It has been a good solid month since I last posted and a lot has gone on in my life, work wise and family wise, not all of which I have sorted out in my head yet, and sadly wont be divulging too much here until Im happy about it going public, whatever that means.
In the meantime I will tell you briefly how the Dark Heresy campaign is going, and its going a real treat. I think we are 2 big adventures into it and feel it slowly building to a crescendo.
We have fought assassins through the streets of Scintilla, fought off onslaughts of marines sent to murder us in our sleep, we have fought mechanical demons sent to eliminate us, and yet we fight on.
And now, we have finished a full sweep of a space hulk with only 15 hours to find an ancient sword, 15 hours because if we dont find our target in time, the Space Fleet will hurl warheads to destroy it. Its a deadly task which we accepted.
And still we have survived.
With almost 4,000 experience points most of the party are heading towards level 5, which is rather more rapid a progression than I thought possible.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Just to Prove my Dark Heresy and Cthulhu in Space Theory
Dark Heresy mini adventure came to a pleasant end (pleasant as in enjoyable, as opposed to the nasty ending for innocents and chaos alike).
We are about to embark on the official campaign, cant remember the name, but they guy who is running it (Wrigamortis) his wife is due to give birth to twins any time between now and April.
I've canvassed the group and all of them love the horror and investigation route. So as not to steal his thunder, Ill be running Call of Cthulhu instead.
We are about to embark on the official campaign, cant remember the name, but they guy who is running it (Wrigamortis) his wife is due to give birth to twins any time between now and April.
I've canvassed the group and all of them love the horror and investigation route. So as not to steal his thunder, Ill be running Call of Cthulhu instead.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
L5R RIP for Now. Mutants and Masterminds rules instead
Ive finally gotten to the bottom of the L5R problem, and it wasn't me.
Being a bit of an empathic, I was picking up on the general attitude towards the game from the other players and it was manifesting itself into my own negative thoughts.
To be fair, the GM was winging the game to suit our whims within certain of his own boundaries of the overall story he wanted to tell.
So we agreed amongst the players who were attended that we should rest the game indefinitely and maybe return to it some time much later in the future.
And in its place, I'm running Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition superhero campaign.
edit 2014 - I later discovered that several of the players also had issues with the Asian names and nomenclature which added to general confusion.
Being a bit of an empathic, I was picking up on the general attitude towards the game from the other players and it was manifesting itself into my own negative thoughts.
To be fair, the GM was winging the game to suit our whims within certain of his own boundaries of the overall story he wanted to tell.
So we agreed amongst the players who were attended that we should rest the game indefinitely and maybe return to it some time much later in the future.
And in its place, I'm running Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition superhero campaign.
edit 2014 - I later discovered that several of the players also had issues with the Asian names and nomenclature which added to general confusion.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Something is Going Wrong, and I dont know what
Something is going wrong with our RPG group and I dont know what.
We're still playing Legend of the Five Rings, a game I adore before we started playing earlier this year, and having played it for the first time, I still love it to death. But I have found myself for the 3rd time in as many sessions really not enjoying the session at all.
Firstly we have 2 new players, one is a go along with the crowd kind of guy who is intelligent, smart and funny, but enjoys playing the intelligent warrior type. The other player is a post university student who is careful in his actions and thought processes.
Added to this mix a turbulent few weeks, different venue for each session, plus a couple of players finding it temporarily hard to get to the game (only short term).
My problems is I really am not enjoying it at all. Now I dont know if its ME, the new PLAYERS, the GAME/GM, or the GROUP.
I need to analyse this a little further, but I need to work fast, as at this rate, I would have clocked up almost a month's worth of gaming wherein Im not enjoying myself.
I intend to discuss this with the GM, who is also a good friend of mine too.
We're still playing Legend of the Five Rings, a game I adore before we started playing earlier this year, and having played it for the first time, I still love it to death. But I have found myself for the 3rd time in as many sessions really not enjoying the session at all.
Firstly we have 2 new players, one is a go along with the crowd kind of guy who is intelligent, smart and funny, but enjoys playing the intelligent warrior type. The other player is a post university student who is careful in his actions and thought processes.
Added to this mix a turbulent few weeks, different venue for each session, plus a couple of players finding it temporarily hard to get to the game (only short term).
My problems is I really am not enjoying it at all. Now I dont know if its ME, the new PLAYERS, the GAME/GM, or the GROUP.
I need to analyse this a little further, but I need to work fast, as at this rate, I would have clocked up almost a month's worth of gaming wherein Im not enjoying myself.
I intend to discuss this with the GM, who is also a good friend of mine too.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Legend of the Five Rings
We played L5R last night, and despite the low player number (GM + 2 Players + 1 New Player) it went rather well.
4 of the players couldnt make it, all for genuine reasons. Im well aware of the summer break being a big issue for getting players back on the RPG wagon.
Still it gave me the chance to catch up on my notes, create a new character for the new player and get underway with a small side-trek to introduce combat and more background story.
One of the nice side-effects of running a smaller group of characters is that they get to perform roles they dont normally entertain. So our resident ninja/shinobi was virtually forced to fight face-to-face as opposed to sitting in the trees and picking off targets.
Next week we should be back up to our normal quota of players 7 + 1GM.
One other bit of good news was I got my hands on Legend of the Burning Sands.
Using the same system as L5R, this game has been promised for over 10 years, something the back-blurb at least is honest in mentioning. Its still in its sellophane wrap having been bought on my behalf from www.leisuregames.com. Im looking forward to a quiet evening this week to savour every page.
4 of the players couldnt make it, all for genuine reasons. Im well aware of the summer break being a big issue for getting players back on the RPG wagon.
Still it gave me the chance to catch up on my notes, create a new character for the new player and get underway with a small side-trek to introduce combat and more background story.
One of the nice side-effects of running a smaller group of characters is that they get to perform roles they dont normally entertain. So our resident ninja/shinobi was virtually forced to fight face-to-face as opposed to sitting in the trees and picking off targets.
Next week we should be back up to our normal quota of players 7 + 1GM.
One other bit of good news was I got my hands on Legend of the Burning Sands.
Using the same system as L5R, this game has been promised for over 10 years, something the back-blurb at least is honest in mentioning. Its still in its sellophane wrap having been bought on my behalf from www.leisuregames.com. Im looking forward to a quiet evening this week to savour every page.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
L5R Pt 3 & 4
Our GM is ready to start running the 3rd and 4th parts of his Legend of the Five Rings campaign, with the added extra element of the recently released, Legend of the Burning Sands, an addon that AEG has been promising for over 10 years.
Its the first session after my summer break, and I came back to the group finding out that as usual its hard to get everyone back into the routine again.
Of the 8 of us playing, 3 are out of action due to work, holiday or family pressures, but normal service will resume. I dont mind this as it moves the emphasis around between the players. If one player/character is a little loud and likes to be the centre of attention, when they are not there for a week or so, the dynamics of the group and adventure changes, and generally for the better (only int he short term.)
Gurth, our GM for L5R, has written parts 3 & 4 back to back and will run them as such. I have been taking lots of notes as we play, as I have a terrible memory between sessions, and as the resident Scorpion, I need to keep up to date with all the intrigue going on. I am not sure I will write them up until after the campaign is over, as Im not the greatest fan of "actual play".
Its the first session after my summer break, and I came back to the group finding out that as usual its hard to get everyone back into the routine again.
Of the 8 of us playing, 3 are out of action due to work, holiday or family pressures, but normal service will resume. I dont mind this as it moves the emphasis around between the players. If one player/character is a little loud and likes to be the centre of attention, when they are not there for a week or so, the dynamics of the group and adventure changes, and generally for the better (only int he short term.)
Gurth, our GM for L5R, has written parts 3 & 4 back to back and will run them as such. I have been taking lots of notes as we play, as I have a terrible memory between sessions, and as the resident Scorpion, I need to keep up to date with all the intrigue going on. I am not sure I will write them up until after the campaign is over, as Im not the greatest fan of "actual play".
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Back from the Med
After a 2 week jaunt throughout the island of Corfu, Im back, and pumped up with ideas for both my MERP campaign, and also a couple of other game ideas.
Firstly because it was just me and the wife, I was able to read a lot as well as undertake lots of reading too, which in part was the inspiration for the games, but also because I was without the usual distractions of TV, the Internet, and phones as well as work, I was able to focus on writing, and lots of it. Pen and paper, no word processing here.
Although the MERP campaign has already been written, I wrote in during my barren playing days in the early 90s, it was written in a vacuum, without play-testing. As I may have previously mentioned, this is the 4th time I have attempted to run this game, and so therefore the early parts of the game are "well-oiled". So far they have enjoyed the comfort of Bree, and gotten to know the surroundings and the people rather well. Every encounter revealing a little more of the dark plot ahead. Now I am moving onto what I would class as 2nd stage of the game, and has yet to be even play-tested, let alone proof-read. Still I am sure in the intervening years I have got better at running and winging games without the facade falling away.
The next stage is therefore the apparently simple journey to the ruins of Rivendell (this is the 4th age afterall) to see the wisdom of the few that remain, and get answers to why there are many factions of orcs roaming what used to be considered safe lands. As a stream of consciousness I wrote 12 pages of A4 notes in one sitting without pause. There was quite a bit on my mind.
The other material I began work on was the early stages of a Superhero game, but I want to "poll" my group and see what they would expect or want from a superpowered game.
The other major focus on my writing was Dune. No no no. Im not one of the lucky who bought a GenCon copy or each paid out over £ 150.
I am ashamed to say I have acquired a PDF copy of the book, and what little I have read, its rather bland and uninventive. Regardless I will use it as the basis for a Dune campaign. For me, I am sufficiently happy to use a simple home-brew system using coloured counters representing traits along with a "troupe" style of play. I also possess a "printers error" copy of the Dune Encyclopedia which is all the background material I need to run a game.
Firstly because it was just me and the wife, I was able to read a lot as well as undertake lots of reading too, which in part was the inspiration for the games, but also because I was without the usual distractions of TV, the Internet, and phones as well as work, I was able to focus on writing, and lots of it. Pen and paper, no word processing here.
Although the MERP campaign has already been written, I wrote in during my barren playing days in the early 90s, it was written in a vacuum, without play-testing. As I may have previously mentioned, this is the 4th time I have attempted to run this game, and so therefore the early parts of the game are "well-oiled". So far they have enjoyed the comfort of Bree, and gotten to know the surroundings and the people rather well. Every encounter revealing a little more of the dark plot ahead. Now I am moving onto what I would class as 2nd stage of the game, and has yet to be even play-tested, let alone proof-read. Still I am sure in the intervening years I have got better at running and winging games without the facade falling away.
The next stage is therefore the apparently simple journey to the ruins of Rivendell (this is the 4th age afterall) to see the wisdom of the few that remain, and get answers to why there are many factions of orcs roaming what used to be considered safe lands. As a stream of consciousness I wrote 12 pages of A4 notes in one sitting without pause. There was quite a bit on my mind.
The other material I began work on was the early stages of a Superhero game, but I want to "poll" my group and see what they would expect or want from a superpowered game.
The other major focus on my writing was Dune. No no no. Im not one of the lucky who bought a GenCon copy or each paid out over £ 150.
I am ashamed to say I have acquired a PDF copy of the book, and what little I have read, its rather bland and uninventive. Regardless I will use it as the basis for a Dune campaign. For me, I am sufficiently happy to use a simple home-brew system using coloured counters representing traits along with a "troupe" style of play. I also possess a "printers error" copy of the Dune Encyclopedia which is all the background material I need to run a game.
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