The Best of Games

[pyat]

Now, on to the best game I have run. I strongly believe that any game that comes successfully to a close with a majority of the player satisfied is a good game. However, certain games have offered a level of roleplay and fun that lingers in memory. I’ve had the good fortune to have this happen a few times. Yes, these are all high fantasy. I'm lame.


1. The Oakhurst Adventurers
I would be remiss in not mentioning, first of all, the Hamilton Underdark Exploration Society (HUES), a group of players I started gaming with in January 2002. The players are doc_mystery, mar2nee and her husband Daniel, shadow_maze, and velvetpage.

We started with the first Adventure Path module, The Sunless Citadel, and in 2007 we were just about ready to embark on the last module in that series. The player characters are now all 16-18th level, and embroiled in a massive interdimensional war. The campaign went on hiatus in 2007, but should start again in a couple of months. The years of gaming have produced a number of memorable stories, some of which you can read on our ancient website. I really look forward to getting back to this one, and tying up the loose ends. Though, I suspect we have a year or so of adventuring before we finish the Adventure Path.


2. Voyage of the Riddock's Dawn
Then, there was the campaign I ran that was turned into a published novel!

In the summer of 2002, I ran an Ironclaw game for velvetpage, wggthegnoll and redstorm. We were childless at the time, I was working fairly close to home, so we managed to play on weeknights and packed a lot of gaming into that summer. The campaign grew in the telling, from a few germs of intro adventures I’d run at conventions.

It turned into the Voyage of the Riddock’s Dawn, a globe-spanning adventure the uncovered and defeated an ancient evil. The game paused for several months when redstorm and wggthegnoll moved to England, then restarted when Wgg returned, with the addition of sassy_fae and etherlad. A complete summary (with pictures and everything) can be read here. And, of course, this is the campaign that inspired velvetpage to write her first novel.

3. The Battle of Angbad Way
Finally, I have to mention the game that, for a long time, was the yardstick by which I measured all other gaming experiences. I wrote about it in 2004 – The Battle of Angbad Way.

Conan: I remember days like this when my father took me to the forest and we ate wild blueberries. More than 20 years ago. I was just a boy of four or five. The leaves were so dark and green then. The grass smelled sweet with the spring wind.
*pause*
Conan: Almost 20 years of pitiless cumber! No rest, no sleep like other men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt such a wind?
Subotai: They blow where I live too. In the north of every man's heart.
Conan: It's never too late, Subotai.
Subotai: No. It would only lead me back here another day. In even worse company.
Conan: For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm.

Comments

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

and put Fabrizio Rinaldi upon his rightful throne.

Ah, but is it the real Fabrizio? n_n

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

It was. That was the subject of two adventures in and of itself, to locate the remaining people who could identify Fabrizio for sure.

The whole civil war that almost happened was the build up of factions who were behind the real Fabrizio, and behind the imposter who was sitting on the throne.

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

Cool.

Now, I've met the real Fabrizio in a campaign run by Arlene Meddler at my home con (ConCarolinas), basicly ran the campaign out of the back of the Rinaldi book. Found him, saved him, (got people that) cured him. The Black Baron (Blacksilver the Avoirdupois noble) and most of the other players simply got on his good side. One of the newish players had her noble vixen with the flaw of romance, and didn't fill in the details at the time, which was all that Arlene needed, Fabrizio ended up with a fiancee at the end of that campaign.

There was also the time at DragonCon where I was playing at a table run by Diana Wrayshavastak. The Black Baron managed to completely break the one scenario. But that's a tale for another time.