Apes for God

Shub-Niggurath makes things hard…

mdk — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:30:43 +0000

So, how did it go?

That could be the question you might ask after reading the previous post and the answer would be – well we didn’t finish the game. it was interesting, very interesting.

So tonight we added the Dark Pharoah expansion to the Arkham Horror game to add some more fun, and for the most part it increased the variance somewhat and added a slim layer of toughness which was appreciated – almost.

There was an issue…

Shib-Niggurath is a bugger!

Yep. The infamous Black Goat of the Woods (and one wonders how that expansion will affect him) is a real bastard. He adds an interesting element, he ups the toughness of every creature by 1. A single digit, a miniscule change one might think – well no, not really – it really altered the dynamic of the combats somewhat.

Then there were the poor roles!

Yep. Tonight we also decided to have a raft of low roles meaning lots of failures – Zombies were causing an issue, needing only 2 successes and having 9 dice to achieve it and almost failing is very daunting.

Chuck managed to lose his Blessing 3 times, Linda twice and Leigh twice (though she had a safe card for one of them).

We fought a metric bucket load of creatures – I ended up with 41 toughness of creatures (19 separate monsters in my hand) at the end of the game – I had fought a total of 25+ of them over the course of the game – and Steph couldn’t have been far behind me. We closed a total of 12 portals and had 5 fully sealed before we had to call the game a “draw” as it had gotten too late. With only one open portal and several safe locations and 2 places left on the doom track we had a good chance of winning. But time was not our friend.

We will have to play another game with a full random bevy of Old Ones to see how the DP has really affected the game – it may have made it too tough, I personally think the game is meant to be hard and this was just a case of a hard opponent and poor roles.

Still, it was great fun

Arkham Horror

mdk — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:10:53 +0000

So for the past few weeks, and probably the next couple we have been playing/will be playing Arkham Horror:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=6&enmi=Arkham%20Horror

Board Game Revised Box Set

The game is good in that it is a co-operative game where the players are pitched against the system, freeing everyone from the usual petty rivalries and need to win as we all face the same threat.

At this time we have won (or almost won) every time we have played – but there again we have been graced with good fortune and a lot of the lesser creatures – as we play more and perhaps try to play the fresh bad guys I expect our luck to change.

We have added the Curse of the Pharoah expansion – last week – and wil be playing that for the first time tonight – I may report on our progress – if we survive that is

Pregnancy Gaming

mdk — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:13:39 +0000

Leigh is close to dropping our first child, at the time of writing he is overdue, so the gaming has entered a new realm. The two regular epics are on pause (at suitable locations) until we settle down and the gamers can all re-assemble.

So what happens in the meantime….

Well we have replaced the D&D with some Alternity games, Victorian Steam Punk/Dark Matter Detectives & Sci Fi Space Exploration, that can be easily picked up and put down and Chuckles is running a Rifts Japan campaign.

Hopefully some more on those to follow.

Baern’s Group

mdk — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:59:26 +0000

So i decided to call this group Baern’s group as he is the only ‘original’ character from when this one started. Bit of a complex story to this game with prophecies whizzing through the air and a sense of impending war(s) and potential doom.
Last game was a bit surprising, a creature I was unfamiliar with whose description of mercenary, bloodthirsty, but will run away if outnumbered/bloody decided (at my thinking) to make a parley with the PCs. To my mind if you are in a situation that you cannot escape and have a certain mindset then the best thing to do is make a bargain. So the group of demons sat down for a chat about who hired them to kill the party in return for not being killed. Then they took payment for extra info and were on their way. I sneaked in a few hundred xp bonus to the party for the inventive end to an encounter and clever way to get more information.
Next time they reach an old sity that has stood on the crossroads of three once great empires, it is a place filled with some intrigue and a bucket load of history and they are looking for a merchant, a man with a limp and potentially a man who has already paid to have them killed….

End of the 2nd Era

mdk — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:37:34 +0000

So we finally completed the 2nd part of the epic story that the gamers have been playing for the past three years. They started so long ago with a small issue of bandits at a river crossing and since then they have battled were creatures, travelled to the centre of a world, been involved with a conspiracy involving the Gods themselves (including discovering that the twin-sister of one of the characters was on the enemy’s side), fought an immortal, a demi-arch of Orcus who was called Thanatos (Death) as this started in 2nd Edition Skills and Powers, they killed him as he fled through a portal into his own plane, which in turn destroyed the river of time and destroyed them.
They were then reborn on the Forgotten Realms world as 4th Edition Paragon Characters, the world now being merged with their own land (some of the realms were now the kingdoms of old Mystara (an extra touch to the already messed up FR – but it fits with the new scenery)). They returned to their homeland to discover that the sister was alive (sort of) and was now called the Empress of the Night and ruled the whole of a continent with her Vampire Minions. Our heroes had to travel around, raise an army, fight stronger and stronger Vampire lords before discovering that the Soul of the sister was trapped in the dead body of the immortal they killed which floated somewhere in the Astral Sea.
So they travelled to the Astral Sea and went to an Oracle who directed them to hell and a servant of Orcus who was imprisoned there- whom they freed to find the body of Thanatos (they had to promise to free him to get the information). They found the body, fought there way into the heart (the body being filled with evil demons and creatures who were awaiting their arrival to conduct a ritual to try and raise Thanatos) find the soul and then escape.
They then returned to the continent and laid seige to the tower with a mighty army, with that as a distraction they went inside, fought several very powerful wights, vampires, and a large Dracolich before confronting, renedering unconscious the queen of the night and completing a ritual to restore her soul and destroy the foul thing that inhabited her body.
Their victory was met with a bigger surprise as one of the NPCs (Surec) was in love with another (Clara – now Queen of the land by Royal heritage) and asked her to wed him. Their characters now take a well-earned break of a year to recover, see friends marry and administer the lands given to them for their mighty deeds.
Meanwhile there are still forces gathering in a distant horizon and there are many ends left loose, what of the dreams of death haunting one of the characters? What of the images of future godhood that appear to another? And will the Consort finally become King of his own lands? There are also Dreams of the Raven Queen’s chapels being attacked and a God who has been thwarted by them twice who will not tolerate them interfering for a third time….

Until then though, we take a mid Epic break…and play something different for a few sessions…now, where were those worlds I had planned?

Picture time more

mdk — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:41:44 +0000

Please remember to scroll down to see Leigh’s great image.

Okay 5 mins in Photoshop to give a ‘basic’ idea of what I mean about a background – it’s not worthy of Leigh’s great source image but illustrates the point I made in the comments. Of course if I spent time I would add more of the delicious spell effect Leigh created.

Picture time!

Leigh — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:31:00 +0000

It’s an RPG blog, I can show off here if I want . Who’s to say I can’t! Well, Markie’s the admin so him I guess…

Anyway, it’s taken nearly a month but I finally finished my new character pic for the D&D game we play with Kirk.

Serena Wynn – Human Chaos Socerer (Wild Mage)

Now I just have to survive tonight’s game…

So near…

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:26:31 +0000

So they made it to the first antechamber of the citadel, they didn’t quite make it to the end and the final confrontation with a servant of evil and darkness, a creature that lies seething in the shell of a woman, that woman is the twin sister of one of the player characters…

One thing to be said about high level traps from the DM’s Guide – they rock and can present a real challenge. Even with two fairly low level creatures as the only mobile confrontation in the room the players came close to losing a character permanently, all down to my slight spin on an already particularly nasty trap.

So they will have to wait until next game to have the confrontation that was on the cards from the day one of the players decided that their twin sister had been seduced by evil. This wes decided before the game even started, before they were a lvl one adventurer embarking on a long quest…

There is also the matter of the small surprise concerning two of the NPCs, the players are curious as to what it is, though the clues have been there for some time…

The last one before they left for the Astral Sea…

And a small clue when they returned…

Orcus minifigure

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:04:53 +0000

If you guys are not reading the Ampersand releases I will point you at the Orcus minifigure they have announced will be released this year – should be about the size of the Gargantuan Dragons that have been available.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.aspx?x=dnd/dramp/2010January

The end of an arc and the glimpses of Epic adventure

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:45:00 +0000

So for the first time ever a group of adventurers under my care have reached Epic Level – starting from first level nearly three years ago in real time and 6 years in game time they have come a long way…a very long way…
Last game they made Epic level after defeating the second hardest creature on this part of the story arc they have followed since game one.
Tonight they may make it to meeting the hardest creature on this part of the story arc and may actually see a glimpse (though they have had tasters) of the continuing story that will take them to 30th Level.
There will be changes, there will be awesome challenges and there is a surprise for them concerning two of their NPC friends….
GAME ON.