes in on the two elves and gets them to surrender. They tie them up before they head over to question Althor who is attempting to hide despite being covered in sunlight. Althor explains that he has no association with these elves and was merely being forced to work off a punishment for trying to steal a ruby in Treeshade. Interrogating the surviving elves and the thief, the party learns that the elves of Treeshade, a community that was once a grove, is killing animals to force the inhabitants of the various groves to spread further in their search for food, where they can easily be picked off and killed. The group decides to continue to the Trigatha grove with the prisoners and allow the council of elders to decide their fate and inform them of the recent information.
At the Trigatha grove the party discovers the elders have left for a large gathering of High Druids from all the groves. After spending five days training to pass the time, the elders return and inform the entire grove that they are going to war against Treeshade. Caelrath volunteers to fight, forcing the rest of the party to aid him in fear of splitting the party. Erikr, wanting to help, talks with the High Druid and convinces him to delay the fight for five days while he and Caelrath return to Unity to search for his Uncle Abidan for help. Before they leave, the prisoners are turned over to the druids while Althor joins the party so that he can be watched to ensure he doesn't continue in his thieving ways, or at least that is the excuse we are using. Skurn stays behind and with the help of a very powerful spell from the High Druid is able to inform his clergy of what is happening in the forest and ask for aid. When Erikr and Caelrath reach Unity they go to Aremar to inform him of the situation as well and in hopes of finding Abidan. Aremar, despite being held to certain rules for wizards, is convinced to help them and transports them to the Temple of Rhugarth where Abidan is arguing with Skurn's clergymen. Investigating, the party learns that Abidan is enraged because the dwarves are choosing to pray instead of raise arms due to their belief that this is great test for their purifier clergyman. Failing to convince the dwarves, the party, with Abidan and Aremar, magically return to the forest, thus ending the session.
So what did we learn in this session?
1. Elves and dwarven ale never mix well.
2. Sometimes a bloody arm is very evil.
3. Don't enter a room full of magical items without being prepared to be sucked into another dimension by one of the said items.
4. Wizards don't like the word "bewitch".
5. Using a d20 that you know rolls low for a saving throw vs. spell isn't very smart.
6. You can end excessive hunger by getting a haircut.
7. Seeing hawks probably means something.
8.It helps to have a higher level character around to take all the hits from enemy fire.
9. When trying to hide, go for the shady spots instead of the one well-lit location
10. If no one in the party has rope, the NPC with you will be happy to supply it.
11. Trees are the ears of a High Druid.
12. Spells involving druids will dehydrate you and will probably give you a bloody nose so bring a Gatorade or something to quench that thirst.
13. When a wizard offers to transport you somewhere and asks you to take his hand, don't. Only take his hand if he says, "No, seriously this time."
Monday, December 28, 2009
No zombies were harmed in the making of this campaign...
So tonight we decided to run a short one-off All Flesh campaign. Since there were only 3 of us present, Dan whipped some stuff together to run the game, while John and I selected and modified some of the archetypes from the book. I played a biker named Cain, while John settled on a disgruntled ex-bank employee called Charles. Cain was there to rob the place with a few of his biker cronies, while Charles showed up to kill his former boss.
Cain and crew made their way into the 4-story bank armed with shotguns and knives, pausing only to shoot the security guard by the door, blowing his arm clean off. The other bikers came in shortly afterwards and began firing at the other 2 guards. The older guard accidentally discharged his 9mm as he was unholstering it, blasting one of the tellers square in the head. After Cain failed to take a hostage, he went for one of the wounded security guards, executing him while he wiggled in pain on the ground. Cain relieved the guards of their weaponry and made his way towards the counter.
Charles came through the door moments later, storming across the lobby after taking keys and an access card from the armless guard. As he made his way towards the employee elevators in the back of the building, Cain saw him as a potential threat and shot Charles in the back, dropping him to the floor. Cain vaulted over the counter and had a word with Charles. They decided to join up for the time being. Meanwhile, Otis, one of the bikers, had taken a hostage, shoving his shotgun awkwardly into the guy's chin. Cain decided the hostage would be more of a hinderance than a boon and told Otis to get rid of him. Otis simply discharged the gun, barely moving in time to avoid the buckshot from his own shotgun. Cain was grabbed on the shoulder by a hand, and a chunk was bitten out of the shoulder of his leather jacket(one of only two encounters with actual zombies). He paid it no mind. After calling over the other 2 bikers, the group entered the elevator and headed to the 2nd floor.
As the group exited the elevator, Charles stealthily headed towards the office of his former boss, Jan. He tried several times to kick down the door of her office. After failing this, he started unloading shotgun blasts at the handle, missing wildly. Cain tried to follow, but was not nearly as stealthy. A large crowd had gathered by the other elevator, and one of the people spotted him. Cain began firing into the group with his 12-gauge, removing the arm of a bank teller. His second shot blew the head clean off of a security guard. He shifted position and fired again, removing the head of a man in a chicken costume (turns out he was there representing a fast-food joint). He then fired one last shot through a second bank teller before moving to assist Charles, who had entered the room and attempted his assassination.
Turns out that Jan was locked in her office with her receptionist, Tim, and they were "making thunder" on her desk. Charles fired 7 shots from his shotgun at Tim's back, missing EVERY SINGLE TIME. He finally finished off the naked wonder with 3 shots from his pistol. Cain handed Charles his shotgun, which had 2 shells still loaded. Charles Pressed the weapon into the woman's belly and pulled the trigger, then whipped the gun up and put one final load of buckshot into the base of her chin, taking off a good portion of her head in the process. The duo then reloaded their weapons.
We come to find out that Otis and Brute (the other biker) had gotten into a firefight with 3 more security guards at the elevator doors. One guard was dead, as was Brute. As Cain and Charles rounded the corner, Otis dispatched a second guard. Cain leveled his shotgun, demanding that the last security guard drop his gun and utility belt and lead them to the boss man. The guard, Jamal, quickly complied. The executive offices were located on the 4th floor, but before the party could hit the close door button enough times, one of the dead guards lurched forward on his belly, grabbing hold of the doors and jamming them open. Cain simply thought the guy wasn't entirely dead and kicked him out of the doorway. This time, the doors closed smoothly, so up the party went. Expecting an attack, Cain and Charles knelt on the floor in front of Otis and Jamal, opening fire on the 2 guards that awaited them. Charles knocked one flat on his back. The other one took a minor blast in the chest from Cain's shotgun, then a full load of buckshot in the mouth from Otis. Charles then executed the guard still alive. There was nobody else on the floor, so the party approached the large corner office belonging to that bastard George.
As the group neared the office, shots rang out and missed the party horribly. Cain convinced Jamal to open the door to the office and shoot whatever was in there. The group found George hiding behind his desk with a cheap .38 revolver, and a small shoot-out occurred. A lucky shot from Cain's pistol glanced George's head, and he fell behind his desk. Charles rushed the room, taking cover on a side of George's desk, firing at the security guard crouched behind some cabinets. Cain, ignoring the guard, vaulted onto George's desk and intimidated him into dropping the revolver. Cain took the gun and the box of bullets from George's desk, then handcuffed the bloodied executive. The security guard was ordered to stand down, then was executed by Charles. As this was going on, Jamal shot Otis with one of Cain's guns, then made a break for the stairs. The group ignored this, leading George to elevator and down to the third floor. The third floor was also deserted, so George led the party to the vaults and opened them. The first vault was full of safety deposit boxes, so the group didn't even bother with it. The second vault held all the drawers filled with money, and Cain led George into the vault. Unfortunately, there were security guards on either side of the entrance, one of which took off Cain's left ear with a stray bullet. Charles dispatched that guard while Cain took care of the other one. so Otis grabbed a cart and began loading it with packets of money while Charles tossed aside the bundles that he thought held marked bills.
As the group exited the vault, a lone member of the SWAT team came through the door to a stairwell. Charles fired once, racked the shotgun and fired again. The SWAT guy barely had a chance to move as both his legs were removed by the blasts. Cain then put the .38 revolver to George's head and pulled the trigger, as George was no longer useful. The group moved as 5 more SWAT guys came through the doorway, 2 of them heading straight to cover. Charles knocked down 3 of the SWAT members with some lucky shots, then Cain killed 2 of them, destroyed the assault rifle of of one of the guys taking cover, then hit a 4th SWAT member with little effect. SWAT returned fire, shredding Cain's left shoulder. The group moved again, coming around the corner to face the 5 remaining SWAT guys. Charles took a burst of rounds to the head, dropping him instantly. Cain charged towards the elevator, but tripped over the shotgun Charles had dropped. As Cain hit the ground face first, his shotgun skittered across the floor. The SWAT team surrounded Cain as he lay on the ground, seemingly helpless and harmless. They ordered him to give up, but Cain refused. He reached out and grabbed the leg of the nearest SWAT guy, then yanked, pulling the guy on his ass. The rest of the SWAT team opened fire with assault rifles, missing with every single shot. Cain rose, twisted the second shotgun he had slung over his left shoulder, and fired at the SWAT team, barely doing anything. SWAT opened fire and again missed EVERY SHOT. Cain took this opportunity to draw his 9mm pistol, place it to the mask of the guy he yanked down, and blast the poor guy right between the eyes. SWAT fired again, with 3 members missing again. Finally, the fourth scored a lucky hit, dropping Cain with a well-placed burst to the head.
So what did we learn in this session?
1. If you are robbing a bank, have a plan. Don't show up on motorcycles in broad daylight with nothing to conceal your weapons in and nothing to carry money with.
2. Let the strong guy kick down the doors.
3. You don't have to kill everyone you encounter.
4. Never trust hostages.
5. Zombie games don't always involve zombie killing.
6. Put points in dodge so you can live as long as Cain did.
7. Secure an escape route.
8. Clear dice have a tendency to turn on you at the most inopportune moments.
9. If you are going to kill a naked guy with his back to you while he is in the middle of having sex, just make the goddamn called shot.
10. Apparently, doing the worm on the ground allows you to dodge automatic weapon fire.
11. Ignoring the zombie apocalypse leads to epic gun battles, because your targets can actually shoot back.
12. No matter how hard you wish for the epic blaze of glory survival story, it rarely, if ever, happens.
All things considered, it was a great one-off. Everyone enjoyed it, and the legend of Cain and Charles will be immortalized in the annals of game-related stories.
Cain and crew made their way into the 4-story bank armed with shotguns and knives, pausing only to shoot the security guard by the door, blowing his arm clean off. The other bikers came in shortly afterwards and began firing at the other 2 guards. The older guard accidentally discharged his 9mm as he was unholstering it, blasting one of the tellers square in the head. After Cain failed to take a hostage, he went for one of the wounded security guards, executing him while he wiggled in pain on the ground. Cain relieved the guards of their weaponry and made his way towards the counter.
Charles came through the door moments later, storming across the lobby after taking keys and an access card from the armless guard. As he made his way towards the employee elevators in the back of the building, Cain saw him as a potential threat and shot Charles in the back, dropping him to the floor. Cain vaulted over the counter and had a word with Charles. They decided to join up for the time being. Meanwhile, Otis, one of the bikers, had taken a hostage, shoving his shotgun awkwardly into the guy's chin. Cain decided the hostage would be more of a hinderance than a boon and told Otis to get rid of him. Otis simply discharged the gun, barely moving in time to avoid the buckshot from his own shotgun. Cain was grabbed on the shoulder by a hand, and a chunk was bitten out of the shoulder of his leather jacket(one of only two encounters with actual zombies). He paid it no mind. After calling over the other 2 bikers, the group entered the elevator and headed to the 2nd floor.
As the group exited the elevator, Charles stealthily headed towards the office of his former boss, Jan. He tried several times to kick down the door of her office. After failing this, he started unloading shotgun blasts at the handle, missing wildly. Cain tried to follow, but was not nearly as stealthy. A large crowd had gathered by the other elevator, and one of the people spotted him. Cain began firing into the group with his 12-gauge, removing the arm of a bank teller. His second shot blew the head clean off of a security guard. He shifted position and fired again, removing the head of a man in a chicken costume (turns out he was there representing a fast-food joint). He then fired one last shot through a second bank teller before moving to assist Charles, who had entered the room and attempted his assassination.
Turns out that Jan was locked in her office with her receptionist, Tim, and they were "making thunder" on her desk. Charles fired 7 shots from his shotgun at Tim's back, missing EVERY SINGLE TIME. He finally finished off the naked wonder with 3 shots from his pistol. Cain handed Charles his shotgun, which had 2 shells still loaded. Charles Pressed the weapon into the woman's belly and pulled the trigger, then whipped the gun up and put one final load of buckshot into the base of her chin, taking off a good portion of her head in the process. The duo then reloaded their weapons.
We come to find out that Otis and Brute (the other biker) had gotten into a firefight with 3 more security guards at the elevator doors. One guard was dead, as was Brute. As Cain and Charles rounded the corner, Otis dispatched a second guard. Cain leveled his shotgun, demanding that the last security guard drop his gun and utility belt and lead them to the boss man. The guard, Jamal, quickly complied. The executive offices were located on the 4th floor, but before the party could hit the close door button enough times, one of the dead guards lurched forward on his belly, grabbing hold of the doors and jamming them open. Cain simply thought the guy wasn't entirely dead and kicked him out of the doorway. This time, the doors closed smoothly, so up the party went. Expecting an attack, Cain and Charles knelt on the floor in front of Otis and Jamal, opening fire on the 2 guards that awaited them. Charles knocked one flat on his back. The other one took a minor blast in the chest from Cain's shotgun, then a full load of buckshot in the mouth from Otis. Charles then executed the guard still alive. There was nobody else on the floor, so the party approached the large corner office belonging to that bastard George.
As the group neared the office, shots rang out and missed the party horribly. Cain convinced Jamal to open the door to the office and shoot whatever was in there. The group found George hiding behind his desk with a cheap .38 revolver, and a small shoot-out occurred. A lucky shot from Cain's pistol glanced George's head, and he fell behind his desk. Charles rushed the room, taking cover on a side of George's desk, firing at the security guard crouched behind some cabinets. Cain, ignoring the guard, vaulted onto George's desk and intimidated him into dropping the revolver. Cain took the gun and the box of bullets from George's desk, then handcuffed the bloodied executive. The security guard was ordered to stand down, then was executed by Charles. As this was going on, Jamal shot Otis with one of Cain's guns, then made a break for the stairs. The group ignored this, leading George to elevator and down to the third floor. The third floor was also deserted, so George led the party to the vaults and opened them. The first vault was full of safety deposit boxes, so the group didn't even bother with it. The second vault held all the drawers filled with money, and Cain led George into the vault. Unfortunately, there were security guards on either side of the entrance, one of which took off Cain's left ear with a stray bullet. Charles dispatched that guard while Cain took care of the other one. so Otis grabbed a cart and began loading it with packets of money while Charles tossed aside the bundles that he thought held marked bills.
As the group exited the vault, a lone member of the SWAT team came through the door to a stairwell. Charles fired once, racked the shotgun and fired again. The SWAT guy barely had a chance to move as both his legs were removed by the blasts. Cain then put the .38 revolver to George's head and pulled the trigger, as George was no longer useful. The group moved as 5 more SWAT guys came through the doorway, 2 of them heading straight to cover. Charles knocked down 3 of the SWAT members with some lucky shots, then Cain killed 2 of them, destroyed the assault rifle of of one of the guys taking cover, then hit a 4th SWAT member with little effect. SWAT returned fire, shredding Cain's left shoulder. The group moved again, coming around the corner to face the 5 remaining SWAT guys. Charles took a burst of rounds to the head, dropping him instantly. Cain charged towards the elevator, but tripped over the shotgun Charles had dropped. As Cain hit the ground face first, his shotgun skittered across the floor. The SWAT team surrounded Cain as he lay on the ground, seemingly helpless and harmless. They ordered him to give up, but Cain refused. He reached out and grabbed the leg of the nearest SWAT guy, then yanked, pulling the guy on his ass. The rest of the SWAT team opened fire with assault rifles, missing with every single shot. Cain rose, twisted the second shotgun he had slung over his left shoulder, and fired at the SWAT team, barely doing anything. SWAT opened fire and again missed EVERY SHOT. Cain took this opportunity to draw his 9mm pistol, place it to the mask of the guy he yanked down, and blast the poor guy right between the eyes. SWAT fired again, with 3 members missing again. Finally, the fourth scored a lucky hit, dropping Cain with a well-placed burst to the head.
So what did we learn in this session?
1. If you are robbing a bank, have a plan. Don't show up on motorcycles in broad daylight with nothing to conceal your weapons in and nothing to carry money with.
2. Let the strong guy kick down the doors.
3. You don't have to kill everyone you encounter.
4. Never trust hostages.
5. Zombie games don't always involve zombie killing.
6. Put points in dodge so you can live as long as Cain did.
7. Secure an escape route.
8. Clear dice have a tendency to turn on you at the most inopportune moments.
9. If you are going to kill a naked guy with his back to you while he is in the middle of having sex, just make the goddamn called shot.
10. Apparently, doing the worm on the ground allows you to dodge automatic weapon fire.
11. Ignoring the zombie apocalypse leads to epic gun battles, because your targets can actually shoot back.
12. No matter how hard you wish for the epic blaze of glory survival story, it rarely, if ever, happens.
All things considered, it was a great one-off. Everyone enjoyed it, and the legend of Cain and Charles will be immortalized in the annals of game-related stories.
"Pretty ballsy to walk into a room full of...us."
For future reference, here's a list of the guys who I game with or have gamed with, in alphabetical order so nobody can complain. I'll probably reference them at some point in the future. Enjoy if you can.
In the current group:
Ackerman - Ackerman is our resident WarHammer/Dark Heresy guy. We think he's a little crazy, and he drives a car we call the "powder-blue-cock-block-mobile".
Dan - Dan is our pop culture junkie. He supplies the cups for our gaming sessions, an assortment of cups bearing nostalgic cartoon/comic/movie characters. We often fight over the My Little Pony cup. Dan played the legendary Halfling Rogue known only as Milo Tealeaf Baggins.
James - James is the "new guy". I've known him for a long while, but he recently decided to move back to Vegas and game with us.
John - The beacon of apathy that keeps the group centered is John, an engineer responsible for flooding our streets. John has been working on a Star Wars: Saga edition campaign for damn near 4 years now. It better be epic.
Pete - Pete is...Pete. His skills include belittling the rest of the group, insisting that his character has the most ranks in every skill, and playing Dwarves who wield weapons three times their size.
Past members:
Brandon - Brandon was the guy in every group who could somehow roll 25s on a d20. He also liked to wear tuxedos and get naked during the course of a session.
Chris - The guy who got too confused too fast. Didn't have much of a chance.
DM James - A legend in our gaming group, this fellow ran us through hell every Friday night for quite some time. Great DM.
DP - Now in the Air Force, DP played through most of our several year 3.X campaign. He tried his best to ruin what dragons meant for us.
Jen - She never paid attention and used to skinny-dip in the jacuzzi. Not much of a loss.
K-Man - Played through 3.X and ran a modified d20 Past game with us.
Kameron - Everything about this guy screamed "I'M A PALADIN IN REAL LIFE". Pretty cool guy.
Ken - A bit on the weird side, but a great roleplayer.
LJ - Little James was the young guy in our group, a weird goth kid with a fascination for the undead. Great player and a cool guy, once you got to know him.
Marcus - Our resident Fatbeard. He wasn't around too much.
Morgan - This kid was crazy. He always forgot his character sheets or got his characters killed. Every session. Without fail.
Tamara - Weird chick. Roleplayed decently when she wasn't hooking up with some of the other people in the group.
Toke - The amazing token black guy. Toke was one of the most fun guys to game with. Very animated and extremely creative. Toke had a thing for characters who fought unarmed.
In the current group:
Ackerman - Ackerman is our resident WarHammer/Dark Heresy guy. We think he's a little crazy, and he drives a car we call the "powder-blue-cock-block-mobile".
Dan - Dan is our pop culture junkie. He supplies the cups for our gaming sessions, an assortment of cups bearing nostalgic cartoon/comic/movie characters. We often fight over the My Little Pony cup. Dan played the legendary Halfling Rogue known only as Milo Tealeaf Baggins.
James - James is the "new guy". I've known him for a long while, but he recently decided to move back to Vegas and game with us.
John - The beacon of apathy that keeps the group centered is John, an engineer responsible for flooding our streets. John has been working on a Star Wars: Saga edition campaign for damn near 4 years now. It better be epic.
Pete - Pete is...Pete. His skills include belittling the rest of the group, insisting that his character has the most ranks in every skill, and playing Dwarves who wield weapons three times their size.
Past members:
Brandon - Brandon was the guy in every group who could somehow roll 25s on a d20. He also liked to wear tuxedos and get naked during the course of a session.
Chris - The guy who got too confused too fast. Didn't have much of a chance.
DM James - A legend in our gaming group, this fellow ran us through hell every Friday night for quite some time. Great DM.
DP - Now in the Air Force, DP played through most of our several year 3.X campaign. He tried his best to ruin what dragons meant for us.
Jen - She never paid attention and used to skinny-dip in the jacuzzi. Not much of a loss.
K-Man - Played through 3.X and ran a modified d20 Past game with us.
Kameron - Everything about this guy screamed "I'M A PALADIN IN REAL LIFE". Pretty cool guy.
Ken - A bit on the weird side, but a great roleplayer.
LJ - Little James was the young guy in our group, a weird goth kid with a fascination for the undead. Great player and a cool guy, once you got to know him.
Marcus - Our resident Fatbeard. He wasn't around too much.
Morgan - This kid was crazy. He always forgot his character sheets or got his characters killed. Every session. Without fail.
Tamara - Weird chick. Roleplayed decently when she wasn't hooking up with some of the other people in the group.
Toke - The amazing token black guy. Toke was one of the most fun guys to game with. Very animated and extremely creative. Toke had a thing for characters who fought unarmed.
Post Number One
I've finally decided to actually use this blog, as opposed to just having it for no reason. But whatever. My name is Max. I'm an English education major. I live in Las Vegas, which I have gotten used to in the 11 years I've been here. I really enjoy the fact that I can go out at 3 AM and purchase whatever I need, be it drinks, books, a hammer, or a root canal. I read too many comic books, my favorites being a long list of Marvel titles. I also enjoy Stray Bullets, Walking Dead, and a few others here and there. I listen to too much music nobody else likes, which I am absolutely fine with. I watch a few movies here and there, mostly epics and similar things. I measure every movie I see by how it compares in "awesome factor" to Clash of the Titans. I get with my buddies once a week (or so) to play some good old pen & paper RPGs.
I have experience playing every edition of Dungeons & Dragons, d20 Modern (including d20 Past & d20 Future), Mutants & Masterminds, Heroes, Call of Cthulhu, Palladium (sadly), GURPS (never again), Dark Heresy, Legend of the Five Rings 1st and 2nd edition, World of Darkness (not the LARP), Cyberpunk 2013, 2020, & 2027, Kult, Shadowrun 3rd & 4th edition, and a few others I can't remember. I have DM/GM experience with all editions of Dungeons & Dragons except 4th, d20 Past, Modern, & Future, Mutants & Masterminds, Heroes, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I am currently familiarizing myself with a few new systems, such as Alternity, Fading Suns, Star Wars d20 Saga edition, Unhallowed Metropolis, and Summerland.
Enough with the lists. I decided to make this blog to share my experiences as both a player and a DM/GM with my gaming group. Along the way, I'll try to share things that worked for me or failed horribly, and maybe upload some notes and maps from campaigns past.
We'll see.
I have experience playing every edition of Dungeons & Dragons, d20 Modern (including d20 Past & d20 Future), Mutants & Masterminds, Heroes, Call of Cthulhu, Palladium (sadly), GURPS (never again), Dark Heresy, Legend of the Five Rings 1st and 2nd edition, World of Darkness (not the LARP), Cyberpunk 2013, 2020, & 2027, Kult, Shadowrun 3rd & 4th edition, and a few others I can't remember. I have DM/GM experience with all editions of Dungeons & Dragons except 4th, d20 Past, Modern, & Future, Mutants & Masterminds, Heroes, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I am currently familiarizing myself with a few new systems, such as Alternity, Fading Suns, Star Wars d20 Saga edition, Unhallowed Metropolis, and Summerland.
Enough with the lists. I decided to make this blog to share my experiences as both a player and a DM/GM with my gaming group. Along the way, I'll try to share things that worked for me or failed horribly, and maybe upload some notes and maps from campaigns past.
We'll see.
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