Sun, 07 Mar 2010
Spoilers!
We're playing B2 — Keep on the Borderland, so if you haven't played that you might want to skip this entry.
Attending
Clockwise round the table, starting with the Labyrinth Lord:
- T.K.B., the Labyrinth Lord.
- T.A., playing
- Glen the Strategist (a wizard) and
- Dooley the sly (a thief).
- M.A., playing
- James the Cleric and
- Jeffrey the Monk.
- E.A., playing
- Curufin the Elf and
- Drusilla the Ranger.
- L.B., playing - Taffy the Halfling and - Alice the Cleric
Finishing the Orcs
C. 6 orcs from 14: 5sp 12sp 3sp 7sp 6 scale armor, 2 light crossbows, 6 morning stars.
Curufin found the secret door to 13, then kissed Taffy's hand.
Bow, quiver w/20 arrors, 2 swords, 2 daggers, 2 shields, 2 gems, 20 gp, 40sp.
Guard from 16: 8 sp 1 gp, Chaimail, short sword. Girl: ivoery bracelet (100 gp). Orc leader: longsword, plate mail (to Alice), shield, magic +1 hand axe (to Taffy), silver belt w/gold buckle, sword ???
Dru & Curufin took shields, Dooley took 2 swords, Glen took the daggers, Taffy took bow & quiver.
On to the Hobgoblins
Sat, 20 Feb 2010
Sun, 17 Jan 2010
Spoilers!
We're playing B2 — Keep on the Borderland, so if you haven't played that you might want to skip this entry.
I got to run another short Labyrinth Lord session for the kids.
Attending
Clockwise round the table, starting with the Labyrinth Lord:
- T.K.B., the Labyrinth Lord.
- M.A., playing
- James the Cleric and
- Jeffrey the Monk.
- T.A., playing
- Glen the Strategist (a wizard) and
- Dooley the sly (a thief).
- L.B., playing
- Taffy the Halfling and
- Alice the Cleric
- E.A., playing
- Curufin the Elf and
- Drusilla the Ranger.
More Orcs
C. Net: 2 rounds. Killed male orcs from rooms 14 (9 orcs) & 15 (6 orcs) at the entrance. Dooley, Jeffry, & Alice went to below zero HP — Alice healed Jeffry, James healed Alice, and James bandaged Alice's wounds. Looted bodies and fled.
(This appears to have been the first session recorded in my moleskine.)
Mon, 28 Dec 2009
Fri, 04 Dec 2009
This is an actual play report from the Savage Worlds 50 Fathoms plot point campaign from Pinnacle Entertainment Games. These actual play reports are available in html with atom and rss feeds from T.K.B.'s blog.
Attending
Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:
- T.K.B. — GM
- B.MC. — playing Azrulektos, a Kraken warrior/wizard
- C.A.H. — playing Karl Kroc, a Masaquani treasure hunter and navigator
- M.A.H. — playing Moorumah, a charming but rather dim Grael
Introduction
Actual Play
M.A.H. contributed this (lightly edited) actual play report:
After an extended character creation session (made longer due to C.A.H. being an HOUR late -- BAD C.A.H.), our 50 Fathoms campaign is off to a great start.
It all begins upon a ship, and with three particular sailors aboard. Azrulektos, a squidy-looking thing, could summon great skull-headed bolts of water and enjoys participating in Fight Club With Giant Creatures (one-on-one, of course). Then there is Karl, who looks almost human, except that both his hair and skin are some undefinable color, but let me tell you its a doozy of one. Karl is a Warrior, highly trained in the art of Shoot First And Spend Two Rounds Reloading Later. Finally, there is the lovable, but dumb-as-a-stone (and heavy as one too) Moorumah a walrus-looking being who speaks loudly (and innanely) and carries a very big club, and also occasinally trees. They are a lovable band of misfits (Azrulektos is Highly Curious, Moorumah has a Big Mouth, and Karl is equally Noticable, but in a way that I have forgotten).
Anyhoo, it all starts on a ship and with two elements. Fire and Water. A big storm made the water, and our inept now-deceased cook provided the fire. These forces combined to create a ship broken in half, and a lot of sailors drowned or beached on an island. Also, of particular worry to Moorumah, there are logs floating all over the ocean. The same logs she spent so long carrying back and forth onto the ship, with one long log under each arm.
The captain assigns the trio to look for food, and they promptly return with Moorumah carrying a 'Nana' (banana) tree. As this takes care of only one of the four food groups, the captain sends them out again. This time, they manage to kill a small dinosour, and take it back to the beach.
LITTLE DID THEY KNOW that the Red People (the savage Ugaks) had attacked the beach while they were gone. All the other sailors are gone, as are the nanas! What is a trio of (mostly) semi-aquatic beings to do? They follow the tracks of the Ugaks down the beach in hope of rescuing the other sailors. Along the way they find a small boat but broken on the other side of a reef, and materials to make a sail and other necessary components so that a makeshift boat is feasible. But, then they notice tracks going off into the jungle, and decide to follow.
The tracks end in a huge clearing, with a few scattered Red People surrounding a large pool of red goo. A huge statue of a Giant Monkape looms prominently behind the pool. There are 6 sailors lined up next to the pool, tied up next to a shaman who is directing proceedings.
Azrulektos sneaks around to flank the pool, and effectively neutralizes the shaman, while Moorumah charges into the scene like a charging bull elephant, and Karl fires off his one shot before sitting down to reload for two rounds. Unfortunately the dying shaman pushes one of the prisoners into the pool of red ooze, and a Giant Monkape rises from the ooze. There is a great deal of combat which takes place in slow motion shakey-cam. Azrulektos goes one-on-one (see previous note about hobby) with the Giant Monkape, and ultimately defeats it with a little help from some escaped sailors. The other foes are handily defeated by the trio.
In the end, we get many pieces of eight, as well as 4 experience points each. The DM bribed M.A.H. with the promise of an additional experience point if she would write up a summary of the session's events.
She does so, despite having forgotten all the characters names.
Ding - 1 xp for me!!!!!!!
Aftermath
Each PC each got +4 XP, except M.A.H. who got 1 extra XP for writing up an actual play report.
Sat, 28 Nov 2009
Spoilers!
Lost Property, Triple Ace Games
On Saturday we continued Triple Ace Games's Ace Tale, Lost Property.
Attending
Clockwise, starting with the GM:
- T.K.B. — GM
- E.A. — Aspen Thistledown & Sigisund Thorinsson
- T.A. — Sir Deelan the Ignoble & Belinda Warmhearted
- M.A. — Alfros Bladesinger
- L.B. — Sir Leopold Drakehelm & Cassandra Lightfinger
Unfortunately, D.B. wasn't available.
L.B. had been dissatisfied with the character she had been playing, Belinda Warmhearted (a pacifist with a low Fighting skill), and switched her for Sir Leopold Drakehelm.
She and E.A. both wanted to try playing two characters.
Actual Play, Afternoon
As they rested, they heard noises approaching from the unblocked side of the tunnel, and prepared for battle, but it turned out to be the remains of another group the criminal syndicate had sent to find Jeck Lightfinger, Sigisund Thorinsson and Cassandra Lightfinger. They gladly joined forces against the ghouls of the tunnels.
After resting, Aspen Thistledown was able to track her way back to where they had left the tracks of the dragged body. Once there she had no difficulty tracking them to the ghoul's feasting room, where they found many bodies in the various stages of decay, including that of Jeck Lightfinger. Unfortunately, the item they sought was not on what little remained of the body. Search the room, they noticed that many of the corpses showed the signs of having died from the blood plague, which lead them to the thought that someone had broken into the burial tunnels where the plague bodies had been interred. They hurriedly left the ghoul tunnels and headed back to report.
▶ Here we broke for supper.
Actual Play, Evening
▶ After supper we picked up again.
The criminal syndicate gave them all medallions to protect them from the blood plague and sent them off to the plague burial tunnels. They found that the seal on the door to the tunnels had been broken, and someone had been coming and going. They spent some time exploring the tunnels, and eventually came to area where another had broken into the plague tunnels, coming from further in the mountain. They followed this tunnel until they heard chanting from ahead. Sneaking up, they found an ancient temple carved into the mountain, with rat men chanting and praying.
The kids knew that they needed a plan, or they'd get wiped out by the rat men, but it took them a little while to agree on one. They decided to sneak onto one of the balconies that ran along the sides of the temple, so that they could only be attacked through two places, the hallway leading to the balcony from the tunnel at the back of the temple and the stairs leading up to the balcony at the front of the temple. They positioned their ranged fighters to target the rat man shaman leading the chant, their melee fighters to hold the entrances, and started off their attack with Alfros Bladesinger casting fear on the area with the greatest number of rat men.
It was a good plan, and it worked out well for them. The fear spell drove away many of the rat men, back into their tunnels deeper into the depths. They managed to Shake the shaman, and keep him Shaken most of the time. The melee fighters kept the other rat men off the ranged fighters long enough for the ranged fighters to finish off the shaman and dispose of several of the other rat men, and they the finished off the rest as they came up the stairs and down the hallway.
They searched the shaman and found the item they were looking for, so they left to report.
Reflections
I really need to start a regular Savage Worlds campaign for the kids.
Thu, 26 Nov 2009
Spoilers!
Lost Property, Triple Ace Games
Late in the afternoon the kids wanted to play an RPG again, so I pulled out one of Triple Ace Games's Ace Tales, Lost Property. TAG's Ace Tales are their equivalent of PEG's One Sheet Adventures: a short adventure in PDF that fits on the front and back of one sheet, often with accompanying pre-generated characters. This particular one is a generic fantasy adventure that has the players working for a criminal syndicate trying to recover an item.
There weren't any pregens for this particular Ace Tale, so I got the ones from PEG's Wizards & Warriors Genre Supplement and the ones from Against the Orcs and let the players choose which they wanted. T.B. brought along a fantasy character he had created, a noble, and D.B. chose Sir Leopold Drakehelm, so we had two nobles working for a criminal syndicate, so I decided that they had to be disgraced nobles.
Attending
Clockwise, starting with the GM:
- T.K.B. — GM
- E.A. — Aspen Thistledown
- T.A. — Sir Deelan the Ignoble [1]
- M.A. — Alfros Bladesinger
- D.B. — Sir Leopold Drakehelm (later played by T.A. after D.B. had to leave)
- L.B. — Belinda Warmhearted
Actual Play
An unsanctioned thief, Jeck Lightfinger, had fled with his ill-gotten gains into The Widow's Hold, a local haunted house. The characters were charged with finding Jeck and
They entered the ill-omened house and soon found the entrance to the tunnels below. They were soon ambushed by ghouls (in this scenario a type of undead), but fought them off. When the last ghoul fled, Sir Leopald
| [1] | The character T.A. brought was a noble with the tag “The Brave”, but since they were working for a criminal syndicate he had to be disgraced noble and hence had the tag “The Ignoble” was more appropriate. I assured T.A. that Sir Deelan the Ignoble was just an ignoble alternate version of Sir Deelan the Brave, and he could play the original character in another game. |
L.B. decided she wanted to play Toon so much that she was willing to be the Animator and run the game for the kids; She came up the idea of a holiday-themed adventure and pre-generated characters, and I helped her with some of the game system details. She came up with a scenario: a premise, a list of locations, and obstacles at each.
Attending
Clockwise starting with the Animator:
- L.B. — the Animator
- E.A. — Rachel Rabbit
- M.A. — Pete Pig
- T.A. — Chris the Chicken
- T.K.B. & D.B. — Pat the Pilgrim
Actual Play
E.A., M.A., and T.A. came over to play Thanksgiving morning to play before heading next door to the holiday meal at Grandma's.
Not long after we started D.B. arrived, looking for his cousins, and since we were playing, I bowed out and handed Pat the Pilgrim over to Dan.
The kids all seemed to be having fun, and L.B. said she enjoyed running the game, although she did say that playing was more fun.
Tue, 10 Nov 2009
This is an actual play report from our 4e Dungeons and Dragons campaign. These actual play reports are available in html with atom and rss feeds from T.K.B.'s blog.
Attending
Clockwise round the table, starting with the DM at 12 o'clock:
- M.A.F. as DM
- P.D.F. playing Kelvish, the arrogant Eladrin wizard, and acting as scribe.
- T.K.B. playing Grimnir, the reckless dwarf fighter.
- B.MC. playing Wrathgar, the dragonborn paladin.
- C.A.H. playing Angore, the indispensable human [¿is that right?] cleric.
J.H. was unable to attend, alas.
Introduction
Since J.H. was unable to attend, and our regular campaign was at a point where all the characters needed to be there, we switched and played an alternate game, starting with the adventure from the 4e D&D Roleplaying Game Starter Set.
Actual Play
Encounter 1: killed 2 goblins: 2 black blades. 10 cp, 40 gp. Found map of village (Harken) with Cliff's Brewery circled.
Encounter 2: killed 2 fire beetles and several goblins, spent most of our time in a cloud, wedged the door shut, and fled.
Interlude: Got the villagers all set up in the rundown stockade, ready for the goblin assault. Bad guys left during the night.
Encounter 3: Loot the ancient evil tomb! Jar of healing potions, 5 doses. Long sword +1, evil. Studded, ceremonial high priest of demon.
Aftermath
In after game discussion we decided that, although most of the concerns we'd had about 4e were valid, we still had fun, and would look forward to continuing this as a campaign when our regular 3.5 D&D campaign couldn't run.
We each got +800 XP.
Sat, 17 Oct 2009
Spoilers!
We're playing the One Page Dungeon “The Gray Goblin Warrens”, so if you haven't played that you might want to skip this entry.
Attending
- T.K.B., the Labyrinth Lord
- M.A., playing Niall, a cleric
- L.B., playing Caramel, a halfling
- T.A., playing Angrim, and Elf
Overview
This was another short session, and since one of the regular players was missing (E.A.) I decided to run something other than B2.
Attempt #1
Took SE branch, to room S. Eventually fled, jumping and pulling Caramel up, and back to town.
Attempt #2
Took SW branch to G, retreated to passage, then ran through to SW branch, killed 2 goblins, then killed goblins from other side who came up behind. Loot: 14 cp, 9 cp, 12 cp, 4 maces, 2 crossbows, 4 scale armor.