Gamery updates

Coming to the end of another week and I realised I haven't done an update on the games I'm running for a while.  Our home game is canceled this week, so I'll just have to indulge myself online while Itigiak and his spirit weasel wait in gaming limbo to track down the missing portal.

Online, however, things are ongoing.  My gadget-Queen rogue, Angalia, is sobbing over the body of her fallen friend and hoping someone knows more about healing than her and can save his life.  She is the only character I'm playing under any non-4e system at the moment - and I hasten to point out there is no prejudice.  I've had Savage Worlds, Swords and Wizardry, Arcana Unearthed, 3.5 and Pathfinder characters at various times, but the games have all died.  I swear it isn't my fault. 

However it comes about, Angalia is the sole representative of anything non-4e at the moment and she is not a very awesome example.  In combat with a deformed and extremely evil Surgeon, she rolled almost nothing above a 6.  Even with combat advantage and sneak attack, that's not going to do very much.  On the plus side, she rolls extremely high when looking for ingredients.  It may not be enough to keep her alive.

My other online PCs are mostly on hiatus or in slow games and I don't need to worry about them at the moment.  The games I'm running are also in a mixed state. 

Halls of the Mountain King is just about at the turning point of their climactic battle.  I suspect the party are about to turn things around for themselves in a major way now they've eradicated some of the irritating artillery.  They are keeping a decent set of effects on the Big Bad (now Big Bads as he split into two different entities when bloodied) and trying to finish off the taunting devils who keep making them drop their weapons (a sweet power, thank you Open Design).  I have a few tricks left up my sleeve and am hopeful I may manage to drop one of them at least.

Once they're done there, we'll move on to The Lost City which I've been pruning judiciously.  Mostly this pruning will apply to maps and generally empty areas.  I'm also trying to get ahead of myself by sorting out some treasure parcels in advance.  This is good DMG advice and I never do it.  I forget and then realise my parties are grossly under-equipped.  At this point treasure arrives in a mysterious glittering heap for some vaguely concocted reason.  My aim this time is to make the process smoother and more organic for myself and the players.  We are using the inherent bonus system, which means I can plunder the more amusing magic items with impunity as they will never be catastrophically out of whack with the encounters.  I know all too well how easy it is to get bogged down with upgrading mainstay kit, but personally I love the crazy knick-knacks more.  Enterprising players get some unexpected uses out of them as well.

Tombs I are about to enter the old Tomb of Horrors site in Skull City - recent victim of a cataclysm, but still containing some dangers.  Tombs II are investigating one of said dangers and have spent a lot of time this week splashing across a shallow pool.  In both situations the parties know something terrible will happen to them, but they don't know what it is or when it will strike.  In game terms, this tends to slow things down as they take all the precautions they can reasonably think of.  My job, really, is to hit the starter button and throw something at them before they get too bored.

Rune Stones are mid-battle with a batch of Cylopes.  They've turned out to be a lot of fun as I suddenly realised they were slightly Jeevsian in outlook.  Accustomed to tending the whims of fruitloop fomorians, they treat the PCs like philosophical nannies while attempting to mallet them to death. 

Gaming update - possible spoilers for players - be warned.

I mentioned I have four campaigns running.  That's a little  misleading, as one of them is the same campaign with two different groups, but that's still a lot of updating and dice rolling.  Anyway, this is what is happening to them all right now.  Note that PbP time is not time as we know it.  Halls has been running for nearly two years, Tombs I and II just over a year and Rune Stones for three and a half years.  In game time, mere weeks have passed, if that.  Oh, except for Rune Stones where a trip to the Feywild took twelve years. 

Halls of the Mountain King - the party have just started their climactic final battle with Mammon and his forces.  They have been exploring a mountain full of cursed gold and done rather well so far. They've even managed not to get cursed themselves, despite being in the presence of more gold than any of them have ever seen.  To put this in perspective, adventurers everywhere ALWAYS need gold.  They need it to to buy cool stuff, which is a way of keeping score - since in RPGs you don't really win, you just don't die.  For this group to pass up the chance of acquiring enough gold to buy pretty much any magic thingbob they could ever want is nothing short of amazing.

That said, the battle is not going that well for them and they may yet die horribly, if heroically.  I'm hoping my team (the monsters) continue to roll well and make them suffer for their victory.  Or preferably wipe them out and leave Mammon grinning as he starts to take over the known world from his new base in Mount Rygar.

Tomb of Horrors (I and II)
Group I have been behind Group 2 for a while but both are now in Skull City.  Group I came under serious fire and came as close as they've ever been to a TPK (Total party kill).  They're recovering and hunting for a safe place to rest for a while.  Such will be difficult to find, given that they're in the middle of a city full of fractious undead factions.  Group II are finding out about the undead up close and personal elsewhere.  One of them has contracted a nasty disease in the process. 

Rune Stones
This has been evolving for a long time and the plot is multi-layered.  Due to player loss, the group are meeting their new front line fighter and making plans to invade a mine infested with crazed giants. 

All in a days work for RPGs.  The only place on earth you'll hear someone say something like "Akahale searches the squalid bedding for bones" and it will make sense rather than assuming a psychiatrist is needed immediately.