Last weekend was fun. I met with several friends and played a lot of games. Paradise!
The weekend began on Friday afternoon withthe Living Greyhawk adventure War of the Dust. The adventure involved wilderness adventuring, dungeon-crawling, some role-playing, and a bunch of combat. My players love the combat part.
What really distinguished this adventure from the others were the way that the terrain played a big part in making the combats different from each other. There was aerial combat, a combat in the mountains (with slopes and rubble), and a combat underground in confined spaces. All of this I was modelling on my battlemap with my D&D Miniatures figures. Very useful they were, too!
The end of the module could have been a huge role-playing encounter, but the paladin stayed very true to his vow and suddenly it was over. 5 hours of gaming, and the PCs were heroes!
Then I went with Sarah and Daniel to their house to see where I’d be gaming on Saturday; and ended up playing some games of Killer Bunnies and the Search for the Magic Carrot. I don’t think I recommend this game highly enough. It’s very silly and very amusing. I still haven’t won a game, though. That will have to change!
Saturday afternoon I had planned to run a session of the old AD&D classic, Against the Cult of the Reptile God. A couple of the players that should have been at the session weren’t, but another old friend of ours turned up and filled the place. My friends have never played AD&D (1st edition) before, so creating characters took longer than it should have. They gained much entertainment from the archaic form of the game – though not often in the way that the 1e supporters would appreciate.
“Females have a maximum Strength? Huh?” Sarah almost said, when creating an elf fighter/magic-user.
Eventually, we were all ready. Sarah, Ben and Daniel had two characters each, and Mick had one. Into the village of Orlane they went, seeking the Evil Wizard of the Woods and the Source of the Killer Alligators of the Swamp. So, of course, the first place they went was to the inn that was run by the evil cultists…
One long combat later, the PCs were victorious, and none of them had died! This was especially surprising given that Daniel’s druid had 1 hit point. Dinner was beckoning, so we ate.
I was lacking somewhat in sleep, so after the pizza, we decided to instead play some other games: Munchkin (that’s one I own, and a great game it is), and Zombies! (Another game Sarah owns, and equally excellent). Unfortunately, I lost both games.
Everyone else left at that point, and I kept saying that I was about to leave… but the lure of my Magic: the Gathering cards kicked in, and Sarah and I sat up to near midnight playing game after game. I’ve now been playing the game for eleven years – I still love it. Although D&D is my first love, and I do so much to promote D&D Miniatures, when it just comes down to a fun game, Magic is too good. (I won most of the games, btw).
Sunday is the day of my regular World of Greyhawk campaign, of which I’ve written more elsewhere. Of late, I’ve run a regular RPGA scenario beforehand. This week was the turn of a Star Wars RPG game in the Living Force campaign. The players and I had a great time. Star Wars is one of those games that, regardless of the edition, I have fun playing. It was a well-written adventure as well – Force Convention, the third of the Forces of Cularin trilogy.
After that, finding that I’d left some of the pieces to Settlers of Catan at home (arrrggghhh!!!), I introduced my friends to the game Diplomacy. I was first introduced to Diplomacy during my university days and I haven’t played since. As that is now ten years or more behind me, I wanted to see what they thought. They liked it.
Diplomacy is an interesting game. It’s like a simultaneous game of Chess with six other people, and where backstabbing is the rule. I’d forgotten a lot of the strategy of the game, and Gofa seemed to pick it up fairly quickly. Although Diplomacy really requires seven players, it can be played with fewer – especially when they’re just learning. We only played for an hour or so, but enough to see that I need to practise more!
We finished the weekend’s gaming with our regular D&D Greyhawk campaign. The PCs were stuck down the bottom of a dungeon, low on hit points and spells, and with Hill Giants coming after then. Unfortunately for the Killer DM in me, they escaped – freeing an imprisoned eladrin and then getting him to teleport the rest of them out.
The Greyhawk campaign’s been in an odd place, recently. The group has been undergoing a change in membership and that always discomforts me. As a result, I’d prepared less than I really needed to and so the session was lackluster. We discussed what the group wanted to do after the session. It seems they want to (a) find a relic and (b) have a wilderness adventure.
Hmm. Perhaps this would be the proper time to use Sandstorm?
I’ll be inviting Daniel and Sarah to the next session; we’ll rearrange the times to suit them better. This weekend is only my Eberron game.
Oh, I’m also performing with the Ballarat Choral Society in their autumn concert this Sunday – Autumn and Spring. We’re singing a lot of German songs by Brahms and the Schumanns, and there’ll be some piano music as well. I love singing – it should go well.