Earthdawn: Savaged

ByDankelzahn

I’ve finally made my return to Gamemastering, kicking off a new campaign with my gaming group at the end of March. This time around I went for my long-time favorite: Earthdawn. Now that we’ve gotten a couple of sessions under our collective belt we’re settling into the swing of things.

Although I’ve turned to the familiar setting of Barsiave for this game I’ve decided to try a few new things as well, the first of which was converting this fantastic game to a system more suitable to my players.

Read More “Earthdawn: Savaged”

Deadlands – The Ballad of Chuck and Daniel

ByDankelzahn

Deadlands

We had last left the posse down one Ranger and up one mad scientist and one Harrowed guide after it was revealed a former companion was actually a skinwalker in disguise. With their new guide in tow the Rangers set off from Redrock investigate the manor where Sen. Grissom was last seen.

Located half a day’s ride from Redrock, the mansion was secluded from the main cattle trails by a smaller nearly overgrown path. The trip was uneventful other than the weather turning south as the posse approached the manor. They hoped to take shelter within from the storm while they looked around but unfortunately would find the dilapidated residence less uninhabited – and far less safe – than they had expected.

Read More “Deadlands – The Ballad of Chuck and Daniel”

Deadlands – Welcome to the Weird West

ByDankelzahn

DeadlandsWith the death of Manaburst our group has moved on to Deadlands, the Weird West roleplaying game. After two sessions I think it’s fair to say we’ve gotten back into the groove and are set to have an great campaign. I think that Luke might have some early-campaign jitters up in the GM’s chair but everyone else seems to be having a great time.

The first session took place January 20th and started out with three young Texas Rangers being called in from their field work assignments to meet with a ranger that had trained each of them at some point in the past, Elijah Peterson, in Redrock, Arizona, a small town just off the rail line. With the recent escalation of the Great Rail Wars the posse-to-be had expected to be assigned to assist the Dixie Rails but they soon found they were in for something completely different.

Read More “Deadlands – Welcome to the Weird West”

Manaburst Actual Play, Session 3 (Final Session)

ByDankelzahn

On the 16th of December we had what wound up being our last game of Manaburst. It wasn’t intended as such at the time but between holiday scheduling and the fact that the system and/or world wasn’t working for most of the players we recently decided to call the game.The session it self did answer a small number of questions but also raised many more. It’s revealed all of the constructs around the palace were apparently going through the motions of their jobs but not doing any real work – chefs cutting at empty cutting boards or servants carrying empty trays around. After the guards are dealt with the servant the group was following leads us to what appear to be the royal apartments. In four separate suits were what appeared to be the royal family, each tucked into their beds but clearly long dead.

A more thorough investigation followed and turned up some minor clues but nothing definitive. However we did eventually find the throne room and the king- and queen-bots located there. After talking to them (they were the first constructs to actually speak to us other than Failure) Failure tried to machine meld with the king and found what appeared to be a prison for the king’s consciousness, soul, or something of the like. He tried to break down the prison to free the king but that only succeeded in destroying the construct and suddenly all of the constructs turned aggressive.

We made a fighting retreat through a hidden passage in the throne room and escaped through the sewers, eventually making it out of the palace grounds. The game was called with the intent to pick back up heading to one of the nearby towns we found out about while investigating, though that won’t happen now.

It was an unsatisfying conclusion to the campaign, but moving on was probably a good idea. The system didn’t gel right for most of the players and some of them felt the setting was a little to over the top. But Manaburst was meant as an experiment to see how well the Everway-style worked for us and we found out it didn’t. It was just too ambiguous for us and strayed a bit too far from traditional task resolution systems. But now we know and can tailor future games around that.

Manaburst Actual Play, Session 2

ByDankelzahn

Session Date: 12/02/2007
Gamemaster: Prorpger

First, a few notes. My fiancee wound up coming down with a migraine on game night so we did a minor ret-con. Instead of NPCing her character, we just decided that she hadn’t appeared on the weird sphere with the rest of us. Also Luke, who directed the rock opera known as Renegade Horizon, was able to sit in for a session so he and Chad came up with a character concept real quick ahead of time. Presto change-o, start session 2.

* * * * *

After the initial shock passes the players all head in different directions and when they meet on the far side of the sphere a few minutes later confirm that it was in fact as small as they had initially though. However on the far side they do find an odd mechanical device, completely out of place in this hand-drawn world.

Read More “Manaburst Actual Play, Session 2”

Manaburst Actual Play, Session 1

ByDankelzahn

Session Date: 11/18/2007
Gamemaster: Proprger

On Sunday, November 18th, we had our second session of Manaburst. I’ve decided to split up the commentary and actual play content into separate posts. This will be the first Actual Play post of the campaign.

The game opened with Feral arriving in the city of Frostmourn – the sphere’s namesake – on a wagon she had hitched a ride on. Unlike the other settlements in the sphere which barely qualified as villages Frostmourn itself was a large walled city far larger than any other she had been to. After being dropped off a the gate Feral began exploring the city in search of the caravan heading off-world she was supposed to join.

As Feral wandered through the city, the world froze around her. The crowded streets were suddenly still and even the birds above had paused mid-flight. Although she recognized the onset of one of her prophetic visions, Feral was surprised with the speed at which this one had come on. As the color quickly drained from the world she unconsciously held her breath as she waited to see what her vision would show her.

Read More “Manaburst Actual Play, Session 1”

Manaburst, the RPG

ByDankelzahn

Ever since I read The Long Road Home, an Everway Actual Play thread over on rpg.net, I’ve been interested in the Everway setting. There’s something about adventuring in the setting – jumping from fantastic local to fantastic local – that appeals to me. I think it’s because I tend to take a visual approach to gaming; I find the idea of hopping from floating island to floating island across an endless sky then traveling to a volcanic landscape to dodge lava bursts fascinating.

In the past my problem with Everway was twofold. One was getting a hold of the Everway rulebook, long out of print. The second was training myself to be able to do task resolution based on the draw of a fate deck. That seems contradictory based on the visual way I tend to think, but my problem is that a picture can be taken so many different ways that picking one seems difficult to me. That also felt too arbitrary to me. “This card means success because I say it does” just doesn’t feel right.

I had pretty much realized I wouldn’t get a chance to play Everway, then I found Vi et Armis.

Read More “Manaburst, the RPG”

|

Where’s the Blarg?

ByDankelzahn

I’m not the first person who’s created a blog who’s slowly drifted away from regular updates and I certainly won’t be the last. Unfortunately I just haven’t had the motivation or inspiration to keep things up due to my gaming curse. Karma can bite you in the ass sometimes and after a string of pretty good gaming and scheduling, well, things took a turn for the worse.

Read More “Where’s the Blarg?”

Renegade Horizon, the Rock Opera

ByDankelzahn

A couple of weeks ago we wrapped up what was the current story arc in our Renegade Horizon game. It was a fun little campaign that ended with what our gamemaster described as a rock opera. It’s really hard to explain how this running joke ran throughout the session without disrupting things but everything just added up to a very enjoyable game.

As far as the session itself, we wound up tracking down the baron that had placed a price on our heads and kidnapped him from the compound of the cult he was heading up. After some discussion as to how to force him to remove the bounty he had placed, the idea of a psychic re-education was brought up. So that’s where we ended the campaign – as our characters were hiding out for a couple months re-writing the Baron’s psyche in preparation for when we return to the campaign later.

For now the mantle of the gamemaster is being passed off to another player who’s been prepping a SciFi game set in our solar system with an inhabitable Earth, no aliens, no “magic”, and no interstellar travel. We’ve settled on a basic concept for now – residents of a space station that has recently been invaded and occupied by an unwelcome power who have to form an underground resistance to drive them off. A couple of the players have come up with basic character concepts but we’ll be nailing down all the specifics at our next session. Should be fun!

Renegade Horizon Resumes Flight

ByDankelzahn

Renegade HorizonRecently we had the unfortunate task of putting the Star Wars: The Twilight Path campaign to rest. It was just getting to be infinitely difficult to get everyone together for a game – with only the gamemaster and the three players in this campaign if one couldn’t make the session we didn’t feel we could go on without them. So after two months of failed attempts the gamemaster signed the death certificate.

However due to karma’s attempt to balance itself out, we’ve finally been able to restart Renegade Horizon. There was a drought of gaming for a while due to scheduling conflicts for a few months where we didn’t game at all, but now we’re back, this time with a few minor changes.

Read More “Renegade Horizon Resumes Flight”