That is the name of this story my oldest son has been writing. His teacher is very proud of him and so are his mom and dad! But beyond how cool that is, today during our Dragonslayer session he ran "The Message" for the very, very first time as a game. This was his very first time running a D&D game and frankly I thought he did really well.
We took the Dragonslayers, including his own character as a quasi DM-PC (I'll help run him) and I got a chance to play my witch again. The one I rolled up back when D&D 3.0 was new and my witch book was in playtest.
The adventure was simple enough. We (the characters) had to cross Druid Woods and deliver a message (thus the name) to a Baron on the other side of the forest. Simple right? What could go wrong? Well we were attacked many times in the woods by kobolds, hobgoblins and (much to my joy) a rogue druther and an evil treant. Of course the Baron had been kidnapped and we needed to save him from being the main event in a sacrifice to Tiamat. We saved the Baron (who turned out to be a Neutral Blue Dragon in human form) and we were attacked by a huge adult red Dragon (in my boy's world Reds and Blues hate each other so much that they will work with anyone to defeat the other).
Baron saved, returned home and the message delivered. It really was great fun. Liam (my oldest) said he toned down the Red. We got the initiative on him and dealt what I felt was a respectable 64 hp damage to it. Then he turned around and did a 48 to all of us on his first attack (and that was with the elemental protection my witch set up). He toned the dragon down a touch and we all came out of it more or less intact.
It was really, really fun. Liam did a great job and it was nice to not only see him running a game and doing a good job, but also running an adventure he wrote all on his own.
Connor (my youngest) also got in some good playing too. We found a gold necklace and I said his character could have it for his girl-friend, to which he replied "What girlfriend? I am too busy adventuring to have time for one of those!" And when we fought a fire elemental he told us that "I hate these guys, when I was younger they attacked my village and killed my mother." No idea where that came from.
Maybe next time we will hit the mountains.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Next up: At the White Plume Mountains of Madness
The idea of this adventure was to go to a mountain in snowy area. So I using the 3.x conversion of S2 White Plume Mountain (and the original) and I am going to set it in a near Arctic area. I am also going to fill it full of Lovecraftian Horrors since my boys both know who Cthulhu is. Meld the two together a bit for some good old fashioned dungeon crawl of horror fun.
The adventure is actually very short; shorter than I remembered it. Plus my youngest has been asking about the most powerful swords in D&D so I think it is time he sees Blackrazor.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Zatannurday: What is Zatanna Reading?
What does Zatanna read before going to bed after a long night of performances? We go to "Catwoman #57" for that answer.
Looks like Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law on her bed and the Necronomicon on her nightstand.
Gotta love the poster of her Dad over her bed.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Art and Content thief Jim Shipman back
You all might remember Jim Shipman; the thief that has been stealing art all over the internet and putting them on Tunnels and Trolls products and selling them as his own.
Well he is back at it.
http://www.outlawpressinc.com/
Now he is trying to lie behind some bullshit disclaimer that the items are "second hand" and not published by him and he therefore has not responsibility over their content.
Can we please shut this asshole down once and for all?
Thanks to Tran Eskoor an Doon for this information.
http://quietdayinheimdall.blogspot.com/2011/02/breaking-news-shipman-is-still-asshole.html
Well he is back at it.
http://www.outlawpressinc.com/
Now he is trying to lie behind some bullshit disclaimer that the items are "second hand" and not published by him and he therefore has not responsibility over their content.
Can we please shut this asshole down once and for all?
Thanks to Tran Eskoor an Doon for this information.
http://quietdayinheimdall.blogspot.com/2011/02/breaking-news-shipman-is-still-asshole.html
Mutants and Masterminds 3
The third edition is out, and I have talked about it before, but flipping through the pages fills me with such geek-related glee that I can barely contain it. Then you add my favorite comics on top of that, DC Comics, in a 100% compatible system then I wonder why I play anything else at this point. Well maybe that is a stretch.
But not by much.
Mutants and Masterminds is by far one of the the best examples of how and why the OGL works so well. It is the same basic d20 system, stripped down to the bare bones and then fine tuned, just enough, to be exactly what it needs to be.
Is it the best RPG ever? No, not by a long shot.
Is it the best Super Hero RPG ever? Yeah, it probably is.
Third Edition has gone a long way to fixing a lot of the issues I had with 2nd Edition. Mind you those were "issues" not "problems" and many could have been solved had played a few more games of it really.
I am looking forward to playing some with my boys at Gen Con. I just hope I can get in to them this year.
Season of the Witch: Episode 7
Episode 7: Desert Rose
Winter 2005
Roswell, NM
The Cast rolls into Roswell, NM. They decide to stay and check out the cheesy tourist traps and even get a “tUFO” Burger (made of Tofu). Bob complains that this is distracting them from the mission, Tara reminds him they are not on a mission but a vacation. A couple of times during the day Willow notices a coyote, first in the road (no surprise) but then again at the restaurant.
They check into a local motel (“where all the aliens visiting our galaxy stop!”) and proceed to get down to some very hot and heavy sex. Hot being the operative word, since the air is out. Bob materializes in the room interrupting Tara’s demonstrating what she can do with that mouth other than sing. Tara blows up and begins yelling at Bob. He leaves, she feels bad and goes to follow him.
Willow, the moment now gone, decides to get her clothes back on when she sees the coyote in her room. Scared at first she watches as the coyote grabs her new boots and runs out the door. Willow chases after it.
Tara returns with Bob in tow. He feels bad and agrees not to do that again (his player though is less enthused!) then they notice Willow is gone. Nothing has been moved and there is no struggle. A quick search shows nothing. Tara calls on Cordy, who takes a long time to respond. She says something is up with this place. Like it is in some metaphysical fog. She also asks Tara why her body temperature is so high. Tara asks Cordy to find Willow. She tries for a bit and says that see can’t find her anywhere. It is like she has been removed from this plane. Tara freaks, Cordy says to try scrying, see if that helps. Tara scrys and nothing comes up. She gets angry at Cordy for not finding her and Bob for making her run out, she waves her arm and the TV in the room catches fire. Tara runs to get the fire extinguisher to put it out. Cordy asks her what the hell is going on and Tara can’t explain it. In fact the only difference she has noticed with herself is she has been more excited than usual, and in the carnal way.
Tara tries to scry again, this time the crystal lands on Area 51, some 900 miles away. Tara asks Cordy to orb them all there. She can’t. She doesn’t know why herself, but the area is off limits to supernaturals, and Angels and Whitelighters are forbidden to go there. Tara tells her fine. She will go by herself then. She packs up the car and gets ready to drive out there with Bob protesting all the way. He tells here how it is the most heavily guarded military base there is and there is no way she could get in. Tara says that is they are holding Willow then that is the only thing that might stop her, but she doubted it. Slamming the car into drive she heads out into the night.
Willow meanwhile is still following the coyote. She either lost track of her steps and of time cause she finds herself in the middle of the desert. The coyote stops, drops her boots and then gets up on its hind legs and shifts (but not shape shifts) into Oz (complete with clothes). Willow tells it that she knows he is not Oz. Coyote tells her he took a shape she would trust and he admitted, he thought Oz was cool. He says he is only borrowing this visage. Willow asks if that means Oz is dead. Coyote does not answer that. She asks him what he wants. He tells her, ”you.”
Tara is still driving, but her adrenaline is now running out and she is falling asleep at the wheel. Bob tries to keep her awake, but even though he can touch her (she is magic) he is having trouble. Something about the desert is effecting him. At this point to stay awake I have the two players both tell me stories about Tara and Bob as they see them. They story is one of when Tara was in an equestrian contest and she wanted to ride a horse that was much too spirited for her (she was 7 or 8). She rode the horse anyway and did well, but soon lost control and was thrown and hit her head. She talked about how bad she felt because she lost, and Bob talked about how he sat with her night after night until she regained consciousness. This is an expanded version of a brief outline I had given both Bob and Tara’s players back in Episode 2. I gave them quite a few extra drama points for this. They continued driving until Tara finally did fall asleep at the wheel. Bob tried to wake her but the car smashed into an invisible barrier around the base. Tara hit the steering wheel hard and was knocked out. Bob was even thrown out of the car due to the magical nature of the barrier. We cut to a scene of Tara falling out of the car, bleeding from several deep cuts on her head.
Willow instantly feels the pain and wants to go back to Tara. Coyote says she can’t, not yet, because there are still things she needs to learn. Coyote explains that the world is about to change. It changes all the time, but this time will be big, maybe too big. He tells Willow she is the agent for change and that she is destruction. Willow denies this saying that future won’t happen now, Leviathan won’t enter this realm. Coyote says Leviathan was only the blunt tool of change, it was always Willow that was going to change it. He tells her that whether it was Leviathan or the time after Tara was killed, she was destined to destroy the world. She argues saying no, that won’t happen, besides she has Tara and every reason to remain in the world. Coyote just laughs. He says “Like it or not Willow Rosenberg. You will destroy the world and There. Is. Nothing. You. Can. Do. About it!”
Bob has gotten to Tara, who is in really bad shape. He calls for Cordy, but she has trouble orbing in. Bob, desperate, uses some of Tara’s own blood and calls for Cordy. She materializes, though it is obviously painful. (Player asked if in Bob’s past he would have seen “blood magic”). Cordy tries to heal Tara, but it is taking longer than it should. She doesn’t know if it is because of all the magical interference or something else. She says it is almost like Tara is not a witch anymore. They get her stabilized only to have a group of soldiers surround all three of them. They are arrested and taken to the base.
Willow is still arguing with Coyote. He tells her not to feel bad, he is also an agent of change and change is good. He asks her if she has even noticed the changes within herself over the last few days. She says nothing. But finally she asks, if she is change, what is Tara? Coyote only says, that is something she will need to find out. She tells Coyote she wants to see Tara now. He pauses and finally says, “ok. Just go over that ridge, there will be people expecting you.” Willow walks on and Coyote has shifted back to a coyote. She gets to the ridge and sees the base of Area 51. There are soldiers there who seem surprised she snuck up on them. They arrest her as well.
Tara, Bob and Cordy are all handcuffed (yes even the ghost) and lead into the base. The base CO, a Lieutenant General Ashby. He laughs at them, saying he has been expecting them for some time since they fouled up their Bureau business last year. He looks at Bob and says to him a Marine should know better than to drag his little girl into a fight that will get her killed. But he laughs anyway and says they might as well come on down and see what it is they came all this way to see since they were never going to leave this base ever again. The Lt. General goes on about Roswell and how everyone knows what happened in Roswell and how there are thousands of conspiracy nuts out there spreading this tale in sixteen thousand different ways. He stops and laughs, and says “do you know how much money a snow job like that would cost Uncle Sam? And I got every idiot Fox Mulder-wannabe with a camera and a website keeping my secrets for me.” He goes on.
“Everyone knows what happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. But I am here to tell you ladies and gentlemen, that everyone is wrong.”
He flips the switch for lights and bunch of high watt halogen-lamps fire up to show a holding area with one prisoner. He is trapped, spread out like a butterfly in an insect collection. His skin is bruised and his long wings are tattered and torn. Once they must have been magnificent and white as snow.
Tara gasps. Bob says “dear lord”. Finally Cordy says “Oh God! It’s Uriel.”
To Be Continued…
(Notes after I post Episode 8: Heart of Light)
Winter 2005
Roswell, NM
The Cast rolls into Roswell, NM. They decide to stay and check out the cheesy tourist traps and even get a “tUFO” Burger (made of Tofu). Bob complains that this is distracting them from the mission, Tara reminds him they are not on a mission but a vacation. A couple of times during the day Willow notices a coyote, first in the road (no surprise) but then again at the restaurant.
They check into a local motel (“where all the aliens visiting our galaxy stop!”) and proceed to get down to some very hot and heavy sex. Hot being the operative word, since the air is out. Bob materializes in the room interrupting Tara’s demonstrating what she can do with that mouth other than sing. Tara blows up and begins yelling at Bob. He leaves, she feels bad and goes to follow him.
Willow, the moment now gone, decides to get her clothes back on when she sees the coyote in her room. Scared at first she watches as the coyote grabs her new boots and runs out the door. Willow chases after it.
Tara returns with Bob in tow. He feels bad and agrees not to do that again (his player though is less enthused!) then they notice Willow is gone. Nothing has been moved and there is no struggle. A quick search shows nothing. Tara calls on Cordy, who takes a long time to respond. She says something is up with this place. Like it is in some metaphysical fog. She also asks Tara why her body temperature is so high. Tara asks Cordy to find Willow. She tries for a bit and says that see can’t find her anywhere. It is like she has been removed from this plane. Tara freaks, Cordy says to try scrying, see if that helps. Tara scrys and nothing comes up. She gets angry at Cordy for not finding her and Bob for making her run out, she waves her arm and the TV in the room catches fire. Tara runs to get the fire extinguisher to put it out. Cordy asks her what the hell is going on and Tara can’t explain it. In fact the only difference she has noticed with herself is she has been more excited than usual, and in the carnal way.
Tara tries to scry again, this time the crystal lands on Area 51, some 900 miles away. Tara asks Cordy to orb them all there. She can’t. She doesn’t know why herself, but the area is off limits to supernaturals, and Angels and Whitelighters are forbidden to go there. Tara tells her fine. She will go by herself then. She packs up the car and gets ready to drive out there with Bob protesting all the way. He tells here how it is the most heavily guarded military base there is and there is no way she could get in. Tara says that is they are holding Willow then that is the only thing that might stop her, but she doubted it. Slamming the car into drive she heads out into the night.
Willow meanwhile is still following the coyote. She either lost track of her steps and of time cause she finds herself in the middle of the desert. The coyote stops, drops her boots and then gets up on its hind legs and shifts (but not shape shifts) into Oz (complete with clothes). Willow tells it that she knows he is not Oz. Coyote tells her he took a shape she would trust and he admitted, he thought Oz was cool. He says he is only borrowing this visage. Willow asks if that means Oz is dead. Coyote does not answer that. She asks him what he wants. He tells her, ”you.”
Tara is still driving, but her adrenaline is now running out and she is falling asleep at the wheel. Bob tries to keep her awake, but even though he can touch her (she is magic) he is having trouble. Something about the desert is effecting him. At this point to stay awake I have the two players both tell me stories about Tara and Bob as they see them. They story is one of when Tara was in an equestrian contest and she wanted to ride a horse that was much too spirited for her (she was 7 or 8). She rode the horse anyway and did well, but soon lost control and was thrown and hit her head. She talked about how bad she felt because she lost, and Bob talked about how he sat with her night after night until she regained consciousness. This is an expanded version of a brief outline I had given both Bob and Tara’s players back in Episode 2. I gave them quite a few extra drama points for this. They continued driving until Tara finally did fall asleep at the wheel. Bob tried to wake her but the car smashed into an invisible barrier around the base. Tara hit the steering wheel hard and was knocked out. Bob was even thrown out of the car due to the magical nature of the barrier. We cut to a scene of Tara falling out of the car, bleeding from several deep cuts on her head.
Willow instantly feels the pain and wants to go back to Tara. Coyote says she can’t, not yet, because there are still things she needs to learn. Coyote explains that the world is about to change. It changes all the time, but this time will be big, maybe too big. He tells Willow she is the agent for change and that she is destruction. Willow denies this saying that future won’t happen now, Leviathan won’t enter this realm. Coyote says Leviathan was only the blunt tool of change, it was always Willow that was going to change it. He tells her that whether it was Leviathan or the time after Tara was killed, she was destined to destroy the world. She argues saying no, that won’t happen, besides she has Tara and every reason to remain in the world. Coyote just laughs. He says “Like it or not Willow Rosenberg. You will destroy the world and There. Is. Nothing. You. Can. Do. About it!”
Bob has gotten to Tara, who is in really bad shape. He calls for Cordy, but she has trouble orbing in. Bob, desperate, uses some of Tara’s own blood and calls for Cordy. She materializes, though it is obviously painful. (Player asked if in Bob’s past he would have seen “blood magic”). Cordy tries to heal Tara, but it is taking longer than it should. She doesn’t know if it is because of all the magical interference or something else. She says it is almost like Tara is not a witch anymore. They get her stabilized only to have a group of soldiers surround all three of them. They are arrested and taken to the base.
Willow is still arguing with Coyote. He tells her not to feel bad, he is also an agent of change and change is good. He asks her if she has even noticed the changes within herself over the last few days. She says nothing. But finally she asks, if she is change, what is Tara? Coyote only says, that is something she will need to find out. She tells Coyote she wants to see Tara now. He pauses and finally says, “ok. Just go over that ridge, there will be people expecting you.” Willow walks on and Coyote has shifted back to a coyote. She gets to the ridge and sees the base of Area 51. There are soldiers there who seem surprised she snuck up on them. They arrest her as well.
Tara, Bob and Cordy are all handcuffed (yes even the ghost) and lead into the base. The base CO, a Lieutenant General Ashby. He laughs at them, saying he has been expecting them for some time since they fouled up their Bureau business last year. He looks at Bob and says to him a Marine should know better than to drag his little girl into a fight that will get her killed. But he laughs anyway and says they might as well come on down and see what it is they came all this way to see since they were never going to leave this base ever again. The Lt. General goes on about Roswell and how everyone knows what happened in Roswell and how there are thousands of conspiracy nuts out there spreading this tale in sixteen thousand different ways. He stops and laughs, and says “do you know how much money a snow job like that would cost Uncle Sam? And I got every idiot Fox Mulder-wannabe with a camera and a website keeping my secrets for me.” He goes on.
“Everyone knows what happened in Roswell New Mexico in 1947. But I am here to tell you ladies and gentlemen, that everyone is wrong.”
He flips the switch for lights and bunch of high watt halogen-lamps fire up to show a holding area with one prisoner. He is trapped, spread out like a butterfly in an insect collection. His skin is bruised and his long wings are tattered and torn. Once they must have been magnificent and white as snow.
Tara gasps. Bob says “dear lord”. Finally Cordy says “Oh God! It’s Uriel.”
To Be Continued…
(Notes after I post Episode 8: Heart of Light)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
DriveThruRPG: New Zealand Red Cross Earthquake Relief
Once again DriveThruRPG / RPGNow is running a relief fund. This time the donations are to the Red Cross to help the victims of the recent New Zealand earthquake.
For a mere $20 you can get over $330 worth of material including Supernatural, Armageddon, Cthulhu Tech and Scion. That's $72 right there.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88713&affiliate_id=10748
and
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=88713&affiliate_id=10748
It is a good cause and the price it great.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=88713&affiliate_id=10748
and
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=88713&affiliate_id=10748
It is a good cause and the price it great.
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