Messages

1

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: January 13, 2018, 07:32:10 AM »

So one of the characters is a completely normal guy whose "powers" are the fact that he's mystically tied to a animatronic cowboy powered by the Platonic Western Hero, named Rusty Sprocket. Sort of a Johnny Thunder thing but with a magical robot cowboy instead of a genie. My question is how I should set Rusty up? My thought is to build him as a Companion, with a good bit of refresh dumped into him. But maybe I should also include some Strange skills with a snag making it so that only Rusty can use the powers? Y'know things to reflect superhuman gunfighting skill, and such.

How does he want to use Rusty?
If Rusty's another dude hanging out and playing the harmonica, cooking beans, and shooting dudes that's a companion.
Does he get skills from mystic bleedtrhough? Like shootin' six guns and hogtyin'? That's a skill.
Does he have background benefits from the link? Like being hardier or stabler, that's a skill with stress capacities or defenses.
Similarly, being connected to Rusty might be a signature aspect which is just a free fate point every scene and more nebulous.

2

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: November 09, 2017, 10:49:30 PM »

So I think I've got the goal thing figured out, you pay for trappings not lines right? Anyway here are three I did, are they right? Did I miss any trappings they'd need? The clinic and the startup revolve around a healing vat the party stole in the first game.

Edit: So I added the milestones too.

Establish a New Ideal (30 pts, global tier, 8 milestones)
Wealth + Unusual, Security, Workspace, Transport, Information, Research, Networking, Minions + Unusual, Esteem
Milestones
-Branding, the team has to come up with a unified look/name/message
-Disaster relief, the team must respond to a natural disaster like situation, huge fire, bridge collapse etc. If they hired someone to keep a lookout for this they can get directions to the most photogenic heroics available.
-Inroads, the PCs need to establish trust and build relationships with local authorities up to the state level.
-Halting Evildoers, the team must publicly stop someone with powers mid-crime.
-Reach and grasp, the team must respond to a disaster or major super crime in another country. The authorities don't have to be happy but the outcome has to be good.
-Bloating, the team must add members, these new heroes must be reasonably popular or photogenic or fill some kind of publicity/security need.
-Not the last part? The team must publicly save the world. The saving needs to be believable and the threat needs to be imminent.
-Shake hands with, the team needs to get the blessing of or come to an Ideal like truce with the powers that be.

Get the Clinic up to Superspeed (10 pts, national tier, 6 milestones)
Examine, Information, Research, Treatment [physical], networking, guile
-Clean the basement in secret, the PCs have to move the massive healing vat into the clinic with nobody seeing
-Figure out how to turn it on, through research, favors or buying the PCs need the manual
-Retool, the PCs need to set up power for the vat and make it accessable.
-In high places, the PCs need to find ways to silence or make complicit any local players who might learn about their operation.
-And error, the PCs need to run trials of the machine to make sure it works. These might mean disposing of a few ratbominations.
-Restock, healing vats still need healing juice, the clinic can't make it but the Ideal built it somewhere, go hopefully find a renewable source.

Startup Dreams from Magic Machines (15 pts, national tier, 6 milestones)
Dismantle, Repair, Workspace, wealth, networking, esteem, convince, guile, research, information
-Find a base, not for raiding but for setting up your workshop.
-Find the value, the PCs have to figure out which elements of the healing vat can be stealth patented without tipping the feds off.
-Bring on the investors, the PCs must find some VC's or other sources of huge piles of cash
-Brand it, the product has to be explained to the FDA, the public, the investors...
-Secrets and, the product has to be distanced from base raiding
-Defend the patent, the PCs must protect their investment from rivals

3

General Chaos / Re: HAY GUYS HAVE YOU SEEN THIS THING (Forum Shout Out Thread Thing)

« on: September 05, 2017, 10:45:27 AM »

So over on youtube there's a channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g Science and Futurism with Issac Arthur. It's really god, talks about a lot of things that relate to Eclipse Phase and just cool futurism ideas. He also does a podcast version.

4

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: July 20, 2017, 07:26:52 AM »

I'm thinking about retiring my con/intro game "Origin Story" and doing a sequel tentatively titled "Blood In" about getting the trust of the Underground. The idea is to take the pre-gens from Origin Story, add a couple points to them and have the Underground set them up to prove their loyalty.

In this case, The local Underground wants to send them to extract some dwarven engineers from an airship an alternative Earth. For some reason this Earth is easy to scry on and the local Underground have been watching the adventures of the HMS L-585, The Cloud Fortress, the way some people watch Game of Thrones. But the air ship is destined to be destroyed in battle with a French cruiser and the Underground want to save their favorite extras. Their favorite, dashing lieutenant Alisha Char eloped with her lover to the free city of Koffee.

The PCs will be magicked into the airship and from there make their way through the developing battle, convince the engineers to join them and make their way to their entry/exit point within one hour. Along the way there are plenty of chances to loot diesel-punk contraptions and sorcerous items from the invading musketeers and defending marines. It's also a bit squicky since the Underground are apparently spying on people for amusement and now playing god with them.

Also one of the available Pre-gens will be an Underground observer, this will let me make a mutant type character and vary the choices a bit.

[World notes, like our world but full of magic and nonsense in 1916 the spirits of mist rolled in, claiming everything under 3,000 feet in elevation and more than 5 miles from the sea, salt apparently is a weakness. World War I ended and the survivors used their magicly augmented tech to begin again with the world vastly changed. The history would likely sound less silly with soaring music behind it. I like it a bit and think I'd put a base there sometime in the mists where horrible spirits dwell etc.]

So how is this for a second game? The first one is mostly about making bad choices in the pursuit of power. This one is about outright nonsense and running face first into outlandish situations and trying to bring back some profit.

5

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: May 24, 2017, 02:34:18 AM »

So I'm going through old files and here's an NPC worth sharing (I hope) he was a former money man for numerous super villains and now he's kind of in the wild with their money.

Guy Millions, middle aged numbers shark

Guy's real name is Leland Chen, he's a third generation Chinese immigrant living the dream as a newly minted venture capitalist. He got where he is today by being very good with numbers, money, laws, and people. Graduating third in his class at Yale helped too. But it was mostly that one time he was kidnapped by Dr. Pangloss. While she was raiding his mind she saw he could solve a problem she was having in Nevada. So she hired him, he agreed from fear and stayed on from greed as she introduced him to others who needed financial management.

In the following ten years he became an expert on laundering money, hiding operations, and running shell companies. He's also become fabulously wealthy. At this point he's in a strange place, all his important clients have vanished, most in Ragnarok, but most of them left enormous sums of money for him to manage. Normally there would be next of ken and laws and such but these are hardly normal or reasonable clients. So he kept going, after a year he decided to go put the money to work in new ways.

So now he lives Edina Minnesota a couple days a week and spends the rest of his time heading Tomorrow Investments from their New York headquarters. Right now he's begun taking risks with his client's money that he wouldn't have dared before. Should any of these risks fall through he might turn to base raiding or patronage for base raiders. He suspects he knows where at least seven bases of former villains are, maybe as many as ten. He owns and manages them through various Delaware companies and it would be easy for him to get a team to any of the sites.

He's 38, in surprisingly good shape for his lifestyle and has an open friendly face. He has been divorced twice and has two semi-estranged children that he genuinely cares about. His VC firm is not directly tied to any base raiding but is close to some companies that are likely trying to launder super tech for patents.

He also has a few psychic controls Pangloss left in his mind, but he's not aware of them. They prevent him from betraying her or her interests. They are enforced with low level suggestions, subliminal commands, and aneurisms. Unless he's pushed he'll assume it's his own idea to never speak of her interests. He will however talk about her in a general way, he's a bit in awe and grateful which can be picked up on.

Finding him:
Destructina isn't the only one to have hired him, plenty of bases could have his contact details. None of them can be traced directly to him but using any would make him paranoid and he would respond out of fear. Enough leg-work can connect some of the information to him and find information on Tomorrow Investments.

Approaches:
Violence: He'll try to escape and hire muscle.
Blackmail: If he thinks he can get them to go away forever he'll agree to pay up to 200 loot.
Hiring: He hasn't realized that base raiders are just more capitalists with funds that need laundering, he can be brought around to setting up money laundering operations if the PCs seem balanced and quiet.
Greed: He can be convinced to sell the location of most bases, however he will never speak of Pangloss. PC's who manage to get him to talk about her will see him start to sweat and if they push may trigger some of his seizures or even kill him if they use any strange skills to compel him to talk.


Skills:
Finance +4 Deceit +4 Presence +4
Resources +3 Contacting +3 Empathy +3
Endurance +2 (E) Resolve +2 (A) Intimidation +2
Athletics +1 (E) Computers +1 Technology +1
Aspects: First Rule of Pangloss, Enforced silence, Super drugs can't change your lifestyle, Not going down for this, Established, Ahead of the game, Not a bad person...


Skill notes: he has been given the Peak Preformer treatment by Pangloss, as well as some brain enhancements. He has the conviction “First rule of Pangloss” as well as the snag “Enforced silence.” If anyone figures this out (medical and psychic tests) they might get to work around it. Also he could act in a manner he thinks is in Pangloss's best interests and just suffer mild aneurisms and seizures.

He was a mid power (20 skill points 6 refresh) person ten years ago and has been growing into his new life well.

6

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: May 21, 2017, 10:01:38 AM »

So I took some trappings off and upped the disadvantages a bit, it's now in a reasonable cost. I think the reason I tried to stuff so much in it is because when I was making the powers for ORE, it was a 75 point (I think) power and being full of hyper dice and not much else it kind of gave all the skills and I was still in that mindset.

7

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: May 09, 2017, 08:38:24 AM »

So I'm finishing up FATEizing the scenario I wrote a long time ago and I'm coming into trouble with a ninja super power source (ninja coke, it's the essential salts of second-rate ninjas). The problem I have that I've gotten the other skills down in cost but this one keeps staying around 20. I've tried breaking it up but that's not much of a payoff for the extra refresh and eventual upgrading costs.

So, Help? Has anyone done some ninja powers before and how did you do it?

To answer my own cry for help, this is where I've got it now:
Ninja Coke:
Ninjas in your brain 16 points, Superhuman tier (-2 refresh)
Parry (1) Strike (1) x2 Dexterity (1) x1 Stealth (1) x1 Security (1) x1 notice (1) Guile (1) x1 Convince (1) x1 Insight (1) Initiative [physical] (2)
Complication: Never alone up here -1
Complication: They have cravings -1
The basic idea is the spirits of everyone to use the dust before you now live within you, you see them as semi-transparent people offering advice, pointing at where to strike and giving you advice. [New powers can be added by finding useful corpses and rendering them down.]

Other things
I redid the Bismuth Saber because I've tossed it into this one: I think it needs a bit of tweaking but:
Bangles of the Bismuth Archer
Supporting Saber
12 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Security (1) x1 Notice (1) Notice +unusual: see magic (2), Languages (1), Examine (1) x1 Information, x1 Research+unusual (by looking at a thing) 2 Willpower (1) x3 Insight (1) (13)
Transformation (Minor -1) replace one aspect with “Determined Backup”
Conviction (Minor -1) “I must help them first.”
Traumatic -1
Focus (Minor-1)

Bismuth Bow of Destiny
4 skill points, extraordinary -1 refresh
Notice+Unusual (2: Find weakness) Shoot+unusual+range, (4)
Focus (Minor-1)
Delay (Minor-1) transformation
Description: The Bow of Destiny is a traditional Japanese longbow made from Bismuth crystals that fires glowing rainbow arrows of crystal shards. The unusual aspect allows the arrows to activate any allergy if the archer has identified it.

8

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: March 24, 2017, 02:29:48 AM »

The five questions
5. Crossover Adventure : Who did you work with in your greatest adventure so far? What happened in the adventure? You should pick another player character as your associate and incorporate them into the adventure.

His best friend Mark is a middle aged man who was subjected to the Infernal School Bus (like the Magic School Bus teaching children the dark arts).

I love his answers to the questions and his motivations.

But all of that got overshadowed by the Infernal School Bus. Is that in this thread somewhere? I want to steal and use it. It's just so versatile of an idea.

9

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: March 17, 2017, 03:01:33 AM »

Here are my mechanics and intro notes on the Sabers. I have a few comments in brackets I had tossed in to keep things straight in my head. They also serve to the semi "campaign" I'm working on surrounding the Sabers or at least their sweet loots. I'd like to talk to people/check format/structure ideas with people on that if anyone's interested.

So yeah, this is more mechanics and meta than history.

General notes: The talismans turn the wearer into an Elemental Saber, cherry blossoms flutter about and the wearer is dressed like a Japanese schoolgirl, their hair grows out and generally changes into some unnatural color. The weapon talismans can transform separately but it's rare. The transformation generally calls the weapon to hand. Less known is the transformation effects the wearer's mind, the Willpower trapping (at Superhuman) keeps them on task but the talismans were not really designed to keep people stable and healthy beyond the hunt and the kill.

These may be in the hands of the black market, collectors, and obsessive fans, it's likely that the Japanese government has a couple as well. Note that the weapon talismans are bonded to the saber talismans.

Bonding with one isn't too hard, it just needs to touch your blood and it's attuned to you. Most of the talismans had a theme, sometimes it might make some kind of sense with the element and sometimes not. The talisman of saber Iron might be focused on physical strength and come with an ax but it could just as well sprout wings (of iron) and a spear.

Activating the talismans is easy, you just have to think about wanting it and it'll go off. As the sabers figured out, you don't have to shout anything nor pose – most people don't know that though.

On building a talisman:
-They start at the Superhuman level, while a base raider could upgrade them, only the radioactive ones might start higher.
-They tend to be under 20 points and focused on a few skills or a specific ability. In general a new Saber appeared to fill a gap in the team and was created with a singular focus in mind.
-They come with the flaw “Traumatic (-1)” which means that if the Saber had to resist composure stress while transformed when they revert they must pass an appropriate stress test without the willpower trapping from the talisman. [Cosplay note: Yuriko's stats don't have this because I took too long figuring out how to model it. She might have just gotten over a lot of it or it should be added to her, GM choice.]
-Each focus has the drawbacks of focus, transformation and conviction. The transformation drawback changes the user's outlook, generally for the worse. Most of these match the roles they were built to fill so things like “Selfless Defender” or “Cruel Efficiency.”
-While the talismans transform the users into magical girls in Japanese schoolgirl outfits, this could be changed through all sorts of ritual, the themes of the element will still stand out however the user looks.
-So far none of the man-made elements have been seen [The Japanese government has kind of figured out how to do these, they show up in that campaign I'm writing.]
-Any talisman connected to a radioactive element will be more powerful and dangerous. These ones come with convictions and transformations that are always recklessly destructive.
-The information trapping does cover information about the Sabers, their rules, duties, enemies and bases. However this information is generally reactive when it's needed and hard to call up in the wild.
-The talismans could also come with the drawback aspect “Targeted by the Darkness” which would draw fledgling and greater spirits are drawn to hunt and be hunted by them.
-All appear to be handcrafted and of high quality, none have marks on them.
-The Sabers were getting older, and thus the newer ones were recruited from older children.
Bangles of the Bismuth Archer

The bracelet is simple leather with small metal studs, it has many places for charms to be hooked on around the outside edge. One such charm is a small Daikyu (Japanese longbow). This was the talisman of Saber Bismuth, a strategist and short time member of the Elemental Sabers.

Supporting Saber
16 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Security (1) x1 Notice (1) Notice +unusual: see magic (2), Languages (1), Examine (1) x1 Information+Unusual (1) x1 Research+unusual (Learn about enemies) (2), Willpower (1) x1 Inspire (1) x1 Conversation+Unusual (teammates can always hear her) (1) x2  Insight (1) (20)
Transformation (Minor -1) replace one aspect with “Determined Backup”
Conviction (Minor -1) “I must help them first.”
Traumatic -1
Focus (Minor-1)
Description: When activated the bangle changes the wearer into a magical girl in a rainbow sailor suit. Able to maintain awareness, root out evil sorcery and help with immediate answers. Saber Bismuth isn't a frontline fighter and knows instinctively how to best support those who are.

Bismuth Bow of Destiny
3 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Shoot+unusual+range(2), (5)
Focus (Minor-1)
Delay (Minor-1) transformation
Description: The Bow of Destiny is a traditional Japanese longbow made from Bismuth crystals that fires glowing rainbow arrows of crystal shards.

[Saber Bismuth, she was Antimony's friend, as much as anyone could be. Then she was ripped apart by a possessed zebra. That event caused Antimony to flee the team.]


Quicksilver Earrings
These earrings are long silvery and blade shaped. They allow the wearer to assume the mantle of Saber Mercury, violent blur of justice and love.

Striker Saber
14 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Initiative [physical] (2), Physical Force (1) x1 leap (1) x1 Move+unusual+range 1 (3) Dodge+unusual [land in a different zone] (3) x2 stealth (1), Willpower (1) x2 Menace (1), Information (20)
Focus (Minor-1)
Transformation (Minor-1) Replaces one aspect with “Magical Killer”
Conviction (Major-2): I'm unstoppable, you're meat
Traumatic-1
Description: Saber Mercury is fast, you don't see her move until she's behind someone and attacking. She's afraid of nothing and regrets even less.

Mercy Blades
2 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Strike+unusual+spray+range (4)
Focus (1)
Delay (1) transformation
Description: When the wearer turns into Saber Mercury the earrings run down their neck and shoulders, and become a pair of two foot blades attached to the forearms. Saber Mercury is fast enough that when striking with the blades the user can move one zone to strike a target.

[She was the new leader and highly unstable. When Yuriko fled, she's pretty sure that if she hadn't left the country Mercury would have killed her. Seeing the talisman may be enough to trigger Yuriko's PTSD.]
Availability

Not counting the seven Sabers off with Ragnarok or Antimony, there are at least 70 talismans not in use. In theory the Sabers kept the talismans of the fallen at their headquarters but in practice most didn't get reclaimed and sentimentality was never high within their ranks.

While each talisman is a unique power source, they are also cursed in both mind altering magic and being just a bit uncool.

Finding one in a base is common but odd outside of Japan. Finding them in the hands of dealers is more likely. Finding them in public places is also possible, many of the talismans go unactivated and unnoticed among other handcrafts.

Ways In

If Antimony came across any, she might begin to look for candidates to take up her crusade. This scenario has her waffling between overprotective den mother and unhinged drill sergeant, sending her new recruits off to test against bases and spirits alike. Getting help from her or Cosplay would be possible but she'll expect them to answer to her. In her identity as Yuriko she'd seek out people who seem more balanced and likely to survive the emotional dangers of being a Saber and Base Raider, as Antimony she'll look for people with an aptitude for power and war as well as connections into The Underground to try and tie her crusade into the greater superhuman community.

Fans looking for talismans should be able to find them. Between searching auction sites on the dark web and lucky finds in the wild it would be possible for a fan or even small group of them to get their hands on enough to start their own chapter of the Sabers. In this case Antimony would show up likely more cautiously but similarly want to test them.

Also tracking Dweller activity might get a patient raider close to a talisman, while the Dwellers seem to be strongest on the west coast and slowly spreading East there may be unusual activity in places that don't confirm to the pattern of their spreading. These may be spirits drawn to latent or active talismans.

And there is the Molecat, if it was a single entity it may have been slurped up by the Ragnarok object. If it was the representation of a force it may have been weakened but remain on Earth. If it's on Earth, it may be hiding from Antimony or seeking to use her.

Or it may be a “new” identity and soon rise to empower new heroes. Finding it could be done in this case through investigation or mystical means. Then it's just a matter of talking it into empowering people, likely through making deals and impressing it with idealism and ability.

Edit: And there could totally be some in the Kaiju Graveyard, more than one Saber likely wound up as a Kaiju snack.

Second add: Not every Saber died fighting evil, a few retired, some even didn't get hunted down by Saber Mercury. Finding these people or their next of kin might let raiders talk or scrounge their way into a few talismans.

10

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: What have you bought because of the podcast?

« on: February 14, 2017, 09:32:52 AM »

This is a bit off topic but...

RPPR has kind of ruined me on buying new games. The old ones are fine, I can back a Golden Goblin kickstarter sight unseen and know I'll want whatever it is that at last makes it to my inbox.

But almost all the other games I've picked up, read, played and enjoyed have been demo'ed on RPPR. I'm not sure I would have read through Eclipse Phase if I didn't have Know Evil and the intro game Ross ran as a thing to fill in. Night's Black Agents has become one of my favorite games and ideas but I didn't even think to read it without hearing it on RPPR.

The other side is last year I saw Polaris on Kickstarter. It looked neat and stuff but as I started reading it my eyes glazed over and I just kind of stopped caring. But had RPPR done a few sessions of it I'd be much more interested, a lot of the game pre-filled in from time spent commuting and at the gym.

Just about the only new thing I've been able to get was Apocalypse World and I suspect that's from the book being an easy read and having as few barriers to play as possible.

So it's something interesting I've noticed.

11

RPGs / Re: Red Markets Inspiration

« on: February 09, 2017, 10:10:06 AM »

Here is Simon Stalenhag's gallery, images of a failed place that might just be a in the quiet of the Loss.
http://simonstalenhag.se/

12

RPGs / Re: BaseRaiders

« on: January 01, 2017, 02:03:59 AM »

I've been working on another team, haven't finished up the stats part but I got the bios out. Nikau is more or less a vanilla human with some super drugs directly out of the book. Grunch is equiptment based because I want to see if that works. Buck Steel is more aspect focused with some skills at the exceptional level since he was a fighter thief.

The Exiles
Nikau Henare “Delta Agent”
Grunch “Greta Jones”
Starshine Silverleaf “Buck Steel”

Nikau Henare - Delta Agent

Nikau came to the US as an awkward teenager and spent his formative years mostly alone, it wasn't until he joined the army that things started to click. He did two tours in Afghanistan and found a natural home in signal intelligence which took him right into the CIA. For a couple of years he was happy even if the promotions were few. This was ruined when he got pulled further into the underbelly of federal law enforcement. It was for good reason, he saw things people weren’t supposed to see. He was dragged along on a multi-agency task force that turned out to be off the books and reservation, by the end he had helped to burn down a community theater, shoot at the survivors  and lied to his superiors about being in Cincinnati. The Group was terrifying, defending humanity from things beyond science and understanding through terrificly illegal methods. But it also got him more promotions than most non-native born people with ethnic names. He survived The Group's reintegration into the official side of law enforcement, rising slightly and earning a seat further away from field ops and back with intercepting and analyzing data.

Then he was pulled into a quick raid, nothing big, one crazy guy who surrendered quickly, but there was the box. When a Marshal opened it, the thing? Stuff? Energy? Inside came out and began to expand, the first agent it touched folded in on herself, the second turned 2-D and vanished, Nikau expected the worst when it caught him mid-flight.

Instead he woke up in Seattle. It didn't take him long to find he had somehow gone from his world to one far more strange. Instead of alien horrors he saw comic book. But he was in America and even this new world worked by most of the rules. He went to ground and was found by The Underground shortly after.

Now he knows what happened, the being in the box was a gateway to everywhere and by touching it he had been pulled to another Earth. But it's okay, Being a baseline human with clandestine experience  made him valuable to The Underground. Now there's two ways he might jump. The Group after all would really like some of these super powers and The Underground ought to be able to send him home if he does enough for them. But he can also live in a universe not classified as “Nihilistic.” Either way he's got time to figure it out while using his talents and some new drugs to find bases.
“Greta Jones” Grunch

Before Grunch's mother was born the Earth died in rage and fire. The survivors had already banded together under warlords, cult leaders, and madmen. She grew up hard, learning to take what she needed and fight for what she wanted.

With her shotgun “Faceater” and her grenade launcher “Grandma” she moved hard and direct across the ruined land. Chasing rumors of utopia burning her way through the slave trap of Cascadia Falls and slaughtering the stronghold of the Leopard Legion.

Violent years saw her move further into the frozen North following tales of a window to a green world. In the ruins of peaceful lives she found the window and the cult that worshiped it. Where the cultists  worshiped and sacrificed, she demanded. Taking hold and forcing herself into the unstable breach.

Her arrival closing the breach, she was trapped in the world of plenty. Then the culture shock set in. A week after arrival she found herself battling a biker gang and walking away from the smoldering ruins of their meth lab. Before she had a chance to cause more mayhem The Underground found her and brought her in.

Her loyalty came cheap, they set her up with an apartment and fake ID enough to pick up a part time job as a bouncer at a dance club. For her side, the studio apartment she lives in now holds more luxury than the thousands of miles she clawed through on her dying world. Still needing excitement and money, she joined a base raiding team. Here she pays The Underground back by passing useful information up to them and keeping an eye on other refugees.
“Buck Steel” Starshine Silverleaf

The twelfth son of Lord Silverleaf, protector of the Valley of Greenwood and immortal king of the North-Western elves, young Starshine found himself utterly irrelevant by his 97th birthday. As was the style, he joined a band of would-be heroes and left his valley to pursue fame and riches. He did well for himself, surviving three tombs, one dungeon and even a keep. Soon his elder brother, Leafshade, had joined his party and they ranged North.

In the lair of the Seal Queen he found himself trapped surrounded by the bones of fallen adventurers with a flame walrus closing in. His frantic searching found nothing but his brother's spells showed them a ring with magical powers. When Starshine grabbed it he awoke a genie. Halfway through the offer of a wish Starshine asked to be taken “anywhere but here,” and so he was.

Earth isn't so bad. The pair managed to hide in the city and pass among the humans. Leafshade's magic quickly made contact with The Underground and the pair joined a community at one of the rural retreats.

While Leafshade wanted to return home, Starshine choose instead to focus on adapting to the US. Falling in love with the wandering heroes of the re-runs he found a new adventure to take up. Changing his name to something more masculine, swapping his enchanted bow for a long gun, his magic slippers for cowboy boots and a purse full of gold for a Jeep. Now he roams the country raiding bases and enjoying this new world.

13

RPGs / Re: Red Markets Campaign: Mystery Inc

« on: October 26, 2016, 11:50:55 AM »

They've done one more job, but that writeup is going to take a while. However I want to make a shout out to the encounter table. Specifically the family with latent daughter in a covered wagon. I dumped the DHQS chopper because I wanted them to be new neighbors, and because that way the takers could get back just as the parents were going latent themselves. The takers came to the house with the sobbing daughter and solemn father while the mother writhed in pain while going latent. A lot of detachment and stress was lost with that. The game ended with the promise of listening to the father change the next day.

So 10/10 would use again.

14

RPGs / Re: Red Markets Campaign: Mystery Inc

« on: September 22, 2016, 10:53:07 AM »

Derailers Pt. 2

The truck located our heroes set off for it. Also another member joined them, so fire the retcannon and Apps the immune scout was always on the team. Along the way Gummy (his name) noticed a scratched up tree and the team went in expecting bear. They found the rail post, a prefab garage and dilapidated shack. McLovin climbed onto the roof of the garage, noticed a foul smell from within and saw the pickup, he banged his head getting down though.

Meanwhile, Doc Diesel went a few hundred meters down the track and banged on it with a rock, two casualties popped up and he ran back. He then began making a harness with a downed power line so he could capture the casualties and make them pull the train. … While McLovin was opening the garage up, the cougar that had made its' home there pounced on Apps, she saw it coming but got her leg scratched up (again with the legs). Doc Diesel ran up and flung smelling salts all over making Apps unappetizing to the big cat, she shot the cat and Gummy shot it too. The cat having had enough ran right away.

Then Gummy shot one of the two approaching casualties, Doc Diesel was not happy. He convinced McLovin to try and lasso the remaining one, it kind of worked in that the loop went over the head but didn't get the harness in place. Doc Diesel asked Gummy for help and Gummy helpfully shot the casualty. Neither had bounty but that's life.

While Doc Diesel boiled the water out of the truck's gas, Apps and McLovin looted the shack finding stuffs. Then they drove back to the train and hooked the pickup up. Doc Diesel drove the cars slowly up, Gummy opened one of the doors and made noise, he then watched the casualties walk out and fall down, they made grasping gestures at him as the train slowly moved away. At the switching post Apps wasn't strong enough to switch the rusty track and McLovin was too strong and broke the rusty lever. So they kept on going to the next point near Troutfitt. There they made the check and got the traincars off the track. Apps was secretly looting one of the cars.

Then the group had a big old conversation and decided that instead of selling the cars to the oncoming train they should build their own enclave with blackjack and hookers. And thus ended the job, they got paid and that was good.

So yeah, their new plan is to build a new train enclave, a trainclave. They designed a score (a rail yard full of train cars and sellable cargo). Next game we'll do that* and I'll redo the retirement plans. What I'm thinking is each of them has to do two milestones then the train is going, after that they need to finish their last milestone and run Mr. JOLS, which I kind of just want to make clearing a way out to California on the tracks. But that's not how it works, I know.

Also during discussion of the trainclave “Watch Snow Piercer and make sure that the things that let the poors get further up can't happen on our train.”


*Why hasn't anyone taken the score yet? It's out of the way. Nobody's thought to. No. Also for complications the two useful suggestions were hundreds of casualties or nearby rebels.

15

RPGs / Red Markets Campaign: Mystery Inc

« on: September 22, 2016, 02:06:49 AM »

Mystery Inc, Gummy, McLovin, and Doctor Diesel based in Troutfitt (though if it goes full on campaign we'll do our own enclave generation.)

Gummy was a cop, made detective then The Crash ruined everything. He, his husband, and his 6-year-old niece made it to Troutfitt where he was a fenceman until a bit ago when he had a bit of an episode and got relieved of duty. Since his husband's kind of a useless professor of Swahili and unrespected teacher, Gummy had to go over the fence.

McLovin was doing pretty good as a firefighter then there was The Crash and then the bite and then the pariah status. That smarts. He and his Chihuahua named “Chihuahua” live in a drafty shipping container next to the fence where he has precious few options for company. With only one small dog to care about going over the fence isn't so bad.

Doctor Diesel was a mechanic, when the crash came he kept on keeping on, fixing broken things and helping people coax extra miles out of dead cars. Somewhere along the way he figured that the human body is just another machine. He gets a lot of the terminology mixed up but the basic idea seems sound. He lives with his pet bull snake “Kaa” and he may be a LALA larvae.

Our story started with vignettes where Doctor Diesel read to his snake and remembered the horrors people did to each other during The Crash. Gummy took his husband and daughter to see a movie, “Left Behind” was showing, after they discussed how god is either dead or never existed and capitalism is the cruel machine that runs their lives. Then they had ice cream. Lastly McLovin lost his chihuahua and searched the latent ghetto for him. After a while he found Chihuahua who had squeezed through the fence into the nicer part of town and bribed him back with some meat that wasn't totally expired. Then McLovin sat quietly with his chihuahua in his lap and listened to the drunk latent next door swear at a TV that didn't work. The Chihuahua shivered in the spring cold of Montana.

It was job time now. The players rolled (I gave them extra research actions) and learned of a job with Boner Hitler the local drug dealer and two jobs over the Ubiq. They went with the train job (“Derailers”) because I wanted to test it out. The job started at 7, Gummy fumbled through the negotiation but did manage to turn down the offered bicycle, while McLovin scared off competition and Doctor Diesel researched the train (out of Trabajo!) and assistant conductor Ramirez. They ended up with expenses which is pretty good and just from pay alone McLovin was profiting. The other two were not.

But they had a blockage to clear and few days to do it. So they were off hiking through the Montana wilderness. Come mid-morning Gummy saw some kind of tower poking above the treeline and they went to investigate. Finding a fire lookout tower and 2 casualties on the other side of it they chose to investigate there was the place to jump over the gap in the stairs and the casualty attractor on the roof which the Takers cleverly disassembled and stole the solar charger. A bit later they figured out how the place worked but didn't bother to do anything about it*. They looted the three broken casualties on the ground and were on their way. Biggest disappointment they didn't ignore the machine and I was unable to have it go off when the were leaving.

The next two legs were lackluster mostly because I rolled them as we went and wasn't prepared and didn't pick/make good ones. They all failed awareness rolls so they missed a bunch of semi-trapped casualties and the weather turned colder.

At last they reached the jobsite. There were three Amtrak passenger cars and one boxcar lying in a low point on the tracks. It's only about two meters of elevation but it'll take half a mile or more for the trains to be level again. The crew spent some time clearing casualties from the tracks and cars, McLovin taking a bad mauling to the leg in the second car. They left the third car locked with some still in to deal with it later and looted the mail and luggage in the boxcar.

Now that it was time to actually do their job, they spent some time researching trains and found a depo just a few miles off that should have a track truck. With that they realized they could even sell the cars to the coming train if they cleared them out.

And session one ended.

*So this is encounter XX on the table, the tower where a dude is card farming the lazy way. The thought I've had with it is what's to stop the Takers from just making it a regular stop? I mean even better to put the place under camera and try to figure out the pattern the owner uses and then just show up a couple days early and nibble on their take.  Plus it'd be a pretty good hook for future consequences when the farmer figures out who's chiseling the take.

So thoughts: My players keep wanting free stuff, they don't like how the machete costs 2 bounty. I think some of it is they haven't completely bought in to the premise/themes of the game. Character creation is super easy and fast, it works well. I'm still confused about some of the Tough Spots but I am sorry for complaining about them. Also I wish someone in an RPPR game would take another taker as a dependent so I could better understand that. The game is moving slowly because new work hours are happening and while my daughter is three months old, another of us just had a son and he's going to keep daddy away from the table a bit. Also I got a lot of Troutfitt wrong but we're going to do maybe a semi-revamp of it.