Recently Hair Dave and I have been talking about running a high level campaign in Dark Heresy, and Dave expressed an eagerness to avoid the events of the previous campaign. This is not to say the last campaign was poor by any means; there were some good characters there and some suitably memorable events, however it did seem at times that our band of Inquisitorial Acolytes were less bearers of the Emperor’s wroth and more paranormal detective agency.
The other difficulty would be to run a campaign with such powerful characters, especially since the rules were never intended to allow players to be Inquisitors. Inquisitors cannot be questioned by any agency; they carry a Rosette that allows them to get their way in any situation and combine the two worst boons in role-playing Excessive Wealth with Status. In short it would be very dull to play as there would be no challenge in getting what we wanted.
To this end some compromises needed to be made by myself. I agreed with Dave that I would operate my Inquisitor under Special Exemption, meaning that whilst I had all my status and power I would essentially be on the fringes of the Inquisition, operating as a rogue. As such I would be keen to avoid drawing attention to myself I would try and avoid using my assets as much as possible and make a covert investigation. This is the best kind of compromise as it doesn’t remove something from the character but gives me a reason to explore other avenues first rather than just flashing my ‘Fix-It’ badge; which would make things exceptionally dull for all involved.
We also agreed to a Sandbox style game, which I think Dark Heresy is actually quite suited to. Slap a few stat blocks for menials, guards and the like on some record cards, generate a few places with ‘gothic’ names (I hear of something skulking over by the Generatorum, let’s check it out!) that seem like interesting locales, then decide on a mission. The mission can be very vague, just decide who’s at the centre and what they’re doing and then work outwards; who do they need? Who would be involved with their plans? What materiel will be needed to complete their plans? Each one is a clue (or red herring) that slowly allows the characters to rein the plot in. Drop in some chase scenes and combat when you feel it’s appropriate or the investigation starts to sag and it should lead to an interesting campaign.
The reason I think Dark Heresy really works for this kind of game is that it owes a lot to Dan Abnett’s Eisenhorn and Ravenor Trilogies, which are full of interfering Inquisitors, dangerous Psykers and traitorous governors. Whilst you can include all of these elements in an event based game quite comfortably a sand box gives an impression that the locale you are in, be it an Imperial City a Ministorum Shrine or an alien world, is more of a living breathing entity that exists beyond the preview of the game. Certainly there are soft boundaries there, but you’ll hit them less often than with an event based game and they will be less obtrusive.
More and more I’m finding Sandboxes to be a preferable way to play role-playing games. Some people like detailed plots and a more cinematic play style with carefully planned scenes and set pieces, and I certainly won’t argue against that as a style of play. However a sandbox with a good GM can have all this and more, memorable NPCs can leap out of a random roll and a funny voice, interesting locations can just spring to mind as you’re playing and when you want an intense scene or an epic encounter atop a cable car in a hail storm you can have it because there’s no plan that says you can’t.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
On Top of the World: Session 7
In which the party gains a new member, massacre an encounter and leave Zendicon.
Two rounds. That'll make more sense in a paragraph or two.
So the party started where they left off last week, in the bottom of the Deeping Well with Lord Lofang cackling maniacally; yet there was hope! Oh yes, with a sunrod tied to an arrow the signal had been sent for Lady Jazelle's troops to assault Lord Lofang's stronghold and the first of her warriors had arrived in the form of Celavorn, Elven Ranger, played ably by 4th Ed. Neophyte Medium Dave. The party now looked like this:
Caradoc Burrows, Halfling Paladin of the Raven Queen (Giz)
Katarakis, Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut (Hair Dave)
Skurmesh Anklebiter, Dwarven Warlord (Amanda)
Du'nn'o Me'name, Eladrin Rogue (Rachel)
Celavorn, Elf Ranger (Medium Dave)
Cael, Elf Barbarian (NPC)
Admittedly Rachel was absent from this session but with Giz playing her character we ploughed on regardless and started by adding Celavorn to the initiative order and then let them loose on Lord Lofang. Between Du'nn'o and Celavorn (and some action points) Lofang took over 100 damage in the first round of combat and a round later was very, very dead.
I am fine with this, Lofang wasn't underwhelming as a monster, he wasn't a one trick pony who couldn't hurt the party; it was just that the party came together and tore the encounter to pieces. Celavorn was horrific and Du'nn'o had a revelation to cause massive damage. Lofang's guards didn't do much better and an encounter that might have taxed the party was over relatively quickly.
A good thing too as after divvying up the spoils, looting the place and deciding to abandon Zendicon it was already time for Amanda to hit the hay (damnable 5am starts) and I didn't want to run without her. Furthermore whilst I did have some more encounters planned I wanted to spend some time really planning things out so that the Zendicon Caverns will have entertaining and interesting encounters and a memorable finish to this leg of the campaign.
Two rounds. That'll make more sense in a paragraph or two.
So the party started where they left off last week, in the bottom of the Deeping Well with Lord Lofang cackling maniacally; yet there was hope! Oh yes, with a sunrod tied to an arrow the signal had been sent for Lady Jazelle's troops to assault Lord Lofang's stronghold and the first of her warriors had arrived in the form of Celavorn, Elven Ranger, played ably by 4th Ed. Neophyte Medium Dave. The party now looked like this:
Caradoc Burrows, Halfling Paladin of the Raven Queen (Giz)
Katarakis, Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut (Hair Dave)
Skurmesh Anklebiter, Dwarven Warlord (Amanda)
Du'nn'o Me'name, Eladrin Rogue (Rachel)
Celavorn, Elf Ranger (Medium Dave)
Cael, Elf Barbarian (NPC)
Admittedly Rachel was absent from this session but with Giz playing her character we ploughed on regardless and started by adding Celavorn to the initiative order and then let them loose on Lord Lofang. Between Du'nn'o and Celavorn (and some action points) Lofang took over 100 damage in the first round of combat and a round later was very, very dead.
I am fine with this, Lofang wasn't underwhelming as a monster, he wasn't a one trick pony who couldn't hurt the party; it was just that the party came together and tore the encounter to pieces. Celavorn was horrific and Du'nn'o had a revelation to cause massive damage. Lofang's guards didn't do much better and an encounter that might have taxed the party was over relatively quickly.
A good thing too as after divvying up the spoils, looting the place and deciding to abandon Zendicon it was already time for Amanda to hit the hay (damnable 5am starts) and I didn't want to run without her. Furthermore whilst I did have some more encounters planned I wanted to spend some time really planning things out so that the Zendicon Caverns will have entertaining and interesting encounters and a memorable finish to this leg of the campaign.
Monday, 8 June 2009
On Top of the World: Session 6
In which the party go trading, meet a beautiful women, become assassins and finally get a cliff hanger.
Woo.
Like Kirk in Star Trek II I'm back in the chair and being chased chased around a nebula by Ricardo Montalban... Well, maybe not. Finally after our three week hiatus we're back in Zendicon and rapidly approaching some variety of ending for the current campaign.
In a breief recap last time Du'nn'o had managed to climb up into the tower above Gaol Zendicon, borked her sneak roll across and empty room and got carved up by the wardens. When this session began the party were considering the possibility of escape by going through the caverns beneath Zendicon and escaping that way. They left Du'nn'o to rest following her ordeal and pressed on.
Realising quickly that they would need provisions for the trip the party decided to head to the Dust Market once again and eventually found the trader Avazan, a man who at first was happy to trade for what supplies the party had, but would not trade for gold. However he did mention his 'mistress' was rumoured to have some need of such precious things and directed one of his Ogre guards; Venerable Terry, to take the party to her.
The party came through many chambers to the ruined temple where the Lady Jazelle made her home, the party entered between drapes of precious fabrics into a room where an empty throne made of weapons sat unattended. As they waited Lady Jazelle seemed to appear from nowhere, a beautiful woman with almost luminous green eyes. The party traded with her for goods (15 trail rations, 10 flasks of water, and they managed to guess the price bang on) losing a quantity of gold and some sun rods for their trouble. Lady Jezelle for her part seemed interested in the Dwarf and bade them return to discuss a favour over dinner.
At dinner the Lady described her desire to control the trade of the market uncontested and solicited the party to remove her rival; the secretive Lord Lofang whose priests Caradoc and Du'nn'o had recently butchered. Caradoc was resistant to the idea of becoming an assassin but the party swayed him and in return Lady Jazelle promised to get her troops in the caverns below to allow them passage. Having agreed the party went to check her story out and found the cavern reinforced on both sides by a great many troops who barred the path with hails of arrows.
(Skurmesh also promised to make an army for the Lady, with whom he seemed infatuated. To this end, and given Dwarves unique biology in the Hearthlands, he was to impregnate the stone with his 'seed' thus giving rise to new Dwarves who must bear the sigil of his clan. Thus Skurmesh Anklebiter, last of the Anklebiters, has founded a new clan within this place.)
And so the party went to assassinate Lord Lofang, with a promise of aid from Lady Jazelle once the deed was done. To this end they took Caradoc and Du'nn'o bound and entered the 'Deeping Well' under the pretense that they had been captured by Katarakis and Skurmesh. The party were brought before Lord Lorfang, a grey skinned humanoid, and Talvil the priest Caradoc had maimed earlier. Words were bandied and eventually Caradoc head-butted Lord Lofang and the party jumped their collective adversaries.
The party aren't idiots and when Lofang went down they suspected he was a decoy, Skurmesh decided his manservent was in fact the real Lord Lofang, but he turned out to be a minion. Then with a terrible noise within his mind Caradoc was hit for a great deal of damage and upon the balcony above a voice entreated them and, coweled and robed, his face purple and festooned with tentacles; the Illithid Lord Lofang made himself known to the party.
Dun-dun-dunnnnn!
Woo.
Like Kirk in Star Trek II I'm back in the chair and being chased chased around a nebula by Ricardo Montalban... Well, maybe not. Finally after our three week hiatus we're back in Zendicon and rapidly approaching some variety of ending for the current campaign.
In a breief recap last time Du'nn'o had managed to climb up into the tower above Gaol Zendicon, borked her sneak roll across and empty room and got carved up by the wardens. When this session began the party were considering the possibility of escape by going through the caverns beneath Zendicon and escaping that way. They left Du'nn'o to rest following her ordeal and pressed on.
Realising quickly that they would need provisions for the trip the party decided to head to the Dust Market once again and eventually found the trader Avazan, a man who at first was happy to trade for what supplies the party had, but would not trade for gold. However he did mention his 'mistress' was rumoured to have some need of such precious things and directed one of his Ogre guards; Venerable Terry, to take the party to her.
The party came through many chambers to the ruined temple where the Lady Jazelle made her home, the party entered between drapes of precious fabrics into a room where an empty throne made of weapons sat unattended. As they waited Lady Jazelle seemed to appear from nowhere, a beautiful woman with almost luminous green eyes. The party traded with her for goods (15 trail rations, 10 flasks of water, and they managed to guess the price bang on) losing a quantity of gold and some sun rods for their trouble. Lady Jezelle for her part seemed interested in the Dwarf and bade them return to discuss a favour over dinner.
At dinner the Lady described her desire to control the trade of the market uncontested and solicited the party to remove her rival; the secretive Lord Lofang whose priests Caradoc and Du'nn'o had recently butchered. Caradoc was resistant to the idea of becoming an assassin but the party swayed him and in return Lady Jazelle promised to get her troops in the caverns below to allow them passage. Having agreed the party went to check her story out and found the cavern reinforced on both sides by a great many troops who barred the path with hails of arrows.
(Skurmesh also promised to make an army for the Lady, with whom he seemed infatuated. To this end, and given Dwarves unique biology in the Hearthlands, he was to impregnate the stone with his 'seed' thus giving rise to new Dwarves who must bear the sigil of his clan. Thus Skurmesh Anklebiter, last of the Anklebiters, has founded a new clan within this place.)
And so the party went to assassinate Lord Lofang, with a promise of aid from Lady Jazelle once the deed was done. To this end they took Caradoc and Du'nn'o bound and entered the 'Deeping Well' under the pretense that they had been captured by Katarakis and Skurmesh. The party were brought before Lord Lorfang, a grey skinned humanoid, and Talvil the priest Caradoc had maimed earlier. Words were bandied and eventually Caradoc head-butted Lord Lofang and the party jumped their collective adversaries.
The party aren't idiots and when Lofang went down they suspected he was a decoy, Skurmesh decided his manservent was in fact the real Lord Lofang, but he turned out to be a minion. Then with a terrible noise within his mind Caradoc was hit for a great deal of damage and upon the balcony above a voice entreated them and, coweled and robed, his face purple and festooned with tentacles; the Illithid Lord Lofang made himself known to the party.
Dun-dun-dunnnnn!
Monday, 1 June 2009
The Game of Houses
The default assumption with an adventuring party is that they have no family, in this regard they are considered to be blank slates with no origin close enough to themselves to warrant any mention. Perhaps they are orphaned farmers sons who have headed off to learn the ways of the world and become embroiled in a desperate mission. Rarely do we even give it this much thought.
However surely we’re missing a trick here. A character with family is a character that has dramatic tension; there are questions to be asked. Do they like their family? Are there old grudges held? Are there obligations passed down from father to son?
Even better is a character that comes from a noble house who might be embroiled in some kind of clandestine power struggle for the throne/princesses hand in marriage/spice. Consider Paul Atredies in Dune who by the very fact of his birth has been involved in not one but several power struggles and must constantly calibrate his position as the sharks circle around him.
As you might guess it is nobles I want to talk about today.
Playing a member of a noble house does have several potent hooks for a character, both in terms of their family and their own personal agenda. If we consider the aristocracy of Europe throughout the ages we see a variety of different agendas and personalities; from the hedonist who thinks only of their own pleasure, to the moralist who seeks to improve himself and those around him.
Any campaign in which the PCs were nobles would have to run heavily upon a conflict between the private, the personal agenda, and the public, loyalty to their house and ruler. To run it in an interesting manner the GM would allow the players to pick their house and perhaps their agenda, but then would have to impress upon them the rules of the court, whereby they would have to show deference to those around them, even those whom they might seek to usurp.
I imagine this would end up being a clandestine game where the PCs would be innately paranoid of capture, especially if the consequences were dire, and would allow players to come at their problems from different angles. Even better would be to run it in something like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay where not only would they have to avoid exposing their agenda but be wary of witch hunters and the like who believe there is the taint of chaos in the court!
Here’s how I would do this: Allow the character to come up with their ambitions in secret, they must write it down but need not show the other players. Next come up with some ideas of how their houses would like them to act, such as upholding the honour of their house, negotiating for a trade route or the like. Finally give them some kind of directive from their ruler, who has a task for them or considers them a favourite, perhaps they are to perform some task on their behalf. Let the players draw their house and liege directives in secret but make a note of them. Finally chuck them into a feast with a few NPCs and allow the whole thing to come to the boil.
I would be wary of the competitive nature of such a game, players competing for the same outcome might be tempted to ‘dispose’ of their rivals and this can lead to ill will in the group, which is undesirable. You could try and reinforce the idea of using more subtle, Machiavellian ways of disposing of them (dishonour, getting them assigned to a far off war etc) or allow the murdered player to come back as some kind of court investigator with a directive from the ruler to discover the culprit of this heinous crime.
However surely we’re missing a trick here. A character with family is a character that has dramatic tension; there are questions to be asked. Do they like their family? Are there old grudges held? Are there obligations passed down from father to son?
Even better is a character that comes from a noble house who might be embroiled in some kind of clandestine power struggle for the throne/princesses hand in marriage/spice. Consider Paul Atredies in Dune who by the very fact of his birth has been involved in not one but several power struggles and must constantly calibrate his position as the sharks circle around him.
As you might guess it is nobles I want to talk about today.
Playing a member of a noble house does have several potent hooks for a character, both in terms of their family and their own personal agenda. If we consider the aristocracy of Europe throughout the ages we see a variety of different agendas and personalities; from the hedonist who thinks only of their own pleasure, to the moralist who seeks to improve himself and those around him.
Any campaign in which the PCs were nobles would have to run heavily upon a conflict between the private, the personal agenda, and the public, loyalty to their house and ruler. To run it in an interesting manner the GM would allow the players to pick their house and perhaps their agenda, but then would have to impress upon them the rules of the court, whereby they would have to show deference to those around them, even those whom they might seek to usurp.
I imagine this would end up being a clandestine game where the PCs would be innately paranoid of capture, especially if the consequences were dire, and would allow players to come at their problems from different angles. Even better would be to run it in something like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay where not only would they have to avoid exposing their agenda but be wary of witch hunters and the like who believe there is the taint of chaos in the court!
Here’s how I would do this: Allow the character to come up with their ambitions in secret, they must write it down but need not show the other players. Next come up with some ideas of how their houses would like them to act, such as upholding the honour of their house, negotiating for a trade route or the like. Finally give them some kind of directive from their ruler, who has a task for them or considers them a favourite, perhaps they are to perform some task on their behalf. Let the players draw their house and liege directives in secret but make a note of them. Finally chuck them into a feast with a few NPCs and allow the whole thing to come to the boil.
I would be wary of the competitive nature of such a game, players competing for the same outcome might be tempted to ‘dispose’ of their rivals and this can lead to ill will in the group, which is undesirable. You could try and reinforce the idea of using more subtle, Machiavellian ways of disposing of them (dishonour, getting them assigned to a far off war etc) or allow the murdered player to come back as some kind of court investigator with a directive from the ruler to discover the culprit of this heinous crime.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
So, six hours later...
[Warning: Possible Stonehell spoilers below]
The Stonehell party consisted of 3 players with 2 characters each, one was their primary and the other would be their secondary, in some cases this ended up with a master servant thing going on. The party was:
Boris, Human Fighter (Female, played by Amanda)
Ms. Gentleman, Human Magic-User (aka Ms. G, played by Amanda)
Jesus, Human Cleric (Played by Dave)
Tarquin, Elf (Played by Dave as a MU)
Agent Smith, Human Paranormal Effects Administrator (MU played by Giz)
Manservant, Halfling (Played by Giz)
The players had heard about how fatal older editions of D&D (and its retro clones) could be, and armed with this knowledge were incredibly cautious.... Ish. Manservant insisted on crowbar-ing every door he came across and Boris was a bit of a bimbo but they bumbled on quite well; meeting Dwarves, sleeping Orcs and generally performing a bit of murder whilst their enemies were sleeping.
At one point Boris found a rat with a name tag (which read: 'Precious'), instead of killing it she took the sleeping rodent and muzzled/hogtied it, runing it into her unofficial pet/mascot. Later the party surprised me by being ambushed by a group of orcs and wisely running away, back to their Dwarven 'allies' who took care of the mess.
There was a long period of exploration in which we discovered that I could roll more than a 1 when it came to rolling for the Hp of some cobras and the party eventually made it to the caves section killed some kobolds and took their precious guano.
Their next encounter with kobolds was random and was another work crew carrying mops and buckets, there was a brief roleplay encounter that left Giz twitching with the urge to kill everything in the room and put their eyes out. I obliged him when he fiddled with the cracks in the same room and lost his 10' pole for his trouble. Giant Centipedes were by far the most dangerous foes the party encountered with Agent Smith hitting the deck unconscious before the party fled into the fountain room.
They rested and then headed down and around to reach the entrance and then went back to the fountain room with the intention of heading through to the centipede room. Then Boris decided to touch the fountain (perhaps because I pointed out that whilst they had been in this room they hadn't 'explored' it) and activated the poison gas trap. She survived by Manservant and Jesus bought it.
Fortunately Jesus would return d3 days later, assuming we don't get smote for blasphemy.
The party (deciding against the centipedes) then went to the wheel of fortune room, which was always going to be a giggle. Ms. Gentleman pulled the lever first, I rolled up 'Wisdom' which I had dubbed the Exp bonus and went straight up to level 2. Agent Smith pulled the lever next, got the Bloody Eye and was instantly struck blind.
The last room dealt with was the crypts which the party raided in style, hacking down the few monsters there were (including no less than 2 ghouls) and finally gaining some good treasure for their troubles (about 600 gold and a magic item, which I ruled was an elven sword +1) and most of them reached level 2.
The party then fled the dungeon and went back to the town to spend some time carousing, healing and getting the sword identified. Due to their carousing several characters went up to level 3, in no small part due to the large sums of gold they had randomly acquired.
All in all it was a good session, and now that I have a handle on the rules I think it's time to do a little 'brewing' with them; I'd like to expand the spells list a little so that characters can have a few more interesting spells at level 1, especially for the cleric, who was relegated to doing very little. I'm also tempted to use Jeff Rient's carousing rules and I could also do with some reaction tables (given that I just fudged it this time).
All in all though, given we started character gen at 2.30pm and finished at about 9pm it was a damn good session and one of the longest I have ever run, so in short, it will be occuring again.
Next week is World Top; involving the party's stint in Zendicon and possibly the arrival of a new ally.
The Stonehell party consisted of 3 players with 2 characters each, one was their primary and the other would be their secondary, in some cases this ended up with a master servant thing going on. The party was:
Boris, Human Fighter (Female, played by Amanda)
Ms. Gentleman, Human Magic-User (aka Ms. G, played by Amanda)
Jesus, Human Cleric (Played by Dave)
Tarquin, Elf (Played by Dave as a MU)
Agent Smith, Human Paranormal Effects Administrator (MU played by Giz)
Manservant, Halfling (Played by Giz)
The players had heard about how fatal older editions of D&D (and its retro clones) could be, and armed with this knowledge were incredibly cautious.... Ish. Manservant insisted on crowbar-ing every door he came across and Boris was a bit of a bimbo but they bumbled on quite well; meeting Dwarves, sleeping Orcs and generally performing a bit of murder whilst their enemies were sleeping.
At one point Boris found a rat with a name tag (which read: 'Precious'), instead of killing it she took the sleeping rodent and muzzled/hogtied it, runing it into her unofficial pet/mascot. Later the party surprised me by being ambushed by a group of orcs and wisely running away, back to their Dwarven 'allies' who took care of the mess.
There was a long period of exploration in which we discovered that I could roll more than a 1 when it came to rolling for the Hp of some cobras and the party eventually made it to the caves section killed some kobolds and took their precious guano.
Their next encounter with kobolds was random and was another work crew carrying mops and buckets, there was a brief roleplay encounter that left Giz twitching with the urge to kill everything in the room and put their eyes out. I obliged him when he fiddled with the cracks in the same room and lost his 10' pole for his trouble. Giant Centipedes were by far the most dangerous foes the party encountered with Agent Smith hitting the deck unconscious before the party fled into the fountain room.
They rested and then headed down and around to reach the entrance and then went back to the fountain room with the intention of heading through to the centipede room. Then Boris decided to touch the fountain (perhaps because I pointed out that whilst they had been in this room they hadn't 'explored' it) and activated the poison gas trap. She survived by Manservant and Jesus bought it.
Fortunately Jesus would return d3 days later, assuming we don't get smote for blasphemy.
The party (deciding against the centipedes) then went to the wheel of fortune room, which was always going to be a giggle. Ms. Gentleman pulled the lever first, I rolled up 'Wisdom' which I had dubbed the Exp bonus and went straight up to level 2. Agent Smith pulled the lever next, got the Bloody Eye and was instantly struck blind.
The last room dealt with was the crypts which the party raided in style, hacking down the few monsters there were (including no less than 2 ghouls) and finally gaining some good treasure for their troubles (about 600 gold and a magic item, which I ruled was an elven sword +1) and most of them reached level 2.
The party then fled the dungeon and went back to the town to spend some time carousing, healing and getting the sword identified. Due to their carousing several characters went up to level 3, in no small part due to the large sums of gold they had randomly acquired.
All in all it was a good session, and now that I have a handle on the rules I think it's time to do a little 'brewing' with them; I'd like to expand the spells list a little so that characters can have a few more interesting spells at level 1, especially for the cleric, who was relegated to doing very little. I'm also tempted to use Jeff Rient's carousing rules and I could also do with some reaction tables (given that I just fudged it this time).
All in all though, given we started character gen at 2.30pm and finished at about 9pm it was a damn good session and one of the longest I have ever run, so in short, it will be occuring again.
Next week is World Top; involving the party's stint in Zendicon and possibly the arrival of a new ally.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Zen and the Art of Dungeon Structure
I had to write Stonehell 1A out by hand for today's session, which was fine, Amityville Mike used only two pages and whilst there's alot to get down on paper (39 rooms) its simple, concise and still has flavour. I slipped on the reggae stylings of Dub Side of the Moon and took a couple of hours to work through it.
This also has the advantage of making me more familiar with the dungeon, I'd read Stonehell 1A but hadn't really absorbed it until I wrote it out myself. There's something about the process that just made it make more sense to me in my head and I think it's given me a little more appreciation for the way the encounters come together in some areas (specifically around room 16) to create an implied narrative.
So the encounters are ready, the traps are primed, the monsters are recieving their final pep talk and Stonehell is go. A report will be filed laterz.
This also has the advantage of making me more familiar with the dungeon, I'd read Stonehell 1A but hadn't really absorbed it until I wrote it out myself. There's something about the process that just made it make more sense to me in my head and I think it's given me a little more appreciation for the way the encounters come together in some areas (specifically around room 16) to create an implied narrative.
So the encounters are ready, the traps are primed, the monsters are recieving their final pep talk and Stonehell is go. A report will be filed laterz.
Monday, 25 May 2009
Session? No Luck
This is usually where my session write up would go, but since Dave (our erstwhile Dragonborn Paladin) was captured by The Evil Empire and forced to work until gone 9 (on... something, details are vague) we decided to do something else. We played 'Burn In Hell' and then decided that the game could for it's raw tedium; we have a love hate relationship with Steve Jackson Games; Munchkin and Munchkin Cthulhu are awesome, Ninja Burger is divisive (although I love it for the roleplaying alone) and Munchkin Bites and Burn in Hell were truly yawn inducing.
Apart from this we watched Read or Die and then went to bed; hardly the stuff of heroic legends.
World Top has been plagued by these interruptions; although I won't blame anyone because when work comes knocking its difficult to tell them to sod off cos you've got some ogres to kill; but it does end up stealing some momentum from the campaign. I'm tempted at this point, with next week being cancelled aswell, to just trap the players in Zendicon for a year and come back to it when our schedules re-align.
So whilst Dave is sunning himself in Barcelona and Rachel is off doing... something; I am going to spend next sunday afternoon running a few people through Stonehell, even if it's just Gareth and Amanda, and hopefully I'll get a few ideas for making my own dungeons in the process.
Apart from this we watched Read or Die and then went to bed; hardly the stuff of heroic legends.
World Top has been plagued by these interruptions; although I won't blame anyone because when work comes knocking its difficult to tell them to sod off cos you've got some ogres to kill; but it does end up stealing some momentum from the campaign. I'm tempted at this point, with next week being cancelled aswell, to just trap the players in Zendicon for a year and come back to it when our schedules re-align.
So whilst Dave is sunning himself in Barcelona and Rachel is off doing... something; I am going to spend next sunday afternoon running a few people through Stonehell, even if it's just Gareth and Amanda, and hopefully I'll get a few ideas for making my own dungeons in the process.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)