Posts tagged Gaming!
Diaspora (Fate) Character Compendium – Sl’th’x Veral’x
Sep 2nd
We are starting a Diaspora campaign, ran by Brennen. I really like the rules so far and am looking forward to playing. So far, we have created the cluster, created our characters and talked about how we are starting out together. I enjoyed both the cluster and character creation process and the results are always fun to read. We had a lot of laughs while creating both, and I am looking forward to playing next week.
I do find the character creation process a lot more difficult than most other games though, simply because there is so much more we have to think of and write. I also believe that when the options are so wide open, I have a much harder time narrowing down what I want and coming up with something that isn’t straight out of a movie or book. I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but once I powered through it, I was really happy with the results.
I decided that I did not what to play a humanoid. If we were playing hard sci-fi, then I was going to play some weird alien race. What I came up with was a naga creature that behaved more hive-like than humans. They also happen to be a little like dragons in the fact that they desire to acquire a hoard of treasure. The closest picture I could find that is similar to what I have pictured in my mind is the creatures from the world of warcraft game.
Here is my character in our upcoming game. Let me know what you think!
Sl’th’x Veral’x
Tracks – stamina 4, assets 3
Health – 000 00
Resolve – 000
Wealth -000 00
Fate Points – 4
Phase One: Growing Up
Hatched on the planet Zemm, Sl’th’x was trained in two primary categories; piloting and engineering. Sl’th’x showed much more aptitude than normal for learning, than normal workers need, and was assigned to Ryth colony learning center. Ryth are much larger than Zemmese and Sl’th’x had to make up for it by being quick of both mind and body. Sl’th’x quickly learned that technology and speed can make for his weaknesses among the Ryth. Many Ryth suffered malfunctioning equipment or shocking surprises due to their harassment of Sl’th’x, of course, sometimes his own devices backfired on him.
Aspects:
You may be bigger, but I’m smarter…
That malfunctioned? How shocking…
Phase 2: Starting Out
Once he finished learning center, Sl’th’x was assigned upgrade most of the systems on planet Olynks. Olynks was mostly a mining planet, and far from exciting. Sl’th’x worked hard so that he could get off that planet as soon as possible and due to his work ethic, he was assigned to ship piloting and maintenance when his work order was complete. Sli’th’x piloted many of the different ships throughout the Crichton system. Once, at the edge of the Crichton system, Sl’th’x saw a ship from outside their system and thought it was beautiful. He grew determined at this point to explore other systems once his service is up.
Technology is power in the Crichton system, and Sl’th’x is determined to learn and use all available. Sl’th’x has admired the hoards of many of the older colleagues that he learns from and looks forward to growing his own one day.
Aspects:
Connoisseur of Fine Spacecraft
No Job Left Unfinished
Phase 3: Moment of Crisis
Noting Sl’th’x desire to see other star systems and his abilities with both piloting and technology, the Nests decide to assign Sl’th’x to the Foreign Technology Acquisition Division (FTDA). Here they train Sl’th’x in subterfuge, acquisition, and fighting. He then is sent with a team on a mission and gets to pilot his first ship outside his system, a big mining vessel. The mining vessel has some hidden capabilities in both weapons and stealth and they are sent to capture a newly designed ship in the Herbert system. They are taking a cargo load of special ore to one of the houses in Herbert as their cover.
Something goes wrong, I’m still not sure what, maybe we underestimated one of the bribes or something, but some of the crew died leaving Sl’th’x in charge. The mission unaccomplished thought, and he had to figure out someway to salvage it. Luck came in the most unexpected way, a request for discrete transport from a humanoid girl. He could not resist giving a ride to a humanoid girl, Mara, when she shows him the pouch full of gems she is offering for the ride.
Once he takes her to where she needs to go, she also helps him by letting slip a couple of locations of private house ports that have the ship he is looking for. He is able to use the gems to make bribes to get into one of the ports and is able to steal the ship and complete his mission, earning him a lot of status from the Nests.
Sl’th’x has now completed his required service to the Nests and has set out on his own. Deciding to go into the outside world, the Nests insisted on training him in the way of combat before sending him off to collect his own hoard. This training comes with an understanding that he can be tapped, and paid well, for Nest missions if required.
Aspects:
All That Glitters…
With Strings Attached…
Phase 4: Sidetracked
Captain Jack Mattson assembled a tight crew for his infiltration and retrieval mission. He was the leader with all the plans and contacts, I was the pilot, Mara would handle entry, and Lena could handle the silent and non-lethal method for dealing with the guards as well as be able to patch us up if necessary or enhance abilities with drugs for a short time. We could all handle ourselves in a fight, and I probably the least experienced in that area.
The plan went flawlessly, until the end. Then we had to fight our way back to our ship. Even that wouldn’t have held us up if there hadn’t been a military ship arriving in orbit just off world. They tagged the ship I had been promised in payment, as well as my image before I jammed them. Fortunately for me, most of my race look alike to humanoids.
I made it to the next world before the military was on us too hot to evade. Captain gave a command then that me me think he was crazy. Crash the ship he said.
Using some of my best maneuvers, I got our ship over the water close to a city. Lena administered some drugs to the others, but did not know how they would affect me. I told her they were not necessary. The captain nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t sure if I would survive or not.
I allowed the ship to take a direct hit, and then crashed it into the water, making sure it would make a big explosion. Fortunately, we jettisoned into the water just before, making sure we went deep. I had no problem, we can breathe under water, and thanks to the drugs, the others didn’t either.
When we made it to the city, we were glad to learn that the military counted no survivors of the unfortunate ship malfunction and crash landing into the water off. Captain asked what he could pay me for sacrificing the ship like that to save us all. I smiled and said a copy of the plans we stole would do. He didn’t like the idea, but he agreed to it. Humanoids don’t mind stealing for other humanoids I guess, but they don’t like the idea of my kind getting ahold of some of these secrets.
Those plans made me a modest fortune when I turned them over to the Nests. Military technology is always among the best technology. I was able to by my own small ship with that. Looks like I could go into business for myself now.
Aspects:
Any landing is a good landing
Seen one Eel, seen em all…
Phase 5: On Your Own
Sl’th’x has made his way to the Pohl galaxy and has been content to get a good base of operations going as a transporter of goods. His ship may not be the largest or fastest, but he is a reliable pilot that is not afraid to travel to any galaxy. He has built up his reputation as a dependable transporter and has been able to use it as cover to move some of the Nests operatives when the need arises. He continues to look for information about new or rediscovered technology of interest, as well as anything that can make him money. He has started to collect items from the worlds and systems he visits. He is now seeking a rare book that is said to detail how to use the mystic power of the Pohl monks and the ways to use N’Aurbeen spice to alter the minds of others. This book is only rumored to exist and the rumors stats that the monks will go to any length to destroy copies outside of their hands. If it exists, the Nests would find it very interesting.
Aspects:
Dependable transporter
Curious Collector of the Dangerous
Skills:
Agility, Aircraft, Archeology, Assets (the Nests), Brawling, Computer (space), Engineering (space), Intimidation, Navigation (space), Pilot (space), Repair, Science, Stealth, Vehicle, Stamina (track), MicroG (combat), Energy Weapons (combat)
1: Energy Weapons (combat), Aircraft, Science, Stealth, Vehicle
2: Brawling, Agility, Navigation (space), Engineering (space)
3: Assets (track), Computer (Space), Archeology
4: Stamina (track), Repair
5: Pilot (Space)
Stunts:
Claws, Toughened hide, Military-grade pilot
Gear:
Ship, Repair tools, Hand computer, Nests papers, Energy Trident
Ship:
T2 Personal Starship
Sometimes you just want to get away from it all.
V-shift 3, Beam 0, Torpedo 2, EW 0, Trade 2
Frame OOO OO
Data OOO
Heat OOO
Civilian: can be piloted without military training.
Slipdrive: can traverse slipstreams.
Skeleton crew: can be piloted with as few as one crew member.
Interface vehicle: has a separate vehicle capable of landing on planet surfaces.
Firewall: base defense 2 against EW.
The freedom of solitude
Navigating by the stars
Every single control within reach of one seat
Walnut and brass
Nautical tradition
Dragon Age RPG – First Game
Sep 1st
Last weekend I finally had the time to finish reading the Dragon Age RPG and run it too! It was a pretty easy read and the rules are light, so there is not too much you have to remember. The good thing though is that the game has enough rules to make leveling up and actually running a campaign fun. To often I feel that rules light games have no feeling of advancement, and that is not the case the Dragon Age.
I decided to run my online game in Fantasy Grounds, with voice through Skype. I hadn’t used Fantasy Grounds in a while, and I found that I had missed it. I enjoyed look and feel of the program, but it does take a little bit of work to run a game in. I ended up taking a lot of time over the weekend making a character sheet. It turned out looking pretty good, but I would like to make it look better, as well as add the rules into Fantasy Grounds as well. You can see the character sheet below.
I did get some of the rules into Fantasy Grounds, but I cheated a little. I took pictures of the PDF and inserted them in as pictures. It worked well though, for the few rules that we had to remember for the first session. You can see them in the picture below. Again, hopefully I’ll be able to program in some of these rules when I get the chance. I’m not really good at creating rule sets for Fantasy Grounds, but I am trying to learn.
The game is the beginning of a mini-campaign that will last several game sessions. We wanted to run a game for longer than one or two sessions so that we could get back to that old school feeling of running with one character for several levels. Snikle was my only player for the first game. He ended up running two characters, and the rules were simple enough that he had no problem running both. We hope for some more players as we continue the mini-campaign.
Snikle played a rogue by the name of Blaen, and a mage named Merril. While they were traveling, they encountered a body in the road in the middle of a couple of farms. Upon close examination, the body appeared to be that of a farmhand, and it was badly torn up by something with big claws and big teeth. The blood was mostly dry, so it hadn’t happened in the last few hours, but the party still was a little nervous. It didn’t help that the sun had already set.
Of in the distance, Blaen could see the lights of a town, about 20 minutes or so journey away. Looking around at the other farms though, he didn’t see any lights at all. He did notice crows, perched upon the house to his left. He could feel them watching, waiting for him to leave so they could resume their meal. Blaen suggested they camp-out the night in one of the barns, thinking that whatever had done this, would not be returning. Merril agreed and they headed for the nearest barn.
Before they got to the barn, they encountered two more bodies. One was just outside of the barn door, and all the barn wall, there was a word written in blood. Merril said it was in Elvish script, but she could not read it. They grew a little more nervous here and decided to get out a light and look into the doorway with the light before going in. Looking in, they saw the barn contained a horse and a couple of cows, all still alive. Nothing else looked troubling, so they headed in and when looking en every corner to make sure nothing was hiding. They did not find anything, but they did hear a moan, as if someone hurt, from the loft.
Before Blaen could head up the ladder into the loft, three blight wolves appear in the doorway. Everyone rolled initiative and the battle began. I had to draw a little battle map quickly, then we got some tokens to represent the wolves. The tokens look like spiders, but don’t let that fool you, they are definitely wolves. Blaen held them at the doorway, allowing only two to attack while the other one waited to for a way in. Blaen did okay, but he was no match on his for the two wolves. Blaen sliced them up while Merril cast spells, but Blaen ended up taking a lot of damage and needed a heal. Merril was able to freeze both of the wolves solid and when the third wolf saw his two companions slain, she ran off.
We ended the night with the battle and plan on playing again tonight. Even with both of us being new to the system, the battle went pretty quick. It was much easier than most systems and we really enjoyed playing. The system uses 3d6 to determine all rules. I really think this is what made it so easy for the player, even running two characters. We both liked the system and had a fun time and we are looking forward to playing tonight. Check it out if you have a chance!
Risus Character Dirk Chandler
Mar 22nd
I’m going to be playing in game with Snikle, so I made a character and thought I would post it here. Meet Dirk Chandler:
Dirk Chandler
Dirk Chandler is 42 and is still in prime physical condition. He maintains his shape by continuing to train with firefighters, but he is no longer one. He is the owner of Chandler’s Books and searches out the old, rare, curious and strange.
He has close cropped blonde hair and a bushy mustache. He wears rugged outdoorsman clothes and can most often be found in his bookstore or with his good friend Father Locke at St. Patrick’s.
Clichés
Curious book collector and store owner (5)
Ruggedly fit and still able to pass all the fireman’s training tests (4)
Surprisingly deep pockets (3)
Contacts
Father Locke – a catholic priest just a few years older than Dirk that is close friend. Though Dirk may not agree with all Locke has to say, he respects him and shares many a tale with the Father. They enjoy sitting around telling stories, talking about old books, and drinking good whiskey.
Cordelia Callahan – Dirk’s love interest. Cordelia is about 11 years younger than Dirk and has been married before. It did not end well for her, so she is only interested in taking it really slow with Dirk. They have been seeing each other for over a year now and are close, but anything more is still a long ways off. Cordelia is a journalist for the Chicago Tribune.
Kurtis Trent – Dirk is not sure if he even knows this mysterious persons real name, but he is Dirk’s contact for old or rare books. Kurtis will come to Chicago every few months and have new things to sale to Dirk. Dirk suspects these items are acquired by less than honest means, but cannot keep his curiosity in check enough not to buy items from Kurtis. Kurtis often makes him feel a little uneasy, but it is worth being around him to get a chance to see some of the treasures he brings to Dirk’s store.
Cortez Trotter – Current fire chief that was on the fire brigade with Dirk when he was still a fireman. They are friends and the chief allows Dirk to still come and train with the firefighters, but they keep most of their talk to tales of their old exploits as firemen.
Backstory
Dirk was a firefighter during the great Chicago Fire of 1871. It was a horrible incident where Dirk saw things that he could not explain. After the fire, he left Chicago to travel a while and came back with a small collection of rare books and the idea to start a book store. With a little help from some of his family, he was able to open and maintain the bookstore. Dirk lives above the store and maintains a modest lifestyle, most would be amazed to know that he has amassed quite an amount of wealth through his collecting and selling of old books (those that do not interest him enough to keep).
He spends time collecting old, rare, or curious books, and researching about the occult and other things pertaining to the arcane. He is still trying to find the answers to the experiences he had in the great Chicago fire.
***
Curious book collector and store owner: Too curious for his own good, good business sense, great at evaluating the worth of books, able to repair and restore old books, knows a good deal when he sees one
Ruggedly fit and still able to pass all the fireman’s training tests: able to withstand intense heat for a short period of time, able to carry a large amount of weight, able to bust in a wooden door, knows his way around an axe, knows how to run through a burning building, knows how to spot structural weaknesses, able to run many flights of stairs without getting winded
Surprisingly Deep Pockets: Lots of monetary resources, his financial situation is not commonly known
***
D&D Soda
Feb 17th
Okay, I don’t care who you are, if you appreciate role playing games at all, these sodas are awesome. I’ve never had Jones soda before, but I might have to buy a pack just for the geek value. Maybe take them and display them at work. They are just too fun not to post about. Click on the picture to go to the website to order.
Inspectres One-shot Actual Play
Feb 16th
I had some free time the other night and the some of the guys were online, so we decided to run a game at short notice. We choose Inspectres because it requires no preperation and it is incredibly easy to just pick up and run, even with new people. I encourage you to check it out and pick it up (here is the link), it is a really cheap and awesome game!
We played this game via Skype and Google Docs.
Here are the characters that the guys quickly made:
Brennen’s Character
Name: Amelia Dubois
Description: A thin, sickly girl in her mid-20s. She dresses in old handmade dresses from the 1940s.
Background: Amelia has been haunted since she was a small child because of her psychic abilities. As a result, she was ostracized by her classmates and sought refuge in the library of the ancient boarding school her parents abandoned her to.
Talent/Weird Abilities: +1 die when contacting spirits
Characteristics: She knows lots of eccentric old psychics.
Academics -4
Athletics – 1
Technology - 1
Contact – 3
John’s Character
Name: Danny Morrow
Position: Gopher/Intern/CEO
Description: High school kid. Tall, lanky.
Background: Starting pitcher on the varsity baseball team. Started hanging around the franchise after a weird encounter. Not one of the cool jocks, but has a foot in that world simply by virtue of being integral to the baseball team. Volunteered to be an errand runner for the group just to be a part of the team and get some insight into this other world.
Talent/Weird Abilities: Can throw virtually anything with uncanny accuracy.
Characteristics:
Academics – 2
Athletics – 4
Technology - 1
Contact – 2
Jared’s Character
Name: Marvin Thomas
Descripton: Wimpy, nerdy, hacker, bookish type. Inventor and master-mind (hard for me to play, I think)
Background: Once lived in a home with parents. Now lives in an apartment. The end.
Talent/Weird Abilities: Max Brooks +1 to weapons when dealing with zombies, ghouls, or other corporeal undead/monsters.
Characteristics: Strong, silent type wrapped up in a 90 pound weakling’s body.
Academics – 4
Athletics – 1
Technology - 3
Contact – 1
We had a fourth player join us, but his Skype cut out before we got started and he never did join back in.
After the characters were made, we took time to build the franchise. The way it works is that whoever comes up with the materials that they want for the franchise have to make a Technology roll. This really keeps things interesting as they succeed or fail, and many times, them telling me what they get when they fail is much funnier than when they succeed.
Franchise
Small franchise. Landlord owns property, old, dilapidated victorian mansion. Independent business.
Landlord does not know what they do.
Danny Morrow’s old aunt is financing the business. She expects a decent return, better than the stock market. Wants proof that ghosts are real.
Large branch of the Inspectres Corp just moved into the area.
Ghosts are the specialty of this franchise.
Secretary: Melissa, good secretary, a little ditsy and does not believe in ghosts. She thinks they are crazy, but doesn’t say anything because she needs to pay the rent.
Library: Misc unsorted books that he can sometimes use.
Danny’s Car: Old ’70s Cadillac convertible. Sea-green and an eight track player. Bad Company track jammed into the player that cannot get out.
Contacting Spirits Equipment: Equipment that can contact or capture spirits.
Brennen has a haunted Ouija board but by a ghost or demon that just likes to screw with him.
Danny: has a bag of Wiccan blessed baseball gear. Bats and balls and helmet.
Jared rolled a 4 on tech for the flashlights and got the following:
Flashlights: Old, cheap flashlights. Christmas lights ducktaped to a beer helmet with a 9 volt battery in the beer spot.
Brennen rolls for uniforms (2) but wants the GM to decide the fate, I oblige with the following:
Uniform – Old person velcro shoes, horrible plaid pants, with suspenders. Wife beaters with a suede jacket to go over it. Garbage bags with holes cut out. Old fishing hats with the lures still in them.
Gym: 3
Library: 2
Credit Card: 2
Bank:
Starting Interview
Aunt Portia Morrow brings in her bridge team, as potential investors. She asks many questions and tries to point out they they make a decent profit, however Amelia keeps pointing out that they haven’t been paid yet. Danny is uncomfortable since his aunt made him CEO even though he is the youngest member of the crew and has the least amount of experience. Marvin was just off in his own little world.
Job:
I made a roll here on the random chart, and this is what I got: 8,5,2,3 – Frantic, City worker, Transformation, In the water.
So I came up with: Olmar – Overweight balding man working for the labor union wants to hire them because they were working in the sewer and it froze over. His buddy turned into a block of ice.
Jared jumped right into the first confessional and gave us the following:
Jared Confession – Young kids just impulsive and wanted to jump right down in the sewer. Don’t they know what happened last time? Fortunately, I just finished my Ghost Toaster 9000. Hopefully we can keep from getting it wet.
Research:
Brennen rolls 5 on contact- (gaining one franchise die) and finds out that the workers have been hearing noises and whispers, but they thought it was expanding pipes and drunkards.
Jared rolled a 6 on academics (gaining two franchise dice) to see what he could find out about the situation. He learned of the Stink fairy (Etherious Malodorous): A notorious urban legend known for haunting toilets. He jumped to the conclusion that this is what was causing the problems in the sewers.
Investigation & Suit-up:
The team heads for the sewers and jumps right in. It is still mainly frozen, but has a little melt off on the top.
Amelia attempts to contact spirits. (gets a 6 for contact – gaining 2 franchise dice). She starts to shake and then she says coldly, “They are buried down here in the sewer, its so cold, so very cold.”
Amelia takes to the confessional booth this time and tells us:
Amelia Confession – I know Danny was supposed to be a good pitcher, but I didn’t realize he could pitch that fast and accurate with a piece of poo.
Since this is the first time Danny has seen Amelia contact spirits, he gets a little stressed out and has to roll two stress dice. He ends up with a low 2, and gets frazzled! He takes two ranks of damage in contact, and has a hard time talking from then on.
Marvin attempts to get more information from Amelia. (Rolls a 5 in contact, gains 1 franchise die) She discloses that there are lots of dead people down here in the sewer. As they go deeper into the dark tunnels they find a large cavernous open area. Here it appears the city dug under a cemetery and the coffins fell into the cavern into the poo. The spirits are fairly perturbed about this.
Danny is already frazzled, so he is unfazed, but seeing all those coffins, bodies, and spirits, Amelia and Marvin both have to roll two stress dice. They pass with flying colors though, each of them with a 5 as their lowest roll and they shake it off to continue business as usual.
Amelia rolls a contact ( 2 sixes, gets 2 franchise dice) to see what more she can find out. Her eyes roll back in her head and starts babbling and falls into a puddle of poop. She recovers and says, there is something down here and it is very angry, he has been in the area for a long time, before the white man came. She doesn’t think it is a fairy. She thinks it is an ancient bog spirit.
Marvin starts to set up the ghost toaster where it won’t get wet. (Rolls a 6, gaining another 2 franchise)
Gets it set up and aims at the appropraite direction and sets it off. It works, and keeps running too well and starts to suck the cavern in a little bit. Amelia, notices why they can get it to shut off, Marvin used duct tape for the switch.
Danny starts to run towards the toaster, with his baseball bat, but he slips and goes face first into the muck, bat flying out of his hands into the muck. Still several yards short, he comes up with a frozen turn and hurls it. (He gets a 6, gaining 2 franchise dice) It goes end over end and impales the side of the toaster. It sparks and goes silent. The stench hits the group as the hot toaster melts the turd.
Marvin and Amelia tell Danny to carry the toaster out, but Danny pulls rank and tells Marvin to carry the toaster back.
Amelia goes into the office of records and researches the matter. (She rolls two 6s, gets 2 franchise dice) She borrows the library phone and calls Danny. Apparently his great uncle Harold is the engineer who planned to build the sewers directly under the cemetery. They have to set it right or the spirits will never rest. Danny asks that they don’t tell Aunt Portia, but Amelia thinks they should.
Cut scene where they are flying down the highway. Montage, the car is going down the road with Bad Company blaring as they are on the way to meet with Olmar.
They wrap up the job by meeting with the Olmar for tea and tell him what they found out and collect the money. Amelia makes sure they get a little extra for her own pocket. The sewer hasn’t unfrozen yet, and they are going to have to remove the bodies and re-bury them but the ghosts are taken care of. They put the ghosts in a containment system that should contain the next thousand years. (The camera cuts to the garage where the cadalic is housed and the lights come on with the eight track player starts to play.)
Roll Credits.
That’s where we ended the game. We had wrapped up the investigation a little early because of the late hour and the fact that they had reached their franchise dice goal. All in all, it was a great game and we had a lot of fun.