w00t - post number 10

Gaming on Sunday was pretty normal. Just about everything I said about the last gaming session I ran also applies here just in a slightly different order (and I’m talking about BESM and not Shadowrun). We started late, we were easily amused by each others company, we paused to eat, and when we continued we remained easily amused by each others company. Most importantly we had fun. I will admit I sometimes wonder if we don't let ourselves get too distracted, I even mentioned my concern regarding that, but my players assured me they were having a good time.

This last session I realized I’d allowed the PCs to become quite powerful. I had intended this from the start, I’ve been giving XP awards roughly 25 times larger then what is recommended in the rules. The official BESM character advancement rules suggest giving one character point per five sessions, whereas I’ve been giving around 5 character points per session. So really the PCs becoming extremely powerful is precisely what I was shooting for (although it is worth remembering when I originally started this campaign I didn’t think it would last as long as it has), but this last session really brought home for me just how much my PCs had accomplished this. After one character slaughtered an ancient dragon (built on 105 points and for reference most starting characters are in the 20-40 point range) in two swings on his sword I made the pronouncement that the characters could officially “bring it.” More then anything after this last session I’ve come to the conclusion that I should probably redesign my main villains (yet again as I’ve already gone back and increased their power twice). Mostly I just need to give them more hit points, and maybe some more active defense, just so when the final conflict finally comes it doesn’t go like this:

Player 1:
Hey there’s Weifan the Demon Dragon King who had been manipulating us into doing his bidding since day one.

Player 2:
And there is his lackey, Kyomatsu the Demon Lord, who has cursed our NPC exorcist.

NPC Exorcist:
Yeah he’s a jerk. This totally nondescript curse that has never been fully explained in game has really made my life difficult.

NPC Kitsune:
I don’t like him either, for equally vague reasons that haven’t been fully fleshed out in game because the GM keeps forgetting what they are, and because the PCs don’t care that much since I’m only an NPC.

Player 3:
Let’s waste these turkeys.

(General sounds of combat.)

Player 1:
Wow that was a close one Kyomatsu almost got to attack me.

Player 2:
Yeah. Hey how about when Weifan was all trying to run away, and I was like “oh no you don’t,” and I totally cut him in half with my sword.

Player 3:
We pwned those guys. Who wants sushi?

Okay so I’m reasonable sure none of my players would say, “Let’s waste these turkeys,” but the scene stands.

Alright a few things in brief:

I have met a lot of interesting people. I know this because they send me e-mail with highly amusing things in them like this following statement: “In other news, I know a *lot* more about trebuchets than I did a week ago.” Just take a moment and ponder the inherent awesomeness of that statement. I am in awe.

Nothing really new to report on the anime front. I haven’t received anything new in the mail, but on the 18th the second disks of Saiyuki Reload, and Twelve Kingdoms were mailed to me so I should get those in a few days. A new episode of The Prince of Tennis is up on Toonami Jetstream. I will likely watch that tomorrow. I also started watching Hikaru no Go, and Naruto on Toonami Jetstream. I hear a lot of good things about Hikaru no Go, and found the episodes I watched to be enjoyable enough, but I didn’t care that much for the dub (not a horrible dub mind you, just not a great one either). Naruto seems to be firmly in the category of guilty pleasure anime (by the way really not liking the English dub of Naruto) thus far it seems to be a fun little ride, but nothing too deep. The friends I have who watch a lot of anime seem to come down all over the map on it, from not really caring for it at all (at least after the first 20 or so episodes) to liking it quite a bit.

As far as chess goes I am awaiting Erik’s response to my last move so nothing new to report there.

I am uploading (and in some cases downloading) music to iTunes at a greater rate then I can listen to it. My iTunes library now has 1497 items (3.7 days worth of media). My iTunes jazz collection is up to 170 songs (14.5 hours). My anime OST collection is sitting at 240 songs (13.7 hours). The music in my never played folder is up to 432 songs (1.1 days worth of songs), which actually isn’t that big of an increase over my last update. That is mainly do to the fact I’ve been making a concerted effort to listen to new things I put on iTunes and before my last big upload binge I had whittled my never been played list down to about 17 hours worth of music.