Old friends and new gaming

[MerricB]

I just ran into Shane F, one of the people with whom I played a lot of D&D when 3e first came out, and before that, in the first campaign I ran in Ballarat. He's kept in touch with Greg M (one of my current players, and my longest-running player), but I fell out of touch with Shane - partly because we rarely are both free at the same time.

Anyway, I've given him my e-mail address and phone number, and hopefully he'll contact me. If he does so, I'll put him onto merricb.multiply.com - which is the best way of finding out what I'm doing.

However, it's now almost two weeks since Ben R departed for Melbourne and his new life as an Employed Person. He said he'd try to get to the odd Board Game Day, and I hope he does. I'm really going to miss him in the Living Greyhawk game - he's just one of those people who make everything a lot more fun.

I run quite a bit of D&D (he says, understating it a lot), but I want to keep the number of players up as much as possible, for often the games I run are the only D&D games they can play in. DMs are few and far between - although we have quite a few in Ballarat at present. Not always running games, though. So, instead of having 6 players I run in 3 games, I'd prefer 18 players in 3 games. Doesn't always work that way, of course, of which more below.

Mat may be introducing a friend to the Friday afternoon game in the near future, and I hope that Rich can join us for the Friday night adventure path (once Savage Tide gets underway, in another couple of months. Of course, the changing of the guard continues, with Craig's future someone uncertain - him getting a job in Melbourne after finishing Uni. Ah, the ongoing change of life!

Currently, I have 3 regular games and 12 players.

RPGA: Sarah*, Daniel*, Mat, Adam**, Rob*
AP: Rob*, Adam**, Craig, Martin, Peggy, Bradford
Ulek: Adam**, Sarah*, Daniel*, Dave, Greg, Nathaniel

(*=plays in one other game, **=plays in two other games with me)

Still, these numbers are much better than many have. Psion - you're one of the reasons I'm writing this.

Listing all the players I've had is fun... and somewhat frustratingly incomplete... and at the mercy of my memory...

RPGA: Sarah, Daniel, Mat, Adam, Rob, Ben, Gerard, Greg O., Blake
AP: Rob, Adam, Craig, Martin, Peggy, Bradford, Tom
Ulek: Adam, Sarah, Daniel, Dave, Greg M, Nathaniel, Ben
GK/Necropolis: Sarah, Daniel, Dave, Gofa, Ben D., Greg M.
O.Ulek: Ernie, Sarah, Dave, Grace, Yvonne, Justin, Brian, Nathaniel
Xan-Yae2: Shane, Ernie, Garth, Justin, Gofa, Greg M
Xan-Yae1: Shane, Dave H., Julia, Jeremy (my brother), Venetia (his now-wife)

That's mostly it for my Ballarat gaming over the past 6-10 years. So, 28 players or so? I lose count.

At present, my gaming life has settled down into a Friday afternoon game that is provided by the RPGA (usually Living Greyhawk), a Friday night game that is provided by Paizo (Age of Worms), and a Sunday afternoon campaign that I write myself (Ulek). Friday afternoon is weekly, the rest are fortnightly.

During our brief conversation, Shane was getting really excited at the thought of playing Neverwinter Nights with me... which is funny, because last month I caught up with a few friends in Melbourne I hadn't seen (or played RPGs with) in over a decade, and they were saying the same thing. Now, NWN isn't really a replacement for D&D in my mind - and I have more issues than most using it, due to my power restrictions (solar power isn't great for extended computeer use) - but it seems to be gaining currency for the D&D-lovers who aren't really into World of Warcraft-style gaming. Of course, it may be more a mind-experiment rather than something that actually happens.

I'm fairly happy with my games at present. Age of Worms has 4 more sessions to run, and I really like running 19th level PCs. Ulek is going well, and the LG game is in the Red Hand of Doom. Cool! I'm not playing any D&D games, unfortunately. Although I'm a born DM, I do like to get on the other side of the screen from time to time. I am playing 1/month in a Mutants and Masterminds game, which gives some good roleplaying, but the system often frustrates me. (Personally, I think the damage system is bunk).

Cheers!

 

[grodog]

Tell us more about your Ulek game, Merric

Also, you up for some conversion work again anytime soon?

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Tell us more about your Ulek game, Merric

Yeah, I'd like to hear about an Ulek game, too.

I'm running two campaigns at the moment. The first is a C&C game in Yggsburgh (set in Greyhawk). The second is another C&C game in a homebrew setting, using some classic modules (B1, B2, et cetera). I also run an occasional one-shot or mini-series with various systems (Lejendary Adventure, Call of Cthulhu, Mutants & Masterminds, et cetera).

Yggsburgh game: Kismette, Josh, Mike, Kelly, James
Homebrew game: Kismette, Caelen, Embry

 

[MerricB]

Tell us more about your Ulek game, Merric

Also, you up for some conversion work again anytime soon?

G'day, Allan!

To your question: I'd say so, yes.

About the Ulek game:

The Return of the Fhoi Myore
The campaign began in the barony of Copperleaf, which is in the foothills of Ulek. The baron of Copperleaf was celebrating the opening of an old silver mine. However, the celebrations were disrupted by a strange plague of depression, followed shortly by the kidnapping of his daughter... it seemed that the silver mine connected to the underdark, and had provided a way for a strange group known only as the "Priests of Chaos" to enter the barony.

The heroes, mostly members of organisations connected to the druids and bardic colleges, pursued the kidnappers, only to find that they'd escaped through a magic portal. The baron, furious, blamed the heroes and the Count of Ulek, and made plans to secede from the County.

The heroes, following some leads, discovered that the "Priests of Chaos" had a base near the Borderland Keep in the so-called "Caves of Chaos", which they determined to investigate. (The Borderland Keep lies in a mountain pass that links Ulek to Courwood). The investigation of the caves proved fruitless, as the Priests had recently left the area. However, rumours of trouble in Courwood led the heroes there, where they discovered some merchant sons had disappeared whilst in the Suss Forest. (I adapted Sons of Gruumsh for this part of the adventure). When they rescued the merchants from an orc fortress in the Pomarj, they also disrupted emissaries of the Priests of Chaos from concluding an alliance - as a result, there haven't been orcs invading Ulek during the campaign!

On their return to Ulek, they returned to Jurnre and made their reports to the Bardic College and the court of the Count. Agents of the College reported on suspicious activity in the mountains, and the group went to investigate. There they found a temple dedicated to a maiden of frost, with agents of the Priests seeking to contact the "goddess" - actually one of the seven Fhoi Myore, evil spirits banished from Ulek an age ago.

Although the group was successful in stopping the Priests, they weren't able to stop the next wave, and the Mistress of Winter entered the realm, along with her Frost Dwarf servants (particularly their leader, Alberich).

A harsh winter then descended on Ulek, the place becoming snowcovered (something unknown in its normally almost subtropical climate). The Barony of Copperleaf became cut off from the rest of Ulek, and seemed to have been taken over by the Priests of Chaos as the base of their operation. Evidence came of the rise of the second and third of the Fhoi Myore: Kerwen, the master of the hunt, and one known only as the Master of the Pines, who could corrupt humans into plant-like creatures.

A great divination worked by the druids revealed the location of an artifact that would stop the winter: the Black Cauldron (it has another name, but I can't remember it), which a elven arcane hierophant of many centuries ago had taken with her to her tomb in the Umbral Realm. The heroes penetrated that realm and overcame its guardians to recover the Cauldron.

Count Lewenn, the great druid leader of the County of Ulek, used the Cauldron to destroy the spell of winter over the realm; Jurnre was attacked through the Fhoi Myore's demiplane, the Grey Realm, during the ritual, but the frost dwarves, Fomorians and other allies were repelled. However, the dispelling of the ritual had an awful cost: Count Lewenn's life and soul were destroyed. His ward, Paeneitha (who was about 17) took over the rulership of the Count on an interim basis, and the heroes went to confront the Mistress of Winter once and for all.

When they did so, they discovered that the Mistress had inhabited the body of Count Copperleaf's daughter (and the sister of one of the PCs). However, they could not let her escape, and in a great assault, slew her.

That's the current state of the campaign. PCs:

Sir Willum (Nathaniel) human (greytouched) Knight - youngest (and disinherited) son of the Count of Copperleaf; once a knight of Ulek, but now in service to the mysterious Lord of the Grey Realm

Abigail (Greg) azurin (human) Incarnate - born in Copperleaf and friend of Willum's daughter, now associate member of the Bardic College

Chiera (Dave) halfling arcane hierophant - follows Ehlonna and associated with the Bardic College

Ragnagor (Adam) dwarf soulblade - emissary from the dwarves at the opening of the silver mine, has found life more interesting whilst saving Ulek

Lavena (Sarah) human fochluchan lyrist - leader of the group, and member of the Bardic College. Recently appointed Herald of the Court.

? (Daniel) elf soulborn - rescued from the orcs by the group, one of the Silverwood elves. I keep forgetting his name, too!

If you'd like any more information, Allan, just let me know.

Cheers!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

How exactly do you play a Friday afternoon and a Friday night game Merric? I have enough trouble playing 1 game on a weeknight, let alone 2!

Olaf the Stout

 

[MerricB]

How exactly do you play a Friday afternoon and a Friday night game Merric? I have enough trouble playing 1 game on a weeknight, let alone 2!

I work a half-day on Friday.

From 2-6pm, I'm down at Card Crazy running the Living Greyhawk game.

Then I have dinner.

From 7pm-11pm, I'm at Martin's house, running the Age of Worms game. (well, every second week).

It should be obvious that I really love DMing; I'm energized by it. (Unfortunately for Martin, I fade a lot during the M&M sessions he runs... when I'm not on my toes for the entire session, the end of the week can be hard).

Cheers!

 

[Steel_Wind]

You don't sounds like a man with a whole lot of free time LEFT Merric but, FWIW :

While there are some people who may disagree - playing NWN 1/2 is in my mind not really a sufficient substitute for a real D&D pnp session. That does not mean it's not fun. It can be a lot of fun - but it's just not the same and I would not ever suggest otherwise.

However...

Creating a large and well thought out NWN1/2 module blows the creative process behind pnp adventure design out of the water. If adventure design is something that excites you - NWN will test your design skills and push them to the limit.

Note - I do not mean DM roleplaying skills or course, nor your ad lib skills. Clearly those are different DMing muscles that are not flexed much in computer game design. But pure adventure design?

Step up.

 

[Sir Falke]

Congratulations! I, too, find it difficult to DM more than once a week.
Nice campaign have you in there (Ulek). What levels are the PCs now? How long do you think it will take to completion?

As an aside, I lost many players too bacause of great changes in life: from a table of 6, 3 emigrated to other contries and one plans to emigrate soon... But, at least, that lets me know new players, who the become friends.

Are you new players also friends of a friend or something like that or do you post ina LGS to recruit new ones?

 

[MerricB]

Congratulations! I, too, find it difficult to DM more than once a week.
Nice campaign have you in there (Ulek). What levels are the PCs now? How long do you think it will take to completion?

The PCs are just reaching 11th level. The campaign is part of my greater Greyhawk campaign, and is a continuation of an earlier version of the Ulek campaign (which Dave, Sarah and Nathaniel played in, about 4 years ago) - I've reused many NPCs, although this is 9 years later in the timeline, and their old PCs turn up as NPCs from time to time.

As an aside, I lost many players too bacause of great changes in life: from a table of 6, 3 emigrated to other contries and one plans to emigrate soon... But, at least, that lets me know new players, who the become friends.

Definitely.

Are you new players also friends of a friend or something like that or do you post ina LGS to recruit new ones?

It varies. Often my new players are friends of friends. I run the RPGA games in my LGS (although they are private home games for a variety of reasons), and sometimes gain new players that way.

About two years ago I was really running out of players, so I ran a RPGA Game Day in my LGS. Although the event didn't go as well as I liked, I met Bradford, Peggy and Martin through running that day, and thus gained access to all their friends. We've now been playing together for two years - they're the ones in the Adventure Path - and they're really good people.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Note - I do not mean DM roleplaying skills or course, nor your ad lib skills. Clearly those are different DMing muscles that are not flexed much in computer game design. But pure adventure design?

A few years ago, I was heavily involved in the Unlimited Adventures game and community (this is the old 1e/DOS "Gold Box" computer game system). So, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with computer game adventure design.

Ultimately, there is a disconnect between how I run my own adventures, which involves a lot of improvisation, and how computer game adventures have to be designed, which involves a lot of attention to detail that can bog me down.

Heh - looking back over my contributions to UA, there was a lot more theory than practice (in getting adventures out, especially). I did code an "Orc and Pie" adventure, though.

Grodog may find this link amusing:

UANL #30 - my first (of two) UANL as Editor-in-Chief

Cheers!