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Tolamaker's Burning Sky
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<blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 8931961" data-attributes="member: 7031495"><p>It has been almost four months since I last updated this page, and that's because the initial plan of a short break kind of got out of hand. What I expected to be a 2-3 one-shots became a much longer exploration of some other games (plus holidays). Hopefully, we will return to the Burning Sky this or next week! But first, a few flash reviews.</p><p></p><p><strong>Brindlewood Bay (4 mystery sessions, 1 freeplay)</strong></p><p>I’ve run it once as a one-shot with two non-gamers, and it went really well. However, as a player for 5 sessions, I felt like it was a little sluggish, and kind of floaty. Some of this likely comes down to the GM, as well as the fact that I prefer to GM than be a PC, but I think it also falls on the rules. I’d like to write a longer review of it, but the gist is that Brindlewood Bay’s moves are written in such a perfunctory way that it leaves things out that I think are incredibly important. A practiced GM can take these and interpret them in a way to make the game run smooth, but when the GM is new, and following the rules to the letter, it stifles the game.</p><p></p><p><strong>Alien (1 Rules session, two play sessions)</strong></p><p>This was fun. I really enjoyed the mechanics of stress and the spiral that both made our characters more likely to succeed and naughty word up at the same time. This two-shot ended with our entire rag-tag group hanging on to a newly hatched alien, half of us bleeding out as we pummeled it with our fists and wrenches. Somehow came out of it all alive, with enough of a hook to continue if we want to.</p><p></p><p><strong>Blades in the Dark (1 character and crew creation session, 3 play sessions)</strong></p><p>Despite the fact that I’ve written <a href="https://the-only-edition.com/blades-in-the-dark-gm-finally-knows-how-to-play-after-reading-the-book-83-times/" target="_blank">four</a> <a href="https://the-only-edition.com/blades-in-the-dark-table-rocked-by-scandal-as-gm-reveals-he-has-more-than-three-sentences-of-prep-done/" target="_blank">articles</a> <a href="https://the-only-edition.com/opinion-it-is-entirely-unsafe-to-wield-blades-in-the-dark/" target="_blank">about</a> the <a href="https://the-only-edition.com/slide-accidentally-flashbacks-to-being-rejected-by-high-school-crush/" target="_blank">game</a>, this is my first time running and playing the game! The first session was a pretty straightforward heist where I probably went too easy on them, but we were learning. The second session was a blackmail/heist job, where I also went too easy, but then the dice turned the whole mess into our first trauma for the group. The player of Gruz, who loves to misty step through the Burning Sky, really likes to test his luck with devil’s bargains and flashbacks. He is now Soft. The third session was half Ghostbusting and half mystery as the crew cleared out some ghosts, as well as solving a murder. This one kind of got out of hand for me, but it was still fun. While I think Blades is obviously viable for running one-shots, I think it really shines when the players have big goals of their own to lead a campaign.</p><p></p><p>This past week was spent figuring out the foibles of 5e in Foundry. We'll be running in the new VTT for all of Mission, and I'll report back later on how I feel about Foundry vs Roll20.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tolamaker, post: 8931961, member: 7031495"] It has been almost four months since I last updated this page, and that's because the initial plan of a short break kind of got out of hand. What I expected to be a 2-3 one-shots became a much longer exploration of some other games (plus holidays). Hopefully, we will return to the Burning Sky this or next week! But first, a few flash reviews. [B]Brindlewood Bay (4 mystery sessions, 1 freeplay)[/B] I’ve run it once as a one-shot with two non-gamers, and it went really well. However, as a player for 5 sessions, I felt like it was a little sluggish, and kind of floaty. Some of this likely comes down to the GM, as well as the fact that I prefer to GM than be a PC, but I think it also falls on the rules. I’d like to write a longer review of it, but the gist is that Brindlewood Bay’s moves are written in such a perfunctory way that it leaves things out that I think are incredibly important. A practiced GM can take these and interpret them in a way to make the game run smooth, but when the GM is new, and following the rules to the letter, it stifles the game. [B]Alien (1 Rules session, two play sessions)[/B] This was fun. I really enjoyed the mechanics of stress and the spiral that both made our characters more likely to succeed and naughty word up at the same time. This two-shot ended with our entire rag-tag group hanging on to a newly hatched alien, half of us bleeding out as we pummeled it with our fists and wrenches. Somehow came out of it all alive, with enough of a hook to continue if we want to. [B]Blades in the Dark (1 character and crew creation session, 3 play sessions)[/B] Despite the fact that I’ve written [URL='https://the-only-edition.com/blades-in-the-dark-gm-finally-knows-how-to-play-after-reading-the-book-83-times/']four[/URL] [URL='https://the-only-edition.com/blades-in-the-dark-table-rocked-by-scandal-as-gm-reveals-he-has-more-than-three-sentences-of-prep-done/']articles[/URL] [URL='https://the-only-edition.com/opinion-it-is-entirely-unsafe-to-wield-blades-in-the-dark/']about[/URL] the [URL='https://the-only-edition.com/slide-accidentally-flashbacks-to-being-rejected-by-high-school-crush/']game[/URL], this is my first time running and playing the game! The first session was a pretty straightforward heist where I probably went too easy on them, but we were learning. The second session was a blackmail/heist job, where I also went too easy, but then the dice turned the whole mess into our first trauma for the group. The player of Gruz, who loves to misty step through the Burning Sky, really likes to test his luck with devil’s bargains and flashbacks. He is now Soft. The third session was half Ghostbusting and half mystery as the crew cleared out some ghosts, as well as solving a murder. This one kind of got out of hand for me, but it was still fun. While I think Blades is obviously viable for running one-shots, I think it really shines when the players have big goals of their own to lead a campaign. This past week was spent figuring out the foibles of 5e in Foundry. We'll be running in the new VTT for all of Mission, and I'll report back later on how I feel about Foundry vs Roll20. [/QUOTE]
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