Actual Play: IKRPG Season II Session 4

The group descends into the blast site to discover its perpetrator and bring him to justice. But will their path be as straight forward as they hope?

Episode 4: Into the Sewers (download)

Actual Play: IKRPG Season II Session 3

With their marching orders set, the Immoren Liberation Front decides to take care of the High Captain's problem the only way they know how: but will their heavy-handed tactics defuse the powder keg politics of Chaser Island?

Episode 3: No Hope for the Future (download)

Actual Play: IKRPG Season II Session 2

Arriving in Five Fingers, the ILF honors their strange invitation and encounters a figure from their recent past, who appears to be strangely...altered.

Episode 2: My Dear Komrades (download)

Actual Play: IKRPG Season II Session 1

Welcome back to IKRPG! Season two kicks off with the Immoren Liberation Front receiving a mysterious and threatening missive.

Episode 1: Every Story Begins With a Journey (download)

2015 in Review

I'm going to basically steal the format for this post from Age of Ravens, because it's been ages since I've blogged anything and, well, I'm out of practice.

2015 was certainly a jam-packed rollercoaster of a year, filled with new experiences and all kinds of terrible, terrible life choices. But hey, at least I didn't buy any 4e shit this year, so that's a fucking win right there.

I think my last post was in early november? I'm still sitting on 2 APs for IKRPG, and chances are I'll have yet another one to edit and post after tonight when I run my now-traditional kill me right goddamn now tabletop gaming marathon. Last year it was D&D 5th edition. This year I'll be running Bad Moon Rising in IKRPG, because a) my good friend Susan has been GMing this system for about 2 years now and has only played it...once? Twice?

also b) because IKRPG is all I apparently know how to buy anymore.

In any case, let's get onto the Year in Review.

New RPGs:

Um...Did I play anything new this year? Oh yeah!

• Night Witches
• Lasers and Feelings
• Through the Breach: Malifaux RPG
• Runequest

Well. That was a brief list. Seems like I pretty much stuck to my guns for most of the year, really barely getting into anything new until the latter portion of the year (stupid personal reasons). All of these new systems were quite entertaining and enjoyable, but I think the game that I look back most fondly on would have to be Through the Breach, seeing as it was the sophomore outing as GM for one of my other friends (and Susan's husband), and I'm always a fan of a RPG system where I don't have to roll dice.

What I Ran:

This year I believe I focused mostly on running my weekly game of IKRPG, with occasional weekend or one-shot forays into other gaming avenues. To be honest, I don't recall running a good amount of gaming this year, and that makes me unspeakably sad.

• IKRPG: Completed a solid season of murder-hoboing in Western Immoren, and got started on the following one as well. Just good times all around.

• Scrolls and Swords: I think I just got one session of this in this year, which makes me a little sad, because if I'm recalling correctly, I was down one of my core players that day. So yes. Sad. In better news, I'm hoping to rectify that sometime soon because every time I run Scrolls and Swords my listener base increases significantly!
• Savage Worlds: I think I ran two games of this. Maybe three? It was a duet-style campaign set in Sword Art Online's super kawaii MMORPG animu universe, and apparently my GMing style is not very conducive to a single player. Perhaps I'd do better with some kind of prewritten game in with that small of a captive audience. Like, you know, the Great Pendragon Campaign.
• Lasers and Feelings: In terms of awarding myself some kind of trophy for running a table with the most number of gamers at once, I'll have to hand it off to my recent unrecorded session of Lasers and Feelings, which I believe featured...seven players? Three of which were on Skype? Good times with it, though, I definitely feel like the Lasers and Feelings mechanics are more suited to the oddball style stories I end up creating for the 'everything and the kitchen sink' universe of Spacemyspacebook.

My 2016 Projections:

Well, to start things off, I'm going back to fucking GenCon, bay bee, because that shit is fun like no other! This year, I'm hoping to actually run some games (I'll probably focus on accessory-lite systems) so that players can look at me like I'm some kind of gamer who has his shit together and didn't only post like 24 blog entries in a single calendar year. Currently in my head to run at GenCon:

Savage Fallout: I'm somewhat on the fence regarding Savage Worlds. I've played in it, I've GMed a little bit of it, I'll need to GM more of it to get into any kind of shape to run the system for players who actually know its ins and outs. That said, with Fallout 4's release this November, the iron is already super hot and ready to strike, and honestly with my utter disappointment with the design direction of contemporary Fallouts I'm hoping I can inject some of the pure, exploratory-slash-madcap entertainment I remember experiencing playing the original CRPGs.

BRP Diablo: Yet another purist approach, because while Diablo III is an entertaining and addictive iteration of a beloved series and II is inarguably the best game of the franchise, there was really nothing like starting a new game of original Diablo, watching that intro cinematic, hearing about the butcher, descending into the Cathedral, and suddenly really needing to pee because holy shit that game creeped me out. Newer iterations have set even starting players up as unmitigated badasses, with very little acknowledgement for the underlying themes of the game series: mortality, terror and madness. I feel like a return to form would be the best way to communicate this with tabletop RPGs, and perhaps this year at GenCon I'll discover if I'm right.

???: I'm thinking I should run three games this year in Indianapolis. Originally I had thought to run IKRPG, but there is a lot to cart around with that system, from minis to tiles to maps. I'm leaning towards running something else BRP, but that may overload me on just one system, and I really feel like 2016 is the year for me to branch out. Well, if anything, I've got a shit ton of core books to pore through.

In Summation:

2015 I felt like I was in some kind of a holding pattern; perhaps 2016 will be the year I can break free from that line of thinking. In any case, if I just stick to my guns and keep not buying 4e stuff, I'll be doing pretty damned well.

The Sixth Annual Painting Challenge.

Well looks like I'll be participating in the annual Miniatures painting challenge. Of course with the numbers I'm putting up I'm slightly embarrassed. Most people are dropping in upper hundreds of points, I'm throwing in 280 unpainted points...I totally thought I'd have more.

Painting Challenge List 280pts:

55 pts: Legion of Everblight Battlebox

• 5 pts: Lylyth1
• 25 pts: Blighted Ogrun Warspears
• 20 pts: Shredder 4x
• 5 pts: Carnivean

45 pts: Protectorate of Menoth Battlebox

• 5 pts: Kreoss1
• 25 pts: Knights Exemplar
• 5 pts: Repenter
• 5 pts: Crusader
• 5 pts: Vanquisher

45 pts: Circle Orboros Battlebox

• 5 pts: Kaya1
• 25 pts: Warpborn Skinwalkers
• 5 pts: Argus
• 5 pts: Winter Argus
• 5 pts: Feral Warpwolf

30 pts: Sam Machorne and the Devil Dogs
15 pts: Stormblade WA
15 pts: Swamp Gobber River Raiders
10 pts: Cygnar Hunter Light Warjack 2x
10 pts: Stormblade UA
10 pts: Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight
5 pts: Sorscha1
5 pts: Haley1
5 pts: Journeyman Warcaster (female)
5 pts: Stryker1
5 pts: Squire
5 pts: Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye
5 pts: Gatorman Witch Doctor
5 pts: Captain Arlan Strangewayes
5 pts: Ilnerik Sivanshin

Of course, because of the nature of the painting challenge, you don't get points for models you've already begun to paint...so I've got even more partially painted models that won't net me any points at all. Getting them done will at least give me some peace of mind...sigh...

Pro-Bono Peace of Mind List 310pts:

60 pts: Arcane Tempest Gunmages 2x
50 pts: Long Gunners
30 pts: Stormblades
30 pts: Croe's Cutthroats
30 pts: Field Mechaniks
25 pts: Man-o-War Shocktroopers
10 pts: Long Gunner UA
5 pts: Brun Cragback
5 pts: Centurion/Avenger/Hammersmith
5 pts: Ironclad/Defender/Cyclone
5 pts: Ironclad
5 pts: Stormclad
5 pts: Lancer
5 pts: Charger
5 pts: Hunter
5 pts: Allison Jakes
5 pts: Caine1
5 pts: Journeyman Warcaster (female)
5 pts: Kara Sloan
5 pts: Stryker2
5 pts: Savio Montero Acosta
5 pts: Captain Jonas Murdoch

Pray for me.

Actual Play: Scrolls and Swords III

This Week's Intrepid Party

My god, it's been almost five months since the last Scrolls and Swords episode. This time, I rolled the dice awesomely again and generated yet another exciting adventure to tie into our returning characters, while offering new players the opportunity to shine a bit in the system.

Once again I'm pretty astounded at the ability of everyone at the gaming table to pretty much pick up the bare bones of a game and create something really engaging and entertaining from a 4d6 roll on a static table, and we really had some standout roleplaying from our vets. Excitingly enough, we also had a bit of a newbie at the table with us, our friend Clint deemed to join in the fun and really rock out some exciting decisions during the game's climax.

I'm definitely a little rusty at running games, and now that I've got a bunch more free time I'm super excited to finally be getting back to running IKRPG next week, so expect more constant updates with Actual Plays on the blog real soon!

...and another hex is filled in!

Scrolls and Swords III: Almost Ready for a Reboot


You can download the episode here (right click, Save As).