Of course you do!
Friday
I discover a neat game called Heroscape. This is probably old news, since it came out in 2004, but it's still nifty for a variety of reasons:
- It has constructible, interlocking hexagonal terrain that can be used for just about any game with miniatures, be it Battletech, Dungeons & Dragons, or any of the Clicky-base games.
- It comes with 30 pre-painted miniatures of approximately the same scale as HeroClix / Mage Knight, and you can buy more in non-collectible expansion packs. If I want zombies, then I can go out and buy a goddamn zombie 6-pack. As a miniature-using Game Mistress, this is of critical importance to me.
- Finally, it has the best miniature I have ever seen in all my life: an orc using a T-Rex as a cavalry mount.
Saturday
This is harder than it sounds, however, because the game I'm currently running is not D&D, but rather Legend of the 5 Rings, the Samurai RPG where damn near everyone carries three-foot razor blades and therefore are excruciatingly polite to one another.
This is a game system where a decent katana hit will seriously fuck up a PC, if not kill him outright, which has the advantage of making the players seriously consider the ramifications of combat before trying to kill everything. Even so, I have had to seriously school my players for making foolish choices, and more than one game session has very nearly ended in a TPK. If you're a fan of RPGs with high Bothan ratings, this is the one for you.
Fortunately for my players, they have learned from their schooling and no further lessons are required today. In fact, they show a shocking degree of cooperation and adaptability. Since I want to encourage this kind of behavior, I refrain from dipping into my bag of dirty NPC tricks and let them succeed after only beating them nearly to death.
Afterwards, some of us decide to go out for a round of miniature golf. Naturally, I pick the black golf ball, which leads to comments about it actually being a goth ball, and thence to jokes about playing miniature goth: Each time I miss a putt, I put my hand to my forehead and aaaaaaangst about it. Complicated puns about Nietzschean philosphy abound, but I'll spare you that exquisite agony.
Afterwards, we adjourn to the Daytona Ale House for food and drinks.
Sunday
I sleep late, recover from my gaming hangover, and do domestic chores like laundry.
I play City of Heroes, do prep work for my next L5R game, and in a burst of insane creativity that actually woke me from sleep, I invent the most beautifully deranged motivation ever for the Big Bad in the story I'm currently writing. It's so twisted and brilliant I can't stop giggling.
Finally, as a sorbet to cleanse the Palette, I watch part 1 of The Company, a nice little miniseries about the early days of the CIA. It's brainy in all the ways a James Bond flick isn't, and makes a rather nice companion piece to last year's The Good Shepherd.
Suitably refreshed, cleansed, entertained, prepared, and creatively fulfilled, I retire to my lavender-scented coffin for sleepies.
Edit: Moved Chris Hepler's quote to a different post.
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My god woman! The more you write, the more I want to meet you! I would absolutely LOVE to get into one of your gaming sessions. But will 1200+ miles between CT and FL, I doubt that will ever happen w/o my winning Publishers Clearinghouse.
ReplyDeleteAh well, I can at least dream of a GM who's not afraid (actually probably enjoys) to kill off a whole party of PC's if they're being stupid =)
COH and L5R? Sounds like a kick ass weekend to me. I'm the other way around COH on Saturday and L5R on Sundays. I don't know why but for some reason it just feels right gaming on a Sunday. Blame my old GM. Keep up the good work, and dinosaur orc cavalary sounds like something I might use in my high anime L5R game. Keeps 'em guessing.
ReplyDeleteHeroscape is a cheaper version of Warhammer, so it's good times. Obviously less customization options, but it's good fun. I still prefer WizKids Clix over it.
ReplyDeleteIf I had the drive for an MMO still, I might be interested in COH what's it cost monthly?
Do you guys play every week? I wish my troupe had the dedication.
Mentioning L5R: +5 to cool.
ReplyDeleteMentioning Dino Mounts: +10 to awesome.
Mentioning Battletech, if only in passing: Earning the bloodname of Kerensky. Unless you're inner sphere scum, at which point you are on your way to destruction make your time.
Goth Balls: Effing priceless.
But the beautiful thing of it, Nathan, is that even if you don't use the miniatures, you can still use Heroscape terrain for Warhammer and/or WizKids Clix!
ReplyDeleteCOH is $15.00/month. In fact, if you buy both City of Heroes and City of Villains, it STILL only costs $15/month. IE, you don't have to pay for both games, just for the "City of X" account.
And we play almost every week. Sometimes schedules just don't line up, especially with one of my players being an airline pilot.