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  #16  
Old Aug 8th, 2016, 08:23 PM
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Raylorne Raylorne is offline
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Name: Champions of Hommlet
DM: EngrInAZ
Current roster:
Raylorne as Dresden
zebedee as Durndin
Kilgore Trout as Javek
zevonian as Mister Ray
Squeak as Ghost
Inem as Aria

The Reasons:

This has been one of the best games I've had the pleasure of playing across tabletop and PbP. Granted it's taken us a year and a half to cover here what would've taken a handful of tabletop sessions, but those would've been some epic sessions indeed. The writing has been outstanding, and the characters have an incredible quantity of personality. While the group hasn't actually made it to the temple yet there has been quite a significant amount of adventure as the group has worked towards the initial quest of clearing some bandits from a nearby moathose. Even though the players have been together for nearly two years now the party still has the feeling of people who've been together for the roughly 72 hours of game time that has elapsed.

Also like Zev pointed out above, we haven't had to acquire any additional players to fill our ranks. Given the nature of PbP that has to account for something special in a game.

Link: I'll direct people to a point in time earlier in the day from Zev's link. The group had been looking for a magical axe, and upon finding it Ghost decided to take his prize and flee. Interparty conflict doesn't always tend to go very smoothly, but I felt this situation only helped bring the group closer together after the dust had settled. We're all going in the same direction, but each of the characters still have their own agenda.
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  #17  
Old Aug 9th, 2016, 06:29 AM
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Vallesh Vallesh is offline
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Nomination Seconding
Name:The City of Endless Areans (Formerly Kyrid Arena)

DM(s):
Admins who restarted the game in new form: Bhelogan, Jrice408, Vallesh, Avner.
Former DM (Kyrid's Arena): Archeva00.

Current Players:
Fight DMs: Avner, Bhelogan, Brainfist, Cal, D34THSPAWN, dukesteel, GANONymousSmasher, Gothos, jbear, jrice408, Kygies, mightymconeshot, Mostlymad, Noupatris, saratek187, Spankucus, Vallesh
Gladiators: A list of over 60 current and past players can be found here - About half were active in the last round of battles.

Reasons for seconding nomination: Now Bhelogan has already nominated this game but I really want to second this nomination so I’m going to focus on a different side of it to him. Now three out of the four (not me) admins for this game are “good people” both in general terms and in that of the site’s badge. This means that they help run the New Player Solo Games, helping new players get to grip with pbp gaming and the mechanics of the games. This means they are incredibly supportive to new players. And, what do many of these new players do when they’ve finished their solo game or looking for another game… They come to us. The City of Endless Arenas takes everyone in from veterans of D&D to brand new never played D&D players. We help guide and teach them how the mechanics work, give them a place to see fantastic RP by other gladiators, and hopefully emulate it themselves. We have had several gladiators just do that and are continuing to do that.

Now I know this game is not a huge arcing story line with intrigue and diplomacy, heck there is not even a true story line. But what it has become is something incredible. Bloodfall, the name of the city, is a base that has been built upon by all our DMs and players adding sections and personalities to it as more came along. So now it a sprawling metropolis with backstories galore, surprising arena master team ups and arena sharing, and fantastically fun NPCs. CoEA was my first DMing experience and from reading the others’ fights and watching how they DM’d I have personally grown to love to DM. I’m sure many of our other DMs feel the same. The arenas and their masters come in many forms and places, we have the inherently evil hoping to destroy the gladiators each time to the spectacle wanting ones where things seem to go wrong. The locations and setting vary so much from fight to fight. We’ve had fights in water, ancient forests, across rooftops, and in graveyards. All of which give us a different set of enemies to fight every couple of weeks and challenges to overcome as a group of gladiators trying to survive in the harsh blood filled world of the Arenas.

Links:
Little Shop of MarvelsGame Thread
Now I mentioned our great NPCs earlier so I wanted to highlight one in particular and their interactions with all the gladiators. This is Yennan Spelltalon’s Little Shop of Marvels, this is our magic item shop run by Jrice408 (one of the RPXP masters). She still somehow manages to run it by herself and making every customer interaction a pleasure to read, yes that’s right every gladiators’ magical item goes through this shop. We allow our gladiators to try to create anything they can possibly imagine, from magically implanted tails to axes that scare gnomes. The players and Jrice all interact in character to place their orders, with secreted text for refining the details. I have selected this section in thread for your perusal as some examples of the skill of RP buying.

Hedge Your Bets Level 3 and 4 Suicide Fight Game Thread
Trying to choose a single fight to show case the arena is incredibly hard but as Bhelogan has given one with the four admin in I wanted to show you one with our other gladiators in and just how incredible they can be.

This fight was thought up by one of our players (DukeSteel) who requested the help from one of the admins to run it. The sheer limitlessness of what they wanted to do was impressive and after a chat between us we sorted the rules for how it would work. With 11 players in it, it was the biggest fight we’d ever had so quite a feat to manage it. So what makes it so incredible you ask? Well the fact that in the centre of the map is a magic tree with special fruits that allow you to transform into anything that is the same CR level or less to your own level. That’s right anything and the gladiators really took that literally. The rp that followed through the fight with the transforming gladiators was unbelievable we had warforged elephants, giant animated trees, and hellhounds. The fight culminated in the complete destruction of the magic fruit tree and abduction of the gladiator Gust.


Note: Further to Bhelogan’s example if there is a question as to the start date of this game, I will point out that Saber, Irieshann, Qiak-Ko had their first fight posts here.
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  #18  
Old Aug 9th, 2016, 01:33 PM
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Name: Legacy of Fire
DM: Pig
Players: ShinobiMaster123, Aerondor, Ekidnu, Squeak and Admin TeufelHeunden

I'm seconding Sass' nomination for Legacy of Fire, although mine won't be anywhere near as fancy as his nomination.
Here is a reader's digest version of why you should chose this game.

Pig is the best DM in the business. Not only has he consistently avoided the dreaded DM burnout for over 2.5 years. Each post he makes is incredibly thorough, incredible detailed and well written. When you go through the links that Sass provided, that much will be absolutely clear to you. His maps are incredibly detailed, whether for an overview or during a fight.

Yes, we do have amazing players as well, but it takes a quality DM to motivate his players to invest themselves into the depth of their PCs. He has successfully fostered an atmosphere where his players really about what is going on. There are no quick 10 minute posts written in this game. Each and every post from each player is well thought out and well written rather -- because we all care about creating a narrative.

I know we are allowed to post two links to the game, but I'd rather have voters focus on one, simply because there is so much to read under this one group of posts.

The link is for our 'Stories of the Past and Present'. This is where the players are with xpencouraged to go into more depth in some form about our characters and our surroundings - ranging from world building to character introspectives. Every single player in our game has submitted one of these stories and it really helps build a connection to their PC and make them want to become a part of the story.

TO DATE, 54 55 OF THESE STORIES HAVE BEEN WRITTEN! That is not a typo,it is a real number. For those wondering what book to read next, I would suggest spending the time to read the stories written by the players of this game.

HERE is a link. Each post is a stand alone story and you can see that each of them required a lot of thought and effort from the PC's involved.
That kind of effort wouldn't happen if this wasn't a Hall of Fame caliber game.

Last edited by Squeak; Aug 15th, 2016 at 10:59 PM.
  #19  
Old Aug 12th, 2016, 12:44 PM
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Name: Knick Knacks of Doom
DM(s): DraconigenaArma - The Original Dragon Man
Current Players: brann miekka, dbaque, goplayer7, MagicallyMusing, Valistar, Bio
Reasons for nominationIt has been my great misfortune to be the most junior member of the KKoD family, however, being the newest recruit has offered me a rare kind of glimpse into a whole world. The kind of glimpse that readers of beloved classics have experienced. Having just recently stepped into this world, I get the same sort of sense of "completeness" one might remember when picking up The Lord of the Rings for the first time; I can sense that there is a whole world around me, complete with its own unique history and fleshed out minor characters. Don't get me wrong; the feeling of "Hello adventurers! I, Nameless Mayor of Westhaven, would offer a reward to you if you could investigate the cursed level 10 Crypt of Darkness." has its own sense of fun, and we all enjoy a good dungeon crawl. KKoD just feels more like an actual book story - truly tapping into that oft overlooked strongpoint of PbP gaming. Although I am still trying to find my place in this world, the sense of its 'reality' is not lost on me. It just tends to feel more real than saving the town of Westhaven (again).

Of course, the players themselves do a tremendous job of this, indeed; without the dedication to the 'reality' of their characters, KKoD could not be what it has been growing into for years. However, what honestly surprises me, is the subtle depth generated by DA's abhorrence of what one might call "flashy gimmickery." All over this beloved RPGX, we see fantastic pictures that one has found on the internet, people speak and think if different colors than they do in books. While the pictures are nice, and colored texts can have their place, none of those things can replace of depose the imagination required to immerse oneself in a world. Though I did not expect (or even look for) the subtle impact such a simple and time honored style of writing would bring, I find the world of KKoD is more alive than most of what goes on here. I've had to bring it more to life on my own, in my own mind. I make it come to life, and thus, it is necessarily more alive.

Even if this seconding of the game goes no further than this,

Thank you DA for bringing out this simple truth! *
*gimmicks (including this smily face) are okay OoC
Links: The Dream Sequence (One may need to read a bit further than the 10 post recommendation to get the full affect)
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  #20  
Old Aug 15th, 2016, 11:15 AM
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Aethera Aethera is offline
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Name: Tales of the 13th Age: Wyrd of the Wild Wood
GM: Aethera
Start Date: July 1, 2015

Current Players:
driftwood playing as Moonbeam Crystal, the hippie druid
JonnyGulliver playing as Forsythe Granger, the deep woods hunter
Ion2Atom playing as Ronald Gower III, the rogue/sorcerer deceiver
Avner playing as Alistair "Bones" Grimsbane, the skeletal barbarian

Former Players
BrassDragon as Firali, a former Black Fang assassin
Arkham81 as Kaminos, Darkskye prison medic
Syne as Senoel, a disillusioned Imperial hero

Reasons for Nomination: I could go on forever about how much fun this game has been to GM and how great my players are, but I'll try to keep it short. I'm running an adventure from the "Tales of the 13th Age" collection (effectively an Adventure Path for their version of Organized Play) that has the PCs starting out on the floating maximum security prison of Darkskye Island, where the prisoners mine the magical crystals that are used across the Dragon Empire for various magical purposes. Unfortunately for prisoners, guards, and guests alike, the island didn't stay floating for long. As I wrote in our Chronicles of Wyrd summary thread (which you might find useful as an overview of the game), they had to battle their way out of the prison before it crashed in the woods, and then find their way from the middle of nowhere back toward civilization. The first link below is from shortly after their splashdown in a pond in the Wild Wood, and what they found afterward. They've managed to survive the island's crash without getting themselves killed. They've managed to pass through the first part of the woods, where the wildlife has taken on a chaotic and definitely dangerous slant from the riotous wild magic of the crystals which scattered all over the woods when Darkskye Island started falling from the sky. They're now in the deep woods, and while there is a new landmark (a tower on the horizon) to progress toward, they're finding any number of obstacles hidden here, from ancient graveyards of an earlier age to angry owlbears. What else will they find in the depths of the Wild Wood?

Links to Amazing Content:
A Montage of Mixed MessagesThe PCs unknowingly trespassed through no fault of their own upon the territory of a druid sanctuary, receiving a mixed welcome that ultimately only offered a few bites to eat and a direction for them to travel next. So they took their leave and I offered them a montage to play with to their hearts' content. (In 13th Age, one of the methods of getting from point A to point B is to have the players challenge themselves or each other with obstacles to overcome narratively.) In this montage sequence, each player contributed to what their PCs encountered on their travel through wild territory, from Ion2Atom's playful pop culture references to BrassDragon's ancient, evil, epic, living dungeon. These scenes execute profoundly the power of a player to add to the world of the Dragon Empire in the 13th Age gaming system, whether making fun of one of their GM's offhand OOC comments or developing a feature of the setting to a fuller extent.

Taking Leave to Travel Through the Wood

When in Rome...I set up a night fight to kick the PCs while they were down, so to speak, but when one of my players rolled a critical on his initiative, he took us way out into left field instead. Feral halfling natives of the deep woods didn't speak Common, so since none of the PCs spoke Halfling, it seemed unlikely they'd be able to diffuse the situation. I was very wrong. I don't think I can adequately explain this scene, you'll just have to see for yourself! The first post I linked to is what our hippie druid, then in bluejay form, saw while scouting. I gave the player the gist of it and got this great elaboration in return.

From Combat to Cannibal Conga
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Last edited by Aethera; Aug 15th, 2016 at 12:32 PM.
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