Is It Kringle Time Yet?

It's December and Christmas is coming up fast. Somehow, despite a snow-storm on Saturday, it has been a little tough getting into the proper spirit. The Risus Monkey and his family are all just emerging from a month-long Swine Flu-induced hibernation and other priorities are getting in the way getting into the Christmas mood.

One way that I'm attempting to bring the Christmas magic is by going back and rereading A Kringle In Time. Knowing full-well that I won't be running it this year (sigh), I am never-the-less cheered by S. John's loving yet blasphemous tribute to all the Christmas traditions that we hold dear.

Here's something else that might get you into the Christmas spirit. On Tuesday, ABC broadcast the new Pixar/Disney Christmas special Prep & Landing. It was great fun and the whole family stayed up to watch it. Naturally, I imagined the main character, Wayne, as being perfect for a Kringle In Time-like Risus adventure:

WAYNE
Occasionally naughty Christmas Elf working for Santa's elite Prep & Landing Crew. An expert at low-altitude Reindeer insertion, household infiltration, and candy-grapple extraction, Wayne is an old hat at making sure that Santa gets in and gets out with minimal fuss. Unfortunately, he's been at this job for a long time and he rather expects to move into management soon.

Cliches: Jaded Christmas Commando (4), Christmas City Old Timer (3), Management Material (2)

Lucky Shots: [] [] []

Tools: Multipurpose night vision goggles, sleepy-dust grenades, candy-grapple, "creatures stirring" sensor, snack evaluator, landing wands, portable arrestor cable, retractable skis, and utility belt.

The Moon Goddess Is A Harsh Mistress

Professor Pope's D&D3e Forgotten Songs campaign ranks among my top role-playing experiences as a player. One thing that did not sit well with me, though, is the way the campaign ended. Just as the campaign was wrapping, we found a Deck of Many Things. Initially I resisted the temptation to draw. But under pressure, I relented. Naturally, I drew the Tower. So here I have one of my favorite PCs that I have ever played stuck somewhere in the Multiverse, cut-off from everything that she holds dear.

With Risus and The Mythic GM Emulator, I could finally tell the rest of Katja's story.

SYSTEM
Though the original campaign was D&D 3e, I opted to convert my character to Risus (see That Old School Dungeon Fantasy).

RISUS CONVENTIONS
Hooks, Tales, Sidekicks, Pumps, Double-Pumps, Funky Dice, Boxcars, Lucky Shots, and Risus Monkey-style combat rules are in effect. Katja's style of magic is (initially, at least) based on D&D 3e clerical magic (see below). Other forms of magic or powers may be encountered.

MYTHIC CONVENTIONS
The Standard Event Table is used. The minimum Chaos Rank is 3. For Complex Questions, I'll consult the Event Table, Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Wikipedia, and perhaps other sources as they become available. For names, I'll typically use the "Everyone Everywhere" name supplement.

CHARACTER

Katja (Anna-Katarina von Randstein)
Katja is a young woman in her early twenties. She is small and slender of build, barely reaching 5' in height and 100 lbs in weight. She has fair skin, bright blue eyes, and luxurious red hair that she used to wear tied back in a ribbon under a tricorn hat. Of course, she currently looks considerably more ragged, having spent the last several years locked in "the Tower". Katja has a moon-shaped silver scar on her left breast where the Silver Huntress miraculously healed her. Most of her other wounds have been healed by magic, though she has a visible scar on her right ankle (where she was mauled by a wolf).

Cliches: Cleric of the Silver Huntress (4), Mistress of the Hunt (4), Waifish Equestrian Ranger from a Noble Hessian Family (2) , Self-doubting Chosen One (2).

Hook: Small of stature (limits her choice of weapons, armor, and the amount of gear she can carry). Also utterly dependent on her goddess for her supernatural powers.

Languages: Hessian, Pembroke, Tempian, and accented Cimbrian. [These languages are fantasy versions of German, English, Latin, and Gaelic respectively]

Lore: As a D&D-style cleric, she has access to many spell effects (it all depends what she prays for at night). She may cast up to 3rd level spells [TN12], 2nd level spells [TN9], first level spells [TN6], or orisons [TN3]. In a combat, available spell effects are based on her current dice. Also, she typically cannot cast the same non-healing spell more than once between periods of prayer.

• Hunt Domain: 1. Expeditious Retreat, 2. Scent of the Wolf, 3. Wolf Shape.
• Moon Domain: 1. Faerie Fire, 2. Moonbeam, 3. Moon Blade.

Tools: She would normally wear light armor and carry a scimitar, light crossbow, and hunting spear. She would always have her holy symbol. At the start of this adventure, she has nothing.

Tale: It's long and I won't repost it here. Instead, I'll try to explain things from her past as they come up in the story.

This is an edited version of my introductory post on the Mythic Yahoo Group (here). If you get into Mythic at all, I highly recommend the list.

Stay tuned for Scene 1!

Introducing Tornado Kate

While digging around for "Dances With Werewolves" notes that seemed to have gone missing (they should be around here somewhere), I stumbled across a player's original proposal for a Silverlode character, back when it was going to be GURPS Silverlode 1876. Well, since I really enjoyed the character concept I thought I'd convert her to Risus and post her on the site. Her name's Tornado Kate, and she's the rootin'ist, tootin'ist werewolf hunter in the west. I don't have an image for her, but the player informed me that she should be voiced by Joan Cusack (from Toy Story 2).

The Death of Silva

Last night's epic Dragonspire session was particularly momentous. Not only did we have all our players in attendance, but the party caused an avalanche and battled waves of undead soldiers within site of the fortress of Sa Karen. Alas, their NPC guide, Silva, was slain in the fighting.

The session summary has been posted here and characters have been updated.

Gameday Characters

For this weekend's Game Day session of Silverlode: Dances with Werewolves, players will have their choice of the following characters:

Mathilda Yvonne Hattrack
A charming adventuress and intprepid photographer of nature (who just happens to be a secret government agent).

Jackson "Wild Jack" Carson
A world-famous two-fisted archaeologist and master of dangerous occult rituals.

J. Robert Hinkley
An ethusiastic and unflappable student of Science! with a near-endless supply of ACME gadgets.

Lionel Joseph
A Buffalo Soldier who wanders the land on his unusually intelligent cavalry horse, accompanied by the ghost of a fallen comrade.

Boris Makarov
An aging Dwarven Mad Scientist and Professor of Engineering, long since retired from the Imperial Russian Army.

Max-23
A steam-powered Autonomous Mechanical Marvel!

Roger Zane
A scruffy and maloderous prospector who has "seen strange sights".

The following character is already spoken for (by Nakia):

Arturo Sebastian Ramirez
A gunslinging musician and Hunter of the Dead.

Note that while most of these characters are based on existing characters from the regular campaign, certain modifications have been made to make them more suitable for convention play.

Today's Character

Ack, I have been busy of late. In addition to all my regular obligations to work and family, I've been working on getting a face-to-face Dragonspire campaign organized, a convention Silverlode adventure planned, and episode of Slaying Solomon. I've been neglecting the new Risus webzine, so I need to spend time on that as well. All this has made getting entries up this blog tough. But I'm persisting. Today's item is a new Silverlode character, named Alejandro Bardesano. He hasn't actually shown up in play yet, but he's been hiding in the background for a while. I'm curious to see if any of my regular players recognize the character that he is based on.

More Dragonspire Updates

I'm really on-the-ball this week. The Dragonspire updates from last session have been posted. Note that we have a new non-player character (Silva Karen) with a full write-up.