More Roleplaying Rambles

Well, now I have three werewolves in play and potentially four vampires being created. One potential player withdrew, and then one of the others decided he wanted to play both a werewolf and a vampire. Such are the ways of the fluctuating pool of applicants.

For the werewolves, I'm trying to get all three of them hooked up into the same scene wherein they get to rescue Brightspot, the matriarch of the fallen caern. This will just be out in the woods somewhere. The idea is that they will take her back to their own caern, and then Brightspot will tell them all the foul deeds that have befallen her caern, and then the PCs will form a pack to go retake Brightspot's caern from the Wyrm.

That's the general outline so far. This will probably take at least a few months to fully play out. By that point, hopefully there will be enough werewolf PCs in the game that the entire pack can be them without any of my NPCs helping out.

I have nothing outlined beyond that point. The pack will have its overall mission, and hopefully they will figure out for themselves how exactly they want to go about it. For me, that will be when the fun really begins. ;) The fun part is the challenge of coming up with stuff on the spot, as I need it, and trying to keep it all consistent with whatever I made up before that point. The complexities tend to mushroom at an alarming rate, and it'll start snowballing forward for quite a wild ride.

I'm looking forward to getting the vampire side of things started too. Three of the players are excellent, and the fourth, although a bit annoying, is one that I know is good once he's actually playing. I don't think he means to be a stats munchkin. He just isn't used to creating characters as actual individual people, and I suspect he's becoming quite well enlightened on an entirely different style of roleplaying than he usually does.

In some ways I wish I had offered twice as many freebie points. The backstories I get deserve to have more points associated with them. The amount of screening I've been doing already ensures that those incapable of playing such high-powered characters will probably not make it all the way through chargen. So maybe I should've just allowed that to begin with.

It's kind of interesting also that all four of the characters are shaping up to be the bookworm type, who are more for digging up cool knowledge out of musty old tomes than killing things. I should probably make up a large, attractive library for them to stumble around in. ;) This is an interesting change of pace from the majority of werewolf applicants, who almost all wanted to play the warriors. For them, the plot is therefore going to include a lot more hack-n-slash.

I'd missed GMing without even really knowing it. There was a lot of Stargate running that I enjoyed immensely while it was going on - all of them related to writing the story and watching it unfold. (None of it related to the Stupid Player Tricks going on in the background.) Now I get to do it again, and this time I know that every single player in the game is good. All in all, I couldn't ask for a better starting group. This is going to be fun. :)

And now for an interlude ... My lentil chili recipe.

1 lb ground beef
1 large green pepper, diced
1 large can of diced tomatoes (or you can blanch, de-skin, and dice a couple fresh ones, but I find that much more of a hassle than just getting a can)
1 medium onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup lentils, washed in cold water
1 can beef broth
1 can water
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
cayenne pepper
black pepper

In a gallon pot, crumble and brown the ground beef. Drain off excess fat (if you're anti-fat).

Dump the green pepper and onion into the pot and pan fry until they stop being crisp. Put the ground beef back in and add garlic. Stir. Dump in the tomatoes, beef broth, and water. Stir some more. Add lentils. Stir. Put in all the spices.

Let simmer for 40 minutes or until lentils are cooked. Add more water if it gets too thick.

:)

The chili powder I'm currently using is something local to Arizona. My boss brought some back for me the last time he went there. (He has a lot of business trips). Your mileage may vary depending on what brand you use, but I've had reasonably good results with Tones (the kind they sell at Sam's Club), and I suspect anything you order off of http://penzeys.com will be great.

I guess you can't technically call it "chili" the way I do it, but it tastes good and i like it. ;) I use lentils because I don't like most beans. Also, lentils don't require you to soak them overnight first. And to me it tastes quite good that way.

(For other dried beans: need to soak them overnight to get them softened up and ready to cook. Don't use the water you soaked them in because that's where the compounds go that give you gas.)

I usually eat the chili topped with extra-sharp cheddar, and served over white rice. I've also used my chili over baked potatoes with sour cream.

***

Two more weeks to Labor Day. I'm getting ready for it by not doing anything other than roleplaying. Trying to save up the inspirational energy for the one big run. Running my game is helping create it, too, so it works out well. ;)

In terms of food, at the moment I have a lot. I have half a pot of the chili mentioned above and about a third of a lasagna, both of which I made last weekend. That should keep me eating well through next week. I also have a small pot of clam chowder penne - which is where I take a can of Campbell's chunky clam chowder and turn it into a pasta sauce by adding some spices and other veggies.

I have enough ingredients to make other things too - a lot of it the type that's reasonably quick to do, like frozen burgers and sandwich components. (broiled Bubba burger + toasted Lenders plain bagel + cheddar + ketchup = really good.) And a wide assortment of junk food, mostly in the form of ramen noodles, that I will probably be eating during the actual weekend itself. That and Chinese takeout. But I figure if I eat large portions of healthy things in these next two weeks, it should work out well.

In some ways it's kind of interesting how my approach to roleplaying (GMing in particular) is a lot more organic than my approach to writing. At some point I ought to sit down and make some organized comparisons between the two. But not right now. Right now I've just had an ice cream sandwich and I feel a nap coming on ...