Holiday Gaming

[jaegamer]

For the most part, seasonal but inconvenient snowstorms put a serious cramp in my gaming plans.  Our home Arcanis game failed to save vs. our schedules (and that the GM and one player attend school out of state and are only here for the winter break).  I did run my Chill campaign twice, with much curtailed attendance (due to player reproduction, rather than school or snow).  (congrats to Erika & Jason on the birth of Carl August Nichols!)

The big gaming event, for me, was running the finales of the Living Death campaign for CARP.  I wore the t-shirt I'd bought at the beginning of the campaign to run the final chapter.  It seemed only fitting.

The campaign lasted ten glorious - and terrifying - years.  I played it at the premiere, and my remaining high level character, Miss Evangeline Pennyworth, expired at the official finale at Winter Fantasy (er, the DNDXperience) last winter.  I was sad then, but it was somewhat lightened by the knowledge that I'd be running modules for the club for the next year.  Now, alas, it is over.  I ran six characters (3 deaths) to a very satisfying conclusion on Monday, and there were no dry eyes at the table as I read the final text through tear-blurred vision.  The ending was right and proper, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.  All campaigns should end when the story is well and truly told, the villains banished for all time and the heroes - bloody and weary, but not beaten - victorious in the end.

Countess Ivanova	Buddy Burgess, Watchmaker	Alphonse Rene Sabine The French Waiter	Miss Evangeline Pennyworth Lady Archaeologist
Died: Roman Holiday, Death of Kings	Died: Tomb of Jade	Died: Summer of Evil, Night in Shanghai	Died: Defiance

     

Adieu, Living Death.  I shall miss you and all the pleasure you've brought me over the years.

Comments

[kenobi65.livejournal.com]

Alas, I, too, shall miss Living Death. I only got to play it with you a few times, but it was always a lot of fun.

I only had one LD PC -- Professor Thomas D. Roberston (a.k.a. "The Prof"). He, too, perished in "Defiance" (at the hands of Joanne, at Origins). We subtitled our table "Two Weddings and Six Funerals", as we had two sets of PCs marry on the eve of the mission (the Prof married David Samuels' investigator, Lady Jessica Tandy), and a TPS (Total Party Sacrifice) at the end.

[jodidiva.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you got the chance to run "Defiance". I had thought I wouldn't cry at Origins but as kenobi65 knows, I was bawling like a baby at the end...and if I'm not mistaken, there were a few tears being brushed away on each face at the table.

{Yeah, I know crying isn't a "guy thing." Too bad.]

LD was unique in that it was within the sole control and vision of one person, and she did a superb job. No other campaign I'm aware of, has that same clear personal vision. Nor will LFR.

Long live our memories of Death!

JLF

[kenobi65.livejournal.com]

Hey, I was crying. I'm not so proud that I can't admit that. It was a great story, and beautifully orchestrated by you, jodidiva.

It's interesting; from the very first time I played LD, I figured the Prof wouldn't make it out alive. He dedicated his life to the cause, to the exclusion of any personal considerations (until the night before the final mission, of course). So, the final scene was something that I had, really, created that character for. And, yet, it deeply touched me when it happened.

I also give jodidiva major props for using DM perogative to allow the Prof a free action in the middle of the final combat, to give his new wife Jessica a final, passionate kiss. :-)

this may cheer ya up.

[mscjec.livejournal.com]

Cheer up! I've instituted Mr. Ware in as the first head of the SAVE Technologies Dept in Dublin. He has a few other staff, but they remain as internet personalities that have not met (probably). Together this little group handles SAVE's computer interface needs along with data storage and security. Oh, and we are rebuilding the O'Boylan Mansion...right now, Mr. Ware is operating out of Clonmel, Ireland.

That's IF they go with it all. None is carved in stone, yet.

Any more info about the envoy wife of Allister?

And what is the correct spelling of his first name?

-Mike

Re: this may cheer ya up.

[jaegamer.livejournal.com]

That's delightful! Alister Ware, and his wife is model/actress/envoy Debra "Dee" Crystal. And yes, she hyphenated her name, so she's Dee Crystal-Ware. (ouch). James Read is my mental image of Alister, and Rebecca Romijn for Dee.

Dee Crystal is a high-profile actress and model. As far as the world knows, she's blonde to the Nth degree, pursuing her modeling and acting career without a serious thought in her very pretty head. Hearts were heard to break around the world when she married obscure computer consultant Alister Ware. Some wags suggest it was merely so that she can hyphenate her name to Dee Crystal-Ware.

Re: this may cheer ya up.

[mscjec.livejournal.com]

I sent some further info to your gmail address. Tell me what you think...

mike

[raconteurx.livejournal.com]

Jae, I continue to be jealous of your marvelously active gaming life. My own disintegrated along with the rest of my life, going on two years now. I did enjoy the wonderful six-year run of a friend's Pendragon game, but that ended in 1999 shortly after we fought the Battle of Badon in-game. The end was due to changes in everyone's lives (marriage, children, new jobs) and not the conclusion of the Matter of Britain.

Still, we had the chance to say farewell to our original characters, as most died at Badon. That the end came as we prepared to move from the struggles of the Interregnum and Arthur's early reign to the deepening of the Enchantment of Britain and the start of Arthur's golden age was the true tragedy, so rare for any game, let alone a Pendragon one, to truly reach a conclusion.

I miss the days when I had friends to game with, and regular times when we met. Ah well...

[jaegamer.livejournal.com]

You've had a rough year...

I work hard at maintaining that gaming availability. CARP takes up a lot of my time (both organizationally and running games), and some weeks I really don't feel like running on Wednesday... but when my players get there, I usually perk up.

I'm extraordinarily blessed by a large circle of wonderful friends, most of whom are also gamers.

[raconteurx.livejournal.com]

My large circle of wonderful friends became a casualty of two shattered relationships and a lot of moves out of state. Does not help that Ann Arbor's gaming scene became rather insular, nor that I refused to buy into either the D&D nostalgia craze or the entire d20 OGL craze.

[eynowd.livejournal.com]

Interesting. LD had the most interesting premise of all the Living campaigns IMHO, but it still suffered from the same problem that all of them had - the story had nothing to do with the characters. I played in a few, but none of them ever came close to giving me what I considered a satisfactory gaming experience.

Still, it's nice to know that it worked for some people :)

[jaegamer.livejournal.com]

It's true that tournament-style games are more story-centric. My own experience is that I tend to play with/run certain groups of characters, and over time we end up telling our own characters' stories against the backdrop of the campaign.

It's a whole lot different than a home campaign, though, that's for sure!

[eynowd.livejournal.com]

I guess if you can get a fairly static group of people playing the games over a longer period, then you will build up the relationships between the player characters. That would work.

Unfortunately, I never played with the same group twice, so I never had the opportunity :(

Mind you, I've dropped right out of the RPGA altogether. I have no desire whatsoever to play D&D again, and probably won't even bother picking up 4E when it comes out.