[News] [Members] [Newsletters] [Games]
Here we are again with SilverSheen News. It's published in both a printed and web/HTML version. The content is the same; only the formatting is different. The web version can be found by pointing your web browser to http://www.io.com/~girthlin/newsletters.html. If you're reading this online, click on any of the SilverSheen symbols below to return to the top. If you're reading this from a printout, then push really hard on the symbol, close your eyes, and click your heels three times. Let me know what happens.
There was a good turnout by the Legion at ConnCon, one of our staple gaming conventions. It took place in a new venue this year (Waterbury, CT). There's a review in this issue.
As always, the Legion's website is being constantly updated. Check out the latest info at http://www.io.com/~girthlin/legion.html
Characteristics
Elves & Half-Elves
Eyes
Modifiers {Eyes/Hair/Skin }
1-4 Dark Grey ( 1 Jet Black, 5-6 Black ) Wild -6
5-8 Brown ( 1-2 Light 3-5 Dark 6 Hazel ) Wood -4
9-12 Green ( 1-2 Light 4-6 Bright Emerald ) High 0
13-15 Blue ( 1-3 Light 4-5 Bright 6 Deep Violet ) Grey +4
16-17 Silver Grey
18-19 Golden
20 Changable
Hair Length M F
1-3 Red ( 1-3 Red Gold 4-5 Copper 6 Auburn ) Ear 1-4 -
4-5 Brown ( 1-3 Light 4-6 Dark ) Shoulder 5-9 1-3
6-7 Grey ( 1-5 Light 6 Dark ) Waist 0 4-8
8-12 Black ( 1-2 Dark 3-4 Ash 5-6 Blue Black ) Longer - 9-0
13-15 Light Blond ( 1d6 Stawberry )
16-18 Honey Blond ( 1d6 Dirty Blond ) Handed 1-4 Right
19 White ( 1 Metallic Silver 6 Pale Green ) 5-8 Left
20 Metallic Gold 9-0 Ambidx
Skin Unusual Freatures
1-2 Pale Green 1 Large/Small Eyes 7 Epicantic Fold
3-8 Pale 2 Sharp/Soft Features 8 Facial Scare
9-15 Fair 3 Round/Narrow Face 9 Curly Hair
16-18 Normal 4 High Forehead 10 Upturned Eyebrows
19-20 Tanned 5 Large/Small Eyes 11 Round/Narrow Eyes
6 Full/Thin Lips 12 Close/Far set eyes
Halflings
Eyes Skin Hair
1 Green 1 Fair 1-3 Lt Brown 10-11 Blond
2-6 Blue 2-5 Normal 4-5 Dk Brown 12 White
7-9 Grey 6 Tanned 6-7 Grey
10-11 Brown 8 Black
12 Black 9 Red
Unusual Features
1 Freckles 5 High Forehead 9 Large/Small Nose
2 Curly/Straight Hair 6 Large/Small Eyes 10 Large/Small Mouth
3 Blunt/Sharp Nose 7 Large/Small Ears
4 Jutting Jaw/Overbite 8 Close/Far set eyes
Handedness 1-7 Right 8-10 Left 11-12 Ambidexterous
Tallfellow -2 Stout +2 { Eyes/Skin/Hair }
Dwarves & Gnomes
Eyes Skin Hair Length
1-4 Grey 1-2 Normal 1 White Hair Beard
5-7 Blue 3-7 Tanned 2-7 Blond
8-9 Brown 8-9 Brown 8-9 Red 1-3 Short 1-2 3"-4"
0 Other 0 Grey 10-13 Grey 5-8 Medium 3-8 Chest
14-17 Brown 9-0 Long 9-0 Belt
(1-2 Green 3-5 Black 6 Red) 18-20 Black
Mountain +1 to above only
Unusual Features Handedness
1 Large/Small Nose 6 Scar 1-12 Right
2 Large/Small Eyes 7 Gap Toothed 13-19 Left
3 Large/Small Teeth 8 Bushy Eyebrows 20 Ambidexterous
4 Long/Short Ears 9 Sharp/Soft Features
5 Curly Hair 0 Wide/Narrow Eyes ( Gnomes +2 )
Humans
Eyes Handedness
1-3 Blue ( 1-2 Lt, 3-4 Dk, 5-6 Clear ) 1-7 Right
4-7 Green ( 1-2 Lt, 3-6 Dk ) 8-9 Left
8-12 Brown 0 Ambidextrous
13-16 Black
17-18 Grey
19-20 Hazel ( 1d6 Flecked )
Hair Length M F
1-2 Grey ( Salt & Pepper, 6 White ) Short 1-2 1
3-5 Brown ( 1-2 Lt, 3-4 Dk, 5-6 Sandy ) Ear 3-4 2
6-8 Black ( 1 Jet, 6 Blue Black ) Long 5 3-4
9-11 Blond ( 1-3 Lt, 4-7 Gold, 8 Platum ) Waist 6 5-6
12 Red ( 1 Rusty, 6 Auburn )
Skin Unusual Features
1-2 Pale 1 Facial Scar 6 Freckles
3-4 Fair 2 Large/Small Eyes 7 Cleft Chin
5-8 Normal 3 Large/Small Nose 8 High Cheekbones
9-10 Tanned 4 Widows Peak 9 Slanted Eyes
11-12 Ruddy 5 Close/Far Set Eyes 0 Sharp/Soft Features
Copyright © 1996 Ramon Delgado
A Limerick
There once was a warrior named Sym,
Whose name, when pronounced, rhymed with time.
Though a mage quite arcane,
And I can't find a rhyme for this line.
He was deemed quite insane.
Copyright © 1996 Ramon Guerrero
RealmCon 96 - February - Miami, FL
Realmcon is a small convention run by the Game store and is
the official SilverSheen yearly convention. Members from throughout the US travel to support this small, but quickly growing con. Set
in warm, sunny Miami it is an easy choice bewteen this gathering
and Winter Fantasy in Milwakee. Let's see; sunny, warm weather,
clear blue water, beautiful, scantilly clad women and ..uh, .uh,
oh yeah, a weekend of gaming. Or, brutal winter winds, ice
covered streets, snow storms that stagger the most hardy polar
bear and women covered in so much clothing as to resemble the
afore-mentioned bear. Which line would you be on? I'd be on that
loooooong line.
Realmcon is held at the Holiday Inn Jetport, literally
minutes from the airport. The convention hosted a Magic:TG head
to head contest, several minuature tournaments, Vampire Live
Action Role-Playing, RPGA sanctioned Ravenloft and Living City
gaming and the second annual RPG competition - "Cutthroat"; Grand
Prize was a full-sized replica of the Conan the Barbarian sword.
One of the most noteworthy events was the introduction of
the Living City setting to the Miami gaming community. Previous
to this, LC was known of only through Polyhedron articles and
word of mouth. We expected a fair number of curious players and
were prepared to explain and help create new LC characters.
Imagine our surprise when experienced players, some from as far
away as PA, showed up to partake of the LC bounty. In addition,
gamers from the Orlando area, who were introduced to LC by
SunQuest, an Orlando based convention, arrived in droves to
expand and develop their characters. Combined with the locals,
who quickly jumped on the band wagon, the Living City was a hit.
In the words of one attendee from NJ - Lee Hayward - " It was
nice to play with a group of new LC players, who had yet to be
tainted with the munchkinism usually associated with LC, " or
some words to that effect ( never take a quote after the fifth
beer ). We accepted nearly a dozen RPGA membership requests from
players eager to advance their characters ( do I see just a hint
of froth? ) and promised to include more LC events next year. I
even volunteered to write an LC tournament for Realmcon 97 ( that
was sometime after the seventh beer ).
Copyright © 1996 Ramon Delgado
A few issues back we reviewed Jyhad. Since then the game has been renamed Vampire: the Eternal Struggle, and we're still playing it. It has become a part of our gaming sessions, as much as RPG's, Battletech, etc. What exactly about the game keeps our interest?
Copyright © 1996 Ramon Guerrero
Members of the Legion were excited to hear that Braveheart won the Oscar for Best Picture. Hopefully Hollywood will now throw more money at Mel Gibson to create more such epic movies. I could go on blathering about this, but you get the point. On the topic of the Oscars, however, we proudly present:
Dark Angel's (opinionated) Opinions on the Oscars
Copyright © 1996 Idalmis Cooley
War has broken out in Ravens Bluff (the Living City). It is rumored that a veritable legion of Tigglebitties have turned out to protest the war. Clan members have been seen walking the streets at night with such signs as:
Copyright © 1996 (Yeah, right, like I'll admit to writing this)
During that time we were just a group of regular role-players with no set schedule for playing and no knowledge of the huge gaming society which existed all around us. Few of our players had ever heard of a gaming con and only four had ever visited one ( remember Gen Con East ? - we attended #3, as well as the last East Con ). When Ray Guerrero mentioned I-Con we decided to give it a try. The result was both a disappointment and a beginning.
Our first I-Con was attended by Ray Guerrero, Rudy Arango, Guillermo Vasquez, and myself. It was confusing and disappointing for convention novices. Waiting an hour or more to register, spending a good portion of the day finding the gaming areas and then running from one end of the campus to another to make each slot. In addition, many of the games we played ( all AD&D, for, back then, we knew no other systems ) were run using house rules, many very unusual and irritating to the players. If it had not been for the good points, this would have been our first and last convention. The good points, however, more than made up for the bad spots.
Firstly, the dealers' area was huge. We spent hours just walking around taking it all in and remember, this was the first time any of us had been exposed to this type of gathering. But the highlight was when we met, spoke and had our picture taken with Gary Gygax! Now that was a trip, not to mention that he also autographed each of our very first character sheets. Then we attended a seminar given by Mr. Marvel himself - Stan Lee. The insight into the creation, production and continuing stories of our favorite Marvel characters was, by itself, worth going to I-Con ( my copy of Silver Surfer, signed by Stan is a favorite keepsake ). Now, as to the gaming; the home run games were a nightmare, so enough about them, but it was at I-Con that we were first introduced to the RPGA network. Actually, Ray Guerrero had been a member years back, but this was the first time we, as a group, were exposed to Network sanctioned events run by RPGA judges. The first game was great and we immediately cancelled our plans and signed up for every RPGA slot we could. The result was more than we hoped for; we played until 4:00 AM and took first place in four of the five events. It was at that point that we four joined the RPGA Network and began the journey that would result in the founding of the Legion.
It started when Eric Berlin, a columnist for Internet World magazine, posted on Usenet asking for players to participate in a demo AD&D IRC game for his column. Nelson Remy, another player, and myself played. There was a fourth, but he had trouble configuring his IRC client. Such is life on the Internet!
We all set up for two IRC channels (i.e. chat rooms, etc.) One was for all game discussion, in-character roleplaying, and the DM's (Eric's) descriptions, etc. The other was for chit-chat, jokes, and questions.
Using two channels works great. I wish I could separate all the out-of-game chatter in real life.
Eric chose to handle all the number-crunching himself. He performed all our rolls, and only told us how many Hit Points of damage we took. This allowed us to really get in character and not worry about THAC0, Armor Class, and all that nonsense. Of course this put a heavy load on Eric. He commented, four hours into the game, that it was strenous. However, he added that he had not run an AD&D game in years.
The adventure was nicely set up. We were all on retainer for a powerful Wizard. When the tower of one of his competitors mysteriously sunk into the ground, he sent us to retrieve certain "things" from the ruins of the tower. Needless to say, the ruined tower of a wizard can be a popular place.
What is good about IRC gaming? The separation of chit-chit. The mood was palpable; I felt the tension as we played cat and mouse with another group within the ruins. IRC gaming also removes geographical between players. Eric was somewhere in the Metro NYC area, I was on Long Island, Nelson in Miami FL, and the other player was from California. Try getting a group like that together for a Saturday gaming session!
What is bad about IRC gaming? There are visual clues and body language that many DM's use to present information. In particular, we totally misunderstood one fact about the layout of the ruins. This fact was required for us to complete our mission. There are ways to pass along files such as maps using IRC, but none of us knew how at the time.