Archive for May, 2008|Monthly archive page
Comments (2)A Tabletop Trip into Phlan V: Battle at Kuto’s Well
Filed under: D&D | Tags: campaign, dungeons and dragons, phlan, ruins of adventure
Leave a Comment Upon mooring their boat at the docks in New Phlan, Wolf, Phillipe, and MacTavish (sorry Marc!) were immediately arrested by the Phlan City Guards as possible spies from Zhentil Keep (when three sketchy guys in a rowboat show up at 3AM it’s a logical guess). After being interviewed by a cleric of Tyr in the morning and their story confirmed, they were freed to return to Nat Wyler’s Bell for some much needed rest.
There, they discovered that Beck had apparently got more than just a few bruises from his fight with Raymo, and had transformed into a rampaging werewolf the previous night. He leaped through the window of his room with Vola in hot pursuit and had not been seen since.
They also met up with Aeryn, who had returned from wherever she had been (she wasn’t forthcoming about it). Aeryn had a plan to recoup the party’s fortunes and pay for a cleric to restore Phillipe’s tongue: venture into the slums to Kuto’s Well, a major source of fresh water in the Old City, slay some bandits rumored to be frequenting the area, and steal their loot. The party agreed, not least because Aeryn bought them new weapons to replace the ones they had lost at Sokal Keep.
And so, the next morning, the intrepid adventurers ventured west through the slums to Kuto’s Plaza, where Kuto’s Well stood. As the party investigated the Well, Phillipe, hoping to spread Talona’s diseased blessings, tossed a vial of fungus he had collected at Sokal Keep into it. Immediately, the party was swarmed by kobolds, who had been watching them from the nearby houses. The situation looked bad: not only was the party outnumbered, but more kobolds were climbing out of the well to join the fray. MacTavish winged one kobold with an arrow and the angry yipping creature chased him around the plaza until the cleric of Tempus felled it with a mace strike. Wolf tried to throw a kobold into the well, but the little guy wriggled free and stabbed him. Eventually, the party triumphed, though Phillipe was badly hurt ( but not badly hurt enough to stop him from further attempting to desecrate Kuto’s Well with his bodily fluids).
After healing Phillipe, the party investigated the Well. They discovered that there were rungs along its sides leading down, explaining how the kobolds had come up. They tied a rope around Phillipe, and the cleric of Talona tried to climb down the rungs. Unfortunately his heavy armor made things difficult and he lost his grip and plummeted into the water. Had it not been for the rope tied aroud Phillipe’s waist, Bob probably would have had to roll a new character. As it was, the party struggled to pull him out and Wolf actually fell into the Well in the process.
Once everyone was safe and dry, the party explored the houses surrounding the plaza, finding little but debris and the kobolds’ bedding. They picked a defensible house and rested for the night, planning to decide what to do next in the morning. The party’s rest was briefly interrupted by another party of adventurers attempting to get water from the well (the dwarven paladin Bassana and her friends), but the two groups avoided combat and decided to rest together for added security. Tomorrow, they would have to decide wether to explore the Well, or continue deeper into the Old City…
Campaign Design Journal: Theory to Practice
Filed under: Battletech | Tags: Battletech, campaign, design, SLDF, classic battletech rpg
Comments (4) I hadn’t actually forgotten about the Battletech campaign…it was more of a question of coordinating schedules so that I could get four players and get said players together to make characters. We ran through the character generation process several times. One thing to be said for CBTRPG is that its character generation system can be pretty fun. Your character’s history gets revealed step by step, and then you have the task of putting all the little details together when you work out your final stats. Of course you also stand the chance of needing to buy off some major character flaws (Combat Paralysis and Lost Limb are two of the biggies), but them’s the breaks.
The final group consisted of three ‘Mech pilots (Scott, Bob, and Dave), and a tank commander (Rich). Rich’s tanker was the only officer, which led to some interesting dynamics when we actually played our first session last night.
There’ll be a full writeup on that session later, but this is the place to comment on the mechanics of actually running CBTRPG with Classic Battletech. For the most part it flowed fairly well, in part since many of the players were new to both systems and thus didn’t come into it with preconceptions. I liked using the Tactics: Mech skill to determine initiative: it gives a leg up to the better trained commander and has more of a feel of two commanders jockeying for advantage. The PCs starting skills generally translated to poor CBT equivalents (4s), but the fact that the battle took place around fixed emplacements and in mostly clear terrain largely compensated for it.
The major issue was using both sets of rules simultaneously, a problem which occurred when Rich’s character was separated from the group and fighting on foot while the rest of the party attacked in their ‘Mechs. The duration of a round doesn’t quite match up between CBT and CBTRPG and I had to improvise to keep things flowing (generally about three CBTRPG combat rounds to one CBT round).
On the whole, things went pretty well and the first session served as a decent intoduction to both systems. The next game will be more roleplay focused, so we’ll hopefully be able to explore the possibilities of the CBTRPG side of the system more fully.
Battle at the Boone Homestead
Over the weekend I participated in the Revolutionary War encampment at the Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro, PA. This was the big British Brigade event of the year, and we had over 600 defenders of King and Country in attendance to fight the Rebels.
That’s a view of the sutler’s part of the encampment, with miscellaneous tourists. The red patches of ground in this photo are in fact two-foot deep seas of mud – it rained virtually the entire time from when I arrived Friday to when I left Sunday. Thankfully there was a four-hour break in the weather for the tactical.
The Loyal American Regiment waiting in ambush for the Rebels to come marching along the bridge that’s just beyond these trees. We spent most of our time on the extreme right of the British line, taking potshots at the enemy.
It would appear that we attracted some attention.
One nice thing about being light infantry is that after you’ve done enough harassment, you get to sit back and watch the Regulars do their thing.
Multiply this line by about 100 times, and you can imagine how impressive a real 18th Century battle would look.
This is also sort of how it would look, if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time like these guys.
Us and von Prueschenk’s Jaegers waiting in the wings to snap up stragglers and screen for Rebel light infantry.
A timeless feature of re-enacting: teaching your significant other to fire a musket.
A Tabletop Trip Into Phlan IV: The Battle for Sokal Keep
Filed under: D&D | Tags: D&D, hobgoblin, humor, mom insults, orc, phlan
Comments (6) Having recuperated their strength at the Temple of Tyr, Wolf (Scott) and CoT (Marc) were ready for a second try at clearing Sokal Keep. But first, they needed help. Aeryn, Beck, and Vola were unavailable. Bishop Braccio provided an extra hand by giving them charge of a halfling caught looting the temple (we had a new player who wanted to try D&D). They picked up a further party member in Phillipe (Bob, trying a cleric after the demise of Jerkxes), a mild mannered but strangely menacing cleric of Talona, whom the people of New Phlan were eager to get out of of town before his goddess of plague noticed them.
The four took their boat to the island and continued their explorations, noting as they landed two columns of smoke rising from the Old City…possibly signal fires. Searching the barracks, they were confronted by the bound spirits of the keep’s garrison, which terrified CoT and the halfling so much that they fled to the courtyard. Wolf held his ground and attempted to communicate, but was unable to communicate until he used one of the mysterious words from the parchment the party had found in the last episode (he wasn’t sure which one). The haunts begged him to free them from their eternal garrison duty, and one led him to a loose floorboard under which was stored a gemstone wrapped in diary pages describing the fall of Sokal Keep.
The party moved on and prepared to enter the main Keep building. Just as they did, a column of Orcs marched through the open gates of the Keep. vastly outnumbered, the party rushed into the entryway they had found and barred the door. A party of five orcs and a hobgoblin officer was soon attempting to batter its way in while the group hastily checked out two of three possible exits: an old chapel and a seemingly-empty armory, neither of which they explored in detail.
At this point, the orcs battered down the door and two of them leaped inside, only to be cut down instantly by Wolf and Phillipe. The remaining three orcs prepared to follow them, but were stopped by their CO who ordered them to attack at range with javelins. The party were sitting ducks in the narrow hallway, and were soon forced to abandon it, conducting a fighting withdrawal to the chapel as more orcs and hobgoblins arrived on the scene.
At this point, the halfling made a rookie mistake. Rather than retreat to the chapel with the rest of the party, he fled via the unexplored third exit, which turned out to lead to the old officers’ quarters and a hungry Cloaker. All too soon, the Cloaker had engulfed the halfling and the party now had to deal with both the Orcs and the monster. Indeed, a second squad of Orcs had already entered the hallway. Bravely, Phillippe leapt into the entryway and struck down the Hobgoblin officer with the power of Talona via Inflict Critical Wounds. After he brained an Orc with his mace, the rest of the squad fled outside as Wolf moved through to engage the Cloaker.
As the Hobgoblin officers tried to rally their Orcs for another assault, the party tried desperately to slay the Cloaker and rescue their Halfling. Unfortunately, their efforts to kill it also harmed the hapless thief, and he died before the Cloaker could be killed. The monster then turned on Wolf, who ran for the chapel with the rest of the party, who by this time had retreated there and locked the hallway door. There they waited, used the last of their spells, and prepared for the next attack.
It was not long in coming. Guided by the cunning of the Hobgoblins, the Orcs launched a two-pronged assault, one group breaking down the hallway door and the other coming through the officers’ quarters. This second prong ran into trouble when the Cloaker attacked it, but the monster had been badly weakened by the party and didn’t last long. The three remaining party members were now dealing with eight Orcs and a Hobgoblin. The clerics fell one by one. Only Wolf was left fighting the three remaining Orcs, and his strength was not enough. After cutting down a final foe he sank to his knees in defeat.
Phillipe, CoT, and Wolf awoke to find themselves prisoners of the Humanoid war-party, who had spared them in hopes of learning how to end the curse on Sokal Keep and claim it for themselves. A Hobgoblin officer tried via threats, blows, and stilted Common to get them to read the diary pages they’d found, but the party refused. Philippe punctuated his refusal with an unfortunate comment about the Hobgoblin’s mother, who responded by cutting out his tongue and using to make a tasty stew for the rest of the party.
Eventually, Wolf managed to free himself and the rest of the party, and under cover of darkness they reclaimed their boat and returned to New Phlan, poorer but still alive.
Quote of the Evening:
HOBGOBLIN (having kicked the crap out of Wolf and CoT): You read this!
PHILLIPE (tied and helpless): Why bother? It’s just a list of guys your mom <charming description deleted for brevity>
HOBGOBLIN: …….
From the Workbench
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ghoul queen, grenadier, miniatures, painting, reaper, wererats
Comments (2) What a crazy week…haven’t had much time to paint, cook, OR post. But I did get a few things done:
An empty suit of armor from an old Grenadier “King’s Court” set. I found it when I was cleaning out the basement over Christmas.
Cleric of Tyr. This is another old Grenadier mini I had acquired back in my early gaming career and then painted (badly). This is the much-improved modern paintjob.
A pair of shifty wererats from Reaper. I thought the key on the floor by the guy on the left was a nice touch. Maybe it opens his secret cheese closet.
A squadron of Star Blazers EDF Torpedo Destroyers en route to their date with destiny at Pluto.
Ghoul Queen from Reaper. I did some modification to reduce her spininess, and I think it worked pretty well. She is evil. Hot, but evil.
Up next…the Phlan party returns to Sokal Keep and the Narn and League face off in Ope’diar. On a night when I’m less tired.
The Second Battle for Defiance: Centauri vs Narn
<static> “…hold your fire. We are a commercial passenger ship carrying civilians. We are not armed. We <static>…”
Recompiling data burst. Error Rate increasing by 27%. Compensating for lost packets.
“This is the HMS <static>… to any Centauri ships in the area. We are under attack by the Narn. The vessel has identified itself as the Kal-Berr. I do not know how much longer we can hold out. By the great maker, please, no…” <static>
Transmission ends:
******
Prefect Socinus’ vidcomm chirped. He looked up from the after action reports on the main screen of his desk. “What now?” he grumbled, glad for the respite from the mind-numbing reports.
He turned and saw it was Pro-Consul Elishaen Garinus, and stabbed the “talk” button. “Good morning Pro-Consul.” Socinus said as pleasantly as he could. At the same time he silently commed his adjutant, Aduitor Melinor.
“Good morning Prefect, I wish I had time to exchange pleasantries but something has happened I felt you should be aware of immediately.” Socinus glanced at his adjutant as he entered and then back at the screen. “Please go on.”
“Less then an hour ago a civilian convoy came under attack by a Narn Bin’Tak, the Kal-Berr. While the lives of all citizens of the Centauri Empire are of equal importance, this particular convoy contained a ship carrying the son and grandchildren of Consul-General Valentin. Needless to say he is extremely distraught over this.”
Socinus looked at his adjutant again. “Get the Primi Pili.” He turned quickly from his position near the door and disappeared to find him. Looking back at the screen Socinus said, “Please continue Pro-Consul Garineer.”
Elishaen cleared his slender throat. “It appears that not all the Narn in your area were eliminated. The following communiqué indicates that a single Narn warship survived your stunning success at the Schatzman Jump Gate within the Defiance Star System.”
“Yes Pro-Consul.” Silence fills the void as both men contemplate a response.
“Your task force has performed admirably thus far and I have no doubt you’ll continue to do so.” Socinus thought for a few seconds before softly saying, “Thank you Pro-Consul. What do you want me to do to stop them, Pro-Consul Garineer?”
Elishaen Grainer’s face took on a hard edge, “Whatever you deem necessary Prefect. Exterminate the Narn from this system. Leave no quadrant of space untouched. Avenge the lives of those lost to the immortal void.”
“And thus guaranteeing no single force here in Defiance is strong enough to move against us directly,” Socinus finished.
“Exactly, Prefect.”
The vidcomm faded to black as the Primi Pili and Melinor walked back in. “What’s up Sir?” Centurion asked.
“What‘s up, Centurion, is us.” Socinus looked at the adjutant, “Full alert please, recall all the patrols and notify Task Force Ultor to start getting everything we’ve got ready to move out in a moments notice. Also order both Provisional Fleets to scour their respective target areas.” The adjutant nodded and started for the door.
“Oh, and Aduitor?”
“Sir?” He said, turning. “Tell them they have an hour to find these Narn.”
Turn/Time: Turn 5/April, 2261
Scenario: Annihilation
Terrain: Planet Nobuhisa – A Dead World whose pollutants from the extensive abandoned heavy metal mining operations give the world an orange tint. Some of the open mines are even visible from space.
Situation: A small Centauri fleet receives important orders from Centauri Command in the Defiance Star System. Find the Kal-Berr and destroy it. Unfortunately, they arrive too late. Hyperspace signatures show a Narn warship leaving the area. While they do not find the elusive Bin’Tak they do find an equally worthy target: two Ka’Bin’Taks and lone G’Vrahn leaving orbit near the dead world of Nobuhisa. Elements from Task Force Ultor en-route and redirected to the area and the second battle for the Defiance Star System begins.
TO&E:
Tza’sol Narn:
-
2x Ka’Bin’Tak
-
1x G’Vrahn
Centauri Republic:
Task Force Ultor:
Flotilla Primus Gladius:
-
2x Octurion (HMS Ariss, Promitor)
Flotilla Secundus Gladius:
-
1x Tertius (HMS Tarquinius)
-
1x Prefect (HMS Erastes)
Flotilla Tertius Gladius:
-
1x Strike Carrier (HMS Mutina)
Flotilla Areani:
-
1x Corvan (HMS Tusculum)
Provisional Fleet Vulcan:
Flotilla Primus Gladius
-
2x Octurion (HMS Vatrenus, Impluvium)
Flotilla Areani:
-
1x Corvan (HMS Eliphas)
Turn 1: The Centauri commander grouping his Octurions into a central strike force maneuvers them through void chasing down the Narn ships. Flotilla Secundus Gladius and scouts sweep out along the flanks while the “recently acquired” Strike Carrier moves off to the side. The Narn are caught off guard by the Centauri’s sudden appearance and are slow to react.
The Octurions close the distance fast and draw first blood, damaging the G’Vrahn’s engines and reactor slowing it slightly. The return fire from the Narn energy mines impacted harmlessly off of the Centauri armor plating.
Turn 2: The Narn admiral is quick to capitalize on the Centauri’s overconfidence and seize the initiative. The Centauri fleet is still able to avoid the Narn targeting of their bore sighted weapon systems. Closing the distance the Narn energy mine and ion torpedo fire provides to be somewhat ineffectual against the Centauri. Only one Octurion starts to show any cracks from the constant pounding.
The Octurions commit themselves well as mega-joule after mega-joule of battle laser fire tear into then through the G’Vrahn. Within in moments a massive explosion consumes it so that no trace of it remains (Note: I set a new record here: 35 hits of which 9 were criticals. I inflicted enough damage with the 35 hits that there was no need to even roll the criticals).
Turn 3: The Narn, enraged by the sudden destruction of one of their ships or maybe it was the Centauri being distracted by the pretty explosions, continue to take the initiative. Both Ka’Bin’Taks pour all available fire into HMS Vatrenus, crippling its superstructure. The Centauri in turn relentlessly pound one of the two Ka’Bin’Taks, dealing some internal damage.
Turn 4: Still on the initiative (this seems to be pattern – I win the first round and then loose the next several after that) the Narn press the attack against Vatrenus while HMS Eliphas moves out of the scope of the battle for a more important task. The badly damaged Ka’Bin’Tak lays waste to Vatrenus, setting her adrift. In turn the 1 of the 3 remaining Octurions avenge this loss by destroying the Ka’Bin’Tak while Flotilla Secundus Gladius along with the other 2 Octurions directs their battle lasers and matter cannons into the remaining Narn ship.
Turn 5: The Centauri are able to get the upper hand on the Narn for Initiative for what is figured to be the last round of this battle. (Turns out it was.) The 3 Octurions score several critical hits on the Ka’Bin’Tak and manage to reduce the ship down a skeleton crew. Sneaking in the aft is a Corvan, HMS Tusculum, which hits with one shot of its twin particle array scoring not only a solid strike but a critical one at that. With this one blow the last of the Narn crew are taken out and Ka’Bin’Tak is turned into a floating mausoleum. Needless to say HMS Tusculum’s crew is honored in the following celebrations and feasts.
Analysis: Having 9 ships to Scott’s 3 pretty much allowed me to dictate which ship or squadron was in the necessary firing arc. Or in Scott’s case not letting him line up for his bore-sighted weapons. I did make one minor movement issue by not determining the distance from remaining to the board edge on Scott’s side with my one Corvan. With the Annihilation battle we fought it is assumed the neither fleet will leave the battlefield and I ended up sending one Corvan off the board. While it was not technically destroyed I am going to put it out of action for a turn/two at the most. I think this is the fairest thing to do.
Aftermath:
“You have your orders. I expect you to follow them to the letter.” stated Prefect Socinus, signaling that the conversation was over.
“We live to serve…” the commander of the HMS Eliphas replied before their hyper-comm connection was terminated.
“…and we serve to live.” Optio Tetanus finished, his voice barely above a whisper, completing the regime’s motto with the unofficial ending. He glanced quickly at his CO to see if he had overheard, but the commander betrayed no sign that he had.
Turning to look at the expectant faces of his crew, masked in the harsh red half light of the battle stations condition set on the bridge, the commander stabbed a button on his chair’s command console activating the ability to address the entire crew.
“Legionaries of the Centauri Republic…” he began. “We have an important honor placed upon our ship, on us – to find the Kal-Berr. Already our skilled navigator has begun to plot a course to follow the faint remnants of the hyper-space jump point used by the fleeing Bin’Tak.”
He stopped briefly to look his bridge crew but all had busied themselves with the tasks at hand. ‘As well they should’ he thought. “We have the honor of being the tip of the spear. The entire of Task Force Ultor waits for our finding the Kal-Berr. FAILURE is not an option. WE …LIVE …TO …SERVE.”
“We live to serve.” rejoined back from all the crew before the All Hands channel was closed.
“Engineer, redirect power from weapons to the stealth generators till we have cleared any sensors in this system.” the commander directed as he settled back into the command chair.
“Yes, commander.” With this, HMS Eliphas’ hull shimmered slightly before fading out of existence, at least to the electronic eye. The hunt was back on.
Thanks to Rich for the Battle report, pics, and fluff!
