Epyllion: Those Aren't Croths!

Last night we played some Epyllion! Here's last time.

Our heroes wake up and go about their days. Toverin and OB head to Vizali's forge to learn how to repair the Sword of Kebros. Stars decides to really dig in to dris new tome: Lung-Kwan's Famous Dragons and What They Did. Dre is looking for information on House Kebros, but discovers that a lot of the information in this book has been blotted out with ink, leaving only, basically, "these are the guys that betrayed Dragonia."

Zeblek decides to go get into some trouble, and, wandering out to the edge of the city, finds a dragon working on a curious device. It's a series of stone rings with glass windows between them, forming a kind of tube or cylinder. As dre watches, the dragon moves around some metal squares at the far end, kind of like a sliding puzzle, and a burst of lightning shoots down the tube! Zeblek asks the dragon what this is, and the dragon (Rollatha) explains that it's a lightning discharger. Dragons build up a lot of electricity just by beating their wings, using magic - all of that energy has to go somewhere, and this device shoots it out over the ocean, harmlessly. 

Rollatha goes to make an adjustment, and Zeblek, being Zeblek, messes with the panels. The device backfires and blows Zeblek against a wall! Rollatha runs over and picks them up by the scruff of dris neck, and asks if dre is all right. Zeblek nods, and Rollatha snarls that that was a really stupid thing to do! Zeblek, however, isn't even there - it's a mirror image. Zeblek - the real one - slips away down an alleyway, and feeling guilty, comes back with a pie as big as dre is. Dre gives it to Rollatha as a peace offering, and apologizes.

Meanwhile, OB and Toverin get to Vizali's forge, and dre shows them the huge iron pot that will be used to melt down the shards of the Sword of Kebros. They'll need some fuel for the fire, however, so Vizali sends the two drakes out to the edge of town to collect a particular kind of vine - it's thick and burns hot. 

They find the vine; it's wrapped around a crumbling archway. They yank on it, gathering as much as they can, but OB manages to pull a little too hard and the whole archway comes crashing down! An elder dragon stomps up and asks if OB knocked this thing down, and dre admits it. "Good," says the elder. "I need the stone. I AM EARTHFURY! I'm a house-carver, and it takes a lot of materials to build a house." Dre helps OB up and gathers up the stones into a pack on dris back, and OB and Toverin head back to Vizali's forge.

Vizali breaks up the vines and loads them into the forge, and has Toverin set it alight. The fire will take some time to get hot enough, dre says - maybe go get some snacks? OB fashions a sling to wear with Toverin to help them carry the amount of food they need, and they go shopping.

Stars, frustrated with the redactions to dris copy of Famous Dragons, decides to go to a library. There's one called The Alcove not far away (the Cavern Library still being under construction), but when dre gets there, dre realizes that there's only claw-holds to climb up a steep wall. Steeling themself, Stars climbs...but gets stuck, unable to see the next claw-hold and unable to back down (and, of course, unable to fly).

Zeblek arrives at about this time, and goes to help Stars up, but Stars asks if maybe dre can just make another claw-hold for them? Zeblek does so, and Stars clambers into the Alcove.

They meet a young librarian dragon named Hazzel, who directs Stars to the section on Dragon History. Dre does mention that the Cavern has a better selection, but Icepyre isn't letting anyone in at the moment. Stars does some studying, but once again finds that most of what's in the books about House Kebros is heavily slanted - it's either "these guys betrayed us" or "back in the mythic days, they did some great stuff, before they betrayed us."

Hazzel mentions, though, that Keetsah the Chosen, the most important founder of House Kebros, is actually outside of the city. Dre became a Mystic, turning to stone, but the entirety of dris body was then covered in swider silk (swiders are little eight-legged birds that spin webs) so as to prevent any magic from escaping. 

Zeblek and Stars find this very confusing, though. If that's the case, then how did they talk to Keetsah's ruby-light project beneath the city? Was that really Keetsah? Perhaps there's part of dris body that's buried and not covered by the shroud? Very strange. 

Meanwhile, at the forge, Vizali melts down the fragments of the sword, and tells OB and Toverin that the next step is to pour the liquid fragments into a trough to shape it (and then dre will sharpen it). Dre points out the symbols on the inside of the forge, calling upon the stone moon to let the heat build to the point that it needs to. Dre talks with OB about magic, and about how you can use magic for the end result, or for the process. OB is confused, so Vizali explains: If you want water, you can call on the moons to make it rain, or you can call on the moons to just conjure water. Either works, but if you magic the process, you have more control over the end result. As a crafter, OB gets this.

Speaking of magic, Vizali brings up the next point - magic from all five of the moons is bound into the sword, but when dre pours out the molten gem, it's going to escape unless contained. Dre can handle the stone moon, but the other four will need some attention. OB and Toverin run to find Stars and Zeblek, and the clutch returns to the forge. 

Vizali pours out the gems, and the dragons try and grab the magic as it flees. OB captures the magic of the storm moon, bringing lightning back into the sword. Toverin deflty handles the liberty moon. Zeblek very nearly loses the void moon, but dris shadow grabs it at the last second and Zeblek grabs dris shadow's ankles, so it looks very silly for a moment but they keep it under control. But Stars misses the magic of the spirit moon! 

Thinking quickly, Stars reaches up and grabs a flower growing from a plant in the ceiling, and pulls down new magic from the spirit moon. Dre shoves it into the sword, and the process is complete. Vizali wipes the sweat from dris brow and says that tomorrow morning, they'll get on with the sharpening. For now, good work!

The clutch talks about their day, and when OB and Toverin talk about the archway, Zeblek asks what it lead to (or from). They aren't sure; they were focused on vines. It's getting dark, but there's still some light left, so the drakes (with a little convincing from Zeblek to Stars) head to the remains of the archway to check it out.

They discover that the archway used to be over the terminus of a stone path, now long overgrown with moss, leading down a hill. They follow it, as night falls and the firefloles start to come out and light up, and it leads to a small stream at the bottom of the hill. OB surveys the place and spots millions of red eyes out in the trees, and feels Darkness from them - but also Darkness that they're attracted to. Zeblek, never one to beat about the bush, makes a quick torch and throws it at them!

A thousand moths take flight, all of them jet black with red spots on their wings - those weren't eyes at all! Worse, these things are just moths, not any kind of natural animal. They fly off, and Stars, consulting dris tome, realizes that similar creatures (like croths, the feathered variety of these animals) often eat fabric. And isn't the Mystic remains of Keetsah, shrouded in swider silk, near here?

The drakes decide to follow the moths (OB makes a couple of lanterns to help guide the way), and they find the Mystic - it's like a rock formation, since apparently Keetsah didn't curl up when dre turned to stone. And it's all covered in silk, the shroud even extending under ground. They find the moths nibbling on part of it, and OB climbs up to try and drive them away, but they open their wings and the red "eyes" bore into OB, and they panic and start blaming Zeblek for all this. 

Zeblek takes it in stride, though, and helps OB down. After a bit more prodding, and the moths take flight, and Zeblek calls on the void moon to portal them away!

Stars surveys the area (although OB hinders them by claiming to be the expert on cloth here), and realizes that the shroud is meant to prevent magic getting out. They don't see a tear in the cloth (the moths didn't manage to create one), but figures that they could hit the books and learn more about this...or just tear the cloth and access the Mystic directly. The rest of the clutch decides that it's probably not a great idea to jump right to tearing the shroud, and anyway they're tired. They head back to the city to get some rest.

Character Creation: Brindlewood Bay

A little bit cozy, a little be Elder Things from beyond Creation.

The Game: Brindlewood Bay
The Publisher: The Gauntlet
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, but I've played similar
Books Required: Just the one

This will make 71 characters for 2024 (I'm shooting for 10 a month; this'll be 11 for July). I did the 10th a few days ago and meant to do this one right afterward, and then got busy with Things for a couple of days and here we are. When I realized I had time left in the month to do another character or two, I started thinking maybe I should grab something that I don't really want to do, like Game of Thrones (it's just Tri-Stat, but the book is huge and I'm not interested in the setting), or something like Psionics or Changeling: The Lost that might take me to some upsetting places, since I had time to process. But then I thought, nah, fuck it, I want to read a game that I'm actually looking forward to reading and excited to potentially run. So here we are in Brindlewood Bay.

Brindlewood Bay, like Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World before it, has managed not only to catch on in the RPG world (though, of course, there are really two such worlds at the very basic level - D&D and everything else) and inspire a whole approach to design, called "Carved from Brindlewood." Having only read the OG, as it were, I don't know what the principles that are being carried forward are. 

I do note, however, that the idea of having a mystery/investigative game that has the players find clues and then solve the mystery by basically narrating the theory to fit the clues is something that We Used to be Friends did, I think before Brindlewood Bay came out (which is neither here nor there, just thought it was interesting). 

I run a lot of mystery/investigative games, and while this approach is certainly less GM-intensive than, say, Chill or any Gumshoe game (which require the mystery to be pretty much figured out at the jump), it sometimes feels less satisfying creatively for the GM because you're really just adjudicating moment-to-moment play rather than doing any real prep. 

With that said, the game looks like it would be a lot of fun...but my goodness, I really wanted an example of play ("but there are APs on Yubtub and-" NOT THE SAME THING). The game looks like it would work perfectly well, but there are multiple times in the text that refer to a rule or a text that I thought was going to get explained in a bit more detail, never did, and really only made full sense when you read the character sheet or the other supplement printout-y sorts of materials...which are not in the book. 

Well, anyway, let's make a Maven (one thing I appreciate about this game is that it pretty much says "all the characters are old ladies with deceased partners," full stop - I really like when games are what they want to be and don't try to squish their way into being everything). 

One interesting thing about the Brindlewood Bay book is that all of the Session One stuff, including chargen, is at the very end of the book. That's an interesting approach, and I think it makes sense here - you really need to know what you're in for because the game is structured in a particular way. It does mean, though, that while I was reading it I had a lot of "OK but when does the book start" kind of thoughts, but that's more 40 years of RPG expectation than anything else.

ANYWAY. Character creation is actually step seven of Session Zero, but of course the first steps don't really apply here.

Starting at the beginning: There's a list of first names, and elsewhere in the book we're told to make up a surname (or make up both, whatevs). As I'm thinking about this, Dianne Wiest's character in Lost Boys keeps coming to mind - the ex-hippie who wound up living with her father and her kids after her marriage went bad, and then dating the Head Vampire, y'know. I'm not taking much of that backstory, but I like the vibe. We'll say my Maven's name is Birdie Sallinger.

Birdie's style is "hippy dippy," obviously. Lots of very large and flowy outfits in bright colors, lots of jewelry with stones and crystals. Her Cozy Activity is rock collecting, though she puts a very "this mineral is good for cleansing energy" sort of spin on it.

I get to assign one point to one of the abilities. I think I'll put it into Presence - Birdie is, if nothing else, interesting, and people remember her.

And now I choose a Maven Move. These are all named after male detectives from TV shows (well, mostly, there's a set of "Advanced" moves that breaks that formula and adds female characters and characters from literature and movies). Let's see, what's appropriate for Birdie.

Oh, Frank Columbo, most definitely.

I figure Birdie is fluttery and flustered and has no particular idea how to handle herself in an upper-crust kind of environment ("oh, it's that Sallinger woman," they mutter into their mimosas). For her part, Birdie is probably just thrilled at how fancy everything is! 

The next step in Session One is still part of chargen; we're meant to introduce the Maven and talk about their career before moving to Brindlewood Bay, their deceased partner, and any children or pets they have. Sure!

So, Birdie was married to a very nice man named Harold Sallinger for 25 years, and when they met, they were both in college and both very much on the "peace, love, and perhaps some mind-altering substances" train. And then they graduated and Harry had a business degree and Birdie had a liberal arts degree, and they bought a house and had two kids (Thomas Skye Sallinger and Rain Louise Sallinger - "Thomas" and "Louise" are family names from Harry's side, and "Skye" and "Rain" are just what Birdie felt the Universe was telling her). 

But over time, Harry became consumed by the world, that's how Birdie sees it. He got so focused on "success" in a worldly sense that he lost perspective, and eventually Birdie realized that she just didn't love him the way she had. They split up (Tommy and Rain were both grown by this point), and three years later Harry died of a heart attack at his desk. Birdie is a big enough person not to say "told you so," at least not out loud.

Birdie was still his beneficiary, though she gave almost everything to the kids, most of the rest to charity, and used the rest to get herself a place in Brindlewood Bay (there are some very interesting rock deposits near the beach!). I suspect Birdie still needs to work sometimes because she's not great with money, though of course this being a TV show she has an unrealistically fantastic apartment. 

Birdie has reddish-blonde hair (greying quite a bit now, as Nature intends, thanks). She has a couple of tattoos that her clothes cover up, but when she goes swimming you can see bits of them. 

Oh, I have to decide on an object in her Cozy Little Place! Let's say there's a chunk of quartz that she and Harry found on their honeymoon.
 

Wildsea: Barfight!

Yesterday we played The Wildsea. Let's get vinegary! (I promise it makes sense. Here's last time.)

Recall that The Heart of the Seeker had pulled in to a port, and they had noticed a few things: There are a bunch of ships in port, all marked in Highvin (the difficult-to-learn and primarily written language used by treasure-hunters and historians). The air also tastes sour and acidic, and they can hear high-pitched whimpers or whines. They spot a well-dressed mothryn standing on the dock, and figuring him to be a dockmaster or something, Jakesta jumps down to talk to him. 

The mothryn turns out to be not a dockmaster, but still someone of some importance in the area. The town is called Tart, and the primary industry here is the production of vinegar (useful product, applicable in cleaning, preservation, cooking, chemistry, etc.). He tells Jakesta that ships here are required to be marked in Highvin, and he's happy to do it for the Heart if they don't have anyone on board who can write the language (Jakesta says they do). He goes back on board and tells the others what's doing, and they all hop down and talk to Ollingwood more. 

Ollingwood tells them that he co-owns one of the three big vinegar concerns here in Tart: Liquid Amber (he hands Chambersson a small bottle to sample, and he promptly gives it to Rozek). The other two are Hollek Barrel, which produces large quantities of very functional and basic vinegar and is run by an ektus, and Stern Astern, which produces small batches of highly concentrated vinegar meant for cooking, run by an ironbound named Lightrime. 

The town produces all this vinegar in part because this place isn't a spit, it's a mountaintop - a permanent settlement. It has a natural spring, so fresh water isn't a problem. The crew tells Charness, their mothryn medic, to make sure to get some water while they're here, and then they prepare to explore the town.

Chambersson paints the ship's name in Highvin, and then goes off into town, searching for rumors about the place's geology. He winds up talking to a fellow named Zeku, who promises to take a Chart ("The Junction Network") to someone who knows all about it and come back with more info, and then disappears. Ollingwood spots Chambersson and tells him that Zeku is a known con artist and thief, and he probably isn't going to get that Chart back.

Jakesta and Kazera go to the shipyard and talk to the proprietor. Kazera tells him about the load of red quartz they have in their hold, and he says that that would be superb barter material. He could improve their ship however they'd like - clean and calibrate the voltaic runners, add some armor plating, whatever. They decide to go and talk about it. Jakesta also learns that typically if one wants to take on a load of vinegar to sell, one buys it from one of the three concerns and then goes and sells it wherever one can (though the proprietors will give them directions on where to go to get a good price). Stern Astern stuff takes up less space and goes for a higher price, but finding a buyer is harder. Hollek Barrel vinegar is easy to sell, but Hollek generally insists on ships taking larger loads. Liquid Amber is kind of in the middle.

Rozek wanders the city and gets a sample of Stern Astern product (barely a tablespoon). She also learns that there a lot of smaller production concerns, mostly family-owned; they tend to just produce vinegar until they have enough to sell then try to find someone to ship it out. Liquid Amber, Hollek, and Stern Astern are just the ones that have been most successful. Hollek, in particular, owes much of their success to building a factory directly over the spring, so they control more of Tart's water supply than the others. 

The characters learn the other factor in vinegar production here - the screamers. Ollingwood shows Chambersson the pens of these great big lizards; sometimes they rear up and let out long mating calls, which is the whimpering sound that the characters heard upon arrival. Handlers come and scrape their teeth to collect the secretions (it's also harvested from their droppings, Ollingwood notes), and that chemical is used in the fermentation process. Ollingwood also notes that screamers don't exist in the wild anymore - they're bred here in Tart. 

The crew comes back together and talks over what's happened today. They decide to have the shipyard improve the Heart's speed in trade for the load of quartz. They also realize they still need to talk to Clanksburg so he can tell them the location of the Sanguine Dress, the ship he was on that went down, so they can salvage it. 

Jakesta finds Ollingwood talking with an ardent man with tattoos of bugs up and down his arms, and Ollingwood introduces the man as Wyeshin, a bug hunter and entomologist. Wyeshin has heard of the Heart of the Seeker, the ship powered by a Leviathan heart and a cocoon attached to it, and asks Jakesta to let him see it and perhaps take a little sample? Jakesta mentions that her friend Chambersson got robbed earlier ("Zeku," notes Ollingwood), and Wysehin says he'd be happy to show them where Zeku is. He gives Jakesta a little box and tells her to shake it up and open it whenever they're ready to talk.

The characters track down Clanksburg at the home/shop of Lightrime, the owner and proprietor of Stern Astern. As they approach, they smell delicious food cooking, and Lightrime insists they come in and eat (those that do eat). Lightrime outright says they're something of an oddity - an ironbound char. Jakesta asks how Lightrime cooks without a sense of taste, and Lightrime replies that cooking is chemistry, the balance of acids and salts and sugars, and one can learn that without tasting (though it is difficult). 

Lightrime gives them a salad made of greens and little mushrooms, and a tiny cup of vinegar to pour on it ("but eat quickly, if you leave the vinegar too long it will wilt the greens"). They all converse, and Rozek eagerly asks for tips on cooking and brewing. After they've eaten dinner, Jakesta and Chambersson take Clanksburg outside to talk about the Dress. He gives them a quick map and tells them that the Dress was powered by steam - iron and copper pipes ran throughout the length of the ship. The ship itself probably isn't saveable, but the pipes might be, and that would be a superb haul.

The characters have dessert, and Jakesta asks Lightrime where one might sell their wares? Lightrime says that they're between batches and don't have anything to sell at the moment, but Jakesta is more interested in going to new places anyway. Lightrime mentions "the Splinter," a long, tall spit where people live in dwellings attached to the side of the rock. Weight is a concern there, so anything that provide flavor without much volume is prized. 

The crew head back to the Heart. They decide to summon Wyeshin so they can find Zeku (Chambersson does not have a sense of humor about people taking his shit). Chambersson shakes up the box and releases a tiny, glowing bug, and it flies off into the town. A few minutes later, Wyeshin approaches. 

He again asks to see the engines of the Heart, and Chambersson detects no malice or ulterior motive in his bearing (though he does note that one of Wyeshin's tattoos is a brittle bug like the ones that crew just destroyed near here). Rozek trades the carcass of a lightning cicada for a messenger bug like the one Wyeshin have Jakesta to call him here, along with a tiny vial of liquid that attracts the bug. 

They show Wysehin the engine and he marvels at it, and takes gentle scrapings from both the heart and the cocoon. Then he has the group follow him into the seedier section of town, away from the spring, to a road house that clearly caters to a rougher clientele. "Zeku is in there," he says. "Best of luck!" 

The crew enters, and Chambersson spots Zeku playing a card game in the corner. He approaches and tells Zeku in no uncertain terms that he wants his Chart back. Zeku laughs and says that it's long gone. Chambersson demands to know where it got left, but Zeku says he doesn't remember. Chambersson, angry, grabs Zeku by the hair and crackles a bit.

Some of the patrons stand up and reach for weapons. Jakesta turns and says that she's already died once - if they feel lucky, step up! A couple of them leave, one of them saying "I know how she died the first time - brutal!" 

The man sitting next to Zeku kicks his seat back and angles a pistol up, and a spike embeds itself in Chambersson's side. He tries to yank Zeku in the way, but fails. Kazera flicks her rivet swarm at the shooter, knocking him to the floor, and Jakesta stabs him with a knife she brought. A bunch of the patrons attack, but their strikes go right through Jakesta. 

Zeku pokes Chambersson in the stomach, and Jakesta snatches the gun away from the dude on the floor. Rozek grabs the fossilized skull she was carrying and intones a Whipser ("You gotta break some eggs!"). The skull explodes and blows her through a window; she lands outside in a heap. Frustrated, she runs back in and throws a handful of cave lichen on the fire in the fireplace, filling the place with smoke. The characters run out in the confusion, and head back to the ship - no Chart, down a few resources, and a couple of them injured. Not exactly a successful fight, and who knows if Zeku's going to take this personally.

Character Creation: The Terminator

bum-bum-BUM-da-DUM

The Game: The Terminator
The Publisher: Nightfall Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, though I have the Judgement Day sourcebook, so I might give it a look if it has other chargen options

Licensed RPGs are always tricky; you need to get the feel of the property, keep the licensee happy, and keep the fans happy, and make a good game. Sometimes it works (Firefly), sometimes it doesn't (Indiana Jones), and sometimes it's just...weird (Dallas, Ghost Dog). So does it work here? 

I...don't know, really. The Terminator franchise is odd, and I'm actually not all that familiar with it past the first two movies. I never watched the TV show, and the only movie I've seen after T2 was T3, and that was really bad, so I've never bothered with the others. I think the problem with the series is that same as with, say, Highlander - the story had an ending, and so extending it just smacked of unnecessarily dragging things out. T2 ended with Sarah Connor uncertain about the future and not sure if they'd prevented Judgement Day, but hopeful - that was perfect. But then it all went whack-a-ding-hoy and we go John Connor as a Terminator and timeline shenanigans a-go-go, and also there are comics from Dark Horse, which the game references, that I've never even heard of.

I will say this, the game does a good job of at least raising the possibility of time travelers going lots of different places (and, well, times) and multiple branching timelines allowing the possibility of diverging from "canon" without having to worry about it too much, so I think the game would be perfectly playable no matter how many of the movies you've seen or haven't seen. But then the "game" part of it just seems over crunchy and fiddly, though I admit my eyes kind of glazed over when I was reading through it. I dunno, it looks like every other trad sci-fi game I've read. Would it be playable? Probably. Would I choose to run it? I dunno, maybe, I'm not opposed to a trad game. 

Well, anyway, first thing's first, let's make a character. The default is that I'm a Resistance fighter in the aftermath of Judgement Day, though if I were actually playing there would be some attention paid to the whens and wheres of the character. For the moment, though, let's keep things basic. 

Step One: Role. Basic archetype kind of thing that gives us a starting framework of skills and stats. They might be optional; the book says "all roles are optional" but from the context I can't tell if that means "you don't have to take a role" or "no given role is required so the GM could exclude some." I'll pick one just to be on the safe side. Let's say Grunt, I feel basic today. My Grunt's name is Kismet "Kizzie" Denny. Kizzie's mom was a big believer in destiny and hope; we see how that worked out. 

As a Grunt, I get:

And also the Physical Training ability, which allows me to trade one kind of die for another in some situations (I'm not quite conversant enough in the system to get the nuances). 

Step Two: Stats. We've six stats, as abbreviated above: Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Concentration, Charisma, Cool, and Fate. I get 7 points to raise the stats, one-for-one. I guess maybe I should have some idea how the system works before I go throwing points around.

OK, got it. It's not intuitive, but it's not terribly complex at the guts of it: We're rolling d10s. We get one Success die, Skill Dice equal to our rating in the skill in question + 1, and then adding a static bonus equal to the Stat + Skill to each individual die and looking to match or beat a difficulty. Success Die determines the overall success/failure of an action, but success on Skill Dice alter things (allowing a "messy success"). 

Also, we can spend Fate points to mess with numbers post-roll. With that in mind, let's say Kizzie is the embodiment of "better to be lucky than good." I'll put one point into Dexterity, one into Charisma, one into Concentration, and the other four into Fate. 

Step Three: Hope Points. These are points that we can spend in play to "overcome great obstacles, perform cinematic feats, or scrape a success from the jaws of defeat." They fall into three categories: Body, Brain, and Bravado. There's a formula to determine each one, but then the highest gets 2 Hope, next highest gets 1, last gets zero. Sure.

So, my Body is Strength + Dexterity (4), my Brain is Knowledge + Concentration (1), and Bravado is Charisma + Cool (3). So Body gets 2 Hope and Bravado gets 1. Easy enough. Oh, wait, then I get 3 more to add to those totals, but I can't spend more than two in any given category. Sure, I'll just put one in each, how about. 

Step Four: Skills. To pay the bills. Except there's no more bills, because the machines nuked everything (if I ever run The Terminator, it's gonna turn out that instead of the universe depicted in those movies, it's the universe depicted in Her). 

Anyway, I start with Athletics, Detect, Pistol, Rifle, and Unarmed Combat at 2, and then I get 36 points to buy more Skills, but it's not one-for-one:

So let's see, what do I want. Survival sounds good, so I'll dump 5 points to take 2 ranks there. Going along with that, I'll put in 2 points and buy a rank of Tracking. I'll buy Demolitions 2 (5 more points, I've spent 12 of my 36). Ooh, Support Weapons sounds good, I'll spend 5 and buy that at 2. I'll spent 4 and put Rifle up to 3 (21 of 36 spent). I'll buy Stealth at 2 (5 points, 10 left). I'll spend those to buy Drive (Motorcycle) and Drive (Car) at 2, and that'll do it!

Step Five: Traits. Your basic ad/disad kind of situation. If I want good ones, I have to take negative ones, so let's start there and see if there are any negative traits I like. 

Oh, this is cute. The traits aren't marked as negative or positive. It's usually clear from the description, but like, would it have killed you to put the negative ones in bold or something? Mreh. I don't see any I really want, anyway.

Step Six: Figured Stats. Hey, derived traits at the end, that's good. 

Hit Points = STR + 15, or 17 in my case.

Willpower = Cool + 15, or 17, again.

Movement is Closing: 2, Rushing: 6. 

Encumbrance is 2 + STR + Endurance (whoops, probably should have taken that; let's drop Motorcycle and take 2 in Endurance instead). Anyway, that gives me 6 Encumbrance. 

Initiative is DEX + CONC + Tactics, or 3 for me.

Step Seven: Finishing Touches. Gear, but eh, y'know. I figure I have a rifle and a pistol and some body armor, but it'd depend on the situation and what the GM wants. But description-wise, Kizzie is light-skinned Black man, wide features, kind of a perpetually surprised sort of look. He manages to pull out impressive feats from nowhere sometimes, and other grunts kind of view him as a luck charm. That's one bad day away from ending, of course, but aren't we all? I picture him being played by Justice Smith.

That'll do it!

Movie #800: Strictly Ballroom

Strictly Ballroom is the first of Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain trilogy, and stars Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Pat Thomson, Barry Otto, Peter Whitford, Gia Carides, Sonia Kruger, and Antonio Vargas.

Scott Hastings (Mercurio) loses an Australian ballroom dancing competition for the cardinal sin of throwing in his own steps, humiliating his dance-instructor mother (Thomson) and coach Les (Whitford). His partner Liz (Carides) leaves him, and he casts about for a new partner, finding Fran (Morice), a talented beginner who's into his ideas of dancing "his way" rather than following proscribed styles. 

From there it's a very much standard boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back, interspersed with a lot of snappy dialog and dancing. In the end, it turns out that Scott's father (Otto) is the lynchpin to the whole thing, a former dance champion who lost his shot out of fear, and Scott decides to dance with Fran at the big competition and everyone jumps on the floor to dance with them.

It's cute, it's simplistic, and I'd slot it in with movies like Bubba Ho-Tep and Drop Dead Gorgeous wherein the stakes are really low, but to the people involved, they mean everything. (OK, so the stakes in Bubba Ho-Tep are life and death, but in a really limited setting, that's all I mean.) In that, we see the movie's real verisimilitude, because people absolutely do get amazingly petty and grasping over very minor shit that gives their life in particular meaning, but that also opens the door for growth, and I like that even at the end, the villain of our piece, Barry Fife (Hunter) is left not dead or devastated but just confused and without his toupee. 

It's also interesting to see this and keep in mind that it's Luhrmann's first feature film, and spot the camera tricks and plot angles that he clearly loves (villains lying and forcing the heroes to act against love, claiming it's in their best interest, for example). It's also interesting to me that this is the only one of the Red Curtain Trilogy that isn't a tragedy (the other two being Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rogue).

The dialog is snappy, the acting is decent, and the movie feels somewhat amateurish, but in a good, loved way. About the only thing that acts as a point against it for me is that I have no appreciation for dance, so I have no understanding of the physicality or terminology that gets used.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Stuart Little

Character Creation: Ruma

When in Rume, do as the Rumans do. 

The Game: Ruma: Dawn of Empire
The Publisher: Azure Keep
Degree of Familiarity; I've played plenty of PbtA games, and this is that
Books Required: Just the one

While I'm by no means an expert, I've read and play a bunch of different Powered by the Apocalypse games over the last few years, and this is one of the games that followed the second edition of Apocalypse World. It's a fictionalized Roman ("Ruman") Empire, in which you're playing soldiers and other representatives of said Empire and going out to squash the savages and expand the Empire's interests. It doesn't get into the weeds of Roman history as much as, say, Roma Imperious, which was published the same year, and indeed other than the Latin names and the Roman gods, this might as well be a fantasy game.

I'm...not on board. It's not that the game isn't well put-together. It looks like a perfectly solid game. But PbtA games live and die on the little nifty quirks and vibes that make them all unique, and this one just doesn't hook me. It might be because we're explicitly playing imperialists, and there's very little self-reflection in the game on why this might be a bad thing. It might be because it's basically a D&D game with some Roman trappings - the example of play might as well be any other fantasy game (the PCs find a dead body and then fight a magic tree monster). It's a solidly built PbtA historical fantasy ish game, but if I wanted to play a game like this, I don't know that I'd want it to be PbtA? 

I dunno. It's one of many games I own that if I had players that were just clamoring to play it, I'd run it, but no one is ever going to clamor to play it. But let's make a character, it'll be quick.

As is often (though by no means always) the case with PbtA games, I start by picking a playbook. Today, for whatever reason, I'm feeling the Eques; cavalryman and noble riding a horse. Ruma doesn't give us notes on how Roman (or Ruman - by the way, I keep thinking of the "Moopets" in The Muppets, the knock-offs performing in Reno, and how they were just ratty impersonators with a vowel replaced - not to say there's anything ratty about this game but that's where my brain goes) names work, but fortunately the above-linked Roma Imperious does, and I never throw away an RPG (though I've been known to recycle copies of games if the author libels me, which is a pretty specific circumstance). What a terrible sentence. 

Anyway, let's say my dude is called Titus Roscius Felix. Looking at the "description" section, I'll say Roscius is male, has a narrow face, sparkling eyes, and an athletic body. 

I choose temperament from the four classic humours; let's say he's choleric. 

I belong to a cult of one of the gods, which actually does give me a move. Hmm. Well, as a cavalryman, I'd be getting into horsey combat, so Mars isn't a terrible choice. I like Mercury in principle, but the moves either kinda suck or don't sound appropriate for what I'm envisioning. Actually, you know what, I'll say Roscius is a worshiper of Minerva, goddess of war and tactics. I like the "commander astride his horse" vibe. 

My starting starts are determined by the playbook, but I get a +1 to add to one of them. I'll add it to Fatum, because it'll help with a move I want to take from my cult. 

Speaking of which, let's pick moves! I get born in the saddle for free, which means I get a warhorse. My horse's name is Boreas, after the Hellenic god of the North Wind - he's big, grey with black legs, and actually a big softie when not in his armor. I get one more Eques move, so I shall take tall in the saddle - when I'm mounted and battling a gang, I count as a small gang. And then for my cult move, I'll take rally the troops, which lets me shout orders and erase harm or give a bonus to my allies. 

Ordinarily I'd get bonds, but of course it's just me, so that's about it! Roscius is tall, but often seems taller because he's on a big horse. Black hair, brown eyes, big "ride 'em down" energy. I think he'd probably start a game with very much a "Ruma forever" attitude and would thus be ripe for an arc where he realizes that Rumans are actually kinda the baddies, but I don't know if this is the game to get us there.

D&D: A Delightful Walk Through the Woods

Well, we wound up on a bit of a hiatus just because of life things, but we are back in the land of Abhaile! 

Our heroes, having slain the owlbear that was menacing the tiny village of Declan's Rest, sleep the sleep of the just for the remainder of the night. In the morning, the children of Cahir and Ivy (recall that it was their young son Lorcan who started feeding the owlbear last year, and probably was responsible for attracting it to the village, though the heroes didn't publicize this) come to them with baskets of food - buns, honey, butter, and fruit, and then a separate basket with bread and smoked fish. 

The children thank them, and Riley, their youngest son, recites a prepared speech about how they're welcome to stay as long as they want, but if they have to leave, know that they always welcome here in Declan's Rest. The heroes thank the children, and Clara asks Cahael, the oldest, if he knows anything about the monk's retreat that's supposedly in this area. Cahael says all he knows is that his father told them stories about it, and said that if they're in the woods and they poke themselves on thorns, turn around and walk away because it means the retreat is nearby and they shouldn't disturb it (though Cahael, at the worldly age of 11, figures that's just his dad's way of enforcing boundaries in the woods and keeping the kids out of the brambles).

The heroes decide to search the woods and see if they can find the retreat, and while it takes a few hours, they do eventually come upon something large covered in brambles. Might be a structure, or it might just be a big fallen tree or hillock. Dara points out that the "brambles" covering it, whatever it is, are actually razorvine, which is sharp enough to kill you if you get tangled in it. She takes out her sickle and chops a small hole in the vines, big enough for Clara to slip into, and then keeps working to widen it.

Clara wiggles into the interior of the vine-hood, and finds herself in the retreat. Most of it has crumbled away - it's clearly very old - but the underlying structure is still intact ("good bones"). She doesn't see anything remaining, but reflects that anything Declan owned would have been minimal and homemade, so it's probably long degraded or taken. She does notice, however, a phrases carved into a crossbeam: "we can celebrate the good that we've done." She hasn't heard this particular phrase before; maybe it's a local aphorism? Or just something Declan came up with?

As she's poking around, though, she feels something wrap around her ankle! She looks down and sees a huge, multi-legged worm-like creature with a bunch of tendrils on its face! It's already wrapped said tendrils around her shin and stings her, and she feels her leg start to go numb, but as a halfling she's less susceptible to poison and shakes it off. She yelps for help, and Aisling responds with bardic inspiration ("you can do it!"). Dara, having widened the hole in the razorvine, clambers in, and Aisling and Zook follow.

Dara thorn-whips the creature back away from Clara, and Zook hits it with a firebolt. Aisling takes a moment to check the area, making sure there aren't four more of these things ready to drop on them, but there don't seem to be any more, thank goodness for small mercies. Clara advances and punches the creature, and it lashes out with its tendrils. Zook yells "step left!", calling on his gift of prophecy, and Clara dodges the monster's strike. Aisling stabs it with her sword, and Clara strikes again. The creature rounds, and makes for the elf.

It stings Dara, and while she resists the paralytic poison, the tendrils still hurt. In perhaps a moment of panic, she conjures an ice-knife, but she's too close to the monster and when the ice-knife explodes, it nearly freezes her to death too! (Aisling manages to leap clear.) Clara closes on the monster and stomps it into goo, and the heroes sit down to rest. (Zook: "So...far be it from me to tell you how to fight..." Dara: "Yes, lessons were learned.")

Looking at the creature, they identify as a "carrion crawler." Dara notes that adult ones are usually solitary, so they shouldn't have to worry about more showing up. They find a little "tunnel" in the vines, and a bunch of bones (deer, rabbit, no human, though) from the creature's prey. 

They head back to Declan's Rest to, well, rest, and Clara muses that she wonders what became of Declan? After all, he certainly wasn't buried at the retreat - it's not a tomb. If he was buried in or near the village, the villagers would probably know about it. Dara builds a big fire (she's still chilly). Cahir comes and joins them, and they tell him about the retreat - maybe it'd be wise to clear out the razorvine, just for safety's sake. He notes that it might make a good hunter's blind, if they think Declan wouldn't have minded? 

Clara says that it was meant for meditation, so maybe meditate while you're hunting, that's fine. Cahir mentions that all of the stories he ever heard about Declan end with him founding the village, but he has no idea where Declan actually died. He was a monk of Leith, and Leith is in the north - Clara asks that maybe the group head north, maybe to track down his story?

Zook, though, requests that they go south - the last lead he had on his father was that he was heading south from Scal Dearg, and there's still a lot of "south" to go. If they go too far south, they will of course wind up in the forests of the Enclave of Thorns, and Dara has no intention of going back there, but they decide they'll head as far south as they can. After all, Declan's story is long over, but they aren't sure about Zeb's. 

Aisling tells a story about Bertram, a hero who entered a graveyard near a town called Cairn Lean and loudly proclaimed he feared neither ghoul nor ghost...and was promptly stung and eaten by a carrion crawler. The heroes muse on this wisdom, and in the morning pack up and head south.

As they travel on the southern road, they come to a crossroads and spot a sign pointing off west, advertising something called "Shiny Belles." Maybe a brothel, but out here in the country? (Brothels are more common closer to Cian, where people are more likely to carry currency.) "If nothing else, they probably have mattresses," notes Aisling, and the party decides to have a look.

Character Creation: The Stars are Fire

Which I think means, like, that the stars are really cool or catchy or something? Like, "whoa, these stars are fire!" I dunno.

The Game: The Stars are Fire
The Publisher: Monte Cook Games
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this particular flavor, but I've run and occasionally played Cypher
Books Required: The Stars are Fire and the Cypher System Rulebook

The Stars are Fire is one of the many genre sourcebooks for the Cypher System, much like Stay Alive! As such, it's a little bit of a stretch to include it here, but I like makin' characters. My usual inclination has been to make use of whatever new or expanded systems are introduced in the book (to make it at least somewhat distinct from the base Cypher game, and also to follow my guideline of using the chargen parameters of whatever game I'm doing). As such, I think I shall make use of the optional "posthuman upgrade" section in The Stars are Fire. 

There's a sample setting called The Revel, which suggests having PCs be people contracted to do exploration type stuff from the AI running things, so I'll use that as my starting point. I'll also assume that my hypothetical GM would allow upgrades (the setting is really harder sci-fi, so no psionics, but upgrades don't have to be so overt so I think they'd work). 

The sample adventure has the PCs doing a salvage job, which was good enough for such cinematic classics as Ghost Ship and Leviathan (neither of which were set in space, but the ocean is like space). That in mind, I think I'll take inspiration from one of my favorite sci-fi heroes, Ellen Ripley, and say that my character is here to run the heavy equipment - loaders and lifts and winches and cranes and suchlike. His name is Yutani Kruse (yes, I stole that first name, deal with it). 

As usual, characters here follow the "I'm a(n) [adjective] [noun] who [verbs]", so let's start with the noun. I don't picture Yutani as being an adept or a speaker, so that leaves warrior or explorer. I think his motivation is more the job than the discovery (though it'd be fun to play him warming to that part of the job as the game goes on), so let's say he's a warrior. That means my Might and Speed pools start at 10, my Intellect starts at 8, and I get 6 points to split up. Let's put three each into Might and Intellect, making my pools Might 13, Speed 10, and Intellect 11 (for now). I have Effort 1, of course, and I can take either Might or Speed Edge 1. Think I'll take it in Might. I'm practiced with light, medium, and heavy weapons.

And then I get four abilities. Let's see now. I think Yutani is a vet, but I don't want to make him a combat character, so I'll take Physical Skills (trained in climbing and running), Improved Edge (Speed), Overwatch, and Practiced in Armor.

For descriptor, let's do Mechanical. That sounds perfect. I get +2 to Intellect, and I'm trained in using, understanding, repairing, crafting, and identifying machines.

And then focus...hmm. Builds Robots, maybe. Defends the Gate is pretty cool; it's not actually about defending a literal gate so much as just acting as a bulwark against danger. Loves the Void is pretty cool, and very much in in-genre. Works For a Living is very much in-concept, though. 

Well, since I used my descriptor to get into the machine-y side of things, let's take Loves the Void as my focus. That'll give me a stronger hook to go exploring in space, too. That gives me the Vacuum Skilled ability, which makes me trained in two abilities related to space travel (in my case, let's say vacuum welding and spacecraft maintenance/repair). 

And then let's take a posthuman upgrade - we'll say Yutani is spaceborn. I can withstand long-term micogravity and high-radiation without a problem, I can handle up to 15G for an hour without passing out or dying, and I get +1 to Intellect Edge. Nifty!

Yutani is in his 50s. He's got ruddy skin and very little hair left, blue eyes and good teeth (genetic mods for the win). He's in shape, but he's nowhere near the badass he was when he was with the Luna One Marines. He tried doing mechanical stuff in the motor pool, but he misses the Void too much, and Anaxiamander picked up on the and offered him a job doing salvage, exploration, and so on. He puts on a gruff exterior, but the truth is he's happy to have a squad again, even if these kids are pretty soft. 

Chill: Wait for Me

Yesterday we ventured back into the wilds of Alaska (well, Seward) for another rousing session of Chill! Here's last time, but this is a new case.

It's Friday, October 27, 2023, and EMT (and SAVE envoy) Mercy Williams has been sent on an interesting call. Seems two girls got in a fight and one shoved the other into the water. The swimmer, one Jessica Linsdey, was helped out before hypothermia had a chance to set in (though in October it doesn't take long!), and she's presently sitting on the back of Mercy's ambulance warming up before being taken to the hospital. The shover, one Naomi Rose, has been arrested and is the back of a squad car. So far this is just a little sad...but Mercy feels the general sense of danger and unease she associates with the Unknown, and she feels it around both girls, but also just generally in the area. Something's up.

She talks to Jessica and learns that she was at the Yukon Bar (which is a real place, but the version presented in this fictional setting bears no resemblance to any persons or places in the real world, thank you, drive through), she stepped outside to have a smoke while her friends settled the bill, and a guy started talking to her. And then this other girl just walked up and started yelling and shoving her, and before she knew it she was in the drink. Jessica seems unwilling to talk about the guy much, but Mercy also isn't great at this kind of thing (she's better at patching people up). 

Mercy does go and talk to Naomi, though. Naomi is obviously remorseful and scared, but physically unharmed and Mercy sees no evidence of Unknown tampering on her body (on a cursory look, anyway). Her version of the story is essentially the same as Jessica's, and she's willing to at least tell Mercy the guy's first name - Donald. 

Mercy decides that there's more going on here than she can easily figure out (and besides, she's still on the clock). Her ambulance takes Jessica to the hospital, Naomi is taken to jail, and Mercy calls Amelia Rostov, community organizer and SAVE envoy. 

Amelia is running a fundraiser at a local school (it's Salmon Burger Night!) when Mercy calls. She listens to Mercy's info and agrees that this is probably something they should look into. Britt Lepus, odd jobber, Vegas transplant, and lifelong SAVE envoy is there helping out, so Amelia has Britt take some salmon burgers and go to the hospital and talk to Jessica while she does the same at the jail.

Britt is fairly easily allowed to see Jessica, gives her a burger (if I'd felt like being a dick I could've turned a token to make Jessica a vegan or something, but that seemed unnecessarily contrarian), and gets her talking. She learns that Jessica just met Donald tonight - he approached her and chatted her up - but she already seems smitten. She says that he's a crabber and is going to be going out on a boat tomorrow, but she's agreed to wait for him. Britt notes that that's pretty fast, given they just met tonight, but Jessica says that there's just something about him - he's mysterious and a little scary, in a good way. 

Meanwhile, Amelia goes to the jail and talks her way in to see Naomi (it's not that hard; it's not busy tonight and she brought burgers). Naomi is freaked out, but she tells Amelia more or less the same thing - she met Donald a couple of days ago, he's mysterious and intriguing. She thought he said he was shipping out on a crabbing boat today, but maybe she got that wrong, because she saw him on the docks talking to Jessica and just lost her mind. 

Amelia brushes Naomi's hand and uses Disrupt, and Naomi immediately comes to her senses - she doesn't even know Donald, he lied to her about shipping out, obviously, and what the hell was she thinking attacking some girl? This moment of lucidity doesn't last, though - she almost immediately regains the dreamy look she had and slips back into thinking that Donald can do no wrong. In particular, she mentions that she actually came down to the docks tonight to look out over the water - he asked her to wait for him.

Amelia and Britt get on the group chat and compare notes, and Amelia has Britt call Nicolas Failor, bush pilot and SAVE envoy. Nicolas doesn't know from mysterious strangers, but what he does know is the docks, so he goes down to see if there's any security cameras pointed at the area where the fight happened. There's a camera at the Yukon Bar, but it's only angled to catch the doorway, so that's no help. Nicolas has a buddy named Rich, though, who's been working on fixing up his boat and tends to have his GoPro pointed toward the docks. He brings Rich a bottle of whiskey and the two of them chat - Rich saw the police lights earlier, but doesn't know what happened. His camera caught some of it, though, and it happened more or less like the girls said - Donald (wearing a pea coat, Nicolas notes) talking to Jessica, Naomi approaches and starts a fight, pushing Jessica into the water, and Donald just walks away, heading north on the docks.

Nicolas thanks Rich and walks over to the area, hoping there's something to track, but there's no trail to pick up. Except...he catches a whiff of perfume, sweet, almost fruity, with a scent of artificial strawberry. It's too faint to follow, though. Nicolas wanders for a while, hoping to bump into Donald, but no luck. Eventually, he heads home, and the envoys agree to meet up in the morning.

Mercy goes back to the hospital at the end of her shift, and another EMT catches her. Remember that girl that went into the water earlier? She tried to walk out AMA, and when a nurse stopped her, she became belligerent and violent, and had to be restrained. She's presently being held for observation (and is on some good drugs), but the EMT remembers her screaming "I'll wait for you" to something or someone outside the hospital.

Mercy calls Amelia to relate this, and they briefly muse on whether the girls are safe, but Naomi is in jail and Jessica is very much asleep, so they figure there's nothing more they can do tonight. 

But indeed, in the morning, they meet up at the trailer and talk through what they know, which ain't much. With only a first name, Nicolas can't narrow down whether or not this guy really is a crabber. All of the crab boats leaving from Seward that he knows about are already at sea, but this could just be a line this guy uses. Amelia and Mercy go to visit Naomi again - she's not likely to be arraigned until Monday, and she's call her father but he's not going to get here today. She's doing all right, just bored, so they promise to bring her something to read. Amelia also gets her talking about Donald, and they learn that Donald was going to ship out on the Thunderstruck. She also mentions that when she met Donald, he smelled like girl's perfume, cloying with a hint of strawberries. He claimed he'd been walking behind a girl when she spritzed some and gotten caught in it.

Amelia relays this to the others, and Nicolas feels like that rings a bell, but isn't sure if he's thinking of a ship or just the song.

Nicolas asks the others to go with him to the docks and watch over him while he tries something, a trick of the Art he's learned over the last few months. Britt goes with him, and Nicolas stands someplace where he can see both the Yukon Bar and the spot where the fight happened. And then he uses the Postcognition discipline, and is transported back to last night.

He sees about the same thing he did on the video, but he gets a much better look at Donald. He's tall, thin, dark hair, and extremely pale skin, with an almost bluish cast in this light. Donald walks up behind Jessica and taps her on the shoulder, and when she turns she has the surprised and fearful look that a young woman might well have when a strange dude walks up to her unexpectedly...but she immediately softens and the two of them start talking. Nicolas isn't close enough to hear them, but their body language definitely indicates mutual interest. He sees Naomi approach, her face become furious, and she walks up to the two of them and accosts Jessica. Donald turns and walks away, not even staying to watch the fight.

The envoys reconvene, and decide that this is definitely potentially dangerous. Sure, they've seen two girls influenced by this "Donald", but that doesn't preclude other girls (or boys!) being his targets. Naomi and Jessica are not similar in features - Jessica is slim and blonde, Naomi is biracial with curly black hair and is much more solidly and athletically built. If Donald doesn't have a type, that makes it harder to narrow down.

The envoys start checking social media for any similar reports, and they do find something potentially interesting - a post on a Seward Nightlife group in which a girl says she was out with some friends, they left the Yukon Bar, and a guy started following them, asking about "Anya." They got into an Uber to get away from him. Britt and Nicolas go to the Yukon before it opens - Britt's looking for work anyway - and they talk to Tash, the proprietor. She tells them that she remembers that instance; that guy was in here earlier that night being obnoxious. He wasn't being violent or aggressively, just a little too close and pushy, so one of the staff kicked him out. The guy who kicked him out remembers his scent - sweet and fruity, like girl's perfume. 

Mercy and Amelia go to check on Jessica, but they don't get very far. Jessica is at her apartment and isn't thrilled to see the EMT who treated her last night showing up at her door. She asks how they got her address (because looking that up and then coming to her house would be a HIPPA violation like whoa), and they spin her a tale about one of her friends giving them that info last night, but she doesn't buy it - Jessica actually works as a medical administrative assistant. She takes Amelia's card, but she slams the door in their faces.

Britt leaves Tash her info (Tash needs another bartender so she can take a night off now and then), and the envoys start planning their next move.

Blades in the Dark: The Snakeskins!

Last night we began a new game of Blades in the Dark - wherein I finally get to be a player! Nifty!

In the decaying Penderyn estate in Six Towers, beneath boathouse, is the lair of the Snakeskins, a gang of Shadows just beginning their foray into the criminal world of Doskvol. They have a reputation as being daring - they'll take jobs that are, perhaps, a little above their weight, but pull them off with some panache. (We'll see if that rep holds up.)

Our scoundrels are:

• Kesket, aka Sower, the Hound. Kesket is a native of Tycheros, and has iridescent scales over her body that glitter in good light (so almost never, in Doskvol). She's interesting growing plants, but first she needs to fashion some of those glowy plants that allow other ones to grow. She has a very large and highly venomous sea snake named Aksha as her hunting pet.
• Mara Keal, aka Moon, the Whisper. Moon is from the Dagger Isles, and engages in ancestor worship. She believes that Aksha is the reincarnate of one of her venerated forebears. She's also always cold; the climate of Doskvol doesn't agree with her.
• Arquo Maroden, aka Two-Tooth, the Slide. Two-Tooth is also from the Dagger Isles, maybe, but it hardly matters. He washed up on the docks of Doskvol, the only survivor of a shipwreck, and his early life is something of a blur. He's socially adept and clever with disguise, but he also really enjoys having the snot pummeled out of him (it's not the pain, he insists, it's the clarity that comes after). 
• Syra Strangford, aka Hollow, the Leech. Hollow was expelled from Charterhall University after some...things may have exploded. He wears a gas mask, a long coat, and gloves at all times, to prevent others from recognizing him - no one knows, but he's a lost scion of the Strangford family.

On this particular day(?) in Doskvol, the scoundrels are in their lair, having recently taken possession of a boat from Volaris, their contact in the Ministry of Preservation. Hollow is cheerfully mixing explosives; Moon informs him that if he blows up the boathouse, he's out. 

The boat comes with a note (but not a goat, sadly), requesting that the Snakeskins join Volaris at Kellen's pub in Charhollow tonight. Moon suggests grabbing an eel pie beforehand, the four of them make their way to the borough to a nice little pie stand right near the pub. The enter and take a seat, and Volaris joins them shortly. 

He asks whether they're familiar with a blood dealer named Jul. Hollow is - and they're not friends, Jul actually wants Hollow dead (some things may have burned). Volaris says that Jul is selling Leviathan blood on the side, and the Ministry would like to know which noble family is leaking blood (ew) to him. If the Snakeskins could get some physical evidence of such, that would be great (and potentially profitable). Jul is known to hang out at the Devil's Tooth, a bar - well, a drug den, let's be honest - in Nightmarket.

The Snakeskins discuss their approach. Jul might have evidence on him, but might not, so maybe they could grab something off his person and use Aksha's keen sense of taste/smell to track him? With that in mind, we cut to the Devil's Tooth, where things have already gone a little wrong.

Hollow, since he doesn't take off the mask, is actually easily recognizable and Jul spots him. He reaches into his coat for something, and Hollow, not wanting this to turn into a firefight, ducks out. Two-Tooth, in disguise as a patron of the Devil's Tooth, blocks Jul's sightlines a moment, letting Hollow get out. Jul doesn't care enough to pursue, fortunately, and settles back into his booth.

Moon tries to size Jul up, but Jul catches her staring and winks - not useful for informational purposes, but potentially useful as an avenue of approach. Sower stumbles by, acting drunk, and spills a drink - she intends to spill it on herself, hopefully prompting Jul to wipe it off with a handkerchief or something, but she misses and spills it on him. He waves her off, frustrated, and she goes to the bar to buy him a drink in apology.

The bartender tells Sower to give him his drink, but then bid him goodnight. Two-Tooth, sitting at the bar and keeping watch, gets her talking and learns that Jul has been pressuring Mistress Kember (the owner/proprietor) to sell his blood here, and she's got no desire to do so. Two-Tooth asks if security is OK, just in case he makes a scene, and notes where she looks, clocking not just the obvious bouncer but the two undercover peacekeepers in the place.

Moon goes over to the fire and makes eyes at Jul, hoping he'll come join her and then take off his coat (because it's warm by the fire, see). He falls for the eyes, but doesn't take off the coat. Two-Tooth finishes off his drink and decides to do what he does best - get punched in the face.

He storms over to Moon and starts berating her. "HOW DARE YOU TAKE UP WITH THIS - THIS -" he yells, smacking Jul on the shoulder - "AFTER BREAKING MY HEART! HUSSY!" Jul takes the bait, stands up and takes off his coat like a gentlemen, and Two-Tooth throws a punch but telegraphs it as much as he can. Jul "blocks" it and socks Two-Tooth in the face, and Two-Tooth takes a big ol' dive and then storms out. "You deserve each other!"

"Wait, no!" Moon follows, "helping" her stricken "lover". Jul very wisely reasons he wants no part of this drama and puts his coat back on...but Sower has already liberated a little journal and a small pistol from it.

Meanwhile, outside, Hollow finds Jul's ride, and right from under the coachman's nose lifts a vial of Leviathan blood - still alive and wriggling! The scoundrels get outside and melt into the shadows, and meet back at the boathouse.

They turn their findings over to Volaris, who thanks and, more importantly, pays them. They busy themselves with their own pursuits - Sower starts scouting out locations in the lair for her garden. Two-Tooth goes to visit his friend Nyrah (she's a streetwalker who's been out in Doskvol for a long time, and she kind of looks at Two-Tooth as a surrogate son, so she patches him up when he gets beaten on). Moon starts working on mapping the surrounding estate, both the physical and supernatural landscape. And Hollow...builds a goddamn Tesla cannon powerful enough to blow a hole in a wall. 

"Not something we're going to need every day," muses Two-Tooth, "but I think we'll be glad we have it when we do need it." Moon draws a little face on it the side of the cannon. "It kind of looks like Jul," Sower remarks. 

The team puts feelers out for a new job, and hears that the Hive has been looking for a gang to steal something from the Wraiths, another local band of scoundrels. Turns out the Wraiths are already not the Snakeskins' greatest fans, so that seems like a good lead! 

Character Creation: Beyonder

Not based on the Marvel character, of course.

The Game: Beyonder
The Publisher: Flying Nightbear Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

You know, as an aside, I was looking at my "current" games shelf (where I keep the books for the games I'm currently running/player), and it's a decently diverse lot: Chill 3rd Ed, Blades in the Dark, Epyllion, D&D5e (still boggles me that I'm running that, and I'm actually really liking it), Pugmire, and Wildsea. And that's not counting the one-shot games; I try and run one a month. And I think back to most of my 20s and 30s when I ran basically World of Darkness stuff all the time, largely because I was writing it and I needed to keep the mechanics bouncing around in my brain. But if I had it to do over again, in addition to, like, doing a lot of things differently that have nothing to do with gaming but ultimately affected my career in RPGs, I think I'd de-emphasize WoD a little and run some other stuff? I think it ultimately would have been really beneficial to the early game design I did with stuff like curse the darkness. 

(Not that it matters in the end, of course, because of where we've ended up - not only do people not play my games but in a lot of online spaces you're not even allowed to say my name, which is fucking absurd, but hey, it's important to have a boogeyman, I guess.)

All of this to say: I've read a lot of RPGs, and Beyonder is not necessarily one that jumps up and says "run me" to me, but that's a me thing. It's a lore-dense fantasy game, and those have a heavy lift for me because they're not my kind of game generally - if I'm playing a physics simulator fantasy game, I'd almost like it to give me room to make up my own setting, at least partially. With that said, there is obviously a lot of love that went into this game, it's well-supported, and the races at least are pretty cool (and the "humans" section focus on their social acuity rather than making them "adaptable" and "diverse," so that's nice).

Also, you can custom-make a character, or use this nifty little choose-your-own-adventure minigame to do it, so that's what I'm gonna do because how often does that happen? Sadly the online character builder on the Flying Nightbear site seems to be down, but no matter, I can use the book and a paper character sheet like it's the fuckin' 90s. 

I'm not gonna screenshot every single question, obviously, but I will for question one:

There are six Guilds, each focused on one of the six Energies of the game, and depending on which Guild you belong to you'll be good at different types of...magic? Actions? We'll continue to find out!

I'm given three options: Reprimand the little tyke, make it into a game of tag, or ignore him and continue on with business. I'm certainly not going to reprimand him; let's take a stop-and-smell-the-roses approach and play a bit of tag.

This transitions into a game of hide-and-seek outside of town, and gives me the option to continue the game or investigate a strange bird call. Ignoring a child during a game of hide-and-seek is a dick move, so I'll not do that.

I find the kid hanging from a tree pretending to save the village from a dragon! I'm given the option to tag him, but warn him to be careful coming down, or grab the rotten branch and drop his ass to Mother Earth's unforgiving bosom. In keeping with my "not a dick" policy, I shall do the former. 

And this determines my race as kamari! The tree people! Neat! 

 

I'll set my gender (or "gendar" as it's misspelled on the character sheet) as male, 'cause I don't want to be a tree. And let's move on! 

I send the lad home safely and go to meet Shalta, my Guild contact. When I get to his farmhouse, I find him and his sons being attacked by kobolds shassels! At this point I get to choose my Guild, starting with which broad category (Physical, Mental, or Ethereal). No particular racial advice to fall back on. 

Well, my character thus far has been distractible and playful, so let's go with the simplest answer and say I step in front of the shassels to stop them. Continuing on, I'm given the option to fry them with magic fire, suck the energy out of them and make them collapse, throw one of them across the yard, or levitate myself and the Shalta family away. Hmm.

I don't think a tree-person should be playing with fire, and likewise levitation seems off-brand. Let's go with a "roots leaching away the energy" thing and pick that option. 

This makes my Guild Soman, allowing me to mess with the Energy of Body. That sounds good.

Neat, I have no idea what most of that means. But back in fiction, I drop two of the shassels, but the third one escapes into the forest. Shalta gives me four options: I can summon the military, I can get another Soman to help me be stealthy, I can talk to my Guild and call in more magic, or I can talk to the mayor and be diplomatic about this.

Well, not doing the first one, because ACAB. I'm leaning towards stealth or diplomacy, honestly. Since my first decision was to be social, let's do diplomacy. The mayor gives us the option to actually employ diplomacy or send a strike team, and I think I've made my thoughts clear. This makes me a Negotiator!

And then I go back and talk with Shalta, and I'm given the option of helping him deal with the shassels, investigate potential corruption within the city, or go off and do some magical mapping. 

Well, I think that dealing with people is most in keeping with what I've done so far, so let's investigate corruption. This gives me gear and other related traits:

I'll take the sling, I think. And then I get to decide where I'm from. I'll pick the Great Northeast, which gives me a +1 to Athletics.

And that's actually it, kids. Lemme just total everything up here...

OK, so I don't see any naming conventions and I don't see a list of languages, which is strange. Let's assume that the kamari probably have names in their own language that are at least partially chemical (being plants), so they have names in Common that folks who can't "speak" their language use. Since my character is social, easily distracted, and generally playful, we shall call him Squirrel. Squirrel is a young-adult kamari, about 42. He's got little buds on his head and arms, and occasionally you'll find a little yellow flower growing somewhere (he got pollinated by this flower when he was a sprout and it just keeps popping up). 

That'll do it! Don't know if the "chargen adventure" would be viable for a group, but it was fun.

Epyllion: Up and Down Again

Last night we played some Epyllion!

We last we left our babby dragons, they were on the streets of the Dragonian Capital, talking with a long-toothed dragon named Lonnoth about the now-shattered Sword of Kebros. They gather up the shards of the sword and OB uses dragon trade to make a satchel for them, and they ask Lonnoth if dre knows anyone that could possibly reforge this thing. 

Lonnoth says that dre does know someone that might, and dre is quite happy to go and find them, but perhaps the drakes would do a small favor? Dre points to an impossibly high spire in the middle of the city, and says that it's been closed off for a while now due to being "unsafe". If a clutch of drakes could climb it safely, then dre would have a strong case for getting it reopened, and Lonnoth found it useful in dris work (as a flight instructor for drakes). The clutch agrees (somewhat reluctantly, in the case of Stars), and they start making preparations.

OB uses her crafty claw to repair the harness dre made for Stars, and sends Zeblek and Toverin off to find some materials. They wind up passing by the Cavern Library (you know, the one where the earthquake happened) and note that it's been closed off - there are two criss-crossed strips of fabric over the entrance and a sign that says "CLOSED - UNSAFE." 

Toverin notes that this fabric would probably be perfect, and Zeblek doesn't need much to be convinced to steal something. Toverin keeps watch while Zeblek sneaks up and grabs the fabric, but the sign clatters to the ground and Zeblek hears a voice inside say "what's going on out there!"

Zeblek dives into an alley, and they see Icepyre, the librarian, come out and look around, growl a little, and hang the sign back up. The two of them head back to OB, and OB uses the fabric to finish the harness (and an emergency glider/parachute) for Stars.

They four of them take off - Toverin and Zeblek carry Stars on the harness, while OB flies solo. There's a little issue where they have to fly around the spire to catch and updraft and Toverin and Zeblek go in opposite directions and nearly fall, but they get it sorted and land (in something of a heap) through a window. They take the stairs the rest of the way, eventually emerging in an open platform (landing a landing/launching room)...and find nests.

Nothing in the nests but some feathers and fur, and in one of them, a clutch of large eggs. Stars consults dris tomes and figures these nests to belong to eaglepards, rare and elusive predatory flying creatures. The drakes posit that maybe it was the fact that this spire became a nesting ground for these animals that got it closed off (though OB notes that it was sway pretty precipitously when they were walking up, so maybe it's just generally unsafe). They don't want to disturb the eaglepards, though, so they decide to glide down.

Zeblek leaps, diving towards the Earth to see how far dre can dive before pulling up. Stars works up the courage to jump (actually Toverin gives them a little shove), and yanks the ripcord! The great fabric wings pop out and Stars drifts on the currents as OB and Toverin fly nearby to help as needed...but then the eaglepards come!

The creatures screech and yowl, recognizing a threat to their nest. Toverin employs wild speech to convince them that the dragons are no threat, and they seem to agree...but then focus on Stars, who doesn't look or smell much like a dragon right now. They dive-bomb the canvas wings and scratch them up, and Stars goes into a tumbling freefall.

OB reaches into dris saddlebag of potential and tosses out a handful of marshmallows, which the eaglepards don't like but it does drive them away from Stars. Toverin calls on the stone moon and creates a bubble around Stars, but it's too tough...

Meanwhile, on the ground, Zeblek looks up and sees dris clutch coming into view...and then a sphere of some kind heading straight for them. Dre steps out of the way and the bubble hits the ground, and then with a loud satisfying BOING shoots straight back up.

(Stars, for dris part, doesn't even feel the inertia. Dre looks at Zeblek briefly before the bounce: "Help?")

SHOOM! The bubble shoots straight up, past Toverin and OB. OB calls on the liberty moon to weaken the bubble at the right time, when Stars isn't so far from the ground. Dre almost gets it right, and Stars is forced to drop a little further than dre would probably like, but dre acts despite danger and lands neatly.

The drakes take a breather, and Lonnoth swoops in. The drakes explain what they found, and OB makes a sign for the bottom of the spire explaining that "RARE CREATURES NEST HERE - STAY OUT!" Lonnoth is forced to admit that the Elders in charge of this area probably won't reopen the spire, but maybe the eaglepards are seasonal and after they're finished their nesting cycle, they could be persuaded to relocate. Anyway, dre has found the dragon they need to talk to - a renowned gemshaper named Vizali. 

Lonnoth leads them into the section of the Capital where the Elders live, where everything is huge. Dre leads them to an immense structure and bids them farewell, and the drakes see a tail bigger than any of them swishing around. Zeblek calls out, and Vizali turns around and lowers dris head, and even Zeblek kinda has to take a moment to process.

The drakes explain the situation; Vizali, fortunately, knows the legends of Keestah the Chosen and Shoalwing, and examines the shards of the Sword of Kebros. Dre says that dre can fix the sword...but would one of them perhaps like to learn the practice of gemshaping? OB, of course, enthusiastically agrees, and Vizali tells them to come back tomorrow bright and early and they'll get started. The drakes asks Vizali to hold onto the sword for safekeeping (they don't want to risk losing it), and dre agrees.

The clutch finds a drake hostel to bunk up for the night and get some rest. Who knows what adventures tomorrow holds?