Filing off the serials #1 - Drink with the living dead

Filing off the serials #1: Drink with the living dead

Original Inspiration: Drink with the living dead by Ghoultown
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yywGI1H_oyM

Welcome to the first installment of my new series: Filing off the serials.

    My hope is to provide inspiration by showing you can take ideas from anywhere, change them up a bit, and make them your own in your table top games of choice. I find inspiration in everything from music, tv and movies, other games, and of course books. Some of the things I will be covering might be a plot device, other times it might be an interesting NPC, or perhaps a new unique item be it mundane or magical.

    This time around we are taking a look at one of my favorite songs by the gothic western group Ghoultown. The original is quite the story involving a undead desperado who was cursed by god for shooting a man to drink his beer.

    The curse placed upon him after he was hung prevents him from resting in peace until some one could out draw him or defeat him in a drinking duel. This is definitely usable in any game where curses, magic, and the undead could be found.

    I particularly like the Deadlands feel to it so in my own game I am keeping with the western styling as shown below however some additional changes to make it a bit your own could be instead of him shooting the poor man he stabbed him from behind/slit his throat, beat him to death with some brass knucks, or you could also easily change the challenge from a drinking contest to any game like poker, pool, darts, dice, etc.

Without any further ado I present to you Jacob Hurst.


    Jacob Hurst, hung for shooting an innocent man just so he could drink his drink. Now he is cursed to stalk the land until someone can either keep up with him drink for drink with out passing out or put him down with but a single bullet.

ST: 11 DX: 12 IQ: 9 HT: 10
HP: 11 FP: 10 Will: 9 DR: 0
SM: 0
Attack: See Notes
SP: 5.5 MV: 5
ADV: Combat Reflexes, unkillable 3(achilles heel(silver), Alcohol Tolerance
DIS: Bad Temper(15), Bloodlust(15), Callous(15), Disturbing Voice, Impulsive(15), Lifebane, vulnerability(silver x4)
Skills: Carousing(14), Intimidation(12), Quick Draw (16), Guns(15)

Notes: His gun was enchanted as well as cursed along with him that day. He wields a variant of the grim revolver found in GURPS Magic Items 3 pg 103 however it cannot fire skull spirits and the damage is 2d6 P+ and 1d6 burn. While not exactly undead he cannot die unless killed with silver, however he does not offer up this bit of information during  the brief conversations he has. If his chosen victim at the bar does not play along with his demands he will shoot them and any one else who gets in his way up to 12 times if need be.

    Should Jacob normally "die" with out the final blow coming from a source of silver his spirit fades away and he will return some where else in about a months time. If some one can drink with him ounce for ounce til midnight or should Jacob fall unconscious (using whatever rules your game has for dealing with alcohol otherwise you may have to work out a system of your own) then the curse will be broken and he will die for good on the spot. Whether his revolver remains cursed is up to the GM.

    This will wrap up the first installment of FOTS, please feel free to leave your comments below as I would love to know if any of you plan to use this idea or any others I present in your games and how you go about it.

PA Business Generator

 So needing some tools to expand out my post apocalyptic cities I noticed there wasn't really anything that provided a quick ref of logical businesses that could be running in the environment. So today I provide you with my d50 chart of businesses that could be found in a PA city, town, or what have ya. Roll a d100 and divide by 2 and away you go. Also provided are some useful skills beyond just merchant that the seller, craftsman, or provider would potentially have. Most of these are taken from the very useful historical folks document which can be found at https://www.mygurps.com

 

Download

Post Apocalyptic Resources

    As of late I have been working on a GURPS after the fall of modern man campaign and being new to running the genre I have been in search of tools to help put together my new post apocalyptic world. Having ran Mutant Future a few times at least gave me a good source of where to start as for mutations, weapons, drugs, and misc junk but thankfully there is a whole wide internet full of resources available and I will be sharing with you good reader some of the most useful in my humble opinion.


1: Daves Mapper: https://davesmapper.com/city

    Right away I am having a blast using Davesmapper for generating ruined cities to populate my world with. In particular I am fond of using Amanda Michaels geomorphs as they are clear and concise and when exported are perfect for numbering to allow for quick notation of what each building is on its associated guide sheet.

2: Settlement Resources:

http://mutationapocalypse.blogspot.com/2016/08/settlements-in-post-apocalypse-part-iv.html 

    This has a little of everything from random building generator, random settlement resource generation, trade goods, random crises, and a very useful gas station forts table that provides some stellar ideas for not just gas stations and out of the way locations but also ideas that work for any sort of fortified village/town/city. Highly recommend but certainly would save an offline copy as you never know when the google links will go dead.

3: Settlement Naming:

http://wampuscountry.blogspot.com/2012/01/frontier-town-name-generator.html

    A handy set of 3 d100 charts for creating names for locations, settlements. Again I would save a copy in case google every purges it.

[edit] http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Wampus_Country_Frontier_Town_Name_Generator looks like there is currently a version of this located here however they are having technical difficulties and will hopefully have the generators working again soon

4: Hazards:

http://www.paforge.com/files/gw3/3rdhazards.pdf

    Has a little bit of everything from strange weather, omens, traps and more.

5: Gear Resources

Everything:
http://paforge.com/files/resources/purchase.xls
http://paforge.com/files/resources/search.pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3y1U9yyS02M0RMNGRKa0ZtYjQ/view

Armor:
http://paforge.com/files/gw3/3rdarmor.pdf


Weapons:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3y1U9yyS02elNhNVQ5RVR0T2c/view
http://paforge.com/files/gw3/3rdweapons.pdf


Books:
http://paforge.com/files/gw3/books.pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3y1U9yyS02a3NJOUIweVJQb1E/view



6: Misc:

Below are some of the more interesting random tables that didn't fit in the categories above

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8l15nXmXT3BSFZUX3VoLXBXT2c/view?usp=sharing

    100 Post Apocalypse random events

http://paforge.com/files/resources/plotseeds.pdf

    80 different plot seeds to spark your imagination for adventures

http://paforge.com/files/gw3/animaldata.pdf

    A very nice list of different animals and ideas for basic mutations associated with them, perfect for quickly designing manimals.


These are just what I am currently using for my game however I would love to know what you guys think of the tools above. Let me know down in the comments what useful tools you guys have found for your games.

Tales of Aeril: The Return

    It is good to be back. I realize the blog has not been updated in some time however there is no time like the present to rectify that. This year in particular has been crazy and everyone is looking for an escape of some sort, if even for a short while. Many of us even while restricted by the constraints of our new covid world yearn to create and provide to our fellows.

    In just the last few months I have started not 1 but 2 games online now both of which are moving along decently, players have came and gone but already new stories are being shared and a lot of laughs and new friendships being born. Currently my Swords & Wizardry players are working their way through B1: in search of the unknown are have found  just about every maze part of the castle but only minor scraps of what has been left behind, and still one of the clerics found a way to kill themselves setting off their own home made fire trap (i have never seen so many bad die rolls in my life) however they were a old school trooper and now the party has a new wizard friend and a paladin(npc) of the same faith looking to retrieve the body they left behind only to find a new mystery of where did the body go? Who took it and why? It has been quite the ride.

    The other group is something I have wanted to run for a long time. As a collector of books, especially game manual, I like to justify all of that shelf space that is filled with dead trees. Having picked up shiny new copies of GURPS 4th edition at least 13 years ago and being able to count on 1 hand how many times I have gotten to use it has been a sore spot with me for quite some time. This has not stopped me from adding to my collection over the years, to the contrary it has only expanded more and more every chance I can afford it. Now has been the time I have taken off the gloves and laid down the challenge. Run a successful GURPS campaign for a few months. We are in week 2 and while it is certainly taking some getting used to, we are currently running a interesting campaign in the far future (year 3097) where in 2097 scientists who were messing around with strange science trying to open the door to another world succeed only for it to bath our world in a strange energy that lead to a great devastation, mutating much of what it touched and bringing with it the blessing/curse of magic. The players are in a future now where things have gone back to a feudal way of life, monsters are everywhere, many robots have become sentient, and the technology of the future past mixes with the arcane might of mages. Fun stuff.

    Back back to the blog, I do plan to get back to writing more content here. The ideas never went away, things have just been a bit hectic. One idea I am very excited to bring every one is a planned weekly column I lovingly call Filing Off The Serials. The concept is taking an idea be it a location, character, mechanic, plot, or story from some other medium like a movie, book, or game and converting it to be usable in just about any ones game. “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” To quote Picasso and he was right, if it is good enough for Hollyweird when then its good enough for you too. I also plan to do a revised and updated version of the coveted d100 charts so stay tuned for that as well.

    Any rate enough for my rambling, I look forward to bringing you all more content and cant wait to hear your comments down below. It is good to be back.

Return and Rumor Generator

It has been almost a year since I have made any new content for the blog here and it feels good to be back. A lot has happened in the last several months to keep me plenty busy and sadly pretty far from gaming. Thankfully things are starting to wind down enough that I can consider getting a new group together as I prepare for U-Con this year. As I have a fondness for random tables of various utility it is only fitting I make my return with my latest creation: The Random Rumor Generator(patent pending).

This is still in a semi-rough draft format but the general gist of what it does and how it works can be seen below.

<> - Roll on appropriate table

WHO:

1 <NOBILITY>
2 <MERCHANT>
3 <UNDEAD>
4 <CLASS>
5 <HUMANOID>
6 <GUILD>
7 Sage
8 Giant
9 Barbarians
10 Peasent
11 Guard
12 Miner
13 Dragon
14 Cult
15 Were-Creature
16 Mercenary
17 God
18 Demon
19 Fey
20 Bandits


WHAT:

1 Kidnapped/Ransom <NOBILITY, MERCHANT, or CLASS>
2 Are searching for <OBJECT or PLACE>
3 Has Stolen <OBJECT> from <WHO>
4 Are plotting against <WHO>
5 Has a magical <OBJECT>
6 Is on the run from <WHO>
7 Has lost <OBJECT>
8 Hates <WHO>
9 Secretly in love with <WHO>
10 Has hidden a <OBJECT> in <PLACE>
11 Is looking for adventurers to <reroll here>
12 Has poisoned <NOBILITY, MERCHANT, CLASS>
13 Has information about <WHO, OBJECT, or PLACE>
14 Is imprisoned <PLACE>
15 Secretly controls <PLACE>
16 Is creating a magical <OBJECT> through a sacrifice
17 Is in the service of a god
18 Is in the service of a demon
19 Wishes to control <PLACE>
20 Has been asking around about <WHO, OBJECT, PLACE>

OBJECT:

1 <WEAPON>
2 <ARMOR>
3 Ring
4 Amulet
5 Crown
6 Stone
7 Book
8 Wand
9 Mirror
10 Scroll
11 Potion
12 Gem
13 Ship
14 Candle
15 Earrings
16 Statue
17 Mask
18 Box
19 Cards
20 <BODY PART>

PLACE:

1 Ship
2 Village
3 Town
4 City
5 Kingdom
6 <UNDEAD, HUMANOID, or MONSTER> lair
7 Grove
8 Forest
9 Lake
10 River
11 Mine
12 House
13 Castle
14 Ruins
15 Church
16 Temple
17 Fort
18 Cave
19 <MERCHANT> shop
20 <GUILD> hall

NOBILITY:

1 King/Queen
2 Prince/Princess
3 Duke/Duchess
4 Count/Countess
5 Lord/Lady
6 Duke/Duchess
7 Baron/Baroness
8 Knight (Sir/Lady)
9 Reroll, Cousin to
10 Reroll, Disgraced


MERCHANT:

1 Inn Keeper
2 Tavern Keeper
3 Blacksmith
4 Armorsmith
5 Weaponsmith
6 Alchemist
7 Tailor
8 Cobbler
9 Cook
10 Baker
11 Fletcher
12 Boyer
13 Brewer
14 Cartwright
15 Candle Maker
16 Cooper
17 Weaver
18 Fishmonger
19 Grocer
20 Banker

GUILD:

1 Merchant
2 Assassin
3 Mage
4 Craftsman
5 Adventurer
6 Church


CLASS:


1 Assassin
2 Cleric
3 Druid
4 Fighter
5 Mage
6 Monk
7 Paladin
8 Ranger
9 Thief
10 Reroll


UNDEAD:


1 Skeleton
2 Zombie
3 Ghoul
4 Ghast
5 Ghost
6 Allip
7 Banshee
8 Shadow
9 Wraith
10 wight
11 Silent Knight
12 Death Knight
13 Crypt Thing
14 Coffer Corpse
15 Mummy
16 Specter
17 Apparition
18 Vampire
19 Demi-lich
20 Lich

HUMANOID:


1 Elf
2 Dwarf
3 Gnome
4 Half-Elf
5 Orc
6 Half-Orc
7 Goblin
8 Gnoll
9 Bugbear
10 Catfolk
11 Bullywug
12 Drow
13 Githyanki
14 Kenku
15 Lizardmen
16 Kobald
17 Merfolk
18 Rakasta
19 Hobgoblin
20 Troglodtye

MONSTER:

1 Giant Spider
2 Worg
3 Wyvern
4 Hydra
5 Rust Monster
6 Disenchanter
7 Roc
8 Giant Rat
9 Owlbear
10 Otyugh
11 Peryton
12 Pegasus
13 Naga
14 Minotaur
15 Mindflayer
16 Medusa
17 Harpy
18 Griffon
19 Gorgon
20 Cockatrice

WEAPON:

1 Short Sword
2 Dagger
3 Dart
4 Mace, light
5 Warhammer
6 Spear
7 Long Sword
8 Bastard Sword
9 Two-Handed Sword
10 Short Bow
11 Long Bow
12 Wrist Crossbow
13 Heavy Crossbow
14 Lance
15 Mace, Heavy
16 Axe, Battle
17 Axe, Hand
18 Staff
19 Club
20 Reroll with a +1 enchantment

ARMOR:


1 Helm
2 Boots
3 Robe
4 Leather
5 Chain Mail
6 Ring Mail
7 Plate Mail
8 Shield
9 Bracers
10 Reroll +1 enchantment



BODY PART:

1 Eye
2 Nose
3 Tooth
4 Heart
5 Spleen
6 Bladder
7 Claw
8 Brain
9 Bone
10 Hide/Scale/Fur


Overall its a good way to get a rough idea of some rumors flying around in your taverns when the village people have too much time on their hands. Let me know what you think of this in the comments section below or give your 2 cents and let me know how it can be improved. Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Free RPG Day 2017

   Wow its sure has been a long time since I last made an update here on the blog. I planned to have this post up way sooner then now but work has had me beyond busy and the lack of a regular game has made it a bit difficult to make regular updates a thing. Good news is the bug has bit me again with having a chance to play again got the ol juices flowing. Look for at-least a few more posts from me here in the following days/weeks as I put pen to paper once more.



   Now as for FRPGD day I have been going to a new game shop since my old one closed down shortly after Ucon. I brought the idea up to the new shop after visiting a few times and making friends with the store owners. I am always happy to bring the joy of events like these to places that did not even know they existed. I showed up to run mutant future and swords and wizardry, however as it is still a fairly new store in a much smaller community the number of participants was pretty dismal. I was able to collect a few quick start rules I wanted to check out and I was even awarded a dice tray(which I never knew I would love so much). Since things were going slow we opted to get a game going with who we had available.


   I am not the biggest fan of 5th edition, I don't hate it I just however prefer not to deal with the overall crunch now a days of the newer systems. I was ready and willing to rock and roll as a DM but the new guy behind the counter was adamant he really wanted to DM a game of 5th and well I just wanted to play so I took the neutral evil dwarven sorcerer(with dragon heritage hehe) of 5th level. My brother in law took a 5th level rogue/tinker mage, the store owner a super tank(22 AC) cleric who surprisingly didn't murder me for my self serving antics, and a nice kid I just met that day by the name of Ben who showed up and took over trodgar the npc barbarian. We was quite the motley crew.


   The adventure was something the DM wrote himself involving all of us being members of a adventurers guild who gave us the assignment to go to the village of nowhere and go to the mayors tavern(of which I'm assuming was in the middle of nowhere) in exchange for a 2,000 gp per person to solve what is going on there. Apparently we were to be paid an advance but th rogue had walked off with it and "forgot" to tell us about it. We head to nowhere and once there find every one is in some sort of a weird daze. There are 2 kids hitting a dead animal with a stick in which I took an immediate dislike to and placed an extended hold person on one of them. The other child begins to smack the frozen on with their stick now but with no real sense of emotion. The place was certainly getting a weird vibe about it. we walk over to the tavern and got a bad feeling about what may lay on the other side so in true murder hobo fashion I went back, got the frozen kid, and once the door was open threw him in ahead of us. The tavern goers rough him up a bit before throwing him back out into street except for one really odd looking fellow with a near permanent grin and a strange looking golden badge. we go inside and he doesn't say a word but just keeps smiling like the joker and waving us to come hither. Having found my signature spell at this point I extend a hold person on him in which no one in the tavern even seemed to blink an eye. The cleric sighed and took the moment to at-least check for evil auras in the room in which the whole town sort of reverberated bad ju ju but the held guy did not. With some reluctance I released my hold and he went right straight into being overly cheerful welcoming us to the town and that we should not dawdle and get to the church right away. Wanting to get through this as quickly as possible and out of this weird no horse village we opted to follow him to the church in which a withered old priest brings us inside to tell us what is going on.


   Apparently some 50 years ago a necromancer was looking to ascend himself to lich status, so the church sent one of their noblest of clerics to take care of the problem. The necromancers castle and the cleric dissapeared and had been missing until only a few weeks ago when the necromancers castle once more was next to the mountains in which it originally stood. Since then a miasma has invaded the town and only those who have a badge of the god of purity have been able to resist the drull that emminates now from the village. We are each given such a badge(the golden thing we saw the mayor wearing as well as the old priest) and told that we will be rewarded with 10k gp each for the destruction of the lich and the end of the miasma. We each received 2 healing pots, a pot that gives back 2 used spell slots, a good berry, and some sort of magic item based on if we asked for weapon or armor. the cleric got a +4 warhammer, the barbarian got his battle axe blessed from a +1 to +3 so long as he never lets it touch the ground(aka don't fumble), I got a ring that provided +2 dex and +1 to my lowest stat, and the rogue got some sort of dog tag that would become clear when the time came to use it. Shortly after his badge turned to wood and he too fell to the miasma and wandered off toward the bell tower above. the rogue started going through his journal and found a passage saying should the miasma take me please don't let me ring the bells, god please don't let me ring the bells. The cleric and I were already following the old guy up the tower and I use up my last hold person for the day and upon hearing the rogue say don't let him ring the bell we cut the rope. I didn't want to leave anything to change and "accidentally" knocked him down the flight of stairs in which the cleric being the good guy that he is tried to catch him and instead went for a tumble down the steps being cushioned by the old man. He barely survives and I make a strong case for he may try to bring the lich's wrath upon us before we are ready to deal with him and at-least we should tie him up so we can get out of here. So we ended up tying him up to the altar and after finishing the journal got a hint to avoid the main entrance.


   We step outside and all of the village people of no where were standing outside their doorsteps and as soon as they saw us leave the church they all go inside and put out their lights. Happy to get away from them we avoid the main road and opt for an animal trail that went parallel to it. We eventually see the castle and decide to camp out until morning to get back my spell slots and to tackle this place at daylight instead of in the middle of the night. We all get rested no random encounters and when morning comes it is still pitch black and well the moon is still out....dun dun dun dunnnnn..... so to the side of the castle we go. Luck was on our side as we searched around and found a secret way inside through a loose cobblestone. I create some dancing lights and send them down the steps to light our way. Everything is good right up until we get inside and the door disappears and arrows start flying at my lights (I had them a good 10ft ahead to act as sort of an early detection system as well as light). We arm up and head down to face off with 17 skeletons. Captain cleric goes in and lays down the holy law putting the fear of his god into 14 of the 17 skeletons. the barb rolls in and starts going to town on the remaining non-frightened skellies while I cantrip away (I still cant believe I got to throw around 2d10 firebolts for free every round). The next round we hear a unholy groaning and then the skellies eyes burn brighter red and appear to have shaken off the fear(something just bloody bolstered the bastards) and so we had to face off with the rest of them. Super cleric held the line with the rogue backstabbing the hell out of everything aided by the multiple attacks of the barb and my firebolt spewing finger guns(pew pew) and eventually they were all reduced to dust and bone once more.


   Now that we could actually take a chance to examine our surroundings we found 4 cells with chests in 2. I put on my magic detection(yeah magic eyes) and find in one of the other cells is a small hole in the wall radiating immense magical power. I pull out a strange looking deck of cards which then triggered a collapse of the other 3 cells...oops. I put the deck in my robes but eventually it started to burn and I had a compulsion to draw a card. In doing so I got a pendant which in my mind told me it would protect me from all magic, useful but I wasn't about to throw it around my neck just yet. Every one else opts to draw a card of which I don't quite remember what every one else got. When the 4 card was drawn the deck change to be much smaller in side and the back had that of a dragon. When I drew this time I got a horn that filled me with greed. I blew into it 3 times and on the third I actually succeeded at my perform check (18 cha FTW) and it blew away the rocks from the chest cell I was next to before disappearing and with it my new found additional greed. the cleric goes and opened the chest and found within a bright shining sword which the rogue succeeded on a lore check and found out it was a sword of luck and that it had charges of the wish spell. Here is where things fell apart quickly and in much humorous fashion...albeit in a very childish fashion. The rogue slight of hand reached for the sword and subtly wished that the cleric mis-identify it as a well I wont say here but it was pretty awful but funny in a dark sense of humor. The cleric goes on to misidentify alright but the spell didn't go quite as it was intended(do they ever...) and the DM rolls on his table of potential magic items, and apparently he believes in letting the die land as it may as it turned into a deck of many things. It detailed the rules and well I drew first and was rewarded with the sun card 50k exp, the experiences of my ancestors flash before my eyes and suddenly I was 9th level adding haste, banish, and cone of cold to my spell repertoire. the rogue got one of the other cards that gave some additional xp taking up to 7th level I think, the barb pissed off a demon, and the cleric refused to draw and thus the deck vanished.


   Moving on I eat my good berry healing up and gaining back all my spell slots. We find the body of a cultist with a journal bragging out a terrible trap involving a mirror and the eventual ascension of his master...yada.yada.. and we decide to move forward through the stone doors which the barbarian had to bash down(which he did with ease) and down the corridor we found the mirror. The cleric saw something that looked like a chest with teeth staring back at him...in which I asked "like a mimic?" in which the mirror cracked some revealing a new image to the barbarian who said he saw a sphinx...which caused the mirror to crack some more but also released the sphinx....and that battle hurt. Long story short we eventually took it down and then the mirror disappeared leading us to a room with a skeletal knight. He greeted us and said he was here to slay the necromancer and was attempting to stop him from ascending to becoming a lich. He recited his hour long name and we recognized him as the paladin who came to stop the necromancer 50 years ago. Its at this point the door melted into the stonework and a terrible face emerged from the wall and proceeded to attack us from floor by causing jagged shards to flow up at us. I did not get as much damage done as I would have liked because the damn thing kept making his saves for half damage or straight up counter spelling my lower level spells(but I made the bastard burn all but one of his spells in the process) while the rest of the team attacked the moving face with everything they had. Eventually down to his last spell and attempting to still claim lichedom he cast reincarnation.....and turned himself into a female wood elf with no memory of their former life as a necromancer. Naturally as soon as this happened the place began to crumble and we had to make a mad dash out of their. The day was saved we got paid and the town was a little less bleak. Overall every one had a great time, the DM got some more experience under his belt, and there was a lot of laughs.

Ucon 2016 writup

   It is that time again to write about my adventures at UCON. As always it was everything I was expecting and more. I did not get to go to any other cons this year due to my new work schedule thankfully if I can only make it to one con a year I will continue to make it this one. With out further ado here is the breakdown of my time for 2016.


Friday:

   Right after getting my weekend + play games all weekend badge I immediately ran across non other then followmeandie's very own Larry Hamilton. He was getting things setup for a White Star game. We had a good time catching up on lives outside of gaming and he was willing to let me hop in and play. I have not played white star before so I decided to just go with what sounded cool and played to my preferred playing style. Naturally I went with a mercenary and got suited up with a laser rifle, power armor, jet pack, and he even let me bring a few cannisters of oil(you never know when you need oil). I decided at this point I was going to be Boba Fett if he fought for the rebels. The rest of the players included a robot, pilot, and 2 space knights.

   Here Larry revealed the map and the adventure, we was right in the middle of a battle zone as civilins when we hear a distress call coming from a federation ship. There was a black hole type area generating massive amounts of radation, which I lovingly referred to Cthulhu's butt hole, making scanning difficult. We knew there was insectoid bad guy ships in the area but getting accurate information on them was not easy. We headed for the source of the distress call and found some signs of life needing our help. Since i had a sealed suit and the droid did not need to breath we freefloat on over to the other ship just as it suffers a form of explosion. We adjust to its new movement and board. We find survivors holed up in a sealed room but they dont have enough oxygen to survive forever, so we craft a plan with the rest of the crew to fix what we can to re-oxify the ship where we can and seal the rest while bringing over survival suits and bring them on over to our ship. The poor pilot was having a hell of a time with the controls thanks to the radiation(damnit cthulhu.......) so it took him a few tries to connect our ship with theirs. Fast forward we eventually succeed, rescuing around 28 federation peeps and bring them onto our ship just before theirs blows up losing their captain and a few other higher ranking officers.

   We reach out to some of the other federation ships in the area and several hijinks ensued including some fire fights with the insectiods, who at one point had 3 fighters on us 2 of which destroyed themselves by accident and I got onto coms with the 3rd ship that was disabled by our fire and I told them to perform seppuku. Rolling against my charisma and an additional roll he had me make the ship suddenly just goes up in a massive explosion, we may never truly know if my charisma actually worked in talking an enemy into killing itself but I will continue to believe that I did. All around it was a lot of fun for my first time playing White Star and the rest of the table appeared to have a great time too.

  I then met up with Ryan Thompson of Gamers & Grognards to go over updating my con character to level 5 for his game he was running after the small lunch break. For those who haven't been following along my previous years posts, my first game of S&W was in Ryan's game running the adventure Eruptor's Vengeance back in 2013. I played a 3rd level elf fighter/magic user who with the help of his friends succeeded in collecting a dragon bane shortsword, which was used to deliver the killing blow on the fateful drake, and collecting a ring of regeneration. Ryan allows those of us who wish to at future cons to bring any characters we have played previously in his games to future games he runs. I have since then brought my elf with me last year who successfully rescued some lost patrol guards from the sewers. Some how going into this game this year I knew it was going to be my dragon slayers last game either via honorable death or retirement as I knew he was heading into a place known as dragon island.

  Our adventuring group including some additional cool peeps including Larry, Del Teigel (who is an amazing artist btw), Andrew Moss,  and a few other faces who I have met before but sadly cannot recall their names (my apologies guys if you read this please feel free to give me a hard time about it). We apparently got a treasure map during a game of cards from the lone survivor of a group who had been to an island with many untold riches but protected by a great many dragons. I went and collected some 1st level fighter mercenaries (first time I ever brought on cohorts) and we chartered a boat to the island. The first cave we found was completely frozen over with a large white looking dragon sleeping upside down like a bat. We debated for a while if we should attack it or not which the majority felt it was best to let sleeping dragons lie. The next cave over had an invisible dragon laying on its horde which only the wild elf was able to percept. Again discretion was the key to surviving and we left with out attracting its attention. Our luck ran out in the third cave however as we awoke 3 young dragons who went right to the offensive. We thankfully dispatched them quickly and looted their treasure before any adult dragons came out to hunt us down.

   We then proceeded to a much larger cave, and I got a sinking feeling. Big caves tend to equal big risks(like big bloody dragons) and sure enough I was not disappointed. Shortly after entering our halfling thief(Del) got caught by a large dragon(don't quite remember now what color) and flew up to drop him. Thankfully he had a previous life as a sailor and knew how to use ropes and knots effectively. He tied his grappling hook to the dragons leg and as he fell rolled some of the best dice rolling Ive seen at a con. Rolling double 20's he caught his hook on a large bit of rock on the wall and the rope held as the dragon went to sweep in to get another victim causing it to go taught and swing the dragon head first into another large rock formation. Due to the critical nature double damage was rolled.....2 points more then it had. For the first time ever I saw a dragon go down via smashing its own skull in via grappling hook. High fives all around we celebrated him surviving his fall(and some healing via my ring of regen) and looted the horde finding some groovy gear and a mysterious potion which honestly must of been a black hole in a bottle as this stuff ate anything.....including the invisible dragon we encountered earlier. Having slain 5 dragons and fat with loot we ended the adventure and returned to our ship. From here I decided my character has had a good enough career as an adventurer that he will head back home and open a bar, retiring for now.

   The last event I attended was the OSR panel on aesthetics in OSR products. Special guests was Stacy Dellorfano of Contessa, Bill Webb of Frog God Games, Donn Stroud of Drink Spin Run, and Ryan Thompson. It was a great panel talking about the new art aesthetic being used with the next printing of S&W. There was some great stories shared by the group and the overall tone from the hosts and the audience was a positive one. The fireside chat way they hold these panels every year really makes for a great bit of audience participation. On a side note who I would love to see a podcast of Bill just telling stories for a while.


Saturday


   My brother in law is who introduced me to UCON back in 2013 and so we make it a point now every year to head out together if our schedules line up. We made it to the convention and split up for our separate interests (he is more into board and strategy war games) and I met back up with Larry for Delving Deeper. Again not a system I have played and there was several new faces at the table. I played a fighter(big shock I know) and we went to go rescue some misguided kids who disappeared while the town folk blamed the kindly old dudes in black robes who took up residence in the forest. I had fun and would play Delving Deeper again if I had the opportunity but honestly S&W is more my cup of tea.

   Keeping with my current pattern I headed over to Ryan's table and got myself setup with a paladin on a quest to explore a dread burial ground where riches was rumored to be holed up. Several hijinks ensued including a run in with a gelatinous cube, the alchemist getting possessed (and subsequently my being charmed), an undead dude spiked to the wall in eternal torment, and more. Amazingly we all survived but it was close when I was charmed into waylaying another party member with my flaming longsword.

   The con had tons of interesting things going on in which I checked out including but not limited to a vendor booth area(picked myself up the monster alphabet...hehehehehe), Bill Webb was available for book signing(got all 3 of my original Rappan Athuk books signed woooo!), a game auction, a vote for worst movie clips(which was hilarious for the parts i was there for, and for the star trek fans there was something very cool known as the Artemis Bridge Simulator. I didn't play the sim but it was pretty bad ass and the guys running it was super nice and talked shop with me for a bit when I was in between events.

  Down in the boardgame area I met up with Christopher Badell of Sentinals of the Multiverse fame. A real stand up guy who is definitely passionate about gaming, and he was nice enough to sign some of my promo cards. He even popped into the writing/design talk later in the evening featuring John Wick, Darren Watts, and Marc Tassin. The talk was informational and plenty of note worthy pointers and resources was shared by each of the guests. It was great that UCON had something like this and I hope they continue to do so going forward in the future.

  I met up near the end of the evening with my brother in law and checked out an interesting submarine group game. It was essentially a much more demanding game of battle ship for 8 players called Captain Sonar. I took the role of engineer and honestly I think I could have done better. It is a fun game but requires 8 players to really be interesting and would take atleast 2 or 3 games I think before every one really gets a feel for how to play well. If you have the play group it would be an interesting way to spend a board game night.

  Back upstairs Dirk Collins, was kind of enough to bring his entire collection of Judges Guild materials for the 40th anniversary of Judges Guild. He had layed out all the maps for the Wilderlands of Fantasy(which is massive!) and was allowing us all to take pictures next to it and to peruse a bit of gaming history. I have a small but growing collection of Judges Guild material and it was cool to see it all there. Too bad I didn't have the time to hop into his game he was running. Thanks again Dirk it was a pleasure to chat and view your collection.

  While I waited for my bro-in-law to finish up I stopped in and watched the first little bit of Bill Webb's game of Tegel Manor running the S&W lite rules. Things did not look like they was going to go well early on with some skeletons getting the upper hand and the poor clerics turn rolls not going quite in their favor. From the sounds of things Tegel Manor claimed several victims over the weekend. Alas I could not stay and had to take my leave and return to normal life. It was fun while it lasted and it was great to see many from the community who I feel have become friends and enjoy seeing even if it is only once a year. Looking forward to next year.