Here are some pics from this week’s Story Game Sunday.

Here are some pics from this week’s Story Game Sunday.

Here are some pics from this week’s Story Game Sunday. We played the excellent new game Becoming that was recently Kickstarted by Brian Engard.  

In this competitive storytelling game one player, who is the Hero, is trying to complete a quest. In our case, our Hero was Rob Chang, who was searching for his sister, who was part of a documentary film crew that went missing in the woods of Maine (a la The Blair Witch Project). The other three players are the Threats, in this case: The Witch, The Woods, and Creeping Terror. The Threats are trying to make Rob lose his way, give up hope, flee in terror, and so forth by putting various challenges in play. The Hero has a number of Virtues, Allies, and Strengths he can rely on. The Threats are always trying to negate these attributes, but as a meta condition can also make deals with the Hero player in order to strengthen their own position.

At the end of the day, the game is competitive. If the Hero makes it through all nine scenes with at least one of his attributes still in play, he wins and can narrate a successful outcome. If one of the Threats wins, they get to narrate his demise.

The game is incredibly fun. I would put it right up there with Fiasco in terms of games that are great to break out at a party or with a group of people who might not otherwise RP. It is also very similar to Fiasco in that it has playset-like Quests. 

Thanks to Rob Ferguson (our hero), Daniel Lewis (Creeping Terror) and Maximilian Garza (the Witch) for a good session. 

For those of you who have a copy of tremulus, have you started reading it? And if so, what do you think so far?

For those of you who have a copy of tremulus, have you started reading it? And if so, what do you think so far?

For those of you who have a copy of tremulus, have you started reading it? And if so, what do you think so far? 

I know it probably seems early to start planning for November, but it’s much easier for me to host games if they get…

I know it probably seems early to start planning for November, but it’s much easier for me to host games if they get…

I know it probably seems early to start planning for November, but it’s much easier for me to host games if they get on my calendar as soon as possible. With that in mind, who would like to run a game for Story Game Sunday? The following dates are available: 11.03, 11.10, 11.17, and 11.24. 

A bear, a monkey, and a robot go into a cave…

A bear, a monkey, and a robot go into a cave…

A bear, a monkey, and a robot go into a cave…

Last night’s session of Dungeon World (our 20th, btw), was pretty crazy. Our party was Gorm the Giant (human Barbarian), the Amazing Larry (elf Monkey-Friend Charlatan), Kaduget (dwarf Artificer) and Rakka (elf Ranger). 

The party arrived at the Kraken’s Cave to retrieve the Jade Nautilus trophy from the Cult of the Deep Watcher as part of a contest to determine who would fill the vacancy on the ruling Council of Raider Kings. At the entrance to the cave (carved to look like the maw of a kraken) they were greeted by Korvan, a Deep Watcher cultist, who explained that the Jade Nautilus had been taken by the naga, Lurssiss, and her band of tritons. Korvan explained how the Jade Nautilus is likely more than just a bauble, but also an item of great power. Rakka deduced the jade statue was actually used by a legendary wizard to summon the Deep Watcher up from the depths to destroy his enemies. 

The party headed into the cave, which was now functioning as Lurssiss’ lair, in order to retrieve the Nautilus. The party encountered all manner of nasty things, including dire crabs; traps made from sharpened bits of coral; a water weird (which was disguised as a pool of water with a large gem lying beneath the surface); pirate skeletons; tritons; piercers; and a chuul that Lurssiss summoned from the depths of the sea. 

Some interesting things that occurred: Kaduget managed to close Lurssiss’ deep sea portal by attaching his dead arcane crystals to it and utilizing a process to not only drain the portal of its magic, but also to recharge his crystals; Rakka managed to call upon the power of the Deep Watcher (the Ranger is also a follower of the Deep Watcher, using God Among the Wastes) to subdue the water weird; the Amazing Larry had his monkey, Jules (which, btw, speaks to him in a French accent), climb to the cave roof and use a torch to cause a bunch of piercers to harmlessly fall to the ground; and Gorm actually traveled into Lurssiss’ deep sea portal to retrieve a giant clam with a pearl he could see just beyond the threshold. 

All in all, a lot of fun. This dungeon will likely take one or two more sessions. Sadly, Gorm the Giant passed beyond the Black Gate when a dying triton gutted him with a trident as a parting shot. We spent our session debrief eulogizing Gorm, which felt like a good way to get closure.

Thanks Kerry Harrison Daniel Lewis Daniel Fowler and Ferrell Riley 

This is a fun read. It (somehow) makes me want to try a LARP.

This is a fun read. It (somehow) makes me want to try a LARP.

This is a fun read. It (somehow) makes me want to try a LARP.

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/18/the_obsessive_delusional_side_of_fantasy_role_playing_from_dungeons_and_dragons_to_live_action_role_playing/