As of now, we’re assuming that we’ll play Friday night. Does everyone think they can make it? If you suspect problems, let us know in comments. (The game recap follows.)
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Pitch Ideas
I have four different pitch ideas; games I think would be fun and I’d be happy to run. Here are my contenders.
Dogs in the Vineyard: It’s the old west, sometime around the middle of the 19th century. You’re Dogs… roving problem solvers and defenders of the faith. You’ve been given your authority by God… what will you do with it?
Primetime Adventures: We get together and pitch shows, until we find one we like and run with it. The potential settings are incredibly broad. The game plays out like TV; it’s not whether the PCs will win, but what they have to give up that’s the core of the show. Will they grow and change, or will their hangups overwhelm them? [Ideal for Buffy or Battlestar Galactica type play.]
2182:The PCs are a Morgan Team; elite agents empowered by the confederacy to keep things running. Teams may battle pirates, bring around recalcitrant rulers, thwart secessionist plots, and discover new worlds. Sleek vessels unfurl delicate Tachyon catching sails, while below, ice is mined in frigid, near vacuum bubbles. The free wheeling sci-fi universe is powered by the FATE system.
Burning Wheel: Two hundred years ago, your people went to war with the elves… and lost. A long occupied province, your culture is unique in the world. Here, elves and men interact more than anywhere else. A few mechants grow rich, their loyalty bought by the elves. In the flickering light of tallow candles whispers of rebellion, of alliance with the Tomi empire, of traitors within the Elvish prince’s guards, of coming war– many whispers are heard. How will you be remembered?
(Details follow)
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Next Game: Friday February 24th?
Update: Kev comments (in thread)
Unfortunately we are going to be leaving again this week, things did not go well last week so stuff got pushed back. Sorry guys.
Do we want to run a session, and just have Erisorn trapped by duty, his fellow clergy, or something? Does a delay work better for anyone else? (After all, if we’re going to be missing multiple people, we definitely want to cancel.) What does everyone want to do?
Original post follows:
Since it looks like Dad and Kev will be out of town this weekend, we’re looking forward to a solid session two weeks from now. We finished just after dinner with our steely companion; now the Talons are preparing for a descent into the labyrinth beneath the old “Portal Wars” town, to find the secret of the portals– perhaps a hint how to shutdown the Chaos Knight’s bridge and portals.
Prepare for kobolds, bandits, and darker powers deep in the labyrinth.
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Gaming questions
I’m wondering where everybody is on our gaming plate. Right now, I feel pretty happy with our Dragon’s Talons game– I’m enjoying playing Kogor and the interactions of the team. With the missing weeks (especially in January, but also last weekend), I’m interested in some solid play of our characters. I think we’ll have a good March for gaming.
Despite that, I’m also interested in other gaming. First, I’d like to apologize for the way we handled game selection last time; there was too much of cloakroom dealings. It wasn’t clear or straightforward, and I’m largely responsible.
I was interested in a system different from D&D and lobbied pretty hard to ensure that the next game wouldn’t be a version D&D. That was very unfair to Ben– again I apologize. Our current game is going very well– the extra books around the table, Dad’s increasing mastery of the rules, and not playing a spell caster have all been very helpful to me. I’m enjoying the game much more and I’m not burning out on D&D.
I have a few questions:
- Is anyone else interested in playing other games?
- How would we work in other games? Alternating weeks, an alternate night, or in some other way?
I was going to leap into asking what people want to run/play… but that would be assuming an answer to the above, wouldn’t it? If there is a desire for playing further games, I’ll start up another thread asking for volunteers, requests, pitches, scheduling issues– whatever remains to be decided, if anything.
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Political Musing at lunch
I didn’t remember a book this morning, so I had little to distract me at lunch. Somehow, my mind tracked onto politics and the legislature. I thought a bit about some IRV suggestion’s I’d heard and it cross pollinated with some Clean Elections stuff I’d been considering. Below is what came to mind.
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Accumulated loot
Revolution and Angels and Operators. A mass choose your own adventure; the votes of the audience choose the storyline.
Idea inspired by Conquest Sacramento: Run Shadows or Universalis? DitV perhaps?
Recent books recommendations that I should follow up on:
Tamora’s Pierce’s book, Alanna. It blew me away. — Kameron Hurley, must check out
Engine Summer — also strongly recommended
Good book for Betsey & Wes? — Gilead, by Marilynn Robinson
Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Card Game recommendation:
Tichu. (In games top 10). [Alt: Frank’s Zoo, or Zheng Fen]
Collector’s Paradise (Bullard between First & Cedar)
$10 D&D Mini boosters (theoretically)
1075 E Bullard Ave # 104, Fresno, CA 93710
(559) 439-3511
Hilzoy: On Distractions
Feminist Carnivals Links to all the carnivals.
Kyngdoms: Interesting map. Unfortunately, it looks like the rivers don’t always make sense, but it might be a good place to steal elements from.
Panoramic Maps Surprisingly informative maps of old towns.
Pallidium Books goodies What’s going on with Rifts and other things; plus an “almost blog” by Kevin about publishing, etc.
Questionable Content Fun, geeky webcomic
Alternate DitV Character Sheets
Johari Meme for me (You pick traits that you think are you, then everyone else comes through and picks traits that they percieve. See where your blindspots are.)
Movie Suggestions (Shakespear’s Sister comment thread)
Central Valley Gamers (blog) ,
Story Games Forums
Knowledge: Current Events is a publisher who converts real world events into D20 elements.
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Next week on: The Dragon Talons
Next game night is Friday, February 9th. If you have any problems, just let us know.
As a side note: does the planar invasion theme work for everyone? [Threat to the whole plane vs. Dragon’s Talon’s foe comes from Chaos against them?]
If it does work for you, do you want to deal with the NPCs (etc.) directly– like a bigger version of the Cormyr politics plot? Or do we want to keep our part of the plot to ourselves, with random “chaos streams” errupting across the world– so all those people Erisorn alerted are tied up with their own crossover plane problems?
I (as one player) don’t want to fight beside Eliminster and other characters that greatly overshadow the Dragon’s Talons. In part it’d be due to the loss of spotlight, and in larger part it’d be due to combat complexity, the need to ramp up the bad guys to match, and so on. I don’t mind Kogor’s dying in heroic combat versus a demi-god (or its minions)… but I would mind dying as “collateral damage” in an attack sent at a big ally.
What do you think?
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D&D Resources
UPDATE: Flag Framing and The Conflict Web— two tools to make improvising in any game system easier (and more powerful).
Dragon Generator Makes dragons in two picks and one click! (Works in IE only).
Links for GMs Lots of general GM resources.
EN World’s Online Gaming Toolbox, requires login to see them, but they’re pretty extensive. Unfortunately, some links are broken.
A guide to creating detailed cultures and fantasy races.
Handy PDFs for D&D; mostly variants and interesting house rules.
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Too chilly for lunch outside
Since I’m cooped up inside, I thought I might as well post about some of my recent discoveries.
Central Valley Gamers is a blog run by local enthusiasts who are trying to increase our exposure to each other in town. Their forums are a good place to find people– they’re especially heavy on CCGs and collectible games. If you’re looking for opponents, I suspect this is a good place to go.
In completely unrelated news, Fudge Deyrni was finally released. I suspect I’d rather play it in FATE, but it should be a good reference even so.
This thread is a good read about how some games and people around the table enjoy (and reward) specific behaviors.
OSC’s Intergalactic Medicine Show is a new online fiction magazine. It looks interesting, but I haven’t bought an issue yet.
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Next Game: Friday February 3rd
Dad’s off to Chuck’s to be with him before surgery and during recovery. We’re off for the next two weeks– right now, it looks like we’ll return Friday, February 3rd. That’s quite a hiatus– if there’s anything we need to solve in downtime, we’ve got plenty of time to discuss it.
If you have any problems with making the session– or even suspect that you might– let everyone know as soon as possible.