DW: TW6 Ep 0.5 – Session Confidential

Torchwood 6: New York
Episode 0.5
The Night Stalker – Part 1
Session Confidential

All in all, this session went rather well for my third time out. There were a few snags and possible changes I may make for future sessions.

First off, I tried using the Prologue bit as mentioned in the GMs book (I posted it in the session notes above). It wasn’t bad, at least in my opinion. However, one player stated she had the surprise ruined (mainly of whre they were going to end up. Though not sure how that’s a surprise since it was encountered ASAP) and a second had no opinion as he’s usually fairly ambivalent about such things.

Secondly, I overused the old woman one too many times. While there is some importance, I should have only used her twice rather than three times.

Lastly, the speed at which we progressed was a little faster than what I was hoping for. But we were under a time constraint and I’m still working out good pacing for a game like this. I had hoped there would be more investigation prior to the monster reveal. But, as we all know, games never go the way you’d plan for.

Fortunately, it seems the vote swung in favor of continuing with TW6 as the main bi-monthly campaign but we’ll need to wrap this up first. I should have the next session up around the same time next week.

DW RPG – TW6: NY – Episode 0.5 Part 1

Our third session of TW6 was run this past Saturday to allow a possible newcomer to try the system and decide if we’ll be running it as our primary campaign (Which we will be. Yata!). Since we were down a player from the previous session, I was able to explain his temporary write-out while the rest continued on and met a future member of the team. I also refered to this as Episode .5 as we still were not into the campaign proper as this was yet another intro session for new players.

So, without further ado, I present:

Torchwood 6: New York
Episode 0.5
The Night Stalker – Part 1

DW RPG – TW6: NY – Episode 0 Part 2

Arrowdown
Season 1, Episode 0
Part 2

So, our last session this past weekend saw some creative, albeit disgusting, use of random dice rolls.

When we last left the team, Ron and Bryan and taken off for the local radio station in order to try and create a counter signal to the broadcast controlling the autons while Harvey and Elsie found shelter in Monroe’s Cafe with a woman claiming to be part of Torchwood. For team Mythbuster (Ron and Bryan), their venture was fairly uneventful. However, this was the time they decided to be very creative in making defenses against the Autons. Using a bit of real world know how and some random dice rolls that played in their favor, the duo was able to rig up a makeshift flamethrower and arm themselves with some implements from the local hardware store.

DW RPG – Torchwood 6: NY Episode 0

As mentioned in my previous post, my Saturday gaming group has allowed me to live this past weekend after forgetting the game notes for our original plans.  I saved my hide by quickly procuring a copy of the new Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG put out by Cubicle 7.  Since character generation alone would not have been enough to satisfy them, and the fact that creating a charcter takes little time in terms of stats, we started making things up on the fly and came up with an interesting campaign idea.

Torchwood 6: New York City.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space

With the Xmas season finally behind us and a new year beginning, my gaming group has finally begun to reconvene on a regular basis.  Unfortunately, our first attempt to continue with an on-going 4e D&D game met with an unexpected mental roadblock.  Mainly my seemingly unlikely forgetting of my laptop (It’s a beast so I still am not sure how I missed it) which had the evenings adventure notes on it.

Eager for something to do (And desperate to save myself from a gaming-withdrawl induced lynching), I called up the only gaming store that may have been open (Thank you Netherworld Games for staying open past your close time for me!) and picked myself up a copy of Cubicle 7’s latest release, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (Also chosen because we were watching The End of Time on BBC America after we got there and the Who bug bit us).

And I must say, this is full of all kinds of enjoyable wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey goodness.

The Fellowship of the Broken Bonds Session 6

After a 2 month hiatus, the Fellowship campaign has finally continued.  Unfortunately, this time of the year always seems to be a busy one for myself and several players.  With Geek.kon in the fall and a number of other convention/holiday commitments during these months, we tend to find ourselves lacking in the gaming department.  But now, with Geek.kon done, hopefully the Fellowship campaign can begin to take off. 

Unfortunately, with these delays, I feel the campaign is still in that infant stage when things still have yet to click and the players take the driver’s seat.  Coupled with us learning 4e at the same time and it really feels like it’s dragging.  However, despite school and work commitments, I feel like I should be able to finish out the year as a GM before having to test the waters come the new spring school semester.  If we’re lucky, things should start to click and move on their own before then.

But anyway, on to the session.

The Great 4e Netbook

Back in the days of AD&D, I found myself browsing the internet in search of any information I could find to enhance my gaming experience.  One of the most common things I came by was what were refered to as Netbooks; collections of information made by fans for fans.  Everything ranging from new monsters, rules for the more mature players, and even a great netbook of equipment (My personal favorite) could be found.

But, as 3e began to loom over the horizon, I’d noticed Netbooks beginning to trail off hand in hand with 2e.  Perhaps I was just not as observant and missed a pluthera of 3e netbooks.  Perhaps netbooks went into hiding for a while.  Either way, they’re beginning to emerge once more with the emergence of 4th edition.  And what better way to celebrate their return than with a monster of a netbook!

While going about my daily browsing of the RPG Network, I came by Greywulf’s blog and an entry titled Is this the ultimate 4e D&D Netbook? I think so.  Curiosity beat me over the head and dragged me over to see just what this ultimate netbook was.  Now, as I type, I’ve not actually cracked the file open (Which can be found here for those interested).  But based on Greywulf’s description of it’s contents, it’s sounds like his title is true to form.

So go check out Greywulf’s blog entry and give the netbook a go.  Perhaps this is the dawn of the netbook’s return.

Or just a one off.  Either way, good work guys!

Also, a big thanks to Olik for all those years of hosting some of the greatest netbooks in 2e history.  Still use the Great Netbook of Equipment to this day.

The Fellowship of Fallcrest – Session 2

Like my game I ran the following day, this session was unfortunately short.  However, this was primarily due to the three new people making characters.  Needing a way to introduce these newcomers, I explained that they were part of a merchant caravan travelling from Winterhaven to Fallcrest.  Though the merchants have heard the bandit threat had ended, there were those who did not want to take any chances and hired on mercenaries.  Unfortunately, the merchant’s fears were confirmed as the caravan was ambushed and everyone was either captured or killed.

The Fellowship of the Broken Bonds Session 5

So, as the summer winds down and year end activities begin to creep up on us, our sessions will, unfortunately, become shorter and shorter.  This was one such session.

The last week ended with the rescue of an old dwarf spirit from his earthly vow to guard an old clan tomb.  Varrack, originally clanless, was made a member of the Ironcracker clan before the spirit left for Dwarfhome.  With the tomb resealed and everyone refreshed from a decent night’s rest, they resumed their trek down the tunnels in search of a way out.  Or at least a few answers to the body snatching.

Review: Dragon Magazine Annual

There are very few magazines out there I’d ever had, or wanted to have, a subscription to.  Dragon and Dungeon were two of them.  There was something enjoyable about grabbing your new copy, plopping down into a comfy chair, and pouring over what new articles, rules, humor, and other magical tidbits were inside.  And then WotC went digital.  Not my favorite of decisions made by them as that little piece of enjoyment was suddenly snatched away and replaced with pixels and light.

But, since I found myself a fan of the newest edition and wanted to keep up on the issues, I grabbed myself a DDI subscription and continued reading.  Some might wonder why, with a subscription to the digi copies, I would grab a copy of an article compilation I already had the articles for.   In some small way, I’d hoped to find that little happy place I would find myself going to with the old dead tree magazines.