Compressed 2 session recap

I’ve been a bit remiss in blogging, so I need to smash together a recap for both last night and the previous Tuesday.

Viva-3 pursued her kidnapped boy-toy with furious determination. His parents had received a note forgery in Henry’s handwriting that spun a story about running away with an opera singer. When Viva convinced them that he’d been kidnapped, they allowed her to speak with their solicitor to hire her on retainer. Her only clue aside from the notes was the Knot-Brummels’ footman Benjamin Coates, who had received the forgery.

As it turned out, he had written it on the instruction of strange humanoid creatures that used hypnotism and drank blood. Benjamin seems to be a neverending fount of revelations. The crew hired him on as he intended to leave the KBs’ household and learned that he has devastatingly beautiful handwriting and likes to read. With no formal education.

While investigating Henry’s other paramours, they came across a haunted house full of indestructible little girls and a chimera. They killed the chimera but fled from the little girls and set the house on fire. Fire is a bit of a go-to for this crew. A different, less crazy paramour gave them a note that actually helped them find the place Henry was being held.

Long story short, a cult of Moreau-idealists had him strapped to an altar to be killed so the beast god could use his body as a vessel. The crew balked at the numbers, but then Captain Pico came up with a brilliant plan that drew from The Princess Bride. They set fire to Victor’s cloak to keep the cultists back, while Captain Pico shot the head priest in the head. Penny Dreadful swung on a rope to grab Henry. She rolled so well, she would up kicking the head priest as he fell dead to the ground and stealing his hat into the bargain.

Once Henry was conscious and healed, he was able to fill in some gaps. The little girls, who are quickly becoming a legend in this campaign, are not automata. They’re steel golems. Living, breathing creatures who are affiliated with a crimelady who is known only as The Profile.

After that, they went to Russia, with several goals. It’s the only change cage city that does business with Sky Folk, usually in the form of booze. Scrimshaw wanted to take advantage of this, and wound up with an honest business liaison called Matvey who smoothed the way for them quite a bit. Ace Cardinal continues to be the face of Scrimshaw’s product.

Novella sought out Russian vigilantes, with mixed results. A crazy stunt with a blind man brought her to the attention of Jack of Hearts, a very young vigilante with, it was decided, an adorable aspect highly reminiscent of Jacksepticeye. At first he thought she wanted to be his sidekick, but even after she set him straight, he was well-disposed to her. When she actually decided to take him on board with her–which would involve smuggling him out of a change cage city–he was over the moon.

Thanks to Jack’s contacts, Viva and Victor were able to find lightning guns on the Black Market, sold by a man called Innuendo Willy. He jacked up the prices, due to their being misbegotten and mechanical, but he’ll regret a missed business opportunity thanks to snubbing Viva.

Captain Pico hired a male escort and used her highborn family’s connections to set herself up among the elite. Using her sister’s name. When the ball finally came, everyone was in high alt. Everyone was able to attend. Scrimshaw found a place on the catering staff, Victor acted as bodyguard to Shadow Pico and Sergei (the escort), Ace escorted Novella–who brought Jack with her–and Henry is Viva’s arm candy.

Viva wowed the entire court with her dancing. Novella was treated like a proud mama thanks to Jack’s sweet face, which the assembled aristos complimented as if she had created him from the clay. Ace entertained a flock of bird-fanciers who liked his shoulder hawk.

Jack tried to hoard food and sneak a drink of the harder stuff. Novella caught him at the first, but not the second, and he succeeded in getting tipsy. She did, however, manage to stop Ace from picking pockets at the table, with Viva’s help.

Shadow Pico charmed her way to the czar’s table and his side. There, she learned that there is no chance of his paying them to rescue his daughter as Pico had hoped–Princess Bogdana is a beloved KPop Idol, and he’s proud of her.

However, he is not proud of his sons. In a bid to recoup her losses and still do business, Pico convinced the czar to take a pleasure jaunt on their ship and pretend to be a pirate for a day. He fought this hard. He may have been a jolly, dorky Santa Claus of a man, but he had a strong sense of his responsibility. In the end, the czarina convinced him to go. And to take one of their stupid sons with him.

She later worked out with Victor an agreement to assassinate Prince Stupid by pushing him over the side.

This plot was executed beautifully.

First, Viva piloted the ship through pockets of turbulence, ostensibly to make the ride exciting for the czar. Then Scrimshaw got Prince Stupid thoroughly bladdered–while himself as legendarily unaffected by alcohol as usual. Finally, Victor did the job he’d been hired to do. He convinced Prince Stupid that swinging around on the ship’s ropes would be the greatest fun.

Perhaps it was. Perhaps Prince Stupid died having a grand old time.

They were paid He6,000 all told. The czarina was pleased to have her less idiotic son in the position of heir, and the czar enjoyed himself immensely.

Airship Pirates Session recap

Eek, this went long. Sorry. ^^; Lots of stuff happened.

It’s really cool to see everyone getting into the game. They never seem to run out of stuff that they want to do. It’s challenging to come up with so much on the fly, but I love it. Last night, I thought they would fudge travel and go straight to the dungeon, but nope. First, Nick wanted to print flyers proclaiming Captain Pico as the greatest marksman alive, which worked out because Victor has a printing press. Most of the posters did go up, although some of the urchins Nick paid to do the work skived off. He also suggested that they go to Russia first, with the idea of getting paid twice to save the same princess.

Then they worked out a route and how many times they would have to stop. I didn’t even do that much work, so I was nice and assumed that they could find a place to dock each time they needed to stop. It did mean I had to make up a couple of Skyloft cities, which had some weird results. The first was called Bedandrest, and was basically just a place to sleep or have a tumble. Viva-3 was careful not to get off there, not wanting to be seen as a regular doll. Scrimshaw, having made half a dozen cases of booze with his new apprentice Tabby Kate, tried to trade a couple of cases for what amounts to a tuppeny upright. The madame turned out to be too honest to let him do that, so she bought the booze and let him pay like a regular customer.

The next city sort of blew up. Not literally (although it gives me ideas) but it started as a place to stop and became a big deal.

Mostly settled by Italians (apparently), this city is affectionately known as The Shoe. Everyone there bets on anything. The city is designed to be able to move at the drop of a hat, but keeps to a schedule in order to maximise trade opportunity. Victor wanted to look for a floating street fight, Scrimshaw wanted a drinking contest. I started with the first, because I needed to brush up on combat–and show everyone how broken it is. I may need to go over it on my own again. I think we had fun, but it was a mess. Literally, my dice kept falling off the table.

Before the fight started, Captain Pico was accosted by a dapper dan in a cravat that will be remembered for an age. He knew of Pico’s disgrace in the IAN, apparently a former citizen of a Change Cage city himself. Pico took advantage of his own obvious narcissism to admit the disgrace and compliment him. This had the effect of humbling him out of his dislike. Viva-3 took the opportunity to attach herself to him like a casino bunny so she could bet on the fight with his money.

It was a very long fight. I don’t even know if we were doing it right. Fights in Airship Pirates are supposed to be dramatic. They’re designed to be conversations, unlike D&D, which can be all about the numbers without getting confusing. I honestly had to ask more than once what step had just been rolled. Eventually, Victor’s opponent turned out to be a fifteen-year-old called Sweet Johnny who had tender feelings. When he had two hitpoints left and Viva-3 was one of the people jeering him from the audience, he threw in the towel.

Presumably while the fight was going on, Scrimshaw had an impressive neck-and-neck drinking battle. That actually went really well, although the tie was difficult to break. They both passed out at the same time.

Also during the fight, Captain Pico hovered around the edges looking for someone who might need their unique style of service. She found the Marked Man, a crimelord with a large wine stain birthmark and a tonne of tattoos. He had a handsome bodyguard who doubled as bodyguard. While they talked business, he suggested that Pico bring her man (Victor) to a more formal fight. With costumes.

Yeah, I put lucha in my Airship Pirates game. If you know me, you’re just nodding your head and saying, “Of course you did.”

That fight. orz

They had armour that time, which meant that to do damage, each had to do more than three points of damage. As dapper dan–now named Henry Knot-Brummel–is part of the Marked Man’s entourage, he was there for Viva-3 to exploit again. He actually grew attached to her, since she seemed to like the fights as much as he does. He brought more money with him to bet.

After a long slog, Victor KO’d Rocky. He now has a reputation in the fighting circles of The Shoe. Sweet Johnny was impressed and Rocky hates him, but everyone is talking about how Victor sent Rocky into a montage.

Captain Pico talked the Marked Man into giving them a shipment of something (now I forget) and wants her to bring back some fabric to wow the current market.

Scrimshaw wound up with another hanger-on in the form of his drinking competition. Now Rusty Potter is a crewman belowdecks.

And poor Viva-3. Excited to find out how much she won betting on that big exhibition fight, she noticed that dear Henry had popped off to the gents’ and hadn’t returned. While adjusting her skirts, she found a note that someone had slipped into her pocket. Henry was kidnapped! The ransom they are asking is INSANE and the drop-off point is on the ground.

It may be a while yet before they get to the dungeon. Which could be the best thing for this campaign. The players are driving most of the action. I feel kind of like I’m just telling them stuff that happens as a result of their actions.

An Audience with the King

Listening to: Something Good Can Work – Two Door Cinema Club

There was only time to set up the first “episode” after everyone finished making their characters and finally choosing a schtick. Still a bit long, but it was so much fun!

While out shopping, the party were approached by a teenage girl with brown and black-striped hair called Tabby Kate. She was out of breath and expressed herself very poorly. When she told them that the king wanted to see them, their first general reaction was to wonder how there was a king in their skyloft city of Bahalla. Still not very eloquent, Tabby Kate rolled her eyes and said it wasn’t a monarch.

“Tycho King. You know, the crime lord?”

This went over better.

Scrimshaw won Tabby Kate’s undying affection by offering her a sample of his signature liquor. Victor had to roll his disaffected nature to decide if he would simply rebel because Nobody is the Boss of Him. He deigned to allow this affront to his independence. Tabby Kate led the party to the Loving Arms Hotel, which was clearly a very high class brothel. Some of the human prostitutes recognised Shae from mutual work as artists’ models, and were friendly but not overly so.

There were a few dolls out in the front, and Jared asked if they might recognise that Viva-3 is an automaton. Novella rolled Conceal to try to keep Viva inconspicuous, but one of the dolls had more successes on her Perception, so she did recognise a fellow automaton. However, she couldn’t possibly know that Viva is a former cop in a doll’s body, so she assumed that Viva was a former prostitute who had bought her way out of the profession. The doll gave a sisterly sort of nod, but now Viva has to be careful not to hang around dolls in Bahalla too much.

Tycho’s office lay beyond the hotel lobby. It was an opulent throne room arrayed with all manner of fine things–obviously stolen or contraband–and he sat in a large chair at the back of it. The man made a fine picture. Fabulously handsome in bespoke tailoring, he had an expensive prosthetic leg that looked more real than a real leg, and a nose made of gold.

Jolly and friendly, he left his throne to greet each of them individually, praising them and showing that he knew quite a lot about them. Tabby Kate served them drinks–Shae got to the Merry level of drinking, while Scrimshaw somehow ended up more sober the more he drank–while Tycho got down to business.

He pointed out that all of them except for Scrimshaw had come from the neovictorian change cage cities, and Scrimshaw knew well enough that the CCCs are terrible places. They’d all left behind loved ones, friends, and in Novella/Penny Dreadful’s case, people she hadn’t even known but had helped by fighting crime. “Not everyone has the opportunities you had–opportunities that you made.”

He asked if they knew how the CCCs staved off war amongst themselves. (In my setting, there are CCCs in different countries) The party did not. Novella said that ladies of her station were discouraged from any interest in politics.

So he told them that each city leader gave up a daughter to another city leader, a network of political hostages. You have our princess, so we won’t attack you, sort of thing. “Barbaric, isn’t it?” Tycho wants them to go to the change cage city of Gangnam, ruled by Emperor In Se  Yoon, and rescue the Russian princess, Shuldeshova Bogdana Gennadievna.

Viva wanted to know his motives in asking them to do this. I hadn’t statted Tycho, so I gave him a Mental +7 to see how much of it he could conceal in the contested roll. Viva got three successes. As Tycho is a crime lord and therefore used to hiding such things, I gave him an Easy roll, so he had 12 dice. He didn’t roll a single success.

This was actually one of the coolest parts of the session for me. I had sort of hoped that Tycho could be a quest hub for the characters, mysterious and defined mostly by their reactions and assumptions. But without any successes, he had to answer the question without lying.

The jolliness melted away. He stopped grinning, and they could see the previously hidden shrewdness. This is a dangerous, effective man. And he spoke frankly with them–which usually, Tycho King, the Man with the Golden Nose, does not do.

He said that even though they aren’t actively at war with the change cage cities, they are still enemies. This is a guerrilla tactic, removing political stability so that the CCCs will war amongst themselves and forget about the neobedouins and skyfolk. Leaving them open to strikes from those two factions–or just to leave them safely alone.

He also made an impassioned speech about how it is wrong for these women to be used as pawns. Their agency and freedom were taken from them. The guy is a criminal, which he openly acknowledged. There are prostitutes right outside the door. But the women who work for him are clean, fed, well-paid, and every one of them–including automata–have the option to buy out of the business. He does not approve of the exploitation of women.

The speech had quite an effect on the party. They almost didn’t even ask what he was planning to pay them. I had decided he would offer to pay for fuel and give them 50 Helios once the princess was free and safe. But the next question asked was what Tycho planned to do with the princess when they brought her back. He said he’d give her money and a place to stay, or money to allow her to set up somewhere else. As he has informants in Gangnam, they could even let the princess request they take her somewhere else. He’ll still know they got the job done.

This seemed to satisfy the crew of the Rum Runner that Tycho had no ill intentions towards Princess Bogdana. Which I’m happy to say was a bigger concern to them than money.

Almost as an afterthought, Victor impressed upon him how risky the task was, rolling Conversation. As Victor made a number of successes and his character is somewhat built on his rhetoric, he accomplished this with flair. They get 75 Helios and Tycho threw in the fact that he might owe them a favour. Casually belying how potent a reward that could be.

How Character Creation Went

Listening to: If I Had You – Adam Lambert

The bulk of the night went to character creation, as one might expect. While the options are sparse in some ways–only three cultures and three races, with the latter being either Human or incredibly specific other thing–they’re almost sprawling in other ways. Complications and Talents add enough texture to the game that I had everyone text me theirs so I can keep them in my notes. A couple of the complications even came up once we’d started the game rolling.

Everyone had really great backstories. They are mercenaries flying the airship Rum Runner. Going from who sat to my right at the table and around to my left:

Chrissy is a Victorian Vigilante (a la the song) named Novella Reed-Brooks, who fights crime under the moniker Penny Dreadful and uses bartitsu with a parasol instead of a cane. We referred to her as Batman continually, although she has no dead relatives. Instead, she escaped the Change Cage city she was born in to avoid law enforcement and her much-more-terrifying mother finding out about her nocturnal activities. One of my favourite things about her is that Chrissy took the Proper Sensibilities complication, which I call “pearl-clutching.”

Jared’s character is an interesting gymnastic move in character creation. A peeler (automata law enforcement) with a doll (prostitute) model body whose job it was to bring back those who escaped the CCCs, essentially an undercover retrieval agent. Her name is Viva-3. In pursuing Novella, she took a liking to the vigilante and decided to aid and join her instead of taking her back.

Nick is the captain, a former IAN officer inexplicably named Shadow Pico. Shae for short. When he saw that only upper class men can have that background, he gave her a gender-masquerade backstory ended in infamy due to his Kirk-inspired complication, Constantly Loses Shirt. Due to this, she is also a legendarily disgraced Public Figure, so she’ll be sure to run into some trouble in CCCs. Luckily for me, she is also a Narcissist, which played coincidentally well with my first major NPC.

I shouldn’t pick favourites, but I’m a book nerd, so Gama’s character is kind of my favourite. Victor is an upper-class-born Misbegotten who got out of his CCC right away and ran into the crew of the Ophelia, who are in possession of a Chrononautilus. They went back to, let’s say the rainy summer of 1816. He was hit by a lightning gun in a fight and afterwards met–perhaps was rescued and nursed by–Mary Shelley. She misunderstood his story, but as he said, he got an autographed book out of it. Later, he broke with the crew of the Ophelia and ended up with this crew.

All of them have great names. Ethan’s is Robert “Scrimshaw” Gale, a Skyfolk Inventor who drinks like a fish. Or Captain America. There’s little chance of him getting drunk unless he really tries. But he is scruffy and one of his particular skills is building stills and apparently he keeps up with others of similar interest. He’s also the kind of everyman who relates to each person he meets and responds to most situations with a Yes.

The group backstory is that each of the PCs was recruited by Mr Phil Onion, a crippled boatswain with an enigmatic nature. He set them all up at a boardinghouse, and found a ship and crew. He’s basically a Coulson. Everyone loves him and he made a lot of groundwork things happen. His motives have not yet been revealed.

Seriously, everyone legitimately warmed to this character and kind of created him together in a storm of laughter and conversation. I was explaining that the crew is made of regular guys but they can individualise them. Maybe play poker or Cripple Mr Onion. I am the only one who reads the Discworld, so I had to explain it, but by then it had been misheard and we all decided that Mr Onion was the go-to crewman and that he had even brought them all together. Like Coulson.

That’s what I’m going for with most of the NPCs. Genuine emotional connection. I love that lady, I hate that guy. To me, it’s one of the reasons to play Airship Pirates.

Looks like I’ll have to talk about the actual session in another post.

Game tonight

Listening to: No One’s Gonna Love You – Band of Horses

Almost ready to get started. I still need to print out a couple of things, search out my actual physical book (been using the PDF), but I’ve got all of my notes, all of the NPCs I need statted, and my dungeon layout.

This will be the first time I’ve run a game since the Laundry Files. Which went tolerably well. I’m hoping to draw people out and get them to engage with the NPCs. There are A LOT OF THEM. And I’ve made a few minor changes to the setting.

Originally, Airship Pirates is married to North America. It’s kind of disconcerting. The world is incredibly small. While you can generate any number of Skyloft cities, but there are only three Change Cage cities and everywhere else is wastelands with the possibility of nomadic Neobedouins.

So I just gave different countries at least one city. Some of them have real names, like Gangnam or Marylebone, but at least one has a goofy name (Arschgeige) because I could.

Some of the players already have very interesting character concepts, but they haven’t picked a schtick yet. Can’t wait to find out what they decide on. One of the cool things about this game is that it’s assumed that your crew has run together for at least a short time. So it’s more like Firefly than D&D. An ensemble cast who start the game with relationships.

…crap, I have to remember how to build an airship. Back to the book.

Historical Ship’s Articles

Aboard the Revenge, Captain: John Phillips; signed 1723

(Captain thrown overboard 1724)

1. Every Man shall obey civil Command; the Captain shall have one full Share and a half of all Prizes; the Master, Carpenter, Boatswain, and Gunner shall have one Share and (a) quarter.
2. If any Man shall offer to run away, or keep any Secret from the Company, he shall be maroon’d, with one Bottle of Powder, one Bottle of Water, one small Arm and Shot.
3. If any Man shall steal any Thing in the Company, or game to the Value of a Piece of Eight, he shall be maroon’d or shot.
4. If at any Time we should meet another Marooner, (that is, Pyrate) that Man that shall sign his Articles without the Consent of our Company, shall suffer such Punishment as the Captain and Company shall think fit.
5. That Man that shall strike another whilst these Articles are in force, shall receive Moses’s Law (that is, 40 Stripes lacking on) on the bare back.
6. That Man that shall snap his Arms, or smoak Tobacco in the Hold, without a Cap to his Pipe, or carry a Candle lighted without a Lanthorn, shall suffer the same Punishment as in the former Article.
7. That Man that shall not keep his Arms clean, fit for an Engagement, or neglect his Business, shall be cut off from his Share, and suffer such other Punishment as the Captain and Company shall think fit.
8. If any Man shall lose a joint in Time of Engagement, he shall have 400 pieces of Eight, if a Limb, 800.
9. If at any Time we meet with a prudent Woman, that Man that offers to meddle with her, without her Consent, shall suffer present Death.

~

I’m posting these so that I can pull them up as a reference later when people inevitably ask if the pirates’ code is more than just the word parlay.

Airship Pirates Dungeon Planning

Listening to: She – Abney Park

Perfect song for what I’m doing right now.

So I have made a start on the first dungeon. I’m using RPG Maker VX Ace to do the layout. I even did some eventing, because I can’t help myself and because I got so much done so FAST. I used a project that I think Hubby had for mapping, so none of my usual scripts were in place. That default font is so smegging useless. I always forget how ugly it is and how word-wrapping is a necessity that just is not included without a script.

Anywho, the layout itself took no time at all. The dungeon is actually done, I just need to write some encounters around it. I’ll probably wing it a great deal. It’s how I roll.

I’m fairly sure that most of my players don’t read my blog… well half of them definitely don’t, and this is only part of the dungeon. So I think I’m safe posting this bit here. I’ve got a couple of plans for that bare little alcove, too.

The dogs are doing well, just had a really minor hiccough where one didn’t want breakfast yesterday. They’re both eating now and they still like me better than Hubby. The three of us are super enjoying time without Hubby or Owen around. Stinky boys. ;p

Haven’t gotten much more done in writing today, but I still have a lot to get ready for Tuesday and I feel more like reading today anyway. I’ve got to read about the different cultures in Airship Pirates and then ask players what Schtick they want to play and gauge if anyone actually wants to do any vehicle stuff aside from the airship.

Vehicles are where the game gets too much for me, so I kind of need to know if anyone cares. ^^; They’ll probably want to customise their airship rather than use the Cordelia (I don’t see them choosing to be a band) and I do know how to do that, at least. But hogtrikes and cars are beyond me right now. Hubby made me a spreadsheet with equipment, which we should possibly print out and share (items in this game are underdeveloped) and I need to get my quick ref stuff out again.

Although I have a number of princesses planned, only a couple of them are statted. I doubt I’ll need to know more than their names on the first night. My favourite one is done, and I’m going to give them a choice of which to pursue first.

UGH big thing I need to do is make a Skyloft city or two. The guys will need a hub and I don’t really want to use High Tortuga. Owen gets out of school in half an hour. There’s not enough time. Grr.

(Romantic Sub)PLOT TWIST

Listening to: Rabbit Down the Hole – Billy Talent

Last night went pretty well. I got a little written for that bitch of a chapter, and it got the ball rolling enough for me to actually write at all this morning. I made both of the phlebotomists laugh and I fixed a lost writing problem. Also got some more of that bitch written. But mostly today was just transit and bullshit.

The library got a buttload of Pathfinder standups! Or whatever you call them.

I want some of my own, these are all gorgeous.

These are the best minis for a character I’ve ever had. Lurlene and Michael look so awesome. <3 It was also a great session. We had a small group for once–which I prefer. My favourite players were there and Chrissy did a really good job DMing. I had the most fun.

Some pirates took us to this deserted island so we could visit the Princess Sorrow’s grave and bring her body back to her grieving father. A few characters got seasick, and then we were attacked by a hydra. Seeing as Michael’s bow skills are still revoltingly dreadful, he jumped off of the boat to attack it up close.

He even managed to avoid a fireball from the warlock (is that what she plays? All I remember is her name is Flameness and she gets teased for it) because the hydra bit its own head off attacking him and he fell into the water.

Then the mf climbed back up to slash at it again. LIKE A BOSS.

The bossest boss.

Mr Boffin turned an encounter with seven (nine?) vampire spawn into two by turning them. It could have gone really dire, too. We still took ages to kill the ones that made their saves. Then we had to split up so that only about half the party went into the grave to get Sorrow. Obviously Michael and Lurlene stick together, but I was willing to stay outside if someone wanted that.

The rogue failed to unlock the grave two or three times, which gave the head vampire lady time to come after us. That was a surprisingly okay fight, since Lurlene was dealing out 30-33 damage per turn.

Michael got all noble about burying two of the pirates who got squished by a rock, and he worried about the vampires, but people managed to talk him into coming back later to wipe them out.

The pirate captain was not happy about the other two pirates being dead thing, so Lurlene spun a wild (and thoroughly untrue) tale about how they fought bravely and she owed them her life. This brought a tear to the pirate captain’s eye and he gave her a silver piece for making him feel. He still charged us more for the ride back, but she’s keeping that silver piece on an effing necklace.

After the game, one of the kids asked me when Lurlene was actually going to marry her duke. And someone from our regular game realised that the town/city he was in was sacked. So the duke might be dead.

I decided that because she’s an adventurer, they were secretly married before she left in case anything happened to her. BUT SOMETHING MAY HAVE HAPPENED TO HIM. So next session, I’m gonna bring this up, because if he’s dead, Lurlene may be a widowed duchess, and Michael may have a shot.

But will the noble idiot take it?

It’s almost like a Bollywood movie. :D

Unrequited Paladin

Listening to: Elkbeer kbeer – Amr Mostafa

Writing-wise, I whiffed it yesterday. Got a paragraph and two lines of dialogue. One of them is so snarky that it harkens back to Gideon’s original characterisation. Which is technically not good. It’s so much easier to write romance when they’re being morons about their feelings. But now one of them is being less of a moron and embracing the feels, so I just can’t even.

Today, we’ve got library D&D. I’m half-tempted to take Hubby and sit out so I can get some more writing done, but I really really want to play my characters from this campaign.

Most of us only play one character–for one thing, that’s the usual way of things. For another, there are enough players for three tables now. But in our regular campaign, we got used to having a roster of many characters each. And somehow I inherited one of Hubby’s callow youths just as he became a paladin.

My regular character is a warlock named Lurlene. She’s a private investigator, but not a terribly good one. In some ways, she’s a bit like Trixie from Black Jack Justice (minus the really shitty behaviour). One day, we were all in a town and the inn prices got stupid because the innkeeper was racist and we had tieflings. So Lurlene went in search of a bunk up with a hot guy.

She’s engaged to a duke now. The rolls were all uncommonly in my favour.

This happened right before I inherited a paladin. I named all of them after Pythons and Hubby decided they came from the same orphanage and so shared the surname of English. So mine is named Michael English. He’s an elf with a dexterity of 6. If you play D&D, you’re already making one of these faces:

If you don’t, then hopefully the graphic helps. It’s appalling. It should never happen. He basically can never do a ranged attack, because it’s just pathetic.

My story reason for him being my other character–because the other ones just got inherited and then dropped and one is dead (yes, that one. it just happened)–is that Lurlene’s ducal fiancé hired Michael as a bodyguard. Since Lurlene knows the Hunger of Hadar, she has no need of a bodyguard. So she was just using him as a sort of PA. She actually sent him to get coffee while the party was in a refugee camp called Coyote’s Refuge.

But while he was gone, the party got attacked by some thugs who wanted our pavilion. We’d worked hard for it. We bought it for a song from a guy who’d just done a mass murder. Lurlene used Prestidigitation and Mending to fix it up. It was OURS. I don’t remember it clearly, but I think it was one of those near thing fights that could have gone really badly.

Michael made a vow never to leave Lurlene’s side again. To the degree that for several fights after–at least three sessions, which is a big deal in a game that goes semiweekly–he stayed in the back with her. She’s a ranged fighter, she’s got two Eldritch Blasts and some other spells like Shatter. Michael owns a longbow. His dex is 6. He usually misses and he doesn’t do a lot of damage. Because he had to stay close and protect her.

Then he started to go out and do damage up close. He’s a melee fighter, it’s what he should be doing. He trusted Lurlene to hang back and not do anything stupid. More than once, he’s been the star fighter who dealt the killing blow and most of the damage. In a fight against three baby dragons, we had two healers who focused on keeping Michael alive because he was the one dusting the monsters, and because they picked up on the fact that I really cared about this character.

Lurlene and Michael work together now. She drops the Hunger of Hadar and he works with other characters to keep the monsters in Cthulhu Space. He rushes enemies while she wears them down. Everybody focuses fire. A ranged spellcaster and a melee fighter.

He hit level 5 last time I played (gah that was yonks ago) and I realised that I hadn’t chosen an oath of devotion for him. I looked them over and decided on the Oath of Devotion.So now he’s the goody-goodiest of paladins. He’s devoted to being upstanding and moral.

And he’s in love with an engaged woman. She doesn’t know. It’s horrible and beautiful and unrequited.

I don’t usually care for tragic romance, but the fact that this came up completely organically just tickles me. I love that I have characters with inner turmoil in a game that I rarely get to play. Other players give a damn. One of them asked to be Lurlene’s bridesmaid and even drew her character in a dress.

So that’s why I’m not going to sit out. I need some time to recharge on writing anyway. I read Saga and I’ve got another comic I want to read, as well as My Wicked, Wicked Ways. Maybe I’ll take a break to read.

Probably not.

Last night, I had a bicker with Hubby that nearly ended when he juxtaposed us over my characters. So surreal. I don’t know if it helped me writing-wise, but it was weird. He’s such a great hubband. Last night was kind of just weird in general, but I have already gone on waaaaaaaay too long as it is. Gotta write for at least an hour before we leave.

Bravery vs Moving On

It is difficult to ask for something that you want.

Especially when you have to ask a person who has a history of saying no to you. It’s even worse if you think about it and realise that they don’t just say no, they also flake off after not saying no, and wincingly weasel away to the effect of a no without having to actually say that excruciatingly hard to blurt out two-letter word.

Not to digress completely, but I have a very hard time with people not directly saying an actual bloody No. There has to be a reasonable balance between Joss Whedon axing his own show thanks to impatience and giving people enough rope to hang you.

The point is, we all have things that we’ve wanted for a long time or used to have but don’t have now. Someone looking for a new D&D group. Anyone trying to find a boyfriend or girlfriend. Following up on a query letter.

Mine is email roleplay. I haven’t done it in forever, but it used to be the most fun thing I did. It was like writing and playing video games and reading a comic book at the same time. I also did all three of those things, so it was awesome. I’ve tried off on and for literal years to get Hubby interested. Some cases are rather stunning failures. I don’t know if it’s better or worse that one of my favourite characters came out of one of them.

We’ve all been playing D&D for a few years, and I’ve actually got (kind of) two different groups right now. So it’s not like I don’t get to roleplay, but it’s different. It is fun–right now I have a lot of characters, and two of them have amusing romances with NPCs. At its most awesome, the roleplaying at the table is like watching a movie and playing a video game. Not… not like writing at all. And not just because I’m not physically writing.

At this point, I don’t know if I should just let go of the idea of ever RPing through a writing medium (email or chat client) again. It always feels like a question of bravery when I want to ask someone about it. Because… not a solitary activity. Honestly, the loss of RP in my life is why I despise MMOs. Solitary things mean I can do them by myself, which means I can do them. Also, the answer is so rarely yes. Being brave enough to ask would be fine if it ever paid off, and it just hasn’t. In years.

Is it time to move on? On the plus side, I could stop having anxiety about being told no or being avoided like we’re smegging teenagers. But then there’s the fact that I would be consigning myself to The Rest of My Life not having something I want. Which is a bit shite.