Sixie, Frobisher, George, and Dora

[Polar Bear]

Two adventures down, about six more to go (give or take a few) in "season one."

Sixie's in his blue coat and therefore not as abrasive as he could be.  Frobisher you already know.

George Newman is a 28-year old ex-con from 1926 Chicago trying to go straight, being helped by the Doctor.

Dora Singletary (may have that wrong) is a 14-year old from 1974 who impressed the Doctor with her resourcefulness during a run-in with the Cybermen.  Her rather unconventional, un-schooling parents, upon realizing the Doctor would give her a better education than they could, sent her off with him for the school year.

In their first adventure, I used Misterharry's "The Anti-Claus," taking about two hours.  It was all kinds of wonderful.

For their second adventure, I used Starkllr's excellent "Games of Chance."  It took about three hours.  I got a little lost at the end and had to improvise a bit--there were too many variables floating around (aliens, mobsters, a magician, the MacGuffin, the PCs, and more), and my 44-year old short-term memory couldn't hold all of them at once like my 16-20 year old short-term memory was able to.  Sigh.  We all got there in the end, but it tells me where my weakness is.  I successfully set up "Part Two" of the adventure, 

Next week, my Sixie player will be gone, so we'll run an inside-the-TARDIS adventure by Etheruk, "The Foot of Omega," that uses the Doctor as an NPC, "on the way" to the "Part Two" story.

The following week, we'll run "Part Two" of Starkllr's story, "The Death of the Astral Queen."

Following that is "Cat's Eye," to focus on Dora, a character who otherwise runs the risk of being neglected (the player is only 11).  Then, a few more (which I'll post about as appropriate), and we'll end the "season" with Misterharry's "The Wrath of Rassilon."

This is just a ton of fun, I have to say!!

[Polar Bear]

I've decided to end the season not with Wrath of Rassilon, but instead with The Whitsun War, moved to 1975. It's easier to tie in.

Now, I want to end the Death of the Astral Queen "episode" by having the Doctor PC declare that things have become too dangerous for the 14-year old PC, and he's taking her home for her own protection. Is there any way to manage that? (I'd been planning on doing it while he was gone, during Foot of Omega, but his plans changed, canceling that episode.). The following week, though, they'll play Cat's Eye, which will convince the Doctor to keep Dora with him after all. But how to set it up? That's the question.

[Polar Bear]

I didn't run any game at all yesterday; I postponed it. After talking it over with my wife last night, we decided that next weekend, she'll take eldest son (Doctor PC) off, and I'll run Foot of Omega.

[Polar Bear]

Two write-ups at once. I've fallen behind.

The players for Frobisher, George, and Dora took about one-and-a-half hours going through a slightly simplified "The Foot of Omega." It was a fun-filled adventure, definitely played for humor, with slags being destroyed in every way possible: rolling down snowy mountains, walking through lasers, sinking in swimming pools, etc. All comic relief, all the time. If I had one complaint, it would be that there ended up being far too many Coordination + Athletics rolls, and there should probably be a better mix. (Now, this could also just be the rooms I happened to roll, but it was pretty consistent.) But we had a great session.

The kicker I threw in at the end--one they were completely unprepared for after all that humor--was that I had Sixie (controlled as an NPC for this adventure, of course) announce Dora's upcoming forcible departure. The players were, as I'd predicted, stunned. I quickly fell out of NPC mode and into "Dad" mode to assure my 11-year old that I had a plan and that I was not, in fact, going to simply expel her carefully-worked-out character from the game, but that I was indeed going to put her through the wringer a bit; she was just going to have to trust me that everything was going to work out eventually.

Nervous grin in response. Heh, heh.

[Polar Bear]

This weekend, I ran the first half of "Death of the Astral Queen," taking 90 minutes to get them to their first encounter with the Sontaran Hounds.

The PCs varied between sullen and bickering, George and Frobisher not wanting to argue with Sixie (you know how he gets!) but nonetheless strongly disagreeing with his decision to ditch Dora following the events of "The Foot of Omega." They role-played the tension well (especially the player for George, who seems to "get" this role-play stuff unusually well) and they found it interesting how it got in the way of their teamwork, noticing that fact on their own without my having to point it out.

As you know if you've read or played it, "Death of the Astral Queen," despite occasional comedic elements, is extremely tense, and ratchets up the tension several times consecutively. Crucially, Frobisher only got a "Yes, but" result on Ingenuity + Subterfuge when disguised as a guard to escort the others on a search through the engine room, with the consequence that one of the guards escorted them through the entire facility. (He ended up becoming an ally, eventually.)

After they'd realized exactly what they had to accomplish and what their options were, I gave them the option of stopping there or going on about another ten minutes (as we had to prepare for a guest). Those ten minutes gave me the chance to introduce the Sontaran hounds. The illustration I found impressed the players, the gruesome death of NPC Peter Black nearly traumatized poor Dora, and mere fact that the Doctor hadn't known Sontaran Hounds existed forced the Doctor into a rare moment of humility. And then came this line of dialog from the Sontaran Hound Master: "Well, it looks like that inferior scum wasn't a Rutan! But these hounds will sniff out any shapeshifter aboard this vessel, no matter how they're disguised!" You should have seen my Frobisher player shrink in her chair...

Raising the stakes? Why yes, this episode does that in spades. I let the players retreat to the Henedrellis' room to think, and then I ended the session. To solve all the problems module writer Strkllr has given them, they'll need the whole week.

[Polar Bear]

Wow, soooo much happened...

1) A friend from Boy Scouts joined us, taking Richard Feynman, Ph.D., previously an NPC, and using him as a PC.

2) The PCs decided how to save the Astral Queen. After several difficult rolls and many story points spent, it worked. No spoilers, as many future players may well go through that module in the future. But they made it.

3) To-Me, a Henedrelli scientist, pulled the tech. bracelet off of Peter Black's wrist and set it down. George, unfortunately, had been in the restroom when this happened (!), and when he returned, he thought the bracelet looked pretty awesome, and he tried it on. It turned out that the bracelet forms an immediate and permanent isomorphic lock. He's stuck with it for the foreseeable future. The good news is, it's the teleport bracelet from the Aliens and Creatures box set. The bad news? He has no clue how to use it. The Doctor and Frobisher will have to teach him over the next several months. So now, he has a character arc! Ta-da! He also managed to pick up a babel fish (as seen in the most recent Diary of the Doctor).

4) The big reason I did #3 so that that PC wouldn't get jealous of all the things I was doing with Dora! Here we go... As the players made their way through the hallways toward the TARDIS to get some necessary materials, they ran into a group of Sontarans and a Sontaran Hound. They recognized the Sixth Doctor, told him not to interfere with their plan, and kidnapped Dora as "insurance," telling them they'd release her in one hour if he complied with their non-interference demands. Off they went up an elevator shaft.

What could our crew do? Not much! They had 10,000+ people to save, and a strict deadline. On they went to the TARDIS, where they built the necessary gadgets, taking about 20 minutes (Doctor time) and made their necessary rolls; then, they ported back to To-Me's room. There, they were stunned to find Dora, who had escaped from the Sontarans! The Doctor rather quickly shoved her into the TARDIS, which he'd surreptitiously programmed, and it disappeared, off to 1974. George, infuriated, tried to jump the Doctor, but the player rolled a 3 on his attack and the Doctor rolled an 11. George ended up flat on his face and had to endure a browbeating lecture from Sixie about how it had given him no pleasure to trick Dora like that, but she was fourteen, and he wasn't sure if he would be able to save ten thousand lives today, but if he was going to die, he wanted to do so knowing that he had at least saved the life of a fourteen-year-old child whose parents had trusted him to keep her safe. (Good job from my 16-year old son on that speech! Very Colin Baker moment.)

The TARDIS regenerated. And there was a knock on To-Me's door. It was Dora. And all hell broke loose. After quite a bit of confusion (especially from the player character, who didn't know what was going on, either!!), the Doctor went up to her and read her mind via contact-range telepathy. He discovered (a) yes, this was the real Dora, and (b) her captors may have looked like Sontarans, but based on the electrical crackling in the background, she had actually been taken captive by Rutans. And Sixie did the world's biggest face palm as he realized that he may have just sent a Rutan to Dora's parents back in 1974.

This was the point at which Dr. Feynman told the Doctor, "You know, Doctor, sometimes you're an absolute idiot."

5) After saving the Astral Queen, they reboarded the TARDIS. Sixie apologized to Dora--who said it was fine, since she had no memory of his having tricked her anyway--and promised never to try to send her away without her say-so again. But he said that this adventure showed once again that she needed protection. Therefore, he was going to give her a protector. (And I handed a sheet to the Sixth Doctor player under the table.) "Dora, this is for you," said Sixie, as my 16-year old handed my 11-year old the character sheet for K-9 Mark III. Not only could have heard a pin drop in that room, you could have treated her mouth as a hole on a mini-golf range. Finally, she uttered a weak "Thank you," and I told her that she'd get to control both characters from now on. (Several months from now, when Dora outgrows the adventure, they'll drop off K-9 with Sarah Jane in 1980 or so. And you always thought is was the Fourth Doctor who'd done that!)

6) They tried to go to 1974 Whitsun, England, Dora's home, to track down the Rutan, but on the way, the TARDIS misbehaved, so they ended up in a dilapidated hotel in 1974 London instead. We ran about 1/4 or 1/3 of the adventure Cat's Eye, the main changes being the year and the addition of a 14-year old NPC, Lucy Forte, who was Dora's best friend in Whitsun before she ran away. As of now, she has a mysterious affliction and can't communicate, but they'll figure out their way through that soon enough.

We started at 1 PM and finished at about 3:30, if you can believe it...

[starkllr]

I'm thrilled that you got such good use out of my adventure, and I loved your write-up - thanks for sharing it!

[Polar Bear]

You're very welcome, Starkllr! We loved the module!!

Today, we ran the remainder of the adventure "Cat's Eye." I randomized the six vignettes via die roll and ended up running four of them, with only minor modifications.

The scene "The Villain Revealed" creeped them out wonderfully, and they had some trouble figuring out how to get K9 out of there at a reasonable speed, as they refused to abandon him. No spoilers--which is actually really difficult--but those who know the adventure will be pleased to learn that Frobisher, to help solve the problem, turned into a miniature elephant, the better to make use of the pool.

The kids had a hard time figuring out the final solution to the puzzle, eventually having to spend a story point to have Peter, the head of the homeless colony, point them in the right direction.

The best thing about the module, though, was the way in which it grew from creepy (first 2/3) to intense ("The Villain Revealed" scene), but then made a hard left turn into "zany fun" for the remainder of the story. I'd have liked a little more detail from the module writers on that final portion, perhaps a two vignettes fully written out, but despite my initial self-doubt, I was able to improvise all right after all, and we had a great time, with one of the kids pronouncing this adventure "the best one yet."

It was a little tricky having K9 there, as he's so powerful, so for the sake of game play, I had to say that his sensor array wasn't working at peak capacity due to the high humidity. Otherwise, it would've made things too easy for the players, and consequently not as much fun and leaving less of a sense of accomplishment at the end.

At the resolution, Dora and her best friend Lucy were reunited and got several hours to get to know each other again. After that, Lucy decided to return home, but as she was unwilling to take the TARDIS, her friends at the Majestic agreed to make sure she got there, and they did have an emergency "cash stash" they agreed to use for the purpose.

The crew got back into the TARDIS, and the Doctor tried once again to go to 1974 Whitsun. This time, the TARDIS seemed to bounce off a "wall" in the vortex, and it came out c. 2150 AD Earth, on board a rather Victorian-styled airship. The Doctor immediately recognized that this did not match what Earth should look like in 2150, and they must have arrived in an altered timeline.  (Anyone recognize the module?)

Cue closing credits...

Oh, and this session lasted 1 PM to 3:30 PM again.

[Polar Bear]

Catching up from several weeks of not posting updates.  Sigh.

Okay, so three sessions back, I ran "Pirates in the Sky," a module found in a recent Diary of the Doctor (#20, IIRC).  Writing up stats took a bit of prep time, but it was worth it.

I declared that the TARDIS had trouble materializing and that they were "stuck" neither materialized nor traveling for fifteen hours.  But I opened with my laptop blasting out Abney Park music, saying it was coming out of George's newly-acquired wristband--apparently, a transmission was coming from the site where they'd landed.  Once the Doctor managed to turn the volume down, the PCs had time to sleep, eat, and learn a few lessons (in George and Dora's cases, anyway).  Then, the actual adventure began: the TARDIS crew exited aboard a dirigible flying pirate colors and approaching another blimp.  The battle was swift and one-sided, with the pirate crew swiftly overpowering the other ship before the Doctor's group could even decide what to do.  Captain Robert Brown, noticing the adventurers, pressed them into service and, before they could object, they became part of the boarding party.

The main crew of pirates, it turned out, were also musicians, and they used their dirigible as a radio station--hence, the music on George's wristband.  The pirates searched for cargo, and found ... a hundred orphans, guarded by a dozen nuns with steam-powered gatling guns.  "We only want what's best for the children," Mother Superior assured the pirates, who naturally deferred to her superior presence.  She accepted their apology and, oddly, invited them to dinner.  Even more oddly, the pirates accepted, giving me an excellent opportunity for an info dump.

The PCs were able to take the lead in the dinner conversation, managing to determine several key pieces of information about the sisters' mission.  They're bringing the orphans to a city where there are apparently hundreds of parents waiting to adopt them, which is wonderful, since so many other cities have an overflow of orphans.  (More to be typed later, I hope later today.)

[Aerzyk]

Don't know if you're still running this, but I've enjoyed your write ups (& your Vortex files). Thanks!