Carrion Crown or The Newest Adventures of Scooby Dooby Doo!

 And since I'm still wide flipping awake now I'll go ahead and introduce the party to the sunday PFRPG game. Also as the title suggests that this game plays more like Scooby Doo than a horror game that it was designed to be....and we wouldn't have it any other way. Too much fun to be had here.

The Players

Matt - Thredorik Trapspringer (male dwarven rogue 6 / uncouth / carries the party's goods a-la Nodwick)
Jess  -  Nisha  (female tiefling fighter(weapon master kit) 6 / combat monster....literally / gruff / kicks alot of ass with her great axe)
Charles - Zuri (male aasimar wizard 6 / varisian wanderer/ harrow reader / captain charisma & diplomacy)
Charles - Dragos ( Zuri's raven familiar / smart ass / likes shiny things and pastries)
Me - Julian Du Marc ( male human cleric of Pharasma 6 / NPC/PC / stoic / diplomatic / slayer of the undead and defender of the living / VERY droll sense of humor)
Me again - DM (DM / rules dude / story mover-along-er / still bribed by pie or hot cocoa)

Now look at our classes. Now our races. We are the most unorthodox basic party set up I've seen in quite some time. And its awesome. Our relatively unique natures, either by race or character backgrounds, has made this batch of heroes outsiders just because we're weirder than what we've so far faced off against. And that has just drove the party together tighter and we have gone from strangers who met at a funeral to a common friend to friends ourselves standing up to the darkness. And boy do we bump back.

Now we're not as far along as the Runelords group but we're cooking along at a nice pace. The Carrion Crown Adventure Path is a horror adventure set in the haunted countryside of Ustalav. Its supposed to be scary and tense, which it has been at times, but with the first book of the AP the game mutated into a dynamic of Scooby Doo and with regards to the first book.....Ghostbusters. The first book had us exorcising a haunted prison while fulfilling a last request we received from a friends last will & testament.

 More recently in book 2 we found evidence that the Beast of Lepistad (a Frankenstein like golem) was actually innocent of the crimes it was accused of during a 3 day trial. Lots of role play there kids. And it was good too. Law & Order eat your hearts out. Now we're en route to visit the creator of The Beast to see why he was loose and to get there before the angry mob of townies burns down his abode. They didn't like the fact we proved their scape goat for all their problems was innocent and actually a kind soul. Almost childlike in nature. Nope, those tea baggers.....er..... townies don't like logic and facts and still want to get their pitchforks and torches on.

Jerks.

And I seriously can't wait to see which sunday we're all available again so the adventure continues on. Unlike the Runelords game where I'm the constant DM, in Carrion Crown I also play. Something I miss doing alot. And while I do play Shadowrun monthly ( and love it) I miss the fantasy setting. I have alot of characters just waiting for me to put onto paper and for me to play. Julian was one of them & I'm happy to get to play him.
Kirris Xar'cha (drow cleric of Arawai from my Eberron game which this blog is named after) was another. Bart Fatima (cleric of Isis in Mike's home brew Morituria campaign) was and is my favorite PC of all time.
(Sorry Rolf...but you're a very close second place).

I can't wait until I finally get a bit of rest behind the screen again and get to be on the players side. And this time I'm NOT playing any more clerics.....for now.

Rise of the Runelords aka Welcome to Infighting Central!

And its beautiful infighting too. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion every session. And not in a bad way either but I'll touch on that in a bit. First lets introduce the cast of characters and a brief synopsis of what the 'Heroes of Sandpoint' have been up to.

The Players

Bruce - Marcellus (Human fighter 10 / damage sink / constantly hungry / Aerodus older brother)
Mike  - Seoni (human wizard 1/ cleric of Calistria 9 / Marcellus' girlfriend / scary lady)
Jim     - Aerodus (human sorcerer - destiny bloodline 10 / too willing to commit murder for his own profit)
Matt  - Nicholai ( half-elf bard 10 / wanna-be playboy / skill whore / Wren's....boy toy)
Jess   - Wren (human rogue 10 / pie thief of Sandpoint / linguistics master / Nicholai's lord & mistress)
Brian - Zatara ( half-elf barbarian 10 / damage monster / the party's conscious / afraid of Seoni)
Me  - DM (awesome DM lvl Infinity / storyteller / easily bribed with pie or hot cocoa with marshmallows)


So far the party has stopped a goblin invasion of their home of Sandpoint, cleansed a haunted house, thwarted a supernatural serial killer, beat the banjo out of a family of inbred cannibal hillbilly ogre-kin, rescued a mountain fortress from an ogre army and defeated their stone giant leader only to find out that the stone giant tribes on the plateaus are going to war against mankind. All the while the taint and influence of centuries old wizard rulers that used rune magic based off the seven sins permeate everything they have encountered so far. As of now the party is deep into book 4 of 6.

As of last game the party is now deep in the stone giants fortress of Jorgenfist and they are dispatching guards and underlings, making contacts and finally discovered approximately where the leader of the giants, a wizard named Mokmurian, dwells. For progressions sake they are coming along swimmingly. For inadvertently role-playing their characters so well as people they have fueled me with so much ammo to use against them in the following 2 books provided they survive the encounter with Mokmurian at the end. You see I've been tracking which of the seven sins each exemplifies since game 1 and boy oh boy they have ramped up some to epic levels.....without really even knowing it. And in books 5 & 6 those very sins get used against them. And I can't wait to do that cause it'll be so much fun for me and they'll also enjoy the challenge as well. I hope.

Once we get into book 5 I'll go over which sins the PCs most represent and why. Its actually kinda cool seeing how the personal flaws of the PC's become more of a threat than some monster encounter or trap.

But that's only if they survive Mokmurian. I mean it. I'm not being smug here but he's a beast. This adventure path was originally for 3.5 D&D rules and I have been converting them to PFRPG and when I recreated Mokmurian he jumped from a CR14 to a CR17 encounter with the PFRPG rules. And the party *should* be approx 12-13 when they meet him.....they are at 10th. Oopsie.

So I'm at a dilemma: do I throw in more encounters to level the characters up to a 13 or so to help ease the fight ahead, or do I let them go ahead into a 6 against 1 fight that may kill over 1/2 the players if things go  badly. It is just 1 wizard VS the party. They have fought tough challenges before. But this could be too much even for them.

But I still have time cause at the minimum they are at least 2 sessions away from going head - to - head with Mokmurian so I can do some DM magic and see what works out best without being a cop out. All I really want is for the players to keep having fun.

Having fun is *that* important.

And sometime I'll tell you about how I met with Keith Baker (creator of Eberron and awesome guy) at GenCon with Jess and Matt and we discussed this very topic about how important 'fun' is in gaming. That was THE highlight of GenCon for me.

Oh and the infighting! I almost forgot. Its so damn high school. People are scared and don't trust the cleric because she channels negative energy. The sorcerer was the most charismatic member.....until the bard showed up and then started to out shine him. The fighter and sorcerer fight because they are siblings. The rogue has trust issues with some of the party. The bard is a man whore and makes the sorcerer jealous at all his l33t skillz. And it goes on. Its Varisia 90210 in this game! And most are playing teenagers. And they have managed to grasp the feeling of teens dealing with a very adult situation so you see the frustration from not having the answers or experience to handle whats at hand. And it causes come catty behavior. Its my once a month soap opera without Susan Lucci hamming it up.

Just an Above Average Joe

Yes, lets talk Resistance 3 for PS3. Easily one of the best games Insomniac Games has ever produced.
No really, I'm not B.S.ing you here. The game is really well done. And fun to play. And gorgeous to look at and appreciate in surround sound.

A brief synopsis is in order here for those not familiar with this PS3 exclusive franchise. Resistance is the story of an alien virus that arrives on earth in Russia during 1908 that when people are exposed to it they mutate into a new life form called The Chimera. Well we have been trying to fight this menace off and to put it bluntly we are losing badly. They are reproducing faster, has better tech and are tough to kill. When during the US assault on Britain to assist them in repelling the chimeran threat, US soldier Nathan Hale got infected with the virus and, surprise, didn't mutate. Well...its a slower process for him but that's jumping ahead. Now armed with speed, strength and the regenerative chimerian cell structure, Nathan Hale sets off to stop the British invasion.
And he succeeds, to a point, only to be captured by a US government agency who wants to use someone like him in an elite unit of soldiers just like him (Resistance 2) where you meet Joe Capelli who is another like Nathan Hale. Joe is also the lead in Resistance 3.....wanna guess why?

Cause he kills Nathan Hale at the end of Resistance 2. Well he has to. Nathan finally was going bad by the end of the 2nd game and Joe had to put him down. But Nathan gave mankind one last parting gift. His immune system. From blood samples they created a anti-virus and started to save who they could. It only helps if you are immunized before being infected though. Anywho, Joe gets dishonorably discharged from the Army, moves to Oklahoma, gets a purty wife and has a son all while the Chimera are systematically conquering the US. And then Joe's past catches up with him and he's off on a one man mission to save the world and wrap up the storyline.

So the nuts & bolts of this game are spectacular. Graphically its on par with any big budget CGI animated blockbuster. Its unreal how lifelike the world of Resistance 3 looks and feels. And the musical score & sound effects heighten the mood perfectly. I still cringe a bit when I hear the distinct sound of a Goliath class Chimeran walker in the background.

The controls are tight and very responsive which is standard for damn near every game Insomniac Games has ever made. Other developers need to see how they do this. Right NOW. Control is important people and this was buttery smooth in performance.

But the most recognizable watermark for Insomniac Games are the outrageous weapons they craft and how well they work. Standards like the Bullseye and Auger return with new support in tow. I really like the Mutator gun and the Wildfire rocket launcher. And we can't forget about the alternate fire modes all the weapons have are equally as fun to use and abuse chimera with. My favorite has to be the alt fire for the Rossmore shotgun. When maxed out the concussive projectile it fires not only blast people away in a spectacular fashion but also sets them aflame as well. Now there are multiple baddies running around on fire that were knocked safely away from where you are at.

I need something like that for dealing with traffic on the highway I drive to work.

So as my tiredness begins to take hold, I highly recommend Resistance 3. While the story finale does get a but hokey and implausible by the end (and that's even suspending disbelief for the fictitious world its set it) every other note its perfect and where it counts the most.

Its damn fun. You'll enjoy it.