Guardians of Magic

Year Zero Engine: Guardians of Magic

I was not able to do it last year, but I thought I would run a tabletop RPG for my Theatre Arts students this year. Last Saturday, I invited them all to Discord and I gave them a briefing on how to play the game. For this online session I chose Free League’s Year Zero Engine as my system of choice. This is because I can scale it down enough for them to practice their role-playing. Here is a video recording of the session. It took almost 1.5 hours of actual play time, but I edited out the long pauses, duplicate instructions and action declarations, as well as all my ummmms and uhhhhhs. I edited it down to just under 40 minutes of video. Episode 1 IT’S A DOG EAT DOG WORLD Dramatis Personae Willy Wesley from London Zane from Asgardia Constantine from Moscow Sebastian from Austria Alice from Dubai […]

Continue reading
HT-2200 deck plans

SWD6: Voyage of the Fickle Clemency

Episode 03 Voyage of the Fickle Clemency Dramatis Personae Gev Dyson – Bounty hunter (Edward) Ordan Vallas – Minor Jedi (Eduardo) Zor Draco – Former TIE fighter pilot (Martín) Pac Vesme – Former Alliance SpecForce Urban Combat Specialist (Mario) R4-3T – Astromech droid (NPC) The new team of Rangers are settling down on the mountain base on Vandor. However, Captain Goddard & his YT-2000 ship Rough Profits are away on another mission. Their Ops Officer is the New Republic intelligence Major Tailgunner, who calls Zor Draco, Gev Dyson and Ordan Vallas to the Rangers’ conference room to introduce them to a new member of the team. He greets them all, “Hi everyone. My name is Pac, Pac Vesme. I was a SpecForce urban combat specialist. If the action is in the streets, I’m your dude.” Tailgunner says, “Pac here has signed up to help us clean up the Outer Rim. […]

Continue reading
Star Warsh!

Disney Plus Debuts

So as of midnight – last night – coming into the first day of June, we now have Disney+ Hotstar running in this household. Although there is no sign of the Tartakovsky Clone Wars show, Droids toon and the Ewok movies, the sheer amount of content available for streaming here blows my mind. What a time to be alive!

Continue reading
Pizza One

Today There Is Pizza

…for lunch. Ain baked a pair of pizza today which are fusions of Eastern and Western ingredients. Of course, there is the normal sauce, sliced sausages, onions, capsicum and cheese laid out on the crust. However these were a bit different than regular pizzas because it had chilli flakes, small bits of cabai burung and some sweet & sour sauce. Additionally, there were grape tomatoes and Brazilian spinach, some baked into the pizza, some added on raw as ulam. This might not be a big deal for a lot of people, but this is a treasure for us.

Continue reading
I am vaccinated

A Vaccine Nation

Today is Opah Irfan’s birthday. Happy birthday, Opah Irfan. Additionally, today was the date the MySejahtera app scheduled my first COVID-19 vaccination injection. However, Ain nor Irfan were still unscheduled. We believe that my blood pressure condition automatically grouped me early with citizens who are at high-risk. It cannot be stated enough. It is unbelievable that we are living through a real, honest-to-goodness planet-wide pandemic. Ain drove me to the vaccination site and waited in the car. When I was in line, I asked one of the medical personnels if it was possible for Ain to be given a shot today since she was close by. After the lady visibly consulted with two officers, she informed me: no. When my number came up it did not take long for me to reach the injection booth even though I went through the check-in table, the confirmation table, the briefing and signature […]

Continue reading
The Alien RPG cover

Alien: The Roleplaying Game

“That’s not even funny, don’t joke about stress dice! “ Will “BilliamBabble” Meddis I admire its purity I have been a fan of the Alien cinematic universe ever since I read the movie novelisation when I was 13. A couple of months later, they showed the movie on television. I remember we as a family slept in the living room (like a sleepover) and I was the only one who stayed way after midnight for the film to end. Then next year, I saw Aliens in a cinema in Ipoh. That cemented my love for the stories that can be told in the setting, as well as the grimy, dirty aesthetic of the future. The Alien RPG was released 2 years ago. I had been trying to save enough money to purchase it for over a year. When I had some extra cash, it was out of stock at the […]

Continue reading
1996

25-Year Blind Date Still Going Strong

The year was 1996 Exactly 25 years ago today I went on a blind date with this woman in the photo. There was no cameras at the time. We spent time at an A&W’s, then took a walk at the beach accompanied by our mutual friends. We got wed 4 years later and I believe that very first date that began in 1996 has not yet ended even today. (The photo is from several months later in 1996 where we visited Hutan Lipur Sekayu with Atok and Opah who came to visit and have yet to become an Atok and an Opah.)

Continue reading

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. […]

Continue reading
SWRPG books

SWD6: The Nerve of These Imperials

Episode 2 The Nerve of These Imperials Dramatis Personae Gev Dyson – Bounty hunter (Eddie) Kin Asa Goddard – Smuggler (Brian) Ordan Vallas – Minor Jedi (Edu) Zor Draco – Former TIE fighter pilot (Martín) R4-3T – Astromech droid (NPC) K3LP – KX security droid (NPC) Previously on Dawn of the Rangers… A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… TRAIN HEIST GONE WRONG! The crew of the Rough Profits embarks on a mission to retrieve the Tiss’Shar Dr. VER-THO-REE from the clutches of the evil GALACTIC EMPIRE, on Elshandruu Pica. The doctor would be able to formulate a reagent that would neutralise the nerve agent bombs on the planet VANDOR. Over the ocean, GEV, GODDARD, ORDAN and ZOR face off with Imperial stormtroopers in the luxury car of a Unirail guarding the good doctor. As the droid K3LP flies the ship, pacing the train, ORDAN feels a […]

Continue reading
Then we headed for Bukit Jerneh

The Outbreak Aidilfitri II

Previously, on “The Outbreak Aidilfitri”… It has been 12 lunar months since the last Hari Raya and now Eid has returned, just in time for another nationwide lockdown. So that means we are unable to balik kampung again during the festive season. We had actually planned to spend Eid at a hotel but I decided against it for safety’s sake. For both days of Eid, we went for drives all around the state, staying away from crowds and other humans in generals. Day One On the First Day of Hari Raya, we went to nearby locations taking family photos. We stopped near Irfan’s history teacher’s house because of the greening bendang padi there. The riceplants were starting to sprout at their tapak semaian turning their nursery plots green after a month or so of being mud brown. We also went to the Grape Farm at Sungai Batu Pahat. But we […]

Continue reading
Sensor Bot

Art Video: Sensor Bot

Here is another character I drew for Chris Mennell’s sci-fi setting he’s developing. This sensor bot has multiple sensors installed all over his body. The video is at 10x normal speed, and edited in Flowblade. Now that I look at it I think the head might have been subconsciously inspired by L3-37 from Solo: A Star Wars Story. Music is Gravity Bass ( by FUGUE ) composed by Nordgroove, which I dropped into the video via InShot.

Continue reading
Some manner of books

SWD6: Dawn of the Rangers

Episode 1 The Dawn of the Rangers Dramatis Personae Gev Dyson – Bounty hunter (Eddie) Kin Asa Goddard – Smuggler (Brian) Ordan Vallas – Minor Jedi (Edu) Zor Draco – Former TIE fighter pilot (Martín) R4-3T – Astromech droid (NPC) A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… A IMPERIALS ARE EVACUATING VANDOR! Summoned by New Republic Intelligence Agent codenamed Tailgunner, the crew of the YT-2000 freighter Rough Profits travels to Vandor. They have accomplished simple missions for Tailgunner before, but this time the stakes are higher than ever. But before they can even begin, a challenge lies before them in the skies of Vandor… A Semblance of Rough Profits It was four years after the Battle of Endor, and three after the Battle of Jakku. The crew of the Rough Profits dropped out of hyperspace near Vandor. The Rough Profits was an old YT-2000 light freighter with green […]

Continue reading
30th April 2021 Goblinization Day

Today is Goblinization Day

According to the Shadowrun RPG, today, 30th April 2021, is Goblinization Day. This is when 10% of all humanity physically transforms from humans into orks and trolls throwing the world into further turmoil. Goblinization is not to be confused with UGE, where in 2011 people who were pregnant began giving birth to elves and dwarves worldwide. Not to mention, magical creatures and actual magic begin to manifest and exist. During the days of Shadowrun 2nd edition, I made some notes with regards to a Shadowrun setting in Malaysia, 2053. If I recall correctly, I ran a session or two for Awie, Jee Meng and their cadre of friends. Here is part of the notes for my Shadowrun Malaysia campaign that did not take off.   By the way, I wrote the notes above by hand back in 1994, twenty-seven years ago. I should run this campaign now!

Continue reading
Skull Spacer

Art Video: Skull Spacer

Here is a sped up video recording of my drawing a “Skull Spacer”, created for Chris Mennell. In actual fact, it took about 50 minutes to complete this. Additionally, I edited the video with both Flowblade on the desktop and InShot on mobile. The astronaut needs more skin lotion though. I will see about doing more art vids and posting them to YouTube in the future. What would such a character be in a sci-fi RPG campaign? The music is Gravelike composed by one Philip E Morris, found on InShot.

Continue reading
The gamemaster

STA: Plato’s Cave, Part 1

Star Trek: Thine Own Self S1 E06 Plato’s Cave, Part 1 *** Stardate: 57669.6 – Sep 02 2380 0143 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, Lt. Tamat and Lt. Cañete rescued Lt. Cmdr. Mungar after his runabout USS Segura was destroyed by a huge and invisible tendril in space. The duo, piloted by Ensign Sparik, were looking for their own ship, the Saber-class USS Sienkiewicz, which had been looking for the missing USS Nairobi at the Great Mugato Nebula, the crew of the Danube-class USS Moonstar detected a distress call. They sped to the rescue of the USS Jemison which was under attack, and disabled in the gaseous walls of the nebula. However, they […]

Continue reading