20 hours to the Boston area ENWorld Gameday

[maverick_weirdo]

One of the sites I frequent (as some of you know) is EN World. It is an RPG site, focusing primarily (but not exclusively) on D20 games. They have existed in one form or another for 7 years now. (and I have been visiting it for 7 years now.) Their current "claim to fame" is that they are the organizers of the Official GEN CON Award ceremony ("The ENnies", by the way voting for this year's "ENnies" is currently open, and will be open until July 30th).

However that's not my topic for the day. Another great part of EN World is the Gamedays. Gamdays are "mini-cons" for ENWorlders (and friends) to get together for several 1-shot games. There have been gamedays in Chicago, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Maryland, and luckily for me Massachusetts. We have roughly 50 ENWorlders who make up the regular Boston Area Gameday (usually only about half that number are available for a given event).

Somehow EN World Gamedays has attracted many really great DM's. I have played in some of the most memorable sessions at gamedays. In fact I am only aware of 1 time where a lame DM ran a game at a gameday (and I promise to do better next time).

The reason I am going on about this, is that the next EN World Boston Area Gameday is LESS THAN 20 HOURS AWAY.

I'll be playing:
"Neptune Adventure" (System : Alternity)
"Underoo Avengers" a team of 8 year old superheros (System: BASH)
A Serenity 'verse adventure (System: Cinematic Unisystem)
And a yet to be named D&D 3.5 game

Some of the other games going on are:
All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Discworld Game (System: Gurps)
Feng Shui (no not interior decorating)
End of the World Timeshare (System: Fudge)
Paranoia
Robotech
Shadowrun

It is a two day event, so don't expect to hear much from me till Monday

Comments

[guedo79.livejournal.com]

Have fun.


Wish I was there.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Me too.

You know what sounds like real fun. You running a paranoia game with Me, Gray Rat, Kahuna Burger, and Jani. The clones really would be as cheerful as the computer says they should.

:p

[guedo79.livejournal.com]

Ha! That sounds like fun.

Though, with all the puns,Gray Rat, would run quickly.

[varianor.livejournal.com]

Hope you have a great time!

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[chaoticgoodchic.livejournal.com]

Do Tell!!

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Our host for the weekend was kahuna_burger (as well as her husband, 22 month old son, and the pug dog. The cat was not very sociable.) There is something I should explain about role-players from ENWorld. We seem to have more than out fair share of “method actor” and “strategist” style players, when we get together, the games seem to be more about personality & puzzles, than body count.

We got together at about 8:30 am Saturday had breakfast (lots of people brought stuff) till the kitchen was full, then we split up into games. The Alternity game we played was alot of fun. KahunaBurger was our DM. She always runs a fun game. The reason I didn’t sign up to play with her more is that I had already played in the plots she was planning on running.

Two of the other players (Qualidar & Carlzog) are experienced DM’s themselves and helped us understand the Alternity dice mechanic. Jani is the daughter of one of the other DM’s, but she is a much better roleplayer at 13, then I am at 3 times her age. (I wish I hadn’t done that piece of math.) The fifth member of our party was OrchidBlossom who would be welcome at gamedays even if she didn’t bring homemade peanut butter fudge.

I don’t want to post the entire plot, but some of my favorite quotes from the game were

Doc (Qualidar): "Until the toxic gas arrives."

Mouth (Me): "We are not going back for the alien brain."

Ships Crew (DM, KahunaBurger): "For some reason, some people panic when we mention the Nova."

Swifty (CarlZog): "If we blow the observation dome we can get off the ship that way."

Flyboy (Orcid Blossom): "With the gravity working a little “wonky” it’s probably safest if I just turn it off completely."

Angel (Jani, the treekiller, don't ask): "Everybody out of my way (followed by a really good intimidate roll.)"

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

The next game I played in was Underoo Avengers. The characters are a group of eight year old superheros. The DM for this game was NCSUCodeMonkey, who always runs a fun game.

Here are the character descriptions.

The cast of kids:

Yamka (Lily) O'Riely [The Bully]: Lily is a solidly built Native American girl who was abandoned by her birth parents for mysterious reasons. She was taken in by two loving parents of Irish descent and has stuck out like a sore thumb ever since. Lily is the tallest girl in the fourth grade and has broader shoulders than most men. She is not the traditional bully in the sense that she does not beat everyone to a pulp, but she is accustomed to being in charge and she's not afraid to use her fists to stay in charge. Super powers include the ability to Smite Weaklings, taunt opponents, and super human strength.
Famous Quote: “I punch it in the head!”

Jillian Snow [Dreamer]: Jillian Snow is a normally a sweet, absent minded little girl, but she has a temper that will literally blow you away. She was taken out of public school when she was seven to be home schooled by her mother, who didn't believe that public school was liberal enough. Most of her school time is spent staring idly out the window and letting her imagination run wild. Something about the complete control that she has over every detail of her imaginary worlds makes it difficult to cope with events when they don't go her way. Therefore, she tends to throw tantrums over things that may seem trivial to others, like not being first in line, or not getting the red pony. Jillian always feels guilty about these episodes and apologizes profusely for the outburst. Super powers include the ability to heal wounds and her purple unicorn strike.

Brady Poindexter [The Nerd]: Brady Poindexter is an average kid, as far as child geniuses go. He started consuming information about engineering and mechanics at the age of three, and since then he has spent countless hours in his invention workshop cobbling together all sorts of crazy creations. His personality tends towards aloofness since he's both smarter and richer than everyone at his private school. Brady's mother is the CEO of a major media company in the City, making Brady the heir to quite a fortune. There's something about his greased back hair and up-turned nose that makes him a target for bullies, but his impeccable logic and fascinating gadgets tend to defuse most situations before anything becomes too dangerous. Super powers include the ability to confuse enemies with technobabble and a knack with all sorts of gadgets.

Jared Dorf [The Outcast]: Jared Dorf was cursed from birth, or at least, that's what he thinks. With perhaps the worst last name in the The City's elementary school, Jared is resigned to being "The Dorf" for life. His outlook is one of odd duality: that everyone is out to get him and that nobody cares. So, in general, he doesn't care either. His dispassionate parents and hard life on the street have given him a much harsher outlook on life than the other kids, and tougher skin than most adults. One day, however, he will be a super-secret ninja-spy and the bad guys of the world will tremble before "The Dorf." Super powers include the Super-Secret-Ninja-Strike, which harms and potentially stuns enemies, and the ability to climb on almost any surface, much like a spider.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

I had played a different Underoo Avengers Adventure last October (when the gameday was held at my house.) This was my second time playing Jared Dorf. Both times I have felt there was no point in playing an outcast, unless you have a super-secret-crush on the cute girl. So in Jared’s eyes Jillian can do no wrong. In the last game I was able to find moments to turn to Lily (the bully) and say things like “Doesn’t Jillian come up with the Best ideas?”

This time Jani (the treekiller, don't ask) played Lily (the Bully),
Queenie who came from New York State (with her husband, and her 2 year old daughter) played Jillian (the Dreamer)
And someone I never met before, whose name I forget, did a great job playing Poindexter (the Nerd)

The game starts with MEGALAMAN zooming down from the sky to ask for our help (this is how all these adventures start).

I must admit I ended up grand-standing the game (although no-one actually complained)

In the Big Final Battle we were fighting some henchmen when Lily opened the gates to the “Big Boss’s Battleroom”. When that happened, the two gun turrets turned to point at the only hero near the center of the room, Jillian, who was currently fighting a henchman. The henchman and the two gun turrets all did damage to Jillian. Her hit point total went from 100 to 16 in one round, and the gun turrets would get to shoot again before her next move.

There was only 1 character with a move before the gun turrets, Jared. He could get to the henchman and probably take him out before he hurt Jillian, but there was no way he could get to either of the gun turrets, and if even one of them hit her she was a goner. The only thing he could do was to get the gun turrets to shoot at him instead of Jillian. On his character sheet it also mentions Jared’s weakness (all superheros have a weakness). He is very shy; if he is ever the center of attention he looses ALL HIS SUPER POWERS. It was a tough decision. Jared cried out “NOOOOO, YOU CAN’T DO THAT TO JILLY” and started beating the henchman with his bare fists, doing no real damage. This was not the Super-Secret-Ninja-Strike. The DM was surprised that I wasn’t doing the strike, till I explained. After I explained, Lily (Jani) started singing “Jilly & Jared sitting in the tree, K~I~S~S~I~N~G”

The henchman attacked me and missed (he rolled really badly). The first gun turret aimed at me and hit (bringing me down to 60 hit points. Okay. I admit, Jared was at full hit points and was sure he could survive a whole round as a target.)

Then the second gun turret ignored me and shot Jillian for 25 damage. The DM then handed Jillian a “Get out of death free” card. All she had to do to have her character com back, with 50 hit points, was make up a “MEGALAMAN theme song”, then sing it for us. It turned out that this was a major challenge for Queenie (she is a bit shy about her singing) but she did it.

Now that Jillian was alright, Jared got his second action. He ran at the gun turret which shot Jillian, jumped acrobatically and took out the operator with the Super-Secret-Ninja-Strike

Queenie did so well with the MEGALAMAN song that the DM let her bring her character back anywhere on the board. She chose an unoccupied gun turret. She shot down the other turret operator. The next round Jared pointed the gun turret at the “Big Evil Bad Guy Boss” shot at him twice, hit him both times, and both times his shield absorbed all the damage. Jillian shot at BEBGB his shield absorbed all the damage.

Jillian called out “What will we do?”
Jared called back “We’ll have to both shoot him at the same time, so we can do more damage than his shield can handle.”
Jillian then said “You think of the best ideas Jared.”
Jared started to blush, till Lily called out “Have you asked her out yet Jared?”
Poindexter started talking technobabble which confused the BEBGB.
Jared somehow resisted pointing the gun turret at Lily, and together Jared and Jillian hit the alien causing over 40 points of damage to get past his shield.
After a couple of rounds of combined attacks, the battle was won.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

In between games kahuna_burger's husband grilled us some hamburgers, hotdogs and shish-kabobs. We all had lunch and chatted for an hour, then split up for our afternoon games.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Kahuna Burger was kind enough to offer a couch for me to crash on, so I didn't have to drive back to Worcester. We ordered chinese food. (Kahuna, Hubby & Son, Orchid Blossom, her husband AO the Overkitty, Queenie, her husband Dire Wolf & daughter, and Me, the pug did not get to order).

One of the interesting features of Casa Kahuna is that, because of the animals and toddlers running around there are 5 or 6 strategically placed gates throughout the house. It requires several skill checks to make it to the bathroom in the middle of the night without waking anyone. ;)