Tag: Jason Cordova

Last night was my first time attending the Wednesday game at Jax Bar and Grill.

Last night was my first time attending the Wednesday game at Jax Bar and Grill.

Last night was my first time attending the Wednesday game at Jax Bar and Grill. I had a terrific time! The games played were Archipelago, The Final Girl, and a bit of that Star Wars game with the crazy dice. Archipelago is my new love in RPGs. I have fallen for it hard, like I did with Dungeon World earlier this year and Fiasco a couple of years before that. The story we told last night was one of the most elegantly structured, poignant and just downright exciting I’ve had the pleasure of helping create in awhile. We did an Arabian Nights setting and it was  sublime. 

It sounded like the other table was having a great time with The Final Girl. That one has been getting a  lot of play around The Gauntlet lately, and it’s easy to understand why: creating a horror movie, populating it with a herd of campy characters, and then mercilessly slaughtering them one-by-one is a total blast.

I’m looking forward to the next Wednesday meeting. Thanks to Rob Ferguson for organizing this weekly shindig. 

Last night was the beginning of a new season of Monsterhearts.

Last night was the beginning of a new season of Monsterhearts.

Last night was the beginning of a new season of Monsterhearts. This game always delivers, and I just love it. Our story takes place in and around Waxahachie High School in the early 1980’s. Our characters are:

-Levi, the Werewolf; varsity quarterback for the Waxahachie Whales (“Blow their holes!”) and all-around douche-bro. 

-Ophelia, the Infernal; juicer and roller derby queen, enthralled by a demon who looks like Tawny Kitaen.

-Ping, the Fae; a fabulous Chinese-American fairy boy and

-Vanessa, the Witch; overweight, horribly bullied, and out for revenge.

The first session was a lot of set-up and making the homeroom seating chart, but we had some time to follow the kids around for a day. I’ll spare you the gory details, but know that this one was in pretty awful taste (it was sort of like a National Lampoon’s movie with devil-worshippers). 

The final scene took place at the roller derby match between the Waxahachie Wicked Sisters and the Waco Wrecking Balls. And it had everything: kids screwing behind the bleachers; things happening to crosses that would make Linda Blair blush; and a homeless Vietnam vet clubbing one of the characters with a tire iron. 

I can’t wait to see what happens next! Thanks to Rob Ferguson Daniel Fowler Daniel Lewis and Ferrell Riley

Today we played Our Last Best Hope.

Today we played Our Last Best Hope.

Today we played Our Last Best Hope. In this one, you play a small team of people tasked with saving humanity from an existential crisis (think: Armageddon or World War Z). In our game, terrorists had unleashed a chemical weapon called “Ice-9,” which was causing the oceans to crystallize. Our team was responsible for locating the abandoned Ice-9 research facility at the North Pole, with hopes of being able to reverse engineer the substance using the data we found there. 

This game is a lot of fun. It has a real ‘edge of your seat’ quality to it, as your team is in constant peril. Death is always around the corner, but you have a lot of narrative control over how and when your individual character dies (with a noble self-sacrifice being de rigueur and quite thematic). 

In the end, it was down to the wire. We had a single team member left to eliminate the crisis, and he did so by the slimmest of margins.

One fun feature of the game is MIMIC, your vessel’s AI. We played it very much in the HAL/GLaDOS mode and it was pretty cool.

I enjoyed it and would definitely play it again. Thanks to Alan Schwing, Rob Ferguson and Russell Benner . 

For this edition of Friday One-Shots, we will be playing Nathan Paoletta’s game, Witness the Muder of Your Father…

For this edition of Friday One-Shots, we will be playing Nathan Paoletta’s game, Witness the Muder of Your Father…

Originally shared by Jason Cordova

For this edition of Friday One-Shots, we will be playing Nathan Paoletta’s game, Witness the Muder of Your Father and Be Ashamed, Young Prince. In this game, the king has just been murdered and his sons must come together to determine what happened. 

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Last night we played a Christmas-themed session of The Final Girl that was basically batshit crazy.

Last night we played a Christmas-themed session of The Final Girl that was basically batshit crazy.

Last night we played a Christmas-themed session of The Final Girl that was basically batshit crazy. Our naughty children were being hunted by a Kraumpus who performed over-the-top, Freddy Krueger-style fantasy kills. I was a little tired from a long day at work, but everyone else was in fine, comedic form. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Daniel Lewis , Daniel Fowler , and Rob Ferguson!

We had a pulp-tastic good time with Adventures on Dungeon Planet last night!

We had a pulp-tastic good time with Adventures on Dungeon Planet last night!

We had a pulp-tastic good time with Adventures on Dungeon Planet last night! Obviously, at its core, the game is simply Dungeon World, but it was fun using those mechanics in a 1950’s-style science fantasy context. 

Our heroes were Gulliver, the Earthling; Alvin, the Alien Mutant; and Calculon, the Engine of Destruction. Their ship was intercepted trying to sneak onto Kreelix-9, the planet ruled by the evil sorcerer, Emperor Xzor (pronounced ‘zor’). Calculon was on a scientific mission to acquire an ancient artifact of power Xzor kept somewhere in his palace. Gulliver and Alvin were allies and along for the adventure. 

Ultimately, the party discovered the rightful ruler of Kreelix-9 was the beautiful, blue-skinned beauty, Princes Xzalina, who was being held captive by Xzor. They were able to rescue Princess Xzalina, defeat Xzor, and retrieve the ancient artifact, a weapon called the Bone Glaive (and a recurring artifact from my Dungeon World campaign). 

Thanks Kerry Harrison , Rob Ferguson , and Russell Benner !