I’d heard talk that the Palace of the Silver Princess wasn’t the best of modules… but this article suggests that its reworked published version may have been built on the foundations of an old-school gem, albiet with some flaws. But a gem nonetheless.
https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/43430/roleplaying-games/the-day-the-old-school-died
Although 3 of my regular players couldn’t make it today, I decided to push on with the E&S game to help while away the afternoon.
After witnessing Visimar, Psatan and Deroth legging it out of the decrepit chapel, Akuma, a thieving ex-militiaman, joined Oxonfrey in the crypt. After making a ghastly discovery in a locked casket (a dead ringer of her ladyship with a wet doll), they too did a runner! Exploring the old farmhouse was surely a better idea…
They decided to extinguish their torches and sneak in, but found it was rather dark inside. The house was all shuttered up and there was only a smouldering hearth to light their way. It didn’t take too long before they sensed that they weren’t alone. There were creatures in the walls, under the floorboards and in the shadows. Nasty little hairless rats with almost human faces. Akuma managed to skewer two of them with his crossbow. Oxonfrey decided to roast one at point blank range with his elemental force but the rat-thing got the better of him, biting his leg, his finger and then slashing his wrist causing him to pass out in a pool of blood. As it gloated, Akuma got a bead on the rat-thing so that when it turned on him, he managed to fire a bolt right through its shrivelled skin. Ooh-ya!
Thankfully Akuma is a civilized sort, and was able to apply his learned mind to saving Oxonfrey’s life. Maybe there is honour amongst thieves after all…
Due to some of my regular RPG group being off on hols, we decided to leave the post-apocalyptic wastes behind and venture back in to the world of sword & sorcery with a session or two of Epees & Sorcellerie.
We met a lovely motley crew of adventurers in the previous session… a worn-out knight, a disgraced cleric, a light-fingered sorcerer and a mortician with heretical leanings. They’re surely on the righteous path to gold & glory… I introduced Origins from E&S2 to add a little extra flavour. Two of the party plumped for Decadent – no points for guessing which!
I shan’t go in to any detail of the adventure at this point as it’s still on-the-go at the mo, but suffice to say I think we all enjoyed session 1 and I’ve got plenty in the goody bag for next time.
I think my favourite thing about GMing is seeing NPCs and PCs come alive when they engage with each other. And having a good laugh when player’s plans go awry of course! More on that later…
In celebration of Free RPG DAY here’s a link to a free PDF of the English translation of Epées & Sorcellerie – my favourite sword & sorcery RPG. Enjoy!
Saw an original copy of Gamma World 4th edition (1992) in Black Lion in Edinburgh at the weekend. I would’ve picked it up but had just recently given up looking for one in the wild, and got it on POD through DriveThruRPG. Someone else can get lucky this time!
Woohoo! Finally got my hands on a Chthonic Codex boxset, Wonder & Wickedness and Marvels & Malisons from the Lost Pages stand at Conpulsion earlier today. Really looking forward to diving in to these little beauties!
While I was in Edinburgh I stopped by the Black Lion gameshop (well it’d be rude not to) and picked up my first d30 especially to use with Yoon-Suin. There’s 1 table in the book that uses a d30, so it’s bound to get used once or twice. That’s more times than most of the other dice in my collection…
Wahoo! My Gamma Worlds arrived today courtesy of DriveThruRPG. I’ve wanted to get my hands on these for yonks, so was delighted to see that they’re available as print-on-demand at last. They only took a week to arrive and that was with 2nd class post. For a print-on-demand service, that’s pretty nippy!
So last night we played Ten Candles, a tragic horror RPG, with 3 MCs and 1 DJ. From my perspective, as a player, it was great. The ritual of the game really helped build the atmosphere and tension.
We started by each recording an audio message for posterity. An unconventional start, but I thought it helped cement who our characters were and what was important to us. The room was lit only with 10 candles. Whenever we faced adversity and failed, our dice pool would dwindle and a candle would be extinguished.
On occasion, it was possible to call on our character traits to get a reroll, or if we had a moment of hope, gain a bonus dice. But any respite was fleeting… the route to the scenario’s conclusion was a downward spiral of doom. Which is what we signed up for!
After our characters died a grisly, lonely death in the dark, we too were sat in the dark and our audio messages were played back. They seemed to have acquired an odd resonance… shaded with our knowledge of the fate that befell those poor souls.
I played ‘Dozer’ MacGarret, a selfish mechanic who got what was coming to him. R.I.P.
