This was a fantastic weekend for gaming. As I mentioned in my Geomorph post
yesterday, we had a great game of
Gurps Knights of the Astral Sea on the previous night. I don't want to get into the game details too much before I attempt a
Risus write-up, but I will say that unlike last sesion, the amount of planning and brainstorming that I put into it definitely paid off. This adventure was all about the party entering Faerie to track down the missing heir to their shattered cross-dimensional Empire. I really tried to make Faerie magical, wondrous, and (above all) dangerous. I drew heavily from the
Books of Magic,
Stardust,
Castle Falkenstein (especially
The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie),
Pan's Labyrinth,
Hellboy II, and (as was alluded to in yesterday's post)
The Wizard of Oz. I really emphasized the whole treacherous nature of social interaction in Faerie where everything is transactional and there is always a risk of getting more (or less) than you bargained for. My players got this perfectly as they negotiated with successive contacts, performing various tasks in exchange for information that would help them complete their quest. We had great fun watching one of the players really make the most of his chance to play his psionic cat as a swashbuckling puss-n-boots. We especially enjoyed the fortuitous sequence of events that allowed the party to drop a Baba Yaga-style walking house on an unexpectantly de-broomed wicked witch. For the time being, at least until other claimants step forward, the party finds itself in command of the Autumn Court - handing out titles like "Minister of Flying Monkeys" as they see fit.
Last night we played our third session of
Pirates vs. Vampires. Once again, we had only three players (including myself). Unlike previous sessions, this one was unmarred by technical difficulties and was non-stop action from the get-go. Having destroyed or disabled the two black-sailed galleys,
Alaric Anchorman and Antonious Garibaldi led a shore party to help combat the skeletal reavers who had landed prior to the arrival of the player characters. Landing in a treacherous but well-concealed cove, the party used their newly won Horn of Fog to confuse the enemy and disguise their own numbers. Unfortunately, they overblew the horn and the noise summoned all the skeletons in the area to their position. They sustained close to 50% casualties (entirely in red-shirted marines) but managed to inflict serious damage in return as their detonated charges to cover their retreat. The party now hides on the captured galley hoping to finish off any "surviving" raiders as they return to the ship.
I also came to the conclusion of my "
Lair of the Frog King"
Mythic GME story. While the adventure was technically a failure for my character, the story itself was quite satisfying to me as a player. It became clear relatively early on that Hinkley was in over his head and I'm glad that he and his companion were able to escape in a very pulpish
"this isn't over villain!" kind of way. I look forward to picking up the story of Hinkley again in the near future... after I complete the half-dozen or so other Mythic adventures that I have waiting in the wings.
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