New Session report is up!
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/sundered-empires-session-report-19/
I’m stealing “goblin head on a stick” as an encounter. At some point.
Twentieth Session! And a dragon!
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/sundered-empires-session-report-20/
Newest session report…sort of. Character recap time:
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/sundered-empires-session-report-20a-special-insert/
Thanks for sharing the character's write-ups. I love that you track the fallen.
As far as mortality: The Mortal Wounds table *seems* brutal, and compared to 2e/3e/4e, it IS brutal, but OD&D and B/X simply had death at 0hp. So ACKS is quite forgiving in comparison. I'm seeing the difference in our Opelenean Nights campaign, compared to the early sessions of our original Borderlands campaign. We lost 1 of 6 original PCs this campaign as compared to 3 of 6 then.
Thanks! Yeah reading your reports has made me realize just how lucky my guys have been! Though it’s ironic I posted this recap now…things take a turn for the grim next week…
My group isn't called "The Bloody Band" for nothing!
A wrong door starts a cascade of horror for our heroes…and they face multiple tests on the Mortal Wound table…
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/sundered-empires-session-report-21/
Harsh! Hopefully something awful...I mean awesome...will happen to the dropped players.
Alfric goes really grimdark in some email wrap up for the game.
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/sundered-empires-session-report-21a/
That's fantastic.
It's scenes like that which make me glad to not have to worry about "Good" alignment in ACKS. :)
Yeah, me too. 
And frankly, Boneshaker deserved all he got.
Interestingly, I had a similar scene happen in tonight’s session, though much less passionate. Still fun though, and while some of the characters were a bit squeamish about it, it wasn’t anything anyone was going to get too upset about.
The true foe revealed, an old foe escapes, and a frenemy joins the party…
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/sundered-empires-session-report-22/
The party make plans to assault the true villains only to find themselves whisked to another plane…
https://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/sundered-empires-session-report-23/
A beloved hireling dies, and we lose our first PC.
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/sundered-empires-session-report-24/
Oh...man. Your players behaved exactly how my players do, when presented with "do X and random, possibly good, possibly awful event occurs" situations. They responded like cats with catnip...
My playtest group once discovered a mysterious pool that, when sipped from, could yield incredible powers ("you can no longer be harmed by normal weapons") and terrible curses. They didn't stop drinking from it until one of their PCs dissolved into ochre jelly before their eyes....
Yeah, they love the random crazy!
They go on a quest for a unicorn and nearly die by trees…
http://micahblackburn.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/sundered-empires-session-report-25/
Good update! I need to read the module you are using. It sounds really trippy!
As far as your spell learning question, I didn't quite follow what the issue was - could you explain?
It is AMAZINGLY trippy. It’s X2 Castle Amber, so it’s the second Expert level module written. It’s (to me anyway) the first example of the ‘Fun House’ dungeon published by TSR. But it has a lot of cool set pieces in it, and with this one you can genuinely state that ‘a wizard did it’.
Maybe this, and Castle Greyhawk, is where that comes from.
Anyway, the problem is (as I understand it) this:
When you have a free spell slot, and time and a formula, you can learn a spell of 0 gp.
When you have no slot, and want to replace an existing spell, you can swap it for 1000xlvl gp and time.
When you don’t have a copy of your spell to study, you will lose it from memory over time.
So… it seems like that if you aren’t pressed for time (and you rarely would be when trying to learn a new spell since they take weeks) the smart (and free) thing to do would be to stop studying a spell you want to lose. Wait X weeks for it to vanish, then fill the now empty slot for 0 gp + time. Basically it saves you lvlx1000 gp by simply taking twice the time.
And if that is true, then what does the gp cost represent that you can so easily bypass? That’s where my confusion is coming from. I understand (I think) what’s going on from a game-balance perspective, I’m just trying to figure out the narrative that is occurring.
And of course, maybe I have it entirely wrong!