Nostalghia* Is A Foreign Country.

 

 

 

 Nostalghia* Is A Foreign Country.

     (Do you have your passport stamped?)

  

  

File this under projects that took longer than I ever anticipated.  What am I 

talking about?  When I started my blog a DECADE ago, one of the goals I had was 

posting my campaign notes from the Year of the Goat Campaign that I began running 

in early 2015.  What prevented me from getting these game notes typed up and 

posted at the time?  Inertia, and an insecurity regarding running a one on one game, 

which felt weird to write about at the time.

This was primarily a one on one campaign I ran for my fiance (Vlasic and 

Brother Barton’s player), but I picked up 2 other players (Flavius and Bloodfart’s 

players) for a couple of sessions later in the campaign.  The campaign went on 

hiatus in 2020 as we both had a busy year, work on top of loss really slowed me 

down creatively.  Luckily we started a new campaign with a good friend over 

Thanksgiving weekend of 2021 (Flavius’ player) and that is the Ox—>Tiger—>Etc 

Campaign that I’ve posted the notes of the last several years.  It’s in the same 

campaign world, so I could reuse locations, NPCs, and lore.  And this current 

campaign has spawned two separate one-on-one games with a few of the players’ 

hirelings (Danika in the Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles and Boy in Star Notch Stories).  It 

was satisfying to go back over the Year of the Goat Campaign notes to see how 

both my campaign world and my DM skills and style have evolved.  Starting the 

YotG Campaign in 2015, we were moving away from New World of Darkness 

(Chronicles of Darkness, after a rebrand) gameline Changeling: the Lost.  I was 

still adapting from our more story game style of gameplay, to Lamentations of the 

Flame Princess system.  This will be reflected in the more narrative presentation 

of YotG Campaign’s session notes.  I started worldbuilding quite slowly for sessions 

1-17, but after that I kicked into high gear for a few years.

The initial post is up and it is over on my Substack.  This series chronicling the 

original campaign will be exclusive to my Substack and free for everyone.  Look for 

an actual play session post of the Year of the Goat Campaign (original campaign) 

every Sunday morning (my time zone, USA Pacific).  For those of you who have 

been enjoying the Ox—>Tiger Campaign, Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles, and Star Notch 

Stories, those will be posted to both here and the Substack.  Thank you to all of my 

readers over here!  I would love to see you over on Substack where there is some 

enhanced functionality for me as the “creator”.  And maybe more interactivity for 

you as well;-)  Either site you read on, I appreciate your time and energy in reading 

my blog, whether you be bot or human!  Catch you on the flipside.

*Every Andrei Tarkovsky movie is an influence on me.  I’m due for a rewatch 

of Nostalghia.

 

#DIY30 Day Eight

Chipping Away

I played instead of DMing today!  So fun!  We're doing a quick foray into my boyfriend's D&D 5E campaign that he started last fall.  I'm not sure how many sessions we will play until we return to my LotFP YotG campaign, but the work I've gotten done in the last week has been long overdue;-)  It's been satisfying to chip away at my pile of undone campaign writing.  I finished up detailing the cellar and caverns below Lord Vortulak's Estate.  I put a Mimic (not the D&D kind as I've said before, but a Changeling) in a locked cell that had previously been the lead smuggler's room in "The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh."  In the cavern closest to the river (in the original module this location was on the sea, my location is on a river cliff) I placed two Nephilidian Pawns (Rank 2.)  It's been awhile since the PCs have encountered either of those monsters!  Now I just need to get the outbuildings written and mapped and write up the house staff NPCs.

#RPGaDay2018 Day Twenty Six

Day 26 Question:  What is your gaming ambition for the next year?

I have more than one ambition for gaming over the next year.  I'm looking forward to this time next year when I can re-read my own blog post to see how many of these ambitions I've turned into actions.

1.  Start running my LotFP YotG campaign again for my home table.  I've said before that I've been wanting to run the 5e adventure Curse of Strahd with LotFP rules and OSR sensibility, but I want to confirm that my players are on board.  Once I get confirmation I can get into whatever preparation I deem necessary to run that.  If they aren't on board with Curse of Strahd, we'll continue with the game where we left off.  The players were just about to ride into the city of Halwic to investigate the ongoing Mimic Crisis, recent rumors of a plague, and a devastating fire.  Halwic is FUCKED UP, YO.

2.  Run games online.  Specifically run either a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly game on G+ for the Flailsnails community.  Right now I have a pretty open schedule and could conceivably achieve weekly, but I want to give myself enough leeway in case my schedule changes and only allows less frequent gaming.

3.  This RPGaDay2018 writing challenge has been a good way to blow out the cobwebs and get into a near daily writing habit.  So for September I'm going to roll right into the #DIY30 challenge and get some progress on my pile of half-finished RPG writing projects.  So expect to see a post with more thoughts on that go up on the blog on August 30th or 31st.

4.  I want to run LotFP demos at a game store next year on Free RPG Day 2019.  It was fun to do that back in 2016.  I'm not sure what I'll run, yet.  It's a little far off, so I'll make a decision closer to spring.  A Stranger Storm from the Grindhouse Referee Book was a good adventure, but I might try another published adventure or even come up with my own.

5.  I want to play more in local gaming stores.  I'm not sure what form this will take, whether I try running something myself, play in something like D&D Encounters or something else.

6.  Playing in public.  I want to run a game in a bar, restaurant, coffee shop, library, or park.  Or maybe in the dining car of Amtrak!

7.  Play one of the games in my collection that I haven't played, yet.  It doesn't have to be a huge campaign.  This past year I had this as a goal and I actually achieved it!  I hadn't played Call of Cthulhu, yet, and we played a scenario of it this summer.  We've played three sessions so far and will probably wrap up on the fourth session.  Not sure which game I want to play...  I might make this into a blog post down the line!

8.  Sell some of the game books I know I'll never play.  I've been doing a bit of this already.  It started with giving The Dresden Files RPG core books to my boyfriend's co-worker about a year and a half ago.  He happened to be a huge fan of the fiction and had two daughters just the right age to get into roleplaying.  I've sold some stuff on Ebay over the last year.  All the World of Darkness 20th Anniversary Edition books I had accumulated, Don't Rest Your Head, Don't Lose Your Mind, A Penny for Your Thoughts, Vampire the Masquerade 2nd Edition, and some of the Chronicles of Darkness supplements I know I'll never use.  Still trimming that last category (CoD) down.

I've never been someone to make New Year's resolutions, and this question strikes me as akin to that.  But I believe it's good to write goals down for yourself and try to hold yourself accountable, so that's what I'm doing with this post.  Like I said up above, I look forward to looking back on this post in August 2019 and seeing how far I've come with these ambitions.

#RPGaDay2018 Day Seventeen

Day 17 Question:  Describe the best compliment you had while gaming.

While I strive to melt the faces off of my home group and they thank me for it, I think I got the best compliment at the Free RPG Day 2016 LotFP Demos I ran a few years back.  Several of the players told me that the one hour demo session I ran in the middle of a loud, packed, brightly lit game store was "spooky."  

#RPGaDay2018 Day Fifteen

Day 15 Question:  Describe a tricky RPG experience you enjoyed.

I ran Free RPG Day Demos of LotFP in 2016.  I had a "problem player" in my first game and I think I managed my table pretty well.  All my years of being a bicycle mechanic and dealing with aggressive Type A customers was key to me keeping my cool and making sure "problem guy" didn't walk all over me or the six other players at the table.

#RPGaDay2018 Day Seven

Day 7 Question: How can a GM make the stakes important?

Another pass.


Day 7 2015 Question: What is your favorite Free RPG?

The Lamentations of the Flame Princess Free Version which can be found in the following link:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/115059/LotFP-Rules--Magic-Free-Version?manufacturers_id=2795

LotFP is my favorite RPG.  Period.  The free version comes without the cool interior art.  Otherwise, you get a complete rules system.  There are some other OSR games that you can get a free version of, but this is the game I would steer people towards.  You can also get the LotFP Referee book for free.  The Ref book has an adventure included called A Stranger Storm.  I started my LotFP long running campaign with it.  Link:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/148012/LotFP-Referee-Book-old-Grindhouse-Edition?manufacturers_id=2795

While you are grabbing those, you might as well check out the Pay What You Want adventure The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children.  Link:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/132808/The-DoomCave-of-the-CrystalHeaded-Children?manufacturers_id=2795

Another OSR system to check out is Swords and Wizardry.  It is Pay What You Want.  Link:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86546/Swords-and-Wizardry-Complete-Rule-Book