My Favorite NPC - Balthazar

Hey, readers!

So, I'm a part of an organization now called the Role-Playing Blog Alliance which is sort of a centralized hub for blogs about the hobby which gives you free advertising and stuff. It's pretty cool. One of the things I noticed on there was something called a 'Blog Carnival' where a blog puts up a topic and everyone that wants to makes a post about that topic.

In the interest of ranting about random topics, as I thoroughly enjoy doing, I decided to throw my hat into the ring!

This month's topic is 'My Favorite NPC.' Now, as someone with near Perma-GM syndrome, this is kind of tricky, because I haven't really played in games long enough to find an NPC that I really, truly enjoyed interacting with. Not to say that there haven't been some great ones, but none that I would elevate to the status of 'My Favorite'.

Of course, I could just be a derp and maybe this topic also includes NPC's you've created and ran, but I digress.

I'm going to cheat a little.

The first D&D campaign that I ran in college was a real treat to run, and at some point I'll probably elaborate more on it, but there came a time where I really wanted to play. So, a friend of mine said that she wouldn't mind running the game for a while and we changed guard. The NPC I am going to describe first showed up during the segment where I was playing, but I decided to bring him back and make him an important part of the plot when I got back in the GM chair after my character's touching death via sacrifice.

Without further ado, let me introduce you all to...

Balthazar

Origin:

Balthazar's origin came at a time where a lot of my player's wanted a nemesis of some kind. My friend Harry, who was playing a Samurai, wanted to have an Oni that killed his mother involved in the plot somewhere, so I allowed that for a bit. Then, my friend Jean, who was playing a Revenant Assassin in service to the Raven Queen, wanted a nemesis of his own. I didn't get a lot of details other than a name, and that he was a former Assassin of the Raven Queen who left the order.

My friend Ellen took the game over for a bit while her character was trapped in a pocket dimension. Fun, right? Well, anyway, she first introduced the character as someone who was working with a mysterious figure known as 'The Occultist' who worked for the bad guys. He didn't have a lot of depth, just a bad-ass Eladrin assassin leading a twisted family of monstrous freaks. We didn't see too much of him.

When I got the reins back, I decided that Jean's nemesis didn't get enough screen time, so the wheels in my head started to turn, and I planted him at a most inopportune moment as a sort of off-the-cuff, unplanned way to prevent my party from doing something nearly suicidal. They were about to go kill a dragon on top of a mountain, who had a macguffin and was also the creator of the Dragonborn in my world. Only one problem, though. If a Dragonborn is hit by this dragon's fire, they turn into ash instantly, since that was the fire that created them. We had two Dragonborn in the party, too, so this was potentially going to be a disaster.

So, there to warn them about the dragon's fire and tell them that there's a way to make the fight much easier was Balthazar. Now, I'm an impressionist, so I enjoy doing cool, strange voices for my NPCs/characters. Somehow or other, by fate or chance, the more I talked as Balthazar, the more he started to sound like a certain celebrity. Not a particularly famous celebrity, mind you, but one that is close to my heart.

John de Lancie.

(I actually met him and shook his hand!!)

And, thus, Balthazar was born.

Appearance:

So, Balthazar is an Eladrin in a world where most of the Eladrin were corrupted into Orcs for messing with the Gods and the ones that remained had some weird sort of destiny. As such, he looks like an elf pretty much, tall and lanky with the pointed ears. Except, I picture him as a little taller and lankier than most, almost skeletal in his appearance but he tries to hide that with his clothing and mannerisms. Long silvery hair cascades down his features, very fine with an almost glittering quality to it. Since Eladrin are practically immortal, or else incredibly long lived, he still has a youthful face, but his piercing blue eyes carry the weight of a thousand years.

Personality:

This is where Balthazar becomes fun. Since the voice started to sound like John de Lancie, I decided to go full-out impressionist and mimic his voice, which lends itself obviously to the 'Q'-like mannerisms. In almost an instant, this originally rather flat NPC became someone the party loved to hate. He always had a snide comment, a taunting air of superiority with a twinge of boredom because, after living so long, he has experienced almost everything. Balthazar is a man looking for his destiny that was apparently promised to him by the Gods, and his search has brought him into almost every profession and walk of life to no avail. He possesses an Ecclestiastian mentality that everything is meaningless in the view of mortality and death, and there is nothing he loves more than tearing down the hopes and beliefs of those around him, playing Devil's Advocate to every position because he knows better. In fact one of his most memorable quotes was the following:

"I love destroying religion. That's why I pick on the little one." - Balthazar, in regards to a young cleric in the party.

Oh, and he's kinda flamboyant, but that goes with the voice.

Why He's My Favorite:

In all of my years of GM'ing, I have never had an NPC that engaged the party to the level that Balthazar has. Come to think of it, in all my years of acting, this is the character that I'm most comfortable improving, and almost everything he said was gold. For this reason, the players kept him around in the party because he always had a secret, always had something to say, and kept the advantage as long as he could. We would have conversations that lasted for a half hour, debating things, talking about the past, the future, all of it a duel of wits which Balthazar almost always won. All off the cuff.

Come to find out, he's also the son of the main bad-guy, and that father and son team had enough persuasive power and were in such an opportune position that almost half the party joined their cult in order to get the last macguffin. Yeah, that's right. This NPC was so powerful by personality and presence alone that he could get half the party to join the cult that was hounding them the entire campaign.

Of course, he betrayed the party when the time was right, but that backfired. His father was killed, and he was left for dead in this huge pool at the bottom of an ancient, extra-dimensional plumbing system that was designed to feed blood to a vampiric dragon.

Yeah, you wish your campaign was that awesome.

And, even after all he had done, all of the snide comments and backstabbing and arrogance, they let him live.  For a party whose strategy was kill everything in sight, this is pretty significant.

These are the reasons why Balthazar is my favorite NPC ever. Yes, I ran him and played him, but it wasn't the cool factor or even my contributions that made him the best. It was the level that he affected the party, changed the way they viewed the story and the game. He made the game awesome, and you can't deny that kind of power that I have yet to see recreated.

That's my story! Hope you enjoyed it. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

Marvel Heroic X-Men - Session 3 Report

Hey, readers!

So, first I've got a spot of good news that is almost too good to be a coincidence. Originally, I had a fear that my X-Men and Civil War games were going to collide, considering they were both held on Mondays in the exact same time-slot. However, by stroke of luck or God, it seems that they were both scheduled on alternating weeks allowing me to have a Marvel session every single Monday for the foreseeable summer.

Ain't that just great?

So, I may just call these session reports 'Marvel Mondays' because alliteration is awesome. (See what I did there?) Though, that really doesn't matter in light of the topic.

Let's dive right in, shall we?

Session Summary:

We started out this session almost exactly where we left the last one. Beast was tinkering with the severed robot heads. Mr. Immortal was hanging out in the infirmary. Rogue was in the library trying to clear her head.  With Mentallo somewhat conscious, the Professor was able to glean some important information. It seems that he was hired by Magneto to run a machine through telepathy (the weird device he was strapped to) to jump-start these other machines called 'Breeder Bombs' that are supposed to flood the world with radiation over time so that more mutants would be born.

(Yeah. This was the best quality of this scene on Youtube, and I'm a Brony. Deal with it.)

As luck would have it, the video feed had the four locations of the Breeder Bombs on file, and Beast was able to figure out the location of the one in North America. If you haven't gotten a 'Masks of Nyarlathotep' vibe from this yet, then you obviously haven't played enough Cthulhu. We saddle up on the Blackbird (Which I called the Quinjet. Thanks, Jared) and start heading off for the wonderful state of Colorado.

So far in my Marvel Mondays adventures, I've been getting a good taste of the US. Oklahoma has fallen Asgard stuff, and Colorado has giant super-weapons guarded by insane hillbilly miners.

(I get to use this picture again. Yay!)

Rogue (Played by me) and Mr. Immortal get out of the jet and investigate where Beast's geiger counter contraption says the device is. They run into a hillbilly with a shotgun, and Rogue totally relates and stuff. Using a little white lie, they say that they're interested in purchasing the thing he is protecting and they go inside a bunker-looking building to get a look at the machine. One particularly amusing line from this exchange was the following uttered by Mr. Immortal.

"You should touch him and knock it out. Sure, you'll think you're a strange hill-billy for a while and love guns, but what else is new?"

Instead of infecting her mind, she leads him outside to negotiate prices while Mr. Immortal and Beast try to figure out how to shut the machine down. Then, Sentinels attack. It just wouldn't be a proper X-Men game without these guys, now, would it?

This was a great fight, and while I won't exactly give the blow-by-blow, I'll point out some great moments. Mr. Immortal caused the Sentinel to smash the machine and over-charge it. Beast yanked a tree out of the ground and hit a Sentinel with it. Rogue ripped the blaster cannon off of a sentinel, got crushed by his hand, then brushed off the damage and flipped the guy over. Mr. Immortal looted the hillbilly's stash of weapons and tried to shoot the robot with a 9mm. Finally, Beast got into the X-Jet and effectively finished both of the injured Sentinels off while spouting off this gem.

"Sir, I usually think it crass to give one the bird, but in this case, I am more than willing."

The military was on its way after this whole debacle from the nearby military base, so the team got out of there as quickly as possible. Professor Xavier sent them a message via telepathy that he had the next location ready to send to them, and the group had an in-depth discussion on why Magneto would be using Sentinels. Beast hypothesized that the Magneto in the footage may be a robot also!

 Apparently, the next bomb is in Russia somewhere in a former Soviet state. Back in the USSR, anyone? No? Just me?

So, just as we get there, zap! Something shuts down our engines and we fall to the ground and crash. We're all fine, 'cause, y'know. Superheroes. Come to find out that Titanium Man and his minions are on the warpath!...

And that's where we ended, since someone had to leave.

My Reactions:

Gotta say, I enjoyed this session much more than the last two I have been in with this group. I'm kind of the new guy in this group, considering these guys play in an Annihilation game every other Wednesday that I'm not currently involved with, but I finally feel like I've acclimated myself in. The guys were in great form tonight, all in-character, doing cool and creative stuff, and our GM was a bit more focused and ready than he was the previous two times.

What was really great to find out is that, now that I'm aware of the 'Weird Thing' that I described in my last X-Men session summary, I'm much better able to deal with it. Of course, it's also a big part of knowing the people and being able to read when they're IC or OOC, but I'm getting much better at doing that. With that said, we actually got into some good role-play this session! Instead of one-lined quips in a row, we actually carried on conversations and started exploring some light character stuff dealing with the situation. This is more what I'm talkin' about, and I hope that this trend will only continue.

The Sentinel fight was the main feature of the session, and after playing with large groups the last few times out, it was really refreshing to go back to the small-group setting. The fight was really a lot of fun, especially seeing what Mr. Immortal was going to do to make a difference, considering he is the quirky one when it comes to powers. Unfortunately, it seems this campaign is mostly centered around fighting robots, so I don't get to use Rogue's 'cool' powers as much, but I gotta say, Ms. Marvel's power-set is incredibly satisfying. Between Energy Absorption and her version of Second Wind, you can get the d12 strength quite a bit and shrug off stress like it was nothing. I love it.

Besides a few hiccups on the GM's side involving things beyond his or our control, there really wasn't anything too wrong with this session. I had a great time, and despite the rail-roadiness of the module in question, I'm looking forward to the game in two weeks.

Hope you enjoyed the post! If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

(A little dark humor never hurt anyone.)

Dungeon: A D&D Stageplay

Hey, readers!

I was brainstorming some topics to cover in the tabletop RPG realm for this blog when I was swiftly reminded of a project I undertook in college. As you may or may not be able to tell, I like to consider myself  a pretty creative person. My two major fields of creativity are through writing and acting, two things I've kept up with ever since I was a child. What's rather cool is that they can be combined in the art of play-writing, which is an art-form I absolutely adore.

My first play was a musical based off of Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" album that was aimed to discover the narrative of the rock opera and create something that was a little deeper and more satisfying than the musical created for "American Idiot." Those that read it really rather enjoyed it, though looking at it now, there's not much I can do with it and the dialogue is in sore need of updating and revising.

Anyway, back to role-playing, I actually wrote a play in college based around a group playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is one of the most personal things I have ever written, projecting some of my ideas about the stereotypes and opinions about the hobby and injecting a lot of my own experiences into little nuanced bits and pieces. Every character is a splinter of me in some way, shape or form, some taken to extremes, some explored at a different angle, some completely reversed. It's basically a love letter from me to the hobby, dripping with the blood of my soul.

Graphic, right?

For those of you who would like to read it and tell me what you think, I'll put a link on this post to a place where you can look it over. I'm not really doing this to be self-promoting, nor am I really looking for any hard criticism. I just want to share a labor of love that may even ring a few bells in your own role-playing experience or make you think about certain things a little more.

Click me to read "Dungeon"

If you don't want to go through the process of reading through a college-level, fifty-odd paged play, I will put up some notes from my outline here for your perusal and hopefully you can glean some of the guts of the play from that.

"Dungeon" Outline:

Thesis: Dungeons and Dragons is a game of masks. Everyone gets one. By wearing them, one can see into a world of fantasy composed entirely of the thoughts, desires, and dreams of those playing. When the masks are taken away and reality seeps back in, those involved are forced to ask the question: “Which world is the dungeon?”

World: The world that explores this thesis is the basement of a teenage boy. Though never shown, it is smack-dab in the middle of a seemingly exemplary suburbia. Outside of this space, the world appears to be perfect, and have perfect inhabitants. Beyond appearances, it is actually the opposite, a land where one is not able to be themselves fully, a place that needs escape. In this basement, that world is broken temporarily, allowing another world to be witnessed, inhabited by the ghosts of “What I Want to Be” or “Who I Really Am” or “Where I Want to Be.” These ghosts cannot exist or move without characters from the first world giving them life, and die immediately when they leave.

Inhabitants:

(AN: Keep in mind this is all artistic metaphor and stuff.) 

Issac Silverman – In the outside world, Issac Silverman is a puppy held on a tight leash. However, this puppy isn't energetic, yippy, free. He's held tightly by his collar, and has been for far too many years, never allowing the puppy to become a man. When he enters the space of the play, he's let off of the collar and seeks to be the master of those he finds, but must constantly wrestle with the call of his own master and the fact that he isn't fully grown, despite pretending he is.

Josh Williams – In the outside world, Josh is a golden statue on a high pedestal. His pose constantly changes, depicting a star athlete, a great student, the perfect boyfriend. There are many who admire this statue, watching him closely, almost too closely. Some search for a stain, others try to make sure that he remains unblemished. When he enters the space of the play, he steps off of the pedestal, sheds the golden skin, and is allowed to breathe and live. However, he brings one of his onlookers with him, who is forcing him to wear that golden skin in a place of escape.

Francis Jones – In the outside world, Francis is a boy. His hair is short. His clothes are masculine. He has a penis. He likes girls. He likes sports. He likes blood, guts, dirt. The world has told him that he is a man. The world has shown him what a man is supposed to be, and he has obeyed. When he enters the space of the play, Francis is a woman. She has cast off everything that the world has told her to be, and has become what she's always wanted to be. She has a vagina. She likes boys. However, she is constantly reminded that the world, and the audience, sees her as a man, and defines her as such.

Kimberly Whisp – In the outside world, Kimberly is a ghost. People seem to see her, sometimes, but she's almost always faded from view. She doesn't walk like people do; she floats along with whatever occurs in the space around her. Sometimes she's heard, but always she squeaks. Squeaking is how ghosts speak in the outside world. It is all that's expected from them. Though they are alive, they are images of the people that died sometime in their youth, but yet live. In the space of the play, Kimberly is alive and ready to embrace all of the beauty of living, of freeing the girl that died years before. However, everyone in the outside world still sees her as a ghost, and treats her as such.

Mrs. Silverman – Mrs. Silverman is not allowed to enter the space of the play. Rather, she is a constant dwelling force in the outside world that is a reminder that the space of the play is a separate place. Once upon a time, Mrs. Silverman was a puppy on a leash, but that puppy eventually became a dog on a leash, and had puppies of her own. She doesn't know any different, and never got to experience any world beside the one outside. Therefore, she tries to control and drag back any who have tried to break the boundary. She is Cerberus.

Jade – In the outside world, Jade is a gem. She's green with jealousy of all of those that surround her, and therefore, must be adorned with all of the gold possible because she cannot recognize that she is a gem on her own. Only by looking into a reflection of gold can she see herself as a gem. Therefore, she has attached herself to the golden statue. She is a visitor to the space of the play and is able to see the strange ghosts that inhabit that place, but she is overly concerned with looking back into the outside world and into that golden reflection to see the gem. She is Lot's Wife and Job's Wife combined.

Brock – In the outside world, Brock is an infection. He is able to spread to whatever type of victim he desires, through words, through looks, through violence, through manipulation. Once the infection hits, it starts to consume, taking everything for itself, multiplying, and living through the bodies of others. Eventually, it leaves one body and jumps to another, leaving the victim beaten, bloodied, bruised, and irreparable. Unfortunately, this type of infection is incredibly attracted to ghosts. Brock enters the space of the play to take what is slowly being dragged away from him, evolving from an invisible virus to a behemoth. Brock is Bill Sikes.

Outline:

Act 1: Paradise

The first act will establish both worlds and those who inhabit each and walk the line between them. We will meet Issac Silverman, who is running a game of Dungeons and Dragons for his friends: Josh Williams, Francis Jones, and Kimberly Whisp. Josh brings Jade, his girlfriend, to the game, showing her what it is like. We will also meet the ghosts, the characters of the three players of the game, who represent “Who I Want to Be” for Kimberly, “Who I Really Am” for Francis, and “Where I Want to Be” for Josh.

Things proceed well, for a while, but the outside world keeps trying to seep in and interrupt. Eventually, Jade, a member of the outside world, breaks away due to disgust, followed by Josh, and the group takes a break from the game.

Act 2: Imprisonment or Freedom?

The second act will show how sinister the outside world can be, and the reaction of our characters to the confrontations presented. Issac will break his leash. Josh will melt down the statue. Francis will embrace his identity. Kimberly will solidify, and fight off the infection. Through this process of change, the outside world bears down evermore. The characters must then choose which world they want to inhabit for eternity after.

End of Outline Excerpt

I hope you guys enjoyed this look into a creative project that I'm really proud of. Let me know what you think if you read it! If you didn't enjoy any of this stuff, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

Wolverine's Post M-Day Journal - Entry 1

((Hey, readers!

Being an aspiring writer and a huge nerd, I've decided to supplement my Civil War summary posts with in-character journal entries. Have fun!))

Entry 1:

I really shouldn't be doin' this.

It ain't smart puttin' personal information in an easily compromised place, especially when you've made as many enemies as I have over the years. The wrong guy gets a hold of it and they can make your life into a living Hell.

'Cept, I ain't too worried about Hell, so fuck it. After I got all my memories back by some quirk of chance after Wanda had her way with reality, I've been pretty paranoid of losin' 'em again. If I keep track of what's been goin' on and keep it safe, maybe, in the future if Weapon X drags me back and wipes my mind away, I'll have a way to remember.

But who'd want to remember this?

Wanda Maximoff fucked up all of reality, makin' it so mutants are now an endangered species with millions of us losin' our powers. Now instead of fightin' to save those who hate us, they've got us all cooped up on a reservation guarded by fuckin' Sentinels. Summers doesn't have the spine to do anythin' about it. Sometimes I don't blame him, but lookin' out the window and seeing those bastards keepin' us from leavin' sets my blood to boilin'.

Guess I've got a perverted kind of luck. Still got my powers, otherwise I'd be dead. And, unlike the rest of 'em, my status with the Avengers gets me a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card from the mansion whenever I'd like. I've taken the trip from Westchester to New York more times than I can count in the last six months. Stark owes me gas money.

They're a decent bunch. Put up with me, so that's somethin'. Cap and I go way back, pretty literally. Web-head and I have teamed up more than I'd like to admit, and we work well off each other. When Ben's not hangin' with F-Troop, he's a good drinkin' partner. Same with the God of Thunder. Haven't worked much with Tigra in the past, but I've got to admire a woman with the kind of feral ferocity she's got bubblin' under the surface. Banner's a good guy, when he's not green. Some of 'em get under my skin, though. I don't trust Jessica. Don't like her smell. Always got those pheremones floatin' around, makes my nose burn and my head spin. And a guy could respect Knight's self-righteous quest for vengeance, but the man won't shut his yap. Stark owes me gas money.

So, the minute I stumble into the tower after a long drive from the Mansion, it's time for work. And not the kind of work I like. Bill Foster was sick and goin' on a rampage in the middle of the city and we had to knock him down a peg.  Wasn't too hard, just had to knock some sense in to 'im. That was mostly Stark's job, blastin' the guy with a fully-charged blast after bluffin'. Then the press shows up, which was my cue to leave. Took care of it with all the grace and civility the team has come to expect.

Told 'em to fuck off.

I didn't go straight back to the tower after that. Wasn't interested in watchin' the smart guys poke and prod a giant, and wasn't exactly willing to sit around the Tower watching TV and drinkin'. I was willin' to sit around a bar that smells like piss to drink adn watch TV, however. Took my bike to one of my favorite dives in the area and blew off some steam. I know the 'tender, usually gives me a decent price. Beer isn't bad. Place is quiet enough.

Thought a little bit about whether I really belonged on the Avengers. I ain't used to being a public face of heroism, hence why I avoid the press any chance I can. Bein' the only mutant on the team, I'm representing all of mutant-kind, and that's a responsibility I never asked for. Can't change who I am, but I'll be the first to admit, flipping off reporters and slinging curses on camera ain't the way to change the world's opinion of us.

But, I figure if Daredevil and Moon Knight belong here, maybe the standards of membership have been taken down a few notches.

Eventually, I made my way back to the tower just in time to see the team come back from a lab bust. Banner went on another rampage, which I've come to expect. We can only keep a leash on that monster for so long, which is probably one of the reasons I'm still kept around. Not many people have gone toe-to-toe with Jolly Green more than I have. All the evidence was destroyed, and Iron Man had taken off for a bit.

Hell, don't blame him.

Before the night was over, we loaded up on the Quinjet and took off to Oklahoma to be security detail for some landing site. I've been there once or twice in my long life, never for long or for a good reason. Gonna have to chalk this trip up to that list. Note to self: borrow the Blackbird and show up Ben Grimm at the next available opportunity.

Maria Hill decided to take an interest in our activities of the evening. That woman puts a sour taste in my mouth, and she owes me. I could have ended her life, and I had every good justification to do so. Somethin' held me back, the little voice of reason in the back of my head that reminds me that I ain't an animal. Sometimes it's Jeanie. Sometimes it's Chuck. Sometimes it's even fuckin' Slim. I don't always listen, but that night I did, and Hill better thank whatever God she believes in that I did.

Wouldn't you know it that shortly after we arrive, seein' a giant sword that fell out of the sky, Victor Von Doom and an army of his toys flood the field. After a night of self-doubt and bad moods, that was exactly what I needed. Rather than take Doom head on, I charged the field of Doombots and went to work. Nothin' beats the feelin' of taking down an army, seein' the bodies fall, hearing the sparks crackle and die as your claws tear the material to pieces. Thor was havin' even more fun than I was, probably for the same reasons. Seein' something from your old life sittin' out there as plain as day, ripped back into your consciousness, makes you want to beat somethin'.

Before you know it, the whole force of Avengers is attackin' the man in charge. Murdock took a hard hit, losin' his sense for a moment or two. Still, Doom was distracted by all of the elements at play coming at him from every direction, in every way possible. Even a genius of his level can lose focus, and I took the opportunity. In the midst of the chaos, I was a ghost in the night, tracing shadows, eyes following his, nose keeping track of his stress. At the absolute moment when he was lost, a split second or more, I darted and dug my claws into his back.

By that point, he was gone. A Doombot stood in his place, mechanical and cold as I tore out it's spine and wired entrails. And I was mad.

Before we left, Thor and Moon Knight tried to claim the twisted sword as their own. They failed. It crossed my mind that a samurai like myself would do well with a sword, and that my force of personality and appetite for destruction were more than enough to keep a harbinger of the end of the world at bay.

Nah.

Adamantium claws trump Asgardian weapons any day of the week, especially in my hands.

I spent the rest of the night fixin' up the bike, and that night I dreamed of Itsu. And Jeanie.

Billy Joel said it best. Only the good die young.

-Logan

 

Marvel Heroic Civil War - Session 1 Report

Hey, readers!

Well, the Civil War has begun, so to speak. The campaign, anyway, not any sort of national divide or something of that ilk. Our first session ran for almost four hours yesterday evening, and if you'd like to view it in its entirety, you can do so here.

(Hulk Smash!)

For those of you not in the know, I'll go over the cast list as is before delving into the summary and my reactions afterwards.

Oh, and... I may be doing in-character journal stuff too. 'Cause I like to write and I'm a nerd and stuff.

Iron Man and Thor played by Dylan. Daredevil and Hulk played by Christopher. The Thing and Yellowjacket played by Charles. Tigra played by Kathryn. Moon Knight played by Ryan. Spider-Man and Dr. Strange played by Bill. Captain America and Luke Cage played by Steve (Who was not at this session due to tech problems). Wolverine and Spider-Woman played by yours truly.

Session Summary:

It all began on a fateful day like no other!... Because, y'know, all the Avengers were just kind of sitting around the tower doing God-knows-what when Iron Man, who has taken up monitor duty, gets a call about Bill Foster, better known as the size-growing hero Goliath, walking down the street in a stupor and destroying things. Immediately, the Avengers spring into action!

What followed was an interesting collaboration of trying to get Goliath to settle down or beat the sense back into him. There was an amusing bit with Moon Knight literally standing on the shoulder of a giant and whispering to him about if he doesn't settle down, all of the cabbies in New York are going to be pissed at him. Then Goliath threw him at Spider-Man. Tigra slashed at his knees. Wolverine yelled and threatened stuff. Y'know, good stuff. Finally, Bill was knocked back into his senses when Tony faked out some sympathy and hit him with a fully armed uni-beam.

You know what's even worse than a drugged up Goliath?

The press and the media.

And, oh God, this is where the session got good.

Rather than relay what happened directly, let me pull some direct quotes from some post-game postings.

"Tonight from the Channel 4 News desk, are your underpants poisoning you? Then, exotic dancers caught in a dog-fighting sting! Later, we'll find out what Tigra's making for dinner and who the vigilante Moon Knight is dating."

Rumors abound that Moon Knight was spotted outside a Justin Bieber concert.

"Wall Crawling menace drives former hero into tragic rampage."

"Spider-Man steals antique book in Oklahoma."

"Wall Crawler admits to Bieber Fever."

And my own personal touch:

So, after doing funny things to the press and telling them repeatedly to 'Fuck Off', we all move back to the Avengers Tower with Bill in tow to inspect him. Tigra goes on monitor duty and the brainy types, including Banner who just slid in, try to figure out what was up with Bill. They revive him and figure out that he was working with a company who was involved with Mutant Growth Hormone or something to that effect, and he blacked out. We get the location on a lab, just about the time we get a call that something landed in Broxton, Oklahoma and they need extra guard detail.

We tackle the lab and do a little changing of the guard. I swap out Wolvie for Spider-Woman under the logic that she was a private detective for a long time and would be good for an investigation (Yet she doesn't have the Crime speciality?). Daredevil is swapped out for Banner, and Thing is swapped out for Yellowjacket.

Spider-Woman starts this one off by sneaking in and getting a preliminary look at the place. What she finds is the illustrious members of the Serpent Society guarding the place, at which point she calls in the rest of the Avengers who crash through the skylight and begin slashing, truncheon-ing, moon-gadgeting, and finally, blasting what hadn't fallen by then with lasers. Unfortunately, Spidey and Yellowjacket didn't get their punches in before the Hulk smashed the lab to pieces and left for parts unknown.

Then began another highlight of the night as Moon Knight began a very brutal interrogation by slashing Diamondback's windpipe and threatening to do the same to Cobra. Iron Man took issue with this, and the two of them had a shouting match that caused Tony to leave the scene due to being mentally stressed out by the Avatar of Vengeance.

So, already we have some hero against hero plus bad news coverage. This is Civil War, alright.

Our final scene of the evening was playing guard duty over in Broxton, Oklahoma, which seems to be a dumping ground for anything Asgardian. Property there must be really cheap. Everyone went back to their characters from the beginning of the session, except for the fact that Thor stepped in instead of Iron Man for obvious reasons. There was some good banter on the jet and some back and forth with Maria Hill as we made our way over. Upon arriving, we were immediately shown what landed, which was a giant sword. The Twilight Sword, if my Marvel lore is as good as I remember it being, which is a herald of Ragnarok.

Isn't mystic mumbo jumbo fun?

Thor obviously wants to claim the sword and protect it from those who would use it for evil. Speaking of those people, Dr. Doom and his army of robotic minions arrives right on schedule! You'd think someone as smart as Doom would wait until the heroes had left, or attacked before they arrived? And wasn't the whole plot of the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for Doom to get the Twilight Sword and steal Odin's power with it? Man, this would save him so much time and effort.

Anyhow, Thing goes straight for Doom, like he should. Thor, Tigra, and Wolverine have some fun smashing up the army of Doom Bots, which was as satisfying as it ought to be, really. Spider-Man stole the spellbook that Doom was using and taunted him to great effect. Moon Knight shouted at Doom a little. Oh, and Doom screwed up Daredevil's senses, but he managed to club the good Doctor over the head anyway. It was a pretty dramatic battle, lots of fun stuff going on, which finally ended with Wolverine gutting Doom... Only to find out her was a Doombot.

How many times can you use the word Doom in one paragraph?

We ended by Thor and Moon Knight trying to claim the Twilight Sword as their own by taming it, but neither succeeded.

My Reactions:

Overall, it was a good session. No question about that fact whatsoever. We had a lot of fun and memorable moments, and everyone seemed to be having a good time, laughing the night away at bad jokes and other such things.

For me, the highlights were two scenes in particular that really felt authentic and played beautifully. That would be the scene dealing with the press after Goliath was put down, and the battle with Dr. Doom. All of our characters really showed through when dealing with something almost everyone hates: the press and the media. Additionally, the Doom battle was satisfying even when there were about eight people involved.

The players are also a great bunch. Some are more soft-spoken then others, but I believe we really gel well and all contribute to the story in interesting ways. Our GM is clever and solid as I expected him to be, and he really seems to have fun running the game. Makes me long to GM again, really.

Still, the session wasn't perfect. Nothing's perfect, obviously. The start was a bit awkward, with no one really saying what their character was doing, myself included. I suppose it's part of being the first time we were all together (Except Steve) and the normal sort of hesitation and shyness that goes along with that. Even after that, there were a lot of moments of pause and a pretty jarring disconnect between some of the scenes, at least for me. The flow was off, but sometimes you can't help that.

Also, part of me thinks that Marvel Heroic isn't really designed for groups of this size. Just a personal gut feeling, considering the ease we went through some of our encounters. I mean, stress was pretty minimal across the board on our side, everything considered. I've even had trouble presenting a decent challenge to a group of four, much less a group twice that size. And, when you have eight heroes wailing on the bad guy, it's rather easy to see how the conflict could be taken care of before some people got a turn. In a game like this where action seems to take precedent overall, this can pose to be a real issue. It wasn't an issue for me, but the dice were on my side, and I got to go every round.

Those things aside, really looking forward to the next session!

Hope you enjoyed the recap! If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

First Sessions

Hey, readers!

With a first session of a campaign coming up this week, and a few that I'll be running within the month, my mind has been meditating on beginnings. Beginnings of campaigns in particular, but also beginnings in general.

Everything has a starting point, not only works of fiction, but life, stages of life, relationships, projects. The list goes on. Sometimes the starting point is buried in the dust, forgotten, or seemingly insignificant, but it is always the most important piece. Without it, nothing would be.

I don't mean to get weirdly philosophical on an RP blog, but it's something to knock around the noggin a little bit.

So, let's take a look at the beginnings of campaigns. How do first sessions usually go? Where do they start? What sorts of opening scenes work best? Is there criteria for judging whether or not it should be continued for another session?

Stuff like that.

From my personal experience, where a campaign starts really depends on the group's preparation before hand. Is everyone coming in with characters they created on their own or with the GM? Has this group met before hand to discuss anything? Have they even met before? Did the GM set any sort of guidelines? These are the variables that determine really where you can jump in.

Most groups, I've noticed, are cobbled together from whatever characters the individuals wanted to play with little connection to one another that are thrown together as a consequence of circumstance or because of one common link. Therefore, a beginning session's first job in this sort of scenario is to find a way to force these potentially dissonant characters together to do something, usually follow the plot-train that the GM has set tracks for. Either that, or the group is thrown under a common banner, 'Adventure Party', 'Mercenary Band', what have you, and you work under the assumption that you all just work together. To adventure. Or make money. Or something.

The beginnings to this kind of campaigns are usually rather classic and quaint. An old man in the tavern gives your adventure party a quest or mission to find the macguffin, save the macguffin, or defeat Lord MacGuffin the Scotsman. You are all in prison, and there's a prison riot or break and you can only escape by working together. The transport you all are riding is under attack and you are the only able-bodied, combat-ready people in the area. There's a bank robbery and you are the only superheroes in the area because the main ones are in space.

(We've all met this guy)

You get the idea.

And, if this sounds like every campaign you've ever been in, that's fine!

But, there is another way. In my opinion, it's a better way, but that wholly depends on preference, your group, and the game you are running, of course.

My favorite RP podcast is called 'Fear the Boot', and they have come up with something called the 'Group Template.' This is a basic document that outlines clearly what the group is, who they are, how they are connected, and what their goals are. They fill this document out before every campaign, and they create their characters together. If I remember right, they don't come to the table with solid concepts in mind. The GM sets some guidelines, and the group creates and envisions their characters together while creating connections along the way and setting up a reason for being together and goals.

I will tell you from experience, this radically changes the quality of every first session I have ever ran.

Like, literally, day and night.

Now a GM is not confined to slapping together characters that don't work following a plot train that may not even be suited for the group. You can have any beginning you can think of without having to rely on cliches in order to bring the party together. Sure, there are plenty of cliches that can still be used, such as the group summon by an important figure, but you can think outside the box a little. Say the group template is a bunch of professional thieves, each having their own specialty. You can start the campaign in the middle of a heist! Set up some parameters, and the characters will do their own thing because they have goals and the skills to meet them. Maybe something goes wrong, an inciting incident of sorts, and the characters will be motivated to follow up on it because it had to do with something they were striving for on their own initiative, not because some important NPC said that they should care.

Just something to think about.

So, whether the group is cobbled together or nitpickingly planned to the last detail, the first session is here. How to begin? What is Act 1: Scene: 1?

Again, there seems to be a split in tactics, one I prefer and one I like a little less. It usually boils down to whether it starts with action or starts with drama.

Since I like the X-Men so much, let's use them as an example.

Does the campaign start with a Danger Room session, or a scene where they are debating mutant rights before congress? Is someone attacking the mansion after the Danger Room, or assaulting the congressional meeting? Does someone's powers freak out at the wrong time and cause something terrible to happen?
These are all ways an X-Men campaign could start, potentially.

Is it better to start out with action or drama? Both?

I can see great justifications for both, which I elaborate on here.

Start out with an action scene if the group is not completely familiar or comfortable with the rules. Since most of the rules cover how to handle moments of action, this is a great place to clear up any misconceptions and make sure everyone knows how to play. It could also engage players who are more combat inclined and get them interested from the get-go as opposed to having them set through dialogue, which they'd rather not do. Inciting incidents are also great in the middle of action scenes, and it's a wonderful way to give everyone a little glimmer of spotlight before the plot train begins moving.

However, start out with drama if you want your players to be comfortable in their own character's skins and create inter-group relationships early on. It doesn't even have to be anything terribly dramatic. Hell, I love starting campaigns at a point where it's a party. How does your character interact in a surprise party for another character? Or a fancy dinner? This gives the players a chance to get a feel for how their character acts, interacts, talks, feels, etc. It can also be a great place to set up themes, tones, motifs, and other things that will make sense or be significant later on. However, don't linger too long if you have player's who are action minded, or else they will probably be terribly bored.

You can probably tell that I favor the second option, but that's just because of how I run games and how I like to play.

And there's no reason you can't mix the two, a little drama before the action, a little action after the drama. In fact, that is usually the best way to please everybody involved.

So, first scene is over, we're in the thick of the inciting incident, and the session is going to wrap up soon. What sorts of things are you as the GM going to be looking for? What are you as a player expecting by the time the dice are collected and everyone shuffles into the driveway or goes to play video games?

As a GM, I would look for the following things to see if the first session was a success:

-Did everyone get a moment to shine?
-Does everyone understand the setting?
-Does everyone understand their character?
-Was there enough to leave them wanting to come back for more?

And most importantly...

-Did we have fun?

As a player, I would consider the following things to see whether I'd play again:

-Did I like the other players? (Because, if you didn't, you probably shouldn't game with 'em)
-Did the GM try his best? (Because no one's perfect, but sometimes you've just got a bad apple)
-Am I engaged/interested at all in what's going on in the plot, or in the characters? (Because, if not, that should be fixed)

And most importantly...

-Did I have fun?

You can debate all you'd like on that criteria, but that is what I usually mentally go through after a first session, and that's important, because first sessions can sometimes make or break a campaign. Sure, you should give it another few sessions or so (time allowing) before making any sort of serious judgement, but sometimes an unresolved issue from session one can bite you in the ass down the road and tank a campaign.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on first sessions. It is an interesting beast, to be sure, but like I said in the beginning, they are necessary for gaming to exist. Why not think about 'em a little bit? Maybe try something different?

I hope you liked my thoughts! If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

 

Marvel Origins: A Campaign/Experiment Idea

Hey, readers!

It's no secret, if you've been following this blog, that I'm a superhero fan. In fact, the vast majority of the posts on here have been about superheroes in relations to RPGs, particularly Marvel Heroic. I suppose it's just the sort of season of mind that I'm in right now. I mean, I've played Sci-Fi and Fantasy roleplaying games for years, and now I'm getting to explore one of my favorite genres when before, the groups I was in wasn't really into the whole superhero-shtick.

Here's another confession.

While I love to play in them, superhero games are one of the hardest things for me to GM.

In fact, if you look at my track record, (Well, you can't really look at it since it isn't completely written out), you would see that most of the games that I've started and failed were superhero games. While my first group wasn't terribly fond of the genre, I did try a few campaigns using Mutants and Masterminds to limited success. I just had trouble wrapping my head around the reactionary story-telling without making it seem railroady.

The only superhero campaign that I've run well is my Teen Titans game that I've elaborated on quite a bit during the life of this blog (Which well hopefully be starting up again before the month is out). This was a combination between a system that worked for the genre (Marvel Heroic) and a new sort of ideology on running games which I've also explained.  I mentally had to break away from certain tropes of the genre in order to make that work while also zeroing in on the tropes that make the genre what it is.

I know, confusing.

What may be more confusing is what any of this has to do with the topic.

Back in "What I'm Running," I mentioned an idea I had about a campaign I'd like to start to sort of give back to the Marvel Heroic community that has been so kind to me and has allowed me to play more in the past year than I ever have in my entire gaming career. I mean, life is a give and take, right? It's only right that I can put my five-plus years of GM expertise to use by providing some gaming for others.

What I had in mind was a re-envisioning of the Marvel Universe, much like the Ultimate series did. However, this re-envisioning would be collaborative between myself as the 'Watcher' and the players. The campaign would be 80% game, 20% universe building. Through this process, our group will create a version of the Marvel Universe that is unique to us, a combination of all of our ideas, and can be used by ourselves in other games or others that are interested. One of the great things about this idea is that we will create our own continuity that, if it extends beyond our game, will be canon and effect other games that come out of this creation.

This is somewhat based off of a concept elaborated in the book "Play Dirty" by John Wick. This is a fantastic book, and if any of you GMs out there have not read it yet, please do so. I have gleaned so much of my personal GM philosophy from this man and his methods. Anyway, there is a chapter entitled "The Living City" where he describes how he and his players created a setting that felt real together for a Vampire game. He let them build parts of the world and even allowed them to play NPCs. It's a fantastic idea, but one I was always hesitant to implement, but I think now might be a good time.

I call this experiment/game Marvel Origin. What I would need are four or five willing players that have two important qualities that would work best for this idea and for my own personal GM style.

-A creative mind and desire to create a new spin on the Marvel Universe and get to be one of the first to play in it.

-A desire for a game that is story-focused where character interactions are an important part of the game.

When I've assembled some players, we would decide on a schedule for gaming and pick what corner of the Marvel Universe they'd want to tackle. If they are willing, we could design the entire universe, but for the sake of time, I think it would be interesting to pick one group and start branching things off from there. An example would be "Fantastic Four Origins" or "X-Men Origins" or "Avengers Origins".

This is all very 'in-my-head' right now, but I think this would be an interesting and fun gaming experiment that could produce a game and campaign world that we are attached to deeply, care about, and that we'll be proud to tell others of.

If you are interested in participating in this, drop me a line, comment, or Google+ message, and we'll see about getting this jumpstarted! Since my main reading base are those I've played with on Google+, I'm giving you guys first dibs, mostly as a thank-you for being so completely awesome.

I hope you enjoyed this post about my weird experiment idea! If you didn't, hear's a funny picture.

-Wes