Skyship Islands 1

Rohin's begun a new campaign as a fresh 2013 start for one of our groups. I wasn't present when the others brainstormed the game setting, but we've ended up with a fantasy world of mostly tropical islands (some flying), with several large continental civilisations nearby. All of our characters have some sort of investment in the journals of an archaeologist who explored the archipelago; he has died or disappeared, along with most of his apprentice collaborators. Many journal fragments are lost or scattered around the world, each containing fragmentary clues as to the location of a great ruin.

• +Andrew is playing Inigo Yonez, a Dwarven archaeologist.
• +Melysa is playing Annona, a Jungle Elf shaman.
• I'm playing Zanne, the Human captain of a small skyship. As a trader, her main motivations are to protect her ship and crew (Reno the engineer and Matis the sailor), make money, and discover the fate of one of her relatives who wrote some of the journal fragments. 

This blog series will be presented as Zanne's captain's log.


By combining our current knowledge, we were able to glean the location of a treasure that would lead us to another journal fragment. It was concealed in a giant ruined fort on an isolated island, which is now home to a large tribe of goblins.

We flew in by skyship under cover of morning fog. Reno and Matis took the ship aloft to avoid potential goblin arrows, and we proceeded on foot. We entered the ruins via a sandy pit that led into a tunnel, although we had to fight our way through a colony of giant crabs. Beyond, the passage began to show signs of stonework, although at one point the floor was little more than a crust of powdery sandstone. We determined the solid areas and proceeded to a great, heavy door leading into the ruins proper.

Inside, we heard the sounds of goblin activity nearby - they seemed to be camped rather than patrolling. We eventually decided to take them by surprise and negotiate from a position of strength. In return for a good supply of crab meat, and our assurances that we weren't there to kill anyone or take the place over, they allowed us to search the ruins - so long as we did not stray too far.

With our way clear, it was a simple matter to locate the gem in its concealed wall-space and depart. The gem has directed us to a desolate island a couple of weeks' travel to the South, where we'll find the journal fragment concealed behind the third eye of the statue of a yellow god in an abandoned temple, once home to a cult of life and death. We'll stop off at a nearby port to take on supplies before flying into the the heart of a blasted wasteland, rumoured to be rife with the undead...

>>> Session 2

AW: London Calling 2013.2

• Barb plays a Brainer called Marsh, a creepy psychic concealed in androgynous medical-wear.
• Rohin plays a Gunlugger called Keeler, a wild-eyed scarred man with a collection of firearms and the skills to use them.
• +Paul wplays a Savvyhead called LaFayette, a somewhat kooky young woman with a greater affinity for machinery than people.

Keeler, Marsh and LaFayette sought an audience with Raccaro, the Tower's 'holder. The guards at the gate gave them a hard time, but let them in under armed watch. In the courtyard, they noticed that there were many more armed people than last time - it looked like the Tower was recruiting and gearing up for action. Raccaro agreed to see them if they disarmed first; Keeler left his ganger, Spatula, in the jeep with a machinegun to make sure their property was still there when they got back.

Raccaro received them in his audience chamber, seated upon an antique, ornately carved, high-backed chair with loose stuffing. The leader of the Tower forces is a man in his thirties, with a mane of long curly auburn hair, small round tinted glasses, and an impressive russet-coloured overcoat. The characters were under constant armed guard. Keeler spilled the beans about the river contamination and its effect on the Barrier Siltway. They pointed out that, as Hackney Marsh is north of the river, it was Raccaro's responsibility to deal with the contamination. After some posturing and wrangling, Raccaro agreed to check out the marsh. He also attempted to recruit Keeler to his cause; he claimed that it was Prim's duty to look after the farm, and his duty to go forth and acquire new farms. However, Keeler refused due to still being under contract to work for Prim. Marsh cast aspersions on Raccaro's intentions and usefulness, and was generally annoying, so Raccaro kicked them out.

Next, Keeler pulled his entire gang together, and along with Marsh and LaFayette they formed a convoy to explain the contamination to the people at the Siltway, and offer to take them in as refugees. However, just past Dog Island they saw the telltale dust-cloud of a Siltway raiding group. Keeler quickly arrayed his gang around a "killing field" and waited until the Siltway slave raiders were inside before opening up. Apart from disabling their lead jeep, the raiders suffered no major casualties. Keeler's guys attacked with such speed and ferocity that the raiders' convoy was stopped dead in its tracks, demoralised and surrounded, despite outnumbering their attackers.

Keeler negotiated with their lieutenant, explaining about the poisoned river and offering to take them in as refugees if they'd help in an attack against Raccaro. Fed up with their leader, Newton, who was insisting on maintaining an increasingly untenable position at the Siltway, the slavers agreed to the deal.


Next time, it looks like Keeler and the gang will be mounting an assault on the Tower in an attempt to topple Raccaro. Marsh has been itching to take Prim down for some time now because she's made some calls Marsh doesn't agree with, and there may soon be a perfect opportunity. LaFayette has several projects on the go, but I'm not sure if she'll get the chance to finish any of them in the middle of a turf war.

Even after probably more than half a dozen sessions, I'm still spending a lot of time analysing whether something counts as a Move for the PCs or not, and still don't seem to be able to keep all of the MC Moves in my head. I either end up forgetting to use anything unusual, or I spend ages poring over the list to see if I can find something interesting to do, which tends to disrupt the flow of the game. I also worry that I may be making uninteresting choices or accidentally shutting things down instead of opening them up.

I've let the players know they shouldn't think in terms of Moves all that much (although many of the Playbook Moves do kind of require direct engagement), but just explain what they want to achieve and how they want to go about it. Last session I kept having little brain-flashes when a Move was called for, but not so much this time... I think maybe there wasn't that much Move-worthy stuff going on, just lots of people talking and making decisions according to their natural tendencies.

I also think I need to provide more non-combat stuff for people to deal with, since it's mainly only Keeler getting to make rolls during large engagements at the moment. I really need to flesh out the holding's population and work on some other pressures and concerns.

That said, I think everyone's enjoying the game, and that's the main thing!

>>> Session 2013.3

My Gaming Odyssey Begins!

Welcome to my humble roleplaying game blog!

When I was at university in the 90's, I played and ran a lot of different roleplaying games. Around 1996 I started working on my own game, "PowerFrame" - and I didn't look at any other games for over a decade. In fact, I pretty much missed the entire "indie RPG" boom. Around 2010 I discovered The Forge and RPG.net, and began to rediscover what was going on in the hobby. After a lot of reading and intellectual "wandering in the desert", I decided to spend a year trying out a variety of new, innovative systems.

This blog will serve a few purposes:

• I've been developing, writing, and playing my own game "PowerFrame" for a long while now, and I want to keep a record of the development process.
• I'd like to go back and analyse the games we played during my 2012 odyssey, and reflect on how I and my players found them. I'll also be posting our impressions of any new games we try.
• On and off, I've been writing session reports of the games I've been running and playing in. It'll be handy to record them in one place and link to them, rather than copy-pasting them across various sites.

Edited to add:

I just discovered I can massively back-date posts! Since a lot of my initial content is going to be archived or recalled material from the last couple of years, I'll date posts according to when they happened, not when I actually published the blog entry.

So, 19 Jan 2013 is when I started the blog. Any posts dated before then are from my archives!

AW: London Calling 2013.1

I ran our first Apocalypse World session for 2013 on the 14th of January. It's been a couple of months since we last played, so it took a while for everyone to remember what was going on!

• Barb plays a Brainer called Marsh, a creepy psychic concealed in androgynous medical-wear.
• Rohin plays a Gunlugger called Keeler, a wild-eyed scarred man with a collection of firearms and the skills to use them.
• +Paul wplays a Savvyhead called LaFayette, a somewhat kooky young woman with a greater affinity for machinery than people.

Over on G+, Seth Blumberg suggested I should have given out "Love Letters" to provide some impetus after the break - you get the players to roll and pick some random stuff that's happened with their characters during the down-time. I'd forgotten about the concept, since I only read that page once several months ago and promptly forgot about it. I'm keeping the idea in mind, though - if one of my players doesn't turn up to a session, they'll find a "Love Letter" waiting for them when they get back.

The group's working for a holding based in the Tower Bridge in the middle of London, which is allied with a holding based in the Tower of London itself. Last year they were mostly concerned about marauding bikies from the Brick Field, slave raiders from the Barrier Siltway holding (who were on a "recruitment drive" because their workforce was dying of a mystery illness), and that the Tower's holder looked like they may have plans to fully annexe the Bridge or start a war.


This session they uncovered another problem. A large number of giant rats (about 2 feet long, not including the tail) started swimming upriver past the Bridge, almost certainly fleeing Dog Island for some reason. Many of them bolstered the local food-pots.

The three PCs drove with some of Keeler's gangers on an expedition to the east to see if they could scout out the Siltway, but as they neared Dog Island they noticed a large number of dead rats, both in the river and on the bank. LaFayette tested the water, and discovered it contained a toxin. Keeler took a look at some of the dead rats, to find they'd been bleeding from the soft tissues and vomiting before death. LaFayette spotted an ancient water filtration plant on Dog Island, but getting to it would require a boat, or a swim across the poisonous water. They abandoned the Siltway plan, and headed back upriver, finding that the toxin became weaker as they moved back upstream - it hadn't reached the Bridge yet.

LaFayette stayed behind at the tower to find or build a boat and analyse the water samples, while Keeler and Marsh crossed to the north bank to check the river on the other side. The contamination was about the same, until they reached the brackish, overgrown streams flowing into the river from Hackney Marsh. Keeler made Rover, a captured slaver from the Barrier Siltway, wade into the mud to secure a sample of the water. The toxin levels were several times higher than those seen in the river. On the way back to the Bridge, Rover started vomiting blood, so Keeler shot and abandoned him in case he was infectious.

LaFayette couldn't find the materials to make a boat, and had even less luck trying to co-opt the only river-craft she did find. Overnight, she confirmed that the contaminant is chemical, not biological, so there's little chance it's contagious. It seems that some sort of toxic waste is leeching into Hackney Marsh and contaminating the river. Because the Thames Barrier was closed before the end of the world, it's built up a massive silt deposit that makes for great farmland, but has also caused the river to rise and slow. So, the contamination is slowly spreading upstream, and will eventually affect the Bridge's farmland, leading to sickness and death as seen at the Siltway.

They're working on a plan to get the Tower to deal with the toxic leak, while they assimilate refugees from the Barrier, and use their extra numbers to take over the Tower before it takes over the Bridge. Hopefully the Brickheads will hold back on their attacks until everything's under control!

;)

>>> Session 2013.2

TBZ: The Oni of Yamaguchi, Act 4

• Barb plays Daigo, an Oni Mercenary Assassin.
• Rohin plays Kobe Takeshi, a Half-Oni Playboy Swordsman Aristocrat.

Death of a Lord

The evening after the communal dinner, Takeshi and Daigo were alone in Takeshi's private apartments. They heard a hue and cry from the castle proper; an alarm was raised, along with a ruckus. Shortly, the apartment door was flung open by Takeshi's brother Seijurou, accompanied by Hyouma the Seeker and a cohort of soldiers. Seijurou informed them that Lord Kobe had been assassinated, and he was arresting them both - Daigo for performing the assassination, and Takeshi for conspiracy. The two went along quietly, and were soon secured in the cells beneath the keep.

Around morning, they were visited by a Buddhist monk to see to their last rites, as their execution was planned for noon. Winter Sutra informed them that he had been observing Seijurou and Hyouma, and it was apparent that they had been expecting Lord Kobe's death; other priests were watching them still. He bade them not to worry too much; by noon, he expected to have more evidence.

Under the bright noonday sun, the two were led from the cells to the open space in front of the castle gates. With bound hands, Daigo was pushed to his knees to await beheading by daikatana. Takeshi was presented with a small lacquer table with the accoutrements of ritual suicide; his brother Seijurou stood by as his second to behead him when the time came. But first, the charges were made public. Daigo was to be executed first, but as the executioner raised the blade, a voice from within the castle called for a halt!

Lord Kobe stepped into view, accompanied by Winter Sutra and a small group of guards! He accused Seijurou of having plotted with Hyouma to assassinate him; the faked assassination had caused the conspirators to reveal themselves. Winter Sutra tossed a bag of gold to the ground - the intercepted payment meant for the assassin, evidence of the pair's involvement.

Seijurou stood frozen, realising that this meant the end for him. Rather than surrendering meekly, he began to draw his sword. Takeshi used the seppuku shortsword to sever Daigo's bonds, and Winter Sutra tossed their weapons to them just in time for Takeshi to parry his brother's blade! Daigo fired on Hyouma, winging him as general chaos broke out. Daigo moved in to engage Seijurou in melee, allowing Takeshi to break off and pursue the hated Hyouma. The onmyoji conjured a combat shikigami in the shape of an oni warrior, but Takeshi's blade shredded it into evaporating strips of paper.

Meanwhile, Daigo unleashed his full fury, cutting down Seijurou in a flurry of blinding blows. Takeshi pursued Hyouma, pushing him against the castle wall and forcing him to drop and surrender. Takeshi dearly wanted to end the life of the evil sorcerer, but in the end his vow to not kill won over. Daigo had rallied the soldiers to open fire on White Cloud, Hyouma's permanent shikigami which was flying in, but to no avail. Once Hyouma surrendered, they forced him to call off White Cloud under threat of immediate execution.

Epilogue

The day was won; Seijurou lay dead, and Hyouma was taken into custody, with execution likely in his near future. With the true conspirators revealed, their attempt to stir up the people agains the oni died with them. If anything, tales of Daigo's cunning and loyalty will do much for the acceptance of oni in Yamaguchi.

Daigo decided to serve the Kobe household, and become an ambassador between the humans and the oni. Having regained his home and found a worthy companion,

Takeshi decided it was time to shape up and work towards becoming a good lord, for when he eventually inherits the province.


We had a bit of difficulty at the start of the final session. I tried to get a sense of how the players wanted to approach things, but they had some problems figuring out the right plan; Takeshi wanted to just charge in and start hacking, but his player wanted him to be talked out of that approach I think, and they had some difficulty figuring out how they could ensure finding actual proof of the conspiracy. I could have taken the reins on this one, but I didn't want to seem like I was railroading or pushing my own ideas on the players too much.

Once they sorted out the plan, though, it went very smoothly, just as recorded in the session log. With Winter Sutra's help, they set it up so Lord Kobe would appear to be assassinated, but he actually went into hiding. Thinking their plan had worked, the conspirators moved quickly to secure their hold on power, take the "assassin" into custody, and send off the final payment... Actually, thinking back now, arresting the assassin and sending the payment doesn't make a lot of sense, but there ya go! ^_^; Maybe they were paying off the fixer, so they didn't get a reputation in the underworld of stiffing those they did business with. Or something. Or they weren't sure that Daigo was the actual assassin, so they arrested him as a scapegoat and sent the payment to cover their bases.

Anyway, it worked, and the final conflict was pretty good too. I could probably have upped the bad guys' stats a little given the amount of Kiai they were facing, but I didn't want to overpower the PCs. Having gone through it once, I now have a better idea for next time!

TBZ: The Oni of Yamaguchi, Act 3

• Barb plays Daigo, an Oni Mercenary Assassin.
• Rohin plays Kobe Takeshi, a Half-Oni Playboy Swordsman Aristocrat.

In the mountains in Summer, snow sits only on the highest peaks, and wildflowers bloom in the pass. On the narrow trail that leads to Yamashiro, the mountain castle and capital of Yamaguchi, there is a particular bend in the road that affords a spectacular view of the city. On this bend is a small traveller's rest; not much more than a small hut, although the vendor serves noodles and tea to travellers. Two such travellers approach and take a seat on the long bench; a finely dressed swordsman, and a rougher-looking oni. The vendor brings them food and drink, and then discretely withdraws. Over their bowls of noodles, Takeshi and Daigo consider their options. Takeshi plans to simply walk into the castle and confront the mysterious onmyoji, as he's certain the sorcerer is behind all of this. Daigo manages to persuade him that caution may be a better approach, possibly by making enquiries with someone Takeshi knows in the town. Takeshi recalls a monk, Winter Sutra, who often acts as an advisor to his father the lord. The two decide to split up to avoid drawing attention - Takeshi waits in the pine forest outside the city, while Daigo looks for Winter Sutra.

Asking at the local temple, Daigo discovers that Winter Sutra is at the castle. At the castle gate, Daigo's knowledge of the monk's name (and the general leniency towards oni) mean that he is able to persuade one of the gate guards to seek out the monk with a request for a meeting. The guard soon returns with Winter Sutra, and Daigo takes him aside, explaining the assassination plot and of Takeshi's return to the mountain city. Daigo also asks for Winter Sutra's opinion of the onmyoji, but Winter Sutra opts to meet with Takeshi in the forest before sharing too much information.

Daigo and Winter Sutra return to Takeshi's secluded forest hideaway, where Winter Sutra fills them in on the onmyoji, Hyouma the Seeker, who is apparently consumed with a hunger for knowledge. He is also rumoured to have a permanent shikigami named White Cloud, which Winter Sutra may once have seen flying across the sky deep in the mountains. Takeshi's brother Seijurou is acting as Hyouma's patron, having invited him to court. They decide to ask Winter Sutra to return to the castle and inform Lord Kobe of the assassination plot. He does so, returning the next morning to inform them that the Lord has increased his security, but it has done nothing to reveal the true villain. Takeshi and Daigo decide to go to the castle in an attempt to provoke a response or otherwise discern the true nature of the situation.

At the castle, the group attends a private audience with Lord Kobe. He welcomes his son home, but wishes it were under happier circumstances. Takeshi introduces Daigo as the person who informed him of the assassination plot. Daigo surprises everyone in the room by announcing that he had not only been offered the job, but accepted it - as a ploy to prevent an alternative assassin being hired. He presented the unspent 20 ryo deposit as proof of this, impressing the Lord with his cunning and loyalty. Takeshi, declaring Daigo to be even more devious than himself, immediately offered the mercenary a position as his bodyguard. All that remained was to discuss ways they could cause the perpetrator to reveal themselves. Although they had two good suspects in the oni-hating Seijurou and the power-hungry Hyouma, they could not be certain that it was actually one of these two who had hired the assassin.They decided to have everyone attend the evening meal, and see if they could gauge a reaction to Daigo's presence.

While Daigo was more interested in the pork buns, Takeshi kept a close eye on his brother and Hyouma as they entered the room. No stranger to his brother's moods, he read Seijurou like a book - undisguised contempt towards Takeshi, which started to extend to Daigo as well - but then, a brief flicker of doubt, of cogs turning… as though he'd just thought of a good reason for Daigo to be there; a brief smile almost touching his lips as he considered the cleverness of this ploy to get close to the target perhaps? Hyouma's ice-like expression barely changed, but as his discerning eye swept the room, Takeshi saw how he took special notice of Daigo and seemed to be making the subtlest of mental calculations. It was in that moment that Takeshi vowed to himself that the sorcerer must die. Dinner proceeded without major incident, presided over by a weary and sad-looking Lord Kobe.

Coming Up
Laying a trap for the conspirators?
Vengeance and blood!
The Final Confrontation!

Another enjoyable session, even if the players were both a little tired or brain-fried. I tried to be more forthcoming with Aiki this time, and we did get through quite a few scenes. By the end, Daigo had 12 Aiki (I'd given him three to shift his Emotion Matrix results), and in the Intermission he pared back to only a single Fate at 5 dots (Goal: Kill those who put out the contract on Lord Kobe). In hindsight, I probably should have suggested a Fate - Goal: Protect Takeshi, but I didn't think of it at the time. His player rolled just above average, and gained 62 Kiai for a total of 63 going into the final Act! Takeshi only got 27 Kiai by comparison, but I still think it's gearing up for an explosive finale.

It was also a great moment when Daigo, who throughout has been telling Takeshi that he turned the assassination job down, and that they'd better hurry to the capital before the real assassin got there, revealed that he'd actually taken the job, while sitting no more than ten metres away from the "target"! XD There were so many raised eyebrows, and the guards hiding behind the paper screen suddenly went on high alert! XD

>>> Act 4

TBZ: The Oni of Yamaguchi, Act 2

• Barb plays Daigo, an Oni Mercenary Assassin.
• Rohin plays Kobe Takeshi, a Half-Oni Playboy Swordsman Aristocrat.

Journeying into the foothills by the back-roads, the oni assassin Daigo and the half-oni aristocrat Takeshi came across a small group of farmers with a large hand-cart stuck in the mud. Although the peasants were terrified, Takeshi offered them a drink and Daigo helped them push the cart out of the rut. The two travellers then left without further ado, leaving the farmers somewhat astonished and relieved!

The two were passing across a rugged, stony ridge just before sunset when they were attacked by an almost entirely mechanical kijin with an unreasonable hatred for oni! A fierce battle ensued, ending in a furious final exchange where Takeshi cut the massive machine-man down. With his final breath, the cyborg said he could not forgive the oni for destroying his body...

Making camp in a sheltered spot on the hilltop, the two were joined after dark by a wandering Ebon Mountain monk. He chatted for a while with Takeshi who had first watch, asking about their purpose in the capital, to which Takeshi responded evasively.

Awoken for his watch, Daigo spoke somewhat brusquely to the monk, asking what he was doing here. The monk said he was on a pilgrimage, to which Daigo retorted, "Well you're not moving very fast!" After that, the night passed in silence... In the morning, Daigo grabbed Takeshi around the mouth and dragged him away before the monk woke up.

Coming Up

Yamashiro, the Mountain Castle!
Who was it that put out a contract on Lord Kobe's life?
Will the webs of intrigue be untangled, pulled aside, or simply cut through?

>>> Act 3