New Moon in Aries, New Puppy, Hello Spring!

New Moon, Who Dis?

 

 

 

New Moon in Aries, New Puppy, Hello Spring!

Spring is here in the PNW.  New Moon in Aries yesterday.  The new puppy arrived the day 

before.  How am I going to resist walking by the chicks, ducklings, and goslings at the feed 

store before game time tomorrow?  I got a big chunk of game prep for the main campaign 

done before Daisy the Kelpie joined the party.  The cats are not Charmed, but the humans 

are failing every Save.  The dinosaurs (chicken flock) are curious, but mostly hungry.  

They’re high on a rat killing frenzy they got into a few weeks back on that Libra Full Moon.  

Wild.  

Ok, on to the Winter Through Spring Gaming Trajectory!  After the most interrupted interval 

of the main campaign AKA Ox Gives Way to Tiger, Etc., we have embraced consistency 

again.  Team Rams explore more of the mysterious and dangerous Domain of Dread, 

Darkon.  

While the late January to early March period disrupted the main campaign, the Solo Grinder 

Campaign (7 sessions), Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles (8 sessions), and Star Notch Stories 

(2 sessions) games were not only filling some gaming gaps for various players 

(including me!), but some outstanding sessions, emergent storytelling developments, and all 

around great gaming IMHO.  One of my players even ran me through a continuation of his 

version of the LotFP module A Single Small Cut by Michael Curtis.  It was nasty, short, and 

brutish on my first playthrough!  Let’s see if more hirelings, holy water, and equipment can 

get my pack of murderhobos through;)

My Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles player and myself are playtesting a new system and setting for a 

short period.  During that time, Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles it on a short pause.  It’s never been on 

a regular schedule, but we have played pretty frequently lately.  Anyway, the playtest 

material has been fun so far we are through a Session 0 (rules and setting quick overview, 

player made 1 character while I made another so I could see how character creation 

worked), a Session 0.5 (player made another character while I skimmed the rules and 

adventure module), and an actual Session 1 with action and adventure!  My initial ballpark 

estimate of playtest was a 5-10 session time frame, but with a better understanding of the 

module I think we’ll wrap up in 5 or fewer sessions.

The Star Notch Stories player is juggling a lot in life right now, so we’re not sure when we’ll 

dip back into the Shudder Mountains.  I do know the moonshine and mysteries will persist 

whether Boy is active or not!

And Solo Grinder Campaign had some epic moments back in the winter months.  The 

seasonal shifts brought significant changes this spring and took me away from the Solo 

gaming momentum I had achieved.  All the farm and ranch kids know the proverbial “When 

there’s day make hay” type of sayings, and it’s not terrible advice, but I’m not sure when my 

Solo gaming kicks back into gear.  I am going to crank out Session 13 of Solo Grinder today 

while Daisy naps.

If you read this far AKA TL,DNR:

• Ox/Tiger (main campaign) played every Sunday night, usually actual play 

  notes up on blogger by Monday or Tuesday morning.

• Ctyri Ctvrt (one on one side campaign) short hiatus, then dive back into 

  Spire of Iron and Crystal!

• Playtesting something fun for a short bit.  Not sure if I’m sharing about 

  what that is because it is not mine to share.  If I do write about it, it will be 

  on Substack!

• Star Notch (the other one on one side campaign) long hiatus?

• Solo Grinder Campaign (my first solo campaign). After the session I play 

  today, I evaluate my schedule for this and see if I can Solo in the Summer?  

  Might just buy a paddle board and fuck off instead, lol;)