The Girl in Glass

Tell us how you are using our gaming tools and how your sessions are going.

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tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

July 10, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another perfect session for MapTool in the Girl in Glass Campaign.

We did two large battles one of which was particularly trying because of enemies in trees spread out over a great distance. MapTool handled it with ease although the players got a little frustrated with the difficulty of the fight.

The group managed to convince the Dwarf and Elf contingents that they were being manipulated into rebellion and only the Orc faction remains to appease. If the group can make this final push it seems as if Tanelorn will be saved from internal strife.

We should finish the Heroic Tier either next week or the week after. Then it is on the Paragon Tier where external forces come into play as the Gnolls of Grelm and the Rock Beasts begin a seemingly unstoppable concerted effort to the destroy the Gray Lord's domain.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

July 17, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

A huge session this week as we went into the wee hours to finish the Heroic Tier of the Campaign.

We did a small combat and two large and difficult combats as well as a Skill Challenge and a lot of role-playing.

MapTool was without issue as is the usual.

It's onto the Paragon Tier next week but then there are some vacations coming up so we will skip a few weeks.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
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July 24, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

It was a relatively low paced Session this week in the Campaign because we spent the first part making Paragon Tier leveling decisions.

We are now off for three weeks because of various vacations so we won't be back until mid August. We might try to slip in a completely remote session during everyone's trips but that is not certain.

The session went quite well although some of the new Paragon Tier powers are stressing out my main attack macro. I may take the three weeks to rewrite them. One of the big issues is Critical Hits which now simply do max damage on a 20. But, more and more of the Powers are involving stretching the range of and damage of Critical Hits so I'm going to have to put a variable in to take care of it. It shouldn't be that difficult but I'll have to update every attack macro which is sort of a pain.

We might get some BattleTech games in during the break so keep you eye on the Quinones Campaign Thread as well!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Back in Action

Post by tomlib »

After a few changes we are back in action. We had a couple of people on vacation and three of our players (mother, father, son) had to move out of town for work so that was the delay.

Here is the latest session of the campaign.

Because our players are now scattered over the face of the earth it was largely a remote session with four separate groups dialing in. It worked perfectly! All hail the awesomenes that is MapTool!

I used the interlude to touch up my attack macros and my 4th Edition Framework and almost everything I did worked perfectly. I had a couple of typo mistakes and I forgot to convert one of the attack Macros to the new code but basically it went really well. I would actually say that it worked better with everyone remotely than it did with us all in the same room.

We had a small issue with Skype in that one of the group's microphone wasn't working all that great but otherwise it was tremendous!

Meanwhile the group is now getting started on the Paragon Tier where they have already learned some new information about the Girl in Glass although this adventure is merely a prelude to the Epic Tier. They real plot of the Paragon Tier starts with the 8th Adventure which we should get to in two or three weeks.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Aug 29, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another successful session of the campaign last night with MapTool at its best.

The group traveled to the northern realms to explore the point of view of yet another group interested in the Girl in Glass. It was mostly combat and MapTool was brilliant although the Random Number Generator smiled heavily on the group this week. My lovely critters were dispatched with little trouble as critical hit piled upon critical hit.

We may take next week off or we may play. It is up in the air right now.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Sep 11, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

We completed another session of the campaign last night and the recap is now available.

MapTool was perfect. We are now using version b70 which seems very stable and has a few new features that have proved useful.

We did three good fights and some fun role-playing for an enjoyable evening. The group is closing in on 12th Level and the completion of Adventure Eight. Soon they will embark into the nations surrounding Tanleorn; Grelm of the Gnolls, the Rock Demense of the Rock Lord, the Lizard Folk lands, and the Five Nations as external forces line up to destroy Tanelorn. The coming war is the main plot of the Heroic Tier of the Campaign.

We are off again next week but on for two weeks from Saturday.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Sep 25, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another flawless session of the campaign with MapTool. We are using v70 nowadays and it seems very stable.

We did three fairly large battles and a skill challenge despite getting a late start. Everything is really humming along well with MapTool. I'd still like to someday incorporate the ability to pick multiple foes into my area attack macros but basically it's a minor nuisance to apply damage to extra targets.

The group finished Adventure 7 which is sort of a prelude to the Epic Tier and now they are getting into the meat of the Paragon Tier with Adventure 8 wherein they watch the changing of the guard in the Gnoll lands.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
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Oct 16, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

It was a completely remote Session of the Campaign this week as we all dialed in from various locations. My internet connection was being a bit spotty for some reason and there were a couple of reboots but it wasn't the fault of MapTool but of my connection. Once I reset my IP things smoothed out.

Skype was troublesome as well even though the conference was hosted by another member of the group. Perhaps Saturday was just a bad day for the internet.

The group started on the Eighth Adventure, "Champion's Battle" and this is the beginning of the plot proper for the Paragon Tier of the campaign. The group has learned that an enemy of Tanelorn is in the Champion's Battle that will determine who rules the Gnolls for the next year. They now must find a way to prevent this fellow from taking the crown without implicating the Gray Lord in their efforts.

Next week should be a bang up session with lots of interesting things! Hopefully we'll get back to playing every Saturday although life does intrude.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
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Oct 23, 2010 - Session

Post by tomlib »

A massive session of the campaign last night! We did five large battles in about five hours and some role playing. The characters are now 13th level and at this level using pen and paper there is no possibly way we could have done nearly as much! MapTool just makes being a GM so much better in every way!

I'm using a fairly low power laptop as host and it seems to start getting a bit bogged down the longer Maptool is up particularly when dealing with looping macros (like my initiative tool). But, it still was not bad at all.

The group fought against allies of the Gnoll who hopes to gain control of Grelm and launch war against Tanelorn. They are deep into the plot of the Paragon Tier and there are some seriously unpleasant surprises coming up for them shortly.

MapTool rocks!

Tom

P.S. I got a pretty good screenshot of the last fight that shows off how I use Tokens to represent effects during the game.

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Nov 6, 2010 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday and another Session of the Campaign.

The group is just about finished with Adventure Eight and they Champion's Battle, through an unfortunate series of events, ended up with the enemy of Tanelorn being crowned the new King of the Gnolls. This certainly means preperation for war between the two nations must begin.

MapTool continues to function perfectly. I could probably tweak my attack macros slightly but they work and redoing them all is a daunting task. I'm becoming somewhat disenchanted with 4th Edition as a whole. The Skill Challenges are a good idea but they largely reduce the role of Role-Playing in the Role-Playing game. No matter how good the idea one of my PCs presents, if they don't make a good roll then their idea fails. I try to give bonus's for good ideas but this sort of defeats the purpose of the Skill Challenge which was to give the less creative PCs a chance to succeed in role-playing moments.

I've also found that avoiding the "4th Edition Grind" is best accomplished by not stringing too many fights together without a chance to rest. Grind happens when the PCs run out of Daily Powers. So, creating elaborate Dungeons with many fights is difficult.

In short, 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Role-playing game discourages Dungeons and Role-playing. That's my take at least. I'm sure many disagree.

Still, we are having fun and I'll run this campaign out to the end. I'm working on a MapTool Talislanta Framework. That is an easy combat system that promotes Role-playing. We'll see.

Happy Gaming!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
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Nov 13, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday means another Session of the Girl in Glass Campaign.

It was a tough day for MapTool but not through any fault of its own. We were doing a full blown Remote session and my internet connection has been acting up lately. My IP Address seems to just want to reset itself at random moments and, of course, that wipes out the server connection. It happened about four times or about once an hour. By the end we were pretty quick about recovering. I'm thinking about having my buddy with UVerse be the Host and logging on as GM next week.

The session itself was fine although one player was having a hard time reading my macro buttons. I tweaked the wonderful Delete Macros macro to resize the buttons so hopefully that will be solved for next week.

The group headed back to the Gray City and is now tasked to learn about developments in the lands of the Rock Lord. Should be fun!

MapTool Rocks!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Nov 20, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

We had a very short session this week as most of the group had evening plans. We only managed one skill challenge and a battle in about an hour of play. My internet connection remains a nightmare but my buddy hosted so when my IP address decided to just change for the heck of it only I was disconnected.

The Campaign is kind of in a lull right now sadly as they are visiting a land where there isn't a whole of chance to do Role-Play type stuff. Things should pick up on that front in a couple of more session.

Because so many of our group were out early we put my Talislanta Framework to the test and found a few bugs but the system itself is greatly more flexible than D&D 4th Edition so that was fun. If we keep playing I'll probably put up an Obsidian Portal Wiki. I'm using off the shelf Patherfinder Adventures for that campaign and adapting them to MapTool using the simple system of Talislanta is quite easy.

MapTool rules the world!

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Dec 4, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday, another Session of the Campaign.

We managed a really nice remote session with every player on their own PC. My friend with the fast internet connection is now hosting and things ran exceptionally smoothly except for one strange incident.

At one point strange little graph-like squares colored gray/white suddenly started appearing all over the board and soon the macros began to misbehave. We rebooted the server and all was well. It was no big deal but awfully peculiar.

As far as the campaign goes things are heating up as the Rock Lord alliance with the Gnolls of Grelm has been confirmed but so has a new alliance with the Lizardfolk of Drak'val. If all three nations can coordinate an attack on Tanelorn things look near hopeless.

We are almost finished with the ninth module which will mark the halfway point in the campaign!

MapTool rocks,

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Dec 11, 2010 Session

Post by tomlib »

Another Saturday, another Session of the Campaign.

Lot's of fighting and skill challenging this week but they are finally leaving the lands of the Rock Lord. Their retreat cut off they cannot report directly back to Tanelorn but must instead circle south to the Lizardfolk lands of Drak'val. This might prove useful as apparantly the Lizardfolk are part of the campaign to destroy Tanelorn and more useful information might be found.

One more encounter and the group finishes Module 9 and reaches the halfway point of the campaign!

MapTool worked perfectly as usual.

Tom

tomlib
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Posts: 195
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:48 am

Dec 18, 2010 - Session

Post by tomlib »

Our last session in 2010 of the Girl in Glass!

Christmas and New Year's fall on a Saturday so we are off for three weeks. It was another mammoth session with four combats and a skill challenge. Now that everyone is getting quite comfortable with MapTool we cover ground insanely quickly.

One player had a little MapTool glitch where he logged on but could not see rollover info or make macros work. This happened to him twice and he closed MapTool and reopened as a fix. Strange, no one else had this issue.

We are now more than halfway through the campaign although the speed with which we're moving now it will probably be a few less sessions than the first half which ended up being about 42 game days.

The group is in the lands of Drak'val, the Lizardfolk, and now realize that the Cult of Lich Sakatha hopes to invade Tanelorn and take the Staff of Sakatha from the Gray Lord in order to bring the lich back to life. This means that Tanelorn faces invasion from three sides and the situation looks bleak.

As an aside, in a previous campaign the group was instrumental in getting the Staff of Sakatha to the Gray Lord in the first place.

Matters are coming to a head in the Paragon Tier and a major conflict brews!

Tom

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