Blood Hunter: Torndrey Arc

After first crossing the mountains into Alhast, Kieara helped three farmers fight off a goblin attack on the road. Both of the men fell unconscious, but the goblins were slain or chased off. Kieara also tasted goblin blood, gaining their ability to see in the dark. She befriended Miriam, the only conscious farmer, and escorted her to the village of Torndrey. There they sought medical assistance from Granny Blake, an old witch who lived on the outskirts of town. The old witch seemed to recognise what Kieara was.

The next day Kieara was planning to leave, but she decided to help a woman whose woodcutter husband had been attacked by a wild beast. It became apparent that the couple's young son had tragically become a werewolf during an unexplained absence some weeks ago, and that he had attacked his own father as he returned from the woods one evening. She sought out Granny Blake again for medicine, and learned of a series of werewolf attacks that plagued the village twenty years ago. With Granny's assistance, Kieara used her unique talents to cure the woodcutter by drawing out the Were-blood while resisting the urge to drain his human blood. However, she was unable to bring herself to slay the boy and end the curse once and for all.

While Kieara dealt with the werewolf problem, she also witnessed the black carriage of Baroness Hartford returning to the town from parts unknown, sweeping through the marketplace full of townsfolk who knelt before its passage. The Baroness drove straight to Torndrey Manor, a short distance out of town. The Mayor pressured Kieara to leave town, and she pretended to do so while actually stalking the woods nearby in search of the werewolf who had infected the child.

She came across the dishevelled beast feasting on the corpse of a deer, and saw that it wore an iron collar and the cuffs of manacles on its wrists. She tracked it back to the Baroness' Manor, where it disappeared into the cellar via an open window. As she watched from the woods, she also witnessed the Baroness' carriage returning from a recent visit to the town. The Baroness and her footmen escorted three townsfolk inside - including Miriam!

Once they'd gone inside, Kieara mounted a rescue attempt. She discovered that the horses pulling the carriage were animated corpses. So were the footmen, concealed under wigs, powder, and fine livery. She fought her way past the zombies and rescued two of the captives, but Miriam had already been taken to the dining room - a hall of carved onyx, with foot-thick double doors the only way in or out. Miriam was tied to the table, with the Baroness - a Ghoul - about to dine. In a hard-fought struggle, Kieara managed to defeat the Baroness and decapitate her, bringing an end to her reign of terror. The Baroness' pet werewolf swore fealty to Kieara, but she was unwilling to have such a creature in her employ and bade him remain at the mansion while she returned the captives to town in the Baroness' coach.


It was half-way through the rather drawn-out battle with the Baroness and her zombies that we discovered +Annette couldn't see all of the electronic character sheet I'd made for her on Google Drive. Half of her weapon stats were unknown to her, which explained why the fight was taking so long! We quickly rectified the situation, and the Baroness was summarily dispatched.


Reunited with her now fully-recovered kin, Miriam left town in the early morning to return to the farm. After the sun had risen, Kieara discovered that the undead horses had crumbled to ash now their master was dead. She returned to the Manor, looting it of valuables and information, including the Baroness' signet ring, a sheaf of letters she found in the guest quarters sometimes occupied by the Count, and a book on the dark arts of necromancy.

As her final act in Torndrey, she decapitated the servile werewolf and walked north out of town.

>>> Cleften Arc

Blood Hunter: Prelude

My girlfriend +Annette had been interested in the idea of roleplaying games for some time, but hadn't been able to find a group willing to teach a newbie, so I gladly stepped up to the challenge. I asked some questions about genre and character, and we custom-built a world together for her first gaming experience. Since we live at opposite ends of the state, we started out playing via Facebook Messenger text chat, but have largely switched over to video chat via Google Hangout as of late 2012.

We decided on a world of Gothic horror. Her character, Kieara, is a half-vampire vampire hunter. She was attacked by the vampire lord Count Theodoric von Stieglitz, who attempted to turn her into a vampire. However, she managed to throw something through a window, exposing the Count to the dawning sunlight and forcing him to flee. As he had not managed to complete the transformation by filling her with his vampiric blood, she was stuck half-way - not a fully-fledged vampire, but not entirely human either. Her hatred for the Count and her desire for revenge are her major motivations. She loathes the dormant beast that lies within her, and desperately wishes to be clean of its taint.

Since we were playing remotely by text chat, I decided to use a modified version of my PowerFrame system. Normally that uses opposed rolls of an Ability (-5 to 5) plus an exploding d6. To make it a bit faster, I changed it so the acting character rolls 2d6 + Ability, and tries to beat the defending character's Ability + 6. I also simplified the Ability list, concentrating on a short-list of those used for monster hunting.

PowerFrame characters normally have a pool of 6 Health points. I decided to shift the baseline a little; humans would only have 3 Health, and supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves would get 6. This would underscore the helplessness of mortals in the face of horrifying creatures. Also, all but the most skilled humans would only have Abilities between 0 and 2, with 3 and above reserved for the very skilled or supernatural.

I decided that vampires would have a Blood pool of 6 points, which they could spend to use their supernatural powers. They regain points by drinking blood. Because Kieara was not a fully-fledged vampire, she effecively had 2 points from her Blood pool that could only be used for Vampiric powers, and the other four points were blank, and unfulfilled. Effectively, this means that if she drinks the blood of another type of supernatural creature, she can gain and use some of its powers. For example, drinking the blood of a werewolf gives her a point of Were blood, which she can spend to regenerate 1d6 Health. The main blood types are Vampiric (which she also gains by drinking the blood of humans), Were, Faerie, and Demon. The powers she gains access to are random depending on the type of creature bitten.

There is, of course, the possibility that Kieara will eventually become a full vampire. If she drinks any Vampiric blood, it will add to the points of her Blood Pool that can *only* be used for Vampiric powers. Each point gained in this manner will also automatically unlock a new vampire power, and a new drawback. Once she has all six points of her Blood Pool dedicated to Vampiric blood, she'll become a true vampire.

Human blood also fuels her vampiric powers, but doesn't automatically make her closer to becoming a full vampire. If she drinks from a human she needs to make a Willpower roll; if it fails, she'll keep drinking until she's full or they die. If she kills a human in this manner, she will gain another dedicated point of Vampire blood.

Kieara's equipped with a natty outfit, and a silvered longsword which prevents regeneration. With a brace of stakes, she's travelled from her homeland of Worthingare to the realm of Alhast, said to be the domain of Count von Stieglitz. As she clears the ridgeline and gazes down into a valley choked with dark pine forests, her journey is just beginning...

>>> Torndrey Arc

Savage Worlds: Zombie Outbreak

In 2012, +Paul decided to run a game of Savage Worlds set in the very near future, based on a zombie outbreak in central Melbourne. Our characters would be relatively ordinary people caught up in the crisis, although we were allowed to have concepts involving combat training, medical skills, or other things that would give us an advantage. This post will be a summary of the whole first arc of the campaign

• Barb plays Ellen Somerset, a paramedic with an ambulance and a hazmat suit.
• Matt plays Shawn, a hardware store clerk with a drinking problem.
• Rohin plays Jeff, a young pizza delivery driver and aspiring criminal.
• I play Harry Michaels, a University student studying both history and historical fencing.

During the Melbourne Grand Prix, a racing event using an elevated track around the city centre, a military van rolls over on a bridge, releasing its small cargo of zombies into the river. They soon spread, infecting the crowd and wandering further afield. Ellen and her partner, "Good Guy" Greg, tried to help out some people trackside, but Ellen insisted on staying in the ambulance. From memory, they may have also picked up Jeff.

South of the city centre, Shawn failed to notice zombies occupying the hardware store until customers started fighting over the power tools. He "tooled up" and managed to fight his way past a couple of shamblers using a shopping trolley, and fled into the wider city.

My historical fencing group had been attending a seminar at a conference centre in South Yarra, near the river. We saw the disaster starting to spread across the bridge and along the river, and began securing the building. Shawn managed to stumble in, although his craziness and aggression almost led to him being shut out! The ambulance turned up just as we were closing the garage doors.

We stayed put for a little while, trying to figure out the best plan of action. Some of the people started showing signs of infection, so on Ellen's advice they were isolated in a semi-trailer in the secured parking lot. I felt that it was wrong to put potentially OK people in a container with potential zombies, so I insisted on standing guard and looking after them. We couldn't stay put for long, though. The Air Force began firebombing runs on the bridge and surrounds, so we loaded up the rented trucks with food and people and headed South towards the ferry terminal, in the hopes of catching a boat to Tasmania.

We reached the ferry pier to discover that there was no ferry, and no other boats. Some of the people in the back of the trucks had begun vomiting, although thankfully it was mostly motion sickness! We got everybody into a restaurant built at the land-end of the pier, and closed the chainlink gates. We quarantined the worst of our infected, and restocked our supplies from the kitchens. We learned that the coastguard was preventing boats from leaving, and that the ferry had been turned back. Still,we were in a well-supplied defensive location with over a hundred people, and so we decided to stay put until it all blew over. Unfortunately, we'd be forced to move again before too long.

The next day, Army ground patrols came past and cleared out the occasional shambling zombie. They were escorting corporate tankers that were running pipes into the sewers and storm water pipes. We got the attention of one of the army guys, who explained that there were zombies in the sewer and this company was going to pump in a sort of acid or organic solvent to kill them all, and we should just stay put. Instead, the tankers pumped a green gas underground, and the cabs detached and drove away. The Army guys tried to wave them down, but then all hell broke loose. The back of the tanker opened, and several gas-soaked super-zombies climbed out, followed from the sewers by a number of their enervated kin!

We stood and fought from behind the mesh fence, stabbing and burning at the wall of undead! Eventually, one of the faster ones broke through and ran inside. We were already loading people onto trucks for a quick getaway, as a massive horde of undead was closing in on us. I pursued the fast zombie inside, yelling for peope to get out, and managed to strike it down before it killed any civilians. I had to leap from the first floor window onto the back of the semi-trailer to avoid being left behind, and we drove off crunchily through the crowd.

We decided to head East, with thoughts of perhaps reaching Mount Dandenong or finding a way around the quarantined city to the North. We didn't have much information to go on, so we discussed several possibilities. After driving for some time through mostly deserted streets, we came across the site of an overrun Army barricade on the freeway. A few of us went onto the flyover to investigate, and discovered several APCs with weapon mounts, and a troop transport truck. After clearing out the dead bodies and fighting off some enthusiastic crows, we added the vehicles to our convoy. Worried about our food supply, we decided to look for a nearby shopping market supply warehouse.

We soon found a warehouse district. Each building had a spray-painted marking on the front; it looked like the Army had been through and marked them as "clear" or "useful" or something, but we weren't sure what. We found a safe warehouse that was still fully stocked with food and household supplies, and decided to camp out. However, a few problems soon became apparent. Out the back, in a caged-off area with a generator in it, were three obviously mutated guard dogs. We put them down, decapitated the bodies, and buried them just in case they decided to rise from the dead. Ellen found a ventilation pipe coming up from underground, which was slowly leaking a green gas. She took a sample in a jar.

The next morning, some of the people were feeling ill and a few were showing signs of mutation. We couldn't stay any longer for fear of contamination, so we took as much sealed food as wecould and started up the convoy again. Some of the gas-affected people decided to stay behind, despite our promise to find help for them. Ellen also suggested we paint red crosses on the roofs of the vehicles to either attract attention or ward off military strikes.

We headed East again, through a ruined urban landscape. We passed a truck that had rolled over, and witnessed a creature scavenging meat from the dead. Pressing on, we eventually reached a massive barrier wall across the freeway, being assaulted by hordes of zombies clambering over each other in an attempt to escape the city. The barricade was manned, and they were fighting the zombies. We made radio contact from one of our APCs. Unfortunately they weren't able to open the gates for us because of the undead, but they gave us directions to another gate a little way to the North where we might be able to get out.

A tense drive later, we approached the next gate. There were fewer zombies, and we radioed ahead to let them know we were coming. They opened the gates and fought back the undead as we gunned the trucks down the highway and through the checkpoint! The back of one of the vehicles was singed a little from a flamethrower, but we made it without bringing any zombies with us. The gates were shut, and we were safe.

All the people we got out were put through quarantine. The whole city of Melbourne was walled off, and the zombie plague had been contained... so far. I was very suspicious of scientists in the quarantine camp who were wearing the logo of the company who had released the green gas into the tunnels, but they assured us that it had been a rogue element or terrorists using their vehicles as cover. It turned out our small group all had a natural resistance to the zombie virus, and there was some discussion of us being recruited to fight this new threat, should it arise again.

Nobody knows what the future will bring.


It's been a while since we played; if any of the other players or GM read this and remember something differently, let me know and I'll edit it appropriately!

In general, I liked the way Paul ran the game; he adapted to our plans and allowed us flexibility of action, always coming up with new imperfect conditions to stop us from staying in one place while advancing the story of the outbreak.

Over the course of the campaign, I don't think we had as many direct conflicts with zombies and other monsters as I was expecting. I thought there would be more occasion where, despite our generally cautious approach, the undead would find a way through our defences and force a fight. Given that we were facing infectious zombies but didn't know how Paul's game mechanics covering infection worked, we were understandably reluctant to engage them if we didn't have to.

I think that Paul would have liked more combat too, but maybe didn't feel like he could justifiably attack our armed vehicle convoy. Still, even something as simple as running out of fuel would have forced us to make some tough choices or expose ourselves to danger. I wouldn't have been surprised to have super-zombies leap onto the vehcles, or have an acute outbreak amid the civilians we were trying to protect.

Because of the shortage of engagements, we also didn't use the full combat system all that often. I did find that anything lower than a d10 Fighting tended to miss rather a lot. I was having fun picking out new combat Edges to make the sort of doomed, heroic melee-based zombie fighter of my concept.

The campaign ended after we escaped the initial outbreak, although Paul's said he has more plans for if we decide to play again.

PiccoLaguna Resources

In May and June 2012 I prepped some game material for a new Smallville campaign, set in a Renaissance Venice inspired fantasy city called Laguna. The title of the campaign comes from "piccola," Italian for "small", and Laguna, the name of the city.

The PCs would all be movers and shakers at the Doge's court. Even someone with humble origins will tend to end up with powerful connections and patrons. The game intended to explore a web of intrigue, corruption and deception as the characters vied for power and influence and worked to further their own interests - but at what cost to their entangled relationships?

I still haven't run this game yet, although I'd like to some day. I tried to recruit a different group of players than I'd run through SamuraiVille, but for three weeks in a row I couldn't get more than two of them to turn up at once, so we never even got as far as Pathways.

I'm sharing the resources here in case anyone has better luck than I! Some of them are incomplete, and have entries marked as "???". If they'd come up in play, I'd have figured them out with the relevant player. I'd welcome any ideas for finishing them off.

Pathways

I created a custom PiccoLaguna Pathways chart (which says Piccolo Venezia, my original but obsolete title for the game), which borrows fairly heavily from the original Smallville Pathways. The main difference is that Abilities have been replaced with Offices, and Heritage Distinctions are replaced with Titles.

Distinctions

Bravo (Distinction)

You are a swaggering swordsman with a penchant for picking fights to show off your skill with the blade.
d4: Earn a Plot Point whenever you Choose to pick a fight because of a slight to your honour.
d8: Exacerbate your Angry or Injured Stress to Increase your Injured or Exhausted Stress pool when armed.
d12: Add a d6 to Trouble to ???

Devout (Distinction)

You are devoutly religious. Roll in this die when debating religion, recalling scripture, or resisting temptation.
d4: Earn a Plot Point when you Choose to adhere to your faith's precepts in the face of an easier path, or insist that others do so.
d8: Add a d6 to Trouble to Reroll a die when upholding or promoting your beliefs.
d12: Spend a Plot Point to Recover your own Afraid or Insecure Stress through prayer.

Renaissance Man (Distinction)

You have embraced the spirit of the Renaissance, combining the passions of art and science to create a new understanding of the world. Roll this Distinction’s die when you are discussing art or science, trying to understand a new theory or technology, or working on a new creation or invention.
d4: ???
d8: ???
d12: ???

Two-Handed Bodyguard (Distinction)

You have studied the use of the two-handed sword as a bodyguarding and crowd-control weapon. Despite its size, you can bring it to bear in virtually any situation, from a narrow back-alley to a broad plaza. Roll in this die when you are fighting with a two-handed sword, or engaged in bodyguard duties.
d4: Spend a Plot Point to Increase your Injured or Afraid Stress pool when armed with a two-handed sword.
d8: When using your sword in an open area, Spend a Plot Point to cancel any Aiding dice your opponent gained from other characters who are engaged in combat with you or those you are protecting.
d12: When Aiding another character with your sword, Spend a Plot Point to Reroll your entire pool, handing over your new highest die.

Titles

Noble Title (Heritage Distinction)

You have earned or inherited a title of some sort, making you a privileged member of the aristocracy - anything from a knight to a Prince. Roll in this Distinction’s die whenever you are lording it over your lessers, or when you exercise your authority to get what you want.
d4: Earn a Plot Point whenever you Choose to step on someone’s toes to get what you want.
d8: Spend a Plot Point to Reroll your Title’s die in a Test or Contest involving authority.
d12: Add a d6 to Trouble to Use a Special Effect from a Linked Office you don’t have.
Limit: God
Linked Offices: Civic, Military.

Offices

Special Effects

• Automatically gain a new SFX at Office ratings of d4, d8 and d12.
• SFX can also be bought with Growth dice as usual.

Civic or Public Office (Office)

You have either been appointed to a civic office, or elected to a public office, either of which grants you power for as long as you can hold onto it. Different Offices will have different purviews and commensurate Special Effects. Positions may include Treasurer, Spymaster, Ambassador, Chancellor, Magistrate, and many others. Roll in your Office’s die whenever you are dealing with issues covered by its portfolio.

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to:

• Get Aid from an exhausted Resource related to your Office.
• Generate a d10 Useful Detail related to your position, such as official documents.
• Find out what’s going on in a different scene, thanks to your information network.
• Deputise another character as an agent of your Office for one episode, at a d6 rating.
• Issue a decree or by-law, which remains in effect for the rest of the episode.

Limit: Official Documents

Ambassador (Office)

You are an ambassador, a representative of a foreign power, charged with championing your state’s interests at court. Roll this Office’s die when lobbying for your state, when arriving at a diplomatic solution, or when manipulating the situation to your advantage.

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to:

• Generate a d10 Useful Detail related to your position, such as official communiques from home.
• Add a d8 to Trouble to grant another character asylum at your embassy.
• Deputise another character as an envoy of your Office for one episode, at a d6 rating.
• Add a d12 to Trouble to lodge an official protest when a situation turns against your interests.
• Claim diplomatic immunity to get out of a sticky situation.

Limit: Official Documents

Commercial Office (Office)

You have been appointed as an Envoy to lobby the court and investors for favourable trading conditions, on behalf of a merchant family or powerful Guild. Roll in your Office’s die when negotiating trade terms or discussing financial arrangements.

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to:

• Generate a d10 Useful Detail related to your position, such as a contract.
• Find out what’s going on in a different scene, thanks to your contacts.
• Grant another character access to a 2d8 Resource, good for one use only.
• Bribe an Extra to let you in somewhere you’re not meant to be.
• Arrange for someone or something to be transported into, out of, or around the city in secret.

Limit: Signed Contracts

Military Office (Office)

You have been granted command of an armed force, whether it be elite guardsmen, rank-and-file soldiers, mercenaries, or militia. Positions include Admiral, General, Captain and so on. Roll this Office’s die when dealing with those under your command, or when administering military matters.

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to:

• Generate a d10 Useful Detail related to your position, such as official documents.
• Find out what’s going on in a different scene, thanks to your network of underlings.
• Deputise another character as an agent of the Military for one episode, at a d6 rating.
• Commandeer a building or vehicle for security purposes.
• Call on Reinforcements (Fighting, Security) 2d8 for one scene.

Limit: Direct Orders from a Superior

Doge (Office)

Through a council of electors, you have been chosen as the Doge, de-facto ruler of the city-state. This is a position of great responsibility - politically, ceremonially and militarily. In foreign affairs, you are given the stylings of a Prince. However, this Office comes with many responsibilities and restrictions. Roll in this Office’s die when administering internal matters or affairs of state.

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to:

• Get Aid from an exhausted Resource related to your Office.
• Generate a d12 Useful Detail related to your position, such as official documents.
• Add a d10 to Trouble to revoke any Title or Office (apart from Religious Office) for the remainder of an episode.
• Grant another character a d8 Civil Office trait for this episode.
• Issue a decree or by-law, which remains in effect for the rest of the episode. This can overrule any other decree currently in effect.

Limit: Scheduling - Earn a Plot Point any time you must leave a scene early on, due to official business

Religious Office (Office)

You have been inducted into the Catholic Church as a priest, bishop, archbishop or cardinal. Roll this Office’s die when dealing in religious matters, performing ceremonies, or debating scripture.

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to:

• Reduce an opponent’s Clergy rating for an episode (treat this like Reducing Stress, depending on whether their Trait is less than yours or not).
• Get Aid from an exhausted Resource related to your Office.
• Generate a d10 Useful Detail related to your position, such as a holy writ or ceremonial item.
• Excommunicate any character who is not a member of the Clergy.
• Extract a confession from a character who is not a member of the Clergy (requires a Contest against a Feature or Lead).

Limit: ???

SamuraiVille Resources

By the end of the SamuraiVille campaign, I'd put together a few original Assets to reflect the setting and the nature of the main characters. Feel free to use these, wholesale or just as inspiration, in your own games!

Priest (Distinction)
You are a member of a religious order. Roll in this die when debating religion, recalling scripture, or resisting temptation.

d4: Earn a Plot Point when you Choose to adhere to your faith's precepts in the face of an easier path, or insist that others do so.
d8: Add a d6 to Trouble to Reroll a die when upholding the ideals of your sect.
d12: Spend a Plot Point to Recover your own Afraid or Insecure Stress, or to step back the Afraid or Insecure Stress of everyone in the Scene who subscribes to your teachings.

Kitsune (Heritage Distinction)

You were born a fox; long life has transformed you into a yokai with supernatural powers. All have the ability to assume a fox or human form at will, although the human form always features a bushy fox tail. You may be a trickster spirit, or a messenger of the rice god Inari - and all are fond of sweet rice cakes. They are easily panicked by dogs, to the point where they may revert to their true form and flee. Some are said to carry with them a magical gem (Hoshi no Tama) that contains their power.

d4: Earn a Plot Point when you Choose to complicate a situation using trickery or misdirection.
d8: Add a d6 to Trouble to use a Special Effect from a connected Ability you don't have.
d12: Spend a Plot Point to Reveal you know a spirit or supernatural entity with knowledge or abilities that could be useful in the current situation.
Connected Abilities: Shapeshifting, Possession, Dream Manipulation, Flight, Invisibility, Illusions.
Limit: Dogs or Hoshi no Tama (Gear)

Tengu (Heritage Distinction)

Some say that these yokai are the form taken by yamabushi who stray from the true path by developing excessive pride in their esoteric powers. They have crow-like faces or exceptionally long noses, and black feathered wings. Tengu are known for their prowess with weaponry, and some have even trained the great heroes of legend in the arts of swordsmanship. They are also known to cause mischief by possessing people, especially women and monks.

d4: Earn a Plot Point when you Choose to let your excessive pride get in the way, or when you are swayed by flattery.
d8: Add a d6 to Trouble to Increase your Injured or Afraid Stress Pool while using a weapon.
d12: Spend a Plot Point to Reveal you know a spirit or supernatural entity with knowledge or abilities that could be useful in the current situation.
Connected Abilities: Flight, Possession.
Limit: Humility

Iron Will (Ability)

Your mind is a fortress, protecting you from unnatural and malevolent manipulation. Roll this Ability’s die when detecting or resisting supernatural interrogation, manipulation, domination or possession that targets you personally.

Effect: Defense
Descriptors: Mental, Magic, Spirit
Limits: Concentration, Mental

Special Effects: Spend a Plot Point to...

• Cast out a character that is Possessing you.
• Decrease your opponent’s AFRAID or INSECURE Stress pool against you.
• Recover your AFRAID or INSECURE Stress.
• Reflect a mental Ability back at your opponent (they must Give In or roll against their own result).
• Shutdown a mental Ability that someone attempts to use on you, for the rest of the Scene.

SamuraiVille Episode 5.2

• Barb plays Okitsu, a fox-spirit who often possesses a shrine maiden.
• Matt plays Taro, an apprentice blacksmith under Master Tetsu.
• +Paul plays Yushin, a Buddhist monk recently returned to the town.
• Rohin plays Yuriko, the owner of a tea-house who is also a ninja.

Well, SamuraiVille has come to a close. Yushin's player has been off sick for the last three weeks, and Taro's player had an unfortunate personal emergency to deal with, but I wanted to push on and get it done rather than leave the end trailing for yet another week. Unfortunately, that made things a little lacklustre.


Yuriko got a coded message to meet her clan master at the waterfall at sunset. He warned her to stay away from the untrustworthy fox-spirit, but more importantly, told her that a rival Lord, Kageshima, was poised to invade the province. Although the clan worked for Lord Morinaga, they realised that the battle would be lost, even with the gain of a new musket design, so are planning to change sides. He instructed her to acquire the new muskets, but to pass them on to the ninja clan rather than letting them fall into the hands of the local Lord Morinaga.

Okitsu was at the tea-house, and started impersonating Yuriko. Akira turned up for a drink, and mentioned that he had been sent to seek out his brother, the pirate Kenji (whom Yuriko was to get the muskets off). Okitsu tried to drug him, but he refused alcohol and managed to brush off her attempts to feed him random herbal teas. He left just as Yuriko returned; Okitsu filled her in, and Yuriko followed him invisibly in her young male form.

Being followed made Akira a bit twitchy, but he didn't manage to find out who it was. He began patrolling the coast, towards the smuggler's bay. Yuriko intercepted him, claiming to be a messenger from the castle come to tell him that the daimyo was in danger. Although he resisted the explanation at first, he eventually gave in and returned to the town.

Yuriko arrived at the smuggler's cove, where she met up with the pirate Kenji. She traded the bottled tengu for several sample muskets. Kenji gave the trapped spirit to a black daoist, who seemed satisfied with it. Yuriko headed back to town to hand over the muskets to her ninja contacts.


And... yeah. I ran out of conflicts, and that's how the game ended. I should have done some more exposition at the end (the back-story between Kenji and Akira, the reason the daoist wanted the spirit), but I'd forgotten some of my notes, and I was trying to figure out how to wrap the story. Also, Kenji was showing some Japanese reserve in front of his crew.

All up, my first attempt at Smallville was a mixed success. I made plenty of bad calls, and I still have to stop and think over whether I should contest something or give in. Even so, I'm quite bad at predicting what will happen to the dramatic flow, and I'm still somewhat resistant to tweaking events just for the story. For example, at the end I thought it would make a good climax to have Akira confront his brother while Yuriko was making the deal - we could have had acrimonious exposition, and she could have picked sides. I was hoping Okitsu would be there as well (although my original plan was to have Akira drag Taro along). However, since I got Akira talking to Okitsu, she knew what he was up to and Yuriko turned him away from the path which would have led to that final confrontation. It kind of dramatically deflated the situation, so I probably should have just had him take stress and keep looking for Kenji. Problem is, I'm pretty sure Yuriko's next move would have been to take him out - which meant I shouldn't have tipped them off that he was looking for the pirates in the first place. I was just trying to keep Okitsu involved, but it made things go flat.

It's a little depressing, but I did learn things too. I'm priming to run a political game set in a fantasy renaissance Venice with a slightly different group, so hopefully I can apply what I've learned.

Note: I did a bit of work setting up a new Smallville game called PiccoLaguna, but when I tried to organise a new group not enough people showed up. I still haven't had an opportunity to run it.

Interface Zero: Vegas

Since Rohin fell in love with the Interface Zero setting for Savage Worlds even more than I did, he decided to run a game based in the Free City of Las Vegas, located in the Northeast of Baja Mexico. The city was controlled in equal parts by corporate and organised crime interests. The party would all be working as security and troubleshooters at a strip mall owned by corporate magnate Bob Ho.

We played several sessions in 2012, but didn't manage to resolve the main storyline.

+Andrew played Gerald Rigg, an android security guard.
John played Mr. X, a blind mouse-hybrid hacker.
+Melysa played Kuma, a genetically modified security dog with near-human intelligence.
I played Devlin Monterey, a dog-hybrid rentacop of French-Canadian extraction.


The game started with a couple of us pulling security duty in the mall. A few kids started a food fight, so I intimidated them (and drew my stun-stick) and they ran away. During the ruckus, a virtual graffiti artist dropped a hyper-reality tag on the wall. I think he got chased off by Mr. X.

We were soon called into our boss' office, and given a mission. The daughter of a friend of the company had gone missing, and we were asked to find her. The situation was big and complex. The reference photos for the daughter had been doctored, but we managed to hack her school and find security footage of her. She'd disappeared from an alley in a Triad part of town during some turmoil with rival Hispanic gangs, but we learned she had friends in the Mafia and had probably gone with them. We tracked down the car she'd been taken away in, but it was booby-trapped and exploded. It began to seem as though she might have run away rather than being kidnapped.

We were sent video footage from the kidnapper showing her being sexually assaulted. The man in the video had a class ring. Her father was a member of the same class; we tracked down three other members who were currently in Baja Mexico - a scientist working for a bio-research facility, someone with connections to the European mafia, and an ex-General now working as a fight promoter and manager for a cyber-gladiator.

We ended up at a bit of an impasse, trying to untangle the various webs of stories and connections, and trying to figure out the best way to gain leverage and information hile exposing ourselves to minimal harm. Luckily, we had some other things to keep us occupied...

We received a tip-off that some gangers were going to raid one of our stock warehouses. We waited nearby in our AV, swooping in once they entered corporate property and our jurisdiction. We engaged them with deadly force, killing most of them and destroying their van as they fled using our vehicle-mounted cannon.

We'd been hearing rumours of a Bio-Horror prowling around the city ever since the start of the game, but we finally got a call that it was rampaging through one of our company malls.  We arrived to find it - a mutated giant tiger-like creature - prowling around an upper-storey food court, eating things and people. Some of us engaged it head-on to draw its attention, while the others guided the civilians to safety. It was a tough fight, but we eventually managed to subdue it.

As we transported it to the roof for extraction, a second Bio-Horror, like the first one but twice the size, climbed up onto the roof and, using  voice synthesiser, demanded the return of his "brother." It charged, and I faced it down as the others hurried for the AV. Miraculously, I put one shot into its head and it went down. My elation was short-lived, as it began to regenerate and showed signs of moving. We cleared out as fast as we could.


That was as much as we got through in 2012. My first impressions of playing Savage Worlds are that the dice did tend to feel "swingy" quite a lot of the time. In particular, I had a hard time trying to get decent damage rolls, and it was frustrating to not have the option of spending a Benny to reroll. I spent four or five rounds shooting the little Bio-Horror to no effect, only to completely drop the larger Bio-Horror with a single shot from the same gun. From what I've read about the system since, we probably could have used a few combat manoeuvres other than just repeatedly making attack rolls.

Deciding what to increase with an advance does tend to take a little while, unless you have it planned out. To start with, I guess there were a few Edges on my wish-list that I hadn't managed to pick up at character creation. I found that Skills only start to feel really competent at d10 or higher; starting with d8's, I flubbed more rolls than I would have liked.

Overall it's a serviceable game. I think we spent a lot of time trying to plan our approaches and minimise exposure to danger rather than just diving in, which given the way NPCs tend to fold like card-houses, was probably largely unnecessary. I think we were still in a Cyberpunk 2020 mindset to some degree, where a single bullet can lay you low. While that's still true in Interface Zero, characters are by and large somewhat more resilient.

The VR/HR elements of Interface Zero were also a bit hand-wavey at times; the setting book gives a glimpse at an awesome vision of hyper-reality, but doesn't have solid enough grounding principles to allow for us to extrapolate logical outcomes without relying on GM fiat. Also, the rules for hacking and controlling other people were a bit vague.

I'm actually writing this blog post in April 2013, and I've recently put in for the Interface Zero 2.0 Kickstarter at the PDF level, so it will be interesting to see if the new version addresses any of my concerns with the setting-specific rules.