Endless Bag of Games

Latest Oots script #611 got me thinking. Our gaming group is a light roleplaying group. We laugh a lot during our sessions and the mood isn’t too serious. Somebody usually has a terrible hangover or something like that so intensive playing usually does not happen. This however has its pros and cons. It is very difficult to create roleplaying atmosphere. Player characters are seldom serious thus even in dire danger, they seem to be very confident about themselves. There are always exceptions, but usually it goes like that. So we play just for the fun of it, we enjoy the fun! This however does not mean that there is no serious roleplaying at all in our games. It just means that doesn’t happen too often.

As a DM I (and I think our other players too) like cinematic scenes. I try to encourage my players to cinematic actions regardless the rules. I have noticed that cinematic scenes are usually exciting and fun. Those usually are the moments we remember after the gaming session. Usually we recall those thing way back so I started thinking. Eartdawn has karma points, Shadowrun has edge, Star Wars Saga edition have force points and 4th edition D&D has action points. These things work very well and sometimes allow players to do awesome things but the question still is “How to encourage players to do awesome things even more? After discussing the matter with one of my friends I decided to add my first House Rule to our Aerithia (D&D 4th edition) campaign and it is called Limit Breaker (or Awesome Point or whatever you like): (image from Order of the Stick comic #611)
Limit Breaker: Limit breaker is character’s luck, that unexplainable factor that allows him to beat the odds. A character can use his limit breaker once per level and doing so consumes also all of his current action points. Limit Breaker is not something that you add to your rolls or that enhance your abilities to do damage or such. Limit Breaker allows you to bend the rules and do things normally would be impossible in a single combat round or outside combat (see the picture above). It is something considered cinematic and awesome. It cannot give the character serious bonus to any situation (except being awesome), it cannot drastically alter the outcome of the combat but it can give you automatic successes in some manner. I.e. imagine a situation where you stand in a top of the building and a dragon flies by. Quickly, spending a limit breaker (if you have action points left) you decide to jump to dragons back and hold on. Normally DM would ask player to throw all kinds of checks. Athletics, grapple falling damage etc etc.. and character could fail and possibly even die. But by spending limit breaker it would be an automatic success. Dragon packs a punch heavy enough that one rider in his back wouldn’t be too serious threat. This scene would be cinematic and a situation that, I at least, would consider awesome. Limit breakers are agreed with DM during sessions and DM has the rule to say is it possible or not. As a DM I want to say (as encouragement to my players) the better you describe the situation, the better odds are that your awesome stunt works.

And a little last note to my players. There are lots of pirate action coming up, so if you want to be creative you can watch the pirates of the Caribbean movies and possibly you can come up with few good ideas

How often do you encounter a tsunami in fantasy roleplaying games? Not very often I think. I decided to have a little experiment in our campaign so a skill challenge titled “survive the natural disaster” was thrown in. A nice gaming session, good roleplaying and funny moments. Enjoyable. Previous gaming session took us deep to the dungeon in Naam Mounds.

So it was time to get out from the ghoul infested dungeon. Since we were greatly outnumbered we trusted our legs and skills to get out. Gap and Hadarai did a great job delaying the undead while the others were running as fast as they could towards exit. The scene worked out very well and we got out.

Bern Graybeard thanked us for the job well done and at the Mer’s Roadhouse we parted ways. Bern headed towards Harn Monas to meet up with his fellow guild members and the heroes continued their journey towards River Coast in the south. The road was long and our heroes avoided most of the dangers. After travelling numerous days, they were finally closing on Barnspool, a small city just a days travel from Waterham. Our heroes started to notice how animals were heading towards opposite direction from them. Soon the earth started to shake mildly, but that eventually got stronger. When our heroes reached Barnspool and headed to book rooms from the inn the tsunami hit. It got the players by surprise.

The tsunami was a skill challenge and it worked out quite well as you can imagine how to implement a tsunami in a skill challenge. This part was actually fun to play. Players had clever ways to survive in the ruckus i.e. Alan (mage) used mage hand spell to offer ropes to other survivors and worked hard to save other people as well. Result was failure (6 failures before enough successes.) and the heroes were washed away with the current and separated.

Imagine this: A situation where Galvaren and Alan (fighter and a mage) were taken away in the strong current. When they finally stop they were soaked, lying on the ground in the middle of forest without any knowledge where the others were and next to them were four hideous trolls with stupified look on their faces. (It was a surprise round for the trolls.) Before Alan or Gap even got up they start a little conversation: “Should we run away?” Gap asked with a calm tone. “No, let’s kill them. There are only four of them.” the wizard answered still lying on the ground. I couldn’t do anything but laugh. Serious situation and the conversation was so spontaneous! It was funny and brilliant! At least the heroes have confidence! Soon the others joined the battle after hearing the sounds of the fight. One sooner one later, but eventually. After the encounter with the trolls, the heroes headed back to Bramspool to did their best to help the survivors. Heroes spent three days helping the people in the city and gained the gratitude of many individuals. The mayor of Bramspool gave them a letter to deliver to Waterham to the head of the Flaming Fists.

After the heroes had done everything that they could, they headed once again towards Waterham and were eager to see what was happened there. When they finally got there, they found out that the city was barely damaged at all. The city of Waterham is said to be carved to the rock. Almost every building over there was very strong, as almost build to endure these kind of events. Of course there were casualties, but the city was ready for the hit. What got heroes interested was a big structure in the harbor. At the end of big stony bridge there was a huge stony dome. Arena for bloodsports and various death races. The speciality of the place was that in addition to other big arenas or domes there was possibility to attend death races with water mounts. Waterham proved to be a place of wonder, with many places of interest and such.

The rest of the session was spent enjoying the city, collecting information and gearing up. It was revealed that a pirate named Lyka Lilo Spourrey “Pirate Queen” and her ships were causing problems to the city and to every merchant ship. She had a bounty of 20 000gp on her head. Waterham was a big trading centre. In the middle of Silver Way traderoute and Runosticon Curve traderoute. There was a dire need for heroes to protect the ships. Soon our heroes met a captain brave enough to sail. A dwarf captain named Redgar Telek hired the heroes, even knowing that he had to pay double price… But the heroes have other motives in addition to protecting this merchant ship. They decided to capture the Pirate Queen…

Last gaming session ended when our heroes delivered the quarren traitor “Clawfish” to the hands of the resistance movement in Dac. After the delivery Jodo and Nasuk head for the rendezvous point in order to meet up with Adamen and his men. While Jodo was successful, Adamen and his men encountered lots of resistance and were forced to flee. Now Vixyrr Cevarr knows what to expect. While Adamen’s attempt was indeed in vain, it does not mean that the fight is over. It is now a good time to head for Alderaan once again to meet caamasian Lamek D’em as he promised and continue fighting some other time. D’em is pleased to hear that Jodo and Nasuk have been successful in the mission that he thought would be nearly impossible for them.

“Impressive” he said “I have to admit, that I thought you cannot pull this on your own. Skills of the jedi, even padawans, are truly remarkable.” Lamek says and pours himself a cup of some exotic drink. “We agreed that you should work for me until you get your debt paid I Recall. 8000 credits was it?” Lamek rubs his cheeks. “Let’s say the debt has been reduced to 5000″ the caamasi said. “5000! Nasuk said outraged. This job was at least worth 6000!” Then Nasuk told Lamek, what kind action there were in Dac, leaving of the most delicate details. The negotiation skills of Nasuk prove to be quite effective and the debt is lowered to 3000 credits. (Amazing persuasion rolls)

After the negotiation Lamek offers them two new jobs, but in the same time he is being mysterious about them. He tells the young heroes that in his left hand, there is a job which would reduce the debt to 1500 credits and it is a standard and quite easy job. In his right hand there is a job of great significance. A challenging job which would erase the whole debt and give some compensation in return of our heroes efforts. After a careful thinking Jodo agrees, that they will handle the more challenging one. Since they are, in a way, in a hurry to continue their search of other jedi survivors.

“I am a calm and open-minded person. I am not cruel, as you may have noticed” Lamek started. “I just do business. However the state of the galaxy has made criminals more arrogant. They invade other people’s businesses when you look away even for a second.” he explained. “All started when I was negotiating with the Hutt Popara about usage of one of my hidden spaceports. Long story short, he got offended when I refused and decided to act without my permission and took over one of my… hidden hangars in Norulac. I know Popara is a mighty powerful Hutt so I don’t want to upset him. However I cannot digest that he does everything how he pleases so… I want you to go there, steal a specific ship that I am going to tell you about and blow the whole port to pieces. The detailed info can be found in this datapad.” the caamasi said with passion in his eyes. It seemed that there were more fire in this calm caamasi even though the first impression told otherwise.

After gearing up, our heroes meet their pilot friend Yen Waurie and once again head towards their destination. Shadowport in Orlis ciry at Norulac. Heroes take their time, come up with a (as a gm I must say quite excellent plan considering that the in-game characters are 13-years old etc.) cunning plan to enter the shadowport which is working under Garmas Vehicle Corporation headquarter. They enter the corporation as students from nearby school and are asking for a place to conduct their practical training week in their company. They even demonstrate most keen interest in mechanical issues and wish to work with mechanics in the hall. The bith officeworker is delighted that there are young individuals with such interest and offers them a tour in the hall. Behind the scenes, some of Popara the hutts men are guarding the halls and especially their most valuable space yacht. The one Jodo and Nasuk are about to snatch. Jodo, Nasuk and their Bith “tour-guide” are walking in the hall, Jodo suddenly has really urgent need to hit the bathroom. Need so dire that he needs to go immediately. Bith shows the place and Jodo hits the toilets. Once inside, Jodo installs the explosives and puts the detonator to his pocket.

Once outside Nasuk ja Jodo are very keen on the well guarded space yacht. The bith however tells the boys that they cannot go there, that it is the ship of the very powerful client that only the most professional mechanics can go there. When Jodo and Nasuk keep on insisting the bith becomes curious and soon Jodo and Nasuk are acting strangely. (Especially after they saw one of the guards hitting the bathroom) They decide to threw away their “cover” and they run towards the ship. The first thug is really surprised when Nasuk takes out his blaster and yells “run for your lives fools” His intention is to save as many mechanics and innocent people as they can. Soon the hall is in chaos, blaster shots are filling the air and these two youngsters force their way in to the ship. During the course of action, Nasuk gets a seriously bad wound and falls to the ground (in the ship). Jodo barely can hit the autopilot on and the ship starts to move, when one of the guards, a big gamorrean with mean looking axe attacks furiously. Jodo really pushes himself to the limits and the gamorrean is defeated, but with a cost. Jodo and Nasuk are both in very bad shape and with a push of a button a huge explosion bids them farewell leaving the top floors of the building demolished!

Now they headed back to Alderaan. Rest of the session was extremely good roleplaying (time spent in the yacht). There were morale questions about people who were killed during the action and their responsibilities (In game terms, a dark side point was also awarded because of this). It was a nice session. Action, Roleplaying, Explosions and clever ideas. Worth of our time definetely! In the end of the session Nasuk also told Jodo that he would also like to learn the ways of the jedis… I wonder what that will bring later on Image from Starships of the Galaxy (2007)

Today, I made a big decision concerning about my character in this campaign. Our Thranil campaign has been a really big sandbox-style of a game and we have been playing it quite a long time (at least that is my opinion). The character I am playing in this campaign is one of my.. let’s say the character is the one character I’m most fond of. So before I write about what happened during the session, I must light up a bit about the character, his point of view about the world and how he sees it.

He’s name is Rashnak Vokon, a half-orc druid from a travelling village. Raised in a loving home despite people’s attitude towards him. When he got older, a wondering druid found out about his abilities and taught him the foundation so he later became a druid and decided to have a little adventure with his brother and few of his friends. First he was naive, didn’t know much about the world when he started his journey in the big world. He’s alignment was chaotic good, always ready to help those in need since he was been mistreated in his young life. He would not allow same thing to happen to others, since he thought that world is a good place, or at least, it should be.

During the course of adventures he learned that world is a cold place, people did not care what was happening around them. Eventually Rashnak and his friends decided to work for a certain individual. At first Rashnak thought that the job would have a meaning so he was enthusiastic, ready to do what he could. However, the course of actions eventually showed, that there were no honor either in this individual, or even in the ones he was plotting against. People were conspiring against each other. Trying only to benefit themselves. One of Rashnak’s friends even Rashnak himself got killed during these actions. In this point something happened, Rashnak lost what he got and his alignment turned to neutral. He turned to Obad-Hai, god of the forests to seek guidance in his actions.

For a long time the party travelled from place to place, doing whatever was necessary to gain wealth and fame. They got enemies, they were accused for treason they were just as anyone else. Looking for their own benefit. At this point Rashnak left the party and headed to north, to seek himself and what was happening in the world. There were rumors and it was clear that something big was going to happen. Rashnak witnessed armies of desert folk gathering in the south, armies of giants in the west. Frustrated he tried warn the villages, warn the people he knew to be in greater position than him. Whatever he did, he felt that it was all in vain. People did not listen to him. Not the peasants nor the captain of the guard of the city. Everything seemed to be just in vain. Frustrated he sought his old friends again, wanting to know what they were up to.

His friends were in trouble, following the same pattern what has been going on until this day. They had some new friends, but still no one was driving towards goodness as Rashnak had witnessed so many times. Now, having witnessed the coldness of the world he decided to tag along with them for the time being. Time passed and Rashnak became every day a little more cynical.

Now it’s time to go trough what happened today’s session. We encountered the menace which was threatening the dwarves. The great white dragon. The heroes were victorious and the threat were now more. While we trudged onwards in the hopes of finding the dragons lair Rashnak noticed a band of travelers in the distance. Since it was really strange to see anyone in these parts the group agreed that Rashnak would go and talk with them.

Rashnak approached in the form of white hawk. Approaching carefully, showing no signs of hostility towards them. The group about 15 people and with them were few wolves. Rashnak quickly noticed, that these people were druids as well so he took his natural form and headed to greet them: “I am Rashak Vokon, a druid as you clearly noticed” he said to their leader who had approached Rashnak as well. “Why are you travelling these lands?” the man asked. “You’re travelling very close to the domain of the Big Cold, and he does not like intruders in his lands.” the man said. “I have introduced myself, who are you people and who is this Big Cold you speak of.” Rashnak inquired. “My name is Haraim. The Big Cold one is the protector of these lands, we have his permission to live here, and he protects us from ice-worms and other foul hazards.”

Now Rashnak knew what they had done, killed their protector even without thinking about the situation more truly. Rashnak felt ashamed, since they had done something irreversible.

“Why are you here” Haraim asked again. “The dwarves of Snowpeak have sent adventurers to stop the creature from killing them. “I fear that something has happened to your protector” Rashnak said and continued. “I tell this to you as druid would to another. I know I am a messenger of bad news, but there has been a misunderstanding.” Rashnak said boldly. He felt really ashamed that he didn’t think of such a possibility. Now he and his friends had done something really bad. “Impossible!” The man replied. “What size is this army who have come to these lands!?” Haraim practically yelled and people behind him weren’t looking exactly happy. “I wouldn’t say it is an army” Rashnak said quietly and his thoughts were running wildly.

What have I done, I am responsible this to happen and it is my responsibility of dealing with this situation. Oh, Obad-Hai who are in heavens.. help me with this.

“The group is only six men, me included. I am here to tell you that something terrible has happened and I am a man enough to said it to you face to face. I have even proof, your protector is dead. I hope that if your next actions are considering that everything here has happened due to a misunderstanding” Rashnak told him and continued to tell him why they eventually had come here. Leaving outside the actual names and places why exactly they had arrived. “We are responsible, we have acted without knowing. I hope you people consider your actions” Rashnak plead Haraim, but the response he got was simply “You will pay for this, kill him.”

The world paused around Rashnak, he thought everything what he was gone trough, what he had became and for a moment he felt the righteousness in his heart. First he acted to protect himself, but quickly he realized that there was no point. He could defend himself, but to what end. By dying he would possibly justify the actions they had done wrong, protect his companions and possibly protect even the dwarves from further hatred. He stopped, pled to Haraim for the last time and turned to his god. Rashnak showed no resistance when the winter wolves came and tore his flesh…

This fine image is from (http://www.crystalnewton.com/images/fineart/howling%20wolf.GIF)

The events went almost like that, I am sorry if there are mistakes that I have made, but that however delivers quite well what happened. What I thought when we were playing: “I could let my character get away of this and possibly even kill them and take their stuff”. Then again I was thinkin also, that “Rashnak is not a character who can go on without a cause. He has principles and there have been only few opportunities to roleplay the character for a while.” So I decided to, on the expense of my fondest character, roleplay him. Play him well even it would mean that it isn’t the smartest thing to do. Of course as a player I will “mourn” when he dies, but I rather let the character die than go on playing a character who cannot do the things he so much wanted to do. Rashnak is/was a hero, one who could not deliver what he held most dear to him and that led him to this situation. It would have been cruel NOT to play him how I did considering what kind of character he is/was.

I don’t know how often does your average heroes gain levels in 4th edition, but I do know that our group is efficient enough to gain them pretty fast in my opinion. It is not because DM’s are being very generous, it is because we give the standard exp that should be given. I am not complaining, gaining new abilities and feats always adds some flavour to the game. So.. 11th session and level 7 is reached. Yes, we started from level 1.

After our heroes had rested for few days, it was time to venture forth once again. The destination was set: Waterham in river coast. We decided to take old caravan route to the south and possibly save some days in our travels. After we had travelled few days, a dwarf named Bern Graybeard gained upon us. He told us that he heard that a group of pathfinders left the city of Harn Monas only few days ago and he was in desperate need for hiring skilled warriors. His offer was to accompany him to Naam Moors and help him locate some possible lost relics and artifacts of his clan. We accepted even it would bring a slight detour to our original route. We were looking for job and the job found us before. Benefits of the pathfinder.

After few drinks in the Mers roadhouse it was time to head towards our destination. We encountered one angry hill giant who had approached quite close to the old caravan route. Our journey to the moors took days, but during that time Victor learned few new alchemist formulas from Bern. Bern was actually a artificer, very skilled in arts of dungeoneering and all kinds of arcane gadgets. The next notable encounter was when Alan casted a ritual which conjured a hand of fate to show us the most profitable way to go. That way took us to fight two Oni’s which was a tough fight. Oni’s special abilities put some of our heroes unconscious almos instantly. It was worth it, since in their lair was some valuable goodies for us.

When we eventually reached the moors, a huge windmill stood there quite alone. A strange structure in the middle of nowhere. Bern however seemed to be mysterious about the subject. The grounds near the windmill were infested with buglike kruthik creatures which caused us some trouble. The windmill worked as entrance to the underground where we finally found dwarven handwork. In this point of the session, our DM outeq had planned that encounter with guardian naga would be a big major obstacle. Succesful sleep-spell and major hack’n’slash action proved things different so it was a VERY quick encounter with the naga

As we delved deeper to the dungeon, we found out that there were major gathering of undead creatures in here. A memorable moment was when almost hundreds of ghouls chased us over a stony bridge and we barely got away. I liked it! Deeper in the chambers, after several traps and hazards we found out why there were so much of these undead in here. A skull lord and a lich where inhabiting the place… a FIGHT! Because the lack of time, we ended the session here. Now we only have to find the relics and the job is done. We can then resume our journey to Waterham and deal with the problems they’ve been having.

Summary: Lot’s of fighting, some roleplaying nice mood. Good session (image once again from wizards.com) Sorry for spelling mistakes, I am too tired to check my english right now. Oh, and just a reminder that our next gaming session is 16th of November.

This gaming session went surprisingly well. I have been playing and gamemastering Star Wars (with SAGA edition rules) for several sessions now, but this was the first time when I included starship battles to the game. The rules of the starship combat were somewhat already known to me, but it was nice to see them “in action”. First thing that I noticed was that actual starfighters drop like flies when the combat begins. A efficient shield rating is SO important for the adventurers it seems All together, the gaming session was very succesful. Lots of good roleplaying and some nice cinematic action. It was also nice to see the effect of the “Tarkin doctorine” .

Jodo Kann, Nasuk and their pilot were heading towards Mon Calamari in order to bring the “traitor” Adaman Niit and lost documents back to caamasi Lamek D’em. During their journey towards Dac (Mon Calamari), their ship passes too close to a supernova, overloading their internal computer systems aboard with solar radiaton. Because of this, the warp drive malfunctions and the journey is seized for the time being. Yen starts to repair the ship and our heroes have to just wait until… three vulture-type droid fighters appear in the ships radars and soon a mechanic voice speaks trough the ships internal speakers: “Maka-Eekai L4000 Lazy Bantha, The Reborn Heurestics are about to acquire your ship for their purposes. Stay calm and show no resistance and the battle can be avoided. If you surrender, you will be escorted to nearest space station where you can continue your journey still breathing”

Jodo, Nasuk and their pilot have no intention to surrender so they try to outmaneuver the droid ships. Jodo takes the gunners seat while Nasuk and Yen make their best efforts to loose their tail. After cinematic battle our heroes resume fixing the broken warp drive and are able to jump to hyperspace just when a bigger droid ship arrives to their location.

In Mon Calamari, Jodo and Nasuk spend some of their time finding ways to enter the underwater city of Aquarius. In Aquarius the leads eventually take our young heroes to meet a young quarren dancer named Jezo L’um who is supposed to be Adamen’s woman. Nasuk quickly comes up with a story to bluff the woman. It succeeds, but Jodo feels uncomfortable about lying so outragely to the woman. With Jezo’s help they acquire a calamarian minisub and they head towards Valley of the Giant Oysters where Adaman was supposed to be hiding. During the underwater journey a enraged whaladon attacks their minisub and our heroes are once again in pinch which they barely avoid. Jodo later found out that imperials were hunting these poor animals to feed their armies. One reason more for Jodo to hate imperial scum.

Small island above Valley of the Giant Oysters reveals to be a hidden outpost of Adamen Niit and his men and our heroes learn that Adamen is actually part of a small resistance movement against the galactic empire. Our heroes now face a dilemma since Lamek D’em hired them to bring Adamen back and Adamen is currently working to bring two quarren traitors to justice. These two: Rogue named “Clawfish” and a noble Vixyrr Cevar. They were traitors of Mon Calamari who sabotaged the planetary shield systems, when the imperials invaded Dac. Now our heroes must help Adamen, before they can help themselves and have a clear conscience. Adamen agrees to visit Lamek after these traitors are captured. Jodo is more than eager to help, he has found a valuable ally from the place he least suspected.

After long discussions and serious planning our heroes have a simple goal. Set an ambush to Clawfish and deliver him to a drop point. Jodo and Nasuk take their time, go things trough carefully and finally execute their plan with success… They have now done their part…