Back to Role Playing Again

     Well we have been back to role-playing the last two weeks and the first session was a bit scrambled but we managed to get in one short fight before we ended for the night. The last session was much better with us getting into two fights in the same time period. I must say I am liking the quicker combat with 4th compared to 3.5.

     I am looking forward to the next few sessions as we build into the first adventure of maybe many. I will have to see and I am still debating on whether to keep a log or journal.

Gaming with 4th Edition

Well we have started a new summer role-playing game with the ending of the Birthright Game that has run for over 15 years.  I convinced the group that if we wanted to continue role-playing then I had 4^th Edition ready to run and the group has surprised me in agreeing.

So the first session was the group making up characters and thankfully I have the program for making the PC’s so I had everything printed up for the entire group. They have surprised me with the choices they made with their characters and now we get to start with the group getting into their first fight when we start the next session. They even managed to give me the roll needed at the time so the entire group all started with a minor magic item.

The names of the characters are fairly standard other than our usual player who seems to come up with outlandish names and his name for his human was no exception. I will have to see if I want to continue with my writing as a GM for the sessions I have been running. We will have to see.

Summertime Gaming

Well the Birthright game has finally ended its run with one epic battle. The fight lasted just over two minutes of game time but took four game sessions to finally complete. Our group consisted of eight with the late addition of two NPC's to bolster our forces as we went up against the evil Lich and his two remaining minions were waiting for us. We had encountered the warblade before but not the big nasty fighter with a very big weapon who proceeded to butcher us until a failed saving throw brought him down. By the time the fight was over only one character was still standing and he was down to single digits.

This has ended a summer run of over fifteen years that Jeff has GMed and I thank him for that. I know its a pretty big commitment to plan and run a role playing game. Now we have spent a few sessions playing the board game Settlers of Catan and have even hosted Murdock's Marauders for a tabletop skirmish session. It seems the plan for the rest of the summer is for a random game to be played until the main Savage Tide game starts up again. We will see I suppose...

Savage Tide Season Finale and the return of Birthright

Well we have now completed another season of the Savage Tide with the group on the 73rd layer of the Abyss trying to find the well that contains Ahazu the Seizer. He is the demon lord responsible for keeping all the other prisoners in their wells. The group has found his well hidden by a stone structure and has managed to find where he is hidden and using an item that the group has carried for months to figure out how to get close enough to contact him. But first they have to get by the nasty guardians that are waiting for the group including some Abyssal Ants that are nearly a foot long with mandibles dripping acid. This was the perfect point to end the season with the ants pouring over the lip of the well to attack the group after they had dealt with some nasty Nightwings and the other guardians of the site.

Now we turn our attentions to the Birthright Game and the completion of our long campaign. The group is now about to fight a nasty lich and his minions in the final battle of the game. Either we win or the bad guys win and the game will be over. Then the group will make a decision on what to play next. Maybe even playing 4th Edition for the summer seeing that I have the core books and enough adventures to play for a few summers so we will have to see what comes next. We have to finish Birthright first.

Starting Chapter 10, the Wells of Darkness

Well I have finally got the group back to the World of Greyhawk and now the group is feverishly spending all the gold they have to stock up on magic items. They also have to find a sage who knows about the multiple layers of the Abyss and specifically about the first layer called Pazunia and one of the demons there called the Red Shroud. She resides in a fortified area called Broken Reach and is familiar with the demon they are now looking for. I think most of the remaining sessions for the year will now take place in the Abyss where the group will be severely challenged by having to take everything they need with them.

Chapter Nine Finished

     Well our last session was spent role-playing the next encounters and no dice were rolled. The group decided to check out the remaining area and had to converse with an evil lich who told them what they wanted to know when it found out that the Death Knight was now dead.
     But what they found out made them shiver as they have to find someone on the 1st layer of the Abyss. At least they were given a name and an area to find her but the rest will be up to the group. I gave them another plot twist when they went to leave and I forced them to give up the keys to the prison by trading back a couple of their cohorts that had been kidnapped from the boat. The work now begins for me as I have to get ready for what comes next.

Finishing Chapter Nine

Well the group has spent the last three months wandering through the infamous prison of the Prince of Demons and finally managed to encounter the bad guy they were looking for after rescuing their patroness from the clutches of a six armed demon. The fight was rather anti-climactic as the group again managed to gang up on a single opponent and pounded him to paste. Now to see if the group just leaves or takes the time to explore the areas across the bridge to get some information that they will need. The next session will be important to the group as they try to figure out how to stop the Prince of Demons Savage Tide from sweeping through the universe.

Gaming on Sunday Nights

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything here so I thought I should put something up on my blog. The Birthright game ended with our group almost finished the adventure that our summertime GM is running. He has already informed the group that he will be done GMing for now after his adventure is done when we start up Birthright again sometime around the end of April.

So far with the Savage Tide Adventure Path the group has spent the last five months trying to rescue their patroness from the Infernal prison of the Prince of Demons himself. It hasn't helped that half of the group has been slain while in the prison and the party cleric has managed to bring the dead back to life and they have needed everyone. Thankfully the last session saw the group finally finding her and releasing her from her imprisonment. Now they thought all they had to do was leave but she has ordered them to find her tormenter, her dastardly brother who is now a Death Knight. The group has managed to find him moments later but he has over a dozen nasty minions and the group has been blocked in attacking him while they fight Shadow Demons and some very nasty Dread Wraiths.

Thankfully once they can deal with the Death Knight they can head back to their ship hidden in a small cove and hopefully escape. What the group doesn't know is that some demons have found the ship and attacked leaving some of the crew slain and the ship damaged before they were driven off. Now can the group get back to the ship before the demons return with reinforcements and escape with their lives. The next couple of game sessions will tell the tale and I will update later this month (I hope) with what has happened.

Birthright Game for the Summer

Well we have now been playing the Birthright game for the last month or so and the game is building to a climax where the Stellar Four Adventuring Co is trying to take out the group of usurpers that have taken over the country that the former cohort of the group is the rightful ruler of. We have encountered a few of the enemy and they have proven tougher than we first thought. Our casualties have been higher than the enemy and now we have been given an ultimatum by the undead leader and we are now pondering what to do next.

It has helped that my shift has been changed again and I now have my Sundays off and it makes for a better routine as I am not trying to figure out what our game schedule is week to week.

Into the Abyss

Well the group has managed to sail their ship onto the Abyssal Ocean using an item called a wakeportal to gate from the Azure Sea to the Abyss. Now they have to find their way to the Gaping Maw, currently the location of their patron Lavinia. Their main problem is no way to tell were they are. There are no land masses and the brownish purple water seems to blend with the reddish overcast sky, and there appears to be no sun. Now the group has to decide which way to sail.

Now the fun begins for me, they are now in the Abyss, home to so many demons that if all of them were aware of the group they wouldn't stand a chance. Thankfully no one knows they are there yet, and they do not want to attract the attention of the Prince of Demons.

Heading to the Abyss

Well the group has finally finished off Chapter 8 of 12 with just a little mopping up of the pirates lair and now they have to load up the treasure and prepare to find and rescue their patron Lavinia. Unfortunately they hare going to have to travel to the Gaping Maw, the 82nd layer of the Abyss to find her. They will have their work cut out for them as this is prime demon territory and any they come across will attack them on site. The group is now mostly 15th level and is a little lower than recommended but there is also more PC's in the group. So I think it balances out in the end.

I have liked that the group is taking the time to cast lots of spells before they get into combat but they will have difficulty once they are off the Prime Material Plane. I will be curious to see what they do to prepare for their journey to come.

Fighting the Crimson Fleet

Well the group has spent the last six sessions attacking the lair of the Crimson Fleet that was a stack of ships stuck on a massive dead tree. The fighting was brutal and some of the group came close to death but timely spell casting from the healers managed to keep the group alive. The final encounter was the demonic leader of the fleet who decimated the group before they finally ganged up on him and killed him off. Now they have to continue on without resting as they don't know when another pirate ship will return. The next few sessions will be interesting as they quickly explore the remains of the ships.

The Candle Dragon Inn

Well I see it has been awhile since I have posted anything here so I thought I would write something before the year is out. Our Sunday night game has been forced to change a little bit seeing as my new shift with my new employers has made me work alternating Sundays.
Thankfully the group has agreed to play on Wednesdays on the week I can't play Sundays. This has worked out nicely as we play four days apart and I found it makes it a little easier on me to keep the flow going with two sessions in a week.

The group has managed to find the clues needed to find the lair of the Crimson Fleet, the largest pirate gang on the Azure Sea. The group is now trying to infiltrate the lair but they didn't knock off the guards in one of the first areas and now the pirates have been alerted and are preparing for the group to attack. Things will get ugly in the next few sessions as the big bosses get ready for them. It doesn't help that the strongest warrior in the group has been grabbed by a Bar Igura Demon and it teleported him over a thousand miles away and now the group has to try and find and retrieve him but that may have to wait.

Dak-Kon 16Bit

Well another Kon has come and gone and for the first time we have gone to a three day event starting on Friday night. I was surprised at how many people were there to start the con and the Warhammer miniature game that went first thing was awesome. They had taped off a major section of one room in order to play and it took them an hour just to set up the minis.
It was great that players showing up had their choice of games to play as there were RPG's every session along with a variety of board and card games. The RPG tournament was OK as it was Savage Worlds and had 20 players throughout the day Saturday with three GM's to handle the action. The storyline was a little different and darn right confusing at times and I managed to sit in with each GM during the tournament.

I was a little put out that no one wanted to play in the D&D 4th Edition session that I had prepared but I got to play in a Death Watch Sci-Fi session and then played in a 4th Edition session to close out the con. I think that the players there for the whole weekend got very good value for their money and I am curious to see what the committee is planning for next year.
Rumor has it that there may be a venue change as the building we were in has just undergone major renovations and the rental is being raised for next year. I guess I will see when the after con meeting goes ahead and the planning will begin again.

Another block of sessions done

Well we have just finished off another four sessions of the Savage Tide and now we have to wait four weeks as I start working Sundays again, I left the group in the bowels of the abandoned temple looking for the bad guy to finish off this part of the adventure. They have only the boss and his few loyal minions to kill before having to turn their attentions else where as the plot thickens. The next few sessions will be a challenge for them as Khala is nasty and prepared for the group. Oh Well I will see at the end of February how things go,

Dealing With Demons

Well we finally finished a major encounter with 15 demons inside the ruins that the group has entered and the fight took three game sessions to run and lasted about 30 rounds before the group finally managed to overcome them. They killed off all but one, but that one is a spell caster and it will return to engage them again. I managed to kill off one of the party cohorts but if I had really wanted to, I could have taken out most of the party. The fun thing is that I managed to feeblemind two of the party members including Humphrey the half-ogre and one of the spell casters in the group.
The thing I liked is that I forced the group to cast off most of their high level spells in the encounter and I have a tough demon waiting for them if they try to retreat. So their only safe option is to head deeper into the ruins but that will bring them closer to the head demon and they will have to have most of their spells in order to survive.
The next few sessions before the new year will tell the tale. I wait to see how bold the group will be in pushing further into the ruins.

Dealing with Argumentative Players

Well last nights game session was rather interesting as a couple of them spent most of the session arguing with me about the actions that happened during the game. It is starting to frustrate me when my bad guys attack the group with a plan of action and the group seems to have to argue about it. They don't seem to realize that when they are attacking an enemy that is just as smart as they are and are able to plan an attack on the group that is coordinated for the most effectiveness in doing damage to the group that I as a GM is obligated to try and do as much as I can to hamper them. That and trying to say that a dinosaur animal companion is supposed to be as smart as the group and able to do things that a dumb animal wouldn't do. I am tempted to just kill off the animals that are with the group to cut down on the bitching and whining.
I guess I will have to see what happens over the next few sessions before I do something drastic. Oh well! More to come with this adventure and it promises to get very interesting over the next few sessions.

The Savage Tide Season Five begins

Well the first session for the year was played last night and I started off the game with a rather short and nasty encounter when a massive crocodile came up from under the group and attacked. The group got away relatively unscathed as it was a hit and run attack. It wasn't able to grab a snack and the group hurt it enough for it to retreat back to the depths of the lake.
But I did want I wanted to do by forcing the characters to react in different ways and spread them out over the lake and on the shore.

Then they encountered the aquatic demon guardian that was waiting for them at the entrance to the ruins. What made it interesting is that it was an illusion of the demon that the group attacked and I made them cast off some fairly potent spells to no affect. Next weeks session should get interesting as the demon has a lot of at will powers that can hurt the group if they don't roll well against it. Then they have to deal with what is inside the building and I can hardly wait.

Birthright done for the year, Savage Tide begins again

Well it has been awhile since I have posted anything and I thought I would leave a few thoughts about the Birthright Game. Our GM pulled out Tale of the Comet, a 2nd Edition adventure that we have played over the last season for Birthright. The last session lasted almost 4 hours and we managed to finish off the adventure in the last few minutes but the fight during the night was rather nasty. We were only in the craft for about 3 minutes but those three minutes took two full sessions to run. We managed to destroy the Overseer just as he was activating the transporter to start bringing in constructs from another dimension. The group had been forced to used the weapons that they found called blasters to hurt them as our medieval weapons we had didn't seem to hurt them at all.
The party dwarf had gleefully used a cannon that was usually mounted on a hard point to attack with and the damage was rather extreme when he managed to hit. We lost count of how many constructs that we killed during the adventure and now we have to wait until April before we take up the game again.
I am looking forward to the next session as I get to start GMing again with the start up of season five of Savage Tide. I can't wait for the first round as the group is walking across the lake to the island and they haven't spotted the immense crocodile that it coming up from below them to attack the group.

Birthright Meets War of the Worlds

Well last nights session was definitely interesting as we ended up being scavengers for the day as we had to snoop through the debris field looking for anything usable. It's a good thing we seemed to roll good as we ended up finding some good stuff including a blaster cannon still in its case. Our rock solid dwarf in the party just laughed as he picked it up and told us to point him in the right direction. We managed to equip ourselves with blaster pistols, a pair of rifles and a suit of foreign made armor that looked kinda like pottery. We have also rescued an elf that had been captured by the bad guys and he was forced to teleport himself away but he had to leave his pack behind.
Now we have also found some people allied with the woman. We now have to somehow eliminate the Overlord before he can build up too much power.
The next few sessions should prove to be interesting.