Mission for 2023

I want to do a lot more with this set of blogs through the rest of the year rather than not being an irregular scrapbook. I’m going to post at least once a week starting now.

I am going to add some more scenarios for the Archipelago game and also run proper journals for the three games I am running, Conan, The One Ring and Blades in the Dark.

I am also going to write more discursive pieces about roleplaying. games.

And toy with the idea for a Mad Max style board game – given the power of the genre I don’t think enough games have dealt with it – Car Wars, Gaslands?

Games played with extended family during Covid

Our Sunday morning online games with my mum, sister and offspring …

D&D 5e: Starter Set and various

Delta Green (Powered by the Apocalypse hack): Victim of the Art

Call of Cthulhu: Edge of Darkness, Starter Set; Gateways to Terror

The Yellow King

Savage Worlds

13th Age: parts of Eyes of the Stone Thief

Tales from the Loop

Archipelago (my game)

Night’s Black Agents Solo Ops (with my mum)

Games played in 2021

D&D 5e Storm Kings Thunder – up to 38 weekly sessions with the family

Uncanny Echoes; eight sessions in weekly Group1 game running Blades in the Dark style storytelling game

Savage Worlds Judge Dredd: one off Fat Slam’s Grand Slam bar-room brawl

The Yellow king: two sessions of self-penned Lair of Dreams scenario

Savage Worlds: Queen of the Demonweb Pits bar-room brawl

Warhammer FRPG: Night of Blood over two sessoions with Group1

Warhammer FRPG: one session vampire hunting with family group

Savage Worlds Against the Giants bar room brawl

Tales from the Loop: The Recycled Boy – two shot with the family

Godlike using Savage Worlds rules: four sessions

The Yellow King: two sessions of The Wars

D&D Essentials for my son and his friends

Call of Cthulhu Edge of Darkness with family

Alien RPG: Destroyer of Worlds with regular gaming group

Notes on The Yellow King, part 2; Newest York

We left our heroes emerging from the wreckage of the Lair of Dreams in Belle Epoque Paris, having killed the sculptor who was dreaming Carcosa into existence. Except that the Paris they emerge into is 1947 war-torn Paris.

Now they need a part 2 in The Wars section of The Yellow King.

I think they need to travel to Newest York as the emperor of America’s army crumbles and the war crawls to the end. Perhaps they are shipped to NYC as the final battles play out as part of an auxiliary battalion. they have heard rumours that his daughter Casillda is running a rearguard action that is warping reality.

Newest York is a refugee city but the shadow of the yellow king has not faded yet. Posters are appearing inviting citizens to a celebratory ball.

The PCs are told to escort an injured general to his scheduled execution in the dying days of the war. He is worried that the war will end before his execution. But the Execution Chamber is in Queens, a contested borough of the city where the last forces of the emperor are still in evidence.

In the first scene they meet the general and hear his story about the battles for control of Newest York where they learn the ways that the emperor’s forces have attempted to bend reality in order to prevent their defeat. The general explains how scheduled execution works. The PCs can use their skills to prepare themselves for the future scenes.

In the second scene they venture out into Queens. They are stalked by a malfunctioning imperial drone.

In the third scene they realise that the Execution Chamber is being defended by imperial forces although they want to disguise this.

In the fourth scene, the PCs begin to realise that the general may be the problem – his execution a sacrifice that will help the emperor.

more to come….

Arrival in Newest York

As their ship approaches the harbour they can see the Statue of Liberty, its face destroyed and a tattered yellow banner hanging from its torch. Snoke drifts over the water from fires in the Lower East Side. Occasional puffs of battery fire can be seen exploding in Queens. Two battleships are scuttled in the harbour and bodies still float around them. The top few stories of the Empire State Building are smouldering from the final assault on the throne room of the Yellow Emperor.

Everything around the harbour is chaos. They are given their bearths in Central Park and are given a chance to explore.

Rumours:

• the rebels are amassing books on 1890s art
• the population of Queens have taken to the basements under bombardments
• They are hoping for a great show of shock and awe
• They think the past can be changed – things went wrong in Paris and they want to tilt the past in their favour
• There is a half destroyed drone on Midtown bridge with a bombing team still alive
• the subways are haunted by nightmare creatures and no soldier will venture

SCENE TWO

The next day they receive an order to attend General Jean Christophe Pretard. He is old and badly injured. Known as Old Ironside, he is missing an arm and his face is badly scarred – he walks with a stick and wears a half mask of iron. He is pushing out his officers

He hands them a leaflet. “Give praise for victory. The liberation party is tonight and everyone is invited. Unmask at midnight.” There is a strange symbol beneath the words.

“The scum are already celebrating. This war is going to end soon. You know that, eh? Too soon for me.” He hands them an execution order. “And look, this goddamn order – it’s an unpaid bill, lades and gentlemen and I intend to keep my side of the bargain. It’s the Ying and the Yang. It’s always been this way. Haven’t you read The Court of the Warrior? What? This is how wars are fought and won. The Emperor is is on the run and this could be what finally topples him and his daughter.”

he has a sculpture in his office – by a rival of their friends friend – it was in his study

He tells them that there is one functioning execution chamber in Queens, the last hold-out of the dregs of the Emperor’s army. “But they are wily. It’s disguised. We are pounding it day and night but they are dug in deep. If it falls, they will surely destroy it.”

There is a black market trader in Queens you need to find – he knows the location of the Execution Chamber. Hawksmoor – a double agent and a dealer in black stamp books.

They underestimate the Emperor – he and his daughters have survived near defeat before. I’….think….they have survived this defeat before…I forget the year….I don’t know how long this war will last….every year I think it will end.

I think they have survived this defeat before, This war has ended before.

Here is the plan – get to Hellgate Bridge- thought destroyed – get underground and find Hawksmoor, the black letter, he is a spy, a double spy maybe – can get us to the Lethal Chamber

Why is only taking these people – army wont him allow – doesn’t want to be mistaken for soldiers

Scene 3 – streets of newest york

First research- How to find Hawksmoor

• Talking to spies or the police
• Criminal connections
• library use – rare books

• he served a jail sentence in 1994 for sedition – immoral works – someone died at a premiere

Travel

• how to get to Randalls island: boat, bridge, subway

Street: parade – drunken – tried to separate – someone waves you into a darkened restaurant – rats on the streets – banners of the yellow sign – pursuit – where do they go – not everyone in masks is human – soldiers firing – let them do their job – we have our mission – you know hawksmoor told me about someone once- another sculptor who disappeared – something sly

Scene 4 street pursuit

Scene 5 – getting into Queens

Scene 6 – Hawksmoor

pursuit through the tunnels

Scene 7 The execution chamber

Scene 8 …victory?

Or bridge over river

Based in the cellers under Queens – melee in the dark with celebrators – following map

Staging a play in the execution chamber – a forbidden tomb from belle qpoque paris

The general disappears – he is in the play that they read 

There are strange items stuck to his wall – jumps through a fridge door and escapess

The walls are full of doors

His daughter is staging the play again – to turn defeat into victory

He has a book on a famous sculpter 

Gaming in 2020

The pandemic has meant more opportunities to play games. A Band of Blades got cancelled but we are now running a weekly game online (GMs alternating) with the regular group on a Sunday morning D&D game with the extended family. Both on Roll20. Plus more board gaming

So far this year I have played or run Judge Dredd (using Savage Worlds), Alien, D&D5e, Bootleggers (PbtA game), Savage Words (superhero setting), Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green RPG, Mork Borg, Morrow Project, Behind Enemy Lines, Dune, Merc, 13th Age

Boardgames wise I have also played Hero Realms, Star Realms, Pandemic, Pandemic Hot Zone, Gloomhaven, Mind, Sushi Go, Hand of the King, Jaipur, Carcasonne, Colt Express, Cthulhu Wars, Sorcerer, Judge Dredd Helter Skelter, Deep Sea Adventure, Judge Dredd Cursed Earth

I am currently kickstarting: Wrestlenomican, Twilight 2000, Haunted West, Mantis Falls, Escape the Night, When Shadows Fall, Conan the Cimmerian, Sorcerer Endbringer and Casting the Runes

2020 campaign: The witch cult that came in from the cold

This is the journal of a short campaign which I will run online, in fortnightly two-hour sessions.

Each session will have four main elements

• Recap
• Investigation
• Conflict
• Vectors for next time. 

Sometimes the conflict will come first if we stopped on a cliff hanger. It is designed to run over 4-5 sessions, focusing on key scenes to make it as efficient as possible.

The game will use the Delta Green RPG system and be based on the Pisces story arc. It will act as a short sequel to a long Pisces campaign that I ran about 10 years ago (using Call of Cthulhu rules), which one of the players played and whose character survived (just). In the aftermath of the campaign the Shan control of Pisces was destroyed and the revamped organisation is now a genuine Mythos-fighting one, albeit a very ruthless one. There are frequent purges of operatives. (This original campaign is written up in two parts elsewhere on this blog.)

In session one, the players will be tasked with picking up a woman who is part of a witness protection scheme and moving her to a new warehouse. The woman has a past connected to Pisces that the players will need to uncover. And the road trip through the dark woods of the Severn Valley is quickly interrupted…

 

Characters

Boyes: the ex-army, now Home Office researcher from the original Pisces campaign. He has cancer from his time on Hirta and relies on Pisces funding to provide care.

ZX: The hacker dude: an under-the-counter researcher for Lobster TV, a fake news, paranormal investigation channel

Detwiller: The doctor: called out on more than one occasion to clear up Pisces operations. Has own PPE equipment

Hancock: The muscle: a lot of problems need the same solution

 

Episode one

The group have been recruited by Section H to relocate an asset who is part of a witness protection programme. A decade ago she ran an anti-cult hit squad for Pisces – and very successful it was. Long retired. Now two members of the old team have been horribly murdered and obviously security has been compromised.

The four PCs pick up Suzy Jenkins from a house in Lower Brichester in the company of three armed police officers. They make their way back to London in two cars. Suzy seems out of it but tells the doctor that her daughter is also in the scheme and obviously in danger too. She seems unimpressed with the group’s ability to protect her but implies there is a place (“a house”) where she would be safe if she could find it.

Hancock notices there route has changed at some point in the last 15 minutes but is reassured by a fellow copper that it’s just a security issue. Suzy begins to mutter: “Why are we in the woods, we aren’t safe in the woods…”

Moments later, a beast with flaming horns rears into the road. The first cars swerves into a tree, catapulting the cop in the passenger seat through the windscreen (did he have a seat belt on? Not any more?). Hancock driving the other car manages to drive round both the car and beast and skid to a halt, jumping out. Dr Detwiller in the back considers his options.

Boyes in the other car leaps out, gun drawn. He and ZX realise that the (surviving) cop driving their car has drawn his weapon and is taking an offensive pose. ZX bolts for the comforts of the woods while Boyes exchanges fire with the copper

 

The laptop in Suzy’s case

Suzy has a file of documents related to Mr Cotton, the former head of Pisces who disappeared in 2011 and whose leadership team was subsequently purged in the ‘internal review’. It implies that Suzy’s team, codenamed the Daughters of the Book, was an unofficial death squad hunting cults in the UK over many years. The material refers to a secret room in the basement of Cotton’s house in Chelsea and gives a security code.

 

The other laptop recovered in the hut

• Publicity material for a radial environmental group called The Thousands, which wants to return the world to a state where humanity live in harmony with nature
• a series of surveillance footage of each of the PCs going about their normal lives, including their friends and family, all in the last couple of days
• recon footage of a castle in South Wales, which is referred to or assumed to be a Pisces asset. The material implies that there is an item/machine/information there that the group wants to obtains

 

Interrogating the prisoners

What you get with a sanity push:

• There was only ever room for one for Suzy
• There is someone in Section H trying to get at the Castle too

 

What you get without one

• The Black Goat has owned this island for millennia – we are grubs crawling on its back
• Something in that castle is very valuable
• Pisces was powerful and used to protect Suzy but not any more
• There is nothing you could do with me that would equal the pleasure of being one of the Thousand Young

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socially isolated gaming

One of the byproducts of the CV19 lockdown here in the UK is that I am due to play more RPGs in April than I played in the whole of 2018 and 2019 combined. It will include a huge range too:

• D&D5e Lost Mines of Phandelvin with my 73 YO mum, sister, niece and my two sons – we did two sessions face to face in 2019 but are now about to start a session every Sunday for a couple of hours
• our normal gaming group (which normally managed a session every couple of months) did its first online session (Alien RPG) this week and will not switch to a two hour weekly session
• I kicked off a Savage World post apocalyptic campaign with my two sons – the older one doesn’t live here and at the moment I only see him every other weekend. We did a session face to face and will try and do at least something once a week, whether face to face or online
• I’m signed up for three games at Virtual Grogmeet in a couple of weeks
• I’m also signed up for Virtual Horrorcon on Saturday, playing Alien RPG

So that’s probably 15 or so sessions in April alone, a mixture of running and playing.

First D&D game with the boys

SPOILERS

 

We ran through Tomb of the Serpent Kings over two 90 minute sessions this weekend, with the Dragonborn paladin (14YO) and High Elf Wizard (10Y0), their first ever game of D&D with their own characters.

They made it through the first level (False Tomb) with no real problems, avoiding the trapped door and dispatching three skeletons without too much drama. The encounter with the Stone Cobra Golem was more of a challenge, with a retreat back up the stairs to regroup before coming back to bring it down. A short rest ensued.

They made it out onto the path above the chasm before encountering the goblin guard at the start of the warren. Some might say they were rather trusting of the goblin having encouraged it to surrender but they did find out about the Crown that the goblin chief says he has. They also got some directions to throne room, though the goblins ‘forgot’ to warn them about there basilica looking in the hall of statues.

Some lucky saving rolls against its stare and a critical hit at the right moment brought down the basilisk and almost immediately they stumbled in on the serpent-people sorcerer. A little rashly they chose to attack rather than parley and the paladin was immediately Sleep-ed. Quick thinking, the wizard cast Fog Cloud and dragged his companion away before further damage could be caused. They made it up the stairs of the rear exit and are now taking a well-earned long rest before deciding on their next move.

 

Part 2

The boys were joined by their grandmother to re-enter the tomb after a good long rest. She added a human rogue to the party. While they were away the necromancer had created an enchanted guardian made from the various skeletons of serpent people housed in the tombs. It also set a number of traps and brightened the place up to hamper sneaky bi-peds.

The party tried a rudimentary ambush (very rudimentary….) but were themselves surprised by the skeleton beast. A fight ensued, with the necromancer joining in once alerted by the noise. They got another reminder that their opponent is a pretty powerful spellcaster. The beast was beaten but the necromancer brought it back to life before retreating back into its lair.

Having beaten the beast back down to bones and stamping on the remains, they…tried to lick in the chiromancer’s door. Enter explosive rune trap.

They rereated and remembered they had found a key in the last session which probably fitted a locked door they had previously found. Which it did – the treasure room. Lots of coin and their first magical items.

Coming out they were ambushed by the fungus goblins they had previously encountered but managed to fight their way clear and escape to the surface. End of part 2.

 

 

How was 2019?

Roleplaying in 2019 was too sparse for my liking. I ran two games of Savage Worlds (both running a Delta Green scenario from Control Group), three Judge Dredd (one using the old Games Workshop rules, two with the new EN Publishing rules) and two D&D5e games. Of these all but two were with family. I played three games of Alternity, one of Tunnels and Trolls (Grogmeet), one of Alien RPG (Grogmeet) and three of 13th Age (online with Iconic podcast).

I’d like to do more in 2020 although I have lost confidence in my ability to run games effectively. I am likely to get less practice in 2020 rather than more.

On the plus side I ‘published’ my first public scenario, for Alien RPG. I want to continue this and get some stuff out over the next few months. I have a modern day Call of Cthulhu to write up from a past campaign and I think it would be fun to do something for more obscure RPGs, or at least ones which don’t have a lot of official support: Morrow Project, the new Warhammer RPG, Judge Dredd etc.

 

UK Games Expo 2019

I just went for the Saturday this year after three day marathon last year proved too much. I think I will stick to a day in the future though it would have been nice to take in a game. That said I did a one hour demo of 2000AD Judge Dredd game from EN Publishing (and bought it) and played a demo of Epic from White Wizard.

The Judge Dredd game was my second new game of the week after playing Blades in the Dark crossed with Bookhounds of London the previous Tuesday. I liked Blades in the Dark as a one shot but I think it would pall for me for repeated use.

Upcoming gaming opportunities seem few at the moment though I am hoping to get to Grogmeet in November in Manchester. Playing with strangers – scary.