Sorry, I let this go so long. It's been a rough couple of weeks between changes at home and changes in my pubescent daugther.
Anywho, to sum up:
We had several rounds of combat. Doc Tangent hurled a guard into the abyss using telekinesis. Singapore Sam discovered that his long-lost brother was a Planet X guard under the thrall of Princess Allura's secret captor - Marduk the Merciless! Marduk played his hand when Damian teleported to his beloved's side to plead for leniency. Mac Mercury's adventures were best summed up in JC Cohen's excellent summation on Story-games.com.
The threats just kept coming when it was established that there were bombs hidden around the perimeter of the palace. At one point, Singapore Sam had a disaster and the player said to me: "Oh no! What next? Air sharks?" To which I replied, "There are now!" With Planet X guards still attacking, the air sharks caused havoc. Doc Tangent, showing the kind of thinking that made him a Doc, used his psychic powers to convince the sharks to attack the guards.
In one impassioned scene, Singapore Sam decided his imminent destruction would be the catalyst to break the mesmeric hold that Marduk had on Taiwan Tony. While Tony struggled physically with the air shark, he struggled mentally with Marduk control. When the player rolled a disaster, the scene played out like this:
Tony struggles desperately with the air shark, prying its hungry maw from snapping his favorite cranium in half. BUT! There is a moment where we can see the hypnotic control of Marduk fail. Tony's eyes clear. He looks at his brother and says: "Sam?" *CHOMP!* The air shark takes of Tony's head in one bite.
At this moment, ALL of the players screamed, "OH NO!" And we burst into laughter. Anthony, the player running Sam, looked at me and said, "That must be worst scene I've ever experienced in all my years of gaming!"
I felt my job was done.
We continued to play and in the Alpha, the situation has an almost infinite possibility to escalate. So, following the old "Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get" school of thought, I had the final threat happen on board the ship as they tried to escape from Planet X. The Action scene took 3 hours, but we still had fun. I decided then to be more judicious with my threats.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
My job here is done? A view of Danger Patrol: Planet X Blues.
I was told by a player during this game that I had created the worst scene he had ever experienced in all his years of gaming. I felt pretty good about that.
I got a copy of the Beta for Danger Patrol from John Harper before we began this game, but my printer had died a while ago and I haven't picked up a new one yet. Plus, it was only a couple of hours from game time, so I doubted I could get members of the group to print the Beta up before we sat down to the table. Instead, we ran a modified Alpha version with some Beta rules thrown in for flavor and expediency.
PLANET X BLUES
I've tried to explain to people this should be read: Planet 10 Blues. I like the name Planet 10 better and I like to represent it with the Roman numeral. It gives it more of a Commando Cody feel.
The Players
Doc Tanget (Liz) - Psychic Professor with a sorted past, a dark secret, and a laid back attitude until the chips are down.
Singapore Sam (Anthony) - Two-Fisted Warrior of the New Shaolin Techniques. A down-on-his-luck fighter until Danger Patrol enlisted him. Will his past catch up to him?
Mac Mercury (JC) - Atomic Flyboy and one of the last surviving cyborgs to escape the Atomic Wars. Legend has it that he dropped the bomb that ended the world.
Damian Dagger (Storn) - Mystic Detective whose burn notice from the Cosmic Intelligence Agency left him with little but his wits, his otherworldy contacts, and his sordid affairs.
-Things we learned in introductions -
Doc Tangent was a bomb maker on old Earth. No one is sure what he was doing just before being hired by DP, but is older than he looks.
Singapore Sam had an affair that made him fall out of favor with his Sifu. He became a marked man.
Mac Mercury was the pilot of the Enola Ray and actually did drop the bomb that ended the World. DP hired him so he wouldn't be killed by angry citizens.
Damian Dagger refused to let his superiors at the CIA enslave a trans-dimensional race and was burned because of it.
The Teaser
A shadowy figure stands in the shadows of a hallway uttering the words: "... have been found to have committed high treason to our planet and to our crown..." the camera moves down the hallway to a balcony on which Princess Allura is addressing a crowd of Planet X citizens. She finishes the sentence the shadowy figure began: "...and so we have no choice but to render the judgment of DEATH upon The Danger Patrol!" Camera swings out to show our heros standing on malachite platforms over an abyss being menaced by Planet X guardsmen with electro-tridents.
Previously on...
Doc Tangent was working his way through the jungles of Planet X, searching ancient clues to what he considered to be a doomsday device.
Singapore Sam had come to Planet X looking for his long-lost brother Taiwan Tony.
Mac Mercury was threatening Princess Allura by stating: "I've blown up one world already, Princess. I'm not afraid to stop there!"
And Damian Dagger was showing that he spoke the interplanetary language with Planet X's ruler as they kissed passionately.
-Stuff I do to make things go smoothly for me -
I go clockwise around the table
I try to keep people from other thinking the situation
I invited others to chime in whenever, but limited the number of dice this generated.
More on this soon!
I got a copy of the Beta for Danger Patrol from John Harper before we began this game, but my printer had died a while ago and I haven't picked up a new one yet. Plus, it was only a couple of hours from game time, so I doubted I could get members of the group to print the Beta up before we sat down to the table. Instead, we ran a modified Alpha version with some Beta rules thrown in for flavor and expediency.
PLANET X BLUES
I've tried to explain to people this should be read: Planet 10 Blues. I like the name Planet 10 better and I like to represent it with the Roman numeral. It gives it more of a Commando Cody feel.
The Players
Doc Tanget (Liz) - Psychic Professor with a sorted past, a dark secret, and a laid back attitude until the chips are down.
Singapore Sam (Anthony) - Two-Fisted Warrior of the New Shaolin Techniques. A down-on-his-luck fighter until Danger Patrol enlisted him. Will his past catch up to him?
Mac Mercury (JC) - Atomic Flyboy and one of the last surviving cyborgs to escape the Atomic Wars. Legend has it that he dropped the bomb that ended the world.
Damian Dagger (Storn) - Mystic Detective whose burn notice from the Cosmic Intelligence Agency left him with little but his wits, his otherworldy contacts, and his sordid affairs.
-Things we learned in introductions -
Doc Tangent was a bomb maker on old Earth. No one is sure what he was doing just before being hired by DP, but is older than he looks.
Singapore Sam had an affair that made him fall out of favor with his Sifu. He became a marked man.
Mac Mercury was the pilot of the Enola Ray and actually did drop the bomb that ended the World. DP hired him so he wouldn't be killed by angry citizens.
Damian Dagger refused to let his superiors at the CIA enslave a trans-dimensional race and was burned because of it.
The Teaser
A shadowy figure stands in the shadows of a hallway uttering the words: "... have been found to have committed high treason to our planet and to our crown..." the camera moves down the hallway to a balcony on which Princess Allura is addressing a crowd of Planet X citizens. She finishes the sentence the shadowy figure began: "...and so we have no choice but to render the judgment of DEATH upon The Danger Patrol!" Camera swings out to show our heros standing on malachite platforms over an abyss being menaced by Planet X guardsmen with electro-tridents.
Previously on...
Doc Tangent was working his way through the jungles of Planet X, searching ancient clues to what he considered to be a doomsday device.
Singapore Sam had come to Planet X looking for his long-lost brother Taiwan Tony.
Mac Mercury was threatening Princess Allura by stating: "I've blown up one world already, Princess. I'm not afraid to stop there!"
And Damian Dagger was showing that he spoke the interplanetary language with Planet X's ruler as they kissed passionately.
-Stuff I do to make things go smoothly for me -
I go clockwise around the table
I try to keep people from other thinking the situation
I invited others to chime in whenever, but limited the number of dice this generated.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Captain Manning, Part Deux - The Follow-Up
To pick up from last time: Stunts are these nifty things that you create to make your character more bad-ass. Enough sides, on to the main course!
When the group and I sat down to create characters, one of the options on the table was to play a clone. I really liked this idea. When someone says you're a 1 in a million guy, they don't realize that there are 20 at home just like you! There were a lot of reasons why I wanted to play this character, but the primary of which was to play a fish out of water. Clone culture is not human culture. It's close in a lot of respects, but it isn't the same. Kind of like Fox News: it's really close to journalism, but it isn't journalism.
As we went through the development stages of our characters, one stage is to create a story that links you to someone else at the table. Storn and I linked up by having his character free the clone slaves on a ship that was burning up in space. My character, having been trained as a pilot, had "saved the day" thanks to quick thinking on both of our characters' parts. Thus began a bit of fun with my freedman, Carter, enjoying his freedom and going so far as to have a slipship (thanks to one of my stunts). I named it The Libertine to which Anton (Storn's alter ego) stated he approved. I really liked that we both got something out of this exchange - Anton became a firm believer in abolition; Carter became enamored of freedom and wants to share it. Anton took the name to mean a pleasure-seeker; whereas, Carter took the more traditional meaning of being a freed slave.
In our first game, we encountered a family (who is also a business interest) from the poor side of the cluster. They were transporting clone slaves. We managed to get them to free them in exchange for contract negotiation in good faith. Then, they had the temerity to pick up another batch on the way to their home system. Anton used his gambling prowess to free that lot. And Carter managed to convince the family to abandon slaves and turn to robots instead. Yay, social combat! Woot!
So, little by little, my fish out of water is becoming a faltering and stammering liberator. I guess I just want to make my ship proud.
All for now.
When the group and I sat down to create characters, one of the options on the table was to play a clone. I really liked this idea. When someone says you're a 1 in a million guy, they don't realize that there are 20 at home just like you! There were a lot of reasons why I wanted to play this character, but the primary of which was to play a fish out of water. Clone culture is not human culture. It's close in a lot of respects, but it isn't the same. Kind of like Fox News: it's really close to journalism, but it isn't journalism.
As we went through the development stages of our characters, one stage is to create a story that links you to someone else at the table. Storn and I linked up by having his character free the clone slaves on a ship that was burning up in space. My character, having been trained as a pilot, had "saved the day" thanks to quick thinking on both of our characters' parts. Thus began a bit of fun with my freedman, Carter, enjoying his freedom and going so far as to have a slipship (thanks to one of my stunts). I named it The Libertine to which Anton (Storn's alter ego) stated he approved. I really liked that we both got something out of this exchange - Anton became a firm believer in abolition; Carter became enamored of freedom and wants to share it. Anton took the name to mean a pleasure-seeker; whereas, Carter took the more traditional meaning of being a freed slave.
In our first game, we encountered a family (who is also a business interest) from the poor side of the cluster. They were transporting clone slaves. We managed to get them to free them in exchange for contract negotiation in good faith. Then, they had the temerity to pick up another batch on the way to their home system. Anton used his gambling prowess to free that lot. And Carter managed to convince the family to abandon slaves and turn to robots instead. Yay, social combat! Woot!
So, little by little, my fish out of water is becoming a faltering and stammering liberator. I guess I just want to make my ship proud.
All for now.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Captain Manning - The Unintentional Liberator
So, we played "Diaspora" last night. This is a sci-fi game set in the far future based on the FATE system (for more specifics look here). I enjoy playing the FATE system: possibly my favorite bits of this game are the Aspects and the Stunts. Aspects are these fun bits that are based upon your character and are generated during character creation.
These are kind of hard for me to explain, so let me give a brief example. My character started life as a clone. So, my aspects from that part of my character creation are: Fast to Act (Clones are tweaked to be a little faster on the rxn time than norms) and One of Many (clones come out in batches of 40 with only a letter and number identifier). I chose these aspects because you can tap them later during conflicts.
So, to extend the example: Carter is on the bridge with a possible enemy agent. She goes for laser pistol; I go for mine. GM and I roll the FATE dice. She beats me by 2. I can spend a FATE point and tap my aspect (Fast to Act) for 2 and now we are even - she no longer has the drop on me. From there we can move into Personal Combat.
OR
A Family who is also Business on the Belt of Aegeus wants to use me to influence my bosses. We go into Social Combat. In order to put a halt to the Family's influence, I can tap "One of Many" to add to my die roll and stay where my interests lie.
More on Stunts in a bit.
These are kind of hard for me to explain, so let me give a brief example. My character started life as a clone. So, my aspects from that part of my character creation are: Fast to Act (Clones are tweaked to be a little faster on the rxn time than norms) and One of Many (clones come out in batches of 40 with only a letter and number identifier). I chose these aspects because you can tap them later during conflicts.
So, to extend the example: Carter is on the bridge with a possible enemy agent. She goes for laser pistol; I go for mine. GM and I roll the FATE dice. She beats me by 2. I can spend a FATE point and tap my aspect (Fast to Act) for 2 and now we are even - she no longer has the drop on me. From there we can move into Personal Combat.
OR
A Family who is also Business on the Belt of Aegeus wants to use me to influence my bosses. We go into Social Combat. In order to put a halt to the Family's influence, I can tap "One of Many" to add to my die roll and stay where my interests lie.
More on Stunts in a bit.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The challenge of Nine Worlds in One City.
"It is called: 'Midgard.' It is a city that was built in the early times. A refuge that the Vanir created. First, they built the Citadel spanning nine levels and created a mighty oak motiff on the outside. The Citadel touches all the districts of the City. And we came here - to this place of refuge, the city of endless roads and tricky gates - we came here to escape that which befell all others. Is this our true home? No. But it is home enough for all of us."
-Skald Asgrimir "The Song of Freya and Od"
So, it was a challenge. I'd been reading a fair amount of Viking lore, part of it brought about by the reboot of "the Mighty Thor" by Marvel Comics. I'd wanted to try my hand at running Burning Wheel. My friend Aaron had patiently dealt with my cancellations on Sundays. Then, the death blow fell: I had to close on Sundays.
The solution was to meet on Tuesdays. We met to organize. We had followed Judd's MoBu City template and discussed what Aaron wanted out of a city adventure. He wanted Epic. He wanted Big. I was completely on-board because I knew that a Norse setting would have those elements. This is a mythology where good guys fuck with Giants and Dragons using magic swords forged by the mighty Wayland. This is a belief system where when you turned the next corner, Odin (in disguise) could be resting by the roadside.
We spoke about it at length and created Midgard: The City of Nine Worlds. We talked about the lios alfar and the svart alfar. We talked about the Aesir and the Vanir and their influence in the City. We created the City Council and the Ninth Seat which is actually a Cauldron.
It was wonderful!
I can't wait for the actual game!
-Skald Asgrimir "The Song of Freya and Od"
So, it was a challenge. I'd been reading a fair amount of Viking lore, part of it brought about by the reboot of "the Mighty Thor" by Marvel Comics. I'd wanted to try my hand at running Burning Wheel. My friend Aaron had patiently dealt with my cancellations on Sundays. Then, the death blow fell: I had to close on Sundays.
The solution was to meet on Tuesdays. We met to organize. We had followed Judd's MoBu City template and discussed what Aaron wanted out of a city adventure. He wanted Epic. He wanted Big. I was completely on-board because I knew that a Norse setting would have those elements. This is a mythology where good guys fuck with Giants and Dragons using magic swords forged by the mighty Wayland. This is a belief system where when you turned the next corner, Odin (in disguise) could be resting by the roadside.
We spoke about it at length and created Midgard: The City of Nine Worlds. We talked about the lios alfar and the svart alfar. We talked about the Aesir and the Vanir and their influence in the City. We created the City Council and the Ninth Seat which is actually a Cauldron.
It was wonderful!
I can't wait for the actual game!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Exploding halflings?
So, my long lost brother, Chris runs a 3.5E D&D game. He had in a mind a fun little horror type dealio wherein a whacky religious sect of the Mind Flayers (aka The Throon) were invading this little backwater of a planet.
The Throon have this passion for fucking with Nature. One of their techniques is to invade your favorite brain case with a parasite who can juice your body far beyond it's natural limits. The downside to this amping up is that your body explodes from "too much energy."
One of the possessed beings that his PCs ran into was a halfling who went totally apeshit on the party and then blew up. Only one party member witnessed the kaboom. Later, another possessed (this one a dwarf) started to get that exploding feeling (picture that guy, Thunder, from Big Trouble in Little China) and runs away pursued by the aforementioned party member. She watches the dwarf explode and seems non-plussed by this chain of events.
Chris asked why it was that she hadn't reported this happening before, to which she replied: "I don't know. I figured it was exploding halfling syndrome or something!"
Thanks to her, I have a name for my blog. Bless you, Alicia!
Spontaneous Halfling Combustion
Life is a game. We all want to do well at it. Sometimes we have trouble with the rules. Sometimes we've been hacked. Sometimes we just need to laugh and then get really fucking cut-throat. Whatever!
This blog is dedicated to the funny, creative, and often intense world of the imagination that I like to call Tabletop Gaming.
I'm attempting to update this badboy at least once a week to cover what is going on in my infamous quote: "I am a nation of one in a castle of one with a population of one and my domain is limited only by my imagination!"
So, read on MacDuff and damned be he who first cry: "Hold! Enough!"
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