8.28.2009

A Quick Wish of Good Luck to Some Friends

I wanted to take a moment to extend a congratulations and a wish of good luck to my pals at Pwn Productions on the dedication they show to putting out fun, playable games and in their future endeavors with their products and gaming, in general.

Those of you who stay up on this blog know that Josh D. is a regular commenter and has recently announced that they will be in talks with Troll Lord Games to get their game ThunderPwn published.

I've known Jeff and Josh for about 4 years now and they've always been great people to game with and just be around. (I still owe you after passing out on your porch, Jeff! First time I ever passed out, though, so it's a milestone event you witnessed, lol.)

Anyway, good luck, guys, and to Paul and Jacob, and hopefully your game can see the amount of hands it's meant to.

For everyone who is interested (and that should be everyone who reads this blog), check the guys and their games out at PwnProductions, and help give support to local game design.

btw, we still need to game again or something! No, I won't shut up about it. Heh

Attention: My Weekly Eberron Players!

Well, I was cruising the blogs I read regularly and over at Jeff's Gameblog, the good man has posted a handful of beholder pics ranging from old school to just wonky as hell. Since we're dealing with those nasty critters in the game, I thought it would be neat to give you guys a look at what a few variations of the common form might be like.

Check them out here.

Thursday Night Gaming: Forgotten Realms 4E

Being perfectly honest, I had a hard time following the night's campaign and I was a little confused by John C.'s (the DM) decision to pick my own point of entry to the campaign.

From what I gather, there have been werewolves and eladrin that have foiled the party previously as they travelled to this specific location, and along the way they liberated an evil pair of artifacts (using the term loosely) consisting of a book and a quill. Not sure what it does, or who created it or anything, because I had just gotten bits and pieces of the game from David before I joined.

Anyway, a jumbled mess of problem-solving and roleplay took place, leading to nothing and taking an inordinate amount of time to accomplish just for John to announce that, for the existing party (that is, everyone but me), this was a dream sequence.

My stormsoul genasi staged an elaborate entrance to make himself look like a total badass, but nobody saw it, anyway, but some did, because the door wasn't shut in the dream yet it was shut, but the crack of thunder roused most of the party and then the others were awoken by their comrades.

I was confused as to the details, and I think John was a bit sloppy in the execution. Seemed to leave quite a bit of the group disenchanted, but I dunno.

Next time, pending my interaction with the rest, we'll all be together as a party, hopefully, and can continue on to find more of the secret behind the plots of not only the adversaries, but the evil artifacts, as well.

8.26.2009

Eberron: Prophecy of Ascendence, Part 42

Though their isn't much to report on this week, the party did finally make it into the temple complex and were immediately beset by a pair of chuuls and a pair of desmodu mercs who were posted as sentries by their abberant masters, even though the party was invisible. Talking amongst yourselves, even though nobody can see you, is still kinda a give away for some reason.

Bellosh was the first to attack, and was dragged into the pool where the chuuls had made their homes, but was able to wriggle away after assuming amorphous form. That's when the action began. Lucky immediately fell into buffing others while Talin advanced to attack alongside Viday and Vacht loosed precisely aimed spells. Murmur, who was a bit further away from the fight, headed around to take care of one of the desmodus who had set himself up to snipe from a ledge.

Some of the group had become visibile after unleashing spells and attacks, making them easier targets for their assailants, and the chuuls and the 2nd desmodu (who had been invisible himself after hearing the ruckus) took advantage of that, the bat creature attacking Vacht as he cast a spell, though not ruining the attempt, and the one of the chuuls grabbing poor Talin and crushing her skull, killing her instantly. A few more well placed spells and attacks was all it took after that to finish the foes, and that's where we left off.

We've been starting super late, and we need to get out of that habit, because it limits what we can get done. Next week, I think I'm gonna crank the game up at 6 and see how that flies.

Cast of Characters
Devin "Lucky" Nel, Male Cleric 5/Human Paragon 3/Fortune's Friend 5/Mythic Exemplar 1 - Paul
Bellosh, Male Slyth (Formerly Feral Shifter) Barbarian 5/Ranger 2 - Josh M.
Murmur, Male Personality Warforged Paladin 8/Exorcist of the Silver Flame 6 - David B.
Talin Shiri, Female Elf Ranger 3/Warblade 2/Revenant Blade 5/Eternal Blade 4 - Chris
Vacht Aernsland d'Orien, Male Human Wizard(Evoker) 10/Master Specialist 4 - Steve C.

8.24.2009

My BrainHex Gamer Category

Your BrainHex Class is Survivor.

Your BrainHex Class Your BrainHex Sub-Class is Survivor-Conqueror.

You like pulse-pounding risks and escaping from hideous and scary threats as well as defeating impossibly difficult foes, struggling until you eventually achieve victory, and beating other players.

According to your results, there are few play experiences that you strongly dislike.

Learn more about your classes and exceptions at BrainHex.com.

Your scores for each of the classes in this test were as follows:

Go to BrainHex.com to learn more about this player model, and the neurobiological research behind it.

Jeff over at Jeff's Gameblog did this thing and I thought it was interesting, so I thought I would do one, too. Pretty neat if you take the time to read their research.

The Savage Tide a la Asshole

This past Wednesday, we got back into the swing of Paul's Sessarine/Savage Tide game (or the Asshole Campaign, as we call it.)

When last we had left off, all of the characters were in a cove filled with wrecked and burning pirate ships and another ship hard against the wall that seemed to not have suffered much damage. In the cove was a sandy beach that led to a cave entrance, which we all decided to check out. Moving in first without consulting the others, my griffon (who can't talk anyway) and Josh H.'s Raptoran Druid (who I played as a way to keep my character involved) travelled just inside to find a grisly scene complete with 3 infected pirates, one a cook who was working away at chopping up a man for them to dine on.

The druid cast Entangle, which is probably one of the most broken spells ever, and held most of the baddies at bay while my griffon (named Roc) charged at the "cook" and started rocking him. A couple of well placed spells by John C. and the help of a summoned eagle took out the goons and we continued on after inspecting the room.

Moving into another area, we found huge sheets of silk, worth quite a chunk of change, and their guardian....an infected deinonychus! That's what Jurrasic Park called a "velociraptor" for those of you who didn't know; however, I'll not get into how wrong they were here.

Anyway, the thing proceeded to mangle the party and only Steve made it out alive, but oh well. I'm working on a Fighter that will hopefully not just get chewed to hell by this campaign.

The Red Hand of Doom Returns!

This time helmed by Steve, this will technically be my 3rd foray into the adventure, but (if it continues) my 2nd full run through.

So far, the player round up is me, David B., Paul, and John C.. Tony was going to play but couldn't find his character, so he rocked some Might & Magic (if I remember correctly) on the comp while we played.

Starting as 6th level characters netted us quite a bit of starting gold, so David and I went to spending a healthy chunk of coin on hiring 15 soldiers a piece, then hiring on staff to support the fighting force...cooks, teamsters, laborers, etc.. It was hard to judge Steve's reaction to those expenditures, but he seemed pretty ok with it. I was glad of that, because I've always thought hirelings were a neat part of the game.

So, having been contacted for the purpose of cleansing a goblin menace from the area surrounding Brindoll, we set off with our small army to do the deed of the local Lord, but were set upon by a fairly large group of hobgoblins and their leaders...one which my character saw nothing of and a wily mage of some sort who gave us no shortage of troubles.

After the long and brutal fight, in which Steve decided he would roll a 20 for every bad guy every turn, and in which we faced hell hounds and fierce hobgoblin warriors, we limped together, having not lost a single man to the fighting, but having 11 down from wounds and some of the actual adventuring band hurting.


David and I need to look into hiring out the services of a healer or two for our troops. That's one thing we forgot...

Edit: I had misremembered the action and fixed the post, accordingly. Thanks David!

In the Works

Just to keep any readers abreast, here's a quick sneak peek at some of the things I'm planning on posting about in the (hopefully) near future:

  • An interesting FRPG campaign model that Paul has thought up combining aspects of several games
  • Implementation of time as an expendable resource in FRPGs. A mechanic that interests most of the group, but has everyone diverging on opinions of application.
  • More Khardtha work.
  • A sandbox experiment that I'm hoping to get a few people in on.
  • Updates that are actually on-time!
See you in thirty!

Not really, but that's one of the cliches from reading comics.

ThunderPwn!

So, a while back, my pals up in Mt. View came to Bald Man Games and demoed ThunderPwn! for those there. Sadly, I wasn't able to be around that day, and I've not heard much from the guys other than it "seems really cool."

So, in your opinion, how did it go, Josh D.?

I know you guys have put alot of work into the Pwn! series of games and I'm definitely interested in hearing what's in the works. Feel free to comment or email me, man.

Dark Hiatus?

David H. has officially bowed out of the Dark Heresy game for marital duties, so barring seeing what we can do about teleconferencing with guys who have moved, it might be a while yet before we do anything. Two weeks have gone by. David and I have been trying to brainstorm a solution. I think I might take a board game with me tomorrow or something to pass the time. *shrugs*

Eberron: Prophecy of Ascendence, Parts 39-41

Sadly, the game is kinda in a slump due to (yet more) late start times and the overabundance of random encounters I have been rolling. It's just an 8% chance per hour, but I have rolled something like 7 or 8 of the things for just 3 days of travel.

These encounters have been mostly with the desmodus and their large trained bats, but the group has also come across guardians of the temple complex, such as an Iron Golem that burst out of a fresco to only score one hit before going down like a little bitch and an Astral Deva called by a summon trap who acted a bit too big for his britches. The past two sessions, however, the group has run into the new kids in town who are trying to run the desmodus out...creatures of Xoriat!

The first encounter with the newcomers was easy, and the 4 illithids didn't even know what hit them, really. Somewhat more of a challenge, though, was when their 2 beholder companions got tired of the wait and sent in their frost giant lackeys to see what was going on. The battle was a long one, albeit a fun one as many went toe to toe against the giants while Murmur pretty much solo'd the beholders at the first. In the end, one of the eye tyrants was able to make its way out of the fray and escape.

So, not much going on except some yappin', fighstin' and shoostin', but it's been good times. This week, our heroes shall enter the temple complex and (hopefully) unravel some of the mystery behind the lost god, Vesperian!

8.12.2009

Inquisitorial Intrigue! Weekly Dark Heresy!

There was some gaming last week that I haven't yet posted and most of this game's update will deal with that, as not much happened this week.

When we picked up, the guys were trying to communicate with the Adeptus Arbites to get information about the bombings of their safehouses and such, and disappearance of Hesdus, but the more they pressed the Arbites, the more they started pressing foranswers, themselves, and that course of action was eventually abandoned.

Sadis went to inspect the lander they came in on, finding it unmolested on the outside, but stripped of their auxilary gear and finding runes and sigils seemingly carved into some of the furnishings and the cockpit door, which he decided to report to Mkoll, only to find himself held at gunpoint as a familiar gunship swung into view...one with the overlapping crest of the Inquisition and the Adeptus Mechanicus...and lead (and plasma) began to fly!

Sadis practically ignored the lone gunman on the landing pad and turned his melta to the gunship, managing to punch a few holes into the hull of the thing (which they knew to belong to a supposed heretic cult) and then taking the gunman down about the time that Mkoll arrived with some Adeptus Sororitas, who Sadis had the presence of mind to contact before the fighting broke out.

The dice god smiled broadly on Steve, as I couldn't hit the broadside of an Imperial Navy Dreadnought with either the lone gunman OR the freaking gunship.

Meanwhile, back at the convent of the Sisters, Jorn was undergoing surgery, but had it interrupted when a squad of men wearing maroon light power armor attacked the place in the name of the Inquisition to apprehend the acolytes of Dorian Hesdus....as this took place, a small tank squadron cornered the Sister's Rhino and demanded the turning over of Mkoll and Sadis, but not before Mkoll got a lucky shot in on a missle box on the gunship, which made the ship pull out of the line of fire.

Now, taken aboard a Mechanicus ship seconded to the Inquisition, the companions are being hauled to the sector capital, Scintilla, to stand trial before the Holy Ordos for the murders of thousands of Imperial citizens, guardsmen, and one Alonia Federac...the Inquisitor they are working for through Hesdus.

So far, Mkoll has tried to escape within the ship from his holding cell, and is about to face his punishment for doing so. We'll see what the next session brings!

We've taken a hit with Josh H moving and David H not showing lately, and with two players the game seems to be stalled. I hate the idea of shelfing it, since I did for a while recently, so I guess we'll just have to see if we can get more interest in it.

8.03.2009

Eberron: Prophecy of Ascendence, Part 38

This week, our intrepid adventurers made it as close to the Starpeaks as the lightning rail would take them, and from there went to the mountains on foot. Recent seismic and volcanic activity made the navigation up to the entry point of the ruined temple that Lucky was searching for take a bit longer than expected, but they made it inside and travelled for a few hours in the darkness.

After travelling for a few hours, the group was ambushed by a small warband of large bat creatures, who they dispatched without too much difficulty. In the aftermath of the combat, they discovered another of the creatures who was tied up and whom they healed and tried the peaceful approach with, speaking with him at length about his race, known as the desmodus, and their role as protectors for the temple. Their newfound ally, who I can't recall the name of, also shared with them the philosophies of different factions within his race.

Not much was accomplished, but I think the session was a fun one. When we left off, the party was resting and about to head further into the depths of the mountain to discover what secrets the temple holds.