He Does Have a High Wisdom...

I bought myself some Warhammer miniatures Saturday. I plan on making an actual Spineplate mini for use in my DnD campaign, and the Warhammer Chaos Knights can be made to be pretty much exactly what I envision for old Kethranmeer, the warrior of steel mind and steel flesh.

When the group first met Spineplate, he was a savage thing of metal plates welded to a framework of steel struts and hinges and gears. He was also caked in rust and blood. When A'lst refurbished him, he was very shiny and all flat planes of metal. After his most recent conversion (which no one noticed), he wields a hammer and has built his body to emulate plate armor, including a belt and cloak. If not for the blank helmet of his head and his metallic voice, he could pass as a knight of The New Empire if he had need to. As he said last scenario, "Spineplate not beast, warrior. Live as warrior, kill as warrior, die as warrior, not beast." and also "Want cloak, buy cloak. Belt hold pouches, pouches handy."

There is follow up to Spineplate's conversion in the next scenario, hopefully the players care enough to investigate. I remain optimistic.

I'm really excited to play with my paints again. I know it is going to be frustrating, because it has been so long and there is some conversion work I need to do. But I really want to do this, and if I am patient and take my time and don't get too discouraged from dried out paints and clumsy hands, I think I can have some fun.

If we do end up playing these characters for the long haul, perhaps I could make the entire The Robust Five (More Or Less), rather than use Legos till the end of time. We actually have to get to the end of this campaign though before I can decide to put in that much work.

It hasn't changed too much, but it is slightly more robust and I haven't posted it for download in a bit, so here is the wiki: http://www.mediafire.com/?3d7o13kyp73bezb

Music: Queen of Bees - Witchcraft

Highly Fantastical

Just so everyone knows, there is an Edit After The Fact for the Additional Conversion Rates (Among Other Things) post.

Something has been hanging around in the back of my mind as I ponder my campaign and listen to other actual plays. Can I still do high fantasy?

I used to say my campaign was steampunk, but that is kind of dependent upon where you are in The Known World, and the PCs have opted to go to one of the two hot spots of sorcery on the continent, kind of a low tech place. Steampunk isn't the right term for what we're playing at the moment. Neither is high fantasy though. High fantasy to me is core DnD, where there are pluses and glowing weapons bursting forth from every orifice on every character, dragons are magic, elves are all wise and naturey, dwarves are earthy, etc. I don't think my campaign world is high fantasy. I dunno what you'd call it though, high fantasy doesn't feel right, but maybe I'm wrong. Not that a classification of the campaign's type matters at all.

I've just been wondering if I can still do the whole elves are elves and goblins are goblins and magic swords are glowy and full of bright shiny pluses thing. I don't know that I can. Mechanically, I really dig 4th Edition (not more than GURPS or Pathfinder though), but I almost want to vomit when I think of the magic item economy and the constant need to upgrade all your shiny friendly magical whatsits, the dragonbewbs, etc, etc, etc.

I like Tolkien depictions of fantasy. I'm fine with talking trees and immortal elves and balrogs and whatnot. I should say that I've only ever read The Hobbit and watched the trilogy of films, so those are what this opinion is based on. I really dig that Gandalf isn't this firehose of arcane power in the films. I enjoy that most of the magic you see is subtle, like the ability to communicate with certain animals or a light spell. Gandalf only really brings out the big guns against a balrog and the witch king. Even the One Ring, supposedly the most powerful item of magic in the world only ever really makes hobbits invisible. Frodo doesn't just walk around throwing bolts of lightning and melting faces off with it. I believe Eric and I had this conversation a while ago.

I start to think about dwarves and elves and what have you and I immediately think "Oh, I'd change this and this and then this would be this." I just rebel at the thought of a dwarf being a dwarf for some reason.

Recently I was considering throwing a more common depiction of fantasy into my campaign world. Just as a continent the players could end up on if I felt they were pining for the familiar fantasy tropes. A place where magic worked fine and didn't warp your flesh and dwarves were, well, dwarves. My thought process was that there would be this huge obelisk on the continent and it would be a piece of Kaleshmar and there would be these huge ten foot tall skeletal corpses bound to it in chains of grey metal. These would be the bones of conteog that Kalashmar had pulled from the skies and they would stabilize sorcery within a certain radius of the continent.

I started to think of dwarves. Now, the dwenoren of Whurent have a warrior tradition, but it has kind of become archaic and silly to them. They haven't had true warrior schools in a long time, once they committed near genocide on the giants and dragons living beneath the mountains, they didn't really have a need for huge standing armies. Anyway, I thought that dwarves on this other continent could be an offshoot of dwen that had retained their martial traditions. Then I decided they had evolved eyes, but they were crude and misshapen so they weren't good with ranged weapons and still had a vestigial tremorsense type ability from their eyeless past, and it kind of became a new race of dwenoren, rather than familiar dwarves.

I don't know if this is even remotely a problem. We've never really discussed at length as a group what people like and dislike about my campaign world, and I honestly have no idea if they'd prefer something more familiar and more high fantasy. I think Fred digs that I'm trying to get out of the whole elf, dwarf, human, etc. thing, but I could be wrong. I know Jeremy and Eric like the place, and that is swell.

I wonder if it is just some bizarre desperate need to avoid as many cliches and tropes as possible. Cliches and tropes are what they are for a reason though, they tend to work when not overused.

Just some thoughts for the evening I guess.

One last thing, the dude on the mountain, his name is Rhetkhan Kannunn. I'm not sure where the mountain is, or what his exact role is (ok, that is a lie, I know his exact purpose), but he is there and it is someplace on Hekinoe. Heh, that might make for an interesting campaign arc, the group tries to find him. I bet he would be grouchy.

Music: Spiral Architect - Black Sabbath

Music: Killing Yourself to Live - Black Sabbath

Music: Hole in the Sky - Black Sabbath

Whoa!

I have gazed into the abyss, and it has gazed into me.

I have been obsessed with podcasts of late. I like a lot of crap, so I like to listen to a variety of them. My favorites at the moment are the Giantbombcast, This American Life, and RPPR's The New World Campaign sessions. Oh! My Brother, My Brother, and Me is just about the most hilarious thing I have ever heard, so it is grand as well.

Anyway, I am frantic for more actual play podcasts, so I've been looking around on the intertubes for some. I guess I like them because it lets me see how other people game and GM and whatnot. It helps me to know that other GMs are out there tackling the same problems I am. It warms my heart to know that there are others out there goofing off and enjoying the game.

I recently found a new one and I listened to the first episode. I have seen what role-playing is finally. The first session of the podcast was this three hour long siege/skill challenge type thing where the party was leading three hundred soldiers in an assault on an ancient temple of evil stuff.

It was long and drawn out and I even skipped a few spots because they dragged on, but damn, I liked it. It was role-playing. I finally got to listen to people role-playing and see what it was. It wasn't something crude like costumes or voices or handouts. It was just people talking about their characters. Not just what they were doing, but what they were thinking and feeling. Listening to that podcast drove something home for me.

I want to game like that.

Look, I'll admit it. I am attached to Spineplate. If he broke and was brought low by the enemies of The Robust Five (More of Less), it would upset me. On a side note, I love the fact that that is the unofficial name of the group. It makes me happy inside. Spineplate's death would (will?) make me sad. I am attached to him, I've written about him and spoken of him to others and clarified his background to the point where he is "real" to me. His death = sadness for me.

Listening to that podcast, I got the sense that those folks cared about their characters. I don't quite know where I am going here, but someday, I think I would like us to role play.

Edit After The Fact: I am aware that some people are trying, and I wholeheartedly applaud and support their efforts. What I mean to say is that I would like it if we as an entire group played like that, not just a few individuals that probably feel a bit self conscious being the only ones trying. Not that I am upset with those that don't. I made it clear that backgrounds and role-playing were optional, but beneficial, when we started this particular campaign and I am not taking that back. As long as we're having fun, I am mostly ok with the way we do it. The fun is the important part.

Additional Conversion Rates (Among Other Things)

I effing hate me some Derf the Swordmage. The Swordmage concept is so hard to fit into anything other than 4th Edition DnD. Derf is expensive in GURPS, but impossible to fit into 3.5 Edition or Pathfinder. Psychic warriors have some elemental attacks, but Derf is magic, not psionic. Swordsage would work, they're kind of mystical warriors that master pseudo-magical blade arts. Both of those classes lack teleportation effects similar to the Swordmage. There is a third option of a Fighter/Wizard multiclass with the appropriate feats and prestige classes to alter it. That might work, but I don't have much knowledge about spells and whether or not they are any that can lightning-ify swords and whatnot, or if Fred would have to settle for fireballs and lightning bolts and whatnot, heh.

I've been toying with both GURPS and Pathfinder conversion stuff, and it has been getting to me. I would really like us to settle on what system we will eventually be using, but I don't want to bring up the issue before it needs to be addressed. I don't want to focus too much on what is to come and distract myself from what is going on at the moment.

I've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender lately. I actually just started the third season. Jeremy and Laura recommended it to me a while ago, and I kind of added it to my Netflix Instant Watch on a whim. It is surprisingly enjoyable for being a cartoon based on a manga. I have watch a fair amount of anime and cartoons in my life, I was a big Naruto fan for many years in fact. Eventually I get sick of the comical faces and goofy crap though. Anyway, Avatar is a pretty decent show with some surprisingly mature themes scattered throughout it. I mean, a lot of the plot is just blatantly obvious, but it is after all a kids cartoon on Nickelodeon. Or it was at least. I find myself really wanting to reach the final conclusion of the show. Appa is also amusing. I really enjoy the animals of the world, boarcupines, sabertooth moose cats, turtleducks. I find them cute and entertaining.

More DnD. In an email a while ago, John told me he would like more battles that have consequences based on the actions of the party. I have a hard time dealing with this question because I feel like the consequences are fairly obvious. I think I understand what John is saying now, but the players so rarely come near to failure that it feels like any sort of consequence for their actions would be wasted effort on my part, and deliberately causing them to fail feels like hardcore railroading. I mean, you can't win every battle, and you are bound to come up against something that whoops you at some point, but the players are so underpowered already that actually making them fight a difficult battle feels like picking on them. John still doesn't really understand the way attacks per round work (one, always one, unless your powers say otherwise), or saving throws. Does anyone know what a bull rush is? Charge? The benefits to each action? I have to tailor the fights to their capabilities, because this is a learning the ropes campaign. What is the sense in making a bunch of tactical options for combat, if they're just going to use their at-wills the entire fight? Is this a chicken and the egg situation though? Are my fairly straight forward fights the result of their less then rock hard understanding of their options, or is it the other way around? I'm guessing the former, rather than the latter, but I eagerly hope to be wrong.

The question remains, should I be more proactive and frequently tell them their options? No. I am an adult, just like they are adults. If they have a rules question, I will answer it, or if they ask "can I do this?" I will tell them how, but I will not hand hold more than I already am. They have all the information at their fingertips and in the books that they have. Their understanding of the rules, or complete lack thereof, is on them. Kind of like whether the scenario sucks or not is on me. Maybe that makes me a grognard, or a hardass, or just a bad GM. It is my stance though and I stand by it. On the ground. In an earth bending stance. With a rock ready to be flip kicked into someone's face or some such.

The handholding will however cease once we get to the next campaign. Heh.

Edit After The Fact: Completely got sidetracked about combat. I mention John's email because I think I may make a post about how the player's have affected the world around them with their choices and actions during game time, just to kind of show that they are affecting the world around them and shaping it as they pass through it.

Cuhrazy!

I've been taking a good hard look at my story with Shawn's notes in hand for the past few days, kind of taking it slow and mulling things over. There are actually fewer notations in Shawn's notes than I had thought there would be, so that is a good thing.

One of the things he pointed out was that there is nothing to the non-Keroen characters. They only exist when Keroen is around to look at them and demand exposition and whatnot. That was intentional. The story is about Keroen, who gives a fuck about everyone else? I added in Nostathon's bits and pieces for a very specific purpose, and Shawn has suggested that there are other spots where I could do similar things with other characters, and I've given that quite a bit of thought as I progress through my re-writes and additions and whatnot.

I think that I've got some spots where I can add some tidbits in centering around Contuck and Aubernach and Merobel. These pieces will work pretty nicely with some stuff I've had rolling around in my head for a while now, and they should give a better picture of the Nel and some of the characters from the story. So good deal there.

Shawn also mentioned that most of the battles in the story are underwhelming because it is a foregone conclusion as to who will win. Keroen Skathos is war, if it breathes, he can change that. Easily. This is an issue that has crossed my mind before, and I think I can perhaps put some effort forth in this department as I proceed through the book and Shawn's notes. Maybe. We'll see.

Some things to think and muse about I guess. I'm enjoying this, I'm in that mode where I get writing and I cannot physically stop myself from writing. It makes me feel like a real writer when I get all twitchy and fervent about it.

The First Salvo

Shawn just dropped off his critique of my story (Eric won last round, Shawn wins this round and gets extra credit for precise and well thought out commentary). He points out a lot of things I am already aware of, or that have already been pointed out to me and I have slowly been trying to work on. It confirms a lot of what I've believed about the story for some time. Mainly, that is a decent read, but my understanding of the basics of writing are flawed and need work. Once I finish the current book I'm reading, I think I'll start to focus more on some of the books on writing that I have on my shelf. I suppose that it is about time that I did that.

One of the things Shawn and I discussed was "what exactly is Keroen Skathos?" and that is hard question to answer. He is the creator of the Nel, but that just turns into "what are the Nel?" and I have no answer for that. They are what they are, a race of creatures. Keroen isn't a god or anything like that, he's not an elf or a sorcerer or a god-king or something like that. He just is. He exists. Shawn did not accept that answer and said even I didn't know what he was.

I do, and I told Shawn and Heather. I told Eric as well, but that was years and years ago. I'm not sure if it made anything better, but I've known what Keroen Skathos is and where he came from for a long time. The problem with what Keroen Skathos is and why his sword is what it is and why there is gash on his brow is that this story builds on knowledge presented in a story that does not exist.

Whoa. Paradox.

The whole thing starts with The Death of a Universe, then there is a story that I never got past four chapters of writing, then there is The Nel, The Last Blade (the working title for the Keroen Skathos story), then we move into my campaign world and The One-Eyed Man farce. Keroen Skathos has a part to play in all of that. He is something, its just that what he is, is irrelevant to the finished story Shawn read.

Shawn suggested that I use Nostathon as a means of showing what Keroen Skathos is, citing that Nostathon can see things that no other Nel can. I can see that as a plausible option, but there's no way I can show it that would mean anything to anyone. I can't condense an unwritten story into a paragraph of Nostathon musing about stuff. Nostathon wouldn't even understand it clearly, as it is data from a time before the Nel existed and before Keroen Skathos was what he is in the story. He doesn't even recall his origins, other than as opening his eyes to find himself in a mist-choked forest holding his staff and his sword.

I'm not even trying to be cryptic and mysterious. I'm not trying to create artificial mystery in this stuff. It is what it is.

Regardless, Shawn's comments are much appreciated and give me a strong picture of what I need to work on. Hopefully in the next few months I can put them to good use and shore up some weak points of the story.

The Mountain

Somewhere in Hekinoe there is a mountain, mighty and black, its peak piercing the sky like a titan's upraised blade. Storms scorch this peak as bleak, bruise colored clouds swirl around it in a vortex of lightning and winds. Atop this peak is a throne, and that throne is built upon the accumulated knowledge of a lost age of Hekinoe's past. The seat of this throne is a tome so weighty that it possesses the knowledge to sear the sky to ash. The armrests are bound scrolls that could be wielded as talismans to drain the seas and shatter the earth. The head rest is a collection of bound maps of ancient Kaleshmar. The mountain rumbles as the ancient engine within it stirs as the creature brooding upon this throne shifts upon its seat and destroys six thousand years of knowledge as a tome beneath its foot breaks apart and is lashed into nothingness by the wind. Ruling from this throne is a bearded king whose eyes gleam with madness, tendrils of sorcerous might curl from the embers of power that are its eyes. Hail and rain slap against its flesh and its dirty ruined robes or torn and tattered by the wind. It does not blink or acknowledge the storm that surrounds it, for it is the eye of the storm and the storm is the turmoil within its mind. This king of storms and dusty knowledge sits upon its throne and gazes into the distance with a vacant stare, unmoved by its surroundings.

At the foot of this mountain is a small figure, this figure is a creature known as D'alton and he knows fear.