Disclaimer: Any resemblance to actual persons, living or soon to be dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Alex, Mike and I went to Origins again this year. This trip marked the 10th anniversary of going to Origins and meeting our good friends Dave McGuire, Tom Wisniewski, and Norm “No Relation” Hensley. In honor of this we all ran games in the settings we ran (or played in) 10 years ago. Norm ran Shaintar since it was in Sean Fannon’s epic Shaintar game that we all really became friends. Mike ran Tour of Darkness. I ran Rippers. Dave ran Mordheim. Tom was missing this year due to real life. We hate it when real life interferes with gaming.
This is the first year in many years that we had to pick up our badges from Origins. It’s a good thing too. While the line was really long, it did move quickly. On the way to our long line, we saw Jim Searcy of Studio 2—the guy who has gotten our badges in the past—standing in the short vendor line. He was still there when we left with our badges.
Waiting in the Badge Line.
After getting our badges and settling into our rooms, I took some games to sell at the auction. I’ve never done this before. The process was simple and the Origin’s auction people were very nice.
Now it was time to play our first game. Geek Chic had not set up their tables yet, so we had to depend on Origins to find a table. They dropped the ball. On Wednesday there are empty tables everywhere. The guy at the RPG HQ told Mike he could not use any tables unless he had an event registered with Origins. Say what? The RPG HQ suggested we use the open gaming area. The open gaming area has about 10 tables and is located at the furthest point you can walk to before hitting Lake Erie. Since there were five of us, we had enough bearers to carry all of Mike’s game stuff to the open gaming area.
On the way, Mike stopped to talk to Origin’s event folks to see if he could register the game as a real event and get a table assignment. Two things happened. One, you can’t register a game at the convention. Game registration is closed. Two, the head honcho at the events area said the guy at the RPG HQ was wrong. The event guy told us we can use any table we want until someone with a real event comes along and kicks us off. This is how it has always been and we were good with it.
After all that, we played Mike’s Tour of Darkness game in the Opening Gaming. For the rest of the convention we never had to use Origin’s Open Gaming tables Again thanks largely to Geek Chic. Those guys (and gals) rock.
Wednesday: Mike’s Tour of Darkness
I was in charge. From that point on things didn’t go well. Our mission was to free US prisoners from a NVA camp. A helicopter dropped us off well out of sight of the camp. Some say the helicopter flew over the NVA camp on the way to the drop off zone, but those claims were never substantiated. Never substantiated! It was a hard jog through the trap infested jungle to get to the camp.
Once in position to recon the camp, we are immediately set upon by the NVA. Dave’s character, who is carrying our heaviest weapon, is in deep dog doo-doo most of this battle. We also see that the camp is heavily fortified with NVA troops. Some say we should have used the chopper to soften up the NVA. Heck, I didn’t even know the chopper had weapons! (I missed that day of training.) Anyway, after Dave’s character is healed, he begins pumping grenade after grenade into the NVA camp. This cleaned out the camp nicely. We enter the camp.
We search for the prisoners, but fine only a hatch leading to an underground maze of tunnels. There are strange going-ons down there. We fight our way through most of it. We end in a room containing a NVA wizard summoning something weird and horrifying. It is a creature made up of a conglomeration of bodies all jammed together. Even more horrifying is that we recognized the poor souls within the monster. They are our original characters from 10 years ago!
We deal with the monster, but the NVA wizard escapes through a secret door. We chased him to the exit door of the tunnels. Then we hear the sound of thunder and feel the weight of tons of dirt and rock cover the exit we are about to go through. We’re stuck.
Some say we’ll died in those tunnels. We’re about to prove them wrong.
To be Continued…
Mike setting up the endless NVA foes in his Tour of Darkness game
Tour of Darkness: The heroes fight their way through the tunnels.
Thursday: Steve’s Rippers
The Rippers are called in by Inspector Brunt of Scotland Yard to look into the grizzly murders of three people at a church in a small town near Newcastle, England. Arriving at the scene it doesn’t take long for the Rippers to determine that someone has been trying to use arcane rituals to summon…something. And it appears they were successful. With their knowledge of the occult the Rippers realize that one of the candles used in the summoning is missing. Normally this would not be important, but because of the type of ritual involved that fifth candle is needed to end the summoning spell. Until that happens, the spell will be weakened, but beings from another place can use the spell to enter our world. As if to prove the point, two devilkin appear in the summoning circle and begin attacking the Rippers. It’s a team effort, but the devilkin are sent back from whence they came.
Mike’s character determines from a sample at the scene that the substance used to create the pentagram is talcum power. They will need talcum powder once the fifth candle is found to make a new pentagram and end the spell. (Mike’s character critically failed the roll to discover what the substance was. This is not good, as you will see later.)
Now the investigation begins in earnest.
Their investigation leads them to the existence of an occult book. The significance of the book is revealed in a message carried by a smiling child. Someone named Mr. Jack is willing to trade the missing fifth candle for the occult book. The Rippers decided to meet with Mr. Jack at the park. They find Mr. Jack surrounded by children. He is entertaining the children with his sleight of hand tricks. After some discussion, the Rippers agree to the deal.
The Rippers search a warehouse where one of the victims worked and find the book. As they leave they are accosted by a weird and very hostile group of (lost?) circus performers. The Rippers manage to kill the ringmaster, which is enough to send the others packing, but not before some serious damage is done to the Ripper’s crew. After some healing and rest, the group is ready to meet Mr. Jack.
Mr. Jack is in the crypt section of the cemetery. Once again he is surrounded by children. He is also surrounded by tortured souls hanging by chains from posts driven into the ground. Mike’s character tries to deceive Mr. Jack by trading a fake book for the fifth candle. He critically fails his Stealth roll and Mr. Jack immediately sees through the ruse. After that, all hell breaks loose. Literally. The summoned creature is revealed to be what is known as a Horned God. The Rippers triumphantly destroy Mr. Jack and the mortal form of the Horned God.
Mike’s character constructs the pentagram (with talcum powder) and sets out all five candles to perform the ritual that will break the spell. Unfortunately is was not talcum powder that was needed for the pentagram, but grounded up bone. The last thing the Rippers see is the Horned God appearing above them…and he is not happy.
Rippers: The circus is in town!
Thursday: Dave’s Mordheim
Playing the characters we played long ago, the Queen sends us on a journey to a new province across the sea. This is more to get rid of us than to reward us for services rendered. I’m in charge again playing an aging swordsman. (What? How could you think this will not end well?) Dave’s intricate plot, well timed diversions, and unending list of characters keep us on our toes. “It’s not a Dave game unless someone is about to die.” (No one said this. I just put it in the write-up because I liked it.)
We set off with a fleet of ships, a whiny new governor, a back-stabbing first mate, and some other guy that seemed to be there just to be mysterious and cause problems. No slight on Dave, I just don’t remember who the guy was. There is an unending list of characters!
Back to the fleet. Soon we are free of the back-stabbing first mate because we throw him overboard. Things seem to be going well until the storm hits. Once it passes we find ourselves alone at sea. We manage to make it to the new province, but we’re the only ship that does. (During the game my character repeatedly must console the townsfolks with the notion that the other ships will arrive “soon”.) The “city” we dock at is a huddled mass of badly maintained buildings and a big wall. The big wall is to keep out the lizard men. They have a special name, but I don’t remember it. The city had a special name too. As did everything else.
We meet the Inquisition…didn’t like the leader or the organization. We fight off a huge lizard man attack and earned the respect of the huddled masses. We catch an assassin trying to kill the mysterious man from the ship that I mentioned earlier. We discover the assassin isn’t there to kill him though. She was there to save him. (That’s what all the good assassins say.) Apparently he has something inside of him (a spirit or something) that is sacred to her people.
She reveals that she needs to take him to a secret temple deep in the Jungle. (By-the-way, the assassin was not human or lizard man, but I can’t remember what she was. At any rate, she was special.) We decide to help her with her quest. Thanks to our amazing tracking skills and social interaction skills we make it to the temple without incident.
Then we are attacked by a huge force of lizard men.
We had to cut the game short, because someone else had reserved our table. (I didn’t know that was allowed!) We find out that the thing inside the guy is a dragon…that appears and … well, I don’t think it ended well for us … again.
Dave sets the scene in savage Mordhein.
Mordheim: The carnage at the Sacred Shrine.
Friday: Shogun
Friday morning we got together with Bob, Phil, and Norm to play some “Shogun”…or “Samurai Swords” if you don’t want to get sued. This is one of my all-time favorite games. I lost an Army first round to Mike. I vowed revenge. It wasn’t long before a few of us were down an army. In the end, I took Mike out of the game, gaining his provinces. Then Norm took me out, gaining all of my provinces. Norm was two provinces shy of officially winning the game, but we called it anyway because he was so dang tough.
Shogun with Bob and Mike.
Shogun with Phil and Norm.
Friday: Norm’s East Texas University
In ETU we all play college freshman at ETU. Each game is a half of semester. Norm is planning on running it for us until we graduate or until we die at the hands of some supernatural evil. Either way it will be great! I am pleasantly surprised how fun this game is. Maybe it’s Norm. Maybe it’s the setting.
I think its Norm.
After last game we are either seen as heroes or troublemakers depending upon who you ask. While still trying to live normal lives and pass algebra, we also have to contend with ghost hunting and flaming spirits trying to kill us.
This game starts with my character trying to get a girlfriend and Mike’s character (a cheerleader named “Double D”) nearly killing a guy with fire extinguisher. Hey, we thought he was a vampire! Al’s/Alex’s character, a college wrestler, gets a chance to wrestle with a big name wrestler. Dave’s character, a rich frat-boy, is seeing his professor on the side. Apparently she—the professor—is insatiable.
We get a paid ghost hunting assignment, so we head to the Sweat Lodge—the college’s gymnasium. All we have to do is summon a ghost and talk to it. This works…a little too well. While we hope to summon a girl that was killed in the gymnasium years ago, what we get are ALL of the kids that have died in the gymnasium…and there have been quite a few! And they are not happy about it!
We realize that salt might damage the phantoms. We split up. This always works in the movies.
In the end we manage to stop the ghosts from killing us and free the one we were concerned about.
Upon returning to the professor who gave us the assignment, his first question was “Did you get any pictures? Readings? Anything?”
Uh, no, we didn’t.
We may not graduate after all.
Norm’s ETU. We summon a ghost. Things go bad after that.
Friday: Steve 1950’s Sci-Fi
This year our friends Ben and the other Mike were at Origins, so we put together a time we could play Savage Worlds together. Just to make things more interesting Ben brought another friend whose name is Ben. That meant my players were Mike, Mike, Ben, Ben, & Alex…who later changed his name to Steve.
I ran a Sci-Fi game that took place in 1955, eight years after the Roswell, NM incident. In my game, aliens had landed at Roswell and the government is afraid it’s happening again. This time deep in the Arctic Circle.
The Army had lost contact with the O’Dell artic research base. This happened just days after receiving from the base pictures that looked an awful lot like flying UFOs. The army then scrambled to form a team to investigate the situation. The government agent in charge of the operation was joined by an a high-profile adventurer, a father-daughter team of scientists, and an alien…yes, an alien. Who better to know the “enemy” than a hotdog-loving alien who survive the Roswell crash of ’47?
The final leg of the journey to the research base is a six-hour ride in a Polarcat in sub-freezing temperatures. The joyride is interrupted by scientifically augmented polar bears who attacked the team’s polarcat. After the bears are killed, Len-E the alien, confirms that the bear’s augmentations are Alien in origin.
The team arrives at the base to fine it empty and with lots of damage. The radio antenna is busted, the equipment is busted, and there has been a fire in one of the base’s Quonset huts. While getting the radio and other equipment up and running, a lone figure collapses on the outskirts of the base. This turns out to be one of researchers. He tells the team how they have discovered a UFO in the ice and have moved the base closer to this major scientific finding. The damage to the base he explains away as damage from a storm. The party doesn’t exactly believe him, but decide to go with him to the Beta base.
It’s a trap!
They arrive at the Beta base only to be attacked by aliens and furry creatures who look like brown sasquatches. Machinery is humming all around them creating create billows of fog. The aliens are melting the ice to reveal a large alien artifact that looks nothing like anything the team has seen before. But Len-E knows what it is. Len-E also knows that the alien in charge is the Alphan’s worse criminal mastermind, Mik-L. Mik-L intends to destroy Earth with the alien artifact. No more hot dogs for Len-E!
During the ensuing battle, Len-E switches sides—or appears to. The party is able to take over the alien spaceship and imprison Mik-L. They called in the Army and are hailed as heroes for saving the earth! Of course, no one can ever know about it.
Savage 1950’s Alien Encounter. One of these players is an alien.
Savage 1950’s Alien Encounter.
Saturday: Norm’s Shaintar Extravaganza
It was a Shaintar game that brought us all together, so it’s only fitting the last game of the convention is Norm running Shaintar for us.
The game begins with a city in trouble. Our party of heroes known as The Chosen of the Horn are sent out to confront evil, drive them before us, and hear the limitations of their women. Or something like that.
The Kal-a-Nar have invaded the city and are rounding up the citizens for some nefarious purpose. While the rest of us sneak into the city, Samar the Wise saunters into the city declaring the death of all Kal-Nar at his hands. What Samar the Wise does not understand is that he is only a 25xp character. With him is our ninja-thief-assassin played by Dee. I’m not sure how many men she decapitated but it became her signature move. The rest of us did our best to send the Kal-a-Nar back to hell. Speaking of sending people somewhere, the Kal-a-Nar are sending their captives through portals. To where, we know not.
As we fight our way to the captives and the portals, Samar the Wise dies.
But wait! A glow encompasses his body. The Silver Unicorn, seeing us as her champions, has given Samar his life back! Samar is now Samar the Wise and Holy. …And is even more difficult to live with than before.
The Kal-a-Nar begin retreating into the portals. We follow…
…and appear in Hell. Hell is decorated with lots of lava, walls, and enemies trying to kill us. These enemies are also trying to free Ceynara, the Queen of Hell. We must stop the summoning! We cannot fail! The fate of all of Shaintar rests on our 30xp shoulders! (We got a level-up.)
After passing through the portals, our party is divided and appear at opposite ends of Hell. Without showing (much) fear we begin the long battle to the center. It was brutal. Each enemy we kill returns as a fiend from Hell. Each step we take is fraught with peril from lava and foe alike. Inch by bloody inch we battle the Kal-a-Nar and their demons. Against overwhelming odds the two parties of heroes meet at the center summoning area—just as the Queen of Hell was materializing from her long slumber in the abyss! With only seconds to spare, we dispatched the acolytes chanting the summoning spell along with their fearsome demon guardians. The Queen fades back to the Abyss. We have won! Shaintar is saved!
…and we are stuck in Hell.
Maybe Samar the Wise and Holy can get us out of here? We can only hope.
An epic finish to and epic game in an epic corner of the Board Game area of Origins. There were about 30 tables in the Board Game area that no one was using and Norm needed an epically long table for the epic final scene…which was epic!
Shaintar with Norm
Close view of Hell.
Wide view of Hell.
The Queen is summoned!
Sunday
On Sunday we checked out of the hotel. I picked up my loot from selling games at the auction. Then we spent the rest of the day in the dealer area. Mike and I both bought minis for future games. Mike’s minis were AWSOME. Mine were cheap heroclix. J
We had a great time thanks to a litany of friends who shall remain nameless at this time until the NDAs are signed. What happens at Origins stays at Origins.
Chaos Steve
Epic!
Dave welcomes our new alien overlords.
The sheep say “None shall Pass!” (We offered them Alex.)
Not Our Game.
Wish it was.
