Gailbraithe

...wait, people play Warmachine?

Do I need to break out my Cygnar army?

I have a 300 point list I want to try out.

I think the best move is going to be to do a large order of single-sided dice and a small order of double-sided dice, possibly through that second company and probably on a pre-order only basis.

I support any solution that makes everybody happy, and this sounds like it would do just that.

BLOOD!!!!! Miles and I are playing Bloodbowl. We are having a long-awaited Elf-on-Elf all-Shadowforge Miniatures Bloodbowl game, The Woodland Animals vs ...some nameless something Elf scrubs. I'll also bring Saga, with hopes toward a second-half beat-down, possibly of a Pagan Rus variety. Or Cocaine Comboys. Or trying to rope folks into BattleWarFight! (or whatever my godsdamned generic wargame boardgame needs to be called). A name! My kingdom for a name! 

Doh!  That's what I'm supposed to be doing tonight, reading the damn rules.

My two biggest oppositions to Hamster Butt are as follows:

1) I tend to forget when my dice have a replacement symbol, and thus I know I will find myself in a position of having to explain (to a non-hamster) what the symbols  mean after I roll.  Having two replacement symbols creates the potential for arguments over cheating -- and presents the opportunity for cheating (I know I would be tempted to claim the Hamster Butt is the six if I rolled a hand heavy with hamster ass).  While having two replacement symbols would definitely be unique, I suspect the reason it would be unique is because most people recognize this potential for cheating.  I would just prefer one replacement symbol so that I can show the other player sides 1-5 and confirm the hamster is the six.

2) It's a bit juvenile and tacky.  While I know the world of wargaming is hardly one of high brow manners, I just don't want to have to explain to non-hamsters that my dice have buttholes on them.  My sense is that the number of people who would be amused by it is less than the number of people who would roll their eyes at it.  I don't want to be embarrassed by my dice.

I'll follow the same template for consistency.

 

Rutger

 

Background/History: Born to an already dying mother and absent father, Rutger was raised as one of thousands of orphaned children in the capital city of Brova. In his first few years he was granted asylum at one of the many orphanages run by the Brovan religious orders. He learned how to take care of his own under the guidance of the monks, gaining a measure of their discipline and compassion. Eventually he grew too old to be reasonably provided for by the orphanage, and parted on mutual terms.

 

Survival henceforth was day to day, and Rutger soon learned that ruthless cunning was sometimes a sad necessity outside of the orphanage's halls. The city was an unforgiving place, but Rutger soon adapted to the harsh environment, resolving to survive. One day he noticed a call-to-arms for the King's Royal Marines, a newly reinstated force that would guard the Royal Navy and its nation's trading vessels from the now rampant predation of pirates, smugglers and thieves. Rutger leaped at the chance to escape the city and joined up immediately.

 

The recruiters cared little for rank or birth, and Rutger saw more than a few glory hungry nobles get their comeuppance for expecting an easy ride to command. Rutger himself barely made it through the training. About one third of the original recruits were left after all was said and done. Every raw recruit was handed a crossbow, boarding axe, and a mantle bearing the king's colors. The newly formed unit was looked down upon by most as a group or upstarts and scoundrels, no better than their quarry, but their rapid shock tactics via close range crossbow assaults proved brutally effective at repelling would be pirates. Rutger gained no small amount of pride for the success of the Royal Marines. For the first time in his life, he was proud to be a part of the Kingdom that he served, and he did so for several years.

 

However, as the Kingdom fought well abroad, a foul darkness began to rot at it from within. Dark sorcerers, cults and rebellious nobles threatened to tear the Kingdom apart, and the King began to fear for his life. Gathering veterans from the most respected and loyal military regiments, an organization would be formed to wage secret and stealthy war against threats to the Sovereign and the Kingdom. Rutger and a few of his brethren were among those chosen. He now serves to uphold the ideals of Brova, even as it falls prey to decadence and destruction from within.

 

Personality/Motivation: Rutger is a cunning, determined individual, who will do almost anything to accomplish his missions. He is not averse to killing those who stand in his way, but has a kinder heart towards the innocent and downtrodden, especially those of his Kingdom. He maintains close ties to these lower classes, who offer him information rather freely on his next marks and tasks. He is loyal and patriotic to a fault, 

 

Quote:

 

Powers/Tactics: Rutger fights best with his crossbow at medium range, delivering a punishing volley to debilitate his foes and then rushing in to finish the job with a boarding axe, tactics well learnt in ship to ship fighting and raids against pirate lairs. He favors quick and brutal blows to critical areas, putting enemies out of their misery before they can rouse their comrades. He can duel enemies for a time, but battles go more quickly in his favor when he has support from other agents or the element of surprise and ambush. Also a fair hand with throwing knives, using them when his crossbow is out of reach or out of bolts.

 

Appearance: 6'1" with a lean, wiry and muscular form. Various scars on face and body from boarding actions. Close-cropped hair and slight stubble. Wears thick boiled leather cuirass with accompanying greaves and vambraces. Billowing lace shirt and thick cloth pants tucked underneath armor. Wears mantle from Marine service across one shoulder, but the colors are so threadbare as to be unrecognizable. Has braces of crossbow bolts strapped around one leg and one arm, as well as a brace of throwing knives across the chest.

I'm going to have to rewrite the background a bit -- Brova has been a wretched hive of corruption pretty much forever, and the establishment of religion is illegal within its borders.  I'll PM you the details.

Replacing two faces is a bad idea - the first time you roll and forget to make it clear which face is what, you'll have a potential fight over cheating.

I'd like vortex bright green/black.

The only dice we need are d6 right?

Correct!

I'm cool with Friday or Thursday.  Joey and Eli, you got a vote?

Assuming everyone gets a character to me by the end of this weekend, I can be ready to get started by the 12/13th.

Another vote for the cute dice nibbler.

Provisions and Pillowflights at Sleepover Starport.

 

On another note to people who played recently:  Do you think the Jump gates are all right, or might they be a bit strong?  I was thinking about putting a $1-2 toll on using them, maybe even trashing a $1 card (which would be advantageous in its own right).

 

They might be fine as is.  Toll gates could be a completely different thing.  Dunno.

I definitely don't think being able to trash a 1 credit card is going to make the jump gates less powerful.

I think Starport Trader would be a good name, or possibly just Starport.  Neither name is taken according to boardgamegeek. The game definitely seems to take place entirely within one star system, and the space station is definitely the central feature.  Also there definitely needs to be an option to blast other traders in radioactive rubble.

Does this work?

 

Hannewig Marcellous Canniewick

 

Background/History: Born the second son of a noble, Hannewig was set on the track to becoming a knight for his homeland so he could earn a title and estate of his own untied from inheritance. Oh his track to becoming a knight of high renown and honorable up bearing he was unaware of the political scheming that was working its way through the kingdom, more specifically the scheming of his younger brother Nico, a wizard.

After returning to the capital from attending a tournament of arms, Nico’s plans came to fruition. Hannewig found himself framed for the murder of a royal family member, his brother slain in a “border incident” and his father passing away in his sleep. His world turned upside down Hannewig found himself fleeing from his brother knights and the twisting plans of his brother.

Escaping as a merchant guard Hannewig was lost onto the world. In a state of shock he drifted from caravan to caravan until he found himself in a bustling merchant hub. His once pure and honorable heart had been twisted from treachery, betrayal and time he set himself to perfecting the methods for which to return his wraith to those who had wronged him. And so the white knight became a mercenary of vengeance.

Personality/Motivation: Hannewig is driven by a strong sense of vengeance and is waiting until he can return and give his brother what he deserves. He is willing to do almost anything to that end. He always honors his contracts and will only abandon them if he has been betrayed.  In which case he will enact part of his vengeance on them. He is darkly driven and always seems slightly distant from his body.

Quote: No trait is more justified than revenge in the right time and place.

Powers/ Tactics: In battle Hannewig will use whatever advantage he has at his disposal to opponents, and his years as a mercenary and assassin has made him stealthy and proven the power of surprise, poisons and ambush. However some fragment of his previous life holds true, Hannewig will not back down from a challenge of personal combat, nor will he interfere in a personal combat of others. He usually fights with a heavy maul (two handed) or a spiked mace and heavy shield.

Appearance: 5’5 with shaggy unkempt black hair, brown eyes. He has a beard which he keeps trim even while on the run. His usual attire is chainmail wrapped in leather with lose cloth so as to muffle the sound of his approach. When he knows combat will be inevitable he dons his old knights armor. He has removed all the previous insignias from the armor and painted the entire thing black, and a white skeleton on top of that. The only thing that he has been unable to alter (except for with paint) has been his helmet having been a family heirloom. The helm was a bascinet whose design was made to look as if flames were enshrouding the helm.

That works.

I want to play Infinity.  

Also, Jim -- Bloodbowl?  I'm totally okay with pushing it off a week, I'd like a chance to re-read the rules.  And we're using the most current version of the living rulebook, yeah?

So we are going to be playing as super heroes? or are we going to use the system for Fantasy?

We'll be using the system for fantasy.  It works for any kind of genre.  The last big campaign I ran using HERO was a sci-fi crime drama that was about 50/50 Firefly and Farscape.  I've used it for everything from a X-Files meets Call of Cthulhu campaign to four-color comic books to high fantasy.  The idea I have for this campaign will definitely be in the dark fantasy/sword and sorcery genre.  A little bit Thieve's World, a little bit Fritz Lieber, a whole lot of cults, intrigues and urban cesspool.

I'd like to join the party. I've played through some of the 2nd edition advanced Crpgs, but have always wanted to get the real deal. I agree that non-Tuesday would probably be best.

Awesome!  If VonVikee's friend is interested, we'll have a party.  And actually I can easily do a campaign for three with HERO since combats are more predictable and less swingy, and characters are so bloody over-specialized.

I would love to play a full on campaign. I am so excited...what system do you want to use? Because I have all the 2.0 advanced stuff.

If I decide to run an actual campaign, I'll be using the only system I really love -- HERO System.  The only book you'll need (and you really won't need it) is the HERO System Sidekick.  When I run HERO System, I prefer to build the characters, so I usually just have players write up a two or three paragraph description of their character and his/her background and then I translate that into rules.  HERO is an extremely, extremely complicated system to really master (the main rulebook weighs like 5 lbs and is three inches thick!), but it's pretty easy to use if you don't have to build your own character (which is why I prefer to build the characters, new players tend to create very suboptimal characters and waste tons of points).  My favorite thing about HERO is that its an effects-based point build system, so you can literally make any kind of character you want. Its far more flexible and allows for much more well-rounded characters, especially the sort of jack-of-all-trades fighter/rogue/magic-users types that are common fantasy heroes. 

And no, we're not starting Tuesday.

Hrrmm.  Need more than two players.  At least four, six would be best.  Anyone know anyone who is not a warhamster that might want to play?  How does one reach out to Bellingham gamers?

The more I've been thinking about this, the more I've been jonesing to run an actual campaign again.  It's been like four or five years since I ran a regular game and I didn't realize how much I missed DMing until i started thinking about DMing this game.

I'm down to play some Infinity and Netrunner.

Sure thing.

Looks over thread.

Well, I guess I'll bring saga then.

I will probably have x-wing, infinity and saga with me. I can bring down my Dark Age too if Loren wishes to play.

You and me, Infinity, 200 points.  How's that sound?

I could probably do it! (I have played old school DnD before though)

Yeah, I thought you'd be interested.  Joey and Kevin seemed interested too.

I was also considering doing it once a month on Tuesday nights, but it will take a really long time to finish an adventure at 1 session a month, and I think if it was more than one session a month it would cut into too much wargaming.

So apparently many Warhamsters have never had a chance to play Old School D&D, which is a serious shame.  I want to correct that.  I'm thinking every other week, 6 to 10 pm, on some night other than Tuesday.  Thursday or Friday would probably be best.  Game will probably run 4 to 8 sessions.  I haven't settled on which system I want to use, I'm considering either Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG or Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  They're pretty similar, both very well done OED&D games.  There is a free version of Lamentations available as a PDF, and its a little closer to true Basic D&D, so I may go that way rather than throw n00bs into the deep water that is DCC's truly insane magic system.

Who all is interested?