Hey all.
Hey all. So I'm writing a google + mixtape post commemorating some of the great, long-running campaign on G+. Hill Cantons is at the top of my list. I'm collecting reflections and reminiscences from folks, game ephemera, session write ups and the like. I've followed Chris' blog from the beginning, and played with y'all in a late Hill Cantons phase for about 6 months, and read the Hydra Cooperative products. So I know a lot. But I still need your help to do this right. This is kind of hard one, because I know how much this game means to everyone who plays in, and how long it's been going. But I'm going to ask you try to say something about what this game has meant to you.
Chris Kutalik here are some questions for you as the DM, feel free to answer none, some, or all, or totally different questions that you think of: (1) What were you trying to do with the campaign when you started it? What were your aspirations? (2) It's been running so incredibly long (10 years!). How has the campaign evolved over time? What did you learn over the course of running it? What do you think has allowed for its longevity? (3) What has been the most fun of all for you in running the campaign? Are there sessions that stand out to you as especially memorable? (4) How did you think about the relationship of the setting and world to the game--Hill Cantons has a very vivid, (by now) developed setting.
Extended Nefarious Nine: What are the most memorable moments in the campaign for you? What were your favorite locations to explore? Greatest accomplishments? Feel free to share links to play reports, drawings, ephemera, blog posts, etc. Has playing in the game affected how you run your own games? Why have (some of you) played for so long in this game? What has playing in the Hill Cantons meant to you? It's pretty clear that everyone who plays in this campaign feels like something special is happening here. Why? cole long Humza K Robert Parker Dennis Higgins Michael Moscrip David Lewis Johnson Jeremy Duncan Jason Sholtis James Aulds
Chris Kutalik here are some questions for you as the DM, feel free to answer none, some, or all, or totally different questions that you think of: (1) What were you trying to do with the campaign when you started it? What were your aspirations? (2) It's been running so incredibly long (10 years!). How has the campaign evolved over time? What did you learn over the course of running it? What do you think has allowed for its longevity? (3) What has been the most fun of all for you in running the campaign? Are there sessions that stand out to you as especially memorable? (4) How did you think about the relationship of the setting and world to the game--Hill Cantons has a very vivid, (by now) developed setting.
Extended Nefarious Nine: What are the most memorable moments in the campaign for you? What were your favorite locations to explore? Greatest accomplishments? Feel free to share links to play reports, drawings, ephemera, blog posts, etc. Has playing in the game affected how you run your own games? Why have (some of you) played for so long in this game? What has playing in the Hill Cantons meant to you? It's pretty clear that everyone who plays in this campaign feels like something special is happening here. Why? cole long Humza K Robert Parker Dennis Higgins Michael Moscrip David Lewis Johnson Jeremy Duncan Jason Sholtis James Aulds
Oh boy. All the feels.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the most memorable moments in the campaign for you?
1) The initial sessions of exploring that damn Golden Barge are graven in my mind, I think. (I think this writeup was my first session in the Cantons, when Ba Chim was a bit more on the Chaos side than the Good side: http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/01/again-with-dunes.html).
2) Poor Mike Davison's Ooluu - pour one out for the Sea Blood and those three traps in succession!
3) Finally snagging the barge.
4) Ba Chim's multiple deaths (falling off the top of the Grandfather Tyger temple, aka Feral Shore Pizza Hut, AFTER we killed the godling; getting his throat ripped out by Lady Szara)
5) Firing into melee and killing Kochka the badass hireling T.T
6) Mariska the mountebank trying to save everyone with a well-placed color spray, and getting swarmed and horribly murdered by vegemen while "The End" plays in the background
This is leaving a bunch out. There are a lot of moments.
*What were your favorite locations to explore?
The Cerulean Vaults were really high up there - big ol' staggering complex with all kinds of strange linkages and fascinating discoveries. Bad Rajetz was also good, what with the multiple trapped corridors and that freakin' terrifying audio trick (sounding like an Indiana Jones style boulder was going to smash us on a ramp, when there was nothing there).
Greatest accomplishments?
Surviving first level with 2 HP.
Has playing in the game affected how you run your own games?
Oh, definitely. Playing in the HC has been a major learning experience for me in terms of campaign, dungeon, and session construction.
Why have (some of you) played for so long in this game?
It's been an amazingly tight group of players who have all been committed to long-term play and goals in the campaign, plus a campaign setting that keeps on having additional depth and new patterns to figure out. Plus, y'know, some damn good friends.
hillcantons.blogspot.com - Again with the Dunes
Thanks for sharing that Humza K. That’s awesome.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the most memorable moments in the campaign for you?
ReplyDeleteEarly on, it was just being awed by how lived in the campaign was. I guess it was Charley getting his magic helmet and fucking up some Frog Demons was the first time I felt like I was getting woven into the fabric of the campaign.
What were your favorite locations to explore?
Most of my time was spent in Revoca and the Aviary, so I know that one better, but I loved that all of them had mysteries that were being explored. The 1980s computer game dungeon was pretty fucking rad, now that I think about it.
Greatest accomplishments?
Not getting killed by the Shit Demon in the most daring of "What the Fuck did Charley do this time" combats.
Also, showing how wimpy Frog Demons are.
Has playing in the game affected how you run your own games?
I haven't run enough of my games to say for sure but it has influenced how I think about games. I've learned how much you can make a world your own by injecting yourself into it. The Hill Cantons couldn't have been created by anyone but Chris and the more I've gotten to know him, the more of him I see in the fabric of the world.
Why have (some of you) played for so long in this game?
Because it has never felt stale and Chris and the rest of the regulars vibe at the same frequency as I do. Most of my gaming is with guys I met through the HC. The thre campaigns I have been part of the longest has been (in no particular order): Hill Cantons, cole long's Swords of the Inner Sea, and Robert Parker's Savage World of Krul. It's no surprise that it's all the same gaming circle.
What has playing in the Hill Cantons meant to you?
It's meant I've met some amazing friends who have really helped me rethink my elfgames and somehow make me love them even more than I did before.