Redwolf's Journal (continued)

So I finally finished the skimming/editing through logs of the old Exalted game, sending copies to some of the players. I found a great many more - I had emailed them off my work computer at the time and never pulled them down off email. Still, my coverage isn't complete due to failed logging or absence or whatever, but most of the main points are there. About the only major event missing I noticed was the finish of the fight with the First and Forsaken Lion. I came up with some 114 primary session logs. Whee. While most of my previous comments stand, I have to acknowledge another aspect of the pacing that made things difficult. Not only did I feel the drive to do things rather than socialize increase as goals piled up, but the feeling I got from others - both IC and OOC - was that sitting still was boring. A couple days of "downtime" for the characters, and people were going stir-crazy wanting to move. I'm not sure if that was the other players' reaction to ...

A friend recently reached out and asked for logs of the Exalted game that we were in online a few years ago, which has had me going through them - partly to clean them up a bit, and partly to remember myself. It's... interesting. I can see the life I felt in the early sessions. I remember really liking my character and looking forward to accomplishing great things in a world of spirit-gods and virtually-immortal chosen. There were a lot of neat characters and Exalted is full of "awesome" if you can wade through the mechanics. Unfortunately, I've noticed a few gaps in my log coverage. Tainted Whispers, a fairly important NPC, made her first appearance in between a couple, so following my logs she just sort of "appears." I'm also missing some of the "duels" with another circle, which is sort of sad. And I can also see the cracks in the game. While I liked Five Days Darkness and his gift to the PCs was useful, he swept through and totally i...

So after some discussion about the Exalted game, we've decided to suspend it indefinitely. Not a very good stopping point, but we were looking at several sessions worth of heavy combat, and when that's the part of the game that drags the most, it's disheartening. No one I heard really disagreed with what I felt were the main problems. And instead, we're replacing it with a Shadowrun (4th Edition) game. I'm not entirely convinced that's going to be better from a mechanical perspective, but we'll see. It has opposed rolls and lots of fiddly options in combat, but that may not be as bad as the heavy use of flurries, charms, and perfect defenses. I haven't played this generation of the game (and I'd describe most of the SR3 experience as 'Shadowrun Lite'), but one thing definitely hasn't changed: character creation takes frickin' forever. Several hours over a few days with aid of a chargen program and I still had a moment of "wait,...

Exalted : It's been a while since I reported on this game. The group had returned to Gem. Two circle members left. In return, we get an abyssal. "Sorrow" for short (sorry, I don't remember his full sobriquet). Heavily armored, with a soulsteel steed and a personal army of sorts, he arrived in Gem to pledge himself to those who had slain the First and Forsaken Lion. This is grand in theory, but pretty much no one in the group trusts him. They don't have much reason to. The help is accepted, though, and he made an Eclipse-bound oath to work with the circle... So they depart on their way to Thorns, with plans to cure/release and enlist the aid of Juggernaut (giant being with city on his back, etc.) for the actual push against the Mask of Winter. The group stops at a swamp on the way. Why stop at a swamp some 200 miles short of their destination? Umm... I'm unclear. We didn't realize it was so far at the time. They cross on the back of a giant spider spirit...

Our Exalted game encounters another stumbling block. So entry into Xian's manse was easy. The way to the portal, however, was barred by a few Sidereals. As I recall, Kujath blasted at least one pretty good, and Xian debuffed them. One hit Nightlily pretty good with some Sidereal Martial Arts-induced disease. This rather pissed Alexandra off. She actually cut loose a bit and knocked one of them out of the building the hard way: Alexandra shakes her head. "I have had it with you and your factions," Alexandra declares, turning and striding toward the Sidereal that attacked Nightlily. "Gold, Bronze - you both stand in the way of us taking up our destiny once more, our purpose to protect Creation. You quibble over politics while people suffer and lands are lost to the Wyld and the Underworld. Now, you even have the gall to defy your own Maidens. We may once have strayed from the Unconquered Sun's light before, but your kind have lost your way just as certainly. N...

I'm so very glad the election season is nearly over. I can say with a high degree of certainty that I've seen more printed material (in mail and dropped at my door) and people coming by to encourage voting. I voted early a couple weeks ago, and I'd just as soon not have to deal with the onslaught anymore. Exalted Slow progress since last post. The group came up with a reasonable plan for their approach to Xian's manse and some distraction to aid in gaining entry and getting back to the portal to Gem. Probably too much planning, though. Players almost always overplan things only for find the situation rapidly falling outside the parameters of the plan and have to improvise. As playing covert op types in GURPS taught: "It's all fun and games until somebody fails a Stealth roll." World of Warcraft : Nearing of the Lich King As the zombie plague reached fever pitch, the Scourge Invasion began (again - as there was a Scourge Invasion in, I believe, 20...

The air is getting chill and we should have new wood to stack soon. With the painting project still underway, we'll need to be careful to stack it out farther from the building. I've managed to be unusually productive this week, cleaning up the bathroom and much of the kitchen (I may do more of the latter tomorrow). That's something to feel good about, at least. Fallout in Heaven! Sidereals (premably Bronze faction) attempted to block the circle from seeing Lytek while others assaulted Xian's manse in some way. Of course, traveling with the Maiden of Serenity is a bonus, and she effectively removed those barring their way and offered Lytek safe haven. Xian has also stated he is going to return to his project to repair the Mask - one of the constellations, the damaging of which causes Sidereals to be easily forgettable and hard to pin blame on. He wants accountability. Ah, politics. This leaves the circle to return to Creation and work on taking Thorns from the Mas...

See, now this is why I think I might be involved in too many games. Last night, after helping with a group quest on WoW, we played Exalted. It wasn't a big session for some people, but it was reasonably intense for me. Today my brain is sort of set in Exalted mode - analyzing what happened and what course of advancement would be appropriate. But tonight is a night where nothing is "hard" scheduled. That just means there will be some pressure to run Star Wars. And, truth be told, I do want to continue the story that's just begun. The problem is, I'm not really able to think about it right now. And, on top of that, there will probably be some push to hit a dungeon or start a trip into Karazhan. @.@ Let's see... I'm a few sessions behind here. The Circle met with Sol, Luna, and Gaia (the last was unexpected). Much was conveyed and related unto the Incarnae. It was done well enough to convince the Unconquered Sun that Solars were paying attention and s...

One might think we would have gotten farther, but we didn't. The group continued to a building near the Jade Pleasure Dome for the meeting with Sol and Luna. And the entrance, Xian had a brief back-and-forth with another Sidereal (Kejop?) before going in. Then he asked for the group's trust in using a charm to cause them to re-experience their lives backwards (in seeming real time, but only 6 seconds in actuality), "seeing things clearly" as a measure to make sure the group was free of any mental influences and such so they wouldn't sabotage their own meeting. Alexi is, perhaps, a little too trusting. She feels Xian Aki is worthy of it, though. Others were willing to accept with different degrees of trust of their own. Vee, however, refused. Of course, simple refusal would have been one thing, but somehow a majority of the session degenerated into Vee refusing and people discussing the option. In the end, everyone else underwent it. Alexi sorcerer-sighted Vee a...

I really need to try to focus on a few things for Star Wars, as we may be playing tonight. Alas, I haven't had a lot of feedback that helps me figure out what to cover before pushing plot, but we'll see what happens. As for other games... Back to Creation, petitioning for help, and off to Yu Shan again. Whee! Though Five Days Darkness had little information of assistance and didn't convey any certainty when he was asked to relay a message to Xian Aki in Yu Shan, Xian showed up shortly thereafter. He, it seems, shall be the Circle's source of support for tackling Thorns and the Mask of Winter. It's a battle he has been planning for a long time - even to the extent of diverting possible rebellions along the way (because he knows they'll fail and doesn't want to give the Mask of Winter a solid, public victory). But, naturally, other things have to come first. So he helped the group get to Yu Shan and meet with Lytek, with whom they discussed things further...

Oog. Crazy first couple hours of the day, though things seem to have settled. That's been par for the course thusfar this week. It's draining, and then I'm left with... quiet. I guess I'm thankful that problems have been resolved, but I still feel aimless when I've been running around doing three things at once and suddenly have everything working properly. I guess the Star Wars game is running. With or without me. >.> I didn't expect discussion about character creation to turn into impromptu roleplay between characters. I guess that's good. I also find myself wondering if I should be worried that I have one player who was largely ambivalent, one who was overly (in my mind) concerned about things, and one who is fixated on being mysterious. Envoy: noun, 1. A representative of a government who is sent on a special diplomatic mission. Does being an envoy really make much sense if no one (or very few people) knows who you represent? That sounds more ...

So... Selina was present, and got caught up on the status of the "slain" trio. There was some mostly-light discussion in a session that took probably less than an hour in-character time. Kashim still isn't up and about, as they have ot fish his soul out of the Lion's sword first, but he should be soon. Faced with a push to clean the local shadowland and move on as soon as possible, Alexi adjourned to the local manse to meditate and recharge. Naga, predictably, followed along. The two talked a little about the fight, the future, the past, and the present... but it doesn't strike me as anything real notable other than the observation Alexandra made to Naga's suggestion that time be taken to catch breath and such: this group goes stir-crazy if they have down time. I don't think Alexandra has realized it yet, but I am somewhat bothered by what I see. This is certainly not the first time that the Circle has had a minor break and she has spent it sleeping/m...

But first, just another reason to love the Mythbusters. We assimilated a couple coworkers for Wednesday night's roleplaying game. Both newbies - one totally and one with very old/limited experience. The game went pretty well and was laugh-out-loud funny at multiple points, though the "grumpy old gamer" in me finds new players something of a burden. One opted paladin-ish. He was pretty reserved, understandably, and fixated on generic civilian-giving-information NPCs as possible threats (actually, they both did to an extent). The other went with biiig, dumb, half-orc fighter-type (after having to be talked down from wanting to play a half-ogre vampire - which wouldn't really fit in the setting). He provided much entertainment by getting into a non-lethal (though he couldn't really help the snapping bones here and there) fight outside a bar in which he casually brutalized something like nine guys who took offense to him. They'll probably be back, and that...

So... to catch up: The Circle has gone on to Autochthon and had to convince the local leadership they came to help. There was a fight with a couple corrupted/insane alchemical alts and meetings with multiple levels of the "Tripartate" governing bodies. This diplomacy culminated with a meeting with Autochthon himself (by way of his temporarily possessing Symphony). He was most displeased with the exalts in general, his memory going back easily to a time when they turned on his creations/people after they had helped in the Primordial War. But with some nice rolling, he was convinced of the Circle's sincerity and allowed them to remain and help. (Allowed to be of assistance - so nice, ain't he?) The Circle then proceeding to the most imperiled of the nations, setting off the spell Alexandra learned to cleanse the plague and making plans to confront the First and Forsaken Lion's forces. It should be noted that information was sorely lacking for the fight. Troop s...

So... checks have gone through and what I put on my credit card is all cleanly paid off without any interest. Now I get to figure out how much of the rest to toss at the mortgage and what to stash for an emergency fund. For that matter, I need to take this kick in the rear as a motivator to make said fund on my own. I think it's been about four weeks now since they started peeling old wood off the condo exteriors. Most of that is done and a lot of patching has gone on, but the word isn't done and the painting hasn't even started. Progress seems a little slow to me, but there are 23 units in a total of five buildings and I don't really have any frame of reference. Exalted Building up to fighting our first death lord, the First and Forsaken Lion. Army units of undead crumple before the sheer damage output that is Kashim. The two death knights that got in the circle's way went down before most of us (them included) got our second turn. And the Lion himself has mad...

Brief bit of inspiration today, even if it doesn't answer the question the Storyteller of our Exalted game was thinking. What follows is in-character thought from the game. No interest in that and you can safely ignore this post. Who am I, and who have I been? It's a question I wonder about at times, for we Chosen of the Incarnae are gifted - or perhaps burdened - by past lives. Ourselves, yet not. I am Alexandra. Alexandra of Creation, the Tripartate addressed me as, and perhaps that is as accurate as anything. I might have been Alexandra of Nexus, but though I remember my youth in that city, I do not truly feel it anymore. Nexus is no more my home than any other city. I carry no sobriquet of renown, for I have no great deeds to claim. Truth be told, I'm not certain I ever will. Oh, I will be a part of great things, but I think few will be so much mine. I might once have claimed a connection to the Cult of the Illuminated in my name, but that feels increasingly distant...

Note to self: mixing a lack of good/enough sleep and heavy reading of a Kushiel's Legacy book can put me in a very, very odd mindset. I spent most of yesterday feeling more loopy than the few occasions I've been anything approaching drunk. In a way, it was rather fun. I felt borderline giddy and poetic. But then, I may have overly worried a friend online, too. Edit: I'm told I've been lax in my (limited) chronicling of . So let's see... I left off with the arrival at Gem and "discussion" over plans on how to deal with the First and Forsaken Lion's aerial fortress. That became something of a moot point. The group set the Five Metal Shrike down a safe distance away and closed to the battlefield on foot. Selina, Kujath, and Symphony went stealthily to find the undead army's leadership while the rest split up in such a way as to make use of those few characters with a War ability over 1. This meant a couple people were acting as "special...

With the cancellation of roleplaying Sunday, I went out and picked up GTA 4. It was the other "must have" title on my list and that gift card had to be good for something, right? Spiffy game in completely different ways. I don't think my hands are as accustomed to game controllers as they once were, though, and I may end up taking a little time off just to rest them. Heh. >.> Things have been progressing a little slowly as events have kept some people from showing up in a timely fashion for the last few session days. So it goes, though. It's not too terrible there. We've also lost one member (in the sense that he's been asked to step out of the game for a time). I've avoided posting on that because involved parties may all read this and I'm of multiple thoughts on the matter. On one hand, the frequent outbursts - while in-character - have been disruptive and it has been discussed to some degree before (such as at the circle-vs-circle contest ...

Not really enough sleep last night, but I suppose there's nothing much to be done about it. Roleplaying can be frustrating sometimes, whether by character proxy or from a player's perspective. And I think I got hit from both angles in last night's Exalted game. Ugh. First chunk of the session started with the PCs gathering aftering having split up around Yu Shan for various reasons, but seemed to quickly fall into discussion just between Alexandra and Naga. Kujath usually settles for looking cute in animal form and staying uninvolved. Selina's player was absent. Symphony, Tamara, and Kashim all suffer a little from quasi-NPC syndrome, where they say little unless their perspective is needed or they're directly addressed. Auric (who seems to have a fixation on people not keeping secrets - oh, unless it's him, then he wants his privacy) took Nightlily aside and I assume there was conversation there too, but I didn't see it. So it felt like I spent a major...

Even when it is largely improvised. The group has entered potentially-unfriendly territory to get a magic sword. Simple enough. Things are complicated, though, by finding a village/town near the goal to be destroyed and a rampaging big-evil-guy-in-soulsteel making his way toward the party. One human survives, having been found on the brink of death and tended to with magical medicinal needles (as Alexi has the makings for an insta-healing combo, but hasn't had the time/XP to actually do it). So as the session opens, Alexi isn't sure how big a threat this guy is. She dispatches two (highly-mobile) people to find and retrieve the sword, just in case they all need to bug out, and sics the others on the warrior spilling purple lightning all over the place. Yay, delegation of duties. The pair after the sword find it in a well that turns out to be home to some sort of ooze monster. After some messy swimming and clawing out, and a couple impressive rolls, it's retrieved. ...