Dungeon World + Trilemma Adventures

Last week I got to run a one shot of Dungeon World - for all my enthusiasm about it I had never actually played it - but I'd heard good things.  I'd also heard good things about Trilemma Adventures so I decided to grab one of their free dungeons to play in.  How did it go?  Read on, bold adventurer...

We played The Sky Blind Spire by Michael Prescott

Pathfinder session report - good to be playing again!

Butt kicking - for goodness!

Picking up our PFRPG campaign, Caedric and Falstoff dove bravely into a goblin infested crypt to rescue a kidnapped child...  My summoner's ranged attacks were limited due to poor lines of sight and lack of darkvision (the human had my Light cantrip cast on his glaive to help him see what he was slaying) but much fun was had summoning creatures when my eidolon "died" fighting a bunch of orcs and bugbears.

Gamma World: session 2... and sandbox world creation

Image (cc) Michael Welsing on Flickr

In which many things go BOOOOOM, and our heroes don't get quite the welcome they were expecting...

Our intrepid young heroes were last seen amidst a giant explosion in Redman town hall - and now was their chance to react. Picking up the unconscious town Elder, they staggered for the door just in time to bump into a shadowy figure fleeing into the gathering crowd. And the arrival of the town guard. Being strangers in town, they were naturally suspects, and were *supposed* to go quietly... but Murtt and Bugeye had different plans!

Playing With Myself: Monsterpocalypse #1

I've never tried solo gaming before, but I noticed there were rules for a solitaire game in the MonPoc book I'd dug out with all my old figures...

Monsterpocalypse is a deceptively strategic game - but as I'd only ever played the incredibly aggressive Planet Eaters, I'd never really given the nuances much thought. Time to switch sides: taking on the mighty Gorghadra (!) with the collection of Cthul units I'd swapped with a friend for the wimpy ShadowSun and Martian minis I'd had... The joy of collectible games - but I digress.

SpyCraft: Mission 1 - Annual training exercise

Our first mission in Codename: The Increment was standard training fare for our newly-created seasoned (5th level) characters.

We were tasked with infiltrating a Ministry of Agriculture laboratory near a sleepy rural town, and liberating some sensitive documentation stored in a safe. This was not a live fire exercise, but we were fully expecting the building to be a front, manned by other Secret Service employees. We had two days to get in, get the information, and get out...

In space, no one can hear you go BOOOOOOM!

First proper Starmada game last night - four-way free-for-all, 2000 points a piece - and it was immensely good fun!

The ACEF faced off against Dave's Russians, Mark's unnamed aliens, and Nath's from-the-back-of-the-quickstart-rules fleet 'cos his models haven't arrived yet. We had plenty of space as we were playing on 1" hexes, so Mark and I had the range advantage at the start. My plan was to hang back, pounding the enemy with rocks from a distance, while sending my minelayers and bombers forward to keep them at range...

Starmada: First Impressions

Not that this is a proper review or anything, but we had our first bash at Starmada this week, and I have to say I'm impressed. Dave's thoughts are here, if you're interested.

My fleet of GZG Neu Swabian League ships are offworlders in our universe, the Aresian Colonial Expansion Force (ACEF) from the rebel Martian colonies. My design doctrine for the ships was inspired by the models - they all sported powerful long-range spine mounted mass drivers firing in a narrow forward arc, and short-ranged tracer firing broadside batteries. I have to say that setting up these weapons - with all the special rules required - in Starmada was a breeze, and much more satisfying than designing ships in Full Thrust. See the image below for the auto-generated printable sheets for the Battleship:


Dave's fleet weren't fully statted - but he has painted his, at least! - so he used my designs too, although he has interesting plans: His American force are going to be more high tech, as befits the beautiful Brigade American Republic models, with configurable screens instead of shields, with his Russians (ESU ships from GZG again) being armour plated, and fast enough to get in close and swarm my ships with Spetsnatz boarding parties... All of which should be a doddle to set up under the rules - I'm impressed.

Movement rules take a while to get the hang of - but are much faster to play than Full Thrust's - and the combat involves throwing handfuls of d6s, which is awlways fun. Damage tracking is pretty easy, and the various options offered by the custom weapons actually made a difference too. Mass drivers need to be much more devastatingly powerful! Muhahaha!

Roll on next week!

Finally: Deadlands!

"Rockin'horse" McTire's in big trouble because of that big mouth of hers...

Having struggled to get all the survivors off the train - due to in-party dithering - the posse ran into a swarm of prairie ticks while trying to get to a nearby town. These little things are pretty nasty; they crawl down your throat, suck out your blood, and eventually burst you from the inside - and they got into five of the ten survivors!

Leaving Big John and Obadiah to move the wounded on to civilisation, Mary-Lou (that's Rockin'horse to you) rode on ahead to get help.

However, being the ballsy gal she is, she ended up getting drunk and shooting her mouth off at the town's stand-in Sherrif - who's the Texas Ranger I was trying to slip in for a later plot hook. Damn. Managed to steer her away from a duel, at least...

Having left the town "to go send a telegram," the Sherrif left things wide open for a gang of outlaws to loot and pillage. Luckily, the posse gave them a good kicking - although John nearly took a dirt nap in the process - leaving the town safe. What will happen when the Ranger gets back, however, is anyone's guess...

Deadlands update - dream a little dream

The Deadlands campaign is starting to gather steam now - at least in my head! We've played a couple of trial games: one was a one-sheet from Pinnacle to help us learn the rules, the other was a modified Cray Canyon (for GURPS) to help settle the players in.

Currently, we're loving it!

The system adheres to its Fast Furious Fun promise, although some aspects can take a bit of getting used to. My players think they need more Guts - I did point out that they were essentially first level weaklings (nicely) and they had been facing undead, who get a toughness bonus and take half damage from guns...

Savage Worlds is a system that doesn't pull punches, and my lot are too used to encounters being balanced to their level. It's too easy to get into the Open Door Slay Minions Get Chest Open Door Slay Minions grind without thinking about the scenario - if you were really encountering a group of undead zombies you'd run like hell, not try to gun 'em down. And I have pointed out that XP gained goes on successfulness of the session, not kills!

It's going to be a fun learning curve!

Descent Ownage

Thursday's Deadlands session was put off as we were missing a member, so we cracked Descent out instead for some good ol' fashioned dungeon crawling.

Mark elected to be Overlord, which meant I got to play the Heroes, for once, with Dave. Random selection netted me Silhouette and Sir Whatsit, Dave got Landrec and Ronan. I was pretty happy with my two, decking Valadir? out as "tank" with decent armour and a sword & shield, and Silhouette as "runner" with a shield & crossbow. Landrec drew the cards that gave him Command and Sorcery 1, making him an unofficial "leader" type, while Ronan ended up with Marksman and some miscellaneous oddments that didn't really affect gameplay.

It soon transpired that Silhouette was grossly overpowered; I'd drawn Rapid Fire and Crack Shot for her, which was handy, but I also got the card that gives +2 fatigue - cranking her up to a game-breaker. With her 5 move and 7 fatigue, the original plan was to run her around and take glyphs / chests, using her shield to keep her alive and the crossbow in an emergency. Ronan and Landrec were going to be crowd control, while Valadir duked it out with whatever was trying to munch on the party.

This soon changed when we figured out that Rapid Fire can be used multiple times in a turn - Silhouette was clearing out rooms as we discovered them with 10+ attacks in a turn before nipping off to town for more potions. Even when Mark revealed a room full of master skellys and sorcerors, the only reason it took two turns for her to beat them all down was because he was incredibly lucky with his Undying rolls.

He conceded - we had over 15 conquest points and a couple of gold items each, and he really couldn't see it getting any tougher for us. Disappointing, but we're having a rematch next week!

We may have to houserule it, in hindsight - anyone else had a similar experience?

Fantasycraft campaign, session two...

Following a trail of clues back to a now-desolated village, the party finds a horde of zombies lying in wait in the fog-shrouded churchyard.

Gobsock moves forward, searching for survivors and keeping a wary eye out for the minions of evil, the others spreading out and engaging the enemy in the tattered streets. With a roar, one of the trees bursts free of the woods outside the village and charges the party, intent on tearing them limb from limb, driving the fighters into the cover of one of the ravaged houses.

As they whittle down its flailing branches, Gobsock despatches a zombie ravener and sneaks round behind the rootwalker, before dazzling it with a flare of holy light. Our heroes finally begin to wear it down, becoming bolder as all four hack away at it in a spray of sap. With a scream, the creature falls through one of the villagers' hovels and is finally still.

As the priest patches up his companions they hear movement on the other side of the church - more raveners, a dozen of the foul beasts! As a man, they rush out to meet the enemy in a clash of steel against claw. Gobsock takes a vicious wound, almost dropping him, as Captain Kelwin falls under the weight of the onslaught. As the others rush to Kelwin's aid, Gobsock deftly dodges the attacks of a brace of raveners (his God be praised!) before decapitating the pair with a swing of his broadsword.

The others are slowly pushed back, leaving our heroes bloody but victorious!

Thursday's gaming session

This week was the first session this year with a full complement of the regulars - so we finally started playing Dave's FantasyCraft campaign.

The system seems pretty good, there's quite a bit of complexity in character generation but there are a few nice touches once the dice get rolling. We'll see how it goes...

Having not "played" for a while, but mainly GMed, I wanted a fun character. My original sketch from a few months ago was for a rootwalker mystic, but I fancied someone a bit more fighty. Eventually I settled on a broadsword-wielding goblin priest with a criminal past - to contrast Nath's musketeer captain and Mark's fighty dwarf.

Gobsock was sitting quietly in a mountain inn, minding his own business and nursing his ale, when a ragged figure collapsed through the door, bleeding badly and telling of an attack. Gobsock ran to his aid as a stout dwarf and a moustached human (we haven't been introduced) checked outside for his pursuers - the latter followed by a doe-eyed barmaid, despite his warnings to stay inside.

An eerie mist rolled in, full of shadowy figures. The dwarf returned to our table and began loading his blunderbuss as the musketeer strode outside to confront the horrors, saber drawn. He was badly bitten but took down three of the creatures with the help of his man-at-arms. Gobsock couldn't save the stricken messenger, so made him comfortable and turned his attentions to the creatures swarming the bar area.

One leapt at him as the dwarf unloaded his blunderbuss at another - missing and showering the room and patrons in plaster and bits of wood. Gobsock ducked the flailing zombie and cleaved it in half with a swing of his broadsword as the dwarf finished off the final attacker.

But where had they come from..?