Tag Archive for role playing

The Ghost Returns for High Adventure on the Coast of Crusade

June 24, 2012 Downloadable Adventures, Featured, Roleplaying Games

A few months ago our Call of Cthulhu DM ran a one night game of It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show.  I had never played the game before, though I had read through the rules a while ago.  For a long time now I have had a love for what I call the one-book-wonder role playing games.  My preference is for games that are low in rules as I find they are more fun to play.  When you have multiple rule books, like in Shadowrun for example, it is easy to get caught up in the myriad of rules and forget that the joy of the adventure and the interaction of the characters is what makes a really good story and therefore a really good game.

In this case the game was epic in nature and well worth writing about.  Our DM got his inspiration from the Grave Robbers from Outerspace card game, which is another great card game I will need to write more about someday.  He used the cards to help generate the plot locations and encounters, which I thought was a terribly novel approach to getting ideas; a really great way to get the creative juices flowing.  Even the name of the adventure came from the cards, which is a part of the rules of the card game but I will cover that in another post.  As per the name of the post, the adventure name was The Ghost Returns for High Adventure on the Coast of Crusade.

If you have never played It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show I would recommend it.  In it you are playing an actor that gets cast into various roles to be in a late night movie.  Needless to say, these shows are low budget so a bit of cheesiness is in order.  For example the major bad-guy in our adventure was this horrible tentacled creature, with several arms that waved about seemingly at random.  We found this large creature was only affected by sharp objects and the more that we punctured it the more that it let out a hissing sound until it eventually deflated and laid flat across the ground.

In case you are looking for more details on our adventure, or need a one night run for your group.  My DM has blessed me with his notes from our High Crusade, and allowed me to post them on my blog.

High_Crusade

I hope you enjoy it, I know we did!

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Gamestorm 14

March 29, 2012 Conventions and Events, Featured

Last weekend was another exciting gaming convention, sure wish I could go to more of them.  As it is nearly bedtime for me this will be short and sweet.

For those that don’t know, Gamestorm is a gaming convention held each year in the Portland/Vancouver area of the PNW.  The last few years it has been at the Hilton in Vancouver, WA.  For 3-1/2 days we take over the entire convention space and fill it with RPG, RPGA, Miniature, Indie, Board/Card Games, LARPs, LAN, CCG, and console gaming.  There is something for everyone and all have a great time.

This year I ran one session of Horror Rules, and played in a number of RPGs.  I played Faery’s Tale, Monsters and Other Childish Things
, Zombie Cinema, Teenagers from Outer Space, and a d20 modern set in the old west.  My weekend was full of all sorts of great stories and I plan to share them over the coming days.

But for now I will end with one of the many great quotes from my gaming weekend.

“I’ve been snasquatched by the hideunder!”

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Plots from the Past

September 8, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games

There are so many places to gain inspiration for the plots that a DM throws their character group into. For me I find much of my inspiration comes from the books have read as well as the movies I have watched, that combined with my own vivid and active imagination. Since I run primarily Fantasy Genre games there is not much from the modern day that I draw from. However, my husband has introduced me a show that, while a number of years old, would provide plenty of plot ideas for the modern or near future genre DM.

Mission Impossible


Our current old TV show on Netflix is Mission Impossible; which aired from 1966 to 1973. For me this puts the show airing before I was even born, but it is still awesome enough to deserve watching. I would dare say that we have all heard of it, especially the “this message will self destruct” quote, but many of us have not actually watched it; at least I hadn’t until this last month. The show definitely shows it age in the dress and manners of the actors, but the plot is top rate, as is the scripting. It is an excellent training for anyone looking to run a Shadowrun game or better yet a D20 modern game. The situations are great, and far better than what I could think up. And even if your players were complete Mission Impossible buffs the randomness of the dice rolls and character skill sets would prevent them from following the script of the show exactly. Heck, even in the show it often doesn’t go as planned and they have to fake it and fly off the cuff to get through and out again.

In the last episode we watched, the group of agents had to infiltrate a foreign group looking to do something in the way of an attack on America.  To infiltrate the group to learn what it they were doing and stop it, they captured another group of people who were supposed to go to the training session and then pretended to be them.  In the end this had he agents pretending to be foreigners in a training environment learning how to be American’s.  I won’t give away the whole plot, but just this group of American agents pretending to be foreign agents who were to be pretending to be American’s was rather enjoyable to watch.

So if you are looking for new and fresh plot ideas for your games, then I suggest you take a look at some older TV shows and movies to see what they have to offer.  Not everyone sitting at your table will be in the know of the show’s plot and you can add fuel to your creative GM imagination bringing your games to life.

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Floor Plans for Modern RPGs

August 3, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games

All in the setting

One of the things that really helps with the atmosphere of any RPG is having the setting down right.  In the fantasy based games I run that is fairly easy to accomplish as they are not required to stick to any hard laws of anything, including physics.  Magic, deities, or mystical creatures can go a long way towards explaining away any difference between your game world and the standard reality that we all live in.

Floor Plans

Office Building

However, when you are running a modern or near future game the requirement for the setting to more closely match the reality we live in increases greatly.  One way to add that finishing touch is to have detailed maps of the major buildings that are part of your plot.  With all the detail that goes into a modern building this can be a major time sink for the DM.  To help solve this problem, here are a number of links to various building types whose floor plans are out on the internet.  If you don’t find what you are looking for here, just do a web search for building floor plans.

Floor Plan Links

Science Research Building (Stanford’s Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building)

Academic Building (The Centennial Campaign for UW-La Crosse)

Observatory (Griffith Observatory)

Office Building (Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building

Auquarium/Oceanarium (Shedd Aquarium and Oceanarium)

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Ultimate Character Sheet Site

June 7, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games

One of the things about role-playing is that it tends to be something you do for years and years. It also seems to be that most gamers move through a myriad of gaming systems depending on the tastes of their gaming group over the years. Of course this means an ever growing collection of gaming books and character sheets to keep track of. Recently I picked up an old copy of the 1983 TSR Red Box and needed to find a character sheet for my boy to make his first character with.

Thanks to modern advancements we no longer need to do them all by hand or make our way to a copy machine, we can just go online and find them. And in my searches I stumbled across what is to my knowledge the ultimate character sheet site on the internet, RPG Sheets. They have everything from 2300 AD to Wraith: The Oblivion. I suggest you check them out next time you need a character sheet for pretty much any game.

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Remote Gaming

May 23, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games

The Problem:

So, you have a friend that wants to game but can’t make it to the table, what should you do? Perhaps they live somewhere else, or maybe they are on vacation, or perhaps they are in a care center after having a tracheotomy? Well, no worries so long as they can talk, type, or write flash cards they can join you at the table!

The Solution:

Our friend was recently in the hospital and then care facility for a month, once he was off the strong pain meds and realized he was missing game we had to do something. So, we hooked him up with a net book complete with web cam from one of the group, and then setup my trust laptop also with web cam to take care of things on our end. We used Skype since I already have an account and is conveniently free for this sort of thing. Of course another program if you have one handy would work as well.

In Action:

We used this for two games and it worked pretty good. While we had some issues with the volume these were mostly due to an air compressor that was running on our friends end and nothing else as the problem was not as evident in session 2 when the compressor was not being used. Also I would recommend that if you have a USB web cam that you place the camera on the game side up higher if it is an option so it isn’t on one person all night, we didn’t think of this until after the game.

Alternatives:

As an alternative, I have some friends who have used Second Life for RPGs with distant people. To be honest, I didn’t really get Second Life the first time I checked it out. I can understand the appeal, I just find it doesn’t hold my interest. Perhaps I am much to busy in my first life to want to manage a second one too.

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How to lure out a Dragon

April 17, 2011 Featured, From the Gaming Table
Bacon courtesy Spara

So when an adventuring party is faced with the challenge of stealing a dragon’s horde out from under a dragon what is the best approach.  I suppose this particular problem has been covered before and will likely be covered again, though I doubt too many other groups will find the ultra creative approach that my gaming group decided to take.

First off I should clarify for you that 1) this party is evil, made up of demonologist, necromancers and the like and 2) there was never any intent on slaying the dragon, just removing as much treasure as they could with minimal effort and sacrifice of life or limb.  Now that we have those basic facts covered we can proceed with the story of how they achieved this goal.  Oh, I guess I should mention that I was running Legendary Lives 2nd Ed. in our typical Friday night game.

Bacon courtesy Spara

So the plan, that almost went off, was to lure the dragon from its home in the side of the mountain and while it was out and distracted to rush the lair and steal as much treasure as they could and escape.  The escape route was clear for they have a magic circle made of 26 leather sections that can be laid down in a pattern to teleport what ever enters the circle to another place based on the pattern the pieces are arranged in (think Stargate).  But now they had to determine how to lure out the dragon.

Well the groups assassin found in the small town a contact that would sell him a dragon sized dose of double-vision poison.  This, they hoped, would provide them a fighting chance.  But the poison had to be ingested, so they devised a cunning plan.  They bought a cow, and a towns worth of bacon and two cheese wheels [can you see where this is going].  Then headed up the mountain, once they felt they were close enough they used their fire magic to cook all the bacon at once.  With all the freshly cooked bacon they wrapped it around the cow, attached the wineskin of poison around it’s neck and tied the two cheese wheels to its back.  Double, bacon cheese burger on the hoof; sure to attract even the mildest of dragon’s away from their treasure.  Who could resist that much bacon???

And while there is much more to the story, which I will cover in another post someday, I will say that they did successfully part a fair amount of the treasure from the dragon with only minimal party damage.  All through a judicious use of bacon!

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My month of change

March 21, 2011 Featured
My Dad 2010

My Dad 2010

This month has proven to be an opportunity for change, doors have closed and others have opened and from the beginning to the end of this month my life is forever changed.  I won’t say for the better or for the worse, as the reality that the answer is both just like any change is really both.  It is in the end the Yin and the Yang finding a new balance in our lives.

The month started out with my father being in the hospital again, his health over the years has been in a steady decline so this was not a shock.  However, after two days in the hospital the morning of March 7th found him notably worse and the doctor called us to his bedside for a chance at goodbye.  We were incredibly lucky in that he got to say his last words to us and we got to wish him off surrounded by loving family.  Really if someone has to die, what better way to go then surrounded with love.  A thank you to the great doctor and nurses that gave us time to get to Dad and took such good care of him to the end, blessings to them.  Needless to say this has shaken my world quite a bit this month and is the number one reason I have been so quiet with my postings.

But as they say for every door that closes another one opens, and for me this was a new job opportunity that I feel is a step in the right direction and moves me away from the acidic workplace that I am currently in.  Not to say that my current employer is all bad, just that after many, many years we have grown apart and it is clear to me that it is time to split ways.  And who am I to question the wisdom of the Universe that brought this opportunity to me.  Thanks to the invention of social networking I can easily stay in touch with those people I have formed a bond with over the last 13+ years far easier then I have from any previous job.  My how times have changed.

Add to this that it was the end of Cookie Sales for my Girl Scout Troop and the end of the term in college and my month has simply not had time for posting.  But now it is Spring Break, which also means that GameStorm is next weekend.  I am excited that I will be running two sessions of Horror Rules at Gamestorm this year.  The adventure is called Terror in Tarrytown and it should prove to be a frightful good time for all.  I think having Invader Zim playing in the background while I put the finishing details on the write-up is just the right touch.

So here is to change, both the good, the bad, and the inevitable.  May it always make us stronger and our soul stronger then it was before.

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Magic Items from Children’s Books

March 1, 2011 Featured, Roleplaying Games
Fan by classina

Fan by classina

When reading bedtime stories to my kids I am often struck by the quantity of ideas for either game plot or magic items that I discover. Right now I am reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to my 9 year old, and Alice in Wonderland to my 6 year old. If we simply allow ourselves to see the items and situations in these works outside of the structure of the story we can reap a small army of ideas out of this simple bedtime ritual. Here are a few ideas I have been struck with for Magic Items.

 

Shrinking Fan (Alice in Wonderland) – A magical fan that when used to fan oneself causes the person to shrink at the rate of 1″ per minute.

Boots of Conclusions (The Phantom Tollbooth) – Magic boots that can be used once per day to “jump” to a small island, when on this small island the character may find the conclusion that would happen from a certain action. While on the island the character is not visible where they had been and time passes as usual while they are gone.

Almost Tea Cup (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) – A tea cup that can be filled three times per day. The liquid that fills the cup is “almost, but not quite unlike tea” and will sustain the physical needs of the character in terms of nutrition but still leave the character feeling not quite satisfied.

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Gamestorm – a quick rundown

February 8, 2011 Conventions and Events, Featured

So I know I keep mentioning Gamestorm so I thought I would take a moment to explain what it is and why I love it. So to star the explanation, Gamestorm is a convention held annually in the Greater Portland area and is currently on its 13th year. The convention is dubbed “The Pacific Northwest’s Premiere Social and Strategic Game Convention” by their website. I am not sure I agree fully with the tag line, at least not the social part, but it is a great gaming convention.

The convention currently runs for 4 days from Thursday through Sunday and is held in March. This year it will be March 24th through the 27th and is being held at the Hilton in Vancouver, Washington. While the location is not ideal for those without their own wheels it is a nice area and does have a number of restaurants of decent quality and pricing within walking distance.

During the 4 days there are 5 different tracks of gaming that go on.
RPG games for those table-top gaming fans
LARPs for those who are a bit more socially inclined in their gaming
Miniatures for those who like to really watch the combat happen
Board Games for all of the board game geeks out there
Panels for those who want to discuss gaming further
CCG for the Collectible Card Gamers out there, I would take my magic decks if I still had them
There are also Indie games and prototype testing of new board games that goes on at the convention as well.

So if you are in the Pacific Northwest and are looking for a way to stay up much too late gaming only to get up bright and early the next morning to game all day again then Gamestorm is the place for you. I just really suggest you take Monday off from work too as you will need it.

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