Cowboys & Dinos II: Session 5 - New Dawn Was Once New Harmony

I am bad with names. Even the names I make up...The 40 acres the character owns thanks to his wife is just outside of New Dawn. Unfortunately, the plat and half the time I talk about it I call it New Harmony. And the characters just left Harmony, which was run by a religious zealot. 

So...originally the township was New Harmony. But Harmony got such a bad rap, the town council decided they wanted nothing to do with that name. In 1862 (one year after the plat was drawn up) the town was officially renamed New Dawn. Retcons can be your friend!

New Dawn

Our characters roll into town at dusk, having only encountered a rattlesnake that Pachy smooshed underfoot. Some of my encounters are geared to people walking along - dinosaurs present an entirely different encounter. At least horses may have reared up for a snake. I just don't think a critter weighing more than a ton is going to worry about something that small.

New Dawn seems a lot friendlier than Harmony: two boys are rolling a hoop down the street; the smell of bison steaks is wafting through the air. Lee, wanting to get in touch with the sheriff but a note on the door indicates he is at Edna's. The group walks to the good-smelling restaurant and see the Edna's sign above the doors. A boy runs out as the group, including 4 dinosaurs, approaches the single-story building. 

"Hi! We ain't got space for all your critters here. You can take them to Colt's - he's got the space down there," and points a bit to the edge of town where a large barn can be seen. "Don't think he's got a perch for yours, Ma'am. And I'm Morgan," he finishes up before rushing back into the restaurant. 

The group goes to Colt's barn, finds an older man there and says he's got the space for 4 bits a night, plus food costs. Two girls peer around from behind him. As the group takes the harnesses and equipment off their dinos, Colt indicates a smaller barn off to the side. "Got space for yer stuff if you want to lock it up," he says. They don't, so just pile the equipment in the barn. Volgol has a fairly large corral, and Colt has some raw bison for the pterodactyl. 

They head back to Edna's, and Morgan meets them at the door to take them to a table. Spying what looks to be the sheriff, Lee goes on over, interrupting the lam man's medium rare bison steak. Looking up, after a bit of conversation, Lee will meet up with the sheriff later that evening. The group, with the exception of Archibald, notice the well-dressed man in the corner listening in apparently. The same man Molly saw walking to the town earlier that day. 

They find the dapper Mannix Durango speaks with a southern drawl (which sadly, despite living in the south the last almost 40 years, I cannot do. Nor even hear any more as I apparently have the aural filters translating things. I honestly could barely understand my wife when I met her, and now I cannot hear that southern accent at all. This is also why I would never want to work at a coffee or donut shop as I do not want to not be able to smell those wonderful aromas!) He introduces himself as someone who hears the spirits, and there was a calling from the Badlands. He plans on going there after a day or so of rest to see what was calling to him. Lee perks up at this, asking if he can talk with the spirits. He can sometimes he says, and Lee wants to talk with him later as well. As he leaves the table, the words "you can trust him" seem to come into his mind. Archibald wonders about people who can puts words in your mind may also be able to hear words in your mind. 

The food at Edna's is good: bison steaks, mashed potatoes, beans and steamed string beans. Edna is only heard in the kitchen, and it turns out Morgan is her son. She apparently had some training in France. She has the only restaurant in the small town. The beer is made by Beautrice, and there are no other liquors in town, except for an occasional crate of wines. Though the last one was a couple months back and the wine is long gone. 

Morgan shows off a giant black serrated claw. No one recognizes it other than not matching any dinos they are familiar with. Morgan says Sargent Thomas of Fort Talon gave it to him. It was from some creature with six legs that took a gatling gun to kill. There is a reason Fort Talon is there and has some surplus equipment from the Civil War.

The group goes to the hotel named The Hotel. As there is just the one there. The man behind the desk, Rufus, indicates there are only 2 rooms left out of the 4. Mannix is in one room, and a man named Rufus Porter has checked into the other. Molly gets room 3, and Archibald and Hambone decide sleeping in the barn loft is good enough for them. Lee goes and finds Mannix while Molly bathes and washes her clothes in the claw-footed tub. Which takes Rufus about 30 minutes to fill up with multiple trips from the stove carrying buckets of hot water.

well, maybe not exactly but Archimedes is as clean as Archibald has ever seen

and Molly cleans up well as well

Bringing out two wedding rings and a large locket, Lee and Mannix talk. He has his small room set up with a candle on the table and attempts to contact Lee's wife and child. He manages to pull their names from Lee's mind but after that, I failed every roll. The spirits were not willing to be found apparently according to Mannix. Lee still drops $5 on the table even though he was only charged $2 as the spirits were not willing to talk that evening. There was more but sadly my notes, as always, are incomplete.

Realizing he still needed to talk with sheriff George Holt, Lee and Molly go to the sheriff's office. Hambone & Archibald have apparently gone to sleep in the loft, though Hambone sees a ribbon tied in a bow on Puddin', and Archimede's horns are fairly glistening. The dinos have been well cleaned and pampered. I was going with Colt's daughters are dino-crazy. Molly will find Volgol cleaned and what looks to be polish on his claws. 

The sheriff finds the same wanted poster for Manual Fuentes, and Lee explains he believes he may be holed up at Hambone's farm. Lee agrees to meet the group in the morning at Edna's as Lee heads back to the hotel. 

Next morning, after griddle cakes and fresh maple syrup, Hambone finds the land office with a young man pouring over maps. They find the land plat with the old town name on it, and find it is all of 2.1 miles east of town. There are apple trees already growing there, though George, the land office man, says they will need some work if you want to make an orchard there. An artesian well halfway up a hill indicates a good place to build a house should he want to. Stepping back outside, the sheriff walks up and that is where we left the game. No fights or battles this round, and a lot of talking from Lee mostly. Everyone got 150XP for the evening. 

Characters met

Mannix "Dragon" Durango - mentalist stranger heading to the Badlands.

Morgan - 12-year-old working at his mother's restaurant.

Edna (only heard her in the kitchen) owner of Edna's restaurant. Trained in Europe, came to New Dawn only with her son.

Sheriff George Holt

Rufus - hotel manager/owner

Colt - stable owner. Has two dino-crazy daughters

Sgt Thomas of Fort Hood - not met but shows up in town and gave Morgan a giant claw

Beatrice - not met but makes good beer

George - land office worker at New Dawn. Seems eager to help

Porter Reid - never met, staying at The Hotel

Strange Art

I tried to get AI to draw me a 12-year-old boy circa 1875 holding a single large black claw. Nothing came out well...but may be useful for other games! 

Lapin - the Rabbitfolk

While D&D did introduce the Harengon, I am going to borrow only parts of that to fit into the Fantasy Trip (and possibly OSE). As well as renaming them to the Lapin. Though most folk call then Rabbitfolk, they call themselves Lapin. 

They are the result of Fey, though not fey themselves. In ancient times, the Unseelie Court thought nothing of meddling of other races and beings. They still feel that way. The Lapin were originally created from rabbits as fast guards: they move fast and multiply fast, so readily replenish any forces. Centuries ago a few escaped into the more mundane world we live in, and live somewhat furtive lives, worried that some Fey Lord may come hunting them. In fact, the Hunt brings an irrational fear to the Lapin and cause them to run away in random directions. If this were OSE there would be a really high saving roll, for TFT 5 dice against IQ to not run away.

Most Lapin are between 3 and half to 4 and a half feet tall, excluding their long ears which can put them close to 6 feet tall. But there are some giant Lapin that tower almost 7 feet tall. They are slower than their smaller cousins but stronger. 

Lapin primarily are plant eaters, but with the meddling of the fey they can also digest meat. They prefer vegetables over meat, though they will eat meat if nothing else is available. Alcohol works faster on them than others, but Lapin never get hangovers and also recover more quickly from over-indulging. 

Lapin villages are rare as most are solitaire creatures. They do not mate for life but stay together until the young are old enough to be on their own. This is about a dozen years and this age is considered adulthood for the Lapin. Both parents share duties for raising their young. There are 2 to 4 babies per birthing (d3 where 1/2 = 2, 3/4 = 3, 5/6 = 4) and genders are random, a 50% chance of either a boy or girl. Lapin tend to make small huts that may only last a couple of years. They only have possessions they can travel with easily. They move around a lot and will work odd jobs so that they can purchase the things they want or need. Few tend to be in towns or cities. Most tend to be expert woodsman and may often be healers, with a broad knowledge of plants and herbs. Lapin tend to have an average lifespan of about 50 years or so.

Despite this, there is something of a Lapin culture. Primarily they are independent, quick to judge, but also fiercely loyal. Having been foot soldiers in the Unseelie battles, they tend to favor the weak and protect those who cannot protect themselves. Those Lapin who have dealt with humans say they are similar to the Knight Errant. They are self-sufficient other than the tools and weapons they may purchase as they cannot create themselves. In general, they prefer to hide rather than fight, but they will always stick up for the oppressed. 

For The Fantasy Trip, Lapin folk are similar to Elves in terms of initial stats. Their starting stats are ST 5, DX 11 IQ 8 and an even faster MA at 14 when unarmored. They can be fighters or magic users and will rarely wear anything more than leather armor as they rely on their speed more than anything else. Unless they take running, though, this speed is generally only for combat as they will tire faster than humans do. They walk at a human pace, though there is more vertical movement than humans. As part of their furtive nature, they are also constantly looking around and sniffing the air. Their noses do wriggle, and as a result get a +1 to most other races for reactions. That and the ears. Which they do not like people touching.

Working up Marianne, our Lapin NPC, we know she carries a light crossbow and can shoot every turn. Meaning she has to have at least a DX of 14 and a ST of 12. Giving her a range of talents bumped her IQ to 10 so she can have Naturalist. Technically she could have more talents, but her experience has given her the strength to use her light crossbow, and the IQ as to have naturalist. As per our last recap, she knew a bit about the harpies, so I decided she needed that skill as well. This makes her quite a bit more talented than our player characters, but as I underplay most NPCs that works out. Heck - I tend to underplay my characters as well...

TFT Marianne

As she mentioned, the rising of the demoness Indhyna is what brought Marianne to this part of the world. The ley lines weakening the barriers between the worlds is threatening more than just this one area. While she has no affinity for magic, nor carries any magical weapons, she is not much against a demon. She will be on the lookout for enchanted bolts for her crossbow to save for those times when she can attack a demon.

The Ultimate Bestiary: Secrets of the Fey showed up. And as Sister Ishbarra was heavily wounded, I can bring in either the travelling Goblin merchant as I mentioned before, or perhaps one of these fey will help:

Alseids, or ‘cervitaurs’ as they are sometimes known, are reciprocally considered ‘cousins’ of centaurs, likely diverting from different points on the same family tree, though both species see the other as something of an oddity. Alseids differ in that their feet bear cloven hooves, and their hindquarters resemble that of a deer or antelope, with a variety of dappled, striped, or countershaded hues. They are significantly smaller than centaurs, their heads no higher than a human’s, and often display horns or antlers with both males and females equally likely to feature short nubs of bone or great, spiraling coronets.

As they know the forest, perhaps if they can make friends (and understand!) they could get a healing salve or two. 

Cowboys and Dinosaurs II: Session 4

Switching to the old west, our characters awaken in Copper Peak on Monday. Hambone heads on down to the land office after breakfast. Clifford English, the government employee at the office shows up at 1 minute to 9, ready to start the day promptly at 9am. Opening the doors, and switching the sign to open, he settles in behind the desk facing the door. Hambone introduces himself and gets to the point.

"I do believe we should have a copy of the land plat around here Mr. Hewiggans," says the bespectacled older man. A few minutes of searching and he can provide a land plat matching the deed Hambone has.

Hewiggan's Land Plat

Not able to take this copy, Mr. English says there should be a copy in the New Haven Land Office which he can have if need be. With the land verified, Hewiggans and the group head out of town, leaving Copper Peak and the fumes of the smelter behind as the head north through the Northern Passage. Sadly, they could only find half a bag of apples for Puddin', her favorite food. I did provide a map giving an overview of where they and where they are going so that they have some context. 

kinda looks old westerny :)

During the slow ride up at Puddin' Pace, they follow the easy-to-follow road. No chance of getting lost. However, the rain constantly increases, and the random encounter rolled up was a bad weather event, flash flood. Molly, sees the rising rivulets turning into rivers up the road, so flies back, flashing her red (danger) and blue (water) kerchiefs. Recognizing the dangers ahead, the group starts moving up the mountain, following Volgol. He finds a perch and makes a rough yet serviceable landing. Archibald has a steam-powered portable cabin essentially: pulling out a big box and a flip of the trigger and a shelter unfolds itself. There is enough room for all the characters, though the dinos are getting soaked through and through. And it turns out the Lee does enjoy Hambone's chicory coffee. Which I've had in New Orleans a long time ago and really enjoyed it. May have to see about getting more at some point. 

The rain finally lets up some, but it is late so the group stays at their mountainside camp site. Next day, they get up early and finish the hike into the next town, Harmony. Because the road is a mess, they move through the woods and travel in the plains. It is a bit longer, and they get into town late in the afternoon. Way back when I was mapping out this place, I decided I did want a zealot church town. Though I'll also counterbalance that in New Haven as there is a small church there, but they are good people. My updated paragraph describing Harmony from the now 90+ page Cowboy & Dinosaur bible:

A small, very religious town - Molly will have to sleep in a “woman’s hostel” (House of St. Mary) and not in the same hotel as the men (The Good Shepherd). Rates are malleable - if you profess being a Christian, $1/night includes breakfast. Otherwise $5/night and no food. Asked: “Are you in good standing with our Lord and pray every day?” If no... There is also a mandatory prayer meeting before supper. Lee will probably get a lot of side-glances, perhaps even direct threats as a “savage Chinaman”. There are woods and areas that the group can camp outside of town if they like, though there is a ⅙ chance that the preacher will come out with some of his larger congregation. 

As they approach, Volgol getting tired from flying in the rain, the streets are empty, but the church appears full as hymns are being sung. Archibald thinks that having church on Tuesday is not quite normal church behavoir. As Molly get Volgol into a dino corral, the church doors open up and people in their Sunday best come out. The preacher, a tall older man approaching 50, large grey beard, welcomes the group. Yet glances at Molly's pants and the consternation many of the congregation are showing raises hackles in our party. 

"Are you one with Our Lord?" asks the priest, and we'll just go with the conversation did not go well. Deciding retreat was a better choice, they decide to move out. Unfortunately, Volgol is too pooped to fly much, and it is getting dark. Fortunately, we decide a stegosaurus can certainly, at least for a short period, carry a pterodactyl. The group leaves Harmony, Volgol perched on the back of Archimedes. They managed a few miles at a pace even slower than our Puddin' Pace®️ and find a good place to camp. But also decide a double watch is called for.

With valid reason - not too long and off in the distance they can see some torches make their way out of the woods. Lee disappears into the woods and sees that there are perhaps half a dozen men and the preacher, the preacher carrying an actual burning cross. Hurrying back, he tells the group what is happening. The characters spread out, ready for combat. As the priest gets into yelling range, more words are passed back and forth. The group is ready for some protective violence when Archimedes uses his telekinesis hat and yanks the burning cross from the preacher. Lee has moved up for an attack as the men decide a burning cross waving back and forth in front of them is something of the devil and decide perhaps town was a safer pace to be. The priest, fired up, did not leave but was quickly taken care of by Lee and knocked unconscious. The burning cross was pressed up on him for a bit, then removed and left next to the burnt but still alive. The rest of the night is quiet especially as they managed to move a couple more miles north, and this is where the game was left. The group may have heard some crunching from the direction of the zealot, but they are not sure. 

I gave out some XP for the game, and then we all yakked. Somewhere in the middle of this one of the players came up with prairie sharks (he did get bonus XP s we all laughed!) and I got DALL E to draw some crosses between bison and sharks, pencil style. I will have to use these in a game somewhere!

Meeting the Harpies

The characters, after leaving Susan, the now ex-cultist, and Clyde, back in the barn with Johann and Juli eyeing their boy eyeing the girl who lured him out to kill him. But - the town is desperate for families to keep the town going, so perhaps they can forgive her. As there are not a lot (or any really) other marital options in Bresselwythe. 

The halfling, Ezmirylda Rixile, shows up with some potions, and eagerly offers them to the wounded. Voilet takes one and is healed 4 points, and Hexis regains 1 point. These were my "big boy" potions I use that cost 4x as much and use a d4 in a bottle. The players need to shake the die out of the bottle though both oddly (well, to me oddly) took the die out and rolled it manually. The halfling seemed almost surprised that neither died (she used to be an expert poisoner but, to avoid arrest and probably a death sentence, she is trying to mend her ways and help people. Just don't look into that back cabinet). 

They head north a bit to see about the missing sheep. They travel a bit and find a herd guarded by two girls, around 12 or so, and at least 1 dog they see around the clearing. Talking to the girls, Dawn and Voilet, being the least threatening, try to see if they can find out what is happening. The girls say that something huge with feathered wings came down and snatched a lamb and flew back up the mountain. Looking around the two see the scuffled ground but miss the scat and anything else (both failed perception checks and no one in this group has woodsman to help with that sort of thing). Talking and planning the rest of the afternoon, they do find 1 large feather. Deimos recognizes it as probably being from harpy, and finally Marianne speaks up a bit about what she knows about them: they tend to be farther north, like living in caves where they can fly out of easily, and no one has ever seen a male harpy.  Marrianne and Sister Ishbarra walk back to Bresselwythe to collect the horses while Hexis creates a net trap (we found that the ropes in TFT are 100 yards. That is a LOT of rope!). 

The characters wait that night, but after the flock leaves (and the wee shepherdesses think it is funny that these adults don't know that sheep are a flock and not a herd. Adults are funny...) Somewhere along here Deimos summons the bear, who eats the fish and does not seem overly happy. I am giving +1 each time he does this, and soon as the player can roll a 12+ on 2ds, the bear will like him. Yep - using the classic Traveller reaction roll. Been using that since early 80s!) Marrianne and Sister Ishbarra return, horses collected. Axe (and still not spelling it correctly) has stayed with Ceteern Gur, the goblin head of the small village. They have things, Goblin things, to discuss. That and the player could not show up.

Deimos had cast an illusion of a bleating lamb, which wandered over the netting all night long. The next day the flock did not return as they were grazing elsewhere. But late afternoon, a dark-winged harpy swoops down and attempts to grab the lamb! Hexis pulls the trap and the harpy is caught!

"Mine! Mine!" the harpy cries out, clutching the illusionary lamb in her talons. While Dawn attempts to explain that the lamb and sheep belong to the people. the harpy is very resolute in that the lamb is hers. I was trying to channel those seagulls from Finding Nemo. Eventually they do tease out of her that she and her flock are here because food at home is becoming bad. But Laura (an odd name for a harpy perhaps but it is what I thought of at the moment!) cannot bargain for her flock - they must see Screea (which is a much better name for a harpy I think). As Deimos dispells the lamb, Laura is saddened but willing to lead the group up to the cave where her sisters are living.

the harpy cave and the "big boy" healing potion

Screea, an orange-winged harpy with a bit more sense than Laura, comes out surrounded by several other harpies. Our group finds that these creatures are from the north, but their normal food and environment is slowly getting poisoned. There is this crystalline growth that is moving from the Terror Lands and the Wizard's Mount. The Mount is at a nexus of ley lines, and one runs south through the Terror Lands towards Edge City, though it stops almost a hundred miles north of that city. But it became corrupted a few years ago, and bad magics are happening. Screea can "smell" magic, a sort of inborn detect magic similar to the gargoyles built-in levitation spell allowing them to fly with wings that are far too small for their dense bodies. She can smell the magic on Deimos. 

After discussing things, she agrees that if the group can do something about the ill magic, the harpies could return to their home and leave the human settlements alone. She is willing to send one of her sisters with the group north. And as it is the same direction as Stubboon's Final Stand, it works out well for them (amazing coincidence, right? 😁)

Being late, the group decides to wait until the morning. The first watch is quiet, but in the 2nd watch, the howling of wolves causes Dawn, who was on shift, to waken the others. 4 wolves attack the group, 2 of them heading towards Hexis, one to Marrianne and another to...dang. I did not write it down or take a picture! 

Dawn shoots an arrow and wounds one wolf, Marianne had moved out too far to be able to shoot her crossbow, Sister Ishbarra was making casting motions with her hands, Voilet was moving to the group and grabbed a burning branch from the fire. Dawn shoots again, as the wolves had charged and none had quite gotten to anyone other than our healing cleric. Whose magic failed her. Dawn shoots and kills one of the wolves attacking Hexis, and Hexis easily kills the other with a single blow. Marianne gets a shot off and kills the wolf attacking her. But Sister Ishbarra gets attacked and takes damage! Voilet throws the branch (and even gets double damage!) and while she hits the wolf, unfortunately the thick fur prevented the wolf from taking damage (and in hindsight, it would have taken 1 point of damage as there is a minimum damage of 1 if I recall). Sister Ishabarra now has her shield and hammer up as the wolf attacks again, causing more damage. But Hexis has pivoted and kills the wolf with a single strike again. The player was happy - like me he tends to roll badly but this time he did well! Deimos attempted to throw Noodles (her staff to snake) at the wolf, but failed and Noodles ends up 6 hexes behind Deimos, and never gets into the game until all the wolves are dead. Throwing spells...

The wolf is dead, Sister Ishbarra is now at half-strength. And she is the only one with any healing capabilities, but I've ruled in my house rules she can only do this for others. And of course no one has any health potions. They also notice that the wolf has some green crystals growing out of it, which may explain why the wolves attacked. Normally, outnumbered as they were, wolves will not attack groups. Screea comes out, and says yes, this is the green corruption that they are running from. Sniffing at Sister Ishbarra, she does not think she is infected. While they clean her wounds, they cannot heal her. 

And that is where we left the game. I gave out 150 XP for the afternoon play. I think people enjoyed the game, and I've made the stakes a bit bigger now. 

Behind the curtain

I am bringing in parts of a supplement (the green crystal growth and the corrupt ley lines). Going to have to re-read that and probably bring in more of it if I can make it work organically. And interestingly this is around where I put the Woodfall town, at the edge of the Terror Lands, so eventually they may find that on their journey to find the Orc's Fist. Which they may have forgotten about...

And I'll have to figure a way to get them some healing potions - I do have a travelling goblin merchant that shows up at opportune moments. Funnily enough the mini I based that character on is the one we are using for the goblin in the game.

And the corruption and rise of the cult are linked together: that corruptions has weakened the barriers between this world and the demon planes where Indhyna is from. Fix one and it may fix the other. Though I do need to re-read what I wrote, and make sure it all can fit together like I thought in the middle of running the game.

And I need to get Marianne's background and character set up. She showed up as I had just painted her, and the damage she was doing was 2d6, so I went with a light crossbow. As she was using it every round, she has at least DX of 14. But I have no idea what race she even is - she is a 5' rabbit!

Marianne

Cowboys & Dinos II: Session 4

It was mostly single encounter that took a bit longer than expected. Still wish we could play this face to face - I'd buy a bucket of those cheap dinosaurs and probably use Lego minifigs :)

 Anyway: the evening goes well, and other than the noises of scavengers working on the downed T-Tex almost a mile behind them, nothing happened overnight. It was a cold, cloudy night. Hambone salted some of the T-Rex meat, and they had roasted T-Rex steaks for dinner once it was dark enough so that the smoke would not be visible.

Before the break of dawn, leaving their dinos (and Smitty's mule) back at the campsite, they attempt to sneak up on the cabin in the dark. Only Lee, the martial artist, managed this, with two characters rolling 20s (which is a critical fail. I've been a little haphazard with rolls but will explain my logic at the end of the post). I indicated that this as far enough away from the cabin that they are being sneaky enough at this distance. I need to handle fail forward a bit better, but I punted.

The cabin has a light on, and the smell of bacon is wafting through the air. I let them roll again as now they are in sight of the small cabin and can see the outhouse behind it (which while I marked on the map, neglected to let anyone know what that box was). The roll was nearly identical, including Molly making a 2nd critical fail if I recall. She managed to walk through a spiderweb, and the spider was crawling across her face. Never a pleasant experience but worse when you can barely see the tree in front of you!

not exactly right but close enough!

Alerted, Clem comes out of the cabin, an oil lantern in hand, looking out into the woods. Lee makes an immediate attack, and so our side gets initiative as the people in the cabin were surprised. Brandishing his staff he knocks poor Clem down, who immediately drops the oil lantern. Which breaks and a small fire gets started underfoot. Hambone is getting closer, and Molly, Archibald and Smitty hang back but are still moving forward. Next round, Clem does not land a punch on Lee, but a rifle has broken through the window right next to the fight. Hambone sidles around the side of the house, inadvertently next to the outhouse. But there is no marshal inside, nor does he blow it up with dynamite. Lee gets shot at 3 times, twice getting hit but only once actually hit has he made his saving roll. He has a martial arts talent that allows him to save against ranged attacks. A critical save (this time a 20...yes, it gets a bit confusing!) means he actually gets a free action to move and attack. But he took a shot to the shoulder giving several points of damage. He also kills Clem, having moved to his "iron fists" which do more damage than his staff. And the fire grows a bit. 

The other window breaks out, and Archibald attempts to pull the rifle from Wanda (the 2nd rifle bearer). He missed his roll, so between the distance, the darkness, and seeing only part of Wanda and the rifle, he could not yank it from her arms. She fires blindly towards Hambone but misses all three times (she was rolling at a disadvantage between the dark and the ruckus in front). Somewhere along here Hambone yells at them to give it up quietly but they did not want to. 

Lee, after killing Clem, leaps through the window and succeeds in knocking down Bart. Hambone is moving around to the back of the cabin as there are no windows on the side he is on. Molly starts moving up to calm the horses, Smitty moves to put out the fire, and Archibald gets a bit closer. Lee and Bart are tussling, and Wanda decides that shooting into a melee combat may not do well for Bart. Hambone breaks into the back window but finds that it is a bedroom, and no visibility to anyone in the cabin. Molly gets a bucket and water from the trough and aids Smitty in putting out the fire. 

Eventually Lee gets Bart knocked out (he was using non-lethal force). Wanda is about to shoot when I think at this point Hambone got into the cabin and has his shotgun on her. The smell of burnt bacon fills the cabin.

They managed to get everyone all tied up, and Hambone is disgusted by the waste of bacon. They get back to their patient dinos and then back to Copper Peak. Along the way they pass a badly wounded triceratops. It was not tee same one as before. Deciding that it was too hurt for them to actually be able to heal it, and not wanting to use all his healing potions, they decide to let nature take its course. Then we remembered Lee was wounded, so rewound to get the first aid in. Archibald was willing to give a potion to heal him, but Lee can channel his chi once a day and do some healing. He was quite insistent on that. Dropping off the two living and one dead person, the collect a reward as they were all wanted. Most of them gave their money to Archibald to help him with his inventions, and they still had plenty from the last time they got bounties.

And that is where we left things.

How I am handling the rolls

Apex has a few rolls, and I seriously doubt I am doing it even remotely correctly. But what I do is that a roll that can be used against an attribute (remembering something, being sneaky) I use a "roll under the appropriate characteristic" so you want to roll low for that. Action checks (leaping through a window, and yes, there is a lot of overlap here!) uses the action roll which is a d6 and generally 4+ succeeds. There are some modifiers from traits or attributes. So there is some confusion on me asking them to sometimes roll low for something on a d20 vs having them roll high on a d6. And of course, fighting is a d20 roll and you need to roll above the armor class defense stat. 

How I am handling the NPCs

Not well. Not great (or even mediocre) at accents, and a bit overwhelmed with running the game to get the NPCs to do more than barely be there. Going to have to re-read those chapters in the several books I have for running games on techniques to improve that. I've got one NPC they will probably meet in a session or two, but poor Smitty is barely an outline of a character. 

And speaking of overwhelmed...

Running games, even with friends I know and trust, still causes me a bit of anxiety. I want to run a good and fun game and feel I really don't succeed well, and then there is this feedback loop from that. *sigh* And I think I am getting worse at social anxiety, which is related, but not sure if it is really something or just me being a hypochondriac. Which is another feedback loop! It is not helping that I had a conversation with my boss, who is fighting to not lose anyone in our department. Which is already running far too lean. And I managed to drown my work Mac laptop - knocked my tea all over it. And I use travel mugs when near computers for that very reason! But it had just been topped off, and I had not closed off the top. So, I have guilty feelings about that. But I did tell him what happened. He does say I have a "brutal honesty". Can't help it...As I told my coworker: the advantage of getting older is that some of the filters do come off. the disadvantage of getting older is that some of the filters do come off.

Yes, sometimes I am a mess! A self-aware mess at least. At least I think - wonder what I am missing about myself?!

Anyway, I'll try & cover the next section of the T5.10 Book 2 soon. Though we may have a Fantasy Trip game this weekend at my house. I do have a few things ready that should take up the afternoon we get to play, as I mentioned in a previous post. Using stuff I have! 

Game Prep: Cowboys and Dinos and The Fantasy Trip

Running two games, for me at least, presents some logistical issues. Fortunately, one game is every other week at the most, and as I am no longer running the weekly Fantasy Trip game for reasons, I just have the 2 games for the moment. 

Cowboys And Dinos

I have something mostly prepared for the next Cowboy game, at least an encounter. But I also recognize I need to expand it a bit, and get some details mixed in there. The diary, the MacGuffin piece, actually has more than just some salacious notes: she has notes on things that could bring down a number of people in Copper Peak. And am I worried about my players reading my game notes: not really as they only read the blogs when I post the game recaps and I point them to that. Could be wrong, and even if I am, they are also good RPG players and can separate what they know vs what their characters know. I also have to see about that week journey north-west to New Harmony: do we want to do a day at a time, run random encounters, or just "a week later you find yourselves at the outskirts of town". I have an entire book, Wondrous Expeditions: Forests (and wonder if they will ever do any more in that series) but as much as my group loves getting game books, they really don't seem to want to use any of the mechanics for things outside the core processes. I have a lot of books as I like books, but if I don't use them and barely read them, I have to wonder at myself a lot. Of course, I say this same thing every few posts as well! Anyways - figure that the cabin in the woods will take most of the next game night, so I need to plan a bit more beyond that. It is a Saturday, and they will investigate either late Saturday night or Sunday in daylight, and then whatever happens, back to Copper Peak probably Sunday. They are wanting to visit the land office to check on Hambone's land, so I need to have some potential dialog and ideas there.

And running a cowboy game is a bit hard for me - I am not personally a fan of westerns. They are okay, but just not something I have a lot of experience with. But one of the players loves the old west and rarely gets to play in those games, and I do like to make people happy.

Character Art Diversion

And the image above brings to mind a discussion we've had playing. I have one player who prefers photos of real people for his characters and NPCs. I prefer art and not real people. Part of it is, I think, is that art allows for more imagination, similar to why I prefer the old-line drawings for RPGs. A real person, an actor or whatever, is a real person and I feel very uncomfortable using a real person in a game. Even if we are just using the image, it is a photo of a real human being and it just feels wrong for me to "use" someone, even if it is harmless and more a reference than the actual person. One of these days I may have to dig into why I don't like using real people as characters and NPCs. Could be some nascent social anxiety I fear I may have (what, a gamer with social issues, say it ain't so!)

The Fantasy Trip

I've laid the seeds for the next few sessions honestly. And fantasy is a lot easier to run for me. I've actually re-read The Adventurers Guide to the Yol'Najj Forest and will be borrowing parts of that. They need to finish questioning the cultist, who now has eyes for our hapless Clyde. Who may have eyes for her even though she was willing to sacrifice him to the demon. Neither of these two are particularly intelligent. But while at the village of Bresselwythe, the village head, a Goblin named Ceteern Gur, has mentioned that not only are young men going missing thanks to the cult as we've found, but also goats seem to be getting stolen by the harpies up the mountains a bit. And how this feeds into the overall arch: some of the harpies are getting odd crystallin growths and they start acting odd. The forest at one time I thought I placed south of Edge City, but as I never used it, it is now below the Wizard's Mount up in the Terror Lands. Bad magics are corrupting things as far south now as Bresselwythe. I need to re-read it a bit more and take some notes as there are a host of NPCs and plots I can use as the group gets closer to Stubboons Last Stand, where they hope to find the Orc's Fist (if they have not forgotten the reason for the current quest already!) And weave that into the various plot lines as well. And how they handle the harpies is open to a lot possibilities. And harpies as for some reason I have a lot of harpy minis and actually have painted them (yes, sometimes I do finish a project!)

Sadly, I moved the software for Campaign Cartographer and some of my older maps no longer load correctly. So I no longer have the ability to update this map. And I really need to take the time and follow some tutorials so I can get better at maps.

Traveller 5.10 Overview

I'll continue that series as well. Hopefully someone may find it somewhat useful. And I am thinking about getting the Mongoose World Builder book. Even though I swore off of Mongoose, it has had some pretty good reactions over on COTI. Do I need it - no. Will I use it - maybe? It is just so expensive: one of my gripes with Mongoose is the sheer cost of their stuff and to me the lack of quality in their physical books. However, that is pretty much what all books cost now, as there is a lot of work that goes into making a book regardless of it being a PDF or actual physical book. Even though I think Mongoose basically copies a lot of existing stuff and then passes it off as their own for Traveller (some of their books are straight-up copies of earlier books so not as much work getting those done). Same with the JTAS which sadly I have also purchased - more than half is just a reprint of the original stuff. And I did back the last set, and I've not even read the previous volumes yet. And do NOT get me started on what they consider Aslan look like. Lipstick? Really? Really?! And to paraphrase a member of COTI: I don't mind changes, but I don't like the Bobby Ewing approach (reference to a season of Dallas they essentially said was all a dream so did not matter). Meaning Mongoose is completely rewriting things and making wholesale changes. Which honestly is okay as you can still get the original stuff, but it really changes a lot of Traveller and not well in my opinion. But I am old, and I am not the target audience. 

Traveller 5.10: Book 2 Part 3

Book 2 Part 1, Part 2

Book 1 is reviewed here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

Of course, the big news is that Marc Miller sold the rights to Traveller to Mongoose Publishing. On the one hand, I am glad that there is a "succession" of sorts laid out so there won't be a lot of confusion when the inevitable happens. On the other hand, while I really like the 1st edition of Mongoose. I'm not really happy with where they are taking it for a few reasons. But in the end, it really does not make a lot of difference to me: I have most of the old stuff, and I am no longer the target audience of the new stuff. And while I do pick and choose some of the new stuff, my rare play is still mostly CT.

And while I am still doing an overview of the T5.10 books here, pretty sure they are a dead end for a number of reasons as well at this point (okay, pretty much since 5.10 came out). I still think there is a game in there somewhere, but the editing, organization and sheer volume make finding that game more complicated than it should be. But, as per my signature over on COTI, I will continue to pick and choose the rules I like. As pretty much all RPGs are homebrew in some sense as groups tend to gravitate to their own interpretation of things. 

And moving on to my continued and somewhat opinionated review of T5.10.

Starship Design and Construction

We start off with a lot of useful definitions of the things we are going to use for our ACS (Adventure Class ships, 100 to 2400 displacement tons) and, harkening back to LBB2, uses "drag and drop" components from tables rather than percentage based as per the as-yet-to-be-written BCS (Battle Class Ships). We have the same components as most editions of Traveller: hull, armor, drives, sensors, weapons, defenses, operations, controls and crew and payload. Yes, we do get a bit more detailed than LBB2. And we also put to rest the whole quandary of building ships of a higher tech level than is available:

The Building World’s base Tech Level constrains the capabilities of the shipyard constructing the ship. Unless otherwise specified, all mechanisms on the ship will be at the base tech level. 

Imported Components

Some components and mechanisms can be imported from neighboring shipyards with the appropriate tech level. Standard mechanisms at TL +1 are available and can be imported at their standard cost plus 10%. Early, Prototype, and Experimental mechanisms are available locally.

In a mapped situation (where the local subsector or sector is mapped), player characters can import any higher tech level mechanisms they find in the course of play. 

Tech Level Limits 

Within the Imperium, the maximum shipyard Tech Level is 15. Within this ship design system, the maximum available Tech Level is 21.

And we have more Fillform things. Which I've yet to really try and test: I think I tried before but got confused (and as I can figure out dependency injection in xunit tests for work, think I just did not try hard enough!). But the overall process consists of the checklist to design the ship, the missions or purpose of this ship, and oddly an "understanding starship missions" is yet another chart. 

Moving along to sections 4 through 6, we choose the hull. Hulls are available in 100 -on increments (apparently you cannot trick the system with a 149-ton ship). This also closes off some loopholes that a lot of people over on COTI exploit, sticking to the letter of the law but not really (in my opinion) paying heed to what the rules are trying to do. But then, I've never been a min-maxer type of player, nor a rules lawyer. However - there are notes on over-tonnage and under-tonnage, so that you may end up with a 343-ton hull. There is a little chart indicating how this affects agility, stability and the impact on power plant fuel suage. Which is pretty high for over-tonnage, so you can see the rules do NOT want you to do this sort of thing. It is also noted that over-tonnage does not allow more hardpoints. Sorry, Gazelle class! Letters designate the hull size, and I assume without checking that these are the same codes from 1977. 

We have our 7 types of letter-based hulls, a bit of variation from LBB2 but not a whole lot. Costs are based on tonnage, configuration and structure. Wait - what is structure? Ahh, a sentence later we discover we now can have organic and charged structures for the hulls. So, our alien living hulls are now canon!

And while poking later in the chapter to find the hull costs, it turns out that the section I am reading through is a summary or preview of the sections later on. I must have missed this all along, and it does make reading through the rules a bit easier to understand. 

Moving on, we cover pods (< 100 tons) and subhulls (>= 100 tons). Which also puts into the rules things that the very verbose Spinward Flow on COTI mostly home rules or has a creative interpretation of the rules. We also describe the various configurations and what charged and organic mean. And we also have even more structures: frame and plate, shell, polymer, FeNi (aka asteroid), organic and charged. And cover the difference between a hardpoint and a firmpoint (which are available for small craft). And we have a lot of room for major customization: any gun < 500kg created in the GunMaker can be added to a firmpoint. 

We have the expanded list of hull fittings that have been detailed in other versions: landing skids, wheels, wings, flotation hulls, that sort of thing. Some more detailed summaries of airframe vs streamlined vs lifting body with notes on how that affects things like flying in an atmosphere of 2+, so they do take into account at least a little the density of the atmosphere. Though oddly enough, years ago I was talking to a helicopter pilot (I was replacing my wife in an adventure race and we had found out she was pregnant, and this was hot August in Atlanta, so I became the 3rd wheel to replace her). Anyway - temperature also affects agility: apparently cold air is easier to maneuver in as it is denser. If I remember that correctly. But that is probably below the resolution of the game. 

Then a quick overview of armor and drives. Armor can be layered, generates AV values against various threats, and may affect agility. Nicely enough, polymer is self-healing. Way back I had the eternity chip in my 200 ton Scout ship... And also, apparently the fission plant is safe to be around in a short-sleeve environment, but the maneuver drive is not (though to be fair, could be in the middle of battle and it is safer to depressurize a ship in that instance).

We cover the various drives and power systems, and whether the systems are centralized or dispersed. And centralized has a backup emergency power for TL minutes so that if you lose your power plant, a TL-12 ship has 12 minutes of emergency power available. Which is a nice touch. Dispersed systems may be self-powered: hello Mr. Fusion! Or at least fusion+ which is the same thing: compact cold fusion modules. We also cover types of power plants - collectors are now defined so we can recreate Annic Nova by the rules. We have 3 types of m-drives which have been covered in various iterations previously. But we also now have more jump drives: the traditional jump drive for 1-6 parsecs (possibly 1-9), the Hop drive starting at TL-17 and can cover 10-90 parsecs, the Skip drive at TL 20 100-900 parsecs, and the NAFAL drive which, see you next century old Not As Fast As Light drive. Think colony arcs or perhaps even the ship from Silent Running, just coasting along. Other than NAFAL, all drives take 168 hours +/- 10%, and also have relative accuracy. Using a hop or skip drive better bring along the next lower jump drives as you could end up parsecs away from where you want to go! And I appreciate that we finally have technologies above TL-15 that really don't break the Traveller universe. 

the Valley Forge from Silent Running

A quick overview of fuel requirements, sensors, weapons, defenses, operations, controls, payload, crew (somehow not rolled into operations), and evaluating the ship and giving a definition to the QSP, or quick ship profile, which is very reminiscent of LBB5's USP, Universal Ship Profile. And is basically what I used for the first part of the Imperium's ship ID that gives the basic info about the ship. 

And before we get into the very detailed explanations and usage of all the stuff we covered in the last dozen+ pages, there is a chart for performance based on letter of the component and the letter of the hull size. There is a stage effects table as well, though IMTU I'll probably do the "you really cannot get this higher-TL ship maintained at this lower TL world" which does put a limit on some things. But not all things as I also have Makers so that the ship can manufacture a lot of the smaller parts, and the computers would have the complete catalog of those parts. Depending on the ship, it may even have the complete guide to repair and maintain the ship in the library. In which case, it may be possible to have a lower TL fix your ship, but the costs go way up!

Then we have 3 ship fillforms that in theory help you design your ship. And they are begging for an automated process to do all that. Hmm, if only I had copious free time!

Page 67 gives a 1-page checklist of everything you need to do, all 27 steps. Then pages 68-93 give 1 or two pages per section to get into the nitty-gritty of that particular ship aspect. There are also a LOT of icons, which while pretty, also seem to be begging for a computer or board game to use all those icons. 

In the end, for me this is a lot like the old LBB5: I may create a lot of ships that make no real sense because I like to do that sort of thing. And the sensors and all that do play into the (to me at least) complicated rules around all that. Most RPG players, at least in my experience, really do not want to get into this level of detail. They want to know if they can see that ship out in the dark and can they shoot it. And while the rules do give that, it takes a lot of reading and calculations to figure all that out. Though I think, as per the personal cards and things. that can all get summarized down fairly easily but it just takes work to get from the rules to a final "roll this many dice and roll below this number to succeed". Which is what all these rules really boil down to. It just takes a lot to boil down to that end result!