Friday, May 20th
Friday dawned crisp and clear, still pretty cold and wet, and that made the sciatica act up for most of the day. After breakfast and showering, I took care of a few things around the house that needed doing, and packed up what I could for the game of Desolation that I was to run that night.
We arrived at the Rideau Curling Club building and, as usual, there was no place to park.
The biggest mistake I made this year at CanGames for the Desolation games was that I shouldn't have taken the fancy case that I keep the Style Chips in, as it weighed quite a bit. In any event, I ran the first game session that I had planned, the Desolation scenario called "Dead or Alive". I had three players registered for the game, so when the sign-up sheet was put out half an hour before game time, I went over, sore back and leg and all, and started recruiting a few gamers to play in the game. Two other people had pre-registered for the game, so I only needed to recruit one other, which I did, and
There was some interesting stuff during this game. For starters, other than
The fellow playing Lem Ollender, the Legionnaire, did a really good job of roleplaying the character, handling the leadership of the party (since the fellow playing Esther took a slightly less active role), and he kept the rest of the player characters focused on what they wee supposed to be doing. He also did a marvellous job keeping the guy playing the elf, Menelaris Covalanar, in check and under control. Speaking of which, the fellow playing Menelaris actually came up with an interesting variation on the character, making him likeable. After all, Menelaris should be dead three times over - he's an Elf, he's a spellcaster, and he's condescending. <g> He also really went to town with the magic; he was suffering from some sort of Burn damage for most of the evening, and I thought he gave Menelaris an almost gay quality in his tone and voice while playing the character.
The two players who played Menelaris and Esther did a great job of handling magic in the game, and got quite creative - levitating and then flying over a field of bones, casting an earth and dust whirlwind at the villain of the piece, etc. - which can be quite difficult with the Desolation magic system, given the free-form nature of the spell system. They both told me they didn't like the Burn business, but admitted that it fit the game really well.
The fellow playing Tarl Ishrak, the farmer with faith, did a marvellous job emphasising the religious elements of the Two Above, and worked a lot with his Blessing and True Faith abilities. I thought that he was marvellous in the manner in which he played the character, and he told me when the game ended that he really enjoyed the religious aspects and elements of the game and his character, and that the style and feel of it made for a nice change from the clerical types of priestly folk found in other fantasy rpgs.
Several notable things occurred. Krek of Kharhut saved the day by attaching a rope to an arrow, firing the arrow at the villain, and then pulling on the rope, causing the villain to topple into the pool containing liquid blessed by the Two Above. At another point, the characters had to cross a field of bones, that started to animate. Several fun moments occurred during this sequence, with the player characters racing across it pell mell. Another memorable moment was
When the scenario was finished for the evening, the players commented that one of the things they really liked was the mist that was all-pervasive throughout the scenario, as it came across as suitably creepy, and almost redirected suspicion from the villagers and the Necromancer. All of the players stated that they had really enjoyed the game, and were quite surprised by the simplicity of the game mechanics, and the non-typical feel of the game world, even though it was "sort of" fantasy. There were several players who came into the Desolation game from a D&D background, and rather enjoyed themselves, both in terms of the system (especially the free-form magic system), and the different feel of the game world.
By the time the evening was over, I was not only exhausted but in some serious pain in the back.
And there's Friday at CanGames. Hope folks enjoyed the read. Saturday will be covered in one of the next posts.