In our game the silver dragon was mostly just... living.
NO IDEA HOW MUCH IS SPOILERS, BELOW: fair warning
It grew up mostly hiding and fearing retribution many years, only recently guessing that the horrible dragon was finally dead, after so long with no sign.
The Silver in our game had hedged toward lawful neutral: still good, as it respected sentient life (more or less), but more interested in his own well-being, as he's had to take care of itself his whole life.
We eventually recruited him and made him our Warden (I think that's the police/guard force?), and raised his his mother to be our financial chancellor. Her motivation was: help others, raise the son she'd left behind (he might be an adult now, but there was so much he didn't know!), and re-build her hoard (hence: our treasurer).
We're at book five and yet to run into the legendary evil dragon that killed the mother the first time.
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I don't have anything particularly constructive to add, I just want to express my whole hearted support and pleasure at seeing Pen and Paper roleplaying games being used as a tool for positive social change.
Very very cool.
Best of luck
- Torger Miltenberger
Many thanks, Torger (and others) - net has run out (for the month) now, so it might be difficult to organise a Thursday session for a while, since I am in the UK, having a bit of a break, actually. However, I will endeavour to test out an internet session through Fantasy Grounds very soon.
Patrick has advised me that he would like to run a Kingmake session himself.
For reference, the paper copies of the modules have not yet arrived, so we will need to chase up on these.
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While, net is back at the Centre, we're still ironing out some technical issues, but in the meantime, Patrick has started his own Kingmaker session with some new youngsters - congrats to him. For those that are supporting the project, we are using what we receive to pay for the kids' food when they stay over at our centre. Most survive on one meal a day, so it's a good thing to be able to support them with an evening meal, when they come to stay.
Many thanks also to Save Against Fear - http://www.saveagainstfear.com/ - who supported the project through their convention this year.
Will try to get things back online ASAP!
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Disappointingly the downtime has slowed the RPG down a bit and it now looks to be delayed until school holiday time in December. We've received a wonderful box of materials from Save Against Fear and much of this will be going across for Christmas, with our Christmas Present box for the slum kids.
If finances permit, we are also going to test out a roleplaying adventure in some villages in Dec/Jan time. Watch this space for information.
Sorry to hear of the slowdown, but fingers crossed for the new year.
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Ok, well the New Year is here and Patrick has made a decision to start the Kingmaker campaign himself, in the absence of continuing things through Fantasy Grounds.
He said the first session was really fun, as the party let the bandits come in, demand the money from Oleg and Svetlana, "have a cup of tea" and then disappear off. Only when the bandits had left did Oleg become very shirty and tell the "adventurers" that they were cowards, did the group pull their socks up and chase after the bandits! Those who donated to the project have enabled us to support these overnight sessions
Patrick is running a session mixed boys and girls every week now and he has also drawn up a plan to develop and recruit very many new children locally onto his programme, which sounds encouraging, since Patrick is only 13. The Butterfly Project has also recruited Patrick onto its own training project, which teaches children to be young social entrepreneurs.
We have just added 15 new members including Patrick - https://chrysalisuganda.wordpress.com/2015/01/01/15-new-butterflies-joining -the-project-this-month/ - and we will be starting their training on 7th Feb and I should be back in Uganda by then. We will try to find a window in the week to continue the Kingmaker (Part 3) and this is likely to be mid-Feb. Hopefully, Patrick will also continue his version too in the meantime!
Thanks for continuing to follow the column. Maybe we will be able to update it more frequently soon.
I managed to acquire a copy of the Pathfinder Card Game for Christmas and this will also be coming across with me. It does seem rather complicated, but we will see how the kids cope with it.
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We'll be building a lockable quiet room and office on site, which will also house a small kitchen in February, so I am hoping that this room can be dedicated to board games and RPG and thus encourage a bit more play during times when it is too noisy in the main centre.
I've got a lot of new stuff to try out - lots of dice and new adventures and new Pathfinder books. Also I have my new cohort of young people with whom to try out the games.
Will post soon with more details...
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This sounds really encouraging. I love hearing about this. When I have kids someday I hope to do something like this.
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I'm back in Kampala again and it's very hot, even for Kampala. Everyone is eagerly anticipating the resumption of Kingmaker and we have decided to continue the campaign on a monthly basis, as some of the original group are now in Boarding.
Since I was last in Uganda, we have been sent a lot of new modules ((BG THANKS TO THOSE THAT ARE HELPING) and dice etc., so many that I have had to delay sending it over on a container we are planning. Also I have now met with our new project members and we have decided to start a new campaign with some of them. I am going to kick off Reign of Winter on Thursdays and Patrick is going to introduce the other members slowly with some easy scenarios, using local language, as many are not yet ready to understand English from and English person. Running RPG sessions in local language is very important to our strategy, as we hope to include some sessions in villages next May.
So, we have decided to run with a group of three boys - Patrick (13), Kenneth (13) and Beckham (12) - and two girls - Barbara (14) and Shadia (13). They are going to be working on their characters today and tomorrow, so we will see what they choose! All have excellent English and are very keen to get started.
THAT IS SO COOL! You're players really are growing up and teaching people, after you've taught them with Kingmaker! God bless you, sir, and what you're doing!
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We've decided on characters today and it will be a mix of people who know and people who don't know anything.
Kenneth is playing a Half Orc draconic heritage sorceror, as he wants to be a dragon disciple as a prestige class and saw it in the core rulebook.
Barbara liked the sound of the Winter Witch, but wanted to be a gnome, as she played Lini last time. Also, Maria was a witch before and stole the limelight a bit!
Shadia seemed enchanted by the picture of Amiri and so is playing a female human barbarian
Beckham is very small and decided to play a halfling cleric of Desna. He'll find out that being a halfling is not so easy in Pathfinder!
Lastly, Patrick started school today, so I haven't seen him, but he said he'd like to play a monk. We'll find out tomorrow, whether he ends up with that class.
We're set to play tomorrow, with a following wind, so will report back on the first session soon.
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Ok, we had our first session on Reign of Winter last night. Agnes was able to come in the end, so I made her a swift female dwarven fighter, with a fancy war axe and everyone else stuck with what they had been given.
Sometimes the hardest part of introducing the game is explaining how to play and all of the statistics on the character sheet, but our three new players seemed really adept and quick to grasp this, finding their fort saves, their initiative, their AC and hit points like veterans. Also, sometimes a group struggles with the roleplay interaction at the beginning, but they quizzed the escaped guard like pros and found out almost the information they needed.
They set off speedily to investigate where the attack had taken place and set about searching the place. Guldan (the monk) - check out the Hearthstone reference - was into everything leading the inexperienced party by the nose. Thus he and Barbara the white witch were the only ones near, when the two guard zombies burst out of the carriage. Guldan beat up on one of them, his open handed strikes bouncing off the zombie flesh, but the other zombie smashed the witch into pulp in one round, before she could even prepare.
Then stepped in Bestobest, the little cleric. Only he had correctly identified the zombies and so we offered him, as a new player a chance either to heal one, heal all, attack or turn undead, explaining what each might do. He chose to Channel Positive energy and our witch awoke from unconsciousness.
Step forward Chada, the barbarian. Ok, Chada, roll the dice - "20" - is that good? - roll again, Chada - 4d6+6 damage on the zombie. I get to roll "all these dice"? Needless to say, the zombie was sliced in two. Next stepped forward Khania, the young dwarven fighter. Your turn, Agnes. What have you rolled? - "20" - ok, roll again...."18". Ok, roll me 3d10+3 damage, Khania. And the second zombie was split in two....
So, the new three players were very much in the thick of things and enjoyed the session, which continued with the group wandering into a trap and then deciding to return back to the village to recover and sell the jewellery they found and buy some more equipment.
More next week...
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Week 2 was somewhat disrupted. We weren't able to start until 9.00pm and some of the kids gor home quite late from school. Chada seemed to struggle with the English this week and was also tired and Agnes didn't make it at all. However.we teach the kids not to be discouraged by challenges, so we ploughed on for an hour and moved through the scenario with the fey lights and then the talking stag, which they found highly amusing.
I didn't dare take the session past 9.00pm due to school next day, so it was just two encounters. Next week, we will focus on the assault of the bandit area, which I think will be a challenge for the group.
Tomorrow, we are going to have our first session on Kingmaker, with the original group - Brian (Imrijka) has just shown up, sent home from school for school fees (he walked about 8 miles), so he can join us tomorrow morning. Also, Joseph is tonight going to run his own campaign, with a new group of his own choice tonight. On Tuesday, Patrick is going to introduce the game to the girls from the village, that we have resident here this year. Basically, we want to test their interest in this type of storytelling.
So quite a lot happening on the roleplaying right now. Will report on the Kingmaker campaign resumption tomorrow.
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Kingmaker today was quite a lot of fun. We managed to get through the whole of the first level in Vordakai's tomb in just over three hours though our little group was alchemist, summoner, monk and Inquisitor only. With just an inquisitor to heal, though, they did find themselves a bit stretched for healing, as these higher level denizens really start to hit hard.
I noticed today more than any previous session how they were working much more as a team - moving out of the way, so each could use their special powers, healing at crucial times, looking to flank etc. It's not just a learning of the rules, more of a friendship thing or perhaps even a survival instinct. The traps in this section are also very dangerous, yet they solved some tricky situations, as the rooms filled with water, or the undersea creatures had them pinned in the doorway of the cave entrance.
Actually we could have continued for longer, so their concentration span is also improving, despite their young years.
It's been great having so many more dice - thanks to those who sent them - as finally everyone could have their own dice! THough at this level (8), they need to be rolling multiples of each dice most of the time!
I'm told we are going to have a new mini-blog on the Paizo blog soon and also Patrick is about to write a blog about his project and how it is developing on Wordpress. I'll link both here, when we are ready.
Next Kingmaker is scheduled for a month's time, though it was hoped we could do it before then....
This is great! Keep the updates up!
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Things can't always go smoothly, especially with a new group. Barbara and Agnes didn't make it this week - Barbara had a netball tournament and Agnes was denied permission to come again, because the school like to insist on revising books from 8pm-10pm at night. Shadia was on her own and I toyed with cancelling, as I could tell she has been out of her depth and needing the other girls' support.
Kenneth also is an interesting character and just loves to play the wizard character, as he likes the concept of being a powerful wizard casting fireballs. However, like many of the others, English comprehension is difficult for him and the source material we have - Core rulebook - requires very good comprehension. Therefore, many of the kids have difficulty with the more complex classes and don't really consider the powers of the spells in context, instead just like the "effect".
A good example last night was when the group came upon a group of three bandits, arguing over the split of loot. Some went immediately stealthy. My guess is that Kenneth didn't know the word "stealthy" and decided to cast enlarge person on himself and step forward saying he was no threat and wanted to just talk to the bandits.
The bandits unsurprisingly panicked, firing at the giant that had appeared at long range - note there was thick snow everywhere - and then at the monk that was trying to close on them, proclaiming peace to try to salvage the situation. The barbarian (Shadia) didn't really understand anything that was going on and just followed.
A lucky crossbow shot at long range from the witch (played by Joseph in Barbara's absence) gave them the idea that they could use ranged weapons and eventually the three bandits were despatched, though an easy encounter became potentially threatening.
They then came upon the bandit stronghold and decided to awaken the whole lot by announcing their presence....more next week!
I may have a switch around next week and try some new players. We debated the issue of which children locally would find the roleplaying fun and joseph cautioned by saying perhaps we should try them with some structured board games first, to test their interest and, sometimes, English comprehension, both verbal and written. However, it was quite clear that Joseph's game on Saturday had uncovered some new good players, Simon Peter and Emmanuel, who he will look forward to continuing with next Saturday. Patrick is going to run a session just for the girls next week, though one has expressed a fear of the monster figures we have, saying that they will give her nightmares - any comments on this new issue?
One thing you can do is to either remove the offending figure(s) and (if you're using a battle-mat or something that requires it) replace it with something innocuous (such as a coin or pebble). Another (depending on how frightened she tends to be of the descriptions) is to "re-skin" the creatures encountered as something else - make them "look" (via description) a little less scary, perhaps, but just as dangerous (leaving their game statistics alone). You could even use different minis in that case, if you describe them looking like a different one.
I don't know if that will help, but those are some ideas! :D
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Thanks for the idea, TacticsLion. I think the girl concerned will start to develop her ability to tackle new things while she is with us and hopefully she will embrace the idea at some point. We can use coloured tokens or I think the Paizo pawns are less scary than the little figures that I brought with me this time.
So, we left last week with the group deliberately springing the trap outside the bandit lodge and this falling and dislodging a series of pots, pans and pottery jugs, which alerted the bandit guards of the presence of intruders.
Mundi - either a wizard or a sorceror (he seems to be a wizard with a bloodline) - decided he wanted the crossbow, so decide to let the rest of the group sort out the bandits that had appeared on the verandah and started attacking, while he trudged through the thick snow.
Bestobest, the halfling cleric started to learn that his weapons weren't as good as the others, but his day was a series of crucial healings as the players were to find out.
The bandits themselves were a fairly unimpressive crew, who fell immediate victim to the witch's sleep spell. 4 out of 5 fell asleep and were butchered by Chada and Kania (back this week). Even the bandit reinforcements that came were no match - Guldan the monk noticed they were suffering from a disease and was tempted to let them live, but they decided to put the men out of their misery.
A half orc rogue appeared at the doorway and Kania let loose on him, even though she tried to show that she was not part of the bandit group. She parried Kania's blow and carried on surveying the scene, eventually finding a way to escape, with the agreement of the party.
By now though Rohkar had appeared and after failing to have his best spells work, he started to raise the dead bandits as zombies and the battle started to move in his favour, as party members started to fall - first the monk, then the fighter, then the barbarian - zombies really are quite powerful for a L1 group - but Bestobest "spammed" his channel positive energy and with a few good dice rolls, he kept everyone up. The monk went straight for the Rohkar, and grabbed him by the throat, whereupon the bandit chief was forced to banish the zomnbies remaining. Rohkar pretended that he was merely a pawn of the evil ice creatures and even promised to heal the party in the battle against the ice mephit on the bridge.
The mephit, however, gave away that the bandit was in league with her and, when I realised Rohkar had no means of healing himself, then he was easily despatched and after a struggle Guldan managed to stun the mephit and the battle was more or less won.
It was combat all night, but the kids said they had enjoyed it, asking whether we could do it twice a week! I am asked this quite a lot, so encouraging the more experienced ones to run roleplaying themselves (as is happening with Saturday).
Also at the end of the session, Bestobest asked me "Ben, I am enjoying the sessions, but what exactly am I learning?" Maybe I will pose this question to readers of these boards and I told him to think about it himself and come up with some answers.....
Definitely got to think about this.
The short (and terribly lacking) answer is "a lot of things that are very difficult to quantify" - effectively it's subtly teaching lots of elements by reinforcement, ranging from math to cooperation, leadership to recognizing and understanding consequences; social skills to risk-and-inventory management.
There are lots of other things. It's possible some forumer will be able to post a link to one of the studies showing some of the benefits of RPGs. Maybe I can find some later.
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Risk assessments and planning
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Sorry have been a bit remiss with updating - we have had two sessions, since I last posted. I'll update shortly.
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SOooooooo looking forward to it!
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Well the last two sessions have been quite short. The girls are very reluctant to move away from their responsibility to serve food and this is quite disruptive for the evening, as this week they were sent on an errand, just as we were about to start and then throughout the evening, they seemed to have their mind on when the food was ready and when they needed to be there to serve it.
::sighs::
However, we did make some progress. It seemed to take an inordinately long time to search the bandit lodge and I had to drop a hint/reminder of what they had actually set out to do, before they discovered the Lady Argentea locked in a secret room in the cellar.
This group seem very comfortable to converse with NPCs and my "jolly hockey sticks" noble seemed to go down a treat. The poor old wizard/sorceror (we haven't decided what yet) had contracted chillblains and they had to spend 500gp to rid him of the disease.
In an effort to get them moving again, I encouraged the group to go back and also suggested to Patrick that another might want to take on the lead, which he has been very good about, though everyone else lacks experience in this area. Kenneth eventually took the lead, but misinterpreted leadership by being at the front of the party. Surprised by a posse of frost skeletons, the wizard felt victim to their icy aura and blades. However a round or so later, they were clocked into submission by warhammers and greatswords.
Bestobest, the halfling, told me this week that he was beginning to realise what an important role he had in the group as I was wondering whether he was getting bored with healing - it seems not. Having healed everyone back up, they proceeded to walk straight into some animated trees, which caused quite a hassle, one throwing the dwarf's axe 50 feet into the undergrowth. Karnia beamed as she told me she would draw her warhammer and she clubbed the thing to death.
They continued along the path and were thrown into disarray by the ice maze haunt, the party being split into three. The animated evil doll seems to have created quite an impression on them as round by round passed by and they had yet made a scratch on the thing. So, I decided to leave it with them as a puzzle for next week. How do they defeat the doll?
Other than Thursdays, we now have a Saturday night session (tonight) with Joseph DMing. He has found some older boys interested in playing and they are playing The Godsmouth Heresy. Patrick's Kingmaker has stopped for the moment, but he and new GM, Smith, are sharing the GMing of a new adventure - I think it is Hollows Last Hope.
I am kind of looking forward to doing our monthly session on Kingmaker tomorrow morning - hopefully not too many interruptions....
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KINGMAKER INTERLUDE:
Above all the Kingmaker group are the most enthusiastic. Because they hadn't played for a while, all of the characters had gone missing and so we had to start a bit from scratch yesterday. Uganda can be the embodiment of chaos theory and if order is not maintained, then chaos rules!
Nevertheless, they remembered many of their skills and abilities and one or two of the characters were located...
We left the intrepid group having tackled a dangerous water trap and survived by the skin of their teeth. So they then continued through the secret door and onto the next room, where there was a detailed description of the location. These descriptions are sometimes challenging, as we have to stop and translate or describe items which the kids know neither the word nor any idea of what the item might be and this can lead them into danger in the adventure...
This room had three shrines, with two braziers filled with oil, two offertory plates filled with dried blood, and a double door. It's actually a very dangerous trap and the group, rather than really understand what the braziers were for, just walked into the trap - 9d6 cold and 1d6 wisdom damage. I have to be supportive here and sometimes give them some GM support. Next was a piscodaemon - they had never fought a demon before, so its resistances were very difficult for them and also they did not really understand anything about holy or aligned weapons, so this became a long and very demanding encounter.
Nevertheless, they did manage to pull through, with lightning bolts, call lightning, firebombs from the alchemist and a pitter patter of hits from the eidolon and monk. The wizard was able to use his mirror image to great effect too, as he pumped in lightning bolts.
The session ended with our group talking to Xamanthe the centaur and she recounting her "conversations" with Vordakai. The group were deathly quiet, when these revelations were being explained and this shows the power of the story and how much they feel they are a part of it.
They agreed to take Xamanthe all the way home as she was paralysed but that was going to be decided upon the next time we played...
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Sorry for the delay - we have had two more Reign of Winter sessions now and the group has started to mature a bit into their roles. I decided to remove Chadda, as she seemed to lack interest in the game and have swapped in Brian, who is playing Merisiel, the rogue, until he has time to set up his own real character.
We started the session with the doll, which had the party split into two and with so many options was trying to lead party members against each other and paralysing those who did not agree. The wizard was fleeing too as he tried to pass the haunt, leaving him effectively out of the battle, while the others tried to fire arrows and bolts at the flying doll. It dropped down to stab at the monk, but he made his save against the paralysis and finally made short work of the creature with his fists.
Snowabella, the ice witch, seemed to be interested in the blue gem and they twigged that the mirror eye meant that someone significant had been watching them and this set the group a bit on edge, but then they were suddenly rushed by a giant weasel, who had been tracking them. It quickly overpowered the wizard, who had just got past the haunt, and ran off, carrying him away to its lair, with the halfling Bestobest in hot pursuit using longstrider and his special freedom of movement ability on the snow. This proved crucial as he was able to revive the wizard in the weasel's mouth at the same time as Snowabella conjured an eagle to distract the creature from its prey. The delay proved fatal, as the creature was smashed to a pulp by the monk and Kharnia.
The journey continued and the winter grew more and more fierce, so much that they could hardly see their hands in front of their faces. Mundi the wizard, using burning hands to burn through the ice ahead of them, they spotted an enormous portal spewing ice and snow from its midst. A tiny fairy then started firing miniature but very painful snow arrows at them from concealment above. It then let loose a crack of thunder which alerted the other nearby denizens, including a moss troll.
Patrick was clearly very happy to be in a battle with a troll again, even a less powerful one and laid into it, missing, missing and missing again, though...
Eventually the group prevailed and the wizard burnt the troll to a crisp. I didn't know the stats for the Moss troll, as it wasn't in the main bestiary we have, but I made up some suitable info, which I hope didn't make it too easy!
As the creature died, a black-armoured horseman flew through the portal, his mount evaporating into dark smoke. Time was almost over, though, so I quickly talked through the purpose of the rider and explained the much bigger story that the players had become embroiled in. They sat in wrapt attention and I could see the adventure was truly born...
We will have just one more session this Thursday as the kids have to return to their villages for the holidays. However, there could be a possibility of taking the adventures to the rural village children (as I have threatened on previous postings), through a new launch at our centre in Northern Uganda. If I can, I will post on this, as and when it happens....
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KINGMAKER INTERLUDE
Once again we moved the Kingmaker forward and the experience of this young but intelligent group is starting to tell. Mosters with special powers were trounced by intelligent use of spells, difficult terrain was circumvented by the use of the ring of freedom of movement. I now really have to throw everything at the group, to make sure they have a challenge maintained.
This week, they took Xamanthe back personally to the village and were disappointed to find that they weren't incredibly grateful with mounds of treasure. Back to the Death Valley they plodded and further into the tomb. A few weeks back a soul eater nearly took two lives irretrievably, but the group this time managed to handle two of the creatures, at the expense of the Eidolon, who bore the brunt of the wisdom damage and disappeared off to its plane, only to be resummoned after the battle.
One can't underestimate the importance of "flight" in Pathfinder, as it really helps to solve difficult situations. Joseph (Balazar) also cast dispel magic on the undead wizard to see him plunging down from his place of advantage into the burning lava, meeting a very swift end.
Next they pressed forward to meet the brutal cyclops dread zombies. These things can do some crazy damage with power attack, so I brought the wizard down from 81HP (he has 20 CON) down to 3HP in just one round. Nevertheless, the dread zombies were despatched one by one, with Imrijka's mixture of bane and flames of the faithful.
Damiel so much enjoys these sessions with his alchemist, Damiel and his brain goes into overdrive at the thought of turning these things into Alchemical Zombies - his latest discovery. I can see the party expanding still further with these fearsome beasties.
He's finished school this week for the holidays and we hope now that we can find a little bit of financial support for him to go to our centre in Koro, which is South of Gulu, in Northern Uganda and a very remote spot. If you're interested in supporting him, then we're just looking for US$100, which will cover his transport and food. The details are at this link - http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-village-roleplaying-project/
Thursday we continue with Kingmaker, as the Reign of Winter group are at home in the village, so I think we may even finish Part 3, if they move speedily!
He's finished school this week for the holidays and we hope now that we can find a little bit of financial support for him to go to our centre in Koro, which is South of Gulu, in Northern Uganda and a very remote spot. If you're interested in supporting him, then we're just looking for US$100, which will cover his transport and food. The details are at this link - LINK
Linkified for ease of following! :D
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Dotting.
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Incredibly, we've raised £999 for Patrick's trip to Koro - a tribute to the selflessness of the rpg hobby and I'd like to thank all those who have been able to support and those who support with ideas and well wishes.
Tonight, I am hoping we will be able to do the climax to the Varnhold Vanishing, so I'll post about that, as soon as I'm able.
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The final figure was £1279, so many thanks to all who contributed from this thread!
We leave for Northern Uganda on Wednesday this week and the activity will continue until the weekend. We've also been able to enhance our equipment and facilities here with tables and chairs, so we can have more concurrent games running and a generator, so we can use the computers in the village areas.
The Reign of Winter group will come back next week and so we have taken an opportunity to finish off Part 3 of the Kingmaker long adventure. We were nearing meeting the boss himself, with the other members of the group - including Maria (Feiya) - able to finally make it. Agnes from the Reign of Winter group has taken over Lini for now.
After the brutal battle with the cyclops zombies, I allowed the group a complete rest to regather strength. We also had to level up the characters to Level 9 and have found the PCGen package, which people are getting used to and should help them more carefully understand these much more complicated characters.
We've actually circuited past much of the content in Varnhold, as the group have more or less ignored exploring, just continuing with the main mission, but I have hinted to them that they will be crowned kings if they expand their kingdom to 80 hexes and so for Part 4, it is quite certain they will get back to exploring again!
Well-readied, the group explored and found the circular room, which was the focus of Vordakai's and the previous civilisation's magic. Stepping forward Imrijka alerted the giant water elemental waiting there and found himself on the wrong side of its slam attacks. The rest of the group piled in and it became something of a bloodfest, with the elemental doing greater cleave to take out several party members at once, the party's blows ineffectual against the elemental's resistances.
After some damage the elemental retreated into a second chamber, which was also inhabited by Vordakai, the boss himself. At the sight of the party, Vordakai teleported Agai, the dangerous fey denizen, who had eluded them on a previous adventure. This previous battle was perhaps the most fun to date, so it seemed a nice idea to bring back this enemy for the final confrontation, noting also we have 6 players and the module is for 4.
By now the party had figured out what was effective against the elemental and managed to summon creatures to absorb its damage while it was finished off. Vordakai summoned the fey while Sajjan charged and was summarily dispatched by the fey and Vordakai. That's how we left it - a wounded party in the midst of a battle...
A week later we resumed and the group had a strategy up their sleeve. They cast a wall of ice to try to give them some breathing space to heal, but Vordakai used dimension door and dominated Feiya, who took great relish in doing 40 points of lightning damage to the whole of the rest of the party. Meanwhile, Agai tried and failed to smash through the wall of ice intially and then, on a second smash crashed through.
The party then started to focus on healing but Agai was damaging them faster than they could heal and Vordakai set about paralysing the group. Balazar summoned an enormous woolly rhinoceros, which did very big damage to pierce Vordakai's damage resistance and kept the mage busy, while the rest of the party focused on the fey. They finally dispathced it and Vordakai decided to teleport back to his own chamber to heal.
Without any real damage dealing, the wizard finally succumbed, with two party members left free from paralysis - whew - that was close!
Was very late so we called it a night.....more next time including part 4!
Woof~! So close! I'm glad they made it!
I'm thrilled to hear about Patrick!
God bless you guys!
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Ok, we were back to Reign of Winter this week. I left by accident my book under the fridge and when the power went off, it more or less disintegrated the first 20 pages, but I am muddling through!
Our group has changed a little bit now.
Agnes is playing Khania, the Dwarven fighter
Brian is (for now) playing Merisiel, the iconic rogue
Patrick is playing Guldan the monk
Daisy has (for now) taken over Snowabella, the Ice Witch
Kenneth is playing Mundi Oldfoldson, the sorceror
Beckham is playing Bestobest, the halfling cleric
We left the group sheltered from the icy wind and under the protection of Nadya, a local from Irrisen. A strange fiendish bard had just approached the cave and was starting to question the group ostensibly for "stories" and our party, though careful weren't very persuasive that they were natives of the area. The bard left early next morning and our party headed through the snowy wastes to Waldsby.
We've been asked to try out Syrinscape's amazing background sound system and I straightaway put on the "Icy Wastes" to set the scene. For me actually it really transformed the whole scene and it was so much easier to picture what was going on. A swarm of ravens dived down on the group and Mundi Oldfoldson managed to despatch them with a single burning hands spell (cue fireball on Syrinscape).
Nadya told the group to try to blend in the town and not attract attention, but soon the proprietors of the White Weasel had them in their sights and the party made distinctly unwelcome...
Next a small group of soldiers appeared searching house to house. They grabbed Nadya and our party decided to try to stop them, creating a major incident, more soldiers coming, even the sergeant. Guldan and Mundi managed to waylay the second group, while the first group of soldiers were slept by Snowabella and quicky despatched by Khania and Merisiel. Bestobest kept Guldan up, in his battle with the sergeant.
We used the "Bugbear Battle" on Syrinscape for this battle and thumbs up generally for such a nice product.
Seeing most of his posse dead, the sergeant made his attempt to escape...
More next week!
I should also say that we have done our village RPG events and I'll be posting something about those very soon, as soon as we have the videos completed. It was a great success!
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Ok, so numbers are increasing here and enthusiasm for GMing is starting to increase. I've been asked to do some GM training, which would help these young people to improve their understanding of the rules and secondly to become better GMs, by making things more fun for the players. There is some footage of Patrick and Brian GMing at this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvEX8dXf7pw - and I do think they have a level of confidence which means the others enjoy the game, though the problem-solving elements of RPG seems to be a much more challenging part of the activity for GMs.
Does anyone have any resources for teaching GMs, other than those on the Paizo web-site?
Our new roleplaying room is now set up, with a nice table and even a new roleplaying laptop, paid for by RPG supporters. We're looking forward to starting some new adventures and I am hoping that next week that Patrick and Joseph will continue the Reign of Winter Campaign.
Last night, I thought it would be interesting to start the Zeitgeist campaign, which is complex and just run it to give our trainee GMs something harder to get stuck into. Actually I was very proud of how well the kids handled this campaign and how they worked as a team and are set about solving the problems on the HMS Coaltongue. I'm not sure whether to say too much here for the sake of spoilers. Suffice to say, I have asked them to make notes of the key people they meet and note their "motivations" as characters. I feel this is a new arena for them and will be helpful in learning "influencing skills", which will help them as young changemakers.
Actually, on the HMS COaltongue, everything is in the balance, as we ran out of time last night, and we won't resolve things until two weeks time!
Anyway, thanks for your interest in this thread - if you have any feedback on the video, then let me know.
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Haven't watched the video, yet, I will do so later, but I just wanted to add that I think what you are doing is amazing, Ben.
I will admit to being a little unclear on the level of IT you and the kids use during play, but as the current caretaker of the (IMO best) Kingdom tracking spreadsheet, if there is anything I can do to make that sheet more useful to you, please let me know.
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Thank you, Chemlak - I'd certainly never come across this. We will be returning to Kingmaker next Friday, as we move to tackle Blood for Blood. The kids are starting to make their Lvl 10 characters and we are using PCGen now for this.
Varnhold has been relatively "Kingdom tracking" free and we might need to get down to this issue with a vengeance in Part 4.
On the LGBT issue, I would say that the kids here are more innocent and certainly information poor compared to their counterparts in the West, though certainly some girls in this slum and rural areas are married off early. I don't think this is a bad thing as the children have a lot of other very challenging issues to deal with.
I don't think the kids in the Kingmaker group are all that interested in character relationships, as they are focusing on problem-solving, being good leaders and how they are going to expand their kingdom! I don't think I am whitewashing, simply focusing on the bits the kids are most likely to be interested in.
Uganda has an unjustified high profile in being anti-gay. My experience is that it is quite an accommodating society here, though western influences of all kinds are scrutinised for their relevance to Uganda. The kids are taught in school to be anti-gay, but I really feel that it is being over-egged by international media. Yes there are persecutions, but other issues - corruption, child mortality, child sacrifice, frequent lack of basic healthcare, inadequate policing - are accepted as being greater priorities.
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This week, Patrick has taken over the Reign of Winter campaign, with a view to increasing the number of children involved in the roleplaying campaigns. He is developing into a very good GM - he really has a good memory for stats and his reading is becoming more flowing and descriptive. The new group he is working with are enjoying the campaign, at least in their first main week.
Maybe at one point, I will ask him to post here with a review of his campaign and you will see how he views it.
Yesterday, we started Blood for Blood - Kingmaker 4. This is the campaign with the most experienced players and I was pleased to see Oswaldo back, now playing Sajjan, the Level 10 monk again. We were a little short, though Barbara was also back with Lini. She seems loathe to bring out her "small cat" - maybe she doesn't like the thought of it as a battle cat, or getting injured - but Lini had a very significant session this time.
Firstly, though, we have had great difficulty in getting the kids focused on which magic items they want or need. Maybe it's the fact we have here just one torn Core rulebook, but I suspect we need to do more in terms of GM training, to include the kinds of magic items that are available and how they help the characters. I have tasked them all with finding out how they should best use the 55,000gp treasure they found in Vordakai's tomb....
Anyhow, back to Blood for Blood...
The players were semi-encouraged to travel to Tatzlford - I just said that they had had some reports of antagonistic on the western border, which stretches all up to Tatzlford, so they decided to investigate, only the find the village almost under attack. Lini found herself in her element, while she thought how her spells could be used to make the forest as inhospitable as possible for the oncoming attackers. And when they arrived she saved her lightning storm to sway the battle in the PC's favour. Level 10 druids have a lot at their disposal, so she then summoned an insect plague to thwart the approaching army!
The weakened attacking army were able to be handled by the tatzlford garrison, which left the players free to deal with six enormous trolls, which attacked the village as a second wave.
It's hard to explain, but Kingmaker has created a kind of troll vendetta amongst these players and there was a mixture of elation and trepidation, when it was clear that they had to destroy these trolls. Kenneth (the wizard) resigned himself to an early death, knowing it would be difficult for him to survive the onslaught. Patrick also fearfully flew up into the air and bombarded trolls to stop them regenerating. When the wizard eventually died (what happened to greater invisibility?) the alchemist raced down and plucked the body from the hungry jaws of the trolls.
Imrijka gave his sword greater troll bane and they started to make in-roads, but, the trolls had isolated the players, so they were pinned against a wall and couldn't work very easily together. Even at +10 to hit, the trolls were hitting regularly, pounding on Sajjan and Imrijka. Lini called lightning and then boosted the strength of Sajjan, who became a highly dangerous troll-pupling machine, before he succmbed to their rending claws.
In a fit of rage, at Kenneth being stolen from him, one of the trolls went on a rampage, grabbing a nearby dog and woman for dinner instead. It crunched up the dog, but Lini entangled it, before it was able to escape with the young woman and the final troll was then overpowered, in six rounds...
It finished quite late, but I think it has set the scene for the fact that the PCs are now going to have to both defend and expand their realm. Next week we are back to Zeitgeist!
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It's been a while since we did Kingmaker and people had got fed up with coming and us being able to run it. Friday nights are not great for us, with our main training sessions on Saturday mornings, but last night we decided to just press on, even though we just had 3, then later 4 of our group.
Grr...no one could find their characters, as Patrick was not there (ill) and so I had to go print out the characters again! Uganda strikes again, when the printer runs out of ink and then the cartridge refuses to work! For speed I wanted to use the characters that were in the back of the module, but without an ability to print, then I quickly transcribed the key information for Amiri, Lini and Sajjan by now had found his own character sheet.
We left the group in Tatzlford. I dropped a heavy hint that the woman from Fort Drelev was around and ready to speak to the group, but for whatever reason the group did not pick up on it and decided to try to track the trolls back to where they came from. I allowed this for a while and this brought them to the edge of the Hooktongue Swamp.
Overnight, I rolled a "near miss" wandering monster of a Dark Naga. Basically this was meant to be for atmosphere to show this place was very dangerous, but it turned into a red rag for a bull and the group wouldn't let it go! Eventually, the group ventured into the swamp and ended up directly in quicksand. Now we realised how far the group had come, as they quickly mobilised into a "problem-solving unit", activated their ring of free movement (I hope that was right) and even Lini had taken Free movement spell, so they were well prepared for this area.
I randomly assessed that this quicksand area would take a week or so to survey and the group determined to add the hex into their territory. Day after day no wandering monster, then they were on the brink of getting to the lake, when Lini (today Kenneth) decided to use his Lower Water spell to demonstrate Lini's power. I ruled that the spell uncovered a sleeping Nuckelavee - what a fearsome monster this thing is - and the creature attacked with its fright attack and Sajjan ran directly back into the quicksand, with no ring of free movement worn! The creature followed up with its Blight Wave attack (10d6!)
Amiri forewent her attacks and jumped to rescue Sajjan, who was still fleeing. Imrijka weighed in with his axe and Greater bane (on Undead unfortunately) and most of the attacks bounced or barely pierced the damage resistance.
Amiri smacked Sajjan out of the fear, having hauled him out of the quicksand, and they both scrambled to attack. Sajjan's improved evasion helped him avoid the blight wave again and again and then a good monster lore check brought Imrijka to realise this was a fey creature and gradually the creature was worn down and defeated.
Quite a lot of fun in a short session - all wandering monsters, which proves that you don't need a scripted encouranter to have fun!
Patrick is back this morning (well) - he ran Reign of Winter on Thursday to some effect, though at the moment we don't have Part 2 available for him to run. His small group has done well, defeating a water elemental and some guards from the tower the enter the next area...
I have run Zeitgeist too, but I'll save that one until we run another session next Thursday. It was a bit of a bad-tempered session and not all that successful!
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Sorry for not posting recently. Actually we have been focusing on other things and it has been more difficult to organise the sessions, by getting everyone together.
We have also been organising a container to come over from the UK and with it will come all sorts of new material.
Lastly, we are trying very hard to organise a new initiative to follow on from the successful activities last May, where we introduced roleplaying to many children living in remote rural villages. The new initiative will turn a recognised Pathfinder module - Hollows Last Hope - into an adventure week for local children. Some of these children will also be identified as possible GMs for training.
This new fundraiser is at:
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/koros-last-hope - only a few days left on this!
Will be back in touch with ore news later.
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News from the rural Uganda "Koro's Last Hope" is at this link - https://roleplayinginuganda.wordpress.com/
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News here that we are still progressing campaigns, with two regular young GMs. Patrick (14) is looking now at the Nyambe Campaign, have run Reign of Winter for a while. Joseph started with Giantslayer - somehow we lost the first book and so now he is contemplating taking over running Pathfinder Society. Agnes has started runningthey will Blackfang Dungeon for the girls.
I have suspended Kingmaker for a bit, as I was sent the latest version of Rise of the Runelords and we have been doing this for a few weeks. We are just about to storm Thistletop with the group:
Patrick - Monk
Agnes - Sorceress
Joseph - Paladin
Arnold - to be confirmed
Sam - Ranger
Brian - Cleric
Runelords is lore-rich and has been and will be a challenge for them. So far it has been a bit linear compared to Kingmaker and they haven't been so happy with this (nor I), but we will stick with it and hopefully they will build enthusiasm for their characters as they progress.
Welcome back, Ben! It's great to see you again and hear updates!
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Ben Parkinson, I just saw this and I think it's wonderful. I know roleplaying, Pathfinder in particular, has been a very positive change in my own life. It's really great to see children in other countries have a fun time with table top!
I'm sorry Joseph cannot find the first book in Giantslayer. Is it "Battle of Bloodmarch Hill"? I don't have much right now after setting aside my budget for Kingdom Con this month. However, I have some store credit left on Paizo store and I was wondering if it would help if I gifted you the PDF? Or does it need to be a Physical Copy?
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Ben Parkinson, I just saw this and I think it's wonderful. I know roleplaying, Pathfinder in particular, has been a very positive change in my own life. It's really great to see children in other countries have a fun time with table top!
I'm sorry Joseph cannot find the first book in Giantslayer. Is it "Battle of Bloodmarch Hill"? I don't have much right now after setting aside my budget for Kingdom Con this month. However, I have some store credit left on Paizo store and I was wondering if it would help if I gifted you the PDF? Or does it need to be a Physical Copy?
Joseph just happened to be right here this afternoon, as he has been getting some new characters organised for the weekend. We have quite a few new players unfamiliar with the rules at the moment who are keen to start and so they need pregens.
He says that a PDF would be perfectly fine and help him keep going with that adventure path (which was really going well), while we can all DM the PFS scenarios. I can link you up through Facebook, or if you send to me, then I can pass it across to him directly. He doesn't currently have a Paizo account, just Patrick. Just checked - yes it is Bloodmarch Hill.
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Welcome back, Ben! It's great to see you again and hear updates!
Sorry about the distance between the posts. We haven't actually stopped, in this intervening period!
Welcome back, Ben! It's great to see you again and hear updates!Sorry about the distance between the posts. We haven't actually stopped, in this intervening period!
No, I totally understand! I just meant it's nice hearing from you all again! :D
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Joseph just happened to be right here this afternoon, as he has been getting some new characters organised for the weekend. We have quite a few new players unfamiliar with the rules at the moment who are keen to start and so they need pregens.
He says that a PDF would be perfectly fine and help him keep going with that adventure path (which was really going well), while we can all DM the PFS scenarios. I can link you up through Facebook, or if you send to me, then I can pass it across to him directly. He doesn't currently have a Paizo account, just Patrick. Just checked - yes it is Bloodmarch Hill.
That's great! Should be sent to your Paizo account now (in your downloads). I've never gifted before, so I hope I did it right. Please let me know if you receive it. I hope everyone enjoys Giantslayer! :)
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That's great! Should be sent to your Paizo account now (in your downloads). I've never gifted before, so I hope I did it right. Please let me know if you receive it. I hope everyone enjoys Giantslayer! :)Joseph just happened to be right here this afternoon, as he has been getting some new characters organised for the weekend. We have quite a few new players unfamiliar with the rules at the moment who are keen to start and so they need pregens.
He says that a PDF would be perfectly fine and help him keep going with that adventure path (which was really going well), while we can all DM the PFS scenarios. I can link you up through Facebook, or if you send to me, then I can pass it across to him directly. He doesn't currently have a Paizo account, just Patrick. Just checked - yes it is Bloodmarch Hill.
Thank you ever so much - it even came with the interactive maps too!
I've advised Joseph, so he can prepare for Saturday!