Great session last night.
We're doing the Scepter Tower adventure right now, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I think that it was the perfect module for me to have chosen, given my goals - it does all the prep for the fights encounters for me, cool terrain and balanced monsters, and leaves all the rp stuff pretty much in potentia. There are lots of interesting NPCs briefly described but nothing to tell you exactly how to use them. Which means that I can do what I like with them.
Last night the group headed on over to the dragonborn Vannak's camp, since they'd deduced that he was the one holding the elf girl who'd recently seen the Lady. He wasn't adverse to a chat with the adventurers who'd cleaned out the ramparts, but seemed rather morose and low spirited. I added in an NPC of my own, a busybody uncle who wanted Vannak to go home already and stop messing about with this ridiculous quest to talk to a ghost. Some of their clan members had died on this stupid jaunt, and now they were dishonouring themselves with the kidnapping and (admittedly mild) torture of an innocent elf. The party members didn't do very well through the skill challenge and didn't get much out of Vannak in terms of information. Instead they ended up precipitating a quarrel between nephew and uncle. The uncle, having shamed Vannak in front of his men, further exerted his new power by handing the elf over to the party and the lot of them were more or less tossed out the camp.
The next day, it was all over Spellguard. Vannak had fallen on his sword. The remainder of his party was packing up to go home.
When I told the group this (I had an NPC come into Clewsoro's camp where they are staying and start gossiping about it) I could see on their faces that a) this was a surprise and b) they actually felt bad about it. I think getting your PCs to actually give a crap about an NPC deserves some kind of DMing gold star. It certainly felt good. Not to mention that we spent the whole first half of the session roleplaying and even my most hardcore hack n slash player seemed to enjoy himself. They had some bad rolls, but they were really smart about how they handled their situation, which is why I ended up letting them leave with the elf anyway.
I came into the Vannak encounter with hardly any notes. I had three or four ways that it could end, I knew all the NPC's motivations and goals, and I just kind of ran with it. I think that's where my biggest strength as a DM lies, in off the cuff improvisation. The risk that comes with that is the possibility that I might paint myself into a corner. Having the possible outcomes in mind throughout helped with that quite a bit.
We're doing the Scepter Tower adventure right now, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I think that it was the perfect module for me to have chosen, given my goals - it does all the prep for the fights encounters for me, cool terrain and balanced monsters, and leaves all the rp stuff pretty much in potentia. There are lots of interesting NPCs briefly described but nothing to tell you exactly how to use them. Which means that I can do what I like with them.
Last night the group headed on over to the dragonborn Vannak's camp, since they'd deduced that he was the one holding the elf girl who'd recently seen the Lady. He wasn't adverse to a chat with the adventurers who'd cleaned out the ramparts, but seemed rather morose and low spirited. I added in an NPC of my own, a busybody uncle who wanted Vannak to go home already and stop messing about with this ridiculous quest to talk to a ghost. Some of their clan members had died on this stupid jaunt, and now they were dishonouring themselves with the kidnapping and (admittedly mild) torture of an innocent elf. The party members didn't do very well through the skill challenge and didn't get much out of Vannak in terms of information. Instead they ended up precipitating a quarrel between nephew and uncle. The uncle, having shamed Vannak in front of his men, further exerted his new power by handing the elf over to the party and the lot of them were more or less tossed out the camp.
The next day, it was all over Spellguard. Vannak had fallen on his sword. The remainder of his party was packing up to go home.
When I told the group this (I had an NPC come into Clewsoro's camp where they are staying and start gossiping about it) I could see on their faces that a) this was a surprise and b) they actually felt bad about it. I think getting your PCs to actually give a crap about an NPC deserves some kind of DMing gold star. It certainly felt good. Not to mention that we spent the whole first half of the session roleplaying and even my most hardcore hack n slash player seemed to enjoy himself. They had some bad rolls, but they were really smart about how they handled their situation, which is why I ended up letting them leave with the elf anyway.
I came into the Vannak encounter with hardly any notes. I had three or four ways that it could end, I knew all the NPC's motivations and goals, and I just kind of ran with it. I think that's where my biggest strength as a DM lies, in off the cuff improvisation. The risk that comes with that is the possibility that I might paint myself into a corner. Having the possible outcomes in mind throughout helped with that quite a bit.
Well I killed my first player last session. Ryan took it pretty well and was rolling up a Shaman to replace his Warden before the rest of us were even out of combat. I still felt bad, which means I suppose that I don't make the cut as a DM. I think what it really means is that neither Shawn nor I were building encounters correctly and that we as players are really sloppy about tactics. I've been trimming the encounters to make up for the fact that there are only four characters instead of five, but they are still having a hard go of it. The adventure gives lots of opportunity to use environment, they just aren't really taking advantage yet.
My players decided, immediately upon arrival at the ruins of Spellguard, to forgo sleeping or eating or talking to anyone or acting like people who have just completed an arduous trek through the wilderness and just set off through the ruins on the rumor of kobolds. One player who shall not be named, oh let's call him Bob, didn't listen to a word that I said all through my opening scene setting and only looked up from reading his power cards when he heard the word "kobolds." And then he didn't even remember what they were called. "Let's go - kill the things."
Sometimes it's hard being a DM.
My players decided, immediately upon arrival at the ruins of Spellguard, to forgo sleeping or eating or talking to anyone or acting like people who have just completed an arduous trek through the wilderness and just set off through the ruins on the rumor of kobolds. One player who shall not be named, oh let's call him Bob, didn't listen to a word that I said all through my opening scene setting and only looked up from reading his power cards when he heard the word "kobolds." And then he didn't even remember what they were called. "Let's go - kill the things."
Sometimes it's hard being a DM.
I should just quit attempting to do write ups for any campaigns that I play in or run, it never has enough steam to make it to the finish line.
BUT the online DRYH went pretty well, all in all. We wandered quite a bit right at the start until I realized that this particular group needed more direction and encouragement than my previous one. Once I manned up (metaphorically) and started to be more active in moving the story forward, things got more exciting. I feel like all the characters got a satisfying end and a couple of moments to shine. Once again, one of my players ended up dethroning the Wax King and then taking his place. I have to wonder if it's something that I'm doing, or if his amibiguous backstory just lends itself to this kind of interpretation about his intrinsic nature. In my version of the City, he's the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Meanwhile, back in meatspace, my Tues night group and I were kicking around various ideas about what to do while Shawn's DM battery recharges. Originally I wanted to run some Spirit of the Century, and I still intend to do so at some future time, but what we settled out on was something very basic. I'm going to run an H1 official D&D 4th ed Adventure Module and everyone will roll up new characters. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. I feel like my DMing in 4th ed is weak and I can't really figure out why. Letting the module do all the heavy lifting might shed some light on this. Also everyone is going to choose character classes and personalities that are contrary to their natural preferences.
I'm hoping this might shake us loose from the rut we seem to be in. Lately our gaming sessions have seemed sort of unexciting and almost drudging. The last session of Shawn's campaign was entirely outside the norm of what we've done before - a well laid out dungeon crawl - and we all really savoured it. Maybe in our desire to present complex and intellectually challenging stories, we've been neglecting the base tenents that D&D is built upon - killing monsters and taking their stuff. More exciting battles, with terrain and traps and interesting monster tactics are definitely the focus of the module I chose, with very minimal overarching intrigue so that should be a refreshing change. I want to run it pretty fast and loose on the roleplaying side, too. I'll be sticking to the flavour text and module descriptions of the various NPCs, resisting the impulse to tart it up with all kinds of political complexity.
Sometimes you just want vanilla, you know?
BUT the online DRYH went pretty well, all in all. We wandered quite a bit right at the start until I realized that this particular group needed more direction and encouragement than my previous one. Once I manned up (metaphorically) and started to be more active in moving the story forward, things got more exciting. I feel like all the characters got a satisfying end and a couple of moments to shine. Once again, one of my players ended up dethroning the Wax King and then taking his place. I have to wonder if it's something that I'm doing, or if his amibiguous backstory just lends itself to this kind of interpretation about his intrinsic nature. In my version of the City, he's the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Meanwhile, back in meatspace, my Tues night group and I were kicking around various ideas about what to do while Shawn's DM battery recharges. Originally I wanted to run some Spirit of the Century, and I still intend to do so at some future time, but what we settled out on was something very basic. I'm going to run an H1 official D&D 4th ed Adventure Module and everyone will roll up new characters. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. I feel like my DMing in 4th ed is weak and I can't really figure out why. Letting the module do all the heavy lifting might shed some light on this. Also everyone is going to choose character classes and personalities that are contrary to their natural preferences.
I'm hoping this might shake us loose from the rut we seem to be in. Lately our gaming sessions have seemed sort of unexciting and almost drudging. The last session of Shawn's campaign was entirely outside the norm of what we've done before - a well laid out dungeon crawl - and we all really savoured it. Maybe in our desire to present complex and intellectually challenging stories, we've been neglecting the base tenents that D&D is built upon - killing monsters and taking their stuff. More exciting battles, with terrain and traps and interesting monster tactics are definitely the focus of the module I chose, with very minimal overarching intrigue so that should be a refreshing change. I want to run it pretty fast and loose on the roleplaying side, too. I'll be sticking to the flavour text and module descriptions of the various NPCs, resisting the impulse to tart it up with all kinds of political complexity.
Sometimes you just want vanilla, you know?
We started out with a bang, picking up with Arnold, laying in his bed, listening to the phantom ticking. He finds a clockwork device in his showerhead, and then a series of other devices scattered all through his house, which he methodically gathers up and smashes to shit on his front walk with a hammer. The last one is a larger thing up in his attic which spills out a tickertape-like paper reel with his every move neatly typed up and recorded. While he's burning the reams of paper on his front walk, his neighbors by this time understandably somewhat pissed, he notices those damn kids again, skulking around the side of his house. Hefting the hammer, he follows them out through the back alley, and finally manages a good look at one.
The kid doesn't have a face.
And down the alley a ways is what looks remarkably like an unmarked cop car, two inhabitants in the front seat both staring at him. When he gets closer, that ticking sound starts up again. The cops are ticking, and each has a little clockwork key sticking from the top of his head, ticking neatly around in circles. They even have a clockwork radio on the dash, which is ... ticking. Really, it's too much to bear. Arnold puts his hammer through the face of the one who gets out to talk to him, and the other throws the car in reverse and tears away, radioing for help. Before long, sirens start up in the distance.
Arnold flees the scene, heading for a local convenience store, pursued by the sound of sirens and also the phantom, faceless kids. He steals a truck and manages to run one of the kids over, only to find that once dead, she looks very much like a normal kid, if a normal kid was struck by a vehicle and had her brains dashed out against a brick wall. Arnold gets the truck moving again, knocking the bloodstained windsheild out, and loses his tail of oddly mismatched police cars, only to crash at the mouth of an alley. He's thrown clear, and when he manages to get himself to his feet and focus in on his surroundings, he's not where he should be. The street is nowhere in his neighborhood. From the rooftops all around, he hears the sound of hundreds of doors slamming shut, as the sonorous tones of a clocktower tolls out the hour. Thirteen o'clock.
The kid doesn't have a face.
And down the alley a ways is what looks remarkably like an unmarked cop car, two inhabitants in the front seat both staring at him. When he gets closer, that ticking sound starts up again. The cops are ticking, and each has a little clockwork key sticking from the top of his head, ticking neatly around in circles. They even have a clockwork radio on the dash, which is ... ticking. Really, it's too much to bear. Arnold puts his hammer through the face of the one who gets out to talk to him, and the other throws the car in reverse and tears away, radioing for help. Before long, sirens start up in the distance.
Arnold flees the scene, heading for a local convenience store, pursued by the sound of sirens and also the phantom, faceless kids. He steals a truck and manages to run one of the kids over, only to find that once dead, she looks very much like a normal kid, if a normal kid was struck by a vehicle and had her brains dashed out against a brick wall. Arnold gets the truck moving again, knocking the bloodstained windsheild out, and loses his tail of oddly mismatched police cars, only to crash at the mouth of an alley. He's thrown clear, and when he manages to get himself to his feet and focus in on his surroundings, he's not where he should be. The street is nowhere in his neighborhood. From the rooftops all around, he hears the sound of hundreds of doors slamming shut, as the sonorous tones of a clocktower tolls out the hour. Thirteen o'clock.
We wrapped up the second leg of Shawn's D&D 4th campaign last night with a classic dungeon crawl. Lots of fun traps and interesting puzzles, including "one size only fits one" people skins that we had to match up to their former (now skinned) owners. And a nice little battle with a mind flayer to top it off.
And after all my wah wah about the lack of real rp in the campaign, it was this session that was the most fun. I'm trying to figure out why.
And after all my wah wah about the lack of real rp in the campaign, it was this session that was the most fun. I'm trying to figure out why.
I got up this morning with the full intent of actually working, but the Mad City wouldn't let me. Instead I spent about an hour looking over character sheets and thinking up Nightmares.
The one previous game of DRYH that I ran, I 100% winged it. I had no plan, I had a couple of Nightmares that I'd thought up ahead of time, and I let the City do the driving, as it were. It was a lot of fun, that game, and I think the players had good resolution, but I did feel like the story could have been tighter. There was some random wandering around, some encounters with NPCs that didn't have any actual purpose other than to demonstrate how Very Weird This All Is, which was all good fun but didn't really satisfy me.
So this time around I want to attempt to streamline things, make sure that whatever is happening to the Awakened is meaningful and important. And at the same time, keep the story free and loose and off that goddamned railroad. This is going to be a challenge. The best way I can think of is to take a look at their sheets and make sure that everyone they meet is interested in them for a particular reason. Which means making some Nightmares just for them.
Lucky, lucky PCs!
There's a part in the supplemental Don't Lose Your Mind that talks about drawing Madness talents from the questions on the character sheets, and how each type of question can guide you into choosing a Talent that is really tailored to the person. We dipped a bit into this in our character creation, and it gave us George's Talent of manifesting musicals around him. Can't wait to see that one in action. It seemed to me that this was also an ideal way to create Nightmares. The books don't talk much about this creation process - there's about a page in DRYH that talks about looking for common threads among the characters and also about manifesting modern fears - and I think that Fred probably assumed that if you'd gotten that far, you could extrapolate from how the rest of the game is described. In a game that's as free form as I really need touchstones like personally tailored Nightmares to prevent the wheels from spinning. And I came up with a doozy. I think. I hope. I guess we'll see.
The one previous game of DRYH that I ran, I 100% winged it. I had no plan, I had a couple of Nightmares that I'd thought up ahead of time, and I let the City do the driving, as it were. It was a lot of fun, that game, and I think the players had good resolution, but I did feel like the story could have been tighter. There was some random wandering around, some encounters with NPCs that didn't have any actual purpose other than to demonstrate how Very Weird This All Is, which was all good fun but didn't really satisfy me.
So this time around I want to attempt to streamline things, make sure that whatever is happening to the Awakened is meaningful and important. And at the same time, keep the story free and loose and off that goddamned railroad. This is going to be a challenge. The best way I can think of is to take a look at their sheets and make sure that everyone they meet is interested in them for a particular reason. Which means making some Nightmares just for them.
Lucky, lucky PCs!
There's a part in the supplemental Don't Lose Your Mind that talks about drawing Madness talents from the questions on the character sheets, and how each type of question can guide you into choosing a Talent that is really tailored to the person. We dipped a bit into this in our character creation, and it gave us George's Talent of manifesting musicals around him. Can't wait to see that one in action. It seemed to me that this was also an ideal way to create Nightmares. The books don't talk much about this creation process - there's about a page in DRYH that talks about looking for common threads among the characters and also about manifesting modern fears - and I think that Fred probably assumed that if you'd gotten that far, you could extrapolate from how the rest of the game is described. In a game that's as free form as I really need touchstones like personally tailored Nightmares to prevent the wheels from spinning. And I came up with a doozy. I think. I hope. I guess we'll see.
Rabbit had to bail just as we were finishing up character creation, so it was just George and Mack for this session.
Ever since Buddy melted away into nothing, Mack’s been talking to the people who used to know him, and finding out that they don’t remember him anymore. Everyone except one of Buddy’s (many) ex-bosses, a guy named George who manages the Old Navy outlet in a local mall. He remembers Buddy and even has some pictures of him from the last office birthday party, but when Mack shows up to see them, Buddy isn’t in them. There’s a weird grey blur where he should be, and the girl he had his arm around has forgotten him entirely. Within the week, even that grey blur is gone from the pictures, but not before briefly turning into Buddy’s screaming, tortured face right before Mack’s horrified eyes. Worst of all, pictures of Mack are starting to look a little…grey…
Desperate to maintain contact with the only other person who seems immune to the memory loss that’s going around, Mack calls up George. George doesn’t pick up, but suddenly some odd operator is offering to make the connection regardless. All it’s going to cost is a summer day.
George isn’t really in a position to talk. Taken by a sudden upsurge of loathing for his workplace, and drawn on by a series of green lights that seem to be lighting his way somewhere, opening a path for him, he’s driven right by the mall and off into somewhere new and strange. As much as he was yearning for something new in his life, being boxed in by bizarre policemen at the corner of
The helpful operator is back on the line, upselling their new product: transdimensional portals, for the low, low price of the fourth year of your life. I mean, you don’t really remember much from that year anyway, right? Not even at the age of reason yet, nothing important. You won’t even miss it. Mack balks, and helpful operator lady offers the option of copay. George isn’t interested in haggling. Do it! The transdimensional portal turns out to be Mack’s phone, which eats him, and then coughs him back out again onto George’s rooftop, both of them minus half of the year they were four. After a moment, Mack’s phone coughs out a receipt, too.
Together at last, they try to take stock. Doorways and windows dot every surface. The whole place is laced with walkways and bridges from roof to roof in a seeming unbroken warren of paths and connections. Oh, and there are hundreds of crashed planes, their shattered fuselages protruding from the roofs and walls around them.
Plus, they’re being watched. A kid in a NYG cap is peering around the stairwell of their roof. He comes out when hailed, cocky and bratty and about ten. According to him, most of the doors and windows up on the roofs lead to places that they don’t want to be, but he can take them to a door that leads back to the
But the sky is going dark, even though it’s only midafternoon. The kid looks up, curses someone named Mr. Time, and starts booking it for their target, a door standing partway open on the next rooftop over. The stars are sliding by overhead like a time elapse film, and just as the kid reaches it, the door claps shut with a bang. All the doors do, as the bell from some monstrous clock tower begins to toll the hour. It’s 13 o clock, and they’re stuck in the
I'm running DRYH for some friends online, using this nifty online dice roller designed for the game: http://www.redkingdreams.com/dice/dryh.c
We did character creation together and then one of the players had to bail, so it was a short session. Julian had played before, so I took the other two guys through a little bit of gameplay just to get them up to speed. I'll be using this blog to record the session so I have something to look back at when I (inevitably) start forgetting details.
Some great powers and paths here, can't wait to start messing with them for real.
We did character creation together and then one of the players had to bail, so it was a short session. Julian had played before, so I took the other two guys through a little bit of gameplay just to get them up to speed. I'll be using this blog to record the session so I have something to look back at when I (inevitably) start forgetting details.
Some great powers and paths here, can't wait to start messing with them for real.
Characters:
Arnold Ross (Julian), a misanthropic accountant with OCD, he’s being tailed by crowds of feral, ninja, light fearing children and kept awake by the ticking of a clock that doesn’t exist.
Exhaustion Talent: Puzzle solving, pattern resolution, the ability to see things in their proper place.
Madness Talent: “Things Fall Apart / The Center Cannot Hold” Chaos is the bane of his life, but also his eager, willing dog.
Jim “Mack” Mackinaw (Allen), a slacker suffering from existential angst. His best buddy fell asleep and then slowly stopped, well, existing. Now everyone’s forgotten that he ever did exist, and Mack thinks he’s next…
Exhaustion Talent: Con artist – he’s really really good at making people believe him.
Madness Talent: “Out of Step” He can take a step outside the consensual reality for a period of time. People and events can’t affect him. While this is useful, it’s also likely to be fairly fundamentally disturbing, given his concerns.
George Wilkinson (Mike), a highly upset middle manager. He’s a Negative Nancy, the kind of guy who never gets invited to the bar, and makes his coworkers want to stick a plastic fork in his eye at office parties. Underneath, though, he just wishes he were happy, that the world was a better place. He just wants to sing.
Exhaustion Talent: He’s a tough son of a bitch, for such a middle aged office softy.
Madness Talent: “Part of Your World” He can make you want to sing. He wants you to see his vest. Say it loud and there's music playing, say it soft and it's almost like praying. Once more, with feeling!
I don't usually do New Year's Resolutions but looking back at 2008 I can't really say that I accomplished anything major on a personal level, so here goes:
1) I will finish my nearly completel fantasy novel first draft.
2) I will go to the gym regularly.
3) I will run or play at least three new tabletop RPG systems.
That last one is the only one sort of semi blog relevant, of course. It's pretty close to the time where Shawn wants to hand off the reins on our mid week sessions, and I'm contemplating running a quick Spirit of the Century instead of the 4.0 scenario I've been planning. Then there's Dogs in the Vineyard, which I have the PDF for, and Erik says he's willing to run some Unknown Armies and I'm invited, so I think I can manage it, if I can convince our group that they want to try new things.
Ryan is usually up for anything, but Shawn is concerned that I'll poach players away from his longer campaign if SotC drags out longer than a couple sessions, and Rob tends to like games in which he gets to hit things a lot. SotC probably fulfills that need, but Dogs? From the look of it, heavy, involved roleplay is a core requirement. All the relationship stuff and the basic premise and so on. And to be honest that's what draws me to the game, so I'm not really willing to try and make it a fighty-fight sort of thing, although the gunfight mechanics look pretty fun.
I also want to run some more Don't Rest Your Head. That series of sessions was the gaming high point of 2008. If I could find some kind of online dice rolling app I'd even try running it online, over Skype or something, because I know people who don't live in my city who were gagging to play some after GenCon. Any suggestions, oh my multitude of readers? ;)
1) I will finish my nearly completel fantasy novel first draft.
2) I will go to the gym regularly.
3) I will run or play at least three new tabletop RPG systems.
That last one is the only one sort of semi blog relevant, of course. It's pretty close to the time where Shawn wants to hand off the reins on our mid week sessions, and I'm contemplating running a quick Spirit of the Century instead of the 4.0 scenario I've been planning. Then there's Dogs in the Vineyard, which I have the PDF for, and Erik says he's willing to run some Unknown Armies and I'm invited, so I think I can manage it, if I can convince our group that they want to try new things.
Ryan is usually up for anything, but Shawn is concerned that I'll poach players away from his longer campaign if SotC drags out longer than a couple sessions, and Rob tends to like games in which he gets to hit things a lot. SotC probably fulfills that need, but Dogs? From the look of it, heavy, involved roleplay is a core requirement. All the relationship stuff and the basic premise and so on. And to be honest that's what draws me to the game, so I'm not really willing to try and make it a fighty-fight sort of thing, although the gunfight mechanics look pretty fun.
I also want to run some more Don't Rest Your Head. That series of sessions was the gaming high point of 2008. If I could find some kind of online dice rolling app I'd even try running it online, over Skype or something, because I know people who don't live in my city who were gagging to play some after GenCon. Any suggestions, oh my multitude of readers? ;)
Terry Pratchett is now Sir Terry Pratchett, by the Queen's grace, for services to literature. I am so pleased.
www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html
www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html
Fate 3.0, actually. I was out and about and ended up at Imagine Games and Hobbies, where I purchased the Spirit of the Century sourcebook. Very interesting. More complicated than DRYH but somewhat reminiscent in feel. Evil Hat seems to be into cooperative storytelling, which I am also very into. Maybe I'll find a opportunity to run a one-off of this - they advertise it as a "pickup" game.
Yea, I abandoned this place as I have done to lo, many online journals before it. Just lost interest. In blogging about the campaign I was running as well as running the campaign I was running. And instead of copping to my disinterest to my players and putting it out on the table - what should we do about this? - I just went on running it in a distinctly lackluster manner. Sorry, guys.
Shawn is running a campaign now, based on a 3.5 city build called Ptolus. It's pretty damned fun so far. I've been thinking about why I lost interest in my campaign and what it is about this one that is holding my interest. I think mine just dragged on way too long for the amount of actual plot I had, and I failed to get the players really committed to what was going on. The best part of it was the two sessions that were set in a city, and had the players clashing with local authorities and interacting with NPCs more than once. I spent most of the campaign trying to give my players what I thought they wanted, not what really gets me interested in a game.
Shawn's story is winding up, or at least the first leg of a longer, more involved story that he has percolating, and he advanced the idea of each of us taking the reins for a short 1-2 session story set in Ptolus. This would give him a break and let the others have a shot behind the screen. Rob's been talking about running a campaign at some point, and a short test run of how the dice roll on the other side would be good practice. And I've been thinking a lot about how my campaign worked (and didn't work) and I'd like to give it another shot.
If I go on with this journal, I think it'll be more in this vein, rather than recaps of sessions. I'm following the Burning Alpha of the Dresden Files rpg that Evil Hat is developing with interest, I'm attempting to get my friend Erik to run some Unknown Armies, I would like to do some more DRYH if I can get anyone interested (anyone know a good application to roll dice online?). D&D is fun, but there's a whole world of other tabletop RPGs out there that I've hardly begun to see.
Shawn is running a campaign now, based on a 3.5 city build called Ptolus. It's pretty damned fun so far. I've been thinking about why I lost interest in my campaign and what it is about this one that is holding my interest. I think mine just dragged on way too long for the amount of actual plot I had, and I failed to get the players really committed to what was going on. The best part of it was the two sessions that were set in a city, and had the players clashing with local authorities and interacting with NPCs more than once. I spent most of the campaign trying to give my players what I thought they wanted, not what really gets me interested in a game.
Shawn's story is winding up, or at least the first leg of a longer, more involved story that he has percolating, and he advanced the idea of each of us taking the reins for a short 1-2 session story set in Ptolus. This would give him a break and let the others have a shot behind the screen. Rob's been talking about running a campaign at some point, and a short test run of how the dice roll on the other side would be good practice. And I've been thinking a lot about how my campaign worked (and didn't work) and I'd like to give it another shot.
If I go on with this journal, I think it'll be more in this vein, rather than recaps of sessions. I'm following the Burning Alpha of the Dresden Files rpg that Evil Hat is developing with interest, I'm attempting to get my friend Erik to run some Unknown Armies, I would like to do some more DRYH if I can get anyone interested (anyone know a good application to roll dice online?). D&D is fun, but there's a whole world of other tabletop RPGs out there that I've hardly begun to see.
So my campaign is winding down - or, rather, up. I can see perhaps three more sessions, depending on what the players do or don't do. It's been an interesting ride. I look back and think of it rather like a journeyman novel. Not the best thing ever, but workmanlike in its way, and a fantastic teacher. I think my next campaign will be highly superior, though I have a fondness for the weird little moments this one provided.
The challenge right now, is to wrap everything up in a climactic and hopefully satisfying way. I have a several ideas about that, which I think will work, but it's still the thing that I've spent the most energy worrying about. As I know from trying to write stories, the ending is always the real bitch.
Shawn has expressed a wish to run our next campaign, which will be a nice change for me. I'm looking forward to playing. I do think, though, that my natural place is behind the screen. And I already have some ideas for the next campaign...
Seriously, it's like crack.
The challenge right now, is to wrap everything up in a climactic and hopefully satisfying way. I have a several ideas about that, which I think will work, but it's still the thing that I've spent the most energy worrying about. As I know from trying to write stories, the ending is always the real bitch.
Shawn has expressed a wish to run our next campaign, which will be a nice change for me. I'm looking forward to playing. I do think, though, that my natural place is behind the screen. And I already have some ideas for the next campaign...
Seriously, it's like crack.
As promised, pirates! And some more pirates! And cannons and secret tunnels and a city under siege in a world gone mad! Or something!
A quick pause to wrap the undead legs in silver and loot the shadar-kai corpses, and the gang heads back up into the city. They get Thing!hand to show them where to go (pirate island chain) then get a good night's sleep. The next day, they arrange passage on the only ship going to pirate island chain, the Sea Bitch. Her captain is hard but honest and lets them load up their mysterious cargo without complaint. Xenthir goes off to buy an Arcane Lock ritual on the sly from a professor at the local wizard academy, Gaald takes care of the cargo, and Silent and Mok spend some quality time together enjoying a luxurious late breakfast at the Brass Stud. A guard drops by to politely let them know that this is the last day of the three that the Commander granted them to find their evil artifact and get the hell out of his city.
They're on the ship in plenty of time to catch the evening tide. The trip to Gamon, the pirate port, is uneventful in the extreme. Xenthir takes the time to labouriously lock the large crate that they've gathered all the parts into. The pirates are unfazed by the chanting and the magic circle and the stinky purple smoke - they are worldly pirates, they've seen it all before.
Gamon is strangely deserted. They find a more detailed map of the islands and retire to a quiet alley to get the walkin' hand to give them a better idea of where exactly this next body part is...and the hand spiders off the islands entirely and taps what appears to be an empty stretch of ocean.
The part is on a ship. Headed away from where they are.
A quick inquiry at an inn reveals that Captain Monterry sailed into port a week or so ago, called an impromptu meeting of all the captains currently in port, and barely an hour later, the whole lot of them were making ready to sail. After some twenty years of futile plotting and bargaining to get a chance at winning back the city that he once ruled, Monterry managed to convince thirty fiercely independent and stubborn pirates to all follow his lead and come with him to Fimilion, to lay siege to the city and oust the son of the man who'd ousted him.
There are a few ships left, though - captains who weren't at port when the meeting happened. A bag full of gold convinces Killia, captain of the Horizon's End, to take them after the pirate fleet. Her ship is fast, and since the fleet must sail at the speed of the slowest vessel, she promises to get them to Fimilion within a day of the fleet's arrival.
Two weeks or so at sea gets them to Fimilion, a city built on a high spur of land jutting out into the water. It's blockaded on three sides by the pirate fleet, pounded by cannon and besieged by landed groups of pirates. Killia lends them her longboat and some men to row it. Under cover of darkness they make landfall. The pirates have broken the walls and are sacking the city, giving plenty of distraction to allow a small group to enter the place. A couple of drunken invaders in the remains of a wine shop blab about the secret tunnel that Monterry is using to get into the keep. Quick thinking and a hastily drawn map let the hand show the body part they're seeking on the move up from the shore on the opposite end of the beach. Once they get around to the spot, they see another longboat drawn up onto the shore, and a trampled swath of footprints heading into a scrubby patch of trees. Undergrowth is hacked aside to reveal a door set into the ground.
The tunnel is well made although somewhat neglected and dusty. The passage of Monterry's party is easy to see. The tunnel leads under half the city, and comes up into the living area of the keep itself, a hidden door in the back of a closet letting out into a wide hallway. Dead guards lie here and there, and the ornate double doors at the end of it are broken in. From inside, shouts and the clash of weapons.
These are the baron's rooms, and a pirate lies dead among broken furniture and slashed wall hangings. In a corner sits a chest, glowing with green runes. At the far end, in another doorway, a man and a woman are desperately fending off three more pirates and a man in a tricorn hat - Monterry, just as Killia described him. Even as they enter, he runs the man through. As her partner falls, the woman - tall and well armoured, wielding a long glaive with sure competence - calls out to our heroes for aid. Behind her, in the room she is defending, a baby wails.
The fight is fierce and brutal, as Monterry shows uncanny powers, a shapeshifting hand, and seems to be lending his cohorts strength. when bloodied, he drops his cutlass and begins to howl. Both of his hands grow monstrous, and he begins to attack at random, slashing indiscriminately. At last he goes down, with the help of the woman with the glaive. The minute the last enemy is dead, she drops her weapon and rushes to her fallen ally. "Please," she cries. "He's still alive - do you have healing? A potion?"
Very nobly, Gaald gives up a potion, and she feeds it to the man, apparently her husband. And as soon as he's stable, she runs to the child and scoops it up, consoling it. She's the Lady Margot, and the man is the Baron Helut. She thanks the group profusely, promising them any reward that is in her power to grant. The glowing chest? She's never seen it before. Monterry must have brought it with him. They are welcome to the damned thing.
As they approach the chest, they can hear two things - a low, dull thumping and a whistling sighing sound. Gaald levers up the lid to reveal that the inside is also entirely covered in green, glowing runes. A sick wave of evil rolls out from the chest, making their flesh creep. Inside, the TORSO of the warlock lies in the center of the runes, apparently breathing, the heart apparently beating. Xenthir conjures a magical disc to carry it on, and Gaald and Silent attempt to lift the chest onto it. They wrap their hands in rangs from the wall hangings but it doesn't seem to matter - the minute they touch the chest, the world whites out and they see visions. Horrible things, witnessed from what seems like the perspective of the one committing the acts - the sacrifice of a man, sucking the soul out of a woman and the dreadful glorious rush of power that it brings. And last, an elven girlchild with Xenthir's eyes, Xenthir's jawline, as they drag her, terrified, down a corridor. Then things go black and they find themselves lying on the floor of the room.
Some debate follows, about tying ropes to the chest, or trying to use Mage Hand, and at last Gaald solves the problem in a time-honoured fighter fashion. He kicks the damned chest over and the mummified torso tumbles out onto the floor. The glow of the runes dies. The sense of evil eases slightly. Feeling pretty good about his applied theory, Gaald wraps the disgusting thing in another length of silver chain and they heave it onto the floating disc.
Mok attempts to hit up the Lady for some reward, and she hands him her baby - to hold for her while she strips the jewelry off her ears and neck, jeez you guys. The rest of the group loudly protest and make her keep her baubles. They advise her of the secret tunnel and tell her to burn the chest. She thanks them again, glancing out the window at her ravaged city. She hastily summons a maid to take the child and care for the Baron and then takes up her glaive and runs out to try and rally her people.
Goodgers, Inc retreat down the secret passage and Xenthir sends up a shower of magic sparks to summon the longboat from Horizon's End. They get their undead spoils into the hold, and, as Killia weighs anchor, bend over their maps again. Xenthir animates the hand and they watch it's progress to their next destination....
...which they won't know until next time because the GM didn't plan that far ahead.
Next time on Goodgers, Inc! I don't know yet but it's going to be good! See you then!
A quick pause to wrap the undead legs in silver and loot the shadar-kai corpses, and the gang heads back up into the city. They get Thing!hand to show them where to go (pirate island chain) then get a good night's sleep. The next day, they arrange passage on the only ship going to pirate island chain, the Sea Bitch. Her captain is hard but honest and lets them load up their mysterious cargo without complaint. Xenthir goes off to buy an Arcane Lock ritual on the sly from a professor at the local wizard academy, Gaald takes care of the cargo, and Silent and Mok spend some quality time together enjoying a luxurious late breakfast at the Brass Stud. A guard drops by to politely let them know that this is the last day of the three that the Commander granted them to find their evil artifact and get the hell out of his city.
They're on the ship in plenty of time to catch the evening tide. The trip to Gamon, the pirate port, is uneventful in the extreme. Xenthir takes the time to labouriously lock the large crate that they've gathered all the parts into. The pirates are unfazed by the chanting and the magic circle and the stinky purple smoke - they are worldly pirates, they've seen it all before.
Gamon is strangely deserted. They find a more detailed map of the islands and retire to a quiet alley to get the walkin' hand to give them a better idea of where exactly this next body part is...and the hand spiders off the islands entirely and taps what appears to be an empty stretch of ocean.
The part is on a ship. Headed away from where they are.
A quick inquiry at an inn reveals that Captain Monterry sailed into port a week or so ago, called an impromptu meeting of all the captains currently in port, and barely an hour later, the whole lot of them were making ready to sail. After some twenty years of futile plotting and bargaining to get a chance at winning back the city that he once ruled, Monterry managed to convince thirty fiercely independent and stubborn pirates to all follow his lead and come with him to Fimilion, to lay siege to the city and oust the son of the man who'd ousted him.
There are a few ships left, though - captains who weren't at port when the meeting happened. A bag full of gold convinces Killia, captain of the Horizon's End, to take them after the pirate fleet. Her ship is fast, and since the fleet must sail at the speed of the slowest vessel, she promises to get them to Fimilion within a day of the fleet's arrival.
Two weeks or so at sea gets them to Fimilion, a city built on a high spur of land jutting out into the water. It's blockaded on three sides by the pirate fleet, pounded by cannon and besieged by landed groups of pirates. Killia lends them her longboat and some men to row it. Under cover of darkness they make landfall. The pirates have broken the walls and are sacking the city, giving plenty of distraction to allow a small group to enter the place. A couple of drunken invaders in the remains of a wine shop blab about the secret tunnel that Monterry is using to get into the keep. Quick thinking and a hastily drawn map let the hand show the body part they're seeking on the move up from the shore on the opposite end of the beach. Once they get around to the spot, they see another longboat drawn up onto the shore, and a trampled swath of footprints heading into a scrubby patch of trees. Undergrowth is hacked aside to reveal a door set into the ground.
The tunnel is well made although somewhat neglected and dusty. The passage of Monterry's party is easy to see. The tunnel leads under half the city, and comes up into the living area of the keep itself, a hidden door in the back of a closet letting out into a wide hallway. Dead guards lie here and there, and the ornate double doors at the end of it are broken in. From inside, shouts and the clash of weapons.
These are the baron's rooms, and a pirate lies dead among broken furniture and slashed wall hangings. In a corner sits a chest, glowing with green runes. At the far end, in another doorway, a man and a woman are desperately fending off three more pirates and a man in a tricorn hat - Monterry, just as Killia described him. Even as they enter, he runs the man through. As her partner falls, the woman - tall and well armoured, wielding a long glaive with sure competence - calls out to our heroes for aid. Behind her, in the room she is defending, a baby wails.
The fight is fierce and brutal, as Monterry shows uncanny powers, a shapeshifting hand, and seems to be lending his cohorts strength. when bloodied, he drops his cutlass and begins to howl. Both of his hands grow monstrous, and he begins to attack at random, slashing indiscriminately. At last he goes down, with the help of the woman with the glaive. The minute the last enemy is dead, she drops her weapon and rushes to her fallen ally. "Please," she cries. "He's still alive - do you have healing? A potion?"
Very nobly, Gaald gives up a potion, and she feeds it to the man, apparently her husband. And as soon as he's stable, she runs to the child and scoops it up, consoling it. She's the Lady Margot, and the man is the Baron Helut. She thanks the group profusely, promising them any reward that is in her power to grant. The glowing chest? She's never seen it before. Monterry must have brought it with him. They are welcome to the damned thing.
As they approach the chest, they can hear two things - a low, dull thumping and a whistling sighing sound. Gaald levers up the lid to reveal that the inside is also entirely covered in green, glowing runes. A sick wave of evil rolls out from the chest, making their flesh creep. Inside, the TORSO of the warlock lies in the center of the runes, apparently breathing, the heart apparently beating. Xenthir conjures a magical disc to carry it on, and Gaald and Silent attempt to lift the chest onto it. They wrap their hands in rangs from the wall hangings but it doesn't seem to matter - the minute they touch the chest, the world whites out and they see visions. Horrible things, witnessed from what seems like the perspective of the one committing the acts - the sacrifice of a man, sucking the soul out of a woman and the dreadful glorious rush of power that it brings. And last, an elven girlchild with Xenthir's eyes, Xenthir's jawline, as they drag her, terrified, down a corridor. Then things go black and they find themselves lying on the floor of the room.
Some debate follows, about tying ropes to the chest, or trying to use Mage Hand, and at last Gaald solves the problem in a time-honoured fighter fashion. He kicks the damned chest over and the mummified torso tumbles out onto the floor. The glow of the runes dies. The sense of evil eases slightly. Feeling pretty good about his applied theory, Gaald wraps the disgusting thing in another length of silver chain and they heave it onto the floating disc.
Mok attempts to hit up the Lady for some reward, and she hands him her baby - to hold for her while she strips the jewelry off her ears and neck, jeez you guys. The rest of the group loudly protest and make her keep her baubles. They advise her of the secret tunnel and tell her to burn the chest. She thanks them again, glancing out the window at her ravaged city. She hastily summons a maid to take the child and care for the Baron and then takes up her glaive and runs out to try and rally her people.
Goodgers, Inc retreat down the secret passage and Xenthir sends up a shower of magic sparks to summon the longboat from Horizon's End. They get their undead spoils into the hold, and, as Killia weighs anchor, bend over their maps again. Xenthir animates the hand and they watch it's progress to their next destination....
...which they won't know until next time because the GM didn't plan that far ahead.
Next time on Goodgers, Inc! I don't know yet but it's going to be good! See you then!
Back in the Mad City!
This game is crazy fun to run. I think that from now on when we have a no show for D&D night, I'm just going to run a one-off of this. I'm getting better at pushing the players, keeping them running, using the pain dice to up the ante. I'm lucky in that I have a bunch of PCs who really like to get their teeth into the psychotic breaks. We don't have a long running time each night (2-3 hours) so the thing is stretching into three sessions. I think I can wrap things up next week, if I really bear down on my players.
The most interesting story thread is evolving from (no real surprise) the player for whom I had the least idea of where to go. Our Slavic mafioso is heading down a really dangerous, really intriguing path. I'm having to make up Nightmares to populate it. Some of them are really disturbing.
It's going to be a bit weird, being a female GM, roleplaying a Nightmare madame for three male PCs. Granted, one of them is my husband but that's almost worse. No, that is worse. I have two choices I suppose. Either wimp out or go for it and let it just get as weird as it's going to. I feel like there is enough safety and trust to go for it, but I might hold a quorum before we buckle down to the session and make sure everyone is on the same page.
It's one of those things that comes up with rping - how gritty and real do you want to get? How far is too far, where does it stop being fun and start being some uncomfortable place that no one wants to be? This game in particular I think forces the issue, since the Mad City is where there are no limits to what can happen, and none of it is going to be nice. I'm not interested in explicit scenarios or rping sex. No, thank you. But if a character is trying to take over a prostitution ring, well. The Nightmare running the tags is, by the very nature of it's function, going to push those boundaries a bit.
I'm interested in any advice or anecdotal histories anyone might want to share.
This game is crazy fun to run. I think that from now on when we have a no show for D&D night, I'm just going to run a one-off of this. I'm getting better at pushing the players, keeping them running, using the pain dice to up the ante. I'm lucky in that I have a bunch of PCs who really like to get their teeth into the psychotic breaks. We don't have a long running time each night (2-3 hours) so the thing is stretching into three sessions. I think I can wrap things up next week, if I really bear down on my players.
The most interesting story thread is evolving from (no real surprise) the player for whom I had the least idea of where to go. Our Slavic mafioso is heading down a really dangerous, really intriguing path. I'm having to make up Nightmares to populate it. Some of them are really disturbing.
It's going to be a bit weird, being a female GM, roleplaying a Nightmare madame for three male PCs. Granted, one of them is my husband but that's almost worse. No, that is worse. I have two choices I suppose. Either wimp out or go for it and let it just get as weird as it's going to. I feel like there is enough safety and trust to go for it, but I might hold a quorum before we buckle down to the session and make sure everyone is on the same page.
It's one of those things that comes up with rping - how gritty and real do you want to get? How far is too far, where does it stop being fun and start being some uncomfortable place that no one wants to be? This game in particular I think forces the issue, since the Mad City is where there are no limits to what can happen, and none of it is going to be nice. I'm not interested in explicit scenarios or rping sex. No, thank you. But if a character is trying to take over a prostitution ring, well. The Nightmare running the tags is, by the very nature of it's function, going to push those boundaries a bit.
I'm interested in any advice or anecdotal histories anyone might want to share.
This time on Goodgers, Inc! Interrogations! Don't lie to a priest! Mok has issues with authority! Legs from the sea!
Gaald is rousted at dawn for an interview with the Commander of the guard. There is a priest there, who completes some kind of ritual as he is seated. An experimental lie shows this to be, in fact, a ritual to tell when he is lying. Thus backed into a GM-constructed corner, Gaald spills the beans, keeping back the information that what they are seeking is the undead remains of an evil warlock. The Commander seems reassured that he means no harm to the city, but tells him he isn't yet free to go - the rest of his group must also come in for questioning.
Mok, Xenthir, and Silent enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the inn, and therefore the guards find them before they can find the guards. Mok curls his lip and drags his feet but they all end up in the same office as Gaald was interviewed in, with the same priest. Some few differences; the Commander is now bent over a table laded with lists and maps, and deep in discussion with his staff officers, planning the raid on the undercity. There is also a young priestess, wide eyed and practically bouncing on her toes.
This interview goes much as the last one, no lying allowed but with some room for fudging. After extracting each party member's vow that they mean no harm to the city, and after the excited young priestess reveals that her god had told her in no uncertain terms that there was evil in the caverns and that it needed to be got rid of, post haste, no dilly dallying thank you, the Commander provides them with a partial map of the dock area of the sewer/cavern system and tells them to get their evil thing and get the hell out of his city with it.
They take their map and clear out back to their inn. After some debate, they decide to wait til the guard sweeps the sewers and go in after, so as to save themselves some potential trouble. A nice relaxing day follows, as they get their evil dismembered hand to point them to the right area on their new map. They make sure they know when the tides are in, and then the following evening at low tide, they saddle up and head down through a handy grate. A fairly uneventful trip gets them close to their goal, and takes them out of the drier, recently populated areas and into wetter, danker, creepier areas. A mutter conversation ahead alerts them that the guards didn't get everyone that was hiding out in here. Mok attempts to talk to the group of ruffians, but fails a Streetwise check and screws up a countersign. Fight!
The tiefling darkblade gives the group some trouble, what with the narrow halls and his teleporting ability, and Mok is nearly panting after his cloak. Alas, it's a class ability, not an item! Disappointment is so bitter.
Finally at the cavern, the group surprises a unit of shadar-kai as they drag a long, low, ironbound chest out of the water. "They must not stop us!" the witch in charge shrieks. Fight! Shadar-kai are slippery bastards, and what with the shadowy, necromantic aura that the witch throws out almost immediately, and the teleportation and the insubstantiabilty and the long reach of the chainbades, well, it's a challenge. Mok goes down and spends a round bleeding out until someone pours a potion down his throat. Xenthir comes pretty close to death, too. Dailies are busted out, potions are drunk, the paladin runs out of lay on hands and after the last chainfighter goes down, everyone is pretty much tapped. "Raven Queen, I have failed you," the witch shrieks in despair as she dies.
The chest is locked, with a lock that has arcane symbols on it. Xenthir makes a successful arcane check and discovers it to be ... an arcane lock. For some reason, probably because it's nearly midnight, this is incredibly funny. Luckily, the shadar-kai witch had on her person a scroll containing the Knock ritual, which can open any lock of any type. Which seems to indicate that the shadar-kai knew exactly what they were coming for and how to deal with it. And, since the shadar-kai go to death willingly, trusting that their goddess will receive their souls, the witch's dying despair seems - odd.
Things are getting complicated.
In the chest our heroes find - the LEGS of the warlock!
Next time! Getting the hell out of dodge! Where to next, hand? Pirates! And more!
Gaald is rousted at dawn for an interview with the Commander of the guard. There is a priest there, who completes some kind of ritual as he is seated. An experimental lie shows this to be, in fact, a ritual to tell when he is lying. Thus backed into a GM-constructed corner, Gaald spills the beans, keeping back the information that what they are seeking is the undead remains of an evil warlock. The Commander seems reassured that he means no harm to the city, but tells him he isn't yet free to go - the rest of his group must also come in for questioning.
Mok, Xenthir, and Silent enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the inn, and therefore the guards find them before they can find the guards. Mok curls his lip and drags his feet but they all end up in the same office as Gaald was interviewed in, with the same priest. Some few differences; the Commander is now bent over a table laded with lists and maps, and deep in discussion with his staff officers, planning the raid on the undercity. There is also a young priestess, wide eyed and practically bouncing on her toes.
This interview goes much as the last one, no lying allowed but with some room for fudging. After extracting each party member's vow that they mean no harm to the city, and after the excited young priestess reveals that her god had told her in no uncertain terms that there was evil in the caverns and that it needed to be got rid of, post haste, no dilly dallying thank you, the Commander provides them with a partial map of the dock area of the sewer/cavern system and tells them to get their evil thing and get the hell out of his city with it.
They take their map and clear out back to their inn. After some debate, they decide to wait til the guard sweeps the sewers and go in after, so as to save themselves some potential trouble. A nice relaxing day follows, as they get their evil dismembered hand to point them to the right area on their new map. They make sure they know when the tides are in, and then the following evening at low tide, they saddle up and head down through a handy grate. A fairly uneventful trip gets them close to their goal, and takes them out of the drier, recently populated areas and into wetter, danker, creepier areas. A mutter conversation ahead alerts them that the guards didn't get everyone that was hiding out in here. Mok attempts to talk to the group of ruffians, but fails a Streetwise check and screws up a countersign. Fight!
The tiefling darkblade gives the group some trouble, what with the narrow halls and his teleporting ability, and Mok is nearly panting after his cloak. Alas, it's a class ability, not an item! Disappointment is so bitter.
Finally at the cavern, the group surprises a unit of shadar-kai as they drag a long, low, ironbound chest out of the water. "They must not stop us!" the witch in charge shrieks. Fight! Shadar-kai are slippery bastards, and what with the shadowy, necromantic aura that the witch throws out almost immediately, and the teleportation and the insubstantiabilty and the long reach of the chainbades, well, it's a challenge. Mok goes down and spends a round bleeding out until someone pours a potion down his throat. Xenthir comes pretty close to death, too. Dailies are busted out, potions are drunk, the paladin runs out of lay on hands and after the last chainfighter goes down, everyone is pretty much tapped. "Raven Queen, I have failed you," the witch shrieks in despair as she dies.
The chest is locked, with a lock that has arcane symbols on it. Xenthir makes a successful arcane check and discovers it to be ... an arcane lock. For some reason, probably because it's nearly midnight, this is incredibly funny. Luckily, the shadar-kai witch had on her person a scroll containing the Knock ritual, which can open any lock of any type. Which seems to indicate that the shadar-kai knew exactly what they were coming for and how to deal with it. And, since the shadar-kai go to death willingly, trusting that their goddess will receive their souls, the witch's dying despair seems - odd.
Things are getting complicated.
In the chest our heroes find - the LEGS of the warlock!
Next time! Getting the hell out of dodge! Where to next, hand? Pirates! And more!
First DYRH went really well, I thought. My group of PCs consists of: a US senator, a computer nerd, and a Russian Mafia enforcer. They've stumbled into the Mad City in the middle of a turf war between the Wax King and Officer Tock, and things have gotten ugly. Both sides are reaching into the City Slumbering for extra resources, since the Awakened within the Mad City have all been ... well, used up is probably a good term.
The senator, played by my husband Shawn, is a previous visitor? survivor? victim? of the Mad City, and is none too happy about being reAwakened. He's even less happy at seeing the Vice President of the United States talking with a Wax Knight in the halls of the White House. On the other hand, John the computer guy's parents were apparently seperated, driven mad, and imprisoned by the actions of Tock and his ally, the Tacks Man, so it's going to be tough to choose sides. To make things more complicated, Nikolai's Mafia top boss has also apparently Awakened, and made alliance with the Wax King.
Shit's getting real.
No one has gone permanently crazy yet, although there have been some breaks with sanity. Next time will be worse, my friends. Next time will be worse.
Goddamn this game is fun.
The senator, played by my husband Shawn, is a previous visitor? survivor? victim? of the Mad City, and is none too happy about being reAwakened. He's even less happy at seeing the Vice President of the United States talking with a Wax Knight in the halls of the White House. On the other hand, John the computer guy's parents were apparently seperated, driven mad, and imprisoned by the actions of Tock and his ally, the Tacks Man, so it's going to be tough to choose sides. To make things more complicated, Nikolai's Mafia top boss has also apparently Awakened, and made alliance with the Wax King.
Shit's getting real.
No one has gone permanently crazy yet, although there have been some breaks with sanity. Next time will be worse, my friends. Next time will be worse.
Goddamn this game is fun.
I'm about an hour away from DMing my first session. A little nervous, I have to say.
Last session Rob chose to leave his character in a incriminating situation - a city official had decided that the group was a threat to him, and had screamed for help. The rest of the gang fled the scene and Gaald stayed. And was arrested and hauled off to the pokey. I had not planned for any of this to happen.
I love shit like that.
When I sit down and plan out a session, the only things that I have firmly planned out are the combat encounters, the information that I want to give the players in non combat encounters, and some sample NPCs to impart the info. I dislike the DM's Guide method of playing out non combat challenges, so I tend to just wing it. Skill checks where they seem called for - more checks if the person is not inclined to help. I also tend to punish excessive "metagaming" where the players treat NPCs like information slot machines. If the players say something stupid to an NPC that would make a person annoyed, the NPC gets annoyed. For example, back when they were interviewing the old smith from the werewolf village, Gaald tried to tip him for his help. This was a dumb move - the man was an established, successful citizen, who had lost most of his family and friends in the wolf attacks. He was recounting a painful personal memory, and the offer of money was insulting. I had him stand up and leave and the players never got the rest of the info he might have given them.
I do my best to make conversations with NPCs go like conversations with real people. I try to give each NPC motivations and reactions commensurate with their personal goals and concerns. An example from our last session: Gaald, having been arrested, tried to convince the duty sergeant that he should be let go, because the group was seeking an artifact of evil power in the sewers. This interested the sergeant greatly, since the city guard was about to go on a raid into the sewers to drive out and arrest the criminal element that lived there. But he didn't know Gaald, didn't trust him, and so didn't let him go. Instead he reported to his superiors and an arrest warrent was issued for the rest of the group. It was illogical that the city officials wouldn't treat them as a threat, what with their party showing up in the city and talking about the sewers just as a major purge was about to happen. This has considerably complicated matters for them, if they still want to get to the artifact before the city forces do.
And I had no plans for any of this. All I had in my head was a bunch of NPC templates, and a general idea of how the power structure in the city worked. The PCs were in charge of what happened and when. This sort of play means that I have to adlib and invent characters on the spot and come up with consequences for actions that I could not have forseen. It means that I'm scrambling at times to keep up with the PCs and the crazy shit that they pull. It means that I get to have fun too.
It also means that my PCs are going to do dumb things now and then, because they're all video gamers and have been trained to expect limited options and railroad plots. Rob's tendancy to tip everyone comes out of the concept of faction, I'm pretty sure. This was only our 6th session, but I expect that everyone will get the concept pretty fast - treat NPCs like real people, because that's how they'll be treating you. This doesn't remove the possibility of deus ex machina if they get themselves into a complete mess, but I'm going to be working really hard to make it seem at least a logical progression from prior events.
I love shit like that.
When I sit down and plan out a session, the only things that I have firmly planned out are the combat encounters, the information that I want to give the players in non combat encounters, and some sample NPCs to impart the info. I dislike the DM's Guide method of playing out non combat challenges, so I tend to just wing it. Skill checks where they seem called for - more checks if the person is not inclined to help. I also tend to punish excessive "metagaming" where the players treat NPCs like information slot machines. If the players say something stupid to an NPC that would make a person annoyed, the NPC gets annoyed. For example, back when they were interviewing the old smith from the werewolf village, Gaald tried to tip him for his help. This was a dumb move - the man was an established, successful citizen, who had lost most of his family and friends in the wolf attacks. He was recounting a painful personal memory, and the offer of money was insulting. I had him stand up and leave and the players never got the rest of the info he might have given them.
I do my best to make conversations with NPCs go like conversations with real people. I try to give each NPC motivations and reactions commensurate with their personal goals and concerns. An example from our last session: Gaald, having been arrested, tried to convince the duty sergeant that he should be let go, because the group was seeking an artifact of evil power in the sewers. This interested the sergeant greatly, since the city guard was about to go on a raid into the sewers to drive out and arrest the criminal element that lived there. But he didn't know Gaald, didn't trust him, and so didn't let him go. Instead he reported to his superiors and an arrest warrent was issued for the rest of the group. It was illogical that the city officials wouldn't treat them as a threat, what with their party showing up in the city and talking about the sewers just as a major purge was about to happen. This has considerably complicated matters for them, if they still want to get to the artifact before the city forces do.
And I had no plans for any of this. All I had in my head was a bunch of NPC templates, and a general idea of how the power structure in the city worked. The PCs were in charge of what happened and when. This sort of play means that I have to adlib and invent characters on the spot and come up with consequences for actions that I could not have forseen. It means that I'm scrambling at times to keep up with the PCs and the crazy shit that they pull. It means that I get to have fun too.
It also means that my PCs are going to do dumb things now and then, because they're all video gamers and have been trained to expect limited options and railroad plots. Rob's tendancy to tip everyone comes out of the concept of faction, I'm pretty sure. This was only our 6th session, but I expect that everyone will get the concept pretty fast - treat NPCs like real people, because that's how they'll be treating you. This doesn't remove the possibility of deus ex machina if they get themselves into a complete mess, but I'm going to be working really hard to make it seem at least a logical progression from prior events.
...more hobgoblins! Angry ones.
Our stalwart heroes realize the flaw in their plan when the big bad chief and his pet dire wolf bottleneck the door and prevent anyone from getting to the shaman and archers behind. Gaald gets knocked on his ass a few times before the big guy goes down at last, and the fight can be taken into the room itself. The dire wolf gets its ass chopped off - twice! - and finally the archers are mopped up in a throwdown near the fireplace. The last one, staggering and nearly dead, kicks at a fur rug on the floor, revealing a magic circle. Clutching an amulet, the coward jumps in and vanishes.
Gaald is keen to follow, especially after matching amulets are discovered on the bodies of the fallen, but reason prevails, and they gather up the slavers' ill gotten gains and get the kids out. As they leave the fort, the amulets dissolve into dust.
Back in town, everyone is ecstatic to see their lost kith and kin once more, and our Goodgers are feted as the heroes they are. Alcohol is drunk. Food is eaten. Gaald rolls a natural 20 on a "seduction" skill check and winds up in bed with two towngirls. We'll just draw the veil of delicacy and disgust over the rest of the night, shall we?
Laden with praise, an Amulet of Health and Xenthir's new Ritual of Mend Item, they go on their merry way. A quick stop at the old fort reveals that the magic circle has gone dull and blurred - a sure sign that the reciprocal circle on the other side has been broken. Gaald mutters a bit about lost opportunities, and the rest remind him that there could have been anything on the other side - a hundred more kobolds, a pissed off wizard, anything. He concedes the point, reluctantly. They get back on the road.
A few weeks journey brings them at last to Amaranth, Mok's old hometown and the largest of the allied cities of the north. Amaranth is a coastal city, with a ruling Prince and several powerful guilds. Mok quickly reestablishes contact with his old networks, starting with Mevid, proprietor of the Red Slipper, a house ofill repute negotiable affection ok they're whores. She lets him know about a coming sweep of the sewer/cavern systems beneath the city, spurred by a gang war in the south docks, the worst neighborhood in the city. The denizens of the deep, destitutes and criminals, are fleeing the place in droves, a more heavy exodus than perhaps the coming purges can account for... They banter a bit, and then she directs them to a local inn, run by a dwarf who really didn't think when he kept the place's previous name: the Brass Stud.
After making the undead body parts secure in the inn's strongroom (dwarven locks! can't beat 'em!) they head over to Government Hill, where the Royal Library is, and the head librarian, too - Mok's old friend Gregor, a wizard with an interest in maps. Here they receive a very nice city map, obsessively detailed, and a lead on someone with better knowledge of the sewers than can usually be found - Berton, a dwarf in the sewer maintenance department. Apparently he makes a hobby of exploring and mapping not only the sewers, but the connecting cavern system as well.
Their conversation doesn't go well. Some diplomacy failures lead to Silent overdoing it a bit on the intimidation, and Berton faints. They splash water in his face to bring him round, and he looks up at Silent's reptilian features and starts screaming. Silent, Mok, and Xenthir bolt, but Gaald remains, trying to calm the dwarf down. A clerk glances in and then runs for the guards. Gaald stays put, hoping to explain, but the guards, when they arrive, promptly arrest him and march him down the hill to the gaol. The sergeant on duty comes by to ask him a few questions, and listens to Gaald's explanation that there is an artifact of evil power in the sewers, one of a kind that's destroyed whole cities, and it's imperative that he and his friends get to it before the guards. This is - less than convincing to the sergeant, and he's left to cool his heels for the night.
Meanwhile, Mok, Silent, and Xenthir head back to the inn to regroup. Mok sets up a meet with Brienne, one of his old contacts in "acquisitions" and they meet her after dark in one of the shadier taverns by the docks. She rolls her eyes at their dilemma and advises that they just go down to the guard station, pay their fine and get it over with. The guards won't be likely to want to make too big a deal over Berton kicking up a fuss again, since he's had their attention before over similar incidents, mostly unwarranted. Also, with the sewer sweep coming up, they are stretched thin and not keen to make more work for themselves.
Back to the inn they go, grumbling. As they pass the Slipper, Mevid calls from the door and lets Mok know that a guard captain, in charge of one of the sewer sweep teams, will be at her establishment tomorrow night, somewhat drunk and possibly willing to talk about his job.
And so we leave them, Rob sleeping on straw, the rest in their beds at the Brass Stud, contemplating the next day's tasks. Will the guards be as accommodating as Brienne thinks, having heard Rob's interest in the sewers? Will the guard captain have anything to say? Will the next session have some asskicking finally?
Tune in next time to find out!
Our stalwart heroes realize the flaw in their plan when the big bad chief and his pet dire wolf bottleneck the door and prevent anyone from getting to the shaman and archers behind. Gaald gets knocked on his ass a few times before the big guy goes down at last, and the fight can be taken into the room itself. The dire wolf gets its ass chopped off - twice! - and finally the archers are mopped up in a throwdown near the fireplace. The last one, staggering and nearly dead, kicks at a fur rug on the floor, revealing a magic circle. Clutching an amulet, the coward jumps in and vanishes.
Gaald is keen to follow, especially after matching amulets are discovered on the bodies of the fallen, but reason prevails, and they gather up the slavers' ill gotten gains and get the kids out. As they leave the fort, the amulets dissolve into dust.
Back in town, everyone is ecstatic to see their lost kith and kin once more, and our Goodgers are feted as the heroes they are. Alcohol is drunk. Food is eaten. Gaald rolls a natural 20 on a "seduction" skill check and winds up in bed with two towngirls. We'll just draw the veil of delicacy and disgust over the rest of the night, shall we?
Laden with praise, an Amulet of Health and Xenthir's new Ritual of Mend Item, they go on their merry way. A quick stop at the old fort reveals that the magic circle has gone dull and blurred - a sure sign that the reciprocal circle on the other side has been broken. Gaald mutters a bit about lost opportunities, and the rest remind him that there could have been anything on the other side - a hundred more kobolds, a pissed off wizard, anything. He concedes the point, reluctantly. They get back on the road.
A few weeks journey brings them at last to Amaranth, Mok's old hometown and the largest of the allied cities of the north. Amaranth is a coastal city, with a ruling Prince and several powerful guilds. Mok quickly reestablishes contact with his old networks, starting with Mevid, proprietor of the Red Slipper, a house of
After making the undead body parts secure in the inn's strongroom (dwarven locks! can't beat 'em!) they head over to Government Hill, where the Royal Library is, and the head librarian, too - Mok's old friend Gregor, a wizard with an interest in maps. Here they receive a very nice city map, obsessively detailed, and a lead on someone with better knowledge of the sewers than can usually be found - Berton, a dwarf in the sewer maintenance department. Apparently he makes a hobby of exploring and mapping not only the sewers, but the connecting cavern system as well.
Their conversation doesn't go well. Some diplomacy failures lead to Silent overdoing it a bit on the intimidation, and Berton faints. They splash water in his face to bring him round, and he looks up at Silent's reptilian features and starts screaming. Silent, Mok, and Xenthir bolt, but Gaald remains, trying to calm the dwarf down. A clerk glances in and then runs for the guards. Gaald stays put, hoping to explain, but the guards, when they arrive, promptly arrest him and march him down the hill to the gaol. The sergeant on duty comes by to ask him a few questions, and listens to Gaald's explanation that there is an artifact of evil power in the sewers, one of a kind that's destroyed whole cities, and it's imperative that he and his friends get to it before the guards. This is - less than convincing to the sergeant, and he's left to cool his heels for the night.
Meanwhile, Mok, Silent, and Xenthir head back to the inn to regroup. Mok sets up a meet with Brienne, one of his old contacts in "acquisitions" and they meet her after dark in one of the shadier taverns by the docks. She rolls her eyes at their dilemma and advises that they just go down to the guard station, pay their fine and get it over with. The guards won't be likely to want to make too big a deal over Berton kicking up a fuss again, since he's had their attention before over similar incidents, mostly unwarranted. Also, with the sewer sweep coming up, they are stretched thin and not keen to make more work for themselves.
Back to the inn they go, grumbling. As they pass the Slipper, Mevid calls from the door and lets Mok know that a guard captain, in charge of one of the sewer sweep teams, will be at her establishment tomorrow night, somewhat drunk and possibly willing to talk about his job.
And so we leave them, Rob sleeping on straw, the rest in their beds at the Brass Stud, contemplating the next day's tasks. Will the guards be as accommodating as Brienne thinks, having heard Rob's interest in the sewers? Will the guard captain have anything to say? Will the next session have some asskicking finally?
Tune in next time to find out!
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