the Jester
Legend
Yeah- again, here's hoping PC eventually gets back to this, and here's a million thank yous for all the writing he's done previously! 
Piratecat's storyhour reborn! (updated July 4, 2006)
KrazyHades
First Post
PC, I've been reading your awesome storyhour, and a couple of questions came to me.
First off, how much of each session (if any) is improvised?
How much time do you spend doing prep (brainstorming, writing the adventure, stating out important NPCs, etc) for each session?
And how long has it been since the whole apathy towards the marching modrons? Not that you're upset about it or anything, of course. You would never be irked by something like that.
First off, how much of each session (if any) is improvised?
How much time do you spend doing prep (brainstorming, writing the adventure, stating out important NPCs, etc) for each session?
And how long has it been since the whole apathy towards the marching modrons? Not that you're upset about it or anything, of course. You would never be irked by something like that.
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justinsluder
First Post
*poke poke* Seems like it's still alive.
*kick* Move damn it.
*kick kick kick* There now you're back where you should be. On the first page.
*kick* Move damn it.
*kick kick kick* There now you're back where you should be. On the first page.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Heh. I sure am. Sagiro is updating his as well, which is totally shaming me. I'm busy right now -- refining a game design doc for work, taking a writing class on process (so how to avoid stalling!), working on a novel, and reading a jillion ENnies books. I'm still recording my games, possibly for future story hour writing. And I'm going to be writing a story hour for my nine-game 4e Practice Game. Woo!
The Defenders campaign is probably within ten runs of actually ending, drawing to a close after over 16 years. We've had two deaths in the last three games, at least one of them permanent. The bad guys are currently winning. We ended last game with Velendo immersed inside a worm that walks with a vermiurge closing in. Exciting times, and I love my players more than ever. But things are looking pretty scary right now.
To answer KrazyHades, the best way I've found to run an epic lvl game is to get to the point where I need to do as little prepwork as possible. I typically have a one page outline of what I expect the players to do or handle in a given session. I usually improvise anything not on it, or improvise to expand on things that are there. For instance, last night Agar used a greater wish spell to find out exactly what happened to one of their allies from the last time they saw him, to the point where something utterly horrible happened to him. I had completely forgotten about this when doing game prep! So I made it up on the fly, based on what he would have been doing and what I knew of his downfall. That's good fun.
Right now I'm spending about 1-2 hours prepping for a game, as I've already done most of the grunt work. It varies some; the Defenders recently finished raiding the tomb of the God of Rot, and I had a lot of unique magic items to create. I've turned to using existing monsters and adjusting them to the right level, as it saves me a lot of fiddly time.
And the poor, dead modrons? The party first spurned my modron adventure back when it came out in 1997. The poor little buggers all apparently stopped working simultaneously soon after 3.5 came out, so maybe in 2005. That'll teach 'em.
The Defenders campaign is probably within ten runs of actually ending, drawing to a close after over 16 years. We've had two deaths in the last three games, at least one of them permanent. The bad guys are currently winning. We ended last game with Velendo immersed inside a worm that walks with a vermiurge closing in. Exciting times, and I love my players more than ever. But things are looking pretty scary right now.
To answer KrazyHades, the best way I've found to run an epic lvl game is to get to the point where I need to do as little prepwork as possible. I typically have a one page outline of what I expect the players to do or handle in a given session. I usually improvise anything not on it, or improvise to expand on things that are there. For instance, last night Agar used a greater wish spell to find out exactly what happened to one of their allies from the last time they saw him, to the point where something utterly horrible happened to him. I had completely forgotten about this when doing game prep! So I made it up on the fly, based on what he would have been doing and what I knew of his downfall. That's good fun.
Right now I'm spending about 1-2 hours prepping for a game, as I've already done most of the grunt work. It varies some; the Defenders recently finished raiding the tomb of the God of Rot, and I had a lot of unique magic items to create. I've turned to using existing monsters and adjusting them to the right level, as it saves me a lot of fiddly time.
And the poor, dead modrons? The party first spurned my modron adventure back when it came out in 1997. The poor little buggers all apparently stopped working simultaneously soon after 3.5 came out, so maybe in 2005. That'll teach 'em.
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Jackylhunter
First Post
Good to hear you haven't forgotten us...=) Hopefully you will find time soon to tell us the rest of the defenders adventures.
Please also let us know more about your Novel, I know I'll be buying it, but is it Sci/fi, or something else...=)
Please also let us know more about your Novel, I know I'll be buying it, but is it Sci/fi, or something else...=)
Blackjack
First Post
Finis!
I realize that the Story Hour hasn't been kept up-to-date in some time, but for those of you who once followed PCat's Story Hour, I thought I'd mention that last night we played the final(!) session of the campaign, bringing the tale to a satisfying conclusion after 16(!) years!
-Malachite
I realize that the Story Hour hasn't been kept up-to-date in some time, but for those of you who once followed PCat's Story Hour, I thought I'd mention that last night we played the final(!) session of the campaign, bringing the tale to a satisfying conclusion after 16(!) years!
-Malachite
Wow! Congrats! So you finally just poured water into Spira to drive the worms out?
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