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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 23, 2021 11:10:01 GMT -5
Allan -- Thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it! But I have already committed to playing Jon Hook's game on Thursday and I have chosen a character, and your Friday session has a slight overlap with the Bodenburg game. So, I won't be able to play in either of your Greyhawk games this week. One of these days, though, I will get into one of your Castle Greyhawk games! And I'm looking forward to it, considering all of the Castle Greyhawk trivia you've accumulated over the years.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 23, 2021 14:07:40 GMT -5
Here is my schedule so far: 10 AM Thursday, Orcus on the 34th Level, Jon Hook I played in one of Jon Hook's Alien RPG sessions last year & it was fantastic. He has a very cinematic voice (like the guy in the trailers who says "In a world gone horribly wrong...), so it fit the genre very well. He was running the sample adventure from the rulebook, Hadley's Last Hope, which is a prequel to Aliens.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 23, 2021 15:51:42 GMT -5
Agreed -- Jon Hook is an excellent GM and has a great voice -- he sounds like a broadcaster. For years he was on the Miskatonic University Podcast. I first played in one of his games at the Providence NecronomiCon in 2019. It was a scenario he wrote for the CALL OF CTHULHU RPG and published by Chaosium titled "Shadow Over Providence." I got an autographed copy. At last year's GARYCON I played in another game he wrote and published for the Swords & Wizardry game (clone of AD&D) titled "Blight of the Moonglow Glade" and it was also a great time even though entirely played on Discord (audio only). Pure theater of the mind!
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Post by grodog on Mar 23, 2021 17:27:58 GMT -5
No worries, Gary, we'll get it sorted sometime And you'll have a blast in Jon's game and in Bodenburg, so it's all good =) I'd forgotten that you attended Necronomicon too---I've never attended yet, but my old PSU friends Allen Ruch and Christopher Gross have been semi-regulars as I recall. Did you ever play with them? Allen ran a CoC version of Melville's _Moby-Dick_ at some point, I think (or at least he was planning on it). Allan.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 24, 2021 6:55:34 GMT -5
No, I didn't meet or play with those guys but a MOBY DICK inspired CoC scenario is an intriguing idea. I only went to one NecronomiCon and it was so awesome I can't wait to go to the next one in 2022. I only played in two CoC games -- the one with Jon Hook and another with Thom Raley titled "Beyond the Door" which is a one-shot from Reckoning of the Dead. Thom is also a great Keeper/GM, and the host of the INTO THE DARKNESS CoC RPG club which posts their gaming sessions on their YouTube Channel and podcast, and which I am a patron of. Other than that, I attended a lot of panels and got to meet John Langan, the author of THE FISHERMAN (some MOBY DICK influences in that novel, btw) and see live broadcasts of the H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and "MAD SCIENCE" by the HPLHS. I also got to meet Andrew Leman of the HPLHS who is my favorite Lovecraft reader -- I got to tell him his reading of "Haunter of the Dark" is my favorite Lovecraft adaptation in any medium! I also got to attend a weird art show that was right next to the Fleur-De-Lys building that was mentioned in the Lovecraft story "The Call of Cthulhu." My cousin Karl was there with me and we had a great time, and found some decent local eateries like Harry's Bar and Burger, Union Station Brewery, and Anthony's Authentic Italian Cuisine. Additionally, I was able to do my own walking tour of various Lovecraft sites in Providence, such as the houses HPL lived in, his high school, sites that were featured in stories like "The Shunned House" and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," and to visit the site of St John's Roman Catholic Church on Federal Hill (torn down in 1992 to make a park, sadly) that inspired the Church of Starry Wisdom in "Haunter of the Dark." There was also that Churchyard of St John's on N. Main Street (still standing) where HPL used to go all of the time and had old tombstones with some obvious influences on some of his stories.
I could go on and on. And there were still places I didn't get to visit yet, like Swan Point Cemetary, the sites of the houses on Angell Street, Blackstone Park near the Seekonk River (with all of its pagan altars and dryads and fauns), the Wild Colonial Tavern (a block from where "Sabin's Tavern near the docks" was at S. Main and Planet Street and stand-in for historical re-enactments of the Great Debate), Ladd Observatory, the North Burial Ground, Quinsnicket, the "old Curwen place" on the Pawtuxet River, the Dark Swamp, etc.
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Post by Scott on Mar 24, 2021 19:29:21 GMT -5
I had to change my schedule. I can't make the Bodenburg game. I am doing the Battle for the Moathouse Saturday morning. Exploring the Marmoreal Tomb Saturday afternoon, and Mike Mornard's OD&D game Saturday evening.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 25, 2021 6:20:47 GMT -5
Those were two other events I was interested in. I'm eager to read your battle reports after the games.
I'd like to hear of the forces of Evil Chaos winning for once!
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 25, 2021 14:33:21 GMT -5
I just played in Jon Hook's "Orcus on the 34th Level" and had a good time! He wanted me to mention that his games still have some open slots on Friday and Saturday.
Tonight at 7 PM Central I'm playing in Tim Kask's "Wheel of Blame" (OD&D) and it still has an open slot in case anyone is interested.
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Post by Scott on Mar 25, 2021 15:17:50 GMT -5
I wanted to get into Tim's game, but my schedule wasn't compatible.
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Post by Scott on Mar 25, 2021 15:48:19 GMT -5
Jim Ward is running one Metamorphosis Alpha, one Gamma World, and one AD&D event, I'm watching all of those to see if anybody drops out.
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Post by Scott on Mar 26, 2021 9:57:23 GMT -5
I just got into Jim’s AD&D Crimson Hawk game Sunday morning.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 26, 2021 10:03:16 GMT -5
Jim Ward is running one Metamorphosis Alpha, one Gamma World, and one AD&D event, I'm watching all of those to see if anybody drops out. I'm watching the same games for open spots. Last night, Tim Kask said he thought Jim Ward was the greatest GM ever. I know EGG used to sing Jim Ward's praises as a GM and loved playing MA. Tim Kask said last night that one of EGG's characters is still on the Starship Warden! Tim Kask's game last night was a great experience. I notice a common theme with many of the "old guard" is that it is about testing the players and getting us to think rather than (merely) what our characters can do. It is also more about improvisation and imagination and much more free wheeling than what I am used to. But that is a good exercise to break one's mind out of the ruts of expectation!
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Post by Scott on Mar 26, 2021 10:43:42 GMT -5
Gary told me a story of Mordenkainen’s last adventure DMed by Jim Ward. He started out disguised as a female half elf. The rest of the party didn’t know it was Mordenkainen. At some point in the adventure the party got teleported to the Warden, and the illusion was dispelled. I remember one or two other PCs were captured by robots that performed operations on them. Mordenkainen convinced some Warden inhabitants to follow him. They never got to finish the adventure.
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Post by Scott on Mar 26, 2021 10:49:06 GMT -5
You’ll have to do a write up of the adventure.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 27, 2021 7:19:05 GMT -5
So far, here is my report on this year's GARYCON.
"Orcus on 34th Level" written by and DMed by Jon Hook, inspired by "Miracle on 34th Street." Swords & Wizardry rules/OD&D clone. Everything in the dungeon was a combination of Christmas and D&D -- like candy mixed with undead. We encountered things like the mistletroll in the Dead Letter Office -- it was writing demoralizing letters to children -- and crueltide elves building automaton nutcracker soldiers and wizards. The climactic encounter was with Orcus' Claws, who sat on his throne and whispered into the ears of wretched peasants to transform them into 'naughties' or demon-like humanoids with horns and tails. The goal was to defeat Orcus' Claws and prevent the summoning of his wife, Nohell Claws, and we succeeded. I played an 8th level paladin named Calen-tut, and I got the killing the blow on Orcus' Claws!
"Wheel of Blame" was DMed by Tim Kask. 1974 OD&D rules. The idea here was improvisational: each of us would name two things to Tim, secretly, and he would craft an adventure out of them on the spot. Then, at the end of the night, he would reveal which of us provided what encounters and therefore who would get the blame if things turned out poorly. The things I named were hydra and unholy grail. Tim gave us our characters by holding them up for us to view and copy, and I was Wesley, a 5th level cleric. Tim gave us our motivation or goal which was for each of us to get a blue token-like coin by the end of the night. The adventure was a series of vignettes made up out the things we each named, and each time we found a magic coin, the entire party would freeze in place and then be transported to the next vignette. The first was walking across a grassy field to come across a party with juvenile orcs and goblins watched over by two ogre chaperones. The juveniles kept sticking pins into a large wooden box eliciting yelps of pain. We offered the ogres some food, and threw some hemp on the fire which got the humanoids stoned. While they were distracted we got the first coin [1: "Birthday party" and "Jack-in-the-Box"]. The next vignette was a dungeon where we were locked in but found crystals filled with liquid of various colors, and seven stone slabs with seven indentations each. There were also seven party members. We tried various combinations and eventually had a party member at each slab inserting the crystals at the same time, and the fourth indentation opened the ceiling up to rain down copper coins on us and the seventh indentation got us out of there [2: I can't remember the two things for this one]. Next were were in pastures described to be like the Elysian Fields with wildlife all around, but some goats we encountered became hostile, turned green and then blew bubbles to float above us and drop on us and attack. At first we fled from the goats, but when we finally fought back, they each popped out of existence with a single hit each. Around their necks were some bells and one of them had the magic coin [3: "Possessed goats" and "bubbles"/"bubble gum"]. Next we were in a dungeon again [4: "Mermaid skull" and ?]. Next were by a river with wooden disks we used to cross to get to an immense V-shaped silver statue of that was cleaned off by yellow-green spiders -- we eventually found the magic coin on top of the right side of the statue [5: "Wooden disks"? and "Rabbit ears"]. Next was a shrine with clay humanoid figures each two feet tall walking into a pool and then climbing out. In the center of the pool was an emerald pillar with a leather drinking cup on top. When one of the characters shot the cup off of the pillar and jumped in the pool to retrieve it, he was killed by a hydra. After we killed the hydra, we recovered the cup which had one of the magic coins on an indent underneath it [6: "Hydra" and "Unholy Grail"]. Finally, we were in some hills where we saw many giant ferrets popping up out a number of burrows. I cast speak with animals and found out the ferrets were beings who had been polymorphed and put under a geas to protect a box. We offered them beef jerky to be allowed to look inside the box, and we threw a bag of flour up in the air and shot it to create a distraction while we grabbed the wooden sword from the box which had the last magic coin on its pommel [7: "Giant ferrets" and "Wooden sword"].
"Siege of Bodenburg" was hosted by Paul Stormberg who was helped by his friend Kevin Maurice. Unfortunately, they had some technical difficulties and it took a while for them to get set up and for us to get started. We played on Zoom and had two break out rooms on Zoom with three players each. The idea was that each team would have a GM/referee to work with them, move figures, adjudicate what would happen, etc. We were the German knights defending Castle Bodenburg, and the other team played the invaders who were Turks and Huns. Kevin was our referee and Paul was with the other team. Paul did summarize the rules and options for us at a high level, and did a good job giving the overview. We spent the first hour or so reading the rules in greater detail and discussing our strategy. We decided to have our supply wagon begin to the northeast and slowly move over the hills towards our sally gate in the back of the castle. A major goal for the defenders in this scenario is to get the castle re-supplied otherwise the defenders will starve. The invaders have the goal to occupy the castle or kill all of the knights by turn 15. When we finally started to play, it was a bit confusing because of the way the cameras were set up. We had a difficult time seeing the table and hearing Paul, who was sometimes talking to the other team and sometimes talking to Kevin to adjudicate what was happening. The invaders approached the front of the castle and had mounted Huns attempt to ride around the east side of the castle to intercept our supply wagon. Our archers shot some of the Huns and our footmen at least partially cut off the charging Huns. Our mounted knights entered the northeast edge of the board in turn 3 to charge down to flank the Huns. My impression was we were in the better position at that point but that it was still far from decided. We only made it to about turn 4 or 5. That is as far as we got because Paul had to end the game about 30 minutes early to help set up another event due to something related to how GARYCON scheduled things. If I get to play this in person at GARYCON 2022 I'm sure it will go much better as we will avoid the technical difficulties and at least now I have a better understanding of the rules.
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Post by Scott on Mar 27, 2021 7:40:25 GMT -5
I'm getting ready for the Moathouse Chainmail game. Hopefully they figured out those technical difficulties. I found a pdf copy of the Bodenburg rules online.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 27, 2021 13:29:08 GMT -5
I'm in the panel discussion "Exploring the Marmoreal Tomb" with Ernie Gygax. The Kickstarter project is still going to be completed, but there are no hard dates. I was not a backer, but there should be hard copies available to buy once completed and shipping to the backers is done. He's going to release the Marmoreal Tomb and then later intends to do the Dungeon Hobby Shop as well (the one he started in the late 1970's). Sadly, there seems to be a lot of ill will towards Ernie and Benoist online because of the long delay (5 years). That is understandable, but I seriously doubt Ernie and Benoist scammed anybody -- to me it simply looks like poor project planning. The main theme about the Marmoreal Tomb was dwarven greed -- that is what set off the whole chain of events. The name 'Marmoreal' was chosen in the spirt of his father preferring archaic words which encourages people to reach for the dictionary or thesaurus.
Ernie won't play online (such as to make a guest appearance as Tenser -- I asked!) but he did give out an open invitation for people to come to Lake Geneva and game with him at the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum. That might be worth a trip! Ernie told the story about one of the first times he explored the dungeons of Castle Greyhawk and memorized read magic and cast it on that message about the challenges and treasure increasing as one went deeper. Ernie commented on how most players don't have good mapping skills these days, or don't have to map, but it was an important part of the how the game was played back in the old days. He also mentioned what a stellar GM Jim Ward was. For others, Ernie gave his father an A and Rob an A- and himself a B+ or A- since he learned from the masters.
The Troll Lords who hosted this discussion seem like pretty cool guys. I feel motivated to get on their website and buy something from them.
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Post by Scott on Mar 27, 2021 14:52:30 GMT -5
I always liked the Trolls. I was signed up for the panel, but I kept getting an error when I tried to launch. I played the Moathouse this morning. I was on the good side. We lost. We had three players, and there was no cohesion. One of the players was like the D&D player who is always a thief and insists on roleplaying an extra hour in the inn. Very odd troop placement. For some unknown reason not using full movement potential. So most of the human troops got bottled up on the far side of a bridge and never really became a factor. Gnome slingers were tab out of the game from the start when they went to chop some trees down rather than move up and throw missile fire at the approaching cavalry. Crossbow men behind everybody else and never really getting into range. I was controlling Jaroo, Black Jay, and some elven archers. I made it up to the gatehouse, but then the defenders could concentrate their fire on my archers because everybody else got backed up at the bridge. Jaroo and his earth elemental were still alive, but not much else so we called it. Even losing I had a good time.
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Post by geneweigel on Mar 27, 2021 19:43:51 GMT -5
I tried but it looks like it's not happening. Bad timing with the house deal.Spent all morning cleaning and packing tried to get into the D&D mood this afternoon (ended up reading REH) to finish the adventure but it ain't happening. Maybe next two weeks I'll have it punched out.
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Post by GRWelsh on Mar 28, 2021 11:49:26 GMT -5
I just got finished playing MOOSE QUEST with Tom Wham on Tabletopia. We all struggled a bit with the interface but we were able to get through the game with time to spare. I came in second place. Tom is a very mild-mannered and patient fellow. I've been a fan ever since AWFUL GREEN THINGS FROM OUTER SPACE (1980 boxed game, originally in THE DRAGON #28 in July 1979) and got to finally confirm the proper pronunciation of ZNUTAR is phonetically Zuh-NOO-tar!
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