Author: Spencer

Wisps of Time is the intersection of my passions for games, family, writing, and the web — a place where I can explore these topics for my own enjoyment and share them with you. When it comes to our interests, it’s not about “having” time, it’s about making time. I hope I can help you to make time for these things in your life, too.

What ho, Blog Demons?

Spencer 2020-08-24 6063 Comments Off on What ho, Blog Demons?
Incessant Rambling

How to break the ice after nearly a year and half? It’s been about that long since my last post. Sure, I’ve started plenty of posts in that interim period — Black Blade #5 (the conclusion), posts on SHOctober, Solo-a-Module Month, and SGAM, among others — but they were never finished. Will they be? I don’t know! You see, I spend a great deal of time and effort in trying to figure out what to do with my very limited free time — which usually results in a lot of not doing anything, or at best, a doing lot of research…

Black Blade of the Demon King – Session 4

Spencer 2019-02-25 6841 Comments Off on Black Blade of the Demon King – Session 4
Actual Plays

  Session 3 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. Just as Vincent and Shira had met The Wildcard, Karsten-doo, it seemed as though Hades was set loose when meteors began raining from the sky and an enraged ice giant appeared in the fjord, smashing the place up. Unfortunately, that’s not all… Act 1: Day 2 (Continued) Scene 3 (Continued) | Chaos 5 From the entrance of the Avonmore Arms, Vincent, Shira, Hisham, and Calleagh bear witness to two massive meteor strikes both South (in the ruins, 7 on the map) and North (in the obsidian trader village, 9 on the map) of…

Tarot for Solo RPG: Conflict

Spencer 2018-09-10 12208 Comments Off on Tarot for Solo RPG: Conflict
Resources

Some time ago, I discovered a free game called Dungeon Solitaire: Tomb of Four Kings. It’s a “dungeon delve” game played with a deck of poker cards, not wholly unlike the Solitaire you’ve probably played before but obviously with a dungeon crawling theme behind it. I enjoy the game and I’m grateful to have it in my head (the basics are quite simple) for those times when I’m bored and a pack of cards is at hand.  To get on with the point, I shortly found out there are expanded rules for the game, called Labyrinth of Souls, which uses Tarot cards in…

The Iron Vow of Ulthor: Chapter 3

Spencer 2018-08-28 5219 Comments Off on The Iron Vow of Ulthor: Chapter 3
Actual Plays

  Ulthor has made a new vow to Aid Atani. Though it’s a detour from Avenging Maura’s Death and Proving His Innocence, he’s hoping this quest will help him to forge new Bonds with the elves, gain their favor, and ultimately their assistance in fulfilling those vows from “the outside-in”. Scene 4: The Journey South It’s time to Take a Journey, but is Ulthor’s elven friend Kerihu coming along for the ride? I Ask the Oracle with 50/50 odds (>50): 7 → Most definitely not. Kerihu has his own duties to fulfill. lthor sets out alone, heading south along the edge of…

The Iron Vow of Ulthor: Chapter 2

Spencer 2018-08-26 5378 Comments Off on The Iron Vow of Ulthor: Chapter 2
Actual Plays

  When last we left Ulthor, he’d been accused of murdering his forbidden love, Maura, and was forced to flee the port town of Ravencliff. With no friends in the place, and now the ire of a powerful enemy, he was left with no recourse but to escape to the Deep Wilds — home of the elves, the elder beasts, and horrors unknown. As a Wayfinder, however, Ulthor is not entirely helpless, alone in the forest. Or is he … ? Scene 2: The Deep Wilds lthor arrives on the edge of the forest at dusk. The overseer’s guards in…

In Which I Swear an Iron Vow

Spencer 2018-08-17 7176 Comments Off on In Which I Swear an Iron Vow
Actual Plays

I like oldschool role-playing games, retro-clones, the OSR… all that good stuff. I’ve played a few games off that beaten path over the years, like Shadowrun and Changeling (nWoD, or whatever they’re calling it now), but mostly I just enjoy the heck out of D&D-esque games. Not that other things don’t catch my interest (such as the Gumshoe and FATE systems)… Dungeon World is a name you’ll see in the OSR community (or really any RPG community), even if only passing. It isn’t technically a retro-clone at all: it’s a very narrative-focused game, but it aims for that oldschool spirit, I…

Black Blade of the Demon King – Session 3

Spencer 2018-07-05 4676 Comments Off on Black Blade of the Demon King – Session 3
Actual Plays

  We left the party sleeping, warm and cozy in their bunks at the end of Day 1. A new day dawns, but first I wanted to retrospect a little bit on a.) what’s taking so long and b.) how things are progressing. Recap a.) Real life has been in the way of the blog, this actual play, and pretty much anything resembling free time or hobbies since the last post. A good 3+ months have passed in the real world and my day job has been a killer, we’ve sold our old home, bought a new one, packed, moved,…

Solo-A-Module Month

Spencer 2018-07-04 4946 Comments Off on Solo-A-Module Month
Community

Solo-A-Module Month If you weren’t aware, some of us inadvertently spawned an official Solo-A-Module Month over at the Lone Wolf Roleplaying G+ group, giving March a thematic focus on soloing published modules, sharing tactics for doing so, and publishing actual play reports. As you may know, my first solitaire role-playing experience was an attempt to solo a module, and, while it was entertaining, it wasn’t nearly as meaningful or immersive as the free-form, emergent play I’ve experienced since. I’d always hoped to return to module play with a better strategy for bringing it up to snuff with those emergent play…

Cards and Role-playing Games

Bicycle Black Tiger Playing Cards
Spencer 2018-07-03 15187 Comments Off on Cards and Role-playing Games
Resources

  A few days months ago on the Lone Wolf Roleplaying G+ Community I inquired as to whom might be using cards in their RPG sessions. I’d started out shying away from cards, preferring to soak up the nostalgia of rolling polyhedral dice, but have recently become more intrigued by cards thanks to playing the Dungeon Solitaire games. I started snatching up cards left and right and now have several decks piled about, including the complete GameMaster’s Apprentice decks from the recent Fantasy Deck Kickstarter. Cards in Solo RPG The results were somewhat surprising, to me at least. A good 60%…

Black Blade of the Demon King – Session 2

Spencer 2018-03-15 6507 Comments Off on Black Blade of the Demon King – Session 2
Actual Plays

  Last time was quite a bit of setup and a teeny weensy bit of actual play. This time ought to be the inverse, so sharpen your swords mates! Act 1: Day 1 Continued We left off with Hisham having a little investigative chat with one of the competing Blade seekers, Haruk. It occurred to me between sessions that I ought to see if Haruk and the other 10 seekers are in a party or parties, or acting on their own. We also need to make a roll to see if The Cold decide to attack… and I also thought…

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