Blaugust 2021 Day 4 Still taking the hobbits to Isengard!

Since discovering Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) back some 12 years ago I have taken a shine to MMOs, trying many differing ones but none compare to my first love, as is the case with many. I have taken breaks here and there but otherwise have played consistently for those 12 years.

In that time I have amassed a ton of characters over a number of servers but Landroval is my main home after my original server of Windfola was cast to the wind. Occasionally on this blog I record where some of my commonly played characters are up to and how I spend time in game.

Jestro – Level 130 Hobbit Hunter – currently my most complete character in terms of gear, he spends most of him time running the daily “stairs battle” to obtain Embers of Enchantment, the end game currency.

Pinhealer – Level 130 Elf Minstrel – Also running Stairs daily and half way to being geared. Downside is that I need to go through the gear grind twice, for DPS and for Heals. I’m not an incredibly talented healer but they seem to be in demand, especially in raids.

Jodri – Level 130 Dwarf Runekeeper – I’ve been playing Jodri the lot these recent weeks as although he’s level cap, he’s not completed Minas Morgul yet, which restricts him from some weekly quests. Also doing daily stair runs with him for more embers.

Brandenhelm – Level 130 Human Loremaster – Brandenhelm only gets pulled out for dailies, but like Pinhealer, he is not well geared for much more than that.

Diaspora – Level 121 Captain. Most of my solo questing is on Diaspora as I’m trying to get her to level cap, despite knowing that will add to the grind! Currently she’d in the Vale of Anduin, running errands for the Beornings

Knifesedge – Level 115 Human Hunter. Knifesedge is the character that I play with my daughter and he has run with Itse, the Loremaster from level 1. Currently they are in the Beorning lands too, but Minas Morgul is just around the corner and we can start the grind of running dailies together and maybe even the odd raid or two!

My other alts are all on the back burner at the moment so apart from crafting they barely get logged onto but I’m thinking my next challenge might be to level Saxlang my guardian, as I don’t have a tank in my cadre of characters and they are always in deman on the server.

Blaugust 2021 Day 3. Play by Post update part one

As mentioned earlier this week, most of my roleplaying these days is done online, via a play by post platform, Gamer’s Plane. I sometimes use this blog to update what’s going on in my games.

Call of Cthulhu: A Time For Harvest

This Cthulhu campaign ran for just over five years and finished a couple a weeks ago. It’s the first full blown campaign I’ve managed to complete is PBP and it’s a very satisfying feeling. The final episode featured a new team as all but one of the original characters died, but sadly the surviving player wasn’t around to rejoin and see the game the end.

Spoiler ahead!

The scenario, which involved students wrapped up in a Mi-Go plot to take over the Earth from a secret base on the Moon was thwarted when investigators traveled to the moon itself via a dimension gate and blew up the Mi’Go’s access point.

Warhammer Fantasy – Paths of the Damned

The party recently wrapped up the first scenario in the campaign, Ashes of Middenheim, in which the heroes uncovered a chaos cult that had infiltrated the church of Ulric to the highest levels are were attempting to cause civil war with the Sigmarites. The adventure culminated in the party fighting half a dozen frenzied members of the Brotherhood of the Axe, the Deputy High Priest and minor demon. Almost the entire party were taken out leaving heroic former Watchman, Harald Haselrieder to defeat the demon single-handed.

Spoiler ahead!

The party have since discovered that a relic that they brought to the city contained part of the soul of Xathrodox the Red Flayer. They are now heading to the capitol of Altdorf in pursuit of the second part embedded in a knife. the Dagger of Yul K’chaum.

Warhammer Fantasy – The Enemy Within: Death on the Reik

Well into the campaign now, on the third scenario Death on the Reik and after discovering an imperial signalling device is being built on the foundations of an observatory, they ventured below finding it guarded by undead, each holding a strange key. Five of these keys were found and Six keyholes, indicating one missing. They also found evidence of some kind of expedition planned in the past to a place called Devil’s Bowl. Right now they are at Devil’s Bowl which appears to be the site of a meteorite landing, the surrounding land blighted, Skaven appear looking for a stone. Meeting a ghost who claims to be part of an expedition gone wrong and a nearby cave with more undead, will our heroes put two and two together?

Blaugust 2021 Day 2 – First forays into 5th Edition D & D

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll know my passion and perhaps my history with tabletop RPGs. From the age of 12 when I discovered the first edition it has been the cornerstone of my gaming experience, moving to 2nd edition through my late teens and college years before drifting off to other systems like Warhammer Fantasy and Call of Cthulhu (both of which I still run in Play by Post games)

I never really dipped into 3rd or 4th edition or anything in between but I have recently been tempted to try 5th edition, thanks to the great podcasts/Youtube videos of two Matts, kings of the hobby, Matt Mercer and Matt Colville. As I no longer have a tabletop group and all my gaming is done by forum post, it’s hard for me to learn a new system but recently I took the plunge, both as a player and a DM

As a player I have joined a game over on my PBP site of choice, Gamer’s Plane. My character, Father Belathor Smythe, a human cleric of Lathander, former alcoholic and gambler turned holy man who carries with him a mysterious red egg.

Belathor with his prized possession (Figure designed on HeroForge)

My second foray needed a little more planning, I decided to GM for my daughter. She has played kids RPGs through her early years, games like First Fable, but this was her first proper step into a “grown up RPG”. As we both love Tolkien we decided to use the Adventures in Middle Earth. Our first Adventure, saw Chara the Beorning Wanderer, outcast of noble birth, aid a man and his son from Lake Town, through Mirkwood and to the Forest Gate on the edge of her Ancestral lands.

Learning the system was a lot easier than I thought and playing in person definitely speeds up the learning process over just reading to books. I’m already prepping the next adventure for Chara and with a long school holiday ahead I’m sure there will be many more tales to come.

Trudvang Adventures 5E Kickstarter about to close!

In case you haven’t seen it, get yourself over to the Kickstarter page for Trudvang Adventures 5E. It looks incredible!

This is a new setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5E! For 20 years Trudvang has been a hailed and awarded fantasy setting.

Set in a world inspired by norse and celtic myths and folklore, Trudvang is set in dark forests, the home of trolls, lindwurms, grendels and old mysetrious places where elves worshipped gods that long abandoned them.

The beautiful artwork is built on classic sagas such as Beowulf and the Celtic Mabinogion.

Now it is time for us to share this fantastic and unique world setting with all 5E fans out there. Trudvang Adventures is a game setting for 5E and it is inspired by Norse and Celto myths, mythologies and folklore with a twist towards the dark and down-to-earth. Whereas many fantasy settings take place in taverns and dungeons, Trudvang adventures is set in deep and dark forests where you will find trolls, lindwurms, grendels and old mysterious places where the elves worshipped their gods that abandoned them, or dark nests filled with treasures long lost.

At time of writing, there is just 68 hours to go and for $50 you can snag The Adventurer pledge set:

•  Settings companion (+PDF)
•  Hero Companion (+PDF)
• Character Sheets
• Trudvang Poster Map
•  Game Master Screen 
•  Wurmtongue (+PDF)
•  Ribbon bookmarks 
• Spell sheets
•  Wildheart (+PDF)
• Spelldeck

#Blaugust2019 – New Organised Play Campaign from Chaosium

Call of Cthulhu has been in my life for many years. Whether as fiction; the Cthulhu Mythos being classified a genre unto itself thanks to the work of HP Lovecraft and those that followed or in roleplaying form, the RPG Call of Cthulhu produced by Chaosium is currently in its 7th Edition and is currently having something of a renaissance thanks to its introduction of a one-shot on popular podcast show, Critical Role

I have been running Call of Cthulhu Campaigns in my play by post sites for many years and today I got some exciting news, a new “Organised Play” Campaign is coming later this year. These are designed for GM’s that play publicly to introduce players to the game, often at conventions, and are available to insiders, part of the “Cult of Chaos” – GM’s that apply for this honoured position. I have been playing their last campaign of this nature on Gamer’s Plane – A Time to Harvest and the introduction of another campaign is great news, especially if the quality of the stories are as excellent.

Entitled Flotsam and Jetsam, this campaign is a four-part serial, and introduces the journal, Strange But True! and presumably, the investigators will be employees of the newspaper.

STRANGE BUT TRUE! is a weekly newspaper publishing “true” accounts of the bizarre, the weird, and the frankly unbelievable. Elijah Cleaver, the chief editor and publisher, may have a taste for the outlandish, but he knows that the world is filled with darker secrets than most of his readers could care to imagine. When he can, he uses the resources of his newspaper and its loose network of investigators to uncover the truth and present it to an incredulous readership. Whether or not such investigations result in a publishable story, Cleaver hopes to, at least, make the world a safer place.

Blaugust2019 – Play by Post update

It’s been a while since I wrote about my RPG gaming over at Gamer’s Plane. The site is stronger than ever and since I joined, the play by post games I’ve been running have gone from strength to strength.

Note that this may contain spoilers for specific adventures (though as some of them are over 30 years old, I think it’s safe to post)

Warhammer: The Enemy Within

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was always a favourite of mine and my decision to resurrect this classic campaign in Play by Post form was a good one. Following the adventures of Airandille the Elven Initiate, Tobias the Bounty Hunter and Piter the Mighty – former soldier, among others, the party have travelled to the town of Bogenhafen for the annual Schaffenfest. They have currently uncovered a plot involving cultists, the trading families of the town and demons.

Warhammer: The Ashes of Middenheim

This is the first part of the Paths of the Damned campaign, original released with Warhammer 2nd Edition. I have converted it to good old first edition and it’s running smoothly. This campaign involves Laurellia the Elven Targeteer, Rufus the Smuggler turned Fence, Eldryn and Elven hypnotist and others as they escorted a group of refugees from a village destroyed by chaos hordes, to Middenheim, a city also suffering after its own assault by the forces from the north. On arriving in the city, they became involved in a murder investigation, tracking a skaven assassin deep underground and successfully defeated a whole group of the chaotic rat men.

Call of Cthulhu: A Time to Harvest

This campaign has been running for some time and the team of investigators led by survivalist Mathis Steele have discovered the mysterious brain-stealing Mi-Go, aliens from the 9th planet. Having infiltrated one of their bases in the Vermont hills and rescuing a number of captured folks, the team are headed back through the worst storm in history, to the disturbing town of Cobb’s Corners.

Call of Cthulhu : The Shadows of Yog Sothoth

Another long-running campaign, this game predates Gamer’s Plane and at this stage has been running for well over ten years. Millionaire playboy, Hal Green and his friends are currently in the Scottish village of Cannich and have uncovered a coven of witches who are seeking three parts of an unusual artifact. Our heroes have discovered two parts, and are racing to find the third before the coven does.

Call of Cthulhu: The Dreaming Ward

This game has been a series of one-shots rather than a long campaign and follows the adventures of Luis Karabekian, Larry Getz and Marc Armando. They are currently investigating a hospital studying dream therapy and have found themselves dragged into the Dreamlands, a dream-like dimension where nightmares are real.

Gamer’s Plane has a huge selection of games and new games opening up every day. If you ever thought about roleplaying but never had the chance to play over the table, why not check out play by post? It’s great fun and it’s a wonderful welcoming community.

Blaugust2019:Return to over the table RPGs – The Birth of a New GM

It’s scary to realise that it has been close to 30 years since I had the opportunity to role play over the table. Since leaving home in the late 80’s, my RPG activities have been restricted to Play by Mail and Play by Post games in which I’m generally always the GM, however now, as my daughter approaches the age at which I discovered Dungeons and Dragons, I thought it was time to introduce her to the hobby.

After some research, I found that the market now has a number of kid-friendly games, something that didn’t exist back in the 80’s and I stumbled across Hero Kids which works perfectly as an introduction for youngsters. The system is simple enough, using d6’s for combat and skill tests and a simple selection of character classes. After a few simple scenarios, we delved into more complex rules, with magic items, level advancement and new skills and spells giving greater customisation.

It was after maybe four or five adventures, that my daughter told me she wanted to run an adventure for me. I was sceptical, thinking she’s not seen enough to take on the GM mantle but I gave her the chance. She then sat and wrote a 3-4 page document, along with maps, monsters, puzzles and treasure.

When she started, she thought playing through would only take ten minutes, but this turned out to be a full one hour adventure (about normal for Hero Kids) and I was stunned, she was a natural. She’d carefully thought out the scenario, planned the encounters and even voiced the main villain. It was awesome!

I’m sure as she gets older and dives into more complex systems, she’ll get to explore more ways to GM and I hope this allows her to be as creative as possible and bring others into the hobby as I have over the years.

Blaugust 2019 begins!

Over the last few years, I have been involved with Blaugust, a community effort, happening every August, created by Belghast of Tales of the Aggronaut, to encourage blogging particularly among gamers. This always acts as a booster for me, bringing me back to my blog and writing more. In theory, I would love to blog daily but time doesn’t always allow though I am playing as many games as ever so should post perhaps more than I have in recent months.

When I combined all my personal blogs, this site started to include interests other than gaming, notably gardening, which I do in my free time and indie horror fiction, something I have a close connection to with my work in the British Fantasy Society as their Indie Press reviews editor. So if you’re just here for gaming, feel free to ignore anything that doesn’t interest you, but it’s just easier to lump everything under the Knifesedge banner, so it’s all here.

If you’re interested in signing up to blog, pop over to Bel’s post  and you’ll also find a list of other participants if you want to find your new favourite blogger!

 

H1Z1 Just Survive Update

Although H1Z1 Just Survive, the survival portion of the game by Daybreak Games has been sunset, there may be some good news of the horizon. From an email today:

Dear Survivors,

As we announced back in August, we’ve made the difficult decision to sunset Just Survive on Wednesday, October 24 at 11 a.m. PT. All game servers will be coming offline at that time, and the game will no longer be available for play. For answers to some of your frequently asked questions regarding the Just Survive sunset, please read this article.

While this chapter for Just Survive has come to an end, we are discussing the possibility of allowing our partner and developer of Z1 Battle Royale, NantG Mobile, to bring Just Survive back online and take over development of the game sometime in the future. Should we have further information to share regarding that matter we’ll be sure to inform you accordingly.

Thank you again for the countless hours of fun across Pleasant Valley and Badwater Canyon – we appreciate your support and dedication to Just Survive.

If this happens, I’ll be very happy. Although I haven’t played regularly, I did like to jump in for hours at a time and the base building element was really beginning to grow. I was hoping for a time where servers weren’t continuously wiped and bases would stay put.

Here’s hoping NantG see the sense in bringing the game back to (un)life.

Durin’s Day in LOTRO

So this weekend is the time of Durin’s Day in Lord of the Rings Online and there’s a Deed available if you visit the monument in Erebor where the thrush tapped on the stone on Durin’s Day, when the light of the setting sun revealed the secret door (in The Hobbit) The deed is available until Monday 22nd October, 2018.

I visited on several characters before taking my Captain, Diaspora there and summoned a load of characters to claim the deed (while promoting the Charity LOTRO Twitch stream, currently raising money for Extra Life)

I got this lovely shot on Diaspora, showing the spot and the one place in LOTRO where you see the sun and the moon at the same time.