Character Backgrounds (Updated)

At the beginning of our venture into the realm of 4E I created a set of characters for us to play with and provided a one page character background for each character. Basically I just wanted to set-up a coordinated scenario as to why each of you were in this place and then once having brought you together put an assignment in front of you and then let the party run wild.

The Excavation Site (02/21/2010)

We were missing Joette this week (India!) so Rich will play her character ... missing players tend to have their characters fall into trouble. Will history repeat itself?

Civilization 5 is Coming

Several group members have played some version of the PC game Civilization in the past. I purchased Civ 4, but it doesn't run on my video card. I did purchase a new video card several years ago, but I am so paranoid about my box I am afraid installing it will jinx my PC somehow.

The Chieftain's Lair (02/14/2010)

The group was at full strength again this week so we spent the first part of the evening recounting last week's Torture Room encounter. The party was appraised again of the contents of the room, including the room with three cells and one imprisoned goblin named Splug. It was decided the party would proceed as discussed last week, through the set of double doors facing west right outside of the torture room, to the room Splug had called "The Gold Room."

Video Connection Issues

One of our charter group members moved to North Carolina several years ago but has been able to continue gaming with us. Once he was settled into his new digs Mark signed up for a free phone service so that he could listen in and play along for three hours every Sunday night. However, all the group members are computer geeks to some extent, so an effort was made to see if we could get establish a video link with Mark as well. We tend to play at only two locations, so camera's and microphone's were purchased and off we went.

Rogue Around the Clock

If you have ever played Rogue, the old D&D-based computer game that seemed to exist in some version on every Unix computer that ever existed then you want to read this article (here) about the origin of the game at Berkeley, how it slipped out into the wild, and the different variations that have appeared since. If you do read this article make sure you peruse the comments - some of the original Rogue code writers chime in with additional history.

PC executables and/or source code for several different version of Rogue can be downloaded at Sourceforge.net (here). Sourceforge also maintains executables and source code for other Rogue clones such as Nethack and Angband as well as other miscellaneous versions of Rogue-like games.

The Torture Room (02/07/2010)

DM Note: With Dave and Brian not in attendance tonight we decided to play on. I had character sheets for all the characters, so Scott played Akta and Rich played Krstic. Hmmm ... which one will die?

Level Up

DDI Tools

The monthly upgrades for the DDI tools - Character Builder and Adventure Tools - are now available for download. I don't think there is anything in there particularly necessary for our current adventure, but there are always some level of bug fixes that may touch something we are not aware of. The opening splash screen lists the new material included and includes a link to the list of known bugs.

On to the Keep (01/31/2010)

The first part of the evening was spent investigating the kobold lair. No secret doors were found, but the adventurers discovered that the two large walls of foliage seen to the north and south of the waterfall outside of the lair covered additional entrances. The raised dais was inspected also and while its existence might hint at something that once was, there was no altar or religious symbols there now.