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Game Group

Next Game: Friday January 25th

We’ll play next Friday, starting with the PCs standing up from the table after agreeing on the Attack Plan with the Captain and Mayor. Then you’ll head out and implement the plan you agree to– a daring raid or a bloody battle; whatever you decide.

Modify the attack plan linked above with details and improvements throughout the week. We’ll start next session jumping quickly into motion and get to the good stuff quickly, I hope.

If you can’t make it, please let us know!

[Also, I added the Mayor and other townspeople you interacted with this week to the people page of the wiki.]

PS: Dad, you might want to raid the previous post’s comment where you talked about Gaia, Danu and Don, and edit them into the new page Kevin began, Dieties of Iron. (Thanks Kev!) Similarly, Compass can get raided from Rumors of Iron and pasted on the deities page.

Categories
Books

World War Z and Radio Freefall

World War Z, by Max Brooks, was a solid take on the zombie uprising. Creative and sweeping, he does a good job of looking around the world for his stories. It’s a little USA-centric, but I certainly forgive him that. While there are extra movers and shakers, he does a good job of looking for a wide variety of viewpoints, which really helps it feel like a world wide epidemic.

He does a good job of pointing out flaws in modern society, especially our desire to be seen “doing something” instead of accurately forecasting threats and responding appropriately. It’s a good read, and he wanders down all kinds of interesting side roads. The societies that emerge from the Zombie War feel real, and he never looses track of the horrors of war… not of the changes those who survived have undergone.

Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe, is a cool future society. There’s a lot of apathy and a sense that the world doesn’t allow space for the next generation, but the music scene is still plugging away. The world he builds, with nationalist parties and the unification, and technology that feels authentic– a few things that are surprising, like a dedicated space presence, and a lot of things that feel like logical extrapolations of today.

I’m surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did; I’m not normally a fan of celebrity or rockstardom, but Riff is a cool guy who gets into interesting trouble. Things occasionally come together a little too exactly, but it all works in the moment.

Categories
Game Group

Next Game: Friday January 18th

After a wildly successful pair of ambushes, the PCs hit level 2. They now have over thirty armed gnomes at their sides, but they’re deep behind enemy lines. Who knows what trouble they’ll get into next week…

We’re getting together on Friday night, unless trouble crops up. Let us know if you’ll have any trouble making it.

Keeping access easy and current: Empire of Iron has your characters and most of the world information. Contribute as much or as little as you like.

Categories
Misc

Links from the last month

UPDATE: Another cool collaborative world building system, from Fred Hicks. It’s light, and seems similar to the wikidot “each person has 12 beads” system.

Humor:
Liberal Fascism, Year’s best posts, Tom Tomorrow comics (mondays), Kevin Moore comics, they’re out to get me!, Pax in oxen, peeing (Ben’s story), ideal job (for Kristen), New time management system, The evil of florists

Categories
Game Group

Next Game: Saturday, January 12th

[Note: Kev has to work Friday night. Does Saturday night work for everyone?]

In the kickoff session, an exhausted gnome warrior reached Felixis and warned them that an army had sacked the encampment town of Gleyn to the north. The PCs picked up weapons and started to the north, scouting to ensure that the dwarves weren’t also marching on Felixis.

The encountered a skirmish party of clay dwarves and slaughtered them while they concentrated on shackling Sandy. They released the homing pigeon to warn the town of their encounter. They also seized the skirmish group’s whistle and blew it, drawing in a second heavier group, led by a stone dwarf. The battle was brief and decisive; while a few of the PCs picked up wounds, the fallen were all dwarves.

They asked a captured enemy mage (or warlock) about the attack. While he tried to lie, persistence paid off and his earlier estimate of 10 legions was revealed to be an exaggeration. With the sun setting, they moved away from the battle site and setup a cold camp nearby.

Categories
Game Group

World building continued

I’ve begun advancing the world history to the game start, but would like your opinions and help. Here’s what I put up last night and this morning: Empire of Iron (our game’s main page), Recent History, for the updates to the situation that I’m sketching out, and Rumors of Iron for other thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. They may not all be true, but they fit the image of the Iron Empire (and a few other things so far) in my mind.

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Game Group

Next Game: Friday January 4th

We’re off this week– Eric is rolling into town on Friday. We’ll start the game (the D&D part) next Friday. Over the next few nights I’ll try to set up what’s gone on since we halted the Dawn of Worlds game, especially local to the start area. I’m asking for more input too– see the post above.

If you’ve changed your character a lot from what we last saw, please tell us… if there’s a full plate clad paladin in the midst, I think everyone wants to know.

Categories
Books

The Smiles of Rome

A guidebook that focuses on excerpting famous authors and writers, and briefly updating the locations so you can find them today. I’ve only begun reading it– this is subject to edits along the way.

Categories
Books

The Hacker Crackdown

A look into the status of the computer hacking and phone phreaking underground circa 1992. It’s very interesting; by parts investigative journalism and travelogue. It’s interesting to see the formation of the EFF and more about GURPS Cyberpunk and why it was hit. Bruce Sterling does a good job of talking to the various people involved. While his leanings towards the law and order people are obvious, they match my predispositions.

In the last chapters, it’s interesting to see the futures that people anticipate– Lotus 1-2-3’s Mitchell Kapor eagerly anticipated the coming popularization of the Internet and the move from local BBSes. Spam sounds like a modern outgrowth of the grifters, scammers, and “social engineers” that were popular over a decade ago.

Categories
Game Group

Next Game: Friday, December 21st

We got everyone’s characters close to complete last night. It sounds like a very interesting group is emerging… when a town’s in trouble, they call The A Team. (Or similar…)

If you want to discuss character backgrounds and how you’d like to know each other, start up a discussion in comments. As always, if you’ll have trouble making it Friday, please let us know. We’ll be world building… which should be a lot of fun.

OT: Kev, as a human you have favored class any. That allows one of your classes to “break away” from the classes that must be within a level of each other. So Rogue 2/Monk 18 (and the reverse) are perfectly allowable progression paths. So is Rogue 1/Paladin 1/Dragon Shaman 1/Monk 15 if you’re feeling wacky…