Due to the hectic nature of the last few weeks, I was unable to get an AP report up for the third session of our Saturday campaign. However, since the last two sessions have both been part of the same extended scenario, combining their reports makes it easier to collect my thoughts. So here we go!

The Cast

• Alex, playing the part of Captain Daylen Forgrun.
• Gaston, playing the part of Calvo Sotelovich.
• Nathanael (me), Arbiter, playing the part of Mihoaela Tatiana Kojimirin.
• Nievita, playing the part of Aeroica Mindal Tsvetkov.
• Scott, playing the part of Khazimir ibn Zalikahn.

Two Saturdays ago was the second session in our Undiscovered Countries campaign, using the Verses RPG rules system. In my last post on this game, I gave some details into the setup, the system, and the campaign premise, so I’ll skip all that and get right to the meat.

The Cast

• Alex, playing the part of Captain Daylen Forgrun.
• Gaston, playing the part of Calvo Sotelovich.
• Nathanael (me), Arbiter, playing the part of Mihoaela Tatiana Kojimirin.
• Nievita, playing the part of Aeroica Mindal Tsvetkov.
• Scott, playing the part of Khazimir ibn Zalikahn.

Last night was the first official gathering for my Sunday group’s new Iron Kingdoms game. This campaign is entitled “Bloodstone: An Iron Kingdoms Western,” and is set on the edge of the Bloodstone Marches in a shady little prospector’s town called Ternon Crag. This game is very heavily influenced by the television show Deadwood.

This game also uses the Verses RPG rules currently in development by yours truly. I had originally intended on using The Burning Wheel as the system for this game, but after a bit of minor GM burnout on my part, I made the switch to Verses, for two main reasons. First, I just don’t have the time to dedicate towards mastering the Burning Wheel rules while simultaneously teaching them to others. Second, I want to give Verses a more versatile (pun intended) playtest. Currently it is being used in my other bi-weekly campaign, and I hope that by applying it to an already-established setting I can test its functionality with several new perspectives.

This past Saturday, July 21st, saw the first actual game-play session of our new campaign. Aside from the goal to have a buttload of fun, the purposes for this campaign are two: to give the Verses RPG rules a working progression towards completion through extended playtest, and to work as a unit to create a new campaign setting in which all involved can be personally invested. So far, after a character and setting jam session and one actual play session, the results are better than satisfactory. With this post, I’ll kick off a series of post-session Actual Play reports. Interested? Keep reading.

I ended up running three demos at the Free RPG Day events this past Saturday at Guardian Games. Here’s a run-down of the demos, what went down, and my afterthoughts.

The first and third demos were of the same game, a quick-start swamp boat adventure for the Tunnels and Trolls edition 5.5 RPG. The first session was a bit shaky at first, but after a bit we (all 8 of us!) all got into the flow of things and had a lot of totally ridiculous fun. In the second run, there were only two players, but both of them instantly got into the groove of things and commented frequently on how the absolute simplicity of the system made the game all the more fun. I posted about this game previously, and I’m glad to say my initial forecasts were mostly correct. So simple a five-year-old can learn it, and more fun than the cracker-jack-box prize-toy.

The second game I demoed, however, was unfortunately quite awful.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been running a Little Fears game on alternating Wednesdays. This has been a new experience for me, and if any of you have a history with this particular game then you probably know what I’m talking about here. If you’re not familiar with the subject matter, then it’s a bit difficult to explain.

Anyway, one of my players has written an Actual Play report on our jam session which was over a month ago. It’s a good read, and I’m hoping there will be more in this series of posts.

Thanks, Kat!

- Nathanael Phillip Cole