rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 27, 2009 1:35:16 GMT
So, which edition are you playing? I'm in a group that's been doing 3.5, but we're going to be starting my niece up soon and we'll do 4 with her. My ex gave her the starter box for Christmas. I guess my favorite was 2, but of course I have a huge soft spot for the first edition!
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Post by bluehare on Jan 27, 2009 1:45:40 GMT
You are fast!! ;D I played AD&D (that's the original, yeah?) years ago with the DM who got me started. College and married life intervened. Then came 2.0 if I recall correctly. By the time my kids got interested 3.0 had just been revamped into 3.5. So we have full blown campaigns going in 3.5. This is probably where we'll stay for a while, as all the people we've recruited are the most used to this system. We have a DM who started 4.0 with us, but his life got busy, too. So that's on hold for a while. I will always have a soft spot for the original. And if anybody around me still played it, I'd join in. But I had a hard time understanding the THACO and all that stuff in the beginning. 3.5 is much easier for my fading faculties to grasp.
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 27, 2009 2:07:56 GMT
That's funny, I remember the THACO stuff was hard to catch on to, but once we got used to it, it was great. But then we had a dial cut out of Dragon magazine that made it really easy.
One of the reasons I started dating my ex husband back in college was so he could teach me to play. He was the kind of DM who you could ask "what's on page 79 of the DMs guide," and he could tell you! So we never gave it up - all our friends were people we gamed with and we went from ADD to 2nd edition, and we played other stuff too, especially Champions and, later on, the World of Darkness games. Eventually I got sick of it and decided I maybe wanted to have some adventures of my own, and I gave it up almost completely. I don't think I ever played 3.0 at all, and when I decided I felt like playing again, the boys were doing 3.5 - although they resent it because they didn't think there was enough to change to make a whole new edition. We have been telling my niece she could start when she was ten, and now she's ten, so she's been holding our feet to the fire!
Oh, and I remember one New Year's Eve, about 2001 or so, we had the best time, pulling out our old ADD books and doing an all-night first edition game. So much fun! And the now ex is still the DM extrordinnaire - he can literally come up with a first or second edition game off the top of his head and it will be good!
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Post by bluehare on Jan 27, 2009 4:07:48 GMT
The guys that have been around it forever - like your ex and the people we play with here in town - they all seem to resist the changes. And to a certain extent I get their point. They all know how to play the earlier versions, have games that have lasted for years, and think the new systems are more marketing gimmick than anything else. And they may be right about the last part, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing.
D&D was stagnating for a while. It needed a good jolt of energy. Once it got it, more young people started getting interested again. Then it took off!
I still have yet to sell my kids on Tull, but I have two DM's in the house who can take over anytime I don't want to do my campaign. Both have completely different styles. One is definitely a Monty Hall! I would love to curb her of that.
The eldest is like your ex, and our DM in town....mind like a steel trap. They remember everything.
Now...how were you - or are you - in the gaming foods dept? ;D
In the old days Bill, our DM, had to have M&Ms and Gummi Bears at every meeting. His wife Rose worked at a pizza parlor. So if we stayed til after midnight, and when didn't we, she always brought the pizzas people forgot to come and pick up. I rarely got home before 2:00 A.M.
Brian, our current DM, can be bribed if the right foods are brought on game night...something me and the fam figured out early. That usually involves anything hot (temp-wise) like chicken wings and a bottle of alcohol he doesn't already have - like Chambord.
In our house, it depends on who's DMing. The people who show up need to know so that they can plan accordingly!
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 27, 2009 4:44:58 GMT
Steve (the ex) really liked 3, but he was irritated about 3.5 because it's basically 3 with the mistakes corrected - it only came out 2 years later and they put out another whole set of books that they can charge $35 apiece for, so there's your marketing gimmick! 4 seems to have some real changes. We like new things, we've played tons of games. In fact, he's in one group they call "The RGP Buffet" where they play a different game every month. The GM writes up characters ahead of time, hands them out and does a one-night adventure. They do a podcast at the end of it. They've got fans even! I was in it a few years ago, dropped out and just sat in a time or two, but now I've kind of renewed my enthusiasm and I might go back.
Have you played other games?
As for the food, good Lord, could there be a more fattening hobby? You're sitting on your butt for hours at a time and food is just an inescapable part of it. Maybe it's because you're sitting at a table and it's just the power of suggestion. At any rate, it's a very fortunate thing that I am indifferent to salty snacks! Mostly I guess what happens is everybody brings something, either sweet or salty, and there's lots of soda, with a modest amount of alchohol. Occasionally something else... In our younger days we'd all go out for breakfast in the wee small hours, but I guess we're getting too old for that now!
Does your group change a lot, or is it pretty steady?
I know, like, a big pool of people, with whom I have played this and that with off and on - you know who to call and you have a familiarity with how they work, which definitely has advantages. In the group I'm with now, it's two old friends, Steve, my brother, and a guy who's new to it, but he learned our way, so it's sort of like musicians who play together a long time - you know the kind of thing the other guys's going to do, and somehow it makes everybody better, instead of it being boring!
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Post by bluehare on Jan 27, 2009 17:00:46 GMT
Yep, this was the major complaint of everyone who had been playing 3, and had to switch over. In fact, it's why I'm hesitant to go to 4.0....I just have too many books from 3.5. I didn't run into that because I never bought any of the 3.0s and because I had four people to buy for (I got my sister addicted as well ), I made most of my purchases online and got used books. Then I ended up buying a lot of AD&D classic stuff, and specialized 2.0 books because even though the formula changed, I could still convert a lot of the older material to our games. The RPG buffet sounds really fun! I would love to do something like that. I have wanted to get other things going, but I just haven't had the time to venture into those areas yet. I am stocking up on Cthulhu stuff when I can find it. Plus there are a couple of other RPG worlds I have on the shelf. I think the only thing my particular people won't do is RPGs in space. That arena just doesn't seem to appeal to them. Harry Potter type stuff. Lord of the Rings, horror, even modern-day vampire things they may try. But as much as they like Star Wars and Star Trek, they won't venture onto a holodeck anytime soon, I don't think! The gamers that come over when I'm running a campaign often get a menu with their choice of pub fare on it. I like to cook, so I have a few things on offer that doesn't overtax me or the game. Their gratitude is best expressed by providing chocolate, Red Vines/Licorice Whips, and Starbuck's - hot, large, and leaded. My daughter, the eldest, likes white parmesan popcorn. Also, she has a magical tea cup that is refilled every time she leaves the room. By one of her minions, not by me. The youngest is a very picky vegetarian. We let her get her own stuff! But yes. It can get fattening fast! Brian's game can sometimes have new players. I don't mind so much except it takes time getting them up to speed, and we spend half the night creating characters to play with them. Once we get going it's fun playing with the new people. In our home games, we're all the same old faces. It's like you were saying, we know each other so well that we pretty much know how to deal with each other. The only thing is, my eldest and I love to mix things up a bit when our players get too comfy. We can make life really difficult for them sometimes! ;D I was going to ask you more questions, but she's chomping at the bit....gotta get her to class......
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 27, 2009 18:54:43 GMT
It's too bad they didn't just wait till they'd edited 3 properly, but I guess it's all in the past now! We had almost all the supplements and everything from the beginning, but he got that stuff in the divorce and while I still have access to it indirectly, I'm a collector by nature and I miss it. It's nice that you can download all sorts of old material from the web site, but it's not the same exactly.
I played Cthulhu once, for the buffet. I liked it, not sure how it would work in a sustained way, though. Have you done that?
That's the best thing about the buffet - everybody has different games that they buy hoping to get other people interested, but if you don't the game just sits.
I've played a few space games and they do seem less motivating somehow - most of them have been in conjunction with super-hero type games. I guess my favorite Sci-Fi game is Paranoia, but again that's one that's really just useful for short adventures. And of course it's a comedy game anyway, so it may only incidentally count as Sci Fi! It's a great premise, though.
When we had it at my place I might make cookies or something, but we have it at my friend Jimmy's now, so maybe somebody occasionally brings some frozen pizza bites or something in addition to the proverbial "snacky cakes and cheesy poofs" (like on South Park!), but it's hit or miss.
Your daughter has minions, eh? So your regulars are you, your daughters (2?) and friend Brian and...
We had a particularly unfortunate experience with Star Trek, or rather, the guys did because I didn't play. We don't do well in games where some characters have authority over others - bunch of rebels we are - and that's a basic structure of that game. It just didn't work at all! "Who are you to tell me what to do?!" I was once in an I.C.E. campaign where one of the guys was supposed to be a prince. He knew better than to boss us around, but he was haughty enough that we used every opportunity to make his life miserable. Funny memories!
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Post by bluehare on Jan 27, 2009 20:32:48 GMT
That's one problem with me and my kids at times...too many generals! ;D
So we have a rule that when one of us runs a campaign, the others have to behave themselves.
My eldest is 21, and a control freak. She is very bossy when she runs a game. But she has great settings and is really thorough. My youngest is 17, and is a shoot-from-the-hip kind of DM. She makes it up as she goes along. Well, she has sort of a broad outline. Good thing my sister and I take copious notes. I am somewhere in between. I have a completed story. I guide them through the story, but they direct a lot of the action. If they go somewhere I don't expect them to go, I usually have a Plan B. If I don't, we break for snacks! Or we enter a pub and play pub games or something.
The games at my house are usually made up of my sister, daughters, me, and various amounts of their friends.
Brian's game is run at his house. He's never been in one of our games. He has between 8 and 10 regulars who switch in and out depending upon the nights being played. And then new people can show up at anytime. Brian has a very open household! But the one thing he doesn't do is create his own campaigns. He used to, but now he only has time to punch up pre-fabs.
And I should be clear about my online purchases...I like hard copy. So, I have bought all the books I could get my hands on. I have even bought sets. I have also bought downloadable files. But like you, I am a collector. And when I love something as much as I love gaming, I sort of have to collect it!
Besides Cthulhu I have Nobilis, Planescape, Al-Qadim...I have other things as well. But they're still packed due to the house flooding. Little by little I am getting things unpacked. We haven't played any of them as yet. Still stuck in Greyhawk, Faerun, and Kalamar, and Eberron.
Oh! We were doing a swashbuckling one for a while! That was great fun. But our DM flaked on us....
It's been so long since we played, I even started dreaming about a group of adventurers. I told my daughter about them just so I could get them out of my head. But she's already refused to ever let me play them! Rotten kid...
Another thing I would like to do...one time Brian's old group had a fun session - like your New Year's party - where he told them all their characters they created for that night had to be from the perspective of the "bad" guys going against 'good" NPCers. So the mindset was that they were the "good" guys, and the NPCs were the "bad" guys.
Do you DM?
What are your character creations like? The guy that ran the swashbuckling game had handouts that he gave to help people flesh out their characters. Brian gives coins that could be spent on regaining HP, things like that, for good character development. He loves having us play because he never knows who - or what - we're bringing to the table. Character creation is one of the things we love best.
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 28, 2009 4:26:39 GMT
Isn't it great there's a second generation now? When we were in college we thought it would be one of those things you'd have to give up when you had kids, or that it might not be good for them (remember all those people freaking out about it?) or, like rock and roll it would just fade away! But now there are so many people who do it with their grown kids, it's great!
We're a very cooperative group, really, but we're also basically anti-authoritarian in that a system of military deferrment doesn't work. It also doesn't work if we have somebody new who likes to suggest to others how to play their characters - and I don't know if you've been up against this, but there have been many occasions where a new guy comes in and seems to think that because I'm female he gets to play his character and mine too, if you know what I mean. Usually the other guys correct that impression before I need to!
Except for the new guy, we all DM from time to time, in some game or another. I suppose if you counted up all my gaming hours, D & D would probably be the most, but I have almost as much experience in some others too: Champions, various World of Darkness games, especially Changeling, and I.C.E. (which I really don't like much). We've been at this one a year, almost, which is kind of long for us. Usually we'll run through a story arch and let it go, and somebody else will have said "you know, I have this idea for a Vampire game..." (or whatever) and they may overlap or they may not. Probably my best GMing was starting a Changeling campaign that lasted quite awhile, set our own little world in motion. Then I got tired of it and a couple of other people ran with what I started. One of the things I like about the modern day games is that we usually set it in Louisville, and that saves a huge amount of time and makes it much more relevant.
I generally tend towards spellcasters or, in other games, players with mental powers. For this present game, though, I just felt like going out and swinging, so I have a 5' 1" half-elf fighter named Delphinium who wields a two-handed sword. It's been great! Our DM Eric is fairly relaxed about the rules, in that, if he likes what you're doing, he'll cooperate, like he'll conveniently forget that you might not be exactly in the right place to do it, or he'll interpret the vagueness in a spell description the way you'd like him to. He won't cheat on rolls or anything. Couple of weeks ago I rushed in to do some brave but suicidaly foolhardy action, ended up plummeting through the air to my death and succeeded in pulling out my flying potion and taking a swig - strictly speaking, he probably shouldn't have allowed that, but he wanted to see how the brave but suicidally foohardy action would play out too, so... In his younger days he was quite the Monty Hall, but he's gotten over that. And we don't like feeling like mechanics either, so a lot of what we do get we sell.
Coins for healing is a good idea, and that idea of switching good for bad is also great - when you start to think too hard about that stuff in the game you realize how arbitrary it is.
I know there was more I was going to say, but what was it? this is probably enough for now anyway!
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Post by maddogfagin on Jan 28, 2009 8:42:37 GMT
All sounds very complicated to me. Think I'll stick to a game of Mah Jong, not on a computer but with real tiles
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 29, 2009 0:47:12 GMT
Now, I have no idea how to play that - yet!
Don't worry, if you ever did decide you wanted to try it, when you're new all you have to do is think like a fantasy character and let other people worry about the mechanics for you!
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Post by bluehare on Jan 29, 2009 4:22:34 GMT
Computer mah-jongg is all I've ever managed so far...
Now all this talk of D&D has sparked my eldest. Unbeknownst to me - til 2 hours ago - she went and planned a session for Friday night.
Gotta spruce up some of my characters! They will not be spellcasters. They hate me. Well...maybe it's because I create them, and then get them killed. Better for me to stick with the fighters...humans and dwarves mainly. My fighters would probably love Delphinium! She's a risk taker. Eric sounds fun, too.
I also do very well with gnomes as a race, and rogues as a class. But Brian hates gnomes. I got away with a gnome family once with him, though, but I had to do a hard-sell. And interestingly enough, it has a Jethro connection!
I will post it tomorrow soon as I figure out how....
Brian used to own a gaming shop. That's how we met him. As he was showing my sister and my kids how to build their characters, many of his regular gamers would start milling about, and telling them how best to equip their characters.....kind of like having a 1964 1/2 Mustang V8 fixer-upper engine laid bare before a bunch of neighborhood mechanics...
He got in the habit of shooing people away from "his girls" quickly. Nobody gets near us at his house. That's his first rule: he and he alone advises the recurring players.
He is not so good about his cronies that will continually dominate a campaign for the glory of their own characters....the filibusterers. They can make an evening drag by, for sure....
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 29, 2009 15:28:17 GMT
Computer mah-jongg is all I've ever managed so far... Now all this talk of D&D has sparked my eldest. Unbeknownst to me - til 2 hours ago - she went and planned a session for Friday night. Gotta spruce up some of my characters! They will not be spellcasters. They hate me. Well...maybe it's because I create them, and then get them killed. Better for me to stick with the fighters...humans and dwarves mainly. My fighters would probably love Delphinium! She's a risk taker. Eric sounds fun, too. I also do very well with gnomes as a race, and rogues as a class. But Brian hates gnomes. I got away with a gnome family once with him, though, but I had to do a hard-sell. And interestingly enough, it has a Jethro connection! I will post it tomorrow soon as I figure out how.... Brian used to own a gaming shop. That's how we met him. As he was showing my sister and my kids how to build their characters, many of his regular gamers would start milling about, and telling them how best to equip their characters.....kind of like having a 1964 1/2 Mustang V8 fixer-upper engine laid bare before a bunch of neighborhood mechanics... He got in the habit of shooing people away from "his girls" quickly. Nobody gets near us at his house. That's his first rule: he and he alone advises the recurring players. He is not so good about his cronies that will continually dominate a campaign for the glory of their own characters....the filibusterers. They can make an evening drag by, for sure.... It's hard to keep magic users alive at first - remember the classic? 4 hit points and 1 spell a day! They shouldn't even name a magic user until they can cast a fireball! (which hopefully they won't do to their own party!) I like gnomes. They have a nice feel - they leave open some more gentle options. One thing I don't like about 4th ed: did you hear they got rid of gnomes as PCs? Don't know if you've seen this ad: And there are a dozen versions of this, but it's still funny and all too reminiscent of the inexperienced years: I can imagine about the filibusterers - I guess our games are constructed differently, but I know the type from playing in other groups.
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Post by bluehare on Jan 29, 2009 15:55:22 GMT
HA!HA!HA! That is a gnome for you.
But I tend to block that little bit out as far as 4.0 goes. I like Tieflings and all, but I don't get why they were made core characters, and why gnomes were removed.
In our home set-up, if you can reasonably justify making a favorite monster a PC, you have a good shot at playing it anyway. Course it has to be good aligned.
Now Brian likes to plant the occasional NPC helper in our midst when we are low on a needed class...and in one game the helper turned out to be an evil mole....
The other vid....yep, that's a classic! Required watching for all D&D nerds. My sister loves saying, "Do I see that?!", or...she's attacking the darkness.
Do you prefer elves? You're good as spellcasters....anything else?
Being able to play a rogue surprised me. I have more of those than I ever thought I would. They all vary, too. The gnome cousin rogues rarely break the rules.
My others start with bending the rules and run the gamut until we get to my last who borders on being an assassin.
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 29, 2009 16:26:42 GMT
I think the thing that's funniest about that reinactment is the "am I there?" bit because that's something that never goes away, no matter how long you've played - as well as its cousins "did I hear that?" "Did you say that out loud?" "Am I close enough to hit it?" and "I've been running three rounds, how much farther before I get there?"
Trading the gnomes for Tieflings to me seems to be about making it a "rougher" game, more overt firepower and such - not that I'm against that, sometimes you do just want to be able to blast everything into non-existence, but I really believe in the balance. I guess one characteristic that Steve always had and so is the way I was brought up is the challenge of seeing what you can do with just a modest amount of power or items. So when he played a werebear (adapted from the MM like you were talking about) he was never going to go crazy with that and he gave it a lot of limitations. If I remember correctly, that character probably started as an NPC, but that was a long campaign and we had three or four different DMs who'd pass it on when they ran out of ideas. A lot of people just want more and more power and stuff and they don't even know what to do with it!
I probably have played more elves than anything else, which I admit originally had something to do with wanting the long golden hair and 18 charisma. Now it doesn't matter - Delph is a half-elf because when I started playing they happened to be in elf territory. I hardly ever just want to be human, though. In the campaign with the werebear I was a gnome cleric (which at the time we were bending rules on). And I make it a point to play male characters too, but not as much as Steve does. He always comes up with something completely unexpected, wierd multi-classed characters - but usually thief will be one of the multiclasses. I didn't do well playing a thief at all!
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Post by bluehare on Jan 29, 2009 16:59:26 GMT
Your questions at the beginning of your post....HA! So true! All those age-old questions...
I do have a few elves. And for the most part I think I do them justice (I hope!). But I am more enamored with them than anything else. It's like telling everybody you're the pitcher on the team when you're really the catcher.
I am built more like a stone person, and have a stone person's mentality. Better to stick with what I know! Heh!
But trying to see the world from a more willowy place is good every once in a while.
On the subject of firepower and limitations and all that...if you ever watched Buffy, one of the best characters created for that show was Xander....because he was just a guy. He didn't have anything special going on. In fact, he was not even the best of the best as far as humans go...a live-in-your-parents'-basement guy.
But he was loyal, and he was brave when he needed to be. I like playing characters with limitations.
Balance is a big word in our campaigns. We have a girl who only wants to be the baddest badass there is. And she only plays girls. But she's so much fun! And we enjoy playing off of her personality. So we have to do a lot of balancing.
My girls will play males, and most of their friends will. But the guys will not play females! Not one male I've ever played with has gone down that road....
Oh! I can't play paladins, either. Not yet as least. That's just too narrow a path for me.
Another thing that just came to me....
My sister was never interested in playing D&D. She thought it was a waste of a weekend night. When we finally made her play with us, she found out things about herself she never knew.
D&D isn't just a game like people think. It's amazing what you learn by playing it....
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 29, 2009 17:23:24 GMT
Oh yeah, I was a big Buffy fan! Didn't they actually say once that Xander's gift was the love he had for his friends? I think that was when Willow had flipped out at the end of season 7 and he was the only one who could bring her back.
It's too bad some guys are so inflexible about playing women characters. Oh, those tired old sex roles! Steve played a female monk for years (back before they were exiled to Oriental Adventures) - little tiny blonde thing with big innocent eyes, and for religious reasons she was compelled to always speak the truth - it got her in a lot of trouble. He created her specifically to take a poke at all the macho butch sh***heads (as we call 'em). When we started ICE with another group he adapted her for that.
But yeah, it's more than a game. I really think it's sort of a collaborative, improvisational art.
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Post by bluehare on Jan 29, 2009 20:01:57 GMT
You're right! That was when Willow's eyes got all black and she was eeeviiilll. Weird, that. And Xander's love for his friends...I remember that now....
The guys in Brian's games - not all of them, but a few - got pretty creeped out every time we played males. They would almost get defensive. But Brian never played a female, either. He makes a great kobold, though!
K...here is my gnome family. I'll take them down after you see them.
Backstory: Brix Knackered and his cousin Twodie (my sister's gnome) set off on their first adventure together in one of Brian's games.
So, Brix is Daniel Negreanu...cuz he IS a gnome! His sister is Gerda (Ellen DeGeneres). His mom is Sossity, because it's a gnome name if I ever heard one (Zoe Wanamaker). And his father is Wendo (no need naming him). Wendo raises Fell ponies and gifted one to Brix. His name is Feldspar.
Mirepoix is the product of a very mixed up DNA cocktail (Amy Lee)...one bad little gnome. Wendo got tangled up with her in his younger days. Together, they are responsible for Squint (Dave Spade). He has come back into the Knackered's life and is a general nuisance. But no one knows who he is.
Anyhow, it doesn't matter because as it happened, Brix' first campaign turned out to be in Ravenloft, and Brian killed him!
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Jan 30, 2009 13:50:16 GMT
Wow, you do have this all taken care of! I usually draw little pictures, that's all! I must admit, your names and descriptions do all fit really well, and Sossity is definitely a gnomish name. So I guess you're gaming tonight...I will be tomorrow night.
I remember how hard Ravenloft was - when the original came out, it really changed the stakes, brought it to a whole new level of play - it was so atmospheric, and dangerous! That was the first time I got any sense of a game where events were just out of your control. Things were just going to happen! I sure wish I had a copy of that original module.
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Post by bluehare on Jan 30, 2009 14:47:55 GMT
My characters are normally just in my head, and not based on real people. But Brian needs visual aids sometimes. And sometimes he's really obvious. We figured he was going to throw something at us before we played that next game session. So, we decided we would go for maximum coin output. We all developed these massive back stories and characters ahead of time. It paid off, because at the end of the game we all offered to give every coin back if he agreed the game was just a practice one, and our characters were still alive. It worked. But he got so ragged on (in a funny way) by his friends because he let a group of girls sway him. HA! This all happened because we underestimated the hidden talents of a 10 year old new boy playing. He turned the tables on all of us! It was brilliant. I know....sigh....I want the original Ravenloft, too. Scared the pants off me while we were playing. But I get sidetracked, and forget to try and hunt it down. Are you playing Champions tomorrow night? Where are you in your game play? I don't know anything about Champions. I could look it up, but that's not as fun as knowing what another person is going to be doing on game night.
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
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Post by rebecca on Jan 30, 2009 18:53:50 GMT
Sounds like fun. Wow, your guys sound a little....insecure? (or I guess I should say "Brian's guys!") Even though I'm the only female in this group, in general the gamings always been split about equally, genderwise. The guys who do get wierd about it (even in a funny way) have always tended to drop off, or be dropped!
Anyway, I'm playing D & D tomorrow - it'll be Delph and her boys (apt, since right now we're on a cube with a matriarchal system so I speak for the group and we let everybody think I'm the boss).
It's been a couple of years since I've played Champions, but if you like super hero stuff at all, you'll like it. Maybe even if you don't! You get a certain number of points and you spend them on different characteristics - you're completely free to do anything you can imagine. It can get complicated - if you want to, say, be invisible, it costs different points depending on how you do it (e.g. if it's through an item that's cheaper than if it's just part of your natural being; if you can do it hours at a time it's more expensive than if you can do it for short bursts, and on and on). There's a lot of math involved while you balance out what you want with the cheapest way to get it. You also have disadvantages, like comic book characters have (such as a dependent NPC, like Spiderman has Aunt May, or a susceptibility, like Superman to kryptonite, or you might be color blind, or be afraid of the dark, or be a diabetic dependent on insulin, or anything!) and those disadvantages buy you more points to spend. But you have to play them! I once had a character who was confined to a portrait in a locket - she was 100% mind power, but her disadvantages were "no arms or legs, can't move by herself, easily stolen" etc. My friend Jimmy was playing a Native American character and he wore me around his neck on a chain.
Thems was good times!
It's not as much fun to watch, because combat is very slow and methodical and not that dramatic - people don't usually die. But it's fun to play!
I saw a Ravenloft module about 6 years ago for $16 - it was before I was even thinking of getting divorced, otherwise I'd have snatched it up!
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Post by bluehare on Feb 3, 2009 18:51:14 GMT
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Mar 22, 2009 16:18:50 GMT
An update for Bluehare (and anybody else who might be interested): Did you see the Player's Handbook II is out and, once again, Gnomes are a PC class!! Why do they waste our time? Also they've brought back half-orcs and half-ogres. (Steve successfully played a half-ogre for a long time named Marigold, whose leather armor consisted of the side of a cow!) She was neutral-good - "she stinks a bit, but she's got a heart of gold," we used to say.
In our game, all the new souls are being eaten by a dragon, so babies are being born without souls. I say "oh, I guess it's time to introduce condoms to this world," but no, that's not our mission, we have to find the ex-god who used to guard the souls and get an artifact to go fight the dragon.
Remember that, Steel - gods CAN become ex-gods!
I also played in the RPG buffet Friday night - we did the d20 Star Wars game. I was a wookie scout. It was fine, but I think I'd have done better if I'd been more of a Star Wars fangirl, like most of the rest of the group. I didn't know there were so many jokes to be made about being frozen in carbonite, though.
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Post by bluehare on Mar 23, 2009 17:45:34 GMT
I think I am going to have to live vicariously through your game nights, rebecca. Everybody my way is on the downside of their school years racing to the finish line. Add to that, that both my girls and one of our most consistent players have all been accepted by the colleges of their choice. So their - and my - play days are seriously numbered till who knows when. Withdrawal pains are looming.... I decided when 4.0 came out to totally ignore the new rules in regard to gnomes. But it doesn't surprise me that they waffled and reclassified them. They should have left well enough alone to begin with. I would love to be in your campaign. What a plot line!
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Mar 23, 2009 22:57:00 GMT
So you need some new gaming friends, don't you? Well come over anytime! If not that, could you go to your local store to make some connections? All of ours are really good about that and even having rooms for people to play in.
I'm glad to see the gnome back, but I bet it was just a ploy to yank our chains... especially since the gnome in the MM has neither lair nor minion!
BTW, I don't know how I ever missed your chart above and didn't see it before today, but I think it's hilarious!
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Post by bluehare on Apr 2, 2009 15:53:34 GMT
If your weren't so far away I would be there....cap and gaming snacks for all...in hand! This is Bakersfield...home of Dungeons and Dragons Is the Devil's Playground. Gaming stores are few and far between, and kids are still playing Magic:The Gathering at them. Both actual D&D purveyors have been run out of town. As have been most of the woowoo stores and things of their ilk. In effect, all the places where I like to hang out. I do need to move, can you tell? Heh! Too conservative for me. D&D in my house at least will once again be going on hiatus. Brian has put all gaming aside for a while as he is finding out what it is like to raise a rambunctious 2 year old when both you and your wife are holding down two jobs. Sigh....
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Apr 2, 2009 16:37:40 GMT
I'm not exactly sure what a "woowoo" store is, but I'm probably in the ballpark with my guessing!
Well, you have my deepest sympathy. I guess there is on-line gaming, but I know that's a poor substitute for sitting in the same room and everybody making their dumb jokes and whatnot.
And I figured Kentucky would be bad! But Louisville is different - you've got all the extremes.
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Post by bluehare on Apr 4, 2009 15:26:28 GMT
Well, I just figure there's no telling what'll crop up when I get bored and desperate enough.
Even on-line gaming may become a possibility!
Why I like Dwarves:
Elves Humans and Dwarves
An elf, a human and a dwarf are all enjoying drinks in a tavern when each notices a fly in their glass. The elf places his napkin over the glass and pushes it off to the side. The human removes the fly and keeps drinking. The dwarf pulls out the fly and starts yelling, "Spit it out, ya bastard! Spit it out!"
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rebecca
Master Craftsman
Posts: 458
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Post by rebecca on Apr 7, 2009 1:08:31 GMT
That's a good joke, and I'm going to have to remember it for the next game.
Since we were talking about sports and such awhile back and about how I'm a fan of U of L basketball when it's a good season - I have to give kudos to the women's team, who are doing better than they ever have. I knew a lot of those girls from working in the dorm with them.
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