PC and NPC Combat Tracker for Clockwork & Cthulhu

I've created a Combat Tracker PDF doc so that I can better track initiative and turn progress for running combat during my Clockwork & Cthulhu campaign. 

Specifically character's Dexterity as well as six boxes to be used to track reload rate for a character's black powder firearms. Whether you tick off boxes or write in what combat turn they expect to be reloaded and ready to fire. These boxes are intended to coordinate with the three sets of twelve boxes in the doc's footer. A regular combat turn is 5 seconds and so 12 turns gives you a minute. I usually tick off boxes for the character in question because sometimes their reloading may be interrupted before they finish.

There is a box for tracking decreasing Hit Points and Sanity while the usual lines are available for pertinent skills related to their combat capabilities. There will be a permanent link for the document on the "Summonings" page of the blog so you can come get it anytime. For those who frequent the BRP Central forum it will be up in the downloads section as soon as I can get it in there. 

Vanishing Tower Press now has a web site!

It is up and running, and will be evolving and improving as I go ahead and give my game stuff its own space.

Vanishing Tower Press will now be the only place to purchase PDF files of USR Sword & Sorcery, Horrors Material & Magic Malignant, Anthropomorphic USR, Fear & Loathing USR and Western USR.

The POD versions of USR S&S and HM&MM are still available on DriveThruRPG and the site links to the order page if this is the product you want. Purchase of either POD softcover book entitles you to the PDF as well so verifying your purchase with your customer number from One Book Shelf seems the simplest way to go for now.

At some point I will consider making a print run and sell the softcover books directly, but currently using a POD service is just the easiest way to go to get hardcopies printed and shipped.

The site will continue to see new adventure products added to the core rulebooks I've created.

Game On!

Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying is copyright Scott Malthouse and Trollish Delver Games.

Artist Call for USR Sword & Sorcery Complete

[EDIT: 11/19/2017] My post here is poorly stated. The artist get's paid up front from a successful Kickstarter. How I wrote it yesterday makes it sound like the artist needs to hope the book sells to get paid. No, no, no. The project only happens if I know the subcontractor is covered.

As I toil away on the Big Black Book of Sorcery for USR Sword & Sorcery I can't help but think I would like a nice hardcover edition of the game. And it would have everything in it produced to date; the core rules, the new supplement, plus the BBBoS as well as the double stack adventure pack I'm working on for more adventures in the world of USR Sword & Sorcery. It would be USR Sword & Sorcery Complete. 

So I want an artist. I want original artwork which pays tribute to the Ernie Chan drawing and inking which sucked me into Savage Sword during the seventies as well as the indelible stamp of Frazetta and Vallejo which defined the image of Conan to me as a teen. 

And I have no money so the artist who throws into this mad scheme would have to take 50% of profits from the completed work. How I see this working is I complete the text document, then an initial Kickstarter campaign to cover costs of printing and art (there is a local professional press - Gran Farnum) and then sell 400 copies to make a profit however small and call it good.

So if you would like to be the defining artist of USR Sword & Sorcery Complete contact me at your convenience @ +Jay Murphy. Two out of three books are currently complete and available for sale so text on the expanded magic and adventures is underway so by the end of January written content could well be done. Then layout, funding, and press!

The PC's Current "Party"

For my own reference here is a list of the characters which make up the Player Character's group in our Clockwork & Cthulhu campaign. The nominally secret (C)(l)ockwork (U)nderground (B)ureau's list of agents includes;

Zeal-for-the-Lord Harrison, Scoutmaster General NMA-Norfolk, and a major NPC.

Dr. Thomas Norton, NMA Physician, PC.

Ralph Norton, NMA Conscript, PC.

Guillio, NMA Mercenary, PC, and

Craigh, NMA Mercenary, PC (KIA) and replacement currently being rolled up!

The rest of the party consists of the NMA soldiers assigned to Zeal's company when they set out for Yarmouth. Here is the roster of the current living and combat capable NPC's;

Sergeant Francis Sherfield,

Will Drum,

William Frank,

Henry Worth,

Joseph South,

Jan Burkhunt,

Richard Van,

Tobias Bear,

Chris Deere,

Edmund Crew,

Jan Southworth,

Cuthbert Cobb,

Nicholas Tellman,

John Fanshaw,

Joseph Crooke,

Samuel Crooke,

Tom Shaw.

This is the roster of casualties since the company left Norwich;

James Bartlett (Wounded)

Sergeant Anthony May (KIA)

Randall Moelant (KIA)

Mathew Pedlar (KIA)

Roger Kely (KIA)

Thomas Williamson (KIA)

Roger Howard (KIA)

Chris Cox (KIA)

Character Death 3 in Clockwork & Cthulhu

It sure took long enough for the third PC death of the campaign. Craigh the Outlaw Scot looked where he shouldn't have looked and promptly disappeared like smoke up a chimney. The character's player left the character's choice up to a die roll. I don't know what contested roll against himself he settled on, but it was not the first time he had decided character action by a roll against probability. D100 of course, this is Renaissance.

The NPC body count has been gruesomely high during the game's run and at first the two earlier PC deaths seemed appropriate and fit the pace of my fiendish tastes. But man, there sure was a lag between two and three. Initial characters are robust due to a more generous damage mechanics than found in typical BRP games such as Call of Cthulhu and Elric! The chance for quick death does not punch in until characters are in negative Hit Points. Musket shot at 2D8 damage always pose the threat of serious shredding, but yes the PC's can take some punishment before Serious and Grave Wounds takes them out of the fight.

Of course in the world of Clockwork & Cthulhu horrid magic and weird creatures can exact quick (or lingering) death. And this was the situation for the scotsman Craigh. The mysterious hole had the words "Gaze Not" scrawled above it. So it was presented as threatening. It wasn't random, blam, you look in the room and then you are dead. The player had to make the choice. And I use these death puzzles sparingly. Suites the flavor of the game world; grim and deadly. I also make a point of sometimes fiddling with obscene things may work in the player's favor. I think it is a 70/30 mix. Seventy percent of the time you mess around with arcane forces you will get hosed while thirty percent of the time it will confer some advantage or vital knowledge.

USR Sword & Sorcery runs at TridentCon 2017

+Pete Segreti was one of the original playtesters for USR Sword & Sorcery and a fan of +Scott Malthouse 's rules-lite mechanics USR in general. This morning he had a full table make a successful run at the introductory adventure found in the rules Shrine of the Keepers!

Never has been seen a more blackhearted bunch of thieving dogs I say!

Pete posted about his experience here. It sounds like much pulpish reaving was accomplished. I wonder if the PC's don't mind leaving the city of Tizuk since their ill-gotten gains will find no buyers within the city walls...?

Further Reflections on Bladerunner 2049

This is Way Full of Spoilers...

.................

In an earlier post I stuck my thumbs, way up for the Bladerunner sequel. I have also viewed Razor's video film review and I can't say I disagree with him much, except while his criticism are valid, do not alter in anyway what a great movie the sequal is.

I felt the new movie was packed with subtext. That the ideas were so very big and so much was packed into this "slow" movie that any legit critique on the films visual product just doesn't distract from the movie's storytelling achievement.

Some of the obvious subtext packed into the visual narrative were the male car power symbol and the replicant Love's savage "womb" murder of the police chief's tightly bound emotional messiness. And none of that film noir voice overs to tell you what is going on or what people are thinking and feeling. The workmanship way the protagonist was hauled out of the skies by the garbage pickers in San Diego, loved it.

Visually yes the movie has stunning scenes, but as would be expected it is not so much the elements but the expert handling of space. Intense focus on the individual while moving through various layers of physical space from the claustrophobic to vertigo inducing openness. This never lets up. No matter where our main character finds himself there is always the pressure of the "other". Never does our hero feel alone, but at the same time completely isolated.

These are all boringly, maddeningly trite cliches fleshed out during early twentieth century literature. I think it was called "Modern" literature or some such. Sartre covers all this.

I like the fact that "every" current replicant is set up to believe they are the miracle child.

The very human police chief, she is awesome. Could have done without Deckard. Really, the time involved would erase his existence. The concepts being tackled could have withstood this earlier character's abscence. Shouting in the car, asking questions with no answers. Big fat rabbit hole.

The villain's answer to the paradox is simple and archetypal. Unmoving cosmic forces given the face of flesh. Good sci fi movie. I look forward to watching it again and letting it marinade in my psyche some more. And all this yes the criticism are all still valid and it doesn't matter.

Anthro USR NPC's

Here are the stats I've used for the NPC's the players have come across so far in our "side" campaign game;

CHROME Agents

A8 W6 E6 H5 S. Group Tactics +2A.

Combat Armor +3DR, Auto Pistol(ROF3).

Special Agent Scott Roger Scott

A8 W6 E6 H6 S. Fire Arms +2A, Investigation +2W.

Combat Armor +3DR, Auto Pistol(ROF3).

Capitol City Cop

A6 W6 E6 H6
Auto Pistol(ROF3), Handcuffs, Radio.

Willow Paiva

A6 W8 E8 H4 S. Candle Making +1A, City Knowledge+1W.
Backpack, 1/8 Weed.

Ava Gabrielle, MD(Animal)

A6 W8 E6 H6 S. Big Animal Vet +2W.

Two products deserving a second look; England Upturn'd, and Clockwork & Cthulhu

... or how I was wrong about two great game products.

I chimed in to Bryce Lynch's review of England Upturn'd  and agreed with many of his points sited. Then I found myself returning to England Upturn'd again and again during my Clockwork & Cthulhu campaign. Not only that, but I mentioned in game I thought the Clockwork & Cthulhu sourcebook from Cakebread & Walton was "a bit thin" in game to my players. I need to reassess these two opinions in light of the milage I have gotten out of these products for my BRP Cthulhu &  Chivalry campaign. 

England Upturn'd by Barry Blatt is still an adventure I would not run whole cloth, but very rarely do I use an adventure as presented so this should not be taken as a knock. The module does provide information on the political divisions found within English society during the civil war. As a "Yank" I am not well versed in the scope and sweep of the English Civil War and I think most people running a period piece game will find the description of the different "sides" in this complex and consequential war useful. Barry puts in enough to run you initial adventure. After this if your game continues you will want to pick up some real history. No adventure is going to give you, nor should it, a comprehensive view of this conflict. I believe some of my initial frustration with England Upturn'd was mostly my perturbation realizing I had to do some of my own research to run my campaign to my satisfaction. But what these 128 pages gives you are useful disease and weather tables, laundry list of useful NPC's, plenty of plot hooks and enchanted items, useful locations and maps, and art which puts forth the absolute brutal nature of the times. As a PDF the value is met and exceeded.

Clockwork & Cthulhu, yes it only clocks in at 159 pages but there isn't a piece of this book I have not used. My first impression of the three scenarios was meh, but I have gotten so much milage out of just one of the scenarios it is kind of ridiculous. Same for the mythos, bestiary and factions chapter. When you have had to tape the book together and it becomes heavily tabbed and highlighted, well, I find this the operative definition of "utility".

At the end of the day these two publications have given my campaign game an essential framework which I and my players have been able to embellish with our own ideas and given us all a "believable" world in which to run around in burning warlocks and demons and such. So if you plan on running a sixteenth century English campaign I recommend these two books highly for the Game Master.

Anthropomorphic USR AAR 3

Scheduled game of Clockwork & Cthulhu did not fire today so it was time for another edition of Yak n Ape with Anthropomorphic USR.

We started right where we stopped last time, with the PC's riding the subway out to the zoo. Willow, the candle maker they met on the subway, finally figured out the PC's were not human, but she stuck to her hippie values and offered to show them the way. The subway stop was a small station with few passengers and they were watching the late breaking Capitol City news. Some kind of explosion downtown, city wide blackout has occurred. Authorities are warning people to evacuate a specific area of Capitol Market, and the source of the explosion is unknown at this time.

The PC's quickly made themselves scarce and hurried down the night time streets of Royal Oaks to the zoo. They said goodbyes to Willow and scrambled onto the zoo grounds. They soon encountered the zoo's Big Game Vet Ava who was shocked to see her animals transformed so. She was sure Yak n Ape were two of the four animals stolen from her two weeks ago. The Yak exhibit was not so much being remodeled but the site of a crime scene investigation by Chrome and the Capitol City Police.

Ava takes blood and tries to push sedatives on them. She wants to knock the PC's out and call the authorities because she doesn't know what to do with talking walking genetically altered animals. The PC's are wise to such ploys so she eventually excuse herself and calls the cops.

Here the PC's get up and try to leave. Outside near the front of the gate two SUV's pull in disgorging locked and loaded dudes complete with ear mic and tactical assault weapons. Not heeding orders to stop the black ops agents light up the PC's with fire. But instead of bullets they are cut down by tranquilizer darts. They come to back in the vet's lab, but this time securely tied down. The PC's are unable to pass a successful test of strength to break free. Special Agent Scott Roger Scott is talking to an anxious Ava as his men load the PC's on board a van. The PC's are put under again after brief questioning and come to in a different facility being faced with Special Agent Scott again. He wants to know what the two of them have to do with the explosion downtown. Seems he has a small nuclear core meltdown under the streets of Capitol City same time these two clowns start choking cops in the subway tunnels. The PC's say yeah they know all about it. Saw the whole thing happen. This gets Scott excited. He is going to take the PC's back into the underground lab and show him where the meltdown occurred. He plans to get concrete pumped onto the leaking nuclear pile after the scene of the explosion is examined. He wants the city street paved over and traffice running within twenty four hours. Official line is a neglected gas main ruptured causing terrible underground destruction. Fortunately no loss of life had occurred due to the blast, but there where fatalities caused by the ensuing blackout.

The PC's are forced to suit up and enter the lab. After going over the complex it is apparent most of the on site hardware is cooked. CHROME science agents collect all the samples and data they can from the scene before the concrete pumping commences. Finding the burnt out nuclear hole is not too difficult. With the radiation signal and black pit and all. Scott was radioing in where to send the pumping truck when horrible tentacles reached out and attacked. A seething toxic genetic monstrosity, five tentacled in all, gropes for the ceiling above ripping stone and concrete in its slavering madness. Fifteen feet across with a gaping maw, it first grabs Yak but is unable to hang on. Yak sweeps the room with autofire after using his terrible powers of the mind to acquire the gun, but does not know how to operate a gun at all. CHROME agents have better luck and rip up the monster. Angered by the blinding poo of Ape the monster grabs Ape from the wall and swallows him whole. The Ape fights back and forces the beast to put back what it had just ate. A final blast from the agents and the beast lay dead.

The team was ordered to wrap it up and head back to CHROME HQ here in Capitol City. With the nuclear waste being buried it was time for Scott to try and get answers out of Yak n Ape and what he is actually looking at. The operation or perhaps the facility is referred to as “Central”. What it is and what it wants are two questoins Scott wants answers to. For their corporation he could promise safety to the PC's, safety from those who altered them. The PC's were skeptical about any offers of safety on their behalf and wanted to know if they could make a phone call. Scott agreed and Yak called Willow the hippie candle maker down to Chrome offices and corroborate his story. She was kind of shocked to hear from him, actually Yak was shocked I wanted to role play this, but yes I did so Willow would try and get down there during her lunch break. Here I called it because I did not know what should happen next. Feel free to offer suggestions which way the campaign should go. I like to offer various avenues players can choose from. Scott wants to run down Central, he has the PC's so starting a hunt for their target would be in order. Maybe that is enough for initial adventure material?