The Servant of the Raven Queen

A Shadar-Kai Warrior

The question arose over the last few days: What should I play? The options were: A Half-Elf Warlord, an Eladrin Swordmage, or a Shadar-Kai Avenger. After much debate, I have decided to go with the Shadar-Kai.

Now, I own the figure I’m planning on using. All I have to do now is replace the hammer with a piece of chain and paint the figure.

For those of you who don’t know what a Shadar-Kai is (I know there’s a lot of people out there who aren’t 4e fluent), I’ll explain.

The Shadar-Kai are humans who inhabit the Shadowfell, servants of the Raven Queen, the goddess of death. Their skin is grey, their eyes large black orbs. The shadows around them deepen as they move. They have the ability, once per encounter, to teleport 3 squares, then remain insubstantial until the start of their next turn.

I’ve selected an Avenger, because I like the idea of a holy warrior who is full of the vengance of his god. This Shadar-Kai would have no mercy on those who have angered the goddess, especially the undead and those who give them sanctuary. The Shadar-Kai are very alien in nature, being from a different plane of existence, while still maintaining the feeling of something recognizable.

This is his story:

 

Shadow always knew he had a higher calling. Not content to become just another grey face amongst his Shadar-Kai brethren under the pale, grey sky of the Shadowfell, he brought himself up in the ranks of Shadar-Kai warriors, training in the use of the spiked chain, learning the ways of the Raven Queen.

He adored the Raven Queen. It was her who brought souls to their destination, the gloomy world of darkness, shadow and nothingness: The Shadowfell.

Always the strictures of the Dark Lady were taught: Hold no pity for those who suffer and die, for death is the natural end of life; bring down those who would attempt to cast off the chains of fate. It was those he hated worst: Mortals who sought to prolong life, to maintain their place in the Mortal World. The Undead, Vampires and Liches. These were his enemy.

So it was on that dim day, when Shadow was given his most vital task: The Barrow King had acquired the Eye of Vecna, stealing it from the Shadar-Kai warriors who held it safeguarded in the Shadowfell. Already his power grew, but now he held one of the most vital arcane items of the Raven Queen’s most hated foe. This could not be allowed to be. He had fled to the Mortal Realm with the eye, and it was up to the young Shadowborn to hunt him down and reclaim it, bringing it back to the Raven Queen herself…

 

That’s the basis for the character of Shadow. Hope you all like it. I hope we get to play this game soon, or I’ll be sitting on him for a while until I do.

A Difficult Choice Pt. 2

The Eladrin Swordmage

The Shadar-Kai Avenger

Okay, so after hearing everyone’s votes for which PC I should play next, I’ve got it narrowed down to two choices: The Eladrin Swordmage and the Shadar-Kai Avenger (sorry, Danny, but I like the Avenger’s teleportation and striker abilities). Here are the two minis I have to choose between the two figures. Your vote will help the decision.

Now, with the Shadar-Kai, I’ll be removing the hammer, I think, and replacing it with either a sickle (to make him more like a grim reaper) or a spiked chain (since it is the Shadar-Kai’s preferred weapon).

For the Eladrin, His blades will glow, probably one blue and one red. I haven’t done much glowing paint effects, but I’ll study up on some tutorials on how to do so.

The Shadar-Kai’s idea would be that he was sent into the mortal realm from the Shadowfell to pursue a particular lich or vampire, and will get drawn into the adventuring party.

The Eladrin’s story would be that he is part of the rest of the group (who are all planning on playing Arcane classes) in being a student at the arcane school in the village. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s! You all are my only hope!

Help me make the decision!

A Difficult Choice

This figure would be the Swordmage.

I’d like everyone to read this and give me their opinion.

We’ve been plotting out ideas for a new 4e campaign, set in a world of our own devising. I’ll be DMing, but we plan on switching DMs around so anyone who wants to gets a chance. This means I’ll be needing a character of my own, which is thrilling. The only problem? I don’t know what to choose.

Here’s what I’m torn between:

A Shadar-Kai Avenger of the Raven Queen

A Half-Elf Warlord (the Diplomat and leader of the group)

An Eladrin Swordmage (Teleporting around the battlefield)

I also plan on painting the miniatures for everyone, something I haven’t done in a long, long time, and I’ve got perfect figures for any of these three PCs. So, what do I choose? I’ll be taking your votes. I encourage everyone to let me know their opinion.

Well I Hope That Left You Satisfied

 

Two nights ago I was the Dungeonatrix of my first D&D game ever.  It was incredible.  Overall, I feel it went very smoothly.  There were some small hiccups but nothing that completely stalled the flow of the game.  I had the table set and ready to go before any of my players arrived.  I even made sure they each had a complete set of dice to play with

We began with Encounter 1 which was supposed to be a skill challenge… though I chose to adapt it to being more of a traditional Role Playing information gathering session.  Two of my three players had never played an RPG.  Therefore, I didn’t feel that in addition to explaining the basic rules it would be conducive to also include a skill challenge fresh out of the gate.

 

They did well.  By Encounter 2:  Cavern Entrance, they were ready to fight.  They skillfully battled two Orc Wardens and two Cultist Eyeblades.  They even retrieved the Tongueworm and it was claimed by my husband who was playing 3 of the 5 pregenerated characters.

Encounter 3 was a bit of a lull but they were keen enough to ask questions about the Hall of Living Words and successfully uncovered its secrets.  The trap in Encounter 4 was semi-successful though it did pose a bit of a hassle.  One of the characters did turn on his group and that created some interesting effects.  Though they did disarm the glyph using a small skill challenge.

Encounter 5: The Baleful Eye was very smooth too.  My only complaint with these was the actual set-up in the module.   There are several places in this encounter and the one following that refer to “any PC who speaks Deep Speech can understand…”  yet none of the pregenerated character sheets included PCs who could.  Therefore, I just changed some things around to make it so that at least one could.  I think this encounter felt a bit epic.  As the PCs rounded the corner they came face to face with 8 Cult Fantatics, a Dolgaunt Acolyte and an Orc Warden.  Not to mention the Baleful Eye itself who they disarmed quite expertly!

We stopped once we finished Encounter 6: The Blood of Khyber.  At this point they had battled 4 Dolgrim Warriors and decided to take a rest next to the pool before carrying on.  And since we had been playing for approximately 4 hours it also seemed a good time to quit for the night.

Once I got into it the flow seemed to be there.  Besides the few times stopping to reference or explain rules it went without much of a hitch!

My husband, who has been a GM since he was 16, gave me an overall grade of B+.  To be honest I was very pleased with that.  The two new players who were with us were excited to come back and finish the last four encounters in the game.  They also said nice things about how it had gone when they were all at work the next day.  My husband sent me the following e-mail to give me some feedback:

I’ve been getting an assessment from the guys about how the game went last night. Here’s what they thought.

 

Forster liked it, but said that once he realized how the game ran, he was disappointed at how simple his character was. He wants a more complicated character to play. In the next session, I may even give him another one of the characters I was playing.  He’s very interested in playing again.

 

Croft really enjoyed it. So much so that he wants Stephanie to play. He told her “it’s pretty much like a board game”. He thinks she’d enjoy it if she gave it a try. He is also looking forward to the next game.

 

Thought you should know!

 

This makes me feel good and I am more than excited to finish our adventure this Thursday!  Yay!

The Gathering of the Game Knights

We’re going to give it another try… A couple of weeks ago, we attempted to get the game group back together after a long hiatus, only to have it fall flat when half our players didn’t show. This week will be different.

On Sunday, the Game Knights will gather for the first time. Our new game group, reassembled with all new players will be getting together and our brand-new Dungeon Master (I’m sorry, Dungeonatrix) Bridget will lead our adventurers down into the caverns below Khorvaire where foul darkness awaits. She’ll be running the free adventure “Khyber’s Harvest” from this year’s Free RPG Day, which I’m really looking forward to. I haven’t been a PC in a while, so I’m rearing to go.

I’m also looking at setting up a web site for the Game Knights. Any suggestions on where I should set one up for the group?

Hello Gentlemen. Tonight I Will Be Your Dungeonatrix

 

A truly incredible term.  I wish I could say that I thought of it… but alas I did not.  Dungeonatrix is courtesy of PVP online.

Their series this week has come at a truly perfect and clandestine time for me.  This Friday I will be hosting my first game as the Dungeon Master.  How do I feel about this???

In short, I am terrified!

I will be running the free module from Wizard’s, Khyber’s Harvest.  I have read the booklet several times.  I have scoured the pregenerated characters.  I have my tiles and miniatures ready.  Still, though, I am shaking in my Dungeonatrix boots.

Initially I was going to be running this adventure for my husband and one of the other regulars from our group.  I was fully comfortable with this.  But as these things go, before I knew it 3 more players have joined our table.  One is a guy who has never played and 2 others who have extensive table time but have never met me.

Stepping out and into bigger shoes is interesting to say the least.  Truth be told, I have been having my husband look at bits here and there that I haven’t been so sure about.  He’s been a good help in letting me know what to do.

I will definitely post after I run this adventure.  At night when I dream I am an incredible DM.  The game is flawless and the players are intrigued.  

On the other hand, what I pray for when I am awake is that I simply don’t suck.  Oh and that there is enough beer to push us all through if I do

How about all of you….  Do you remember running that first game?  How long had you been a player before you were the DM?  How was the experience?  Good?  Bad??  Indifferent???  I’d love to hear any sage wisdom all of you may have too.

Best wishes to me… and to my players!

Penny Arcade Is At It Again!

 

 

Tycho from Penny Arcade recently wrote a post I thought you should all read. The context is fairly straightforward: Gabriel is the DM, and Tycho has been trying to corrupt him.

Here it is:

One of the players in Gabriel’s ongoing campaign made the mistake of suggesting they did not feel sufficiently threatened, and they did so in earshot ofme, which his entire party will come to regret. They have a game tonight, their last game ever if I have anything to say about it. Disintegrations for everybody. Resurrections impossible, or at the very least undesirable, as these revivified unfortunates could do naught but wail for the remainder of their natural lives, cocooned in a perfect, impenetrable agony.

Walking that line is a tremendous challenge, in a context already fraught with malevolent bugaboos. If you want to tell a story of any kind, and many gamemasters (dungeon masters, storytellers, oracles, directors, etc.) do, a reasonably continuous cast is often core to that – particularly if you’ve worked to nest them in the arc of the narrative. But the comfort we’re talking about is the inevitable result – players come to feel like the marqueed stars of some long running serial, and they expect their trailers to be stocked with name-brand products. They start to demand vegan catering and increasing volumes of exotic, quasi-legal “sacraments.” You can’t really blame them; their characters exist in a universe that you create and sustain explicitly for their amusement. A sense of entitlement is the natural outcome.

In their world, death is something that happens to other people.

Typically, it happens because they, themselves, have killed that person – but let’s not get ahead. We’ll see what we can do to fix their little red wagon in tonight’s game. In this metaphor, “fix” actually means “to destroy in absolute terms.” The little red wagon represents the fragile cage of their mortal flesh,mortal being the operative concept.

(CW)TB out.

Star Wars Infinities Pt. 1: The Assault on the Tantive IV

The other night, Bridget and I sat down for some Star Wars Miniatures gaming. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s basically a simplified war game based loosely on the D20 system. Basically, Chainmail has come around full circle, and now war games are based on RPGs, where once RPGs were based on war games.

What I thought was this: Why just keep it as a war game? Why not run it like an RPG with character motivations and an advancing plot-line? Furthermore, I have all the miniatures I need for A New Hope, so why not see what would happen if things changed in the storyline?

 

The setup before the attack.

I decided to begin with the attack of the Tantive IV by Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer. Using my Star Wars Galaxy Tiles, I set up a map.

I asked Bridget what side she wanted to play, assuming she’d ask for the Rebels, since she’s always chosen the side of good. Instead, she said one of the hottest phrases she’s ever uttered: “I want to be the Empire”. That brought a smile to my face.

The goal of the Rebellion was simple: Get R2D2 to Princess Leia before the Empire got to her, receive the information of the stolen data tapes, then flee to the escape pod. The Empire simply had to keep the tapes from getting off the ship. If Artoo and Threepio were unable to get to Leia, she could escape to the pod on her own.

I decided to use part of the script of the film, as well as incorporating some of my own dialogue to demonstrate how the game went. Here it goes.

 

It is a period of civil war.  Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…

INTERIOR: REBEL BLOCKADE RUNNER — MAIN PASSAGEWAY.

An explosion rocks the ship as two robots, Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) and See-Threepio (C-3PO) struggle to make their way through the shaking, bouncing passageway. Both robots are old and battered. Artoo is a short, claw-armed tripod. His face is a mass of computer lights surrounding a radar eye. Threepio, on the other hand, is a tall, slender robot of human proportions. He has a gleaming bronze-like metallic surface of an Art Deco design. Another blast shakes them as they struggle along their way.

 

 

 

 

Threepio and Artoo flee down a hallway.

 

 

 

THREEPIO: Did you hear that? They’ve shut down the main reactor. We’ll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!

Rebel troopers rush past the robots and take up positions in the main passageway. They aim their weapons toward the door.

THREEPIO: We’re doomed!

The little R2 unit makes a series of electronic sounds that only another robot could understand.

THREEPIO: There’ll be no escape for the Princess this time.

Artoo continues making beeping sounds. Tension mounts as loud metallic latches clank and the scream of heavy equipment are heard moving around the outside hull of the ship.

THREEPIO: What’s that?

The nervous Rebel troopers aim their weapons. Suddenly a tremendous blast opens up a hole in the main passageway and a score of fearsome armored spacesuited stormtroopers make their way into the smoke-filled corridor. In a few minutes the entire passageway is ablaze with laserfire. The deadly bolts ricochet in wild random patterns creating huge explosions. Stormtroopers scatter and duck behind storage lockers. Laserbolts hit several Rebel soldiers who scream and stagger through the smoke, holding shattered arms and faces. An explosion hits near the robots. They continue to hurry down the passageway

 

 

 

 

Darth Vader arrives aboard the Tantive IV.

 

 

 

The awesome, seven-foot-tall Dark Lord of the Sith makes his way into the blinding light of the main passageway. This is Darth Vader, right hand of the Emperor. His face is obscured by his flowing black robes and grotesque breath mask, which  stands out next to the fascist white armored suits of the Imperial stormtroopers. Everyone instinctively backs away from the imposing warrior.

VADER: The Princess is here. I can feel her presence.

Vader stalks down the hallway, ignoring the laserfire from the rebels who stand in his way, occasionally lifting one up and hurling him against the wall with the brutish power of the dark side of the Force.

Threepio and Artoo round a corner to find a woman in white standing in the passageway. Artoo moves close to her as she inserts a disk into the front of his “face”. She leans over him as his holoprojector turns on.

LEIA: I haven’t much time to deliver this message. These plans are vital to the Republic. General Kenobi, you must help!

Leia looks up and sees a figure in black at the end of the hall. She withdraws in horror.

LEIA: Vader! Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only…

Leia is lifted off the ground, clutching her throat. Threepio stands in shock, unable to move. Vader moves closer.

VADER: You’ll not escape me this time, Princess…

 

 

 

 

The end of the battle.

 

 

 

Leia turns to Artoo, only able to utter a single word.

LEIA: Run…

Artoo presses on down the hall, moving towards the escape pod.

THREEPIO: Artoo, don’t leave me!

The doors close behind Artoo, all alone, as his escape pod jettisons from the ship. Leia blacks out as Vader stands over her.

***

So as you can see, it ended almost the same as the film, the only difference being Vader’s takedown of Princess Leia and Threepio’s being left behind aboard the ship. He’ll most likely be taken into custody as well as the Princess.

I’m looking forward to the next session to seee what happens to Artoo once he’s on the planet and what other changes will arise.

Savage Twilight: A Summary

 

Throughout the week I have been busily posting my ideas/characters for a Savage World game based on the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer.

Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out.  Tonight I am hoping to run a one shot game using those characters for my husband.

Therefore, you all can look forward to my review of the game within the next few days.  I am truly loving the versatility of this system.  There are so many different options to be had.

I hope you all have enjoyed the posts and if you did or want more pre-generated characters for Twilight… let me know… I would be more than happy to do it.  It was a great opportunity to create some of the most well known characters such as Charlie Swan, Bella Swan (as a human), Bella Swan (as a vampire) and of course Edward Cullen.

Savage Twilight: Bella Cullen (Human-Vampire)

Good Friday Morning!

 

Today’s character will be Bella as a vampire.  I am laying it out in a simple format that can be found in the Savage Worlds Core Rulebook.

Name: Bella Cullen

Veteran ~ Human

Attributes: Agilitiy d8; Smarts d10; Spirit d6; Strength d12; Vigor d10

Skills: Taunt d8; Persuasion d10; Driving d6; Knoweldge d8; Intimidation d8; Fighting d8; Stealth d8

Pace 24;     Parry 6;     Charisma 4;    Toughness 9

Hinderances: Distinctive Appearance (minor);  Loyal (minor);  

Edges:  Arcane Background – Superpowers: Undead; Superior Strength; Speed

     Hightened Senses: Eagle Eye; Tracking

     Leaping: Vertical 12ft;  Horizontal 24 ft

     Toughness;  Super Attribute (+1 Spirit); Negation (Psychic Powers); Strong Willed

     Attractive;  Very Attractive

Cash:  $500.00 

Now here is a little background about Bella Cullen if you’ve never read the books or seen the movies:

 

• Appears to be 19 years old and will stay that age 
• Married to Edward Cullen
• Have a half human/half vampire child together
• Does not, nor does his family, drink the blood of humans.  Only animals.
• Has the ability to cancel out psychic effects and act as a shield for others
• Extremely Rich
• Extremely strong willed
• More than willing to fight for her family
• Forms a peace between the warewolves and vampires in Forks, Washington
• Extremely attractive

A few notes about this character.  A few of the Edges I chose came from the Necessary Evil campaign setting book.  I did not use the Vampire Edge in Necessary Evil as it would have applied some facets to the character that do not fit with the series.  It worked out much better to use the Undead Edge and expand from there.  It would also be beneficial to take Bella to the next level and give her Edges such as Rich/Filthy Rich as this is also a major points in the series.