The Defenders Vol. 2, Issue 2 - French Dip

When we last left off, Bennet and his gathered band were in a safehouse of the Knight Wing, who was eager to hear news of what they knew of what was going on, both with the attack by the Religon of Crime cultists with Abra Kadabra and Abner Cadaver, and with the disappearances of The League, Xavier, etc.. Grayson offered them food and a place to rest before they decided where to go after that, and when they had finished resting, came out in a costume more reminiscent of his mentor's, explaining that he would take up the mantle of The Bat, as the Dark Knight.

The Joker by Michael Turner

As they spoke, however, The Jester (Joker) appeared, teasing the Knight Wing about his ally's (and adopted father's) disappearance, stating it was "quite a puzzle" what had happened to the Bat, then casually strolling out and letting the heroes deal with some of his Killer Krewe. The battle was began awkwardly, as Kurt made mention of flanking the Krewe, but disappeared entirely when he teleported (David was unable to make this session, and so his teleport went haywire, more on that later!).

The Jester's clowns were tough, but fell eventually to the heroes. Their Last Laugh bombs were taken and the heroes decided to split up, first taking the Krewe members to jail, then wanting to check out the store front that Abner had smashed and grabbed from (a pawn shop, as the PCs had discovered). The band had taken the shop's ledger and doing a quick inventory of names and items, found the item "component" sold by "W. P. Schott", who they deduced was the Toyman.

After interrogating the owner of the pawn shop, a low-level organized crime member named Anton Grammach, they then used their detective skills (and Henry's knowledge of House Cannith) to set course for Aundair, where they had decided they would meet with the Toyman. Once in Fairhaven, they made an appointment with Schott and discussed his role in the component that Abra and Abner had taken an interest in. He explained that it was a component, possibly a coupling, and he didn't know what it was for. He simply designed and assembled it, then followed instructions on its delivery to the pawn shop in Korth, explaining he was paid very well for the rather simple work.

After paying a fairly exorbitant rate, themselves, the Toyman reproduced a quick sketch of the schematics for them and bid them fairwell, saying he would be happy to do further business with them, if they were interested.

The team decided, after hearing tale of The Bat having surfaced in Fairhaven, to go a'hero-ing at night. Though they did not run across the League member, they did find another trained by him and wearing a suit that evoked the fear and mystery of the Bat. This hero was in hot pursuit of the Grey Goblin across the rooftops, and though warned away by the more experienced Bat-like hero, interfered, ultimately causing the Goblin's death when it looked as if he would get away, knocking him from his glider high above the streets of Fairhaven.

The heroes stripped the armor from the fallen Goblin and took what was left of his curious bombs as they discussed with this strange Bat who and what he was. The costumed figure turned out to be a hero who normally used the name Nightrunner, but who took the mantle given him by the Bat, as instructed, when he found out that the elder hero hadn't been seen in some time. Nightrunner explained that the Bat had done similarly throughout the continent.

Next issue, a king escapes check!

Cast of Characters
Jean Grey, Elan Psion 4|Wilder 4  - Angela
Bennet du Paris (Exodus), Human Psion 4|Spellthief 4 -Taylor
Henry (Beast), Artificer 4|Anthropomorphic Ape 2/Monk 2 - Paul


Bonus Feature: Special Powers
As I mentioned before, I give each character a special power in addition to all the class and race features they would normally get. Though Jean's has not been revealed yet, even to Angela, I thought we would take a look at what the others got.

Nightcrawler has an ability called Teleport Master. With this, David may choose to have Kurt take at least one person with him any time he uses a spell or ability that lets him teleport. With powers that already let him take passengers, he may take an additional one. Unwilling passengers get a Will save.

Beast, when in a laboratory/workshop setting, gets Intuitive Genius, which allows him to craft items as if he possessed the feats Exceptional Artisan, Extraordinary Artisan, and Legendary Artisan. In addition, any researches conducted by Henry take half as much time.


Exodus was granted a boon in his past by a former mentor and patron, whom he betrayed. This figurative Deal with the Devil granted him increased mental capacity and more power, but has forever strained his relationship with Baselines, as well as his former master.

The Defenders, Vol. 2, Issue 1 - Every Story Has Two Sides

This is the first session recap for my superhero game set in Eberron. Angela had just placed her game on indefinite hiatus and we had to choose something else, so I stepped up to run something, presenting the players with the list of all games I want to run. Only Taylor had no opinion on what, exactly, we played, and the other three skimmed the list and all had included the the following in their short list.

The Pitch

28. D&D 3.5 - The Defenders, vol. II This game will be a continuance of sorts for a former gaming buddy’s gestalt superhero campaign using the D&D 3.5 rules. The idea is, using a combination of classes, races, and equipment, you create as close as possible, a rendition of an established superhero – or villain (from any comic book source) – and take on and team up with other supers who want to shape the future of Eberron for good or ill!

That is all they had to go on, but Paul and I filled in some details and character creation got started almost immediately. While this was taking place, a little bit of backstory was doled out, as well as the list of restricted and prohibited characters as it stood at that time.

A Little Background

During the Last War, extraordinary circumstances including the mixture of various magics, advances in sciences, and the unpredictable effects of experimental weaponry, led to the advent of extraordinary beings upon the face of Eberron. 

These beings came from all races, all stations and walks of life - and in some cases - other worlds. Each is an individual, with their own motivations and goals, and each has the power to see those goals to fruition. These Extranormal beings, as they have come to be called, lent their power in whatever way they saw fit during the Last War, and like the nations that waged that war, left their machinations during it behind when Cyre was destroyed on The Day of Mourning.

Since, these beings have begun to paint a gray world in strokes of black and white. There are those who have arisen as great villains and those who have become heroes in their defense of the common people.

However, it seems that a great evil is afoot and those who could help the most have been removed from the playing field. The League (JLA) have disappeared. Individually or as a group, they have either removed themselves from the concerns of Khorvaire, or have been targeted and removed so that they may not interfere. Likewise, the Iron Lord (Iron Man) has been slain in the skies above Sharn. Many witnessed his death, but none saw his attacker.

Strange, a professor of magical theory in Sharn, gathered a group of Extranormals, which he dubbed The Defenders, to his side and set off in search of Kal, the Super Man. No one has heard from or seen these heroes in months.

Likewise, another team assembled to right the wrongs of the League's disappearance, calling themselves The Avengers. These heroes were more recently active than Strange's Defenders, but have also not been seen in weeks.

Our Story Begins... 

This is where we pick up, with many of the world's most heroic Extranormals missing or dead. Magnus (Magneto), having been targeted early on by a kill squad, then attacked again during a misunderstanding with The Avengers, has only his youthful students, The Acolytes, and a few of his Brotherhood left at his disposal. He entrusts his most promising Acolyte, Bennet du Paris (Exodus) to the mission to find his friend, Xavier, who was taken recently, presumably by the same people who tried to get Magnus and has already gotten to The League and the Iron Lord.

Exodus traveled to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, really a training grounds for Extranormal youths, and recruited some of the students there to his mission. Kurt Wagner, an animal-like man appropriately calling himself Beast, and Jean Grey all agreed to Exodus' mission, then meet with Magnus, who tells them to seek the 'Scion of the Bat' in Karrnath.

During their preparations, we learn that Beast is connected to the more radical Cannith South faction, headed by Baron Merrix d'Cannith, when he asks the House for transportation to Karrnath. Perhaps for assuming he could meet with the Baron, himself, Henry and companions are granted only travel via House Orien coach.

Once in Karrnath, the group immediately travels around gathering information at the circus, which Kurt is familiar with, and where they know the Knight Wing (Robin I/Nightwing) performed before his adoption by Bruce ir'Wynarn (Bruce Wayne/Batman), whom they infer the identity of quick enough. This information leads them a slight ways out of the city of Korth, to ir'Wynarn Manor, where they are met by the manservant, Alfred, and told the the Master of the house has been on holiday for quite some time. When asked, Alfred directs them to the Low City district of Korth to find Master Grayson.

Once in Low City, the band encountered a rampaging group of cultists of the Religion of Crime, who are methodically looting and pillaging each building down a row. A small group of cultists engage the heroes, testing them for the first time, but are defeated despite serious injury sustained by Beast.

Perhaps by no coincidence, during the fight with the cultists, Abra Kadabra and Abner Cadaver show up. They, like the cultists, break into a building, but seemingly find what they are looking for. Abner comes back onto the street after entering the building he smashed into, holds his hand out to show Abra a small, shiny, metal sphere. Jean moves to engage the villains and Abra sends her hurling into a building from afar with but a wave of his hand. A warning is issued and our heroes stand aside as Abra and Abner make their escape, vanishing into thin air.

The Knight Wing shows up just minutes later, apologizing for being late, explaining that he was busy with some of the other cultists. He leads them to a safehouse he keeps in the district, then asks them to tell all they know.

Next issue, information is shared and a powerful hero (re)emerges!

Cast of Characters
Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), Lesser Tiefling Rogue 3|Totemist 3 - David
Jean Grey, Elan Psion 3|Wilder 3  - Angela
Bennet du Paris (Exodus), Human Psion 3|Spellthief 3 -Taylor
Henry d'Cannith/Beast, Artificer 3|Anthropomorphic Ape 2/Monk 1 - Paul

Another important point in this game is the Extranormal Check. It works like Bardic Knowledge, as a basic Int check, with Collector of Stories and other, similar abilities applied. This works only for Extranormals, and first tells their name, then abilities, known national headquarters (focusing the higher one gets), and aliases or real names, dependent on which is used.

I like this mechanic, but I don't have it fully codified, and it seems like I'm giving away A LOT of information. I originally wanted it used like the stereotypical "You're the Jackal, I presume?" lines that supers deliver to each other. One has to wonder how they know about each other before they meet?

Anyway, I'm probably going to be looking toward setting down strict mechanics for this check soon, and I'll post them as bonus content with a session recap.

30 Day Challenge, Day 25 - Favorite Magic Item

Here I am, enjoying a day off indoors, as my part of the world is gifted with freezing rain. I'm taking the opportunity to go ahead and do my Challenge post for the day, this one dealing with magic items.

My favorite magic item, an artifact really, comes from the brain of my friend Paul, and was retrieved by my character, Nastrond, during the Arcane College/Gnomad campaign (You can start here, if interested. Just click The Arcane College tag to continue on).

The item in question appears to be a simple leather bracer with brass fittings along the outer portion that house a small hourglass, like is used as egg timers. The hourglass can be removed and refilled, as needed, though ordinary sand just sits in the glass and has no special effect.

When filled with the Sands of Time, however, the bracer has a number of abilities, not all of which I think I discovered during the campaign. First off, at the most basic, the bracer could activate Haste, as the spell with a 10th level caster. In addition, the bracer could grant +10 to initiative to anyone within close range, and could be used to make someone reroll their last attack or save roll. Each use expended some of the Sands of Time within the hourglass.

The most powerful thing the bracer could do, however, is an ability much like a Time Stop spell, except with as long a duration as I was willing to spend charges from the Sands of Time.

Now, it's no mystery as to where the inspiration for this item came from. A certain Prince of Persia game had been out a while and was pretty popular amongst my friends at the time.

Paul can be very generous with interesting and powerful items that fit into the story of his campaigns, somehow, and this campaign was no different. I loved my "time gauntlet" as I called it, and abused it quite a lot when I had the charges to do so, but right before the campaign dissolved, Nastrond had learned that he had contracted a degenerative disease that was aging him quicker than usual. With the added push of learning he could fuel the gauntlet with his own life-force, this item became a real threat of character death at a time when I was probably going to become more reliant on it.

A New Campaign: Superheroes in Eberron

And so, with Angela unable to run a campaign now due to the time demand of her job, I presented The List (likely soon to be posted) to my players and they made their choice. Thus, we have picked up a game wherein the players use Dungeons & Dragons 3.x rules to, as closely as possible, create a gestalt character that resembles a hero from any superhero comic source.

In addition to the character build, I give a unique power to each character the rounds out and compliments the character chosen. All heroes, anti-heroes, villains, etc., are represented by gestalt characters and carry an additional "Extranormal" subtype. All characters not bearing the Extranormal subtype are granted the "Baseline" subtype, and may never have gestalt classes, barring extraordinary circumstances.

Character choice, as previously stated, can range the entire breadth of superhero comics, with a few exceptions. The founding members of the Justice League (Aquaman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Wonderwoman) are disallowed to players, as are any character previously played in this or the original campaign (ruling out characters like Deadpool, Forge, Dr. Strange, Vision, Thor, and a few others). Also, any unique character that has previously died in campaign cannot be chosen. There are, of course, certain loopholes - there are hundreds of Green Lanterns, for instance, and only the Hal Jordan analog is disallowed, same for the Wally West Flash.

The campaign itself is the sequel to one ran by my friend Zack in the early to mid 2000s, wherein super-powered beings (by virtue of gestalt classes) had begun to manifest on the world of Eberron over the past few years. Suddenly, though, the greatest of these heroes had vanished, and Dr. Strange (played then by my friend, Chris G.) gathered a team he called The Defenders to get to the bottom of the disappearances. That was months (game time) ago, and those heroes are, perhaps, still on their quest, but another team has been assembled for similar reasons more recently.

The adventures of this new team will be presented in upcoming posts, as we've already had a few sessions, but for now, I'll introduce the team....

Cast of Characters
Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), Rogue 3|Totemist 3 - David
Jean Grey, Psion 4|Wilder 4  - Angela
Bennet du Paris (Exodus), Psion 4|Spellthief 4 -Taylor
Henry (Beast), Artificer 4|Anthropomorphic Ape 2/Monk 2 - Paul
Scarecrow [DC] - Jon (Tentative)
Ghost Rider - G2 (Tentative)
Shadowcat - Sam (Tentative)

As you can see, the team we started out with (the non-Tentatives) are very X-centric (ha!), and their story falls more into the vein of what I feel fits the X-Men vibe. It's interesting to note that only two characters don't fit the X-Men team theme, and I was excited when Jon said he wanted to play a DC character. Integrating the separate mythos of various comic book worlds with the world of Eberron and each other has been a challenge for me when trying to plot my story, and I'm eager to see how and why Jon puts the Scarecrow, a notorious adversary of The Bat, in the midst of a young group of heroes.

30 Day Challenge, Day 24 - Favorite Energy Type

And so, I failed my goal. I didn't get all 30 days in, as I went out of town over the weekend, and I honestly have no idea why I didn't post Thursday, perhaps I thought I had, then didn't. Ah well, it's still a good run for this blog, and I'll post as much of the rest as I can, hoping for as many as I can get.

Today's point is favorite energy type, and that's one that's split for me. As a GM, fire is my favorite to utilize, because most players will gravitate to protection  from fire as a default, and it's nice to give your players the satisfaction of shrugging off some or all of an attack with use of spells or items from time to time.

I once also stole an idea from a Dragon magazine about an albino red dragon, so all of the PCs in that group had made preparations to face a white dragon, then were surprised by the fire coming out of the thing's mouth, leading to a TPK due to unpreparedness.

As a player, however, sonic is my preferred energy type. The game designers of D&D and derivative games nerf sonic attacks, usually by decreasing die step by one or two, or hard limiting number of dice of damage dealt, but sonic damage is very effective against not only creatures - very few of which have resistance or immunity to sonic - and objects, which take more actual damage due to sonic attacks often bypassing their structural hardness.

30 Day Challenge, Day 20 - Favorite Monster (Humanoid/Natural/Fey)

Another one with too many categories. I kinda covered my favorite humanoid back at Day 2, and I suppose "Natural" was covered a few days ago when I mentioned my like for the badger (though, admittedly, "Natural" is an oddly named category). This, of course, leaves me only with the Fey.

I'm a big fan of the fey. I don't think they get enough play in most fantasy rpgs, as historically, they made up most of our folklore of ancient cultures. Even most of our common fantasy monsters and races were once fey - the goblin, hobgoblin, gnome, elves, dark elves, kobolds, dwarves, and trolls, at one point or another were vaguely categorized as fey. This isn't to mention creatures more closely related to what rpgs have most commonly attached the label to, like sprites, naiads, and satyrs.

My favorite, however, are pixies. In my Wilderlands campaign, they are usually heralds of a larger fey presence or greater fey power, and are passive-aggressively mischevious, often trying to provoke those they torment in front of their unknowable masters in hopes that they will see the ancients use their powers in the real world.

That game aside, a pixie's natural invisibility, along with their small size, makes them ideal scouts and spies. A stereotypical pixie is also a fun, playful companion who is always curious and ready for adventure. In another campaign I ran many years ago, my friend, Kortney, went another direction with a pixie fighter who came from a very militaristic society that resembled the lifestyle of aggressive ants or wasps.

And again, a creature type that is widely represented with images on the net, but with not many that convey the traditional rpg pixie.

Dark Heresy, Session 6: Tattered Fates

And thus it came to pass that we had found ourselves, at last, at the time of reckoning that was the 13th Hour. I was confused, I admit, by the happenings. I live to serve the Emperor and fight against His enemies, wherever they may be. My seconding to His Holy Ordos was a blessing, as I have ever been eager to bring His unforgiving will to those who serve the Ruinous Powers, may we all spit at their name.

This night, however, we saw a planet almost lose itself to Chaos. The Jackal Mask was a vile servant opposed to our God, and he tried to vanquish us. Then the sky opened up and the great being we had seen on the avenue before appeared, trying to stop us from finding out a way to save the planet and the people upon it. Though debauched they may be, I don't think we could condemn them all to whatever Hell may have been made ready.

At any rate, I'm rambling. Must be the nerves. Nico had rejoined us and was trying to do something to the clock. The rest of us were concentrating fire upon our enemies, eventually putting down all targets but the strange and powerful man thing, tentacled and shrouded.

In the final moments, our scholar had proven to have the right of it and pulled a piece of the clock out, thus ending a tense moment that seemed to drag for weeks. The Widower, as the large being was called, was seemingly vanquished, or banished for a while, at the least, and we promptly made haste to collect what spoils we could so that we could buy a ride off-planet as soon as possible.


Cast of Characters
Rhia, Gunpoint (Hive World) Investigator (Arbiter 4) - Angela
Xantippa Thebe, Son of Nightmare (Void Born) ?? (Imperial Psyker 4) -  Paul
Nicodemus, Regulus (Imperial World) Inditor (Adept 4) -Taylor
Mohrdecai, Cadian (Fortress World) Sergeant (Guardsman 4) - Me

30 Day Challenge, Day 19 - Favorite Monster (Elemental/Plant)

This one's a bit unfair, yeah? I get the natural theme of choosing amongst elementals and plants, but the two things offer quite a range, and it becomes hard to choose. And so, I'm going to cheat on this point and choose one from each category!

Representing the elementals, I think I have to go with the classic earth elemental. This guy combines great movement ability with staying power in the form of high hit points, as well as the physical might to stand toe to toe with some fighter types when damage is concerned.

A summoned earth elemental is a great boon in holding passages or harrying spellcasters that cannot fly, or making them grapple said spellcasters to prevent them from flying. Earth elementals, however, are just as fun and useful to utilize for the GM as they are the players, especially if their earth glide special ability comes into play.


In the plant's corner, we have the assassin vine. I admittedly do not use many plants (though I tend to roll for shambling mounds often enough in my Wilderlands campaign), but one that I have used over the years to measured success is the assassin vine.

This is a nice "trap beast" to use for parties who like to retreat from the dungeon every 15 minutes, camping in the woods between forays into the deeps. If only they had been more attentive, they would have noticed the creepers trailing up the trees nearby were deadly flora.

The assassin vine is also easily scalable, meaning it can be a threat even when the PCs start ranging into mid-levels.


As a final note, there aren't really any super neat images of either of these things on the net, but there was an earth elemental on some person's blog that reminded me of an old Rock Lords Go-Bots.

30 Day Challenge, Day 18 - Favorite Monster (Immortal/Outsider)

Today's point on the 30 Day Challenge list asks me to pick a favorite Immortal or Outsider, and I think the most solid choice one could make here is the Marut. As the Monster Manual says, the Marut (see Inevitable) represents the certainty of death, which can put them in opposition with PCs a number of ways.

The Marut may come after the party after they drink potions that may extend their lives, or if they abuse the recurrence of life that spells such as raise dead or resurrection bring. Otherwise, they may run afoul of the Inevitable as it tries to bring an end to the party's enemy, like a lich who has cheated death for centuries through its undead state, or a powerful cult who sacrifice virgins and bathe in their blood to prolong their life.

Not only is their mission dire, but the Marut are completely unflagging. As constructs, they never need to rest, and would search planes for eons before they find their quarry...assuming one lived that long.

This is not to mention that they just look ready to bring eternal rest to those who seek to cheat death. From their fists, crackling with powerful energy to their elaborate bronze armor covering their jet black bodies, the question of if these enforcers of universal truths come in peace or seeking to mete punishment is moot.

30 Day Challenge, Day 17 - Favorite Animal/Vermin

This one seems an odd choice to put in a list of questions about a hobby normally steeped in fantasy or science fiction. I do understand that interesting fauna can be found in the various milieu presented by the world-builders of our hobby, even Khardtha has some, but today's topic kinda has me on the back foot.

I suppose my answer would be the badger. My friend Eric's wizard, Hazeem, was reincarnated as a badger once, and a few of the druids and rangers I recall over the years have had badger animal companions.

Past that, I really have no other reason for choosing the animal.

Oh, unless these are good reasons....

30 Day Challenge, Day 16 - Favorite Monster (Aberration)

While the undead category of this line of questioning was more difficult, with various nuances guiding my opinion over the years, my favorite aberration came to mind with no question.

The grick is usually one of the first aberrations most Dungeons & Dragons parties face in their careers, and usually represent a challenge that most PCs have not encountered up until they meet one for the first time... Damage Reduction.

Though gricks usually don't have many hit points and their attack is relatively weak, that one defensive ability of DR 10/magic means that the rogue and cleric are usually useless against the thing and the fighter types will not be doing much with their attacks, barring the fact that someone has a magical weapon (or one of the spellcasters has cast magic weapon.

This means that the grick might have to be dealt with by an offensive caster, meaning that it drains resources, making it a very useful creature for attrition in campaigns where your players tend toward the "10 minute adventuring day" style of play.

Besides, this thing looks awesome. All barbed tentacles and snapping beak on the business end of an overgrown snakeworm body. Fun stuff.

30 Day Challenge, Day 15 - Favorite Monster (Undead)

Undead are, by far, my favorite supertype of monster of all time, and for good reason. As I mentioned a few posts back, my mom used to take me to horror movie marathons when I was a kid, and the most prominent villain in those were the undead, and not just the standard fare of zombies and vampires, but also mummies (Karloff was the best!) and skeletons and ghouls.

All of these monsters captured my imagination and kept me going to the library looking for horror books as well as filling some of my first sketchbooks with vampires and such. This, of course, had continued on into my GM style with preference for enemies.

Nothing fills most people with dread more than a shock of mortality in the form of seeing a dead person, and to up that feeling by having said post-living attacking them speaks to our most basic fears of death. Though it might not come through at the game table as an existential moment, there usually is a sense of dread amongst players when the undead arrive.

My favorite amongst those who used to walk among us? Ghosts.

A zombie or a skeleton is, more often than not in rpgs, presented as a corpse merely animated with dark energies, and not possessing a true sense of motivation other than a drive to stop the living from living. Even more frightening are ghouls, vampires, and liches, who have that drive and goals, and an intelligence with which to achieve them.

A ghost has that drive, that intelligence - but also a sense of the unknowable. It becomes scarier than the bodily dead because you know that it literally is a manifestation of one's soul, their spirit, which holds them here for some reason. It's almost impossible to know what keeps a ghost anchored to the mortal coil, or even if they are present, since their natural state is an invisible and silent one.

Though technically a subclassification of ghost, the poltergeist has been a particular favorite since I saw the eponymous movie as a young child. A malevolent spirit deep-rooted to a location who manipulates its surroundings to drive those it feels does not belong away, or simply to kill them makes for an engaging enemy, and one hard to quell for any would-be hero.

Sadly, I haven't used undead as much as I used to lately, because my campaigns just haven't called for it, but this post has me considering options for the future...

30 Day Challenge, Day 14 - Favorite NPC

I was thinking about this one today at work, and I can't decide between two, so as they tie for first with me, I'll post them both and let my readers sort it out (though I think I know which my current group will choose).

First, we have my very first fleshed out NPC... Silky Smooth. This pimp/hustler character was the first thing that popped into my mind when my Vampire players were looking for someone shady they could connect with. Silky might be part of the underworld, but he's anything but shady, with his flashy colored suits and "pimp cane" in hand. Though seemingly always on the pulse of every illicit trade in the city, Silky is ever known to have dealt in information. He will point you in the right direction, sometimes taking payment, sometimes offering his services for free on a whim.

To get the portrayal of Silky, I mainly drew from a guy I had come into acquaintance with when I was a teenager named Bobo. Most people who have spent any amount of time hanging out in Batesville, Arkansas have met Bobo. He'll freely admit to having spent time in prison for drugs and stabbing a dude, and is a self-confessed crackhead and vagrant. Take that core and sprinkle in some Katt Williams voice and Huggy Bear's wardrobe, and you just about get it...again, assuming you've met Bobo.

Anyway, he was always fun to portray and the PCs kept going back to him over and over again, even though they had other options, so I felt like they enjoyed the character, too.


The other NPC that leads the pack is Baron Althom. This character is mentioned as a benefactor in the 3.0 Dungeons & Dragons module The Forge of Fury, but had made more than that appearance in my attempts to run the Sunless Citadel adventure path and various other tries at Eberron campaigns.

Normally, I wouldn't put forth a character from a module as a favorite, but when first running the character, an eclectic art collector and Karrnathi noble, a good mix of the voices (and attitudes) that Peter MacNicol used for Dr. Janosz Poha, and Martin Short's Franck Eggelhoffer came to the fore and I ran with it. This character served in my long-running Eberron campaign as an ally and benefactor on more than one occasion, so I'm pretty sure he was liked by the party.

I've also used my "Baron Althom" voice and portrayal for various NPCs across settings, effectively making a multiversal character in my games.

30 Day Challenge, Day 13 - Favorite Trap/Puzzle

Quite a few years ago, when running a Forgotten Realms campaign, while the PCs were trapped, unbeknownst to them, in a demiplane at the end of a lengthy subterranean adventure, I introduced a cave filled with statues on plinths.with plaques, each bearing writing - some familiar, some completely alien to anything they had seen. Each statue seemed to depict a warrior of some sort in an action pose.

This room, in keeping with the whole basis of the Forgotten Realms, was a room full of portals. In order to activate any individual portal, a person need only to read the name inscribed on the plaque aloud and reasonably well. At this, all characters in the room would be transported to a location fitting the statue subject's locale, with said subject present and battle ready. Initiative was immediately rolled.

The trick to this was, if any of these people were defeated in battle (Often single combat with the person who spoke the name), then the PCs would be transported back to the statue room, but that locale - without the mandatory fight - would be open from then on, by simply standing in front of the statue and speaking the name again. If a PC failed to defeat the subject, then that area was locked for a year and a day more.

One of the statues, of course, led back to Faerûn, the rest led to different campaign settings, and one, featuring the name "Wm. H. Bonney" on the plaque, led to an alternate Earth that the PC would have to face Billy the Kid for entrance. Though this statue's subject was tested, that plane remained locked. When it seemed as if the group were destined for entrapment in the Demiplane of Dread (the Ravenloft campaign setting), because the subject featured was a former inhabitant of the Realms, a Knowledge (History) check revealed he had been missing for decades, and the PCs chose the wrong plane in the end (surprisingly, my homebrew of Khardtha - keeping in mind I told them nothing about where they actually led), they eventually were able to go home.

I understand that while this wasn't truly a trap OR puzzle, it had features of both and could have been very detrimental to the party, as they could have been trapped in certain locales or locked themselves out of all the portals with a string of losses, which would have been worse, since they were the only way out of the demiplane they had found themselves in.

30 Day Challenge, Day 12 - Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

Due to the adventure modules The Sunless Citadel and Heart of Nightfang Spire, I really like what are technically traditional dungeons, in the sense that they descend, but both start at the top of towers and work down. It just has a separate visceral feel to the descent into adventure.

My absolute favorite dungeon type and location rolled into one, however, is a ruined city in the desert. I've only utilized it once in an rpg, but there are lots of movies and such out there that present the type of location I'm talking about.

In this, you have a vast sprawl of ruined buildings serving the role of your dungeon rooms, connected variously by open plazas and sand-clogged avenues that serve as your corridors. The area is usually open-air, and gives the impression of a place ripe to (and ability to) openly explore, while the isolation and desolation creates an illusion of oppressiveness that acts, albeit falsely, as the dungeon walls.

Cellars, basements, tombs, and sewers can all serve to allow dungeon levels and sublevels, and the dryness of the whole location can really create a nice change of scenery for a campaign usually mired in moldy, dank dungeons adventurers are used to.

30 Day Challenge, Day 11 - Favorite Adventure You Have Ran

This turns out to be a tough one, too. Not because I don't run published adventures or anything of the like, but that I would like to nominate an adventure path, instead.

I suppose the term "Adventure Path" is slightly more modern than the adventures that I have in mind, but it is what it is, and what I'm talking about is the first series of adventures published for the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, that ranges from The Sunless Citadel to Bastion of Broken Souls, and should - in its unmodified state - take adventurers all the way to the cusp of 21st level and grant them a boon in the form of divinity by way of Divine Rank 0.

A few years back, I ran a successful campaign that spanned all these adventures and finished the first "complete" campaign I have ever ran. I have found, in the past, that published adventures usually break down in the mid levels and are completely unplayable in the late game. Not so this span. The challenges and story entice and test the PCs with a great sense of scaling.

Barring my ability to choose a whole path, however, I think I would go with the adventure that kicks the whole thing off. The Sunless Citadel is easily droppable into any campaign world with little work.

One of the best for 3.x

• In Athas, a demented Druid could be jealously guarding the tree he feels is a relic that could usher in a new Green Age.
• On Krynn, recent tremors have uncovered a sunken tower from the time of the Cataclysm and a recent expedition has yet to return. What secrets does this ruin of Istar hold?
• A warmer-than-usual winter and a hot spring has caused a heavier melt this year in northern Faerûn, exposing a crevasse with a tower jutting out of it. Some brave adventurers have already went to its depths, but will you let them beat you to the possible riches of Netherese or Evereskan artifacts?

These are just a few of the things you could do with the adventure, and just a little reskinning of monsters and names is all it would take to plop into your own campaign's neck of the woods.

I've ran this module three or four times over the years, and my only complaint is that the adventure itself is rather linear, though if ran as part of the path, can hardly be called so if you don't want it to be. My group hopped all over the place in the year+ we played. At any rate, it's a great adventure for newbies and vets alike, with a good mix of the unique and new with the old dungeoncrawling tropes present.

Dark Heresy, Session 5: Tattered Fates

And so we made to deal with a buyer for our liberated wares. On thinking, I know not why butchers would need pict-screens and such. It seems they would need to constantly work. There is His whole Empire to feed, after all, but I suppose they didn't value that much, anyways.

We made with some nice kit and then began our search for the manor we had been told about with the party that was supposed to ring in the 13th hour. This was not to be yet, however, as throngs of revelers surged toward us, being herded by an enormous man with tendrils where his arms and hands should be behind them. To the front, some men like those we encountered at the library pushed forward and began to fire upon the large being, but we and it put them down swiftly, all but two.

These last were truly vile heretics, as they wielded weapons that projected the Emperor's Own Holy Plasma upon their enemies, and were firing it at the enormous shrouded man, who clearly was against these heretics and together we smote them. The big guy's ire had spiked and we made haste away from the area as best we could when we realized that he was still on a rampage, as we wanted no part of that.

I was struck by this being with a sense of wonder and awe. It aided us in dispatching those who oppose Him, and I couldn't help but think if this giant man could have been one of His own children, the blessed Primarchs who took the Empire back into His fold. How silly these thoughts ended up being, and I really should strive to dispel idle musings in the future.

Thought begets Heresy.

We did, eventually, make the old Haarlock estate and begin to take part in the event that was transpiring around us. Misdirection and dark speech was bandied about and after searching for our goal, and seeing fleeting images of supposed enemies, the majority of us left Nico to his books (fool that he is, though I'd much rather the old man's company than that Xantippa's) while we aimlessly roamed halls.

The 13th hour would chime soon, and I, at least, got a bit more nervous to the tolling. Perhaps my time on Cadia put a twist to my mind, but this spoke "daemon" to me.


Cast of Characters
Rhia, Gunpoint (Hive World) Investigator (Arbiter 4) - Angela
Xantippa Thebe, Son of Nightmare (Void Born) ?? (Imperial Psyker 4) -  Paul
Nicodemus, Regulus (Imperial World) Inditor (Adept 4) -Taylor
Mohrdecai, Cadian (Fortress World) Sergeant (Guardsman 4) - Me

30 Day Challenge, Day 10 - Craziest Thing That's Happened That You Saw

So, this "question" is really oddly phrased, because it also apparently can be just a thing that you saw happen to one of your gaming buddies, but I'll keep it in the context of at the game table. I also assume that it could be worded as "Most Memorable Moment", and that's kinda how I've approached this.

I have to say that out of all my years of gaming, the Eberron game I ran from September '08 to December '09 has had the most consistent stream of memorable characters, scenes, and interactions I've witnessed. One of these instances is the forerunner in my mind for the craziest thing I've seen at the table that has happened during a game.

The party had been beset by devils and demons for quite some time, often taking on vrocks and bone devils (osyluths). During a confrontation with one of the bone devils, at a time when the party was low on resources and actually had to fight hard, Taylor decided his Artificer's Iron Defender, a small construct built to resemble a dog (and not much more powerful than the animal it favors), was going to attack the thing.

In this campaign, I was using the critical hit charts I posted long ago, which had effects ranging from negligible to deadly. Taylor rolled for his construct and scored a natural 20. If I remember correctly, the thing could only hit on a 19 or 20, but nevertheless was able to confirm the critical hit, then subsequently rolled head on the hit location and then high enough on the effect chart that the iron defender ripped the bone devil's head clean off. Everyone at the table roared with excitement and laughter.

It was just one of those moments where the chips are down, you're using all your tools - in this case, a construct with barely a chance to damage this thing - and then, sudden triumph. We still talk about it, because it was just that awesome.

 

The Age of Worms, Session 28

Our exit from this place, triumphant, but still with more questions to be answered, seemed to be our fate, without a clear plan to follow, it looked as if we were going to have to confer with Allustan or Eligos on where to go or what to do next, but as we meant to take our leave from the place, we were attacked!

Out from nowhere, a small group of the dark elves and a mysterious other figure with slimy tentacles where a mouth should be attacked. The area was cloaked in darkness, and though we defeated the four drow, there was no sign of the betentacled fellow, but we did have a trail to follow. The boots of the drow were caked in phosphorescent fungus called Beggar's Gold, which we identified and used as the basis for our investigations under the city in the tunnels which led to the city's sewers.

Greyhawk's sewers, wretched and cold and smelly as they were, are hellishly HUGE. It took us what seemed like weeks, but was likely only days, to finally get back on the trail of our attacker and, we hoped, the bottom of the problems here in the Free City. We fumbled our way further, encountering a few more drow and then came upon a great set of double doors within an otherwise seemingly natural cave.

Cast of Characters
Able Nightengale, Gloaming Healer 7/+1 Negative Level - David
??, Goblin Psion (Telepath) 5/Thrallherd 2/+1 Negative Level -  Paul
??, Human Warblade 4 - Paul (thrall)
??, Human Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 2 -Taylor
Rill Meadowwhisper, Flind Druid (Shapeshifter variant) 7/+1 Negative Level - Me

And here ended our foray into The Age of Worms.

Angela, like me, has just gotten a new position at her job, and she feels she doesn't have the time or energy at this moment to run a game, and so with a little discussion, I decided to start a new campaign. More on that to come, but I'd like to thank Angela for a fun game!

30 Day Challenge, Day 9 - Favorite Character You Haven't Played

This one is even harder than yesterday's, because I can look at my own characters with an eye toward how I experienced them, but with someone else's character...especially if they were your fellow player in a game ran by a third party, there's that level of distraction, where you're planning your own actions, looking forward to your time to act, and keeping up with what the GM and any number of other players at the table are doing, and I think sometimes those characters can get lost.

That's not to say that Taylor's "Dr. Robscar" (I forget his actual name now), a Camarilla vampire forcibly turned Sabbat that killed my first character in the same campaign and ended up blowing up some of the Primogen Council before skipping town, or Tony's Cleric in Paul's Gnomad game aren't awesome, but I tend to realize how awesome characters are more when I'm watching them from the point of view of a GM.

There have been many exciting and intriguing characters throughout my GMing years, and the characters in my current Defenders D&D game are shaping up to be amongst the 'cool kids', but one character from all the way back to the first game I ever ran stays firmly in my mind,.

Damion Flair was a homicidal Camarilla Malkavian (with randomly generated Multiple Personality Disorder as his mental flaw) that perhaps would have been better suited to the brutal mindset of the Sabbat. Embraced in his cell at a penal mental institution and broken out by his sire after his cold body was taken to the morgue, Damion was turned loose with no guidance and rapidly fell back into his murderous ways, except with the Curse of Malkav adding to his dementia.

Damion often killed to get what he wanted, and sometimes would return to his old asylum as a sometimes-haven and feeding ground, which John D. always made seem like a trigger for him, whereafter he would be more violent and off-kilter than usual. The most memorable of these episodes came after one of Damion's acquaintances got staked and baked and he felt like he had been flushed from the asylum, his usual hidey-hole, he stalked and Dominated his way into a condo and killed the 5-member family therein, sitting them on the couch with the tv playing at most hours, letting them rot in their AC-blasted living room as he lived a workaday life around them, talking to them about "work" and what have you for multiple sessions.

It was probably some of the best roleplay I have ever seen, even to this day. John D. had a way with characterization that made his penchant for beater-archetypes never dull and I wish he still had time to commit to gaming.  

30 Day Challenge, Day 8 - Favorite Character You Have Played

Though not incredibly hard to choose, this did take a little thought.

Much like any other person who has played rpgs for more than a few years, I have hundreds of characters in my gaming history. Some are from false starts with one or two sessions of play, some from long-lasting campaigns, others the victims of mid-campaign TPKs or DM Fatigue. Just since I started this blog in September of 2007, I've written about 20 different campaigns featuring 30 different characters (I died a lot in two of those games), and sitting here, I can think of at least 30 more. I wouldn't be surprised if I have actually played over 100 different characters, so a question arises...

How does one choose their favorite?

I think it simply boils down to how much fun you had playing a character more than if they've slain a god, beaten the ocean in a drinking contest, or what have you.

And so, I have to go with Bhirtroc Taal, a Goblin Thief (now Rogue, since I've converted and played him in 3.x) that I've ran in a couple of short-lived campaigns that Paul ran, ranging from the late 90s to, theoretically, the present, though we've not played it in a long while.

On the end of a string of unfortunate deaths, but still wanting to play, I was able to drag a regular of my high school group to Paul's to play some D&D, but nobody else showed up for the session, and so John D. and I made our characters; he a Firbolg Fighter, and I my Goblin Thief. I loved the game, but was getting disgusted with the mounting deaths, and so I had suggested we play around with the Humanoids Handbook, which Paul agreed to, and then proceeded to name him something silly (it's pronounced "Beer truck", because I had looked out the window when making him and saw one pass by).

Paul had decided Bhirtroc and Red, as the Firbolg was named, were taken in by a kindly old lady in the woods (it was hinted that dear ol' mom was a witch, but never confirmed) who then set us out to do whatever we would in the world. This led to a hilarious string of incidences as two teenagers (both the players and the characters) ran afoul of the wider campaign world time and again.

John D. couldn't play as often as I could, and Bhirtroc went on adventures here and there with one or two other characters along the way, and now sits at a mighty 3rd level! He's not beaten a dragon, he's never plundered the king's gold, and in all honesty, I think he's truly only been in two combats, but everytime I've played him, it's just been fun, and that counts for so much.

30 Day Challenge, Day 7 - Favorite Edition

This is a fortunate turn in questioning, as we go from the hardest question to answer last post to the easiest in this one.

I think, more than anything else, my love of 3.x (I didn't announce it because if you've read this blog, well...any, you should have known what the answer was) likely stemmed because of the time in which I began playing RPGs. In 1996, there wasn't a game shop and through work, I had met Paul, who happened to game and was nice enough to invite me to his group.

Their game was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, and I did love it. That edition of the game provided many an hour of fun for me and my friends, but by the time I got into it, it was bloated and for a kid with barely any money (I had to pay for car insurance, fuel, etc.!), it was almost impossible to catch up.

The same was true for Vampire: The Masquerade. Though my highschool group jumped into that, I felt insecure in my abilities as Storyteller enough, and had the aforementioned lack of funds, that I was hesitant to get more than a few books in that system, partially to avoid overwhelming myself and the primarily-casual roleplayers at the table.

Then, in 1999, Wizards started posting articles about the upcoming new 3rd Edition of Dungions & Dragons in Dragon Magazine, and I devoured every bit. I bought the books as they released, and I've honestly never looked back. I purchased the 3.5 updated tomes, and now am just a few books shy of having everything Wizards put out during the official run of the 3.x Editions.

It doesn't really stop there, though....

After a brief dalliance with 4th Edition, and a growing distaste for it, my group and I jumped to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the spiritual successor to the 3.x line - so much so that early print ads for the game had "3.75" on them, and it really is the best fit, and a true continuance of the game I love most.

This is all not to say I don't enjoy and play other games. In fact, I have been known to ask my group to play other games just for variance, but I'm never truly upset at a 3.5 game featured at our game table.

30 Day Challenge, Day 6 - Favorite Deity

So far, this has been the hardest choice to have made, even more difficult than choosing a gameworld.

Though many of the divinities from various Dungeons & Dragons campaigns appeal to me, as do a few of the greater powers from the Elric mythos, as presented in game materials I have seen, I have to say that Games Workshop has presented, in my eyes, the most compelling gods to be worshiped by rpg characters.

The God-Emperor of Mankind, from the Warhammer 40,000 line, would be my first choice because the idea of nobody really knowing what, or even if, the giant corpse on the great machine that is his ostuary throne wants from his followers, so you have sects so radical and outlandish, spread all throughout the reaches of this galactic empire makes for insanely entertaining storytelling and characterization.

As much as I like the idea of the God-Emperor, however, it's another Warhammer deity, this one from the Fantasy line, that I have to choose as my favorite. This god is Morr, lord of death and dreams. Depicted as a man of noble, sombre bearing, draped in dark finery and cloaks, the god of the dead, death, and dreams, and holds some minor influence over prophecy, illusions, and safe passage.

Though Morr will have his accounting of the dead, and promotes his clergy to bring death to those who would cheat it or are abominations to life itself, he disdains murder, which is the domain of his younger brother, the god Khaine.

Champions of Morr are depicted as unflagging in their pursuit of finding Morr his due, and due to the compelling and engaging nature of these cold, untiring reckoners, I find Morr to be the most interesting deity to have as a patron for a PC (at least at the moment. This is one of those categories in flux with me.
 

30 Day Challenge, Day 5 - Favorite Set of Dice/Individual Die

When I started playing Dungeons & Dragons with Paul and his group, all the dice I had were a couple of "official" TSR sets, the ones from the mid-90s with the bright orange d20s with black numbers, that I had purchased from the long-since closed Batesville Bookstore.

This was sufficient, I thought, until I began running my own D&D game for my high school friends at my house every Monday night, from the time we got out of school until wrestling came on at 7 or 8. The shop in town at the time was The Round Table, and had probably the nicest selection of dice I had seen in a game shop for a decade after it closed.

Probably the nicest pic my iPhone has ever taken.

One day, I hadn't brought my own dice, not expecting a new campaign to start on that given day, and since I had my home game and sharing dice was becoming a hassle, I slipped one of the tubes off the wall and purchased the last set of dice I've ever used.

I believe they were Armoury dice, though they could be Chessex. At any rate, I've not found them again in a catalog or website, so I assume that they were discontinued long ago. I lost the blue d10 for a two month span, only for Paul to find it in the game room we used at his house. In all seriousness, when he handed me back my lost die, that day became one of the happiest in my life so far.

I've had them for 16 years. If I can't find them, I panic. They've provided me with ultimate triumph and ultimate humiliation at the game table, and gaming would be sad and weird without them.

30 Day Challenge, Day 4 - Favorite Gameworld

This one, I think, is the hardest question yet.

I'm intrigued by the alternate history setting of Colonial Gothic and the politics-driven worlds in Dune and Legend of the Five Rings.

I like the ideas presented in the far future Earths presented in Gamma World and Shadowrun.

I love the World of Darkness, and the Star Wars universe, and could go one of many different ways just in Dungeons & Dragons alone.

But...

A strong runner for my favorite gameworld is that presented in the Magic: The Gathering card game. This is not to say that the various planes of this setting might offer anything different than any number of other settings, but transitioning between those focused settings is even scripted into the core of the game's idea. Planeswalkers tread the planes with ease, bouncing from place to place to pursue their goals, and every character would aspire to be a Planeswalker.

However, I have only ever played in a (VERY) short-lived game set in M:tG's vast playground, and that game never left Dominaria (the game's version of a Prime plane), so perhaps I'm jumping the gun some with my declaration.

Certainly, if you look at my game mastering history, you'd not find a game set in the realms of Magic: The Gathering. In fact, you'd not find much diversity at all. There is, of course, Marvel Universe, from my goes at running the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game in the late 90s/early 2000s, then the World of Darkness, where I began my forays into game mastery, and have tarried in periodically since I began to game, but there are three D&D campaign settings that pretty constantly stay at the top of my list whenever I decide I would like to run a game.

Dark Sun, the Forgotten Realms, and Ravenloft each hold a special place in my heart, and I would say I've probably run equal amounts of campaigns from all three. The fact that I gravitate to horror media (perhaps due to those movie marathons Mom used to take me to when I was young) made Ravenloft an early favorite of mine when I decided to finally try my hand at running a D&D game. Later, my friend Chris got me hooked on Dark Sun by constantly chattering about it and the key differences that made the setting just different enough to keep me firmly rooted in the fantasy genre with a bit more of a desolation and hopelessness that appealed to my sadistic streak, I suppose.

Then there's the Forgotten Realms. Without a doubt, if you tally the number of sessions together that I have ran in successful campaigns, this setting will blow everything else out of the water (though I think Eberron is gaining now). Darkwalker on Moonshae, a pretty phenomenal novel (in my opinion), by Douglas Niles, opened the door to the Realms to me when I bought it on the cheap from the local bookstore. Shortly thereafter, some toy chain was selling out of their rpg stock, and I got the Gray Box on the cheap. I devoured it, then began reading all I could about the setting. Many people say that they don't care for the Realms or would never run a game in the setting because everything has been fleshed out, but that's a strength to me, and has helped me develop some of the campaigns I'm most proud of in my DM career.

Having said all that, I'm still not sure that I even have a true favorite gameworld, and maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. Simply, my favorite one is any setting in which I run or play in a game at a given time where I have fun.


As an aside, you may be wondering why I didn't mention my homebrew, Khardtha. This is because it's simply not my favorite. It's my playground, to do with what I will, but I've never played in it and it's incomplete, anyway. I do have fun when I tinker with the setting, but it's the fun coming from creating, not from having experienced something.

30 Day Challenge, Day 3 - Favorite Playable Class

The class that stands out most for me is the Rogue. Alternately known as the Scoundrel, the Thief, the Brigand, or any number of other names, if a game features a shifty character of questionable morals and a penchant for acquiring the things he wants through nontraditional means, then I usually gravitate that way.

Thinking of five of my favorite rpg characters I have personally played, despite not all technically being classed as rogues in the thieving burglar sense,
were played heavily skewed toward the stereotypes and tropes of the category, anyway.

I will play most any type of roguish character, from a sneaky cutpurse to a stone-hearted assassin, but tend to gravitate to the dilettante style...a rakish rogue who charms and bargains his way toward his goals. I think, perhaps, this is because I was extremely shy when I was a kid, up until around 11 years old, I guess. Maybe I'm just making up for lost time by portraying characters who are outgoing, as well.

30 Day Challenge, Day 2 - Favorite Playable Race

Just...

This one, to me and most members of my game group, is a no-brainer. Though unexciting to most when playing games for escapism, I think Human is still my favorite playable race.

Mechanically, in most games at least, Humans offer a huge advantage in that they have no disadvantages. Add to that the fact that Humans can usually opt-in to most careers/classes, usually have adaptability traits of some sort, and usually get a step up in customization by picking skills, etc., and Humans become perhaps not optimal, but solid, choices for characters.

...Some...

From a roleplay standpoint, many find Humans to be an unimaginative choice, or relegated to beginners, but to not consider them due to less fleshed out lore or whatever reasons really sells oneself short. True, they might be an easy choice for beginners, since they usually don't have many associated mechanics, but the Human story has yet to be told; there are countless ways in which to portray our native species. Besides, it's easy to play a Human, because everyone has experience in the role already!

...Examples.

30 Day Challenge, Day 1 - How You Got Started

I actually covered this in this post WAY back in March of 2008, but that's not the whole of the story, I suppose.

My mom and dad were actually huge influences on my eventually becoming a gamer, exposing me to fantasy and horror through movies, television, and books, as well as encouraging my imagination. My big brother even let me play Intellivision with him when I was young, and my grandparents loved board and card games, so I was familiar with cooperative an open-table gaming.

All of this, and realizing my mom might tell me no to a toy, but would buy me a comic book (because I was still reading, after all) really boosted my imagination even more. My love of true fantasy only grew when, in 6th grade, our teacher made us read The Hobbit, and showed us the old Bakshi movies. I was hooked.

For the next few years after this, RPGs were my favorite genre of video games, and I read books and comics constantly. Then, the happenings of the post linked to above happened. These events truly made me a gamer, and I was content to be a player, but I wanted to bring in my closest group of high school friends, but I didn't think I could hook them with Dungeons & Dragons. Then, an article in InQuest Magazine told of a game called Vampire: The Masquerade, and I knew this would be the game that would get my pals to buy in, since we all loved horror. It worked, and I had just multiclassed into Game Master!

The rest of this story up til the point when I began this blog would be a roller coaster ride of lost groups, hurt feelings, and long nights of great fun, but that's for another time, and not the focus of this post.