During hari raya, we were unable to cross state borders to balik kampung thanks to the COVID-19 quarantine. It was not the first time for us. As the MCO downgraded because of the reduced infection rate, we discovered that we were able to travel back to Sitiawan to meet up with Atok and Opah. We thought it would be good to celebrate Aidilfitri with them, and we could check up on them after the months of relative isolation. The first morning, we took our late family hari raya photos. The sun shone brightly. Later that day, the sun decided to call it quits. Suddenly it rained There was a torrential downpour in town. According to later reports, it submerged parts of the streets downtown. It never rained this hard in recent decades here in Sitiawan, so this must have been a freak rainstorm. Because a construction crew was building a […]
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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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Gundam Astray Red Frame – Gundanium Builds
Here is Irfan’s newest Gundanium Builds video on his YouTube channel: The Gundam Astray Red Frame from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray! Feel free to view the video, like it and/or subscribe to the channel!
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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: 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 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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SWD6: Scavenging the Fallen Part 2
Star Wars D6: Scavenging the Fallen Part 2 A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the crew of the YT-1300 light freighter Pretty Enemy was tasked with retrieving a Carbanti H-50 targeting processor from the derelict husk of a crashed Imperial Star Destroyer on the planet Jakku. Six months earlier, there was a battle there where many Star Destroyers had crashed onto the planet’s desert surface. Although the star system was remote and unremarkable, it had become the very site where the military might of the Galactic Empire was finally extinguished by the New Republic… Last time on Scavenging The Fallen… Dramatis Personae Donetto Dusk – a smuggler Hamilton Zero – a speeder racer Lubird – a protocol droid Sam Aiman – a young Jedi Susan Sunbreaker – a brash pilot Zam Wessel – a bounty hunter The team had decided to press deeper into the Star […]
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Buster Gundam – Gundanium Builds
Irfan’s first gunpla was a Buster Gundam once upon a time. Sadly, Irfan is unable to find that model except for various limbs and weapons. So, he has bought a new and a more current manufacture of the Buster Gundam. This build is now the second Gundanium Build video released on YouTube. If it is not too much out of the way, please feel free to view, like and subscribe.
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Art: Cosmic Cutthroats
Recently Imperfekt Gammes who published Invulnerable RPG, commission a pair of interior artwork for their new tabletop RPG Cosmic Cutthroats, a game about dimension-hopping adventuring, getting into trouble, partying, helping people, and overthrowing dictators across the multiverse! Above: The Spacefleet Cruiser Ashwood trades blows with an enemy skysailing galleon. Above: The adventurers’ hub is the city of Uru Ulan. Founded millennia ago by an immortal Sumerian sorcerer, Uru Ulan consists of a network of colonies on Saturn’s rings. Teleportation gates link the colonies together forming a large, continuous city. Also, some colonies have portals that link to other universes. Updated (4th June 2020): Cosmic Cutthroats by Joshua Kubli has been released at DriveThruRPG! Check it out here.
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Coriolis RPG: A Missing Archaeologist
Coriolis RPG 03 A Missing Archaeologist Last week, we finished the Coriolis RPG published adventure entitled The Dying Ship. Last night – now reconvened on Roll20 – the crew thought they would spent the day relaxing on Coriolis station orbiting Kua. Or so they thought… 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) Back at Wahib’s The team was relaxing and enjoying drinks in Wahib’s Cantina, considering what to do with the money they earned salvaging the Orun II. This was when a middle-aged man approached them with a job in mind. To Alrazzi’s eyes, this Merez Alcan seemed sleeker, more polished than their previous client Adzem Kembouri. This new potential client wore a red fez, a monocle and wielded a cane. Alcan, […]
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The Outbreak Aidilfitri
And so it came to pass that Hari Raya Aidilfitri was held during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were forbidden to cross state lines, nor be in a gathering of souls that numbered more than a prescribed number. Thus we stayed at home during the first day of Eid. Ain made nasi dagang which was delicious. We packed some in takeaway packs and sent them to a number of neighbours later. But before that we held our first home bound Eid prayers. Shortly after, we had a Google Meet call with Atok and Opah and Sila’s family. Even Anya showed up for a while. During the day, I played Star Wars: A New Hope on TV, though I did not really pay attention to it. Later than night, as a family movie we watched Alien. That’s two Charles Lippincott movies in a day! As the sun dipped lower on the second […]
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Irfan’s Gundanium Builds
Irfan has established a new YouTube channel that will showcase his Bandai gunpla builds. The channel is titled Gundanium Builds. Here is his first video: a build of the Core Gundam (G3 Color) and its Veetwo Unit which combines into the PFF-X7/V2 Veetwo Gundam. Click on the video to watch it. Also, subscribe if you will!
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Coriolis RPG: Aboard the Dying Ship
Coriolis RPG 02 Aboard the Dying Ship Yesterday we continued the Coriolis RPG campaign online with Ivan as the gamemaster. We played the published adventure entitled Coriolis: The Dying Ship which is available at the Modiphius (dead link) website. Here is the second session. Last time, on Coriolis: Hikayat Samrddhi Cheeta, the crew alongside their client Adzem Kembouri boarded the seemingly-derelict ice hauler Orun II as it drifted onwards into the Eye of Anuba whose surrounding field of ice fragments would definitely destroy the ship. Kembouri worked for the shipping company Melem Gesurra. Boarding the ice hauler, they learnt that the Captain of the Orun II might have unleashed a djinni aboard. Although a number of crew had been killed or driven insane, there were a number of survivors hiding in the nooks and crannies of the ship. Dramatis Personae Omar Kayyam – captain and leader of the crew (Chang) […]
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Coriolis RPG: Into the Dying Ship
Coriolis RPG 01 Into the Dying Ship Yesterday I played in a Coriolis RPG session online using voice comms and dice rolls via Discord and map display on Astral Tabletop. Ivan was the gamemaster. We played between 10 pm and midnight. Here is the story that was born from our first session. We played the published adventure entitled Coriolis: The Dying Ship which is available at the Modiphius (dead link) website. According to the blurb: The ice hauler Orun II has stopped responding to hails, and has changed course towards a deadly asteroid cloud. The player characters are tasked with intercepting the heavy freighter to find out what has happened onboard and bring it back to Coriolis safely. I play Alrazzi Kowalski a native of Coriolis station who is a crew member of the courier ship the Prosperous Cheetah. Dramatis Personae Omar Kayyam – captain and leader of the crew […]
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Back in the Office
I had been working from home for almost two months because of the Covid-19 outbreak movement control order. It was bound to end. The order came from up top that the administrative and executive staff had to begin working from our offices on Tuesday, the day after the Nuzul al-Qur’an break. There were, of course, procedures and measures lined out for us to adhere to. So, here I am back in my office. I ran two classes from the office remotely today.
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Theatre Arts Final Livestream
The English Theatre Arts co-curriculum class of 2020 have finally reached the end, which meant it was time for the final performances of their plays. The first and second classes in past years performed live, the former in a classroom and the latter on stage, for their seventh and final week. However, the third class were unable to perform live on stage thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak. Not only it was forbidden to hold mass gatherings (such as a stage play), most of the students if not all were away from campus at their respective hometowns under light lockdown. So I decided for the students to write screenplays instead of stage plays, then film their parts separately. Each troupe had a director, writer and video editor as part of their non-acting crew members. They submitted their scripts for assessment and their videos so I could organise a livestream of their […]
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