james bierly
First Post
Well, the Eberron campaign finally started up last night.
Wow.
I guess this is what you get when you form a rpg group from theatre majors and aspiring authors
These folks down here just get totally into character. This is the first time the GM has gotten in trouble for breaking the mood and the suspension of disbelief ;-)
The other great thing is the way their character's stories are connecting and intertwining. Many groups may have some good players, but the stories tend to be seperate. Everything here is meshing like a great novel. Or should I say anime, considering the interests of most of the players...
See, Hannah, Kent and Chris have done a bit of pseudo-live action rules-less rpg in the past, sort of like what they do in some muds. (Hannah's stories from this game are actually quite interesting)So they set a good example.
At the beginning, (after the filmography- I showed clips from Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones, Pirates of The Carribean and Lord Of The Rings) I started the party off in the Lightning Rail, headed to Sharn. The players just sat there. What was up? Was this going to turn into a group that needed to be railroaded (pardon the pun)? Were they dead? I felt quite awkward. Even my worst groups at least started talking when the flavor text concluded.
That's when I realized they WERE roleplaying. The monk was meditating. Chris was sharpening his weapon. (in reality as well as in character, made a nice sound and added to the atmosphere...) The wizard was brooding... Hannah's character had a cold...
The interaction started up slowly and naturally. I introduced a nightmarish visitor to the train (the Dusk Hag that Eugene was tracking; it wiped out his family. He just knows that it is a Demon, though (he comes from the demon wastes) and he was in and a little kid. The characters all discussed things in-character. For a long time. I left to go find out what was taking Stephen so long... when I got back they were still rping totally in-character. Incredible.
So we had a fight, and a little intrigue, and ended up in Amanda's character's ancestral home. (deciding what to do with the journal and who should meet the mysterious lady at the broken anvil inn.) Not nearly as much territory as I would have liked to have covered plot wise (the Forgotten Forge is supposed to take a single session, we hardly got through a quarter of it.) But there was loads of character development.
My main challenge with this group will be to keep the plot or at least the sessions moving forward.
My second main challenge will be bending the DnD ruleset to fit their style of play, and keeping ahead of them in study of the spell lists...
Oh, and getting them to speak louder...
Also, they do so much development amongst themselves, I'm going to have to practically require that they give me character journals so I can keep track of everything.
Went to the coffee shop afterwords with Eugene and Amanda. They talked forever about their characters. Eugene went over to cuddle with Keira after awhile, but Amanda talked excitedly about her first rpg experience till about 2:30 in the morning. Newbie enthusiasm. Gotta love it.
So, I'm excited about this game. I've got a good feeling about this bunch, and I love the Eberron world (as do the players). I'll keep you folks posted.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
Wow.
I guess this is what you get when you form a rpg group from theatre majors and aspiring authors
These folks down here just get totally into character. This is the first time the GM has gotten in trouble for breaking the mood and the suspension of disbelief ;-)
The other great thing is the way their character's stories are connecting and intertwining. Many groups may have some good players, but the stories tend to be seperate. Everything here is meshing like a great novel. Or should I say anime, considering the interests of most of the players...
See, Hannah, Kent and Chris have done a bit of pseudo-live action rules-less rpg in the past, sort of like what they do in some muds. (Hannah's stories from this game are actually quite interesting)So they set a good example.
At the beginning, (after the filmography- I showed clips from Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones, Pirates of The Carribean and Lord Of The Rings) I started the party off in the Lightning Rail, headed to Sharn. The players just sat there. What was up? Was this going to turn into a group that needed to be railroaded (pardon the pun)? Were they dead? I felt quite awkward. Even my worst groups at least started talking when the flavor text concluded.
That's when I realized they WERE roleplaying. The monk was meditating. Chris was sharpening his weapon. (in reality as well as in character, made a nice sound and added to the atmosphere...) The wizard was brooding... Hannah's character had a cold...
The interaction started up slowly and naturally. I introduced a nightmarish visitor to the train (the Dusk Hag that Eugene was tracking; it wiped out his family. He just knows that it is a Demon, though (he comes from the demon wastes) and he was in and a little kid. The characters all discussed things in-character. For a long time. I left to go find out what was taking Stephen so long... when I got back they were still rping totally in-character. Incredible.
So we had a fight, and a little intrigue, and ended up in Amanda's character's ancestral home. (deciding what to do with the journal and who should meet the mysterious lady at the broken anvil inn.) Not nearly as much territory as I would have liked to have covered plot wise (the Forgotten Forge is supposed to take a single session, we hardly got through a quarter of it.) But there was loads of character development.
My main challenge with this group will be to keep the plot or at least the sessions moving forward.
My second main challenge will be bending the DnD ruleset to fit their style of play, and keeping ahead of them in study of the spell lists...
Oh, and getting them to speak louder...
Also, they do so much development amongst themselves, I'm going to have to practically require that they give me character journals so I can keep track of everything.
Went to the coffee shop afterwords with Eugene and Amanda. They talked forever about their characters. Eugene went over to cuddle with Keira after awhile, but Amanda talked excitedly about her first rpg experience till about 2:30 in the morning. Newbie enthusiasm. Gotta love it.
So, I'm excited about this game. I've got a good feeling about this bunch, and I love the Eberron world (as do the players). I'll keep you folks posted.
Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
