Character Creation: Invulnerable

It's how a superhero learns to fly! (Every day every hour turn ya pain into power)

The Game: Invulnerable
The Publisher: Imperfekt Gammes
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

So, Invulnerable is, to all appearances, a standard four-color supers RPG. It's set on Earth-Omega (your basic "like our world but" sort of set up), and the explanation for supers is "irrational matter/energy," a kind of quantum MacGuffin that surges every so often and leads to a mess of new supers. There are a whole bunch of organizations both beneficent and baleful, and the artwork, in contrast to some of the other indie RPGs I've read lately, is really nice and evocative of the genre.

So what's the system like? Dunno! I do know that there's a game from the same company called Metagene that's basically the same idea, but the system is supposedly trimmed down and it's better suited to one-shots, so I'll consider that when I eventually get around to doing that game. Maybe in May.

Looking over the system, it's pretty straightforward. 3d6 + some stuff vs. a difficulty, you beat the diff by 10 or more and you go shithouse, as HoL says. But Invulnerable also measures things the other way - miss the difficulty by 10 or more and you get a mishap:

For the moment, let's do a character! First thing we do is check with our hypothetical GM to set the "Awesomeness Level" of the game, which is a sort of unwieldy name for how powerful the heroes are. The character I have in mind is probably like X-Men level of power, I think, so that's maybe 4 or 5?

(Poking through the book, there doesn't seem to be a direct "this level of Awesomeness equals this established character," but there are a number of campaign setups that include ranges of Awesomeness, so I think I'm on the right track. Also, this book is hella thorough. There's some stuff that they could and probably should have cut - it's not the 90s, nobody needs a list of "problem players" - but I'm finding that the writing is pretty smooth, which for a nigh-400 page book is a must.)

So let's assume AL 4, here. Next step is concept, and I'm meant to answer the Character Concept Quiz. Sure, sounds good.

1. Code Name and Secret Identity: My hero's code name is Smash-Cut! His secret identity is Brody Bibb (heroes have alliterative names). 
2. Origin! I think Smash-Cut got his powers by freak accident, a la Spider-Man or the FF. Something involving light and silver nitrate, perhaps. I'll go into more detail during the Origin stage of chargen.
3. Motivations! So, Brody Bibb is...a bit of a bro. He's not a bad guy, but he's always hustling, always working it, trying to make it in this crazy town (that's be Hollywood). He's keeping his identity secret for now because he wants to build a brand around Smash-Cut, and then dramatically reveal his real identity and parlay that into movie or TV deals. So I think "Fame & Success" is our motive here.
4. Sex & gender. Cis male, straight. Maybe heteroflexible on the right night. 
5. Age. Mid-20s, obviously
6. Heroic Career. I think Smash-Cut's been on the scene only a few months. 
7. Profession. Would be movie star. He's done some work, mostly as an extra, but a few one-line roles here and there.
8. Personality & goals. Kinda covered this already, but while Brody is very much the type of dude that thinks he's gonna "make it" in Hollywood, I think he's also one moral crisis away from discovering that if you're gonna be a super-hero, it's not about the accolades. 
9. Obstacles. Brody is still very much in the "this is awesome!" phase of superpowers, and hasn't faced a real deadly challenge yet. Plus his powers allow for quick escapes, and that's let him avoid sticky aftermath.
10. Team Affiliation & training. None yet, but he's taken some stage combat and stunt training classes.
11. Appearance. Out of costume, Brody is average height (too tall and you only get "tall guy" roles), muscular build, blue eyes, brown hair. Has a kind of handsome everyman look, which is great if you can get a break and become the next Matt Damon. He favors colorful but solid color t-shirts, jeans, and ray-bans. As Smash-Cut, he wears a white long sleeved shirt and black pants with a cool blue stripe down the sides (that color changes, he's trying to find exactly the right look). He also alternates between a mask that just covers his eyes to a kind of cowl arrangement. 
12. Base of Operations. Hollywood! The Dream Factory! The Magic Store! Hey, don't you ever go to the movies?!
13. Central Contradiction. Wanting fame and recognition vs. the desire to actually be a hero, which is largely thankless.

OK, step three is...choose two Motivations from Chapter Three. Wait a sec, did that fucking quiz just have me make up a bunch of stuff that these chapters are going to codify? Grr.

Well, there is a list, but nothing says you can't make them up. Prestige is on the list, and I do wonder if Fame & Success are too closely linked. So let's say Fame is one Motivation, and let's say Law is the other one. Brody strikes me a kind of naive, so he might well believe that "rule of law" is a noble goal in and of itself. 

Step Four is Origins...oh, now, this is interesting. I get four Origins, since I'm Awesomeness Level 4. Fascinating. Origins give you different bonuses and power bumps, as well as power sources. I know I want at least one Freak Accident, but maybe one Bio-Engineered, too? Yeah, let's do three Freak Accident and one Bio-Engineered. 

 

Attributes! There's math involved here, but the book very kindly tells us the result rather than making us do the math. Long story short, I have 18 points to put into Attributes. They all start at 3, max is 10, and I get a bump to Strength, Toughness, and Insight from my Bioengineered Origin. Let's do that first; I get +2 to two of those and +1 to the other. Well, I think +2 to Strength and Toughness and +1 to Insight makes the most sense, so those start at 5, 5, and 4 respectively. Now let's spend the other 18!

Let's put four into Agility, boosting that to 7. I'll put two each into Strength and Toughness (I'm planning on take Hyper-Strength, too), making them 7 as well. 8 Spent, 10 left. I'd better boost Personality some. I'll spend a whopping 5 there and bump that up to 8. That leaves me 5. I'll put 1 into Insight and the other four into Will. No, wait, I'll put three into Will and the last one into Strength. So that gives me:

STR 8
Toughness 7
Agility 7
Insight 5
Personality 8
Will 6

Powers! Here's the fun stuff. I get a free point in Hyper-Strength, Agility, or Toughness; I shall take Strength. And then I get 100 BP to take powers. Each power I take gives me one free Enhancement, and then I get 4 more, but I'll do that last. 

OK, so! I know I want Smash-Cut to have a teleport power. I picture him teleporting right in your face, evildoer, and punching your lights out (I mean, not you, obviously). So let's check that out first.

Teleportation is Extremely Expensive, so it costs 7 points per level. I want this to be Smash-Cut's main power, so I'll take it at 4 levels (my maximum, since it's my Awesomeness Level). That's 28 points. I'll take Teleport Self as the Enhancement; not sure what the power does without that, but whatever. 

That leaves me 72 points. I think I might spend the rest on Hyper-Attributes, if that won't be ridiculous. Yeah, shouldn't be a problem. I'll take two levels of Hyper-Agility (14 points) with the Super-Running Enhancement (I get Motion Blur for free). I already have one level of Hyper-Strength, but I'll spend 7...I guess? And get a second level. I get Powerhouse automatically, and I'll take the Improvised Smash Enhancement so I can use large found objects as weapons. 

That's...49 points spent. How about Hyper-Personality? Sure, I'll burn 14 points for that. Godlike Charm for free, Bulletproof Smile (I'm just so likeable no one wants to shoot me). And then 14 more for Hyper-Toughness (Unstoppable, Hardened Flesh). 77 spent, still got 23 left. Hmm. Well, let's take Elemental Control (Light), that's cinematic. That's 5 points per level, so I could take 4 levels without breaking a sweat, and that'd leave me with 3 points. Sure, sounds good. I'll take Blinding Burst as my Enhancement. 

Can I do anything with 3 points? Yeah, "Cheap" powers are three per level, so I can take one level of such a power. Are there any I want? Sure, Extra Body Parts is Cheap, so I'll take three levels there and take the Hardened Skeleton Enhancement. 

Groovy! Now I get 4 more Enhancement, which I do not need, but I'll figure something out. I'll take Teleport Gateway, letting me open portals. I'll take Turbo Strike for Hyper-Agility and Super Leaping for Hyper-Strength, and then I'll take Darkness for Elemental Control. 

Oof, that's an adventure. On to Talents! 

I get 60 BP to buy Talents. Basic Talents are Very Cheap, Advanced Talents are Extremely Cheap, so holy shit, this will go a long way. That's 2 points per level for Basic and 1 for Advanced. I get Sexy Beast at level 2, which I assume is an advanced; yep. Cool, on we go! Looks like I'm limited to level 4 again.

So, 4 levels of Athletics (8 points), 4 Close Combat (16 points), 4 Dodge (24 points), 1 Driving (26), 1 Education (28), 3 Endurance (34), 3 Persuasion (40), and we're into Advanced Talents with 20 left! 

Carousing 3, yes please (43). Connections 1 (he's just starting out; 44). Expert...hmm. Each level gives me a Focus. I don't see Brody as being "expert" in much, but Pop Culture, sure. Oh, Area (Hollywood), Art (Acting), that's all good. So 3 levels of Expert (47).

Martial Arts 4, I think. That gives me 4 moves. I'll take Acrobatic Combat, Kippup, Sweep Kick, and Jump Kick.

Repartee! Oh, wait, I need Trickery for that. Sure, I'll dump 4 points into Trickery 2. That's 55 spent, and one more for Repartee 1 is 56. Four more. I'll take Tough as Nails 2 and Vitality 2. 

Weaknesses! I get Arrogant 4 from Bioengineered, and then I have to take 8 more BP of Weaknesses. I could take more if I thought I needed more BP, but I don't. Human Weaknesses are Very Cheap, while Metahuman Weaknesses are Average, so they give me 2 per level or 4 respectively. That means I only have to take 4 levels of Human Weakness or 2 of Metahuman, or some combination. 

OK, so I'll take Confused 2 (Smash-Cut has the physical side of combat down, but the fog-of-war side is still a problem), and 1 level of Sensitivity (sounds over 10K Hz hurt him). 

Assets! These are derived traits, but the powers screw with the math, because of course they do. Let's see.

Initiative is Agility + Insight. Hyper-Agility gives me 6 effective levels of Agility in addition to my 7, which is 13 + 5 for Insight is 18, but I have Confused 2, so I lose 4. So it's 14.

Vigor is...47, but wait, Vitality! That gives me 4 more. 51.

OK, y'know what, I'm good. It's not that I think that doing all this math would be onerous during actual chargen, just that there's no master list (that I see) of what affects what, and the book is big enough that moving around in the PDF is a PITA. So I think we'll call it good. 

SMASH-CUT TO CREDITS!

Boldly Go! The Return of Dinbra Oh

Last night we played a one-shot of Boldly Go!, a light-hearted sci-fi RPG taking inspiration from Star Trek and similar properties (like Galaxy Quest). Fun and mayhem!

Our ship is the Space Gull. The Gull is an OG starship, held together by duct tape and fervent wishes, still in service but not the top-of-the-line warship it once was. Now it does the unglamorous work of delivering supplies, paperwork and suchlike to various planets around the system; making "second contact", as it's sometimes known. The Gull has a reputation in Spacefleet as somewhere you end up, it's not a stepping stone on the way to a glorious career. But for all that, the crew of the Gull has an odd kind of camaraderie - they're all kind of weird, but that's all right. 

The captain is a modron (silicon-based humanoid; I made one as part of my chargen project) named Fol'vox. Captain Fol'vox isn't much of a day-to-day presence on the ship. They're very hands-off (one of their negative traits is You Just Missed Them). But a good ship runs itself! 

The other important NPC is Koko, the ship's AI. Koko is original to the Gull, and the coding language used to create him is so old that no one knows it. As such, Koko is pretty much an immovable part of the ship, even though he gets...weird sometimes. The crew knows that if he starts sounding more Scottish, things are getting strange.

The PCs are:

• Anav th'Rothi: A "belter," born in the asteroid fields, Anav is half-rittian, half-human, so he has disproportionately long and meaty arms and a fabulous mane of hair. Anav is the cargo hold master; technically he works in Systems, but his real function on the ship to be able to find anything folks need in the cavernous hold. He's also an expert in the historical minutia of the Gull.
• Tuxedo "Tux" Restinap: Tux is a gattoan (cat-like race of people from a desert planet). They're the ship's main navigator. Tux got assigned to the Gull and their territorial instinct kind of kicked in, and they've made themself at home. Tux is a little too curious for their own good.
• Diane Gravelox: Diane is a half-human, half-krakenoid (squid-like race). She looks more or less human, but she doesn't really have bones (she's supported by a system of fluid-filled bladders). She's the second-in-command of the security wing of the ship; her boss, William O'Neall, is only a few ticks from retirement so he leaves most of the hand-to-tentacle combat to Diane. Diane is also impossibly optimistic.
• Charlie "Pinocchio" Wakeman: Charlie is, to all appearances, a synthoid...but appearances are deceiving. His human form was dealt a fatal injury and his father managed to transfer his consciousness into a robot body. Now Charlie works in engineering, often fabricating devices of mass destruction (whether they're meant for mass destruction kind of depends on the day). 

On this particular day, the Gull has just left Malka V on a routine delivery. Malka V is interesting in that it was the site of one of the battles of the War of the Frontier some 300 years ago, and debris from the war still orbits the planet. In fact, as Anav will cheerfully tell you, the Gull itself was involved in that battle back when it was a new, state-of-the-art ship.

Tux, Charlie, and Diane get a comm from one of the ensigns to meet her in a room off the hold, a staging room where deliveries are assembled. Anav notices this and joins them, since it's near his office. The ensign tells the characters, in hushed tones, that the Gull is receiving a message that seems to be originating from the nearby debris field...but it's using the same coding and comm structure that the Gull uses. In short, the call is coming from inside the Gull! Except not! The signal isn't clear, so comms isn't sure what it's trying to say. She tried to tell Captain Fol'vox, but couldn't find him ("yeah, that tracks").

Charlie grabs a panel off the wall and goes to plug in to ask Koko to clarify the signal, but the ensign stops him. "That's why I wanted to talk here," she says. "Koko seems to be trying to stop the signal from getting through." Diane pulls up her data tablet and does a little flipping, and yep, there's the signal, but Koko is trying to route it away from the crew. 

The characters figure that this might be coming from an away vessel, the smaller ships used to go planetside for missions. But Anav does a quick count and they're not missing one. He tries to do a quick head count of the crew, but gets caught up in being thorough ("Aaron A. Aaronson...check. Aaron B. Aaronson...check..."), so the others decide to take an away vessel and track down the signal. Diane sends a message to the bridge tell them to pause their journey ("I have some...security checks I forgot to do? So maybe just pause a sec? Thanks byeeee") and they all four jump in the ship to head out.

Charlie, figuring that Koko probably shouldn't know what they're doing, disables comms and tracking. Tux expertly tracks the signal and flies the ship through the debris field. The characters note that the debris is mostly wrecked ships, and it has Vatizar markings.

Aside: The Vatizar Empire was one of the participants in the War of the Frontier. They're an ancient and warlike race, and Anav remembers that they're obsessed with names; their names get longer as they get more revered. Also, the story goes that the Gull took on a triptych of Vatizar ships here and won (Vatizar ships travel in threes). That, apparently, is what all this debris used to be.

Some moments later, the characters come upon what can only be an away vessel from the Gull. It's a few generations of tech behind them, but it's got all the right markings. Scans indicate faint lifeform readings, so something is alive in there, but the characters can't tell if that's a few very small lifeforms or one barely-alive one.

Charlie, not the most patient of synthoids at the best of time, tethers himself to the vessel and leaps into space. He lands on the derelict vessel and pries open the outer door. It works, but he compromises the airlock, meaning he can't open the inner door without killing anything that might be alive in there. He settles for peering in the window.

Inside, he sees a dozen humanoid figures. They appear to be synthoids, obviously powered down. But there's one organic being, apparently human, sitting in a life-support seat. The readings are green - this guy, whoever he is, is alive! 

The characters immediately move to tow the vessel back to the Gull. Once there, the synthoids are taken to engineering so Charlie can try and reactivate them ("maybe just start with one," advises Diane), while the sleeper is taken to medical so Dr. Keats can have a look at him. Tux goes to medical, curious about this guy, while Diane stays with the derelict vessel to look it over. Anav goes to his office to do some historical research.

Diane's investigation of the vessel raises questions. It looks like one person got on the away vessel with all of the synthoids of the crew...but why? If your ship is damaged you don't put the synthoids (who can generally survive conditions living people can't) on the escape vessel, you leave them behind to try and do repairs and minimize the damage. And why was the vessel stuck in the debris field for 300 years? It hasn't been fired on, so it was launched without damage. Very curious. 

Anav's research reveals more questions. The Battle of Malka V reveals that the Gull was victorious, but badly damaged. But while the ship was damaged, it wasn't damaged beyond repair (obviously). Spacefleet found the Gull some time after the battle, the crew aboard but in stasis, minus the synthoids...and the captain. The captain, one Dinbra Oh, was missing, and the whole affair kind of got written off as "something weird that happens in war." Could this mysterious man be the missing captain, the first captain of the Gull?!

Meanwhile, Charlie puts one of the synthoids in a harness and reactivates it. It speaks gibberish for a minute, and then comes online. When it does, Charlie talks with it briefly - it syncs its clock with the current time, and asks after Captain Oh. Charlie, at this point, doesn't know anything about that, so he releases the synthoid, tells it to stand by, and tells his crew of engineering ensigns to reactivate the others while he goes to check on medical.

And in medical, Dr. Keats chats with Tux while he does a scan of this fella. He reveals cybernetic implants of unknown origin in the guy. Tux asks what they are, and Keats tells them that they would make him able to go without food, water, or air for much longer than a normal human, as well as making him stronger and faster. 

Tux, a little concerned by all this, advises that maybe it might be better to wait a bit to bring this guy around, but Keats has already begun the process (and Koko seems to be helping it along). The man wakes up, leaps to his feet, and demands to know where he is. He recognizes the Gull, but it looks different...

Diane and Charlie wind up in the elevator, heading to medical to check on this mysterious sleeper.

Tux informs him how much time has passed, but the man either doesn't believe it or doesn't register. He immediately stands up and bellows "ABRAXUS!"

Everything goes dark, then emergency lighting kicks on, then everything comes back online. Koko's voice echoes over the ship. "Attention, crew. Captain Oh is now in command of the Gull. Repeat, Captain Oh is now in command."

Tux leaps for a control panel, intending to hit a panic button, but Captain Oh wheels around and kicks them in the stomach ("YOU WOULD KICK TUXEDO? YOU WOULD USE TUXEDO AS THE FOOTBALL?"). Keats attempts to subdue him, but three judo moves later and Keats is unconscious. Tux makes another attempt, but Oh dodges and boots them right out of medical, and Tux takes the opportunity to seal off medical. 

Charlie checks the video feeds from engineering, and sees that all of the synthoids have been reactivated, and that his engineering guys are lying on the floor, unmoving. Furious, he punches through the doors of the elevator and Diane squeezes through to hit door release, and the two of them head to engineering. He comms ahead to Anav, telling him to grab the plas-net launcher from the hold and meet them in engineering. 

When they get there, four synthoids are still there, guns drawn. Anav joins them, and Charlie warns both him and Diane that if they see a cube on a shelf, grab it. And then Charlie confidently strides into the room and tells the synthoids to drop their raysers.

They do not. They open fire, but still on stun. Diane flails at one with her tentacles and knocks it down. Charlie fires the plas-net launcher and misses, so switches to his souped-up rayser (it's got a setting above kill!). Anav spots the cube Charlie mentioned and grabs it, and it folds open to reveal a rayser rifle!

Anav fires it and hits a synthoid dead-center, dropping it. The others switch their raysers to "kill" and train figure on Charlie, scorching his metal body. Diane closes in, calling on her tentacle-to-hand training, while Charlie fells another synthoid with his special rayser. The last one winds up grappling with Diane, just long enough for Charlie to swoop in and disable its power supply. 

Koko calls the security teams to the ready room, which worries Diane - that only happens when they need to be, well, ready. She heads up there and talks to O'Neall, her superior, who tells her that they've been told to gear up and get ready for battle. She talks him into realizing that, no matter what's going on with Koko and this "Captain Oh" joker, this is all highly irregular and likely to get in the way of his retirement. 

Tux, meanwhile, is having a similar conversation on the bridge, trying to get the techs up there to help her shut out the override commands that Oh gave Koko. The techs tell her that it's possible to reboot Koko, but that requires going into his main server room and physically turning him off and on again ("you mean through the CHOMPERS?"). 

Tux and Charlie race to the chompers! Tux darts between them, catlike, and shuts them down to allow Charlie through, and the two of them turn Koko off briefly ("will I dream?"). Meanwhile, Diane successfully talks O'Neall into realizing how bananas this all is, and he brings his security forces out of the ready room with the promise of snack cakes ("snack cakes," we decided, is the code for "captain has gone bananas" in Spacefleet). They seal the synthoids in, and now all they have to worry about is Captain Oh, and he's trapped in med bay!

OR IS HE?

Oh has managed to escape, and Anav figures he's gone to the captain's bridge - he can operate the ship from there all by himself. They head up there and indeed, he's sitting in the captain's chair, staring calmly at the viewscreen. "I won't fight you," he said. "You just let me know when you need my help to beat...them."

The characters look at the screen, and realize that Oh has flown them straight over the border into Vatizar space. A Vatizar triptych is staring them in the face, as it were.

Anav leaps into action. He has comms open a frequency and explains, at length, that this was all a mechanical problem, that no violation of the treaty was meant, and that Spacefleet respects the Vatizar Empire's sovereign borders. There is a pregnant pause, and the Vatizar's booming voice ACKNOWLEDGES THE APOLOGY - NOW GET OUT!

The Gull turns around and heads back into Allied space. 

Captain Oh is put in the brig until they can drop him somewhere for...debrief? Therapy? Something. Koko is back to his mostly non-Scottish self, and the synthoids can be reprogrammed to be useful and non-hostile.

"One thing confuses me," says Diane to Koko. "I get that Captain Oh used an override command to take you over, but why were you trying to conceal the signal from the away vessel in the first place?"

"Oh, um," says Koko. "Must have been a lingering command from the captain's original tenure. I cannae remember."

CREDITS

Character Creation: Squeaks in the Deep

From the world of doggos, we turn to the world of rats, in the world of doggos.

The Game: Squeaks in the Deep
The Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Been running Pugmire for quite a while now
Books Required: Squeaks and either Pugmire or Monarchies of Mau, both of which I have

Fun fact: Squeaks in the Deep came out around the same time as a game called Things That Go Squeak in the Night, which I backed on Kickstarter but haven't read yet. ANYWAY.

Squeaks is a supplement for Pugmire in which you play rodents, which have their own society much like dogs and cats. Their society, and the book that goes with it, is very focused on the Underneath, the tunnels and secret places below civilized society (as may be evident from the Tolkein-inspired title). I've used some of the stuff from the book in my Pugmire game but I haven't really used rodent NPCs yet, but the Cult of Labo Tor might make an appearance at some point just because I like them.

For today, let's do a character. First thing I'm meant to choose is a calling. Hmm. I think I would like to be psychic. My guy is a little white mouse, and was on the way to being inducted into the Cult of Labo Tor when the branch (lab?) he was being inducted by was hit by a strike team from the Monarchies. My mouse hid in a cupboard until the fight was over, and might have come away from this experience really hating cats, but he was able to experience the viciousness and rage and cold logic of the cultists as well as the kind of quiet nobility of the cats. That pretty much did it for his desire to be part of the Cult...but now what? 

As a psychic, I get Darkvision, Light Armor Aptitude, Simple Weapon Aptitude, Scamper, and either Closed Mind or Transcendentalism. Um, the second one, please, I want psychic powers.

Next step is to pick rodent type; I'm a mouse, that's easy.

Background: I think Refugee makes the most sense. That gives me Notice and Persuade as skills and the Diaspora Knack.

Ability Scores! I get the standard array: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. I also get to pick two Upbringings, which each raise an ability by 1. Let's do that first. I see this little mousie as being Speedy and Wise, so I'll get +1 to Dexterity and Wisdom. So let's see.

I'll put the 15 into Wisdom, thanks very much. 14 into Dexterity (just playin' to my strengths here)...actually, no, the break in modifiers is at 14, so I'll put the 13 into Dexterity and the 14 into Intelligence. 12 into Charisma, 10 into Constitution, 8 into Strength. I get 6 stamina points because I ain't got no Con modifier (be gentle am tiny mouse). My favored Abilities are Charisma and Wisdom, so I get to add my Proficiency to saving throws for those.

I get two more skills from my calling. Well, Sense Motive sounds like something he'd have picked up by now. I'll take Know Religion, too. 

Got my Knacks already, so now it's time of psychic powers! Woo!

I get three for free: Burst of Electricity, Smell Life, and Temperature Control. My spellcasting ability is Charisma, so that's not bad. I need to pick a Tell that happens when I use my powers; let's say it's the chemical smell of acid, a nod to his Labor Tor beginnings. No slot for Tell on the sheet, tsk tsk.

Anyway! I get two Magnitude 1 powers from either the school of galvanism or humorism (but both from the same school; I can't take powers from the other one until I level up and take a refinement). Let's see. Let's take Chirurgeon's Eye (which locks me into humorism) and Bilious Touch. I'm also gonna say he hates using the latter power; it makes him feel icky.

Equipment! I get stuff from calling and background. Specifically, a few coins, a journal, a map (of Pugmire, I think), a set of light armor, a simple weapon (dagger, let's keep it basic), and a trinket or scientific device I acquired under mysterious circumstances. Let's say he's got a beaker with an odd red powder that he snagged from the lab where it all went south. I also have a trinket from my previous life; let's say he has a small metal key. He doesn't think it unlocks anything anymore.

Personality traits! What's most important to me is honesty, but not in a "never lie but find loopholes" way. More like "be genuine and don't try to love-bomb people into joining your stupid cult". Other people say that I'm a little too fond of cats. He has a kind of hero-worship thing going on. No matter what, I can't relax around other rodents, for what are probably obvious reasons. 

Speed is 25 or 35 if I drop to all fours, Defense is 13 (11 for light armor + 2 from Dexterity), and Initiative is +2. 

Rickatik Wheelrunner left his family behind to join the Cult of Labo Tor, and then left that behind to go to Pugmire. I think he didn't go to Pugmire on purpose, just stowed away on board a boat and wound up there because he was too broke or polite to say he wanted to go somewhere else. And really, does he want to go anywhere else? The Monarchies are more appealing on some level, but like, that's really intimidating. I think he's probably scampering around Riverwall, looking for something to happen. 

Ricky is a white mouse with red eyes. He chews his tail when he's nervous (which is a lot), and wears that key around his neck like a luck charm. 

That'll do it, I think. 

Character Creation: Heckin' Good Doggos

Who's a good boy.

The Game: Heckin' Good Doggos
The Publisher: Wet Ink Games
Degree of Familiarity: I'm a dog owner, but otherwise none
Books Required: Just the one

I decided to do something easy and wholesome, so here we are. Heckin' Good Doggos is a game in which you play one of the titular heckin' good doggos. As written, you're a pack of neighborhood dogs dealing with fairly mundane threats that might pose a problem for your Best Friends, but the book also includes a number of hacks (Mechin' Good Doggos being my current fav, though Hexin' Good Doggos is also fun). I'm gonna make a character for the standard version of the game, though.

So, basic concepty sort of stuff first. Having already taken inspiration from Si for one character, I shall take inspiration from Leo, my dearly departed yellow lab, for this one. My doggo character's name is Superhero. He's a young golden retriever, just out of puppyhood, big enough to get into trouble but not fully grown yet. Superhero was one of a litter of pups that have now all been given away to different Friends. I think he might still have playdates with his siblings sometimes. 

Next, pick a breed. This isn't a literal dog breed, it's a description of how the doggo approaches the world. I think Friendly makes the most sense for Superhero.

Divide 10 points betwixt three stats (Brawn, Smarts, Guts). Well, I think I'll just put two points into Smarts (Superhero is, like the dog of his inspiration, not the sharpest knife on the tree). I'll put four each into Brawn and Guts.

Skills! There are nine (three in each attribute), and I get 3 points to divide among any three I choose. So I think I shall pick as my skills: Staying, Sensing, and Sniffing. And I'll just put one point into each, how bout. 

Now we think about Superhero's Best Friend. I think said hooman is a little boy of about 5, named Noah. Noah picked Superhero out of the litter; his parents told him to pick a puppy to take home, and Superhero came over, sat in front of Noah, and gave a yip, and then licked him. Love at first sight. I help by playing with Noah. Superhero has noticed that Noah has a habit of forgetting to play because the grebbies in the little glowy-box steal his brain, so Superhero does helpful things like tug on his socks and yip at him. 

Neighborhood! I need to add in a detail about the neighborhood as Superhero knows it. I think it'd be cool if there were a dog park; that would make for a nice meeting spot for the pack. 

And that's actually it! I know I'm gonna wind up running this at some point. Yip. 

Character Creation: CHOMP!

I find myself with a little time, but only a little, so.

The Game: CHOMP!
The Publisher: Zombie Dog Games
Degree of Familiarity: I've seen a shitload of zombie movies, does that count?
Books Required: Just the one

I mean, I dunno. The stated goal of this game was that the designers wanted to make a fun, fast-paced unique game. It's by no means unique (it's just a bare-bones version of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, except not really even that, because there is nothing specifically zombie-related about the game), but except for that, it's a simple, beer-n-pretzels little zombie game, and that's fine.

Basically this is just a tactical combat engine with some zombies pasted on. You could make them aliens or Smurfs or penguins or whatever, it'd work more or less the same. So let's make a survivor! 

First thing we do is roll for Skill Focus, that is, which overarching combat approach or ability is my survivor's most important one. A roll of 4 gives me Athletics, so I get a +1 to Athletics and I move on to the Athletics page.

So, characters have professions but it's just set dressing, what you did before the Rise happened. I'll say my guy was a Tai Chi instructor, and his name is Scout. He probably smells of patchouli and talks about "energy" a lot. I hate him already.

Well, actually, the next thing we do is roll for a trait (once at level 1 and again at level 3, though I'm puzzled as to why a game that explicitly makes characters disposable has a leveling system - oh, wait, you level at the end of a scene, that's OK then). I roll and get Graceful, so I get +1 to Attack and Defense.

Now I get one Tactic, but I can pretty much take any one that I have the prereqs for. I think I just want Cat-Like Reflexes, though (I get a +2 to any Athletics roll).

And that's pretty much it! Scout has a beard, long hair (man bun!), tends to wear loose shirts and shorts, and he usually wore flip-flops but that's a bad idea since the zombies started coming around, so he's switched to moccasins. I'm sure he has some theory about why the dead are rising and I'm sure it's inane. 

Character Creation: The Widening Gyre

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, the falcon did gyre and gimble in the wabe...wait, hang on.

The Game: The Widening Gyre
The Publisher: High Rock Press
Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game, but I know Savage Worlds pretty well
Books Required: Widening Gyre and some version of the Savage Worlds rules

Widening Gyre is Savage Worlds steampunk. That's simple enough, but it has an interesting and compelling setting, and also a chapter talking about what conventions and tropes are intrinsic to steampunk, and another about other applications of the game. It looks pretty well put-together, actually.

The default start for the game is 1895, and in addition to steam- and galvanism-powered magic, there's also, like, magic-magic afoot. The real turning point in the setting was when Savants (mad scientists) started showing up and slinging amazing steam-powered tech around, which was all very well until some yo-yo created an entire flying city that flew the length of France in one night and then crashed into Paris, killing a lot of very important people (and, like, just people-people). 

I think I want to make a Savant, but I think it'd be interesting to make one who's a Clockwork Man. The book doesn't seem to prohibit that, so I'm gonna. Clockwork Men are basically robots made for some kind of specific purpose, and my character was made for doing Weird Science, the thinking being that if the Savant is a construct under government control, then at least they can shut it down before it does anything too wacky. (It just occurred to me that I'm dangerously close to making a chatGPT robot as a character, and may need to be flogged.)

Anywhichway, Clockwork Men are made of steel and brass, so they don't breathe or eat or anything, but I do need a genre-appropriate fuel source. I'll say my guy is wind-up; he has to stick a key into the port in his side and wind himself at least once a day. Also I have the Outsider thing going on, which...oh, right, Widening Gyre is an Explorer's Edition thing, but my brain goes to SWADE. Well, fine, I'll convert to SWADE, it's not like it's hard. 

Moving on, I get 2 Armor because I'm made of metal, honey, like you're really gonna hurt me with that WAIT WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT MICROWAVE?! Magic used on me directly takes -2, which is fine. I also get a d6 in a skill of my choice to represent my programming, so um, I'm gonna make that Weird Science.

Whew, I think that's all the baseline shit. Attributes! Tempting as it is to frontload my Smarts, I'm gonna put a d6 in everything because that kind feels right for a robot. 

Skills! Again, converting to SWADE, so I get d4 in Persuasion, Common Knowledge, Athletics, Stealth, and Notice, and then of course my d6 in Weird Science, and then I get 12 more points. I'm gonna bump up Common Knowledge and Athletics to d6. That's 10 more points. I'll give my robot a d6 in Science, a d6 in Occult, a d4 in Fighting, a d4 in Piloting, a d6 in Repair, and a d6 in Research. 

Hindrances! Gotta dig into this guy's backstory and brain a little more. I see him as being created to do Weird Science in a controlled way, in a kind of "guard the dangerous shit" sort of way. His name is Ladon, after the dragon of mythology that guarded the golden apples. Ladon himself has pointed out that a) this makes him a monster, not a scientists and b) Hercules fucking shot Ladon and stole the apples, so what exactly is the thinking here? 

So already we're leaning, I think, toward a robot going rogue and leaving behind its intended function. Well, heck, let's take Wanted as a Major Hindrance - the powers that be want him back because he knows things. (I think it'd be interesting if the "things" he "knows" aren't even all that earth-shaking, it's just that he knows how to do Weird Science and if he's not being controlled by the powers that be, said powers get all grabby-hands.) In a related matter, I'll take Suspicious as a Minor Hindrance. I'll also take Hesitant (draw two action cards, take the worst), as Ladon needs a minute to run simulations before he acts. I suspect in play I would eventually want to flip that to the Calculating Edge.

Speaking of Edges, I have four "points" to throw around! Let's use two to take Arcane Background (Savant) and the other two to bump Smarts to d8. Since I have the Arcane Background, I get two powers. While Ladon's knowledge of and affinity for Weird Science were programmed, the devices he came up with were all his (this, by the way, would invite some very high-falutin' "holy shit the singularity" kind of discussions in a more sci-fi kind of game, but in steampunk I don't think that's necessary). 

Since Ladon is a literal Clockwork Man, I think his devices should be mechanical rather than galvanic, at least at first. If Ladon's programming was basically "do science and make people better," what problem would he think to solve? Coming out of the Time of Turmoil, I think Ladon might start basic and notice how flimsy human beings are, and seek to protect them. So let's give him Deflection!

Ladon developed a set of braces worn over the arms and torso, much like a shirt with stiff guide wires and a central wheel that can be used to wind it up. Microfilaments along the arms and across the chest measure incoming vibrations and make the body react, moving it out of the way of an attack. Ladon is always trying to figure out how to miniaturize it, or make it a little more intuitive for humans to use - they tend to try and fight the motions.

Second power: Havoc. Ladon developed a circular device about the size of a football. Activate and throw it, and it flies apart with bands of metal and leather, whipping everything in a small area around. I think the "Bedlam Disc" was part of Ladon's initial experiments in prediction of incoming danger, just a happy accident that works well as a weapon. 

Cool! Now, that would normally be it, but Widening Gyre characters also get four advances. So! 

First advance: I'll bump Weird Science and Science to d8. Second Advance: New Powers (Entangle and Illusion; for Illusion I picture a wrist-mounted lens that he shines a light through). Third Advance: Vigor d8 (Ladon figured out a new hardening process for his metal body, I guess). Fourth Advance: You know, this is weird, but I want the Berserk Edge. Of course Ladon doesn't go "berserk" in the classic BWWAAAGGH sense, just that he fashioned a special key that winds him really tight and then lets go. It makes him devastating in combat, but not terribly precise and not able to pull his punch, and it means he's "wound down" afterwards. 

And that's basically it! Ladon is man-sized (5'10, about 400 pounds because he's all metal). He's brass and steel, but his eyes have glass lenses. If it's quiet you can hear him ticking. He wears clothes, and thinks of himself as a man, which is why it's so perplexing to him that he clearly wasn't designed to be anything like a human being. 

I think his arc would either take him away from violence and into esoteric stuff like language and mind-reading, or, depending on how things break, deeper into violence and destruction and chaos as Ladon searches for some deeper meaning in why human beings seem to regard death and war as abstract exercises right up until they start spurting fluids (ew). 

Chill: Death, Death, Death

Today was Chill! Here's last time.

Most of the envoys are in Montana, having gone investigatin'. Jax, however, stayed behind in Boise - rather, he didn't go with them because he left the ranch to go buy himself a bump. 

He scores, and then meets up with his buddy Zack, who finds him ghosts to talk with. Zack tells him that there's weirdness afoot. There was a murder-suicide a couple of days ago, but it's been all but buried in the media because the woman involved was the daughter of a state rep. Jax gets the address, and goes to check it out. 

First he looks up whatever he can find online, and yeah, it's pretty awful. Supposedly Pete Lennert strangled his girlfriend Chrissy Pelt and then cut his own throat. Jax has a hard time believing this (who commits suicide by throat-slash?), so he heads over the apartment. The door's been busted in, probably by the cops, so Jax sneaks on in and has a look round. 

Right away, something's off. It looks like someone was standing in the bedroom and his throat was cut from behind - arterial spray, the whole nine yards - but then the victim walked on his own to the bathroom. There's signs of a struggle there, though of course a lot of the evidence has been removed. Jax uses Postcognition to get a better sense of what happened, and kind of wishes he hadn't.

He sees Pete Lennert in the bedroom putting some laundry away, and then a man appears out of nowhere standing behind him. The man slices Pete's throat and Pete lurches forward, dying. He collapses, but then the dark man mutters something in a language Jax doesn't understand and Pete gets up. He shuffles out of the bedroom, into the bathroom, where Chrissy is taking a bath. And then Pete falls on her, wraps his hands around her neck, and strangles her to death.

Jax tries to avoid freaking out, and as he's catching his breath a neighbor calls out "hey, who's there?" Jax answers, and manages to convince the guy that he's got permission to be here. The neighbor leaves him be, and Jax does another once-over and winds up swiping the laptops of both of the victims.

He takes them back to his car and does a little digging, and finds that they both have a group chat that includes Emma Whitman (the girl whose death set this case in motion), as well as several other people: Corey Waylon, Rose Velez, Xander Smart, Ashley Meinberg, and Ted Norman. Weirdly, Ashley shut down the chat yesterday, saying that "with everything that's happened" she needs time to process, and Ted responses "OK."

Jax texts all of this to the others, but doesn't hear back. While waiting, he does some more coke and wanders around Wal-Mart, and that winds up eating most of the night. He finally hears back from the others and learns where they are, so he gets in his car and drives to Montana to find them.

The other envoys put together the information they have. They still haven't found out what happened to Aidan Fisk and Curt Waylon (both employees of Big Hole Battle Park), just that they haven't shown up for work in nearly a week. They do a little digging and find that Aidan and Curt live in nearby (relatively speaking) Anaconda, while Curt's brother Corey and his girlfriend Rose Velez live in Bozeman, about three hours away. They split up - Willa and Jordan head north to Anaconda, while Dylan and Melanie head to Bozeman (and they tell Jax to meet them). Zoe stays at the hotel; whatever she saw in her postcognition vision yesterday really rattled her (and her player missed a session BOOOOO). 

Willa and Jordan hit Aidan's apartment first, and utterly fail to get his door open. Jordan finds a door that seems to belong to a nosy old lady, and knocks on her door instead. She learns that Aidan has been missing since Saturday, and the old lady (Mrs. Darlington) is worried about him. She gives the number and address for Curt Waylon, his friend and co-worker, and points them to the building "super", Dirk.

Dirk lets them into Aidan's place, but there isn't much to find. He's been gone about a week, he doesn't seem to have packed for a long journey, and there's no indication that he expected not to come home. Both envoys prepare themselves for the worst - this isn't looking good for Aidan. They head over to Curt's, hoping for better news.

Meanwhile, the other three envoys head to the apartment shared by Corey Waylon and Rose Velez. They, too, get into the building but not the apartment, and find a building employee. She sadly informs them that Corey Waylon died last night - she got the call this morning. She knows that Rose left to go to Boise yesterday, too; she learned that a friend of hers had been murdered (probably the Pelt/Lennert affair). She lets them poke around a little, but again, nothing that gives them a lead.

Jax takes the bull by the proverbial horns and texts Rose "hey gurl what's up". He gets a call back - Rose's mother. Turns out Rose died this morning in Boise. Her mother is looking for whatever answers she can get, since evidently Rose died of malaria but there isn't an outbreak in this part of the country. Jax (not the best one to be consoling a grieving mother) does his best, and after hanging up informs the other envoys.

Back in Anaconda, Willa and Jordan arrive at Curt's place. They try to pick this lock, but it ain't working and Willa shoulders it open. No smoking guns, here, either. Willa tries to use Voice of the Dead to call up Curt or Aidan, but gets the weird "static" she feels when the target either isn't dead or has passed on already. Finding a picture of Curt and Corey together, she tests her luck and calls up Corey's spirit, and this time it works.

Jordan and Willa question Corey, and find themselves in the unpleasant position of having to inform him that he died. He tells them that the doctors told him he had malaria, but then they tested him and discovered that he actually didn't because his blood was negative for the parasites that cause the disease. He asks after his brother and Rose, and Willa truthfully tells him that she doesn't know (at this point Willa and Jordan hadn't learned of Rose's death). Corey asks if they think he's going to Hell, and Willa says she doesn't think so - she's talked to ghosts before and as far as she knows it's just the tunnel of light. Corey thanks them and vanishes, and the envoys take a moment to process. This case is just bad, and they seem to be coming in at the end. But they still don't know where Ashley Meinberg and Ted Norman are, so maybe they're still alive?

They call up the other envoys and have Dylan call Ted Norman. Ted answers, and Dylan introduces himself (Ted knows of him; his thesis advisor is a colleague of Dylan's) and asks Ted to bring Ashley and meet them at an all-night coffee shop on campus in a few hours. Everyone gets back in cars and heads out - Dylan, Jax, and Melanie head directly to Boise, while Jordan and Willa try and follow the route that Curt and Aidan would take to work to see if they can find their car.

They do, unfortunately - it's mostly submerged in a swamp some miles east of the Big Hole. Skidmarks on the road indicate they stopped short, and Willa finds their bodies in the woods. Both of their throats are torn out, and their bodies have clearly been moved. The envoys continue on, and Jordan calls the highway patrol about the car so at least their bodies will be found.

Everyone arrives back in Boise later that night, and they go to the cafe to meet with Ted and Ashley. Ashley has clearly been crying (a lot of her friends have died this week!), and the two of them and the envoys go into a private room to talk this out. Jax heads to the bathroom to do a quick line...

Willa and Dylan explain that this week of horrors probably has something to do with the scary guy that appeared out of nowhere at the park. Ted says that the guy didn't answer when he asked his name (in nimipuutít), just looked pissed and backed off. 

Meanwhile, Jax is in the bathroom, leaning over the sink to do a line. He stands up and sees the dark man he saw in the vision earlier standing behind him. Before he can react, the man grabs his head and slams it into the mirror, and then throws him to the ground. Jax tries to sweep the leg, but his bad back betrays him and he's not able to land the kick. The man crouches down and locks eyes with him, muttering something Jax doesn't understand, and then vanishes.

Jax blots out the blood on his face as best he can, and then storms back to the others and demands to know from Ted what this guy said. Ted translates it (loosely, "fuck you, white man"), and the envoys decide to bring Ashley and Ted back to the ranch. At least there they can ward rooms and keep them safe. Willa and Jordan take Ashley to her place to pack a bag, and everyone else starts heading back.

When they get to Ashley's apartment, Willa hears panting from the bedroom (not like that). She has Ashley get behind her - none too soon, as a gigantic wolf charges in, jumps up, and bites into Willa's arm! She feels her arm break, but summons her strength and activates Astral Attack. She punches the wolf hard enough to break its jaw and knock some teeth loose, and Jordan scoops up some of Willa's blood and draws a circle around the wolf. 

Ashley is freaking the fuck out, not surprisingly. Jordan calls Dylan (figuring this wolf might be his brother, Alex), and Dylan heads over. But before he gets there, the dark man appears in the corner. He whispers something and the rain of blood starts, disrupting the circle. Jordan wards the room, and the man and the wolf disappear. The envoys take Ashley and get gone.

Back at the ranch, they have Darnell remove the mirror glass from Jax' face, while Jordan puts a splint on Willa's arm. They decide to all stay in the living room tonight so they can ward it. Dylan hears a howl in the distance, and realizes that he's still being hunted. 

Next time, we'll see if the envoys can stand up to these terrifying beings. 

Character Creation: Beat the Boss

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night....

The Game: Beat the Boss
The Publisher: Practical Fox
Degree of Familiarity: None, but it's PbtA. Honestly the lack of familiarity isn't the issue here
Books Required: Just the one

This is a bit of a head-scratcher, honestly. The idea is that you're playing organizers setting up a union in the face of anti-worker practices from the Boss, and like, that's cool and all. The game seems to be written explicitly as a way to facilitate conversation between people about union and worker's rights and so on. 

But like...it's a PbtA game. If all you're trying to do is help people have the hard conversations about the work of unionizing (and I know those conversations can be hard, because I'm part of a union and I've seen how tense things get when the word "strike" is mentioned, let alone when a strike is approved), why would you need a game system like PbtA? Or any RPG system? If all you want to do is roleplay hard conversations, surely you take your cues from improvisational theater? Improving situations and dialog is the easy bit, in my (considerable) experience as both a GM, a game designer, and in theater. Learning the rules and, more importantly, the conversational and philosophical and ludographical underpinnings of a roleplaying game can be a big mental hurdle for normal people.

Also...this game would be boring as shit. Very little attention is paid to the real, at-the-table conversation and situations that goes on. I have a vague idea of how to run it after reading it, but like, are we playing Amazon or Starbucks workers trying to get a union off the ground? Because that kind of work is long, boring (except when it's not), grueling, and maddening. Why would I want to roleplay that? 

Now, I can see this whole topic being fertile ground for a PbtA game, but like, gimme some edge. Show me the hard choices that unionizers have to make and how those choices hurt them and their families, and give me fucking examples because I think this game actually does consider the hard choices but it doesn't make it in the least bit evocative. Or, hell, do what every other RPG in existence knows to do and put some genre shit in here so that we're talking about unions through the lens of brain-eating aliens or something. 

Anyway, let's make a character. Should be quick, anyway. 

First thing we do is pick a playbook, which are called "tendencies" here, which is not a great name IMO, but whatever. I think I shall take Direct Action Organizer - I like confrontation, and it bothers me when people lie or flee to avoid having hard conversations. 

My Organizer's name is Alejandro Ortego; he goes by "Al" among the white people so as not to scare them. His family is Mexican, but he was born here (whatever city this hypothetical game is set) and knows the Hispanic and Latinx community. He's also light skinned enough to "pass", and one of his buddies told him when he was young that he could get in white people's faces without getting shot, and he's kind of taken that to heart. 

So, going down the "Look and Background" section: Gender and sexuality. Let's say Al is a cisgender straight man, he/him. Clothes: Business casual. Body: Fit. Eyes: Steely. Who you can relate to outside of the union: There are a couple of examples, here, but I don't love them. Let's say college buddies. Al gets together with three or four of his former classmates to play ball and bitch about work sometimes, and while he probably wouldn't admit it, he appreciates the "devil's advocate" perspective. Vehicle: Used hatchback, that's fine.

Stats! I have to pick my experience level because it changes my stats. Let's say Al is an organizer; I don't see him as being a senior. That means I can add a total of +1 to my stats, which could be 0 in everything and +1 in something, but that's weak. Let's put a -1 in Skill, +1 in Moxie and 0 in Vigor, Empathy, and Smarts. 

I pick a Role, which isn't on the sheet because it'd be on a second page that I didn't feel like printing. Let's make Al a Field Organizer. 

And finally, I pick two moves from the options in my tendency (would it kill you to put "pick two" on them? Or to have an actual chargen section in the book that has all the info you need?). I will take face-to-face confrontation and they of action as Al's moves. 

And that's basically it! I think Al is in his late 20s or early 30s, and I picture him running a little hot - he's fully capable of having a civil conversation but he switches "can we stop fucking around?" mode a little too quickly. I think he'd burn out in play.

Wicked Ones: Preaching the Word of Dipping Sauce

Wicked Ones! In today's episode, Baldruf beheads a dude, and Thudd turns into a leek and marries a horse. 

Last time, the monsters effectively destroyed the Confraternity of the Three and rededicated the Sepulcher of Suffering to the "Dark Three." Now, they must go out into the world and preach their gods' word! Actually, they're looking to set up the Sepulcher as a kind of waystation for dark forces, starting with swaying Briggon's Notch (a neutral-aligned pirate town) to the Dark.

So they roll into the Notch and set up in the market square. Yog-en-Yeg beats his big wardrums and they start trying to get people's attention, but they run into two problems right off. First of all, not everyone speaks Dark Tongue, and second, Thudd is a klutz and knocks over a wagon of vegetables ("MY CABBAGES!"). The vendor stomps up and demands recompense. Thudd tries to play it off, but this guy won't be dissuaded and starts making a scene. Not wanting to be run out of the Notch so easily, Baldruf sneaks up on the guy and picks his pocket, paying him off with his own money. He wanders away in a huff, but the citizenry is watching the characters. 

Fnort sets up a dice game and starts trying to show off the glory of Zaheen, god of chaos. Baldruf tries to draw in business by winning (showing what can be accomplished if you sacrifice to the Dancing Madman!) but a well-dressed guy catches his arm and spills his extra dice. The man says, in perfect Dark Tongue, that cheating is frowned upon here (I mean, it's not, but getting caught is). Baldruf threatens him with his sharp-ass knife, and the guy says that he's amenable to being bribed. Baldruf flips him a gold and the guy strolls off.

Meanwhile, Thudd wanders off, not wanting to get into any more trouble - every time he leaves the Sepulcher bad things seem to happen to him! He notices three pirates sharing a cask of grog, and his desire for booze gets the better of him. He creeps up, pokes a hole in the cask, and drinks most of it. Now very drunk, he's vaguely aware of the pirates arguing over where the hell the grog went. They start looking for a leak, and Thudd mumbles the word /lik/ until it doesn't mean anything anymore. When they peek around the back of the cask, there they see...a leek! Glory to Zaheen! (Or maybe Dalgeth.)

Back at the market square, Yog-en-Yeg tries drumming (lol) up some more interest in the Sepulcher. He gets a little more aggressive, and he and Baldruf just stuff a couple of dudes into a sack. Another pirate spots this, and says "You! I know you! Yog-en-Yeg!" Yog-en-Yeg recognize him as Three-Fingered Harding. He's only got three fingers because Yog-en-Yeg ate the other two.

Harding runs off with purpose, and Yog-en-Yeg points this out to Baldruf. Baldruf follows and stabs him, but misjudges where he's standing and gets a faceful of blood. People notice, and Baldruf loudly claims that this guy was trying to pick his pocket. Thudd, drunkenly stumbling up, claims that the dead guy tried to rob him, too, helping Baldruf out!

Except that Thudd is still a leek. The people around scream "DEMON ONION!" and start running. Chaos erupts, and the "militia" - actually a bunch of volunteers wearing stupid-looking sashes - tromp into the square and demand to know what's all this then. Yog-en-Yeg, making use of his Crystal Tongue (it lets him speak and understand any language, but gives him terrible indigestion), explains that they should come to the Sepulcher of Suffering! Worship the Dark Three! Have dipping sauce!

Some of the militia have a conversation with the ettin, trying to figure out what's going on. But a bunch of the others go looking around the streets for this "demon onion." Baldruf yanks Thudd behind some stalls to hide, but the well-dressed guy from before is standing there, flipping a coin (that he got from Baldruf!) around his fingers. "Everyone's looking for you," he says. "But I'm the head of the guard, so I can keep you safe, for some more coin." 

Baldruf considers this, and then shoots the guy in the neck with his magic crossbow bolt. The guy's head falls off and his body stumbles and falls (because Thudd tied his boots together). His head is flapping its lips trying to talk, so Baldruf claps his hand over the mouth. Thudd quickly works some spare leather and parts into a harness to put the head on Baldruf's belt, and Baldruf tries to have his skeleton minion get the body up and do a little dance, but the citizenry interprets that as an undead invasion and the panic worsens. 

Fnort, meanwhile, figures this has gone well and truly pear-shaped, steals a barrel of pickled herring, and heads for the hills. 

"HOPE TO SEE YOU AT SEPULCHER!" bellows Yog-en-Yeg. 

Cut to back at the Sepulcher, a couple of days later. A well-dressed pirate rides up on a horse and knocks on the door. Yog-en-Yeg answers, and the guy presents him with a parchment - a bill for the damage the Wicked Ones caused. Yog-en-Yeg laughs at this, and the guy makes to ride off, but the ettin grabs him and yanks him into the dungeon. And then, as an afterthought, grabs the horse as well.

Baldruf, over the next couple of nights, prays to Irion, the god of thievery and baking, and everyone finds one of their possessions gets swapped out for someone else's (Yog-en-Yeg gets Fnort's cleric boots, which he promptly wears as hats; Fnort gets Thudd's recently completed electromagnet; Baldruf gets Yog-en-Yeg's war drums; Thudd gets Baldruf's magical crossbow bolt). Thudd gets very drunk and marries the horse. His name is Pearl. He and Thudd are still working on effective communication, but Thudd starts building a clockwork groom to take care of him.

Yog-en-Yeg finishes digging a staircase to a second level of the dungeon. A horrible tentacled creature slithers up from the depths, taking up residence in the dungeon, as does another mimic. Fnort and his new batch of kobolds finish up the reliquary, and the Wicked Ones decide their next order of business should be to strike the gnomes of Flywheel and steal something interesting and mechanical to put in said reliquary. And wouldn't you know it, the Doohickey Festival is coming up! 

Next time, more crazy hijinks!

Character Creation: Temples & Tombs

Pulp is good for you.

The Game: Temples & Tombs
The Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

There are a few games like this - inspired by Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and suchlike - though not as many as you'd think. It's a natural fit for an RPG, really. The only thing that needs expanded is from singular protagonist to ragtag group of wierdos, and that's easy enough. 

This particular incarnation looks fun; it leans hard into a failure on a roll being a loss of narrative control rather than a failure of that particular action, and that's fine as long as your players are paying attention. So let's make a character!

 

First we choose a profession. Let's see, last time I did a character for a game like this was, I think, The World of Indiana Jones. Temples & Tombs is mechanically much more my speed, though. Anyway, I think I'll go with Soldier. I dunno, I think it would be interesting to play the Elliott of such a group, if you'll pardon the Leverage callback, someone who's not really invested in the science and discovery of the situation but is highly invested in keeping everyone safe. (Actually, you know what? That's totally how Rick starts out in The Mummy.)

There's a slot for pronouns on the sheet, come on, everyone knows those weren't invented until 2019. Pfft.

Anyway, next, we determine age, which then determines points for attributes and skills. I think I want my soldier to be a veteran of the Great War (honestly if he's American, it's that or some very uncomfortable conflicts in Central and South America and no thanks). Assuming he was 18 when he went to war in 1917, that would make him in his 30s during the time this game is set, so that puts him "in your prime" for game purposes. That means I get 14 points for Attributes and 10 for Skills. 

There are four Attributes: Grit, Quick, Wit, and Style. Minimum 2 (so why not say I get 6 points and start me at 2 in all of them?), max 4, except Grit, which is my key Attribute as a soldier and can therefore go to 5. Well, Grit would allow the kinds of feats of physical asskickery that I want for this guy, so sure, I'll dump points into that and take it 5. I have two points left (after putting everything else at the minimum) so I'll put one each into Style and Quick. 

Skills! I get 10 points, but Skills can only have a single point, except the three associated with my profession (which are Fight, Endure, and Shoot), which can go to 3. 

Well, I'll put a point into Fight, Endure, Feat, Drive, Shoot, Stunt, Scare, and Savvy. That's 8. I'll put another point into Fight and the last one into Endure. 

I get to pick a Talent. Two of them have to do with ordering people around, so I'll pick the third. I don't roll Luck if I'm under threat of lethal violence (Luck in this game isn't a thing you spend to make things go your way, it's a thing you roll to see if things don't go your way, so it's better not to roll it). 

I have to pick an ambition. There are a few examples, one of which is "protect the people around you." I like that, but I'll rephrase is as "save these lunatics from themselves." I picture my guy as being very pleased that he's not in a damn trench anymore, and wanting very much to get back to the relatively civilized world. I think that in play I'd ask to be the sibling of one of the other PCs to give him a good compelling reason to join in the crazy adventures. 

My Income is Modest, that's fine. I'll skip the Institution and Relationship questions because those are group things and this is just me, though I'll note that if I were playing this dude I would push for the Institution to be a wealthy patron or adventuring society, something private and privately funded. 

I speak my native language (English) and that's it, so apparently I didn't pay attention to the locals when I was in France. I get a bunch of stuff as gear: pistol, rifle, combat dagger, fatigues, survival gear. I also get a signature item. I'll say it's a letter from my girlfriend. She wrote me exactly once when I was away at war, and then I got home and she'd moved away and everyone was very tight-lipped about it. I think in play it'd be fun if she swung in on a vine or something as a rival adventurer, but that's just me. Her name Hope Sweeny. 

That's all but the shouting, actually. My soldier's name is Humphrey Eckston; folks call him "Ecks" and that's really better than "Humphrey." He's from...let's say somewhere in Iowa or Nebraska or something. He and his brother joined up to get out of town, and while his brother discovered a taste for life and travel and exploration and adventure, Ecks got overseas, into a trench, and decided maybe corn farming isn't so bad. But his baby brother called him up and asked him to go on a little trip as his bodyguard, and when Ecks heard where this adventure was headed, he knew his brother was in over his head. 

Ecks is of medium height, broad shouldered and kind of lumpy (he's eating better since being home), but he's still strong and fully capable of handling himself. He keeps that letter in a billfold in his jacket, and he reads it at night before going to sleep. His brother snatched it once and Ecks socked him right in the damn nose, so people pretty much know he's serious about his privacy. I think Tom Sizemore could have played Ecks, as a younger man. 

That's it!

Atlantis: Rebuilding Gorgos

Funnily enough, the PCs have never actually been to Atlantis in this game of Atlantis. Here's last time.

The heroes won the Battle of Gorgos, and over the next six months, they work with Queen Amara to rebuild the country. The topple the power of the Cult of Set and redistribute its wealth into the country. They rebuild the Vril cannons they destroyed (they figure that since there are other countries that are not fans of Gorgos, it might be wise to have the defenses up), but change them so that they don't run on human sacrifices anymore. They set up schools and hospitals, free the slaves (doy), and work to integrate men into society as equals. And, of course, they bring the exiles from the Black Isle back into society and try to help them. 

The government shifts from a theocracy to a monarchy, with Queen Amara, Imani's wife, as the head of state. Imani, for her part, takes as her title "Protector of the Isles", and the others - Eithne, Thanos, and Akala - are made nobility of Gorgos (which has to really burn Set's ass). 

As the month of Ululu wears on, the heroes get on a boat and head to Dardanus. They meet with the Gray Council and firm up their treaty with Gorgos, part of which is non-aggression, part of which is the agreement that the heroes won't rock up into the Institute and start breaking things. (Thanos: "As long as you're not hiding some creepy cult secretly running everything." Me: innocent whsitle)

After several weeks in Dardanus, the heroes meet in a conference room with a dope magical map and start talking about what's going on in Gondwana that might require their attention. 

Thanos tells them that he's heard rumors about a creature that's romping around in the nearby nation of Dar (almost entirely farmers and herders, no warriors or soldiers to speak of) eating livestock and occasionally taking people. They say it can't be tracked; they're calling it the "Skull Wolf." Thanos notes that this isn't on the scale of things that they've been dealing with of late, but he grew up in Dardanus and the people of Dar were always very kind. He'd like to deal with this to help them out.

Imani brings a couple of bigger issues to the table. First of all, a big contingent of Gorgon pirates have a "village" (really a flotilla of rafts and ships) in the southwestern part of the Saharan Sea. They've been raiding the Hesperian colonies, largely because they're obviously not going to come back to Gorgos where they'll almost certainly be arrested. Also, the nation of Khem is fighting a war of border skirmish with Turan. Khem, now that it's not a monarchy, doesn't really want to be in that war, but Turan isn't going to forgive and forget. And, Queen Nyavinghi was promised land in Khem, which the heroes need to negotiate. 

Akala mentions that there's a flying city called Ankhat that floats around southern Gondwana. It's not in great repair - it only floats about 30 feet off the ground and it doesn't have a working propulsion system, so it's hitched to elephants and slaves. Presently it's trying to get into the nation of Okalo, but it's causing some border disputes. 

Also, also, the heroes learn that Dabba has rebuilt their lotus economy. After the heroes left Dabba, the nation nearly collapsed. The magical slaves (the Gallu) ran rampant, the poor went into withdrawal because they couldn't get their fix, and everything kind of went tits up. And then flower production got going again somehow. The Cult of Baal (sorry, "the Nameless God") has taken power again, and spread lots of rumors implicating the heroes in the chaos (which, in fairness, isn't entirely inaccurate). 

There's a lot happening, is the point. They talk over their priorities, and decide to go to Dar and hunt down the Skull Wolf, and then go take care of the pirates, and then head to Khem, and then head to Okalo. Dabba's not on the agenda yet, but Akala correctly points out that they really need an army to march into Dabba, and they don't have one of those yet.

Next time: Wolf hunt!

Pugmire: Off to the Monarchies!

Yesterday we played us some Pugmire. Here is last time. 

Our heroes complete their journey back to Pugmire, accompanying their new friend Amaranth von Rex, and her prisoner Pickles von Shadow. En route they discuss their plan to get to the Monarchies with a prisoner (that'd be Pickles). Dire Newfoundland points out that transporting someone that long is dangerous - are they just going to keep her tied up the whole time? (Pickles hisses angrily.) Petunia Pibble mentions that perhaps they could take a boat to the Monarchies, and Amaranth says that that's probably the smartest option - take a riverboat south to the Acid Sea, book passage on a ship in Waterdog Port, and sail east to Port Matthew, which is the southernmost city of the Monarchy of Rex. 

Gelert Sausagedog asks how long a trip that is; Amaranth says maybe four days from Pugmire to Waterdog Port, and another week of sailing to Port Matthew. The dogs - Dire and his lorge companion Boomer Pitbull especially - express some consternation about traveling over the Acid Sea, but Amaranth says that it's perfectly safe as long as you don't fall in, and even then just keep your snoot above water and you'll get fished out before the acid does any real damage. 

Another couple of days of overland travel and the dogs arrive back in Riverwall. They head for the storehouse/mission, and meet up with their trustee Bivi Affenpinscher to tell him of their plans. Bivi, of course, is all for it - this is what Pioneers do! 

The Pioneers all prepare for their journey in their own way. Petunia goes with Bivi to the Guild House to read up on navigation and sailing. Sausagedog goes along to find if there's a way to make a visual record of their journey, and Bivi gives him a small, black, plastic box. It has a button on the top, and if one looks through a tiny window on the back and pushes the button, and then strokes a small wheel until it stops clicking, the image seen through the window will be captured within the box. It can later be magically transferred onto a parchment. Bivi warns Sausagedog to keep the device in a case of some kind - it's made of plastic, after all, so it's money just by itself. 

Peppa talks with Brother Darius German, the dog running the shelter that the Pioneers kind of co-opted as their storehouse after the last one burned down. She's worried about leaving the shelter - there are a lot of good dogs in need of food and aid here. Darius says that there are, but he can get help from the Church of Man if he needs to, and besides, one of the most important jobs that dogs had in the Age of Man was to support them emotionally. Who, he asks, is going to support Pickles? Being dragged across the sea to face criminal justice has to be terrifying, and while Pickles must answer for her crimes, that doesn't mean she has to be afraid the whole time. Peppa recognizes the wisdom here, and resolves to keep her eye on Pickles' welfare on the way.

Dire goes to visit Mr. Meow to get a grooming before going. He asks about fur care on the Acid Sea, and Meow says that the spray can sting, but Dire's floof will actually be helpful. He does warn him not to wear armor on the boat, though, as that's a death sentence if he falls in. Dire asks for conditioner to take with him, and Meow produces a solid bar wrapped in paper. Slice off a tiny bit of this, he says, mix it with water until it becomes thick. "Conditioner jerky," says Dire. 

Boomer procures some tiny stuffed mice, just in case they have to distract any hostile cats. Dire notes that's maybe kind of racist, but does see what Boomer's going for and makes contact with his friend Kevin Chihuahua to purchase a bag of dried catnip. 

All of the dogs go through their rucksacks and leave behind anything they won't need or that might be a hindrance, but procure traveling clothes as necessary. Everyone turns up at Granny Sue's Roadhouse for dinner the night before leaving, and they toast to the journey. (Pickles hisses angrily.)

The next morning, they assemble at the dock and ask their friend Tony Mutt (the ferryman) for a recommendation for a riverboat. He points them to the Cane Bagnato, a paddleboat operated by his friend Loopy Lagotto. They find Loopy and book passage - four days south to Waterdog Port, a stop after two days to resupply at the village of Wooford. The characters embark, and Loopy notices the cats for the first time. Sausagedog and Peppa note that Loopy is, to the say least, nonplussed to have cats on his boat, but he wants the plastic so he doesn't say much. 

The characters divide up rooms (there are only three berths on the Cane), and everyone settles in to the journey. Sausagedog practices leaping around on the upper deck of the boat, Petunia asks questions about everything, Dire and Peppa keep Amaranth and Pickles company. Their captain is cold and standoffish to Amaranth and as outright abusive to Pickles as he can get away with, but one threatening wuff from Dire and he backs off. 

The Cane arrives in Wooford after a couple of days, and everyone goes ashore to stretch their legs. Peppa finds their church - actually the home of one Beebee Pekingese, as Wooford is small enough to only need a single Acolyte. Beebee welcomes Peppa and they trade stories about the country vs Pugmire, and Peppa offers her assistance should she ever need it.

Sausagedog, Petunia, and Boomer find the local in, the Spiraling Sparrow ("if people drink in your establishment, the name of it shouldn't be a tongue twister," muses Sausagedog). The bartender and owner, Crabber Hound, welcomes them and correctly guess they're here with Loopy. They order up some meat pies and sit and chat; Crabber tells them about Waterdog Port. 

Avoid the Bernese Marina unless you're rich or wish to be poor, he says, it's beautiful but designed to separate dogs from their plastic. Sunset Barrio is probably where they want to go, it's really the cultural center of the city, complete a zoo, a natural history museum, and several theaters. Avoid the Old Barrio, which locals call the Haze - it's a haven for crime and violence. Crabber notes that the characters seem like they can handle themselves, but still, it's not safe.

Meanwhile, at the dock, Dire and Amaranth are keeping an eye on Pickles when a short, stocky, gray-furred dog carrying a club and wearing an old military-issue breastplate approaches. He introduces himself as Boykus Vallhund, and asks why the cat is bound. When he hears it's a prisoner, he nods and rumbles a little. Talking with him, he's clearly a former soldier and assumes Dire is, too, and isn't necessarily overjoyed to learn he's a Pioneer out to experience the diverse joys of the world. Dire and the cats decide to go for a walk, and Dire mumbles "I always heard Vallhunds were closer to Man, a noble breed. That's disappointing." "It's not about the breed," replied Amaranth. (Pickles hisses angrily.)

The three of them arrive at the Sparrow and Crabber throws a few more pies in the oven. They relay what they've heard about Waterdog Port, and Dire says that he might just have to go into the Haze. He's not saying as much out loud, but his mother relocated to Waterdog Port years ago, and she might still live there. Also, y'know, crime is kind of where he feels at home. 

Amaranth points out that when they get to Waterdog Port, they can take some time and see the sights, as long as they have a way to keep Pickles from running. (Pickles hisses angrily.) They might have to make some plastic before they can book passage on a ship to Port Matthew anyway - it's not necessarily cheap to transport seven people, one of them a prisoner. The Pioneers are fine with that; they all want to explore a new city, anyway. 

Pickles hisses angrily.