Thursday 31 July 2014

Apologies and Apocalypse

Well I was hoping to have another post up about my Numenera game but it looks like real life happened a little bit this week. Two of my players could not make it in time to play the session so it looks like I will have to hang on a week until I get the next session off the ground. Mind you, that does allow me to get the plot better refined and allow me to plan out what I have in store for the characters a little better, so that's no bad thing.

On a slightly different note, one of the things that really attracted me to Numenera when Monte Cook first described it on the Kickstarter was the fact it was, in part, a post-apocalyptic game. This is a genre I have always enjoyed but never had enough of a chance to run games in. Back when I first started running games twenty years ago, I ran Twilight 2000 by GDW. This was a pretty straight forward scenario (not necessarily a straight-forward game mind) that was set after the world has slid into nuclear war one step at a time in World War 3, and the survivors are left wondering what to do come the year 2000, in the immediate aftermath. I have no idea now if I was running the game right (I suspect I wasn't) but it always captured my imagination, and set me wanting more post-apocalypse in my gaming.

Twilight 2000: no sparkly vampires in sight, but so very 80's in its art.
Fast forward a few years and D20 Modern comes out. This was a game I got hold of as soon as I heard about it (pretty soon after its release) and set about collecting almost everything that got released for it. One of the supplements was D20 Apocalypse: well this was exactly my cup of tea so I snapped it up, only to realise I needed D20 Future to get the best out of it. Later, when at university I finally got hold of a copy of D20 Future (in around 2010) and started to think I might finally be able to get that post-apocalyptic game I have always wanted off the ground. As of this date (31 July 2014) I am still waiting to get going! For what ever reason I have never managed to get enough players interested at the same time, whilst also not having something else running to really get this game going. I have had to satisfy myself playing Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas instead, but console games are a pale imitation of a good rpg (no matter how enjoyable they are to play) in my opinion.

D20 Apocalypse: I still want to use this! One day, one day....


So all this brings me back to Numenera: now I have another system, but with it's own setting, that I could use to satisfy my post apocalyptic craving. Whilst it does have that ability I think, I think I still want something that is more immediate in its apocalypse, something that has that Fallout, Book of Eli, Mad Max feel about it. This has set me thinking that perhaps I could look at a Cypher system hack in which I could get the game I want. It is certainly something I am thinking about...

Monday 28 July 2014

A mixed blogging week

So whilst I was away on holiday I had all sorts of productive plans for things I would plan and write for this blog. However it looks like events conspired against me! I had planned to write up my plans for a Sliver EDH deck, but alas I had the cards I wanted delivered to the incorrect address so didn't receive them in time to take them away with me. However it does mean I should get to collect them this evening from my post box.

Since I could not work on my Sliver deck, I decided to try and do a write up about my work in progress decks. I sat down at the table, with the sun shining and a cool drink, only to find that there power cable for my laptop was irreparably damaged! This meant that I couldn't write up what I had intended to write, due to the lack of power. I only managed to replace the cable yesterday upon my return from Wales. Once again, at least this gives me some ammunition for things to write this week and next!

I did get to do two relevant things on my week vacation though: first off I spent some of the time writing up ideas for my ongoing Numenera game. The location where we based proved quite inspiring for game writing, as did the amount of reading for leisure that I did through out the week. This means I have a (hopefully) fun location for my players to explore in the Ninth World for the coming sessions. I hope that I can get a rough copy of the location drawn up and some description posted for a future article. The second thing I managed this week was to find the only shop in Pembrokeshire that is in the Wizards of the Coast Magic: the Gathering network. This proved useful as it was my brother's 31st birthday this past weekend (Happy birthday Ian :D )and it meant I could get him a present on time, selecting one of the Magic 2015 Intro Packs, Hit the Ground Running. So far we haven;t had chance for a game with this Blue-Green deck but I am looking forward to playing against it, and I am glad to have given Ian something new to build against (his Depths of Power based deck from M13 was devastating). The new deck included a Stormtide Leviathan, so he was happy, as this was used to such good effect in Depths of Power.

Stormtide Leviathan: horrible blue so and so!
There was one new(ish) thing that I started on whilst I was away. Back in 2004 when Vampire the Requiem was released by White Wolf as a replacement for Vampire: the Masquerade, I acquired a copy of the core rulebook along with the World of Darkness book required to run the game. Over the years I have slowly gotten my hands on a few more of the books, but have not once in 10 years ever run the game (although I have played a couple of one offs using the system). Last year, on a whim, I got New Orleans: City of the Damned second hand, but hadn't gotten round to reading it. With my laptop out of action, and needing my RPG fix, I started reading this whilst I was away, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. In a discussion with my player group we came to the conclusion that it might not be a bad idea to try Requiem finally. This means that I have added it to the roster of stuff I want to run in the future, and when we finish/pause the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign, I might look at running Requiem. For now I have added it to my list of topics in the tags, and hope I can get more written about the game soon.

My latest read and a new (old) topic for the blog.

Friday 18 July 2014

Magic 2015

Well its the release day for the latest Magic: the Gathering core set today. I already have a pre-order in place for some of the cards that I found interesting (Sliver Hivelord I am looking at you), but more than anything I am looking forward to getting some boosters and seeing what I get!

The Sliver Hivelord, centre piece for my first Sliver Commander  deck.


I have wanted to get a long to a pre-release for a Magic set but never managed to make it yet, real life keeps getting in the way. It doesn't help that I live away from home during the week, so vanishing for a day at the weekend can be a little unfair on my wife I feel, but hopefully, very soon, that will no longer be an issue as I am moving home to Walsall. What this means is that I can hopefully get myself along to see a pre-release and give a go to playing some Limited, which is a format of Magic that I have never yet experienced, and would love to give a go to. I am looking to see if I can rope my brother in to attending the pre-release for the next block so that we can both get a chance at drafting and playing in a tournament environment for the first time.

The Magic 2015 promo image, featuring the newly changed Garruk.


In the meantime it's time to start looking at my decks and figuring out what I need to remove that has rotated out of Standard, and what i can put in to replace those cards that have gone. I have a week's holiday away with family next week, so I am hoping that I can use some of the time to look at my decks and see what changes need to be made. My holiday should also give me time to catch up on the session write ups for my Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign, ready for the next session. I am looking forward to getting the campaign log up to date before I forget vital details of what has gone on! The final plan for my spare time, games wise, is to build my Sliver Commander deck, which will be focused around my newly acquired Sliver Hivelord. That should be enough to keep me going for a week away, and I should be able to present the decklist for my Sliver deck once I am back.

Wednesday 16 July 2014

The Nightmare Switch: part 4

In the first light of the morning, the companions left the cave behind them and resumed their pursuit of the creators of the tracks, heading westward toward distant hills. Cannis was leading the others, and they made excellent time through out what was an otherwise uneventful day. As the light began to fade in the early evening, the party came upon a small series of small low hills, forming the start of the hill range they had spied earlier in the day. The trail they were following led into a narrow valley between two of these hills. Sharp eyes and smart thinking quickly brought a sentry to their attention, positioned just below the brow of the nearest hill, and indicated a small column of smoke rising from the valley floor. It looked like they had caught up with their track-makers! It was decided that they should stealthily make their way across the desert floor, passed the valley entrance and attempt to climb the low hill to the west of the camp; this would allow them a better vantage point over the camp and also allow them avoid the sentry on the eastern hill.

It took an hour or more of careful movement across the desert, avoiding the sentry's gaze, before they made their way up the side of the hill and crouching down amongst the broken boulders and scant foliage over-looking their quarry's camp. The sight that met them when they looked closer was not what they expected. Instead of a small band of Aeon Priests, it was in fact a larger group of abhumans, Margyr to be precise. The bestial abhumans had set up a camp and looked like they were preparing their evening meal (which looked a lot like two human legs...). What is more, they had a number of items laid out on a blanket which appeared to be the band's loot, and one of those items looked to be size and shape of the missing cylinder. The leader of the group was huge example of a Margyr, twice the size of the rest and bellowing orders to the rest. The companions quickly discussed what they could do to get hold of the cylinder. The cooking legs pretty much ruled out diplomacy, and so taking it by force seemed to be the best option they had, using their cyphers to even up the numbers somewhat.

The game in progress over Google Hangouts

The initial assault on the abhumans was marked by the use of Nord's gravity detonation cypher, thrown into the middle of the group to try and think their ranks. When the dust settled from this, 5 of the Margyr had vanished and their huge leader was flat on his back, struggling to recover from the unexpected attack. Nord the proceeded to start firing arrows down on the leader as Cannis moved forward to engage a clutch of the abhumans who were advancing up the hill side to attack with their spears and axes. Six positioned himself so he could use his esoteries on the advancing throng but failed to get a blast off. Further problems were thrown up when the attacking abhumans were able to bring Cannis down (a 1 rolled on Cannis' speed defense, resulted in one of the spears tripping him... I love GM intrusion!). A thrown detonation cypher from the Margyr leader exploded at the feat of Nord and Six, but they were able to leap aside, avoiding any damage from it. Nord replied with a called shot to the giant's eye (a difficult shot, which Nord managed to get a 17 on the roll of and inflict a wicked wound upon his enemy), which dropped the leader, and eased the pressure on the companions. Cannis made light work of being prone, slashing and stabbing at the warriors in front of him and reaping damage upon them whilst they inflicted several wounds back on the redoubtable Glaive. Six managed to blast once or twice with Onslaught, but when he failed with one attempt (again rolling a 1!) the sentry from the far hill appeared behind him, having advanced whilst the party were distracted. Now alert to this danger, Six attempted to bring this sentry down but once again failed to hit with his mental blast; in addition he received a nasty wound in return from the sentry's axe. Nord seeing his friend in danger bull-rushed the sentry, knocking him aside and bruising him in the process. The following turn saw Nord dispatch the sentry with a thrust of his two bladed weapon, allowing the companions to focus on the warriors facing Cannis.

With their leader dead, the remaining Margyr were in a blood-lust fuelled rage, and pressed their attack heedless of the tide turning against them. Cannis was able to get back to his feet when his friends joined the fight, and with the numbers more or less even, the two Glaives and the Nano were able to use their superior training and abilities to overwhelm their opponents, dispatching them quickly before surveying the battlefield. By the end of the fight, all the abhumans lay dead, whilst the companions were cut and bruised but alive. Exhausted but exhilarated, the companions cast their eyes over their spoils, seeking that they had indeed recovered the missing cylinder, and also confirmed that the Aeon Priests had meta grisly end (their remains being some of that which was cooking over the fire). Nord decided that the skull of the leader would make a fine trophy, much to the consternation of his friends, and set about "recovering" it. Meanwhile, Six and Cannis discovered that the abhumans had an artifact in their possession, a pair of rods which when combined together created a blast of lightning. This was perfect for a Mechanical Nano who Rides the Lightning, and Cannis was happy to have the dangerous thing away from him! The abhumans also had 3 aneen which they used as pack animals, and the party decided to use them as mounts after a period of rest, so that they could return to the Faceted Dome and replace the burned out cylinder quickly.

By the following evening they were back in Redstone, having fixed the damaged machine in the dome, and hopeful that the nightmares would now stop. Upon telling the mayor of Redstone this, they were greeted with cautious optimism, which the following morning turned to stupendous joy after a night's undisturbed sleep. This joy was tempered somewhat by the news of the death of the Aeon Priest clave but was still worthy of celebration. Deymish was paid for his cargo by the mayor in thanks, and in turn the companions got their pay for being riverboat guards.

This brought about a close to my first Numenera adventure as a GM, which had taken a mere 2 sessions to run. However, it has now set in place ideas for a continuation for the three characters, as it the game was extremely enjoyable for all involved. Hopefully this means I will be able to write up some more sessions as and when they are run.

Thursday 10 July 2014

The Nightmare Switch: part 3

Last night my players and I reconvened to resume play in our new Numenera campaign. Last session finished with them entering the Faceted Dome and realising they needed to replace a part in the ancient machine they saw before them (you can read about it here (part 1) and here (part 2)). The game is played over Google Hangouts, as its difficult to get is all together regularly to play face to face (we live in three different parts of the country).

Gaming area all set up and ready to go!
The party started the session by exploring the interior of the dome. It was an unusual change from the dusty, dry, hot desert outside, with it's cool, humid atmosphere and it's frequent potted plants. Nord wondered if there were any storage compartments or bins which might contain a replacement for the burned out and damaged cylinder that was removed from the machine. The three companions rooted high and low in and around the machinery but were unable to find a replacement cylinder. They did however find a collection of cyphers and an oddity. After a brief discussion Six replaced one of his existing cyphers with a small glass rod that disintegrated metal when activated, figuring it would be more useful than the pill he gave up. With no luck on finding a replacement part, Cannis suggested that they pursue the tracks leading off westward to see if they can locate the Aeon priests from Redstone, and see if they knew anything about the part. After a short rest the party set off on foot across the scorching, arid land, following the tracks as they led off first west then southwest. By nightfall, they hadn't caught up with the creators of the tracks and so decided to take refuge in a nearby cave to rest for the evening.

With watches set and people bedding down, Nord Dar set about passing the time of his watch near the entrance to the cave, looking out on the night sky. His musings were disturbed, however, by the sight and sounds of the sand in the cave roiling and moving (GM Intrusion, which Nord's player happily accepted! This was also the first attempt by myself to add a creature of my own design into Numenera). From beneath the surface burst out a long, sinuous creature with two limbs that ended with scythe-like blades which fused synth, steel and bone. The two sleeping party members leapt to their feet and readied themselves for action: before any one started to fight Cannis roared that he could calm the creature (being trained in placating natural animals... a stretch calling this natural!). Staring at the monster, and making himself look big, Cannis shouted at the creature "back down!". For a split second it paused, checked by Cannis' booming voice in the confines of the cave, but then it launched itself at the Glaive, swinging it's scythe-blades. Cannis, being a nimble and lightly armoured sort, dived aside to dodge the blade (in doing so Cannis' player roared with delight, the dice coming up a natural 20!). This brush with death shook something loose in him, and with an un-natural howl he started to flicker and his outline shift, becoming a huge, slavering wolf-man hybrid! At this point battle commenced in earnest.

The creature in the cave
The players all rolled for initiative with all three players acting before the creature. A good start! First round actions were declared, with Nord shooting it with his bow, Cannis leaping on it and clawing it apart and Six attempting to Onslaught it with his Nano powers. This round of actions produced a spectacular amount of damage from Cannis as he applied effort to the damage and ripped a large part of the creatures armour free. Nord's arrow deflected off the creature's tough hide and Six.... well Six managed to fail spectacularly with his Onslaught, rolling a 1 and giving free GM intrusion. This was used to introduce a smaller version of the creature attacking them, which burrowed out of the sand behind Six and attacked him. The creature launched it's counter-attack, lashing out at both Nord and Cannis, missing Nord but slashing across Cannis, who simply ignored the pain and carried right on with his attack.

The second round produced another flurry of interesting actions. Cannis attempted to rip more of the creature apart to add to the devastation he got with his first strike, Nord switched attention to the small creature, and Six once again went more an Onslaught blast. Fortune did not favour Cannis, as he rolled a one for another GM intrusion: this one meant that although he ripped something off the creature he ended up with a face full of acidic ichor, burning himself for 4 points of damage. Nord grabbed the smaller creature by the neck, ignoring its bone-scythes and proceeded to snap its spine, ending the treat from it. Six had more poor luck, rolling badly and failing to blast the larger creature.

At the start of the third round, Cannis' outline flickered and shifted once again, going back to the man not the beast, who found himself naked, and on the back of a huge creature that was determined to kill him. He launched another attack on the creature, again aiming for the damaged area he had created on his first attack, but again rolled a 1! The third free GM intrusion in this fight generated a second juvenile creature which launched itself at Cannis, who dodges to avoid it. Nord then delivered an arrow to the adult creature inflicting damage upon it before Six finally activates his Onslaught and killed the main threat. All that was left now was for Cannis to dispatch the juvenile, which him promptly did with one blow from his fist!

With the companions exhausted from the fight, they simply pushed the bodies of their foes to the back of the cave, and brushed themselves off before returning to their beds, or watch posts. Cannis also found time to replace his torn clothing, much to the relief of his companions! When morning arrived, they set out from the cave again following the trail, hopeful that today would be the day they caught up, and put pay to the nightmares plaguing Redstone.

Monday 7 July 2014

Bolt Action & bargaining

Unfortunately, I didn't get to run the next session of my Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign this weekend due to a busy schedule, but I am hoping to get the next session run this weekend coming. however, this weekend certainly wasn't a loss gaming-wise, thanks once again to the great folk at Nebula Custom Gaming.I spent my Saturday afternoon holed up in the store and managed to get quite a bit of gaming in.

For the first hour or so that i was there I got to try something new (thanks in the main due to one of Nebula's co-owners, Vince and his patience!), which was the table top war game Bolt Action. This is the first time I have ventured outside of anything Warhammer 40k related for wargaming, and the first war game I have played for at least 3 years, so I was really keen to give it a go.


The game is played out over 6 turns between 2  opposing armies, trying to achieve an objective, which is all very standard for a table top war game. What is different about Bolt Action is that instead of each player taking it in turn to play out moves for their whole army, a bag of custom dice are used to decide which unit takes the next action, until every unit has had an action, then the turn advances.

Order dice: one of the ways Bolt Action keeps things interesting.
Vince kindly agreed to demo the game for me and so we set up our opposing armies (he played as the Americans, I chose the Germans). The objective was focused on the German half-track, which I had to preserve and Vince had to destroy. Early on it looked as though the Germans were doing rather well: the American Bazooka kept on missing the half-track and my machine gunners and rifle-men were picking off a good number of G.Is (shame my sniper appeared to be blind). However, due to the unpredictable nature of how the order dice come out, this can change very quickly and on turn three the half-track took an immobilising hit from the Americans: not so bad I thought, as long as I take out the Bazooka team. However, this didn't happen and on turn 4 the Americans once again got the first order, hit the half-track and got an immobilised result again, resulting in its destruction and an American victory. We played out the remaining 2 turns but this just resulted in my infantry squad FUBARing and shooting their commanding officer in the confusion!

As a first taste of Bolt Action, I have to say I loved it! It's been a long time since I really enjoyed table top war gaming, with Warhammer 40k having lost my interest, so it was really great to find one I enjoyed. It certainly shares many things in common with Warhammer (no shock when you realise Rick Priestly is one of the designers for it), but it felt different enough to be interesting. Thanks Vince for running me through it, I really appreciated it.

After I had finished my demo game of Bolt Action I managed to get down to a few games of Magic: the Gathering. I played one of my in progress decks, a green-white Selesyna inspired deck, in a 4 player game and did respectably although not spectacularly. Thanks to one of the regulars at Nebula, Lee, I acquired an Ajani, Mentor of Heroes which should help this deck out quite a lot.

Ajani: my new planeswalker to add into my work in progress G/W deck.


Along with playing regular Magic, I also got to try my hand at multiplayer Commander. This was a really interesting game, as its slower than standard Magic and has a lot of politics to it. I recently acquired the Commander 2013 Nature of the Beast deck, and did consider running that out, but instead I plumped for my home-brewed Goblin commander deck led by Wort, Boggart Auntie. It proved to be a really enjoyable game despite losing heavily to Lee's Vampire deck, which managed to take out both myself and the third player in the game, Jake in one turn. I am now thinking of ways to improve the goblins, and I hope to get some more Commander in soon. All in all it was a fun filled Saturday afternoon of gaming, and I can't wait until I get to do it again.

Friday 4 July 2014

The Nightmare Switch: part 2

With the party recovering from the harrowing scene in the Redstone Arms tavern, they decided to bed down for the night on board Deymish's boat, moored in the canal at the base of the cliffs. Before everyone drifted off to sleep, Six proposed a theory that perhaps they would all suffer the nightmare, being as they were sleeping in Redstone. What is more, if they did he had a theory about what could be causing these awful dreams: the Numenera (which Cannis snorted at and stated: "Its always the bloody Numenera with you"). Six proposed that there may be some sort of signal or radio wave (to which his two Glaive companions looked blankly at him) that was carrying this dream to people's sleeping minds. With his two companions confused about what on the Ninth World Six was blathering about, they all quickly went off to sleep. That's when the nightmare struck... Strange images, disconnected sensations, sounds smission (a combination of smell and vision) all assaulted minds that were not designed to handle it, creating nothing but pain, terror and confusion. Everyone quickly awoke, relaying the same experience to one another whilst the horrifying memory of the dream receded, all except Six...

Here was an example of GM intrusion recommended in the adventure itself: the alternative dream. This one, instead of the confusing dream/nightmare images, gave a clearer picture of a structure in the desert, of something broken that needed fixing: a strange cylinder, and a sense of urgency. Six, being a Mechanical Nano seemed like the perfect target for this alternative dream and so it was that I offered him the intrusion, which he accepted and learned more.

Six relayed his dream, to the others, who were able to share their experience with him. Much to his disgust, Nord had to admit that Six could possibly be right with his theory of it being Numenera related. The party quickly discussed what Six had seen and what they could do next. Six informed them that he thought the dome was close (at least, that was the impression the dream gave), and he thought they should set out to find it. Grabbing water and some limited provisions, the party made ready to leave in the night, informing Deymish who said he would remain behind with his boat.

The desert surrounding Redstone, where the party went off in search of Six's dream.
The party made it's way up through the village and out into the desert beyond, following the path out to the quarry. It was here that Cannis found signs of tracks leading off into the desert, and what is more, determined that there were signs of three sets of tracks. They started to follow these off into the red desert, with their hopes lifted that Six's dream may prove right.



As the sun started to rise in the morning, Cannis' sharp eyes once again picked up on an anomaly, with a bright sparkle occasionally popping up on the horizon. As the day wore on this became a constant glare, and as the party moved further north it became apparent that this was a reflection off of a surface. The direction of this co-incided with the tracks that the party were following and so by midday they arrived at a structure in the desert, a dome made of crystal panels: the Faceted Dome.


The Faceted Dome, and ancient structure in the deserts of Seshar
This was the structure from Six's dream and the party were pleased to have made real progress. However, they were presented with the issue of how to get in? They searched round the structure, finding no obvious entrances. Nord offered to climb the structure and have look on the top, whilst the others continued on the ground. Nord scrambled up the side, clinging on to the crystal panels, and upon reaching the top realised it was the same as the sides: in desperation he simply placed his hands on the crystal and whispered (so as not to get laughed at by those on the ground) "let me in crystal dome", where upon the dome admitted him, dropping him to the floor after bouncing him off some pipes!

Outside, the other two continued to look round, and found an area where there were signs of a struggle, between multiple creatures: bits of torn robe, blood spatter, a broken spear. Along with this were tracks leading off to the west, some mounted some on foot. Further investigation revealed that strange sigils had been carved into the dirt of the desert around the site of the battle, and neither of the characters could discern the meaning of them.

It was about this point where Nord was able to repeat his feat of getting the crystal to open, but this time facing his friends. After some discussion of how it was done, all of the party entered the dome to be met by the twin sights of strange advanced machinery, and green potted plants! This gave the atmosphere a cool, pleasant feel after the heat and dryness of the desert. Whilst they took in their new surroundings, Six searched for what he had seen in his dreams, and found it: a cylinder, burnt out an blackened, detached from it mountings. This was what he had dreamt, and he thought he now knew how to fix it. Just one problem: where could they find a new cylinder?

Thursday 3 July 2014

The Nightmare Switch: Part 1

Well last night's Numenera game got underway as planned, and it was a blast! I cannot remember having quite as much fun running the game as I did last night, despite the limitations of running over Google Hangouts (which, in honesty aren't that bad). We got started on, and made it about halfway through, the Kickstarter exclusive adventure The Nightmare Switch, and I had a party of three characters taking part in it who break down as follows:

  • Nord Dar: A Graceful Glaive who Carries a Quiver
  • Cannis: A Rugged Glaive who Howls at the Moon
  • "Six": A Mechanical Nano who Rides the Lightning
The adventure started with the characters on the deck of a boat in the canals of Seshar, under the command of a man named Deymish. The players were hired as guards to ensure the boat reaches the village of Redstone safely. I decided to get the game warmed up nice and early and give everyone a chance to experiment with their characters and the rules, so when Nord Dar's player mentioned that there had been no bandits about, I immediately offered a GM intrusion! The player duly accepted and 4 bandits dived from the cliff walls using glider suits (imagine a flying squirrel). Things started swimmingly, with the players all getting the initiative, and Nord Dar scoring a natural 20! I gave him an extra action on his turn for this roll as a major effect and the players set about ridding the boat of bandits. Nord hit one of them with an arrow whilst he was in the air (scoring a groin shot, as dictated by the player) and missing with his second arrow. Cannis made short work of one of the bandits by dropping him in one blow, unarmed (the effects of getting a 19... that +3 points of damage proved lethal). Six attempted to blast one with the power of his mind, but failed his roll, so in fact stared intently at the bandit, to no effect. All of the players managed to dodge the blows from the bandits weapons and launched follow up attacks of their own: once again Cannis dispatched one of the bandits in one blow, this time with his broadsword, and Nord kicked out at the injured one. However poor old six again failed to hit with his Onslaught attack, and the bandit he faced decided that he had had enough of being stared at and walloped Six with a club to the face. The injured bandit fled, deciding this boat was clearly too well defended, leaving one bandit facing 3 armed opponents. Nord thought it best to try a little intimidation to end this situation without further bloodshed, but seeing as he had little skill in intimidation, he decided to scare the bandit with the only thing he knew would work: interpretive dance! Now, I see that this is ridiculous, and I set a difficulty higher than the bandits level (5), which was reduced by Nord's player to 4 for being trained in performing arts. The player rolls.... and comes up with a 15, a success! So disturbing was Nord's noiseless, wordless performance that the bandit threw down his weapon and fled, diving over the edge of the boat without heed for his own safety. From this point on I knew this was going to be  one weird campaign!

With the warm up out of the way, and the players now a little more familiar with how the system worked, I had the boat arrive at Redstone, and the characters helped Deymish offload the medical suppliesd that were his cargo. Carrying them up the slope into the village, the characters noticed that the inhabitants all looked worse for wear: bleary eyed, sleepy, drained; no one looked like they had slept for a week. Deymish spoke to an acquaintance and he relayed the story of the horrible nightmares the whole town had suffered and how some had be driven to flee the village and some even to suicide. This startled the characters, and they questioned this man further, asking if anyone or anything new had arrived recently, or if anything strange had happened. Unfortunately the poor man told them nothing out of the ordinary had happened except the nightmares, and that the whole village would soon be driven mad or worse. Seeing that their was little point trying to dig further with this man the party headed up the hill to the tower of the Aeon Priests to deliver the supplies.

The village of Redstone, where sleep proves a terror.


At the tower they met with a somewhat recalcitrant guard, Hataniah, who told them the priests were busy and they should come back tomorrow. She also told them, no she could not take their delivery. Nord once again decided to try his social skills, this time trying to bribe Hataniah into looking the other way whilst they walked past. However this was a very difficult roll (level 6 = 18 target roll) and Nord failed miserably. The guard's face darkened and she told the characters in no uncertain terms to get lost, which they decided it might be best to do. Heading back to the boat (with their cargo) all were grumbling about not being able to make the delivery. The party thought it best at that point to eat and make a drink with their sole Numenera artifact (a box which produced a mixture of chopped dark brown leaves, which when steeped in water produced a tasty beverage...).

As evening approached the characters, minus Deymish who stayed on his boat, decided to head to the centre of village life, the Redstone Arms tavern. Here they hoped to find more about what was going on, but upon entering they were met by the sight of a half empty tavern, dull eyed patrons, untouched drinks and a bar man slumped over the bar, barely rousing as they entered. Nord, could take the misery no more and thought to lift the spirits with a song. Once again though, Nord had no skill in singing, and no backing music to drown him out. This did not deter him though, and he launched into a rousing song, with Nord's player rolling: a 1!! Free GM Intrusion time (oh dear). Nord's awful caterwauling pushed the bar's occupants over the edge, with several screaming, more weeping and one launching into a bout of cutting himself to escape the horror of their situation. With this awful scene before them, the characters retreated to the boat and thought things might look better in the morning. They bedded down for the night, and one by one dropped off. Then the dream happened....

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Numenera: first fumblings

So this evening I will be launching my first campaign using Numenera, the first game from Monte Cook Games. I was a Kickstarter backer and have had the books since their release last August. So far I have managed a very short one off, where my players created characters together and we played through a part of the starter adventure from the main book, The Beale of Boregal. This time around I am hoping to run the Kickstarter exclusive adventure The Nightmare Switch, which is a nice compact adventure in which the players try to save the village of Redstone from their nightmares. The adventure itself looks suitably weird and fun filled and I have a few ideas to try and make it stranger still, if the opportunity arrives.

The Nightmare Switch: my first Numenera campaign

The campaign starts with characters arriving in the village of Redstone, in Seshar which is a land in an area of the Ninth World called the Beyond. The locals have all been afflicted with a plague of horrifying nightmares that keep on recurring and slowly they are driving the village mad, depriving them of sleep and driving them to abandon the village or to suicide. Can the players uncover the source of these nightmares and stop it? Or will they too fall victim to the strange nightmare plague? I like the look of this adventure as it shows the weird geography of the Ninth World, with the oddly straight, deep canals that dominate Seshar both a striking feature of the map, and the start point for the adventure. This adventure also allows for the display of the Ninth World's strange technology level, with the majority sitting at the same level as the Middle Ages, but also with a selection of anachronistic tech and a smattering of ancient, advanced tech left behind by the people of bygone ages.

Seshar, in the Beyond with its weird canal system. Just one of the lands of the Ninth World


This campaign is going to be something of a casual affair, run with which ever players from my play group can make it. To facilitate this ease of play it is going to be run over Google Hangouts, a medium I have used before in conjunction with the Roll20 app for Pathfinder and found it to be a great way to keep gaming when I cannot get my group together. For tonight's first session, it looks as though I will have a Graceful Glaive, Who Carries a Quiver, and a Nano (whose Descriptor and Focus I cannot remember at present). Once I have run the adventure I intend to do a write up and detail how the players did, and furthermore, I hope to string this together into an ongoing campaign for the next few weeks, so hopefully there will be more write ups to come after that.