July 2008 Archives

Less than two weeks until we leave for Gen Con.

MWP Dragonlance Products I'm Missing (in order of preference)

1. Dragons of Winter: War of the Lance Chronicles, Volume II
2. Dragons of Spring: War of the Lance Chronicles, Vol. 3
3. Races of Ansalon
4. Tasslehoff's Map Pouch: The War of the Lance
5. Bestiary of Krynn: Revised
6. Dragons of Krynn
7. Key of Destiny: Dragonlance Age of Mortals Campaign, Vol. I
8. Spectre of Sorrows: Age of Mortals Campaign, Volume II
9. Price of Courage: Age of Mortals Campaign, Volume III
10. Tasslehoff's Map Pouch: The Age of Mortals
11. Tasslehoff's Map Pouch: Legends
12. Dragonlance Dungeon Master's Screen
13. Lost Leaves From the Inn of the Last Home

First session of my GURPS Illuminati University game last night, and it was a blast. As a reminder, these are my characters:

• Deva Dormette, a Neverland faerie skilled in the Food college of magic. College of Metaphysics major, Department of Food.
• James St. John, native of a television reality and son of soap opera characters matriculating on an action hero scholarship. Criminal Justice major.
• Private Edward Linus Hitler, time-displaced space marine from the 31st century. Undeclared.
• Dennis Alan Stallman, computer hacker and open-source software zealot. WUSE major, Department of THE Computer Science.
• Gwen Torges, dilettante and thief. COUP major.

We started with everyone arriving at their dorm, Monty Hall. After dodging various heavy objects falling from the upper stories, each ascends to Floor 13 and finds their room. Dennis and Eddie are in the same room. Gwen discoveres her roommate is an alien (a Loi) named Leonoroia, whose father is somehow involved with the U.N. James' roommate, Robert Jacob Marley, is a big pothead. The only sign of Deva's roommate is a heavy stone sarcophagus.

The PCs meet, mingle, and discuss their divergent backgrounds. James tries to get to Housing to request a new room, but they are closed for the evening. Eventually, the group (sans Dennis) head to the cafeteria for dinner. While there, a group of jocks from The Team neanderthal their way through the serving line and conquer a table. When a clumsy freshthing trips and spills his tray across one jock's back, the group responds violently. Luckily, our heroes are there to stop the jocks from doing too much damage, although the poor klutz ended up with a broken skull.

When the dust clears, the PCs are practically unscathed (Eddie has discovered that jock fists barely scuff him), the unfortunate victim has been carried to the Lazarus Health Center, and the lead jock has been reduced to tears by a judicious application of swirlies.

After seeing to the treatment of the curb-stomped freshthing, the group returns to Monty Hall to find it overcome with an outbreak of PARTY! The elevator has been replaced by a whistling, star-flecked void, and the stairs are slick with various fluids, but fortunately for everyone, Deva was there with her faerie dust. Happy thoughts, everyone!

On Floor 13, the group gets their party on. James and Dennis enjoy the keg, while Eddie discovers the fairer sex with vascillating success (arguably with Gwen's help).

In the morning, Eddie wakes up with a different girl asleep on his arm than the one he retired with the night before. She screams and kicks him out of the bed (literally) before calling pointlessly for Campus Security.

The PCs convene at breakfast. James discovers that his roommate may be around longer than he had hoped, as Housing is charging a significant fee for reassignment. Gwen, impressed by Deva's magical prowess, attempts to enroll in Metaphysics course but discovers she has essentially no magical aptitude.

And with that, we leave our gang contemplated their upcoming course loads.

Here's a look at the products I'm going to be watching for at Gen Con this August:

Steve Jackson Games will likely have copies of GURPS Thaumatology available, as that book is currently set for an August release anyway. Of course, I'll probably be taking advantage of their awesome 3-for-$10 shelves as usual.

I want to get my hands on Paizo's GameMastery Combat Pad, but they may or may not have it available. I'll also be taking a look at the Pathfinder RPG Beta book, but I'm not anticipating putting money down for that one.

I'm going to be heading back to the Indie Press Revolution booth, because I want to take a closer look at Dust Devils, Thousand Suns, Dread, and maybe Spirit of the Century. Also, I know Jamie wants to look at Best Friends again, and frankly, I think it looked pretty cool, too.

I want to give Margaret Weis Productions a shot pretty early, as their Dragonlance 3.5 stock is on crazy discount, and they sign everything.

That's it for now. I bet I'll think of more later, so there will be updates.