This post is a lame excuse to show off my new userpic, courtesy of Chris.

But eff it, its the icon I’ll use for AP type stuff.

Game Events:

The orcs’ plans against the dragon is coming to a head as the Dwarven hosts surround the mountain. Should be a brutal session next week.

The Sunday group has concocted a super-hero campaign that we’re gearing up to play. The game is about teenage supers and their mentor/advocates who teach them to use their powers while still staying in their community. The premise of the game is: “Why haven’t our parents changed the world?”

And tonight Jeff H. is running our Burning Faith campaign, with the two knights dealing with politics and steel in the city.

Fun.

How’s about you? What’s been cookin’ on your gaming table?

(you can click on the map and it gets BIGGER!)

Storn was kind enough to draw up this map for an exchange of cash. Thanks, Storn. I do love starting a game with a cool map to coo over.

Tonight I met with Jim and Rich to game some Burning Wheel over skype. I moved the game at a brutal pace; I’m not sure if that is because I like fast paced games or I just wasn’t sure what was interesting to do with those in between times. Between the Anvil Plains and the 7 Kings Mountains.

It was a fun time. An elf was tortured and drowned, the Eldar forest was set to the torch and a deal was struck with a dragon.

Skype gaming isn’t any kind of replacement for face to face table-top play but in a pinch with two gamers who are spread out from Maine to Florida, it’ll more than do.

Some AP thoughts:

I really played to the map; I just love looking at the thing.

When I don’t have an interesting encounter or conflict, I push the fast forward button and push it hard. It seemed like the journey from the Anvil Plains up to the 7 Kings Mountains happened in a big ole hurry. They crept by the Elven patrols at Orcwatch, met Rich’s orc’s uncle at were on their way northward to meet with the Dragon.

Knowing a game well enough to play it alongside people who know it and knowing it well enough to teach it to newbies are two different levels of mastery. I’m getting there with BW but there are still holes. There was an extended conflict that would have been an awesome Range & Cover, rather than an akward Fight! Bummer.

Janaki and I both weren’t feeling so hot yesterday. I think she’s coming down with some kind of scratchy-throated thing and my lack of sleep last week caught up to me in a big way. We napped on the couch and read and made half-hearted attempts to tackle the dishes piled up in the kitchen. I made her some miso soup, which meant I poured boiling water into a cup with the miso mix in it, not exactly a herculean effort.

I’m doing some prep for the two BW games on my plate. Elves Illustrated is this afternoon and Fire and Blood: a tale of two Orcs is this Wednesday night over Skype. I’m so, so so, looking forward to them both (not even to mention the long awaited BS:J game).

The 2 Orc game is looking like fun. Jim and Rich both made up brutal, brutal bastards who just set fire to an elven forest when their horde was ambushed by the elven host.

I had conversations with both Rich and Jim within a twenty-four hour period, where each lamented their lack of gaming at the moment and a PING went off in my head. It has been a kind of whirlwind of internet activity to get the game going, so what would have taken four hours of hanging out took a week of e-mailing and a few skype meetings to get the game hammered out.

Rich (of Canon Puncture) is playing the head of the late orc horde, betrayed by a Troll Warlord who was supposed to be guarding the army’s flank, now butchered by an elven host’s ambush:

– I will prove my axe is greater than Brodok’s sorcery by claiming seven times the heads as his magic ever touched.

– I will join the dragon, defeat the dwarves and start my own tribe at his mountain.

-Raxor the troll lord abandoned my tribe to die and for that he will die.

Jim (who got me to DM for the first time when I was 13 years old) is playing the power behind the throne, inspired by Mothrog:

– I will serve the baddest MF on the planet.

– Loyalty is good but surviving is better.

– I will be the most feared warrior alive; I will, through treachery or strength of arms, destroy every other well known warriors life or reputation.

It seems that the gaming this spring is shaped like a Burning Wheel. Jim will be outta town for a few weeks, so the remaining Sunday group (Jeff & Storn) is going back to Elves Illustrated.

The Friday group, if we can ever work out our difficult schedules will get back to Burning Sands, after a slam-bang first session. After this next Friday, I know my schedule lightens up a bit at work. We’ll get back to our ozone-smelling shields and crys-knives before too long.

And after talking to two buddies about how they weren’t gaming lately, I’ve set aside some time to run a two-person orc game, Burning Skype. Inspired by Robert Ahren’s concept, they are two orc survivors after their Troll Warlord led horde was decimated. So they are behind enemy lines, deep in Elven territory and filled with HATRED. Should be fun.

I like these small two person games; there’s something nice and intimate about them.

And I’m intrigued with skype-play and how it’ll work. I started to set up a BW game a while back but punked out because of school and wanting to put a cap on my time at the computer a bit.

How’s your spring gaming looking out there in lj friend land and beyond?