Nirmathas, MTTC, PFRPG Chase mechanic

Here's the latest. I know the post is short, but somethings can't quite be said yet.

Nirmathas

The Open-ended Golarion game seems to be going well. They players are running about Nirmathas in search of a Bloodstone of Arazni. Several factions are also in play. I'd talk more but at least one player reads this blog (when entries are made). Feel free to follow along at the game's adventure log on obsidian portal.

MTTC

It seems I'm playing two characters now. The other is Yuuta, a Tokyo bike cop, who has no particular tie to any faction. He's not really a fan of the Cataclysm Division either, and is in a bit of a tight spot between the legal thing and the right thing. Shinyai is currently involved with a Mihoist, but how long that lasts depend on how much she sees.

PFRPG's Chase Mechanic

In The Gamemastery Guide there's a mechanic for chase scenes. I got to play with it in the above Nirmathas game. It's fun. I need to use it a few more times to really get it down, but it's definitely going into games when I can. I've purchased the two decks of chase cards paizo did for it, but I'm betting I'll make my own larger ones. The mechanic describes placing figures on the card to determine where they are in the chase, and the skill check needed to proceed are on the card. So they might be a bit small for use.

Other notes

My kickstarter rewards for Rise of the Drow are in, I'll pick those up soon. Selling printed copies of the character sheet is still restricted to the store in Abilene. I don't make enough off of it to pay the membership involved to sell physical product on paizo or rpgnow yet. My personal setting has finished migrating to a google hosted wiki, and some more development has happened. I might keep hoping to have something setting wise available. I think I'll be there soon.

RotR, Reapercon, GMing again, MTTC, moving closer to the rules

Rise of the Runelords

So that RotR game I was invited to way back that had the pixie incident. Yeah, it finally ended at 3am this past sunday morning. It's been a crazy ride, at the end Karzug killed one of us, and had several of us below 10 hit points multiple times. Some of the spells we had access to were late book spells, and may have skewed the power in our favor, but in the end it was the longest, toughest, craziest five rounds of combat I've ever seen.

Reapercon 2014

Yes, we went. It was a blast. My brother and I played several warlord games, and painted. I painted up a battletech warhammer that got a certificate of recognition. My brother's Mina won a silver. The new hotel for the event is really nice, and despite my fears, its still the close and friendly feel that reapercon 2013 was. We played some great custom R.A.G.E. games, including their dungeon crawl, and cowboys and gunslingers. C&G is probably the most fun I've had with the rage system yet. We found we were playing the tough rule in warlord way wrong, so we're rehashing our army builds and plan to actually play in the tournament next year. Ben and I have several paint project ideas in mind. Our goals are to both score better than this year with everything we enter. I'm also gonna push for two entries.

GMing again

Well, with Runelords over, and the other GMs I was playing under out of town for 4-6 months, its time to step behind the screen again. I'm looking at three games at the moment. One is online for the MTTC people I've been playing with. Several of them are new to Pathfinder, and one is new to Pen&Paper as a whole. The next is picking up the slot from the runelords GM since his schedule is wonky now, I'll also be adding a kiddo of the players. We'll start with the beginner's box and go from there. The third is continuing the game I was running for Ben and the parents. I've got good notes for that already, I just don't remember how far they got last session.

MTTC

Speaking of MegaTokyo:The Clans, that has indeed started up cleanly again. We're now playing at www.rpgclans.org bewarned though, mature content. Shinyai was just getting adapted to tokyo when things started getting crazy, and the government has put up devices that might as well be anti-magic fields. So even the average thug is an interesting fight. However, someone nasty is about to step out of the shadows and into the fray!

Getting back to the rules

For no good reason what-so-ever, I was stat-blocking Kenshin Himora from the anime Rurouni Kenshin this week. I've noticed a lot of things that have been in games I'm in are actually house rules (nat 1 meaning something bad on attacks, such high stats, CMD for feints). So far these haven't really been problems, but I think I'm going to move my games closer to the regular rules for a while. I think some of the house rules that can kick a player in the chin are actually to "balance" characters with really high stats. So I'd like to see what happens if things are closer to the book after all. It also means toning down my npcs, but hey that's fine, they were built powerful to deal with powerful characters.

Pirates and Council Continue, DMing for Thanksgiving, and other stuff

Oddly we're hitting book two of Skulls and Shackles and Council of Thieves at roughly the same time. In Skulls we survived the first month under the lash of Plug and Scourge until the wyrmwood's first prey came into view. Lysandros (the rogue) ended up leader of our small boarding team. Our team was also made part of the prize crew to send the ship back to Port Peril for sale. However, it wasn't long before we could tell that Plug and Scourge had other plans, which we wouldn't survive.

With support of a handful of NPCs we'd befriended along the way we mutinied and took control for ourselves, only to get swept away in a storm and beached for a few days while repairing the ship and rescuing two NPCs from the grindylows who attacked during that same horrid storm. Now with our new ship afloat, and our new captain (Lysandros, the rogue) in charge we head for the same port Plug was headed for, hoping to complete a crew and squib the ship.

In Council things are a little weirder. Our first few days involved dodging hellknights, killing shadow beasts at night, and goblins during the day. Then, a gang known as "The Bastards of Erebus" pushed too hard, and our little group of less that legitimate vigilantes asked us to do what the guard still refused to do.

After a successful raid of the Bastards hideout, and capture of their Asmodian cleric and leader, we've built a little bit of reputation with the populus. Now we've been approached by a member of the Pathfinder Society asking us to help get back into an old lodge in Westcrown. How? We get to be actors, in a murder play! If we do well, we get invited to drunken debauchery at the Lord Mayor's home, in which we'll get to dig through his home looking for info on how to get back into the lodge.

I'm also the DM for the family and most of these two groups for two thanksgiving dinner and oneshot games. If your not in one of those games and have suggestions, comment here or on G+!

Amtgard has also hit a new state. Skywatch is no longer the infant shire, the new Shire of Nightglade has risen in mundane San Angelo, and along with Ninewillows (midland) we're helping them get on their feet. As one of my household's members said, it's odd being the veterans visiting the new field.

That's about it.