OK, there was that first session of this Supers/cyberpunk Haven campaign

 I rarely post about actual game sessions and what happened in them. But I think since I have this Marvel Multiverse rpg campaign going on, and that it was literally years in the making, on top of that having a great group of players I worked hard to put together, I think it is worth it for me to make a more detailed record of the campaign, however long it may last. For myself. My blogging motto, especially in this time of record low popularity of such, is "do it for yourself. 

Also, the MMRPG seems to be a low-profile game that not a lot of people are playing. And most of them who are usually just do one shots with existing Marvel characters. I was warned early on in the process that the system was more geared to supporting Marvel style characters, especially Spiderverse ones. You have to get a fairly expensive particular expansion book to access certain powers and abilities such as climbing walls or using snares of some kind (all the books, electronic or physical, are highly overpriced so maybe another reason for a lack of popularity). 

But after spending a good chunk of last year coming up with unique characters in Demiplane (linked to Roll20), I determined that despite some arguable deficiencies with the system in general, character creation was easy. A couple of the players with little experience with it were able to do up a great character with little effort. Demiplane guides you through the process very well (the same cannot be said for the Roll20 character sheet). So, the grand experiment began. 

(note that this first session was weeks ago. As of last night we are up to 6 sessions I think. Also, this post will represent the first session and a half or thereabouts. The first three bled into each other fairly well. )

So the Justice Incorporated campaign began. You can check out the second half of this post to read about the basic info of Irish Japanese CEO Patricia Elizabeth Kyono, the set up, and the characters. 

But in a nutshell, Kyono is one of the world's top industrialists who in the old days (app. 10-20 years ago in the settings timeline) had a little hobby of starting "Justice Incorporated: Security, Investigations, and Restorations." She would dig up interesting street level exceptionals to go on jobs. Everything from protecting a neighborhood from a street gang, to going up against evil corporation shenanigans. With lesser powered, but still interesting, characters those old JI sessions felt like episodes of the A-Team, or 80's action movies. 

BTW back inj the day Just Inc. was the backup campaign for when the big boy supers' team "The Protectors" did not have enough players for the night. Two or three were perfect for a JI session. But my cup runneth over this this campaign; I have a pool of 7 players (on average around 5 will be playing in a particular sessions). But since this was a beefed up Justice Incorporated, I decided they would be more "Super" than mere street level. In this system those old JI characters would be rank 2 under this system. This campaign starts at Rank 3. That is sort of Jr. Avengers level. Think Hawkeye, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and such as that.

Often in the old days, the set up was simple. Kyono was younger, so would be coming out of a high-end night club or fancy restaurant, and either be mugged or witness some crime, and the characters would be near to take care of it. And then she offered them a job. Eeezy Peezy. 

Honestly, though I never confirmed it for myself, I always thought of Kyono maybe setting up the whole thing in hopes of meeting vigilante types. I mean, the city was crawling with them then. But for this new thing, she advertised for an "audition." In newspapers, magazines (it's the future, but print has made a comeback), and in some cases sending a drone to more high-profile characters with an offer to attend. Here is a snippet:

Wanted, exceptional individuals who might fit with a new, small team of especially effective field operatives, diverse in ability, to assist with operations related to security, investigations, and restorations. We are a private organization, and this is in regard to a private LLC. Are you highly skilled in practical combat, athletics, tactics, mental acuity, misc field science ability, and/or people skills in potentially high stress situations? Or perhaps you are a fledgling superhero who is less mercenary and looking to prove your commitment to justice but need the experience to lived out your dream of filling the shoes of Protectors long gone?

Again, check this post for more info on the characters, but for one reason or another of their own they all showed up. Seraph, a flying girl from some side dimension, was on her way into the auditions held in a Gordita Beach high school gym, and she had the first encounter of the campaign. Blimpkrieg, an inventor and balloon enthusiast, thought she might be part of the auditions testing and caught her in his net cannon. But Ra-Ta the little alien in his mini saucer showed up and blasted Blimpy with a ray. He was knocked out and would have fallen to his death, but Seraph swooped in and saved her attacker. 

With the intro of Blimpkrieg, I was setting up the first few sessions of being kind of silly and surreal. But I was slowly building up to more serious stuff. And really, I did up most of the NPCs I had available months before in Demiplane for fun, so they tended towards the "made up on the spot" feel. 

So around the same time some other characters were showing up and walking through the parking lot of the no longer functional high school gym. Near his bitching sports car was "Savio Totalpackage, an arrogant Cuban fitness streamer and his followers "The Savio Squad" doing jumping jacks and calling passerby's out for not being as awesome as him. A quick and mildly violent moment or two took placed, with Savio and his pals standing down in the face of some intimidating characters. 

Savio and his "Totalpackage." He was one of the few NPC's
that were only Rank 2 (the player characters started at 3). Not much
of a threat, though to normal people is fairly badass,
normal people being pretty much rank 0. But he was there to
be sort of a joke. Though I have kind of a fondness for him. I grew
up on the beach in SoCal knowing guys like this.

Savio's babe. "Shotty Too Hotty"

Btw, Savio did not even get in teh school gym. Due to his parking lot bullying and trying to bring his whole gang in with him, he was denied entry to the event. He would hang around outside though, where he and some of the other failure would meet to scheme to start their own group. More on that later. 

You are going to find that they aren't the only kind of goofy characters. In fact, most of the three dozen or so attendees were of silly variety. they all gathered in his defunct gymnasium, with a research team, a couple scientists, lot of security, and plenty of equipment for testing folk. Even a couple stuntmen to spar with more hands-on types. 

Many of the attendees were just athletes looking for an exciting gig. Like the masked former player turned street hero calling himself "Basketball Jones."

You could hardly tell he had a bad knee
while he was dunking those baskets

The athletes were out pretty fast. The more promising people were set at another bleachers while the finals were happening. 

There was not a ton of action. I did not want much in the way of fighting. This was about getting to use the rolls from the character sheets for various testing. It would turn out that this was a pretty high role play group. So it worked out well. Lots of character development. 

There was a near fight tahat I wished could have happened. A strong woman named "Sally Strong" was tired of showing how much weight she could lift (she had Might 2, which is sort of pick up a bus level), and when player character Igneous, a man with rocklike skin and related to Titans of old, stepped up to be tested by staff, Sally jumped in and wanted a punch up with him. 

Sally is not evil, she just has a chip
on her shoulder

I was hoping for a little combat practice, but Iggy grew to 24 feet tall and that was enough for her to back off. 

Iggy has Sturdy 2, Might 2, and 
has some kind of lava power not 
yet tapped into. Oh, and he can
grow up to 100'. He is peaceful, 
almost Buddhist in nature

I was hoping for a bit of knocking around, but Iggy has size change so grew to 24 feet and that was enough to back her off (for now. Their punch up would happen in a later session). 

When the man in black character "Paladin" (he is part of a modern-day continuation of the Knights Templar or some such) finished a sparring test, and was heading to the potential winners bleachers, them from Magnificent Seven on a boombox was heard, and clomping into the gym on horseback was a young woman. She is kind of my favorite creation for this, which is why I featured her in a hectic encounter moment. Her name is Juniper West, or "Cowgal."

I have a pretty deep background for her. She was raised on a wealthy horse ranch and formerly was a fitness model streamer who got popular when she toon on the Cowgal persona. Even speaking in an exaggerated old west accent. Characters would not find out until a later game, but she was mentored by a former Justice Inc member "The Marshal" (who was a player character back in the day) and trainer her in fighting and shooting skills. But she is more of a troublemaker, doing stunts with a drone filming her for Youtube clicks. She was not attending the audition in hopes of getting a job. She was just there to cause a scene and get digital content for her channel. 

I was also thinking ahead to a later session where I was going to have June West be a community leader of sorts for the popular "Urban Cowboy" scene and a nightclub catering to them. 

So in the gym she shot rubber bullets at nearby archery target pads, swung her lasso around, and got of the horse to try to catch Paladin who was walking by. he deftly grabbed the rope, and found she was being playful about it. She flirter with him but he was not having it, and she was escorted out of the gym by security. 

The character Paladin is still a mystery to me. Belongs to an 
ancient order of early Christian soldiers. Sort of like
from Indian Jones Last Crusade. Trained in some
 other part of the world. Comes off fairly blunt and direct 
(i.e. his is kind of a prick). Because of his directness he would
soon become defacto leader and mouthpiece of the group. 

(so this was about when we had to knock off session one for the evening. I have to say everybody seemed pleased. Most of them probably were expecting a little character into then some big superhero fight in the streets or something. And I will admit, in the old days we often started a campaign that way. But I really wanted it to feel unique, a little serious and a little silly, and to go against expectations for a genre like this. And as always in my games, going back to childhood, a little bit of superhero deconstruction. Whatever it was, it is a great group, and it their role play and character development as we went really go me jazzed. This was working out! )

OK, then session two the following week:

The characters really did not have to do a lot to be the winners of this. I mean, predetermined by me, but secretly Kyono, who was watching via camera, had pretty much decided on all of them before the auditions even started. A lot of work to put on these auditions, but a good way to make the folk who would work for her feel special and also let her see what other talent was out there. 

So they were told they were chosen byh "Wilmington," Kyono's exec assistant, and would be driving via roomy luxury vans to meet their new benefactor and boss. 

Though I used Kyono a ton in the old campaigns, it was too long
ago to remember any other named assistants or employees, So I did Wilmington up and just said he has been around forever. I imagined him pretty capable, like Alfred from Batman. 

So I had it in my mind to have Cowgal and the runner's up from the audition have met in the parking lot. There had been this diminutive, bald scientist guy (to be played by Bryan Cranston) at the event, and he would be the leader of this little group who would end up calling themsleves "Redeemers," and when they eventually foud out about Justice Inc they would become their own little team for hire. They would be showing up in a couple sessions, to be used to go against the player characters in what I hoped would be a nice dust up. Give them their first foes. 

from left going clockwise: Hiesenbrain, Schnozz, Count Carl, Savio Totalpackage, Sally Strong, and Ragdoll.

So tghe player group were driven to Center City business district, to the offices of Justice Incorporated in the venerable Winston Building. This older era skyscraper was the setting for Just Inc. in the old sessions as well. 

This campaign will for sure be filled with " 'member berrys." I am already tapping into the old stuff for my own nostalgia feels if nothing else. Even having the Winston Building in a campaign again gives me the vapors. 

With the first half of session two havikng been finishing up at the auditions, the entire second half would be the groups first meeting with Kyono and would take up the rest of the session. At least a half hour of which was the group just having refreshments in the offices and waitng for Kyono to show up. The players really engage with each other, and finding people of that style is what I vet for in any campaign I do. And as usual it was paying off. They did not care that this was not high action. At least not yet. 

The meeting would bleed well into session three. Just awesome. 

So next time, the meet and greet with Patricia Elizabeth Kyono, the official meeting and job pitch, and a tour of the Justice Incorporated offices (expectations to be managed😏)

Until then, cheers and hope the summer is being enjoyed!

Finally found my Supers RPG to run online?

 

I have posted in the past about my deep background with Supers RPG's (also here), going all the way back to childhood starting with the very first superhero game Superhero 2044. Then Supergame, then Villains and Vigilantes, and finally Champions/Hero System. That was my favorite, and using my futuristic hero setting Haven (based in part on Superhero 2044's Inguria Island) I turned many of my DnD groups on to it as an alternative. There would be resistance (most were not comic book fans) but they would eventually be requesting it. They loved it, despite the crunch of Champs. It was probably my favorite genre, in large part having grown up a comic book kid.

Now several years since the last time I ran a supers session, and also now that I essentially run all games online, I have been hankering to give it a go on Roll20. But the crunch of Champs would make it very hard. I considered Mutants and Masterminds which was fairly popular online, but it has its own high crunch it seems. I don't want to have to learn nor run another crunchy ruleset. 

Interesting note: when I first looked into this about
a year ago, the deluxe book (the most recommended 
as far as character creation choices) was out of print
and going for around 300 bucks where you could find 
it. But it is now apparently around 50 bucks and easily found. 

Last year for a couple session I played online in Kickstarted supers system I can't even remember what it was called. It was based on 5th ed DnD. It was kind of fun, but the guy kind of lost it mid-session and decided the system was no good for what he was doing. He declared he was probably going to try another system, but I passed. Put my search for a system on hold. 

But now in recent weeks I discovered Marvel Multiverse RPG, a fairly new system. I always rejected a licensed supers game, especially based on Marvel or DC, but the attractions of this was it was fairly rules light, and had excellent Roll20 support it seems. I immediately ordered the book off Amazon, and started watching Youtube videos about it. 

It has an odd, what I think is kind of clunky dice rolling system, but it is indeed simple. I can work with it I think. And it based around Marvel is OK. My Haven setting is more or less an alternate future version of the Mavel Universe (I always had it 20 years in the future of whenever I ran it) as a base, though having grown up on comics I was very familiar with Multiverses. I had Haven be a kitchen sink of genres, and other comic universe stuff could enter into it. Sci Fi in general really. I even had a Jedi show up in some old session. 

MM RPG has a rank system to determine your supers level, from street level like Daredevil all the way up to Galactus, and how that all works with the powers is something I need to research more of. Also it is all a little bit of an investment. The physical book was almost 40 bucks, and for Roll20 I will need to buy the in-platform version. For full functionality (sharing rules with players, a character sheet builder, etc) I think I need a subscription to something called Demiplane. But money is not really an object if I could get this off the ground with some decent players. 

I have plenty going on with my DnD right now. But I am around 30 sessions into the campaign and already past the point where I get a wander lust for other genres and systems. So as always it is sort of life raft building time. My research shall continue, but I am hopeful for supers action!

Cheers

To the Isle of Dread! But not so fast..

 

The Opportunity to start a new DnD campaign happened awhile back. And by opportunity I mean that I did all the usual legwork to try to gather and vet for hopefully several players. And by legwork I mean the pain in the ass process of putting a group of strangers together for online play in Roll20. 

The looking for Players forums on Roll20 have really become a wasteland of Critical Role-trained younger people looking for Matt Mercer experiences, GM's wanting to run their weird homebrew such as a slasher film RPG, a very odd recent fad of players looking for a DM to run solo sessions for them, LBGTQ-only groups wanted, and the occasional stand out who seems normal and maybe based and might be a valuable player (more often than not they disappoint, so manage expectations). The latter is what I shoot for.

But this time I went outside the box and tried a couple other places as well. A DnD Discord that seemed promising, and also the DnD Beyond forums. Over some weeks I vetted and vetted and vetted. Were there the usual red flags? Hell yeah. I vetted harder than Jerry on Seinfeld vetted his dates (you know, like when Jerry rejected a lovely gal because she ate her peas one at a time?). 

But besides heavy vetting, I made some decisions to help me vet people within actual play (you don't really know until somebody is in your actual game and how they behave), and to kill some time before heading to the Isle of Dread. I wanted some solid, all in, players to go the distance with that. 

So with some help from an NPC patron, academic Merlot who I have used before, I got characters together to have mini adventures around the city proper. Go get some kobolds in the storm drains who stole an item of academic value. Go to nearby sea caves with von Tanmoor to look at some runes on a cave wall. Go to the undercity and to some old Acherian statues that granted things good and bad. 

Within that handful of sessions, a couple of players (damned window shoppers) came and went. But I was left with three solid players. Kris (the girl who was looking for a new group to play in and I contacted her to team up to make this group), an Englishman who apparently does not sleep. And a player who is running the first dragonborn in my games (you know, old school world turning 5th ed world). He also got a girl he knows from another game to come in several games later and she is great. And then another girl I think from the Beyond forums several games in who got right on the bandwagon. So yeah, two gals came in to play after those first session and are a great addition, and they round out the group well. After the session last night they swore fealty to the group and campaign and add a great energy. So yeah, group set. 

So the final adventures in the city before leaving for distant shores included a night at the opera, and just lots of city stuff. A night at a banquet; fighting assassins there and later in the streets. Spending most of their off time at Merlot's manor house lounging and partying in one of his dens..

Back in the day I had multiple campaigns that were taking place in the big city Tanmoor. But in recent years it has been more rural in my campaigns, so this was fun. Lots of emergent role play like those 7-8 hour sessions of old with face-to-face friends. Really, been like 5 years and 4 campaigns since I had any character or group hang out in the big city. I think even after all these many years city gaming is my specialty. Probably in part due to growing up on comic books and all that city action. 

So tickled pink with this group. Lots of chatter on the Discord. It feels like it could go awhile. And for the first time in a long time the girls outnumber the boy players. Ha. 

Merlot. The Patron. Have used him 
in other campaigns to bring PC's together for
"Endeavors." He's from oooold money, is a 
professor and all around academic. Has been 
gearing them up for an Isle of Dread visit. 

 

The coastal ranger. He is a drow. Heh. Drow. 

Rangering on sunbaked beaches. Eyes burning 

                                        out of his head

 

Tiefling bard. Very roguish. From rich human
family so an entitled mean girl. Throws charm
spells around like candy. Troublemaker? Well,
she got some of the party to help her pick pockets
at a special invitation opera house where the queen
was in attendance. 

                                

                                     

                                      

A gnome wizard and archeologist from

a large town a couple days from Tanmoor city. 

Seems sweet and friendly, but quickly kind of

got a bit corrupted by the murder hobos of the 

group. 

His origin is the that he was found in a 
shipwreck as a baby on the shores near the city. 
He got adopted by the clerics of Billick, god
of healing. Of low rank still, but he has been
a special child since he is the first Dragonborn
to be seen (or to be in in my games). 

 

 (cannot find the token version) 

Drow wizard. Lolth worshipper. Lawful evil. Presents 
as neutral. Calm and stoic. When the party ran to escape city watchmen
after a street fight in which deaths were involved, she was the only one 
not caught and arrested. 

So a nice diverse group. No humans though. But whateves. We entitled humies had our time in the sun. 

Cheers

Call of Cthulhu Wild West - finally living the Dream

 

I've run three major Call of Cthulhu campaigns Since I was a teen. Two set in 1930's Los Angeles, and two in 1930's New York. Ah, memories. that last one was about 10 years ago for my long running Santa Monica group. I ran a lot of 1st ed over those years, but also managed to get in campaigns (of various lengths) of a bunch of genres. White Box DnD, Metamorphosis Alpha, Runequest, Traveller. But that Cthulhu one, though only maybe a dozen sessions in length, was fun. I called it Fangs of New York, and the first session was set in a Times Square upper story banquet hall at a new years eve party. 

I recall though having fun with that little campaign, but even at that time I was sort of pining to run the system in other time periods. Ancient Rome, Ancient Sumer, maybe even the Old West.  I felt like I had my fill of the 20's-30's. 

Up until the recent holiday season I had a decent 5th ed DnD group going. A fun bunch. Everybody was from off the Roll20 forums, and by this time I had learned to vet prospective players. Heavily. There is a lot of chaff to shift through to find the goods. And everybody was very cool. The most fun for me was a young couple, maybe in their early 20's, who were very enthusiastic noobs and I had a lot of laughs with them. But of course if you have a couple in your group, you aren't just getting somebody who might leave the group for whatever reason. You are typically losing TWO. That is the nature of a couple. They usually want to play together. But whatever is going on with them, we have not heard from that besides one chime in last month saying the wanted to play one night, but it has been silent since. The way I figure it, the thing young couples do best is break up. So my assumption is there. 

As it was the holidays, I called a few weeks break mid-December. I had not taken vacation time from my job for months, and wanted to use some of it. 

By the time New Years Eve came around, I had gotten the notion to try and get a Western themed Cthulhu thing going. It just popped into my head. Hey, if the DnD campaign is done, I want to jump right into something else. 

 I tested the waters with a post in the Roll20 forums, and just like my expectations told me I did not get much reply. I tried a few spots in other places, and eventually was lucky enough to stumble upon a Call of Cthulhu Facebook page with a huge membership. My post there got a huge response. 

I did not vet that hard. This was a niche genre, but plenty of people were interested. I actually had to choose several from a dozen or so inquiries. I had a couple of shortish Discord chats. The only one who did not continue by the night of the first game was a guy who wanted to run a Paleontologist. He had been running Cthulhu for years, but not in the format I wanted to do it. He wanted to play with Zoom, with video, and with theater of the mind. Well, in face to face or online I use battle maps, mini's/tokens, and Discord for voice. And everybody else I chose were into it. 

Ultimately, I ended up with mostly folk from the FB page who had played CoC, and also some of the remnants from the D&D group. 

So three easy going sessions so far. I mean, this is not DnD, and it has been years since I ran CoC. So I had to get more into a narrative style. Not relying on constant combats. Though I had to look for balance. Unlike my usual old campaigns of CoC, this was a more violent environment, and almost every character had guns. I set this campaign in 1886 Washoe County, that includes Reno, Carson City, and Virginia City. Towards the end of the gold rush in the west, and towards the end of what could be called The Old West in general. I mostly picked the time because most western weapons and tropes were around, and also because it was the year the University of Nevada opened in Reno. 

So far the characters are A female Doctor, a teenage female Chinese carnival trick shooter (both from San Franciso just hours away by train; and of course I'll want some adveturing there eventually), a two-fisted banker (from Virgina City who has survived dozens of robbery attempts), A writer based on Beauchamp from the movie Unforgiven (Duck of Death sez I), and former nun turned entertainer/dancer. 

Jordan, from the DnD campaign, has been on a long Canada trip so has yet to make it. Not even sure what he would run. For both of the guys from the DnD, they were kind of noobish to DnD, so for sure had zero CoC experience. They were not very interested until they heard I would be doing old western theme, and also they saw it was an easy peezy system, so they were in. 

So yeah, so far so good. So far just sort of settling into their lives in Reno, and encounters with cultishness related to Yig (losta snakes!), and Yidhra. 

I was at some game shop many years ago reading through one of the books and saw her entry and was fascinated ever since. She was for sure not a Lovecraft invention.

"...where Yidhra walks, the hills do not forget"

So yeah, as a believer in positive visualization I finally get to not just use this Outer God, but in a Western Cthulhu game. Boxes checked! I hope this campaign goes awhile!

Cheers

Overdoing the DM NPC

 

I had first heard of the term a DM NPC in some forum or another around 11 or 12 years ago. A DM NPC was one of the campaigns NPC's, but usually had a more negative connotation. Not just meek shopkeeps and street sweepers/walkers. But the terms "precious" and "favored" NPC's were thrown about. 

There seemed to be a real thing about this. Many folk clearly had a bad experience with DM's about NPC usage. And I guess I can see that. I remember about 12 years ago going to a Star Wars Saga session at this guys dad's apartment, me and 3 or 4 other full grown adults sitting on the floor playing in the guys Saga game (I only went because I was to run the system and wanted to experience it). I don't remember a lot other than the black dude in his 20's running a game while me and a handful of others in our 40's sitting there on the floor smoking pot. But one thing I remember is his main NPC, a well painted jedi miniature, being all over the little model buildings set up on the floor, doing almost everything while the rest of us kind of just waited our turns. But this kid loved his NPC clearly, and just wanted his favored guy doing most of the work while we watched. An extreme case to be sure. 

I also remember back in the day in my early teens going to the local Jewish community center in Santa Monica a friend invited me to because there was an older (probably around 30) guy running D&D for anybody who wanted to play. The main thing I remember was towards the end our characters were in trouble and were going to get killed by a local gang or something. And older DM dude having our characters having heard of this NPC, clearly his own character from some other campaign, and seeking his help. I remember the NPC confidently walking down the street with us, casting haste on himself and twirling a pair of swords around as we walked. I think that NPC mostly took care of the final fight. 

So yeah, I get it. Both of those are probably extreme examples, but if anybody was in the hobby long enough they probably had similar experiences. But how guilty am I? I suppose its subjective. 

From early on in my DMing my "precious" NPC's would be present. And more often than not they started as my early characters, and I incorporated them in my fledgling game world because, well, I wanted NPC's to be around other than shopkeeps and wenches. So here are two examples of my earliest D&D characters/NPC's (started in the latter 70's).

Arcturus Grimm - A ranger. He was probably among my first couple of characters ever created. I think from the original Greyhawk supplement where ranger was introduced (or maybe an issue of Dragon). There was no 1st ed Players Handbook yet.  He was exceptional and though we used 3d6 in order, I rolled nothing lower than 14, and the stats included 3 of them 16 or higher. As I was practically a kid I probably didn't realize how rare that would be. I made him a ranger, a strong 6'5" man (maybe based on one of my older brothers who was that big, and an all city athlete in school). His name was taken from a couple of my fave comic book characters. He was raised by bears in the northern Darkwold Forest. I had Arcturus Grimm be the elvish words for "Archer Bear." He was raised in the deep woods, and was fairly naive. 

When I soon started my own world, and began rarely sitting down as a player, I just injected Arcturus into the new setting (mostly just a tavern and a dungeon.). Over those early years Arcturus was there as the world grew. I expanded his background as being the adopted son of The Woodking Armis, the leader of an ancient order or rangers in the Darkwold known as The Woodlords, which I also added to the world. An early teenage sweetheart playing the game eventually would have a character marry Arcturus (making things awkward setting-wise when we broke up). But as characters, players, and campaigns came and went over the years through the 80's and into the 90's, Arcturus was here and there.

 Not hogging glory or fighting the fights for characters, but he would be around. Cameos as PC's adventured or playing a bigger role as wars and other major world events went down. At one point in my early 20's a girlfriend ran a daughter of Arcturus. New ranger characters might have heard of the Woodlords, and maybe aspired to join at higher levels. And Arcturus would be there. I have him pop up rarely to this day, still mortal but somebody of very high level who dallied with gods and other major spiritual beings. His adopted sister, Sheenara (or Sheen) rose to a minor woods deity status. Over 120 years of game time has gone by in my games, but Arcturus is actually 3rd elf so is not all decrepit yet, but far more mature than the young man I started him as when I was very young. Of all my characters/NPC's I probably had the closest affinity for Arcturus. I lived his ups and downs in the game world along with him.  

Over the decades I used various miniatures for him. Ones older gamers like me would recognize. 

One of the few minis I still have since the early 80's. Of any mini I used for Arcturus, this one looked the least like him. I suppose it is relative from a distance, but this does not convey the sense of a 6'5" dude. Just a basic ranger figure. Like most of my minis I got it at Aero Hobbies where I played a lot (but not as Arcturus) in my early teens. Owner Gary Switzer offered to paint it, and despite my descriptions proceeded to paint him how he wanted. I already did not like that the mini had a mustache, at a time Arcturus was clean shaven. And he gave him light hair instead of dark brown. But what the hell, it was a mini.  Early on as a character Arcturus had a Pseudo Dragon familiar (we levelled up fast when we were kids), so he used epoxy to put it on his shoulder, which was a nice touch. 

But more recently for brief cameos in Roll20 games I used this image:

Also his sister Sheen has made and appearance or two in the matters of druids:

These appearances are more for me than anything else. A brief touch of nostalgia. In most cases the players have no idea of the greater history I have with them. But I have had children of his (he left many of them throughout the lands after the Woodlords disbanded) appear in more recent games, specifically the twins Frend and Frenda, who are rangers encountered working for local caravans and what not. They appeared in the last couple of campaigns but nobody knew their parentage. So another insider bit for myself. 

Montigar Silverglen - he was an elvish fighter/thief I did up to play maybe a year or so after I created Arcturus. He was a high elf raised among wood elves and was an adventurous spirit who dallied with player characters here and there. He fought primary with two swords, and yeah when he became an NPC in my world I pumped him up a bit. 

Through the 80's and 90's he popped up here and there, usually meeting new characters in new campaigns. Every time he was encountered he was into something else. He was a dualist, a privateer, a Bon Vivante, a highwayman,a monster hunter, and a hero of two kingdoms, human and elf. I somehow ran him very charismatically; no less than 3 women in my games over the years had characters romantically involved with him. A romantic triangle between him and two other player characters (neither of them were girlfriends of mine, though "T" who I often mention is still one of my players) ended in death for one of them (his former girlfriend character, a fighter, killed a mind-controlled character of T's thief (the players were actually roommates then) who was his current girlfriend. Rather than restrain her, the fighter killed her. It was wild. No ending of friendship with the players, but this was a memorable moment that just became another part of his storied history bards would eventually sing of (which actually happened in recent games. Keep reading).  

One interesting aspect of Monitigar is his father was Whirligar, a high elf illusionist who was looked upon as a deity by gnome illusionists. Just one of those weird facts you come up with as a kid. 

I had a teenage sweetheart who ran a wood elf thief named Noradama. She identified with this character the same way I did with Arcturus. She and Montigar hooked up and were a famous power couple in the mostly city games I tended to run in my later teens and early 20's. This was the first time (but not the last) I would experience personal relationship role-playing, and my GF and I spent late nights acting out these characters as if they were in an inn room. Sometimes it can be extra good being the DM. I imagine other people must have experienced this. 

Much later, after the 90's, I had Montigar be a bit of a tragic figure when he appeared, someone who had bards across the lands sing of his many adventures and misadventures. Triumphs and failures. But I thought of him as somebody who was tired of the death and violence and doomed romances. He was a lone soul who never lost a fight but always lost in love. 

The first of many times I used the old Apple Lane setting for D&D in the early 2000's, I had characters encounter him living out the song Margaritaville there, working for the weapon trainers and drinking day and night, pestered by various would-be legend killers coming to make a name by taking his life.  

As a kid I got my hands on some Ralph Bakshi LOTR minis, including Legolas. I would eventually use the Legolas mini for Montigar, adding two longswords to the mini. Though Legolas was fairly effeminate looking in the film, the mini was a bit more butch.

Yep, after many decades I still had this fucker, though with an arm missing. One of my first ever paint jobs, and it shows. But really, now much better was Gary's paint job for the Arcturus mini.

Prior to the most recent games I think characters in a couple of campaigns the last two decades ran into him living the more or less quiet life. Probably several years since the last. But recently he appeared in my current Roll20 thing. 

The characters were on their way to the dungeon just beyond the southern border of the kingdom (taking several games to do so), and when they came to Shire's End, a remote village at the southern frontier of the Halfing Shire, I was brainstorming encounters there. Three families control the place, mining families who have concerns in the mining town a couple hours south near the dungeon out in the Grass Wilderlands. As the place had not much in the way of kingdom security (army outposts), the place had its own force of volunteer halfling frontiersmen, but also I decided this would be Montigars latest hang out place, being a Regulator for the families in return for a nice tower to live in and a modest stipend.

 The characters show up to the area and are chased by a hill giant but make it into the walled village. There they eventually meet Montigar, who is happy to see other than mining material and lumber merchants and invites them up for a party in his well-appointed tower in the merchant family inner compound. Here is the image I used for later in life Montigar, with scars and all.

Montigar spent a lot of the time manning his
minibar. "One for you, one for me, one for you..."

There is an issue with a hill giant, wandered up from the grasslands, menacing folk and stealing sheep. Long and short of it Montigar will deal with it, though he does not want to kill it because he is tired of killing things in his long life. The next day the characters go out to help him (he says maybe with their help he can subdue it over killing it), and it turns out there is a female one as well that was hidden in the copses of trees. With help from the characters Montigar got the giants to submit, and he offered the big dummies the opportunity to stick around to help protect the area and be helpful to the inhabitants in return for regular offerings of sheep, pigs, and bags of potatoes. Montigar asked the characters to stick around for another night of partying. 

I added the minibar to this map!

Despite my hopes that the wood elf bard Xanthia of "T" and the wood elf ranger Myrnigan of "L" would hook up at some point, given his history I thought it would be just right for Montigar to get the Xanthia hookup. I mean, she is super-hot. Tall, built like a female volleyball player, platinum locks, and a high charisma bard. Who would not want to experience that?

Or maybe I just have a thing for a cartoons

Ultimately, she wasn't having it. That is until Montigar asked her to do a duet of a famous old love ballad from their hometown of New Denaria. Luckily there was something nice in elvish in the jukebox to play and set the mood.

It won her over, though there was no nookie for ol' Montigar. Not yet, but it was on her mind. We'll see if that hookup comes down the road. The dungeon is only two or three hours away, so...

BTW, Evador the young cleric was taken with him, and snuck up later the last night to be with him. Xanthia the bard actually followed her up to the den to see what happened, and was glad to see Montigar nicely turned the Tanmoorian teen down, said she was too drunk and so was he, and sent her back to bed. Xanthia seeing that put her in the "I like Montigar" camp even more. 

So yeah, that DM NPC appearance was fairly self-indulgent. But what the heck, "T" enjoyed seeing an NPC from the past she knew of, and B and L thought he was cool. "Like a character from a fantasy romance novel" one said. 

But this is a rare case. I'm coming up with NPC's for games all the time, some regular, some more interesting. But jeez, I've had this game world a long time. It's nice to drag out old NPC's that have been around since my youth out of mothballs now and again. Not all of them are still alive. But why not use them?

Above: any Dragonsfoot Grognard who 
might read this post

Cheers