What are y'all up to these days?

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I'm resuming my Roll20 AS&SH game this Monday. It's been on hiatus for a couple months while moving. In the meantime, I picked up DungeonDraft, so the dungeon we left off on:
Asyloneos Entry.png
has become:
Asyloneos Entry - New.png

Should be fun exploring.
 
Nothing in the gaming department.

People in my group are getting online (mostly Discord) gaming done, but I am reticent to join in — even though I really miss gaming, GMing in particular — because right now I feel my wife and kid really need me when I get home.

Could be just an excuse I’m giving myself. Maybe I’ve finally burned out on years of dissonance between what I want to do and what I actually get to do in this complicated little hobby of ours.

But whatever the reason, I am taking a break.
 
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Nothing in the gaming department.

People in my group are getting online (mostly Discord) gaming done, but I am reticent to join in — even though I really miss gaming, GMing in particular — because right now I feel my wife and kid really need me when I get home.

Could be just an excuse I’m giving myself. Maybe I’ve finally burned out on years of dissonance between what I want to do and what I actually get to do in this complicated little hobby of ours.

But whatever the reason, I am taking a break.
What is it that you want to do? And what do you get to do?
 
What is it that you want to do? And what do you get to do?

I want to run/play several long-term campaigns, with regularly scheduled sessions, with the same group.

What I actually get to do is loose adventures and short mini-campaigns. People start campaigns and drop them for whatever reason, never to return. I get all worked up (be it as a player or GM) and one day a game doesn’t get scheduled for whatever reason and the game just... dies.

Not having the prep time I’d like to have is a lesser issue — I have my methods — but it does annoy a bit too.
 
Metahuman News
The concepts of Yin and Yang, push and pull flowing through nature. This week we explore Chen-Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan, a style both the spiritual and the martial. We hope this article captures a fragment of the complex nature of T'ai Chi .

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HouseDokPro

Website: http://housedok.com/

Print: https://studio2publishing.com/products/metahumans-rising?_pos=2&_sid=145b3fa95&_ss=r\

PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/277614/Metahumans-Rising

#Metahumans #MetahumansRising #Superheroes #RPG #TTRPG #MartialArts #TaiChi
 
My weekly Apocalypse World with 5 players hit a snag when one play can only play once or twice a month. We decided to go with an alternate game when he can't make it and went with John Carter of Mars (2d20). I've always wanted to game in Barsoom, so this is my chance. The group made characters together last time. They are all earthborn so they can all explore Mars for the first time as a group.

The group is a British doctor from 1880 who is in search of his father, a physicist who disappeared 20 years ago, only to show up un-aged and left again after 2 days. The rest of the team is made up of 1. a former colleague of the father from the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, 2. a soldier-of-fortune, and 3. a big game hunter affiliated with the museum. We made these and started the journey across the Atlantic to find the doctor's father who appears to be headed to a remote section of the Andes mountains in Peru.

john-carter-of-mars-book-60058.jpg
 
Well, I've joked before about looking forward to by first TPK. I guess I just assumed I would be on the other side of the screen when it happened.

So our DCC characters had managed to track down the lich to his mountain lair. Once inside, the (electronic) dice decided we had somehow offended them, as our dice rolls were almost uniformly awful. Getting past the lich's traps and guardians cost us the majority of our henchmen, as well as all of us taking some hits along the way.

We managed to find the lich's phylactery, protected by magical wards that both prevented entry and doubled back any offensive/damaging spells multifold. That's when the lich showed up, and our dice rolls continued to suck. Very quickly we had lost our few remaining henchmen, the halfling was turned to stone, the dwarf polymorphed into a giant slug, and the cleric and my wizard each down to single digit hit points. Figuring at this point we were going to die anyways, we decided that we would at least try to take the undead bastard with us.

The cleric read the Cause Earthquake spell she had acquired at the warded phylactery (finally rolling a nat 20), burning all of her remaining Luck as she did so. At the same time, I cast Fireball at the lich, not only burning my few remaining points of Luck, but also spellburing all of my remaining physical attribute points, as I ripped my heart out from my chest with my inhuman hand. The lich's physical form was destroyed by the fireball, as the reflected earthquake caused the entire mountain stronghold to collapse, destroying the phylactery and the entire complex in the process.

...so yeah, end of campaign. At the very least, it was certainly memorable. Not certain what we'll be doing next, although the youngest of our group, now that he's back home from college for at least the next few months, has talked about trying to run a D&D 5e campaign for us. I might also try to resurrect by Cepheus Engine game, although I'm a bit wary about trying to run two different campaigns (with two very different systems) at the same time, much less that I would be doing so on the same day.
 
Just took a lockdown punt (?) on the Alien rpg as it is good value (£10 while C7 wants £25 for Soulbound...).

Looks really impressive in many ways; a gritty almost cyberpunk-ish sci fi setting with the added bonus of the most overused aliens in sci fi :grin:

Sort of what I would want the Expanse to be, but isn't
 
Ran a very successful Knave session last night via Roll20.net. The group seemed to have good fun. I was worried that our historically rules-heavy group wouldn't go for a light game. But on the other hand, we just came off a Shadowrun campaign, so rules-lite might have been a relief.

The players haggled with an ogre bouncer, fought arsenic-soaked wallpaper golems, failed to negotiate with an underground fight organiser, rescued a rich wastrel and impressed a fae diplomat out of an elaborate suicide plan.

Next week I start them on a playtest for my procedural Victorian mansion dungeon adventure.
 
still working on my next session of Astounding Space Adventures. Mainly I need to stat up the various NPCs, and flesh out my notes for the weird stuff that will take place.

I also think I finally got everyone set up for a Supers! RED one shot I'll be running soon. The first 3 players made characters quickly. The last player took almost 2 weeks of discourse on and off in chat to finish. He's the only one who doesn't have a copy of the rules, and coming from M&M, had serious trouble understanding while I tried to help him make a character. He finally started to comprehend stuff, and the character was finished yesterday. Now to plan out that session hopefully next week). I've never had that much trouble before, which I attribute to having to do it all via text (as our schedules rarely lined up to have enough time to go to voice chat). I just hope after all that, they have fun playing.
 
Well, I've joked before about looking forward to by first TPK. I guess I just assumed I would be on the other side of the screen when it happened.

So our DCC characters had managed to track down the lich to his mountain lair. Once inside, the (electronic) dice decided we had somehow offended them, as our dice rolls were almost uniformly awful. Getting past the lich's traps and guardians cost us the majority of our henchmen, as well as all of us taking some hits along the way.

We managed to find the lich's phylactery, protected by magical wards that both prevented entry and doubled back any offensive/damaging spells multifold. That's when the lich showed up, and our dice rolls continued to suck. Very quickly we had lost our few remaining henchmen, the halfling was turned to stone, the dwarf polymorphed into a giant slug, and the cleric and my wizard each down to single digit hit points. Figuring at this point we were going to die anyways, we decided that we would at least try to take the undead bastard with us.

The cleric read the Cause Earthquake spell she had acquired at the warded phylactery (finally rolling a nat 20), burning all of her remaining Luck as she did so. At the same time, I cast Fireball at the lich, not only burning my few remaining points of Luck, but also spellburing all of my remaining physical attribute points, as I ripped my heart out from my chest with my inhuman hand. The lich's physical form was destroyed by the fireball, as the reflected earthquake caused the entire mountain stronghold to collapse, destroying the phylactery and the entire complex in the process.

...so yeah, end of campaign. At the very least, it was certainly memorable. Not certain what we'll be doing next, although the youngest of our group, now that he's back home from college for at least the next few months, has talked about trying to run a D&D 5e campaign for us. I might also try to resurrect by Cepheus Engine game, although I'm a bit wary about trying to run two different campaigns (with two very different systems) at the same time, much less that I would be doing so on the same day.
Congratulations! If you've got to die, die in style:grin:!
 
Still running my AD&D Spelljammer game (session tonight!) though the system is increasingly grating on my nerves-- I keep eyeing my copy of the Rules Cyclopedia and my growing library of B/X and BECMI clones and wondering just how much of Player's Option I can get away with shoving into one of them.

I've been trying to type up a simple list of my mechanical and aesthetic influcens-- my Appendix N-- for over a week now and I've gotten nowhere with it. This isn't even work, this is a wishlist for work, and I am proven so far utterly incapable. This is... as frustrating as it would seem to be.

I need to make up a new character for the Dresden Files game on Fridays. The squid messiah is clearly not going to work.
 
Got my copies from Lulu of "Lawmen V Outlaws" today. Even if it's just vanity press, it is still thrill to see your game properly printed. I normally do a small, personal print run on my games but I hadn't bothered with this one till now as it's such a slim set of rules. But between lockdown and the Lulu 20% off offer, it was hard to resist.
 
Still running my AD&D Spelljammer game (session tonight!) though the system is increasingly grating on my nerves-- I keep eyeing my copy of the Rules Cyclopedia and my growing library of B/X and BECMI clones and wondering just how much of Player's Option I can get away with shoving into one of them.
One of the main reasons that I use B/X is that it is D&D at its simplest. If there is an option in another version of D&D that catches my eye, it is easy enough to shove it in there. When it comes to house ruling, it's a lot easier to start with something simple and add options on than to start with something complicated and have the house rules be a mish-mash of additions, subtractions and substitutions.

I think that's also the reason for its general popularity in the OSR scene, which attracts people who love to tinker with the rules.
 
Metahuman News
The concepts of Yin and Yang, push and pull flowing through nature. This week we explore Chen-Style T'ai Chi Ch'uan, a style both the spiritual and the martial. We hope this article captures a fragment of the complex nature of T'ai Chi .

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HouseDokPro

Website: http://housedok.com/

Print: https://studio2publishing.com/products/metahumans-rising?_pos=2&_sid=145b3fa95&_ss=r\

PDF: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/277614/Metahumans-Rising

#Metahumans #MetahumansRising #Superheroes #RPG #TTRPG #MartialArts #TaiChi
OK, I read it and I don't understand. Why isn't Set-Up mentioned a lot more:shock:?
The closest it seems to get to this is,I think, the "Counter Disable: Active Defense – Stagger". I guess that's staggering the opponent when he is attacking...right?
But where is the set-up where you stagger the opponent offensively? And yes, offense is very much part of Chen (and Yang) Tai Chi. Some masters were noted for liking to "go first, emit strength and win".
 
Got my AS&SH crew back together last night for the first time in two months. We were down one player, but had a new player join, so still had a solid party of four. Since we left off in the midst of a dungeon that the adventurers were exploring primarily to look for something for the missing PC, they decided to head to surface and met up with the new PC.
The party went looking for work and learned about a bounty on an adventurer who had recovered an artifact from the ruins of old Khromarium without greasing the proper palms. That adventurer and his hirelings had fled town and taken up with a vicious hyena-man bandit. I whipped up a quick cave bandit hideout map and the party was able to track them to their lair.
Bandit Hideout.png

We had a pretty fun encounter. Bandit archers firing at the party as they tried to cross the western bridge, so the party's viking barbarian made a made rush towards them. He missed the hyena-man flanking from the east, but our amazonian warlock managed to grease the cave ground to trip him up on his charge. Although the thief was initially peppered with arrows pretty good, the melee that ensued was wrapped up in a few quick rounds and they managed to find the outlaw adventurer, although after some negotiations decided to let him live in exchange for the artifact.
Now the party is debating keep it (a tome of forbidden knowledge) or turning it in for the reward.
In any case, it's great to be gaming again.
 
Before the lockdown I was running Forbidden Lands.

Since the lockdown I've run Old-School Essentials the Hole in the Oak, Survive This!! Zombies!, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Ryuutama, and Call of Cthulhu all online. SotDL and Ryuutama continue to be ongoing and STZ was a three-shot.

I also continue to write articles for EN World and my world building column for Geek Native.

I'm reading a lot of RPGs also. The Haunted Highlands for Castles & Crusades, City of Mist, Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook and Cthulhu Dark Ages, plus the RPGs I've been running.
 
OK, I read it and I don't understand. Why isn't Set-Up mentioned a lot more:shock:?
The closest it seems to get to this is,I think, the "Counter Disable: Active Defense – Stagger". I guess that's staggering the opponent when he is attacking...right?
But where is the set-up where you stagger the opponent offensively? And yes, offense is very much part of Chen (and Yang) Tai Chi. Some masters were noted for liking to "go first, emit strength and win".

Great question, and hopefully I don't contradict my own work to much in this response. (Added links to relevant articles for anyone who wants additional points of reference.)

How Set Up has been used so far: When trying to convert these martial arts for Metahumans Rising Set Up has generally fallen into styles where you might want to chain attacks, or combos. These styles tend to be more striking focused. With the exception of Gracie Barra Braziallian Jiu Jitsu, which uses Set Up as an acknowledgement that some foes may be harder to grapple right away and you will need to get them to lower their guard. Their Size Up combo working to mitigating both Defense, and Armor. (This combo will show up again in Wing Chun.)

To address the questions around Chen-Style T'ai Chi more directly. This may be my perception but our interpretation of Chen-Style was defensive and to the point. Each Combo begins with an Active Defense, and ends with an Attack designed to end the fight, the exception being Counter Strike which was included for high offense foes where you don't want to sacrifice too much of your Defense value on Maneuvers. One of the things I tried to bring across was that Chen-Style wasn't as flashy as some other martial arts but could quickly fell opponents.

Counter Disable is a fun combo because when successful, not only has the character avoided being hit, they mitigate the attack's ability to act. This is particularly fun against mobs, as a Chen Style martial artist can leave multiple foes dazed and unable to act as they only need to do 3 Damage after Armor. That gives the character, and presumably the rest of the team a full turn to act. Against tougher foes, i.e. full characters, not background characters, this bar goes up to 6 Damage, to Stagger the foe for a full turn. If we use the Super Style example, swapping Counter Pressure Strike for Counter Disable and (S) Power Strike for (S) Stagger you end up with a great Active Defense and solid Damage before rolling.

The reason I went with Counter Pressure Strike as the specialty instead of Counter Disable was because I thought it played more to the ideal of being connected to everything, as a portion of Damage would always go through. Of course, I made sure to build these styles so that they could be taken as is off the shelf and leave the character 10 AP to play around with, so there is no reason the character can't have both.

All that said, if you feel the build is still off base, I'm open to revisions, if you want to point me to a website, or videos that might help me understand the style a bit better.
 
I don't pretend to understand Tai Chi, any style, all that well, Certified Certified :smile:! And I admit that I'm going off what I remember from Fractured Kingdom (which, as I understand it, shares the same system).

Still, a very basic move I've seen in many, many Chinese arts is to push the enemy's limb or body to take him off-base. Having felt it from different practitioners, I can attest that sometimes the difference between a push and punch is minimal, there.
And, well, once you're off-base...you can guess what's about to happen:wink:.

Sure, it's often done after deflecting or voiding an attack...but sometimes it's done when the enemy is preparing to attack, but hasn't actually begun his move yet. Which, to me, is offensive enough in system terms.
(I mean, not many systems distinguish between attacking first, attacking during the preparation, defend then attack and defend-and-attack-before-recovery, anyway. Usually the first and third option are covered, sometimes the fourth. The Riddle of Steel is the only one I can name that did a decent job of covering them all, though...and the problem is, what I've seen of Tai Chi is meant to work with options 2 and 4:shade:).
 
I don't pretend to understand Tai Chi, any style, all that well, Certified Certified :smile:! And I admit that I'm going off what I remember from Fractured Kingdom (which, as I understand it, shares the same system).

Of the various styles I've posted the only one I'm personally familiar with is Shorin Ryu. One of my friends runs a studio out of his home, or he did prior to Covid 19 lock downs. Actually, for a bit of context, I asked him for a clip of him teaching class or doing a demo the Shorin Ryu post, but he hadn't recorded anything. Also, tangentially familiar with Shotokan as two other friends study that style. Worked with a guy who took a flavor of Kung-Fu but I forget what exactly he was studying, but he liked to practice when it was slow at work. Saying all this makes me realize how prevalent martial arts is through Las Vegas.... but I digress.

And I admit that I'm going off what I remember from Fractured Kingdom (which, as I understand it, shares the same system).

Fractured Kingdom and Metahumans Rising share the same resolution engine. Character creation is radically different, shifting away from Boon chains to building powers and introducing more narrative elements into the process. All the combat skills were stripped out because of how we handled powers, becoming aspects of someone's Fighting Style if they had one. This was done to allow players more control over how their character worked.

Still, a very basic move I've seen in many, many Chinese arts is to push the enemy's limb or body to take him off-base. Having felt it from different practitioners, I can attest that sometimes the difference between a push and punch is minimal, there.

As we're discussing this I'm working on the entry for Shotokan, still a few weeks off, and this is a topic I'm having to give a lot of through on hoe to represent just due to the, let's say, potent nature of a solid block. Generally speaking though, Metahumans Rising treats any action that is not inherently inflicting damage as an Active Defense. This allows the action to be described as a block, dodge, no selling an actual hit, or anything else that fits narratively. For example, Nox, a darkness manipulator, might turn into shadow momentarily to avoid a hit as an Active Defense. At the same time, Bulwark, the living volcano, just doesn't have time to get hurt. Both make the same type of roll, but the contributing characteristics and the narrative feel of the action are radically different.

With that in mind lets look at that defensive push and game mechanics. When taking a Combo action, the player rolls only rolls once, using the result to resolve each of the components involved. Set Up gives you a bonus to your next Action. Because Combos are resolved with with a single roll the bonus from the Set Up would not be applied until the next Action. Technically you could have a Combo of Set Up - Attack, but the Attack within the Combo would not gain the bonus from Set Up. To avoid confusion, when using Set Up in a Combo I like to put it at the end.

For T'ai Chi, my thought was to have very direct repercussions for attacking the martial artist. The active defense going directly into a maneuver that would end the battle. To do this, the maneuver should be inside the combo as it removes the opponent's opportunity to react. Using Set Up places a pause between actions, which comes with pros and cons. Pro: The player can follow up with anything and retain the bonus. Con: While harder, the foe has a chance to react.

Some of the martial arts still to come include Wing Chun and Aiki-Jujutsu both use these types of shifting pushes, but here it's represented by a Set Up instead of an Active Defense, or in one case with an Active Defense, to represent this kind of pause in the chain before executing the next action. Again, hopefully we do both styles justice.

Sure, it's often done after deflecting or voiding an attack...but sometimes it's done when the enemy is preparing to attack, but hasn't actually begun his move yet. Which, to me, is offensive enough in system terms.
(I mean, not many systems distinguish between attacking first, attacking during the preparation, defend then attack and defend-and-attack-before-recovery, anyway. Usually the first and third option are covered, sometimes the fourth. The Riddle of Steel is the only one I can name that did a decent job of covering them all, though...and the problem is, what I've seen of Tai Chi is meant to work with options 2 and 4:shade:).

While we don't call it out as explicitly, one of the goals of the combat rules was to allow players and GMs the flexibility to get as deep into the nuances as they felt fit the group. It is completely possible to create foes that can't be punched into submission, can are still susceptible to other combat maneuvers, or tacticians that know when to use an Active Defense, allow themselves to be hit, or attempt to Interrupt an Attack with their with their own. Take a look at the entry for Capoeira it is a deceptively aggressive style that should encourage players to attempt to interrupt an attack instead of defending.
 
OSE, Session 5: nothing particularly funny this time--we just traveled deeper into the Barrowmaze, killed a buttload of disgusting giant flies, and nearly lost two characters (both of whom were saved by my Friar's command of spells and herbs).
 
Of the various styles I've posted the only one I'm personally familiar with is Shorin Ryu. One of my friends runs a studio out of his home, or he did prior to Covid 19 lock downs. Actually, for a bit of context, I asked him for a clip of him teaching class or doing a demo the Shorin Ryu post, but he hadn't recorded anything. Also, tangentially familiar with Shotokan as two other friends study that style. Worked with a guy who took a flavor of Kung-Fu but I forget what exactly he was studying, but he liked to practice when it was slow at work. Saying all this makes me realize how prevalent martial arts is through Las Vegas.... but I digress.
It's likely got more to do with you being a practitioner:smile:. People often become friends with those who have similar interests...no idea whether your conclusion about LV is true or not, but I'm just saying that there's probably a lot of people in your city who know less practitioners than you.

Fractured Kingdom and Metahumans Rising share the same resolution engine. Character creation is radically different, shifting away from Boon chains to building powers and introducing more narrative elements into the process. All the combat skills were stripped out because of how we handled powers, becoming aspects of someone's Fighting Style if they had one. This was done to allow players more control over how their character worked.
More narrative elements? Not sure I like the sound of that...:wink:

As we're discussing this I'm working on the entry for Shotokan, still a few weeks off, and this is a topic I'm having to give a lot of through on hoe to represent just due to the, let's say, potent nature of a solid block. Generally speaking though, Metahumans Rising treats any action that is not inherently inflicting damage as an Active Defense. This allows the action to be described as a block, dodge, no selling an actual hit, or anything else that fits narratively. For example, Nox, a darkness manipulator, might turn into shadow momentarily to avoid a hit as an Active Defense. At the same time, Bulwark, the living volcano, just doesn't have time to get hurt. Both make the same type of roll, but the contributing characteristics and the narrative feel of the action are radically different.
But a block could well be inflicting damage (jamming a fist, for example). Do you need a combo for that or what?

With that in mind lets look at that defensive push and game mechanics. When taking a Combo action, the player rolls only rolls once, using the result to resolve each of the components involved. Set Up gives you a bonus to your next Action. Because Combos are resolved with with a single roll the bonus from the Set Up would not be applied until the next Action. Technically you could have a Combo of Set Up - Attack, but the Attack within the Combo would not gain the bonus from Set Up. To avoid confusion, when using Set Up in a Combo I like to put it at the end.
That's an interesting aproach. But why do you believe that you need a pause to benefit from the set-up? My experience is more or less the opposite of that...:grin:
And if your damage is being improved by a better success (I seem to remember this, but don't have the books open here), that's kinda short-selling the move.

For T'ai Chi, my thought was to have very direct repercussions for attacking the martial artist. The active defense going directly into a maneuver that would end the battle. To do this, the maneuver should be inside the combo as it removes the opponent's opportunity to react. Using Set Up places a pause between actions, which comes with pros and cons. Pro: The player can follow up with anything and retain the bonus. Con: While harder, the foe has a chance to react.
Yes, that's the defensive application, alright. I'm just saying the exact same move using Peng can be applied offensively.

Some of the martial arts still to come include Wing Chun and Aiki-Jujutsu both use these types of shifting pushes, but here it's represented by a Set Up instead of an Active Defense, or in one case with an Active Defense, to represent this kind of pause in the chain before executing the next action. Again, hopefully we do both styles justice.
It's a matter of taste, I guess. To me, it would come back to the above question: why do you feel a pause after the push makes your attack more likely to succeed:shade:?

While we don't call it out as explicitly, one of the goals of the combat rules was to allow players and GMs the flexibility to get as deep into the nuances as they felt fit the group.
I fully agree with that approach:thumbsup:!

It is completely possible to create foes that can't be punched into submission, can are still susceptible to other combat maneuvers, or tacticians that know when to use an Active Defense, allow themselves to be hit, or attempt to Interrupt an Attack with their with their own. Take a look at the entry for Capoeira it is a deceptively aggressive style that should encourage players to attempt to interrupt an attack instead of defending.
Yeah, I noticed that - the same trick was used in your Muay Femur entry, wasn't it?

Though it seems that at this point we might as well have a new thread.
 
in the course of 30 minutes my crew went from a star wars game to a world of weirdness ww2 crossed with rifts where a robotic werewolf necromancer and Eric the Redwire, a bomb disposal expert and viking, are on the same team. some choice notes below
and on the Brink of a new WW2, as the Nazi Occult Regime spreads through Poland, the emergence of an Airship industry, combined with the resurgence of Norse Religion, makes the Danes and such want to bring back their Viking Heritage

but the Pax Britania banned such heathen ways
Now the Pax is crumbling and people can do what they want
since the God Queen Victoria has been killed
maybe America is led by a council of warlocks, because it's more democratic

or cybermancers because Self Improvement

self improvement seems more nazis, unless we go with the purity thing

then they have the whole genetic modification business

industrial revolution taken to the extreme

that's america's angle
harnessed demons and spirits, industrializtion by spiritual slavery

and self reliance

mmm, i like this idea. the south really didn't die. the north agreed that enslaving spirits was OK

Right, Human Slavery stopped being the economical option

Spiritual Abolitionists

it gets quite a chunk crazier.
 
Friday is going to be nuts. We (me, GM, other player that reads the rules) sent Out a web page with an abbreviated combat section to help facilitate. I am 100% certain that most all will not do their homework. This is going to make me just go “if you aren’t going to put in the time to learn the rules, why bother putting together a game for you?” Truth, I’m fine if they don’t want to learn a new system, but they aren’t even trying. And that bothers me.
 
Friday is going to be nuts. We (me, GM, other player that reads the rules) sent Out a web page with an abbreviated combat section to help facilitate. I am 100% certain that most all will not do their homework. This is going to make me just go “if you aren’t going to put in the time to learn the rules, why bother putting together a game for you?” Truth, I’m fine if they don’t want to learn a new system, but they aren’t even trying. And that bothers me.
"If you can't be bothered to learn the rules, we're playing Mythras and I'm holding your character sheets. You just tell me what you do, and I'll tell you what to roll."
Yes, I've been there.
 
"If you can't be bothered to learn the rules, we're playing Mythras and I'm holding your character sheets. You just tell me what you do, and I'll tell you what to roll."
Yes, I've been there.

just about there! we will see tomorrow. we talked about doing a gonzo over the top setting, but I think I'm inclined towards something smaller and more contained like Mythras "Wanted: Dead or Alive" or cyberpunk or vikings find that Vinland is actually Monster Island.
 
Been getting into the d20 System again for old time's sake, namely Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and the BESM d20 book from the early 2000's.

Thinking about doing some kit-bashing to have a campaign that uses a mix of D&D 3.5 and BESM d20
 
Thanks to all the constant praise it gets on this forums, I've decided to try running Mythras Thurday nights. Got four players together, all new to the system, so we can learn together, and we ran through character creation last night. It took nearly three hours, but that included a good amount of discussion about the setting, and Roll20 was acting up so two of the players couldn't update their own sheets, so they used a fillable pdf and then I entered them into Roll20. Hopefully that issue gets sorted out.
By the end though I felt like we had a decent group of characters. A wealthy priest from an aristocratic family, a scholar who has is maybe digging into knowledge not meant for man, a warrior born out of a terrible massacre, a woodsman who walked away from the obligations of nobility. Everyone liked the background events and family/connection generation rolls for filling in some ideas.
I've been listening to Raleel's podcast and reading the WIR on TBP to try to absorb as much of the game as I can. I'll start the group off on the adventure Sariniya's Curse and see what hooks from there.
 
Thanks to all the constant praise it gets on this forums, I've decided to try running Mythras Thurday nights. Got four players together, all new to the system, so we can learn together, and we ran through character creation last night. It took nearly three hours, but that included a good amount of discussion about the setting, and Roll20 was acting up so two of the players couldn't update their own sheets, so they used a fillable pdf and then I entered them into Roll20. Hopefully that issue gets sorted out.
By the end though I felt like we had a decent group of characters. A wealthy priest from an aristocratic family, a scholar who has is maybe digging into knowledge not meant for man, a warrior born out of a terrible massacre, a woodsman who walked away from the obligations of nobility. Everyone liked the background events and family/connection generation rolls for filling in some ideas.
I've been listening to Raleel's podcast and reading the WIR on TBP to try to absorb as much of the game as I can. I'll start the group off on the adventure Sariniya's Curse and see what hooks from there.
When running a first session for people, the biggest potential stumbling block is if players get hung up on picking combat special effects. If you think that might be an issue for your group, then you can give each player a custom list of no more than five special effects that play to their skills and weapons. I still let players pick from the full list, but they can wade out into the deeper waters of the system as they choose.

Good luck with the game.
 
Baulderstone Baulderstone thanks, I'll definitely do that. The two more combat oriented characters are players that have been in my other games for a while so I know their style and think they'll pick up on it pretty quickly and will really enjoy the tactical level. At this point I'm a bit more concerned with learning all the magic systems. I'd wanted to keep it fairly simple with just folk magic and theism, but of course there's always that player that needs something more, so sorcery and animism are in the mix as well.
 
We played the second adventure in my SWADE Last Parsec game, set on Eris Beta V. The PCs are a three-member trouble shooter squad for JumpCorp, the megacorp that runs Eris Beta V (and most everything else in the campaign backdrop). After fumbling the ball somewhat on their first mission for their handler (Maruul Soteeg - a four-armed Kalian) she called them up in an urgent need, summoning them to JumpSci's main lab on the Harmony Station...

They arrive to a literal murder scene, with a dead scientist, bleeding heavily from the nose, eyes and ears. His assistant is a quivering wreck. Soteeg explains that the dead man is a scientist and friend of hers - Geldar Barnath. Soteeg had previously told the PCs she has reason not to trust the local JumpSec law enforcement, so she asks the team to investigate. After gathering some info very successfully, one of the PCs fumbles their Hacking roll and sets of the fire alarm by mistake, dousing the room in retardant and setting off all the klaxons. They retire across the street to a coffee shop, exiting the building during the evacuation, and both look at the evidence gathered and gently interview his shook up assistant. She doesn't know much more, but they have video of a quite distinct looking man storming in, challenging Barnath and then killing him (the PCs had identified he died from a massive brain haemorrhage, and since he was a researcher into the military application of alien tech they suspect this might have been used on him).

One thing the party do learn is that the has been scandal in the Voidman tech community, and there are rumours that Barnath had been stealing other scientist's research. The players get a fairly good ID of the suspect and trace him to the second largest alien tech company also on the station. They decide to investigate.

One of the cool things in Savage Worlds is the Adventure Deck. One of the PCs had a card that allowed them to play it on an NPC who starts to develop a crush on them. They played it on the assistant and this ultimately turned out to be quite pivotal later in the investigation.

The party split up, two going to scope out StarSpan whilst the third takes the assistant home safe.

Whilst checking out the StarSpan office they realise that they themselves have been followed by someone who is watching them, quite openly. As the third party member joins them they confront him and he introduces himself as yet another alien tech scientist, Linus Mahir. The party are initially suspicious, and they are right to be, as the argument between Barnath and the other scientist (Sinibar Constantine...) was engineered by him to advance his own career and try to steel their research.

The PCs quiz him a bit, but don't have any reason to accuse him of anything other than being a bit of a jerk based on how he is acting. Mahir "let's them in on some academic scandal" which he "suspects" might cause someone to attack Barnath. Mahir is spinning a story of having been on his way to speak with Barnath when the hit happened and he saw the PCs exit with his assistant. Some of this is true- he did see that. But the rest is a fiction, he was watching the aftermath of the events he had set in motion and wondering how to get access to the research or relics he wanted.

Mahir offer to "help" the PCs... he just needs access to the things that Barnath and Constantine were working on to see what they are up against. They could get killed, don't they want to know as much as they can?!? The PCs agree this is sensible and so break in to Constantine's office and steal his research! They already had a copy of Barnath's research and shown it to Mahir; they had gotten this by asking for it from the very grateful assistant...

Having worked out roughly what they are up against, Mahir offers to help them tackle Constantine. In truth, he wants to engineer Constantine's death so that his machinations never come out. If he can also steal some of the relics, even better. The party remain suspicious of him but don't do anything based on this, even after they notice him making a secret copy of all the research they show him!

After a little more investigation they locate a storage unit that Constantine was renting down in the lower levels of the station, and decide this may be where he is hiding out. And it is; he killed Barnath in a moment of professional 'passion' and fled. He wasn't a master criminal and he hadn't planned things out so this relatively traceable hiding place was where he ended up.

The PCs found the rough location of the unit, but ended up going next door by mistake, and aggravating a local biker gang who proceeded to kick their asses! Constantine heard the racket, and actually came out to help them and got mortally shot for his efforts! After a short fight the PCs plus the unexpected help turn the tide and the biker gang flee. The players try to save Constantine, against the vocal advice of Mahir, who thought they should let him check for any booby-traps on Constantine's body. When the PCs ignore this he then switches track, saying they should flee before the bikers came back, and leaving himself. The PCs don't try to stop him...

After reaching their handler by Comm she tells them to get out of there pronto, and meet her at the commercial docks of the station. She thinks she can smooth things over with JumpSec but wants the PCs off-station whilst she does, which lines up the next adventure...

I have to say, the players really were patsies in this, and never confronted the dodgy NPC despite having numerous suspicions! He didn't manage to steal any relics but he did get away with copies of the research from two of the best people in his field!

The players have no idea they were duped (I don't spoil the plots even after the fact, and who knows if he will come up again? This adventure was created whole-cloth from some idea fragments in Eureka 501 Plots and Masks 1000 NPCs.) Still, they enjoyed it and it as something a lot different from the normal adventures we tend to run.
 
I've been listening to Raleel's podcast

I should be clear here that, technically, it's probably more Bilharzia Bilharzia 's podcast, as he does the editing and all of the post-recording work, but I will happily take my bit. I'm glad you are enjoying it!

A wealthy priest from an aristocratic family, a scholar who has is maybe digging into knowledge not meant for man, a warrior born out of a terrible massacre, a woodsman who walked away from the obligations of nobility. Everyone liked the background events and family/connection generation rolls for filling in some ideas.

that sounds like a great group of characters!

The two more combat oriented characters are players that have been in my other games for a while so I know their style and think they'll pick up on it pretty quickly and will really enjoy the tactical level.

one thing I should tell you is that your woodsman, if he uses a bow, might feel a little like ranged combat is a little off, especially if you are at relatively short range. Reloading, in particular, can really give you a feeling of a "null" action. It's accurate (even for Legolas, I've timed it), but it's not D&D. The expectation can require some adjustment. Encourage rapid reload and playing with thrown weapons as well. I think otherwise they will be very much craving more.

At this point I'm a bit more concerned with learning all the magic systems. I'd wanted to keep it fairly simple with just folk magic and theism, but of course there's always that player that needs something more, so sorcery and animism are in the mix as well.

One of the things that I've seen with theism is that elementals are very serious business, especially at the initiate level. Theism, as a whole, is quite strong, and making sure you are happy with the environmental controls (mana regeneration rate, access to sacrosanct locations, etc.) as you go forward. You can drop a Madness on someone at initiate level for 5 days, and they are largely useless for that duration, for example, and even a very-slightly-above-average POW of 12 can do that several times a day
 
Pleasantly surprised to find that most of the players had read the cheat sheet, and everything went off without a hitch. Much smoother this game, and I think everyone had a good time. we had a bit of tracking, made easier by my questing rite and a couple with heightened senses and sense wyrm, followed by a combat with four Wyrm infested giant boars attacking an old werewolf lady. Much glory was won as I face three of them, was nearly incapacitated, but then the rage filed me and I ripped the head off of one. My claws drained them of much of their blood.

I was/am quite concerned as I could not find some things in the rules, and other things are quite specific. For example, I know the difficulty of dodging a punch, dodging close range firearms, and even the Difficulty of shooting a wooden arrow through the heart of a vampire, but the difficulty evading mid range gun fire or parrying anything other than a fist or a katana, no go. GM ruling and all, but that seems off.

the rule of one is annoying, and I don’t think combat actually took less time than a crunchier system. there are a fair number of rolls for resolution - attack, damage, soak, and potentially defense - really the same number as Mythras, maybe more since the boars would not have been able to evade the gunfire from the Homids. I was glad that the dice roller was there, because it counted successes for us, which is a time suck with dice pool systems normally.

A couple of us are not really happy with the multiple kinds of damage, but I think the online sheet helps a bit with that. whoever did up the sheet deserves a medal - it really covers just about everything.
 
Ran the next session of Astounding Space Adventures today. It gave me a chance to playtest my rough notes for handling fairly omnipotent entities in Supers! Revised, similar to the Beyond rating in BASH, or the X trait in M&M.

The Cast:
Reginald Whitaker, aka Reggie. A former steel worker, Reggie retired and took tech classes, unlocking his hyper intelligence. He uses various gadgets and flies around in a giant ship that resembles a recliner

Cretaceous Corp Agent 86: Hailing from an alternate Earth where dinosaurs evolved into a more humanoid form, Agent 86 was one of many chosen to wield a power ring made from a meteor that had crashed on his world, enabling the bearer to do wondrous things

Inferno: Member of an unknown alien species, this alien controls fire (even in space!). She is tempermental, and considers herself a sort of intergalactic celebrity.

Solar Flare. Born of a meteor, this strange entity can turn into a being of pure solar energy. He also has various other abilities via cosmic mysticism

The Darkness from Beyond:
Reggie & Agent 86 meet up with Inferno & Solar Flare at a preset rendezvous, then headed off to dispose of the Temporal Portal Resonator they took from the Mi-Go. They find an Black Hole in an uncharted region of the Badlands near Yolinar, and travel there in Reggie's Recliner/Spaceship. As they near the Black Hole, they see some kind of large space station made of a gemstone like material. They are hailed by the station, and a humanoid shaped being made of purple gemstone greets them. Calling itself the Adjudicator, it asks them if they are here to settle a dispute. They inform it of their mission, and it asks that they wait, as there are delicate negotiations taking place, and any disruption of the Black Hole might put those negotiations in jeopardy. They are hesitant to delay at first, but eventually agree to wait.

Reggie lands his recliner on the station, where they are met by the Adjudicator. It gives them a short tour of the station, and explains that a trade dispute between the Chodyrk and Slek is being adjudicated, and if not settled, could lead to war between them. Agent 86 offers his assitance with the negotiations, but the Adjudicators tells him his assistance, while appreciated, is not necessary. They ask if they can observe, and it agrees that can watch. It shows them to their quarters, and informs them there will be a meal in 2 hours.

As they settle in, the heroes start to have strange visions. Reggie sees his father walk through the door, and proceeds to chastise him, claiming he's not reliable enough to dispose of the TPR. He begins recreating old anti-drug PSA's from the 70's and 80's while he continues to berate Reggie. Reggie, who had tried some of the space weed the Yithians had given them, isn't sure if what he's experiencing is real or a hallucination from the drug.

Agent 86 hears something, and opens the door to his room to see what it is. He finds himself back on his Earth, and sees his home city under attack from outer space. He sees other members of the Cretaceous Corp vainly fighting to defend the city. One of his fellow agents falls from the sky, landing at 86's feet. He looks up at 86 and asks why he wasn't there to help his fellow agents save their city. He tells him to use the TPR, as it can send him home, and use it to save his people. He uses his ring to start to fly, and the vision fades, and he stops short of slamming into the wall across from his door.

Inferno finds herself back on her home planet, which was destroyed. Some women see her, and begin gossiping (loud enough for Inferno to hear) that Inferno thinks she's a celebrity, but in reality wishes she was a real star. They surround her, and ask why she let her homeworld die. The planet starts to break apart, and the women tell her to use the TPR and save her world. The vision fades, and she heads out into the corridor.

Solar Flare sits in his room meditating, channeling the mysteries of the Universe. He starts to see a vision of the station breaking apart, but only through his right eye. His left eye sees that nothing is wrong. He gets up and walks outside, and see 86 almost fly into the wall. Inferno steps out behind him, asking where her people are. He asks 86 if he saw a vision, and he tells her what he saw. The three go to Reggies room, and Solar Flare tells him the TPR must be doing something to them. Reggie is still a bit out of, asking if they saw his father. Solar Flare tells him to snap out of it. He slowly comes to his senses, as the Adjudicator arrives to tell them it is time for dinner.

The reluctantly follow him to the dining hall, where numerous aliens of multiple species are eating. The Adjudicator seats them with the Ambassador Thr'ana of the Slek, and Ambassador Pleth of the Chodyrk. Pleth is a bit stand offish, but Thr'ana is friendlier, communicating with them via Telepathy (as it's race has no mouth). While having their meal, they all experienced visions again. In 86's vision, he saw the attackers on his home were humans armed with power rings like his, but they outnumbered the Cretaceous Corp. A female of his species ran to him, begging him to use the device to save them, before being turned to ash in front of him. Inferno again saw her world die, and people begging her to use the device to save them. Solar Flare was pulled into the vision of the station breaking apart, but he refused to acknowledge it. Reggie found himself in what appeared to be The Shire from Lord of the Rings. He was approached by Gandalf (who looked like Ian McKellan), who told him that an enemy was trying to manipulate them to take the device. He told Reggie to use it on that enemy, then throw it into the Black Hole.

The visions faded, and they all found themselves back at the dinner table. Pleth started to argue with Thr'ana, accusing it of making too much noise as it consumed its food via its hands. Solar Flare tried to de-escalete the situation by creating a sound dampening bubble around Thr'ana, but Pleth claimed to still hear the sound. She got up and moved towards Thr'ana to attack him, so Solar Flare teleported him out of harm's way. They all agreed they needed to leave the station, and headed to the docking bay. While there, Reggie configured a device to study the energy signature from the TPR. Each time they had a vision, it's power remained stable, except when he had the vision from "Gandalf". He detected another power signature that was off the charts, coming from space.

Thr'ana confronts them, saying it say Reggie's vision while he did. He told them that he had been approached by The Gate & The Key, one of the Outer Gods of old. He explained his people had worshipped them aeons ago, and that they are of immense power. If such a being approached Reggie, then they were facing a dire threat. A new set of visions started to take place, causing Inferno to become enraged. Solar Flare was able to teleport all of them to where the being creating the visions was before Inferno could cause damage to the station.

They found themselves in space, facing a 50 foot tall humanoid. It's voice boomed through space at them, telling them to give him the stone, and their lives would be spared. Inferno flew at the being and unleashed her fury, but he simply looked down at her and laughed. 86 and Solar Flare also interposed themselves between the being and Reggie's recliner. It once again gave them a choice: Hand over the stone that powered the TPR or die. Reggie pulled out the TPR, and fired it at the being. Surprisingly, the being screamed in agony, as it began to age rapidly, becoming a desiccated husk, then reversing all the way to a baby. This happened multiple times before it's form returned to normal. For an instant, Reggie thought he saw fear in it's eyes.

Inferno blasted it again and this time the being felt pain. 86 created a giant sling, and flung an energy stone into it's shoulder. Solar Flare attempted to open a portal to another dimension where a good version of this being existed, hoping to bring it forth to fight their foe. As he tried to do so, the being created a counter portal that prevented the one Solar Flare was making from opening. Reggie saw Thr'ana shivering in his seat, and inside his mind he heard it saying "No, not him. Not Yannoth!" Reggie tried to coax more from him, but all Thr'ana would say was this was "The Shaper of Chaos".

Yannathoth flew at the Recliner, and caused some damage, but it was obvious the being had been weakened. Reggie used his own time control device on him, causing Yannathoth to recoil. Thr'ana gained some courage, and leapt from the recliner, and slashed Yannathoth's face. Not having life support. Thr'ana started to freeze from the cold of space, until Solar Flare saved him by creating a bubble around him that gave him life support. Yannathoth backhanded the ambassador, causing him to tumble off into space.

Solar Flare turned into energy, and flew through Yannathoth, opening a hole in it's form. Reggie blasted away with his laser and the other continued their attack. Yannathoth seemed powerless to stop their assault, and eventually dissapated. Solar Flare flew off to rescue Thr'ana, bringing him back to the Recliner. They set off to dispose of the TPR into the Black Hole, when "Gandolf" appears before them, and asks Reggie to return the device to him. Sensing a trick, Reggie refuses, and sends the device into the Black Hole. It appears in "Gandalf's" hand, and he smiles. He thanks Reggie for doing the right thing, as the TPR disintegrates, and the stone rests in his hand. Thr'ana bows at the Outer God, who tells them they have prevented his enemies from gaining the stone, which would have caused harm to this universe. He warns them that they have made an enemy of The Crawling Chaos, and he will likely come after them in the future. When asked if this being has another name, "Gandalf" tells them he has many. He then gives them the names Black Pharaoh and Haunter in the Dark, before giving them the name Nyarlathotep. He tells them he will meet them again one day, as he has forseen it. He also tells them to avoid Yolinar, as the Mazon have a battle fleet waiting to ambush them there. "Gandalf" then dissapears, leaving them along in space.

They return Thr'ana to the station, and prepare to leave. It asks them to wait until the negotiations are over, as it wishes to give them something. They agree, and the next day, Thr'ana gives each of them a small black stone that has a faint glow pulsing inside it. It tells them that he saw them fight a battle that will become part of their mythology, and that he was blessed to be part of it. The stone, when broken, will send a signal to any nearby Slek vessels that they need aid, and the Slek will answer the call.

They leave the station, knowing they have once again saved the day, and gained another ally. They also know they've gained the attention of a powerful being in the Crawling Chaos, and that might cost them some day....
 
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