Darkmore Besieged – Overthrow the Baroness!
Here are the games I am running at this year’s Gen Con.
As with my previous post Darkmore will my biggest gaming event to date. A huge adventure with lots of action and role playing combined.
It is not one to be missed.
I hope to see you in Indy!
J
This year at Gen Con 2014 I will be running what will be my biggest adventure to date. Back in 2010 when I first ran Darkmoor besieged It was kind of a mess. A fun mess, but a mess nonetheless. Three mini campaigns with 10 people each leading to a large scale assault on the Baroness’ keep. It was a lot of fun and almost a 10 hour game. However it was all over the place. No real rhyme or reason.
Over the last few years I have been tweaking it and fleshing out some of the side missions. My friend Aaron added some really good ideas and helped me get as sense of bringing all together instead of the random chaos that it was in its original form. This year it should be quite something to experience
Brief synapsis of what I will be running at Gen Con
Darkmoor Besieged
Baroness Von Darkmoor is a tyrant. She runs her husbands Barony with ruthless efficiency. Her husband was once a respected and powerful earth magicka, now he is simply a figurehead. Terrified of his wife and unable to rise up against her he holds up in his study day in and day out.
The missions will involve taking advantage of her being at her much less guarded Lower Barony Keep.
Players will be broke up into 3 groups after choosing one of 6 missions. Each missions will have a benefit to their final mission of taking the Baroness at her keep. Each mission will also have a consequence to not doing it, making the final mission harder. Players will have to choose which ones they want to do and what they want to skip.
I will be having 3 guest GMs/ NPC runners to help me tell and control the overall story.
These missions will be run by the GM’s with me running the story and adding “complications”
After a set amount of time the group will come together to start the main siege. This will be whether they completed their side mission or not.
The final siege will be an epic battle to take the Baroness and restore the rightful ruler.
This should be a fantastic adventure and I hope its a game you are considering playing this year.
See you in Indy
Ta
J
I have never had anything sap my creativity and drive more than MTG. The last two years I played all the time while owning the shop, I didn’t work on Nexus hardly at all. To play it becomes all consuming. Deck building, deck creation, new sets every three months to make changes with your deck. I had to put it aside. It can take over your life.
After just a week of not playing, watching videos, or caring about Born of the Gods, I have completed two new classes for Into the Nexus, I have sketched out and blueprinted a new campaign for Gen Con, and I have actually got work done around my house.
I think Magic is a fine game and I do enjoy playing it. I have 5 Commander/EDH decks and still enjoy that format. I just think trying to keep up with what is new in Standard and what new card is changing the Legacy format is just not for me anymore.
There are more important things that need my focus and drive. The silly little cardboard game will have to not be one of my spinning plates.
Sorry for not being entirely on topic. I hope my dozen readers can forgive the slight variance from Nexus Talk.
Ta
J
When I developed Into the Nexus I had the the magic system figured out and not much else. I borrowed from basic D&D classes for everything but Magic users and went from there. As ITN became more popular at conventions and gaming events I knew I would need to make the other classes as rich and different as I did the Magicka. I saw each of them in my head and knew how I wanted them to interact with the worlds but couldn’t get the game mechanics to look right when writing them up. I had a friend who is a self professed rules lawyer look at my designs and help me with the mechanics. So finally the rest of the characters are starting to be as fleshed out as the Magickas.
I have the following classes done with their new abilities and skills instead of just using basic D&D/Pathfinder copies
Walker – Loner who uses what she can find and scavenge to her benefit. Think MacGyver without that pesky “No Kill” clause.
Knave – Not just a rogue rip-off. New skills and abilities to make them perfect at reading other people. They can see what you are going to do before you do it and use that knowledge to either get away or hit you first.
Kir – Not your kung-fu fighting monk, more of a proselytizer of the the faith. He inspires all around him with his calling. And his calling is Death.
That’s it for now.
More to come as I work on the other classes.
Ta
J
Once again I will be running Into the Nexus at Gen Con.
This year will be two games
Slave ship Revolt
and Darkmore Besieged
The first is a tried an true game that pits players again themselves and NPC’s Escape the ship before it reaches port or forever be enslaved! Or Dead, Or trapped with the dwarves, or encased in a huge wooden ball.
The second will be a massive undertaking.
10 hours long! 3 DM’s running mini missions with me running the DM’s until you all join back up for a huge castle onslaught. There will be Espionage, Artifact seeking, soldier slaughtering, Loyalty turning, Jailbreaking and Dragon stealing. All before you actually start the siege! Did I mention your final foe is a shoot fireballs first ask questions second kind of person?
Hope to see you there
Ta
J
Gen Con 2013 has come and gone and as tradition stipulates I am here with a summation.
I was scheduled for 3 games. Slave Ship Revolt, Mad Monk, and Lost Prince. Sadly I did not have enough people show up for Lost Prince so I had to cancel it. In retrospect I believe next year I will not schedule a 10 hour game for the last night of the con as most people have started to wind down.
This Year I also ran Firefly for Margaret Weis Productions. You should check it out if you are at all a Firefly fan. http://www.margaretweis.com/
Game One
Slave Ship Revolt.
As always this is a great deal of fun. I must confess I need to tweak the numbers a bit to get a good flow but I was only overloaded a bit.
Last year I had some return players play the ships crew for a slight PvP experience and the results were very good so I did the same thing this year with the same return players. They played the crew as Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder and Krang. They added some Role Playing and interaction that would not be the same if I was playing all the characters. Hands down the person playing the ships captain played his part perfectly, drunk, but perfectly.
This group picked up the game plan immediately and started into the action. They immediately attempted to get free and make their escape. The mages as always causes more havoc than help but they still did a fair job.
Highlights.
1:47 minutes of gameplay before they set the ship on fire. A new record.
Water Magicka controlling the ship’s water supply to drown the captain. Just as he had brokered a peace deal.
Many skydiving attempts. Some worked others did not.
Ships Magicka pulling a Maverick and flipping the ship upside down and dumping the people onto the burning ship below.
Fire Magicka summoning a Red Dragon and being dominated into trying to kill the crew.
Having a knave fail 5 times to remove a buckle.
There were many more but these were the highlights of that night’s game. We played from 8 PM until almost 3 AM.
(The Red Pencil is the 6′ wall of fire that was apparently needed to escape.) (Yes, that is a unicorn)
Game Two
The Mad Monk.
Our heros were charged with figuring out the source of all the strange phenomena emanating from an old Kir monastery. They packed their gear, mounted the dragon, and flew as close as they could to the monastery.
They soon discovered that the forest surrounding the place was infested with many a strange creature. Some benign others were a bit more murdery. None as much as our crew. They dispatched all encounters with flair and savagery. Upon reaching the fortress they discovered (some of them the hard way) that they place was trapped with Rune Sigla and was nigh impenetrable. The two Earth Magicka made their own entrance just as the the minion of the Mad Monk made his first appearance. The group was separated and in chaos. The Sentient Dire Bear that was the result of last year’s failed mission to save a dying island had been rescued and experimented on. And he was angry. He summoned his own legion of Dire Bears to tear through our band of misfits. Just as he was about to finish them off. His Master appeared. He was angrier. A Mensch who had tapped into the secret of the Rune Sigla and gone mad for his troubles began showing them what true power was. Until he was stabbed repeatedly by a 12 year old boy. He dominated them and destroyed most of the group. The rest fled.
One of my gaming weaknesses is game CR. I either make it too easy or way too hard. I will scale it back next year. In retrospect they never could have won this.
Highlights.
Two of the Earth Magicka joining their minds for a Magicka Possibility Bonus. This also made it so they couldn’t distinguish whose thoughts were whose. so they had to do everything as one. Wonder Twin powers activate
Upon walking into a camp of BugBears they immediately begin attacking them and blowing them up with fireballs. No warning, No sign of aggression from the bugbears. Just BOOM
Two summoned elementals that were dominated, made bigger, then lost the domination. Then came the pain.
A failed earth spell meant to shield them from falling trees that instead put them right up into the path of the destruction.
The skin being ripped off The Wonder Twins when they tried to de-ink the Monk’s Tattoos.
Summoning a girl bear to distract the raging Dire Bear.
Having to move the game not once but twice because of table scheduling mishaps
I may be missing a few because by the end I was exhausted.
We gamed from 6 PM to 3:30 AM
(We are supposed to be up here….right?) (Oh dear lord what is that flying towards us)
All in all a good time as always.
As I tweak and test Into the Nexus I make the games smaller and less scope. This way I can see the more subtle problems in the gaming system.
Next year will be more focused on interactions with PC’s and NPCs as opposed to all joining to kill the Big Bad.
Next year they will have to find the Prince.
Also Thank You to the players who had such a good time they went and told Margaret Weis about it. That makes me feel great and I appreciate it.
Till next time
Ta
J
I am finishing up the last of the rules section for Into the Nexus. It is by far the hardest part I have had to do. I can’t seem to make it so it isn’t overly complicated. The Magicka which is the what I know many people love about the systems uses the Wave for their power and I need to make sure it is in there. I just am stuck on how to make it so people are not overly confused or wanting to stab me with their D4. (Tiny stabs I admin but they could break skin).
I know it needs to be in there but it still hasn’t hit me on how to implement it to a usable level.
Two of the three games I am running at Gen Con will have this new mechanic in place. I know how to run it in my head, just not on the page.
Hopefully it will come to me so I can finally have all the rules down and finished the basic pages and have a fully working first draft.
Side Note
I am running 3 Firefly Games for Margaret Weis Productions at Gen Con as well as my own game. I should be nice an worn out by the end of the day Sunday.
All for now
Ta
J
So as I continue to polish and get Into the Nexus ready for another awesome year at Gen Con something fun popped up.
I have been given the opportunity to run the new, never before seen Firefly RPG for Margaret Weis Productions.
I will now be running 6 games at Gen Con
6
If you like Firefly and always wanted to be Wash, or just like playing games I run, you should sign up for some of my games
Here are the Gen Con Codes
RPG1352449
RPG1352450
RPG1352454
I am very excited to be able to show off this fantastic product for them and to return to the Firefly Universe.
See everyone who is playing in two weeks!
Ta
J
I thought I would blog about some gaming adventures that I run. This will let me keep a record of how games progress as well as tell some funny tales that occur during gaming sessions. So Saturday I ran the second of my Dungeon in the Dungeon adventures. I am running a modified version of the Citadel of Pain Module. Only modification was that it fit the Into the Nexus rules.
Our….”Heroes”
They have all been sentenced to the Citadel for various crimes. Their only pardon comes from escape.
Goog’el (I couldn’t bear to tell the player that in Elvish his name mean Captain Goog.)
Kir Monk. Sentenced for the mass genocide of 750,000 people. (24% of the world BTW)
Alvin Simon Theodore III Human Warrior. Sentenced for marrying outside his race
Tyrone Theodore-Jackson (Husband to Alvin) Elven Knave. Sentenced for marrying outside his race. (And 8 separate escapes after being captured)
Aaron the Inept Human Water Magicka. Sentenced for killing 40 nobles in a botched water ritual.
Jason the Pitied. Elven Walker. Falsely sentenced for poaching dragons.
David the Easy(Uni) Elven Knave/Prostitute. Sentenced for over 100 counts of indecency and grand larceny.
Dodrick HammerHome. Dwarven warrior. Sentenced for killing 30 guards in an attempt at the Baron’s life.
Our night begins with our group minus the married couple escaping a riotous crown after opening a long unused door. They enter what used to be a bath room centuries ago when this was a stadium. After seeing they are locked in they deduce that the large turnstiles in the room must be used to open the door at the other end of the room. Many,many strength checks later, they have opened the door to a satisfying THUMP that shakes the room. They procede into what used to be a bathhouse but now seems to be used for the discarding of human/humanoid body parts. The room is coated in blood and gore. The door to the east of them is open about 36 inches and instead of opening yet another door to a loud THUMP, they scoot under it and are now in a small audience chamber.
Pay attention to this room because they never leave it for more than 5 minutes. in 4 hours of game play they can’t get out of this room.
In this chamber they discover the Theodores. A married couple who are hanging from chains from the ceiling and are bickering without signs of stopping. Also in this room is a large hourglass with about 5 minutes left on it. Goog’el begins to cut Alvin down but keeps getting insulted about the speed in which he is doing it. He decided that Tyrone can be the first (and maybe only) one to cut down. The rest of the group seems to be obsessed with what the hourglass means and what happens when it is empty.
Alvin and Tyrone are freed just as the glass runs out. A clanging of steel and footsteps is heard coming from the hallway to the north.
Our group runs south. Into a group of plated and armed Minotaurs.
They turn and run north again and see a large group of huge green creatures coming into the room. They then slide back under the door to the room of Gore and Bloodiness figuring both sets of creatures are too big to follow. Goog’el is the last under the door and he gets to see the green creatures explode the head of a minotaur with one solid hit. The group then hear sounds of a fight for about 15 seconds then hear squishing sounds. They feel it is safe to leave the room after the clanging steel sound heads back north.
They exit back into the Audience Chamber (Remember this room) and again proceed south. They get into a room with a huge turnstile in it and a closed granite door to the west and a strange wall to the east. They realize they are not strong enough to turn the turnstile and half the group goes to try and pry open the closed door while the other half investigates the strange wall.
The wall appears to be a liquid that is magickally being made into a wall or door of some sort. Aaron decides to show everyone why he has his name and goes to dispel the magic holding the door together.
He does not succeed.
He does however make the wall solid to the point he almost got his hand caught. There is a large sound of alarm on the other side as this was not done subtly.
Our other adventures have decided that math and leverage is for wussies and are trying to chop their way through the granite door. With all the noise they were making hacking and bashing they didn’t notice what was going on on the other side of the room.
Aaron then makes his only successful spell of the evening, and, removes the wall he solidified completely.
What lies on the other side are five minotaurs. Three archers and two with long swords. The archers let fly as soon as they seen enemies and Tyrone takes an arrow to the chest. This causes the bashing crew to turn around and see.. hey look… large enemies that are very very angry. We know how to deal with this.
They run to the north towards the room of gore again. (Their belief was if they caused enough noise the green creatures would again come and save them)
With one exception
David (Uni) the Knave, decides to run and stab the 8ft tall plated Mintour with his daggar. This worked exactly as you think it did and he then discovered he was in the room alone with them. He turned to run and was sliced up the back by the creature he just tried to poke.
They make it to the room of blood and try to figure out their plan when the door that was only open about 3ft starts to open the rest of the way. They quickly choose to turn the wheels on the wall hoping this would shut the door like the turnstiles opened them. They however were in a bath house. These wheels brought in the water that is used to clean the room, in a violent torrent. All but 2 fail their reflex and are swept back into the audience chamber towards the minotaurs.
Aaron steps forward to save the day!
He did not have write access to the day and therefore could not save it.
He casts a spell to freeze the water therefore trapping the minotaurs. And everyone else in 3ft of ice.
Some were laying down.
To hell with them… cast away.
He “Succeeds”
Most of the group is now trapped in ice with water still rushing into the room.
Jason was swept directly into the minotaurs and is now frozen 12 inches front of them. Tyrone is on his back at their feet and Uni made it to the door just in time to be ripped away from it again by the water and slammed into the stairs of the audience chamber.
The water is quickly melting the ice as it runs over it. Alvin gets the idea to shut off the valves and rushes to start closing them. He fails his first strength check and breaks the main shut off valve.
Aaron to the rescue!
And by rescue I mean slaughter of all participants.
He casts a spell to send the water to the north room instead so they are pulled that way instead of towards the almost free minotaurs.
1 IS the loneliest number.
The water comes rushing in at 2x the speed as before. Breaking the grates that were kind of holding it back and slamming everyone out of the now clean and shiny blood room. Everyone is now in the audience chamber either on their back under water or barely standing.
The minotaurs decided to let loose a few arrows just for good measure at the pile of prone bodies that have been rushed into the room.
Tyrone takes another arrow to the chest.
Uni takes one in the back.
Aaron “thinking” quickly decided since he can’t get a spell right he will do one that is the opposite of what he wants to when he fails it will do what he wants.
Magick doesn’t work that way.
He focuses, casts, and almost makes it. (His best roll of the night actually)
Water that had gone into the north room SLAMS into them from behind. Smashing all our heroes (Save for Alvin) down into the floor.
Goog’el is trapped underwater and is unable to stand up.
Dodrick is now enraged and is sloshing towards the Minotaurs in an attempt to slay at least one.
Alvin is weighed down by his breastplate and can only sit up with his head barely above water.
Jason is miraculously standing and unharmed.
Aaron unfortunately is also standing and unharmed.
And we know what this means.
He casts a spell to again freeze JUST the water at and behind the minotaurs to capture them there.
2 is not much better than one.
The water begins to slowly freeze. First becoming ice cold. Then Slush.
Dodrick who has made it to just standing over Tyrone begins to carve an igloo out of the slush to keep from being trapped.
Goog’el who broke his collar bone in the last deluge can’t get standing as the water freezes around him.
Jason realizes that anywhere is better than where they are jumps to safety at the top the audience stairs.
Aaron raises his arms just in time to not have them trapped so he can still cast spells (dammit)
Uni is mostly trapped in about 2ft of ice.
BTW water is still rushing in.
Alvin starts to chip his way out.
Tyrone and Dodrick are trapped under the ice in a cave they made.
Goog’el is encased Han Solo style.
Jason is free and is freeing Uni
and
Aaron chooses to melt the ice. Since he is pure failure at water, lets try fire and see how that goes.
Who wants to guess? Anyone… Anyone….
On the surface nothing….
The minotaurs break themselves out and head back to their barracks feeling that this group will just kill themselves and need no assistance from them.
The group chips and breaks their way out the ice and climb up to see that Jason and Uni have left them.
Goog’el is nowhere to be seen
And they now are forced to go north.
Unknown to them, below the ice.
Goog’el is now in an ice water tomb………
After 5 hours of game play.
This group made it
105 ft
2 players left on their own and one is drowning.
…. A good night was had by all.
That is all for this gaming session. More to come as more session happen this summer.
Ta
J
Misdirected Awesome Games. 