Recent Entries

Okay, that was annoying

I sometimes get together with a particular DM for an improv game of Dungeon World. It’s arranged via MeetUp, so we rarely have any of the same people each time. Last time I did this, someone attended and said he was going to play Arya Stark from Game of Thrones.

This is wasn’t a case of just adapting the thief character sheet to make a character like the one he watches on TV, he kept her background, all her motivations anything he could. The DM is very talented and worked it all into the story even though this adventure was not taking place in Westeros.

There’s nothing really wrongg with this approach. At least I know that intellectually, but I feel weird about it, like he cheated somehow.

If I was running a game and people wanted to do that, I think it would be more fun for everyone e if everyone played a TV or movie character from a different show.

Thoughts?

New Game

Anyone played 7th Sea? Looking for tips and tricks.

World of Warcraft: looking for a good, witchy, spoopy folk guild

I'm looking for a good guild and figure it can't hurt to reach out for the kind of environment I want - inclusive feminist, LGBT friendly at minimum.
My pie-in-the-sky guild would be folks who frequent PantheaCon, too. Any witches playing WoW and have a guild/coven, or want to start one? Not RP, I mean actual.. well.. technopagan types. =)
My main isn't fully geared, and I need to finish some basic encounters and instances, totally willing to join up with folks in the same boat and get us all into raiding quality shape.

Eclipse Phase?

I recently stumbled across Eclipse Phase, and the idea of a transhuman space-faring RPG really intrigued me. Has anyone else had experience running it? I haven't seen much about it online other than on their official forums.

Pre-Gen Characters

So, I'm at a bit of a lost. One of my D&D groups changed meeting days and times and I had to bow out because Friday is Date Night and I don't see a lot of my boyfriend during the week. I'm bummed as I like the people in the group and I was fond of my character and at 5th level in 5e, things start getting good.

I found this group through MeetUp, but the latest meetings posted all have pre-gen characters and I'm just not wild about the idea. I've played with pre-gen at a convention and it was okay, but even when you know the system it takes a while to get acquainted.

Thoughts?

Anyone here play Rust?

Looking for players for my server. It's little right now (25 player cap, 2500 proc map) but am willing to expand it if needed. Trying to create a place where people can raid and murder without the toxic gamer culture BS that seems to go hand in hand with sandbox shooters, so reaching out to women and minorities to form an initial player base alongside my usual friend group.

Servers are wiping on Thursday but you are quite welcome to come visit beforehand.

play.arbtserver.net:28015

Kingdom Death: Monster a better feel for things

So I died twice in the game yesterday. Actually, the first party all died during the first lion hunt. It was, indeed, brutal. While hunting down the lion, we were pelted with acid rain that hurt us all severely even before we encountered the monster. Add to that a nasty card from the lion's deck called Clever Ploy that negates your hits, gets you attacked, and then gets shuffled back into the deck. We were pretty much doomed when the card came up the second time, and the third? I think that's when someone's head exploded. Two of us already had cerebral hemorrhages by that time.

We had decapitations, another head explosion, and the party was dead as doornails. Back to the village, were there was more population to make characters of. Two died by committing suicide together. The weight of this crazy, uncaring world was just too much for their delicate sensibilities.

The different phases take a while, partly because it's hard to learn so many new things at once. We finally figured out that if one person read from the book and another manipulated the many decks of cards, things went a lot smoother.

Combat can be really discouraging. You roll to hit, but then you roll to see IF you do damage. A hit doesn't automatically do damage, unless you throw some weapons, which then is an automatic critical. Take my advice, if you get to ambush the monster, make sure there's a critical in that first attack. It will make a huge difference.

I do like that the cards used by the monsters in combat will vary from hunt to hunt. I don't want to play a game where I know all the things that are going to happen.

The only thing that made me twitch was when one character was assigned the impairment of Binge Eating Disorder. That hit a hot button for me, as I have that, and I felt the concept was perverted in the game.

Other than that, I'm having a fabulous time at it. There were a lot of laughs, nobody got really upset when they died. We all went insane. I don't know that I'd spend the money on the full game, but I'll enjoy playing, especially if we manage to survive with a village of six.

I can keep up with these updates if people are interested. I'd really love to see this group active again. If not, no worries.

Kingdom Death: Monster

So I tried the game last weekend, but I don't know that I got a real feel for it. It ended up with 8 people at the gathering, and that's way too many. KDM is best with 4. They have rules for expanding up to 6, but it basically means 2 people get killed really quickly and you're back down to 4.

Due to time constraints, we only played one scenario each. The first group that played killed a lion, but they lost a few people. This meant they had to decide what their culture did with the dead. The choices were bury or eat. They chose to eat them. Fire has not yet been discovered.

My group killed the lion, though not easily. We did do it without deaths, which was nice.

The game play is interesting. You need some d10, and the target rolls are on the cards related to the monster's attack. The more you hit it, the more you can remove attacks from the monster's playbook (which is a deck of cards).

Overall, my first impression is that the game is really well written. Starting everyone off with only a loincloth for armor seems hardly necessary and an excuse to have hypersexualized female art.

The miniatures are detailed and those who like miniatures are going to love them. I've never cared about them all that much.

Will be trying again in a few weeks. Meanwhile, I'm going to upgrade my D&D 4e campaign to 5e. We're using Roll20 because I moved away from the main group. Still some kinks to be worked out, but combat should go much quicker.

Anybody home?

I've been invited to try Kingdom Death: Monster this weekend and the reviews I've read haven't really given me an idea of the game play. The questions I don't see answering:

How long does a turn take?
Will I be bored when other people are taking their turns?
How challenging is it playing a civilization vs playing a single character in other games?
How much crap do I need to keep track of?
Is it truly cooperative or is it cooperative until it gets competitive?
If I fall behind, is it possible to catch up or am I genuinely and totally fucked?

Anyone played? Bueller? Bueller.......

Calling creative brains

I created a D&D world where the old pantheon of gods was banished by a new pantheon. The old gods are going to return. It's a much bigger pantheon and I need more gods and/or demigods. I've created a few, I asked the players to create some, but I need more. Anyone want to help? Go crazy. Human appearances are north required. Please include:

Name
Appearance
Domains
Alignment (good/neutral/evil)

Example:

Sujata
Young brown-skinned woman with dark curls
One of three goddesses of magic (there's a neutral and evil goddess of magic already)
Good

Any and all help will be appreciated

Twisted Island: Multi Fandom Game

Twisted Island

The playground of the forgotten goddess.

Toto, this doesn't quite seem like Kansas anymore. The island is far from the world you remember. This isn't your home, this isn't even Earth from as far as you can tell. But why? How did you get here? It seems the whims of an unknown and forgotten goddess has decided to make you her plaything, dragging you from your world and timeline and placing you on an inescapable island. Welcome to Twisted Island, where anything can happen and it usually does.

The island changes with the mood of the goddess. It’s her playground and you are one of the very many toys in it. But you’re not alone. There are others stuck on the island just like you and if you’re lucky the goddess didn't just steal you away, but friends and family you know as well. Best idea though? Make friends, powerful friends. Make sure there are people to watch your back because when the island starts to change, you're going to need every little bit of help you can get.

Will you survive, or will you give up and break under the pressure? Apply and become one of the many playthings that the goddess loves to toy with on Twisted Island. Only canon characters are allowed. The game will start May 10, 2015. Go check out the Wanted Characters or Holds page and get your application in!

Game will start on May 10th. APPLY TODAY.

NAVIGATION

Player Contact |

Player Status | Dropbox |

Friends Button | Calendar
In Game Information | Timeline Recap | Code Page | Tags

Twisted Island

Twisted Island

The playground of the forgotten goddess.

Game will start on May 10th. APPLY TODAY.

NAVIGATION

Player Contact |

Player Status | Dropbox |

Friends Button | Calendar
In Game Information | Timeline Recap | Code Page | Tags

Fanfics based on video games

Some that I wrote recently:

Software Bride: *Mute / female Investigator. Rewrites the ending of Analogue: A Hate Story to explain why you're married to her at the start of Hate Plus. Content note: All The Feels.
Xcom: A Hate-ful Aperture Science Story: A crack fic based on the 2012 remake, where most of Xcom's personnel get replaced with AIs ... much to female!Commander's chagrin. Features characters from Analogue, Hate Plus, and (of course) Portal.
Analogue: A Hate Story: A complete fanfiction adapt of Christine Love's transhumanist sci-fi visual novel. Features cosplay, patriarchy, and cute AI girls who may or may not be mass murderers. Software Bride, above, is also the final chapter of this story.

Feedback and/or flames are appreciated! Or at least the former ~

Anyone else have recommendations?

Twisted Island

Twisted Island

The playground of the forgotten goddess.

Game will start on May 10th. APPLY TODAY.

NAVIGATION

Player Contact |

Player Status | Dropbox |

Friends Button | Calendar
In Game Information | Timeline Recap | Code Page | Tags

Marshals & Myrmidons

Not sure if this is allowed but... It's tons of fun. The creator of the game was the teacher in charge of my high school's gaming society over 15 years ago and this game was everyone's favorite and now they are trying to make it available to everyone.

Marshals & Myrmidons (M&M) is a new spin on the old RPG's. Instead of rolling the dice, you spin the wheels.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1463321520/marshals-and-myrmidons-adventure-game

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Doctor Who Christmas Special

Into the Underdark: soliciting ideas

Hi all,

Still DMing 4e, same homebrew world though with a different party, with a different short-term goal. Circumstances are sending them to the Underdark to rescue a kidnapped mage.

So, this is my opportunity to create yet another culture, this one generally ruled by evil. I did, however, want to put my own stamp on things.

Since I know plenty of players who will play a Drow who is of good alignment or at least neutral, I wanted to work that in. At the same time, I envision a culture that is very much every sentient being for his or herself. So, I'm including some of the following elements and I'd love to have more.

Very mercenary attitude. First and foremost, "What's in it for me?"
Strength is power. The more tattoos and piercings you have, the more you can tolerate pain, therefore you are seen as stronger.

Helping the weak is seen as weakness
Extreme classism
The law is to be followed yes, but it is also to be bent into Alexandrian knots to make it serve one's purposes

Money is also power, so greed isn't a sin, it's a necessity

There will be slavery. There isn't much that is more evil than that.

Trigger warning / content note for Final Fantasy XIV

The good news is, FFXIV has some really good, powerful female NPCs, and almost all of the gear that female player characters can wear is reasonable. Whether for warding off attacks (for melee characters), or for running around outside in the snows of Coerthas or underground in a cold and damp dungeon (for mages).

The bad news is it's pretty much saturated with sexism and rape references, to the point where it feels like any female NPC who can be threatened with harassment will and most of them read like they were written by a man who thinks it is hilarious.

I've compiled a list of somewhat spoileriffic examples here, for anyone who wants to gauge their personal comfort level.

Why aren't we talking about . . .

#gamergate?

The best summary I've seen to date comes from
Jim Hines

One of my conservative friends (who I butt heads with on a regular basis) is on the side of, "it's about ethics in journalism," which I find confusing. I haven't seen any proof of unethical behavior anywhere."

What are your thoughts?

I could use some input

I'm running a D&D 4e campaign, six players, home-brewed world. I am having a difficult time getting the party to role-play. I've given them openings for discussion, like long rides or time curled up around the campfire. I've introduced characters they can ask questions of, I've given extra XP for good roleplaying. That gets touchy because one of the best roleplyers is my boyfriend.

Two others of the party are fantastic role players. Another is great at it if he can be coaxed out of Quiet Mode (if you met his older brother, you'd understand).

The big problem is the "leader" of the party. He's great at conceptualizing--he made a nifty character--but his follow-through sucks. The player's personality isn't chock full of leadership, and it's the same for the character.

Any suggestions?

Shadowrun 5 impressions

I'm new to Shadowrun, and after a lot of fussing about putting my character together, learning the HeroLab application the Overthinkers finally had a session.

Good things and bad things. I like the world building, I like the die system (and hey, an excuse to buy new dice!). I like the variety of characters you can play. It's a bit odd for me to have elves and trolls in a post-modern world, just like it's new to me to play a game with both magic and tech (though I certainly read enough urban fantasy to be familiar with the concept).

I didn't think much of the canned adventure, however. Very little room for team building and character development. The small quests led to the conclusion in a disturbingly linear fashion. The clues to tie the mini-quests together were embarrassingly obvious.

We have a couple of trolls in the group, two elves (one that my character has dubbed "Princess) and two humans. Two of the guys are playing women, the other woman is playing a woman and I'm playing Sloan.

I got Sloan's name from a character in two very different books. One is the best interrogator in Minneappolis from John Sandford's Prey series. Even his wife calls him Sloan. The other is from Seanan McGuire's Indexing, and the character is badass, has questionable ethics and is always a hair away from exploding into an evil stereotype.

And I thought it would be a nice way to stretch myself if I played a character of, not the opposite sex, but of no discernible sex at all. Sloan is of medium height, medium build, flat-chested, low waist-hip ratio, dresses androgynously, and is a touch anti-social. High praise from Sloan is, "You might be all right."

My boyfriend's character (this would be Princess) was polite enough to ask what pronouns Sloan prefers. The answer was, as you might guess, "Sloan." It's going to be difficult for the others to write mission reports. One of the trolls refers to Sloan as "it." That gets him an eyeroll and a comment similar to "don't be an arse."

One of my recent D&D characters was a woman in the military who worked intelligence missions, there wasn't much time for other kinds of fun. Another wore cloth armor in battle, and stylish dresses the rest of the time. She was also known to enjoy a cup of tea in a fancy cafe if one was about.

How have y'all played off-gender? What did you get out of it. Any thoughts on Shadowrun?