Arab Revolt in 10mm

I am not exaggerating when I say that this project is almost 30 years in the making. I have wanted to wargame the Arab Revolt since reading an article in issue #112 of Miniature Wargames magazine in 1992, but like the actual conflict itself, it was a "sideshow of a sideshow", and I never really got down to brass tacks until the pandemic hit last year.

I bought a few pdf rule sets, and sent off an order of Pendraken's 10mm figures, and had them delivered to a painting service to be painted. Of course afterwards I decided that I needed some German Asian Corps figures, and had to order more figures...

I also bought the little train model off ebay, which while not the same model as those that ran on the Hejaz railway, looked enough like the one in the movie to my untrained, non-train-watcher eyes.

With David unable to join us for a Blood Bowl game, I asked Adrian and FG to join me in our first Arab Revolt Game.

I used the Contemptible Little Armies rules (more on the topic of rules later) and let Adrian and FG command the "Arab" side: Adrian chose the Arab Irregular army, while FG commanded the Sharifian Arab Regulars and a British Rolls-Royce armoured car.

The scenario was of course a train ambush, with the Arabs having to loot the train and run off before the Turkish reinforcements arrive.

Sharifian infantry and the Rolls-Royce armoured car

I played the Ottoman army, and despite having slightly more points than the Arabs I rolled so poorly that the game went pretty one-sided. The Irregular Cavalry managed to close in on the defenders with minimal casualties, while the Arab machinegun managed to silence their Ottoman counterpart, before proceeding to decimate a unit of Ottoman infantry sent to secure the train.

Meanwhile, the Sharifian infantry and another unit of Ottoman infantry engaged in a costly firefight in front of the railway station.

The photo above shows a cardboard building I made based on photos of a Hejaz railway station. The original was of red brick construction, but I settled for a whitewashed appearance as it was easier and fit better with the white adobe buildings I had in my collection. In the background is a dice tray I made from a Turkish Delight box which I bought in Istanbul many years ago.

Now a word on rules.

One of the first sets of rules I looked at was of course Too Fat Lardies' "If the Lord Spares Us", which was written for the specific period, theatre, and indeed scale. However, I find the rules too complicated for me; had this been a main period for me and my group, it might have justified the investment in time and effort to master the rules, but for what will likely be an occasional game, I needed something simpler.

I looked at Trench Hammer, which I like, but the rules fit a more tactical type of game - in any case, I am reserving the rules for my 28mm sci-fi figures.

I also got a copy of Blood and Valor, which looks like a fun set of rules with some interesting mechanics. I also had lists for armies in this theatre, but like Trench Hammer, it is meant for a more tactical kind of game.

There are many other sets of rules out there, but many are pitched at a higher scale/level than what I was looking at, and most are focused on the European theatres.

Then, a few days before our game, I came across some recommendations for Contemptible Little Armies. The reviews suggested that it was an odd beast that played like a skirmish game but felt like it was at a higher level as it involved vehicles, aircraft, and artillery. While that might have turned some wargamers off, it sounded exactly like what I wanted. I got a copy, and sure enough all the elements I was looking for were inside, and the rules were quick to learn and remember.

The rules were written for individually based 28mm figures, but we used my 10mm figures with no change in measurements - I think it looked better too. We managed to try out the rules for armoured car this game, and in the future I hope to bring on aircraft and artillery too.

Shieldwolf Miniature Imperium Immortalis Cavalry

I finally got around to assembling and painting the first of the figures I received from the kickstarter several months ago. These are lancers riding on the same kind of mounts that the Death Korps of Krieg cavalry use, but they have the pickelhaube instead of the Death Korps style helmet.

They are beautiful figures, with amazing animation on the mounts, but they were difficult to assemble. Instead of the usual configuration of a head-and-neck and two halves of the torso, all the mounts came with the head-and-neck, the torso with 2 or 3 limbs, plus at least one limb as a separate piece, and a few had legs that had to be joined at the knee. Being thin and made of resin instead of plastic, this made gluing the parts together difficult.

There was some gap-filling to be done on the horses, as well as the joint between the riders' torsos and their waists, which are sculpted onto the mounts. As I said they are beautiful, but I do wish they were easier to assemble.

The animation on these models can be better appreciated in the side view.

They will be facing the British-inspired cavalry from Mad Robot Miniatures in a future game, once I manage to get the heavy weapon teams painted.

Low-Tech Aliens

Here are some miniatures that I painted for our Deepnight Revelation campaign; they will be used as one of the several species of aliens the crew will come into contact with during their journey. In this case, they are a race of aliens with a pre-Columbian American level of material technology.

Since many of the alien races in the campaign were created for just the campaign, it was not possible to find ready-to-use figures. I did a bit of googling, and decided that the Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago Tribals figures and the Tau heads from Zealot Miniatures gave a good likeness of the aliens as represented in the illustrations in the module.

Ideally I would have liked to make them "civilian" figures, holding tools instead of weapons, but since the set was made for wargaming, I had to make do. The staff in the "shaman's" hand came from a Frostgrave wizards sprue, while the left arm, in what I call the "Professor X pose" was supposed to be an archer's arm, I think.

These figures will probably be used for only one or two sessions of our RPG, but I imagine they can be used for other games to substitute for lizardfolk or some sort of frog-people in any of the classic TSR D&D modules.

Uthuk Viper Legion

A while back my brother managed to get me a box of these Uthuk Viper Legion figures at a discount of Amazon. I got the starter set for the Utuk Y'llan faction and painted them a long time ago as I had planned on making them the antagonist for our RPG campaign, but that seems unlikely now.

Still, there is a chance that they can be used for a Warcry campaign in the future.

StudioLevel Resin Barricades Terrain

The resin barricades terrain pieces I backed on StudioLevel's kickstarter arrived last week, and being in another lockdown now gave me the time to paint them up.

The picture above shows the 4 trench barricades and the 4 scatter barricades I ordered, as well as the two small "crates" scatter terrain pieces I got from the Imperium Immortalis kickstarter.

The resin was easy to work with - no smell, and no stickiness either before or after being spray-primed. I painted them with a coat of black primer, followed by a zenital spray of grey primer. I then painted the metal surfaces with silver, and then dabbed red-brown primer and then orange paint over them, before doing some stippling with black paint. Jerry cans were painted a grey-green before being given a brown wash. Gas cans were painted blue and then given a brown wash. Wooden structures were painted with a brown contract paint before being dry-brushed with a sand colour. Finally, I sprayed the bottom of each piece with Tamiya Sand, and then sealed them with a clear coat.

This is a view of the rear of the barricade pieces.

Placed end-to-end, they cover quite a bit of frontage.

I got these terrain pieces because they are a good match for the pre-painted resin barricade terrain pieces I got a long time ago off eBay. Again, since it was lockdown and I had time, I laid the new and old pieces out on my mat and placed the Warzone miniatures down to give you guys a sense of the scale.

These terrain pieces were quite quick to paint - I did them all in one day - and look quite effective, although they are a little tall for my figures. Getting them painted has given me the push I needed to start working on the Imperium Immortalis figures I received months ago, so hopefully there will be more pictures soon.

Deepnight Revelation #4

An Alikaia "mother"
Art from artist's website

Captain's Log - T036

Upon exiting hyperspace at DNS-AQ-406 Beta we immediately received what we soon determined to be a distress call from an Alikaia colony ship; as the Alikaia were until then unaware of the existence of any alien species, I can only imagine that they had sent out the call out of desperation, or in the hope that there was an Alikaia exploration vessel within range.

With Akranika's help, we were able to learn that the colony ship, carrying some 600 colonists from three different communities, were performing a refueling operation at the gas giant, while heading for the terrestrial planet which they had planned to colonise. Their drive had suffered a failure, and the ship was in a decaying orbit which would plunge it into the gas giant's atmosphere in fewer than 90 minutes.

I ordered the ship to proceed at full speed to the colony ship and put the entire flight wing on standby to perform rescue operation, and called the command team to devise a plan - we were at that point still an hour away.

As our docking ports were not compatible with those of the Alikaia, it was not possible to perform a direct transfer of the colonists. Transfer of the colonists via small craft was possible, but would not have been sufficient to evacuate all colonists as they only possessed some 40 vac-suits among them. The Alikaia were adamant that we evacuated their "mothers", not caring for their own lives, but my crew and I wanted to save every one of them if there was reasonable chance we could do so.

Performing a tether was not an option, as the combined effect of the ship's mass and the gravity at that distance to the gas giant would have risked Deepnight Revelation being unable to extricate itself. Then, seeing the trimaran configuration of the colony ship, Engineering proposed that we made all the colonists move into one of the lateral hulls, and then detach it from the rest of the ship with explosive charges.

We proposed the plan to the Alikaia, who were agreeable on the condition that we first removed their mothers via small craft, which we did, even though one of the distraught mothers had to be first sedated by a drug developed by Dr Balilaika, delivered via a dart gun.

Under the advice of Mr Stamper the Engineering Division was able to place the charges and attach the tethers, and we were able to pull the lateral hull a distance from the gas giant, where we were able to perform the transfer of the colonists via small craft in relative safety.

Chief Steward Patrick Hewes had been placed in charge of settling the colonists in the cargo bay and their provisioning, and after a discussion with their leaders we have decided to return them to the Aliakaia home system, which we expect to reach in two days.

Captain's Log - T045

Mr Johnson had returned from his visit to the city of Kadiaz, where he and his team met with the representative Irldzin of the faction. He reported that, unlike the rest of the Alikaia cities, which seem loosely organised by our standards, the faction seemed to have a more developed structure, and a higher proportion of warriors among their numbers - whether this was a true reflection of their society or a show for us foreigners he was unable to determine.

Irldzin and his team were curious about our technology, particularly about our weapons technology, and expressed an interest to trade with us, promising us a better deal than that which could be offered by the other cities.

I will have to meet with Irldzin soon, perhaps after the parade to honour our crew to be held in Dari-Alkin tomorrow; Mr Goldfone had been working with the city authorities on the programme, and he promised me it will be a spectacle.

On advice of the Mission Command Team I have decided that Commander Zruke will remain onboard Deepnight Revelation, while Commander Khomen will attend the parade along with representatives from each of the Divisions.

Prepping and Running the Game

This report omits the last part of the session, which I plan to report in the next post, after the next session.

The first "encounter" of the session was again a non-combat one. The situation as presented in the module was such that it was not possible to rescue all of the colonists. I reviewed the parameters, and was pretty sure that I had sufficient reasons to make the case that it was not possible to do so, even finding out the relative gravity at the surface of Jupiter to determine whether it was possible for Deepnight Revelation to pull the colony ship to safety.

I had prepared for the players to perform a rescue by small craft, which would have meant that most of the colonists would probably not be rescued, but when my players saw the picture of the colony ship, they came up with the idea of detaching one part of the ship from the main body, which made it mathematically possible for Deepnight to pull it free. As the colony ship was an atmosphere-capable ship, I decided that it should be able to withstand the stress of being pulled, especially since the whole section was essentially a cylinder, which is a strong shape.

As they were able to come up with a coherent plan and they rolled well, I ruled that their plan succeeded.

After the rescue we played out the arrival of Deepnight at the Alikaia system and their reception as heroes at their homeworld, with more detailed role-playing on their meeting with the "faction". Based on the information they have learned about the Alikaia until them, they rightly became suspicious of the faction, and started to call them the "space Hitler" faction.

Deepnight Revelation #3

Captain's Log - T028

Preliminary scouting having been completed on the uninhabited planet Astrography named Prospect, an advance party was sent to the surface to establish a campsite at the selected location, where we planned to allow the crew some R&R on the first habitable planet we have come across since our transition through the wormhole.

During their journey to the river to set up a pump station and sewage processing plant, however, the vehicles Tech Team 6 were traveling in attracted the attention of the large birds encounter by the scouting teams earlier. The team broadcasted a loud noise from the sound system on the vehicles, which repelled the birds. Unfortunately, the same noise appeared to have attracted the ire of a herd of the large herbivore also reported by the scouting team. As the lead vehicle crested a rise, it came into close proximity with a large male, which rammed the vehicle and caused it to overturn and roll downwards, eventually settling on its side at the edge of a cliff overlooking the river.

The other vehicle was able to withdraw to a safe distance away, and from there team leader Petty Officer Milo Deems sent out a call for help to the team at base camp. Upon receiving the call for help Lieutenant Xebac took off in the pinnace alone and headed for the team's location, but was ordered back by Lieutenant (Dr) Balilaika, the commander for the mission, to return and pick up the rest of the team.

When they arrived at the site, the team found the herd of some 40 animals stood between them and the first vehicle. The team were unable to get a respond from Crewman Lydia Torrent or Crewman Scott Zane, who were in the vehicle, and it was assumed that they sustained injuries which incapacitated them. The male animal which had rammed the vehicle was next to it, and appeared wounded and agitated. Dr Balilaika determined that moving the second vehicle into the herd might have caused a stampede and result in the first vehicle being pushed over the cliff in the confusion, but the urgency of the injuries likely sustained by the crew made waiting for the herd to eventually wander off a non-viable option.

The teams on the ground decided to resolve the situation in a two-pronged approach. One team, led by Sergeant Ahab, took the second vehicle and reached the opposite bank of the river, from where they would be hidden from the view of the herd. There, Sergeant Ahab, Trooper Iaqta, and Crewman Talon Var scaled the cliff and entered the vehicle, while Mr Ajax and Dr Balilaika approached the male animal on foot, the former using his psionic ability to calm the beast, while the latter stood by with a dart-gun loaded with a tranquiliser he had created based on the tissue samples of one of the bird he had obtained earlier. The duo were successful in their mission, and the first team were able to secure Crewmen Torrent and Zane and lower them to the team below - Crewman Torrent had sustained an open fracture of her femur and had lost consciousness from blood-loss, while Crewman Zane had sustained head injury. They two casualties were conveyed by vehicle to the pinnace, where they were stabilised by Dr Balilaika and then returned to the ship by Lieutenant Xebac.

Supplemental: Commander Khomen had completed his investigation on the matter of Lieutenant Xebac's second instance of reckless action in our mission thus far. It turned out that it was no coincidence that both incidents involved Crewman Torrent - the two are involved romantically, and his concern for her well-being led him to react impetuously on both occasions. I have adopted Commander Khomen's recommendations as Chief Flight Officer that Lieutenant Xebacbe grounded and restricted to administrative and maintenance duties until further review.

Captain's Log - T033

The landing team despatched to the surface of planet DNS-AQ-306 to investigate the magnetic anomaly returned with our first "first contact" with a sentient species in this galaxy.

The magnetic anomaly was in fact the wreck of a spacecraft with a primitive hyperspace drive which had crash-landed on the uninhabited planet some 12 standard years prior. The lone survivor of the crew was a scientist called Akranika. With the help of Mr Ajax, Mr Goldfone, and Dr Tsoukalos, we were able to learn that he and his crew called their own species Alikaia, and they came from a system a little over a parsec away. The Alikaia had never before encountered another starfaring species, and it must have been overwhelming for Akranika to not only make first contact for his people, but first contact with some many alien species at once.

Illustration of Akranika from the module, from the artist's website

Work on creating a database for our auto-translator is ongoing, but so far what we have learned about the Alikaia's social structure is fascinating. Their species is divided into four classes, which translate loosely to: the Mothers (who are female), and the Thinkers, the Warriors, and the Workers (who are all male). The Mothers are not verbally communicative as the rest of the species, but are able to communicate their desires and intentions by other means not yet understood by us. They are considered the leaders of their communities, and are held in a position of great respect by them. They also hold the decision on which members of their communities may fertilise her eggs; individuals who are rejected by her are called "rejectees", and become in a fashion outcasts from their communities, and must live apart from the main communities, though the vast majority of them continue to serve their communities - warriors, for example, form warrior enclaves on the periphery of their communities, where they look after the defence of the communities, while rejectee scientists take to exploration, as Akranika had. Some individuals voluntarily become rejectees to pursue the profession, and these are viewed as self-less members of their communities; as we are all volunteers on Deepnight Revelation, this has resulted in Akranika viewing all of us as some sort of heroes.

The Alikaia's hyperspace technology seems to be primitive, and their extra-terrestrial colonies are so far limited to planets and moons within their own system; Akranika's mission was one of the species' first foray outside their home system. He is of course reluctant to reveal too much about his homeworld and their technology to strangers, heroic or no, and I have likewise advised my crew to be circumspect about the amount of information on our mission we give to our guest. I have, however, agreed to give Akranika a ride home, and see if we can make a new friend and ally in this galaxy.

Our next destination will be the system DNS-AQ-406, where we plan to make a refueling stop, before continuing to Akranika's home system.

Prepping and Running the Game

The two main encounters in this session both come from Book 1 of the module.

The first encounter was once again a non-combat one. I find non-combat obstacle/encounters a good way to introduce players to a setting or a set of rules, as the encourage players to interact with the setting first, and then see how I resolve their actions using the rules (or not, as may be the case).

The members of Tech Team 6 are created by a fellow-forumer on an RPG forum I frequent. I had the idea that they are specialists in airlocks, and told my players that they were the team that converted one of the missile bays to a special laboratory for researching on samples of the Entity which they plan to obtain, and that because of their expertise they are given the nickname of Seal-Team 6.

Hey, a GM is allowed to have fun.

I did not have a chance to roleplay all the members of Tech Team 6 to their full potential, but I will likely try to use the characters in future scenarios involving tech personnel and build them up as we go along.

One of the players picked up on the potential for Prospect to be colonised later, which was something that I had planned to address much later on in the campaign. I am planning to have the Tadpole Galaxy be sparsely populated, and for most of the species here to have a lower level of technology than the United Confederation or the Tazanian Empire; this makes the whole galaxy ripe for colonisation by either polity. Once the news that a stable wormhole exists between our own galaxy and this one reaches home, it will likely start a land-grab and trigger a third interstellar war...

The second encounter is the start of another lore dump, which unfortunately will be a feature of this kind of campaign. The Alikaia are the first of a number of scripted major arcs for the campaign, and next session will hopefully see more role-playing, and some combat.

Deepnight Revelation #2

Captain's Log - T018

Mr Stamper had just completed his debrief to Mission Command on the exploration of HNP-B 1.

The team had been sent to investigate a psionic emanation from the planet, while the ship was conducting refueling mission at HNP-B 2. Upon arrival at the system, the team found remnants of a pre-hyperspace civilisation on the planet, but no sign of any organic life despite the presence of water and an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. They also discovered that the source of the psionic emanation was from the planet's only moon.

Mr Stamper ordered the pinnace to land on the moon, and a team comprising of Dr Tsoukalos, Dr Balilaika, Sergeant Ahab, three troopers, and Crewman Ajax were sent to investigate the source. They found a metal door built into the side of a rise, which opened automatically when they approached.

The door opened to a corridor shaped from the stone of the moon, which descended into the depths of the moon. The outer corridor was separated from the inner corridor by a set of airlock, which was still functional, which irradiated the occupants with ultra-violet light and cycled the air within.

The team passed through the airlock and reached the doors at the end of the corridor, which stretched close to a kilometer and descended close to 200 metres from the surface. Beyond the door they came into a round, domed chamber some 1400m in diameter. Within the chamber were four smaller, oval, transparent-walled domed enclosures, each measuring 600m x 400m and more than 100m in height - the precise measurements of the chamber and domes were not available at the surveying equipment brought by Dr Tsoukalos had to be abandoned due to subsequent events.

The team observed that the chamber was lit by a low green light on the floor. The smaller enclosures were lit from the top of the domes by some unknown source; within each enclosure were trees and other plants, and unidentified animals. In one of the enclosures the plants were thriving, but in two other they were in a stated of decay, and in the last they were all dead.

In the centre of the chamber was a plinth, upon which was a man-sized, transparent-walled chamber, within which was a sickly-looking Gren.

The Gren was able to communicate with Crewman Ajax telepathically, and after transferring a vast amount of information to him, warned him to flee the chamber. The team fled the chamber as they were urged to, and at the same time the floor of the chamber burst open with several plant-like tendrils emerging to try to seize them. As they entered the corridor leading to the surface, the walls of the smaller enclosures broke, and various creatures, with tentacled appendages and maws filled with sharp teeth, emerged from within and pursued them.

Sergeant Ahab and his troopers covered the retreat of the rest of the team, through a tactical use of grenades and blaster fire. He had the clarity of mind to collect a sample of the plant tendril which sought to seize him, but the sample disintegrated when exposed to the ultraviolet light in the airlock.

The creatures did not pursue the team beyond the airlock. The team made it safely to the pinnace, and during the return journey Crewman Ajax related what the Gren had "told" him.

The Gren, whose name was Tyovask, was a scientist on the planet that the moon orbited. Some 30,000 years ago, an asteroid bearing what the people later named the Entity landed on one of the smaller continents of that world. The Entity, a fungal-like organism, began consuming all organic matter it came into contact with, and when its spores infected the Grens, it took over their nervous system and were able to exercise a degree of control over them, until the bodies were eventually consumed too. While the Entity and its spores were susceptible to high temperature and ionising radiation, it proved impossible to eradicate once it has established itself on the continent. The Grens eventually made the decision to perform a thorough nuclear strike on the continent, and for a while it seemed that they succeeded - but it was later found that the Entity had infiltrated the seas around the continent.

Tyovask, a leading biologist, volunteered to study the Entity and the effect of its infection on Grens, and a laboratory was built on the moon, where the risk of a laboratory leak would be minimised, for this purpose. Tyovask had four bio-domes created, which he filled with plants and animals from their world. Then, he infected himself with the Entity, and sealed himself in, and waited for his people to come back for him. Unfortunately, the Grens lost their battle against the Entity, and all organic life on the planet were consumed, and the Entity, barring those on the moon, starved itself into extinction.

In his lab, Tyovask's mind merged with that of the remaining Entity, and he learned that while it was a fungal-like organism, when it has reached a certain size it attained a measure of intelligence and sentience. In their new form the symbiotic organism that was Tyovask and the Entity learned to control its instinct, and instead of consuming all of the organic life within the domes, practised a form of rationing that allowed it to survive for the millennia.

The teams arrival and its telepathic communications with Crewman Ajax allowed Tyovask to learn of what happened to his home planet, and in its grief Tyovask's control over the Entity was weakened, and the Entity, sensing a chance to leave the confines of the moon, consumed the last of tis food source and tried to seize and infect our crew.

After conference with the Mission Command Team, I made the decision to bring the ship to the moon and launch a nuclear strike on the laboratory from orbit. Our sensors confirmed that there were no remnant psionic emanations from the moon after the strike.

Based on the information we have learned, I have ordered a revision of the decontamination protocol for away teams. Further, I have instructed Lieutenant Slater to come up with operating procedures for the tactical teams in future scenarios where an encounter with the Entity would be likely. Chief Medical Officer Cho had also been tasked to set up an isolation facility where samples of the Entity, when we are able to obtain some, may be studied in relative safety.

While the origins of the Grens and their relationship with the fungal Entity are now known, Mission Command Team resolved to continue the mission to seek the source of this Entity and determine if it still poses a threat to our galaxy.

Our next waypoint is a cluster of seven stars some 5000 parsecs away, which Astrography has named Point Grainger. We will however make a pit-stop at a nearby gravitational anomaly at the request of Space Sciences Department before proceeding to Point Grainger.

Supplemental: At Dr Tsoukalos' recommendation, I have offered Crew Ajax a transfer to Social Sciences Department, with the designation of Social Scientist.

Captain's Log - T020

The gravitational anomaly, which Astrography named DSA-1, turned out to be a "frozen star" with impossibly low surface temperature. A closer survey of the frozen star revealed surface fluctuations in temperature and gravitation.

The source of these fluctuations were soon revealed when a large shape some 300 metres in length detached itself from the surface and approached us at high acceleration. We initially identified the shape as a Gren bioship based on its size, shape, and high acceleration and I placed the ship on red alert as we prepared for battle - it being impossible to outrun the bioship. Mr Stamper and Mr Ka'an, however, observed that while the creature approaching us bore some similarities to Gren bioships, it had a number of features that were different. Dr Tsoukalos was consulted, and his opinion was that the creature likely considered our ship either food, or a mate; and there being no discernable mouth or alimentary canal on the creature, it more likely considered us a mate on account of our size, shape, and our propulsion ability. I ordered the ship to reverse course, but the creature increased its acceleration to match, and two more of the creatures, smaller at around 50 metres each, detached themselves from the star and joined in.

The three creatures eventually caught up with us. The larger creature seemed to regard us with some interest, while the smaller ones seemed to invite us to play in a game of chase. As we did not indulge them, they all lost interest after a while, and returned to the surface of the sun.

I have instructed Life Sciences Department to study the sensor data on the creatures, and determine if they are the same creatures which were infected by the Entity and turned into bioships for the Grens. If indeed this is the case, then it proves that the Entity has the ability to construct complex plans, and may prove a far deadlier opponent that we have so far imagined.

Prepping and Running the Game

The encounters in this session came from books 1 and 3 of the campaign series. As with the previous session, there was little action, and a lot of lore dump.

The action, however, was interesting. I decided to use the chase rules from Savage Worlds to run the, well, chase. I have deliberately given the monsters relatively weak stats because I did not want a TPK, but when the players saw the sheer number of models I placed on the map, they decided to run even before they have found out how deadly the monsters were.

The chase would have been relatively boring had not Dr Balilaika's player forgotten (?) about the airlock and rushed in before the rest of the crew had caught up - he ran into the airlock first, which closed and began its two-minute cycle, leaving the rest of the crew stuck on the side with all the monsters.

While the action scene was straightforward, I think the players enjoyed making up plans and protocols for future encounters. This will certainly work to my advantage, as it aids immersion, and takes a lot of work off me.

The second encounter was taken from book 3. I placed it here, early in the campaign, as I wanted to complete the lore dump and solve the mystery of the origin of the Grens and their bioships - I worry that if I left it to a later session the players may not connect the dots. It also allows me to throw in a new element to the campaign: some of the crew may consider the mission accomplished now that the origin of the Grens had been discovered and that they are no longer a threat. These crew members may later become disgruntled as the voyage drags on, and agitate for return to our own galaxy.

Blood Sword 5E Kickstarter

I got really excited about this kickstarter when I came across it a couple of weeks back.

I bought and played through all the gamebooks in the original series back in the 80s; although set in the Dragon Warriors world, I have always felt that the storyline was too fantastical (mythical?) compared to the world presented in the RPG books, which means that it may be a good fit with 5E rules?

It's been a while since I set a campaign in Legend - maybe this kickstarter will give me a reason to do that again.

Deepnight Revelation #1

Captain's Log, T001*

Upon exiting the wormhole our ship was right away shaken by a series of impact, which we were able to determine to be from a drifting field of debris, consisting of ice and what appeared to be planetary fragments. As the debris were numerous and of mixed composition and scattered electromagnetic waves in a non-uniform fashion, we were unable to navigate through the debris field safely.

On Mr Stamper's advice I order boats to be launched from the ship to determine a safe path through the debris field and for crew upon them to place demolition charges to clear the larger pieces of debris. Due to the density of the debris, the operation necessitated the deployment of a broadcast relay boat to maintain communications between the ship and the boats.

Two hours into the operation, a demolition charge being placed by the crew on Boat 13 went off prematurely, causing the boat to lose power and spin out of control with three of the crew still tethered to its hull.

Before a rescue boat could be organised, the pilot of Boat 01 (which was serving as the broadcast relay and safety boat) Lieutenant Xebac disobeyed orders and started off to intercept Boat 13. Boat 01 was struck by a debris and Lieutenant Xebac was rendered unconscious, and the cockpit began to depressurise.

The remaining crew on Boat 01 responded to this unexpected series of events admirably: Crewman (Probationary) Ajax (of the Deck Department) sealed the breach in the cockpit, while Sergeant Ahab (of the Security Department) took control of the boat.

With the communication to the ship lost due to their movement, the crew of Boat 01 decided to continue the rescue effort on their own. Social Scientist Goldfone was able to located Boat 13, and Sergeant Ahab piloted the boat expertly, matching the spin of Boat 13 perfectly as he moved the two boats into contact and then gradually reduce the momentum to wind the tethers around the hulls of both boats. Scout Trooper Blake, Mr Ajax, and Mr Goldfone were then able to recover the crew of Boat 13 into Boat 01, where they were given medical aid by Corpsman Wootue.

The crew of Boat 01 - excepting Lieutenant Xebac -were given commendations for their action, and Mr Ajax was formally inducted to the crew of the ship and was granted full crew privileges. Lieutenant Xebac was put on report for his actions.

Having cleared the debris field, Astrography was able to determine that we were in the Tadpole Galaxy, having emerged at the end of the shorter spiral arm, and that the transit, while it took merely two minutes for us, had in fact taken 294 days.

Tadpole Galaxy, some 420 million light years from our galaxy

It was further determined that there were multiple sources of psionic emanations from many parts of the galaxy, with the most prominent coming from the 'tail' end of the galaxy. While the journey to the tail end could be made in 10 weeks at maximum speed, after conferring with the Mission Command team, the decision was taken to take the safer course and to travel to the main body of the galaxy in short jumps, and to gather intelligence and replenish our fuel, water, and food as the opportunities presented themselves.

At Astrography's recommendation, our next waypoint will be a strong radio signal 50 parsecs from our current location, which they have named Radio Source Vilaakasii.

Captain's Log, T010

We completed our survey of the Vilaakasii region today, and are making preparations to jump to our next waypoint. Exploration of the systems QVS-88 and QVS-122 had revealed two terrestrial planets that once supported life - in the case of QVS-122 a pre-hyperspace civilisation - and which should by all accounts still support life. While the mass extinction of life on the two planets can be explained by the supernova event that resulted in the Vilaakasii black hole, Life Sciences Department cannot explain why life had not re-emerged on these planets after 800,000 years. We are awaiting the results of Social Sciences Officer Dr Gregrorio Tsoukalos' field-survey.

* - for this series I will employ this dating convention to indicate days after the transit through the wormhole.

Prepping and Running the Game

The start of a new campaign is always exciting for me as a GM, although my first sessions are usually a little stilted as I try to get back into rhythm.

I was aware that the first session would be a lot of talking and a little playing, as there was a lot of scene-setting and plot exposition to be done, plus a player who is new to both the backstory and the Savage Worlds system.

My general plan is to run the campaign more or less in the order of the module, but to fit my backstory, I had to make the part of the galaxy that the ship first pass through a dead zone. This meant no discovery of alien species, and of course no interaction or combat with them. To inject some action into the session, I lifted an incident from Book 3 and used it as my first action scene.

I am gratified that the players responded admirably, and took the opportunity to roleplay their new characters: Ajax being super-eager to prove himself a useful member of the crew, Goldfone making wisecracks, and Ahab taking command of the situation like a marine sergeant - the boat rescue episode will remain one of the memorable stories in my career as a GM.

I had the opportunity to introduce quite a few NPC crew members this session, some of whom were created by friends and fellow forummers. I expect that over the next few session a few of them will become "crowd favourites" and recurring NPCs.

Space Opera Season 3: Deepnight Revelation

This week, our group returned to our Space Opera campaign, which I have been planning for before the last session of the previous season ended.

(You can read about Season 2 of the campaign here.)

The basis for this campaign is Deepnight Revelation, an epic Mongoose Traveller campaign which seems to dovetail with our campaign so far. As we have two new players in our group whom I wanted to introduce to the campaign, I decided to employ troupe play with the players from the previous campaigns playing their old characters, plus a new, less experienced character, and for the new players to play new characters too.

For rules I stuck with Savage Worlds, which has served us well so far. The SW rules are nowhere as detailed or "hard" as Traveller, but I suspect even if we were using Traveller rules I would still be playing fast and loose.

I imagine the campaign to play like episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, with the players playing the main characters, and with a cast of recurring NPC crew members.

In our version of the campaign, we follow the mission of the starship Deepnight Revelation as it travels through the wormhole to reach the galaxy which the Grens have come from, and as they explore that galaxy with the goal to end the Gren threat if possible. The Deepnight Revelation has a crew of close to 500, and so I employed the help of my friends, readers, and fellow forummers to create character concepts for the crew. I will introduce them as they appear in the story.

For the main cast (NPCs in italics), we have:

MISSION COMMAND DIVISION

Captain Beverly Reid, human, United Confederation - Previously on a career path to become the captain of a carrier, she gave up her plan to become captain of the Deepnight Revelation when she learned about the mission.

Commander Zruke, Rakashan, Tazanian Empire - Previously in command of a Tazanian troop ship, Commander Zruke was accused of cowardice during the Gren Wars and stripped of his commission. He was invited to command a Tazanian "freikorps" ship and distinguished himself in that role, eventually participating in the Battle for Earth. When Captain Beverly Reid was given command of the Deepnight Revelation, she requested for Zruke as her First Officer, and Zruke was re-commissioned and assigned to the ship.

Mission Officer Nick Johnson, human, Neutral Zone - Ex-cop from the United Confederation who fled to the Neutral Zone after being falsely accused for the murder of his wife.

Mission Officer Kumra Ka'an, space yeti, Neutral Zone - A former criminal, Kumra Ka'an was captain of The Magpie until its destruction on Pallas during the Battle for Earth.

Mission Officer RB-62, re-programmed droid, Neutral Zone - RB left his leadership position in the Robot Collective to join his old crew on Deepnight Revelation.

Mission Officer AJ Stamper, human, Neutral Zone - A former space-miner and a demolition expert.

ENGINEERING DIVISION

Petty Officer Jet Black, human, Neutral Zone - A crew of The Magpie, Jet left the Teamsters Guild to join the Deepnight mission as an engineering team leader.

OPERATIONS DIVISION

Marine Sergeant Ahab, Rakashan, Tazanian Empire - A marine and a veteran of the Gren War.

Marine Scout-Trooper Blake, human, Neutral Zone - 

Lieutenant (Doctor) Cho Sen Wan, human, United Confederation - Trained as a surgeon, Lieutenant Cho is also a taekwondo practitioner.

Lieutenant Junior Grade (Doctor) Balilaika, human, United Confederation -

Crewman Ajax, Serran, Neutral Zone - His application to join the mission having been rejected due to the lack of any outstanding talent, Ajax successfully stowed-away on the Deepnight Revelation. When he was discovered, he was assigned as probationary crew in the Deck Department.

SCIENCE DIVISION

Social Science Officer Gregorio Tsoukalos, human (?), United Confederation - Xeno-archaeologist and head of the Social Science Department.

Social Scientist Ippy Goldfone, human, Neutral Zone - A social media celebrity and communications equipment expert who joined the Deepnight Revelation mission to rescue his waning career.

Sorcery! 2 - The Jailbreak Job

Three days after their successful kidnapping of Morgana, Horovar, Penn, Silent, and Zhora were on their way east in a mule-cart, disguised as salted-fish merchants. Malus, Zul, Gearfried, and Zamm remained in Arkleton, waiting for instructions for their next job from V.

The party's destination was a little fishing village three days from the capital, where they would find and kill Glowulf, who had returned to his home village to become a simple fisherman.

Arriving late at night on the third day, they were taken into the home of the village headman, who fed them and offered them accommodation for the night. The party's inquisitiveness made the headman suspicious, and after he left them for the night, Horovar and Penn followed him secretly, and found that he had gone to tip Glowulf off at his fishing hut. Glowulf thanked the headman, and requested that the villagers not intervene if the was any trouble.

Returning to the hall, our villains decided to launch an attack on Glowulf's home. Entering the hut simultaneously from the front and back doors, they found the place in darkness. Penn shot an arrow into the bedroll in the corner... and heard the arrow sink into the wooden floor with a dull thud.

At the same time, two figures entered the room from the back door: it was Glowulf and Valerian. The two demanded to know who had sent our villains on their mission, but they were in no mood to talk. A melee ensued, and Glowulf was cut down and decapitated, while Valerian was knocked unconscious and taken prisoner. By now the commotion had drawn the attention of the villagers, who crowded around the hut with their improvised weapons. The party threatened to kill Valerian if they villagers did not disperse, but they did not comply - it was only when Penn and Horovar slew a few of them that the rest fled, allowing our villains to get away.

Our villains now made their way westward, towards Arkleton, with Glowulf's head in a bag and Valerian bound. On the second day they were overtaken by mounted guards dressed in the livery of Arkleton, coming from the east. The guards attempted to arrest our villains for the murders they committed in the fishing village, but they were not about to give themselves up without a fight. After a short, sharp fight, the four guards were dead, and Horovar laid gravely wounded on the ground. Valerian asked to be untied so he could aid the barbarian, and was unbound.

As he tended to Horovar's wounds, Valerian revealed that he had remained in Arkleton incognito after escaping from Goncol's laboratory, but had come to the fishing village to warn Glowulf after he learnt of Goncol's death and Morgana's kidnapping - whoever was responsible for those acts no doubt wanted them silenced for their part in their mission twenty years ago. As their mission was known only to few who were closest to the late king, whoever sent them would have to be someone high in the kingdom's hierarchy. And just as they were being silenced, Valerian warned the party, they were now probably being set up by whomever had sent the guards from Arkleton. Horovar, Silent, Zhora, and Valerian took the guards' clothes and horses, and with Penn driving the mule-cart, they returned to Arkleton.

When they returned to their respective inns, our villains learned that their companions had been arrested in the night they day after they had left by city guards, and were now held at the guard-house of the Fourteenth precinct.

Realising that whomever sent the guards after them would soon learn that they had failed in their mission, our villains decided to break their companions out of the jail immediately.

Penn started a fire in a neighbouring precinct, and an alarm was raised, drawing some of the guards from the Fourteenth there. Then, returning to the Fourteenth precinct, he shot the guard in the tower with a well-aimed arrow. Still in their guises as city guards, Horovar, Zhora, and Silent entered the guard-house, and struck down the guard at the front. The guard captain was similarly struck down when he emerged from his room, taken by surprise. The party entered the dungeon below the guard-house to find the last guard cowering in a corner - he was despatched, and his keys taken.

The party quickly located and freed Malus, Zul, Gearfried, and Zamm - bruised but still alive. When they emerged from the guard-house, they found Valerian on the street, and the bodies of two bounty-hunters behind him - someone had hired them to lie in wait for the party.

Now convinced that they would not be safe in the city, or indeed Analand, our villains decided to flee the city on their stolen horses - but where will they go? Perhaps, Horovar suggested, they will find safety in Mampang?

Prepping and Running the Game

After weeks of lockdown, we were finally able to play the conclusion of our Sorcery! campaign.

I was hoping that the revelation that Valerian was still alive would cause the players to question their mission, but as they were already suspecting that V was not in fact Valerian, they decided to complete their mission and kill Glowulf anyway. Fortunately for me, they decided to spare Valerian - why kill someone if you are not getting paid for it, right? - and that gave me a way to carry on the story.

The guards sent to arrest the party were supposed to arrive at the village in the morning, when it was expected that they would be fresh from their battle with Glowulf and therefore wounded or exhausted and therefore easy prey. Unfortunately for me the players decided to arrive late at night, and aroused suspicion with their questioning of the headman, and thus threw everything off.

The second half of the session was based on the Dusk City Outlaws module The Jailbreak Job. The modules in the series are short - 4 pages of text in this case - but provide enough information for the GM to run a full session. They are worth a look if you are running a campaign for a party of rogues or evil/not-quite-legal characters.

The campaign ended with some unresolved plot threads, which will allow us to have another sequel campaign in the future. Will the party flee to Mampang? Will they learn the true identity of V? Only time will tell...

Deepnight Revelation: Calling for Volunteers...

source

This post has two purposes: it is a guide to the players in my upcoming Space Opera Season 3 campaign on character creation, and also an invitation to my readers to join the campaign indirectly by creating an NPC crew member for the ship at the centre of the campaign.

Background

I backed the Mongoose Traveller: The Deepnight Revelation kickstarter, which will deliver soon. I am planning to modify the campaign and use it as the basis for my campaign. The campaign describes the mission of the ship of that name, and players will play crew members of that ship.

As the ship has around 500 crew members, and I have only a fraction of that number in players, I am asking you, my readers, to help by creating NPC characters to crew my ship. These characters will interact with our PCs, and go on away missions with them. I hope to post reports from our sessions, so you can follow the adventures of the ship and her crew.

The Story So Far...

In the 20-something-eth century, our galaxy is divided into three parts: the human-dominant United Confederation (UC) on one side, the Rakashan-dominated Tazanian Empire (TE) on the other, and a large Neutral Zone (NZ) of independent systems acting as a buffer/no-fly zone between them.

Two years ago, an extra-galactic species of aliens nicknamed the Grens - basically genestealers - invaded our galaxy during a war between the UC and the TE, and nearly wiped us out. With the PCs' help, our galaxy managed to defeat the Grens, and afterwards discovered the wormhole through which they entered our galaxy.

To ensure that such an invasion never happens again, the UC, TE, and NZ decided to pool their resources and send a ship through the wormhole to find the home of the Grens and hopefully... end them.

They refitted a cruiser, named Deepnight Revelation, and appointed a human (from the UC) as the captain and a Rakashan (the feline humanoid species of the TE) as her XO. The crew are all volunteers recruited from the UC and TE military, and civilians from UC, TE, and NZ who possess the talents which might be useful on this expedition. They are all volunteers because no one is even sure that the ship can survive the passage through the wormhole, let alone get back. There are some 500 crew members, deployed in various departments such as Command, Flight/Helm/Navigation, Engineering, Operations/Logistics/Medical, Tactical/Security, and "Mission Command and Science" - crew with unique talents that are not about day-to-day shipboard operations.

Creating your Character

It's a Space Opera setting, so feel free to make up a species; we use mainly Star Wars prepainted miniatures for our game, so if your species resembles one of the stock Star Wars species it will be easier to find a representation for you. As long as your character is roughly human-sized, it should be good. You can be organic, android, or Star Wars kind of droid. Psionics is rare, and in our game more or less limited to the Serrans, of whom there are not many around.

Do let me know the following about your characters:

Name

Species

Your origins

Your training/skills/vocation/shipboard assignment

Why you volunteered for the mission

What is something you brought with you

What is something you left behind

I may not use the character 'as is', but modify the description to suit the needs of the game, but I will attribute the creator in my session reports if I use your character (and if you wish me to).

You can post your character in the Comments section.

Thanks in advance. The galaxy thanks you for your service.

Sorcery! 2 - Kidnap the Archpriest

With only two days to plan and execute the kidnapping, our villains split up to gather information and help.

They learned that the College of Sorcery is housed in what was previously a fort on an island on a tributary of the Goldflow river. The college is connected to the Great Temple of Libra via an exclusive sheltered wooden bridge, which Morgana and the senior members of the college would use to go to Goncol's funeral.

Making the rounds around the city, they learned that Morgana was guarded by her own personal bodyguards, known as the Black Guards, who were formidable warriors, and considered themselves above the law. Morgana was guarded by at least a dozen of the Black Guards every time she left the college - a head-on confrontation was not going to work.

They also learned that there was much unhappiness among the populace over the corruption of the nobles and the college elites, among of whom were the merchant Bertrand, who held most of the college's contracts - from supplying food, laundry, to the hiring of non-academic staff - but had not been receiving his payments as promised by the Bursar.

With these information at hand, our villains formulated their plan.

They convinced Bertrand that they would gain leverage over the Bursar and ensure that he received his payment if he could get them into the college. Thus, the day before the funeral Gearfried, posing as Bertrand's assistant, visited the Bursar at his office inside the college to try to collect on the debt, while Malus, disguised as a food deliveryman, entered the college via the service entrance.

The Bursar fobbed Bertrand off with vague promises, but during that time Gearfried was able to surmise where he kept his ledgers.

Malus meanwhile deposited the tainted onions which would cause food poisoning to the whole college, and then sneaked off to explore the grounds. He was confronted by Morgana's Butler, who ordered him to be seized and locked up in the gatehouse, where he would await his execution the next day as a suspected thief.

Back at the tavern, the party learned of Malus' fate from the town crier. They were counting on Malus' reconnaissance for information on the grounds, and now they would have to do without it.

The tainted onions did their work, and many of the college staff came down with food poisoning. A call went out to Bertrand to supply temporary staff to the college.

Zamm and Horovar were hired as guards, and at the first opportunity they tracked down Malus and freed him. Malus gave what information he had learned about the grounds to the two, and helped disguise Horovar as the Butler using the disguise kit they stole from Goncol's mansion, and afterwards, his nerves shot, he fled the college.

Zhora, Zul, and Silent entered the college as servants. Silent, using the information given to him by Gearfired, broke into the Bursar's office, stole the ledger, and left. Later, Gearfried would determine that the Bursar had in fact been diverting funds from the college to his own purse instead of paying Bertrand, and the merchant would use that information to not just get repaid in full, but also secure contracts for many years to come...

Zhora and Zul took a trolley of bed linen from the laundry room, and made their way to the academic staff quarters, where they eventually found Morgana's chamber, guarded by two Black Guards. Zhora was allowed into the chamber, where she found a weakened Morgana in bed. She offered Morgana a drugged drink, and when she fell into a deep sleep, placed the silver torc V had given them around her neck.

Just then the door to the chamber opened, and Horovar, disguised as the Butler, entered. Together, they bundled Morgana into a bedsheet, and hid her in the trolley. They then wheeled the trolley out, and rejoined Zamm and Zul.

Horovar shed his disguise and put on his guard uniform again, and together the four made their way to the wooden bridge. There, Horovar and Zamm sent the two guards away, claiming to be their relief, and opened the door to the bridge.

Zhora and Zul then began to lower Morgana to the river with a rope. At the same time, Penn, who was waiting with a boatmen they had hired, began to approach the bridge.

Their actions did not go unnoticed, and an alarm began to go out. Zamm and Horovar despatched the two guards at the far end of the bridge by throwing them over the side of the bridge, and jammed the door shut.

Guards gathered on the battlements of the college walls, but the archers were afraid of shooting for fear of harming Morgana. One by one Zhora, Zul, Horovar, and Zamm lowered themselves or jumped into the river, but not before Horovar destroyed the supports of the bridge using acid, causing the whole structure to collapse into the water.

The boatman rowed towards the harbour, but going was slow - Zamm and Zul went once more into the water, and swam for the bank.

Arriving at the bank, Zul made his way to the Great Temple, where a crowd had gathered in anticipation of the free bread and ale that would be given away at Goncol's funeral, and started a rumour that there was not enough bread for everyone. This soon led to a riot, which impeded the progress of the guards sent to intercept the boat.

The boat, now lighter, approached a stone bridge that spanned the river before it joined the Goldflow river. A thick steel chain spanned the river, cutting off their escape. Standing on the bridge were four Black Guards, and they held grappling hooks in their hands.

Penn nocked arrows to his bow, and shot at the Black Guards when they came into range. His arrows found their mark through the joints in the armour of the Black Guards, and one by one they went down. Meanwhile, Horovar set a bunch of herbs he carried with him, which let out a thick cloud of acrid smoke whaich hid them.

Horovar lowered Morgana into the water, leaving only her face above the water. Then, covering her face with the handkerchief of invisibility they stole from Goncol's vault, he drew a big breath, dove under the water, and dragged Morgana behind him as he swam to the bank.

Penn and the boatman likewise made their escape, but Zhora, too weak to swim to safety, was swept along by the current of the water, until she reached the steel chain that spanned the river.

Horovar reached the bank of the river, and here he was met by Gearfried, who had monitored their progress from the bank. Leaving Morgana to Gearfried, Horovar raced to the stone bridge and rescued Zhora.

By now the riot had escalated, and there were fires in several parts of the city, and in the chaos our villains were able to deliver the limp form of Morgana to the waiting ship at the harbour, and then vanish into the crowd...

That evening they once again met V at The Hanged Man, where they were given their promised reward, and asked to meet him again the next day, once he had extracted the information he needed.

Prepping and Running the Game

This mission was based on Kidnap the Archpriest, also by Skerples. I was first introduced to the module by a Youtube review, and had wanted to run it for the longest time - our "evil" campaign allowed me to finally do so.

I had to make several changes to the module, but I preserved the core premises: the party had to kidnap a VIP guarded by formidable warriors, alive, and bring him/her to the harbour. I also kept the map, which I believe saved me a lot of time.

Now the actual heist planning and execution took place over a session and a half, with the players abandoning their initial plan halfway and then improvising on the plan they ultimately decided on. The account above is a very abridged version of the shenanigans that they engaged in.

One thing about the original module puzzled me though. The college/castle building is connected to the Temple/Cathedral via a sheltered wooden bridge, which the priests would use to attend the ceremony at the latter site. Curiously, in the original module the Archpriest (the target of the kidnapping) is known to not be attending the event. It seemed like such a Chekov's gun that I could not bring myself to make that the case in my game, planning perhaps to later announce that Morgana had decided at the last moment to not attend, if the players did not plan to seize her when she is crossing the bridge.

Players being players, the became fixated on the bridge - which is fair as this was the one place they could be relatively sure Morgana would be passing through at a pre-known time. To make it easier for them to visualise the bridge and plan, I decided that the bridge looked like this one:

It seemed just about open enough for them to attempt to seize Morgana when she crosses the bridge, but eventually the decided that taking on a dozen Black Guards was not a viable option.

They also explored other options and did some prep work which did not end up being used, such as getting some expensive clothes and armour with the intention of disguising themselves as nobles, and scouting out the Temple grounds. Other work they did, like learning that the crowd could be incited to riot, hiring a 'transporter', and finding Bertrand the merchant and figuring out how to make use of his contact with the college, were cobbled together to form their final plan.

I was pretty happy with their eventual plan of poisoning the whole college and then infiltrating the place as temp staff, as well as their clever use of the handkerchief of invisibility to get Morgana off the boat and to the bank.

The whole heist did come close to falling apart (as it happens in heist movies) when Malus was caught, but thanks to his tempering with the lock on the doors to the college's treasury, it was assumed that he was just a thief, and I did not have to put the whole college on alert or bring forward Morgana's plans to leave.

We are just one session away from ending the campaign, but unfortunately for us new COVID restrictions mean that we will not be able to meet again until at least the middle of June.

I hope to spend this time planning my next campaign, and perhaps put up a post about creating characters for that campaign for my players, and inviting my readers to create NPCs for the campaign too. Stay tuned.

Games I Offer

Before COVID, I had the opportunity to GM for people at our local conventions. With restrictions having eased, I thought it would be timely to write a post about the games I can offer for the reference of convention and club organisers.

1. The Delivery Job

Rules: Savage Worlds Adventure Edition

Genre: Scif-fi, Space Opera 

Content Concern: Violence, Drug and Substance Abuse

Player characters are members of the Galactic Teamsters Guild - space truckers! Fly to exotic planets, meet interesting people, hand them their packages, and make sure they sign on the invoice!

Recommended for those who want a light-hearted game.

2. The Darkest Hour

Rules: Dragon Age RPG

Genre: Dark Fantasy 

Content Concern: Violence, Violence against children, Religion, Slavery

Player characters all meet at a tavern... where they are swept up in events that will force them to make a difficult moral decision.

Recommended for fans of the Dragon Age franchise.

3. A Shadow on the Mist

Rules: The Hero's Journey, Second Edition

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Content Concern: Violence

Set in Anglo-Saxon England during the time of the Viking invasion, the player characters must leave their village and journey into the unknown and towards their destiny.

Recommended for fans of The Last Kingdom.

All games are for up to 4 players. No experience is required - new players are welcomed.

Pre-generated characters, dice, and stationery are provided.

Combat will be played using figurines and battle-maps.

Blood Bowl 2021 League Round #4

Round 4 of the tournament saw my skavens face the dwarves once again, and they suffered a heavy defeat.

While I was able to score a touchdown in the first half, I was unable to stop the dwarves from equalising soon afterwards.

In the second half the dwarves scored a second touchdown. I started the fourth drive with only seven players, three having been killed and a fourth only narrowly escaping death thanks to the apothecary. I ran a Gutter runner deep into the dwarven half of the field, and held my thrower (who had possession of the ball) deep in my own half, hoping to do a last-turn pass and touchdown.

But he wasn't far back enough. Two dwarven runners charged my thrower, knocked him down, and one of them took possession of the ball and scored a third point for the dwarves.

This was a costly defeat for my team which will see me having to employ several journeymen the next game. At this point the dwarves have secured a place in the finals, and my skavens are struggling with the other two teams for a place. I will likely have to win the two remaining games in the preliminary round to qualify, and at the rate of casualty I am taking now, it will not be easy.

At the end of the fourth game, the standing is as follows:

Kazak Killers: 12

Badland Brawlers: 7

Skavenholme Scallywags: 4

Middenheim Marauders: 0

Sorcery! 2 - Magical Murder Mansion Part 2

Our villains defeated the strange water being that rose out of the fountain, and retrieved the second gold key from inside it. Then, after taking a moment to catch their breaths, they entered the hedge maze, headed to the tower at its centre.

They soon realised that the strangling vines that formed the maze shifted constantly, making it easy to lose one's way, and as they wandered through the maze, they could hear the low bellow of a huge beast stalking them. Horovar used all his skills to try to guide the party safely to the tower, but eventually he realised that to reach the tower, they would have to face the beast stalking them.

Entering a small clearing that was before the tower, they came face to face with a minotaur. Zhora and Silent leapt into attack, while Penn held back, shooting arrows at the beast. Horovar stepped behind the hedges "to summon a creature" (see PC profiles here), and soon a wolf appeared and started attacking the minotaur too. After a hard fought battle the party slew the beast; the wolf departed, and Horovar rejoined the party.

Our villains bound their wounds, and stepped up to the tower's doors. They inserted the two golden keys they have found, turned them - the door opened. Inside, they found a spiral staircase leading upwards, and also to the basement, where they knew the vault was.

Climbing the stairs to the first storey, they found Goncol's alchemical laboratory. There, they found a large clear tank on a table in the centre of the room, and at the bottom of the tank laid a third key. Forewarned by the clues left by Goncol, the party approached cautiously, and was able to determine that the clear yellow liquid inside the tank was a strong acid. Using the glass apparatus within the lab, our villains removed much of the contents of the tank and pured them onto the stone floor, which corroded part of it. Eventually they were able to lower the level of the acid sufficiently to fish the key out with a wooden pole. They were now one key away.

Continuing upwards, our villains came into Goncol's library. Here were all manner of magical tomes, and also what appeared to be Goncol's autobiography, but no golden key.

The next floor held a large chamber, with arcane patterns carved onto the floor. Near the staircase was a silver whistle hanging on a wall hook. Zhora recognised the patterns as a summoning circle, and the party wisely decided to leave the room and press onwards.

As the party entered the highest floor, they found that the walls and roof of the room was transparent. This was Goncol's astrological observatory. In the centre of the room was an astronomical model of the planets. Through the walls of the observatory the party could see the eastern sky starting to turn light - they had little time left before the king's men could arrive.

Our villains searched the room, but could not find a key. Then Penn had an idea: what if the line from the clues left by Goncol:

The other is not found upon this Earth, to find it you must return to my birth

referred to the model's position?

The party moved the model to what the planets would have looked like on the day of Goncol's birth, based on the autobiography they found in the library. when they had done so, they heard the sound of a click, and one of the planet models opened up: inside was the fourth key.

Hurry to the basement, the party opened the steel door to the vault with their four keys. The vault consisted of three rooms. In the first were held mundane treasures. In the second were several magical items and spell components, which the party pocketed. In the final chamber there was a plinth, upon which was an ivory scroll case.

Despite promising not to open the case, Horovar decided to do so. Peering inside, he found a scroll. Removing the scroll from the case, they found that it was a letter, seemingly from the last king. On the back of the page they found a hurriedly scribbled reply (see here). Returning the scroll to the case, the party made their way back to the front gate, pausing briefly only for Horovar to start a fire inside the mansion. On their way back to the city they passed the king's men, who were riding quickly towards the plume of smoke that now issued from the mansion...

That evening the party met once more at The Hanged Man. 'V' turned up as promised, received the scroll case, and paid our villains. He then gave them their second mission: to kidnap Morgana the Arch-Sorceress.

The Arch-Sorceress, who now resided in the College of Sorcery in Arkleton, he explained, was scheduled to attend Goncol's funeral at the Grand Temple of Libra in two day's time. Thereafter she will return to her tower in the hills, which was guarded by sorcery and her personal army of Blackguards, and from which any attempt to capture her would be impossible. The party had but two days to capture her, and bring her to the docks at Arkleton, where they will deliver her to a waiting ship, and receive their reward.

'V' emphasised that she was to be captured alive for questioning, and handed them a silver torc which he told them was to be placed upon Morgana's neck to prevent her from using her magic, and then left.

Prepping and Running the Game

This session is of course a continuation of the module we started the session before, and we actually went on to play the start of the module for the second mission, but for narrative purpose I will write about that in the next post.

The exploration of the dungeon was a straightforward puzzle-dungeon.

The real trap of the dungeon was actually the summoning chamber. There was no reward to be had at the chamber, but I left the set-up temptingly obvious, in the hope that Horovar's player will simply not be able to resist blowing on the silver whistle, which would have summoned a monster which the party would have to defeat in combat, something which they were in no shape to do at that point in time. I was happy to be disappointed.

There were a couple of combats this session, both against "monsters", which meant that the rules for Parrying and Dodging were not applicable. As a result we were not able to experience the full potential of the Forbidden Lands combat system, which is one of the reasons why I decided to use the rules. The next module will feature human opponents, which will allow us to try them out, but as it will be a heist scenario, there is a chance that we may play through the whole mission without combat.

Overall I have been satisfied with the rules. There are limited healing options, and playing as written the party would have been unable to progress at all at some points. Fortunately we were playing a mission with a ticking clock, so I was able to make the ruling that they could heal up at the expense of time. This will probably be something I will do for the next module too.