Amber related, life related, you name it, we've got it. Welcome to the Lost and Found.

 

WISH 82: Three Word Summary

Sum up one or more games that you GM or play in 10 words or less. (Three is best, but not everybody is that pithy.) Don?t restrict yourself to current games if you have great ones in the past.

In order of increasing succinctness:

Lost and Found (Amber, GM): Things found are not always wanted.
The Changeling game: Wasn't there a kid to find...?
The evil party D&D game: Evil should reconsider calling cards.
Of Shadows Past (Amber): Secrets, impetuousness, and sorcery.
Dark and Stormy Night (Amber): Lost memories suck.

And just for amusement value:
Star Wars d20 one-shot: The New Republic got us killed.
posted by sandrayln at 12:07:00 AM ( )

 

WISH 81: My Favorite System

What's your favorite game system, and why? What things don't you like about it? How much do you have to "jigger" it from published rules and why?

I have to admit that I'm with Jvstin and Arref on this one. Amber, all the way.

My big, fat, happy feeling about Amber comes from the fact that I don't have to remember what difficulty things are! No "Was the base difficulty 10 or 12 or 8?" Other reasons, too, including just a vague, "But I just like it!" - but the difficulty thing is a primary.

One thing I don't like is the combat - I always feel out of depth when I get into combat situations because I'm just not a) that interested and b) not that knowledgeable about combat things. Well, aside from some basic fencing. And Xenophon's views on cavalry.

And on a cosmetic mode - someone needed to point out to Mr. Wujcik, before Shadow Knight went to press, that putting in his introduction that he didn't want to write the book and that it still feels wrong for him to have written it is a BAD IDEA! We can say "major turn-off," can't we, class?

Things I tweak... hmm. Here's the things I messed with for L&F:

- No auction. I only had 3 players - it just wasn't worth the effort. I'm not really on either side of the auction/no auction fence; as a player, I've now done both, and neither was particularly odious or particularly outstanding. (Although I do have to admit that I went into the auction with very firm ideas of what stats I wanted and how high I was willing to go on the ones that were negotiable.)

- Secrecy and rank ladders. Ugh. Rank ladders (Remember those in the book? If you're at 2 and the next rank is 15, you gotta pay 13 points to advance a rank?) are NOT my idea of fun. It just doesn't allow for the kind of relative improvement I want to see in ability stats. And, again, because of the smallness of the group, the only element of secrecy about their character sheets that I asked my players to keep was how much experience points I gave them at advancement.

- Sorcery. Just a few minor things at first, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to gut the sorcery system and start over again. The one that gets me is how, exactly, did Merlin's very difficult, cast-from-scratch-in-20-minutes invisibility spell become a Basic Invasive spell with cast-from-scratch time of 1 hour or more?

- Good/Bad/Zero Stuff. I just hate the idea that Stuff was intended to affect how a character is perceived. I mean, really. I'm the kid that managed to, over the course of about two years, drop a small schooldesk on my big toe, sprain the ankle on the same foot trying to stand on my head, and then hairline fracture the same ankle by simply running a lap in the gym at school - I'd say, at a guess, that I have Bad Stuff. People don't think I'm mysterious, spooky, evil, or whatever; mostly they seem to just think I'm nice, but kind of odd. If I enforced the perception thing, I'd have to make one of my players take Bad Stuff, since his character has this tendancy to piss people off so much in their first conversation that they often want to do him some sort of injury!

- Power Words. And speaking of injury, I threatened certain of my players with bludgeoning by fish if they used the weird-ass Power Word words in the book - Nogtz and all those. Half of them sound like a Klingon with chest phlegm, and the other half are just oddly spelled normal words. I don't want to have a lexicon of the Power Words sitting next to me at all times, I just want to know which Power Word you're saying. Sheesh. And anyway, the one for Thunder should be an onomatopoeia.

That's all the ones I can remember offhand...
posted by sandrayln at 6:13:00 PM ( )

 
Well, Lost and Found is unfortunately dead.

One of my two players quit; she said she didn't have time for the game any more. I don't feel comfortable letting someone else play when the game was already near it's end. I don't want to subject anyone I don't know well to my skimpy descriptions until I retrain myself to describe things again. The plot will fall apart with only one person playing, and that player (my boyfriend) and I had already started a game on the side. And I still have some other GMing kinks to work out. So, basically, the game is dead.

*sigh*
posted by sandrayln at 10:57:00 PM ( )

 
Now combine the two, and add a little spice.

What if Avalon was destroyed by primal Chaos, and Corwin was able to hold that Chaos back for a time, before too much of the Shadow fell and he had to flee for his life?

Draw it out a little. Pull the time back to before Corwin's banishment of Ganelon. Put PCs in as Corwin's assistants, ministers, generals, and friends. Let them watch Corwin's rage at his former friend. Let them feel the emotions of a kingdom in ruins and a king who just walks away. Let the Chaos take them away at the end.

For one brief, glorious moment - let them see Avalon.
posted by sandrayln at 10:15:00 PM ( )

 
So what happens if a Pattern initiate tries to hold a Shadow stable against Primal Chaos?

Merlin doesn't even try. He just gets the hell out of there.

But there's no reason it shouldn't be possible, is there? After all, if the Pattern couldn't prevail against primal Chaos, why would there be Shadow? If the Pattern wasn't strong enough, then Amber would still be but a small, sudden island in the midst of Chaos, wouldn't it?

It would depend on the wielder. It would have to depend on the wielder.

And my boyfriend raises an excellent point - the Shadow would still be damaged. Imagine a Shadow riven by Chaos, chasmed and torn physically and metaphysically. Wouldn't that be a great place for Broken Pattern wielders to meet, as a waypoint of sorts? Not that all roads would lead there - but some would.

It's a second-series idea with Broken Pattern... but what if? Ignore the Broken Pattern. Call it a mysterious Chaos power of your choice, or even non-Power-based sorcery, and you've got a much more first-series-pure idea.

What if, indeed.
posted by sandrayln at 11:58:00 PM ( )

 
Meditating on the barest hint of a germ of an idea.

What happened to Avalon?

Corwin lost. The silver towers fell. Why did he just leave? Corwin's a stubborn little shit sometimes - why did he abandon what he'd created? Was it tarnished beyond his repair in his eyes? A great stain - yet he remembers her fondly in her glory days; why did he not take the final step and repair what had been damaged?

Why was Avalon 'lost'? Why does Corwin imply that Avalon no longer exists? Is it just that the kingdom he created no longer stands as a pillar in that world - or does the Shadow not exist? Or was it simply poetic license, as Corwin is wont to do?

What if the Shadow itself is gone? How do you destroy a Shadow? Merlin destroys one by primal Chaos - but are there other ways?

...Oh ye gods. What if the silver towers' fall into a sea of blood wasn't a poetic invention, but literal fact?

Damn. I take it back - I have something more than a hint of a germ of an idea. Now, how to work it...?
posted by sandrayln at 7:23:00 PM ( )

 
I need to practice writing about the physical.

Okay, that's cryptic.

What I mean is that I need to work on being able to write what my character is doing and not just what they're saying.

This is brought into sharp contrast by the fact that I just spent 4 days trying to figure out how to word a nod and a glance. *sigh*

I used to be able to do that kind of thing, to a certain degree, but I've migrated out of the habit. So it's time to figure out ways to practice.
posted by sandrayln at 6:23:00 PM ( )