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Jimcon 2015 Spring

This year at Jimcon, Jim was missing during part of the first day due to a death in his family. He was kind enough to let us invade his house while he was gone. His nephew, Mike Byrd, let us in and already had the first game set up: Eclipse.

Eclipse

In Eclipse, you play the leader of an interstellar civilization. You compete against the other (lessor) races for supremacy of the known universe by exploring new star systems, researching technologies, and waging war on your (inferior) neighbors. In our game there were five players: Evil Mike, Ben, Owen, Mike B. and myself. We think of Eclipse as a Twilight Imperium III light. Yet it still took us eight hours to complete a game…with a break for lunch of course.

Towards the end of our game, Mike B. and I had made an alliance. So had Evil Mike and Owen. Alliances allow you to help your ally out in battle and to move freely through their part of the universe. At end game time, alliances total up their victory points for both players and divide them by two. This is the player’s score for the game. So if you have a crappy ally, he may bring down your ending score. You can always try the “sudden, yet inevitable betrayal” but it will cost you a few victory points.

The score at the end of our game was extremely close. Evil Mike and Owen won with 35 points. Ben (just Ben) had 34 points and Mike B. and I had 33 points.

Our Eclipse board with Mile and Owen looking on.

Our Eclipse board with Mile and Owen looking on.

Later in the Eclipse game, Mike and Owen do battle with their fleets.

Later in the Eclipse game, Mike and Owen do battle with their fleets.

Savage XCOM

After Eclipse Evil Mike ran us through a Savage XCOM game. In XCOM, We play highly trained commandos battling an invading alien force. In this mission, we were sent in to single-handedly save a city whose inhabitants were being round up for who-knows-what kind of horrible fate. Our main objective was to bring down the force fields that were preventing our land-based forces from entering the city. Saving the civilians was on the list of objectives too, but further down.

I played the sergeant in charge of the commando team. Our high altitude drop into the city was flawless. Soon after it all feel apart. We were spotted by the aliens as we stealthily moved about the city looking for the power generators for the force fields. We held our own until the alien version of a hover tank appeared. Owen’s character nearly bought the farm while trying to get a car started. The alien tank hit it head on with its main weapon. The brave seargent came to the rescue though and got his man to the medic (Jim). Our sniper, Mike B., got in trouble when some aliens appeared on the roof he was sniping from. He survived that battle only to become the target of the alien tank later in the game. For some reason the aliens took offense when he began taking out the power generators on the roofs of the buildings.

We managed to accomplish the mission, but it was ugly. Still, I hope to get a promotion out of it.

Mike explains how we're all going to die during his XCOM game.

Mike explains how we’re all going to die during his XCOM game.

The Alien "hover" tank.

The Alien “hover” tank.

Savage Doctor Who

Owen continued his Savage Doctor Who setting with the Doctor taking our intrepid heroes on a vacation. These plans are interrupted though when the TARDIS picks up a distress call. Seconds later, the TARDIS is floating in an asteroid field. An escape pod is discovered and a trustworthy looking fellow (with amnesia) is found inside who is more than happy to become the latest addition to the team. (This is Ron’s new character. His last character was turned into a cyborg.)

The origin of the pod is not a mystery for long as a large spaceship floating through space narrowly misses the TARDIS. As always the Doctor is intrigued, but is unable to land the TARDIS in the spaceship because some sort of “Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey thing” prevents it. The heroes are sent in through an airlock to investigate. But the doctor doesn’t send them in empty handed—he entrusts them with K9 (a robot dog) and the sonic screwdriver.

As the heroes explore the vessel—a deep space cargo vessel named the SS Washington)—they are set upon by a number of clockwork androids. If that was not unusual enough, the androids are wearing 18th century French clothes and painted masks. Strangely, the clothes are identified as being the original articles. It is currently the 51st century.

Reading the ships logs uncovers that the SS Washington responded to a distress call the day before, from the SS Madam Sophie. This is the final entry in the log…

During further exploration, it becomes apparent that something is going on in Engineering. Whatever it is it’s drawing almost all the power from the ships systems. Once in Engineering, a number of the heroes are able to spy on the clockwork androids there. A metal “doorway” has been erected in the center of the room. This doorway is connected to a control panel that is being operated by a single clockwork android. As they watch, the rest of the androids walk through the doorway and disappear. Through the doorway can be seen a stone floor.

After overpowering the remaining clockwork android (with a sniper shot to the back of the head), the heroes gather in the Engineering room. The doorway is a time portal set to earth in the year 1750…at Frontevraud Abbey in France to be precise. Princess Sophie (born 1734), a daughter of Louis VX grew up at this abbey. Could this be the same Sophie as the ship in the distress call was named after?

The heroes enter the portal and find themselves in Frontevraud abbey. The princess and several nuns are being accosted by clockwork androids. After a swift fight, the androids are defeated and returned to the 51st century. The princess is left safe and sound in 1750 France.

Using the sonic screwdriver, the time portal is shutdown. This allows the TARDIS to land. The Doctor explains…Whilst the heroes were exploring the SS Washington, he detected another ship – the Madam Sophie. On board he found that a large explosion had occurred, killing the crew. This had left the maintenance androids—the clockwork androids—alone. They took to their task of repairing the ship. The ship’s computer core took major damage and needed to be replaced. The androids decided they needed to replace the computer core with the brain of the original 16 year old Madam Sophie. Sixteen years is the same age of the ship.

The TARDIS and the mysterious ship from Owen's Doctor Who game.

The TARDIS and the mysterious ship from Owen’s Doctor Who game.

The heroes gather around the TARDIS's control panel as the Doctor takes the controls.

The heroes gather around the TARDIS’s control panel as the Doctor takes the controls.

Savage Conan

My Savage Conan game continued with the characters travelling down to the Black Kingdoms looking for adventure, gold, and ancient lore. What they found was a woman about to be sacrificed to the Teeth. The Teeth are reptilian monsters (dinosaurs) that roam the area. It was a tough fight, but the heroes’ save her. The woman takes them to her village where she hopes they will end the village’s slavery to an ageless woman named Beersheba.

While in the village they meet Beersheba’s ambassador to the village who is called the Pale Woman. The Pale Woman is guarded by four brutish demons—or at least the villagers called them demons. The adventurers find that they die to the sword just like any other creature. So does the Pale Woman. The village headman tells the adventurers of the undying Beersheba who uses black magic to stay young. He also tells them of the impassable cave filled with unimaginable evil that is the only gateway to Beersheba’s home. He continues on by saying that Beersheba’s surrounds herself many with more of her brutish demons. He finally shows them a gold nugget and says if they kill Beersheba, they can have as many of the gold nuggets as they can carry. The adventurers decide to travel through the impassable cave filled with unimaginable evil, fight their way through an army of demons, and kill Beersheba—to get the gold nuggets.

The ultimate evil in the impassable cave turns out to be a giant armored worm. It nearly kills them, but they persevere and destroy it. The fight at the ruins where Beersheba has her home seems easier than the giant worm. Evil Mike’s Sorcerer, Amo, cast his spells of burrow and deflection to great advantage. In the end Beersheba was killed, the village was saved, and the adventurers wondered away laden with gold nuggets…for now.

In Savage Conan the heroes save a women from "The Teeth".

In Savage Conan the heroes save a women from “The Teeth”.

Why the third scene of the Savage Conan game was difficult.

Why the third scene of the Savage Conan game was difficult.

History of the World

History of the World is a strange game in that who you are and where you’re at changes constantly. After the first of seven epochs, I was king of the world. Then the world spun on and I was left behind. Far behind. Ben, Owen, and Mike B. all were in contention for the lead as each epoch past. Jim and I kept up, but were always last. Me more than Jim.

Ben won by a goodly amount, with Owen coming in second. I don’t think Owen ever won an Epoch Marker. Ben and Mike had plenty. Mike came in third. I might have been third had I played my card in the third epoch that you could only play in the third epoch! As it was I was forth and Jim came in last.

The end of the World. Green(Ben), Red (Owen), Blue (Mike), Yellow (Steve), Purple (Jim)

The end of the World.
Green(Ben), Red (Owen), Blue (Mike), Yellow (Steve), Purple (Jim)

Many thanks to Jim and Terri for putting up with us all once again.

Also thanks to Owen for the synopsis of the Doctor Who game.

Chaos Steve

XCOM: The Board Game

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We tried out XCOM: The Board Game Thursday night. It has the interesting distinction of having an app that controls each game turn. This sounded a little intimidating at first. Especially when the first part of a game turn is timed.

What we found is that the timed events really added an urgency (more like a need) to respond to the event quickly, in real-time, thus forcing split-second decisions that the fate of the world hang upon. While some might not want that much stress in their game playing, I thought it was pretty cool. For those who need it, there is also a “pause” button. But it only pauses for so long.

It helps that each player has a roll: Commander, Chief Scientist, Central Officer, or Squad Leader. Each event targets a specific roll, so everyone does not have to respond to each timed event. This gives the other players a breather…for a few precious seconds.

After the timed events are finished, you go through and resolve the decisions you made. Did you spend too many resources? Did you fail to research some vital technology? Are aliens running amuck in the XCOM base? Let’s hope not.

You lose the game if too many continents go into the panic zone or if you lose the XCOM base. You win the game if you complete the final mission.

We played through the tutorial game pre-programmed into the app. I think it was on “Easy” mode. We did not win. The world was overrun by alien ships and panic reigned supreme.

I for one welcome our new alien overlords.

Chaos Steve

Railways of the Western US

Last night Ben, Owen, Mike Byrd, and I played another game of Railways of the Western US. This is a tough map with lots of mountains. The mountains make building track very expensive. Mike shot out to an early lead and we thought we’d never catch him. We were wrong.

Just before the last turn, I earn 12 points by completing the Golden-Something-Or-Other route of Omaha to San Francisco. You’d think this would surely win me the game? No, it didn’t. I came in third. On the last round, Ben earned 7 points on each of his three actions! You’d think that this would surely win him the game. No, it didn’t. He came in second.

First place went to Owen who won the game without talking a single share of stock! What a monumental railroading feat in and of itself! But on this board as well? Truly remarkable! Well done Owen!

(I am humbled to have shared in Owen’s victory by delivering the cube that earned Owen his first point of the game. He had a hotel at the location. Truly an amazing achievement Owen! I’m glad I was part of it.) J

Chaos Steve

 

Clash of Cultures or How to Lose Against All Odds

This weekend we finished up a Clash of Cultures game. The following is a recount of just one small encounter between Mike and me and how things can go so terribly wrong…for me.

It all began when Mike made a surprise amphibious assault against one of my undefended cities. He basically walked in and took it. Then he built a fortress there.

I had another nearby city with a two army units in it and I knew if I didn’t take the city back on my turn, Mike would reinforce it and I’d never get it back.

So on my turn, having built a couple more units, I attacked my former city with three army units and a cavalry unit that grants +1 for each army unit with it. Mike had one army unit and the fortress.

The fortress has some special abilities that are only good on the first round of combat. I had a technology to negate those abilities, but I didn’t have the resources to use the technology. Four units plus my +3 bonus should be enough to easy take the city back.

To battle In Clash of Cultures, you roll a number of dice equal to your number of units, add up the total and divide by 5. The result is the number of losses the enemy takes.

At the beginning of the first round of battle, Mike plays a card that allows him to roll a d6. On a roll of 5 or 6 he can destroy one of my units. He rolls a 5 and destroys my cavalry.

Now I’m down to three units and I’ve lost my +3 bonus. Still, I have three units to his one. Worse case I may lose all but one of them and still take the city. I can easily kill Mike’s single army unit.

I attack rolling three dice and add them up. My total is 4. On THREE d6 my total is 4! I don’t even get one hit! Mike rolls and kills one of my units.

Now it’s the second round of combat. Mike’s fortress provides him with no bonuses. All he has is a single army unit. I have two. I should easily win.

Mike plays a card. (Darn those cards to heck!) If he rolls a 6 on his attack die he can reroll it and add the two totals together. If his total is 10 or more he can kill both of my units and save his city.

Against all odds, he rolls a 6!

He still needs his reroll to be a 4, 5, or 6…and he rolls a 5!

He decimates my army! His single unit does die, but the city remains his and I now have two unprotected cities a stone’s throw away from him. On his next turn, his armies walk in and take them. And I’m knocked back to the Stone Age with just a few unimproved cities and a worthless leader.

Next time things will be different!

(He’ll probably kill my leader too.)

Chaos Steve

Good Tips from a Bad GM #1

This is my first of possibly many posts of good tips from a bad GM. This is your opportunity to learn from my mistakes! And I make a lot of mistakes!

My first tip is from a game I ran where the players did something I would not have done. This happens all the time really, but in this case, the players should have run from the encounter and instead, for whatever reasons, decided to stay and fight it out despite the fact they really had no chance.

Once they made their decision to stay, they tried a last ditch ruse to distract the forces against them, and I, as a bad GM, let that ruse work too well. I used it as an excuse to let the players off the hook and get away with all the objectives. I should not have done that.

What I should have done is, well, anything but that. After reflecting I realized any of these other alternatives would have been much, much preferable:

– Have them incapacitated and captured, thus setting up an escape game.

– Have them partially succeed with the ruse (which was very good and well executed), but leave them with problems they will have to deal with, such as permanent wounds or consequences that will take some sort of major quest to resolve.

So next time your players make a bone head decision to fight on despite the odds, don’t feel like you have to let them get away with it. And, you don’t have to TPK them to have their crazy decisions reap consequences. It will make for a more fun game in the end!

– Bad GM

Roll thru the Ages, Splendor, Damage Report

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Hey! We played some games this week! In an amazing coincidence we all arrived at Owen’s house very early. Mike was the last to arrive and that let the rest of us play a couple games of Roll Through the Ages. I think Ben won one and Owen won one. I was last both times. The dice hate me.

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Once Mike arrived we played Splendor. Ben has played this game many times. The rest of us had never played it, so we looked to Ben for strategy tips…and then we did the opposite. (Note: it’s a well proven fact that Ben never follows his own advice either.)

The rules for Splendor are simple. Each round you can take some gems, in the form of chips, or you can buy a card using your chips, or reserve a card so you can build it later. Most cards have victory points and that’s how you win the game. The first to 15 is declared the Supreme Poobah or something like that. There are also some special cards that earn you prestige points. These are just like victory points only you add the word “prestige” in front of it to make them sound special.

The first game Ben hoover-ed up all of the cheap cards, so later he could buy expensive cards. I didn’t mention this before, but you can use the cards you buy with chips to later help buy other cards. This was a winning strategy for Ben…who won…by a lot.

The second game went quite differently. Ben waffled on his strategy which caused him no end of distress and long turns. Mike went for HIGH value cards and this nearly won him the game. He may refine this strategy in the future. I used Ben’s strategy from the first game and ended up winning…just barely. Both Owen and Mike were right on the cusp of being able to win as well.

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Our last game was Damaged Report. Everyone but Mike had played this a couple times before. We lost terribly both those times. This game is a literal race against time. Aliens are trying to destroy your ship and you’re trying to either repair the warp engines and get the heck out of dodge, or repair the laser and blow the aliens sky high. All the while you’re taking damage from those pesky aliens.

The first game we one is about 2 minutes. That’s because we cheated. That’s because Ben told us we could.

The next game was a little harder.

Just like in so many movies the robot/synthetic/android (known as Ben) nearly killed us all by delivering the wrong part at a crucial moment. “I’m color blind” was his reason for bringing the wielding torch instead of the wrench. “Mr. Robot was killed in the laser room with the wielding torch.” That’s what we were thinking.

We recovered though and won, literally, by seconds. We blew those aliens to kingdom come.

Chaos Steve

 

Of Firefly, Trains, and Trucks

Over the last couple of months we’ve played lots of games. Ben is still running us through a Savage Worlds 50 Fathoms game, but we’ve also played a lot of board games. Here’s the “catch-up” version of what we’ve been up to.

Firefly: The Game
We enjoyed this game, although don’t believe the playing time on the box. It says two hours, but it took us three evening of about three hours each to finish the game. Granted, it was out first game and I do have to play with Mike, Ben, and Owen who all fret over making a mistake and thus can take a long time working out their optimum move.

Firefly: Out to the Black
This is a Firefly cooperative card game. We played it a couple time because we lost the first game. We don’t like to lose cooperative games. While we liked the game, we didn’t think it was great. More of a ho-hum Firefly card game. We may play it again…and maybe not.

Great Heartland Hauling Co.
This is a card game that includes wooden trucks and cubes. You basically try to make the most money buying, hauling, and selling goods. We like this game. It is fun, doesn’t take too long to play, and has a good amount of strategy involved. We’ll worth the price.

Railways of England and Wales
This is one of our favorites in the “Railways” series of games. It’s also near and dear to the heart of Ben and Owen who both hail from England. Strangely I like it because I somehow know England’s geography better than the US. This is because I’ve learned all of my geography from games.

Rolling Freight
This is another cube moving train game like the “Railways” games, but plays completely different. In the “Railways” game, the initial distribution of the cubes plays hugely into how the game will go and what cities will be popular. In Rolling Freight, I think which board you use plays a much bigger part in your strategy. We used a different board this time. It wasn’t until it was too late that I realized my strategy from the other board was completely wrong for this board. Oh well.

I’m now all caught up. But you didn’t mention… Shut up.

Below are some pictures from our games.

Great Heartland Hauling Co.

Great Heartland Hauling Co.

Railways of England and Wales

Railways of England and Wales

Rolling Freight 1

Rolling Freight 1

Rolling Freight 2

Rolling Freight 2

 

JimCon Fall 2014

They tell me there was a Jimcon on the 3rd of October. They also say I was there. I don’t remember any of it, but if I was there this is what would have happened…

 

Eclipse

Our first game was “Eclipse”. A game we’re going to say is like a Twilight Imperium III Lite version. We started around 10:40 and by 11:00 Ben had committed his first cheat. There was some controversy as to where everyone sat. Ben prefers Evil Mike and I sit next to each other, thus guaranteeing we’d be at each other’s throats for most of the game. Instead Evil Mike sat between Owen and Ben, I was on the opposite side of the galaxy. It’s never good for Evil Mike and Owen to sit next to each other either.

 

In eclipse we each play a species that have their own strengths and weaknesses. Our goal is to earn victory points by exploring new star systems, researching technologies, and building spaceships for both discovery and warfare. The universe is a small place after all and it’s inevitable in this game that you’ll be fighting battles with the other players…scum that they are.

 

There are many dangers and great rewards when exploring new star systems. Evil Mike and Jim both found technologies that quickly enhanced their space ships into objects to be feared by the rest of us. Ben and Owen discovered supernovas near their home worlds. While filled with vast resources, they could explode at any moment. That moment for Ben happened on round 4. Likewise, Mike and Jim discovered an ancient Hive planet in between them. The Hive ships caused them a lot of trouble and resources as they defend their systems from them. I believe at one point Jim got tired of it all and went on the offensive against the Hive.

 

By round four, Evil Mike’s Cruisers were the scourge of the universe with a 6 armor rating and uber-cool plasma canons. Yet he lost in a fight against the evil ancient aliens. Owen and Mike turned out to be bad neighbors. Maybe that was because of a wormhole that also joined their two space realms. Nearly every round they fought to a standstill over the same star system. Since Owen had his own troubles with Mike, this left Evil Mike free to roam the universe. Besides aliens, Evil Mike also attacked Ben. Beneficent Ben, who hasn’t thought of attacking him? Ben was a little put out by it all.

 

On the last round everyone attacked their neighbor. Final round combat results:

Owen neutron bombed two of Mike’s territories worth 4 victory points. I attacked two of Jim’s territories and lost in both battles. Ben attacked two of Evil Mike’s territories and won one (Evil Mike’s home planet) worth 3 VP. Jim attacked Evil Mike at the central planet of the universe and lost. The final scores were mighty close. Owen won with 33 VPs. Evil Mike has 27. Ben had 24. Jim and I tied at 23 and Mike came in last with 21.

 

Solomon Kane Revolutionary War

Next Evil Mike ran us through a Solomon Kane game that takes place in the America’s during the revolutionary war. Our heroic adventurers meet George Washington at Fort Clinton. The Heroes had been having dreams of impending doom where Washington was at the center of it. To our surprise Washington was expecting us. He gave us a mission to rescue Ichabod Crane from the British held village of Sleepy Hollow. If I remember right, an English general by the name of Hodgson is possessed by one of the four horseman of the apocalypse. Either that or he is possessed by one of the horseman’s “agents”. Either way, he is one bloodthirsty general. Ichabod somehow plays a major part in the whole end-of-the-world scenario that is unfolding.

 

The heroes arrive at Sleepy Hollow just as a company of minute men are attacking the British in the square. We charged into the fray and fought to the doors of the governor’s mansion. Tonto (Owen) goes into a berserker rage and smashes through the front door of the mansion while Sheila the thief (Mike) unlocks the back door and sneaks into the cells in the basement

 

In the meantime Giselle (me), the comely gypsy, and Bar Willis (Jim), the marksman, are off to one side of the square shooting and fighting off charging redcoats. Behind Bar and Giselle two men burst out a building. They are locked in mortal combat, swords clashing. The outcome is swift. One is beheaded while the other is mortally wounded. The healer, Trevor ‘miracle max’ did a miraculous healing and resuscitated Ichabod. Upon returning to the living, Ichabod announces that his love, Katrina, has been kidnaped by redcoats. He will not leave Sleepy Hollow until she is rescued.

 

That evening the heroes begin tracking the kidnappers. Just as they arrive at the bridge that announce the entrance to Sleepy Hollow, a man on horseback attacks us. A man without a head! After a fierce fight skillfully executed by the heroes (well, maybe not) we defeat the horseman. Truth be told, it was mostly Nathaniel (Ron) that defeated the horseman.

 

We hear the sounds of many feet moving through the countryside and discover that the evil English general Hodgson has arrived with a plethora of troops. And he has Katrina held captive. His has set up canons on a ridge overlooking the town. We receive word that if Ichabod is not handed over to him, he will bombard the town.

 

The heroes leap into action. Some help evacuate the town. Tonto and Sheila silently climb the ridge to grab Katrina, while the rest of us stage a distraction. The plan quickly falls apart as a parley with the general goes south and one of our silent climbers rolls a critical failure.

 

We do not want to kill the general, but rather capture him if possible. Somehow, when all was said and done, we are able to do this and save Katrina. Truly, we are the unsung heroes of the revolution.

 

Savage Doctor Who

Saturday morning Owen ran us through a Savage Doctor Who game. The adventure continued where episode 1 left off… Hutch wakes up (Mike couldn’t make it last time, so he slept through it in the tour bus.) The Doctor invites us all to accompany him on a trip to Egypt. We all load into the TARDIS and in no time at all are standing in Egypt…a few thousand years ago it seems! It is baking hot – over 100 degrees, but it is a dry heat so we’re good.

 

Nearby is an oasis and a pyramid. The Doctor tells us to look around. We snoop around the pyramid. A large obelisk stands outside of the pyramid’s entrance. On it is an inscription: “Osiris loves you, Osiris welcomes you”. Written in English! Then the Doctor informs us that it’s actually in Egyptian, but that the TARDIS has translated it for us.

 

We approach the oasis and discover a village. After a tense moment we are welcomed into the village. We meet the village chief. The villagers are quite friendly and we mingle. It seems we know their language too! (Thanks TARDIS!) As it gets dark we see two moons in the sky. We begin to think that nothing is ever what it seems with this doctor fellow. None-the-less we enjoy ourselves. Our evening is interrupted by strange creatures, called Dagots, that emerge from the sand and attack the village. They look like scarab beetles, but are two feet long and have a poisonous bite! The doctor is bitten and falls unconscious. After the battle a celebration is held. It seems that the Dagots are a vital part of the villager’s diet. They get to eat fresh meat. (Dagots tastes like chicken.) Later that night, during the Celebration, a gong rings out three times. The villagers are even happier. Some will get to join Osiris! As a thank you, the chief insists we all take their place with the gods. The next morning, after little sleep, our hands are ceremoniously bound (loosely) with a golden cords. The gong rings out again and a door opens at the top of the pyramid. We climb the steps and enter a room that has no exits (other than the one we just entered.) We all remove our bonds and look around. The only door closes and the floor descends like an elevator. Electronic noises are heard. We arrive at a room with two sphinx statues. (Someone just had to touch one.) They are constructs and begin attacking us. After the sphinxes ravage several of us, Hutch is sure we are missing something. Wu Chan (Ron) then remembers the golden cords that bound us earlier. We bind our hands again (loosely) and the Sphinx stop attacking. Once this happens, a door opens. We follow the steps down to the bottom level. This level has several electronic consoles, two large metal “chambers”, and four pads on the floor. This is not Egyptian technology. As we look around the room, the pads on the floor light up and four men appear. They are actually more machine than flesh. We know these are Cybermen (Thanks again TARDIS!). A fight ensues. A couple of them are taken down, but two more appear. It’s a tough fight during which Wu Chan is mortally wounded. The TARDIS materializes and the Doctor emerges (fully recovered from his reaction to the Dagot poison). He is able to save Wu Chan by using one of the large metal “conversion” chambers. After making many adjustments, Wu Chan is placed in the chamber. When he emerges, he still has his own head, but has the body of a Cyberman. [It is likely that the Doctor will drop him off at a cyborg friendly planet to enjoy his retirement. Ron will have a new character next time.] Doctor explains: There are many pyramids dotted around the planet. The Cybermen are using the planet as a “farm”, ensuring a constant supply of humans that can be “upgraded” [This is the term they use when converting someone to a Cyberman.] He speculates that the original people were abducted from Earth thousands of years ago. He uses his sonic screwdriver to send a feedback pulse to the orbital relay station that causes it to explode thus ensuring that the Cybermen cannot return. Once again we are heroes!

 

Savage Conan

Following on the tails of Doctor Who was a Savage Conan game run by me.

 

On the road to Akbitana the heroes come across a large party of bandits attacking a wagon. Aquilonian guards are protecting the wagon as best they can, but many have fallen to the bandits. The heroes charge in, literally, and eventually overcome the bandits. The wagon’s owner Lortus, an Aquilonian merchant, is extremely grateful. He asks the heroes to accompany him to Akbitana where he can properly reward them. He gives each a purse filled with gold coins and throws a party in their honor. The heroes also meet Lortus’s Beautiful daughter Maeve who is mute and seems rather frail. While most of the heroes throw themselves wholeheartedly into the party, a few refrain from partaking. Amo (Evil Mike) searches Lortus’s large library and finds a tomb containing mystical knowledge. (I honestly can’t remember if Lortus gives him the tomb or if Amo steals it. Let’s say he steals it. J )

 

The next morning Lortus implores the heroes to accompany Maeve to an ancient Acheron temple in the mountains between Koth and Khauran. There the heroes hope to find a pool called the “Tears of Acheron” which will heal beautiful Maeve’s afflictions. The route through the mountains is arduous and at one point the heroes had to leave the wagons behind. They come to an ancient bridge spanning a bottomless chasm. They must cross one at a time for fear of the bridge crumbling beneath them. On the far side appears a demon spawned from the depths of ancient Archeon magic. It attacks them. The brave knight Karan charges the demon doing little to no damage against the foul creature. In return the demon strikes Koran with his massive pinchers, lifting him from the ground and opening him up like a can of sardines. Any other man would have died from such grievous wounds, but not Koran. He lay there in a pool of his own filth and blood, alive, but just barely. Gar the barbarian (Owen) quickly comes to his rescue and sunders the demon with a single blow of his mighty axe! It should be noted that Amo helped out by entangling the demon in sorcerous vines.

 

The heroes arrive at the ruins surrounding the ancient Acheron temple. A priest rashly commands them to kneel or leave. The priest believes that the large beasts his minions hold at bay will be enough to cower the heroes. (He obviously didn’t know who he was dealing with.) The beasts, known as lions, are released. The resulting battle was short and brutal. A intimidate from Amo and a headlong charge and beheading from Karan solved the problem of all the kneeling nonsense.

 

At the temple, the heroes solve the riddle of the barred door.

 

The heroes reach the room that contains the pool called the Tears of Acheron. Soon Maeve will be healed. Chop-Chop (Jim) tries to slide under a big heavy curtain only to pull it down on top of himself. There was much cursing (from Chop-Chop) and much laughing (from the rest of us). Khalim the Silent (Ron) and Gar (Owen) have a bit of a scuffle with a crazy dual-sword wielding Acheron leader. But it was Chop-Chop, now free of the deadly curtain, who rushes in and chop-chops him down.

 

Meanwhile Maeve enters the pool. Much mystical weirdness happens as the pool “heals” Maeve. It turns out she is not really the daughter of Lortus, but some vile changeling now imbued with the powers of Acheron. Amo suspected this. (He’s played in my games before.) Maeve calls forth the spirits of the long dead Acheronians who attack the heroes. During the fierce battle that followed, it was Chop-Chop who rushes in and kills the demon lady (formerly Maeve). I think Chop-chop could have completed this adventure without the extra baggage of the other heroes.

 

Sunday we played board games although there is no record of what games we played or who won them. We all had a great time though!

 

Thanks to Jim for hosting again. Thanks to Ben, Owen, and Ron for helping fill in the missing pieces of what happened that weekend. (Why is this sounding like we all went to Las Vegas?)

 

As usual, we’re already looking forward to the next JimCon in spring.

 

 

 

Gen Con 2014

This is the first year in many years that Mike and I were not running a ton of games at Gen Con for Pinnacle. Instead we made plans to play games with friends we already knew. Our only worry was that we knew we couldn’t schedule a gaming table but would be at the mercy of the Gaming HQs. This turned out not to be much of an issue. We found a table in Union Station and pretty much used it the entire convention. Granted, as you’ll see, we did do some “off campus” gaming too.

 

A big Gen Con surprise was driving downtown only to find all of the parking garages were full (on Thursday). We had to drive another 5 or 6 blocks away to find one with empty parking spaces. After leaving the parking garage that evening, we noticed the next parking garage, 50 feet further away, was $12 cheaper. I should mention that on Wednesday, prior to the official start of Gen Con, we got right in “our” parking garage across from Union Station. The attendant went out of his way to make sure we knew where we were going. Somehow he pegged us as Gen Con attenders. Maybe it was the giant “Savage One” on the outside of the truck. Or the black t-shirts.

 

But enough about parking, let’s get into the gaming!

 

Wednesday

We started off Gen Con by playing a big game of Settlers of Catan. Besides Ben, Owen, Mike, and I, there were also our friends Bob Geiger and Shawn Hurst. We realized after opening Mike’s copy of the game, that a few pieces were missing. Undaunted, Owen pieced together the map and figured out a way to use what we had to get the board correct. (Owen’s a genius.) I liked playing Settlers on a larger board with more players. It gives you the illusion of more options. We all soon discovered that many of those options were just that—illusions. Any options quickly dried up as players hoovered up choice settlement spots. Shawn took an early lead by getting the Longest Road bonus. It didn’t last though as several other players also built bigger, longer roads. I was flushed with bricks In the beginning of the game. I was literally trading 4:1 each turn to get wood. Then I finally got the 2:1 Brick seaport. I’m not sure I ever got brick after that. (Stupid game.) Ben ended up winning and there was nothing any of us could do about it. Nothing, I say.

 

Then I ran a Savage Solomon Kane game for the group. We swapped out Bob for Norm at the beginning of the game. Let’s just say the game wasn’t my best work. In the end, the player’s did rescue the lovely Lady Olivia, but are now stranded on an island filled with snake men cultist. (Little do they know that soon after the game ended the island sank into the sea.)

 

We finished the day with a couple games of 7 Wonders. Norm and Shawn had never played it. There are a lot of ways to score points, so it takes a game or two to realize what you should be doing. Norm seemed to pick it up ok, as he came in second with 55 points. I was able to win with 61 points. Shawn tied Ben for third place with 49 points. Mike had 41 and Owen, having a bad game, had 40.

 

Our second game went quite differently. Ben won with 62 points. Mike got second with 60 points. Owen was third with 58 points and I was fourth with 51 points. Norm and Shawn came in last with 44 and 43 points respectively. This is how the first game should have gone…except I would have still won of course.

 

Thursday

I already mentioned the parking surprise. This caused us to unload at the curb a few times, then have Mike go park. This was also the day we got our badges. I tried to get our badges on Wednesday but there were some issues. At one point we weren’t even sure we had badges to get. Here’s a quote from the Exhibitor HQ:

 

“And now *you* understand. Anything goes wrong, anything at all… your fault, my fault, nobody’s fault… it won’t matter – I’m still not giving you badges. No matter what else happens, no matter who gets killed I’m not giving you your badges.”

 

Ok, actually the lady helping us at the Exhibitor HQ couldn’t have been nicer. She’d did everything she could to give us the badges. (I just like that Big Jake quote.) Jodi Black got the badges all straightened out so we were able to get ours.

 

Our first game of the day was Norm’s Hell on Earth game. This was made a little better because we had Teller in the game. Teller actually wrote Hell on Earth (HoE). Norm was nervous about the game; having never run HoE before and having Teller in the game. Teller immediately put him at ease though, because Teller is a great guy. Norm had prepared a cool game where we met a Domiciles solider who had lost his memory. We were trying to help the soldier get back into his bunker which had been taken over by forces unknown. We did this out of kindness and because we knew the bunker was loaded with goodies (weapons, ammo, food…) We had a lot of fun and nearly bought the farm in the end. But thanks to the heroic efforts of our characters we were able to save Denver and probably the world.

 

Following Hell on Earth Mike ran us through an Agents of Oblivion game that he made up on the way to the bathroom…or something like that. Teller stayed for that game too and we had John Goth join us too. John gave us all cool “Night Train” dice. In Mike’s game out team of agents were sent to Amsterdam. The agency knew something dramatic (i.e., bad) was going to happen there soon and it was our job to to find out what. We were to do this job quietly without drawing any attention to ourselves. Out team being who they were ended up nearly leveling a building in downtown Amsterdam. But we did this quietly and without drawing attention to ourselves. A critical failure reading some runes in the middle of the game caused the gates of hell to open later in the middle of downtown Amsterdam. Our bad. And we worked so hard on those runes too. The demon was summoned in a downtown square. It took all of us to put it down…quietly and without drawing attention to ourselves. It will take several years to rebuild Amsterdam after our visit.

 

Friday

Friday was Lake Day. Mike invited all for a day of boating and gaming on his deck by the lake. It started off rocky with Mike forgetting his bag—we had to turn around—and then McDonalds refusing to wait on a couple of us. I swear we had our invisibility suits turned off! But they failed to see us or wait on us. Later after cruising the lake, we ate at Anthony’s pizza. We all gave it two thumbs up.

 

Back at the dock, we sat on the deck and Norm ran us through a Savage Shadowrun game. It was fantastic. We had an absolute blast! We planned on staying and playing until dark, but circumstances changed and sent us home early. That was ok though, we all got to rest up for Saturday.

 

Saturday

On Saturday we continued playing Savage Shadowrun until dinner time. We really played two games. In the first game our team injected a virus into the lab of some secret facility. In the second game, we were hired to find a missing singer who was a rising star in the industry. The second game pivoted on the first. (Norm’s a genius.) I’m sure Norm will have more Savage Shadowrun goodness for us in the furture!

 

After dinner, instead of finding a gaming table downtown, we went to Mike’s house. Mike ran us through a Savage Tarsa game. Tarsa is a setting that he and his friends (Lee and Shawn) have developed over the years. It’s a sci-fi setting. It was late when we played and I must say I was completely out of it. This is a continuing game and we did move the game forward, but not by much. (I think I blacked out right after Mike said, “Ok, let’s start.”)

 

Sunday

Sunday was dealer room day. We started at the back and walked down every isle. This took us the better part of five hours. We bought a lot of cool stuff and left even more cool stuff behind due to not being independently wealthy. We wore out Mike’s son, Alex. He left us early to find someplace to sit down. He guarded our stuff with Jack Sparrow’s sword though. His Gen Con purchase.

 

We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!

 

 

 

 

50 Fathoms: The Not-Quite-a-Ghost Ship

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Ben – GM
Owen – Harlow Hinde, Masaquani
Mike – Pete, Kraken
Evil Mike – Ankas, Scurillian
Alex – Reconaki “Green”, Kehana
Steve – Potts, Grael

Last week we left Keira and were sailing to Brigandy Bay (or Baltimus, or someplace else. I’m not the captain, I’m a grael. I go where the ship goes.) We’re carrying a cargo of munitions and two passengers. A princess and a purported magic user.

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We took on a new party member. A krakin by the name of…uh…Pete. We immediately regretted this when he critically failed the first roll of the game. A Notice roll that would determine our future. But fortune smiled on us and a giant red parrot pooped on Pete. The parrot was Carifax who belonged to Tressa the Red. More poop to follow.

We took a wrong turn at some seaweed and ended up spotting another ship. As we drew near we saw no movement on board. The ship seemed in good repair with no obvious damage. We boarded. Then things went dark…for two reasons. A thick fog quickly moved in and Octopons (octopus-like humanoids) cast Blindness on several of us. I think my Grael was the only one to actually go blind. The Grael immediately cast Iron Skin for protection. The increased weight caused him to break through the ship’s deck, twice, and land very ungracefully on the ship’s hull. Several of the party were already fighting Octopons there.

We eventually overcame the Octopons. Searching the ship we found treasure and a few magic items. We decided to keep the ship. With some cleaning up it would make a nice addition to our new fleet.

We continue to wherever, but now have to cut through the Flotsam Sea.

What part of “Chaos Steve” don’t you understand?

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