30 Days of GameMastery--Day 25!

You know it by now:  Lindevi.  "30 Days of GameMastering".  Challenge.  Go!

Problem players and drama llamas:  what's your horror story and how did you resolve it?

So, let's go back to the halcyon days of 2008.  The PlatinumChick and I were still living in our apartment in Fairborn, planning our wedding and eyeing up houses here in the Miami Valley.  Our Friday night game group was still rolling along and 4e was less than a year old.

Enter Richard.  Richard was the co-worker of one of our Friday night mainstays and had been looking for a regular group for quite some time with no luck.  As such, we welcomed him in...which was probably our first mistake.  You see, Richard came with three major problems which, like a bad rash, kept reoccurring.

The first was the least serious, though as a GM, it frustrated me personally.  Richard constantly wanted to revise his character, making significant changes and revisions, well over and above any 'retraining' coupled into the system.  Richard made a nuisance of himself, barraging myself and other gamers at the table, looking for input...which he would consistently ignore, both at the table and in character advancement.  One of the most absurd instances occurred during our "Pirates of the Underdark" game.  Despite the table's protests, he dropped a high-damage area-of-effect power into the middle of the party, hoping to catch a number of their foes in the blast.  Not only did Richard miss every one of the enemies, he damaged all of the party members in the melee, critting two of them!  After several sessions of this chaos, we started referring to Richard's character as "the best player on the GM's team!"

Really, Richard?
You couldn't play at the game store over the weekend
and arrive at our RPG night on time?

The second reason frustrated everyone at the table.  You see, Richard was a big HeroClix enthusiast who enjoyed playing at one of the various game stores in the Dayton area.  However, Richard's night of choice?  You got it:  Friday night.  Typically, our game nights begin around 6pm.  We grab dinner together--either at a local restaurant or take-out joint--and begin playing around 7:30, lasting until 11:30 or midnight.  Unfortunately, Richard's HeroClix games ended at 9pm, which was followed by a minimum half-hour drive to our apartment.  As such, Richard often wouldn't arrive until 10pm!  After a number of requests and emails, nothing had changed on this front.

The third reason, truth be told, was quite personal.  You see, Richard was married.  The PlatinumChick and I were engaged, about to be married in 2009.  However, that didn't stop him from sending her numerous inappropriate texts and making homophobic commentary at the table, fully knowing that I'm bisexual.  This one, I took personally.  I'm as lewd as it comes, but there's a big difference between making jokes between friends actually making moves on a to-be-married woman, especially while you're married.

Three strikes?  You betcha.  Not long after we moved, I finally pulled the trigger on Richard:  during one of the numerous sessions he had missed, I raised my concerns to the group and suggested that we release him.  The next day, I sent him a brief email highlighting our concerns and letting him know he would no longer be welcome at the table.  He took it...well, about as well as one could expect, but it hasn't been an issue since.

I've seen Richard at a few gaming events in the Miami Valley since then and, believe it or not, he's been rather civil.  He actually sat in on one of my Cold Steel Wardens demos and was an eager, invested player.  Maybe there's room for some redemption, I suppose, but I don't really aim to find out.

In the end, not everyone is a 'fit' in every game group.  If it happens, you've got to remain cool enough to speak the truth and do what's best for everyone involved.

In Which The Warlock Muses on Thread Necromancy and Group Building...

For those of you that aren't frequenters of rpg-forums and the like, "thread necromancy" refers to the act of bringing back a "dead" thread, months or even years after its last response.  I was somewhat shocked, recently, to find that a thread that I'd started over at RPG.net had been necro-ed, dealing specifically with the idea of "allowing" items in a campaign.

If you're interested, the thread still exists--just poke around and you'll find it under "Allowing Things in a Campaign", but that's not what I'd like to talk about today.  Rather, I'd like to focus on one of my responses.

Has no business in a pirate game...

One of the biggest problems that I had in starting the first "Pirates of the Underdark" game was that...well, no one wanted to be a pirate!  In the wild and chaotic days of 3.5e, I ended up with almost every combination you could think of, but not one was even remotely piratical or linked to the Underdark.  I ended up with an anime-style sorcerer girl, a modron swordmage, and a "gelatinous orc", but nary a pirate in sight!  Needless to say, this campaign imploded nearly from the start.

You see, friends and neighbors, I've become a bigger and bigger fan of "group" character building, the longer that I've been gaming.  This isn't to say that people shouldn't generate characters as individuals--that's half the fun!--but rather that some degree of communication has to occur when a group sits down to plan an extended campaign. 

Our current Dark Sun group suffered from that, as half of the group were planning on playing amoral desert survivors, while others planned on being active agents of the Veiled Alliance.  As you might have seen in previous entries, such did not turn out well.  Had we managed to be honest with one another at the start, expressing what we wanted out of character development and plot points, a compromise could have been reached, but we just didn't think that far ahead.

Equally, has no business
in a Call of Cthulhu game...

Honestly, this is also one of the issues that I have with Call of Cthulhu.  Don't get me wrong:  I love CoC in all its various incarnations.  But, the disparity that exists when you bring together a history professor, a private detective, a teppanyaki chef, a college student, and a half-crazed journalist makes for a group that is ultimately unskilled in necessary areas, while are masters at items that may only come up in one session or as a group-joke.  That takes the inherent horror of CoC and degenerates it into slapstick comedy.  It's a fine line to walk, believe it or not...

For extended campaigns of all sorts, I've taken to spending an entire session for group-building and, as ChaoticFrederick calls it, "theorycrafting".  While this has met with mixed results--particularly in the "Tear of Ioun" game last year (heavy on the 'theory', light on the actual 'crafting')--it's helped to explain how the group got together in the first place, as well as what tactics they use when in combat or in investigations.

Madness encouraged!

But, on the other end of the spectrum, there's The Laundry...which takes the exact opposite approach, and hits it out of the park.  The Laundry encourages offbeat, especially nerdy professionals, with totally disparate skill sets.  However, it rectifies this by providing each character with a baseline of "Laundry Basic Training" as well as a set of skills that come as part of their directory assignment.  While characters are free to individualize their skills based on their own former profession and their preference, it becomes almost impossible to create an "ineffective" character or, for that matter, a character that overlaps or does not fit within the group as a whole.

Have you encountered another system that rewards diversity or group character-building?  Or, do you have your own methodology that works?  By all means, do tell!

In Which The Warlock Tears Down the Wall!

When I planned out the end-game of the Friday night "Tear of Ioun" game, I wanted to ensure that the ending would be an epic one.  As Chaotic Frederick says, I wanted them to "be saying 'wow' every time".  As I mentioned earlier, I had been hoping for a set-piece battle that really demonstrated the weight and power of the characters' actions thusfar in the game.  Moreso, I wanted them to feel massively threatened, while simultaneously maintaining that feel of supreme bad-assness!

So, when I decided upon a siege on Russell's home clan, I was a little worried.  In fact, I was downright  intimidated.  I had never run a game session on this scale before, and doing so proved to be quite the challenge.



The Defenders of Morgordal Keep

 After building their castle, writing up rules for siege weaponry and other defenses, and preparing troops using the DDI Monster Builder software, the field was finally arrayed against the hordes of Volarn, Opener of the Way.  It was a ton of prep, which culminated with a 4 page long e-mail on my part, detailing troop costs, toughness and more...and then prompted a similarly lengthed response from Chaotic Frederick!

In game, each player was responsible for four items each:  their own character (currently near-epic level, sitting at 17th!), an NPC ally of theirs (also near-epic!), a siege engine that ranged from the traditional ballistae and trebuchet to the mighty acid cannon and pseudo-sentient Hellfire engine, and a legion of troops.  While this seemed like a lot, the rules were incredibly streamlined, moving quickly for each character.  To be honest, each turn only took slightly longer than a normal D&D turn!

Without a doubt, my players rose to the challenge brilliantly.

Clanfather Russell rides the Hellfire Engine into battle!

The battle was joined, and everyone at the table threw themselves into the defense.  Lupin led Banish skirmishers from Gloomwrought against the eldritch horrors, while Martook confronted one of the massive mutants head-on, being swallowed in its toothy maw!  Shantira, Aster, and Guf manned the walls, leading troops directly, while Russell and his clanbrother Thorgrim swung their hammers in unison before the gates of their new home.



Friday Night Will, Chris the II, and Pyro-Jessie survey the field...

 Things looked grim for our defenders for quite a while.  While the defenders had great success wiping out the aberrent hordes with their siege weaponry, their numbers seemed countless.  However, with Martook swallowed and Lupin overwhelmed, the two largest of Volarn's minions--literally, walking engines of destruction themselves--focused their fire on the Hellfire Engine and the keep's walls...



The gates come crashing down!

In that moment of despair, all seemed lost and the Far Realm beasts seemed on the verge of annihilating all within the keep.  Martook let loose yet another unheeded prayer to Moradin from within the beast's gullet.  Cursing once more, he turned to a different source of divine intervention:  Bane, Lord of War.

I was floored!  For session after session, Lupin had (half-jokingly) been trying to convert the party to Bane, only really succeeding with the embittered Aster.  Totally at a loss for what to do, I resorted to an old tactic from "Pirates of the Underdark"--I asked him to 'roll the bones'. 

"Do ya feel lucky?"

"The Bones" is a simple mechanic, which I culled from Skull and Bones:  Swashbuckling Horror in the Golden Age of Piracy, while I was running "Pirates of the Underdark".  Essentially, a character can toss 'the bones'--2d6--once per session, and hope that Lady Luck can help him out of a dire situation.  Martook's roll?  A ten...near perfect...

Mighty Bane manifested in his mind, offering ultimate victory on this battlefield, in exchange for his fealty.  Martook hastily accepted, his Moradinian regalia reforming and restylizing as Banish armor, and he burst forth from the creature's belly in a shower of gore.  With a half-crazed war-cry, he leapt back into the fray, hewing down aberrations with each mighty swing. 



Chaotic Frederick and Chris the I have the situation under control...


Our session ended late--almost at 1:15 am--with the aberrant army crushed and Morgordal Keep saved.  But the players, triumphant and energized, were excited.  This was a battle for the ages, and was really memorable for all of us.  This was what I was hoping for.  This, my lovely readers, was what it was all about.  this was the culmination of a truly epic yarn.

While we're off next week, the following week will bring our final battle and take our PCs back to where it all began--the Forlorn Tower, just north of the ruins of Wellspring. 

And honestly?  I can't wait. 

In Which The Warlock Tells Luke His Father Was Named Rosebud...

To round out our last bit of "Pirates of the Underdark," I wanted to give just a little bit of face time for our lovely villains, who didn't manage to make it to the game table. They had big plans, for sure, but no recompense was to be had.

Jaegren Lern--"The One Living Man"--Level 22 Elite Controller

After ambushing The One Living Man on his ship, at the behest of the lich-loremaster Tsaron Mindweaver, the party found themselves being pursued halfway to hell and back by the necromancer-turned-pirate.

But who is Jaegren Lern, really? Believe it or not, he's one of my old characters, when I was playing at Wittenberg. Lern was a wizard, with the Pale Master prestige class and a heavy necromantic flavor. He used Create Undead and Animate Dead spells numerous times to create a zombie crew, which even included an Undead Dire Octopus. The kicker for Lern, though, was his arm--a skeletal graft that comes with the Pale Master class. Very flavorful stuff.

I designed Lern to be a sniveling, arrogant bugger, who had allied with the enigmatic Dread Pirate Tim, only to be hired by the rest of the party, as they traveled to IceRazor City. As it turned out, Lern betrayed the party (a week before finals week, no less!), resulting in a TPK. Lern, however, escaped (yes, really!), taking Lauryn's sorceress-turned-vampire with him.

While I really like The One Living Man as a plot device, he doesn't really have any far-reaching machinations, so he was fairly one dimensional as a villain. However, his prescence was enough of a threat to keep the party on their toes and make them really strategize when he came calling.

Lascer, Lord of the Shadow Shoal--Level 19 Solo Skirmisher

I first came across Lascer in an issue of Dragon magazine, where he was tossed in amongst the "Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Apocrypha". The image for Lascer is what stood out most, though: a roughly stitched together albino body, with jagged teeth and shards of broken glass jammed into the joints, hands, and feet. I knew I had to use this guy.

The players came across the cult of Lascer early in their adventuring, but only began to put together the pieces of his true agenda once they managed to meet up with the Cult of Dagon at Tsaron Mindweaver's tower. Lascer, having been Dagon's personal assassin for milennia, had broken free of Dagon's control and had escaped to the Prime Material. Set on vengeance, Lascer began founding a cult of his own amidst the kuo-toa and sauhagin of the Underdark.

Had the game continued, the players would have had to hunt down the Iron Flask of Tuerny--a 2e relic!--which was capable of holding the essence of a being as powerful as a demon lord. However, upon finding it, disaster strikes--the Flask is inhabited by a powerful demilich...the one, the only, Acererak.

And the rest?

The Gith--As mentioned in my last post, a rogue faction of Githyanki sought to use the Midnight Romance plant in a bid to dominate Sigil. This would have culminated in a cross-planar chase, as the PCs try to track down the Gith to their home-base and eliminate them, all without rousing the ire of the Lich-Queen, Vlaakith. Mind you, all of this would have only been compounded by the party's "acquisition" of a Gith Silver Sword...

The Weavers--Ah, yes. The powerful, enigmatic merchants guild, located on Skull and Stars. The Weavers were, of course, much more than they seemed. In fact, they were spider-people, known as "chitines". The Weavers had cornered the market on silk in the region, and weren't about to be undercut by some no-good scallywags. Unfortunately, their vengeance never took shape.

The Drow Houses--of course, in true back-stabbing style, both Mathir's and Zara's houses were going to come back to bite them in the behind. Mathir's mother was intent on letting her foolish daughter upgrade the Red Mourning as much as she wanted...then calling in the debt on it, taking the powerful ship as her flagship. Zara's sister intended on dragging her back into the Menzoberranzen political situation, intent on a second coup.


Ah, but all that's in the past now. Now, it's time for some Eberron! And let me tell you, Cyrid Alamein--elf paladin--is ready to bring some righteous pain!

In Which The Warlock Posts a Spoiler Alert...

As I mentioned earlier, our weekly "Pirates of the Underdark" game went out with a whimper, rather than a bang. We didn't really reach any sort of climax before the game collapsed, and many of the side plots went unrevealed.

That is, until now! Below are the assorted "tier 2" NPCs that the players helped to create, along with their "dark secrets" which the players were on the verge of finding out...

Durgrek--Dwarf Wizard (Tome) 18

What They Knew:
Throughout the game, the players came upon quite a few mysterious slabs of slate, covered in archaic dwarven runes. The stones radiated a mysterious form of magic, indecipherable by the party's arcanists. And, the more of these that they found, the weirder Durgrek seemed to get, as he lusted over the items. He, in fact, made a deal with Captain Zane to provide the ship with both navigation and alchemical/ritual services, with his only payment being...those enigmatic runestones.

What They Didn't Know:
Durgrek was the last of his clan. After being shipped off to a wizard academy, his clan was defeated in battle by duergar, and sold into slavery. Durgrek returned home on a sabbatical, only to find his home delve totally empty. Enraged, Durgrek turned to his arcane talents to view the past, finding the duergar that enslaved his clan. He rained fiery vengeance upon the offenders, but did not stop there. Durgrek sought annihilation.

Using his arcane contacts, Durgrek began to research the lore of "truename magic". Rumor had always been that the duergar, when they forged their eternal pact with Asmodeus, turned over a set of runestones with their ancient clan's truename emblazoned in it. Asmodeus, seeking to keep the clan subjugated, split the stones apart and spread them across the Underdark.

The Next Step?
Durgrek would have procured the final runestone as the players approached the endgame, enacting a ritual at the Hulks of Zoretha--a series of ancient monoliths imbued with arcane energy. There, the players would have been forced into a terrible choice--trust the seemingly insane dwarf, or stop him. Had Durgrek succeeded in his ritual, the truename linking all duergar would have been erased, instantly slaying all duergar on the Prime Material (including Zendax's comrade-in-arms, Ettik!).

Velenthi of House Nehlet, Drow Dark Pact Warlock 13

What They Knew:
Velenthi ambushed her big sister, Zara, in an alley in Freeport. Zara, in turn, bullied her into joining the crew of the Red Mourning. Zara and the crew were shocked to see Velenthi's strnge abilities, but even moreso when she was spotted speaking to hobgoblin and (*gasp*) surfacer mercenaries. The group believed that she had fled the fall of House Nehlet in Menzoberranzen, but there was little proof to go on.

What The Didn't Know:
Velenthi did, in fact, flee the fall of House Nehlet, but only after she actually caused the house's fall! She led the male slaves in a coup on the Matron Mother, only to be backstabbed by them, and being subjected to the same punishments she inflicted on them! Velenthi escaped, turning first to the Acolytes of Moil, a nihilistic cult that worships the ancient demilich Acererak! With them, she learned the warlock arts, then abandoned them, in favor of finding her errant sister and some hired goons, to help her re-take House Nehlet.

The Next Step?
Had the players spent any time in Menzoberranzen, Velenthi would have come clean about the fall of House Nehlet, appealling to the crew to assist her in the ultimate "battle of the sexes"--men vs. women with the leadership of House Nehlet on the line. However, their support of her would have drawn the attention of the Acolytes of Moil...leading to a climactic encounter in Skull City, right outside of the Tomb of Horrors!

Nalen the Quicker, Shadar-Kai Rogue 16

What They Knew:
Artemis--Fred's second character, following Captain Zane--grew close to Nalen, finding out much of her backstory while the crew was docked in Gracklestugh. Nalen became incredibly nervous while in port there, and confided in Artemis over a bottle of brandy in the crow's nest. This nervousness grew even further after the group was ambushed by Githyanki, in the midst of a harrowing encounter with the necromancer-pirate, The One Living Man.

What They Didn't Know:
Nalen was actually native to the city of Sigil, and grew up to be a private investigator. Nalen had taken on a case from the Sons of Mercy to look into the appearance of a mysterious viney plant in the city called Midnight Romance, which was incredibly toxic. Nalen trailed the plant to githyanki smugglers, who captured her. Before she escaped, Nalen deduced the giths' true plan--to use the Midnight Romance plants from Gracklestugh to poison and zombify the citizenry of Sigil, then use it as a launching point for further planar incursions.

The Next Step?
After the climax of the game, the players would have had the option to traverse the planar waterways, ending up in Sigil in the midst of the githyanki invasion. Working alongside Doomguard Marauders and the Sons of Mercy, the PCs would have helped to fight back against the gith and restore Sigil to its prior state.


And the rest?

Ettik--Duergar Fighter 13
Ettik revolved primarily as a foil to Durgrek, as he would have been slain in Durgrek's mad quest for revenge. Had the PCs returned to Gracklestugh, they would have found themselves trapped in the midst of a duergar love triangle, as Ettik had accidentally impregnated a clan mistress, who was about to marry a clanthane.

Elkantar--Drow Bard 11
Elkantar was, pretty much, what the players thought he was--Mathir's slave. However, he would serve as the cause of a major difficulty as Mathir's Matron Mother would have come calling, after a time, wanting both her ship and her slave back. Needless to say, this would have earned the party one more enemy...

Khalar--Goliath Swordmage/Artificer 15
Khalar, the gigantic pistoleer/swordsman, was about as mercenary as it came. He was willing to support any cause, any person, as long as he was well supplied with gold, rum, and fine weaponry. He had a growing crush on both Mathir and Nalen, both of which hid from the group at large.

James "The Goddamned Jim Bob" Robertson--Human Ranger/Horizon Walker 19
The Goddamned Jim Bob had no plot. He showed up as an homage to a past game, and just was happy to go along with the flow. Jim Bob loved travel, and the Red Mourning was as good a method of travel than any.

Stay tuned for the villains of "Pirates of the Underdark", including Jaegren Lern, the enigmatic One Living Man!

In Which The Warlock Reaches The End of Things...

They say that all good things must come to an end. If that's the case, I've had it way too good for far too long. It seems that, with the end of December, both of my weekly D&D games will be ending.

In our "Pirates of the Underdark" game, we have two sessions left to wrap up the conveluted plot points, the circuitous undercurrents, and a massive trip to the heart of the Abyss left to go. I can't bear to spoil the plot here, at least not until the last few sessions play out, but rest assured that you'll get all of the details here.

I will, however, spoil the remainder of the plot for my "Echoes of the Last War" game, which I was running at Wittenberg. When we last left off, the players had been trekking through the Xen'drik jungle, in search of a House Cannith archaeological dig, which they had found evidence of in a shady lab in the Cogs of Sharn.

At the dig site, our players would have found a mysterious series of runes which, when translated, would have dealt with the missing Mark of Death, and particularly the combinations thereof with other dragonmarks. Notes left behind by the previous dig manager would have led the heroes back onto Khorvaire, to the Citadel of Twelve, in Karnnath.

Using some diplomacy and guile, the players would have infiltrated the Citadel, only to find little to no evidence (or help) from the dragonmarked heirs there. However, some further investigation of both House Cannith and House Thuranni would have given the indication that the group's old buddy, Thondred ir'Dayne, was still alive! Shocked, they would be confronted with an impossible task: infiltrating the prison of Dreadhold and breaking out their friend.

After another bit of sneaking, the party would find Thondred deep in the "Stone Ward" of Dreadhold. There, he'd enlighten them on the real plot: Cannith and Thuranni were in cahoots all along. The Mourning? Yeah, it was their fault, as they attempted to formulate an arcane/alchemical replacement for the missing Mark of Death. And, using the information from the dig sites in Xen'drik, House Cannith now has a prototype for a "Dragonmark Bomb"...a miniaturized Mourning that they intend to sell off to the highest bidder at the city of Thronehold.

Amazed, the PCs would have had to sneak back off of Dreadhold's island and into the Lhaazar Principalities, seeking passage with a pirate captain. Said pirate captain was, of course, deep in House Lyrandar's pockets, and set the PCs ashore in the midst of the Mournland!

After several challenges in traversing the Mournland, the PCs would have met one of the most dangerous individuals in the realm: the Lord of Blades. Obviously, the option to flee would be there, but should they negotiate, they'd find a kindred spirit! The Lord of Blades has no interest in seeing the world annihilated (even if it does mean the fall of the 5 nations), and so sends the PCs on their way to Thronehold with an escort of Warforged infiltrators.

The game would have ended with the PCs racing against time to stop the auction, and stopping the heads of the two dragonmarked houses--Thuranni and Cannith--from selling off their weapon.

Ironically, this game would have ended with the PCs becoming, essentially, fugitives and 'terrorists', sending them on the run for good. A definite strange ending, but one I hadn't explored yet.

As for what comes next? We'll see. I have some ideas rattling around my brain right now, but my focus has been on SunnyVale Acres for the last few weeks. Here's hoping I'll have my prototype out by New Year's!

In Which The Warlock is "Mal Carne"...

As I've mentioned several times throughout this blog, I'm a self-proclaimed foodie. Our TV is nearly always turned to the Food Network or Travel Channel, and I'm a fiend for the original run of Iron Chef. As such, it's really no surprise that one of my favorites is the culinary outrider Anthony Bourdain: author of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly and host of Travel Channel's No Reservations. I've read all but one of his books--can't find the last one!--countless times, and I rarely miss an episode.

About 2/3 of the way through Kitchen Confidential, Tony gives us a culinary glossary: all the lingo that you might hear if you wandered into one of his kitchens. Among them are standards that you'd expect--"burnt" for a steak well-done, "a deuce" for a two-person table--as well as assorted Spanish and Portugese profanity, usually used as a term of endearment.

However, only one term fits where I'm at right now: I'm in the weeds.

To paraphrase Bourdain, a chef that's "in the weeds" is the guy getting slammed with orders left and right, his tickets backing up and stacking up, and his mise en place (his prep station) running out of everything. A chef in the weeds is one that's in over his head and sinking quickly, with literally too much on the burner.

I've always said that I often feel like a juggler at certain times of year, tossing up knives, chainsaws, balls, and priceless Ming vases. In terms of my gaming schedule, it's just best that I don't look up, and just keep on slinging.

--My Pirates of the Underdark is headed towards its climactic finale...a little earlier than anticipated. With one of our players bowing out, and a second about to move to northern Ohio, I have exactly three sessions to wrap up our convoluted plot, tie in all of the various sub-plots, and reach a plane-shattering end with the demon lords Dagon and Lascer.

--Simultaneously, I need to wrap up my Tuesday Eberron game before the Wittenberg semester is out. My players just managed to find their way deep into the Xen'drik jungle, in search of a House Cannith archaeological dig. The game's been going well so far, and it's a shame to pull it to an end, but it's been pretty rough on me as I've been running it mid-week in Springfield...and waking up for work at 6:30 the next morning. Much fun, but rough on the sleep schedule.

--After hitting a new set of playtests with Draft 4 of Dungeon Slam!, it's appearing more and more like I need to do a full board revision for the next go-round. Draft 5 will hopefully be tighter and faster, especially considering the time the last playtest took; I thought I had the time-issues under control...apparently not.

--In addition, I'm currently in development of another board game! Yes, you heard it here...I'm already starting my second game, even before DS starts getting submitted.

SunnyVale Acres, my second game, centers on the geekiest, most brutal gated community in the Nine Worlds, with cowboys, pirates, ninjas and more vying for the coveted position of Community Chairperson. I'm hoping to have a draft out in time for either the New Year or for WittCon VII.

--Speaking of our con schedule, we've all got to get locked and loaded for this year. We're averaging about one con per month, starting in March with WittCon VII! Afterwards, we'll hit FopCon II, C2E2 in Chicago, Origins, and possibly even GenCon (as it's a week earlier, and will come before I start up back at school!). Plus, with the WittKids looking to run events at Origins this year, we'll be up to our eyeballs in planning.

That's just a sampling of the balls in the air right now. I'm still waiting on one last chapter of WEGS 101--Dice Rules!, which will rock the WEGS community's socks off, once it's finally out...

Let's just hope I don't drop the ball, here!

In Which The Warlock is Mystified by "Good"...

I've been running, in addition to my Friday "Pirates of the Underdark" game, a newbie-level session of D&D, set in Eberron, for the WittKids. At the beginning, it had been kind of rough, but things have been moving apace, and the players seem to be really enjoying the game, now that we're picking up steam.

However, with our session last week, something unique came up which really echoes one of the biggest issues with D&D since its inception.

Arriving in Stormreach--a piratical town if there ever was one--the players began looking for a guide to take them to a House Cannith archaelogical dig deep in the Xen'drik jungle. To do so, they entered a bar (the eponymous "Styx Oarsman", which features in entirely too many of my games) only to be confronted by a conundrum: a group of orcish hooligan regulars sat there, growing angry from the noise coming from a group of dwarves who had "taken over their bar".

Needless to say, I was pushing for a bar-fight, as a GM, and nearly the whole group saw this inevitable resolution coming. One, however, tried negotiating.

Wait, negotiating? Negotiating! This is D&D! Kill them and take their stuff, right?!

Immediately, the other players asked him, "What's your alignment?"
His response? "Lawful good, of course. I always play Lawful Good."

I was flabbergasted. The first D&D character I ever rolled up was a 2e Paladin (complete with heavy flail), though I never actually played him. To be honest, I've only once ever played a LG character--the hybrid paladin/fighter Maxwell Craedon, in Callon's epic level "Dark Tower" saga. Even then, I found it immensely difficult. Put in a situation where a great evil lurked (a fetus lich, if you can imagine that) and I was unable to act, I literally had to call a "timeout" in the game, telling my fellow players that they had better "hold me back, because Maxwell's going to go down swinging".

That situation, by itself, was agonizing enough, trying to play a character that wants nothing more than to "save the world", while being exposed to hideous evil. This is to say nothing of the "lawful stupid" attitude, or the archtype of the 'bland, selfless knight' that seems to pollute fantasy (Dragonlance, I'm looking at you!). Lawful Good is...boring, right?

Meanwhile, I've always been a fan of moral ambiguity. "Pirates of the Underdark" notwithstanding, My characters have always had some strange balance between good and evil, law and chaos. Garius ir'Dolanian--my human ranger in Jules' last Eberron game--coldcocked his own mother with a tequila bottle, because he thought he could save her from the cultists that had brainwashed her. Hell, Jaegren Lern--the One Living Man--was utterly amoral, raised by necromancers and trained to be an undead master.

I guess the thing that shocks me most is not that my player is actually trying to play LG, but rather that he always plays LG. It's been a struggle for me even to play the alignment well once, but he seems to know nothing but it.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but some understanding would be helpful. What are your experiences with the Lawful Good Syndrome?

In Which The Warlock Sums Up the Chaos...

Man, since the beginning of this month, it's been nothing but non-stop madness out here. On the plus side, though, we've been getting in some sweet gaming action.

Our Friday night game has been rocking and rolling, as our heroes--the crew of the Red Mourning--found themselves up against the enigmatic and powerful One Living Man in game of SpellBones...with their souls on the line!

Coupled with all that, I've decided to start a wiki for the Pirates of the Undedark Campaign on Obsidian Portal. You can follow all of the (slow-developing) details here: PotU Campaign Wiki

Further, the mighty Ebbs and I have been in deep preparation for the "Day of the Dagon (and Friends)" epic level one-shot. You see, for the longest time, we've been aching to whip out some of the high-level 4e stuff. No, no...I mean the really high level baddies. Dagon, Demogorgon, Vecna, Tiamat...all of the classic ones.

As such, Ebbs and I have designed a delve-style one-off to punish...er, um...I mean, to reward our beloved WittKids. They're taking up the mantle of level 30 characters, in the hopes to survive a lethal encounter with one of these massively powerful baddies. While I can't divulge the details on my own encounter-building strategies yet, I must say: I'm really impressed with Jules' character--Jesus de la Morte!

Jesus is, in fact, a Revenant Paladin (formerly a warforged)/Gray Guard/Exalted Angel. Nothing like throwing down a zombie robot angel paladin!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on how the "Day of Dagon" throws down, as well as provide my latest installment of the "Cathedral of Erudition", as well as some encounter design ideas from both "Day of Dagon" and "Pirates of the Underdark"! Stay tuned!

In Which The Warlock Burns the Candle at Both Ends...

Wow. As the month rips on, there's so much gaming chaos out here that I can barely stand it, to say nothing of all the other chaos going on.

Last weekend, we WittWeggers hit up the Springfield "Champion City ComicCon", to throw down some WEGS demos. Within the 8 hours, we pulled off four packed games of the con-classic "Dwarf Walks into a Bar" and our own creation "Return to Castle Von Yumminstein," complete with candy minions!

I'll spare you the majority of the details and just go ahead and link you to my Facebook album, where you can see all of the carnage (and the lovely cosplayers) firsthand! Springfield "Champion City ComicCon" Facebook Photo Album

After the exhaustion of the con, I was surprised to still have it in me to begin my new, Tuesday night D&D game: an Eberron campaign I'm calling 'Echoes of the Last War'. Just this past Tuesday, our group generated characters, getting geared up to...well, attend a funeral. Our intrepid heroes are all acquaintances of the late Thondred ir'Dayne, a renowned dwarf adventurer, and have been invited to his wake/will-reading.

On top of this, I'm still running my lovely players through "Pirates of the Underdark". While Captain Zane Degali has left the group (in search of sand gnomes, presumably), two new characters have joined the crew as they search for a way to steal the black diamond staff held by the One Living Man--a pirate-necromancer, leading a crew of the dead!

And, all of this is to say nothing of the writing I've been doing! During my 4th period prep, I've been holding mini-"jam sessions" where I've been writing up WEGS and WEGS SuperZ scenarios. Already in the books are Z1 and Z2, for SuperZ: "The Island of the Terrible Dr. Crab-Clops" and "Rise of the Midnite SonZ", as well as my own WEGS turn: "One Shitty Adventure" and, shortly, a conversion of the immortal D&D adventure "White Plume Mountain".

It just doesn't end out here!

On top of all this, we're getting set up for our geek-wedding, as well. The PlatinumChick has spent quite a bit of time, painting her ninjas to top our "pirates vs. ninjas" wedding cake, and I wrote up a brief table-game for our guests to make use of their favors at the reception: personalized dice!

I tell you: I'll be glad when all this calms down, but it doesn't look like there's an end in sight shortly. Suffice to say, I'll keep you up on the hot gaming action!

In Which The Warlock Regales Us All With a Sea Chanty...

Though I gave them a shout-out in my previous blog-entry, I've been somewhat neglecting covering the derring-do that my weekly D&D game has been providing. I figured that, as they've just hit level 11 (and with it, their Paragon Paths!), it's time to give them a little face-time.

Our Piratical Crew!

Zane Degali--Minotaur Warlord--a member of the shipping magnate Degali clan, Zane has an intense hatred for sand gnomes.
Zara--Drow Rogue--a sister in one of the fallen drow houses of Menzoberranzen, Zara's brutality may be only second to her sister's.
Mathir--Drow Storm Sorceress--a native of Freeport, Mathir's family owns the elemental galleon which started the whole pirate expedition.
Zendax--Goliath Barbarian--a massive warrior, Zendax is rumored to have ties with several dwarvish clans in the area.
Logan--Razorclaw Shifter Shaman--a messenger of the spirit world, strange prophecy seems to follow Logan everywhere.
Deadkeg--Orc Paladin--a follower of the surface god, Tempus, Deadkeg seeks to find the ancient shipwreck of Aaron Deadfinger.

After taking out the gnomish claim-jumper on at Freeport's dock, the group found themselves in possession of not just a powerful elemental galleon, but also a strange alchemical find: a cannonball, rigged with powerful summoning magicks, which would gate in a tentacled horror upon impact. While the cannonball was not complete, there were plans for creating more, as well as a letter for delivery, set for a fellow named Darius Xan, on the island of Dolath.

However, without a crew, their pirate craft wasn't going anywhere! As such, the group began a massive mustering effort across Freeport. Mathir--the Storm Sorceress--brought along her drow house-slave, who happened to have bardic talents, while Zara found her sister (now rippling with arcane talents) following her in the shadows. Other new crew members included the enigmatic James Robertson, the knife-wielding shardar-kai Nalen the Quicker, mysterious dwarven arcanist Durgrek, and the massive goliath cannonneer Khalar.

With a crew ready to go, Zane Degali took to the helm and the group set out for Dolath. Docking just off-shore, they set upon a mysterious cove, with something of a deserted village. Zara and Logan (their shifter lookout) were set to scout the area, and found only a burned-out village with one strange inhabitant: a top-hatted older gentleman, who spoke cryptically about a "whirlwind in the spirit world" and cast fortune cards for the pair.

Collecting the rest of the crew, they found the village deserted once more, and they headed towards the interior. There, they found massive, semi-sentient fungi, with humanoid corpses tied to them, being drained of vital juices. There, they clashed with strange, stitched-up Imaskari tribesmen, before being chased en-masse back to their ship.

Determined to discover the secrets of the island (and find some plunder for their crew, who were clamoring to be paid!), the group sailed up-river on the south side of Dolath, only to find a massive stone temple, filled with gawking, stitched tribesmen. While the group tried to communicate with them, the tribesmen only silently escorted them to a huge stone arena, where a shaman awaited.

The shaman spoke little, but immediately raised a huge, flaming undead horror and entered combat with the group. The fiery monstrosity seemed to be too much for the group, but once the shaman fell, it dissipated into the dust of the arena, as the crowd fled in horror.

In the rear of the arena, the exhausted and beaten group found themselves confronted by a strange, barred door. Lifting the bars, they entered a natural cavern complex where a strange, stitched human (yes, a human! in the Underdark!) gibbered to himself. While he posed little as a threat, they dispatched him forthwith, only to have his stitches split open and a mass of albino spider-things crawl forth.

Within his alcove, though, the group identified two symbols--one of the ancient demon lord Dagon, but another that was all but indecipherable, which bore a bar of stitching, with gray claws reaching out from between the stitches. However, they also found a huge cache of wealth, ready to be distributed to the greedy crew...

...meanwhile, the group did not notice that Logan had returned to the ship alone, while they investigated the alcove. There, he rounded up some of the sulking crewmembers to help "liberate" the officers, only to be reprimanded by Zane and the others as a deserter.

While Zane, Mathir, and Deadkeg (the Orcish chaplain), sorted through their accumulated wealth, Logan began to foment dissension, seeking a mutiny. His efforts succeeded...for about 2 hours, until Captain Zane came forth with a massive bounty for his crewmembers. Logan fumed, as Mathir and Zara distributed the ill-gotten gains throughout the crew.

However, the mystery of the holy symbols remained. Deciding that a brief return to Freeport was in order, Captain Zane set sail for the City of Rogues in search of some leads. While the ship re-stocked, they found a strange half-elf in the Styx Oarsman--the enigmatic Thulmir Quent--who claimed that he could find a proper informant or sage for them, in exchange for passage to Gracklestugh, a duergar city currently under their yearly siege by the viney plant known as Midnight Romance.

Agreeing, the group immediately began searching for cargo ships that were bound for Gracklestugh, to keep their motley crew happy and in coin. They found one--a duergar barge, carrying giant spider silk, which had left 2 days prior.

Using their elemental galleon, they swiftly caught up to the barge and boarded it, only to have a half-dragon/half-giant spider break loose from the hold during the skirmish. Putting down the duergar and the spider, the crew made a hefty haul, and set course for Skull and Stars--an archipelago city on the way to Gracklestugh.

In Skull and Stars, though, the group encountered difficulties in finding a buyer for their spider silk, as few tailors would seek to cross the enigmatic Weavers' Guild. When the group sought to confront the Weavers' Guild, they found only a single hooded representative at a desk, in a massive warehouse. Close observation showed strange figures hanging from the rafters, and none of the group wanted to stay for a closer look. They did, however, manage to find a most intreguing sale item: a water-elemental bound firecart. Thinking this to be a useful item to sell in Gracklestugh--the city which sets itself aflame to take care of the Midnight Romance infestation--they quickly bought the item and put it in their cargo hold.

However, undercutting the Weavers proved to be most profitable, as they sold of 14 massive spools to the various tailors in the area. Though, this was not without difficulty, as the Weavers hired mercenaries to intercept the crew's shipment. The mercs were swiftly dispatched, and the crew then headed off to Gracklestugh.

In Which The Warlock Gets Down to Brass Tacks...

It's been a busy, busy week, oh devoted followers. Just as the school year is about to kick up again, here I am, taking on even more projects.

I would have announced this earlier, but now that I'm done with it, I can finally talk about it a little: I just finished up editing the last few chapters of El Willy's next WEGS 101 book, "Dice Rule". The book focuses more on the Kreator/Minion Master aspects of the game, and how to keep the action fast and furious around the WEGS table. I can't wait to see it hit print--great stuff in there!

Also, I've been working on putting things together for our weekly Pirates of the Underdark game. Our devoted crew has just finished their first ship-to-ship combat, stealing some spider silk from some duergar shippers, as they're en-route to Gracklestugh with their mysterious passenger, Thulmir Quent. We'll see if they're ready for all the chaos once they get there, though!

And, on top of all this...I'm heading back to Blackfall! Yes, I decided to start updating my Wittenberg-infamous city to 4e, with an introduction to the Cathedral of Erudition--the high church in Blackfall's Inner Ward. I'm about 1500 words in, and more's coming. As for now, though...Here's a preview:

The Cathedral of Erudition

The coupling of various gods within one church has never been an uncommon occurrence. Rather, wherever the humanoid races have gathered and mingled, so too has the worship of their gods, sharing one roof and one holy sanctum. So, too, this occurred within the infamous city of Blackfall, at the Cathedral of Erudition.

The combination of faiths at the Cathedral was comprised of three primary faiths: that of Moradin, Erathis, and Ioun. While shrines to other deities were kept and maintained, the Cathedral proper dealt specifically with those three primary deities. The precepts of the the worship of each faith, as well as the doctrine of their combined worship, will be listed below.

One feature of note, before our discussion continues, is the seemingly odd occurrence of the worship of certain evil deities within the Cathedral of Erudition. More specifically, one evil deity continues to be actively worshipped within the Cathedral: Bane. Bane’s portfolio deals specifically with organized warfare, with battle tactics, and with duty and, as such, is not entirely anathema to the precepts of the Cathedral. While Bane’s more negative aspects (tyranny, brutality) are well-known to the populace, these aspects are typically overlooked when he is worshipped within the sanctity of the Cathedral. Warrior-priests of Bane are typically welcomed at the door, but kindly asked to stow their weapons in the cloak-room.

The three primary deities of the Cathedral of Erudition—Moradin, Erathis, and Ioun—are worshipped as the triumvirate that makes civilization possible. Without the divine intervention of these three, city life would be buried under by the wild forces of nature and the evil forces that lurk without Blackfall’s walls. They are collectively viewed as guardians, as divine muses, and as patrons of the arts and sciences. In deference to this triumvirate, the Cathedral of Erudition is governed primarily by three individuals: one devoted specifically to each of the primary deities.

In Which The Warlock Assembles a Pirate Crew...

I ran into a slight problem early-on, as I started prepping the "Pirates of the Underdark" game, which I'm only starting to figure out how to address.

See, in Pirates of the Caribbean, even though the focus is primarily on the main characters--Elizabeth Swann, Jack Sparrow, and Captain Barbossa--there are a ton of minor characters, without whom the plot wouldn't move at all. I'm talking about Pintel and Ragetti, Mr. Gibbs, the Nine Pirate Lords and the like...all those guys who have positions on the ship, but aren't necessarily the center of attention.

So, with our Friday Night Pirates finally finangling their way into a ship, they've been having a devil of a time mustering up a crew.

My solution to this? Put it back into their hands. Basically, I've asked for all their unused character ideas--all the ones that have been sitting in the back of their heads--so that I can make them into their very own pirate crew.

However, this comes with a bit of a twist. You see, I'm assembling the actual character write-ups...with minor changes, of course. And, coupled with the minor changes, I'm intending on making them as "piratical" as possible, which wouldn't be complete without backstabbing and skullduggery.

As such, their ship (which doesn't have a name yet! Oi! They've got to get on that!) will be swiftly stocked with a scurvy crew ready to swashbuckle their way through the Sunless Sea.

As it stands now, our intrepid heroes are about to set sail on their first voyage. They're heading to a deserted island, where the creator of their ship--the now-deceased gnome, Melearas--had agreed to ship a mysterious cargo for a strange benefactor with a mysterious tattoo. One only knows what they might find...

In Which The Warlock Makes the Best. Map. Evar.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our Friday night group had decided to re-boot the "Pirates of the Underdark" idea that we had attempted to play about a year and a half ago, before life decided to interfere.

So, this past weekend, at our session, we continued the introductory storyline: a gnomish arcanist had borrowed a huge amount money from a powerful drow house and Mathir (Jules' drow sorceress) was charged with collecting on the loan...one way or another.

The chase led them to a drow-owned warehouse, being rented by their gnomish loan-jumper, which led to a huge, pitched battle...which utterly confused the players as I began setting up the map.

We've started gaming at Ken (our newest player)'s house, so I roamed about his dining/living room, picking up whatever objects I could find: back massagers, plastic containers, a box from a "Pokemon" booster pack. They laughed, as my map became a maelstrom of found objects....all of which were interactive with them in the warehouse. "Crates" could be moved, gratings pushed away and used as cover. You name it, it was there.

The best part, though, was something I can't take credit for. El Willy created a creature for WEGS, known lovingly as the Column-Golem.

The Column-Golem is a stupid, yet devastating creature. It moves only in straight lines, and aggressively pounds any poor soul that gets in its way. I took the Column-Golem and re-skinned it, making it into a Gnomish Crate-Loader Golem. During the battle, with spells and arrows flying, the Crate-Loader just roamed about, calmly loading boxes....

...that is, until it got a hold of Will's drow rogue, and attempted to box him up. Twice. Will, luckily, didn't fight back--I used the stats for a Iron Gorgon (level 13 Elite!) as a template for the Crate-Loader--but both times he was grabbed, and placed calmly in a crate, packed away for safe-keeping.

The best environments really are the interactive ones. With surroundings like that, you almost don't need enemies!


Nah...you still need enemies. :D

In Which The Warlock Spins Some Pirate Yarns...

So, our Friday night gamers (including our new arrival!), have decided to give another crack at the previously failed "Pirates of the Underdark" game, which we had originally tried about a year ago. I've been looking forward to actually pulling off this concept for a while, as it's something of an open world concept, but with heavy story elements...much of which are driven by pirate legends and the like. Think "Pirates of the Caribbean" meets "Snatch" meets "Xena: Warrior Princess".

Weirdness, I know.

At any rate, to give you a feel for what this campaign will be like, here's one of our assorted pirate legends, typically told at the Styx Oarsman tavern, at the subterranean island-port of Freeport.

Baron Samhedi, Carrefour, and the Zombi Serum

In the darkest places of the world, there are roads where no man walks. Roads of the mind, of the spirit—the roads and ways of the loa. You’ll tell me they are legends, but I know better. I’ve heard the stories—not the children’s tales told at bedtime, but the real ones. Ones of the walking dead and the black-clad spirit who rides his hougan servants’ minds like on horseback. Ones of ancient creatures and degenerate islanders, who serve none but the loa and their own cannibalistic urges. Ones of the serum of the zombi.

No, not zombie. Zombi. I don’t mean a simple necromancer’s walking corpse. I mean one of the loa, riding the dead like a bucking mule, thrashing through the deck of your ship like a madman, holding the body together as it buckles and bursts with gore. I mean a thing that was once dead, but will not die again. Something you can’t kill.

Some say that the Baron Samhedi first created them—a powerful Voodoun loa who walks by night through the seas, corrupting islanders and turning them into something not quite man and not quite beast.

Some say that a surface man named Carrefour was the Baron’s first servant. He was a fencer, straight out of the Amnish school, who ventured under to seek his fortune. A fop, he thought only of gaining the best, the fastest, the most powerful. When he heard of the loa from a grimlock shaman early on in his cavernous questing, he immediately went out in search of them.

Carrefour found in an ancient subterranean swamp the flower known as “Midnight Romance”. The flower, crimson red and dripping with a green venom, serves as the primary ingredient in the Zombi serum. Carrefour harvested the flower with impeccable care, slicing it from its thorned stalk with his saber.

Carrefour’s first zombi was one of abject failure, screaming hate and gibberish into the Great Dark night. He persevered, though, and created a massive army of the creatures, berserk and maddening to behold. Soon, hundreds of the creatures roamed, mindless and mad, through the Underdark, and fields of the “Midnight Romance” bloomed amidst the shrieking fungus beneath the world.

What Carrefour didn’t count on was the savagery of his creatures. Wandering amongst the thorny vines of his precious flowers, one of his zombi servitors burst from the baskets where it lay and ripped Carrefour apart, strewing blood and gore across the venomous flowers.

Carrefour’s zombi horde dissipated throughout the Great Dark, and the creature was forgotten. The black secrets of Baron Samhedi faded into the background as time went on, and the patches of Midnight Romance grew wild through the deepest depths. This went on for years in silence, with the loa shifting through the spirit world all the while.

That is, at least, until tales of a foppish fencer, wrapped in green-venomed vines, starting to wander through the vast caverns beneath the stalactite-cities of the duergar. Wanderers and border guards disappear with regularity, and the scent of mysterious flowers sometimes fills the great halls of Gracklestugh, the ancient duergar citadel.

The loa? I know they exist. Is Carrefour one? Probably. Does that mean Gracklestugh is overrun? Not as far as I know. I still sell slaves there, and pick up fresh-forged chain to sell to the mind-flayer slavers. Will you believe me after you’ve finished your drink? Well, that’s up to you.

Proof that I am, in fact, Chaotic Evil...

So, I had earlier had my players roll up stats for the upcoming Pirates of the Underdark game. Some of them were incredibly pleased--the PlatinumChick, in fact, was exceptionally happy, as she ended up with 18, 18, 16, 16, 14, 12. The only problem is that we have players who ended up with stats just the opposite--Chris ended up with a 6!

I usually love having people roll their stats, as it ends up with a unique randomness that point-buy just can't match. However, there was just too much separation here. And, to be honest, I can't stand point-buy. It's bland. Every paladin, every monk, every barbarian always looks the same.

So, with the help of Green Ronin's "Advanced GameMasters' Guide", I developed a new system for stat generation. A cut-throat one. A pirate-y one!

Begin by granting each player 7 points. The points represent a +2 bonus to each stat, which all start at a base of 10.

In order, stats are auctioned off via a silent auction. These stats are, in order, an 18 in Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma....followed by a 16 in each stat. After those are ran through, three "floating 17s" are auctioned for--these 17s can be placed in whichever slot a player likes, instead of the 'assigned' spot as before.

If no player wins a given stat during the silent auction, due to a tie, the auction becomes "live," and the two players can place a mouth bid for that stat. If a player wins during this section, they win that stat. If no winner is found, all bids are returned and the stat moves to the end of the auction, at which time it will be placed up for bids once again.

After all stats have been purchased, any remaining points can be used to raise any stat of 10 on a basis of 1 point = +1 modifier, but only up to a total stat of 14 (+2).

Example of use:

A coming game has 5 players: Adam, Bob, Carrie, Dan, and Elmer. Each of the five players gains 7 points and awaits the coming auction.

The first stat up for bids is the 18 Strength. Adam wants to play a tank-fighter, so he writes on a slip of paper a bid of 3 points. No other player is that interested in Strength, and the next highest bid is 2 points. Adam places an 18 Strength on his character sheet and smiles to himself.

The next stat up is the 18 Dex. Bob is looking to run a Swashbuckler and writes a bid of 3 points. However, Dan is planning on playing an Archer and bids 3 points as well. The GM smiles and asks the two to stand. They do, and the GM asks if either will make a bid of 4. Not wanting to pay full price, and banking on the other settling for a lower stat, neither budges. As such, the 18 Dex goes to the back of the order to be bid on after all other stats.

Bids continue until all 18s, all 16s, and the three "floating 17s" are assigned. Carrie, planning on a Bard, is pleased to have gotten an 18 Charisma and a 16 Intelligence, but is worried about her Dex. She has two points left over, and spends them in Dex, raising it from 10 to 14. Her final array, then, would read: 10 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 16 Int, 10 Wis, 18 Cha.


This form of auction was first presented in Green Ronin's "Advanced GameMaster's Guide," but makes no mention of silent auction as an option, nor does it include the "floating 17s". The 17s were included due to size of group, as well as for a more "controlled" element for players to incorporate. Green Ronin, further, mentions using 10 points, which was reduced for a slightly lower-power setting.

Updates!

Boy, this week has been chock-full of gaming news....

Today marked the first ever live-playtest of Dungeon Slam! and things went phenomenally well. The game's clocking in at the right amount of time, and everyone seemed to have a blast. There are still a lot of changes left to make, though, and it looks like I'm going to be one busy game designer here in the future.

Jules' Eberron game wrapped up on Friday, and Garius ir'Dolanian--my 12th level ranger--made short work of the Lord of Blades, clearing his name in Sharn and gaining the favor of Kaius III of Karnnath. Time for him to kick back and drink some kuryeva!

With that, I'm about to start running Pirates of the Underdark. Friday, we'll be playing with a new character generation system based off of one created by Green Ronin Publishing. Suffice to say, it's particularly pirate-y, and their characters' lives will all be depending on 7 important points.

And, speaking of rolling 7s, I finally managed to scrounge together enough gamer-cash to buy WEGS! There's nothing like sitting around and tossing in some spante for a Flaming Fryball. With Karl back in town this past week, we threw down two games--Ebbs ran the WEGS classic "Dwarf Walks Into a Bar", while I kicked up an original creation, which was dubbed "One Shitty Adventure". "Dwarf Walks..." ended with my Skolar nearly getting bashed to death by an irate barkeep, while "Shitty Adventure" ended with the adventurers heading Off to the Spheres after a deadly encounter with a sewer necromancer.

All this, and curry, too! What more's a gamer to want?!

Baal's Just Not So Graceful...

So, after a ton of preparation, we came to the big day. Friday. The Guild's grand one-shot....excitement, no?

No. No, not really.

Y'see, we had a few problems.

1) Announcements Usually, large guild events are supposed to be announced well in advanced, so that the gamers can clear their schedules for a raucous night of gaming. Such was not the case this time. A desperate e-mail went out on Tuesday, calling for an end-of-semester guild meeting, as well as one-shot info. RSVPS only trickled in...which led to...

2) Lack of gamers I did my best to recruit for this game. Lionel, Ebbs, Nick, and Jules all gleefully joined in, and we picked up three more throughout the week. I was expecting two more, but they flaked out on us, which led to greater problems, as you'll see later on. Without a definite gaming group, we were at a definite loss.

3) Design flaws I really tried to do my best to try to make this game as fun as possible. The backgrounds I wrote up were interesting, and made for some nice inter-party conflict, but we never got so far as to experience any of them. Because of the lessened number of gamers (7, compared to my expected 10), we didn't even get through the first battle. Three of the PC were killed at the headwaters of the River Styx, which left the quest as kind of a moot point.

I felt bad, mainly because I forgot one of the key rules of both teaching and GMing--Monitor and Adjust. I should have adjusted the encounter on the fly, to make it more accessible to the party that I had, but we rolled on with the monsters, and Dr. Gearbox, Z, and Theodore all bit the dust because of it.

4) Poor party design/tactics I realize that everyone wants to play "their fun character", but at some point, something has to give. The party descending into the Abyss was made up of the following: a Reaping Mauler (grappling specialist), a Warlock (basically an Arcane sniper), a Rogue/Bard (diplomat/skill monkey), a Dragon Shaman (a commander-type), a Tinker (good for blasting), a Paladin (light healing and tanking), and a Jade Phoenix Mage (fighter/mage hybrid).

The party lacked the following: any type of Area of Effect support (wizard, sorcerer, etc), a full-time Healer/buffer (cleric, druid), a heavy damage dealer (rogue, barbarian, etc). Even tanking was limited to Jules' ordained champion...which doesn't say much.

Honestly, I didn't use tactics that were all that unnerving. The giant they fought took point and smashed things, while the two demons in the back cast their spells. Pretty standard. While being well aware that the monsters were above standard difficulty--perhaps even too much so--is it too much to ask that someone in the party can cast Fireball? Or Heal? I mean, the rules are built around the standard party of Fighter/Wizard/Cleric/Rogue--one would figure that, at least some point on the line, we'd get some of those. Not so much in this game.

5) Timing I had expressed my frustration about this one, upon leaving the apartment before the game. In the e-mail sent out, I had included everything that someone would need to build their PC--stat array, gold available, sources they could use...the works. I had also asked for an rsvp describing their character, so that I knew what the group would look like.

Nick, Lionel, and Dan arrived with their characters ready. Jules needed to pick spells, while Ebbs had to build his constructs. The others had nothing. We didn't start the game (which was scheduled to begin at 6), until 8:45. There's nothing more frustrating to me than knowing that you could be gaming, in a time when there's nothing to do but wait.

6) Blackfall I really tried to make this game like the Blackfall games of old--lots of skullduggery, and lots of character backstabbing. Only one problem--Blackfall is a city, while the Underworld is a giant dungeon. Dungeons mean combat, and lots of it. Yes, I know--D&D is a combat filled game. However, it's a social game, too, and that's what drove Blackfall at its core. Too much combat, planned even from the very start, meant too much dice-rolling and not enough fundamental, person-on-person fun.

In a city, you can get away with not killing anyone--there are guards, there are other adventurers, and there are mercenaries, all waiting to take a piece out of some interloper who thinks he has a right to swing a sword around. Take that social stigma out of the equation, and it's all about the combat now.


I'm being very negative here, I suppose, for no good reason. Everyone at the game had fun, and enjoyed the long night in the Science building, which is what matters. What makes me most frustrated, though, is the fact that this is the second game in six months, DMed by me, to have failed. Am I losing my touch? Am I not as good as I once thought I was?

Blackfall, originally, was a masterpiece. Parts I through IV each had their own individual, if sanity-blasting charm. My players loved running the gauntlet of a Blackfall game, seeing who would survive this time (Adam, by the way, has the record! He was the only one to survive Blackfall II!).

Saltmarsh was just as good. I had 'em hooked, even buying into their group's slavery and imprisonment. Hell, I had most of the group turning slowly to Lawful Evil, thanks to all of their dealings in Hell.

But now? Well, it looks like I'm going to be running Pirates of the Underdark, as soon as Jules' Eberron game wraps up. I just hope I can get back in shape over the break, to give the people what they want!

Last Grasp at Baal's Grace

So, the guild asked me to run their end-of-the-semester one-shot this year, and it's coming along in high style. I was asked to do "something" with the idea of the Underworld and came up with the following concept:

Sometime after the beginning of time and after the creation of man, the archangel Baal was cast from the heavens for that most heinous of crimes--deicide. Baal had killed the sun lord Amuantor, condemning him to the Astral Sea. The remaining powers gathered together and removed Baal from their sight, casting him into a massive pit.

That pit has been found, where Baal first landed. As one of the few known gates directly to the Underworld, a great city has sprung up, named after Baal's sword--Grace.

However, rumors of Baal's deity-slaying sword have never settled amongst the demihuman races, and many lust for his powerful blade. In particular, three great noble houses seek the blade: House Amenthetep, House Yu, and House Marduk. While the trio conflict on all fronts--particularly on who should get the blade--they agree to send a party into the Abyss to find the legendary sword. The adventurers, eager to enter the Underworld for their own reasons, take up the quest...

...but when they return, how can they decide who gets the magic blade?


In other news, Dungeon Slam! is on hiatus until Christmas Break. I'll be honest, I can't wait to get back to it, though. While the teaching life has kind of subsumed me right now, I really want to be able to premiere this at WittCon V.

Oh, and it's looking like the next campaign I'm running is going to be Pirates of the Underdark. Life is good, maties! Yarr!!

Post-Origins Thoughts....

So, going into Origins, I had been seeking some new inspiration for game. Things haven't been going quite the way I had been hoping with Demonweb Pits, and I've been looking towards the fall (or maybe even this winter) to start a new game, after the PlatinumChick runs some Eberron.

I have it down to three choices:

1) Masques of Extraordinary Gentlemen--Basic premise of this game would be a riff on Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." The players would play a literary or stylized historical figure and figure their way through the mysteries of 1890s Victorian-Gothic Europe. Character creation and combat would be done using a modified True20 system, coupled with the Call of Cthulhu sanity system. Emphasis would also be put on literature and little-known historical events of the time period, including the emergence of the First World War.

2) Pirates of the Underdark--I had come up with this concept after seeing the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but wanted somewhat of a darker twist. Basically, the PCs would be wanna-be pirates on a massive Underdark sea, exploring the ruins of the caverns after Lolth's fall and the ruin of many drow citadels. The D&D alignment system would be somewhat thrown out the window for this one, with the focus being on cinematic combat and tactics, as well as magical ship-battles. Emphasis would also be put heavily on treasure maps and skulduggery, as well as pirate legends....like that of The One Living Man, or the Black Redeemer.

3) Depths of the Warehouse--After reading through GURPS Warehouse 23 (and now Pagan Publishing's fantastic Delta Green d20), I find myself itching to run something a little more conspiratorial. In this game, the PCs will have been taken from their homes by the mysterious Men In Black, only to find out that they've been commissioned to work in the most secret storehouse of all--Warehouse 23. The players will have to find out who commissioned them into such a drastic career, why they were chosen, and what their own dark pasts may mean within a grander scope of conspiracy, paranoia, and global fear.

So, basically, I'm just looking for some input. Would you play one of these games? If so, which would you be interested in? What do you like and what don't you like?

Please vote in the poll, and let me know!