Au revoir!

Well there goes the last of September and the first month of spring as well as the first month of blogging about gaming.  I hope, next month, to keep more up to date with the sessions we play here and encourage more of my gamers to take part in the PHB blog as well as more info about the various games, their settings and background and inspirations.  That's it short and sweet
Cheers
Steve

ps - hope nobody (read: anyone who actually reads this) didn't think I was giving up already!
 ;)
 Sleep well and keep adventuring!

Its time again ...

Hi there, almost the end of September so here's the monthly question-
Mensis Seeking #2:
What was the most important piece of equipment (magical or otherwise) your character found/was given/ bought/won/stole? What was special about it?
Cheers
Steve

All Timey Whimey

Hey there, almost the end of September huh?  Lot happens in a short space of time.
So , originally this was a place to create a discourse about some of the games we play down here and some of our previous experiences.  Well I guess I sort of have done some of the latter so its about time I wrote about the former.
Well the big game, Barra, in 1st ed AD&D  has gotten under way to a good start.  The group have managed to weather the worst winter in Skagin and deal with a Wendigo to boot.  Of course the hints were there - DON'T GO OUTSIDE!, but hey adventurers do what adventurers do - in other words they went out.  So whether by luck or design (the Magic User and Group Leader chucked what the Wendigo wanted at the beast, placating it)  they manged, after getting attacked by the beast and getting dealt a severe blow to collected egos, to resolve the challenge.  Great really considering the body count from the civilians involved got up to four before the group finished this arc of the story.

The other games have been on hold  as we are exploring some of the other players games they wanted to run.  Our friend from Finland is playing out his ad hoc wargaming story, Nuriel Stormchaser (over there in Members, hint hint!!) has started the Shadowrun game and , although some one hogged most of the action ( why are you all looking at me!?!?) I think we all enjoyed where it's going.

On the horizon is a new extension to the superhero game, Sentinels, based in 1995, 2015 and then 3015 AD.  This time we'll be trying out a new system which I purchased when I was in Melbourne, Oz from Milsims ( great gaming store by the way) this year called Infinite Power.  I will put down some thoughts on the system over on P.H.B. (along with a stat out of the Wendigo from above if anyone would like to use it).  Anyway the system seems to support almost any concept easily, which at times, in some systems,  say the same, requires a lot of pokery jiggery. 
Recently on Skype I meet another player, from Brisbane, Oz who was interested in playing with the group who also wanted to play in a game of Pathfinder, which I have called Shad'RaHar.  So thats on the list this Thursday night and then Sunday its back to the sci fi Outland game.  More on the progress of each game later.  Have fun, adventure boldly and be well
Cheers
Steve

And so it goes...

Hi there once again.  Well due to the overwhelming response.. er.. hmm, well yes.  I hope at sometime, somewhere, in some dimension this is read beyond the small group that have been so kind to indulge me thus far.
So on to it.
Well reports on my various gaming groups are slow in coming, due mainly in part to the groups being a little disjointed of late, and also in my own slackness.  Once we get back into things I hope we can start posting about the goings on of each story.  I guess a brief idea of what each is doing etc could prove useful.
One group plays via Skype and plays three main games ;

          1: Keryl, which is a fantasy based game, home-brew world that is a combination of Swords &Sorcery/Sci-fi (well there goes a little bit of hidden info for the players)/Lovecraftian/Pulp styles.  It is played in Castle and Crusades 4th Ed with some house rules around class and races.  It is hoped that the group will eventually be able to travel the whole world and experience the three main 'cultural attitudes', along with the various monsters , tricks and trap (may even be a little magic thrown in for good measure)
           2: Outlander, a sci fi game reminiscent of Blade Runner, Outland (Connery) and Total Recall (Arnie's version), with a touch of old school Traveler feel, played in the excellent Stars without Numbers system by Kevin Crawford from Sine Nomine Publishing.  They have 8 sectors to travel through and explore.  Their starting point was to steal their previous boss's ship ( they were couriers) after he was 'mysteriously killed' and his corporation was taken over.
           3: Lastly they are playing a super hero based game called the Sentinels ( although that isn't the name of their group) set roughly in an alternative late 50's setting.  We are using another excellent system called Mystery Men, created by John Stater of Land of Nod fame.

We play several other games, one player referees Dungeonslayers while we will be playing a Shadowrun 1st Ed game very soon refereed by a different player.  We also have a new-to-the-world of gaming player who is trying out his own system.

A second group (composed of some players from the first group and some others) are playing in an old gaming world of my design called Barra.  Its been around since 1988, has gone through 1st, 2nd, 3.5, Osric and Castles and Crusades systems.  We have gone full circle and this incarnation is played in 1st Ed AD&D. Because of the age of this world the various groups and players over the intervening 24+ years have played in almost every corner of this world.  At present we have returned to focus on the goings on on a small island in the far north with a basic Norse/Finnish/Celtic feel.  Its mainly gritty with the odd bit of high fantasy thrown in to spice things up a little.

Lastly I have a small face to face group of three that play in Greyhawk, again in 1st Ed AD&D.  The setting is in the Wild Coast and is played out a few years before the Battle of Emridy Meadows . They play multiple characters (a total of 7 adventurers at present so the schizophrenia that is evident at times is very entertaining.)

So you can see I favour the older systems a lot and enjoy their particular challenges and style over more current systems (although we have had a good share of those too!)

Well that's about it for now.  Next time I hope to test your patience a little more with some further background about some of the games and experiences myself and players have  had through the eighties.

Cheers for now
Steve