So, The Grand Ol' Weekend...
Oooh, so much to pack into such a small amount of time. Where to begin? I suppose I should begin by saying that - as always I wish I had brought my camera with me. But we can't change the past...so instead I'll tell you what happened.
Also - I need contact details for everyone. If You know I'm missing someone - send em on through (or else I can't throw ideas for new campaigns and whatnots around)
Friday I left work and headed for the station just a little bit before 5. I was really lucky, and made it to Waterloo (with my ticket) quickly so I caught the 5:30 train \o/. Especially good as it meant I got to Poole at about 7:30 instead of stupid-o'clock. drux was waiting there to meet me with big hugs, and led me over to Asda so we could pick up supplies.
After nearly forgetting to take my Rum out of the store with me (Silly Lex!), we went a round-a-bout-convaluted-but-scenic-route back to drux's place.
Poole park is very nice - for comparison (for ye London folk) its similar to the park over by Mudchutes, but bigger (I think). Pretty cool anyway. It wasn't a long walk for us to get to the house, and soon afterwards there was the smell of cooking pizza filling the air. Loads of people were there, as Duane seemed to be running a campaign for the coalition et al. While they were doing that, I drank rum, ate pizza, and chatted to Ryan about WoW, Uni.... all kinds of crap that came into my head. I really hope I didn't bore him too much, but he did say I'm the only one to have been able to get him to *stop* playing WoW willingly to talk about something with someone. I think there was a compliment in there somewhere....
I texted Kat a little too Friday Evening, but I have the horrible impression that I'm becoming someone I don't want to be and I'm really scared as to what will happen because of it. This is one point in my life where my optimism is completely at odds with both my heart and my head (which are going different ways to each other anyway) and I'm so used to it backing me up rather than going against me its unsettling. I would really like us to become friends, but I don't know if and when that may be as everytime I feel like I could move that way I do something else to make things worse.......and the last time I tried to "be friends" with someone I loved I couldn't take it anymore and rabbited and by the time I found out how they really felt it was too late to change what I'd set in motion. Maybe I'm subconciously trying to stop events repeating themselves... or maybe I'm just an ass at heart. I really don't want to go through that all again, but at the same time I really hope I don't end up making her hate me.
Anyway, so I haven't contacted her since Friday and I'm doing my best not to so I don't clutch wildly at the air. I finsihed up my pizza, and left Ryan to his powerlevelling returning to the main room and putting my rum away. The DnD campaign was coming to a close for the evening, and wiith the announcement of the start time in the morning, we all said goodnight and retired until the birds started chirping.
Saturday started *really* early... I got up at 7, awaking from my dream with the most incredible feat of dexterity... Its hard to describe exactly what was going on...but my moral fibre kicked in during a particularly intriguing dream and I jumped up right onto my feet on the sofa, grabbing the cover with my left hand and holding my right hand out in front of me to keep a sense of distance, and backed as far into the corner as I could.... normally when I'm dreaming I can tell I am but this dream was scarily real and it took me a few moments to wonder where the dream was before I figured out that I had woken up and climbed down off the top of the sofa.
I had a bit of a prowl around but no one else was even breathing heavily by then so I went back to bed....returning to said dream (knowing it was a dream now) and getting up at 8! Still no sign of people, so I sat around with my laptop scribbling ideas down. Just before 9, drux and crace_damar surfaced, shortly followed by Monty. A bite to eat for breakfast, and more people started turning up for the DnD session I was running.
In total, there were six gamers (and just occasionally a seventh NPC) : drux playing the part of Elisa (a Bar Wench), crace_damar adopting the role of Errol (an Arrogant Warrior), Monty as Maximillian (The most well spoken and educated Barbarian ever), Duane as Boris (a surly, sarcastic, and somewhat downtrodden cleric), Myeara as Rianna (A somewhat boistrous fighter), and Ryan as Lornon (A redhead-and-destruction-obsessed Mage)
The campaign was set in a world that I'm in the middle of crafting, known as the Heartland, and despite only going on the descriptions I was putting out - Ryan managed to draw an almost perfect map of the known civilised world (Very impressive!). The adventure was set about 15 years on from the last "major" cataclysm that occurred and about 30 years on from the last campaign I ran. It was designed as an introductory adventure, to give me a chance to get to know the characters and the kinds of things they are into - and from the course of events that happened I've got at least two or three more campaign ideas that I can expand upon. Rule of thumb when I'm running an adventure is that someone is roleplaying well if I can design a story based entirely around them (and bring everyone else along for the ride).
This adventure was titled "Mistakes are not the end", and I think it was a success. I wasn't on top form though, and a few bits were clumsy plot progressions at best.... but it certainly has given a grounding of the characters and a bit of a group dynamic for them. It will make the next adventure a lot easier to write.... especially if I write it properly rather than but I have to decide which one I will do.
The two main ones that I'd like to do are "The Quest for Ultimate Power" and "A Special Soul"...but "Family Honour" does have a lot of potential for comedy value. Ooooh, its so hard to choose. :D
But that's the future - we are talking about the past at the moment (read - I've stopped thinking about it here and I'm chatting to drux over MSN about it)
So, we all sat down at 9:30, had the characters conceived by 9:55, and play began at 10 on the dot. (I love it when things go to plan). The adventure began, as so many beginning adventures do - at the local tavern... the Smouldering Ember to be precise. Settling into the local ale festival, our heroes were enjoying a few quiet drinks when the door to the tavern was flung open, and a call for volunteers was made. And so it began :D
We took a short recess at about 12 once the group had been given a mission and knew roughly what was going on - but even before that they had made the choices as to which way they wanted the campaign to go.
After a quick loo break, we carried on until about 2:30 when we stopped for an hour for snacks and a leg stretch. Play continued until about 6:30 / 7ish when we came to the dramatic conclusion at the top of a dark tower (god I love clichés).
The group got 23/30 for items they picked up on through the adventure, and 58/70 for roleplaying - giving them a grand total of 81% . Not too shabby for a new group, and one of the higher role playing scores I've seen in my time as a GM. Just from the roleplaying alone - even if they had failed ABYSMALLY at the entire adventure (I don't know how...maybe becoming farmers or something) then I would still come back for another campaign.
Hurrah! Another successful adventure...good triumphs, learns something new, and makes some new friends.
Right - away from DnD now. HAGGIS! As Monty had had a really large amount of food at lunch, he didn't have any, but drux, crace_damar and myself tucked in and it was delicious! I haven't had Haggis in *ages* so it was a really refreshing change from my normal diet (well... that is varied enough in itself.... but it was really yummy!)
Afterwards, Monty had the great idea of playing Polarity.
Polariwhat? I hear you say
POLARITY
It's a game of magnets - and its incredible fun. Its like Chess, Othello, Draughts and Kerplunk all rolled into one. It is *so* much fun, and almost impossible to explain fully. Basically you have to lay your pieces down on the board, balancing them against the magnetic field of existing pieces. Once all the pieces are out of your hand, you count up your scores. Simple enough eh? Well, if you put a piece down wrong, then things get more complicated as you are likely to cause a fault - and when that happens all hell can break loose.
I love it! If that was the only thing that Poole had going for it, I'd pop down just to play Monty. We played from about 9pm I think until 1am, varying between who was playing and who was watching. It is *such* an addictive game, and I found it really really easy to pick up. I'm going to have to get one myself and then force matryx to learn how to play.
*point of note* - Magnets cause magnetic fields
This may seem obvious, but the game should not be played near watches, phones, pacemakers, wireless keyboards, etc etc etc. Also, just the iron in someones blood walking past the board can disturb the fields - so you have to be very very careful :)
It got later and later, and soon it was Sunday and we all decided to call it a night and crash out - ready for the new day Sunday. Hoping for Sun so we could go to the beach, I curled up once again on the sofa and closed my eyes.
And on Sunday - I thought better than to get up at 7, and instead figuring it would be better to lounge and rest up - I don't do that nearly enough.
Alas however, the great plan was foiled! Aaaand the clouds gathered. It wasn't cold all day, but it was gloomy and raining so we decided against going to the beach after all. Instead, the morning was spent playing games! (Hurrah!).
I was personally doing the whole Warning Forever thing which is great fun (A game that gets harder and adapts to the way you play to try and beat you. Love it!) while crace_damar spent a long time shooting Viruses on some linux game. This carried on for a time, before I moved onto a little origami and writing.
I don't remember the exact course of events, but crace_damar ended up playing the Tux - Mario game (much to everyones amusement), we all watched a few episodes of Dr Who (one was good - and the other half of another one I'd seen...the other was quite poor), and I drank some more rum. It got to about 3 and I had the incredibly bright idea of sticking around until Monday morning. Speaking to the person at the national rail enquiries thinggy, they said that my ticket *might* not be valid...but I figured there arent any barriers at Waterloo anyway - so it would just be a walk home.
And thus it was set. A quick borrowing of clothes from Monty and I was looking dapper enough to go along to Ryan's birthday celebrations. And boy am I glad I went.
Firstly I met (didn't speak to very much though) a lady who has the perfect look about her for Akora in my modelling. (something I didn't realise until speaking to Laura today, is this is the elusive Charlie who I've somehow managed to not meet every single time I've been in Poole / Bournemouth before).
Secondly, I got to meet bloodred1889 again (and hopefully this time leave a lasting impression rather than just a gist of familiarity).
Thirdly, I had a really good time.
I could go on and on and on.... but I'll just play things out the way they went.
The meal was lots of fun, and I settled on the crispy beef strips in a sweet chilli sauce and egg flied lice. All the ladies were looking stunningly beautiful - its just a shame they all appeared to be taken. Its also a shame I didn't take my camera. It was a really nice resteraunt (even if it was very expensive), and the food was *very* tasty. :)
Afterwards, we convinced bloodred1889 to come back to drux's with us and keep drinking / talking until I was due to leave, and we parted ways with most of the group just outside the moon in the square. It was too icky for skinny dipping (according to bloodred1889) so we settled for Laura's idea of a quick walk down to the beach. (by this point it was just myself, crace_damar, drux, bloodred1889 and Greg (bloodred1889's fiancée)). It was raining the whole way, but warm, and I took the chance to wander back and forth between the group talking to them about their opinions on certain things. I love brainstorming. We passed a few cowgirls near the pier, but they seemed to be being pursued by some "fans", so we didn't follow them. ;-)
A brief look at the sand, and a listen to the waves, and we returned through the gardens to the bus stop. Greg came on the bus with us, but returned home by himself rather than joining us at drux's. It was lots of fun staying up, drinking more, and talking...but alas the time went far too fast.
When it got to 4am, crace_damar came with me to the station (to make sure I didn't get lost), and we left the girls chatting about relationships and stuff that girls talk about (who knows... its a mystery).
And...there we are. I got on the 5am train, got to London at 7:30... walked home from Waterloo (got home at 8) giving me just enough time to drink lots and lots of water before walking into work. It was loaaads of fun, and I'm definitely going to have to gatecrash again.
For those who read this : I'll need contact details for everyone in the group who *may* want to play in the next DnD campaign. Off the top of my head, that means email addresses for crace_damar, Duane, Greg, Myeara, Ryan and Luke as I have everyone elses. Dan too if he's into that kinda thing... as I'll need to plan *when* to hold it so that as many people as possible can attend, and theres some work I can do individually before I come down next. Thank you drux! Love you!
p.s. You know who you are... COME TO LONDON.
(CUT POST FOR EXCEPTIONAL LONGNESS)
Also - I need contact details for everyone. If You know I'm missing someone - send em on through (or else I can't throw ideas for new campaigns and whatnots around)
Friday I left work and headed for the station just a little bit before 5. I was really lucky, and made it to Waterloo (with my ticket) quickly so I caught the 5:30 train \o/. Especially good as it meant I got to Poole at about 7:30 instead of stupid-o'clock. drux was waiting there to meet me with big hugs, and led me over to Asda so we could pick up supplies.
After nearly forgetting to take my Rum out of the store with me (Silly Lex!), we went a round-a-bout-convaluted-but-scenic-route back to drux's place.
Poole park is very nice - for comparison (for ye London folk) its similar to the park over by Mudchutes, but bigger (I think). Pretty cool anyway. It wasn't a long walk for us to get to the house, and soon afterwards there was the smell of cooking pizza filling the air. Loads of people were there, as Duane seemed to be running a campaign for the coalition et al. While they were doing that, I drank rum, ate pizza, and chatted to Ryan about WoW, Uni.... all kinds of crap that came into my head. I really hope I didn't bore him too much, but he did say I'm the only one to have been able to get him to *stop* playing WoW willingly to talk about something with someone. I think there was a compliment in there somewhere....
I texted Kat a little too Friday Evening, but I have the horrible impression that I'm becoming someone I don't want to be and I'm really scared as to what will happen because of it. This is one point in my life where my optimism is completely at odds with both my heart and my head (which are going different ways to each other anyway) and I'm so used to it backing me up rather than going against me its unsettling. I would really like us to become friends, but I don't know if and when that may be as everytime I feel like I could move that way I do something else to make things worse.......and the last time I tried to "be friends" with someone I loved I couldn't take it anymore and rabbited and by the time I found out how they really felt it was too late to change what I'd set in motion. Maybe I'm subconciously trying to stop events repeating themselves... or maybe I'm just an ass at heart. I really don't want to go through that all again, but at the same time I really hope I don't end up making her hate me.
Anyway, so I haven't contacted her since Friday and I'm doing my best not to so I don't clutch wildly at the air. I finsihed up my pizza, and left Ryan to his powerlevelling returning to the main room and putting my rum away. The DnD campaign was coming to a close for the evening, and wiith the announcement of the start time in the morning, we all said goodnight and retired until the birds started chirping.
Saturday started *really* early... I got up at 7, awaking from my dream with the most incredible feat of dexterity... Its hard to describe exactly what was going on...but my moral fibre kicked in during a particularly intriguing dream and I jumped up right onto my feet on the sofa, grabbing the cover with my left hand and holding my right hand out in front of me to keep a sense of distance, and backed as far into the corner as I could.... normally when I'm dreaming I can tell I am but this dream was scarily real and it took me a few moments to wonder where the dream was before I figured out that I had woken up and climbed down off the top of the sofa.
I had a bit of a prowl around but no one else was even breathing heavily by then so I went back to bed....returning to said dream (knowing it was a dream now) and getting up at 8! Still no sign of people, so I sat around with my laptop scribbling ideas down. Just before 9, drux and crace_damar surfaced, shortly followed by Monty. A bite to eat for breakfast, and more people started turning up for the DnD session I was running.
In total, there were six gamers (and just occasionally a seventh NPC) : drux playing the part of Elisa (a Bar Wench), crace_damar adopting the role of Errol (an Arrogant Warrior), Monty as Maximillian (The most well spoken and educated Barbarian ever), Duane as Boris (a surly, sarcastic, and somewhat downtrodden cleric), Myeara as Rianna (A somewhat boistrous fighter), and Ryan as Lornon (A redhead-and-destruction-obsessed Mage)
The campaign was set in a world that I'm in the middle of crafting, known as the Heartland, and despite only going on the descriptions I was putting out - Ryan managed to draw an almost perfect map of the known civilised world (Very impressive!). The adventure was set about 15 years on from the last "major" cataclysm that occurred and about 30 years on from the last campaign I ran. It was designed as an introductory adventure, to give me a chance to get to know the characters and the kinds of things they are into - and from the course of events that happened I've got at least two or three more campaign ideas that I can expand upon. Rule of thumb when I'm running an adventure is that someone is roleplaying well if I can design a story based entirely around them (and bring everyone else along for the ride).
This adventure was titled "Mistakes are not the end", and I think it was a success. I wasn't on top form though, and a few bits were clumsy plot progressions at best.... but it certainly has given a grounding of the characters and a bit of a group dynamic for them. It will make the next adventure a lot easier to write.... especially if I write it properly rather than but I have to decide which one I will do.
The two main ones that I'd like to do are "The Quest for Ultimate Power" and "A Special Soul"...but "Family Honour" does have a lot of potential for comedy value. Ooooh, its so hard to choose. :D
But that's the future - we are talking about the past at the moment (read - I've stopped thinking about it here and I'm chatting to drux over MSN about it)
So, we all sat down at 9:30, had the characters conceived by 9:55, and play began at 10 on the dot. (I love it when things go to plan). The adventure began, as so many beginning adventures do - at the local tavern... the Smouldering Ember to be precise. Settling into the local ale festival, our heroes were enjoying a few quiet drinks when the door to the tavern was flung open, and a call for volunteers was made. And so it began :D
We took a short recess at about 12 once the group had been given a mission and knew roughly what was going on - but even before that they had made the choices as to which way they wanted the campaign to go.
After a quick loo break, we carried on until about 2:30 when we stopped for an hour for snacks and a leg stretch. Play continued until about 6:30 / 7ish when we came to the dramatic conclusion at the top of a dark tower (god I love clichés).
The group got 23/30 for items they picked up on through the adventure, and 58/70 for roleplaying - giving them a grand total of 81% . Not too shabby for a new group, and one of the higher role playing scores I've seen in my time as a GM. Just from the roleplaying alone - even if they had failed ABYSMALLY at the entire adventure (I don't know how...maybe becoming farmers or something) then I would still come back for another campaign.
Hurrah! Another successful adventure...good triumphs, learns something new, and makes some new friends.
Right - away from DnD now. HAGGIS! As Monty had had a really large amount of food at lunch, he didn't have any, but drux, crace_damar and myself tucked in and it was delicious! I haven't had Haggis in *ages* so it was a really refreshing change from my normal diet (well... that is varied enough in itself.... but it was really yummy!)
Afterwards, Monty had the great idea of playing Polarity.
Polariwhat? I hear you say
POLARITY
It's a game of magnets - and its incredible fun. Its like Chess, Othello, Draughts and Kerplunk all rolled into one. It is *so* much fun, and almost impossible to explain fully. Basically you have to lay your pieces down on the board, balancing them against the magnetic field of existing pieces. Once all the pieces are out of your hand, you count up your scores. Simple enough eh? Well, if you put a piece down wrong, then things get more complicated as you are likely to cause a fault - and when that happens all hell can break loose.
I love it! If that was the only thing that Poole had going for it, I'd pop down just to play Monty. We played from about 9pm I think until 1am, varying between who was playing and who was watching. It is *such* an addictive game, and I found it really really easy to pick up. I'm going to have to get one myself and then force matryx to learn how to play.
*point of note* - Magnets cause magnetic fields
This may seem obvious, but the game should not be played near watches, phones, pacemakers, wireless keyboards, etc etc etc. Also, just the iron in someones blood walking past the board can disturb the fields - so you have to be very very careful :)
It got later and later, and soon it was Sunday and we all decided to call it a night and crash out - ready for the new day Sunday. Hoping for Sun so we could go to the beach, I curled up once again on the sofa and closed my eyes.
And on Sunday - I thought better than to get up at 7, and instead figuring it would be better to lounge and rest up - I don't do that nearly enough.
Alas however, the great plan was foiled! Aaaand the clouds gathered. It wasn't cold all day, but it was gloomy and raining so we decided against going to the beach after all. Instead, the morning was spent playing games! (Hurrah!).
I was personally doing the whole Warning Forever thing which is great fun (A game that gets harder and adapts to the way you play to try and beat you. Love it!) while crace_damar spent a long time shooting Viruses on some linux game. This carried on for a time, before I moved onto a little origami and writing.
I don't remember the exact course of events, but crace_damar ended up playing the Tux - Mario game (much to everyones amusement), we all watched a few episodes of Dr Who (one was good - and the other half of another one I'd seen...the other was quite poor), and I drank some more rum. It got to about 3 and I had the incredibly bright idea of sticking around until Monday morning. Speaking to the person at the national rail enquiries thinggy, they said that my ticket *might* not be valid...but I figured there arent any barriers at Waterloo anyway - so it would just be a walk home.
And thus it was set. A quick borrowing of clothes from Monty and I was looking dapper enough to go along to Ryan's birthday celebrations. And boy am I glad I went.
Firstly I met (didn't speak to very much though) a lady who has the perfect look about her for Akora in my modelling. (something I didn't realise until speaking to Laura today, is this is the elusive Charlie who I've somehow managed to not meet every single time I've been in Poole / Bournemouth before).
Secondly, I got to meet bloodred1889 again (and hopefully this time leave a lasting impression rather than just a gist of familiarity).
Thirdly, I had a really good time.
I could go on and on and on.... but I'll just play things out the way they went.
The meal was lots of fun, and I settled on the crispy beef strips in a sweet chilli sauce and egg flied lice. All the ladies were looking stunningly beautiful - its just a shame they all appeared to be taken. Its also a shame I didn't take my camera. It was a really nice resteraunt (even if it was very expensive), and the food was *very* tasty. :)
Afterwards, we convinced bloodred1889 to come back to drux's with us and keep drinking / talking until I was due to leave, and we parted ways with most of the group just outside the moon in the square. It was too icky for skinny dipping (according to bloodred1889) so we settled for Laura's idea of a quick walk down to the beach. (by this point it was just myself, crace_damar, drux, bloodred1889 and Greg (bloodred1889's fiancée)). It was raining the whole way, but warm, and I took the chance to wander back and forth between the group talking to them about their opinions on certain things. I love brainstorming. We passed a few cowgirls near the pier, but they seemed to be being pursued by some "fans", so we didn't follow them. ;-)
A brief look at the sand, and a listen to the waves, and we returned through the gardens to the bus stop. Greg came on the bus with us, but returned home by himself rather than joining us at drux's. It was lots of fun staying up, drinking more, and talking...but alas the time went far too fast.
When it got to 4am, crace_damar came with me to the station (to make sure I didn't get lost), and we left the girls chatting about relationships and stuff that girls talk about (who knows... its a mystery).
And...there we are. I got on the 5am train, got to London at 7:30... walked home from Waterloo (got home at 8) giving me just enough time to drink lots and lots of water before walking into work. It was loaaads of fun, and I'm definitely going to have to gatecrash again.
For those who read this : I'll need contact details for everyone in the group who *may* want to play in the next DnD campaign. Off the top of my head, that means email addresses for crace_damar, Duane, Greg, Myeara, Ryan and Luke as I have everyone elses. Dan too if he's into that kinda thing... as I'll need to plan *when* to hold it so that as many people as possible can attend, and theres some work I can do individually before I come down next. Thank you drux! Love you!
p.s. You know who you are... COME TO LONDON.
(CUT POST FOR EXCEPTIONAL LONGNESS)