Preserved Topic: The Dragonhunt -- Ozone Asylum D&D Campaign Logs & Commentary (Page 1 of 3)

If you're wondering what this thread is about, go here to find out where we're picking up.

I just played an excellent session with Veneficuz, and I figured I should post the log right here. If you're in the game, you're encouraged to read this when you've got a chance; if not, read it for fun! Perhaps you'll enjoy it, perhaps not, but I really go for a very strong narrative feel to my games, in the hopes that they'll be entertaining to bystanders as well as participants.

Kudos to Veneficuz for playing a good game (although he really should have closed his eyes... read the log and you'll see what I mean ). I expect this to be an excellent campaign!

I'm playing the second half of Veneficuz's prologue at the same time this Saturday: that's 18:00 GMT -- that's 12:00 noon in US Central Standard Time, and 7:00 pm in Norway. Everyone is welcome to get OpenRPG and have a look at what we're doing. We're on the Dragonhunt Campaign Server, and the campaign room password is ozone.

edit: I'm informed that on a dialup connection, getting the components to run OpenRPG takes a while. Be warned. Worth it, though.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-03-2003).]

well, i'd definately like to watch. i've never seen anyone play dnd, let alone play it myself. i like rpg's though so it should be interesting to watch
thanks!

I doubt closing the eyes would have worked, because that is kind of what I did when the sun reflected in the sword only not voluntarily

It was none the less a great session and I hope the next one will be as good.

edit: The link to the log doesn't seem to work...
_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 01-03-2003).]

Works for me; could be my server was down.

As for closing your eyes, the answer was at least something like "I avert my eyes from the blade." Just enough to prevent his trick from getting you.

edit in response to below post: Well, I'm certainly not holding it against you! At this stage in the game, things like that are going to make a small difference in the storyline, but not kill you.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-03-2003).]

... but he was inexperienced in combat and in awe of the great master he was fighting so that thought never occured to him.

The log page is working now, so whatever was wrong seems to be "fixed" now.

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 01-03-2003).]

Here's the transcript of today's session, where Morgan meets an old friend (?) of Aaron Wrenfall, visits the cosmopolitan city of Ilium, and follows the trail of anger and despair that follows the mysterious Dorothy Durai, until he can finally confront her on her home ground.

The log.

And chokes...hehe...

He'll never get that harp...

The final section of Veneficuz's prologue. Enjoy!

WebShaman, Tikigod, Skaarjj, get at me and let's get your prologues rolling. I'll work your characters into each others' prologues if it's feasible.

I'm up for Saturday...around 8:30 evenings...

Saturdays are good for me also...

I'll icq you with my charecter ideas.


-tiki, cell 478

Good, good. These days, I'm usually on around 20:00 GMT until whenever; but I've caught the plague (well, the common cold), and I'm having trouble sleeping, so who knows? If I never seem to be on, just shoot me an email.

WebShaman, Q me or email me with your background, a rough character sheet, and any abilities or techniques you'd like to have. Or, if you prefer, I'll be glad to just whip something up for you; and then you can tweak your powers, or map out an upgrade path, on your own once you feel more comfortable with the setting. Past experience has shown that players tend to be a bit "timid" in creating their own powers, since they don't want to be considered power-gamers. Rest assured that in the Dragonhunt, that's not as much of a concern.

I believe I originally said something like 72 + 6d4 points to allocate among abilities? That turned out to be on the high side, so we're making it 64 + 6d4. (Easier to remember, too.) This means that you can easily pop an 18 or whatever into your main ability, but more than that will require penalty scores as well. Oh, and if you get racial bonuses or penalties, they affect your maximum in that ability, too. So a half-elf can't have more than 16 Con to start; but a hobgoblin can have 20 Str.

Allow me to interlink two threads that may be of mutual interest.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-07-2003).]

Next session is WebShaman's prologue -- teaser graphic here.

19:30 GMT -- that's 8:30 pm in Germany, 1:30 pm U.S. Central Standard Time. Anyone who wants to kibitz is welcome to; you'd also have the option of picking up an NPC and running him around the battleground.

For anyone who is following along, the transcript of the latest session is here. Not terribly eventful from an overall plot perspective, but some interesting things happen at the beginning and end.

The next session (WS, set it up with me) will have more "meat" to it, as far as startling occurrences and dramatic personalities.

Tikigod's prologue is on the front burner. We're waiting for a time to do the second half of WebShaman's prologue, but there's no reason everything has to be in chronological order.

Therefore, Tikigod, let's set up a time to play your prologue. After the events of WS's prologue, you'll be up to 4th level, meaning that you'll have a slightly larger bag of tricks.

Teaser graphic.

We'll incorporate Skaarjj into this prologue as well, so let's set up a time that's Australia-friendly.

that being any time from GMT 0000 to GMT 1500

Some new information on the Dragons page.

WebShaman, when would you like to play the second part of your prologue? (Conversely, if you're not really up to it, let me know early.)

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-17-2003).]

Given everyone's schedules, it's looking like I might have made a bit of a mistake recruiting the regulars of the other campaign to play in mine. I think this is a good time to ask if a reorganization is in order. Right now we've got some good characters and ideas that can lead to an excellent game, but we haven't really gotten underway yet.

If any of you think that it'll be too much trouble to play in my campaign as well as Veneficuz's, then it would be for the best if we shuffle players now, instead of later. I honestly don't want to force anyone to bend their schedule to the breaking point just for my game; and for my own sanity, I don't want setting up a full-party session to be like negotiating a new miner's-union contract.

Another alternative -- perhaps we could settle our scheduling woes right now by agreeing to play on alternate weekends?

I have no problems with that...however, we'll need the input from the others, of course...

That would actually work very well for me. I've had several people in the Asylum and out ask me if I was taking more players for this game, so I've considered starting a second party, whose story would run alongside yours, and maybe overlap on occasion. (edit: the point being that if the first party were playing every other weekend, the second party could play in the "off" weekend, while Veneficuz's campaign runs.)

Insider, Cprompt, anyone else who chimed in -- still interested?

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 01-20-2003).]

Every other weekend sounds fine to me. The amount of playing was beginning to get to my normally very understanding wife.


-tiki, cell 478

Dragon*bump*!

Hey, I was just about to post here, now you saved me the trouble of finding the thread!

Two things! First off, from the other RPG thread:

quote:

---

I'm ready any time during the weekend. If you want to play the Dragonhunt at the same time as this last session -- 1100 GMT -- I can handle that.

---

Sound off, gentlemen!

The other thing is for WS. I did a little research on Lone Wolf and Cub, and considered how to relate the general idea (palace intrigue leads to rogue samurai) to the hobgoblin Kingdom of Sune. Here's what I came up with:

You know from the website that the Kingdom of Sune has a two-tier government. Overall policy and international affairs are controlled by the dragon Shadow-watcher and his three dragon underlings. Then the nuts and bolts of daily government are handled by a hobgoblin feudal structure.

In the hobgoblin government, powerful nobles act as provincial governors, and form the national legislature. The king is the chief military executive, and is the head of the judicial system. He has three personal ministers.

The Chief Executioner is the supreme judge of the legal system: when a nobleman is condemned by the court, the Chief Executioner commands the military operation against him (since no noble goes down without a fight). The Grand General is in charge of military operations against other countries. And the Prime Minister is deals with peacetime foreign relations, and is the king's representative in the Council of Lords.

The dragon government interfaces with the hobgoblin government through the three dragon overlords -- one oversees the lords (retaining ultimate veto power on laws, for instance), one oversees the military, and one oversees the commoners (infrastructure, farming, etc). Shadow-watcher, the dragon ruler, is also known to have a secret society that looks after his interests.

WS, you've said your character is the son of the Chief Executioner, but some sort of intrigue forced him to flee the country. Here's my suggestion:

A public scandal forced the indictment of a noble named Seishiro Kagami on charges of rape and murder. Overwhelming evidence piled up against him in court, leading to an obvious verdict of guilt. Since the victim was a noble heiress, the sentence was death. Your father, in his role as Chief Executioner, had a responsibility to ensure justice; and even though Kagami pled guilty to the crime, your father came to believe that the entire situation was a frame-up.

Ignoring the dragon goverment's urging for a quick trial, your father chose to investigate the crime on his own, instead of trusting the investigators who'd argued the case. (Normally, in hobgoblin law, the prosecution and defense each investigate the case, and present conflicting interpretations of the evidence.) Your father went to Seishiro Kagami's manor alone, trusting that the lord would assist him in clearing his own name. Instead, your father was killed, and Kagami was blamed.

The four dragons flew at the head of a punitive army and razed Kagami's manor. Then, after killing Kagami summarily, they declared that the office of Chief Executioner had proven itself ineffective, and called on the Council of Lords to dissolve it.

You were just a child at the time. All you remember is that your father left and didn't come back, and then your family friend Genjiro Hideki, the "mad general," came to you at home and took you on a "tour of inspection" of the new southern holdings. Instead of stopping at his camp, however, he took you straight out of the kingdom and rushed you to a temple of Michael. He left almost immediately, but his last command to you was to serve Michael as you would have served the king.

How does this sit with you?

Tikigod, you might be interested in the new Stealth page. Next up is Warcraft.

Oh, and since I'm not sure where it'll fit into the final page structure, I'll mention right here that all the numbers associated with the Jump skill will be increased to allow some serious Jackie Chan stuff; and there'll be a companion skill, informally called "High Jump," which will synergize with Jump to allow some serious wire-fu. (Each style/class has a different name for it -- WS's character would call it something like "Wings of Flame," and he'd manifest broad flaming wings on each jump, for example.) So if you're willing to drop two skillpoints into jumping each level, you can end up with some serious mobility.

If anyone's curious what a mostly-complete fighting style looks like, there's the Sleeping Dragon style. Fun with CSS -- the only graphic on the page is the Dragonhunt logo.

Ok, so Saturday, at GMT 11:00?

Everybody ok with this?

I'll be there...I'll be a lurker, but I'll be there

I doubt that I'll be there...

Good luck with the campaign anyhow

_________________________
"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

^Gothic freak!

We'll miss you, V... (sniffle) Remember, you can only listen to Cradle of Filth and Death in June for so long before you need a fluffy-bunny break!

Well... more information. This is some stuff that should have been around during character creation, so you're all welcome to shift points around if you want to change your skills.

Oh, and there's new information on the culture page, but none of it is terribly important. Read it eventually, that's all.

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-01-2003).]

The "cool moves" have a downside, whose magnitude has yet to be assessed. I'm very worried that it'll just be too much... too much "I forgot I even had that move" and too little "I pull out the move which Alan had in mind when he designed this encounter!" For example, take a look at this, which was also linked from the Dragonhunt thread. A fighter would have all these moves (and many more) by 10th level; a paladin/ranger/barbarian, by 12th. Are they all cool? I hope so. Are they the equivalent of a mage spell list? Essentially. The trouble is that people who play fighters sometimes do it because they don't want to be shackled with big lists of complex tactical maneuvers -- they want to keep their options pared down to "bash" and "bash harder." I respect that.

Skaarjj: Zan's style is slightly different from Itto's. If you rejoin us for the rest of WS's prologue, you may use Backdraft (after missing an attack, immediately make a backhand continuation for 3 kp; if you miss, lose a turn with -4 AC) and Firebolt (your sword turns into a flaming lance, which you fling up to 20m for double melee damage; the sword reforms in your hand only if you hit, otherwise it goes flying).

Hmm... depending on my schedule, I may be lurking.

By the way, Skaarjj, I misused Zan's name... right now, his full proper name is Zanziger LoPresti, Zan for short. Later on, as he becomes a more important and independent NPC, he takes on the alias "Zan Icarus."

Suho, we'd be glad to have you. If you've like to play, there will always be an NPC or two for someone to pick up. Right now, you've got your pick of a prayermaster of Raphael (extreme healer/defender, Zan's sidekick); a hobgoblin paladin of Uriel (knight who defends the proper balance of life and death); two priests of Raphael (healing with a solid dose of blunt-object-fu; one is a very insightful and innately wise youngster, palpably destined for greatness, the other's just a wit); and a priestess of Gabriel with a Type A personality (stealth, marksmanship, detection/guidance magic). Just tell me which one you'd be interested in running (WS's prologue only), and I'll scratch you up a simplistic character sheet between now and then.

When the main campaign picks up, Veneficuz's character will have a ragtag collection of self-appointed retainers (minor plot spoiler, I know, but you must have seen it coming, V). Anyone wanting to help out in a session will always be welcome to pick up one of these guys and help define his personality and powers.

I can't wait till tiki's prologue...you all get to meet Dannyl Naïlo...a...well...you'll find out.

A smelly three-foot-tall dwarf with an eyepatch, a glass eye, a hunch back, a hook for his right hand, no left hand at all, and terrible breath. He rides in a sedan chair carried by beautiful women, is an expert at the ancient dwarven strategy game "get all the gold," eats live fish, and is kind to small children, who are invariably terrified by him. His character class is "Expert," although he's thinking of double-classing to an Aristocrat once he can afford to buy his way into fine society; he has a Luck of 5; he distills his own brandy; and he chews on twigs to "keep his teeth in shape." His poetry is self-indulgent and full of overblown simile, but his egregious lisp makes it almost incomprehensible. He once dreamed of following in his father's steps as a cheese sculptor, but lacked the dexterity to work with anything harder than fontina. In dwarven numerology, his name can be expressed as the sum of the square roots of three numbers all of which are square roots of each other. He has fits of insanity in which he believes he is a dog. He likes pie. Everyone likes pie.

Thanks for ruining the surpise PT...jeeeeeez

Hmmm... playing an NPC, nifty! I'll give this some thought and give you an answer tomorrow (tomorrow for me, that is).

Whether or not Tiki can make it, I'll make a point of hanging around for a little bit at 1100 GMT. Anyone who feels like it can contact me by ICQ, or just look for a Dragonhunt server in OpenRPG. If nothing else, we can chew the fat. Skaarjj, I'd like to see what you've come up with for your character; it sounds like you've been making some progress on the chap.

WS, it sounds like life is getting to you lately. Don't worry about the Dragonhunt, I've got an idea. Although I'm eager to put your prologue "in the can," as my film-major roommate would say, the main campaign will be a looser affair, where a full party isn't always an absolute requirement.

My original idea had been to have a solid four-character party that soldiered on through everything. However, given the difficulty of scheduling, I'm wondering if it might not be better to relax that to a four-to-six-person ensemble, of whom at least three people play each major adventure. The game is story-driven and character-driven, so there'd be pressure on the absent players to read the logs, of course; and I'd like to have a full group most of the time, just because I love you all; but it seems like a more flexible plan might be best.

It would work fine with my overall plan for the campaign. Obviously, each individual character should be in more than half the sessions, or else why bother? But there are only a few chapters (1, 5, 6?, 10, 15, 20) for which I'd require a full roster, so for all the others, "flexible seating" is a possibility.

I know it might sound like I'm fretting a lot about a campaign that hasn't really even gotten underway yet, but Veneficuz's prologues really got me excited about the potential here, and I want this game to flourish and succeed! And I don't want Veneficuz's hard work and sleep deprivation to be wasted.

Thoughts?

[This message has been edited by Perfect Thunder (edited 02-07-2003).]

So, are we actually going to play today? If not, it would be nice to know a little in advance so I can make other plans...