Fantasy Trip - Lamia's Labyrinth Session 1

So after more than 18 months, finally got back together with my Fantasy Trip group (okay, it is a dad & his two boys). We are all vaccinated, which is important to him as three in his family have pretty bad asthma, and get sick all to easily as it is. And important to me as my wife is immuno-compromised from barely surviving cancer a few years back. But they showed up at my house (after a frantic house cleaning!) and we got to play for about three hours. And we only made it to the 3rd room...

So, playing with live people who don't know what is going to happen is a lot more fun than a solo play test. The Lamia shows up towards the morning, and the person on guard is our very paranoid werewolf scholar (he is paranoid as the player had a previously killed in battle character, so is a bit more cautious now) The Lamia asks for help and at first he refuses, but does wake up his companions. But when "missing children" were heard, Nova stepped in and made the decision. Nova is now an NPC/2nd character played by a player, as the original player had a hard time with the game (she is about 11, and keeping a game exciting for teenage boys and a pre-teen girl was a juggling act I could not maintain. Though we did have a good dragraff that we rescued).

Anyway, they get to the hole in the sand, and the Runt Gubler, our Goblin Mage, was oddly the first one down there. The others showed up and they search the room. A golden cockatrice statue to Crut's attention, and a successful search for traps showed him the trap, but a failed disarm got Agaric, our werewolf scholar, hit with a poison dart! Fortunately Nova is a master physicker so the damage was immediately bandaged up and healed. Then there was a lot of discussion as to what to do, too much discussion so that a wandering yellow slime dropped in on them. The Runt made his dodge roll, and as slimes are not fast, they went on to the next room.

The next room had the giant spider. Crut, with his blur ring and enhanced armor, first backed away while Nova attacked and Agaric turned into a werewolf. In the Fantasy Trip, the werewolves double their strength but decrease their dexterity and intelligence. And you need to roll under your intelligence to turn back from a werewolf! However, in the previous adventures, he had gotten the werewolf ring that allows him to keep his admittedly high intelligence. It is that -3DX to hit that causes problems!

Meanwhile, the Goblin mage, realizing that their only exit was now blocked by that yellow slime, manages to blow him up with a lightening blast from his staff. Oddly, there was a smell of fresh cinnamon after this occult attack. The werewolf claws at the giant spider and misses, as does Nova. The spider managed to bite Nova, but with her armor and a successful parry, no damage, so no roll against strength for poison! Crut decides to attack, and somehow, with his enchanted blade, rolls an 18. So that he not only drops this wonderful enchanted blade, but it breaks! Normal daggers do not do a lot of damage...he still retains his enchanted leather armor but without that blade he is no longer quite as formidable. The battle with the spider lasts a fair amount of time: the Runt has limited power left, so remains watching as the three finally kill off the giant spider. After eating an eyeball, the Runt is ready to move on. Nova collects some spider venom and blood, and they enter that long corridor.

Crut takes the lead, checking for traps. Alas, he actually missed the first one but makes his save roll, doing a graceful flip over the now revealed spiked pit. Using his labyrinth kit, they use a rope and the other safely cross. The next trap he finds, and they manage to walk safely around that.

They enter the large circular room, and the Goblin mage grabs the book before the thief can stop him. Several traps suddenly re-engage, including a bladed pendulum that manages to cut into Nova and Agaric. And the room starts to flood as the main door closes. They all scatter to the 3 different rooms with the water coming up fast. The mage tries to run back & put the book back, but that has no effect. And being of a small stature, the water is soon above his head! Unfortunately, he does not know how to swim. Fortunately, he has the clean air spell, so manages to walk to the room under water. 

By now the water is close to head level for everyone, and after some pointed hints, they finally shut the doors, and the water no longer flows into their 20x20 foot rooms. Another couple of turns and the water recedes. And they start poking around the rooms they are in. Crut heard the voices in the room he was in via small ducts in the walls; Nova and the Runt found the wolf summoning crystal and the zombie key, having to fight the skeleton. Agaric got Crut to his small chamber, then went to check up on Nova and the Goblin mage, but hearing stone sliding on stone as Crut started poking into the three tombs.

The fight against the skeleton was successful, and though Nova got cut her master physicker skills healed her right up. Getting back to Crut, they started poking into the 3 raised stone coffins. Crut, despite the mage's warnings, used a knife to pry the green jewel from the staff of the mage's coffin. It did two points of damage that was easily absorbed by his leathers, and he now has that gem. They also picked up the dragon egg, and our scholarly werewolf knew that it was a dragon egg. To hatch it would require a dragon's fiery breath or the magical equivalent, something they could not do. But they also realized it could be worth some real gold. Noa took the egg at that point, her being a vet and animal lover. Not sure where they will go with the egg yet. Crut also pulled off the 4 rings from the final corpse. One is a ring of detect life, and will glow when there is life, other than the bearer, is around. Not sure how to exactly handle that when they are part of a group and so yes, there is life nearby!

And that is where we left them. No lasting wounds after healing, but the mage is out of spare power and the thief lost his prized enchanted dagger. Hopefully we'll be able to continue next week. Though the temple is a bit more dangerous than I thought, especially as they are basically 1st level characters. I'm going to have to generate their guide and probably have her join the group. For a cut of the 50 gold the Lamia offered for her charges' rescue.

Apex Session 5 Preparation

We last left our adventurers safely landed just inside the badlands, heading to the tower as a hopefully safer place to sleep. Poking around, I did find an image of a tower in a ravine. There was another image I also liked, but the ravine version had some interesting ideas that jumped out at me. And additionally this is apparently an adventure or something published as I also found maps. And you know me and maps!

I really liked the style and almost picked this one

But this one was at the edge of a ravine, where the river flows far below. Not sure how that actually works our geographically, but they did barely make it over the mountains guarding the badlands.

There is also that long bridge they have to cross which, after hundreds of years, may not be in the best shape. And I've spent a fair amount of time just browsing images - its amazing what can spark your imagination. 

I'm going to introduce a few more pulpy things: they have not gone back over that coin in Tong's pocket, so there will be a book, written in ancient Hebrew, about those Pentacles from King Solomon. And at that point they will have the coins. I've also decided on some of the game mechanics. For Tong, all attacks against him are at a disadvantage as he has the Sixth Pentacle of Mars. Below is the list of the coins, with a spare so not sure what to do about that. These coins are from a Kickstarter that used this archive.org for the text. I will also use the usage die, though these will all start with a d12, so should last a while. Recharging could be as simple as getting it back to a crystal power shard, or actually drawing out the appropriate pentacle and performing the correct incantations. Which are in this book. In ancient Hebrew, which I am not sure any of the characters know. But hey, there can be NPCs for hire or something. Or I may look to see if one of those coins can give knowledge and allow that for a cheat such as the 4th Pentacle of the Moon.

Fifth pentacle of Mercury: commands the Spirits of Mercury, and serveth to open doors in whatever way they may be closed, and noting it may encounter can resist. This may be used once a day. Not only mundane doors (similar the the Fantasy Trip's Lock/knock spell) but also those doors between the worlds. That are scattered on Apex Island.

Second Pentacle of Mars: this pentacle serveth with great success against all kinds of diseases, if it be applied unto the afflicted part. May be used up to 5 times a day and will cure all diseases. Also works for toxins and poisons.

Sixth Pentacle of Mars: it hath so great a value that being armed thereith, if thou art attacked by any one, thou shalt neither be injured nor wounded when thou fightest with him, and his own weapons shall turn against him. This gives all attacks against the bearer a disadvantage.

Seventh Pentacle of Saturn This pentacle is fit for exciting earthquakes, seeing the power of each order of Angels herein invoked is sufficient to make the whole universe tremble. Usable once per day, allows for tremors - make saving rolls against falling down for everyone within 100 yards except for the caster. Not recommended underground.

Fifth pentacle of Saturn This pentacle defendeth those who invoke the Spirits of Saturn during the night and chaseth away the Spirits which guard treasures. Used against guardian spirits, such as the skeletons guarding the crystal weapons. Guardians will not attack the bearer of the coin, but neither will they just let them take what they are guarding.

Fourth pentacle of the Moon This defendeth thee from all evil sorceries, and from all injury unto soul or body. Its Angel, Sophiel, giveth the knowledge of the virtue of all herbs and stones and unto whomsoever shall name him, he will procure the knowledge of all. Allows for advantage on all lore rolls.

I've got a broad outline of the tower and the rooms based on the maps, and rolls per room. And the lowest level in the adventure was for buzzard riding knights it looked liked based on the images and the map. But instead of buzzards, the Apex knights rode pteranodons. Which:

Pteranodon is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with wingspans over 7 meters (23 feet). They lived during the late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present-day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota. More fossilspecimens of Pteranodon have been found than any other pterosaur, with about 1,200 specimens known to science, many of them well preserved with nearly complete skulls and articulated skeletons.

I still need to come up with the maps to the doors. That chasm they have to cross will have the doors to otherworlds. But I also need to track where the Nazis are behind them. They probably need to catch up and have the big fight at the temple. And I am leaning more into that UFO like ship from Iron Sky. Powered by the crystals: in the book they give a few options for the ancient cities, one being the remains of a technologically advanced alien race. I've yet to decide, and perhaps will let the story play out in a quantum approach: we won't know until it is observed! I'll let the character conversations come up with possibilities, and benignly nod (well, I would if we were at a table, or if we used video chat. But with just voice chat, a few well placed "hmm-hmmmms" will have to suffice).

And hey, today my Fantasy Trip group is coming over - we are all vaccinated so finally get back to a face to face game! So I should have a game recap for that later as well. Finally get to the Lamia's Labyrinth with real people!

Apex Session 4: To the Tower

Session 3 started a bit early as I was not in a meeting or anything, so when the siren call of Skype gaming came, I managed to answer.

We last left our group camping at the edge of the river, sleeping in the boat. The first shift noticed nothing other than the normal jungle sounds. The second shift had a trio of brontosaurus come to the river to get water. Dr. Tong, with his camera, managed to get a good picture of the great beasts. However, the flash terrified them into spitting a mouth of water on Dr. Tong, ruining the flash bulb and almost ruining the camera. They then made breakfast, collected more wood for the boiler (and there was plenty of wood from the stampeding brontos!). The wood collectors all failed perception checks, so were unaware of being watched. One of the things in the background that may or may not come to fruition. 

Puttering up the river was mostly uneventful until they got to the 3 falls below Fort Shone.

I added the boat and the fort outlines to my map, and generated some rules based on the Apex mechanics. See my previous post for those rules. Running the river, they made the first falls just fine in terms of making their rolls. Except for Dr. Tong, who managed to slip and then fail his saving roll. And fail again using his grit point to re-roll. Dunked in the river, Ace hands the tiller to Ilsa, grabs a rope, and jumps in after our floundering academic. He manages to rescue him, and they both return to the boat, wet but otherwise unharmed. Tong basically ties himself down and is not watching the next falls, and it takes two attempts to get past. With very successful rolls, the Apex Queen takes no damage as Archie keeps the boiler in good shape and Ace pilots the boat upriver. Seeing that they are being watched, Ilsa stands and gives the German salute to two soldiers watching the Queen putter up river. The final rapid also goes well, but the Germans at Fort Shone are gesturing for the crew to pull over. Ignoring this, they pour on the steam. Fortunately, I rolled quite horribly for the two rounds they were in range, and no bullets came near the boat. In hindsight, I forgot that the generic Nazi soldiers get a +5 with rifles. Still, only 2 of the 6 shots even with that bonus would have hit, and they would have hit the boat. I need to remember the bonuses for hitting things!

Not too far up the river on Tong's map is the whirlpool and the "giant creatures". As they get closer, they can see the water moving in strange directions on the port, and what looks like giant webs hanging over the river off the starboard bow. 

Choosing wild water over possibly giant spiders, they veer closer to the left and manage to get caught up in the whirlpool through a series of not particularly good rolls. Which worked out to my plot advantage for a few reasons - one does not simply sail to the tower. Though they were coming close!

I found a quick whirlpool map, and through 4 turns they managed to take some damage to the prop. Archie finally got to use his powered boots: he made a heroic leap 30 feet with an anchor to get the boat stabilized against the current, then leapt back in. Unfortunately, using the usage die, he rolled a 1 moving him to a d6 I think. The usage mechanic is interesting and I believe I mentioned it before: an abstract way of tracking ammo or usage. His boots started with a d8, and every time he jumps, roll that. If he gets a one, and he did, go to the next die down. So he is getting some wear and tear on his jumping boots. I again used a variation on the chase mechanics, boat versus whirlpool.

Getting the boat to shore, then managing to use ropes and a counter pulley, they see that the prop is missing a blade, one is horribly mangled, and the other somehow pristine. Getting late, they set up camp again for the evening. Our first watch again hears nothing other than the sounds of the water and jungle. Archie wakes up to find a feral child, or rather a young woman, hanging upside down from a tree & watching him. I found this picture and just wanted to bring this character in...I still need to generate her characteristics as she will possibly be seen again. After all, they do have to get back! And she may be following that ornithopter she led the group to, which proved useful to getting to the tower. Dr. Tong tried to learn her language, comprised of ungawa alone (hey, I did say I wanted some Tarzan vocabulary in the game!). Despite rolling really well, and having an advantage due to his academic status, the short amount of time spent with Jungle Girl proved to test his mettle in learning a new language. Part of this is the background: she is a true feral child and has no real concept of language. Her vocalizations may not be a language at all. If she spends more time with the group, Tong will surely be able to teach her a bit. She also has a pair of dinos, and Tong almost lost a hand in trying to feed them. If she shows up again, Tong can keep trying to learn her language or teach her one of his. 

The ornithopter had a Mercedes engine in it: Archie's background included some notes about how those engines started him on his journey. He managed to get it running, and as Ace gave Jungle Girl a knife and Tong some food, they managed to fly as far as the tower before the limited fuel ran out. Ace made a perfect landing, rolling a 6 on the action roll on a d6. 

They backtracked a bit to the tower they had just passed, and could see a couple miles off what looked to be a walled village. And the scent of apple pie. And that's where we left the game.

I need to figure out what is in the tower, and plan on having something for Ilsa and Tong, and perhaps Ace & Archie. Some hints of things around where they are, so probably yet another ancient map, and perhaps some tome of obscure and occult design. And oddly, the coin has been entirely forgotten...perhaps I'll leave them out to be found. Hmm, in fact, I could link specific coins to specific places on the map. Yeah, I do love maps! Sadly the group can only see the digital version. I'd rather give them the physical handout so they can look. Well, I'll send them the image when they get it in the Skype chat. 

There are things they have not managed to notice, so still out there to be used or not in the current game. I am hoping that we will return to this game, either with me still running or someone else running the game. I figure we're about halfway through my original over-arching plot, but the map to be found in the tower should open up several possibilities. And I've yet to get the Nazi's to catch up. Their steam ship was a day behind but faster, so they are now at Fort Shone, and will be taking a faster transport to the temple from that fort. Not sure just how or what yet, we'll see what random WW1 and WW2 German planes and things show up. I may even try & put in the saucer from the oddball Nazis on the moon movie Iron Sky...

Finally, I need to do more NPC interaction with the group. While not particularly good at it, the only way to get better is to practice. Next session there may be some NPCs involved. I'll have encounters set up for either direction they pick: back to the settlement or forward to the temple. I've some ideas for the badlands they have to traverse, both in terms of terrain and potential encounters. And I still need to work on the actual temple, and what I hope to be the confrontation with the Nazis and the mythical power crystal. 

I've asked over on COTI and read far too many blogs and sites and still can't get myself to play NPCs well. Going to try to add some notes about behaviors and perhaps a movie role that I can use as reference. 

Apex Session 4 - Preparation

After the previous session almost-missed-it-due-to-me-not-paying-attention (and I have a draft blog of that evening mid-sulk, not sure I'll post that one or not!), I'm doing a bit more work so I won't forget about some of the rolls I want them to make.

The next session they will be continuing up river. There may be some encounters along the way, I've yet to make up a random encounter table similar to Traveller. But I probably will. Today's exercise was working on the rapids and how they will traverse them. I'm using some of the mechanics in the game and also some basic RPG mechanics which I've not yet used in this game.

First, I found a decent map that has 3 rapids. While I do have a lot of map tiles for overland and dungeons and caves, it turns out I don't have any for rivers. I may have to look around so I can make my own maps as needed.

So here we have 3 rapids they need to get up. My ever-growing PDF of notes now has this section for this particular section:

River rapids rolls and role playing. The rapids consist of three rapids. The Apex Queen will be barely able to make it up these, and possibly take some damage.

For each rapid:

For those not holding on to the tiller, make a standard action check (4+, add in dexterity bonus) to avoid a dip in the river. They can make their save roll if the action check fails. For the pilot, same action check to successfully get up the river. There would be a bonus if someone is in the front looking for the best way up, up to 2. For whoever is maintaining the boiler, action check to keep that going. Failing that, roll on damage table below.

Chase mechanics a la rapids: need to get ahead of the river. Roll per rapid to see if you “beat” the rapid or have to retry. Add +1 per player in the front giving directions, & +1 for Archie & Ace.

 I will have to make the narrative exciting - white water splashing, the boat rocking and working hard to go up the rapids. It may take several turns, and each turn they may end up taking some damage and risk falling overboard. This is where the game mechanics come into play.

For everyone other than the river pilot (Ace), each turn they will make a roll to avoid getting tossed overboard. This is the basic action check, and dexterity modifiers apply. With Apex, this is a 4+ on a d6, so a 50/50 chance without any dexterity bonus. If they fail that, they will roll their saving roll to see if they go overboard. At level one, the saving rolls are not great: our Gadgeteer starts at 15, meaning Archie needs to roll a 15 or higher on a d20. Dr. Tong, our Academic, has 14+, our Adventurer Ace is holding the tiller so is exempt but would have a 13+, and our Raider Ilsa is oddly the worse off at 16+. Perhaps Raiders are assumed to be able to avoid having to make such rolls!

The Apex Queen herself may take damage during the "chase" up the river. Each turn, Ace will roll a d6, and add up to 3: +1 just because he & Archie are working as a team, and then +1 per player at the front of the boat giving directions up the rapids. As most of my players won't read this until I bring it to their attention, I may hint at it during game play but let them figure it out. So they need to get a total of 3 points to get up the river: we both roll, and whoever gets the highest gets that point. So if I roll higher, they are still fighting the rapid. And each turn, Archie rolls to see if he can keep the boiler going in the rough water. If he fails, I've worked out a damage table as below for 1d6. I may allow for a saving throw by one player and if they make it, they can prevent the problem:

1. 1 day of supplies goes overboard
2. boiler gets wet, -1 on the next roll
3. fuel goes overboard, -1 on next roll
4. damage to the hull - 1d4 (there are 18 hit points for the boat)
5. damage to the propeller shaft, will need maintenance later as it will slow things down
6. damage to the prop

The last two happened in the African Queen movie, which this is based on (and if I could watch the Jungle Cruise movie, I'd probably grab parts of that. The previews helped me also to decide to make this a bit more pulpy, so "magic" coins and things are now present).

 Anyway, these are the mechanics behind this. I missed having them make rolls to prevent falling in the river last session from that tail whack from the mosasaurus. While I generally play a rules light game, I do want to bring in the mechanics for the game. And I will remind the players that they do have a Grit Point. This will allow them to re-roll or roll with advantage. Page 93 has the rules for that.

I am hoping to have a good narrative of the rapids. A lot may be happening at the same time, and I want a lot of player choices. Thinking if someone does fail their save roll, another player may be able to try & save them with an action roll. Same for losing things over the side of the boat. We'll be making up parts of this as we go along, but I wanted to have a basic framework within the game rules to help me.

Next session should cover the next 1-2 days of travel, which, depending on encounters, should put them at the river origins, a lone stone tower guarding the badlands they will have to traverse to get to the temple. I'll spend more of this weekend working on the rest of that river trip, but have already started thinking about the overland trip as well. Blowing up one of the maps shows it holds up pretty well:

I still miss playing at a table: I do handouts!

Tong's map on parchment with the "magic" coins and a compass rose I have just because

Apex Session 3: River Attack

Due to me failing my technology roll, the 2nd session got off to a late start and was a good deal shorter than normal. However, it was full of action.

We left the second session on a cliff hanger: the Apex Queen, chugging slowly up river, was being followed by three large ripples in the water! Turns out these were 3 mosasaurs which are detailed in the Apex books following our crew, hoping for dinner perhaps.

This was also an experiment in handling the combat. I needed to know where people were on the boat, and where these river creatures were coming from. So I dropped a few things on a Google drawing, and did a share screen (which is where my issues came to the fore: I chose to not share computer sounds. While I thought that would prevent any alerts and odd noises my computer may make it also served to mute the microphone. I was not being ignored - I was not broadcasting!). Anyway, once all that got settled, Ilsa starts shooting her Mauser at the beasts. This only served to create creases in one of them, and also served to get him a bit angry. Ace was piloting the boat, Archie throwing more wood into the boiler to maximize the boat speed, which is still slower than the mosasaurs. Of course, Dr. Tong immediately recognizes them as Mosasaurus missouriensis first, then realizes he may be better off shooting his police pistol.

Isla managed to do a small bit of damage (those dinos have a reduction of 4 for their thick skin, and her gun does 1d6 of damage so he needed to roll a 5 or 6 to hurt them). Dr. Tong's shots did a bit more damage (the police gun is a 1d8 and shoots 3 rounds vs 2 for the Mauser). With blood flowing freely now, one of the other mosasaurs decides that his meal is swimming beside him, and the water erupts into bloody waves as the two tussle. The other is moving alongside and closing in, eying Dr. Tong. Archie is doing the best he can on the boiler (makes a good roll so nothing explodes!). We also start the chase mechanics here. Archie has a +1 due to his mechanical abilities. Ace is swerving and piloting, and they move a bit ahead of the remaining mosasaur. Who tries to get a bite on our academic but misses (a chomp attack would, if he failed his save, take him into the river!). More gunshots as Ace is frantically piloting the boat and Archie is stoking the fire to even higher temperatures. The beast is wounded several times, but with 43 hit points, it is a slow job. Yet Archie makes good chase rolls vs the mosasaur not so good. With a final tail attack that does hit the boat but does no damage to the stern, and sorely wounded, the remaining mosasaur decides that this meal is too expensive and swims off. And a good thing as Dr. Tong was also out of ammunition. 

The ammo tracking is pretty interesting: each weapon has a reload die. After each round of use, you roll that die and if you roll a 1, go to the next die down. The police pistol starts with a d8, then d6, then d4. He fired enough to be out of ammo whereas Ilsa never rolled a 1 so had constant ammo. Makes it more cinematic and less accounting for every bullet or arrow. It may be a mechanic I borrow for other games (as tracking ammo, unless you are running a very crunchy simulation game, is not a lot of fun).

They continue on a bit, and using Tong's map,get past the relatively small falls and find a good place for the night to settle in. As they do that, Tong realizes that during the battle, there was an odd glow in one of his pockets. Reaching inside, he finds an ancient coin. Both he & Isla recognize it as the Sixth Pentacle Of Mars from King Solomon's Pentacles. He has no idea where that came from. Realizing there may be more, he quickly strips down (and I never asked just how far down he stripped!) but discover no more coins. And that is where we ended the game.

A few things. The chase mechanic was worked a bit better this time I think. We had a boat and two people were working that while the remaining two were shooting. I like to think there was a bit of tension going on. Especially as those mosasaurs can take a lot of damage and hand guns are not too effective against them. Though I do need to recheck a couple of things: I think we forgot to add +2 for Isla's Mauser for damage as well as hitting as that is her favored weapon.  I again used my ancient Traveller response rolls, and after enough blood was in the river, the healthy mosasaur took after the shot up one. Had all 3 continued the attack it could have been a total party kill. The final one missed our good academic due to that mysterious coin he now has as well as a sucky roll. 

The coins are from a Kickstarter, and as with the maps, I miss playing at a table as I like handouts. I've decided to also get a bit more occult as well as pulpy here, so throwing in a mysterious coin that helps the academic stay alive should hopefully trigger checks by the other players to check for coins. 

I picked out a few coins based on what they were purported to do. There are plans, and there are reasons why those coins showed up. 

And there should be two more days on the river unless something happens. And I've a few things that could happen based on how we play and player reactions. Then they need to cover those badlands, get past deep crevasses and through a mountain pass to the volcanic valley with the temple and the mythical crystal is. And beat the Nazis who are a day behind them but in a faster boat.

Apex Session 2: Hafen Zweite and up the Ulano River

 We often have a lively chat going on over texting, extending the game outside our actual sessions. I will often take that and incorporate elements in game. I was talking about avoiding flocks of pterodactyls and this came up:

Oh yes, quite! I say, is that a Quetzalcoatlus northropi outside the plane window? Did you know we once thought they were skimmer fishers, but after observing then we discovered that actually prefer to scavenge? They also rarely fly, except to chase prey or escape predators.

Isn't it odd it's flapping right towards us?

So yes, we opened the game with this approaching the plane:

This is about the same size as the plane they are in (hmm, I've not heard if Ace has a name for his plane) and it was flying closer. Not having any rules, I just used the old Traveller encounter reaction table. Rolling a 5, it was a bit peeved about this metal bird invading its space. Ace does some banking to get away, and a roll of 2 meant that the quetzalcoatlus have moved from peeved to downright upset! It was closing in on the plane, and Archimedes, our gadgeteer who does have a rifle, leaned out of the plane for a shot as it got into range. He missed even without a possible disadvantage due to hanging on to a plane while trying to shoot. However, the shot apparently scared it off, and the large "flappy death-bird" veered off and the crew flew on. My next reaction roll was an 11, so no attacking the metal bird invader! One shot and it was gone, so there was only a few moments of peril.

They then flew over to the temple, about an hour or so flight time. The river ends a full day's hike from the temple, and was too narrow and too overgrown with trees to be able to land. One does not merely fly into the temple. It was mostly overgrown, but they could see the ruins of the temple. I forgot to point out the giant crevasse, as well as the mostly dormant volcano the temple is adjacent to.

They fly back to Hafen Zweite, landing at the South Docks, and meet Pierre LeFranc. Having a dozen years of French more than a couple dozen years ago, I managed to pull up some of ancient French at least for this character. Getting their papers signed and all that, I pointed out the giant inked map on the back of the office, hoping to generate some interest from Dr. Tong, our map-enthused academic. He did get the hint, so mention was made of Vito's bookstore, home of maps and odd tombs. The books are a direct pull for the German scientist/raider Ilsa, so I was hopefully covering half of the group with some in-game pulls.  They also see a German steamer that is to go up the river: apparently there is an expedition to the temple that Ilsa was unaware of.

They do go to the bookstore, and there are some obscure and ancient tombs. Vito professes he thinks the island is a nexus of the occult, as he has books Ilsa has dreamed of having. And maps with similar runes as Dr. Tong's. The books were not for sale, but he had heard rumors of similar books in the temple far in the jungle. And Vito proposes a trade of any maps found to allow our academic to copy the map. He has, of course, missed yet another meal. Archimedes (who I want to keep calling Archibald, must to my shame as for some reason I am always screwing up this player's character names!) and Ace wait outside. Isla steps outside when they see, coming from the barracks, a couple of soldiers and a scientist co-worker of Ilsa. They duck back into the shop and out the back door, and Dr. Madar does not see her compatriot. Having copied the map, the group collects camping and climbing gear, and finally some food, and head back to the docks. There are some small dinos eating the trash and scurrying about the dock, but nothing to bother our group.

Next morning, Archie takes a critical piece of the plane engine so no one can take it. They rent the Apex Queen from Charlie Allnut. Ace & Archie have done a lot of tourist (and possibly some other) business so it is not an issue. The little steam-powered boat starts chugging up the Ulano River. The morning goes quite peacefully, but in the afternoon Ace & Archie noticed ripples following the boat. And that was the cliff-hanger we left it on.

Now, there was very little action in this session really. It was mostly setting things into motion: they now have a better map of the river, including notes about giant spiders and Fort Shone. They know that there is another expedition in a larger and faster boat leaving the next day, meaning in theory they will reach the head of the river at the same time. There is the potential for occult books and strange ruins to be found. And the McGuffin of the crystal. Which has additional meaning as the Dr Madar is actually a level 3 gadgeteer, and has a couple of crystal-powered weapons. 

I am hoping the next session involves at least 2 rounds of combat, and I still have to figure how fast they are going and the scale of the map. Figuring 3 days up river in the boat, but there are a few potential encounters I do want to work in. Some of them are based on what the players have given me as background. That's where the occult books come from, and a few things from other players. And I also want to throw in a feral child at some point who does the old-school Tarzan ungawa, but for dinosaurs instead of African wildlife.

And I am compiling a rough PDF for my notes and things. I'll link it when we finish the initial adventure.

Apex: The German Station

I've made up my 3 main research groups:

• Menschlicher Dinosaurier (Human Dinosaur) using dinosaur genetics for improving human capacity. Emil Augsburg
• Power Kristall (Power Crystal) - they have found small fragments of a crystal that has amazing energy potential. Rumors of a larger crystal and the search for them have lead to various expeditions on Apex Island. Isla retrieved the most promising map. Sybille Mader
• Dinosaurier bewaffnet (weaponized dinosaurs) project to see if dinos can be used in combat. Kommandant Blut

 My apologies for those that actually speak German: I am just using a translate web site to get something about right. I've also got the 3 people in charge of each group a bit defined, and some still overly vague ideas how they will interact with our group, it at all. I'll post more details on those people later, as I really need to get some details for the port town they are going to! The first was a real WW2 person and I squeezed him to Apex Island. History's villains for the game. I just use the one, the rest will all be made up.

Anyway, our map:

And a map procedurally generated:

Located towards the south of Apex Island, Hafn Zweite's population is primarily German. This is the closest town outside of Wissenschaftliche Kriederstation, and used for those soldiers on R&R. German is the main language spoken, though most languages are also represented. It has a high wooden fence surrounding the town, which has four main sections. Roads in all sections are hard-packed dirt with raised wooden sidewalks. When it rains, the streets can become quite muddy, and torrents can cause minor flooding to the harbor.

The Smoke Docks to the north are where most ships dock. There are some warehouses and the harbor master's office here, along with what would be considered the red ight district. Most Germans on R&R don't get too far past here. Passports or IDs are required to get off the docks.

The South Docks take smaller ships and the occasional sea plane. Cut off from the rest of the town, the South Docks has many more languages spoken. There is a manned guard post on both sides of the Dock Bridge, but unless there is some sort of alert, they are not particularly strict. Passports or papers are required to cross the bridge, but not required in this section of town.

East Gate has several hotels, night clubs, smoke and opium joints, music halls, kitchens and cafes spread out between housing and some gardens. There are also stables. While there is a single horse stable, there is also Gunther's Exotic Stable, where one can rent trained dinosaurs. There are two trails leading out of town. Both have a guard squad on duty at all times to verify papers, and to be a rescue team when necessary.

The Knightring to the north of the town and outside the walls is an unbridled series of whore houses and speak easies. Native alcohol is available in large and cheap quantities here. As the patrons say, it does grow on you after a while. 

The New Danube River meanders through the city, coming from the mountains to the north east. The river itself is generally fairly calm, surrounded by the deep jungles. There is a tow path on the north side, though it is seldom used and growing over in many places. Steam ships are available to take one up river for a sight seeing cruise, though these are short trips. The river does have crocodiles as well as actual dinosaurs. While the posters in the travel offices show a more pastoral scene as below, there is a hefty insurance premium involved and several waivers. 

versus

The river is generally sluggish until you get closer to the mountain source. River boats can go up river, taking 3 or 4 days to get to the ring of mountains. There is a single office that allows for unaccompanied boating excursions, but your deposit it the price of the boat.

Apex Game Session 1

It was a good thing I had started some game prep: the GM from the previous game dropped out suddenly and let us know Sunday night. We play Monday nights. Fortunately I had enough to get the ball rolling. The players accepted the McGuffin of a power crystal that could power a German war plane to the Americas from Germany. This must be stopped! I created actually 3 maps as per this post. Wish we were at a real table as I would have printed them out. I do love me game props! The maps lead to an ancient temple where the crystal is rumored to be. It is also the location of "the crater of Yocul of Sneffels" which is why one of the characters is actually here. I was reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, and yes, that is an option for the game after this particular goal of getting the crystal first could go. I like to plan ahead. 

I am using most of the background material from the core (and only) book. And interestingly enough, our characters did meet up in a bar, well, actually a night club. However, 3 of the players had an assumed background together a bit. We pulled in the idea of Steve Trevor's small group from the first Wonder Woman movie: Ace (the pilot and adventurer) and Archimedes (the gadgeteer) were already a bit of a duo as working in Apex, giving scenic rides about the island in his trusty sky yacht. Isla, our German raider working at the German station to the south had used them before for some clandestine trips and "sight seeing". While they were pouring over their map, the last player's character, an excitable academic, saw their map and immediately jumped into the conversation, waving about his maps and stating how he loved maps (a character after my own heart!).

During this in-character introduction, a cigarette girl came buy. Ilsa is apparently quite the smoker. Unbeknown to our characters, Charlene is in fact an informant for the Germans, keeping an eye on the patrons of Billie and Louis's High Society GetAway. Ace, being the sole American and apparently a tail chaser, to so speak, watched as she meandered back and went behind the bar. Wandering to the bar, he asked about her, got her name from the friendly barkeep, but she did not come back.

Plans were made at the table to fly down to Hafen Zweite. the port town on the map at the base of a river that leads to the volcanic mountains. Leaving the club, they encountered Leanhard Euler, an officer who knows Lt. Isla from the German fort Wissenschaftliche Kreidstation. There was a bit of a stand-off, but she has both a high charisma and an exceptional beauty trait, so won the charisma roll-off between them. They concluded that they would meet to discuss what the maps were for in the morning at the Bosque Cretaceo Cafe. This excited our academic who has a fondness not only of maps but of brunch.

Ace and Archimedes normally slept in the boat plane dock, a small boathouse where his plane is docked. Several Gilligan and Skipper memes showed up in the chat side of the game... 

Professor Tong and Isla had rooms at the Guest House, and Ace was doggedly chasing after Isla to little affect. The group though stayed together at the guest house, expecting possible problems. Nothing untoward happened (much to Ace's apparent disappointment), and they got up earlier than a brunch would suggest to get to the plane. Professor Tong was worried about missing brunch. Noticing several of the Germans from the previous evening were following, we used the game's chase mechanic and they managed to elude pursuit though it was a very close thing. They got to the plane and this is where the first session concluded.

Some things of note. Charlene was an entirely random thing I thought of during the initial meeting. The players were talking a good bit as characters, and there was a bit of a lull so I introduced the cigarette girl, pulled a name out of the blue, and then decided she as also watching for the Nazis. And of course our German professor is a heavy smoker and there was a lot of discussion (and more memes) about that. I am also having some ideas as to why Charlene is spy for them: it may or may not be by choice. The meeting with Leanhard did not go particularly well. I fortunately did get a random list of German names in my game cheat sheet so at least I had a good set of names to draw from. But as to why he was there (other than needing some tension and conflict) and what forces he can manage are yet to be determined. And I am still horrible at NPC interaction. Getting a small bit better hopefully, but this is why we practice. But I do need to expand out Leanhard's background to give me something more to go on and help me play him better. He will be a low level NPC antagonist, but there must be a BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) eventually for the players to interact with, or at least be pulling the strings of the NPCs. 

Finally, we did go through a chase scene but I really should have embellished it a bit more. The mechanics are pretty simple, and I think I may tweak them. Essentially, there is a target number to reach. If you are chasing someone down, this is the number to be able to catch them. If trying to escape, this is the number to achieve. Each turn a die is rolled and the higher rolling die wins a point. Whoever gets to the target first, wins. My tweaks would be to let more character agency play through, though this has to be weighed carefully if the entire group is chasing or getting chased and is on foot. If in a vehicle, though there are no direct driving skills or traits, some classes would be better at driving and I would give a bonus then.

We had no combat, though we worked through how the weapons worked. At initial glance, the ranges are pretty wonky, but then reading through that (so glad two other players have the rules!) we concluded that the range was for a +2 to hit, double that range for +1, and triple the range for regular attack rolls. It was clear in the rules if you read the notes below the lists. There is not a maximum range given but my players are willing to help me out there as I've no real world experience in weapons (or heck, a lot of things, but hey, I do play a lot of games. I just suck at tactics so lose usually, which is why I got into RPGs)

Finally, I am hoping for a river trip up the yet to be named river. My GM map has yet to determine the size of the hexes, but it is sort of a hex crawl in a fashion. I plan on having potential encounters in various hexes depending on how they travel. One of the things that came up while doing some more research was the African Queen. That was exactly the sort of boat that will be available to the group. I just need to see about a skipper NPC or if Ace will pilot it, and a few of those details. To be worked out this weekend before the game Monday. And hopefully we're going to actually see the movie - it is showing in town this weekend!

Next post (hopefully tomorrow!) will detail out that southern port town. I did generate a map, but I'll have more details in that post. I will need to detail it out a bit more as that is the next place the players get to! If they can fly past that flock of pterodactyls! Which could be another chase scene that we can make more dramatic. 

WIP GM Map - no real secrets from the players

Cheap Dungeon Crafting - Sir Caffeine's Tower Part 1

I get whole bean coffee usually, and I've been getting these cannisters that are begging for some sort of crafting project! I decided on the typical tower. I've a feeling I'll be making multiple versions of this as I like coffee, and practice make perfect. At least so goes the theory.

First, we need a door. And I could repurpose the Dungeons & Lasers doors to be used here. I also have some of the "functional" doors, so could put one of those in there so we can open and close the door. Had I not had these doors, I would have crafted either a cardboard one or use my trusty craft sticks.

After that, we need to put in at least a 2nd floor, and have access to that floor. Making the floor from a shipping box and sharpies works pretty good. As with my door, v2 may be created using craft sticks over the cardboard. I even remembered to put in some tabs to help hold with the paste, and opened a door for a ladder or staircase to the ground floor. Which, alas, we cannot access. Maybe I'll cut an access panel in the back. In which case I'll need to cover the floor. As I forgot. But hey, this is an alpha test. 

Once we have our second floor ready, I realize we have some shiny walls. While appropriate for an SF tower (or a big elevator: hmm, I think I've at least one world with a space elevator, and this would work for that. Put a cargo bay in the bottom, the 2nd floor the passenger section, and the top mini-level life support. Plenty of greebles from the plastic sprues. Perhaps my next cheap craft project!)

Back to Sir Caffeine's tower, put in some wallpaper and it looks a lot better.

And yes, our drunken monk has moved in.

I've thought about foam & foam rollers. Maybe I'll look into that. But for the moment I'll probably just wrap the thing in printed paper. But textured foam would look a lot better I think, and is relatively cheap. Just not as cheap as using existing containers that would have been recycled. And sadly our hobby can be not too environmentally friendly. My Reapers box has hundreds of plastic baggies. Fortunately they are getting a 2nd use at the fly shop my wife works at to hold flies they sell. Heck - she makes "mop" flies out of the yarn from mops. Crafting on the cheap!

Still need to put in a top floor. I may add crenellations to the top. There is a metal rim and I don't want to cut that, so may just add more bits of cardboard. And of course I may use my ladder or stairs I also have from D&L.

And mostly done with the gator folk. Need to do some touch-ups for places I missed, and another dry coat highlighting but otherwise, I am pretty happy with the Gator Brothers. Now to get back to a table and have them up against our party. Perhaps talking is better than fighting?

Apex: Game Prep

Trying to get some game prep in for the Apex game I'll be running. We had a session 0 a few weeks ago when the GM could not make a game, so we decided to do some prep work for the next game which ended up being Apex. Takes place in 1935 or so and will be in the same universe as our 30's pulp vigilante game. I'm giving the players some personal background stuff that hopefully will get revealed in game play. My plan is to also have a 1 page summary of the environment and ideas behind the game so there is some common starting ground. And I just realized that the MIA GM has not rolled up a character - I'll have to get with him to see if he is going to play, and if so, what sort of character.

I've got the character briefs as follows:

The name's Ace McCloud; pilot, guide, and overall a swell guy. From Hollywood, U.S. of A. Out here doing odd jobs for cash and fame. 

He's an adventurer, has his own sea plane, a skycutter. The player dug up the info, so we'll be using that as well. There will be use for this plane. I see something akin the the Indian Jones movie at some point.

We have our academic, which I don't have the character sheet or background yet. But I am putting the book from A Journey to the Center of the Earth into his hands. He has traced the origins of his copy of the map to Apex Island, and has his own copy of a more hand-drawn map that has some details. Not all the details (as I've not come up with them yet, but there will be some dungeoning in the game!) And using another Dyson map from that bundle I got a while ago. See - I can use the stuff I buy! And if we were at a table, I'd bring out the temple walls (seen here from some early TFT solo test, which I need to get back to!)

 We have our German scientist, who will help against the Germans as she as her own map leading to a crystal power source, and perhaps some occult book. The player brought up some interesting ideas that I'll try & incorporate. I do need to lean in on some occult/science mishmash. While my original idea of a crystal to supply power for an experimental craft may be good, a 2nd hook for the player would better.

Guten Morgen Jungs,

      Permit me to introduce myself. I am Fräulein Ilsa Äletndőrf, formerly Doktor und Psychlo-Oberstleutnant of the German Army deep science division.

I have noticed that the Allies are not fully aware of the great threat that exists in the Wehrmacht Dinosaurier Eingreiftruppe that will soon be ready to lay waste to all of Europa.

I am aware that I am accompanied by the buckaroo nature of dër Yankee's and the passive overthinking demeanor of the Britisch. Let us hope that we may come to an amiable and utilitarian middle ground in which to stop the all out destruction of Mother Europa and all the freedoms there in via the storm of däs Öber-Raptőr Legion , meine Herren!

Yours Sincerely in struggle;

Doktor Ilsa Äletndőrf, PsyD

 Her map is drawn by fine German cartographers.

Hopefully similar enough for the players to recognize as the same thing, but different enough to have a bit of mystery.

We have a gadgeteer:

Oh, it's an American! Well fancy meeting you here. I am working on an apparatus that will allow me to fly through the air, graceful as a bird.

Let me introduce myself, Chum! I am Mr. Archimedes Billingsley. Mechanic, inventor and tinker. Pleasure to meet someone from the Colonies! 

We had an ornithopter in the Brass Rings game based on some bantering we had. Going to throw one into this game probably. Give the gadgeteer a gadget to work on.

 Big enough to carry all of them, though it will probably be a brief flight.

Doing a bit of research into the 30s to also help get my historical references. The basic background is straight out of the game book. Two of the players already have that as well, so there will be help with running the game a bit I am hoping. 

Hoping my next post will be Traveller solo but who knows.

And: my Reaper miniatures showed up! Box full of boxes of minis. And so many plastic bags! Fortunately my wife can use them at the fly shop she works at for packaging flies and things. She makes her own flies and sells them there. So at least the bags are getting a 2nd use. While I understand the need from a bulk packaging perspective, I hate that almost every mini, of where there are a few hundred (yes, I may have overdone it a bit, but it is such a great buy!) has its own bag. Same thing the way Steve Jackson Games does stuff. Hopefully they can figure out a more environmental approach to packaging. Sorry - I went off the rails a bit there I suppose. But our hobby is not particularly green, and I do sometimes think about that. 

 

Traveller: Landing Your Starship

Usually I don't role play the landing of starships. I may make them do a piloting roll if the planet has some extreme environment of some sort. I know Classic Traveller does not use a lot of automation, but even when I played in the 80s, a lot of the operations were automated as that's what I thought the future would be like.

Now, I am more of a "cassette future" or retro-futurism if playing Traveller. Leaning heavily back to the giant computers and a lot more manual processes. Call it nostalgia if you wish, but there is a certain charm to that. Quite possibly driven by playing more pulp-like games lately.

Anyway, I was going through some of the electronic Traveller library and found the Starport Planetfall publication (I don't have a physical copy, but one from the Apocrypha 3 CD from Far Future). 

 There are some interesting looking rules about making planetfall. First, when you get into orbit there is a wait of 1d x 30 minutes. A straight roll. I'd probably modify it though, based on the port type and population somehow. And possibly law level and government type. A class A port with a high population planet and a restrictive government and high law level may be a lot longer, whereas as class E port and only a dozen people on planet would be immediate. But it is a decent base roll. 

Then it takes 1000 seconds x the planet size for landing. The only thing I would change on that is it may change based on the atmosphere. A tainted or corrosive atmosphere you may want to go slower. Or not: it would be instrumental landings anyway. But a planet with a very active atmosphere and extreme winds would, I would hazard (hee-hee) should take longer.

For each of those 1000 second phases, you roll for an encounter. The pilot skill level is a negative DM on the 7+ for some sort of an encounter. If I read it correctly, there is only 1 encounter. So you deal with that one thing, and not a possible cascading of issues. I suppose a sadistic referee may make the pilot roll each 1000 second segment. Especially if the ship had not been maintained. Hmm...yeah, add +1 for every 6 months (12 months?) past when it was supposed to have its yearly maintenance completed.

The table is in the appendix and not in the chapter. Most of the rolls are no encounter, but you can have ship malfunctions, port errors, weather and collision alerts. Then tables for more specific results. There are modifiers based on the starport type, so it will have some preferences. 

There is a similar process for leaving the planet. 

I think I'll test this out on the next Traveller solo session I run, hopefully this weekend. Though if it ends in a crash (a possibility!) I may disregard that. Or not...

There are also a lot of help for various other things in the port: encounters in the port based of the port type, costs for various services and processes, officials you may meet. There is also yet another Starport Authority character generation system there: I think that makes at least 3. There is the one from the JTAS 19 and one from Diverse Roles from Gypsy Knights. See my Traveller career bibliography here, which I'll now add this version to as well!

I do love reading through Classic Traveller things. There was a certain simplicity in the rules and how things worked. Though a lot of interpretation as well!

Apex Game - A Bit of Prep

Though it will be a few weeks before I run this game, I dusted off the Campaign Cartographer and tried again to make a map. I've got two versions I'm showing here (and ignore the highlighter - was trying something from a screen shot, and not really liking that...).

The first was supposed to look more like a hand-drawn map. The second I'm going with a professional German cartographer (there are the pre-WWII Nazis in this game - think Indian Jones and that sort of pulpy adventure).  And yes, I could always actually draw the map! I have saved off a lot of packing paper - these long rolls of paper just for doing that. But I am not sure we'll be face to face so a digital map is easier. And yeah, I do have a scanner....I do need to practice hand-drawing maps as well.

There is a port (Port Two in German if translate did not fail me) that the players will need to get to. Then either hiking 6-8 days or chartering a river boat for a 3 day journey up the river. I see alligators and some river dinosaurs in their future. Then at the entrance to the badlands, an overland trip of about 2 days to the base of the active volcano. Here is the ancient temple, vine-infested and who knows who or even what lives there now. Hidden inside are the mystery crystals the Germans want. They hope to power their giant plane with them, as the fragments seem to host nearly unlimited power. Of course, perhaps too many too close together create a chain reaction of some sort...

okay, so there is a spaceship here. Another 0-Hr Kickstarter. The "plane" is really a spaceship as well from a Patreon account I give money to. I like creative people being able to be creative!

Took a mini-vacation in Greensboro, NC and the museum had dinosaurs. The actual displays were really cool: e-ink glass in front of some of the exhibits had active descriptions, some pseudo-3D exhibits, and of course, large dinos!

So I have some encounter images ready to go!