Archive for Roleplaying

Adaptation, and Bloodied’s ramblings thereon

Posted in The Witterings of Bloodied with tags , , , on 9 May 2014 by bloodied

Tea: as this was written at work, which has the same kitchen equipment level as a Siberian gulag, no tea, just Pepsi Max, aka the mead of comedy

It has occurred to me, in my rare moments of deep thought, that there is a common thread between the two games I have GM’ed (yes, I’m counting that as a verb), beyond the obvious me. Both A Song of Ice and Fire and The Dresden Files are games that come from existing source material, and expansive source material at that. As a GM (admittedly only part-time GM in the case of Dresden Files), this creates both opportunities and obstacles, some inherent and some self-inflicted. We’ll be discussing these issues in greater detail in an upcoming podcast, featuring myself, Mawdrigen and Nyx, but I wanted to take the opportunity to write down a few of my own thoughts.

Well, that and Mawdrigen keeps telling me off for not writing more articles for the site.
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All those other games Pt 2

Posted in Actual Play, The Witterings of Mawdrigen with tags , , on 18 July 2013 by Mawdrigen

Rogue Trader: “The Darkfall Vale

It started long before it really started. The Line of Saro and the O’Verlan clan had always been at odds, but it was when the Line of Saro discovered the secret that it all erupted into violence. The O’Verlan clan had been infiltrated by Genestealers, but finding the information out and using it to wreck the clan are two different things. Talis Saro heir to the line was forced to flee the destruction of his home-world as the O’Verlan’s forces attacked and destroyed it. Taking the evidence of their genetic befoulment (a pure strain Ggenestealer in a stasis bubble), and everything of worth he could load into the Seleucaemi Treasurer, he fled to the other side of the galaxy ending up in the Angaman sector, carrying pilgrims from one part of the sector to a newly reclaimed world. It was a job to get money, but it went HORRIBLY wrong.

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All those other games.

Posted in Actual Play, The Witterings of Mawdrigen with tags , on 18 July 2013 by Mawdrigen

In the “What the Fuck have we been doing in role-playing” we keep mentioning all these other games that are going on. Most of the Cult are either my players or people I play along with so I thought I’d let you have a quick look at the other games that are going on.

Call of Cthulhu: “The Blood of the Father”

When the game started I had everyone roll on a table to see what they looked like. There were many jokes about how “everyone had the same nose”, or similar hair. Then a Turkish cultist tried to murder the two upper class twins, and after a horrible stabbing which nearly caused Michael Dalley to die in the first two minutes of the campaign, they subdued him and found a list of the other potential victims. Which strangely consisted of the other PC’s and one other name. The Dalleys managed to gather up everyone, including an elderly ex soldier Horace Dolby, a middle aged bare knuckle boxer Henry Compton, a middle aged “Adventuress” Sonia House, and a young news reporter Rowena Tower. The last name on the list a Daniel Delmorte, was an artist and as they headed to his house to warn him came face to face with two Turkish Cultists in front of his house. Given how deadly the single cultist was they decided not to attack them, but when another cultist ran out of Delmorte’s house and the others ran off they realised they had made a terrible mistake. They found Delmorte horribly murdered (no eyes and with a flayed head), and some strange paintings of something like Medusa, that had a strange effect on all those who found women attractive (which included Sonia) rooting them in place with it’s beauty. The took the painting and several clues and headed to Sonia’s house. Michael Dalley however quickly succumbed to an opium addiction.

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Unhallowed Metropolis Lost Inheritance Session 1

Posted in Actual Play, First 100, Podcasts, The Witterings of Mawdrigen with tags , , , on 12 July 2013 by Mawdrigen

Episode 5

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Welcome to the very special Fifth Episode of the Cult of Tea and Dice Podcast! This is an Actual Play of Unhallowed Metropolis (Unhallowed Metropolis Website) the Tesla-punk Victorian Zombie Apocalypse game!

In this episode the new Lord Leigh, having had a thoroughly enjoyable time at his father’s funeral receives a terrible shock that leads to him having to take rooms in a derelict Coaching inn in the East End borough of Limehouse. How will he cope, out among the normal people? Will he be able to reclaim his inheritance? Will Corinne his mourner ever get paid? Who does Lottie keep talking to?

Finally the most important question… Why is this Gin SO BAD?

NB: This podcast contains swearing, and also themes of an adult nature. Oh and Britishness, lots and lots of Britishness.

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The Cult Talks about Larp and Computer games

Posted in First 100, Podcasts with tags , on 28 June 2013 by Mawdrigen

Episode 4 – NB: This Pod cast includes Swearing and also themes of an adult nature, like gaming and roleplaying, as Such it is “Explicit”

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The Fourth episode in which the Cult discusses Larp (Contrasting CP and Empire) and numerous computer games (Planetside 2 and Bioshock Infinite amongst others) and I attempt somewhat unsuccessfully to keep my lungs in my chest. Please do feel free to send us comments! We also discuss our upcoming Game of Thrones Actual Play campaign briefly.

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Dresden Files: Virtual Insanity – And Now The Epic Conclusion…

Posted in The Witterings of Bloodied with tags , on 2 June 2013 by bloodied

Tea of the Session: Twinning English Breakfast. I’m not one for variety.

Recorded: There are AIM logs, but those are classified to protect the innocent. And the guilty. Mostly the guilty. The guilty being me.

Well, this took some time to write up. I did warn you all I was prone to procrastination, though in my defense there were some extenuating circumstances, namely Shuck’s player moving state and then getting work that unfortunately ruled him out of participation for the foreseeable future, though he has since been able to return. Thankfully we were able to find another player to step in, but only once my GMing stint was over. So, after a 2 week break, the story continued as a two hander with Chesmu the wereraccoon and Tyler the apprentice wizard seeking to solve the mystery of Malcolm Langford’s murder and strange conspiracy surrounding his employer’s latest game. To this end, they went with the time-honoured PC tradition of breaking and entering.

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Anatomy of a Roleplaying Group.

Posted in The Witterings of Mawdrigen with tags , on 7 April 2013 by Mawdrigen

I’ve spent an inordinate amounts of time with Role-playing Groups in the capacity of GM over the years. Every group is different, and yet at the same time every group is somewhat similar.

So in this post I’m going to add a few of my observances.

Nb: I do not claim to have invented any of these terms (although I think some might be new) so some of this might reiterate things you have seen before. These are just the categories I have spotted and filed players in over the years. Please note that most players fall into more than one category and usually that means the various bits balance each other out, it’s when someone starts strongly leaning into one category that the problems start.

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