A Trip Down Memory Lane….

Or “How I Learned to Stop Playing 4e and Love Pathfinder”

So it seems I am not along on my trek across the desert to the promised land of “plagues, floods, and pillars of mother@##$%ing salt“.  By this, I mean my departure from the 4e ship and boarding the good ship Pathfinder.  Come with me, if you will, on a trip down memory lane….

TRPBTNTWA: My Take and Return to the Blogsphere

Recently, I’ve found my creative side slowly waking back up since it started to hibernate after I lost my job in December.  Looking back, I had about 1-2 posts after that and then, blogging, like a number of things when that unemployment depression sets in, just sort of fell to the wayside despite having more than enough time to write.  But, with the advent of a new Pathfinder campaign starting up and the possible rebirth of my old 4e campaign (converted to Pathfinder – more on that later), I’ve decided to try my hand once more and see if I can’t keep the ball rolling here.

But, to start things off slow and to show I do still pay heed to the comings and goings of the blogsphere, I thought I’d chime in on a subject that has recently been making its way throughout gaming blogs: “Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About” as initially mentioned by Noisms over at Monsters and Manuals.

Paizo/Wizkids Miniatures Announcement

This was just posted by the folks at Troll In The Corner but I also wanted to share it here In case no one has a link to their blog (Which now you do.  so go read their stuff.  It’s a great blog).  I just hope they follow through with releasing them as full sets and not randomized booster boxes.  Many around my table always hoped WotC would realize the possibilities of miniature sets, but, never really expected much to come from it.

Anywho, the Press Release posted by Troll In The Corner after the cut.

D&D Encounter: Dark Legacy of Evard (Sessions 1 and 2)

So, I’ve finally made a concentrated effort to attend regular sessions at one of my FLGSs for the weekly D&D Encounters adventures.  I tried it back in January but, since becoming a bit more on the lazy side thanks to unemployment, I’d failed to make a return trip until recently.  I believe what prompted this was my experience with 4e Essentials and my sudden love of the system (At least compared to what I refer to as 4e Core.  I don’t hate 4e Core, I just like Essentials a smidge more).

Anywho, I’ve been able to start into encounters at the start of a brand new season which kicks off with The Dark Legacy of Evard, a so-far interesting Shadowfell tale.  Given the nature of the Encounters sessions, our first session had a different group of adventurers than my second.  What I recall of  our merry band included a Dwarven Cleric, a half-orc Paladin(?), a couple of spellcasters of some kind, and myself, a non-copyright infringing Drow Ranger (Hunter).  The second consisted of a Human Cleric, a Drow Hexblade, a Human Binder, an Elven Mage, myself, and a Human Paladin.

So, here is a brief summary of those sessions as told by Urdithane, Drow Hunter extraordinaire.

D&D Encounters: An Experience

So, here I sit, in the parking lot of Dominos, my head still floating about after the events of today. Or, should I say ‘Encounter’ today. I’d finally been able to make it to a session of Dungeons and Dragons: Encounter at Pegasus Games, one of several FLGSs in Madison, and it was, well, painfully fun.

So, there I sat in anticipation, freshly made fighter in hand, my D&D Essentials virginity waiting to be taken. Promptly, the GM and players arrived; a friendly lot that I would enjoy playing another session with. The map for tonight’s encounter was set up, the previous session details reviewed (Having not been a part of that, it was nice to see what transpired beforehand), and we were underway.

Now, this is where the pain begins.

[DW: AiT&S] Xivitan Andrix

Scoundrel, Rogue, Cad, Charmer, Swindler, Thief.

These are the words typically used to describe Xivitan Andrix, a Grigacian and former Time Agent turned criminal.  How he came to this life after being a respectable member of the Time Agency is still a whirlwind of jumbled thoughts and faded memories.  But Xiv would not have it any other way. 

“Give me the clothes on my back, a handful of credits from the pockets of that gent over there and a ship to steal away on, and life is alright by me.”

[DW: AiT&S] Lt. Lucy Powell

The daughter of Corporal Beverly Powell (UNIT Historian from The Stalker of Norfolk webcomic), Lucy grew up hearing stories about The Doctor from her mother and friends.  Hearing the story of how her mother actually travelled back in time and met Robert Dudley fascinated her at a young age.  That adventure and other stories of this strange and amazing man fill her young mind like fairy tales of old.

[DW: AiTS] My Dr Who Xmas Special

So, taking a break from my attempt to write the summaries for the last two D&D sessions we’ve had (I’m actually stuck at the beginning, gonna try to get some details from my players later), I’ve decided to put together and post my pre-gens for a possible upcoming Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space adventure I’ll be running Christmas night. 

I’ve recently been bitten by the Who bug again and have had quite the urge to try the system out once more.  Fortunately, with the airing of the Dr Who Xmas episode on BBC America christmas night, a friend of mine is planning a small shindig to eat, drink and watch the episode.  He mentioned we could also play the RPG afterwards which got my mind racing and my inner Who geek squealing with delight. 

However, knowing how long it can take my players to make characters they enjoy playing, I’ve decided to get the jump on them and provide them with some hopefully decent pre-gen characters they can use.  This will also help me tailor the adventure to them without having to either wait another week or try to wing it from scratch.  I’d prefer a few more sessions of this game under my belt before making that attempt.

So, to share in my Who fandom and my love for Cubicle 7′s RPG, I’ve decided to share the four pregens I’ll have available (Don’t think we’ll have more than that playing).  I’ll be making separate posts for each providing what background pops into my head as well as their game stats for anyone else to take and use as they see fit in their own Dr Who campaigns.

So, without further ado, I present to you the cast of my one-shot Dr Who episode (title pending).

[4e] My new Campaign (Name pending)

Though I thought to have mentioned this in an earlier post, my reboot of the Company of the Combustable Commode campaign has died.  Due to rules conflicts and some balance issues/concerns on my part, we, as a group, felt it was best to end the campaign with a degree of civility and move on.  We didn’t want the campaign to degenerate and leave people with bad memories and feelings about a campign group they had such fun with years ago.

So, given our recent, albeit brief, forays into 4th Edition and my urge to try it out in more detail, we decided to take that 100 year leap in Realms history and start a new campaign, set in the same Realms universe as the old CotCC game. 

[4e] Duom Proficiency (How not to poke your eye out) Pt 2

Last night I showed the first draft to a friend to has a thing for number crunching and he pointed out a few important things I overlooked in designing this series of feats.  Also, after making some changes he pointed out, I noticed a few other issues with what I initially designed.