6 posts tagged “roleplaying”
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try. It's a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: (Long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.) I run away.
ED: (Thoroughly frustrated) It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: (Reaching for his dice) Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.
In lieu of a "real" update, definitely enjoy The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. (It also brought to mind Ernie's post about ga... loshes and other fun to say words, like gazebo.) It's almost as good as trying to save against a scene change. (Ask Matt or Anthony to post about that one!)
(Via DM of the Rings CXV: Misunderstandings Abound on Twenty Sided.)
L pointed out to me last night that I've been neglectful of my blogging, so I'm going to do my best to remedy that! I've already got a few post topics in mind, including an exciting conversation I had with Nintendo of America about the library's video game programs and thoughts about Living La Vida Facebook. Stay tuned!
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!
I'd like to take an Attack of Opportunity to talk about one of the most frickin' awesome dOrange campaigns that I am not GMing, namely Anthony's Paragon. We just got back into the thick of it last Friday after a few months of hiatus and boy, am I stoked.
You see, Paragon has a lot going for it. Not only is it extremely crunchy with high-level monster PCs and super-customizable house rules for action points and magic points, but it also is full of creamy character development and a rich plot that we're only beginning to unravel. Coupled with the fact that this all takes place in a completely home-grown fantasy world that rivals (if not surpasses) most published campaign settings, you can probably start to see why I'm so impressed with this campaign. (Particularly because it's the first Anthony has ever run for our group!)
Of course, all of this planning and campaign design of awesomeness would be wasted if I didn't have a PC I cared about, but in this campaign, I get two rich and complex characters to play with for the price of one. Celeres Altimar, the marshal / legendary leader gryphon crown prince turned bronze dragon, is an incredibly exciting character to play, both in and out of combat. I'm starting to realize I need to make him a little less long-winded and a little more a dragon of action, but I can't think of many other faults. His cohort, Taliana Starke, the human evoker / cleric / mystic theurge, has worked out to be a good foil and it's been a riot to be able to sling spells with magic points. I'm looking forward to her next level (which is unfortunately a while off), so she can make use of the Displacer Form spell (since, aside from gryphon and dragon, displacer beast would have been my next choice for a monster PC).
Thus, I'm definitely looking forward to this Friday and the next as we continue the Paragon goodness. Many, many kudos to Anthony for designing and running such an epic campaign, for not only do I love playing in it, but I also love the break it gives me from GMing my campaigns. (Also, kudos to Diana for the striking commissioned artwork that graces the top of this post.) Thanks to Paragon, the DC for campaigns has definitely been raised for dOrange.
This probably isn't going to make much sense to those who aren't a part of our Star*Drive parody campaign, but for those of you that are, here are those hilarious quotes from Drew's session parodying the Neutral Zone. I thought about parring the list down to just my favorites, but that was pretty much most of the ones I wrote down. So, I leave it to you, the interested quote reader, to skim through and find your own favorites.
- COMPUTER: I raise two hours of life support.
- FARRY: They've cured the common cold...
- KASHKEN: And the common religion apparently?
- FARRY: I raise three back massages!
- KASHKEN: ...and I raise two axe hits to the head!
- FANG HOLOGRAM: I don't even see why I need to be here. There's already enough interpersonal conflict in this group!
- KASHKEN: I raise 10,000 bacon almonds.
- JULIA: And I raise two painless surgeries.
- THREE: Are your surgeries normally painful?
- JULIA: They can be...
- THREE: I raise two hours with the anti-grav off!
- THREE: You should start betting crewmembers...
- CRICKET: I raise three redshirts of your choice.
- FARRY: I'll raise a personal counseling session with yours truly.
- KASHKEN: I'm tempted to raise a painless death or clubbing, your choice.
- JULIA: I'll overlook it if you do well on your test.
- GARRETH: At least I can build lovebots and don't have to rely on cadavers.
- COMPUTER: SPDs: sexually programmed diseases.
- FARRY: Aren't we supposed to use diplomacy and peace and...
- CRICKET: Pfft!
- COMPUTER: Shall I ready the munitions diplomacy?
- CRICKET: Let's go boldly where no one wants us!
- FARRY: Captain, I sense...
- THREE: ...feelings of inadequacy?
- COMPUTER: I do not assess Tinkers & Tramps as an artful publication.
- ENSIGN IMA GONNADIESOON: I really feel like this is my day to join you on the away team, Captain.
- CRICKET: Although you're our pilot, that makes sense!
- THREE: Just set it on stun, he's used to it.
- CRICKET: There's a stun setting?
- DREW (GM): And a ship decloaks off the port bow... AND IT'S KEG-SHAPED!
- COMPUTER: Warning, chartreuse alert! Taco drive offline.
- COMPUTER: Welcome back, musketeers. Your eyeliner is adjacent.
- CRICKET: My what's open?
- FARRY: Do we fix the computer by banging on it?
- THREE: Percussive maintenance?
- THREE: Is this the Omega Omicron Zone? No wait, that's an erogenous zone.
- THREE: Captain, pull yourself together. It's just a frowny face from a drunk computer that doesn't resemble a human expression.
- JULIA: No one dies, right?
- CRICKET: I can't in good faith promise that.
- COMPUTER: Attention, Ensign Rickey is currently pleasuring himself to photographs of Doctor Julia Tusher.
- JULIA: Let's go see if there are innocents we can murder in cold blood.
- CRICKET: Doctor! We would never do such a thing...
- THREE: Roll it! (meaning a bluff check)
- KASHKEN: Permission to engage in Dorito-related activities, sir?
- CRICKET: Granted!
- KASHKEN: Did you intoxicate and rape our ship's computer?
- CRICKET: Our ship can self-destruct, can yours?
Who else in Star*Drive can't wait for Nate's session? I know I can't!
In this case, I'm talking about musical main themes, liberated from other works. Ghostwalk's is thanks to Neon Dragon (author/illustrator of the awesome DragonArt, which is my drawing bible) who shared Suicide Mission (by Wild Whirled Music). Apparently, the piece is from an Eragon trailer, so, like "porchmonkeys" in Clerks II, I'm reclaiming this brilliant theme for my Ghostwalk campaign. (Thanks for the inspiration, Ernie!)
Good themes for campaigns always inspire me to imagine what sort of video clips would be set to the music, if the campaign was instead an episodic television show. Listening to Suicide Mission on repeat today generated the following images in my mind (which may or may not be of interest to those of you playing Ghostwalk). (Some juicy spoilers here, if you wade through my geeky bullets.)
- The title sequence opens with Ghostwalk written in a gothic font, pale blue against a pure black background. The text slowly fades out as the first clip fades in.
- We are shown the PCs waking up on stone slabs (a la the introductory session) looking about themselves in confusion and ignorance.
- As the music builds (the rhythmic drums), we are treated to more clips from that introductory session as the PCs acquire their artifacts (the Articles of Inequity) and fight their captor, Tristram the insane fallen Paladin.
- After the music builds to full (the female voices), each PC is shown in turn pulling off some kick ass combat stunt, along with their character name and player name near the bottom of the screen in the same pale blue gothic font. For instance, we see Selyf shooting a female monk right in the chest with her arbalest. These clips are pulled from the entire campaign, so we might also see Alacross (sp?) blasting demons with magic missiles out of his nye.
- Once all the PCs (primary cast) have been introduced, we're treated to a variety of action clips showcasing a variety of the campaign. In one, a male tiefling is raises his hand and calls down hellfire on the PCs. In another, a pair of angelic beings guard some sort of gate, swords burning with blue flames.
- Near the climax, we zoom out from PCs to see gigantic draconic silhouette descending upon the city of Manifest. A blast of ghostly blue flame spirals out towards the camera as the music concludes and everything fades to black.
Second, ask yourself this question: if you were a teenage male, would the thought of hot cleric ass and a gigantic phallic sword that intimidates dragons make you want to play Dungeons & Dragons? The only answer, of course, is "hell yeah!"
Oh, they just don't make advertisements like they use to. Who needs political correctness, original characters or nuanced storytelling when you can market your product straight to the teenage male demographic?
(Via found another D&D comic ad on Jeff's Gameblog.)
