5 posts tagged “games”
Anthony and I hit our first ever Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day yesterday at Empyre Games and we surprisingly had more fun than we would have expected. We were a little worried at first when we found out that we were the most experienced D&D 3.5 players in the group (except for possibly one other player), as the DM had only run 1st Edition D&D games. However, the one-shot adventure designed for the event (The Fall of Frostsilver) really turned out great for what it was. The DM in particular did an awesome job at keeping everything moving along and staying fun.
One of the best things about the event was the diversity of players there. There was a four person family (a dad, mom and two teen/preteen boys) who all came to learn D&D 3.5 together that were completely hilarious. The two boys were completely bloodthirsty and in it for their own characters (as they tend to be at that age), which made for some pretty hilarious exchanges. The younger one that was playing a half-elf rogue/sorcerer kept wanting to search all the bodies of everything we killed (even while a combat still raged) and the older one who was playing a dwarf paladin (ostensibly the brother of my dwarf cleric of Moradin) threw away his paladin class abilities when he kicked his mother's halfling away from a corpse he wanted to loot instead (and he only got 30 gold pieces in exchange for all his paladin class).
Because Wizards of the Coast sent more free stuff than there were players at this event, we managed to walk away with some pretty good loot as well. I managed to add an assortment of new miniatures to my collection and got another set of dice for the wife. One of the most interesting things was the 4th Edition preview stat card of the Spined Devil promotional miniature. The stats look much more streamlined than 3.5, but I'm more wary than ever. Will Dungeons & Dragons turn into a tabletop MMORPG experience? If so, I think I'll be sticking with 3.5.
Last Friday, dOrange wrapped up another campaign, delivering Ghostwalk a fitting finale. For posterity, the list of major players and their characters in this campaign were:
Having been the third dOrange campaign I've finished (and the first pure D&D campaign under my belt), I can say I definitely learned a lot by trying new things. I discovered that I could stand to keep much better notes (on everything from the PCs leveling up status to the facts of my ever-evolving storyline). As a group, we learned that trying to run four campaigns simultaneously was just a little too schizophrenic and we needed to pare it down to keep everything straight.
Lessons aside, I feel really good about how Ghostwalk began and ended. Kudos to all the players for all your effort and enthusiasm, because it's absolutely true that the success of any campaign depends on you. Extra kudos to Anthony and Leslie, for developing such rich backstory for their characters (which greatly influenced the campaign) as well as for their admirable dedication from start to finish.
As you all know, I'm taking a GMing "vacation" for awhile, while we enjoy the fruits of Anthony's Paragon and Nate's Genesis. However, when the time is right, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be itching to get back in the saddle to run Next-Gen Moreau (which is only a working title). So it's never too early to start thinking about your character concepts! (That means you, Anna!) Keep rolling, my friends!
Although we celebrated two years of dOrange back in April, the origins of our little gaming group actually go further back. As much as I'm ashamed to admit it, the earliest history of our group can be traced to a New Year's Eve Party back on December 31st, 2004 where Jeremy, Sarah, Leslie and I played our first tabletop RPG adventure. The shameful part of the story is that the adventure was none other than the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game.
Consider the cheesy text on the back of the box:
Enter the world of adventure!
There's something moving behind that door...
Perhaps it's a vicious ogre waiting to tear you limb from limb.
Or a horde of zombies thirsting for blood.
Or maybe a terrifying dragon ready to engulf
you in a maelstrom of fire.Problem?
Nope. Not for you.
You're a hero--a powerful wizard, a strong fighter, or a sneaky rogue.
You can handle whatever comes
at you in this introduction to the greatest fantasy
game of all time.
I'm surprised we weren't turned off by this blatant dumbing down of a rich roleplaying game, but somehow we persevered. (Since when zombies thirst for blood? Isn't that a vampire thing?) Even when the very first adventure had us saving a lame-o unicorn from a bunch of goblins, we still wanted to know if we could kill the unicorn for extra XP. (Instead, all we were told was that, Alabern the unicorn, "can touch wounded characters with its horn.")
We've come a long way since then. It's a Paragon night tonight and I'm itching to get back into it after Squibblequick smote Anthony's computer last week, forcing us to delay the session. And then we're kicking of Matt's newest "evils" campaign, Anathema, on Saturday, granting us a double dose of gaming. Who knows? Maybe we will finally get to kill a unicorn this time!
Alright, Matt's tagged me out, so it's time for another round of bullet points! (Dude, I love those little dots.) If you're not familiar with this crazy (delicious?) Internet game, it's all about listing random things about yourself that other people hopefully don't know! Simple enough?
- I've played this game before, over five years ago. Yep, over on my old LiveJournal (it's naive at points but not very emo). And we all know that five normal years in Internet time is a really frickin' long time. What a trip it is to see how much I've changed since then. (But I'm still left-handed. Seriously.)
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I'm incredibly envious of people who can draw. I find artistic talent really impressive and sexy. So! I've decided to practice drawing on my own, so maybe someday I can be semi-competent at it. (It's good for a perfectionist like me to repeatedly practice something I suck at.)
- I once yelled "Child Abuse! Call 911!" when I was a kid. I was hamming it up a little one of the very few times my Dad resorted to corporal punishment. Fortunately, child services did not show up, since I really had a pretty awesome childhood. (But kids will be kids, you know?)
- I have a bachelor degree in Chemistry and am currently applying for a graduate program in Library and Information Science, but I'd really rather be remembered as a Renaissance Man. The only way I'm able to pick any particular academic discipline is to just stick with the first one that strikes my fancy. Otherwise, I'd be switching paths and knowledge trees every other day. Outside of the realm of academia, however, I try to soak up everything I can -- like a mutant super-absorbent sponge.
- I am very curious about (and somewhat identify with) Therianthropy. Since 2000 when I first discovered the Gryphon's Guild (and even far before that), I've felt a spiritual connection/identification with gryphons. It may simply be an invention of my mind, but quite often, it gives me a very real sense of comfort, security and motivation. I don't think it's any more outlandish than the beliefs of other, more mainstream, religions.
There's your daily allotment of five bullets for the day! Now I tag it forward to BlueDelt, Colleenist, L, Mynmyn and my brother (even though he's probably going to have to do his on Facebook).
