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About time is all I say. Here's to hoping it's worth the wait.
Regardless it is in my hands now, and of course I am far too busy at work to start reading. Oh well, I waited 2 years or so for the book to come out whats 4 and a half hours more? |
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Just a test to see if I have a hop on... cause you're going to get hop ons... |
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This weekend I will once again be taking part in my friends Iron Kingdoms game, he posted this very nice summary of the first Arc of the game.
This is for all you who scoff at my hobby. ;) And well because its a damn well written bit of cool. And in case you care I am playing the first character listed, the Professor who is in way too over his head. Can't wait to see what happens.
Book I
We began the characters at Stormbridge University, an Oxford-clone in the mighty city of Ceryl on the coast in the nation of Britain-meets-Rome-like Cygnar. It allowed the PCs to build numerous connections with their world -- allies and antagonists alike. The danger at the beginning was that it was going to turn into Buffy the Vampire Slayer or a post-teen version of Harry Potter what with "students" getting into spooky mischief. However, the PC concepts never provided the opportunity to let this become horror-humor.
There was the young professor, a caster of magics through firearms (a gunmage) impressed with his own knowledge and willing to brave much to quench his thirst for more. Of course, that's a recipe for moral disaster and it's pretty much what happened. This PC is on a collision course with the consequences of his choices from Book I and has already felt their ethical undertow.
His ideological opposite was meant to be another PC, a Morrowan chaplain (a worshipper of a New Testament-style god) but it never quite worked out that way because of numerous reasons, the majority of which revolve around an undiagnosed bipolar condition. Because of this, the professor was left unchecked to do as many reprehensible actions as he could. The character is no longer around. A new battle chaplain, one with a backstory courtesy of Robert Howard and Hunter S. Thompson's unholy love child, has a good deal greater moral rectitude and a specific course of action in mind from the beginning. For all intents and purposes, the player has wisely crafted a "kicker" in the Sorcerer sense of the word and it should get him into the midst of things right away.
Another PC is a trollkin druid, ostensibly a worshipper of chaos, a vaguely Hagrid-esque character if an opium-toking Charles Dickens had written him. I say ostensibly because the player never bothered to find out about what he was getting into and once he found out he objected to it. However, with lemons we make lemonade so the player's ignorance was nicely reflected in his character who found out he had agreed to become a part of something that he wasn't prepared to do. The druids will end civilization because they want to and the trollkin has decided to deter them from their goals. There's one problem to that; prophecy would seem to dictate that he's fundamental to their plan. A character resisting destiny is an often-glimpsed trope in fantasy literature so it's pleasing that the PC developed the way he did.
A third PC was a young man, a student of arcane mechanics, too concerned with attaining wealth and seeking the pleasures of the flesh to worry about much else. In this case, what he had to worry about was the dissolution of his family. That dissolution has begun in a big way and it's somewhat of a race against time to arrest the process. There were problems with the character initially because his goals seemed mutually exclusive from those of the other PCs. The player made the choice to deviate from any sense of group because he felt he was playing in-character. The key, I think, is to let the player see the error of his character's choices. Simply put, find whatever the character loves the most and threaten to kill it -- thank you B.F. Skinner. Character narcissism flows like water -- it's all downhill at a certain point and finds its own level. In this case, the player met me half way and decided he wanted to tell a story where his family name is redeemed and his personal fortune will grow. These are goals which will find obstacles in the form of those who wish to corrupt his family and events which conspire to keep him impoverished. It's a war between empires but, of course, even the grandest circumstances have personal impact.
A fourth PC, a half-elven student, a sorcereress, has proved extremely difficult to provide story for. I fell down on the job when I let the player create a character that is motivated by a mystery in which it has been left up to me to provide. It's my fault for letting this happen and it's the weakest part of the campaign if you ask me through no one's fault except sheer negligence. Still, even with these problems, the next story arc should prove more fruitful for this character who was crafted to roam, whose NPCs were never in Stormbridge to begin with. In other words, now, finally, I feel confident this character will come into her own. I've at last figured out how to approach the theme to her powers -- dreams and their potential -- and it should prove intriguing for all of us. Terrifyingly crucial, too.
I had a had specific endpoint in mind for Book One and that was the characters leaving Stormbridge behind. I was never sure how or why that was going to happen. Story flowed and cool things happened. Book Two starts on Saturday and I have no idea how it will end. I have a rough idea of where the players will take it only because I've asked them (and certain things became evident from their actions in the first story arc.) Still, the lack of a sustained "base of operations" -- the unversity offered a kind of support infrastructure, NPC and plot-wise -- suggests the danger of plot railroading which, in my campaign vocabulary, is a four-letter word.
Threats are numerous. A conspiracy crafted by the invincible dragon demi-god Toruk of Cryx to destablize the polticial situation on the continent has been revealed, it is known as Crimson, and it has ties to every character playing. It was the gunmage who helped propel Khador into war against Cygnar and left a crucial front vulnerable; he was a critical part of the conspiracy even if he never saw it that way. The beloved younger sister of the arcane mechanik has been drawn into a foul and evil family, the Vohn Drayles, who seem to form a vital component of Crimson. If flesh isn't enough to interest him, there's coin, too; with war having broken out between the superpowers, vast money is to be made from developing war technologies. The trollkin's own mentor was horribly corrupted and destroyed by the conspiracy, a faction within the druids known as the Dread who seem to be led by vastly evil being. As if chaos druids by themselves weren't bad enough. The chaplain, commanded by gods or insanity or both, is drawn to the others and his connection to Crimson is strong though, as yet, unrevealed.
Numerous tangents exist for the players to do with as they please -- discard with caution or pursue to their demise. Besides the setting's equivalent of World War I having just begun, there's the following: a clockwork necromantess newly awoken, infernal mechanika pathways that connect time and space, errant students infused with hell's lesson plan, the darkly inscrutable plans of the elvish Iosans, ancient prophecies to be deciphered, a strong-willed lover with a terrible secret as well as an unborn child, the evil remnants of conquerors centuries-past and the hallowed halls of a dying goddess.
Book II begins. |
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Its ok to feel sad for her and laugh at the same time right? |
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Now picture it with a nice big fat signature from Joss Whedon to moi and you have what my very very cool co-worker gifted me with yesterday. |
| » Warmachine Cygnar Army - Day 1 |
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I figured I would use this to chronicle the slow and inexorable process of building and paining my Royal Cygnar Army for the interesting game Warmachine.
Yesterday I secured the basic battle group box for Cygnar to act as a foundation I can build on.
So thus far I have (link to picture below):
Warcaster Stryker
Lancer Light Warjack
Charger Light Warjack
Ironclad Heavy Warjack
I spent about a half hour last night filing away at the mold lines and figuring out how I want to pose them. Can't wait to start painting as I find that part the most relaxing and enjoyable (besides crushing my enemies on the table top and hearing the lamentations of their woman that is). But I find I often do no finish the mini I start before my ADD kicks in and I want to start up a different mini...
So how do I fix that? Well I have 2 ideas thus far - no new mini till one gets painted and keeping track of this here for motivation.
Will it work? We'll see. I already feel the draw of the cool Long Gunners and Sword Knights....
http://privateerpress.com/WARMACHINE/gallery/miniature_pages/cygnar_bg.html
Aug. 24th, 2005 @ 03:14 pm
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