So as many may have heard, Fantasy Flight Games has released a beta version of their spin of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG. If not, you can grab it here from FFG's own website or you can snag a copy from DriveThruRPG.
So first off, I will admit to not being that impressed with the system. One thing that people have noted and railed against was that the game uses custom dice rather than the classic d10s that prior versions L5R used in the long-standing Roll and Keep system. Seeing as how FFG likely only bought the rights to L5R as a property and not the actual R&K mechanics from AEG, it's no surprise that they'd use a dice mechanic of their own making. In fact, many folks (myself included) suspected that FFG would use the Genesys dice system, as that had by and large been tested and validated by means of their Star Wars RPG, with the Genesys dice being much the same but using slightly different symbols. Instead, FFG went with creating an entirely new set of custom dice, this one using just d6s and d12s. At least with Genesys, odds are good that you'll be able to use the dice there for different settings, and for those of us that already have a bunch of Star Wars dice we can go ahead and use those (something I will probably do as I'm already very familiar with reading those symbols to get the results of a roll).
My own take on the current state of the L5R Beta is simply that there seems to be a lot of added complexity for no reason other than to add complexity. A prime example is formal iaijutsu dueling, which in the previous L5R games by AEG were resolved with three rolls (Assessment, Focus, Strike) and unless the battle was to the death, once those were resolved the matter was settled. Under FFG's system, dueling feels like it's more fitting for a western-based RPG replicating the back-and-forth of the famous duel between Inigo Montoya and Westley in The Princess Bride instead of the single stroke contest that the samurai-genre is well known for.
Another issue is that starting characters don't feel very capable, as the dice mechanics are skewed to very heavily favor Skill ranks (which use the d12s) over Ring rating (which use the d6s) and characters don't get to start with that many ranks in skills. Easy solution here is to simply provide the PC with a small number of extra skill ranks, so hopefully FFG does something to address other than to say "if you want more capable PCs, simply start with more XP."
Now, I did manage to play a short session of the L5R Beta this past Saturday, with a friend running a modified version of Heroes of Rokugan II: Champions of the Sapphire Throne module "Writ of Justice." Our party composition was rather interesting, consisting of a Kakita Duelist (myself), a Togashi Tattooed Monk (wandering kung fu fighter), a Kuni Purifier, and a Shosuro Infiltrator (cover was traveling performer). Certainly an interesting and diverse group, with my PC winding up as the closest thing to a proper "face character" simply due to what skills were available and the general lack of being able to select skills outside of the presets that the beta schools provide. While there were some hiccups in making the characters, they did turn out to be an interesting bunch, and were this 4th Edition L5R I'd certainly be looking forward to playing more sessions with this particular cast.
So, after having played at least one session of this new version of L5R, I'm still not convinced that it's something I want to continue playing, especially as I'm not at all found of the "forced social outbursts" that the current Strife mechanics enforce, as we had much of the group breaking their composure and displaying dishonorable behavior more often than any of us would have liked. I know that it's probably far too late for any sort of changes to how the dice are laid out, but in all honestly the rate at which PCs gain Strife compared to how they lose it needs to be revised, or at the very least the rules on "outbursts" need to be addressed; I'm very much of the camp that simple dice rolls shouldn't dictate how a character reacts to a scene, and unless it's from a mystical source the most they should do is help inform the player how their character might react to given stimuli.
But ultimately, I think I'm at a point in my gaming preferences that I'd rather stick with systems that don't overwhelm you with options on how to resolve in-game challenges, and that's something this version of L5R does, is overwhelm the player and GM so many different ways that skills can work. Again, it feels like complexity for the sake of complexity without really providing anything meaningful to the story being told. And to be frank, if that's the sort of thing I'm after, I'll go play 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons, since the high degree of complexity that it had with regards to combat works with what the game was meant to be.
Given the limits of my own time, especially with working on my own Force and Destiny campaign and working on modules for next year's GamerNationCon (I may just scale back to two modules instead of the three I was initially leaning towards), I'm not really keen on learning the ins and outs of a complex set of RPG mechanics when they don't really provide a satisfying return on investment. I was willing to learn the complex rules of FFG's Star Wars RPG because it proved to be a very fun experience, a high return on the investment of time made. But for a setting that I don't see myself doing much gaming in to start with, FFG's Legends of the Five Rings just falls flat.
Showing posts with label Legend of the Five Rings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legend of the Five Rings. Show all posts
October 19, 2017
October 16, 2017
The Building of a Crane Duelist (Legend of the Five Rings Beta)
So as I mentioned in last week's blog post, for the Legend of the Five Rings Beta one-shot that I played in, I created a Kakita Duelist for my PC, who generally wound up being the party face due to how skill selections played out.
For this week, I'm going to go through the 20 Questions character creation process as outlined in the initial release of the beta rules. It's entirely possible that aspects of the process will have changed between when I made my character and now, but I'm going to stick with the original process.
So let's get the ball rolling...
Part 1: Core Identity (Clan and Family)
#1) What clan does your character belong to?
So looking through the options, I decide I want to go with elegant and refined, so the easy choice is Crane. Scorpion was also a possibility, but got dismissed for reasons you'll see later on in the process. Being a Crane, this gives my character a +1 to his Air Ring and 1 rank in Culture, and a starting Status of 35
#2) What family does your character belong to?
Since I already chose Crane as my clan, going through the options I decide to pick Kakita, as I've always enjoyed playing iaijutsu duelists in my prior L5R outings. This choice gives my unnamed PC a +1 bonus to his Fire Ring as well as 1 rank each in Aesthetics and Meditation, and sets initial Glory at 44.
Part 2: Role and School
#3) What is your character's role and school?
Since I'm leaning towards being a duelist, that means my character's role within the Crane is that of a bushi, which makes my school choice simply as Kakita Duelist is the only bushi school available to the Crane in the beta rules. This provides a +1 bonus to both the Earth and Air Rings, as well as 1 rank in five skills of my choice, for which I select Courtesy, Fitness, Martial Arts [Melee], Meditation, and Sentiment, and sets initial Honor at 50. This also gives me the Iaijutsu Kata and Weight of Duty Shuji (social technique), and the Way of the Crane school ability. For chuckles, I choose an attendant as part of my starting outfit (do need somebody to handle the menial tasks that are beneath a Crane samurai's concern after all)
#4) How does your character stand out within their school?
Okay, so for this one I went more with a mechanical choice than a character-driven choice, deciding to take a +1 increase to my character's Water Ring so that he's fairly well-rounded in his Rings rather than being strongly focused in two and deficient in two.
Part 3: Honor and Glory
#5) What is your character's duty to their lord?
Well, being that a large part of a Crane duelist's job is to serve as a bodyguard and stand-in for the Crane diplomats at court, I decide my character serves as yojimbo and companion to his lord's niece, a demure yet elegantly lovely young Crane courtier, with whom my character is enamored with though he knows that she's far too high of station for him to pursue. And so my character's Giri is described as "Yojimbo to my lord's niece, a demure yet elegantly lovely young Crane courtier."
#6) What does your character long for?
Now I could just go the easy route and say that my character longs for the hand in marriage of his lord's niece, but instead I decide to go with another classic staple and decide that my character wants to become the most renowned duelist of the era. This sets my character's Ninjo as "Become the most renowned duelist of the era."
#7) What is your character's opinion of their clan?
Before even looking at the options, it's easy to determine that my PC has a positive view of the Crane and how they do things (after all, it was Lady Doji that set the standards for proper civilized behavior in Rokugan, and who is he to disagree with a Kami?) While disagreeing would net me a free skill rank, agreeing with the Crane outlook instead gets me a +5 increase to Glory.
#8) What does your character think of Bushido?
I picture this character being a firm believer in the tenets of Bushido, though probably not to the zealous extreme of the Lion Clan, which increases my character's starting Honor by 10.
Part 4: Strengths and Weaknesses
#9) What is your character's greatest accomplishment so far?
I figure being an iaijutsu duelist, that my character is very quick to react to danger, and so select the Quick Reflexes as his Distinction, having used his speed to win several iaijutsu contests during his time as a student at the Kakita Academy.
#10) What holds your character back the most in life?
This one gives a character an Adversity, for which I pick Sworn Enemy, with the idea that it's a young samurai of a different clan and higher status that is also enamored with the young Crane courtier that my character is charged with protecting. I'm not sure which clan yet, though Scorpion is a strong contender as is Lion (particularly if the enemy were of the Matsu family).
#11) What activity makes your character feel most at peace?
This choice gives my character a Passion, and for this I pick Wordplay, so that rather than being stoic and stolid, my Crane bushi has a penchant for amusing phrasing of words and statements that can seem complimentary but frequently have added meaning to them. It's also an in character excuse for me to make puns and quips at the table, so added bonus!
#12) What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?
And lastly one's choice here gives the character an Anxiety, and this one proved tough. I initially leaned towards Irrepressible Flirtation, in no small part to convey his trouble with keeping his feelings towards his charge within the realm of propriety, or with Jealousy given his Ninjo, but I ultimately go with Painful Honesty, to reflect his commitment to Bushido, and that while he might make clever insinuations about a person, there's always going to be a grain of truth to them.
#13) Who has your character learned the most from during their life?
For this one, I'm going to say that it was his sensei that my character learned the most from. And as I want my character to be a very capable duelist, I opt to take an extra rank of Martial Arts [Melee], bringing that skill up to two ranks, as well as the disadvantage of Whispers of Poverty, for which I decide is reflected in my character opting to dress in a somewhat subdued manner compared to the ostentatious style that many Crane prefer leading others to incorrectly conclude that he lacks the resources one would expect a member of his clan to have.
Part 5: Personality and Behavior
#14) What detail do others find most striking about your character?
Well, apart from his more modest style of dress, I go with my character having the classic Kakita look of the lean bishonen, with a polite smile and striking eyes that have an almost predatory cant to them.
#15) How does your character react to stressful situations?
Okay, this is a part of the game I'm not enthused with, as it plays into the Strife mechanic that I really dislike. Still, it's part of the process, so going with part of what's described directly above, and that his eyes taken on a much darker aspect and his expression hardens from that of cheerful bishie to the fierce warrior that he is, with his verbal remarks often becoming far harsher.
#16) What are your character's preexisting relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?
For a character that I'm really only planning to play once, I'm not going to go into a lot of depth on this one, so I'm just going to say that my character leans towards the general Crane attitudes of the other Great Clans, as well as having the previously mentioned relationship with the young Crane courtier he's been charged with protecting. I also put a bit more thought into his Sworn Enemy, and decide to buck the trend and make it a Yoritomo courtier, who would be of lower status given the Mantis are a Minor Clan at this point in time, but said enemy is obviously more politically savvy, making for a contrast of brains vs. brawn.
Part 6: Ancestry and Family
#17) How would your character's parents describe them?
Again, more of a RP-heavy question that isn't important for a one-shot character, so I'm just going to say that they're proud of his accomplishments thus far, but hold him to a high expectation given the Crane Clan's long legacy of expert duelists and gallant bushi.
#18) Who was your character named to honor?
I'll go with a great-great grandfather as the person, and rolling on the Samurai Heritage table I get a result of 3 for "Wondrous Work" (netting my character +5 to his Glory), and a 6 for a free rank in Composition, which works nicely for his Wordplay advantage.
#19) What is your character's name?
Finally we get to the "what's your character's name?" section, and frankly I think this should be pushed up in the question order, probably to be under Part 1 and as question #3. After a fair bit of musing, I decide to grab a name from the Bushi character booklet that Katrina Ostrander made for her L5R 4e module at GamerNationCon 2017, and pick the name Takahiro.
Part 7: Death
#20) How should your character die?
So putting aside the temptation to use Tyrion's answer from Game of Thrones, I figure a fitting end for one that lives by the sword is to die by the sword, perhaps perishing in a manner not unlike that of his school's founder, that being of wounds inflicted during an iaijutsu duel of great importance.
Phew, okay now that I've worked my way through the 20 Questions process, here's what the final version of the character's stats look like.
Kakita Takahiro, Crane Duelist
Clan/Family: Crane/Kakita
School: Kakita Duelist
Rings: Air 3, Earth 2, Fire 2, Water 2, Void 1
Skills: Aesthetics 1, Composition 1, Fitness 1, Martial Arts (Melee) 2, Meditation 2, Courtesy 1, Culture 1, Sentiment 1
Techniques: Iaijutsu, Weight of Duty
School Ability: Way of the Crane
Giri: Yojimbo to his lord's niece, a demure yet elegantly lovely young Crane courtier.
Ninjo: To become the most renowned duelist of the era.
Glory: 54
Honor: 60
Status: 35
Resilience:8
Focus: 5
Composure: 8
Vigilance: 3
Starting Outfit: Daisho, yari, traveling clothes, ceremonial clothes, traveling pack (blanket, bottle of sake, chopsticks, coin purse, daisho stand, pillow book, sweets [4 servings], spare kimono, week's reations, wide-brimmed straw hat), attendant, 10 koku
Distinction Advantage: Quick Reflexes (Fire)
Passion Advantage: Wordplay (Air)
Adversity Disadvantage: Sworn Enemy (Earth), Whispers of Poverty (Water)
Anxiety Disadvantage: Painful Honesty (Air)
For this week, I'm going to go through the 20 Questions character creation process as outlined in the initial release of the beta rules. It's entirely possible that aspects of the process will have changed between when I made my character and now, but I'm going to stick with the original process.
So let's get the ball rolling...
Part 1: Core Identity (Clan and Family)
#1) What clan does your character belong to?
So looking through the options, I decide I want to go with elegant and refined, so the easy choice is Crane. Scorpion was also a possibility, but got dismissed for reasons you'll see later on in the process. Being a Crane, this gives my character a +1 to his Air Ring and 1 rank in Culture, and a starting Status of 35
#2) What family does your character belong to?
Since I already chose Crane as my clan, going through the options I decide to pick Kakita, as I've always enjoyed playing iaijutsu duelists in my prior L5R outings. This choice gives my unnamed PC a +1 bonus to his Fire Ring as well as 1 rank each in Aesthetics and Meditation, and sets initial Glory at 44.
Part 2: Role and School
#3) What is your character's role and school?
Since I'm leaning towards being a duelist, that means my character's role within the Crane is that of a bushi, which makes my school choice simply as Kakita Duelist is the only bushi school available to the Crane in the beta rules. This provides a +1 bonus to both the Earth and Air Rings, as well as 1 rank in five skills of my choice, for which I select Courtesy, Fitness, Martial Arts [Melee], Meditation, and Sentiment, and sets initial Honor at 50. This also gives me the Iaijutsu Kata and Weight of Duty Shuji (social technique), and the Way of the Crane school ability. For chuckles, I choose an attendant as part of my starting outfit (do need somebody to handle the menial tasks that are beneath a Crane samurai's concern after all)
#4) How does your character stand out within their school?
Okay, so for this one I went more with a mechanical choice than a character-driven choice, deciding to take a +1 increase to my character's Water Ring so that he's fairly well-rounded in his Rings rather than being strongly focused in two and deficient in two.
Part 3: Honor and Glory
#5) What is your character's duty to their lord?
Well, being that a large part of a Crane duelist's job is to serve as a bodyguard and stand-in for the Crane diplomats at court, I decide my character serves as yojimbo and companion to his lord's niece, a demure yet elegantly lovely young Crane courtier, with whom my character is enamored with though he knows that she's far too high of station for him to pursue. And so my character's Giri is described as "Yojimbo to my lord's niece, a demure yet elegantly lovely young Crane courtier."
#6) What does your character long for?
Now I could just go the easy route and say that my character longs for the hand in marriage of his lord's niece, but instead I decide to go with another classic staple and decide that my character wants to become the most renowned duelist of the era. This sets my character's Ninjo as "Become the most renowned duelist of the era."
#7) What is your character's opinion of their clan?
Before even looking at the options, it's easy to determine that my PC has a positive view of the Crane and how they do things (after all, it was Lady Doji that set the standards for proper civilized behavior in Rokugan, and who is he to disagree with a Kami?) While disagreeing would net me a free skill rank, agreeing with the Crane outlook instead gets me a +5 increase to Glory.
#8) What does your character think of Bushido?
I picture this character being a firm believer in the tenets of Bushido, though probably not to the zealous extreme of the Lion Clan, which increases my character's starting Honor by 10.
Part 4: Strengths and Weaknesses
#9) What is your character's greatest accomplishment so far?
I figure being an iaijutsu duelist, that my character is very quick to react to danger, and so select the Quick Reflexes as his Distinction, having used his speed to win several iaijutsu contests during his time as a student at the Kakita Academy.
#10) What holds your character back the most in life?
This one gives a character an Adversity, for which I pick Sworn Enemy, with the idea that it's a young samurai of a different clan and higher status that is also enamored with the young Crane courtier that my character is charged with protecting. I'm not sure which clan yet, though Scorpion is a strong contender as is Lion (particularly if the enemy were of the Matsu family).
#11) What activity makes your character feel most at peace?
This choice gives my character a Passion, and for this I pick Wordplay, so that rather than being stoic and stolid, my Crane bushi has a penchant for amusing phrasing of words and statements that can seem complimentary but frequently have added meaning to them. It's also an in character excuse for me to make puns and quips at the table, so added bonus!
#12) What concern, fear, or foible troubles your character the most?
And lastly one's choice here gives the character an Anxiety, and this one proved tough. I initially leaned towards Irrepressible Flirtation, in no small part to convey his trouble with keeping his feelings towards his charge within the realm of propriety, or with Jealousy given his Ninjo, but I ultimately go with Painful Honesty, to reflect his commitment to Bushido, and that while he might make clever insinuations about a person, there's always going to be a grain of truth to them.
#13) Who has your character learned the most from during their life?
For this one, I'm going to say that it was his sensei that my character learned the most from. And as I want my character to be a very capable duelist, I opt to take an extra rank of Martial Arts [Melee], bringing that skill up to two ranks, as well as the disadvantage of Whispers of Poverty, for which I decide is reflected in my character opting to dress in a somewhat subdued manner compared to the ostentatious style that many Crane prefer leading others to incorrectly conclude that he lacks the resources one would expect a member of his clan to have.
Part 5: Personality and Behavior
#14) What detail do others find most striking about your character?
Well, apart from his more modest style of dress, I go with my character having the classic Kakita look of the lean bishonen, with a polite smile and striking eyes that have an almost predatory cant to them.
#15) How does your character react to stressful situations?
Okay, this is a part of the game I'm not enthused with, as it plays into the Strife mechanic that I really dislike. Still, it's part of the process, so going with part of what's described directly above, and that his eyes taken on a much darker aspect and his expression hardens from that of cheerful bishie to the fierce warrior that he is, with his verbal remarks often becoming far harsher.
#16) What are your character's preexisting relationships with other clans, families, organizations, and traditions?
For a character that I'm really only planning to play once, I'm not going to go into a lot of depth on this one, so I'm just going to say that my character leans towards the general Crane attitudes of the other Great Clans, as well as having the previously mentioned relationship with the young Crane courtier he's been charged with protecting. I also put a bit more thought into his Sworn Enemy, and decide to buck the trend and make it a Yoritomo courtier, who would be of lower status given the Mantis are a Minor Clan at this point in time, but said enemy is obviously more politically savvy, making for a contrast of brains vs. brawn.
Part 6: Ancestry and Family
#17) How would your character's parents describe them?
Again, more of a RP-heavy question that isn't important for a one-shot character, so I'm just going to say that they're proud of his accomplishments thus far, but hold him to a high expectation given the Crane Clan's long legacy of expert duelists and gallant bushi.
#18) Who was your character named to honor?
I'll go with a great-great grandfather as the person, and rolling on the Samurai Heritage table I get a result of 3 for "Wondrous Work" (netting my character +5 to his Glory), and a 6 for a free rank in Composition, which works nicely for his Wordplay advantage.
#19) What is your character's name?
Finally we get to the "what's your character's name?" section, and frankly I think this should be pushed up in the question order, probably to be under Part 1 and as question #3. After a fair bit of musing, I decide to grab a name from the Bushi character booklet that Katrina Ostrander made for her L5R 4e module at GamerNationCon 2017, and pick the name Takahiro.
Part 7: Death
#20) How should your character die?
So putting aside the temptation to use Tyrion's answer from Game of Thrones, I figure a fitting end for one that lives by the sword is to die by the sword, perhaps perishing in a manner not unlike that of his school's founder, that being of wounds inflicted during an iaijutsu duel of great importance.
Phew, okay now that I've worked my way through the 20 Questions process, here's what the final version of the character's stats look like.
Kakita Takahiro, Crane Duelist
School: Kakita Duelist
Rings: Air 3, Earth 2, Fire 2, Water 2, Void 1
Skills: Aesthetics 1, Composition 1, Fitness 1, Martial Arts (Melee) 2, Meditation 2, Courtesy 1, Culture 1, Sentiment 1
Techniques: Iaijutsu, Weight of Duty
School Ability: Way of the Crane
Giri: Yojimbo to his lord's niece, a demure yet elegantly lovely young Crane courtier.
Ninjo: To become the most renowned duelist of the era.
Glory: 54
Honor: 60
Status: 35
Resilience:8
Focus: 5
Composure: 8
Vigilance: 3
Starting Outfit: Daisho, yari, traveling clothes, ceremonial clothes, traveling pack (blanket, bottle of sake, chopsticks, coin purse, daisho stand, pillow book, sweets [4 servings], spare kimono, week's reations, wide-brimmed straw hat), attendant, 10 koku
Distinction Advantage: Quick Reflexes (Fire)
Passion Advantage: Wordplay (Air)
Adversity Disadvantage: Sworn Enemy (Earth), Whispers of Poverty (Water)
Anxiety Disadvantage: Painful Honesty (Air)
April 5, 2017
GamerNationCon 4 - Acheivement "A New Hope" Unlocked
Well, so much for plans of making regular updates...
It's been a couple days since I got back home from attending the fourth GamerNationCon down in Dallas, Texas, or as I prefer to think of it, the The True Best Four Days of Actual Gaming. I'd posted on Facebook my initial thoughts back on Monday, but now that I've had a bit of time to recoup and consider, I thought I'd post more of why I intend to never miss this fun little con if I have any say in the matter.
Firstly, a big thinks to Phil "Darth GM" and his brother Andrew for being willing to split the cost of a rental car to help ensure that my buddy Eric and I would have a ride not only to and from the con site, but also a ride back to the airport come Monday morning rather than have to pay for a cab. I can't fault Phil for "going Rogue" and taking a Nissan Rogue as his vehicle for a con that had a strong (or just stronger than usual) Star Wars theme.
The Wednesday before the convention is fun in and of itself. Not only did I get some really good barbecue at an old-style BBQ pit joint, but got to catch up with friends that I'd not seen since last year, on top of getting to chat a bit with Guest of Honor Katrina Ostrander (aka Kat). After dinner, spent some time in the hotel lobby chatting with Jim, Isaac, and Will about ideas for some new character types for Feng Shui 2, namely a Trick Shooter archetype that's less John Wu two-gun flash and more precision shooting with a sidearm; I'm looking forward to seeing the final product once they get it finalized. Seems they also really liked the ideas I put forth for a "Drunken Boxer" move set for the Martial Artist, as I believe Jim is actually playing that character in a campaign that Isaac is running.
Okay, so one RPG setting that I very much like but rarely get a chance to play in is that of Legend of the Five Rings, formerly published by AEG but now under the stewardship of FFG. A couple GenCons ago, I was pleased to find that Kat was herself a huge fan of the game and setting (on top of being a major anime fan), and she seemed quite intrigued at my suggestion of checking out at least the first of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies (it's really good, and ties the disparate plots of the first several manga volumes together in an enjoyable and surprisingly coherent manner, on top of the casting for most of the characters being spot-on, especially Kenshin). Sadly, I didn't have an opportunity to register for either of the two L5R events she was running at the con, but fortune favored this mortal man and I was able to hop into her Thursday session. I mush admit, I loved her method of allowing the players to create characters as part of the introduction to the game, where in I made a Kakita Bushi as part of a group of six that included a two shugenja (Kuni and Soshi), a courtier (Crane), a monk (Dragon), and a second bushi (Unicorn). The adventure itself was more of an investigative affair, though there were a couple of scenes set up specifically for the bushi characters; I guess that Kat asking if anybody was making a duelist and her relief that I was doing so should have been a clue. I'll say no more, as I might try running this myself and I don't want to spoil anything for my friends that read this who themselves may wind up being players.
A bit more on Kat's method of quick-building PCs, which she liberally borrowed from Apocalypse World (I may need to check that out). She did a similar thing for her Star Wars sessions, one of which my long-time friend Linda got to play in, and she liked the concept as well. I have to admit it's pretty inventive, and not only does it give the player a bit more investment in the character as it's one that they've made (even if the selections available are a bit limited by necessity) but it means the GM doesn't have to work as much to fill up a four hour time slot. I'd asked Kat if she could e-mail a copy of the different character folios that she put together, one so that I could see all the different options, but also so that I could make use of them for running L5R games myself, as it'd save time that I'd have to spend creating pre-gens.
Also on Thursday I got to do a "slot zero" pick-up of my 7th Sea Second Edition adventure "An Idol Venture," which is an expansion/update of my initial 7th Sea mini-adventure "An Idol Pursuit." Apparently it wasn't quite expanded enough, as the players completed the adventure in a little over three hours. I suppose I could bolster up the combat sequences, as the PCs were generally able to crush them in a single round. The players generally had fun, though sadly I think Isaac was a bit brain-fried from having stayed up to stupid o'clock in the morning the night before, as he had a hard time wrapping his head around how 7th Sea 2e handles approaches and combat sequences, which to be fair may have also been a bit my fault as well. Still, the players had fun, even if one of them did seem determined to keep the spotlight securely on him at all times instead of letting other players have their turn to be awesome. One of my players was Kat Ostrander, and was glad that she enjoyed the adventure, even if a few things from how I did things in the adventure through her (at least according to a Facebook post of hers).
Friday got off to a bit of a quieter start. I made the walk with my long-time friend Linda over to Madness Games and Comics, which to be frank is less of a gaming store and more of a gaming mall, given the sheer size of the place and the volume of products for sale. I wound picking up a pack of 10-sided dice so that I'd have a set for my own use while being able to share a set at the table for further 7th Sea sessions. I was hoping to find a red-and-white set (colors of the Hare Clan from L5R), but settled on a gold and white set instead, as well as grabbing a couple of new shirts for myself and an Animal-themed shirt that said "Party Animal" for Linda's daughter Ari. Then it was a walk back so that I could run my Star Wars adventure "Taris City Rumble." I had tried to run a version of it at last year's GNC, but to no avail, so this year I preregistered it and wound up with a full table. I'd made a number of changes from the initial version, including totally revamping the PCs, and I think it worked out for the best. The table had fun, with an older gentleman really getting into character as the exiled Tapani noble, though I did wind up largely improvising the final leg of the module due to the players taking a rather unexpected approach to things, but it wound up being a fast-paced and suitably frantic scene with one of the PCs getting dropped and the half of the group who weren't spec'd out for combat taking on the NPC that was the major combat threat. They did a pretty good job of holding said threat at bay until the Jedi character was able to leap in and blind the adversary with a rake of their lightsaber through the eyes with a critical injury that pretty much took it out of the fight. The denouement at the end had the PCs sweating a bit, given the nature of who they had to interact with at the adventure's conclusion, which was fun. Again, the players had fun, so I'd call that winning. Still, it wound up running over, but I'm not sure if there's anything I could really trim from it without putting the party on rails, something I prefer to avoid doing if at all possible.
After that, I played in a Star Wars pick-up game run by Linda, her "Little Girl Lost" adventure which was based off an adventure she ran for the Skype group we're both part of. Sadly, I think she overestimated the capability of the pre-gens she offered, most of whom were pretty much starting PCs in terms of XP and gear, as the challenges were a whole lot tougher than they really should of been, with Hard difficulty checks being handed out like candy, especially in the early going. She did say that she spent some time talking with Keith Kappel, prolific freelance writer for FFG about things she did wrong and things that could be improved. Given how much she doubts her ability to GM games, I give her a mountain of credit for being willing and able to GM for a group that was almost entirely comprised of strangers.
And to cap off the Friday night, I played in another pick-up game, this one being a D&D 5e adventure run by Brev Tanner. I'm pretty good at improve as a GM, but I usually prefer to have some sort of outline written up ahead of time, but I was impressed at Brev for pretty much running the entire adventure by the seat of his pants. He did use a quintet of pre-gens, with my playing a High Elf Monk (personally there's a few things I'd have done differently with the character, but I tend to feel that way about most pre-gens, and I'm sure there are folks that feel the same with the pre-gens I make; nature of the beast I suppose). The adventure was a lot of fun, even if there were some things that were just plain wrong occurring, but kudos again to Brev for the different voices employed for various NPCs we encountered and interacted with. I probably stayed up way too late, but it was worth it.
Saturday started with not enough sleep, but I managed to get in a brief session of Red Dragon Inn. Normally I'm not much for board games, but I had some time to kill and the Whitson family were looking for another player to join them and Kat, and it was indeed fun. Sadly, we had to cut the game short so that we could all attend Kat Ostrander's panel. It was cool to get more of an insight into how she does her game prep, writes adventures, and the contrast of players who favor crunch-heavy RPGs as compared to those who prefer rules-lighter narrative-heavy RPGs and the contrast of what each camp sees as "winning" the game. Personally, I'm of the camp that "winning" in an RPG means that every player in the game had fun, and it would seem the majority of the Gamer Nation is of a similar mind set.
After the panel, I got into yet another pick-up game, this time a Dresden Files RPG set in Las Vegas run by long-time d20 Radio alumni Tim Rayburn, formerly of the Radio Free Hommlet (who?) D&D 4e podcast. Tim ran our group through character creation for a group that apart from myself and his wife Kate had never even seen Fate before. It was a really fun adventure, and I had to chuckle at Tim remarking that the party (three of whom were investigators of some sort or another) were about to Greyhawk one particular scene. I kind of feel like I took more of a lead than maybe I should have, but the other players didn't seem to mind, and it did help keep things moving, even if my PC did inadvertently stumble into a situation he really shouldn't have; it wasn't bad per se, just embarrassing. Of course, this being set in the Dresdenverse and involving the Fae, the whole adventure revolved around a situation that could have been far more easily resolved by a couple of NPCs simply talking to each other instead of invoking an overly-complicated chain of events, which lead to my ending the session with the frustrated exclamation of "Fucking Faeries!" to the group's mutual laughter.
Saturday night's gaming wrapped up with my running a second 7th Sea 2e adventure, this one called "Once Upon a Harvest Moon." The adventure was initially run as a one-shot for my Skype group for when our regularly scheduled game had to be put on hold due to a couple players not being available, and was itself based upon the adventure module "Lady of the Apples" for the Shadow of the Demon Lord RPG. Set in Eisen, the adventure was generally dark and creepy, and thus slated for an evening time slot. Overall, I think this session went a lot better than my Thursday session, with the chap that played the priest probably being the most memorable of the characters. The one hiccup was that during the final scene, one of the players was paying more attention to her phone (trying to order food), which certainly aggravated me but I simply dealt with it. I am seriously considering instituting a "no phones unless you're using it as a dice roller" policy at any further games I run. I'm going to give the adventure write-up one more look-through, and then will probably post it here to the blog.
While I didn't get to play in any of Phil's sessions of his much-acclaimed Fallout module (based off FFG's Star Wars system), I did get to listen in on the tail end of his Saturday night pick-up, of which most of the players were varying degrees of inebriated, as was the GM, and I'm certain that made things lively. While waiting for Phil to sober up enough to be in good enough shape to drive, I did get to converse a bit with a few different folks at the con, so it wasn't like I was hanging around bored. Still, I wonder if I should have taken Linda up on the offer of a lift back to the con so that I wouldn't have another night of minimal sleep. I did still manage to adhere to the 4-2-1 rule (4 hours' sleep, 2 full meals, 1 shower), so it's all good.
Finally we rolled into Sunday. Apart from a last minute session of Artemis, I really didn't do all that much gaming, due to being a little out of it as well as wanting to put a few different RPG adventure ideas for next year's GamerNationCon onto paper. I did stop over to where Kat was running her final L5R session, and for some reason to do a fairly decent impression of Samurai Jack's Aku, bellowing "Foolish samurai!" One of the players rolled with it, and I'm not sure if Kat was more amused or annoyed; I'm going to lean towards the later as she wasn't feeling quite so hot after drinking as much as she had during Phil's Fallout module and Aku's voice doesn't exactly lend itself towards subtlety.
After the con ended was the auction, and the only item that I wanted (a pretty cool dice tower in the theme of a Death Star laser turret) went to somebody else, so I walked away with nothing. Ah well, but at least Linda got herself a copy of the Endless Vigil sourcebook.
The con itself pretty much wrapped up with what I've taken to calling the "dead dog dinner," largely as we're all dead-tired, yet doggedly trying to keep the fun going as we have one final group dinner. There was a bit of a hiccup, as the Italian place that Dave originally chose turned out to have been recently closed for business, causing a relocation to a different Italian place. I joked to Dave that what had happened is that when he made his Foresee power check, he'd rolled straight dark side, with Dave laughingly adding that he also rolled a Despair. If you're not familiar with those terms, they're to do with FFG Star Wars. Still, it was a good dinner, and I got to spend a good chunk of time with the Whitsons before we parted ways.
Monday was the flight back, and apart from getting to the airport quite early (necessary due to Dallas morning traffic) the trip back was without incident. No delays, no missed connecting flights, no misplaced luggage. As I joked with Phil on Facebook, it was probably an April Fool's Joke by the forces that be in order to lull us into a false sense of security about future flights.
So yes, GamerNationCon IV was a rousing success, and I'm already looking forward to next year, to GamerNationCon V: The Order of the Gamers. Got at least four adventure ideas that have a magic/mystical theme to them, with systems picked out for three of them (SWFFG, 7th Sea 2e, and Dresden Files Accelerated), which is probably where I should stop as I want to be sure that I've got enough time to play games; some folks might enjoy spending the entire con GM'ing, but I enjoy being a player as well.
It's been a couple days since I got back home from attending the fourth GamerNationCon down in Dallas, Texas, or as I prefer to think of it, the The True Best Four Days of Actual Gaming. I'd posted on Facebook my initial thoughts back on Monday, but now that I've had a bit of time to recoup and consider, I thought I'd post more of why I intend to never miss this fun little con if I have any say in the matter.
Firstly, a big thinks to Phil "Darth GM" and his brother Andrew for being willing to split the cost of a rental car to help ensure that my buddy Eric and I would have a ride not only to and from the con site, but also a ride back to the airport come Monday morning rather than have to pay for a cab. I can't fault Phil for "going Rogue" and taking a Nissan Rogue as his vehicle for a con that had a strong (or just stronger than usual) Star Wars theme.
The Wednesday before the convention is fun in and of itself. Not only did I get some really good barbecue at an old-style BBQ pit joint, but got to catch up with friends that I'd not seen since last year, on top of getting to chat a bit with Guest of Honor Katrina Ostrander (aka Kat). After dinner, spent some time in the hotel lobby chatting with Jim, Isaac, and Will about ideas for some new character types for Feng Shui 2, namely a Trick Shooter archetype that's less John Wu two-gun flash and more precision shooting with a sidearm; I'm looking forward to seeing the final product once they get it finalized. Seems they also really liked the ideas I put forth for a "Drunken Boxer" move set for the Martial Artist, as I believe Jim is actually playing that character in a campaign that Isaac is running.
Okay, so one RPG setting that I very much like but rarely get a chance to play in is that of Legend of the Five Rings, formerly published by AEG but now under the stewardship of FFG. A couple GenCons ago, I was pleased to find that Kat was herself a huge fan of the game and setting (on top of being a major anime fan), and she seemed quite intrigued at my suggestion of checking out at least the first of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies (it's really good, and ties the disparate plots of the first several manga volumes together in an enjoyable and surprisingly coherent manner, on top of the casting for most of the characters being spot-on, especially Kenshin). Sadly, I didn't have an opportunity to register for either of the two L5R events she was running at the con, but fortune favored this mortal man and I was able to hop into her Thursday session. I mush admit, I loved her method of allowing the players to create characters as part of the introduction to the game, where in I made a Kakita Bushi as part of a group of six that included a two shugenja (Kuni and Soshi), a courtier (Crane), a monk (Dragon), and a second bushi (Unicorn). The adventure itself was more of an investigative affair, though there were a couple of scenes set up specifically for the bushi characters; I guess that Kat asking if anybody was making a duelist and her relief that I was doing so should have been a clue. I'll say no more, as I might try running this myself and I don't want to spoil anything for my friends that read this who themselves may wind up being players.
A bit more on Kat's method of quick-building PCs, which she liberally borrowed from Apocalypse World (I may need to check that out). She did a similar thing for her Star Wars sessions, one of which my long-time friend Linda got to play in, and she liked the concept as well. I have to admit it's pretty inventive, and not only does it give the player a bit more investment in the character as it's one that they've made (even if the selections available are a bit limited by necessity) but it means the GM doesn't have to work as much to fill up a four hour time slot. I'd asked Kat if she could e-mail a copy of the different character folios that she put together, one so that I could see all the different options, but also so that I could make use of them for running L5R games myself, as it'd save time that I'd have to spend creating pre-gens.
Also on Thursday I got to do a "slot zero" pick-up of my 7th Sea Second Edition adventure "An Idol Venture," which is an expansion/update of my initial 7th Sea mini-adventure "An Idol Pursuit." Apparently it wasn't quite expanded enough, as the players completed the adventure in a little over three hours. I suppose I could bolster up the combat sequences, as the PCs were generally able to crush them in a single round. The players generally had fun, though sadly I think Isaac was a bit brain-fried from having stayed up to stupid o'clock in the morning the night before, as he had a hard time wrapping his head around how 7th Sea 2e handles approaches and combat sequences, which to be fair may have also been a bit my fault as well. Still, the players had fun, even if one of them did seem determined to keep the spotlight securely on him at all times instead of letting other players have their turn to be awesome. One of my players was Kat Ostrander, and was glad that she enjoyed the adventure, even if a few things from how I did things in the adventure through her (at least according to a Facebook post of hers).
Friday got off to a bit of a quieter start. I made the walk with my long-time friend Linda over to Madness Games and Comics, which to be frank is less of a gaming store and more of a gaming mall, given the sheer size of the place and the volume of products for sale. I wound picking up a pack of 10-sided dice so that I'd have a set for my own use while being able to share a set at the table for further 7th Sea sessions. I was hoping to find a red-and-white set (colors of the Hare Clan from L5R), but settled on a gold and white set instead, as well as grabbing a couple of new shirts for myself and an Animal-themed shirt that said "Party Animal" for Linda's daughter Ari. Then it was a walk back so that I could run my Star Wars adventure "Taris City Rumble." I had tried to run a version of it at last year's GNC, but to no avail, so this year I preregistered it and wound up with a full table. I'd made a number of changes from the initial version, including totally revamping the PCs, and I think it worked out for the best. The table had fun, with an older gentleman really getting into character as the exiled Tapani noble, though I did wind up largely improvising the final leg of the module due to the players taking a rather unexpected approach to things, but it wound up being a fast-paced and suitably frantic scene with one of the PCs getting dropped and the half of the group who weren't spec'd out for combat taking on the NPC that was the major combat threat. They did a pretty good job of holding said threat at bay until the Jedi character was able to leap in and blind the adversary with a rake of their lightsaber through the eyes with a critical injury that pretty much took it out of the fight. The denouement at the end had the PCs sweating a bit, given the nature of who they had to interact with at the adventure's conclusion, which was fun. Again, the players had fun, so I'd call that winning. Still, it wound up running over, but I'm not sure if there's anything I could really trim from it without putting the party on rails, something I prefer to avoid doing if at all possible.
After that, I played in a Star Wars pick-up game run by Linda, her "Little Girl Lost" adventure which was based off an adventure she ran for the Skype group we're both part of. Sadly, I think she overestimated the capability of the pre-gens she offered, most of whom were pretty much starting PCs in terms of XP and gear, as the challenges were a whole lot tougher than they really should of been, with Hard difficulty checks being handed out like candy, especially in the early going. She did say that she spent some time talking with Keith Kappel, prolific freelance writer for FFG about things she did wrong and things that could be improved. Given how much she doubts her ability to GM games, I give her a mountain of credit for being willing and able to GM for a group that was almost entirely comprised of strangers.
And to cap off the Friday night, I played in another pick-up game, this one being a D&D 5e adventure run by Brev Tanner. I'm pretty good at improve as a GM, but I usually prefer to have some sort of outline written up ahead of time, but I was impressed at Brev for pretty much running the entire adventure by the seat of his pants. He did use a quintet of pre-gens, with my playing a High Elf Monk (personally there's a few things I'd have done differently with the character, but I tend to feel that way about most pre-gens, and I'm sure there are folks that feel the same with the pre-gens I make; nature of the beast I suppose). The adventure was a lot of fun, even if there were some things that were just plain wrong occurring, but kudos again to Brev for the different voices employed for various NPCs we encountered and interacted with. I probably stayed up way too late, but it was worth it.
Saturday started with not enough sleep, but I managed to get in a brief session of Red Dragon Inn. Normally I'm not much for board games, but I had some time to kill and the Whitson family were looking for another player to join them and Kat, and it was indeed fun. Sadly, we had to cut the game short so that we could all attend Kat Ostrander's panel. It was cool to get more of an insight into how she does her game prep, writes adventures, and the contrast of players who favor crunch-heavy RPGs as compared to those who prefer rules-lighter narrative-heavy RPGs and the contrast of what each camp sees as "winning" the game. Personally, I'm of the camp that "winning" in an RPG means that every player in the game had fun, and it would seem the majority of the Gamer Nation is of a similar mind set.
After the panel, I got into yet another pick-up game, this time a Dresden Files RPG set in Las Vegas run by long-time d20 Radio alumni Tim Rayburn, formerly of the Radio Free Hommlet (who?) D&D 4e podcast. Tim ran our group through character creation for a group that apart from myself and his wife Kate had never even seen Fate before. It was a really fun adventure, and I had to chuckle at Tim remarking that the party (three of whom were investigators of some sort or another) were about to Greyhawk one particular scene. I kind of feel like I took more of a lead than maybe I should have, but the other players didn't seem to mind, and it did help keep things moving, even if my PC did inadvertently stumble into a situation he really shouldn't have; it wasn't bad per se, just embarrassing. Of course, this being set in the Dresdenverse and involving the Fae, the whole adventure revolved around a situation that could have been far more easily resolved by a couple of NPCs simply talking to each other instead of invoking an overly-complicated chain of events, which lead to my ending the session with the frustrated exclamation of "Fucking Faeries!" to the group's mutual laughter.
Saturday night's gaming wrapped up with my running a second 7th Sea 2e adventure, this one called "Once Upon a Harvest Moon." The adventure was initially run as a one-shot for my Skype group for when our regularly scheduled game had to be put on hold due to a couple players not being available, and was itself based upon the adventure module "Lady of the Apples" for the Shadow of the Demon Lord RPG. Set in Eisen, the adventure was generally dark and creepy, and thus slated for an evening time slot. Overall, I think this session went a lot better than my Thursday session, with the chap that played the priest probably being the most memorable of the characters. The one hiccup was that during the final scene, one of the players was paying more attention to her phone (trying to order food), which certainly aggravated me but I simply dealt with it. I am seriously considering instituting a "no phones unless you're using it as a dice roller" policy at any further games I run. I'm going to give the adventure write-up one more look-through, and then will probably post it here to the blog.
While I didn't get to play in any of Phil's sessions of his much-acclaimed Fallout module (based off FFG's Star Wars system), I did get to listen in on the tail end of his Saturday night pick-up, of which most of the players were varying degrees of inebriated, as was the GM, and I'm certain that made things lively. While waiting for Phil to sober up enough to be in good enough shape to drive, I did get to converse a bit with a few different folks at the con, so it wasn't like I was hanging around bored. Still, I wonder if I should have taken Linda up on the offer of a lift back to the con so that I wouldn't have another night of minimal sleep. I did still manage to adhere to the 4-2-1 rule (4 hours' sleep, 2 full meals, 1 shower), so it's all good.
Finally we rolled into Sunday. Apart from a last minute session of Artemis, I really didn't do all that much gaming, due to being a little out of it as well as wanting to put a few different RPG adventure ideas for next year's GamerNationCon onto paper. I did stop over to where Kat was running her final L5R session, and for some reason to do a fairly decent impression of Samurai Jack's Aku, bellowing "Foolish samurai!" One of the players rolled with it, and I'm not sure if Kat was more amused or annoyed; I'm going to lean towards the later as she wasn't feeling quite so hot after drinking as much as she had during Phil's Fallout module and Aku's voice doesn't exactly lend itself towards subtlety.
After the con ended was the auction, and the only item that I wanted (a pretty cool dice tower in the theme of a Death Star laser turret) went to somebody else, so I walked away with nothing. Ah well, but at least Linda got herself a copy of the Endless Vigil sourcebook.
The con itself pretty much wrapped up with what I've taken to calling the "dead dog dinner," largely as we're all dead-tired, yet doggedly trying to keep the fun going as we have one final group dinner. There was a bit of a hiccup, as the Italian place that Dave originally chose turned out to have been recently closed for business, causing a relocation to a different Italian place. I joked to Dave that what had happened is that when he made his Foresee power check, he'd rolled straight dark side, with Dave laughingly adding that he also rolled a Despair. If you're not familiar with those terms, they're to do with FFG Star Wars. Still, it was a good dinner, and I got to spend a good chunk of time with the Whitsons before we parted ways.
Monday was the flight back, and apart from getting to the airport quite early (necessary due to Dallas morning traffic) the trip back was without incident. No delays, no missed connecting flights, no misplaced luggage. As I joked with Phil on Facebook, it was probably an April Fool's Joke by the forces that be in order to lull us into a false sense of security about future flights.
So yes, GamerNationCon IV was a rousing success, and I'm already looking forward to next year, to GamerNationCon V: The Order of the Gamers. Got at least four adventure ideas that have a magic/mystical theme to them, with systems picked out for three of them (SWFFG, 7th Sea 2e, and Dresden Files Accelerated), which is probably where I should stop as I want to be sure that I've got enough time to play games; some folks might enjoy spending the entire con GM'ing, but I enjoy being a player as well.
January 1, 2015
Happy Frakkin' New Year!
(Yes, that is a Battlestar Galactica reference. Deal with it).
Yeah, so it's been a while since I last posted here. Short version is that the past month has been quite busy for me for a number of reasons, making it rather easy to forgot about this blog of mine.
I did get around to seeing The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. And quite frankly, the more I reflect on the movie, the more let down I am in its execution. That's not to say it was horrible or that I regret spending the time watching it in the theater. It's just that this movie proves that Peter Jackson really should have kept his adaptation of The Hobbit to only two films as this third one just really suffered from stretching the material so thin. I did very much like how the film ended, and the opening sequence with Smaug unleashing fire and death upon Laketown was very well done, as was the White Council going up against the Necromancer/Sauron in Dol Guldor; it was quite cool to see Elrond and Saruman holding their own quite well against the Nazgul and shiver-inducing to see Galadriel invoke her "dark queen" aspect to essentially banish Sauron back to Mordor followed by Saruman's saying to leave taking care of Sauron to him, especially as audiences generally already know which side Saruman pretty much ends up on in the Lord of the Rings films.
Things are still rather busy, and I'm still trying to catch up on things that got pushed aside due to the Xmas holiday weekend. In fact, working on this blog post comes as something of a break from what I've most recently been working on. Can't provide any specific details, but I must say the project in question is fun and I can't wait to see the final results when it's all said and done.
As folks that follow along with the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight Games know, the first career sourcebook for their Age of Rebellion game line is out on shelves now, that being Stay on Target for the Ace career. This was a fun product for myself and the other members of Squadron 66 to playtest, though it did expose just how unused to running starship combats I was; there were a number of times where the player said they wanted to do something, and I had to scramble through my copy of the rulebook to see what the specific rules on that action were. If it were a regular session, I'd have probably just handwaved it, but since this was playtesting I felt it was more appropriate to stick to the rules as written, particularly for talents like the Corellian Send-Off that directly reference existing mechanics (in this case, collisions) in the core rules.
Of the new material, I'd have to say the Hotshot is my favorite of the three careers, and I'd love a chance to play one in a starfighter campaign some point down the road. I was also a big fan of the Z-95 Heavy of the new starfighters, although the E-Wing is a pretty boss ship in its own right. I also had to hold myself in check upon reading complaints in the Age of Rebellion section of FFG's own forums about folks complaining that having an astromech didn't provide any actual rules benefit when I was in the midst of playtesting those actual rules. Hopefully those folks that lamented the lack of said rules are pleased with what FFG has offered up to address said concern.
A fair chunk of my time has been taken up with various RPG campaigns. The Punching for Justice! podcast, dedicated to Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition, has quite recently posted their two-part holiday-themed live play session, of which I was glad to participate in. They've actually got a bunch of live play sessions recorded for the Emerald City Knights campaign that Eric "Ogehn" Brenders was running (currently on hiatus) in the can, but that Kyle simply didn't have the opportunity to edit (being a full-time student tends to do that). Hopefully things will settle down a bit for Kyle and he'll have the time to get back into editing and posting those live play episodes, as well as recording regular episodes of Punching for Justice!
I've also been running sessions for the Force and Destiny Beta, testing out how characters progress under those rules as well as various bits of the rules themselves, up to and including just how dangerous a lightsaber duel can be even for a PC that's all about lightsaber duels. Those have been a lot of fun, though I think Edo (Gand Seeker/Hunter) is probably the most memorable PC of the group; but Viado Airhart comes close, particularly since the player is using an image of Nicolas Cage to represent what Viado looks like.
Also been playing in my good friend Linda's Age of Rebellion campaign, which also has been a lot of fun. I had started the campaign playing a Human Commander/Tactictian named Jacen Roke, but after Jacen made the ultimate sacrifice for his comrades and the Alliance, I've brought in a new PC by the name of Kyren Stryder, young Human male that's been rather derisively labeled a "useless pretty boy" by one of the other PCs. Not much to say on Kyren other than he's simply out to help those who need it, and is a recent recruit to the Rebel Alliance. He's been pretty vague about his particular skill set, beyond that he's good with his fists, can handle himself in a fight, and has demonstrated significant athletic prowess. Kyren's also a pretty easy-going individual; part of my concept for his personality was in part inspired by Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Superman, in that Kyren generally sees himself as being "a friend to those in need." Given that one of Kyren's motivations is "Helping the Helpless" (lifted from the Force and Destiny Beta because it was too perfect to pass up), I think that fits. Really hoping that with Linda now back on her usual daytime hours instead of the evening holiday hours she was working, we'll pick this campaign back up.
Last night was spent on the inaugural session of what I hope is a long-running Legend of the Five Rings campaign. Once again, I am taking up the banner of the Minor Clans by playing a Hare Bushi (Usagi Katsuro). A large part of the hook for this character is that he's driven to prove that the Minor Clans can produce an extraordinary swordsman on par with those of the Great Clans, particularly the Crane and Dragon Clans; while the Hare Clan might be respected for their courage and luck in facing their foes, the Usagi Bushi school does not come to mind when one thinks of "schools that produce great swordsmen" and Katsuro is out to prove that the Great Clans do not have a monopoly on doing so. Said drive will probably get him into trouble sooner rather than later, but as things stand he's already very capable, be it in a proper iaijutsu duel or employing the precepts of battojutsu in a skirmish as he darts around the field of battle.
The inaugural session was meant to be more of a "everyone meets" type of deal as well as allowing us to get a feel for our characters and make any minor adjustments we feel are needed. For me, Katsuro performed as expected in that he was able to deliver a devastating opening assault but fast enough to avoid getting squashed outright by his opponents. We did have one player make a ronin brawler in the theme of Sanosuke Sagara, but the player sadly learned that if you're playing a true ronin with no starting technique or path in L5R, you're pretty much boned. The Mantis Bushi and Scropion Shugenja both seemed to do well, the the shugenja is interesting as she is definitely not a combat mage; instead she seems to have been built to be the party face with her magic backing this up to make her an even more effective social character.
As for the campaign itself, the GM is placing us into the Naishou Province setting that AEG published for GenCon 2013. We as players have only been given a few scant details about the province, but from what we've thus far been told, it sounds to be pretty interesting. Each of us has their own reason to be traveling there under orders of our respective lords; not sure about the ronin brawler as he seemed not to have much direction (and probably just as well the player will be making an entirely different character). Given the focus of the Hare Clan in rooting out some fairly dark conspiracies, that my character is being sent there probably doesn't bode well in the long run, but I'll have to simply wait and see. It will also be interesting to see how this rather disparate group of young samurai continue to interact with one another; thus far I'm probably the most honorable character in the group; the Mantis Bushi's attitude is not unlike that of Tony Stark prior to the events of the first Iron Man flick, and the Scorpion Shugenja has made it pretty clear that she holds to her clan's rather unusual views regarding Bushido and "honorable" behavior.
Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to. Got to head off and make final preparations for a playtesting session for a new project for tonight.
Yeah, so it's been a while since I last posted here. Short version is that the past month has been quite busy for me for a number of reasons, making it rather easy to forgot about this blog of mine.
I did get around to seeing The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. And quite frankly, the more I reflect on the movie, the more let down I am in its execution. That's not to say it was horrible or that I regret spending the time watching it in the theater. It's just that this movie proves that Peter Jackson really should have kept his adaptation of The Hobbit to only two films as this third one just really suffered from stretching the material so thin. I did very much like how the film ended, and the opening sequence with Smaug unleashing fire and death upon Laketown was very well done, as was the White Council going up against the Necromancer/Sauron in Dol Guldor; it was quite cool to see Elrond and Saruman holding their own quite well against the Nazgul and shiver-inducing to see Galadriel invoke her "dark queen" aspect to essentially banish Sauron back to Mordor followed by Saruman's saying to leave taking care of Sauron to him, especially as audiences generally already know which side Saruman pretty much ends up on in the Lord of the Rings films.
Things are still rather busy, and I'm still trying to catch up on things that got pushed aside due to the Xmas holiday weekend. In fact, working on this blog post comes as something of a break from what I've most recently been working on. Can't provide any specific details, but I must say the project in question is fun and I can't wait to see the final results when it's all said and done.
As folks that follow along with the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight Games know, the first career sourcebook for their Age of Rebellion game line is out on shelves now, that being Stay on Target for the Ace career. This was a fun product for myself and the other members of Squadron 66 to playtest, though it did expose just how unused to running starship combats I was; there were a number of times where the player said they wanted to do something, and I had to scramble through my copy of the rulebook to see what the specific rules on that action were. If it were a regular session, I'd have probably just handwaved it, but since this was playtesting I felt it was more appropriate to stick to the rules as written, particularly for talents like the Corellian Send-Off that directly reference existing mechanics (in this case, collisions) in the core rules.
Of the new material, I'd have to say the Hotshot is my favorite of the three careers, and I'd love a chance to play one in a starfighter campaign some point down the road. I was also a big fan of the Z-95 Heavy of the new starfighters, although the E-Wing is a pretty boss ship in its own right. I also had to hold myself in check upon reading complaints in the Age of Rebellion section of FFG's own forums about folks complaining that having an astromech didn't provide any actual rules benefit when I was in the midst of playtesting those actual rules. Hopefully those folks that lamented the lack of said rules are pleased with what FFG has offered up to address said concern.
A fair chunk of my time has been taken up with various RPG campaigns. The Punching for Justice! podcast, dedicated to Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition, has quite recently posted their two-part holiday-themed live play session, of which I was glad to participate in. They've actually got a bunch of live play sessions recorded for the Emerald City Knights campaign that Eric "Ogehn" Brenders was running (currently on hiatus) in the can, but that Kyle simply didn't have the opportunity to edit (being a full-time student tends to do that). Hopefully things will settle down a bit for Kyle and he'll have the time to get back into editing and posting those live play episodes, as well as recording regular episodes of Punching for Justice!
I've also been running sessions for the Force and Destiny Beta, testing out how characters progress under those rules as well as various bits of the rules themselves, up to and including just how dangerous a lightsaber duel can be even for a PC that's all about lightsaber duels. Those have been a lot of fun, though I think Edo (Gand Seeker/Hunter) is probably the most memorable PC of the group; but Viado Airhart comes close, particularly since the player is using an image of Nicolas Cage to represent what Viado looks like.
Also been playing in my good friend Linda's Age of Rebellion campaign, which also has been a lot of fun. I had started the campaign playing a Human Commander/Tactictian named Jacen Roke, but after Jacen made the ultimate sacrifice for his comrades and the Alliance, I've brought in a new PC by the name of Kyren Stryder, young Human male that's been rather derisively labeled a "useless pretty boy" by one of the other PCs. Not much to say on Kyren other than he's simply out to help those who need it, and is a recent recruit to the Rebel Alliance. He's been pretty vague about his particular skill set, beyond that he's good with his fists, can handle himself in a fight, and has demonstrated significant athletic prowess. Kyren's also a pretty easy-going individual; part of my concept for his personality was in part inspired by Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Superman, in that Kyren generally sees himself as being "a friend to those in need." Given that one of Kyren's motivations is "Helping the Helpless" (lifted from the Force and Destiny Beta because it was too perfect to pass up), I think that fits. Really hoping that with Linda now back on her usual daytime hours instead of the evening holiday hours she was working, we'll pick this campaign back up.
Last night was spent on the inaugural session of what I hope is a long-running Legend of the Five Rings campaign. Once again, I am taking up the banner of the Minor Clans by playing a Hare Bushi (Usagi Katsuro). A large part of the hook for this character is that he's driven to prove that the Minor Clans can produce an extraordinary swordsman on par with those of the Great Clans, particularly the Crane and Dragon Clans; while the Hare Clan might be respected for their courage and luck in facing their foes, the Usagi Bushi school does not come to mind when one thinks of "schools that produce great swordsmen" and Katsuro is out to prove that the Great Clans do not have a monopoly on doing so. Said drive will probably get him into trouble sooner rather than later, but as things stand he's already very capable, be it in a proper iaijutsu duel or employing the precepts of battojutsu in a skirmish as he darts around the field of battle.
The inaugural session was meant to be more of a "everyone meets" type of deal as well as allowing us to get a feel for our characters and make any minor adjustments we feel are needed. For me, Katsuro performed as expected in that he was able to deliver a devastating opening assault but fast enough to avoid getting squashed outright by his opponents. We did have one player make a ronin brawler in the theme of Sanosuke Sagara, but the player sadly learned that if you're playing a true ronin with no starting technique or path in L5R, you're pretty much boned. The Mantis Bushi and Scropion Shugenja both seemed to do well, the the shugenja is interesting as she is definitely not a combat mage; instead she seems to have been built to be the party face with her magic backing this up to make her an even more effective social character.
As for the campaign itself, the GM is placing us into the Naishou Province setting that AEG published for GenCon 2013. We as players have only been given a few scant details about the province, but from what we've thus far been told, it sounds to be pretty interesting. Each of us has their own reason to be traveling there under orders of our respective lords; not sure about the ronin brawler as he seemed not to have much direction (and probably just as well the player will be making an entirely different character). Given the focus of the Hare Clan in rooting out some fairly dark conspiracies, that my character is being sent there probably doesn't bode well in the long run, but I'll have to simply wait and see. It will also be interesting to see how this rather disparate group of young samurai continue to interact with one another; thus far I'm probably the most honorable character in the group; the Mantis Bushi's attitude is not unlike that of Tony Stark prior to the events of the first Iron Man flick, and the Scorpion Shugenja has made it pretty clear that she holds to her clan's rather unusual views regarding Bushido and "honorable" behavior.
Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to. Got to head off and make final preparations for a playtesting session for a new project for tonight.
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