Ewoks

One funny thing I've noticed about every version of the "Star Wars" RPG that I've read (which is all the d6 and d20 versions, but not the FFG ones): they all say that Ewoks are first discovered around the time of the Battle of Endor.

But that's not so.

In "Return of the Jedi", C-3P0 already speaks the language of the Ewoks. True, he notes that it is "a very primitive dialect", but still that means that at some point someone had sufficient contact with the Ewoks to bother placing the details of the language into a droid's translation circuits.

Most likely, that means that there are other colonies of Ewoks, potentially much more integrated colonies of Ewoks, somewhere out there in the galaxy. Or, of course, the Ewoks on Endor could be the last remnant left over from some horrific Sith atrocity from one of the earlier wars in the galaxy, one so long ago that they have been entirely forgotten.

Which would, of course, make it even more tragic when the Rebels' destruction of the second Death Star unleashes ecological devastation on their last remaining homeland.

That's Why We Game

Today's game was great fun - the party completed their explorations of a downed mind flayer Nautiloid, and after defeating the pilot they proceeded to loot the place. Amongst the treasure was the puissant servitor - a semi-sentient graft that could be attached to a severed arm or wrist to provide a replacement limb.

This then provoked extensive discussions over whether a given character would remove his own limb in order to gain the powers granted by this item. Several other characters offered to help (or 'help'), offering a wide variety of potential options for the approach taken. Cue several minutes of hilarity as the situation played out.

Which all served as a very timely reminder - it is for situations like that that we game. Nothing else can replicate them.

My Precious Campaign

We had the character creation session for the "Isles of Dread" campaign on Thursday, with the first regular session this week... and I find, suddenly, that I don't really want to run it. The problem is that I've spent a lot of time and effort creating the campaign, and right now it's a perfect, shining campaign. And so it will remain, right up to the point where the players get started and mess it all up.

There's a name for this sort of thing, of course: "my precious campaign". It is, of course, an impulse I just have to work through and ignore - after all, the whole point of doing these things is so that they can be wrecked by having the players engage with them!

A Gazebo Incident...

On the 21st of May, my band were playing at a Gala Day in Bargeddie. In case someone's not clear, that's a village festival where the local folk come out and pretend to have some sort of community spirit. For a pipe band, it involves playing for a parade of a mile or two, and then playing again at the location of the celebration itself.

Anyway, it being a nice day, we elected to march the parade without our nice, warm and waterproof capes. This proved to be a good idea - the sun really was beating down on us. Anyway, we got to the primary school, where the festival was taking place, and the parade was over. Shortly thereafter, it was our turn to play on the stage.

Now, last year, the Bargeddie gala had suffered a great deal of rain, so this year some smart soul had thought to put up a covering on the stage, in the form of one of those cheap plastic gazebos you can buy in B&Q and similar stores (actually, I don't think they market them as such, but they're close enough to be funny). Since it was being placed there as a temporary measure, it was only held in place with some ropes...

(Oh, I should also mention that it was only big enough to cover half the stage. I was on the other half, of course.)

We climbed the stage, and started to play, and immediately the weather turned. Clouds quickly blotted out the sun, and the winds came up quickly. One would have thought we were harbingers of doom or something. I didn't think we were that bad.

Anyway, by the time we were finished our first set, the gazebo was stuggling against its ropes as if animate. The wind was making a terrible shrieking noise, and the creatures clawed front legs were struggling towards me. Only a few weak ropes protected me from evisceration at the claws of the beast.

We sought to placate the dread Gazebo with a sacrifice. We have a dancer who accompanies the band. I play, she dances, in the traditional manner. So, she bravely took the stage, standing under the terrible claws of the gazebo, laid down her swords, and danced.

The gazebo was not impressed. Instead, it howled once more, and unleashed its breath weapon upon us. As the band played once more, I found myself being pelted with hailstones. In May. With my wonderful, waterproof cape some mile away, in the back of my car.

Defeated, we slunk away, and the gazebo ruled the day.

Plate squad are go!

Archiving a thread started by Mort:

So four out of six people in the new group has got full plate. I guess any kind of subtle operation is just out of the question now.

Oh well I suppose we can use them as a distraction tool, 'you guys run that way, and I'll sneak in while everyone is trying to figure out where the infernal racket is coming from.'

Hail the Rules-lawyer!

Saturday was the second time I've had to correct Roger's assertion that Mage Hand can be used to deliver touch-range spells. And, since I recalled that the spell he was thinking of was Spectral Hand, I was branded a rules-lawyer.

Well, I revel in the title! All bow before my mastery!

+1 keen shortsword

Sorry, I have to mention this somewhere, or I'm going to explode. On Saturday, we picked up a +1 keen shortsword. This is all very exciting, except:

The keen enhancement can only be placed on Slashing weapons, and

The shortsword is a Piercing weapon.

I realised that on Monday when looking something entirely different up, and it's been bugging me ever since. Of course, from a game balance point of view, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

Just another of the hidden joys of being an obsessive rules lawyer.