The hair was another experiment on my part. I initially painted it black and higlighted it with drybrushing up almost to white. After that I stained the entire thing with a mix of the old GW Flesh Wash and brown paint to create a reddish brown hair color. Later refined the technique a bit to use it elsewhere in my collection.

This was another model from the era of craft paint metallics and it really shows on the sword blades.

• Manufacturer & Line: Wizards of the Coast - Chainmail
• Mini Name: Ravilla Gray Elf Duelist
• Painted: 2002

Our current game is a Sci-Fi setting using the Savage Worlds ruleset and have been using some of his son's Lego Minifigs as miniatures when we play. A few sessions ago we were given a task to perform and hummer-esque vehicle to take to our destination. We initially started with a couple large flat Lego pieces to represent the vehicle but our nerdiness couldn't let the abstract stand.  So while we played, a couple of us started putting together a vehicles with whatever pieces were in the box of Legos near the table. Thus, the "Sweet Ride" was born. And no, before you ask, you're never to old for Legos. Ever.

Though it was good for a few laughs, we also suddenly had a shared picture of what the vehicle looked like.  Descriptions for in-game events and actions began taking inspiration from what was sitting on the tabletop.

The "Sweet Ride"

We also found that we had inadvertently invested ourselves what we had built.  The Sweet Ride wasn't just a vehicle, it was our vehicle.  When a large xenomorph rammed the side and crumpled the front fender it wasn't just some damage that would need to be repaired, it was a personal offense.

The gamemaster quickly got on board himself, eventually even commenting that he was going to have to work the Sweet Ride - which was intended as a throwaway transport - into future sessions.

Even though we were being a little silly with our vehicle, it still created investment in the game. I'm not saying anything new when I say that getting players invested in a game almost always leads to everyone enjoying the game more. But I think it's worth pointing out that creating investment in props can have similar results.

As a side note, our gamemaster's ten year old son decided to add his own contribution to the game after seeing our vehicle and put together the following alien creature. He's checked a few times to see if we've used it yet, and his father assures him it's going to be making an appearance soon.

Lego Monster - our GM's son's contribution to the game.

Surviving the trip required a small portion of her attention.  Her spark did most of the work, keeping her body functioning while the alien energies pressed in, but with a little effort she was even able to keep them from her. There was little else to do but wait for the trip to end.

As Nika felt herself slip from the Blind Eternities, she quickly opened mouth to voice her complaint.   But instead of a fresh breath of air to use to expel her curse, she nearly choked on a mouthful of brackish muddy water.

Panicked, Nika opened her eyes and swiftly confirmed she wasn't going crazy.  She was fully submersed in a brackish, muddy lake of some sort.  Nika saw the shadowy shapes of what appeared to be her companions struggling to reach the surface nearby.  A few swam to the surface but two particular silhouettes caught her eye.  The first was the distinct form of Gaeleth, her feathery wings bent and twisted around her as she fought her way to the surface.  The second was Ada, who had simply ceased her struggle and was letting her artificial body - which had no need for air - sink to the bottom from where she could simply walk to the shore.

Nika herself made it to the the surface with little effort.  She started to get a look around the area, but everything erupted into chaos.  Quick glimpses were all she was able to take in before she was forced to react.

She saw she was in the middle of a small lake, muddy and dim, surrounded by a damp forest.

She saw a canoe directly in front of her, containing a startled middle aged man staring back at her in surprise as she surfaced.

She saw the Nero already reaching one of the nearby shores.

She saw a robed figure surface near her that seemed familiar but who's face she didn't have time to place.

She saw a long fleshy tongue dart out of the reeds at the lake's edge and splinter the canoe, sending its occupant tumbling into the water.

She saw the tongue retract towards some sort of beast at the lakes's edge; large but haunched over beast clearly some sort of troll, but slimy and pudgy.  The beast opened its mouth and bellowed a... was that a croak? in challenge.

Even as Nika reached the shore, Nero was already racing towards the amphibious beast, darting between branches and dodging flicks of its tongue.  As Nika slipped into the woods to flank the creature, the air above the pond erupted in a fireball, sucking the warmth from the area around the small clearing and sending a shiver down her spine.

Nika heard the drier upper branches of the trees catch on fire only a few moments before she smelled it.  Turning back she saw the robed figure - having reached the shore - laying on its back where the explosion of a botched fire spell had knocked it from its feat.

"Oh, right. That'd be Ibrand."

How the fire mage arrived wasn't an immediate concern, so she pushed it to the back of her mind and continued slipping soundlessly through the forest.  She had almost reached her target when the frog troll's tongue finally caught up to Nero, snatching a leg out from under him and sending him tumbling to the ground.  It reacted quickly, throwing its tongue like a lasso to snag him for consumption.

Nero reacted even faster.  As the fleshy lasso darted towards him, he rolled aside and to his feet, drawing his blade and stabbing it through the troll's tongue and the tree trunk behind it.  The creature reacted in shock, and before it could pull itself free Nika rushed in.

She reached within a few paces and lept into the air, grabbing on to a stout branch of one of the younger trees. Before her weight caught, she sent her magic coursing down its trunk, softening it's tissue into a flexible mesh.  Instead of holding her weight, the treetop whipped downward like a hammer, it's burning boughs crashing into the troll and scorching it's slimy hide.  The frog troll croaked in terror, tearing its tongue free from Nero's blade and fleeing into the forest.

By the time the creature had dissapeared into the trees, Nika, Ada, and Gaeleth (who had concealed her angelic presence behind her humanform fleshmask) were trying to help the nearly-drowned canoeman while the others tried to deal with the burning trees.  The swampy vegetation was wet enough that the fire wasn't spreading quickly but they still had to work to contain it.

They calmed him long enough to learn his name was Katan and that he was from a nearby village named Talousholt and was fishing, but when he asked who they were their replies sent him back into histeria.  Nika and Ada began talking about sorcery and planeswalking and such, pointing his attention to the fires above... just in time for Grrk to complete the spell to extinguish them.

A layer of mud nearly a hands-width deep lifted up into the air and flung itself into the trees, coating everybranch and smothering the fires.  The coating dripped for a few moments before the goblin directed it back down from the trees, glopping to the ground with a wet thwump.

Between the talk of witchcraft, destructive magics, and the being startled by the goblin's mudcraft, Katan's fear won out and he scrambled away from the planewalkers and ran into the jungle. Gaeleth tried to stop him but realized he was hysteric and that the planeswalkers weren't going to be able to do anything for him and letting him return home on his own was for the best.

After making sure that the fires were completely out and collecting a few fish from the superheated lake for a later meal, Nika was able to lead the group around any significant dangers in the swampy forest. But once away from the lake they needed to decide where to go. Gaeleth volunteered to shed her fleshmask and take to the skies above the forest to get a look around and see if there was anything nearby worth heading towards.

From the higher vantage-point Gaeleth was able to see the miles and miles of rolling plains that stretched out from the forest, checkered with plowed fields and dotted periodically with the silhouettes of farmhouses. Further down the road in one of the many valleys the larger gathering of buildings of a town could be seen. The planeswalkers decided to head to the hamlet and try and get their bearings and find out more about the plane they were on.

An hour later they reached the edge of the forest and found themselves near a road that Gaeleth said should lead to the village she had seen from the air. Night was fast approaching but they traveled for a few more hours before making camp, ultimately deciding not to wander in to the town during the middle of the night.

* * * * *

Session 2 was the last session of Manaburst that I'm going to be running for a little while.  With my current work schedule I wasn't able to continue putting the amount of prep work into the game that I thought it deserved, so one of the other players volunteered to take over gamemastering for a while.

I'm a few sessions behind on these write ups but it's going well IMO.  Thankfully I recorded the sessions as a method of note-taking and have been referring to them to catch up.  With any luck I won't lose any details to the depths of a poor memory.

Ada

Ada's original conception was that of a construct capable of aiding its master in research and ritual.  She quickly became indispensable to his experiments, able to observe and record all that transpired while his concentration was elsewhere.

Many years after her creation, Ada was given sentience when a powerful spell cast by her master inadvertently bound a being of primordial magic within her shell.  The reaction not only destroyed the ritual but also flung Ada from the plane, sending her careening through the Blind Eternities for the first time.

Concept of Magic: Flow of Aether

Although all but incapable of creating sorcerous effects on their own, Ada's nature is uniquely suited to enhancing (or diminishing) others' abilities to cast spells.  She also has enough knowledge of the principles of magic to duplicate or dispel arcane energies.  Her summons of choice are constructs fashioned from raw mana, as opposed to simulacrum of actual living things.

Gaeleth

Gaeleth hails from a plane of high ideals which views itself as the model of civilization.  As a judge and arbiter, it was Gaeleth's responsibility to punish those unable to abide by its laws.  She excelled in that role, so much so that when her superiors detected the unignited planeswalker spark within her, they immediately began training her on how to unlock its potential.

Since then it has been Gaeleth's duty to wander the multiverse and bestow her justice upon those whom require it.  Sometimes is it through quiet consultation, other times it is by her burning wrath.  No matter the methods necessary, her justice will be done.

Concept of Magic: Lux Eterna

Gaeleth leads light to calm, defend, and heal those whom need her protection.  When her commanding presence or a calm word fails to disarm a situation, Gaeleth can summon forth angelic soldiers to dispense justice on her behalf.

Grrrk

For most of his early life, Grrrk personified the title of 'minion.'  He never had the desire or motivation to lead on his own, so dutifully followed whomever had the power to protect him.  He was a miner and a tunnelguide for his warren until his powers manifested.

After a short (and fatally unsuccessful) attempt at using his powers to lead a small group of his fellow goblins, Grrrk has fallen back to his original nature, shrugging off responsibility and hiding guilt by having someone else make the difficult decisions.

Concept of Magic: Seismic Might

At tiny Grrrk's will, mountains shake.  His magic is that of the earth itself; bending, breaking, and shaping stone to do his bidding.  He is even able to infuse the earth with elemental sentience, creating servitors to assist him.

Ibrand

After witnessing the destruction of his people at the hands of demonic invaders, Ibrand took the fear and terror he felt and forged it into rage and hate to fuel is already potent pyromantic abilities.  Now he directs his abilities towards hunting down those that destroyed his homeland.

Ibrand has already proven he's been willing to wreak massive destruction to get at his enemies; there's no telling how far he will go in the name of vengeance.

Concept of Magic: Wrath of Flame

Fire is the harbinger of Ibrand's will, burning and consuming everything and everyone between him and his revenge.  The fury of his magic constantly rages at the edge of control but Ibrand's will is formidable and he wields it with uncanny skill.

Nero

Son of a planeswalker and a demon, Nero was abandoned by both parents soon after his birth.  Found as an orphan he was raised and conditioned to be a remorseless killer.  By the time he discovered the truth of his heritage, he had already to turn his talents against the demonic horde invading the planes.

Concept of Magic: Shadow Magic

Although not as skilled in raw sorcery as most of his fellow planewalkers, Nero does possesses some ability to summon and manipulate shadows.  Primarily used to obscure and obsfucate, Nero's magics have served him well in his chosen profession.  In addition he can, when pressed, weave shadows into minor entities bound to his will.

Nika

As the only sentient entity in the plane called Eden, what could be called Nika's childhood was unique, to say the least.  Her education came through the experience of living at one with the wilderness around her.  She didn't realize that her ability to influence the living network of the forest was a form of magic until a planeswalker, an explorer named Kolorghu, came to her sphere.

Kolorghu's good nature and Nika's inquisitiveness were a natural match, and while he explored her plane, she traveled with him, learning about what it meant to be a planeswalker.  Some time later when Kolorghu left Eden, Nika decided to journey with him and see what else was out there.  The two have since parted ways, but Nika's undying curiosity has survived.  She continues to seek new experiences, new things, and new places.

Concept of Magic: Biotic Gestalt

Nika's magic draws upon the complex network of organisms in the wild, coaxing it to produce the desired effect.  Whether it's shaping plants to her will or summoning swarms of tiny creatures, Nika is able to insinuate her will into an ecosystem and influence it from within.

Torvolis

Torvolis was born into a nomadic tribe where he reluctantly followed his father's footsteps.  His father, the tribe's chief hunter, would leave big shoes for this son to fill, and Torvolis was nowhere near skilled enough to do so.  His true skill didn't manifest until otherworldly demons attacked his people and his spark ignited catastrophically, creating tornado-strength winds when he tried to defend the tribe.

Instead of being thankful, the survivors exiled Torvolis from their land for practicing witchcraft.  Shocked and angry, he did them one better and planeswalked away, never to look back.

Concept of Magic: The Windswept Plains

Torvolis' magic is that of the great winds that swept across the plains where he grew up.  When in need of aid, he calls upon creatures native to his homeland; from the birds over head to the beasts that roam the land.

* * * * *

The custom magic cards (created with Magic Set Editor) have also been appearing in the campaign write ups so far.  For anyone who plays magic out there worrying about balance, don't.  They're not meant to be played.  The cards started as a joke, but turns out the group really enjoys meta-humor in them.  It was fun seeing their antics re-imagined using MtG rules, so I've kept it up.

Hopefully by the end of the campaign I'll be able to  post a WotC-styled "visual spoiler" page with all of the cards.  I don't think all the in-jokes will translate but we'll see.  :)

It's no secret that I'm a fan of miniature use in role-playing games, but for our Manaburst game I wanted to try something different.  I was worried that if the players - who were new to FATE - saw the miniatures on the table it might distract from the looser, narrative way FATE designates location in a scene.  So I decided to try something new:

A sample combat zone setup for a boarding action.

Whenever a map is necessary, I sketch one out on a pad of paper and thumbtack it down to a couple cork tiles.  We then use straight pins to mark locations and move them around as necessary.  The pack of small push pins I purchased contained three different colored pins, which helps keep from confusing groups on the map.

For the PCs or important NPCs I use larger pins, with the PCs' getting extra attention.  I had asked the players for pictures of their characters before the campaigns started so I could surprise them with their pins at the first game.  I cropped and resized these pics before printing them out as two .75" x .75" squares side by side which were wrapped around pins and taped into place.  It makes it easier for each player to quickly see their own pin given the smaller size of the maps we use.

So far the only complaint has been that the maps can be a little small, but that could be easily resolved with some larger cork tiles.  Other than that, though, the process has been quick and abstract, allowing more room for narration.  Seems like a success to me.

As creatures followed, scrambling and seaching for footholds, Nero called back to Grrrk, who was effortlessly drawing up strength from the stones beneath him. The wall slowly began toppling over, while simultaneously the ground on the far side started to rumble uncontrollably.

Nero tried to leap free but had underestimated the goblin's destructive capabilities and caught a glancing blow to the side, knocking the wind out of him as he tumbled away. The sunblights were not so lucky. The wall came crushing down, sandwiching them between the crumbling slab and the trembling earth.

Though all the blighted creatures in the immediate vacinity had been destroyed, more were quickly approaching and the planeswalkers swiftly decided to seek refuge in the building they had seen at sunrise. They hoped sheltering in the shadows would keep the creatures out.

The planeswalkers made a fighting retreat, moving as quickly as they could while keeping the creatures at bay. A trio of sunblights had pounced on Ada from out of nowhere, forcing the group to stop long enough to get her to her feet and moving again, though they soon reached the structure and the series of odd pillars that surrounded it. There was an eerie sensation as they passed between the pillars, not unlike that of moving through Ada's earlier spell, and the planeswalkers soon realized that the creatures could not pass through them to follow.

Our heroes continued inside to find the large structure was one single room, and seemed to be untouched by whatever force devastated the rest of the plane. In the exact center of the perfectly round room, hovering roughly four feet off the ground, was what could only be described as a tear in the plane.

The gash was surrounded in concentric circles of a flowing blue ruinc script, each of which seemed to slowly turn around the tear itself.  A similar set of runes were carved onto the stone floor at a diameter large enough to encompass the rip, and after curiosity led Ada to get a closer look, the planeswalkers realized the runes on the floor were preventing anything from approaching the wound.

Since Ada felt the scar didn't pose any danger to the PCs, and the sunblights outside definitely did, the planeswalkers decided to pass the night in the relative safety of the domed structure.  While the others settled down inside the structure, Nika heads outside to look around the building from the safe zone between it and the circle of columns a dozen so yards around it.

She watched the sunblights pace around the structure restlessly but saw nothing else for most of the night. A few times she would have sworn she saw something large moving out in the shadows between the larger ruins, but never got a clear look.

When night fell, the planeswalkers resumed their journey towards the nearest "pull" they had noticed earlier. A few hours later they discovered they had been led to a borderpost - one of the places where the walls between planes were weakest and crossing through the Blind Eternities was safest.

Nika voiced her interested in waiting around until sunrise was closer to see if the could catch sight of the shadow she had seen during the previous day.  The others agreed, and Ada volunteered to planeswalk to the other side of the borderpost to see what sort of plane was on the other side.  With a deft manipulation of the energies around the crossing, she simply took a step towards the post and vanished from the plane.

And without warning, the others found themselves pulled along after her.

* * *

Session Date: 9/5/2010

The main theme I was shooting for with this session was the "where he heck are we" feeling, which I think the players got. I also wanted to set up some facts for later games. Unfortunately this session posed a number of questions but provided very few answers. I've been in campaigns where every single session was like that and there are very few more frustrating types of games. To that end I need to make sure that the next couple sessions start provding answers before my players' curiosity turns to frustration.

As part of character/setting creation, I had each of my players create plane as well. Broken, the plane featured this session, was not one of their creations. Similar to the question/answer issue above, I plan on using a player's plane next. I know they trust me as a gamemaster or I wouldn't be running this game, but I still don't want them to get the impression that I'm not using the material they went through the effort of creating for the game.

My biggest regret of the game was not emphasizing the alteration of "party make-up" when the planeswalkers in the started the game. I had mentioned before I was going to be able to accommodate players who wouldn't be able to make every session by switching out party members, but that it was going to be handled as part of the story and not via an alloy of handwavium. I think the players assumed it was the latter and didn't really roleplay the issue much. I would have rather they had, but I wasn't going to tell anyone how to play. So I'm going to have to make sure that more details on this setup are revealed in-game so the characters can react to it's direct presence.

The only feature of the room to stand out was the circular engraving in the center of the floor, but before anyone could investigate they realized something was off. Torvolis was missing and another man had appeared - a planeswalker named Nero. Accusations were curbed when Grrrk and Ada vouched for him, having traveled with him before when they and a fourth planeswalker named Ibrand had attacked a plane under demonic control and decimated one of their strongholds.

The group started looking around for answers to where they were, how they had gotten there, where Torvolis had gone. Gaeleth followed Ada, illuminating the chamber so that she could examine the carvings and the two found the artifact Grrrk had swiped from the magnus on Whitesea laying against the wall, smoking slightly.

While most of the planeswalkers tried to figure out what had happened or invesigated the small chamber, Grrrk quickly grew tired of the discussion and decided to venture outside to look around. He padded up the stairway in relative quiet and stepped out onto a plane that could only be called Broken.

Ruins stretched as far as Grrrk could see in the dim light, remains of ancient stone sculptures which had succumbed to some massive force ages ago. The weathered edges of the stones revealed the destruction had been some time ago, but still only sparse grasses grew in splotches here and there on the landscape.

Once they realized Grrrk had wandered off to get himself into danger, the rest of the planeswalkers headed to the surface. After taking in their surroundings they realized there were four points on the plane that seemed to be pulling at their senses, scattered at some distance around them. Seeing no other signs of life or anything other than crushed rock nearby, they decided to head towards the nearest one.

After an hour of travel and exploration, the planeswalkers were treated to one of Broken's sunrises. Bright white light dispelled the reddish glow of early morning, revealing that the ruinous landscape stretching from horizon the horizon and revealing the only solid structure the planeswalkers had seen so far - a large domed building two stories tall that sparkled in the newly arisen light.

The sun heated the broken landscape quickly, sending wisps of heat dancing along surfaces here and there.  As the planeswalkers debated searching the structure against following whatever was calling to them off in the distance, the heat whips began coalescing into solid forms.

One appeared nearby Ada, pouncing at her before she could react. Its forearms landed squarely on her chest, and the creature passed through her like a ghost. She shook as its passing leeched heat and life from her body, but was able to recover before it wheeled on her.

The other planeswalkers turned to face the creature, Grrrk already dancing about as he began working magic. But past them Ada could see more of the creatures emerging from the ruins. Dozens, maybe more, many of them circling towards the planeswalkers' presence and bounding towards them.

Guessing the creatures were more mana than corporeal, Ada threw up a field of disruptive energy around her immediate vicinity. Even as her companions struck at the creature behind her with magic and steel - seemingly succeeding in disrupting it's form enough to banish it - a dozen more slammed into the field.

Most bounced away harmlessly, but a couple shimmered as they passed through, their forms partially disrupted but they maintained their form. Nika rolled to Ada's side and passed energy into the sparse plant life around her, creating a cage around both her and Ada. She wasn't sure the structure would keep the creatures out, but it caused one to pause long enough for a plate-clad knight to drive it's blade through the creature.

The knight, light gleaming off it's armor so intense as to almost be tangible, fought back to back with Gaeleth - its summoner - as they began dispatching the creatures that had crossed the field. From her position within the cage, Nika noticed that the creatures - coalesced light that they seemed to be - were avoiding areas of shadow and called out to her companions.

The discovery did little to help Gaeleth and her knight. Both glowed with a radiance that dispelled nearby shadows as they fought, but Nero had other ideas. He scanned the surrounding buildings and when he found what he was looking for, wheeled on the little goblin.

"You're good at breaking things, right?"

Grrrk's mischievous smile was enough of an answer for Nero. He pointed to the remains of one wall of a two story building and sent Grrrk towards it. As they both left Ada's protective field, Nero darted towards the nearest sunblights to get their attention. The creatures had realized they couldn't reach the planeswalkers within, so when new prey presented itself they all turned to follow with eerie howls.

Session 1 to be continued.

The campaign opened in media res with the characters on the plane of Whitesea, being ambushed by a herald of the demonic forces trying to invade the plane, and some of his forced-converts.  Our bold planeswalkers backpedaled initially but after Grrrk unleashed his destructive power in the area indiscriminately, knocking the converts (and a companion) out of the fight, the herald fled.

While Nika and Ada helped get the companions back on their feet, Gaeleth took a moment to examine the fallen conscripts.  Under their armor she found the pale skinned faces of the denizens of the plane, eyes rolled back in their heads - vacant but alive.  Realizing there was little to be done for the conscripts except to end the Herald's hold on them, the planeswalkers quickly chased after him.

The plane of Whitesea was named for the spires of rock emerging from the thick layer of clouds below the inhabitable portion of the plane.  These tiered formations are connected at various levels by suspensions of beautifully crafted filigree.  The chase carried across a number of these bridges before the planeswalkers caught up to the herald on one of the mountainous spires.

Near the herald stood a magus performing a ritual from where he stood on  an arcane glyph carved in the middle of a series of standing stones.  As the planeswalkers approached, the magus wrapped the herald in sorcerous energies, mutating him a giant-sized demon.  The hulking creature bellowed out a challenge then turned to exact its vengeance on the planeswalkers.

With her encyclopedic knowledge, Ada recognized a ritual of anchoring - the magus was using an artifact to create a portal which would allow the demonic horde to begin invading the plane.  Some sort of field between the stones prevented the planeswalkers from hurling sorceries at the magus, and the demon's unholy strength kept them at bay.

Eventually Torvolis and Nika were finally able to distract the demon long enough for Ada to dispell the field.  Grrrk darted between the stones, snatched the artifact from the magus.  He screeched in something between glee and defiance and threw himself from the sigiled dais.

As the artifact left the circle of stones, the magus' spell was disrupted.  The arcane energies built up atop the spire were suddenly unleashed, cascading out of control.  Everything flashed vivid colors, then faded to the black of unconsciousness.

*   *   *

Session Date: 8/21/2010

From a session-design standpoint, I chose a combat to start the game with for two reasons.  One, it set immediate stakes for the scene so the players didn't have to fumble with what was going on as they tried to learn the system.  And two, the combat conflict resolution rules encompass every system of the game, meaning the players would gain a basic understanding of the whole system for them to build from.

Most of the players started out hesitantly, but one of the advantages of having a GM-NPC for this session helped here.  I pretty much jumped in the pool, letting them know the water was fine.  Once they all realized how far they could flex the system, the game just opened up for them.  'My' character will be gone next session, though, and only show back up if someone else decides to GM a session.  I get all of the GM spotlight already, I don't need a share of the player spotlight as well.  ;)

And that sets up the first session of the campaign proper, the write-up of which should appear soon.

Character generation was slow at first while everyone wrapped their head about the phases and aspects that FATE uses, but before long we had a fairly diverse group of planeswalkers who, for the most part, had a united enemy and had met each other in their travels-at least in passing.

Ada

Ada's original conception was that of a construct capable of aiding its master in research and ritual.  She quickly became indispensable to his experiments, able to observe and record all that transpired while his concentration was elsewhere.

Many years after her creation, Ada was given sentience when a powerful spell cast by her master inadvertently bound a being of primordial magic within her shell.  The reaction not only destroyed the ritual but also flung Ada from the plane, sending her careening through the Blind Eternities for the first time.

Concept of Magic: Flow of Aether

Although all but incapable of creating sorcerous effects on their own, Ada's nature is uniquely suited to enhancing (or diminishing) others' abilities to cast spells.  She also has enough knowledge of the principles of magic to duplicate or dispel arcane energies.  Her summons of choice are constructs fashioned from raw mana, as opposed to simulacrum of actual living things.

Gaeleth

Gaeleth hails from a plane of high ideals which views itself as the model of civilization.  As a judge and arbiter, it was Gaeleth's responsibility to punish those unable to abide by its laws.  She excelled in that role, so much so that when her superiors detected the unignited planeswalker spark within her, they immediately began training her on how to unlock its potential.

Since then it has been Gaeleth's duty to wander the multiverse and bestow her justice upon those whom require it.  Sometimes is it through quiet consultation, other times it is by her burning wrath.  No matter the methods necessary, her justice will be done.

Concept of Magic: Lux Eterna

Gaeleth leads light to calm, defend, and heal those whom need her protection.  When her commanding presence or a calm word fails to disarm a situation, Gaeleth can summon forth angelic soldiers to dispense justice on her behalf.

Grrrk

For most of his early life, Grrrk personified the title of 'minion.'  He never had the desire or motivation to lead on his own, so dutifully followed whomever had the power to protect him.  He was a miner and a tunnelguide for his warren until his powers manifested.

After a short (and fatally unsuccessful) attempt at using his powers to lead a small group of his fellow goblins, Grrrk has fallen back to his original nature, shrugging off responsibility and hiding guilt by having someone else make the difficult decisions.

Concept of Magic: Seismic Might

At tiny Grrrk's will, mountains shake.  His magic is that of the earth itself; bending, breaking, and shaping stone to do his bidding.  He is even able to infuse the earth with elemental sentience, creating servitors to assist him.

Nika

As the only sentient entity in the plane called Eden, what could be called Nika's childhood was unique, to say the least.  Her education came through the experience of living at one with the wilderness around her.  She didn't realize that her ability to influence the living network of the forest was a form of magic until a planeswalker, an explorer named Kolorghu, came to her sphere.

Kolorghu's good nature and Nika's inquisitiveness were a natural match, and while he explored her plane, she traveled with him, learning about what it meant to be a planeswalker.  Some time later when Kolorghu left Eden, Nika decided to journey with him and see what else was out there.  The two have since parted ways, but Nika's undying curiosity has survived.  She continues to seek new experiences, new things, and new places.

Concept of Magic: Biotic Gestalt

Nika's magic draws upon the complex network of organisms in the wild, coaxing it to produce the desired effect.  Whether it's shaping plants to her will or summoning swarms of tiny creatures, Nika is able to insinuate her will into an ecosystem and influence it from within.

Torvolis

Torvolis was born into a nomadic tribe, where he reluctantly followed his father's footsteps to train as once of the tribe's hunters.  His father, the tribe's chief hunter, would leave big shoes for this son to fill, and Torvolis was no where near skilled enough to do so.  His true skill didn't manifest until otherworldly demons attacked his people and his spark ignited catastrophically, creating tornado-strength winds when he tried to defend the tribe.

Instead of being thankful, the survivors exiled Torvolis from their land for practicing witchcraft.  Shocked and angry, he did them one better and planeswalked away.

Concept of Magic: The Windswept Plains

Torvolis' magic is that of the great winds that swept across the plains where he grew up.  When in need of aid, he calls upon creatures native to his homeland; from the birds over head to the beasts that roam the land.

There were two more characters made, but their players missed the first actual play session and I'll introduce them in when I talk about our first game.  I'm giving all of the players some time to tweak their concepts if they don't like how their characters turned out and I want to give them the same opportunity before I write up the results.

Sure, that card game has its mana-powered magic, but it's made for a turn-based card game and can be considered slower and less fluid than I'd like for our campaign.  I still had two questions to answer before I could design my magic system: how exactly does one gain and spend Mana, and does summoning pull a preexisting creature to the summoner, or does it create a simulacrum.  To answer these I decided to ask WotC directly... so to speak

I'm a recovering Dragonlance fan and I haven't read any game fiction in years, but I decided to dip back into the pool and pick up Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum, the most recent MtG novel.  Overall the experience was about as expected - the story was pretty slow and none of the main characters were really likable - but I was able to get what I was looking for out of the book and have decided how to handle the three main aspects I had questions about.

Mana Pools/Use

I knew early on that I didn't want to make magic a multi-part process, where a character has to access mana somehow for each separate spell.  So when one of the main characters in Teeth described needing to rest to replenish her mana for more intricate sorceries, I found basis to apply a pool-type mechanic into the game where mana is stored and used over time until time is spent replenishing a supply.  Right now I'm leaning towards adding a stress track to be consumed through spell use.  If the character exceeds the track, they would start suffering Consequences that could make spellcasting and/or recovering mana more difficult.

The only outstanding issue is how close  I want to match the game.  My preferences would be to have a single stress track for all mana, but it would make more "in world" sense to have each color of magic be its own track.   In order to make a multi-color mage less enticing, I'm probably going to have to penalize all of a character's pools if they have more than one - perhaps rationalize it along the lines of that the body can only contain so much mana at a time.

Summoning

I was worried at first about summoning in general, mainly because I wanted to keep it simple and without moral issues.  I didn't want players to worry about pulling guardsmen from their families at night and getting them killed, or effectively causing a breed of animals to go extinct by their efforts.  Sure, there are many possible story elements that could accompany those issues but they aren't issues I want the game to be about.

Instead I'm going to go with how I interpreted how summoning worked in the novel, and have planeswalkers craft mana into facsimiles of what they're summoning.  Instead of pulling a Lion or a Vampire or a Merman from somewhere, the summoner uses their magic to create a manifestation of the idea of the creature type in question.

Planeswalking

This one is where I'm really going to have to diverge from the source material.  In Teeth, mention is made of the ability to planeswalk at any time.  And although a reason is given during the expedition that takes place in the book isn't done using magic flight, there's no rationale as to why the characters couldn't planeswalk to another plane, then planeswalk back where they wanted to go.

I don't want planewalking to be the get-out-of-jail free card, nor do I want it to be the solution to every problem, escape from every danger, or the like.  I want the characters' journey to be part of the game, and giving them the ability to sidestep that or simply bypass entire planes at will is counter to how I want the game to run.

So instead I'm going to restrict planewalking to be along set connections between the planes.  Characters will not be able to go wherever they want simply at will - they will have to travel across some planes to get to others, and will have to find specific places of power to actually planeswalk.  I already have some explanations for the restricted travel in mind, but like so much else in the campaign it's going to be adjusted according to the background the players create for their characters.

With the so-called metaphysics of spellcraft set, the only thing that's left is the actual system design.  Spirit of the Century is flexible enough I should be able to create a few plug-in systems for what I want with little difficulty.  I already have some rough ideas sketched out; I'll be posting the details as I get them nailed down.

Unless something else comes up, I'll be starting this campaign when our current one ends some time in October, when that game's gamemaster moves away.  That leaves me with plenty of time to make sure everything's finalized, but with none of the players having any experience with FATE I want to make sure that I have plenty of resources and cheatsheets ready so the game isn't slowed down by the new system.

Wayne's character "in the belly of the beast"

I think that this is primarily due to the resilience of plastic. Dropping (or even just knocking over) a pewter figure can result in damage.  Beast case scenario, that means a weapon or arm has to be bent back into place, but worst case scenario it means something snapping off that needs pinning and replacing... in multiple places.  And that's not to mention the repainting necessary.

In contrast, plastic figures have a resilience that lets them take a fall better. The relative elasticity of the medium, combined with the model's lighter weight, means an accident with a plastic miniature is far less catastrophic than its metal counterpart.

I've also found that people are far more careful with my painted metal figures than my plastic ones - painted or otherwise.  I do appreciate the care that they show, but then being a little more liberal with them can lead to interesting uses at the game table.

My druid climbs to save him

The pictures shown here are an example  from one of our recent sessions.  In the combat shown, a large monster formed from an animated bridge (yes, as weird as it sounds) had "swallowed" one character.  Instead of simply using another figure to represent the beast, we built the monster here out of wooden blocks, complete with a space in the middle for the trapped character.

If we had been using metal figures, I'm not sure anyone would have thought to do this.  If someone bumped the table and knocked the block monster over, it could damage metal figures.  Likewise, metal figures perched either inside or on the hip (as I did with mine as it climbed the construct) could be dislodged and tumble to the table.

I know I spray seal the bejebus out of my figures, and for the most part I'll take those risk with my figures.  But most other people I game with don't, even if I tell them it's ok.  When we're role-playing we want to concentrate on the game, not (over)protecting miniatures.  Plastic figures - both pre-painted and not - just seem more convenient in that regard.

During one of our games a player mentioned that he thought a role-playing game set in a heavily Magic-inspired setting would be a lot of fun, but that playing beings like planeswalkers didn't seem like it would work. He was surprised when I replied that not only did I think it would work fine, I had done it before.

I'm not about to usurp the Earthdawn game we have running - I enjoy it too much. But with the interested around the table it seems like it might be time to break out my Manaburst notes and look at making some revisions.  I've already started getting ideas on how to improve over our first attempt.

The first change that I'm going to have to make is stepping away from the visual/narrative Everway-style task resolution system to something more traditional.  Judging by my last attempt and knowing the members of this group, I think that a system with a little more structure would go a long way to making the game play smoother.

To that end I'm leaning towards using FATE as the core mechanic this time around.  It has a more rigid structure than Everway but there's still enough of a narrative aspect to let players maintain a high fantasy feel through descriptive actions.  FATE has the structure I want for this game, but it using it will create three problems I'm going to need to work through to make the system fit Magic's cosmology.

The Colors of Mana & Associated Symbolism

1. 5-Color Magic

The problem of 5-color magic is twofold. First and foremost, Spirit of the Century (and Diaspora as well) really don't have complex magic systems. A MtG-style magic system wasn't necessary for either system for obvious reasons so wasn't created. That means a design from the ground up. I'll definitely be begging, borrowing, and stealing as I go but one way or another I'm going to have to add a system to the basic FATE rules.

The second issue is one of distinctness. In a non-MtG style game, a magic system could be simplified by letting players perform Maneuvers using a magic skill to apply Aspects to their target or perform a task. In fact this could work for Manaburst as well, but a completely open magic system would create a situation like this:

DM: Each of you arrive at a separate corner of the island. In front of you is a locked and barred wooden door. Behind each door is a passage to the underground chamber you all want to be the first to find. What do you do?

White Mage: It's the will of the heavens that I reach the chamber first. Divine Mandate will open them for me!

Blue Mage: Probe the locking mechanism with divinations to discern their inner workings and ultimately undo them!

Black Mage: Rot the door from its hinges in a sickly haze!

Red Mage: Blow the door apart with a fireball!

Green Mage: Summon a rampaging beast to batter the door down for me!

It's easy to look at the other four replies and think "Cool, everyone can show off their own flavor of magic!" And that could work just fine, but in my opinion there's an associated shortcoming.   I feel that each color of magic should be distinct in at least some of its effects. A Red Mage should just be able to do things that a Blue Mage just can't.   Otherwise color just becomes a flavorful descriptor.    That may work fine from a narrative aspect, but if anyone is in the party is a mage, there's the potential for players to feel frustrated by not being able to stand out in what they can do.

I want every mage to be distinct; to feel like they offer something to the group that the others do not. I'm tempted to go so far as to make characters choose a specialization or theme within each color they have to stick with.  They could purchase additional specializations (within the same or different color), but that would cost them more of a yet undefined character-build resource.  That would also allow multiple mages of the same color to remain distinctness as well. Example specialties might include:

• Purity of Light (White) - Restoration and cleansing effects and angelic creatures
• Dissonance of Thought (Blue) - Mental effects and illusory creatures
• Evershifting Tides (Blue) - Misdirection effects and aquatic creatures
• Stench of the Grave (Black) - Fear and decay effects and undead creatures
• Unholy Pact (Black) - Corruption and/or otherworldly effects and abyssal creatures

2. Color-Influenced Attributes

This one is a biggie. The original Manbrust rule turned each of the colors of magic into an attribute and derrived skills from those. That worked fine for that game, but after looking at the skill pyramid in FATE and how it ties to everything else, I'm going to have to take a different approach for this game.

My first thought was just to make a separate mana-pyramid in addition to the regular skill pyramid, but that just gives the players more skills and will promote multi-color mages. I want that to be possible, but as the exception instead of the norm.  It also adds complexity to the system I don't think it needs.

My second thought - and what I'm leaning towards at the moment - is to have each color of magic be a separate skill which they have to fit on their skill tree. I might even break each color into summoning and sorcery for more variance in aptitudes. My only regret is losing the way Manaburst ties every stat to a mana color, but in the long run I think this will be easier to manage.

That leaves stunts though. How to I handle those, or do I just remove them completely? I might use them as the gateway - a character needs a stunt for each flavor/specialization (see above) they intend to use.

I'm not sure I like that though. The names I've started coming up for for specializations sound like Aspects to me. I'd like to be able to make them into Aspects, but I don't think that's mechanically a good idea. If you have to have a specific Aspect to perform a certain spell, you shouldn't automatically be able to tag that same Aspect for a bonus. That pushes me back towards Stunts as the "gateway" to spellcasting, but I'm going to see what other systems I can find online.

3. Incorporating MtG Cards?

I'm not sure if this is going to make it into the final version, but I'm tempted to see if we can find a way to work MtG cards into the mechanic at some point.  In the original Manaburst, they were the random aspect of task resolution, but the Fudge dice are going to do that here.  I might give a player a +1 to any roll to cast a spell they have a card that represents it, or summon a creature they have a card they can represent it visually.

I can really appreciate this visual aspect, but I'm worried about it overshadowing the game; either constraining players to only think of what is in their card collections, or even penalizing those who only have a small number of cards.  That's definitely something I want to avoid, which might mean I drop this concept before all's said and done.

The TL;DR?

One of my biggest challenges is going to make sure there's some of the flavor from the card game maintained, but it can't overwhelm the role-playing aspect.  Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

But like most groups, we've come up with a few tweaks to the system to make it better fit with what we want out of our game.  The biggest is that we've decided to try a slight re-working to how strain is handled.

The concept of strain is that it is a key balancing feature to the game - there are a vast number of talents, skills, and maneuvers which include a strain cost to use them.  The disconnect for many members of my group is that this is basically taking hit point damage any time they want to do something.

Two of my fellow players and I sat down one night after our gaming session to discuss the strain mechanic and it's effect on game play.  We tossed around a few ideas before finally settling on a proposed solution that we've decided to adopt on a trial basis: adding wind to each character and creature, as defined below:

Wind

• Wind Threshold is a character's Toughness Step plus Durability Rank (if any).
• Any time a character suffers Strain, they may instead take an equal amount of Wind.
• Any Wind taken over a character's Wind Threshold is converted back to Strain.
• Once per combat, a character may spend an action to make a Toughness Test.  Reduce their accumulated Wind by the amount rolled.
• All Wind points are removed when a character has a chance to catch their breath.  This usually takes place at the end of any given scene and outside of any strenuous activity (such as combat).  The Gamemaster has final say on when Wind is renewed.

This definitely increases a character's all around power, especially adepts.  But after discussion its impact with my group, we believe that the effect of the increased power on the game is actually beneficial.

In essence, Wind lets players do more cool things. In my opinion this is one of the top priorities in a game - make the players feel like they're being heroic.  Wind makes that easier to do awesome physical things without hampering anyone's ability to do interesting social things -- win-win.

One of the biggest concerns a player has when considering a strain-causing talent is that there are a number of feats in Earthdawn you can do if only if you're free of damage - like increase talents or heal wounds.  Since Wind is easy to refresh, it helps alleviate this concern.  You don't have to forgo using an ability like Tracking just because you're out of recovery tests or are planning on raising a talent later.

We were worried at first about intolerably drawing out combat, but so far it seems that Wind has actually sped combat up.  It gives martial disciplines like the Warrior the opportunity to unleash their bigger combat talents more freely, magicians the freedom to be more liberal with Willforce, and other characters the ability to use Avoid Blow and other combat options more often.  More fancy maneuvers means more offensive output, which means quicker and more deadly combat on both sides since npcs and creatures have Wind as well.

On top of this freedom, Wind helps Strain make sense for many of our players.  Some of our group has had problems with the idea of basically hurting yourself to do even mundane things.  The example usually brought up was the Evidence Analysis talent/skill, which required a character to take damage to get to ask Sherlock Holmes-style questions about a scene.  From a balance standpoint it makes sense - there's a cost necessary to balance the ability, but "cutting yourself" just didn't feel right.

So far Wind has had the desired effect on our game, and we've been happy with its introduction.  We'll be keeping an eye on its impact on the game and tweaking the rules as needed, but for now it appears we've found a solution that improves our game.

"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?

In our previous campaign, I introduced a group of villains who were for all intents and purposes immortal, able to re-form their bodies if they were physically destroyed.  While this could easily become 'cheezey' or unfair, the rationale fit with the background of the game in this case.  This changed the nature of the characters' interactions with the villains (who had no fear of death) and had some interesting effects on the story.

• The players were able to directly confront their enemies face-to-face from the start, they didn't have to crawl through layers of an organization to get to them.  Their enemy was quickly personified for them and they were able to attach their animosity to a single small group of entities instead of successive levels of middle management.
• Because the enemies couldn't re-form instantly, the characters were able to hinder their enemies through direct interaction.  The characters could vanquish a foe, costing them valuable time and possibly resources in the process, but the foe could come back for revenge eventually.
• I didn't have to worry about making the enemies miraculously escape, since in effect they couldn't be destroyed permanently.  No bodies hidden from view as they fall or magic just-in-time teleportations - if they died they died.

There's definitely a danger in this sort of thing of the whole setup being too heavy handed. If it's not explained sufficiently or just hand-waved, then revolving door villains can be just as frustrating to your players as the miraculous escapees.  But if you can create a plausible explanation that fits in your game world and doesn't break immersion, it can by an interesting plot device to exploit.

A gamemaster should watch his players' reactions and shouldn't let this go on too long - at some point the players should obtain the ability to defeat their opponents permanently, otherwise the game will get quickly become repetitive and predictable.  When the enemies realize the characters have obtained a way around their insurance policy, they'll suddenly have to approach them in a new way, as they have to learn how to think like mortals again.  Maybe some will defect to the characters' side, or others will start to seek non-direct means of interacting with the party.  No matter how things change, the gamemaster has the opportunity to take the relationships that the players have built with their enemies and twist it in interesting ways.

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.

Attribute Generation

While the Derived Attribute table is mostly intact from previous editions of Earthdawn, racial mods are now done in a reverse Polish manner.  Instead of getting flat bonuses or penalties, each race has its own set of starting attributes.  Humans (being average) begin with 10's across the board.  Other races start with slightly higher or lower stats depending on their stereotypical characteristics.  You are then given 25 points to purchase modifiers to each ability (and get refunds by lowering abilities).  Again, like previous versions of Earthdawn, the purchase rate isn't 1:1 for higher attributes - going from a +5 to a +6 will cost you 2 points, for example.  Going up to +7 will cost 3 more.

Having the racial modifiers pre-calculated really doesn't gain you anything new, but it really doesn't cost you anything either.  Honestly, this 'new' system doesn't feel any different than the old one, the starting point is just now 10 instead of 0 and you have less points.  You can't lower abilities quite as far (8 is minimum now) but I don't know anyone who went much below that too often anyway.

Racial Abilities

Sight-based racial abilities were mostly unchanged.  The biggest difference is that the Windling's astral sight ability grants them access to that talent just like the human's Versatility talent.  This adds scalability that was badly needed to keep the ability useful throughout the character's career, as well as remove the need to distinguish between "windling sight astral sensing" and "Astral Sight talent astral sensing."  A balance and a streamline: good modification.

The biggest change was on the racial front and is the new karma rules.  Every race now has the same karma die (d6) and the same cost in LPs.  The difference between races comes in their karma multiplier.  An adept can have a maximum amount of karma point equal to their Karma Ritual rank multiplied by their racial karma multiplier.  I'm not sold on the variable karma pools yet - it's just something else that needs tracking on the character sheet - but I'm willing to give it a shot in game play to see how it works.

Discipline Flexibility

I mentioned this in a previous post, but disciplines have been loosened up to allow some choices in talent selection.  Some choices are a no-brainer.  I can't imagine many magicians not taking the second Spell Matrix at 1st circle or any adept not taking Durability as their option at 2nd circle (yes, it's optional... why I don't know) for instance.  But now a character does have options instead of being on a set path.

Skills & Skill Selection

Initial language, knowledge, and artisan skills are assigned just as in 1st Edition, but now you get 8 more ranks to apply to skills any way you see fit.  However, the talent versions of some skills have been toned down (or removed) to help balance things.  Avoid Blow, for instance, can be used a number of times per round equal to your rank if you know it as a talent.  As a skill it is limited to once per round but otherwise functions the same.

Equipment

The "Adventurer's Kit" is still around - a quick one-item purchase to give you starting gear.  For players that don't like to mess with too many equipment lists, it's a real quick and easy way to get started.  Now though, you start with that: a set of clothing, week of rations, artisan kit (if necessary for your skill), and a dagger plus 100sp to spend elsewhere.  Basically the items that were pretty much standard you don't have to worry about and you can spend your leftover starting funds on whatever other gear you want, which includes weapons and armor.

The characters we created this last weekend spent most of the starting cash on weapons and armor, but when the rest of your gear is already provided for you, there's not much else left.  There were a few odds and ends picked up, but  mostly by the magicians who didn't need fancy weapons.

One side note I'll make, and this isn't new but it's something I very much like about Earthdawn.  No wonky weapon/armor proficiencies or knowledge base.  It doesn't matter what discipline you follow (if any), you can wield/wear any weapon/armor you choose.  Want to be a wizard in plate armor?  Go ahead, the only penalty you'll suffer is the initiative penalty of the armor - same as any warrior who wore the same thing.

Aftermath

Even if there are some minor differences, both the process and the end result of character generation in Earthdawn 3e still feels the same as previous editions.  A warning though: character creation in Earthdawn can still be an involved process if you don't have an application available to help out.  The EDCG was fantastic for earlier editions, so I threw together a quick spreadsheet just to do attributes for ED3.  It wasn't pretty but it was functional.

As I mentioned earlier, I built my character ahead of time so I'd be more familiar with the process and could help answer questions for the other players.  Still, we took a few hours to get everyone finished (not counting time to do the character concept).  So there's a bit of a time sink, but I've found it to be acceptable for the level of enjoyment I get from the game and the settings.

By the end of the night we had an elven troubadour, a t'skrang illusionist, a dwarven beastmaster, and an obsidiman elementalist to go along with my human warrior.  Afterward, we started our first "adventure" and helped out a small town, despite them thinking we were someone else.  We're such nice people. 

Setting-wise, nothing obvious has changed, with the exception of the story being advanced through the events in Prelude to War.  On the system side, there were a number of bigger changes, but nothing that breaks the game.  First off the d4's and d20's were removed from the Step System completely - now you only need six-, eight,- ten-, and twelve-siders.   I've made similar changes before to tweak the way dice roll in the game so I can't complain, but RedBrick also published an alternative Step Chart on their web site as a free download if you want to add the missing dice back in.

Disciplines got a bit of an overhaul as well.  Now instead of having fixed talent lists, you have a few choices to make as you advance in your chosen profession.  It does give you more flexibility, but skills always covered this roll as well.  I've always been a fan of the stricter interpretation of the discipline as a magical entity, but players do enjoy choices so I can't say that the changes that were made were bad ones.  And if it makes the game more accessible to players, who can complain?

A lot of talents and skills got rebalanced, and I'm not going to go into all of them here.  There were a couple issues I have with some changes (or changes back from Earthdawn Classic) but all in all, many of the uber-talents have been toned down to make the disciplines a little more even in power.  Many of the changes were clean ups or simply moving old talent knacks into general use.  For example, now anyone can try to make a check to leap to their feet to avoid losing their combat action and/or movement in combat, but there's a chance they'll fail the check if they're wearing too much armor.

I haven't dug into thread magic too deeply, but conceptually it operates the same way as previous editions.  I've always been a fan of the way that thread magic was implemented in Earthdawn.  The idea of magic items growing with characters or the ability to begin the game with a heirloom that you won't toss out the first time you find a +1 sword is far superior to the D&D style of loot and scoot.  Even D&D itself has tried to duplicate ED's item growth system in some of their own expansions, but it's always been crippled by it's integration to d20's purely level-based system.

I could go on about the ED mechanics for a while, but I'm going to touch on the art and layout of the core books before wrapping this up.  I very much enjoyed the combination of more modern (in technique, not necessarily graphical style) layout design with some of the classic ED1-era art.  Living Room Games went the way wrong direction with ED2, and it's good to see RedBrick returning to art that properly conveys the grittier feel of the people and places of Barsaive.  Kudos to them for that.

I'm an Earthdawn fanboy, I'll admit it.  But while that means I love the IP, it also makes me critical.  ED2 was in my mind a giant failure on the part of LRG.  I'm extremely pleased that RedBrick has not stumbled into the same mistakes that LRG has.  Third Edition is still different than First (or even Classic) Edition, but it's still Earthdawn.  Most of the changes are just balancing and streamlining the game, but more importantly Barsaive is still intact as the wonderful setting that it is.

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.

Occasionally we've found ways to write our own characters out of the story temporarily when it comes to our turn at the head of the table.  Early in the campaign, one player helped another get their character out the session before the second player took over as gamemaster.  There was an elderly woman, we believe some sort of wizard,  who offered to show him information regarding a conflict he had set up in his background.  The character agreed, promising to catch up to the party when he returned.

The character showed up a few sessions later but soon thereafter the party suffered a number of setbacks.  When I took over as gamemaster, I continued the setbacks, including the theft of the party's MacGuffin.  Given how exacting the theft, the party knew that it has to be an inside job, but they were all alone and there were no NPCs around who could have sold them out. Suspicions started mounting and tensions built, but no accusations were made aloud just yet.

The party tracked the thieves to a ruined temple and as they prepared to launch their surprise attack, I handed the following note to the player whose character (Saxon) had just got back from his leave of absence.

Note: Through the Looking Glass
You may not read this aloud.

The last thing you remember clearly is stepping through the portal with the old woman that night between Perrin and Kroson.  After that everything was dark for a time, then you became vaguely aware of your surroundings, though through a haze of pain.

You’re not sure how long everything lasted, but you remember having things done to you.  Experimentation.  Operation.  You were never conscious enough to know exactly what was going on but you were always aware of the pain.  Especially when they carved out your eye and did... something.

Unsurprisingly, this should be confusing to you – it’s not something that your character knew about.  That’s because the character you are currently playing is not Saxon.  Who or what he is is irrelevant but right now you are not playing Saxon.

When the battle below is joined, you have specific instructions:

• Draw Plot Points until you have 10.  You may spend these freely and you will get back however many you have right now +4 when you regain control of your original character.
• Turn on the party.  I would suggest starting weaving your flame wind spell “to help”, then after it’s up surprising folks by hitting a party member.  I would ask you to put a big hit on Marcus first (we’re 100% he can take it ), but from there do whatever you want to cause problems for the party.
• Add a d4 to all Channeling rolls.

Your actual character is one of the people bound and hooded up front.  Every round I will be rolling Saxon’s dice to escape his bonds.  When he is free you may assume control of him and I will take faux-Saxon.

As expected, hilarity ensued.

Not the "malicious gamemaster likes to mess with players' characters" or the "evil gamemaster likes to watch his players get screwed" kind of evils either.  I had approached the player about the disfigurement previously and he agreed to it, though he didn't know the context at the time.  And the players weren't mad at my "hijacking" a character at all.  In fact it made all of their sabotages of their previous few goals make perfect sense.  There was no resentment towards a player for turning on the party, because the player never actually did until I made him (and only for one fight).

I think it's a testament to my group's maturity and the trust that exists between each player/gm that this went as smoothly as it did, and I wouldn't recommend it to a gamemaster unless he was sure that it would go over positively with his group.  Without trust players can feel cheated because the one thing they control in the world - their character - just got pulled out from under them.

If your group is willing to accept this sort of plot twisting, it's not hard to set up.  It works best when there was an opportunity for the switch to be done that the player put their own character in.  In this case it was Saxon's side trek off camera with the old woman (who turned out to be one of the campaign's antagonists).

After that it's just a matter of observing the party's dynamics and having the character do things when he gets the chance to work against the party and not telling the player.  Things like (in our case) taking the MacGuffins out of their storage place while he was supposed to be on watch and delivering them to an NPC that had been tracking the party.

There is the danger of resetting a character too much, though.  In our case we added two players to the group since Saxon's replacement, meaning he (Saxon, not the player) was away from the party for four sessions.  So the relationships that he had formed with the new characters had to be re-formed.  This wasn't an issue for our group but it's something that a gamemaster has to be cautious of.  If you reveal an impostor after dozens of sessions, that's a lot for the player to try and rewind in his head and keep straight.

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my group regarding Saxon's replacement and betrayal.  But like any good gamemastering advice, this is going to boil down to knowing your group.  A role-playing group is built around trust between the players, and the last thing a gamemaster needs to do is ruin inter-player trust.  But if that trust exists, twists like this can be very enjoyable for everyone involved.

One of the issues I struggle with the most is story pacing.  Story pacing is different than game pacing.  Game pacing - maintaining the flow of action and involvement of the players - is key to running a successful game but that's not where my problem lies.  I have a harder time revealing story elements and "clues" throughout the game in a way that keeps the players interested in finding out more but doesn't just simply give the story away.

Our rotating gamemaster game was set up with a simple rule - the only facts that you control as the gamemaster are the ones that you introduce in-game to the players.  And when your time in the chair is over, you pass everything off to the next gamemaster to do whatever they want with.  They may take what you created in a completely different direction than you did, but that's their prerogative as the gamemaster.  Likewise, you're free to do whatever you want when it's your turn in the chair.

With the overall story out of my control, I was pretty much free to do whatever I wanted.  I didn't have to worry too much about spreading out clues and story elements, because I would only be running two sessions before the next player took their turn as gamemaster.

On the flip side, I did get to benefit from the threads of story that were dropped before.  No gamemaster fully explained in-game everything that happened in their time behind the screen, which meant there were a number of loose ends and unresolved questions that had been building up.  I decided to take the opportunity to wrap many of them up in a "season finale" style, answering as many questions as I could in such a way to re-frame the task that the characters have been assigned.

It was simultaneously challenging and refreshing not having to parse out the story over the course of the previous eight sessions, being able to just weave a story from what strands were handed to me, and then wash my hands by passing the game off to the next gamemaster.

After having to set up the story arc in my previous games on my own, this week's job felt a lot easier.  With less to worry about, I was less stressed and was able to just enjoy the experience more.  I'm not saying that I'm ready to start up a new campaign of my own any time soon but I've definitely started to feel comfortable in the gamemaster's chair again.

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.

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.

Yurg Highheart, Troll Beastmaster
Former crystal raider who owes his survival when his air ship was destroyed by Therans to T'keela and now travels with him to repay his blood debt.

Silaa, T'skrang Swordmaster
Questing for a relic sacred to his village and pursuing the ork nethermancer named Leonin who had stolen it.

T'keela Soulwringer, T'skrang Nethermancer
An eccentric t'skrang who took up his former master's quest for the Words of Undoing, a ritual rumored banish the Horrors from Barsaive.

Kato, Human Nethermancer
Cast from an airship by the cult he was raised in because of his affinity for spirits, Kato literally fell into the conflict between Silaa and Leonin. T'keela has since taught him to control his 'weirdness,' though Kato seems suspicious of his teacher's quest.

Caelas Solque, Elf Archer
A noble from the Blood Wood smuggled out as an infant before undergoing the Ritual of the Thorns and ignorant of his heritage.

After the short intro that was described in a previous post, the group decided to head to Parlainth.  Silaa and Kato didn't have any leads on Leonin's current whereabouts but T'keela felt that there may be clues to the Words of Undoing amongst the Theran research still buried in the ruins.

Since one does not simply walk into Parlainth, the adepts started in Haven trying to make contacts and find employment that would familiarize them with the ruins and let them fund their own expeditions.  They wound up in the employ of a elven trading house out of Throal - the Circle Path Company.  Apparently tradition has passed leadership of the company to Yuriel, a young swordsman adept, from her parents but she wasn't interested in such a mundane job.  She had exercised a "establishing trade relations" clause in the company charter to join an adventuring group headed into Parlainth.  Yuriel's younger brother - in charge of the company in her absence - and a few other officers of the company needed someone to go into Parlainth and try and find her.

The investigation was slow at first as the party really didn't know anyone in Haven.  Eventually they discovered the group Yuriel had joined had in turn joined up with another group on an excursion into The Smalls, returned to Haven, then headed to The Twists on their own.  The Hounds of Askari retraced her steps to and were eventually able to track her down and escort her (and other captives they freed) back to Haven.

Afterwords the party was granted an audience with a wizard named Heirmon who lived in Haven.  T'keela had already tried to meet him before the group had gone into the ruins, having heard Heirmon was quite knowledgeable of Parlainth and may know if there were any hints of a part of the Words of Undoing in the ruins.  However T'keela was rebuffed, told to tell his boss Herimon wants nothing to do with him. T'keela had no idea what Heirmon was talking about but the eccentric old magician wouldn't listen.

Fortunately one of the captives held with Yuriel, a t'skrang troubadour named Sekra, was a friend of Heirmon's and smoothed out the misunderstanding.  The Hounds met him to talk, and they learned that Heirmon had been harassed lately by a number of rather powerful adepts who were looking for the Words of Undoing themselves, apparently in the employ of an ork named Leonin...

* * * * *

And that's where we closed down the first season of the campaign.  With the scheduling conflicts we were having and one of the players taking a break from the group we decided to move to a fresh game to try and get everyone excited and motivated again.

If you're familiar with the adventure Path of Deception published by Living Room Games then you've probably already recognized it above.  A few other NPC names might be recognizable from other sourcebooks as well.  I decided to use PoD as a jumping point for my Earthdawn game - to introduce Parlainth and Haven and their denizens to the players.  Once the groundwork was laid I would use a surprise reveal to turn things personal quickly.

PoD wouldn't work for my needs as written - published adventures rarely do - so I made a few changes (Pardon the ambiguity, but I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers). I wanted the focus of the characters' investigation to be on Parlainth and Haven and not on the interpersonal relationships of the members of the Circle Path Company.  To that end I removed Gangrene from the adventure and modified the set-up so that Yuriel discovered the trade opportunity-clause in the Circle Path charter on her own.  Finally I didn't have Yuriel in the location she was being held in the book.  It seemed completely unnecessary so I placed her with the slaves in the final location.

Although I took a few of the twists out of the story it did down-play the Circle Path Company and let the players focus on learning the setting.  In my opinion it worked marvelously.

As for the downsides of the campaign... well as I mentioned scheduling conflicts and missed sessions really killed motivation for the game.  On top of that Silaa's player wound up missing all of the roleplaying-heavy sessions and was present for the exploration and/or combat ones, which I think was frustrating for him (he much perfers the former to the latter).

I also think the reveal came too late in the campaign.  Basically the game was four sessions of an impersonal quest before they learned Leonin was after the same rituals T'keela was, and may even be ahead of the group.  Letting the players in on that was fun, but knowing it was right before a break from the campaign means the payoff may never come.

You see, our group has a habbit of going from game to game instead of revisiting past ones.  So there's a chance that we might not come back to Earthdawn.  Only time will tell but there's one thing for certain - it still remains my all-time favorite game.

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.

The adepts, lost without their leader, spent some time helping repair the village and recover lost livestock. After a period of mourning they discussed their next destination. T'killa suggested that they seek the Words of Undoing, a set of rituals his master told him would rid Barsaive of Horrors. It was likely that at least a portion of the Words were among the treasures lost in Parlainth. With a new goal at hand, the group took the name The Hounds of Askari to honor their fallen leader.

It wasn't long into their journey that they encountered trouble. While on watch one night, Silaa heard rustling in the nearby woods. Bardolf, Yurg's dire wolf companion, also sensed something amiss. As Silaa investigated the entire party was ambushed by short, gray humanoids with large black eyes. The group rose quickly to find themselves outnumbered. The creatures fiercely attacked Katto and managed to steal his peg-leg. As they tried to flee into the night they came under the assault of swords, arrows, claws, and fangs as the Hounds charged into battle.

The creatures may have escaped too, had Silaa not grabbed and thrown one of them into the peg-bearer. As the dying monsters dissolved into pools of foam, more continued to poor out of the woods. It did not take long for the group to find that one of the creatures was splitting copies of himself from his own body - a trick that told Yurg that the Hounds were dealing with a triplicant. With the source creature dispatched peace returned to the night.

Caelas had been injured during the battle, as was Bardolf, but both were quickly attended to by the group's Nethermancers. As the party settled back down, there was one question on everyone's mind: Why steal the peg leg? Was someone after a pattern item of Katto's?

The next morning, the group rose and continued on their journey to Parlainth.

* * * * *

Big thanks to Luke for writing up the first session. He's apparently making good progress on the second as well - looks like he's more efficient at this than I am. But I will be following Luke's AP posts up with my own commentary on the campaign meta in the next couple weeks.

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.

I'll be honest - I've been an Earthdawn fan since it's initial release a decade and a half ago. I'm not such a rabid fanboy to defend every aspect of the system but I do think it works despite it's few flaws. That said when thinking about running this campaign I came to the conclusion that the Earthdawn's Step System wasn't going to be the best choice for my current group. I myself like the complexities of the system and how the mechanics are tied in to the world but I recognize that it's not for everyone.

After looking over a few options I decided to try to convert Earthdawn over to the Savage Worlds setting. I'm fortunate enough to game with a couple of the hosts of Fear the Boot, and anyone who listens to that podcast can tell you that Luke has earned himself the unofficial title of Savage Worlds Acolyte. However as he talked about in Episode 92, after he and I discussed the possibilities of conversion he recommended against it, arguing that he didn't think that a Savage Worlds version of Earthdawn would run the same as the Earthdawn I've always been a fan of. While Luke had a valid point, it's also one of the reasons I wanted to try the conversion. In fact one of the things I wanted to see was how well I could preserve the feel of Earthdawn during a conversion as well as in play.

I did some research online and found a conversion over at Savage Heroes that looked promising. There were a number of concepts I thought could work but after looking at Discipline Edges (edges you have to be a member of an adept discipline to learn) I realized it wasn't exactly balanced. A Legendary Warrior could, for instance, bring himself back from the dead but a Legendary Beastmaster could gain the equivalent of the Deadlands Rebel Yell edge. As far as races go most were ok but the Obsidiman was all but unplayable as converted.

After a little tweaking and rebalancing (with Luke's help) I got the document to the point where I could uses it as a starting point for the game. Unfortunately my version isn't anywhere near ready for publishing. I didn't bother fixing the disciplines I discouraged for this campaign (Air Sailor, Sky Raider, and Cavalryman) as well as the couple that the players weren't interested in that needed major work (Troubadour, Weaponsmith). I also need to balance and pad out the discipline-specific edge lists so there's more variety and less power differential between disciplines.

To help character generation for the game I re-used a technique that our group first tried for our Manaburst game: Magic cards. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here; I briefly describe the method in the initial Manaburst post and a couple of the players discussed it in even more detail on Fear the Boot Episode 95. Suffice it to say that the players were able to take the base concepts they had in mind and immediately add plot hooks for me to build on as well as connections to each other and a reason for them to have created a Group Pattern together.

Silaa, T'skrang Swordmaster played by Dan. Silaa is a k'stulaami - a t'skrang with a membrane similar to that of a flying squirrel that allows them to glide short distances. This former village wise man is searching for an artifact stolen from his village that had protected it for generations.

Caelas Solque, Elf Archer played by Pat. Unbeknownst to him, Caelas was born in the Blood Wood to one of the ranelles (noble houses) and was smuggled from the wood for some unknown reason before the Ritual of Thorns could be performed on him. Caelas has grown up with a longing to return to the Blood Wood that he doesn't understand and is being searched for by a family he doesn't know he has.

Katto, Human Nethermancer played by Chad. Katto grew up a member of an airship-borne cult who's charismatic leader had him tossed overboard as a sacrifice to "appease the sky spirits." He now studies under T'killa in an attempt to learn control over his "weird spirit powers."

T'killa Soulwringer, T'skrang Nethermancer played by Josh. After spending many years studying under his master, the aged T'killa has adopted his late mentor's quest for the Words of Undoing, magical rituals said to be able to exorcise the Horrors from Barsaive.

Yurg Highheart, Troll Beastmaster played by Luke. Yurg was once a member of a small but proud clan of Crystal Raiders until most of his clan was captured by Theran Slavers. The trolls rebelled but the Theran airship was damaged in the process, sending it crashing into the lowlands. As the only survivor, Yurg was able to make is way back to civilization only due to his spontaneous initiation into the Beastmaster Discipline.

Together these five adepts make up the Hounds of Askari, named after the dwarven weaponsmith who gathered them together to defend a small village in the hinterlands from repeated scortcher attacks. Although Askari lost his life in the conflict, the surviving adepts have banded together in honor of his heroic sacrifice.

After helping repair the damages done to the small village of Rex the Hounds have left for the nearby Parlainth, hoping the ruins will hold their next opportunity to build their legend. And given the vast amounts of magical knowledge said to have been lost in the city during the Scourge they may even be able to find more information on the Words of Undoing.

I intend to post some commentary on my running this campaign so won't be doing an actual play write-up. However Luke has promised to try and do them this time around and I will repost them here as they are complete.

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.

Session 3 - February 3rd

Before we got started with the game properly Pat introduced his character to us.

Rudolf Mordheim, played by Pat. Rudolf is a German mad scientists, emphasis on 'mad' over 'scientist.' Although a brilliant man, Rudolf's obsession with mechanics and electricity distracts him from his mission from time to time.

The weather continues to pick up as the posse arrives at the run-down two-story manor. From that they can tell the building is in rough shape - most of the windows are boarded up, and the one that seems to still have a few panes of glass left has been broken out. Jonas cringes slightly as he recognizes it as where he was shot from. When their mounts balk as they're brought near the run down two-story manor the posse leaves them tied up at the edge of the woods while they go inside to investigate and get out of the rain.

The first floor of the mansion is found to lack any furnishings, though there are a few small oddities. First is a bloodstain leading from the broken window back to the parlor. There's also a small burnt area in the parlor surrounded by more bloodstains. The charred area still smells faintly. In addition although most of the house is very dusty, most of the floors have been cleaned by recent traffic. In general the house feels very very empty.

While most of the posse explores the first floor, Aristotle heads upstairs to look around. As he gets about halfway up the stairs the temperature suddenly drops. Within a few steps the temperature had dropped nearly twenty degrees, and Aristotle decides he should head back downstairs. Just before he turns around he hears some very light footsteps but doesn't see anyone around.

It doesn't take an occult specialist to figure out that there's something supernatural going on in the mansion. Jonas heads upstairs to have a look around while the others try to light a fire in the first floor fireplace. The upstairs is very dark, lit by just a few beams of light through cracks in the roof. In the shadows at the end of the hallway the Harrowed catches a glimpse of a familiar shape - Chuck, one of the Senator's bodyguards - but the figure quickly fades.

Sen. Grissom's bodyguards - Chuck and Daniel - were created and named before I had created Chuck Walker before the first session. It was just a coincidence but for obvious reasons we weren't going to change the bodyguards' names.

Meanwhile the rangers downstairs had gathered enough scrap temper they had scavenged to get a fire going. Unfortunately they get very little flame and even less heat. The only thing generated in the fireplace is a greasy black smoke that quickly fills the entire chamber. Suddenly the cloud coalesces into a vaguely humanoid form which lashes out at a nearby Barry.

While Aristotle is paralyzed with fear and nausea, Barry and Mordheim struggle with their ghostly attacker until Barry manages to impale it with an old bellows. The huckster is able to draw the ghost into them and toss towards Dr. Mordheim for vaporization via electro-gun, with the resulting explosion showing the room (and its inhabitants) with soot and dust.

Mordheim: Herr Doyle, that vas inspired tinking.
Barry: But it ruined my suit!

At the same time that the rangers on the first floor are attacked, Jonas is suddenly assaulted by his own ghostly attacker. It's as if the harrowed gunslinger has had an icicle thrust through him, chilling his dead body to the core. As his extremities start to numb he can make out a feint accusatory whisper, "you got away!?" Jonas calls out to Chuck, trying to find his old compatriot but the attacks continue, unaffected as the gunslinger empties his guns into the darkness until he is finally driven back downstairs.

He rejoins the others to find them gathered in a soot-filled room that smelled strongly of vomit.

Jonas: What the hell happened down here?
Mordheim: It vaz a zmoke monzter. I zapped it to deat. Again.

Jonas relates what happened upstairs and says that he thinks Chuck s still around somehow. The Posse decides the first floor seems secure and decide to head upstairs to see if they can find any answers to why the Senator's bodyguards seemed to be hanging around past their expiration date.

The upstairs is still cold - even more so than the first floor. When Barry and Mordheim examine the upper rooms the entire house starts to groan and shake. Fear washes over the posse in waves, though they stand their ground. Suddenly some sort of misty force strikes Jonas, knocking him off his feat and dragging him toward the stairs.

Once upstairs the posse was subjected to some sort of supernatural dread, which they overcame to start investigating. While the others searched the rooms Jonas was attacked by second spirit. It felt as if it was trying to pull something out of Jonas, tearing his soul from his body. Eventually Jonas figured out he could pull back and after a short struggle, wound up drawing the spirit into himself.

IE Acquisition of the Harrowed Edge "Ghostly" I had bought with a previous advance. I asked Luke to do it in-game (and to have Jonas not have complete control over it) instead of just using it freely it since he was new to the whole undead thing. It was a fun encounter in-game that unfortunately doesn't translate to this quick write-up quite as well.

After seeing Jonas thrash about Doc Mordheim shoots Jonas with his entangle ray, thinking the Harrowed was losing control of his manitou and going crazy. Jonas rolled out of the beam and threw a nearby newel post at the doc in frustration.

Barry approached one of the closed rooms, drew some glyphs on the door in chalk, threw some dirt at the door, and walked in, sure he had purged the room of its evil. He calls to the others saying he found something they needed to see. Everyone rushed in but when Jonas went to get up, he suddenly passed through the floor and fell to the first floor.

Inside the room the posse (sans Jonas) finds a young boy huddling in the corner. He looks up as the posse enters, whispering "they're finally gone." Aristotle checks to make sure the boy is ok as he and Barry try and find out what he's doing in the mansion with a pair of tormented spirits. During the encounter they learn that the boy is Nicolas, Baxtor Grissom's son, and that his father apparently did something to him in some sort of ritual. During the conversation the boy occasionally locks gazes with each of the members of the posse (including Jonas when he finally can force himself corporeal enough to climb the stairs) before delivering a vague prophecy.

To Aristotle: "The butchery is not finished. Your work is not done."

To Barry: "You are a house divided, but you cannot remain that way. Your faith will lead you astray."

To Jonas: "The man in white is following. He's who did this to you and he's gong to want your thanks. He's also going to want something else you don't know you have."

To Mordheim: "Boom!"

After he finishes Nicolas tells the posse that they've freed him from the angry ones, and now that he's passed along his messages he wants to be left in peace. Jonas asks about where Sen. Grissom went and Nicolas replies that "he's doing it again." We're linked after what happened here - after what he put me through. But he got what he wanted." As he talks to the posse, Nicolas slowly fades from view. Once the young ghost had completely dissipated the temperature in the house returned to normal and the oppressive feeling lifted.

Despite Jonas' protests the posse decided to stay on the first floor for the night and head out for Denver in the morning. They spend the rest of the evening searching the house but don't find any additional clues. Next morning the posse saddled up and headed north.

It took half a day or so to reach the cattle trail that lead north to Denver, and a few more days before the posse starts to see the Rockies on the horizon. They started small groups of travelers on the road and asked a few for news from up north. Turned out the Arapaho were on the rampage up in the Denver area. It wasn't completely unexpected but it did make the trip up and the return back (hopefully escorting the Senator) more dangerous.

Sure enough a few days later the posse comes across the scene of an Indian attack. They find a wagon stuck in the mud at the side of the road with five arrow-riddled and scalped corpses laying around. Aristotle was able to determine that the family had been dead for a few days. All of the goods and supplies seemed to have been taken but the posse does a newspaper from the Denver Post dated about a week ago. Though it was mostly damaged they were able to make out a few headlines.

Most of the paper seemed to be local news about trade or the Denver Pacific but there were a few items of interest: The Palace (which Jonas informed the posse was the premiere gambling place in town) was celebrating opening a new game room, which Sen. Grissom would definitely want to attend. There was also a note about a mysterious illness wiping out the old and frail over the last few weeks. Apparently several bodies had turned up, all in their late 60's-early 70's with no identification, all appearing to have died of natural causes.

The last leg of the journey to Denver is rainy and cold. The posse continues to pass various travelers along the way until arriving in Denver one evening. Without much in the way of funds and being in a Northern city (thus not being able to draw on Ranger favors) Jonas and Aristotle head out to find lodgings they can afford while Barry and Mordheim decided to find a nicer hotel.

After securing lodgings Barry makes it his mission to try to win the group a small bankroll through gambling. When he fails at cards initially (almost getting shot at for cheating) he moves on to betting people can't out drink Jonas, who seemed to be unable to get drunk since becoming Harrowed. Barry's marks prove unhappy with their loss and eventually start a brawl to get their money back.

The shotgun blast that the bartender fires into the air ends the fight quickly and everyone is thrown out, but not before Barry is able to get the cash he won. He splits it among the party and they return to their lodgings, planning on starting their investigation in the morning.

* * * * *

I'm waaay behind with these and it's nobody's fault by my own. I completely underestimated how long they'd take to do and because of that it's almost two months since this session actually took place. The Deadlands campaign as actually ended recently and we've moved on to our next game, but I'm going to finish these up regardless. And since I'm running the current campaign (details to follow in a later post) Luke has volunteered to do the write-ups for my game.

The first session took place January 20th and started out with three young Texas Rangers being called in from their field work assignments to meet with a ranger that had trained each of them at some point in the past, Elijah Peterson, in Redrock, Arizona, a small town just off the rail line. With the recent escalation of the Great Rail Wars the posse-to-be had expected to be assigned to assist the Dixie Rails but they soon found they were in for something completely different.

When the three newcomers arrive, they find the small inn where they were to meet Elijah packed with rangers. The small posse-to-be finds a table to wait for Elijah to join them.

Aristotle Gentry, played by Josh. Aristotle is a quiet man from Atlanta in his early 30's. Aristotle looked like a fellow who kept himself clean - short near hair, plan circular spectacles, and a nice suit. A few faint blood splotches hinted at his job as a doctor.

Barry Doyle, played by Chad. Barry is actually a northerner who has somehow managed to earn his way into the rangers. In contrast to his fine clothing, Barry's skin is covered in splotches of black from a ghost rock accident years ago. Summoned for his knowledge as an occultist (though he thinks he knows more than he actually does) Barry is also a Huckster, though he hides it from the other rangers in the posse.

Chuck Walker, played by myself. Chuck is a young man, fresh into the rangers and eager to prove himself. He dresses in a way he thinks is symbolic of the rangers - big wide-rimmed hat and a long duster - and tries to act the southern gentleman despite his relatively modest upbringing.

Soon Elijah finished talking to some of the Ranger higher ups. Most of the other rangers in the building cleared out as Elijah comes over to talk to the posse. Apparently something big was happening and he needed the posse to track down a man named Jonas Pride. Jonas was a local and was hired on as a bodyguard when the Virginian Senator Baxtor Grissom came out west to satisfy his ungentlemanly desires. A few weeks ago Baxtor and his bodyguard went to an isolated just north of Redrock and something happened. A number of men were found dead and Baxtor himself was missing.

Jonas was the only known survivor and witness the rangers knew of. Apparently he returned to town and murdered a few people before hopping a train and heading west to Sweatwater. Dixie Rails, the Union Blue Line, and Bayou Vermilion were all engaged in some pretty intense fighting out there and it's likely the gunslinger would look for work in one of the rail gangs. Elijah gave the posse two more important pieces of information - that he had reason to believe Jonas was harrowed and that they absolutely needed him 'alive' to find out what happened to the Senator.

Aristotle: "Can a Harrowed survive without legs? [...] If I amputate [them], will that be a problem hauling him back?"

The rangers board the next Dixie Rail train (which is nearly empty) for Sweetwater. About an hour outside of town the train is attacked by a small group of Union soldiers who derail the train with a small cannon they had concealed near the tracks. The posse managed to fight their way to the cattle car - which had remained on the tracks - with the one survivor they found and rode off for Sweatwater.

Once in Sweatwater the posse took the wounded man to the church which had been set up as a temporary hospice that was caring for wounded from both the northern and southern sides. After leaving the wounded train passenger there Aristotle and Barry went to the tavern while Chuck headed to the Dixie Rail office to speak to whomever was in charge.

Chuck: I need to speak with the person in charge here.
Confederate Soldier: Who's asking?
Chuck: Walker, Texas Ranger.
Everyone Else: groan

Chuck let them know what happened to the train and that gave them Jonas' description. The southern captain recognized Jonas' description, having seen the gunslinger come get off the train. He hadn't been seen in town for a while but he definitely didn't leave by train.

While the southern soldiers group and head out to the train wreck and to see if the can catch the union troops the posse does some investigation around town to see if Jonas is still around. Aristotle and Chuck check the brothels while Barry checks the inns. The huckster lucks out, finding the one Jonas had stayed at. Although the innkeeper said Jonas hadn't been there in two days, Barry still bribes him to get access to the room he stayed in. The room has apparently been cleaned lately but still smells of dead meat, especially the mattress.

With their suspicions that Jonas was in fact harrowed and had left town appearing more and more likely the posse decide to head out to the camp the northern soldiers

Session 2 - January 27th

On their way to the northerners' encampment the posse stopped by a southern fort. There they met up with a sergeant who had received orders to supply the rangers with a handful of men if they were planning on raiding the northerners' encampment. Night fell as the small contingent rode towards their target, helping their approach go unnoticed. After a small bit of reconnaissance by Chuck and one of the Confederate scouts, the southerners launched their attack.

We had a new player, Pat, join us. He was playing the southern sergeant temporarily until his character could be introduced at the end of the adventure.

The northern soldiers are nearly overwhelmed immediately although their sergeant keeps them in the fight. Barry has a couple soldiers to flank the camp and use a bugle call to fake a second cavalry charge to give Chuck the chance to deal with the northern sergeant. Barry even discretely hexes the ranger, improving his aim, but Chuck has other plans.

The young ranger quickly rode away from most of the northern troops and barreled down on Jonas, guns blazing, ignoring the fact that he was told to bring the man in alive. Chuck and Jonas trade lead, each one taking more than a few hits but neither of them showing much effect.

Meanwhile the remaining rangers deal with the northern sergeant, and between that and the casualties they were taking the northern troops surrendered. The hired guns fought a little longer as they tried to escape but eventually they - including Jonas - surrender. The rangers ordered the southern soldiers to disarm and restrain the northern survivors.

At which point Chuck unloaded the final round in his pistols into Jonas, dropping him. Chuck tried to continue shooting but the only thing the hammer struck was spent rounds. As Chuck reached for his rifle, the southern sergeant got a good look at him in the light of the fire. Where Chuck had been shot, his skin hung loosely from his body like strips of cloth, showing something that looked like musculature underneath but he wasn't bleeding at all. His skull seemed to be shifting under his face as if his skin had become loose.

Luke: It's like he's wearing a skin suit.
Pat: Is it an Edgar suit?

Barry was able to club Chuck down from his horse with his shotgun before he went to secure Jonas. The southern sergeant tried to restrain Chuck but the ranger got to his feet and his hands grew into vicious claws. The southern sergeant reacted quickly and put a bullet between Chuck's eyes, and he fell over with a gurgling sound.

The rangers quickly organize the southern troops to take the prisoners back to their fort before trying to figure out what happened to Chuck. Once he examined Chuck's body, Barry concluded he was a skinwalker - a horrific creature known to skin a person, wear their skin, torture them, then kill them. Usually in that order. He thought they could only maintain their guise for about a month or so though. And combined with the train ticket stub from New Orleans they found in his things, there was a good chance that the real Chuck was killed in the Big Easy. Fearing he might come back to life like a harrowed, the rangers disposed of the Chuckwalker's corpse as best they could, smashing his skull and chucking him into a bonfire, before heading back to Redrock.

* * * * *

Back at Redrock Barry and Aristotle meet with Elijah to report on their mission. When questioned about what happened to Chuck Barry just tells Elijah that he was killed in the attack on the northern troops. Elijah seems worried - he says Chuck was a good ranger - but seems to buy the story. Elijah also introduces the posse to Rudolf Mordheim, a mad scientist who was being assigned to work with them going forward.

At this point we knew Pat would be playing a mad scientist but he would be creating him after the session so we didn't have many details on his character. He'll be detailed in my next write-up.

Once everyone's ready Elijah uses an elixir of some sort to wake a restrained Jonas up. The rangers start questioning him but quickly realize he doesn't remember much and what he does remember is a little scattered. Apparently the last thing he remembered was being at the mansion where Sen. Grissom disappeared. Elijah leaves the other rangers alone with the harrowed gunslinger for a while to try to loosen his tongue, and they oblige.

An hour or so later Elijah returns and they question Jonas about the missing senator. Jonas' story is disjointed - he remembers traveling to the manor with a sickly Sen Grissom (whom Jonas identifies by his alias), Grissom's bodyguards Chuck and Daniel, and a young boy (who Elijah identifies as the Senator's son, also missing, by his description). Jonas was to wait outside as "insurance" while the others went inside. Eventually more people showed up but Jonas' descriptions were hazy. He remembered a young Mexican woman, an older man with a large hat and an exotic (Hatian, though Jonas doesn't know that) accent, and an ancient old woman who he only heard her voice.

After some strange shouts, sounds, and flashes of light, Jonas saw the Senator leap out one of the upper windows, full of vigor, and bound down the road. Jonas overheard some talking from inside before the Mexican woman shot him dead, and that was the last he remembered.

When asked Jonas confirmed that had escorted the senator to Denver a couple times and that he knew his usual haunts, so Elijah laid out the rangers' next assignment - take Jonas to Denver and see if they could track down the Senator. If he's on the run, he may have run to somewhere familiar and it's as good a lead as they had at the moment. Elijah said he had to head out to follow some of his own leads but for the posse to keep him informed if they uncover anything.

Jonas Pride, played by myself. Jonas is rough and tumble gunslinger who previously made himself a living as a bodyguard or hired gun whenever he could get the work. He's not the nicest or cleanest gunslinger in the west but he'd kill a man in a fair fight... or if he thinks they're gonna start a fair fight, or if they bothers him, or if there's a woman, or if he's gettin' paid - mostly only when he's gettin' paid. Jonas has been reluctant to accept his status as one of the walking dead but whatever the Rangers think he is, in his mind they've decided to hire him indefinitely and their coin spends as well as anyone else's.

The posse figured that a side trip to the manor where everything went down was in order, but since that was on the way towards Denver it wouldn't be a problem. They decided to leave the next day at dawn.

* * * * *

We had out third session this last Sunday and I'll be writing that up in the next batch that I write up. I also want to do some commentary on how the game was set up (yes, Jonas was my real character all along) and is playing out, but that'll have to wait until later this month. I'm already testing my readers' attention spans as is.

A more thorough investigation followed and turned up some minor clues but nothing definitive. However we did eventually find the throne room and the king- and queen-bots located there. After talking to them (they were the first constructs to actually speak to us other than Failure) Failure tried to machine meld with the king and found what appeared to be a prison for the king's consciousness, soul, or something of the like. He tried to break down the prison to free the king but that only succeeded in destroying the construct and suddenly all of the constructs turned aggressive.

We made a fighting retreat through a hidden passage in the throne room and escaped through the sewers, eventually making it out of the palace grounds. The game was called with the intent to pick back up heading to one of the nearby towns we found out about while investigating, though that won't happen now.

It was an unsatisfying conclusion to the campaign, but moving on was probably a good idea. The system didn't gel right for most of the players and some of them felt the setting was a little to over the top. But Manaburst was meant as an experiment to see how well the Everway-style worked for us and we found out it didn't. It was just too ambiguous for us and strayed a bit too far from traditional task resolution systems. But now we know and can tailor future games around that.