The Roleplay of Dylan

Caribbean Map

I began work on the map for the next pirate campaign session. The Pirates were just rushing out of Port Royal after a close escape with the Governor. They only have about 12 days left of rations – They need to stop at some nearby ports.

The outline:

The finished product:

Toob Pirates to the Rescue

The other day while April and I were out shopping, we stopped at Art & United Education store. April went in to look for an easel for my daughter when she sent me a text. “They have those pirates you are looking for in here”

Sweet. I had been looking for Toob Pirates for about two weeks now and I had hit every Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Walmart, Meijers and every odd store that could have had them trying to find a tube or two.

I picked up a couple of tubes and start getting them together for the players.

Here is Skivver:

Here is Beautiful James:

Here is Angry Flint:

Here is John York:

Here is Safara (if you look really close you can see that it is a darker version of Skivver)

Yes, I know the photos are blurry. My iphone would focus on them in all of the light and closeness. But I think you can get some of the ideas of how they look. I hope the players enjoy them. There are a couple of extras that I will thrown in for NPCs or equipment for thier ship.

My First Game Master Session

It has taken me about a week to come down off the adrenalin rush that I was on after running my first role playing game. As you may have seen in other posts or on twitter, that I had been getting ready to run a Pirates d20 campaign. Normally, I’m not a nervous person unless I’m getting ready to make a work presentation or speak in public events – but I guess that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed being the newbie player turned GM. I wanted to make sure that I was up to their level and that they all had a good time playing.

Leading up to game time, my nerves went into overdrive. I didn’t eat a full meal and I started to pace. My wife, April, was starting to make fun of me saying things like “I’ve never seen you so nervous” “Oh come on, eat your dinner and quit being such a wuss!” Those were some of the kinder comments – ok, she wasn’t really that mean… 

Thoughts kept creeping into my head – “Am I prepared enough?” “Am I going to railroad them?” “What if they don’t like the story?”

Once I got to Ray’s house, I started settling down and my nerves started to disappear. I had a couple of pregens for some of the players that didn’t have characters already made and all of the players really liked them. Nerves calming down even more at this point. Then the game started, I feel like I had a lot more notes than some of the other guys that have ran games before. However, I wanted to make sure that I got all of the plot points out there and not forget to get them out to the players.

From the very beginning the players were ready to take a whole other direction than what I had laid out, so they were already testing my ability to ad-lib. There was a meeting setup to give the players a task of seeking out a shipwreck that all sorts of mysteries surrounding it. After I gave the players the introduction hook, I wanted them to go to the nearest tavern and start have them investigating and look for some rumors hoping to get them to accept the meeting the following morning. However, the players were all ready to load up and start searching for ships to start attacking without even getting the goal to search for the shipwreck.

I had to throw in my first railroad, if you would call it that because of the initial steps. I threw a couple of old shipmates heading to the bar and they asked the players to join them for drinks. In the end, I don’t think I pushed it too hard because they accepted the offer. If they wouldn’t have accepted, I was thinking about how to get the plot points back in the mix – maybe a ship encounter that the Captain on the other ship give them the details from the meeting or something like that. They took my bait and ended up going to the meeting and headed out seeking out the shipwreck.

My issue for the next session will be figuring out how to get the players to take a captive NPC back home when I wasn’t planning on them capturing her. But I really like what they did because they are role-playing pirates and that is what pirates would have done.

As the game had progressed, I grew more comfortable and I am glad that I chose to GM. I think I’m going to grow to enjoy it as much as being a player. I know I still want to be a player and I think I will reach my objective of being a better player because of my decision to GM.

Update: You can find a recap of my campaign at Obsidian Portal – Scarborough’s Fate Campaign

My first GM experierence coming soon

I’ve been interested in getting into tabletop roleplaying for just over a year now. I got hooked up with a great group to game with about eight or nine months now and have experienced several different games and game mechanics since joining them.

I kept asking myself how I could be a better player in order to help out the group. After some research, all signs pointed me to look at the other side of the screen. To understand how to be a better player, I should understand what a Gamemaster/Dungeonmaster is trying to do.

So, I took that information and pondered it for the last couple of months. I finally volunteered to step up and run a few games. My first attempt will be some swashbuckling adventures this Saturday night where the players will hit the high seas looking for treasure, booty, and the joy of swinging across decks with sword fighting all around them.

I am really looking forward to being the GM and I hope I can do the players proud. I’ve got a four session short campaign that I’m looking to run. I just hope my brain doesn’t freeze up when trying to call up details and give the players a bad experience. I’ve got plenty of notes and stats that will be close by, but a nagging fear in my head that I will end up railroading them in some fashion.

If I can get through this Saturday, I will probably keep going beyond that and want to GM more types of games. I have several thoughts for Star Wars stuff I’d like to run as well, but I will leave that for another post.

Wish me luck! My nerves are going to need it.

Harrowing Halls D&D Tile Set

I stopped by my friendly local gaming shop as I had heard rumors that the new tile set was out. Lo and behold, there it was sitting comfortably on the shelf.

Harrowing Halls – the first tile set with 3d elements. I had seen some preview pictures before i had picked these up, so I knew what to expect. However, I was not expecting the puzzle that came with it. In past sets, both D&D and Star Wars Saga, it was pretty easy to imagine the set together. For Harrowing Halls, the floor element was pretty easy, but the skill challenge came in during the construction o the 3D parts. Once I figured out how the pieces went together, the set became easier to use. I used the sample dungeon when putting together my first map. The sample dungeon did not include all of the pieces included in the set, so I was lost as I tried to figure them out.

The tiles took shape and my sample dungeon was looking great. I can see the potential for more 3D elements in tiles because this set included tables, stairs, doors and a red curtain. Other sets may include items like chairs and altars.

I will more than likely use this in my d20 pirate campaign and see how every one liked these tiles.

I have included some pictures of the set and the last picture is of some parts that I still need to figure out what they do.

I would recommend this set if you are into that. For the non-tile users, I’d still recommend it for something different and no where near as expensive as the Dwarven Forges that I’ve been drooling over.

Guess where I’m blowing $20

I was catching up on a backlog of old news feeds and I came across the following video:

Guess who is going to pick up these games as soon as they come out?

If you said me, then you are right! I love old school final fantasy games! After VII, I never got into them any more.

Maybe I’ll do a quick review when Apple/Square Enix final release them.