Author: Stan Shinn (Page 48 of 112)

Redmark Session 05: The Wizard Who Went Splat

March 11, 2017 / Stan Shinn

January 30, Third Age 1331

Hashar the Bugbear may be a black-hearted minion of evil, but he’s good to have on your team when you need a magically locked door busted open or an enemy’s body desecrated. More on that later.

Part I: Rumors

Lundie and Ghost Dancer returned to basecamp from their errands, and Marcus sought to commune with Mars at the Temple of the Lots in preparation for the trials that lay ahead.

Ghost Dancer shared with the group some rumors he heard in Nimroth. First, living southwest of Nimroth are a pack of wolves that are supposedly the pets of an evil giant. (With any luck, Marcus can hire him, too.) Second, people say that there is a ruined castle on top of Bone Hill.

Rumor confirmed!

The source also said that the ruined castle was uninhabited.

Fake news.

And, that beneath the castle ruins, a lost treasure waits to be claimed.

The jury’s still out on that one.

Finally, Ghost Dancer shared that he had been to see Sister Sophia at her convent, and had asked her to try to get word to the elf, Arilon, that the party would like to speak with him.

Part II: Marching Order

The party prepared to enter the castle by arranging themselves in Sword Formation. Based on the shape of the sword, however—out of game—the players called it the Freudian Sword Formation.

Freudian Sword Formation!

Back in game, our Freudian formation went up the stairs, discovering a hallway filled with doors. Most of the rooms were empty, and two of the doors were magically locked. Hashar, however, gleefully busted down each door.

Inside one room, a treasure trove of books about the magic arts. Quintos seemed to love the tomes more than the ladies. Frankly, how he caressed and stroked each book made everyone a bit uncomfortable.

In another room, the adventurers found a potion mixing lab. In addition to a spell book sitting on the table, there were eight vials of mystery potions. Daring, brave volunteers from the party each took tiny sips to discern the nature of the potions. Ghost Dancer tried two, Ivamel three, Lundie one, and Quintos one.

There were two potions of superior healing, a potion of heroism, a potion of growth, a potion of animal friendship, two potions that will remain a mystery until someone takes a full dose but they seem cool. And then, of course, there was the potion of age regression. Quintos got that one. Before our very eyes, he morphed from 21 to 16, got acne, and got in trouble for having a messy room. Adolescents are so hard to work with.

Part III: Splat

The last room on the floor was the bedroom of a very vain Magician named Telvar.

This guy. I mean, who hangs a giant painting of himself over his bed?

Of course, behind the painting in a secret compartment was a bag of gems that Quintos discovered.

At ladder led to a trapdoor in the ceiling, but the trapdoor was bolted shot. Hashar tried to bust through but was foiled. Lundie and Quintos both climbed to the door and tried to force it open. All eyes of the party were on them—and away from the window behind them where the vain magician hovered into view and surprised the heroes with a fireball that scorched Hashar, Ghost Dancer, and Lundie for 28 points of damage. The agile reactions of Ghost Dancer and Hashar spared them from half that damage. Lundie’s stout constitution saved him from sure death as he bore the full brunt of the blast.

The party rebounded quickly, pummeling Telvar with spells and weapons. With Ivamel’s hit, the magician tried to hover away from the window and ready another fireball. But in his haste to retreat, he opened himself up to an opportunity attack by Ivamel.

Ivamel hit him! The blow, however, didn’t kill Telvar. The party was sad.

Scene wherein concentration (or lack thereof) became very important!

The blow, on the other hand, did break Telvar’s concentration, which suddenly terminated his flying spell. And that was when Telvar the vain Magician dropped from sight and plummeted to his death several stories below. The party was happy!

The group plundered his magical robe, a powerful item from the Second Age, for Marcus. The group also prevented Hashar from desecrating the magician’s body. High on victory, the adventurers decided to bust through the barred door on the first floor.

Quintos used his cantrip to bludgeon the door open. Behind it was a room with stairs going down into the dank dark. Halfway down the stairs, Ghost Dancer stopped the group and said, “I can hear what sounds like the undead moaning and shambling down there. Either that, or the stirge-jerky I ate at breakfast isn’t reacting well with my tummy.”

What will happen next? What terrors await the party in the catacombs beneath Bone Hill? Is the rumor true—is there really a great treasure below the ruined castle? Or is the only reward waiting for our heroes…certain death?

Redmark Session 04: Reverse Ambush

March 9, 2017 / Stan Shinn

January 29, Third Age 1331 — Midday

(Quick recap of the Feb. 23 game)

Stealing up on the castle at Bone Hill, the heroes found themselves ambushed, much in the way they had ambushed the Bugbear patrols the day before. Due to some great alertness, the heroes were not caught flatfooted, and prevailed over their enemies, largely due to the incomparable heartiness of the halfling barbarian Ragnor taking a beating from the bugbear chieftain. Hashar fell in battle but later recovered, but he still smarts from the taunting his former bugbear allies had in calling him ‘Traitor!’ during the battle.

Future Campaign Idea: Star Wars Organized Play

March 8, 2017 / Stan Shinn

Star Wars WEG d6 1e

Wanted to jot down my thoughts about a potential future shared RPG campaign technique using the Star Wars setting. Helping some folks on the d6 community form an Organized Play group (since I used to manage the D&D regional organized play) so these thoughts are in my mind.

In a nutshell, we’d have episodic games set in the Rebellion era, where we’d rotate GMs and have our characters go on Military missions but return to homebase afterwards. Perhaps we could have GMs own specific story threads or NPCs. Games could be played in a variety of contexts (Saturday Nights, Ragnarok Saturdays, one-shot events, etc.).

For those interested, here are my initial thoughts on how this might work.

General Information

ARTICLE 1: Adventure Premise — Players play characters who are members of the Rebellion during the time period between Episodes IV and V. Characters are not Jedi, but may potentially be Force sensitive. As members of the Rebel Alliance, you are stationed out of a secret headquarters in the Arkanis sector. From your home base you join other members of the Rebel Alliance to go on adventures assigned to you from the Rebel leadership. Adventures are self-contained and take place over a game session of about 3-4 hours. After the adventure is over, you return to home base and await orders for your next mission. Each mission may be with a different set of characters.

We may optionally have seasons, with the first season or two being in the age of Rebellion, and perhaps season 3 being set during the latest trilogy or in the Old Republic.

ARTICLE 2: Dynamic Games — Players may move freely between games run by different gamemasters and may transport their character to any game participating in SWd6OP. Games can be run in person or online via virtual tabletops like Roll20.net.

ARTICLE 3: System Choice — Players must build characters according to West End Games’ “Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game” 1st edition with errata. Gamemasters can choose to use any rules from 2nd Edition, 2nd Ed. R&E, 2nd Ed. REUP, or retroclone so long as they disclosure the specific rules they are using that are different from 1st Edition.

ARTICLE 4: Character Types — Characters can be flawed but fundamentally must be heroic and do good on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. Characters are built according to standard character creation rules.

Species Restrictions: After reviewing the 1e rules, we may come up with some species restrictions. For example, all species that get a 2D for 1D at the beginning of character creation may only do so once. Meaning they cannot put 2D and get 4D in a single skill. (This is a 2e concern, not sure it applies to 1e).
Force Sensitives: We may add more specifics on which Force sensitive powers you can acquire. Force sensitive characters cannot use light sabers. (In future seasons, we may allow ALL characters to be Jedi. Rule of thumb is that none of you are Jedi, or you all are, which will vary by campaign). There is a d6 template called the Lrri Tenets. This introduces a martial monk of sorts to Star Wars. Akin to the guy from Rogue One. We might use this template.

ARTICLE 5: Skill Points & Character Advancement — Characters should start each game with 5 Skill Points (aka Character Points). Characters may spend unused Skill Points after games to improve their characters as described in 1e. Players must log their experience and be prepared to show new gamemasters their past history of play and Skill Point rewards.

ARTICLE 6: Character Death — Characters can die. After a character dies, the player must create a new character which can join in that game or in the next game, at the GM’s discretion. New characters start with zero experience.

ARTICLE 7: Multiple Characters — Players can have multiple characters, but each character earns their own Skill Points; they cannot be transferred between characters.

ARTICLE 8: Gear & Expenses — As members of the Rebel Alliance, your gamemaster will assign you an amount of funds to spend on mission-specific needs such as bribes or equipment. The Rebel Alliance will pay for your room and board and reasonable expenses. Any surplus goods such as stolen spaceships or credits acquired from military operations goes back to the Rebel Alliance, not the player’s pockets.

ARTICLE 9: Tracking Advancement — We will use the honor system, but in order to ensure players are tracking their character points correctly, we will track advancement using a form which dumps date into a shared Google Spreadsheet.

Gamemaster Information

ARTICLE 10: Giving Back as a Gamemaster — Part of what makes Star Wars d6 Organized Play fun is giving everyone a chance to play. We’ll make that happen in part by having players step up to run occasional games. Although there is no specific requirement, have as a goal to run 1 game for each 4 games that you play in. This way everyone can play as much as they want, without limiting games by lack of gamemasters who are willing to only run games.

ARTICLE 11: Adventure Guidelines — Gamemasters should use 1) modified classic adventures that make sense in the organized play environment, or 2) original adventures that are created and shared with the organized play gamemaster community. Adventures should be self-contained, run in 3-5 hours, adhere to Star Wars canon, and not introduce situations or outcomes that affect canon or disrupt other gamemaster’s storylines.

Extended Adventures: Some adventures may take 2-3 sessions of play. In these cases, you should have the heroes return to their home base (ship, camp, etc.) after each session so you can explain the why you have different characters in some of the session (the likelihood of having the exact players and having perfect attendance across three sessions is usually pretty slim!).
Home Base: ‘Nothing exciting happens’ at the Rebels home base (since all GMs will be sharing it we don’t want it to be volatile).
Recurring NPCs: NPCs generally don’t cross GM storylines. NPCs are self-contained in an adventure, or if the GM has the NPC as a recurring person, they are only in that GMs storyline. Alternatively, the recurring NPC is ‘off camera’ seen on a holovid recording but you can’t include them or kill them.

ARTICLE 12: Gamemaster Rewards — Gamemasters earn 5 Skill Points for each game they run which they can spend on characters which they play in future games.

Redmark Session 03: Bugbear Patrols

February 22, 2017 / Stan Shinn

Hashar, Servant of Mars

January 28, Third Age 1331 — Midday

As if the name of the place, Bone Hill, wasn’t enough, the sighting of the two bugbears raises new concerns about what forces might lie in wait inside the old keep. Unwilling to risk kicking the proverbial hornets nest without more information, the party begins scouting the surrounding area. Fortune works in their favor and they find find a perfect spot to ambush the two patrolling bugbears.

Thanks to his military training, Marcus is able to orchestrate a text book ambush. With Marcus’ and Lundie’s exceptional close quarters combat prowess, Quintos’ precise magic, and Ghost Dancer’s…eccentric…approach to the bardic ways it goes better than any could have expected with both bugbears going down before they knew what happened. The bodies are dragged off into the creepy woods and buried.

Afterwards, they party does some more scouting of the area and comes across a larger bugbear patrol. With one wearing heavy armor, one looking very much like the mage type, and 6 others this patrol looks much more threatening. Perhaps wisely, the party chooses to wait in silence as the second patrol passes by. Fortune is a fickle thing, however, and Marcus, Lundie, and Quintos are ambushed themselves by some foul undead bat like creature. Quintos is quickly bitten and paralyzed leaving Marcus and Lundie to fend for themselves. They win the day when Lundie sends the evil creatures fleeing in terror of him and his brave little pony. Quintos recovers and, luckily, the patrol passed by none the wiser.

Undaunted, the party restarts their efforts to fully scout the area. Yet again, another patrol is spotted. This time there are only four, and the party returns to it’s previous ambush spot. Once again the ambush is a resounding success. This time the party acts quickly to revive some of the bugbears, one at a time of coarse, hoping to garner some information about the strength of this bugbear garrison. The first revived, Grumpsh, proves useless and is sent to meet his maker a second time. Hashar, the second revived, proves much more useful and surprisingly interested in Marcus’ comments on Mars. Through a brilliant use of the good cop/bad cop strategy Ghost Dancer and Marcus learn much about the remains of the bugbear garrison. As an added bonus, Hashar is intrigued by Mars and shares he has only one chief care, making money. This opens the door for the party to “recruit” him and recruit him they do.

As night falls, Quintos and Ghost Dancer volunteer to attempt a night scout of the castle to see if they can get closer. Near the castle Quintos was not “pondering” women and ale and so he was atypically alert. He manages to notice they are being followed. After a brief game of cat and mouse, the two attack their pursuer. It goes down quickly. Curiosity gets the better of Quintos and he goes to closely examine the mystery assailant. Poking it with a stick earns him more than he bargained for as the undead creature quickly strikes out at him. Again, Ghost Dancer and Quintos end the creature. This time, however, they decided to burn the thing and quickly retreat to the parties camp.

Will this new bugbear ally prove worth the trouble? Has Marcus manage to break the curse of going down in every fight? Has Quintos learned his lesson about poking things with sticks? Will the information gained from Hashar prove true or will it prove false and cost the party their lives?

Redmark Session 02: In Search of Bone Hill

February 13, 2017 / Stan Shinn

January 26, Third Age 1331 — Night

It is a busy evening at The Minotaur and The Emperor Inn. Before our heroes settle into their rooms for the night, love is in the air.

Carousing at The Minotaur and The Emperor Inn

Quintos and his unseen servant seek to steal the luscious Lyndette, a “waitress” who is more than willing to serve—for the right price, from the warrior Stanford. Stanford is ready to fight, until charmed by Quintos. From there, he agrees to hook up with large-and-in-charge Helga.

Then, Quintos spots twins! He invites Lyndette and the twins to his luxurious room to party Roman-style. But he is unable (or, so he says, ‘unwilling’) to pay the gold and he spends the night alone.

Lundie, too, flirts with a hottie. The bearded dwarf babe, Bralga, shows him to his room, where they shyly compare notes on stone cunning.

Wilbur, the wee Halfling boy, rounds up a crowd to come see Ghost Dancer perform for the evening. The bard sings of the events befalling the group on the way to the Inn:

While Lundie stood on tip-toe to lick the egg-shaped rock,
And Ivamel wrote death with his bow,
Our man, Quintos, with the ladies was all talk,
And Marcus the Orc-Slayer set his squirrel skulls in a row.
Now our Lady Sophia leads us down a path
To claim Urthjarl’s prize and face Orc wrath.

Marcus preaches the God Mars to fellow warriors. Ivamel hustles some gamblers who tell him Pebble Hill will be a safe place to camp. Can we trust the word of those who just lost their mutton money to Ivamel?

January 27

Our heroes scurry about Nimroth, preparing to journey west and seek the Undead Keep foretold in the Augury received at the Lady of the Lots.

Dasheen Elf Assassin

Marcus and Lundie sell him orc plunder, and then rent horses from Captain Hayden, the head of the city guard, and Marcus’s new soldier buddy.

Quintos and Ghost Dancer visit Lord Renaldo, the Merchant Prince. Quintos negotiates for information, offering trade routes to the Imperium. Arilon, the disrespected elf, helps Quintos and Ghost Dancer find the information they need: Bone Hill, the possible location of the Undead Keep, lies just 30 miles to the west.

Just then, all hell breaks loose. Lord Renaldo, by decree, changes the name of the town from the ancient elven Nimroth to Restenford, and declares open season on all elves in the city.

Mobs chase Arilon, who gets away, but throughout the city, elves flee in terror.

Our heroes try to help smuggle out a frightened half-elf, but he is shot dead by the arrow of another elf. The killer elf on the roof turns out to be Dasheen—one of a group of elves who follow the goddess Dashani and believe in racial purity. They will apparently kill half-elves and humans for some unknown end.

In what is becoming his trademark maneuver, Marcus rushes into battle only to fall from serious wounds and face death while the battle rages around his prone body. Lundie the pious dwarf, once again brings Marcus back from the touch of the Roman death god, Viduus, who is about to harvest Marcus’s soul. Marcus is now even more in Lundie’s debt.

The heroes ride to Pebble Hill, which is near the Shrine to Our Lady of the Lots. (Naught! Naught!) They stay with their old friends at the Shrine, and Marcus wins the lots. He receives the following augury:

The ghost must you favor, in battle to lead
The undead will glance beyond him
His presence they will not heed

January 28

Bugbears!

After a delicious breakfast of eggs and beer, the party arrives just before noon at Bone Hill. The land is desolate, the trees dead. Everything seems colder. Deader. And there, patrolling the perimeter, are two hulking humanoids. Bugbears.

What secrets and horrors hide in Bone Hill? Will the heroes even get a chance to discover those secrets—or will the Bugbears prove to be the party’s demise?