Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 4)
Friday, October 25, 2024
A 10th Azurthversary
This week marks the 10th anniversary of our Land of Azurth campaign using 5e. While nothing's for certain, I suspect we will "finish" in this year as the big conflict with the Wizard of Azurth that simmered in the background for several years and finally boiled over the last two will come to a conclusion.
I wrote a post on the last anniversary which felt necessary not only because nine years is a nice run (though it is), but because we had faced adversity due to the pandemic and the loss of two members of our group--Eric due to burnout on tele-anything and Jim to cancer--and I felt like our perseverance needed to be commemorated.
I don't want to just repeat what I said there, so I won't. Instead, I will say that 10 years of a an elfgame with a group of friends which now includes a new addition, Kathy, who plays the Mortzengersturm pregen, Zabra, gives me completely different insights and perspective on gaming than my nearly 15 years of blogging or the latest wisdom dropped on social media.
Games are a social activity. While rpgs are fun to theorize, write, or argue about, the real alchemy comes in the playing of them. And, for me at least, the playing of them not mainly in pickup games with strangers, though I don't discount the fun in that, but with the same crew, repeatedly.
Thanks to Andrea, Bob, Gina, Kathy, and Tug, for still being here, and to Eric and Jim who came most of the way. Azurth wouldn't be the same without you.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 3)
Monday, October 21, 2024
Weird Revisited: Middle-Earth in Blacklight
It's well known that hippies were into Tolkien's work. Some of its themes appealed to them, certainly, but like with Lee and Ditko's Dr. Strange comics, there was also the idea that the works might somehow be drug-influenced. The author, it was assumed, might be taking the same trip as them. This was, of course, a false belief, but it was one that existed.
Friday, October 18, 2024
Weird Revisited: Castle Ravenloft
The original version of this post appeared in 2018...
I think it might be cool to make Ravenloft a little more Gormenghast: the castle is bigger and more dilapidated (visual reference: the castle in The Fearless Vampire Killers) and becomes more central to shrunken Barovia, which is maybe no more than a valley. The castle and environs would be a bit like Dark Shadow's Collinsport. There would be a lot of weird doings in just the house and area. Strahd would be perhaps a bit toned down in villainy, more like early, non-protagonized Barnabas Collins. Strahd should probably have some bickering, eccentric, and likely inbred human family inhabiting the castle as well.
The outside world would exist, but it would be vaguely defined. Barovia would be a hard to get to place, somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. The strange doors of Castle Ravenloft would open onto other Domains of Dread, though.
The play of the Gothic horror, I feel like it would work better with a funnel type situation, where characters of humble backgrounds either work at the castle and discover it's horrors or are visitors to Barovia.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1984 (week 2)
Monday, October 14, 2024
Go Go, Iron God!
Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with the party finally making it to the "brain" around of the giant construct. The Gnomish wizard Boq was waiting for them with a vicious Chain Lightning spell. Again, Dagmar's healing was the only thing keeping the party from defeat. Boq couldn't take it as well as he could dish it out, though, and in a handful of rounds the party had defeated him.
There was a kaleidoscopic sphere of energy, which enveloped Erekose. The party was prepared for the worst, but actually the energy was a manifestation of the giant. It recognized Erekose as wearing the control armor and integrated him into its system.
It was a good thing, too, because some sort of malign, cloud entity was fasted approaching. Erekose tried to turn the construct to run, but they weren't very fast, and the cloud was shooting energy at them. First, they tried to fire missiles from the construct's hands, but they were too proficient with the weaponry and kept missing. Eager for a melee weapon, Erekose asked the mind of the construct if there was a sword. It turned out there was.
A couple of hits with an energy blade seemed to route the cloud thing. They proceeded on their way back to their base. After most of the party took a long rest, Shade and Dagmar tried to see if there was a way to reload the missiles they fired. Climbing down into the hand, they found they most of the missiles had been looted, but there was one extra.
Next, the group looted the bodies and got quite an array of items they presumed to be magical.