Voting for round 4 of RPG Superstar began this week, with voting open until March 2nd. Are you planning to play through any of the encounters?
Avernos Unearthed
I’ve been hard at work behind the scenes of Avernos, planning out the next phase of posts that will tie everything together nicely. In the coming months we’ll be digging even deeper into the elves for a bit before we briefly look at humans, then on to my favourite race, the dwarves.
Today’s entry is about the Great Betrayal, mentioned last week in the entry on elves. This pivitol moment in the history of Avernos needed its own section, enjoy.
Next week we’ll venture into the mysterious Veiled Lands, don’t miss it.
The Books of Faces
We have more adventure than you can fling a prune scone at. Make your move.
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Campaign Journal
Last weeks game of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying was the third session in our campaign, with guest player Brent — from Comics League International — joining us to play the role of the mystical Dr. Strange. To kick things off, Thor, Black Widow and Dr. Strange went after Armadillo, who was rampaging through the streets of New York. The fight went from the street, through the City Bank and into a comic book store, where the heroes discovered old comics about the mysterious Sentry, last seen voluntarily locked up on the Raft.
Next up was a hunt for Mjolnir, Thor’s mighty hammer, lost during the fall of the Avengers Mansion. In a battle with the Wrecker and Bulldozer, Strange revealed his secret identity as Loki, when Thor — having found the hammer — summoned it, only to have Strange/Loki throw up an extra-dimensional portal in its path. Thor and Loki took their battle to the frozen wastes of Jotunheim, where Thor, wielding the Wrecker’s crowbar, brought the beat-down Loki deserved. In the final moments of the battle, Loki played his ace, sending the Casket of Ancient Winters through a third portal to Earth. Oh, that Loki.
The neat thing about having a villain amongst the players is that it’s so unexpected. It isn’t easy to pull off well though, because you’re essentially betraying the trust of the players, who expect every other player to be part of the team. Here are some factors I think play a part in setting up a good double-cross scenario:
- Experience: Both Brent and I have played in at least one session where a PC turned on the party. Brent is also a very capable GM, so I knew I could trust him to deliver an awesome story instead of a nasty TPK.
- Group Size: For various reasons we ended up with two players, Thor against Loki, which ment that Thor’s player could have felt very isolated if he wasn’t such a great player. I wouldn’t recommend the double-cross for small tables for this very reason.
- Guest Stars: Brent has to take a four hour long round trip train ride to play with us, so we knew this would probably be a one shot for him. He could be the bad guy without affecting the existing group dynamic.
- Rewards: One of my players wanted to play Loki, but we just couldn’t figure out how to give her that chance without the fued between Thor and Loki derailing the game. With Loki defeated, and probably stripped of his powers and turned into Kid Loki, it makes much more sense for Loki to be a playable option.
Have you ever set up a player vs player double-cross in your own sessions? I’d love to hear about it.
Rising Phoenix News
Ahoy there me matey! Next month we set sail across vast oceans with Sea Tiles, our next set of game tiles. They’re perfect for expanding the sea and ship maps in your collection and they’re coming soon to Drive Thru RPG.
Avernos and the Book of Faces has been taking up most of our time, but we’ve also started work on a mini campaign setting for Pathfinder, which is off with the play testers now.
Inspired in Japan
I was introduced to Go, not in Japan, but while LARPing in South Africa. It’s a facinating game which originated in China and is very popular in Japan, even today. It’s easy to learn. The guy who taught me described Go as “takes minutes to learn, a lifetime to master”. I love the complexity that arises from its simple rules.
I wonder if they’ll have a Go mini game in Shadowrun: Hong Kong?
You can learn how to play Go on Wikipedia, which has a bunch of other insightful links.
That’s all from me until next Thursday.
Tell Thrilling Tales
