Joe Gamer

I’ll take a cue from my good friend and benefactor JoeGamer and share a bit of my own campaign.  I have, in the past, run a 4th Edition D&D game that moves through the published adventures Wizards have put out for 4e.  There is not as much of an overarching story as it’s more a series of episodes that take place within the “Points of Light” setting, the new default setting.  The party has been traveling through the Nentir Valley, righting wrongs and making a bit of money while they are at it.  The party consists of these people:

Saul: human wizard with a penchant for power.  Has a strict ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ policy.

Aria: half-elf warlock that has fallen into a pact with a spirit of the Feywild.  Extremely beautiful, she knows how to get what she wants, when she wants, and how to deal with the situation if she doesn’t.

Pylia: elf ranger, a stoic sort of wilder.  She rescued her mentor from captivity, and fights to find her way in the world.

Yuriel: This genasi swordmage shakes the world with every step, daring anyone to face him and his Mistress, the Raven Queen.

These heroes have faced the necromancer Kalarel, worshipper of Orcus and shut down a portal to the dark realm of the Shadowfell.  Realizing Kalarel was selling slaves captured from local farms, the heroes then delved into the ominous Thunderspire Labyrinth, where they encountered a mining town called the Seven Pillared Hall run by the Mages of Saruun.  There they defeated a gang of slavers, cleared a Duergar stronghold of the vile Dark Dwarves, and pinpointed a rouge mage who desired to take all the secrets of the Mages of Saruun for himself and Vecna.  The heroes succeeded in defeating him, securing an alliance between themselves and the mages that could become rather beneficial… especially since they found a map that pinpointed a… ‘place of power.’

I really enjoyed my first foray into DMing, and as far as I know the players enjoyed the game.  I got a lot of rolled eyes due to the new system, but I really enjoyed myself.  So if the players want to give any insight as well as anybody who has any questions, feel free to ask!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

Wednesday nights is the single nerdiest night of my week. This is the night that several of my friends and I gather for our “weekly” Dungeons and Dragons 3.5Ed Game. The cast of characters includes:

• Clay Barrett: A rather promiscuous and constantly randy male Lesser Aasimar Favored Soul.
• Mori: An impressive female Greater Aasimar Fighter who wields dual blades.
• Thurkear “Aust” Caex: A mysterious male Fey’Ri Duskblade with a nack for getting into trouble.
• Aisha Kuroneko : A female Nekomimi (cat girl) Warlock who flirts with evil like a cat plays with a mouse.
• Olley Tallowish: A very short male Halfling Rogue and candle maker with a penchant for very tall women.

Together the band forms the Bent Blades, so named because each of the party carries at least one curved melee weapon.

The game centers around a small settlement called New Fort Brawn. Where a small band of adventurers is needed to search for the scattered remains of a statue of the Old Fort Brawn’s greatest hero. The these pieces are needed is because the head of the statue has become animated seemingly with the soul of the hero himself. If the pieces of the statue can be combined and reunited with the hero’s regalia, Old Fort Brawn’s greatest hero may be restored to life, but for what purpose?

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Sometimes when you are bored, you look around for things to do. Personally I have a rather vivid imagination in as much as whenever I endeavor to do something, I like to picture myself in the ‘universe’ that my activity takes place. It’s the minute storyteller in me. For example, when I play either version of Warhammer I like to name my commander and flesh out the stories that my battles tell to me. A game isn’t fun unless I can immerse myself in it. That’s where Pokemon comes in.

Pokemon, for the un-initiated is/was a hugely successful roleplaying game series that started in 1996. As a child, it captured my imagination because you play a 10 year old child that partakes an adventure around the world (or your particular region) to befriend the varied creatures called Pokemon. 13 years, several games and remakes later, I haven’t exactly kept up. I started the game when I was nine years old! Why would I keep wanting to play it as a 22 year old? It is because of the immersive nature of the game. Each game builds on the last. New Pokemon, regions and features are introduced each time, increasing the mythology of the game. There are numerous “trainer types” that the player fights, giving the idea that you can be whatever trainer you want to be, from the innocuous Bug Catcher, to the versatile Cool/Ace Trainer.

No player has the same team, and even if they do that doesn’t guarantee their Pokemon have the same moves and abilities. That makes it worthwhile to me. Look anywhere online. You will find people roleplaying in forums, designing “themselves” as trainers on Deviantart, making “Trainer Cards”. I love it all. Still not sure what trainer I would be classified as, but that is but one source of identity related to the game.

Now I recently delved back into the Pokemon world due to a bit of insistence on my part to my wife Elizabeth. When she was younger the only video game she played other than a Volleyball game on Game Boy was Pokemon Yellow. Now she plays as many or more video games than I do. She has a Dsi my mom bought her for her last birthday, so in order to see if she’d like Pokemon still, I convinced my parents to buy her one of the newest iterations of the Pokemon Series, Pokemon Diamond. Well long story short, she got it and now that’s almost all she plays. Not to be outdone, I picked up Platinum, the companion piece, to compete against her.

Let’s just say she has around 20 hours while I’m clocked in around 9 and a half. So with the hobby gaming scene a little light around Hattiesburg, I find myself drawn to the Pokemon Trading Card Game League that runs in Brandon, Jackson, Laurel and the like. I feel like a kid, but it’s not such a bad thing. Therefore I posit if you are interested in an immersive experience that can spark imagination (at least active imaginations like mine) then don’t hesitate to play Pokemon again. It caters to the role player, the level grinder, the OCD collector. I did and I’m glad of it!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

For those of you in my “A Hero Restored” campaign, I wish a Merry Christmas with the gift of free magic items. Please spend 25,000 gp on any magic items from the DMG that the party desires.

How you distribute is up to you.

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

I really hate it but I have done VERY little gaming the past month. My own campaign has fallen to the way side as things have gotten busy. I was able to attend an L5R seal tournament for Path of the Destroyer. I won the tournament playing Spider against 2 Scorpions, 1 Unicorn, and 1 other Spider player. In similar news I also win again as I expect two boxes of PotD in tomorrow. Time for a half day at work!

In other news, I subscribe to the Pathfinder Adventure Path service that Paizo provides and have considered writing reviews of each. So don’t be surprised to NOT see that here any time soon.

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.