Ruchtcon II

Last year (has it been a year already?) I headed north to attend our buddy's birthday mini-con appropriately titled "Ruchtcon". Well, he's going to have his hands full come this spring, so Ruchtcon II was bumped up to November of this year, it's subtitle being "Thanksgaming". Unfortunately, I was the only local to travel up there this time around, but the flipside of that was that I could stay for much longer than we did last time, and not that I thought it possible, but I had even more fun this year than last to boot.

A gaming schedule was set up again this year, but it wasn't quite as packed full and time sensitive as last time. Also, many people (myself included) brought stacks of boardgames and other "pick up" games for people to pull out on a whim. A few food runs were in order to local restaurants and such, and snacks and drinks were kept simple at the house. Sleeping arrangements were scattered and sundry, and I'm thinking Rucht needs to invest in an addition to his house in the form of a barracks! All in all, it was a blast.


3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

Last year I was set to run a game of Spirit of the Century, but personal reasons cut my trip short and I had to bail. I felt bad, 'cause a lot of peeps had "signed up" to play it too. I made up for it this year by running 3:16 on Friday night for a group of four. I am now convinced that 3:16 really is the perfect con game too; character creation is a breeze, everyone can make their own from scratch and after explaining the process you're still looking at twenty minutes, tops. The rules mechanics are slick, fast, and easy, and you get thrown right into the action and it doesn't let up until your time slot is over. Plus, prep work on the GM's part is minimal, if you know the rules, and have half an imagination, you can put on a good game everyone will enjoy. I overheard conversations all weekend long about the game, so I think the players genuinely had a blast and would probably play it again.

I should do up a post just on the night of 3:16 I ran. As you can see I broke out the Lego troops again, and coupled with an excellent Brickarms arsenal, there were some absolute tough hombres created for the game. I made PC "construction" part of the process and at first my players were caught off guard, but got into it quickly. How can you not, it's Legos! The 3:16 rulebook is always talking about how the game is a chance to let the GM's imagination "shine" and I had the troopers facing down a host of nefarious aliens. These were the hairless Mer-Apes of Brinkwater 9 armed with mollusk spine gauntlets that could stop technology, the shadow Rays of the Haxtes Belt, with their uncanny ability to isolate the troopers from reinforcements, and finally, the short proto-bears of a forest moon, armed with third-party slug guns and a penchant for guerrilla warfare (and suicide bombings).


Zombie Cinema

Although not on the "official schedule", this little gem made a couple of appearances. We've played it quite a bit locally, and I guess Rucht liked it after playing it a few times here, because he went and picked his own copy! As far as a quick pick-up RPG goes, that's accessible by pretty much anyone you'd put around a table, this one's got it. Plus, it's got zombies, which would make a very unexpected theme of the entire weekend. I played it once, had a blast, but on the second night a large table-full got together and ran through a great sounding sessions. I only got pieces of it, but hardcore gamer and casual passer-by alike were having a rousing good time, judging from their laughter and excitement.

My character, a skater youth, got off the board pretty quick, but that allowed me more time at the helm of the zombies themselves. A recently divorced washed-up athlete, a withdrawn family man, and a mentally unstable health care worker rounded out the survivors. Zombie dogs made their appearance and added a terror element we haven't had before in Zombie Cinema, and by the end, with our survivors at sea, we had, yes, zombie sharks! The sharks weren't bitten, they turned of course after eating the zombies who were swimming after the survivors on the boat. As always, good stuff abounds.


Monsterpocalypse

Well sheesh, I've been hyping this game here at Mik's Minis how long now? Forever it seems, well, I finally got a full-fledged game under my belt. The verdict? Good, pretty good. I'm not rushing out to buy it tomorrow, but that may have to more with a tight budget than anything else. The collectible aspect is a turn off for me, but everything else about this game was pretty cool. It offers all those great "pro wrestler" types of moves you'd expect of giant monsters smashing a city (and each other) and a neat die allocation strategy that keeps it interesting. Your giant monsters are of course the stars of the game, and the little units form part of a secondary game that's all about controlling objectives.


Mouse Guard

Well, very recently I told you about my brief tenure with this amazing little game. I did take my copy back, and much to my chagrin. Having a game under my belt now, I've got to figure out how to talk Miller into running it back home! Obviously, if you've read the comics, you know what a great world MG exists in, and the RPG is even better. It is a roleplayer's dream game to boot. There are a lot of players in the world, and for those that love character development, in-game dialogue, and interaction, this is their game, it's just that good. For con games you usually run some dungeon crawl type adventures, but the players at our table got a game steeped in not just action, but story and atmosphere too.

We went back in time a couple of years before the time period in the comics and were sent on a mission by Gwendolyn herself. We set off to the Dark Heather to determine what new weapon the Weasels were developing to wipe out the mouse territories. Along the way, our patrol occupied their time in mentoring the tenderpaw with us by teaching him all manner of skills and lessons. Our party consisted of two older veterans with a long history (ala partnerships like Riggs and Murtaugh), the tenderpaw who had a strong sword arm and was well on their way to earning a place in the Guard, and a loner scout who was as quick with her blades as her tail was long. The weather proved to be our worst enemy, and in the final leg of our journey, the snows came and buried us (literally!) in our tracks.


Battlestar Galactica

I now know why I saw this game being played last year, and why it was still brought out this time, it's just plain fun and has a strong replay value. I sat in on it this time, and wasn't disappointed in the least. I must admit, I couldn't get past the pilot episode of the new version of the show, so many of the nuances of this game flew right over my head. I played the Apollo character, but not seeing Richard Hatch on my stat card was still unsettling! It's a co-op game, but there is a hidden traitor element that exists as well. Even though we found the traitor early on, it was still an uphill battle as we struggled to the end game. Sadly, we weren't able to pull it off, but it was definitely a fun journey getting there.


Spirit of the Century

We've played a lot of SotC here at home, but those games are becoming more and more in the past. My task is now two-fold, get Miller to start up Mouse Guard, and get Andy to take up the reins again on SotC, which might be hard since he's running both Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader right now, but I will still try my best!

Playing SotC with a large group and a new GM was a great experience and showed me this pulp action RPG in a whole new light. The main difference was the fact that the PC's all had access to the "stunts" feature of character creation, something we've been playing without. Stunts work a lot like feats, and augment your skill checks considerably. I've never seen so many success rolls in the range of 9-12 in my life, and it really accentuated the over-the-top cinematic feel that is the nature of the game. Also, the PC's had access to lots of gadgets, such as their own biplanes and dirigibles, which was pretty cool, and even better was a PC who was a complete artificial lifeform, an automaton named "Owen". One PC not chosen, which I thought was a neat idea, was a Century Club member from one hundred years in the future, trapped in the past. It was a good mix of characters, backgrounds, and power types.

The GM was cool enough to let me bring my own character, the jungle lord Altarrock along too. Given the serialized pulp nature, I thought this was great, allowing my guy to kind of wander into a guest role with this other party and then wander out when it was over with. This game was one for the books, it had plenty of solid roleplaying and pulp action, great storyline and plot, and a whopping seven players at the table!


Zombies!!!

Late Saturday night Zombies!!! was broken out as a pick-up game. I had heard of it before, seen it on the shelves, but never played it. Wow, it was a lot of fun, incredibly easy to pick up on the fly, and something I may just have to pick up. No, make that something I will pick up, now when that is, I don't know, but it's on the wishlist now!


"Badges? Yeah, we need some stinkin' badges!"

In 3:16, your characters earn 'badges' in between missions. I mentioned I thought the game went well, but personally, I had a blast running Friday night's 3:16 game. Afterwards, as a total joke, I drew 3:16 "badges" on the cups of the players who were all seated at my table once the game was over. Well the trend picked up, and whenever a game was finished, the sharpie would come out and more badges were drawn. The next thing I know, players wrapping up games in other parts of the house that I wasn't even a part of were bringing me their cups between sessions looking for their next badge, haha. It was great, and added just an extra fun element to an already great weekend. Cleaning up a little on Sunday morning, I found several cups that had badges on them that I didn't even draw, rock on!

On my cup above, starting with the top row my own badges were as follows: Zombie Cinema, 3:16, Monsterpocalypse, Mouse Guard, Battlestar Galactica (that's supposed to be a Cylon head, forgive me), Spirit of the Century, and Zombies!!! (the exclamations are part of the title), the last badge is the "three day badge" for attending the whole 'con'. Rucht got a 'host' badge, and Dave got a 'miles' badge for having driven the furthest to attend. I'm hanging on to mine, as a trophy, and I think I just got a new pencil holder to boot.

I had about an hour and a half drive to get home, and all I could think about was A) how much fun I had and all the cool people I got to meet and game with, and B) how I was going to incorporate a lot of what I saw into the next Mikmas (its tenth anniversary this year). If you can't tell, I had a blast, and am glad Rucht has put this shindig together two years running now. Also, and its hard to put into words exactly, but I'm glad to see that since Rucht moved, he's got a good group of friends to hang out and game with.

Okay, there was more than just a couple of things, truth be told, there's also a "C", and that's how to get Andy and Miller to run Spirit of the Century and Mouse Guard respectively. All right, there were a lot of video gamers there, and since Dragon Age Origins just came out, there was a lot of positive hype being talked about it as well, so I guess there's also a "D" in there, and that was how to scrounge up sixty bucks to snag a copy!

Horror on Holbein

Planet: Holbein
Type: Pleasure Planet
Alien Threat Level: 5
Alien Type: Sharks
Alien Ability: Suicide
Primary Mission: Assault

"Ever haunted by the trappings of this life
Sweet redemption just in front of me
Well now it seems once again that I've lost another
One of the ones who have broke through the wall, damned
Fate won't compromise
I have sold my soul and now the devil's laughing"
-"Guarded", Disturbed

Holbein is the third planet from the central star. It is an Earth sized planet with large, arctic poles and a lush, tropical belt. The main industry of Holbein is that it is a pleasure planet, seeing to the needs of a host of alien beings. The beauty of Holbein is idyllic, and the planet boasts touch-sensitive rocks, attuned to the user's emotional levels. Plants resonate a low psionic frequency that responds to nearby lifeforms, enhancing a sense of calm. Massive circular cities sit atop large belts of coral reefs.

An impressively large number of the fleet from the 3:16 surrounds the planet's equatorial belt while maintaining high anchor. The planets orbital stations were disabled by ship=based EMP weapons. At the coordinated time, each warship will launch a host of dropships to make first assault contact. Once a perimeter has been established, support will follow.

Lieutenant Satan's dropship, the Hell Hound, has been fitted with four "bunker buster" deep penetrating missiles. Poseidon Company's primary targets are a series of domed complexes. Each domes houses three to six pool levels, each one with a transparent floor. The objective is to land the dropship through the primary dome, engage the hostiles, secure the perimeter, and wait for support from Proteus Platoon. Prior to breaching the main dome, the dropship will fire its "bunker buster" missiles into the dome. Recon photos show what could be a control room on the bottom level, secure that room and wait for support. Anomalous radar signatures show inconsistent patterns in the complex's sub-basement level.

Monday Update

No, this isn't another Space Hulk post, haha...

Things have been a tad quiet around Mik's Minis, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything (but I'm not exactly busy either). I had mentioned a while back that the RPG's have really heating up around here, and that's been the bulk of it.


Part of our new world...Sarterra

We've had a couple of 4e games under our belts now, and so far it's been fun. Originally we were going to use Goodman Games Aerth setting with the PC races out of the PHB and PHB2. Then the idea of using the free PDF, Dawn of Worlds came up. Dawn of Worlds is a loose rules system that helps a group collaboratively build their own world, literally, from the ground up. It plays as an independent game and consists of three distinct phases; geography, races, and relations. Die rolls determine how many points each player gets per turn and then you buy options from there creating everything from Avatars, races, mountains, valleys, and the like. In each age, different items will cost more or less than they did in another age. We're about halfway through the second age and it's been a blast.

You can also create different orders, religions, and sects within the same race, or create sub-races as you like. You can corrupt your own race, (or someone else's), or consequently purify someone's race, city, land, etc. I loved Legend of the Five Rings back in the day, so I made some of the first races I created be the Naga and the Nezumi. Since I've rolled up a couple of Half-Orcs to play in the campaign, I made sure to give them a rich background as well. So far we have put together six avatars, sixteen races/sub-races, a dozen order/sects, and have also fleshed out another dozen cities as well. All of this took place after we took turns and created just the layout and geography of the world. I've been having so much fun writing fluff, backgrounds, and planning races, I almost forgot that we were actually building a world for a DnD campaign. The rules are free, and are definitely worth trying out. I'll start a series of posts about the new and tweaked races I've been putting forth.


We also kicked off a new Dark Heresy game. We have a large group of players for this game, seven in fact, so I thought I'd try to go for a non-combat type character. I chose Adept and will try to be as hands-off in combat situations as I can. Witha seven part group, sure, no problem. Of course when we played our first game the other day, ahem, a whopping four weren't able to make it. My knowledgeable Adpet had to learn how to shoot...quick! It was a good game, I love the Dark Heresy genre and setting, and I'm getting better acquainted with the rules and think I sold them a bit short before, it really is a great system.


I haven't mentioned 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars in a bit, but I'm happy to say the troops should, barring any interruptions, hit dirtside in just a couple of days. I'll try to get up a mission report once the dust has cleared. I've also got all those new Brickarms guns to break in too, so it should be an all around good time, I've got some nifty bad guy aliens on the first planet to harangue the troopers with.

So that's about all I've got for now. I've got a desk full of minis in the queue to paint up, but ugh, I've not been motivated at all to get to work. I also started reading False Gods, the second book of the Horus Heresy series, so I should wrap that up soon.

The Boys of Delta Squad

"Listen up you apes! We got FNG's inbound and new weapons!"

My last post of equipping 3:16 troopers was a while back, and consisted mostly of the NPC's of Poseidon company in my little vision of the wide 3:16 'verse. Having a couple of live-fire missions under our belt now, here's the PC's of the campaign.

I'm still tweaking it as we go along, and visually, the troopers have been toned down just a tad. I wanted individuality for the players, but still look the part of a military unit. I've been using a lot of Alpha Team and Agents bodies, which have been great, but as I add more Space Police sets to the collection, they're gonna be the new standard.

These newer bodies are just too good; militant gray, printed backs and legs, obvious carapace armor all over...they look great. Another direction I wanted to go in was while at the same time unifying the look, I wanted players to feel they could personalize as much as possible for individuality. The first time around I used Insectoid helmets / shoulders, but (as in the rulebook) they obscured all the features that make a player human.

I've devised "types" of MandelBrite armor depending on the extremes of the environment. Most of the time the players will be in light (Type I) armor, allowing them to have personal affects, such as cowboy hats, hair pieces, and the like. Type II armor might call for the beefier shoulder armor, but still no bubble helmet needed (maybe gas masks), and of course Type III armor will be for poisonous environs or EVA activity.


Lieutenant Satan

The 'LT' gained a rank after his actions on Klimt. The unbridled freedom he has found in the Expeditionary Forces will carry him far. His weapon of choice is the sidearm, which he continues to upgrade for maximum carnage.


Trooper Out

Out communicates subvocally over the squad's comm system, his voicebox being ritually removed before he left Terra. Once a member of a monastic temple of assassins, Out now plies his deadly trade in the Expeditionary Forces. Preferring to engage his targets up close, his weapon of choice is the combat shotgun.


Trooper Buzz

This big Russian has seen action dirtside on both Klimt and Matisse. Good humored and dependable, Buzz is the type of trooper the Expeditionary Forces are built on. He has great affinity for his trusty M41a pulse rifle, and is never seen without it.


Trooper Jericho

Not interested in promotion, or even having synthskin to cover his cybernetic enhancements, Jericho is an enthusiastic, somewhat reckless force of nature on the battlefield. Equipped with the devastating heavy MG, he is always found where the fight is thickest.


Trooper Sockeye

Many a trooper has been saved at the last minute by a long distance sniper shot from Sockeye's energy rifle. Sockeye is often used in forward roles by his platoon, operating alone scouting enemy positions and engaging them as necessary.


Corporal Duke

Duke is a Delta Squad veteran, and has efficiently been the squad's corporal for some time. His E-Cannon has been modified beyond regulation specs and his kill counter totals post-missions have been some of the highest seen during this campaign.


The A.S.S. (adaptable statistics servo-droid)

I was toying around with the idea of having a robot for the squad to lug around, I still don't know. It sounds like the players are leaning towards a higher-tech campaign, so a walking 'bot may not be necessary. It would've provided field data, communications, and the like (and probably get blown up, eaten, crushed, and destroyed every mission).

August Updates

By the time of this post, all the cayennes turned a nice, bright red

Well the pics tell the tale really, I've been pulling a lot of stuff out of the garden towards the end of the summer here. Other than that, I've been in a bit of a funk going into August in general, not just gaming, or otherwise, just an overall 'bleh'. I know that starts this off on a down note, so let's focus on the good stuff happening around here.

We've really ramped up the roleplaying, more so than it has been in years, literally. The pendulum usually swings one way or the other, but for a while there it was heavy on the minis and there was little to no roleplaying at all. Our queue is starting to stack up too, so there's no shortage of games to try out and new genres to explore.


A single 'pull' one day from the backyard

Our 4e campaign is officially underway, and although I've had a lot of fun with it, I just can't get sold on a character class or concept. For my birthday (which was a brilliant white light of happiness amidst my gloom) I received the PHB2. In there I was intrigued with all kinds of new options and mechanics, especially the 'primal' heroes. I toyed around with either the Drow Rogue, or Dwarf Summoner as my secondary characters, but the Druid class really appeals to me, plus I have a neat twist planned for both my characters.

We've gotten more than few games of Zombie Cinema under our belts too and the more I play that game the more I love it. If you've got a laid back group with a fair amount of creative juices and a penchant for a system with hardly any structure, then I'd recommend it for you. We tried a couple of mechanics this last time which I thought really added to the game, at least it made the game much more enjoyable for me personally. We also took it in a new direction and instead of zombies, we put it smack dab in the middle of Cameron's Aliens film and mirrored closely an LV426 type colony besieged by acid-for-blood critters. It was a lot of fun, and we rolled through the game at a fast pace given the familiarity we all had with the setting. Also I think the new rules variations we tried contributed to this.


These little puppies are all bright orange now...and delicious!

After all the talk of 3:16 here lately, we've been getting into that as well. I've recently posted a couple of 'mission briefings' and I'm hoping to add to those with player-written accounts of the action through their character's perspective. I haven't run a game in a long time, and I completely floundered out of the box halfway through the first session. I did recover, and it went well after that. We played a second game and I felt I had my sea legs finally. The game is great, but really it's what you and the players make it together, it doesn't give you a whole lot to go on, so it takes interaction on everyone's part. Also for my birthday I ordered a slew of Brickarms weapons to properly outfit the PC's for their next mission.

As you can see, I've done a whole page here of talking about nothing but roleplaying! The pendulum has definitely swung in that direction. We've just kicked off a new Dark Heresy campaign on a trial-run basis, not to mention the Rogue Trader book comes out this month. Savage Worlds has garnered a lot of interest with the group as of late, and we've always got Spirit of the Century to go to as well, which is one of my faves.

In the miniatures department there's a lot of cricket chirping going on. I have a mere two figs in my immediate queue to paint, and they're easy ones at that, and yet they sit their in their lonely white primer doing nothing. The creator of PKowboys is talking of doing a second edition and looking for playtesters. I played a lot of the first edition, and enjoyed it thoroughly, so I think we may get in on the playtest for second. We've also been looking at some very small scale fantasy miniatures to do, and next week will try out Chain Reaction's free Swordplay rules. Hopefully like their cousin 5150, they'll be fun.

That's it for now, I'll keep y'all posted with more geeky goodness...

Massacre on Matisse

Mission Briefing: Planet Matisse

planet type: desert world
alien threat: class 5
alien type: flying
alien ability: enrage
secondary mission: investigation

"I lost my soul when I fell to earth
My planets called me to the void of my birth
The time has come for me to kill this game
Now open wide and say my name."
-"Space Lord", Monster Magnet

Matisse is the first planet from its sun with habitable zones in the Tycho system. It is a large world covered in barren deserts of a multitude of colorful sands and soils. The atmosphere is very arid and thin, yet breathable by human standards. The vastness of its plains and colorful sands will prove difficult for the unaided eye to comprehend. Mild sandstorms across the surface are not uncommon, but are fortunately only a minor irritants and pose no real threat to expedition ground forces. Type 1 MandelBrite suits recommended.

The natives of Matisse are a biped race averaging four and a half feet tall. They are slim creatures with two pairs of wings that greatly resemble those of dragonflies back on Mother Terra. The aliens have a unique emotional signature on their heads and test subjects have shown that the more agitated and aggressive they become, the greater the short tendrils on their heads will pulsate with chemical fire.

The defenses of the Matisse aliens comprised surface-to-air turrets that fired two meter long shards of a synthesized crystal able to bring down an expedition landing craft. It is unknown why the natives needed these installations. The individuals of what could best be termed the warrior cast carried long, arm-affixed cannons that fired bursts of needle-like crystals. These "fire lances" could also be used in melee to impale their victims. The aliens lived in underground complexes accessible by earthen mounds on the surface.

Delta squad of the 3:16 had suffered severe casualties from their last mission, and were resupplied with a number of new troopers. This would be the first combat drop of their budding careers. In addition to engaging the enemy with zeal and tenacity, a side mission was put in Lt. Satan's hands personally by the Ministry of Peace. Members of another squad in a separate company were suspected of selling stolen alien tech from planet Klimt. Delta squad was to investigate and report back their findings.

Clash on Klimt

Mission Briefing: Planet Klimt

planet type: dense atmosphere
alien threat: class 6
alien type: sentient planet
alien ability: leaping
secondary mission: propaganda

"Satan's Finest"

Planet Klimt is the fourth planet in the Tycho system. Klimt is a small planet, roughly half the size of Mother Terra, and has a densely clouded atmosphere, making initial scans of the surface difficult. The surface atmosphere is thick with vapor and lower cloud formations with a poisonous gas mixture; type 2 MandelBrite suits recommended.

The natives were quickly eliminated with gene-engineered chemical bombs from orbit over the major population centers with the virus spreading quickly from there. Fourteen days later, kill-teams swept the surface and gave the all clear signal. Science teams moved into the metropolitan areas for study, but contact was soon lost. It was determined that the flora and fauna of the planet had become aggressive and began attacking expedition ground forces. Expedition gene bombs weren't engineered for these lifeforms.

Astaroth battalion of the 3:16 was sent in.

The nature of the planet wasn't fully understood until the Ministry of Peace sent in their own SPECTREs to investigate. Using seismic generators, they were able to provoke the planet into exerting its will through the various types of flora and fauna. Once this will was exerted, the SPECTREs were then able to track the control signals of the planet itself to several hive nexus nodes below the surface. Each individual squad in the battalion was given a localized nuclear explosive to place in the hive node for detonation.

The SPECTRES would also use this opportunity to document ground forces in action to send back to Mother Terra as testimonial to man's galactic achievements. The following is one such given testimonial by a trooper of Delta Squad:

My Conformist Counselor back on Terra had strongly suggested the Expeditionary Forces were right for me, and, as always, she was correct. I may not have racked up as many kills as some of the other pukes in training, but my ability to keep my **** together when it hit the fan saw me rapidly promoted to Sergeant of Delta Squad, Gorgon Platoon, Poseidon Company.

I further demonstrated my abilities on our first mission to Klimt by coolly dispatching aliens with only my sidearm as I led our small part in the destruction of this sentient planet. I used the Strength of my memories of the first time I left Terra, [when] they removed my Testosterone Negator and Aggression Inhibitors. I had never felt so free and alive! Delta squad followed me to the underground hive nexus target, planted our suitcase nuke [this portion removed by the Ministry of Peace] and got the **** out of there. I earned my callsign, Satan, and a promotion to Lieutenant of Gorgon Platoon for being cold and cool in the ****.

This is the life!! I can’t wait to do my time out here and return to Terra to live out my days in peace and happiness. -Lieutenant Epsilon, 'Satan'

3:16 Meets Lego

The NPC crew of 3:16

Obviously 3:16 has been getting a lot of airplay here at Mik's Minis. We're on the verge of playing our campaign, and I'm excited about it!

Well, it's hard to get away from Legos in whatever I do, and this is no exception. The look and feel of 3:16 is over-the-top-carnage (carnage is in the title even), so I went for this style with the figs. Their MandelBrite armor needs to look tough, and menacing, and the trickiest part is capturing those ambiguous, domey helmets. I dove deep in the Lego bins and pulled out some Insectoids shoulder armor and helmets that work beautifully. The weapons were fun to make, and incorporate both new ideas and some borrowed ones.

There's still human beings inside the armor, so I had to capture individual personalities while at the same time keeping it militant and sci-fi. Somehow I lucked into using nothing but heads that have headset microphones, and were all different to boot. This was a blast tinkering around with, and I'll let the pics and captions speak for themselves. Enjoy!


Captain Baker and Major Hibernus Mortis


Trooper Lubbock, Sergeant Burns, and Trooper Falco


Tech Support Troopers Jenkins and Jackson


The guns of 3:16


Captain Baker and the bayonet-fixed Heavy MG


Sgt. Burns and his trusty Rocket Pod


Trooper Falco hefts the deadly E-Cannon


Major Mortis, cool and reserved with his PowerClaw and sidearm


Trooper Lubbock and his lucky Flame-Gun


Trooper Falco with the Flechette (needler) Gun


Sgt. Burns with the reliable, drum-fed Shotgun and combat knife


Captain baker inspects a trooper's Energy Rifle


Tech Support with standard issue Slug Rifles


Arms and armor inspection prior to planetfall


Dirtside and ready!


Another blog banner attempt...

Thoughts on 3:16

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

Well, we ended up not playing 3:16 last week, we had a lot of things popping up in those pesky adult lives of ours. Originally it was just going to be Andy, fresh from Historicon, missing the game, but he was supposed to be running it! I offered to do a dry run for everyone else, just to get used to the rules. The more I read up on the rules, the more I liked them though, and somehow I ended up cockblocking Andy's seat as GM. Sorry again Andy, ahem! It's just as well, 'cause I haven't pulled my GM weight in a long while.

So I'm running a 3:16 campaign now, woohoo! Of course we've yet to play, but I'm confident. In classic form I over-prepared off the bat, crunching through a whopping five pages of notes. I need to relax and just have fun with it. Having read the rulebook now a couple of times in detail however, a lot of realizations are coming to me about 3:16.

On the outside it seems like fun, campy, machismo alien-killing free form RPG. It's simple to run, and once everyone's on board, it's a blast...literally. But there's more to it, a lot more, and although it's cheesy to just say "play the game and it'll hit you", I can see where that's a spot-on way to describe it. It's subtle, almost too subtle at first.

The best way I can think to describe it is while the left hand has your attention, waving in the air, the right hand is about to punch you in the gut. This thing's got a lot more under the hood than the fad-of-the-week sci-fi RPG than you think of at first glance. It'll still be a blast, trust me, but in the long run I know it will yield more than just an M41a alien-blasting thrill ride that I was only giving it credit for initially.

And how's this for irony: this post is number 316...

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars

"Out-Verhoeven's Verhoeven." - Robin D. Laws

There are a handful of new RPGs to come out in the last couple of years that have piqued my interest, but nothing has quite grabbed me as Hutton's 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars. Wow, just at initial glance and read-through I was pretty much hooked, everything about it, from art to story screamed "Mik".

The premise is simple enough, and nothing we haven't seen before; grab your gun, lock and load, and go rid the galaxy of an alien threat. But that's it, in its simplicity there's little more to it, no overly complex genre or timeline or storyline, just you and your squad mates hitting dirtside and squashing a few bugs (or cephaloids, man-apes, dino-troopers, oozes, etc...).

Your character sheet has two stats, Fighting and Non-Fighting, that's it. Either you're pulling a trigger, throwing a grenade, using a knife...or you're running a bypass on a door, driving an APC, calling in air support, etc. Your hit points/wound tracker is summed up as "A Mess", "Crippled", and "Dead". Your goal is to go to a variety of alien worlds, and destroy them before they can threaten good ole Terra back home. Your guns do damage/kills by die type, there's no saving throws or what not, if you roll a 12 on 2d10, then that's how many aliens you just wiped out. You gain levels by achieving new ranks, and you get new ranks based solely on how many kills you've racked up in your career.

Your MandelBrite armor will only save your hide once per planet, so your other ace in the hole comes in the form of flashbacks. If you're taking a hammering and about to become ground beef, you can use a flashback (positive or negative) and either win, or lose, on your own terms narrating the outcome and how your flashback ties into it.

There's a deliberate, nebulous atmosphere to the game, it's light on...pretty much everything, to give the GM and players ultimate control and flexibility to really make it their own. There aren't any combat mechanics other than 'close', 'near', and 'far', and where your characters are in relation to those ranges (determining weapon effectiveness). The flavor of the writing is very down-to-Earth, and humorous at times, including a chapter titled "Other Trooper Sh!t" detailing non-combat equipment and gear. And it's the artwork that takes the cake, as with the rules, the images give a glimpse of something larger, but done in a non-obtrusive way to let the viewer draw their own conclusions from what they've seen.

I just ordered my hard copy of the rules (for less than twenty bucks) from FRPGames, or you can get a PDF copy even cheaper. We've got our first game scheduled in just a couple of days, so I'll post back and let you know how it went.