This week’s game day sees us returning to the Khelez-Mar dwarven campaign to launch an investigation/raid into the UnderOerth of the Pomarj.
It’s not just Dungeons & Dragons though; I’ve also received my review copy of the new Star Wars Pocket Model constructible ship game by WizKids Games and I’ve been working on superhero histories for my upcoming Mutants & Masterminds campaign
Into the UnderOerth
The dwarven heroes of Khelez-Mar and their human allies will be venturing deep into the UnderOerth tonight. They’ll be searching for whatever caused the terrible magical earthquake that shook the fortress to its very roots … and corrupted at least one vein of silver in the process.
The last time we were here as players, the Blackrazor Guild fought an ancient and powerful red dragon. What new horrors await us in the dark? We have no idea … but we’re about to find out.
Masterminding History
Our first full session of Mutants & Masterminds is scheduled for Friday, June 29, and I’ve begun building out the campaign’s framework and figuring out what gimmicks I want to use in the game.
Because the campaign will start as a Dark City-style game, and because we’re beginning with characters powerful enough to have a history in the campaign’s home town of Freedom City, I’ve been going through my Freedom City and Lockdown source books looking for likely allies and opponents.
For example, Evil Genius’s power-suited hero Paladin undoubtedly tangled with the Power Corps (a group of similarly power suited mercenaries) at some point in the past. He may also have served as a consultant on the creation of the Paladin-class power armor used in the Lockdown super-villain prison … or perhaps his schematics were stolen by the anarchist Freebooter and then sold to the highest bidder.
I’m also figuring out likely match-ups for battles as the campaign launches, so Paladin may run into agents of the Foundry (a super villain group specializing in the construction of high-powered gadgetry). For allies, I’m looking to both high powered and low-powered heroes. In Paladin’s cast, the immortal inventor Daedalus might have served as a mentor at some point in his history.
To build out such backgrounds, I’m planning on launching a campaign blog called The Constant Sentinel, written from the point of view of a superhero fanboy who loves keeping up with Freedom City’s greatest heroes. Since it’s a blog, the posts will be fast and furious, rather than extensive and detailed, but I think it’ll do a lot to help the campaign have a sense of history from the moment it launches.
Put Star Wars in Your Pocket
My review boosters of WizKids Games’ new Star Wars PocketModels constructible ship game arrived yesterday. I busted open one pack, and glanced over the instructions. Unlike Pirates of the Spanish Main and its myriad successors, this game appears to be more card game than minis game. Yes, the ships do shoot at each other, but there’s a heavy collectible-card-game component to it as you build and deploy a deck with cards that enhance your ships and serve as objectives for your enemy to destroy.
At first glance, strategic movement doesn’t seem to be a critical component of the game — there’s no long/short movement measurement as in Pirates, nor are there masts to be blown away by cannon (or in this case, laser) fire. That’s a little disappointing, but I’ll reserve judgment until I have a chance to read the rules and get in a playtest or two.