Dungeon World and Fate

Our team has expanded once again. We've added Bartuc the Warrior (played by Chris) and Dagulus the Paladin (played by Mike) to the party, so if someone couldn't make it, we could still run the game. Their introductory mission gave us a chance to explore out the non-campaign locations of the world a bit more, and thus Rivends was founded in just one session.

But on the main front, at this point, our merry bunch has made it to New Gareth, the capital city and arcane fount of this coastal area. I only expected them to spend a session, and maybe half of another, in this location, but they've been here for three. A fun little sewer dungeon left them with some dark items, and a misunderstanding with a guard left them as bunch of murderers. And that led to a trial, three sessions later. AND it turns out that one of the characters follows a false arcane patron, the same as the big bad evil guy.

If only they had left, as I had expected them to, this would have all been avoided. I learned something interesting, in that players don't always get what you think is very obvious, and even when I spelled out "if you go with the guards, you will have a trial for murder, and they will find your dark patron, which you know is grounds for execution," that the evil-aligned player would still go along with it.

So now one of them is free, one of them is in jail, one of them is permanently locked in a high tower, to be executed in 2 days. This has become incredibly interesting; and to think, originally I wanted them to leave.

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On lighter news, I've also started a second group, running a system called Fate. (I love Fate too, by the way.) This group has been interesting because it's several strangers I've never met. I barely know their real names.

There were some issues from the get-go. Since nobody had webcams, it was hard to tell when people were not paying attention, or just thinking. That was doubly difficult with some people having microphone problems and being forced to communicate by typing. But these players, mostly new to tabletop games, have given me some really interesting stories as well. It's a very different experience as the Dungeon World group.

iAnimate Games Workshop 2 - the cannon hammer

Ric Arroyo is a badass. He knows how to be hard, and he knows how to push people. Ric, if you ever read this, keep being that guy. I'd love him to be my boss one day.

This animation started out with an idea I've been playing with, a single-shot cannon that doubles as a hammer. If you look at ancient infantry cannons, they were built with a long wooden rod to be planted in the ground, and the iron cannon mounted at the opposite head. I went through several ideas of how to juggle the box and get a cool shot in there somehow. My favorite was flipping the box in the air, and shooting it on the way down. But, I went with this combo, because I wanted to work on the physics of the slide and the knockback -- some real-world physics to work on (mixed with the fantasy of the weapon, of course.)

The idea wasn't fully fleshed out right away, as you can see from the progress reel. I make some pretty big changes partway through. The original flick of the butt end of the cannon just didn't feel powerful at all. I ended up switching to two-hands, which made a huge difference on that hit; but then I had issues with hand rotations, and shoulder alignment. And throughout the whole thing, I struggled with the slide/jump back just looking natural. It was hard to reference, because I specifically wanted all in one motion; not a skip and not a stumble. But hey, that is what learning is about.