Gaming! and Future Plans

Well I've been just a little busy here lately and haven't gotten around to posting anything on here. Between school for me and my 3 kids along with working and everything else I've been extremely distracted.

The evil campaign I've been running for the in-laws has been going well, and actually this weekend should be the last session with it again (they are level 23 now). After that the in-laws are wanting to test out the new D&D 5th edition game since my father-in-law bought the books that are available at the moment.
Looks like it could be fun at least, I'm not picky about the game I play as long as I can play. I've heard good and bad things about the new edition and honestly I don't care either way. A game is a game and until I play it I can't make an decision on whether or not I like it. Although being that it is a game I'm sure I will find something to enjoy about it regardless of anything else. I hope that rambling made sense as I didn't intend to start into that, oh well.

I've not had the time or concentration to work on my own game lately, but I still plan on putting more work into it at some point.

As far as updates, me and my wife have decided to go in on working on something creative together and are in the process of working on a Web-comic using 3d figures (I'll be making the panels/pages/images in DAZ Studio). Might turn out well, or might be horrible but either way we are giving it a go as a way for us to do something together, so should be fun either way.

With all three kids in school now it is nice but stressful at the same time as that means they are getting bigger and older. Our oldest daughter wants to play softball again when that comes around (not until spring at least), and the middle daughter is participating in the Youth Football group in our area as a cheerleader, the youngest is only in pre-k and hasn't wanted to get involved in anything yet.

Well enough of my ramblings for now I'll try to post something sooner without a huge break between them this time. Have a good one anyone who happens to read this. :)

Day 2 - D&D 40th Anniversary blog hop challenge!

The first person I think I introduced to D&D would have been my friend Timothy (Timmy as we called him). It was 3.5 edition also, and his first character was a Druid. Sadly he didn't play with us for very long (his wife didn't like it apparently).

Day 1 - D&D 40th Anniversary blog hop challenge!

I suppose that the first people to introduce me to D&D would have been my wife and my father-in-law. So yeah, I wasn't playing anything even closely related to D&D while I was younger.

The edition they introduced me to and that we still play mostly is 3.5 edition.

My first character that I actually made started out as a Druid. As I got more into the game I found my father-in-laws Psionics books and loved them. I multi-classed my Druid into a Psion (shaper) as well which completely destroyed the play-ability of the character from what I could tell. He let me kill it off and replace it with a full on Psion which is still my favorite character at this time.

Holidays and the New Year

Well the holidays are almost over now. I know mine has been hectic as I am sure most peoples were. So yeah I am still here and working on my game when I get time.

I'm saddened as it seems nearly impossible for me to keep a game going at my house at the moment. One person rarely shows up and now another one is moving far enough away to where it is not worth the time and gas to drive down. which leaves me with just me, my wife, one friend unless I can convince my cousin to actually play more.

I'm trying to come up with some sort of weekly/bi-weekly posting to do starting in January, but I'm not sure yet. The only thing I can come up with at the moment is to create or just write some creatures for my Silver Divinity galaxy. I enjoyed doing that previously for a Halloween event and I'm thinking it might be fun to do some more.

Lastly I know its late already but Happy Holidays (or whatever you prefer) to everyone!

Games/Updates/Etc...

The holidays are upon us and it is that time of year when I am forced to exit my home to spend time with the family. Although my wife and I enjoy it, she enjoys it much more than I do as I tend to get drained quickly and would like to go home, while she would like to stay longer. We have been married for 8 years and have worked things out where both of us are happy at least so I'm not really complaining there.

The pathfinder game we were playing at the in-laws house has been cancelled for the time being, and we were going to start back playing the Evil campaign I was running for them before (they made it from level 1 to 14 in Eberron D&D 3.5 before we paused the game). That at the moment has been postponed due to the holidays and extended family having housing issues and needing assistance.

The corrupted game I started at my own house has been going well at least. We've only played twice so far, but they were fun games to say the least. This last one had a first time amusement for me either running or playing a game. I've started showing my 19 year old cousin how to play, and although she has had fun she is still 19 so it's hard to pin her down to play with us at times. But this last time we played (11/15/13) her Cleric decided to start flirting with one of the NPC's they encountered. There was a father and his three sons and she decided to start hitting on one of the sons. This was exceedingly amusing watching her try to role play this (which she did great with); she finally got fed up with him after a while and through various circumstances she finally found out that he was really a demon in disguise.
This was entertaining to play through and like I said I've never had anyone try to do something like this in a game I've participated in.

So yeah all in all I've been busy. I am still working on Converting what I have of my Silver Divinity setting to Savage Worlds, it is just taking a moment due to lack of good thinking time.

Corrupted and Evil Characters; Running another game!

So we have only played once so far, but we are running a game at my house, which I talked about previously.

The main group I play with are my in-laws, and around 2009-2010 I DM'd my first big game for them. It was a D&D 3.5 game based in Eberron, and the characters were all evil in various degrees. I got a few questions regarding how that wouldn't work or would fall apart from infighting, but honestly the group took to it and ran with it with some enthusiasm.

They got to around level 14 (starting at 1 of course), and we put the game on temporary hold so I could get certain things situated with starting school and other various things.

Our current DM (my father-in-law) has decided that he wants to take a break for a little while and just play instead of DM. And I have been requested to resume the evil campaign I was running. I still remember where they ended and all the major events that happened up to where they ended, which is good as I know they won't remember any of it.

But it should be fun and interesting running a game at home and one at the in-laws house; and it should be amusing as in one game the characters are corrupted and the other they are just evil.

My RPG Person Profile

This was an idea put forth by Zak S at Playing D&D With Porn Stars. So here is my profile. There is a link to the page it is permanently set to on the side menu.

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I'm currently running (at home): D&D 3.5 Eberron, Homemade campaign

Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (at home) include: Pathfinder

I would especially like to play/run: Castles and Crusades, Victoriana 2nd edition, Shadowrun, Mutants and Masterminds

...but would also try: Anything! I’m not picky and I would be interested in playing pretty much anything.

I live in: A trailer sadly

2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like:Draconomicon, The Witch, The Black Company RPG

2 or 3 novels I like: The Chronicles of Amber, The Black Company, Dragon Prince

2 or 3 movies I like: Pacific Rim, Indiana Jones, Austin Powers

Best place to find me on-line: My blog, DDO, SWTOR, Deviantart

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: I’m up for reading anything related to RPGs, even if I can’t play it there are ideas everywhere.

If you know anything about Sci-Fi vehicles or weapons it'd help me with a project I'm working on.

Mournlands Campaign Update

I've been busy and stressed with major upcoming household changes, and I haven't had time or the mental capacity to work on much of anything.

I did finish the corruptions to the classes the group is going to be playing in at least, and I figured I would share them here.
At the moment they have:
Barbarian - my wife
Cleric - my cousin
Witch (slightly modified from pathfinder) - my other cousin
Psion, or Ranger - my friend can't make up his mind on which yet
Rogue - NPC

We start playing Friday night (10/18/13) and hopefully it goes well, I'm going to be relying and hoping on their ability to explore more instead of me pointing them in a specific direction (first time most have done this so not sure how well it will work out yet).
But here are the corruptions I've worked up, and yes mostly they make them stronger which I am factoring into how the game is going to go.

New Campaign at home! Mournlands Corruption

So I was asked by one of my friends if I would be interested in running a game again at my house.

I jumped at the idea of course (I haven't had the people to run anything lately) and after a few discussions we decided on running a D&D 3.5 game because that is what everyone is used to (and two of the people have only ever played that so far). We are probably going to play D20 Modern/Apocalypse afterwards but I need to look over the games before I try to run one.

So I like Eberron and I remember its history better than the other worlds so our game is going to be based there. I had an idea to start them off at Level 11, and they are going to be centered in the Mournlands. Basically the short version is that they are characters that were in Cyre on the day of mourning, and technically they died along with most everyone else when Cyre was destroyed.

The campaign begins with them waking up in the middle of the Mournlands without any memory or knowledge of what has transpired in the last four years, or even that four years have passed.

The main thing I’m doing that they are having fun with so far is that since they were present during the Mournlands creation and because something has mysteriously revived them, they have now been corrupted by the Mournlands energy.

I’m basically taking each class the players choose and I am giving them all a little twist in various fun ways. So far we have a Cleric, Barbarian, and a Witch. We have a fourth person but he hasn't decided on a character so far. Now, looking at these corruptions so far they make the characters more powerful, but the plan is to scale the enemies along with them to keep everything balanced.

The two examples I have right now are for the witch (slightly modified from Pathfinder for use in this game) and barbarian, plus the effects on all characters:

All Characters:

v  Potions found in the Mournland function normally for you, all others function half as well.

v  While in the Mournland, at the end of every round there is a 25% (this chance drops to 10% while outside the Mournland) chance that the spells cast during that round could possibly turn into living spells, if a cleric and wizard both cast a spell there is a chance the spells will merge to form a stronger living spell (ECS. 294) which lasts for 1hr per half its HD while in the Mournlands (this drops to 1rd per HD outside of the Mournland). You can attempt to gain control of the Living spell by making a Caster Level Check, whatever you roll is what the Living spell must beat with a Will save. If it fails this save then the caster can control it until it dissipates.

v  You take a -10 penalty to CHA based checks when dealing with people/creatures not corrupted by the Mournland.

Barbarians:

v  Barbarians are constantly raging, their rage works in reverse. Their daily rage uses calms them instead for a short time.

Witch:

v  Your patron has not been affected but the effects of the Mournland have affected your mind which manifests in the form of a second patron although it must be from this list: Death, Insanity, Plague, or Shadow. This second patron is only active and follows you around while you are in the Mournlands.

v  You also gain one new spell of each spell level but this extra spell must be pulled from the list of spells you secondary patron grants you.

v  Your familiar gets warped and grows to a medium size, and it also gains the Magebred template.

Day 30 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 30 - Best DM You've Had

A little pointless but I am excited nonetheless that I actually got through posting something with at least a little thought (not a lot though I suppose, but enough) every day this month, minus one day that I fell behind on.

As far as best DM that is a hard one as if we are talking about D&D only, then I've only every had two DMs so far and both were/are excellent DMs in their own ways. One is my father-in-law and the other is Eric over at Chronicles of Ganth, I have only been able to play with him once but he was an excellent and fun DM/GM (whichever) when I played.

If this isn't only focused on D&D then there are only two other people I've ever played with as them being DM/GM. Joe and Anthony are their names and me and my wife actually met them (and Joe's wife) through DDO amusingly enough.

Now with this ending I'll actually have to force myself to sit down and work on more things to post for my game.

Day 29 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 29 - What number do you always seem to roll on a D20?

Honestly I don't seem to roll just one number, it is usually a mid range number but that is about it as far as a constant goes.

Day 28 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 28 - A character you will never play ever again

Wow I think I did pretty good this is the only post I missed.
I've never played one but I also never will, but Rangers although interesting are something I will never be able to play.
They seem interesting enough, but other people I've played with have sort of ruined the class for me.

Day 27 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 27 – A Character You Want to Play In The Future

I've been playing a game when I get time called Dragon’s Dogma for the Xbox 360. There is an advanced vocation/class in the game called a Magick Archer that I love to play as. It is a character based on speed and magic which are my two favorites.

As sad as it is, I want to try to build a character that functions at least partially like that. I want to build a dual dagger wielding character that can hit and run fast, jump high, and dabble in a little magic possibly.

I haven’t taken the time yet to sit down and figure out the classes or feats or really anything to use yet but it looks like fun. The main weapons would be two Spell Storing daggers of some type. Silly to base a character off of a video game but the concept is definitely something I like.

Day 26 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 26 - Favorite Non-magic Item

Honestly I'm not sure on this one, I don't think I really have one.

About the closest I could get is usually if I'm playing a spell-caster of some kind and we fight a dragon, I will usually take some of the dragons scales to sew onto my robe. My father-in-law is the DM usually when I do this so he looks at me funny, but I find it entertaining and a form of claiming a prize for defeating it. It doesn't give any bonus besides as he usually says it will probably piss another dragon of that color off if we fight one again.

Day 25 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 25 - Favorite Magic Item

My favorite magic item isn't always that helpful, but if used in the right circumstances it can be a useful tool.
The Bag of Tricks is my favorite magic item for no other reason than it is fun. Being able to pull a ball of fur out, throw it a little ways away and it turn into a full grown animal that will help you is just fun.
And it makes a good tool if you pull the right creature out of the bag depending on the circumstances.

Day 24 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 24 - Favorite Energy Type

I'm not too picky about energy types although if I had to choose it would be cold. I like cold weather and the idea of an extreme cold that hurts is interesting.

Day 23 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 23 - Least Favorite Monster Overall

This one is easy as well, honestly I don't have a least favorite. I like to fight/pick monsters that are appropriate to the situation the characters are in. Mainly if it is an appropriate challenge for them or not, I will randomly throw monsters in that don't fit in the location exactly but the players I've had usually enjoy the randomness of it.

Day 22 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 22 - Favorite Monster Overall

Easily my favorite monster overall out of the monster manuals is the Tarrasque.

I've not gotten to fight one yet, and I've not gotten to use one in a game yet, but just the challenge of them makes the thought of fighting or having the characters fight one sound so fun.
I wouldn't even care if my character died in the challenge I would still thoroughly enjoy the chance to fight it.

Silly I'm sure but it just looks like so much fun.

Day 21 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 21 - Favorite Dragon Color/Type

Silver Dragons are by far my favorite type of dragon. I love the idea of a dragon that enjoys spending time with humanoid creatures. Out of the elements I like Cold which plays into some of the reason I like them.

Silver dragons gain alternate form instantly which makes them nice if one is in the party. My Kalashtar Psion Shaper had a Silver Dragon companion/cohort. It wasn't very big or all that greatly helpful at times but it was oh so enjoyable to have around.

Day 20 - 30 Day D&D Challenge!

Day 20 - Favorite Humanoid/Natural/Fey

Honestly I tried thinking about this one and I tried deciding my favorite out of these and I can't figure one out. There are quite a few that fall into this category that I like a lot (human, orc, pixie, lizardfold, etc...), so as a short answer I like most of the creatures in this category.

Favorite Monster Overall is a post I'm looking forward to as that one is an easy choice.