The Pink Dice Chronicles

Ranier reports in this week for our 7th session: That stupid Thasillonian snitch was back this week and the news was not promising.  Pajar was back and the paladin got taken.  I was happy to see Pajar.  Another fighter appeared -- one that spoke Thassilonian and not common.  Interesting.  It seems she was stuck in there for 2000 years.  I hope Dante doesn't meet a similar fate. We started poking around the corridor when goblins attacked.  Sol took a bad hit and then decided to get out of the way.  Pajar seem to have quite the knack with magic, blasting away goblins with flames from his hands.  Jericho kept firing off shots and making progress against the enemies.  My scimitar served me well. Pajar has quite a sense of humor.  Our rotund oracle, after being missed by the goblins calls out "You can't hit the broad side of a barn -- that was my nickname in grammar school -- broad side of a barn." We found sleeping quarters for ...

My latest project is making maps for my Shadowrun game.  We are always using the same settings (or at least, setting types) over and over again, so I thought I'd go ahead and make some maps for them.  These use $1 sheets of black foamboard for the base.  I then glue cardstock and construction paper (also only $1 for a big pack) onto the fomboard.  White strips form doors (just like in the Shadowrun maps).  Black strips form walls.  I use green to indicate grass / dirt areas around buildings. On the left is a Eula's place called V-Worx.  It is the local hacker bar.  On the right I have another building and Cathode Glow, a hacker bar in the city.  I have a few more buildings to add.  Oh, and it needs furniture. Here's the standard warehouse I use a lot.  It has plenty of doors, a set of table and chairs in one corner and some office / living quarters up above with stairs leading up.  Skylights above are marke...

We've been using miniatures quite a bit for out Shadowrun game, so I picked up a few toy vehicles to use in the game.

Here's the latest update from Ranier: After last week's massacre of goblins, it was time to take a look around.  It turned out the goblins weren't heavily armed -- they had just camping gear.  The paladin was torn up a bit about it, but Jericho reminded him that these were goblins.  I wish I could feel bad about it -- it just doesn't bother me anymore.  Goblin aren't innocent.  Nobody over the age of 10 is innocent anymore.  We pretty much all deserve to bite the dust.  The cruel joke is that once you get to that age, you're probably going to live long enough to regret it. We continued on through the thicket, this time losing Pajar to the old Thassilonian hummingbird (his player was out).  We found a deep hole that reached down to the ocean level with some terrible roaring creature in it.  We went around it.  Maybe we'll check it out on the way back. Axle and I were working together nicely this week, backing each other up on lookin...

Another report from Ranier: Well, we finished clearing out the dungeon space today we found below the glassworks.  It was good karma that brought the Oracle and Paladin back from the ether.  We finished searching the room where we killed the quasit.  Pajar found some gold and a scroll.  I couldn't get my eyes on the scroll.  Axle found a couple of potions -- a potion of hiding and a love potion.  Axle got the potion of hiding and Jericho the love potion.  We didn't like the look of the magic pool, so we covered it with doors from the room per Jericho's suggestion.  The doors disintegrated and fell into the pool.  We left it behind to finish exploring. Past the statue room we explored the last corridor.  Stairs lead to a room with a dark pool.  Past that we found a set of collapsed stairs leading up, that we reckoned probably lead up towards the lighthouse -- a set of local Thassilonian ruins.  Not surprising since these rui...

I was reading this article over on Voices in my Head . In this case, the writer is chalking up a slaughter of a PC to a difference of play styles. In this case, a PC walks straight into a group of orcs known to be killing everything in sight. They smile, pull back their bows, and fill him full of arrows as he tries to approach them to use diplomacy. The line in the whole story I find most interesting is the player's response: "Player 3 – Well you should at least let us try diplomacy. You should run this differently." This type of scenario is what I call a "Clash of the Helpless".  The GM sees himself as helpless to resolve the problem, because the player didn't pick up on the hints he gave.  The PC sees himself as helpless, because he tried something he thought was reasonable, and the outcome was not reasonable or expected.  If this were the first time I'd seen this pattern, I wouldn't have a name for it. I believe the problem in this ca...