Tuesday 27 January 2015

Ready, Steady, Roleplay

 
Last week saw the 5e game go on pause now as the party returned to Neverwinter to assess their situation and count some recently acquired loot from a Dragon, though I wouldn't be surprised if it would be wanting it back at some point. There are some other choices to be made but that is for another time.

GM Johnathan will begin preliminaries for the Achtun Cthulu with the aim of starting the week after so grab a character if you are about; I'm in for that one.

And last week GM Rob did some Dogs in the Vineyard prep - I suspect there will be a little more to do as players settle in for the first time but basically it is under starters orders for a good Bible bashing.
 

And finally I myself am formally on pause for a week as I have booked some annual leave to see Santa in Skyrim, in other words I am going camping in Lapland. In Winter. Where it is very cold. If I come across any Zombie Nazis I'll let you know. Or not, depending on what happens, but if they find my camera then my last photos of chomping undead will probably get posted here.



 
Next post in 2 weeks...

Thursday 22 January 2015

Achtung Dogs!

 

New games are afoot , though I think there may be a final 5e session before the Achtung Cthulu kicks in. GM Rob will be doing the prep and character generation for the Indy game Dogs in the Vineyard.

If you fancy an opportunity to tell people you are right at the point of a shotgun then Dogs in the Vinyard is for you. If you have ever been one of those knockers of the faith and put up with the usual 99.9 of door slamming, this is a great opportunity to let off steam and realise a world where you are subsequently allowed to kick in aforementioned door.

 From Wikipedia: The game is set in "a West that never quite was"—loosely based on the Mormon State of Deseret in pre­statehood Utah, Players are "God's Watchdogs" (Dogs), who travel from town to town delivering mail, helping out the community and enforcing the judgements of the True Faith of the King of Life. This may involve anything from delivering new interpretations to the town's Steward to executing heretics. Dogs have absolute authority within the Faith, but not within the laws of the Territorial Authority, and so their actions can lead to conflict with the government in the East.
 
"Sometimes it’s better for one to die than for many to suffer."
 
 
"Sometimes, Dog, sometimes you have to cut off the arm to save the life."

On another plane of existence GM Johnathan will be summoning a game of Achtung! Cthulu beginning February. ­A fusion of Call of Cthulu and Savage Worlds where the heroes find themselves in the secret B movie occult subculture of World War II. Think Raiders of the lost ark on a much lower budget. From the publisher: Achtung! Cthulhu brings you a two­fisted wartime roleplaying game setting packed full of fiendish Nazi scientists, terrifying ancient mysteries, legendary German war machines, desperate partisans, gun­toting paratroopers, determined investigators, and enough writhing tentacles to pack ten Reichstags. Discover the secret history of World War Two ­ stories of the amazing heroism which struggled to overthrow a nightmare alliance of science and the occult, of frightening inhuman conspiracies from the depths of time, and the unbelievable war machines which were the product of Nazi scientific genius ­ and how close we all came to a slithering end!
 
Zombie Nazis, insanity, no hope of rescue and humanity's inevitable and terrifying end..­ count me and my trusty, soon to be eaten alive npc sidekick, in!

 See you there in one guise or another.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Dragons and Sombreros


The end times are upon us once again.
 
In the DnD5e the party have, remarkably, managed to chase off a dragon. This surprises me given the large number of scales and teeth they generally have but I take their word for it, though I suspect it may suddenly have realised it had left the gas on at home.. there is some work still to be done by the party as I understand it but the end of this chapter of the game is in sight.
 
In another reality entirely the 13thAge adventurers almost put down an evil Wizard just in time for tea before a portal to the demon world opened and a Dragon presented itself along with a shuffling possey of undead. Whilst we are chipping at the dragon, I'm a little concerned that the portal is more like a monster generator out of Gauntlet - not sure what the priority is as we are in the middle of combat. Do we chip at the dragon, slay the undead or try and close the portal ? This I think actually will be the life or death decision for us as 'Paladin is about to die'. If only we had a magic potion...or some spare change.
 
 
Nevertheless, live or die, we have a couple of new games on the cards and I'll advertise them in more detail next post but one is a Western RPG. Think the characters are in fact all Mormon hard liners but it did get me wondering as to the genre. I'm leaning to ward either playing a Clint Eastwood or possibly a Mexican bandit but I don't think the characters will work in a Mormon party. It also raises the question of how large a sombrero can get before looking ridiculous. The other game on the cards is Achtung Chtulu - basically think Zombie Nazis and you're half way there. An opportunity for plenty of classic B movie action and on balance I think I may sign up for that one.
 
Either way, if you are thinking of coming along then now is a good time as change is upon us!




 

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Useless Christmas presents


So its that time of year, 358 days until Christmas. A good month to expend any accrued gift tokens and to return any useless shit so thoughtfully gifted by loved ones. Its the thought that counts, even if those thoughts have been sucked out by malevolent undersea tentacle gods. For my part I attempted to buy some roleplaying friends the most useless dice I could possibly find. At some point I bought some stuff from thediceshoponline.com , some ridiculous prices but I had the money and needed to share my passion for finely crafted pointless things.

Perhaps you would disagree:
 
The D2 - I would suppose there are actually quite a lot of 50/50 decision to be taken in a typical game but tbh never really needed a dedicated dice for that and I have always been wealthy enough to own a 2 pence piece. The D3 - No idea. The D7 - Thought I was being clever but then realised of course there are 7 days in a week so perhaps let myself down on that one. The D18 - 2 less than a useful 20. The D22 - 2 more than a useful d20. The D24 - 2 more pointless than a d22. And finally the infamous D60.

As for club business, well we will restart the games this Thursday (The 13th Age and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition) but there are some new games due soon so if you have a new years resolution at all then come back and play with your favourite geeky friends! We miss you and you know who you are, and if you don't have any geeky friends then now is the perfect time to get some.

Happy new Yarballs