Thoughts on Gaming III

Of all the various games I'd like to run: Ptolus re-hash (or just finish the original campaign), Exalted in all it's varieties although favorites here are straight up Solars, Dragon-Blooded "defenders of the Realm", Sidereals "The Office", and an all out high-XP "So the world came to the end last Tuesday", Rappun Athuk, Nobilis, and Forgotten Realms, nWoD "Stevens Point by Night" all being bandied about the one setting I'd like to run but really am not sure I could pull off is Blue Planet.

Yet I think Blue Planet reaches out to the widest non-gamer audience. It's hard science fiction so while it may push the boundaries it's not outside of the realm of belief. It also touches an area that at least locally people care a lot about and that's environmentalism. Now granted I am not a huge environmentalist so it took me awhile to realize that this might be a draw to people.

Think of it though, all those young bio and wildlife majors getting to game out their actual majors. I haven't got to do that although I might be able to ad-lib in Blue Planet as well. Maybe it's just that most of the games I've been in are fantasy and set in what would equivalents to the past. Of all the games above that I have listed only nWoD applies to modern/futuristic setting and that has strong fantasy elements to it. It's also darker which focuses on an odd crowd.

So anyhow maybe I can swing a Blue Planet game this summer. If I can stay focused enough to develop one that is.

City of Stone Gestalt 1 & 2

"Can I heal that?" - Josh and he couldn't

Luckily they meld well together. Sadly I am even worse with names in this game.
The party initially is: Myself as a Modron Urban Druid/Shadowcaster named Drego. Casey as a human Archivist/Savant named ?. Julie is the same elan wilder/barbian (minus 11 levels) as the Prospero Hall game. Teckla is the same blind human monk/psion as Prospero Hall named Mira. Mira and a new character played by Josh who is a human something from the Book of Nine Swords/Shaman (from Oriental Adventures) named ???.

The initial story is that Casey and myself are sent to escort Julie's character to a prison and then transfer two people back. We are joined by a young Sharice (Ray's legendary character). The party takes the sewers and the warden sends them down to the prison level. The prison is also a vineyard. The prison is deserted and the party moves slowly in. Shortly after getting down Julie's character escapes from her Shackles. Meanwhile Casey and I attempt to find the prisoners we are to transfer but are attacked by other prisoners. After making a hasty retreat back top the party overwhelms the current management and sets themselves up as new management. They then return to the prisons to retrieve their transferees.

The party frees Teckla and Josh's characters and are immediately attacked. Several characters take mental damage from strange mandibled creatures who then dissapear. Josh does manage to injure one and determines they can teleport. The party discovers most of the remaining prisoners are missing although they retrieve their transferees. However Teckla lets many of the prisoners go and the party is forced to go back and eventually they sneak up the service elevator while Teckla waits with the prisoners.

Teckla is attacked in the meantime and the party manages to rescue her but not before she is knocked out. They withdraw quickly back to ground level. Casey and myself opt to return our prisoners while the rest of the party tackles their various own causes.

We quickly learn we grabbed the wrong two guys. So we return and lock these two prisoners away upstairs. Almost immediately one of the people who is above ground is determined to be one of the needed men and is detained as well. Then the problem is to return below ground to find the Blessed of Pelor.

The expedition mark two goes badly. The creaures harry the party and cause Teckla to attack Julie and then Julie attacks back until Josh knocks her out. Teckla heads back out but becomes surrounded by the creatures but Josh rescues her. In the meantime Casey and myself investigate a hole and find it is a tunnel leading to the rest of the prisoners. We retrieve the Blessed of Pelor but leave the other two (who attacked Teckla). The rest of the party decides to investigate the tunnels and caverns further but find nothing but more of them leading off into the whereever. In the meantime Julie and Teckla opt to withdraw from the prison and the rest of quickly follow suit.

And thus it stands...

Prospero Hall 3

This will be really short cause this was a while ago.

Lowran wakes up in his bed feeling a little worse for wear. Mira is also bedded down but she remains asleep. Ironman and Julie's character return to the party eventually finding Prince Prospero. There they discuss current events and try to get information about the town and its situation. Prospero remains evasive about the situation outside. Eventually Lowran finds his way to the rest of the party and whilst Julie continues to attempt to learn more the two non-humans try to understand the debauchery-this level being the white level-going on around them. Prince Prospero joins their commentary before going off to attend other business.

Julie goes off to explore on her own after looking in on Mira whilst Ironman and Lowran go in a separate direction. They discover an aspiring artist who is very protective of his artwork. Unluckily for him Lowran is rather bullish and nosy and takes a look anyways. The artist attacks him until subdued by Ironman. Lowran attempts to damage the painting but finds it impervious to destruction so while Ironman pins him down Lowran takes the painting outside and sinks it with an anchor into the bay. Qual's Feather Token User #195b. It is unlikely it has any affect. For that matter Ironman does not succeed in do any damage to the artist either despite easily pummeling him. In lieu of this the two finally leave the poor artist and go back to the front entryway.

Julie's character encounters a ghost and then an odd painting. Finally she is attacked. She expends a fair amount of power and heads back to find the others.

Ironman and Lowran go back and attempt to free the people trapped in the crystals. Their attempts are interrupted by inevitables who seem to be protecting the crystals and/or the hall. Fighting them off the two manage to succeed in freeing several people who mostly turn on them. This and the inevitables eventually fell Lowran and then Ironman dies atop of him.

Julie's character arrives to see the battle but then opts to leave the two to die and wanders off.

After this session Carl opted to end this campaign. So we switched to a 1st level gestalt game in City of Stone.