Friday, March 18, 2011

Tids and bits

- As of the 3/13 AD&D Dark Ages game this past Sunday, we've reached the 50 game milestone. That's pretty damn cool! If I were a more prepared DM, I'd have some compiled statistics and trivia, but all I got is me trying to prep for the Garycon game. If I do have a dwarf visit from another realm, it's going to be epic... the last dwarf was seen about 257 years ago by elves. Visiting characters from other campaigns though... very cool!

- The online game keeps rolling and I may have a new player. Welcome Slatz! Good luck and don't pick up any dolls. :) You might also just start cursing Kellri right now, all my other players are. It seems to rain A LOT in Skalfier. For some reason, the players blame his CDD#4...

- I started painting my Sumerian DBA I/1a army last night and realized what all shiny-new army painting n00bs realize... this shit is hard! And I was just working on the flesh areas. This is not as easy as slopping together 18 or 25 orcs...

- Been ruminating about how I'll be incorporating a megadungeon into my campaign and realized this is going to be tricky with an already skittish bunch of folks who saw a high level (for my campaign) PC die and another fall the next game. The players are convincing themselves that they're not ready for what lies to the East, although I think this is more the first time they've really struggled. The world has presented them an opportunity and while I'm not going to push them there, they've opened Pandora's Box. I'm now walking a fine line between coming off as some sort of "you must follow my plot!" DM and presenting the consequences of their actions.

"Do you hear that sound, Mr. Anderson? That's the sound of inevitability..." - Agent Smith, The Matrix


Yea. Tricky. I know how I'll navigate it (without giving anything away to the players that read this blog. *waves* Hi there!) but it's gonna be tricky. You ever run into that?

Have a great weekend!

8 comments:

Reese Laundry said...

Nice round up - good to be so busy gaming isn't it?

For the record, my experiences in Skalfier have inspired me to name my god of weather Kellri, Lord of Torrents

C'nor (Outermost_Toe) said...

They said they wanted waves, didn't they? :D

Anyway, I've now created an account (Outermost.Toe is my username) on there, and have begun reading through Landyn's arrival is Skalfier. The only problem I have is how to contact you. Do I need to start a wave, or this there some way to send you a message that I'm not seeing?

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

@Koren - busier than a tick in a kennel. Probably why I have so little content these days... too busy coming up with stuff that I can't share because players read the blog. ;)

Your deity is noted. Kellri expects lots of intoxicants and addictive drugs as suitable offerings.

@C'nor - I saw your wave that you started and I've added you to the chargen, reference and game OOC waves. Take your time, the party is currently looting a tomb. They hope.

Derek Daniels said...

In response to Agent Smith, I would say: "My name... is Dargellon!"

For the record, I don't feel like I've been railroaded in the slightest in your campaign. The characters are very much in control of their own destinies. If there are things that simply HAVE to happen because of things going on in the background (i.e. your plot), then so be it. As long as our actions have an effect on the game world, I am satisfied.

The challenges have been ramped up as of late, which is fitting as our characters gain level and power. Without giving too much away to the GM, I will say that the players have begun discussions on how best to meet those challenges, and how to be more focused on achieving our most important goals.

David Larkins said...

Just use reverse psychology: name the megadungeon "The Dungeon of Death"--they'll make a beeline for it. ;)

If you game with a trustworthy crew, you could put campaign-sensitive material behind a jump cut and just ask your group not to read anything under cuts.

Painting armies is definitely a whole other animal that requires different techniques from even painting a couple dozen minis at once. Have you checked out Dr. Faust's Painting Clinic? There's some great articles there on mass painting, like here, here, and here.

Telecanter said...

Heh, back in the day I was using weather charts and it . . . rained . . . constantly. My players started calling my world the World of Rain.

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

@Telecanter - haha! The really odd thing is that I use something similar for my Eastern Borders tabletop game (based in same campaign world, just a continent apart) and it hardly has really bad weather.

My Southern Seas players have experienced many days of rain, earthquakes, tornados and rain and more rain. It's been pretty unusual. I've had almost 3 in-game years and only last week was the first really odd weather noted.

Luck of the dice, I guess.

"Waterworld"... I should name my campaign "Waterworld"! :)

@Derek - I did see that email that Bryan forwarded to the list. My only advice is that if you guys plan something way out, please let me know so I can prepare in advance. The "we'd like an army" 3 days before the game leads to DM heart attacks... ;)

BTW, it tickles me pink that you all have started really planning. That's just awesome.

@SirLarkins - Indeed - I'm glad that 1/72 is a bit smaller and therefore more forgiving of bad painting. I did finish all 41 figures of flesh painting, which was the biggest portion, considering they're Biblicals and not fully dressed. :) It's just going to take a lot longer than my 8 hours to finish 25 orcs.

Alexander said...

I'm glad to be a part of the game! I can't wait to begin =)