Gaming Report
We got off a little slowly due to an accident causing horrendous traffic, but that was fortuitous on our side because I'd lapsed out on finishing the cards so Brad was still printing at the last minute. (*coff*-myfault-*coff*)
I wasn't present for the entire game, but it played out to a satisfactory conclusion, weaving multiple options together in an intricate solution that neither of us could have foreseen, which is exactly what you want from players. One of the great things about the playtest is that if Brad needs to run those pre-gens as NPCs in the next run, he has gotten all sorts of great referents by using how they were played by tavella and amberley, which should add a lot of depth in a module with a lot of NPCs and moving parts. I think that the nonmagical pre-gen gets to have a lot to do even if someone is playing a "face" mage as chrisber was, because mages tend to ignore non-mages not to mention common sense. He ensures that there is someone sensible and social around! The "fire brat" as we lovingly refer to her is even funnier when it was developed that she badly wants to hug animals who are all scared away by her blatant gift... so she's naturally going to be drawn to Bjornaer, familiars, and shapeshifters if played as an NPC.
This module has tons of moving parts, but Brad's actually great for keeping that in his head. I've chatted with him about making it available as a free download, but that's problematic as some of the source plots are rooted in supplements from as early as 2nd edition that he's brought forward into 5th, in some cases rewriting NPCs from those supplements directly. Fair use for a module but iffy as far as copyright goes for making available for download. Ah well! I might put the art up for download as it's all fair game for non-commercial use.
We are also not sure that a module of this complexity would be as appealing to most GMs as it requires levels of prep that pretty much only Brad ever wants to do; he has a prep style which is very different from most people in that he tends to run his own characters/groups through a module in different ways. It's very simulationist and I haven't ever encountered anyone else who preps that way, though *some* people do track every single item introduced into their campaigns down to the last coin.
tamago and Teo kindly helped me cut up and portion (portion-only in Teo's case) the overly vast (as usual) quantity of snacks I got, and we somehow still had room for dinner, which was at Mobo Sushi, yum! I didn't get to spend as much time up as I would have liked because I actually paced myself for once, going to lie down and nap whenever I started feeling particularly fatigued, and as a result I got to go out to dinner with everyone because I hadn't pushed myself into an evening-long crash. On the down side I didn't get to discuss books with Tamago as I had wanted to and then ferret-brained away from, but I had a great time nonetheless.
After dinner I got a look at Do: Pilgrim's of the Flying Temple, which I found utterly charming. I didn't read it in-depth but I love the children's book illustrative style, with evocative portraits and situations, the shift from illustration to paper cut-outs during the mechanics of play section, and all sorts of other great layout tricks that make it both fun to leaf through and provide anchors for finding appropriate sections later. Given my cognitive issues with content that shares illustrations and text, I have to say that the layout on this book was brilliant; instead of cluttering my mind and overloading me, I found myself getting hooked into text by the design itself. I didn't read them all in-depth, but the sample letters I read were all very funny and full of great hooks. The text was all very accessible too. I can't give a full review because I'm still being very strict about not getting games I'm not playing during our de-cluttering project, but it definitely gets a thumbs up on readability, cuteness, inclusiveness, child-friendly, simplicity, and fun. I think it would make a lovely starter game for kids and it looks rich enough to be fun for all-adult groups as well.
Note to self: do this whole "rest proactively" thing again, it was very nice to have some out-time with friends as well as the in-time, and I felt a lot better at the end of the day thanks to the rest breaks; I was thrashed but not completely out of it, and I have bounced back better than usual today.
It was really, really, nice having people over and we have to do it again!
I wasn't present for the entire game, but it played out to a satisfactory conclusion, weaving multiple options together in an intricate solution that neither of us could have foreseen, which is exactly what you want from players. One of the great things about the playtest is that if Brad needs to run those pre-gens as NPCs in the next run, he has gotten all sorts of great referents by using how they were played by tavella and amberley, which should add a lot of depth in a module with a lot of NPCs and moving parts. I think that the nonmagical pre-gen gets to have a lot to do even if someone is playing a "face" mage as chrisber was, because mages tend to ignore non-mages not to mention common sense. He ensures that there is someone sensible and social around! The "fire brat" as we lovingly refer to her is even funnier when it was developed that she badly wants to hug animals who are all scared away by her blatant gift... so she's naturally going to be drawn to Bjornaer, familiars, and shapeshifters if played as an NPC.
This module has tons of moving parts, but Brad's actually great for keeping that in his head. I've chatted with him about making it available as a free download, but that's problematic as some of the source plots are rooted in supplements from as early as 2nd edition that he's brought forward into 5th, in some cases rewriting NPCs from those supplements directly. Fair use for a module but iffy as far as copyright goes for making available for download. Ah well! I might put the art up for download as it's all fair game for non-commercial use.
We are also not sure that a module of this complexity would be as appealing to most GMs as it requires levels of prep that pretty much only Brad ever wants to do; he has a prep style which is very different from most people in that he tends to run his own characters/groups through a module in different ways. It's very simulationist and I haven't ever encountered anyone else who preps that way, though *some* people do track every single item introduced into their campaigns down to the last coin.
tamago and Teo kindly helped me cut up and portion (portion-only in Teo's case) the overly vast (as usual) quantity of snacks I got, and we somehow still had room for dinner, which was at Mobo Sushi, yum! I didn't get to spend as much time up as I would have liked because I actually paced myself for once, going to lie down and nap whenever I started feeling particularly fatigued, and as a result I got to go out to dinner with everyone because I hadn't pushed myself into an evening-long crash. On the down side I didn't get to discuss books with Tamago as I had wanted to and then ferret-brained away from, but I had a great time nonetheless.
After dinner I got a look at Do: Pilgrim's of the Flying Temple, which I found utterly charming. I didn't read it in-depth but I love the children's book illustrative style, with evocative portraits and situations, the shift from illustration to paper cut-outs during the mechanics of play section, and all sorts of other great layout tricks that make it both fun to leaf through and provide anchors for finding appropriate sections later. Given my cognitive issues with content that shares illustrations and text, I have to say that the layout on this book was brilliant; instead of cluttering my mind and overloading me, I found myself getting hooked into text by the design itself. I didn't read them all in-depth, but the sample letters I read were all very funny and full of great hooks. The text was all very accessible too. I can't give a full review because I'm still being very strict about not getting games I'm not playing during our de-cluttering project, but it definitely gets a thumbs up on readability, cuteness, inclusiveness, child-friendly, simplicity, and fun. I think it would make a lovely starter game for kids and it looks rich enough to be fun for all-adult groups as well.
Note to self: do this whole "rest proactively" thing again, it was very nice to have some out-time with friends as well as the in-time, and I felt a lot better at the end of the day thanks to the rest breaks; I was thrashed but not completely out of it, and I have bounced back better than usual today.
It was really, really, nice having people over and we have to do it again!