- Antor Hogus (Paul) - Vagabond. Reckless.
- Jerfus Grek (Jason) - A vagabond as well, but more measured.
- Nortin Tauss (Aaron) - Dabbler in the arcane. This time, he dabbles!
- Yzma Vekna (Andrea) - Scruffy teamster with a blunderbuss and a willingness to use it.
Friday, March 29, 2024
The Shreev Comes to Thono Inn
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1983 (week 4)
Monday, March 25, 2024
Talislanta Final Edition
The 6th edition of the Talislanta game and setting (being billed as the final edition) by Everything Epic released in pdf to crowdfunding backers last week. I haven't gotten a chance to review the books in depth yet, but being as Talislanta is a setting that I'm quite fond of I couldn't wait to share some initial thoughts.
One of the main questions for me regarding this edition was going to be how updated was it going to be? I mean this is several different ways. Most (or at least several) editions have advanced the timeline and altered some of the cultures or the political climate. For example, the Arduans became Aeirads and "evolved" in a more human direction in 3e (as I recall), and at some point, the Quan Empire was overthrown by their soldiers, the Kang.
It looks like this edition has again updated the timeline, changing the political picture and bringing in some of the cultures/species which had appeared in the spinoff setting Midnight Realm--though I'm unsure if there's in "in world" reason given for this last part.
The other, large question of updating was in terms of modernization. The desires and expectations of gamers are different in 2024 than they were in 1987 and even in 2006. The art and presentation in the new edition is largely in keeping with modern gaming which is both more heroic in its depiction of the characters and sexied up at times as well. This will not afford you the chance to play a Marukan dung-merchant, if such was ever your desire.
Given Talislanta's age and source material there were aspects that would be problematic in the current era. Their approach to this is varied, one might even say haphazard. Some things have been removed; others were tweaked in an attempt to ameliorate the more problematic elements. Others appear to have been left as they have always been. I guess this could be viewed as the middle road, which I guess was the way to go, I'm just not sure how they chose what got changed and what didn't.
System-wise, this is just another tweaking of the system Tal has had since the beginning, which is fine, because I think it's a pretty good one. I have read in places that there is a need for some errata, but that's sort of to be expected.
Anyway, look for more posts on this as I get to read more. Maybe I'll continue my survey of Talislanta across editions and some point.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Descent in the Outer Dark
When Janus stopped being just an orbital mechanics curiosity and became a genuine anomaly by broadcasting a signal, a flurry of probes was quickly launched, and Earth waited for the report. Janus was revealed not to be a moon at all. It was an alien artifact.
It took some time to find out what sort of artifact. Even now, none of the experts are completely sure. Its creators and purpose remain obscure. What humanity learned was there was reward inside: the strange but sometimes useful artifacts of an unimaginably advanced civilization. And then there was something else. Death. It comes in hundreds of ways, at the hands of bizarre traps or random environmental shifts, but also at the hands of murderous alien beings or animals that reside inside the structure.
The Company runs the station serving Janus. Security is provided by a multinational group, but it was expedient to let a corporation run the actual operations. Plausible deniability. Contractors recruited from the desperate masses of a climate stressed and economically depressed Earth sign up to be minimally trained, fitted into battered, armored environmental suites and sent into the alien labyrinth inside, hoping to steal crumbs from the table of strange gods and get out of their realm alive. The statistics aren't good, but the stories of the few that survive to retire rich keep the volunteers coming.
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.
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1983 (week 1)
Monday, March 4, 2024
Luna Blues
The year is 2979 and the PCs are the (former) crew of a corporate hauler doing a Luna-Ceres run. Finding themselves out of a job when their employer was bought out by Ares Corporation (the Martian baddies), they find themselves sitting in the Tycho City dive called the Free Fall Bar and Grill, listening to bad karaoke and spending their last paycheck. The characters are:
- Hesperos (Tug): Pilot from the Venusian Cloud cities.
- Ryne Ganult (Andrea): Engineer from the Belt.
- Zarek (Bob): Martian ex-soldier with a cybernetic arm.
The group is approached by a woman who gives her name as Chandra Roberts. She's a lawyer who needs a crew to fly a salvaged ship back to Earth. She's offering 1000 Martian Yuan for a one day job. It's good money, so the group says yes, but almost immediately things get complicated.
A guy and some goons come in. The guy claims to be a Lunar cop and places Chandra under arrest. Something smells fun, though, because why aren't these goons in uniform? And why doesn't the leader's uniform have identification? When the group balks, one goon draws a gun.
When Hesperos quick draws his pistol, a fight breaks out. In short order, the thugs are on the ground courtesy of the stunners Zarek and Ganult have, but the real cops are likely on their way.
They flee the bar and as soon as they get a moment, Roberts reveals that she works for ORE, the Organization for the Renewal of Earth, and the ship in question is a stolen yacht that once belonged to Ares Corp chairman, Alexei Loehr-Zau, and seems to contain a drive with sensitive Ares Corp data.
Roberts wants the crew to help her buy by the data (and the ship) from pirates.
TO BE CONTINUED
Friday, March 1, 2024
Encounters at Thono; Our Heroes Don't Get Baths
Bao dwek Thabub (art by Steven de Waele) |
Our Gnydrion game in Grok?! continued last Sunday. The group was all there:
- Antor Hogus (Paul) - Vagabond on holiday. He wants to use that stun wand.
- Jerfus Grek (Jason) - Also a vagabond. Here, a large man at spycraft.
- Nortin Tauss (Aaron) - Dabbler in the arcane. He wears a star in the center of his tunic.
- Yzma Vekna (Andrea) - Teamster out of her element.
Ensconced in a suite in the Thono Inn, expensed to the Eminent Compulsor, the group enjoys a nice dinner and a bit of rest. The next morning finds them beginning their investigations to uncover the identity of Wol Zunderbast. In doing so they encounter (and are distracted by) some of the other guests: Bao dwek Thabub, typically pungent hwaopt scholar studying something called "fey vortices" in the area; Sula Av and Tharom Welk an overly friendly couple on holiday from Ascolanth.
Finally, after leaving a message at the desk in a failed stratagem to find Zunderbast's room, they encounter the man himself:
He's intense and no nonsense but arranges a meeting later that evening with Nortin to discuss the "item" further. He also invites in the game in the casino (five frond hokus or thari or even quorn lancets) but Nortin declines.
With the meeting set, the group decides to take advantage of the famous gas bathes fed by the eldritch substance of the Lake of Vermilion Mists. They head to the bathhouse, but they are told its out of order by the inebriated engineer, Ormuz Halx, who raves at them briefly about something in caves that wants to kill everyone. Before they can dig into these remarkable claims, Gris Samber shows up to usher Halx away apologetically, citing his drunkenness as the source of his odd behavior.