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All of this has happened before...

So, last post was over a year ago. See the pattern? I do. As much as I yearn for a written chronicle diary journal account of my life I don't have the habit of doing so. I also am... inclined towards not truly sharing.

Chatting about games in a casual and non-commital way as I've largely done here just isn't fulfilling and the idea of sharing anything deep or personal is majorly anxiety triggering.

You ever look back on your previous self and marvel at how oblivious to the world you were. How blissful in ignorance yet at the time so convinced of the weight of affairs.

I am currently in a bad spot in my life. Rather alone, isolated, and adrift. I've learned more than I'd ever wished about mental and physical health. I've pondered and considered things I never thought I would, confronted deep and hidden personal truths I've ignored and silenced for decades.

And I'm still in the deep of it.

Maybe I'll find my way out.

Maybe I won't.

Maybe I'm just whispering into a deep and expansive void with these words like all my previous ones.

And to think it was my Nostalgia for the civ board game that brought me back today. Hopefully I'll play it on Saturday. Trying to recapture my younger and more carefree days.

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Me, Myself and the Identities I assume

RPGs!

Currently I am in 2.5 games. Pathfinder's Curse of the Crimson Throne, quite deep in but has been placed on hold due to group availability. Jade Regent, we've tried it before and we got to Book 4, this is the redo and we're Nearing the end of Book 2.

And the most recent game, Strange Aeons, which is... Book 1? This is one that I don't know much about but has been a blast to play.

So we'll talk Aeons first. I am playing a Masked Maiden Vigilante, with an eye towards the Sanguine Angel prestige class.

Due to the nature of the campaign I don't have much in the way of history. I took the alternate human racial 'comprehensive education' and put plenty of points in knowledges and profession: Librarian. The idea is to have a split personality character, one the mild mannered and kind hearted librarian Talika Astridottir and the other... well... Former Gray Maiden, Professional Soldier, Servant of the Infernal Queens and instrument of indiscriminate justice; Umbra, Mercy Forsworn.

Having the character's personality change trigger near the end of an early combat session meant I went into a roleplay heavy section as the no-nonsense warrior persona. I made a conscious choice as a player to not just alienate everyone and instead played it stern and stoic, let the other's handle the interactions.

Their campaign trait is that they are driven by guilt. They know they have done something terrible and have to fix it.

It's a strange roleplaying experience. As Talika I'm trying to tap into my anxieties and fears almost deliberately. She is someone on the edge of a nervous break because of the dangerous situation but also desperately trying to do the right thing. To then snap to the Iron Will and Supreme Confidence of the other persona, someone of action who suffers no fools and stampedes over petty delays and social niceties.

It's getting late so a short recap on the others. My Crimson character has just died, I have a new one but they never got introduced. My jade regent character is... well... Let's call him The Outcast Ezlian. A deformed hybrid of various races seeking his destiny out of the confines of the abbey he was raised in.

Phew! Big old blog! Takes me back!

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2,960 days

Or, just over 8 years. That was my last post.

Why did I stop? I just forgot I guess. Why am I back? I got curious if this place still existed. So much has happened, so much of my life has changed. And yet.

I still play Pathfinder First Edition. I still play Magic the Gathering. I've fallen into Miniatures gaming as well. Oh, and there's still the computer games.

So, let's see if I can chronicle again.

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Hell’s Rebels, A Pathfinder Adventure

Not too long ago I started a new Pathfinder campaign. It might be interesting to keep a record of it here. I’m running Hell’s Rebels and my players are Tom, Dale, Same and Nathan. (Yes, the same Sam and Dale from the Runelords thing)

Sam is playing Erasmis, a Kyton-Spawn Tiefling Sorcerer whose sister vanished shortly before the adventure started looking for clues about a long lost legendary group called the Silver Ravens

Tom is playing Markus, a Human Swashbuckler. With a desire to set right the wrongs of Thrune he will eventually adopt a heroic persona as a symbol of resistance to Thrune. (Batman jokes abound.) Dale plays Lily, a Human Inquisitor of Calistria whose lover was taken by Thrune forces in the Night of Ashes. Nathan is playing Shen Vashnastil, a Human Rogue who is of little use to his family as the ninth child that he is a noble in little more than name. As of this write up the party has re-formed the Silver Ravens resistance group and are opposing Thrune from the shadows. Trying not to be obvious they’ve kept a low profile for the first 2 months of Thrune occupation and are still trying to build support despite military crackdowns on the populace.

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After the Thought

It’s been several months since the Runelords campaign so I guess I should put a recap to paper.

Running in an entire campaign in one week long continuous session is hard. Really hard. Far harder than I thought it would be. I like to think I kept up with it well but in the end it got the better of me.

So... where did I get up to? End of book 1? Ugh, this could take a while. Here’s the simple version: Party made it to Book 4 (How far through is complicated) in roughly 7 days. They met their end at the hands of Mokmurian and the whole party died. With only a day or so of time left I called an end to the run. I blame snowballs. Big ever increasing snowballs. I knew going into this that keeping the party as close to the book as possible was a high priority for me. Every time the party diverges from that then I have to start making changes and that takes both time and energy. That being said I don’t want to reduce player agency nor do I want to railroad them. Whilst the goal of finishing the campaign was clear in everyone’s mind only one of them actually knew the adventure and I wanted them to still be playing and enjoying a role playing game. Luckily since we had Samariel, a paladin, it was relatively easy to nudge them towards the correct courses just by putting bad guys there. Let’s go book by book then.

Book 2:

I don’t actually have much to say about book 2. It flowed nicely and took us about a day to do. I cut the Sanitarium in the interest of time and allowed the progress of the investigation to move briskly. 

When I first ran this book I took it slowly and worked a lot of suspense and mystery into it. I had my party second guessing and suspicious of everything. But this time I knew I simply couldn’t afford to be slowed down by creating that atmosphere so instead it was more of a hunt than an investigation. A major part of this book was actually the party attempting to redeem Nualia. Although she was enchanted to follow them along and do no evil she was still someone pushed to the edge and rather resentful of having her plans dashed. Most of her interaction with the party was to laugh at them as they failed and point out how they seemed to be murdering their way through problems. Late in book 2 a cultist took a swing at her and she then actually fought alongside the party, briefly. I also discovered some of my players had a serious problem with the haunt system and their close to blatant meta-gaming of the manor house irked me but I held my silence. Better to power on through than to stop and dispute the issue, there’s better stuff to come for them and we are on the clock after all. Speaking of which.... The party doing the Shadow Clock backwards by flying up was unexpected but proved a good way to save some time. They made reasonably easy work of the boss there and got a decent haul of loot. With Nualia an unofficial party member I’m beginning to worry about what other surprises I’ll run into and what other changes i’ll have to make. When Nualia was a prisoner I found myself having to look up all the low level cleric verbal only spells to see what she might try, something I hadn’t prepared for. I’d made the choice to use my laptop and a combat manager program to run the combat side of things. This was probably my best decision out of all of my preparation, It massively sped up combat and let me keep things flowing even in some of the really complicated fights to come later. So, having thwarted an evil cult and murderous monster the party is now asked to investigate the silence of Fort Rannick and the Black Arrow Rangers... Book 3:

We’re behind schedule and it’s not going to get better. At this point I know we’re not making it to the end of book 6. There’s still some optimism of finishing in the group but I, sadly, know otherwise. But this is probably the most fun to be had all campaign. The players surprise me in some amazing ways and we all have a good time. I am, however, out of time for writing things up. I will return someday to finish this.

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Updates didn’t last.

Got too busy, things moved too fast. I’ll likely put some after thoughts up here.

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Struggling to keep updates!

So the party forged on to Thistletop! Keeping quiet and sneaking through the nettlemaze. Sniping goblins before they can react they then infiltrated the stockade and killed almost all of the goblins before they could mount an effective defense. As they pushed into the lower levels they uncovered an extensive worship of Lamashtu. As they explored they encountered other mercenaries like Tsuto. One of which, Orik Vancaskerkin, slew Feras Wanderkin with a mighty blow from his bastard sword.

Clearing out Thistletop the group rescued a prisoner, Metus the Investigator, who agreed to help them on their quest. They then proceeded to remove all enemies and monsters from the dungeon and captured Orik, Lyrie and Nualia.

After a climactic battle with Malfeshnekor the party returned to Sandpoint as heroes. Orik was offered steady pay by Diggari to assist the town guard, Lyrie was bound and gagged and made to serve in the cathedral as her punishment. Nualia was escorted to Magnimar and had marks of justice placed upon her. Samariel, refusing to believe a fellow Aasimar could be unredeemable, then forced her to accompany the party.

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Glass, Wrath and Nettles!

Almost throught book 1! We’re a little behind schedule but overall progress is good and despite Warchief Ripnugget trying his best to kill Samariel no one has falled yet. Feras had a rather nasty tun against some poision too. The heroes of sandpoint uncovered some mysterious activity in the town boneyard around the grave of the previous priest Ezekial Tobyn. Keeping this to themselves they determined that one of the three local goblin tribes was behind this.

Samariel was approached by a promiscuous young girl, Shayliss Vinder, and attempted to lure him into a romantic encounter under the pretense of clearing out dire rats from her fathers basement. Samariel was having none of it and when Ven Vinder barged in he explained his case whilst weathering Vinder’s blows. Eventually he got his point across and resolved things diplomatically.

Amele Barrett then appealed to the party in tears saying that a monster was in her house. The party arrived to find her husband to dead and partially eaten by a starving goblin. Handily defeating the goblin they delivered the bad news and consoled Amele. Later the party escorted her to Magnimar and carried a message from Hemlock requesting aid from the city to help reinforce the town.

Returning to sandpoint they found that Shalelu Andosana, Diggari’s mentor, had returned and was concerned about the goblins. Sharing their knowledge the party now suspects the Thistletop goblins may well be up to something.

Early one morning the group are approached by Bethana Corbin, Ameiko’s maid, and informed that Ameiko is missing. Diggari, who is rather affectionate of Ameiko, is extremely concerned. Following clues in a note found in Ameiko’s room they track her to the glassworks and find her half-brother Tsuto has infiltrated the town with some goblin minions. He had captured Ameiko and murdered their father.

Travelling through a smugglers tunnel after the escaping Tsuto the party discover some ancient ruins. Exploring them they find strange creatures and one extremely annoying Quasit that it takes them a week to hunt down and kill. Then they go to Thisteltop, writeup pending. It’s late and it’s been a long day. Tomorrow we press on through into book 2 where the Skinsaw man shall strike!

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Goblins in Sandpoint!

The goblins are defeated! Sandpoint is saved! The heroes; Diggari, Vincent, Samariel and Feras have driven them back and are now known as the heroes of sandpoint.

Moments to remember: Samariel, Aasimar Paladin, was almost skewered by a gang of double teaming flanking goblins. 

Feras, Catfolk Investigator, was savaged by a goblin dog before it was finally put down.

Diggari, Aasimar Ranger, dealt with most of the heavy lifting and slaying of the most goblins. Including an impressive shot that took a goblin commando straight off his mount.

Vincent, Human Wizard, got off to a slow start. Dealing signifcant damage with his crossbow and supporting the others with a well timed celestial eagle.

Now that they’re being hailed as heroes what will the future hold for them? (I know, some of them know, we shall find out neither of us really do together.)

Note to self: Samariel made quite and impression on Foxglove (Sly wink).

No points awarded yet, but soon!

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Rise of the Runelords Marathon

I am about to embark on a marathon of rpg. Over the next 9 days I shall attempt to GM a runelords campaign in its entirety. If I remember then I shall be providing updates on here aswell as keeping a journal. This campaign has been months in the planning and i’m hoping my players (Alistair, Dale, Sam and Andrew) are all up to it. I hope I am up to it. So, within minutes I begin. Good luck future me, make this one to remember!

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Just some casual two headed giant MTG. Of course when we started using 5d10 to show our life total it was perhaps less 'casual'.

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Paladin morality

Note to self, blog about this soon.

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Filler photo of some shelves. Live that mtg & RPG dream.

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Elaborating on That

Drafting. It's one of my favourite ways to play MTG. Things is though, I am filled with self doubt whilst I do it. Now the people i've drafted against over the past few months are not exactly serious players and neither am I. This means you see alot of value drafting and picking for other decks. Drafting for alot of these people is a means of obtaining cards. This is not how serious drafts go down.

So with that in mind I tried to do my recent conspiracy draft with more of a competitive mindset and... I think I failed. I won the event but not because I drafted well but because of opportunity. I had fliers and the only other person who did got beat down on pretty hard because his position was better than mine.

I'm going to file this as a diplomatic victory.

(I have no idea what happened to the font here.)

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Conspiring to Draft

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=382244&type=card

Went to conspiracy draft. White/Blue flyers splashing red for... value?

Note to self: Elaborate on this.

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I tried to write a witty description. Of course given what's shown its not surprising I didn't get what I want.

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I cast resolution!

This year I will attempt to post something daily. I WILL post something weekly. Pass priority, does it resolve?