We haven't played together for a long time

Alien RPG: Hope’s Last Day Part 1

It was a Saturday morning and we had just completed a walk along the canal near the house. I asked Irfan if we could try out the Alien RPG. So I grabbed my gear and set things up… Dramatis Personae Dr. Westerlund, Xenobotanist (Irfan) Dr. Westerlund is a botanist assigned to Hadley’s Hope, the colony on the moon Acheron, which orbits the gas giant Calpamos. His task is to monitor the Botany Stations at various locations on Acheron, which might some day One dreary morning, he receives an alert from Botany Station 2 in Demeter Valley 30 km away. As per security procedure, Deputy Marshall von Oy accompanies him, driving out in an NR-9 ATV. Botany Station 2 The uneventful drive to Demeter Valley takes 30 minutes over shadowy skies and black soil. Meanwhile a Company shuttle arrives from off-world with a Weyland-Yutani senior officer; von Oy monitors the arrival […]

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Hisham, Anya and Irfan at the table

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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The Expanse RPG: Escape From Ganymede

Scheherezade Tales continues with Kazuo Khan played by Irfan incarcerated overnight in a Star Helix jail in the twin-domed colony of Uruk Junction on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede after acquiring information on his missing sister Jirou Khan and tangling with an assailant in a full-body, black combat gear. Meanwhile, the crew of the Keris Gangsa, Captain Furaha Ding, pilot Batbayar Gray and engineer Zoë Mufolosi are worried that Kazuo has not checked in for hours. They would need to take off for their return trip to 643 Scheherezade soon… Here’s a short synopsis of the actual play video of our The Expanse RPG session last night. As per the previous entry, the video itself is embedded at the end of this page! The Expanse RPG 06 Escape From Ganymede Rebel Breakout An unexpected ally, a young 29-year-old Star Helix detective named Kessler, helps break Kazuo out of jail because the Mao-Kwikowski threat. […]

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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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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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The Expanse with 3d6

The Expanse RPG: Unforeseen Elements

The Expanse 03 Unforeseen Elements Last time on Scheherezade Tales… After tangling with what appeared to be OPA infiltrators, saboteurs wearing state-of-the-art tech and a figure in the old tunnels enshrouded by glowing blue fireflies, Kazuo Khan woke up in a hospital. He also gained a new cat named Aki. On his way home from the hospital, he stumbled across two rival criminal organisations in an alley. They captured Kazuo when he revealed himself as a police officer… The Abandoned Orchard On days like these, Kazuo Khan wished that he was back on Mars with his sister Jirou. Armed with automatic weapons, the criminals herded Kazuo into an abandoned palmyra palm orchard. It was a large artificial cavern which was once owned by Archean Biotechnology, which funded most of the operations on the asteroid 643 Scheherezade, also known as “Zadi”. Kazuo recalled hearing on TV that Archean had been bought […]

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GM and Ruster

The Expanse RPG: Nine Lives More Or Less

Today was the second time running The Expanse role-playing game with Irfan playing former-Martian Congressional Republic soldier Kazuo Khan, now a police detective on the asteroid 643 Scheherezade also known locally as “Zadi”. Looks like it is becoming a campaign after all… The Expanse 02 Nine Lives More or Less Last time on Scheherazade Tales… Scheherezade Safety and Security Concern (S3C) detectives Kazuo Khan and Margarid Bohn followed up on a lead that suggested a bomb threat on the Gertak Lembu township’s water tanks. Later, they got into a firefight with Outer Planet Alliance operatives. After dispatching of all but one opponent, Margarid went to get backup because of jammed communications. Despite weakened from being exposed to vacuum, Kazuo climbed into an empty water tank. Inside, he found a recently-opened hole in the ceiling that led into old mining tunnels. He discovered an ancient ship stuck deep in a tunnel, […]

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The Expanse Title Card

The Expanse: Scheherezade Tales

I ran The Expanse RPG for the first time last night. It was a solo session with Irfan playing the ex-soldier Kazuo Khan, based on the pre-generated PC Casey Khatri. Let’s get right down to it… The Expanse Scheherezade Tales The asteroid was once known as 643 Scheherezade discovered in by August Kopff in 1907 at the Heidelberg Observatory. Its diameter was nearly 36 kilometres and it orbited with an orbital inclination of about 13 degrees. It was part of the Cybele family of asteroids out in the Belt and its orbit was closer to Jupiter’s than it was to Mars’. Now – centuries later – the solar system knew it as Scheherezade, or “Zadi” to its inhabitants. It had three settlements – Aberdeen Baharu, Gamelan Sakti and Gertak Lembu, built into it. Almost a century ago, engineers spun Scheherezade so that the settlements would experience 0.4g spin gravity. The […]

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Irfan is now a Bajoran

STA: Phaser to a Singularity Fight

Star Trek Adventures Phaser to a Singularity Fight This Sunday afternoon, I thought we would just test out Star Trek Adventures. I did not even prepare a scenario. I started with the first encounter and it just snowballed onward from there. And yes, I just saw “The Enemy” several days earlier. In Medias Res Commander Lenaris Los, a Bajoran and an executive officer of Starfleet. (We never did decide which starship he was an XO of.) Commander Lenaris was in the midst of investigating the tunnels of a deserted asteroid station when he came upon a locked door. (Rolling Control+Engineering,) the good commander was able to unlock the door. It whooshed open, revealing something unexpected within: a Romulan Centurion – pointed ears and all. The startled Centurion went for the disruptor pistol on his belt, but (with a successful Daring+Security while securing a couple of Momentum for later used) Lenaris […]

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Character sheets

SWD6: Community Rejuvenation Jailbreak

Episode 01 Community Rejuvenation Jailbreak Last night, I ran my 30th anniversary Star Wars RPG session, as in April 2019 is the 30 years to the month (can’t remember the date) of the first time I GMed my first game. I think. I don’t really recall the date. According to the note Atok wrote on the book, I received in late April. 30 years ago, after reading the rules, I corralled my first player: Sila. We played a simple scenario then, set on a space station orbiting Mon Calamari 30 years later, she returned to play via Skype whilst living on another continent. Also attending was Irfan (who’s been playing for some years now) and Alya (who’s playing for the first time). At this point little Rafe was an observer when he was in the vicinity. We began a brand new campaign, which we hoped would continue over time… Dramatis […]

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The GM Awakens

SWD6: A Wild Stranglepod Appears

Time is the Hunter Episode 07: A Wild Stranglepod Appears Continuing the adventure I ran for Ain and Irfan – (counts fingers) – 16 months ago… Bounty hunter Jax Hunt and amnesiac lady who called herself Iris Helena were waiting in the Corellian Engineering Corporation VCX-100 light freighter assigned to them, the Screeching Arrow, by the rebel fleet when the Togorian rebel coordinator Meow Skywalker came to them with a job: “The mission will require you to travel to the Chandrila system in the Core Worlds to extract Imperial bureaucrat Ton Kelauae, his wife Aklu and his daughter Wencie. Land at Nayli Spaceport. The Kelauaes are holed up in Apartment 7C, Blackback Building. The Empire is looking for them and it will be a matter of time before they are discovered. Get to them before the Empire does and bring them back here.” During the mission, the duo got into […]

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First Savage Session

Savage Worlds: A Simple Job

Kuala Lumpur 2099 was a colossal city-state, among hundred of other city-states which still existed on this dying Earth. Half of the population of the planet were safely nestled in these cities subject to amazing technology, while also under the watchful eye of the tyrannical megacorporations.  The other half of the population are either rich enough to buy their way onto space habitats across the solar system or are dead, killed by a vengeful mother nature outside the walls of the city-states. DIGITAL REMAINS 01 A Simple Job Today I ran a short Savage Worlds cyberpunk scenario for the first time for my son where he played an “information retrieval specialist” with a “switchblade katana” (Yes. I’ll allow that! Same damage stats as a normal katana!) in Kuala Lumpur 2099. His yet-unnamed retrieval specialist had been paid to break into and steal a file named “deathbringer.odxz” from a terminal in […]

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Dungeon Master and Soran Itsuka

DnD: Abduction at the Ancient Ruins

Finally after almost 30 years of gamemastering roleplaying games, I finally got to run Dungeons and Dragons. Setting background: 130 years in the past, a fleet of jongs, perahus and lancang led by a Laksamana of the Sultanate of Melaka left their port for the Kingdom of China. As they approached the island of Temasik, a mist of green and purple descended upon them. They sailed in the mist for three days without the sun or blue sky. After the mist vanished, they found themselves in unknown waters. At night, the stars were different and the moon had a different face, and shone blue. The flotilla sent scouts north, south, east and west. The scouts discovered an archipelago to the east and led the fleet to an island that took them two days to sail around. The Laksamana decided on building an encampment at a river delta protected by a […]

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Ready player one

EOTE Tabletop Day Session: The Pilot and the Spy

Interlude 1 The Pilot and the Spy Last night before the end of International Tabletop Day, Irfan returned to his role as Hondo Pash the Smuggler Pilot in Star Wars Edge of the Empire role-playing game. We began with an obligatory Star Wars crawl: Movin’ It had been several years since the fateful Battle of Shadda-Bi-Boran. While his family were safely sequestered away on an Alliance safeworld, Hondo Pash had been working as an Alliance operative travelling the galaxy taking on one piloting mission after another. The Corellian Engineering Corp G9 Rigger-class modified freighter known as the Junk Bucket dropped out of lightspeed off the Igmalar system. The planet Igmalar was a humid, fog-covered swamp planet deep in the Enteague Sector in a minor star cluster slightly above the galactic plane. Nestled in the Outer Rim Territories, the Enteague Sector was under the absolute grip of the Empire because of […]

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Irfan loves the Westward dice

SWD6: Out of the Red

Time is the Hunter Episode 06: Out of the Red Continuing the adventure I ran for Ain and Irfan last December… Bounty hunter Jax Hunt and amnesiac lady who called herself Iris Helena were waiting in the Corellian Engineering Corporation VCX-100 light freighter assigned to them, the Screeching Arrow, by the rebel fleet when the Togorian rebel coordinator Meow Skywalker came to them with a job: “The mission will require you to travel to the Chandrila system in the Core Worlds to extract Imperial bureaucrat Ton Kelauae, his wife Aklu and his daughter Wencie. Land at Nayli Spaceport. The Kelauaes are holed up in Apartment 7C, Blackback Building. The Empire is looking for them and it will be a matter of time before they are discovered. Get to them before the Empire does and bring them back here.” Then they went off on their mission…   And Now, a Standoff! […]

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Young roleplaying gamers

BFF: The Free Wizards of the Clave

The last day of Ramadhan, Irfan taught cousin Aiman to play RPG, specifically BareBones Fantasy (BBF). With the Eid Tabletop RPG Travel Pack I brought, I gamemastered an impromptu session for the cousins in the morning. Irfan tweaked his old player character (PC) Jake Hastur to be the Halfling wizard Drego Andre. Aiman adapted a pre-generated character from the BBF rule book to be an Elven wizard who called himself Johnson Jones. Session 01: The Cave in the Clave The Crossing The two free Wizards Drego and Johnson were travelling the thick woods on foot in the Emondran Clave of the Keranak Kingdoms. (Presumably Johnson is an Emon Elf.) It was getting dark but there was no place for them to hole up and camp. There were large trees and thick brush everywhere. They came across a river which flowed dangerously fast. If you fell in the water, you would […]

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