Converting DCC/OSR stats to Mongoose Traveller (part 2)

 Time to finish up my Dungeon Crawl Classics conversion to Mongoose Traveller Stats. We are in the process of converting a Trillomite Guardian into the Traveller 2D6 system. 

The beast has the following DCC stat block: Init +2; Atk tarsal claw +2 melee (1d4) or barbed chains +2 (1d8) or special; AC 14; HD 2d8; hp 14 each; Move 40' or special; Act 1d20; SP cannot be surprised by normal means, wall-crawling, pheromone blast 20' radius once per turn - all living creatures in range must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or become confused and attack a random target in the area; SV Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +4.

All we have left is the "special" abilities the creature has as well as how to use the Saving Throws as Die Roll Modifiers (DRMs) on the 8+ target number scale. Like many special abilities there is an important narrative element involved in the action as well as rolling dice to adjudicate a result.  Here we have a creature which can never be surprised except by advanced forms of cloaking, can climb inverted as well as climb vertical surfaces, and has a pheromone blast in a 20' radius. These are details which need no dice roll to rule on. In fact, they inform the Game Master on possible behaviors and "best practices" these guardians may utilize prior to any encounter. 

So how does one handle the pheromone blast? The power lists a Difficulty Class (DC) of 18. That is a steep number to achieve on 2D6, no doubt. Here I need to scale the numbers down a bit. Keeping it simple, I just divide the DC in half. 18 becomes a 9. PC needs a 9+ roll to resist the confusion gas. I personally use the Endurance (END) stat on the Traveller character sheet as the roll-against ability. If the PC has a high enough END score to grant a DRM you add it. 

The DCC Saves (SV) are self-explanatory, these alien fucks have a +2 Dodge. If they take some kind of concussive system shock the Fortitude +5 DRM gives you the factors you need, and Will +4 is the alien creature's resistance to psionics, mind control, truth serums, etc.

The trick with making conversions at the table fast is to pull out the basic numbers any NPC in any game is likely to have and find the corollary with the game system you are actually using. There are not many scales of values you are really comparing and contrasting. 3D6, D20, D100, 2D6, 2D10, Success #s, Dice Pools. This is all simple math in the hands of an experienced Game Master, or should be.

Converting DCC/OSR stats to Mongoose Traveller

This simple hack allows me to use Dungeon Crawl Classics modules, Lamentations of the Flame Princess modules, and any D20 system really, at the table in my classic game of science fiction adventure using Mongoose Traveller. The reason I do this is because to a certain degree fantasy and science fiction are two sides of the same coin. There is even a genre convention for when the line between fantasy visual medium and science fiction visual medium, Science Fantasy!

I find site location adventures the most straightforward example of this use. Where a "Tomb of the Ancients" would not be out of place in either adventure setting. So I am going to take some monsters out of DCC #84A Lost Tomb of the Ancients to demonstrate this hack.

A Trillomite Guardian has the following DCC stat block: Init +2; Atk tarsal claw +2 melee (1d4) or barbed chains +2 (1d8) or special; AC 14; HD 2d8; hp 14 each; Move 40' or special; Act 1d20; SP cannot be surprised by normal means, wall-crawling, pheromone blast 20' radius once per turn - all living creatures in range must succeed on a DC 18 Will save or become confused and attack a random target in the area; SV Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +4.

Kind of a bloated stat block for an OSR creature, but this is DCC and they go over the top with some fairly cool features built into monsters and PCs. But this DCC stat block does provide some very useful numbers to use in game for combat resolution or any other action a character in Traveller would attempt to do. 

First one is Initiative (Init). Just use this straight, no modification. For our Trillomite Guardian this is +2. Therefore the referee would add 2 to the creatures 2D6 initiative die roll. Same with Attacks (Atk). Just use as listed. A Trillomite's tarsal claw provides +2 melee and does 1d4 points of damage. 1d4 may not sound like a lot of damage, but don't forget the add-on benefits of "effect". The higher a die roll achieves the greater the damage of a successful attack. In Mongoose Traveller 2e. So a decent roll of 9 or 10 gets boosted two plus the d4 die roll giving you 4-8 pts of damage on an attack. If the opponent is not armored this can become a serious wound really quick.

Yes, just use the damage dice as listed. Traveller is a 2D6 game system. But I am not going to go through the brain damage of converting 1d8 into 2d6 terms. Just have the dice on hand and roll a d8. These DCC monsters are being converted into "alien humanoids" so any difference in mechanics can be hand-waved away. The aliens are well and different then humans so there.

Ascending Armor Class I use the value for the creatures innate armor, or at least reflects how hard it is to actually damage the creature. In Traveller armor absorbs damage, not make one harder to hit. Is this balanced? Does it make sense? My gut says "close enough to not give a shit".

Whether actual armored plates or reflecting special abilities, the armor factor does not have to mean physical protection. I can use this value for a game mechanic to adjudicate damage effects not covered in the basic Traveller rule set. Just like in superhero game systems where you have base, generically described powers, and it is up to the PC to color in the "effects" of the power. Describe the very nature of the generic 5d6 energy blast, is it frost, flame, etc. This type of in-game decision making is a hallmark of old school games and their OSR derivatives. 

Hit Dice for Hit Points, feel free to roll them. I just take the listed HP right out of the book. So these Trillomite bastards have an armor value of 14 and 14 HP. It will take at least 15 points of damage inflicted on a Trillomite to start hurting it physically. This makes autofire and lots of ammo the PCs' best friend, and that is just the way I like it!

I have to jet to work, so I will finish up the conversion in the next blog post.

Mongoose Traveller Session The Alien Anomaly

 Another game session tonight. Let me see if I can get caught up a bit on the “story so far” before game time. Get my head just right…

Under the cover of continuous acid rain-soaked skies and Imperial authority the PCs pilot the 50 ton modular cutter towards their destination, a singular disturbance in the “G” band long-range communication frequency emanating from a fixed location on the skillet-hard pock marked surface of Excalibur. The 60 km journey is only delayed for an hour during extremely intense rains. Not an uncommon occurrence when traveling along the surface of the planet. They could have easily avoided the weather in between them and their destination with a sub-orbital lift and set down.

Problem is, this makes them an easy spot, if someone is looking. With the fallout from the failed economic summit at Red Cliff, everyone is looking. Sword World Confed, Imperial authorities, the Darrians, Omni Corp, the Border Worlds. Everyone with the ability to influence interstellar politics is not only watching, but most likely acting. Whether galactic players choose covert or overt methods remains to be seen. If the PCs are going to explore the alien anomaly unmolested, they will need to make a stealthy approach.

The source of the interference is coming from the top of a tall massif cut away from the nearby ravines by gaping canyons of deep, acid-etched substrate. The summit is too narrow and broken to land the cutter, so the group pilots the craft down to a wide, gentle shoulder of the mountain 800-900 meters further below the top. From there they unload the VTOL and sail up to the top. This is the same vehicle which made its debut in my second Traveller campaign. This is when I was using the 1981 Starter Set rules. A cost-saving nightmare of jet propulsion and retro-fitted grav engine put together to make a cheap all terrain vehicle for the demanding conditions of Excalibur's surface.

The piloting roll fails by one in the extreme weather always present. I declare they make the landing, but the vehicle now has 8-12 hours of repairs to be able to lift off again. Damage to one of the grav engines on landing is the cause. The PCs decide to deal with repairs later and start looking for the source of the interference. 

This leads them to some type of hatch in the ground. It is damaged. The hatch does not sit right, a circular lid recessed into a circular frame which has experienced some type of violent shock, or sheer. Possibly from a seismic event. This gives the PCs purchase for tools; crowbars, winches, hydraulic jaws, anything they came up with which was reasonable to have gotten in Central Lake when outfitting their expidition. Most gear available on Excalibur would be stuff like this. Penetrating the crust of Excalibur's tough surface and digging out what is underneath is the entire purpose of people's existence on Excalibur. They have scanners out, checking radiation and interior atmospheric signatures. They are suited up in their vac suits designed for extremely hostile environments. Basically being a most excellent and organized dungeon-delving party standing at the threshold of their next dungeon crawl. Western, Fantasy, Sci-Fi; they all can carry a fast and exciting pulp story. 

So I have a very careful party. The character Sun Tzu has an alien tech enhanced arm and Commander Frank has psionic ability. Both of these features were rolled up by their players during group character creation. These aspects need to have some bearing on the nature of our shared game world. As an adventure progresses you need to move from speculation to "fact". Science fiction adventures do demand this. The technology, cosmic phenomena, and aliens can be as weird as one wants but there has to be a "why" of things. Because players want to find out the why of things. Why are things the way they are when you can possibly have anything occur or experience in any given science fiction adventure? In lieu of gold-for-experience mechanic in Traveller to incentivize exploration of face-eating danger, the science fiction genre offers answers to the unanswerable questions of life. More precise, the illusion of a fictional answer which can be deduced by exploring the environment and having encounters with it. I mean, it is one of many possible uses of the genre for entertaining roleplay. This is what the players and myself landed on during our session zero when we discussed everyone's expectations.

There were two expectations, three if you count the general conceit of week-long jump times and an overall Imperial authority backstopping galactic trade as would be found in the Sword Worlds. The first was to explore secrets of the ancients which came before man and the other was to get into ground combat with mechs. And the Traveller game does these two things really well. If you have a referee willing to put in the time and make a puzzle which has a connected structure which can be traced by players. I like to make a lot of shit up, so this style of old-school play is what I like. And it is what I know. 

This has gotten well away from a recap at this point, and I want to spend some time in daydreamy prep with coffee, cat, and couch so I need to call it quits on this entry for now...

Continued Traveller Campaign Post

(Campaign's first post) 

The PCs plotted and planned how to infiltrate the underground fight scene and locate the girl, along with her captor, the gang leader Carlo Rossi. But all their strategizing was for shit when they reached fighting ring and rowdy gambling crowd. Victor’s mate Vince was in the middle of fighting for his Vargr life against a cyber-enhanced miner jack-hammering the alien’s face. Once Victor saw this, he went into full Vargr freak-out and jumped into the ring to aid his friend. This started the predictable uproar and mayhem as debts were voided and angry patrons started to fight among themselves.

Pushing through the crowd, Commander Frank was getting a psychic signature nearby which could only be from the little girl they sought. It was hard sorting out the gambling patrons from Rossi’s hired guns so a pop-up firefight sprung up suddenly during the mayhem. With cloth body armor on against unarmored assailants the PCs are lethal. As it should be in Traveller. The PCs are veterans of a hundred dangerous situations before they are played in the game, and their skill levels make for devastating hits. The reason the damage is amped up in Mongoose Traveller (we are playing with the 2e rules) is because of “effect”. The degree of success on a to-hit roll counts as additional damage. So, if a character rolls particularly well, say a 10 modified to a 13, they are doing an additional 5 points of damage. Throw in autofire and a gun can dish out an additional 6-10 points of damage a combat round. Against unarmored street thugs it is no contest. Their assailants were down before they could get off a shot.

The PCs find their way into Rossi’s backroom office and pose as members of Rossi’s gang with bad news from up top. Of the attack on their headquarters at the mechanic shop here in Central Lake. Rossi doesn’t know who these PCs are, doesn’t recognize them of course. The gangster is behind is desk, gun sitting on top. The little girl is sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. Four or five armed henchmen are sitting or standing as well in the room. Everyone eyeballing the PCs. Watching Rossi. Rossi tells his guys to throw the PCs out.

“If they give you any trouble just dump ‘em down a mine shaft.” He says with the sardonic grin of a consummate reprobate. And so the knives and guns come out once again. Great initiative rolls favor the PCs once again, and their accuracy and acumen start dropping opponents. Some of the gangsters get lucky and get hits. But once again, cloth armor keeps the PCs on their feet while unarmored foes go down in a pool of blood. Rossi does wound Commander Frank and this sets the little psychic girl off. She is incensed Frank is hurt and vents her anger at Rossi which has the result of swelling his head till it explodes in a welter of brains, bone, and gore. The little psychic girl can explode heads! The remaining henchmen are like WTF and scramble for the exits. Then their heads explode.

The PCs all freeze in the face of this violent psychic display and hold up their hands as to signal they mean no harm. Funny thing though, the girl seems really happy to see them. To see Commander Frank. The voices in her head had insisted the two of them meet. That she wishes to come with them to the ancient alien site. I am surprised the PCs tell the girl no problem, more than happy to take the orphan along with them into unknown danger. Through further interrogation she discloses it was her who tipped off the Central Lake criminal underworld of her psychic abilities. To instigate a kidnapping which would bring her face to face with the PCs. The voices in her head gave her plans and instructions on how to do this. The PCs are aghast at her callous indifference to her parents’ death but do face the fact she is not a helpless girl dying of an inoperable brain tumor, but a powerful psychic compelled to find them. To find Commander Frank.

The rest of the session is roleplaying the fallout from the shootings at the mines in Purple Sector and the vehicle garage in town. This means contacting the Scouts in Kazawan City. The local contract police cannot be trusted. They are most likely involved in the human trafficking business being conducted in Central Lake. The Scouts can claim jurisdiction over the case on behalf of the Imperium due to its interstellar implications. This means waiting for them to show up. It is good many hours before the crime scenes are taped off and processed, statements taken, and current victims are cared for. This brings the group and the authorities in contact with Dr. Quar. Dr. Quar was expecting the girl’s arrival as he is the talented physician going to operate on the girl’s brain tumor. He is horrified of the past days events and dismayed the PCs intend to keep the girl with them. He argues with the Scout officials that this is ridiculous. The girl is in dire medical condition and needs to be treated. Is expected to get treated.

This is all above the officer’s pay grade and gets in touch with Scout Commander Casarria in Kazawan City. Casarria is an Imperial contact and has been briefed on the PCs mission here on the surface of Excalibur. She instructs her guy that the PCs are on a priority mission and if they say the girl is coming with them then the girl goes. This takes much explaining, as I demanded they make a decent argument for this reckless endangerment of a child with Casarria. The roleplay is a combination of in character dialogue and me saying “Yeah, but you are trying to go off with a child after all this murder. Convince me!”

But Sun Tzu makes his persuade/negotiate roll. The Orion Directive credentials seem to give the PCs some much needed clout out here on the rain-washed ravines of Excalibur. The doctor is kept in the dark on Casarria’s orders and the PCs load up the cutter that night and in the morning head out into the storm-wracked skies to cover the 60 km to the alien site.

 

Our Traveller Universe (OTU)

 A continued description of this sci-fi campaign.

Mongoose’s interpretation of the rules for today’s audience is very old school. When you are playing Mongoose 2e you are playing a classic game of Traveller. Combat is where Marc Miller’s Traveller gives way to Mongoose’s version. Initiative rolls instead of simultaneous combat. Cepheus Engine has better rules for auto fire. I need to see if the PCs will want to use it. I’m thinking of adding some rules for “called shots” too. Make that head shot more dramatic and bloodier. Add a negative DRM for the difficulty factor and in exchange the weapon damage bypasses armor. Splat.

Against Thron’s better judgement, the PCs have taken it upon themselves to track down a kidnapped girl in the mining town of Central Lake. Their snooping around has led them to a warehouse a block off the main thoroughfare. I anticipate the PCs busting into the place, hoping to find the girl. But if they go somewhere else, I will need to think quickly on my feet. I hope they go for the obvious and infiltrate the warehouse. Inside are the usual criminal losers who can point a gun in the right direction and the first indication of the human-trafficking operation being run out of Central Lake. If they leave anyone alive, they will get information on where Carlo Rossi and the girl are located. Purple Sector.

The Purple sector of the mine is not running at capacity. It is slated to be decommissioned due to its age and where Carlo Rossi runs fights for the miner’s amusement, receive human-trafficking victims, drugs, and other smuggled goods.

The PCs do have a successful shoot out with Rossi’s men and get the information on where they can find the Central Lake gangster. They also find victims of the galactic slave trade as well as a roughed-up and restrained Vargr. The kidnapped people all seem to be from the inner systems of the Imperium. The Vargr says he and his companion were kidnapped while visiting Red Cliff Raceway. They believed the very public and intergalactic nature of the complex would minimize the racial prejudice they routinely endure when interacting with Humaniti. It was not to be. Someone at the glittering casino complex must have known Rossi pays for “Exotics” to fill his fighting pits. All it took was a spiked drink and Victor and Vince Vargr woke up in wonderful Central Lake. 

This was an opportunity to roleplay our world building. To flesh out the nooks and crannies of this Traveller universe. This version of the Third Imperium. One is the genetically fucked up nature of the Vargr. It is obvious, even after thousands of years as a star-faring culture, they were originally made. An unknown race millennia ago completed an amazing feat of genetic engineering and fashioned a completely new species. But what flaws existed in the originals have been passed down, hardwired to their succeeding generations. The first being their head sits off kilter with a slightly curved neck. Their hips are weirdly high up on a compact torso, so when they sit their head is much lower than a humans when using furnishings of Humaniti. Evolutionary it doesn’t make any sense but it is a features which is stamped into every newborn Vargr. A less sinister feature is Vargr naming conventions. The Vargr have their own language and their own true names they use with each other. But, when interacting with Humaniti they all go by a name which begins with a “V”. And these names are also an indication of rank. For example, the PCs are talking with Victor Vargr. This means he (or she) is the leader of their pack. Could be “Victor” is a starship captain, or leads a Vargr mercenary force, or maybe the head of some Vargr shipping guild. He had a friend with him. “Vince”. Vince is used for the second in command, or a deputy secretary. Whatever role it performs, the Vince always has their Victor’s back. I will keep coming up with names which begin with V as the need arises.

So, we have established a few things with this interaction. The level of prejudice Vargr endure in Imperium space can rise to violence against them, that their physiology is unsettling to the average person, and they have a secondary language they speak among themselves. Not surprisingly, Vince is currently in Purple Sector for the local’s amusement. This means Victor comes with the PCs whether they like it or not.

The PCs muse over what security obstacles they will need to circumnavigate at Purple Sector, but they find none. Only a Sternmetal Safety Inspector waiting for the facilities main lift to arrive and take him down into the mine. This is how the PCs find out what the situation is in Purple Sector, with the underground (literally) fights, complete with drugs and companionship. The inspector assures the PCs the mine being decommissioned will not end Central Lake’s popular past-times.  

The lift arrives and the motley crew heads down to face Carlo Rossi and find the kidnapped girl.

Lightly sketched Backstories Are Best

Lightly sketched backstories are best. My current Classic Traveller campaign in MTU (my traveller universe) has PCs involved in counter-espionage, alien investigation, doppelgangers, and a Sword World Confederation invasion. There have been many instances where the PCs need to (or asked to by me) explain a connection or event which happened in the past. With lightly-sketched backstory in hand, the PC has a springboard to assist creativity an invention on the spot. 

 And putting a character “on the spot” is one of the main responsibilities of the Game Master. And yes, when these character blank spots in their past require explanation I put this on the player. I want the players to be invested in the game, and being able to create portions of the game helps achieve this important relationship, which fosters immersive role-playing. It also helps the world-building, of course. Being quick to note these facts down, the player’s creations, is a fundamental step towards creating a living world. Player’s crave impacting the campaign world in meaningful ways, and this is only going to manifest through the reaction of NPCs to the PCs plots and schemes. Linking plausible reactions of adversaries in response to actions the players made is all everyone is looking for. Having a loose skin of a backstory facilitates this goal better then a straight jacket of preconceived notions on what the PC is all about. 

And this is what the Traveller game does so well with their character creation system. It provides a lightly sketched backstory through character creation. Sure, it is very generic: Army, Navy, Merchant, Other…, but this is by design. Most early game companies assumed players would make up their own campaign worlds and universes, so the Traveller game accommodated this take with generic science fiction descriptions which, when combined in different ways, provided the tools for a Game Master to craft their campaign vision. It works; it really does. I am on my fourth Traveller player group and all have found cohesion and direction identifying their lightly sketched backstory and letting the fast-moving and exciting session events prompt them to answer questions just as quickly. 

Just like the GM, the Player does not know what their character is until they get them into play. The lightly sketched character backstory (works for NPCs too!) has proved to be of superior utility time and time again! All hail Satan.

AMC Hut BFRPG Package #3

Here is a recording of the actual exchange as it happened at the AMC Hut at Lonesome Lake today. It is a project of my own devising and I will link to the earlier posts about this project later, but right now on the road I wanted to get the audio of the event up in some fashion.

AMC LONESOME LAKE HUT AUDIO

Classic Traveller Session Two

Next week I am on the road so we will not have a session, but this gives me the time to figure what should happen next. If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears. Espionage adventures are not the easiest scenario for me to run, and I do believe players benefit from splitting up and taking on different tasks essential to the success of the mission, but what does the opposition do in reaction and making the whole craziness seem correct? These are the questions I need to resolve or I feel the adventure can become pretty unfulfilling if nothing makes sense at the end of the investigation.

The fifth player was added to the group last night, Sun Tzu a retired Marine combat medic with sick hacking skills. Concluding their meeting with their Imperial contact, Agent Virell of the Orion Directive, they head back to the casino Echelon Spire to do a forensic examination of the hack.

While Eluum the casino manager is more than willing to accommodate the prestigious group of dignitaries and war hero, his security chief flags Commander Frank as a “HSP”, a Highly Sensitive Person, and cannot be allowed into the casino. “Sensitivity” to psychic phenomena makes one highly suspicious to security agencies, and the Echelon Spire has some of the most sophisticated algorithmic “emotion” scanners which are fairly accurate in identifying people with psionic “potential”. This was done with the outmost courtesy, and of course the Echelon Spire did not want to create an incident which would subject the delegate to unfair scrutiny.

So, Commander Frank took his leave and busied himself at one of the food stands on the raceway’s popular “strip”. While he was out there, he was approached by a grizzled space-dog in fashionable attire. The fact it was also cloth armor was not lost on Frank. The man’s employer has tasked him with delivering an offer to Commander Frank, 12,000 credits to leave Red Cliff Raceway. If he was not inclined to take the offer the stranger was authorized to keep the money for himself and let him handle the refusal as he sees fit. He was hoping for Frank to turn down the offer. That Frank was a “stubborn guy”. That Commander Frank was not. He accepted the credit cube and assured the hired gun he would not be around the resort for much longer. He then bee-lined it back to his ship and started warming up the defensive protocols onboard.

Meanwhile the rest of the group conducted their electronics investigation on the luxury floater which malfunctioned last they were in it. Sun Tzu was able to determine the hack was done remotely by a device. He was able to reverse-engineer the hack and create a signal which could be traced back to the device, as long as you were withing thirty yards of the device when pinged. Further work, and the group was able to hack into the security/service drones which blanketed the sprawling resort. While this did not provide a ping on the suspected device used in the act of sabotage, it highlighted a large blind spot. The actual conference grounds where the economic summit is being held. With several of the PCs expected to be present at the first official social mixer which had already started, the plan was to scan for the device there.

Looking for Darrian operatives specifically, they review the guest list to see if other Darrians would be present besides the four official delegates. They are also hoping to identify Subject Theta among the four Darrian officials with easy access to conversation being provided by the elite social mixer. The Sacnoth Lounge is a luxurious affair with kinetic statues, bold views of the Excalibur landscape, and plenty of wine and chefs-d’oeuvre’s. The Darrian Celestial Marriage Guild, one of the minor factions attending the conference, catches the groups eye as possible enemy agents working against their extraction mission. Goldweaver, Blackwater, and Quen, the Marriage Guild delegates, hope to establish economic stability between the Sword World and Darrain Confederations through arranged marriages between powerful mercantile families. Vera Blackwater is fending off one of the Border World delegates who wants to start the pilot program with her.

Sun Tzu’s tracking device pings off Vera. She is holding the device that hacked the casino luxury box. The group all clusters around the delegates and engaged in conversation. Paulo Song, the OMNI Corp CEO joins the group and for the love of gamma I cannot remember how I had him engage everyone. They also got one of the four Darrian delegates in conversation. She seemed too young and eager about the work she was doing to fit the profile of a disillusioned power-broker hoping to defect. So they crossed her off the list. Only three more to go!

This is why I like to record sessions. It helps me not make a mess of things in later sessions. Not contradict what we have already established as game fact. For example, I had the PCs as part of the Imperial Delegation and they insisted they told me they were part of the Sword Worlds Confed delegates. I don’t take notes during a session because it just is another instance of me being taken out of the game and flipping through pages of lightly-sketched prep material. Figuring out what are the basic facts I need to remember for each potential encounter is the “work” for me as a GM. I want to always keep the basic facts of the plot straight. Inconsistency just frustrates players.

I guess that is the current GM path I am on. How not to frustrate the players with misinformation. Eliminate mental distractions and I clear another hundred miles of rpg road players can barrel down.

So Sun Tzu straight up picks Vera Blackwater’s pockets and walks away with a small, compact hard drive in his hands. Oh, that is right. After he got a positive ping, the Darrian Blackwater was hastily leaving the lounge. They corralled her with Paulo Song and the handsy Borderworlder in an extended conversation so Tzu could pick her pockets. As soon as she could break off the conversation she left. The PCs were okay to let her walk out because they got some hard evidence now on her clandestine actions. Sun Tzu also excused himself and left the conference with the hard drive in his possession. He intended to go back to his hotel room and examine the device, to hack it further.

Unfortunately, as he made his way out onto the busy strip he was drilled in the chest by a long-range laser rifle shot. Even with his stylish ballistic-cloth armor on he was brought down instantly. If it wasn’t a laser he would have been bleeding all over the place, but the laser instantly cauterizes the wound. Leaving the smell of cooked flesh to permeate the air. While panic sweeps the immediate crowd from the violent attack, Tzu’s cybernetic arm alerts the other PCs of Tzu’s plight. Commander Frank is alerted too so he leaves the ship and goes to catch up with the unfolding action. When the group all arrives on the spot of the attack there is no Sun Tzu. Bystanders say the medics swooped in with a medi-cart and made off with critically injured ex-marine. They commandeer an anti-grav pedestrian taxi and take off in search of this medi-cart. They catch sight of it going through a vehicle overhead service door, which is not in the direction of the emergency hospital at the resort. No, the service door goes to a vehicle ramp to the lower levels of the complex. They drive recklessly fast to beat the descending door and make their drive rolls. Being pursued, the medi-cart opens up and speeds down the ramp in attempt to lose the PCs. Alas, their drive roll is really bad. I roll a 3. So they swerve, hit the wall, fishtail and roll to a spectacular stop, debris scattered everywhere. The vehicle does stay intact. But the driver and passenger are a little roughed up and come out of the vehicle stumbling and dazed. They are OMNI security personnel and they have guns on them. Shots are fired but the group of four of them are able to get lucky. They beat one of the guards down and take his gun while the other officer is grappled. With a pistol now pointed at his head the second security guard surrenders. Examining the guards credentials and taking off their helmets it is quickly apparent they are not the guards on their identification badges. They pull Sun Tzu, unconscious but stable, from the wreck and that is where we ended the session.

The Rationale

Paid Group, First Session, Mongoose Traveller

 

I call it Classic Traveller. Sure the combat system has been changed (for the better), and there are more fiddly character options, but it is the same game and plays like the old game. Entirely appropriate system for the genre and requiring the GM to use their creativity to make their game universe come alive.

The PCs begin the adventure with stout rolls in the Social Standing characteristic. So much for belters scratching a living or being roguish characters in general. I reset the introductory adventure material to reflect this. Introducing the Grand Transverse Spinward Summit, an economic conference of new beginnings and new growth!

In attendance are

Imperium Delegates. Princess Ashan Trel, Gram.

Darrian Delegates. Talas Vireen. Maela Soren. Jarath Enno. Selia Trenn. One of which is their suspected target, Subject Theta!

Mercantile Worlds Delegates; Paulo Song, CEO OMNI Corp. Excalibur. Jax Movan, Regional Manager Huron Industries. Excalibur.

Sword World Confederation Delegates; Lady Sigrid Valsdottir, Joyeuse. Sigrid Valsdottir, Joyeuse, Freya Skoldottir, Joyeuse

Spacing Guild Delegates;

Sir Alric Venn

Countess Mira Solen

Border World Delegates; Jarrla Venik, Toren Halvstrom,

Union Delegates; Bagger Vaas, Vandars Labor Union, Excalibur,

Various smaller entities and interest groups.

Subject Theta is a high-level Darrian official suspected of wanting to defect to the 3^rd Imperium. Subject Theta is believed to be one of the four Darrian delegates attending the conference. The Darrian presence sees a normalization of relations between Sword Worlds which has not been seen since the cold war subsided in 1116 3I (it is currently the year 1160 3I).

So, enough of the PCs have such a high social status, it warrants them to be involved in the summit in some manner. We have nobles, former diplomats, celebrated war heroes, and high-ranking navy commanders in the group. All except one character, he is an outlaw and a rogue. He is already at the summit working for muscle with one of the local drug lords. For the others, they approach Excalibur fresh off FTL jump from Gram in their own 200 ton safari-class jump ship. I forgot what name they gave it.

They have the privilege of delivering the Third Imperium delegates to the conference and attending the conference in an official capacity. On the orbital approach Sira Bren, one of the delegates asks Commander Frank Jr. as a professional courtesy to meet with an Imperial agent when they arrive at Red Cliff Raceway, the location of the economic summit on the planet Excalibur. He is with the Imperial Intelligence Agency: Orion Directive and needs assistance around sensitive diplomatic issues surrounding this important summit. After a few probing questions and hesitant consideration, Commander Frank agrees. V.V., the Excalibur native from a noble family, is excited about the prospect of making good money on a government assignment. Fenrir, the war hero has a part to play as well. His celebrity status makes him a VIP at the conference and give him access to mix with the other high-level delegates.

The streamlined ship glides into Red Cliff Raceway, slipping through the condenser field shielding the resort from the acid rainstorms raging on the surface of the planet, and they all debark to great pomp and circumstance. This is a new group and a new campaign, so the PCs want to explore a bit before they go and meet with the Orion agent. First stop is the largest and most popular casino on the plateau, Echelon Spire, a “floating” casino perched on tremendous anti-grav pylons with crystalline walls and floating luxury lounges with views of the enormous racetrack ascending into the neon-lit sky.

I populated the casino with futuristic gambling games and used the basic game of Craps as the mechanic to resolve racing bets. You either where betting the “Favorite” or “Not-the-Favorite”. With the standard throws and the pass/don’t pass rules of Craps we were able to establish whether the favorite won the race, paying even money, or not, and another entry wins at a 2x-10x payout on the wager. One PC played it safe while two others went for long-shots. The long-shots paid off! They mulled whether to continue betting the rest of the race card because they were low on cash. I informed them if they wanted to bet a bunch more races we would lump it all into a single resolution of the dice game and not do individual race bets. I did not want to eat up our game time with too much aimlessness. The other thing I did is have the floating luxury box they were in inexplicably shoot up towards the casino’s crystalline ceiling. With no indication of the luxury box stopping at their futile attempts to operate the box’s controls, the group sprung into multiple courses of action. Someone got on the comms with customer service, another PC ripped away paneling to get to the electronics, while another tried to hack into the box’s operating system. Customer service was no help, but the technicians were able to make their rolls and stop before impact. Just barely. Marginal success. Came real close to splattering them like bugs.

After the casino manager grovels for forgiveness and comps them luxury boxes for the upcoming celebrity races over the course of the economic summit, the PCs decide to check out the lower levels of this massive complex perched atop a thick stone plateau. The lower levels are like the concessions at professional sports game. Going in a circle, the level looks up at the racetrack above. This level is for normal residents of Vandars Dome and offers affordable seating and lower buy-ins at the casinos on this level. Great place for the rogue PC to join the scene. He is approaching a certain Mon-Fey. The man owes his boss 300 credits and Thron is expected to come back with Mon-Fey’s money “or else!” Thron gets into the man’s grill at a small bar in the concourse, but a security drone comes up and identifies Thron as possessing an outstanding 600 credit parking ticket. He is to remain still until Red Cliff security arrives to receive prompt payment. Mon-Fey gets a kick out of this. Thron grabs the security drone and stuffs it down Mon-Fey’s jacket and takes off. Running smack dab into his old war buddy, the one whose life he saved from an assassination attempt! They duck into a janitorial closet and catch up on old times. All of them. We are looking at four PCs. The PCs decide they are going to use their diplomatic clout and money to bribe the nearest security guard to clear the ticket and the report of Thron present at the conference. His outstanding warrants would surely trigger the heavy security technology surrounding the conference.

The return to the main surface level of the complex and head to Hotel Null to meet with their Imperial contact. Agent Virell is looking at a possible Darrian defector among the four attending Darrian delegates. He needs the groups help to identify this “Subject Theta”, avoid Darrian counter-intelligence agents which are certainly here, and take off with the target to a remote jump location. There the transfer of the asylum seeker will take place and the PCs get paid their 100,000 credits (a piece) for a job well done in service of the Imperium and greater peace throughout the cosmos. The conference is a total of three days, and before it is up, Theta needs to be identified, blind spots in the Raceway’s security system need to be created and enemies avoided. Or neutralized.

This is where we ended the session for the night. This paid group picks up next week and it will be then time to plunge directly into the action. I believe a great way to build tension in an espionage/heist adventure is subvert the PCs expected timeline. To quickly increase the tempo of action in response to the PCs activities. This means turning their two-and-a-half day schedule into a quickly compressing timeline which forces them to act before they are “ready”. What that exactly looks like, I don’t know, yet. But I have a few more days to polish my ideas. Looking forward to the next session for sure.

Classic Traveller Rides Again!

 Okay, I am using Mongoose Traveller 2e, but this does not stop me from running the game old-school. Really, the only changes I can see between the original rules and this latest iteration of this fifty year-old game. 

Like all my games now it is a paid game. This is actually the second group to solicit me to run a game of Traveller for pay. Cannot say anyone has ever hit me up to run a game of Space Opera or Star Frontiers or the new Alien rpg. I guess Traveller is still topical today. I don't think it is the greatest science fiction ttrpg available, but it sure gets the job done. I have even come to peace with the Third Imperium campaign setting most people ascribe as the actual "game" of Traveller. 

Like many other original ttrpgs, there was no setting which came with the game. The game designer assumed you would do what they did and build your own imaginative fictional game world for your players to romp in. And I subscribe to this approach. Can't help myself really. I picked the role of forever GM immediately when I was first exposed to ttrpgs. I wanted to use my own ideas for what a science fiction or fantasy setting looked like. But offering my services as a game referee for pay I have decided what the fuck do I care? If the players want to play in the Third Imperium lets do it! I'm just adding it to my list of challenges I have presented myself with in the last decade to improve my skill as a GM. There is nothing stopping me from carving the Spinward Marches into my version of a sweeping space civilization with its attendant cosmic problems. 

This does not mean I have thrown out all my Outer Frontier and Lower Frontier setting information. I've just repurposed the planets for use in the Sword Worlds subsector and called it good. All my factions, npcs, site locations, planetary descriptions; all my nutso ideas will comfortably fit into the published setting. 

And it isn't like I can run any of the official Traveller adventures without wholesale changes. Let us be clear about one thing here at the Vanishing Tower. I think the original adventures which were published in the 70s and 80s, with a few exceptions, were unmitigated shit. "What's a great Traveller adventure to use for new players?" is a nauseatingly common question on game forums. "The one you come up with in your head!" Seriously, isn't this why you are taking on the role of Star Master? Because you have cool-ass ideas which demand to see the light of day? If not rethink whether or not you should be taking on the role of a science fiction game master. 

Another thing new Traveller does the same as old Traveller is creating the kinds of characters the original game did. No, that is wrong. There are changes, and not all for the good. Mongoose got rid of death on a failed survival roll. Instead it becomes a roll on a mishap table. This means there is nothing outside of boredom from a player maximizing their terms of service to load up on skills. So character creation can take longer. But the changes to the combat system, I think they are an improvement over the original. But back to what I said, even with an expanded character creation system with more detailed character options, you still get the same result. So added chrome for not much return.

I have taken the group through a session zero and it was like 4 hours! To be expected. I wasn't surprised. I think we are going to start at Red Cliff Raceway during a high-level economic summit being held at the popular resort, track, and casino. This is because they ended up with some PCs having a very high Social Standing score. So all the scummy gang members, low-lifes with complicated issues, cheap hustlers and space pirates get tossed aside for the elite and politically connected. Sweet, another change of pace, another challenge.

Oh yeah, another character passed a psionics test. They have potent psionic powers! And three other members of the group have insane gambling skills. Money should not be an object with this crew. So it is all going to be about the intrigue, the espionage running behind the scenes of all the other campaign-changing forces out there pursuing their agendas. I'm seeing this campaign going straight at the big universe-sized threats with the high level connections they have as opposed to small crimes and misdemeanors which lead to bigger conflicts. 

To prep for the session I am coming up with various NPCs and matching them with motives you might find at a subsector-sized economic summit. Gamblers, human-trafficking, deadly spy vs. spy action, pleas for peace and prosperity, marginalized peoples clamoring for attention, sabotage, blackmail, political postering... these are some of the elements I see being front and center at Red Cliff Raceway.

Five-Second Richtofen's War

 Reviewing my old blog posts I wrote up on my play of Richtofen’s War, the venerable war game from the now defunct Avalon Hill. Specifically, the posts are a review of all the “variants” I tried which were printed in The General magazine, AH’s house paper which came out on a regular basis for like ever.

And many of the variants were good. They all attacked the problem in the game of circling each other trading shots on each other’s tail. And no fancy maneuvers to pull off, or so it appears, in the game rules. While yes, you can do fancy maneuvers with the base game, I don’t want to spend time on defending this position because it is not germane to today’s post.

No, this post is about the one variant I never tried, the 5-Second Game! I distinctly remember stating I wasn’t going to test this variant. From all the different variants I have read I concluded the 5-Second rules were going to be the least interesting.

And I was absolutely wrong! I have just started playing the campaign game again solo, and this 5-second variant really nails it. Brings the game out of some of its frustrating ahistorical events occurring on the game board. The 5-second variant cuts the time scale for a game turn in half, from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. What this does is limit the ability to swing back and forth shooting at each other’s tails. It is also more difficult to shake off an attacker with the reduced time scale. The net effect is it is harder to get on your opponent’s six, but once there it can be difficult for them to shake you off.

Here is a good picture of what I mean.

The photo/recon Allied plane is running hell-for-leather to get off the north edge of the board. Two d3’s barrel after it, closing distance and starting to do damage. Right after the Huns comes the two Nieport 17’s trying to defend their lightly-arm ed photo/recon plane. And in the rear is the last Albatross. Everybody is firing at everybody! Well, not quite. This photo shows an Albatross and Nieport 17 stacked on top of each other. But don't worry, these guys have been trading shots. A splendid fight I must say. 

And here is a photo of the whirling dogfight which erupted while the photo/recon plane took their photos of the road network. The development of the encounter felt much more satisfying, that proper coordination with a wing man, and overall squad tactics feel achievable with the 5-second time scale.

Deflection, you will want to use the Optional rule on Deflection. It is a simple -1 combat modifier, but it makes that six o'clock position all the more valuable. Combine this with the rules for a flying "Ace" and you get better dogfights. Basically use all the optional and tournament rules for the game. 

There is math you must do to convert the planes in the game to the new time scale. But fear not! There is a great sheet on board game geek which has all the stats written up. So, I am saying I was wrong, the best of the variants is the 5-Second Game. It came out in the General Volume 23, issue 1. And it makes Richtofen’s War a fun game to play again.

Savage Tales of Xoth

Just going to make sure I can write better than an AI. I'm going to see if I can write out a 6,000 word sword and sorcery story which is mildly superior to what an AI bot can generate. 

**A Pulp Fantasy Adventure in the World of Xoth!**

**Chapter One: Sands of the Outcast**

Dor Stryker was three days out from the city and already her hill-cat was not responding to the lotus blossom.  The Western Desert's furnace-like heat sucked the potency from the herb, promising the imminent return of her hill-cat's savage nature. Soon, the Grand Inquisitor's death mark would be the least of her worries. A hill-cat, freed from the lotus's hypnotic grip, was a whirlwind of claws and fangs that could bring down four seasoned warriors. Yet, with the Inquisitor's hounds on her trail, she'd had no choice but to seize the nearest mount and bolt from the palace before dawn painted the Zorab mountains. Now, the beast twitched beneath her sweat-slicked thighs, a low growl rumbling in its throat, its amber eyes burning with feral discontent.

Her fall from grace had been as swift and brutal as her rise to Chief Executioner. The whimpering of those sent to her for dispatch had never bothered Dor. Xoth was a world that offered no tears for the damned. But when they dragged a Sword-Sister before her, one of the elite warrior women who had shaped her as a child, Dor refused. The Inquisitor's favor be damned; she would not betray her sacred oath.

So she fled. Through the Ash Gate. Under a merciless sun hammered onto an ocean-blue sky.  and into the great gold expanse of the Western Reaches. All this atop a beast subdued only by the fleeting magic of the lotus flower. The irony was a bitter draught on her weary heart.

Dor looked over her shoulder again.  Still only her tracks leading back the way she had come were visible against an empty sky. The madness of thirst gnawed at her throat, and the vast silence scattered her thoughts like lizards fleeing the sun. She glanced at her tattered leathers, stained crimson from her bloody escape, and the notched sword half-buried in its battered saddle-holster. Notched in many places. It bore mute testament to the violence of her escape.

Then, a glint on the horizon—sunlight on steel. The brutal bloodhounds of Dipur looking to close the gap and bring Dor to heel! Dor's jaw clenched, her cramped hands rehardened their grip on the battle-cat’s fur.

“Not today.”

She struck her booted toes into the war-cat's flanks, coaxing a reluctant, loping stride from the beast. Her black hair whipped across her face as she guided the growling cat down the face of the dune.

“I will not be taken!”

Dor looked left and right, the lofty tops of the dunes now hid her from anyone’s distant gaze. Dor could not be sure those on her trail were Dipurian regulars. The desert held other dangers. The Khazraj nomads, opportunistic wolves whose territory Dor now crossed, tolerated no trespassers. Yes, the Khazraj loathed the Inquisitor, but they wouldn't hesitate to trade a fugitive for the right amount of his gold. None in the wild desert could truly be considered a friend, and not an enemy. Only the Church of the Sword Sisters offered true sanctuary to her. Not just sanctuary, but a chance to reclaim her name and resist the Inquisitor's lust and fury.

The dunes whispered secrets older than empires and Dor listened, sniffed, for in the waste every breath, sound, scent held a hint of salvation or doom. Suddenly, a yelp cracked the air. She resigned herself to the fact she would not outrun those on her trail. She forced the hill-cat into the shadow of a jagged outcrop. The beast growled sickly, foam flecking its muzzle. She scanned the horizon with bright green eyes, red-rimmed from exhaustion. No point reaching for her waterskin; it was as dry as the desert wind.

Then she saw them. A shimmer—a mirage—resolving into tall, masked figures wrapped in cloth the color of moonlit stone. The Khazraj! A cohort of robed marauders. Their raids were the stuff of nightmares, writing in blood and sand the boundaries of their domain.

A lusty chorus split the air as the marauders, riding atop their fierce sand-wolves, spotted Dor. She slid from the cat's back, landing in the scorching sand, her mind a maelstrom of desperation and grim hope. She pulled out her battered blade. She would have to find a way to sway this forced meeting in her favor or die trying.

She tied back her black hair, revealing the long scar from ear to neck. This, her "gladiator's" nose, and a chin too strong for delicate beauty, were all that marred her panther-like grace and smoldering intensity.

The nomads fanned out, eight in total, their leather-skinned mounts snorting, mad for the scent of Dor's exhausted cat. One rider halted and raised a fist. The rest stopped. The leader, cloaked in white linen and golden felt, dismounted and handed the reins to an attendant. A silver scimitar glinted in their golden sash.

"Few seek the Khazraj in their lands, stranger," the leader's voice rasped, seasoned by sand and sour wine. "Only the mad, or the desperate. Which are you?"

Dor's mouth twisted, too dry to smile. "Then I must be very fortunate...or very dangerous."

"We have no love for city dogs. But neither do we suffer the insolence of a Sword Sister, a marked one at that!" the leader's voice boomed. "What brings you to the wastes, woman—as executioner or exile?"

“Rumor flies fast on the winds of Al-Tawir.” Dor raised her chin. "A thief of kings told me the desert alone decides who belongs. I've lost everything but my way. I seek my kinswomen who speak the riddle of steel. Perhaps… you." The wide eyes of the raider, surprise clearly written on their face, visible even beneath their desert coverings, brought Dor up short, a threat foolishly forgotten in the moment breaking into awareness. The blow from the hill-cat struck like thunder against her back.

The brutal strike thrust her into the burning sand sprawling, her sword rent from her grasp by the ferocity of the blow. Desperately fighting to reclaim her breath, Dor could feel the hot gore pour from her back, her leather cuirass cut to ribbons by the enraged cat’s claws. Completely loosed from the controlling narcotic used to make riding beasts of the wild cats, it fell on Dor, the nearest source of its frustration and rage.

A lusty cry came up from the cruel desert warriors, taking glee in the raucous turn of events. Dor could hear their oaths; wagers placed on the outcome of the lop-sided contest developing as she lay stunned in the dust. She fumbled for her boot knife, her blood falling from her back in big drops. If she didn’t find her feet in an instant she was sure to go down beneath the red-flecked fangs of the savage mountain predator. Blade in hand Dor desperately sprung upwards, but to no avail. Like liquid lightning the cat hurled itself onto Dor. Its razor-toothed maw crunching heavily on Dor’s shoulder plate. Dor could smell its rancid breath as it hungrily chewed for her neck.

Unable to rip through the armor plate, the dark-furred hill-cat reared back its head, red mouth wide, black lips curled, intent on crushing Dor’s head in its merciless jaws. Dor twisted, striking her knife backhanded into the cat’s throat.

It squealed in anger; it roared in pain. The cat’s powerful hindquarters raked Dor’s exposed midriff and her thighs. Dor groaned in agony at the wounds but strove to drive her knife further into the cat’s blood-soaked neck. It gave a raspy roar and stiffened against Dor’s bruised body. Falling, it pinned Dor beneath its now lifeless bulk.

The nomads were struck dumb for a moment. Curses went up from those who wagered the wrong side. Which was most of them. It seemed only the leader, the one in rich linen and gold, backed Dor’s position and now clucked with undisguised glee as they held out their hand for payment on the quickly resolved wager.

“A rotten dog of a trick!” spat one of the Khazraj. A lean, heavily tattooed desert wolf in a green turban and red vest. “You cheated me!” he yelled at Dor, with no shred of evidence. But such details are easily lost on the rabid fury of a desert dweller who believes they have been swindled. The reaver dismounted his sand-wolf and rushed towards Dor, still caught helpless beneath the dead bulk of the hill-cat. Ripping a curved blade from his leather breeches, the enraged nomad lunged to cut out Dor’s throat, but before the deadly blade could descend and finish Dor here in the sands a shaft sprouted from his neck. The arrow bobbed up and down as the nomad’s jaw chewed reflexively, gasping for air amid the choking blood pouring from the fatal wound. He fell, after one more step, lifeless on top of the hill-cats corpse, adding his weight to that already pinning Dor.

“For the silent blessings of Al-Tawir, am I to be ground like meal between the millstones?” Dor waved her arms ludicrously as she tried to wiggle out from the dead pile of man and beast as the sounds of battle swelled around her.

Rom'Myr's Mighty Backstop

 This is my one-two punch for "my" Dying Earth setting in the homebrew world of Rom'Myr. This is a hell of a sturdy foundation to run my game of B/X Dungeons & Dragons. I conjured up the city on the edge of Empire known as Valla'Tair back in 2014, I think. I had only read a few stories by Jack Vance, but I easily saw how much it influenced the flavor of early Dungeons & Dragons. And I like that flavor. Some call it vanilla fantasy, but that isn't it. An end-of-time setting gives a staggering amount of lore and locations to explore and manipulate. The fusion of magic and sci-fi is pretty seamless and monstrosities lurking in the landscape do not need much rationalization. Who the fuck knows, somewhere in the last 5 billion years? 

I have decided an Aeon is 500 million years, give or take a hundred million. Is Rom'Myr Earth? No, I don't think so. I do know it is the end of the story for this planet which begins in the primordial world of Xoth. This is where I run all my REH-inspired pulp fantasy. Matter of fact, I just received A Means to Freedom, the written correspondence between Lovecraft and Howard. Fascinating. Anyone who loves the "art" of writing would do well to read the compilation. Don't be scared off by the open racism in their thoughts. It is a good look at white American thought of the early 20th century. You know, like a fact of existence which still stains our culture to this day. No, the treasures in these pages is the fount of pulp fantasy and its far-reaching influence to come.

The DCC: Lankhmer boxed set is to help fill in my campaign home base of Valla'Tair, situated on the eastern edge of the Sea of Salt. The DCC: Dying Earth boxed set gives me a wide choice of nations and cultures which can be found north, south, and further east of the city and the Yanni'Hor Mountains. This homebrew stew of published material mixed in with my own ideas gives me the DnD game I have always wanted to run. But it is not just a wish or a dream. It had a great 2-1/2 year run back in 2014. It is getting some traction once again here in 2025. Huzza!

 

Savage Sword Audio Up on Spotify

 I have found some time to crack open my live play sessions and edit the audio for snappy playback. Here is the first one out of the box; The beginning of the Savage Sword online campaign!

I Bend the Knee to My Lord and Master

 I find this following blog post aligns with my tastes in fantasy fiction. Long live the king, King Conan!

Professional GM'ing, so far...

 The biggest take-away for me has been how bad 5e DnD is. For me, as a GM. I guess players love it. The character builds are more bloated and involved then a superhero game. But without being a cool superhero game. The discord channel for the startplaying.games service is filled with informative first hand experience of successful GMs running games of 5e. It seems they have to live on their laptop. Everything meaningful about 5e is linked to a digital platform of some sort, it appears. There just seems like such a heavy load between the GM, players, and the actual game. 

This has everything to do with how I learned to play ttrpg's, I get that. I just don't see how the GM/DM can have any fun. I don't see much player-agency in this gaming sphere for one. Or it is really an illusion. Everyone is running a campaign off of Hasbro product, so a determined storyline. Besides, a GM is not going to go off script when they have put a gajillion hours into the VTT set-up and balancing encounters. Not that this isn't what the players want. Everyone is getting what they want. It just feels so prefabricated. My eighties punk aesthetic just goes condition red on contact with this stuff. 

Therefore, I am only offering games I know I can run which offers true player agency. And that means old-school systems. Game systems designed as true tools for your imagination. For me this comes down to DC Heroes 2e, B/X DnD, Chaosium's BRP, Classic Traveller/Space Opera, and Gamma World 2e. Chaosium covers much ground for me. Any genre not covered by the others I've listed can be run with BRP. Just customize the skill list to make it genre specific.

This does mean the campaign world is built by me. But being a student of emergent play, this isn't much, really. Being enthused about the genre, reading original source material of the genre (reading Treasure Island for a game of pirates, for example), and coming up with an interesting and exciting start. After that the game kind of writes itself. 

I also have no problem poaching adventures written for other systems and using them in my campaigns. Ideas, I just need ideas. Nightmare fuel so I can get out of my head and expand my scope of view. 

All of these intentional actions serve one purpose; make the game fun to play for me. I like being a GM because it is a hard thing to do. It pushes my ability to interact with others to the maximum and demands my brain make quick connections which fit some type of relative pattern, contextualized into a fictional story, after the fact. Like a battlefield. I'm in a mental struggle which, at the end of the session I can survey the carnage and decide "did we win, did we lose?"

This truly puts me at odds with 5e's gaming products. They are designed to make the players feel special and their tastes catered to. To give participants the insular feel of a video game. The ability to disconnect as soon as they feel "uncomfortable". Heavy roleplay in 5e is a "look at me" proposal and "optimal" builds. Old school play is the guarantee if players and GMs do their part something amazing will occur. An unscripted performance done in one take by pros. 

So I guess that is what a "professional" GM is to me. The person who does the heavy lifting to make this experience a quantum potential when the game is on. And yeah, I think it is enough of a work load (mentally) that paying the GM makes sense. Game products and comic books are expensive.

Starfinder Design Test Conclusion

 The results are in, and are as expected! 

Hi jay  murphy,

Thank you for completing the Starfinder Design test. The hiring team has decided not to offer you an interview at this time, but I want to personally commend you for completing the test and candidly sharing your views about game design with us. I look forward to your future contributions to the tabletop roleplaying game industry, and I encourage you to apply for other opportunities at Paizo as they become available.

Best Regards,

Jenny Jarzabski
Creative Manager

l particularly like the statement "I want to personally commend you for...candidly sharing your views about game design..."

Besides I am not corporate material, I knew this section of the test was going to take me out of the running for round 3. I just can't say that game design has to support the product line as a whole. What I mean, and everyone knows this, Pathfinder and WoTC's 5e are so much tools of the imagination, but a homogenous place built around the company's particular canon. Or they just become this "thing" which is essentially immutable and unchanging. And I get why you have to drive a product line in this way, repeat business. Sales. 

Jenny is probably a forever DM as well, and would love to sit at my table and have that breath of fresh air which comes from campaigns that embrace genre over rules. She is probably busy as all get out, but I think I will offer to run a game for her and her cohorts.

I know my ideas are not alien, just unprofitable. But damn if I do not get great gameplay from the players that I get to be a player too. I truly never know where things are going to go. I get surprised constantly and consistently. Fuck yeah!  

Starfinder Design Test

I threw my hat in the ring two weeks ago for a design editor position opening up at Paizo. I thought why not. Because I wanted to see if my experience to date in the world of rpg publishing would get my feet in the door. I think I came upon the announcement with like a day before they closed the application process. 

So I put it together, I think it was all online, and clicked send. Shortly thereafter I received their design test. The test is to evaluate your skills working with the Starfinder 2nd Edition, designed to give insight into my understanding of the game, my ability to work creatively within strict guidelines, and to give Paizo a better sense of myself as a gamer and professional.

Who doesn't want to know that? Besides, I know jack-shit about Pathfinder/Starfinder. Never ran a game of it, never read a rulebook. But I do consider myself a student of the art, and I like to think after all the projects I put myself through I got a handle on the business. At some point you become your own authority and a pro performs without a net. I'm going back over the completed document. Looking for anything I can re-sharpen. And sending it out after I get done typing this post. Ahead of deadline by twenty hours. 

I do not intend to take the job if offered. I have another job lined up which is close to home with better pay and benefits. Besides, I have worked from home enough to know social isolation leads to depression and drink. No, I am in it for the validation. Once again to see if I can hit a mark set by others, not myself. And if the offer does come forth probably the best way to get a freelance gig. Which suits me a whole lot better. I'll keep you all informed.

Gaming Opinions and Their Consequences

I have pretty strong opinions on how one should run a ttrpg as, and in the role, of Game Master/Dungeon Master/Judge/Keeper, Starmaster, etc. What usually strikes folks I am in discussion with is my unwillingness to change my mind. That I do not have much wiggle-room in my definitions and positions. They also can't get over the fact that I have no issues with "I" statements. Such as, "I believe this...", "I do that...", etc. They are struck by the fact I will not see things "their" way. 

The one which really starts the fireworks is when presented with the fact of "learning" modes, or models. As in there are people who cannot visualize, are unable to interact in a roleplaying game via theater of the mind. I state then the game form of ttrpg's is not for them. Requiring the Game Master to change their methods and best practices to accommodate  these divergent thought structures. I say no I won't, don't and should not because I would be compromising my beliefs from hard-fought practice and exploration. I think "gatekeeping" is the most scurrilous of accusations. I'm not. I have no problem what others decided to do with their dice and their social gatherings. It just isn't what I am about, or interested in. Going along to get along isn't me.

So my two game sessions I ran at the convention were spot-on home runs accomplishing my goals and rewarding players with a fantastic theater of the mind role-playing experience. One session was to explore a difficult genre, for me, and see if the subject matter translated well for a game session. It did. The other was to run a crunchy, old game system with folks who wanted to explore these modes of play. This was a good discussion of what worked in the system, and some of the improvements over rules implementation here in the last ten years of gaming or so. 

"c'est la vie"