So it has come to pass that the (nearly) annual July 4th gaming retreat came together this year and it was a smokin’ blast!  About 2 months ago the decision was made that we would indeed make this retreat (which we did not do last year) and much was put into frantic motion.  Decisions were made as to whom to invite, (all the core players – the two Easterlings from two years ago were given courtesy invites but it was pretty much understood that neither would make it) how much to budget and who would pay what amount.  For myself, given my own current ruinous financial situation, it was deemed that I did not have to pay any money at all; thus my portion was borne evenly by all the others who could pay.  Actually 5 of the 8 paid while 3 were “carried.”  To two individuals it fell to securing the property, purchasing the food and organizing how it would be transported up. 

For my own duties I spent about the preceding month helping the GM prepare in various ways in both his scenario design and sundry chores – manufacturing “tomahawk 20’s,” scanning – Photoshop-ing – printing maps, copying and collating handouts from a section of the Silmarillion, prepping art work that was used in the manufacture of plaques and trophies, choosing the colors of baseball hats, color and fonts for the embroidery, searching books stores for interesting and inspiring materials, going through the CD collection to make sure all the CD’s were indeed present and to clean and resurface any that needed help, purchasing Chloraseptic throat spray, Advil, electrolytes and cough drops.  I was also involved in a revamp and the printing of the player sheets, though another player did most of the heavy lifting design wise.  In the intervening years since the last July 4th gaming retreat two players had reached “black folder status” so I helped pre-load the new character folders with an Elven Dictionary, a number of maps of Middle Earth, a pen, pencil, eraser and the ever coveted “tomahawk 20.”  Heavy extension cords were brought to power the four 500-watt work lights that were purchased.  I mention all this to give some idea of the enormous physical, financial and emotional energy that went into prepping this extended gaming session.

Remarkably, perhaps even miraculously given our group, we were on the road a mere 20 minutes behind schedule!  The drive up was without incident and there was much energy and excitement in the air.  Two of the more “macho” drivers would occasionally try to out race the other in the straights reaching speeds of up to 140+ mph.  Jeff, who is a stunt coordinator a very accomplished martial artist, just would absolutely not allow anyone, under any circumstance, to over take him.  I mention this only as a matter of background because of what transpired later during the week.  Upon arrival Chris and myself, neither of us a paying participant, threw ourselves extra aggressively into the unloading, sorting and the storage of the massive amounts of food that were transported up.  Did I mention that it was in the high 90’s and unbelievably humid when we arrived?  Once settled in the lighting naturally fell into my hands given my work experience.  One downer when we arrived was that the wonderful large table that we had played on two years ago which was promised to be available this time was not there.  However solutions were found and it took 6 of us to maneuver a very large glass table and its central support into place.  A second table was found and chairs were discovered and maneuvered into place.  The GM started to set up and quickly shooed everyone but myself out of the gaming room.  Up went the screen, laid out were the CD’s and many plaques, baseball caps, obelisks and what not were unpacked.  And so it began…

In attendance was myself, Cary (the GM), Chuck, Dave, Jeff, Montana, Chris and Blake.  Jeff and Blake each received their “Black (leather) Folders with many cheers all around.  Then one tomahawk ‘20’ was distributed to each player - to even more cheering!  The stitched baseball hats were then distributed.  Mine was a grey cap with “Dunedain” stitched in white letters on the front with 2006 stitched on the back.  Chuck and Chris each received a hat in the color of their respective wizards with “Istari” stitched on front and their sigil on the back…and so it went.  Finally, based upon the players’ voting in various categories from the previous years, many plaques and three black obelisks were awarded.  Of his own volition, Montana had purchased and brought up numerous plastic swords for the use of one and all.  All was good and so we retired to gluttonous feasting and eager talk under the stars stopping to cheer the occasional bug that put up a particularly protracted fight in the zapper.  All this until the stupid hours of the morning.  Huzzah!!!  The day ended…

…and the sun rose.  The next day.  I was the last to arise after about 12 hours, given some physical maladies and medications, to discover that breakfast had already been made and eaten and Jeff was being given some “individual time.”  Apparently he got near 2 hours of solo time with his favorite character, “Ainge,” a Black Commando who survived the destruction of Aria, which had taken place July 2004.  Jeff’s ultimate desire is to change this character into a type of “Batman,” a dark crusader – an “antihero.”  Which was, by the way, the exact phrase the GM had stitched onto Jeff’s baseball hat using the reverse colors the GM had used 2 years before when he gave Jeff a “Black Commando” baseball hat.  I mention this only because of what occurred later in the week.  Nevertheless it was reasonably clear that the GM understood Jeff’s interests.  However, as Jeff’s time started, it was just after the sacking of Aria so he was badly injured, in need of food and water and was without weapons in a country wracked by civil choas which was also drowning in a bloody ethnic cleansing. 

IOW survival was going to be the number one issue of the day, which was a strong contrast to his previous existence when Commandos were on top and feared by one and all.  Not only was it not feasible that he could set up shop in the Far Harrad, but he also needed time to be forged in the cauldron of extreme difficulty enduring the humbling effects of suffering as helpless and hopeless before he would arise again, this time as a defender of those who were helpless and down trodden.  If Jeff had it within himself to do so…  It was a tough two hours with lots and lots of action (which he loves) but in this case he was always on the defense as opposed to dominating the field as he was accustomed to as a Black Commando.  At one point he chose to burden himself with an abandoned 6 year old child that naturally made his situation even more difficult. Towards the end I could read some signs of frustration in his bearing.  I didn’t think too much of it at the time because this player has always been somewhat of a hold-his-breath type.  Then the GM played Montana’s Black Commando who was also finding life extremely difficult.  He was caught and subdued by a rather primitive tribe who were had decided to bake him in clay over a fire.  In contrast to Jeff’s decision to put his life as a Commando behind him and move onto a new life Montana chose to stay the course and continue to believe in the credo of the Commandos, even unto death.  In the end he did not die at that time, but it made for a fascinating foil.

At this time the GM stopped, changed gears and for a while went on to roll up numbers for some new characters and/or roll level ups on established characters for a couple of hours the choice depending on the interests of the players.  I finally got some numbers for my dwarf of the line of Greer that I posted about in The Creation and Birth of a Character!  Slooooooowly said Character is becoming more tangible, taking shape, increasing the likelihood that the character will find his way into a scenario.  Another character I have been campaigning for, a “cleric” type, which had a ten second cut away about two or so years ago also got some basic stats.  I had a sheet with some raw numbers for attributes that I had rolled some time ago, but ended up not using at the time that were really hot, which the GM had agreed that I could in the future.  This being that “future” moment I hauled the numbers out which, by his furrowed brow, I determined that he had forgotten about them.  He mulled the numbers over a bit and then the negotiating began in earnest.  Basically he was pushing for an enfeebled body enclosing a deep wisdom.  Problem was, as we had talked about before and was played out in the cut away long ago, I was a young adult, maybe 15-18 years and not yet even into my prime.  He started in about something about a wasting but I quickly suggested an idea that I thought would be an interesting solution.  (I don’t know why, but he simply envisions any and all spell casters in the world as old and frail.)  I suggested that my physical stats start as they were on the sheet (somewhat above normal) and that they would drift down over the years while my non-physical stats (Wis, Int, Chr) increased over the same period of time.  He was intrigued, I was happy and thus a character was partially hashed out.  I would like to note that this process of character creation, especially where new ground is broken, is always a tremendous amount of fun.  One gets to pull in all the knowledge they have of the written world and the events of the played world and mix in as much creativity as one can muster to create and add something new without “breaking/contradicting” the world. 

Another example of this happened when Blake created his “Death Knight” for the Team Evil group.  I don’t remember the specifics, but basically Blake’s character was something of a bolt on and rather two dimensional in that group, primarily due to that he wasn’t present at the critical initial creation and interweaving of the members of Team Evil had been lost to him.  So this day it came to be that he would be “fleshed out.”  (Something of a pun given that he is undead… er…)  What was noteworthy about this was the whole table was actively involved in throwing out of potential ideas while trying to cobble as many of them as possible together into a functional, aesthetically satisfying whole.  This was lots of fun as the players banded together against the stingy, rapacious, all consuming malestrom known as - The GM.  ;oP  (The GM’s hat, by the way, was black with lettering in red which said, “Horribilis Occularis.”  This was all great fun and we drifted in and out of the room until dinner was called.  Huzzah!  The GM announced that the adventure would commence as soon as we finished eating ourselves into an early grave…

…and so we waddled back to the table to start our 4 days of play with our “Southern Adventuring Party.”  Yahoooooooooo!  This group is a close to an old skool adventuring group as it can get in our world – kill, loot, eat, drink, whore, sleep, refit - repeat as necessary.

• Tamtar – played by Dave J.  Barbarian.  Tarzanesque.  Raised in the jungle, has no memory of parents or how he got there, very strong connection with animals etc.  A monster of a man physically.
• Randir – played by Montana.  “Barbarian” Elf.  An elf that does not know he’s an elf.  Has many of the gifts of the elves including superhuman speed, senses and healing.  Boon companion to Kalan, it is virtually impossible for us to be surprised because of him.  Other PC and NPC barbarians in the group intuit that there is “something” up with him, but given Randir’s gifts and the general cultural state of the barbarians the most common conclusion is that he might be some soft of a god in physical form walking about.
• Sin the Pretty – played by yours truly!  “Viking” runner and skald.  Was part of the war party that was led south (by a Dunedain) to sack and pillage Aria.  The boat he was on was blown off course by a storm and thus missed the annihilation of many thousands of his own people
• Kalan the Lion – played by Chris.  Think Conan - monstrously strong and as fast and agile as a leopard.  Leader of this motley band and a very interesting character as played by Chris.  He just has a knack for knowing how and when to bring into play those iconic moments of Conan.
• The character run by Blake.  It is a sad commentary on my part that I cannot remember his Character’s name.  He was the youngest son of the ruler of one side of an ancient bisected city that was locked in perpetual war between the two sides.  When we arrived and found we could not leave we found a wizards tower near the middle and set to it storming it and killing the dark mage.  Upon the wizard’s death the water supplies dried up, the populace was no longer super-healing and through a series of circumstance Blakes character opted to travel with us.  As far as where he fits he is still young and ashamedly I have to admit that I cannot recall any of his exploits.
• Jafra – a Jin played by Jeff.  Think something like a ninja.  He was a foreigner to the land where he was raised and trained.  IOW he has an unknown history (and a possible future) that lies beyond the land where he grew up.  He broke from his house and he knows that he is a hunted man and death can come at anytime from any quarter.  This is a good fit for Jeff as he is an accomplished martial artist thus he can physicalize the character very effectively while bringing in lots of additional knowledge.  He too is a “late comer” to this group but has earned his way in as he has demonstrated himself to be extremely lethal and seemingly trustworthy.  As a note, that Montana is playing an elf whose own natural gifts surpass Jeff’s character’s trained skills was developing into something of a sore spot for Jeff.  It seemed to bother Jeff that someone else in the scenario was more effective than he was.  Jeff is an Alpha in every sense of the word and this situation was bothersome to him as Jeff did make some comments on the side that he felt that he couldn’t get the recognition of Montana’s Randir.
• Chokai – a rather comical and highly vain Barbarian.  At a treasure trove that we looting from the city that Blake’s character had come from, Chokai was more interested in a small mirror that he could keep attached to the inside of his forearm so that he could look at himself anytime the fancy struck him than many of the weapons and whatnot that were present!  He was originally created as the “anti-Utan” a barbarian run by another player years ago that no player liked leading Chuck to decide that he would create a barbarian character that was extremely likable!

In short, the last time we saw these characters I had just swam over to the pirate ship sailing down a river making for the sea.  A challenge had been offered by the captain if we could catch the ship we could board.  I immediately stripped down ran like a deer, dove of the cliff like a knife into the water and swam like a fish till I did get to the ship!  So two years later in real time we finally get back to this scenario.  This was going to be seriously cool.  Playing raiding ravaging pirates!  Huzzah!  The female captain (the first ever seen in the world in 20+ years) basically commanded(!) Kalan to follow her to her cabin where the assumed transpired.  It was ribald, Conanesque, humorous and a guilty retreat into juvenilism.  It was cliché and lowbrow, but gosh it was fun to not worry about the fate of the world for a while and run around like foaming at the mouth raging ids.  Players were cheering and laughing at the over-the-topness of it all as we let our hair down for a short while.  Who cared whether we lived or died as long as we did it well and with gusto!  Interestingly enough Kalan (Chris) entered into some sort of personal agreement with the Captain.  In the short there was a minor revolt by the crew against us newcomers which lead to Randir (Montana) killing five crewmembers in one swing!  (Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good,  ;oP)  It certainly didn’t hurt that he was an elf and he did have a magic sword.  This was one of those events that I alluded to earlier really bothered Jeff.  Anyhow - the captain came up with Kalan and she ultimately decided, as she was convinced that we were a worthy lot, that we did not start the trouble and that we should purge her crew of any troublemakers.  It was a difficult decision for her fraught with doubt but once commanded there was no turning back.  We all cheered as players and went to bloody work!  About half of the crew did not fight and were spared.  We set to port to re-crew and refit and back to sea we went with news of a merchant ship.  Excellent!

I don’t remember how long it was but we did come upon the merchant ship fairly quickly.  There was palpable electricity flowing as our colors were flown!  Heave to or die!  Montana was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet.  I scrambled up to the crow’s nest which in the case of the house we were playing at I climbed up the stairs and stood waiting with my “bow and arrow” on the top landing over looking the game table down below.  Dave (Tamtar) took one of the extra extension cords and tied it fast to the top of a pole that also happened to be near the stairs.  This was to be his “rope” as he swung from ship to ship.  So we are closing in when we see through the rigging of the merchant ship another ship already along side it.  A pirate ship.  A larger pirate ship.  A pirate ship captained by someone (I can’t remember who, darn it!) whom our captain did not wish to tangle with so she broke off.  Gaaaaaah!  Down the steps I come.  These were supposedly some of the baddest pirates around – which did nothing but whet our appetites more!  I’m not sure who or how it happened but the next thing I know we’re heeling hard over to port!  We’re going on to attack the pirate ship while they were vulnerable sacking the merchant ship!  All us players are pacing around like caged animals and went back up the stairs to the “crow’s nest.”  We were closing and some business we going on at the table below that I didn’t pay much attention to – all I wanted to know and all I cared about was if I could see the opposing Pirate Captain.  I wanted him so bad that I could taste it!  I just saw it all in my mind’s eye. 

Our ship coming hard about and closing fast.  The slow recognition on the faces of the other pirates that we were coming in for the treacherous attack!  Our ship announcing itself as we shouted out our ship’s name and her captain!  The slow turn of the opposing captain as he saw that we were bearing down on him.  He walking to the fo’c’s’le of his ship not intimidated in the least – all bad and mostly kick ass!  … and me burrowing an arrow right through him!  I wanted this to be the first act of the engagement!  I mean – how cinematic is it taking out the biggest baddest mo-fo right out of the gate?!?!

(continued in the following post)

(contiuned from previous post)

I kept calling out to the GM, “Do I see the captain yet?  Do I see him?” while I stood on the upper landing standing as if I had a bow in my hands with my eyes sweeping the area.  I go the answer I wanted at the timing I was hoping and ran down the stairs to make my roll!  Every step as I ran down the steps I was debating in my mind – “Use the tomahawk or no?  Use the tomahawk or no?”  I slowed as I got to the table with my face screwed up in decision … and said, “Oh… just fuck it… TWENTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!”  The whole table got up and started high-fiving and roaring approval and patting each other on the back as the captain dropped to my arrow!  I don’t know.  I guess you had to be there, but it was truly awesome for me, for everyone.  The end of the night it was brought up, the next day, at the end of the trip and even since we’ve gotten home it has been brought up as one of the most memorable moments of the retreat.

I fretted at the time whether it was a “20” well spent for Middle Earth.  It was that very idea that I was debating with myself when I deciding whether to use it or not.  Obviously it was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry satisfying on an emotional level – I’m smiling to myself even as I write this post.  Emotionally it was a glorious moment!  Yet.  A small voice whispers from the back of my mind, “was it wise?”  Gah!  I don’t know and that question ate away at me as we concluded that night's play knowing that we were going to heading back to Middle Earth proper with all its travails and tumults hanging in the balance.

By the way – we smashed the other pirate crew and they surrendered at about 30% casualties.  Our captain took command of the larger pirate vessel; we sacked the merchant ship then cut it loose, sailed to port where we sold off our original ship and the pirated goods.  With our ill gotten gold we went into the town to eat drink and whore our filthy lucre away for a couple of days.  Except me.  You see on the first night into port, on our first die roll, I rolled a “1.”  I said to the GM, “I have no plans what so ever of coming out of this with a single penny.”  He shook his head and I groaned, “Don’t tell me I got rolled!”  He said, “You’re a Viking!  No one’s gonna mess with the likes of you.  No what happened was that while you were drinking you got this idea to bury your money where no one could find and steal it.”  I just starting roaring in laughter and said, “…and you’re saying upon waking up I have no memory of where it did this?  Oh no!!  That’s so perfect!”  I laughed and laughed.  Stoopid Vikings have been known to out clever themselves like that…!

Not much more of significance happened after this and we stopped for the night not long afterward.  It’s been a loooong while since I’ve had that much fun.  I’ll post more about the other gaming days as I collect my notes and confer with the other players.  I’ll put it this way – it was so involved that while we could remember the big emotional beats we could not remember in what order they happened in real time.  This was partly due to the interweaving of many lesser or singular snippets with two major scenarios - one of which had potentially shattering consequences.

Thanks for “listening!”

Hi Jay,

For some reason your post made me put on the song "Lady Evil" from the Dio iteration of Black Sabbath.

Anyway, thanks for sharing - your games are really fascinating to me. One point I took away from the description is something maybe isn't talked about enough - what Techniques work and don't depend on the physical and social context of play as much as anything.

That is, the normal assumption of a lot of game design is that you're going to be playing 'sessions' of about say 4 hours, or maybe 8, between once a month and twice a week. In that kind of game, the 2 hour solo breaks you describe are completely destructive to play 99% of the time.

But if you're all going away to game hard-core in a small group for a long weekend or week, suddenly it becomes completely viable, at least a couple of times a day. I can totally imagine a day spent with, say, a couple of 4-6 hour full group sessions and a couple or three 1-2 hour individual or paired sessions to spice it up, especially with a heroically motivated DM. This gives other players down time, the ability to hang out in a mostly relaxed environment, chat or read a book or think about the game - all good vacation type stuff.

Conversely, the main reason that Steve Jackson's Melee, Wizard, and Fantasy trip were the only games that stuck as hard or harder in my grade school group as D&D was that you could play a meaningful sequence in the half hour lunch break. We still tended to play D&D after school, but Wizard adventures on the border between wargaming and role playing ruled the roost at school itself.

Hey Sean,

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

I’m going to freely admit that I am particularly self-blind regarding the questions about our techniques.  I will happily answer those you have already posted and please ask as many more questions as you are curious about as I am very happy to answer.  I’m not trying to be obtuse; I’m just without a clue!

Typically we play in 10+ hour stints.  The frequency of our gaming varies wildly from 3 times a month to not playing for a year or more.  This is part of our reason for the extended game sessions.  The other is that the GM feels that one really can’t get a good scenario going with all its complexities and get the players deeply involved in just a 4 or 6 hour game.  IOW he feels such a short game length is only just whetting the appetite without allowing enough time to effectively slake that hunger.

As you suggested, the short “solo” sessions are a rarity at the table under “normal” circumstances.  The main reason having these “solo” breaks is because the character in question is in a set of circumstances that make it “impossible” for him to participate in a group scenario.  So these “solo” events are usually about tying up loose ends or taking care of tasks where no other PC can be present so that said character can then be brought returned the larger stable of “available” characters.  Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t just “book keeping” sessions, actually it’s just the reverse.  The characters are facing something so important that they can’t just be waved off.  I would like to mention that on occasion while driving around the GM will sometimes do a little one on one role-play.  Actually these micro-moments of role-play happen allot and can happen just about anywhere at anytime.  We’ll just start talking about some aspect of the game, maybe about some past event, speculation about something, an ironing out of system issue, maybe an idea for a new character or a developing interest in a current one and the conversation will drift into “real/official” play.

So yes, you are right that the circumstances of this extended play event did allow for more of this “solo” play, but even here there was an unspoken limit where we’d start to get antsy for the “real juice!”  We all understood why the players were getting their time and why and we gave them their space, but gosh let the games finally begin!!!  =oP

As a side note the trip was two travel days and four full gaming days.  The second day of play lasted some 12-13 hours.  However, by the third morning the GM’s voice was so blown out that he could barely manage a whisper so we took that day off.  We didn’t play and the GM did spend much time sleeping, but when he was awake he couldn’t help himself and talk still centered around the game.  The forth day, because the GM had so much ground to cover, lasted 18 hours!  We started at around 1pm and played until we had to start packing up to leave after the sun came up the following day. 

Side note - At the closing of the day off the GM had requested a “wake up” of around 11am for the 4th day but the slug just turned over and went back to sleep!  The sot!  What about us?!!  So rather than pester him one of the players walked the CD player down to the door and blasted track 10 of the new Bat Man movie soundtrack next to his door.  It worked as planned because he was not annoyed out of bed but rather the music inspired and stirred his desire to run!  He literally said the music made him want to get up and play!  Mwah ha ha ha ha!!!  Props to that clever player (Montana)!  Actually that type of cleverness is what is frequently necessary to prevails in difficult situations in the game.

Literally we played (nearly) all day and all night (from around 1pm to 8am give or take) and then we had to drive home without any sleep!  Both the 2nd (day 2) and 3rd (day 4) game sessions were intense with a capital “I”.

I know that I haven’t covered that much about Techniques as you requested, so please do ask more!

I will post about these intertwined sessions later as I and the other players try and untangle all that happened into a coherent whole.