Sorry gang, I'm having a tough time getting pumped regarding the idea of blogging about my D&D world.
I'm just not in a D&D frame of mind. I was. Now I'm not. I rarely stay in that frame of mind long. One more contributing factor to why I don't run the game very often. I probably will be again. Maybe soon.
Right now, I'm still on a major Superhero riff.
Sigh.
Anyone want to hear about my upcoming Skype DC Adventures Campaign?
AD
Barking Alien
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Some Material May Not Be Suitable For The Uncool
What rating do you get if you mostly talk about Role Playing Games based on Star Trek, Superhero Comic Books, The Muppets and Smurfs?
PG. Apparently, before viewing my blog, it is recommended that you get your own proton generator. Good safety tip. Thanks Egon.
I am not surprised by this rating. Actually, I'm pretty proud of it. I received it because I used the word kill once and porn twice (dagnabbit! Just used them both again! D'oh!). I have no doubt that the latter was used only to refer to Zak's site (so if your Mom and/or Dad don't let you come back here, blame Zak).
Again, pretty happy with this. See kids, you don't have to cuss to be entertaining.
Later Days,
AD
Barking Alien
PG. Apparently, before viewing my blog, it is recommended that you get your own proton generator. Good safety tip. Thanks Egon.
I am not surprised by this rating. Actually, I'm pretty proud of it. I received it because I used the word kill once and porn twice (dagnabbit! Just used them both again! D'oh!). I have no doubt that the latter was used only to refer to Zak's site (so if your Mom and/or Dad don't let you come back here, blame Zak).
Again, pretty happy with this. See kids, you don't have to cuss to be entertaining.
Later Days,
AD
Barking Alien
Labor (Day) of Love
I know I promised to begin my series of articles covering my personal take on D&D but I got sidetracked. Yes, yes I still haven't finished my Smurfs RPG either. Sigh.
I am waaay behind schedule. For largely enjoyable reasons I have been extremely busy of late. Real time intrudes upon fun time once more, although these days it brings in own kind of fun as well. In addition, I've been getting the chance to game so often that writing about gaming and sending to the blogosphere has taken a backseat.
Too many good ideas can be just as much of a pain as too few I'm sure, though I rarely have too few so I'll just have to take your word for it. *WinK*. More often then not it's like there's an avalanche of cool concepts in my mind, I'm a terrible skier and there's not a Saint Bernard to be found.
If this Labor Day weekend was any indication of what being buried under awesome game ideas is like, hold your shovels, as it rocks on toast! I got to run two very different games and play another and all were amazing.
On Sunday I ran a game for the Learning Center I mentioned in some of my previous posts. Our original 'campaign' ended and I decided to run a sort of generic Sci-Fi/Star Trek thing based on a super-duper-simplified Starships & Spacemen. I tried to be inspired by E.T. Smith's awesome RECESS game, while at the same time modifying it for use with a younger player unfamiliar with old school game or Star Trek. Not only did it go over really, really well (this time) but the kids (mostly 5-7th graders) were great at it. They had more team work, more effective decision making approaches and more knowledge of the setting then I expected. I was very impressed. We explored two planets, battled an alien monster on one, fought an enemy starship in orbit and then prevented a volcano from wiping out all the animal life on another world. So fun!
Sunday night was the Legend of the Five Rings game run by Erin Palette on Skype. Very cool. I have really good camaraderie with one of the other players and our adventures and misadventures remind me a lot of the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle team of the ol' early 90's Justice League comic (and the later 'I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League' mini-series).
Finally, the Labor Day session of my Champions game was...it was...I don't have the words. Me. I don't have words. It was that good. I tried explaining part of what happened to Erin Palette and I think I mostly just confused her.
It was an 8-hour session, three players and myself and we covered a lot of ground. This was our 9th or 10th session/issue and it dealt with subplots (both major and minor) from earlier sessions including (but not strictly limited to):
The whole team finally unites (sorta), as Jeff/Syphon Zero decides to ally with the other heroes in hopes of capturing the villainous Dr. Helix who he's been after since issue 4 I think.
Marcus/The Power comes up with a pretty clever plan to call out either Dr. Helix, his lackeys or an another major villain who may be working with Helix. While preparations for the sting operation are underway...
The PCs all find themselves in an alternate timeline due to deal Syphon Zero made with a time travelling weapons collector back in issue 5. Actions by the time traveller (one of my ol' NPCs 'The Weaponaire', not really a hero or villain) create an alternate history in which a more controlling and militant approach to handling superheroes creates a Wildstorm-y Authority/Stormwatch feeling version of the campaign world. Only Night Knight knows the original timelines history (a high Presence score but otherwise it's a mystery why he remembers and not others), although Syphon Zero and a few NPCs remember fading bits and pieces.
With the help of an NPC scientist specializing in temporal and dimensional travel, Night Knight is able to uncover what caused the timeline to change but in the process reveals the truth behind one of the settings major mystery/conspiracy situations. The revelation is big but higger is the question, 'what happened after the event that, once altered, created a divergent timeline'?
Meanwhile... (ah, Meanwhile. Don't you just love a good Meanwhile...) the heroes are attacked by Dr. Helix who has under his control Integral (aka Integra), Primal and a psionic powerhouse called Ego. In the correct/original timeline Integra and Primal have been freed of Helix's influence and are allies of Syphon Zero. Here and now, Integra's first move is to try and kill Syphon.
The Power and a few NPCs (Pulse and Overload specifically) try to engage Primal while Omni (Super Psionic NPC and leader of the primary Superhero team) faces off against Ego. Brutal and wild battle. Lots of TK, teleporting and psychic wrestling.
Finally, Omni gets super-pissed when the actions of the villains endanger lives to the point where the heroes need to take capital action against them (Power, Syphon and Silver Sun* kill Primal and Ego using Integra's Intrinsic Field Energy attack using a plan brillantly choreographed by The Power). Just before Ego dies, Omni does the forced mind meld type move with his telepathy that he would never, EVER do in the main timeline. By doing so he discovers Dr. Helix's whereabouts. He telepathically broadcasts it to the team (including the PC heroes).
That's when Night Knight finds the Weaponaire and convinces him to fix the timeline. It takes some fancy wordplay but Night Knight is successful and within moments of Weaponaire's departure into the timestream things return to the previous pre-mishap status quo (at least it seems that way).
Night Knight remembers everything and tell Omni to read his mind to verify. Omni is in shock because of the revelation of the conspiracy I mentioned above as well as his own actions in the alternate timeline.
That is just the tip of the iceberg as far as consequences from this one guys and gals! Crazy stuff went down and even crazier stuff is coming. I can hardly wait.
OK, off to work. Next up, back on target for D&D and Smurfs...
Laters,
AD
Barking Alien
*In some scenes my pal Dave switched to another PC alt he is using from time to time called Silver Sun.
I am waaay behind schedule. For largely enjoyable reasons I have been extremely busy of late. Real time intrudes upon fun time once more, although these days it brings in own kind of fun as well. In addition, I've been getting the chance to game so often that writing about gaming and sending to the blogosphere has taken a backseat.
Too many good ideas can be just as much of a pain as too few I'm sure, though I rarely have too few so I'll just have to take your word for it. *WinK*. More often then not it's like there's an avalanche of cool concepts in my mind, I'm a terrible skier and there's not a Saint Bernard to be found.
If this Labor Day weekend was any indication of what being buried under awesome game ideas is like, hold your shovels, as it rocks on toast! I got to run two very different games and play another and all were amazing.
On Sunday I ran a game for the Learning Center I mentioned in some of my previous posts. Our original 'campaign' ended and I decided to run a sort of generic Sci-Fi/Star Trek thing based on a super-duper-simplified Starships & Spacemen. I tried to be inspired by E.T. Smith's awesome RECESS game, while at the same time modifying it for use with a younger player unfamiliar with old school game or Star Trek. Not only did it go over really, really well (this time) but the kids (mostly 5-7th graders) were great at it. They had more team work, more effective decision making approaches and more knowledge of the setting then I expected. I was very impressed. We explored two planets, battled an alien monster on one, fought an enemy starship in orbit and then prevented a volcano from wiping out all the animal life on another world. So fun!
Sunday night was the Legend of the Five Rings game run by Erin Palette on Skype. Very cool. I have really good camaraderie with one of the other players and our adventures and misadventures remind me a lot of the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle team of the ol' early 90's Justice League comic (and the later 'I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League' mini-series).
Finally, the Labor Day session of my Champions game was...it was...I don't have the words. Me. I don't have words. It was that good. I tried explaining part of what happened to Erin Palette and I think I mostly just confused her.
It was an 8-hour session, three players and myself and we covered a lot of ground. This was our 9th or 10th session/issue and it dealt with subplots (both major and minor) from earlier sessions including (but not strictly limited to):
The whole team finally unites (sorta), as Jeff/Syphon Zero decides to ally with the other heroes in hopes of capturing the villainous Dr. Helix who he's been after since issue 4 I think.
Marcus/The Power comes up with a pretty clever plan to call out either Dr. Helix, his lackeys or an another major villain who may be working with Helix. While preparations for the sting operation are underway...
The PCs all find themselves in an alternate timeline due to deal Syphon Zero made with a time travelling weapons collector back in issue 5. Actions by the time traveller (one of my ol' NPCs 'The Weaponaire', not really a hero or villain) create an alternate history in which a more controlling and militant approach to handling superheroes creates a Wildstorm-y Authority/Stormwatch feeling version of the campaign world. Only Night Knight knows the original timelines history (a high Presence score but otherwise it's a mystery why he remembers and not others), although Syphon Zero and a few NPCs remember fading bits and pieces.
With the help of an NPC scientist specializing in temporal and dimensional travel, Night Knight is able to uncover what caused the timeline to change but in the process reveals the truth behind one of the settings major mystery/conspiracy situations. The revelation is big but higger is the question, 'what happened after the event that, once altered, created a divergent timeline'?
Meanwhile... (ah, Meanwhile. Don't you just love a good Meanwhile...) the heroes are attacked by Dr. Helix who has under his control Integral (aka Integra), Primal and a psionic powerhouse called Ego. In the correct/original timeline Integra and Primal have been freed of Helix's influence and are allies of Syphon Zero. Here and now, Integra's first move is to try and kill Syphon.
The Power and a few NPCs (Pulse and Overload specifically) try to engage Primal while Omni (Super Psionic NPC and leader of the primary Superhero team) faces off against Ego. Brutal and wild battle. Lots of TK, teleporting and psychic wrestling.
Finally, Omni gets super-pissed when the actions of the villains endanger lives to the point where the heroes need to take capital action against them (Power, Syphon and Silver Sun* kill Primal and Ego using Integra's Intrinsic Field Energy attack using a plan brillantly choreographed by The Power). Just before Ego dies, Omni does the forced mind meld type move with his telepathy that he would never, EVER do in the main timeline. By doing so he discovers Dr. Helix's whereabouts. He telepathically broadcasts it to the team (including the PC heroes).
That's when Night Knight finds the Weaponaire and convinces him to fix the timeline. It takes some fancy wordplay but Night Knight is successful and within moments of Weaponaire's departure into the timestream things return to the previous pre-mishap status quo (at least it seems that way).
Night Knight remembers everything and tell Omni to read his mind to verify. Omni is in shock because of the revelation of the conspiracy I mentioned above as well as his own actions in the alternate timeline.
That is just the tip of the iceberg as far as consequences from this one guys and gals! Crazy stuff went down and even crazier stuff is coming. I can hardly wait.
OK, off to work. Next up, back on target for D&D and Smurfs...
Laters,
AD
Barking Alien
*In some scenes my pal Dave switched to another PC alt he is using from time to time called Silver Sun.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
The Great Conjunction
O...M...G! Big Dark Crystal. A The Dark Crystal RPG! Damn I'm excited.
Jen: The prophecy didn't say anything about this!
Kira: Prophets don't know everything!
AD
Barking Alien
Aughra: Where is he?
Jen: He's dead.
Aughra: Could be anywhere then.
One of my favorite quotes ever.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Messing With Games You Shouldn't*
First I want to thank Lord Blacksteel for putting the idea to do this in my head, even if I kind of already had something like this in mind to do at some point.
The concept, as I envision it, is to take a game, system or adventure and screw with it in a way that either it doesn't really need or to an extent best left alone by all but the most cunning of mad geniuses. I'd like to think I fall into the latter category but I'm sure some of the former applies to what I am endeavouring to do.
Basically, I've decided to do the Anti-Barking Alien thing and talk seriously about D&D. Yes, I am referring to Dungeons & Dragons. No, it isn't April Fool's Day. No, I am not the Barking Alien of Earth-3 or the Mirror Universe. Trust me. If I were I would have a cool, black outfit and a goatee.
The concept, as I envision it, is to take a game, system or adventure and screw with it in a way that either it doesn't really need or to an extent best left alone by all but the most cunning of mad geniuses. I'd like to think I fall into the latter category but I'm sure some of the former applies to what I am endeavouring to do.
Basically, I've decided to do the Anti-Barking Alien thing and talk seriously about D&D. Yes, I am referring to Dungeons & Dragons. No, it isn't April Fool's Day. No, I am not the Barking Alien of Earth-3 or the Mirror Universe. Trust me. If I were I would have a cool, black outfit and a goatee.
And there are many, many more posts, especially from this blogs earlier days when, well, quite frankly, no one paid any attention to it. *sob*
My love/hate relationship with the game of Dungeons & Dragons is best described as a somewhat dislike/largely despise relationship. I don't like the game. I haven't since about 1984. I started with Basic in 1977, moved to Advanced First Edition and then largely missed Second all together. Just before the release of Third I made some adjustments to AD&D 1E to facilitate running a game with my then girlfriend, later wife, now ex-wife but still good friend, Selina.
It was her interest in medieval fantasy fiction in general and Dragonlance and a few other titles in particular that got me to dust off my D&D books which honestly hadn't been touched in years and years even though I was gaming fairly regularly when we met. OK, irregularly regularly.
Selina was so hooked by the hobby and intrigued by the release of 3E that we spent our one-week-paid-vacation time the year it came out attending GenCon to get a hold of it as early as possible. It's funny but I remembered thinking I might pick it up if it looked cool. Really I was there just to be at GenCon again with this awesome person who shared my interests. Low and behold, we bought one set of all three core books for me (the DM) and an extra Player's Handbook for her. I ended up running a solo campaign with her and then a couple of mini-campaigns with her and friends of ours. It was a pretty great time to be a D&D fan.
Unfortunately as time progressed so did D&D's propensity to get on my nerves a little. Mostly it just became to complex while not allowing me the flexibility I enjoyed in many of the systems I was more accustomed to. I started to fiddle with the system and eventually houseruled a bunch of things and left out a bunch of things.
Fast forward to about a year or two ago when several less than stellar experiences with old school D&Ders running 3E variants and one too many stories about my old D&D games from my big mouth drove one of my players to demand I run my D&D. I had hyped up my world and my rules alterations to the point where he, my good friend and great gamer Dave, said I had to run it for him.
Truth was, though I hadn't run D&D in about 5 or 6 years prior to Dave's request that I do so, I had been tweaking and adjusting and developing my own version of D&D specifically for use with my world.
The end result is what I have referred to on this blog as my D&D-But-Not game or D&D-For-Those-Who-Don't-Like-D&D. Dave proclaims it is not D&D at all. He refers to it as 'The Awesome Anime Fantasy Adventure Game'.
I refer you to the following posts:
D&D But Not - Part 1
D&D But Not - Part 2
W is For Wonder, I've Got That in Spades
Y is for Yes, Say it and Feel Fine
Top 10 Things Least Likely to Happen in a D&D Game Run By Me
Top 10 Things Most Likely to Happen in a D&D Game Run By Me
What these posts and this blog have been lacking in relation to my D&D-But-Not game is a dedicated series of posts where I really explain what it's all about.
So that is what Barking Alien's September feature, "Messing With Games You Shouldn't"* is all about.
Enjoy!
AD
Barking Alien
*Note, as I've mentioned before, I don't believe there is a game you shouldn't mess with. Rules as written translates to roads not travelled in Barking Alien language. Grow a pair and houserule!
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