USS Jemison

STA: Echoes of the Past

Star Trek: Thine Own Self S01 E05 Echoes of the Past *** Stardate 57669.4 – Sep 01 2380 2349 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Kodar Tamat, Cardassian engineering officer and mission commander Lt. J.G. Simon Cañete, Human security officer Lt. Cmdr. Jora Mungar, Trill conn officer Ensign Sparik, Vulcan conn officer (NPC) Last time on Star Trek Adventures: Thine Own Self Previously, as the Saber-class USS Sienkiewicz under Captain Vosgal Toor investigated the missing New Orleans-class USS Nairobi in the Melpomene Sector, Cardassian engineer Lt JG Kodar Tamat, Human engineer Lt. Simon Cañete and Vulcan pilot Ensign Sparik travel to Delta Melpomene V on the Danube-class runabout USS Moonstar where they discover that the archaeologists the Nairobi had picked up had taken with them a huge pillar that might have been made of time crystal. The Moonstar then warps to nearby Balateen to rendezvous with the Sienkiewicz. Meanwhile, another Danube-class […]

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The Expanse Sister Moon

The Expanse RPG: Sister Moon

The Expanse 05 Sister Moon Last time on Scheherezade Tales… Kazuo Khan, Detective of Scheherezade Safety and Security Concern (S3C) of asteroid colony 643 Scheherezade a.k.a. Zadi was authorised to be transferred from the settlement to Keris Gangsa, the asteroid’s only armed patrol boat for a trip to Ganymede. His old friend Captain Furaha Ding was the commander of the patrol boat. Kazuo also made friends with the brand new pilot Batbayar Gray. En route, XO Sasithorn Fawzi was killed by a micrometeorite fragment. Weapons officer Greg Farnsworth during an EV repair job on the hull exposed himself as a traitor. He shot engineer Zoë Mufolosi, but Kazuo mmanaged to successfully incapacitate Greg with a bullet. Here’s a short synopsis, because Irfan and I made an actual play video of our The Expanse RPG session last night. Check it out, embedded at the end of the page! The City on […]

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Renegade Jennys and Boilerplate Jacks art spread

ART: Renegade Jennys and Boilerplate Jacks

Miriam Robern commissioned this spread for the beta version of Kallisti Press’ upcoming game: Renegade Jennys and Boilerplate Jacks. She ordered the art months ago, and only now was I able to deliver the final artwork. The pandemic has been hell on my spoons even though I don’t normally see anyone face-to-face these days. Not my colleagues nor my students. Is this an indication that my art production is slowing down catastrophically? We shall see.

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Robot on a dead world

Esoteric Underground Cover

Several months ago, Chris Mennell requested a cover are for his new RPG zine entitled Esoteric Underground. I tried to finish it as soon as I could, but it was still a slog to get through because of day job workload. Needless to say, I was late in submitting the piece. Recently, Chris unveiled Esoteric Underground #1 with layouts by Beau Sheldon. The zine is a “zine collecting information about upcoming and current tabletop roleplaying games in that are on the fringes. ” Here is my cover art. Click on the image to expand it. Where is this robot? What is it looking for? Why are there huge sarcophagi in the background? What are the blue crystals in the strange rock formations behind the stele? You may download Esoteric Underground #1 for free from itch dot io here.

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SWRPG GM Screen in Sweden 01

My Gamemaster Screen Around The World

Once upon a time I created a Star Wars RPG gamemaster screen inserts for the 2nd Edition Revised and Expanded by West End Games. Recently, online friends sent me photos of the GM screens inserts printed out and used on their gaming tables. Here is the GM screen in Sweden, as used by Daniel Sundström. He sent the photos to me earlier today. Last month, Greuh of France posted his GM screen on Twitter. The player side of the screen has artwork by Najael. I am pleased that the GM screen inserts are being printed and used around the world.

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The GM with book

STA: The Shadow Passage

Star Trek: Thine Own Self S01 E04 The Shadow Passage *** Stardate 57669.3 – Mon Sep 01 2380 2251 UTC Starfleet Dramatis Personae Lt. Cmdr. Jora Mungar, Trill conn officer Lt. Ekwueme Marwan, human engineering officer (NPC) Commander Kavitha Rajakumar, human command officer (NPC) NIGHT FLIGHT STARDATE 57669.3. Elsewhere: as Lt. Kodar Tamat, Lt. JG Simon Cañete and Ensign Sparik rushed back from Delta Melpomene V aboard the runabout USS Moonstar to rendezvous with their ship the USS Sienkiewicz at New Inverness… The Danube-class runabout the USS Segura had been recently dispatched from Starbase 222 to the colony of New Inverness, orbiting the gas giant Balateen in the Melpomene Sector. Communication out of the Melpomene Sector had been intermittent and they were tasked with repairing a  subspace comms satellite which might have been struck by micrometeorites in the wake of a passing comet two weeks earlier. The satellite orbited Balateen and […]

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Cover of Cortex Prime

Cortex Prime Arrives

I had a communique with Miriam Robern for whom I did some work before. She would help get a copy of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook published by Fandom Tabletop and author Cam Banks. This was because I have been running role-playing games for language learning at work. According to Miriam, Cam was happy to contribute to games-in-education initiatives. After a couple of weeks, the Cortex Prime shipment came. There was more than just a few books! The admin office called me to pick it up because there was no way they were stuffing the box into my mailing pigeonhole. I opened up the box at the admin office and some colleagues posed with the books. We even took a photo with our department head as she passed by the office. I will be reading the book to learn about the system. A cursory read of its rules reveal that […]

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USS Sienkiewicz

STA: A Stitch in Time

Star Trek: Thine Own Self S01 E03 A Stitch in Time *** Stardate 57669.1 – Mon Sep 01 2380 2154 UTC CAPTAIN’S LOG, STARDATE: 57669.1 AFTER FENDING OFF THE SS RAFFLESIA FROM A PIRATE SHIP, WE HAVE RECEIVED INFORMATION FROM CAPTAIN SEIDOV THAT THEY SPOTTED THE MISSING USS NAIROBI AT DELTA MELPOMENE 5 TWO DAYS AGO, ABOUT TO PICK UP A FEDERATION ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEAM THERE. THEY REPORTED BEAMING UP A HIGHLY-IMPORTANT CLASSIFIED ARTEFACT ABOARD FROM THERE. ACCORDING TO LT. MIRAL, THE DIG TEAM WAS AT A SUSPECTED ICONIAN SITE. BASED ON THEIR SKILLS AND TRAINING, I HAVE DISPATCHED ENGINEER KODAR TAMAT AND SECURITY OFFICER SIMON CANETE TO INVESTIGATE THE DIG SITE ON THE RUNABOUT MOONSTAR WHILE THE SIENKIEWICZ GO TO NEW INVERNESS. Starfleet Dramatis Personae Captain Vosgal Toor, Command, Zaranite Male – Bridge NPC Lt. J.G. Kodar Tamat, Support, Engineering officer, Cardassian Male – Martín Lt. Simon Cañete, Support, Security […]

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Books and laptop

STA: Search and Rescue

Star Trek: Thine Own Self S1 E02 Search and Rescue *** Stardate 57668.5 – Mon Sep 01 1610 2154 UTC Captain’s Log, USS Sienkiewicz. Stardate: 57079.1. We have been sent to the Melpomene Sector to search for the missing USS Nairobi, a New Orleans class Federation starship. We have a number of clues to our advantage. The cargo ship SS Purzelbaum has spotted the ship in the Balateen system. Also, Director Sukeb of the New Inverness colony on Balateen purported to have received transmissions from it. But the question now is should we first investigate Delta Melpomene where the Nairobi picked up a team of Federation archaeologists. Starfleet Dramatis Personae Captain Vosgal Toor, Command, Zaranite Male – NPC Lt. Kodar Tamat, Support, Engineering, Cardassian Male – Martin Lt. Miral, Sciences, Science, Denobulan Female – Gabriel Lt. Annete Metaxis, Command, Conn, Human Female – NPC Lt. Aaditri Fuentes, Support, Ops, Human […]

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Encounter at Volor III 01

STA: Encounter at Volor III

Star Trek: Thine Own Self S01 E01 Encounter at Volor III *** Stardate 57634.9 – Aug 20 2380 0852 UTC Captain’s Log USS Sienkiewicz. Stardate 57048.16. Captain Vosgal Toor reporting. Starfleet has assigned the Sienkiewicz to help with a science station on the craggy mountains on the planet Volor III. The Volor system is located at the border of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Despite being at a safe location well within the territory of the United Federation of Planets, the planet itself will be a challenge for our crew. Volor III has been wracked by a planet-wide atmospheric disturbance and violent tectonic movements that threaten the Volor Geological Station. If the Away Team is unable to fix the problem, then they will have to evacuate the Federation science team there. Starfleet Dramatis Personae Captain Vosgal Toor, Command, Zaranite Male – Bridge NPC Lt. Kodar Tamat, Support, Engineering officer, Cardassian […]

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Grey, semi-opaque with glitter

Gift Dice at Work

As featured elsewhere on this blog, I run The Laundry RPG sessions for my colleagues at work. There are two more sessions – at this time of writing – that I have yet to produce actual play write-up articles on. I expected my players to have fun, and perhaps uncover new teaching and learning methods from our sessions. One thing that I did not count on was to receive a dice set as a gift from a player! To be precise, Laundry agent Jijah the spy’s player, Yuzie, who bought a set for each player in the campaign. Yes, I sanitised it with soap. One can never be too careful. Thanks for the dice set, Yuzie.

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Carcosa Seri Negara

The Laundry: Infiltrating a Carcosa

The Laundry RPG Episode 4 Infiltrating Carcosa Dramatis Personae Badrul, Antiquarian (Bazli) Jijah, Spy (Yuzie) Lucy, Military Officer (Farah) Ray, Linguist (Noriha) Talhah, Hacker (Rizal) Note: For this section of the game session, I created a random encounter table with a simple success/failure dice roll, just to see what went on between the months of March and July, in 2019. The Capital Laundry Services (Malaysia) Team Bunga Tahi Ayam‘s first mission in Ulu Yam began and concluded in January 2019. They were not assigned any missions until March 2019. Then they were sent on one mission per month, with rotating team leaders. The First Half of 2019 In March, the team leader was Lucy. They were sent to Kedah. There was an incursion at Alor Setar. A tentacle creature was trying to come through a Level Four Gate and eat the diners on top of Menara Alor Setar. The mission […]

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Kerteh, Terenganu Valley

Coriolis RPG: A Peaceful Drive In The Countryside

Coriolis RPG 05 A Peaceful Drive in the Countryside Last week, the crew of the Prosperous Cheetah tracked a missing archaeologist and retrieved a stolen artefact. They found the First Idol of the Dancer hidden on a bridge in the Coriolis Promenade. Suddenly, the person who hired them appeared… Dramatis Personae Omar Kayyam – captain and leader of the crew (Chang) Ramsis – the engineer (Libb Wei) Kariim the Hashinin – the former legionnaire and soldier (Ivan Lim) Alrazzi Kowalski – the pilot (me) Gamemaster (Ivan Tam) Journal of A. Kowalski (an account of what happened yesterday): Season of Glass It’s fine. We’re all stocked up to the gills with gear. Let’s do this. Ramsis is securing our new 6-wheeled crawler into the cargo bay of the Prosperous Cheetah. We’re calling it the La Cucaracha. I don’t think everyone’s aboard with that. Once everyone had stowed their gear, we gather […]

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Keris Gangsa airlock

The Expanse RPG: Voyage into the Dark

The Expanse 04 Voyage Into The Dark Last time on Scheherezade Tales… Caught in a stand-off between two criminal gangs in an abandoned Archean Biotechnology palmyra palm orchard, Detective Kazuo Khan of S3C discovered that an external and invisible hand was working silently in the background. It had allowed infiltrators to sneak onto Zadi for secret operations that Kazuo had discovered and foiled in the water tanks. It had also sent combat drones to kill them in the orchard. But then after Kazuo had fought to save the gang leaders Toru Wengthai and Verheiden Reza, who became his allies, he realised that the clear and annoying voice in his head that only he could hear belonged to his sister Jirou Khan… It had been a quiet couple of weeks since the orchard incident which none of the authorities were aware of. Kazuo was returning to his normal routine with Scheherezade […]

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Keris Gangsa of 643 Scheherezade

Keris Gangsa: The Expanse RPG Patrol Boat

Here is my sketch of the Keris Gangsa. The Governor of 643 Scheherezade (also known as Zadi) comissioned her to keep its surrounding waters safe from pirate attacks. She also performs runs to nearby colonies and settlements for various official errands. Present crew: Furaha Ding – Captain and CO Sasithorn Fawzi – Operations Officer and XO Batbayar Gray – Flight Officer Greg Farnsworth – Security Officer Zoë Mufolosi – Engineering Officer In the next session of The Expanse RPG: Scheherezade Tales, Irfan’s player character Kazuo Khan will join the team as a Liaison Officer for Scheherezade. Additionally, he will also be a Gunnery Officer and working under the Security Officer. The Keris Gangsa, despite its name, is not based on any traditional South East Asian melee weapon. It is, however, the first badge Malaysian Cub Scouts in Primary School earn on their way to being a King’s Scout.

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Coriolis: A bridge too near

Coriolis RPG: An Abridged Firefight

Coriolis RPG 04 An Abridged Firefight Last week, the crew of the Prosperous Cheetah tracked a missing archaeologist and retrieved a stolen artefact. They found the First Idol of the Dancer hidden on a bridge in the Coriolis Promenade. Suddenly, the person who hired them appeared… Dramatis Personae Omar Kayyam – captain and leader of the crew (Chang) Ramsis – the engineer (Libb Wei) Kariim the Hashinin – the former legionnaire and soldier (Ivan Lim) Alrazzi Kowalski – the pilot (me) Gamemaster (Ivan Tam) Journal of A. Kowalski (an account of what happened yesterday): An Unexpected Arrival It was that Coriolis smell that got to me. The spoor of the dark and the dank permeated everything. Even more so here high above the Promenade. There were uncountable bridges and gangways that connected one structure within this space station to another. The bridge that Lavim Tamm sent us to was unremarkable […]

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