Our players are confronted with brujos from Sinaloa, their pursuers since the events that they cannot recall. How will they survive such a devastating attack?
Also, after this episode was recorded, the players have decided to take a break for holiday events, faire, and preparing for a new family addition. It is undetermined yet when this storyline will continue. Fire n Dice is looking for new players to continue the Kamigan storyline, so leave a comment if you are interested and live in the area. Be sure to find us spinning fire at Renfaire campgrounds, enjoying Oni-con for the first time Oct. 28-30th, and out at Owlcon where I will be running BESM set in the Kamigan universe, and UA set in Sinaloa where our favorite villains originated. Until next time...
Tabletop Gaming, Actual Plays, Conventions, and Cosplays in the Anime World.
Generally, I enjoyed what I've listened to. I just have one major gripe concerning the UA campaign...
ReplyDeleteI think the session could've benefited from a little education for one of the players: The PC that seemed baffled every time a shotgun missed, he didn't immediately get to perform a coup de grace when the combat began or an attack didn't outright cripple or kill a character (PC or NPC) should've been reminded that RPGs follow a series of mechanics and, when it comes to combat, things like initiative, attack, and damage rolls trump the majority of real-life logic. Situations when dice rolls are ignored are completely at the discretion of the GM. If the GM's worth playing with he isn't designing the adventure to fuck the PCs over.
On a smaller note, a city in an RPG doesn't have to necessarily be a mirror of it's real-world conterpart. When someone's GMing a game in, say, Indianapolis, it isn't the real-world Indianapolis, it's the UA or WoD Indianapolis. Often, I feel that players appreciate differences, especially if it's in their home city, so the city holds a few new surprises for them. This is more of a personal play-style preference and that'll vary from group to group. Personally, I prefer creativity over authenticity.
Otherwise, the sound quality has been very nice, the game moved at a reasonable pace and the rules seemed to be explained in a way that someone unfamiliar with the game's mechanics could get a general idea of how the game is played. Keep it up, guys.
Thank you John for your comment. For games like this Unknown Armies I try to keep the level of realism and immersion high. I think that the more the players can believe this is happening, the the higher the level of actual fear they will experience is key to a horror-esque game. Of course, as you say, this can create problems when someone who has military training and understands the real world applications of combat is being immersed and is in conflict with the rules and game mechanics. The shotgun has a high damage cap but you rolled a low success can mean a number of things, but you still did low damage.
DeleteI wasn't originally going to have them play our city Houston, I was thinking of something like "Spooky Generic City A" with a better name, but I think they just assumed from the start that they were in Houston. I don't think my game city is a perfect mirror, but I let them build on the game as much as they want (less work for me) and that better helps them become immersed into it.
Thank you again for your comment, and I'm not kidding, you've renewed my desire to prep more games. I hope to bring you many more games and original storyline very soon.
When it comes down to it, sound quality is one of the biggest issues for me, and the fact that I didn't have to rewind or fiddle with the volume to understand what certain people said makes a lot of difference. Often times, poor sound quality alone can cause me to just move on and that certainly wasn't the case here.
DeleteI'm always more than happy to leave a comment on a podcast I enjoy. I feel that nothing supports a podcast more than leaving comments and telling others about it.
I do have a question... will we get to see some one shots or short campaigns using other horror-themed mechanics? I could even imagine that some of the more rules light mechanics (horror or otherwise) could fit very well with your group considering the almost free-form manner your players seem to prefer.
Sound quality is also one of the important elements that Fire n Dice and Swing and a Miss have tried to accomplish in editing. You can thank Levelator for much of that quality. I just bought a new mic, and although it may not show through the Owlcon Kamigan game (because it was recorded in a room with no dampening effects, the walls and floor were flat and tiled and there was echo and bleed through from games run all around us), I am hoping that our sound quality will continue to improve.
ReplyDeleteFire n Dice is a campaign podcast, but that being said, I don't like to limit my group to any single mechanics or rules set. This year I am doing a conversion to the Tri-Stat system, next year may be something different, but the stories should continue smoothly, or in the case of con games will run parallel. Dreaming Cities is the Tri-Stat version (i.e. rules light once character creation is finished) of game settings like World of Darkness. It encompasses just about every nWoD book into one tiny little package, anywhere from Changeling to the more common Vampire and Hunter.
Of course right now the problem is finding a new set of players. With school, babies, house fires, and moving to other cities, the original team is otherwise occupied at the moment. As soon as I can put together another group I will bring more games to you, the listeners. I may take a break from the horror genre for a little while. It may be easy for some people to run, but I'm not satisfied with the "oh there's another monster, let's shoot it" games. I want to scare my players into doing something creative, or considering running away as the primary action, not fighting, and that takes a lot out of my creative juice gland.