Not Unlike Us

"...the monsters your parents used to frighten you as children are not unlike us in many ways. What I mean by that, before you finish writing that report to your father Mr. Mirnik, is that a monster dreams, loves, and struggles just like we all do. The chief difference being that whereas a monster dreams of sucking the marrow from your splintered bones and loves terrorizing good folk, we dream of a fulfilled life and keeping our loved ones safe. In other words: we are civilized while they are not. Or, at least, not civilized in a way we understand. Perhaps they too have a civilization, just one utterly alien to our own. It's fascinating to consider..."

Professor Volance, addressing a class of first-year alchemical college students on the topic of Monstrous Beings, 779YF 

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    A lot of gaming happened this month so let me give you a rundown with plenty of pictures.

    Our group finished up the mini-campaign I ran for them. Desperately racing against the clock to stop Cthoghua and the Cult of the Living Flame, the heroes fled from rising lava, traversed the plane of fire, and had a climactic battle with the head of the Cult in a blasphemous temple dedicated to Chthoghua.

Lyra the Tiefling Druid, Gallastair the Dwarf Fighter, and Hadarai and Sylvana the Elven Rangers prepare to attack the Cult of the Living Flame within their sanctum in the plane of fire.

    The campaign was great fun even if I ran it in a more "heroic" style than what I typically try to run when I play DnD. We haven't made plans to play again since and maybe we won't, but it felt good to finish a story arc for once. 

    Next up: I (finally) played a game of Battletech: Alpha Strike at my local game store. My opponent was extremely friendly and very knowledgeable about the Battletech rules and universe...oh and his lance absolutely crushed mine. Here are some pictures. 

My opponent's forces

You can just barely see the Marauder about to tear into the Hunchback on the right side of the picture.

Last stand of the Centurion

    I also ended up painting this miniature that was another bargain-bin-buy from my local gamestore. It was missing its arms and a weapon when I bought it so I messed around with some 3D printer bits to finish it off. Painted with Vallejo paints that were a Christmas gift and then slathered with an oil wash. Wish I had a before picture to really show the difference but oh well.

    Finally, while working the night shift the past couple weeks I introduced a bunch of people to role playing games! We played a extremely basic version of DnD where I had them roll stats (3d6 down the line, swap one) roll for HP (10+d6+con mod) then had them tell me what four skills they possessed. Finally I had them each come up with a secret ability to be used one time and one time only.

    The party adventured out of the town of Bralban to the ruins of Van Dire keep where they altered space time, massacred orcs, took down a troll by guile, were trapped by a 'valiant' knight, and risked it all in a final battle against the Serpentine Wyrm, Chenzevarm.

    It was an amazing time and really reminded me that you don't need all these miniatures, rulebooks, and prepped out scenarios to play a roleplaying game. What you need is dice, some friends, and a sense of imagination.

Until next time!