Age of Darkness

Game Master Mothman

No worries Rags, hope you manage to stay dry.

Hey guys,

I'm going to have minimal, if any, opportunities to post between now and the beginning of June (alot of late nights at work coming up, combined with out of town weekend trips in the mountains). I'll drop in if/when I can.

Sorry for the inconvenience... Moth, please NPC Keildrithe as required!

-Thx Moth, I'm actually fine, my parish (county for you non-louisianans) isn't even on the danger list it turns out. And the flood-y areas aren't getting hit quite as bad as they feared since we are technically in a drought, the land is soaking up a lot of what the levies are letting out.

-Twiceborn- I understand ALL about late nights! ;P Take it easy, enjoy your mountainous weekends, that sounds nice! :)

Hey all, sorry if I’ve been a bit flakey or absent lately, had a very busy week last week, a very busy weekend, and now I am dealing with some stuff that is not putting me in a great head-space for gaming right now.

I’ll try to get back into it as soon as I can (very shortly if possible).

S'all good Moth-man.
I've been pretty off-on again (and will continue to be so) with my May/June schedule.

Take care, I'll still be hanging around when you get back. I hope all turns out well! :)

I am just lurking at the moment, keeping up to date on the posts.

I'll try and get back to regular posting as soon as I can, but life is very hectic and tiring at the moment.

Hows things ADMAE? Hope that life is treating you well and that things are beginning to calm a bit.

Just so you know, it looks like Z-Day is back up and running.

Hows things ADMAE? Hope that life is treating you well and that things are beginning to calm a bit.

Just so you know, it looks like Z-Day is back up and running.

Cheers Mothman! You are a star.

Baby is delightful apart from his sleeping patterns, he sleeps for maybe an hour or two maximum and once he wakes up he can't get him self back to sleep. So the nights are very very broken sleep.

I now know why they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture.

Of course every baby is different, but I think mostly it takes a couple of weeks of very tough love (resist going in and picking them up or comforting them when they start crying!) to get them to sleep through the night without crying out.

Hey all,

Heads up regarding my vacation plans. I'm leaving for Iceland on July 20, and won't be back until August 22. I doubt I'll have much time to check my e-mail over there, and even less time to post... so assume I won't be able to post at all (a big part of the trip will be spent trekking in the wilderness)

Iceland, wow, sound exciting! Have a great trip!

Iceland, wow, sound exciting! Have a great trip!

Thanks, I'm sure I will!

Anyone else have vacation plans this summer?

Well, some of us are in the wrong hemisphere – we’re in the coldest part of winter right now in Sydney! Summer starts in December for us.

Not sure if we’ll go away anywhere this year, our daughter will have just turned 1 by then, it’s kind of an awkward age to travel. We were thinking of heading up north (Queensland), but not sure at this stage.

I remember holidays....... they are a fun distant memory.

Iceland, sounds super, lets hope no erupting volcanoes interrupt your plans.

I remember holidays....... they are a fun distant memory.

Iceland, sounds super, lets hope no erupting volcanoes interrupt your plans.

Knocking on lots of wood! An underground volcano recently ruined a southern stretch of the ring road, but at least it hasn't spewed tons of ash into the air.

Vacations. I remember them. Fondly. And vaguely.
Not going anywhere this summer. Can't afford to. And the last 2 weeks of straight rain has made my little backyard temp pool useless! Grrr.
Hope everyone else is having better luck than I am! :)

On another note. I don't check these threads nearly often enough! ;P

Re-dot! :)

Re-Re-dot?!?

Where o where have my little dots gone?,... ;P

Dot

Re-Re-Re-dot.
<sigh>
;)

BTW, Just letting everyone know. This week snuck up on me, and it's going to be BUSY. Very good chance of no communication on most days through Sunday. Sorry. I'll try to keep up with reading, but posting will be minimal. Thanks.

I'm back! (To my normal level of insanity at least)

I'll catch up ASAP!

Thanks!

Just a reminder, we are using the Pathfinder slow experience progression.

Keildrithe and Nicolai are 5th level and are on 23,740 experience points (taken from Keildrithe's character sheet).

Alton, Kajetan and Laithe are 4th level and are on about 17,400 experience points (I think, taken from Laithe's).

Moth:

A knowledge, local check might reveal some information about ‘gypsies’.

By the way, is anyone offended by the use of that term? I’ve never known it to be a derogatory word in and of itself, though like any word I’m sure it can be used in a derogatory fashion. However I read a post recently on Paizo where someone implied that it was an inherently derogatory term.

I can understand how some might view the term as inherently derogatory--especially the automatic association between the term 'gypsy' and thievery. But I personally am not offended by your use of the term in the way you have, and I am also very comfortable with controversial ideas, prejudices and even racism appearing in the game. The real world is ugly, and I like my fantasy worlds just as ugly and complex. Of course, if someone else in the group is offended by the use of the term, then by all means, try to find something that they consider more appropriate. But if no one objects, then I would suggest you keep things as they are...

??? Offended? Really?
I guess maybe what TB said. I can see how (MAYBE) those descended from gypsies might take offense at the automatic association between gypsies and thievery. But then again, most people must admit that (most, not all) stereotypes became so because at some point in the past there was some truth to it? ;P

Meh, I'm tired, rambling more than usual. Certainly not offended, and don't mean to offend anyone else! :)

It's all good I think. Carry on! :D

Now I can see ‘thieving gypsies’ being very much a derogatory term!

I’ve always thought of gypsy as being a somewhat generic term for a group of nomadic people, including, but not limited to the Romany people. I know that it is often used specifically to refer to the Romany, but in this way I wouldn’t have thought it any more offensive than calling an Australian a Skip, a Canadian a Canuck or an American a Yank – which is to say that while they might be used offensively, or an individual might choose to take offense to them, they are not offensive terms in and of themselves (I don't think).

Now I can see ‘thieving gypsies’ being very much a derogatory term!

I’ve always thought of gypsy as being a somewhat generic term for a group of nomadic people, including, but not limited to the Romany people. I know that it is often used specifically to refer to the Romany, but in this way I wouldn’t have thought it any more offensive than calling an Australian a Skip, a Canadian a Canuck or an American a Yank – which is to say that while they might be used offensively, or an individual might choose to take offense to them, they are not offensive terms in and of themselves (I don't think).

Seems like a reasonable analysis to me. I'm with the mighty Rags. Carry on...

'The Mighty Rags?' Hm. I like it! ;P

See, I like your analysis much better than my ramblings! :)

Touching base,

Have a busy work schedule coming up, AND a lot family drama (Mostly health issues)
SO, I'm keeping up for now, but If I vanish it's not intentional.
Sorry in advance if it happens! :)

Thank you,

Rags,

Just wanted to say that I thought Nicolai's "farewell Pharris" post was very powerful. Wow... well done!

Heh. Thanks TB, I appreciate that!
Not TOO shabby, considering I finished it at 1am! ;P

I was trying to get across a few things, without making him sound like a romantic fop or a complete git! I guess all that reading/research I am doing finally paid off! ;)

But my pointy wizard's hat is off, once more, to you!
Either I simply do NOT listen to enough music, or I am just seriously lacking in talent (or both!) but once again, a fitting and touching end to a chapter. Well done mr bard, well done! <golf clap!> :)

AND as long as we're handing out kudos, golf claps for everybody! Another chapter of excellent role-playing all around! My personal fave of the moment, Kajetan peeing his robes for an epic failure on a will save! (And STILL getting back into the action faster than anyone else who failed that save!) ;)

SPeaking as a guy with a home office that has 5 FULL bookshelves in it,...
You cannot buy stuff this good! Thanks again for letting me join when you did! :D

Yes, good roleplaying all, it continues to be a joy and an honour to GM for you all.

I hope you enjoyed this last episode, I modified it from an old (2nd edition era) Dungeon magazine adventure, I thought it fit the theme of this campaign quite well. I hope it didn’t feel too much like you were being led by the nose and / or chasing your own tails ... had you examined the scriptorium a little earlier in proceedings you might have found some clues to Abel’s targets and been able to take him on sooner ... although fighting him without his primary target being an NPC would have been a daunting and difficult process!

Naw, I thought it was cool.
Although, in hindsight, I DO remember wanting to investigate Abel's grave site. And NOW I see that would probably have been a BIG help! ;P

Modified from an old Dungeon adventure? Cool. THIS is one reason I am such a packrat. You never know when something will come in handy! :D

Surprisingly I didn’t even need to modify it all that much – I really just updated the stats of the undead Abel and a couple of the monks and tweaked a few other things.

Yup, investigating the grave site would probably have given you a big hint!

Heh. Thanks TB, I appreciate that!

Not TOO shabby, considering I finished it at 1am! ;P

I was trying to get across a few things, without making him sound like a romantic fop or a complete git! I guess all that reading/research I am doing finally paid off! ;)

Nicolai took the high road and was the better man towards Pharris. Keildrithe failed miserably (especially in the interaction that too place between spoilers) in that regard.

But my pointy wizard's hat is off, once more, to you!

Either I simply do NOT listen to enough music, or I am just seriously lacking in talent (or both!) but once again, a fitting and touching end to a chapter. Well done mr bard, well done! <golf clap!> :)

Thanks for the kind words--but all I've done is mastered the art of plagiarism. Truth is, I have a vast collection of music, but not much that is recent. I certainly don't follow the trends. Jeff Martin is a Canadian singer, better known as the lead vocalist and guitar player for The Tea Party (not to be confused with the American right wing political movement... I doubt the band has right wing political leanings). The Tea Party also had a period of success in Australia, if I'm not mistaken.

It is fun to sift through my CDs looking for the right "end songs," though.

AND as long as we're handing out kudos, golf claps for everybody! Another chapter of excellent role-playing all around! My personal fave of the moment, Kajetan peeing his robes for an epic failure on a will save! (And STILL getting back into the action faster than anyone else who failed that save!) ;)

And I still get a big smile whenever I read about Kajetan's struggles with his "evil backpack." Great personality trait.

SPeaking as a guy with a home office that has 5 FULL bookshelves in it,...
You cannot buy stuff this good! Thanks again for letting me join when you did! :D

Thank you for being a part of it! I really admire the amount of description/detail you put into your posts.

But kudos to all for another great chapter! More than 4.5 years and we're still going strong!

Yes, good roleplaying all, it continues to be a joy and an honour to GM for you all.

I hope you enjoyed this last episode, I modified it from an old (2nd edition era) Dungeon magazine adventure, I thought it fit the theme of this campaign quite well. I hope it didn’t feel too much like you were being led by the nose and / or chasing your own tails ... had you examined the scriptorium a little earlier in proceedings you might have found some clues to Abel’s targets and been able to take him on sooner ... although fighting him without his primary target being an NPC would have been a daunting and difficult process!

Thank you, Moth, for all the time and energy you've put into being a DM for this fabulous game.

I recognized the adventure, because I own the issue in question and also thought at some point of running the adventure in one of my campaigns. The setting/tone were very original, and I really liked the more realistic feel and low-magic investigative aspect of the adventure. Probably one of the better scenarios published in Dungeon, regardless of edition. Lucky for you, I did not remember the plot, characters, etc.

I remember Keildrithe and Kaj visiting the library, and I think we had the intention of visiting the scriptorium, but for some unknown reason ended up not doing so... grrrr...

Forgot to say...

Moth, the campaign has been great. And just so you know, the one chapter I enjoyed the least was the exploration of that barrow beneath the ruined tower. I think our PCs shine in the wilderness, in urban areas, and in scenarios that emphasize roleplaying and investigation. The dungeon that took us about a year in real time to explore just felt a little tedious to me after a while. Everything else has been top notch. Not to say that a little bit of dungeon action now and again is bad, but overall... I prefer the greater range of options that PCs can pursue outside of dungeons. The great outdoors and urban or even rural environments seem better suited to the "fleeing the Inquisition" theme.

That having been said... others may feel differently?

I’m only familiar with The Tea Party’s earlier work (to be honest I didn’t know they were still making music), but their song A Certain Slant of Light is one of my all time favourite songs.

Yeah, that dungeon took far too long to complete, the funny thing was it really wasn’t an integral part of the campaign, I wasn’t even sure you were going to explore it. And would have been happy enough for you to skip it.

I can certainly steer clear of dungeons in future; I have some ideas of adventures and scenarios I want to run going forward in this game, I don’t think any of them would include large dungeons (one I can think of might have a cavern complex, but I can probably make it more of a narrative exploration and less of a grind. Another I was thinking of doing involves a ‘haunted’ castle, but that should have a greater social aspect than an ancient barrow would).

I’m only familiar with The Tea Party’s earlier work (to be honest I didn’t know they were still making music), but their song A Certain Slant of Light is one of my all time favourite songs.

They broke up a few years ago... but word is they're getting back together. I have mixed feelings about that -- I was actually okay with them splitting up rather than sinking too deeply in mediocrity (I felt their last album, "Seven Circles", was very weak). Hopefully, the time apart will have revitalized their creative juices... and hopefully they'll stay away from Bob Rock as producer (I would say his hand on "Seven Circles" contributed to their fall into mediocrity).

Yes, "A Certain Slant of Light" is a great song. Their best album, IMO, is probably "The Edges of Twilight."

Yeah, that dungeon took far too long to complete, the funny thing was it really wasn’t an integral part of the campaign, I wasn’t even sure you were going to explore it. And would have been happy enough for you to skip it.

That's a mistake I made a few times in my current tabletop campaign. Provided a few hooks to avoid railroading, which led to long tangents that I quickly regretted.

Oh well, live and learn!

I can certainly steer clear of dungeons in future; I have some ideas of adventures and scenarios I want to run going forward in this game, I don’t think any of them would include large dungeons (one I can think of might have a cavern complex, but I can probably make it more of a narrative exploration and less of a grind. Another I was thinking of doing involves a ‘haunted’ castle, but that should have a greater social aspect than an ancient barrow would).

You have my complete trust! I have no doubt that whatever you will put out of your hat will be great! I'm pretty sure we have one of the best DMs on these boards, if not the best DM. Wish I could attend one of your real life sessions! ;-)

And just in case some of you might be interested in seeing my campaign journal, here's the link. We often post between sessions, at the end of session summaries, to keep story and momentum going.

Hear hear! KUdos to the DM, without whom this would all just be a writing exercise.

Anyone else up for another 4.5 years worth? :D

Hm. Now that you mention it, the Barrow DID seem to drag on a bit. AS players we probably could have helped that along a bit too. But once you get into a habit of RP'ing and long-posting, writing shortcuts somehow seems so,... cheating. ;P

And yeah, our particular group does seem better suited for the city/urban/rp encounter as opposed to dungeon-delving.

BUT, we did show that we can kick undead bootie with the best of them too! ;)

PLEASE keep up the good work. It is greatly appreciated on this end! :D

And Thank you in advance! ;)

Thanks for the kind words Twiceborn. I’m not sure how true they are from an objective point of view – I think there are a lot of really excellent GMs running pbp games on these boards, certainly there are people about who are strong in areas that I’m not so good at. Heathansson for example has this really great laid back / improvised / comedic / larger than life GMing style that would be really great for a campaign I have wanted to run, but don’t think I could do it justice. Aubrey puts together these fantastic and evocative descriptions that I work hard to try to match, and they both come up with some really interesting combat encounters that I am frequently inspired to emulate in part or whole.

I think in many ways the pbp format makes me a better GM than I am in a real life situation. I enjoy GMing, and I think I do a decent job in RL, but I find it a lot easier to roll with the unexpected and put together interesting descriptions in pbp.

And just in case some of you might be interested in seeing my campaign journal, here's the link. We often post between sessions, at the end of session summaries, to keep story and momentum going.

Whoa, that is an impressive looking campaign journal. Who does the photography? And some of the artwork looks ‘home-grown’, do you or someone in your group draw them? Very cool.

Thanks Rags. Hopefully you guys ARE up for another 4 or 5 years worth! ‘Cos I still have (more than) a few ideas I want to try out with this one.

I think I still have a lot to learn in keeping up the pace from a GM perspective when it comes to pbp dungeon crawls.

Wow. That IS cool!
Nice work.
Thanks for the link.

And just in case some of you might be interested in seeing my campaign journal, here's the link. We often post between sessions, at the end of session summaries, to keep story and momentum going.

It is not nearly as visually impressive as Twiceborn’s journal (and probably lacks in the prose as well), but if anyone is interested I post a journal for the campaign I am a player (and occasional guest GM) in here.

The session summaries are a group effort, though I tend to be a bit more diligent at writing them than some of the other guys, probably about half were written partially or entirely by me.

The campaign is a highly HIGHLY modified version of The Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign ... as we progress we have deviated further and further from the storyline and events from the books.

Thanks Rags. Hopefully you guys ARE up for another 4 or 5 years worth! ‘Cos I still have (more than) a few ideas I want to try out with this one.

I think I still have a lot to learn in keeping up the pace from a GM perspective when it comes to pbp dungeon crawls.

YOu are more than welcome. :)

And yeah, don;t we all? ;P

I think your doing just fine. I think we can learn from this chapter, and next time we'll all be better prepared to help you- help us through the longer parts of an exploration scene. ;D

And, really? I know I joined late, but has it been 4.5 years? That's very cool. Gratz! I'm definitely on board for another 4+! Bring on the adventure! ;D

Pretty much, game started April 2007.

TwiceBorn wrote:

And just in case some of you might be interested in seeing my campaign journal, here's the link. We often post between sessions, at the end of session summaries, to keep story and momentum going.

Whoa, that is an impressive looking campaign journal. Who does the photography? And some of the artwork looks ‘home-grown’, do you or someone in your group draw them? Very cool.

Thanks - glad you like it! The photography (minis and the few real world scenery shots) are mine. All other artwork is scanned from D&D/Pathfinder/d20 sourcebooks I own--mainly the Fantasy Flight Games Midnight line (which is the campaign were playing in).