Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 8

It has been a while but the adventure continues!

I have been lax on updates lately but with the winter coming and me wanting to get back to being creative I do have a couple good ideas for projects that I may work on.  And you know, keeping this campaign report going.

Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 7

Its been a while as I have mostly been posting quasi Twitter like updates on my game group's Facebook page that nobody cares about.

But Pathfinder continues:

My players couldn't defeat the Bandit Commander and beat a hasty retreat, burning up a VERY critical thing.  Thinking quickly and taking some future ideas, this is what our game has turned into!  A battle for the future and the past of Britannia!  And considering the 2 80s CRPGs I am taking ideas from (Bard's Tale and Ultima) have both had time travel elements it all sort of works together.

Besides a cigar chomping English talking Gorilla Man with Power Fist is waaay cooler than any silly Goblin...

Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 6

This is a short one but it was a short session.

I've been a mixture of depressed, angry, and lazy of late so I haven't really been in the mood to update this blog.  I do have some project ideas I might work on, and the long post explaining what really got me down the most.

Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 5

I've been lazy at getting this done.  And dying horribly in Wizardry.  However, it is finally done and now you too may see what we did in the land of Pathfinder.

I'll probably have some funny/sad table tales from a game I almost played in this week.  But money has been tight so I have been picking up hours at work.  Cuz cash in fact does rule everything around me.  Also how else will I buy a 500 dollar video card even though 80% of the games I play on my PC tend to be 10 years older or more?

Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 4

I meant to have this up last night to have my 4 posts a month minimum quota up but that didn't happen because I am a bad person with bad time management.  However its up now in its massive glory.

I even tried adding in some "funny" comments.  Hopefully my troupe of NINE players doesn't mind me putting words in their PC's mouths.

While I DO still feel bad the one new player left and really didn't give us a chance, I am obviously not going to change the entire style of the game around for him, especially when in general people seem to quite enjoy my game.  Sure its a loud rambunctious madhouse of 5-9 players all talking loudly and saying terrible things and my loud voice having to be louder to keep the chaos down to a dull roar as opposed to the Pit at a GWAR concert, (Though given some of our players they could probably out O_o GWAR if they wanted.  I keep them a lot below that.  They can go to a Cannibal Corpse show on their own!) but its FUN LIKE THAT.  Some of our players have never really played RPGs before and have told me they enjoy the monster bashing and the exploration as opposed to lots of in character discussion and such.

I really can't take that away from them for one new person who didn't really let me know what sort of game he liked.  He just claimed he had to leave about 2 hours in and basically seemed uninterested in our schedule, or any of the other games in the store I talked up.  (Like FASA Star Trek, Changeling, a GURPS Paranormal thing.  All of those games have a lot more RP in them.  My game is more a cinematic action adventure, heavily pickup based.)

I'm hoping he might come back and give us another shot but.. I won't hold my breath.  And honestly with NINE players we are probably bigger than we should be anyhow.  But folks can't always make every week which keeps things a bit saner but only barely.

Its a complete BLAST though.  And I have already declared we should play Paranoia sometime.  This group would provide so much fun for Friend Computer.

(Or what a friend on IRC said: "Kobolds Ate My Baby!".  He is wise for being from Pennsylvania!)

Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 3

Its up a bit late and its a bit short but here was our last Pathfinder game report.  3 new players AND one of our other players stopped by while not feeling well to sell me some cool ancient games for an amazing price.  (Combots, and 4 Zip Loc games.)

Yes we basically just got through with one short session.  But 3 new players, 2 never having played any tabletop RPG before got in today.  That's cool.  I now have 9 players which I will probably call the maximum I would use in any one session.  (If we were running Swords & Wizardry or X Plorers maybe more as characters are super light in stats and the rules are about the same, sans my optional X Plorer stuff.  But 2 people already have bought the MASSIVE core book and I keep debating doing the same.  It wouldn't be right to mess with folks' investment.  I play it rules light and only vaguely seem to follow the rules anyhow though.  We will endure.  Besides, the odds of everyone making it even as a biweekly game is usually pretty low.  I'll just balance for 6 players instead of 4 and tweak as needed on the fly.)

Its a very RP lite game so far.  Some PCs don't even have names.  Folks show up, I give a quick recap, they explore the dungeon.  If they want a more guided game once they leave this dungeon I will keep building as such but if they want a more sandbox one I will set that up too.

I might run the game, but without players its just ideas in my brain.  Part of the joys of tabletop RPGs is you can change rules to suit your groups' whims and needs.   You get to hang out and have fun with lots of people, some you might have never met otherwise.  You all get to build a story where luck and creativity reign supreme. 

What's not to like?

[Review Corner] Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Dungeon Master's Kit First Look

Yep.  Got the DM's kit hot off the presses and I shall share the contents with you fine folks so you can see if its something you need at least at first glance.

Well gang, now you know what your 40 bones gets you.  If you consider each adventure book worth 10 and including a map, the 3 sheets of monster tokens worth another 5, the screen worth 10, and the book being 20 bucks it adds up to a damn fair deal.  The problem is I don't quite think the DM's book stands alone, which is why they bundled it like this.  But for someone who just would want the DM book and not the adventure or screen its kind of a raw deal too.

Honestly if the DM book just didn't have so much repeated from the 2 other existing Essentials books it would be better.

All things said and done I am estimating around 150-200 pages between the 5 Essentials core books is repeated material.  If Combat is covered in the Rules Compendium why cover it in slightly less detail in the DM and Heroes books?  The section on the gods is in every book so far.  Nentir Vale is covered to some degree in most of them.  (The DM book having the biggest coverage.)

Its as if WOTC had a pricepoint to hit per book and to make the value seem better they did a lot of cut and paste.

Still good deals, but it makes for some space being wasted, and just reducing the convenience/look up fast factor of the books...

[Review Corner] Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Red Box Starter Set Part 4b: D&D Encounters part 2

As I mentioned last week, I gave D&D Encounters a shot, recreating Rufus using the proper Essentials rules in about 10 minutes and then running him with the folks in The Keep on the Borderlands remake.

I returned this week with about 8 of us playing in one group.

This week we found a bank on fire.  Upon entering it we found multiple Fire and Water Elementals causing trouble, the Fire ones leaving little bits of the place burning.

We went in to fight, getting to experience continuous damage effects via fire that caused damage per turn, with a 50% chance to "save" against the effect at our actions' end each round.  A nifty puzzle element was added, plus clues as to where we were going next.

My continued reading of the rules kept me being the de facto helper player, showing folks how to Charge and Run, plus having the Essentials rulesbooks let me help flesh out PC abilities which were only summarized on the pregenerated sheets everyone else was using.  (One of the Clerics had an error on their card, it not listing that his "Smite Undead" power only worked on Undead while the other Cleric's and the Essentials Heroes book said it was UNDEAD ONLY.)

I discovered more effective uses for my Knight.  See Rufus has an "Aura" you can activate as a minor action.  Anyone adjacent to him targeting anyone but him or another character with that same aura activated take a -2 to hit anyone else.  Having this activated also allows for attacks on anyone attacking or shifting.  Which looks to include Opportunity Attacks.  So when my teammates moved past me to get in (and try to avoid taking damage from the fires spouting up everywhere) the monsters got an Attack of Opportunity.  With a -2 because of my aura.  And I got a free attack on the monster, that even if I miss, I do my Strength Bonus in damage to it!  (Which is +4 as Rufus is 18 STR.  But remember "Minion" monsters don't take Miss Effect damage.)

Now a vindictive DM is eventually just going to target us Knights with this active, though as we have 11 Healing Surges and normally the best Armor Class and highest Hit Points, this sort of works.  Like in an MMO, we become the "Tanks" the monsters go for, leaving our buddies alone.

Which lets them do COOL STUFF.

Like our Rogue.  As in my reviews, I have mentioned "Combat Advantage" which you get for various situations.  A main way to get it is to have 2 characters/monsters directly opposite of each other surrounding an opponent.  This provides a +2 bonus to hit.  Now Rogues gain an extra 2D6!!!  damage against something they have Combat Advantage on.  And once per encounter a Rogue has an Encounter Power adding an additional +3 to hit and an extra 1d6 damage.   Our Rogue hit one Elemental for 1d4+6 (Rogues using light weapons use their Dex bonus to hit and damage, with an extra +2 to damage on top.  I assume he was Dex 18) +3D6.  Now at 30th level the bonus dice would be 9D6 not even counting improved stat bonuses and magic gear!

Yes kids, there is MASSIVE numbers inflation in Essentials as compared to pre 4e D&D.

Then after we won we found a Level X Magic Item.  Instead of it being preset and secret, in 4e you KNOW what they are without needing to Identify them, and in Encounters' case whoever got the item gets to decide what it is based on an "Appropriate to Your Level" chart.  I voted the Rogue should have gotten it for that Billy Bad Ass attack (That I helped him with both in giving the Combat Advantage AND explaining how it all worked), but we ended up rolling off and the long term 4e player (running a Wizard who did some nifty stuff too really) got it, meaning he is upped first, but is now out of the running for the loot for a while.

I am still enjoying the game.  Its still not much RP, but it is very fun as a Braunstein.  And it doesn't take all too much time to play out each week, giving me at least a LIGHT RPG fix.

(One week will be tricky though.  Game starts at 6 where I play it, and a friend gets out at 6 and we should be going to The Dark Manor Haunted House in Norwich CT on a Wednesday so one day I will be engaging foul monsters then driving 20 minutes quickly after the game to go through a more fancy setup of spooks and ghouls.)

I am going to attempt to make it each and every Wednesday that I can at least for the Keep adventure and will keep y'all updated with rules I discover, filling in the gaps from my series of review comics.

[Review Corner] Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Red Box Starter Set Part 4a: D&D Encounters

Call this a non comic like subreview.

For those not in the know, WOTC provides many game shops with a Wednesday afternoon game series called Dungeons & Dragons Encounters that they have been running for a good year or so now.

Unlike my attempts to recruit gamers, both the stores I have been to that run this program have 4-12 people show up every week to play.

Encounters is a "season" adventure suite using the 4e ruleset with an adventure for stores to run with DCI (WOTC's DM/Magic Tourney sanctioning thingie) qualified DMs.  Basically you show up with no RPG experience needed and play a D&D 4e encounter and over the course of a quarter of a year or so you play an adventure, with no real requirements to be there each week.

Each encounter takes about an hour or two to play with pregenerated characters available.  Depending on your actions throughout the series of encounters you collect Renown Points which do.. something and your character gains normal XPs and the like to level up.  (For example, I made my own character and gained a number of RP for doing so while the other 3 players did not.  However they had been there the week before when this season began and gained some RP for hitting a "Milestone", something I will get to further on in my Essentials review series.)

This season is D&D Essentials, and is a remake of "Keep on the Borderlands", one of the most fondly remembered D&D modules.  I have run the Basic D&D version of it myself, though we never finished it sadly.  (Players not showing up and all.)

So... what is it like?  Well, there was almost ZERO roleplaying.  There was some opportunity for it, but no serious need.  There was enough people to split into two groups, and I joined the one with less 4e experience.  Due to my reading of the Red Box Player's Book and my skimming of the DM's book and the first 2 Essentials books (Heroes 1 and Compendium as I will call them) I was helping the experienced in 4e DM teach the rules to the new and returning to D&D players.  Much like a long ago 3.0 campaign I became the "Rules Bitch" because I am rather good at either retaining basic rules knowledge, or being able to find said rules QUICKLY.

In this regard we can safely say the Red Box teaches what you REALLY need to know for D&D 4e Essentials quite well.  In fact I could say you could all but pass on Rules Compendium and just buy one of the Heroes book and get along fine if you have Red Box.  (Much information is repeated in my two books, and I am sure the next Heroes book will continue this.  Its understandable WHY they do this, but its also sort of wasteful IMHO.)

The encounter itself was a fight against a couple bandits and their Halfling boss.  Sadly I learned at least at low levels there is no "Guard" ability that gives you a free swing at guys moving into base contact.  I was able to QUICKLY rebuild Rufus for Encounters using the Heroes book.  It took me like 10 minutes or so, and that was just because I was being careful to do things properly and doublecheck my work.  (He isn't TOO different from his Red Box version, though he only has 2 of those combat stance things, and I chose different armor and feats.  For you 3.x fans know that Cleave is no longer ridiculous, but is BRUTALLY useful against those 1hp "Minion" type monsters.)

I probably took the least damage of anyone, due to a bit of luck and decent tactics which I helped the rest of the players with, also reminding them of racial powers and their other neat abilities.  (Humans have a gloriously cheesy Racial Encounter Power that lets them add +4 to any D20 type roll they don't like.  Pretty much giving you a single +4 roll per encounter.  That's BAD ASS.)

But was it all fun?

Yeah.  It was.  Now this is Essentials 4e and still Level 1 play where things are simpler and there isn't a ridiculous laundry list of powers and abilities to keep track of so things may change further on.  (Not to mention monster HPs can get into the THOUSANDS at high level play.  Seriously.)

Will I go back and play some more?

Sure!

I do recommend that if you want to try 4e the Encounters program is a great way to do it.  It doesn't take a long period of time per week, and its currently using the Essentials stuff as opposed to the ridiculous amount of options and powers full on 4e has.

If you want a Braunstein game you could do worse than to give it a shot.

Just... don't expect D&D as it was for the first 30 odd years.

Because it isn't.

I'll continue to explain WHY as this series continues.

[Connecticon 2010 Week] CTCon Week Part 3: Ultimate Werewolf

Continuing my blogging of Connecticon 2010 events is something I played in Saturday Night/Sunday morning.

A Werewolf/Mafia game.  In this case, Ultimate Werewolf which adds a TON of specialist cards as opposed to just the simpler amount of player types in norma Mafia and Werewolf games.

And it sort of needed it as we had nearly 30 players in one game.  At 2-3 AM.

Some background:  See the convention center charges entirely too much to allow for 24 hours in the center.  The first year the convention was at the center (my first year going and the first year the convention center itself was opened) it was 24 hours but there were lots of charges that ended that.

(And nearly ended the convention itself.)

However last year at least they added plenty of things in the Marriott hotel ballrooms and meeting rooms which helped.  Like the ever popular rave and such which keeps some convention fun going past midnight though to a smaller scale.

So this year the overnight gaming room which was somewhat sparsely populated last year (and a fine place to hear lots of con staffer gossip) actually had some big action this year with a fellow running Werewolf there.  I got into the last game of the night which was pretty huge.

If you do not know how the Werewolf type games work here is the basics:

You are in some small rustic community.  Something evil killed an NPC.  Each night the evil chooses to kill someone new while various mystics try to figure out who is the evil.  During the day everyone votes on who they think is one of the evil beings and then that person is either killed or survives another night.

The night time stuff is done by everyone putting their heads down and eyes closed with the Game Master telling Player Role X to open their peepers and do whatever it is they can do.

See at the game start, everyone is dealt a role card face down.  Hiding this information is crucial, especially in larger games where there are multiple evil beings.

There are cards like the Seer which can choose to look at a card to see what they are and the like.

Ultimate Werewolf adds in tons of new roles such as the Tanner who hates his job so much he WANTS to die, the Frankenstein which gets the abilities of any role he can kill, and the Pacifist who isn't allowed to vote to kill anyone.

(Here is the starting game picture with as many possible people as I could in the game in the shot.  It was such a massive game a few folks still got cut out.  You can see my face down card in the lower right corner.)

I had the good fortune to draw the Tanner, meaning my victory condition was to get myself killed.  I did so by seconding the nomination to have a player killed then voting for them to live, abstaining from votes, and not doing a very good job defending myself the first time I came up for extermination.

(Here is from later on, a round or two after I was killed, officially winning the game, me doing Devil Horn hand gestures in memory of Dio.  You can see not many people are left in this corner.  There were so many of us the GM had some trouble keeping everyone quiet, especially some of the numbskulls who were dead yet making commentary on everything that could bork up the game.  The person most of you are probably looking at in this photo tried to help keep folks on task, yelling "SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTHS".  I found this incredibly hot.  I'm just sayin'!)

Thanks to my mad skills at being a straight man and keeping my poker face (no relation to Lady Gaga thankfully!) I was the main winner but they kept playing to see if the Werewolves or the other various classes got their objective.  

It was neat how we all got some light roleplaying at introducing ourselves.  We had 2 people saying they were our moms, 2 merchants (I called them Wal Mart and Target), I claimed to be the town Druid, and lots of various funny bits.  If there had been a second game I probably would have said I was Gordon Ramsay, and tell people to get out of my kitchen, their food was RAAAWW, and calling them all DONKEYS.

(Here you can see the surviving werewolf who won the game if we ignore my awesome victory choosing his victim for the night.  The people with their heads down are players not killed off yet.  In a show of good taste, both of the Naruto fans were early victims and are thus heads up watching the proceedings which is sometimes more fun than still being in the game as you get to chuckle at all the silly mayhem and stupid antics you were once a part of, but now know the real score.)

I have to say if you ever have a chance to play in a big Werewolf/Mafia game it is a lot of fun, and a great party game that anyone can learn or pick up super fast.  Ultimate Werewolf is probably the biggest version yet which adds in a lot more complexity, but also allows for massive games such as this you really cannot get outside of a convention environment.

Thanks to everyone in the game it was a good time!

Retroclones Primer and: Swords and Wizardry: First Look

Some background: Over at www.theRPGsite.com last week there was a thread about retroclones. For those of you uninitiated, a retroclone in the RPG sense is an RPG designed to pretty much be a modern version of a classic RPG with very little changed based on legality and copyright laws.

Many fans make these games as a labor of love, and to permit new products to be made for their favorite long out of print RPG system. Which is of course mostly versions of Dungeons & Dragons, made easier thanks to the Open Game License which allows for VERY close approximations of old classics.

These games are usually FREE to download in a PDF format, with a normally at or slightly above cost edition available for purchase from a print on demand site such as Lulu.

Well, a couple years back I purchased the Basic D&D retroclone known as Basic Fantasy, which is an ascending Armor Class 20 level rendition of Moldvay/Cook edition Basic D&D in a lovely spiral bound version for 10 dollars. It has since been updated and I sort of feel out of the loop on that. (Plus, I have multiple ACTUAL Basic D&D sets in print which sort of negates the need!)

For laughs and because it was highly recommended I downloaded and printed out the latest version of Swords and Wizardry (visit www.swordsandwizardry.com to get it yourself!). Why? Well, Swords and Wizardry is based on ORIGINAL 1974 Brown and White Box D&D with a few things taken from the supplements. Except it is readable, understandable, removes some of the Garyisms you either love or hate, and the artwork and layout is DAMNED good for a free to download fan project. (Though purchasable support is available for it in their Knockspell magazine, and in Fight On!, another retro D&D fanmag. I have 2 issues of the latter coming in the mail, so perhaps I will do a review of them in the near future.)

I started flipping through it, and found it to be a simple and QUICK RPG system, something I have always wanted for quick pickup games when people don't show up for whatever reasons, but we still want to get some RPG gaming in. Characters fit on a half page of paper really, and that's for the DETAILED version of them.

Attributes are simple, and modifiers are merely -1 for 3-8 , 0 for 9-12, and +1 for 13-18. Movement is based on weight carried and basic adventuring items are just a simple generic "it weighs 10 pounds for your basic adventuring gear", assuming that players and DMs will show some common sense. There is a single saving throw, a fairly large but not ridiculous list of weapons and gear, a fair amount of spells, and a quick light combat system that can use either D20 ascending AC (Unarmored AC is 10. Add your attribute and class level bonus to hit to a D20 roll. Equal or beat target AC and you hit and do damage based on weapon type.) or classic descending AC which uses the THAC0 system so many people hate.

Being a cleaned up original D&D its appeal is how EASY AND FAST it is to play and run, and how being so simple, the game group can tinker with it to add in or muck about and make it what they want to play. Plus it assumes the DM and players can wing it, and don't need endless rules for everything. I have a notebook handy to keep track of house rules I put into play as interesting situations come up, and many things I just say "Ok, do this and you can do that!" to.

Here is an example from our play. One of the players wanted to have a Longbow that could be used as a quarterstaff in close combat. No rules for that in the book. Well I said "Sounds reasonable. Pay the costs of BOTH items and add 50% and you can do it." the player chose NOT to, but the old school rules light feel encourages such things by not being tied down to a large, rigid, and detailed system.

WING IT.

Another example was one of our players did not want to pay for both a torchbearer AND a hireling to push around a handcart in the dungeon. So he asked if he could affix a lantern holder to the cart. This is very clever. But it could be potentially cheesy too. I told him to roll a D20 equal to or under his intelligence to see if he could make it. He did, and thus he can now have a lantern swinging off a pole affixed to the handcart.

We started getting things moving, and as it was late we had only a short time to explore the dungeon I was loosely basing off the starter dungeon layout in the rulesbook (which will probably now be seen and printed out by the players. Yeah you may know where the secret doors are, but its mostly an unwritten dungeon so I am populating it with traps and creatures and treasure!) so they got to explore a couple hallways, avoid a simple trap, engage in a fight with some Hobgoblins, and get some treasure. We nearly had a character killed, but it was all due to the dice. They did some roleplaying, and now have some money for further expeditions.


Our Elf, Cleric, and Dwarf fight some strange Goblin like men who are guarding a treasure chest and a desk. What will they find out? Can they survive their first battle? Its up to their wits and the luck of the dice!

In play I am finding it even easier and faster than Tunnels and Trolls, but it could be due to my familiarity with Dungeons & Dragons in most of its' incarnations.

I am quite enjoying it, and will look forward to it being a long term pickup game. Someone doesn't show? Well, whoever is here can take their characters into the dungeon to explore, and when we call it for time if possible the characters leave the dungeon until the next expedition.

I will most likely use the megadungeon concept as it works best for an oldschool game, and I have a few ideas as to a simple campaign narrative. With Games Workshop's War of the Ring mass combat system for Lord of the Rings coming out, I may make it a simple Middle Earth setting with the PCs exploring a massive mountain complex shortly after the fall of Sauron. I have plenty of Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Uruk Hai, and Haradrim I can use on the tabletop, plus with it being the end of an age, who is to say more D&D monsters haven't shown up due to the end of such dire magics? Maybe some of Sauron's dark energies have created new beasts who call this great cavern complex home?

I cannot give it a full review yet as I have actually only read a good 10-20 pages of it, and just winged the rest of it. Of course, most of the pages are spell and monster descriptions anyhow so its not a bad thing anyhow.

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 5

(Transcribed from an IRC conversation.)
{No, not a real one. Its my characters talking to each other.}

YOU HAVE JOINED #teamkermit
MESSAGE OF THE DAY: "Little kids shouldn't see people killing each other." - Amuro Rey, Mobile Suit Gundam
Rufimus_Primal has joined the chat
Staffmeister has joined the chat.

Staffmeister: What's up? I was organizing my music. This better be important.
Rufimus_Primal: We had another Lost meetup at TC on Valentine's Day.
Staffmeister: I HATE that day. Just means more people come cryin about the STD they got at some bar 'round 2AM.
Rufimus_Primal: If that was the worst thing that happened it would have been a good day.
Staffmeister: Oh no. What did those druggies do THIS time?
Rufimus_Primal: The area is full of drugs and scum. But we had.. problems.
Staffmeister: Well, considering my only problem is that Kari Byron is preggers and I am not the baby daddy I suppose I can listen to you whine some more. Go on. It sounds like a good time for a cup of tea anyhow.
Rufimus_Primal: Well there were LOTS of people this time.
Rufimus_Primal: Soultaker, this armored guy who just growls a lot and wants to kill and get vengeance on everyone who hurt him.
Staffmeister: So he is an emo Batman type then?
Rufimus_Primal: The problem is he is really powerful. Possibly too powerful. He doesn't believe in justice, just getting even.
Staffmeister: Hey we were in the Navy. What do you do with a cranky douche? Take him to some sleazy bar on shore leave. That will clear him up while giving some cougar a few minutes where she forgets how her life turned out.
Rufimus_Primal: That's not nice dude.
Staffmeister: But its true. Keep going.
Rufimus_Primal: There was also Halyon Rex, who mostly made dumb rude comments about me.
Staffmeister: That's my job Gaia-dammit. Someone has to straighten you out and it'll be me.
Rufimus_Primal: Roderick the weapons maker guy was back too.
Rufimus_Primal: As was Dion the ogre, and Darryl.
Staffmeister: You mean Darryl the Winter King who for some reason you think you can make a heroic type? He is a Winter. They are pansies.
Rufimus_Primal: I don't give up on anyone dude. Everyone has the heart of a hero, it just needs to be brought out. If I believe in them, maybe they will believe in themselves.
RUFUS CHANGES MESSAGE OF THE DAY: "Don't believe in yourself. Believe in the me that believes in you." - Kamina, Gurren Lagann
Staffmeister: You and your cartoons. The world isn't like a cartoon.
Rufimus_Primal: I know. But it should be. :(
Rufimus_Primal: Mia showed up later, plus this quiet spy kinda guy with wings.
Rufimus_Primal: Plus 2 other guys showed up later too, but I will get to them in time.
Staffmeister: Ok, so we have the Dramatis Personae. Let's hear what happened. Last time y'all fought some of the army by their camp and that Mirrorskin douchebag went off to try to Solid Snake up their ammo tents.
Rufimus_Primal: Well he didn't come back. And we got a visitor telling us the Goblin Market was open today for our yearly visit. Because of all the havoc we caused there were restrictions.
Rufimus_Primal: Only 2 people at a time could enter. Myself and Rex went in first while Soultaker went out to kill things.
Staffmeister: So while you were shopping this Soultaker guy was out 'Sperging like a mofo?
Rufimus_Primal: Pretty much, yeah.
Rufimus_Primal: There was a bunch of stuff to buy, some of it useful, other stuff just trinkets from plain old normal real life.
Rufimus_Primal: One item we found there was something of David's the Goblin seller said his people found in the Hedge, but he wouldn't tell us exactly where or take us to it.
Rufimus_Primal: The prices for the items were really wierd though. Prices like an hour of our day, and other things. I didn't take the risk even though some of the things could have come in handy.
Staffmeister: "Trust no one. Shoot straight, and never EVER make a deal with a dragon."
Rufimus_Primal: Yeah. I am not a gambler. Taking a risk for these things just isn't worth it.
Rufimus_Primal: Roderick, Dion, and Soultaker returned from their explorations in killing and brought a letter back they found on one of the patrols, listing that David was captured by the general Jonathan Burgoyne (Aka Red Jonny) and they had some sort of super weapon that can demolish wards.
Staffmeister: Holy Galactic Empire Batman. Except late 70s-early 80s Carrie Fisher I would go to the Death Star to rescue. Silvery-McDouchebag? Not so much.
Rufimus_Primal: Nobody stays behind. We ARE our brother and sister's keeper.
Staffmeister: And now I feel like a dick.
Rufimus_Primal: What else is new? Its what you get being a Corpsman and all. ^_^
Staffmeister: What's wrong with helping people? Oh right. Most people are IDIOTS. That's my problem.
Rufimus_Primal: Anyhow, Rex suggested ambushing another patrol to see if they had the same letter as that could let us know if it was a trap or not. Everyone but myself and Mia went on this one. I don't have the strength to hold back Soultaker so its best I stayed back.
Staffmeister: You finally learned something from me. Being the idealistic goodie goodie you are is great. But there is a time and a place to die for your ideals.
Rufimus_Primal: That sounds HORRIBLE. I was mostly guarding the base. I'm not fond of Hedge excursions. And if the bad guys arrived someone had to protect the freehold, as pointless as it is.
Rufimus_Primal: It was good I did. We were attacked by Jonny and 30 of his troops. I took a few shots at him with my pistol, but he went incorporeal and it went through him.
Staffmeister: How fun.
Rufimus_Primal: Mia went invisible and ran out, so I fell back, and made some phone calls.
Staffmeister: Yet another example of why you should stop putting any faith in these people.
Rufimus_Primal: I can get through to them. I know I can.
Staffmeister: Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you can Care Bear Stare them into being useful.
Rufimus_Primal: Its like the wards weren't even there. They passed right through!
Rufimus_Primal: The others found an enemy patrol and killed it, finding a map with patrol routes.
Rufimus_Primal: We then all met up to plan a counterattack.
Staffmeister: By plan you mean argue right?
Rufimus_Primal: What else is new? -_-.
Rufimus_Primal: Anyhow the assault team brought 2 more Lost with them, a sniper kind of guy and a handyman type.
Staffmeister: So you had Tim the Toolman with you?
Rufimus_Primal: I guess. Maybe. We were sort of busy. We originally planned to assault from the front and the back, except as usual the bickering lead to dallying. Mia went off to get a hold of her friend who could help us.
Rufimus_Primal: You won't believe who it was.
Staffmeister: The Pillsbury Doughboy?
Rufimus_Primal: No. April, the Spring Queen.
Staffmeister: The drunken chick?
Rufimus_Primal: Yeah, and she was dead SOBER.
Staffmeister: Who would have guessed. Maybe there is hope for those schmucks after all.
Rufimus_Primal: Since reinforcements were arriving, we went in from the back, yet some of us went into the Hedge and captured Jonny. I sorta jumped into the Freehold fight and got stuck in.
Rufimus_Primal: So as to keep Soultaker from eating Jonny's soul, I chose to take him out myself. I gave everyone a chance to speak up on his behalf, to hopefully give me some reason, ANY reason not to kill him for his crimes. Nobody said a thing.
Staffmeister: What a surprise there.
Rufimus_Primal: So I took him out. At least his soul didn't get eaten.
Rufimus_Primal: Then a goblin arrived with David's box thing. It had Maude's head in it.
Staffmeister: Ding dong the witch is dead.
Rufimus_Primal: It had a letter in it. This was all David's plan to get rid of his competition. He was playing us for fools.
Staffmeister: What a surprise there.
Rufimus_Primal: And I trusted him. I am not amused. Its like the harder I try the further I fall.
Staffmeister: Hold that thought. Its my idiot sister. She is causing trouble and I have to go deal with this. Don't get yourself killed for those dumbasses before we can talk again.
Staffmeister HAS DISCONNECTED
Rufimus_Primal HAS DISCONNECTED

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 4

This one is just text. A TON happened at this month's game and the thought of doing it comic style frightens me. Plus I have too many other projects and things I am working on right now. Painting, getting more content for the Adamythryl Engine, just fun stuff.. maybe even the HORROR of getting a life. Oh wait. That one never works. :(

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War Journal Update 10 Jan 09

Eric.
On the 10th of January, I sent a comrade to what may be his doom. I know you want to be kept informed of what goes on at the Freehold, but this was a hard situation to update you on. But I will tell you what happened, and hopefully you can see the kinds of challenges I face in trying to build a brotherhood here in Connecticut.

Since December, David had discovered Maude's location within the Hedge. Her exact location, this time for sure as opposed to a wild guess. We also had to bring Darryl (the English fellow who was willing to sacrifice himself during the Sid incident over the Summer where I became Summer King) into his position as the Winter King, made more difficult as he and the quiet tall woman Mia are the only two Winter Court members nearby.

(Mia being mostly insular and quiet and not believing in herself. I have been trying to get her to open up, rarely with any luck.)

We had guests from New York, their Summer King, a Naga like man known as Nemo, and his Marshal, a Dragon like formed fellow by the name of.. ahh.. damn. Forgot his name. I REALLY need to do better at remembering names. :( We were joined by a new local, a hulking ogre by the name of Dion.

The Baba Yaga like hut David had found was in fact Maude's residence in the Hedge, so we began planning our assault, with our incredibly powerful New York guests in tow. We left a message for any other Lost who would arrive at the freehold later on, and headed to her old cabin in the woods to enter through a portal. Our angry booze selling Summer I mentioned? You know, Erin? She would be one of the few to receive our message and join us. And with the usual amount of grousing.

(I swear she and David are in competition for being the crankiest!)

Given our typical luck, David forgot how to actually open the portal, but with a little energon and a LOT of luck, we discover how to open it, which lead inside her hut. We find a fire elemental trapped inside her fireplace, writhing in pain. Removing him lead us to discover he was a Lost, burning in agony. We put the fire out, and anonymously got him to a hospital.

(With the amount of us who end up there on a regular basis we should probably be getting frequent patient miles. Or some really good insurance.)

We take what few books are found to be worthwhile, and the crew that went into the hut itself found a birdlike man's set of bones, charred and staked to a post. There was a sigil clawed into the wood. The crew that went in decided to burn it down, and eventually they all met back up. (Yes, someone got separated. Quite foolish. Always stick with your squadmates!) Of course, now our secure portal to the hedge no longer exists.

I can only do so much. I also find out that the captive soldier we grabbed a few months back, Doug, was no longer staying with my dad who apparently missed him leaving one day. I really need to get pops off the bottle. I am getting him to move and get a new trailer somewhere else. Hopefully it will keep him out of danger. And we REALLY need a better place to hold captives.

(That reminds me. Have you found out where Mr. Stewart went yet? I found my dad, you should be able to get back yours, even if he is a private detective and well capable of knowing how to avoid being found. You came back from being missing so there is no reason for him to be searching for you, right?)

We discuss what to do next. There is an enemy camp in the Hedge with over 200 soldiers there. We finally notice Mia has arrived, hiding herself in plain sight as usual. Our plan turns into a recon mission. One team will form a distraction while the other is a secondary. This gives time for the Dragon Marshal to fly over the camp and see what he can see, given a boost into the air thanks to Dion and his Ogre-ness.

While planning continues, we attempt to get Mia to acknowledge Darryl as the Winter King so he can take his place in running things. We show her the symbol from the post, and we begin to have an idea that the previous Winter King, Dave, may have been the poor soul tied to it. With some coaxing from both of us, we lead Mia to Maude's cabin so she can see some of these things for herself. Again, the Hedge hut being burned down meant we couldn't show her the body itself. We did however show her the altar in the woods David has been putzing about with. Darryl not being the most evasive of people answered David's cell phone call with what we were doing in a level that angered him enough to show up there, even as I tried to mitigate the damage. David didn't want anyone going near the altar, but Mia wanted to see it for herself and I saw no reason for her not to. David may be one of us, but anything someone wants nobody else to go near is something that needs a second pair of eyes to check up on. And my deal is fighting for my brothers and sisters, my claws slashing the darkness. This magical stuff is not my strong suit!

He showed up and groused some, but we were able to calm his grouchiness down enough. Darryl then officially became Winter King, and that was that! On to the recon mission!

It goes off well to start. We fire a couple sniper rounds into some of the guards (dressed like Revolutionary War troops! Greatcoats and everything!), and then the other team gets into action when they are distracted, causing more havoc, and the Dragon gets airborne. But they see him and launch a flaming person at him from a catapult! We take some shots at our scout's new passenger, but it fails to dislodge him. He ends up crashing to remove the poor fellow, and the rest of us scatter and head back to the Freehold.

Our plan there now becomes one of disruption. We decide to take out their ammunition tents as that will not only slow them down, but demoralize them and give us and other Lost a better chance against them. We set up an ambush against their patrols, with David taking advantage of the propaganda against us that claims we current Summer and Autumn Kings are Loyalists. He tries to convince them he needs some of their ammunition to deal with rogue elements. (Which are really US mind you!) But its so badly done they refuse and PLAN B happens where those of us hiding move out to kill and capture the patrol. This works, with lots of painful hits taken (man these loyalists WILL NOT let go of their weapons regardless of how hard they get hit!), except everyone is so worked up, the entire patrol gets killed.

And with that failure David decides there is no other option but for him to attempt to morph his looks into one of the Loyalists we have fought, and to quietly sneak into the camp, find out the information we need, and sneak back out. His odds are not very good.

Eric, we may have lost one of our brothers to this plan. I could not stop him from trying such a risky and foolish stunt. I have yet to hear back from him, and his sacrifice may have even been in vain.

But for now, I watch, I wait, and I hope.

Your friend,
Rufus Landale

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Yeah, a lot happened this session, and with time tight, and my projects many, this month its just a prose format. I have plans for another way to do pure text reports, but this month I didn't feel like going too crazy and inventive, and my idea had the chance to be more important than the information being relayed. Which in such an eventful month is not such a good idea. I will save it for when its needed. Plus it will be a good introduction for my other Changeling character, and his Hunter sister.

Eventually this blog will introduce you readers to most of the characters that ramble about in my head, though in many cases they will be tweaked to fit whichever game system and universe I am bringing them in to. If comics legend Osamu Tekuza could have a "studio system" where his characters were used in various stories and genres, why can't I?

Ok, BESIDES the lack of skill and talent. I already know that part...

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 3

The extra special holiday comics episode! Its written as if my character Rufus is sort of out of whack due to painkillers and numerous injuries sustained from fighting an evil beastie. No insult to other players or their characters is intended outside of me finding it mildly amusing to see what is going through Rufus' head due to said injuries and painkillers.













I hope everyone will enjoy the silly! Its actually sort of what happened, just in an abbreviated form. Plus Rufus' currently addled brain making himself a bit more heroic and all...

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal Part 2

I have been lax on these! Now I have two game sessions worth to report on. Unlike last time, bold is ST stuff, and Italics is out of game bits, and normal text is in character text. Cuz I felt like doing it this way!

OCTOBER
Teaser: "Join the Loyalist Army! Turn your friends in today! All traitors
will be spared!"
This is what greeted the Lost of Willimantic when they entered the Thread
City Cafe last month. Letters were delivered to the Lost, secret notes were
left, all pointing fingers at others saying they were a loyalist. Who can
you trust? The traditional Summer King, Sid, was killed in August and the
new King, Rufus, is still new and untried. The Spring Queen, April, has
been kidnapped and is being being tortured by a new force in town called the
Scorpion. As Autumn approaches, will the traditional Queen, Maude, be up to
the task of setting things to right in the city or will she meet with a
similar fate as the other two monarchs?

It has been a troubling time for us in the Lost. The Loyalists are trying to confuse us and throw us into disarray.

Its working well.

We had some folks from Virginia here to help us, a rather strange trio who seemed to have a thing for "efficiency". Between them and the regulars getting this group organized is proving to be a difficult task!

We came up with a plan to rescue April from Scorpion's bar hideout. One of us was sent to get April ready by morphing herself into a coin that our mirror visaged friend David dropped into the room after he transformed himself into a ganger type. I believe the coinformer was named Nothing. As I said, the Virginia folks were a little... odd.

As we needed an Autumn king I nominated David to run things at least in the short term, and the other local members of the Lost agreed enough and it was done.

This is sort of coming back to bite me though. We do not exactly see eye to eye even though we have similar objectives and ideas on how to take care of things.

We split up into two teams, one of which went to confront Scorpion who was within the Hedge, and I backed up our blacksmith as we sent Scorpion's den of evil into the dust, albeit with a few dead gang members along the way besides the ones now buried under rubble. No matter. Criminal scum like that shouldn't be left alive anyhow.

The other team confronted Scorpion and killed him, rescuing April. He thought we were the loyalists alongside April! But what kind of sick monster would do the things he did to her regardless of her actual allegiance and actions?

Nobody who deserves to live.

NOVEMBER
Last month the Lost formed a plan to go rescue the Spring Queen April from
the clutches of a sinister figure known as the Scorpion. Dog sized scorpions
and a building falling down on top of them were not enough to stop them and
April was brought to safety.
The long reigning Autumn Queen Maude is nowhere to be found. Her shop is
boarded up and abandoned. Has she left the Lost to deal with the loyalist on
their own or has something else happened to her? In her absence the Lost
elected the Mirrorskin David as the new Autumn King.
What was the connection between the Scorpion and the loyalist? Were they
allies or enemies? Why did the Scorpion kidnap April in the first place?
While Autumn is still the reigning season, Winter is just around the corner.
Why has the Winter King not made an appearance yet? Is he responsible for
what is going on in the city or has he also suffered some dire fate?

Some new people showed up this time while friends from the previous months were nowhere to be seen. An annoying duo named Vicks and Wedge accused myself and David as being Loyalists. They would believe nothing we said, even refusing a handgun I handed them. David tried to be a bit more political than myself in dealing with them as I was ready and willing to throw them out a window.

He eventually took an oath to fight against the loyalists lest he be striked down, and a little spirit frog appeared on his shoulder to make sure he kept that oath.

We are given a map, and find out information about Maude's hut within the Hedge. A few of us go to ask for some spirit frogs resting within some stone frog statues for help, but none of us having any real way to contact them meet with no success. I actually talk and inform these stone frogs of what is going on, which mostly just has people looking at us funny. Oh well, it was worth a shot, right?

And more bad news. After all the work we went to rescue April, a woman named Mia who was tasked with getting her to the hospital reported she was taken. AGAIN. This is not good, not at all, especially with the Winter king missing.

Given our lack of cohesiveness I came up with a list of objectives, based roughly on the seasons we seem to follow.

Summer would be the objective of investigating the Goblin patrols within the Hedge, and battling them off when needed.

Autumn would be finding out where our missing monarchs went off to.

Winter would be the fortifying of our stronghold.

Spring would be a catchall, going where needed.

It took me some time to explain using the seasons was largely symbolic and a little bit of yelling and force to get things going, but as I explained, all the Lost are my brothers and sisters and we have to work together. We have been constantly arguing and doubting each other. I have to nip this in the bud. I do not care what season king is in session. As far as I am concerned I am the main person in charge of this Freehold and the men and women within it. They are always my concern and always my responsibility. And I will fight for them to my last breath! I will lead by example and prepare others for command as well. David and I are butting heads a bit, but we will work it out, and a fellow from "Across the Pond" as they like to say who was there for the Sid incident is my tentative nominee for Winter king.

As repeated by Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

This is how I must live and lead. It will be done. Perhaps I will be loved. Maybe hated. Maybe I will die, but I WILL fight for my brothers and sisters with everything I have to give!

We are given a parchment mentioning a contract made between a loyalist known as Red Johnny, Maude, and Sid. The very contract used to sacrifice one of us to go back. Proof has been found of their evil.

I send out an investigative team with our prospective Winter king. They return with 2 loyalists, one living, one dead. The area they were guarding was none other than Maude's hut within the Hedge! She was known to them as "The Evil Queen".

David organizes a strikeforce to investigate, and yet again leaves me at the Freehold. I have a chat with the living loyalist who lets us know he was told we were loyalists ourselves. He has no name, only called by Red Johnny as "325". I rename him "Doug" until we can find his original name. He tries walking out, but we stop him.

I now wait for my brothers and sisters to return...

At game's end I find out that Maude is within her hut, and that David has apparently defected to the Loyalist side, though it may be to keep himself alive.

Overall I am really enjoying the LARP games and am even getting sorta used to the lack of sleep one Saturday a month. I need to work on my outfit a bit more though. Right now a Navy ballcap and a pair of faux spiked leather fingerless gloves form my total outfit, excepting my normal clothes of course! Some folks really have kickass costumes! Of course I head off to work afterwards so I can't exactly go too out there to begin with, but it is making me want to step up my game. And both times I was invited to stay on for Vampire, but again, work. Yay.

Saturday Changeling LARP Report: Rufus' War Journal

(Bold is Storyteller stuff, Italic is Rufus' journal entries, normal text is me out of game stuff.)

Last month the news of the Summer King's death hit the Lost of the area pretty hard. The Summer Court went out seeking vengeance for their monarch's murder. A trail of blood was left in their wake. In the void left by Sid's passing, another stepped forward to take the reins of leadership. Meanwhile, a newcomer to the city claims he was lured back into the Hedge by none other than the Spring Queen. He found his way back out again but says that something was chasing him in there. While the Lost sit stunned at the accusation, a self-proclaimed loyalist arrives asking where this year's tithe is. He claimed that a Lost was suppose to be left in the Hedge for him to take back and this deal is what kept the city safe. If someone didn't come with him, then there would be war. Refusing to sacrifice one of their own, the local Lost banded together in defiance of their former masters' henchman. War would be preferable to cowardly submission.



For so long I was a traveller, running on my own, or amongst people who were not escapees like myself. This summer I met others of my kind and together we fought against our former captors. I was honored with becoming the Summer King for my efforts, I was given the burden of command.

Luckily the regular LARP takes place during the day and not during worktime on the second Saturday of the month so I can attend, provided I don't mind missing some sleep! MagicDrew was gonna be able to make this one as well, and since it was only about a 20 minute trip and a 10 mile drive I figured I might as well give an actual game a go!

Upon reaching the meeting place in Willimantic for us, the Lost, I met one of the locals who wasn't at the August incident. She asked me if I was a local or a visitor, being a wanderer, I replied justly, having been searching the region for evidence of our foes. I was given a letter. This letter basically threatened those of us who fought so hard against our captors and the sacrifices they demanded. They said we were going to be attacked by the armies of the Fae and anyone supporting us would be harmed as in the crossfire. Others soon showed up, including two more women, and two men, one of which I had met before. A mirror visaged man who was eloquent in speech. While I don't exactly trust him, his council has been sound and wise so far. Damn politicians!

The Mirror visaged fellow was another guy at the Connecticon LARP. One of the female players was an NPC there, and the other two were both brand new folks to me. Apparently it was a pretty decent turn out. Hmm, maybe if I and MagicDrew help promote it a bit, we can get more folks to play? MagicDrew is utterly FEARLESS when it comes to actively promoting things. I tend to take the passive route. Because I am a wuss. And a pessimist.

We continued investigating the events and aftermath of the incident, trying to find out more about the previous Summer King, Sid, and the missing Spring Queen, April, who sent a good man into the hedge. Very little help from the Autumn Queen Maude was given, which made us suspect she is a part of this sacrifice for safety deal, or at the best, she could care less about us. Not that I exactly made myself friendly to her.

I sort of sent an EXTREMELY powerful NPC a cellphone message telling her to "DIE BITCH". That might not have been such a good idea...

With some investigating we found out that April was married and her husband has been worried for her. When heading back to our Freehold, I decided to walk back, just in case we were being followed. We did attract Enemy attention, but it was at the Freehold itself. The gateway to Hell, the Hedge opened up, surrounding the building. I ran towards the siege, hoping to break it off, or sacrifice myself dearly to the monstrous dogs that had been trying to get in. One came towards me and I fought it off, with great injury to myself, while quick thinking on the rest of the team's part kept them from any harm, and Maude surprisingly arrived for a moment and used some incredible magic power to eliminate or drive off the rest. As I said, she might not actually be our enemy. But no matter what I do not like her, and I doubt she would be fond of me. Helping your friends and defending the innocent on the front lines is more important than any power she seems obsessed with preparing for, leaving us to fight and die on our own! She says she isn't concerned till its her season to rule.

Rule? We of the court should not rule, we are officers, commanders, figureheads. The first to battle, and the last to leave.

While I am sort of posting a few things out of order above (we actually investigated someone else as well, but it was a dead end and this sounds more interesting!) its basically how things went. I dumbly split off from the group to check on a lead, but after a point gave up on it. I also was hoping that being on my own would draw our adversaries out in the open. Rufus is a lone wolf sort. He will command and do his best at it, but he prefers to lead by example as opposed to by command. Plus our Mirrorvisage is way better at the political and organization bits. Rufus is better on the front line. Which meant I don't think I was particularly good as a Summer King, unless being a massive meatshield counts as Kingly.

Plus my first time gaming with a new group, and with a game system and style I am not very familiar with. I didn't want to be a glory hog. I've always hated those players who try to make the whole damned game about them. Thus I felt more comfortable in being quiet more often (because I naturally have trouble being quiet anyhow.. I DO NOT SHUT UP EVER) and hopefully not making an ass of myself. If MagicDrew wasn't there I probably would have barely talked at all.

It also helped everyone was roleplaying really well (better than me really) and everyone had some great ideas. Sometimes I just sat and listened, and took some notes.

We went back to the scene of Sid's death looking for more answers which due to the Mirror's ghost speaking we found, and another teammate put her life at risk to set up a meeting with the criminal scum in the area. Sadly, when the Mirror morphed into a cop, the locals were.. not too pleased. Our car was damaged, but I fought off as many enemies as I could while they started up the car and pulled my heavily injured self along with them.

I would rather take the injury than the people under me. That's what the good guys do.

I'm seriously truncating what happened and not detailing what everyone did, but as in the game I am trying to avoid metagaming here. There were some cool things that happened that I wasn't a part of at all and quite a bit of time was spent just making decisions and figuring out what to do next. LARPs tend to involve more actual roleplay than your average sit down game which has combat and lots of game mechanics in there.

I was dumped off at the ER for some R&R while everyone else continued to find out what they could about the new criminal kingpin, The Scorpion. According to what they told me afterwards, he may be one of us, and he may have April locked up, doing horrible things to her on a regular basis! Even if she is a part of the plot to sacrifice us to the Enemy, nobody deserves that sort of torture and abuse! As soon as I am able we will mount an assault on this Scorpion.

Justice will be done, and we will be a united front against those who took us from our loved ones and our homes. I do not fear our enemies or my fate. Optimus Prime wouldn't back down from Megatron when he attacked Autobot City, and neither will I! Mine are the claws that slash through the darkness.

Even if the light shines for but a moment before I am silenced, I will do what is right.

Overall it was a pretty damn good game, even if we sort of went the kick ass route most of the time. Half the party being combat types, or at least having combat oriented personalities tends to cause havoc, even if much of our rage might be misplaced at the wrong people. As mentioned, I feel I didn't roleplay my best or do as well in my command position as I should have. Next session should be in the Autumn Court so I won't be in command anyhow and Rufus can kick ass for justice as he is wont to do.

Hopefully I didn't suck too bad, and hopefully I will get to know everyone and start remembering their names too. I'm thinking of the usual nicknames for the blog updates, but right now all I have is Snarkrabbit, Vodkasmash, Platformiz, Storymiz, and MirrorCauldron for them. I dunno. Its not grabbing me as of yet.

I guess I wasn't too awful as I was invited to stick around for the Vampire game happening later with MirrorCauldron running it, but being rather hungry, a bit tired, and the basic fact I wouldn't be able to do Vampire much at all in the long run, I declined. Plus not being all that familiar with that area of Norwich I wanted to follow MagicDrew out. If any of the LARP crew are reading I hope y'all had fun with the fangs and the vampirey nighty stuff!

Everyone seemed like a nice group of people and made my second LARP experience a pleasant one as well. Now I just need to join up in the Camarilla to be "Official" and whatnot before next game. And probably type up Rufus' backstory besides just leaving it in my head.

Thanks again for the great game Midnight Rose!