Our Mission:

To engage gamers and non-gamer alike, by
  • Providing actual stories of live table top gaming, and
  • Discussing the RPGs that we use.

The Thing About Orcs 2

Fri, 2010/05/28 - 7:03pm — SDJThorin

A 5 & 9 Hour Solo Gaming Session Of AD&D

2nd Edition (Spikehelm Campaign World)

 
The Back Story: (aka the idea that became the setup for this game)
 
Continuing from the last episode of The Thing About Orcs.
 
DM Notes:
This episode was a hard one for both my Player and I.  He is now a Blooded warrior and faced many difficult challenges.  Knowing this would happen and having to DM a Lawful Evil society, we discussed how far we both wanted to delve into this evil society while gaming.
 
As there are many versions of what Lawful Evil means, here is how we defined it for our game:
General Population:
Law abiding traditionalists, but uncompassionate, bigoted and merciless.
Government:
Law will maintain the status quo with harsh punishments for any transgressions.  Governments are draconian and everything is driven by a person's social ranking; those of high station can get away with almost anything, whereas those of low station can be killed on a whim.
Basic Individual:
As Lawful Evil, you are a villain that methodically takes what you want, within the limits of your code of conduct without regard of whom it hurts. You care about tradition, loyalty, and order, but not about freedom, dignity, or life. You play by the rules, but without mercy or compassion.  You condemn others not according to their actions but according to race, religion, homeland, or social rank. You are loath to break laws or promises.  Lawful Evil is sometimes called "Diabolical" because devils are the epitome of Lawful Evil.  Lawful Evil is the most dangerous alignment because it represents methodical, intentional, and frequently successful evil.
 
As you can see this type of society is a very nasty place full of horrid actions, slavery and vile abuses, where people can be killed on a whim and those with power get away with anything.
 
Raas, being at the bottom of this power structure, was hard pressed to survive as his Chaotic Neutral alignment conflicted directly with the society's.  As above, here is how we defined his Alignment:
Basic Individual:
As Chaotic Neutral, you follow your whims.  You are an individualist first and last.  You value your own liberty but don't strive to protect other's freedom.  You avoid authority, resent restrictions, and challenge traditions.  You don't intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy.  To do so, you would have to be motivated by either good or evil.  Chaotic Neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom both from society's restrictions and from a do-gooder's zeal.
 

During the game there were a few places where we decided to gloss over what most likely occurred -- as we both just didn't want to go there.  I will place censored summary DM notes in those places.
 
The Adventurers: (aka the Player Characters)
 
Name Class Level Gender Race Brief Description
Raas Naska Fighter 2 Male Half-Orc N/A

When A Dad Goes Bad

Sat, 2010/04/17 - 11:21pm — SDJThorin

A 7 Hour Gaming Session Of AD&D

2nd Edition (Spikehelm Campaign World)

 
The Back Story: (aka the idea that became the setup for this game)
 
DM Notes: All players may not be able to make every game. In fact, I have many players that have differing schedules. As a result, our group winds up having many different game and player combinations. As a DM you'll need to be flexible enough to be able to add or remove PCs in some credible way when their players don't show up for a few game nights -- I normally wait for at least a few missed nights before removing a PC. I usually "gently NPC" missing players’ PCs if it's only a night.
 
I'm bringing two players back into a game that had continued on without them.  Their PCs are now months behind the rest of the group, so we'll be running them independent of the others.
 
Originally, this game had 6 players in it, but it was constantly being held up because some of the players couldn't make it to the game nights.  In the end I had 2 players that wanted to continue on with their PCs, so I used a magical mishap to teleport them away from the group.  Now the players of Ritter and Rading want to continue on from this same aborted game, so I extended the mishap to have them teleported away as well, but to a different location.  You've got to love how easy it is to do this kind of thing in a fantasy game!
 
Ritter's player had created a few pages of background and a personal quest that he needed to fulfill.  Rading's player also started to create a background for his PC, but it's currently all in his head, so he told me about it.
 
From the sounds of both their histories, they might be related -- the stories not the PCs -- so I after talking to the players we decided to explore this and see where it lead.  Thus the setup for this game.  It's nice when your players help to setup the back story.
 
The Adventurers: (aka the Player Characters)
 
Name Class Level Gender Race Brief Description
Ritter von Gerechtigkeit Paladin (Lathander) 4 Male Southern Durnite (Human) N/A
Rading Bard 3 Male Southern Durnite (Human) N/A
Cindus N/A N/A Male Wolfen NPC

The Thing About Orcs

Fri, 2010/04/09 - 3:45pm — SDJThorin

A 6 Hour Solo Gaming Session Of AD&D

2nd Edition (Spikehelm Campaign World)

 
The Back Story: (aka the idea that became the setup for this game)
 
I challenged one of my players to stretch himself a bit, since he'd been in a bit of a rut. I told him that he was free to create anything he wanted, within good sense, but I wanted it to be in a style that he normally didn't play. I'm talking about personality and not class or race here. We talked a great deal about the world and discussed the pros and cons of various combinations -- It took about 3 hours for us to just figure out what he was going to play!
 
In the end he chose to play a large Half-Orc Fighter. He also decided that he wanted to start from within an Orc tribe -- As I only allow non-evil heroics in my AD&D games this was a very difficult choice as he would have to keep to his Chaotic Neutral alignment while living in a Lawful Evil society.
 
DM Notes: As a DM there are times when you don't have enough people to play a full game, in this case a solo game, but you still want to go forward. Sometimes you'll also have players that you think needs or wants some help. Solo games are perfect for this, as it gives you the ability to give them your full attention.
 
The Adventurers: (aka the Player Characters)
 
Name Class Level Gender Race Brief Description
Raas Naska Fighter 1 Male Half-Orc N/A

Mages and Thieves 4

Fri, 2010/04/09 - 11:37am — SDJThorin

A 4 Hour Gaming Session Of AD&D

2nd Edition (Spikehelm Campaign World)

 
The Back Story: (aka the idea that became the setup for this game)
 
Continuing from the last episode:  Mages and Thieves 3.
 
DM Notes:
Since they had stayed in town during the entire last episode, I had everything still ready from that game.
 
The Adventurers: (aka the Player Characters)
 
Name Class Level Gender Race Brief Description
Daniel Blackthorne Battle-Mage 4 Male Dracôrian (Human) N/A
Maldis Thief (Adventurer) 3 Male Southern Durnite (Human) N/A

Rise of the Insurgents

Sun, 2010/03/28 - 8:26pm — SDJThorin

An 11 Hour Gaming Session of Star Wars: Saga Edition

 
The Back Story: (aka the idea that became the setup for this game)
 
Rise of the Insurgents is based on the Dawn of Defiance Campaign.  I found that I didn't like everything about it as written.  I've also got fewer Players than needed, so I'm using it as source material and background.
 
DM Notes:
For my players reading this, do NOT spoil the campaign for yourself, stay away from -- i.e. don't read -- the Dawn of Defiance Campaign.
 
We had already started this game when the first Episode was published, however we had 2 of the main players leave the game -- they moved cities -- so this is a restart of that game with new players, but with the same storyline.
 
DM Notes:
Sometimes players leave, for whatever reason and you as a DM have choices to make. You can end the game; probably the worst thing to do if there are still other players that want to continue; or you can do something with the now abandoned characters -- Make them NPCs, kill them off, have them leave, etc.
Whatever you do, make sure that you work it out with the other players to ensure that they are good with whatever happens. The most important thing is that you as a group continue to have fun. I know it sounds stupid to say it, but you'd be amazed at how many groups and DMs forget that.
 
As this is a continuation of 2 older games, here is a breakdown of what had occurred before this restart. Since they were over 6 months ago, I can't remember exactly what went on, which is one of the reasons for this site, so here are my original notes. (Yet another reason for this site... Most DMs make crappy notes, and this is a fine example of that.)
Syndicate content