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Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
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4:40 pm - An April Fools Joke I think you'll appreciate...
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| Thursday, December 4th, 2008
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9:50 am - Re: Pathfinder Beta playtest
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GBCW posts are really starting to piss me off. Whining is not attractive, and less so by far when you are doing it for all the Internet to see.
That is all.
current mood:  irritated
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Sunday, August 31st, 2008
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9:20 pm - Dragon*Con, Day Four: Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'
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Gaming!
Today was Game Day, at last! (And good thing too, since we leave tomorrow morning, bright and way-too-frickin'-early.) We hit the con at about 11 AM, and by 12:45 were getting ready for our first RPG session: "Secluded Village," for Heroes of Rokugan. Nasty module, in some respects. Kinda traumatizing. The GM was the mod's author, which was pretty cool, and he handled himself pretty well; the table, though largely divided into two groups of players that had played together before but didn't know anyone on the other side, nevertheless hung together pretty well. (Saigo knows he's Tainted now. I'm still trying to decide what that means for the character...) All in all, a pretty decent gaming experience.
After L5R, I managed to get in on the last Pathfinder Society slot of the con, "The Silent Tide" - we were actually a player short of full, when all was said and done. Nevertheless, things went pretty smoothly, and it's always nice to be a ranger in an adventure that features your favored enemy. Unlike last night, the fights all seemed to be pretty reasonable; we didn't lose anyone, and the outcomes were rarely in doubt. Only with the last fight did I start to get worried, but we pulled it out with no casualties. Fun game. I do look forward to not being a convention setting, though - the fights tend to take over the gameplay, and I'd like to think that we'd be able to manage at least a little roleplaying in amongst the encounters in a non-con setting.
Speaking of which, I spoke to the GM about the previous night's game, and he said that his second trip through the mod went much more smoothly, because it turned out he had misinterpreted the main villain's stats in the last night. When run properly, the module is apparently much less deadly than what we faced, and he didn't have to artificially save anyone. Nice to know, I suppose, but I wouldn't have minded if he'd figured that out a bit sooner...
While I was gaming, though, Amy was off having fun elsewhere. Take a look:
She got to shake Morena's and Jewel's hands, too. There were some good costumes to be seen as well:
(Yes, that's a costume just of Jayne's hat.)
(10 points for every character you can identify!)
Tomorrow, we head home again, back to our puppies, our kitties, and our Real Lives.
current mood: accomplished
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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12:23 am - Dragon*Con, Day Two: Live and Let Die
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So, technically, Amy and I didn't lose our characters.
This is because the GM decided he didn't feel like having a TPK, so he pulled an NPC rabbit out of his ring of the djinn and saved our asses. Frankly, we should have been toast. That is a brutal fricking mod, and I am not repeat not going to run it for a 1st level table if I can manage it.
Overall, the game itself was not a complete wash, at least from my perspective. Amy felt differently, though. It was mostly - nay, almost entirely - combat, aside from some weird roleplaying moments right at the beginning. I enjoy the "gamist" elements of the RPG experience, and Amy doesn't really. It's certainly not why she's there, in any case. I'm going to see if I can squeeze into a game tomorrow, despite them being theoretically closed, since we actually had two open spaces at our "closed" table tonight. Both were filled, thankfully - not that it saved us in the end... Anyway, I'd very much like to pick up the other mod they're running, and who knows? I might even manage it.
Otherwise, I donated blood for the con blood drive, along with Matt - very cool, and awesome to see how packed the donation area was - while Amy and Elizabeth people-watched. Some of the pics that came out of that:
We also had a slight interruption during our PFS game:
We also made it to the dealer's room finally:
Tomorrow: last day! Heroes of Rokugan, Amy goes Firefly hunting, and I am going to try to sneak into one more PFS game!
current mood:  tired
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Friday, August 29th, 2008
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11:19 pm - Dragon*Con, Day One: ...and You Can Sing Along
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Not a lot of actual gaming today, but I'm hardly complaining. Instead, we managed to catch the Sing-Along version of both Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling" - and when you're watching a sing-along version of a Joss Whedon show with roughly 500 other hyped up geeks, well, let's just say it's kinda kickass.
We were the first in line.
We were three hours early.
All hail our geekdom.
Pics:
We also saw some pretty cool costumes, though Matt got a bunch more:
Beyond that, our day was decent, but nothing special. We're in a craptastic hotel. We managed to figure out Atlanta's mass transit, which was surprisingly straightforward. Kind of pissed me off, to tell the truth - KC is such a joke. Once we got to the con itself, registration was pretty reasonable - took us maybe half an hour, all told. After we got in and hit the food court next door, Matt and I went to sign up for some gaming events while Amy and Elizabeth checked out the dealer's room.
The gaming registration was a disappointment, inasmuch as they were only offering two of the four currently available Paizo Pathfinder modules, and one of those two was full up. The remaining one? Murder on the Silken Caravan, the one that keeps causing TPKs. So here's hoping that Amy and I actually have characters by this time tomorrow. Amy and I are joining ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=88.8) cherith and Matt for a the "Secluded Village" module for Heroes of Rokugan on Sunday morning, too.
Tomorrow, I'm going to check out the dealers' room myself, and then I'll finally get some gaming done!
Re: the Pathfinder thing. I have volunteered to run some Pathfinder at CogCon in two weeks. However, unless I play the mods, I have to eat them, and that kinda sucks. So here's my question: is anyone willing to run a Pathfinder Society mod next weekend for me/us? Because if I play in one tomorrow and one next week, I can eat a third one at CogCon and have several options to work with. I can run it for people back in KC too, of course. Anybody willing to volunteer?
current mood:  pleased
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12:24 am - Dragon*Con, Day Zero: Getting There is Half the Fun
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Greetings from Atlanta, GA, where tomorrow, Friday the 29th, Dragon*Con begins!
Gods I am looking forward to this.
I haven't been to a major con since 2003, when GenCon Indy first appeared and we got a taste of what Hell might be like when we spent something like 6 hours just trying to collect our badges on the first day of the convention. The experience left a horrid taste in my mouth and Amy's as well, but the itch has slowly started coming back, and this year it hit with enough force that I begged and pleaded with Amy until she said yes. That we would be going with cherith and her husband Matt made it a somewhat easier pill to swallow.
Nevertheless, there were challenges in getting here. Airfare is ludicrous at the moment, but gas is hardly cheap; we wound up renting a car so we could drive and split the gas, but it was still expensive. And long. We left KC this morning sometime before 9 AM, and it was nearly midnight our time (1 AM local) before we get into our hotel room tonight.
En route, though, we had a few ways to keep ourselves entertained. We listened to the audiobook version of World War Z, by Max Brooks, a full-cast recording featuring the likes of Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, and Carl Reiner, among many others. We also started the audio version of Jim Butcher's Storm Front, the first book of the Dresden Files, read by James Marsters. Given that we hope to catch Spike in person in the next few days, it seemed suitable.
We also found a few other ways to amuse ourselves.
Tomorrow, the games begin!
current mood: tired
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 17th, 2008
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2:11 pm - A little sorcerer preview...
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... from the Alpha 2 release of the Pathfinder RPG.
I'm kinda intrigued...:
Hey there All,
James is indeed right here. I am going to be trying real hard to get this too everybody on Tuesday, but it might slip a day, depending on schedule. However, since you guys are being so patient, I will throw you a bit of a bone here...
This is the complete list of sorcerer bloodlines in Alpha release 2.
Aberrant
Abyssal
Arcane
Celestial
Destined
Draconic
Elemental
Fey
Infernal
Undead
Each one has a list of 8 bonus feats you get to choose from as you gain levels and five different powers that you gain as you advance. I'll post up another bit tomorrow.
current mood:  excited
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(comment on this)
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2:06 pm - A Sudden Strike
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Since the upcoming Spring Hafla (wherein my lovely wife will, once again, bring the house down - details here) requires the attention of Mary and Amy for the next two Friday nights, I'm going to call off D&D. Would anyone be interested in replacing them with L5R, via Heroes of Rokugan?
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, April 14th, 2008
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8:19 am - Publication. Sorta.
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Only the idea's been accepted so far, but I thought I'd mention that the Campaign Admin for Heroes of Rokugan has agreed to let me take a shot at writing a module for the HoR campaign. I hope to have a draft done by the first of June.
Wish me luck!
current mood: excited
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, March 24th, 2008
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12:26 pm - Heroes of Rokugan Character Wiki
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If anyone might be interested in letting the world know about their character for the Heroes of Rokugan campaign, a character wiki has been set up for the precise purpose. A familiar face or two might already be there, but there's always room for more!
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
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9:40 am - Hmm... okay. Dilemma.
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As I mentioned yesterday, Paizo Publishing, the generators of the Adventure Path I am currently using for my weekly D&D game (as well as the one I hope to have Amy running in a few months and the occasional one shots I've been tossing out over the last little while, including Entombed With the Pharaohs, for those of you to whom that might mean something), are releasing the Pathfinder RPG, which is basically going to be D&D 3.75. They are doing this because a on-the-shelves core rulebook is absolutely necessary for a game to function commercially, and when 4E comes out, 3.5 goes away. The game, however, is scheduled for an August 2009 release. In the meantime, Paizo is running what they call an "Open Playtest" - anyone who wants to can download the playtest document and use their forums to offer feedback.
Well, needless to say, this is something that sounds quite cool to me. I want to get in on this deal, but I have a problem. My first thought, of course, was conversion - hell, I've got a D&D game going anyway, so why not just switch over and go ahead with things? After a little bit of thinking about it, I realized there are two problems. The first is that we're using gestalt characters, which are complicated nonstandard things that will obscure playtest issues that might arise; the second, that two of the four characters we're playing with are reincarnated as characters of different races than those in which they were born, which makes a rebuild extremely complex.
So, barring more thorough discussion with my group on that score, I'm setting that option aside for the moment. But that means I need another game, or at least series of one-shots, I can use for playtesting purposes.
Anybody got any suggestions on how I can resolve this?
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
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5:13 pm - Paizo Publishing Tells 4E to Go to Hell
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Check it out.
Thus far, all the changes look awesome. Given that it's an open playtest, I expect to start using these rules for my game very soon so we can offer feedback to the game design as it goes forward.
current mood: ecstatic
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
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4:45 pm - Okay, here's a new one
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White Wolf is offering to let gamers trade in their D&D PHBs for a copy of Exalted Second Edition. Seriously.
Guess what they're calling it?
Graduate Your Game.
Wow. I can't decide if I'm impressed or really insulted.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
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5:09 pm - Reminder: L5R at 4PM this Saturday
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Just putting up the requisite second notice. Elizabeth has generously suggested that we might find comfort playing at her andMatt's place - I'm cool with this is everyone else is. All in favor?
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, March 3rd, 2008
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4:00 pm
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I am interested to note that a whole bunch of D&D 4E Actual Play reports are coming in from the D&D Experience weekend, and most if not all are halfhearted at best. This is... fascinating.
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(comment on this)
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| Friday, November 2nd, 2007
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7:51 am - Random "What If?" character idea
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What if Tony Stark had become the Hulk?
Tony Stark, military contractor, is working on a power suit he can sell to the military. Unfortunately, he can't manage to get the energy source needed small enough to fit into the suit. While putting out the word that he'd like some help on the matter, he's invited to observe a test of a gamma bomb. When he gets there, though, he notices an idiot kid out on the test range - he pushes the kid into a ditch to protect him, but get irradiated himself with the bomb goes off.
Several minutes, a few dozen miles and many hundreds of thousands of dollars of property damage later, Tony Stark transforms back into himself from the Hulk... and, after several moments' shock, realizes he's been turned into a gamma energy battery. He whips out his plans, designs some terribly clever Science! (possibly with the help of his good friend, the completely unaggressive Bruce Banner), and realizes he can power his suit by siphoning off the energy from his own body! Even better, the angrier he gets, the more power he has available... but his power suit's ability to absorb the energy has a limit, while the amount of energy Tony can produce does not. If he gets too angry, he'll override the suit's ability to siphon power from him, the transformation will happen, and he'll destroy his suit and lose his intellect in a dizzying frensy of rage and destruction.
He still hasn't overcome the power source problem, so he is the only one with a working power suit - but for now, Tony Stark uses his mind and his anger to fight evil as the Incredible Iron Man!
current mood: creative
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Saturday, August 4th, 2007
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11:04 pm - Hero with a Thousand Faces: D&D 3.0 - Swashbuckling Adventures
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Day 9 (I think): Swashbuckling Adventures for D&D 3.0
This game has much in common with d20 L5R. Both were published by AEG; both were attempts to convert a previously existing roll-n-keep game to d20 to capitalize on the d20 boom; both lead to a line of dual-statted game books; both had extremely uneven mechanics and really gung-ho ideas. Both, in the end, were more failures than successes. Still, they're worth exploring for what they did have to offer, and for being awesome settings.
Swashbuckling Adventures was a d20 conversion of AEG's fantasy-European 7th Sea setting (the actual game for which I sadly do not own). The continent is called Théah rather than Europe, the nations are Montaigne, Avalon and Castille rather than France, England and Spain, but it's still extremely recognizable as a Renaissance Europe. The game sets out to emulate the Three Musketeers/Captain Blood genre, and does so with exceptional panache (if I may be forgiven for saying so). The d20 version is less effective, sadly, but there were definitely moments, one of which was the swashbuckler class (which I like better in some ways than the one that appeared later in canon D&D 3.5...).
The character below was built using 32-point buy, in honor of the "over the top" heroics the game was designed to emulate. The starting gold was the mathematical 150 gp average.
Armando de la Martín
Male human swashbuckler 1
CG Medium humanoid (human, Castillan)
Init +4
Senses Listen -1, Spot -1
Languages Castillan, Montaigne, Théan
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AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 12
hp 6 (1 HD)
Fort +0, Ref +8, Will -1
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Spd 30 ft
Melee +1 rapier (1d6/18-20) or
Melee +1 dagger (1d4/19-20) or
Ranged +5 dagger (1d4/19-20)
Base Atk +1; Grp +1
Atk Options expertise, parry
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Abilities Str 10, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 14
SQ Light-footed
Feats Appearance – Above Average, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms), Expertise, Hedonistic, Parry
Skills Balance +8, Bluff +4 (+6 in social situations), Jump +4, Sense Motive +3, Tumble +8
Possessions rapier, dagger, leather armor, noble’s outfit, 43 gp
( Background )
(creation time: 20 minutes)
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
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12:30 pm - Hero with a Thousand Faces: D&D 3.0 - Rokugan
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Day 8: d20 Rokugan
First of all, a sidenote: I realized last night that, in my haste to get past the unpleasant experience of making a DCU character, I rushed ahead to D&D and, in the process, skipped one: Deadlands. Whoops! Oh well, said I wouldn't stress. At this point, I'll wrap up my D&Disms and then go back to catch Deadlands on the far side.
Anyway, today's character is for the d20 version of Legend of the Five Rings, which has sort of a weird ( history. )
The results of the d20 experiment were mixed at best. Part of this was simply the basic issue that D&D and L5R operated on two very different sets of basic assumptions: D&D is fundamentally about killing things and getting stuff (yes, I know that's a generalization, but go read the "Rewards" chapter of the DMG and then tell me it's not basically valid), while L5R is much more chambara, where some of the deadliest characters in the setting have almost no ability with weapons or magic, but can kill you the razor sharp edge of your own honor. D&D has trouble with that kind of play - the rules don't cover it, so it becomes fundamentally a non-rules activity in a d20 game. In a game where character classes are supposed to be balanced against each other in terms of their effectiveness in overcoming challenges, it's a problem. Then too, L5R always prided itself on its deadly nature - any damage roll could be fatal, and everyone lived "four feet of razor steel away from death." Obviously, D&D characters, who can jump from 200' high cliffs and live to tell the tale, don't quite mesh with that feel.
I'll talk more about the actual setting of L5R when the time comes to do a PC for AEG's own system. For now, I'll merely comment on three things: first, expect to see Shoteko-san again - I've decided that when I have two systems that are supposed to represent the same exact settin, I'll try to realize the same character both times so they can be compared against one another. Second, I used a 25 point-buy for this character - it's the third of the three major ways to make a PC that D&D offers. The so-called "elite array" is actually a specific 25-point buy, but doing it yourself allows a bit more customization, especially if you really want a 16 in something. Third, for whatever reason, I find it very hard to realize L5R concepts in less than 3 levels, even for what are supposed to be "beginning" characters. I think it has to do with wanting a combination of necessary feats and appropriate multiclassing to allow the flexibility I'm used to with L5R's own point-buy based system.
Soshi Shoteko
Female human air shugenja 1
NE Medium humanoid (human, Scorpion Clan)
Init +3
Senses Listen -1, Spot -1
Languages High Rokugani, Low Rokugani
Honor 1
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AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10
hp 6 (1 HD)
Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +1
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Spd 30 ft
Melee +1 wakizashi (1d6/19-20) or
Melee +0 bo staff (1d6) or
Melee +0 tanto (1d4/19-20)
Ranged +2 tanto (1d4/19-20)
Base Atk +0; Grp +0
Atk Options void use (2 points)
Combat Gear scroll of path to inner peace I, scroll of summon fog
Shugenja Spells Known (CL 1st)
1st (4/day) – false face, quiescence of air, wind-borne slumbers (DC 16)
0 (5/day) – accounts of Shorihotsu, flaring speed, kami’s guidance, stun the mind (DC 15), whispers of the wind
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Abilities Str 11, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 16
SQ Dojo of the Closed Eye, element focus (air), sense elements 3/day
Feats Void Use, Way of the Scorpion
Skills Concentration +4, Hide +4, Innuendo +3, Knowledge (elements) +5, Move Silently +4, Spellcraft +5
Possessions combat gear plus wakizashi, tanto, bo staff, ofuda case
( Background )
(creation time: 45 minutes)
current mood:  mellow
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
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3:35 pm - Hero with a Thousand Faces: D&D 3.5 - Eberron
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Day 7, part 3: Eberron
When you get right down to it, Eberron is the reason I got into D&D 3.5. The bog-standard fantasy settings I had seen for D&D just didn't excite me, and while I had some interest in 3rd Edition on the basis of Rokugan and the other books for d20 L5R (see tomorrow's post), I wasn't really caught until I happened to glance through the Eberron book at work one day.
Rather than typical fantasy, Eberron gives you a world heavily influenced by pulp and noir, where you fight mad cultists on the deck of a crashing airship rather than slaughtering kobolds in the confines of a ill-considered dungeon. It takes the standard assumptions of hack-n-slash fantasy and turns them on their heads, actually thinking about the consequences of those assumptions and carrying them through to their logical outcomes. It makes clear that the PCs are supposed to be among the movers and shakers of the world; there are no Elminsters or even Drizzts in the world unless the PCs themselves choose to become them.
For me, it made fantasy gaming exciting again.
Anyway, so here's the character, which violates any number of Eberron's setting assumptions in ways that I would dearly, dearly love to play through. I used random rolling, getting a 16, 15, 14, 12, 11, 11 (and the fact that I had such a good roll is the only reason I decided to go ahead with this crazy idea...). I rolled 130 gp for starting gold.
Flametouched
Genderless warforged favored soul of the Silver Flame 1
LG Medium construct (living construct)
Init +2
Senses Listen +1, Spot +1
Languages Celestial, Common
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AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12
hp 9 (1 HD)
Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +3
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Spd 30 ft (6 squares)
Melee morningstar +0 (1d8) or
Melee slam +0 (1d4)
Ranged longbow +2 (1d8/x3)
Base Atk +0; Grp +0
Atk Options point blank shot
Favored Soul Spells Known (CL 1st)
1st (4/day) – bless, divine favor, lesser vigor
0 (5/day) – cure minor wounds, detect magic, guidance, resistance
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Abilities Str 11, Dex 15, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14
SQ warforged traits
Feats Point Blank Shot
Skills Concentration +5, Heal +5, Spellcraft +5
Possessions longbow with 20 arrows, morningstar, wooden holy symbol, spell component pouch, standard adventurer’s kit (backpack, belt pouch, flint and steel, hempen rope [50 ft], sunrods [2], waterskin), 30 gp
( Background )
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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2:05 pm - Hero with a Thousand Faces: D&D 3.5
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Day 7, part 2: Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5 Edition
Just to clarify - at this point, I'm actually two days behind. So this is one of the two, and the other one will be along in just a bit.
I don't really know what to say about D&D that isn't obvious. I've come, much to my astonishment, to enjoy the game. It's clear, to me at least, that 3.5 edition is better than 3rd Edition. My mechanical issues are largely derived from the 1d20 roll; if you want to get the skinny on that, go read my comments on Cinematic Unisystem here. Character creation is a minigame all its own that I find extremely entertaining. Some recent releases, including Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords, have really increased my interest in the system overall.
I used the "elite array" character creation for this character - treat the ability scores as if you had rolled 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. I will be using random rolling for my next character, also D&D 3.5, but set in the Eberron campaign setting. Money was also taken at the "default" 150 gp for a fighter-type character. Since D&D 3.5's "default" setting, such as it is, is that of the Greyhawk universe, this character makes reference to the Greyhawk pantheon. One assumes it would not be too difficult to alter that, if need be.
Garin the Implacable
Male human hexblade 1
LN Medium humanoid
Init +1
Senses Listen -1, Spot -1
Languages Common
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AC 14, touch 11, flat-footed 13
hp 11 (1 HD)
Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +1
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Spd 30 ft (6 squares)
Melee greatsword +3 (2d6+3, 19-20/x2) or
Melee heavy mace +3 (1d8+3) or
Melee javelin +3 (1d6+2)
Ranged javelin +2 (1d6+2)
Base Atk +1; Grp +3
Atk Options hexblade’s curse (1/day, DC 12), intimidating strike
---------------------------------------------------
Abilities Str 15, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 14
SQ none
Feats Intimidating Strike, Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Skills Bluff +6, Concentration +5, Intimidate +9
Possessions greatsword, studded leather armor, heavy mace, javelin (3), standard adventurer’s kit (backpack, belt pouch, bedroll, flint and steel, hempen rope [50 ft], sunrods [2], trail rations [10 days], waterskin), 45 gp
( Background )
(creation time: 20 minutes - but I cheated by using this.)
current mood: geeky
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