"As a young scholar, I used to be confounded by the views of my peers, that the steady pace of time was somehow frightful and terrible. My colleagues would lament, near constantly, over where time had gone, as if its forward march was not the most natural thing in the world.
For me, time's passage has always brought succour: an end to temporary illness, a reprieve from the anxiety of unknowledge, the arrival of a long-sought blessing.
Now that I can see the decidedly unnatural end to time itself, perhaps I understand them better. What could I have achieved had I feared for time running out? Though then, perhaps, I could ask the inverse:
What have I managed to achieve with the belief that any time given is a gift?"
February in Review…
Every month, I'm going to look over the past 4-and-a-bit weeks, and share some thoughts on what I did, what went well, and what I hope to improve upon going forward. As with everything in Liber Etcetera, these thoughts will follow writing and roleplaying games, but will likely shed light on other aspects of my life, and the world around me. No promises, though: we might just get excitement about GAMES!So, what have I been up to?
Star Wars: Fate of the Galaxy
Early on in February, after a little hiatus of running roleplaying games, and on the spur of the moment, I conscripted three friends of mine to play a Star Wars On-Shot RPG. We decided to go with Fate Core, but in an act of serendipity, the very same day that I organised the play group, Evil Hat released Fate Condensed Edition! I quickly read through it all, and decided that is how we would play.
First: Fate Condensed is a wonderful version of the Fate rules, which combines my favourite parts of Core and Accelerated. I used to carry around a copy of Fate Accelerated Edition everywhere I went, with Fate Dice and Fate Tokens just in case, but once the physical book gets here, I'm going to swap it out for Fate Condensed.
Second: The play group decided we were going to run this Star Wars Fate game as intended, that means I went into it completely blind. We had no idea what era of Star Wars we were playing in, or what the story might be. To facilitate this, we ran a Session #0, where we made the campaign and the characters. Session #1 is still yet to occur, but it's going to follow on from here:
Chancellor Palpatine has just initiated Order 66, and the Jedi Order is facing extinction within a matter of minutes as Clone Troopers turn on their former commanders.
On Coruscant, Jedi Apprentice Frey-Lu, and the Clone ARC Trooper codenamed "Ripper" were transporting Captain Tavin Dro'Aygo — a Bothan smuggler and spy — to the Jedi Temple when the Order was initiated. Thanks to an old injury, Ripper's programming was interrupted, and he resisted Palpatine's command to betray his friend and ward.
Together, the ARC Trooper and the Jedi Apprentice have freed their captive Bothan, as only a smuggler of his skill could get them both off the Republic capital world in one piece, and hopefully together reunite Frey-Lu with his Jedi Master, and figure out their next steps…
Whilst intended to be a One-Shot, we are framing things in terms of a 'pilot episode' of a new Disney+ Star Wars animated series. If we all enjoy Session #1, we might expand it into a full campaign! We talked back and forth for many hours how this might pan out, and nailed down the above. Everyone is incredibly excited to face the Fate of the Galaxy together!
Lady Blackbird
John Harper's Tales from the Wild Blue Yonder, Chapter 1:Lady Blackbird is one of my favourite games, due to its simplicity and elasticity. Every single time I have run or played in it, it has been completely different… despite the fact it's following the same starting situation with the same pre-generated characters! As such, I decided it was time to run it again.
We gathered a group of four players, plus myself, and set out with a whole cast minus Kale Arkam (who might make an appearance later?) and played across 3.5 hours. As usual for a Lady Blackbird game, we didn't get much further than escaping the Hand of Sorrow — the Imperial dreadnaught ship the characters have found themselves imprisoned aboard — but everyone left wanting more, so we've decided to do the unthinkable and have a Session #2!
The version of the Wild Blue that has been envisioned by this group is incredible — full of ancient bloodline magic, laser-firing muskets, bionic eyes crossed with WW1 diesel-punk ragtime. I'm having a lot of fun dreaming up where the crew of The Owl might end up next, and have spent a good bit of time making Spotify playlists and Pinterest boards… Speaking of which, everyone interested in Lady Blackbird should immediately go listen to Dragons by Caravan Palace!
WFRP4: Slaughter in Spittlefeld
I had occasion to run Slaughter in Spittlefeld for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition as a One-Shot the other weekend, and it was a blast! We changed a few things on the fly, as inspiration struck, and to account for the large group of Characters (all 6 from the Starter Set were used), but I was confident in doing so given I… well… wrote the adventure and all.
But it was a wonderful experience, specifically because one of my old players from my first Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition group managed to join us for it! He and I hadn't played a session together for over a decade, so it was a great chance to see how my GMing and his playstyle had changed. We're both very different, now, but enough was the same for a satisfying mix of Look How Far We've Come and Pleasant Nostalgia.
I'm very proud of Slaughter in Spittlefeld, and now having run it specifically as a One-Shot, I can't recommend it enough. If you linger less on some scenes, unlike I did, it would easily fit into a convention scenario slot — just as intended.
Dragon Warriors, Book #3 & #4!
Lastly, and just yesterday, I found a book I've been searching for for literally 22 years: Dragon Warriors Book #3: The Elven Crystals. My quest to find this tome started when I was 6 years old, and was introduced to my first RPG: Dragon Warriors. I played it at a friend's place with his older brother, using Lego to represent our characters, and the dungeon we explored through. I fell immediately in love with the game, and the genre, and decided from then on that I would play roleplaying games for the rest of my life.
At the beginning of the book, it talked about three books having been released: Dragon Warriors, Ways of Wizardry, and The Elven Crystals. My friends had #1 and #2, which they gave me given I enjoyed it so much, but said they never found #3 in the bookstore they first bought #1 and #2 in. After that, I started looking in used bookstores, whenever I got the chance. It started largely as a curiosity, then as a joke as I continued not to find it, until it became a bit of an obsession. Whenever I went to a new suburb or city, I would go to a used bookstore and have a quick (sometimes very not quick) look. I never found anything.
Until yesterday, when I stumbled into a bookstore in Melbourne. I was looking for a different book that I've been searching for for a little while, when I spied out of the corner of my eye, four coloured spines. I knew that colour progression, and in disbelief, tore them down off the shelves. Not only was The Elven Crystals there, but the fourth book Out of the Shadows was, as well. The fourth book was announced and released after the first three were already printed, so it was never mentioned in them, and never entered my mind as something I might have owned, so I never looked for it. But now, by mere chance, I found them both!
And that's been my February in Review! I hope you've all have a good month, and that the next one coming will be even better!
