Once More Without Feeling - Prog 4 - Autographs, Junk Mail and a Level 7 Pshycic Event

A Judge Dredd RPG session using my homebrew version of the Savage Dredd playset for Savage Worlds.  Play was IRL at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in South East London.

As the Judges exit Shady Acres a nine tear old girl runs up to them clutching a doll and a book, she thrusts the book into their faces and she 

"Can you sign my book please Judges, I got to collect you all!"

Sure enough as Cross leafs through the pages he can see the names of many of his colleagues both past and present.  He notices that the early pages of the book have quite a lot of symbols scrawled next to the names.  Judge Shenandoah, a car and and a skull, Judge Blomsky a knife and a skull, Judge Krush a big question mark.  He briefly contemplates that this is some sort of murder book, but then realises that the girl is only nine years old.  Leafing to the front of the book there's an inscription.

This book belongs to Lucy Scoggins Age 8 If found return to 666-67 Ozzy Apts.

"Lucy Scoggins, I presume" says Cross, looking over at the towering and imposing black edifice that is the nearby Ozzy Apts.  "What are you doing here so far from Home"

"Visiting Nanny Scroggins Judge.  Mum left Pete and I in the playground, but then I saw your bikes and I knew I could get some new names for my autograph book.  You can put your name right their with my special glitter pen".

In the interests of Justice Department community relations Judges Ripley and Cross sign Lucy's book. 

++ INCOMING CALL FROM DR K.LAW, TUSK INDUSTRIES ++ 

"Judges, I've isolated some rogue code that appears to have piggybacked on the Tusk Industries update transmission, used it as a carrier wave to inject into the vending machine when the firewall dropped.  Can't have been transmitted from very far away.  Very sophisticated."

Mint and Ripley come to the same conclusion.  

"A droid hacker, someone with a grudge against Tusk Industries, an ex-employee perhaps someone they recently fired.  Does anyone fit the bill Doctor?" 

"You'll have to talk to HR, It's really not my area of expertise.  Patching you through"

After a few minutes of The Girl from Ipanema, a droid in a monotone disaffected voice answers,

"Human Resources, You're talking to Call Me Hermione,  how can I help?"  

When quizzed about a list of firings and disgruntled employees Hermione tells the Judges that they are very selective in their hiring processes and everyone at Tusk Industries is very happy to work their.  This means that they have not had to fire anyone in years.  Mr Tusk takes great pride in the extremely low turnover of staff, in fact he often refers to it as a cradle to grave company.

"What about people who have recently left the company for any reason."

A short list of names scroll past the Judges eyes.  

"Bestman, Alfred Sr, says he retired 6 months ago." 

"Yes, Mr Bestman senior was Doctor Law's most capable assistant, he left after a very distinguished career. But his son Alfred Jr. continues his work.  A model employee, he really earned his retirement and has a "

"Lets pay a visit to Bestman, Barney says he's registered to Shady Acres.  Too close for comfort in my book" says Ripley. 

The Judges mount up and gun their bikes towards the Megway.

Bestman's Apartment

Knocking on the door to Alfred Bestman's apartment gets no response so Binksy inserts his Justice Department skeleton key in the lock and shouts through the Door

"Justice Department Raid, we're coming in, hands where I can see 'em"  

The door doesn't budge and it takes a few shoulder barges to push away the mountain of junk mail that blocks the doorway.

The apartment is completely empty of any furniture or signs of life.  A droid sits in the corner of the living room on standby.  It's grubby name tag reads CALL ME SHREDDY.  

Judge Mint turns the droid on.  With a whirr he powers up and immediately wheels over to the pile of circulars and junk mail on the floor,  He grabs a handful of flyers and stuffs them into his mouth.  A hideous grinding sound ensues and then he rolls over to the wall mounted RESYK chute and spews the contents through its open door.   

"Wow that was some good eating" as he turns to face the door he notices the Judges.  "Hey you're not my owner what are you doing in here?"  

The Judges explain and Call Me Shreddy agrees to co-operate.  He's been on standby power for 3 months according to his internal clock and he shows the Judges his last recorded video feed.

It shows a hooded figure bending down to leaf through the mail pick out a few items and then leave.

"It's been like this for years he says.  My owner comes and picks up his mail and I get to eat the rest, yum,yum" 

Binksy looks the droid in the camera lens, 

Okay Shreddy, we're going to deputize you as an official Justice Department informer.  As soon as your owner come through that door, you need to send me a message." 

The Judges leave and resume their patrol duties which includes a tour of the nearby Trump Tower parking lot, a popular spot for storing stolen vehicles.

They spend half an hour meticulously scanning the registrations of the parked vehicles and slowly make their way to the kerbside when suddenly a crowd of screaming citizens pours out of the doors of the Mega Mega Mart.  

Slime Time at the Mega Mart

The terrified citizens pour out of the Mega Mega Mart, their skin turning green and sloughing off their bodies as they run.  Several run towards the Judges and reach out for help.  The Judges respond in the only way their training allows... Neutralize the threat with GP rounds.

One lucky victim park his minivan nearby and managed to start the vehicle.  His foot falls off onto the accelerator and the vehicle careens towards Judge Binksy's bike.  With it's characteristic HWUMP, the Cyclops laser fires length ways through the vehicle turning it's motor and driver into a pile of steaming slag.  Ripley is overwhelmed by one citizen and brought to the floor, the green goo falling off her assailant burning through her uniform.

Mint, Cross and Law take on the assailants at a distance with carefully placed shots whilst Binksy lets his daystick do the talking.  As the fracas ensues it is apparent that these poor citizens are inflating like balloons.  The merest scratch puncturing their flesh and they explode showering the vicinity in green goo.

It is then that they notice another figure, a corpulent green gargantuan stalking through the doors.  His body adorned with corrupted versions of Judge regalia; a helmet that looks like a recycled dustbin, shoulder pads which were once a manhole cover and a park bench and a road sign for a badge with the name TOXIC scratched across it.

Binksy squares off at point blank range and fires several AP rounds into the creature.  it bats him away like a rag doll.  Mint fires and hits.  The creature looks wounded and with a blue flash he is gone.  Instantly the hapless citizens infected with the green goo solidify into a brown dust and blow away on the breeze.

 Another Level 7 Psychic Event

The Judges call it in and it is not long before the Psi Squad arrive with a Med Tek team who attend to Judge Ripley's burns.  Judge Eldritch strides purposefully across to Mint and Cross.

"Twice in one week boys, this is beginning to look suspicious.  From what you described, this is definitely not supernatural.  Someone has opened a psychic link to another dimension and I don't like it!   

Go into the Mega Mart and see what you can find.  We'll bag the evidence and inform the victims next of kin.  Ripley needs medical attention so get her in a Heal-o-mat, pronto!." 

The Judges scab the supermarket for survivors and only locate several piles of dust.  Law stoops down and bags a sample of the yellow brown dust "Let's see what forensics makes of this"

They proceed through a vinyl curtain into the back of the store and locate the managers office.  The light is on and the Judges proceed cautiously.

"Come out with your hands where I can see them!"

A whimpering figure emerges wearing a name badge which reads Aldous Schultz - Manager.

Mr Schultz explains that he watched the whole thing from his office via the CCTV system.  The extradimensional perp appeared in the synthi flakes aisle, his transdimensional bubble vapourising tasty breakfast treats and plas-steel shelving.  Several store clerks and innocent shoppers ran for cover but they were infected by his green slimey touch within seconds.  As they fled they infected others leaving a path of destruction in their wake.   

The Judges return to the Sector House to get cleaned up and check on Ripley.

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Once More Without Feeling - Prog 3 - Tusk, Klaw and Brick Top

A Judge Dredd RPG session using my homebrew version of the Savage Dredd playset for Savage Worlds. Play occurred IRL at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club, South East London.

Morning Briefing

The ever irascible Judge Plisken stands behind the podium and seems particularly grumpy as he addresses the morning shift

"We had another Kaiju Attack in Sector 7 yesterday, this time it was an ore refinery.  317 confirmed dead and billions of creds worth of damage not to mention the loss of productivity.  Still no clue as to where these attacks are coming from, who's responsible or what they want.  Keep your eyes peeled at 200 storeys high it shouldn't be hard to spot.

A quiet night but we still lost 3 good Judges, there's some block to block tension brewing in 55 and I want it crushed, so take no nonsense from citizens and come down hard.

We have some noticeable absences today, 5 Tek Judges are off sick with food poisoning, Judge Pike says someone left a Burrito Vending Machine in the Motor Pool and it's a long way to the cafeteria.  Cross and Mint, I thought I told you to get that thing out of my Sector House!! Take it back to Tusk Industries, I want answers now!!  Take Binksy, Law and Ripley and move!!"    

A Trip to Tusk Industries

In the motor pool the Judges requisitioned an H-Wagon Transport and loaded their bikes and the vending machine.  Law complained that there was a hard lumpy spot on his seat, the bike computer responded that it was 99.7% functional, well within parameters and that the faults were logged and scheduled for the next maintenance window.  Judge Pike was supposed to fix the faults last night but had unexpectedly fallen ill after consuming a burrito.

The H-Wagon dusts off and 30 minutes later they are circling over the rooftop H-Pad of Tusk Industries.  As they disembark they are met by a functionary, Peter Purfick, who greets them and asks what he can do to help.  He leads them down through the building to speak with the head of Research and Development Doctor Klaus Law.  Walking across I high level gantry they pass over what looks like a block war in progress.  Faceless humanoid robots take up firing positions and are shooting at a Synthi Joe vending machine stationed outside a mock up of an Ugly Clinic.

"Battle Simulations, that takes me back" says Call me Manuel

Dr K Law

Entering the R&D Lab they are greeted by Dr. Law, who is working on a humanoid battle.  

"Ah Judges, its truly an honour, I don't get many visitors in my lab, so much work and such little time.  How can I help the Justice Department today?"

Cross and Mint explain the events of last evening and present Call Me Manuel.

"A Murderer you say... Well, let's take a look in that positronic brain of yours Manuel, Hop into Diagnosis Bay 3 if you wouldn't mind."

Manuel dutifully complies and within minutes he is hooked up to an array of sensors, his insides laid bare.  Slightly embarrased he asks if anyone would like a burrito.

Dr Law explains that it will be some time before he has a diagnosis but he is confident that he will be able to pull all of Manuel's CCTV and see what happened to him during his scheduled update.  

"I've got my Best man on the job, please let me introduce Alfred Bestman Jr." 

He will contact the Judges when he has more information.

++BLOCK FIRE REPORTED AT SHADY ACRES ++ IMMEDIATE RESPONSE REQUIRED ++

The Judges tell their bikes to meet them at the front entrance and they depart with haste.

Arriving at Shady Acres Retirement Block they receive a call from Fire Judge McGinty 

"The blaze is out, no casualties but the floor was cleared just in case.  Meet Penny Peel, Block Security warden at 227-302, looks like arson to me boys"

The Judges leave their bikes in a designated Judge Parking zone at the 200 Level Plaza and take the elevator up to 227.  Ms Peel, one of the blocks internal security detail, is waiting for them outside the apartment which is sealed off with hazard tape.  The apartment has been completely destroyed by the fire and melted drums and burned boxes litter the scene.  In one corner stands what looks like an old printing press, it's cast synthi steel frame  barely recogniseable in its melted state. 

Cross starts rummaging around through the burned remains of the apartment and Binksy says he's going to tour the floor and see if there's any other evidence. 

A heavy fog of smoke clings to the ceiling and Binksy drops his respirator just in case.  It is not long before he spots a fragment of a torn poster hanging from the wall.  

Back in the apartment, Cross discovers a partially melted box pull of large felt tip pens.  

Binksy returns 

"It's an Illegal Gambling Ring, I don't know what the attraction is but these oldster can't resist a Bingo Night!"

The Judges question Ms Peel but she has only been working here for about a year and Mr Top said it was all just for fun and in the spirit of community cohesion so she turned a blind eye.  And everyone loves Bingo at Shady Acres.  

 "Who is this Mr Top?" questions Judge Ripley

Penny Peel explains that Mr Brian Top is the chairman of the residents committee.  

"Everyone loves Mr Top, he's a really good organiser and a pillar of the community, in fact he often says that he built this community Brick by Brick.  He lives in one of the penthouse suites on floor 700, but you won't be able to talk to him without an appointment not at this time of the morning."

"I've got a badge that says I don't need an appointment" says Judge Law, "We'll deal with you later"

The Judges leave Peel at the apartment and head up to Floor 700.

The elevator doors open on a very well decorated corridor with apartment doors on each side with tastefully placed potted aspidistras.  At the end of the corridor stands a set of synthi-walnut double doors and in front of it a pair of oldsters sitting on simple metal chairs.  As the judges approach they stand up in quite defensive poses.  "What do you want Judges?"

"We want to talk to your Boss!" says Mint

"I'm afraid Mr Top is currently unavailable as he hasn't had his breakfast yet.  I suggest that you come back later" says one of the oldsters brandishing his walking stick.

"Your under arrest for obstructing Justice" says Binksy and swings his daystick at the oldster.  The oldster parries and Binksy's daystick bends as it hits the walking stick.

The unmistakable sound of linear actuators heralds the reveal of two sentry gun emplacements which drop from the corridor's ceiling, they open fire.  A hail of bullets showers the corridor as the Judges with their superior reflexes and years of training dodge from the volley of lead.  The oldsters take a few hits but seem unperturbed.  As the gunsmoke clears the unmistakable hallmarks of cybernetic enhancements gleam through the oldsters shredded flesh.  

"Take out those guns!" shouts Ripley hurling a smoke grenade down the corridor.  The Judges visors instantly switch to IR targeting mode and shapes appear in their HUD.  

Cross runs down the corridor and leaps off one of the nearby aspidistra plants grabbing the sentry gun in the process.  As it fires it shoots the other sentry gun to bits and blows a hole in the opposite wall.  The mount for the gun gives way under the additional weight of a fully armed and armoured judge and the pair crash to the ground.  The gun continues to fire cutting down the two elderly guards.

At this point the doors open to reveal Mr Brian Top still seated in his Mk14 Spiderchair with a bowl of synthi flakes in his lap.  

"No-one disturbs Brick Top's breakfast" he bawls and opens fire from the chair's four stub guns.  A volley of shots from Lawgivers settle the matter.

"Shady Acres needs a new Residents Committee Chair!!"

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Once More Without Feeling - Prog2 - Dunkin Frogs Legs

A Judge Dredd RPG session using my homebrew version of the Savage Dredd playset for Savage Worlds.

Dunkin Frogs Legs 

It's 1am on a rainy Friday night as Judges Mint and Cross observe a trickle of late night revellers returning to Thatcher Towers from the nearby Super Doopy Hyper Loopy station.  One character catches their eye as he surfs the crowd before ducking into an alley.  The Judges dismount and follow their intuition and their suspect into the darkness.

The dark alley is short and opens into a large square dominated by a wall of trash piled up at the far end.  A manhole cover partially covers a drain in the center of the square.  They investigate, but the smell is overpowering and they decide to try other avenues first.  

Pulling out their Lawgivers they scan the area with their IR sights and find a heat bloom at the bottom of the trash pile.  Further close investigation reveals a secret door leading into what looks like a short tunnel carved out of the trash.  traversing the tunnel they enter into a small room with a table and chairs looking like a kitchen.  Sitting at the table is a middle aged citizen who offers them a cup of sythi joe. 

He identifies as Bernie "Fast Fingers" Hilliard, a recidivist dunker with a long arrest record.  Bernie explains that he wasn't pick pocketing he was just acquiring lost property in advance of returning it to their grateful owners who in many cases are so grateful that they will gladly offer him a few creds as a finders fee.  He then proceeds to give the Judges a sob story about how his wife left him during his last 5 stretch in the iso-cubes and he decided to build himself this hovel in the trash rather than return to his apartment which holds too many bad memories for him.  Cross and Mint tell him that there is no excuse for lawlessness and escort him to a holding post in the street.

The radio crackles 

++DISTURBANCE AT THATCHER TOWERS PLAZA NORTH LVL 300 - MULTIPLE CASUALTIES REPORTED - PRIORITY 1 ++ 

Cross and Mint are the closest units and gun their bikes down the pedway towards the plaza.

A grim sight meets them on arrival.  Approximately 30 or so citizens with varying degrees of injuries litter the Plaza entrance.  Most suffering from critical injuries to their extremities, dismemberments and fatalities due to severe blood loss.  The Judges immediately confront the nearest citizen who they recognise as local celebrity Two Ton Tony Tubbs voraciously consuming a human leg.  A man dressed in a mime costume is crawling away from Tony leaving a bloody trail behind him.  

"Pass me another of that frog's legs they're bloomin delicious"

says Tony.  

The Judges call in the incident and request immediate Medical Support and a Resyk Meat Wagon.

Another citizen is sitting on a plaza bench gnawing off the fingers of her left hand.  When interviewed she explains that there was a flash of blue light and this fattie appeared he commanded them all to eat and then with another blue flash disappeared.  She couldn't resist and started to eat her own fingers which is most troubling because she has a successfull career as a left hand model.  She begins to cry whilst still nibbling at the bloody stumps that used to be the cornerstone of her career.

The Judges report this new information and Despatch retorts 

++PSI SQUAD INBOUND - CASE TRANSFERRED TO PSI JUDGE ELDRITCH++ 

The Judges cuff the living and give what first aid they can until the MedTeks and PSi Squad arrive.

Eldritch is visibly shaken as she emerges from an H-Wagon, her team of scanners and precogs set to work surveying the scene.  As she approaches the Judges she updates despatch.

"Eldritch on scene and confirmed, it's a Level 7 Psychic Event with trans-dimensional hallmarks alright, get me a clean up crew stat!!"

She looks at Cross and Mint's badges 

"Cross, Mint, good work boys.  I'll take it from here, this is a Level 7 Psychic Event and my team will need some space to work.  We've got a crowd gathering and I don't want them disturbing any evidence"

As she turns to consult a member of her team, Cross and Mint proceed towards the onlookers.  

    "Nothing to See here! Return to your homes!!"   

After a hard shift Cross and Mint return to the sector house.  Heading to the Booking Hall their path is blocked by a Burrito Vending Machine.  It greets the Judges in a jovial if anxious tone explaining that his name is Call Me Manuel, a vending machine stationed near Amundsen & Abba Apts and it has taken him two days to trundle here to hand himself in as a murderer!!

A cursory examination of the machine shows that a twisted and contorted corpse still resides inside the vending machine.

At this point Judge Plisken arrives and shouts at the pair

"Get that vending machine out of my Sector House and get that body to RESYK"

The pair extricate the body of the male citizen and discover that his cred stick is still in the machine's cash slot which confirms the identity of the body as Spunge Wortle a 26 year old male citizen from Amundsen & Abba Apts.  His rap sheet shows no arrests for criminal damage or tampering and his cred stick shows sufficient balance to purchase a burrito.

The machine explains that he had a software update a coupe of days ago and when he rebooted his internal sensors detected a foreign body in his mechanism.  Without any other data his programming must assume that he has in some way killed this poor unfortunate hungry citizen.

"Would you like a burrito?"

The pair are at the end of their shift so decide to grab a lift pallet and take it down to the Motor Pool, they will deal with the mess in the morning.

 "Are you sure you wouldn't like a burrito? They're really good" 

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Once More Without Feeling - Prog1 - Full Eagle Day

A Judge Dredd RPG session using my homebrew version of the Savage Dredd playset for Savage Worlds.

Prog 1 - Full Eagle Day

The final exam for a cadet is to spend a day on the streets in the company of a supervising Judge who will determine whether they are fit for service as a Judge and can be badged up to wear the Full Eagle shoulder pad.

Cadet Judges attend their first briefing in briefing room 3A.  Judge Plisken a veteran Judge and Watch Commander delivers the briefing.

"A Shipment of Boing!™ was hijacked on its way to the Sector 55 Palais De Boing in Thatcher Tower last night. be on the lookout for juves with illegal cans and a reminder that illegal boinging is a serious offence and use of deadly force to protect innocent lives is authorised. 

Reports are coming in from sector 237 that an unidentified Kaiju Mecha attack at an industrial facility manufacturing Choo2 the fuel of the future.  Facility destroyed and 273 confirmed dead and rising.  Judges being pulled from neighbouring sectors to lend a hand so expect delays if you are calling in for support  

Today is Full Eagle Day for our latest crop of Cadet Judges.  I've assigned you to Crowd control at the Zooty Slute's Suits You Two store on Melania Boulevarde, Trump Tower.  Report to Citizens Slute and Floot at 10am for the grand opening.

Night Shift reports 7 Judge fatalities last night.  We're not gonna lose the sector on my watch so be careful out there and stay frosty.  Cadets, I'll see the survivors at the end of your shift."  

The cadets and their chaperones head to the Motor Pool to pick up their rides.

On their way to Trump Tower traveling down Meg 356 they spot a red convertible (J1FF1EE) doing 59 in a 60 lane, a slow driver.  This is a clear violation of the traffic laws and warrants an intervention.  After much dialogue with Barney, the cities municipal computer, the cadets shut down 3 lanes of traffic and the vehicle is pulled over to the hard shoulder.  Under the watchful eyes of their supervisor Judges, the cadets proceed to interrogate the driver and his young female passenger.

His ID is confirmed as the owner of the vehicle Bertram J Smalls, a sales executive at Emphatically Yess,  Despite his protestations that his lawyer will "have him out in minutes", the cadets sentence him to 5 years for a catalogue of minor traffic violations and failure to comply with a Judges direct order.  His passenger is his daughter Phoebe Waller-Smalls,  who whilst still a juvenile gets a 10 minute trip to the smokatorium for illegal smoking. 

Arriving at upmarket gentleman's outfitters Zooty Slutes Suits You Two, the Judges are immediately pressed into crowd control.  When the ribbon cutting ceremony concludes there is an immediate stampede for the entrance and one citizen, Two Ton Tony Tubbs (retired championship eater and celebrity fattie), gets stuck in the doorway causing the crowd to panic that they won't be able to enter the store.  Another well meaning citizen, Mike Chimp (a tri-d action hero), is on hand to help revealing his trademark hand grenade and uttering his catchphrase "This monkey means business!".  

This causes the crowd to panic and a few bystanders get pushed onto the boulevard from the pavement.  A passing hover taxi veers across the road to avoid a collision with the jaywalkers and crashes into a holding post on the opposite side of the street killing the driver and seriously injuring its Juve passenger, nine year old Perry Tratchett, who receives a serious head injury and concussion and his mother June Tratchett suffers a broken arm.  

The cadets call in a RESYK Meat Wagon and a fire crew to remove the wrecked taxi and its driver.  The injured boy and his mother are airlifted by MedTeks to the Trump Towers Med Centre for treatment.   

--- UPDATE ---

The cadets all failed their evaluation with citations against them for failure to notice a crime in progress, inaction and hesitation, failure to kanow the law and a cavalcade of other minor demerits.

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Jessie's Prints - Episode 48 - Judge Dredd Shuggy Table

This week, I are mostly been printing... A Shuggy Table!!

Shuggy Table - Thingiverse Thing:6804108

Those of you who aren't Judge Dredd fans (there can't be many of you), Shuggy is the futuristic equivalent of billiards (aka pool) which is a popular pastime among the permanently unemployed citizens of Mega City One.

15mm Shuggy Tables (5p coin for size comparison)

Tracing its origins back to the original 21st century ball and stick games, Shuggy is played on a table with 22 holes which are distributed around the surface atop small mounds.  The object of the game is to "pot" balls into the holes to score points.

A complete run down of the rules is provided by Judge Macus L Rowland in the Wally Squad briefing 041204-2103 also found on pages 50-51 of the Judge Dredd Companion.

This particular 22 hole variant of the game was scaled for use in the print-and-play boardgame Shuggy Hall Brawl published in Issue 11 of Warlock Magazine, but it can be easily scaled to suit the larger Judge Dredd Miniatures Game or the many variants of the Judge Dredd RPG

OMG Another 5 Starblazer Comics

 

Yet more issues from my growing Starblazer collection

Starblazer #209 - The Ring of Gofannon - Through a nightmare of sorcery, Goll and his servant, Cutter follow the ancient maps of Gofannon in search of the legendary Ring.  Goll the warrior has to pit his fighting skills against all manner of unworldly creatures to merely survive and discover the truth.

Like every fantasy epic the ring of Gofannon is an archetypal quest to retrieve a magic ring and defeat a great evil descending upon the land.

Goll and Cutter must one by one overcome the trials and obstacles in their journey to find the legendary ring.  However, like every good Starblazer story there lies a twist in the tale, something unexpected which turns the story on its head.

The art for this story is great, simple when it needs to be and detailed when it needs to evoke a dense and rich background.  Very enjoyable and full of great one shot ideas for my own fantasy RPG stories. 

The cover art for this issue is a little bit uninspired.  However, this is what a fantasy story would look like if Sylvester Stallone was cast in the title role.

Starblazer #210 - Dragon Slayer - In a land overrun by evil, only one young boy had the courage and faith to seek out the warrior who could free the country from its sorcerous shadows - Dragon Slayer.., and he was 200 years old.

Another fantasy story, we must have hit the Conan the Barbarian vein in these recent issues.  The evil sorceror Drax has risen up and despite his magic waning he has enslaved the last of the Dragons Gorath to be his ultimate weapon and rule Pira IV unchallenged.

One brave villager and his son go against the wishes of the rest and vow to track down the legendary Dragonslayer who can free them from this cruel fate.  Sadly the villager is trapped by Drax and his son Bix must find the dragonslayer alone.

As ever we expect the Starblazer plot twist at the third act and this story doesn't dissapoint.  The final confrontation between Drax and the young lad Bix is a desperate but rewarding one.  The character of Bix is a shameless attempt at inserting the typical young reader into the story and it is very effective.  

I particularly liked the addition of the 6 legged scorpion tailed one eyed mini beholder creature which I will endeavour to write up a stat block for Savage Worlds and I will now forever call it a QERK!

Starblazer #211 - The Dream Machine - Kayn's the name, and finding people is my game.  Actually, I'm a private investigator, but I spent most of my trime trying to find enough creds to pay the rent.  Then one day I got a request for help... from a guy who'd been dead five years!

Kayn is back in another mystery chase murder story.  Futuristic Moscow is such an off choice for a setting.  I guess it's so that you can get away with simple brutalist architecture and a unbendening robotic state aparatus.  

Needles to say our hero Kayn is completely oblivious to the machinations of the secretive villain in this story.  He learns everything piece by piece at the same time as you read every frame.

Definitely a comic of its time with a run of the mill Starblazer storyline which is not all bad but very average. 

Starblazer #212 - Rogue Cop - Renko was a patrolman in a society diseased by corruption.  When this corruption touched him, he turned rogue to bring the offenders to justice.  But society doesn't like rogue cops and Renko was hounded to the edge of oblivion.

I was expecting a Robocop knock off but what I got was an interstellar crime wave and a man rescued from the brink of death by Space Brocolli!!

This is quite a fun little story, a classic tale of copy who goes rogue to bring down the big crime boss.  With no backup his luck runs out and he is stranded in the void with no hope so he decides to end it all by setting his ship to self destruct... as you do.

Saved by the benevolent space brocolli the Shreel, they turn him into a cyborg monster sending Renko into a depressive tailspin.  Howver, vengeance is a powerful emotion and Renko uses it to gain control of his new robotic body and take the fight to Hengis Furgaar to destroy his criminal emire once and for all.

Starblazer #213 - Skarr The Soldier - Stranded in Samek, many thousands of miles from his home, Skarr, the soldier of fortune, had to fight for a foreign ruler and an alien cause - or be executed!

This is a fairly stock story of a man caught between two factions waging a war at all costs.  There is not much exposition only action and it really does seem like an exercise in getting as many wild character illustrations on a page as possible.

This a treat from the fine pen of  Enrique Alcatena with an epic cover from the legend Ian Kennedy.

The character art is wild from the weird almost Napoleonic uniforms of the Margolian army to the down right bizarre mix of kimono clad Tarcils and the mask wearing denizens of Hetamec.  

This is my first Skarr story and I am encouraged to find the others.  

Whilst the plot does not offer much for the Roleplayer or DM, the artwork is a smorgasbord of inspiration.

Essential Starblazer Links

The Starblazer Checklist is a fantastic resource if you are collecting or want to know who wrote and illustrated each issue.

Many thanks to the chaps who run the Starblazer Covers archive, this is immensely useful resource when looking at ebay joblot listings.

Retro Sanctuary has a great article covering his top 20 Starblazer Issues which is worth a look and I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing some of these classics in the very near future.

 

Mega City Block Upgrade - The Okey Dokey Chef

Once you start pimping out your Mega City One Block Storage Case it's hard to know when to stop...

The Okey Dokey Chef Animated Sign

I wanted my sign to be an advertising hoarding and one of the most famous signs in Mega City One is the Okey Dokey Chef as featured in the Supersurf 7 race story Midnight Surfer (progs 424-429).  I was also inspired by the famous Vegas Vic neon sign whose arm waving welcomed gamblers from all around the globe since 1951.

He wold make an excellent starting point to learn about how to control low voltage RC servos with Arduino.

The Chef

I found a nice piece of clipart online which had the vibe I was going for and imported this into GIMP for editing.  

I cut out the "Chef's Kiss" hand using the lasso tool and moved this over into  a seperate file.  This is going to be the sweeping hand which we will animate later using a servo.

I added a speech bubble with some appropriate text coming out of the side of the chef's head. 

Preparing for Tinkercad

I have learned that Tinkercad is a pretty simplistic modelling tool and it does not particular like creating complex curved or polygonal shapes.  The easiest way to solve this conundrum is to simply create a solid black mask version of your line drawn artwork.  This can be used as a background and because both shapes are exactly the same image size, they will register perfectly together when you import them into Tinkercad.

When I was happy with both files, I and exported them (and their solid black mask counterparts) as a PNG then converted into an SVG using convertio.com.  Each line drawn SVG is imported into Tinkercad for extrusion into a 3D object using the same technique I used to create my badges and Index Card RPG Card Back Stamps. I use an extrusion height of 30mm.

The black mask variant is then imported and the combined shapes exported as a single STL.  This gives me an STL file for the chef and a file for the arm which can be printed on the Anycubic Photon M5.

The Electronics

The core of this project is an Arduino nano.  These little boards are stupidly cheap and really easy to start your coding adventure.  Seriously, if an idiot like me can do it then anyone can.

The bit doing all of the moving is a 9g 5v 180 degree hobby servo which I bought in a twinpack from Ali Express for £1.79.

This was superglued across the gap between the Speech bubble and the chef's arm.

The Wiring and Code

I used the excellent How to Control Servo Motors tutorial on the makerguides website.  The servo has 3 wires Red (5v Power) goes to the 5v pin,  Brown (Ground) goes to the GND pin and the Yellow (Signal) goes to Pin 9.

The code example given is perfect for my purposes, but I did need to customise the start and end positions for the hand as it does not need to run the full 180 that the servo is capable of.  I also added a 500 millisecond delay at the end of each travel.

#include 

Servo myServo;  // Create a Servo object

void setup() {
  myServo.attach(9);  // Attach the servo to pin D9
}

void loop() {
  // Move from 30 to 135 degrees
  for (int pos = 30; pos <= 135; pos += 1) {
    myServo.write(pos);  // Tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'
    delay(45);           // Wait 15 milliseconds for the servo to reach the position
  }
  delay (500);
  // Move from 135 to 30 degrees
  for (int pos = 135; pos >= 30; pos -= 1) {
    myServo.write(pos);  // Tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'
    delay(45);           // Wait 15 milliseconds for the servo to reach the position
  }
   delay (500);
}

Troubleshooting

In my naievete I thought that the Arduino nano would be able to power this whole project.  However, the little servo apparently draws too much power to run continuously causing the nano to reset itself and creates some erattic animation.

I tried to mitigate this by adding increasing the dealy to 45 thereby slowing down the move, but sadly this was not enough.  It would have been nice to know all this from the start as an alternative board such as an ESP32.  

Anyway that is another story.  In the meantime check out the final result

Download the Files

I have also uploaded the Okey Dokey Sign STL files to Thingiverse if you should want to make your own version of this iconic comic book sign.

Let me know if you found this useful or if you have made your own animated signs for your own games

Jessie's Prints - Episode 39 - Index Card RPG Card Back Stamps

This week, I are mostly been printing... Stamps!!

ICRPG CARD BACK STAMPS - Thing 6545499

My recent foray into the Index Card RPG system (ICRPG) involved a lot of DIY card making, which I love.

However, during play this presented a problem in that all my card backs where blank and indistinguishable from each other.  What I needed was a simple stamp which I could apply to my card backs.  

I find it useful to categorise my cards into one of 4 types:

• People - NPCs, Villains, Bio-forms
  
• Places - Locations, buildings, Landscapes 
  
• Objects - Things, weapons, loot, traps and trinkets
  
• Monsters - Stuff that wants to kill you
  

This would help me to keep my ICRPG cards organized and reduce seek times to a minimum and thereby make me look like a great DM.

Tinker Cad to the Rescue

My experiments making a plaque for my Cowboy Bebop Swordfish II model taught me that this was going to be easily achieved.  

Step 1 - Make a black and white image in GIMP where black is what you want stamped and white is what you don't want to stamp.  This image is then reversed and saved as a JPG or PNG.

Step 2 - Use convertio.co to convert your JPG or PNG into an SVG which can then be imported into Tinkercad.

Step 3 - Import your SVG into Tinkercad and scale it to fit inside your stamp pad.  Make sure that the stamp is at least 4mm high and that you create a backing plate at least 1mm high to connect all the pieces of your stamp together.  Position the stamp so that it intersects with the backing plate and then group the objects together.  Export this as an STL for your 3D printer.  

Step 4 - Make a wooden backing plate and handle for each of your stamps.  If you get into ICRPG you are going to be making a lot of cards and doing a lot of stamping so this step is essential for long lasting stamps.  I made mine out of some scraps of hardboard I had laying around and I glued some pieces of old broom handle onto the backing plates before supergluing my stamps together.  

You could of course model the whole thing in Tinkercad.

 

Step 5 - Stamp Away!! - I bought some cheap stamp pads from AliExpress less than £1.50 each and they have lots of different colours to choose from so you can have a different colour for each card type.

 

Buy Me a Coffee

I have shared the stamp patterns on Thingiverse, so if you like them, download them and print your own card backs.  Support the channel and please leave a tip in the jar or use the paypal tip link.   

Chub Pearson and Denizen MIniatures

Today I learned that Chub Pearson of Denizen Miniatures passed away in January 2024.

I only ever met Chub when I was buying minis from him at various shows in the 80s and 90s like SALUTE and SELWG.  However, I was always a huge fan of his sculpts and his adherence to true 25mm scale when everyone else's minis were getting larger and larger.

Chub was also one of the first to sculpt some manga characters before we even knew what anime and manga even was.  With sculpts like these it was no wonder they made an indelible impression on me.

To show my appreciation here are a couple from my collection.

These two babes are one of the Cat Girl Twins (SF71) and Female Space Adventurer (SF29).

RIP Chub Pearson.

Am I Too Late to Join the Index Card RPG Party?

I have been loosely following the exploits of Runehammer for a couple of years on YouTube and I had been intrigued by the concept of the Index Card RPG (ICRPG) but was always too scared to dip my toes in the water until now

First Impressions of ICRPG

As a no-prep DM, I am always looking for something that I can get to the table in as little time as possible.  Character gen needs to be trivial and the system should be easy to pick up with a few basic concepts and a comfortable familiarity for those players of other systems. In addition the system needs to lean towards narrative play whilst having enough mechanical aspects that hte inevitable combat and magic flow smoothly and consistently.  

ICRPG seems to have all of this but we will need to see how it plays and how easy it is for me to DM. 

Do It Yourself RPG

At the core of the game (it's in the title) and one of the biggest attractions is the index card concept. Brandon Gillam, the man behind Runehammer is of course a consumate artist and has drawn many of these flash card images which are used in play and you are encouraged to draw your own to fit your own game concept or storyline.

 

I'm no artist so the first order of the day is to assemble a stack of index cards with images from ICRPG Volumes 1 & 2 pasted onto them.  This took a few hours which I am sure to get back when actually playing the game.  

 

I'm going to sort these into 3 specific decks; Props, Places & Monsters ahead of my first game.  

 

(DM From the Future: Keeping these decks secret from the players is quite the challenge when all the cardbacks are white.  Watch this space for an ICRPG Card Stamp set.

First Play

I played this for the first time at our recent Dragons Keep Games Day to a small bunch of players of varying skill levels.  The objective wass to run through a few scenarios and see how the players took to the system and how much time I spent looking through the rulebook.

I thought about pre-genning some characters to get us off to a flying start, but time was not on my side.  I underestimated how long it would take to glue 100 pictures to index cards in the few evenings I had before Game Day.  I must find a way of printing directly onto the card or perhaps use stickers.  

However, on the day character gen took about 15 minutes. I need to create a quick flowchart for those not familiar with the standard fantasy or sci-fi RPG character tropes and having multiple copies of the starter character loot table and weapons is also a must.

The players chose their minis and, after a brief explanation of how the target numbers for encounters worked, we were off to the races.  

Generating The Plot

As I mentioned, I want this game to run for no-prep pickup, so I used the cards to generate the plot.  Ths is where ICRPG really shines as a picture says a thousand words and sparks the players imagination far more than any long description can.  For those playing along at home, everything in BOLD is an index card.

 

It wouldn't have been a fantasy RPG if it didn't start in a tavern so I layed out one of the village building cards that looked tavern like and then surrounded these with four other cards North, South, East and West.  This represented the rumours of adventure that they learned from the locals whilst they were enjoying their drinks.  They didn't fancy the desert of desolation, the barrier keep or the necromancers tower so headed off East to the mountains to kill a dragon.  "Now that's what I call worldbuilding!!"

Encounter 1

Heading out along the windy road through the low hills they encountered an abandoned cart with a broken wheel.  As they pondered where the owner and horse were I slapped down a Target 10 card and asked them all to roll their WIS for a passive perception check to detect the two animated plants that were about to ambush them.

They quickly got into the action and I explained how the range system worked.  

 

DM mistake number one was not reading up on the very limited magic system in ICRPG.  Mages start with a magic missile but the mage in the party decided he wanted to dehydrate the first plant.  As he had a spell book from his starting equipment, I said role a D8 and you can have that many spells written in your book.  Even if I had read the spell list I would probably have opted for something similar in any case.

 

Meanwhile another club member walked in so I threw him the rule book and a blank character sheet and explained the basics of character gen.  Combat was swift and decisive and it was not long before our new member of the party was discovered entangled behind a nearby bush.  He went off in search of his horse dobby accompanied by the elf ranger whilst the others set about mending his wagon.

Following a trail of foot prints I slapped down the cave mouth with teeth.  They approached cautiously as I really played up the jagged teeth vibe and they found dobby the horse inside.  At the back of the cave they found a rusty portcullis and a lever on the otherside.  The ranger ran back to the others to get help. 

 

The mage decided that casting a shrink/grow spell on one of the characters was the way to go and so a tiny halfling walked easily through to the other side.  This was another spell for the mage's book and we determined on the roll of a D8 how many minutes the spell would last for.  He rolled a 6, but I made a DM Decision that one of his other spells was a dispell.  The rogue was instantled restored back to his original size and with a critical hit pull of the lever the ancient mechanism shuddered to life and the portcullis rose.

 

Beyond the portcullis they discovered some Corridors and Stairs and I made the elf wizard roll a DEX check as he triggered a trap.  Looking above he saw a Dangling Stone Weight about to crush him.  He used up one of his spells, to stone shape the weight and the pressure plate thereby disabling the trap.  At the next corridor I told them that the corridor was bathed in a greasy red light.  I thought that they would pick up on the fact that they had essentially triggered the dungeons alarm system but sadly no.

Encounter 2

In the next encounter they walked into a huge circular room with a golden skull on a pedastal at its center.  Down went the 16 Target Card and a WIS check revealed the sleeping  floating high in the ceiling. 

 

A haste spell was cast and most of the party ran towards the pedastal but they were not stealthy and the beholder awoke firing off a couple of blasts.  DM mistake number two was not having read the monster description for the beholder which would have made it slightly less taxing to dream up some eye beam effects, "but this is not my first rodeo..."  

There was some really inventive spell play from Jason the mage and a lot of channeling of Indiana Jones.  The final encounter was quite cool as several players got blasted by various eyebeams and the players experienced the death mechanic, which was useful to know.

Eventually they discovered that the gold skull was actually The Skull of Calderon and they used its power to dispatch the beholder and grabbed some well earned loot.

All in all a very fun experience for all and a very cheap and easy way to get into RPGs or as a primer to running your very first game as a DM.

What ICRPG isn't

If you are looking for a system which has layers of complexity where you can build your character from a low level up to some mythical epic hero then ICRPG is not for you.  Character progression is in there but it will be fairly short due to the condensed nature of the game and it's simplicity.

What I Bought

• Index Card RPG Core (2nd Edn) rules - a soft back copy (surprisingly expensive in the UK) from eBay for £23.69 delivered
  

• Index Card RPG Vol 1 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for fantasy games such as the Runehammer Alfheim setting.  Many of the cards in the first two sets are found as illustrations in the core rulebook.
  
  
• Index Card RPG Vol 2 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for dungeon games.
  
  
• Index Card RPG Vol 3 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for Sci-Fi games such as the Runehammer Warp Shell setting.  Cool powerloader image!!
  
  
• Index Card RPG Vol 4 - 100 Cards depicting Props, Places and Monsters for the Wild West Horror inspired Weird West Setting.
  
  
• ICRPG Target Cards - a set of numbered Target cards showing the easy (-3) and difficult (+3) target numbers.
  
  
• ICRPG Character Sheet - a basic character sheet which I printed at half size to create a booklet format with plenty of space for players to scribble their notes.
  
  
• 1000 Blank Record Card Cards (6"x4") - I needed to restock in any case as I use record cards a lot in my games.

Other Useful Resources

ICRPG Character Generator - like DnD Beyond for your ICRPG character and it spits out a nice PDF.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 37 - Epic Space Knights or Holocaust Squad Judges?

This week, I are mostly been printing... Teeny Tiny Space Knights!!

After last episode's commissioned print I wondered just how small can my 3D Printer print?  In particular I'm after some power armoured troopers to fill in as Holocaust Squad Judges.

Ball Bearing Galactic Crusaders with Chain Axes - Cults 3D

You have got to laugh at the names of some of these files.  These are epic scaled minis which come in a variety of poses and helpfully in groups of 3 & 5 so printing a whole squad is easy.  straight onto the build plate they are about 10mm so I scaled them up 125% to 15mm but they were still too small for my Judge Dredd miniatures which are about 17mm tall so I upped it to 20mm.

These should work well in my games and I have some cool ideas for some encounters which require this type of armoured set up.  

Painting up a Holocaust Squad

Once I had superglued them to 1p pieces and primed them, I gave my squad a quick once over with Gravelord Grey Speed Paint from army painter.  Jet Packs were trimmed in yellow and I gave each one a different coloured helmet and shoulder pad to aid in discrimination on the field of battle.

Holocaust Judges are rarely seen in Mega City One, their deployment being reserved for those extreme moments when the ultimate sacrifice is required.  Their ranks are typically made up of those Judges close to retirement or have in some way disgraced themselves in the line of duty.  This final act of service is seen as a suitable punishment or alternative to the redemption of The Long Walk into the Cursed Earth. 

Epic Scale Imperial Heavy Tank - Cults 3D

I had a copy of the original Epic Space Marine game Adeptus Titanicus back in the days of Games Workshop Large Boxes.  So I wondered, just for funzies, how well these newfangled 3D prints would stack up against my vintage epic armour.

Pretty good me thinks.

Now I've got to find me a decent Epic sized Mek Quake model for those BIG JOBS! in Mega City One.   

Jessie's Prints - Episode 36 - Itsy Bitsy Drop Pods

This week, I are mostly been printing... Teeny Tiny Drop Pods!!

Isn't it just the way you wait ages for a commissioned print and two come along at once.  This time it's my work chum Gary who needed some drop pods for an upcoming game of Adeptus Epicus or something like that.  You know the one, the latest hotness from Games Workshop.

StarPorts - P.O.D. (Print on Demand) Droplets - Cults 3D

I don't really have much to say about these other than I managed to get 5 Dreadnought sized pods on one build plate and eight of the smaller unit sized pods on a second.  Print time was about an hour and a half each.

The models came well supported but the packaging of the files was a bit weird.  Extracting the zip file dumped 3 folders on my desktop; a Lychee scenes folder, a supported STLs and an Unsupported STLs.  I was not expecting this and so I thought that the zip file hadn't actually unzipped.  Weird.

I always opt for supported files and as I was leaving these on the support rafts for Gary to get the full experience of removing supports 😂 I didn't bother to check if these were hollow or not.  I assumed that they were solid.  To my surprise, and as you can see in the image above, these were actually hollow which explains why they came out of the wash & cure station a little sticky.  They had actually trapped a huge amount of resin in the hollowed out sections as it effectively formed a cup with nowhere for that resin to drain out of because they print upside down.

If I were printing again I would add my own supports and orientate them so that the unused resin can drain away whilst still being attached to the build plate.  A minor gripe I know but sometimes these things matter.

Anyway, as you can see these are considerably smaller than the full size drop pod for WH40K.  Aint they cute 😃