Revolving Door Villains
"That will be 25,000 gp in diamonds, please."
There's a running joke that in high-magic fantasy games, death is naught but a revolving door and the party cleric is the doorman. I haven't played much 4e myself, but I've heard many of the epic-level abilities start out "Once per day, when you die..." If there's a bigger way to hang the "death doesn't matter" out for everyone to see, I haven't found it yet.
What about villains, though? Unless everyone is playing a pulp-style adventure, having the villain inexplicably escape every time he's encountered can seem contrived and simple GM-fiat, but can the revolving door be used as a plot device to present the players with a unique challenge?
Earthdawn 3e: Character Generation
At the last session with my group, we came up with character concepts and had decided to do the actual generation this week. I wanted to get it taken care on my end prior, so that I could both familiarize myself with the changes to 3e character generation enough to answer questions and be available to do so instead of needing to work on my own character. So earlier last week I finished up my human warrior.
If you're like me, one of your initial reactions to that last sentence is "a race and a discipline isn't a character concept," and you'd be right. However, for this post I want to specifically talk about some of the changes to Earthdawn from a character generation standpoint. So while a character back-story and personality are crucial to a good character, they're going to be outside the scope of this discussion.
Earthdawn 3rd Edition: Initial Paces
I finally got a chance to try out the Earthdawn Third Edition rules last Saturday when a friend ran Misguided Ambitions, the demo adventure available on the Earthdawn home page. Though there were some obvious tweaks and mods to the Step System to help streamline play, the game still feels very much like Earthdawn. Considering how much I enjoy the Eartdawn game - both the system and the setting - that's about the highest "initial impression" I can offer.
BACKSTAB! +4, x5
Sometimes getting a group of characters emotionally invested in their adversaries can be tricky. There are tried and true methods like having the adversary take something (or someone) of value from the characters but if done poorly it can come off as an uncreative cookie-cutter set up. Not only can it fail to get the players invested, it can actually divest them from the plot as well.
There's also the issue of the omnipotent adversary. Inexperienced gamemasters can fall into the trap of giving their adversaries full knowledge of the party's actions even if said adversary lacked a sufficient means to gain such information (by spying, scrying, etc). But again you can run into the trap of the cookie-cutter with things like the traditional wizard with a crystal ball.
When my turn to gamemaster came around in our current game, I decided to use a little trick to get the party invested in one of their adversaries as well as explain why the characters had been oiled in their recent attempts to accomplish their goal. Unbeknownst to the players, I made one of their characters the adversary.
Refreshed by the Rotating Gamemaster Campaign
I feel that my last few stints in the gamemaster's chair have been less than successful. There was something that happened in each campaign that made the game unsatisfying to me. So when it came to my turn gamemastering in our current rotating gamemaster-style campaign, I was pretty nervous. Turns out, though, that this particular format bypassed some of my biggest weaknesses as a gamemaster.
Earthdawn Third Edition
I've said before that Earthdawn has been my favorite roleplaying game for some time. I don't get to play too often because it's not exactly the best fit for my current gaming group (which includes one player who hates fantasy roleplaying games in general) but I still am a big fan of the game. I used to follow Earthdawn more closely but I drifted away for a while so was a little late to see the release date finally put to Earthdawn Third Edition.
RedBrick Limited, the current publishers of Earthdawn, signed an agreement with Mongoose Publishing in March to have Mongoose handle the printing, marketing, sales, and distribution of Earthdawn products under their Flaming Cobra brand. It appears RedBrick will retain all creative control while leveraging Mongoose's brand to move away from the print on demand model and into an actual product that will be available at game stores across the country in July.
I have seen very little of this new Third Edition ruleset other than the implication that it will be a simplified version of the Step System common to Earthdawn and Earthdawn Classic. Between a simplified ruleset and the increase in exposure that a physical product to sell in game stores provides, I look forward to seeing what impact this will have on the game. Maybe I'll be able to get it back on my gaming table.
Earthdawn – Savaged: Season 1
A month or so ago my Earthdawn: Savaged campaign wound up to a close. The early summer/late fall months brought a rash of player absences and missed sessions which seemed to sap everyone's motivation. So although I very much enjoyed returning to the Earthdawn world our game ended rather anticlimactically.
At least I was able to do the experimentation with Savage Worlds that I wanted to. I learned a number of valuable lessons about the system from behind the GM's screen. I plan on going into more detail about what modifications I plan on making to Savage Worlds in a short series of articles but I wanted to take this opportunity to summarize our campaign and my thoughts on it.
Our small group consisted of a few adepts who had banded together in defense of a Rex, a small village in the hinterlands north of Bartertown, and forged their group in tribute to the dwarven weaponsmith who had brought them together and gave his life in defense of the innocent. Thus The Hounds of Askari were born.
Earthdawn – The Legend Begins
Session 1 - March 30th, 2008
GM: Dave
Players: Luke, Chad, Dan, Josh, Pat
The scene opened on the town or Rex, a battered and broken village in the hinterlands of Barsaive. The townspeople had fought a daily struggle to eek a meager living out of the dried and broken land, and just as their efforts began to pay off they became the target of a band of ork scorchers. Frequent raids kept the town on the brink of collapse but the orks were smart enough to always leave the town in good enough shape that it could recover... and be raided all over again.
Rex's headwoman, an elf by the name of Emberica, was finally fed up with the cycle of destruction and called in some old favors which led Askari, a dwarven weaponsmith, to bring his small band of adepts to aid the town. The orks were not expecting any resistance, let alone a band of adepts, and a cunning trap sealed their doom. However they were not go quietly. Many good townsfolk lost their lives in the orks' death rage, as did Askari himself.
Earthdawn: Savaged
I've finally made my return to Gamemastering, kicking off a new campaign with my gaming group at the end of March. This time around I went for my long-time favorite: Earthdawn. Now that we've gotten a couple of sessions under our collective belt we're settling into the swing of things.
Although I've turned to the familiar setting of Barsiave for this game I've decided to try a few new things as well, the first of which was converting this fantastic game to a system more suitable to my players.
Deadlands – The Ballad of Chuck and Daniel
We had last left the posse down one Ranger and up one mad scientist and one Harrowed guide after it was revealed a former companion was actually a skinwalker in disguise. With their new guide in tow the Rangers set off from Redrock investigate the manor where Sen. Grissom was last seen.
Located half a day's ride from Redrock, the mansion was secluded from the main cattle trails by a smaller nearly overgrown path. The trip was uneventful other than the weather turning south as the posse approached the manor. They hoped to take shelter within from the storm while they looked around but unfortunately would find the dilapidated residence less uninhabited - and far less safe - than they had expected.
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