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Saturday, January 31, 2009

WOD, where did you go

I miss the World of Darkness (WOD). It changed, so I guess I would have to say that I miss the old World of Darkness (oWOD). I don't know who came up with these abbreviations, but the new one for the old system sucks. I love playing Werewolf: the Apocalypse. It was the coolest game ever. I mean, what beats playing werewolves. They are by far the biggest bad asses in the WOD and especially in the oWOD. I am a larper and well, I know that there is only a handful of people that know what larping is. Larp or L.A.R.P. stands for Live Action Role Playing.

I know this seems like a stupid thing to bitch about, but I want to know why everyone is so afraid of larping. Was it because there was that stupid bunch of people that took it too far and actually killed someone. That isn't larping, that is insane. The main rule for larping is having fun, not killing someone, that just doesn't sound fun, OK, maybe a little, but who hasn't had those thoughts of stringing someone up on a hook and just torturing them by making them watch Barney. I mean, nothing says cruel and unusual punishment like making someone watch the stupid purple dinosaur. I have nightmares, truly.

Anyways, larping is about getting away from the everyday grind, the job, the strife, your life. It is fun being someone else, even if it is only for a couple hours. But your not just someone else, you are a werewolf, a vampire, a different human, a funky human, a human with magic powers, a mummy, a changeling, a ghost, a wraith, etc. Regardless of what you play, you literally become that other person, through your actions, your thoughts, your words, you portray your character and become something different, something powerful, something special. You become what you want to and you role-play out that character. Just like in the movies. The same actor, but different roles. The actor isn't the characters he/she acts out, just like you don't become what you role-play, but you want to make it just as believable as those actors do in the movies.

Tuesday Night Rifts

...Continued,

(Adendum: J. Jung's character's name is Roger Stone, Travis's character's name is Ralph Walters, and Luis's character is Thunderheart; just for clarification.)

And without missing a beat, Buttercup takes off running through the streets of Alliance. Ralph is close on her heels because he takes off after her. Leaving Thunderheart to get aquainted with his Palmino.
Meanwhile, Roger is walking through the town square on the north side and hears two distinct whirs and sees only one blur go past. He doesn't know what to think. Buttercup and Ralph run past and keep running. Ralph sees Buttercup in front of him and without missing a step, Buttercup starts running backwards and starts a conversation with Ralph; complimenting him on his speed and how no one has ever kept up with her before mentions that she is going to stop. After she stops, Ralph isn't far behind and when he stops is only a matter of feet further than Buttercup. Buttercup notions that she would like to become his pack horse and she joins Ralph by becoming his steed. Since Ralph is a Juicer, it is safe to assume that he will never need to ride Buttercup and she follows him back to town, which isn't seen from where they are. Meanwhile, Roger has crossed the town square when he hears one whir and sees one blur. Roger decides that he will check out the Post Office before investigating the blurs.
Roger enters the south part of Alliance and sees a building right in front of him that is tall, all white and has a large red dot painted on the set of double doors that lead into the building. While he approaches the building he has assumed is the Post Office, he catches some movement out the corner of his eye. Mostly shadows, moving in the darkness in front of a second building that he didn't even notice covered in the shadow of the Post Office and a third building. Roger assumes that this shadowy building must be Al's Emporium, the one that Sally didn't tell him how to get to. While this thought is fresh in Roger's mind, a humanoid figure gets thrown out into the middle of the street. The figure is a moldy green color and has a shiny coat of some sort of sliminess. It hisses at whatever has thrown it out and at the sun beating down upon it. It takes a running start and launches itself into the shadows of Al's Emporium. Roger is convinced that he doesn't want to go there. He decides that since he is here, he might as well check out the Post Office. Roger approaches the red-dotted double doors and knocks. Nothing. He knocks louder. Still nothing. He knocks one final time, almost busting the doors down in the process. The door opens and an old man enters the sunshine lit doorway. "Yes, sonny?", the old man says. "Hello," says Roger. Nothing. He says it again. Still nothing. Last time, Roger shouts at the old man. "Hello, and what can I do for you, eh, sonny", the old man questions. "What is this place", questions Roger. "This here is the Post Office, that there red dot is the symbol of the post office, at least I think it is. What can I do ya for", the old man replies. "What kind of place is this", asks Roger. "I think this here is what the used to have before the Rifts came. I think they called it the post office", returned the old man. Roger caught a quick glimpse of the inside; he saw all kinds of things, mostly covered in dust, but could make out a bunch of holding cases with glass tops, probably so you could look inside, and fastened with some sort of mechanism (what we would call a lock and what Roger had never seen before since it was pre-Rifts). Roger tells the old man that he has to go and the old man says goodbye. Roger then decides to stroll on over to the Stables.
Back at the Stables, Thunderheart notices that he is now accompanied by Buttercup and Ralph and they seem to be getting along. While they are talking about what they are going to do now, Ralph notices someone watching them. He looks kinda worn, but Ralph doesn't really pay him much attention. Ralph then notices that this stranger is headed to the wall that surrounds Alliance and that he seems to be staring at the ground. Ralph notices that the stranger is now digging at the ground, but not going anywhere and that he keeps clearing the ground. Ralph approaches and jumps up on the wall. This seems to unsettle the stranger because Ralph has now brought the attention of the guards on him. The guards keep shouting at Ralph, but he ignores them. Ralph finally jumps down and greets the stranger. The stranger seems kinda jumpy, and the stranger starts walking away. After the stranger leaves, Ralph notices that all the ground that the stranger dug up goes down about 6 inches and ends in a floor made of M.D.C. material. This Ralph finds strange and decides, with Thunderheart and his Palmino, and Buttercup in tow, that he shall follow the stranger at a discreet distance, approximately 20 feet. The stranger seems to be headed to the front gate. Thunderheart is the only one to notice that all the townspeople are staring at him and Ralph, but mostly at Buttercup. Thunderheart mouths the words silently towards the townspeople, "His horse, not mine." The townspeople all seem to notice and nod in agreement because that just seems to make sense to them.
While the stranger approaches the front gate, it being open, he lags for just a moment and then continues through. Ralph and Thunderheart, having been around here a little more often know something is fishy. The front gate is normally closed and usually has at least two guards on the inside standing watch in case of a Simvan attack, the guards can then lock the front gate. After the stranger passes through however, the gate slides closed. Apparently, something was blocking the sensor for the gate to close, but Ralph and Thunderheart didn't see anything. Ralph and Thunderheart approach with caution. The gate slides open. They see the stranger walking towards the Trough Mill and Ralph sees footsteps following the stranger while Thunderheart hears footsteps through his amplified hearing implant. Ralph sees the invisible beings footprints getting closer to the stranger, and blink, he is standing in front of the invisible being. The stranger, hearing Ralph's approach, turns and sees Ralph not three feet behind him and Ralph telling him invisible enemy and pointing right at him. The stranger, harnessing something, starts to lift his hands and while doing so, a large chunk of earth, behind the stranger, out of the road, begins to levitate above the stranger's head. The stranger mutters something under his breath and hurls the large piece of earth at the invisible foe. Unfortunately, he hurls the earth between the invisible foe and Thunderheart, who had been approaching with his horse and Buttercup from about 23 feet away, missing the invisible foe and making a ear-splitting sound of crunched earth. Thunderheart squeels in pain as his implant doesn't have the Sound filtration system that he couldn't afford making him temporarily deaf. About two seconds after the rocks came crashing down, and Ralph being temporarily distracted by the thrown rocks, Buttercup comes leaping over the pile of rocks and lands exactly where the invisible foe had been standing. She begins to paw at the ground, nothing happens; apparently the invisible foe had disappeared. Ralph, after regaining his sense of the situation, put on his helmet and did a thermal scan of the area. Nothing, the invisible foe was nowhere to be seen. While doing his thermal scan, he did see Thunderheart, his Palmino horse, and the stranger, but not Buttercup. Ralph thought this normal. The group, after introducing themselves were as follow: Roger, Ralph, Buttercup, and Thunderheart with his Palmino. The stranger being identified as Roger, Ralph questioned Roger about why someone was after him. Roger had no idea. The group decided that it was too dangerous to hang around Alliance and since Ralph and Thunderheart didn't have anywhere pressing to be, they decided to follow Roger, protect him as he would protect them, on his way to Sandy Top.

That concludes our first game in Rifts. I am new at GMing Rifts and so I asked for feedback. My players enjoyed to game and we all had fun. Until next Tuesday (3.5 ed. D&D).

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Tuesday Night Rifts

I started my group in the town of Alliance, Nebraska. Alliance's population is approximately 15,000 people, mostly human, some D-Bees. I drew a map and hopefully can get a copy put on here somewhere. Two of my players, Luis and Travis, both rolled tribal backgrounds so I told them that they belonged to the Cree and Kaw villages respectively. That means they are native American. I looked through Spirit West and decided that those two tribes were Renegades with a few Traditionalists and Pure Ones within the tribe being the outcasts. However, I also let Luis and Travis, Thunderheart and Ralph (maybe Roger) respectively, be black-sheep of the tribes as well. Thunderheart is a Headhunter O.C.C. and Ralph ( maybe Roger) is a Juicer O.C.C. This kinda is the extreme side of augmentation and they are the only two within their respective tribes that are that way. The third member of the party is J. Jung's character, Roger ( maybe Ralph), who is a Elemental Fusionist. Enough of background.

Our adventure begins with a little solo play, like so many adventures. Roger, Jung's character, finds himself outside of town on the road in. He pauses and squats down to take in his surroundings.
Meanwhile, Ralph, Travis's character, has been sent into town on errands. After acquiring some credits from trade at Jack's Salvage Yard, the junkyard being surrounded by M.D.C. metal posts with a fine mesh fence that can't be seen through, and admiring Jack's crane, a big, green, metal machine that lifts stuff into the salvage yard, decides to head to Drew's, the only bar in town that has that old western feel with the saloon swinging double doors, which he visited as a child when brought into town to learn the business. He was charged with purchasing as many horses as he could with the credits garnered by the trade. Thunderheart was in a simular situation, but he had brought in some furs from his village to trade at Thom's Furs, the only fur trader in the village of Alliance. He was charged with purchasing 4 riding horses, and some seed corn and feed for the horses. After leaving Thom's, he headed to the Seed Mill, after getting the seed and feed for his tribe, he headed to the Stables to pick out his horse that he had earned.
Around the same time that Thunderheart was finishing up at the Seed Mill, Roger had found his way to behind Jack's where he sensed the presence of an earth elemental. He discussed certain things about the village with the elemental. He was told about many things, including the route to Sandy Top, a gathering of earth elementals. After his discussion with the earth elemental, he decided that the humans can't be that bad and headed into town.
Meanwhile, Ralph had purchased a full 40 oz. bottle of whiskey from Sally, the bartender at Drew's for the last couple years and known for being a gossip queen and a holder of certain information, for 400 cr. After purchasing his bottle of whiskey, decided to head to the stables and see if he couldn't pick out a horse.
So, on his approach to the front gate, Roger witnessed four guardsmen passed out at a table outside a building right outside the city, which upon walking closer, discovered an awful, foul smell coming from within the building. He decided to carry on. When Roger had reached the gate, he saw two guards outside the gate. The one guard started asking him questions on what his business was here and where he had come from. However, after telling the guard the details that he had requested, Roger watched as the guard started walking away. As the guard was walking away, he turned and said, "Well, I am sure the guards will be really interested in your story, you should tell them." Then the fake guard walked into the Trough Mill, a seedy tavern close to the entrance gate outside the city walls. Roger then decided to walk inside the city.
Back at the Stable, Thunderheart and Ralph were picking out there horses. Thunderheart went with an aged Palimino and Ralph wanted the dead horse. The stablehand, being a shady character and more than anything just wanted to get rid of the damn thing, told Ralph that he had a special horse that would be perfect for Ralph. Ralph followed the stablehand over to the shed door and after opening and turning the light on saw a metal horse. The stablehand said that after he turned it on that all he had to do is call her name, Buttercup. There was a little red button that was at the base of the neck on the creature and the stablehand pushed and stood back. At that time, Ralph asked what Buttercup was like, the stablehand not knowing how to answer him made something up. " She is the most angry horse I know. Call her name." As if on cue, Buttercup's eyes started glowing green and and as Ralph called out her name; she started to charge. As she charged forward, Ralph tried to tackle the horse; failing, he rolled out of the way before she could trample him. Buttercup turned around and said in a feminine American voice, "Chicken!" Ralph, without missing a beat, threatened and insulted the horse right back. Buttercup then challenged Ralph to a Race, seeing who was faster.

Continued Soon ...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

My Rifts Campaign

I am a little nervous about starting my Rifts game tonight. Hopefully we have fun and I can remember to tell a good story, give my players some interaction with some unique NPCs and have some fun doing it. Just relax and run with it has been my GMing style since I started, I need to work on interactions and how to run them with the rules presented in the core rule book. If I can get some time to read up on the rules, I will be fine. Until tomorrow, when I will report on how the Rifts adventure has gone.

Monday Night LFR

We have been running Monday Night LFR for close to three months now and everyone is ready for a break. We are running the third adaptable for the Sceptor Tower of Spellgaurd. We are almost done with it. One more Monday Night LFR and we will have it completed. Some of us are unhappy with the way it is being run. One encounter triggers the next, and we have no time for a short rest. I know that this makes sense in the normal world, but in D&D, it is a little much, especially at low levels. 4th Edition D&D was designed with the intent that we do one encounter, short rest, and then move on to the next encounter. We are not getting that short rest, so our encounter powers are not refreshing with each encounter which then makes us want to take an extended rest because we are out of healing surges and daily powers. We need to start using tactics and working as a group. With the use of tactics, we can halt the trigger of the next encounter and be a little refreshed when we do trigger the next encounter. Time has been another factor since we have been running out of it when we need it the most. I hope in the near future we can work together and use tactics to last long enough so we can make it to the final battle/encounter and kick some butt. Until next Monday, we have some time to work on it.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Running the Mod

I have won a prestigious award known as the Title: Worst DM Ever! I won this about two years back at a Convention we hold in Stevens Point every year known as PointCon. My friends had dubbed me with this honorary title and so now I wear it with pride because not much has changed. I am still a pretty bad DM, ST, GM, Judge, etc. Whatever you want to call it, I am pretty darn bad, but I realized something, they still need me to run games, and I will because I love running games. I just need to work on my delivery. Actually, my delevery is good, I just can't remember the rules worth a darn. I can spin a pretty good yarn, but when it comes to justifying what can and can't be done, well then that is where I have a problem. I still love running games though, and as long as no one else wants to step up I will keep running the games my way, unless its LFR, then I run them the RPGA way.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Update on my gaming

Currently, I am participating in LFR and running mods every wednesday at GASP in lower Debot starting at 6pm sharp. Otherwise, I am going to be starting a Rifts game for on Tuesday nights until James comes back and starts running our 1st edition Traveller game and 1st edition D&D game. Everyone really wanted to see how the Traveller game goes, some real interest in it. Now, we have J. Jung running a third edition D&D game which will be oposite of my Rifts game. I am extremely nervous on how to start my Rifts game. I will figure it out though. I just want to hone my DMing skills because I will have a One-Shot Rifts campaign for PointCon in May.
My first entry is to notify that my blog entry is to just have something down.