What are y'all up to these days?

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
I just noticed that one of my players has written (almost unprompted:shade:) a retelling of the last session. She said it's 5 pages long, but my phone actually says "20 pages" when I opened it...I guess the reader might be set to count "phone screen pages":thumbsup:?
"What the fuck" is a phrase that seems to repeat itself a lot, BTW. I say this means it was a good session for Halloween, as it was meant to be...
(They walked around in a dream version of the inn they were in. I'll just run her account through an auto-translator for you, so no more needs to be said:tongue:).

I still felt uneasy at imposing the walk in the dream realm on them for what were basically OOC reasons - Halloween, and the fact that most of the other PCs were missing due to the players being absent - but then they said they've enjoyed it more than the usual, so I guess I shouldn't argue with success. Especially if it's at least partially my success...
I mean, I didn't do anything, it was all about what various NPCs were doing, and they were only doing what they thought was logical for their goals! (My GM fiat was in scheduling that this exact dream/trance is going to happen that specific night. It could have happened at any time that they went to a random inn outside the city, in-setting. Last session was as good of a time as any).
But that means some of my players enjoyed interacting with the NPCs I turned loose. So they're more likely to come to next session to meet them again, which counts as "success for me as a Referee", even if I didn't do anything...

Fun fact, the players think this was sent by someone who dislikes them. The reality is almost the opposite, it was a sneaky way to help them, sent by someone in the Celestial Bureaucracy, who wants to turn them against Miss Hu and Scorpion Demoness...not to mention, to warn them of the latter:grin:!
 
It seems I'm not going to get any time to run a session for the whole group this week. Since I have to also skip the PF2 session due to schedule conflicting with my job, that means it's going to be a pretty dry week, roleplaying-wise...:shade:

But all is not lost! I can run the Helloween* session for the home group. Hey, two players is better than nothing...:tongue:

And I might try and persuade the wife to continue the Art of Wuxia campaign. It beats her arguing with me by about 10k percents:thumbsup:!


*Hell-of-wine, what were you people thinking when naming it:grin:?
 
I learned the middles schools largest club is the D&D club which takes up over three classrooms when it gets together and breaks into nine or so tables.
A parent at Cub scouts wanted to know if I new anything about D&D because she was worried her son didn't know it and wanted him to have access to the friendships it helps build.

This is not my middle school experience. It's much better.
 
Bunch said:
I learned the middles schools largest club is the D&D club which takes up over three classrooms when it gets together and breaks into nine or so tables.
A parent at Cub scouts wanted to know if I new anything about D&D because she was worried her son didn't know it and wanted him to have access to the friendships it helps build.

This is not my middle school experience. It's much better.
Click to expand...
That's astounding and wonderful!
 
Bunch said:
I learned the middles schools largest club is the D&D club which takes up over three classrooms when it gets together and breaks into nine or so tables.
A parent at Cub scouts wanted to know if I new anything about D&D because she was worried her son didn't know it and wanted him to have access to the friendships it helps build.

This is not my middle school experience. It's much better.
Click to expand...

No kidding. That's not my middle school or my high school experience. What a Renaissance the hobby is having! Its like taking the 80's sales levels, but removing all the mockery and harassment, and adding even more players than ever before.
 
I'm kind of stalled on finishing my Four Color Heroics product, as I consider myself not well suited to writing adventures. To clear my head a little, I've been playing around a lot with Bing's AI Image Generator. I've been making a ton of characters for both a 1990's Iron Age setting, and a 1970's Blaxploitation superhero setting. I've been posting the characters to the Open Source Characters group on facebook, making them free for anyone to use (though saving the better renders I get for myself, so I can commission some real art to use down the road)
 
I just wrote a small synopsis of the last Art of Wuxia session for Bing (who was dutifully impressed:tongue:). So I thought I might share it with you as well...

"I decided to just Helloween-up (that's not a word, but it needs to become one) the regular session, because the players were all itching to go.
So I decided to pull forward something that an Immortal was planning to do anyway: warn them about their enemies. See, they have now two sets of enemies: a nine-tailed fox (Madame Hu) and the pair Scorpion Demoness & Goddess Hariti. Hu doesn't yet know she's their enemy, and the pair don't know it yet, either...but both of them will, soon. And then the bloodbath shall begin. They did help the Spirited Snake Mr. Feng to break off his marriage engagement to Hu, and delivered the lover of the Scorpion Demoness &Hariti (SD&H from now on) - a certain former prince and current guai/blood-drinker - to the demoness Yunu who had to cut off his head. (All of this has happened in previous sessions).
There is also an immortal that wants to sic them on to Hu, and to this end is looking to incite them to action - they don't know about this, though. I guess that was as good a time as any?
At the minimum, it allowed me to keep them close to the rest of the PCs, which is valuable in this case, seeing as only 2 players were able to join...less hassle for me to add the new players to the mix.
Though it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth:shade:.
Thus, when they went to an inn- they're to retrieve a rare flower for a client - they got into a dream without realizing they were in a dream. At the Fourth Watch, they started hearing cries of pain and moans of the same from all other rooms. At the same time, the are around the inn had become a lake due to the rain.
What they found in the adjacent rooms were rooms that didn't look like rooms of an inn...more or less spacious, more or less luxurious...because they were actually housing the victims of Madame Hu - a fox who kills or destroys the lives of people for fun. They were all in the final moments before the crash: one of them was trying to suicide. Another was just going to leave for the "mystic hermit" where she sent him (he was actually a mystic, yes...but also a cannibal, so the man never returned).
And of course, when they went to the main room of the inn, it was now a cave - the type where foxes like to live - and Scorpion Demoness was also there, chatting with Hu. From the dialogue (and they offered her some hash they had on them), they were able to conclude who she is and how she was related to Hariti and the now-deceased Prince. (Whom they call Prince Prince, because his title and family name are "wang Wang" in Chinese, just with different hieroglyphics...but reads the same way, which is "good enough" for my players).
Then they climbed up the stairs, and the world shattered...and they woke up in their beds."

Oh, and there was a fight in the main room vs some ruffians, but that one was unimportant. I'm still translating the player-written account for you, so this part is going to be in it.

So I leave this here for you to judge, guys: did I manage to run a decent Helloween one-shot:tongue:?


P.S.: Hey, I'm asking because I'm currently planning to run a Sigil&Shadow Helloween one-shot, too. Though if this one kickstarts a campaign, I'm not going to resist it, either:grin:!

Bunch said:
I learned the middles schools largest club is the D&D club which takes up over three classrooms when it gets together and breaks into nine or so tables.
A parent at Cub scouts wanted to know if I new anything about D&D because she was worried her son didn't know it and wanted him to have access to the friendships it helps build.

This is not my middle school experience. It's much better.
Click to expand...
All of this is making me think whether I could open a "D&D club" in the school my kids are in...:shade:
 
Last edited:
I am so far behind on getting Vac Suits to print. Sigh. I didn't think finishing the adventures was going to be this slow. I'm also having an ADHD allergic reaction to having to learn Affinity in order to finish layout, but that's different.
 
Fenris-77 said:
I am so far behind on getting Vac Suits to print. Sigh. I didn't think finishing the adventures was going to be this slow. I'm also having an ADHD allergic reaction to having to learn Affinity in order to finish layout, but that's different.
Click to expand...
I feel ya, with delays on my book as well. I think I'm gonna bite the bullet and release on PDF.
Art-free as an ashcan edition since my current delay is due to the art.

At least people can then buy it to tell me how much it sucks. I mean, I'd do that for them.
 
I am of two minds now about my Sigil&Shadow (belated Halloween) one-shot:shade:.

OOH, I want to add fearful geese. I'd promised to do that in the "free roaming thread":grin:!

OTOH, I'm not sure whether my players would take geese seriously enough and whether that would ruin the mood.

Decisions, decisions:thumbsup:!
 
AsenRG said:
I am of two minds now about my Sigil&Shadow (belated Halloween) one-shot:shade:.

OOH, I want to add fearful geese. I'd promised to do that in the "free roaming thread":grin:!

OTOH, I'm not sure whether my players would take geese seriously enough and whether that would ruin the mood.

Decisions, decisions:thumbsup:!
Click to expand...
It might work but it will probably go horribly wrong. The transition from, “Aw, geese” to “Oh shit this bird is going to kill us” will be hard to manage. Think of something like the Charles Band movie Dolls, it never manages it.
 
sharps54 said:
It might work but it will probably go horribly wrong. The transition from, “Aw, geese” to “Oh shit this bird is going to kill us” will be hard to manage. Think of something like the Charles Band movie Dolls, it never manages it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm thinking more about making them into inconspicuous - at first - agents of a certain power. And I might still skip it.
 
So, I haven't posted about the Sci-Fi sandbox in a while.

It turns out the distress signal and planet were a trap, our away team almost became red shirts, and indeed 2 of them did. One died outright, and the other seemed brain dead from the disruptors they were using. We brought them on, nuked the site from orbit, and headed to the nearest military base to turn over the salvage from the ship and report the incursion. The doctor was miraculously able to bring the brain dead crewmember around, but it turns out he had developed psi powers as our resident psi discovered. We put him out for his good and ours, to turn him over to the psi institute.

Everything seemed to be going well...

The AI let me know that the cameras in the med bay were out, and footage was missing. I made my way back to the ship with the engineer, the doctor, and the security officer. I realized that my memories of the crewmember had been tampered with, and he was gone, with a nurse in his place. This was supposed to fool us, but our collective memories broke whatever they had put in place for that. I put the Engineer to work checking out the repairs, the doctor to work checking out the nurse, and the security officer to work checking out what crew were onboard and the other cameras.

The engineer didn't find anything, but the security officer working with the AI found out that one crewmember had left after the others, and was in a close by bar, not moving. I sent the psi, and he found the crewmember's comm there, which is what fooled us. He also found a reference there to a locker. The doctor also found something strange out about the nurse's scans.

The security officer went to the locker, and found the crewmember that had been knocked out. I ordered that both the crew member and the nurse be sequestered until we could figure out what was going on.

That's when things went really strange from a GM perspective.

He said the crewmember chose to put in his resignation, called a lawyer, the lawyer appeared and we had to let him go. The crew was not happy when they found out we tried to imprison two crewmembers on the evidence we had.

I was a bit pissed, but held the snark to a minimum.

1. We were getting ready to lift off - the lawyer got there with the writ of habeas corpus before we could lift off? How did the crewmember communicate to the lawyer when he was under guard?
2. We had no chance to respond to his request for a resignation, nor even to try to change his mind before things went pear shaped.
3. How did the other crew members find anything out? The only people that knew what we were doing were PCs.

The GM it seems has sensed my dissatisfaction with the situation, and is now very terse, and barely responsive. We didn't get him back in the game for a few days, which wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, but I'm in another game with him and he was posting. And in that game, he's also very terse with me.

I'm hoping we can move past this and salvage it, but it doesn't feel very good. Sure those feelings could come up, but to roughshod over us and dictate that large a block of what happened just sucks.
 
chuckdee said:
So, I haven't posted about the Sci-Fi sandbox in a while.

It turns out the distress signal and planet were a trap, our away team almost became red shirts, and indeed 2 of them did. One died outright, and the other seemed brain dead from the disruptors they were using. We brought them on, nuked the site from orbit, and headed to the nearest military base to turn over the salvage from the ship and report the incursion. The doctor was miraculously able to bring the brain dead crewmember around, but it turns out he had developed psi powers as our resident psi discovered. We put him out for his good and ours, to turn him over to the psi institute.

Everything seemed to be going well...

The AI let me know that the cameras in the med bay were out, and footage was missing. I made my way back to the ship with the engineer, the doctor, and the security officer. I realized that my memories of the crewmember had been tampered with, and he was gone, with a nurse in his place. This was supposed to fool us, but our collective memories broke whatever they had put in place for that. I put the Engineer to work checking out the repairs, the doctor to work checking out the nurse, and the security officer to work checking out what crew were onboard and the other cameras.

The engineer didn't find anything, but the security officer working with the AI found out that one crewmember had left after the others, and was in a close by bar, not moving. I sent the psi, and he found the crewmember's comm there, which is what fooled us. He also found a reference there to a locker. The doctor also found something strange out about the nurse's scans.

The security officer went to the locker, and found the crewmember that had been knocked out. I ordered that both the crew member and the nurse be sequestered until we could figure out what was going on.

That's when things went really strange from a GM perspective.

He said the crewmember chose to put in his resignation, called a lawyer, the lawyer appeared and we had to let him go. The crew was not happy when they found out we tried to imprison two crewmembers on the evidence we had.

I was a bit pissed, but held the snark to a minimum.

1. We were getting ready to lift off - the lawyer got there with the writ of habeas corpus before we could lift off? How did the crewmember communicate to the lawyer when he was under guard?
2. We had no chance to respond to his request for a resignation, nor even to try to change his mind before things went pear shaped.
3. How did the other crew members find anything out? The only people that knew what we were doing were PCs.

The GM it seems has sensed my dissatisfaction with the situation, and is now very terse, and barely responsive. We didn't get him back in the game for a few days, which wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, but I'm in another game with him and he was posting. And in that game, he's also very terse with me.

I'm hoping we can move past this and salvage it, but it doesn't feel very good. Sure those feelings could come up, but to roughshod over us and dictate that large a block of what happened just sucks.
Click to expand...
Well, it doesn't look good, no...:thumbsup:

Now, it's possible that he's got an NPC who can influence memories and telepathically call a lawyer.
But then SF psychics are rarely that powerful...

Or it just could be that he's got plans for an NPC and thus saved it from "icing":shade:.

So yeah, find out which one is the case. Best approach is "my character is piecing that, so tell me, did you just GM fiat it, or can I use it as what my PC realizes", IME:angel:.
 
AsenRG said:
Well, it doesn't look good, no...:thumbsup:

Now, it's possible that he's got an NPC who can influence memories and telepathically call a lawyer.
But then SF psychics are rarely that powerful...

Or it just could be that he's got plans for an NPC and thus saved it from "icing":shade:.

So yeah, find out which one is the case. Best approach is "my character is piecing that, so tell me, did you just GM fiat it, or can I use it as what my PC realizes", IME:angel:.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel it was spilling over into the other game.

"All of a sudden I felt pain as I took 4 points of damage." That description seems... lacking. Especially as we were stalking through the night, had just disarmed their alarm traps, and it was O'dark thirty in silence. That after very good rolls on the stealth and decent on the perception.
 
chuckdee said:
It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel it was spilling over into the other game.

"All of a sudden I felt pain as I took 4 points of damage." That description seems... lacking. Especially as we were stalking through the night, had just disarmed their alarm traps, and it was O'dark thirty in silence. That after very good rolls on the stealth and decent on the perception.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I agree it sucks...:shade:
 
If anyone is loitering in the pub here and is also lucky enough to live in Brisvegas, then this is going on this weekend:
www.goplaybrisbane.com.au

Go Play - Go Play Brisbane

Join us for Go Play 2023 at the State Library of Queensland, November 11–12"The electricity in the room at Go Play is palpable...this event is a truly special opportunity to play in games run by exceptional GMs"THIS YEAR, BRISBANE’S BELOVED GAMING CONVENTION IS BAck at the State Library Of...
www.goplaybrisbane.com.au www.goplaybrisbane.com.au
Just sayin'
:thumbsup:
 
Just wrapped up today's library session & got one of the best compliments of my life! One of the players said, "You're an awesome DM!"

I've been thanked for DM-ing many times, which I appreciate, and I've occasionally been told a particular session was "fun" or "good" or etc. But, iirc, no one has ever called me "an awesome DM!" before. I'll be floating on that cloud for a while. :heart:
 
As you might guess from a thread I started, I've been prepping a short Werewolf: The Apocalypse campaign for the new year. Players assume the roles of lupus Garou, who live in the Hudson's Bay region in the late 1700s and must contend with the ever-expanding fur trade. I'm looking forward to it, though I'm concerned because 1) it's my first WtA game, and 2) it's my first WtA game. I also have to recruit from outside my usual player pool, which adds to the anxiety I'm feeling.
 
So I'm fumbling about with mechanic for a magic system. I'd like to have some ability to leave space for freeform casting but also want to include memorized spells/rituals and other talents and abilities that work off the same pool of points. Does it sound reasonable that fixed points invested in a memorized spell should be about twice as efficient as freeform casting? The trade off being efficiency for flexibility? IDK.
 
Fenris-77 said:
So I'm fumbling about with mechanic for a magic system. I'd like to have some ability to leave space for freeform casting but also want to include memorized spells/rituals and other talents and abilities that work off the same pool of points. Does it sound reasonable that fixed points invested in a memorized spell should be about twice as efficient as freeform casting? The trade off being efficiency for flexibility? IDK.
Click to expand...
So like you have a pool of points and you can cast at will spells at the cost of more points but can also cast time consuming spells for less points?
That sounds good to me, a bit similar in vein to how 5E has spells you can cast as rituals and not use spell slots.
 
Giganotosaurus said:
So like you have a pool of points and you can cast at will spells at the cost of more points but can also cast time consuming spells for less points?
That sounds good to me, a bit similar in vein to how 5E has spells you can cast as rituals and not use spell slots.
Click to expand...
Sort of. I had a picture of fixed points working in a somewhat Vancian kind of way where they are fixed via study and meditation, probably daily. So the choice is made before the moment - forecasting needs and fixing magic points is efficient but lacks the flex of being able to cast just the right spell at just the right moment. The somewhat blurry idea would also provide a lot of room for players to devise their own spells.
 
Fenris-77 said:
So I'm fumbling about with mechanic for a magic system. I'd like to have some ability to leave space for freeform casting but also want to include memorized spells/rituals and other talents and abilities that work off the same pool of points. Does it sound reasonable that fixed points invested in a memorized spell should be about twice as efficient as freeform casting? The trade off being efficiency for flexibility? IDK.
Click to expand...
How much more will really depend on how efficient you want the freeform to be, and how commonplace using it is. Personally, I'd choose some multiple less than 100% more but more than 25% more.
 
Fenris-77 said:
Sort of. I had a picture of fixed points working in a somewhat Vancian kind of way where they are fixed via study and meditation, probably daily. So the choice is made before the moment - forecasting needs and fixing magic points is efficient but lacks the flex of being able to cast just the right spell at just the right moment. The somewhat blurry idea would also provide a lot of room for players to devise their own spells.
Click to expand...
If the points are the only difference, I'd say...something like 50% more efficiency (not 100%) and maybe a +1 (but no more) to the spell check, if there is one, would sound about right to me. A twice as much bonus is too much, IMO, but if you make the fixed spell the primary approach, you can just add a "+50% spell point expenditure on top of that" for freeform casting:thumbsup:!
 
Ah, that feeling...when you realize you've got a Warhammer session in a couple hours and can't find your charsheet...:shade:


For the record, I found it, and the session went well.
 
Last edited:
Game night report. They explored the temple to the jaguar goddess. As expected they defiled the altar and one of them got 23 points of lightning bolt to a 6 hit point leg. A luck point was burned and only two weeks of healing was required. However, the technician did make a sacrifice at the sacrificial bowls and got to have. A vision of what the jaguar goddess wanted… a sacrifice! A sentient one :smile:

Then they decided to go and check out the city of the serpent men, bringing with them 15 pounds of gunpowder charge. “Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls have snitties” was said. They started scouting and discovered that there were Germans there! We ended the session on that cliffhanger.

They now have access to sorcery, theist magic (assuming they sacrifice someone), and animist magic ( if they lose a limb). I’m encouraging them to run all over and see what happens. This next one they are, almost for sure, going to get captured. Either that or they are going to steal someone to sacrifice.
 
Last edited:
Altitus: The Red Fool

An antihero who specializes in acrobatic movement and an abundance of blades. The Red Fool explores mixing Boons, Fighting Styles, and Gear.

housedok.com

The Red Fool - House Dok Productions

As part of our Gear series, we are unveiling an NPCs who will be fully introduced in an upcoming adventure. The Red Fool is a Classic antihero that complements martial talents with Exceptional throwing knives, and basic protective Gear. Because they possess both Support Boons and a Fighting...
housedok.com
 
Two things this week that you lot might appreciate:

1) just started a MythrasHammer play-by-post. The players decided they want to be a mercenary band and want to go up against beastmen, at least to start things off. So I'm praying to Sigmar, Khorne, and whoever else might care (Ranald maybe?) that this one lasts longer than my pbps usually do.

2) talked with a therapy client this week about doing fun voices for their D&D character as part of social anxiety treatment. Yes, really.
 
Dr. Mindermast said:
Two things this week that you lot might appreciate:

1) just started a MythrasHammer play-by-post. The players decided they want to be a mercenary band and want to go up against beastmen, at least to start things off. So I'm praying to Sigmar, Khorne, and whoever else might care (Ranald maybe?) that this one lasts longer than my pbps usually do.
Click to expand...
Way to go, man:thumbsup:!

Dr. Mindermast said:
2) talked with a therapy client this week about doing fun voices for their D&D character as part of social anxiety treatment. Yes, really.
Click to expand...
...Kudos for that!
And also, I'm glad "Dr. Mindermast" ain't just a nickname:grin:!


On the Warhammer 4e end: we spent a second session in the temple of Ranalt (sp?), a.k.a. the casino. I'm gambling with whatever we've managed to gather...

I lost half of my rose petals - those that were falling from the sky and crushing non-living matter (living matter feels them as rose petals) as if they weigh hundreds of kilograms. But then we also won some of the games...
-We won 40 GP. Yes, we're Warhammer PCs. We split them across the PCs present at the table (it's an open table), so 10 GP/PC. Technically I could have laid claim to them, but Anders is following the teachings of Sigmar by fostering a spirit of mutual dependency and reliance in the battle against Chaos. Yes, that's how he sees it:shade:.
-We won some info. Now we know the prophesies/visions we're getting about Ishuran and the King of Summer, are regarding the same thing; we know it means "Rabbit"; we know when he was ruling a country (the Not-Egypt of the world): 3100 Before Sigmar; and we know we have 3 months until next solar eclipse.
-I won a copy of Demonomicon. I suspect this book is part of Warhammer lore? Well, I intend to gift it to a temple of Sigmar and present it as a win.
-We also sent not one, but two messages (voice messages, apparently the Temple of Ranalt can do that...) to the Archlector, regarding the situation. Because we're in deep shit, and who else has the authority to help?
Only trouble is, we forgot to actually say who we are...:tongue:
 
Last edited:
My weekly game group wrapped up a Paranoia game and now we're doing fantasy using Savage Worlds. I'm going to give Shadowdark RPG a shot, starting with a 0-level funnel set in Carcosa called Trial of the Slime God. If that works out I have 3 more adventures in the pipe.
 
Has anyone ever tried playing paranoias setting with a d&d system and just not tell the players? I mean the first time a guy dies and their character minus the stuff shows up in the next room is gonna be a great aha! moment!
Then when they get to town each guy gets pulled aside by a faction to tell them one of the others is a traitor. And the constable giving them impossible jobs to complete. I wanna do that someday.
 
Also, we're skipping PF2 this week due to a lack days where we're all free in the evening. Bummer, I guess, but I'm merely waiting to take my PC out of the picture.

We might get to do Pulp Chthulhu over Discord, though. Depends on whether we can set it...one of our players is sick-but-getting-better and the GM is worried about catching a bug, so that's the only chance. If it happens, I'd go play on Saturday.

If that doesn't work out, I'll go to WFRP4e instead on Sunday.
I don't think I can play on both days, but I'd give priority to Pulp CoC because we haven't played in about a month.

At least we know they're going to be on different days, so I wouldn't have to choose - one of the other players has already confirmed going to WFRP4e, and prior commitments take precedence for him:shade:.
 
This week's PF 1e game involved a TPK. Fortunately, since we were in negative hitpoints but not actually dead, the GM ruled that we woke up with one point each in the midst of being prepared as sacrifices to a weird underground god. Our efforts to escape have so far been worthy of a Benny Hill rerun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top