Finished The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Book 2 of The Passage trilogy! Finally!
It was interesting read, but too long. Too much back story and details that could have been condensed quite a bit. As it is, I didn’t like the fist quarter, second quarter was okay, third was interesting, and really enjoyed the last one.
Still one book remaining in the trilogy, but need a break, will come back to after a little while.
Read some more stories from The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.
Now reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).
It’s my first Drizzt, and first D&D novel and has been on my wishlist for a very long time. Just started it so can’t really say much about it, but enjoying it so far.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I personally prefer using Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay when it comes to medieval-ish fantasy, because it’s gritty and dirty, so to speak, also more “realistic” than DnD, mainly because combat is brutal, armor simply reduces damage, all kinds of shit can get someone insane and magic is dangerous.
The last time I narrated WFRP one of the characters died in a spectacular way that I never imagined would happen
The player had a dwarf with a large ram for a mount. During one combat inside a mayor’s mansion, a group of bandits attacked the ram and lethally wounded it. The player wanted to save the ram at any cost. Every character has some Fate points, which they can burn to escape certain death. I made a deal with the player, “you spend that fate point and the ram lives, BUT- I will roll this dice to determine who saves it”. I made it clear that there was a risk an unwanted force could be the one responsible for keeping it alive.
Dice rolls. I smirk and describe a blue-hued raven landing atop the ram and asking the dwarf if he truly wants to save his ram. The deal is made, the raven enters the wound, which closes, but the ram’s eyes give an eerie purple glow and it laughs at him. The next day, he finds out the ram started eating small critters like bunnies and squirrels. The rest of the group starts considering leaving the ram wherever.
Some time later, the ram is attracted to a profane totem and refuses to move. The dwarf tries everything to get the animal back on track and gets headbutted. Once he threatens to destroy the totem, he’s attacked for real. Second round of combat, the ram charges. On the damage roll, it was a double critical (criticals only happen in damage rolls in WFRP, a 10 on the dice allows you to roll again) and the total damage was twice his total health.
In a single charge, one of the ram’s horns went under his chin, piercing his cranium with such force that the head was ripped out of the body, with blood gushing from the now lifeless body. The impaled head remained as a souvenir on the horn. The rest of the group turned tail and fled, then came back later to loot the gold that was with the dwarf.
As to getting people to play with, some places you can look for players are local game stores (if there are any around where you live) or colleges. You can also try playing online via discord, it’s much easier to find people looking for groups there. Getting along with everyone outside the game is definitely one of the more important aspects of keeping a group alive and going
lol, that’s a bad way to die. Poor Dwarf trying to save his ram!