DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games HHE: The Haunted Helm OOC: Geese

Thanks ... all very interesting <g> A shame we won't get to explore these interesting possibilities.

Neil,
Yeah. Thanks. It was very enjoyable and I love playing the character that I played. I agree with the sentiment that it's the DM not the module that makes the game. I am not one to lavish praise liberally, but you deserve it. Just f'n awesome.

Thanks Nep, and I'm very glad you took over Jex! He was very much your character, I think, and a colourful one at that.

It would have been fun to explore Jex's One Unique Thing, and his earlier career as a bandit. Although a One Unique Thing isn't supposed to have a mechanical effect, it was nice to implement quasi-mechanics, like Weston's ring vision and Jex's dragons never bite him.

And of course, Jex's song book is fine work indeed.

Apart from Weston and Tindarien dealing with the Aurenaur, I was intrigued to find out more about D and the Prince of Shadows.

What I like about 13th Age's Icons is that they're people, not gods, and I liked the idea that though there is a Prince of Shadows, he's not running his own outfit any more. Thus the Prince of Shadows is actually, unbeknowest to everyone, the Prince of Shadow's best girl.

Also, what exactly would the ritual to reform the Prince of Shadows entail? How would D get all four Shadow shards to participate? And what would its completion mean for D, Lady Morgen, Moonshadow and the tattooed dwarf? It would be exciting to write the Black into the story.

Talking of Icons reminds me of the Orc Lord. I would love to progress to and write the showdown between Seyja and the Iron Skull! I think it would be classic fantasy. And the first in-game meeting between Seyja and the Orc Lord would be fascinating. I mean, for all the death and destruction he's wrought in pursuit of her, the Orc Lord wants Seyja alive because somewhere in his twisted, monster orc heart, he loves her.

It's like King Kong or Beauty and Beast or something! Could Seyja turn him away from his planned invasion of the Empire? Could she learn to love him?

Icons aren't the only movers and shakers in 13th Age either. Obviously the PCs are, but their related background characters are too. So I wanted to learn more about this Herald that Zoltan prayed to (Herald of what!? Yikes!). And his dad, Yzarra, the Demon Lord of Infernal Device. What's he up to, what's reversed his fortunes in Hell and got the Diabolist trying to assassinate him?

And did anyone pick up on Zoltan and Nestaron having the same mother? Lixiss? Well, that would've led to some nice role-playing moments, I'm sure.

Overall, plenty of material to keep us going, and I concur with Mike that it's a shame we aren't. Ultimately though, everything comes to an end, and we'd be exceeding the remit of HHE to continue.

I need a break anyway. My plan's to plug through all the TV series and video games I've been perpetually halfway through for the past 12 months, then think about running again.

Btw, for anyone who's interested, here's an offsite hosted copy of TSR's Bestiary of Dragons and Giants, linked direct to The Haunted Helm adventure. Have a read and be amazed by how terrible it is.

They don't write 'em like that anymore (thankfully)!

I'll move HHE to the Hall of Fame over the weekend.

I will second the 'praise' heaped on Jex <g>

So for as much fun as I think we =all= had, if you decide to run a new adventure ... with the same characters or with a new crew ... I think you would have a lot of eager volunteers <g>

Thanks for the AWESOME game!!

Both I and Seyja enjoyed the hell out of this game, Neil. Thanks a bunch.

Absolutely. Loved it. Wish to play more.

Understand why it is ending. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

My first ever attempt at playing a barbarian. I tried to play her as unsophisticated but intelligent. Not sure to what extent I succeeded, but I really enjoyed it.

I think she worked out well <g>

I actually missed the same mother thing, Neil. Interesting possibilities.

Yeah, it was sneaky. Alluded to in Interlude 2 when Griefer tells Yzarra that the Diabolist has found his and Lixiss's son. He scoffs and says that Lixiss's son was by another father, and is now a holy man.

Nestaron was a half-elf, with an elven mother too, so I thought it was a good opportunity to tie him to Zoltan.

Exeter, Seyja was a solid character. I think there's a tendency to play barbarians as meatheads, but firstly that's a ridiculous archetype, and secondly, it's not what 13th Age classes are about.

Barbarian cultures are simply those that aren't "civilised" according to a different culture. In the context of the Dragon Empire, that probably just refers to someone either not from the Seven Cities originally, or from a ghetto.

We didn't explore Seyja's tribe in much detail, another thing that would be fun to do. She travelled with northern gypsies, but I imagined her own mountain people were more Slavic.

It's essential to remember that in 13th Age, the PCs are remarkable.

Yes, mechanically they're a 1st-level human barbarian but that does not mean every other 1st-level human barbarian has the same abilities. Even Barbarian Rage, iconic in D&D and associated with the class, in 13th Age it might only be the PC barbarian who has Barbarian Rage. So NPCs witnessing Barbarian Rage, for example, would be greatly impressed.

NPCs and monsters will have dramatically curtailed powers. Just look at Bearkiller, who was a 2nd-level NPC.

In D&D, if he had a class, you'd put him down as a druid or ranger. In 13th Age, Bearkiller is a 2nd-level Bearkiller.

The Backgrounds system allows the player to cut ties with traditional class stereotypes even further.

What if Seyja had Witch 5? That would cast her in a completely different light, even if her abilities stayed the same.

And I find that so strange when we have Conan, the archetype of the barbarian ... and he was nothing like that <sigh>

And I agree about the culture thing. Look at the Native American culture. It was pretty damned sophisticated.

On the one hand, 13th age 'feels' as though there is a lot more 'creative input'. For home play, that can be =awesome=.

The down side would seem to be that it is difficult to take your character around to games run by other GMs because so much of it is 'built together'.

Aye, a reoccuring theme of the Conan stories is that he finds so-called "civilised peoples" barbaric, and he's generally smarter than everyone else too, even age-old deathless wizards.

Tales of 13th Age is an organised play scheme, run in North America, with monthly published adventures for subscribers. Each release includes some preamble for transportable characters, but ultimately it still means the campaign and the PCs are less intrinsically linked, and the whole thing has a more traditional D&D feel.

I prefer my RPGing much more personalised, but then I'm blessedly fortunate in that I don't struggle to find ftf games. England is a small place.

Sounds about right <g> Sadly I have not had a f2f game in several years <sigh>

And England may be smaller than New York State, but has over 53 million people compared to New York's 19 odd million. So yeah, we're practically tripping over each other here. Finding an ftf game is not a problem.

Well for me it is more of a timing problem ... I work Fri, Sat and Sun ... which is opposite of just about everyone else <sigh>

Mike, We're playing FTF this weekend. If you don't mind the 12 hour drive for a six hour game....

I haven't had a ftf game in over 8 years. I moved to the coast of Oregon for the scenery and way of life, only to discover the only local gaming is card based. It never occurred to me that there wouldn't be any. I have considered trying to drive the campaign train, but hard to want to push up hill with life being busy. Oh well one of these days. For now I play here, rpol, and a single hangout style game over Skype with one of my old groups from CA.

Did you miss the part where I have to work Fri, Sat and Sun Nep? <sigh>

Well thank goodness none of us are too busy to have fun. I guess if that ever happens, alarm bells should ring and you should re-evaluate what you're doing in life! After all, life is not a dress rehersal.

And for anyone looking to have more fun, 13th Age digital bundle is on sale on DriuveThruRPG this week.

Tbh, I'd rather have the books, but YMMV.

I love having real books. But I also love having the pdfs. Can't compete with hundreds of books in a small tablet footprint. Especially when you are traveling for reading and or game planning.