Archive for 'Site News'

I am getting ready to attend my first gaming convention in quite some time this weekend. Megacon is held annually in Orlando, and it is my first time attending, as well as my first convention with my iPad. While I am not an “avid” gamer, I do enjoy role-playing in general. This convention, I have signed up for three separate games and am looking forward to each of them. I have signed up for two indie games, and a game of Shadowrun. Also, my friends and I are looking to take the opportunity to do some gaming on the day, Saturday. Nothing planned, but with my wonderful little friend traveling with me, I’ve brought a couple of eBooks with me, as well as some apps for visiting the area theme parks on my “off time”.

This should be quite interesting, as I’ve only ever played D&D with others using the iPad, and only as the game master. Now, I will be on the other side of the screen and enjoying my hobby for the first time using my tablet device, so this should be interesting. Going in to the event, my main concern is for wifi connectivity, mainly because I use Dropbox for syncing and sharing files with my fellow gamers at home.

If I had been playing D&D, I would definitely be looking towards apps or iplay4e in order to properly play directly from the iPad in place of lugging around me character sheets and books. It’s Friday morning of the convention and I am getting excited to test out the device on the convention floor.

As the year rolls around to 2011, I am here and looking at the quaint little stateof my blog. It has beena pretty decent year and the blog has had a fairly low key number of visitors in year two. The blog has had a great influx of visitors when I post on topics related to what is relevant over at several sites that I follow, key among them the Wizards and Gnome Stew sites. I have branched out a bit on topics and most of my blog posts have featured cintent that could be multi-game centric. This means that I have looked at the topic from the vantage of running more thanjust a D&D game (e.g., Shadowrun, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu or other role-playing games). The tools that I use are cross-functional across both games and genres. I look at these games and try to consolidate down to running a convention game. Most of my session material is meant to run an average game session of three hours in length, but also incorporate the session with open hooks for my players.

Most sessions, I incorporate three to five hooks for my players. These hooks allow me to find pointsof future interest for my players. Between these hooks and existing loose ends, I am able to incorporate three to seven plot hooks into a given session. And as always, I look to run from the smallest platform possible. I enjoy running from my iPad. It’s something I look to do more oftenin 2011. This year, I have resolved to post more about my efforts to run from my iPad and the pitfalls and hurdles that I have overcome to achieve it.

Having recently acquired a copy of the Eberron Player’s Guide, I’ve set about to see what I can incorporate into my Home Game.  Going through the book, there is a lot of interesting things to take in.  One thing that was quite noticeable (and somewhat of a disappointment) was the book’s overall size.  Weighing in at 160 pages, the EPG is one of the thinner 4th Edition books released.  The book’s layout and content though makes up for the lack of girth.0

The book looks quite interesting as far as content, especially as the majority of the book deals with information that is completely relevant to the Players and their Characters.  The book does a very good job of incorporating the newer 4th Edition components in to the original 3rd Edition setting. I was quite pleased with the incorporation of the previous story elements from Eberron and how they were adapted in to the 4th Edition.

Some of the more enjoyable points of interest is the inclusion of the the 4th Edition Races.  The EPG lays out information for the inclusion of the races from both the Player’s Handbook 2 (PHB2), the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide (FRPG) and the  Dragon articles.  The setting history relies heavily on the goblinoid races, so the major focus from the EPG is on the monsterous races published in the Dragon magazine.

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1954 7up ad

Originally uploaded by sunset flame

From everyone here at the Maiden’s Head, have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!  Whether you are getting ready to barbecue or just settling down for an all-day frag fest with friends, we hope that you enjoy this weekend.  Also remember to take some time and remember the reasons we celebrate:

“All I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality in which they originated.“

- George Washington, 1st Inaugural Speech

So, I’ve been running my 4th Edition Eberron game since the release of 4th Edition in June, 2008.  The game has hit a couple of snags but the players have been real troopers in the entire process.  The biggest snag has been trying to re-create the rules from 3rd Edition into 4th Edition.  Thankfully the players have been patient in their use of “Eberron Exclusive”.  This June marks one year of running, as well as the new release of the Eberron material for 4th Edition.

I am really looking forward to the treatment of Eberron in 4th Edition.  I must admit I’ve not read through the “re-boot” of the Forgotten Realms and haven’t read any material since the setting saw the introduction of Elminster and Drizzt was but a twinkle in the eyes of R.A. Salvatore.  What I have read has been limited to the write-ups on Backgrounds in the the Campaign Guide and the Location Write-up.  Decent material, but nothing that screams to me “you must play this setting”.

With the publishing of the Eberron Guide, I’m looking to bring the Outsiders front and center into the campaign world.  The party of players has rounded out and the increase in numbers has created some welcome complexity to the characters and to the setting.  I’ve been tempted on the next steps for the campaign and am really torn as to which faction from the 3rd Edition will move to be my BBG (Big Bad Guy) in 4th Edition.  All in all, the players are really trying to figure out who the good guys are and where the next attack is coming from.

The next couple of sessions should really help me work out the whole meta-plot that I am running behind the scenes and maybe see the introduction of elements from past “favorite” settings of mine, such as Spelljammer, Call of Cthulhu, 7th Seas and Fading Suns elements.  The game and 4th Edition are turning out to be a real interesting boon to me and gaming.  I do however wish I had a recurring opportunity to play on occassion.  The group seems good and eager to deal with my whims as a GM.  Likewise, I’m keen on keeping them interested in the setting and playing.

As part of my on-going home game, I’ve been working with the players to give them the option for more variety in the game sessions.  As a group we are all new to 4th Edition.  I wanted to offer my players a method where they could play around with trying out all the possible combinations that they would like to enjoy without them feeling penalized as far as Experience and Treasure being gained by the group and that their respective characters would have as far as equipment.

In order to remedy this we’ve been working on a couple of “house rules”.  First, for characters that come in new, they are generated per the rules in the DMG for starting above 1st level.  Second, for PCs that are “sent off on side missions”, they lose all equipment and gold and can not come back into active play until the group advances a level.  Those characters that go on these “side quests” come back with magic items and gold equivalent to a character starting at the same level per the DMG.

Just getting things back at the ranch in order.  Flipping through my copy of Open Graves and Martial Powers in preperation for my next game.  Hopefully will be an interesting new twist to the previous installments of the story.

Have been reading around on the interwebs for some inspiration and I think I have a couple of interesting themes to incorporate into the game.  The players are really psyched about the concept of an “Avengers” style PC pool, where they can select a PC as needed and the entire pool progresses at the same rate.  I really think it’s an interesting concept and will bring about some interesting options for them in the game.

Will have to wait and see, as the first game will be upcoming and should be a good laugh.

Okay, having the itch to change the content management system I’ve been using.  Just migrating everything over to WordPress, and should have everything up and ready by Monday.