New Blogger.

Please welcome Chris Helton to our blogging crew. He attended our game night and volunteered to blog Origins for us this year.

Thank You!

We want to thank everyone that came out to our first game night. We're in talks to get the same room at the same place sometime next month so keep checking back! Also, you'll find some pictures from the event on a slideshow on the sidebar along with a link to our photo album on Picasa.

Dungeons, Dragons, and Draughts

"To all ye wandering outcasts, brave warriors, and would-be heroes: Welcome home."

These are the words inscribed above the entrance way of the sturdy granite keep that houses the Victus Adventurers Union. Rising high upon the cliffs overseeing the harbor in the trade city of Blackbridge, it is within these great halls that eager young adventurers from far and wide congregate to embark upon journeys to dangerous and exotic lands; righting wrongs and slaying foul beasts and corrupt warriors alike - all for the right price, of course. It is also within these halls that we'll be beginning our D&D campaign this coming Wednesday at the inaugural Cleveland Game Night.

And I, your humble Dungeon-Master-to-be, wanted to take this opportunity to outline just what kind of game I'll be running so that you can come to the table with an idea of just what those lucky dice of yours will be rolling for.

Since we're only meeting once a month, at this point, this campaign will be episodic in nature. What I mean by that is that on a typical game night we'll start an adventure and hopefully finish it by the end of the play session. This might not always happen, but at least that is the goal. This way it is easy for players to hop in and out of the game from session to session. And what better setting to allow for something like this than that of the contracted adventurer's guild? As members of the Victus Adventurers Union, your characters will be assigned all manner of missions from the simple "go kill some stuff" quests to more complex investigative, rescue, or even diplomatic missions.

We're going to use the 3.5 edition rule set for now, as (in case you haven't yet heard) 4th edition is crazy and I wouldn't feel comfortable running a campaign without a better grasp of the rules than I have right now. I'm sure we'll jump to that at some point, but for now we're going to stick with what we all know. I am fine with any kind of character and class from any official D&D product, with the exception of all of that Unearthed Arcana bullshit. Gestalt characters? Really? Beyond that, again, anything is fine. Beguilers, Goliaths, Peerless Archers.. it's all fine by me.

We're going to start things off at 2nd level, because first level is for suckers; so think about what kind of character you want to run, so that we can get started as soon as possible! We'll be rolling characters at the bar, so no need to do that ahead of time. But it would be a good idea to at least know what you'd like to make in advance! In fact, if anyone out who is planning on showing up has an idea of what they'll be playing, leave a comment on this post so that your fellow players and I have an idea of what the group will be like!

My campaigns are a pretty good blend of action and role playing. Oh yeah, role playing. Since this is the original RPG, after all, actually getting in character is a requirement! I mean, you don't have to use a voice or wear a hat or anything; but character interactions will be played out for the most part.

As for myself, I've been running campaigns for about six years now and I like to think I do a pretty good job of it. It's my favorite hobby and pastime, and I hope to run a great game that everyone can enjoy playing! So bring those dice and books and get ready for some sweet, sweet dungeon delving this Wednesday night!

Oh, and in case no one heard.. there's a rumor (and it is just a rumor): Word is that Bar Cento just might be tapping their last keg of Christmas Ale that night. That is a critical hit, right there, ladies and gents.

Until then, as the elves say: Sweet water and light laughter until next we meet!


Jim Bradford is a dad and a secretary and a huge dork. Just don't tell the ladies that. Seriously.

Where in the Hell is Bar Cento?

Just in case anyone is too lazy to look it up themselves:

See that little A right there? That's the place.

Origins and D&D 4th Edition.

The Cleveland Victus would like to know if there's anybody out there that would want to be our blogger at Origins this year. We're looking for at least 2 - 3 blog posts about the entire event, or one a day if you're feeling ambitious. Unfortunately, we're just a poor fledgling game group so you'd be doing this just as a way of posting your opinion to some fellow Cleveland gamers and letting us know what's going down there. Shoot an email to ClevelandVictus@gmail.com if your interested.

A few members of the Victus (John, Jim, James, and Logan) are kicking off their D&D 4th Edition campaign this week and we're dying to play a few sessions and let you know how it is. The medium that we deliver it is being debated. We might podcast it or keep in in traditional type. If you've played it, looked through the books, or have an opinion of 4th Edition... leave a comment!

My Game List.

We're only 2 days away from our first game night and I figured I'd throw out a list of stuff that Laurel and myself will be bringing. Any questions on the games just shoot me a comment and I'd be glad to explain them more.

• 2 World of Warcraft Starter Decks
• Set
• Blink
• Aquarius
• Are You a Werewolf
• Poison
• Chess
• Carcassone
• Abalone
• Frag Deadlands
• Unspeakable Words
• Arkham Horror
• Settlers of Catan
• Monopoly
• Portobello Market

No knowledge of how to play these games is necessary, we will be able to teach each one painlessly. I will be trying to run an Arkham Horror game if I can get the interest in it and maybe seeing if somebody will teach me how to play the World of Warcraft CCG. We'll also be bringing a couple decks of cards for Euchre or any other card games. Please feel free to comment with any games you plan on bringing.

One More Week!

One more week till The Victus' first game night at Bar Cento and our poll on the edition of D&D we'll be running is closed. It ended in a tie and it looks like due to some of us not getting the 4E books until a couple days ago, we'll be running 3.5 this month. The game will be run by Jim Bradford and I'm most certain we can get him to post a little bit about the setting for you guys that are planning on playing. It will start around 6:30 and we'll have some pregenerated characters for you. If you want to roll your own, please show up as close to 6:00 pm as possibe so the start of the game isn't delayed. We are only planning on running one now due to not hearing from more than four or five people but we'll have someone on standby if needed to run another game.

In addition to Jim running the D&D game, there will be four other Victus running games and hoping to keep this event going smoothly. There's James Jones (xMidnightxEyesx on the blog), John Haynik, Logan Persons, and Laurel Miltner. You'll notice us greeting people, running games, and having a few drinks.

Speaking of games, big ups to Laurel for the post about this not just being one giant D&D game. We have a diverse interest in games and a profound love of board and card games. We're trying to dig up some traditional games to supplement the games we have that are a lot of fun, but not as well known. We'll try to get a list up in the next couple of days!

See you on the 18th!

Gaming: Not Just for Geeks Anymore

(This post is written by Laurel, girlfriend of James, the mastermind behind The Cleveland Victus.)

Quick note about the June 18 game night at Bar Cento - you don't have to be a hard-core gamer to attend. Anyone is welcome. In addition to D&D, we will also have some cool board games and cards. (If three other euchre-lovers show up, I am totally down.)

If you want to bring your favorite board game or card game along, too, feel free -- just make sure you feel comfortable teaching it to people who might not know how to play. (Although unfortunately, anything crazy like Twister probably won't fly.) We're pretty much up for anything, and mostly, games we play will just be determined by who wants to play what.

This whole Cleveland Victus thing is about having fun and bringing people together through games. So come. Bring a friend if you have one, or come alone and make some new ones. It will be most excellent.

Oh, and if you have any questions, you can contact us at ClevelandVictus@gmail.com.

D&D Poll

I know in a previous post we said we'd only be running D&D of the 3.5 flavor, but a few of us are getting the fourth edition books about a week before the event and wanted to possibly run either one or both games with the new rules. Since we're all about giving you guys what you want and we're really here for you, the gamers... we would like to leave it up to you! Please feel free to vote and let us know what you'd like to see there!

More Info on June 18th Event

I have a few more bits of info about our first event. It is an all ages bar/restaurant, but as we'll be there late, I wouldn't recommend anyone under the age of 16. Also, we're planning on running two D&D games if we have interested people. If you'd like to sign up, shoot an email to ClevelandVictus@gmail.com or comment here. Space is limited for both the d&d games and any other games we're running. We for sure have the back room which seats 30 roughly (10 -12 for D&D alone). If you would like to attend, please shoot an e-mail out or comment here.