Pandarus - Voices of the Battle

My time in captivity has ripped at my psyche and once again the voices have resurfaced, voices that I had long ago suppressed.

This time it is different though, at first the voices were there as a distraction, a way to seperate me from the terrible torture that my Orc captor would visit upon my body. When the prison barge started to sink and the dangers of the moment bore down on me, the voices were gone.

Everything is such a blur during the escape, the swim to shore and arrival in town. But one thing sticks with me, is that I am now part of a group of fellow prisoners united in a common goal to seek vengeance on our captors.

We spent the next night in an allies house (a fletcher by trade), but his true allegiance is unclear to me. The night was filled with the sounds of screams from outside and within, culminating with Hawber and Gworeth attacking one another, and Gworeth almost paying the ultimate price (I am wondering if all of this is real, or new torture methods are attacking my mind).

After a restless and fear wrought night, morning blissfully arrives and we make or way across the river to investigate the strange happenings in the forest at the behest of our ally. It is here where we encounter creatures that seem to be dead, but are clearly attacking us and we must fight to save our very lives. Quickly I strike at the nearest, connecting with it and causing it to fall, at which point laughter rings in my ears......not the joyous laughter of companions, but the sinister laugh of my demons. The demons are goading me, challenging me to look at my so called allies and see the way they cower in fear at the first sign of combat, but I am too busy to do their bidding as another creature has taken the place as the first and I am once again striking out. The battle seems to end quickly, although from the appearance of others and the carnage it must have been fierce. With my weapons still and a threat no longer engaged, the demons once again go silent.

Following this battle I am still shaken and don't recall what transpired next, but I find myself at the edge of the woods witnessing an unlikely meeting. Humans and the creatures (I must ask the fletcher what they are) in a discussion across the field, then the humans leave, after throwing a prisoner to the creatures. Clearly with the our battle weary members, the two large forces that seem to be working together and our mission to observe and report back, it is time to leave. We make for the bridge, weapons at the ready as noises from the trees approach, but nothing happens and we safely make it across the bridge. Before my blood cools from its adrenaline induced boil, the demons begin to talk....taunting me to cut the ropes of the bridge, while some of my companions are still crossing.....but upon reaching the other end and as the noise from the trees subsides the demons go quite. Once the party has all arrived safely across the bridge, Hawber wants to do what my demons demanded of me....almost as if they were in his head to. Gworeth and I do manage to convince him not to cut the bridge, as none of us really wants to go swimming again anytime soon, and everyone gets a feeling that we will be crossing the river again tomorrow.

Now we must go back to the fletcher and hope that he will provide us shelter for the night, and that our report will enlighten him so that he may give some more information that we vitally require.....our very lives and vengeance may depend on it.

Lydin's Story Part 2

continued from Lydin's Story Part 1

Day 68
After reaching the town we search for the fletcher. He welcomes us into his home and provides food for my new charge.

We gain important information from him and are granted housing for the night. Strange things happen during the night. Several time during the night we hear screams and see lights. Yue, Tugwyn and Gworeth leave to investigate.

Near morning Gworeth is attacked by Hawber. I heal both and warn them that we must work together to survive, especially in untamed towns like this one.

We leave the fletcher and strike out into the forest. This forest is not a happy place. The undergrowth is harsh, game is scarce. Someone has over hunted to allow a live and vibrant place to reach this point. We reach a rope bridge and cross the river. The far side of the river is where our enemy is massing his troops.

We see many many tracks. The path we are on is used by a great number of people. We follow the path as far as we dare. Yue is attacked from the east side of the path. We look but can not find a source for the attack. We move on but are more cautious.

As dusk approaches I take Screech to find a suitable place to camp. Deadfall is everywhere, but wee need a place where we can safely light a fire. A good stone to defend with would not hurt either. No more than 50 paces from the path I hear a group moving towards me. Screech scents them and is fearful of the scent. I slowly back towards the path and safety trying to see what is stalking us. Whatever it is, it is not natural to these woods. This may be the force that has choked the life out of the forest.

I back onto the path just in front of my enemy. Gworeth and Pandarus have heard the foes approach and have drawn weapons and are ready. Behind me they come out of the woods. They are dead but they move. My masters have taught me of the foul creatures but I have not seen them before.

As they move towards me I think of what my masters have taught me. I have no skill against this type of foe. They move towards me and I am scared. I see Pandarus slash at one of these ugly forms and it falls to the ground. Perhaps if I unleash the forest to trap these abominations I can help the forest kill these monsters. Tugwyn moves past me, he seems to be happy to see these things. He makes some gestures and a dark colored blast takes a creature right in front of me. Part of the creature falls to the forest floor, but it still sinks dirty claws into my arm. I try to keep from retching.

Gworeth and Yue have engaged another group. I slash at this creature in front of me. I falls to the forest floor. I try to put myself between These foul things and Screech. Pandarus slashed through another creature. Hawber is beside me. After attacking Gworeth last night I am unsure if he is there to help us until he crushes the beast that is trying to reach Tugwyn. Tugwyn launches another spell that carves a gaping hole into another of the creatures.

After that each moment blurs into the next. Another of these creatures scores a deep scratch across my chest. Thankfully these creatures are defeated. I would like to burn them, to erase there presence from the world, but it would be too dangerous in this forest. We can not stay here. We start to make our way back to the town. We see a group of men in the distance. They seem to be talking with a group of these monsters we have defeated. One of the men appears to be a prisoner, he wears a sun sigil. I know I should recognize the sigil but I can not seem to recall why. These creatures boil my blood I want to trap them, to cut into them, to use my hands, my teeth, to kill these men that will talk with these monsters.

The men leave on of their own to be attacked by the beasts. The screams, the screams are maddening. We move off to the bridge. We hear the pursuit getting closer. We clear the bridge and watch waiting for these horrible creatures to break through the trees and start to cross the swinging ropes. Hawber is ready to cut the bridge, Pandarus and Gworeth try to stop him. Long moments pass as we wait and watch the far shore. No enemy appears.

We retreat to the town hopefully the fletcher will grant us house guest again this night.

Lydin's Story Part 1

Day 1
I am taken captive! I should have known better than to trust men who wear snakes as sigils.

Day 12
I am alone on the ship except for my cellmates. Yue, Tugwyn, Gworeth and myself shared a small, smelly, room. At times I would grow so tired of that room and of those people, I would wish that the smelly orc and his guards would take me into the torture room. It was painful but it reminded me that the world was still there, that if I waited and took my chance I might still breath free under the trees before I die.

I was not the first taken, Yue and Tugwyn were already in the room when I joined them. Gworeth joined shortly afterwards.

Day 25
I keep sane by counting the hours until I can go an be with the animals again. Time is strange in this room but I think they let me out once a day to care for them. My friend Scratch is up top, she is not doing well. I fear she will die. Some of the guards have been mistreating the mounts. I am doing my best to help them recover.

Day 45
It had been a long time since I have seen the forest.

Day 65
This evening we plotted an escape.

I would hide behind the door. Once that rotten orc entered I would slam shut the door and Yue, Gworeth would attack the bastard while I secured the door. We hoped to kill him and use his weapons on the guards that would surely come to save him.

Day 66
It did not go as planned. After weeks of the same pattern the guards entered the room! Yue and I shared a long look and both bolted out of our prison. We knew we had but one chance. If we could just kill the orc we might have a fighting chance against his guards. Months of being malnourished and torture did us in. Unfortunately, I did not have the strength left to harm the orc. I managed only to burn myself quite badly. Yue made crude attempts but he too failed to score the kill we needed. We had hoped that Gworeth and Tugwyn would be able to win free, but the guards closed the door to the cell separating us.

In the end we managed only to make the wraith of our captures to fall on us rather than our comrades.

Day 67
I awoke to a horrible sound and the floor beneath me shuddered and slid me across the room. Tugwyn tried the door and it was open! A chance for freedom! In our rush to escape we all fell over ourselves as we attempted to exit the room. Once we climbed up onto the top floor we saw immediately that the ship was sinking very quickly.

I rushed to save as many animals as I could. Scratch was already in the water, I play she makes it to shore. One of my dogs is dead, the others are weakened by the crash. Many of the other animals are injured. I doubt I will save many, but I free those I can.

Many of the animals can not make the leap into the water, few of those will make the shore. I hope they have the strength to make the swim. I hope I do. Gworeth and Yue have returned they have not been able to locate our 'friend' the orc. Tugwyn is still in the boat looking for our gear. We can not wait for long we too must make a try for shore. Tugwyn returns empty handed.

We all leave the boat together. I try to help the animals along the way but I am too slow, too tired, I have not recovered from the escape attempt. I do not know how but I make it to shore. I suspect Gworeth pulled me the last half mile. Yue and Gworeth seem to have made the trek without as much difficulty as myself and Tugwyn. His frail form is motionless on the beach. I crawl around looking for signs of Scratch.

If I have lost her I am lost.

I finally find her trail. She is hurt, the trail is bloody. I follow it into a thicket. I can not find her, I have failed her. Finally I stumble upon her, I can feel her fur, now we are whole again. I am too late! Scratch is dead! I can not look at life the same way, how could I have let this happen. She looks whole but the blood trail leads away.

Retching I leave my friend and follow the blood trail. Scratch has done what I could not. I could not save her, but she saved her cub. I did not even notice she was carrying a litter. I will care for him better than I cared for his mother. Screech, I will call him as he is already exercising his lungs.

When I return a group of men riding well fed animals meets us on the beach. Our number has grown by two. Hawber and Pandarus were also captives on that boat. The men talk to us about our enemy. They wish us to assist in revenging their lord on the man who killed Scratch. I agree to this mission.

Alas my dogs did not make the swim successfully. I see signs that some of the other animals made it. Perhaps later we can track some of them and recover what we can.

We move on to a large town to the north. We must find the Fletcher who will assist us further. This is badly used land. It is colder than I am used to and has been over farmed and grazed. There is no game to hunt, no roots for the pot or berries for health and good cheer.

RPG meme bandwagon

Wow, this was a whole lot tougher to answer than I thought it would be. Apparently I am not the story based gamer I thought I was. I picked up on this from Carl.

1. What is the first RPG you ever played?
D&D Basic Set. We must have played that introductory adventure with the Rust Monster a thousand times.

2. What RPG do you currently play most often?
Play: D&D 3E
GM: Fudge

3. What is the best system you've played?
This is an immensely tough question as recently I have GMed much more than played. Which system was the best "system" I've played? Probably HERO. Which system was the most fun? Rolemaster.

4. What is the best system you've run?
Fudge.

5. Would you consider yourself an: Elitist/ Min-Maxer/ Rules Lawyer?
I would like to think I am an elitist, but that just isn't true. I am also sometimes a rules lawyer in that I have read all the rules/books, but not in the sense of challenging the GM's ruling but in being a reference manual for what the rules state. I can also Min-Max with the best of them.
I think these types of categorization are not required because each game type can be fun. The problems arise when you try to mix them. An Elitist will have no fun in a group of Lawyers, and a Min-Maxer isn't going to enjoy a campaign with a group of Elitists.
As a player I try to fit in with the group, or if I can't to find a group into which I can fit. As a GM I try to emphasis story over rules but I am not always successful.

6. If you could recommend a new RPG which would you recommend? Why?
Fudge, with Tri-Stat dX a close second.

7. How often do you play?
Once or twice a month when things go right, four or five times a year when they don't.

8. What sort of characters do you play? Leader? Follower? Comic Relief? Roll-Player/ Role-Player?
A lot of times I find my self playing a Leadership role. However, at times I will purposefully not fill that role to be within the bounds of the character. Also some games and groups tend to favour a Roll-Play rather than a role-play.

9. What is your favorite Genre for RPGs?
Fantasy, although I am getting into steampunk right now and am enjoying it a great deal.

10. What Genres have you played in?
Primarily Fantasy, but I have tried a lot including Modern, Near Future, Far Future, Cyberpunk, SuperHeroes, and cross genre. The one I have not played but am eager to try is Steampunk.

11. Do you prefer to play or GM? Do you do both?
I prefer to play, but I GM a lot because no one else does (and because I own/read the books). GMing can be fun, but it can be a lot more work.

12. Do you like religion in your games?
I try to allow as much as possible, what is NOT allowed is recreating a real world religion in the game. You can have a lot of similarity, but not a copy.

13. Do you have taboo subjects in your games or is everything "fair game"?
I have two subjects that have special status in my games, one is comical (or at least the player think so) and the other is deadly serious.
The first is that none of my game worlds have snakes.
The second is any form of sexual assault. I always tell the players before hand on what is acceptable and what is not. I also always tell them that they get one and only one warning before I take action. A first offense is a complete party death, the innocent are punished along with the guilty. A second offense result in me NOT participating in the game group any further. I have had 2 first offenses, I have never had a second offense.

14. Have you developed your own RPG before?
Not really, as a GM I usually modify the combat systems making them much more deadly. One of the reasons I really enjoy Rolemaster is that there is ALWAYS a true danger to the characters life. I find is frustrating in a lot of game systems when the players get a sense of security in that they know how ridiculously powerful they are and that they don't need to fear an enemy because they couldn't possibly die...

15. Have you ever been published in the Gaming Industry? If so...what?
Not yet, but I'm working on that.

Why Steam Punk Rocks

Steam Punk Rocks.

I have to admit I have never played a steam punk game, but I want to and soon. I was thinking about why my cross genre games slowly migrated to a single genre. The reason is that they all had a intrinsic flaw (Me). One genre was more, better, faster, etc than others. It might have been that technology was more powerful than magic. Or the fantastic was more fun to play in.

Now I am not blaming this on the system or the modules, or at least not entirely. This falls squarely on my shoulders. Steam Punk seems to have built in genre balancing, the technology is more powerful but flakey. It allows the players to have the best of both worlds.

I really do not like the idea of game balance, and cyberpunk seems to have some of the worst examples of game mechanics that make no sense but are in place to uphold game balance. The most blatant of these is the rule that adding cyber components "steals your soul" making it harder to use magic. What crap. I would love to play a mage with a memory module. Imagine storing spells on a sim soft. Memorize hundreds of spells by simply downloading them into a memory chip that you can change on the fly. Need a fireball? Simply insert the correct chip and fire away.

The problem is that when you introduce that you change the nature of the game. Why would a player play a mage WITHOUT this type of memory module? A natural mage can memorize X number of spells, a cyber mage can memorize as many spells as can fit onto a memory chip. There is a clear advantage to playing the cybermage.

The problem is that the players have to be able to see beyond the empirical advantage. The GM (me) has to get the players to see the benefit of playing the disadvantaged character.

This is why my games failed. I could not get the story to supersede the rules.

Seventh Sanctum

Once again I have gone an embarrassing length of time without a post. So I am going to do a quick review of Seventh Sanctum. Seventh Sanctum is a site dedicated to various random generators. From character names to groups to super powers.

This type of generator can be a GM's best friend when the game is on and a name is needed, or a magic item, or even a creature to challenge the party. No matter what you need you can find something that will help you on this site.

I once needed to populate a library with books. Using the Bookspinner generator it took less than 2 hours to generate literally hundreds (500-600 books) with this type of detail

The Study of Summonings
* This book is of above-average clarity because of the excellent, well-planned chapters. The book's well-done nature allows one to easily find that it has no useful information. Though flawed, one can definitely see that the concepts and information do show a great deal of insight.

Advanced White Magic
* This book is all but impossible to understand because of it having no kind of organization at all. If one miraculously managed to understand the book's contents, that person will find it is extremely informative. One will also find that the concepts and information do show a great deal of insight.

A Wizard's Encyclopedia of New Wizardry
* This book is easy to understand. A short look at the book will show that it is extremely informative.

A Peacetime Comparison of the Halbierd and Falchion
* This book is all but impossible to understand mostly due to terrible diagrams. A talented person may be able to derive some understanding from the book and find it is extremely informative. Despite its good traits, the contents show some plagarism.

An Account of the States' Ancient Heroes
* This book is very clear thanks to the excellent, well-planned chapters. It's easy to determine that it is reasonably useful. After a quick exampination, one will find that the concepts in the book do show a lot of original thought.
* Examining the book, one will find: Some personal notes, in a recognizable, but foreign language, unrelated to the book, concentrated in select sections of the book. Pieces of paper with notes, in incoherent writing, that seem to have to have no single purpose.

I have also used the Dragon Generator to quickly come up with a dragon description.
Hatetearer - She is a mature adult dragon. She has gold scales which are almost mirror-like. Her breath is a bolt of electricity. She is extremely sadistic. Her fighting skills are exceptional. She lives in a forboding wasteland. Her hoard is huge.

Flightwings the Great-winged - She is an elder dragon. She has silver scales and exceptionally large wings. Her breath is a cloud of gas that puts most beings to sleep. She is very arrogant. Her skill at mechanical items is quite refined despite her size. She lives in a friendly city. Her hoard is giant.

Interactive History part II

Because I am not quite busy enough I am going to try to resurrect a play by mail or play by post Interactive History Game.

Step One: Re-read the rules and maybe reformat them into a single html page.
Step Two: Recruit players.