My Game -- Episode 2 -- Three Day Weekend!

Yesterday was the second gaming session -- second episode -- of my Students With Super Powers Game or as one of my players call it "Time To Change" (insert Brady Bunch song here). The title was Three Day Weekend. The teacher they saw killed by a classmate of theirs as he lost control of his powers caused the school to give the students Monday off -- hence Three Day Weekend. Since my players do like to roleplay out scenes, I decided to give them this episode they could play with their new found abilities and it had a very open ended feel to it. Until the end, of course, when I gave them a plot nugget.  Overall, I felt very pleased with how the session went even with the change of venue and kitty distractions.

All tuckered out

Where we last left our heroes, they realized they developed abilities previously only thought true in comic books and movies. Our episode starts with the Pretty One, Brock, using his illusion abilities to have a John Cusack reenact that famous scene from Say Anything outside the Wild One Joce's window.

This scene right here

This irritated Joce and the two had a back and forth. Brock eventually rolled away with Harujuku girls throwing flower petals at his car and an illusion Selena Gomez in the passenger's seat. Joce immediately began to plot with her partner in crime, Mateo -- who discovered he now has speedster capabilities-- on a way to get even .

The next scene involved the Quirk Ash believing her new Shadow abilities were just the ghost of the teacher they saw killed and ran to The Smart One Alan's house to ask for help. Meanwhile, Alan, who now had Density Control and woke up in the basement a la Kitty Pryde, appealed to Ash for help to get out of the basement as the "stairs stopped working."

While this went on, the Muscle Iggy decided to do some research on electricity so he could figure out how to get rid of the static cling. He ran into a mysterious cowboy who gave him an enigmatic warning.

In this episode, the role of the Cowboy was played by Matthew McConaughey

After Ash got a warning from her surrogate sister to not tell anyone about the "ghost" (spoiler, Ash told everyone anyway), my players took a break from their characters and played NPCs in Brock's band. From there, they orchestrated a battle plan on how they planned to win the Battle of the Bands at the casino at the nearby Native American reservation. Honestly, I wished I video taped it. It was hilarious.

The PC's met up later that night at the casino for Battle of the Bands for different motives. Brock was obviously there for obvious reasons. Iggy came to carry equipment. Ash went because she is the sole member of the Fungal Bloom fan club. Joce arrived with Mateo purely for the reason to sabotage Brock's performance for that morning. And Alan arrived because no one told him he wasn't in the band anymore.

After Brock had a brief confrontation with Sparrow Johanssen -- the front woman of Fungal Bloom's rival Band and Brock's volatile ex -- things went to hell extremely quickly. Fungal Bloom was up first and Joce and Mateo were ready for it. Joce used her new empathy for technology to cause the amps to squeak and Mateo used his speed to cause the amps to fall over in the process. Ash panicked and snuffed out all the light in the room. This caused both Sparrow (a pyro) and Iggy to use their abilities to see through the impenetrable darkness to no avail. Due to some unlucky roles, they set the stage on fire instead.

Everyone manages to make it out of the burning building alive. Sparrow and Brock hook up. Joce, Mateo, Iggy, Alan, and Ash begin to drive away. Alan, though, with his trust of authority, asks for all of them to talk to the cops. He and Joce have an argument and Alan wins it. They talk to the cops and Joce is brought down to the station for running her mouth. And so is DJ Brometheus -- NPC in Brock's band. Brock tries to take the fall for Joce with no such luck.

After all this insanity, everyone had to go talk to Mrs. Selnik, the school psychologist/guidance counselor. She saw each of them one by one in which she discussed their feelings and asked what they saw. As the GM, I brought each of them one by one into my bedroom and played out the scene with everyone else not knowing what happened behind closed doors. So I will not discuss what happened here and leave it up to the players to talk about what happened to each of them if they want to.

Mrs. Selnik in this episode was played by Tina Fey -- here is a picture direct from Brock's mind

The episode concluded with each person having their tag scene. Alan and Joce discussed their past as childhood friends and made up. I'm blanking on Ash's at the moment. Brock's player had a very interesting tag scene. One of the players was sick so Brock's player left a message on her "character's" voice mail which was really the player's. He talked about some school conspiracy and wondered where she was.That will segue into a side episode I plan to run with Anna's player.

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As I said above, I think the game very well. The players felt the whole episode flowed organically. Everyone reacted well in character and what unfolded was the incredible Battle of the Bands scene. I did not expect it to go into the direction it did. As I said before about one of the main rules of GMing, expect your players to ruin any plans you make. Although I don't consider them ruining those plans. They made it better. I really cannot emphasize enough that I have the greatest group of roleplayers. They kept me on my toes for the duration.

Another aspect of the game I felt went very well was the Mrs. Selnik scene. I wished I could have listened in on the roleplaying everyone did in the waiting room but oh well. The individual scenes itself played out in very interesting ways. There were some lucky rolls and not so lucky ones. My players indicated at the end that they liked the slow build of tension that the scene caused. It instills some paranoia and also dangles a plot hook for everyone.

On the negative side, I don't think many of us are familiar with the mechanics. As a GM I need to get my head out of the traditional mindset of gaming. Dramatic Cortex is about relationships. It is not so much focused on the how you do things but the why you do things. I made a crib sheet (correction: I stole it from Ed) that I forgot to hand out. I will next time.

Having said that, I think the Alan/Joce interaction is a great example of how the game mechanics are supposed to go. They confronted each other. They rolled against each other. Alan won and Joce gained a stress level. Later, Alan and Joce talked out the issues they had with each other which resolved the stress. Also, when Joce wanted to find Ash but she caught the attention of the police, rolling Ash's relationship -- because that motivated her -- is also how Dramatic Cortex is supposed to play out.

One of my players gave me a suggestion to incooporate into a future game -- Odd Couple Stuff. Toss characters together who don't have much interaction or have a low level relationship dice. I will have to remember that.

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I'm going to close with some memorable quotes from the game:

"Stairs Don't Work" - Alan

"Joce can't help with hauntings" "Joce can't help with much of anything." - Ash and Alan

"I don't think Bob Barker would do that to us." - Brock on why Bob Barker won't sue them for the "Mountain Climber Song"

"Bob Barker will have our legs broke." - STFU, member of Fungal Bloom

"I forgot I was here." - Ash

"Alan! You need to stop studying so much for Saturdays!" - Ash regarding Alan studying for the SATs.

"Hey Sbarro!" - Brock talking to Sparrow.

"*offers cop a blunt*" - DJ Brometheus, Fungal Bloom Member

"Your car fits me nicely!" "I can fit three of my siblings where you're sitting." - Iggy and Mateo

"You want me to get us some ice cream?" "Okay!" "Mateo! Get us some ice cream!" - Joce and Ash

Veteran Gamers

There are times in which I am sitting in a room with a bunch of gamers and suddenly it feels like I'm sitting in the VFW or the American Legion. Except instead of hearing, "Back in 'Nam, Charlie got the drop on us while we were laughing a MAD Magazine!"

I spent the next three years in a POW camp, forced to subsist on a thin stew made of fish, vegetables, prawns, coconut milk, and four kinds of rice. I came close to madness trying to find it here in the States, but they just can't get the spices right!

or "I was down range when I went to wake the CO only to see that a bunch of terrorists had got the jump on him. I fought my way out. I deserve a bronze star. Instead, all I got was a stupid Army Achievement Medal!"

Totally Ripped Off

to

"So one time, we were at the inn drinking and our dwarf fighter somehow critically failed his constitution check and got incredible drunk. It was then, the assassin's guild tried to take the party out while our fighter couldn't see straight!"

I typed in drunk dwarf and got this

or "By the time we made it to the dragon's lair, we couldn't save the princess in time. But we did slaughter the Ancient Red Dragon. We should have gotten so much gold but instead, the GM punished us for ruining his plans or whatever so all we got instead was a room filled with stuffed animals!"

The new Monster Manual is full of cruel jokes

Try for yourself. Next time you are reminiscing about old games with your friends, try to think of their veteran story equivalent. Honestly, I'm baffled at myself that it took me this long to make the connection. It wasn't until I began playing with gamers who were soldiers did I even pick it up.

Since I spoke in great length about my humble beginnings in college and my experience with the UMF TGC, perhaps I shall talk about the gaming group I had at my first duty station -- playing with a bunch of veteran gamers. There is a stage that happened between UMF TGC days and my Army days. I call it my Post-Collegiate Portland, ME days. It was kind of like the gamer's answer to Girls except without the sex. Or the sense of entitlement. Actually, it was really nothing like Girls.

Seriously, replace three of these girls with guys and it is just like Girls.

I did also mention briefly how I ran D&D games when I was in Advanced Individualized Training (AIT) in the army. I met some real kindred spirits there -- who I lost contact with sadly. When I left Arizona for my first  duty station in Germany, I had a hard time finding a gaming group. While I really enjoyed Germany, I did feel a little lonely for the first part of my first year. Then I made some non-gamer friends and wasn't as lonely.

 I still wanted to do some tabletop but I had no idea where to start. There were three gaming stores in Mannheim and while at one of them the owner spoke English really well, there would be no way I could really play at the store with German speakers and keep up. In hindsight, it would have probably been an interesting way to improve my German but also, on the other hand, it probably would be frustrating for the other players. I do have a German d6, though!

Pictured: a city with three gaming stores *_*

That all changed when a new NCO got assigned to my unit who moved across the hall from me in the barracks. We became friends because we were looking at anime at the PX and immediately bonded. Then I found out he was a gamer and we both tried to seek out other gamers to get a group going. We found a lot of video gamers in our unit but no one who played tabletop. We did sometimes stupid things like spend a long time at the gaming stores downtown to see if we could pick out English speakers that we could recruit. That didn't work so much, although we did find CCGers and we played a few games of Legend of the 5 Rings with them. But sadly, we could not find tabletop roleplayers who spoke English well enough at least. Then finally, he found out from someone, at the USO on Friday nights gathered a group of roleplayers who played a variety of settings. At last, our quest complete.

Shine Get! Wait wrong game

The gamers who frequented the USO on Friday night weren't necessarily my style of gamers. They were more break down the door types while I tend to like a little more story. However, it kept me occupied and I got a circle of friends going. Besides, I needed my D&D fix and they delivered.

Despite them not being my style of gamers, I did find them to be a very creative bunch. In fact, many of the GMs  used their expertise in the military and apply it to the game.  For an example, we had one MP among us who used his time as a prison guard to design this complex and absolutely amazing prison break-out scene (Bam-Bam the Halfling Barbarian played a role in this game).

But it was here I really began to notice how Veteran Gamers and Gamer Veterans talk alike. Sometimes, one of our players would be talking about something he did that was badass and we would get confused on if he was talking about a game or that time he deployed to Iraq (the 2nd time). Sometimes a gamer story would segue into a war story or vise versa. The storyteller would use the same tone.

"So I was deployed in the sandbox..." versus "It all started at the inn..."

I'm not quite sure why this happens. Maybe it is because roleplaying has martial elements like war stories do. Maybe it is because both types of stories require you to tell it in an grandiose way like you are Achilles or whatnot. Maybe it simply is because storytelling has and will continue to be one of the main ways we as humans bond. Maybe it is a little of each.

Regardless, playing D&D with military personnel remained an interesting experience, especially where being a roleplayer blurred with being a soldier/sailor/marine/airman/etc.  

I will end this entry with an e-mail I got a while back:

How to Tell if Your GM Has Military Experience

The orc hordes you meet have sergeants and medics. 

The Winged Horse won't fly until you do a full safety inspection.

The dungeons are patrolled by MP's that keep asking 'Who started this
fight?'

If you don't state that your character is cleaning and caring for his
weapons and armor after each combat, they rust to powder in about a day.

You learn to retreat upon seeing any monster with a Marine Corps tattoo.

The curses attached to some treasures include KP Duty and Full Kit
Inspection.

You can't stop for a night without submitting a complete watchbill for the
character's camp.

New players joining after the adventure starts show up with Transfer
Orders. 

The kingdom has a number of trolls, minotaurs and giants caged in silos on
the border. The threat of MAD (Monster Assured Destruction) seems to keep
the peace.

No matter what sort of area you adventure in, every single town, keep,
village, city or fishing camp you enter has a bar, a brothel, 3 pawnshops
and a barbershop.

The Healing Cleric always makes you wait for two hours before trying to
send you away with two toadstools and lots of fluids.

After the goblins pass by, all the dungeons have a fresh coat of paint.

Every door in the dungeon seems to have an incomprehensible number system
(12-114-2-3-S) that works fine for the monsters and tunnel oracles ("Go
down 4levels from here, that'd be 12, then forward 18 veins to 137, then
the second door on the right, that'd be 3, aft to the little......") 

A mysterious figure, the Gunny, appears every time you make a mistake.
Don't make mistakes. Just don't.

Saying you'll 'tie him up' starts a 20 minute discussion of knots, with 4
skill rolls.

Guard Dogs are not just hit points that bark...they're chain saws with fur.

 

4 Bards = 1 Useful Character

When I was in college, I belonged to the Table Gaming Club, TGC for short, and it was here I began to really get heavily involved in tabletop gaming. The club room had to be the coolest on campus after the Computer Club's -- which sat across from the Snack Bar. The basement of one of the University's older buildings is a suitable habitat for young geeks after all. The gray, dank, stone walls of the room might as well be the Dungeon of the titular Dungeons and Dragons we so often played many nights.

Along one wall sat a white board that was supposed to be used for club announcements. Besides the persistent, "Clean Up Your Shit" or "Sign up to run a game for con" written in black marker, we had quotes from club members that littered the board. Sometimes it was something witty a character said in game. Other times, just something clever a club member said during a meeting or just when we all hung out in our home away from home.

There was one saying that sat on the white board for an incredibly long time -- so long I can't even remember who said it in the first place.

"4 Bards = 1 Useful Character"

It's funny. We always uttered it whenever someone tried to play a bard. I continued to quip it when I left college and ventured out into the world. I'm not sure how much I believed it, though. I always saw it as a joke not just against Bards but against those who munchkin out their character, finding loopholes in the rules to make their character more powerful. They'd pooh-pooh the weaker classes. If you can't lop the head off Great Wyrm what good is it, they think.

I got thinking back to this joke lately, mostly because I am playing a bard in a friend's upcoming Dungeons and Dragons game (5th Edition). I went overboard like I usually do with character histories and made a family background for Shara and lore she could refer back to. I know perfectly well some people wonder why I would want to play a weak class. It got me thinking on just how so many people hate the support character classes. 

Now, before I continue, I don't want it to make it seem I am putting down hack and slash characters because I'm not. I have Bam Bam the Halfling Barbarian and Malak the Tactical Fighter to point out in my own character line-up. Sometimes it is fun to be the tank and some people only like to be the tank. That's fine. But the support shouldn't be bashed. Support just takes a little more care and a little more thought to earn their place, that's all. 

I met an Airborne Ranger Cook when I was in the army, something that he got a lot of side-eyes for. Then he said something incredibly wise, "Even bad-ass rangers need food." Even bad-ass fighters could use the bonus provided by Bardic Inspiration or the extra d6 damage provided in the Rogue's backstab.

Not shown -- he's cutting those babies in mid-air

The reason why bards (and low level magic users and rogues) tend to have short lifespans is mostly because people don't make them right or play them right. Those classes are not tanks. They aren't meant to be tanks. They are supposed to hang back and provide support. As a bard, you are supposed to be in the back of the battlefield, casting spells through song. And out of battle, the bard is supposed to act like a face -- the negotiator and knowledge gatherer (although a rogue can do this as well). If you are playing a bard and your first act after initiative is to run at the monster, you need to sit down in the corner and contemplate your life.

You can take any 1st level spell and use in the right way to devastating affects. I played an arcane trickster once who range pick-pocketed the arrows from a ranger sniper's quiver. No ammunition, no fighting, and the sniper had no choice but to flee. A 20th level Bard may not be able to slay the dragon with his cross-bow but he can charm the Dragon to be his friend. It is all how you use the abilities you gave your character. And there is more than one way to slay a dragon.

I really enjoy being support. It encourages out of the box thinking and a bit of creativity. Besides, at the end of the day, it feels great to prove that 1 Bard = 1 Useful Character.

I always use this gif and I'm not even sorry

Weird New England

I'm in New England, the location of my upbringing, for a week of a much needed vacation. Since H.P. Lovecraft has been such a topic of discussion with my gaming group as of late, I've been reading through a copy of his complete works on my Kindle (I'm only about 3% through) and it is my first time reading any of his works. True, I am familiar with what he wrote about -- any gamer is familiar with Cthulhu and the other Ancient Ones. And I know that as someone who grew up in "Lovecraft Country", that I should have sat down and read it by now. I just never got around to it. When you are surrounded by weird legends and folklore -- and Massachusetts has plenty -- you just grow accustomed to it. And you don't necessarily seek it out as just absorb it.

It's hard to see but it is a sign to Danvers -- Lovecraft's Arkham. Note the Do Not Enter signs

Massachusetts has a sordid history and folklore that sprung out of it as if to lay a reminder of the wrongdoings of the original settlers. And parts of the state is no doubt creepy to outsiders. For instance, I have a game called Timeline. Someone drew the Salem Witch Trials. I knew that year like I know my own birthday -- 1692. I could even name some of the victims of the Witch Trials by heart. Or another example. I once worked at a summer camp in which one of the counselors was from California. She remarked how creepy it was that we had so many graveyards. There are five in my hometown -- some reaching all the way back to the town's founding in the 1600s. I used to take a shortcut home from school by going through a graveyard.

This is the cemetery I would walk through to get home quicker

And as a bonus pic, this is the oldest cemetery in my town where the founders rest in peace (I hope)

I'm not going to say Massachusetts has the best folklore in the nation. You'll find some very interesting stories elsewhere too. But Massachusetts -- heck all of New England -- has folklore that really kind of surround curses and being punished for the sins of our ancestors. Something bad happened and there is a ghost now to remind us that we shouldn't do that bad thing. It is like the guilt the Puritans had for being sinful human beings lingers in the forms of ghosts and curses. If you look at other places in the United States that has a rich folklore like New Orleans for instance, there isn't the same level of heaviness. New Orleans has jazz funerals for instance. Death is taken lightly -- even with the creepy stuff. It's very Cest le vie.

What I have read so far into Lovecraft, one thing that stood out for me was how he wove this residual guilt that lingers in local New England folklore from the Puritans. It poisoned the earth. He's not the first author to make this observation. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote considerably about the early days of Massachusetts in such novels like The Scarlet Letter. And The House of Seven Gables is about a family believed to be cursed by the actions of their ancestors during the Puritan era. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendent of Judge John Hathorne who presided the Salem Witch Trials, sentencing many innocent people to their deaths and never repented. The Hathorne family added a 'w' to their name to disassociate themselves from the judge yet quite plaintively, Nathaniel Hawthorne carried the guilt and it shows in his writings. The Puritans of New England may have become Congregationalists but the folklore remains as a reminder.

Below, for old times sake, I am listing three of my favorite places of New England Folklore.

Salem, MA As I mentioned above, I know the date of the Salem Witch Trials like my own birthday. My grandfather used to live in Danvers (and I'll even note he used to be a college professor) and towards the end of his life, my mother and I used to visit him every weekend. Sometimes, we'd make a stop into Salem. Back in those days, Salem was a tourist place, sure, but it was more like a secret that only people from New England knew about. Now, it has become a lot bigger than it used to be.

WTF

It is interesting to see how much has spun off of the events that took place for not even a full year starting in March of 1692. Hawthorne obviously wrote about it and H.P. Lovecraft pulled both from the Salem Witch Trials and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible to mirror the McCarthy Era. And then we got some good early-90's camp from Hocus Pocus. Truth is often stranger than fiction and the Salem Witch Trials are a great example of this. A man was pressed to death. Never forget that.

More... weight.

Also, it is worth noting that there are so many theories circulating academia about what exactly happened. There is a certain group that maintain that those people were truly spell casters (Mainly some Wiccans and New Age types) but also others think it may have been Ergot poisoning or bored, oppressed little girls out for a lark. Then there is the political conspiracy theory, that the people targeted had huge swathes of land that the girls' parents wanted.

Still with terms like spectral evidence and girls claiming they were cursed, it is no wonder that the Salem Witch Trials continues to capture the imagination of the populous to this day.

The Bridgewater Triangle I didn't really hear about these tales until college in which I had a roommate who was from the area and she told me all about it. She even wrote a paper on it in High School. I grew up on the South Shore of Massachusetts (Mass speak it means I grew up on the ocean south of Boston. Salem is located on the North Shore) and I didn't venture into Bridgewater often and I didn't know anyone from Bridgewater to learn the tales from. The internet changed all this, no doubt.

Why is it always triangles?

But oh are they there. In this geometric space with the towns of Abington, Freetown, and Rohobeth as its spokes there have been ghost sightings, demonic sightings, UFO sightings, Satanic Cults, Cryptozoological animals like Thunderbirds, and anything else paranormal you can think of. In the center is Hockomock Swamp (early settlers called it the Devil's Swamp) which is Wampanoag for "Place Where Spirits Dwell." Metacomet used it as his military base during King Philip's War -- which segues into my next point.

Yep, highly defensible. No way in hell I'm going in there. That is where I lost Artex

I mentioned above how Massachusetts folklore is heavily tied to the guilt left by the Puritans. The tales of the Bridgewater Triangle might as well be another. But the guilt here is tied to early treatment of the Native Americans, which is probably why the Bridgewater Triangle is not as well known.

When the Puritans first settled in Massachusetts, the colony's leaders reached out to Massasoit, the sachem of the Wampanoags and the two made a deal. Massasoit gave land to the settlers and asked they leave the land of which is modern day Bridgewater and thensome alone for his tribe. The Puritans initially agreed and the two peoples lived together in reasonably well for a little while. Then Massasoit died and the Puritan settlers began to expand into land not previously agreed upon. It upset the tribe for obvious reasons so Massasoit's son, Wamsutta, tried to negotiate. However, shortly after he left the negotiating table, he mysteriously died. Then John Sassamon, a "Praying Indian" (a Native American who converted) who was an emissary, was murdered. All these points were catalysts which led to King Philip's War when Wamsutta's brother, Metacomet led his people into battle with the Puritans. Metacomet's men almost wiped out the settlements but disease held his forces back. They eventually became overpowered.

Metacomet died in Rhode Island, killed by a "Praying Indian". His wife and children were sold into slavery

Many of the tales of the Bridgewater Triangle involve Native American spirits, including one that drags people into the water until they drown. Hockamock Swamp is supposed to be the origin of strange happenings as it is in the center of the triangle. As I mentioned above, it is where Metacomet held his forces. Perhaps the reason of tales persisting for so long is the sense of buried guilt that "we don't belong here, we acquired this land by breaking a promise."

The Bridgewater Triangle remains the sight of my most favorite folklore and often overlooked history.

Dudleytown This one is not located in MA but in Connecticut. It always brought a sense of fascination to me because I am intrigued by abandoned places. I love reading about the history of ghost towns and how and why they disappeared, leaving only skeletons behind. That will probably be another topic I will go on about in the future.

Anyways, Dudleytown was supposedly founded by a cursed family called the Dudleys back in 1740. Everyone who moved there either died in a tragic accident, went crazy, or killed themselves. There was talk of demonic forces poisoning the earth there so nothing grows (and nothing does grow there but it probably has to do with the type of soil the town was founded on). All that is left are just foundations of the houses that once stood there. It is considered a gold mine of ghosts and the like by Ghosthunters. To me, it is just a very interesting, creepy story.

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Anyways, those are my top favorite tales from New England. I have many more. Maybe there will be a New England folklore part II. But we'll see.

The Season Finale -- Character Arcs and other things

Firefly ended today and I'm almost as devastated as when the show itself got cancelled. I know that I will see my friends in future campaigns and we'll continue to have lots of fun. But it is just the knowledge of putting that character sheet away for the final time that can be just as sad as seeing your favorite show ending.

I felt the session ended well. Each character got to close up their character arc and it ended with a kiss. What could be bad about that? Q got to save at least one of his academy friends, carrying on the lessons Jack taught him. He got to protect his captain. And Ira and he finally worked together putting behind their Academy days.

There are very few games I played to completion and when I mean that, I mean completion in that my character grew, being shaped by his or her experiences, and by the end, they were a different person. I am not talking about having everything tied up in a neat little bow. I'm okay with my character riding off into the sunset certain their story continues, but this is just the last we see of it.

There is something satisfying of coming to this point. There is only one character I ever played in a roleplaying game from level 1 to level 20. There is something just so satisfying of reaching the end of the array and erasing that 19 and replacing it with a 20. This character was a half-elf sorcerer named Rhys. He started with 4 hit points and one hit could have easily killed him. By the end of the game, he could rain down fire from the skies and that just happened to be only raw power.

Rhys as a character grew up. He began the campaign as a snarky, young man who sought for social change and he grew into a kind person who wanted nothing more than a quiet existence with his family. He sought revolution through knowledge rather than blunt force. Of course, it took a detour down a path of evil to get to that point but yes. Rhys's ending was him opening up a magic school and I am sure he became that world's Dumbledore-- even though that didn't play out at the table.

Not all my characters had happy endings. My vampire character's thirst for knowledge caused him to lose memories to acquire rituals. It never played out in game but we all knew that in the future, there would be a day in which Claude would forget all his human memories...

I guess what I am saying here with this entry after meandering a bit is just that I love games with closure. It doesn't have to be perfect Harry Potter epilogue-like closure in which everything has a bow on top. But I can feel satisfied putting that character sheet away to know my character developed into something different from where he or she started. I look at tabletopping as, yes, a medium in which you kick kobolds around and such but also as a social activity in which we share a story. And for a good story, you need that development and closure is always good.

Thanks, Ed, for sticking through to the end. I look forward to your next game when I pass the baton back to you after I finish my own game. Running a game after you is like going on stage after Sinatra. :P The fact we all had some difficulty choosing which episode we liked and some even just going for the weakest (but still pretty good) instead really says something about your abilities as a GM. :)

5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons is coming out and a friend of mine is running a campaign. I am crazy excited for it. I'll be playing a Bard. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. 4 Bards = 1 Useful Character. That formula was on the white board in the UMF TGC forever. But I can make it work! Shaera is here to entertain.

Roleplayers -- More Superstitious Than Athletes

I wrote this on tumblr some time ago and I decided to post it here where it makes more sense.

I bought a pound of dice a few months back, even though I have about five sets already in my dice bag. It was of no surprise to me that my new dice didn’t all fit. So what did I decide to rectify this problem?

If you said, "Hey, Mary, did you go out and buy a new dice bag?" You're wrong.

 Instead, I spent about an hour testing out my new dice (and my old) to determine which deserved to be in the bag. It was rather ritualistic. I laid out all my dice, separated them by type. Then I rolled them-- different groups at a time depending on type. If they met the DC, I put them in the leather bag. If not, I determined they lost this round and set them aside until next round. For d20s, they had to roll a 15 or higher. For d12, 7 or higher. d10s, 6 or higher and so forth. I did this until I could not squeeze a single dice back in the bag. I feel absolutely silly about it but that is how I determined it.

The funny part is after playing D&D for 10+ years I noticed that gamers are the most superstitious group of people I have ever encountered.  I observed there are certain types, species if you will, of dice rollers in a tabletop setting.

The Ritual Casters. These are by far the most common. These people require a period of time before the game starts to dig through their own collection of dice to determine which they will use for the evening. Sometimes, they do what I just did with their d20s to determine which one is rolling hot that night. Sometimes, they determine by which d20 falls out first. Other times, they fondle their favorite d20 before the game starts to make it lucky. During game, Ritual Casters usually have a specific way of rolling, like they need to have it fall on a particular surface for instance, or just do the classic blow on them before you roll. I knew of a gamer who would have his girlfriend blow on his dice when he was making a risky roll.

Switch Hitters. These types are pretty common as well. They tend to view their dice like players on a baseball team. They usually don’t have a pre-game ritual and just start rolling and keep on switching dice per roll until they pick up a die that is rolling really well. They will continue with ‘old bluey’ or ‘marble face’ until it seems like the die had run out of its luck for the evening, then they switch to the next one from the bull pen. Wash, rinse, repeat.

  Loyalists. These gamers don’t like switching dice mid-game and stick with the same set of dice throughout the evening through good and bad rolls. They can also be a Ritual Caster but they don’t have to be. They have a fatalistic way of looking at rolling 1’s -- that it was supposed to happen that way. Your character is supposed to struggle. One bad dice roll is okay. Your dice let you down this time but good energy is bound to come back to it. It's karma. If not, oh well.  Loyalists look at the Switch Hitters with a bit disdain because of that. “If you pick up a new dice, it won’t roll well for long.” I tend to fall into this category.

Clairvoyant Roller. Some may say this isn’t a clairvoyant but I wasn’t sure what to call this group. This group is constantly trying to read the signs around their rolls. The die fell on the floor! That means you have to switch dice! It rolled on a bend in the table! That is also bad luck! The DM touched my dice! That means it will roll bad against me and the other players for the rest of the night. The dice chucker threw my dice! I'm never touching it again!

The Motivational Speaker. There isn’t much more to add about this type in that these gamers talk to their dice when they roll them. Sometimes they whisper sweet nothings to their dice. Other times it is the classic, “Come on, old bluey! Daddy needs a crit!” Yet still, they may talk to it like a Drill Sergeant and try to get the dice "highly motivated".

The Territorial Roller. This can be summed up simply as, “Don’t fucking touch my dice, asshole! Your hands have bad ju-ju!”

As I mentioned above, I’m more of a Loyalist. I find my dice for the night and stick with it. It will roll well eventually. 

Meta-gaming -- the good kind

Meta: A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.- Urban Dictionary

This past Sunday, my friends and I had fun meta-gaming. Okay, not that kind of meta-gaming in which you use information your character doesn't know -- one of the biggest taboos one can commit at the gaming table.  No, it was meta in the fact that we played actors playing our characters on the second season of a beloved franchise. Confused yet?

For the last few months, my friends and I have been playing a Firefly setting RPG and it has been one of the most memorable games I played in. As usual, about 75% of it was the people involved. We could play any scene and make it work and this last session was no exception. Our GM has mentioned in his blog posts that he is running out of steam (although admittedly, this is impressive because he has self-admitted GM ADD) making the "season finale" is next week. Perfect time to get one silly episode out of the way before then!

In the dream of the mind of one of the characters, we were all actors for a show called Firefly: the Reboot and it just got cancelled... AGAIN. Throughout the episode, we had to do our best to finish up the remaining scenes while our characters' actors' egos clashes constantly. We also had to dodge fans and reporters. We played Celebrity Gameshow in which we played charades against the old cast of Firefly. And it all ended at a convention.

Originally, I decided that I would model Q's actor after Jewel Stait -- Canadian and performed in a lot of Nickelodeon shows as a youngster and this would be his big break. However, I had picked an actor way back at the beginning which I used to describe Q. I pictured Q to be half-white and half-Asian (I mean, Firefly culture is so heavily influenced by Chinese culture I decided to incorporate it). I also wanted someone scrappy looking. So while thinking about an actor, I landed on Eiji Wentz.

He's 1/2 German and 1/2 Japanese for the curious

Of course, the acknowledgment that I chose him for the representation of my character uncovers one of my more obscure hobbies -- Japanese Dramas (I also like some Korean ones too). How I got into them is a long, arduous story best saved for another blog post. Anyway, one of my friends told me to just play Eiji.  The difficulty here had to do with I am very unfamiliar with what the real Eiji Wentz is even like. I knew he played guitar (or maybe it was bass) in a duo group called WAT and he did a bunch of dramas and movies and I knew his background but that was it. I felt uncomfortable about "misrepresenting him" for about five seconds and then I just dived in, right along with Bitchy Evan Rachel Wood and Drunk Paul Giamatti.

I decided to take a cue from one of Eiji's roles. I have only seen two things Eiji was in. One was Gokusen; a drama about a Yakuza Princess who becomes a high school teacher and gets assigned the trouble classroom. Eiji played a hikikomori (a recluse) who refused to leave his room and go to school. The other one was Nodame Cantabile; a drama about a Music College. When the main characters finally reach their dream of studying in Europe, they move next door to Eiji's character who is French and a complete weeabo. He is obsessed with anime and manga and a hardcore fanboy.

 Eiji having fanboy feels during a scene in Nodame Cantabile

It is the latter I got my idea for the actor. Eiji would be a Joss Whedon fanboy and Firefly was his big American Debut. It seemed he was the only one who would work with Joss Whedon again. I really liked Evan Rachel Wood and her hating on Jim Sturgis; Enzo's actor playing up how important he is because he has a show in Starz; And Cricket's actress constantly plugging neutrogena whenever possible (Here buy these Japanese mints I think they are?). We also played up in-jokes we had with each other during the actual game. Q and Jack also got their scene in which they were all brotherly. Yay! Also got a fight scene with Ira! Yay!

I had a lot of fun yesterday but I would never want to try a meta episode like this again. At least not with these characters.

The whole episode got me thinking about meta in general. It has been a popular lately on TV. Supernatural did an entire episode in which Sam and Dean wake up on the set of Supernatural as Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles and had to figure out why. The movie This is the End had plenty of meta with Seth Rogan and James Franco and the rest "playing themselves" dealing with the apocalypse. Then there is my favorite from Avatar: The Last Airbender in which our heroes have an episode in which they watch a play about themselves. The play read like bad fan fiction and the characters provided commentary.

I just wanted an Honor gif, okay?

I know meta episodes/movies tend to sometimes draw mixed reviews but also at the same time they also tend to be the most quoted. It is because meta humor is designed so only those who are familiar will get it in a *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* sort of way. Meta jokes often act like a secret handshake or an inside joke that get you into a fandom community. Just like inside jokes become the marking point of friendships.

 And the fact that the seven of us could play a roleplaying game made up of so much meta signals the strength of our group as a whole. It is great to belong to a group in which not only can you play games together but also to be surrounded by people who don't take themselves seriously enough to laugh at themselves. After all, if you can't act completely ridiculous around your friends, who can?