[Savage Worlds] Urban Fantasy Game, Episode Final

MW returned with the last installment of the Urban Fantasy game. CM played Bruce Archer, a Troll of CS's PC Don Ling's acquaintance, IL ran the grave-touched Steve Smith, CB was Natasha Ambrosius the Urban Scholar, GM played Conroy Sutcliff, CR ran Phyllis Norg the Troll, and I was Nick English, Private Eye, who had for the past adventures explained away any fae or supernatural event by blaming high technologies or new electronic devices (most likely made by the Japanese). BB was unable to attend the game and has some scheduling conflicts for a few future games, so his PC teenage cat burglar Tom Steele was run as an NPC. Hopefully we'll see him back soon.

The night started out with a recap of the previous sessions. The group were returning home after a sci-fi con and ran into some Redcaps beating a homeless man. The man turned out to be an antique bookseller named Milo, who also was a "boon" or "gift" for the Winter Court from the Summer Court. Over the course of the next few days, the group fought some Redcaps, got shot at, tracked down and killed an assassin in a swank hotel, met up with a noble fae who wanted the "boon" in the Faerie lands, went into a bus tunnel and got attacked by gargoyles, found some clues about a disgraced house of Faerie and all around made trouble for themselves and others.

The session started with the PCs returning to Don Ling's domain and some guests awaited them. From the street, we saw the apartment lights on and people, most likely trolls, moving about. In a pincher move that went smashingly, we descended on the apartment and walked straight into the Queen of the Summer Court, waiting for us to chat.

Don Ling took remembered that the Queen had red hair and the woman he made a bargain with in the Fae lands was a blond. Realizing that he had made a really bad error, he waived the rest of the PCs off attacking to find out what was going on. Milo, it turned out, had been grabbed during the tunnel fight and replaced with an animated bundle of sticks. The blond Fae was well beyond our means to handle and the Queen offered to "keep her busy while you recover that which you lost!"

It wasn't really a request.

Nick walked up to the Queen and tossed her his business card - "Just in case you need a P.I. sometime, lady. I work cheap but get results." That got the rest of the PCs in a dither as one doesn't talk to the Summer Queen in such a manner but She smiled at him and took the card.

Bruce the Troll grabbed the stick Milo and said "let's beat him until he turns into a bundle of sticks!" Nick tried to stop him but got knocked out (and missed the transformation from human into sticks) but the rest of the group was "treated" to the screams of pain from stick boy as the troll's meaty fists smashed into him.

We trooped off to Wal-Mart and armed up, buying a variety of shotguns, flare guns and other tools (my PC managed to pick up a box of "Holy Cross" 9mm ammo for his Glock - +2 to damage against supernatural creatures - all for the price of a Bennie).

Entering the Fae lands through the Wal-Mart changing room mirror, we found ourselves outside an ancient house with a bunch of standing stones in the way. We battled Gargoyles all the way, fighting through them, until we made it to the house.

Kicking open the doors, we heard the sounds of dragons fighting (or having sex, we couldn't decide which) further in, so we ransacked the library. Through some clues, the group found the book that Milo had been transformed into and smashed a window to escape.

Nick, however, had other plans. Hanging back, he waited until the rest of the group had escaped via the window and then he went searching for the "dragons." In the ballroom of the house, he found them. The Summer Queen was fighting a dragon controlled by the blond Fae.

Nick saw the dragon as some sort of Japanese animatronic machine controled by the blond so he took a shot at her. Did really well, too, but somehow she had a force shield protecting her - probably another Japanese invention. She smiled and wagged her finger, "bad, bad boy" style, at him.

So Nick took a shot at the dragon. The first shot hit but didn't do any appreciable damage to the beast. Taking careful aim, he put his second shot right in the brain pan, killing it instantly. (In the combat, I had gotten the Joker that round, plus I rolled two aces to get a 17 to hit!).

MW said "Write Dragonslayer on your character sheet." Amusing since Nick explained away every single bit of the supernatural events of the game by any means possible - a dragonslayer who didn't believe in dragons!

Blowing off the smoke from his gun, Nick calmly turned around and said "Take that bitch to town, Red" and left the Summer Queen to her toils.

The session ended with the party back at Don Ling's apartment, walking through the front door to be met by the Summer Queen. We had dinner, Nick seated at her right and Don at her left, and what appeared to be the blond Fae as our waitress. CS tried to seduce the blond Fae but a series of rolls and bennies spent had Don waking up on his couch with a blinding headache and Nick with the blond in Don's bedroom!

A good time was had by all. Whether we return to the Urban Fantasy campaign remains to be seen. Figuring that we'd not get back to it, I had planned on Nick going out in a blaze of glory, totally expecting to be squashed like a bug - but coming out on top, with a dragonslayer reputation as well as becoming a favorite of the Summer Queen!

[Mist-Robed Gate] Edwardian Steampunk London

The Mutant Buddhas gamed again at Games and Gizmos in Redmond last Friday. Present were CS, CB, IL, GM, CM, CR, BB and myself. Since CS wanted a break from his Savage Worlds X-Men game that has been running the past 3 game sessions, I offered to "run" Mist-Robed Gate.

Since Mist-Robed Gate does not require a GM, we brainstormed on the game setting. We decided on Edwardian Steampunk/Magical London, with Cthulhuoid Horrors trying to break through. We went around the table and threw out some character concepts, like: Origami Magician, Glittery Vampire, British Officer, F'd-in-the-Head Doctor, Cultist, Steampunk Iron Man, Big Game Hunter, American Federal Agent, Skeleton Pirate Captain, Japanese Assassin, and a few more. We merged some of them together and each decided on what we'd run.

CS picked the F'd-in-the-Head Doctor, CB chose the Origami Magician/Assassin, GM took the American Federal Agent while CM picked the Steampunk Iron Man (and changed it into a Steampunk Giant Robot). CR wanted the Cultist and IL took the Skeleton Pirate Captain. The Big Game Hunter was played by BB and I, picking last, chose the Glittery Vampire. We chose a bunch of distinctive descriptors and I explained how Props and Sets worked.

I started the game off with the Pirate, the Doctor and my character at the London Cathedral (my Set), with my Vampire trying to get the bones of the Pirate, at the same time as the Doctor. We came into conflict pretty soon into the scene, with the blade being exposed and battle commencing. My character's stakes were that the Doctor leaves, while CS chose to win my Prop (the Final Stone required for the Gate filled with the Souls of the Damned that would allow the Cthulhuoid Horrors access to the World). We each took turns describing the scene with our descriptors, and everyone voted. I lost and the Doctor escaped with the Stone.

The next scene had the Iron Giant, the Origami Magician/Assassin and the Cultist meeting in the London Underground (CM's Set). The Iron Giant was powered by the burning souls of the dead and had murdered and eaten the soul of the Origami Magician/Assassin's brother. An epic battle erupted in the tunnels, with the Origami Magician chopping at the Iron Giant with her Katana and the Iron Giant smashing at her with his giant fists. The descriptors flew back and forth and CB won the match, killing the Iron Giant (who's last wish was that the souls he devoured were permanently damned into the Stone needed for the Gate).

The Iron Giant used a Soul Shard (CM's Prop) to burn the souls and, after the Iron Giant was destroyed, the American Federal Agent and the Cultist fought to get the Soul Shard for themselves. The fight resulted in the American Federal Agent shooting the Cultist with his Colt .45 (his Prop) and wining the Soul Shard. The Cultist was brought to the Doctor's Lab (CS's Set) where she was patched up, while the Doctor gave the Stone to the Federal Agent instead of fighting for it.

Another conflict between the Cultist and the Federal Agent resulted in the Federal Agent winning the Cthulhu Jewels (the Cultist's Prop). With the Stone, the Soul Shard and the Cthulhu Jewels in his possession, the Federal Agent was possessed to open the Gate and summon the Cthulhuoid Horrors into the World.

The game ended with the group assembled at the Gate, which turned out to be London Bridge. The Origami Magician/Assassin sought to destroy the Stone with her Prop (a magical do-hicky that would destroy the Stone) and prevent the Gate from opening. The Glittery Vampire wanted the magical do-hicky because it contained the soul of a dead Vampire and the Big Game Hunter wanted Cthulhu to arrive so he could shoot it! With this three way conflict, the descriptors flew and in the end my character, the Glittery Vampire, won! (The first time I've ever won a conflict in Mist-Robed Gate in the two games I've played). The Glittery Vampire took the dead vampire's soul and drank it, escaping in a flash of light as the Gate opened and the World Ended in Elder God Destruction!

The Pirate spent most of his time in every scene trying to get away and drink rum but ended up on the Doctor's slab to be experimented on until the End of the World (about 15 minutes later). And the Cultist was very happy because the world ended and her actions (and failures) brought it about even faster!

The group had a good time playing but it took a while for them to understand the no-dice-rolling describing-what-happened-a-piece-at-a-time process of the game. They all wanted to play it again, with a different setting, so that may happen in some future session.

[Savage Worlds] Urban Fantasy, Session 2: The Assassin's Lament

A whole bunch of people showed up at Games and Gizmos in Redmond on May the 28th. In addition to the regular Mutant Buddha crew of CS, CB, CR, BB, MW, IL and myself, guest players CM, GM (of Corvis Monkey Troupe fame) and PP (up from Cali) joined in the mix. That made 10 players. MW continued the urban fantasy game but the loudness of the shop (it was the regular M:tG tournament night) and the number of players made that difficult.

When last we left the party, an assassin had attempted to kill Milo and the crew thwarted that. A bit of investigation lead various PCs to two different situations: entering the Fae lands or finding out more about the assassin. I offered to help run as an assistant game master to MW and was given the assassin portion of the adventure.

My group consisted of PP (in the role of Milo Goshtashebi, the antiquitarian who was the target of the assassin), CM (playing a Troll of CS's PC Don Ling's acquaintance named Bruce Archer), BB (continuing with teenage cat burglar Tom Steele) and IL (playing the grave-touched Steve Smith).

MW ran the rest of the players into the Fae Lands: CS playing Don Ling the Sidhe, CB as Natasha Ambrosius the Urban Scholar, GM as Conroy Sutcliff, CR as Phyllis Norg the Troll, and my character Nick English, Private Eye (played collectively by the group).

The group learned, through Nick's contacts, that the assassin liked 5 star hotels (of which there are only two in town). Further tracking down leads produced a name (Mr. Speck) and a location (the Chatham Hotel). According to Billy the bell-hop, Mr. Speck was out at the moment but he'd call when he came in. Billy also said the guy had "dead eyes" and was pretty creepy.

I took the opportunity to hand out some Bennies to the players if they came up with some facts and a plan. They came up with the following: Mr. Speck was a hard drinker after finishing a job (which he believed was so), the security system at the Chatham Hotel was on the fritz, and they planned to get him drunk to find out who hired him while Steve ransacked his room. Yes, all plans work as well as they're planned. Since the players figured a five-star hotel would be pretty swank, they raided Don Ling's wardrobe and were spiffed up in nice suits. I even allowed that before Don Ling went off to the Fae Lands, he cast a glamour on Milo to disguise him but I told PP and the group that it was paper-thin - any sort of disturbance, including a verbal altercation, could have it "peel off" and Milo would be exposed!

The call came and Milo, Tom, Bruce and Steve headed over to the Chatham Hotel. They met Billy in the lobby, a large-well appointed room befitting a hotel build in the 1890s. A pair of elevators was at the far end, past sofas and couches scattered around for the patrons use. A variety of plants adorned the room and corridors to rooms, bars and dining rooms went off in all directions. A large chandelier was in the center of the lobby. A large wedding reception was underway and could be seen through the doors to the grand ballroom.

After passing Billy a $20 (illiciting the comment "Where the Hell is Nick?"), the bell-hop told the PCs that Mr. Speck was in the bar and someone left him a note at the front desk. It was only after Billy left that they realized the hotel had three bars: The Gentleman's Bar, a cigar and hard liquor bar; the Garden Bar, a wine bar; and the Common Bar, a sports bar. The PCs split up, each taking a bar, while Steve went to check out the note at the front desk. The plan was that if Mr. Speck wasn't in the bar they went to, they'd then go to the other bars, thereby staggering their entrances in order to appear that they weren't together.

Milo went into the small Gentleman's Bar and spotted Speck. Squeezing past him, he found a spot at a table. Bruce the Troll went to the Common Bar and Tom went to the Garden Bar. After not spotting the assassin, Tom went to the Gentleman's Bar and flashed a fake ID (he's underage) but the darkness and the smokiness of the bar helped him get served. In the Common Bar, I turned to CM and told him they had Bottomless Nachos. I waved a Bennie at him and said he wanted to stay for a bit. CM accepted the Bennie and ordered a beer and nachos, which was very cool because the group was counting on CM's Troll to be their backup!

Steve easily stole the note from the front desk and made a copy of it. It had Milo's name and address as well as a heraldric symbol of a unicorn at the bottom of the paper. Milo started talking to the people around him and Mr. Speck continued to drink. I turned to CM several more times and offered him a Bennie each time - another set of nachos and beer were ordered after each exchange. I had successfully tied up the party's big gun and the looks around the table were priceless. Awesome!

A soft overhead announcement in the lobby and bars said "Will Mr. Speckle please answer the white courtesy phone. Mr. Speckle, the white courtesy phone." I turned to IL, who's PC Steve was in the lobby, and said "The white courtesy phone is right over there. Do you want to answer it?" while waving a Bennie at him. IL demurred so I made it two. That was enough to get his interest so he picked up the phone.

A woman's voice on the other side told Steve that Mr. Speckle had failed them and if the carrot didn't work, then the stick must. A spray of green lightning shot from the phone and struck him, knocking him over into a large potted plant but he managed to make a Vigor roll to avoid any harmful effects. Since he was invisible at the time, IL used his Stealth skill to remain hidden.

Meanwhile, in the Gentleman's Bar, Mr. Speck stood up to go and noticed Milo, turning towards him and looking at him intently. I gave PP an opportunity to figure out that, as an assassin, he would know enough about his target, including what he sounded like.

Milo was made! Turning around, Mr. Speck left the bar, passing by Tom, who promptly and rather successfully picked his pocket. I gave BB the choice of either taking his gun or his wallet. I offered a Bennie if he chose the wallet. Guess what? BB chose the wallet!

Milo and Tom followed Mr. Speck out towards the lobby, getting spotted as they did so. When the assassin came around the corner towards the white courtesy phone, he noticed that it was off the hook, so he looked around and picked up the phone. Calmly, he said that he had reaquired his target and the job would be done soon. After hanging up the phone, he headed towards the elevator.

IL pushed his luck and made his Stealth roll but Mr. Speck rolled a better Notice roll and knew about where he was. I offered IL an opportunity to make a Smarts roll to see if he understood that he was made but he failed. So I gave him a Bennie if he arrogantly assumed that he was safe. IL himself took that to mean he was going to stand right next to Mr. Speck near the elevator.

When Tom and Milo came into the lobby, they spotted Mr. Speck standing by the elevator and were spotted by two Redcap goons hanging out there to back-up the assassin. One of them was the Redcap that got away in the alley. He recognized Tom! That's when Bruce, after eating a metric ton of nachos walked in.

Combat!

The initiative cards were laid down and I was very lucky to draw an Ace for Mr. Speck and the Redcaps while the players got much less. Mr. Speck went first - with a spin-kick, he dropped Steve, then drew his gun and shot Milo, scoring a Shaken and Wound for each of them. Redcap no. 1 jumped on Tom, Shaking and giving him two Wounds. The other Redcap took a swipe at Bruce but failed to connect. The situation looked pretty bad for the PCs.

IL, BB and PP used up a bunch of Bennies to make their Soak rolls, getting rid of the Shaken condition and their wounds, then they went in their turns. BB had his PC attack the Recap, scoring terrible wounds. CM used a Bennie to state that the chandelier was held up by a rope and fought his Redcap, throwing him under the lights while throwing a knife to slash the rope, causing the chandelier crashing down on both Redcaps.

Steve managed to get his feet under him and pulled his gun, shooting at Mr. Speck's head. He succeed in Shaking and Wounding the assassin. Milo opened up with his pistol, and PP made an incredible roll, scoring over 20 points of damage on Speck - doing enough damage to incapacitate him.

The assassin, Mr. Speck, was shot in the throat and, with his spirit standing still like a tree, his now corpse spun around, spraying the invisible Steve with blood, making him appear as a blood-covered ghost. The body continued spinning, splashing blood all over the bride who had just exited the wedding reception.

The session ended with Steve intimidating the spirit of Mr. Speck, trying to find out who hired him, right before the party made their escape, accompanied by the sounds of police sirens. All he got, though (after a very successful roll), was the assassin's bank account and access codes.

It was a fabulous session and the players had a great time. Especially the use of Bennies to bribe the players against their best interest (or in their best interest). No worries, I'll get the write-up for Session 2 from the other group's adventure and post it soon.

[Savage Worlds] Urban Fantasy, Session 1

The Mutant Buddhas got together last Friday at Games and Gizmos in Redmond, Washington. MW ran an Urban Fantasy game set in his fictional Brighton Bay (based partially on Bellingham, Washington). CR played Phyllis Norg the Troll, CS and CB played Don Ling the Sidhe and Natasha Ambrosius the Urban Scholar, BB played the teenage cat-burglar Tom Steele, and newcomer IL played Steve Smith, a grave-touched (raised by ghosts) mortal. I was Nick English, Private Eye.

Due to our collective misfit nature, we had known each other for years, orbiting each other in an asteroid field of other misfits. We had just been at a local science fiction convention and were walking to a nearby restaurant when we passed an alley. A gang of thugs were trashing a homeless guy and we decided to stop it.

Natasha figured out that they were actually Red Caps and Nick stepped forward, lit his cigarette (I created a prop cigarette) with his Hellboy lighter and told them to step away. I rolled a pretty good intimidate roll but not enough to cause them to back down. Phyllis was all set to thrash her some Red Caps and they prepared to fight.

Don did his best to convince the Red Caps to leave but that didn't work out well. Around this whole exchange, certain things developed in play - Nick believed he knew what was going on ("They're that gang, the 7th Street Red Caps, right? Why are they on 42nd and Farrugut?") and seemed oblivious to Steve disappearing in front of his eyes (gravetouched have the ability to turn invisible and other ghostly abilities) expressing "Where the Hell is Steve?!?" (which became a running joke during the game).

Don's failure to get the Red Caps to back down, as well as their cavalier insults aimed towards the group, led Phyllis to fight. The Red Caps were faster, though, and managed to Shake both Nick and Phyllis. When it came time for the party to respond, the Troll and the cat burglar took out two of them in very short order while the Sidhe paralyzed the leader. The combat ended with 4 Red Caps down, one paralyzed and another runnin'. Nick winged him with a shot from his glock but he got away.

The paralyzed Red Cap leader was questioned and Don calmly stated that he expected a favor and information in order for the rest of the party not to smear Red Cap all over the walls in a rather messy fashion. While Natasha and Nick went to find the homeless man, the rest found out that a Johnson had hired the Red Caps to take out the guy, giving them cash (Tom found $200 on the downed Red Caps) and a very nice and exacting drawing of the man.

The "homeless man" turned out to be a rich, successful antique bookseller named Milo Goshtashebi. Nick was convinced he spent several years in Milan and Madrid running various businesses (complete fabrications that were pretty funny with Milo's protestations of them not being the case) but noticed his very quality clothing.

With police rushing to the scene (due to the discharge of a firearm), the party gathered up Milo, picked up some pizza ("Where the Hell is Steve?!?!?"), and went to Milo's house. After eating, we discussed the hit on him. He believed it was a simple mugging but that didn't prove to be the case. Don and Natasha finally convinced him that the Fae world was real by having Phyllis show her true mein and Steve kept disappearing, prompting an exchange between Nick and Don:

"Where the Hell is Steve?!?!"
"You realize he keeps disappearing, right?"
"Yeah, he was right here a minute ago ...."
"No, he disappears!"
"I know, he disappears, he's slippery, that Steve."
"No, he REALLY disappears."
"He's probably in the bathroom."
"AAAaarrrrgggghhhhh!"

Nick noticed a red dot on Milo's head and I spent 4 Bennies to jump on him just in time to save his life. After that, Steve appeared and closed the curtains, the party disguised Milo as a sci-fi convention goer and the group planned their escape.

With a good investigation roll, Nick figured Milo's car would be rigged with a bomb. Using the car's remote access/start-up, he started the car (which promptly blew up) and in the confusion and fire, the group escaped with the rest of the condo building inhabitants.

On the way out, we spotted the sniper and Don cast a glamour that showed Milo leaving the condo so the sniper could "take him out." An extremely good roll by CS fooled the sniper and Nick got a vid of it on his cell-phone.

As the party hurried away with the disguised Milo, Nick made a call on a disposable cell-phone to the cops, saying he saw his neighbor Milo getting shot and dragged off by some folks. The police and fire arrived on the scene as the game session came to a close.

The game was very fun. It was good to have tha variety of characters and the players did a good job developing them. We're looking forward to Session 2!

[Savage Worlds] Gamma World, Session 3: Finale!

The Mutant Buddhas met again at Games and Gizmos in Redmond, Washington, last Friday. CR returned playing Rose the two-headed mutant, BB cam back as Artie the lizardy mutant, KW and BW reprised their roles of Riff the Warrior and Briar the Thief/Technologist, and new member MW played Jeremiah the Florintine Fighter. Unfortunately, CS and CB were unable to attend.

After a quick reprise of the previous two sessions, the game started with a fight with mutants! The group quickly came to order, fighting through the mutants and taking little damage. Unfortunately, close proximity to the mutants prompted another round of radiation sickness, with Artie's head growing larger and able to read the giant Lizard/Robot's mind.

With the giant Lizard/Robot wandering the city, being able to "hear" it's thoughts brought some measure of security to the group - they'd have a chance to avoid the giant rampaging creature because Artie could sense it was near.

The party continued to sneak through the ruined city, avoiding several roving bands of mutants, on their way to a lab they received directions to from the green glowcube high-tech device from last session.

While traveling to this lab, they spotted several strange vehicles approaching them on the road. Two were convertibles with wheels (a Cadillac and a Lincoln) and the other was a covered hover car with opaque windows. Driving the vehicles were silvery jumpsuit-clad Androids, former servants of the Ancients but also betrayers of same Ancients (according to Rose's Ancient Lore roll).

Artie let the group know that the Lizard/Robot was held off from the Androids by some means, prompting some speculation - maybe the Androids were responsible for the Lizard/Robot's rampage. They let the Androids drive past and lost them around the building with the lab in it. Wandering around the building exterior, they surmised that the Androids used an underground entrance.

The first three floors of the building were wrecked, burned out and empty. Climbing up the elevator shaft from the first floor, they found nothing much on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The doors leading to the 4th floor were sealed with some sort of welding and the 5th floor turned out similar, with three of the four doors jammed shut. Riff, with the help of Artie and Briar, managed to open the last door but giant vines snaked out of the doors, grabbing Briar and attacking the other characters.

The battle was fierce - Briar tried to cut himself out of the vines but they kept crushing him in their grip. The other PCs battled the vines, with Jeremiah using his Florintine skills to fight two vines at a time and Rose shooting towards the mass of the plant monster with her Slugthrower. The plant monster shot spines with green goo at the PCs but missed them and was very difficult to kill (the first time as GM I started using my "bennies" in game) but Riff threw two grenades into the heart of the plant monster to kill it. Finally defeated, the PCs entered the 5th floor, finding a garden with edible fruit trees and more of those spines with green goo that they figured they'd use as crossbow bolts.

The Lizard/Robot made it's appearance outside the building and they used the green glowcube high-tech device to control the robot part of it, causing it to smash into the building, breaching the 4th floor. A cloud of gas came out of the 4th floor and enveloped the giant creature, killing the lizard part of it, which fell off the robot part.

Examining the robot half, they learned that there was a controller (Briar disabled it) as well as a socket to stick a lizard (or lizardy mutant like Artie) into to create another gigantic Lizard/Robot. There was much discussion on this turn of events and I said to BB "Don't you want to try out being a giant Lizard Mutant/Robot?"

With a bribe of 5 "bennies" for himself and 2 each for the rest of the players, Artie's player BB plugged his character into the machine. The technology increased his Strength, Vigor and Smarts, creating a smart giant monster.

The Androids showed up then, tried to control Artie/Robot but failed because of the disabled controller. With a "You will pay for your interference" the Androids attacked the PCs with Pain Guns. Artie/Robot ran down three of them, crushing them beneath his robotic treads, while the rest fought valiantly. Briar figured out how to use the green glowcube high-tech device as a weapon and disintegrated two Androids. Several Jokers showed up in the initiative cards, to the benefit of the players, and many "bennies" were spent, but the Androids didn't have a chance and were soundly defeated.

The characters managed to capture a half-dozen Pain Guns, the three vehicles and some assorted silvery jumpsuits and the campaign ended with the PCs heading home, richer in Ancient Devices, and two of them mutants, including a giant Artie/Robot.

This was a great 3-part campaign. I tried to give the players plenty of opportunities to direct the game to places they were interested in, which I think showed up well in play. There was a lot of good roleplaying and everyone did an excellent job of rolling with the comments of each other.

On a sad note, Mutant Buddha founding members KW and BW are headed back to Texas next month. They've been constant participants and excellent gamers in the first 5 sessions of the group and will be missed. I gave them a copy of Savage Worlds in the hopes they will continue playing it with any groups they join in Texas, continuing the cycle of Savage Worlds evangelizing.

Safe trip, guys, and good gaming.

[Savage Worlds] Gamma World, Session 2

Last Friday, I ran the second session of Gamma World for the Mutant Buddhas (that's what I've decided to call them).

Artie the Acrobat (played by BB), Sage the Healer (CB), Riff the Fighter and Briar the Thief (KW and BW), Mr. Lucky (CS), and Rose the Scholar (CR) continued their adventures in the Gamma World.

After looting the control room of everything useful, they tried out one of the more unusual doors in the corridor. It opened up readily with an ID card but they couldn't see into the darkness beyond. One after the other braved possible death by stepping through the portal but they found themselves in a small room with three doors, all without ID card slots.

Opening the doors, they were on a street in one of the ruined cities of the Deathlands. Tall buildings surrounded them, some still intact but others piles of rubble. After looking around, they heard the sound of metal striking metal.

Riff spotted a rag-covered figure pounding on a piece of metal with a pipe. Bang, bang, bang, bang. It kept going. The figure, who they assumed was a mutant, looked at them while he (she?) signaled it's fellows.

Soon, a group of six mutants had assembled and headed towards the PCs. At first, Artie tried to make peaceful contact but combat was soon joined. Rose took out the first mutant and Lucky killed a few from a group of three sneaking up on the group from behind, while Riff and Artie got into close combat. Soon the whole party was in full melee.

The mutants defeated, our heroes began to feel ill, with Rose and Artie succumbing to radiation poisoning from close exposure to the mutants. Sage used some of the supplies from the Ancients' medical pack to stabilize them but the party was still in danger - storm clouds threatened.

Mr. Lucky and Briar found a defensible position in a nearby building and the crew managed to get their injured friends to safety before acid rain fell. The rain burned the concrete around their safe lair and caused some consternation from the party.

In the room they found an ancient worship box that they all examined. Mr. Lucky proceeded to gift an Ancients' beverage to it by pouring it into the top holes.

The night passed uneventfully, with the exception that Artie and Rose developed mutations! Artie lost all his hair and grew lizardlike scales (that increased his general toughness), while Rose grew a second head (with a second brain). Both players added the Outsider (Mutant) hindrance to their character sheets.

The surprise at two new mutants in their midst was tempered by the return of the mutants and a gigantic robotic/lizard creature they were attracting to the area to kill the PCs. The gigantic creature destroyed the small building they used to enter the city, cutting them off from their home. How would they escape the mutants and their creature?

Rose, now known as Rose Red (head #1) and Snow White (head #2) figured that the robotic part could be controlled with the correct Ancient device and Briar used his considerable BS ability to foretell the future using the liquid flowing from the worship box.

The liquid went in orange and came out red, flowing out of the box and out of the building. Briar said it was a sign from the gods and that they should follow it. While Sage initially was distrustful of this pronouncement, she soon was onboard with the prophesy (after a GM bribe of 2 Bennies) and they followed the liquid out of the building where it mixed with another ancient pool, turning green and flowed into an abandoned tunnel, much like the one they started in.

The green liquid flowed down some stairs and pooled around a green 12-sided object, the same shape and size as their glowcubes. They examed the green object and I gave the players an opportunity to decide what it did if they made successful Knowledge: Ancient Devices skill rolls.

Rose, Artie, Lucky, Sage and Briar succeeded in learning things about the device. The players decided it could reproduce if it became fully charged (not quite there after it absorbed the power from one of their glowcubes), it could recharge by sunlight, it was sentient, and it had six powers (one of which was the ability to talk).

Armed with the greenglowcube, they determined that there were several nearby buildings that could help them with the gigantic robotic lizard problem and that's where the session ended.

The next session will prove to be interesting!

[Savage Worlds] Gamma World, Session 1

I ran a short adventure in the Gamma World setting using Savage Worlds for a bunch of friends at Games and Gizmos in Redmond Washington a week ago. KW and BW showed up, as well as BB, who invited new friend CR. And CS and CB from my Serenity game came, too.

Since the group wasn't familiar with Savage Worlds, I went over the main points of the system, including Wild Die, Bennies and using skills and attributes. I handed out a bunch of pre-made characters: CS chose Mr. Lucky. CR picked Rose the Scholar. BW and KW chose Briar the Thief and Riff the Fighter, respectively. CB had Sage the Healer and BB, who arrived later, got Artie the Acrobat.

We ran a short combat to get everyone some experience with their characters and the system. And I let them use their Bennies for free and get them back when we officially started the game.

The combat went pretty well. Lucky fought Sage and Briar fought Rose, with Riff jumping in to trounce Briar. They got used to rolling their skill die plus the Wild Die. Some of them rolled really well and did a lot of damage by acing their rolls and their victims got used to rolling soak rolls.

I started the game in the small valley the PCs lived in. They were about a month away from thier time of trial to adulthood and a few days earlier, farmer found a metal panel while plowing a field. Hammering on the panel, it let out a high-pitched noise and the farmer ran away - just in time to avoid the explosion that sent the panel into the sky, leaving behind a hole into darkness.

The village militia was mobilized and a villager went into the hole to see what it was. He returned with a description of a tunnel from the time of the ancients. The village council decided it was time for the PCs to go on their trials into the tunnel to see what dangers it posed to the community. The night before they were to descend, the lone guard over the hole was visciously attacked and dismembered, devoured by some strange beast from the hole.

The PCs were led to the hole by the whole village. Rose became sick at the sight of poor dead Clem (failed a Guts check) while the others were disturbed but didn't loose their breakfast. Armed with a dagger and a crossbow, some food and their militia armor, they received a tool of the ancients: a glowcube.

They were taught how to use the glowcube and taking six torches each, they descended into the darkness. In the tunnel, they discovered more parts of poor Clem and a blood trail leading one direction, towards the center of the valley. The tunnel was made from the ancients' strong stone with a strip of strange material much like glass on the walls. The strange material proved to be impervious to breaking or damaging attempts by several of the vandals in the party.

The glass material extended down the tunnel each way and was about half way up the walls. They learned that the glowcube had an effect on it, causing it to glow and extended their light about 50 meters in each direction, with the brightest light nearest to the glowcube and then fading as it went farther from the glowcube. This improved their light situation.

The group looked around and found the blood trail from bits of Clem and followed them. Mr. Lucky used his skills to figure the creature that killed Clem had 7 or 8 limbs but no one saw it.

After walking about a kilometer, they discovered a switch on the side of the wall and Briar found a loose panel with wires sticking out. Rose clicked it, causing the panel to spark, and the glass material lit up all the way down the tunnel in each direction as far as they could see. A hidden door opened and a strange metal creature came out. They waited to see what it would do and (predictably) it attacked them. The combat was pretty good, with the players still learning how to do things.

With the robot defeated, they explored the storage room, finding some ready supplies, including an ID security card and another glowcube. They also heard the thing that killed Clem making noise farther down the tunnel, but didn't see it. A strange pattern on the floor of the tunnel attracted their attention and they used the security card to open a stairway down.

The stairs led to a series of rooms and Mr. Lucky, who was the last one down, caught a glimpse of the creature, calmly telling the rest of the party that it had 9 legs and lots of claws and chompy teeth. The door, thankfully, closed after him so the creature was not a danger (yet).

The rooms turned out to be several rest lounges with vending machines and empty (but burned out) machine rooms. They found some ancient food packets (with Briar picking the locks on the vending machines) and another ID security card. The last room they looked at turned out to be a control room of some sort, with a view of a tunnel like they left, going the other direction. They investigated the machines and one of the side doors opened, letting in two security robots.

The combat was fierce, with the PCs ultimately triumphing with few injuries and the robots defeated. Rose and Briar managed to remove two slug throwers with some ammo from the bodies of the robots. Riff, Artie and Sage found several police riot shields, enough billy clubs for each of them and a police riot helmet.

This turned out to be a good place to stop, so we ended the evening with awarding of experience. I explained how to use experience and most of the players spent it. We discussed when to meet next and what to play next (they wanted me to continue this game).

All in all, a good session!

[Sorcerer] Escape from New York

Using the setting from the Escape from New York movie, I ran a short Sorcerer adventure for new gamer friends KW, BW and BB last night at Games and Gizmos, a local game shop in Redmond. Following advice I requested from a recent RPG.net thread on Sorcerer, I made up the PCs and demons for the most part - I let each of the players spell out their telltales and kickers, as well as their demon's names and telltales.

KW played Scry, an ex-commando, BW played Von Neumann, an inventor, and BB played Bill Forks, a NY Cabbie. All had been incarcerated in the Manhattan Maximum Security Prison for various reasons. While there, they learned Sorcery and managed to summon and bind their own personal demons.

Scry's demon was Ingvar, a Parasite demon that replaced her eye. Von Neumann had a demonic Parasitic arm named Alfred and Bill had a demonic car named The King in Yellow Cab, known most often as King. The binding rolls went good for some, and bad for others.

The Kicker part of character generation went OK, and I helped out and we eventually came up with some good kickers. Von Neumann had a power cell stolen and the thief escaped in a cab. Bill picked up a fare, dropped him off and saw him get murdered and the murderers were after him. Scry's group was wiped out before an escape attempt. All pretty cool kickers.

The game started on a Tuesday Night, at 8PM, with Von Neumann getting robbed of his power cell by Alex Chow, during the sale of a thermite bomb. He didn't notice it until Alex had escaped, after paying for the bomb, and jumped into a cab. He chased the cab on his motorcycle but lost him in the city and his motorcycle broke down. So he pushed the bike to the Night Market.

Scry went to the meet-up place and found her crew all dead. Except Alex Chow was missing. He'd been sent to get a bomb but hadn't returned. She figured she'd catch up with him at the Night Market and find out what happened.

Bill picked up a fare and dropped him off, watching as he was attacked and killed. He figured it was prudent to leave. But King started acting up, demanding cassette tapes (his Need) and wanting Polka music! Bill only had rap, and managed to convince King to accept two rap tapes. Later, after listening to the really, really bad rap and then eating the tapes, King demanded Polka! A contest of Wills resulted, with King winning and Bill forced to walk dangerous 5 blocks to the nearby Night Market to look for cassette tapes.

At the Night Market, Scry ran afoul of a couple of gang members, from the Baseball Furies. Combat ensued and she kicked on in the head, killing him, all the while her demon, Ingvar, was egging her on - "Kill him! Yes! Now kill his friends!" (his Desire: Mayhem). Von Neumann noticed this and figured she was a Sorcerer (he noticed her Telltale). Bill also noticed the tussle but didn't involve himself.

Bill ran into Von Neumann (they knew each other) and Von Neumann described Alex to Bill - he was the fare that got killed! They reached a deal, with Von Neumann getting Bill two Polka tapes for King and they took off to the spot where Alex died. Scry knew that Alex had used Bill's taxi and saw him leaving with someone (Von Neumann) and gave chase.

A local thief tried to sell Von Neumann's bike to Scry but she did a jump-scissor kick to take off his head and land on the bike, racing off after the King in Yellow Cab. Von Neumann's demon Alfred witnessed the bloodletting (his Need) and wanted some of the blood but was satiated with some of his master's blood instead.

Bill figured out quickly that someone was following them, and King gave Scry the slip, using his Cover: Race Car Driver ability to escape from Ingvar's Perception: City-sense ability (the first Demon ability vs. Demon ability in the game).

Scry hit up some gang members about the whereabouts of the taxi and got into another fight, losing the first exchange of blows (going completely defensive), then managing to win in the end, and getting the directions she required.

Bill and Von Neumann made it to the sight of Alex's death, finding his body hanging from a light pole. Von Neumann stepped out to get the body and a monster Ford Truck came out of the darkness at them. I told BW and BB that the truck was aimed right at King and King took that as a personal affront (his Desire: Competition) and Bill screamed as the two vehicles came together in a crash as Von Neumann used his demon arm to chop down the light pole onto the truck. The rolls were excellent, with BB getting a complete victory over the Ford Truck Bandits and King rammed through the Ford Truck, killing them all and totalling the truck as the light pole fell on the ruined mess of the truck.

Scry arrived on the scene to see the final battle and as King screeched to a stop, a glowing power cell rolled out from under his seat. Alfred drank the blood of the Ford Truck Bandits and Von Neumann recovered his power cell. With the PCs all together, the sesison came to a close.

All in all, I probably didn't run Sorcerer to the fullest and I resolved two Kickers pretty quickly (Bill's and Von Neumann's) but I played each of the demons pretty well, I think, trying to develop personalities and pushing the PCs to doing things that the might not have wanted to do. There were no Humanity checks but then there wasn't much time to summon and bind another demon and no-one did anything particularly un-Humanizing.

The after-game discussion was good, since none of us had played or, in my case, ran Sorcerer before, so we talked about the resolution system and demons. Everyone had a good time trying out this new system. Maybe I'll run it again for them. We'll see.

Don't worry, I'll post the PCs and Demons later.

[Labyrinth Lord] Friday

In addition to Serenity on Saturday, I ran a LL/D&D game on Friday night for some friends.

I set the game in my Ashford Valley setting and the three PCs, a cleric, a fighter and a magic-user (played by XO, KW and BW, respectively), searched for some missing merchants along the High Bridge Road, believing that the merchants were captured by bandits.

That's not how it turned out.

After an encounter with an odd witch named Edith (the fighter suspected she was a harpy) as well as accompanying a melon farmer with two oxen named Blue (with brown eyes) and Brown (with blue eyes), they encountered the reason the merchants went missing - Morlocks!

After a little fight, the PCs were victorious and saved two of the three missing merchants.

A good little game.