What are y'all up to these days?

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I played in a great 4 hour one shot of the Between last night. The guy running it hit pretty much all the game's mechanics as we helped two new guys learn the system. It was the first time I played it versus running it and I enjoyed it immensely. I played the Allan Quartermaine inspired playbook, the Explorer, and since it was a one-shot, I went all in. I ended the threat by burning down the haunted house once we discovered that's what anchored the ghost. "To save London, I will burn it to the ground."

Now I just hate that it was a one shot!
 
I got some time to work on Magitech Chronicles characters. Since I want to run it RAW when I solo I’m having an issue with one class having special rules with regard to casting magic, even though later in the book it says they can’t cast. There’s also a weird bit about their casting spells that, combined with a later note, makes me ask “Does she have to impale herself with her sword to cast spells on herself?”



I then tried to make a True Mage, which led me to two more rules vagaries, thanks to Dula Luck regarding the character I was modeling the PC on. It also made me realize that several spell schools allow you to commit spell points and summon ANY armor or weapon you want, with the same cost charged no matter what you summon.
 
Got a little arty tonight. I haven't inked a flat picture in probably 20 years, but my brand new set of colored india inks came, so I had to try them out. The sketch I inked is not mine, I found it on the interwebs. I'm pretty pleased even if it's a little brush-strokey. The original sketch is to the right .
20220218_210233.jpgsketch 1.jpg
 
Steel Aces: Playing Jacks 2, Page 1: Journaling
The wait is over. The Steel Aces return with a look into Dr. Green's experiments, Crossfire's memories of war and his pervious encounter with Chimera.
 
My fiancé and I are using our free time to finally convert Vampire: The Requiem to Big Eyes Small Mouth and so far, we're making good progress on our rough draft. We're starting with BESM 1E since it's simpler and we'll do some playtesting in March and April if all goes well.
 
Hypocritically... I'm taking all my Spelljammer stuff and my Dragonstar stuff and my Starfinder and Starjammer stuff and I'm mashing them up into one great big D&D in Spaaace setting using a brutally dumbed-down combination of PF1 and d20M rules.
 
I’m halfway through making my party to solo Magictech Chronicles, and decided to look through one of the adventures in the core.

Said adventure splits the party on class choices. As I was making an all-magic user party, they don’t show up until the end of scene three….even though the outline says they come in on scene four. There are seven scenes in the adventure.

The adventure also screws magic characters who actually use spells, even as the author fails to account if being prisoners means they don’t have their gear. Suffice to say no gear means they’re more screwed, and having gear leads to questions.

Hopefully the other adventure will make more sense, though I see it’s designed for pregens.
 
How about a "what I'm not up to" post?

It seems like my Cold Iron Samurai Adventures play by post isn't going to take off... Yet I am itching to run something play by post. I need something to counter point my two RuneQuest campaigns. The problem is I can find something I'm motivated to run that has any chance of attracting enough players to go.

I really want to run Cold Iron, but it just won't sell...

I don't want to run RQ play by post both because I think the way I run it would make combat run a bit too slow for play by post, plus with two Roll20 campaigns, I really don't feel like running another. And any of the simpler systems would just feel not right to me, though in some ways Stormbringer is compelling, on the other hand, I have not read ANY of the fiction, and I don't have time to read fiction anymore.

I could pick a version of D&D, but I'm just not in a D&D mood.

I'm not really in the mood to try and learn a new system, and probably new setting. Talislanta and Empire of the Petal Throne would be cool, but I just don't have the energy to try and grok the settings enough to run them.

Burning Wheel would be cool, but I need to run that live with players who know the system so I can REALLY learn it.

Oh, and another problem with many of the games I have is how do the players get a copy?

Sigh...

So I think I either need to get enthused about running some flavor of D&D or let go of the idea....
 
How about a "what I'm not up to" post?

It seems like my Cold Iron Samurai Adventures play by post isn't going to take off... Yet I am itching to run something play by post. I need something to counter point my two RuneQuest campaigns. The problem is I can find something I'm motivated to run that has any chance of attracting enough players to go.

I really want to run Cold Iron, but it just won't sell...

I don't want to run RQ play by post both because I think the way I run it would make combat run a bit too slow for play by post, plus with two Roll20 campaigns, I really don't feel like running another. And any of the simpler systems would just feel not right to me, though in some ways Stormbringer is compelling, on the other hand, I have not read ANY of the fiction, and I don't have time to read fiction anymore.

I could pick a version of D&D, but I'm just not in a D&D mood.

I'm not really in the mood to try and learn a new system, and probably new setting. Talislanta and Empire of the Petal Throne would be cool, but I just don't have the energy to try and grok the settings enough to run them.

Burning Wheel would be cool, but I need to run that live with players who know the system so I can REALLY learn it.

Oh, and another problem with many of the games I have is how do the players get a copy?

Sigh...

So I think I either need to get enthused about running some flavor of D&D or let go of the idea....
Talislanta at least doesn't have the how to get players a copy problem
 
Talislanta at least doesn't have the how to get players a copy problem
Yep. It's also very compelling from just a "hey look at this" point, and I think it would attract players. AND I tried to run a campaign in Talislanta once (using Cold Iron) and found the setting hard to grok. I also wasn't really quite sure what kinds of adventures to run in it...
 
Most of the time I write up my post-session recaps in paragraphs as a (relatively) coherent narrative. When I don't have time or energy for that, I just write a list of in-character notes that mostly appear as a series of non-sequiturs, even if you were there.

But really, when the quote of the night was "Android cock of +4 persuasion," what else is there to say?

Thus was HEPCATS Episode 50: Saint Vonker's Day. XP +5.
 
UMMAC Poll 8: Tone of the Times
The last ashes of war have cooled. With a new update to our setting, it's time to decide the tone.
Note: We're trying a new poll plug-in that is hopefully more mobile friendly.

Also, over the last few weeks we've been working on the Itch listing for Metahumans Rising,. You can now check us out there as well.
 
We finally returned to Carcosa this weekend and it felt good. As usual we got a lot done even though our play time was only 4 hours instead of 6.

  • The game started with the party within the Temple of Chaos. At great cost, the party drove Keldor the Bone Man sorcerer from the Caves of Chaos, claiming his impressive panoply including the legendary Serpent Staff. More than half of their retainers perished.
  • They joined the Brotherhood of the Skull, a monastic fighting order dedicated to opposing the Old Ones.
  • Cora the Amazon reached level 2 and issued a call to her sisters across the Realm of Man to join her fight against the Old Ones
  • They visited Aungoe, a Blue Man beach village to inform the chief that their son died on one of their adventures.
  • They discovered that their source of golden lotus (principle ingredient in healing salves etc) has been taken over by an obscene mammoth sized plant that has taken over the minds of a Purple Man village.
  • They discovered the local iron mine has been taken over by a tribe of vhuurmi and a nearby crater has been converted into a racially tolerant gladiator arena.
  • They discovered not one but two new dungeons.
  • They came across a dude who had been crucified and left to rot for 986 years as punishment for screwing up a spell that can only be cast once every 1000 years. The victim begged for death, promising knowledge of a spell in return. They freed him. The immortal level 16 sorcerer who did this has aspirations of becoming an Old One himself and will be pissed when he finds out.
 
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How about a "what I'm not up to" post?

It seems like my Cold Iron Samurai Adventures play by post isn't going to take off... Yet I am itching to run something play by post. I need something to counter point my two RuneQuest campaigns. The problem is I can find something I'm motivated to run that has any chance of attracting enough players to go.

I really want to run Cold Iron, but it just won't sell...

I don't want to run RQ play by post both because I think the way I run it would make combat run a bit too slow for play by post, plus with two Roll20 campaigns, I really don't feel like running another. And any of the simpler systems would just feel not right to me, though in some ways Stormbringer is compelling, on the other hand, I have not read ANY of the fiction, and I don't have time to read fiction anymore.

I could pick a version of D&D, but I'm just not in a D&D mood.

I'm not really in the mood to try and learn a new system, and probably new setting. Talislanta and Empire of the Petal Throne would be cool, but I just don't have the energy to try and grok the settings enough to run them.

Burning Wheel would be cool, but I need to run that live with players who know the system so I can REALLY learn it.

Oh, and another problem with many of the games I have is how do the players get a copy?

Sigh...

So I think I either need to get enthused about running some flavor of D&D or let go of the idea....
How about running Samurai Adventures using the Talislanta's system:devil:? I get it you're familiar with Talislanta's system, and you can just adapt it to your setting!

At least that's what I would do, but I'm probably notorious already for hacking systems:tongue:!
 
How about running Samurai Adventures using the Talislanta's system:devil:? I get it you're familiar with Talislanta's system, and you can just adapt it to your setting!

At least that's what I would do, but I'm probably notorious already for hacking systems:tongue:!
Actually I don't know the Talislanta system(s)...

On the other hand, a reach out to the players finds that they ARE committed to Cold Iron Samurai Adventures, so it's on. It may be slow, but it's on...
 
The DCC campaign I joined last fall is still rolling along and overall going well. I'm enjoying the system quite a bit. When the system doesn't have a rule for something I've pushed for snagging a rule from 5e since those rules are light enough and appear to work well when needed. Mostly we've done this to keep things consistent and avoid going all Pathfinder or 3e on it, it's worked well.

As an aside the GM noted that I'd snagged one of the DCC Lankhmar products at the game store. (I try to buy something every visit go help support the store). This morning he messaged me asking if I was interested in running DCC Lankhmar. Little did he know that two hours before he messaged me I had gone to Goodman Games web and bought every Lankhmar product they had released with the full intention of asking him and his group if they wanted me to be the alternate GM. Got dice? :dice: :wink: So some time this summer I'll start running DCC Lankhmar every other Tuesday.*



*pending how long it takes me to recover from the colon (@&#@!#! cancer) surgery and then the follow-up surgery to stitch up the bi-lateral hernias.
 
Yup. I'm actually buying art. I know that's old hat for a lot of you folks, but it's my first time. I asked the artist to be gentle.
I wish you luck! I just had an artist suddenly respond to me on a backlog of art, both “to be done” and “long completed and still waiting for them to be sent to me.”
 
I finally read the other adventure in the Magitech Chronicles setting, and it’s also a mess. While the first adventure I read had the main problem of “Entirely possible for the entire party to miss the first half of the adventure,” this one gas the sin of “Here’s a sample adventure so you see how to run a scenario with this game, with important parts to figure out on your own.”

I nay just to have to revive my Stargate of Doom campaign I planned to do in 2020.
 
Steel Aces: Playing Jacks 2, Page 2: Knock Knock
Who's there?
The Steel Aces...
The Steel Aces who?
The Steel Aces who are here to stop techno-cult kidnappers!
 
I've generally had great luck with the "listen to the PCs theories and make them true" approach to GM-ing, but last session, I (as an NPC they like & have no reason to distrust) asked them what they think caused a strange and dangerous situation that recently happened to them, and they essentially shrugged.

Maybe it's just because my most vocal player was absent that night. Whatever the reason, I was a bit surprised, as they're usually overflowing with theories.
 
UMMAC Poll 9: If I Only Had A Name
Our Tone is set: Gonzo Philosophy in a Action Packed World. Check out the latest setting updates and vote on the title!

Enjoying our content? Join the Patreon to unlock bonus material, polls, expanded story seeds, and chat with us on Discord. Every Patron helps us in creating Steel Aces and Metahumans Rising content. https://www.patreon.com/Metahumans
 
We just wrapped on Chapter 1 of my T2000 game (which ran two of the adventures from my CZTERY collection and has the players considering running an election in the city to depose a useless unelected mayor ....and then taking the bribe and running away with a decent Range Rover with a full tank of alcohol and two weeks of provisions.

Next up, Ancient Rome in a prelude to a Chronicles of Darkness campaign that's been boiling for a while.

My Monday night group in Dune are likely to get killed this week. They've done their planning, found that their enemy is still alive due to a ghola and they're going to go after them anyway. Talk about brave.
 
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