Gamesync 2016!

A Shot in the Dark, 1964

Greetings and Salutations!  A recent internet outage has kept me from adhering to the schedule so far this year, but now we seem to be back up and running after multiple visits from the polite internet people.  So, let's get on with it!  Today we're going to talk about 2016!

The biggest deal this year is that we have moved from four 3-month seasons to three 4-month seasons.  The main reason for this is to create longer roleplay seasons, and since we've focused on what can really be called three "theaters" this is a schedule that makes sense from a gaming perspective.  Each season will comprise multiple games, and the rulesets are subject to change each year.  For example,both Kings of War and Hail Caesar will both be used at some point to conduct fantasy battles in Dungeons & Dragons season.

One piece of this initiative is a concept we call "nesting".  A series of campaigns in different rulesets are tied together to form one large narrative each season.  This is something we've done in the past to lesser extent, but this time it's part of the mission statement.  In 2016, we'll have not only more rulesets played than ever before, but it will all be part of only three narratives.  This will help bind the games together and generate more excitement, as each session will count toward the overall narrative.

The details of each game will be noted as normal during the beginning of each season, but there will be no more huge milieu jumps for the foreseeable future.  Broadly speaking, there are now three categories the seasons will fall into.  The exact rulesets will change, but roleplaying and miniature battle games will be categorized as Historical, Sci-Fi and Fantasy...each of which comprises a season at the Wargate.  Each season's games will all be the same category and share the overall narrative, whatever the individual setting is.

2016's three seasons are mapped out as follows:

1. Historical
• World of Darkness
• Dead Man's Hand
2. Fantasy
• Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• Kings of War
• Attack Wing
3. Sci-Fi
• Star Wars D20 Revised
• X-Wing
• Armada
• Tomorrow's War

2017 will follow a similar pattern, and we intend to keep this model until further notice.  In addition, we are working with the larger community to amp up the organized play in Ada for all the Flight Path games we support, as well as D&D Encounters.  More information on that as it becomes available, but be advised that's on the agenda as well, effectively making a lot of our games yearlong events!  That's something we've regrettably had to forego in the previous years, but our new organization and event plan makes it all localized and easy to integrate into our current schedule.

Thank you for the last year's worth of awesome gaming!  It's time to kick 2016 off to a bangin' start!  Dragons, spaceships and cowboys...

Prepare for the Return of Pablo Strange!

Howdy!

We begin 2016's battle games with Dead Man's Hand, a nifty skirmish game we've talked about before on this site.  It will be a vicious fight, taking place in and around Smokefall Ridge.  The results of this campaign (and the World of Darkness rpg chronicle) will shape the future of the Territory for decades to come.

So what's all this about a strange Pablo?  A terrifying bandit roams the Territory, and the brave citizens and lawmen of that forsaken place have banded together to hunt him down and bring his posse to justice.  Check out the Dead Man's Hand section of the site!

The interesting bit of this campaign is the "bonus" rounds every month.  These will focus on narrative scenarios dovetailing with the World of Darkness games.  This is part of our "nesting" of the games this next year - which we will talk about more at a later date.

In addition, one of the first painting projects of the New Year will be to bring to life our Western miniature collection.  We've got a fine set of miniatures, and we'll be adding a few more before the season is out.  It won't take very long to finish the entire case, and we're for sure to add more Banditos to the box...Strange will have a large posse, dressed to kill!

2016 will start off with a bang - of a six-gun!

Hell Bend (Sessions 10 & 11)

These sessions were originally recorded 12/13 and 12/20/2015.

Dec. 13, 8:23pm

From the Journal of Josephine Maxwell
November 3rd, 1875

We decided to go out to Farmer O'dell's plot.  At the farm we found a pile of random half-packed objects in the floor and coins nailed to the trees.  Farmer O'dell is not there.

9:20pm

We go out to find O'dell and find him on a path toward the river.  Jakey Wales pulled a gun on him and got shot a few times.  While we stop to tend to him, Juan chased after O'dell and fought him.

Dec. 20, 5:30pm

We went back to town, with the injured Jakey Wales in the cart.  We found a place to put him so he would be safe.  The group decides to leave for Round Bend just before daybreak the next day.

November 4th, 1875

When we get to Round Bend we find a group of Native American men with a pile of the bodies from town.  Kyle Barton is with the men, and they tell us to leave after they have a conversation in spirit babble.  I argued with Barton about leaving until a blind shaman-like man came up and said maybe we could be useful and tells Barton that we are sleep-walkers.

We walk for a day's time and camp near the blood pit at Table Rock.  The group seems overly calm.  Anya and I decided that we would take a walk to see if the calm feeling would leave.  While out in the darkness we saw a large, scary creature so we hurried back to camp.

Shortly after that we all fell asleep except for Rusty Shackleford.

After we are all asleep, we find ourselves standing near the fire.  Barton says that we should go.  We go into the pit.  There was a black hole that Juan went into first.  We follow and saw a shaman chanting at the stone in the pit.

Juan mimics the man and then we were all separated from one another.  We all saw the shaman torturing a man until the man disappeared.  Then he took a stone from the place the man died.

I appeared in a different place and a man wearing a buffalo headdress painted red.  He was Wrath, and he knocked me back into a pile of dead people.  The shaman defeats him with dream animals.  Then all the bodies of the dead fell into a vortex.  At the botton of the vortex was a giant three-headed eagle as it ate the dead.  Then the shaman fought it with werewolves and captured it as well.

After the visions we had, we appeared back at the campfire.  We had a conversation about the stone, then head back to Smokefall.

We had a conversation about how the shaman was named Oderinko.  We then heard a giant thunderclap and rushed outside to find the giant eagle-monster.  We saw the clouds open up and shine on Barton and natives all around.  The things disappeared, and Bartons' eyes glowed for a moment.  He approached a wounded native on the ground, joined hands with him, then the native died.

A huge wolf-man walked from behind the barn holding a staff.  The wolf-man tossed Barton a bag of what he called "silver klaives" to us.