Winter War 2011...

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    • Winter War 2011...

      After living in Champaign-Urbana for nearly six years I've managed to get the time off to attend Winter War 2011. Here's some details:

      winterwar.org/

      I'm scheduled to run 1 Shard event but I'll have my Shard goodies on hand at all times if an opportunity to run a quickie one-shot presents itself:

      Saturday Evening
      A Matter of Honor
      A daring band of freebooter zoics new to the big city find themselves ensnared in the intrigues of the local slavers guild, unscrupulous airship captains, ancient curses, dastardly tyrants, and most dangerous of all - familial entanglements. Welcome traveler to Dardunah: World of the False Dawn. Indulge your taste for the exotic as you play an anthropomorphic animal on an alien world cut from the rich tapestry of Indian & Arabian mythology. All materials provided including pregenerated characters. Prizes generously provided by the fine folks at Shard Studios. Shard
      Younger Players Welcome
      6 Players
      Joseph Wolf

      I've run the scenario before and it's threatening to be a bit of a blockbuster.

      It would be wonderful to see some of ya'll there!

      >>ReaperWolf
    • RE: Winter War 2011...

      Sounds great!

      And it sounds like the maps and dice got to you as planned...

      Let us know how it goes! Also, if you ever have the chance to write up the adventure as a module that can be shared, please post it here on the forums for others to enjoy as well!

      I'd personally LOVE to read it and run it for others...

      Scottie ^^
    • Phew!

      The fat lady has sung, stick a fork in me, I'm done. :)

      Winter War 2011 is at my rudder and I'm still a little bushed.

      I only budgeted one Shard demo at WW 2011 but in the future I'll diversify a bit and maybe run another. Mostly I pushed HARP from Iron Crown Enterprises of which two of my three scheduled events went.

      Winter War is the longest running gaming con in the midwest. At last count it's been running for 37 years. It attracts a pretty diverse crowd although interestingly there were no World of Darkness or cosplayers. In fact I don't remember any of the dealers selling weapons, fetish wear, or gamer nick-knacks.

      Well it's a small con with only three dealers and one local artist busking for opportunities to do character sketches.

      The attendees were very nice, by and large. There was one unfortunately encounter I had my first night running HARP. The player was paranoid and kind of crazed, his in-game rudeness to NPCs and the other players was pretty typical of what you find in between the pages of Knights of the Dinner Table. The player in question was a ruthless win at all costs sort of player who felt it necessary to bring his at home campaign shenanigans to the table and became cross with the other players "didn't get it". He quoted Monty Python, took all sorts of liberties, skulked about and made a jerk of himself to the point where the other players started to ignore him. Oh well, it takes all kinds and he enjoyed himself. As for myself, the other two players deserve a round of applause for putting up with Mr. Personality's boorish behavior. He went away happy so there ya go.

      As for my Shard game, two of the players from HARP returned this time Noelle with her hubby Brian. Stephen, a fellow I work with at Volition Inc. here in Champaign Illinois, returned as well and the trio brought a bunch of positive energy. The game was slated for Saturday afternoon-evening which was sort of a problem owing to the many Pathfinder and Living D&D 4e adventures running at the same time.

      The players were introduced to setting and system, I've been working on a quick but flavorful spiel I give the players to inject them quickly into the setting. For most westerners, games like Shard can be a problem because it's so exotic and alien to their 20th century liberal sensibilities. Still, they dove right in. I taught them the system by having them attacked by a marauding cistern creeper, sort of a sea serpent meets a lobster. The beastie kept em on their feet as they battled the beast from atop shattered pillars and crumbling stonework down in the bowels of a dead Sarpah city northeast of Tiari in the Isvarate of Tishinia. After escaping the tomb, this time I focused on their escape instead of having an undead mystic and his skeletal guardians lurking in the treasury, the PCs ran afoul of the tribesmen waiting for them outside the ruin. The anole tribesmen were the very loyal servants of the Sarpah and once their masters were brought down, they took over a custodianship over the ruined city. They've degenerated into savage tribals more or less occupying the same niche of headhunters complete with warpaint and feathered headdresses. As the PCs fled they were pursued by a trio of enormous flying mounts ridden by 3-4 anoles each. A cool aerial battle ensued as the players sped through the tall sharp grasses astride their aquatic chinti in the marsh by the flyers. They manged to make it to their small air-sloop just in time for a few score of angry anoles swarmed in. The bottom of the ship was peppered with arrows and darts as they sailed on the breeze back towards the foothills and Tiari: The City of Blue Roofs beyond.

      They were met by a collegue of their master, a decadent Sunborn camel with exotic tastes in wives, wines, and sinister contacts with the seedy underbelly of Tiari. After a few nights of feasting and gift exchanging, the PCs set out to accomplish their mistress' mission. She wished the PCs visit an old boon companion of her youth when she was an airsailor. A career sailor of more than 20 years, he and his wife now live in a palatial manor in one of the finest districts in the city.

      The players really indulged their curiosities as they explored the house and their hosts eventually hitting upon a number of clues that all was not right in the house. Their hostess was fussy and socially ambitious. She was born to an influential tradehouse but she had the good fortune of marrying above her station to a sunborn. She used her contacts and skills to invest his earnings and built a very prosperous life for herself and her family. She bought her way into the finest circles and she even managed to get her son into university where he trained as a physician to the wealthy.

      As the players soon found out, not all was as well as it seemed. The son was restless and like his father craved adventure. Her husband, had become addicted to a potent narcotic and his supplier and blackmailer was a smuggler and slaver who'd been hitting the family up for favors and loans for years. The son had recently fallen under the influence of the slaver and smuggler and was convinced to escape his home inside a carpet presumably so he could indulge his taste for adventure in the company of a more seasoned explorer. What he didn't count on was being sold into slavery.

      His cohort and servant was also sold but when the came with criminal contacts flexed his influence, the assassins guild members slithered (literally) about the city in search of clues while the players convinced/bribed the harbormaster to close the aerial-ports of the city hoping to trap the slaver and his cohorts in the city. They succeeded but because of time there was no final showdown in a seedy tavern.

      The players would have gotten much farther but they were having a ball interacting with the named NPCs. The hours zoomed by and before you knew it we had to wrap up the scenario before they got to the floating island and prison for a dastardly tyrant from centuries before. Oh well. There was a cool chase scene as the players accepted their assistance of the camel who graciously provided an airship. Once the enemy ship was in sight, the turtle mystic summoned up water spouts to slow the enemy ship and stilled the air in their sails allowing their own ship to pull alongside and board her. After a thorough search and threats of violence, the enemy captain turned over his cargo of slaves and other contraband, the youth was returned fatigued but otherwise unharmed, and his captors agreed to return to Tiaria to present evidence against the slaver. The headsman's axe fell, a nest of slavers was wiped out, and the youth was returned to his family.

      The players managed to heal a major breach in the family, the father gave up the drug with the apothecary skills of the PC mystic, the son was allowed to return to university with his parents' permission to volunteer to tend to the needy for a few months out of the year, and as a result of their actions, the PCs' mistress awarded them increase in rank within her household which she planned to establish in the city.

      Fade out.

      The players had a ball and we could have gone much, much later but I had a 9:00 AM Hollow Earth Expedition game on Sunday.

      I may when time allows post an outline listing the antagonists and NPC allies along with some brief descriptions of the flow of events and locales. I'm working on another paying project while working mandatory overtime at the day job but I'll see what I can cook up.

      Regards,

      >>ReaperWolf