Wedding Poster, Trailer and Cake

Now that I have found this, I am hatching evil plots for Giulia’s wedding. Mwah hah hah!

Balloons, Giraffes and Birthday Hearts

My lady wife has been busy in the kitchen again; click here to see the latest baked-to-order cakes.

Halo 3 ODST

I finished this game earlier today, and find it the best of the Halo FPS games so far. This is partly because it has a more engaging storyline, and partly because it feels more tactical in play, by which I suppose I mean that tactics are more important than in the earlier games, where good hand-eye co-ordination and fast reflexes (which sadly I do not have) are the primary requirements.

Things I specifically like about it are:

• More “collectables” (in this case, audio files) and achievements. For me, these give a game more replay value, as I feel it’s worth trying again to collect the set.
• The VISR display, which can toggle you in and out of map mode, allowing you to see where enemies and friends are and plan accordingly. Not much use in a firefight, but helps you set one up to your advantage.
• The night vision mode. My pet hate of FPS games is that for some reason much of the action occurs in the dark, and torches run out of power unrealistically fast. I usually compensate by turning the brightness and contrast on the monitor way up, but the ODST night vision mode is even better.
• No flood. The flood were interesting for about one level in Halo, then they became just an obstacle that you had to grind your way through for the rest of the series. I got quite cross with them in Halo 2 and 3; I could see the dramatic purpose and value of them, but they were very boring and frustrating.
• Clever use of repetitive levels. Halo games have always overused levels; this might be to save development costs or it might be because the solo campaign is just a tutorial for the online games, but again this is boring. There is one level in the original Halo which you have to go through ten – yes, ten – times; it doesn’t do anything for the story, it just delays getting to the next cutscene. ODST is equally repetitive, but it didn’t bore me going through the same level in New Mombasa umpteen times; partly because it made sense in the storyline (the central character is trying to catch up with missing friends, so goes over the same ground they do – in essence you do each level once as the main character, then once in flashback as a comrade), and partly because minor changes in the scenery made it look different each time.

It’s clearly the first in another trilogy, because there is a major plot thread left open, with a teaser at the very end of the game, after the credits. I look forward to it.

28 Months Later – Encounter 2

Meanwhile, back in the House of Weird Games (as the children’s friends have christened Chez Slack)…

I think Encounter makes more sense than Episode for these little vignettes, so I’ll switch to that.

Let’s try something smaller. It’s February 2015, and our multicoloured heroes (now dubbed respectively Reed, Blaauw, Green, and Yale) decide to raid an isolated rural settlement for supplies, in the hope of meeting fewer zombies and/or trigger-happy survivors. That’ll be a “loot raid”, then.

The tables on p. 30 tell me there are 5 buildings and two vehicles on hand. Again, I run into a problem of how to determine what buildings are, which is important for deciding which ones are worth the risk of entry; I really must check the Yahoo group for that.

To show why this is an issue, let’s look at building #1. I roll 2d6 for each possible outcome, and work my way down the list in order. Is it a church (needs a 2 on 2d6)? I roll 8, so no. Is it a house (2-7)? Another 8, so no. Is it a military base (2)? 7, so no. Is it a restaurant (2-7)? A 5, so yes. OK, so I got an answer that time, but for episode 1 I went through the entire list and got nothing for half-a-dozen buildings. What were they, then? Ruins? So thoroughly looted that it doesn’t matter? Whatever the equivalent of Obviously Dead is for a house? It also seems such a clunky way of determining building purpose that I’m sure I’m doing it wrong.

By the same process, building #2 is a house, #3 is a house, #4 isn’t any of the listed items, and #5 is another restaurant. One ruin out of five seems reasonable so we’ll let #4 be a ruin, too badly damaged to be sure what it was originally. Two restaurants and two houses; that would make sense to me as a large road, with one restaurant on each side, each with a house for the former owners.

A similar process for the vehicles shows that we have a pickup truck and a semi with a trailer.

The tables on pp. 32-33 show me that the houses would be a good place to search for weapons and ammo, but likely to have zombies, and the restaurants are likely to have medical supplies, and likely to have survivors. Hey, there’s only four of ‘em; let’s just do them all and see what happens.

The Activity Level for Zombies in a rural area in phase one of the campaign is 1, so we have 1d6+1 = 2 zombies on the board at the start of the game, one 12″ to the group’s front and one 12″ to our left rear.

Unlike Warrior Heroes, it’s necessary to set the table up for each encounter. My plan was to use my Zombies boxed game, with the box halves representing the restaurants and DVD cases for the houses, and some sheets of blank paper to be the road; but my dining room table is otherwise engaged tonight, so I’m fighting on graph paper, as you can see below. I decide that the group is moving along the road, to give them the best chance of spotting zombies early on. And we’re ready to go, having spent about half an hour setting up.

Turn 1: Zombies roll 5 for activation, party rolls 2. Zombies don’t activate as they have Rep 4. Party opts to fast move, all of them pass 1d6 and so move 12” towards the nearest building, a house, hoping to get inside before the zeds turn around and see them.

Turn 2: Zombies roll 5, party rolls 6; neither side activates. Reed and his friends have stopped a couple of inches short of the building and are checking their weapons before they go in, glancing at the nearby car and wondering whether to examine that also. I decide to save that for the way out.

Turn 3: Zombies roll 4 and activate, party rolls 3 and activates (Reed’s Rep is 5). Zombies go first as they rolled higher. The closest zombie is 15” from the party (I’m using a ruler and graph paper with a scale of 5mm to the inch, if that makes sense). The zombies should now move towards the nearest human, but the party is not making noise and is not close enough to see (zeds can only see 12”). So they’re not sure which way to go. There is a wind direction table on p. 12 so I decide to use that for each zed; one moves east and one west, 6” in each case. The one moving east gets to the edge of the “table” so I decide he stops there.

Turn 4: Zombies roll 6 vs 4 and don’t activate; party rolls 3 vs 5 and does. Into the first house then; Reed and Green move in through the door, now an inch or so away, and Blaauw and Yale flatten themselves next to the door in support, watching the nearest zed, which is now close enough to see them, but there are buildings in the way so it has no line of sight. I now roll 2d6 against the Zombie Activity Level of 1 (for a rural area in phase 1 of the campaign); 3, 6 passes no dice, so although the rules don’t actually say so, I decide we meet no zombies. Then likewise against the Survivor Activity Level of 1; 2, 6 and again pass 0d6 – the building is empty. This would be a good time to loot the house; the loot table on p. 33 looks like I should roll 1d6 vs 3 for weapons (basic number of 2 in phase 1, +1 for it being a house) and 1d6 vs 2 for surplus ammo. I roll 5 and 4, and get nothing.

The zeds now move, and continue moving in the same direction as before (p. 26). This means one moves off the table completely, so I decide he will treat it as an obstable and turn right (left also takes him off the table). The other moves forward until he bumps into a restaurant, then turns (randomly) right, which moves him closer to the party.

Turn 5: Zeds roll 3 and activate; party rolls 6 and doesn’t. Oops. Their attention is obviously distracted by looting. The zeds carry on moving as before, one bumbling up the west edge of the table and one staggering towards Blaauw. The zombie staggers partway past the car parked outside the first house before I realise it should’ve seen the party earlier; never mind, we’ll go from where it is now. There seems to be no option for zombies to charge – these are obviously the shambling kind from 1950s B movies rather than the faster and more aggressive versions recently seen on our screens.

Turn 6: Zeds roll 3, party rolls 6 – same as before. The closer zombie gets into base contact with Blaauw. I realise I should have done an In Sight test earlier, as Blaauw and Yale would have seen the zombie in the middle of last turn, but press on regardless; let’s assume they were looking into the house. It seems reasonable that Blaauw takes a “Being Charged” check, though; this results in passing 2d6 so Blaauw can fire, then prepare for melee. This is no time for subtlety, and Blaauw fires twice. Rolls of 1 and 3 on the dice give results of 6 and 8; the 6 misses, the 8 hits. Rolling 1d6 against the weapon impact (2) gives a 2 – the zombie is “Obviously Dead”. Huzzah. However, shotguns are noisy, so at the end of the turn I roll two dice per shot for the number of zombies attracted; it’s a rural area, so each 6 will bring one. I roll 2, 3, 4, 6 and get one reinforcement zombie, which is placed to the party’s left rear, 12” away, by a die roll. Zombies are attracted from anywhere on the table to gunfire, so it’s time to move!

Turn 7: Both sides roll a 5 for activation, and Reed’s group moves. We’ll duck through a side door in the house and fast move over to the first restaurant. Everyone passes 1d6 on their fast move check except Green, who passes 2d6. This gives Green 16” of movement and everyone else 12”, which is enough to get them to the restaurant, though again I have everyone pause just outside the door. The zombies meanwhile march 6” towards the sound of the guns; this means one of them turns around and moves south along the wall of a building, as they are not smart enough to open doors and move through. This is the position shown in the photograph.

Left side door breach, stack up!

Turn 8: Both sides roll 3, so a tie; neither activates. Again, Reed and friends are checking their weapons before entering.

Turn 9: Zombies 3, Reed 5; both activate and Reed goes first, into the house; only one  person can enter this turn as it’s only a single door. I roll 1, 3 for zombies and 1, 1 for survivors, so we have survivors inside. I now roll 1d6 per Survivor Activity Level, with a 4-6 meaning a survivor is placed; I roll 5, so there is one in sight. A roll of 4 shows a location of 4” away from the wall Reed entered from, and a roll of 2 shows he is 2” from the wall to Reed’s left, putting him against the opposite wall – looking out of a window, no doubt, at the passing zombies.

Dice and cards reveal this survivor is Ambidextrous, with Rep 3 and a machine pistol. I now roll an Awareness Check on the table on p. 35, and even with the extra die for recent gunfire, the survivor passes 0d6 and is completely surprised. The survivor can’t roll an In Sight test, therefore, but Reed can; I roll 5, 6 and pass 1d6; Reed is the Star, so I use the Free Will rule to change this to passing 2d6 so I can hold fire. Reed can now “Talk the Talk” and does so. Reed’s group outnumbers the survivor by more than 2:1, and he has the drop on the survivor, so his effective Rep is 7. Since no die can roll higher than 6, he must pass 2d6. The survivor rolls 4, 6 vs 3 and passes 0d6. Reed passed two more dice, so strictly speaking should open fire because his group outnumbers the survivor; I decide to use Free Will again go to the Cooperation Table. Reed now rolls 1d6 vs Rep5, passing 1d6 (as he still has +2 on the roll); the groups join, and because the player side won, this is permanent. We have a new recruit; I have brown and black pawns left, so we’ll call this one Brown.

The zombies now move 6” towards the site of the last gunshots.

Turn 10: Largely because it still takes me a lot of flipping back and forth in the rulebook to figure things out, I’ve now been playing about 90 minutes and it’s getting late, so I call it a night.

“Come with me if you want to live,” says Reed. He and his four colleagues fast move off the board to the east.

Reed gets another experience point; I decide not to bother tracking experience for the others. Reed is already Rep 5, so needs 10 points to advance to Rep 6. I also decide to roll for gender of my little band; 1d6 per member, with odd numbers being male and even ones female. This tells me that Green, Yale and Brown are female, and the others male; so be it.

Savage Dungeons 0 – Setup

The last of the solo games I plan to try in this current exercise; solo dungeon crawls, using the Savage Worlds rules for characters and combat, because there are many such games and I don’t fancy coming to grips with a new basic system eachtime. My aims are to stay current with Savage Worlds between face to face sessions, and explore which of the various solo dungeon generators is the most fun.

I shall start with the dungeon and scenario generator from Warhammer Quest; the monsters for this are covered in Savage Worlds already, except skaven, for which I shall use the Soldier and Experienced Soldier ally templates with a “trapping” of “look like giant humanoid rats”.

(Trappings are one of the key features of Savage Worlds; essentially what something looks like in play is decoupled from the underlying game rules. So, for example, the various types of missile spell in D&D – magic missile, lightning bolt, finger of death, scorching ray, etc – would all be represented in Savage Worlds as the Bolt power, with different trappings. Some people like that approach, including me; and some don’t.)

It’s easy enough to convert the basic heroes to Savage Worlds, and here they are… I used an amalgam of the Heroquest, Advanced Heroquest, and Warhammer Quest versions of these iconic characters as a basis.

Barbarian

A savage warrior from the snow clad realm of Norsca whose love of battle and plunder has led him to the World’s Edge Mountains.

• Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6
• Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d6, Notice d6, Shooting d6, Survival d8, Tracking d8
• Charisma 0, Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 6.
• Hindrances: Greedy, Overconfident.
• Edges: Berserk.
• Gear: Longsword: Str+d8, Leather Armor: +1, Lantern.

Dwarf

The Dwarf seeks not only gold and adventure, but the opportunity to deal out retribution to the dark minions who now inhabit his ancestors’strongholds and mines.

• Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8
• Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d6, Lockpicking d8, Notice d6, Repair d4, Shooting d6
• Charisma 0, Pace 5, Parry 5, Toughness 9
• Hindrances: Slow, Greedy, Vengeful.
• Edges: Low Light Vision, Tough, Brawny.
• Gear: Great Axe: Str+d10, Chain Hauberk: +2, Rope (10″).

Note that because the dwarf only has Strength d6, his damage with the greataxe is actually 2d6, because the weapon damage die can’t be bigger than his own Strength die. Clearly he will want to advance Strength early and often.

Elf

A nimble wood elf from the forest of Loren, whose passion for gems and jewels, along with his hatred for Orcs, Goblins and other evil races, has brought him to the dungeons of the World’s Edge Mountains.

• Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
• Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d6, Notice d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d4, Survival d6, Tracking d6
• Charisma  -2, Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5
• Hindrances: All Thumbs, Enemy: Orcs and Goblins, Greedy, Outsider.
• Edges: Low Light Vision, Agile.
• Gear: Bow: 2d6, Potion of Healing.

Wizard

Although not skilled in physical combat, the Wizard is a master of magic, and a powerful ally when exploring the dungeons of the World’s Edge Mountains.

• Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
• Skills: Fighting d4, Guts d6, Healing d6, Knowledge (Arcana) d6, Notice d6, Shooting d4, Spellcasting d8
• Charisma 0, Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 5, Power Points 10
• Edges: Arcane Background (Magic).
• Powers: Armor, Bolt, Healing.
• Gear: Longsword: Str+d8, Scroll of Bolt.

I now roll randomly for the Objective Chamber (the place where the McGuffin will be), selecting the Idol Chamber, and for the quest, getting number 4, “Daemon Summoning”. This tells me that the group’s mission is to seek out an ancient temple, where a skaven warlord and his minions are trying to summon a daemon and bind it to their will, and read aloud a Scroll of Banishment (provided by whoever sent the party on this quest) to prevent this happening. So when next I have time and inclination to pursue this thread, that is what they will do.

The Arioniad – Scene 2

I roll 1d10 vs Chaos Factor (5), and discover that the scene proceeds as planned.

So, who is this guy? Clearly he is the Patron in Traveller terms, so I roll on that game’s Patron Table and get a result of 3, 4: Spy. Interesting.

• Does he work for Arion’s bloc? (50:50) Yes. Good, that will save some work, though I can see I will need to flesh out the political situation soon.
• Can he prove it? (Likely) Yes.

I make a mental note that just because he says he is a spy, and on the same side as Arion, that doesn’t necessarily make it either one so; and at this stage neither Arion nor I know if it is true – one of the strengths of Mythic.

• What’s going on here? This isn’t a question with a yes/no answer, so rather than split it into many yes/no questions, I roll percentile dice three times to get an event, which is composed of a focus (34, introduce a new NPC – let’s say that’s Dmitri), an action (52, “Adjourn”) and a subject (73, “Opulence”). The first explanation that comes to mind is that Dmitri is on leave and has been attacked.
• Does he know who has attacked him? (50:50) No.
• Does he need to grab anything before they leave? (Unlikely – he probably didn’t take anything too important on holiday, and if he did he will have grabbed it on the way.) No.

Arion leads his new acquaintance aboard ship – I shall use the standard Classic Traveller Type S scoutship to save work. They enter the empty payload bay and Arion closes the door. The maintenance unit on Arion’s shoulder decamps to do something useful and probably oily.

“Have a seat,” he says. “Now, who are you, and what’s going on, exactly?”

“Call me Dmitri,” says the man. “I work for the same people you used to work for.”

“Really. Can you prove that?” The newcomer looks up and says: “Computer: Authentication code Alpha Gamma Niner Three Two Kappa.”

“Voiceprint and authentication code confirmed,” the ship’s computer purrs.

“Hmm. OK, I’ll accept that for the moment. And the situation?”

“I’m here on leave – no, really, even spies get time off occasionally. I’m in the hotel restaurant eating breakfast, and those two turn up and try to drag me away. I run towards the starport, because I know there’s a friendly ship in port. I see you through the cafe window, in what’s left of a scout service uniform, and I figure you’re the pilot. The rest you know.”

“These thugs: Any idea who they are, or why they want you?”

“You know, in all the excitement I forgot to ask them,” Dmitri grins. “How soon can you lift?”

“As soon as I get clearance. Come on.” Arion leads the way to the ship’s bridge. “Anything you need to get before we go? Because if there is, learn to live without it.”

“No, I’m fine, thanks.”

I like to think of these adventures as movies, and in a movie we would now cut to Dmitri’s pursuers and see what they are up to. So another complex question: What are they doing? We get focus 36 (move towards a thread), action 80 (Trust) and subject 14 (Peace). There are only a couple of threads open, and I randomly determine that the event relates to Arion’s need for money. So…

Cut to an office somewhere. The two goons are reporting to a figure hidden from us by shadows.

“So, you lost him?” It is patrician voice, tinged with arrogance. The owner may be stroking a white cat in the shadows, who can tell?

“Yes, boss.”

“Either he has a safe house somewhere nearby, or he will try to get offplanet. If you had thought to check the ships currently in port, you would notice a detached duty scoutship called the ‘Dolphin’ which is owned by the same government to which he reports. I trust a peaceful solution will be possible; detached duty scouts are either spies, and thus by nature duplicitous; or poor; or both. Go there and offer him a large amount of money to hand over the target.”

The goons look at each other in surprise. The figure in the shadows laughs.

“Gentlemen, I said offer him a large amount of money. I said nothing about actually giving him a large amount of money. I trust you can fill in the gaps? Good. Be about it.”

List updates:

• NPCs: Add mysterious figure in the shadows (and possibly cat).
• Threads: No change.
• Chaos Factor: No change, still 5.

Lest Darkness Fall

You know the idea: You’re suddenly transported back in time and use your superior 21st century knowledge to bring social and/or technological advances to society.  (We will conveniently gloss over avoiding slavery or death, and learning the local languages.)

Just for fun, The Universe As website has a technology quiz to work out how much good you could do if this happened. I got 10 right, which they say makes me a “technologically useful human” who might be able to rebuild 20th century levels of technology; what about you?

Tekumel – Savaged

I added a new file tonight, my notes on running Empire of the Petal Throne using the Savage Worlds system. I would add a link to the PDF, but there’s one over there on the right…

Role Reversal

Here is a link that made me smile… some dragons on the Greywulf’s Lair blog, which is a mixture of CGI art and roleplaying.

Bacon

“Bacon: The food that makes other food worth eating.” – Stargate Atlantis.

This diatribe on Bacon Salt made me laugh. Share and enjoy! I have been looking for the bacon website to which the author refers in vain – I can find bacon martini recipes, bacon-scented candles and so forth, but not as yet one convenient place where all can be worshipped together. If you are a fellow bacon-lover who knows of this mystical nirvana, please tell me the URL.

Now, my mouth is watering, so if you’ll excuse me I’ll go and check the fridge for bacon. If there’s none left, which is disturbingly likely, the shops are still open…