Editorial: The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men...

Last week, we were all ramping up for a second session of a Hellfrost campaign (played via MapTool). I was only able to observe during the previous game, but this week I was joining in on the fun and bringing my friend Eugene along for the ride. We even created two character that were twin engros, mine actually being a frostborn hrimwisard. We were excited; Hellfrost is a great setting with some fantastic, frosty features! When it came time to play, however, things didn't work out. Rather than get upset and do nothing, we still had fun with it.

First, one of the players (I won't mention R.K. Athey's name) couldn't make it because he was travelling. Second, another player, who might or might not have been snikle/m.s. jackson, just plain didn't show up, although I'm 100% positive he had a valid excuse considering his laptop is dead and his being overseas in the Middle East. Third, I didn't finish creating my character as life got in the way. Fourth, the GM's parents made a spontaneous visit at his house. Fifth, there were some major bugs with the macros R.K. Athey developed for MapTool.

Still, we actually had a good time. We were all talking on Ventrilo while I was creating my character. We also took advantage of the time for some setting Q&A with the GM. After my character was created, we decided to do a dry run to test the game mechanics and make sure we were familiar with how to play our characters.

Really, the entire night was a testimony to everything we've discussed in this blog so far.

1. We used MapTool and Ventrilo to easily get together without having to leave the house and lug a bunch of gaming gear
2. We used Savage Worlds and one of its settings to quickly generate a character and learn the mechanics governing that character
3. We appreciated the spirit of being able to get together with friends and geeking out, even if it's not a marathon session with 6+ hours of actual play.

In the end, we still had a good time. We got to sit around and BS with some friends, explore the setting and talk about the game together, and play a short little combat encounter. Sure, we didn't get to propel the campaign much, but it was still fun getting together anyway.