Crafty Dungeons

I have been baking a bit more than usual the last few months, just like a lot of people. I was about to throw out a baking powder can when I realized I could get crafty. It can be both a small scale dungeon tower and storage! 

First I primed the can, thinking I'd do something with it like that. Then I realized it would be easier to find a good texture and just make a wrapper for it. 

So voila, I can use this as a watch tower, an interesting wall or something. I also printed up a science fiction wrapper. I may end up cutting a hole in it and adding a door. I have several SF doors from a Kickstarter a few years back that I never used. If I can get a fantasy door (and I have a few, as well as a few on the way) that are the same size, it may be a reusable project.

I really miss table top games. Playing over Skype is not the same. 

My coworkers and I did manage to play a Zombicide game on Tabletop Simulator. While not able to share a pizza, the art assets were really well done, and it was about as close as you can get without being there. It may be a bit closer if we had complete 3D immersion and haptic feedback, but it was better than playing solitaire!

I may have to add a cheap crafting label if I make more crafty style play toys. 

And in looking at the barbarian I realized I never quite finished painting him up! Weekend projects - paint a couple more minis, work a bit on the Traveller Ruby program so I am not ghosting my COTI friend, maybe work on my own Traveller software again, and we need another episode of my SOLO Traveller game. And I need to prep for Monday's game as well! So much to do!

Traveller Geomorphs v2

Robert Pearce of Yet Another Traveller Blog has released his updated geomorphs book. A PDF with dare I say delicious mapping goodness inside. He has added end pieces and aerowings and a few other things to help round out ship, building or just play general map making plans. See the post here.

There is a throne room which honestly could be used for fantasy games. These geomorphs are not Traveller specific and could be used for a wide variety of gaming.

These connectors are cool, but now I could use them for that scene in Star Wars in the Death Star. In fact, we could create the location scenes, enough to replay the Death Star sequence. I would not be surprised if that was indeed one of the plans, as there are also large hangar decks. 

Anyway, cool things. 

I've also bought more fantasy specific geomoprhs from Loresmyth. While not sure I'll get to use them a whole lot, there was this sale...and if I ever do get into more commercial style of dungeon creation (who knows, the cost of entry is so low but not sure I could deal with the inevitable nasty comments). I've actually used one for the "cover" of the Lamia's Labyrinth.

Having a hole in the sand can be a good thing!

Corsairs: Session 3 - On to Coastone

Having left Altes on a cargo ship, our valiant crew launches and sails off to Coastone, a stone city on the western edge of Teboa, at the foot of the eponymous Coastone Mountains and Lake. Looking back at the wood and daub houses of Brawicke, they see an ill-dressed man, our Mr. Altes, standing on the dock and watching the ship sail off. Unbeknownst to our crew, the cargo ship sailor took the coin then just dumped Edmund into the trash pile behind a warehouse. Upon waking the next morning in his knickers and a bad hangover from the drugs, he scavenged some clothes before heading back and seeing the Fools Errand sail off. With Sleve scrubbing the decks in Alte's fine clothing. 

Slightly larger than Brawicke, Coastone boasts 10 sky ship docks. As they approach, the winds behind them a giving a gentle nudge into a perfect dock, the Harbormaster greets the crew. 

"Fine dock, lads, fine dock indeed. Yea Ironbound, when ye take to the skies, do make foine sailors." Pleasantries aside, they do find that there can be guides to the mountains available here, and the Cows Manger off the Merchant Square is a "foine" place to drink and eat. Ordo takes the Harbormaster aside, and handing him a coin, asks to be notified should any ships come from Brawicke. The Harbormaster agrees to send a runner should a ship come in, but as always our crew is a bit vague as to where they will be. Miss Baudelaire was taken with the vapors and stayed aboard, splicing the main brace, e.g., getting a round for the crew (the player was unavailable this evening).

There are three or four other ships there, including one from the Roche Empire as well as a huge size 3 ship from the Alderil Empire. With the truce, the countries are having visitors but there is tension when the outsiders come to town.

Heading into town, and talking with some of the towns people, they find that the Melting Drum tends to have Dwarves, so they head for that tavern. Upon entering, and noticing a stage, Ordo makes a bet with the attractive barmaid that "our man Sleve here can play a pretty tune for our first round". Taking him up on that bet with flirtatious eyes, Sleve commences a wondrous solo, rolling no less than an 8 draft! The crowd is tapping their feet, coins are flowing, and the bartender seems quite happy with the transfer of funds for ales. 

Ylervan notices a Dwarf in the corner, and walks over to talk with him to see about guides in the mountains, trusting the Ironbound more than most people. Brandit Beastgut is drinking down some fine regellian draught in a mug bigger than his head, and welcomes the sight of a fellow Ironbound.

Getting a matching mug on the house due to Sleve's plucking his oversized lute, Ylervan finds that while Brandit is not a miner, his cousin Yuzzick Trollrock is, and has the family mine up in the Coastone Moutnains. A bit unstable, the two Dwarves head to the bar where Ordo is talking it up with the bartender, and also manages to fine that the very flirtatious barmaid is no relative of his.

Eventually Sleve finishes his set, and they discuss the plan to go to the Mining Registration Office in the morning. A bit of boisterous banner ensues as Ordo tries to get Ylervan to take his musket and coin purse to the ship, so we had a winner for 3XP in this session! Ordo heads off with Gwen who is off any time for our hirsute hero, and the Dwarf and Nomad head back to the ship. 

We also uncovered several rumors:

• the big Alderil ship may have an Alderil Empiure captain. but the woman giving the commands has a harsh Roche Empire accent. And two finely made sabers, and is not one to mess with apparently
• conflicting rumors about the local council representative, who may or may not be in cahoots with the Alderil Empire
• there are spies everywhere!

Next morning our crew awakens, and after Ordo fixes a nice breakfast for his lady friend, they regroup and head to the mining office. The burgermeister there, who works off the people's taxes, is more than willing to share public information on the mines in the mountains. They find a map that corresponds to the red-x on the scrap of a map they got from Pirate Pete. 

Heading back to the ship, I rolled a random pickpocket, and rolled again and Sleve rolled his Grit vs the pickpocket's skullduggery and noticed a hand trying nip his coins. He grabs her, and she screams bloody murder and this man is attacking her in broad daylight! Sleve, laid back Nomad dude that he is, recognizes her garb of that of a Grasswalker, a group of nomads he has hung out with in Jieghan and the huge nomad pack animals.

(And I am going to have to use this in my Fantasy Trip game - too good to not use!) Turns out that the Nomads have a very broad definition of family, and our young Sineag MacGill'Oig is distantly related, and she is on her walkabout. After explaining things to the constable (with the fine hat), our group returns to the ship, now with a young ward in tow, being met by a runner from the harbormaster. The Alterin Empire ship had left a bit before, heading north into the mountains.

And I think that's where we left it. I think I've got it all covered but my players will hopefully let me know if I left anything out.

And we learned a bit about the fish-squeezing clans of the northern islands: they only give the bad squeezings to the rich and hoity-toity, keeping the good stuff for themselves. And they are friendly and outgoing. 

We learned that the Nomads go on walkabouts when young to learn about the world in their own way. And apparently they are all related somehow.

I think the game went a bit better - perhaps we're getting our sea legs. Or is that sky legs? And my notebook did help as things are a bit better organized. And I found if I print landscape, I can have foldout pages! Other pages are 1 page character sheets for the NPCs that are important. 

And finally - several of the images came via searching while playing. The one real advantage of this type of gaming is the available resources. Which is also the downside as it is too easy to get distracted. The big nomad creature is actually out of a Kickstarter I backed by De Architectura. And the names of drinks and things via quick searches for random name generators. I actually have a few of those lists printed out for when I play The Fantasy Trip as usually I am not at the computer.

Lamia's Labyrinth

I got started on this then realized I have a Corsairs game tomorrow night I needed to prepare for! So the previous post goes over that, along with some re-reading of the rules, and printing out some stuff & actually putting it into my notebook, hole-punched, so I have it handy. And better organized than the pile of papers.

Anyway, I went through the Dyson maps I do have and found an interesting one that is about the size I want to deal with. And I like my name for it. 

I took the map, dropped it into GIMP and added a layer. Using the mosaic distortion allows you to add hexes. Played with the size a bit until I got the size that seemed about right for the corridors. The save that off as an image, and load into Google draw as it is a lot easier to deal with text in that. And added a sandy looking background. Added numbers per room, then realized the Corsair game was coming up. So that is as far as I got. The plan is:

1. add a few traps to the map from one of the trap manuals I have
2. add at least a couple of things from the various PDFs I've bought via Kickstarter. There are a few that are actually in separate PDFs (a gauntlet here, a helm there, that end up with a composite affect versus the individual bonuses they may give).
3. maybe drop in one of the Decks of Silly Things.
4. throw in a few characters which is the entire reason they *may* go into the Lamia's Labyrinth.
5. decide if this is a bad lamia or a good lamia. She may still want to eat them.

There are 18 locations marked on the map, and perhaps a couple I've not marked I'll discover when reading through some of the PDFs.

I also need to figure out why this is here, and buried in the sand. Will there be clues to the lost city of Tuvano? I'll need to read through that & take any notes that may be useful for running that adventure. 

Plus I've been dropping other Kickstarter locations in my world: the Yol'Najj Forest is just over the mountains south of Tuvano, the Riany City has been hinted at but not located yet, Willow has yet to be situated. I've stuck Wrex's Drift off the bay there, as well as So'lan is in the same bay. Off-map is the island of the Amazons. Lots of stuff I can add as needed. When we finally get back to playing!

Corsairs: Setting up the next session

The players are probably going to meet some of the main NPCs for this adventure, so I've printed them out, and will see about getting my notebook better organized for play. It is one of those smaller 3-ring notebooks, but for some reason I have a pretty old-school hole punch that allows me to adjust the hole punches. So cutting a landscape paper in half, these fit perfectly. Good do know! Both are the equivalent of a steady wind, which does mean that all interactions against them are cursed: exploding 1's for failure!  

I've also named the other ship, a size 3 ship, that is being used to run the black market repellium: the Dancing Crester. Yes, using an animal from yet another Kickstarter as mentioned in another post. This ship only has 1 gun deck, the 2nd is now being used as a cargo bay for the illicit cargo. 

So, what are the plans for the game tomorrow? They are currently in Brawicke and at least know of Captain Horn and the Lady Gysby. I need to come up with some additional rumors, such as

• there are job postings for sailors willing to go for extended voyages
• a large ship that looks like a large corvette, passes through every 4 weeks or so.
• Captain George Horn was a well known Alderil Empire Navy Captain back at the height of the war
• Lady Gsyby has a strong Roche Empire accent and has been known to peruse weapon shops about town
• it has been a while since the ship was last seen so it would not be surprising to show up in the next few days, heading west. 
• my cousin in Coastone heard that miners are being hired but they have not yet returned home
• sky whales have been sighted much further south this year than ever before
• there are Alderil spies on Teboa
• there are traitors in the Council
• Joycie Gelnne (local council member) has sold out Teboa
• Joycie Gelnne is one of the few honest Council members other than Sir 

While I do like me some good deck plans, playing via Skype means the combat is all theater of the mind. Combat between the ship crews is really abstracted out via die rolls, though the characters can get in to help with an extra die I believe. I need to re-read the ship combat as I did miss a step last time. And if there is a combat, they are going against a larger ship. One with a steady wind as her captain...

If we go into personal combat, there could well be a dual. Sadly the player playing Harmony-Rose is unable to make tonight's game, and it would have been fun to have the two women in a dual should it come to that. And I may see if we can make it come to that. Duels are a thing in the world of Teboa. And if I am reading the rules correctly, the players can do all the rolls: they roll their attacks as well as the difficulty dice of their opponent; then when the opponent attacks, they roll their opponents attack as well as their own difficulty dice. At least that is how I am going to try & play it. I think it gives the players a lot more interest in the combat versus waiting for me to roll. And as with a lot of groups, this groups rolls pretty badly at times. Which is often a lot more fun!

And re-read part of the rules and yes, the player does all the dice rolls. As noted by one of my players, some of us are not fans of dice pools. Yet this particular mechanic is actually a lot of fun and we are both enjoying it a great deal. Plus it means I need to buy more dice as one can never have enough dice!

If a character is being shot at by an enemy with a pistol, the player will roll their Grit Skill Dice, and roll the opponents Crackshot Skill Dice as the Difficulty Dice.

My expectations are that there could be a number of possible encounters, both within the town of Brawicke and aboard air ships. We'll see how much skullduggery the players do. And since we're all learning to play this, I'll need to let them know that they can make these rolls for gathering rumors, and I allow charmed if they role-play it.  Perhaps I can expand out the list of rumors, and they get as many as their draft...

Some more interesting view of Brawicke. The first is a more upscale residential area, the 2nd towards the ports.

And the docks. The docks for the sky ships are all well above ground. The ships nose into the U-shaped docks with crew hauling ropes to bring the ships into the dock. Open on all sides, but with a gang plank and overhead cranes for loading and unloading cargo. Brawicke boats 6 docks at the western side of town. Prevailing winds are usually to the west, allowing for easier sailing away from the town. 

Fantasy Trip - next session

No real session planned yet. The Skype sessions fell off as this game really needs maps and figures to play the dungeon combats well. But I can at least plan out the next session or two.

We left our characters leaving the desert city of Ceawla and heading to the ancient city of Tuvana, a city out of lost legends but rumors of vast magics and treasures. Tuvana is one of the adventures from a Kickstarter for the Fantasy Trip, and of course I got the hardback book and the megahexes. We've played one of the adventures out of the book and suffered our first character death. 

The trip out of the desert will take about 2 days to reach Tuvana, and I am going to add a labyrinth delve for them by using one of the encounters in Desert Encounters, throw in some treasures from some of the other PDFs I seem to be collecting, and possibly throw in some dungeon encounters once there.

I printed this map out on some vellum preprinted paper, and it really looks like an old map. I thought it was cool.

There will be a late night meeting of a lamia. Now, in classic Greek myths, according to Wikipedia:

Lamia (/ˈleɪmiə/; Greek: Λάμια), in ancient Greek mythology, was a woman who became a child-eating monster after her children were destroyed by Hera, who learned of her husband Zeus's trysts with her. Hera also afflicted Lamia with sleeplessness so she would anguish constantly, but Zeus gave her the ability to remove her own eyes.

"Lamia" was also used as a bogey word to frighten and discipline children.

There are other versions with snake bottom halves, as per the DailyLifeWithaMonstergirl site:

The Lamia (ラミア族 Ramia-zoku?) are a reptilian liminal race with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake. A mono-gendered (female) demi-human race, Lamias are predatory carnivores that form tribal villages on the outskirts of desert oases, their serpentine tails are powerful enough to rend steel.

The picture from the PDF shows the lion version, so we'll stick with that one for a description. We will let the players make INT rolls to see if they know the darker side of the lamia (probably a 5D roll vs INT except for their guide who does have local knowledge of the desert, and the lamia are desert creatures.

I will create my desert dungeon that she needs help with. I do have a few tiles from Loresmythe but will probably use a hex mapping program as that will work best with the megahexes. And there will be at least a couple of the dungeon encounters, treasures and traps from various sources I have, either through far too many Kickstarters I've backed or a few other places (I did a Humble Bundle and one of the PDFs is a lot of very interesting, and funnily illustrated, traps. I've yet to put in too may lethal traps, fearing a party kill. But perhaps it is time to see just how fast our characters learn to be a bit more careful in the labyrinth. 

Here's a map I started with those geomorph tiles. While pretty, and mapping it to hexes & megahexes would not be complicated, the players would never see this map. Well, perhaps after the thing was entirely explored.

And while I do have a lot of mapping software, I also have a giant stash of Dyson maps from that same Humble Bundle I think. So perhaps I'll delve into that stash to see if there is something I can use.  And perhaps a monster from one the of few Patreons - though I think most of those creatures fit into a more deadly RPG I need to print up & play I think. A real old school, you are going to die grim setting RPG. Would fit my Monday night group perfectly!

Corsairs: Session 2

We last left our adventuring crew betwixt the vast farm lands of Chaydale and Haiwold and the wooded hills of Coedwigoedd Woods. I've added Brawicke to the map after the fact, and it has some interesting sky ship ports.

They took what they could of the Pirate Petey's Plump Parrot's ship, including the ever-important lift lug full of repellium. With only six surviving pirates still hogtied, they lifted and launched north towards Brawicke, a truer course never plotted apparently. 

Getting into Brawicke a bit before first candle (which is early dusk. I've yet to go beyond that nomenclature for land-bound time. Need to first read more about the bells used on the ship, of which I only know 8 bells is a shift change). They troop on to the local constable station, pirates in tow. There is a bit of discussion on the prison life, of which Sleve seems to not mind nearly as much as the others. Dropping the scallywags off at the station, they find directions to the Fox and Boar. Heading down the street, they do notice some street urchins in the darkening streets. Calling one over, Ordo offers a silver if the kid can keep watch for never-do-wells that may be out and about. After some hesitation, young Geoff runs off and gets Willie, who has his 6 year old sister with him. Agreeing to watch the doors until they have to go home, our crew heads into the tavern on Garrion Street.

One in the tavern (described in the previous post), Ordo tries to flirt with the barmaid. However, with our Ms. Baudelaire in the group wearing at least parts of an Alderil Empire Naval uniform, her response is not the normal warm response Ordo is well used to. They do manage to gather that the gentleman with the most excellent top hat eating a wilted salad is probably the Mr. Altes from the letter taken from the dead hands of Pirate Petey. Talking to the short but well-mustached proprietor Brancett Taolin, they find some good vittles and drinks and partake, watching as their suspected contact finishes his meal and prepares to leave.

Ordo gets up to him, and a quick conversation with the letter as evidence, our group starts to leave. Walking down the street, a couple of our adventuring Corsairs notice a few following in the shadows while the other two are oblivious to their shadows. Not too far from the docks, Mr. Altes stops, and Miss Baudelaire draws out her pistol noticing the shadows seem to be drawing arms. At this point young Geoff comes running up and hugs Orlo's leg, saying there are bad guys out there! Taken off guard, Orlo yells out about this man accosting a young child, and windows up and down the street open up as heads peer out into the oil-lit street. Orlo swings at Altes but, using agility against swordplay, barely grazes our spy. Grabbing him and yelling for a constable, Altes' hench people back up, unsure what to do as Harmony-Rose whacks Altes on the back of his noggin, knocking him out. By now a constable has shown up and a conversation between our group and the the local law. 

At least I think that is what happened in that part. I am not good at taking game notes either apparently!

Somehow they then ditch the law, probably to take young Geoff home, and get Altes into the Fools Errand where they tie him up. They get a couple bits of info from him: a card from his hat has the claling card for Captain George Horn, that has a sigal of one of the Alderil Empires Houses on it, as well as the name Lady Erin Gysby. There was a very successful oratory roll as well as some good role playing - I gave the player an extra XP fomr something I wish I had wrote down as it made us all laugh.

A bit of planning goes on, and they drug and temporarily place Altes in shipping container in the cargo area of the ship when they here a crowd show up on the loading docks next to the ship. Looking down, with a dozen of the crew about, there is a constable along with a few ruffians, torches in hands. A brief conversation, and the constable is welcomed aboard the ship for a quick search. Finding nothing, and sharing pleasantries about hats, the officer leaves, and the ruffians, seeing themselves outnumbered by the crew, disappear into the dark streets. 

Loading up a cart with a person-sized box of sand bags and some produce, they send that to the Fox and Boar, taking Altes to a dock further down and bribing its night watchman to watch over their drunk friend, and to not believe the liar. Our nomad Sleve now has some bespoked nicely made clothing that mostly fits. He is most pleased with the hat (there does seem to be a hat thing in this current game).

And that's where we left session 1.

I think it went a bit slower, and I am horrible at combat. Which is why I like the Fantasy Trip - it is a board game for that so easier to deal with in many ways. There was not a shot fired though there were a couple of tense moments. We're all still getting our bearings in this game. And while I did print out a bit, it is still not organized in a useful way. So I may do that this week as the notebook I have does have tabs I can actually use.

Corsairs: World Building Again

Per the book:

Wars between the Lathian States, the Roche Empire, and the Alderil Empire have been violent and costly. Aſter more than a decade of war, Alderil, victorious, have claimed the territories of the Eastern Molten Sea, while the Lathian States and the Roche Empire occupy the Western reaches. Lasting peace is not yet in sight. Teboa sits in a middle ground between these three vast nations. A nation of fierce peoples, it battles constantly for its independence. 

The people of Teboa have no fondness for agents of the Adleril Empire, but are not quite as opposed to the Lathian States or Roche Empire. In fact, there are several ex-pats from the latter two empires living on Teboa, having fallen in love with the floating island and its people. While letters of Marque are given from the Council of Governers, and in fact the Fools Errand has such a writ for Captain Eugene, for the most part people live their lives: farming, mining minerals other than repellium, building towns and homes. Most have family of know of family that have lost loved ones in the decade plus war. 

Beyond Teboa are several other groups of people. To the north, the Ironbound, while sharing no love for much of anyone outside their clans, did not directly aid in the wars. But they recognize the dangers of mining more repellium and have a closer bond to the earth than most humans seem to possess. Many Dwarves have volunteered for Teboa and the Unclaimed Islands. The Great Clans to the west of the Anvil Arie are home to multi-family clans. While many would consider them sustenance level citizens, barely getting by, they have a rich family life and have rich social connections. Traditions and artifcats cross generations and are cherished. They too have lost sons and daughters in the wars. The nomads have fought on all sides and none of the sides in the wars. Some take coin where they can get it, others have stood up to what they see as the destruction of life for the pursuit of coin as a needless and horrific path.

For the people of Teboa, most hate the Alderial Empire with a passion, understanding that continued mining of repellium spells their doom into the Molten Seas. Very few of the magnates of the Empire are known, though most of heard of Sir Wisym Pycey. Word is that he has agents even within the Council. Rumors such as these are vehemently denied. One of the deniers is Joycie Gelnne, Council Representative of Brawicke.

Brawicke sits between the vast farmlands of Haiwold and Chaydale and the rolling forested hills of Coedwigoedd Wood. It has several skydocks, and has a bustling marketplace with the farm products to the east and timber from the west. A quaint town where farmers come in for a bit of civilized drink and woodsmen leave their cutting for gossip and companionship. The regional Council Representative is Joycie Gelnne, an older woman who has served as councilor for almost 2 decades now, representing the towns in the borders between forest and farms. She still dresses in her woodsmen garb as she was from Coedwigoedd and eventually moved the Brawicke. Her political reach extends to the west almost to Coaston, who is represented by Rederr Errer, someone she considers a young upstart. She is fond of visiting different taverns every few nights, to get a feel for "her" people. 

The Fox and Boar Tavern sits off Garrion Street. Brancett Taolin is the proprietor, a small man with a large mustache that he takes great pride in. He welcomes all, but has lost a son and daughter to the war and has a hatred of all thing Alderil. Roche or Lathian. It is a smoky tavern with a smoking pit just beyond the kitchen which is used to roast whole boars from the woods. It is several steps down into the tavern proper, with well-worn stone floors and sturdy furnishings. Several small booths line the side walls and there are some scattered tables between the entrance and the bar that takes up half the back wall. A large boar head is mounted above the bar, and if one looks back over the entrance is a stuffed fox, a rag of Alderil uniform hanging from its frozen teeth. The one wall has several portraits done in charcoal, including Brancett's family, Joycie Gelnne and a few others. Even Henrich's portrait may be found (rolling against skullduggary, needing at least 2+ draft).

Using Loresmith's Remarkable Inn's and Drinks, there are a few things to note:

Disposition: though generally a friendly place, Brancett is not fond of foreigners. There can be a noticeable chill in the room when people show up that are not the regulars. While silvers are silvers, feelings can run deep when family is lost. Role playing well may off-set this disposition to those who have a foreign accent or clothing/uniforms from one of the empires. Paying attention, one could see that some guests are favored and offered extra servings or garnishes.

The Inn Keepers Authority. Brancett has moderate regional authority. More through his frequent guests but also because he is recognized as a fair listener even with his losses. Joycie and the town constables will often show up for a pint or two to get a feel for how the people are doing. As with most barkeeps, Brancett is an excellent listener, and has been known to pour an extra stout for those who may need a bit more. He has never betrayed a confidence.

Security. The Boar and Fox is a fairly secure location. It is located off of Garrion Street, just a few blocks away from the Constable's Office and the Government Building. While he does not employ bouncers, his remaining two sons apparently take after his mother and are both large and well muscled from hauling large boars to the pit. They are also the servers more often than not, along with some barmaids if things get busy.

Wealth and Prices. This is a common tavern, so prices are about average (per book):

• cheap ale: 1 silver / mug
• top shelf ale: 3 silvers / mug
• cheap wine: 3 silvers / glass (15 silvers / bottle ~ 6 glasses)
• the good stuff: 15 silvers / glass (65 silvers / bottle ~ 6 glasses)
• teas run 1-5 silvers for a pot which has about 4-5 glasses worth
• Simple Vittles 2s
• Feast 25s

Teas include:

• Vyolotte, a purplish tea made from dried vyola leaves. A pleasant, mild tea that cleanses the palette
• Tea of Gliding, a shockingly pink tea that smells of peanuts but tastes of butterscotch

Ales include:

• Water Ale - perhaps misnamed, this potent ale only looks watery with a dark turquoise color and the taste of onions. This is the cheap stuff some patrons use to get blitzed faster. 
• Stella's Earth Extract, a very dark colored ale with the scent of thyme and an earthy taste. 

Foods are primarily board-based. Their salads are wilty affairs that few people go for seconds.

While a Tavern downstairs, the 2nd floor has several rooms available at 10 silvers for a shared room and 20 silvers for one of the 2 simple suites. The third floor has the family lodgings. There is a basement, with a loading dock entrance ramp that opens up next to the fire pit. Large barrels of ale are on one wall. Unknown to even Brancett is a secret passage in one corner that leads to the underground water system. 

Sky ship docking at Brawicke

Garrion Street of Brawicke

Corsairs: A Fine Selection of Papers

As we left the first session, Captain Petey the Pirate (I am horrible at on the spot name - I need to have a ready list of pregenerated names) had died, papers flying to the floor. The characters do have the following information, most of it cribbed from the game book:

• The Alderal Empire is mining Teboa
• there are bought council members assisting with this
• Sir Dayton Griffiths, the head Councilor, is apparently not bought off
• You have been hired by Sir Griffiths to investigate the rumors of mining in the mountains of Coastone
• you are in charge of the Fools Errand, a two masted corsair ship captained by Captain Eugene Sparrow.
• the Fools Errand is owned by Henrich Holmes of Brgate, an Ironbound Dwarf

At this point we have a downed pirate ship and the Fools Errand with only a handful of surviving pirate who are now hogtied. The Fools Errand was undamaged while the pirate ship was pretty much caved in on the port side she crashed on, the rudder and ship's wheel destroyed. The lift lug was salvagable and our engineering Dwarf Ylervan Runehammer is looking those over with Sleve's optimistic and somewhat musically inclined assistance. 

Meanwhile, Ordo and Harmony-Rose start going through the papers, and amongst them is the following:

Also, some fun pirate lingo here! Such as:

Shipshape -  The ship is managed and clean, everything is under control
Shiver Me Timbers!  - Something like, "Holy Cow!" a surprised or shocked expression
Sink Me! - Another expression of surprise
Son of a Biscuit Eater -  A name or insult for someone you dislike
Splice the Mainbrace! -  Pass a round of drinks out to the crew

There will be more papers - I need to think about it, maybe get some feedback, and open things up. I try not to railroad anyone, so they are free to go where they want. Though they have agreed to work for Sir Griffith at least. Payment has not been discussed but I would not be surprised if an exceptional job is done that the Fools Errand could change hands.  Our Captain Eugene may have the contract in hand as they rushed off when the chicken coop got smashed by Pirate Petey. 

As pre my previous post, I am printing out a few things to have them handy. Sadly, I actually have pre-printed paper as per that image and could print out a real letter. Not being face to face is not as much fun as I like props! Still thinking about getting some sort of wax seal & wax. Just because....

Corsairs: Session 1

Session 1 had some character finalization, and I don't think everyone managed to pick a special item. We also did not do the relationship graph. I think had we been face to face, we may have been able to do that to add a bit of background to the characters. Some things are just easier in a face to face thing versus just over an audio only call.

The characters all knew Henrich, my universe-spanning NPC. That is how they were all, with the exception of our wandering nomad Sleve. They were given a task to stop the mining off in the mountains to the west when the girl in the library pointed out the running figure and the small skyship that had just landed on top of the chicken coops. 

Ordo took his musket and shot, and plinked the running man, who grabbed his leg but kept on going, with a second man climbing down the ship to help him. Harmony-Rose took a shot that went wild, and Ordo's second shot took out the picaroon (they do not have many hit points). The other, a pirate from the look of him, was climbing back up the rope ladder as the sky ship was launching when Harmony-Rose's second shot took him out and he fell to the ground, dead. The ship took off as fast as the lift lugs would take it, catching the wind. A quick inspection of the bodies revealed one was in the livery of the estate, and Sir Dayton Griffiths recognized him as one of his staff. The other was a pirate through and through. Ordo inspected the body and found 12 silvers there. During the inspection, Captain Eugene of the Fools Errand (the now named ship), caught a young stowaway, Sleve McDicheal and his lute. A hurried introduction as Harmony-Rose was to be the new quartermaster, Ordo the new master gunner, and Ylervan  Runehammer the new sailing master. Lacking a crew member, Sleve joins the group as they board the ship. Captain Eugene offers his arm to Miss Baudelaire and the ship takes off, Ylervan shouting the orders to Billy, the coxswain and they take off in pursuit.

It takes more than a little time as the pirate captain is almost as good as our stalwart crew. Yet the do get within firing range, and the first round they miss. The next round a canon ball heavily damages the port lift lug, and the next removes the rudder. With the pirate ship listing, and an excellent sailing roll, they board the craft, crew fighting crew while Harmony-Rose and Ordo head to the captain's office and Sleve and Ylervan tend to the lift lug to see if it is salvagable as the joined ships slowly plummet towards the island below. 

In the captain's cabin, there is a tense stand-off but Captain Petey shoots first, not even grazing Harmony-Rose, who returns fire, plinkng the pirate captain. While the first two are reloading, Ordo fires off and gravely wounds the pirate, the stack of papers in his hand fluttering about. Demanding answers, they find that one Edmund Altes had paid good coin for them to get to the estate. Before getting any additional info, the decks lurch even more, though it seems the plummeting is slowing.

The joined ships start to slow their flight downward as Ylervan shouts orders to Billy as they attempt to safely land both ships. They do manage with some hull crumpling to the pirate ship and its rudder and control mechanisms crushed beyond repair. Captain Petey smashes against a wall, and dies between that and his earlier wounds.

In the battle before they hit the dirt, the Fools Errand had managed to kill all but a handful of pirates, and suffered no loss themselves. While the decks were awash in blood and bodies, our valiant characters made successful acrobatics rolls and avoided getting hurt. The pirate ships had a stash, or a reasonable take. As the ship took no damage, Miss Baudelaire distributed out the silver to the crew, leaving 30 solvers apiece for the players. 

And that is where we lest the game. 

A few notes: I messed up on the ship to ship combat: there was one more roll to see if they actually hit. Ordo had a draft of 3, which meant that Harmony-Rose (I was spreading out the rolls) should have rolled three dice against the to-hit chart instead of the directly on the location chart. While it worked out, there could have been more or fewer hits. But it was a fun mechanism and worked pretty well. They wanted to do an aimed shot, and while there is nothing specific in there, I used a 2d6 opposing roll to see if that would have succeeded. What I may do is allow them to adjust the hit location up or down based on the draft. So if they get a 2 draft and roll a 2 for the location, then can pick from 1 to 4 for the location. 

Personal combat went well. The opposing rolls are interesting, and at least well documented for each skill. I like that the players get to roll all the dice - the only dice I rolled was for how many silvers the dead pirate had. We did not do the initiative process. First, we're playing over Skype, so despite me having a lot of card decks, it was not really feasible. We ended up just using a d6 when we needed to worry about initiative.

 There are some potentially good backgrounds that may end up in play: Harmony-Rose was a quartermaster for the Alderil Empire. Like Han Solo, she is wearing parts of the uniform, and it is well recognized by those in Teboa, As that came up during our early character discussions, the ramifications did not sink in. But there could be a certain amount of tension between her and the island residents. Even between her and Ylervan, though the Alderil Empire has never directly attached the Anvil Aerie. Ordo could care less as his islands were buffered from all the empires by rough skies and distance. Sleve, being the nomad, would not care in all likelihood but that's just a guess on my part. I will have to remember that should they visit any of the towns on their journey. Ylervan has family back home, as does Ordo. Sleve is literally the wildcard in this game, and has both helped and hindered via signing and playing a ludicrously large lute (perhaps not, but we did find some fun images of a really large lute). 

What I need to do, as always, is get better organized and print out more to have it all ready in a binder or something. Bouncing between screens is not working for real-time playing. Works fine for my solo game, not so much here.  I also need to figure out what was on those papers (and there shall be some lore and/or skullduggary rolls involved) and what happens next. The papers should yield some clues as to where they may want to go next as the mountain range is fairly large, and finding the mines may be more difficult than expected. 

Overall, I think it went pretty well. The game itself is fairly abstract but rich in role playing. I do like that the players roll all the dice for the most part. The Pirate Petey I rolled for, and they never got their guns to bear on the Fools Errand. And we always love exploding success rolls, so this game would be even more fun at a table and watching the handfuls of dice rolling.

One of the dozen or so floating islands of the Anvil Aerie:

Corsair Critters

The rule book has 2 animals specifically described, along with their own character sheets to show how to do animals. These are the fire imps, which have a habit of actually bursting into flame when enraged, and dragonets, a smaller cousin of the larger dragon species. We've also introduced 3 other beasts that are unique to this setting but not part of the core book. Well, the core book being all of 36 pages I don't see having a bestiary is going to fit as well as not being the main point of this game. Corsairs is all about the sky ships and booty! Although the group that is gathering seems less about the booty and more about exploring the world of Teboa.

But as I just got the excellent Welsh Monsters and Mythical Beasts Kickstarter book by CCJ Ellis, there was a postcard with what can be a dragonet. So here is the dragonet as drawn by CCCJ Ellis

Welsh, getting it translated looks like it says thank you! Though this was a year or so late, there have been a lot of things happening and well worth the wait.

Anyway, on to the various creatures and their habitats. 

As noted, there are two detailed in the book, the fire imp and the dragonet. Both have similar character blocks to how the player characters work, which gives us the info we need for opposing rolls and hits points. We can see that they fire imp only has 4 hit points, has a 3d roll for acrobatics (so if you were trying to shoot it and it was dodging, there would be 3 opposing rolls to your hits. Cool thing in this game is that the player rolls all the dice - hope you bring your six sided dice! and several of different colors to have the opposing rolls as well). The fire imp is a bit of a fighter as well, with 4 dice for its attacks (Might - 3d6 + 1d6 for its skill). So it can cause some significant damage! Finally you can see it is not overly observant with its wits at 1d6 + 1d6 for observation. So if you are trying to sneak up on one to use, say, as a fireball should you be able to throw across to the next ship, you may well be able to do so, I would not advise juggling them, despite one player's constant desire for a juggling character of ill-repute. 

So using that as a base, we can extrapolate our larger sky-faring beasts.

Sky whales

Hunted for the same reasons they were hunted here: blubber, oils, meat, bones are all useful. Additionally, their air bladders are often used as wind socks are used here: a long line with a sky whale air bladder aids sky ships in docking, knowing which way and how hard the wind blows. They would have a significant number of hit points, depending on the specific species and size. The smaller ones probably at least 12-15 plinked, 6-8 injured and 2-4 maimed. The larger ones may well double those amounts. 

Farther to the north, the Ironbound have actually trained the Sky Diver whales as both steeds and battlemounts. Fortunately for the Alderin Empire and those farther south, the great Sky Divers do not tolerate the warmer southern airs. Canons have been mounted on these great animals, though usually the range is limited and the canons smaller as they have found that the larger canons can flip the whales, and once flipped they almost always die as they plunge into the Molten Sea far below, unable to right themselves.

There are several species of sky whales throughout the world of Teboa. Beyond humans, their major foes are the dragons, who eat the whales. Most whales themselves seem to absorb the repellium gases that burst up from the Molten Sea, as well as air mites. They are grazers. 

Cresters

Cresters may be related to the sky whales and jus tbe a very different species. They are actually carnivorous and eat flying fish and birds. There are two major breeds, the Red Cresters and the Great White Cresters which are a larger breed. They too are hunted for the same reasons as the sky whales, with the additional bonus of their teeth. Cresters teeth are used as weapons for ship harpoons, as well as scrimshawed into ornate dioramas. Their hit points are similar to the sky whales, but they are significantly faster and more difficult to hunt. 

Note: These come from the Windward game that I am anticipating. I like to cross-pollinate my worlds.

Dragons

Dragons are also here on the world of Corsairs. Going with the Drifting Dragons anime, there are more dragon species than you can throw a stick at apparently. They range in size from smaller than the sky whales to beasts that dwarf the largest of sky ships. They too are hunted but with a lot less success. As a result, dragon meat costs significantly more on the market. And tastes a lot better.

Unlike most of the other flying species of Teboa that use air bags for buoyancy, dragon bones are embedded with repellium. When caught, dragon bones are often used to replace the repellium in ship lift lugs. While not as effective as mined repellium, and much more difficult to come by, sailors also swear it is more reactive than mined repellium and allows for faster transitions. 

Some dragons have significant defense mechanisms. The charred pit that was Peford On The Keyles is proof that some dragons just should not be hunted. 

Smaller animals

Teboa has the normal run of other animals: birds, cows, sheep and fish. A kind of steer is raised in the vast Cahill Grasslands, herded by land-based nomads who traverse the plains in their carts. The grasslands allow for sledges to be a fairly effective and easier to maintain mode of transportation than wheeled carts, though not as fast. But as with many nomads, speed is not the point, the journey is the point and life is, as Sleve puts it (and now with feeling everyone! You know the words):

*Liiiiiiiiiiiife is a journey. Don’t let it get you down. Liiiiiiiiiiiife is a journey. Don’t miss it for the crowd. All you need to do is feeeeeeeel the loooooooooove in your heart.* You can never truly get lost brother, because the love is always in your heart.

Corsairs - Another Character, and even more world expansion

Another interesting character has popped into my email:

Slevel McDicheal

Raised by nomads, learned to read at a young age but only to learn how to play music. Expert at foraging, fishing and exceptionally lucky. Poor to no fighting skills. 

And now we've added nomads to the world! I never even thought of that. I think the nomads will have a variety of ships for all sorts of things, but perhaps fly together as small armadas and family groups. They will have a variety of skills, much like migrant workers today roam from job to job. Training is varied and wide across all the needs: fishing, fish squeezing, herding, farming, carpentry, building, perhaps thievery, perhaps noble sacrifice in unjust battles. All the sky ships will be old and patched together, more ramshackle perhaps but well cared for (as we need to remember the knowledge to make new ships has been lost for centuries. Though apparently there are still plenty of them about).

Some nomads are more prone to the traditional Corsair life, robbing and pillaging. Others live a more carefree life and go where the winds take them. I've a feeling Slevel comes from the carefree nomads.

Some nomads have been known to try repellium gliding. Wearing a repellium belt and wings, they can manage flights untethered from ships. Of course, they do tend to be bite sized snacks for the occasional dragon.

Mentioned in the rule book are two additional characteristics characters can have, charmed ort cursed. This is usually by exceptionally good or bad equipment, injuries or something else happening in game.

Charmed sets the success to 3+ on a d6. Cursed lets the 1s explode. In the dice rolls, a 6 is exploded as long as you keep rolling a 6. So the potential for a really high draft is there. Cursed lets the 1's explode, so you could become very unlucky indeed! There are always rumors of those people who seem charmed or cursed, but no one has ever met a naturally charmed or cursed person. Just the rumors whispered after a few ales.

And finally, I think I've found the hero ship (still to be named). Apparently there is a Patreon account that does sky ships! I back 4 patreon accounts so really can't do more at the moment (I blame the pandemic) else I would pitch in a couple of bucks a month for a bit as we may end up using his art.

So any good names for the ship? Although not as pretty as some, it is basically a battle map anyway. Not that we're playing face to face with minis.

Corsair - Player Characters and some world expansion

I've heard back from a couple of the players, with some fun backgrounds, so I'll share here what is public about them, and my updated map now that we have the Anvil Aerie range of islands, and somewhere nearby a floating island with fishing and a large mountain (the scale of the map won't show a lot of that level of detail, and I'll try & refrain from mapping a floating island with the Keloth Mountain range and fishing lake. I may not succeed).

Ylervan Runehammer

Ylervan Runehammer. I am an Ironbound, a Dwarf of the Sky Realm of Anvil Aerie. 

I dress in the royal blues and browns of my clan, Clan Runehammer. I have a distinctive blue swirling tattoo that begins on the right side of my face and extends down my left arm, covering it to the knuckles on my hand. I wear leather work gloves of Dwarf make (as if there were others worth having) and a wide belt with my hammers and spanners on it. I helmet is tied there as well, just in case work gets to messy (oil or blood).

 

We've established there are Dwarves in Corsairs and now placed them to the north in a small realm of their own, the Anvil Aerie. At a guess there are several factions, one being the Ironbound. Or is Ironbound the local name they use for themselves?  I've a feeling that is their own name for themselves, so will roll with that. We also know that are clans within the factions and they have specific colors and even tattoos. People from the north would probably recognize most Dwarves with a Lore roll. Farther south there may be an additional difficulty die or more. As I placed the Aerie just east of the Alderil Empire but outside it, there may be no love lost between the much smaller realm and the Empire. Could be on-going feuds, mining rights or anything. Or nothing - perhaps the Anvil Aerie is too small to bother with.

We have another character, a more rough character from another island to the north. At least a name I can pronounce (I have a hard time with a lot of the names, barely able to even speak English sometimes it seems!)

Ordo

I am Ordo.
I come from small fish village on one of the northern islands near tall Keloth Mountains.
Born to family of "fish squeezers" in the small town of Korba.
Korba is small, but I am big there...

There was a bit more that looks to be a lot of fun to play with. He has siblings that, while not playing a role in the introductory game, could be plot points later. And I do like "fish squeezing" though pretty sure it has nothing to do with:

He hales from an island with a thriving fishing industry in the north. I've established a few more islands next to the Aerie so any of those will do. His family and clan have dealt with the Dwarves before, and perhaps he and Ylervan have even crewed together previously. There were several old Russian images included, giving the feel for a somewhat poor upbringing but full of family and village friendships.  He has also indicated he wants to be the master gunner. Meaning we need to define a few things from the game, as they will be getting a ship (which I still need to name - I am wide open to suggestions. Though I am thinking it will be from Heimlich who is also a northern Dwarf, who is from another clan). 

Ship roles and the players attached. To be updated as we are a friendly bunch of players and open to changing things around. As long as we have fun!

Captain

The Captain is responsible for breaking any tied decisions when it comes to setting a course or what action to take and may also give Rousing Speeches during boarding actions (see Boarding, below).

Quartermaster

The Quartermaster is a powerful position on a ship. The Quartermaster may give Rousing Speeches during a boarding action and is usually the one to decide how Booty is spent (see below).

Sailing Master

The Sailing Master is responsible for charting and setting a course, and is usually the one to roll Sailing during the Chase stage of Sailing the Skies. The Sailing Master may be the one to roll Sailing during Ship to Ship Combat.

Master Gunner - Ordo

The Master Gunner is responsible for making any Crackshot tests required during Ship to Ship Combat.

So that is half of the players (and I'll admit I may have missed an email and will check later). We now have established where they are from, and we can get an inkling of why they may want to help with the vaguely planned adventure.

I actually have a notebook where I am writing down the character info so I have it readily available, and I will also do character sheets for the NPCs that they will be interacting with.  What is cool about the character sheets is the health status is there at the bottom. Player characters and the high-end NPC have basically the same hit points. The chart gives you that info, the game effect, and the healing (which is pseudo-magical but I am okay with that). NPCs have fewer blocks so get killed with fewer "draft" hits. I think combat will be fun once we do it a couple of times and get used to those mechanics. 

I will do another Solo Traveller post soon, as well as a beasts of Corsairs. The rules only outline 2 beasts, and I've already added sky whales, large dragons that eat the sky whales, and cresters from the Windward game that will show up at some point (and that game will be great if we get to play face to face again, cause it has flying ship minis!)