We were like gods once... BIG UPDATE Friday Nov 5!

[threshel]

Yes. um, wow.

Incredible, ledded. Intense imagery and pacing.

More, indeed.

J

 

[ledded]

Thanks one and all, I had fun with this one. It's one of those things where Pierce (Smitty's player) was out for this session, and when we picked up in the middle the next time we just said something like "Yeah, Smitty was off shacking up or something". Introducing this 'love interest' into the Story Hour, which I believe is an important part of any good comic book, has been fun for me to write and a departure from what I've typically done so at times I worry that it's a bit too... I dunno, cheesy or something. Funny part is, the last time we played, Pierce picked right up with my 'revisionist history'; the second we came back from our mission, the first thing he wanted to do is pick up a bottle of booze and go see Maggie (I love it when players take my lies and turn them into truth).

Pierce's Smitty was perfect for this part too, because he is played so hard-nosed and grim at times, while still having a wry sense of humor; the epitome of the weary American citizen-soldier, doesnt give a crap about the army he's just there to do his job and get home. I swear Pierce is so good sometimes that when he is in-character you could just about picture him on the set of Band of Brothers sharing a smoke with Bill Guarnerre.

But anyway, like I said we play this campaign as a one-off or our main d20 Modern campaign, usually when someone is out for a night (or when our usual GM OldDrewId is a little burned out and needs to take a break), and I've labored very hard to try to make the typical game table switch-out of players as seamless as possible in the Story (hey, with this story, there's already enough trouble suspending disbelief. I mean, we have a character named Frogbot, for chrissakes ).

Smitty, BTW, has a Blood and Vigilance power called Super Running, which significantly increases his movement rate (as others do too, which is why they move like they do in the story sometimes) and Super Dexterity. He stunted an additional power under Super Dexterity called "Swinging" that allows him to effectively fly in urban and jungle environments by running around swinging and running up things, and I've really wanted to write up how I thought that looks. Very spiderman-ish, IMO; I just loved the visual of him tearing down a city street at about 4 times the speed of a normal human running, just bouncing and swinging from building to building about 30 feet over everyones head, so I've been wanting to give the write-up a shot for some time. There will definitely be more in the future.

I appreciate the comments; as I've said before, my muse is a fat, disgusting slob that is basically runs off of vanity, beer, and junk-food. I can handle the beer and junk-food, but it's the few nice folks that take the time to read who really gets him off his fat *ss and producing updates.

Thanks for reading folks, and keep those subscriptions up. In the next issue we'll see a person use another person as a missle weapon, meet a new ESS, and wonder how robots learned to surf...

 

[Edward Kann@StoryART]

This has been a lot of fun to read Ledded.

Damn you and your excellent writing. I've let an hour slip past me just enjoying reading through this great stuff when I should be doing writing myself.



Really good stuff. I've really enjoyed it as far as I've been. Still more to go for me but I did want to post something.

 

[Peterson]

Ledded Vs OldDrewID

“Stick around babe, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet” he quips at her, winks, and then tears off up the steps, his feet actually leaving prints on the wall for several paces as he uses it to make the turn without slowing down.

...

Jumping between re-reading old Medallions (just for refreshers) and this great storyhour, it still amazes me that Pierce plays both Smitty and Brother Cooper.

Another great write-up, Ledded - one of my favorite so far.

Keep it up, and don't forget to bill me my $5 to continue my subscription.

Peterson

 

[ledded]

Jumping between re-reading old Medallions (just for refreshers) and this great storyhour, it still amazes me that Pierce plays both Smitty and Brother Cooper.

You should see it in person. Pierce is what I call an immersive role player; he doesnt say 'My guy stands like <this> and talks like <this>'. He just stands like that and talks like that and just assumes you realize that he's in character. He suspends most of his own colloquialisms and common turns of phrase in order to better fit in, and he does it effortlessly (or makes it appear so).

Here's a little anecdote. For a few years we played this D&D campaign starting out. He had a noble dwarf, just a normal guy turned hero who didnt talk a lot, and this elven ranger, somewhat quiet and secretive. All that time we just thought that Pierce didnt talk a lot when playing the game, and he used different 'voices' so we could distinguish which character he played was talking (a couple of us played two characters when we first started out).

Then we played this one-off campaign, one of our first one-offs, and this jibbering, rambling, babbling gnome sorcerer suddenly erupts from Pierce and totally blows us away. He literally babbled on and on in this high-pitched gnome's voice from the time we started till the end of the night, just yada-yada-yada. We laughed so hard it hurt.

Later, I was talking with OldDrewId and we finally realized that it wasnt *Pierce* that was quiet when gaming for over 8 months, it was his *characters*. Since he almost never speaks of his characters during the game in the 3rd person ("Brother Cooper looks angry and says <yada yada>") it took us a while to realize just how subtle he was.

Another great write-up, Ledded - one of my favorite so far.

Keep it up, and don't forget to bill me my $5 to continue my subscription.

Peterson

Thanks.

And I've sent you the bill, but since I owe you $5 from my payoffs to come say nice things in my Story Hour so that I may artificially inflate both my muse's ego and my readership, they pretty much cancel out.

This has been a lot of fun to read Ledded.

Damn you and your excellent writing. I've let an hour slip past me just enjoying reading through this great stuff when I should be doing writing myself.

Really good stuff. I've really enjoyed it as far as I've been. Still more to go for me but I did want to post something.

Wow, thanks for the nice words, I'm glad you liked it so far. It has it's ups and downs, but it's cool to hear nice things from someone who actually does this kind of stuff for a living.

And anyone that hasnt checked out Edward Kann@StoryART's newly posted Story Hour (The Dread Legion Advances... ), well hit that sucker and get subscribed while there are still seats, it's shaping up to be a *very* cool one.

Same goes for The Universe (A Kingdom of Ashes), whose story hour I just finally got around to reading, and I'm still trying to find my socks from where the first 2 pages rocked them right off my feet.

 

[Broccli_Head]

Very nice Ledded! Definitely invokes some classic comic book imagery. I can see the frames and the Lord's prayer in italics as Smitty is swinging and running and the bombs are going off cradling Margie in his arms...

 

[Pierce]

Man, am I blushing. Shucks, folks, I appreciate all the comments. Still, a role-player can only be as good as the environment allows them to be. Between the excellent mastering from both Drew and Led, the great characters of the others and the incredible game room all of us have pitched in to put together (including a beer fridge - yay!), playing in-character is the least I can do.

OK, enough of the patting on the back. MORE STORY!

(OK, one more pat on the back: Great scene, led!)

 

[ledded]

Very nice Ledded! Definitely invokes some classic comic book imagery. I can see the frames and the Lord's prayer in italics as Smitty is swinging and running and the bombs are going off cradling Margie in his arms...

Thanks man, long time no see, glad you stopped by. I'm glad you liked the imagery, I had this whole movie-like scene in my head (with a five-o-clock shadow-sporting Barry Pepper as Smitty and Emily Watson as Margaret) and just had to spit it out. Yeah, I know that probably sounds weird, but after playing in Medallions I've garnered the habit of 'casting' characters into 'scenes', especially when I write. Heck, a couple of us got into a 10-minute tangent on whether Fred Thompson or Michael Chikliss would be better to play the NPC John Bolling in our Medallions game.

Oh, and it's not always obvious in the text, but when Smitty is 'running', he is usually on the sides of the buildings, Matrix/Hidden Dragon style; he never touched the ground after they jumped till he slid into the shelter.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

"Then gravity, ever the harsh mistress" The Tick would be proud to hear his words echoed here.

 

[Hellzon]

Thanks for reading folks, and keep those subscriptions up. In the next issue we'll see a person use another person as a missle weapon, meet a new ESS, and wonder how robots learned to surf...

Rather bland, I'd say.

Naah, who am I kidding? Looking forward to it. Great work so far!