Character Creation: Our Haunt

Love is kinda crazy with with a spooky little boy/girl like you...

The Game: Our Haunt
The Publisher: Possum Creek Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Our Haunt is a GM-less game where everyone plays ghosts, but it has this surreal and...I don't know, cozy? atmosphere to it. Things can get scary, but the game is really about living (so to speak) in a house with found family. 

I've been thinking lately about the OGL debacle, and, more specifically, how I keep seeing people posting on reddit and so on asking for game recommendations for something other than D&D. Setting aside that that's really not a useful criteria (it's like asking for a drink that isn't milk), you get takes like this:

Setting aside that I haven't actually seen people recommending more the esoteric games when folks say they're stepping out of D&D (mostly, in absence of other limiting factors, people recommend stuff like SWADE or Fate), it puts me in mind of the old adage that anyone kinkier than you is crazy and anyone less kinky than you is vanilla. Put another way, any game can be FishBlade to someone. To someone who only ever plays D&D, I'm sure a game like Chill, with its "tokens" and its emphasis on genre conventions and so on, might feel pretty fishy-bladey. To someone with more experience with not-D&D but very little with storygames, perhaps a game like Our Haunt would invoke the FishBlade comparison, seeing as how it's GM-less and diceless. 

What does all this mean? Not a lot. I've been reading Our Haunt and imagining how it might go at my table, and I think it'd work pretty well, actually. Though I suspect several of my players might fight over who gets to play the Cat.

First thing we do in making a ghosty-ghost is to pick a playbook. 

I have to say, I do like the playbooks here. When you're breaking down ghosts into categories it's very tempting to go by means of death or regret or legends of ghosts, and Our Haunt goes into some more original territory while still leaving room for classic takes. I think I shall pick the Faceless. There's something tragic and compelling about a ghost that doesn't have much of itself left; kinda makes the bits that do remain more precious and vivid. And, in my lower moments, I often think of myself as being fairly hollow, so it might be cathartic to play. 

I'm picturing my ghost as faceless, body-less, just an old, comfy button-down shirt that floats around. Cuffs are frayed, most of the buttons are gone, this thing has been worn and loved for years. 

First thing I do is choose a name. One of the ideas on the list is "A name of an object I found," and so I think I use the name of the label in the shirt - Carhart. 

Next we choose a look, or rather, 2-3 options off a list. Well, being just a shirt is "something else that shows how little of me remains," I think, though I also like "dark footprints and handprints left on the wall." No visible part of my human form anymore. 

What I remember - I need to choose two. Ooh, "smiling for the camera" jumps right out at me. I like "the sound of breaking glass," too. I have the thought that this person died suddenly and never quite learned how they died, but the sound of breaking glass might indicate something swift and/or violent. 

What I yearn for - just pick one. Oof, these are hardcore. I think that my ghost wants "to become someone again," but he'd never admit that. If asked, he's more likely to claim he wants to find his rest and cease to be, but the truth of the matter is that he wants to be included and seen. 

Bonds! I choose two. Ooh, "A Living Tarot reader who comforts me with the cards." I love Tarot, and I think it'd be fun to have a Living person that doesn't really know I'm there, but talks to me anyway (and probably assumes I'm not a ghost but some kind of ethereal being - she's in for a bit of a disappointment). Her name is Sammi. 

And then I'll also take "a mysterious person that speaks to me through a book that writes itself." I think the tone of the relationship is...not antagonistic, but not friendly, necessarily. Maybe more like the relationship between the Ancient Reptilian Brain and Harry Du Bois in Disco Elysium (speaking of games that evoke the FishBlade comparison). Carhart just calls it "the book," and doesn't know really if there's a person behind the words that appear or if the book is sentient or if it's a memory or Lord Voldemort or what. It's just nice to have someone to talk to. 

Relationships I'll skip because it's just me. 

Now, that's it for the ghost, but part of chargen is to pick a Room. Hmm. Any of them would work, but I kind of want something pretty mundane on the face of it, so I'll take the Parlor. I'm thinking of a living room, with a big picture window that can be used to see out to the yard and the street. I'm picturing too that the Parlor isn't usually entirely visible, but only starts to take form when you pay attention to it. Otherwise, it's just dark and shadowy corners, but it's there if you look. 

I pick two or three aesthetics here. I'll take "an old board game that plays itself again and again." If you take a piece off the board, the game gets annoyed with you, and apparently other entities in the house owe it favors because the house gets hostile until you give the piece back. It's not interested in playing with other people, thanks.

I'll take "a tarot deck containing a swarm of mismatched souls." That sounds sinister, so I think it's less human souls and more just that the Arcana on the cards might jump off the cards and interact. Strength chases her lion, the Emperor and the Empress are constantly bickering, and the Fool is always about to fall off something. 

I get to pick one or two unsolvable problems. I like "the ghost made of fear and spite that hides under the carpet and whispers terrible things." Up to now it's been pretty fantastical, but there's a real sense of loss and menace here, whether anyone wants to admit it. 

And that's it, actually. I think Carhart likes the parlor because there's only as much of the room there as there needs to be, and he relates to that. Also Sammi comes here to read the cards (she brings her own deck but sometimes her cards get mixed up with the living ones), and Carhart feels like he needs to shut the ghost in the carpet up when she does. 

Slipstream: Defeat on Dracos!

Exciting developments in pulp adventure! Here's last time.

Our heroes return to where they park their ship and find it gone. They haven't received any transmission from their crew, so something is wrong. Zeenia activates the ship's teleportation disc. It can't transport them to the ship, but she can at least use it to find the ship. They get on the rocket sled and zip off towards the coordinates, and Iris radios Genko to tell him what's happening. It is a decision she will live to regret. 

The heroes follow the ping out of the city and into the jungle. They spot a huge, ruined stone structure, covered in moss. Their ship is parked outside, and a contingent of Drascos, some 20 strong, are patrolling. In addition, they see a group of armed toughs, probably bounty hunters. Some are Dracos, but a couple are Raptor Men and one is a Pyrite (an alien made of living rock). They see their crew trapped under transparent forcefields. 

Zeenia turns invisible and surveys the scene, and then realizes that the trees are soft and spongy. She can probably ram her rocket sled right through them! She heads back to the sled, while Iris takes to the sky to get a good vantage point. Abbas tries to climb a tree, but the bark is, as mentioned, spongy, and he falls, landing near a Drascos guard. The guard shrieks a warning. Abbas pounces and punches the Drascos out, but the damage is done. 

The heroes have faced worse odds, of course, but then things get really bad. Genko zips up on a rocket scooter and Zeenia un-cloaks and calls to him. She tells him what's happening and has him get on her sled...and then she blacks out. 

A Dracos bounty hunter cocks an ear (?) and listens to a radio transmission, and then yells to the trees: "Iris Blue, daughter of Orchid Blue of the Daikini Valkyrie!" ("That's my line," growls Iris.) "Abbas of the Lion Men! Surrender or face a foe you can't hope to beat!"

And at this point, Genko emerges from the tree, with Zeenia, under his control. The heroes black out as well...

...and come to under one of the forcefield domes. Their gear has been stripped from them. They're wearing their spacesuits, but they spot Zeenia's "danger bling" on one of the bounty hunters. Another is carrying Abbas' big ol' rifle. Iris' glittery armored shirt is nowhere to be seen. The bounty hunters are gathered near the ship, talking, while the Drascos are rushing around attending to some unknown task. The heroes spot a rope-and-pulley system in front of the ruin, but no sense of what it's there for.

Genko is talking to the lead bounty hunter: "I'm not leaving Dracos again. This is my home! The only place I am safe!" 

The leader responds, "Fine, Genko. Just don't expect us to come back to give you a bigger cut of the reward." One of the Dracos yells something at him, calling him "Haresh", and he yells back "Hurry up and use the thing! We're not going to wait around for you!"

The heroes aren't sure what "the thing" they're referring to is. They don't see a controlling back for the forcefields, and no way out of this. Zeenia comes up with an ingenious plan, though. She strips off her suit, and begins to burrow into the moist, soft earth like a worm. She has to cope with being out of her suit and therefore not having her own atmo to breathe, but she's tough. Iris spreads her wings to block off Zeenia's escape, and the heroes wait.

Zeenia tunnels through the earth and comes up on the side of the ruin. She finds a crack in the stone and squelches through, and starts searching around for a way to turn off the forcefields. Outside, one of the guards notices that Zeenia isn't there anymore and informs the bounty hunters.

Haresh walks over and tells Iris and Abbas that they can either tell him where "the jellyfish" has gone, or he can have Genko mind-control them again. Iris keeps him talking, calling him out for being a coward, and he gently reminds her that bounty hunters generally avoid fighting if they can - it's not good for the payoff. 

Abbas says that if all they're interested in is money, maybe they can come to an arrangement? Haresh says that it's unlike to that they can come up with the money to cover the bounties, the money they'll get from selling their ship, and the money they'll get from selling off their gear ("I ain't selling this!" yells the one carrying Abbas' gun). At this point, some Drascos unload the sonic lance and put it on the pulley. They raise it up to the top of the ruin, and Iris wonders if they're trying to open it or drill past a locked door...

About now, Zeenia finds the wires that control the forcefields and yanks them out. The forcefields fall, stunning the crew momentarily but allowing the heroes to leap to battle!

Abbas wastes no time. He rushes Genko, smacking the slave controller from his head and slashing his face. Iris swoops in and catches it, and smashes it against a tree. Genko shrieks in rage, and the rest of the bounty hunters attack. Zeenia emerges from the ruin and slinks over to get her suit back, but doing so makes her visible. The Drascos shoot at her, and Haresh screams that they need the prisoners alive. He fires a small pistol at her, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

The crew, meanwhile, shakes off the cobwebs and leaps to action! Craw punches a Dracos guard and grabs his gun, and the others follow suit. Without their gear, though, they can't quite manage to overpower the armed and armored Drascos, and the heroes are, of course, highly outnumbered. 

A group of Drascos shoots Zeenia again, and one of them fells her with a well-placed blast. Iris swoops toward Haresh in anger, and he fires his weird little pistol at her. This time it works, and she crashes into Zeenia's inert body, unconscious. 

Abbas, facing off against two bounty hunters, seeing the crew losing their fight, and still armed only with his claws, knows he can't win this fight. He also knows, however, that he'll never get another chance Genko, and Genko probably tricked them into believing Anburn had betrayed him. He tears Genko's throat out, throws it to the ground, and raises his hands.

"Fair enough," says Haresh, and fires his stunner. Abbas passes out with blood on his claws. 

Next time, we'll see where our heroes end up!

Cairn: The (Band)Leader of the Army Below

Music! Dancing! Spiders! Rocks! All of the exciting action of Cairn! Here's last time. 

The Knights have made camp near the fountain that apparently dispenses dandelion wine, near a mysterious otherworldly opening to a Titan ruin. They realize that while they did try to activate the weird stone handprints around the fountain, they didn't bleed whilst doing so, and the bloodstain on the bat-print indicates maybe they should. Russelet Leatherwind slices his paw and does so, and the pit opens. The Knights can see into the ruin, and they are horrified.

They see dozens - maybe more - of Awakened hanging from the ceiling, wrapped in spider silk. Terrifying spidery creatures scuttle around the walls and floor, and Rumdiggle Sunsong feels something watching them hungrily. She relays this, and Russelet fires a burning arrow into the dark. He illuminates the cavern a bit, and it does seem like the shadow-spider creatures shy away from the light. 

The Knights ponder their options here. Ratatosk Longberry notes that he could make some alchemical powder that would repel Dire and Unnatural creatures, but he doesn't have enough to protect everyone. Maybe enough to put a ring around the pit, to keep anything from getting out? Snootabur Shadowbough fires a couple of burning arrows into the pit, creating a ring of light, and the Knights figure maybe they could lower themselves down there safely. For that, they'll need some supplies. Rummy and Ratatosk ride Oof, the daggertusk, back to town to gather stuff, while Snoot and Russ watch the pit.

Snoot spots someone watching them from a distance, and calls out. The watch turns out to be Bluecap, a druid that the Knights met on their first trip out this way. Bluecap, a meerkat, greets them warmly, but tells them that Redscale (the head druid) is worried about what's happening out here. They explain what's been happening and Bluecap relates what he remembers about the legend of the Ruin and the Army Below. To wit, that if someone takes on the mantle of leader, they give the Army form and can command them. He knows the fountain is important, too, but doesn't remember why (this is all very much in the realm of mythology, he explains, no one ever really knew that this was real). 

The others return, and they talk through their plans. In the end, they decide to try and learn a little more before descending into the dark. Bluecap will take Ratatosk and Rumdiggle, on Oof, back to Rock Circle and talk with Redscale. Russelet and Snootabur, being stealthy, will enter the Dead Forest and find the lair of the Spider-Queen. 

The first group arrives in Rock Circle just before sunrise. Oof gratefully laps up the water the druids give him, and Redscale greets Ratatosk and Rummy warmly. Ratatosk explains what's happening in his inimitable style, and Redscale tells him that the legend that Bluecap had related is more or less accurate. The Rock Circle druids are happy to help in whatever capacity they can, of course.

Meanwhile, Snoot and Russ track the Spider-Queen's children through the Dead Forest and arrive in a clearing completely covered with webs. There's a boulder in the clearing as well as some dead trees. Snoot clears some of the webs away from it, and they both consider that if trees have spirits (which they do), maybe rocks do too? Snootabur gets right up close to the rock and start cleaning it, and the rock grows a face, and then somehow pushes her back. She picks herself up and starts a conversation. The rock-spirit introduces itself as Oomatai, and is grumpy and bitter. It says that the Spider-Queen's children live her and run all over the place, but when the New Moon comes the Queen's new children will show them what "fast" really looks like. When Snootabur introduces herself, it rolls her name around for a while ("Snoooooooooooooooo"), and it's still doing that when a bird lands and starts talking to Snoot. 

How? Well, back at Rock Circle, Redscale had asked Rummy if they'd like him to check on the other Knights ("You can do that?"), and then cast a spell letting him send his mind through natural phenomena - animals, plants, water - across the land until he found them. Redscale gets an update from Snoot, and then tells her that gnomes (the spirits of rocks, just like "dryads" are the spirits of trees) are extremely wise. They're slow, however, and they don't make decisions or answer questions quickly. Best thing to do is be patient. 

Snoot remembers what Oomatai said about the new moon, and relays that Redscale. Redscales notes that there are three nights until the new moon, and passes this information along to Ratatosk and Rummy. The Knights aren't sure what all this means, but maybe they have some time before the spider-creatures start eating the townsfolk? They decide that, in the morning, Rummy and Ratatosk will ride for the fountain again (with Bluecap), and the other druids will set out on foot. Their magic will help them make the trip faster, but the Knights will still make much better time riding Oof.

Meanwhile, Russ and Snootabur will continue talking with Oomatai and seeing what he can teach them. Oomatai is difficult. He's grouchy and dislikes the Spider-Queen, yet talks about her children, their speed, and how they eat living creatures (which he refers to "hedgehogs," not quite able to figure out the difference between species). Snootabur continues talking with him about the passage of time, life, death, the cycle of life, and he eventually warms up a little and tells her that the Spider-Queen has become the leader of the Army Below.

The Army Below, he explains, is imprisoned by the Ruin but also by form, or rather the lack thereof. Whoever takes control of the Army can grant it a form and a purpose, and the Spider-Queen has turned the Army into spidery creatures. But they've taken all those "hedgehogs" (that is, the circus-folk and the villagers) prisoners, and on the New Moon they will become the Spider-Queens new children. Hybrids of Awakened and spiders, they will be able to survive in sunlight and will rampage across the land, feeding.

Oomatai isn't so worried about this - all hedgehogs die and become worm food, after all - but Snootabur explains why this is a bad thing. Oomatai falls back into contemplation, and Russ and Snoot head back to the fountain to talk with the others. They rig up a pulley system using nets from the circus, rope, and Oof as muscle, figuring they'll be able to pull people out of the pit. Snoot arrives and tells them what she's learned. They have two more nights. They need to get down there and save people.

Snoot decides to go back and speak with Oomatai more. Rummy cautions her - if they're going into the pit in the morning (about the time the druids should arrive, according to Bluecap) maybe she doesn't want to be out all night? But Snoot feels that she's getting somewhere with Oomatai and doesn't want to leave him. She goes back and finds him silent, and curls up by him to wait for dawn.

In the morning, the druids arrive. Snoot continues her conversation with Oomatai, and the gnome finally reveals that he was jealous of the Spider-Queen and her children, and he wants to be moved away from them. Snoot offers to have his boulder moved to a living forest, somewhere that "hedgehogs" might visit him. First, though, she and the Knights need to destroy the Spider-Queen, depriving the Army of form. Oomatai offers to help, creating a tunnel directly to the Queen. 

Snoot summons the others, and Oomatai emerges from the boulder and punches his way down into the earth. The tunnel emerges at a dais, and the gigantic Spider-Queen waits. She hisses and clicks, leaping to the attack, but the Traveling Knights are ready for her!

Russelet and Snootabur fire arrows at her, while Rumdiggle takes on the aspects of the ripper, the stripefang, and the gnasher and acts as bait, goading the Spider-Queen into attacking. Ratatosk leaps on the Spider-Queen's head and jams a flare into its eyes, the marksmen fire blazing arrows at it. The battle is long and difficult, but the Spider-Queen succumbs to the fire and lays burning.

But it's not over! The Army Below is once more deprived of form, and starts attacking the Awakened prisoners. The Knights run to help, but Snoot realizes that there's no way they're going to beat an army, just the four of them. Rumdiggle has a terrible idea - she strikes a note on her lute, quaffs a luck potion from Ratatosk, and becomes the Leader of the Army Below.

The shadow-creatures take on the forms of baby versions of all of Rummy's friends, and she sits them down for a singalong. The others quickly get the prisoners out, with the help of the druids and the rope-pulley system, and when they're all free Rummy leaves them, knowing that no one has the will to remain the Leader for long without Disharmony dragging them down.

With everyone free, Coleru Waxwing lands and thanks the Knights profusely. He introduces them to Plum, his wife, and Mella and Wish, his daughters. They had been taken by the spiders, he said, and he didn't dare explain the situation directly because he knew that the spiders would harm them if he did. But he left clues, knowing that the Traveling Knights could solve this! Rummy tries to be mad about this, but after all, it worked, so she can't really be upset.

The circus stays in Brandybuck Junction long enough for their injured to heal. Sumna tells the Knights that given this delay, they'll be lucky to get back by Marma's Day, but the Knights don't mind. The folks in Cairn will understand.

Chill: The Mirror Coke'd

So here we are back in Idaho. Current events there have taken on a very Chill-like vibe, and that's fucking horrifying. Let's get back into roleplaying games where the scary things are ghosts.

Our heroes are outside the murder house, and Detective Jackson has just driven away (rather, the ghost of Preston Murr has driven away whilst controlling Jackson's body). Vicki uses Clairvoyance to zero in on his car, and sees him driving up a nearby highway. "Jackson" looks in the rear-view mirror and straight into Vicki's eyes, and tells her to fuck off. He unbuckles his seatbelt and speeds up, and says "If I hit a telephone pole, I'll be fine. This guy won't, and I know you like him. FUCK OFF." Vicki takes the hit and terminates the discipline.

She tells the others what happened, and they all jump into the SUVs and head up Rte 26, since that was where Vicki saw the car. Jax, driving one of the cars, tries to catch up with Jackson's car and runs a red to do it, but gets himself under control before anything bad happens. Vicki calls the others and they talk through where the ghost might be going.

Thinking about where this road goes, the envoys note that it goes downtown - there's any number of possible destinations. Vicki recalls that the Boise police department's HQ is on this road, and since the ghost is possessing a cop, maybe it's going there? They head towards the station and Blake (driving the other car) circles the building, but the envoys don't see Jackson's car. He heads down the road and checks the parking lot of a nearby furniture store, and there's the car, parked in front of a broken window. 

They get up (and call the others over). Willa turns on Eyes of the Dead and peeks in the window. She sees Jackson walking toward the door, but the ghost is still puppeting him. Seeing her, the ghost spits Jackson out and snarls at Willa. She feels her bones start to ache, and the others see her hair go grey. She ages twenty years in a few seconds. Vicki, meanwhile, uses his Clairvoyance discipline to find the mirror. She sees the mirror wrapped in a tarp and leaning between two shelves, apparently in some kind of warehouse. Doesn't take a genius to figure out which one.

Detective Jackson shoulders through the door. He's bleeding from a wound in his arm, which Melanie starts to patch up. Blake, Zoe, Vicki, and Jax head into the furniture showcase room, and Vicki has enough time to see there's an office through a door on one wall before everything goes black. The envoys have been in this situation before, but they still don't have someone with protective disciplines with them, so they're kinda left flailing. Vicki heads toward the door, and Zoe follows, but misjudges the distance and bumps into Vicki and knocks her into the wall ("Dammit, Zoe!"). Willa, able to see the darkness but not see into it (because she's outside the room) calls out to the others to follow her voice back. 

Jax gets the bright idea to use Voice of the Dead to immobilize the ghost, but the ghost overpowers him and possesses him. He answers Willa ("I hear ya, I'm coming!") and heads out through the door, but Willa has Eyes of the Dead on and can see the ghost riding Jax around. She tries the same trick, figuring that she's skilled enough to succeed where he failed, but the same thing happens. Instead of possessing her, though, the ghost turns its aging power on her again. Her hair goes shock white, her hands get gnarled and arthritic, and her vision goes blurry. She vaguely sees Jax pull something out of his jacket pocket, and hears a loud SNOOORRTT sound. 

Meanwhile, in the building, Blake tries to turn on his phone for light. It doesn't work (of course), so he activates his Power Surge discipline to try and overpower the darkness, but that doesn't seem to help either. Zoe and Vicki find the doorknob, but it's locked. They start feeling their way around the room, and Melanie comes in and meets them halfway. 

Jax runs away, and the darkness falls. With the room visible again, Blake is able to come over to the office door and use Skeleton Key to open it. Detective Jackson reveals that Jax took a vial out of his jacket and snorted a whole bunch of coke, and then ran off. 

The envoys quickly react. Blake and Zoe enter the office door and from there into the warehouse. Vicki runs off after Jax, and Melanie helps Willa to follow. Jax comes to in the warehouse. His foot aches (there's a smash-in door behind him that explains why), and his heart is beating like a jackhammer. He's experienced this before; he's sucked down way too much powder and he's going to feel like shit when it wears off.

Vicki, Blake, and Zoe separately search for the mirror, and find it between two shelves in a corner of the warehouse. Vicki takes the tarp off and looks in, and sees Elle looking back. Elle reaches out and her fingers come out of the glass, but stop against the wire mesh that the ghost welded on. Vicki figures that the ghost probably doesn't want the mirror damaged, but she isn't sure if breaking it would hurt Elle.

At this point, everything goes dark again, and silent to boot. Blake and Vicki start moving toward the door, Vicki carrying the mirror, and Jax runs his hands through the outer edge of the dark and finds Vicki. She and Blake emerge, and Vicki asks where the ghost is. Willa, still old and decrepit but able to see ghosts, says that it doesn't seem to be here, but right on cue it bursts out of the dark and flies straight through Vicki. She shudders and falls, and Willa musters up all of the strength she has for an Astral Attack.

She lunges forward and smacks the ghost, not hard enough to do any lasting damage, but it's enough to disrupts its powers and keep it from possessing anyone. Jax takes the opportunity to use Voice of the Dead again to call the ghost into himself, and with the ghost trapped the darkness and silence fade. 

Willa tells the others to take the back off the mirror to get to the glass. Zoe rushes over with her trusty multi-tool, but her hands are shaking too badly to use it effectively. Blake finds some tools in the warehouse and removes the back of the mirror, and they take it out gently. Elle falls out of the mirror and grabs Vicki, sobbing. Willa questions the ghost - "What do you want?"

"Freedom," it replies.

"We could free you," says Willa, but the implication is clear, and not what the ghost wants. "Or we could put you back in the mirror."

"NO" screams the ghost and takes control of Jax, punching Willa right in the face. Melanie touches Jax and uses Disrupt, booting the ghost out of him, and Jax follows his coked-up instinct and smashes the mirror. 

The ghost lunges for Jax, howling, but becomes light and ephemeral just before it touches him. It vanishes into nothing, and the warehouse is quiet.

Vicki quickly cleans up the glass shards and dumps them in the trash. Detective Jackson hurriedly shoos everyone else but Elle and Vicki away, and helps them concoct a story about Vicki finding Elle in the warehouse and breaking in to free her. 

It'll probably take some finagling, but Jackson is able to keep the envoys from legal scrutiny. Zoe, Jax, and Melanie have successfully completed a case! 

Their next one isn't going to be long in coming, however.

Character Creation: Gods & Monsters

No, no one made an RPG out of the 1998 movie about James Whale (but...that movie co-starred Brendan Fraser, who is presently nominated for an Oscar for his performance in....THE WHALE!? Coincidence?). 

The Game: Gods & Monsters
The Publisher: Evil Hat
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular expression of Fate Accelerated
Books Required: I think just the one, actually

So Gods & Monsters is a mythic Fate game in which you're playing the primeval gods of creation (or whatever) and telling tales of morality, history, and so on but hopefully not leaning into your comfort zones so much that you lose control and become a monster. It's...interesting.

I bought the game because the premise made me very happy; I love games that give an inordinate amount of narrative power and agency to players, and being the god of [whatever] is very much up my street (see also Part-Time Gods and Demon: The Fallen). But those are both urban fantasy, and this takes a more Garden-of-Eden vibe to things. The other thing I was reminded of while read it was From Dust, actually.

The book, though, kind of lost me. The writing is a little dry for my taste, and could use a few more examples of the cool, juicy premise along the way. It lost me, but I think it got me back by the end. There's a structure and a progression to the game that I think is well thought-out, and I'd be interested in giving it a spin.

For today, however, let's do like all ancient civilizations and make up a god. My buddy Gus asked me to use this song as inspiration: 

Well, I don't want to make the god of high school bullies. I shall instead make a love god, but he's more the god of courtship, wooing, and seduction than actual love. Easily bored, fickle, not dishonest so much as poetic. That sounds like fun. His name is Avasarah. 

So, Aspects! As usual I need an high concept and a trouble Aspect. For high concept, I shall take God of Courtship, Seduction, and Wooing. Simple enough, and I've learned that while it's tempting to get cute with Aspects, at least the high concept should be easy to understand. For trouble, Avasarah is Easily Bored. 

And here we get into the phase trio. And this is odd - the book seems to think that Gods & Monsters is Fate Core, but it uses approaches like Accelerated. Weird. Anyway, it tell us that the phase trio is just like in Fate Core except for two things: First, these are gods so go big, and second...we're never told what the second thing is.

(I'm being catty, here. I suspect it's that all of the PCs are members of the same pantheon so treat them like family, but the text says "except for two things. First," and then never says "second," and that's a pet peeve for me. Moving on.)

OK, well, let's think about some myths that Avasarah might have been part of. They say that Avasarah's touch is so light that he once removed the blush from a maiden's cheek (that's probably a metaphor), and the sweat from young man's brow, without them noticing. The Lightest Touch sounds like a solid aspect. 

One story about Avasarah goes that he fell in love with the sun, and he wooed the sun from his celestial path with sweet words and caresses. The world went dark until the other gods found the two of them together and basically told them to get dressed and get back to work. The aspect is Tempted the Sun and Brought Darkness. 

Finally, Avasarah can always find The Right Words, whether to arouse passion or bring succor. 

Aspects done, then, moving along to approaches. Like Fate Accelerated, this uses six approaches, and conceptually they're pretty similar, though the names have changed. They're also arranged in three pairs: Bold/Subtle, Clever/Mighty, and Swift/Wise. Same spread as in FAE: one Good, two Fair, two Average, one Mediocre.

Well, I think I want Wise to be Mediocre. Just not Avasarah's thing. I'll put my Good into Bold, but I'll put a Fair into Subtle. I'll put my other Fair into Clever, and that leaves Average in Mighty and Swift. 

That also means that Bold, Clever, and Swift are ascendant, which figures into the whole "gods into monsters" thing in play.

Three refresh and three stunts. The book advises us to avoid stunts that add +2 to a given roll in favor of having the stunts allow godlike manipulation of the world, and I can get on board with that. 

Hmm. I want Avasarah to be basically immune to emotional manipulation. So let's say I have armor:2 against any attack that plays on emotions. 

Avasarah can make someone feel like they are the most important person in the world by paying attention to them. Let's say once per session he can place an Aspect on a lover (Favored of Avasarah or something like that). 

Finally, Avasarah can take away his favor and leave someone devastated. With nothing more than a sad, dismissive glance, he can do a weapon:2 emotional stress attack, provided he has previously shown favor to the target. 

And now we create the divine mantle. For chargen purposes, I have to link each of my ascendant approaches to one of my Aspects. It can be any of the five of them, so let's see. Bold should link to my high concept, I think that's pretty tied in to who Avasarah is. Clever should link to The Right Words, and Swift should link to Tempted the Sun and Brought Darkness. Easy-peasy. 

I start with a boon, too. This is basically a weaker stunt, but it would grow in play as the divine mantle changes. So let's phrase it this way: Because I am the god of wooing and seduction, I get a +1 bonus when I Cleverly Overcome when convincing someone to assist or lie with me. 

And then I get a geasa, which can either be a -1 penalty to do something, or a complete ban on doing something unless there's an Aspect that lets me do it. I'll say that Avasarah cannot raise his voice or his hands in anger unless he has placed an Aspect on the target by speaking gently or passionately to them. 

And that's basically it, actually. I picture Avasarah as a young man with brown skin, golden eyes, and thick, lustrous hair. His eyes have a timeless quality, though, and have a way of making you think that you're just as important as the god of love, because the god of love is watching you. I think Avasarah is mostly a naive kind of god, rather than being actually cruel or heartless, but holy shit, if he became a monster he'd be a terrifying emotional vampire type of thing.

Wicked Ones: Let's You & Them Fight

Once more into the war-torn lands wherein the dark god of cowardice and suffering, Crevice, giggles at his followers..

The wicked ones are embarking on their newest raid. They are trickery the Confraternity of the Three into attacking the Iron Reef, weakening both factions and hopefully taking some heat off of them. They're doing that by scattering some Light-God relics in strategic ways, and as we open, the denizens of the Sepulcher of Suffering have spread across the land doing just that.

Thudd takes some relics close to the Confraternity's camp and stashes them in a hollow, but plants evidence that implicates the Iron Reef. He does that by taking a tunic and doctoring it with dyes and stitching, and it works, but he accidentally lets an imp leave a slimy handprint on it. As he's finishing up at the hollow, he spots two novitiates lugging a cask of sacramental wine, and Thudd is just too fond of the drink not to indulge. He sneaks over, pokes a hole in the cask, and lays down in bliss. 

The novitiates spot him, but just kind of argue about what to do with him - he's an imp, but he's not hurting anyone and he's got an apron. Thudd gets up and tries to blunder off, but they catch him and search him. He says the only word he knows in Light Tongue ("MORE") and points at the cask, and the novitiates don't pursue him further. More fool them. Thudd fills his flask with wine, but realizes quickly that the mixture of sacramental wine and rotgut might have...strange effects.

Fnort, meanwhile, takes some Light Temple relics to Iron Reef, the intention being to get them into circulation. He dumps them out and hides, but a pair of do-gooders finds them and starts gathering them up. Fnort charges in and yells threats at these guys, but then looks around and sees a terrible omen. Nailed to the wall of the nearby inn (fashioned from the hull of a beached riverboat, as is most of the architecture in Iron Reef) is a hand holding five cards. Someone got caught cheating and paid for it. Fnort, a follower of the god of bad luck and convinced that anything bad that happens to him is a result of Zaheen's anger besides, flies into a paranoid rage, yanks the hand off the wall, and starts beating people with it. He goes from amusing snappy kobold to an actual threat in very short order, and the good burghers of Iron Reef waste no time in beating him to a pulp. Only because of his armor does he survive. 

Out in Bartertown, Baldruf is accompanying Queequaz the Querulous to visit Grüllups, the bullywog "Master Tormentor" of the settlement. Bartertown is a pretty rough place on the best of days (remember that this is the place that has a "corpse clock" of hanging bodies all around its border), and Grüllups is in the Square of Justice meting out the town's version of the law (to wit, if you have some gold to throw at Grüllups, you're probably not guilty). Queequaz and his posse wait patiently to get Grüllups' attention, and then explain the situation to him and ask him to start spreading the rumor that Light relics are getting sold by Iron Reef folks. Grüllups agrees, but asks what's in it for him - he wants a big cut of the loot. Queequaz shames him for looking to personal gain rather than service to Crevice (Grüllups is a worshiper, too, but he's not as serious about it as Queequaz) and everyone there starts jeering at the cowards, but Grüllups agrees to take a smaller cut.

A pair of gnolls start pointing at Baldruf and laughing, calling him out as a skinny-ass orc. Baldruf goes over and gets in their face, intending to talk smack and then pick their pocket (as befits a worshiper of Irion, the Elvish Dark God of Thievery and Baking) but the gnoll socks him and knocks him down before he gets more than a couple of words out. Queequaz and his acolytes run away (I mean, they worship the god of cowardice, it tracks), and Baldruf, not wanting to get into a fight with these guys, blows sneezing powder in their face and fucks off. They swear vengeance on him between sneezes.

The wicked ones return home (Baldruf stops by Iron Reef to scrape Fnort up and help him walk), and they divide up what little loot they were able to scrounge up. They also learn that the Confraternity attacked Iron Reef and while they weren't all wiped out, they did use up a lot of their resources and haven't been able to put any effort into their church. 

The wicked ones follow their own pursuits a bit. Thudd completes his retracto-claw and then spends some time reinforcing it.. His lunk-imps keep working on the false tunnel at the back of the entrance hall, but it's slow going to get it just right. 

Baldruf completes the dart trap in the slime pit, and tests it on a couple of imps. He also goes a little overboard in his worship of Irion and has the imps enter some paens to this god in the Sepulcher's scriptorium. 

Fnort starts building a reliquary off the ossuary, but it'll take some time.

Queequaz, having completed a ritual of gloom in the crevice, starts reaching deeper into the darkness in search of a nightmare creature. He plumbs the evil depths and bleeds for the project, sacrificing his unholy symbol in the process. He realizes he'll need a living sacrifice, too, though.

The constant meddling in this unearthly gloom darkens the skies and calls down a storm, though, and it floods the entrance hall. Fortunately, Thudd's on the case. He finds the hole that the ghoul made when it tunneled into the dungeon and widens it, knocking a precise hole in the wall to let the water escape. The ghoul's not thrilled, but he'll live. 

The imps in the dungeon take the initiative to knock tiny holes into the corners of the entrance hall, hoping to siphon off any forthcoming floods. This has the effect of making the whole place drafty, and killing any privacy since sound carries. 

Finally, the wicked ones plan their next raid. They're eventually planning to destroy the Confraternity once and for all, but in the meanwhile they want some prisoners. Prisoners are a great resource - Queequaz needs a sacrifice, sure, but they also have secrets, they can be used as bait or trade goods, and if all else fails they're delicious. The refugee camp up the road a few days - Ikae's Refuge - seems a good place to hit. 

Licking their chops, the wicked ones start making their preparations.

Atlantis: Leeches, Black Tongues, Snake Effigy

Random word association? No! Here's last time.

Our heroes wake up on the third day of Wayeb, the Day of Beautiful Deception. Amara is not in bed, but returns to Imani's side shortly and asks her if she and her friends would like to go into the interior of the island today - she wants to show them something. ("Not so many ears outside the palace," she whispers.)

Imani relays this to the others, and while they are certainly somewhat suspicious, figure that it's not like things are going to be a lot safer here. They climb into a carriage pulled by six slaves and head out into the country.

Amara points out various landmarks to them, and heroes notice that the buildings out here look old - some are clearly Ophidian ruins that have been repurposed. They eventually come up to a treeline marking an expanse of jungle, and a big stone structure at the front of it. As they approach they can see slaves in wooden stocks on the second level, stomping around in shallow basins. Whatever they're stomping has turned their feet jet black.

Amara explains that this is a leech farm. Slaves are made to dive into the water and bring up leech eggs, which are then rendered into black dye (she sticks out her tongue, which is split and dyed black - it's this dye that is used to create the mark of Set). The heroes are disturbed and wonder why she's shown them this, and she demures and says she thought they might find it interesting. The subtext here is that perhaps the heroes would like to liberate this place?

As they approach, a Gorgon emerges and greets them, clearing away slaves adorned with huge leeches. She welcomes them and offers a tour, and shows them the pit in the lowest level, overflowing with water. This leads to a deep underground lake, she says, where slaves dive down to retrieve the eggs. They have to be quick and swim back up before they lose too much breath...or blood. The "serpent leeches," as they're called, are huge and ravenous. 

She takes them upstairs and shows them the slaves stomping around in the basins of leech eggs. She says that the eggs are mixed with water and some flower petals. She takes one, breaks it in half, and puts it on her tongue, and hands the other half to Eithne, gesturing for her to follow suit. Eithne does, and feels her body dissolve into bubbles (slaves catch her as she falls backwards). The high lasts only a few seconds, and the Gorgon tells them that the flower - the morningstar, as it's called - is used as stabilizer and mild anesthetic in the dye. It's also a marvelous way to relax. 

Finally, she shows them to the top level, where their rooms have been prepared. The heroes question Amara about all this, but Amara remains firm that she just wanted to show the heroes what was happening out here in the country. Note, too, that this place is out of sight of the palace and not within easy reach of other guard posts.

The heroes, however, feel that staging a slave revolt would probably tip their hand before the end of the month, which is when the attack is supposed to happen. As they talk, Akala starts to fade into a fugue state, and just then lunch is served. The heroes eat, and shortly thereafter Eithne and Thanos fall into a deep sleep. Imani is affected, but stays awake until lured to bed by Amara. She says that they can talk about freeing people when the others wake up, and after all, they didn't get much sleep last night. Imani stops fighting her fatigue, and passes out.

They wake up some hours later. Imani's tongue hurts, and she realizes with horror that she's been given the mark of Set. Amara weeps, and begs her forgiveness - Queen Uzoma demanded that Imani be given the mark so that Apep wouldn't eat her. She then takes a big drink of wine and collapses - Imani realizes that she's laced her wine with morningstar petals. She's not dead, just in a stupor.

Speaking of stupors, Akala comes out of hers and Imani fills everyone in. Eithne offers to heal Imani's tongue magically, and Imani agrees. Eithne casts the spell, but then spectral serpents emerge from the ground and yank her back. The spell fails and a horrible voice whispers "NO." Set, apparently, is watching. Imani flies into a rage and trashes the room, but the rage is impotent. She has the mark of Set.

The heroes discuss their options, but decide to head back to the palace. The Gorgon sees them off, but on the way back, Akala notices the slaves pulling their carriages are shifting uncomfortably. They have little tiny leeches clinging to their backs. Horrified, she stops the carriage and she and Eithne investigate. Eithne casts a ward to drop the leeches off, and it works briefly, but after the spell ends the leeches erupt from the slaves' flesh. Eithne realizes that they have been cursed - not the slaves, the heroes. They are spreading this curse. Akala figures that Eithne probably angered Set when she tried to revoke his mark, and she probably needs to apologize in order to break the curse.

Eithne burns some incense and apologizes to the snake-god, and he answers, demanding Eithne turn herself into a serpent as repentance. This might not seem like a big deal, but Jinn traditionally don't shapeshift during Wayeb - it's considered a fell omen for the year to come. Obviously Set knows this and is doing it on purpose, but there's nothing for it. Set tells Eithne that if she doesn't, the heroes will carry this plague until the end of Wayeb, and anyone they meet they will infect. The plague, in addition to being itchy and draining, makes anyone suffering from it irresistible to Apep. Eithne acquiesces, turning herself into a garter snake and breaking the curse. 

The heroes eventually arrive at the palace, just as night falls. They put the carriage in the stable, and realize that the guards have locked the door on them. Amara sits on a bench and weeps - Apep is coming from the heroes. The giant serpent blots out the moon as it approaches, and Eithne casts a mighty ward to keep the creature back. Who knows how long it'll hold, though?

As it grows near, Eithne hurls lightning at it. Thanos takes a clever approach. Gathering up a handful of straw, he slashes his arm and bleeds onto it and curses Apep and Set. He hurls the straw at the giant snake, and the whole snake turns into straw! Imani takes her opportunity and flings a torch at it, and the mighty snake bursts into flames! 

Flaming straw cascades over the city, starting many smaller fires. Eithne summons water from the sky to put out as much of it as she can, but Set is apparently furious and the earth begins to quake. Imani sees archers training arrows on the other heroes, but she raises her blade and warns them off (and they do falter - after all, the heroes just killed Apep!). 

Amara runs to Imani to embrace her, but the ground opens and two Naga grab her and pull her down. Imani recognizes one of them: Sarangerel, the Blind Naga Queen of Tu-Holo, Eithne's enemy. The other is unknown to her, but she has time to spot a curious weapon on her back - a club studded with black glass. She falls back with the others and they flee the city, heading into the countryside under cover of darkness and chaos and falling back to the leech farm.

Imani relays what she saw, and Thanos recognizes that Naga. It is Zaramamma, who killed his friend Inti (we talked about this here). The Gorgon queen has apparently recruited help from two Naga Queens, and they have Amara (and Imani's parents) held captive.

Next time, we'll see what the heroes do to respond!

Board Game: The Night Cage

Merry Xmas! (By which I mean this game was an Xmas present.)

The Game: The Night Cage
The Publisher: Smirk & Laughter
Time: 10-20 minutes, once you know how to play
Players: Me, Michelle, Megan, Amanda

Game Play: The setting reminds me a little of Ten Candles or curse the darkness, at least in bleak aesthetic. Four prisoners are stuck in the "Night Cage," and only have a little candle to illuminate their immediate surroundings. In context, you're on a six-by-six grid, and your candle illuminates tiles along your current path only. If you move, any tiles no longer illuminated disappear (and get discarded), meaning if you backtrack you'll wind up with a different setup.

Speaking of setup

We just played the base game, which includes tiles with t-junctions, four-way tunnels, and straight tunnels, as well as Keys (everyone needs a Key to escape), Gates (everyone needs to be standing on the same gate, with a Key, to escape), and Wax Eaters (horrible squishy monsters that attack you and eat your candle, forcing you to discard tiles from the stack). On your turn, you can move, illuminating more of the Cage, or stay, which gives you a Nerve tile that then lets you do things like move twice or charge into a monster's face (sometimes it's a sound strategy). Notably, however, if you stay you can't spend Nerve.

The tower with no tiles in it

If you run out of tiles, you're in Final Flickers, and every turn one of the tiles already on the board falls into the abyss (unless you spend Nerve to stop it, but recall that you can't spend Nerve on the same turn as you get it). You can lose if you run out of Keys before everyone gets one, run out of Gates, if someone falls into a Pit when there are no more tiles to place (so you just disappear into oblivion forever), and probably in some other ways, too. 

Let's be honest, this is probably everyone's favorite part of a board game

Opinions: I really like this game. First of all, the production values, the design, and the overall feel of it are spooky and bleak and just right up my alley (my alley is a weird and disturbing place, clearly). But aesthetic alone is not enough to make a good board game, and after played games like My Father's Work and Rise of Queen's Dale lately (both of which I really like, don't get me wrong!) it's kinda nice to play a game that's a little more simple. 

We really thought we were gonna win this one

"Simple", however, is not the same as "easy." This game is hard, because it requires strategy, cooperation in a way that a lot of cooperative games don't (it's pretty easy for one player at the table - let's call him "Fred" - to tell everyone what to do in a game of Pandemic or whatever), and it's pretty uncompromising. We played three times in less than an hour and lost every time. The first time, we lost because we got hit with Wax Eaters (which attack everyone in their line of sight, and "attack" means you discard three tiles, per player hit, per monster, and they trigger each other, so it is possible to get a monster cascade with some bad draws) and burned through all the Keys in the stack before we could get to them. The second time...I forget specifically how we screwed it up, but it was pretty quick. And then the last time, we were almost there - we all had Keys, we had a Gate all ready, but we ran out of tiles and got hosed by the Final Flicker rules. (To wit: If you're going to spend Nerve, you have to move. If you're going to stay and get more Nerve, you're going to lose a tile. Two players can't occupy the same time unless it's a Gate. Put this all together and the last few moments of the game get very tricky.)

Keep? Yep

Stealing Stories in Steattle

I do love me some one-shots. Tonight we played Stealing Stories from the Devil. 

We begin on the Celeste, a dimension-traveling world-ship from the 39th Century. Four agents - Liars, named Tig, Alonzo, Vesper, and Sarah - assemble on the mission deck, with multiple screens around them as the AI explains their assignment. 

They're going to a convention center in Seattle, which has become a Zone of Improbability. Specifically - the camera shows a fountain outside the convention center, and someone tossing a coin into the fountain. The coin hits the stone edge and a second later, one of the streams of water jukes sideways briefly. The AI explains that when a coin falls or is dropped in the Zone, it creates a small concussive force some distance away from the coin. The effect appears to be exponential - the more coins, the more powerful the force. And this is a problem, because...

The convention center is hosting a convention in which a replica of Seattle landmarks, made from playing cards, are featured in the main hall. On the last day of the convention, people will gather and toss coins (for charity!) at it until it falls. The AI's calculations indicate that the force thus generated might be enough to destroy the building.

The key item here is one of the cards - specifically, the only joker used. The Liars start digging into the schematics. 

Have I mentioned how impressive the production values are?

The Liars discover that the convention being held here is a sci-fi convention. There's going to be cosplay, people signing autographs, panels, and the like. But the main hall, which is where the card sculpture is located, is a vendor's hall. Getting is possible from the loading dock, but loading and unloading is handled by union workers and they're likely to notice and question people who don't belong there. They have an in, though - a worker named Terrence Ronaldo that the group has been able to contact ahead of time. 

Terrence will provide a big ol' box and a dolly so that they can smuggle Alonzo in. Badges for the convention have RFID chips, and the Celeste can't fake them, but Tig is pretty sure she can swipe one or two on site. The Liars also note some other points of interest - there are skylights in the main hall, but they're not made to open and getting rooftop access would be tricky. The restaurant is being used for tabletop games and isn't serving food, but the cafeteria has fast food available. At night, everyone leaves the main hall, but it's locked down and the security has recently been upgraded. 

The Liars decide to go in on Thursday (the convention runs Friday-Sunday) while the card sculpture is being constructed. They'll need to make sure they can get in, but once they are in they won't have as many people to deal with. They get their gear and the Celeste teleports them in, just outside the parking lot. They find Terrance and put Alonzo in the box, and Sarah pushes the dolly up into the loading dock. 

That almost goes badly - the box is heavy and Sarah nearly drops it off the edge of the ramp. She calls for help and some union dudes come over to stabilize the box. She throws some quick deception their way to avoid questioning and pushes the box into the main hall, over behind some partitions so she can let Alonzo out without drawing notice.

Meanwhile, Tig and Vesper sneak into the dock. Tig smoothly swipes a badge from a vendor, while Vesper Lies and makes a badge fall off someone's belt. She's delighted to discover it's a staff badge, granting her greater access. The Liars meet up in the main hall and check out the card sculpture, still under construction.

The sculptor is busily assembling it as a group of people watch. His assistant is sitting next to a pallet of boxes of playing cards. The Liars have learned that the coin-concussion also makes the key item glow slightly, so while Vesper and Tig watch, Alonzo tosses a coin. They notice the joker glow briefly - it's in the sculptor's breast pocket. 

Vesper has learned through research that the sculptor is lactose intolerant, so she Lies and makes the sculptor just a bit careless with his coffee cream that day. The sculptor suddenly realizes he needs the bathroom, tosses his coffee in the trash, and heads for the corner. Tig intercepts and bumps into him, stealing the card from his pocket. Unfortunately, he keeps a couple of coins there, too, and they fall out of his pocket.

Tig tells a quick Lie and mutes the sound of the coins falling, but that doesn't stop the Improbability effect from happening. As the sculptor walks away the concussions whack him in the head and he collapses, which immediately draws a crowd. Vesper leaps into action and starts giving orders, and the Liars start falling back. Tig passes the card to Sarah. All they have to do is get out of the Zone and everything resets.

But you know what they say: Liars plan, the Devil laughs. Just then, in the cafeteria, a cashier holding her drawer collides with the cashier she's relieving. Both of their drawers tumble to the ground, spilling coins everywhere. The resulting concussion hits the building with a boom, the lights go out, everyone screams, and the emergency power kicks on. The doors in the loading bay close and the whole place goes on lockdown.

Alzono throws a quick Lie and stops one of the doors from shutting all the way. The Liars head to the dock where they find union guys trying to close the door. Sarah Lies and tells them that the boss wants everyone in the office, and the dudes leave, giving the Liars enough time to survey the situation. They don't fancy wiggling under this door, but they find a fire door and a quick Lie unlocks it. But as they leave, Tig finds a bright light in her face. 

The police are already here and order the Liars back in. Vesper fakes a heart attack and Sarah convinces the cops to take all four of them - she name-drops the mayor and claims to be his niece. The cops buy it, put Vesper in the ambulance and let Sarah ride along. Tig and Alonzo are in separate cars, and it dawns on them that the ambulance is leaving. If the key item leaves the Zone, it'll reset, and any Liars left there will cease to exist. 

Tig and Alonzo, fortunately, are both Planners, and their Lies affect objects. They quickly escape the police cars and Tig starts one. Alonzo is a skilled driver, and floors it, pulling ahead of the ambulance just as it crosses the border of the Zone. 

The Zone resets. Everything rewinds. Coins never caused concussions. The sculptor never drank half-and-half. He finishes the Space Needle made of cards, pulls the joker from his breast pocket, kisses it, and uses it to finish the tower, and moves on to the next one. 

Back on the Celeste, the Liars relax, and the Devil smiles.

Wicked Ones: Interpretative Dance-Off with a Ghoul

Back to the Sepulcher!

The wicked ones have conducted a successful raid against the Confraternity of the Three, and fallen back to the Sepulcher of Suffering with their filthy lucre. They divvy up the loot, and all four of them indulge in their dark impulses...perhaps a little too heavily.

Queequaz the Querulous finds, amongst the stuff looted from the Confraternity, a dark gem of great evil. Perfect! Just what he needs to complete his gloom spell! He and his minions start traveling around the lands surrounding the Sepulcher preaching the word of Crevice and warning people of the horror that awaits them should they visit the crevasse (which some folks in Iron Reef take special note of...).

Thudd finds pieces and parts that he needs to start his next progress, and gets a bit too drunk and wakes up on the floor of the entrance hall. The hall also has a big crack in the floor. No clue how it got there.

Fnort steals a pair of boots off the cleric they captured and then spends time walking around the dungeon rolling the dice of Zaheen and punching people. When he does that to Baldruf, however, the orc punches him right the heck back and knocks him down. 

Baldruf himself gets a little carried away by his occult leanings and puts up a dream-catcher like thing dedicated to Irion, the Elvish god of thievery and baking. Queequaz catches him and blackmails him for some gold. 

During all of this, Thudd finds that there's a statue to one of the Three (the Light Gods that this temple used to revere) in the entrance hall. While he's checking it out with some imps, it grows a huge mouth and eats one. A mimic! Perfect! Big surprise for the next group of adventurers that comes through here.

With all of that taken care of, the monsters start taking care of business. Fnort goes back to the kobold village and recruits some more younglings to be a group of guards. Thudd finds a couple of big, lunk-ish imps, while Baldruf pays off the imps of the dungeon to assemble him a skeleton from the ossuary and then animates it. 

Queequaz and his minions finish their horrible ritual in an orgy of self-mutilation and drugs. They carry little bowls of Queequaz' blood out and let it evaporate into a slimy mist that rises through the crevasse. Anyone not committed to the Dark that enters will be overcome with gloom and despair. 

Thudd takes a more direct route. Noticing that adventurers are hard to misdirect, he builds out a tunnel behind the altar and digs it to the slime pits. He starts work on a "hidden" door to that tunnel, meant to look like it's been hidden but badly. He doesn't get a lot of work done on that bit, though, perhaps because he's starting work on a new contraption - the retro-claw! (When the wagon escaped during the last raid, he wanted a way to slow it, but didn't have one.) The imps of the dungeon continuing working on hiding the tunnel, but they do it too well and cover it up. ("Dammit," growls Thudd. "Idiots.")

Baldruf begins building a dart trap in the slime pit, but his new skeleton minion isn't much help and he doesn't make as much progress as he'd have liked. 

Queequaz goes to the crack in the floor and meditates (still trippin' all of the balls), and his acolytes join him and incant. Together they call up an umbral dragon from the Darkness, a hideous creature called Skiathrax! Skiathrax is ready to eat the souls of adventurers, but the imps and the other denizens of the dungeon are a little annoyed that he's right up front. Queequaz muses that it might be wise to build a staircase down so that Skiathrax is on a different level...

Fnort and his kobolds get to work on the cleric, using the old "roll Zaheen's die and then punch" tactic. The cleric succumbs to torture, and reveals that the Confraternity of the Three is beginning work on a church. Fnort passes this info along to the others, but takes his eyes off the cleric for too long and the poor fucker escapes. 

The wicked ones are all set to start planning their next raid, but then they start finding imp corpses lying around. A little investigation and they discover that a ghoul from the East Front has tunneled into the dungeon (breaking through in the new tunnel that Thudd just made) and has been feasting on the imps. The wicked ones gather in the sanctum to discuss how to deal with this; Thudd and Fnort suggest recruiting it (Fnort even speaks a little Ghoulish), but Queequaz and Baldruf are just as happy to kill it. But then they hear screams from upstairs! 

Fnort races up to the guard room and finds the ghoul snacking on a kobold. He throws himself between the ghoul and the others, and the ghoul snaps at him. Fnort tries to indicate through interpretative dance and gestures that eating imps isn't ideal and maybe they could discuss this, but the ghoul interprets this as "eat that big imp over there" and makes for Thudd.

Queequaz calls upon the power of the temple and strikes the ghoul with debilitating hunger (but Crevice also visits fear upon all of the other minions in the temple, and who knows how long that'll last!). The ghoul backs off, and Thudd bops it on the nose with his hammer and tells it that it's welcome to eat adventurers, but not imps. The ghoul retreats, sulkily, and takes up residence in the little tunnel it dug for itself. The wicked ones figure they'll need to make it a lair sometime soon, because it's not really part of the dungeon as of yet.

But with that crisis handled, they start thinking about their next move. They want to build up the power of the dungeon, but making a serious power play will probably invite some backlash and they want to get their dungeon's defenses better situated first. They hit on the brilliant idea of taking some of the relics from the Light Gods of this temple and using them to trick the Confraternity of the Three into attacking Iron Reef in righteous fury. If the Confraternity attacks Iron Reef, both factions are likely to take a hit, and that can only benefit the Sepulcher! 

Next time, we'll see how well it works.

Character Creation: Death in Space

Why not, I got a little time and this is quick.

The Game: Death in Space
The Publisher: Free League
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Another game chosen by the "damn green sticker won't stay on" method.

Anyway, Death in Space is a sci-fi horror game involving a crew of salvagers and other jobbers out in the depths of space. First thing you do is define your hub, be it a space station or a ship, and then...try not to die. Shades of Firefly (and the eponymous RPG), Scum & Villainy, and Alien, and also some games like Mothership and MÖRK BORG that I'm not as familiar with.

Making a character is pretty straightforward and involves rolling dice, which is always fun. First thing we do is roll 2d4 but subtract one from the other to generate stats. This gives me:

Body -2 (ugh)
Dexterity 1
Savvy -1 (ugh again)
Tech 0 

Now we pick an origin, and I'm happy to roll for it. I get solpod:

That's fine, maybe my body's been atrophying. I get a choice between two benefits. Long-lived means I've been around long enough to make friends everywhere, while Old Tech gives me a portable hibernation chamber. I think I'll take the latter. 

More dice rolling to generate details. I get "deep field welder" as a background,"polite" as a trait, and "a person" as my drive, which I'll have to think about. Rolling on look, I get "decorated cape," which is interesting, didn't really picture this guy as a "cape" sort of fella. But I like a challenge. What if it's like a Masonic kind of thing, a cape that's had embellishment added over the years as he's gone up in the ranks of [whatever]? Let's roll on "past allegiance" and see what I did during the War. "Winning side." Well, all right then. The book says that one of the corporations declared that they won the Gem War, but it was by no means a clear victory and really everyone got hosed in the end. So let's say that my guy did indeed work (as a welder) for the "winning" side, but when the war ended he got nothing but a "thank you for your service" and a new embellishment for his cape. 

Probably he'd have tried to get back to a more civilized area, but he knew that his brother had been put into a hibernation pod following a grievous injury, so he followed suit. He hasn't managed to find his brother's pod, but he keeps looking. 

Anyway, roll 1d8 for hit points (5). And hey, I get a starting bonus because my stats suck! Rolling a d6 for that, I get...a pistol. Ooooh. Probably a service weapon. I get a starting kit, which I could roll, but I have a better sense of the character and I'm gonna pick an engineer's kit. And I get a personal trinket, which I will roll: ancient synthesizer shaped like a gun. Must've been my brother's. 

That's it, really. My guy's name is Butler, but his brother used to call him "Butter." Likewise, his brother's name is Cheddem, but he always called him "Cheddar." Butter is older than he looks, but he has the gaunt appearance and slightly bluish skin of someone who's spent too long in hibernation. He has trouble gaining weight and his muscles are pretty atrophied, and he's starting to think that even if he loses a limb he's best served not going back to sleep. But that means he really needs to find Cheddar this time out. 

That'll do it! Like I said, quick.

Character Creation: Lord of the Rings

LOOKS LIKE CHARGEN'S BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!

The Game: Lord of the Rings
The Publisher: Decipher
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

There have been a few RPGs based on Tolkien's work over the years. The one that's probably more immediately recognizable these days is The One Ring, but there are a few more kicking around, including the one from Decipher that came out in 2002 in the wake of the Peter Jackson films. RPGs created as movie tie-ins aren't always exactly the bees' knees, but I think this one is probably fine.

To expand, I have no idea if the system is anything special (I suspect not), but one thing I did find as I read it was that it felt accessible, which for a Tolkien-based game is a big deal. I like The One Ring and I'm interested in playing it, but I often feel when reading it that the lore is leaving me behind. The terminology is thick and dense in this game, too, but somehow I didn't feel lost and there was enough context for me to follow the history. 

It was also interesting to read a game that was quite clearly going through the corporate vetting common to licensed games while at the same time trying not to be another D&D clone, because despite the fact that D&D is and always has cribbed from Tolkien, it doesn't work as a way to represent Middle Earth. The characters aren't the kinds of people you find in D&D games (that is, murderhobos) and everything from the magic to the underlying social paradigms are very, very different. Lord of the Rings manages to put that across without saying "this is hella different in other RPGs, by which we mean D&D," too much (though they do say it a lot). 

Anyway, a character. I just rewatched The Fellowship of the Ring the other night, which is why this game wound up on the list this week. Let's do it!

As in The One Ring, picking a race also requires picking a culture. Let's see. I made a man for 1st ed and a hobbit for second, so maybe this time we do a dwarf? That sounds fun. 

Dwarves, more so than other races in Middle Earth, feel pretty one-note. You're not gonna see a lot of dwarf minstrels. But maybe that's OK, because pushing dwarves outside that zone gives us that weird love story in the Hobbit trilogy. So I'm gonna say my dude is a dwarf smith from the Iron Hills, the child of refugees from Erebor (they were driven out of the Lonely Mountain when Smaug rocked up and was like "mmm, dwarf snacks!"). 

My dwarf, Djili, learned smithcrafting from a young age, and wasn't the sort of dwarf to consider himself an adventurer. I think, though, that his father arranged for him to apprentice with his uncle, who was a dwarven runecrafter and artist, and Djili got sucked into adventure along the way somewhere (this would be where other PCs would come in handy). 

That's a decent enough start. Let's see how chargen proper works. Attributes! I can roll or arrange; I think I shall roll. I roll 2d6 nine times and drop the three lowest rolls. Cool! I get: 11, 10, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 8, 7. Not bad, all told. I drop the 5, 6, and one of the 7s and then I assign them to my stats! 

Bearing has nothing to do with bears, it's more like noble presence and charisma. I feel like this doesn't need to be high for my dwarf, so I'll put a 7 here. 

Nimbleness needs to be higher, though, because it plays into Craft and combat skills. I'll put my 11 here. 

Perception - likewise, probably shouldn't be low. I'll put 9 here. I'll put my other 7 into Strength, my 8 into Vitality, and the 10 into Wits.

The scores don't actually matter, though, they translate to modifiers. Why have the scores, then? WHO KNOWS. My modifiers are, at the moment:

Bearing 0
Nimbleness +2
Perception +1
Strength 0
Vitality +1
Wits +2

And now we have some secondary traits, which is unwise because I'm pretty sure we get racial mods later, but whatevs. Stamina is the higher of my Strength or Vitality mods, so +1. Swiftness is the higher of Perception and Nimbleness, so +2. Willpower is the higher of Bearing or Wits, so +2. Wisdom is the higher of Bearing or Perception (+1). Defense is 10 + Nimbleness mod (12). Health is...ooh, I stand corrected, you do use the ratings. Health is your Strength modifier plus your Vitality rating, so in Djili's case it's 8. 

I start with 3 Courage, Renown 0, and Size is Small. Moving on to racial mods, I get +2 Strength and Vitality, taking those to 9 and 10, respectively, changing their mods to +1 and +2. I get six picks from a list for skills and traits, but I have to take two levels in a Craft skill (which is fine, I was gonna do that anyway). Let's see. 

Oh, man, there are some layout issues here, not least of which is that chargen is spread throughout multiple chapters and there's no one page that goes through the whole schmegoigle. It's OK, I figured it out! 

First, I get 30 ranks to put into languages and lore skills. I'll put 4 into Khuzdul (dwarf-language), 3 into Westron, 2 into Lore: Moria, 3 into Lore: Iron Hills, 4 into Lore: Dwarvish History, 1 into Sindarin...good grief, I get a lot of these, and there's nowhere to write them. Screw it. Moving on. 

OK, back to racial picks. See, what's weird is that I pick skills, which are ranked (so I could use 2 picks to take two levels of Armed Combat), but traits are divided into edges and flaws, and it looks like I can use these picks to take edges, and then pick a flaw to take an extra edge? It's not well-explained and although there are examples of chargen, neither of them do anything but skills here. 

Anyway, I assume that Stonecraft counts as a "craft" skill for purposes of my requirement, even though it's a separate skill from Craft (good lord). Let's take 3 levels of Smithcraft, because I want that to be Djili's bread 'n butter. I'll put 1 into Armed Combat, 1 into Observe, and 1 into Survival. 

And now we pick an order! This is effectively character class. Hmm. I could be a dwarf minstrel if I really felt like it. But nah, I think Craftsman makes the most sense.

Now I can either take a package (lol) or I can pick Skills myself, but honestly the Smith package seems like it hits what I want it to. So after combining those skills and the ones from the racial picks, I get:

Armed Combat 1
Observe 3
Smithcraft 6
Appraise 3
Craft (Silversmith) 2
Debate (Bargain) 2
Persuade 2
Stonecraft 1

And now I can add 1 to any 5 order skills, so I'll put one each in Observe, Appraise, Craft, Persuade, and Stonecraft. 

And then I pick one edge from Craftmaster, Doughty, Hardy, Friends, or Hoard. Let's check those out. 

Hmm. I really don't see a good reason not to take Craftmaster and just lean in, so let's do that. I also get an order ability, but the good ones all have prereqs so I'll just take Speedy Work and call it a day. 

And that's actually everything. Djili is a young dwarf, about 50, and still growing out his beard. It's singed a bit at the ends, but his dad said that's how you know a good smith. Djili's father, Djor, suspects that Djili will be a skilled runecrafter someday, but he lacks the skill to teach him, which is why he sent Djili to study with his uncle Delin. I picture Djili as getting swept up in some hobbit nonsense along the way, and maybe have going to see Delin as being part of a story arc, but of course that's just speculation. 

Anyway, roads go ever on, etc. 

Character Creation: Stealing Stories for the Devil

Very quick chargen today, but since I read the game, might as well make a character.

The Game: Stealing Stories for the Devil
The Publisher: Monte Cook Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, but I'm running a one-shot this weekend
Books Required: Just the one (technically the game is three books, but actually I just need one of them anyway)

In this game, you're playing time traveling thieves and con-artists who go back in time to the ancient, unenlightened days of (checks watch) now, to steal a [thing] in order to stop reality from unraveling. It's pretty dope.

All characters start aboard the 39th century spaceship Celeste, and I can either be a Sleeper (someone who's been in cryo up until now) or a Scion (the descendant of someone who did not get put into cryo, by accident). I can see the appeal of either, but I think I'll go with Scion because I find them more interesting at first blush. 

So all characters here have to have some affinity for being all sneaky and stuff - we can Lie to reality and shift it. The specifics of that power determine the next step, in fact. I can be a Schemer, a Plotter, or a Planner. Plotter (Lie to affect time) or Schemer (Lie to affect people) are the ones that appeal most; I think I'll go the face route and be a Schemer. 

I picture my Liar as being young, but not a kid. Maybe the sort of person who can change apparent age by changing clothes or throwing on a little stubble. I get two Traits, and I can take both slots in the same Trait and be Very Good at it, or be Good at two. I think I shall do the latter and be Fast and Charming.

And now I get three Skills. I get Stealth or Deception for free; I shall take Deception. I want Climbing as a Skill, and then...hmm. Fast-talking? I don't think that's too different in scope from the Skills on the list (Fast-Talk isn't there)...ooh, no, wait, let's make it Disguise.

Detriment! Can't be good at everything. My guy gets winded easily; he's fine for short bursts of energy and effort but not at sustained activity. Easily Winded? Feels like there's a better way to say that. Eh, "Unhealthy" is one of the choices on the list, I'll just take that.

Side Goal! Everybody has a thing they like to do. If they do it on a mission, they get a Story Point. I'll say my guy likes to fool people. Sure, that's what we're kinda here to do generally, but in his case, it's about convincing somebody of something that just ain't so, without Lying. 

That's all the decisions and stuff! My guy's name is Falc. His particular sub-section of the Celeste takes names from the Machine Gods, which means looking at something displayed on a screen to name children. His dad named him but has since died, and Falc never got around to asking him what he's named after. Falcon? Falchion? Falco, the guy that did "Amadeus?" Anyway, Falc has dark hair, a lean build, and a baby face unless he puts on a fake beard, in which case he looks 10 years older almost immediately. 

And that's it!