War Master (Owen): Witty, thorough, and handsome. (Yes, I need Bennies.)
Lambert’s Losers Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does.
Private (E-2) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman, bronze metal.
Journal Entry June 4th 1944 (still just before dawn)
It was just before dawn (see, I told you) as we tramped through yet another endless countryside. We needed to find the damn Nazi mobile artillery, but it kept moving. Lt. Dan finally ordered us to steal a ride. It was easily done and soon I was driving us all down a nice country road. We were still hunting the artillery, but at least we weren’t walking.
We had to backtrack, but eventually found where the mobile artillery trucks had left the road. We followed their tracks into a lightly wooded patch of ground. We stopped. (I don’t remember why.) While stopped we heard the clanking and creaking of something coming our way. Our worse fear was realized. It was a tank. We all scrambled to cover; hoping it hadn’t noticed us. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of being one with the tree I was behind. Right up until the air around me was filled with machinegun fire. The tree was ripped and tattered, but I was only a little rattled (Shaken). I leaped out from behind cover and fired a burst from my Thompson at the tank commander who was looking out of the top of the tank. I missed. Uh oh.
Fortunately Winters and Lambert had my back, or rather the tank’s back. They actually climbed onto the back of the tank. By this time the tank commander had retreated down into the tank and had sealed the entrance. Lambert eventually realized to snap off the tank’s antenna so they couldn’t radio in our position. Lt. Dan spent some time fumbling with his bazooka. (I’m not sure where he got a bazooka.)
There were some tense moments as the tank exchanged shots with us. Lambert was hit and wounded once he and Winters jumped off the tank. Lt. Dan finally hit the tank with the bazooka. He damaged it, but didn’t destroy it completely. The tank escaped into the morning fog.
After the tank encounter we patched up Lambert (Hmm, maybe Lambert patched up Lambert. He IS the medic after all.) Then we went looking for the Mobile artillery. We found it. We called in the airstrike and got the heck out of Dodge.
Now we are trudging to a bridge that we are supposed to hold until relieved—all in a morning’s work for us.
Private Goldman
War Master (Owen): A no holds barred master of war.
Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader. Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our commando medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Still not sure what he does.
Private (E-1) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman and one-man army.
Journal Entry June 4th 1944 pre-dawn
Lt. Dan led us into an ambush on the way to the village of Vierville-Sur-Mer. One minute we are walking along quiet-as-you-please through a wood, the next moment grenades are landing at our feet. We kept our heads though. Winters quick reflexes allowed him to throw back one of the German potato mashers. Unfortunately, it hit a tree branch and ended up landing at his feet. It exploded. Winters was unhurt, but Lt. Dan took a couple of wounds. I already had my Thompson out and began shooting lead into the surrounding Germans. We escaped to fight another day. And that day is today.
Scouting out the town we saw the arrival of the mobile artillery we were supposed to call an air strike on. An air strike in town would kill many innocents. Lt. Dan ordered us to wait until the artillery moved out again. Also, HQ ordered us to hole up as the big thing they had plan was postponed a day. We waited in a barn. Private Lambert recently completed his Commando training…or so he told us. Lt. Dan must have bought it hook, line, and sinker because he let Lambert go back into town. I’m thinking his only scouting would be to find him a pretty French woman.
Soon we got word that Lambert had been captured. Lt. Dan asked for volunteers to rescue Lambert. Everyone took one step back, which made us all look pretty silly. Lt. Dan ordered us into town to rescue Lambert.
We made a sensational raid on the main German headquarters in town–lots of guns blazing and grenade explosions. This would have been great had we not been on a covert mission. Now the Germans were probably suspicious as to why we were even in the area. Lambert was already acting on his escape plan when Goldman arrived shooting up the place and the officer interrogating Lambert. The officer shook off the bullets like they were nothing. Lambert finished him.
We escaped town. Now we have to continue our search for the artillery and call in that air strike—all before the big day.
(Game Note: Lt. Dan has National Identity which allows him to recover a spent Benny if he rolls a 6 on a d6. This never seems to work. During this evening’s session, it worked several times for Ben, which is good. He needed them.)
(Game Note: Steve got two jokers!)
(Game Note: Rumors have started going around that the guy playing Goldman fell asleep during the game. Those rumors are unsubstantiated. Remember, loose lips sink ships, so stop gabbing around.)
Pvt. Goldman
I always like to get last week’s write up finished before this week’s game. With that in mind, here’s what we played last week…
…Navegador. If you’ve ever wanted to be a Portuguese entrepreneur during the Age of Discovery, this is the game for you. This was our second time playing the game.
I crushed the opposition with 119 points. Ben came in second with 101 points. Mike squeaked by in third place with 83 points. Owen, who was having a bad night, can in forth with 82 points.
Chaos Steve
War Master (Owen): A deadly opponent in any arena.
Lambert’s Losers
Lt. Dick Dan (Ben): Our fearless squad leader.
Private (E-1) Destry Lambert (Evil Mike): Our medic.
Private (E-1) Charlie Winters (Mike): Not sure what he does.
Private (E-1) Hector Goldman (Steve): Armored Vehicle Crewman.
Journal Entry June 4th 1944
One quick note about my squad mates, specifically our medic, Lambert. Although the kid’s a smart as a whip, he seems to miss the most obvious observations. (Game terms: 14 skills, but no Notice skill.) I think he’ll be ok though, as long as he doesn’t step on a German mine like our last medic.
There was a rumor going round that on June 5th something big was planned. So it was no surprised that our unit found ourselves covertly assaulting a beach in the dead of night on June 4th. Our primary mission was to destroy a coastal gun emplacement, but we also had two secondary missions: locate some mobile artillery and call in an air strike, and locate and hold a nearby bridge. We must be the best of the best.
Our landing went well, except for the part where our rudder got caught on a floating mine. Lt. Dan did a fine job of risking his life to get us free. Next we snuck by the German sentries on the beach and climbed the cliffs to reach the area where the gun emplacement was said to be. For once intel was right.
We easily found the bunker that housed the gun. After some tense moments at the entrance, we silently entered. Grenades were freely tossed back and forth between us and the German guards. Since those failed to killed the guards, we resorted to the old fashion way: bayonets and bullets.
I managed to save one of the guy’s lives with a dead-on spray of bullets from my Thompson. After that is was routine kill and cleanup. We destroyed the gun and got the heck out of there.
After saving what’s-his-name’s life in the bunker, Lt. Dan put me in for a Bronze Star and a promotion. Seems I’m an E-2 now and out rank the other guys. I’m never going to live this down. (Game note: The only way I could get a promotion was to roll a 20 on a d20—which I did. I’m that good.)
We have a 5am deadline to find the mobile artillery. Fortunately we’ll have the help of the French Resistance. Hopefully there will be some beautiful French babes like you see in the movies that will be made of the war later. We can find them (both the resistance and the babes, I hope) in the village of Vierville-Sur-Mer. (Did the Muppets name all the French villages? Just asking.)
We have until 10am to find and hold the bridge. We’re to destroy it if we can’t hold it.
Sounds like another beautiful day in the army.
Pvt. Goldman
Evil Mike as the GM: evil, cruel alien being from another planet.
Ben as Mr. Smith: able to duplicate himself with ease. (Lord help us!)
Lee as Mal “Hex†Hexington: can go insubstantial at will and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shaun as Viridian: greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Arc-Light: a super sorcerer and a handy guy to have around.
Once again Dr. Destruction contacted us. There is a power source deep under Star City created by a now-dead super, Terron. Terron had created this power source for his super lab. The exact location is unknown, but Dr. Destruction has faith that we’ll find it. He also gives us some hints on where to look. But before we went power source hunting, we went to the warehouse to pick up something—a power relay.
At the warehouse we met Arc-Light, a super sorcerer that Dr. Destruction thought might be handy to have around. Since we had lost what’s-his-name in the last adventure, we gladly accepted Arc-Light’s help. Then we had the problem of how we were going to carry this 600 pound power relay device. Mr. Smith suggested we use a fork-lift. There were several problems with this idea and spared no details telling them all to Mr. Smith. Using his sorcery, Arc-Light was able to carry the power relay.
(A note about Arc-Light: Mike’s other character, whose name escapes me, was quite worthless. He couldn’t even absorb a few (hundred) bullets. Arc-Light on the other hand was quite handy to have around. Let’s hope he lives through this episode.)
We ventured underground looking for the elusive lab of Terron. There was a group of humans living down here called the undergrounders. We hoped we would run into them and then ask them if they knew where this lab was. Instead of finding undergrounders, we found mean and ugly G’roks. G’roks are big, tough, and have a lousy attitude towards guests. They quickly injured Arc-Light and Mr. Smith. Arc-Light again summoned his super sorcery only to critical fail the roll. He lost his powers for two hours! Holy G’rok lunch Batman! After some pleading Hex became material (he travels around insubstantial) and killed the G’roks with his mighty super melee attacks.
We waited two hours for Arc-Light’s super powers to return so he could heal himself and Mr. Smith. Another G’rok attacked us. I blame the GM. Arc-Light managed to heal most of the wounds.
We found a small partially hidden tunnel and followed it until we came upon the undergrounders. We were honest with them—a strange tactic for all of us. In return for some food and medical supplies, they told us the location of Terron’s lab.
The lab was guarded by one of Terron’s trademark robots. We had forgotten to ask if Terron has any trademark items of destruction, so we were taken by surprise. Mr. Smith and Hex surrounded the mammoth 8’ tall iron monstrosity. Strike got the joker and decided to go first by casting his lightning at the thing. It should be pretty susceptible to lightning. Sadly, both Mr. Smith and Hex were in the lightning’s blast radius. Strike didn’t care. Arc-Light and the power relay were safely back with him. Once the robot was dealt with they could easily hook it up and then escape to garner the praises of Dr. Destruction. Hex and Mr. Smith could be replaced. Strike hit the robot with his lightning and roll 3d6 damage. Each dice rolled a 1! That’s a total of 3 points of damage, plus 2 for the joker, for a total of 5 points! Holy crap. Hex and Mr. Smith would survive after all.
The robot was destroyed. The power relay was hooked up and turned on. Then we all returned to the lavished praises of Dr. Destruction.
Steve “The Chronicler†Todd
Evil Mike as the GM: evil, cruel alien being from another planet.
Ben as Mr. Smith: able to duplicate himself with ease. (Lord help us!)
Lee as Mal “Hex†Hexington: can go insubstantial at will and packs a powerful punch when substantial.
Shaun as Viridian: greatest Atlantean scientist ever! (Just ask him.)
Steve as Strike: produces and controls lightening at will.
Mike as Silverback: a silverback ape with all the powers of an ape with a blaster.
We started a new monthly Savage World game last weekend. Evil Mike is running us through the Necessary Evil (NE) plot point campaign. If you’re unfamiliar with NE, imagine a world with supers where all of the heroes have been destroyed by aliens and the aliens now control Earth. It’s now up to the super villains to save the planet…and that’s where we come in. We are all super villains; loosely banded together to save the planet from the aliens so we can go back to our own brands of villainy and perhaps take over the planet for ourselves.
Our first session was a blast, with one super not surviving. I know what you’re thinking—it was me. You’d be wrong…this time.
Our story begins inside a V’Sori prison barge. We are all prisoners with nullifiers around our wrists. These nullifiers nullify our super powers. Things look grim until an explosion outside the ship causes it to crash. Our savior is none other than Dr. Destruction, leader of the Omega resistance movement. “If you want to live, follow me.†We followed him and are soon flying in his ship away from the V’Sori. We are still locked in the nullifiers though. Then Dr. Destruction reveals why he saved us. “I’d like you to join me as one of my Omega Cells.†With that, we are ejected from his plane and plummet to earth—still wearing our nullifiers. In our minds we hear, “Do you agree to follow me?†We agree. The nullifiers explode off our wrists and we’re able to survive landing on the roof of a building complex.
In our minds Dr. Destruction tells us that we have fallen onto a V’Sori prison. We are to break out a villain named MindJack. If we succeed we will become his newest Omega Cell. Failure will not be tolerated.
Alarms are going off all around us. Strike decides it’s best to get off the roof and attempts to blast open a hole in the roof with his lightening powers. Strike failed to notice that the roof was metal. The lightening blast stuns everyone and fails to break through the roof. (Strike is not the brightest of Villains.)
Viridian uses his mechanical genius to shut down many of the electrical systems at the prison. Hex uses his insubstantial ability to go insubstantial to locate the cell where MineJack is being kept. Mr. Smith and Strike take on the drones protecting the prison. Mr. Smith takes a few wounds as Strike continued to add to his own drone body count. Silverback spent most of the time just trying to get into the prison. Once there he was soon shot to “death†by the drones.
At this point we needed to take a vote. Mike (i.e. Silverback) did not like the fact that supers could only die under certain extraordinary circumstance in NE. He thought this reduced the “risk†the supers where actually taking in the game. He wanted to use the incapacitation rules from the core Savage Worlds rules. We put this to a vote and decided to use the core rules as Mike suggested. Mike failed his rolls and Silverback died.
We released ALL of the prisoners, including MindJack. Dr. Destruction picked us up along with a many other supers and whisked us to a warehouse in Southpoint. This was to be our HQ. It was then that Viridian mentioned that he already had a lair that, if we agreed to help fund it, could serve as our HQ. We all agreed (with fingers crossed.)
What dirty deeds will Dr. Destruction put us up to next time? What new super villain will take the place of Silverback the dead dirty ape? These and other questions will be answered next time.
Steve “The Chronicler†Todd
GM (Evil Mike): Cruel, Silver Tongued Devil
Samuel Smythe (Steve): Occult Branch, Polish National, the Healer & the Shooter
Balthazar Magnusson (Owen): Operations Branch, Swedish, The Lindquist/Forger & our Team Leader
Cyrus Lowenstein (Ben): Operations Branch, American, The Ladies Man & Tech Op
Nick Harmon (Mike): Occult Branch, American, (a real live) Combat Psychic & Thief
This week we had our final Agents of Oblivion game for this campaign. A lot happened and, as you’ll see, we may have opened the wrong box…twice.
This week’s story begins somewhere on the outskirts of Chernobyl as we wait for our extraction. We obtained the large box for our untrusted ally, Alexi, who leads the Polish Vampire cartel. Strangely this was one of our few operations that we actually told our Oblivion superiors about. That is why we get a timely extraction instead of figuring out our own way out of Russia.
A large twin-blade helicopter lands and we load everything on board. The copter is being piloted by our own Mr. Mister. He’s actually proud (and surprised) we pulled this off. Although we have strict instructions from Alexi to not open the box, he said nothing about not x-raying it. As we discussed our various options, the copter is hit by an air-to-air missile. We began dropping like a rock. Agent Smythe is flung out of the gaping hole in the copter’s fuselage. Only Agent Harmon’s psychic powers saved him for certain death. Agent Smythe swore never to make lite of Harmon’s powers ever again.
We quickly put on parachutes and secured the box with one also. Mr. Mister was going to draw off our pursuit. This most certainly meant certain death for him, certainly. We jumped from the helicopter. Soon after, it exploded into the side of the mountain. We landed safely, along with the big box, although we did lose some gear.
Our trek through the mountains brought us to a rope bridge crossing a deep gorge with a cabin on the far side. The cabin appeared to be one used by trappers or hunters. Once across the gorge, we discovered several unusual items in and around the cabin. First, was an ancient shield displaying Chinese characters on it. The characters were arcane in nature and apparently enhanced the shields bearer’s abilities. Second, was a Chinese puzzle box. Agent Magnusson discovered it and spent much of his time that evening trying to unravel its secrets.
We awoke in the night to find Agent Magnusson gone. Agent’s Harmon and Smythe headed out into the night to look for him. Agent Lowenstein stayed behind to watch the big box. That’s when the proverbial dog dodo hit the fan.
In a strange moment of preparedness, Agent Lowenstein loaded his shotgun with acid rounds. It wasn’t soon after this that he saw men moving across the old bridge. He fired his acid rounds at the old bridge’s lines that secured it to the ground. At least one of the men was thrown into the gorge. The rest open fired on Lowenstein, who was using the big box as cover. Bullets battered the box (and Lowenstein). Several holes appeared in the box and long-contained dust and air was released. Lowenstein applied his baking powder and vinegar to the holes in an attempt to seal them, but it was too late. The box’s seal was broken.
Meanwhile, Agent Smythe trailed Agent Magnusson further into the woods. He could tell that Magnusson was speaking to the box and it sound like the box was replying, soothingly telling Magnusson to press on through the woods. It was obvious that their destination was an ancient tree. Shots from the cabin turned Smythe’s attention away from Magnusson for just a moment–long enough for a giant tentacle flailing brain to attack him. Smythe screamed like a girl and was entangled in the brain’s worm-like appendages. Once again Agent Harmon came to his rescue. Armed with arcane bullets, he opened fire on the brain. This allowed Smythe to wrestle free and continue his race to save Magnusson from whatever fate awaited him at the tree.
Smythe caught Magnusson just as he was entering the opening in the tree. Smythe fired at the box, but failed to damage it. Again he fire, this time calling on the powers-that-be (an adventure card) to help him. He succeeded. His bullets smashed into the box—destroying it. In its stead grew a steadily larger creature—a demon. Just as the demon was about to lunge for Magnusson, a temporal vortex of some kind opened up and sucked the demon into it. Magnusson would have been lost too had it not been for his cat-like reflexes that enabled him to hold on to the tree’s opening for dear life.
With the demon gone, the giant brain vanished in a haze of smoke and ash. Agent Harmon had been fighting it valiantly, but was glad to see it go.
Meanwhile, back in the cabin…
The lid of the big box burst open and out climbed an ancient vampire. It lunged for Lowenstein in an effort to quench its centuries old thirst for blood. Lowenstein waited to die; but it was not to be. This just awakened fiend was not quite at 100% and critically failed his attack on Lowenstein. The ancient vampire stumbled out of the cabin and into the gorge…and was gone.
It was then we all hear Alexi’s voice in our minds. “This is bad.â€
Agent Smythe
GM: Evil Mike, Cruel, Silver Tongued Devil
Samuel Smythe (Steve): Occult Branch, Polish National, the Healer & the Shooter
Balthazar Magnusson (Owen): Operations Branch, Swedish, The Lindquist/Forger & our Team Leader
Cyrus Lowenstein (Ben): Operations Branch, American, The Ladies Man & Tech Op
Nick Harmon (Mike): Occult Branch, American, (phony?) Combat Psychic & Thief
<Due to security reasons the following session details have been scrubbed by Oblivion. I hope to have a full recap of our upcoming session available soon. If I survive.>
Agent Smythe
(It’s time for me to play catch-up and write about a couple of games that have come and gone.)
Railways of England and Wales
A couple weeks ago Ben, Owen, Mike B. and I played Railways of England and Wales. This is an expansion of, sorts, to Railway Tycoon. I say “of sorts†because you use a completely different board—one of England and Wales. As many of you may know, Owen and Ben are both from England, so the board was very familiar to them. For us U.S. folks, I think they should provide an extra map of the board. Once the game gets going and there are tracks all over the place, a lot of the city names are covered up. This causes us (me) to repeatedly ask where the city of Flumbuckets is or ask if Splurgleville is close to London or not.
Our game was unusual is a couple of respects. One, Owen sold shares like they were how you win the game. (They are not.) He may have broken some previous share record having 15 shares by the end of the game. I think the closest person to him had 5 shares. Still, in true Owen fashion, he did not come in last. The second distinction was that Mike B. did so poorly. This was Mike’s first game using this map, but Mike usually rises above any disadvantages like this and does very well. I think we can all blame Ben.
Ben seemed to have a plan from the very beginning. He set up his delivery machine around Flumbuckets, Splurgleville, & London. Even late in the game, when deliveries may become scarce, he was still making 5 and 6 city deliveries. Ben eventually went on to win with 76 points. I came in second with 63 points. I blame my second place showing on the other players, who simply refused to help me win. Owen came in one tiny point behind me (amazing) with 62 points. And poor Mike B. was last with 58 points.
It should be noted that we played this game because Evil Mike was missing. He likes these delivery-type train games, but normally doesn’t do well in them. We wanted to spare him the embarrassing last place finish, instead bestowing it on Mike B.
Lancaster
The following week we played Lancaster. It could be said that some people buy games based upon the number of bits inside and the weight of the game box. I’m not pointing any fingers, but that’s how Ben decided to purchase this one. It turns out that his approach appears to be a perfectly good system to base game buying upon.
What is Lancaster? Stealing the text from BoardGameGeek, who probably stole it from the game box: in 1413, the new king of England, Henry V of Lancaster, has ambitious plans: The unification of England and the conquest of the French crown! Each player takes the role of an ambitious aristocratic family. Who will be the best supporter of this young king, and the most powerful Lord of his time?
So that’s it then? We’re to become powerful lords. We do this by careful placing our knights (and their cannon-fodder squires) in various locations on the board. When knight placement is completed, the most powerful knight “wins†that section of the board and gains some advantage for their lord. This advantage might be gold, more soon-to-be-dead squires, more knights, or maybe an improvement to the lord’s castle back home. Some of these advantages score victory points immediately while others score them at the end of the game. There is also a parliament phase of the game where the lords can enact laws.
It all seems so simple. Unfortunately, just like the previous game I talked about, I blame my poor showing on the other players. There are things you can focus on to score points at the end of the game. You most likely can’t focus on all of them, and splitting your focus could end of in disaster. (See Steve’s finish for verification.) For most of the game our point scoring was pretty equal. But good planning throughout the game can cause big points at the end of the game. (See Steve’s finish for verification.)
Mike won with 51 points. This really surprised him. It probably surprised Ben too, who thought he would win. Ben came in second with 47 points. Owen was third with 41 points, and me (Steve) was last with 38 points. (Darn those other players!) We all enjoyed the game and look forward to our next time playing it.
Chaos Steve
