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Post by JohnK on Feb 4, 2010 16:14:23 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, I *loved* the game write-up for this week, and can hardly wait for the next session and all, as well as a written up Scenario Seed of this one. I could definitely get into this one, and it looks pretty cool so far. Have some Karma, mate. I see what you mean about the group having difficulty coming to grips with the Story Points stuff. Have you gone over the different ways that they can use Story Points with them? (I found that this helped both my Friday and Sunday groups, and it might be worth considering.) It seemed to me that there was plenty of opportunity for the players to use Story Points here and there, to be honest, so like you said, it's still a matter of their coming to grips with that. I like the way that you ended the session, even though I could easily see why it was delayed 'cause of all the stuff that the players were doing. That said, I can see the Cybermen definitely coming as a surprise to the players next session! Got a question for you... Have you statted up all the Scholars and the students? If so, would love to see these at some point. Again, well done, mate.
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Post by The Professor on Feb 4, 2010 17:07:35 GMT
Another great write-up as always N&V. Entertaining and Karma-rific!
I also share your concern with player use of story points. I've gone over the possible uses for spending and gaining points but have seen little use beyond spending them for dice rolls.
Though it could have jut been that half the group was exausted for various reasons. Hopefully this weekend's session will see more creative use of points.
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Post by Kit on Feb 4, 2010 22:16:56 GMT
Good stuff
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Post by JohnK on Feb 5, 2010 15:31:05 GMT
Hullo, Professor, <snip> I also share your concern with player use of story points. I've gone over the possible uses for spending and gaining points but have seen little use beyond spending them for dice rolls. I really think that the use of Story Points is something that it takes some players more time to get a handle and feel for. It might help if perhaps you ran a sample situation with the players of using Story Points. That was one of the things I did with my two groups.
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Post by ugavine on Feb 5, 2010 15:58:27 GMT
I've just read through your adventures and you really do sound like your group is having a blast! A great read too with some great idea.
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Post by Null and Void on Feb 5, 2010 16:08:53 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, I *loved* the game write-up for this week, and can hardly wait for the next session and all, as well as a written up Scenario Seed of this one. I could definitely get into this one, and it looks pretty cool so far. Have some Karma, mate. Thank you sir. I have gone over it with them, but I think I'm going to have to go over it again. Maybe I'll copy those pages from the book and hand them out to the players so that they have a handy reference guide. They'll come around, I think. As a matter of fact, I have statted them up, in a loose sort of way. Its a lot of characters to post though... I'll figure something out if there is interest though. Ultimately, the number of NPCs was high because I needed several to fulfill certain rolls. Hero, Victims, Red Herring, Villain, and one extra in order to milk some pathos.
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Post by JohnK on Feb 5, 2010 18:04:49 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, I *loved* the game write-up for this week, and can hardly wait for the next session and all, as well as a written up Scenario Seed of this one. I could definitely get into this one, and it looks pretty cool so far. Have some Karma, mate. Thank you sir. Think nothing of it, mate. Always a pleasure for an effort well done. I have gone over it with them, but I think I'm going to have to go over it again. Maybe I'll copy those pages from the book and hand them out to the players so that they have a handy reference guide. They'll come around, I think. That sounds like a pretty cool way of doing it. I would love to have a copy of those pages pertaining to the Story Points in PDF form, but still... I agree with you that they will come around to this way of playing, but it does take time. The more I run the game (admittedly only four full sessions of game now), the more I see how central a mechanic the Story Points are. I like the way that you ended the session, even though I could easily see why it was delayed 'cause of all the stuff that the players were doing. That said, I can see the Cybermen definitely coming as a surprise to the players next session! Got a question for you... Have you statted up all the Scholars and the students? If so, would love to see these at some point. Again, well done, mate. As a matter of fact, I have statted them up, in a loose sort of way. Its a lot of characters to post though... I'll figure something out if there is interest though. Ultimately, the number of NPCs was high because I needed several to fulfill certain rolls. Hero, Victims, Red Herring, Villain, and one extra in order to milk some pathos. Yep, I agree with your reasoning here. Are the characters statted in computer file? If so, you could just send me the file at my e-mail address. But I can understand if you might be loathe to do so. That said, I really do want to see them.
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Post by Null and Void on Feb 18, 2010 16:06:58 GMT
Just a quick note... I've not actually fallen behind or given up on this... The game for the last two weeks has had to be cancelled, first due to the weather, and then next because half the group had family obligations to attend to. With any luck, next week will see a return to form. I want to thank Kit, Ugavine, and The Professor for all their kind praise, and JohnK - I'll see if I can get you that file sent with the character data. I may have misplaced the jump drive with that on it though... Oops.
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Post by JohnK on Feb 18, 2010 16:49:46 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, Just a quick note... I've not actually fallen behind or given up on this... The game for the last two weeks has had to be cancelled, first due to the weather, and then next because half the group had family obligations to attend to. With any luck, next week will see a return to form. Yes, I know the feeling. My Friday night group has put in two sessions of "The Spores of Death" so far, and I am totally deliquent in posting stuff up, but have had a few other things on my plate for the nonce. I want to thank Kit, Ugavine, and The Professor for all their kind praise, and JohnK - I'll see if I can get you that file sent with the character data. I may have misplaced the jump drive with that on it though... Oops. Thanks, mate. Looking forward to seeing that stuff. Gods, but I love this game!
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Post by The Professor on Feb 18, 2010 20:56:29 GMT
Just a quick note... I've not actually fallen behind or given up on this... The game for the last two weeks has had to be cancelled, first due to the weather, and then next because half the group had family obligations to attend to. With any luck, next week will see a return to form. Completely understandable. TW6 has been regulated to a twice a month game, which is alright with me as it gives me a bit more prep time. Though I am behind no posting the past two sessions. Probably gonna have to lump them together (And hope I remember the details )
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Post by Null and Void on Feb 25, 2010 19:17:08 GMT
So, FINALLY, we got the next session under our belts. It ended up being a strangely short session though. I'm not 100% certain as to why, except that perhaps we got a late start, maybe? I'll admit, I didn't look at the clock.
At any rate... We picked up after the explosion in the pyramid. The players picked themselves off the floor and took stock of the damage. Scholar Revlan Rix and Senior Student Dexlan Brek were dead. Student Securi Mig had her leg trapped under fallen rubble. Everyone else had cuts and bruises, with Nathan being the most badly injured of the TARDIS crew. Aleistair and Jack managed to find a lever and hefted the rock off of Securi's leg, only to discover the injury was quite horrific and she was in need of immediate medical attention.
Scholar Prime ordered the remaining Scholar, Tamlan Boy, to radio for a medical pickup. The hypersonic medical transport arrived in a short time and evacuated them to the nearest Hospice, where everyone could receive medical attention. Bill decided to focus on finding Aleistair a date (for some reason) and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down. Meanwhile, as Nathan received treatment, Jack and Aleistair spoke with Scholar Prime and Tamlan Boy about what could have happened. According to the scholars, the Data Excavator should have been entirely passive in its operation, and could not have triggered any sort of automated security systems. They were at a loss to explain what could have happened. Scholar Boy suggested the possibility that it was a militant faction of the FNL that might have sabotaged it, pointing to a spy in the dig.
Bill finished up breaking the encoding on the datapad that Nathan had stolen from Student Ishlan Pak. Inside, there were numerous tracts and manifestos for the FNL, and also a data stream where he'd been sending all the information that the expedition had uncovered. Bill turned this over to Nathan, and Nathan, Jack, and Aleistair debated about whether they should involve themselves in the local politics. Eventually, the deciding factor for Nathan was that two people had been killed, and he himself had ALMOST been killed, so he brought the datapad to Scholar Prime Soonyi Dayce.
Dayce and Boy were somewhat disturbed by this revelation, and called for everyone from their expedition to be brought to the conference room so she could confront Student Pak. To everyone's surprise, Student Securi Mig ALSO arrived... walking under her own power. She complained however that she would never be able to perform gymnastics again, which had been her passion. She revealed that her injured leg had been replaced with a cybernetic replacement.
The Scholars confronted Pak, while Bill attempted (ineptly) to intimidate him into a confession. Student Pak finally admitted his involvement with the FNL, but denied any accusations of sabotage. He didn't know where the data was being transmitted to, but admitted he was supplying it to the FNL. Bill was able to trace the receiving point of the data to a building outside of the University (called Alpha). No one knew what the building was.
Nathan suggested that the only way they would know for certain whether Pak was responsible for the sabotage would be to return to the site and see if anything could be salvaged from the Data Excavator. Scholar Boy agreed with this and pointed out that there might be firther evidence of FNL involvement to be found among Pak's belongings at the base camp. Scholar Prime was convinced, and arranged for Pak to be held in one of the security cells at the hospice, and then the rest would return.
Nathan confided in the rest of his crew that he thought Scholar Boy had agreed too quickly with him about returning to the site. (Don't ask me why, I don't know either.) The others decided he was being somewhat paranoid, and told him that if he was concerned about Boy, that he should keep an eye on him.
Getting ready to leave on the transport, Nathan spied Boy emerging from an area of the Hospice marked 'Restricted Access', and had Aleistair provide a distraction for him, in order to delay the departure of the transport and to allow him to sneak into the restricted area. Meanwhile, Jack and Bill simply got on the shuttle, unaware that anything unusual was taking place.
Nathan noted that in all of the rooms here, there were people recovering from cybernetic replacement surgeries. As he penetrated deeper into the wing, he found an operating theater, and peeked inside, where he saw an operation taking place being overseen by... CYBERMEN! Now, Nathan's character comes from a time where the Cyber Wars were still going on, and several attempts by the cybermen to conquer the earth had been averted, so he knew full well what they were.
He fled the wing, with several cybermen in pursuit, and got to the transport shouting at them to go, and go now. Scholar Prime was confused, and didn't seem concerned when she looked out the window and saw the Cybermen standing in the terminal staring at the hatch of the ship. NEvertheless, she ordered the pilots to take off. Both JAck and Aleistair had heard of the Cybermen, and NAthan's panic wasn't making things any easier. The Scholars and the Student didn't seem particularly concerned about them, and explained that the Cybermen were their allies... They had arrived a number of years ago, and had provided the people of the Sphere with advanced cybernetic grafting techniques in order to save people lives and limbs, and offered voluntary conversion to those who wished it.
The seemingly magnanimous and non-military nature of the Cybermen's presence didn't sit well with the crew, who immediately assumed that they were up to something else. Jack suggested that whatever they were doing might be related to the pyramid, and the things in the pyramid, but no one could fathom what.
The cliffhanger, was one provided by the players themselves, rather than one by me. Their speculations about what the cybermen might have been doing there got them thinking about the population of the Dyson Sphere, and how low it was compared to what it actually could house. JAck made a terrifying connection when he realized that cybermen wouldn't show up as life forms on a scan... Could the Cybermen have already converted most of the rest of the population of the sphere? The players became terrified of the prospect that there could be trillions upon trillions of cybermen inside the sphere, not showing up on the TARDIS scanners.
They are wrong, but I thought it best to leave them with a thought that truly terrified them. NExt week, they return to the dig, get to confront more cybermen, and possibly make the acquaintance of the FNL.
Notes: We were all out of sorts and out of practice after nearly three weeks away from the game. It required an extended recap to remind everyone of what was going on, and all the tiny little details that they'd uncovered. Story Points are still a sticking point, but I didn't expect that problem to go away quickly.
What I found interesting in this, while there wasn't a great deal of action, is the discussions between the characters concerning how deeply they should get involved. Initially, they had decided to try and stay out of local politics, but that gradually changed. Then with the discovery of the Cybermen's presence, The first reaction of NAthan and Aleistair was to get in the TARDIS and leave immediately. However, when Jack began speculating about the numbers of Cybermen that might be present, there was a slow understanding that came over the characters that they had an obligation to stay and prevent the threat from turning outward from the Dyson Sphere.
There was even a brief discussion of genocide, when Bill suggested they find a way to blow up the star at the center of the Dyson Sphere (She was looking at it in a typically mathematical way... she's not particularly good with people and has trouble knowing what is considered appropriate and what isn't, so it was well within character for her to suggest something like that.) This was quickly dismissed as an option by the others, as they tried to get her to understand the moral angle of the issue.
All in all, a slow session, but with some really good interactions among the players.
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Post by Null and Void on Mar 8, 2010 20:05:30 GMT
Err... ok...
So, we finished off the adventure this week, in a somewhat strange manner... The players declared victory and left before the threat was fully contained. I'm left a little bewildered by it, truthfully. On the one hand, they DID deal with the most immediate threat. On that level, they were successful, I suppose. On the other hand, there were some massive flaws in their logic, that could undo everything that they did.
I'm not going to penalize them, because obviously, they reached a conclusion that made them happy, and they enjoyed it. However, The Silver World may have to be revisited in the future....
When last we left our band, they were fleeing from Cybermen in the hospital, and making their way back to the excavation site. The scholars were unconcerned about the cybermen, and continued to maintain that they were allies of the people in the Sphere. Once onsite, Scholar Prime, Scholar Boy, and Student Mig began to try and recover pieces from the Data Excavator, trying to determine whether the explosion was the result of deliberate sabotage or accidental.
Nathan was convinced that there was a traitor in the group... his suspicion falling on Tamlan Boy, since he was seen exiting from the Restricted area of the Hospice. However, he couldn't prove that it was him. He asked Aleister to use his omnicom to scan for the presence of cybernetics, and although Aleister did detect that there were some, he could not narrow it down to specifically WHO. Jack took this opportunity then to use his empathy to try and gauge peoples emotional responses as a guide to who might be compromised. Bill, on the other hand, was more concerned with the machine she had found on their first visit to the pyramid that she had dubbed 'Harvey'. She vanished into the interior of the machine soon after they arrived, and kept attempting to activate the controls, with no real success.
Meanwhile, Jack had been questioning Scholar Prime Soonyi Dayce and Student Securi Mig. It was his opinion that both of them were responding normally to his 'Voight-Kampf' style testing... He then went to question Scholar Tamlan Boy, however before he could, Boy announced that he'd found evidence that there was another signal buried in the Data Excavator, and he believed that was what caused the activation. Perhaps convieniently, he said he was able to connect it to the FNL... no one was able to disprove him, because no one understood the data as deeply as he did. He was happy to help them try, however... (above the board, he was stalling for time, for what would happen next.)
The players also noted that there was no damage whatsoever to the machine where the explosion had occurred. They were puzzling about this and noted a peculiar ring-like structure around the end of the machine closest to the most damaged area. Nathan discovered a similarity between the dust they had found in their first visit, in the 'ore-carrier', and the debris that was left from the explosion. Aleister speculated that perhaqps this device was one that pulverized raw materials, converting them to a more transportable form. They envisioned thousands of these machines, all travelling about the solar system of the Dyson sphere, crushing any asteroid, comet, and planet in it in order to convert it to raw materials for use in the construction of the sphere.
The emotional response test forgotten, the players focussed on trying to decode and trace the 'signal' Boy had found... and so they were unprepared when a group of 12 armed cybermen came into the Pyramid and demanded that they remain still. Scholar Boy approached them and said that he could give them the activation codes for the machine, as instructed, and the Cybercontroller ordered 2 of the cybermen to prepare tha machine for lift off.
He explained then that the Cybermen had been too few when they had come to the Sphere years ago, and so they had insinuated themselves in as 'allies' to the local population, providing them with advanced cybernetics through which parts of the population could be controlled, and playing on the fear of death and the offer of immortality in cyber form in order to coax people into fully converting. However, with the discovery of this device, the balance of power had shifted, and they could use this as a weapon to literally force cyberconversion to the greater part of the populace at gunpoint. They just need to demonstrate the power of the device.
While the cybermen prepped the ship, Aleister managed to surreptitiously and temporarily reprogram his omnicom (via jiggery pokery) to blast out a short Cyber-jamming signal (essentially, a one shot 'screamer' trait).
Bill missed this whole thing and climbed out of Harvey, and on seeing the Cybermen, tried to sneak around them. She failed miserably. When the Cybermen ordered her to stop, she panicked and ran, causing the cybermen to open fire on her. She *nearly* got hit (story points helped here). However, her acting as a target provided the perfect opportunity for Aleister to activate his jammer, and he and the others fled... with the exception of Student Mig, whose newly converted cyber-leg was also susceptible to the signal.
At that very moment, help came from an unexpected quarter. People had suddenly appeared in the hole that had been blasted in the side of and started lobbing bombs down at the cyberment. Not aq group to pass up an opportunity, the players fled out the hole while these people gave them cover. The escaped to a waiting transport with Scholar Prime and the newcomers, under fire from the cybermen.
This new group were members of the militant wing of the FNL, who, acting on the information leaked to them by Student Ishlan Pak, had come to attempt to blow up the devices that had been found inside the pyramid... instead, they found the cybermen already there and overheard their plan.
The players and the FNL retreated to try and come up with a plan. Their likenesses had been released as 'terrorists' and they were being actively hunted. In an FNL safehouse, they began testing their options. Somewhere, the idea came up to use the power diagnostics that they had gotten from the archaeologists shortly after they arrived. It showed that the feeds for power to the entire sphere was transmitted from power transfer stations orbiting the star. They also reasoned that if the power relays were housed there, there might be controls for the automated spacecraft there as well. The difficulty was in getting to the platforms, because the locals no longer had the space travel capabilities to reach there.
Jack was reasonably confident that he could pilot the TARDIS in realspace to the platform.
So, their problem, as THEY delineated, were three-fold; Stop the cybermen from using the newly liberated Asteroid Pulverizer from attacking settlements, stop the cybermen from escaping in their own cybership, and stop the existing cybermen from recharging.
These problems they answered in the following order... once they arrived at the Power Transfer station, they shut off all power to the populated section of the Sphere to stop existing cybermen from recharging. They set it to stay off for period of 7 days... Err.... yes. I'm not sure where the 7 day number came from. I'm also not sure they considered that by turning off the power they were effectively shutting down communications, emergency services, hospitals... I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be a patient on life support when they did that. However, they were caught up in the moment, and having fun, so I decided not to spoil it for them by pointing this out.
Then, they used the automated controls to redirect the asteroid pulverizer into the star. Fair enough.
And, for a final flourish, they discovered that 'Harvey' was, in fact, and anti-gravity crane system. Using the automated controls, they programed it to seize the cybermen's original ship and lift it up... then used the same system to direct ANOTHER asteroid pulverier to crush it. Then they landed the ships, and put another, more complicated lock on their automatic controls to prevent anyone from doing what they had just done again...
...and then patted themselves on the back and left.
*cough*
Their reasoning was this... the cybermen had begun broadcasting their intentions to the whole population and had threatened to use the pulverizer to wipe out large portions who did not report for mandatory cyberconversion... therefore the human population would rise up against any remaining cybermen, and since the cybermen couldn't recharge, they would be doomed. So, they didn't need to stick around to see it out to the very end.
So, there were some very large holes left in the situation. They assumed the remaining cybermen couldn't recharge, and that 7 days would be long enough to 'starve' them. They assumed that the people could defeat the cybermen on their own. They assumed the power would come back on at the time they programmed it for. They assumed that no one would be able to break their code for the Sphere builders machines.
Now, I'll admit that there are episodes of the show that probably made as much sense as this, so I'm willing to let it go. But I think they are going to get a return trip here to see the aftermath of their 'saving the planet'. Certainly, I think the Doctor might have somethign to say to them, if he ever shows up... (*foreshadowing* Did it work?)
Anyway, this week takes them to 2004 New Orleans, and the Sea Devils. We'll see how that goes.
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Post by JohnK on Mar 9, 2010 16:08:06 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, Well, that was quite an...interesting...end to the scenario, to be sure. As you said, the adventure certainly did finish in a strange manner, and I could certainly have seen the scenario going another two sessions or so. Still, I rather like the whole scenario, and this session of it certainly was interesting. Good job! Have some Karma on me, mate. Note: As you can see, I finally started posting up the material on the second UNIT game adventure that I'm running. So far, so good, just takes time to remember to transcribe stuff to computer, and then post on-line.
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Post by Null and Void on Apr 7, 2010 15:15:04 GMT
Eek... its been awhile since I posted. Sorry about that. Real life and all. And a couple of rather poor game sessions that I pretty much blame myself for, since I didn't get as much prep time as I wanted and ... well.. I got lazy.
The TARDIS crew decided to hop forward 100 years to see how the Dyson Sphere residents were getting along, however, they ACTUALLY materialized in what they discovered was 2005 New Orleans. The city was slowly coming back to life, and the crew decided it was time for a vacation. Well, some of them did. JAck put forward the idea that maybe the TARDIS was taking them to places that they could find items to help repair it. What no one could fathom though is what they were expected to find on 21st century Earth in the middle of the French Quarter.
While looking for lunch, they came across a jazz funeral, and stopped to watch. Aleister snapped a few pictures with his omni-comm, which got him an interested look from the manwho seemed to preside over the procession. A man dressed very much like the voodoo loa Baron Samedi. However, they were distracted when a man rushed by them, running into NAthan and dropping a book. He paused briefly, and but then, looking up at the strange man in the parade, turned and ran with a terrified expression on his face. JAck picked up the book, and discovered it was a cheap paperback copy of some H.P. Lovecraft Stories, and there were lots of highlights, underlines, and marginal notes scrawled into it.
Once the funeral passed, they sat down for some lunch at an outdoor cafe, and Jack glanced through the book, trying to understand what it might be about. They noted that the man had seemed terrified, but Nathan suggested it wasn't really their problem. Shrugging it off, they left the book on the table while they ate, and were surprised when the same tattered man came rushing out and stole the book back. Jack gave chase, thinking there was something more going on thatn met the eye, and Aleister and NAthan followed.
Just as they were about to catch up, several men came screeching up in a van, and jumped out. These were massive men, wh grabbed the vagrant roughly and threw him in the back of the van (but not before he dropped the book again). Jack confronted one of the men, bluffing that he was police, and while one of the men gave up, the one driving the van took off, taking the ragged man with him.
Continuing the bluff, JAck threatened to arrest the man, and then cleverly began throwing names out that had been in the Lovecraft book. He stated that the police were very aware of Cthulhu and that unless they released the man they had kidnapped, they were going to shut down their cult. The man's eyes widened as he spoke, clearly recognizing the names, and clearly being terrified by them. However, rather than surrendering, the opposite occurred... he took a swing at JAck and then used the diudstraction to escape.
Despite all this, Nathan still wasn't convinced that this was any of their business, and decided to take Aleister out to see some 'Hot Jazz' in a local bar. While they enjoyed drinks (a few too many for Aleister) and the music, Jack sat engrossed in the book, and learned that whoever had been writing the notes in it (presumably the man who had been kidnapped) thought that the events of the stories were real, and noted both cults and monsters in the swamps. Leaving NAthan behind, JAck began to help a very unsteady Aleister back to the TARDIS to sleep it off, but as they entered the alley near where it had landed, they found themselves confronted with several members of the gang/cult that had abducted the man with the book... as well asked their makeup masked leader.
The leader was quite casual... almost friendly to them. He fixed Aleister with a look and said in a quite conversational tone: "You... have some very interesting technology. But I feel the need to remind you that the Time Agency has no jurisdiction here."
(Don't ask me why they don't. It was an improvised line. I'm sure I can come up with some semi-legitimate sounding reason.)
HE went on to recommend that they leave the place, and seemed to punctuate this suggestion with a veiled threat. He snapped his fingers and two more of the cultist emerged from the shadows and dropped the ragged man on the ground in front of them. Then the cultists and their leader retreated into the darkness. As he was leaving, the leader called over his shoulder... "For what its worth, I didn't kill him. Technically."
Jack and Aleister quickly looked at the man, and discovered he was quite dead. Frozen in fact, and still covered in frost. They hurried to take him to the TARDIS where they met up with Bill, who had gotten lost in the maze of corridors (discovering, in the process, that the ship was capable of changing the layout of its rooms, and was apparently doing so.)
They took the body to a medical bay, and after sobering up Aleister, examined the body. The man seemed to have been subjected to subzero temperatures and frozen very quickly. He was most definately dead. The only unusual thing they found was a peculiar energy signature they couldn't identify... until Nathan returned, and he remembered seeing the same sort of signature (thanks to his Photographic Memory) related to the Weather Control technology that was on the moon in his time.
Armed with this knowledge, a device for detecting that energy signature, and the dead man's wallet, they went out to investigate further. The started at the man's apartment. He lived over top of a voodoo shop. Nathan went upstairs to look there, while the others decided to talk to the owners of the shop. From there they were able to discover that this cult, calling themselves 'The Krewe of Starry Wisdom', had appeared a few months ago, and since that time there had been a lot of violence and death associated with them. The man in charge was called Pere Malfait by the locals, and given a wide birth. They also said that his brand of voodoo wasn't like any other, and seemed to involve the fictional creations found in the writings of HP Lovecraft... except for the frightening fact that he seemed to be able to make the fictional real.
Upstairs, Nathan found that the man had been obsessed with this cult, and had hundreds of pages of notes about them, plus photographs. One of the photographs was given special consideration, as it had a blurry shape circled in marker on it... something tall and reptilian. Also, among the notes, NAthan found a rough map to a location in the bayou where the krewe met.
The players headed out to the bayou and found the spot where the cult gathered. There were faint traces of the energy signature present here, and one spot looked like all the plant life had been killed in a heavy frost, despite it being the middle of August.
Deciding to wait and see what happened, they concealed themselves in the surrounding vegetation and waited for the Krewe to arrive at night. And arrive they do, amid torchlight and and a palpable sense of anticipation...
And then Pere Malfait arrives, along with a chest that he has set next to his 'throne'. The cultists dance wildly about, apparently much to Malfait's amusement. The players decide that now would be a good time to check for the energy signature...
*PING-PING-PING-PING-*
Yep, its present, but unfortunately, their detector alerts the cult to their presence. They are roughly hauled out of their hiding spots and dragged before Pere Malfait, who once more, seems more amused to meet them than concerned. After they try and bluff him by claiming to be Time Agents, he once more reminds them of their jurisdictional restrictions, and asks if, instead, they want to join the bidding?
They agree to this almost immediately, and only think to ask afterwards exactly what they are bidding for, and who they are bidding against... and how much its going to cost them. Almost on cue, the waters of the bayou begin bubbling and up rises a contingent of fierce looking reptilian creatures... Sea Devils!
Malfait introduces them as 'Deep Ones' (but spares a wink to the players, clearly using the term for his own amusement.) and the Krewe cheer and dance.
The leader of the Sea Devils, Ssindar, approaches and demands to know who these new comers are. Malfait sits back and says that they are also interested in the merchandise. When the Sea Devil accuses him of not honoring their bargain, Malfait simply shrugs and reminds him that the Sea Devils are late in delivering their payment for the 'item', and felt it was in his best interest to 'widen the field' a little to insure he gets what he wants.
The players, still playing the bluff even though they don't have a clear idea of what is going on, demand a demonstration of the 'item' to 'reassure them that it is in working order.' Once more, Malfait is amused, clearly having fun that they are 'playing along' with his game and agrees. From the chest, he pulls out a device of exceptionally advanced technology... and after making a few adjustments and operational corrections, uses it to build a storm over top of them, and then directs a lightning bolt from the storm to strike a tree.
The players are impressed. The Sea Devil remarks that they must have the device, and, in classic villain form, proceeds to explain his plans for the device. They will use it to create a hurricane 100 times more powerful than Katrina, and send it against New Orleans, and up the Mississippi river, destroying all the human habitations, flooding the area for hundreds of miles (essentially sinking southern Louisiana) and creating a beachhead for a Sea Devil invasion.
Pere Malfait seems bored with this and asks what the players are willing to bid. The Players, in turn, asked Ssindar what his payment was supposed to be. He responded that there was a rare element, found only in undersea ruins... it was once known as orichalcum. He had promised 5 pounds of this metal in payment.
After a short discussion of what they could offer in return, Aleister finally promised he would match the Sea Devil offer, with 5 pounds of it as well. Pere Malfait's smile got a bit wider and he declared that the auction had now become a race... whoever could bring him the 5 pounds of orichalcum first would win. The players ran... heading back to their TARDIS. Meanwhile, they found themselves pursued by Sea Devil warriors, trying to stop them.
After some short chases and the dodging of sonic disruptor beams, the players made it back to the TARDIS, and Jack was able to tell them that orichalcum was a legendary metal that is commonly found in the tales of Atlantis. Aleister set the controls of the TARDIS to go back in time to the era Atlantis was supposed to have existed (And a LARGE expenditure of story points by ALL the players made it happen.)
They find an island that is currently in the throws of a volcanic eruption. People are fleeing and panicking as the island crumbles underneath them. The players manage to set the TARDIS down in front of the Temple of Posiedon, and JAck and Bill run outside. Jack manages to avoid the falling rubble and retieve a piece of the orichalcum cladding that covered the now crumbling columns, while Bill takes pictures.
They quickly get back inside and are able to park the TARDIS is 'Temporal Orbit' while they try and work out the rest of their plan.
Aleister examines the orichalcum and realizes he knows it by a different name in the 51st Century. Enthium. (I drew a blank when trying to remember what it was called in my notes, and so spontaneously made it up. This term was based on the 'Nth' metal from the HAwkman comic books.) Enthium was used to make certain critical circuits in Vortex Manipulators by the Time Agency.
The players began to speculate that Pere Malfait was a time traveller, and was somehow trapped in the 21st century, and needed the metal to repair his time machine. Which is actually completely accurate. So, they decided to give him the metal, but 'booby trap' it. Using the labs in the TARDIS, Aleister and Bill were able to create an alloy of the Enthium, that resembled the real thing, and would be detected as such by some basic scans, but which wouldn't function correctly. Armed with this, they returned to New Orleans...
Several hours had passed since they left, and they realized there was a chance the Sea Devils had retrieved the metal of their own. They raced back to the bayou, and presented Pere Malfait with the metal, just as Ssindar and his warriors were arriving. MAlfait pulled out a device, and made a quick scan of the metal (as they had expected) and then cheerfully told them the device was theirs now, and they could have fun dealing with a very unhappy Ssindar. He turned and ran.
Ssindar was furious at this turn of events, feeling he had been cheated and dishonored. He ordered his warriors to attack and seize the weather manipulator. In the ensuing battle, most of the cultists were gunned down by Sea Devil weapons, while Aleister and NAthan worked to try and get the device functional. Bill, armed with a sonic screwdriver and a teenage belief in her own immortality, managed to destroy Ssindar's weapon, but was knocked for a loop by his massive clawed hand. But that was all the time they needed... they set the device to create an intense,local ice storm, and then overload.
They grabbed Bill (or rather, Aleister, overcoming his cowardice grabbed Bill, while Nathan, despite his Brave trait, ran) and managed to get to safety before the device finally exploded, after freezing the entire area, including the Sea Devils, solid.
A quick search for Pere Malfait didn't find him, but they had fun speculating on what might happen if he used the tainted metal in his Time Machine. They returned to New Orleans and spent the next couple days enjoying some relaxation there, as well as using some left over Enthium to help repair some of the TARDIS' circuits... perhaps the TARDIS IS bringing them places where they can find items to help fix it...
This is a couple weeks worth of adventures, and it actually reads better than it played. Still, the players had fun, which is the important part. I think they are finally starting to get the hang of story points... at least in how they can send them. They are gradually working out what they need to do to EARN them.
This week: Hallowed Ground.
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Post by JohnK on Apr 7, 2010 20:07:34 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, Sounds like it was a pretty good, fun two weeks of DW: AiTaS gaming, and I am going to rip off this scenario with your kind permission (and perhaps the game stats for the various characters and beasties and all)? Loved this one. Have some Karma.
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Post by Null and Void on Apr 8, 2010 12:21:50 GMT
Feel free, and of course, feel free to patch up the plot holes, because there are a lot. And thanks for the Karma.
As for stats for the NPCs and beasties and everything... well... odd thing. I pretty much used the Stats for Silurians as they appeared over in the Aliens thread, only dropping the third eye and increasing their strength by one.
But as far as Pere Malfait goes... I didn't actually stat him up. I mean, I had a basic idea of what he was capable of, but I never actually formalized it by writing it down. And his personality actually changed completely once I started roleplaying him. I'd originally conceived of him as a grim, no nonsense, evil villain... but when I started playing, I think I realized somewhere that this was a guy who was pretending to be a high priest of cthulhu summoning Deep Ones. There's no way he would take himself seriously.
So, he became a playful sort of villain... not so much evil, as just very self centered and amoral. Looking back on it, I suppose I played him the way most Time Agents have appeared to be...
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Post by JohnK on Apr 8, 2010 15:47:11 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, Feel free, and of course, feel free to patch up the plot holes, because there are a lot. And thanks for the Karma. You're welcome for the Karma. As for my own write-ups, I've fallen somewhat behind due to Real Life(tm) as well as having to work on the writing and playtesting of my two DW: AiTaS scenarios for CanGames in May. Out of curiosity, what did you consider to be the plot holes in the scenario? As for stats for the NPCs and beasties and everything... well... odd thing. I pretty much used the Stats for Silurians as they appeared over in the Aliens thread, only dropping the third eye and increasing their strength by one. I figured that you had used the stats for the Silurians from the forums, although to be honest, I'm not sure that those are all that reflective of them, given that I had re-viewed that serial and "Warriors of the Deep" about three weeks after they were posted, and was somewhat unsure they reflected what I saw in the episodes. That said, I hope the Aliens and Creatures supplement introduces a new series of Traits and the like, 'cause there's definitely some in need to do Silurians up properly there. But as far as Pere Malfait goes... I didn't actually stat him up. I mean, I had a basic idea of what he was capable of, but I never actually formalized it by writing it down. And his personality actually changed completely once I started roleplaying him. I'd originally conceived of him as a grim, no nonsense, evil villain... but when I started playing, I think I realized somewhere that this was a guy who was pretending to be a high priest of cthulhu summoning Deep Ones. There's no way he would take himself seriously. So, he became a playful sort of villain... not so much evil, as just very self centered and amoral. Looking back on it, I suppose I played him the way most Time Agents have appeared to be... Interesting view on Malfait. I really liked the Deep Ones approach, to be honest, but that said that fit the concept of the whole New Orleans business. Any chance of discussing this in PM or personal e-mail in terms of the whole Malfait business?
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Post by Null and Void on Apr 8, 2010 17:17:01 GMT
Ah, plot holes... Well, what I was unprepared for was the actual unwillingness of the players to get involved. It actually took a whole session of basically hitting them over the head to even get them remotely interested in what was going on... ending with the clumsy and ham-handed confrontation in the alleyway with a dead body literally dropped at their feet. Looking back, there needed to be something more blatant and obvious to engage the characters. Something that made it clear to them that there was a greater threat. The death of the ragged man (who never got a name) was sort of a blunt instrument. I made a half-hearted attempt to explain the death as being the sea devils being allowed a Test Drive of the device and took it out on him. The dealings with the Sea Devils could have been a lot more involved, but it didn't seem that the players were interested in that either. As one player noted after the session, they never figured out what had woken the Sea Devils in the first place... which was a fair comment, as I never considered that in the first place! As for the stats... as I said, I didn't get enough time to prepare/was lazy. Its been decades since I've seen anything with the Sea Devils or Silurians in it, but I also knew that the same was true with my players, so they wouldn't notice any great differences between what they saw onscreen and what they encountered. It was a little bit of meta-game cheating. I'll be glad to talk to you about Malfait in PM... By the way, the name Pere Malfait isn't actually his, it was just what was given to him by the local voodoo groups. They never found out his real name.
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Post by JohnK on Apr 9, 2010 14:46:20 GMT
Hullo, Null and Void, Ah, plot holes... Well, what I was unprepared for was the actual unwillingness of the players to get involved. It actually took a whole session of basically hitting them over the head to even get them remotely interested in what was going on... ending with the clumsy and ham-handed confrontation in the alleyway with a dead body literally dropped at their feet. I've had that unwillingness to get involved in a couple of scenarios that I've run of other game systems, but have yet to experience it in DW: AiTaS. The time will come, methinks. That said, perhaps the best way to get the characters involved when they don't want to be involved (other than hitting them over the head with the proverbial hammer) is to appeal to their character nature and their Traits. Given that you know the player characters, how would you have done it that way in retrospect? Looking back, there needed to be something more blatant and obvious to engage the characters. Something that made it clear to them that there was a greater threat. I think this again stems back to how one approaches the scenario from the player character perspective. The threat that they have to deal with does need to be made obvious at some point to the characters, but sometimes the use of their own Traits and background material can do this as well. The death of the ragged man (who never got a name) was sort of a blunt instrument. I made a half-hearted attempt to explain the death as being the sea devils being allowed a Test Drive of the device and took it out on him. The dealings with the Sea Devils could have been a lot more involved, but it didn't seem that the players were interested in that either. As one player noted after the session, they never figured out what had woken the Sea Devils in the first place... which was a fair comment, as I never considered that in the first place! To be honest with you, players in any roleplaying game aren't necessarily going to find out what motivates the villains or what caused the creatures/beings to awaken from their ocean layer in the first place. It may not be necessary to the plot, although I guess the GM should usually have a good idea of this. I'll be glad to talk to you about Malfait in PM... By the way, the name Pere Malfait isn't actually his, it was just what was given to him by the local voodoo groups. They never found out his real name. Good stuff. Sent you a PM on this already. We'll chat there about some stuff in a bit more detail. Thanks for the great write-up.
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Post by Null and Void on Apr 12, 2010 17:01:34 GMT
The player of Aleister requested (in return for Story Points) that he wanted to be taken hostage in the next story. Fair enough, and easy enough to do. I'm glad he's starting to see more about how these things work. The player of Nathan is considering using some of his to buy a gadget of some sort... But on with the show... The TARDIS leaves New Orleans as the usual arguement erupts among the crew. Some crew think that Aleister has absolutely no control over the TARDIS at all, and that whereever the end up is completely random... possibly chosen by the TARDIS itself. Aleister however insists that he CAN pilot the ship and decides to demostrate. He calls for the Nathan and Jack to pick a place and time. Any place and time, and he will pilot it there. Nathan opts for viewing Halley's Comet, and wants to see it on a close approach of the Sun. So, Aleister sets the coordinates for just inside the orbit of Venus at an appropriate year, and materializes. To Nathan and Jack's astonishment, the TARDIS does appear exactly when and where they were supposed to. Opening up the viewscreen afforded them a spectacular, close up view of the comet... ... maybe TOO spectacular. Nathan realized it was getting markedly BIGGER. Aleister had put them right where they wanted... which was unfortunately right in the path of the comet. Acting quickly, Aleister dematerialized just before the impact, and set the coordinates to spinning. Once he got it back under control and materialized, they opened the viewscreen to see trees. While the console's chronometer was burned out by the dripping condensation from a cold drink, they were at least able to determine WHERE they were. The had materialized on the planet Cheem. Jack looked up Cheem in the TARDIS databanks, and was less than thrilled with the prospects of the place. Nathan and aleister we're curious about the natives, however, which were described as peaceful, sentient trees. They left the TARDIS and found themselves in a warm, slightly damp forest. A path was nearby and they followed it, eventually finding their way someplace that resembled a village, but was clearly not. A stone cottage sat at the edge of a lake, and there were dozens of Cheem wandering about, going about their daily business. They didn't seem to have houses as such, but there were clearly some stone fixtures that seemed to be work areas and markets. One of the Cheem approached them and asked if they were here for the meeting. aleister cheerfully agreed, earning him nasty looks from Jack and Nathan, who weren't clear on what the meeting was supposed to be for. The Cheem, named Mir, escorted them to the cottage and had them provided with fruit, and told them that 'Kode' would be with them shortly. When he had left, the arguement broke out about what they were doing and hoping to accomplish, but before they could agree to anything, a Cheem woman appeared, flanked by two bodyguards. She introduced herself as Kode, and welcomed them to the planet, and further stated that she hoped their negotiations would would out to the advantage of both of them. Jack apologized, and explained that there had been a misunderstanding. They were merchants, he said, but had come here hoping to trade, and knew nothing about the 'negotiations' that Kode spoke of. Kode was momentarily taken aback, but was gracious, and asked about what they were trading. Thinking quickly, Jack recalled the wardrobe in the TARDIS and told her cloth and clothing! The trees seemed to believe them, and extended to them their hospitality. At Nathan's urging, Kode explained the nature of the guests they had been expecting and the negotiations that were going on. The forest, explained Kode, had no interstellar ships of its own, and they were hoping to trade some mineral rights on their planet for several ships they could study, and perhaps even begin exploring with. They had no real understanding of metals and computers as such, but hoped that they could use some of the principles used in the ships to engineer biological ships that they could use. The prospect of living ships fascinated Nathan. Kode offered to show them around, and then proceeded to walk them through the 'village' and introduce them to life among the cheem. The 'cottage' had been built for the comfort of the guests they had expected. The negotiators were late however, and the trees were slightly concerned. Aleister asked them who they were negotiating with, and Kode told them it was the Interstellar Mining corporation. They continued to speak of this while Kode led them far back into the forest and showed them the most wise and ancient members of their race... trees who had lived for a thousand years or more, and who had taken root in this part of the forest. This place was known as The Grove of the Ancestors, and the wise council of these trees were sought in the most important decisions. Jack learned a little of the history of the trees, finding out that they were genetically engineered based on some of the trees from Earth, and developed sentience. They had come to Cheem and had flourished, away from the bio-engineers that had first created them. Kode now asked if she could see their ship, as no one had noticed it arrive, and the players agreed. They took her back to the TARDIS, and despite Kode's skepticism about the size, allowed her inside. She was awed by the machine, and noted quite frankly that it was alive and communicating to her on a certain level. She began quizzing them about the ship and its history, hoping to gain some insight into the workings of it for her own people. As they spoke, a warning light activated on the console, and Nathan turned it on. It was indicating that a ship was entering the atmosphere, and he told Kode that he thought her guests had finally arrived. He turned on the viewscreen to look at the ship, and they were all surprised to see a very VERY large ship coming into the atmosphere. Jack recognized the type as being older than the ones from his century, but this one seemed ancient. It was burned, pitted with microasteroid impacts, and looked almost worn out. Jack thoguht that the size of the ship indicated something more than a mere diplomatic mission. Nathan quickly traced the path of the ship, and discovered it was coming down into the woods beyond the Grove of the Ancestors, and warned Kode of this, who immediately rushed out, back to her people. The crew hurried after here, and watched the ship come down hard. The glow indicated that there was fire in the forest, and Kode began to organize a 'bucket brigade'. However, when the crew announced their intention to go to the ship, she told them she was coming with them... also coming along was Mir and one of the bodyguards, named Fen. They rushed to the Grove and then out to the small valley the ship had landed in... they saw that it had cut a swath through the forest, and left a number of small fires burning around it. Jakc declared it had to be an invasion by IMC, and quickly came up with a plan to bluff them, by posing as a rival business interest (human agents of the Thoros Beta corporation, actually). They then moved down next to the ship. The hatch on the side opened, and a ramp slid out, and in a moment, the players and their tree allies watched the inhabitents of the ship roll off.... Mechanoids! The Mechanoids rolled up to the group and seemed to scan them. The lead mechanoid said something cryptic that seemed to be in binary, and appeared to wait for a reply. It repeated this twice. Aleister boldly stepped forward and indicated that they needed a code of some sort, and that he'd have it for them in a minute. He held up his omnicomm, and began to scan the robot... Until the robot shot a mechanical arm out of its body and grasped his wrist. A second removed the omnicomm, which disappeared into the robot's body as the thing began to drag Aleister toward the ship. The other two mechanoids advanced. Fen jumped in front of Kode and became snared by one of the mechanoids arms. Nathan tried to help him, but before he could, a buzzsaw emerged from the body of the robot and cut the brave tree down. Narrowly avoiding being caught by the third mechanoid, the other fled back to the lip of the valley and looked down at the mechanoids which seemed to be beginning to gather raw materials to build a colony. Jack's history was able to tell him that these were automated robots, programmed to build a colony in expectation of the arrival of Humans, but clearly this was a rogue ship. So, they looked on in horror as the mechanoids began cutting into the forest. Meanwhile Aleister was put into a room on the ship... nicely appointed, but very very locked. And, that was the cliffhanger. the story went along well enough I think. The players were charmed by Kode and the cheem in general. I was missing a single player (Bill) who was declared to be still recovering from wounds suffered at the hands of the Sea Devils last session. About the best compliment I could get about this was the IM I got from Jack's player the next day. He'd had a dream that night that he was being attacked by Mechanoids. Apparently, something made an impression.
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Post by chickenpaddy on Sept 2, 2010 5:49:40 GMT
Nice transcripts. This is just the experience I want if I ever run a game. Though, it's been a while since you're last post. Any more interesting adventures, or did you game go ka-poot?
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