I like to tinker. That's what I do. I get ahold of things and I want to twist and bend them into new ways. That's probably why I'm not as successful of an independent RPG author as some of the OSR bloggers... I'm more in the "Oh, let me make this do that and something else."
Lately, I've been utterly fascinated by SirLarkins's posts on his blog RPG Corner about his solo Pendragon game with his wife. Pendragon is a game about life and family in the mythology of King Arthur - and it's one of the few games that assumes and encourages a campaign that spans generations of a family. I've found myself extremely intrigued by this concept, so much so, that I found the first edition boxed set on Ebay and got it for less than $10 - and now my wife and I have something new to try. I'm also going to pick up the PDF version of the "Great Pendragon Campaign" book which is essentially a chronological campaign setting that one can use to run their Pendragon campaign in tight context to the Authurian legends.
Add to this mix another bit - Erin and I have been discussing on comments and twitter about the old school concepts of Battletech and Mechwarrior - the fact that when first conceived, Battletech was similar to knights on their steeds coming to battle. 'Mechs were rare, extremely valuable and most often were family heirlooms to be passed down. If a family owned a Locust, it was likely that they'd always be Locust-drivers, even if they were fortunate enough to gain a bigger 'Mech somehow. I equate the training and 'loyalty' to their class similar to that of a light cav knight compared to a heavy cav knight.
The Battletech Universe is widely understood with a well documented canon to it, much like Arthurian mythology. It occurs to me that a grand campaign spanning generations of Mechwarriors across the Succession Wars as technology and governments reverted back to scavenging and almost 21st century technology would be fascinating! Add in the aspect of a family focus across generations and this could be a very interesting
Now it could be that this has already been done, to some degree. I don't recall all the supplements but I don't remember one that dealt specifically with family type issues or generations like Pendragon does. One could look at the Mercenary supplements to Mechwarrior for some inspiration. Still - creating a "Grand Mechwarrior Campaign" book/approach that follows the Succession Wars would be a fascinating exercise!
I don't have enough hours in the day to do all the neat crap I want to do. *sigh*
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
OD&D Solo game w/wife - Misfortunes
You just know this can't be good...After Friday night's victory over the smoke dragon and opening of Alaxus's Tomb, @theprincesswife's PC Aeli was ready to plumb the depths of the ancient Black Mage's final resting place. Things, however, didn't quite turn out the way she hoped. Sometimes the dice love players, sometimes the dice hate players.
After a brief survey of a room with a rune-carved plinth, she found a room littered with bones ankle-deep. The bones were packed down to a smooth surface and a shimmering distortion could be seen. As they approached it, it reached out suddenly with a pseudopod and slammed one of her hirelings. Down he went, paralyzed. It was a gelatinous cube!
Thus began a disjointed retreat from the creature. Aeli attempted to hold at the door, but she fumbled and now her glowing, possibly magical/weird sword was stuck in the wall! With only 3 hit points left, one man down and the rest injured from the smoke dragon, Aeli had no choice but to flee. The party had to leave behind the chest of gold they'd taken from the dragon, as it was slowing them down. They fled the tomb and dungeon proper to the forest outside. Fortunately, her paralyzed henchman recovered.
The party was dejected as they bedded down in front of the tomb. Sleep came to them, however, sleep that was rudely interrupted by a harsh laugh and a croaking "Well-ho, boys! What do we have here?" and the answering laugh... from creatures encircling the party's camp! A band of goblins had stumbled onto the party and now had them in a bad place. Aeli looked to make a fight of it, despite being surrounded and without armor (you can't sleep in armor in my game), but the NPCs and hirelings told her this was a bad situation. Aeli and the goblin sergeant negotiated and he took all their coins and a couple of weapons and left them alive.
Thus Aeli and company marched back to Valetown, now injured, dejected AND penniless. The Patriarch (spiritual leader and mayor of Valetown) took them in, healed them and agreed to keep some items he'd borrowed from them in exchange for coin and weapons refit from the town guard. Tironell, the mage NPC, knew the books were worth 5 times what the Patriarch could spare, but the party had little choice. The evening ended with the Patriarch directing the innkeeper to allow Aeli & company to have a barrel of beer, which they consumed to drown out the memories.
The dice were just not with @theprincesswife. This time, the cube did not fall so easily as had one in the past and Aeli was still injured from her previous encounter with the smoke dragon. When the follower fell, that was the cube getting a good hit, and the fumble (with following roll resulting in "weapon stuck in wall/floor") was further bad luck. I thought for a minute that my wife would stay, but when she realized they could outrun the cube, she pulled back and tried to bomb it with oil. That missed, so they fled proper.
What made it worse was the wandering monster result I rolled up during their camp-out. When I came up with a large band of goblins, I thought of how this might go... and I decided that the goblins were in a good place to try and pull off a bluff. Goblins are sneaky and canny, and they don't want to sell their lives cheaply. The leader had the advantage, so he pressed it to get some easy coin and a couple of weapons. A good score for the goblins without them losing any lives - made perfect sense to me. It was a low point for my wife, for sure, but if this had gone to combat I think it would have been a very bad go. She was, in a way, lucky that the goblins felt they had a good advantage AND she's lucky in some sense her glowing magic sword was stuck in the tomb's wall. If the goblins would have seen that and tried to claim it, it would have been bad, bad, bad. My wife does not give up her sparklies and pretties easily.
The dice sometimes are with you, and sometimes they really kick you in the ass. So Aeli lives another day, but she's been taken down a peg and she doesn't like that! I have no doubt my wife will return to the Tomb, but I think in retrospect, she should have healed up before venturing further into the dungeon. Even at 3rd level, a good hit from a tough creature can bring you down fast. So last night was enjoyable from just playing, but in the words of my wife - "That adventure SUCKED!"
That'll make the next success all the sweeter.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
OD&D Solo game w/wife - Dragons!
Last night, I got to do something that I've not done as a DM - I got to run a dragon. OK, it was a smoke dragon - a construct - but it was still fun to have this thing billow forth, put the Black Dragon miniature on the altar and have it thunder "BEGONE INTRUDERS OR DIE!!!" It was a guardian to the Tomb of Alaxus, so it was rather limited in scope, but it still was powerful enough to put 3/4ths of the party out of commission with it's choking breath weapon. It roared forth a streaming, billowing cloud of smoke around the party and most of them went down choking and coughing with failed saving throws.
That was when I could the "screw it, I'm dead" look on my wife's face. She was overwhelmed with her plans and party falling apart almost from the get go. It was at that point that I slowed the game down and walked her through what she knew:
- The dragon was a construct, linked to some sort of anchor - clues in the tomb told her it was a cup. She had just gone through a few days worth of adventure to get a sage to give her some advice on how to defeat it, but all that ran out her head when she faced the danger.
- Where was the cup? She had assumed she could just walk in, grab the cub and control the dragon. She had forgotten that the first time she entered the huge chamber, the dragon appeared right away. She wasn't putting the clues together in her panic - that the smoke originated from the stone altar in the corner. By slowing down the game and walking her through it, she realized that the cup was probably on the altar, but hidden now by the smoke from the dragon.
- What to do now that the original plan was up in smoke? (hehehehe) She had herself and another party member left. "What can you do?" She thought about it and came up with the remaining active hireling to go grab the cup while she confronted the dragon, distracting it. That was a reasonable plan, as the dragon recognized Aeli as the strongest party member. It's confidence was it's undoing as the dice had favored my wife... this thing had on 13hp and it was a 4HD monster!
The plan worked! Aeli chopped into the smoke dragon, disrupting it's cohesiveness with a nice series of blows. The hireling named Rather dashed up to the altar, found the cup and just as the dragon was turning to throw it's breath weapon at him, he smashed the cup while Aeli sliced through for the final blow!
One relieved wife looting the chest of gold later...
I also ran into a classic potential dead end myself... there's a tomb here, she legitemately found the symbol indicating the door, but she was failing rolls to find the way to open it. She knew what was going on, but the dice were saying that she wasn't getting it done right away. Well, sometimes you let the dice tell the story and sometimes you have to figure out what else to do. So, I gave her a tradeoff. She spent two hours figuring out the hidden double doors, then using swords from fallen skeletons to pry it open a crack, then her and a party member testing their Strength against it to pull it open enough for one person to squeeze through.
I think the new gamers call it "taking 10", but I called it 5 wandering monster rolls that came up empty (argh!) and the loss of 6 ancient swords that could have been worth money. Man, talk about the rolls going her way with monsters! Dead end overcome through resource exchange and risking combat. I'll take that and now she's got a dark, damp corridor beckoning...
So we've frozen the game in place (a luxury that I indulge in when we're going to play the next day) and we'll see what happens as she begins to plumb the Tomb of Alaxus. I can't wait!
That was when I could the "screw it, I'm dead" look on my wife's face. She was overwhelmed with her plans and party falling apart almost from the get go. It was at that point that I slowed the game down and walked her through what she knew:- The dragon was a construct, linked to some sort of anchor - clues in the tomb told her it was a cup. She had just gone through a few days worth of adventure to get a sage to give her some advice on how to defeat it, but all that ran out her head when she faced the danger.
- Where was the cup? She had assumed she could just walk in, grab the cub and control the dragon. She had forgotten that the first time she entered the huge chamber, the dragon appeared right away. She wasn't putting the clues together in her panic - that the smoke originated from the stone altar in the corner. By slowing down the game and walking her through it, she realized that the cup was probably on the altar, but hidden now by the smoke from the dragon.
- What to do now that the original plan was up in smoke? (hehehehe) She had herself and another party member left. "What can you do?" She thought about it and came up with the remaining active hireling to go grab the cup while she confronted the dragon, distracting it. That was a reasonable plan, as the dragon recognized Aeli as the strongest party member. It's confidence was it's undoing as the dice had favored my wife... this thing had on 13hp and it was a 4HD monster!
The plan worked! Aeli chopped into the smoke dragon, disrupting it's cohesiveness with a nice series of blows. The hireling named Rather dashed up to the altar, found the cup and just as the dragon was turning to throw it's breath weapon at him, he smashed the cup while Aeli sliced through for the final blow!
One relieved wife looting the chest of gold later...
I also ran into a classic potential dead end myself... there's a tomb here, she legitemately found the symbol indicating the door, but she was failing rolls to find the way to open it. She knew what was going on, but the dice were saying that she wasn't getting it done right away. Well, sometimes you let the dice tell the story and sometimes you have to figure out what else to do. So, I gave her a tradeoff. She spent two hours figuring out the hidden double doors, then using swords from fallen skeletons to pry it open a crack, then her and a party member testing their Strength against it to pull it open enough for one person to squeeze through.
I think the new gamers call it "taking 10", but I called it 5 wandering monster rolls that came up empty (argh!) and the loss of 6 ancient swords that could have been worth money. Man, talk about the rolls going her way with monsters! Dead end overcome through resource exchange and risking combat. I'll take that and now she's got a dark, damp corridor beckoning...
So we've frozen the game in place (a luxury that I indulge in when we're going to play the next day) and we'll see what happens as she begins to plumb the Tomb of Alaxus. I can't wait!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
From Bad To Worse - Winter War Mechwarrior scenario
It was supposed to be a smash & grab mission - quick in and quick out. Everything went By-The-Book... Until Recon told us that everyone at the Steiner base was dead, and we saw that ancient Drop Ship circling the planet. What happened next... I don't want to talk about it. 'From Bad to Worse' combines a horror-sci/fi Mechwarrior RPG scenario with Battletech miniature battles. Pregenerated characters will be available.
The scenario is going to consist of three situations that I'd like to get through.
Situation 1:
The first is the opener. You're a member of a mercenary assault that attacked the small Steiner world of McFierney. Your unit's objective was to smash the small Mech outpost near one of the major cities. The jump to the pirate point was text-book and lucky, the landing unopposed. Then you saw them... all the dead bodies. Hundreds of them. Securing the base wasn't a problem, it was figuring out what the hell happened. Your lance dismounted to investigate the main base facility. You found more bodies, but none were decaying. That's when you saw it, a lab that held a strange piece of black metal that didn't seem to be there. Problem was, your presence there triggered a response and you found yourself locked in a sub-basement level, with only a "BIOHAZARD" flashing alert to keep you company. Then... about 30 hours later, the power failed and everything opened. That's when you noticed the bodies were moving...
The scenario objectives are simple - get something that will transport you across the city to the starport where your Drop Ship is. Will the players survive? This portion of the game will use the microMechwarrior rules.
Situation 2:
Now at your transport (Mechs, or tanks, or trucks or whatever the players have survived to find) you discover that things have gotten worse. This is where I'll be prepared with two different paths.
If the players made it to their Mechs or tanks, they have to make it through the city to get to the landing site. They will be opposed by a surprise Steiner Mech lance that had been out in the field. This portion of the game will use Classic/Intro Battletech rules. I'm prepared to go with QuickStart rules (heat, no internal structure) if most players are new to Battletech.
If players made it to other vehicles, it'll be a microMechwarrior encounter till they get to the star port, at which point, I'll have Mechs there that they can use to repulse the Steiners who've come upon them.
(In other words, we're having a Battletech fight at this point, dammit... how you get to fight big stompy robots is your decision.)
Once they reach the Star port...
The players will find out that there is a strange looking battered Star League era drop ship, sitting on the launch pad. They can go explore the drop ship, which will come to life and take them to Situation 3. If they choose to not go to the drop ship, or we're out of time, they will be taken up to their Jump Ship, where they'll be told there is a Star League Jump Ship in orbit around the planet. It's not responding to hails and it looks dead... and like it's been burned.
Situation 3 -
One of two deals - the Merc Leader wants to get that ancient drop ship with the possible Mechs AND he wants to explore the Jump Ship.
If the players want another Mech battle:
They go down in their Drop Ship only to find that the other Drop Ship has different ideas... and it's Mechs inside are rather protective of things. Undead Mechs. Ghosts in the Machine. Dont'cha love it? (no, I'm not using the Wizkids Undead Mech thing... no clue what that is and not sure I want to :P. However, zombie mechs will have an unusual twist or two... Oh yes. :> )
If the players want to do more RPG and explore the ship or they got into the ancient drop ship...:
Let's face it, you know what's coming. This ship has been to Hell and back and it's brought death with it. They'll dock at the Jump Ship and explore - they'll see other drop ships there full of Mechs, but no people, as far as they can tell. This is where the weird shit begins - and if you've watched Event Horizon, you'll know where I'm going... NPCs are going to start going nuts and yes, there will be real undead. The ship will begin prepping for jump... will the players make it out in time? (if they were shanghai'd there, will they survive/make it to the rescuing drop ship from the mercs?)
The scenario is going to consist of three situations that I'd like to get through.
Situation 1:
The first is the opener. You're a member of a mercenary assault that attacked the small Steiner world of McFierney. Your unit's objective was to smash the small Mech outpost near one of the major cities. The jump to the pirate point was text-book and lucky, the landing unopposed. Then you saw them... all the dead bodies. Hundreds of them. Securing the base wasn't a problem, it was figuring out what the hell happened. Your lance dismounted to investigate the main base facility. You found more bodies, but none were decaying. That's when you saw it, a lab that held a strange piece of black metal that didn't seem to be there. Problem was, your presence there triggered a response and you found yourself locked in a sub-basement level, with only a "BIOHAZARD" flashing alert to keep you company. Then... about 30 hours later, the power failed and everything opened. That's when you noticed the bodies were moving...
The scenario objectives are simple - get something that will transport you across the city to the starport where your Drop Ship is. Will the players survive? This portion of the game will use the microMechwarrior rules.
Situation 2:
Now at your transport (Mechs, or tanks, or trucks or whatever the players have survived to find) you discover that things have gotten worse. This is where I'll be prepared with two different paths.
If the players made it to their Mechs or tanks, they have to make it through the city to get to the landing site. They will be opposed by a surprise Steiner Mech lance that had been out in the field. This portion of the game will use Classic/Intro Battletech rules. I'm prepared to go with QuickStart rules (heat, no internal structure) if most players are new to Battletech.
If players made it to other vehicles, it'll be a microMechwarrior encounter till they get to the star port, at which point, I'll have Mechs there that they can use to repulse the Steiners who've come upon them.
(In other words, we're having a Battletech fight at this point, dammit... how you get to fight big stompy robots is your decision.)
Once they reach the Star port...
The players will find out that there is a strange looking battered Star League era drop ship, sitting on the launch pad. They can go explore the drop ship, which will come to life and take them to Situation 3. If they choose to not go to the drop ship, or we're out of time, they will be taken up to their Jump Ship, where they'll be told there is a Star League Jump Ship in orbit around the planet. It's not responding to hails and it looks dead... and like it's been burned.
Situation 3 -
One of two deals - the Merc Leader wants to get that ancient drop ship with the possible Mechs AND he wants to explore the Jump Ship.
If the players want another Mech battle:They go down in their Drop Ship only to find that the other Drop Ship has different ideas... and it's Mechs inside are rather protective of things. Undead Mechs. Ghosts in the Machine. Dont'cha love it? (no, I'm not using the Wizkids Undead Mech thing... no clue what that is and not sure I want to :P. However, zombie mechs will have an unusual twist or two... Oh yes. :> )
If the players want to do more RPG and explore the ship or they got into the ancient drop ship...:
Let's face it, you know what's coming. This ship has been to Hell and back and it's brought death with it. They'll dock at the Jump Ship and explore - they'll see other drop ships there full of Mechs, but no people, as far as they can tell. This is where the weird shit begins - and if you've watched Event Horizon, you'll know where I'm going... NPCs are going to start going nuts and yes, there will be real undead. The ship will begin prepping for jump... will the players make it out in time? (if they were shanghai'd there, will they survive/make it to the rescuing drop ship from the mercs?)
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