| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
I just got a Kickin new game on Sunday. Word has it that it was just released last week sometime. It's a TSR production, in conjunction with Bioware and Black Isle. It's called Baldur's Gate, it's a severely cool rpg (makes Diablo look like a waltz through Disneyland), it has 5 CD's, each one with like, 6 areas on it, a free-flowing, real-time system with enough freedom of plot and quests to make it feel like the real deal. It adheres to AD&D 2nd edition rules, authentic spells, class restrictions, etc. It is set in the Forgotten Realms (your favorite & mine) & is so accurate that I'm using my roleplaying texts and maps to help me in the video game. Definately kewl. I have but one minor gripe: you only "roll up" one character, and must find other NPC's to become a party. Six is your limit as far as a party goes. Also, I have not yet found any options for inputting stats for character creation (in case you wanted to use a previous character in this game). You do get an unlimited amount of "rolls" for statistics, but they are all rolled at once, forcing you to take horrible numbers sitting right next to 18's. As a DM, I seriously persuade every player to re-roll anything less than an 11, since characters are supposed to be "the stuff of legends". Anyway, that's all for now. Go to your local software dealer and look for this game. It's called Baldur's Gate, & if it's good enough to impress me (I've LIVED the Forgotten Realms since it was created by Ed Greenwood & Jeff Grubb), then it is a mighty work indeed. L8R!
| By Tony Lenzo (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Sounds pretty darn cool! I thought TSR went under tho? I guess they're back?
| By Bryan R. Cummings (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
TSR is now the exclusive property of Wizzards
of the Coast. They kept the TSR name and label
for sales and marketing reasons. J
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
I must amend my former message. After further research, I discovered you can modify your statistics, but it's a point-trade system. You roll until you get numbers near to what you want, then you bring some stats down in order to raise others up. This, again, leaves some stats below 10, but if you want a fully-balanced character, you could have stats that are all 15's. ANYway, L8R!
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
I used to do nothing but play D&D - interestingly, it has been over 6 years since I've played with any regularity. Anyone have some good adventure stories? Hey! I have a good idea for a new Topic...
| By Natalka Y. Siemon (Nat) on Unrecorded Date: |
I am sooo deprived.....
This sucks. It's been SOOOOOOOOOOOO long since the last RPG I played in that I can't remember it!!!!! What makes it worse is that if I get outta practice I can't seem to get into the role-playing mood right away.
I refuse to go to RWAG because I like the way Phred bends rulz and stuff *EFG* so any old by-the-book-krap ain't good enough no more =P besides, I don't want to run in to "Solar Phett" if you know what I meanJ
I've done a lot of character development on Crane since I blew a load of karma to up his stats. I need to test him out next time Phred comes up to visit.J
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Yeah, I like the Time Nemitt ran into Lilaina Half-Elven. When she met him he was an ancient Oriental guy who could really hold his liquor! Between his breath and BrumbleThug's, tho, the smell was unbearable!
Lilaina has a Disintegration ability given her by the God of the Sun, but it is still in the process of manifesting itself.
| By Rigel Nephridil (Nat) on Unrecorded Date: |
Nemet is cool, he's people person. We still have to finish that game where we left off. I think we were already in the desert fortress where brumbelthug was becoming buddies with Nicodemus and the elven slaves.
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
If we only had the time, it would be so cool to get an online RPG going. I'm not sure how that would work, though - for fairness, the GM probably would have to roll all the dice.
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Me and Bryan talked about Vampire: The Masquerade too. Has anyone played?
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
Yes. I played quite a bit. I also played Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Immortal: The Gathering. I have characters for each game who are very spiff, indeed. More specific details for any who want them... If you're talking about playing in a campaign, I have story-told for them--quite effectively. L8R!
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
I wouldn't mind a little background on the ShadowRun universe from those who know! Fred? Nat? Bry? I know a little, but hook me up here!
| By Rigel Nephridil (Nat) on Unrecorded Date: |
I'm still a novice, but I can tell ya a teeny bit about the nightclub "Dante's Inferno". It's one of the more popular clubs in Seattle, a place to be seen. It's got nine floors- one for each level of hell that Dante wrote about. The club has a prejudice against ugly people, they tend to let the homely ones wait on line. Pretty much think along the lines of the old Studio 54 in NYC- except think 2050ad-ish, throw in some shadowrun archtypes, simsense junkies and a drug culture scene.
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
Well, Sol, here's the deal... The year is 2075. A thing happened years ago, I'm not sure exactly what year, but it was called the awakening. During that time, latent magical abilities and psychic powers surfaced in the small percentage of people who possessed it. Also, the dormant genetic strains which reacted to magic became active again, causing humans with met-human DNA to physically transform into Elves and Dwarves. They were, however, a minority, and many people are prejudiced against them. Also, another event happened, called goblinization. Adults simply spontaneously transformed into Trolls and Orcs, painfully, often resulting in death. Most of the transformations were considered birth defects, and many scientists mistook it for a plague. They know better now, though, even though the 'trogs' as they are called are greatly prejudiced against. You know, you could have a troll who can do advanced calculus, but people will assume he's dumb because he's a troll. Also, computer technology is extremely advanced, with an entire VR interface over the net, called the matrix. Of course, you know IC is short for intrusion countermeasure. Also called 'ICE'. Spyder was nearly brain-fried by one. Nat, you could probably clarify the neural-link needed for traversing the matrix better than I, since I have done only very little concerning that.
Essentially, Sol, Magic, technology, and man have all merged together in a dark future. Information is the most potent weapon. There is no real government to speak of, just the major corporations. The U.S. has divided into different territories, and the Native American Nations have unified and thrown off the shackles of 'Imperialist' U.S.A. Seattle is right smack surrounded by a Native American Nation, an Elven Nation, and a Trog Nation. It is a 'trade outpost' for the U.C.A.S.--United Canadian American States. The other major section of the U.S. is the old south, now called the C.A.S.--Confederated American States. Neither organization holds much land West of the Mississippi, unless it's in the north, near the Arctic Circle. Which is why Seattle is so screwed up. J These are just the basics. Think of the movie 'Blade Runner' only give it elves, trolls, etc. The major corporations are Fuchi Corp, Aztechnologoy (Aztech for short), and, ummmmm, I forget the third one... I gotta go now, though, so L8R!
| By Margravine Issold (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date: |
If you throw D&D into Bladerunner and stir briskly you've got the flavor of the environment. Like cyberpunk with bells and whistles.
I believe the Awakening was in the teens, when a dragon popped out of mount Fuji, and the American Indians lead by (according to the history provided in the book) Howling Coyote put an end to the old USA's nuclear threat against them with the magic - real magic - of the ghost dance. As an aside the Native American Nations said that those "goblinized" were welcome in the Nation.
As Greyfred indicated, most of the power is held by the mega corps, they could probably muster a more formidable army that most of the world governments.
Europe is a mess - the first part of the century they spent in boarder/ethnic wars.
My main problem with the world is always getting it mixed up with the Cyberpunk world which is darn similer.
The basic rule book has a history of the Awakend world if you can get a look at a copy.
Any help?
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
Renraku is the third corp. It has a huge arcology in the west-central part of town. Aztech is housed in a huge, south-american pyramidal-type structure in the center of town, and Fuchi Corp. has a collection of really, really tall skyscraper towers (3 or 4 I think, all linked by underground tunnels and overhead airways). It puts NY's World Trade Center to shame. I think it's located in the north of town. In the south are The Barrens. Think of the Bronx, only not as many people, more destruction, and roving gangs of orcs and trolls. In the center of town, there is a diplomatic retreat for the Elven council, it is on a wooded island in a lake (I forget which lake it is, off the top of my head) and is strictly forbidden to non-elves, unless they show proper diplomatic credentials. And Joe-shmo elf off the street wouldn't be able to just walk in, either. Surrounding this area, of course, is the Elven District. Actually, I'm not quite sure... I know there's a city map in the back of the main rulebook, which I have, but that's no help to you... I think mebbe Nat has a copy? If she does, you could ask her to show ya the map, and also you could read the history of the Shadowrun world (which is near the front of the book.) I hope this helps you out, Sol. L8R!
| By Rigel Nephridil (Nat) on Unrecorded Date: |
yah. I got the rulebook and the Seattle sourcebook. Lemme know if ya need to borrow it =)
Nat
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Thank you for all the good information! It is appreciated!
Sol
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
After all this talk about Shadowrun, My friend Eric decided to run a little adventure. It will be a 'shared universe' meaning that when he runs out of ideas, I will take over. We have 4 players and an NPC. I'm a combat mage, John is also a mage (less potent than I am), Faye(Ranger) is some sort of chipped-out warrior/martial artist, and Damien is the world's toughest street samurai... His character sheet is INSANE! Also, Eric's NPC is a physical adept with killing hands and heightened reaction, etc. He's an up-close killy-guy. I can cast a hellblast spell with a 13-meter diameter... That's nearly an 80 foot circle of DEATH. I am powerful... L8R!
| By Margravine Issold (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date: |
Actually, my character is ex-company. Used to be translator/light protection. No martial arts, just Germanic languages. Damien is the insane one...I'm just state of the art. Remind me to stand either real far away from you or real close, Greyfox. We may yet pick up another character, too.
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
You know, the fact is I really miss AD&D. It will always be my favorite. In association with AD&D I became involved in all kinds of tabletop miniature games and other RPG's, but in the end what I loved about AD&D was the magic and fantasy and storytelling. Many other games lack this. Any wargaming situation has ALL the plot and storytelling bled out of it, reducing it to mere mechanics. Even Magic is guilty of this, really. Other RPG's are interesting, too, but most are just about violence or guns and warfare, etc, with little Fantasy. There is just no comparison to the wonder that D&D has brought me. Although I will play these "other games," D&D will always be first in my heart.
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
YES!! Here, here, my friend!
| By Rigel (Nat) on Unrecorded Date: |
Ad&D and Shadowrun are my favorite, then again, they're pretty much all the rpg's I've played.
Nat
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
I played Teenagers from Outer Space once, and it was pretty cool, but our DM made it out to be a lot like D&D when we started going around and beating up teachers. It was too weird. The gym teacher was Barney and well, some things are just meant to be.
I almost had a chance to play in an AD&D Dark Sun campaign, but the DM took the whole time to design characters with the players (mine was done in 15 minutes) and we didn't have time to play ... also they never invited me back for Session 2 and I never asked, so too bad. It was the 1st Psionicist I'd ever drawn up - I think I used her in another campaign later. I've been in at least 20 campaigns under different DM's at different times... I'll see if I can jot some down later to share!
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
In one AD&D adventure, I had a 6-foot Leprechaun named Blarney. He had all kinds of powers. He was also super-strong. In a premonition, a fellow party member forsaw his death... he would fall into a pit of spikes, and one would go right up his... er... anyway, when they got to the next town, he couldn't wait to buy his now-legendary Golden ****plug, which he always wore as a safety measure!
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Perhaps my most powerful character was Doric the Cleric. With his many magic Items and his fabled Mace o' Tony + 5 he was feared by the unclean and his primary mission was to avenge the murder of his apprentice, Chara and his comrade, Jessica the Fighter. Unfortunately, the one who killed his friends was a 100-foot tall demon from hel*! This Demon had hords, 6 arms, and powerful magic. It would belch out Force Bubbles. These bubbles would catch you, and once trapped inside, the bubble would fill with acid and disintegrate you. Then, so there was nothing left to raise or reincarnate, the Demon would eat the bubble again, acid and all, and since his stomach was in another dimension, there was no hope of recovering the lost. Doric hunted this demon in the name of Poseiden all his days, nearly killed several times, and although he reached at least Level 32, he never did destroy the Demon. Of course, the Demon never destroyed Doric either.
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Another Cleric from Fred's campaign was Ser-tain. He was powerful, and spoke little, but was completely dedicated to the cause. I have not used him more than once, but perhaps one day will use him again.
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
well, maybe 4 campaigns are enough for now - I'll list some other interesting characters later!
--SoL
| By Bryan (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
This article shamelessly stolen from http://www.netrpg.com/features/beer_n_pretzels/index.html
***************************************************
Beer and Pretzels Roleplaying: 21 April 1999
How to Avoid the Party that Should Not Be
Alan Lenczycki (lenczyck@students.uiuc.edu)
As a GM (and a Beer 'n Pretzels GM at that), I see lots of player characters come and go. I also
go through the various character generation processes quite a bit. Through this constant and
maddening exposure to point allocation, dice rolling, background generation, and my players
(that's the worst bit) I have developed a quite draconian philosophy: I make the characters for my
players.
Aghast, you might wonder, "Would I be depriving the players of the chance to live out their
fantasies by becoming their ideal alter-egos? Will they lose interest quickly in the characters that
were not born from the wellsprings that are their own imaginations?" Bury your feelings deep,
wimp. If you're a true Beer 'n Pretzels gamer you would then realize the benefits: less
munchkinism, more variety in roleplaying, and a general increase in easiness for the GM. And
that's what really matters, right?
I am certainly NOT advocating rolling dice, distributing attributes, and doing all of that crud for
the players. I'm saying that you can lay the framework for a cool and rewarding adventure with
one or two sentences like, "You will be playing Mad Dog Tannen. He is a gunslinger that drinks
too much."
We all know players who'll just look sadly at their newly-dead dwarf, Snorri Goblinkiller III,
cross out the name, and start playing with Snorri Goblinkiller IV. These types of gamers can only
do one thing: a Scottish accent. If the GM points these players in a different direction by
suggesting a new (possibly non-dwarven!) character, the group can start new adventures off
quickly while challenging players to play different (and possibly even more fun) types of
characters.
I have always had a problem with characters picking the powerful classes in a game, to the almost
total exclusion of all else. By taking out such "munchkin" classes from a game like the Bladesinger,
the Glitter Boy, and the Half-Drow Half-Lizardman Gladiator/Mage/Cleric, a game can move in a
direction other than hack 'n slash. One quick and easy way to set these sort of guidelines is simply
to declare (for example) that the players are all playing human warriors from the clans of the
Northmen. Except Louie, he's the shaman.
This sort of light intervention also helps in leaping the "first adventure hurdle". Instead of having
two flea-bitten mercenaries, a wandering scholar, a powerful psychic, and a robot pilot stumble
into a bar together and decide to go smite evil as the Company of the Whatever, an assertive GM
can say that the group members played together on the same baseball team as kids and are
therefore less likely to pass notes to the GM saying something to the effect of "I go through
everybody's backpacks and take shiny stuff."
The last bonus of creating at least the concept for the characters is that you avoid the problem of
"reality invasion". I mean, why the heck does that sylvan elf hang around with all of those
dwarves, anyway? The fact that they go and smite the Denizens of the Deep Dark Dungeon (far,
far away from the Faerie Forests) should matter. Shouldn't it? Then again, no one gives much
thought to "realism" nowadays...
So try making up a group of characters for your group. Create mildly detailed backgrounds for
them, give them names and goals... then sit back and watch as your players give them life.
Back to the Features page
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
See, I do that anyway, only I let the players make up their own characters, then I make up all the NPC's, then I begin creating backgrounds for all of them, hopefully with enough of a common strand to make them a likely party. I'm a power-gamer. I like DM'g for powerful peoples. I think it's much more fun that way. The stuff of legends and epic tales. Also try to remember that the more powerful the group, the more hellish the world in which they live is going to be. I don't give stuff to people easily, and once they earn it, they gotta fight to keep it. Ah, well... Off to play Champions! L8R!
| By Bryan (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
I'd like to DM a mini-adventure for an evening on a weekend. Nothing huge, just a small party of no more then 2 to 4 players with an adventure that could actually be played and wraped up in a evening.
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
I am in! Let me know more when you do, ok buddy?
Sol
| By Bryan (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
Soon sol, real soon. More to follow...
| By Tony (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
So Mike Martin (who has an account on this board but never posts) is starting an adventure - D&D - it'll be cool. I still need to finish my character tho! Can't wait!
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
Eric started up a white-wolf campaign. I'm using my werewolf, Karyssa Fiori. By the way Nat, have ya made any more headway on that portrait? No rush, just curious. Send me e-mail, so I can remember your address... ;>
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
I've been playing Baldur's Gate at Jon's house alot recently. There's alot of kewl stuff in there... Also, there's an expansion out called "Tales of the Sword Coast" where you can stay in the same game world, only you can advance your character up to like, level 9 or something. Also, there's lots more critters, quests, NPC's and play-toys to choose from. Check it out, if you get a chance...
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
(from Paths)
Half dragons are offspring between a male dragon polymorphed (via innate ability only) into a demihuman and a female
demihuman. No female dragons can ever produce half dragons and no polymorph self /shape change spells (from demihuman
Intelligence: o dragon) can produce half dragon offspring. Only High Elves, Dwarves and gnome women can give birth to Half
Dragons. Half dragons never beget half dragons either. If a half dragon mates with a demihuman, the demihuman genes
dominate always. If a Half Dragon mates with a dragon, a dragon predominates. No PCs are allowed to have dragon children.
Half Dragons are openly loathed on the Isle of Io. They are considered freaks and lesser creatures. Most Dragon clans do
not wish to see their lines diluted with demihuman blood, though some may have sympathy for them behind closed doors.
The half dragon closely resembles its demihuman parent at birth, though a few distinguising features become prominent such
as hair color (gold, silver, bronze, etc), eyes of similar color, etc. Adolescents always grow tall and lean despite their heritage,
eventually having a tinted skin color (gold, silver, bronze, etc.) and as they mature they gain snake like eyes, a reptilian like face
(not a snake head mind you, but an oval face with almost beads for eyes, slits instead of a prominent nose, wider than usual mouth,
pointed ears and bulges at the temple area almost as if horns are trying to protrude. They do not gain wings, tails or scales at all.
Their hands and nails become elongated and sharp like talons. The Half dragon retains body hair and often a rich head of hair
accompanies a half dragon.
Half Dragons vary in height according to their heritage. Suffice to say half dragons sizes range from 5'6 - 6'5. Weights 120 -
180. Lifespan: 250 - 350 years old.
Note: Half Dragons do NOT receive standard demihuman benefits (ex: Elf: +1 to hit w/ bows/swords, infravision, resistance
to sleep /charm, etc.) . They do receive their own benefits as they advance in level, but of course it takes them 30% more
experience to gain such a level...
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Another race for your fantasy-gaming appetite:
Tleilaxu
They came from another world, similar to this Wurld but without magic, a world of science. It has been lost, even to themselves, how and when they bridged the great divide of the stars but it is known it was when the Wurld was young. It is said that they left their world as they had lost the challenge of the Game on that world, having come to dominance and feared among the weaker beings. When there was no fun they left the planet and settled onto the newborn Wurld. Here they found a new mystery, magic. They quickly found that this new power was unusable to them, but it was realized that the children of their race, born on the Wurld, could now harness this power.
They spent years studying magic until the children had mastered the aspects they could realize on their own, finally they were sent out into the Wurld to find new magics, ones which were already known to the early inhabitants of the Wurld. It was after the first wave of young ones were sent out that tragedy struck.
A plague of unknown origins hit the settlement, killing off those who had stayed. Now the young were left alone in the Wurld. Originally they tried to seek each other out, but if they settled to long amongst themselves the plague would strike again. They soon realized that they were doomed to solitary lives, not being able to interact with each other for more than a couple years. Only the young, the children of those sent out, seemed safe. It was found that these children, and all young after them, could stay amongst each other and The Elder until they reached adolescence. At this point if they did not leave they found that they would soon become weaker and weaker until they died or left the commune. Resigned to solitude the passed through the ages playing the Game...
***
The most well known and hated traitor to the race, Malriak is still rumored to roam the Wurld no matter how many Tleilaxu claim to have met and destroyed it. The story of Malriak is a sad mark on the history of the Tleilaxu.
Malriak was a Tleilaxu born to the group of children first born with the ability to weave magic. As magic was being pushed to be studied, Malriak had little choice, so he threw itself into the studies. Malriak soon became known as the greatest Tleilaxu spell caster of the time, it was then that the Elder decided to send him out into the Wurld to study the inherent magics of other races.
It is said that while studying the Elven culture of Thralni Malriak did what no Tleilaxu had done before, in his male form it fell in love with an Elven maiden! It was to this maiden that he told the secrets of the entire Tleilaxu race, including The Game. When this was found the Elder sent out a party of the strongest Tleilaxu mages to capture or kill Malriak and the Elven maiden. They used their magic against all the members of that fine city until they found Malriak and the maiden. In the battle that followed Malriak used his new knowledge of Elven Magics to achieve victory, but it came at a price, a magic missile from a dying opponent ended the life of the maiden. Enraged, Malriak swore to end the Game and cast a spell that sent him elsewhere in the Wurld.
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
A different PBeM game: Fellowship of the Dales. It is a different style than Paths to Immortality - for example, characters start with weaker stats, Level 1, and the game is much smaller (less than 10 players). Although there are no openings right now, it would be fun to look at this site and joining the Lurkers list is a good way to learn about PMeMs without playing. Hmmm...
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
D&D Campaigns I've been in
(for your entertainment and my reference:)
1) In 4th Grade, I played for the first time with a 1st level Magic User, no name. It was funny - I thought my character was a "Magic Geezer..." - why couldn't they just say Wizard? It was so different than other games because your character could DIE and you couldn't just come back to life. This was driven home for me during my first encounter with a monster. As we approached the castle, a Carrion Crawler emerged from beneath the drawbridge, paralyzed our fighter, and dragged him underground. The rest of us stood by terrified, and there was nothing we could do - our friend was gone! We spent much of our time running from danger...
2) - In 4th, 5th, 6th grade I created three incarnations of D&D which I DMed complete with my own made-up rulebooks, the longest of which was 100 pages long and extremely detailed. The quest usually took place in a castle and players had to explore the many monster-infested corridors looking for the Super Chinese Dragon, the most Powerful of the Dragons, and defeat it. An interesting aspect of my game was that it was impossible to die and players usually ended up with hundreds of weapons and armies of Unicorns, Pegasi, Supercorns, and Pegicorns at their disposal. If you were very lucky, your animals would be pregnant, and then you'd get even more!
3) - 7th Grade - Ran my 1st "Real" D&D game at school. Let players bribe me with money so their characters could advance. It was a big hit - stuck to the Dungeon Deep scenario, the Ultimate Goal of the game was to discover the "Ultimate Treasure," a room FULL of gold. This took all year, and characters underwent MANY adventures in the Dark Corridors world before some at last found their way.
4) - My proudest campaign went all through my High School years, DMing for DG and Charity and Thom Salter. We ran over 15 adventures, each lasting several sessions - characters advanced from Level 1 up through 33 and ruled the world in the end (almost!)
5) - DG's World: Had a character, Doric the Cleric... reached Level 32 and spent his life fighting a Demon who killed everyone he ever cared about.
6) - Charity's World: Some Drunk Dwarf, I think named Arsol
7) - Catherine's World: Durass the Fighter, extremely strong and very stupid. Reached HIGH levels and got stupider every time. Infested with Fuzzies, could only speak one word for each level, and got stupider every time we played. On the Final Adventure, Durass was last seen on the swingset refusing to leave this enjoyable place as the other characeters went on to meet their fate...
8) - Catherine's World 2: Blarney the Leprechaun was a 6-foot leprechaun that liked to swear. His vulgarity usually got him beat up, and he was later cursed by Water Nymphs who had disguised themselves as beautiful 6-foot tall Leprechaun Women. My 2nd character was a female metamorph.
9) - Charity's World 2: King Maa-chow was an old crazy fighter who thought he was the King. He ordered around the other party members and told them that they were his priveledged subjects. They would beat him and he would attempt to punish them for their insolence. The quest was to remove an evil ruler from the kingdom, and when at last the evil one was destroyed, Ma-Chow kicked the dead body off the throne and sat down on it himself! The players left the delusional man on the throne amidst the various dead soldiers in the deserted hall.
10) - Chuck's World - Many incarnations including Plasma the Dragon, an 11-foot tall 65 lb 130 year old wizard. Plasma the dragon was friends with a Thief (my other character) - the thief told the dragon that he was a Lawful fighter and the Dragon believed it. So the Thief would sneak into the town, steal all the gold he could carry, and run out. Then as the archers would line the walls, the Dragon would fly out and burn them all. "Help, help!" yelled the weak thief, "Why are they after me? Save me!"
11) - Darren's World - Lilaina Half-Elven was orphaned as a child and attempted to join up with other adventurers to discover secrets about her past and also save her homeland from a Demon! Fortunately, she escaped being sacrificed on the Alter of the Dark Elf and regained her faith as well.
12) - Thom's World - Played this one with Uncle Bill and friends. My character was the Fighter-Mage Kurock, a mage who loved Fireballs. In later times, Kurock would gain apprentices named Ember and Timber who were required by Kurock to shave their heads as part of their initiation.
13) - Mike's World - Krull was a half-elf fighter-wizard-cleric who also liked fire.
14) - Bob's World - Here I played a character called Omen, the gnomish cleric.
15) - Fred's World - various incarnations including Falafel the Elf and a somber cleric type whose name I can't remember. Why couldn't Falafel have his own harem! Why, why?
16) - Nat's world - So many fun times! Main character was Tasslehoff Feeny the Kender. Ended up to be quite a litte *ss - enjoyed hiding under skirts, banging pots and pans together to distract black knights, and blowing on his Blowhorn.
Also played Lilaina in Nat's world in later times.
17) - Sol's World - Freshly graduated from the University, the Brave Cum Laude were asked to venture into the dungeon deep to uncover the secrets of undead attacks on the town. Betrayed, the characters later found that their wizard-mentor had betrayed them and intended to overtake the world! The wizard tried to escape in his big, big, balloon, but the Fighter hopped atop his flying gold golem and wrestled him out of the balloon to his greusome thousand-foot fall.
18) - Paths to Immortality PBeM campaign - pending!
19) - (an almost campaign) Nine, the Dragon was driven insane due to lab animal experiments conducted on him by a Goblin Mage - a Gold Dragon gone mad and chaotic...
20) - (almost Chris's!) A female psionisist just learning about her strange powers in the realms of Dark Sun...
21) - (almost Mike's!) Pei is a young female who is training to become a druid.
****
There were maybe more that I can't remember, and many other Stories that I wrote with cool characters like Spiffy Ninja, Odorious the Windcharmer, Little Banjo, and other now-legendary heroes, but of course, those were not all strictly D&D.
Other worlds:
Super Heroes (chris) : Xi, the scientist from another dimension who became trapped between realities.
Super Heroes (fred) : Captain Freedom had a cape and was like some kind of Supercop who defended, you guessed it! RIT campus!
Shadowrun (fred) : Jobe, the weed-smoking street shaman has mysterious powers granted him from the Other Side, and from the Spirit of the Metro...
Rifts : Scorpion is actually a small boy who was forced to live in a bombed-out arecade for his whole life. When he grew up, he BECAME Scorpion for real!
Star Wars : I had a Mon Calamari character for a short time...
Teenagers from Outer Space : I played an alien who looked suspiciously like the Pillsbury Doughboy - he had a car, could teleport and shrink himself, too. He also had a big allowance!
| By The Great (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
>19) - (an almost campaign) Nine, the Dragon was >driven insane due to lab animal
>experiments conducted on him by a Goblin Mage - a >Gold Dragon gone mad and
>chaotic...
Yeah, sorry about that. After starting the initial work on designing that campaign I realized
that allowing dragons as player characters
required an experience DM to pull off and make
it challenging to the players playing them.
1 dragon is a handfull, a party of dragons
is downright scary. Who could possibly
could put a team like that in any sort of peril?
Its not impossible to do, just alot more difficult for an inexperienced dm.
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
I could challenge that party. >EFG
| By The Great (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
Perhaps... then again should we REALLY let tony play a chaotic Gold Dragon? :)
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
;P
You did say I could have anything... and that's an insane Chaotic Gold dragon...
| By Bryan Cummings (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
Well, I guess at the time I thought you were going a bit overboard, I guess I felt I didn't know how to properly deal with it.
I'd welcome the challege now and let you play it
if we were to do that campaign now. Why? I have NO clue.
Oh well, if anything came out of the now defunct wyrms campaign was the creation of Nemitt; Natalka's wonderfully powerfull (and ever arrogant) polymorphed dragon who happens to enjoy spending his days in the shape of an high elf. Her use of him as an NPC in later campaigns was well played.
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
I am in the mood to GM something... Faye, if you read this, let Eric know--perhaps I could "take control" of a minor story arc for Star Wars (I would HATE to cause any ripples by starting yet ANOTHER campaign when we didn't finish any of the previous ones.) Also, I'll call. Have fun up in Rochester/Brockport/wherever! cya!
| By Margravine (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date: |
Okay. You know we're going nowhere for about 2-3 more weeks right?
As far as I can tell NO rpg is ever really over, hell I've got Cyperpunk characters still twiddling their thumbs cause I havn't got back to them in ... well... years. Is SW at a lull? Do we wanna go back to SR or D&D? We all have characters kicking their heels and chain smoking just waiting around in pretty much every universe. I'll pass your desires along and we'll see. Maybe you should give a call and confab with him....
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
How long and when is your trip again? We get to hang out this weekend still, yes?
| By Margravine (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date: |
yes.
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
My story arc has ended... And a new GM has stepped up to the plate to 'take control' of things in our little Star Wars tale... It will give Eric & I an opportunity to actually play in somebody else's world, since one of us is usually playing God. I think it will be fun.
Oh, by the way--Damien is going to be taking over the storyline... I hope he can put up with Eric & I walking all over him to do whatever we want... *EFG* L8R!
| By Margravine (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date: |
FYI re: the future of the rpg Shadowrun.
25 January 2001
After 20 happy-and difficult-years in business, FASA Corporation is closing its doors.
The adventure gaming world has changed much in those years, and it is time for the founders of FASA to move on. We may produce a few remaining products in the next month, but then we
will close up shop.
We will remain open to fill all orders from our inventory until April 30, 2001. We do not plan to print any new inventory; when an item goes out of stock, it will be gone forever.
Making this decision now will allow FASA to meet all of its obligations to suppliers, authors, artists and other freelancers. Our plan is to sell our inventory, collect all of our receivables
and royalties and continue to manage our subsidiary rights.
We are selling our BattleTech and Shadowrun properties to Wizkids LLC, along with certain assets of Ral Partha Enterprises.
As most of you know, Wizkids was started by Jordan Weisman, a founder of FASA and the creator of the incredibly successful new game line Mage Knight Rebellion. We know that FASA's properties will be in very good hands at Wizkids.
I want to thank all of our loyal fans and customers who over these 20 years have made FASA Corporation a fun place to be and a company of which we are very proud.
Morton Weisman
Ross Babcock
The following from a post made by Jordan Weisman, CEO of WizKids at the Dumpshock forums. It should shed some light on things:
To all,
I, and I am sure all the people at FASA, are touched by your passion for Shadowrun and appreciation of their efforts in bringing this world and game to you. The treads are many in here and I cannot attempt to answer them all, especially since I myself do not have all the answers yet, but let me say a couple of things at this point.
First I think it is important to place FASA in its historical position. Ross and I founded the company 21 years ago – making it one of the longest lasting in the industry. FASA helped
dramatically raise the bar on production values and shifted gaming from being system focused to universe focused. I am, I hope all the talented people that worked at FASA over the years
are, very proud of these things and the many many more contributions that we made to this hobby that we all love.
It is sad and shocking that FASA had to make this painful decision, but it was driven their by one simple fact – not enough sales. Disecting the reason for not enough sales is a
much more complicated task that must take into account the market, the consumers tastes, the distribution system, the retailers, and the competition between paper gaming and other
entertainment mediums. All of these elements have changed radically over the last 20 years and FASA tried to change with them – but ultimately maybe not enough.
I know that some of you have speculated that this must have been in the plans for months this was not the case. The management of FASA was so focused on trying to make it work, to keep it going, that they had played the string all the way out to the end, and
thus when realizing that needed to act quickly.
As some of you may know, I was the creator of the core of the Shadowrun universe and drove the first editions development. It has always had a very special place in my heart as I feel that
the ideas and potential in the Shadowrun universe represent some of my best work. Thus I can promise you that Shadowrun will not slip silently into the night forever. As for what the product plan is I have to ask for your patience and understanding as we first try to find good people jobs and then after the dust settles – start working on a product plan.
As you can understand, my schedule has been and will be overwhelming for a while and thus I doubt that I will be able to answer the questions that this post will surely generate – at
least in the short term. But after we do get things figured out I will check back in.
Thanks in advance for your patience.
Jordan Weisman
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
NO!!! I never finished my Battletech force! I still need 20 or so 'mechs, all of which weren't in production at the time I had made my purchases, the majority of which are rare to find even today... CURSES!!! And now, a moment of silence... ... ... B^(
| By Margravine (Ranger) on Unrecorded Date: |
Well, you still have 'til April 30...isn't your birthday coming up?
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
Yeah. April 8th. I'll be 26.
| By Bryan Cummings (Houdini) on Unrecorded Date: |
It has really amazed me to see how the web has expanded the amount of stuff available for
gaming news and free stuff.
Here are an example of two fine general RPG info sites:
http://www.rpgplanet.com/
http://www.rpg.net/
| By Vengence is Mine (Knight_hawk) on Unrecorded Date: |
Yeah me happy. I just ordered a copy of the ShadowRun 2nd Edithion rule book. Yeah!
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
So anyone ever read the Lone Wolf roleplaying books where you are the last of the Kai Lords and you have to warn the King and rebuild the Kai Monostary? It is a COOL series! I had all 20 gamebooks... or so I THOUGHT! A websearch reveals that they are now up to #28! This is a little frustrating since books #21 - 28 were only ever released in Britain and some of these are ALREADY out of print! Darn! I did find a site that lets me order them, but they're like $9.00 American and that's without shipping and handling. BOO HOO!
Sol
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
I heard from Eric that Crazy Egor's went out of business for good. He was the guy that sold Millenium all his stuff. He opened up a small storefront out by Brockport somewhere, I think, but he had a water leak that damaged alot of his stuff (he was dealing mostly with online purchases). I heard from Eric that his recent Easter trip up there revealed to him a big "FOR LEASE" sign in the window and an obvious lack of Egor... The point to my story? IF Egor was still around (and you are much closer than I, Sol, to investigate such matters) you would probably have a very good chance of getting what you're looking for from him. If it is rare, though, you're gonna pay for it. Just my input (I know how hard it can be to find certain books). Happy Hunting! ;>
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
Hmmm, Interesting.
Egor DID have a big disaster, and sacrificed one warehouse of stuff (out of 3) and sold it all at 1/2 price (I bought a 3rd Edition D&D Player's Guide). I didn't think he was going out of business - all this went on about a month ago. My gut says Egor isn't out yet - he has way too much merchandise - but the LEASE sign surprises me. I'll see what I can find out...
Sol
| By Vengence is Mine (Knight_hawk) on Unrecorded Date: |
YAH I got my copy of the Shadowrun 2nd edition rulebook today. Yah.
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
As of yesterday, it seems that Egor is back on his feet and still selling! He's totally redoing his Hilton sotre, though, but he's hanging in there!
visit him on the web!
http://www.crazyegors.com/
Sol
| By Vengence is Mine (Knight_hawk) on Unrecorded Date: |
My sister and I were on an outing together and we ended up at Hero Town. As we were looking around we came upon a book that took us by surprise and made us laugh out loud. The book was for a new RPG called Pokethuluh. Yes, Pokethuluh.
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
ha ha ha! That's cool! I'm still waiting for Pokemon Hunter D to come out on DVD.
Sol
| By The One Known Only as (Greyfox) on Unrecorded Date: |
~shudder~
| By Subcriminal (Nat) on Unrecorded Date: |
Now I REALLY know what to get your for Christmas, Fred =)
*poke*
| By Funk Sol Brother (Sol) on Unrecorded Date: |
I just picked up a copy of 3rd Edition D&D. It is really cool, new artwork, a character gen CD, but there are a lot of changes to the armourclass system, spells, and skills. Is it an improvement? Or should they have left well enough alone? I am interested in hearing YOUR views on 2nd vs. 3rd edition D&D!
Sol