Hullo, folks,

For those who are interested, my Friday night and Sunday afternoon gaming groups are back in the Desolation groove. The Friday night campaign started up some two weeks ago, and so this past Friday night's session report is up on my blog.

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/410608.html

You can also click on the "desolation" tag on the margin of the page to read all other posts that have relevant Desolation content to them. Comments and thoughts are welcome.

If anyone would also like to see the session reports for the Sunday gaming group blogged as well, please let me know. I'm trying to decide if I want to post that stuff up.

Hullo, folks,

Have started posting up the game sessions of my Sunday gaming group as well to my blog. Here are the entries posted on Monday:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/420195.html

Comments and thoughts always welcome on my blog about these.

Hey, thanks for posting these. It's helping me get in the mind set, as my game will hopefully be starting in a month or so. Right now I'm working on helping my players build and flesh out thier characters, doing 1 or 2 a week, and I have 12 of them. Work is holding me back a little, summer time is the busiest.

Hullo, Scrump,



My pleasure posting up the game journals on my blog. The reasons you cited above are part of why I am posting both the Friday and Sunday gaming group journals about the game. (May eventually do these up for an actual set of webpages, if I can find somewhere to put the website for free.)

Should have another blog entry on Sunday's game sometime today.

excellent!

Hullo, Scrump,



Thank you. The game entry went up on the journal yesterday and can be found here:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/421076.html

The scenario is actually titled "The Hunter and the Prey", and they're just getting started in that one. hehe

Hi John,

Finally getting a chance to read these now that Journeys is done. It's fun to read about people enjoying the game. It sounds like you have created enough new creatures to make your own bestiary. Great stuff.

Hullo, Jamie,



Glad to hear it! So, where's my copy???



Yeah, I've created a few new beasties for the game. You already have the stats for two of them, since I included those in the scenario that you've been sitting on for some time. I like to think that the beasties I create fit the game setting. And I've got a few extras that I've created recently.

The session that I ran on the Friday night group (which is the last one posted up) was their 46th game session of Desolation. They're really enjoying the game, and love coming back to it after taking a short break here and then to play something else.

Thanks for the kind comments, mate. Looking forward to Journeys.

Hullo, folks,

My Sunday gaming group has launched back into the world of [Desolation once more, and you can read about the first session of the new adventure on my blog at this entry:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/477876.html

The Friday gaming group got back into the game system as well this past Friday night, and that entry will go on-line in my blog some time this week. Will definitely be posting about this as well.

Enjoy!

Hullo, folks,

For those who are interested, I've finally started posting up the blog entries on my Friday and Sunday gaming groups once more, as I've been quite behind on doing so. The most recent Friday gaming group posts can be found here:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/541957.html

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/543398.html

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/543747.html


And the most recent Sunday gaming group posts can be found here:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/542673.html

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/543592.html

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/544551.html


There will be more posts going up over the next few days as I get caught up somewhat on this stuff, and now that I'm past working on game playtests of various stuff, the entries will start to catch up with the campaign stuff, as both groups are playing this weekend once more, and I'll be adding more session report links to this message for each group.

As usual comments are welcome.

Thanks for sharing these, John~

Hullo, Runeslinger,



Thanks for actually reading the LJ entries of the game sessions, mate. Much appreciated. I keep hoping that someone is going to actually say something about the gaming stuff that I'm running there, as well as offering any thoughts or insights they might have about the game, but hey... I'll take whatever I can get!

In the meantime, here's the link to this morning's journal entry, and the last catch-up post about the Sunday gaming group:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/545637.html

The next two gaming entries will be about Friday's game session, and the yesterday's Sunday game session, as soon as I transcribe my notes.

Hullo, folks,

Here's the session report from Friday night's game of Desolation, as the player characters continue to move forward on Maila's personal quest of sorts:

http://jkahane.livejournal.com/546587.html

As usual, comments and thoughts are appreciated.

Oh, I will comment - there's just a lot to read!

I know very well how it is to post a lovingly detailed play report and only get a comment about buying Louis Vitton bags in bulk from buybuybuy.com

One thing I quite liked from an early post was using the characters against each other and then against a classic opponent as your 'system practice.' I think that sort of thing is very useful for helping to shape reasonable expectations, and context.


I think I will also use the dating system of counting forward from the NoF, but a part of me is certain that different communities will have differing calendars.

What I am liking most in the logs so far are the plentiful opportunities for roleplay in social and survival situations, rather than handing them a series of crises to play off. Foisting 10 kids off on them was a great touch, for example, as is the general level of uncertainty about implications and actions from NPCs.

Hullo, Runeslinger,



Good point about there being a lot to read! There certainly is. The Friday night game session was the fifty-first (!!) session of Desolation that the Friday game group has played. I'm still shocked by that number!



Yeah, that's definitely frustrating. The play reports aren't detailed so much, as they're just my game notes that I take transcribed to the computer. Minus some of the personal asides and comments to myself about stuff as well.



Remind which session that was, if you can remember and find it. They all blur from time to time. Oh, wait... that must be from either the beginning of the game campaign or from where the players had taken a break from the system, and were just getting back into it.

The whole business about having player characters take on one another in what I call sample combats, and then take on some classic opponents of the setting tends to work well, provides some practice runs for the players, and allows them to see how their characters can work together. Not to mention, it's a good way of actually showing the players how the combat system works, without really endangering their characters' lives.



The dating system and calendar that I use, ANoF (After the Night of Fire) is one for convenience sake, although I remember the guys at GMD saying that they liked it as well at one point. However, the various communities and the like the player characters have visited use their own dating systems, so I don't consider this a big deal. The overall dating system is just for convenience of the campaign, like I said.



That would be the more accepted, mainstream fantasy rpg, method of creating and designing adventures and scenarios. Desolation is a very different game in many respects from typical fantasy rpgs, and it's the roleplaying under these conditions, both the survival ones and social ones that arise out of the survival conditions, that make the game so interesting. There's also the fact that when you have a community - in my cases, the Friday night Wilkerson Dale and the Sunday afternoon Keveli - the place does not stay static. Conditions change, situations change, and the effects of the Night of Fire on the community also have to be dealt with, whether it's the finding of a series of caves that weren't there or a Warband coming into the community's area of influence. At least, that's my take on things.



Yep, that scenario was one of the best and most interesting scenarios that I've run for the system, although it was hellish getting across the personalities of the 10 children, and having to play them! That sort of adventure appeals to me from time to time, especially in game systems like Desolation, where the immediacy of the situation right after the Night of Fire means that the children left alive have to learn the survival abilities and skills that they will need, as well as some of the rules needed for society to survive in some form post-apocalypse.

As for the NPCs, I find that the post-apocalyptic and survival type game that Desolation inspires is certainly more suited to situations where the motivations and intentions of the NPCs are more suspect. The post-apocalyptic world of Scondera is one where people aren't black & white in their souls, although there are those whose motivations are pretty clear from the outset. It's this world of grey personalities that really intrigues me in the setting, and you have to expect the unexpected in the world of Desolation. <evil g>

Thanks for reading the blog entries, and thanks for your insightful and interesting comments and thoughts.