Sunday 13 May 2018

False Dawn #3 - The Reluctant Traveller

Some more time goes by.
Some surly polyhedrals are burning a hole in my dice bag.
Some fidgety characters are climbing off their sheets and heading off to the tavern.

Then like a bolt from the blue Tony pings out an email saying he has a couple of spots free in his ongoing Traveller campaign. The skies clear and I can hear a celestial choir and the trumpeting of a thousand angels. There is a strange smell of burnt Stilton but you can't have everything.

The group is short of a pilot, so I'm tasked with rolling one up. Even without the original lethal character generation version of the little black books this is hard work. One early effort did give me a character with Pilot-2, but he was about 724 years old, so I keep going, changing the names each time in the hope of changing fortunes. By the time I've finished, the numbers on the dice have just about rubbed off completely.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we're on. Ian offers to ride shotgun/co-pilot for the journey to Bletchley, or in Ian's case Blearrrghhhchley.

Ian spends the first 20 minutes after arrival wandering around Tony's estate occasionally bending over and squeezing the last of his stomach contents onto the pavement.

The game itself goes well, but we're both quiet in the car on the way back to Wycombe. Ian nods off as an anti-emetic strategy. We never speak of it again.

Traveller? Nah, it makes me sick.


False Dawn #2 - Ships, Ships, I See No Ships (Roll-Nothing)

Mid-Late 2017
Tony's front door and his Google Hangout door closes and the Roll20 door opens.
It's what all da kids (TM) use apparently innit.

Turns out there are precious few games in UK evenings, unless you want to play D&D and even then there's a waiting list that makes the queue for Lady Di's book of condolence look positively miniscule.

Finally, by choosing something ultra-obscure (Beat To Quarters), I get into a game. By which I mean I'm at least on the list. The other players are an interesting mix of unresponsive and/or odd.
Communication with the GM is sketchy, but I put together a character and get ready for action. I'm so committed to this new role that I find my gums have turned black and my teeth have started to fall out. I pop down to Waitrose to get some Hardtack and Grog, but have to make do with Rusks and Lemon Barley Water.

The time of the game approaches ...... it's cancelled.

The time of the game approaches ...... it's cancelled again.

Just before the session approaches for the third time, they suddenly decide that they won't be using Roll20 for audio, it's Discord. My laptop won't download Discord. I'm cast adrift in an open boat and washed up on Pitcairn Island.

The game is canned. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

 

Loneliness Of The Long Absence Runner

Fast forward to now and everything in the roleplaying garden is rosy. So what happened? The Grognard Files happened Virtual Grogmeet ha...