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This week we begin a new series on animal themed characters. Each article will explore a different creature, their advantages, and complications. We'll be tackling some fan favorites along with some creatures that might not get as good press. This week we'll be covering the format, and discussing a bit of background on the overall series. Also, become a patron for bonus content, and early access.

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Playing Carrier Strike!(1977?) with the eight year old. Surprisingly good game. Aside from the cards the physical components are really cool. The planes attach to the carriers while on their stands. The torpedoes slot into the sides of the carriers and base of the planes.
The rules have interesting trade-offs on plane movement vs ship movement. Sinking a carrier has been harder than I'd think. Dogfighting is very meaningful and has luck and strategy elements.

Overall I think it's a game that's aged well.IMG_20200816_113401-01.jpeg
 
Playing Carrier Strike!(1977?) with the eight year old. Surprisingly good game. Aside from the cards the physical components are really cool. The planes attach to the carriers while on their stands. The torpedoes slot into the sides of the carriers and base of the planes.
The rules have interesting trade-offs on plane movement vs ship movement. Sinking a carrier has been harder than I'd think. Dogfighting is very meaningful and has luck and strategy elements.

Overall I think it's a game that's aged well.View attachment 21278
It's part of a series of games as far as I can tell they did that all have this pretty well thought out design/ build quality aspect you didn't see a lot back then.
Carrier Strike!
Chopper Strike!
Tank Battle
Sub Search

They aren't particularly deep wargames but they are good. Especially as introductions to wargames.
 
HEPCATS Team Zero in

Episode 20: Love Triangle Hexagon Heptagon Dodecahedron N-Sided Polygon

23-27 November, Rhino Year
Real Life Date 13 August, 2020, online

Present: Ayu, Baron von Braun, N0-5R, Pierre Delecto, Zera

Part One

Ayu and Zera fill the rest of the crew in on what they’ve been up to, but they had already been watching the wrist-phone broadcast of the original action, as well as the broadcast of them summing up the original action to Sargoth, so this is at least the third time it’s been repeated.

Team Zero begins flying back to the Central Heptagon in GREG, which takes a full day. En route they discuss whether or not they should hand over GREG to the HEPCATS organization. They do now have a large spaceship complete with staff…

N0-5R suggests they ask GREG how he feels about it, and does so. GREG responds in a bleep-bloop language that only N0-5R understands. GREG says that he likes going on adventures; he just didn’t like doing it in service to evil.

Baron takes a spacewalk. He enjoys the cold darkness.

They park GREG on the Neotopia side of the gate to the Central Heptagon, because he is too big to fit through, and return to base. Agent Z tells the team that the organization is very impressed with them and they should immediately report to HEPCATS Secretary Trudeau.

Secretary Trudeau tells the team that, considering all they’ve accomplished, the organization is going to give them a bit more leeway about what they do and how they go about it. He also reminds the team that they have explicitly been granted a vacation as a reward for their recent accomplishments. When asked how long their vacation is, Secretary Trudeau checks his calendar, checks his watch, and replies “Exactly as long as it takes to accomplish your recreational mission.”

The next day is Thanksgiving, and/or Indigenous Polygons’ Day. Anyway, it’s some kind of major holiday, and the organization has prepared a feast for all the agents and support staff who are on-site. Most everyone that Team Zero knows from the organization is there.

N0-5R gives the recording of sick beats from the space station to DJ-Q2. He is immediately enthusiastic about the beats, and a tad belatedly enthusiastic about seeing N0-5R.

Zera pulls N0-5R aside and says something to the effect of “I know you’re into Q2, but I think you and GREG would be really good together.”

Zera also says that “even though we had a thing,” she would be okay with N0-5R being with GREG. N0-5R denies that they ever had a thing. Zera points out that they were co-parents to Little Bobby, and “you’re the only one I’ve been with who hasn’t died.” N0-5R suggests that N0-5R and Zera have different definitions of “been with.” No consensus is reached…

N0-5R asks DJ-Q2 if he would be interested in coming on their trip back to Planet Kelsey in Neotopia. Q2 says that he’s been working long-distance with The Space Station Kids on scoring their film and it would be really helpful to work with them in-person to finish the project, so yes, he would love to come, as long as he can get clearance from his supervisor. He belatedly also says something about how it would be nice to be on a trip with N0-5R.

Baron has a pleasant visit with the ghost agent, Franceska, and deliberately avoids the werewolf agents. Franceska says the agency hasn’t had much for her to do lately, so she’s been hanging around base and reading the classics such as Wuthering Heights. Baron says he is a Bram Stoker fan. Baron mentions that the team will probably head back to Neotopia for their vacation and asks Franceska if she would like to come. She says she loves space, “except for that time a planetary warlord tried to use me to power his spaceship engines,” so yes, she would like to come.

Baron mentions that the team will likely be attending the tournament and gala to find a spouse for Princess Bluela. Franceska points out that, if they are going to a wedding, they will need fancy clothes, and Jenny from costuming is excellent at making fancy clothes, so it could be a good idea to bring her along.

Someone suggests that they ought to ask GREG if he is okay with them bringing more people onboard. Ayu points out that she has “already been in and out of him several times,” so she thinks asking permission isn’t really necessary. Still, the team asks, and GREG says it would be fine.

At the Thanksgiving Feast, Dr. West and Agent Shoe meet and, within speaking a few sentences to each other, become Science Bros! They quickly get into an animated discussion of “mad” science. No one around quite understands what they’re talking about, but they are having a great time.

Ayu asks about the political situation in Saguaro City and wonders if they should perhaps go check it out?

N0-5R replies, in a teasing tone: “You just want to see your girlfriend there.”

Ayu says “I mean, while we’re there it would be rude of me to not have dinner with her.”

After some discussion, the team seems to agree that it would be a good idea to check on Saguaro City, but it is not their current priority and they’ll get to it later.

The next morning, when the team arrives at GREG to depart with their invited guests, a number of other people that they didn’t specifically invite and don’t even really know show up, “like when you only told your three close friends that your parents are out of town for the weekend, but word got out and you end up inadvertently throwing the Rager of the Summer.” [Player’s ooc words].

To be continued...
 
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I think I've mentioned in the past that I run my Basic Fantasy game in a sandbox manner. As it turns out, that's mostly true. While it hasn't happened often, occasionally it happens that either a) they don't find any of the current dangling plot hooks particularly engaging, b) none of the teens can reach a consensus on what plot hooks to follow, or c) their characters are happy where they are at the moment and are in no particular hurry to leave. Whenever this happens, it's understood that the adventure will come to them...

In this case, it was 'c' - while the players, of course, wanted an adventure, the characters are pretty engaged with the small town they're currently in - dealing with the local temple and druid circle, helping out the owners of the local inn, befriending and seducing various NPCs, etc. and were in no special hurry to leave. They understand, of course, that this means that something appropriately nasty will occur, demanding the PCs rise to the occasion in response.

And so they got word that one of the innkeeper's sons, who had been traveling with a merchant caravan to bring some special supplies to the homestead, was brutally killed along with the rest of the caravan by a ruthless nighttime raid of elves with ebon skin and white hair (of which they've never heard of the like before). After some investigation, they discover that the reason for the raid was the acquisition of a Lyre Of Building that one of the merchants was secretly transporting to a local baron. After finding out the capabilities of the Lyre, the players were especially interested in retrieving it for their own purposes, as some of them are already making long-term plans for building their own temple and strongholds.

They manage to track down the dark elves who are heading toward a cave entrance, well-hidden by the nearby forest, far off the beaten trail and unknown to any of the nearby settlements. As the session is wrapping up, the players start to get suspicious when they discover that the 'wand' - unleashing a ray of energy of terrible damage - that the leader of the dark elves uses does not, in fact, appear to be magical, but is actually a device in form not unlike that of a hand-held small crossbow, minus the bowstring...
 
I think I've mentioned in the past that I run my Basic Fantasy game in a sandbox manner. As it turns out, that's mostly true. While it hasn't happened often, occasionally it happens that either a) they don't find any of the current dangling plot hooks particularly engaging, b) none of the teens can reach a consensus on what plot hooks to follow, or c) their characters are happy where they are at the moment and are in no particular hurry to leave. Whenever this happens, it's understood that the adventure will come to them...

In this case, it was 'c' - while the players, of course, wanted an adventure, the characters are pretty engaged with the small town they're currently in - dealing with the local temple and druid circle, helping out the owners of the local inn, befriending and seducing various NPCs, etc. and were in no special hurry to leave. They understand, of course, that this means that something appropriately nasty will occur, demanding the PCs rise to the occasion in response.

And so they got word that one of the innkeeper's sons, who had been traveling with a merchant caravan to bring some special supplies to the homestead, was brutally killed along with the rest of the caravan by a ruthless nighttime raid of elves with ebon skin and white hair (of which they've never heard of the like before). After some investigation, they discover that the reason for the raid was the acquisition of a Lyre Of Building that one of the merchants was secretly transporting to a local baron. After finding out the capabilities of the Lyre, the players were especially interested in retrieving it for their own purposes, as some of them are already making long-term plans for building their own temple and strongholds.

They manage to track down the dark elves who are heading toward a cave entrance, well-hidden by the nearby forest, far off the beaten trail and unknown to any of the nearby settlements. As the session is wrapping up, the players start to get suspicious when they discover that the 'wand' - unleashing a ray of energy of terrible damage - that the leader of the dark elves uses does not, in fact, appear to be magical, but is actually a device in form not unlike that of a hand-held small crossbow, minus the bowstring...

There's a name for a sandbox that prods sedentary PCs on: I call it a functional sandbox. Well done.
 
I don't mind doing it occasionally, as it makes sense to me that the opposition will sometimes initiate the conflict.
A setting in which the PCs never find choices or situations thrust upon them by others is just as unnatural as one in which they always do.

You GM for teens, you said. Are your kids in the group, or are you a teacher? Just wondering how you got a teen group of players.
 
A setting in which the PCs never find choices or situations thrust upon them by others is just as unnatural as one in which they always do.
That's why I also occasionally roll for random events for the various nations, duchies, baronies etc. in the area. It helps to keep the setting dynamic instead of static, and to me it feels more organic and natural that stuff sometimes pops up completely separate from whatever the PCs are doing (and it helps keep the campaign interesting for me, sometimes sending the game in directions I never would have initially anticipated).
You GM for teens, you said. Are your kids in the group, or are you a teacher? Just wondering how you got a teen group of players.
Not a teacher, and I don't have kids. Because I'm lazy, I'll just quote myself from earlier in the thread (from back in the Before Times).
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by someone who was looking for a DM for a half-dozen teenagers who had never played any RPGs before. He's the father of two of the kids, who had ran across his old copy of the old Basic player's book (the one with the Elmore cover); between that and having seen stuff like Critical Role they were interested but didn't know where to start. The father had only played a little bit back in the day, and didn't feel comfortable trying to run something for them.

One of the ladies from our regular gaming group who knows him through work mentioned me as a possible solution (she just happened to be wearing one of her old Pathfinder t-shirts at one point, it hadn't come up to him before that she was a gamer). So we grabbed some coffee and talked for a bit. I figured out pretty quickly that he was feeling me out, trying to make sure I would be okay in dealing with said kids - as it turns out several of them are GLBTQ, and a couple of them are quietly looking into a religious path that isn't Christian. After I reassured him that none of that would freak me out, we also talked about how most of these kids aren't exactly swimming in money, and they wanted to see if this was something that they really wanted to get into before investing in ordering the current Player's Handbook off of Amazon. I suggested to him that since some of them had already read through the old Basic book, that I could run something using a similar ruleset, and that they wouldn't need to get any new rules just yet (since I don't know enough about 5e to run it anyways).

So I ordered from Amazon enough copies of the Basic Fantasy rulebook to give a copy to each of the kids. BF is probably my favorite of the Basic clones (there are changes, yes, but the changes made are ones I actually don't mind), and since they're sold at cost they're cheap enough that I was able to get a half-dozen copies affordably. Printed out some of the extra options I would allow (like rangers and illusionists), hashed out some basic house rules (which I tried to keep to a minimum), and mocked up a homemade DM screen using a couple of three-ring binders.

When we all met up at the father's house, the kids were thrilled when I gifted them with the copies of the BF rulebook. We chatted for a bit while I tried to make sure that they felt at ease around me, and also tried to manage expectations a bit (spoiler alert - I'm not Matt Mercer). I had them roll up characters, and then proceeded to run them through a slightly-tweaked version of Tomb Of The Serpent Kings. We got not quite half of the way through when one of the characters died, and they decided to return to town so that they could return the body for burial and get a replacement character to join them.
 
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HEPCATS Team Zero in

Episode 20: Love Triangle Hexagon Heptagon Dodecahedron N-Sided Polygon


Part Two

En route to planet Kelsey, Dr. West and Agent Shoe, who have dubbed themselves “Team Mad Science,” come to the team and ask them what inventions would be most useful for them on their missions.

Pierre: a comprehensive database of registered voters, including their ages, party preferences, etc. Also, a psychic amplifier. Also, discreet wrist communicators that work in all the Shards, not just Neotopia.

Baron: Impervious sunscreen [Baron is a vampire].

Zera: a magic booster. When asked to clarify whether she means something to boost her magic, or a booster that is magic, she clarifies that she meant the former. Also, a baby dragon. I think she specified a baby dragon that always stays baby-sized and never grows up?

Ayu: a smart, programmable hookshot with different options.

N0-5R: has discovered an affinity for large sticks in the course of Team Zero’s adventures. Asks for a multi-use large stick that can be used to assist in acrobatics, be used as a weapon, and be put on one’s back and fold out into a glider.

DJ-Q2: an extremely finely tuned EQ system that will allow him to adjust the sounds perfectly.

Jenny from Costuming: a clone sewing machine. It would work such that, while she is doing work on her primary sewing machine, the clone sewing machine would precisely duplicate that work.

The team discusses the royal spouse-finding contest. Zera is clearly interested in entering, but thought Team Zero would be entering as a team, not as individuals. Someone asks if teams are allowed in the competition. No one knows.

Team Zero arrives back at the Wayward Inn Space Station. They have to park far off and use an extra-long docking tube because GREG is too big for the regular parking spots. Once they step foot on the station proper, Pete, Corey, and Limlam, AKA The Space Station Kids, excitedly greet them. They thank Team Zero for the feedback they provided on the rough cut of Kurt Warlock and the Space Station Kids, and talk about how excited they are to be working with DJ-Q2 to finish the film’s score. The kids don’t know Q2 by sight, so they don’t realize that they’re talking about how great he is right in front of him.

The kids ask Team Zero if they’d heard that Spankin Fresh is currently on Planet Kelsey. Team Zero knows nothing about Spankin Fresh, so the kids inform them that, while Spankin Fresh is known as a minor musician and a minor on-screen personality for an infotainment “news” show, his real deal is that he is a major producer of Neotopian Space TV, primarily in the reality show genre. Rumor has it that he is working on multiple new shows down on Planet Kelsey.

Spankin Fresh is also a major supporter of young people getting involved in the arts, so The Space Station Kids are hoping to write a grant so that Spankin Fresh will provide them with a professional-quality editing bay. Baron says the team will be happy to support this endeavor in any way they can.

DJ-Q2 is as excited to work with the kids as they are to work with him. As they all begin to run off, Q2 turns back and asks N0-5R if he wants to meet up later, to which N0-5R shyly says “yes,” and “call me.”

The Majordomo praises Pierre for the policies he has instituted as Acting Vice President of Commerce for the Wayward Inn Space Station. He says that Pierre is being considered for promotion from Acting Vice President to actual Vice President, but some have concerns that Pierre won’t be around much. Pierre says that he can be an effective leader without being present on the station. The Majordomo says that yes, in fact, they’ve been having a lot of remote meetings lately and have found it often isn’t necessary to be in the same physical space to work effectively together.

A live broadcast comes on all the TVs in the space station:

“Welcome folks, it’s your host with most, Spankin Fresh, here, live and remote on Planet Kelsey, where a recent short-lived invasion has inspired the Dragonfolk and the Blues to cautiously set aside their longstanding differences and come together as one planet.

To help cement this new spirit of cooperation, the Blues are hosting a tournament and gala to find a spouse for Princess Bluela!”

A gofer runs on screen and hands Spankin Fresh a piece of paper.

“Wait, this just in: the Blues have revised the standards of the competition, and it is now possible that, while individuals are still welcome and encouraged to enter the competition, for the first time ever, teams will be allowed to enter as well!”

Team Zero wonders aloud, if a team wins, does that mean they all get married?

Another gofer runs on screen and hands Spankin Fresh another piece of paper.

“This just in: if a team wins, the Princess may choose any number of that team’s members as her spouse, provided they still want the position.”

Team Zero wonders aloud if GREG can be on their team.

Yet another gofer runs on screen and hands Spankin Fresh yet another piece of paper.

“Brand new information here: while the contest has always been open to entrants of all genders, it is now explicitly open to sentient beings of all types. Aliens, robots, sentient gas clouds, even, for instance, a sentient spaceship, are all eligible.”

The gofer yet again runs on screen with yet another piece of paper.

“Point of clarification here: all sentient beings who are of age are eligible.

We’ll be bringing you live coverage of all tournament and gala invents, as well as predictions, analyses, and more! Don’t Miss it!

Back to you, Bob.”

The team heads down towards the planet, where the event will take place at Queen Arabella’s Palace of the Blues, which is made of sleek blue crystal and bears some resemblance to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

They discuss entering the contest as a team. Baron says he’s not interested in getting married. Pierre wonders how involved one would have to be in this marriage. Zera suggests it doesn’t really matter because, “They always die anyway.” Ayu initially says that marriage doesn’t really mean much to her, so she doesn’t want to get involved. A bit later she relents and says that, if being part of a polygamous royal marriage is what the team needs from her, she’ll do it. It didn’t sound like enthusiastic consent, though...

Someone asks what the team should be named.

Zera: “Greg.”
Ayu: “That’s what we named the ship.”
Zera: “Oh. It’s the first thing I think of when it’s time to name something.”
Someone suggests they use their usual name of Team Zero.
Zera: “Greg Zero?”
Ayu: “Diet Greg?”

I don’t think a consensus was reached.

To be continued...
 
HEPCATS Team Zero in

Episode 20: Love Triangle Hexagon Heptagon Dodecahedron N-Sided Polygon


Part Three

As part of the new spirit of cooperation between the Blues and Dragonfolk, King Longwang McGregor has been chosen as Master of Ceremonies for the tournament and gala. He is happy to see the HEPCATS and tells them,

“Having an Evil Emperor show up on our planet’s doorstep really put things in perspective, and we decided the time is overdue to just stop worrying about who very recently tried to kill whom, or who stole which land way back when, or who kept the other’s child hostage until just last week, or who nicked grandma’s pie, and just move on, you know? It’s all in the past.”

The team takes great umbrage at the notion that someone would have nicked grandma’s pie. King Longwang confides that way back in history, the Blues nicking grandma’s pie is what caused the original conflict with the Dragonfolk, or “at least that’s what our lore says. Their lore says differently. But we’re letting bygones be bygones.”

Queen Arabella greets the team and tells them the first event of the competition will be the talent show. Zera asks whether the team has to perform in the talent show as one unit, or can they each do something? After some furious whispering back and forth with her assistant, Queen Arabella says they can perform individually, but will scored as a team.

She says that the question the team asked a few days ago about whether multiple winners are possible really set in motion a major revision of the contest, so “the rulebook is still being revised,” but they will get a copy as soon as it’s available.

King Longwang asks the team if they remember how his son, Prince Irwin McGregror, and nephew, Lucas McNord “both kinda suck?”

The team does, indeed, remember. The king tells them that those guys are now on a reality show, where they are supervising the construction of Team Zero’s palace by Evil Emperor Zeke’s former bodyguards. The king says he thinks that being on the show is good for the guys, although he feels what’s portrayed in the show exaggerates their real-life personalities.

The team agrees to take a Rapid Rocket Sled to go see their under-construction palace. Pierre wonders if they should ask Prince Irwin to be on their team in the spouse-finding contest? Perhaps it would help cement the peace between Blues and Dragonfolk if those two got married. Someone speculates that maybe the reason Princess Bluela had taken Prince Irwin as a hostage “honored guest” in the first place is that she likes him…

To be continued...


Also, there was an out of character discussion of the unmitigated glory that is Nicolas Cage’s acting career, and a higher-than-zero percentage of the group thought that a Nicolas Cage movie night would be a really swell idea.


XP: 6. I initially said 5, but bumping to 6 brings the XP totals to:

Zera: 69, Dude! Heroic, Levels up!
Ayu: 68, Heroic, Levels up!
Baron: 61, Levels up! And reaches Heroic rank!
N0-5R: 61, Levels up! And reaches Heroic rank!
Pierre Delecto: 35, Seasoned, Levels up! Twice!

Also, a cosmic wave of half-XP hits the entire rest of the HEPCATS organization, bringing absent PCs to:

Sargoth Trio: 35, Seasoned, Levels up!

Wren, off in the Fairy Realm: 40, Levels up! And reaches Veteran rank!
Kurt Warlock, semi-retired: 32, Seasoned, Levels up!
 
Quick summary for those who don't want to read my Moby-Dick-length posts: There's a contest to find a spouse for the princess. And the PCs have decided to enter. As a team.

I really have no idea how this will play out, but I'm looking forward to seeing...
 
sort of tweaked characters with cyberpunk mythras tonight. last time i decided that i liked the culture/career split. tonight was contacts (stolen from mythic constantinople) and backgrounds (roll against core book, make up something close). decided i liked that a lot, as it helped the story of the character

  • one "street samurai" who was raised in a corp background. dad was a mid-level corp dude, mom was japanese nobility, but she disavowed it and married a commoner. the character disavowed both and joined the military.
  • an ork ganger, child of a single mom. dad was killed by the organized crime gang he was a member of, and he knows. He wants to bring them down. He also has like 10 cousins.
  • a dwarf rigger, who is still in process
  • one undecided, but looking at a panthotaur shaman of Raven
  • a troll wuxia master. He didn't roll backgrounds, but he did pick squeeze (lets him fit into the space of a smaller human - 9'->5'7"), featherlight (makes himself light as a feather, which I've interpreted to allow for featherfall and ignoring pressure plates), and i think adhering (spiderman, spiderman).
 
So I been thinking on my first, wonderful PC in the upcoming Legends of Grayskull RPG. I went through my obvious choices: Orko (swollan like a trollan), Skeletor, Hordak.

Then it hit me.

Marlena of Pittsburgh, Captain of the Valiant, Queen-Consort of Eternia, Commander of His Majesty's Expeditionary Forces, Protector of the Honor of Grayskull, Champion of the Princess Rebellion, Regent of the Etherian Coalition: She-Ra
 
I've been running "The Enemy Within" for WHFRP1e for over two years now with sessions every other Sunday. We are launching into Something Rotten in Kislev right now, so we are 3/5ths of the way through. I expect we'll finish the campaign in the winter of 2021/2022. I love most of the 1e system, but at this point we are well into 3rd and 4th careers and people are looking at having to change focus entirely for their characters or just stop spending XP.

I'm playing in a weekly Neoclassical Geek Revival night that's been going on for about four years. Each campaign lasts roughly a year or so and is a competitive game between two different groups that meet weekly with the same win conditions when we play. The group I'm in has lost all three campaigns.

I'm playing in a weekly Empire of the Petal Throne campaign run by James M of Grognardia for five+ years now. It has been AWESOME discovering this world from a player perspective.

I play in a weekly group that is at heart a B/X / Labyrinth Lord campaign but between adventures we rotate DMs and RPGs. We play the B/X campaign for about six months of the year, and a bunch of other stuff the other six months (this year it has been two Troika! variants that we were playtesting, and a Black Hack monster of the week game).

And I play in an average of one pick up game or fill in game every other week.
 
I've been running "The Enemy Within" for WHFRP1e for over two years now with sessions every other Sunday. We are launching into Something Rotten in Kislev right now, so we are 3/5ths of the way through. I expect we'll finish the campaign in the winter of 2021/2022. I love most of the 1e system, but at this point we are well into 3rd and 4th careers and people are looking at having to change focus entirely for their characters or just stop spending XP.

I'm playing in a weekly Neoclassical Geek Revival night that's been going on for about four years. Each campaign lasts roughly a year or so and is a competitive game between two different groups that meet weekly with the same win conditions when we play. The group I'm in has lost all three campaigns.

I'm playing in a weekly Empire of the Petal Throne campaign run by James M of Grognardia for five+ years now. It has been AWESOME discovering this world from a player perspective.

I play in a weekly group that is at heart a B/X / Labyrinth Lord campaign but between adventures we rotate DMs and RPGs. We play the B/X campaign for about six months of the year, and a bunch of other stuff the other six months (this year it has been two Troika! variants that we were playtesting, and a Black Hack monster of the week game).

And I play in an average of one pick up game or fill in game every other week.
I love your gaming lifestyle!
 
I've been running "The Enemy Within" for WHFRP1e for over two years now with sessions every other Sunday. We are launching into Something Rotten in Kislev right now, so we are 3/5ths of the way through. I expect we'll finish the campaign in the winter of 2021/2022. I love most of the 1e system, but at this point we are well into 3rd and 4th careers and people are looking at having to change focus entirely for their characters or just stop spending XP.
We had the same issue when I ran TEW campaign back in the '80s. The career system works great for character generation. The players like picking their general class, getting a random career within the class, then having to work their way to their ideal career during play. Unfortunately, most of them ran out of advances within their field over the course of the long campaign. Only the wizard had a long enough path. That lead to a lot of career choices that had nothing to do with the character concept or what was happening in the game.

Something Rotten in Kislev is a fun adventure, but it has issues because it wasn't written to be part of TEW. It is clearly a campaign frame meant to be like Paranoia, with the hapless players sent on missions they may have no chance of succeeding in. I think its great as a stand-alone campaign frame, but as part of a longer campaign, it has too much potential to either TPK or trap the party. I had a TPK when I ran it. My players were already a little annoyed at being dragged over to Kislev and pushed into a mission structure. Having one of the missions push them into a TPK really made it sting.

It's nothing I couldn't tweak now, but I was a much less experienced GM back then. I suspect, based on your comments in the T:2000 thread, that you can manage it.
 
Comic, Steel Aces, Don’t be suspicious!
As the writer, it amazes me seeing the art bring things to life. The small details in this image are so wonderful.
If you enjoy the comic. take a look at our Patreon for additional content, early access and more. Link in the description.

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Picked up with the Basic Fantasy game, where the teens got into a fight with the Drow they had tracked down. They managed to get the better of them in fairly short order - including ganking the leader who was using the laser pistol - but one of the Drow escaped into a nearby cave with the Lyre Of Building. Just as the last of the rest of Drow are slain, there's a flash of light and energy that comes from the cave.

They retrieve the laser pistol, heal the worst of their injuries, and enter the cave, where they see a Stargate-style circular portal. The thief uses her True Sight/Postcognition ability to get a sense of its history (built by Modrons) and how to activate it. The M-U is somewhat disturbed by the fact that it does *not* radiate magic. Figuring that it will most likely lead to another part of their world, or more likely into some underground mega-dungeon from which the Drow are from, they trigger the gate and step through...

...and quickly realize that they are in fact on another world entirely. The first clue is that gravity is about a sixth less than what they're used to (the M-U is the first to be able to articulate this, as it reminds her a bit of how it feels when having cast Feather Fall). The cave exits into a jungle-like setting, albeit with foliage and small animals of the like they've never encountered before.

After getting their bearings, they continue to try to track down the Drow. This leads them into a humanoid mutant being trapped in the webs of a half-dozen spidergoats. They kill the spidergoats and rescue the mutant, and after overcoming the language barrier, learn a bit more about where they're at.

The world of Varath was once a world of high-tech wonder. ruled by the cruel Illithids, who would raid the system's sister planet to acquire slaves of human and other stock. The players quickly realized that this 'sister-world' was in fact their own world of Thera, as this matched the legends they had heard of great metal skyships coming to capture humans and humanoid prisoners in centuries past. Varath was nearly destroyed around two centuries ago in a war between the different factions of the Illithids, and since then the world has fallen to roughly medieval technology, although the weapons and devices of the Illithids and other Precursor races are still occasionally found, and are much valued. Magic is very rare, as the Illithids went out of their way to slay in magicians they captured, although some clerics to strange gods and extra-dimensional beings are beginning to appear. Mutations are not unknown in the human survivors, and some humans have also learned how to use psychic abilities not unlike their former masters.

The mutant, Jaroth, grateful for being rescued from being eaten by spidergoats, eagerly offers to help them track down the Drow - he has occasionally seen the dark elves in the marketplaces of the city, but while he knows little of them beyond that, does know that they are rumored to live beneath the ruins of one of the nearby Elder Cities. The trail that they manage to pick back up from the Drow does indeed head in that direction. They are about to enter the ruins when they are spotted by a Guard-bot, which still erratically patrols the remains of the city. They manage to defeat the mechanism, but not before one of their number, the human ranger, is slain.

*

So, this is something I've been planning and sketching out since the end of the second session, after it became confirmed that this would be an ongoing campaign and not just a one-shot. While I've thrown stuff at the players that they thought was pretty weird and out there - their main concepts of what fantasy was pretty much deriving from Tolkien, Game of Thrones, and the Witcher - honestly it was all pretty standard D&D stuff, with a bit of Yog-Sothothery thrown in here and there for flavor. Varath, by contrast, is meant to have more of a science-fantasy vibe. Inspirations included Burroughs (both the Mars and Venus stories), the old Mars comic from the 80's, various stories from Heavy Metal magazine, Kamandi, and Thundarr the Barbarian. Game-wise it draws from Dark Sun, Gamma World, Mutant Future, and the original Fiend Folio.

*

A couple of hours after the game, the teen who had been playing the human ranger, contacted me via Messenger. He was, naturally, a bit sad that his character that had had rolled up at the beginning of the campaign was now dead, and was asking if he could create a replacement character from this world who could journey back with them to Thera. Specifically, he wanted to know if it would be feasible to create a character with psychic, non-magical, powers. Which means I now need to polish up my half-baked notes (sufficient for the occasional NPC that might be encountered) into something that can be used as a full-fledged PC class.
 
Handed my paints and brushes to the daughter of one of the people in my group. apparently she wants to learn, and has some painting experience already. She should have fun, I think. also passed the dad a shirt that says "it's called splash damage crybabies..." because he's the guy who lightning bolted the party while they were in the water.
 
So I been thinking on my first, wonderful PC in the upcoming Legends of Grayskull RPG. I went through my obvious choices: Orko (swollan like a trollan), Skeletor, Hordak.

Then it hit me.

Marlena of Pittsburgh, Captain of the Valiant, Queen-Consort of Eternia, Commander of His Majesty's Expeditionary Forces, Protector of the Honor of Grayskull, Champion of the Princess Rebellion, Regent of the Etherian Coalition: She-Ra
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This was under some personal notes I found some time ago and forgot to show you guys. This is a test character I made to try out Empire of the Petal Throne and see if I liked it, and yes I rolled 100 for CON. I'm not very fond of the system, but I really liked the setting. I found out about EPT because of the pub. :grin:
I think that if I was ever to run Tékumel I would use RQ Sandy Peterson conversion, too bad I don't have the time at the moment to dive deep into it.

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Nice. My first EPT character had/has 99 Strength, and 02 Constitution.

And I can't help but mention that I approve of your choice of character sheets. :smile:
I see that the abilities result are affected by the trickster spirits that surround every table now haha.

These sheets where found on the most exquisite secret library, which is cured by a strange and mystical creature of sorts. It has this octopus like head and eyes of the darkest glass, and hat of which the making rituals are unknown to our artisans. Some say it exists only in the hidden library, other says it does live in d100xd100 dimensions. The only certain thing, is that It's curator appears do be mapping dungeons from everywhere and nowhere.

tldr: Great sheets Dyson! :hehe:
 
Finished a block of SLA Industries last night, infiltrating a high fashion party to deal with some DarkNight operatives who were planning on releasing a toxic virus which would make the model's biogenetic clothing start eating them and drive them mad. Two of us ended up crawling around the air ducts in our party dresses and heels to disarm the virus canisters attached to the air conditioning system; the other team member found an attractive model and her boyfriend who she just had to rescue, immediately, and then proceed to keep safe in the back of a limousine for a few hours; for extra safety, she got them to remove their clothes, in case they were infected, and gave them a thorough examination.

I could understand why she did what she did but er, we weren't best pleased about being left to deal with a horde of contract killers on our own, especially as the only weaponry we could smuggle in was hidden in our clothes (I had fake corsetry eyelets i could rip out and use as knuckledusters; the frother had knives hidden in her corset's boning).

It was a good time. I love my supernaturally-calm combat medic and am definitely going to keep her around for future campaigns.
 
Nice. My first EPT character had/has 99 Strength, and 02 Constitution.

And I can't help but mention that I approve of your choice of character sheets. :smile:

I think that combination of attributes ought to be really unlikely as St and Con ought to be inter-related. But even that wouldn't make it impossible.
 
I think I've come up with a decent antagonist and combat encounter for the next Savage Worlds session. It's actually been quite enjoyable to focus more on character interactions than action set-pieces since my group went online, but it's been long enough since they've had a significant combat encounter that I am ready for some shooty-shooty-slam-bang.
 
Kicking off Masks of Nyarlathotep tonight. My Call of Cthulhu game was intended to be just a couple one off scenarios as a diversion during quarantine, but this group has been great fun. We've completed Blackwater Creek, Edge of Darkness, The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse, and None More Black, and the players seemed ready for something meatier.
I've twice started a Masks campaign. With 6e, we got through the first couple chapters but got derailed when I had to kick a player, we decided to take a break, and just never picked it up again. My second attempt was with the 7e edition. Had lots of fun with the new Peru chapter, but the group of players were way too passive for the open ended investigation of the NY chapter and it bogged down in frustration.
So I'm really hoping the third time is the charm. These players have been much more proactive in general, and have handled death and madness with grace and humor. Fortunately at this point I've read/ran the first few chapters of material enough to be as well prepped as ever going into a game. I'm looking forward to this.
 
Each month we publish a free adventure seed on www.HouseDok.com. With the launch of the Patreon, we are adding an exclusive adventure for our supporters. Today we opened a poll for which faction patrons would like to see featured in September.

There are other extras for patrons as well like early access, the campaign vault, and beta content.
 
Just helped my son roll up a new superhero called Varo (secret identity: Tom) who possesses super strength yet fights crime with pistols, knives, smoke grenades, and a sniper rifle.
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Today Varo foiled a bank robbery and turned the masked robbers over to the police.
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I love it that your son doesn't forget that humans are tool users:thumbsup:!
I once played a superhero who had the power to have a really big gun. He was an addled Secret Wars veteran. It was his therapy gun and would only fire if he could convince it the decision to pull the trigger emerged from a valid ethical structure.
 
This was under some personal notes I found some time ago and forgot to show you guys. This is a test character I made to try out Empire of the Petal Throne and see if I liked it, and yes I rolled 100 for CON. I'm not very fond of the system, but I really liked the setting. I found out about EPT because of the pub. :grin:
I think that if I was ever to run Tékumel I would use RQ Sandy Peterson conversion, too bad I don't have the time at the moment to dive deep into it.

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Man, I too wish I could sink my teeth into Tékumel.

I like EPT well enough but the class spread doesn’t seem very Tekumél-y to me. RQ sounds great and I’d definitely try a Mythras conversion if I could spare the time.

I am also fond of Dave Morris’ Tirikelu ruleset, but I have never used it beyond character creation.

And yes, that is one gorgeous character sheet!
 
Adventure Seed: Gene Jackers
Your heroes are in Chimera's sights. The techno-organic cult is looking to improve their shock troops and they want your blood to do it! Gene Jackers can be played as is, or spread out across other adventures, as Chimera slowly collects the genetic material they need to improve their soldiers.

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My son decided to try his hand as referee for Marvel Super Heroes.
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My daughter and I both coincidentally created animal (or robotic animal) superheroes to run through the gauntlet. She is Goggles, a cat with a force field and an energy blast, and I am Lemurbot, who has darkforce manipulation and illusion powers as well as Feeble resistance to fire and heat!
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A couple of the players in my BF game weren't available yesterday, so inspired by the game Séadna Séadna is currently running here, I ran a Stay Frosty one shot for the remaining teens.

No body count among the PCs, surprisingly enough, but that was taken care of by the 5e D&D game later in the evening, when half of our party got wiped out. Now two of the players have to create new characters... including the DM's mom, which has gotta at least be a little awkward, LOL.
 
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