Reverb Gamers 2012 - #9

"Have you ever played a character of the opposite sex. Why or why not? If yes, how did the other players react?" - Reverb Gamers

In the 10+ years that I have played D&D, I have never played a male character - until now.  I am playing a male dwarf named Agnes Aleguzzler in my friend Kevin's Pathfinder game.  I think the reason that I have always played a female character, up until now, was that I was the only female in the group.  Honestly, it doesn't make a lot of sense because the guys in my group have never had an issue playing female characters but for some reason, I have always felt obligated to play a female character.  I am not the only girl in Kevin's group and so I felt comfortable playing a male character this time.

I remember the first time one of the guys in my D&D group picked a female character, I was a little surprised.  They were so nonchalant about it, too because it really wasn't a big deal.  It was great when Randy would play a snooty elf female because he'd even pitch his voice a little higher and his mannerisms would be a little more effeminate.  Rob has also played many female characters and he was really good at it, too.

If there is any awkwardness about me playing a male character in Kevin's game it's probably due to the fact that Agnes is kind of a lech and he hits on all of the females.  It's actually kind of fun to play that kind of character because when I play my female characters, I tend not to be that way.  I find it easier to "flirt" as a male character than I do as a female, maybe because I know that it won't be taken seriously.

Reverb Gamers 2012 - #7, 8

"How do you pick names for your characters?" - Reverb Gamers

I usually try to let something about my character influence the name that I pick.  For instance, I'm currently playing a savage skald in my friend Rob's Pathfinder game and the class in and of itself suggests a very Nordic name (Astrid).  However, when I'm playing a halfling, I usually try to pick very silly names.  Once, during character creation, I decided to name halfling after my phone because it sounded very halfling-ish (Blackberry).

If I get stumped on picking a character name, I will often google for fantasy names or Irish/Celtic names because those usually sound pretty fantastic.

"What's the one gaming accessory (lucky dice, soundtrack, etc.) you just can't do without? Why?" - Reverb Gamers

Well, dice are usually pretty important to my gaming because you can't play D&D without them.  I don't really have a lucky set, though.  I usually pick my pink dice, just because they are pretty but if they aren't rolling well, then I will go to another set.  My Dragon Chow dice bag is also pretty important because without it, my dice would probably get lost.

Reverb Gamers 2012 - #6

"Describe your all-time favorite character to play. What was it about him/her/it that you enjoyed so much?" - Reverb Gamers

Oh wow, this prompt is actually kind of hard. I have so many characters that I love and it's hard to pick just one.  Most of my characters have been either halfling rogues or human wizards.  I know it's not very versatile of me as a gamer but those are the 2 things that I really have the most fun playing.  Something that really makes it fun for me is that my DMs would always takes my back story and find a way to work it into a major plot point in the campaign (they tended to do this for all the players).  It's really nice to feel like my character is important to the story.

If I had to pick an all-time, absolute favorite then it would probably be Lily, a human wizard.  She actually started out as a joke but I got to play her up to 22nd or 23rd level.  Our group was trying to get rid of the Dragon Cult and prevent the return of Ashardalon.  I think we were playing the Heart of Nightfang Spire module and our party was TPK'd while trying to fight a dracolich.  Robbie was playing an evil wizardress named Raven and luckily, she had been experimenting with cloning.  When the party was killed, Raven's clone awoke and attempted to summon the party back by using an epic level spell.  Unfortunately she wasn't able to cast the spell as it was written (Robbie didn't role high enough) and she summoned back the party from an alternate plane (everyone's alignment was switched).

Instead of summoning back the opposite of my original character, Randy, the DM, talked me into playing a good version of Raven.  We were sitting around the table and as Randy was describing what happened when Raven botched the spell, he got to me and he says, "She looks just like Raven."  Robbie brushed it off but Randy said, "No Rob, she looks JUST like Raven."  Robbie's reaction was priceless as I sat at the table and pretended to be petting a white cat (Raven had a black cat familiar, so Lily's familiar was a white cat).  It turned out that my character was actually from this plane and that Raven was from the opposite plane but that our characters had been switched at birth, somehow.  We finished that campaign with an anti-paladin, an evil cleric, & 2 arch-mages and in the end, Raven redeemed herself and killed Ashardalon by sacrificing herself. 

Best. Campaign. Ever.

Reverb Gamers 2012 - #5

"Have you ever introduced a child to gaming, or played a game with a young person? How is gaming with kids different than gaming with adults?" - Reverb Gamers

Yes!  I have 2 little boys, ages 6 and 7, and I've gamed with them many times.  Mostly, it's been board games like Chutes & Ladders or Sorry but we also play a lot of video games together, like Lego Rock Band or Kinect Adventures.  I bought a card game from Wastex Games last year, called Reversal of Fortune, and my 6 year old kicks ass at it.  I thought I was going easy on him but he's actually really blood thirsty when it comes to that game!  Maybe it's because "treasure" is involved. 

I have done some rpgKids adventures with them and they really like that but now that they are getting a little older, I'm looking forward to introducing them to Pathfinder.  I want to try out the Pathfinder Beginner Box because I've heard that it's really easy & it's a good teaching tool for kids as young as they are.  It will be awesome to have an in-home gaming group to play with on a regular basis!!!

Masters of the Fallen Fortress

There was another Pathfinder Society game out at Saltire Games this past Friday and I had nothing else to do, so I RSVP'd to play.  I made a fighter so that I'd have the option to play something else just in case everyone else brought a magic user to the table, like the last time.  Her name is Six and she's a mercenary for The Sczarni faction.

I had originally RSVP'd to play the #3-01: The Frostfur Captives scenario but the DM wasn't comfortable with running for 7 people because it makes the scenario less challenging & combat takes forever with that many people.  There was another guy there who had already played this scenario so he offered to run a different scenario for half of the group.  I initially wanted to play the Frostfur scenario but I decided to go with the other DM.  I'm really glad that I did because it was a lot of fun.

Sean, the guy running the game, hadn't DM'd a PFS game before but he did a really good job.  The other two people, Tracy & her fiancee (I can't remember his name), were also a lot of fun to play with.  We actually had a well balanced party.  I had my fighter, Tracy had a rogue, & her fiancee was playing a gnome witch named Rumple (who capered about like a jester and spoke in rhymes).  We had an NPC cleric to round out our party and she actually came in really handy. 

Sean ran The Master of the Fallen Fortress module for the 3 of us and it wasn't like the other PFS game that I had played in.  There were no faction objectives to accomplish and it assumed that the party members already knew each other and that we were just out, exploring some old ruins for treasure.  I'm not used to playing a fighter and the characters that I typically play usually hang out in the back of the group because they have low hit points.  With the exception of the rogue checking for traps, my fighter was in the front the whole time.

We encountered a pack of wild dogs, a giant spider, bats, and numerous troglodytes during our exploration of the tower.  My character was actually knocked down to -7 HP but the cleric was able to cast Revoke (or Rebuke) Death on her and bring her back and heal her.  To be honest, my character was responsible for a lot of the combat that we got into.  There was one situation that we could have avoided because the creature was sleeping but Six tried to shut the door and woke the creature up.  She also moved into the giant spider's territory, provoking it to attack.  And then there were the bats...

Sean had this awesome DM die that he would roll at times when we wanted to do something outside of the scope of the rules and depending on the symbol (they had smiley faces and frowny faces and other random symbols on them) various things could happen.  At one point, we found a hidden door but the rogue broke the lock so Six used a strength check (which she made) to open it.  The hardness of worked masonry is DC 30 & instead of telling me that my character couldn't break through the door, Sean rolled his DM die and based on the outcome of the die, it was determined that the door was old and rickety & she burst through.  Fortunately, Six made her reflex save and she didn't fall into the chasm on the other side.  But she did wake up the bats on the ceiling, which swarmed her.  Rumple cast sleep on Six & the bats, knocking them all out and the rogue was able to use sleight of hands to pull Six out from underneath them without waking the sleeping bats.

We finally got to the top of the tower and encountered the BBEG, which was another troglodyte, and his pet crocodile.  At this point we had to rush through the final combat because the game store was closing but we were able to defeat the BBEG and his pet and pillage all of the treasures.