RPGs
Age of Conan gets a free trial
So I’m not a massively-multiplayer kind of guy especially – I like the idea but I have a job, kids and other things that mean that they’re not suited to my lifestyle. I pelayed a little EVE Online and that was it. But I heard good things about Age of Conan and apparently there’s now a free trial. According to Economical Gamer you need to register and download by the end of the year (which is why this isn’t just a link post kind of thing) so get stuck in and drive your enemies before you…
Cælin the Huscarl – Nick’s Character Backgrounds
So I’ve been going through old PCs (as in the computers) and found a few old PC backgrounds (as in player characters). I’m posting this up in aprt to get a bit more RPG content here but also to keep a record of the characters. I’ve been meaning to do this for a bit, so here it goes! At the moment I just have fluff but will try to post stats as well.
Cælin thus Huscarl was a PC in a shortish game I played with the Oakleigh Roleplayers Club. You can get most of the background from the campaign wiki but basically it was a Dark Ages game played with the HarnMaster rules, using the GM Kyle’s own setting.
Cælin is a young huscarl in the service of the Eorlderman. At age 7, as with all Bronding children, he was fostered out to learn a trade. In Cælin’s case this was to Offa, his mother’s brother. Offa was a huscarl and he trained young Cælin in the ways of battle.
There was little doubt that Cælin would become a warrior – he was a strong but slow witted child, with none of the mental spark of his brothers and sisters. 4th in line, there was no way he would inherit property and he had no flare for craft. Cælin liked to hit things and so a warrior he became. When he came of age he inherited his uncle’s franciska and was given a ring byrnie by the Eorlderman. These are his most treasured possessions and he keeps them in immaculate condition.
But for all his dullness, Cælin was well liked amongst the clan. He had a sense of fun, a willingness to do almost anything, and he delighted in eating and drinking all kinds of things. Where ever mead flowed and meat was roasting, there was Cælin, looking for a story to hear (for he had no talent in that regard) or a woman to fondle. His like of drink and his strength meant that Cælin could find himself in trouble, as he was easily led, but so far nothing to untoward has happened.
Of some concern to his parents and Offa is Cælin’s friendship with Alric, the seneschal’s assistant. Alric has always been a reliable source for Cælin to get things from the larders and Cælin has rewarded this with stanch loyalty. For those who know Alric’s reputation for dubious moral sense, Cælin’s friendship seems misplaced. But Cælin’s reputation for slow wittedness has helped disguise the fact that he has fairly lax morals himself.
Finally though, Cælin has a secret which none know but Offa. Once, while hunting near the Henna, Offa and Cælin saw a gigantic black boar with but one tusk staring at them from the edge of the woods. Thinking it to be the Mæstbar of legend, the two hunters charged heedlessly into the forest. While in pursuit, Cælin tripped and fell down a steep slope, hitting his head hard upon a rock. When Offa scrambled down to check on him he found Cælin in the grip of some uncontrollable fit. The moment passed, but Cælin lives in fear that another blow may set him off again, this time either in battle or in front of the other clan members. Cælin believes it is a curse upon him from the goblins who haunt that forest. Offa has agreed to keep his secret, but worries that it to do so may be a mistake. For Cælin, the dark woods of the Henna hold a hidden fear. As a result, nether have ever told of the time they saw the Mæstbar.
Linky linky linky linky LINKS
Sorry for last week’s lack of links and apologies in advance for the lack of links next week!
- Mark Charan Newton thinks sci-fi books are dying. I tend to agree.
- Why fandom owes even more to H.P. Lovecraft than we realised.
- A man has ‘beaten’ WoW. Sort of (via Boing Boing)
- Dollhouse battles were about sex. So says Whedon – Fox will never tell.
- Real life vampire killing kits!
- Using Microsoft’s Surface to play D&D – more footage.
Links? On a Thursday?
Who would have thunk it?
- Charles Stross writes on the issues to do with spaceships.
- Lev Grossman chooses his top 5 fantasy books of all time! (via i09.com)
- Something Awful dissects the art of Traveller.
- Paizo are having another of their RPG Superstar design competitions.
I think the internet is playing Dragon Age too…
Service Temporarily Suspended Due to Dragon Age
Not exactly, but more or less all my geek time is being spent on Dragon Age at the moment, and I suspect Sophie’s is too. I’m on the PC, she’s on the Xbox. I’m sure thoughts will come but right now? Too busy playing…
It’s Thursday. Want some links?
- I personally don’t especially care about covers – I choose books based on reviews and previous work and I think most SFF covers are rubbish. But some people care a great deal. Here’s a post at A Dribble of Ink about the changes between editions of Mark Charan Newton’s Nights of Villjamur. The comments are pretty interesting if you like that sort of thing, with all sorts weighing in, including Newton’s editor.
- Filming of the Games of Thrones pilot has wrapped. Now we wait to see what the chances of a actual series are.
- Sex advice from D&D players. Actually serious advice, not a parody.
- The AV club’s best 15 video games of the noughties.
- Next time you’re at a loss for PC or NPC, try looking up this print of Characters for an Epic Tale. (via Boing Boing)
- The BBC discusses committing war crimes in video games. (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
- The Times covers ‘adult gamers’. Shock, horror!
- And, finally, Kotaku celebrates World of Warcraft’s 5th birthday by finding out from people why they’ve never played it. The intro where the writer discusses how it just doesn’t live up to tabletop gaming experiences is the most interesting one to me.
Ars Magica – back on the wagon
Yeehaa! First gaming session in some time last night and it was a game I’ve wanted to play ever since I heard about it: Ars Magica.
(In the interests of fairness, I should point out that there was no wagons in the game, despite the headline and the ‘yeehaa’)
I’m not going to go into a blow by blow account of the session, but I do have a few things to say. › Continue reading
Thursday LINK DAY!!!
- Does your barbarian or dwarf warrior need a more interesting weapon? Try this out.
- What war is really like.
- Rising star Mark Charan Newton interviews established tie-in writer Dan Abnett about writing tie-in fiction. I’ve you’ve never read Eisenhorn you should – it maybe a Warhammer 40k book but it’s also excellent! And very cheap now it’s in a omnibus format.
- How we write about the Apocalypse has changed in the last 20 years. And here’s an interesting piece about how Sci-Fi looked at the Cold War. (Both from io9.com which is now on my RSS reader)
- The Brainy Gamer get into why Dragon Age is filled with “RPG things”.
- Bioware on what they’ve learned from Bethesda.
- The AV Club keep up the good work with the latest Gateways to Geekery on Philip K. Dick.
- And, finally, The Times online has 70 facts you didn’t know about Marvel Comics in honour of Marvel’s 70th birthday. There’s a bunch of other articles there too.
Running your game outside of the session
Gabe from the webcomic Penny Arcade blogged the other day about how his D&D 4e game runs outside of the weekly gaming session. The basic idea is that they continue small situations outside of the game, including skill challenges through a custom online dice roller.
Here’s the example of their emails. It’s pretty GM led, but there’s no reason why it has to be, and seems like a good way to keep the interest in the game high.
I’ve tried to do a few things simialr to this in the past and it’s dependent on player engagement (and, to be fair, player spare time). In my experience there are players who rock at this and people who won’t even bother to respond. Gabe’s lucky he’s got a good group who want to keep going. And of course, the GM is hugely responsible for the level of engagement they players have with the game. But I think it’s a dream of every GM to get players who just want to keep the game going, even between sessions.
More and more real life RPG inspirations
Sophie revived our real life RPG inspirations the other day, I thought I’d follow up with some links of my own.
The first two come from Wired.com’s pretty fascinating Danger Room blog about the world of the military and national security.
- The US is thinking of starting up a special assasination squad – right or wrong (and I lean towards wrong) it would make a pretty fun game.
- While you’re running your assasination squad game, perhaps you could use some interesting spy tools.
It’s not from Danger Room, but the CIA has recently declassified their Manual of Trickery and Deception as well. It’s apparently all about using stage magic for spy purposes, but imagine if it had real magic as well?