Rolling Along

Since last post we’ve had two game sessions of S7S.

Last week’s session was mostly roleplaying.  I fell into old habits of character interaction and while everyone had a great time, we didn’t throw dice or test the system very much.

This week’s session was set-up for a big throwdown.  We started late (my fault), and once we got going, I tried to get us into the fight with little prep.  But, I also didn’t want to shortchange the players’ desire to be prepared and I wanted to add some drama, so after all the preamble, we only got most of the first round completed before it was time to stop.  The good news is that we can jump right in next week.

The playtest ends this month.  We should be able to get in two more sessions by then and provide feedback.  The question now becomes… do we want to be in the gamma playtest?

Two steps forward, one step sideways

Monday night’s game was all S7S character generation.  We started late (my fault) and made PCs with the S7S beta rules. It took 70 minutes to complete, but the PCs are all intertwined and pretty cool.

The next day an update was posted for character generation rules.  So… we’ll need to re-build the PCs.  The second time around should be much simpler, though.  I also think the changes are all improvements, so this shouldn’t take nearly as long and the game should flow quicker once we’re throwing dice.

The PCs are two Musketeers who are good buddies but rivals for the hand of a fair maiden and a priest who just happens to be the older brother of the aforementioned maiden.  It turns out the maiden is in distress and has been recently kidnapped.  All three of the PCs have banded together to rescue her and so begins the campaign!

(after re-genning PCs next week, that is)

I’m looking to throw a heavy bang at the PCs and do some forced scene creation with them to kick things off in media res.  Hopefully this will let us test out the combat rules and introduce the setting in an interesting and exciting manner.

Character Ideas for S7S

Last week when we chatted about Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, Perrin mentioned he wanted to play a priest who was pretty tough and wanted revenge for something that happened to one of his parishoners.  I thought that sounded pretty grabby, like this combo of Athos and Aramis, in a way.

Last night, Norwood and I IMed some character thoughts.  Norwood started off with some ideas for a pirate, but we talked about it for a bit and he settled on a muskateer.  I’m pretty psyched so far.  We have no stats to paper, but its a solid start before the first session.  I plan on finishing up the book tonight and hopefully talking to Josh, the third player, about his PC before Monday night so we can move through chargen and get some play on the books.

Buckling a Swash or Two

For the next five weeks, I will be GMing a beta playtest of the exciting Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies by Atomic Sock Monkey Press for the CP crew.

I’m still working my way through the text (which is a whopping 311 pages), but there are gobs of interesting bits.  I keep finding tidbits that make me say hmn and oh and make mental notes.  With such a thick text, I believe once I have PCs to build stories around and with, the text will be even more valuable.

 Speaking of PCs, we haven’t started character generation, but after finishing the After Serenity game, we discussed how the PCs will be a party.  I listed out the party suggestions straight from the S7S book and the players were interested in all being together for revenge.  Perrin said he wants to play a priest who is after the villain because of something that happened to a member of his flock.  I’m not sure where Norwood and Josh (of Something Wild) are with their PC concepts.

 We’ll hash out PCs and get some details on this villain during the next game session.  I’m prepping an intro that should work pretty well regardless of the details, something somewhat generic swashbuckling that I can throw at them, and then flesh things out on the fly.

How we Came to Game Here

 Before we play PTA, I’m planning a one night playtest of How We Came to Live Here, a game Brennan Taylor is devolping.  The game is a Native American-inspired setting.  I’m just reading through the background setting now, but I like the gender differences and the brief yet tantalizing descriptions of the clans. 

After playing Prey on my XBox 360 recently and also watching The New World, this is making me want to get my imaginary tomahawk and whip up on some evil spirits!