D&D 4E & Essentials

Now I know that the bulk of the good folk who skim my blog don't play D&D 4E. Regardless, after flipping through Heroes of Shadow at my local store it was weird to see a book that had character options laid out more like Essentials but without that tag on the book AND in the large hardcover format.
I'll be honest, my initial reaction was screw you WotC, you've now resolved to lying to your customer base by trying to sell an Essentials book to a non Essentials fan. I've picked up the Essentials Rules Compendium as it's the 4e rule set with all of the eratta. I haven't read anything from the Essentials DM Kit or Monsters Vault and am not sure how they might differ from the "standard" 4E DM Guides and Monster Manuals from a mechanical stand point.
Is the Essentials line really 4.5? Not really. I see it as Wizards trying to make roping in the new guy less intimidating and with "simplified" leveling up that I guess is more akin to 1st Ed(?). Unfortunately, it seems like the end result was mostly just another line in the sand to be drawn for many. Personally, I've only experienced Essentials at Wednesday Night Encounters. The folk who play it love it. I've enjoyed it when I do go out to play. What needs to happen is for Essentials to stop being viewed by the players as another game but as another way for Character Classes to advance when they level up. But from my personal experience, I've never seen or actually heard about any table that has a combination of players who've built their characters from the Players Handbooks AND the Essentials books. The guilty forces in my opinion? The mindset of the optimizer/power gamer.

Oh Noes D&D!

Well there's been a lot of talk and speculation on the blogosphere and among my friends at the local comic book store due to all the things that Wizards is cancelling, discontinuing and changing with D&D. I honestly don't know what to think about it. While it sucks that the business model doesn't seem to be working for their shareholders, etc I doubt it'll effect me too much unless I let people who are very passionate and vocal on the subject effect me.
Yes, I've put in about $600 into 4E material over the last year and a bit but it still works as long as I still feel like playing the game and can find others who would too. The thing with the minis don't bother as I've never used the prepainted plastics for my own campaigns anyway.
I'm however trying to figure out if I'm not too bothered because I'm a little meh about D&D at the moment or because I'm not allowing myself to get caught up in the speculations and change is bad side of things. Besides, most of the blogs I follow on here are from people who play older editions of the game. I look at blogs for the spirit of the game and for ideas, not rule mechanics.
I'll worry about all this when someone WotC Officer barges into my house and tells me that I can't play blah blah blah because it's non-compliant with the current edition. Then I'll be looking to bust some heads.

Dinner Really Does Make A Difference

Yes, it's been forever since I've posted anything on this blog but in my defense, I've been really busy at work, went on holidays last week and playing instead of writing. Knowing that bloggers like Christian over at Destination Unknown makes lunch/dinner for the good folk at his game table. I wanted to get into that hanging out while eating side of things. Now I'm not talking about snack and liquor runs before sessions. I wanted proper meals. My group at this point does not prepare dinner but once everyone gets to the place of gaming, we leave in my van and go have supper. It's been really good especially with one of our players being new to the group and we really get to know each other outside of the game environment.
A huge perk is that the games run a lot smoother. Less emphasis on snacks being an interference while playing, we seem less distracted and long drawn out rabbit trailed stories show up less and less as I believe we get a lot of the need of personal chit chat done at the dinner table. Oh and no in the middle of a lull spot where someone goes "Who wants to order pizza?" and then you lose 20 minutes to figuring out what toppings you want, looking for phone numbers and gathering cash for whoever's chipping in.

Playing Monsters Straight Out Of The Book

Do you play monsters as they're written straight out of a Monster Manual or Bestiary? I don't know what it is but since I started DMing, I never really liked using anything that was in print as is aside from you know...Kobold Minion, Kenku Warrior, etc. And if I used a stat block straight from a published monster that would be of relevance, it was always reskinned to look like something else.
This comes from my inability to leave things alone but later on, I really liked how it made metagaming harder for other players who also DM or just happen to own all of the books. I also understand their powers and abilities a bit more as I had to actively take part in selecting what would be kept, ditched and added.

Oh and if you haven't seen "How To Train Your Dragon", you should do something about it. ^_^

Are DM's Really That Hard To Find?

My good friend Matt had his birthday party on Saturday and when we were outside smoking cigars, a few of us began chatting up D&D. I realized that though each campaign were sharing a bunch of the same players from the pool, there were six or more different campaigns represented there.

A lot of these offshoots are the result of players wanting to take a shot at DMing and one player is part of a group that cycles through a different DM every session in some sort of rotation. I had seen the videos below just before I started DMing as I was looking for tips on the subject and am now wondering, among your local circles, are DM's/GM's such a rarity and are so many people that reluctant to take up the position when all you really want to do is play D&D?

I love DMing more than being a PC in most cases. Why? Because every turn feels like it's still partially my turn. How about you?

Paper Legends: Sessions 3.2 "All Aboard!"

The next day, Thor Frostfang the Shifter Ranger easily sneaks into the boxcar well before the precious cargo is placed in it. Vincent, arriving on his appointed time is warned that he will need to make his break for the boxcar a quick one as the diversion is triggered. A loud ruckus starts as the sounds of two confronting workers fill the air, followed by a cheering crowd as a scrap takes place. Vincent makes it on board with Puppy while Korgath tries to use his influence as a Cleric of Helmuth to sanction this as a match, to have bets placed as an offering to Helmuth. Vincent, hears this from within the train begins speaking as Helmuth but upon looking at Puppy, just begins talking about how great he is and his worthiness of offerings in the form of sandwiches.





However Korgath's attempts at getting most of the rail yard workers to go to The Warped One to place bets or make an offering fails and he is tossed onto the train by a terribly disguised Ulfr.
Steam bellows and the train begins its trek south. Inside of box car 15, Thor looks in to check the reinforced cage. In it, the sleeping or better said, sedated wyrmling lies. Vincent begins to use his newly purchased alchemic fire and the pig iron, to weld supports on both sets of doors on the train. He is determined to make sure that no one gets to the wyrmling until it reaches its destination. Even if it means he (or Thor) can't get out.

Paper Legends Wrap Up Coming Soon.

Sadly, Paper Legends has wrapped up. I know that the session notes have things stuck at 3.1 and for the sake of tying up loose ends, I will summarize what has happened in the 6 sessions that we played. Conflicting schedules were my biggest peeve and at no point did we have all seven of us at once. I began getting burnt out of D&D too with my other gaming commitments at the time. I will not be bothering with breaking things down neatly but the just of the story will be conveyed.
I will be launching a new campaign in the near future where we'll be trying to play every two weeks but in more manageable chunks of about 3 hours per session. Wrapping up between midnight and 3:30 in the morning no longer appeal to me.
The new campaign will still be tied in with Paper Legends and I'll have a new opportunity to make new paper minis in a new art style and with a different construction to handle status effect markers.

Happy Gaming!

Good Bye Heavy Metal D&D Campaign

Last Monday night marked my last session in a weekly D&D 4E campaign that I was playing in. Weekly sessions combined with it being on Monday nights were taking a toll on me. Instead of just bailing, I wanted to finish Heroic Tier and the story arc before claiming back my Monday evenings for myself.
My character Memphis Green had died the week prior and while I wanted him to go down heroically, I was hoping it'd be against the big bad that we were introduced to in the very first session. For my newly created character, I came up with Huggles X.
A quick improvised burial was arranged for Memphis Green in the same place that he fell. He's laid on an arrangement of rocks and wrapped in the blankets from his adventurer's kit and then set ablaze. Just as his remains burn and the elven shape collapses, Skull notices Huggles getting a lot heavier while sitting on her shoulder. The little dragon hops off and primal energy begins to emanate from the ground and vines begin wrapping around Huggles forming a larger humanoid shape. The dragon familiar's face is the last thing to get enveloped and the transformation completes with what look like black and green eerie descent chitinous plates. He then bends down and picks up Memphis' old hat, places it on his head and pulls the brim down.
For this character, I stated him up as a Dragonborn Ardent. Why? Tiny was sick so our healer would be missing, so that responsibility would fall upon me. Not to mention that going from five players to three would make things a little harder. Yes, having heals is a good thing.

We charge through the great doors into the room where Babagya waits for us. Fully ready, fully prepared and she begins summoning her Zombie Turtle minions. She's is wrapped in a veil of darkness and gets into our Paladin's head a few times. She literally crawls into his head, causing harm to him and denying the rest of us the option of hurting her as we'd be forced to club on our Paladin unless he himself forces her out of his mind. Aside from her veil of darkness, the ability to summon minions and attacks that cause status effects, she wasn't a very "strong" character.
When the last blow connects with her, she cackles and laughs that she was the last of the Colossi which prevented a dead god from coming back. She had to be killed by those of pure intent (though I question that as we were trouble makers whenever we were left in cities). The big kicker that really got me was there that there was no apocalypse themed magic book that her death cult were after. She orchestrated the theft in the great library that would hire us to retrieve it so that we would kill off the colossi and in the end, her.
When she draws her last breath, the ground shakes with the floors splitting open and spilling out grey and pink flesh. Lando had the fireball, Indiana Jones had the boulder, we got brains growing. Our characters hop onto thier flying broomsticks and attempt to GTFO! A great skill check took place where we came up with fantastic ways to navigate through the halls of the dungeon and outrun the brains and the swarms of goblins running for dear life.
Alas, we failed the skill challenge and all turns black. When Skull and Triptych awake, they find themselves just in rags on a Drow airship. Their equipment are gone, Huggles X, Bruce Fitzyu, Brooke and the Chicken Hut are nowhere to be seen. When they look over the deck of the ship, they see that they are part of a massive fleet of airships, carrying away a huge land mass containing most of the city of Sternum. In the background, a massive skeleton with muscles slowing growing upon it as the dead god slowly comes back to life. Skull and Triptych sail away into the Astral Sea.
It was a blast and an awesome ending to Heroic Tier. I felt saddened that I would not be continuing in this adventure as I could not commit to the schedule. It really felt like watching the ending of a good tv series for me.

Off With Bonus XP

In games that I took part in, there were times that we got bonus XP for doing something amazing with our characters. It was always fun to be able to jot down some extra XP at the end of the night. If the bonus XP was a small amount, it really never amounted to anything aside from one guy having a bigger number than the other. I began to find it really redundant because most groups will generally have the consensus to keep the party at the same level. So aside from maybe a guy leveling up one session before the others, in my eyes, I found it quite pointless.

What I've adopted is a token bonus. Instead of you getting 50 more XP, I'll toss you a penny at my table. It's good for a +D3 to your roll if you miss and needed that extra boost to try and succeed. Players feel good when they get a token and they get to see the benefit of it right away but still not be guaranteed a success. In my case, I only make the tokens good for the night so that they're not hoarding these things up for a "boss" fight.

What I really like about it is that it coaxes my players to come up with some amazing role playing or narratives in hopes that I award them a token. And I don't always do it.

Happy Gaming!

"Limit Breakers" in 4E

I had mentioned previously that I had introduced a Power Meter/"Limit Breaker" mechanic into Paper Legends. It really was a double edged sword. The plus side is it keeps players paying attention when things are turning into a grind as they're anticipating when they can unleash a Daily Power with all of the perks going off. The down side, it creates one more thing to track in an already mechanic heavy game (especially if you have a bunch of effects floating like saving throws, buffs, penalties, on-going damage, etc.)

The nine circles on the upper right corner represent 1's. Each circle on the colored strips on the left represent 10's.

30+ points allows you to use Daily Encounter Powers

60+ points gives you a +1 to hit bonus when using the Daily Power

120+ points allows you to spend a healing surge and gain 1/2 surge value in hit points.

200 points automatically grants you max dice rolls for damage or healing bonuses, etc. Acquiring points caps at 200.

*The bonuses stack as you clear different levels. The Power Meter resets to Zero the instant a Daily Power is used in an encounter. The damage or healing from the Daily Power do not contribute points to the Power Meter.

Players gain points for dealing damage, taking damage, and by healing. So basically when their action actively effects HP, they accumulate points.
Examples:
*Thor does a Twin Strike with his bow and does 7 and 9 points of damage to his two targets. Thor gains 16 points.
*Bellows receives 20 points of damage from an enemy attack. He gains 20 points.
*An area of effect attack via blast or burst do accumulate. If your blast hits 4 targets and you roll, 12, 20, 14, 9 for damage, you gain 55 points on the Power Meter.
*Damage is still rolled for minions. It's not your fault that they're too weak to feel the full effects of the face beating.
*A healer will gain the value of hit points recovered by his/her healing power. Even if done to multiple allies. The recipient of the healing do not gain points.
*Popping a Second Wind does gain points for the Power Meter.
*Taking ongoing damage does gain points to the victim.
*Making an attack that does ongoing damage does not give points as the player is not actively causing the damage anymore.

Why did I introduce this mechanic into my game? It felt like something fun to do. I wanted to play D&D like a video game in a sense and a Power Meter seemed fitting. It also takes away some power gaming elements and brings a new element of strategy to the party. No first rounds where everyone unloads their Daily Powers and it also makes it harder to use Daily Powers on back to back turns by the same player.

My biggest joy from this mechanic was the anticipation of the players to wrack up all of those points in order to get all of the bonuses along with getting all emotional when they agonize over whether they should use the Daily Power that turn vs holding back as they're not far from gaining another bonus. The players had fun and it helps deter the grind feeling in the late game as they're still actively ticking away on their cards and waiting for that glorious turn when all the bonuses go off with an already more powerful than normal attack. They really make Daily Powers seem even more special and it's really something when they get to 200 points and then fudge on the roll.

Is this mechanic for everyone? Nope. Is it perfect? Nope. But my friends around the table had fun with it and that's what counts. It would also have to be scaled in Paragon and Epic Tiers.

RIP Memphis Green

So yesterday marked the end of my level 10 Elf Seeker. I had expressed to the DM that I would not be hanging around in this campaign once Heroic Tier was done. Monday night gaming till midnight was just taking a toll on me on Tuesday mornings and at the moment, 4E doesn't have my attention like it did before. Just a case of my mind needing to take a break from it and go do other things.

Kris our DM was itching to kill a PC, so I'm sure that he enjoyed this. Memphis has a thing about riding large monsters and blasting them in the back of the head at point blank with his blunderbuss (we just used the rules for a long bow) with magical insects as ammunition. In the beginning, I found the Seeker to be such a "crappy" controller especially when you compare him to say...a Wizard. I found his powers too situational before all the bells and whistles could go off. Don't get me wrong, when they work, they're terrifying. But they require more finesse.

I've always had a beef with 4E locking up with players not moving around enough when I DM (it's amazing how stupid characters all of a sudden became tactical geniuses). So even though Memphis' attacks are ranged, I played him as a compulsive in your face type warrior who would run all over the place as long as space permitted. If I double move and shift as a minor, it's possible for Memphis to clear 17 squares in one turn when moving closer to an enemy. As I mentioned earlier, I originally found him difficult to use properly as a controller. So instead of being the one to clear minions, I ended up trying to do my "controlling" by engaging the big guy on the battle field and trying to take him out of the equation for a few turns while the rest of the party mopped up the other baddies. Once that was taken care of, the rest of the group would rally around whatever it was that Memphis was riding on (and in most cases he was also half dead by this point) and beat face.

So how did Memphis go? Well, on our dungeon crawl searching for Babagya, we ended up in a tomb where some Zombies rose up along with an Undead Firebat. In the back stood a T-rex made of vines. Seeing as the Zombies and the Firebat had found their fun with the other PC's, Memphis sprints across the hall, and climbs up onto it's back and begins blasting away at this thing. Completely separated from the party, he eventually go down from the poison in the Vine-a-saurus' vine attacks. Having been so attached to Memphis' character, Holly's/Skull's dragon familiar was played up to be freaking out when Memphis finally fell limp.

For fun, I grabbed some Treant minis and dropped them on the table to represent the Primal spirits reacting to his death. The party was in very bad shape between auras, ongoing damage and status effects. Heals had run dry along with a Paladin who had no surges left. To keep me amused (and to give the rest of the group a better chance), towards the end, Kris had me rolling damage on Memphis' turn in the initiative. This representing the primal energies still being hostile towards the creature as magical insects from Lola the blunderbuss were crawling out of it to gnaw on the thing, along with Jiminy Cricket stabbing at it with his umbrella. Fittingly, it was the damaged rolled for the biting swarm that finally took down the Vine-a-Saur.

Memphis will rest in peace and for my last session in this campaign that will take place next week, I'm going to either make a Dragonborn or Thri-Keen. The Dragonborn will represent Huggles the familiar basically Digi-volving and using Memphis' old gear or the Thri-Keen will be Jiminy Cricket being fully fleshed out to avenge Memphis' death. I just want to finally see Babagya go down. Boss battle time!

D&D 4E - The Tabletop Video Game?

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy. Work, sketching, playing games, going out and to be honest, the drive just hasn't really been there as of late to blog.

What I do want to talk about is, the shift of my view on D&D 4E. I started my venture into tabletop RPGs with 4E. From what I saw skimming through books and hearing about in the previous editions - mostly 3.5 and Pathfinder references - the aspect that I didn't like were the blandness of encounters for non magic users as 90% of the time, it seemed like their only option was "I swing at him with my sword, axe, etc". This is the double edged sword. While mechanically it's boring, the responsibility of keeping one's imagination going is left to the DM and player.

I have never played an MMORPG before. My incline to 4E probably comes from the tabletop wargaming side of things. Now while I do enjoy roleplaying, I realize that the majority of the time, my experience with 4e is that of a narative encounter. And that's cool. 4E does combat really really well. Unfortunately, when I look at the mechanics that they tried to sum up for other things like skill challenges, it generally seems very very clumsy. Once again, it comes down to the story telling abilities of those at the table and imagination along with our own little house rulings in hopes to veer off from what seems sluggish to us game mechanics.

So with that being said, I've been drawing more and more inspiration from video games for Paper Legends. I intend to make it feel like a game. My players know this and have been gung ho about it. I've implemented a power meter that gets racked up as players dish out and take damage. Hand out RP bonus power ups in the form of coins and sometimes crazy stuff happens that doesn't quite make sense but we can do it because it's a GAME. While it can be a cop out for reasoning, it definitely gets the imagination flowing.

So far it's been great and with this particular group it works. All but one of them have played or are playing MMORPG's, tabletop wargames and/or Magic: The Gathering. We come together to collectively play out a story of Die Hard in a fantasy-ish setting.

I'm writing this post because awhile back I felt a bit frustrated with trying to get more story elements into our games and trying to coax a bit more of it out of my players. I got over this after talking with one of my players while going to McDonald's when I realize that I should be playing 4E to its strength and accept that most of our players were not natural actors or storytellers. I'm hoping to play to their quirks and if I put the right hooks out there, maybe they'll pressure me to come up with more plot twists.

I do want heavier roleplaying opportunities to come up and I'll let that grow on its own or I'll search for it in other systems like Mouse Guard or Cartoon Action Hour.

Paper Legends: Session 3.1 "I Choo Choo Choose You"

A month and a half has passed since the Firebugs dealt with Thalos Calgaron. With no real assignments aside from trivial little surveillance jobs, the group spreads out doing their own thing. Thor Frostfang continues to win in Fireman Tim's arena generating much buzz and keeping the gravy train flowing. Vincent Moren, pleads with Ayana and she agrees to turn the deceased Puppy's into a Zombie Kobold. Ulfr trains with the Rangers to expand on his tracking skills. "Dave" and Bellows work with R&D on prototype equipment along with Bellows receiving new arms to replace the set that Vincent dismantled. Korgath builds his congregation to Helmuth, god of gambling and "other good things" in the arena and establishes him as the patron deity to many of the fighters.

Fireman Tim assembles the team for a new assignment. A wyrmling was recently sold in a secret auction to a wealthy individual and the Firebugs have been hired to be the insurance policy. Not comfortable with the standard security that might be on the train and wanting to keep things low key, the Firebugs will have to sneak on board the train unknown to all including the train's crew. With no more information than the time of departure, the cargo and that the carriage which the precious cargo will be transported in is modified with special shock absorbers, the Firebugs are left to figure out how to handle the rest on their own.
The group heads to the train yard to survey the area. With being so caught up in the pit fights, Thor decides to take his time and enjoy himself with his new lady friends that he met at a local bar and inn. After the "festivities", he sneaks himself onto the specified box car and after getting bored, he heads back to the hotel. He knows his way in and will return tomorrow well before departure time.



Ulfr's does the old "sneak on board as a worker" routine. He wanders in casually, checking out the shift schedules for the next day and steals the largest set of railroad work attire that poorly covers his Goliath frame.

Vincent Moren purchases pig iron and alchemic fire before making his way to the rail yard's office building by which he buys his way onto the train by bribing an employee to sneak him on board. With plans taking shape, the Firebugs wait for tomorrow's departure.

I Am Not Dead. Just Been Busy And/Or Distracted.

I'm so far behind on session notes or little snippets of bright ideas due to fiscal year end with work. In July, there was only one day in that month that I did not stop into the office. But I'm on salary so no literal overtime pay. I'm just going to take some Fridays and Mondays off here and there to make long weekends and not eat into the vacation pay.
So between that, being tired and playing games, it hasn't left much time dedicated to blogging. I'm hoping to remedy this soon. So I'll be putting things up this week.

Happy gaming! You'll get your fix of Kok'ed Dice soon. I promise. Serious. I'm on a horse.

Missing Players = Plotting & Getting Cool New Shiny Things

So last night, only two of us out of six PCs ended up at the DM's place. Two gave notices that they had family functions ahead of time. One made a last minute cancelation 15 minutes before we were suppose to start and one didn't show up.
Our DM wanted to try and scale down the encounters and still play but we came to the conclussion that the effort has been put down to play a proper session. So let's wait to play a proper session with the intended amount of people. We ended our last session entering a new city so we decided to plot out what kind of trouble we could get into.
We played around with some random event generator tables and tweaked it a bit to the three of our likings and flavour to fit what our characters would be up to.
After the initial disappointment that we wouldn't be "playing", the night still ended on a positive note. Skull (Holly's character) has now lit a portion of the city on fire and Memphis (my character) is on the down low as the watch are looking for him after he was conned into a shady business venture.
Details are still being penned out and we were also rewarded cool magic items which I'm still coming up with some back story for it.
What started out as a bummer still proved to be a fun couple of hours and we even got to do a little bit of trouble shooting for a cool mechanic that I am planning to implement for Paper Legends. To tell you the truth, I think that our next session will have a much richer story than what was originally planned as Holly and myself got to pull our characters from first to third person perspectives and partake in the actual shaping of the setting outside of actually playing it. Hopefully that little extra bit of depth and connection that two of the PCs have will bleed over to the rest of the party. Now to see how it actually plays out. Happy gaming even when not actually gaming.

Beast Companions, Familiars & Other Tag-Alongs

I think that having companions in D&D run properly as an actual skill to do well. They can bring enhancing mechanics, liabilities for the party and possible flavour to the game. I personally feel that they really need to be played with character along with some hints of backstory and cues that lead to development. I've seen equipment with more personality in some cases.
My premier experience was from the first ever campaign that I got to play in. Our Wizard had a Falcon Familiar that he would use to channel his powers through. Outside of encounters, this thing rarely ever showed up and aside from when it was mentioned that he was using the falcon to cast _____, it wasn't much more to me than a tiny based mini that sometimes sat on the battlemat grid. Nothing against the player of the Wizard as he's a really great guy but was just not taking advantage of the roleplaying possibilities that this bird could have brought to the table.
The next one that I would have the pleasure of "meeting" had absolutely no game mechanics whatsoever. In that same first campaign set in Eberron, the Dwarf Warden went into the slums of Sharn and hired an Orc hanging around some street corner. This Orc would become his minstrel hired for more than two shinies and the DM even came up with some basic songs that he would sing. On many occassions when Volstag the Mighty (Dwarf Warden) was doing something or our DM was describing what Gorsh (the stupid Orc) was up to, I would catch myself singing his songs at the table. He added a ton of flavour to our sessions and prior to my leaving that campaign, I was even thinking about taking on the role of Gorsh as my Changeling Rogue was now staying in a kingdom posing as the recent secretly murdered king. Mechanic wise, Gorsh had nothing in terms of rules and was never presented on the board even though in most cases he was assumed to be in the room when fights broke out.
The shortest lived companion I would see came from the first Session of Paper Legends. Ulfr was originally created as a Beastmaster Ranger. The rules behind how the beast companion worked in tandem with the Ranger proved way too limiting and frustrating for Ross that all the coolness factor behind having a panther following you around town was lost. Ross ended up letting the cat die in the middle of the session and retooled his Ranger's fighting style. The only thing that would've saved this panther would've been character attachment. Or maybe not.
I've seen a couple more show up but they were in store games with players coming and going that they meant absolutely nothing to me.
Here's my current favourite example of a tag-along. In the first session of Paper Legends, Kris's character, Vincent Moren decided to keep the Kobold that they had interrogated as a pet and named him Puppy. I had this Kobold killed later that night and it drove the character into a frenzy. For the third session, Kris had requested that Puppy's body be reanimated and I agreed to have an NPC do a ritual making him into a Zombie Kobold. Puppy has proven to be amazing story telling element in and out of combat situations to where this Zombie has more flavour than many PCs. Very funny (or sad), especially when you consider he doesn't speak or really do much of anything aside from follow Vincent around and make sandwhiches. I myself might have as much attachment to Puppy as Kris does as we're always talking about different ways to justify Puppy's preservation from you know...decomposing, etc and how we'd like him to evolve. When interacting with NPCs, they're always trying to figure out what's up with "that smelly thing". Puppy makes for great conversation starters within the world of Paper Legends, prepares sandwhiches (we've actually house ruled a Daily Power out of this) and allows Vincent to shows his "tender" side as he is a very OCD and self-centered character until Puppy is put into danger.
Now for our newest Familiar. In the campaign that I'm playing called "On The Bones Of Dead God aka Heavy Metal D&D", which is DMed by Kris that plays as Vincent in my setting, our Sorceress recently acquired a Dragon Familiar. This to be named tiny Dragon is the half-brother of our Drow Sorceress. Her mother, the Queen of Spine is married to a Black Dragon after having her previous husband assassinated. Don't ask me if this little guy was hatched or birthed and we met him as he snuck up on our party following Matilda (who prefers to be called Skull) in order to protect her. Holly has played it up that Skull is repulsed by the little guy (mostly due to the concept of a Drow and Dragon breeding)and my character, Memphis Green(a gun toting Elf Seeker) has been interacting with her Dragon Familiar more than she has. Kris roleplays on behalf of the little guy (thank God as I do not want to see Holly talking to herself when trying to be both characters)and I hope that during this campaign, even though the Familiar makes Holly's Sorceress more badass, he will actually be more attached to my Seeker.
In summary after a long ramble of my experiences and using many brackets, I just want to say that these tag-alongs in an RPG can be so much more than "items" to your PCs. They are characters just waiting to be explored, especially when you realize that they're going thru hell and high water with your party.

Paper Legends: Session 2.5 "I Got To Meet A Dragon..."

The little Kobold and the Firebugs have an akward little stare down. After a moment, the Kobold cautiously approaches them and makes his way towards the Shardmind. When within arm's reach, he studies "Dave" out of fascination by the translucent build. Noticing that no one has raised a hand or their voice, the Kobold grabs "Dave's" hand and drags him to the tunnel that he was peeking from. The entire crew follows them into a cavern, complete with rocky spires and small hoard of valuables. A little further in lay a Green Dragon, fully shackled, badly wounded with his wings mangled beyond recognition. The Kobold approaches the creature with full reverence.
He is Maugen, originally from the Forest of Maine. He had come to the Millwoods Forest with the remnants of his Dragonborn and Kobold subjects after being defeated and exiled by other Dragons from his homeland. Maugen continued to explain that he came here to regroup and rebuild but in his weakened state, Thalos Calgarron, his second in command rallied the other Dragonborn around him to overthrow Maugen while keeping the truth known to the Kobolds who simply thought Maugen was in the cave recovering. Through a ritual, Calgarron was able to tie his life source with that of Maugen. This explains to the party how he was able to take such a beating and that everytime they struck Calgarron, Maugen also suffered from the blow.
Bellows continues his suspision but the rest of the party, particularly Korgath and "Dave" feel pity for the Dragon and offer aid to bring him back to health. Korgath insists that he be allowed to start the healing process and Maugen snaps back with the request for death. Upon further coaxing, Maugen says that if he were not in such pethatic circumstances, he would be picking his teeth with their bones by this time with absolutely no remorse.
With that answer, the Firebugs look among their ranks to figure out who will do the honors. Ulfr steps up to the wounded Dragon, lifts a row of scales on Maugen's chest and thrusts his longsword straight into the beast's heart. The party refrains from taking much of the treasure in the lair as they know that OOPS will have to catalog and redistribute the valuables to their rightful owners.
The heroes part way with the Kobold make their way back to Old Strathcona after Vincent recovers the body of Puppy. After returning to The Warped One, Fireman Tim is nowhere to be seen around his office. They make way further down into the second basement arena to find Fireman Tim organizing bets on the bleachers. In the ring, Thor Frostfang. Not recalled to aid another unit in a scouting operation but to be the main event.
*End Session 2*

Letting Go Of The Tracks & Tossing Them Into The Mosh Pit...I Mean Sand Box.

Last night was a neat session, we had a rather long encounter (about three hours) but it didn't turn into a painful grind and after we ended the gaming for the night, I began talking with my players about wanting to give them more of the reigns to lead Paper Legends more and more into a sandbox for them to explore. I even put the PCs on a train and had the tank engine blow up with the thing stopping before their destination to literally say "Hey, we're screwing with the railroading and to really make this OUR game". We talked a bit about where I'd like things to go and really have their input. And I even had them crash not too far from a town so that I could be forced into practicing something that I need to grow in; lots of possible NPCs for the party to interact with and for them to be memorable. Thanks Christian, your post blatantly pointed it out to me that it was an area that I needed growth in.

It was also really cool to talk to one of the players outside of the session about a neat plot twist I have in mind, and he himself blatantly said that it'd be okay to kill his character if that's what it takes to make this happen and that he really appreciated that I had discussed this possible plot turn with him to get his feedback. The funny thing is... I never said that his character would have to die for this event to take place.

RPGs have been so rewarding and fun for me. I really wish that it wasn't tagged with the "negative" side of nerd/geek stereotypes as it is such an amazing form of group entertainment. It's also pretty amazing to see one of my old classmates who has very little exposure to geek culture, play out his character. Josh is new to the whole gaming thing, and while he is relatively quiet at the table, when the cogs turn and he describes what he wants Thor Frostfang, his Ranger to do, it usually ends up sounding like something I would love to see in a movie. Many times it puts me on my toes as to how I will have to figure out how to house rule it so that he can do the amazing things that he wants to do.
I am so blessed to be able to throw dice down with these guys!

Paper Legends: Session 2.4 "It's All In Your Head"

Our heroes make their way through the dark passage of the cave. Kobold guards try to hinder their progress but to no vail. The Firebugs make quick work out of them. At the end of the tunnel, the caverns open up to room and residing at the end of that room, a large armored Dragonborn stands impressed at their progress and equally as pleased to be able to engage in combat. He introduces himself as Thalos Calgaron, servant to Maugen of The Forests of Maine, then turns his back to the party and begins to strut down another tunnel. The party pursues and when Calgarron turns around to face them, a bright flash stuns them all.
When the Firebugs regain their sight, they are surrounded by a tempest. "Dave" hears the same heartbeat that he heard in the museum and their footing,on a floating stone platform with edges that constantly shift. Calgarron draws his blade and they engage in combat. If his fullblade wasn't enough the Firebugs also have to contend with Calgarron's voice in their heads murmuring threats to them. Whenever focus is lost, they are flung across the platform. Eventually Bellows is thrown beyond the edge. Expecting to meet his certain demise, Bellows finds himself drifting afloat in the tempest and somewhat invigorated while in it. Amidst the whirlwind, reaction times are a split second quicker and the Firebugs attempt to battle Calgarron from within the storm while trying to keep him planted on the platform. This of course is much harder due to the constant psychic assaults that throw them around like rag dolls. The fight is bloody and intense with everyone being dealt serious blows aside from "Dave" who is able to keep his distance. When things seem lost, they are able to pull together their strength for one last coordinated strike causing that same flash that brought them to the tempest.
Disoriented, the group find themselves back in the cave with a catatonic Calgarron laying on the ground. "Dave" extends his hand across the Dragonborn's face and crushes his brain with a force attack. With business being taken care of, the Firebugs turn their attention to the Kobold peeking at them from the doorway across the cavern room.

Paper Legends: "Helmuth Calls You! Sandwiches!!!"

Too good not to post up right now. This was filmed last night. It will make sense when more session notes go up.