Haiti Fund Raiser at RPG Drive

Interesting concept.

Give $20 at RPG Drive on donations to Doctors without Boarders, get $1400+ in PDF products.  This actually is a great concept for the companies that are donating their products to get them in the hands of those that might otherwise pass on them due to an unknown name/pdf prejudice/etc.

It looks like the RPG download is being overun with folks and clogged up their intertubes for downloads, so if you do go, you may have to wait a day or two to start downloading all the goodies.

I glanced through the list, a few gems in the mix, a few duds, but I will most likely support and see what they all look like.

jp
$20 is cheap in the long run

Huh... Wrong notebook.

Date line: Saturday
Action: Rousing game of D&D headed out by myself as the Game Master... Pushing for the long conclusion of the Keep on the Shadowfell
Players: The gang
Check List:

• Books... Check!
• DM Screen... Check!
• Miniatures... Check!
• Maps... Check!
• Adventure... Check!
• White Notebook that looks like a dozen other white notebooks that contains the 'oh so important characters'... Che... Che... Che.... Shit!

Shit!
Double Shit!

Stupid white notebooks playing trick the stupid GM... I'll have to torture them all for the insubordination!

So, here I was all set up to run what could have been the closing scenes to Keep on the Shadowfell and I packed the wrong note book. It contained the Dark Heresy characters, not the D&D characters. I was, as you can expect, less then happy with myself.

Luckily, Rob stepped up like a trooper and ran home to get his adventures since he was about 10 mins closer (both ways) then I. I took the opportunity to roll up a Dwarf Cleric, Rillic Oakenstout, to assist in Rob's Forgotten Realms campaign. It was nice to play, but I couldn't get over the nagging feeling that I was letting folks down. Rillic turned out pretty good, his highlight of the day was jumping the 10' ft pit trap to hit the Warg with his Craigshammer two handed!



I hope to hit it again on the 15th. Maybe start a tad early since I had to bail at 10ish to get the Kiddo from work.

That is about it. Go out and vote tomorrow. No vote is a wasted vote, even if the person has not chance.

jp
Stupid White Notebooks!

Savage Worlds

First things first.

First - I'm a gaming whore and I know it. Knowing is half the battle.
Second - I'm not dropping the 4e campaign. I like it and hope to run it for a very long time.

With those caveats out of the way, let me speak a moment about the Pinnacle Entertainment's Savage Worlds: Explorer's Edition. I picked up down at Meta-Games during WARMACHINE Weekend. It was dirt cheap, $9.99 for the book, normal retail. It is a 160 page booklet style format that is crammed with what appears to be a great little rules system. Art is good as well, I would love to have a poster size print of the Rocket Man picture on page 5!

Why this sudden interest in the game? I have heard of folks playing in the past and been given some abstract descriptions. I had also heard that it was uber easy to convert a setting to fit the rules structure, plus it utilized a minion type system to ease the combat with the grunts of the world. I had heard folks used it to create an Iron Kingdom's setting and since I am a card carrying member of the Privateer Press Fan Boy Association I thought it would be cool to utilize it for that reason.

Well... Since reading it, I'm not sure I want to just do that! The possibility of running some interesting settings is just too cool. Two that I am thinking of tinkering with in my 'oh so available' free time are...

• Modern (Near Modern) Horror/Conspiracy like X-Files and Fringe
• Fictional High Magic Pirate Setting

Either of these might be way too cool to develop into a playable format. When would I have a chance to develop and run? Who knows... Maybe after the guys get in the apartment, a week night might present itself for a bi-monthly shing-ding. Only time will tell.

With that bit of an introduction let me tell you a bit on how the system works.

Each character has a set of five attributes (Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, & Vigor) and skills (many). Each level is represented by a die type. You buy more levels in each, increasing your die type with each purchase... D4 -> D6 -> D8 -> D10 -> D12. Each time you attempt to do something you roll the die type for that skill an/or ability. If you get '4' or over you succeeded. Players and big bad guys are 'wild cards' and always get to roll a D6 as well as the stat/skill die and take the best of the two. The target number can be modified by in game situations (cover/concealment/etc.). Players control their own minion/followers during combat, which frees up the GM to run the bad guys. Lackeys are either up, shaken, down. Easy peasy. Wild Cards have a toughness stat that keeps them up longer.

The book has rules for vehicles, chases, mass combat, and much more.

I just re-read that and I feel I did it no justice. The game just seems real easy to play, despite my horrible attempt to explain the character.

Any Hoo... I may start to work on the Modern Horror setting for S&G, just to come up with some ideas in case I can squeeze in the time with the guys! :)

jp
I'm John, and I'm a gaming addict.

Iron Kingdoms...

As a certified Fan Boy of Privateer Press, I was less then excited to here the latest info on the Iron Kingdoms RPG line is pretty much... Nothing. Very sad. They have said they won't go 4e with the current GSL in place. I'm hoping the promised changes may change their minds, but I doubt it. I don't think the IK range brings its money in worth the effort it takes to produce. This is sad as it is one of the great things I like about the IK/WM world.

I like 4e, a lot really, and would love to see the conversion take place. Some intrepid fans are working on some aspects and storing them at Gobbernomicon, a wiki that is holding other odds and ends IK info. I posted my Farrow conversions for review on the site. It would be cool to start building the world from the ground up, but unless I win the lottery tonight, I don't see me having the time to do that. I'll add my two focus worth from time to time. I like the monster creation and the new monsters for 4e are realtively easy to create from the stats given in the Monsternomicon Vol I & II.

I've committed to running and IK RPG event at Nuke Con and WARMACHINE Weekend. I will use an adventure thread I've used before and convert a few iconic IK classes to fourth level.

Not sure if I'll ever get to test play before, Nuke Con, but I'll try.

jp
My Fan Boy is bigger then your Fan Boy!

World Builder Continues to the Second Age

The three Lords of Creation have moved the world into the second age. The pic shows the ending geography from the first age. It can change, and most likely will, but the next age is creating the races and population. During the First age we had the Dragons (good and bad) as well as Eladren (plus Drow and Elves) show up. My first turn I plopped down the Dwarfs and a race of my own Desert Dwarfs plus Orcs.

Should start seeing some new stuff popping up as we get the world populated. Won't be long until city states start rising and war is declared!

The graphic has been a learning experience. I have run out of layers multiple times having to consolidate much of the forest pics to save room. The Island of Fog in the SW is Lord Steve's Dragon Island. More to follow!

jp
Lord John Creator of Dwarfs and Orcs!

As the world turns...

Here is the current world... Progress continues... I'm liking how it is shaping up. Looks like the rivers will add a nice travel aspect with the Giant Lake. Each square is about 200 miles across give or take 50, so it is a pretty big inland fresh water sea at this point.

Steve has given us the Good Dragons and Rob has his Avatar in place... Expecting another race to pop out next turn.

Still in the first age. On turn eight. Starting in turn 10, if one person votes to move to the next age we move. So far no one has indicated the switch. I would like to see more diversity in the NE and SE corners, but we have all been concentrating on our sections. Enjoying the growth and bet that the next age will be more 'enticing' as we start laying down the races and start their interactions.

jp
Bow before Zod!

jp

Nuke Con 08

I've signed up two events for Nuke Con 08.

On Sunday I'm going to run a WARMACHINE & Hordes 500 point tournament and on Saturday Night I'll run a IK RPG based on 4e Mods.

I can't hit the Fall Out Shelter, but you might. Not sure what the issue is. Nuke Con site is www.nuke-con.com.

Rob is running a FoW tournament on Saturday in the morning if I remember correctly as well.

jp

Point of light in the dark of night

The party has ventured forth in a 4e adventure for the first time. Our players are:

• Uhlk - Human Great Weapon Fighter that likes to smash.
  
• Extel - Human Blade Ranger who's haunted memories of his past lives fill his waking days
• Elladen Paeris Halladan - Eladrin Swordmage who's family fought the Bloodspear Orcs to the end of their line.
• Valgar Talean - Dragonborn Swordmage on a quest far from his homelands to better learn the skills of his trade
• Zoltan the Reformed - Human Wizard that is a bitter and corse man, often thinking of his own gain over those in the party, that is until the chips are on the table.
• Eldacar - Halfling Rouge who is light on his feet and quick with a blade, walking the path of his own choice and not afraid of those that he may cross.
  
• Sliver Elmwalker - Elf Bowmaster Ranger that is looking for revenge against the enemy that destroyed his family and clan. His only clue a dropped medallion.
  

The party meet in Fallcrest and quickly found work supporting Lord Warden Markelhay in ridding a particularly nasty clan of Kolbolds that had taken residence near by.

After traveling for 1/2 a day the party hound the Kobold Hall under the remains of an old manor house. The first encounter proved to be a easy, by and large, for seven adventures as they quickly dispatched several Skirmishers and Slingers. However the second room, the crypt seemed to be tougher. The Slinger's glue pots seemed to be more effective and the hidden traps added to the damage, causing the players to slow down. We began to see the 'healing' nature of Elladen come into play as he used his healing skill since the Cleric took a drastic direction to fighterdom.

After finding a bit of gold, the players moved into the second crypt and found slingers and minions tossing a giant sticky ball on a rope that would push the players back. The device made it hard to move forward, given the glue pots as well. The players seemed to have things mostly in hand when two guard drakes appeared, and they were tougher then any Kobolds. Uhlk went down and need several turns of repair.

The next room provided a greater challenge. The boulder trap chased the players around the room, that with the glue pots left Extel to be crushed, if not for his timely save and use of an action point to move out of the way. Eldcar and Uhlk both went down as Elladen and company continued their armature hospital routines. :) Finally finishing off the baddies, the party found a Magic Staff and some coin as well as the secret door to the...

Dragon's Room! A young white dragon was being taken care of by the Kobolds and he attacks. I bothced his surprise move and flame. So the party spread out making it hard for him to hit. He did drop Elladen and put the hurt on several others. Five encounters on no rest the party took the loot and headed back to town.

Some rewards and gold are exchanged, the party meets some interesting characters, and gets a charter by Lord Warden to carry word to the Lord of Winterhaven. On the road, they are waylaid by another band of Kobolds. A bit more aggressive, these guys had some fire pots as well. Zoltan and Eldacar get a bit too ahead of the party and are ambushed by the Dragonshields. Valgar gets stuck in combat with a Dragonshield and two slingers that use the mob tactics to ensure powerful hits. In the end the party dispatches the evil Kobolds and makes it to Winterhaven, where most of the party levels up.

Good session. Got to spend a lot of time playing, even if I had to raise my voice from time to time to get hold of the table. Might be a two week gap as we have a WARMACHINE tournament and a Flames of War tournament back to back.

jp
Keeper of the Bad Guys

End of an Era…

Last night we finished up the first adventure in the Purge the Unclean series. It was also my last running of DH as I shift to D&D and Rob takes of DH.

When we last left our players they were taking stalk in the situation. Upon arriving back at Strope’s Manor, low and behold, Dar was returned from the hospital and Lady V. took a powder… In other words, Eric was in and Mick was out.

With the Play at the Alabaster Court allowing only Thaddeus plus guest to attend, the players kicked into high gear how they were going to provide support. Using a rented delivery truck and gray workers outfits, Raltus, Klytus, Dar, and Dekko tried to use the service entrance under pretence of delivering goods. Raltus secured the chef that was PO’ed that he was getting an order he didn’t request and Dar and Dekko jumped the two guards in the security center. Well entrenched the four members went about scoping out the lay out and security capability of the facility.

At nine o’clock the guest, to include Thaddeus and Talon, arrive for the play. People mingle and pleasantries are exchanged. The play is about an Imperial Governor that despite giving his all to his subjects is slain by them. The trick? The governor is played by a underhiver that his hyped up on drugs and has no clue what is going on. The story ends with the underhiver being killed on stage. Both Thaddeus and Talon are initially appalled, but Thaddeus uses his normal Nobel bearing and shrugs it off as no big deal (one corruption point please!). Talon gets into an argument with the creator of the play about the quality of the acting and writing. Satisfaction is demanded and off to the blood pits.

While the young noble’s second states that swords are preferred, Talon states that the challenge should pick the weapon and he chooses pistols. After a bit of haggling, dueling pistols are brought fourth. Each member gets a single shot after 4 paces. Talon whirls on four and plants one square on the dudes face, burning his hair off with the las pistol. In return, the noble misses and the duel ends with the noble’s apology.

In the mean time, Dar begins a ‘security sweep’ to check out one of the rooms that has an odd set up. He finds the stairs, but the room is locked and he is unable to open. Also he gets the feeling of being repressed.

Later at the party, the faux security team sees the Monk that killed the Bounty Hunter in the previous episode. And he is talking to the head of the church, Shaol. And they are not happy. Thaddeus gets the clue and meanders over and tries to ease drop. He hears the Shaol tell the Monk that ‘He isn’t interested in what his bosses on Amablon feel!’ Or something like that. The Monk, agitated, takes the Shaol by the arm and begins to escort them out. Thaddeus tries to nonchalantly follow, but botches the roll and bashes into the help and spills beverages everywhere. That is when the Monk sees Dekko and recognizes him. Raltus, the faux security guard sees the alarms trip from the Monk. Dar moves to ‘assist’ the Monk in Shaol’s quarters and finds the Monk pummeling Shaol. He turns and seeing a security guard, orders him to find the intruder and eliminate him. Dar says ‘aye aye sir’ and heads down the stairs and lies in wait.

In the mean time the party moves into position. The Monk moves down the steps in a hurry, sees Dar and asked if the intruder was taken care of. Dar says ‘Yes’, but when they hit the hallway crossroads, there is Dekko waiting. Sensing a trap, the Monk pulls his two power swords and begins a retreat to his quarters. A running gun battle ensues with the Monk climbing walls and ceilings. In his quarters he remotely starts a Meltabomb and shoots out the windows of the spire attempting to escape. Dekko cleaves his chain sword into the Monk’s back and while on the wall climbing down Talon takes a pop shoot and knocks him off the spire, to be lost into the darkness below.

Raltus takes a few minutes to look at the bomb package sitting on the Bounty Hunter’s briefcase. Dar and Thaddeus got to Shaol’s room, find him a bloody pulp, but alive and another bomb package.

Raltus disables the first bomb, gets the briefcase, but the group wants to see the shielded room. So despite the fire brigade in route and a live meltabomb on top of the spaces, they go to check it out. Some work happens and they get into a Psyker prison, and remove the device causing the interference and the party leaves.

Back at Strophe’s Manor they interrogate the security guard boss and Shaol, when the power goes out and a Hired Merc band joins the party. Much carnage later and the area is secure. The party decides it needs to act on the info they have gotten and move the game to Ambolun, the living city.

On arrival the scope out an Oracle, that really doesn’t tell them too much new, except about the Serrated Query. Then it is time to take the Joyous Choir’s local hangout. Another gun battle, and the team finds the processing facility for the Farcosia, and proving their thoughts on the source of the materials.

We called it a night then, gave out 600 XP to the party, 100 extra to Talon and Dekko for taking out the Monk, and 100 role play for the noble, Thaddeous.

Looking forward to running as a player.

jp

It is about Character...

On Wednesday I raced home after work, got the lawn mowed, and took a quick shower. Not becuase I had a hot date, but Steve and Paul were coming over to work on their characters.

They arrived about 630ish and stayed for about 2 1/2 hours to roll up Steve's Wizard (Zoltan the Reformed) while Paul re-vamped his Warlord (Still no name).

I know I am pretty new to the gang, don't have the 10 year history of gaming that they have, but some sort of multi-class fetish was kicking in. :) We will see how it plays out in the long term. My copy Keep on the Shadow Fells should be in this weekend, which should give me a chance to start reading the adventure.

On other fronts, I'll be running the DH game on Saturday. My last go as the GM for DH before I turn it over to Rob. I hope to create my Psyker on Saturday while we are playing.

jp
Hi my name is John and I'm a gaming addict...

Flames of War & Character Gen

Ok, not really related, but they both happened on Saturday.

I got a chance to play in the Flames of War (FoW) tournament on Saturday. It was a fun time, despite the massive headache I had running form about half way through my second game. Rob ran an interesting format of only 750 points, which in the FoW world is pretty darn small. The Game Shoppe hosted the event and we had about ten folks show. Four rounds ensured plenty of time to get your FoW itch out of the way.

I ran a Brit Infantry Company with a HQ, under strength Inf. Platoon, 3 Churchill III (Cheddary Bastard!), a HMG platoon, and a 20mm AA section. Not a lot of toys on the table. I went D-W-W-D which really surprised me since I haven’t played the game all that much. Took fourth place and got a nice little gift card, which promptly got spent on some D&D minis. Which takes us to the Character Gen…

So with blazing headache, I offered up the opportunity to go and role up some characters! It went pretty well, a bit slower then I would have liked, but not too bad. Bonus: Eric and Paul who missed the tournament were able to come and play too. The only missing in action was Steve, who was paying off his debt to society by helping a buddy that helped him move, move. Steve you are a righteous man!

So here is what we got so far:

• Extell: Human Fighter who is stronger then anyone ought to be. (Mic will be joining us on a part time basis...)
• Eldacar: Halfing Rouge with a pair of Katar Punching Daggers (Rob)
• No Name Joe: Dragonborn Paladin of the Raven Queen (Eric)
• No Name Joe II: Half-Elf Warlord who is a work in progress :-) (Paul)
• Frak: A Dwarf Cleric that wants to be in the front rank (Mark)
• Sliver Elmwalker: Elf Ranger, Master Archer. (Kyle - Winner of coolest name too!)

In game terms we have two Defenders, two Leaders, & two Strikers. Not a bad mix. With Steve still to role up a character, we might get a controller, but if not I think that we should be OK.

We took a quick encounter, level one. Bad guys were similar to what I ran the last test. 1 – 3rd level Goblin Hexer, 3 – 1st level Goblin Warriors, and 6 - 1st level Goblin Cutters (minions). The party burned three of their daily powers on the encounter, and several of the players took some hits. They should have been OK to go to another encounter with out any issues.

With a successful test run, I think this is what may happen in the near future. I’ll finish up the current Dark Heresy adventure and turn over the “Purge the Unclean” to Rob who can take over DH GM duties. I’ll step in to run D&D adventure and pick up a player in the DH campaign. I’m looking at a Psyker! I would like Rob and I to swap adventures. So Rob would run a story line to completion, then I would run a D&D dungeon to an end… flopping back and forth about every three to four weeks. That should give both of us plenty of time to generate new material and a chance to both play and run a game.

For the D&D players, I’m going to force the guys to do a bit of homework. I want them to write up a short character background. Nothing hard core, just a paragraph or so that I can use as adventure threads. Bonus XP to the players that provide me more then two lines of flavor text! :-p

Let me know what the gang thinks, if that is doable.

jp
Gaming Whore

D&D 4e Quick Look.

So.

I’m a crack head.

What can I say?

I’ve picked up the three core books for the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. So this is my quick look review in 80 words or less…

I like the promise. I’ve been more of a miniatures game player then RPG’er over the past 10 year and this game has a feel that it is a connection of miniature battles, tied together with a little story, but with you and your buddies each only playing one guy versus a hoard. The combinations are going to be interesting as new stuff comes out. It reminds me of WARMACHINE in many aspects because of the combos.

I’ve pitched the idea of trying a session with the gang. Some are OK, some (one) were vocal against the idea of a long term campaign, but was willing to try a night of it.

Sometime after finishing the current Dark Heresy game, I’m going to flex my powers of persuasion and have the guys roll up characters and do a battle or two in one night of play. Just to try out the rules and see how it plays. I’ll let you know!

jp

Dungeon Master Wanna-Be

Rejoice for you are Role Playing!

Greetings,

So the next session leads the party into the Purge the Unclean triple scenario threat. I am/was a bit nervous about running this published adventure, mainly because the lead in adventure, “Rejoice For You Are True” is an investigation piece with minimal combat. My gang comes from a strong miniatures background. Scratch that, they come from a VERY STRONG miniatures background and I wasn’t sure how they would take to more role playing intensive adventure.

All in all, they did try and the adventure moved forward, which is all I could hope for. My only real compliant was a bit too much side chatter, but that is bound to happen from time to time.

We had one regular missing. Eric took the family to Colorado (like that was important! :-) ), so Dar was recovering from grievous injuries from the Orks. We also had a guest player, Mick using a Sister of Battle, named Lady V. Also, Mark opted out of the scum and rolled up a Cleric, who’s name escapes me at the moment… Have to go look that up!

So on to the action… so to speak…

=][= =][= SPOILER ALERT =][= =][=

If you plan on being a player in Purge the Unclean, you might want to wait a bit...

Arriving at Scintilla, the team debarks the Pax Calixis, with Captain Ramirez providing parting gifts. A small sum of cash, armor that was used in the battle with the Orks, and a data slate with his personnel encrypt code. He lets them know they have made a friend, and if the need is high, he will show.

Team Adventure is swept away to meet up with the boss, Inquisitor Vaarak. They are strangely silent about the fat jokes that Ramirez was cracking, but maybe it is because this guy could still take them out. They share the information from the departure of Artimus and the demon and the last remaining Tarot card. He thanks them and sends them on their way for a bit of R&R, which the players spend the time advancing forward a level more or less.

After a bit of shopping and leveling, they are called back to Vaarak and are briefed on an odd situation. The Xenos circuits in the tarot card are the same as the ones in a mystery meter item taken from some happy-happy emperor cult on the capital. Seems one of Vaarak’s old chum’s lost a niece and this is what he found. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find out where these meters have come from and what they do. Vaarak’s old buddy Laurent Strophes, a retired Navy man, will act as their cover. “and oh”, Vaarak adds, “Don’t drop the =][= bomb either!”

So the party takes off and lands in the upper tier of Scintilla and is greeted by a noble lady who id’s herself as their ‘cousin’, Julia Strophes. Seems their cover is to have part of the party act as nobles and the others as retainers. Since Thaddeus is already a noble he is an easy fit and Talon reluctantly saddles up as the second. Raltus and Klightus acted as body guards one per noble, Mark’s Cleric was the ‘official taster’ as he has some cooking background, and Lady V’s singing came in handy as an entertainer.

Big moving parts:
- Lessons for the nobles on how to act
- Meet Bounty Hunter at Barking Saint. Find out he has an encrypted data slate that he took off the guy that had the funky meter. He wants a hefty sum, but they feel it is worth it. Plans a meeting later on.
- Find out more about the Joyous Choir, who Strophes’ niece was tied in with and who had the meter.
- Find out about a new drug that is a rave of the young nobles.
- Arrange to meet the Bounty Hunter in a market. He is capped with a single shot to the head and the case he was carrying is taken by a guy with robot legs that can run backwards and shoot at the same time. Ick. Team decides a chase isn’t going to work, so they blend back into the crowd after looting the poor Bounty Hunter's body.
- Attend Lady Borella’s party. Have a good time, pocket some samples of the drugs. Speak with the folks, learn a few secrets, get invited to the Joyous Choir’s inner sanctum for a real secret party.

And that is were we wrapped it up. I think the second half will go a bit better. A little more investigate, a little more action.

So that is it for this episode… Thoughts from the gang? Anything you want to add?

jp

v/r

=][=
Inquisitor Varrak's representative in Omaha

Pax Calixis, or how I stopped worrying and learned to kill a green skin…

Hello Gang,

Last Saturday we got together as a group with all in attendance and continued our little Dark Hersey one shot adventure… Which seems to have grown into a campaign. Which is cool, because everyone seems to be having a good time.

When we last left our humble group of acolytes they had just vanquished the demon from the cathedral thanks to some quick thinking by Dar, the guardsman. Now on to the real fun stuff. Clean up duty!

With the camp in shambles, they party decided to split up and do the work. Klightus, Dar, and Raltus returned to Port Suffering to get help with the most sever of the wounded. Talon, Frak, and Thadius stayed to help the wounded, take names, and do a bit of searching.

Team Suffering made it to town, only loosing a few of the injured, dropped the rest off at the Alms and headed to wake up the local astropath to get a message out. Well, the local arbiter had some words and Klightus was forced to drop his =][= credentials on the table. That got things moving. Klightus got the following on the psychic radio:

“Inquisitor Varrack,
Temple at Stern Hope compromised by warp incursion. Artimus compromised and KIA. Situation contained at present. Local arbiters ordered by Inquisitional authority to assist with quarantine of temple. Request Instructions."

With the way psychic radio works, who knows how it went out.

Anyways, Team Suffering heads out with 4/5 of the arbiter contingent on the planet (that would be four of the five stationed here), their chimera and a few other odds and ends to get back to Stern Hope.

In the mean time, Team Hope does some searching and finds the Abbott’s diary, Artimus’ Rosetta, and some cash. Frak takes the opportunity to run a scam on the locals and gains a little extra change too.

Both teams unite and clean up for the report and head back to town. Wait a few weeks and get a response from Inquisitor Varrack.

“Collect data/artifacts. Transport via Pax Sector (?). Return to Scintillia. Pay codes authorized. Varrak Sends”

Two weeks later and Pax Calixis enters orbit. Transport has arrived. The acolytes are treated warmly even have dinner with the Captain Ramirez who tells them stories of the time he and Varrak use to run together. Nice thing on Pax is it is a factory ship as well as a charterist. A few mono weapons are purchased as well as some other upgrades.

Some odds and ins...

• Thadius trys to read the abbott's diary and near the end takes a bit of corruption.
• Raltus pulls an R2-D2 and tries to log onto the ships data net and gets a rude shock
• Dar finally gets his mono edge axe

A few weeks into the trip and ‘BANG’ the Geller Field drops them out of the warp. Half hour later the players are called to the bridge. Ork assault boats are in route and the team is needed to help supplement the ships security. Oh, and have some armor and a few grenades.

Big fight one:

The Boyz are dropping through the hull and the team is frantic to take them out. Frak gets grenade happy and does some great damage but also hits Dar and throws him out of the combat… Which worked out well cause he was getting pretty beat up. When the ‘Ard Boyz drop in with the Big Shootas the bullets start to fly in earnest, because they sure were not hitting anything! Team takes some good damage, fight it hard to the end before dropping the last of the Boyz. Then a comm link comes in. [Bridge under attack, please hurry]. The players race to the bridge doors in time to see the other ork crew kill off the last security teams holding the door.

Big fight two:

More bloody action. Dar takes a nasty critical and looses all the fingers on one of his hands. Everyone else gets pretty bloody. Thadius sucks with his new stun saber… Just plain sucks… Kid has got to get more skills! :-)

It hits 1215ish, fight is over, and I’m late getting home. So we wrap it up with the follow on to come on Saturday.

v/r

=][=
Inquisitor Varrak's representative in Omaha

p.s. I hope to have Pax Calxis posted over to the Dark Reign site soon.

House Rules...

So, last night I tried two house rules in the game.

In short these are:

1) Fate could be re-gen once per encounter vice per session
2) What is affectionately known as the Mooks rule

In the session we had two encounters. In retrospect, it should have been a single encounter given the nature of the crisis, but since I wanted to test out the fate mechanic, I let slide. Things I learned and will modify.

- When last bad guy drops, the encounter is over, no spending any unused Fate to gain HP back. I may allow one more 'round' to allow players to spend 1 Fate to get back the 1D5. I did allow folks to use two at the end, and then regen. I think that was a bit excessive in the acolytes favor.

- I already stated. Make sure your encounters are truly separate. In this one the acolytes went from one battle to another with no down time since they ran over to the bridge to save the day. I might make it a '30 min game time rule'...

Mooks. By and large I was happy with this set up. I explain how it went here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffgforums/posts/list/0/9079.page#177461. I like the cinematic approach with hordes of bad guys and the Mook rule actually help achieve that. I ran it straight 40K style, I would have been limited to 1 'Ard Boy and maybe 4-6 'Boyz with a six person, well kitted, team.

Thoughts?

jp
=][=

Illumination Part II

So our second session had two less players. The Scum had a baptism he had to attend too and the Nobel Arbiter was moving back to the big O! I picked them up in a NPC status for the time being... The gang returned to Stern Hope to report on the beast that attacked. Artimus looked as tired as always and a bit distracted. The NPC players stayed and conducted watch while the players went about the community to try and find something useful. Questions were asked, Cathedrals were visited. They tried desperately to find a hidden chamber or secret door, but alas none existed. After a bit they retired for the night. In the morning the players see Artimus and he still hasn't slept well, but tells them to join the service for the morning that will start the consecration and he will join them this afternoon for the high ceremony. Player head out and get their first glimpse at the Dark Singer/Widower Raine and the Warlord chieftain Ko'osk. Inquiries are made and they know that Raine is a big time imperial supporter, thinking it will help her backward folks, but she isn't pleased with the location of Skae's cathedral due to some ugly pasts... (bing) eyes start to pay attention and pieces start to be seen as a whole. The characters go to the service which starts and Artimous, despite being tired shows up anyway. After the opening a loud explosion is heard and the camp is under attack. The players head out to see what the matter is and they see the chaos of the gate being destroyed and invaders with yellow headbands attacking all over. The characters each see different things and charge into the frey. The Arbiters, Klightus and Thadius, attempt to come to the aid of a young lady protecting a pack of children. The murderous villains are advancing and shooting. Several shotgun shots do no good and soon the bad guys are in the midst of the young ones. Thadius charges in with his club while Klightus uses the shotgun at short range. Dar and Talon spot a band of vermin heading to the generator farm. They fire and follow in pursuit, engaging in a bloody battle while generators explode. Rapid thinking by Dar allows them to 'toss' the bombs before it gets worse. Raltus and Frak see a group of yellow bands heading to the cathedral with a big ass bomb strapped to their backs. Going full auto, Raltus and Frak take care of the bad guys and the bomb goes off well short of the chapel. As the chaos subsides, the gang heads back to the front of the cathedral to find Skae and Artimus in deep conversation with Raine. Raine's pissed and feels that these crazies are just the tip of deceit that is going on (bing!). Artimus, obviously tired and in a foul mood that his Grand^5 Dad's cathedral is being dumped takes out his las pistol and shoots the only living yellow banded guy who is blinded and jibbering about the 'Crow Father' and the "end coming" (Bing!). Shocked Raine picks up and leaves saying that this place is cursed and she will not return. Her and Warlord Ko'osk pack up and head out. Skae says he needs to meditate and should be left along, Artimus appoligizes for loosing his cool, but hey, he is with the =][= so it is OK. Everyone else starts cleaning up the mess. The players fan out to help out and get some more info. Dar finds out that the scary Brother Severus who was 'suppose' to help repair the gate is missing and was 'summoned' by Abbott Skae... (bing!) Odd . Klightus finds Brother Larmark drowning his sorrows and crying about not being able to protect their flock. If only Abbott Skae would have allowed him in the 'secret' discussions between Severus and Artimus he could have helped (bing!). About then they hear screams and find Abbot Skare in the middle of the street surrounded by Severus and Artimus with cuts and blood over his face/body (bing!). He claims that a woman attacked him, a witch... Artimus orders the party to go find Raine at her place up in the hills a few hours. (bing!)It is obvious to the team that something is not right, but being good little baby =][= they head out to find the witch Raine as ordered. They hit her little camp just before dusk after driving through a horrid sand storm. She steps out from her hovel to great them, flanked by her posse. Raltus steps up and explains that people are hurt and need her help back at the camp. Raine, looks at them with her eye and says she will not return, but there are things a loyal imperial servant should know. She invites them into her house when they hear a maniacal laugh on the wind and the Shale Crows that have been hanging around all over swarm and attack. Dar fails his fear test badly and develops an OC about cleaning his axe... :) The team dispatches the swarms and finds that Raine has an old book that details how the old Saint Darrus (Artimus' Great ^5 Dad) battled a demon that was possessing the final warlords body on the exact location of the cathedral (BING!). And that this demon was a master deceiver (Bing!). Raine finishes by stating that per legend the demon only fears which it likes to inflict most upon its victims... (BING!)

The gang piles back into the truck and heads to Stern Hope to see what the heck is going on. On arrival they find the camp dark and the gate unrepaired. The only people they seen have either dead with their eyes gouged out, or are wandering around lost and insane. The local inn has been ransacked and destroyed, but they find in Artimus’ room a data slate that they Raltus repairs and finds out that Artimus new of a ‘Miracle’ that was going to happen and that he would be the Saint’s new vassal (Bing!). Marching up to the cathedral they stumble upon Brother Lamark, pulling himself towards the cathedral with his arms, his legs shattered. “Save my flock” he begs and expires a martyr to imperial faith. Entering the cathedral the team sees the members of the community chanting and rocking in the pews. They see Artimus standing on the alter with his ever present Tarot cards swirling around him. The ceiling of the cathedral appears to be loosing its planer integrity as the warp seems to be entering. And standing at the top of the processional is this Skae-Thing… It is bloated and vile and most defiantly demonic. (BING!), (BING!), (BING!), (BING!).

Players take action and begin to fire and engage. The Skae-Thing seems to have some massive regeneration and shrugs off the hits. The Skae-Thing states he will blind them as he has blinded Skae and Artimus in their faith. The players take some damage, until Dar puts it together. Blind? Blind! Shoot the eyes. After a bunch of missing and some fancy dancing around, the players manage to take the eyes out which sends the beast hurtling back to the void. Artimus, awakes, perhaps for the first time in the adventure and says… “what have I done” and falls into the swirling Tarot cards that tear him to shreds. The players recover a single tarot card that Raltus determines is Xenos in origin.

The night ends with the party heading towards Port Suffering…

Illumination
Chapter One – I’m part of what?

We had all six players present for our first go. The characters are listed below in the previous post.

The party started by gaining introductions while traveling in ‘The Brazen Sky’ following Inquisitor Varrak's hasty introductions. The briefing reveled the players new they were to meet Artimous (Arty) at Port Suffering on the planet of Iocanthos. Arrival on the planet was meet by imperial officials then followed up by a cherub that escorted them through town to meet Artimous. While trying to keep up with the flying dead mechanical baby angle (yes it is a disturbed game), the party encountered a crazy man in an alley (where else) that kept chanting about the ‘crow father’ is coming. When the party tried to grab the old geezer to calm him down, his clan members came out of the wood work to support the old guy. A knife fight followed a gun fight followed by the local constables coming to finish things up.

The team, not wanting to reveal who they were, opted to go to jail. Artimous quickly came to bail them out and scolded them for disrespecting the high inquisition by engaging in common thug like activity. Artimous briefed the party on the upcoming consecration of the cathedral out in the boonies… And how it is being haunted… The abbot in charge Abbot Skae sent word to the inquisition for help, hence the parties involvement. Artimous is visibly a Imperial Psyker and is playing with a deck of Tarot cards that he said were recently gifted to him. Oh, and another kicker, his great, great, great, great, great, great, grand dad is the saint that the cathedral is being commissioned too. Key ominous music!

The party moves out to Stern Hope via ground transport… What’s that, nobody took ground transport… The sole IG took swimming despite the desert environment? Hmmm… Go slow boys, go slow!

Two minor happenings in route to the cathedral. A ‘walking dead’ crumbles by the fire scaring Feral IG guy and the witness a disappearing act with a strange symbol that could be either interpreted as an eagle holding a skull (Artimus) or a crow picking at a skull (everybody else). The party arrives and meets the gang at Stern Hope, well almost. They meet Brother Severous, mean guy with axe, and Brother Lemark, nice guy with lasgun and uplifting primer. The party does some digging around before calling a night and hears a few wild tales. Next morning they meet the abbot and don’t gleam much out except he is very excited about the ceremony on the next day. Party decides to take a trek up the mountain facing with Brother Lemark to see if they can find the mystery lights everyone has been talking about, but instead find a large mutated chaos frog. At least that is what we think it was. It was called a Hexalid, but it didn’t have a description except for a ‘barbed tongue’ so the ‘Mutant Chaos Frog’ stuck. Well, said frog has Fear 1. So, being the good new DH GM yell out, “Fear checks please” followed by groans across the table. Every member sans the Tech Priest fails the test… And not by a point or two, but by 4 or 5 degrees… So I have ½ party heading towards the cliff running away, one guy throwing up all over himself for five turns and one that faints out dead away. Tech priest did his best to hold it together until the runners got their senses back.

So that is about it for the first session. I’ll follow up with the second half soon.

jp
=][=
Inquisitor Varrak's representative in Omaha

Back in the Saddle Again...

So after much time off, the gang has come together in a much darker universe. I picked up the Dark Heresy Role Playing Game and the gang has allowed me to 'try again' the whole role play experience.

We have actually had our second session. I'll catch you up on those later...

But for know lets introduce you to our characters...

Dramatis personæ

Raltus - A Skeletal thin Void Born Tech Priest with an infinity for Autoguns (Kyle)
Talon - A Scrawny Gunslinger Assassin with multiple piercings from Gun Metal City (Paul)
Dar - A Guardsman conscripted from a Feral world who loves his Axe very much (Eric)
Klightus - An older Arbiter from the Paradise Planet who has shotgun envy (Rob)
Frak - Rangy young punk of a Scum doing his best to fit in (Mark)
Thadius - A Noble Born Arbiter learning the robes in the family security teams (Steve)

The first adventure I ran the team through was the one provided in the back of the main rule book. Illumination was an interesting start. It didn't have enough pre-programed action I think for a miniature junky to enjoy the game more, but it did have some action to test the combat mechanics.

The group is large and that necessitated increasing some actions a bit. My early feedback on the system is that it can be enjoyable, but does have a lot of dice roll actions. Players could be doing all the right things, but the dice just don't cooperate. For example... The players encountered a Hexilid (Which has no description... Bad adventure, bad!) which causes fear. 5 of the 6 players plus the NPC fail the fear test, not by a little but by 4 degrees. Characters were puking over each other or passing out as this chaos toad thing (my best guess) charged into the party... It was a sticky problem. In short, the game is deadly and unforgiving. The GM must take caution to make it an enjoyable experience.

More to follow...

jp
Inquisitor Globus Vaarak's Representative in Omaha

=][=

Session Three

GM’s Note: Xander’s player was not present so he and Oro slipped into NPC mode.

The players left for the Agamar System, a noted agricultural hub. Senator Theern’s aid had given the players the coordinates of the hidden and deserted base with instructions to locate it, assess its condition, and report of any material goods that were still viable.

After an uneventful trip the Shuttle Pegasus arrived only to be hailed by the local Imperial patrol manned in a old Correllian Gunship. The Captain of the gunship was interested on why the shuttle had its transponder identification set to Imperial Senate. After a quick verbal dance, Storm communicated that they were an advance party for the senator, one of many he had sent out, to collect data for a possible visit. The Capt wished to know if the senator was going to visit so, as the local imperial commander, he could make all in right. If they needed any assistance, they only need to ask.

Upon arrival in the city of Kaddestrri, it was evening. The party headed to scope out the local area to secure transport and grab a meal for an early morning start.

On a empty street, they noticed an old man being pushed down by a group of thugs that then jumped on speeders and fled. The party helped the old man up and found out he ran the transport rental near the hanger bays (imagine that :) ). He stated that his nephew had started to fall in with that crowd and he was concerned.

After finding out the old man’s business hours, they party retired to the Dancing Farmer for a meal. While enjoying their meal, the ever observant IG-107 noticed that the lone alien, a Rodain, would glance towards the party from time to time. As the meal progressed, the rodian was noticed leaving the building.

Upon departure, the party was surprised by a stun grenade thrown as they exited. The party sprang into action. Shots were fired, the IG unit took heavy damage and became disabled. Xander used his newly learned Force Slam to push the bounty hunter away and into the wall. While prone the party took the opportunity to subdue the Rodain. Needing repairs, Oro and Xander took IG back to the ship while Storm and Markle searched the captured foe. Finding a data pad, storm cracked it and found the bounty slips for both Markle and Xander, which explained the bounty hunter on Ord Mandell as well. Fearing letting a dangerous enemy go, Markel took a fatal step and executed the helpless bounty hunter (Our first Dark Side Point… I’m so proud).

The next morning the team rented a skimmer and headed towards the great forest preserve. The followed the coordinates provided until their tracking system began to go blank… Some sort of interference from a localized spot. Storm used his natural stealth ability and scouted out two entrances. One appeared to be a hanger bay sized cavern and the other a smaller personnel entrance that had 12 or so speeder bikes out front. The team opted for the hanger bay.

The bay reeked of dung, urine, and rot, a large ‘nest’ was in the far corner and a stumble by IG-107 caused the creature in the nest to stir. The large reptile (hence forth known as a VanDrak) rose from the nest and charged the invaders. Using a spray and two claws the beast fought valiantly to protect its nest, but fell to the adventures. A quick survey found a fully functional generator room and standing inventory for a full operational mobile command post. They also noticed the cave-in for the direct route to the personnel entrance. Another route might be found.

After tracking back through the remains of the old base, the party passed a construction/mining area, but quickly left that section in search for the main base… (Hmmm… What was left behind… )

The corridors to the main base were blocked by a large pile of rubbish, when the party approached, 6 womp rats charged out of the refuse and engaged the team. Blasters blazed and much noise was created. Storm noticed a face above the trash that quickly bolted while they finished the last of the rats. Xander the Jedi used his Force Slam to clear a path through the trash and the party advanced. In the very next room, an old droid repair facility, an ambush waited. Seven young lads with blaster pistols waited to face the aggressors. The party returned fire, but had a hard time keeping their power cells charged (crit fail = drained cell in my games). IG-107 took massive damage and was only saved due to the use of a force point, but Oro did a Quick Repair and granted him a few ‘bonus’ hit points until the end of the engagement. Xander did a spectacular surge to gain position then flubbed the Force Slam having aligned most of the bad guys. Storm and Markel continued to lay down auto fire on the group, but the hard cover from the downed tables made hitting difficult.

After taking heavy damage, the party was able to eleinate the immediate threat. Oro went back to work on the now disabled IG, and Xander, Storm, and Markel went forward to ensure all was secure. When the entered what use to be a galley, three more thugs came running down the hall way. One stun grenade and a few shots and it was easy pickens. Oro had IG back up and running, but bearly so the team moved forward. They passed the entrance to the personnel side of the cavern and pushed further into the interior.

In the next room, the leader of the gang charged in as they entered, obviously answering some alarm, and gave the team a final battle for the day, all were hurt, but all survived. The party was able to hack the door to the old base commanders’ quarters (which the Thugs hadn’t been able too) and found a fair bit of loot.

The Party returned to the hanger area and moved the speeder bikes into the cavern and blew the personnel door to discourage thugs that might have been away from coming back.

And that ends session three. Did I miss anything?

jp

edit:

Added a map to help... Also big thanks to Gozzy's. A really cool map generator on line at http://www.gozzys.com/index.php

Session Two

Well,

We had session two about a month ago. Just taken me a long time to post it out.

The players fought there way to the lower level and entered a large room connected to long tunnel across to the far power station.

A set of droids activated and attacked the players and they were able to fight them off, with some minor injury. After the post fight clean up, Storm hacked a lock on a strange door and the party found a Mon Calamari in deep stasis.

• Oro - A run away Mon Calamari who improved his natural repair talents for Star Commercial Combine. When the base fell, he used his skills and a dark secret he keeps to stay alive.

The party woke the Mon Calamari up and hauled him up to the med droid on the upper level.

With Oro now a party member (Guest player and NPC), the party engaged still more droids. After arriving at the far end of the service tunnel, they found the bases power station and a evil appearing Security Droid wearing a dark Jedi robe. His 'bodyguard' of other droids attacked as 'Naga Sadow' moved forward to engage with his shock arms.

IG-107 and Markel's skills come forward to help clear the droid army, but not with out taking heavy damage. IG-107 shutdown due to damage while the other players were severely injured. Oro used his computer knowledge and found himself in a battle against an unknown foe to shut down the droid nodes.

At last the final droid fell as Oro shorted the system. Around the corner the scream of an Astro-tech droid could be heard.

Finishing the survey of the base reviled that nothing much remind, other then the physical infrastructure. The party took the R-5 unit as well as the Medical Droid and the GONK unit in the hanger and returned to Ord Mandell.

On the return, they were told the Senator was off planet, but payment was given and a new contract was offered. The party sold the R-5 unit as well as the GONK and went to get a drink to discuss taking the next job.

While at the Cantenia, a bounty hunter spotted something odd and began firing at the Xander and/or Markel. Seeing they were out matched, the players sought escape as clone troopers entered the Cantenia to arrest the wildly firing bounty hunter.

We leave our party as they make there way back to accept the next mission...

Stay tuned for the next update!

jp