OK -- who smells like gasoline?

11/16/05: More buildup of tension this week in the fantasy equivalent of Selma, Alabama -- no combat yet, mostly due to lack of anyone to fight. It's still a question of finding out who's setting the fires before we start beating on people.

The nonhumans-not-welcome tavern is still presenting plenty of candidates, but something about the whole thing still feels too straightforward. There has to be a twist here that we're not seeing. It'd certainly be funny if the supposedly-friendly half-ogre were vandalizing his own place in order to turn the town against itself.

eBill returned to play this week, but even more surprisingly, so did Kevin. An insurance-industry guy in the year of Katrina and Rita doesn't have a lot of time for outside interests, so we were thrilled that he turned up.

Next week is Thanksgiving, but maybe we'll meet again in early December.

One Giant Leap for Nerdkind

11/10/2005: After several false starts (a well-hidden on/off switch for the wireless card, a weak signal, and an uncooperative AOL app, to name a few), eBill is a reality. Bill joined us from Indianapolis via a two-inch-square webcam window. Craig dubbed our achievement "the world's first online tabletop RPG" -- though it's probably a safe bet someone else has done this before. We are now approaching the nerd factor of the kids from Galaxy Quest.

The gameplay itself suffered a bit, largely because it took us so long to reach eBill's "The eagle has landed" moment, but also because the novelty of the technology inspired some goofiness on our part. (The knight puppet wandering through Bill's field of vision would have worked better if Bruce could keep a straight face.) The only real story advancement was that our investigation into the speciesist hate crimes continues. We haven't even picked a fight yet.

BigotQuest

11/3/2005: As previously noted in Comments elsewhere, technological barriers kept the wireless network on our end from working, so we were not able to have eBill join us from Indianapolis. Maybe we'll get it worked out this week.

We tried to soldier on with the story anyway, so this week began the investigation into who tried to burn down the stables with our semi-equine friend inside. The captain of the City Watch (who seemed all too happy to hand over the case to a gang of strangers) got us started with a list of town notables to be interviewed (read: screened for species-ist tendencies).

Our best guess so far is the owner of a competing inn across town, an unpleasant woman who booted our centaur and our reptile man out of her establishment. Luckily, Kevin's Albinism didn't throw her off too much for her to confide in him. Next week, Brian's Bard will scope the place out a bit more.