Yesterday I was supposed to be studying for a Psychology test but I could not concentrate. In letting my mind empty for a few moments to see if I could get in the study zone, it instead wandered over to my past, to the late 90s, to Vampire: The Masquerade. This isn’t out of nowhere; recently I’ve been talking to Rich Rogers of the Canon Puncture Show (the GM in my recent Lady Blackbird game) about Vampire: The Masquerade. He was also a huge fan of the game and ran a long chronicle around the same time I did. I told him it would be fun to revisit that game with the tools and techniques we have learned since for more story-driven style of play and he agreed. We’re kicking it around and maybe we’ll do something with that in the future (maybe Megacon, if I manage to go?).
Vampire. That game still has a hold on me even though I haven’t played in about a decade. It was my first foray into personal stakes in a roleplaying game, even if I was crude about achieving that, if I ever did. Read more…
Those were Rich’s word during the game and on his after-game tweet (see my previous AP post) to describe how our Lady Blackbird game came to an end. “French” here could stand for “artistic/impressionistic/avant-garde,” but I’ve a feeling that it really stands for “unsatisfactory.” Or more completely, visually spectacular, but narratively unsatisfactory. If you take a moment to read through Rich’s AP Report and Mick’s Report of the last session of the game, I believe you’ll arrive at the same conclusion.
What is interesting is that, to me, describing it as a “French movie” made a lot of accurate sense. I’m not gonna say that I’m a film connoisseur–that title more aptly goes to my wife who does have a degree in Motion Pictures and is the one who studied the various film movements that we could lump under “French”–but being married to my wife, I have picked up a bit of exposure to this kind of art cinema over the years. And yes, that means having seen movies that fit the very same description I wrote above (Picnic at Hanging Rock, I’m looking at you!). But that has also taught me that not all stories are linear, and that sometimes a story is done even if I don’t think it is.
Though we had planned to do this the last week of 2009, fate decreed it would be the first week of 2010 that would bring our Lady Blackbird game to a close. And boy, did it bring it to a close! We gathered around the Skype table and soared off into the Blue to find out the destiny of the crew and passengers of The Owl.
Rich, our GM, is going to write up his general recap, which I’ll link to here once it is up. What follows is all from Kale’s point of view.
I would suggest you go back and read the previous report to catch all the strings being tied-up here.
As part of the shelved project I mentioned in my “Convictions” Witch Hunter post, my colleague and co-writer, Walt Ciechanowski, wrote this short but helpful article to help Witch Hunter GMs deal with the various disparate currencies that are available in the New World of the game’s setting.
Realistic as it may be to have the characters converting pounds into guilders, or francs into doubloons, etc, it is a tedious task that simply detracts from the main part of the game, playing a great story. Walt’s article solves that easily and brilliantly, and I’m sure any and all Witch Hunter GMs will get good use of this.
The rules have been posted to the Witch Hunter forum in the Paradigm Concepts website, and on Scribd, where it can be read online or downloaded on PDF (or use the widget below).
I hope you enjoy these rules. Please let me know how they work for you, either here or at the PCI Witch Hunter forum thread.
The curse has been broken! By that I mean the curse that kept me from playing with the rest of the group since September (which isn’t entirely fair, as in there we had the High Holy Days and our move to a new apt, but alongside days when it all seemed like it would work, then it didn’t). But that’s the past and last night I got to rejoin the crew of The Owl for the penultimate session of our Lady Blackbird game. (There have been two sessions since the Third Session linked above, but no reports have been written for those.)
Even earlier than the project I alluded to in my last Witch Hunter post, I wrote and submitted a new Order of Witch Hunters for a then-upcoming sourcebook (the now-in-stores The Blessed and The Damned). I decided to write up a Jewish Order because it’s an aspect of the setting I was (and still am) very much interested in exploring and that was barely touched upon in the Core Book. I also knew that another writer had also submitted a Jewish Order, as well as the rules for a Kabbalah Sorcerous Tradition.
The other writer turned out to be Walt Ciechanowski, whom I know thanks to his work in the ImperialAge line for Adamant Entertainment. Walt and I have been chatting over email for a while and looking for a way to work together in some project. Walt’s submissions was chosen over mine for the book, and thus The Blessed and The Damned includes The Seekers of Emet, as well as the rules for Kabbalah. Though there are some minor details I would quibble over, I was pleased as punch with the first Jewish Witch Hunter Order released for the game.
Which isn’t to say I wasn’t sad mine wasn’t chosen. The editorial comment I got back said (paraphrasing) that it was basically an Order for Jewish Witch Hunters to be in just because they are Jews; stung a bit at the moment, but a few months later when I looked at it again I could see the feedback was right on target. I set is aside for the time being.
The Spear of Phinehas presents a Jewish Order purportedly founded by King Solomon himself as a band of warrior-scholars that take on the Invisible World with zealous alacrity. They complement The Seekers of Emet acting as scouts and bodyguards for the relic hunters, and have the ability to see into the Invisible World at-will and deliver holy smites upon demons and Accursed.
This Order was not going to be included in the alluded project, but I figured I would put it out there as well for whoever wants to add some more Jewish Orders to their Witch Hunter game. This isn’t precisely the way this Order was submitted (it was called The Guardians of the Tabernacle then); I changed the name and tightened the focus. Hopefully you will like the end result (I do).
The rules have been posted to the Witch Hunter forum in the Paradigm Concepts website, and on Scribd, where it can be read online or downloaded on PDF (or use the widget below).
I hope you enjoy these rules. Please let me know how they work for you, either here or at the PCI Witch Hunter forum thread.
Yesterday I was supposed to be studying for a Psychology test but I could not concentrate. In letting my mind empty for a few moments to see if I could get in the study zone, it instead wandered over to my past, to the late 90s, to Vampire: The Masquerade. This isn’t out of nowhere; recently I’ve been talking to Rich Rogers of the Canon Puncture Show (the GM in my recent Lady Blackbird game) about Vampire: The Masquerade. He was also a huge fan of the game and ran a long chronicle around the same time I did. I told him it would be fun to revisit that game with the tools and techniques we have learned since for more story-driven style of play and he agreed. We’re kicking it around and maybe we’ll do something with that in the future (maybe Megacon, if I manage to go?).
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