So I went, and did mot stay long, as it was a bit disappointing. I had gotten an email that the table was "full" but was welcome to come scope things out. I got there on time, the coordinator didn't, not showing up until nearly 10 after and then spending 10 minutes to get the meeting room at the library unlocked. For what was suppose dot be an 18+ event, half the players were high school underclassmen (their parents had signed a form to let them participate, which is fine and dandy but it still goes against what they advertised the event to be). And to top it all off, they were playing Pathfinder 1E* (ugh). But I did stay and chat for a few minutes, met some people, and offered to run some 5E events or ttrpg roundtables (workshops for DMs, workshops for players, etc.) if there was interest and gave them my contact info.

-M



*(they had done a pre-session to start characters and were expecting to have to spend most of this 4 hour session as well just making 1st level characters because most of the players were newbies and there are way too many fiddly bits for Pathfinder character that are not user friendly or intuitive if you are not already a veteran gamer, which is mostly why I didn't stick around-if they were actually going to be playing I might have stayed a bit to check out play styles and such. This is another reason why I dislike Pathfinder, it lacks ease of use that allows for quick start ups to get newbies actually playing the game quickly).

I personally like the second most popular response...



-M

Calamity is one of my favorite things Critical Role has ever done.

-M

Today was Free RPG Day, and I took a ride out to Bookery Game (formerly part of Bookery Fantasy, a longstanding lcs in the area) and picked up a few of the offerings. They were offering your choice of any 3 of the freebies, plus a free mini from some sets they had opened. One of the Freebies was done by Marisha Ray of Critical Role-a one shot adventure featuring a group of familiars, and Mrs MRP wanted that but was stuck at work today, so I mafe sure to grab that one. I was indecisive about which others to get, there were 3 I was interested in, and I kept switching out the third, but since the owner had known me for a while (I actually had done a signing at the store when I was freelancing), he told me to take all 3. I anted to support the store and not just grab freebies though, so I picked up a few pieces of 3-D printed terrain they were selling.

The haul...




A Familiar Problem



The other 3 freebies...


the free mini I picked...


It's an Aeon from the Pathfinder game lore, but it looked cool and in a worst case scenario I could do a repaint and make it the Spectre from DC comics

And the 3 pieces of 3-D terrain (they were $3, $5 and $8, so a total of $16 plus tax for all three)




If you live near a game store, today's a good day to support the and nab some cool free stuff.

-M

Fourth session of our Call of Cthulhu campaign

Our cast:
- Ray, nicknamed "Sunshine". Camera Operator (and petty thief). Player picked the nickname "Sunshine" and immediately drew the Sun tarot for his blessing. Obviously the work of a Great Old One. Protected by the Sun (though he doesn't know the details yet), some of the creatures they encounter will immediately recoil from his presence. His curse is that somebody stole his pet (The Tower. Not woven into the story yet).
- Garcon. Animal Handler and proto-Peta activist. Drew the Wheel of Fortune (allowing him to reroll, basically like Luck works in D&D). His curse is that the police wants to talk to him about a murder (Justice).
- Arthur: Carpenter and cowboy. Drew the Emperor which allows him to command non-hostile NPCs. His curse is being a former member of a cult and the parting was not friendly (Hierophant).
- Paul: Make-Up artist. Drew the Chariot, allowing him to ignore physical damage. Curse is the Empress: a mysterious person appears from time to time and he blindly obeys them. (Which is nice, because it gave me an out this session).

The mission:
Our "heroes" were hired by the Black Pyramid Insurance agency to solve the issues plaguing the movie. The movie's budget is a million dollars and if the production fails, the insurance company has to pay. Instead they decide to offer 4 semi-competent employees $10.000 (total among them) to get things back on track. Having solved the issue of the mysterious accidents of various less-than-useful production members and (almost) returned the missing star actor, the heroes should focus this time on making peace with an angry actress who was passed over for a role in this movie, but has used her power and popularity to put out some bad publicity on the new movie and its director.

Wrapping up mission 2 (and interlude)

This session was also the wrap-up for last session, where our heroes retrieved a missing actor from Tijuana. The actor had been transformed by magic drugs
(aka parasyte Spider Goddess eggs) into his ideal self (the hero he always played in the movies). With help from a magic knife (reward for their mission),
they managed to free him. (Note: one of my players on discovering he owned a magic knife with an apparently intangible blade that caused no harm, immediately
tried to stab himself and various other people and creatures repeatedly with the knife. This knife would be one-hit kill if it hit somebody's heart,
but luckily he only tried hands, arms etc.)

The cured cowboy taught the PCs to shoot and fight better (because combat in D100 Call of Cthulhu takes ages otherwise) and returned to the movie.
On set the heroes immediately learned that now the lead actress was missing. One player would be later, so they had a little downtime play for an hour
or two, so we could work on backstory before going for the main mission of this session. The magic knife turned out to be ancient Egyptian in origin,
used to sacrifice animal's souls to the gods. Our "heroes" immediately tried to sacrifice a chicken to a god to see what would happen (my players are so the
worst or best people to play Call of Cthulhu). They also learn that the mummy of Akenaten has been recently bought by a wealthy person.

On to mission 3:
The Case of the Silent Actress

The fourth player arrived and on towards the main mission: convincing actress Alice Ferguson (roughly based on Mary Pickford) to stop badmouthing the
movie's director and retrieve actress Jane Ward (not based on anybody). Jane turned out to be have joined Alice for a weekend at a welness spa (which
was code for plastic surgery institution). Leaving most of their weapons behind, the team needed to use charm and intelligence to figure out what
was happening at the hospital. Alice was willing to talk to the investigators (though they didn't seem to notice that she never actually said a word and
all communication went through her assistant). Jane refused to speak to them, so they tried to go to her room. (as an injoke for myself all patients and
doctors at the hospital were named after characters in more or less famous horror movies, games or books. So we have a Phantom of the Opera, a missing
Dr. David Trent (who has just died in House on Haunted Hill), an unfortunate private from Johnny Got His Gun etc. My players aren't movie buffs and
all injokes were noted down as serious leads or red herrings. With some poking at the end, they did figure out the Phantom of the Opera.) Also the mummy of Akenaten
is here (mostly as a trophy for the hospital's Director, but played to the players as mummies being a symbol of eternal preservation
which fit with a plastic surgery institute.

Jane also isn't in the Director's Office. One player played their hand too openly (mentioning the magic knife to the Institute's director who
immediately flees when the player's back is turned and he puts the
hospital under magic lockdown). Moving through the various offices they do find out some things (in the archives they find out that Jane's treatment will
be paid for by Black Pyramid insurance (the investigator's employer). This is my fallback plan to have Jane assassinate the main villain in this mission
should our heroes fail to do so.
They find some references to the god Khnum (shaper of man from clay in Egyptian mythology). In the cellar they find misshapen beings (failed patients).
Ray shoots the first one in reflex (poor guy), the second he figures out that it's not hostile and retreats. The third can talk and clues them into
a bit of the plot and begs to be killed. Ray obliges. The fourth failed patient freaks him out sufficiently that he just leaves. The fifth is relatively
normal and Ray releases him in return for information where to find the Director. Noping out on even visiting the remaining failed patients (there were
8 doors), the group enters the final door at the end of the corridor, leading to a temple (3 temples in 3 sessions. One might suspect a theme).

The Director runs, the 3 cultists attacks as well as the big boss of this session: The Failed God, a massive blob of flesh with one massive arm and
a face floating in its mass. The cultists are relatively easily dispatched (one is knocked out fortunately, which allows me some info dumps later
if they play their cards right). They manage to focus fire on the Failed God enough to kill it. One of them ties up the remaining cultist,
the others run into the backroom to find Jane, but instead find the Director, with a knife in his back: a similar magic knife as they possess.

Jane is found nearby, who quickly focuses them on their mission (returning her to the movie) instead of worrying about doctor's with magic knives
in their backs and other things that an innocent like girl would never be involved in. Really! Trust her!
The investigators leave with Jane and the tied-up cultist, leaving the Director's living but soulless husk behind as well as the failed experiments.
(Mission reward: attribute boosts for 2 players, magic item for a third. Fourth just gets skill points, but enough to make it feel like he;s
not missing out.)

Epilogue: the players get a chance to investigate the cultist and some themes and subtext of this game now just becomes text:
- WWI has undermined belief in the current gods (maybe more, but certainly for the people involved in this setting so far).
- Enough belief can turn anything into a god and Hollywood allows to raise people (or with special effects maybe even other things (see next session))
into gods.
- Being a good requires perfection though (or at least imperfections that are not as simple).
- The Director and his staff were trying to create a new god, first with the Failed God (powerful, but not inspiring), then with Alice (inspiring,
but for her eternal beauty she paid with her voice and with the new media of talkies, she couldn't inspire enough faith to transcend to godhood) and
then planning for Jane to become their new god. (There is more here, but Ray, stealing everything in sight, has the Director's notes so any things
they've missed, they will get next time).
- The Stars are right to create a new god, but the window is rapidly closing and there can only be 1 god.

(Alice kinda was forgotten about pretty soon as our investigators were laser-focused on retrieving Jane back on set. They never even noticed that
she never spoke to them or that they were rapidly losing Sanity Points every time they angered her and she looked at them. Yeah, that's a normal
person....) We'll see if this bites them in the back.

Next session planned in two weeks, hope to do episode 4 and the final boss (episode 5, but episode 5 can be pretty short)

Chris Perkins (lead designer for D&D at WotC) and Todd Kendrick break down the D&D elements of the trailer...



-M

I'm hearing a lot of complaints about the trailer having too much humor and that D&D has to be serious. Obviously these folks never played 1E D&D or looked at those early books-some of my favorite humorous art from the 1E Player's Handbook and DM' Guide...








and my favorite pun in 1E is the spell components for the ESP spell-a copper piece, i.e. a penny for your thoughts...

humor has been part of the fabric of D&D since the beginning, don't let gatekeeping "I hate everything even Life Cereal" fanboys try to tell you otherwise.

-M