There's a Fire Beetle in my Narcotic!

Well I'm happy to say that our official game of Legends of Anglerre, the fantasy FATE engine has officially kicked off and we have the first session under our belts. Unlike a lot of the mid-week roleplaying games we do from time to time, this one is not a limited run or a one-shot. For this FATE romp we've ambitiously made a go at an open-ended, ongoing campaign.

When I posted the write-up for the Bulwark a while back I was getting warmed up for it to be part of the overall atmosphere. One cool thing we did, prep-wise, for this campaign was use the world creation, standalone fractal RPG, Microscope, to hash out all of the background details. I liked doing it this way because the world creation by itself was a fun side adventure, and it always guarantees that all the players are on-board with the backdrop since they all had a hand in creating it.

Another item in the 'trying something different' department is that we're using the Obsidian Portal RPG wiki site to host all of our characters, legends, NPC's, items, and more. The name of the campaign is The Tainted World, and you can find it here. We're going with a magical-infused, alternate reality Earth where the ruins of the civilization we all know and love (and currently reside in) are all around. Rather than copy and paste the first adventure here, if you are interested in reading, you can check out the adventure log here.

A couple of other quick notes, since FATE does use some specialized dice, and instead of borrowing all the time, I did pick up my own set of these very cool Fudge dice from Q-Workshop. Also, as usual, the Minions of the Monster Master have recorded a lot of this material in actual play, and extremely explicit, podcast episodes. If you check them out, you've been warned!

That's it for now, I'll try to get some stuff posted about my character, items, and what-not soon. I think a blog is about the only socially acceptable place to talk about your characters, right?

The Bulwark

The Bulwark has stood time immemorial as one of the cornerstones of the city of Warsaw. Some say it stood ground when the city itself was a mere trading hub, when oral histories replace recorded works it is always hard to determine.

The Bulwark is home to the Sentinels of KORE, a warrior cult that have occupied its halls for as long as anyone can remember. The Bulwark is surrounded by a short but thick defensible wall with intermittent battlements. A curious feature considering it is within the confines of the city proper. It is assumed that it is an architectural remnant from an earlier time. Part temple, part training grounds, even part meadery, the Bulwark seemingly provides for the needs of the KORE Sentinels whatever they may be.

• The Hall of Heroes: The path leading to the Bulwark's main entrance is lined with stone statues venerating Sentinels of old. Within the hall are iconic weapons held in cases and on display as well as tapestries detailing the history of the KORE Sentinels.
• The main level also houses the living quarters of the leaders of KORE, as well as an enormous dining hall replete with a full tavern.
• The Barracks: The first level below ground is dedicated wholly to the living quarters for the rest of the Sentinels. At their fullest capacity the Sentinels number one hundred individuals and the barracks below are able to comfortably house them all. Quarters range from several bunks together to individual rooms for one occupant. Accommodations are made for those whose physical makeup require additional room such as half-giants, centaurs, and the like.
• The second level below the Barracks is home to only two entities; the Inner Sanctum and the Armory. The Inner Sanctum is a large, vaulted chamber with dozens of shrines to a number of deities far and wide. Sentinels come from an incredibly diverse number of backgrounds and cultures, and as such the Inner Sanctum sees all types of representations. A collective spirituality pervades throughout the chamber and it is not uncommon for warriors unaffiliated with any of the deities to spend time in the sanctum before embarking for lands unknown. The Armory is as it sounds, the area of the Bulwark that houses the bulk of the weapon stores. Mundane and unique items alike can be found within and with its location one would feasibly have to pass through the one hundred warriors above in order to reach it.
• The Underholme: There are chambers lower than the two levels already mentioned, but access to these are restricted even to a majority of the members of the warrior lodge itself. It is even said that there are access tunnels that connect to the catacombs beneath Warsaw.
• The Maul: Situated between the rear of the Bulwark and the natural rock outcroppings of the southern part of the city lie the practice and drill grounds. The surface of the ground is covered in the shields, helmets, and armors of fallen foes, all hammered flat. Nothing of the dirt below is visible. Other trophies of past battles and conquests exist in the form of hides, horns, skulls, and other totems taken from the many dangerous monsters that inhabit the Tainted Earth. These are kept in magically sealed glass coffers, displaying the remains within. The Maul is also large enough for all of the Sentinels to muster at once if need be.

[I know posts here have been less frequent than Bigfoot sightings, but with the new year on the horizon, as well as new RPG campaigns kicking off, hopefully I'll start getting back into the swing of things. The above is part of what should be a slew of little write ups for a pending FATE campaign. Rock on.]

This and That

It's almost like I can kick back and let LEGO Thursdays do all the work for me! Unlike the break-neck end of the gaming year of 2010, the end of 2011 has a steady pulse, albeit a weak one.

There's still signs of life at Mik's Minis, not that *you* would know it though. I'm happy to report the game room is coming along quite well. When you're shouldering all of the work pretty much by yourself, not outsourcing it to a contractor, it's both slow going and not exactly professional. It might have something to do with the fact that production has been entirely to the tune of Miller Lite and Black Sabbath. Other than the slow going part I gotta say it looks pretty darn good. New paint, new carpet, the works. Now I need to start cramming it full again with gaming stuff!


I mentioned back during Thanksgiving that I was thankful for Skyrim. That still holds, but it's a double-edged sword you know? It's the type of game designed for a player like me from the ground up, but that means I can happily get lost in the tiniest morass of minutia for hours and hours and hours. Hours that should be put to finishing the game room!


I plopped a cover image of the Pathfinder RPG up top for a reason. It's no secret that Pathfinder is gaining momentum around many roleplaying tables as we speak so we jumped in just this evening. We played a very short introductory adventure with pre-generated characters, but it felt great. After looking through the core rulebook and the Inner Sea sourcebook I can say this is something I personally would like to visit again. As you can see, we've already made the adventuring party out of LEGO figs, so we're ready for more.

In other RPG news, we have a couple of sessions building a world for another campaign. We used the Microscope rules and had quite a ball with them. There is an excellent corkboard mockup of all of our work that can be found here. It was an easy process to get to know, and the world we made has a lot of promise, plus it spans such a gap chronologically there are many options in style and potential gameplay. FATE is a system we keep coming back too, and this future campaign, The Tainted Earth, is no different. We're kind of throwing convention out the window, so anything goes, such as my kilt-wearing Yeti bounty hunter armed with a necromantic energy rifle! Sculpt that one Eli!


I'm still posting leftover and prematurely hatched material to the Mik's Minis sister twitter account for those interested; cygnus46 is the username. Still just photos, still 95% gaming related, and still no text, just the way I plan to keep it.

Until next time!

WFRP; the F is for FATE

a fighter, a halfling, a priest, and an archer walk into a bar...

With two sessions under our belts I'm a bit late to posting about our recent roleplaying endeavor; FATE rules in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. The more and more I think about it, the Warhammer Fantasy world is my ideal stomping grounds for a setting. It's got magic, but on the PC side of the table it's very limited and keeps its mysticality quite well.

The fantasy staples and tropes are all in there with extra spice thrown in with a few setting-specific details. The world in and of itself is definitely gritty and definitely dark and sinister, so there's lots of room for intrigue and gray areas.

Using FATE under the hood, well that's just icing on the cake. There's a few systems out there I've played lately that appeal to me, but FATE is near the top of the list. We're using the Swords of Algiers sourcebook (do you see what I did there?) which just helps to expand on all the wonderful fantasy goodness within.

The party above is a good mix starting with the Kislevite on the far left, a "veteran of a thousand battles" type soldier who is slowly coming around from being a mere sellsword to a defender of the weak. Next to him is my character, a sneaky spy/thief who talks and eats rather than fights. The fellow in the brown robes is our Priest of Sigmar with the distinction that he goes way beyond giving sermons and has legitimate divine healing powers. Lastly, on the far right, is the party's archer (and capable swordsman), an ex-military scout forced on the run due to a series of false accusations and a misunderstanding concerning the death of a nobleman's son.

These four are in the employ of a shadowy benefactor that sends them on covert missions presumably for the well being of their home, the city of Altdorf. Their secrets and skeletons in the closet are safe as long as they are able to keep delivering on their tasks.

Updates 'n Such

Thanks to Lego Thursdays, I know there will be a post a week at the very least from me, however I'm used to having a post a day (or two). I have been quiet relatively speaking here and the pic above may indicate as to why.

You know my video gaming habits, I wait at least a year to play a title, that way it's a fraction the cost and there's enough reviews out there for me to make sure I'm not wasting time or money. I loved the first Assassin's Creed game though it was a bit repetitive. When the sequel came out, whoa, that took that ball and improved it by tenfold. Well I just played, devoured, and finished up the mini-sequel to Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

The sequel was better than the original, this follow-up was equally better than its predecessor. This is a good game, a fully interactive Rome is at your fingertips with a framework of a clever storyline and plot twists galore. It has a great voice cast, the gameplay is spot on, and it's visually stunning. I was immersed in it and before I knew it the game was over, but it wasn't short by any means. Frankly I left a lot of the side missions by the wayside, I could keep playing this one for a while, but I had bigger fish to fry.


Red Dead Redemption has everything Assassin's Creed has, but more of it. Oh, and you're a cowboy. There are times riding around on your horse you just stop and look around at the scenery, which has been beautifully captured and rendered. It is the most open world experience you can play without the uninteresting modern world of thieving autos in a grand fashion (though both games are made by the same folks).

I picked the above pic because currently in the game I'm trying to collect some cougar skins and they keep eating me alive! Plus, that's not a rendered image, but an in-game shot. This is a hard game to talk about, if you know about the game, you've already played it. If you've already played it, you know how awesome it is. I'm a bit let down as to the time period because it's fairly modern, 1910, I would have much more preferred a pre-electricity cowboy timeline. I also think they missed an opportunity with the weapons and could have named them for the actual historical firearms that they were, not just saying "Cattleman's revolver", "repeating rifle", and the like. This of course is nitpicking an otherwise flawless game.


It's not all videogames however. As you know we play a monthly Deathwatch game, it just started up actually. But we also game on a weekly basis with a slightly different group of players and mostly it's miniatures or boardgames. Every now and then the pendulum swings to roleplaying games however.

We're going to play a fantasy RPG using one of my favorite set of rules, the FATE system. Something we've done a lot with in the past. Within this framework we're going to use the Warhammer world as the setting.

This is a fairly old and well established setting, it's been around longer than you think. We're going to play something similar to 40k Dark Heresy agents, set within the human-centric Empire. As you can see from the borrowed pic on the left, I'll be playing a Halfling "entrepreneur" roguish type.

Thanks to the character creation session we had last night, I've got a lot of great hooks and background tidbits to work with. That's the good thing about FATE, everyone plays off of the input and idea of the group.

Well, that's about it for a quick update. I didn't even mention the new Blood Bowl team I've started playing!

Helkima, Tuskgaarde Ranger

This is about the only format where I feel comfortable enough to break that most grievous of gamer-taboos, telling someone else about your character!

We were utilizing the FATE engine quite a bit, which I'm a big fan of. It's just a tight set of rules that can be applied to any genre, and they don't make any room for hanger-ons, every player is put into the middle of the story. In fact, the game depends on it.

Well do I need to mention Sarterra again? Massive fantasy world, co-created by a handful of us over the course of a year, fully-realized, mapped, populated, and the like? No? What's the point of having this great world if you can't romp around in it?

The ball was rolling for a new campaign launch, but shortly after brainstorming characters and the like, the mission was scrubbed. This is really too bad on many, many reasons, but some good came of it. For one, our resident artist Bi3cuit whipped up this cool sketch for my character, and two...well, I can't think of reason number two. Hopefully the campaign will get off the ground eventually though, until then my "Conan-half-Orc-archer-highlander" character will linger half finished here.

Name: Helkima
Race: Tuskgaarde
Class: Ranger

Skill Pyramid:

• Ranged Weapons 5+
• Survival, Melee Weapons 4+
• Athletics, Endurance, Resolve 3+
• Fists, Stealth, Might, Articifer 2+
• Intimidate, Investigation, Empathy, Alertness, Rapport 1+

Stunts:

• Quick Shot (ranged weapons, allows multiple shots per action)
• Lightning Hands (more dex-based goodness)
• Trick Rider (as it sounds, using a dire wolf as the mount)
• Tracker (as it should be, being a woodsy archer and all)
• Animal Companion (the aforementioned dire wolf)

Aspects:

• Embrace of Ouroboros (Helkima has undergone rites and rituals of his native peoples to tap into that funky tree-hugging vibe)
• Child of the First Tree (all Tuskgaarde receive this racial ability)
• Way of the Free and Divine (learned martial arts/weapons training from bird-man monks)
• Trained by the Sons of Berrick (learned beer drinking and rangering from hardcore Dwarves)
• Noble Savage (I just love playing this archetype, the Conan/Greystoke kind of deal)
• Deeds Not Words (working name, a hokey name stolen from an even hokier movie, but the premise here, the whole 'jump head first' kind of mindset, is the same)

Updates 'n Such

1. First and foremost, that time of the year is upon us again when Photobucket holds all my images for ransom. Seeing how I've got about 700 posts, that's too many pics to transfer or whatever. I may be jinxing myself, but the "due date" for me paying has come and passed, and my pics remain, so I'll wait 'til lights out, then pay up.

2. The Sons of Minos are in a slight holding pattern until I snag some bases. I will be going with the Dragon Forge's "Lost Empires" bases, I just need to save up some money because...




3. Fall-In! IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER! In less than a week from now, Duck Sauce, Bob Bryant, and myself are headed to Pennsylvania and we're hooking up with Repple Depple's Brian along the way. I didn't pre-register, so you'll find me in the huge registration line Thursday night. If you're reading this, make sure you find me at one point nonetheless. I am so looking forward to going.


4. I've mentioned Sarterra here more than a couple of times. Work continues to move forward on this fantasy world we're collaboratively creating. After laying out the basics we're now 'zooming in' on the continents and fleshing out the cities, organizations, and specific landforms. It's been a long road, it's nowhere near completion, but it's been a blast every step. I'll be posting soon on the two continents we've been fine tuning.

5. While we're talking about Sarterra, making the world is one thing but the goal is to actually play in it. I've got a couple of characters to whip up to boot, using the FATE system, so they'll be making an appearance as well.


6. Last, since it's Sunday as I type this I guess I should mention my Fantasy Football team, the Waterford Warpigs. I'm having my usual abysmal year sitting at 2-4, and today's game looks like it'll be a slaughter since four of my best starters are on a bye week.

Battle Brother Artemis: Stats for FATE

Hot on the heels of our Deathwatch FATE game a few days ago I painted up my character. I thought I had slapped together a pretty cool model when I made him, so that made the painting more of a joy, plus, I haven't really painted anything in quite a while.

Since we were still working from pregenerated characters, this guy is almost a carbon copy of my first character, Battle Brother Elyas of the Dark Angels, even the name is similar. Since we departed greatly from the rules for round two however, I had the leeway to choose my own Space Marine chapter, and I really did go for "my own", opting for the Sons of Minos DIY chapter I've been cooking up with help from my buddy Biscuit. As you can see from the pic, the character's a little more feral, and little more rough around the edges, plus he has a cool mohawk, and has an awesome chapter icon shoulder pad sculpted by John over at Santa Cruz Warhammer. It's this pad that really makes the model proverbially "snap". So in a way, this is the same character as the first time around, but also completely unlike the first one at the same time.

By the way, there's still a little over a week to vote on the Sons of Minos color scheme.



Battle Brother Artemis
Health: 7
Composure: 6
Refresh: 5

Skill Pyramid:

• Superb (+5): Fists
• Great (+4): Endurance, Athletics
• Good (+3): Guns, Weapons, Might
• Fair (+2): Alertness, Resolve, Survival, Leadership
• Average (+1): Investigation, Rapport, Stealth, Intimidation, Academics

Stunts:

• Wings of Angels: While using a jump pack, may move from one zone to another and make a melee attack.
• Deathwatch Training: When you damage an alien target, spend one Fate point to cause one additional Consequence to that target.
• Last Leg [Endurance]: May spend a Fate point to defer a Consequence or Concession for one more exchange, or until hit again.
• Brawler [Fists]: +1 Defense when outnumbered; +1 Stress on hits against two or more Minions.
• Slugfest [Fists]: You may save your Defensive Spin to apply to your next attack.

Aspects:

• Hot-Blooded
• Assault Space Marine
• Sons of Minos
• I'll Take Point!
• I've Got My Helmet off for Dramatic Effect
• Bah, I've Had Worse on Tindalos

Oblivion's Edge Using FATE

It seems like its been forever since we all sat around the table en masse to play a game. Well we fixed that this weekend, still had a couple of players MIA but we had five ready to throw down in the name of the Emperor. We had played the Free RPG Day Deathwatch starter Final Sanction, and since the folks at Fantasy Flight were cool enough to put out a second free module, we picked up where the action left off.

As fine of a game that's been whipped up, which is now finally in stores after forever, this evening's Deathwatch game would be with a different rule-set altogether. The FATE system's been garnering a lot of attention as of late, and we decided to use those rules for Deathwatch, specifically the Starblazer Adventures book. FATE is a very nice system, and we've got a good deal of experience a while back while playing (and thorughly enjoying) Spirit of the Century.

Unlike a tabletop game, it's considerably harder to give a game report of an RPG. We did have fun with some miniatures though along the way, and fought all kinds Tyranid hordes from Hive Fleet Dagon. The adventure picks up within hours of where the first one stopped, so the characters are still right in the middle of the action, and a huge devourer fleet is about to land and eat the freaking planet!


FATE uses "zones" for the action, moving from one zone to another will cost the character certain successes when the commit actions. It's also a nice way to compartmentalize the action into separate theaters. Above, the central rectangle is a landing pad at the starport. Surrounding it are the other zones. The heavy bolter armed Blood Angel, as well as the Storm Warden tactical cover the eastern flank. PDF forces with their Chimeras guard against the southern direction (and subsequently will get eaten later), a fuel truck and fuel canisters are rigged to explode on the western flank, and the Ultramarine Apothecary and my character, a Sons of Minos assault marine guard the northern approach. The team is trying to hole up and secure the landing port for an incoming shuttle to get them out of there. An Eversor Assassin was also on her her way to the landing pad.

That was one change up I was happy about. I made my Dark Angels assault marine for the game, because that's what one of the sample characters were (and I happened to just have a Dark Angels army). In a sense you're kind of limited overall however since the main rule book only has six of a thousand chapters represented in it.

Using the FATE rules on the other hand you can use ANY space marine chapter you want, be it a standard one, an esoteric one, or a made up one. I had the go ahead to make my Deathwatch character from my DIY chapter, the Sons of Minos, so I was mega thrilled. The pic of him is at the top of this post on top of the poker chips. I whipped him together at the last minute out of spare bits during the pre-game chit chat and "what's for dinner" small talk. I'm happy with him, he's been primered black already and I'll get to painting him this week.

A Tyranid warrior and Genestealers rush across the maglev runway

"Get to the choppa!" Marines race to their shuttle EVAC

A Genestealer is about to get fisted, make that POWER fisted

A flying troupe of Tyranid Gargoyles

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!

Altarrock, the Lost Son

Altarrock, my character for our Spirit of the Century campaign

Name: Altarrok, the Lost Son
Archetype: Jungle Lord

Skill Pyramid:
Endurance 5+
Fists 4+, Athletics 4+
Survival 3+, Might 3+, Stealth 3+
Alertness 2+, Intimidation 2+, Empathy 2+, Leadership 2+
Mysteries 1+, Resolve 1+, Sleight of Hand 1+, Contacting 1+, Investigation 1+

Aspects:
Foreigner (Lost World)
Call of the Wild
Code of Jungle Justice
Gorilla Warfare
Veil of the Panther
Curse of Ixtab
Fire Water!
Mask of Naña Buluku
Leader of (Proto) Men
Tribal Protector

Background:
Raised from birth by a forgotten tribe of Ape-Men in the jungles of the Lost World, Altarrock learned the ways of his people. As he grew more feral, he was exiled to the wilds where he became a force of nature. Legends grew of the "White Lion" who stalked the darkness, saving those in need.

During an air battle with Dr. Methusalah's Dread Zeppelin, renowned Century Club member Sir Trenton Fairweather, and his single engine plane, were sucked into a rift seam caused by one of Methusalah's vortex cannons. Fairweather ended up reappearing over the skies in the Lost World and crash landed. Altarrock came to his aid and nursed him back to health. The two became lifelong friends and Fairweather brought Altarrock back to the civilized world, sponsoring his membership in the Century Club.

Novel:
Altarrock and the Slave Raiders of the Yucatan;
guest starring Johnny Snapshot
While searching for answers in the ancient temples of the Maya, Altarrok encounters a slave ring forcing indigenous people to dig for artifacts. Altarrock is able to liberate the slaves, but only by sacrificing himself, being buried alive in an ancient vault. If it wasn't for Snapshot discovering him days later, he would have perished.

Guest Starred in:
Petals McMurphy in the Orchids of Doom
Hypnotized and enslaved, using methods both mystical and domestic, Altarrock becomes a minion of doom in the arsenal of Gorilla Khan. Altarrock is forced to fight his own friends and allies and all would be lost had he not been saved by an African Spirit Mask.

John Smith and the Shadow League
W.G. Morggeustrom, governor of Borneo, is targetted by the Shadow League for clone replacement. Altarrok assisted special agent John Smith by reuniting and leading the native Dayaks against the forces of the Shadow League. The two heroes were triumphant and led the region into a new age of prosperity.