Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Laughing Tower - Intermission

If you've been reading The Laughing Tower play reports, cheers. It has been both a blast running the old game for a stellar group of players, but also informative about where my houserules work and where they don't.

However, it has been a bit difficult organizing since we are spread out around the world. Two of us here in Japan, a handful in Switzerland, one in the UK, I think. Also, some have had vacations and work overlapping with the game. My work has also been heating up, and I just passed the halfway mark of the semester.

Time for a little break, I think. I hope we can resume in a few weeks, as the big success has been the creation of a very dynamic relation between players and the gameworld due to my deep dive into the Elric books coupled with the Life Purpose houserule.

This is the message I have sent to players over Discord:

"Lord Soo has decided you are no match for Pan Tang at current strength. Using the island as a base, he is reading his grimoires to help further his plan. He has found that a cave on the island is known to periodically become a portal to other planes based on stellar alignment. His intention is twofold - 1) establish a base on the Isle of Purple Towns to gain funds and allies to confront Pan Tang and return Melnibone to its former glory and 2) travel to the cave periodically to gain extraplanar power and information."

"In game terms, this means I am preparing an A plot and several B plots. The A plot is the adventures from Sea Kings of Purple Towns. We'll begin with the intro scenario, in which the PCs establish a base of operations in Menii through dirty dealings. At the same time, I will have B plots prepared - tonight, I had planned to send the PCs through the portal to quest for a cure for Mallia. I will also prepare the sidequests for Gansaiyah and others should they wish to pursue their Life Purpose, Oracle response, or wishing well vision. Succeeding in a sidequest will net the character a point of Life Experience, which as noted can be used for various things (increase an attribute, get a skill point, heal a major wound, or have a miraculous escape from death)."

See you on the flip side!




Sunday, June 5, 2022

Blog Discovery

 Just stumbled across this blog.

Good stuff.

https://refereeingandreflection.wordpress.com/2022/05/20/thoughts-on-putting-a-star-trek-campaign-to-rest/


More 'hidden' Stormbringer abilities

As I've noted before, Chaosium has a weird habit of spreading necessary information for characters all over the rulesbook. I just discovered that Nobles can have 1D6 trained hawks should they desire. It was tucked neatly into the bestiary under Hawks.

Sigh.

I may have to do a complete reread and tease all these hidden nuggets out.