Live Action Role-Playing Part Two

Last week I posted about the beginnings of our little Alliance LARP. Just a bit more about this one and some of the things we are doing!

So once December rolled around we had most of our racial "packets" ready. These are the backgrounds for each race that a person can play. And there are a lot of races! Elves, Dwarves, Hoblings, Saar, Ogres, Orcs and more. Each one has its own package that when a player build their character they get emailed to them. This one was always a mystery to me. Why after? Well there are some specific reasons for it. Some races are a mystery after all. An Orc will know thier heritage, but why would they know about a Saar's? Some races have some "secret" background information that only they would know (or care to share) and others will have to learn that In- Game (IG).

Now for the PLOT. We spent (and still spend) hours and hours building up our story. We have built an outline for the next 6 years of story. Mind you it is all "entry and exit" points for our story arc. But as JP always says "You have to start with your ending and work backwards". That is a pretty solid writing statement (go ahead, use it! You're welcome!) and it always takes me a bit to remember to do this. I'm kinda a "point a to b to c" guy and starting at C and working your way back seems so.... wrong. But it's not and I just have to learn to do it (learning is FUN kids!).

So with our 6 year arc prepared (and completely ready for PCs to throw a monkey wrench into it) we started with our Monthly PLOT and events. Again, this takes hours of work, even for something as "simple" as our evening events that we are currently running until our weekend events start in May.

We have so far run 2 events, a tavern night and our Masquerade. Although that sounds fairly simple, it isn't. We have PLOT meetings every 2 weeks to keep ahead of the events. Tavern was full of games so players can intermingle with new characters and get to know one another. So we had to design a few games, grab a couple off the shelves and figure out how they played into the night. We had to create NPCs (non-player characters for those that have never played a RPG before, give them a reason for being there and how they will interact with the PCs. So each NPC needs a back-story, some rumours to pass along and understand the other rumours that we are spreading to get our PLOT moving.

So currently we have several "core" NPCs. Myself, JP, Andreas, Kristen, Shauna, Abbey, Dayna and a few others. For the Tavern I was a big Ogre:

Gwen built me the vest and the hammer was all MINE! That thing was awesome. Over 5' long. Luckily, with the foam head on it, the impact is not as bad as if it was a solid piece (Gwen will argue that point.) Talk about taking one for the team, that yellow paint took me several showers and nearly a box of baby wipes to clean off. Needless to say I am testing out other paints from other suppliers.

So my NPC was an ogre who was not happy with the King, not realizing that the king was present (but in disguise...ooooooh). We had a gypsy fortune teller, a couple of orc NPCs and a Home Guard recruiter.

The culmination of the night was the storyteller (Andreas) regaling all with tales of King Ulric claiming the throne of Calandonia. Meanwhile, I, as the Ogre who hates the king, heckled the storyteller and made references to the King's sexual exploits and prowess. JP of course countered. Lots of improv between us and Andreas. Then the final fight was staged. I tossed JP over a table (one I brought from the store just in case it was damaged). That got some gasps from the players. We had our fighting routine choreographed and it went well. We fought, I died, and the crowd went wild. My cohorts (Abbey and Kristen) jumped to my defense and died as well. Fun was had by all.

Our Masquerade was in February. This was an important event as both the 2 "prominent" casters in Calandonia were present (The Archmage, me, and the Fatespinner, Gwen). We get to hate each other as the Archmage is technically in line for the throne should something sinister happen to the king and Gwen is the head of the Healer's Guild, whose rise to power "upsets" me.

As I entered the Hall, Dayna, playing the Home Guard Sergeant, announced me incorrectly as the "High Mage". Infuriated, I "Prisoned" him (a high level spell that completely freezes the player) and loudly corrected his error. Apparently that set the tone for my NPC and everyone was afraid to approach me for the evening. I was wondering why, and found out later. It gave me a good chuckle at any rate.

Our event ended with the death of the King's nephew, being poisoned, TWICE. Man someone really did not like him. Andreas really played up the nephew as a pompus self absorbed mama's boy. I'm fairly certain most will not lament his death. Shauna, who was playing his mother, has a great plotline that has sprung from the events. As well as Kristen, our "wench" who suddenly has another NPC that has a plotline emerging from her brilliant portrayal and she really brought the NPC to life.

Players truly drive our plot. The things they do completely affect where PLOT goes. They do things unexpectedly and that is what brings people back. Knowing that what they do shapes the world bit by bit. Now that is not saying that we just sit back and see what happens. Far from it. We just had a 2 hour PLOT meeting last Sunday where we worked out the April tavern and how that leads into May, June and beyond. I love the creativity and hate all the work! But when you create something and you get such a great response from the PCs that really makes all the work worth it.

LARP is taking the US and Canada by storm. What once was only thought of with that horrible "Lightning Bolt" video (google-fu or Youtube-fu it) has become more mainstream and accepted by the geek sub-culture.

Live Action Role-Playing?!?! Part One

So a year back I started to become more interested in Live Action Role-Playing (LARPing). You know, dress up in a costume, grab a "boffer" (foam weapon) and go play D&D out in the woods. Except you are your character, you don't roll to hit or have saving throws. You swing your boffer, call your damage and hope you hit the other guy more times than he hits you.

There is intrigue, a PLOT and fighting. Right up my alley. A good friend of mine, Abbey, hooked up with a crew in Edmonton called "Underworld". Their LARP is gothic horror/ dark fantasy. I play a Garglyn (a Gargoyle for all intents and purposes). So I have a set of horns, big ass wings and I fire a bow (a real bow with foam tipped arrows). It's pretty fun. It's a weekend away from the store and we are out "camping" which I do truly love.

Last summer I had a few people approach me (cause apparently, I seem to be a go to person) and thought it would be fun to start our own LARP for Calgary. Now Calgary does have a Vampire LARP and out in Airdrie is Belegarth, but both of these are not anything close to a "High Fantasy" LARP that everyone was craving. Vampire is a very specialized LARP and if you are not into the whole "White Wolf" genre of RPGs, this may not be your cup of blood. Begarth is strictly combat oriented. So if you are interested in just the combat portion that may suit you well. But I digress (oooh, SHINY!). I started to look around at the numerous LARPs out there. Believe me there are a ton of them. Over in the UK and Europe LARPing is a serious pastime. Players can number in the THOUSANDS for a weekend battle. That number makes my head hurt. Again, numbers like that are for combat oriented LARPs such as dagorhir and others. So I was looking for something more story oriented. Although I love to play in Underworld, I really do not enjoy the writing for gothic horror or dark fantasy and those that were interested in starting up a LARP were on board with me with that respect. Besides, there was already Underworld in Edmonton and we wanted "our own thing".

The websearch began in earnest! I spent days looking up different systems. And for those that know the google-fu, that is a lot of searching and reading. I stumbled upon NERO/ALLIANCE. There is a ton of backstory and drama with the organization and if you are really interested you can use your google-fu to find out the history as well. At any rate, NERO and ALLIANCE had a nasty falling out and the organizations split up. I contacted both (the systems are nearly identical) the "owners" and waited to hear back. Michael, from Alliance was first. His reply was quick, well written and very helpful. We spent several days sending emails back and forth. It was almost a week before NERO replied. The reply was cordial, but I felt like it was more "all business" than working with me to understand the organization. The second email I received from NERO looked like it was written by a 10 year old. My head hurt with the misspelt words, bad grammar etc (and for those that know me, I HATE that crap!). Spell check works for most things people! Use it! (ooooh SHINY)

Anyway, we eventually decided upon Alliance. My team consisting of two very close friends, Andreas and JP formed the "committee". PLOT, General Manager and of course me, the OWNER (and head of Operations". There was a fee involved (but that also covered our first set of coins, rulebooks and several helpful databases) and we got a great deal on that as the CDN dollar was 1.1 to USD! We decided that starting in 2012 was where we wanted to be. That gave us months to prepare, advertise and get our ducks in a row. There is so much involved that people would not think of.
#1 was site selection. It took us a month to narrow down the sites in Alberta. We contacted the Lion Youth Camp out in Cremona and were very lucky to get our LARP out there. That entire part took 4 months to nail down (when you deal with volunteers it is to be expected!) all the details and get the contracts signed.

#2 was insurance. Yup, we have to carry insurance just in case something goes horribly wrong and something bad happens. Again, because this is such a specialized thing it took me months of contacting my insurance, and they in turn having to contact the sports insurance guys etc. Again, glad to have contacts from my business that I can use for other things!

#3 was back story and creating our "world". As I understand it, all the "Chapters" in Alliance are all on the same world. We just have our own "continents" that are surrounded by MIST (thing Ravenloft if you know what I mean). So our areas do not connect with each other. I cannot run a plot that has monsters invade the Oregon Chapter (although that would be fun), and they cannot do the same. BUT our characters can travel to these lands. It's one of the major reasons we chose Alliance. I loved that about Living Greyhawk in that for your D&D PC to travel to Nyrond, you had to go to a convention in Utah or Nevada (ROAD TRIP!).... ooohhh SHINY.... anywho, we were lucky to recruit Kyle, the driving force behind the VAMPIRE LARP and his imagination is staggering. All of us started writing the back-story of Calandonia. Our land (CALgary, cANada) was a world recovering from a Great War between the races. Mostly it gives is the ability to "fill in the blanks" of our long history, while concentrating on the "current" history. Lots and lots of writing. Did I mention a lot of writing? Like MONTHS of writing, editing, re-editing etc.

We had to come up with back story for all the races. Each one had to feel unique, but that it belonged with the rest. Again we were lucky to get a couple more writers on board.

I got a HORSE!!

So, it's been a while since I posted anything. Far too long. Luckily I am back in the mood to write a bit and have a lot to chat about. So let's start with something fun!

Anyone who knows me and the store will know I love RPGs. They are my first passion. I have played a ton of them over my 28 years of playing them. I started on the end of D&D Red box and delved right into Advanced D&D. I still have my original PHB, DMG, Monster Manual and Fiend Folio (with the Elder God stat blocked!) I have played twilight 2000, Top Secret SI, Marvel Superheroes, WhiteWolf, Gama World (both Editions) and many, many more.

We have been playing 4E since it came out 4 years ago. I play and DM with the Pirates of the Plains Fellowship. This group has been playing "Living" games since 1999. Yup. 13 years. Damn that's a long time. We have run Living Greyhawk (to the point where we petitioned WotC for our own "region"), Living Arcanis, Living Spycraft etc. Currently the system is Living Forgotten Realms under the 4E banner.

The unfortunate part with LFR has been the lack of new adventures. WotC has taken a complete "hands off" to the LFR campaign and it has suffered. Before there was reporting your results after an adventure so the authors and PtB could move the campaign along a plot using the "majority" of decisions to steer new adventures. So for instance, 100 tables played an adventure and 75% of them killed the main bad guy. Although 25% may have saved him, majority rules and the bad was killed off. Nowadays, the LFR group is completely volunteer run and that always leads to problems. The largest is authors lack of motivation to get their adventures out on time. There have been adventures late by nearly a year. And I completely understand. People are busy and if there is no "real" motivation for getting these done (like cash, or saying you are a published author) then their enthusiasm wanes. Sure we can replay adventures, but how many times can players be expected to replay the same adventure? I personally lost interest in LFR last summer when the adventures were late and we were trying to slot LFR tables at Myth-a-Con*. What a headache! DMs had to be reassigned adventures with little to no prep time etc.

So the Pirates decided in September to expand their offerings from just LFR. We added in Shadowrun, Savage Worlds, Arcanis and Pathfinder Society (PFS) play. Recently these tables are bringing in more players than the LFR tables and I completely understand. The new systems have fresh adventures. They change every time. They are not repeated (okay, I ran the Pathfinder Into Adventures twice for brand new players) and the stories are linked into an overall arc. it "feels" like a real campaign you would play at your house. And that I have missed. LFR just seems like a hodgepodge of random adventures that leave continuity on the back burner. LFR does have "larger" story arcs, but they are so inconsistently released that you forget what the heck was happening last time as it may be months in between adventures that have the same story arc.

A couple weeks back I was GMing a Pathfinder Scenario. I have been quite enjoying GMing again (something I lost interest in with LFR) and I GM 2 PFS a month, one on each game day. This allows me to also jump into Shadowrun and Arcanis on the other "slots" that we run**. So the adventure takes place on a boat. Luckily I have some cool dungeon tiles from WotC that did just the trick. The group consisted of a rogue, samurai, cleric, and a monk. All sitting at 1st or 2nd level. So this is low level stuff which I do enjoy running as the characters are not all Feated up and have weird combos of prestige classes that can lead to several Advil when running an adventure. But I digress.

The players were fighting not only the creatures that set upon them, but the boat itself. Seems that the Pathfinder Society couldn't spare a trained sailor for this adventure so it was up to the PCs to steer during the battles. "So anyone have Profession: Sailor?" no response from the table. "How about Knowledge Nature?". "Our wizard with that skill is not here." was the response. "Okay, Wisdom score?" "15" was the answer from the Cleric.

So the first battle hits and time to start making those checks. Each round the Cleric had to spend a move action to steer. Brett never rolled that elusive "20" he needed and the boat was rocked, stopped and beached over several combats. Hilarity ensued! Players were tossed around (nearly overboard) and it added just a bit more chaos to the fights. Nothing deadly, but a definite twist to what the players were expecting. The adventure had a great RP section as well and they had a fantastic time interacting with the NPCs.

The final battle was intense. I knew that as written, the adventure would be nearly impossible so I dropped a couple of the bad guys. There was a few monks and a caster NPC to deal with now. A good blast of Color Spray dropped 2 of the party members. This basically took them out of the fight for 6 rounds. An eternity when you are facing 2:1 odds as the other 2 players realized. Dropping the first 2 just as the others were coming out of the Color Spray effect was more good timing on my part, lucky dice rolls and bad ones on their side.

As a GM I prefer to roll in front of the players, not behind a screen. I let the dice decide the player's fate, good or bad. I even have a flashing d20 from thinkgeek that lights up when you roll a 20. They love and hate that dice. I think it lends more drama to the rolls when the players can see it. They know I'm not "fudging" my rolls to either save or kill them. I let the dice fall where they may. So in doing this the players and I were down to the last PC and the Caster. I had all the others down and unconscious. The Samurai was the last standing. Low on HP and desperate he took what would be his last swing at the bad guy. It was either his Samurai or my Caster. Both were down to "one good hit" and the game was over. Dayna rolled.... and missed. You could see the players at the table slump a little in their seats. My turn. Caster rolls to hit with a ray. I think the number was 16 or higher. At any rate, it was a hit. Dayna had 1 HP left, so down he went.

The table was silent for a minute or so. I could see all the players trying to desperately figure out a way out of this. Then Dayna yelled "Wait! I HAVE A HORSE!!" Yes, his Samurai is a mounted combat type character. His trusty warhorse was in the bow cargo hold (the adventure even stated that the space was for player's mounts) and I started to giggle. The idiocy of explaining how the horse got onto the deck be damned! It was too great of an idea to say "neigh" to (yes, bad puns are free folks, line starts to the left). So the horse jumps onto the deck and proceeds to kick and bite in a fury of teeth and hoof! The horse managed to hit my caster 2 out of 3 times. More than enough to drop the caster to the deck.

Miraculously, the horse was "also trained" to administer a potion to the samurai (you can all discuss this at your leisure) but it fit the finale made the game a blast and I have not laughed that hard in a long time. The players won (well the horse did technically), they completed the mission and saved the day.

I think next time Dayna has to play the horse and his Samurai remains in the cargo hold.....

*Myth-a-Con: our annual RPG and Minis convention
**slots. We run 2 adventures per day. A slot is the 4.5 hour time period we have to play the adventure.

What a Summer!

Well, as you can tell I have been absent from this blog for far too long. The summer is both a busy and slow time for me and the store.

The store sees leagues slow down and attendance at events wain as summer is the time for being outdoors, on vacation and enjoying yourself before the cold of winter slap you in the nuts. Yes, I skipped fall completely because we really don't get a fall season do we?

So the summer was busy with the Store's 4th Anniversary in July, a couple MtG and Yu-Gi-Oh releases plus of course our regular miniatures events. Infinity pretty much stopped over the summer, as did 40k. We plan to kick off a couple leagues pretty quick and get those going.

RPGs suffered as well. Encounters dropped from 2-3 tables down to 1 and now is rebounding. The Pirates of the Plains' Game Days dropped from 4 to 2 tables. Luckily they are expanding their games and numbers are coming back up (more on that later).

MtG and Yu-Gi-Oh still show how popular they are. Over the summer we were hosting events that brought in 20-30 players on a Friday (MtG) and Sunday (Yugi). It's pretty cool to see that trend increasing.

Myth-a-Con took up most of my time over the summer, especially August. Conventions are a love/hate thing for most organizers. We love to put them on and really enjoy seeing everyone playing and having a great time. We hate all the stress and time that we do have to put into them. I was pretty much a basket case the week before the con as there is always a ton of things that need to get done last minute (like buying food) and dealing with your volunteers to ensure they are all accounted for can be headache enducing.

But in the end we had another fantastic convention. Yes, there will be another one. No, it will not be in January. ;-) Myth-a-Con is scheduled for the September long weekend for the next few years. This gives all of us time to recharge, look at the convention and adapt/improve it.

I need to thank (in no particular order) Gwen, Abbey, Shauna, Keith, Paul, Brett, Scott, Ryan, Chris, Sean, Corey, Andreas, Stephen, Bruce and Eugene. I more than likely missed someone, and for that I appologize. These people mentioned DM'd, Judged, cooked, administrated and more for this convention and they put a ton of hours in to make the convention run as smoothly as possible.

The other major event that kept me busy is the purchase of a LARP Chapter for the Alliance rule system. Live Action Role-Playing is gaining steam in Calgary and I had several players approach me about helping out. Never one to shy from a challenge, I went ahead and purchased a LARP Chapter. Now there is a large group of players getting set to create characters, build their armour and weapons then go hunt down the evils of the world we created. It will be a VERY interesting spring/summer next year. Link here for Alliance LARP

Now we move into September and get ready for the big Christmas push. Our events calendar starts to fill up again with lots of new activities and of course the longstanding ones. It should be a fun winter for sure!

Cheers!

Comic & Entertainment Expo 2011

Wow! What a fun weekend. For those of you that live under a rock somewhere in Calgary, last weekend was the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. This is a major event in Calgary each year. This year they opened for Friday evening (first time in their history) and the fans were very receptive. They were estimating 30k through the doors over the 3 days and I'm sure they hit it. While they did have a ton of geeks and nerds roaming the floor it was less "cramped" then the past couple years, or at least that is what it felt like for the times I was wandering the floor.

Lots of friends dropped by our booth, which by a mistake in editing was omitted from the pamphlet. We continuously have expanded our booth over the past 4 years. Our first booth was a last minute cancellation that I was able to snag. The spot was horrendous! I was across from Coco Brooks and the food line-up was stifling all of my space until, after a few loud complaints from me, they managed to actually put up a switch back line-up and corralled the patrons into a manageable line. Our next booth was again near concession. We were given a second booth after the Sentry Box was a no-show and they were scrambling to fill the vendor space. So "yay me" a double booth for the price of a single. But with only one concession to feed the 10k people my front area was blocked for 3 hours on the busy Saturday. Last year the booth was a corner with an additional single booth (so a big "L") and we were again kind of in a weird location (across from the "Scream booth"). The line-up for Leonard Nimoy stretched along the booth so there was little "traffic" (other than those poor bastards waiting 5 hours for his autograph).

This year was much different. We were on an end-cap. That is a 200 sq ft area. We packed it to the gills with a sampling of our wares. Board games, RPGs, CCGs and our Used Video Game selection. We also ran the Free RPG Day promotion (both Saturday and Sunday) and handed out 760 flyers with all of our information on it plus a CCEE coupon for the store. So far 11 of them have made it back.

Personally I was surprised once again that our biggest competitor had a booth (looked like a double) but were not showcasing any of their product. It really looked like something that they grabbed from the back of their storage. They were not even set up when the VIP patrons were in the building and a lot of people were wondering if they were going to no-show again. My take on the Expo is exposure for the store. The sales are a great benefit, but getting our name out there to me is more important than anything. Already it is paying benefits with the Calgary Geek's Social Club is running a board game night on Tuesday the 28th and we were mentioned on the Game Flavor podcast To me, that is what the convention is all about.

The best thing from the entire event was being able to actually take some time and do the "geeky fan thing". My GF and I along with my "weekend minions" Tracy and Andreas came in early on Sunday to get autographs from the entire cast of the Guild and we even did the Photo Op with them. They are truly a great group of people that really went the extra mile to come in early for the Exhibitors and Volunteers.

My true appreciation goes out to Gwen, Tracy and Andreas. Those folks busted their asses for me all weekend. Never complained, always smiling and were true professionals. I could not have done this Expo without them. Truly some of the best people I know and love! They even volunteered already for the next con in April and are brainstorming ways to make the booth run smoother and be even more attractive!

I know for a fact I will never miss a CCEE and we will just continue to grow with them! Well done all around.

Myth-a-Con

Whew! Just when you think the work is over....

It doesn't seem like 3 months until we run Myth-a-Con again. We just ran one back in January and we are gluttons for punishment and doing it again for September. Now this is not a semi-annual event. Far from it. We had originally planned for the con to run in November of 2010. There was a "booking error" and we were forced to move into January. None-the less we had a fantastic turnout of miniatures players and role-players. 150 players and volunteers made the weekend so much fun.

Our original plan was to run it on the September long weekend in 2010 but the hall was not available. After January we rebooked the venue for September (we actually locked it in back in November 2010) but were given the news that the venue had booked a "major tennant" for every Sunday and we could no longer have that day. Now a Friday/ Saturday con sucks for those that have to travel, so off to find a new venue!

It did not take me long to get our new "home" the Marlbourough Park Community Association. Great place and we were able to book it for the next 3 years.

Now its time to get all the posters out and ramp up our advertising for it. I have been working for the past 4 hours updating websites, emailing volunteers and getting a hold of manufacturers for prize support.

And my part is pretty minor. For the Warhammer guys they are feverishly working on terrain sets for their tables. I am organizing WarMachine terrain building days to spruce up our forests and hills plus trying to build more scenery. There will be a lot of hills, forests and square buildings to fill up the tables!

So this week I need to finish the monsters for the D&D Open, get a rough draft from my partner of the story bits, contact all the manufacturers for prize support and run the posters to all the D&D shops in Calgary.

Almost EPIC weekend!

Well, what a long weekend!

This May long weekend the Pirates of the Plains held their "Almost Epic" weekend of gaming. Yours truly was there of course with my level 18 Wizard (D&D 4th), Terron Elanese. The weekend started right away for us with a "double round" adventure (8 hours) broken into 2, 4 hour "slots" Friday night and concluding Saturday Morning. It was a really well written adventure with some very challenging fights. In the end our table sided with the Frost Giant Jarl instead of an insane god fighting NPC (non-player Character). The other table did decide to work with her so each table had different encounters and rewards at the end of the adventure.

I love adventures where there are different avenues to go and 2 tables can have completely different experiences. It makes for some interesting table chat later in the day! I find with the Living Forgotten Realms adventures that authors fall into 2 categories- storytellers with good direction and "no nonsense" writers that like a basic story to get the players where they need to go quickly (we refer to this as an "A to B to C" adventure).

The only problem with LFR adventures is they are built on a time restraint train of thought. We have 4 hours to complete an adventure (8 for a double round) with a 30 minute time period for getting all the paperwork completed. Yes, there is some tracking involved with RPGA campaigns. Gold and XP as well as the items adventurers collect need to be tracked.

So some authors decide to make the story very simple (go rescue person X from location Y) and make the combats very challenging. My largest "gripe" is when authors are not well versed on rules and they "box text" rules that are illegal or incorrect. Our DMs are usually very good at spotting them and adjusting the adventure accordingly.

Back to the weekend. When I noticed how busy the store may get over the weekend I called in my Minion, Dayna, to run the store on Saturday. This helped my tables keep on pace with the games. Sunday was a bit slower so I pulled double duty running the shop and playing D&D (sometimes it's good to be the boss!). Our next adventure was the conclusion to the story arc started in the previous adventure. We swapped players around so some of the players had a "major reward" for completing the main plot while a couple of us did not (this ended up being beneficial for my girlfriend, Gwen). My wizard was now 19th level and had a couple more fun powers to toss around the battlefield! The game ended just before midnight and we had to be back Sunday morning at 9:30am to get the next adventures running!

So we got back to it bright and early Sunday morning with another double round adventure. Our table had once again changed players around (the beauty of LFR) so we got to play with some of the guys from Edmonton that came down for the EPIC weekend. What a grind! The combats were very complex for the DM and very frustrating for the players (well, not me, I take this stuff in stride!) with many of the monsters Dominating, blinding and otherwise making combat slow to a halt. This again is not the DMs fault and I do understand from an authors POV that players are now 19th to 20th level and need a challenge, but there is a difference between a challenge and frustrating the players until the literally let out a scream in frustration (true story!).

Again, this adventure was a very well written story, but the author was not the best at rules (you can tell) and had some really crappy interpretations written in the adventure for the DM. But we all survived and Terron hit 20th level.

Now you may be thinking, one level in a single adventure? Not really. It's just the way my XP was working as to where my character flipped. And remember we are talking about 12 hours of adventuring to get this level. That is pretty average in LFR. 3 adventures and you should level. So by Sunday evening we had already played through an equivalent to 6 regular adventures.

Sunday night was by far my favourite adventure in the lot, CORM2-4 Fury of the Queen of Thorns. This adventure was the final piece in the Queen of Thorns trilogy which I had already played. My Wizard is a "War Wizard of Cormyr" and ever since Forgotten Realms came out I've always wanted a character to become a War Wizard. So when the new LFR came out and that Paragon Path was announced I was in. I made Terron my focus as much as possible.

So this set of adventures has been very well written, both in story and challenge of combats. This one was no exception and by far the best adventure I've played in recent memory. The whole plot of this story Arc is that the "Queen of Thorns" has been prophesized about returning and will destroy Cormyr if the current King or any of his line sit in power when she returns. So the heroes have been asked to help with the preparations of the coming invasion of undead, beasts and plant creatures when the King calls us into his private chambers.

He explains that there is a law on the books that if the current King is killed in battle that there is a 1 day "mourning" ritual and at that time, there is no king or leader in Cormyr. So his plan is simple. He must die in combat!

Now, I'm not a huge role-player, but there are some adventures that really can throw me into the the story and if the DM is really into the story then so am I. Well, our DM, JP, is a big story and RP kind of DM. I've also known him for 12 years and he is a great friend. So I really let my role-playing go with this one.

Players around the table were really taken aback by this and I in particular as Cormyr has a "special" place in my heart when it comes to D&D. I was appalled and came up with a multitude of arguments (nearly calling the king an idiot!) and trying desperately to figure out better options. But as all things, the King had made up his mind, but he also had a way out. His plan was to fight and have us beside him on the battlefield. We were to make the combat "look good" and let him die a heroic death. He had a ritual cast on an amulet that would allow him to be raised later, but this would leave the Kingdom without him or his lineage on the throne for 24 hours. This would give us the time we needed to defeat the Queen of Thorns.

The combat was very well written but had very special rules with it. Basically there were points to be scored for making the battle "look good" and convincing. JP determined that for added challenge we needed a score of 20+. There were very specific things we needed to do and more importantly things we had to avoid (such as blooding or killing any of the monsters until the King died). Well, we put on a show! We scored points for using Action Points and Daily Powers and we unleashed hell!

The best part of the combat was the King attacking a mutated Treant and scoring a Critical Hit. This bloodied the creature and the next time it went, down went the King! We mopped up the creatures and then it was on to the Queen! Again another well written combat with really unique creatures and the Queen was no pushover.

For me the "coolest" part of the adventure was the Reward. Terron is already a "Knight of Cormyr" from previous adventures and was granted an "Advisor to the King" and a seat on the "Council of War Wizards". Now that may seem really geeky, but after playing Terron for 4 years this was the best reward he could have received and I am personally proud of the accomplishment.

Now Terron is 21st level and we are getting ready to play the 1st EPIC adventure at CampCon 11 in July (the Pirates rent out a group camping site and play D&D all weekend out in the wilderness of Sibald Flats!). I'm looking forward to this as well. It should be a blast!