Sunday, February 28, 2016

The CVG Actual Play & Community Theater Podcast 012 - The One Ring: The Darkening of Mirkwood - Session 09: The Folkmoot At Rhosgobel


Episode 12 of The CVG Actual Play & Community Theater Podcast is up and in stores near you (i.e. iTunes)!  

Remember: it's on a different feed from The CVG Podcast and Rhythm & Blues Revue, so you will need to subscribe to this feed separately if you're into it!

The game is The One Ring, by Cubicle 7 Games!  The campaign is The Darkening of Mirkwood!


Don't remember much about The One Ring?  Check out the Geek's game review of it here!

Or check out the TOR community forums here!

Tonight's session owes a substantial debt to the Wild Adventure - The Night Wanderers, as created by forum user Wbweather.

Here is Tales from Wilderland!


Check out the campaign's Obsidian Portal page!

And now a quick breakdown of our characters:

PC:  Denethor Lightbow
Player:  Nick
Culture:    Elf of Mirkwood
Background:  Diligent Defender

Calling:  Scholar

PC:  The "Boarslayer"
Player:  Monster Mike
Culture:  Woodman of Mirkwood
Background:  The Hound

Calling:  Warden

PC:  Brand, son of Gorm
Player:  Jack

Culture:  Barding (Man of Dale)
Background:  Rediscovering the Past

Calling:  Treasure Hunter

PC:  Beli
Player:  Chris

Culture:  Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain
Background:  A Lesson In Revenge

Calling:  Treasure Hunter


Remember to show your love and support for the Geek out on Patreon!  Actual play episodes don't count for our Patreon contributions, so every time we play a game, you get a freebie!

Music:  "Political World" by Bob Dylan

Saturday, February 20, 2016

The CVG Actual Play & Community Theater Podcast 011 - The One Ring: The Darkening of Mirkwood - Session 08: A Taste For Killing



Episode 11 of The CVG Actual Play & Community Theater Podcast is up and in stores near you!  

Remember: it's on a different feed from The CVG Podcast and Rhythm & Blues Revue, so you will need to subscribe to this feed separately if you're into it!

The game is The One Ring, by Cubicle 7 Games!  The campaign is The Darkening of Mirkwood!


Don't remember much about The One Ring?  Check out the Geek's game review of it here!

Or check out the TOR community forums here!

Here is Tales from Wilderland!


Check out the campaign's Obsidian Portal page!

And now a quick breakdown of our characters:

PC:  Denethor Lightbow
Player:  Nick
Culture:    Elf of Mirkwood
Background:  Diligent Defender

Calling:  Scholar

PC:  The "Boarslayer"
Player:  Monster Mike
Culture:  Woodman of Mirkwood
Background:  The Hound

Calling:  Warden

PC:  Brand, son of Gorm
Player:  Jack

Culture:  Barding (Man of Dale)
Background:  Rediscovering the Past

Calling:  Treasure Hunter

PC:  Beli
Player:  Chris

Culture:  Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain
Background:  A Lesson In Revenge

Calling:  Treasure Hunter

Remember to show your love and support for the Geek out on Patreon!  Actual play episodes don't count for our Patreon contributions, so every time we play a game, you get a freebie!

Music:  "A Taste For Killing" by Calliope

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Ask Jetpack Jack! - Of Toppings and Tarrasques

Welcome to another scintillating installment of Ask Jetpack Jack!

Since this the first installment of 2016, Jack thought it would be great to help out those who were kind and/or hopeless enough to send in questions about how to better in the upcoming new year. (JJ: I know, I know, we’re two months in already, but I’m trying to be topical here, so just grin and bear it, okay?)  As stated before, if you have questions you would like answered about gaming and tabletop etiquette, send them in to brian@chippewavalleygeek.com with "Ask Jetpack Jack" in the subject line! (Note: emails may be edited for content, but as little as possible) 

----

Dear Jetpack Jack,

My gaming group consists of a vegan, a person who is lactose intolerant, a person with nut allergies, a person who eats only kosher food, and a person who is always trying fad diets like "grapefruit and garbanzos" or "figs and flatulence".  What kind of pizza should we order for game night?


Sincerely,
Pepperoni and Mushrooms

Dear Pepperoni and Mushrooms, 

When food becomes a part of the gaming experience, it can lead to disagreements about what to get. Your group is admittedly more diverse than most, but when you can’t come to agreement, the best option is the one my group usually takes – everyone can bring their own food/snacks to the table. That way, everyone gets what they want, and you aren’t stuck eating paleo-matzo-grapefruit pesto pizza. If everyone does insist on getting food as a group, there’s always hot wings and garlic bread…


----

Dear JJ,

I have terrible dice luck, especially with d20's.  I have had multiple game sessions where I went the whole game without rolling a double digit result on the die.  Can you recommend some suitable ways to punish my dice?


Best regards,
Natural One.


Dear Natural One, 

It’s always a bad time when your rolls make you look like a complete goober. Aside from the old standbys or yelling, throwing things, and cursing, some people started using shaming tactics (google it if you are curious). Personally, if my dice are acting up, I would first check and see if the dice are balanced correctly. 


Even with modern manufacturing techniques, dice sometimes are as crooked as politicians. To check, use a cup of water and place your die inside and give it a spin. If the die keeps coming up with the same number, it’s not balanced. If it’s rolling low, maybe your DM would like a new die? [Ed. Chippewa Valley Geek does not endorse giving loaded dice to your DM.] 


----

Dear Mr. Jetpack Jack.

So you know how sometimes when I'm at Kwik Trip and there's two registers open but one line for them?  Y'know the one guy who comes along and tries to line jump by standing right in front of the one register, like there's a line of 20 people all waiting for the left side but no one thought to go over to the right side?  Is it ever morally or legally permissible to just set that asshat on fucking fire?

Thanks,
Late for game night

Dear Late for Game Night, 


Unfortunately, it is not permissible to alight your fellow human beings, even if they really, REALLY deserve it. However, I do have some tips to help you be at the gaming table in time. First, try leaving a little bit earlier, if you can. Extra time on the front end will make you more able to exude zen-like patience as the fetid, self-important little carbuncle shows no regard for anyone else. Or, you could do what I always do, and picture their face the next time you crack orc skulls (it works great for bosses, too).


----

Dear Jetpack Jack,

There is a squirrel in my garden, and I swear to Nyarlathotep he is always watching me whenever I leave home.  Even when I'm in the house, I can feel his beady little rodent eyes peering at me through the window.  I'm often losing hours of sleep worrying about this and I no longer have any appetite. So my question is, what's the best way to defeat a Tarrasque?


Sincerely,
And will it work on squirrels?

Dear AWIWOS?, 

First off, that’s one heck of a name you got there. Second, do you want to kill the Tarrasque? Come on,I’ll show you how to play. You can try to cheat, and use a Wish, or you can try my wayyyy… okay, that’s the last time I watch Frozen with my kids. 

The standard answer for this is to use Wish once you grind down its hit points, but it depends on the system. Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 will allow ability damage, so take down either its Wisdom or Constitution (Allips and Bebeliths are monsters that are great for summoning to fight this beast). Pathfinder, however, got rid of those oversights, so the only way I can possibly come up with to kill the Tarrasque for good is to get a Great Old One to do it for you. That’s right, I said Cthulhu! Cthulhu, I say! IA! IA! CTHULHU  FHTAGN!!!!!.....sorry, what was I saying?

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Monster Mike's Geek Reads: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline



Okay, picture this.  

It's 2044 and the world is a post-apocalyptic dystopia.  Yes, yes, you think.  I've seen this one before.  There was a nuclear war or a killer virus or an alien invasion or global warming or some shit and now everyone is running around in souped-up killer cars fighting over the last few drops of gasoline or clean water or Mountain Dew Code Red, right?

No.  The dystopian future is actually one based on increasing economic inequality.  The masters of capital have won completely and the 1% have everything.  Everyone else is left with scraps.  Many people live in "the stacks" - shantytown high-rise structures of aging mobile homes - and daily life is a struggle for survival in a barely-functioning economy where all public goods and resources have been privatized and precisely calibrated to wring every last drop of life out of the huddled masses.

On the bright side, there is OASIS.  Part MMORPG and part virtual life, people escape their reality in this simulated world.  OASIS brings education to the youth, and OASIS virtual currency is the most stable medium of exchange on the planet.  Invented by the brilliant but eccentric James Donovan Halliday, OASIS is where our hero, young Wade Watts finds meaning and purpose in an otherwise hopeless existence.  You see, when James Halliday died years before, he created an Easter egg hunt within OASIS.  The first to find all the clues and pass all the tests would inherit Halliday's multi-billion dollar fortune and become the wealthiest person on the planet.  Millions of egg hunters, or "gunters" as they would later be called tried for years to even find the first clue, but no one could.  After some time, most of the world gave up on the hunt as being either impossible or a hoax, but not Wade Watts and a few of his virtual friends.  Halliday was known for being a huge fan of 1980's pop culture, and these die-hard gunters obsessively study every clue, every nuance of this era and the relationship to Halliday's life in order to understand the keys to the great uncracked puzzle.

However, when Wade finally thinks laterally enough to discover the first clue, the race is on.  Teams of mercenary gunters with powerful corporate sponsorship will stop at nothing, including assassination attempts in the real world, to beat the independent gunters to the prize.  Wade and his friends and fellow gunters Aech, Art3mis, Daito and Shoto have to make careful decisions about whether to compete or cooperate with one another against the powerful and ruthless Innovative Online Industries over the next several months as the search heats up and more clues are unraveled.  Wade and his cohorts have to resort to truly desperate measures in both the virtual and meat-space worlds to survive.

This book has a lot going for it.  Though the premise is kind of silly, it pulls you in and keeps you there.  The writing is absolutely gripping, the characters are compelling, and the book is very hard to set aside for little annoyances like sleep, eating, your weekly RPG session, or the house being on fire.  The action and the stakes keep rising throughout the story and the ending pays off well.  However, you might find the persistent love of all things 1980s a little grating if you are too young to remember Zork and don't geek out on old Commodore 64 games.  Even so, it's a fun book and a super-solid read.  If you really like it, check out Armada by the same author.

«««««/5

The CVG Actual Play & Community Theater Podcast 010 - The One Ring: The Darkening of Mirkwood - Session 07: The Easterly Inn




Episode 10 of The CVG Actual Play & Community Theater Podcast is up and in stores near you (i.e. iTunes)!  

Remember: it's on a different feed from The CVG Podcast and Rhythm & Blues Revue, so you will need to subscribe to this feed separately if you're into it!

The game is The One Ring, by Cubicle 7 Games!  The campaign is The Darkening of Mirkwood!


Don't remember much about The One Ring?  Check out the Geek's game review of it here!

Or check out the TOR community forums here!

Here is Tales from Wilderland!


Check out the campaign's Obsidian Portal page!

And now a quick breakdown of our characters:

PC:  Denethor Lightbow
Player:  Nick
Culture:    Elf of Mirkwood
Background:  Diligent Defender

Calling:  Scholar

PC:  The "Boarslayer"
Player:  Monster Mike
Culture:  Woodman of Mirkwood
Background:  The Hound

Calling:  Warden

Remember to show your love and support for the Geek out on Patreon!  Actual play episodes don't count for our Patreon contributions, so every time we play a game, you get a freebie!

Music:  "Wake Up" by Rage Against The Machine