2010 World Cup - First day encounters

Today started the 2010 World Cup for Uruguay with an encounter against France. The melee between the "Charruas" and the "Gauls" was a very dull and boring, with only a few to hit chances for both parties but all misses. One of the Uruguayan party members was sent off by the Japanese Dungeon Master for making a critical fumble. He will miss the next encounter against the "Bafana bafana", the South African party that inflicted 1 hit point of damage to the Mexican party in the opening encounter. But "La Verde" retaliated and also inflicted 1 hit point of damage to the local team. And so it ends the first day of the 2010 World Cup. Stay tuned!

Imagination quotes

Almost a year ago, when I decided to start blogging in a more or less regular way, I changed the look of the blog an added a quote about imagination. On either side of the DM screen, I think imagination is the most important thing in role playing games. Imagination to create adventures, give life to characters and monsters, to picture what is going on when the DM describe a place or the players describe their actions, and so on. At that time I chose a quote by Carl Sagan:

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

How many worlds are out there, canon and homebrew, teeming with characters adventuring, monsters to be vanquished, places to be discovered, treasures to be plundered, dungeons to be explored and more? Thousands, perhaps millions and every one of them, wonderful.

I then thought of changing the quote, not because I didn't like it anymore, but to see what has been said about imagination. So I searched the web and came across this quote by Albert Einstein:

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

Yes, logic will take you from A to B, with only one random encounter in between according to Vaarsuvius, if I may respectfully add. And everywhere are all those worlds we created and those yet to be. Then my search led me to a quote by Pablo Picasso:

"Everything you can imagine is real."

This is so very true in our hobby. Everything that that happens when we gather to play, around the table, by post, by Wave or even Twitter, becomes real to DM and players alike. As a side thought, it would have been great to have a monsters manual illustrated by Picasso, wouldn't it?

Then, why don't make this a regular thing? A weekly post with a quote about imagination, the heart and soul of role playing games. Let's see what I find for next Monday.

My RPG books

After putting in order all my gaming stuff, here's a picture of the gaming shelf. There's more material classified and stored in rigid type folders but it doesn't look as good as this.

From left to right: the World of Greyhawk (1980), the WoG & Glossography (1983), AD&D Dungeon Master Guide (1979), AD&D 2e PHB, DM and Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e Complete Bard's Handbook, AD&D 2e Celts Campaign Sourcebook, AD&D 2e The Complete Books of Villains, AD&D The Complete Books of Elves, AD&D Against the Giants - The Liberation of Geoff (1999), some Dragon and Dungeon magazines, 3.0e PHB, DM and MM, 3.0e Book of Vile Darkness, 4 boxes of plastic miniatures and 3 boxed sets (The City of Greyhawk, From the Ashes and Planescape Campaign Expansion), AD&D 2e Volo's Guide to the North, AD&D Waterdeep and the North, AD&D 2e Campaign Guide to Myth Drannor, Ars Magica 5e, Labyrinth Lord Advancd Edition Companion and some books of drawing techniques. On top there's a bag from the English Heritage with a poster of Stonehenge waiting to put in a frame.

From that lot are missing the 3.5e books (PHB, DM, MM and the Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk module) and another box of miniatures, that were in the gaming backpack the moment I took the picture, and the Labyrinth Lord Revised Edition that is on its way.

Order is on its way

Just received news from Lulu.com that my copy of Labyrinth Lord: Revised Edition (hard cover) has been shipped. I already have the pdf version printed and bound, but wanted the hard cover edition in my shelf of RPG books. It should be down here, hopefully, in less than a couple of weeks. Can't wait to have it and use it along with the AEC in my new campaign.

Strange session

I'm not prone to comment much about our gaming sessions but last Sunday one was kinda strange. First, let me do some recap. I'll try not to spoil the module.

A couple of sessions ago the group found, under the Tower of Magic, what it could be a magical way into where the simulacrum of Iggwilv might be. After learning how it worked they left for the city and came back with the magical means to use it and get there, but in the last minute they decided, although knowing that time was a pressing matter, to try another route. And so, they went into the Tower of Zagig. I must admit that, with their decision, they caught me off-guard and I had to make it all on the fly. They explored the tower ruins, killed several undeads, found a secret staircase and took their way down. Of all the traps and constructs I put in their path, none of them prevented the group to reach the crypts . Then I begun throwing at them several mummies which they managed to turn or destroy in what they called "Mummy frenzy". With that, after two really enjoyable sessions we reached last one.

When they entered a maze of corridors and rooms, a ghost appeared, warned them not to continue further and left. They just ignored it and pressed on. After a little exploration, they reached a couple of unscratched magically warded double doors... guess what? They decided to go the other way! What they found were clues that they were in a place that has been already plundered. Visibly forced doors, those once trapped had the traps jammed or disabled, niches desecrated, sarcophagi pilfered, pit traps marked on the floor, crosses and arrows marked on the walls, tunnels made to bypass heavily warded doors, etc. They even found the corpses of an unfortunate group of adventurers. When they finally realized there was nothing to be found and decided to go back to the double doors, there was no more time to play.

After the session my wife told me that it has been a bit boring, with no combat and only some saves made. I just said that the players, with their decisions make the game funny or boring. There were plenty of hints of what was going on. They just chose to ignore them, kept going and backed away (for a second time in the last three sessions) from what would have looked important to any adventurer.

I don't like railroading, but I confess last session I was tempted to do it. They're all experienced players and that's why I found strange what happened.