Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1983 (week 3)
Monday, March 18, 2024
Monorail Station Mosh
Our Action Tales system sci-fi game continued last night with two additional characters meeting up with the crew: Ariana (Mercurian technician) and Rusty Tam (an Earther Smuggler).
The party had to get back to their contacts room on the spaceliner Solar Queen to achieve the encrypted datachip to pay the pirates who had "salvaged" the Ares Corp yacht. The problem was, Ares thugs had the monorail station staked out, waiting for them.
The crew didn't have many distance weapons, so when the Ares guys pulled electrolaser stunners, all they could do was dodge through the transit station kiosks, making a break for the train. It doesn't go smoothly. There's a lot of tripping and running into each other.
Eventually, though they get on the train and throw out the one thug that managed to get on with them. It's a short trip to the space port where the Solar Queen is in Bay 04. They cross the ramp to the ship, but there's a guard waiting there who demands ID.
Rhyn and Rusty stun him, and the group proceeds inside.
----
From the game running perspective, this adventure shows the Action Tales System tends to end up with a lot of "yes, but..." That's not a bad thing, but care has to taken in choosing what the complications are lest things start to seem comedic, even slapstick. The same sort of thing tends to occur with the Grok?! system too. It's not really a problem for either of my groups, but I could see it bugging some people or perhaps working against certain settings.
Friday, March 15, 2024
The Uninvited Worm
Our Gnydrion game in Grok?! continued last Sunday. The group:
- Antor Hogus (Paul) - Vagabond with a stun wand--and reckless is his middle name!
- Jerfus Grek (Jason) - A vagabond, as well. A man who enjoys a good meal.
- Nortin Tauss (Aaron) - Dabbler in the arcane. When a spell is cast, he does it.
- Yzma Vekna (Andrea) - Teamster with a blunderbuss.
The group sends a message by courier to the Shreev Molok and the Eminent Compulsor. They don't expect back up to arrive for hours, so they must prepare for the rendezvous with the mysterious Wol Zunderbast themselves.
As anyone faced with nothing to do but wait and the ability to expense luxuries, they order room service: grilled velocipede haunch with a side of turnips. Antor requests his well done to the scandalized reaction of the staff. When Nortin opens the dome on his dish he finds a large, fat worm-caterpillar thing with glowing, strobing eyes.
The creature was attacking them psychically! They had to struggle to avoid its soporific effect. They attacked the creature, and Jerfus finally knocked it to the ground, smothering with his bulk.
At that point, the man calling himself Wol Zunderbast revealed himself. He was then wearing the traditional garb of a professional assassin. He had an organic-looking ieldri style needle gun pointed at them.
The group firmly declined his offer to politely allow him to kill them. A combat ensued, a mix of successful moves and almost slapstick failures. Despite Zunderbast's superior skills, he was out-numbered, and Antor and Yzma had distance weapons.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1983 (week 2)
Monday, March 11, 2024
Xeno-File: O'omkaro
Art by David Monge Bustista |
O'omkaru are newcomers to interstellar civilization. They are often found accompanying other species from the Compact sphere.
So far as is known they have two sexes. Bidirectional hermaphroditism occurs, so that an individual may switch sex several times in a lifetime. The triggers for these changes are unknown, and it seems to be a topic they are reluctant to discuss with other species. Personality changes occur along with their sex, and o'omkaro society accommodates this shift in its members, altering responsibilities and roles as needed.
Many o'omkaru are followers of cultural fads (especially those from other species) and many are collectors of some sort. Almost any new religion, political philosophy or art form they sweeps known space is guaranteed to count o'omkaro among its enthusiasts. O'omkaro history has been painted but historians of other species as a churn of secret societies, revolutionary ideas, and religious awakenings.
Friday, March 8, 2024
Got to Catch Them All
Inspired by Vance mostly, people have considered spells as living entities. It was discussed in the Gplus days, and it shows up in Eric Diaz's Dark Fantasy Magic. Back in 2011, before I had really read a whole lot of Vance, the Vancian magic of D&D and the film Pontypool got me imagining spells as a neurolinguistic virus or memetic entity.