Saturday, October 25, 2014

Savage Battlestar: So say we all!!



“Sometimes, you have to roll a hard six.” – Adama

   So, I decided that this winter I wanted to do some few sci fi themed games. I have the FFG Star Wars rpgs, but its not the gritty Sci Fi that I love! Now, do not get me wrong I love Star Wars but I wanted something more rough.

  I was then going to run a Black Crusade game or two, but not yet.. I want some more time to digest the darkness that comes with that setting. And again, although (very) dark its still not the type of grit I am looking for.


  So then what? It struck me.. Battlestar Galactica. I love this show.. by far the best sci fi television show to hit the airways in the last 15 years (IMHO). Great writing, great actors and (from a gamers perspective) a great opportunity for story telling.

  I would have liked to use the Cortex system (Margret Weiss) that I own, that the BSG rpg was made for. But I wanted to go with a more simple, faster system. So out came the Savage Worlds ruleset and the new Sci Fi Companion and away I went.




  The BSG universe is left wide open too, we only know of the survivors that followed the Galactica. But what about the others that survived? other planets, other people? other star ships? Oh the stories we can tell!



At the very bottom of this blog, I have embedded a video of a montage of all the battle scenes from all the shows. Its 10 minutes of per awesomeness! If you never watched the series yet, then watching this should make you want too. And if you are in to Sci Fi rpgs, then holy crap, look out!

I am looking forward to running a few games in this universe. Maybe I will be lucky enough to have some of you join in on the fun?






Sunday, October 12, 2014

Weird Wars II: The Forgotten Beach Teaser

Click below to join the fight at FG-Con.
Weird Wars II: The Forgotten Beach Teaser

A commanding voice can be heard coming from the front of the audience. A high ranking US officer can been seen walking in front of a large wall map on the stage in front of you.



"Men, your mission is Atlas." He pointed to a section on the left side of the map. "Atlas is a small beach in which the Nazis have just recently reinforced." He walked back to the other side of the stage. "We have reason to believe that an old french chapel in this area has been converted into a key communications hub and there have been reports of several high ranking SS officers in this area." He looked around "So high ranking in fact, they have seen fit to take 3 Companies off of Omaha and send you here." He tapped the spot with his pointing stick.



He walked back to the center of the stage again. "Men, high command has tasked us with storming this beach, clear the trench defense and take out the German battery, then press on and capture that chapel" he paused for a second. "We have not been authorized to engage the chapel with navel bombardment, so you will have no fire support once you clear the defenses."

"Men.. Good Luck! He turned and walked off the stage.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Weird Wars II: The Forgotten Beach. June 6th 1944 (A Shameless Advertising Plug)

Warning!!! You are about to read: 
A shameless self promoting plug for recruitment to my FG-Con adventure.


Intro to the plug!

Ok, So I am little new to the online community of roleplaying. Yes, I have been around for years, asking silly little questions about functions, features, and rulesets on FGII. But I am completely new when it comes to joining an online community of fellow RPG gamers who I am complete strangers with and actually playing games with said individuals.

I can say all types of things to self promote, about how long I have been roleplaying, all the collections I own, all the games I have played, blah blah and more blah.

I also accept, that when it comes to FG-Con or other similar online roleplaying events, people who know you or played with you before will be advantageous to getting players to join. Something which I am working hard to counteract cause not many people out there in the online world have played in my games before.

Here comes the plug!

Thing is, if you want to play a game that involves guns, massive explosions,  and horror and want to share that experience with others around the virtual table, feel free to register for FG-Con  and join my game, or maybe you know someone who is interested in roleplaying then feel free to share this post with them.

So what do you have to lose by joining my game? The worst, maybe a few hours of your life, the best of the worst, the countless souls of those you are trying to save.

But I want to focus on the best that can happen if you join my game. You have fun, meet a few new players, and again, lose the countless souls you are trying to save!

I have two willing volunteers already.. I have room for 3 more.. why not enlist today, and storm that beach.

This has been a unpaid service announcement



Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. All names of the famous beaches fought on during the Normandy invasion on the one of the most important days in the history of mankind. But what ever happened to the invasion force on Atlas Beach? Scrubbed from the history books, purged from the records, what became of the soldiers and survivors on that cold beach on that day June 6th 1944? Share their stories, feel their pain, experience the true and unnatural horrors that thrive on death and war.
Inspired by the 1970's DC Comic Books "Weird Wars Tales"

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

A Tale of Four: The Dark Portal.

Not that long ago I got one of the biggest shocks of my life...

 My sister in law, her husband, my brother in law and his significant other all approached me one day and asked me if I would be willing to play a role playing game with them. Now, the age difference between me and the oldest of the group and the youngest range from 15 to 20 years of age. The two inlaws and their significant others never once in their lives played any form of tabletop RPG. In fact, the closest experience they had was from watching a episode of "Community"  or something. And they all got together and thought it would be a fun thing to try out.

So, what did they do? They came to me, as I am the resident "game geek" of the family so.. what did I do.. I said sure.. why the hell not?

So, what did I decide to do with them? Well they wanted to capture a fantasy game feel. So, I decided to run a fantasy game using savage worlds as the ruleset. Now, they had no idea about what to be or play so I decided to give them full reign on the story and I told them that what ever they wanted to be, just tell me. Ill pre gen the characters for them, so all they had to do was show up. So, they all got together and came up with a story each and then presented it to me.

I cant recall the character names, I really cant.. But I am sure one of them was as silly as Princess Bunny Ears, or some other foolishness. But I knew I was in for a ride as a GM, when they told me what they all wanted to be. A male assassin, a male centaur, a female half elf and a female naga.

A Naga and a Centaur? Really!? starting out in their very first game, 2 of them wanted to be something totally outside of the box? OMG! But all thing considered, it was their game, they really wanted to play it, so I kept my comments and concerns to myself and decided to run with it. I made each of their characters and presented them on the game night. They were thrilled.

Next, I had to figure out how such a band of misfits got together in the first place. Well, if its not in a A) tavern somewhere. It is  B) in a cell/jail of some sort. So for fun I picked option B, and away I went.

What I am about to tell you, is a story of 4 new players in a game in which I made up on the fly with no prep work or pre game design..

Enjoy.


The Tale of Four: The Dark Portal.

The four members started to come around. The last they remember was answering the call for volunteers to help fight back the massive orc hordes from the north. On the road to the castle, they were waylaid by thugs, drugged and then end up waking up in a jail cell.

It didn't take long for them to feel the motion of the ocean, and they determined they were on a vessel of some sort. After luring the brig guard into a trap and tricking him to set them free, the group make an attempt to flee. They quickly find out that they are on a slave ship, and try to start to rescue the slaves. Suddenly the slave ship was set upon by a Kraken, and giant tentacles start raking the ship.

The group quickly realize that they have no gear and no way to defend themselves,  so they run to the top of the deck to look for equipment, only to see the ships crew fighting against the beast. They make a run for the weapons locker to grab their weapons, only to be attacked by the angry sea slaver captain. While fighting off the Captain, and lopping off tentacles from the Kraken the group decide to abandon the vessel. Just in time too, the Kraken finally pulled the ship below the water along with crew and slaves alike!

After a few days adrift in the lifeboat they wash ashore a strange jungle island. Desperate to find food and water they discover a ruined walled village. After exploring they find clues saying that the villagers went into hiding from a strange attack that came through some sort of magical portal. After some more exploring, the group find out that this town was once the trade hub for the old world and used a series of dimensional gates to port their goods until one day, something else other then goods came through the ancient trade portal.

After finding the dried husked and webbed bodies of the villagers in an underground complex they inadvertently awaken the creatures that killed the villagers, giant mutated spiders! The group flee to where the trade portal was located, and try to activate it so they can escape the horde of spiders attacking them.

In a climatic battle, which ended up with the death of my NPC the group reactivated the portal and escaped the spider infested island..

And this is where this adventure ended... not knowing where they were going be on the other side of the portal.

End result... they loved it. And they look forward to the second adventure.
I find the trick to providing a good experience to first time players, is not to get them bogged down in game rules, but get them hooked on being in a story, making them forget they are around a table. As the games progress I'll slowly add more and more of the detailed rules. But starting off, let them do crazy things, make them feel heroic! I wish I was able to record the audio so you could of heard the cheers as they chopped off the final tentacle as they lowered the life boat!

It brought me back to the time when I got hooked on roleplaying games so many years ago. Good times. :-)


Friday, October 3, 2014

FG - Con, Here I Come; Weird Wars II: The Forgotten Beach

All..

Thanks to the encouragement of members of SXG, and the volunteers at FG Con. I have decided to throw caution into the wind and try out my first online game convention.

So below is my proposed game event that I will be running..

So if you would like to experience some good old fashion Weird Wars Action, feel free to swing by the FG-Con Website and register for some heart pounding war time horror! All levels of experienced Welcome, Pre Gens provided. Pick up and Play! (or Die.. depends)


Weird Wars II: The Forgotten Beach
Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. All names of the famous beaches fought on during the Normandy invasion on the one of the most important days in the history of mankind. But what ever happened to the invasion force on Atlas Beach? Scrubbed from the history books, purged from the records, what became of the soldiers and survivors on that cold beach on that day June 6th 1944? Share their stories, feel their pain, experience the true and unnatural horrors that thrive on death and war.
Inspired by the 1970's DC Comic Books "Weird Wars Tales"