Had one of those days yesterday-- where the weather change and allergies combine together for fantastic effect. We had a good game the nights before-- both Changeling and Libri Vidicos. I'll write that up soon enough. Unfortunately we had Shari out sick for Friday's game which was a big sequence wrapping up some big threads. I'll have to try to get a good summary of the happenings together.
But as for yesterday, Mark's trying to start a monthly Saturday open board games session-- a catch as catch can for when he doesn't have other events scheduled. He and I have been playing board games together fairly regularly for going on five years now every Tuesday night, and he's been more than generous to me over the years so I wanted to head up to support this endeavor. Plus, as you probably know, I love's me some board games.
Well, I remembered why I don't usually care for open board gaming. Having that right play group is nearly as important in board games as it is in rpgs. There's less time involved, but boy do you get a chance to see the worst in people in a compressed environment. We had six people-- Mark, my friend Matt and his wife Amy and two new guys-- a nice fellow named Brian and another guy who I'll simply call Jackass, since I couldn't even bother to remember his actual name. He managed to combine some of my favorite traits in one voluminous and sweating package:
1. No control of his indoor voice
2. Constantly knocking shit around
3. Overrolling-- shaking the dice cup until my ears bleed
4. Reaching over and touching other people's stuff
5. Restating the rules that other people already know
6. Wet-voiced
7. Listening to music while playing
8. Giggling at other people's misfortunes at every opportunity
9. And an absolutely poor loser...
This last one is what killed it for me. We decided to play the Alhambra Dice Game. I quite enjoy it and it was the only game I'd brought that supported six players. I should have brought Union Pacific, but live and learn. I explained the rules carefully and tried to stress several times that you needed to focus and that it was a dice game-- you could get fairly behind in it, especially on your first play of it. It is easy to pick up but easy to miss some things early and get screwed later on-- especially with six players. We didn't have a runaway leader problem, in that we had nearly everyone actually competing seriously for the lead.
Except, of course, Jackass who by the second round started whining and complaining. Complaining and stomping his feet about bad rolls, sulking that his plays didn't go off, bitching that other people were 'attacking' him when they were just making strategic choices since there's little or no direct attacking in the game, and of course by the last two rounds screaming that he'd never win.
IF YOU'RE LOSING A GAME. DO IT GRACIOUSLY. ENJOY THE PLAY. LET EVERYONE HAVE SOME FUN AT HOW BADLY YOU'VE MANAGED TO DO. DON'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. DON'T MAKE EVERYONE ELSE FEEL BAD.
Play to win, but be good in losing.
Ugh. I've been spoiled for some long by playing with good people. As I drove home I realized I'd been gritting my teeth for the last hour-- and had a headache that took until today(combined with the aforementioned allergies and weather) to go away.
On the plus side, the Brian guy we played with was quite nice. I liked him.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
4/3/09
First, best wishes to Will aka Cruelbutterfly on his birthday today. He gets older but he's still the youngest one in the group.
Another linkdump post--
Robin Laws has an interesting post about going to guest lecture for a course on RPG and Narratives.
Ken Hite's revising the bibliography for GURPs Horror and is looking for suggestions.
Both Laws and Hite have written articles for a series of books from MIT Press which cover gaming and narrative. There's a thread with much of the stuff available online if you've got some time. In particular you can find Hite's article on Narrative Tension and Call of Cthulhu here. I wish I could have done a book like this at ND Press.
Wired catches up on German-style board games about five years too late.
The Last Express was a computer game a decade ahead of its time. Someone pieced together the cinematics here.
The Free RPG Blog, full of interesting ideas.
A fan made enormous comic mash up of all the ten Doctors.
Another linkdump post--
Robin Laws has an interesting post about going to guest lecture for a course on RPG and Narratives.
Ken Hite's revising the bibliography for GURPs Horror and is looking for suggestions.
Both Laws and Hite have written articles for a series of books from MIT Press which cover gaming and narrative. There's a thread with much of the stuff available online if you've got some time. In particular you can find Hite's article on Narrative Tension and Call of Cthulhu here. I wish I could have done a book like this at ND Press.
Wired catches up on German-style board games about five years too late.
The Last Express was a computer game a decade ahead of its time. Someone pieced together the cinematics here.
The Free RPG Blog, full of interesting ideas.
A fan made enormous comic mash up of all the ten Doctors.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
4/2/09
So a little more thought and detail about the system I was talking about yesterday. This would be purely/primarily a combat mechanical system for a board/minis game simulating arena fighting. Possibly for adventurers fighting one another for treasure in a dungeon, but that might be something more advanced-- where you deal with environments and obstacles. Generally, as I'm viewing it we have a small group of players or one-on-one gaming without a referee.
Initially players choose from a pregenerated set of characters to play. This would cover the classic fantasy archetypes. They'd be balanced among one another. A later module for the rules would add in mechanics for modifying these characters or creating new ones from scratch (obviously a point based system would be needed there). I'll come back to some ideas on that later (special cards for characters).
So characters would have a set of stats:
*Physique PH-- represented as a bonus, ranging from +1 to +3 or so. This would add to damage dealt by physical weapons. It would also be used for grapple contests. Also for stun checks.
*Skill SK-- again represented as a bonus. This would be the bonus for 'to hit' tests.
*Agility AG-- again bonus. This would be used for reflex tests and defense tests.
Will WL-- again bonus. This would be used for resisting magic and for magical damage.
*Move MV-- the number of spaces a character can move on a round.
*Wounds WD-- how much damage a character can take in the course of the game
Equipment would be:
Armor-- absolute value reducing damage from an attack. Higher value armor reduces MV and AG.
Weapons-- have type, damage bonus, and possibly attack bonus (for accuracy). Might have a special ability. If ranged, has penalty for shots above a certain distance.
Characters also have one special constant ability-- like being able to keep a card when they flush their hand. This would be a simple power.
Finally, characters would also have a set of five abilities-- with higher difficulty levels. The five levels would be:
Pair
Three of a Kind
Small Straight
Full House
Four of a Kind
The actual abilities at each of those levels would vary from character to character.
Actual Play-- and I'm putting in some numbers here mostly as placeholders. I'll have to run some of the probabilities to see what works.
Each player begins with their own deck of standard playing cards-- Joker removed, I'm going to assume. Their figures start at either end of the battlefield-- or as otherwise dictated by the scenario. There might be some mechanic for set up and position.
Players draw the top card of their shuffled deck. Suit cards have their standard printed value, Aces count as 1, and Face cards count as 11. I might have the terms here incorrectly. Players add their Agility to this number. In the case of ties, Black trumps (i.e. wins). That player takes the first action and then play will alternate between the two sides. If the result remains a tie, pull again.
Note: That's going to be a standard mechanic throughout-- with contests pulled like this and either Red or Black trumping depending on the test involved.
Players discard cards drawn for this initiative test-- each player has their own draw and discard pile. The discards should be played face up. Each when specified by the rules of an action or ability, both decks cannot be examined by either player during the game.
Next each player draws a hand of five cards.
Beginning with the starting player, each in turn takes an action.
Move-- discard any card and move up to your Move in squares.
Assess-- discard and redraw your hand. I'm debating whether or not to allow a character to keep one card or have that as an ability track for characters.
Focus-- set aside a card. You may use this card at any point in the future. If you Assess, this card is not discarded, but remains. Essentially, this allows players to take an action to temporarily raise their hand limit until the spend that card. When you set a card aside for Focus, you draw a card to bring your hand back up to five. Should there be a limit on the focus pool size?
Attack-- for attacks, you have to be within range. Ranged attacks have a penalty if the target is too far away. Both players select a card from their deck and then reveal simultaneously. The standard number values apply-- with one exception. If one player plays a Face card and the other plays an Ace then the Ace has a value of 13. The attacker adds his Skill to his card's value (plus any weapon bonus) and the defender adds his Agility to his card's value. Compare the results--
If the attacker's total is higher, then the attack hits-- move to damage resolution.
If the defender's total is higher, then the attack misses.
If there is a tie, then Red Trumps. If both players tied and played the same color, then if both cards are Red the attack hits and if both cards are Black the attack misses.
Resolving Damage-- If the attack hits, the Attacker pulls a card from the top of his deck, sight unseen. To that value, he adds his Physique bonus (if a physical weapon) or Will bonus (if a magical spell) plus any damage bonus for the weapon or attack. He also adds the difference between the final results of the initial combat pull [note: should this be a standard element to reward good play or should it be for a special ability]. The defender subtracts his armor value from this damage total and then subtracts the remaining amount from the character's wounds. If a character goes to zero or less, that character is KO'd.
I'm thinking that if a player draws an Ace for the random damage pull that could be a critical hit of some kind.
Move and Attack-- a character may move and attack on the same action by playing a Face Card as their Move card first, and then immediately making an attack.
Withdrawal-- if a character is engaged in melee, they may attempt to withdraw and move away. Players draw and add their AG to the value. Black trumps in ties, other ties leave the character stuck in melee. If successful, the character may make a full move away by spending a card.
NOTE: In all cases when a character spends a card for an action from his hand, he redraws immediately back up to five cards.
Defend-- I'm wondering if there needs to be a defend action—like an all out defense or perhaps a moving defense-- extra card spent to move and gain a bonus to defense (maybe having to spend a face card).
Reshuffle-- characters reshuffles immediately if they run out of cards. Players may reshuffle early by discarding an Ace and then shuffling their discards into their draw deck. The Ace discarded is not shuffled back in but starts the new discard pile.
Those are the basics, and by that I mean the skeletal structure I'm thinking of. Have to consider:
*modifiers for obstacles and cover.
*a critical hit system
*what standard character abilities are going to look like
*what the special abilities are going to be like. How are they revealed-- there's a question of information here-- if they're standard attacks, opponents will see the person playing multiple cards and will know something's coming. Have to figure around that circumstance.
*armor and weapons-- should be standard for the pregen characters-- all characters should have some kind of ranged attack?
*combat statuses-- from abilities and critical hits.
*much later, considerations about character customization and purchase.
Initially players choose from a pregenerated set of characters to play. This would cover the classic fantasy archetypes. They'd be balanced among one another. A later module for the rules would add in mechanics for modifying these characters or creating new ones from scratch (obviously a point based system would be needed there). I'll come back to some ideas on that later (special cards for characters).
So characters would have a set of stats:
*Physique PH-- represented as a bonus, ranging from +1 to +3 or so. This would add to damage dealt by physical weapons. It would also be used for grapple contests. Also for stun checks.
*Skill SK-- again represented as a bonus. This would be the bonus for 'to hit' tests.
*Agility AG-- again bonus. This would be used for reflex tests and defense tests.
Will WL-- again bonus. This would be used for resisting magic and for magical damage.
*Move MV-- the number of spaces a character can move on a round.
*Wounds WD-- how much damage a character can take in the course of the game
Equipment would be:
Armor-- absolute value reducing damage from an attack. Higher value armor reduces MV and AG.
Weapons-- have type, damage bonus, and possibly attack bonus (for accuracy). Might have a special ability. If ranged, has penalty for shots above a certain distance.
Characters also have one special constant ability-- like being able to keep a card when they flush their hand. This would be a simple power.
Finally, characters would also have a set of five abilities-- with higher difficulty levels. The five levels would be:
Pair
Three of a Kind
Small Straight
Full House
Four of a Kind
The actual abilities at each of those levels would vary from character to character.
Actual Play-- and I'm putting in some numbers here mostly as placeholders. I'll have to run some of the probabilities to see what works.
Each player begins with their own deck of standard playing cards-- Joker removed, I'm going to assume. Their figures start at either end of the battlefield-- or as otherwise dictated by the scenario. There might be some mechanic for set up and position.
Players draw the top card of their shuffled deck. Suit cards have their standard printed value, Aces count as 1, and Face cards count as 11. I might have the terms here incorrectly. Players add their Agility to this number. In the case of ties, Black trumps (i.e. wins). That player takes the first action and then play will alternate between the two sides. If the result remains a tie, pull again.
Note: That's going to be a standard mechanic throughout-- with contests pulled like this and either Red or Black trumping depending on the test involved.
Players discard cards drawn for this initiative test-- each player has their own draw and discard pile. The discards should be played face up. Each when specified by the rules of an action or ability, both decks cannot be examined by either player during the game.
Next each player draws a hand of five cards.
Beginning with the starting player, each in turn takes an action.
Move-- discard any card and move up to your Move in squares.
Assess-- discard and redraw your hand. I'm debating whether or not to allow a character to keep one card or have that as an ability track for characters.
Focus-- set aside a card. You may use this card at any point in the future. If you Assess, this card is not discarded, but remains. Essentially, this allows players to take an action to temporarily raise their hand limit until the spend that card. When you set a card aside for Focus, you draw a card to bring your hand back up to five. Should there be a limit on the focus pool size?
Attack-- for attacks, you have to be within range. Ranged attacks have a penalty if the target is too far away. Both players select a card from their deck and then reveal simultaneously. The standard number values apply-- with one exception. If one player plays a Face card and the other plays an Ace then the Ace has a value of 13. The attacker adds his Skill to his card's value (plus any weapon bonus) and the defender adds his Agility to his card's value. Compare the results--
If the attacker's total is higher, then the attack hits-- move to damage resolution.
If the defender's total is higher, then the attack misses.
If there is a tie, then Red Trumps. If both players tied and played the same color, then if both cards are Red the attack hits and if both cards are Black the attack misses.
Resolving Damage-- If the attack hits, the Attacker pulls a card from the top of his deck, sight unseen. To that value, he adds his Physique bonus (if a physical weapon) or Will bonus (if a magical spell) plus any damage bonus for the weapon or attack. He also adds the difference between the final results of the initial combat pull [note: should this be a standard element to reward good play or should it be for a special ability]. The defender subtracts his armor value from this damage total and then subtracts the remaining amount from the character's wounds. If a character goes to zero or less, that character is KO'd.
I'm thinking that if a player draws an Ace for the random damage pull that could be a critical hit of some kind.
Move and Attack-- a character may move and attack on the same action by playing a Face Card as their Move card first, and then immediately making an attack.
Withdrawal-- if a character is engaged in melee, they may attempt to withdraw and move away. Players draw and add their AG to the value. Black trumps in ties, other ties leave the character stuck in melee. If successful, the character may make a full move away by spending a card.
NOTE: In all cases when a character spends a card for an action from his hand, he redraws immediately back up to five cards.
Defend-- I'm wondering if there needs to be a defend action—like an all out defense or perhaps a moving defense-- extra card spent to move and gain a bonus to defense (maybe having to spend a face card).
Reshuffle-- characters reshuffles immediately if they run out of cards. Players may reshuffle early by discarding an Ace and then shuffling their discards into their draw deck. The Ace discarded is not shuffled back in but starts the new discard pile.
Those are the basics, and by that I mean the skeletal structure I'm thinking of. Have to consider:
*modifiers for obstacles and cover.
*a critical hit system
*what standard character abilities are going to look like
*what the special abilities are going to be like. How are they revealed-- there's a question of information here-- if they're standard attacks, opponents will see the person playing multiple cards and will know something's coming. Have to figure around that circumstance.
*armor and weapons-- should be standard for the pregen characters-- all characters should have some kind of ranged attack?
*combat statuses-- from abilities and critical hits.
*much later, considerations about character customization and purchase.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
4/1/09
April 1st, so of course the internet is split between April Fool's Day jokes and people ranting about how much they hate April Fool's Day jokes on the internet. There is no middle ground-- choose the form of your destructor.
Last night we played a strange board game called Phoenicia. I'd traded an old issue of Strategy & Tactics for the game which had decent scores on Boardgamegeek (a hair short of a 7). The game itself has decent components--plastic pieces rather than the typical wooden ones you see in most games. The author, Tom Lehman, wrote a couple of other games I sort of liked To Court the King and Race for the Galaxy. The rules, however, deliberately obfuscate the game. I ended up finding a rewritten set on BGG and printing those out.
We had our first play-through last night with three players-- the game can support up to five. That's a strange spot for games we've found out. If a game can take five+ players and you play with three you often end up with some imbalances-- essentially the two stronger players wait for the weaker player to make a mistake. Whoever can take advantage of that can often gain a significant edge. We had that effect last night, but the problems we saw in the game went past that.
Phoenicia intends itself to be a light civ building game-- with development of cultural advancements in order to gain both victory points and production. The first problem arose as I went through the rules. The game has several clever mechanics but they don't make a whole lot of sense in the larger context of play. It also has a couple of 'exceptions' where an action you can take is handled one way in one phase and in a related but slightly different way in another. That caused confusion. As well it handles money oddly-- imposing tight storage restrictions combined with two forms of cash. That's important as there's a strong auction element to the game.
So we had somewhat confusing rules (even after being rewritten for clarity), problematic mechanics and our first time playing. Within the first few turns we saw that one player (me!) had leveraged himself into a position that the other players would have a hard time knocking him from. The game supports the runaway leader strongly-- good choices are usually good on all fronts-- at least that's the way it looks at first blush. If you can get ahead in money you can run the auctions and deny other players cards they need to get back into the game. As Mark put it-- a few plays and the game would end up being based on luck--since we'd know the obvious good choices it would depend on when certain cards came up. It also reminded me of the Alhambra Dice Game, which I really like, but crushes newcomers when playing against people who have a sense of the game as a whole. Until you've played that game a couple of times you can't really see the importance of particular choices. That's true in all games, but some absolutely require players not to screw up their choices or else find themselves sitting in dead last.
I think our overall impression of Phoenicia was negative-- but we'll play it at least one more time to see if having a better sense of the game will make a difference. I'll also go back and review the rules and the comments on BGG to see if I'm missing some major part of the game.
*****
On a related note, regarding board game mechanics-- I'm thinking about the necessary structures for a particular kind of board/minis game. This would be a skirmish battle, eventually with possibly several figures per side, but for the moment, imagining two figures, one per player. I've played a number of "arena" games-- old Melee and Wizard, Arena of Death, and Gladiator; some modern mini games support this kind of conflict-- the Shadowrun large scale figure game IIRC.
So I'm trying to imagine what the key factors in these kinds of games are and here's what I've come up with:
-Customizable Characters
-Balance of Tactical Choices
-Isn't over with one good hit
Now assuming that we want a game which can be played in less than an hour, I've been trying to think of some mechanics that handle that while a) being simple and b) not simply being a case of the person who rolls better wins. So any system has to have easy to manage tactical decisions. I also want something which stands out from other like systems.
I had a couple of related ideas--
The first would be some kind of dice pool, moving between attack and defense. You've have the ability to wear the opponent's pool down. You'd also have the ability to float some rolls between rounds. My only problem with that is if you scale the game up, with players controlling several figures. Then suddenly you have to manage multiple pools-- unless, of course, the pool is shared between figures on a side.
My other idea, and the one I'm leaning towards is something based around a standard deck of playing cards. Each player gets a deck. They'd start with a hand limit and draw to that. Actions would be rated by the cards played-- so a move action could move you up to the value on the card's face. Maybe you could move and attack, but you'd have to play a face card for your movement. Attacks would be compared against defense cards, with a trumping mechanic for suits or for colors (red trumps black on attacks).
The other part of this would be taking actions to focus to increase your hand size, to flush cards out of your deck, to cycle and redraw, etc. So there'd be a strategic element to hand management. You'd also be redrawing fairly consistently in order to keep your hand at a minimum size. Players would alternate playing cards/actions.
The other thing would be that, assuming you have say eight different character archetypes, each character would have a set of special moves. You could only trigger these moves by playing a special set of cards: a pair, a three of a kind, etc. The harder to put that together, the more impressive the effect. Everyone would have five "moves" (with like requirements) but what happens at each level would vary between characters. Individual characters would also vary based on weapons, armor, stats, HP-- nothing too complicated, but enough to create some difference. I'd use the idea of the shared pool for scaling up the number of figures each player controls.
Ideally this would be something that would only require 4-6 pages of rules, plus character templates. Still in the gestation stage, but I think there's something interesting there.
Last night we played a strange board game called Phoenicia. I'd traded an old issue of Strategy & Tactics for the game which had decent scores on Boardgamegeek (a hair short of a 7). The game itself has decent components--plastic pieces rather than the typical wooden ones you see in most games. The author, Tom Lehman, wrote a couple of other games I sort of liked To Court the King and Race for the Galaxy. The rules, however, deliberately obfuscate the game. I ended up finding a rewritten set on BGG and printing those out.
We had our first play-through last night with three players-- the game can support up to five. That's a strange spot for games we've found out. If a game can take five+ players and you play with three you often end up with some imbalances-- essentially the two stronger players wait for the weaker player to make a mistake. Whoever can take advantage of that can often gain a significant edge. We had that effect last night, but the problems we saw in the game went past that.
Phoenicia intends itself to be a light civ building game-- with development of cultural advancements in order to gain both victory points and production. The first problem arose as I went through the rules. The game has several clever mechanics but they don't make a whole lot of sense in the larger context of play. It also has a couple of 'exceptions' where an action you can take is handled one way in one phase and in a related but slightly different way in another. That caused confusion. As well it handles money oddly-- imposing tight storage restrictions combined with two forms of cash. That's important as there's a strong auction element to the game.
So we had somewhat confusing rules (even after being rewritten for clarity), problematic mechanics and our first time playing. Within the first few turns we saw that one player (me!) had leveraged himself into a position that the other players would have a hard time knocking him from. The game supports the runaway leader strongly-- good choices are usually good on all fronts-- at least that's the way it looks at first blush. If you can get ahead in money you can run the auctions and deny other players cards they need to get back into the game. As Mark put it-- a few plays and the game would end up being based on luck--since we'd know the obvious good choices it would depend on when certain cards came up. It also reminded me of the Alhambra Dice Game, which I really like, but crushes newcomers when playing against people who have a sense of the game as a whole. Until you've played that game a couple of times you can't really see the importance of particular choices. That's true in all games, but some absolutely require players not to screw up their choices or else find themselves sitting in dead last.
I think our overall impression of Phoenicia was negative-- but we'll play it at least one more time to see if having a better sense of the game will make a difference. I'll also go back and review the rules and the comments on BGG to see if I'm missing some major part of the game.
*****
On a related note, regarding board game mechanics-- I'm thinking about the necessary structures for a particular kind of board/minis game. This would be a skirmish battle, eventually with possibly several figures per side, but for the moment, imagining two figures, one per player. I've played a number of "arena" games-- old Melee and Wizard, Arena of Death, and Gladiator; some modern mini games support this kind of conflict-- the Shadowrun large scale figure game IIRC.
So I'm trying to imagine what the key factors in these kinds of games are and here's what I've come up with:
-Customizable Characters
-Balance of Tactical Choices
-Isn't over with one good hit
Now assuming that we want a game which can be played in less than an hour, I've been trying to think of some mechanics that handle that while a) being simple and b) not simply being a case of the person who rolls better wins. So any system has to have easy to manage tactical decisions. I also want something which stands out from other like systems.
I had a couple of related ideas--
The first would be some kind of dice pool, moving between attack and defense. You've have the ability to wear the opponent's pool down. You'd also have the ability to float some rolls between rounds. My only problem with that is if you scale the game up, with players controlling several figures. Then suddenly you have to manage multiple pools-- unless, of course, the pool is shared between figures on a side.
My other idea, and the one I'm leaning towards is something based around a standard deck of playing cards. Each player gets a deck. They'd start with a hand limit and draw to that. Actions would be rated by the cards played-- so a move action could move you up to the value on the card's face. Maybe you could move and attack, but you'd have to play a face card for your movement. Attacks would be compared against defense cards, with a trumping mechanic for suits or for colors (red trumps black on attacks).
The other part of this would be taking actions to focus to increase your hand size, to flush cards out of your deck, to cycle and redraw, etc. So there'd be a strategic element to hand management. You'd also be redrawing fairly consistently in order to keep your hand at a minimum size. Players would alternate playing cards/actions.
The other thing would be that, assuming you have say eight different character archetypes, each character would have a set of special moves. You could only trigger these moves by playing a special set of cards: a pair, a three of a kind, etc. The harder to put that together, the more impressive the effect. Everyone would have five "moves" (with like requirements) but what happens at each level would vary between characters. Individual characters would also vary based on weapons, armor, stats, HP-- nothing too complicated, but enough to create some difference. I'd use the idea of the shared pool for scaling up the number of figures each player controls.
Ideally this would be something that would only require 4-6 pages of rules, plus character templates. Still in the gestation stage, but I think there's something interesting there.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
3/31/09
Most important thing to post today is birthday greetings to Rob, one of my oldest friends. I think I started playing games with him back in the mid 1980's. People loved his Warp Hill game which managed to combine several genres together successfully. Lots of people tried to pull that off-- doing mish-mash campaigns-- but few did it well. Rob's played in many, many of my games-- but since he's been playing with me so long, he's played in a lot of the earlier really bad ones. I think I've gotten better, but I flinch when I think about the old AD&D and Gurps games I ran. Rob's also run some of the best superhero campaigns for the group and his unfinished HCI campaign had enormous vision and a depth I can only hope to replicate. I borrowed liberally from him in running my Frontline supers campaign and my take on HCI. Thankfully he generously gave me his blessing on both those projects.
*****
Lil Devilbird took me to see the Kronos Quartet on Friday. They're a linchpin for modern chamber music. Combining an avant garde approach to music with striking popularity they helped cement Nonesuch records as the go to label for interesting modern compositions. I have a number of their disks, and of course they play on my all-time favorite recording, Philip Glass' soundtrack to the film Mishima. Black Angels (in parts), their recording of the Glass String Quartets, the Lutoslawski String Quartet and Pieces of Africa rank among my favorites.
I liked Chamber Music generally-- and my preference of 20th Century Compositions extends there. But I do have to be more in the mood to listen to these works on their own. The Shostakovich, Hindemith, Nyman and Bartok Quartets stand out for me. I like what the Balanascu Quartet, Manhattan String Quartet and Piano Circus have done in the way of interesting chamber pieces. Actually, the Balanascu Quartet did an arrangement of various Kraftwerk songs-- which sounds better than you'd imagine.
That having been said I had a mixed reaction to the thing. Their performance was incredible from a technical standpoint-- amazing varied lighting, brilliant use of tape loops and pieces for some of the works, dynamite timing, and just an unbelievable level of skill. As for the pieces themselves, some I liked-- and I hadn't heard any of them before. (I sound note that when I used to review classical music I actually took notes, but I didn't for this so my report will be sketchy). They opened with "Nomatophobis" by J.G. Thirwell which had all kinds of interesting sounds and dynamics to it. Thirwell actually does musical scoring for the Venture Brothers. The second composition came from John Zorn and was a...very 20th Century f*ck around with the audience piece. Funny, but not really anything great. I enjoyed the next two pieces of the first half-- one for its use of Indian instruments and the raga form and the other for the use of combined tape and playing. Though that last piece did wear out its welcome a little bit-- where my sense was that it took too long to get to its point. Plus it had a brilliant opening that the second half didn't match up to.
After intermission they have the world premiere of a new piece by Terry Riley called "Transylvanian Horn Courtship". Riley's kind of legendary in avant garde music circles, for "In C" among other things (I think Steve Reich's his closest parallel composer and one who they played the following evening). Anyway, the piece is based around what are called Stroh instruments-- strong instruments pared down with an attached metal horn for sound amplification. The effect is to create a dimming of the sound-- a kind of distance. At the loudest parts you get a kind of crackle and it vaguely resembles the sound from an old Edison phonograph.
For most of the performance the players play either all standard or all Stroh instruments. However, the sections don't really echo against one another-- at least to my untrained ear, so there's a break there where it feels like we're hearing to different pieces interspersed with one another. In one section, the second violin does keep the standard instrument (for a time) against the Stroh. I found that the most compelling part and I kept wanting to hear the others switch in and out so I could hear a live comparison and appreciate the interaction of the sound qualities. But that didn't happen. So they piece as a whole felt more like an affectation for new instruments rather than a real look at the dynamics. To a certain degree music should be absolute, but I certainly lost the thread of what this piece was supposed to accomplish.
*****
Getting close to 100 posts in a row-- minus a few short filler responses. When I hit that number I'm probably going to drop one of the days of posting and go down to six days a week. I have a number of things I'm trying to work on some of which I can't recycle to the blog. I'm also still job hunting which is delightful in this economy. On the table right now, I've got the ongoing campaigns, I'm getting ready for the next Sunday campaign, I'm trying to put together some game rules and setting material as a proposal for someone, I have to do some more script pages, I'm trying to figure out about scheduling for a Saturday campaign-- with the intent of being able to get Dusty down here for some more games, I have to do my taxes which will be a delightful governmental nutshot, I'm trying to put together a set of non-fic pieces, and I started watching that effing anime Bleach on Hulu. I have no self control-- and it has some interesting structural elements I might come back to tomorrow. And I haven't made any real progress on my stack of unread books.
*****
Lil Devilbird took me to see the Kronos Quartet on Friday. They're a linchpin for modern chamber music. Combining an avant garde approach to music with striking popularity they helped cement Nonesuch records as the go to label for interesting modern compositions. I have a number of their disks, and of course they play on my all-time favorite recording, Philip Glass' soundtrack to the film Mishima. Black Angels (in parts), their recording of the Glass String Quartets, the Lutoslawski String Quartet and Pieces of Africa rank among my favorites.
I liked Chamber Music generally-- and my preference of 20th Century Compositions extends there. But I do have to be more in the mood to listen to these works on their own. The Shostakovich, Hindemith, Nyman and Bartok Quartets stand out for me. I like what the Balanascu Quartet, Manhattan String Quartet and Piano Circus have done in the way of interesting chamber pieces. Actually, the Balanascu Quartet did an arrangement of various Kraftwerk songs-- which sounds better than you'd imagine.
That having been said I had a mixed reaction to the thing. Their performance was incredible from a technical standpoint-- amazing varied lighting, brilliant use of tape loops and pieces for some of the works, dynamite timing, and just an unbelievable level of skill. As for the pieces themselves, some I liked-- and I hadn't heard any of them before. (I sound note that when I used to review classical music I actually took notes, but I didn't for this so my report will be sketchy). They opened with "Nomatophobis" by J.G. Thirwell which had all kinds of interesting sounds and dynamics to it. Thirwell actually does musical scoring for the Venture Brothers. The second composition came from John Zorn and was a...very 20th Century f*ck around with the audience piece. Funny, but not really anything great. I enjoyed the next two pieces of the first half-- one for its use of Indian instruments and the raga form and the other for the use of combined tape and playing. Though that last piece did wear out its welcome a little bit-- where my sense was that it took too long to get to its point. Plus it had a brilliant opening that the second half didn't match up to.
After intermission they have the world premiere of a new piece by Terry Riley called "Transylvanian Horn Courtship". Riley's kind of legendary in avant garde music circles, for "In C" among other things (I think Steve Reich's his closest parallel composer and one who they played the following evening). Anyway, the piece is based around what are called Stroh instruments-- strong instruments pared down with an attached metal horn for sound amplification. The effect is to create a dimming of the sound-- a kind of distance. At the loudest parts you get a kind of crackle and it vaguely resembles the sound from an old Edison phonograph.
For most of the performance the players play either all standard or all Stroh instruments. However, the sections don't really echo against one another-- at least to my untrained ear, so there's a break there where it feels like we're hearing to different pieces interspersed with one another. In one section, the second violin does keep the standard instrument (for a time) against the Stroh. I found that the most compelling part and I kept wanting to hear the others switch in and out so I could hear a live comparison and appreciate the interaction of the sound qualities. But that didn't happen. So they piece as a whole felt more like an affectation for new instruments rather than a real look at the dynamics. To a certain degree music should be absolute, but I certainly lost the thread of what this piece was supposed to accomplish.
*****
Getting close to 100 posts in a row-- minus a few short filler responses. When I hit that number I'm probably going to drop one of the days of posting and go down to six days a week. I have a number of things I'm trying to work on some of which I can't recycle to the blog. I'm also still job hunting which is delightful in this economy. On the table right now, I've got the ongoing campaigns, I'm getting ready for the next Sunday campaign, I'm trying to put together some game rules and setting material as a proposal for someone, I have to do some more script pages, I'm trying to figure out about scheduling for a Saturday campaign-- with the intent of being able to get Dusty down here for some more games, I have to do my taxes which will be a delightful governmental nutshot, I'm trying to put together a set of non-fic pieces, and I started watching that effing anime Bleach on Hulu. I have no self control-- and it has some interesting structural elements I might come back to tomorrow. And I haven't made any real progress on my stack of unread books.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Fantasy Campaign Summaries (Continued)
SYSTEM TO DO LIST for Sunday Campaign
Weapon Tables
Character Sheets
Advantages
Disadvantages
Styles
Some Additional Definition of Costs
Strength Chart
Armor Chart
More Discussion under Spells and Magic
Stunting and Drama Points
God Powers
Combat Statuses
Critical Hits and Fumbles
Hit Locations
More Campaign Summaries
The First Sirayn Campaign (1991)
Rob, Amy, Paul, Eric, Dusty, Carl, Barry, Jason*, Kenny*, Gene*, Art*
Rolemaster
Several months
Crenadar, a half-elemental Elf of uncertain origin agreed to take on a mission to the far west at the order one of the feuding factions among the Miremallians. Too late they discovered their mission involved killing off one of the exiled leaders of a faction there. Miremal itself had become a difficult place with various elements in rebellion. The matter was made a little worse by the group having among their number a Drow Assassin and a Centaur from the Druids of Kislev, easy targets to pin blame on. Reaching Sirayn, the group was joined by Samiir Ajbach, a paladin of Ladnoca. They became involved with the politics of the land and met the Hawk of Ormal, a supposed raider who had in fact been moving back and forth from Ardor through special gates.
Some of the group began explorations in Sirayn, uncovering one of the secret citadels of the Tarakson. They explored the place, beginning to discover some of the secrets of Ardor, including the fact that the Tarakson was a renegade lord of Ardor, master of Time. The Ardorans had apparently been looking towards the world with an eye towards conquest. The group managed to escape relatively undetected, but not before they pitched a container of liquid time through a gate; the end result of that would be to create the Void Drake of Tul Isra who reappeared randomly through the ages to level the city. The group returned to Tul Harar and found themselves called upon to battle against a necromancer in the southern woods. They were joined by the mystical detective Achmed Tracy.
This in turn led them to an old city which held the secret of the location of the lost Anzeti capital of Tanjiim. Evading the Tarakson's men, they entered the great brass stairs which took days to climb. This proved nearly fatal to a few of them, not least the Centaur who found the going rough. The eventually discovered and freed the sorcerer Uthron Rendor, a necromancer for good, or so he said. They also found additional evidence to show the coming of Murkavan, although they weren't sure exactly what that meant. Stealing a flying ship they escaped Tanjiim but found their flight cut short. They battled against agents of the Tarakson, the Lich of Sul Cul (slaying one of his forms), and Murkavan. In the process they came across a powerful artifact, the Eye of Veccna. They decided to travel to Water Hill, capital of the Dwarves, where this item could be destroyed. Uthron Rendor betrayed them, fleeing with a sorceress guest of the Dwarves. The campaign was cut short there, but several things would happen out of game. Rendor and his companion fled to Crantyle; Samiir returned back home to continue the fight against the Tarakson; Achmed Traci would bee captured by Murkavan; and Crenadar and Paul's smith would be caught and imprisoned in Sensalia Itatain's extra-dimensional dungeon.
Memorable Moments: Bob the Midshipmen being eaten by a sea monster, Achmed Tracy's love for stinky cheese, having to lower the centaur down into the dungeon by ropes and pulleys, Gene activating the trap at the top of one of the levels of Tanjiim thereby flattening the stairs and sending everyone sliding down, Paul spending two days climbing down and up the stairs to get his equipment, Barry's centaur being the ugliest centaur ever, Crenadar's Void Wisp evolving into the Drake, Carl making a convincing case for his necromantic skills being for good, Rendor getting the group to kill a mage who had been sent to kill him, Samiir and Crenadar being sent to infiltrate only to realize both characters had the Honesty disadvantage, Paul carrying a forge door with him everywhere.
Gameplay: I'll admit I'm a sucker for chrome in a set of game rules. I'd enjoyed Gurps but when I came back, Rolemaster had added a number of features that we got to try out in Paul's campaigns. By this time they'd produced Companions I-IV, War Law, Sea Law, some other junk and especially the Elemental Companion. The many classes and spells lists seduced me and I decided for the next campaign on the Second Continent, I'd use RM. While it played as well as RM ever did it became obvious after a while that the relative realism/level of power differed hugely between a game run in the two systems. In Gurps you faced the constant fact that a sword blow not only could kill you, but most times if it connected you were likely to be fairly injured. In Rolemaster, yes that same sword could kill you with a spectacular critical, but most times you were simply managing hp, bleeding, and avoiding stun. That combined with the sheer power a character could deal out if they put their mind to it made the tone of the game very different. The new material added to the system also ramped up the game power with each new class. RM had its place, and I would use it several times again, but for the lower power and fragility I would stick to Gurps or Gurps-like systems for the second continent from that point forward. The campaign itself has a weird number of players with many coming in late and others falling out. Achmed Tracy passed from Jason to Dusty halfway through. While there were some great moments, it never quite came together and ended early because of my leaving for Baltimore.
Introduced: Murkavan as a real and present threat on the second continent, the Court of Ardor, Elementalism, the Dwarven Civil War, the Miremallian Civil War, Drowish political assassinations, Sirayn politics, the concept of the Lythic pantheon having other forms, Water Hill, the existence of a first (and hinted at) third continent, travelers from the first continent, the differing kinds of Unlife-- Aether vs. Conventional, Tanjiim and the Anzeti civilization.
The Pillar of Fire Campaign (1993-1994)
Rob, Eric, Paul, Carl, David, Carol, Henry, Mike D*, Kenny*, Charles*, Dusty*
Rolemaster
The group began as a select group of Agrikan Worshipers, part of one of the great mercenary-religious orders. Gathered together in Virocana with the other orders, they found themselves betrayed and purged by a number of their fellow orders. The group escaped, making their way south eventually into Prax and the great fallen city of Pavis. There they began to plan how to rebuild and exact revenge upon their enemies. They explored some of the lost ruins of the Big Rubble as well as locating a lost fortress of the Agrik they were able to liberate. They'd gathered resources and allies when news came that the Laranians had taken advantage of the disruption of the Agrikan Chapters to launch an invasion, aiming to liberate the supposed Laranian allies among the Orlanthi from the sway of the Lunar Empire and her mercenaries.
The group sailed to The Land of the Shankara, establishing themselves in the only port city there, a place designed to keep outsiders from making their way to the interior. Here the group plotted and planned further, making mercantile arrangements and undermining the local government. They managed to make their way into Shankara where they uncovered a rich trove of treasures and ancient items. They met and made an alliance with a lost powerful Sorcerer called Nation. In exchange for certain services, he agreed to provide them with support and magical resources. The group eventually overstayed their welcome when the kidnapped, tortured and murdered a number of visiting dignitary Laranians.
Escaping under darkness the group arrived in Laksmi where the King was prosecuting a two front war against a rebellion of nobles and a terrifying supernatural enemy known as the Suldu, a lost evil race created by one of the Sorcerer Kings. The Pillar of Fire restyled itself as a mercenary company, stealing from rivals and eventually finding service with the King. They fought against the rebellion with honor, eventually putting nobles holdings to sword and flame. The profits from this they then turned to increasing their numbers and securing a major position with the kingdom. They found themselves caught up in a mystic game as Yearturn arrived in the capital, where the group were magically slaughtered by a sentient Earthnode. This ritual transported them to another version of the city where they put down a Laranian version of their own company. The group then turned their attention to fighting the Sulda on their own terms, with magic and darkness. They managed to find and destroy the Mad God of the Suldu, now putting these beings in their own control. Even as they began to consolidate their power, vicious in-fighting resulted in the death or vanishing of some of the key leadership of the group.
Memorable Moments: Bringing down the traps on their rival Agrikan brothers, exploring the dungeon of traps, Paul getting many NPCs killed, putting an arrow in Charles' head, Paul running through the streets after he cut his own throat so the spider bite poison wouldn't get him, the expert manipulation of the First Traitor, the awful kidnapping of the Laranian priestess, the Consort, Rob's release of the Broo into Pavis, organizing the army in Laksmi, Rob's killing Paul's mentor in front of the whole camp, Rob's discovery of the Leviathan, the Battle with Ven-Shallay Turican, the mysterious appearance of new characters who had “always been there” during Yearturn, Paul accidentally killing a horse and alerting a few hundred enemy warriors, Carl's s'wa moment when I killed his character by pitching him down a pit trap, the follow-up moment when I killed the entire group, Rob killing Paul after he killed a valuable NPC, Rob realizing his situation and grabbing him and throwing them both into a Death Cloud, Rob out-talking a Halean priestess.
Gameplay: Rolemaster with all the trimmings. We pretty much used everything available for old RM. Again, it went as well as could be expected for that system-- high power and over the top abilities. The game went really well for about the first three-quarters of it. It combined resource management, NPC gathering, organization building, military adventures, mystery and dungeon exploration. The game had come out of three things-- my determination that the third continent would have a religious focus, my desire for a very different campaign structure, and my attempt to copy the success that Rob had had in running a Villains game. I won't run an evil game again-- or at least, as I did with the Vampire game, I'll put in place pretty significant breakers. I handled some things very badly in the last part of the game. That ended up essentially breaking the game because of inter-party fighting. I learned that the claim of “just playing your character” is often an excuse to do pretty shitty things. I should have taken steps to fix the problem before it occurred but I didn't. I ended up cutting the game off and promised to run again after a break, which I never did. I used pretty extensively the Pavis and Big Rubble Module as well as Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom, both to good effect.
Introduced: The Third Continent, the Wave Theory of History, the association of certain of the Lythic Gods with religious ideas from Glorantha, Pavis and the Big Rubble, the Pale King, the Sidhe, the Sorcerer Kings, the Created races, the Lunar Empire as Agrikan sympathetic, the Orlanthi as a Laranian offshoot, the mercenary companies, the Aperkitas, Yearturn, an Ardoran conquest alternate future, many characters who would reappear as villains in later campaigns, Third Continent hatred of Magic
Weapon Tables
Character Sheets
Advantages
Disadvantages
Styles
Some Additional Definition of Costs
Strength Chart
Armor Chart
More Discussion under Spells and Magic
Stunting and Drama Points
God Powers
Combat Statuses
Critical Hits and Fumbles
Hit Locations
More Campaign Summaries
The First Sirayn Campaign (1991)
Rob, Amy, Paul, Eric, Dusty, Carl, Barry, Jason*, Kenny*, Gene*, Art*
Rolemaster
Several months
Crenadar, a half-elemental Elf of uncertain origin agreed to take on a mission to the far west at the order one of the feuding factions among the Miremallians. Too late they discovered their mission involved killing off one of the exiled leaders of a faction there. Miremal itself had become a difficult place with various elements in rebellion. The matter was made a little worse by the group having among their number a Drow Assassin and a Centaur from the Druids of Kislev, easy targets to pin blame on. Reaching Sirayn, the group was joined by Samiir Ajbach, a paladin of Ladnoca. They became involved with the politics of the land and met the Hawk of Ormal, a supposed raider who had in fact been moving back and forth from Ardor through special gates.
Some of the group began explorations in Sirayn, uncovering one of the secret citadels of the Tarakson. They explored the place, beginning to discover some of the secrets of Ardor, including the fact that the Tarakson was a renegade lord of Ardor, master of Time. The Ardorans had apparently been looking towards the world with an eye towards conquest. The group managed to escape relatively undetected, but not before they pitched a container of liquid time through a gate; the end result of that would be to create the Void Drake of Tul Isra who reappeared randomly through the ages to level the city. The group returned to Tul Harar and found themselves called upon to battle against a necromancer in the southern woods. They were joined by the mystical detective Achmed Tracy.
This in turn led them to an old city which held the secret of the location of the lost Anzeti capital of Tanjiim. Evading the Tarakson's men, they entered the great brass stairs which took days to climb. This proved nearly fatal to a few of them, not least the Centaur who found the going rough. The eventually discovered and freed the sorcerer Uthron Rendor, a necromancer for good, or so he said. They also found additional evidence to show the coming of Murkavan, although they weren't sure exactly what that meant. Stealing a flying ship they escaped Tanjiim but found their flight cut short. They battled against agents of the Tarakson, the Lich of Sul Cul (slaying one of his forms), and Murkavan. In the process they came across a powerful artifact, the Eye of Veccna. They decided to travel to Water Hill, capital of the Dwarves, where this item could be destroyed. Uthron Rendor betrayed them, fleeing with a sorceress guest of the Dwarves. The campaign was cut short there, but several things would happen out of game. Rendor and his companion fled to Crantyle; Samiir returned back home to continue the fight against the Tarakson; Achmed Traci would bee captured by Murkavan; and Crenadar and Paul's smith would be caught and imprisoned in Sensalia Itatain's extra-dimensional dungeon.
Memorable Moments: Bob the Midshipmen being eaten by a sea monster, Achmed Tracy's love for stinky cheese, having to lower the centaur down into the dungeon by ropes and pulleys, Gene activating the trap at the top of one of the levels of Tanjiim thereby flattening the stairs and sending everyone sliding down, Paul spending two days climbing down and up the stairs to get his equipment, Barry's centaur being the ugliest centaur ever, Crenadar's Void Wisp evolving into the Drake, Carl making a convincing case for his necromantic skills being for good, Rendor getting the group to kill a mage who had been sent to kill him, Samiir and Crenadar being sent to infiltrate only to realize both characters had the Honesty disadvantage, Paul carrying a forge door with him everywhere.
Gameplay: I'll admit I'm a sucker for chrome in a set of game rules. I'd enjoyed Gurps but when I came back, Rolemaster had added a number of features that we got to try out in Paul's campaigns. By this time they'd produced Companions I-IV, War Law, Sea Law, some other junk and especially the Elemental Companion. The many classes and spells lists seduced me and I decided for the next campaign on the Second Continent, I'd use RM. While it played as well as RM ever did it became obvious after a while that the relative realism/level of power differed hugely between a game run in the two systems. In Gurps you faced the constant fact that a sword blow not only could kill you, but most times if it connected you were likely to be fairly injured. In Rolemaster, yes that same sword could kill you with a spectacular critical, but most times you were simply managing hp, bleeding, and avoiding stun. That combined with the sheer power a character could deal out if they put their mind to it made the tone of the game very different. The new material added to the system also ramped up the game power with each new class. RM had its place, and I would use it several times again, but for the lower power and fragility I would stick to Gurps or Gurps-like systems for the second continent from that point forward. The campaign itself has a weird number of players with many coming in late and others falling out. Achmed Tracy passed from Jason to Dusty halfway through. While there were some great moments, it never quite came together and ended early because of my leaving for Baltimore.
Introduced: Murkavan as a real and present threat on the second continent, the Court of Ardor, Elementalism, the Dwarven Civil War, the Miremallian Civil War, Drowish political assassinations, Sirayn politics, the concept of the Lythic pantheon having other forms, Water Hill, the existence of a first (and hinted at) third continent, travelers from the first continent, the differing kinds of Unlife-- Aether vs. Conventional, Tanjiim and the Anzeti civilization.
The Pillar of Fire Campaign (1993-1994)
Rob, Eric, Paul, Carl, David, Carol, Henry, Mike D*, Kenny*, Charles*, Dusty*
Rolemaster
The group began as a select group of Agrikan Worshipers, part of one of the great mercenary-religious orders. Gathered together in Virocana with the other orders, they found themselves betrayed and purged by a number of their fellow orders. The group escaped, making their way south eventually into Prax and the great fallen city of Pavis. There they began to plan how to rebuild and exact revenge upon their enemies. They explored some of the lost ruins of the Big Rubble as well as locating a lost fortress of the Agrik they were able to liberate. They'd gathered resources and allies when news came that the Laranians had taken advantage of the disruption of the Agrikan Chapters to launch an invasion, aiming to liberate the supposed Laranian allies among the Orlanthi from the sway of the Lunar Empire and her mercenaries.
The group sailed to The Land of the Shankara, establishing themselves in the only port city there, a place designed to keep outsiders from making their way to the interior. Here the group plotted and planned further, making mercantile arrangements and undermining the local government. They managed to make their way into Shankara where they uncovered a rich trove of treasures and ancient items. They met and made an alliance with a lost powerful Sorcerer called Nation. In exchange for certain services, he agreed to provide them with support and magical resources. The group eventually overstayed their welcome when the kidnapped, tortured and murdered a number of visiting dignitary Laranians.
Escaping under darkness the group arrived in Laksmi where the King was prosecuting a two front war against a rebellion of nobles and a terrifying supernatural enemy known as the Suldu, a lost evil race created by one of the Sorcerer Kings. The Pillar of Fire restyled itself as a mercenary company, stealing from rivals and eventually finding service with the King. They fought against the rebellion with honor, eventually putting nobles holdings to sword and flame. The profits from this they then turned to increasing their numbers and securing a major position with the kingdom. They found themselves caught up in a mystic game as Yearturn arrived in the capital, where the group were magically slaughtered by a sentient Earthnode. This ritual transported them to another version of the city where they put down a Laranian version of their own company. The group then turned their attention to fighting the Sulda on their own terms, with magic and darkness. They managed to find and destroy the Mad God of the Suldu, now putting these beings in their own control. Even as they began to consolidate their power, vicious in-fighting resulted in the death or vanishing of some of the key leadership of the group.
Memorable Moments: Bringing down the traps on their rival Agrikan brothers, exploring the dungeon of traps, Paul getting many NPCs killed, putting an arrow in Charles' head, Paul running through the streets after he cut his own throat so the spider bite poison wouldn't get him, the expert manipulation of the First Traitor, the awful kidnapping of the Laranian priestess, the Consort, Rob's release of the Broo into Pavis, organizing the army in Laksmi, Rob's killing Paul's mentor in front of the whole camp, Rob's discovery of the Leviathan, the Battle with Ven-Shallay Turican, the mysterious appearance of new characters who had “always been there” during Yearturn, Paul accidentally killing a horse and alerting a few hundred enemy warriors, Carl's s'wa moment when I killed his character by pitching him down a pit trap, the follow-up moment when I killed the entire group, Rob killing Paul after he killed a valuable NPC, Rob realizing his situation and grabbing him and throwing them both into a Death Cloud, Rob out-talking a Halean priestess.
Gameplay: Rolemaster with all the trimmings. We pretty much used everything available for old RM. Again, it went as well as could be expected for that system-- high power and over the top abilities. The game went really well for about the first three-quarters of it. It combined resource management, NPC gathering, organization building, military adventures, mystery and dungeon exploration. The game had come out of three things-- my determination that the third continent would have a religious focus, my desire for a very different campaign structure, and my attempt to copy the success that Rob had had in running a Villains game. I won't run an evil game again-- or at least, as I did with the Vampire game, I'll put in place pretty significant breakers. I handled some things very badly in the last part of the game. That ended up essentially breaking the game because of inter-party fighting. I learned that the claim of “just playing your character” is often an excuse to do pretty shitty things. I should have taken steps to fix the problem before it occurred but I didn't. I ended up cutting the game off and promised to run again after a break, which I never did. I used pretty extensively the Pavis and Big Rubble Module as well as Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom, both to good effect.
Introduced: The Third Continent, the Wave Theory of History, the association of certain of the Lythic Gods with religious ideas from Glorantha, Pavis and the Big Rubble, the Pale King, the Sidhe, the Sorcerer Kings, the Created races, the Lunar Empire as Agrikan sympathetic, the Orlanthi as a Laranian offshoot, the mercenary companies, the Aperkitas, Yearturn, an Ardoran conquest alternate future, many characters who would reappear as villains in later campaigns, Third Continent hatred of Magic
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