Once upon a time, I ran a Star Wars D6 campaign for cadet pilots at Perth Aerodrome while I was studying to be a greasemonkey. The year was 1992. The party created a custom freighter they named the Magma-3. In fact, a lot of details about this campaign has been lost from my memory. However, I have retained some notes and photos of our shenanigans from that time. Before I lose more details to the ravages of time like tears in the rain, I should transfer as much information I have from my notes to this blog post as capsule write-ups of each session. Caveat: I do not recall most of the NPCs, locations and situations in these sessions. Heck, I can barely remember the players’ names. Star Wars D6 Voyage of the Magma-3 In any case, here are the first four session. Episode 1 The Mining Cauldron Earl Metolkian […]
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25 Years of Star Wars RPG (2014)
Every tabletop RPG blog post ever written and published on this blog. Some RPG actual play reports, some RPG thoughts, some RPG artwork.
Note: All posts herein are arrayed latest first and earliest last.
RPG Webinar for Mahsa University
After the meeting with MAHSA University last month, it was finally time to speak at the webinar that they organised entitled: Tabletop Roleplaying Games for Teaching and Learning Languages This was the first time I did an RPGs in education talk for an inter-university programme. Despite how I seemed, I was nervous as heck and spent a lot of time coming up with the slides. A lot of the pages I wrote for it are brand new, requiring not just new text, but also new images. To view the talk on MAHSA University’s YouTube channel, click here. I hope this will be the first of many programmes where I attempt to convince educators of the benefits of employing RPGs as teaching tools.
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Visit to MAHSA University
Several weeks ago, I received an email from MAHSA University in Selangor. They would like to know more about using tabletop RPGs as teaching and learning tools, especially for their language classes. I set a date to meet with their faculty members earlier today, as we would be on vacation in Sepang. I also called my former student and current research assistant (not mine, actually) Aidil and we went for the meeting. Meanwhile, Irfan drove and waited in the car. During the meeting I introduced them to the world of TTRPGs by bring with me a bunch of books and starter sets which included maps, cards and pregenerated characters. Aidil helped a lot in explaining. No, I did not run a game for them, but I did explain to them how I ran RPG session in my classrooms with students. A request by them for me to talk in an […]
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Aidiladha in Selangor
It was Hari Raya Aidiladha. We drove down south towards Salak Tinggi to Anya’s house even though they were spending their first few days in Kelantan. They would return home when we were still there. For the first few days, we were at their place with Cik Su F as company. On the third day of our visit, I went to call on Shide at his office/events space Area 27 Events and Co-working Space in Bandar Baru Seri Petaling . Then, then next day I met up with my former student Aidil to plan for the MAHSA University meeting. Here are the pictures of the first few days in Selangor. The next day, we visited MAHSA University.
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STA: Three’s a Crowd
Star Trek: Thine Own Self S2 E03 Three’s A Crowd *** Stardate: 57930.2 – Sat Dec 06 2380 10:50:16 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Cmdr. Kodar Tamat, Cardassian engineering officer and mission commander Dr. Thomas Crane, Human medical officer (NPC) Lt. Leahman Barclay, Human conn officer (Semi-temporary NPC) Ensign Sparik, Vulcan conn officer (NPC). Previously on Star Trek Thine Own Self… Into the Mushroom Caves Kodar Tamat, Leahmann Barclay, Thomas Crane and Sparik rush into the mushroom forest in the enormous, presumably the Kom-Rhanok towards the central stone pillar of the enormous subterranean cavern. Presumably they would be able to contact the USS Sienkiewicz. – which is in orbit – from that stone pillar. Thankfully, their hand phasers still work. However their tricorders are limited to a range of 50 metres and the jamming field is still preventing them from calling their starship. Light patches from bio-luminescent moss give the space […]
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Lazy Unboxing of Three RPG Starter Box Sets
A couple of days ago I received my order of three tabletop role-playing game starter sets. Three boxes! The Star Trek Adventures RPG Starter Set, Alien RPG Starter Set, and The One Ring Starter Set. I thought I would make an lazy, amateurish video unboxing video of the three games. Here is the video: I hope I DO get to run them soon. Addendum (30th November 2022): SPOILERS – he did NOT get to run them soon.
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Alien RPG: The Mei Mei Scenario
And so it came to pass Irfan and I tried a short, simple Alien RPG scenario for the first time when we were at Pasir Mas. Alien RPG: The Mei Mei Scenario Dramatis Personae Irfan plays Dr. Karmo the medic Anya – perhaps the youngest Alien RPG player in the world – plays Mei Mei the kid Mei Mei was alone, exploring the many dark corridors of the transport ship USCSS Anning Black. That was when she spotted seething dark mass in the shadows of the far side of the corridor. It was one of the alien creatures that had been let loose aboard the ship while most of the passengers were still in hypersleep. It began to creep towards the horrified little girl. She remembered the laser pointer in her pocket and how it used to distract cats. Then, Mei Mei pointed it to the wall beside the alien while […]
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STA: Breaking Out
Star Trek: Thine Own Self S02 E02 Breaking Out *** Stardate: 57930.0 – Sat Dec 06 2380 0931 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Cmdr. Kodar Tamat, Cardassian First Officer and mission commander Lt. Leahman Barclay, Human conn officer Dr. Thomas Crane, Human medical officer Non-Player Characters Ensign Sparik, Vulcan conn officer – shuttle pilot Lt. Annete Metaxis, Human bridge conn officer – B shift Dr. Marjukka Suuronen, Human chief medical officer Dr. Arnaaluk, Human medical officer Chief Inés Ortega, Human transporter chief Captain Vosgal Toor, Zaranite commanding officer of the USS Sienkiewicz Last time on Star Trek Adventures: Thine Own Self Captain’s Log. Stardate 57319.68. The USS Sienkiewicz has been dispatched to the New Kamchatka colony. With us is Mr. Lionel Morikawa, a Federation diplomat who will be mediating a dispute between the Federation colony base and the native species of the planet, the Zrasu. Although the mission is predicted to be a uneventful, my […]
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STA: Spirited Away
Star Trek: Thine Own Self S02 E01 Spirited Away *** Stardate: 57929.9 – Dec 06 2380 0851 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Cmdr. Kodar Tamat, Cardassian First Officer and mission commander Lt. Leahman Barclay, Human conn officer Non-Player Characters Ensign Sparik, Vulcan conn officer – shuttle pilot Lt. Annete Metaxis, Human bridge conn officer – B shift Chief Inés Ortega, Human transporter chief Captain Vosgal Toor, Zaranite commanding officer of the USS Sienkiewicz Lionel Morikawa, Human diplomat Several months has passed since the mission to the Melpomene Sector. The 2381 new year is just around the corner. The Saber-class USS Sienkiewicz’s mission is to escort the Federation diplomat Lionel Morikawa to Porticullis III. There, he would mediate a dispute between the New Kamchatka colony and the local Zrasu species, who has developed a slow version of the warp drive that could only reach warp 1.5. Presently, the bridge crew is Lt. Annette Metaxis […]
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Ham Slacker Remembered
I have been running Star Wars The Role Playing Game published by West End Games since 1989, two years after its debut on the market. I wish I had saved a lot of the game materials I wrote and the character sheets the players had. I actually began filing my gaming documents beginning from 1991. Not a lot of scraps of papers from before that year survived. Besides this single character sheet from 1989. It was falling apart in my folder, so I had it laminated. According to his player Ming Fang, Ham Slacker – the tongue-tied engineer – was a Twi’lek-Human mix. Is it scientifically possible? Let’s not dwell on that. Ming Fang named the him after Ham Tyler, Michael Ironside’s character in V, and James Tolkan’s Mr. Strickland’s favourite war cry in the Back to the Future movies. Ham Slacker died after a year of play, and Ming […]
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VTR: The Atlanta Requiem
Coincidentally, Anne Rice passed away earlier today on the first day of my playing Vampire the Requiem. It was an online session and we played as the young upstarts of Atlanta, known as Slaughterhouse Five. Who is Jackie Long? I played Jackie Long, a Nosferatu, and part of the Slaughterhouse Five. Jackie wore a mop of silver wig to cover his hideous visage. Sure he’s a Nosferatu, but that did not stop him from going out partying all night. An unabashed clubber and raver, he spent his nights also selling pills to humans. Sometimes, he drank from them. Who is the Slaughterhouse Five? The Slaughterhouse Five were a coterie of vampires of different lineages. They were young and despite being drinkers of human blood, idealistic. Why did they need to follow the whims and fancies of the Prince of Atlanta? No one voted for the Prince to lead the vampires […]
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STA: Theatre of the Mind
Star Trek: Thine Own Self S1 E08 Theatre of the Mind *** Stardate: 57669.9 – Tue Sep 02 2380 0435 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Kodar Tamat, Cardassian engineering officer and mission commander Lt. Cmdr. Jora Mungar, Trill conn officer Lt. Leahman Barclay, Human conn officer (Semi-temporary NPC) Lt. J.G. Simon Cañete, Human security officer (Temporary NPC) Lt. Miral, Denobulan science officer (Temporary NPC) Non-Player Characters Ensign Sparik, Vulcan conn officer – shuttle pilot Lt. Shathir Yunus, Andorian bridge conn officer – A shift Ensign Khalid Coufax, Human bridge operations officer – A shift Lt. Annete Metaxis, Human bridge conn officer – B shift Lt. Aaditri Fuentes, Human bridge operations officer – B shift Ensign Chirapa Ortega, Human engineering officer – warp theory specialist Lt. Gavin Nakano, Human engineering officer – EPS specialist En. Serafina Dell, Human engineering officer – impulse engine specialist En. Humairah Sufian, Human engineering officer – […]
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STA: Plato’s Cave, Part 2
Star Trek: Thine Own Self S1 E07 Plato’s Cave, Part 2 *** Stardate: 57669.8 – Sep 02 2380 0338 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Kodar Tamat, Cardassian engineering officer and mission commander Lt. Leahman Barclay, Human conn officer Lt. J.G. Simon Cañete, Human security officer (Temporary NPC) Lt. Cmdr. Jora Mungar, Trill conn officer (Temporary NPC) Ensign Sparik, Vulcan conn officer (NPC) Last time on Star Trek Adventures: Thine Own Self… While looking for the missing New Orleans-class USS Nairobi in the Melpomene Sector near the Typhon Expanse, the Saber-class USS Sienkiewicz (NCC-88034) dispatched an away team on the Danube-class runabout USS Moonstar. During their away mission on Delta Melpomene V, they encountered time crystals. They showed them a possible future where the Sienkiewicz was in flames, the captain appeared dead and an old Einstein-class starship was attacking them. Soon they rescued Lt. Cmdr. Mungar whose repair crew & runabout USS Segura […]
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Dune Adventures in the Imperium RPG
Mushtamal of Classic Science Fiction What nonsense is this? Both the science fiction books I read during my formative years during my teens are both being released as talkies this year? First of all, there’s Apple TV’s Foundation series – based on Isaac Asimov’s classic novels – which I might review after the end of the first season. Then, Denis Villeneuve’s film Dune Part One, adapted from the first half of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune. Additionally, Modiphius also published a brand new Dune: Adventures in the Imperium role-playing game (RPG) which I bought using some extra teaching earnings. Ming Fang would have a field day. Arrakis. Dune. Desert planet. Dune is a tabletop RPG where gamemasters (GM) and players roleplay within the universe Herbert made, creating their own epic saga as they play. Players could opt from a list of 20 Archetypes such as Analyst, Courtier, Duellist, Envoy, […]
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The Expanse RPG: Zakiyah’s Cries One Page Jam
Recently, I submitted a one-page scenario to The Expanse RPG community’s One Page Adventure Jam event. Ian Lemke from Green Ronin and Richard Kirke went through all eight of the submitted scenarios in the YouTube video below. Check out what they have to say about all the adventures. The link below will take us to 00:51:52 where they began to discuss my one-page submission. BUT please watch the video to see what they discuss about all eight adventures. The PDF is entitled “One Page Adventure Collection Volume 1”. It can be downloaded with other free The Expanse RPG goodies from Audun’s link here. Who is Zakiyah? Who is Zabaniyah? What are they doing near the asteroid 9093 Nanyang? Spoiler alert: Needless to say, this is for game masters who wants to read the adventures. Players tread carefully in the sea of spoilers below, oyedeng.
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Doom Agents: A Beautiful Summer’s Day
There was an official event at work today where I ran a tabletop RPG session for some colleagues online. It was an opportunity to show them how could RPGs work in the field of education. I thought for some time about the campaign and setting to play, then decided on the setting I keep running for my students, Doom Agents. Also, instead of Mini Six or Freeform Universal, I opted for Year Zero Mini as the gaming system to use. Last time on Doom Agents, there were two recorded instances of a rescue mission in the Endau-Rompin rainforest where a team recovered one of two missing nuclear warheads. Another team in on the trail of the second warhead… Dramatis Personae In alphabetical order Alice Abdullah, Malaysian spy – Farah Anastasia, Russian medic – Arina Jason, American sniper – Hafiz Jessica Yoo, Korean driver – Najihah Koko, Thai soldier – Hafifa […]
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