Well, it's been over a year since the "Steam Lords" run of adventures ended and I hung up the DM's hat. We switched from Rolemaster to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, then made the jump to Pathfinder in September of last year. While a few of my players were apprehensive, everyone is sold on it now, and having a great time rolling characters up in a fraction of the time it used to take! We've lost three of our crew, but that's made for a much more manageable table. I've vowed to never run a game with more than six people playing.
My transition to player was a trip down memory lane, though somewhat adjusted: Shane O. took over for me and ran the first adventure I ever played, Palace of the Silver Princess. I bought Palace back in '81, and convinced my dad to be the DM for our first game. He killed us off in the first 30 minutes, and closed the books and left the table. Kudos to my dad for doing it at all--however, that was the day I decided I needed to become a DM. I was one of those frustrated DMs, trying to play a character and be the DM, which meant few of my early adventures had much depth or complexity. I'd been just DMing for over a decade when Shane asked if I'd ever played without being the DM. I told him the story of Palace, and he decided that would have to be our first game - we needed to right that wrong, complete that story, storm that dungeon.
I was a Cleric of Heironeous with an appetite for baked goods. It was a standard group of heroes, and some of the best fun I've ever had.
In the fall, Shane ran a Planescape campaign, and I played an Aasimar/Human Bard, a reluctant hero who just wanted to play a great venue. Shane became a father in December, so he was relieved of duty. Longtime player George H. took a try at DMing in January, running the Pathfinder adventure path Rise of the Runelords. We made it through the first adventure, Burnt Offerings two weeks ago. I played a Paladin of Erastil, a backwoods hick with aspirations, based on a mix of the trio from O Brother Where Art Thou? and Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove. It was another really good time.
However, while I've enjoyed the break, I've been chomping at the bit to run a campaign again since Christmas. While on vacation in Houston, TX, I went to a pirate exhibit at a museum, and started thinking of running a pirate campaign. I also watched The Town and wondered about running a game with criminals as PCs. A web search turned up Freeport, and after looking over some PDFs of the books online, I ordered a copy of The Pirate's Guide to Freeport and the Freeport Companion: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Edition. I thought about running the classic Freeport Trilogy, but decided to go more freeform instead. I can't give any details yet, but I'm running a combination of the Freeport sourcebooks and two of the Pathfinder adventure paths: Curse of the Crimson Throne and Council of Thieves. What I can say at this point is that I'm starting the group out as children, with their stats adjusted according to this table. We have six players: Taylor (human Survivor (Pathfinder Freeport Class)), Jeff (human Urban Ranger), George (Gar Irontooth, half-orc Alchemist), Mikey (Gobling (goblin/halfling) Rogue), and Shane (Azhar (Freeport race) Rogue). I'll post character profiles in the coming weeks. For now, I just wanted to say that the Steam Lords blog is back, albeit with a new story and system.
I'll be sharing some of my setup process once the first game has come and gone. That will include what we used for Battlemaps, and some thoughts about how awesome Green Ronin publications is.
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