The Big Day: Ultimate Victory or Defeat?

As I write this article I'm about 80% done with my preparation for the next D&D session I'm running. This session will likely be the ultimate, or penultimate, session for this campaign. We started the game in December 2016, so about 3 years ago. That's a long time to live in a world. To tell a story with characters. And to be unsure how it is going to pan out.

I have confidence in the PCs being able to pull things off. They're all strong characters, capable heroes, and they work well together - at least in combat. However, I also know what is arrayed against them, and my fear is that the dice and chance will come in as unfair arbiters and just blow a PC away too quick for them to do something meaningful.

On a personal level I'm also anxious. In a lot of ways this is one of the more ambitious encounters and sessions I have planned. It can go a lot of ways. Hopefully the heroes win the day. That is, after all, what is supposed to happen right?

Either way, I find myself staring at the last few pages of a story I've been reading and helping make for three years. That coming to an end has all manner of feelings involved with it. It is something I want to break down more, and may for a future post as sort of a campaign after-action report type thing.

So tonight while you have your normal scheduled Friday night, I'll be sorting out the literal fate of a world with some friends as we finish ringing in the new year. If all goes well, everyone will have a good time. Also if all goes well, we'll have some fresh made cookies. Won't that be nice?

Enjoy your weekend folks. Sorry for today's rambling, but mostly all my thoughts are just about beginning a new year by ending a 3 year journey and the uncertainty of knowing how it will end.

To make things even better, a game I'm in is having its final session in about 90 minutes. My character is already dead - kind of - in that game, so I mostly get to watch. Still, it's a lot of things coming to an end....and on top of that the potential for a lot of new beginnings.

Until Monday....

Battletech by Hare Brained Schemes

I don't normally do this, but this once I'm going to make an exception. I've been playing Battletech by Hare Brained Schemes....pretty much anywhere I can fit time in. To say it has me hooked would be an understatement, and I'm fairly sure it is why this post is late (my bad, sorry!) However, the reason I want to talk about the game here, is because for the first time in a long time when I'm playing a PC game I feel like I'm playing a table top game.

Lord of the Rings: A Low Level Adventure

I forget what I was listening to earlier, but it had an interesting comment about how the Lord of the Rings - the movies at least - could be viewed as a low level campaign - maybe around level 5 at least for Fellowship of the Ring. My mind immediately rejected the idea. Movie characters are almost always high level, and have feats and abilities that go beyond RPG rules - including the ability to always crit when dramatically appropriate/necessary.

However, the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea and could see it. It's alo relevant for other games, because in a sense it shows how framing can give a sense of larger than life, even if the system has a lot more to it. Today I want to talk about it...because, well, reasons.

Critical Role

This probably isn't news for some of you, but if you haven't it's worth checking out Critical Role on youtube. It is Matt Mercer, and several other professional voice actors, playing D&D in a home brewed game focused more on fun. You can check out the first episode here. Along with a bonus clip of them doing a 30 minute game with Vin Diesel for The Last Witchhunter.

What Do You Want From 2015?

It's the new year, 2015, and we have a whole year of gaming ahead of us. Normally this post would have gone up on January 1st, but with being on vacation and how I've been writing posts lately that didn't happen. No matter though, it just means you've had more time to think about the new year and get to what is really important: your gaming.

What do you want out of your gaming for 2015? Are there new games you want to play? Old games you want to wrap up? A particular character concept that is gnawing away on the back of your skull looking to get out and make itself known?

For me, personally, there are three things I am hoping to do this year.

Real World Interruptions

Last week I missed our regularly scheduled posts due to the real world. This is something that happens from time to time with games - and blogs apparently - that not everyone always knows how to deal with that, so I figured I'd make a post and folks could comment with their own strategies.

Time Is Limited: Feeling Antsy

I am...restless. It's nothing particularly weird, but I want to run something. I haven't run a game in the better part of what feels like 3 months. My L5R game is currently swapped over to a different GM for a Halo game, and while that should switch back soon the breaks around holidays, sickness, and winter weather has extended the time away to a lot longer than first intended. The week is busy enough that there is no time to use that for games either. For the first time in years I'm not GMing anything on a regular basis and it feels weird.

When You Can't Say What You're Thinking....

I've mentioned before that I have issues when GMing and Playing where I have the words in my head but can't bring myself to say them. Today, on account of it being a snowpocalypse (supposedly) and me being sick, I have a video to share that kinda shows what I mean. Maybe not to this extreme, but this is basically what it's like for me at times trying to GM. How about you?

Gifts For Gamers

As of today there is officially a week before the big hallmark holiday, but still plenty of time in the season for general gift giving, receiving, and all around merry making. However, for some of you you may find that shopping for a gamer is hard, or you are otherwise unsure what to get them. Bit late for the season, but I figured I'd compile a list of some general things that most gamers will likely enjoy.

When Everything Goes Wrong....

Sometimes things are going to go wrong. It is just a fact of life, and because it is a fact of life it is a fact of story, of games, and of almost every thing that we as humans do for entertainment. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes you go to do something routine and it becomes a horrible botch of a job.

The important thing to remember though is that things don't always go wrong, and even when things are going wrong it isn't 100% of the stuff going wrong. Something is still going right. Something is still there to be gleaned from the situation. You just have to look for it, to find it and grab it and pull it to yourself.

Sometimes things go wrong. How we deal with matters when they go wrong is what defines us. It is what makes our characters interesting. It is what makes the characters we watch, read about, talk about interesting. Who wants to hear about a person that flips out or breaks down when things go wrong? People who do that are a dime a dozen. No, we want the people who step up and shine when things go wrong.

Sometimes things go wrong. It is something to accept. Sometimes the dice just aren't on your side. Nothing seems to go your way. Your friend is lying on the ground bleeding out and your left to deal with the three armed thugs on your own. Sometimes it sucks.

Sometimes things go wrong. If it is in a game understand that sometimes things have to go wrong. Nothing is always all peaches and roses. Sometimes luck will have to run out or turn bad. Sometimes things won't go the way you are hoping or want and there may be very little that you can do about it.

The question is: when things go wrong how will you deal with it? In game? Out of game? Will you get frustrated? Will you enjoy it? When things go wrong, what will you find out about yourself, your characters, and your game?

Setting Source Books

Just a quick post for today. Sorry about that, I know I've been kind of content light since September started (work has been seriously sucky lately leaving me with very little energy.)

Anyhow, on to the meat and potatoes. One of the things I like about when a big game has an edition change is that there is this kind of awkward transition phase when it comes to the books. Stores have the books for the previous edition, but those are quickly becoming obsolete with the new edition's release. People aren't usually looking to buy 4th ed material when 5th ed is the new hotness, and people are even less likely to drop big bucks on a book whose rules aren't useful to them.

Now this is just basic marketing. The new version is out, the old version goes on sale in an attempt to clear it out. With RPGs after a few years the old books go back up in value again, but there is still this nice transition. I love it. Why? Well, because it is one of the best time to splurge on a bunch of splat books.

"But Anthony," you say, "didn't you just say those books are obsolete?" Well, yes, yes I did. However, those aren't the books that I like to grab. I like the grab the books that while they have mechanical content focus more on setting and feel. Source books like Emerald Empire for L5R or the Sixth World Almanac are great examples of these. These books aren't resources for how to play the game, they're resources for how to convey the feel of the game, and that is something that doesn't change as drastically.

We're on 4th ed of L5R now and we still bust out the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ed books every now and then for maps, pictures, and bits of lore. The same is true with the White Wolf games - those are just dripping with lore stuff, really - and of course with Shadowrun.

Hm..maybe that's why I find myself eyeing all those wonderful 4th ed Shadowrun books that are going on sale on Amazon now...