The group takes a breather after felling the mechanical constructs. Jim, a disfigured scout from the local village, hides by the treeline. Jeremiah is a bullfrog. He is a good character of mine. I never understand the magic words he says, but his slings that slime a-mighty fine (And he always has some might fine slime). Ribbit. The longest gaming group that I’ve been with now since April of last year has been led by John Fredericks of Sharp Mountain Games and has mostly consisted of running games within the systems that John has created, Many Worlds and Streamlined Superheroes, systems that are designed for very quick play – or even solo play – and very heavily revolving around story than more numerically demanding and complicated rules. The systems have been so flexible that genres can switch quickly. The first one I played with John was Star Trek, and we’ve played other genres like high fantasy, Ghostbusters, and Supernatural with it. Finally, the latest, which we have been greatly enjoying, set in Larry MacDougall‘s Gwelf, but using John’s Many Worlds system, a version he’s calling “Woodland Warriors“, where we play a group of anthropomorphized animal adventurers. Our group consists of Borusk, badger tank; Kricklen, suave porcupine warrior; Hedgeson, rabbit scout; Huudy, wise owl healer; and my character, a magic-slime slinging bullfrog wizard named Jeremiah. Because of course. Not going to lie, this has been quite fun. John’s system is such that it never feels like the dice will really screw you over, and that it’s more about the story, entertainment, and “coolness”. I can see more hardcore tabletop purists might have an issue with the more loose rules, but it’s a system that can easily be used to play in any setting you want, not dice heavy (it only needs at most 3 d6s), and easy to understand character sheets. Great for beginners just looking to jump into tabletop or for a group of tabletop veterans just looking to have a good time and hang out with friends. Literally. John’s table that I’ve been joining has newbies like me and the rest of the group are all veterans! Certainly doesn’t hurt a good number of the guys are super-welcoming Canadians. The party returns Snikt, the nefarious rat, to the bat village that he’s been causing trouble to. Jeremiah’s Travels We started the adventure coming off a long journey and landing at a port city a ways away from the town of Gwelf. Asking around we heard rumors of a local hamlet having issues with smoke-filled skies and enraged ghosts scaring people away (this may not be exactly right, but give me a little leeway it’s been a while since we started). This led to confrontations with evil ravens, brigand rats, and large wooden machinations. We’ve met kindly hedgehog witches, unruly bear farmers, demonic spirits, paranoid bat villagers, heroic jackrabbits, priest hedgehogs, frog tavernkeepers, and many others I can’t remember. Our latest adventures had us being attacked by giant machines, directed by a no-good rat, intent on sowing discord among a village of insular bats. We tracked the machines down to a cave on the mountainside and there put an end to their infernal and unnatural intents. Continuing on to assist at the garrison wall and watchtower separating the forests around Gwelf from the northern badlands, on the way we felt massive rumbling in the ground. The rumbling seemed to be be heading in the direction of a local monastery. Hurrying that way we encountered the source: a massive millipede was being controlled by a raven witch for their own nefarious ends. After much sneaking, reconnaissance, and debate, we launched a surprise attack on the witch and multi-legged menace that started well, but we’ll see. John has been streaming our games and his solo-play sessions on Youtube. You should totally give it a follow and check out some of our actual play! It’s been fun for sure. // Ocho