One game falls...

Yes, Dark Sun fell through. It is sad. We will pick it up another time when things get more relaxed for the players. But Dark Sun is not the only game. I had a backup. 

Starting this Saturday, and most likely going every other Saturday, Stephanie and I are joining some friends to play Mutants & Masterminds! This time I'm not running, I'm playing. Session 0 starts tomorrow, and we're figuring out our character concepts. At first I was thinking a super powered hero like the Human Torch, or Colossus that can alter their physical structure to fire, metal, lightning, etc. 

But as I went through the normal archtypes listed in the M&M book, what caught my eye was the Mystic. Think Dr. Strange. My favorite characters in games are wizards. 

And maybe I should be playing something more like Mage: Ascension or something, but 3.5 and 5e are the rules we know, so we tend to stay close to that. 

I love the idea of playing the wizard in the modern world like Harry Dresden. So that is what I'm going to do. I'll draw up the details and post a pic soon. Stephanie found the stylus to my wacom tablet today. Yay!

Happy Gaming!

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TPK! Before we even begin?

Whats the biggest killer for RPGs? No, not a medusa and bad planning, it's scheduling conflicts.

They came and asked for a game. sure, I can make room in my schedule. I can take on another. I would love to introduce new players to the best hobby in the world.

I set up a fb group, posted the material about the world, attempted to get them engaged with posts about character concepts, table rules, backgrounds, etc. I found pics that would suggest the time of the world and kept it up to get them excited.

But it isn't disinterest that killed the party. It isn't a lack of understanding, it was family crises. One of the players that asked to play had a family emergency and had to spend time with that family emergency. Player two was his son. No dad, no son. Two players down. Player 3 was catching a ride with Player 1. No ride, no player. Player 4 figured out that he didn't have time to commit. Four players down. Well, that left one, and it's not worth it.

TPK, before session 1.

How many times has that happened to you? What do you do to plan for scheduling?

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The Awakening of Prince Silverfish

Here's the situation: Fantasy D&D, Homebrew setting.
Our heroes:

Tarek, Male Human Cleric 5 - Former advisor to the king of Demacia, when the king died and his tyrannical son took the throne, Tarek fled. He seeks to raise an army and overthrow the king, freeing the people of Demacia.
Skye, Female Garganutan Sorcerer 5 - Raised in an orphanage, she seeks her orphan-brother Rodrey, who left when he was of age to make a name and send for Skye. She is 16 and released, she hasn't heard from him in months.
Dominic, Male Wood Elf Rogue 5 - Son of the Captain of the Guard of his home country, and playmate of the prince. The prince is a seer that received a vision of a growing evil and sent Dominic to investigate.

Our heroes began their journey as guards on a caravan headed for Silverfish, the metropolitan capitol of County Pots Arcana. On their journey they interrupted a kobold trying to make a deal with ratmen. They did not learn what the deal was, only saw a kobold amidst many ratmen.

Once they arrived in the city they began investigating their various tasks. Through divination they discovered that the rising evil is a black dragon named Boldrainissbirrag, the Deathlord, and he is amassing a treasure hoarde using dragonborn and kobolds as his loyal emissaries. His motivation is greed. He has installed his dragonborn in society and the local Silverfish government, and in the royal court. He seeks to take over power of the region and wage war on the dragons of the North and East.

While tracking Rodrey, Skye discovered a city where goblinkin have tried to civilize themselves, crafting goods similar to Native American jewelry and pottery. They needed a merchant that could go to the city to trade their goods, and made a deal with Rodrey. He started as a slave, but showed a shrewd sense of business and worked his way into a trusted position.

They met with him as he was in negotiations with a local businessman, on the council of the Merchant Guild. They also got their first sight of a black dragonborn female, a Contessa, though they haven't gotten her name.

The party, in researching the kobolds' connection to the dragon, discovered a local magic shop keeper that had a breakin, and they tracked the little beasties into the sewer undercity. There they encountered a "poop-witch" (a woman that lived in a cistern in the sewer) that offered them a deal... steal the child of an oathbreaker, and pour a potion of Stone to Flesh on a man in the castle gardens, and she will give them a great magical item for each quest. They agreed.

Tonight we started here: They have retrieved the stolen items and returned them to the shopkeeper, but upon returning to their rooms discovered that they had been ransacked. Luckily they didn't have much, so kept it on them in their packs. They went to the local temple for a divination to discover who had done such a thing to their rooms, and were told by a local priest that the bishop is missing! So they went to see, and he was there in the room, but acting strangely. He teleported away, and they spoke to the high priest, who did the scrying for them, learning that a black dragonborn had done the b&e, and also focusing on the bishop, to find him chained and in the clutches of a Barlgura demon!! The Barlgura tells the bishop that he is going to shift to the temple and desicrate it, so the party runs back and fights the demon and his minions, then tortures him for information, learning that the bishop is being held in the Abyss.

They put that to the side for a moment and go to pour the potion on the man in the castle garden. Upon releasing him they discover he is Prince Caelum Silverfish, heir to the throne, stoned some 150 years ago during a coupe gone wrong after he killed his older brother and tried to overthrow his father. Now he wants the party's help in restoring him to his rightful place on the throne, in exchange for soldiers to assist in Tarek's designs to overthrow the new king, and to fight off the dragon.

All very exciting, they are having a great time. I find that I need a better system for organizing common NPCs, especially since we only get to play about once a month or so.

How are your current games going? Leave a comment below.

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Updates, 5e, DarkSun... still no star wars

So as you can see by the dates, it has been a couple years since I posted last. I was running expeditions until this huge problem with my parole officer, and I had to stop. But all that is over, and here we are, back on the posting train.

One of my biggest regrets is that I was starting to get a regular readership and had even been followed and contacted by someone at WOTC, and then a couple weeks later I had drop out. Ugh.

But not running games at the local shop or posting online doesn't mean I haven't been playing.

I had a group from church that would come over almost every Friday and play. We started running Princes of the Apocalypse, and then switched to Star Wars Saga Edition when we were finished. I haven't had the opportunity to play the Fantasy Flight Star Wars, but I'm highly interested.

College got in the way, and I had to turn it over to my friend Malcolm, who would send me weekly updates. They had a lot of fun.

After college, my in-laws came to me and asked to play, so we've been doing some 5e in a homebrew setting that has been a lot of fun. We manage about once per month, and have a good go at it. A city-based campaign with an awakened evil (black dragon) sending minions into the city to steal gold for it's hoard. That's the overarching plot, but it's never as simple as that. The cleric has to raise an army to take his throne from usurpers. The sorceress has to find her missing orphanage brother (that happens to be the human liaison for the goblin-kin that are giving a try at industry). An old woman they met in the sewer (!!!) has asked them to revive the petrified love of her youth that is currently on display in the castle gardens, and in return she will give them magical gifts. The high priest of one of the churches has gone missing! but wait, no, he's there, but acting strangely...

And now a group of friends that wants to try playing has asked me to DM. One is a huge Star Wars fiend. His license plate says Boba Fett. He has hundreds of the action figures in his office, and designed the blue prints for cardboard cutouts of some of the ships, now hanging from his ceiling. I'll have to get pics. They're incredible. Anyway, I said, "Let's play Star Wars." and they said no, they'd rather play D&D. Well, I'm about D&D'd out. But okay, I'll do it.

However, since I'm the DM and they've never played before, we're playing DarkSun, converted from 2e by gzw1010 and posted on Reddit. Because if you're going to play D&D, and you have a choice between fighting the necromancer... again!!! OR a mad max apocalyptic dystopia with psionic cannibal halflings at war with city states run by self proclaimed sorcerer dragon kings... yeah, we're doing that.

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