Flames of War & Character Gen

Ok, not really related, but they both happened on Saturday.

I got a chance to play in the Flames of War (FoW) tournament on Saturday. It was a fun time, despite the massive headache I had running form about half way through my second game. Rob ran an interesting format of only 750 points, which in the FoW world is pretty darn small. The Game Shoppe hosted the event and we had about ten folks show. Four rounds ensured plenty of time to get your FoW itch out of the way.

I ran a Brit Infantry Company with a HQ, under strength Inf. Platoon, 3 Churchill III (Cheddary Bastard!), a HMG platoon, and a 20mm AA section. Not a lot of toys on the table. I went D-W-W-D which really surprised me since I haven’t played the game all that much. Took fourth place and got a nice little gift card, which promptly got spent on some D&D minis. Which takes us to the Character Gen…

So with blazing headache, I offered up the opportunity to go and role up some characters! It went pretty well, a bit slower then I would have liked, but not too bad. Bonus: Eric and Paul who missed the tournament were able to come and play too. The only missing in action was Steve, who was paying off his debt to society by helping a buddy that helped him move, move. Steve you are a righteous man!

So here is what we got so far:

• Extell: Human Fighter who is stronger then anyone ought to be. (Mic will be joining us on a part time basis...)
• Eldacar: Halfing Rouge with a pair of Katar Punching Daggers (Rob)
• No Name Joe: Dragonborn Paladin of the Raven Queen (Eric)
• No Name Joe II: Half-Elf Warlord who is a work in progress :-) (Paul)
• Frak: A Dwarf Cleric that wants to be in the front rank (Mark)
• Sliver Elmwalker: Elf Ranger, Master Archer. (Kyle - Winner of coolest name too!)

In game terms we have two Defenders, two Leaders, & two Strikers. Not a bad mix. With Steve still to role up a character, we might get a controller, but if not I think that we should be OK.

We took a quick encounter, level one. Bad guys were similar to what I ran the last test. 1 – 3rd level Goblin Hexer, 3 – 1st level Goblin Warriors, and 6 - 1st level Goblin Cutters (minions). The party burned three of their daily powers on the encounter, and several of the players took some hits. They should have been OK to go to another encounter with out any issues.

With a successful test run, I think this is what may happen in the near future. I’ll finish up the current Dark Heresy adventure and turn over the “Purge the Unclean” to Rob who can take over DH GM duties. I’ll step in to run D&D adventure and pick up a player in the DH campaign. I’m looking at a Psyker! I would like Rob and I to swap adventures. So Rob would run a story line to completion, then I would run a D&D dungeon to an end… flopping back and forth about every three to four weeks. That should give both of us plenty of time to generate new material and a chance to both play and run a game.

For the D&D players, I’m going to force the guys to do a bit of homework. I want them to write up a short character background. Nothing hard core, just a paragraph or so that I can use as adventure threads. Bonus XP to the players that provide me more then two lines of flavor text! :-p

Let me know what the gang thinks, if that is doable.

jp
Gaming Whore

Rejoice for you are Role Playing!

Greetings,

So the next session leads the party into the Purge the Unclean triple scenario threat. I am/was a bit nervous about running this published adventure, mainly because the lead in adventure, “Rejoice For You Are True” is an investigation piece with minimal combat. My gang comes from a strong miniatures background. Scratch that, they come from a VERY STRONG miniatures background and I wasn’t sure how they would take to more role playing intensive adventure.

All in all, they did try and the adventure moved forward, which is all I could hope for. My only real compliant was a bit too much side chatter, but that is bound to happen from time to time.

We had one regular missing. Eric took the family to Colorado (like that was important! :-) ), so Dar was recovering from grievous injuries from the Orks. We also had a guest player, Mick using a Sister of Battle, named Lady V. Also, Mark opted out of the scum and rolled up a Cleric, who’s name escapes me at the moment… Have to go look that up!

So on to the action… so to speak…

=][= =][= SPOILER ALERT =][= =][=

If you plan on being a player in Purge the Unclean, you might want to wait a bit...

Arriving at Scintilla, the team debarks the Pax Calixis, with Captain Ramirez providing parting gifts. A small sum of cash, armor that was used in the battle with the Orks, and a data slate with his personnel encrypt code. He lets them know they have made a friend, and if the need is high, he will show.

Team Adventure is swept away to meet up with the boss, Inquisitor Vaarak. They are strangely silent about the fat jokes that Ramirez was cracking, but maybe it is because this guy could still take them out. They share the information from the departure of Artimus and the demon and the last remaining Tarot card. He thanks them and sends them on their way for a bit of R&R, which the players spend the time advancing forward a level more or less.

After a bit of shopping and leveling, they are called back to Vaarak and are briefed on an odd situation. The Xenos circuits in the tarot card are the same as the ones in a mystery meter item taken from some happy-happy emperor cult on the capital. Seems one of Vaarak’s old chum’s lost a niece and this is what he found. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out where these meters have come from and what they do. Vaarak’s old buddy Laurent Strophes, a retired Navy man, will act as their cover. “and oh”, Vaarak adds, “Don’t drop the =][= bomb either!”

So the party takes off and lands in the upper tier of Scintilla and is greeted by a noble lady who id’s herself as their ‘cousin’, Julia Strophes. Seems their cover is to have part of the party act as nobles and the others as retainers. Since Thaddeus is already a noble he is an easy fit and Talon reluctantly saddles up as the second. Raltus and Klightus acted as body guards one per noble, Mark’s Cleric was the ‘official taster’ as he has some cooking background, and Lady V’s singing came in handy as an entertainer.

Big moving parts:
- Lessons for the nobles on how to act
- Meet Bounty Hunter at Barking Saint. Find out he has an encrypted data slate that he took off the guy that had the funky meter. He wants a hefty sum, but they feel it is worth it. Plans a meeting later on.
- Find out more about the Joyous Choir, who Strophes’ niece was tied in with and who had the meter.
- Find out about a new drug that is a rave of the young nobles.
- Arrange to meet the Bounty Hunter in a market. He is capped with a single shot to the head and the case he was carrying is taken by a guy with robot legs that can run backwards and shoot at the same time. Ick. Team decides a chase isn’t going to work, so they blend back into the crowd after looting the poor Bounty Hunter's body.
- Attend Lady Borella’s party. Have a good time, pocket some samples of the drugs. Speak with the folks, learn a few secrets, get invited to the Joyous Choir’s inner sanctum for a real secret party.

And that is were we wrapped it up. I think the second half will go a bit better. A little more investigate, a little more action.

So that is it for this episode… Thoughts from the gang? Anything you want to add?

jp

v/r

=][=
Inquisitor Varrak's representative in Omaha