A Life Full of Adventure

Role playing games (especially these days) tout 3 main ideas: Social encounters, exploration, and combat. Large sections of game books are devoted to combat rules, and what makes combat in this game better and/or easier. Key locations are fleshed out for player characters to explore: dungeons, towns, and wilderness. That leaves the final idea, the one I hear the most people complain about: social rules and a frequent lack thereof. The reason there aren't as many social rules for D&D (an other similar RPGs) is that most players just ignore the rules in favor of their own social skills. Your character has a Charisma, Fellowship, or Leadership score? Who cares?! Players just sit down and act however they want instead of playing to their characters social abilities and social skills.  They play as smart as they want to be, as wise as they want to be, and as smooth tongued as they want to be. And most GMs allow this.

Characters Wilfried - Human Bawd Gottlieb - Human Ranger Larry - Human Bawd Wilhelm - Human Trader Talbberry - NPC Halfling Scribe (Player absent) Just a small town scarecrow Living in a lonely field He took the midnight trail going anywhere ( Previous Session ) We limped back to town, with the Hunter, only recently unstunned, taking us on a few unexpected “short cuts.” We threw the goblin heads on the table (still dripping goblin blood all over the place) and started raking in our rewards. We met a friend of Gottlieb’s from the city, Wilhelm. Just a trader boy Born and raised in South Altdorf He took the midnight coach going anywhere It was just then another mother came in stating her child had been taken from its cradle…in the garden…at night…in the rain. Wilhelm cast many aspersions against the mother’s parenting and the possibility she could have dispatched the child herself, but we were off to look for clues before our respite could continue. Emmanu...

My PC Erik Holt - Human Tomb Robber My companions Lunn - Dwarf Gaoler Bungo - Halfling Grave Robber Fyodor - Human Badlander Pappy - NPC Human Beggar Ekhardt - NPC Mercenary Felix - NPC Mercenary Mr Cheesers - Lunn's pet rat ( Previous Notes ) Our party stopped and debated what to do about the two men following us toward Lauterberg. As we talked about it, then two men approached. "I am Ekhardt. This is Felix. We saw you in Padua. You're going to find the missing priest, no? We wish to join you." It seemed the two were part of the original gang that had kidnapped the priest in the first place! Now they wished to restore their lost honor and help find the man. Our party wasn't one to judge, but we did ask who they had been working for when they kidnapped the priest. The man's name was Rudiger. Our party was stopped at the gates of Lauterberg by an old man collecting tolls. Not being the trusting type, Bungo asked if the man was authorized to...

The New Adventures of He-Man (1990) episode 1 was spectacularly horrible. It’s Voltron art plus GI Joe characters (I know, sounds good so far, but...) set in the future with *only* He-Man and none of the other Masters of the Universe. I will not watch any more of these, unless super bored and then only super ironically. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) episode 1(?) (1 hour) was so much better by comparison. Almost all of the original characters were shown, the story was so much better, and the characters were all uniquely drawn instead of the 1984 carbon copies of each other (though that original series is still #1 in my book). The obvious Japanese animation, including lots of jumping around and everyone expert at martial arts, was slightly much, but I’ll gladly keep watching. Yes, I am often a decade and a half behind the times...why do you ask?

My PC Erik Holt - Human Tomb Robber My companions Lunn - Dwarf Gaoler Bungo - Halfling Grave Robber Fyodor - Human Badlander Pappy - NPC Human Beggar Mr Cheesers - Lunn's pet rat ( Previous Notes ) Jahrdrung 14th, 2532 We arrived in Padua with a caravan of dwarves from Barak Varr. They wouldn't tell us what they were transporting, but the dwarves otherwise welcomed us into their group. The road was long and hard, and there wasn't hardly enough food for the trek, but we had arrived at our destination. This would be our launching point to riches! The local inn, Katerina's Rest, had 3 available rooms but outrageous prices. I elected to stay in an abandoned building across the street. Gossip was aplenty in Katerina's Rest (the locals call it The Rest for short. I'm going to have to adopt their parlance if I'm to fit in). The mountains were said to be 3 days to the north west, by foot. There were lots of greenskins and undead about. And there...