New Games

We had our first session of the homebrew game last weekend, and it went well. Of course, I've enjoyed every game this GM puts out. Playing a bruiser as for me, playing a fighter when learning a new system is the easiest approach: you hit things.

Look at me - trying to base things! 

Levi Doe, my character, is not human but I think, based on the game notes, that eventually he will become human as he manages to destroy Chaos. Issue is that his method of destroying chaos is incinerating people who have chaos in them, generally bad guys. And as he is what is basically a fire elemental, there are no issues as he is always hungry to consume more and more. And in the first game, he did indeed consume a lot, killing a lot of soldiers and in the end, along with the other characters, also killed off another demon. Of course, he was a bit overpowered, so his companions also took damage (similar to a berserker not getting out of the berserker state and just hitting anything in sight). And so, we leveled up a bit at the end of the game, and with that I assume got a bit of human soul as well.

But if that is the case, and here is where things get interesting to me at least, Levi may start to have some remorse about the lives he takes, even if they are bad people. And so far, I've been playing him as just wanting to go back to the flaming planes he is from (an as yet undefined fiery plane of existence: whether Hell or Hades, or more the traditional fantasy trope of other planes we've not really talked about. I am going with Hades-adjacent at least as one of the other players is playing a Cerberus type of dog, and Levi has become attached to the good doggy as he can actually pet him. Along with the Kitsune who helped him a bit as well and sometimes rides on his shoulder when he is in fire mode). 

This becomes a more nuanced and character-driven arc if I follow through on that. I do tend to pick characters who end up a bit morose sometimes, though for reasons. The superhero game we played a while back, with the same GM, had a character, Verner Barrick, that had no memory to start with. As the game progressed, he and I developed his backstory along with the game, and it turned out he was really, really old and hiding from himself to prevent opening a gate to Earth that would destroy civilization basically. I've a feeling Levi, who also does not remember much other than flames and wanting to go home without even knowing where home is, may undergo a similar self-realization as he becomes more human. And curious if he will throw off that humanity if he could go back home or embrace something different than what he was. 

At any rate, this is one our face-to-face games, which as we alternate weeks, means it will probably be January before we get to session 2 since December tends to throw a lot of monkey wenches into getting together. Next weekend they are at my house, and we'll continue the Fantasy Trip game. I'll have to post a recap as it has been more than a month since we managed to play (though I do recap the games here, but I need a recap of the recaps as I think they have forgotten the original intent of their current quest). I did dig out my holiday pans so will have to make something holiday themed. I do like to bake for them.

And finally, this was my wife's and my first Thanksgiving I think we've been by ourselves since we've been together. Since we've met more than 30 years ago, we've usually eaten at her mother's house. But her mother was with another of her children, and our son moved to Minnesota, so there was just us. Empty nest syndrome hit us both hard! And I fear Christmas may be similar as I don't think the child will make it home for Christmas. But that is the point of parents: getting their children able to live in the real world. I just don't like it! Though I do like that we have more leftovers...so there is a bright side to everything!

Cowboys and Dinos: Session 9 and Finale

We left session 8 or so at the cliffhanger of meeting up with a giant millipede. Or centipede - I did not count the number of legs per segment. The Gatling gun had been overturned and Sargeant Thomas was trying to shoot from his dying horse, who had been mortally wounded from the beast before our group got there.

The fight lasted a few rounds with most of the damage getting ignored: the creature had a high defensive value from almost 6" of chitin armor. Few shots made it, even though most of the characters had a rate of fire of at least 3. Even the soldiers had a high miss rate, and rarely did damage. 

Molly was flying overhead to keep an eye on things. Her attempt to drop a blanket over the creature's head, while a good idea, did not work out despite using a grit point to re-roll. Of course, Lee was attacking at point blank range, and then at one point leaps on the monster, jamming his short sword in-between some armor plates. He actually managed to do more damage than the guns. Hambone gets Puddin' to club the beast with her tail and even that did not do a lot of damage due to a bad damage roll. Fortunately, as a dino-rider, when the monster turned to attack, they managed to avoid the hit as there are some good advantages to fighting on your dino if you are a dino-rider class. Molly managed to drop a rope and help get the Army Sargeant back to his group as they were trying to right the gatling gun. Archibald, after few shots and not doing a lot of damage, and hearing that the soldiers had the gun righted and wanted to shoot but Hambone and Lee were in the way. Hambone wanted to shove a lit stick of dynamite into the beast's orifice, but despite 2 rolls kept having horrible rolls. Memories of the T-Rex going splat were not revisited with the monster. Finally the creature, realizing it is heavily damaged, takes off back into the Badlands, Lee still riding it like a bucking bronco. Archibald lifts Lee off before he gets too far, but Lee cannot maintain his grip on the sword as the monster runs off. Molly had made a graceful landing into the back of the runaway wagon and in a couple turns managed to get them under control and heading back to the group. Meanwhile, Mannix, who only has a pistol and you don't bring a pistol to a monster fight, caught back up with Molly and took over the wagon.

The group stays at For Talon overnight, then heads out. Just as in the fight, I keep forgetting my NPC and Mannix was not with them. They had a map to the location of the machine that dug the hole as the Army, while not inspecting it, did find it and part of their job is to track things in the Badlands. 

Drilling Machine, which is what Archibald was looking for

Fort Talon (actually a real fort in MN)

They only find a large hole sloping into the ground where the machine was. Large enough to allow their dinos to go with them, they have to decide what to do. Seeing the purple ichor from the millipede, Hambone tosses a couple sticks of dynamite down the tunnel. Nothing comes out or makes noise, and noticing that after the dust settles, there is warm, moist air blowing out of the hole.

They trek down, and 4 or more hours later they see a light at the end of the tunnel. Getting to the opening, they see a vast jungle in front of them. Off in the distance, amidst a thinning fog. an island seems to be floating down from above and landing in the middle of the jungle. Below them, the large cylindrical tunnel machine was sitting at the edge of the jungle, down the slope. 

And thus we finished this arc of the story. Which is in the same place and time now as where we finished off the vigilante game that I was playing in before this. We are in the Hollow Earth, and there are a lot of potential things that can happen. I may even bring back Jungle Girl - there was an entrance in our first Apex game but no one went there even though it was on the map. They were busy being chased by Nazis so really did not have the time to look. And the 2nd game of Apex, the first round of Cowboys & Dinos, I made the door too small for the dinos. Thinking it would be hard to play with them but not realizing that they were why we were playing that game to begin with!

This is also part of my "all my game worlds are connected" thing. Even though I was not running the vigilante game, I had a character in there. What is in the Hollow Earth? Anything and everything. As I had just finished reading Journey to the Center of the Earth for a pulpy feel for a game, I decided to stick it in there. There are empires there, maybe even SF ones and I can use some of my 0-Hr deck plans. Anyway, it is wide open for the other game masters in my group as well if they want to play there.

Cowboys & Dinos: Session 7 & 8: At the Farm

I have a few miscounts in the session counts in the posts! But we finally got back to a real session, and probably next to last depending on how the next session goes. I did leave this game at a cliff-hanger (well, to be honest I thought we'd get there before we did, so now it is a cliff-hanger).

A missed recap I present here from the post I put into the Discord channel where we played:

the sheriff and you all head to Hambone's farm, Vogol I believe was left behind. Seeing smoke from up the hill on the far side (eastern side of the land as New Dawn is about 2+ miles to the west of the 40 acre farm). You split up a bit, leaving the dinos at the edge of the property. Molly, not known for her stealth (again she had 2 horrible rolls, just like the last time she was sneaking about!) manages to break a few loud branchs and then there are gunshots from the small lean-to with the fire in front. Mason (yes, it is the villain) shoots and misses as Lee starts to move closer. the sheriff, Hambone and Archibald are a bit behind Lee, and Archibald swallows an iron-hide potion. They keep getting closer and Molly has moved around the other side, shooting her gun to hopefully distract the outlaw. Hambone finally makes a shot that hits and Lee barely gets missed a couple more times before the final rush and gets a critical blow to knock Mason out. They drag him out, and the sheriff Holt, Molly and Lee head back to town while (I think) Hambone & Archibald survey his property. there are a plethora of apple trees that will need some maintenance if he wants to make an orchard, and the artesion well has some of the best water they have ever drank - cold and clear. And pretty sure that is where we left the game.

In the next session (several weeks later due the hurricanes and things), we started where we left off. Archibald and Hambone settle down for the night, a toasty fire outside of Archibald's pop-up house. They hear what sounds like a tree crashing, then another. Rushing out, guns in hand, they find that Puddin' and Archimedes both had eaten far too many fermented apples. As it is late fall, the apples have fallen, and they can ferment I believe. And both players rolled a 1 on the action die, and I decided that both their dinos are now falling down drunk. And took out a few of the trees as an ankylosaurus and a triceratops are pretty big dinos. And we found that dinos do snore and do sleep lying down. 

Back in town, Morgan, Edna's son, met Sheriff Holt, Molly and Lee carrying in Mason Fuentes. He was clamoring about Bobby & Mary seeing a living scarecrow on the outside of town. While the sheriff took note, and Lee was all about going to find this living scarecrow, Holt decided that the tales of children ranked lower than him getting his dinner. There will also be a delay for the $500 reward of at least 2-3 weeks as the sheriff does not have that much cash on hand. He will send a message down to Aurora to get the reward money from the state. Or territory, whatever this place happens to be at this time. 

Over at Edna's, our group sees Mannix and a military man eating and talking. Morgan, when getting their food, says that is Sergeant Thomas, the Army man who gave him that big black claw. Molly & Lee see the sergeant rise, shake hands, and Thomas says he will see Mannix at 7am sharp over at Colt's barn. Apparently, a squad came to town to visit the blacksmith to see about some repairs on a gatling gun they use at the fort. Mannix takes his hat, and with a tip of the top hat to Molly, leaves the restaurant. 

Lee, deciding with Molly's firm help, goes to knock on Mannix' door after they finish their dinner. The dapper gentleman from the south welcomes them in, and they try again for a seance. My first roll was a total failure for Mannix, as the spirits were not willing. Mannix, noticing Molly's expression, tried again and could read her mind that she that he was a flim-flam man. "Ahh, " said Mannix, "there are doubters out here interfering with the spirits. Perhaps we can try again." Next roll I also failed, and then right before they decide to give up, I have a really good roll and get Mannix to describe Lee's wife and 3 children. He then said that they were in a good place and going on a voyage to the next life, and that they did not blame Lee for their deaths. I had 1 last good roll, and Mannix managed to tell Lee in his head that there was nothing to forgive, and they were happy. And yes, Mannix is a flim-flam man, but one with of heart of gold. His full write-up is here if you want to read about him. And yes - there was something ethereal calling him from the badlands, just as the tunnel machine called to Archimedes. 

Next day, Molly & Lee head back to Hambone's while our erstwhile campers managed to get their hung-over dinos loaded and ready to go. They met about half-way, perhaps a mile outside of town. Hambone noticed a glint in the woods, and they head off to investigate. After a bit of hunting and searchingm they find that the preacher from Harmony had managed to find them. He had been tracking them, a gaunt scarecrow of a man with a cross burned on his chest. Clutching a singed bible and burnt cross, he curses at the "heathens" and then gets headbutted by Lee's pachysaurus. Which knocked him out and almost killed him. Which Lee then did a few minutes later after some discussion. Then further chopped him up to make it easier for the scavengers to eat. Lee is a pretty violent law man. 

While deciding what to do next, this almost was a place to stop the game: Hambone was ready to settle down, Lee was willing to help and be a part-time deputy, and Molly has a business back in Aurora. But I did a little railroading and "Archibald pulled out his newspaper clipping" but then the players took it from there. They decided to help him find this machine (and no Hambone, it is not a tipped over silo) and head back to town.

They tell the sheriff what they did so there would be no surprises. While Sheriff Holt was not happy about the frontier justice, and will not countenance that in the future, he understood why they did it. Getting some more dynamite (you never know when you may need to blow up a T-Rex) they head out towards the fort. 

A few hours later, flying ahead Molly hears several rounds of gunshots - the gatling gun was being fired. She circles back to the group with a red bandana, and ready for anything, the group moves forward to find the wagon with the soldiers and Mannix being attacked by what appears to be a giant millipede! And that is where we left the game.

Cliffhanger!

Levi, Fire Elemental

 My face to face every-other-Saturday gam is going to start a new game when at the other house (we alternate houses and when here we are running a Fantasy Trip game). It is a home brewed game that takes place in Solomia, 1990s. The basic premise:

You are all created beings, coming to an awakened state by events around the world. Summoned, awakened or even constructed by a cult called the Sons of Prometheus, you are all believed to be a tool to achieve peace in the world and Somalia is anything but that. You will awake and you will realize what you are but not know where you came from and why you are here. Your Awakening is a violent, chaotic process and you realize quickly that you have come into being earlier than you should have. Death and blood surround you and yet there is a serenity that builds as you find yourself in a darkened place, cold stone around you and odd looking folk removing you from a stone casket or other form of tomb. You have questions to answer...

This GM really likes to start player characters without a lot of knowledge as to who they are sometimes. I've had some memorable characters that evolved over the game play (and some that just never succeeded many rolls, but they were also memorable!) We were going to start today but alas, the GM was unwell. The last few weeks have been chaotic for getting together, and with the looming holiday season, it won't get a whole lot better any time soon!

My concept for this game, pending GM approval (as in re-reading that above, my stone casket is miles away and was melted in my chaotic birth). I am aiming for the 70s Incredible Hulk vibe in some ways, as you wouldn't like Levi when he gets angry. But Levi is also afraid of that side of himself though as time goes on, hoping he will figure out that he is the Elemental. Not doing the Avengers "I am always angry" schtick. Which was fun, but I am a child of the 70s (technically the 60s. Yes, I am old! Though no longer the oldest in my Monday night game group! Happy birthday Jim!)

Levi Doe

Summoned from the burning planes that some call Hell, Levi came as a burning flame that destroyed the Sons of Prometheus cult in the border town of Doolow. He was pulled to existence to destroy their enemies but instead destroyed that cell. After the raging fires of his birth destroyed the entire neighborhood, Levi staggered out, a dazed and naked man. Thinking he was a survivor of the terrible flames, he was taken to the hospital. Not knowing who he was, or where he came from, the staff named him Levi Doe. In a daze in the middle of the night, amnesiac and gaunt, he wandered out of the hospital. The ensuing weeks were more a blur than anything else and Levi eventually found himself on the coast, in the capital of Mogadishu, dressed in ragged jeans and a frayed vest. With vague dreams or nightmares of burning soldiers in the desert haunting his waking hours.


Keyword: Unleash: add 2 dice to the pool when activating your power
Form: 4 / 1
Psyche: 3 / 1
Will Power 2 / 1


When human, he is a normal human. But when he gets upset enough, his elemental form comes out. While his elemental form remembers all his other memories as a human. But none from the time before he was unleashed and even those early memories are smokey and it was not until he got to Mogadishu that his Elemental memories were finally coherent. When he reverts back to normal, he only has vague memories of what happened. But the memories are starting to come together, and he recognizes the beast within as who is though he has no idea how he came to be. Other than a small tattoo on the back of his left hand of flames.

not sure what the human form will be

and while I do not have fire-themed dice, I do have some oversized gelatinous cube dice that could be from Levi's home plane of existence!

Traveler 5.10: Book 2 Starships Part 4

 Book 2 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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

A month without internet   

It took over 4 weeks before my internet was restored. And made me realize just how much I depend on so much out of my control. And also, just how lucky I am as that was my only issue a month past the hurricane Helene. I did work from my mother-in-law's house, and she appreciated having someone in the house with her. But it is nice to be back in my own little space I've been in for more than 20 years!

Starship Construction

The next chapter covers all the parts from the checklist. And unlike classic book 2, there are a lot more steps. 27 to be exact! Well, technically 26 as the 1st step is the checklist itself.

Step 2: Starship Missions

Similar to the old one and two letter codes, the mission is determined first. And may even rarely have a 3-letter code. They left the classic codes in for the most part from what I can see, so that old classic ships should share the same codes: C for cruiser, S for courier or messenger. There is a broader, more thoughtful organization for the codes: Service => Activity => Type => Qualifier => Mission => Modifier. Services are Naval, Commerce, Government/NGO/Private and Unclassified. Activity may further break that down for some services, and the type breaks it down even more. Very much a classification system. For example, we can have a Naval Service with Combat Activity of a Defensive type. The Qualifier and Mission seem to be a single line for the letter code, so that a Qualifier of Minor can only have an Escort as the mission (code E), a principal can only be a monitor (type N). Step 2 is the table.

Step 3: Starship Missions

Step 3 is the refinement and a more textual description of the missions. It also includes descriptions of modifiers, such as Intruder probes enemy territory, Patrol operates within a defined region but without scheduled routes. For Spinward Flow over on COTI, there is a Modular indicating it uses modules. He has some mostly house rules that I don't always agree with, but it is his universe to play in.

Step 4: Hull and Costs

Like classic book 2, we have a table that has a size in tons down one side, and configuration codes across the top. This allows us the basic price for the hull based on how it is configured. It also gives the number of squares the deck plan will have, which is really not needed as you simply have to multiply the tonnage displacement by 2. But these books really love their tables! 

We also have pods and barges now available, so we can add external modules to our ships. They are "detachable ship components". Based on rules versus house rules. Though in the end, probably the same thing. 

Step 5: Configurations

We have a few more configurations than before but not anything really new. We have more details on how each configuration is affected by atmosphere, whether they can land or now, maximum acceleration and stability.

T5 Starship Configurations

Step 6: Starship Hull Fittings

Now that we know what the ship is going to be used for, and just how big it is, time for some details. What is the hull made of - plate, shell, polymer, nickel-iron asteroid, organic or charged? And what kind of fittings: floatation hull, fins, wings, lifters, etc. Some are only compatible with certain configurations. And we have a few types of landing gear: skids, legs with pads, wheels. A bunch of little details to make your starship architect happy.

Step 7: Starship Jump Fields

Previous versions of Traveller started expanding just how the jump field works. Traveller 5 consolidates and adds to that. I always thought it as a jump bubble based on a lot of the early adventures and notes, then JTAS has that classic Marc Miller article for just how jump works, and I think that is where we suddenly had choices. The jump bubble is the standard application and produces the jump flash (which does not exist in MTU!). But we also have a jump grid, with wires and conduits. This produces a more refined jump so that you can jump closer to a gravity source. Countering this it reduces the armor value and creates a larger jump flash. I would have made it a smaller jump flash myself as it more closely confirms to the ship itself. But if damaged, you need to use jump pates to temporarily patch the holes. Which are also a valid jump mechanism and apparently how we figured it all out: "The original system for creating a jump field consisted of Bolt-On Jump Plates (one plate per 1 tons of hull)". So we gain a bit of a history lesson as well!

And we have formulas for safe jump distance, which now also take into account your engineer's skill:

D = S/E -K

• D = diameters from gravity source
• S = Jump Field Strength (see chart 07F)
• E = Drive Efficiency (see chart 10X)
• K = Engineer Skill and Jump Drive Knowledge

There is also another formula to avoid initiation interference. Very similar the formula above, and if you roll < 1 no interference. If you feel lucky, you can roll flux but if you roll it you have to use it. 

The charts reference the section and table, so 07F is actually just above the formula, and 10X is in section 10. Though page numbers would be nice, this does allow for revisions without have to adjust page numbers. Though I would think professional layout software would handle all that for you. Jump Field Strength is 100 for bubble, 80 for grid and 140 for plates. And looking at table 10X we have percentages, which the text converts 100% to 1, so that a standard jump drive safe jump, with an engineer with a Engineer Kill of 3 and Jump Drive knowledge is 100 / 1 - 4, or 96 diameters out. Not that 4 diameters out will take much more time to get there, but it does give a bit of additional player impact to the universe. Each ship would have the base calculation, but then you can adjust it based on your engineers, which I think is a nice thing. 

To Be Continued...

Yes, only covered less than a third of this process. And one of these days I will have to see about creating a ship in T5. May redo my old college 200-ton scout ship which was basically the classic type S but scaled up so that you could have 3 decks. The top back deck was a small library with a view port. Even then I really liked libraries. Still was almost a librarian!

1 Month Later

This is the first time I've been in a natural disaster. It was an experience that really impacted me in a few ways. I was really, really lucky, and as I say, my whole life I've been pretty lucky. But it was an odd experience to flush the toilets with buckets of water, cook on my back deck on a camping grill, and go to sleep when it got dark (okay, that last one is actually pretty normal for me! But to be fair I also get up a bit after 4am so that I can get to the gym before work!) It will be years before this area recovers - the road to the old gym (I am now a member of 2 gyms for reasons) goes by the river and there are houses and trucks still piled up against the few remaining telephone poles. It is very post-apocalyptic in how it feels. We drove through Erwin, TN and the river there has carved a whole new cliff face, and dozens of houses that used to be beside the river are entirely gone. 

So, just like my experience as a technical support person for a year gave me a lot more respect for those who answer the phone when you have a problem, I think I'll have a much better appreciation of what survivors go through.

And less than 2 months until Christmas! Wow!