Roleplaying... Yes I still do that every week

Regular readers will probably be tired of the sojourn into Model Railroads by now.

Whilst I have been playing Fat Controller, quite a bit has been going on in my roleplaying world.

Dragonmeet 2024

A couple of Saturdays ago I made my annual pilgrimage to Dragonmeet but this year was different for me as I had very little interest in what was new on the dealer floor.  I literally went for the bring'n' buy and I returned with quite the haul.

The Low Life -

This is quite a weird pick for me and I don't know what possessed me... oh yeah it was the £10 price tag.  The Low Life is a wholly unique post apocalyptic setting for Savage Worlds.  Gazillions of years after hoomanity destroys itself in "The Wipe",  what is left of life has evolved, devolved, mutated and discombobulated to wander the "Oith" in search of something.  Archive it under very strange.

The first source book is a world guide to the Oith.  This is an incredibly dense book and after a brief read it feels like I'm transported to a Spongebob Squarepants sort of world with a writing style like William Gibson.

 

 

The strangeness continues in Holy Crap which is another world building guide to the religions and the denizens of Oith.  Think of it as a combination of Unearthed Arcana and a Monster Manual.

 

Paranoia - The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues 

An impulse purchase (£15) of this reissued and reimagined version of the classic Paranoia scenario.  I've been getting a lot of requests to run Paranoia at the club and it is one of those games that when it works it's amazing.  The original version of this scenario was reviewed back in 1985 by Marcus L Rowland and he gave it a 7 out of 10 so I have high hopes.  

Having read most of the first book this is definitely something I want to run in 2025.

Castles & Crusades - The Secret of Ronan Skerry 

£4 for a scenario is the sort of money I want to be paying.  Quite slim at 20 pages but it is an interesting sidetrek which could be used in any fantasy game.  Castles & Crusades is one of the best value OSR games out there and the very Celtic world of Airdhe also fits quite easily in most Dark Age RPGs like Savage Worlds Hellfrost which is another great setting.

Among The Stars 

This scifi engine building boardgame looked really interesting and as it came with 2 expansions I snapped it up for £19.  I will report back if this ever gets played and what I think of it.

Colossal Arena 

This has the three magic ingredients - Reiner Knizia design, Fantasy Flight publisher, Silverline game range.  It's a 2-5 player betting game about fighting monsters in a Fantasy Arena.  Sounds great and Knizia is a dab hand at the betting game mechanic (play RA, it's awesome) so I have high hopes that this will be a quick to play and fun game.

Wreck & Ruin 

It's no secret that I am a fan of post apocalyptic car combat games like CarWars, Gaslands and Dark Future so could not pass up this kickstarter version of the boardgame for £25.  I
regretted the decision every time I picked up my bag as this is chock full of stuff and weighs a ton.

I particularly like the Desertkin faction who have inexplicably tamed dinosaurs as their ride of choice in the irradiated wasteland.  Looking forward to getting this on the table. 

Dragons Keep Christmas Games Day & Party

Our last Games Day of the year and our Christmas Party is scheduled for today, I hopefully will get to play some more Dorf Romantik and we have a session of our current Cthulhu game - Masques of Nyarlathotep.

Other RPG Purchases

Golden Heroes - Queen Victoria & The Holy Grail 

This scenario completes my collection and it is rumoured to be the best scenario for the Game.  I have a lot of of love for this IP free supers game (check out my Time Travelling WWII superheroess plot line Project Daedalus) and whilst it rarely gets to make it to the table hopefully I can mine this supplement for inspiration.

Judge Dredd Block War 

Another purchase which feeds my Judge Dredd addiction.  I have been gettting a few requests to run a game of Dredd and I would love to integrate this into a game.  Replicating the anarchy of a Block War is something I have struggled to implement in my games so I am hoping that this is a nice quick game which can be easily brought to the table for a group of 4/5 Judges to play collaboratively as perps for a change.

As I am writing this I am thinking that having a Block War as a decision node in a game is a really cool idea.  Imagine having a plot where the outcome of a Block War determines the rest of the plot.  Now that could be quite cool.  I will have to put more energy into exploring that... 

Mothership Deluxe Box 

I don't actually have this in my hands yet, but I put down the funds on a pre-order from Zatu.  I saw shiny new copies at Dragonmeet so hopefully this will not be too long of a wait.  I played it at the club once and was really impressed with how well it played and it fits my criteria of rules lite no prep roleplay.

Cliche avoidance... or 4 ways I've put a party together through enforced captivity.

I know I've been guilty of using the "Bar Brawl" or the "Adventurer's Noticeboard" cliche's every once in a while but here are a few of the other ways I've brought a party of PCs together:

"It's a lovely summers day and the grass is even tastier than it was yesterday."

This was the opening line in a Justifiers RPG scenario where the PCs were all beta-humanoid sheep. They had been on a mission, to investigate the dissappearance of a fellow Justifier team, which had gone horribly wrong and they began the adventure in a pasture having been subjected to a neural wipe without any memory of themselves, their past or their species. Over a couple of sessions they gradually discovered their identities and skills as the neural wipe wore off.

"The guy in the unseasonal outfit seems to have wires running from his sleeve to something in his hand..."

In this Squadron UK scenario (see Project Daedalus postings) the PCs are the only survivors of a terrorist dirty bomb in Trafalgar Square.  The bomb awakens their latent superpowers (the genetic legacy of their grandparents) and during their recuperation in a secret government facility they get to know one another and explore their new found powers.

"You notice that the ship's motley crew are carrying short lengths of chain with manacles at each end.  Something tells you that you should start running..."

I started one of my The Lands of Dual fantasy campaigns by collecting together each of the players from their respective homelands with a slave pirate ship.  It's amazing how quickly a party bond with each other when they're chained together rowing for 18 hours a day!!

"You best be getting up to the Castle before the Siege starts..."

In this campaign opener the PCs were press ganged into becoming siege defenders by the Baron of a coastal town.  The PCs were unaware that the Baron was being controlled by the forces of darkness and that the King's forces, massing on the hills outside of town, were being led by a particularly devout Warrior Priest with strict instructions to erase the castle and it's inhabitants from history.

Project Daedalus: Pt 4 - The return of "D Platoon"

Once the PCs have managed to locate the Nazi research facility they mount an infiltration attempt.  Inside they discover a large hanger equipped with two UFO's, an airstrip, factory complex, drawing office, barracks and a prison.  Inside the prison are the remaining members of "D Platoon".

The PCs must gather as much evidence of the Nazi UFO Research and return to their own time.  The question the PCs must answer is do they attempt to release their own grandparents from the clutches of the evil Nazis and in doing so change their own futures?...

Project Daedalus: Pt 3 - Behind Enemy Lines

Two days later the PC's are briefed about a new mission.  The body of the German has been examined and it is in fact that of David Williams (code name D4) of the original "D Platoon", disguised as an SS guard.  In his jacket pocket was a scrap of paper with a grid reference scrawled on it  which corresponds to a location in the Bavarian Mountains North of ingolstatt.  During 1944 this was a suspected Nazi research facility.

The Nazi UFO is also being examined, early indications suggest that it is equipped with a primitive antigravity engine which the scientists predict would have had a strange effect on space time.

The PCs embark on a short helicopter ride to a rusting metal structure in the sea off the coast of England.  Inside are obvious scenes of repair and a clean up operation cables are strewn everywhere and the atmosphere is charged with electricity.

For more info: check out Maunsell Army Sea Forts at www.ecastles.co.uk

The head scientist is a chap called professor Jennings he explains that this site is a relic from the British attempts to recreate the American Philadelphia Experiment, inadvertently greating some sort of temporal vortex.  The scientists are confident that they can send the PCs back to the right time but they are having difficult focusing the other end of the temporal vortex.

The entry point for the vortex is below the main gantry of the central tower the PCs dropping through into it.  They black-out as soon as  they jump into the vortex, when they come to they are falling through the roof of a barn into a haystack.

The barn is approximately 1 mile from the site of the Nazi research facility in the foothills of the Bavarian mountains.

Project Daedalus Part 4 - The return of D Platoon

Project Daedalus: Pt 2 - UFO from the Past

A UFO has been spotted entering UK airspace and has crashed into the sea off the South coast and the PCs are mobilised to investigate.  The craft is submerged in a few feet of water, our heroes are required to don Scuba gear to swim to the craft. 

In the murky and silty waters they locate a disc shaped craft carrying WWII markings.  Once inside they discover the body of a German soldier (not a pilot) slumped over the controls of the craft, he is dead, his body is riddled with bullet holes and his fresh blood covers the instruments and controls.  In his jacket pocket is a scrap of paper with a grid reference scrawled on it.  When the PCs report back a salvage operation is launched and the craft recovered for further investigation.

Project Daedalus Part 3 - Behind Enemy Lines

This scenario was inspired by Kaptain Kobold's HOTT Nazi UFO Christmas Cracker Gift (Thanks Alan)

Project Daedalus: Pt 1 - Beginnings

Before the outbreak of WW2 both Axis and Ally powers were involved in a scientific arms race to produce super-soldiers.  The most famous of these being Captain America.  The British attempt, code name "Project Daedalus" produced 5 superheroes members of the elite unit "D Platoon" who were lost in 1944 whilst carrying out a covert operation behind enemy lines.

D1 - Frank Jacobs (psychic), D2 - Michael Green (pyro-kinetic), D3 - Peter Rogers (strength), D4 - David Williams (energy blast), D5 - Steven Collins (flight). 

Unbeknownst to the British Government, their genetic secret lies dormant in the DNA of their illegitimate grandchildren, the PCs.

The PCs powers are awakened when they are irradiated by a dirty bomb set off by a terrorist in an attack on a famous London landmark.  They are the only survivors of the incident and are immediately isolated in a government facility whilst their powers slowly emerge...

Project Daedalus Part 2 - UFO from the Past