New Game

Being a little experimental this time. I have devised rudimentary rules for the operation of a tank using the d20 system (That's dungeons and dragons). The game will center around the first experimental tank being demonstrated, by house Cannith, to the Brelish military. The party will be made up of those affiliated with either the Brelish crown or House Cannith. They will be Eberrons first (and possibly only) tank crew.

Character gen will take place on Wed. Hoping to find a fourth player for this one, but may be restricted to three for a while. Will list character info in a later post, possibly just after character gen, but probably later than that so I can tell tales of their exploits.

Things that are stupid: 01

Spiked railings.

Not the ones that are actually used for genuine security purposes, I mean the kind that are about waist high and go around green areas in the city center, or the ones that surround parks, even though the parks gates can't be locked. What purpose do these things actually serve other than to be a hazard to people, either adults just taking a short-cut, or to children that just want somewhere nice to play. 

They serve no real purpose, they don't even look nice. 

and they kill people.

http://news.scotsman.com/edinburghmasonry/No-action-on-railings-that.3358488.jp

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2181882/posts

Some things are stupid.

Scamed

I've just been approached by an organization thats going to scam me. I say going to as I am going to comply with them completely, and give them exactly what they ask for in return for absolutely nothing. This is because the scam is completely legal and enforced by the law.

Thats right.

I'm about to get a television license.

While I do in fact own a television, I am not currently subscribed to a television provider (well, my Internet is supplied by one I suppose, but I digress), and there are no actual terrestrial signals available that could be picked up with an old fashioned aerial. So what am I paying for?

The right to posses receiving equipment. I checked the website but it doesn't actually say what I'm getting, just that I have to pay.

I love Ireland.

Like a sucking gunshot wound.

Preperation, Preperation, Prep... well shit!

The one problem with being a GM is players. Not that they exist, but that they have wills of their own, and tend to use them. The bastards.

'But surely that creates a better gaming experience?' I hear you cry. Well yes it does, however it makes the GM's life a great deal harder than it already is. They do this by generally taking your finely sculpted, lovingly crafted plot, and then driving a truck over it. Possibly followed by a combine harvester.

This leads many GM's to the conclusion that preparing ahead of time for a game is a waste of effort.
They are wrong.

Preparing properly can make life a great deal easier. Instead of arbitrarily deciding what the players will do (a fools errand if ever there was one), decide what the villain's/monsters motivations are. What are they trying to achieve, what back up plans do they have for when things go wrong. Another thing to consider is location. What is it for? What was it originally for? When was it built and who built it? Has it been upgraded to its current state or is it as it was originally constructed? Going into detailed historical notes isn't necessary here, just a rough idea.

For example:
The cult's base of operations is in an old meat processing plant. They've converted some of the machines there into defensive mechanisms (ie traps), and the vast majority of armed cultists are using the old meat cutting equipment as improvised weapons, hence the disturbingly large number of meat hooks.

Simple, creates a running theme, and a little back ground information for the scenario. Doing this kind of thing can help with map design (if you do that kind of thing) since its easier to make up reasons for the rooms as you go along. 

All this means that when your players inevitably go off track you have things prepared in such a way that improvising on the fly is a little more consistent.

I am currently suffering through such a situation in my current Eberron game, with the players going in a direction I never even thought of. When I said this they started trying to guess what I thought they'd do. No-one got close. Eventually I will tell them (as I'm sure they'll get around to it) but for now I have to run with their rescue mission idea.

Felina

Felina passed away last night.

I'd like to say in her sleep but I suspect she was awake. She'd been very ill lately because of an ear infection that kept becoming more and more complicated, until she simply gave up.

She will be missed.

The con

I spent last weekend at Gaelcon, which was being run by Andrew, a friend of mine. It was the first con he'd ever run and I have to say he did a fantastic job on it. This one went up to 11!  I didn't actually play that many games, only three if I include the left for dead tournament, but those I did play were a great deal of fun.

I did run a game written by Ian, which I had helped play test for him, set in the discworld. Its worth pointing out that it's the first game he's ever written, and it came together brilliantly. So brilliantly in fact that he won the best game award (You should have seen his face). 

I won something as well :)

Apparently being a paranoid devious bastard helps you roleplay better when anyone could be your enemy.

The auction was good fun, especially the start when they surprise awarded a charity with €10,000. The representative was nearly in tears, heart strings were being tugged. We bought a nintendo 64 and some D&D stuff by Keith Baker, all told €200. Played the 64 last night. God those graphics are awful. I think I'll go play it again now though :) .

Exam madness

Well I've had an interesting day today. It was my end of year exam this morning, 10:o'clock to be exact, so I headed off to the Marino institute (The one that isn't actually in Marino) as usual to take the exam. I started to get suspicious when no other students, or even exam officials were there by 9:30, so I double checked at the desk. 

Long story short, I was in the wrong place, I should have be in UCD sports hall, which is very far away from the Marino institute. The opposite side of the city actually. So I sprinted out of there and grabbed the first cab I saw and got to UCD sports center.

Fun fact: there are two UCD sports centers, one of which is in Blackrock. Can you guess which one I went too and which one I should have gone too. Back into a taxi I go. At this point I'm already 20 minutes late for the exam, so I'm worried about not being let in. Eventually I get to the second sports center, half an hour late now, and have to spend a further 10 minutes looking for the exam hall, which turns out to be cunningly hidden behind the cafeteria.

Thankfully they let me in to the exam hall without any trouble what so ever, and the exam went reasonably well so all in all the insanity turned out okay. Looking for the Blackrock dart station was fun too. For such a big building its damn hard to find.