Gaming and More Gaming!

[Black Jack Rackham]

BUMMER! No game for me today. Got cancelled last minute because of (and I am not making this up) head lice. So I guess I'll be doing some writing today since her majesty is taking the kiddos out for the day.

Next weekend is supposed to be Golden Age Supers but I am going to watch my childhood best friend get married. So no game then either.

BUT David's game should be on for Friday.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Well, that's a good thing then, because you don't want to get them and share them for Christmas.
You have been talking about finishing up the Pirate story book, so this will be a good day to do it.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Boardgame week coming up tomorrow. Her Majesty is looking forward to playing, a lot!

[Black Jack Rackham]

Tomorrow is Mark's Wacky Gaming Weekend once again. This time around, Yggdrasill!

[Black Jack Rackham]

Didn't get all that far with our Viking Warriors, they discovered they'd been sent by their King to help a small village on the very edges of the King's domain which was having a Bear problem.

Our steadfast heroes confronted said bear, and killed it quite handily. Of course, one of the heroes decided he wanted the pelt and the smell of blood in the air brought the wolves to come and get some. So now they're dealing with 6 wolves.

That's where we ended things (still in midst of combat).

Next week half the players will be missing (myself included). I will be up for the once-a-month game in NH. This time around? Supernatural. I will be running the adventure I wrote for Origins WAY back in '08 called Hunting Accident. We should have a full table so this should be great fun.

[Lady Grace]

Thanks to a few questions answered by Mark yesterday, it got the juices flowing enough for me to pull a last minute adventure out of my butt last night when (yet again) we had an MIA player who stayed incommunicado.

So, Luc (Mike) was hanging out with one of his former soldiers under his command, an Inish sniper named Glenna who's been in Altamira longer than him. Luc was asking about the whereabouts of an Eisen brother & sister mercenary team who had also been under his command and is rumoured to be in the Eisen quarter. The brother Erik was a cannoneer and Luc has some VERY important questions for him.

Meanwhile, Soledad has been transferred to the quieter Cathedral de Santo Domingo thanks to social pressure from the Guzmans due to the last adventure. The head priest there (I named her Sister Maria Dolores Vasquez) was expressing concerns about her missing no-good nephew Juan, who was due back from a trip from Barcino with a package for the Cathedral. If something had happened to him, his aunt would never forgive herself! Of course, if he got in trouble again, she'd kill him herself. But since the Sister was busy, could Soledad check in with the Alcade to see if he was in the drunk tank again?

Soledad runs into Luc and Glenna. Ulfen, on his was to the Guildhouse, runs into them. I activate Glenna's Star-Crossed towards Ulfen. She offers to play tour guide for the Eisen while Soledad & Luc visit the Alcade. At the Alcade's, the sister asks if Juan Vasquez is being held there. Alas, no, but Juan Vasquez is a notorious troublemaker who's made a LOT of enemies. Last summer in the Eisen quarter, he broke the leg of a man named Xander Epstein. Epstein has sworn revenge!

They meet back with a relieved Ulfen, who's getting his ear talked off by a very enamored Glenna, and head to the seedy part of the Eisen quarter. Eventually, they make their way to a rough and tumbled bar where straightforward Ulfen buys lager and drinks before asking about Juan Vasquez. Many perception checks were made and failed during the course of this adventure, btw. And did I mention that no one has Keen Senses -- not even Mike this time around?

Fortunately, one of the non-failed checks catches that someone appears to be heading out the back at the mention of JV's name. Luc follows after him while Soledad cuts him off outside. In interest of fairness, my NPCs were also missing their perception checks so the mystery man ran smack into the nun -- and proceeded to try to pick her up. After being smacked around for a bit, he confirms that JV is no one you really wanna mess with as he has a stiff right cross and isn't afraid to use it -- and he's made ANOTHER enemy in the form of a son of an Avalon businessman (and oh yeah, said daddy is REALLY GOOD FRIENDS with the Guzmans).

Bouncing around from the docks to a nicer taverna, they track down one Trey DaMann, who is being "entertained" by an unlicensed/unguilded jenny. Who proceeds to then hit on Ulfen and Luc. Glenna goes outside before she employs violence upon the idiot jenny. Trey confirms his issues involving JV, but promised his daddy that he foresworn his "roughhousin' ways"! Mind you, if something were to happen to Vasquez, he wouldn't shed any tears. Besides, he heard that Epstein was planning something involving luring JV with the promise of a good time with the wife of JV's blind best friend at a certain make-out spot outside of the city by the river this very night...

So, time appears to be of the essence!

Catching up with Glenna outside, yeah, she's aware of this spot -- why, does Ulfen happen to be interested in going there? No time for nookie though. As they reach the area, our heroes hear a bloodcurdling scream! They rush over to see one man on the ground and a HUGE Castillian raising his leg. Ulfen and Luc engage. Soledad hems and haws. Ulfen and JV trade blows, panzerhand vs. bare fist and the Eisen is making good progress -- at least until, Juan Vasquez grapples his arm and readies to break it. Luc makes with the tagging, then doing enough damage to force Juan to let go of the grapple before Ulfen can be called "Stumpy". Unfortunately for Luc, this pisses off Juan to start going after HIM.

Everyone but the hesitating nun is bloody and hurt at this point. Juan goes for the attack on the annoying Montaigne. He swings, looking to hit with the Stiff Right Cross!

And slips on his own blood, knocking himself into unconsciousness as I crit-botch the roll.

They manage to drag Xander back to a doctor as it seems that Juan broke his OTHER leg, then drag Vasquez over to the Cathedral de Santo Domingo back to Sister Maria...

"What?! This is not my nephew!"

"Your nephew's NOT Juan Vasquez?!"

"No! My nephew is Juan Ortega..."

Mike to me: You are SO sleeping on the couch tonight...

Two days later, Juan Ortega finally returns to Altamira unharmed. There was a delay on his boat trip back and the package is all right (communion wine). Players get rep for dealing with the infamous Juan Vasquez.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Epstein has sworn revenge!

It's not him I'm worried about, it's his mother... (Old Fart Points to anyone getting the reference).

they track down one Trey DaMann...

Who's the man? Trey DaMann!

[Lady Grace]

Exactly...

[Black Jack Rackham]

Laura came with me for the NH game. Got some nice compliments on the adventure. AND got done in the time allotted (which doesn't often happen). So all in all, good game day!

Got a busy week coming up. Friday is the game with David and his friends and Sunday is our regular game (which is supposed to be Superheroes, though I don't remember if everyone is going to make it.)

[Black Jack Rackham]

Friday game with the kiddos didn't happen David got sick and the other two no-showed us (which is just as well considering).

Next up, SUPERHEROES!

[Black Jack Rackham]

Spoke too soon. The oldest's cold turned out to be the flu, so I had to cancel for this week.

[Lady Grace]

No game for me this past weekend, alas, due to late workers and illness. On the other hand, at least I have an idea of what I'll be siccing on everyone as opposed to waiting until the last second -- again.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Flu has now made the rounds to everyone but me! A big round of thanks to my superior immune system (and a healthy dose of luck). Now if I can manage to avoid getting sick through the weekend, we will be back to boardgames this upcoming week!

Going to re-read the combat system for Yggdrassil before next week, just to be sure.

[Lady Grace]

Got to GM last Friday and this time I wanted something a wee bit more serious. Events started with our Heroes rescuing an out of control carriage after the driver suffered a heart attack. No sooner as things calmed down than they heard a high-pitched scream coming from the University stables.

Yep, Professor Screams-Like-a-Girl finally makes his debut in my game. Seems his poor horse has been horribly attacked during the night, with its eyes gouged, its tongue torn out, its throat slashed and its heart and liver missing. Our Heroes question him, finding out about his work on a revolutionary new lantern and wonder if he was targeted specifically. However, this was not the only assault on livestock that night and people are getting scared. With the crowd getting unruly and blaming Legion worshippers (&/or Crescents &/or Eisen &/or Vesten &/or Montaigne &/or...), the Alcalde insists on people staying calm, but the threat of xenophobia is in the air.

Ulfen is leaning towards either Legion worshippers or a potential Montaigne war criminal (Luc looks askance at that idea). Soledad suggests asking the Mother Superior at her church if she heard of anything like this before. Sister Maria talks about certain Crescent dishes and last summer about drunk Vestens running amok, but nothing is ringing a bell and she suggests that maybe someone in the Explorers Society could help them out.

On the way there, Luc (for once) makes a perception check and sees a hooded figure watching them from the top of a clothier's shop. He alerts the others as the figure ducks away. At the ES chapterhouse, they're able to talk to Julio Diega, who says he'll need a few hours to research the topic. Back in the streets of the city to kill some time, our Heroes are alerted to the sound of a fight. Running down an alley, they find four redneck Castillians versus one Eisen woman. Luc recognizes her as Greta, another former soldier under his command (and her brother is someone he REALLY wants to talk to). Luc and Ulfen jump into the fray as Soledad heads to a tavern (not even attempting to talk matters down *sigh*). Greta seems a bit antsy to see her former sergeant, but says her brother isn't well ("weak in the head after...what happened."), but she'll get back to him.

Parting ways, they hear another scream towards the bulllfighting ring! They come across Ignacio (from the first adventure), who is being tended to his panicking lackeys. Ignacio is feverish and wounded and babbling about fighting a bald, cloaked figure. He has slashes across his chest, but they look more like claw marks than from a blade. A bull has been killed, again in the same horrifying manner as before. They get Ignacio to a doctor, then notify the Alcalde, then head back to the Explorers. Luc again picks up that someone is watching/tracking them, but is gone before they can do anything about it.

Julio Diega has made progress! He suspects that what's behind the attacks could be kobolds. But they're not usually found in Castille (maaaaybe in the Forest of Fiends, but certainly not Altamira). But he gives a description, mentions that they're sometimes winged and that they also like shiny objects. A plan is devised, an unhappy goat is purchased and a lantern is borrowed from Prof. Screams-Like-a-Girl. Our heroes decide to tell the Alcalde of their idea and he confirms their suspicions by telling them of a gruesome discovery his men made at the docks. Seems a freelance taxidermist was torn apart in a warehouse -- and one of his projects was the recent corpse of a baby kobold.

Night falls, trap is set at the bullfighting ring, goat is bugged into bleating. Gargoyles attack! Ulfen targets a wing, grounding one. One starts to fly and Luc attempts some parkour! He stabs it in the wing with his main-gauche!

And breaks his ankle as both he and the gargoyle plummet back down to the ground. But soon they are all taken care of much to the collective relief of the grateful city. Ulfen now has a new pet goat.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Most of my players bagged this week, leaving just Eric, Jen, and I. Making the most of the opportunity, we played Road to Canterbury (which has a max of 3 players). I most thoroughly lost. Then, because we still had plenty of extra time, we played a game that I bought almost two years ago at GenCon, Edition Wars.

Overall review, Don't bother. On the surface it seemed like we would be trying to make sure that our edition of (whichever game we were running) would be the best. But it really turned out to be, Various GMs are trying to get the most players to play our game so we steal them from other GMs. There have been a bunch of meta gaming games (This Game Sucks! comes to mind) and all of them seem to fail in one way or another. This one suffers from poor rules explanations and a lot of cards whose outcome seems vague or misleading.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Just a head's up Mark. I may be bagging out tomorrow too, depending on the weather. We are supposed to be getting another storm, and I just finally got my car shoveled out yesterday, so that it will be easier (I hope) to keep up with shoveling it out for this storm.

Anyway, I hope the weather is not going to be like this for Total Con, or I may just have trouble getting there this year.

[Black Jack Rackham]

I figured as much. Hopefully we'll get enough to play. If not we can always wait until next time.

[Lady Grace]

Y'know, sometimes I am amazed at how good my GM improv skills can be.

I had a social event planned for my players, where Luc would run into yet another of his comrades-in-arms, albeit not a happy connection, Ulfen would catch the attention of a member of the R+C and Soledad would be drawn into a "debate" between Padre Jose and my version of Bishop Yago.

Those were all my notes.

Somehow, it turned into a missing person's hunt as the host of the party went MIA, absconding with a LOT of Ponzi-schemed $$ including a donation made from the Bishop's personal funds, two of the host's boats leaving in two separate directions, Theah's dumbest unguilded Jenny ending up ambushed into a closet, the missing man's accountant ending up in a grisly fate at the hands of the Bishop's "personal" touch and the the host himself finally turning up drunk and naked and broke in the Eisen quarter after being scammed by his new courtesan who has successfully left the city.

And Uflen finding out Luc may have been involved in the massacre of an Eisen village during the War of the Cross.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

"Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit....News Flash....Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit Due to high winds, freezing cold temperatures and tons of snow blocking her exit from the house, Laura will not be at gaming today. Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit....End News Flash....Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit-Dit

Edit: Talking about tons of snow, when I finally got out to shovel, everything I had shoveled out the last couple of days, from the other storms was gone. It was like I had not shoveled at all. The walkway had totally disappeared and become just another part of the continuous snow bank from my house to the street. I had to dig my way out through the plowed snowbank,as it was the shorter of the two ways, though if my neighbor from across the street had not come out to help me, I would still be out there shoveling to try to get out of my house. I have never been so boxed in from snow in my life, and it was kinda scarey, in the fact that if anything major had happened, that I would not have been able to go out beyond my porch.

[Black Jack Rackham]

[Black Jack Rackham]

I have not gamed for the past 4 weeks in a ROW! I swear by all that's holy, if TC is cancelled, I will murder someone!

(Seriously, I really want to play some games)

[Lady Grace]

The Deadlands game died, which is probably for the best. Instead, a Mage game has started -- and I'm sitting it out (My Mike's playing it).

I want to play more heroic characters. I want less wangst. I want to feel my actions are having an impact on the game world around me. And I'm REALLY tired of the railroading. Listening to Mike describe what happened last night leads me to think I've made a good decision on that part. But it's just frustrating.

Likewise, I don't mind GMing my 7th Sea game, but it's again frustrating getting people to confirm schedules and I'm left hanging at the last second to know if I'm on tap to run something or not.

I hate being the responsible one sometimes.

[salamanca]

I played candyland with a 3 year old that doesn't understand the concept of rules yet...pure adventure and creative awesomeness. It's like calvinball with a board and colored cards. (i got these guys up the street playing 2nd ed D&D but they refuse to name characters or interact beyond rolling dice and killing each other is expected

[Black Jack Rackham]

Busy, BUSY weekend coming up. Tonight is the monthly 7th Sea game with David and all his friends. Then tomorrow its the return of my Modern-Era Champions game at my FLGS, and finally Sunday it's back to the regular group and Board Games!

[Black Jack Rackham]

FUN Game session this week. Mark's Wacky Gaming weekend had just two players (one sicky-do, the other two at PAXEast) so I wrote a Knights of the Rose and Cross adventure starring Adara and Cowan (those subjects of the fiction in the original Knights book). I made a few tweaks of them of course (different swordschools and Cowan is now a Wandering Knight). Players loved it. And best of all, I had only a day to prep it. I love it when I am under that kind of time constraint and everything just falls into place.