Review: Pinebox Middle School

"And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." - Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

For a long time, I couldn't think of anything I'd like to play less than college students fighting the supernatural while dealing with course assignments and teenage romance. That's the East Texas University setting for SWADE, that is.

And then Pinebox Middle School appeared. Same thing, but with 12-year-old supernatural sleuths. The only way you could make that less interesting to me is to use Gumshoe as the rules engine.

Still, it didn't really cost me anything, being part of a much larger bundle; sufficiently good ideas and writing have changed my mind before; and it does me good to be dragged out of my silo from time to time and stand, blinking, in the harsh light of new concepts. Let's see if this one can convert me.

In a Nutshell: Savage Worlds implementation of the popular kids-on-bikes-investigate-supernatural-weirdness trope; setting, Plot Point campaign, a dozen short scenarios. 210 page PDF from 12 to Midnight and Pinnacle Entertainment, available here for $20 at time of writing.

What's Inside

• Back to School (5 pages): An introduction to the setting, which is Pinebox, Texas, the same small town which hosts ETU and (I believe) a number of adventures by 12 to Midnight. Characters are kids aged 11-14 who get mixed up in the dark secrets and ancient mysteries of Pinebox. Tone ranges from Scooby Doo through Stranger Things to It.
• Characters (15 pages): Character creation; PCs are automatically human, with the Young (Major) and Small Hindrances. Attributes are bought with 3 points not 5, and may not exceed d6, except for one which can be a d8; actually that's a good rule of thumb for any PC. 10 skill points instead of 12, and skills max out at d6, except for two which can be bought up to d8; no skill may be bought up over d8 with Advances. 11 new Hindrances, 12 new Edges. Extracurricular activities and family situation, and how they affect the PC's statblock.
• Gear & Gadgets (20 pages): I glaze over at gear chapters at the best of times. This one is focused on items kids can afford and carry, and which won't draw unwelcome adult attention. PCs are each assumed to have a cellphone, and some means of transport such as a bicycle. This chapter also includes the 'Clubhouse', a setting-appropriate version of the group lair which is now found in most SWADE settings and companions; as usual, this can be upgraded as the PCs advance.
• Setting Rules (6 pages): There are half a dozen of these, the most interesting of which are the variant advancement rules; kids advance, and shed their Hindrances, as they grow up and shift to higher classes in the school. I should also mention the McAllister Maxim, which is that - as in Home Alone - damage to humans is nonlethal by default; players must deliberately specify lethal damage to risk killing someone.
• A Guide to Pinebox (13 pages): Descriptions and maps; your typical small American town and its environs, with a focus on the middle school. Locations, climate, wildlife, NPCs both present and missing, that kind of thing.
• The Principal's Office (10 pages): The GM in this setting is called, naturally enough, the Principal. This chapter gives more detailed descriptions of the local region, sites of interest, a list of which NPCs you need to introduce before each of the Plot Point scenarios, random tables of weird events, strange places and weather.
• Magic and the Supernatural (14 pages): Since PCs don't have Arcane Backgrounds, magic requires finding and performing rituals. This chapter covers rituals, how they work, how they interact with technology, required components, possible complications. There are also half a dozen new Powers appropriate to the setting, including consecrate ground and seance, and magical talismans to be found and used.
• Adventure Generator (10 pages): Many Savage Worlds settings have one of these, intended for one-shot filler adventures. Draw cards to determine the who, what, why, where, supernatural opponent, victim, and plot complication. There's an example of the generator in use.
• Descent into the Inferno (44 pages): A campaign in nine main adventures, three per year during the group's time in middle school. This links in to other Pinebox products, although they are not required to run it. I was interested to see the adventure summaries show the cell phone signal strength for each location.
• Savage Tales (38 pages): A dozen or so stand-alone adventures to be sprinkled in between the main ones. Including the campaign scenarios, there are 22 in total, which I would expect to last my group for 6-12 months.
• Characters and Critters (28 pages): The bestiary, divided into new monstrous abilities (the most interesting of which is Possession), notable (named) NPCs, typical Extras, creatures (both natural and supernatural), demons, and ghosts. These are in addition to the Saturday Night Special monsters in the various adventures.

...and we close with a list of inspirations and an index.

What I Liked

• Unusually, PMS is set in the present day. A lot of horror is set in earlier decades, because when everyone has a cellphone, there are security cameras everywhere, and people are constantly mindful of the threats posed to children, a lot of the usual genre tropes and plots don't work.
• The new Hindrances and Edges; if you want to make your SWADE setting pop, this is your main tool for doing so. I especially liked Annoying Sibling (gets in the way at inopportune moments) and Imaginary Friend (a poltergeist that has taken a shine to you).
• The comments on diversity and disabilities, which explain how these work in the game without being irritatingly long and preachy.
• The fact that the book includes a Plot Point campaign and numerous Savage Tales. I must grudgingly admit that the Plot Point campaign is pretty good.

What I Didn't Like

• Adults are slow and stupid, leaving the kids to face down Elder Gods and cannibal serial killers on their own. This is a common trope of the genre, indeed children's fiction in general, and otherwise every session would last about ten minutes before one of the players says "We call the cops." But I still don't like it.
• Child PCs are a lot more alike than adult ones, due to the mandatory Hindrances and attribute and skill point caps.

Conclusions

This is a well-written book, and looks like a solid implementation of the genre. If you like this kind of thing, you could do a lot worse, especially with the campaign and one-shots included.

However, I have not been converted; I still do not like this kind of thing, so I will not be running it or playing it. Though I might strip some of the adventures for parts.

Review: Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide

"Three centuries after the Great Cataclysm nearly destroyed humankind, Earth is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Fueled by the return of magic, holes torn in space and time act as arcane doorways to other realities." - Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide

Yes, it's Rifts for Savage Worlds. The Palladium version of Rifts never appealed to me, but since this popped out of the last Humble Bundle I bought, I was intrigued enough to read through it.

In a Nutshell: Player's handbook for the SWADE port of Rifts; every possible genre thrown into a blender. 148 page PDF from Palladium Books and Pinnacle Entertainment, available here for $15 at time of writing. This is just the player's guide, I don't have the GM guide.

Contents

We begin with commentary from Kevin Siembieda, creator of Rifts, explaining what he was trying to achieve with the game and setting and how he went about doing it.

Introduction (11 pages): Presumably you already have SWADE, as you need it to run the setting. So, this section tells you about the setting, rather than what an RPG is. The premise is that one day, a long time ago, the Earth was transformed into a chaotic mass of everything-you-can-imagine by the sudden appearance of many doorways to many different realities, called Rifts. It's all happening at once, and in many cases people, mutants and Dimensional Beings ("D-Bees") are arguing about who's in charge of what's left. Due to the vast number of Rifts products published over the years, the book needs a focus, and the chosen region is North America, where two major blocs (the technological Coalition States and the Federation of Magic) each control about a third of the population, with the rest being independent communities, beholden to neither.

As is often the case in Savage Worlds settings, we find an organisation of good guys to which the PCs belong by default; in this case, the Tomorrow Legion works to uncover and preserve the best of Earth's history, and fight for hope and justice. (See that psychic techno-paladin? That's you, that is.)

Characters (66 pages): Character creation follows SWADE, with two major differences; the Iconic Framework and the Hero's Journey. The Iconic Framework is essentially a character class, starter package, or template, however you prefer to think of it, giving you some predefined Edges, Hindrances, Skills, and Gear; the Hero's Journey is a condensed random lifepath, of which more below. There's also an additional attribute, Strain, which is derived from the lower of Spirit or Vigour and determines how much cybernetic gear you can get implanted before you develop permanent Fatigue levels.

There are a dozen Iconic Frameworks, each for an iconic character type of the Rifts setting; most of them are cyborgs, super-soldiers created by drugs and elective surgery, psychics, or some combination thereof. Oh, and you can be a dragon if you want. Note that the MARS Iconic Framework also allows you to create a PC in any other Savage Worlds setting and import them into Rifts (see sidebar p. 8).

This chapter also includes expanded rules for custom races, and ten new races, ancestries, or whatever we're calling them now. Most of them are proud, psionic warrior races.

No official Savage Worlds setting is complete without new Edges, and the Frameworks have unique Edges they can unlock as they Advance, only available to them. There are also some new Edges not linked to a Framework, of which my favourites are I Know a Guy, which lets you gain a temporary Connection once per session, and Scrounger, which lets you use Networking to acquire certain gear. Yoink!

Gear (34 pages): This chapter begins by explaining the standard starting gear; each Framework modifies this in some way, normally adjusting weapons or armour. Then it moves on into how credit cards work on Rifts Earth, what items are restricted in which areas, how to use Networking to sell your ill-gotten gains, item scarcity and how it affects purchasing. There's a selection of high-tech or arcane items, most of them weapons or armour, especially lasers and power armour; but then, Savage Worlds has always been a combat-oriented game. This section also includes new vehicles, mecha, and cybernetic implants. My gut feeling is that it's all compatible with the SF Companion, but I haven't cross-checked that in detail, what with the equipment chapters of RPGs being my least favourite part.

Setting Rules (4 pages): This setting uses Born a Hero, Conviction, More Skill Points, and Wound Cap from the core rules, and several new ones; Blaze of Glory, Blood & Gore, Death & Defeat, Siphoning PPE, Technical Difficulties, and Vehicle Fatigue. These reinforce the dangerous nature of Rifts Earth, which is arguably a survival horror setting; high-tech equipment breaks, vehicles wear out, Mega Damage weapons can really mess you up, you can gain more Power Points by ritual sacrifice, and there are several ways for PCs to evade death from Incapacitation - or lean into it and go out in a blaze of glory.

Psionics and Magic (12 pages): This explains how the usual Arcane Backgrounds and Powers are modified for the setting; this means adding the kind of Power Points they use (there are four different names, but I think "Standard" and "Normal" PP are the same, so only three different kinds), what you need to activate Powers available to that AB, and whether they can manipulate Techno-Wizardry gear. A number of the Iconic Frameworks have their own rules and are effectively new Arcane Backgrounds; sometimes you can take two different ones, but cybernetic implants give you significant penalties on casting so there is some niche protection.

This chapter also explains the effects of Ley Lines (Rifts are nodes where Ley Lines meet, and some spellcasters can draw power from them), and how to focus power by meditation and rituals. There are also six pages of additional Power Modifiers, most of which look like enhanced versions of existing modifiers; Savage Rifts doesn't offer much in the way of new Powers, but it does make existing ones more powerful.

The Hero's Journey (12 pages): A collection of lifepath tables; PCs may roll once for a narrative hook, such as a history with one of the setting's major powers, a grudging mutual respect for an enemy, or a connection to a family member. In addition, most Iconic Frameworks let you roll twice on various tables, which depending on the result might give you improved or extra gear, better skills or extra Edges.

...and we close with an Index.

What I Liked

• I'm a big fan of Savage Worlds, and TV shows like Stargate SG-1 and Sliders. This is as close to Savage Sliders, Savage Stargate, or Savage Fringeworthy as we're likely to get.
• I like the box-outs in each Iconic Framework explaining how to get the best out of it.
• A couple of the Social Edges, which I shall plagiarise shamelessly.
• The Psi-Stalker's Animal Empathy ability, which makes animals think you're one of them. It's all fun and games until you meet a solitary and highly-territorial predator.

What I Didn't Like

• Nomenclature which duplicates SWADE terms for the sake of including Rifts terminology. Why did we need to rename Heavy Weapons and Armour as Mega Damage and MDC? Why do we need to have three different kinds of Power Points, called PP in some places, ISP in others, and PPE in others still? (Yes, I know, different Arcane Backgrounds use different kinds of Power Points, but again I ask: Why?)
• Good Lord, the PCs are overpowered; between the Frameworks, the Hero's Journey and whatnot, I'd say they start at the equivalent of Veteran Rank. They were fun to read, but I'm not sure I'd want them running around loose in any of my campaigns. This is a game about superheroes rebuilding civilisation after the end of the world. It's all a bit four-colour for me.

Conclusions

Would I play it? Probably. It has a lot of stuff I'm not interested in, but the beauty of the setting is that you can be who and what you want, regardless of what anyone else is doing.

Would I run it? Probably not. It has a lot of stuff I'm not interested in, and if I'm not going to let the players have it, why not play something else? I might strip it for parts, though, there are some interesting Edges in there.

Arion 1-12: Combat

"The game was originally devised as a fencing system, with background added to provide scenarios for the duels. After a time, it became apparent that the background was more fun than the duels and En Garde!, in its present form, was born." - En Garde!, 1975

A longish one this time, but I preferred to finish the fight rather than split it in two.

Hollis Highport, 1105 Week 51

Setup

Arion, Cori, Officer Muhammed and Mr Osheen are walking back from the medbay - where Sheng is recovering from her broken arm, under the watchful eye of Karagoz - when Arion notices a group of people, armed with a mixture of knives and pistols, lurking under a streetlight up ahead. It's the night shift in this section of the station, when the lights are turned low for the benefit of people trying to sleep. The people look shifty, and are taking an unhealthy interest in Arion and company.

Setup. Battlemat - Loke Battlemats. Tokens - Fiery Dragon.

Turn 1: Arion 7C, Thugs 5D

Arion hustles everyone out of sight down the closest alleyway. The opposition fan out in multiple directions, with the mustachio'd boss holding in place and one of his men climbing onto the roof of the building they were loitering by; some cross the street for a better line of sight, some check the opposite direction for unexpected reinforcements coming to help their quarry.

End of Turn 1

Turn 2: Arion AS, Thugs 4D

Arion and his friends move up through the alleyways, tracking the thugs by sound. It's not like him to back away from a fight, and Cori whispers to him that these people are probably connected to the transmission station on the planet's surface; it does not yet occur to him to wonder how she knows that, or why they put the station down there in the first place. The thugs continue to spread out, with a second one climbing up to a higher vantage point.

End of Turn 2

Turn 3: Thugs AD, Arion KH

One thug advances far enough to get line of sight on Mr Osheen and fires a pistol at him, Shaking him. The other thugs move cautiously forward for the most part, jumping down to ground level, although one scans behind them for the signs of approaching Port Authority, and the boss climbs up the nearest building for a better view. Shaking his head to clear it, Mr Osheen charges the man who shot him; Officer Muhammed holds in place and calls for backup, while Arion and Cori run forward to engage the enemy - as soon as they can see them.

End of Turn 3

Turn 4: Thugs JS, Arion JC

Of the six thugs with line of sight to Mr Osheen, only one manages to draw blood as he charges the closest ganger, roaring; but that is a solid hit, and Osheen falls with a look of surprise on his face. Another ganger runs to a building, ready to climb up it, but sees Arion and opens fire on him; he misses. Arion returns fire, but also misses. The last ganger dithers, darting this way and that, unable to decide which way to go. Cori leapfrogs past Arion and walks a short burst from her SMG up the wall the gangster firing at Arion is climbing; one round hits him somewhere vital, and he falls, his fingers suddenly nerveless. Officer Muhammed pops up out of cover long enough to squeeze off a shot at the closest thug, but misses. She ducks back to avoid his return fire.

End of Turn 4

Turn 5: Arion 8D, thugs 6D

Cori and Arion exchange a look and a nod, and advance. Cori steps into the street and lays down suppressive fire on the closest two thugs, while Arion runs straight forward, pausing for a second to fire at the ganger with the best shot at Cori before ducking into another alleyway, as he has noted the dithering ganger to his south. Realising she's getting separated, Muhammed darts across an alley mouth in pursuit of Arion, squeezing off a shot at one ganger as she flashes through his line of sight. This time she hits, and he collapses to the floor.

The dithering ganger sees Arion duck into an alley and moves after him, getting close enough to slash with his knife, but only gashes Arion's leather jacket. The two suppressed by Cori fire back at her, but one has a badly-maintained gun, which jams, and the other misses. The two across the street from Cori fire at her, but miss. Meanwhile, the leader moves to get a clear shot at Arion, but misses.

End of Turn 5. Blast template shows suppressive fire area.

Turn 6: Arion 3C, thugs 2S

Arion steps back, dodging a second thrust from the knife, and shoots his assailant, who curls up around his new orifice and falls. Cori crosses the alley mouth with an unconcerned stride, firing at the thug on the pedestrian crossing; she gets two solid hits from the three rounds fired, and he goes down. Muhammed closes up and fires at the first thug she sees, Shaking him. More tactically aware than the others and with the home ground advantage, she is in a place where none of the surviving enemy can see her.

The enemy leader now has a clear shot at Arion, and Shakes him with a graze. The unwounded female ganger stalks forward until she has clear line of sight on Muhammed, and drops her with a well-placed shot. The Shaken ganger composes himself and darts across the alley mouth, firing as he goes and Shaking Cori. His colleague follows suit, is equally accurate, and Cori goes down, Wounded.

End of Turn 6

Turn 7: Thugs 5S, Arion 4H

The leader, who can see Arion staggering back against a wall, directs his followers to close in, and they move to cut off his avenues of escape. The two who have line of sight fire, but Arion twists out of the way at the last second, shaking his head to clear it and running for his life; he can't see the others, but the silence on the tactical comms channel is not encouraging.

End of Turn 7

Turn 8: Arion QH, thugs 2H

Arion ducks down a side alley, vaults up onto a fire escape, then drops down on the far side and doubles back on himself, hoping to lose his pursuers so he can go back to check on his friends, just the sort of thing an Impulsive, Heroic fellow might do. The gangers run after him, but he has broken line of sight, even from the one leaping across from building to building above him.

End of Turn 8

At this point, the sound of alarms blaring is heard, and the sound of bulkheads dropping to seal off this section of the station. The thugs' leader gives a piercing whistle, and they run off in the direction of the nearest exit.

Aftermath

Three of the four injured thugs survive long enough to be captured, but one bleeds out before help can arrive. Mr Osheen's alien physiology regenerates quickly, not least because the dead ganger - only a few metres from him - seems to be missing a lot of bodily fluids when the Port Authority finally get to him. Cori is badly injured but quickly stabilised, and the redoubtable Officer Muhammed has already levered herself upright and is making her unsteady way towards Cori.

NPC AI

Updated with lessons learned this fight...

1. If in close combat, fight until one side is Incapacitated.
2. If you can make a ranged attack, attack the closest visible target.
3. Move towards closest visible target, or where they were visible last turn, and attack in close combat if possible.
4. Move in a random direction. Stop and turn at obstacles.

GM Notes

For me, the game comes first; to a large extent, the narrative simply justifies the characters moving from one action scene to the next. So here we are, with pictures of the skirmish and not much in the way of narrative or rules exposition. It's the opposite of "fiction first", and I like it that way. Your Mileage May Vary.

I also find it easier to maintain my enthusiasm for a solo game if each episode includes some kind of experiment as well as moving the story forward. This time, I wanted to try out the current version of my NPC combat AI, derived from the old Showdown skirmish rules. I also wanted to try out my shiny new Giant Book of Cyberpunk Battlemats with figures on a tabletop, but having that does not magically grant me access to any of our tables for hours at a time; fortunately, I have the VTT versions of those battlemats, so the game took place in Roll20 instead.

While what the AI did was surprisingly sensible considering its simplicity, but I think in the situation at turn 1, it would make more sense for the thugs to close on where Our Heroes were last seen; by turn 5, I'd decided to allow them to move towards where they saw someone the previous round. Once Muhammed raised the alarm, I made a Mythic Fate roll every round to see if backup arrived, starting with the odds at Impossible and improving them one step each turn. The cavalry arrived just in time, and everyone was lucky on their Incapacitation rolls.

Checking Interstellar Rebels, I see that a fight against 2 basic warriors is worth 1 VP; there were 8 of them, but then Arion had friends with him, and I infer the Interstellar Rebels solo mode is intended for a single PC; so let's say the extra people on both sides cancel each other out. The current score is thus Arion 7, BBEG 2; first to 10 wins.

Review: Deadlands

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I've paid my bill
- Warren Zevon, Desperadoes Under the Eaves

Deadlands is Pinnacle's flagship setting for Savage Worlds, and I recently acquired the upSWADEd 2020 edition as part of a bundle. This review is based not only on reading it through, but also being a player in some 30 sessions of the game totalling 150 hours of play over the last year; that campaign looks like it's about one-third complete at this point.

In a Nutshell: The Weird West for SWADE, which is to say a supernatural horror steampunk western. 200 page PDF from Pinnacle Entertainment, available here for $20 at time of writing.

Contents

As you can see from the chapter page counts, this book is light on extra rules, heavy on setting material and monsters. As you can see from the chapter titles, the book is written in 19th century cowboy English. Those things are not good or bad, they just are.

Deadlands as a setting is almost 30 years old now, and has gone through multiple editions using different sets of rules; the timeline has also evolved, partly because players and publishers are more woke now, partly because Deadlands is part of a clade of other settings - at least four to my knowledge, ranging from the Dark Ages to the era of interstellar colonisation, all in the same sheaf of timelines - and as each new one comes out, it necessitates tweaks to the others. I have no opinion on any of that, and mention it only because if you are familiar with one of the earlier editions, this one might surprise you; this is the only version I have any experience with, so although I know the others are different, I came into it with no expectations.

But I digress. What has it got in its pocketses?

Into the Weird West (6 pages): The obligatory introductory fiction, followed by an overview of the setting and how it differs from our own history. In this timeline, the American Civil War dragged on a lot longer, and California was destroyed by a great earthquake which exposed veins of a superfuel called 'ghost rock'. These two changes allowed other powers to rise in addition to the Union and Confederation; the Mormons and several native American groups have carved out independent nations for themselves.

Makin' Heroes (14 pages): Basic (i.e. mundane) character creation, which follows standard SWADE rules except for a few tweaks to skills - no Electronics or Hacking, add Trade which is a catch-all professional skill, and note that Outsiders speak something other than English as their native tongue, and need to put points into English to use it. All PCs are human, at least initially; and the rules do cater to the setting with 10 new Hindrances and 29 new Edges. You also need to specify your PC's worst nightmare, which obviously the GM will never use against you.

Gear & Goods (14 pages): PCs start with $250 rather than the usual $500, so naturally this chapter starts with how to buy cheap, used gear, which is more likely to break on you, and how to sell spare gear you've acquired on your travels. Then, it's into the lists of gear; common gear, services, transport, ammo, setting-appropriate weapons, explosives, vehicles and infernal devices - steampunk equipment powered by ghost rock. I especially like the hat periscope and the powered de-moler.

Life in the Weird West (89 pages): Day-to-day life in the setting; travel, money, communication, ghost rock, the military, the law, common superstitions. I won't dwell on these, because you must have seen Westerns at some point, beyond saying that this chapter pulls out some interesting snippets about the milieu, both historical (like the surcharge from shopkeepers if you pay with paper money) and setting-specific (zombies are common enough that cremation is becoming popular).

Setting Rules (4 pages): Savage Worlds uses setting rules to tailor the game to specific milieux, and Deadlands is no exception. The most significant are the rules for Duelling, which emulates showdown gunfights like the ones in the movies; this involves building hands of cards as the combatants Test each other over several rounds, then use the best card for the final round, when they draw and fire. (Hucksters play poker with demons to energise their Powers, but that's part of the Arcane Background rules in the next chapter.)

No Man's Land (28 pages): Now we move out of general player territory and into topics that require GM approval; most of these relate to setting-specific Arcane Backgrounds. There's the obligatory secret organisation fighting the supernatural and recruiting PCs to help - there's almost always one of those in a Savage Worlds setting. While the Makin' Heroes chapter is aimed at creating ordinary heroes, this chapter explains other possibilities; Agents (the setting's version of Men In Black), the Blessed (clerics), chi masters (wuxia martial artists), Harrowed (demonic undead), hucksters (supernatural card sharps), mad scientists (steampunk gadgeteers), shamans (what it says on the tin), territorial rangers. Each has their own rules, Edges, and (except Agents, Harrowed and Rangers) list of available Powers. Speaking of which, there are half a dozen new Powers.

The Reckoning (4 pages): From this point on, we're into GM-only territory. This section explains what is really going on in the setting, why, and how. 'Nuff said, no spoilers.

Marshall's Setting Rules (10 pages): In this setting, the GM is called the 'Marshall', and this section adds further setting rules that the players need not concern themselves with. The most important of these is Fear; each area of the Weird West has a Fear Level which affects how things look and how rattled people are; there are rules for how the Bad Guys make it worse and how the PCs can make it better. The section also covers black magic, the awful truth about ghost rock, further details about the Harrowed, hucksters, mad scientists, and other facets of the setting.

Encounters (12 pages): Like most Savage Worlds settings, this one has a random adventure generator, and here it is. The chapter also has random encounter tables intended for use in the wilderness between towns; events in towns are more deliberate, and driven either by the GM's scenario or player machinations.

The Weird West (40 pages): This is the GM-only version of Into the Weird West, with the true secret history, geography, and politics which lies beneath what the PCs think they know. 'Nuff said, no spoilers.

Rascals, Varmints, & Creatures (50 pages): Here we have a couple of setting-specific monstrous abilities, followed by selections of stock NPCs, ordinary animals, and creatures of supernatural evil. Emphasis on the last of those, for the Weird West is a place of action horror.

...and we close with an Index.

Comments

The game treats sexism, racism, and slavery in a more enlightened way than real history did; it explains why, both in game and metagame terms; and it doesn't make a meal of it, restricting the explanations to a few short paragraphs. That's how to do it; other publishers take note.

I like the way the book is divided up into sections which are for all players, only for players that have GM approval to read them, and only for the GM.

If I'd just read the book, I'd consider drawing cards during duels and when casting spells as a huckster to be unnecessary complications which slow the game down, but I must say both of them are faster than I expected in actual play.

Another thing I've noted from both read-throughs of various materials and being a player is that Deadlands boss monsters are typically invulnerable unless you know their weakness, so the first part of any adventure is gathering clues and identifying that weakness, the second part is collecting the items you need to exploit it, and only then can you confront the monster and destroy it.

Conclusions

Would I play it? Absolutely; in fact, I am playing it currently, and enjoying it.

Would I run it? Probably not; life is short, and I've never been a huge Western fan.

Review: Daggerheart Corebook

"I used to be 'with it'. But then they changed what 'it' was. Now what I'm with isn't 'it', and what's 'it' seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you!" - The Simpsons

This one, I didn't actually buy; a friend lent me his copy for a few days, so I inhaled it at speed, took notes, and pondered. This review is based on a high-speed read-through and watching videos by enthusiastic YouTubers.

In a Nutshell: High fantasy narrative-focused RPG from Darrington Press, the Critical Role people; there's a PDF version available here for $30.

Core Mechanics

When your PC tries to do something, you roll 2d12; the Hope Die and the Fear Die. You add the scores and any modifiers, and if the total meets or beats a target number, you succeed, otherwise you fail. If the Hope Die has the higher score, you succeed or fail with Hope, and good things happen; if the Fear Die is higher, bad things happen.

Combat uses a form of popcorn initiative; a PC goes first, and so long as they roll with Hope, they can nominate another PC; if they roll with Fear, the spotlight (as initiative is called) passes to an enemy.

If you succeed at hitting someone, you then roll damage dice, multiply the result by your proficiency, compare the  outcome to their damage thresholds, give them a chance to mark off an armour slot to absorb some of it, then deduct 0-3 from their hit points, depending on the outcome of the previous steps. The damage die type is determined by the kind of attack, the number of dice is indirectly determined by PC level.

What's Inside?

Introduction (11 pages): What's an RPG, what kind of RPG is Daggerheart, what other games and fiction inspired it, core mechanics, what you need to play, how to be a good player, and so on. The game is designed for a GM and up to 4 players, but seems equally at home with one-shots, short campaigns, or long ones.

Preparing for Adventure (76 pages): Character creation. It's big because there are a lot of options. This covers the game's basic theology, how magic works, and other matters that influence character creation. There are nine familiar classes, each with two subclasses; 18 ancestries ("races"), and you can mix and match half-whatevers with GM approval; 9 different types of community your PC could come from. There are six familiar traits, with values from -1 to +2; these are applied directly to dice rolls. Each character has a set inventory, and begins with two "experiences" - effectively, groups of related skills - each with a +2 modifier. An example PC is provided to show how it all works.

Playing an Adventure (53 pages): Player-facing rules; mechanics for combat and non-combat tasks, spellcasting, levelling up, equipment. Levelling up unlocks additional powers, improves modifiers, adds experiences, and so on. This chapter also has a detailed example of play.

Running an Adventure (53 pages): Rules for the Game Master. What the GM does, how to be a good one, GM-facing mechanics (which are sometimes different from player-facing ones), session zero, safety tools, how to run a session, a one-shot or a campaign. This is more conversational than the previous chapter, focused on giving advice rather than explaining rules, and reminds the GM they can change or drop things they don't like.

Adversaries and Environments (60 pages): The bestiary. Note that Daggerheart treats environments and events as a kind of monster, with statblocks of their own. Types of adversary or environment, guidelines for building encounters, guidelines for creating new monsters, statblocks and whatnot.

Campaign Frames (55 pages): Six example campaign structures for long-term play, each with an overview, modifications to the core rules, things for the GM and players to bear in mind, how to kick off and run the campaign, what to focus on in session zero, and a generic map to customise by adding specific features.

Appendices (35 pages): Quick reference, character sheets, maps, other reference documentation.

...and we close with an index.

What I Liked

• The artwork is nice, cartoonish but in an upmarket way, the sort of thing you'd find in a contemporary graphic novel.
• The game is supportive of new players and GMs; lots of advice on how to do things.
• The metacurrencies, Hope (for PCs) and Fear (for the GM), which are generated by player dice rolls and used to power special abilities.
• No whiffing. Every dice roll does something to advance the story.
• Ranges measured as Close, Far etc. rather than numerically. I can see this working well for Theatre of the Mind or solo play. (Numbers are provided for people like me.)
• The advice to players, especially the admonition to embrace danger. PCs who avoid risk like the plague frustrate me.
• The advice on using and advancing countdown timers. Some very clever stuff here, including using them in ways I haven't seen before such as for holding your breath.
• The tactical advice to GMs on how to use each of the main types of NPC enemies.
• A nice range of NPCs and monsters in the bestiary, concisely described, and with specific ones designed for social encounters.
• The way that environments such as "Raging River" or "Imperial Court" are statted up to use as settings for encounters. That's clever.

What I Didn't Like

• The game has a strong focus on collaborative storytelling; it's designed for theatre kids rather than wargaming grognards like m'self.
• There's also a strong focus on safety tools and sensitivity, which tells me it is not a game I will enjoy at the table - that's correlation not causation; players should feel safe and respected, but a strong focus on this area usually means the game doesn't focus on aspects of gaming that I enjoy.
• Character creation is a magical muppet show; it seems every PC is a member of a different race, usually with big pointy ears, usually a spellcaster. This is high fantasy with the volume turned up to 11; I'm a gritty sword and sorcery guy m'self, and Daggerheart doesn't lend itself to that.
• How damage is inflicted seems unnecessarily long-winded and complex. In fact, most of the rules seem to filter what you're doing through several layers of stuff before you get to an outcome, whether those layers are extra rules or asking someone to describe what happens.
• There are a number of places where the editing looks a bit off to me; grammatical or spelling errors. I find those jarring during a read-through, especially when they keep happening.
• The GM's characters use different rules to PCs in some places. That increases the cognitive load on the GM, as he needs to know both sets of rules.
• PCs, and defeated enemies, can only die if players specifically want that to happen. That's explicit in the case of enemies, and while in theory a PC could die unintentionally, setting that up requires a deliberate decision by the player. 

What I'm Undecided About

• The heavy use of cards, quick reference sheets and so on. You'll need a piece of table roughly 30 x 60 cm just to lay out your character; that's 1' by 2' in old money. From running D&D 4th Edition, I know that using cards at the table is fun, especially for more tactile players; from playing WFRP3, I know that needing a lot of table space and fighting over that one unique card everyone wants in their hand are not fun.
• The spotlight. I suppose this is really a question of whether you trust your players to share the spotlight and hand initiative over to each other in a fair and efficient manner. The one time I've seen something similar tried - a house rule where characters on the same side could trade initiative rolls - it led to slow, clunky combat rounds. That could be due to the players involved.
• The mechanics are slanted in favour of the PCs, for example they roll 2d12 while GM characters roll 1d20; PCs will usually roll a couple of points higher than NPCs, their scores will be more predictable, and as critical successes occur when both d12s match, PCs can get those and NPCs can't - and there are no critical failures.
• The constant admonition to the GM to ask (or tell) the players what things look like. Great for the eloquent and inventive, but what about the rest of us? How well this works is going to depend on your table, I think.
• Tag Team Rolls. These allow two PCs to act together; in games with a more formal initiative mechanism, one PC would go "On Hold" and wait for their fellow to be ready, but as there is no initiative as such in Daggerheart, something like this is necessary instead. Doing this costs one PC at least half their Hope, but both use the better of their dice scores.
• Proficiency (ranging from 1 to 6) determines how many damage dice you roll for your weapon; as you level up, you not only get better at hitting, you hit harder with the same attack. This interacts with damage thresholds to mean you are more likely to inflict 3 hit points of damage.

What I Think

For all its cleverness, I put the rulebook down unable to shake the feeling that a Daggerheart campaign would be fanfic about a party of magical girl Mary Sues, orchestrated by an emotional support GM.

If you enjoy that kind of game, more power to you; but it's not for me.

Daggerheart may be the future of gaming, but like the past, the future is another country and they do things differently there. I left this game not feeling respected and empowered as it intended, but instead feeling obsolete, with sighs of "Okay, Boomer," following me out.

If you want me, I'll be at the corner table, drinking with Conan and Earl Dumarest.

Arion 1-11: Chase

Hollis Highport Docks, 1105 Week 50

"Permission to speak freely, Major?" Arion asks, as they walk briskly towards the Dolphin's berth.

Sheng considers this for a heartbeat. If this were a war situation, Arion would hold the temporary rank of a naval lieutenant, but even then he would still be in a different service. Also, he is a friend and she has romantic designs on him.

"Certainly," she says. "Always."

"How much do you trust Karagoz?" he asks.

"My orders are to place myself at his disposal. As are yours."

"Not what I asked, and where did those orders come from?"

She is quiet for a moment, seeing where this is heading. Karagoz is certainly capable of forging her orders, and Arion's. And although neither of them has yet realised Cori is psionic and thus capable of manipulating Karagoz, even if he is acting in good faith, anyone in the chain of command above him could have forged or issued those orders on their own initiative.

"What's your point?" she asks.

"We have no real way of knowing whether this is a legitimate mission or not."

"So?"

"So we need to keep an eye on Karagoz and Ganzfeld, consider whether each order is legal or not. And we need to watch each others' backs."

"That's the problem with black ops, isn't it?" she sighs. "At our level, they're indistinguishable from rogue ops."

Hollis Highport Medbay, 1105 Week 50

Having decrypted the data Arion recovered from the surface, Karagoz suspects that both Ganzfeld and the Dolphin are at risk. He hasn't said why or how, but then the man seems constitutionally incapable of sharing. The rest of the crew are getting used to this, but the upshot is that Mr Osheen is guarding Cori while Sheng watches out for Arion; Osheen is the more dangerous fighter, and Cori is the more valuable - and vulnerable - asset.

Cori is taking advantage of this to grill Mr Osheen about Arion; asking Sheng herself for pointers on how best to cut her out of Arion's affections is problematic, at best.

"You spend a lot of time with him. He must say things," she argues.

"I am not sure if he talks to me about it, but he does talk about it sometimes. He did ask for my thoughts once, but I explained that my species has no genders as such. I find human females confusing, I told him. Me too, he said."

"Which of us has the best chance with him?"

Mr Osheen thinks for a moment. "I do not know how your species' romantic feelings operate. So I shall consider the situation as a negotiation. Major Sheng wants a child, and would accept him as the father; I was there when she implied as much to him. He seemed surprised, and perhaps a little frightened; that is wise, Major Sheng is extremely effective in hand-to-hand combat and to father her child he would necessarily have to close with her. Officer Muhammed offers him what I believe you call 'a good time with no strings attached'; I do not know what she wants in return, perhaps no more than the same. I know he thinks you are the prettiest, but that does not last long for your species. Beyond that, you offer him danger and sarcasm. I believe the other two have made more desirable offers."

Cori digests that for a moment. Mr Osheen continues.

"I have also noticed that while you and Major Sheng are manoeuvring to outflank each other, he is spending time with Officer Muhammed, who is ignoring both of you and focusing her attention on him. Perhaps you can come to some arrangement where the three of you share him?"

"Unacceptable."

"My orders include committing violence on behalf of yourself and Mr Karagoz. I could kill the other two women for you." Mr Osheen says this calmly, simply presenting another option. "Although I would be reluctant to kill Major Sheng, we have survived much combat together."

"Thank you, Mr Osheen, but that would be inappropriate."

"In that case, you must modify your approach. Officer Muhammed's strategy seems to be the most successful so far, but I do not know if simply duplicating it would be enough."

"I have an option the other two don't, though. I can get him alone, off the highport."

"Ah, you mean to invent a mission to take him away from the orbital station. That will certainly remove your competition. You may need something more positive to offer in addition, though."

Hollis Highport Docks, 1105 Week 50

As Arion and the Major enter the Dolphin's docking bay, they see a man in overalls with his arms deep inside a maintenance panel.

"Have you got any maintenance work scheduled?" Sheng asks.

"Hey you!" Arion calls. "What are you doing? Get away from my ship!"

The man immediately extricates himself and runs away, with never a backward glance. Arion and Sheng glance at each other, then take off in hot pursuit. Sheng dodges around a work team ambling into the bay, and shortens the man's head start. Arion thinks for a second about drawing his pistol and firing, but realises he is not a good enough marksman to hit a running target at fifty metres while simultaneously missing Sheng and all the innocent bystanders; he settles for running, the pistol slapping impotently at his hip. Their target is also running, but seems slower than Sheng.

Everyone keeps running, but Arion and the Major close in significantly when someone walks out of a door just as the saboteur runs past it; the two collide and go down, and though the quarry is up and moving again immediately, he is winded and slow. This gives Sheng the opportunity to tackle the escapee by grabbing his legs, but she only manages to catch one of them, and as they fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs he stamps viciously with his free leg. Arion hears the crack of bone and Sheng's involuntary cry. Torn between continuing the pursuit and helping Sheng, he opts for the latter. He calls for a medical team and kneels by her to check the damage.

"Get him!" she urges through clenched teeth.

"No," he says, trying to remember the first aid training from a decade ago. "There's always another thug. There's only one of you."

GM Notes

This seemed like a good opportunity to practice chases, which are a weak spot in my knowledge of SWADE. This is because I don't use them much, which in turn is because they are my least favourite part of the rules, growing more complex and less practical at the table in each edition. Normally I would use a Dramatic Task or a Quick Encounter instead. However, a big part of the reason for my solo campaigns is to practice the rules.

We begin by drawing nine cards and laying them out in a row; one of my gripes is that chases need a second card deck. This is a foot chase, so each card represents 5". There's no guidance on how far apart quarry and pursuer start, so I roll 1d6, get 5, and place the quarry on the 5th card. Arion has Athletics d4 but is a Wild Card, the others have Athletics d6. Let's use the meeples for this; Arion is red, Sheng is yellow, the quarry is purple. In a foot chase, everyone acts independently, so they each need their own cards.

Turn 1: Arion 3 of Diamonds, Sheng 6 of Clubs, quarry 4 of Diamonds. Sheng is up first and runs after the quarry. Her action card is a Club, so she faces a Complication, but what that is depends on the suit of the card her token is on, a Spade; she makes a free manoeuvring (Athletics) roll at no modifier and gets 21 with Aces, so she avoids the Complication. Mechanically, she selects Change Position as her action, so makes an Athletics roll at +2 to close in; she rolls a 17 - her dice are on fire tonight - so has at least one Raise and can therefore move two cards towards her quarry. The quarry takes the same Action and scores 5+2=7, meaning he moves one card. Arion considers shooting the perp, but the range is now 25" so he would be rolling d4-4, and even with a Wild Die his odds aren't good. He runs after the others, also scoring 7 thanks to an Ace on his Athletics die, and moves one card closer.

Turn 2: Arion KS, Sheng Joker, quarry 10S. Everyone continues running flat out; no-one is in a position to choose the Flee, Force or Ram actions, and as nobody is shooting there is no point taking Evade or Hold Steady. Sheng rolls 9 (5, +2 for her action, +2 for a Joker) and closes two cards; Arion rolls 5 for Athletics and closes in one card; the quarry rolls 7 thanks to an Ace, but still only advances one card. As Sheng drew a Joker, I reshuffle the action deck, but not the chase deck.

Turn 3: Arion JD, Sheng 2D, quarry 4D. Arion moves up two cards, Sheng's dice bless her with a 14 so she moves two, the quarry critically fails so I roll a die to see what happens to him; it's odd, so he suffers a point of Fatigue.

Turn 4: Arion KC, Sheng 7H, quarry 2H. Arion overcomes his complication (which would've Bumped him one card in a direction he didn't want) and closes one card. Sheng is on the same card as the quarry so selects the Ram manoeuvre, which requires an opposed Athletics roll. She rolls 5, the quarry rolls 3 (4, -1 for Fatigue); she succeeds and beats the opposing roll, so she is successful; each side inflicts 2d6 damage on the other (2d6 base, no modifiers for scale, raises, Toughness or speed). Sheng rolls a 4, which fails to beat the quarry's Toughness of 5; the quarry rolls 13 thanks to Aces, which would inflict two Wounds on Sheng except she is only an Extra, so she is Incapacitated and makes a Vigour roll; she gets an 11 thanks to an Ace - success with a Raise, so she suffers a temporary injury (2d6 = 4, so she's down an arm).

I call the chase over, as I think Arion would be more concerned about his friend than the escaping saboteur; she's in need, and he doesn't think things through, so both his Major Hindrances steer him that way. Depending on whether I follow SWADE p. 95 or p. 96, Sheng could roll to survive Incapacitation immediately on injury or in the aftermath of the encounter, but in this case those are effectively the same, so I don't need to make that call.

It's at this point I look at the VP guidelines in Interstellar Rebels and realise chasing one Basic Civilian isn't worth any VP. Bah. The score remains Arion 6, BBEG 2.

Still, that wasn't as bad as I expected; and as usual, although I struggled to motivate myself to start this episode, once I got going it quickly drew me in, and I enjoyed myself. The same is true when I GM group sessions; I always feel beforehand that it's not worthwhile and I should cancel the session, but if I can just start playing, things work out fine. I need to remember that when I feel like cancelling stuff.

Capsule Reviews: The Devil's Dandy Dogs, The King is Dead

The first couple of things that caught my eye from my recently acquired Roll Big or Go Home bundle...

The Devil's Dandy Dogs

Available here for about £11 at time of writing. PDFs of 114 page rulebook, custom cards, character sheets, playmat for the cards, explanation of how to use the cards. Written by Shanna Germain, published by Monte Cook Games.

The premise of this game is that the PCs are hellhounds formed of the Devil's shadow, tasked with fulfilling his side of bargains with the damned and retrieving their souls in exchange. Neither of those things is ever in doubt; but the Devil is bored, and in each session, the Dogs are at his feet, at home, and collectively tell him a story about how, exactly, they fulfilled the bargain and recovered the soul. This is not a game of what the PCs did; it is game of how they did it.

Character creation consists of picking one of the ten archetypes, each of which has different abilities for you to showcase when telling the story. Actual play - if I can call it that - is about the players collaborating to tell a story; there are random elements, such as character traits you can roll against and the initial setup where the GM ("Diviner") lays out a Tarot spread of custom cards to inspire the explanation of who the damned soul is and what they want in exchange, but really this is just the group sitting around telling each other a story about a deal with the Devil. Dice are only rolled at key moments when the outcome would have interesting consequences of some kind.

I like this, and I enjoyed reading it; but I can't see myself playing it. It seems best suited to a small group of players and one-shots or short campaigns.

The King is Dead

Available here for about £11 at time of writing. 40 page PDF rulebook, written by D Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker, published by Lumpley Games.

The premise of the game is that the king of a mediaeval kingdom has died without an heir, and the PCs are young nobles of the five royal houses. The objective of the game is to exalt your house and ascend to the throne; you do this by building a hand of ordinary playing cards, with benefits for having face cards and multiple suits.

On your turn, you choose one of 11 sub-games, such as Chase, War, Stealing Time Together and so on; these range from enemies-to-lovers romance arcs to open combat, mass or personal. The first turn is always Intrigue & Muster, in which one of the houses does something to incite action; the last turn, The Coronation, occurs when every player has had at least one turn and one player wants to end the game, and crowns the new ruler. Sub-games are usually won by showing the highest card, or a specific type of card; they can result in you getting extra cards (up to a maximum of five), swapping cards with another player, or losing cards (down to a minimum of two).

The Coronation is worthy of further detail. The player with the most aces and face cards is the new ruler; the player with the most suits (or any who tie) are ascendant houses. Then, anyone with twos or jacks in their hand ("doom cards") may play them to show the challenges the new ruler faces in their first year in power; the final turn is narrative, and asks the players where they are at the end of this first year.

This is a largely narrative game of the shenanigans at court which create and break alliances in a civil war, with most of the violence happening offstage and all of it highly abstracted. It's explicitly aimed at a single short session with a small group of PCs. There's a lot of setting material buried in the text of the sub-games; places, organisations, houses and their assets.

I don't think I'd play this straight, but I think it would make a good setting, and I might use it as the framework for a more traditional RPG, with the PCs as the entourage of one noble and randomly-selected events.

Aslan Route Interlude: Lessons, NPCs and Plots

“The most effective thing, as ever, is therefore the thing you’ll actually do.” – Matt Brookes-Green

One of the table rules we have for this game is that if only one player is missing, we go ahead with a session, but if two are absent, we defer it. It's summer holiday season, and absences overlap so that the next session will be 2nd August. That suits me very well, as I need to take stock and consider where we go after the next session, which is the last one I have even the vaguest plan for.

Let's take a look at the lessons learned so far, the active NPCs, and the open and closed plot threads.

Lessons Learned

• Scenarios. However often I try to steer them towards a sandbox style of play, my players are simply not interested. They want a patron who will assign them missions.  I'm not going to fight that any more.
• Campaigns. My intention was to shift away from a Plot Point campaign to a more emergent style of play, with less preparation and more reliance on random tables. It turns out that for me, this is more work, not less. So once we get to the end of this campaign, probably around the end of the year, I'll want to shift back to a more structured campaign, something along the lines of The Pirates of Drinax or The Dracula Dossier, both of which rocked. The experience of the Fury tells me the campaign frame needs to be agreed in Session Zero as trying to retrofit one to a game midflight is problematic.
• Hindrances. For years I've assumed that these were the players telling me what they wanted the campaign to be about, but it's become clear to me that one player is using them purely to create his character's backstory and doesn't want them to come into play. That's OK, but it does reduce his chances to earn Bennies.

Notable NPCs

I'll limit these to 20, so I can randomly select one with a d20, and when that limit is breached, the least interesting one is removed from play.

1.     Mobile: Vila’s Enemy: Shugaka Vilani crime family.
2.     Mobile: Captain Scarlett Vipera of the Red Adder, Zhodani intendant and spy.
3.     Mobile: The Eye and the Claw of the Ahroay’ifko.
4.     Cordan: Baron Ferro, Zhodani catspaw.
5.     Cordan: Diideshur Laarbak, Shugaka crimelord, owner of Diideshur’s Pre-Loved Parts.
6.     Cordan: Kenneth Prasad, IISS handler and port broker.
7.     Drinax, Torpol: Assorted minions of the Fury.
8.     Sink: The Abbot, the Sage.
9.     Sink: Ahoakhi, Port Authority, Clan Iuwoi.
10.     Sink: Ahoi, Elehasei’s chaperone.
11.     Sink: Elehasei. Prince Hteleitoirl’s betrothed.
12.     Sink: Ftoilakh, warrior of clan Iuwoi,
13.     Sink: Prince Hteleitoirl.
14.     Tyokh: Clan Aftei, Elehasei’s clan.
15.     Tyokh: Okheai the Alley Cat, aslan female mafia boss, and assorted minions.
16.     Tyokh: Clan Iuwoi, Prince Hteleitoirl’s clan.
17.     Tyokh: Clan Htyowao, rivals of clan Iuwoi.
18.     Tyokh: Troisei, Ellie’s missing sister.

Open Plot Threads

These will be limited to six, so I can randomly select one with a d6, and when that limit is breached, the one the PCs show the least interest in will be moved offstage. (Why not more? The table has trouble tracking large numbers of open plot threads, especially over breaks of several months between sessions, which are a thing for us.)

1. Mazun’s handler has instructed him to support Clan Iuwoi as part of a long-term plan to embed agents in the Hierate.
2. The Android Liberation Front and their secret base in the Exe system.
3. Why were both Imperial and Zhodani agents interested in the House of Shrouded Mirrors?
4. What is the Third Most Valuable Thing and what does it want from Dr Matauranga?
5. Ellie’s sister Troisei is missing. Find her.

Closed Plot Threads

These are either resolved or have been moved offstage as the group doesn’t want to pursue them.

• Deliver the Prince to Tyokh and clear his name – completed.
• The Fury. This is being handled offstage by NPCs.
• The Shugaka crime family put a bounty on Vila’s head, but he has convinced the closest Shugaka boss this is not the Vila he is looking for and bought a really expensive fake ID. Moved offstage.

Coda

Although I don't use the Mythic GM Emulator that much at the moment, I do find the idea of making lists of key NPCs and plot threads helpful, as I tend to forget them if we go more than a week without playing. However, they need to be pruned regularly, or they get out of hand.

Arion 1-10: Falling

"The course of true love never did run smooth." - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hollis Highport, 1105 Week 48

Cori is nearly well enough to be signed out of medbay even by the excessively cautious (or possibly jealous) Major Sheng, and knowing when Sheng will next drop in, she has meditated to elevate her psionics to the peak of their power. Directing Sheng's thoughts using the pretext of asking how Arion is, she uses her powers of persuasion and ability to read Sheng's emotions to find weak spots; jealousy of Officer Muhammed, and fear that Arion is ignoring her because he is not interested in her. Jealousy is not so useful to her, so she fans the flames of self-doubt in Sheng's mind, and the Major leaves more certain than ever that Arion finds her unattractive.

Hollis Badlands, 1105 Week 49

With Cori still in medbay, Karagoz tasks Sheng to assist Arion and Mr Osheen in returning to the surface to investigate the abandoned hut further.

Local dawn - light enough to see, but not yet in the full blaze of the sun - finds Arion gingerly nudging the ship closer to the hut, fifteen metres up.

"Move a bit further to port," Major Sheng says. "We should try not to put the hut in shade if we can avoid it." Whatever's inside might notice. Arion complies, and locks the autopilot into station-keeping before the three of them troop back into the cargo lock, right at the rear of the Dolphin, and lower the door flat. The wind is buffeting the wedge of the ship back and forth, and Arion realises he should have parked nose-on to the prevailing wind, rather than sideways, even if it did cast a shadow on the hut. All the same, everyone hooks themselves on to the ship, and Arion goes over the side, swinging in the wind. The others swing the rope to assist his dive, but even so he lands short and has to jog a few metres to the apparent wreckage. He clips his line to a convenient piece of debris and gets to work, with suggestions helpful and otherwise from the other two in his headset throughout.

The wreckage they noted last time as being a concealed hatch opens easily under persuasion from Arion's belt tool kit, and he finds a small room dug into the bedrock under the wreckage, with an obvious comms terminal and a small server. There is no sign of the maintenance robot they saw last time, and he wonders where it can have gone. All the gear looks like commercial off the shelf kit, so he brings out a portable memory unit and uses the built-in near-field communications to clone the server's drive. Time enough to decrypt it when they're back in a shirt-sleeve environment.

"Arion," Sheng calls, with the flat emotionless tone he has learned to associate with real danger, "Get out of there, now. There's a wave coming toward you through the scree. Might be a worm."

Arion has had enough sandworms to last him quite a while, so he hurriedly packs up and levers himself out through the hatch, stepping to the line and snapping it to his suit once more.

"Reel me in," he calls, and the others do so just as Big Jim emerges next to him. Mr Osheen lends his considerable strength to lift Arion clear of the gaping maw as he curls up his legs to present a smaller target. Sheng grabs his arm as soon it appears over the edge of the ramp, but miscalculates and starts to slip; Arion puts an arm around her to hold her steady, and she darts a glance at him.

"Easy," he says. "Nearly lost you there."

"Not a chance," she says firmly, daring to hope again.

GM Notes

Cori is being naughty, and lucky. She gets a success and a raise on boost/lower Psionics, then a success and a raise on her Psionics to cast empathy - and Major Sheng fails her Spirit roll to resist. The upshot of this is a +2 on her roll to Persuade Sheng to give up on Arion, and since that roll aces twice, she gets an 18 overall. Sheng resists with Spirit and gets an 11! Cori wins by 7, so is able to shift Sheng's original 11 (Friendly) down one band to (Co-Operative); she will be a little cooler towards Arion in future. Only after I finished rolling all this, feeling pleased with myself for thinking of it, did I realise Cori would be better off statistically by simply boosting her Persuasion to begin with. Oh well, as they say, we play to find out. Cori has long been established as ruthless, and while she usually prefers Arion's genuine affection, I think she would definitely be up for manipulating the other women.

On the surface, we have a complex dramatic task to deal with; eight tokens to collect in five rounds. I'll limit the NPCs to Support rolls, but leave skills open to make the narrative more interesting. I won't break the task down into separate steps though, as I don't want to restrict carrying over successes and raises between steps. The plan and outcomes, round by round:

• Round 1: Piloting to park the ship suitably. Sheng supports with Battle (fail, +0). Arion draws a club (-2) and rolls 5+0-2 = 3, failure, 0 tokens.
• Round 2: Athletics to rappel down to the hut. Sheng and Osheen support with Athletics (4, +1, and 11, +2, respectively; note that no single supporter can give more than +2 whatever they roll). Arion rolls 3+3=6, success, now up to 1 token.
• Round 3: Repair to get inside. Sheng and Osheen support with Common Knowledge (+0) and Notice (+0) respectively; Arion rolls 17 thanks to Aces, success and 3 raises, now up to 5 tokens.
• Round 4: Notice to find something useful. Sheng supports (+2) as does Osheen (+0), and Arion also has Alertness; he rolls 5+2+2=9, success and a raise, two tokens, now up to 7.
• Round 5: Athletics to get back up to the ship. Sheng (+0) and Osheen (+1) support; Arion rolls 10+1=11, success and a raise, now a total of 9 tokens so the mission is a success. At the end of round 5, Big Jim arrives and interrupts.

I was concerned that the NPC support might make it too easy, but what made the difference was the great roll in round 3. Without that, he would've failed.

Current status: Arion 6 VP, BBEG 2 VP.

Roll Big or Go Home

Since I've already fallen off the wagon as far as impulse buys go, and I felt the need to cheer myself up, I went for some retail therapy and treated myself to Humble Bundle's Roll Big or Go Home bundle - 57 gaming products for about £30. I figured if only 2-3 of them were interesting I'd be ahead on points. (Note that sometimes these are not complete games, just the players' guides. Although I can see the value of a DRM-free players' guide, and an experienced GM can usually run a game without anything else.)

This is boosting the signal as much as anything; the link is good for another couple of weeks at time of writing.

Looking at the bundle's contents, I see:

• Two things I already have, the SWADE core rules and Night's Black Agents. That's not much overlap for a bundle like this.
• One thing I'll definitely use, the SWADE version of Deadlands; I'm already playing in a Deadlands campaign. That will get reviewed.
• Eight things I would have bought eventually anyway, and might use later. Those will get reviewed.
• 19 things that interest me enough to read. These might get capsule reviews in due course.
• 27 things I'm not at all interested in. Those won't even get read.

So that's roughly 50p each overall, £1 apiece for the things I'll at least read, and £3 each for stuff I would've bought anyway. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Red Flags

I select games mostly on a whim, but there are certain filters I apply... there's a specific kind of game I enjoy, and there are some early indications that a game is not going to fall in that group.

• Fiction first. I learned to play by rolling the dice first, then fitting the fiction to it afterwards; dice first, I suppose you could call it. Fiction first is counter-intuitive for me, and it also suggests the game was written for theatre kids rather than grognards such as myself. I've nothing against theatre kids, but that's not how I roll.
• Safety tools; that's correlation, not causation. Yes, players should feel respected and safe, but experience teaches me that a game with a significant focus on safety tools and sensitivity is a game I won't enjoy playing.
• Statements involving the word "over". Over 30 new races, over 50 new spells, that kind of thing. That suggests the game's focus is not what I'm looking for. I don't need more PC options.
• Some games just aren't my cup of tea. Gumshoe, for example; some of the settings and adventures are really good, but you'd have to pay me to play Gumshoe. Pretty much any game that proclaims it is a "storytelling" or "narrative" game falls into this category for me.

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You...

As usual my initial reviews will be based on reading through the products; think of it as a first date. I won't slavishly review everything in the bundle, that's too much like hard work; but there are enough I'm interested in to keep the blog in reviews for some months.

Aslan Route 18: The Eye and the Claw

"As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back —
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack."
— Rudyard Kipling, The Law of the Jungle

Fast Travel, 1106 Weeks 01-10

The team make a couple of runs between Exe and Tech-World to acquire and drop off supplies to the Android Liberation Front, then travel to Sink via Paal.

Sink, 1106 Week 11

When the Macavity arrives on Sink, the crew immediately notice an Ahroay’if warship in orbit – just a small one, 800 tons – but this does not concern the crew as they are associates of the Iuwoi clan, which is one of the Ahroay'if's vassals. Their friend Ahoakhi tells them that a dodgy-looking scoutship is somewhere on the planet, and a short hop plus a sensor scan tells them this is the Red Adder and it has parked next to the swamp a few kilometres away from the Monastery.

Ahoakhi also says the warship’s passengers would like to see them.

Their first order of business is therefore to visit the warship. On arrival, Mazun hands over a note for the Captain, explaining that the Red Adder is thought to be a Zhodani spy vessel commanded by a psionic and so cannot be trusted. (For the aslan, psionics are inherently dishonourable, as they are either an attempt to gain an unfair advantage, or an insinuation that the psionics don’t trust you.)

The Macavity’s crew are ushered in to meet a female and a male aslan, who introduce themselves as the Eye and the Claw of the Ahroay’ifko (clan lord) respeectively.

“It’s his hard man,” Rex whispers to Mazun.

The Claw lays out his position. Torpol has gone silent; the clan and the Imperium both sent flotillas to investigate; neither has returned. He knows about the clan flotilla as he sent it, and the Imperial one as protocol dictates military vessels transiting the neutral zone explain their purpose, to minimise the risk of unnecessary violence. His investigations to date reveal the Macavity was the last ship out; can the team shed any light on what’s going on?

As it turns out, they can. Over the course of a lengthy interview they explain what they saw and what they have learned since. The Eye and the Claw digest this, and decide a larger expeditionary force is needed; they don’t care what happens to Drinax, losing Torpol to the Fury is a great inconvenience, but if the Fury takes over Pourne, a high-population world which is already militaristic and xenophobic… well, let’s just say the Fury needs to be dealt with before that happens. Under normal circumstances the Claw would impress the team as advisers, but given what they’ve told him about how the Fury operates, he can’t risk them being mind-controlled and sabotaging his fleet from within. They are therefore free to go, but he would like them to find out what the Red Adder is up to.

They decide to brief the Abbot and the Prince, and conduct their trade with the Monastery, as the Abbot will also ask them to investigate, and that gives them a legitimate remit from the planetary government, such as it is. The Abbot in particular is not happy with the Red Adder once he learns her captain paid vargr corsairs to attack his secure satellite site at the House of Shrouded Mirrors.

A visit to the Red Adder finds field maintenance in progress, while Captain Vipera sits cross-legged on a rock near the swamp, apparently meditating. Everyone puts on their psi-shield helmets, and Mazun approaches to confer with Vipera. She concentrates on what he has to say, and he begins to think she’s not so bad, and there’s no need for violence. Is she manipulating his mind even through the psi helmet?

Mazun asks what she’s doing; she says she’s listening to the swamp. Mazun says the Abbot doesn’t like that, and as a representative of the planetary government, he would like her to leave. Or the friendly warship in orbit could ask her to leave.

Vipera recognises Rex as the vargr who killed half her crew and seriously injured her on Cordan. Mazun points out that her vargr catspaws tried to kill the Macavity’s crew on Pourne. The two agree it’s nothing personal, just business; nothing is explicitly said, but each recognises the other as an agent of their respective powers. Vipera deduces that Mazun is infiltrating the Hierate on behalf of the Imperium, and to avoid future unpleasantness, explains that her brief is to observe and report on the neutral zone, as rising tensions between the Hierate and the Imperium affect the Imperium’s military deployments, which are of interest to the Zhodani Consulate. She proposes that the Fury taking over additional worlds is not in anyone’s interest, and suggests that if an opportunity arises, they might work together against it. Then, the Red Adder leaves; Vipera says she often calls at Cordan, so messages for her can be left there.

Dr Matauranga suggests that Vipera might be useful later, but not if she is killed first; so the team let her go.

Fast Travel, 1106 Weeks 12-20

The Macavity makes several charter runs between Sink and Tyokh, ferrying supplies and ihatei to Sink and trading on behalf of the Abbot. In week 19, the Prince’s exile ends, and the team return him to Tyokh. They are of course invited to the wedding, so they expect to be on Tyokh for several weeks.

During this time, Dr Matauranga determines that the artefact he retrieved from the House of Shrouded Mirrors on Pourne is not Sindalian after all, but is an Ancient artefact in a Sindalian case. He feels compelled to take off his gloves to touch it, and at once hears a voice in his mind:

“Guard me well, for I am the Third Most Valuable Thing. Stay alert; trust no-one; keep your weapons handy.”

The voice advises him not to tell anyone else about it, and asks what his aims are. The doctor explains he wishes to learn, especially about matters genetic.

“Good,” says the voice. “Learning is the goal.”

Repeating its advice to him, the voice falls silent. For now.

Tyokh, 1106 Week 21

Ellie takes time out of wedding preparations to contact the Macavity’s crew on a matter of some delicacy. When you meet her to discuss it, gender roles and crew personalities dictate that she focuses on Vila.

Ellie says that her sister Troisei has gone missing. They don’t get on too well, but nonetheless she is a sister and her maid of honour at the wedding; her absence will be embarrassing to say the least. Vila wants to know what’s in it for him. Ellie explains that Troisei is the best commercial brain of her generation in the clan, and will be able to steer lucrative contracts the Macavity’s way. Ellie thinks this might be the work of the rival Htyowao clan or Tyokh’s organised crime syndicate; the former seek revenge, though this would be an unusually dishonourable way to go about it, and the latter seek leverage. It’s also possible that Troisei’s interest in gambling on duels might have led her astray, so at least the initial investigation needs to be handled discreetly.

Meanwhile, Mazun reports back on his meeting with the captain of the Red Adder to the Prince, the Abbot and the Claw, mostly accurately, but omitting the “false and irrelevant” speculation about his profession and allegiance. He also sends a report to his factor by regular post, disguised as a trader keeping a friend up to date with the news. He mentions meeting the Claw, that the Aslan are worried about Torpol and sent a detachment that vanished, and that the Aslan heard of an imperial detachment going the same way and also vanishing, and also mentions meeting the Red Adder captain and what was said there too. He puts in nothing secret or that betrays his true nature, writing on the assumption that someone along the way will read it.

To be continued...

Meanwhile, Off-Camera...

It looks as if some Fronts (see Dungeon World or Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master) are emerging of their own accord.

Front 1: The Fury. Even if the PCs don't rise to the bait, the Fury can still be a Front. Specifically, the Ahroay'if are growing concerned, and will want to nip the Fury in the bud while they still can.

• 1106 Week 01: Ahroay'if mission to Torpol declared overdue. Ahroay'if know about Macavity by now and want to interview crew, send word to Sink.
• 1106 Week 03: IN mission declared overdue. Ahroay'if Type C arrives at Sink, waits for Macavity. The Claw of the Ahroay'ifko (20, Heroic) is aboard to debriefs Mazun and company. He has authority to act in the Ko's name on this matter. The female known as the Eye of the Ahroay'ifko (13, Observant) is with him, acting as his G2.
• 1106 Week 06: Mazun's report reaches Tobia. Hilarity ensues.
• 1106 Week 07: GeDeCo mission to Tropol declared overdue. IN starts assembling task force.
• 1106 Week 11: Macavity arrives at Sink.
• 1106 Week 19: Prince's exile ends, boon companions invited to wedding on Tyokh.

Front 2: The rivalry between the Iuwoi and the Htyowao clans. A low-level vendetta which can pop up any time things go quiet.

Front 3: The "Unpronounceable Mafia". What if the Alley Cat has been unable to sway Hteleitoirl, and instead starts talking to the Htyowao?

GM Notes

I did very little prep for this session, beyond thinking about the implications of the fronts; that's what they're for, after all. I reasoned the Ahroay'if need information the PCs might have, and the only place they know the PCs will eventually turn up is Sink, so they would send an envoy to wait for them. I made up the job titles for the Ahroay'if visitors. My players struggle with aslan names so NPCs need memorable job titles. Likewise, not everyone is happy about the impending wedding, and a couple of the fronts could get some mileage out of sticking a stick in the wheel.

The "Third Most Valuable Thing" is a tagline from an old Digest Group Publications magazine, and its instructions come from a couple of oracle rolls on tables in the Mythic GM Emulator. Not entirely sure what I'm doing with this yet, but both Imperial and Zhodani intelligence are interested in it and it is somehow connected with the Fury.

I've realised it has been months now since I actually looked at any of the Pirates of Drinax files, confirming that my player handout on the Aslan Route's worlds has everything I need to know on it. So PoD has been archived. This matters partly for my state of mind - I'm happiest when I'm only using 2-3 documents for a campaign - and partly because my cheapo supreme laptop only has about 4 GB of usable HDD space, the rest is taken up with Windows and whatnot, so all of my gaming files need to fit into about 1 GB if they are to sync with it.

Arion 1-09: All's Fair in Love and War

"Anye impietie may lawfully be committed in love, which is lawlesse." - John Lyly, Euphues

Hollis Highport, 1105 Week 46

"Hey, Karen, it's me... I need to get the ship decontaminated, who are the best guys for that... Plant spores from the surface... no, I'm okay, so's my gunner, but Cori's in medbay for a while, got bitten by a sandworm... Coffee? Sure, I'll be right over."

Officer Muhammed has quickly identified Ganzfeld and Sheng as rivals for Arion's affections, and is secretly delighted that Ganzfeld is laid up in the station medbay recovering from her sandworm bite. It reduces the competition. However, Major Sheng is still in play, and doing her best to divert Arion's attention. Fortunately, there are hours every day when she is either looking in on Ganzfeld or working with that Karagoz person. In those hours, Arion is hers, at least when she can pry him away from his beloved ship; and introducing him to her favourite decontamination team is a good way to do that, especially when she can help arrange the work - which is, after all, part of her job - as part of a coffee date.

Coffee turns into a longer conversation involving pastries and arrangements for dinner, which is interrupted by Karagoz in a scout uniform with what Arion suspects are variable-geometry rank badges.

"Enough fraternising," Karagoz says, unsympathetically, frustrating both of them. "New plan. Get the ship turned round stat, I have an insystem mission for you. Come on, I'll brief you."

When he and Arion are outside, Karagoz continues.

"I want you to check out the other end of that transmission."

"I thought we were going back to the surface?"

"Too risky. You were on the surface less than an hour and now 25% of the team is incapacitated. Whatever's receiving those signals is probably less dangerous, or at least easier to cope with."

"Can't you get the base to send someone downstairs?"

"In theory, yes. In practice, they have some convincing reasons not to go." Arion glances sideways at the set of Karagoz's mouth.

"They laughed at you, didn't they."

"They did."

Meanwhile, Major Sheng drops by the medbay to check in on Ganzfeld. If she has adjusted the tissue regenerator to its most conservative setting, who can blame her? She takes a malicious pleasure in informing Ganzfeld that she and Arion have an appointment later for hand-to-hand combat training, unaware that Arion will have to cancel it.

"Today, grappling practice," she says, just to rub salt in the wound.

Ganzfeld consoles herself that in addition to the usual feminine wiles, she can adjust his attitude psionically. A thought strikes her: Is that cheating? Even if it isn't, is natural affection more valid, or at least more valuable, than feelings she has manipulated?

Time enough to worry about that once she's got him, she decides. Another thought strikes her: Suppose instead of adjusting his opinions, she adjusts those of other two women? Come to think of it, why does it have to be one or the other?

Hollis System Transfer Orbit, 1105 Week 47

"What I want to know," Arion asks, "Is why the plumbing always fails while we're in space." He pulls out a lump of Hollis plant tissue which grows visibly as he looks at it and stuffs it in a sample container, then peels off his disposable gloves and throws them in after it, spraying the pipework enthusiastically with potent herbicide. "I thought they decontaminated this?"

He hands the sample container back to Mr Osheen without looking. "Here, throw this out the airlock, and don't get that stuff on anything." He shines a torch into the pipes, and uses a handheld scanner to check for more spores.

"It's always fine while we're in port," he muses. "It passes all the preflight tests. Then as soon as we're in space, bam! It..." He hears a slurping noise, and glances over at Mr Osheen suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

"Consuming bodily fluids. For nourishment."

"Well, stop it. It's disgusting. When you said bodily fluids, I assumed you meant blood and stuff."

"That, too."

Arion steps up the level of hygiene for the rest of the trip. For multiple reasons.

Hollis Outer System, 1105 Week 47

After an unusually thorough check of their spacesuits, Arion and Mr Osheen have put them on and depressurised the ship, partly in case of combat, and partly to keep the pernicious moulds under control.

Arion is forced to resort to active sensors to find the target; a one-off bearing and signal strength from several weeks ago give him a direction and a distance he can estimate from the fact that it hasn't been detected yet; one point in a sheaf of potential orbits, not a lot to go on. However, luck is with him, and at length he discovers a small automated satellite, orbiting a moon which itself orbits one of the system's gas giants.

"Now," he muses aloud, "Do we gain more by interfering with it, or by leaving it alone?"

"Ask Karagoz," Mr Osheen replies, having mistaken this for a question. Arion considers this. He is used to operating alone, far from any support or authority; but as Karagoz is only a few tens of light-minutes away, he might as well ask. He prepares and encrypts a message, then sends it to Karagoz via tight beam. An hour or two later, he has a response.

"Leave it," Karagoz says. "Watch it for a while and get a solid set of orbital parameters so we can find it again later, then come back."

Arion sends a terse acknowledgement and settles in to his revised task. Working up an orbit is something he knows how to do.

GM Notes

Behind the GM screen... here's the core gameplay loop for Interstellar Rebels:

• Envisage the next scene: Arion and Mr Osheen go back to the surface and finish checking out the abandoned hut.
• Curveball check: 44 - doubles, so we get a curveball, in this case "describe a new place", and roll another d6 for what happens: 4 again, relates to the primary subplot. That was the robot's head icon. What is it with these dice? Not long ago it was three 5s, now it's three 4s.
• Scene challenge: I decided last time this would be a Quick Encounter, since we haven't had one of those yet.

And there's "contending with a change of plan" emerging organically from the dice rolls. I had been wondering how I was going to handle that, but if you trust the process, it works. Since I changed over to Interstellar Rebels as the solo engine, the game is flowing much more easily and fluently, so that was a good choice.

Opening up Classic Traveller Starter Edition, which is handy for this sort of thing, I see that a typical gas giant is 4-5 days away at 2G, so let's say it takes them a week or so to reach and deal with the signal recipient, and they head back the following week, so they return to Hollis sometime in week 48.

The yes/no oracle in IR works by you setting a target number based on how likely you think the outcome is; rolling at least that is a yes, anything else is a no. If you feel like it you can roll a second die to add "and", "but", or neither. I had two main questions:

• Is the Quick Encounter Dangerous? (Maybe, 4+): 1, no. I try the second die and get 6, "and". Not dangerous and not that hard either, so I won't make it a Staged encounter.
• Who is behind this? Zhodani? (Maybe, 4+): 2, no. Second die: 1, "but", suggesting it's somehow linked to them. Pirates? (4+): 1, no. No second die this time as I don't think it would add anything. This could go on forever so I decide the Ine Givar are responsible, I haven't used them in ages. Arion doesn't know this yet, but it helps me frame what he finds; it would be just as valid to ask a complex question.

Enough dice for now, so I decide the transmission is being received by a distant unmanned satellite (the robot). I decide the Quick Encounter is an Electronics roll for Arion to scan it with sensors; 3 on the skill die, 6 then 5 on the wild die  - 11 total, success and a raise, so he finds it more by luck than skill. Karagoz's reaction roll to the idea of leaving the satellite in place is a 9, so that is what they do.

Current status: Arion 2 VP, BBEG 2 VP.

• Envisage the next scene: The only lead left is the abandoned hut, so I guess we need to revisit that.
• Curveball check: 34 - no curveball.
• Scene challenge: Let's call investigating the hut a complex dramatic task, haven't done one of those yet and they're worth a juicy 4 VP.

Next time: Back to the hut.