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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.

One One Eight Two Five

March 6, 2017 / Robert Miklos

11825, the Eleventh designation from the 825 batch, a distinguished batch of clockwork Mymidions, was a proud construct. Manufactured 1270 years earlier, 11825 had served both the Dragon Overlords and the nascent Gothic Imperial Court. He served with distinction, fighting and destroying many of the rebellious lizardmen. He aided the Gothic Imperial Court in their evacuation from the Lands. And he accepted his deactivation full well knowing he may never see another day.

But that day came 1120 years after deactivation, when new people that 11825 thought had come from the Gothic Imperial Court (for they spoke Gothic, who else could they be) reassembled him, and called him to service once again. The plasma ran through his circuits, and he knew that he would uphold the honorable 825 designation once more.

He fought the strange new lizard like creatures, smaller than Lizardmen but fierce nonetheless. He answered the many questions from the Gothic Courtiers. He refused to be called “Brobot”, whatever that meant. He opened doors. Finally, in the second fight with the little mini-dragons, the courtiers became indicisive. Some called for him to back up. Others, to attack. A few simply yelled “shut the door.” But 11825 was in the doorway, and requested clarification. All the while, the little Mini-dragons pelted him with fire bolts and spears. As his strength ebbed, and eternity beckoned, 11825 wondered, for a moment, what a breeze felt like. A laugh. A mountain flower looked like. Then he could take no more damage, and ceased to be. 11825 had served his 825 designation with honor, and was now at rest.

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?

Towers of Mystery and Ley Lines

February 20, 2017 / Robert Miklos

Our colonists studied the mysteries of the Towers, trying to find a way to travel from point to point without allowing others to do the same. Eventually, the party went through the portal of the first tower, and came upon a large snake and a Kobold Shaman controlling that snake. The party battled, concetrating on the Shaman. Once the Shaman was defeated, the large snake became torpid and nuetral, and the party was able to navigate around it. Loud noises downstairs suggested the rest of the kobolds were bracing for a fight. Instead, the party simply figured out the placement stones of the Tower, and teleported to the third tower. Upon their arrival, a Clockwork Mymidion detached from the wall and defending the Tower. With an annoying metallic “Enemy” uttered everytime it fought one of the party members, a close fought battle went the party’s way. Defeated and deactivated, the party investigated the clockwork device. Part machine, party creature, the Clockwork device gave up a secret. That was, through its visor, the party could see that the Tower and a road to the south sat upon, and were energized, by electric blue Ley Lines. These Ley Lines were enfused by magical power, which the party decided to draw upon. As the tower was invested with a large kobold host (guarding the nearby Kobold King’s Demesne), the party used Calem’s magic missile wand to blow open the large double stone doors leading into the demesne (also taking out several kobold guards). Quickly recharging the wand on the Clockwork device’s wall charge, the party then rushed the now opened passge into the Demesne. After a battle with the remaining Kobold Guards, the party found themselves locked out from an interior door into the Demesne. But they had learned some sectrets about the Towers, and the Ley Lines. The New World seemed very old indeed, with questions answered only leading to more questions. Who layed the ley lines? What was their purpose. Who maintains them now?