Happy halloween!

 

Black Sword Hack - Session 1

 

Black Sword Hack is an awesome game.

The rules are simple but have depth and the setting is a lot of fun to dive into. The game encourages you not to use an established setting, like the Young Kingdoms, which can influence notions and direct outcomes but instead, create a world uniquely your own. A world where your player's characters will be the first to explore its strange and dangerous lands. The world creation process happens as you play and expands as necessary, encouraging unexpected campaign plots to develop. Everyone keeps track of past games, events and NPCs as players' actions and repercussions help drive future stories.

Law, Chaos and Balance - the players choose where they stand in this doomed sword and sorcery world of demons, weird science and monsters. Power-hungry aristocracy, twisted cults and beings that want to bring about the end of time threaten our anti-heroes at every turn, whose fate, may in fact be the world's destruction.

BSH has regional adventure seeds (Forbidden City, Golden Archipelago, Iron Horde, etc)  that find homes on your world map. They are very creative and extremely evocative. I'm also going to mine TSR's Divine Right as needed for ideas and topography.

I'm already thinking of future games for my players and will treat them as episodic. The goal is to finish an adventure in one or two sessions. Yes, BSH moves quickly. The GM doesn't do a lot of rolling but many decisions are left in the GM's hands-of-doom to determine rulings.

You go big or go home in BSH. Where the players tread, entire cities may sink into the earth, kings may be devoured by demons, the moon may crash into the earth! That is Black Sword Hack. 

There were two players for our first session. Here are our antiheroes:

Ellis of Ro
 

Notable Stats: 

12 Int, 14 Cha

Origin: 

Born in a dilapidated manor of a ruined family. 

Backgrounds: 

Diplomat, Inventor, Storyteller

Languages: 

Thyrenian, Naruan, Duhuang, Chalidim

Equipment: 

Pilgrims staff, Rapier, Light Armour

Twisted Science Marvels:
Firelance, Targeting monocle

********************************************

Bh'osh

Notable Stats: 

12 Int, 13 Con

Origin: 

Born in the laboratory of the alchemist he called "father."

Backgrounds: 

Demon Pact, Forbidden Knowledge, Snake Blood

Languages: 

Thyrenian, Alashan

Equipment: 

Inquisitor's Longsword (2-h), Iwisfi

Spells:

Inquisition, Red Trap, Greedy Hand, Hellhound

Demon Pacts: 

Fear (Ulshedra)

Nightmare (Samnu)

I took the player's through Dark Seeds, the adventure in the rule book and everyone had a great time.

Spoiler Alert

A few notable events from the game:

Narvas is an evil sorcerer who is somehow responsible for our anti-heroes being sentenced to the Redemption Spire. How long were they in there? Where is Narvas now and why did he do this?

Bh'osh summoned Samnu, the nightmare demon, to awaken both Lazalla and Garam from their lotus slumbers (thus ending their demonic dream manifestations). Both Lazalla and Garam, learning that they were responsible for slaughtering the entire town, went insane with guilt. The players took the Lotus bags and left.

Tharkus

Player's learned that Tharkus's crashed, airborne ship is powered by a demon engine and can possibly travel in space. 

Ellis did some fast talking, distracting Tharkus and her men, which allowed Bh'osh to speak with the flesh/ steel android creation who told them of Narvas. They left the crashed ship and Tharkus, who was pissed at them because the players used the demon of fear, Ulshedra, on her and also cut down one of her men. Ellis gave some demon dream lotus as a parting gift to Tharkus. We'll see what future is born from that cold-blooded act!

Being an inventor, Ellis is looking for an orichalcum gyroscope to get the ship flying again and claim it as his own.

The Pit Fiend

                    

In the rock furnace

For past transgressions

Relentless torment 

Denizens

Whispering

Tearing

Cutting

No rest nor hope

Of salvation

Then 

At each day's end 

The Fiend rises

From the Pit

And bashes our heads in

Palladium Fantasy RPG

I recently added some new Palladium Fantasy books to my collection.

Eventually, I'd like to have all the setting books. I play 1e, but even the 2e material is applicable and provides great information on the Palladium Fantasy world.

The setting is pretty much what draws me to PF. Even though there are a number of non-human races as options to play, I still get a Conan-esk feel from it. D&D is full of monster adversaries. But PF is more geared toward fighting other humans and humanoids. Arena fights are common throughout the world, often pitting species against species. There are monsters, but not on the same scale as D&D. The setting has a high-magic feel to it, with a strong emphasis on gods, religions, cults, demons and devils and the Old Ones, generally, represent the Cthulhu Mythos, which I like. 

In our campaign, the players are evil and are all humanoid. It's a unique gaming experience for me, and I'm going to try to steer my players back in the direction of Palladium Fantasy after we're done playing Alien RPG.

The standout of the books I bought is the 1st Edition Palladium Fantasy RPG Foil Hardback. Palladium softcovers take a beating, especially the rule books. I own an original 1e rule book and the cover is gone. I think the limited edition foil hardback is a great buy. It looks awesome, it's well made, and as a bonus, it includes the adventure The Arms of Nargash-Tor.

Interior of the Palladium Fantasy Limited Edition Foil Hardback

Book II: The Old Ones and Book III: Adventures on the High Seas are great setting books with a ton of information, premade adventures and towns for players to explore. I've heard good things about Bill Coffin as an author, so I look forward to digging into his contributions in the other books.

I'm using Book IV: Adventures in the Norther Wilderness and Book V: "Further" Adventures in the Northern Wilderness for our campaign. 

If you're unaware of Palladium Fantasy 1e, it's reminiscent of Basic D&D or AD&D but with some interesting changes. However, it does seem necessary to house-rule. You could say every game gets house-ruled a bit; however, in the case of PF, it's more of a certainty and in some cases, extensively.

When thinking about creating my own games or modifying pre-written adventures for PF, I like to take inspiration and story ideas from Conan. 

The Cardinal of the Church of Light in Credia (Timiro Kingdom) has hired our players for a secret mission: They are to set sail and navigate through the pirated South Sea waters, then dropped off the shore of a savage jungle island, rife with sea serpents in the Floenry chain. If they survive, they are to make their way through the islands fetid swamps, facing poisonous reptiles and ferocious Grimbors, until, they reach their final destination: the ancient Temple of Yin-Sloth the Terrible! There they must stealth their way in and assassinate the cult's cannibalistic leader, whose psionic powers are renowned, and bring back the priceless Dragon's Heart Stone!

PSA: Play Call of Cthulhu

 

5E Dungeons and Dragons: Cult of the Silver Star

Kaalut Kuzulhu is a Lev 4, chaotic evil variant human. He's a Fathomless Warlock, whose patron is Cthulhu.        

Kaalut Kuzulhu

He’s starting a cult in Neverwinter. 

Kaalut is the cults enigmatic leader, but to help achieve its goals, he'll assume other perona using the Mask of Many Faces invocation and Disguise Kits. One such alias is the mysterious Lord Orlok; a rather strange looking man who wears black robes, is bald and has large, pointed ears. Orlok is Magus of the Void level grade and deals with most of the new applicants. 

Lord Orlok

                                                

Another guise used, when intimidation is needed, is that of Vu’oog Dragell, Magus of the Black Moon, who is more than capable of motivating the members. During special ceremonies, Vu'oog opens gateways to alien realms, calling forth the harrowing Star Spawns, who whisper unfathomable cosmic secrets to stupefied congregants.

Vu'oog Dragell

To root out spies and learn the cultists' intents and weaknesses, Kaalut will often disguise himself as a new member and make liberal use of the Detect Thoughts spell cast through the Telepathic feat. 

When higher level, Kaalut will specialize in the use of the spells Dream and Dream Sending of Cthulhu, which are essential for conveying revelations to Silver Star members as well as deterring its detractors. 

The cult does not openly promote evil per say, but it does celebrate chaos and individual freedoms. Randomness of actions is interpreted as ultimate truths. Anything that stands in the way of individual freedom is considered an untruth including those set by law, order and social norms. Each individual is capable of achieving self-realization through their own personal choices. 

Cthulhu is not mentioned specifically to the members, at first. Until cultists have advanced to higher grades, Cthulhu is referred to as He Who Sleeps, He Who Whispers in Dreams, The Great Dreamer or the One Who Calls. 

Meditation, the deep speech language, astrology, and the Mythos of the Cosmos are taught to beginners. Some nights are devoted to social interactions, as revelry in personal freedoms is paramount to enlightenment.

The cult also spreads the good word of enlightenment around Neverwinter through the many altruistic activities they are involved with. 

Initially, the cult could run as a spy network or be used for some added finances. The long term goal is to have the most devout members move to a secluded island community, where they are transformed or give birth to Deep Ones or hybrids, destined for R'lyeh. Outsiders are warned from visiting the island, as the inhabitants have a reputation for being xenophobic. The community, however, is renowned for its fishery and weekly hauls are brought to Neverwinter by mysterious individuals, whose faces are always scarfed, but are said to have large eyes that never blink and have fingers that are webbed...

These are the flyers that are posted throughout Neverwinter inviting all to join the cult. The key word is transformation. All are welcome to join..including you!

Real testimonials:

"Joining the Silver Star has been a transformative experience!"

Fergus Littleman
Citizen of Neverwinter

It's a good day for Cthulhu

 

Alien RPG: Chariot of the Gods Part II & III

Issue # 2 of Chariot of the Gods
Art by Chris

Issue # 3 of Chariot of the Gods
Art by Chris

Overall, we had a lot of fun playing Chariot of the Gods (the first session was covered here). There was only one player death, which was surprising, but mostly due to unlucky dice roles on my part - the neomorph hisses at you...

I rolled randomly to see who changed into abominations, so in Act II many N.P.C.'s were mutated. 

One player was using Captain Miller, whose motive was money; another was Cham, which everyone knew was really Lucas the Android from Act I, but its agenda was still secret - stop all xenomorph information from getting into Weylan-Yutani's hands; the player using Wilson was trying to make a deal with Clayton, but Clayton ended up getting eviscerated by the neomorph; lastly, someone played the pilot, Davis, who was trying to calm her nerves with drugs.

In Act III, the players were low on weapons so they set the USCSS Cronus to self-destruct to avoid a fight with the neomorph that was still running around killing everyone. As the players were trying to escape, the neomorph emerged and attacked them but they managed to kill it, luckily. Too late to reverse the self-destruct, the players, along with the N.P.C. Dr. Flynn (who was near mental collapse from panic), gathered in Clayton's corporate suite. There they discovered the EEV (Emergency Escape Vehicle) but quickly realized it only takes three. Lots of arguments followed; mostly from fear and paranoia about which players were secretly out to kill the rest.

They finally came to a decision about who to leave behind and pushed the N.P.C. Dr. Flynn out of the EEV and locked the door, leaving him stranded on the Cronus with a one minute count down before it went KA-BOOM!  Pretty cold move by the players, but space is very cold.

I made one last random roll to see which of the survivors was going to transform into an abomination, as they had all been infected by the motes. Cham, who was the android Lucas, was not subject to the infection so it was a D4 roll between Miller, Wilson, Davis and Dr. Flynn.

The roulette wheel spun and Dr. Flynn's number came up. 

As Flynn was pounding on the EEV door, begging for the players not to leave him to his death, his head started to pulsate, his skin began to boil and his eyes went black as starless space. His pleas of desperation changed to those of a crazed mad man, then he repeatedly smashed his fists, head and body against the EEV door.

Art by Chris

The players quickly undocked from the Cronus and sped away with only seconds to spare before it exploded, rocking the EEV and all those within from its destruction.

Cham was swiftly shut down (so as not to kill the other players in hypersleep) then they all went night-night, bringing back with them all the information Weylan-Yutani could have hope for regarding motes, xenomorphs and the 26 Draconis Strain.

                                                              Next issue:

                     Destroyer of Worlds

R.I.P. David Soul

For children who were afraid of Barlow and vampires that scratched on windows at night, asking to be let in, Davis Soul was our hero.

R.I.P. David Soul. You will be missed.

Icons: Issue #8 - The Midnight Men... Sign of the Zodiac!

 

The Midnight Men battle the Plagues and the diabolical Dr. Zodiac

 in issue #8 of the Midnight Men. 

Pencils by Chris.

Alien RPG Starter Set & Chariots of the Gods Act I

Chris's art for our first game of Chariots of the Gods.

So, a while back I bought the Alien RPG rule book. 

Later on I picked up the Starter Set as it contains the adventure Chariots of the Gods as well as dice, map, cards and a rules-lite book. I think it's worth picking this up as all these things would cost more than the starter set.

Chariots of the Gods incorporates Prometheus and Covenant, which I don't mind on their own but I'm not a fan of them being part of the overall Alien universe. Engineers just aren't scary and turning Christ into an engineer whose mission is to set humanity on the right path is not interesting to me... at all. The first Alien movie left so many unanswered questions, which to me, is far scarier. Those frigid depths of endless space is also in our imaginations and getting people to tap into that is where horror waits.

Having said that, we played Chariots of the Gods, as written, and are having a good time with it. If we continue with Alien RPG, I'll have to rewrite some things to cut out what doesn't work for me.

Two fights have taken place outside on the ship's hull, which is a first for us. Lots of fear and paranoia as the crew searches the halls of the ship. The player who was the android was revealed when he got impaled through the gut by a neomorph's barbed tail and sprayed the corridor walls with white android goo. 

One player got killed, horribly, and an NPC scientist's head blew up when a head-burster made an appearance.

Will the players survive and get the USCSS Cronus back to the safety of the Frontier? Or, will they turn into abominations or get their throat ripped out by a neomorph? Maybe they'll be stranded on a derelict Cronus, drifting though endless space and eventually freeze to death? Fun stuff.

If you're looking for an alternative to your gaming, Alien is solid. Rules are straight-forward, it's well-edited and written in a very utilitarian style, which I find rare in games today.