Digestif: Shadows Fade (CofD)

Greetings, programs, with this post we wrap up Digestif and my Chronicles of Darkness game for now. We may or may not return to one or more of these characters in the future, who knows, but for now we've come to a good stopping point, which is great because I need a brief break.

Unfortunately, we had to wrap this up without John, because his work schedule has been a massive problem and he's basically said he's going to be effectively out for a while. As this plot's been one solid session away from completion for a while (and I've been holding off to try and get the whole group together), with his permission we've moved on to get it over with rather than just tread water story-wise when we don't know exactly when he'll be back.

And on that cheery note, let's get to it.

Digestif: The Blood is Life (CofD)

Hello there, folks. Been a while since we've been able to get our Chronicles game together due to some scheduling wonkiness. As it is, we played this past week and had to do so without John. But here's hoping we can ease back into a proper rhythm and wrap this story up so we can play other things.

Digestif: Incoming! Two: The Sequel (CofD)

Hey there, folks. Another Chronicles write-up coming your way.

Not really much to add to this other than a reminder that the weekend of the 4th I'll be in Pittsburgh for Anthrocon. This week we should have a Starfinder session and I should be able to get a write-up of that up before we leave, but I can't make any promises. (Update: Scheduling became an issue, we did not have another session before AC.)

Also, this past session we didn't have Sean, so Otis is just unavailable. And on with it!

Digestif: Incoming! (CofD)

Greetings, folks. So after a couple of weeks of Starfinder, we've got a Chronicles session for you this week. John wasn't able to make it, but we pushed on and did the best we could and -- as you'll see -- left a fun situation for his Demon character to come back to.

Digestif: Location, Location, Location (CofD)

So we had this session a little while back (because of some last-minute scheduling issues we switched a Starfinder session to a Chronicles one), and I would have had this up sooner but I had some other work I wanted to finish up first, and we had a week where we didn't play so that gave me some breathing room in that regard.

Before I get into the post, just a quick note that the group gets up to some unsavory stuff towards the end of this session, so consider this a content warning for violence.

Digestif: The Other Shoe (CofD)

Forgive me if this part of the post is brief -- I can't think of anything big to announce, nothing huge coming up, anything like that. I will point out that we have John back this session, so that's something. Other than that, let's just get to it!

Digestif: Nobody Panic! Too Late! (CofD)

Unless something's gone horribly wrong on my end, you may be noticing that you're getting kind of a two-fer for this week on posts. This is because I had some delays on getting the Starfinder post ready (partially because I wasn't sure if there was enough there to post), and got a much earlier start on the Chronicles of Darkness post. There'll be a little delay after this, because I'll be out of town this weekend at a convention, so we won't be playing this week.

But with that, let's get on with it!

Digestif: Gods and Angels (CofD)

Hello again. I'm afraid I don't have any clever commentary to add to this one -- no particular reason, just nothing special going on one way or another. So let's get to the most recent session of my Chronicles of Darkness game.

Digestif: Circling the Wagons (CofD)

Hello again, folks, for more of my Chronicles of Darkness story, 'Digestif.' Just as a quick note before begin, Zac's character Derrick has basically been made an NPC (and he's got a new character coming in). There are moves he's making behind the scenes that I've documented in my notes, but will not be presented here until and unless they directly intersect with on-screen action. Just clearing that up before we get into it.

Digestif: Well, That Happened (CofD)

First off, unless something has gone horribly wrong between me writing this up and posting it, there's a few days left on the Trinity Continuum Kickstarter! Pledging will give you access to enough book previews that you'll be able to see the nearly-finished manuscript for the Trinity core, and most of the Aeon book (as of Friday, they've just posted the Psi powers mechanics, and the feedback has been very positive). So if you've been holding off but still wanting to support the rebirth of one of my favorite game lines (and one I'm working on, no less), now's the time to drop a few bucks and see what there is!

(Also, if money's tight, there's nothing stopping you from pledging just a little bit now to get the previews and actually buying books through BackerKit later. It won't contribute to the stretch goals as much, but it's an option.)

And now, on to a game writeup that will hopefully put that post subject in context.

Digestif: The Man from the City (CofD)

Greetings again to my Chronicles of Darkness crossover write-ups! You'll have to wait a little longer for a Starfinder post, as the last session was one of those where there's a lot of moving from room to room and fighting some monsters, and written-up it's a not particularly compelling entry on its own. Also, it left off in the middle of exploring a spaceship, and I think finishing that exploration would make for a more interesting blog entry. Now, that said, as the next session may go beyond finishing up that ship, I'm torn as to whether to do the next write-up just focused on the ship, or to do the whole session even if it leaves off in the middle of some exploration. If you've got an opinion, let me know either by the comment feature here or by other means.

One more bit of business before I move on to the Chronicles of Darkness content: A reminder that the Trinity Continuum Kickstarter is still running. It's funded, bonus material is being unlocked, and there's a preview manuscript up for the Trinity Core book. And this week they'll start doing previews for the Aeon book, which includes stuff I've written! Huzzah!

And now, to a different 'fistfuls of d10s' system...

Digestif: Reading is FUNdamental (CofD)

So before we get started, I want to remind anyone who's reading this that the Kickstarter for the first pair of Trinity Continuum books is up and running! I actually worked on the Trinity Continuum: Aeon book and also even ran a few playtest sessions some months back so I know what I'm talking about when I say this game's going to be amazing. (That said, the odds are good that if you're reading this, you've already heard me go on at length about the game and the KS, or even attended one of my playtest sessions, but I'm covering my bases here.)

And as I don't think I have anything more to add, here we go!

Digestif: Regression (CofD)

This is a little behind because I went out of town to visit friends shortly after the last session and (obviously) didn't get this post up before leaving. (Still out of town, but managed to get this written up and posted nonetheless) Not much else to add, so...

Digestif: Four is a Significant Number (CofD)

First off, I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday season (which may still be ongoing for some folks, depending on when this goes up). In this session, John finally brings his character into the group and hopefully now we can charge forward into plot, unfettered by concerns of when/how to work him in and whether he'll be too far behind.

Before I get into it here, I also want to point out that it might be a little longer before the next Starfinder write-up. Player schedules being what they are around the holidays, it'll be some time next month before we'll be able to play again (and I can't guarantee there'll be a write-up after that session, since I'm doing those based on how far the plot moves more than time played).

Anyhow, here we go.

Digestif: The Darkness Below (CofD)

Welcome back to my coverage of my Chronicles of Darkness crossover story, Digestif. Not really sure what to add here (other than to point out that John's character still isn't ready, and he should be joining the group next time), to be honest, so we'll just jump right into the write-up.

Digestif: Too Much to Chew (CofD)

Welcome back to my vaguely-semi-regular-ish gaming post coverage here at this blog. For those of you who've missed it, a while back I finished up my W20 game and have moved on to a Chronicles of Darkness game in the 'Woodburn Chronicles' setting in which my various fictions, my earlier Promethean game, and my Vampire game from a couple of years ago take place. This will specifically follow up on what happened with Derrick and the Strix.

This particular story itself is called 'Digestif.' As a bit of an experiment, I'm going with a mixed group of characters, whom we'll meet below the cut!

Fiction followup: 'Prodigals' character sheets

Here's the character sheets for Prodigals of the Machine, in their own spot on my DA page. I'd have had them up sooner but I wanted to get Goodbyes taken care of first.

Fiction: Prodigals of the Machine

I meant to have this up earlier this week, but with everything going on I just haven't been able to put the mental focus into getting it posted. Until now.

First, some commentary: This is a considerably-shorter sequel to Child of the Machine, a story that was pretty well-received by the half-dozen or so people who read it. The original story was inspired by the God-Machine Chronicle (later reworked into the Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition Rulebook) and its associated Anthology, drawing upon a history and not-quite-mythology I'd constructed in my past NWoD/CofD games. But one thing that never quite sat right with me is that there's something I'd have done with the ending if Demon: The Descent were out sooner, because that delves even deeper into the God-Machine 'mythos.'

Namely, if I'd had it to do over again, I'd have made Evie a stigmatic, one of the humans who's been 'touched' by the Machine and made a little different. But GMC didn't really get into stigmatics. So there's a part of me that wanted to follow up on that, and have her meet an actual Unchained Demon, and well... there's other stuff going on too. I don't want to spoil the whole thing here. Regardless, I found a way to kind of fix that oversight.

Sometime in the next few days I should have a separate PDF up with character sheets for the main characters, if anyone is curious to see those.

Also, I've talked to a few people privately (or otherwise mentioned obliquely) about another story in my 'Woodburn Chronicles' setting that's a much more personal story with a much more solemn tone. This is not that story. That story is still in the works and I plan to bust my ass to get it finished and polished by the end of the month. You'll hear more when that gets closer to completion.

But now, with no further adieu: Prodigals of the Machine

Some Old Writing of Mine

Okay, so this was supposed to come a month ago. Sorry about that. The reasons for this are twofold: One, I don't spend as much time at my desktop since my move (and when I do, I'm often tired or distracted or both) and there's stuff I needed to do for these I couldn't do from my tablet-and-keyboard combo. Two, the iOS version of Scrivener came out and so I've finally started toying around with that program in both portable and desktop formats, writing new stuff and importing old stuff into it and just generally getting the hang of it. (and loving it, by the way)

But anyhow, here's some old Vampire: The Requiem fiction I wrote in either late 2004 or early 2005 (I'm 90% sure this predates the first edition of Werewolf: The Forsaken), back when the setting was still very new. I was also a less experienced writer then, and despite making a couple of editing passes on it I'm sure it still shows. Also, while editing, I went back and tweaked a few things to retcon it into being more in-line with the new edition of Requiem. Not that anyone will notice, as I'm pretty sure this is the first time this has been posted anywhere publicly.

And why is it coming to light now? Well, first off, I was recently reminded it exists and was like "I should probably post that somewhere." Second, I'm working on a sequel to Child of the Machine and I decided to dust off one of the characters from this and put him in it. And figured it might help if I could reference the source of the character. (Sadly, I no longer have the first story I wrote in which Richard Marcus from CotM appears, at some point it was lost while still unfinished)

At some point I'll add links to these to my big honkin' post of CofD fiction, as this is part of my "Woodburn Chronicles" setting. But for now, I present The Ouroboros Journals:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Enjoy! I welcome any feedback, though keep in mind that some of this is still the product of a younger version of myself and I can only edit out so many of those rough edges.

Fiction: Gargoyle

So this is something I started on a while back, briefly lost track of (as I was working on paid stuff), and only recently got around to cleaning up to post. I've been thinking of possible future continuation of my "Woodburn Chronicles" games, and decided to throw something together that both foreshadows the next plot I plan to run and gives me an opportunity to introduce an NPC to the setting. I don't yet know how important he'll be to the plot itself or how prominent he'll be, but now that Beast: The Primordial is a thing I've wanted to introduce at least one Beast to Morgantown. And the concept I had for him dovetails nicely with... well, you'll see. For those of you unfamiliar with Beasts, they tend to see most other supernaturals as 'cousins' and often work with them.

Anyhow, here's the story below the break. Cheers.