We had our third session playing the module Entombed with the Pharaohs (from Paizo) this past weekend. Below is a session write up from Rachel and, obviously, it contains lots of spoilers for the module. Sadly, this session was not quite as enjoyable as the prior two but this was not entirely the fault of the module but, rather I think, the game system. I’ll briefly elaborate below. As always, my GM comments in [brackets and bold italics].

Oh, and I learned a valuable GMing lesson in this session. Never make brownies and serve them nice and warm at the START of a gaming session. Some of the players were a little too giddy with a sugar high as we started playing.

Read the rest of this entry

Still catching up on posting our session write-ups…here is our second session with Entombed with the Pharaohs. There are, of course, significant spoilers for the module starting right below the break. As always, my GM comments in [italics].

Read the rest of this entry

As part of our process to reacquaint ourselves with d20 and Pathfinder in particular, we took up a mid-level adventure…Entombed with the Pharaohs. Now, obviously, there are going to be some definite spoilers below the break but I do just want to say that this module, written by Michael Kortes, has exactly what I love to find in a pre-published adventure. Although there is something of an “end-goal” involved with the module, it didn’t feel like an overly linear adventure. Instead, Mr. Kortes provided various NPCs, scenes, and tools to reach that end-goal but with enough openness that I’m guessing different groups will find this module play out quite differently. Exactly how I like a module to be written.

Below is the journal from our first session. It was nearly a month ago so I might have a few details wrong. Oh, but first, the characters…

• Nuala, a 6th level elf rogue played by Rachel.
• Kyra, a 6th level human cleric played by Bridgett.
• Ezren, a 6th level human wizard played by RJ.
• Nasir, a 6th level human fighter played by Todd.
• Scott, a 6th level Sorcerer played by Austin.

Now on to what happened in the first session…obviously there are spoilers below for Entombed with the Pharaohs.

Read the rest of this entry

Here is the campaign log from the fourth session of our Quail Valley campaign, written by RJ from the perspective–more or less–of Eoin. My GM comments, as usual, are in [italics and brackets.]

Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.

Read the rest of this entry

Here is the campaign log from the third session of our Quail Valley campaign. I ended up writing this one (for reasons that will become clear later) and so I’m not going to write from any particular characters’ perspective. More of just a blow by blow of the important events. I suppose I’ll still keep my GM comments in [italics and brackets.]

Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.

The party had decided, after Mook and Rithor recovered from their paralysis, to head back to The Troll’s Tongue as the creature could not be allowed to remain…particularly during Storm Season. Other travelers would have to stay at the inn to shelter from the storms and might fall prey to the ooze thing.

Read the rest of this entry

Here is the campaign log from the second session of our Quail Valley campaign. This was written by Rachel (who plays Isabel). My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]

Note: There are potential spoilers for a number of different published adventures below. These include: Necromancer Game’s The Wizard’s Amulet, Crucible of Freya, and Vault of Larin Karr, Goodman Games’ Hive of Villainy, and the adventure, Through the Night, from Dungeon Magazine #29.

In this session, the party continues its journey towards Fairhill and encounters a rather strange mantel decoration. We pick up where we left off last time…during Isabel’s watch she was ambushed by a rather strange creature.

Read the rest of this entry

This past weekend marked the beginning of our new campaign and a new game system. As I mentioned in my prior posting, we’re moving to a less “tactically challenging” game. The system I’ve selected is Myth & Magic from New Haven Games (aka M&M). The game isn’t officially released until late September but a pre-release is available. Myth & Magic started as a retro-clone of 2nd Edition AD&D but has become more than that. In a manner similar to Castles & Crusades, M&M looks something like a pre-3rd Edition D&D re-envisioned with modern sensibilities. I definitely prefer M&M’s BASE20 system over Castles & Crusades SEIGE Mechanic and over the d20 approach of ever escalating skills and difficulties. We’re going to be giving the pre-release a run until the September release. It is my understanding the upcoming release has a lot of things added to the game and some things reworked. We’ll re-evaluate if we’ll continue with Myth & Magic after that release.

We rolled up characters on Saturday. It took longer than I had hoped but that is largely because none of the players had ever seen Myth & Magic. I hadn’t shared what we would be playing until after we were into the character creation process. Two of the players also decided that they’d play two characters and that contributed to things taking a bit longer. The range of Ability Scores, as one might expect with 3d6, is pretty wide. Rachel got pretty lucky with her rolls while others did not.

The roster of PCs includes the following.

• Aram, a Dwarven Cleric (played by RJ)
• Eoin, a Human Barbarian (played by RJ)
• Finch, a Halfling Thief (played by Todd)
• Isabel, a Half-Elf Ranger (played by Rachel)
• Mookatel, a Half-Orc Fighter (played by Todd)
• Rithor, a Human Wizard (played by Franklin)

The campaign will be using the Vault of Larin Karr as the “base” upon which I’ll be adding a variety of different things. Some of these will be homebrewed but others will be a mix of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Edition published adventures. This mix is intentional…I want to see how easy it is to convert materials from the different editions to Myth & Magic. I was going to start with the 3.5 “classic” adventure, The Crucible of Freya and the lead-in, The Wizard’s Amulet. However, Franklin immediately recognized it because he has run both in the past…so I’ll be making some definite changes.

Each character received one or two rumors about Quail Valley or the village of Fairhill. These were basically reasons for them to be wanting to travel to Quail Valley and so when a wizard was looking for some traveling companions to head to Fairhill (a village just a day or two from Quail Valley), it was a good “in” for each character to agree to the trip.

Below is the session log from Rachel.

My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]

Note: There are spoilers for The Wizard’s Amulet and possibly The Crucible of Freya below.

Read the rest of this entry

Here is the third (and final) part of the campaign log from our first Deadlands session.

Note: This portion of the session heavily used elements of “Journey o’ the Nightingale” from the Saddle Sore collection of short adventures. Spoilers abound!

Read the rest of this entry

Here is the second part of the campaign log from our first Deadlands session. My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]

Note: Part of this session used elements of “Journey o’ the Nightingale” from the Saddle Sore collection of short adventures.

Read the rest of this entry

Here is part one of a campaign log from our first Deadlands session. There are three parts, each written from the viewpoint of one of the player characters. My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]

Note: Part of this session used elements of “Journey o’ the Nightingale” from the Saddle Sore collection of short adventures, although there is nothing related to “Journey” in this first part.

Rachel, RJ, and Todd participated in the session.

Rachel is playing Margaret “Maggie” MacAllan, a scorned woman turned gunslinger for the Wichita Witches.

Todd is playing Graham MacAllan, Maggie’s younger brother, gambler, and huckster who has, until recently, lived a rather sheltered life.

RJ is playing Pierre Bascou, an aspiring writer and freelance reporter hailing from New Orleans.

Read the rest of this entry