Category: Musings (Page 7 of 9)

Top Stuff I Want To Run Someday

June 20, 2016 / Stan Shinn

Been thinking about the ‘stuff I’m itching to run someday’ so thought I’d jot it down. Interesting how things evolve: see my post in 2014 of things I was itching to run two years ago. Probably the Sci Fi stuff has my biggest interest at the moment.

Sci-Fi Campaigns

Blood & Steel (Imperium RPG) — After investigating a space anomaly, a group of fighter pilots find themselves on a starhopping quest to save humanity. (Think Battlestar Galactica)
Scientorium (Imperium RPG) — Hidden away by sheer distance and forever shrouded from the minds of the curious lies a mammoth artifact from the previous galactic age, the library of Scientorium. Its strange experience chambers offer passage to a million histories on a million worlds, secrets and technologies undreamed of. Now abandoned by all but its automated security systems and enigmatic caretakers, its workings are oddly twisted and jealous, meting out reward and punishment in equal measure. This is a classic science fiction saga, an epic journey across space and time in the vein of Niven or Heinlein!
Eris Beta-V (Imperium RPG) — A team of explorers investigates a magnificent ringed gas giant with its numerous moons. Ancient artifacts of enormous power can be found among the rings and asteroids. Every moon is a unique world to be explored. When the system’s valuable commerce is threatened by unscrupulous agencies, the team must root them out and put themselves at great risk on the icy fringes of interstellar space.
Eschaton: The Dark Star (Imperium RPG) — Interstellar explorers investigate a mind-boggling megastructure hidden in deep space. (Think Ringworld)

Fantasy Campaigns

World of Redmark: The Wheel of Time (D&D 5e) — Reboot of the campaign started at https://dicehaven.com/dnd/the-island-of-death/ but with new 1st level characters.
World of Redmark: Caress of Steel (D&D 5e) — New sandbox D&D campaign based on the 80’s Rush albums ‘Caress of Steel’ and ‘Fly By Night’.
Middle-earth: Darkening of Mirkwood (5e The One Ring) — The Necromancer may have been cast out of Dol Guldur, but a lingering darkness remains over Mirkwood, a shadow that will grow ever longer as the years draw on – unless a band of brave adventurers step forward and hold back the gloom.
Middle-earth: Chronicles of Arnor (5e The One Ring)-– Adventure in Middle-Earth a millienium before the Lord of the RIngs. “Know this, people of Gondor: were it not for the selfless souls in Arnor who with flashing blades and spilled life-blood fought against the Witch-King and his foul blight in Angmar, our free lands would not have known peace, and our bright cities would long ago have crumbled into forgotten ruins.”

Mini-Campaigns (~ 6 sessions)

Firefly: Civil War (Imperium RPG) — Epic mini-campaign conclusion to a Firefly campaign Todd, Mason and Stan were running a few years back.
Reich America: The Shadow Covenant (Custom D&D 5e Modern System) — Resistance fighters uncover a terrifying secret about the Final Reich.

One-Shots

Star Trek: The Original Series (Imperium RPG) — Boldly going where no man has gone before, the U.S.S. Ares explores mysteries and fights alien enemies on the Federation Frontier.
Boot Hill: Bounty (Custom D&D 5e Modern System) — You’re the law, but keeping the peace in Texas is a deadly business. Can you survive to collect the bounty on Bad Bart and a dozen other scoundrels whose Wanted Posters litter the sheriff’s desk?

Up In the Air

June 14, 2016 / Robert Miklos

Justin IronOak and Neara BloodOak led our intrepid party through snowy mountain passes, through the worst of the MindSpire Mountains, before coming upon the Village of the BloodOaks. A vital village, the party immediately saw the battle damage done to the town’s wooden palisade, where the Frost Giants and the Black dragon broke through on their raid. Talking with the captain of the Guard, Taliera Barkskin, the party learned that the giants had been aided in the Chevauchee by Harren Fire Oak and the White Wizard. The giants apparently broke through the palisade, and quickly made for the Blood Oak’s Arbrearum. the party quickly suspected betrayal, and further learned that the Bloody Acorn had dropped just moments before the raid, and had been handled in the Arbrearum and delivered to the giants. Only a member of the blood of the Blood Oak Clan could have entered the Arbrearum and handled the Bloody Acorn.

The party immediately visited the lord and his lady, who protested that no family member would have betrayed the family. Soon the party left the court, and visited Neara’s sister Cantara in Cantara’s hut (emanating blue flickering eldritch light). Immediately suspicious, Maldrin IronOak prepared a spell, and muttered that Cantara must be the traitor. Alas, Cantara was merely a precocious 14 year old hanging out with her friends.

The party next visited Neara’s brother Fin. Fin’s hut was deserted, with only a white robe and a suspiciously convenient note confessing to being the traitor on his end table. The party wasn’t buying it. The party crossed back to the lord and lady BloodOak, and while grilling them, the sound of artillery shook the Blood Oak palace. The party rushed outside, to see a floating Ice Fort on a mound of earth high in the air. Frost Giants were rolling huge snowballs off a landing, and destroying parts of Blood Oak village. The party quickly determined they must somehow get to the floating Ice Fort. Conveniently, the Frost Giants, a year past, had tried to engage in trade with the Blood Oaks, and had left a small Air Boat that was fueled by human blood. Neara quickly summoned four towns people, opened up wounds, and had them fuel the Air Boat.

The Airboat ascended to a landing, where the party confronted three Frost Giants. The battle was touch and go, but soon the party had prevailed. Leaving the exsanguinated townsfolk to recover in the docked boat, the party rushed into the Ice Fort. They soon discovered a gruesome workshop, where a Storm giant was being “fitted” for an artificial heart, the size of the bloody acorn. After another tough battle, with almost all of their healing spells used, the party left the strange laboratory to scale the fort and seek further danger.

Onwards and upwards, for there is no choice!

Upcoming Games

June 13, 2016 / Stan Shinn

Here’s a weekly roundup of upcoming games listed on the Dicehaven Google Calendar. Look for further details and RSVPs from your respective GMs.

Star Wars Makeup Game — Thursday, June 16 6:30pm (Stan’s House)
50 Fathoms — Saturday, June 18 6:30pm (Stan’s House)
Texicon — Thursday, June 23 to Sunday, June 26 (see Texicon.net; Jeff & Mason and maybe others will attend at least one day)
Gaslight Heroes — Thursday, June 23 6:30pm (Stan’s House)
Bonus Game (One-Shot, TBD) –Thursday, June 30 (Stan’s House)

One Minute More

May 2, 2016 / Robert Miklos

This is the Last Chronicle of Thorvald, the Undertaker.

Ragnarok was close at hand. The party rushed from Dublin to the Baltic States on a quest to find the way to Musspielheim, to find the tree branch that would fuel the renewal of the mechanical sun. We wasted no time crossing the marshes and forests of Samogitia, until we summoned that old mistress, Baba Yaga, and her hut.

The strange apparition, part chicken, part hut, came to us. We were eventually invited in, and talked to the old lady. That is Mrs. Yaga to youse guys. *pause* . Anyway, soon enough Mrs. Yaga gave us a quest to prove our worth. We left down stream, until we came upon the wreckage of a forest area, and a recently roused troll with the village totem pole in his hand, wielded like a club. The party acquitted itself well, and soon the troll was again sent to meet its maker. We debated keeping the totem pole, but then settled upon returning it to the villagers, who were thankful and gave us a warm welcome.

Mrs. Yaga soon returned, marveling at our steadfastness. Without further debate, she delivered us just outside Dublin, where we rushed through the guardian tree, grabbed the tree branch that we needed, and ran as fast as we could. Having obtained the tree branch, we quickly delivered it to the mechanical sun, to reignite the sun. But the minions of Musspielheim would not let such an action occur without a fight, and fight they did. The evil scourge poured through our defenses, slaying most of the party (but not all). We defended just long enough, and killed enough of them however, to allow the sun to ignite. Defeated, the evil spawn, what was left, withdrew to their ship. What remained was a mass of bodies, both there’s and ours. I had been knocked unconscious, and burrowed out of a mass of bodies only to see most of my comrades dead. A costly victory.

Regaining my senses, I drew up my wounded body, and again called to Baba Yaga to return to me. Only moments passed, and the strange hut with giant chicken legs returned. The door opened, and Mrs. Yaga herself asked what I could want. I told her that she already knew, and she laughed an old, raspy laugh. A pulse of the new sun struck the battlefield, and there, where my Ingrid’s coffin had been, there she stood, alive, and in her wedding vestments.

The ceremony took just a minute. “In hardship and in plenty, until the final battle horn sounds…” Ingrid, my bride, smirked at that, and said “they got that right.” Then we kissed. At that moment, the three witches bellowed a mournful scream, a scream of defeat and hatred for all people. Baba Yaga flicked her withered left hand up, and dispelled the storm cloud that held the three witches. The crowd, that had gathered, relieved, began to cheer. Baba Yaga smiled, and Ingrid and I felt the warmth of the sun.

Here ends the last chronicle of Thorvald the Undertaker. A note. It is said that the crowd who witnessed the marriage of Thorvald and Ingrid saw a last burst of the New Sun, and Thorvald and Ingrid (and Mrs. Yaga and her strange hut) were gone. But the crowd remained for quite a while, and soon, the story went out all the way back to Gotland that the witches had been defeated, that they could not prevent Thorvald and Ingrid from marrying. And more importantly, the crowd, and all who heard the story from that time forward knew that the witches had failed, and that hope had prevailed. Because what importance is there of the sun shining high in the sky if there is no hope.

A Giant Problem

April 18, 2016 / Robert Miklos

Harren Fireleaf rules in Fire oak, but for how long? He convinced the Fire oaks to betray all other Oak Kin, and at first the act was profitable. centuries of old grudges against the other Oaks allowed the payback to be sweet. But soon, Randolph Fire Oak decided the cost was too high. honor and a sense of family was lost, and no amount of profit could compensate. But Harren, cousin to the ruling family, anticipated this weakness, and after consultation was a one Milas Homar, moved a robust group of Hill Giants to a nearby hill fort, to watch over and guard the Fire Oaks.

Push came to shove finally, as Randolph announced the end of the alliance of the fire oaks and the Hill Giants, upon which Harren had Randolph arrested and taken to the Giant Stedding as a prisoner. derrick, oldest son of Randolph, barely escaped the Orc, Bugbear, and Hill Giant patrols, and made his way to Silver Oak. There, was no expectation, but only hope, he asked the party to aid him in the liberation of his father, and thus, all Fire Oaks. The Prophsy of the Oak gathering foretold that all the Oak Clans would reunite, and depart these lands. Justin and Kurst agreed to come to the Fire Oaks aid on one and only one condition. That the Fire Oaks would help lift the siege of Silverthorne, and allow all the Oaks escape. They agreed.

Upon their arrival at Fire Oak, the party quickly dispatched a group of bugbears, and restoked the everlasting Fire Oak Flame (that had almost been extinguished). Harren fled to the Giant Stedding, where the party followed. Storr, the intrepid and tentative rogue, scouted the Stedding, to find overwhelming numbers of Giants, Harren Fireleaf, and another human, the Old Man in White, in the Stedding. Awoken and losing surprise, the party set upon a battle to end all battles, taking on one giant after another. Who knows what the result will be…