Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
Regina Fierce and the Alligator's Eye: For my birthday week, my friend Kevin ran a game of Pulp-Era Savage Worlds for us at our favorite local watering hole. I didn't love the pre-gen hero, so I revamped him into a strong black woman named Regina Fierce. Why? BECAUSE IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY, DAMMIT. It's an interesting system - no d20s and combat-light, kind of like the Serenity RPG, and the mechanic of "exploding the dice" had pretty hilarious results. Kevin did a good job of balancing genre tropes (apparently the hallmark of the Savage Worlds system) and meaningful character choices. 9/10, would play again.
Once Upon A Crime: Also for my birthday week, Mac wrote a fairy-tale themed murder mystery party. I played the Evil Queen/detective - I wore an old's bridesmaid's dress with a Party City crown and striped wrist-warmers. In other words, HAWT. My goal was to solve the poisoning of my brother, the Dark Wizard (played by Mac). The characters were hilarious, both in writing and execution, and everyone got really into their costumes. We learned our lessons from earlier murder mysteries, and had little games/activities for people to do while I was detecting (cookie decorating, card games, and "stay dry" apple bobbing). I also realized that I REALLY like playing an evil character, especially when I get to play to lead role at the same time. Should I be worried...?
Regular games (Serenity, D&D: Silver Company, and D&D: Family Ties) after the jump!
Showing posts with label Silver Company. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silver Company. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Monday, August 20, 2012
Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins II
Here is the recap for the home campaign session I ran yesterday, with DM color commentary (DMCC) in italics. If you are one of my PCs and have had enough of my comments for one week, you can skip those bits. Cool?
--
When last we left our adventurers, they were investigating a disturbance at Dunsemere Ruins. They found and dispatched a pack of gnolls and their pet hyenas. Lo and behold, the gnolls had captured a pair of half-orc siblings - Bree and Ugarth (played by our friends Dori and David, who were just joining the group this session). The convinced these newcomers to join their group, if not the Silver Company (the oath of loyalty seemed to be a sticking point). The final tower of Dunsmere Ruins opened to reveal a Barlgura demon performing a dark ritual.
DMCC: Not to pick favorites, but our eladrin wizard Aranelle (played by my friend Rachel) was a total superstar this session! In game, Aranelle used her powers wisely and controlled the board like a BOSS. Out of game, Rachel planned her turns beautifully. I use a timer to try to keep things on track - Rachel's turns typically took 15 seconds OR LESS. This is especially remarkable for the controller role, which tends to be more complicated.
DMCC: I was also impressed by our new players jumping into the game. David had played D&D in a previous edition, and Dori had observed a game with us a while back - so they knew some basics. I created Essentials characters for them, which are much simpler but just as effective. I also had them come over an hour early so we could cover some game mechanics, do a couple practice rounds, etc.
After defeating the Barlgura and the remaining gnolls, the PCs investigate the site of the dark ritual. They find a level 11 magic item, which they use several skill checks to purify. They also discover that this portal was not meant to bring something here from the Abyss, but rather to send things away. In searching the bodies from the previous battle, they find that they do not bear the primal magic totems that have been cropping up on monsters all over Corbais. Curiouser and curiouser...
DMCC: I find it easier to allow the party to decide who gets the magic item, and then let that PC pick an item of the appropriate level. This allows items to be distributed more evenly - the question becomes, "who needs an item?" rather than, "who can use this particular item?" I think the party decided to give the item to our dryad ranger Iriena (played by Katja).
On the way back to the Eastern Outpost, the party runs into a humble cabbage merchant. His entire shipment of prize-winning produce has been stolen, and he will pay handsomely to have it retrieved. The merchant strikes a deal with the Silver Company commander, Ingrid, and after replenishing some of their stores the party strikes out once again into the forest. There is an obvious trail where the cabbages have been dragged away, which leads to a graveyard. Of course it does.
The merchant's description of the bandits - gray-skinned with strange tattoos - suddenly makes sense when the party comes upon a group of shadar-kai. The PCs take quite a beating at the hands of the shadar-kai, their spectral panther, and some rot scarab swarms disturbed by the battle. In the end, of course, they arise triumphant. They don't have much time to rest - without a doubt, more trouble is lurking deeper within the graveyard.
DMCC: I decided gave the PCs an option - if they forgo the healing portion of the rest (they'd still get their encounter powers back), they can get a surprise round in the next encounter. I know this kind of improvisation can backfire, but I just like trying new things. The party opted for the surprise round, so things are about to get a mite interesting. *eyebrow waggle*
--
When last we left our adventurers, they were investigating a disturbance at Dunsemere Ruins. They found and dispatched a pack of gnolls and their pet hyenas. Lo and behold, the gnolls had captured a pair of half-orc siblings - Bree and Ugarth (played by our friends Dori and David, who were just joining the group this session). The convinced these newcomers to join their group, if not the Silver Company (the oath of loyalty seemed to be a sticking point). The final tower of Dunsmere Ruins opened to reveal a Barlgura demon performing a dark ritual.
 |
| Are these guys smart enough to performed a ritual? Probably not, but whatevs. |
DMCC: Not to pick favorites, but our eladrin wizard Aranelle (played by my friend Rachel) was a total superstar this session! In game, Aranelle used her powers wisely and controlled the board like a BOSS. Out of game, Rachel planned her turns beautifully. I use a timer to try to keep things on track - Rachel's turns typically took 15 seconds OR LESS. This is especially remarkable for the controller role, which tends to be more complicated.
 |
| Spell-casting with the QUICKNESS. |
DMCC: I was also impressed by our new players jumping into the game. David had played D&D in a previous edition, and Dori had observed a game with us a while back - so they knew some basics. I created Essentials characters for them, which are much simpler but just as effective. I also had them come over an hour early so we could cover some game mechanics, do a couple practice rounds, etc.
After defeating the Barlgura and the remaining gnolls, the PCs investigate the site of the dark ritual. They find a level 11 magic item, which they use several skill checks to purify. They also discover that this portal was not meant to bring something here from the Abyss, but rather to send things away. In searching the bodies from the previous battle, they find that they do not bear the primal magic totems that have been cropping up on monsters all over Corbais. Curiouser and curiouser...
DMCC: I find it easier to allow the party to decide who gets the magic item, and then let that PC pick an item of the appropriate level. This allows items to be distributed more evenly - the question becomes, "who needs an item?" rather than, "who can use this particular item?" I think the party decided to give the item to our dryad ranger Iriena (played by Katja).
On the way back to the Eastern Outpost, the party runs into a humble cabbage merchant. His entire shipment of prize-winning produce has been stolen, and he will pay handsomely to have it retrieved. The merchant strikes a deal with the Silver Company commander, Ingrid, and after replenishing some of their stores the party strikes out once again into the forest. There is an obvious trail where the cabbages have been dragged away, which leads to a graveyard. Of course it does.
The merchant's description of the bandits - gray-skinned with strange tattoos - suddenly makes sense when the party comes upon a group of shadar-kai. The PCs take quite a beating at the hands of the shadar-kai, their spectral panther, and some rot scarab swarms disturbed by the battle. In the end, of course, they arise triumphant. They don't have much time to rest - without a doubt, more trouble is lurking deeper within the graveyard.
DMCC: I decided gave the PCs an option - if they forgo the healing portion of the rest (they'd still get their encounter powers back), they can get a surprise round in the next encounter. I know this kind of improvisation can backfire, but I just like trying new things. The party opted for the surprise round, so things are about to get a mite interesting. *eyebrow waggle*
Monday, July 23, 2012
Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins
With a group that only meets once a month, I find it helpful to give a
quick summary of the story so far. However, I often struggle with recaps because I don't want to give too much away - if I only tell them
what's crucial to the plot, how will I fool them with red herrings in
the future? I usually compromise by telling them everything they need to
know for right now, with a sprinkling of useless/useful facts.
Back story: There is trouble in the county of Corbais – monsters are making unusually aggressive attacks on towns and villages. In defending Corbais, you have met many interesting characters: a gnome innkeeper named Findle Wimrocket, a capricious pixie known as Mistlethrush, a mysterious swamp witch and a retired half-orc adventurer, Reis Uleka. In order to combat the monsters, Reis has put together a fighting force called the Silver Company, of which you are all members. Two of you are Lance Corporals stationed out of the Eastern Outpost, under the guidance of a half-elf named Ingrid. The rest of you are Privates who have just been dispatched to the outpost. From there, you will all proceed to investigate rumors of a disturbance in Dunsmere ruins. Located just outside of the tiny village of Vervaine, the ruins were once the summer castle of some long-dead noble who had too much money and not enough sense. Now the villagers, a superstitious and solitary bunch, have reported some kind of disturbance in the ruins.
We had a strong showing to this session - a total of six 8th-level PCs and two observers. Here's the party line-up:
Silver Company PFCs
Aranelle (Rachel) the eladrin wizard
Elora (Carly) the halfling rouge
Marianna (Maggie) the human cleric
Shun Wei (Kelly) the dragonborn paladin
Silver Company LCs
Aukan (Alex*) the goliath barbarian
Iriena (Katja) the dryad ranger
The party sneaked into the courtyard of the ruins and found a sleeping guard dog... well, Cacklefiend Hyena. To-may-to, to-mah-to. When they attacked the hyena, it yelped awake and alerted the Gnolls within the ruins to attack. I did a big dramatic entrance for the HBIC - a Gnoll Demon Scourge. I was standing up out of my seat, swinging an imaginary flail over my head, and making (a very ominous, I assure you) "whum... whum... whum..." sound. I rolled my big light-up d20 - critical hit! I felt like the Universe was rewarding me for good flavor text.
The PCs progressed into the upper level of the ruins, only to be trapped in a corridor by a Harpy and her minions. But the rolls were not in my favor in this encounter, and soon the Gnolls' numbers were so reduced that they could no longer use their pack attack feature to do extra damage. No one fell unconscious, though I think I brought most of them down to bloodied at one point or another. A couple of my PCs dropped Daily Powers - which is completely appropriate, since at this level you shouldn't be able to save everything for the boss fight. Speaking of which...
Next time, on Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins Boss Fight!
Back story: There is trouble in the county of Corbais – monsters are making unusually aggressive attacks on towns and villages. In defending Corbais, you have met many interesting characters: a gnome innkeeper named Findle Wimrocket, a capricious pixie known as Mistlethrush, a mysterious swamp witch and a retired half-orc adventurer, Reis Uleka. In order to combat the monsters, Reis has put together a fighting force called the Silver Company, of which you are all members. Two of you are Lance Corporals stationed out of the Eastern Outpost, under the guidance of a half-elf named Ingrid. The rest of you are Privates who have just been dispatched to the outpost. From there, you will all proceed to investigate rumors of a disturbance in Dunsmere ruins. Located just outside of the tiny village of Vervaine, the ruins were once the summer castle of some long-dead noble who had too much money and not enough sense. Now the villagers, a superstitious and solitary bunch, have reported some kind of disturbance in the ruins.
We had a strong showing to this session - a total of six 8th-level PCs and two observers. Here's the party line-up:
 |
| *Token Male. |
Silver Company PFCs
Aranelle (Rachel) the eladrin wizard
Elora (Carly) the halfling rouge
Marianna (Maggie) the human cleric
Shun Wei (Kelly) the dragonborn paladin
Silver Company LCs
Aukan (Alex*) the goliath barbarian
Iriena (Katja) the dryad ranger
The party sneaked into the courtyard of the ruins and found a sleeping guard dog... well, Cacklefiend Hyena. To-may-to, to-mah-to. When they attacked the hyena, it yelped awake and alerted the Gnolls within the ruins to attack. I did a big dramatic entrance for the HBIC - a Gnoll Demon Scourge. I was standing up out of my seat, swinging an imaginary flail over my head, and making (a very ominous, I assure you) "whum... whum... whum..." sound. I rolled my big light-up d20 - critical hit! I felt like the Universe was rewarding me for good flavor text.
The PCs progressed into the upper level of the ruins, only to be trapped in a corridor by a Harpy and her minions. But the rolls were not in my favor in this encounter, and soon the Gnolls' numbers were so reduced that they could no longer use their pack attack feature to do extra damage. No one fell unconscious, though I think I brought most of them down to bloodied at one point or another. A couple of my PCs dropped Daily Powers - which is completely appropriate, since at this level you shouldn't be able to save everything for the boss fight. Speaking of which...
Next time, on Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins Boss Fight!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Guess Who's Coming to the Session?
If anyone has been reading this blog, s/he may be thinking... "Hey, aren't you supposed to be a DM? When are you actually going to run a game?" Not to fret, imaginary reader. Today's post is about my D&D home campaign - written and run by yours truly.
The adventure is set in the county of Corbais, where the usual monsters of the wilderness have been making uncharacteristic attacks on towns and villages. Our heroes have defended the innocent townsfolk valiantly, and have found several strange primal magic totems attached to various monsters. They confronted the local swamp witch about this, but she fought them off and escaped. Meanwhile, an old adventurer named Reis Uleka has decided to come out of retirement to organize a fighting force, the Silver Company. In light of their dedicated service to the community, Uleka has just agreed to allow our heroes to join Silver Company. They have been assigned their first mission, to investigate some strange dealings in the village of Vervaine.
For this session, we were at least than full strength - only two out of my regular five players could attend. The only two left were our cleric, played by Maggie, and our rouge, played by our friend Carly. However, Maggie also plays a barbarian that makes guests appearances in this adventure. So I decided that, before the party set off for Vervaine, that the barbarian and the rouge would participate in a local competition between strikers called The Blood Thirst Tournament. Teams of two would go head-to-head in illusory arenas... where the hazards are all too real.
A few days before we were due to play, Carly asked if her friends Katia and Alex could come and watch our game. She mentioned that they might be interested in joining us in the future. Since I'm always on the look-out for fresh meat I said, "Great, the more the merrier!" I planned to field some basic questions about how the D&D works and maybe get them interested enough to roll up a character. What I actually got were two experienced 4e players who expected that I would have characters for them to play.
Which, I did not. Neither did I have an adventure for four PCs prepared. What's a DM to do? I could have tried to throw something together on the fly, but that would have taken a big chunk out of our limited playing time. I could have asked them to simply spectate, but I couldn't imagine that would be fun for people who expected to play. So, I tried a compromise - I asked our guests to play each of the opposing teams in the tournament.
There were definite pros and cons to playing the bad guys in this scenario. The major pro is that you get to play around with a whole new set of powers each match-up. The major con is that the game is heavily weighted towards the other team. I tried to find role-playing reasons to even the playing field, but that got me accused of playing favorites. But that's part of DMing - trying to make everyone happy, and often failing.
In the end the heroes prevailed (of course) and we all had a pretty good time. Katia and Alex are planning to join us for a few sessions, which means we didn't scare them off entirely. Next time we have visitors, though, I'm going to email them myself to find out if they (a) want to actually play and (b) can bring their own characters. As Simon said to Jayne, "'Cause I don't see this working any other way."
--
Quote of the Week: "Also, I can kill you with my brain." - River Tam
The adventure is set in the county of Corbais, where the usual monsters of the wilderness have been making uncharacteristic attacks on towns and villages. Our heroes have defended the innocent townsfolk valiantly, and have found several strange primal magic totems attached to various monsters. They confronted the local swamp witch about this, but she fought them off and escaped. Meanwhile, an old adventurer named Reis Uleka has decided to come out of retirement to organize a fighting force, the Silver Company. In light of their dedicated service to the community, Uleka has just agreed to allow our heroes to join Silver Company. They have been assigned their first mission, to investigate some strange dealings in the village of Vervaine.
3.5 players may recognize Uleka as an
"iconic character" from the Crivis setting...
Or not, because honestly I stumbled upon him
while trolling this D&D wiki.
"iconic character" from the Crivis setting...
Or not, because honestly I stumbled upon him
while trolling this D&D wiki.
For this session, we were at least than full strength - only two out of my regular five players could attend. The only two left were our cleric, played by Maggie, and our rouge, played by our friend Carly. However, Maggie also plays a barbarian that makes guests appearances in this adventure. So I decided that, before the party set off for Vervaine, that the barbarian and the rouge would participate in a local competition between strikers called The Blood Thirst Tournament. Teams of two would go head-to-head in illusory arenas... where the hazards are all too real.
A few days before we were due to play, Carly asked if her friends Katia and Alex could come and watch our game. She mentioned that they might be interested in joining us in the future. Since I'm always on the look-out for fresh meat I said, "Great, the more the merrier!" I planned to field some basic questions about how the D&D works and maybe get them interested enough to roll up a character. What I actually got were two experienced 4e players who expected that I would have characters for them to play.
Which, I did not. Neither did I have an adventure for four PCs prepared. What's a DM to do? I could have tried to throw something together on the fly, but that would have taken a big chunk out of our limited playing time. I could have asked them to simply spectate, but I couldn't imagine that would be fun for people who expected to play. So, I tried a compromise - I asked our guests to play each of the opposing teams in the tournament.
There were definite pros and cons to playing the bad guys in this scenario. The major pro is that you get to play around with a whole new set of powers each match-up. The major con is that the game is heavily weighted towards the other team. I tried to find role-playing reasons to even the playing field, but that got me accused of playing favorites. But that's part of DMing - trying to make everyone happy, and often failing.
"But you let that bad guy walk through this square!"
"He's a creature made of shadows,
and he was insubstantial at the time."
and he was insubstantial at the time."
"So?"
In the end the heroes prevailed (of course) and we all had a pretty good time. Katia and Alex are planning to join us for a few sessions, which means we didn't scare them off entirely. Next time we have visitors, though, I'm going to email them myself to find out if they (a) want to actually play and (b) can bring their own characters. As Simon said to Jayne, "'Cause I don't see this working any other way."
--
Quote of the Week: "Also, I can kill you with my brain." - River Tam
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