Call of Cthulhu: Happy Endings

01 November 2015 | Hisham | | RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Stark Future of San Francisco
 
Retroactively created 26th March 2016

Last time on Call of Cthulhu (back in June) our solo protagonist, the young Detective DJ Stark failed to stop whatever unholy occult occurence at Horton Opera House. Stabbed by cultists, blind luck caused a passerby to notice him and call for an ambulance.

Episode 5

The incident cost Stark another two weeks in the hospital, but he insisted on returning to duty quickly. Mr. Chao had all but disappeared, and there was no sign of the cultists in the opera house. There was no clue as to what the swirling bright light that he saw before he fell down the trapdoor.

At the end of his shift he was approached by his new partner Detective Alex Sim, a young Asian woman who knew of Stark's proclivities with investigating strange and unexplained things and getting into severe injuries. She warned him that she did not wish for her career to be jeopardised by such happenings. She said, "If anything happens that is even a tiny bit strange, I will report you and drop you like a bad habit fast."

Soon, Stark returned to the opera house for the first time since he was hospitalised. Armed with a shotgun and a flashlight, he crossed the two-week old police tape and scoured the building.

But he found nothing.

Everything that happened before this point was played when we were in Sitiawan a last month. We were interrupted then. We continued earlier today at home.

CoC 5.5 Edition
 

Without nothing to go on, Stark started to drive back to his apartment.

At a stoplight, the world shook violently. The quake caused the roads to shudder and the streetlamps to shudder and spark. A streetlamp beside Stark's car fell toward him. He hit the accelerator pedal and screeched out of the way safely. (36 out of 40% Drive Auto)

 

Call of Cthulhu: A Night At The Opera

22 June 2015 | Hisham | | RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Stark Future of San Francisco
 
Retroactively created 26th March 2016

Last time (a year and 4 days ago in real time), despite being badly injured and walking on crutches, Detective DJ Stark (played by Irfan) succeeded in thwarting the scheme of the Cult of the Pale Nurses in their bid to summon the ultradimensional being Sharakh-Kheth from crossing over into our universe and utterly demolishing the Saint Agatha Medical Centre in Brisbane, San Francisco.

(Yesterday afternoon we continued the Call of Cthulhu RPG campaign to see how Detective Stark was faring. Polyhedrals and paperminis deployed, Irfan wondered what Lovecraftian creatures and machinations he would encounter in this session. It was six weeks later in game time...)

Episode 4

Stark had been back to work at his precinct for two weeks, getting quickly bored by a desk job. His phone rang. A familiar elderly voice could be heard.

"Mr. Chao," said Stark.

"I take it my handwritten manuscripts were destroyed at the Saint Agatha? No matter. Meet me tonight at nine. I will have something for you. You are worthy of it."

It was just after 8.00 PM and an overcast sky darkened the dusk. Finishing up some paperwork, he started to leave for Chao's restaurant.

"Stark!" his boss Greta Hack called him from her office. When he sat at her desk, she said, "Word is you're bored with your desk job? I'm putting you back on the streets. Here's your new case."

Stark picked up the case file. Caldwell Broome, 50 year old antique dealer, had been missing from his office for a week. "You'll meet your new partner, Alex Sim, a rookie tomorrow."

"Thanks, chief."

"Listen, Stark," Captain Hack muttered. "Everyone knows how you lost your last partner. Please make sure nothing happens to your new one."

"Sure thing, chief."

Winter is coming

Stark's Shenanigans Spills into the Streets of San Francisco

 

EOTE Tabletop Day Episode: Together Again For The First Time

11 April 2015 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 10 Together Again For The First Time

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

It was International Tabletop Day again, and like last year we played Star Wars Edge of the Empire again. However we played not on a table, but on the floor.With the 15 XP carried over from the previous session, Irfan bought the Grit talent for his smuggler character Hondo Pash, increasing his Strain. The finale for the campaign that started on January 2013 with Escape from Mos Shuuta begins...

Completely edged by the Galactic Empire.

One Man Revolution

Radiation and stellar gases swamped the Shadda-Bi-Boran system from its primary star. A squadron of five Star Destroyers aided by numerous smaller corvettes and tenders manoeuvred themselves to surround a three-klick wide asteroid that sheltered a secret Imperial base that belonged to Admiral Keargan Kanu.

As the cordon closed in on the flat lump of rock, Admiral Kanu was surrounded by his newly-reunited family, from his estranged wife Doro Pash, their 21-year-old son the young smuggler pilot Hondo Pash and their 9-year-old daughter Yuzy Pash. The two astromech droids R2-8D8 and R5-K2 slid down the ramp of the YT-1300 light freighter Lava Jaeger, screaming their warning of the incoming Imperial fleet.

They kinda look flat

The paper miniatures ready for action at Shadda-Bi-Boran

Writhing in pain at their feet was Hondo's armoured and heavily robed shipmate and gunslinger Giin Lawquane. It was Giin who had called the Imperial fleet into the system to ambush them. Suddenly, Giin stopped screaming and fell unconscious. Kanu dismissed his troops who saluted the Admiral and hurried to the elevator of the main hangar bay. Two remained: a pair of black-armored storm commandos who immediately flanked the Admiral as guards, whom were introduced as Lieutenants Kildruun and Gundeep.

The Imperial fleet was preventing them from leaving and returning to Admiral Kanu's safeworld, where he kept the family of his staff and troops safe and before they planned to vanish into the Outer Rim away from the Empire's grasp.

Meanwhile, the large tactical hologram above them showed that shuttles and small transports were launching out from smaller bays on the asteroid base. Turbolaser cannons from the Star Destroyers fired on the small, fleeing fleet. A shuttle and a freighter were shredded into superheated debris before the surviving ships jumped to hyperspace.

No! I am your father!

Admiral Keargan Kanu turned to Hondo...

...and gave him one of the metal alloy cylinders from his jacket pocket. He said, "Take this rank cylinder. You would be able to access any computer and open any doors in this base with it."

 

EOTE: Adversity of the Unexpected

01 January 2015 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 09 Adversity of the Unexpected

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

Never tell me the odds?

It's the first of January. Irfan didn't spend any of his 15 XP. He rolled up three Light Side Destiny Points, and triggered no Obligations with 99 on the percentile dice.

Ticket to Ride

A pair of grey Aratech 74-Z speeder bikes - modified to have no flight ceiling - flew westward from the city of Shoribus, the capital city of Kabal in the Mayagil Sector, on a personal mission. Smuggler Hondo Pash's sister Yuzy and mother Doro were abducted by his father, whom he recently learned was an Imperial Admiral named Keargan Kanu. To retrieve them, he would have to find Admiral Kanu. The only clue as to where Kanu might be is his secret weapon cache located upon the vast Skolaris Cliff.

As they passed over thick swamps with winding rivers and the occasional gargantuan trees that towered over everything else, Giin Lawquane, the armored mercenary and security officer in the other speeder spoke via his helmet comlink, "Bothth. What if Yuzy doethn't want to come back with uth?"

"I don't know what I'll do, Giin."

"You know. It'th been a while thinthe I conthidered anyone to be friendth. In fact, it'th been ten yearth thinthe I let anyone near enough for me to call them a friend. Hondo, I conthider you, my friend."

"Thanks."

Two more 74-Z speeder bikes. painted dark red and piloted by droids, flew up from the swamp canopy in pursuit. The first droid fired his mounted blaster, but missed. This, of course, captured Hondo and Giin's attention.

Giin said, "You thee, bothth, I only do thingth like thith for my friendth." And he veered to the left then to the right, trying to skew the droid's concentration. Hondo's DL-17 blaster pistol was in his hand as he spun and fired. A red bolt struck one of the droid's arm which jerked down, pulling the handlebars downward. The droid's speeder dropped down and rammed into a large monolithic tree.

The remaining droid was unperturbed by Giin's riding and fired at Hondo and scoring a glancing blow. Hondo, still in control of his superficially damaged vehicle, aimed and blasted at his attacker. The droid's chest erupted in a miasma of sparks and smoke, but he hung on to his speeder.

That's a lot of blast for a blaster.

The BlasTech EE-3 boomstick is a glorious boomstick.

Suddenly, Giin braked and came alongside the injured droid, his EE-3 blaster rifle unslung. The droid, still shaken by the blast, reacted too late. The point blank shot disintegrated the droid, a beat-up Z-X3, he noticed, and the riderless speeder spiraled down and crashed into a wide river beneath them.

The two sped on wondering why they were attacked.

 

EOTE: On the Trail of Dad

31 December 2014 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 08 On The Trail of Dad

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

Irfan had 35 XPs, so he blew it on a couple of more Talents, namely a second Skilled Jockey, a second Galaxy Mapper and Improved Dead to Rights. He was free of any Obligations for this episode after rolling an 81. (His Obligation: Family is 30 and Giin's Obligation: Bounty is 20). Finally the Destiny pool was 2 light side and one dark side.

First RPG session in Perlis!

We still don't really have a table for a tabletop game so we play on our moving boxes.

On his homewold of Blue Nirvada, the young smuggler Hondo Pash, the captain of the Lava Jaeger has discovered that both his parents, long thought to be dead, were still alive and appeared to be mortal enemies. His mother was Doro Pash and his father, the Imperial Admiral Keargan Kanu. Upon Hondo and his armoured mercenary guard Giin Lawquane rescuing his aunt Zosy Pash from Imperial agents, Zosy revealed that it was a trap to capture Hondo. However, when the trap was sprung, Admiral Kanu captured Hondo's 9-year-old sister Yuzy instead, making the jump to lightspeed in a Lambda-class shuttle in space...

Snow swept through and over a black caldera - known as Obsidian Island - that formed a ring-like atoll on the glistening icy, white plain surrounding it as far as the eye could see and the blizzard would allow to see.

Three figures walked through the snow in the open streets of the city in the inner rim of the caldera. Hondo, Giin and Aunt Zosy headed for the Lava Jaeger after admitting local Trandoshan police officer Klikwask - who was badly injured during Zosy's rescue - in a bacta tank at the public infirmary.

"What do we do bothth?" Giin's eeriely modulated voice said through his full helmet.

"We have to find Yuzy."

"How, bothth?"

"I'm going to track Yuzy's comlink."

 

EOTE: I Was Young When I Left Home

30 October 2014 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 07 I Was Young When I Left Home

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

Irfan did not use any of his 15 XP to upgrade his character Hondo Pash. He rolled Destiny Points for the PC and the two main NPCs, who are basically auxiliary PCs anyway.

Blowin' In The Wind

Recently departed from the port of Silverlake in the Naboo system, the Lava Jaeger flew into Blue Nirvada's atmosphere, a frozen ocean world orbiting a blue dwarf star in the Tarabba Sector.

However, there was a vicious snowstorm along their flight path toward Obsidian Island, the hometown of Captain Hondo Pash and his 9-year-old sister Yuzy Pash where they grew up. The armoured mercenary gunslinger Giin Lawquane in the co-pilot seat with the BlasTech EE-3 blaster rifle slung on his back asked, "Do we wait it out?"

Hondo took a second to ruminate, then decided, "Let's go in." The YT-1300 light freighter plunged into the maelstrom of ice and snow. Buffetted by incredible bursts of wind, Giin was thrown off the co-pilot station. Astromech R2-8D8 rushed to help with the controls, but a tremendous downdraft slammed down hard onto the Lava Jaeger. Hondo was unable to control the ship which then crashed into the snow-swept ice fields beneath. The ship skidded on the plains.

Giin Lawquane is floored.

Artoo beeped a warning: They were skidding at high speed towards a large patch of rock that rose above the ice field. Hondo fired the ship thrusters to bring the ship to a stop before they crashed into it. Damaged, they decided to wait out the storm. Yuzy served everyone meiloorun-flavoured ice cream.

 

BareBones Fantasy: The First GM Session

20 September 2014 | Hisham | | Role Playing Games, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays
 

Earlier this week, Irfan gamemastered his first RPG session with his friend at his friend's house.

He had took my printed out copy of BareBones Fantasy, created his own pregenerated characters (asking me a few questions along the way), drew a simple terrain map and filled it with opponents.

His friend Fikree, I was told, named his pregenned human spellcaster William Jester. Irfan's own GMPC is a dwarf named Hector Zorin, a warrior with a greataxe, a battleaxe, and a warhammer.

The Simple Scenario

Because I was not present to witness the game being played, I interviewed Irfan for details of what went down in the session.

William and Hector were scouting the woods near the town where they lived because travellers had been disappearing there.

Near a rocky hill surrounded by thick trees they spotted a cave entrance that was guarded by a lizardman.

The session notes and charsheets

Photo of the artifacts used in the event!

They decided to attack. (Initiative order resulted in lizardman first, Hector second and William last.) The lizardman stabbed Hector with his spear (causing 11 Damage). Hector swung his greataxe but missed. William used his spellcasting power to hurl a fireball at the lizardman (using the Offensive Strike spell inflicting 7 Damage on 10 Body Points. 3 BP left).

The lizardman lunged once again, but his spear failed to stab Hector once more. Hector's greataxe sliced the lizardman in two (with 10 Damage) ending the battle.

They decided to explore the cave passage and discovered a crossroad that continued forward and also branched left and right. The passage ahead had a large cache of gold, which was freshly mined, apparently by the lizardmen. There were no lizardmen seen except for two guards waiting at the left and right passages.

Hector and William attempted to sneak past them. (They rolled Scout skill for stealth, but they both failed.) Lizardmen noticed their approach, readied their spears and attacked. (Initiative order: Hector, William, then the two lizardmen.)

Hector had his battleaxe ready but failed to strike a blow on the attacking lizardman. William's fireball blasted second lizardman into fiery bits (with 12 damage, 2 more than needed to kill him).

The first lizardman then succeeded in piercing Hector's body (inflicting 11 Damage, leaving 18 BP left; Hector was a tank - I saw Irfan roll Strength 60, then augmented it by 10 because of his dwarf characteristics). Hector retaliated with his greataxe, but missed. William's fireball attack also missed!

The lizardman thought he would finally be able to kill Hector, but fortunately the dwarf deftly dodged the spear thrust. Then Hector used his warhammer to strike the lizardman's head and slaying him (for 18 damage).

William Jester said, "Can we claim the gold now?"

Hector replied, "Yes." And the session ended.

I asked Irfan what his plans were for the game. He said, after the lizardmen disappeared, travellers were still going missing, so William and Hector will have to investigate further. He hopes to continue the adventure in the future.

I was pleasantly surprised that he was able manage a game session with a solo player. I remember he was very reluctant when I asked him once. Obviously, he needs to work on his worldbuilding skills so I'll be trying to teach him how to do that. (Why are the lizardmen there? Are they really evil? Why hasn't anyone else discovered the cave and the gold within?)

 

Golden Sky Stories: Intro Game

19 September 2014 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games
 

Last night, Doug came over to run a game for Irfan and I before he had to move, and it would be more difficult to meet up at nights regularly.

We played Golden Sky Stories for the first time. Set in rural Japanese township (not unlike a films like Tonari No Totoro) Golden Sky Stories is a tabletop roleplaying game where players take the role of magical animals called henge who are able to change into human form.

It's a great game to be played with children because there's not a single iota of violence, or situations that put the player characters in dire peril. It's all to do with making friends with other henge or little children in a small township in a rural Japanese countryside.

In fact, if you can grasp the situations in Tonari no Totoro where characters experience wonder and express their likes and dislike in childlike ways. The characters are never in any physical danger and there are no villains.

Doug and Irfan and shoes!
 

Diceless System

Task resolution is not achieved by rolling dice, but with points that you use to activate your powers, or increase your characteristics to beat a target number or your opponent's characteristics. It's like GUMSHOE's resource management system without rolling any d6s.

Whatever you need to do can be defined by four characteristics: Henge, Animal, Adult and Child. You also have points in Dreams, Wonder, and Feelings. Dreams allow you to create and strengthen connections with other characters. You also spend Dreams to transform into your human form or partial human form. Wonder allows you to activate your magical powers. Feelings are the points you need to increase your characteristics to beat high target numbers.

Intro Scenario

We generated characters quickly. Irfan was Kamineko the grey sleepy cat who lazes all over the town of Hitotsuna. I played Kuro, the black rabbit who lives in the town school, who thinks he's a dog.

Kuro was digging up (or trying to dig up bones) in a field outside of town when he came across Kamineko who was trying to sleep on top of an old abandoned shrine. Kuro invited Kamineko to help him dig for bones, but the cat henge refused to help the manic, identity-challenged rabbit henge.

Suddenly Kuro discovered that there was another henge in the shrine. It was a fox who identified herself as Suzune. The shrine was hers!

After a conversation that led to Suzune to bash her head on the side of her shrine because of Kuro's insistance that he was a dog, it began to get dark. Kuro and Kamineko thought it was time to get back home and transformed into their half-human forms (by spending Dreams.) Then it started to rain!

Kuro transformed back into his rabbit form and hid in the shrine. But Suzune convinced them all to huddle together under a big tree.

I rabbited!
 

Kuro noticed something strange. There were no clouds in the sky and the full moon was bright. Kuro used her Please power to act cute, rub against Suzune's legs to get her to submit to his cuteness. Suzune began to weep. She said she was lonely and no one had come to her shrine for many, many years. Kuro promise that he and Kamineko would come every day to visit her so she wont be lonely.

Immediately the rain stopped. Suzune was happy, bade her new friends farewell, then waited for the next time Kamineko and Kuro would visit.

The End

After that, we created new Connections and Irfan spent Dreams to strengthen the non-player character Suzune's connection with him.

Irfan had some trouble adapting to the whimsical and childlike aspects of the game, probably because he was more used to firing blasters in Star Wars and using an axe in BareBones Fantasy, but in later talks he appeared to be able to grasp the concepts better. Perhaps he would be able to game better should we play it again.

Many thanks to Doug for running Golden Sky Stories for us!

 

EOTE: Family Obligations

15 September 2014 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 06 Family Obligations

Previously on Edged by the Empire...

Music by Kevin Kiner

Obligatory opening crawl!

Before the game began, no Obligations were triggered. As before, even if there was only one player, I considered all three main characters as player characters so three Force Dice were rolled, resulting in a Destiny Pool of 3 Light Side Points and 1 Dark Side Points. Irfan finally did some character advancements with the 60XPs he had been saving up, purchasing the Dead to Rights Talent and upgrading skills like Melee, Piloting (Space), Gunnery and Stealth.

The YT-1300 light freighter Lava Jaeger and her crew, Captain Hondo Pash, his kid sister Yuzy Pash, their armoured hired gunslinger Giin Lawquane and the astromech droids R2-8B8 and R5-K2 arrived at Naboo where Imperial Star Destroyer Obdurate was patrolling. Hondo informed them of their cargo of computer parts from Christophsis bound for Silverlake a port city on Naboo.

As they approach the lakeside city after a pair of Z-95 Headhunters fly past their freighter and ignoring them, the weapons lock klaxon blared. Giin - stationed at the top turret - said over the comlink, "What ith going on?" A missile was streaking toward them from the city outskirts. Hondo told him, "Hold on!"

Grinning at a missed missile

After spending one Preparation maneuver, Hondo's Piloting (Space) roll succeeds with a Triumph as net results show!

The Lava Jaeger jinked, the missile missed and Giin (with an extra Boost dice from of the Triumph) blasted the missile out of the Naboo skies.

 

Call of Cthulhu: Healthcare Blues

18 June 2014 | Hisham | | RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Stark Future of San Francisco
 
Retroactively created 26th March 2016

Episode 3

Last time on Call of Cthulhu (almost two years ago in realtime), Detective D.J. Stark played by Irfan (the youngest Call of Cthulhu player ever? I have no idea) killed his partner who turned out to be a ghoul cultist and prevented an entity called Sharakh-Kheth from emerging from its universe into ours. However he was badly injured - lots of broken bones - and was hospitalised.

Three weeks later he was moved from intensive care into a shared hospital ward at Saint Agatha Medical Centre in Brisbane, San Francisco, located all the way in Firth Park Canyon.

Doctor Geisler was his doctor. His wardmates were three other elderly men Beck, Dolce and Nunez. The ward had one window that had an iron grill installed. Stark could see trees outside from the third story of the hospital.

Everything is awesome!

Doctor Geisler looking at Stark at his bed. Beside him and by the door is Beck. In front of Beck is Dolce. In front of Stark is Nunez.

Day One

In the morning, Eleanor Stark a professor of linguistics and mother to D.J. came to visit. She mothered him, telling him that Dr. Geisler had told her that he would be released after a week. He would be undergoing physiotherapy every day in the meantime. Before she left, Eleanor gave him a package addressed to him and hastily wrapped in brown paper that she found at his house.

Once left alone, he unwrapped the package. Inside was an old book with yellowing pages. But before he could continue reading Beck called out to him to introduce himself. Dolce joined in. Nunez, the oldest of them, did not. He was awake, sitting up but appeared catatonic. Beck said, "Mister Nunez here was fine when he first got here. A few days ago he woke up and never spoke again. Just looks into space."

Stark began to study the book from the package. The cover had ornate Chinese characters with "Chao Manuscript" lightly written in English with pencil. He thought, It must have been sent by Mister Chao. Everything had been written in Chinese. Some sections had handwritten translated English notes. He began reading some of the translated passages. "Spells"? "Impose Will For A Short Time" (The Mental Suggestion spell from the rulebook)? He spent all morning and noon trying to understand the passage.

At 3 P.M. the physiotherapist Salazar arrived with a pair of crutches for Stark. Together they left the ward, passing by the nurses' station, some storage rooms and an empty pediatrics ward. While hobbling past Doctor Hagen's office - the hospital's Operations Director - he saw the man at his desk talking animatedly into his phone at his desk. There was a computer on his desk, a closet behind him, an aquarium tank on the wall.

Finally they reached the Physiotherapy ward.

Stark returned to his ward by 5. Soon it was dinner time. Yay, hospital food.

At 8 P.M. while family members were visiting the others Stark tried studying Chao's book some more. Beck's granddaughter came over with a plate of pie which Stark graciously accepted. Stark noticed that Nunez's only visitor, his daughter, was in tears trying to coax her father to respond to her to no avail.

Then, Nurse Cutler entered the room. She was there to take some blood from Stark. Stark (successfully rolling his INTx5 for Perception) noticed that Nunez began trembling, his eye wide with absolute fear. He allowed the head nurse to do her job and leave. Nunez ceased trembling after she left the room. 

Lights were turned off after visiting hours.

Stark heard a sound and woke up. According to the wall clock it was 11 P.M. In the shadows, he saw Nurse Cutler standing over the sleeping Beck. She produced a large, unusually archaic-looking needle from her apron pocket and appeared to be taking his blood. Stark thought nothing of it and returned to sleep.

Gary's Gift

Edition 5.6.1

Day Two

 

EOTE Tabletop Day Episode: First Day on the Job

05 April 2014 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

For International Tabletop Day today, Irfan a quick game of Edge of the Empire for Irfan. Then, Farid and Cikma came a-visiting and Farid joined the game.

Edged by the Empire

Episode 05 First Day on the Job

Previously: Hondo Pash and his little sister Yuzy Pash had finally freed themselves of the crime lord Teemo the Hutt. With their newfound friend the armoured bounty hunter Giin Lawquane and two astromech droids R2-8B8 and R5-K2, they began to carve a life for themselves in the spacelanes of the Outer Rim Territories with their YT-1300 light freighter Lava Jaeger. The first stop in their quest for their first freight job: the planet Rodia.

Formerly the Krayt Fang

Formerly the Krayt Fang, the Lava Jaeger soars away from the Tatooine system. 

The ship set down in Landing Bay 4 in the small town of Port Trammel on Rodia. (Music played: "Approaching Rodia" by Kevin Kiner from Star Wars: The Clone Wars for atmosphere. You can find the mp3 at his website.)

Hondo is met by 32-VEX, the starport authority droid who welcomed him to Port Trammel. Hondo had 375 credits. After port fees, he now had 345 credits.

32-VEX asked, "Are you here for business or pleasure?"

Looking at his wallet, he said, "Definitely business. I'm looking for a freight jobs with my ship."

VEX informed him, "Although we're a small settlement, we do have requirement for offworld shipping. Feel free to ask around. Have a nice day."

After the droid left, Yuzy came running down with her walking staff, followed by Giin and R5-K2. The nine-year-old chirped, "Okay, Hondo. I'm off to go buy some food and provisions for the ship!"

Hondo was surprised. "Wait! We don't have the money to spend!"

"Oh," she grinned cheerfully. "I swiped 200 credits from Teemo's palace before we left. We'll be fine."

Giin shrugged. "You want me to go with her, bothth?"

"Yes. Protect her. Please."

"See you in three hours," said Yuzy with a smile. And then R5, Giin and Yuzy was out the landing bay doorway.

Hondo, the GM and Gheed.

Man, I need a better gaming table. 

 

Robotech RPG: The Sinkhole Situation

28 March 2014 | Hisham | | Role Playing Games, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays
 

Irfan began a playing a new game today: Palladium's Robotech RPG. Sila had a copy back in our teenage years. I played less than her friends and her did because I was away from home for most of the time. We were totally into Robotech. Sila taped every episode for me to watch when I'm back from boarding school. We bought and read as many of the Jack McKinney novelisations as we could.

And 25 years later Irfan is now playing it. I'm running it. I admit I was curious to see how the system feels like when I'm now 40 years old.

John Barnes charsheet

He rolled up an RDF Veritech pilot named John Barnes, named after Troy Barnes of Community, played by Donald Glover.

Actual play report follows:

January 7, 2009

RDF Nouakchott Base 

Flight officer Barnes was an F-22 fighter pilot, assigned to the Robotech Defense Force base outside Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania. His usual missions were flying patrol sorties along the West African coast. He had been training in a VF-1 simulator for months, but he had never seen one before...

Until today.

A flight of three new fighters landed at the base early in the morning. They had livery of dark blue with light grey highlights. The Nouakchott base insignia was painted on both its tailfins. Although it resembled the obsolete F-14s, it had modules that fit onto the fuselage strangely. He knew what they were. It was time to see them at work.

Squadron Commander Shiryo Kikue ordered Barnes to fly the new VF-1J on a northwest heading at ten thousand feet and engage an F-35 in a mock aerial combat sent from RDF Gibraltar. The base had a dozen Destroids - ground-based mecha - assigned to it that was used to patrol the coastline and the wastelands surrounding the city, but this was the first time Veritechs were assigned to Nouakchott.

Barnes made himself comfortable in the VF-1J's cockpit and familiarised himself with the "thinking cap" helmet. Just after sunrise, the fighter was airborn.

 

EOTE: Return to Mos Shuuta

14 January 2014 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 04 Return to Mos Shuuta

Upon the Lava JaegerThe Star Wars RPG adventure continues from the previous session with Act 2 of The Long Arm of the Hutt free downloadable adventure (PDF download, low res version, 2.4MB). The story arc concludes with "Return to Mos Shuuta", but the module has been extensively modified to account for a lot of changes that took place in the course of several sessions.

Irfan rolls the Force Dice and gets 3 Dark Side Points.

Kaliklak Hive, Geonosis

As Teemo the Hutt's agent Zasvid the Brizzit was being taken away from Archduke Poggle the Irredeemable's audience chamber in Kaliklak Hive on Geonosis, Hondo Pash the captain of Lava Jaeger, the Twi'lek Numa of the Nabat Militia and the astromech droid R2-8B8 considered their next move. For his transgressions against Teemo's less-than-savoury enterprise on Ryloth and Geonosis, the Hutt planned to abduct Yuzy Pash, Hondo's sister at Mos Espa on Tatooine.

Because of his badly injured arm (Critical injury: Crippled Arm) Hondo spent the night in a bacta tank courtesy of Archduke Poggle. The next morning, after Hondo was decanted from the tank, Numa and he geared up for the mission to Tatooine.

Archduke Poggle gave permission for R2-8B8 to join their company and bade him farewell. Lava Jaeger took off and Hondo made a success jump to Tatooine. (Astrogation 1 success)

 

BareBones Fantasy: Over The Hills and Far Away

30 December 2013 | Hisham | | Role Playing Games, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays
 

Some time ago, I ran BareBones Fantasy RPG for Irfan. The campaign is set in the default setting: the Keranak Kingdoms! Late afternoon yesterday, we continued the game with him playing the halfling spellcaster-warrior Jake Hastur and I running the human scholar-scout Finn Riverwyld. We stopped by sundown and resumed the game this morning.

Last time, Jake and Finn were commissioned by Duchess Lyla Keranak of Kingsbridge to look for her missing brother Captain Kane Keranak, or at the very least return his signet ring back to her. The duo travelled to the Island of Netharak where he was last seen. After having rested in Mr. Bonewall's house at the fishing port of Dronak, Jake and Finn geared up and set out northwest to where Kane was last seen headed.

I bet there's an Elven Ranger Smith in this game somewhere

Not the real cover of this game, but a bear does appear later in the game.

Day One

The duo headed into the thick jungle.

By noon, Jake had almost wandered into a river with foul black water but Finn with his superior scouting skills stopped the faux pas. Then a large, slimy tentacle burst out of the water. They both hastily retreated toward separate directions, but the tentacle hunted after Finn, who promptly hid in thick bushes beside a fallen tree. Jake hid up a slope by tall trees and bushes. Before the tentacle found Finn, Jake cast a lightning bolt (29 from Offensive Strike 56%) that blew a hole midway down the tentacle, spilling its black blood.

Finn used the distraction to roll under the fallen tree trunk and scramble up the slope toward Jake. As the flailing tentacle smashed up nearby flora in pain looking for prey, Jake's second lightning bolt hit, severing it where the bolt struck. The tentacle withdrew rapidly into the river. Finn thanked Jake as they resumed their journey.

The 29% roll!

We never did find out where the tentacle came from.

They were halfway up a heavily-forested mountain when night fell. It was raining heavily. Jake cast a spell to push away the rainclouds away from the mountain. Finn set up their tent and a fire and began dinner.

The night passed by without incident.

 

Doctor Who AITAS: The Flames of Salem

30 October 2013 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games
 

Doug ran a great Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG session just in time for Halloween! Continuing the previous session Feet of Flesh, Feet of Steel!

After discovering that the blue box that the Doctor and Cindy brought them into was bigger on the inside, Max Fox the amnesiac robot engineer from the year 3027 and Doctor Olujimi the Kenyan country doctor from 1975 were ready to leave the planet Klaris.

At the control room, the Doctor - looking bewildered - asked if they smelled something cooking. Max and Olujimi did. They followed the Doctor who ran through a doorway that brought them even deeper into the TARDIS. Ultimately, they halted in a room full of pipes. There was a heavily-built man, blonde and barrel-chested with thick arms wearing a grimy apron and a chef's hat. He was frying a kipper while singing The Turkish Song of the Dead. There was no stove, just glowing hot surfaces in the room. He had an array of condiments and a bottle of olive oil on a makeshift shelf on the wall, which might not have been designed to be a shelf. Olujimi asked, "Why do you have Popeye in your blue box, Doctor?"

He introduced himself as Sebastian Cuddy a sailor from Alaska who the Doctor picked up at a previous stop. He offered them some kipper, but the Doctor was aghast at his usage of the Transducer Modifier as a hot plate. After being chided by the Doctor, Sebastian cheerfully stowed away his cooking gear. Even the kipper was stuffed into his trousers pocket.

Sebastian appeared to believe that they were aboard a seagoing vessel, talking as if the TARDIS had a sail, an engine room and a bilge.

Sebastian introduces himself to the new Companions

Without warning the lights went out. Even the Doctor was surprised. In the dark there emerged a ghostly vision of five faces: An African man wearing a top hat, a lady, a little girl who suddenly threw a spectral brick at Max scaring him, a shivering man with pointy ears and a woman with her eyes looking down. Suddenly the woman looked up at them and screamed a spine-tingling shriek.

As abruptly as it appeared, the vision disappeared.

The Doctor called everyone to follow him as he returned to the control room. He pulled on levers and pressed on buttons. Everything rocked and swayed violently. Cindy, Sebastian, Max and Olujimi struggled to stay on their feet.

The rocking ceased and the Doctor rushed to the entrance and opened the door. Cindy told the others, "You'll get used to this."

Episode 02

Salem, Massachusetts, 17th Century Earth

To Max and Olujimi's wonder, the TARDIS was now standing in a small clearing forest field surrounded by maple, oak and birch trees on what is recognisably the planet Earth. The Doctor led them all through the woods where he claimed there should be a town. Soon, horse-drawn carts were trundling past them and chimney smoke rose into the blue sky not far away.

 

EOTE: Aggressive Negotiations

25 October 2013 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 03 Aggressive Negotiations

The Star Wars RPG adventure continues from the previous session with Act 2 of The Long Arm of the Hutt free downloadable adventure (PDF download, low res version, 2.4MB). The original title of this chapter is Geonosian Negotiations.

On the run from Teemo the Hutt, the smuggler Hondo Pash found himself with new Twi'lek allies on Ryloth after helping to overthrow a bullying mining boss at the town of New Meen. The Twi'leks of Nabat, including the commander Nyn Kablo and the fighter Numa, helped Hondo to repair the YT-1300 light freighter that he had liberated from the Trandoshan slaver Trex. The ship had now been renamed Lava Jaeger.

Everything is arrayed for action!

Yeesh. I need to organise things better.

Farewell to Ryloth

The return trip from New Meen to Nabat was uneventful. The Twi'lek miner B'ura B'an had decided to stay behind at New Meen to help with the clean up. Upon their arrival, they immediately reported to Nyn Kablo, who informed them that a crashed Dunelizard fighter was found about 30 klicks south of Nabat. It might have been the one that attacked the Lava Jaeger (then the Krayt Fang) during their Ryloth approach. No pilot was found, but they discovered a partial holo recording of Teemo the Hutt ordering a Kubaz named Thwheek to kill a Geonosian droid engineer. The recording of Teemo said, "The Geonosians must never know what Sivor discovered. Archduke Poggle the Irredeemable (no relation to Archduke Poggle the Lesser) of the Kaliklak Hive must never know we killed Sivor if we are to purchase battle droids from him. Bring Sivor to Trex. He'll dispose of the body. Meanwhile, track down this Hondo Pash and kill him."

Why had Teemo ordered the Archduke's droid engineer killed? What had Sivor found out? Numa said, "We must not let Teemo have battle droids. We have to stop it."

Numa geared up with an armoured jacket and grabbed an EE-3 blaster rifle that she had left with Kablo for safekeeping. As they headed for the Lava Jaeger, they saw someone slink out of the docking bay's front door. It was a Kubaz. Thwheek?

The Kubaz unholstered his blaster pistol. Numa fired a burst to distract him. It worked as Hondo's subsequent shot hit the Kubaz. Although wounded, he still stood. The Kubaz's blaster scored a blow. Hondo was hurt (minus 9 wounds to 3 Wound Threshold.) Numa managed to shoot his pistol out of his hands (Triumph in an attack roll.) He attempted to jump the weapon but failed to grab the tumbling blaster. Hondo had his DL-17 pistol trained on the Kubaz and he pulled the trigger. A flash heralded a billow of smoke from the Kubaz's chest.

Kablo and other armed Twi'lek came running to see what the commotion was all about. Hondo found two grenades on the Kubaz. Before their flight to Geonosis, both Numa and Hondo performed a visual inspection but did found nothing out of the ordinary on or aboard the black-and-yellow Lava Jaeger.

Yes. Some boy that lives in this house loved Pacific Rim

The Lava Jaeger

 

EOTE: Rugged Road to the Ryll Mines Part 2

18 September 2013 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 02 Rugged Road to the Ryll Mines, Part 2

I forgot when this Triumph came up.

I totally forgot when this Triumph came up.

The adventure continues from the previous entry: I ran the second session for Act 1 of The Long Arm of the Hutt free downloadable adventure (PDF download, low res version, 2.4MB) on Tuesday morning.

Barreling Through the Badlands

The mission began in the morning. B'ura and Hondo were joined by a Rutian Twi'lek female named Numa. She was in her early twenties and bore a blaster pistol and a vibroknife. Kablo brought them to the east end of Nabat where a tech crew was rolling out an old landspeeder from storage. They were to head east through the badlands for about 300 klicks.

At first piloting a speeder over the badlands was a cinch. Then rocky mounds appeared, and forced Hondo to steer carefully past the dangerous rocks. However (with a Piloting - Planetary roll that resulted in a Triumph) Hondo was able to swerve past all obstacles with no problems.

Fifty klicks from New Meen a tall mound of reddish, misshappen rocks loomed to their right as they passed it. (Hondo failed a Perception check so...) A sniper blaster bolt struck the speeder's right engine. Failing to avert a crash, both Hondo and Numa were lightly injured, and B'ura was unhurt. Numa used a stimpack to treat her own wounds and pulled back behind the crashed speeder's chassis.

However a well-placed bolt struck B'ura as he leapt for cover, badly injuring him. (11 damage out of 12 Wound Threshold - 3 successes with a 8 damage blaster rifle.)

 

EOTE: Rugged Road to the Ryll Mines Part 1

17 September 2013 | Hisham | | Edged By The Empire, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Edged by the Empire

Episode 02 Rugged Road to the Ryll Mines, Part 1

Some sort of happy gamemaster
Last Monday, Irfan and I finally continued his Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG adventures. I ran The Long Arm of the Hutt free downloadable adventure (PDF download, low res version, 2.4MB) from Fantasy Flight Games' website with some alterations to the story and non-player characters.

With the new EotE Core Rulebook, Irfan earlier created his own player character based on the Beginner Game pregenerated character Pash. His new PC in named Hondo Pash, a smuggler with a pilot specialisation, and purchased the Talents Let's Ride, Galaxy Mapper and Skilled Jockey. He wields a DH-17 blaster pistol and a vibrosword. His story continues from Pash's story from Escape from Mos Shuuta from the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game.

His Obligation was to the safety of his younger sister Yuzy Pash who lived on Tatooine. Fortunately, the Obligation was not triggered at the start of the game.

Previously, Hondo, who escaped the wrath of Teemo the Hutt - a crime boss based in the city of Mos Shuuta on Tatooine - by evading the Hutt's thugs, Imperial stormtoopers and stole the Krayt Fang, a rust-colored YT-1300 light freighter that belonged to Trex, a Trandoshan bounty hunter. After a brief skirmish with TIE fighters launched from an Imperator-class Star Destroyer, Hondo made a short jump to lightspeed and escaped his pursuers.

Quick Pause at the Heliopause

The Krayt Fang reverted back to realspace at the edge of the Tatooine system. There were loud klaxons, flashing alert icons at the navicomputer and loud snorting and grunting sounds coming from the cockpit speakers. Worst of all, there was a nasty stench from which there was no escape aboard the ship. Hondo tried to determine the source of the spoor but failed. (And thus incurred a Setback die for every dice pool thereon.)

Hondo shut off the klaxons and the Gamorrean opera (he discovered on the audio player's playlist). Then he found that one of the alert icons denoted that fuel was low. The navicomputer tagged the Ryloth system as the only location the ship could reach to refuel before fuel was depleted. However, he was unable to decipher the second alert icon.

The smuggler made the jump to Ryloth without any problem. (The Galaxy Mapper talent removed the stench-caused Setback die to the Astrogation roll.)

 

Doctor Who AITAS: Feet of Flesh, Feet of Steel

29 August 2013 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Misc Sci-Fi, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games
 

Doug GMed Cubicle 7's Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space RPG for Irfan and I for the first time and it was an enjoyable night. For Irfan this was the first time someone other than me was the gamemaster.

We played Fox and Olujimi just as they were stranded on the planet Klaris in the far future after hunting and failing to detain the big game hunter Breybrooke who was driven insane, corrupted by alien technology he had unearthed in Kenya in the year 1977.

Episode 01

Klaris

The game began as the duo was dining with their impromptu host Hermis, a Klarisian who served them haphis, a floating and slowly-spinning ball of edible mass that replenished itself as it was being scooped by cutlery. Olujimi thought it would taste more like cheese but it did not. Fox just ate away in silence.

Player's Guide with Tennant on the cover

Stranded on Klaris

City guards knocked on Hermis' door, and the guard leaded, a woman named Hollis, insisted that the newcomers who helped fight off Breybrooke be brought before their leaders. The guards were heavily hooded and gazed only at the floor. Hollis took them through the Klarisian city with domed buildings, columns and floating light globes. Olujimi and Fox were brought to a tall chamber with alien sculptures that floated and appeared to slightly move. Obus, a hooded man wearing elaborate robes and a tall collar awaited them there.

 

BareBones Fantasy: The TableTop Day Session

30 March 2013 | Hisham | | Role Playing Games, RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays
 

For International TableTop Day, I thought I'd run another a continuation of BareBones Fantasy RPG campaign for Irfan. Thus, Irfan's Jake Hastur the halfling wizard and my GM-run NPC Finn Riverwyld the warrior-scholar go once more unto the breach in the city of Kingsbridge in the Keranak Kingdoms.

Jake's player
 

The game began at approximately 1000 hours local time on Saturday morning (+8 hours UTC) and we stopped for lunch at 1200 hours. We thought we could continue later at night, maybe after dinner, but it was not meant to be. We will continue tomorrow.

Session One: Journey to Netharak Island

BareBones Fantasy uses the d00 percentile system, with percentile Ability and Skill rolls, while damages are sum of d10 rolls.

Before we began, Finn bought a new longsword. Jake desired a spear, so Finn gave him his own which he had not enough Warrior (melee) skill to wield properly. Irfan spent his Development Points to bring Jake's Strength from 45 up to 50 so he can use his spear effectively and without any Strength penalty.

The story began with the duo being summoned to the House of Duchess Lyla Keranak at the swanky part of Kingsbridge.  The Duchess would pay them 250 gold pieces each (100 in advance) to search for her missing younger brother, the House's captain of the guard Kane Keranak. They are to return Kane back to the House, or if he was dead bring his ring back to her. He was last seen going on an unknown quest to the Isle of Netharak, which Duchess Lyla pointed out to them on the map. When they reach the island, they are to report to a Mr. Bonewall in the fishing village of Dronak, who will report of their arrival to the Duchess via a message hawk, and let them know where Kane Keranak journeyed off to.

After paying the stable 2 gold pieces for taking care of Jack the horse, they both rode for a day westward to the foothills of the mountain range know as the Shielding Wall. Finn's successful Scholar roll revealed that the mining town of Hammerclash was nearby.