Saturday August 21st was worldwide game day and WoTC was throwing a big Darksun release party with running an encounter. This is basically part of the Encounter series they've been running the last month or so.
I met up with my gaming buddy Zach at Heroes & Villains and joined in the game. We had us two, two other guys that were friends, and a women and then the DMs son. That filled all the available slots, and we began right away.
I am an old school sweetheart of Darksun. I had nearly all the books and boxed sets. The psionic book The Will and the Way still remains one of the greatest game supplements to come out! The setting of Darksun was very compelling, at every turn you are struggling, whether you are in a city or not, everyone is vying for survival and its often on the backs of others that you do. Slaverly, dead gods, dead races, psionic powers, deadly new classes, even more deadly new creatures, whats not to love?
On to the adventure. We started as a group that had known each other for a while and were approached by a government official of the new free city of Tyr (which I pronounce TEER, but others including our DM, do not) to follow a map to a magical cistern that was created by some Preserver many moons ago. We promptly agree and away we go! But wait! We are approached again, and then again by other 'interested' individuals. This creates some tension between who we should trust and how we should screw. we mull it over and head into the desert.
Travel in Darksun is generally very dangerous, one could easily die from exposure to the elements and being from Tucson, I can attest to how easily dehydration can sneak up on you. We make some checks, others fail and loose some healing Surges and continue to fail and loose some hit points. One party member tries to use the Heal skill to some effect. Not to bad so far! Then we spot a man at an oasis or sorts inviting us over. Of course its a trap.
The man is a dune runner elf, and he and his men are here to steal our map and in the process make us all dead. In the end he fails horribly and dies a miserable arrow filled death thanks to Zach and his Thri-Kreen priest. We gather some loot and head off towards what we hope will be a worth while expedition into the dunes.
More Fort checks and more Heal checks and we are at an outcropping of rock with a cave entrance. Cautiously we entered the cave and this appeared to be the magic Cistern! A hole atop the cave pulled in wind and stripped the moisture from it and it dripped into a hole in the floor where we immediately went to check out. Doing so proved to be painful.
A crazed beast jumped out and attacked us! It appeared to be a super angry Tiger bear thing that claw claw bit at people, but it did so very strangely. It would swipe at people and bite at other people and a claw would send us flying, no die check from us. This thing had a ton of hit points and we all got taken to half our hit points. It retreated down the hole and we took a moment to heal, and it returned to hammer us some more!
I missed nearly all my attacks vs this creature, which really sucked. Eventually we took it down. The entire time it was using some sort of Death Field on us, was horrible.
We healed up again and started to head back after looting/looking around and of course were attacked by some bad guys. These were mercs from the City State of Urik, a rival town. The leader was apparently a mage or something and we made pretty quick work of him. He died as he jumped through a portal (dimension door?).
We hurried back to Tyr and tried to make the best of a bad situation. We had three parties interested in our find and some were willing to kill for it, so we tried to give everyone a little something. This got us bum rushed into an arena where we surely will meet our end. At least that was the end of the adventure!
Analyzing the Adventure: I'd give this a B-, its pretty straight forward, its built for having limited time and limited player experience, which it did well. Running it outside of this event you could easily slip it into a game and expand on the RP portions of it. The pregen characters were OK, but severely lacking in some skills that seemed obvious, no sneak character and no healing character, despite having a priest, he had no healing! There was also only one character with Arcana, which means you can get stuck a lot.
Purpose of the Adventure: I'll rate it at a D. The whole point is to showcase Darksun. Besides the heat/exhaustion checks what would a total newbie player note differently from any other game setting? Not much, some crazy ass monster, yes, but then again if you are a newbie, any monster is gonna be crazy, Rust Monster? CRAZY!
The elements of Darksun are very easy to encapsulate and the adventure didnt do very well at capturing that. The whole Free City of Tyr is a huge thing, at least in the OG version it was. A living god was killed by slaves! thats Huge! and there was no talk about Kalak and his fall from power! there are huge hooks in this game and none of them seemed present. Preserver/defiler magic was only mentioned in passing really, and the cataclysm of Darksun was glossed over quickly.
Showcasing 4e: C- The 4E wasnt presented very well either. There is so much new stuff here that its crazy they just sit you down and shove you out into the water. Good Luck! this might have been the DMs thing but it seems like they just send you an adventure and so OK now play and people will just get it. Shouldn't there be a little oversight and a boiler plate text for new features? Seems very short sighted.
DM: I forget his name, I'll give him a C+ to B-. Im uncertain how well he knew 4E, I know he didnt know the Darksun setting very well at all, he didnt know Urik was a city state and it was one of the old school adventures Road to Urik! Come one! Not being familiar with 4E beasts, I not sure he was playing the Tigerbear thing correctly. Can it just auto-knock you down on a hit? can it attack Claw and Bite, move and then do it all again in the same round? that cant be right. How do you place its second move? Its curious. He did some weird stuff. Like the last encounter with the Wizard he jumped through a Dimension Door but I got an attack of Opportunity as he moved towards it and killed him, but he still got through it. Shouldn't it have blinked off? Our wizard couldn't ID the spell with a Arcana 23 roll? I suppose its flavor really, but was a little annoying to have a body get away after getting your ass kicked. right?
Anyhows, Im not convinced 4E is worth a damn, it really seems like its $E, so many damn books, so expensive, tons of extras and no end in sight! A slew on 'new' books including the Red Box Edition, which is playing with my heart strings, is coming out in September! Can the money sucking juggernaut be stopped? If this years Ennies awards are any indication WoTC is sucking wind hard core at least form the fanboys perspective. Pathfinder and its 3.5+ is kicking all sorts of ass. It will be interesting to see where the next year will lead these two systems.
Best of luck to both of them!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Session 08/22/2010
Cordelia
Our group of adventurers had returned from the Warrens/Slums after following a Locate Object spell looking for a bag from a Gold Goblin. We had thought better of entering into Vai Assassin territory looking for this bag, and instead returned to Saul to update him on what we had found and the involvement of the Vai. He thought that was dire news and we more or less connected that bag with the opening day attempted heist at the Gold Goblin and not the disappearance of Larur the money courier.
While talking with Saul a note came in about a few bouncers becoming sick and missing work. This coincided with the Town Criers noting a strange plague in the docks affecting porters and laborers. We decided that we should check up on them. Saul also told us we had a shipment of liquor that had arrived but with the plague, there was no one to off load or transport the shipment to the Gold Goblin. It sounded like we could get the shipment and check up on our bouncers and the plague all in one big trip.
Bouncers house #1. We found our bouncer being taken care of by his wife. He was genuinely sick and Azzgrimmur the White Dwarf administered to him as best he could. He was able to identify the sickness which worried us all. We wished him well and moved on to the next bouncers house.
Bouncer house #2. We knocked and no one answered so Laezol skillfully picked the lock to the front door. Upon entering we were shocked at the filth and disarray the house was in. It stucnk and no one answered our calls. We intrepidly opened the kitchen door and were engulfed in a wave of noxious fumes! A thick stinking cloud of filth filled the room and caused me to start heaving and retching up my breakfast. We retreated to its edge back by the front door and I thought I may as well investigate the foggy nasty cloud as I was already affected.
I could hardly see 5 ft in front of me and when I was nearly through the kitchen to the back door a grotesque figure emerged from the fog and attacked me. It was the bouncer, but he had been transformed into a pustule covered plague zombie! The noxious gas seemly emanating from him. The zombie missed me and I retreated back to the front door while the others rushed forth to fight the thing.
Ankazzar, the half-orc Oracle, stayed with me near the front door and just as she ventured near the second floor stairs the bouncers wife appeared; a Zombie as well! She was not the same kind it seemed and Ankazzar fought her off bravely on her own while I continued to vomit.
Our party traded blows with the accursed things and could see their flesh mending itself against our blows. The battle it seemed might last longer than we wanted. One by one the group in the kitchen fighting the bouncer within the cloud succumb to the vapors. All except the stalwart Dwarf Azzgrimmur! He fought off its effect at every turn.
Meanwhile I was able to clean my nose of the stench and join Ankazzar against the wife zombie. Together we were able to bring her to her knees. Ankazzar pressed the advantage and releaved the wife zombie of her head. Seeing all things well in hand I charged into the Kitchen and aided the dwarf in felling the Bouncer. We searched their row house for clues, and money, and found nothing of real interest. Only questions about what had really happened and what fate may await all those affected by the plague.
We sent word via messenger to Saul about the bouncers death, next of kin and warning the other bouncer as well as a note to the Church of Lothian and seeking their divine assistance with cleansing the house or further identifying the Plague!
We pushed on worried about the wounds we had incurred against the zombies, towards the docks. Would the bites and scratches be enough to infect us? Could the same fate await us? We hoped luck was on our side as we approached the transport ship The Foam Runner. The ship was captained by a rather brash and flamboyant dwarf with an outrageous accent and giant tattoo of the sun on his chest, which also bared a close resemblance to the Holy Symbol of Sol, the god of light and goodness. He may have been able to talk with us at length about the religion had he not already unloaded our liquor to some unsavory looking gentlemen that we just passed.
We rushed to head off the cart and men. They demanded that we get out of their way and we demanded to know who they worked for and what they thought they were doing with our booze. They said the booze was theirs and they wouldn't let us stop them. I tried to intimidate them and vowed murder them all if they didnt give up. Their apparent leader a man dressed in Imperial Guards arms and armor, order them porters to attack. I cast a Charm Person on the man,a nd pressed my intimidation. Is it really worth dieing for?
I order the man to remove all his things and put them in the cart and while doing so tell us how he came to be stealing our hooch. He complied and let fall that Zincher order his actions, a hefty bribe to the Harbor Master and here he was, a few coin for the porters and the rest we knew.
A Color Spray blew two of the goons into Stunned and Blinded fools. Laezol skewered one of them and here I pressed our advantage. "20 gold if you surrender!" and the remaining goons did just that. After borrowing most of the gold to pay off the men and they gladly ported us and the booze back to the Gold Goblin, where we further interrogated the leader of the booze heist, Bradacar.
Bradacar, it turns out, is a disgraced ex-Imperial Guardsmen, who was caught involved in a protection racket and works for Klegg Zincher now. With Saul's help we may be able to glean more information out of him but he didnt know anything about Larurs disappearance or the Cinder Snakes that appeared in the kitchen of the Gold Goblin.
Surely we will continue to pump him for info. What we do with him after that is yet to be seen. I could just let him go. I could try and convince him that despite what I've done to him he better off than being dead. Zincher isn't his friend. Any time he moves against the Gold Goblin he is moving against us and the lives of the men involved are forfeit. Expendable. Zincher knows that, if fact he is counting on it. Zincher's entire scheme is to get us in trouble and remove us from helping Saul. He probably wont be as happy go lucky once the Charm Person wears off but perhaps he is a man of reason and can see the truth in what I say. Being our ally will extend his lifespan considerably.
Another option would be to sell him to slavers. Seems mean, but also kind of funny and puts some jiggle in my pocket.
Yet another option would be to take him back to The Foam Runner and pay Captain Puck to take him to the next port, or better yet give him a job as a boat hand. I fear he inst cut out for thuggery, although Im sure under Captain Pucks tutelage he could go far in that arena.
Our group of adventurers had returned from the Warrens/Slums after following a Locate Object spell looking for a bag from a Gold Goblin. We had thought better of entering into Vai Assassin territory looking for this bag, and instead returned to Saul to update him on what we had found and the involvement of the Vai. He thought that was dire news and we more or less connected that bag with the opening day attempted heist at the Gold Goblin and not the disappearance of Larur the money courier.
While talking with Saul a note came in about a few bouncers becoming sick and missing work. This coincided with the Town Criers noting a strange plague in the docks affecting porters and laborers. We decided that we should check up on them. Saul also told us we had a shipment of liquor that had arrived but with the plague, there was no one to off load or transport the shipment to the Gold Goblin. It sounded like we could get the shipment and check up on our bouncers and the plague all in one big trip.
Bouncers house #1. We found our bouncer being taken care of by his wife. He was genuinely sick and Azzgrimmur the White Dwarf administered to him as best he could. He was able to identify the sickness which worried us all. We wished him well and moved on to the next bouncers house.
Bouncer house #2. We knocked and no one answered so Laezol skillfully picked the lock to the front door. Upon entering we were shocked at the filth and disarray the house was in. It stucnk and no one answered our calls. We intrepidly opened the kitchen door and were engulfed in a wave of noxious fumes! A thick stinking cloud of filth filled the room and caused me to start heaving and retching up my breakfast. We retreated to its edge back by the front door and I thought I may as well investigate the foggy nasty cloud as I was already affected.
I could hardly see 5 ft in front of me and when I was nearly through the kitchen to the back door a grotesque figure emerged from the fog and attacked me. It was the bouncer, but he had been transformed into a pustule covered plague zombie! The noxious gas seemly emanating from him. The zombie missed me and I retreated back to the front door while the others rushed forth to fight the thing.
Ankazzar, the half-orc Oracle, stayed with me near the front door and just as she ventured near the second floor stairs the bouncers wife appeared; a Zombie as well! She was not the same kind it seemed and Ankazzar fought her off bravely on her own while I continued to vomit.
Our party traded blows with the accursed things and could see their flesh mending itself against our blows. The battle it seemed might last longer than we wanted. One by one the group in the kitchen fighting the bouncer within the cloud succumb to the vapors. All except the stalwart Dwarf Azzgrimmur! He fought off its effect at every turn.
Meanwhile I was able to clean my nose of the stench and join Ankazzar against the wife zombie. Together we were able to bring her to her knees. Ankazzar pressed the advantage and releaved the wife zombie of her head. Seeing all things well in hand I charged into the Kitchen and aided the dwarf in felling the Bouncer. We searched their row house for clues, and money, and found nothing of real interest. Only questions about what had really happened and what fate may await all those affected by the plague.
We sent word via messenger to Saul about the bouncers death, next of kin and warning the other bouncer as well as a note to the Church of Lothian and seeking their divine assistance with cleansing the house or further identifying the Plague!
We pushed on worried about the wounds we had incurred against the zombies, towards the docks. Would the bites and scratches be enough to infect us? Could the same fate await us? We hoped luck was on our side as we approached the transport ship The Foam Runner. The ship was captained by a rather brash and flamboyant dwarf with an outrageous accent and giant tattoo of the sun on his chest, which also bared a close resemblance to the Holy Symbol of Sol, the god of light and goodness. He may have been able to talk with us at length about the religion had he not already unloaded our liquor to some unsavory looking gentlemen that we just passed.
We rushed to head off the cart and men. They demanded that we get out of their way and we demanded to know who they worked for and what they thought they were doing with our booze. They said the booze was theirs and they wouldn't let us stop them. I tried to intimidate them and vowed murder them all if they didnt give up. Their apparent leader a man dressed in Imperial Guards arms and armor, order them porters to attack. I cast a Charm Person on the man,a nd pressed my intimidation. Is it really worth dieing for?
I order the man to remove all his things and put them in the cart and while doing so tell us how he came to be stealing our hooch. He complied and let fall that Zincher order his actions, a hefty bribe to the Harbor Master and here he was, a few coin for the porters and the rest we knew.
A Color Spray blew two of the goons into Stunned and Blinded fools. Laezol skewered one of them and here I pressed our advantage. "20 gold if you surrender!" and the remaining goons did just that. After borrowing most of the gold to pay off the men and they gladly ported us and the booze back to the Gold Goblin, where we further interrogated the leader of the booze heist, Bradacar.
Bradacar, it turns out, is a disgraced ex-Imperial Guardsmen, who was caught involved in a protection racket and works for Klegg Zincher now. With Saul's help we may be able to glean more information out of him but he didnt know anything about Larurs disappearance or the Cinder Snakes that appeared in the kitchen of the Gold Goblin.
Surely we will continue to pump him for info. What we do with him after that is yet to be seen. I could just let him go. I could try and convince him that despite what I've done to him he better off than being dead. Zincher isn't his friend. Any time he moves against the Gold Goblin he is moving against us and the lives of the men involved are forfeit. Expendable. Zincher knows that, if fact he is counting on it. Zincher's entire scheme is to get us in trouble and remove us from helping Saul. He probably wont be as happy go lucky once the Charm Person wears off but perhaps he is a man of reason and can see the truth in what I say. Being our ally will extend his lifespan considerably.
Another option would be to sell him to slavers. Seems mean, but also kind of funny and puts some jiggle in my pocket.
Yet another option would be to take him back to The Foam Runner and pay Captain Puck to take him to the next port, or better yet give him a job as a boat hand. I fear he inst cut out for thuggery, although Im sure under Captain Pucks tutelage he could go far in that arena.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Pathfinder vs Swords & Wizardry
Right now I am playing in two games and they have distinctly different flavors as well as very literal implementations and interactions.
On one hand the S&W game is scaled down mechanics, simplified to be a throwback to the early days of gaming, when things were simple and dwarves were dwarves, well actually Fighting Men, but dwarves non the less. Our group meets every two weeks for 3 hours of raucous uproariously debased out of character, and sometimes in, commentary about anything and everything. Theres Beer, Chips, Snacks galore, the occasional Pizza or grilling! Its men being men in a 10 by 14 ft room.
On the other hand, Im playing a Pathfinder/Ptolus hybrid game that I joining in virtually via the powers of Skype!!! While the rest of the crew meets some 500 miles away at the DMs house replete with dungeon tiles and minis galore, I sit alone in my man cave, dice at the ready, Pathfinder book in hand, watching the game board from a camera perched high above. I can see the minis but none of the players. While Ive met most of them in RL its still a strange situation at times. They have a laptop set up so they can see me, yet I cant see any of them. it is weird at times.
A common motif is the raunchy jokes that float around. Its a bit bizarre. Is everyone's games like these? Prolapsed rectums and shit and fart jokes abound in both games. I'd like ot thnk I'm the common factor but I know thats not the case. Where does humor fall in your game? Is the DM chiming in or is he fighting against it? Gary Gygax was fairly notirious for his Punning at the game table. Is humor an intrinsic element to RPGs? Or is it a requisite for having a good time in meta game?
Which ever it is, it seems I am truly blessed to be in two such great gaming groups and Im looking forward to more fun in the future!
On one hand the S&W game is scaled down mechanics, simplified to be a throwback to the early days of gaming, when things were simple and dwarves were dwarves, well actually Fighting Men, but dwarves non the less. Our group meets every two weeks for 3 hours of raucous uproariously debased out of character, and sometimes in, commentary about anything and everything. Theres Beer, Chips, Snacks galore, the occasional Pizza or grilling! Its men being men in a 10 by 14 ft room.
On the other hand, Im playing a Pathfinder/Ptolus hybrid game that I joining in virtually via the powers of Skype!!! While the rest of the crew meets some 500 miles away at the DMs house replete with dungeon tiles and minis galore, I sit alone in my man cave, dice at the ready, Pathfinder book in hand, watching the game board from a camera perched high above. I can see the minis but none of the players. While Ive met most of them in RL its still a strange situation at times. They have a laptop set up so they can see me, yet I cant see any of them. it is weird at times.
A common motif is the raunchy jokes that float around. Its a bit bizarre. Is everyone's games like these? Prolapsed rectums and shit and fart jokes abound in both games. I'd like ot thnk I'm the common factor but I know thats not the case. Where does humor fall in your game? Is the DM chiming in or is he fighting against it? Gary Gygax was fairly notirious for his Punning at the game table. Is humor an intrinsic element to RPGs? Or is it a requisite for having a good time in meta game?
Which ever it is, it seems I am truly blessed to be in two such great gaming groups and Im looking forward to more fun in the future!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Welcome friend traveler, sit and listen to my tales.
These are the ramblings of the mad dwarf Gedleesmote Hammersend. His journeys continue here and you can read all about them. Perhaps the mad dwarf will have other ramblings as well as he likes to frequent gaming establishments and places of that ilk. Never in all the annals of the coin lords has there been a dwarf quite like Gedleesmote and to his end, let us all raise a pint!
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