Thursday, December 31, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan Day 31- Calacorm

 Wow, 31 days already?!

First I wanted to Say thanks to the The Swamp who gave me the chance tag along on the 31 Day Challenge. Its been a fun month, I reached and surpased my goal of reaching 250 followers on Twitter, I also managed to get my affiliate status on Twitch, and I get to host on the Free League Publishing Twitch Channel for a few games.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan - Avrahim

On the 30th day of Christmas Conan, I present to you the Hyborian personification of Jingo The Fool. Avrahim

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan Day 29 - Taran

 On the 29th Day of Christmas Conan, from the savage Pictish wilds, strolls Taran - One Who Bites Wolves. 

Friday, December 25, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan. Day 25. Mirra

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope, Crom was good to you all this year, and you did not receive any DOOM from him this year! Today, I introduce Mirra.

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Monday, December 21, 2020

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Twilight 2000: Some tools for VTT playing.

 Here are a few tools that people can use when running games on a VTT.

Personally, I use Fantasy Grounds for most of my games, and I find these work great. I am sure for other VTTs you can find a way to use these as well.

But I am really digging the new T2K from Free League Publishing and you can jump in on the action at the T2K Kickstarter late pledge here. 

Vehicle Chart

The way I use them, is I can drag and drop pins or images to indicate where the players are on the vehicle chart. The thinner boxes are for vehicle components.





Travel Matrix

Drag images or pins over what actions the players are doing during their hex movements.

Theater of the Mind Combat Map.

This is for those times when you do not have a map ready, or you just want something quick..  Everyone uses these styles of maps differently.. So use it how you want, for me.. the main thing is moving zones.. in order to move to a new zone, the NPC or player needs to make a mobility roll..  Also, I like zone maps better then dealing with squares and grids most times too, so this helps.



31 Days of Christmas Conan Day 19 - Tuvé the All Seer

 On the 19th day of Conan Christmas, I present to you TuvĂ© the All Seer

Friday, December 18, 2020

Twilight 2000: Themes for MoreCore and CoreRPG

 Great news everyone!!


I have been giving the blessing from the great people at Free League Publishing to share my themes for Fantasy Grounds Unity with you!

Now, lets be clear.. These themes below are based off the "alpha" rules. Which you can only get over at the Kickstarter Page. So, things could and most likely change in the future. But this is to good of a game setting to miss out on! 

How awesome is that!? Pretty Fracking Awesome I think!

So, you all have two options, depending on how suave you want to be with it.

Get the Twilight 2000 Core Ruleset file.. simply download this PAK file and place it in your rulesets folder, and then start a new campaign. This is a very basic ruleset, no special dice rollers.. all manual dice, nothing fancy. But simple to use.

Or

Get the Twilight 2000 MoreCore Theme  For this extension to work, you need to have the MoreCore Ruleset (free on the Fantasy Grounds Forums) already installed. But take this extension file and copy it to your extension folder. The start up a new campaign, select MoreCore as the Ruleset, and then select the TW2000 Theme from the list. 

MoreCore allowed me to use some special features, such as button rollers, dice formulas and a few other features that CoreRPG does not do.

The good news about this, is that both of these rulesets (Core and MoreCore) are free, this Theme is free!.. So.. Bonus all the way around!

And to help you use the MoreCore Theme, I created a character sheet which you can import into your game, which has all the dice formulas listed and provided. Below image is that of MoreCore theme.


I will be posting videos on how to use these two different files on my youtube channel, so please follow my Twitter Account to keep aware of updates and improvements.

I hope to see you all on the battlefield!

Jolly







31 Days of Christmas Conan: Day 18 Massassi

 On the 18th day of Conan Christmas. I give to you, Massassi

Thursday, December 17, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan Day 17 - Genesia

 On the 17th Day of Conan Christmas.. Genesia the Temptress

If you want to play in the world of R.E. Howards Conan, then drop by DriveThruRPG affiliate link and check out the incredible selection of 2D20 Conan.

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Conan 2D20 More Core Theme Version 4.0

Hey all, 

Great news! 

The Conan extension theme for playing 2D20 MoreCore has now been updated to work with the Newest MoreCore and with Unity..

Fixed a few things, to make it work with MoreCore and Unity.. 

Ok, so.. there is a small beef I have with this release. Since there are new buttons added to MoreCore, I had to make new buttons for them. But the program I used 2 years ago to make the text had changed, so the newer buttons, Classes, Races, Investigations and a few others.. The label color is a bit different. So, thats gonna bug me.. :(

You can get version 4.0 here!



31 Days of Christmas Conan. Day 9 - Darius the Duke

 On the ninth day of Christmas, good ole Jolly gave to thee..

Darius.

Monday, December 7, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan, Day 7 - Elkamar

 In the days before Conan, there was an age of wonder, the age of King Kull. And in his courts there was a eunuch, who wispered secrets, gathered news, and served the King while in the shadows of Nobility. Elkamar


Full character sheet here.



Saturday, December 5, 2020

31 Days of Christmas Conan: Day 5 Octavian of the Iron Shields

 On the 5th day of Conan Christmas, 'Ole Jolly gave to ye!

Octavian, Captain of the mercenary company, The Iron Shields.

Friday, December 4, 2020

Twilight 2000 and Hex Kit. A match made in Heaven?

 

I have taken some steps towards using Hexkit as a way of making fun and fast battlemaps for use in my upcoming Twilight 2000 game.


I think it will work out ok.. I just need to really take the time to make one, it has almost all the resources it needs to do what I want it to do. I just need to find some art that has less of a fantasy vibe to it. But I think it will work. And its fast too.. 10 minutes and I had a nice 24 by 24 map made.


The lighter colors are elevated positions, while the green is of course, lower. We got some bogs and marsh in there. With the Dark Green trees being foliage and lighter green mixed trees as Forests. I just need to add a few LOS blocking items, and I should be all set I think. 


This map is called Bridge Crossing. The players are trying to get back to friendly lines, and they need to cross this river to do it.




The 31 Days of Christmas Conan: Day 4 Ntuli

 On the 4th day of Conan Christmas, Ole' Jolly gave to ye.. 

Thursday, December 3, 2020

The 31 Days of Christmas Conan. Day 3 Althaia

On the third day of Conan, Ole' Jolly gave to ye..

Althaia of the Barachan Isle

Some people were born to sail, Althaia was one of those people. When she was a child, Althaia would often be seen playing down near the waterfront, wharfs and docks. Fascinated by the Argossean royal fleet, she would constantly pester the sailors for stories of their latest voyages. As soon as she would come of age, she stowed away on a Argossean Galley named the Red Morning. When she reveled herself to the captain, everyone thought that she would be removed from the ship at the next port. But the captain took a liking to this brash youth, and started to teach her the ways of the sail. 

The Red Morning was her home for several years, till a unnatural storm set upon the ship, sending it to the depths. She was the only survivor. She was marooned for several weeks on one of the many islands known as the Barachan Isles. Till she was discovered by a lessor known Shemtish pirate known as Morsoe. Knowing what fate awaited her as the new guest of Morsoe, she challenged him as per the pirates code. Morsoe foolishly accepted the challenge, thinking it just a mere jest. Underestimating the Argossean Sailor, Althaia was able to drive her short sword deep into the the flabby gut of Morsoe. And that day, the pirate crew had a new captain, Althaia.

Complete Character Sheet can be found here



Wednesday, December 2, 2020

The 31 Days of Christmas Conan: Day 2 Isidor

 Day 2 

I introduce to you.. Isidor, The Master Thief 

Isidor claim to fame began when he managed to lift a valuable sigil off a drunken priest of Mitra. Not only was this sigil worth more then all the items combined he stole earlier that year, it also catapulted him down the road of becoming a famous thief in the cult of Bel. The cult of thieves. 

His complete character sheet can be found here





Tuesday, December 1, 2020

The 31 Days of Christmas Conan: Day 1


So recently, in an obvious attempt to up my visibility on social media and gain some attention to my blog. I voluntarily agreed to create and post 1 character a day for 31 days, along side an already established persona in the TTRPG gaming community whose blog is known as agameraday.blogspot.com and also affectionately named The Swamp on Twitter. 

So did I agreed to throw my name into this fun, 31 day challenge with another tabletop gamer on the internet.. No! 

I agreed to do this challenge against a pro! You see, I did not know that this person was a bonified active, published creator over on DTRPG when I decided to throw my creative hat into the ring. So, the pressure is on me now! ;) 

Now the deal was, that if they were to create a character a day for 31 days, then I would do the same.  I have choosen to make my characters with Modiphius's 2D20 System, Conan. That no surprise for anyone that follows me. 

Besides.. What's Christmas with out Crom?

So, today is December 1st, Day 1. I will also share the entire character sheet for you to download, and maybe use in your own games. Enjoy

Friday, November 27, 2020

Twilight 2000 - Oh yeah..

 

So, I started this today! 


I did not have the book for 10 mins, and I already started a theme.. Still have not read the first chapter!! 


With a few more updates now.. buttons are made, just need to add the text to each of them. I got the combat tracker fixed up to the way I like it now. 

Now, I just need to work on the back end stuff, like all the little windows.. but its coming along. :)



And the finished product for MoreCore







Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Conan Exiles, Fantasy Grounds Unity, and Map Making!

Hey all..


I few years back, I posted a blog about using the recently released Conan Exiles computer game to help me create fun and exciting battlemaps for the use with the Conan RPG when playing on a Virtual Tabletop. And it worked out pretty good, if you were to ask me. 


Now, since Fantasy Grounds had released its newer Unity version, which allows you to draw in LOS on maps. I decided to try it again and see how the LOS tool works. 

In short, I am very happy with the way this now looks!




Its certainly something to explore if you have the chance. And it is something you can do with any setting really, find a computer game that fits the theme of you adventure, and starting taking pictures!

Monday, November 16, 2020

Conan 2D20: Weapons Rack - The Macuahuitl

 The Macuahuitl 


Reach: 2

Damage: 5 CD

Fearsome 1

Unbalanced

Vicious

Fragile  (When reduced to ZERO, it will become a club with unbalanced)

Availability: 3

Cost 5


Saturday, November 14, 2020

A Fan Review of the 2D20 Conan Fantasy Grounds Ruleset by Nerd Eye Industries.

 

I said I was going to do this review, and I feel now I have played Conan enough with this Ruleset to give it a fair review.

I will be breaking this down into several categories. 

Appearance/Layout, Information, Features, and User Friendliness. Each category I am ranking out of a total of 5.   At the end, I will total the number and get the score out of 15. 

So, lets get this started.

This is a Modiphius Game converted into a Fantasy Grounds Ruleset by Nerd Eye Industries 


Appearance/Layout.

On the surface, the look of the ruleset looks pretty sharp. The Icons are nice, and the coloration and simple desktop image is clear and not cluttered. 

The design of the Character sheets also looks nice, along with the NPC stat cards. The color and layout of the core rules is also very attractive to look at.

The simple clear icons, the colors and textures used. I think are really nice and in my opinion, manages to capture the feel of a classic sword and sorcery game for Conan.


But there are several concerns with the fonts being hard to read on some monitors. The problem can be rectified somewhat with changing the Scale in the FG user settings, but this could cause a drop in visual alignments and text being cut short.

In the actual Core Rulebook module, there are a plethora of other visual issues when reading the rules. There are many copy and paste errors when they directly copied and pasted from the PDF leaving many characters appearing as symbols through out. If there was any quality assurance or editing done to this product when it was released, I was surprised that this was missed and allowed, as there are so many in the final product that is being sold to the public. Below is just 1 sample of the appearance of the core module. And this is through out the entire module. And after being on the market for so long.. I really suspected this to be fixed by now.




Another concern is the visual appearance is the weird uneven and out of alignment of the text in the skills and attribute boxes. If there was a pattern to it, then yeah I could accept that. But it just appears to be a random alignment. This really hits you hard if you like things looking tidy. But it just seems messy if you ask me, and can look so much better if given the time to clean it up a bit.

Score, 3 out of 5.

Information 

The rules are all there in the Conan rules module. Which can allow you to play the game and build characters, look at equipment, spells and Talents

Tables of Talents, Caste and all the other tables are accessible to allow you to build characters in a straight forward manner. There are links to talents that you can drag direct to character sheets, which makes character creation fairly simple.

The only real issue I have with this, is the rules are in massive data dumps. Which means, looking for information can be hard if you do not know have some idea on what section of the book it is found in. Forcing you to scroll through, in some spots, many pages. Or, if you want to have a quick link to a particular portion, you need to link the whole entire chapter. But that's more of a feature issue.. If there was more links, I would give it 5 outta 5.

Score 4 our of 5. 

Features and User Friendliness

Now, this is something that I really struggle with, when it comes to finding something to be good. But there are some. From the player side, many of the issues do not hamper the game that much, or are just minor issues that by themselves are manageable. But from the GM point of view, it can get cumbersome and unpleasant. 

The character sheet, is in fact really simple to understand and the information is laid out in fairly acceptable way, but using this character sheet in a game for anything other then a visual reference can get confusing and frustrating. 

I feel like the developers had an idea to make it work, but then stopped halfway through and left it, leaving many basic features missing that you can find in many other and much more affordable rulesets. 

Again, the appearance of the ruleset looks ok, but it fails to capture basic features needed to play the game efficiently.

We have an armor section, which allows you to keep track of where armor is located on various areas of the body, but no shield portion, and no quick way of having to roll cover dice when using the shield in a defensive way.

Every item in the ruleset is given a individual encumbrance, but the inventory section does not track its totals. So, a person needs to enter the item description to find the value, then do this for all other items to get the total encumbrance. 



The character sheet tracks wounds and trauma, but there is zero automation when a player is rolling skill dice. Which forces the GM to manually remind the player each time to they roll the dice, to add the level of wounds or traumas to the difficulty of the dice.
  
Players are able to add or remove momentum from the momentum pool, but players can not interact with the doom pit.. The players should be able to indicate they are giving the GM doom for what ever reason. Instead this ruleset forces the GM to again manage something else.

Generally speaking, there are many places which forces the GM to become the book keeper for the player, and it quickly can become to much.

They have a good way of tracking fortune spends for adding dice to the dice roller, but there is no other way to track an expenditure on other types of fortune spends. Players can also add fortune to their own character sheet with out the GMs knowledge.  "Sneaky players"




When it also comes the momentum counting, this burden falls on the GM. On a real table, this is not an issue at all. Using some form of dice or token to count momentum. In FG we do not have this option. When the momentum is tallied, it should be placed into a counter in which players can spend momentum, when this is done, it can then be transferred to the momentum pool. Right now.. its left to the GM to manually keep track of it somehow and tell the player what is left after they spend the momentum. Its an overload of book keeping. (if I could make a suggestion to the developers. Just add another momentum counter to the bottom of the desktop. and then have a button which allows all the unspent momentum move over to the pool, to the max of 6 as the rules state)   This would allow players to count off their expenditures and transfer over when they are done. All nice and trackable in the chat window and less for the GM to deal with. My idea is suggested below in the picture.




When it comes to the use of the NPCs during combat, its not so bad. Having to click the attribute and then the skill bonus to set the TN is not bad way of doing it. In fact, it kinda helps the GM to learn and remember what skills do what. So, I like that. This is debatable with others, but I stand by it. But I do wish there was a better way of adding D20s to the roll other then having to click on the little yellow dots. And it needs to have the ability to roll more then the 5 dice.. Especially when it comes to MOBS. But the little yellow dots are so tiny! 


This leads me into the biggest issue this ruleset currently has.

The combat tracker, frankly put, belongs to another game system entirely. It fails to track which character has acted or reacted in anyway. It does not handle squads or mobs at all. The only real good thing it does is give you a list of who is in the combat. I have stressed this before in the forums, also in direct communication. It feels like the developers did not even attempt to capture the way combat is handled in the rulebook by giving customers a tracker that can only handle combat for DnD like clones. Its shoddy and poor at best, and feels rushed and unfinished. (Although the design and appearance of it looks awesome.) 

Also said in one of my direct communications to the developers. "How can you expect for players to play the game, if the ruleset does not support the rules of the actual game" This below is all you get.. for a premium costing ruleset. This is a fail in my books.


Score 1 out of 5 for features and user friendliness. ( I could be convinced to score it a 2 out of 5, but that's the most I can go)


Closing remarks.


I love the 2D20 Conan rules. Love em! I really like using Fantasy Grounds. And I really wanted to love playing the official ruleset on Fantasy Grounds. 
But not until some of these major issues get fixed. This ruleset has been officially released since April 2020, and very few of the major things have been addressed or fixed. Although, the developers are saying they hear us, and they are working on it.. with only minor things fixed to this point. 

Realistically, they should be calling this a beta release and drop the god awful price its being sold at. Its a sad perspective I have, when I say that there are homebrew Conan rulesets already developed by fans that are ultimately better then what is being sold. My own ruleset being the lowest of all of them all. The thing is, the fan based rulesets are very similar in functionality and shows they were made by fans to try and capture the feeling of the rules. This one.. fails to hit that mark.

But the final thing is, I do believe that this Ruleset will be good at some point, and I hope some point soon. The developers who I have been speaking directly to seems genuinely concerned about making the changes for the players. I guess its a matter of working on other properties and not so much on this one. But that statement is just speculation on my part. 

Am I saying to buy or not buy it. If you do not mind spending the money for something not finished yet, sure by all means. But if you buy this expecting it to be a smooth transition from tabletop to virtual tabletop. You might not be so happy. Fantasy Grounds is a powerful tool and can do a lot of things, but that power is not utilized in this product. But if suddenly they said, we are selling the basic ruleset for 10 dollars, with no rulebook module. I would say sure.. great deal, and would accept it for what it is.. but this deserves better treatment if its attached to such an iconic property as R.E Howards Conan. 

Many of the issues stated above can be somehow shoe horned into the game using manual means by the GM or its players. But its just "Les Nesman" Band-Aids all over the place making everything look homemade. 

Essentially, I want less "Nessman" and more "Conan"
Final Score.. 
8/15
53.3% 


But even with this score, the game is still fun, conan is fun and in tonights game, the group had a blast fighting for their lives on a disabled sailing ship. So, that's the most important fact. 





Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Assets for Fantasy Grounds: Sea Zone Battle Map for Conan Games

 Feel free to use these if you want.


Here is a basic Sea Combat map for use with Conan and Fantasy Grounds.


Open up the battle map and then drag the sea zone image to the center portion. You end up with something like this.










And I am currently working on my own personal Conan the Pirate Module for Fantasy Grounds! But this is just for me! 





Thursday, October 29, 2020

Conan 2D20: Iron Vault of the Wind

Ruleset: Conan 2D20


Info: Want to explore Robert E Howard’s Hyboria? Then feel free to join me as we run a small introductory game of Conan 2D20  “Adventures Undreamed of” by Modiphius.


Day and Time: Nov 1st 00:30 UTC (Add or Subtract your UTC Offset from the start time listed on this post to find out when the event will start in your time zone.)


Details: This is a short adventure of guarded gates, secret chambers and forgotten horrors for 2 to 3 players.   We will be using the new Conan 2D20 Ruleset by Nerd Eye Games. Anyone is welcomed to give it a try, just sign up below.  All my games are run using Fantasy Grounds Unity Ultimate, so all that you need to play is the free FGU demo version to play! So, want to try out some hard core sword and sorcery? Then this is your chance!


Requirements: Headset & at least the Fantasy Grounds Unity demo version: Windows Version or Mac Version


Max number of players: 3


Community Discord Link: Join Link for FGC, For official information and help go to Fantasy Grounds Official Homepage forums


DM Discord name: ShotGun Jolly#4826


Game Room: TBD


Length: 2-3 hours.

Sign up for the event here.

Disclaimer: “Player is responsible for using their Discord name as their User Name when booking a class. Fantasy Grounds College and/or your DM are not responsible for trying to figure out who you are if you use a name other than your Discord name. Player is also responsible for cancelling game participation using the “My Bookings” link on the FGC homepage” IF YOU DO NOT NOTIFY THE PROFESSOR IN ADVANCE OF A CANCELLATION, YOUR STATUS WITHIN FGC MIGHT CHANGE, LEAVING YOU WITH LOW-PRIORITY BOOKINGS IN FUTURE 

Friday, October 23, 2020

The Official Conan 2D20 Ruleset by Nerd Eye Games for use with Fantasy Grounds Work Around.

 

Ok, I have been silent for awhile now.. mainly due to life and the amazing year of 2020 thus far due to "insert reasons"

I had planned to do a full review of this ruleset when it came out, but I decided to hold off as I just did not have the time to give it a fair once over. But life is starting to get back to normal, and I have been starting to really dig into Conan 2D20 again, which means I am really starting to bite into this new(ish) ruleset.  I have been taking some notes, and I intend to post them on here in the next week. 

But for those wondering, its a product that works.. but it requires polish to allow it to take full advantage to work with Fantasy Grounds.

My biggest concern or issue with it thus far, is the combat tracker.. its just the standard CT use with CORERPG, the default tracker for the default ruleset with Fantasy Grounds which is far from adequate to run Conan 2D20. So, I decided I would post a few of my game hacks to help mitigate these issues.

I am hoping that soon, Nerd Eye Games will correct this and the few other issues that the ruleset has. 

Ok, so until Nerd Eye Games can complete the work on the CT, I come up with a work around that makes it a little easier to deal with when it comes do working with the combat tracker.

Now, its not perfect, but it helps me until the Devs get this crucial part of the ruleset fixed

Here it is:

Tracking who has acted..

First I create an effect with a duration of 1, called Activated .. When an NPC or Character acts.. I place that into the effects section on the tracker when they act.

Tracking Reactions, IE Parry..

I do the same as above, but I add a "Reacted X Times" effect each time they react, then change the x to match. So you can track the doom cost of other reactions.

This way, when everyone has acted, you can click on the Next Round button and all those effect are removed. See Below Screen Shot


Handling Mobs and Squads

So, this is far from perfect, but it cuts down on a LOT of the clutter, when you have individual tokens EVERYWHERE!

In the Special Abilities section of the NPC sheet, I add a new line. (Which actually creates a note) In that note, I then add the Squad members, so you can have access to their information and dice rollers during a combat in one spot. Essentially, I nest the information I would need in the main NPC sheet.

See Screen shots for a better idea of what I do. But it allows a GM to quickly get to the minions stats, die rollers and notes, and have it all accessible on the CT





 




Thursday, February 27, 2020

Tabletop Simulator Work Shop: Alien RPG




Hi all,

It appears that I never did upload my links to my Tabletop Simulator Workshop Mod for the Alien RPG to my blog!

This has been something that I have been working on for the last several months, adding things over time, trying to make it as comprehensive as possible. When I first started to make it, I made a short video, below.



So, if you like using tabletop simulator for your virtual tabletop needs, then swing by my workshop on steam and subscribe!

The latest version of this mod, is a lot less cluttered then when this video was made above. But I really do like it, and I hope you do too!

Again, I will ask if you like what you see, support my blog by subscribing and get email updates. You can also follow me on twitter jclocke75

Thanks for reading!

Friday, February 21, 2020

Alien RPG Ship Builder Spread Sheet

Hello,

So, I am still in the process of learning to use Excel/Sheets/etc. So this time I figured I work on a Alien RPG Ship Builder Sheet. Helps me keep my mind off real life for awhile.

So, yeah.. again, this is a functional not flashy spreadsheet with the sole purpose of learning how excel works.



I need to figure out, how to count the modules properly. That part is still manual. If it has 2 Class III, 1 Class II and 1 Class V.. Have not figured that out how to calculate that yet.

So, if you load this thing up from the link below, you will need to copy it, or download it to get access to it. But when you do that, start at the top of the sheet, select your class, AI, mods, weapons etc, and when you get to the bottom, you should see the proper stats of the ship, the total cost, the yearly lease fee, and a monthly fee, etc.

I am going to keep trying to fine tune this one.. As I want to learn the more advance formulas. As this here is not efficiently written by any chance.

Alien Ship Builder Spread Sheet

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Coriolis Ship Design Spread Sheet





Hi all,

Its been awhile.. it seems that my life in the last 5 weeks got totally upended! There is a lot going on behind the scenes with my life. And every day has been a challenge to stay focused on the priorities in my life. But I am doing my best to get through it.

So, in order to cope with life and all the stresses associated with it. I decided to take advantage of my work situation to help keep my mind off things and focus on what I need to do.

So, recently, I was tasked to work on some spreadsheets. Now, I know very basic stuff about spreadsheets, but I wanted to up my game at work, so I decided to take some time to "LEARN" a little more and enhance my knowledge and be able to apply it at work.

So I decided to learn on something I have a little passion about, and that is with Coriolis, and decided to make a Coriolis ship generator. Figured I would be more able to learn better if I am doing it with something I really love.

It doesn't look pretty, but its functional, and this is also only version 1. Here is my google sheets link below.

Feel free to leave comments or suggestions below. I plan on having a ship layout page, so it will print of a nice little graphic. But I need to figure that out first.

Here is Version 1 of my Coriolis Ship Generator. 

Screenshot.

I appreciate the follows, so follow my blog here via email, or join me on twitter @jclocke5

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Play By Post: Alien Lost Souls Part 4 - Between a Rock and a Hangar Bay


Part 3 ended with Manni staring down the xenomorph with nothing but a gut full of fear..

Manni:
Manni looks at the screwdriver and shakes his head at his 'Weapon'. He gets on his comm "I'm about 50 meters from the aft air lock near some pipes, the creature is black, slender body with a long tail and thin arms with sharp talons. I need help fast" Manni looks at the creature and not liking either of his choices he tries to escape.

The creature is obviously toying with Manni, as it leaps in front of him blocking his escape back to the Glorious. Manni is reminded of what a cat would do when pouncing at a helpless mouse.

The creature reaches out and grabs Manni with both of its supernaturally strong arms and hoists him up, his feat dangling in the air. The crushing grip is painful, but the pain is forgotten as he is pulled towards the grinning maw.



Its grinning maw, opens up to revel a row of razor sharp blades for teeth. And to your horror, a smaller second mouth starts to protrude outwards, snapping!
The smaller mouth suddenly shoots out like a piston and snaps against Manni's helmet visor, its teeth glancing off, leaving a scuff mark mere inches away from your face!

"Oh my God" Manni screams as the creatures extra mouth glances off his helmet. He contemplates head butting the creature but doesn't want to possibly crack his helmet or kick it and hopes it looses it grip.

The pathetic kicks of Manni do little to hurt this horrific creature. But his flailing feet did cause it to falter and loose its balance.
The creature stumbles and falls backwards just a bit, dropping Manni in the process.

Not believing his luck that the creature dropped him Manni again tries to escape by running back to the ship.

Manni was able to manage to escape around the corner, able to see the Glorious and the station. Manni was able to see running towards his general direction. Debrah, the other working roughneck, who first went inside of the station with the others.

As Manni continues to run to the ship he is breathing heavy and using up more oxygen than he should. As he see Debrah coming out of the ship with the pipe spanner he yells on his comm, "Debrah, get back in the ship and get ready to close the hatch!!"

Debrah:
Manni! She shouts, Are you Ok? She runs towards him. She is holding in her hand a large 48 inch spanner.



Just as Debrah and Manni make their way towards the Airlock to the Glorious, you see Bjorn approach from the station airlock, a large .357 magnum revolver in hand.
Debrah obviously concerned about her buddy, and co worker. Grabs Manni by his arm and assists him back towards the airlock of the shift.
She can then see the scratches and scuffs on Manni's visor.
Holy Shit!? What did that? pointing towards the the gouges along his helmets visor.

Seeing Bjorn approach, she continues talking to Manni. Manni, where is Tammy? The pilot?

Manni:
"Shut the airlock!!Shut it now! It's right behind me!" Manni is almost hysterical as Debrah helps him into the airlock.

Now inside the Glorious Hangar

Bjorn:
Keeps a wary eye peeled behind them with his gun at the ready, scanning for anything coming for them.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed Debrah?"

Debrah:
Looking at Bjorn, Debrah responds.
I know, I know, but I had to do something!! What did you expect me to do? My friend here is calling out for help.
Bjorn scans the area where Manni was running from, but does not see anything. Other then a few scattered tools on the ground around the tail area.

Peter:
Peter asked loudly.. And Tammy? Where the hell is Tammy?! Walking over to the two roughnecks.

Rebecca:
The hired scientist, Rebecca. Walks towards the group, who had been preparing her work area since the ship landed.

In what seems like a very cold, flat tone. She speaks cooly, at first it sounds like she is only speaking to herself.
A creature, here? On this asteroid? There is little, or no atmosphere. Fascinating!
Pausing  for a few seconds, she seems to be thinking. She inspects the scraped exosuit helmet.
Were you able to retrieve any type of sample? Can you describe what it looks like?



Manni:
A sample!" Manni yells at the scientist, "I was lucky to get back here alive! It was humanoid in shape, black with a large weird shape head and a snapping protruding mouth. He had a strong grip, I barely got away from his claws!"

Bjorn looks back and forth between the two and then opens a comm channel to Matt.
"I don't know what is going on, but Manni definitely has signs of contact with something.  Look sharp out there."

Matt:
Matt replies over the radio.
Should Jack and I head back to you guys? he responds, We can figure out how we are going to handle this.

Debrah:
"Are there any weapons in the ships locker?" Debrah looks around nervously.
"If there is a dangerous creature loose out there, we will need weapons, and protection".
"I want someone watching my six, if I'm going to have to go back into the station to restore the power."
"And Peter, I am officially activating the HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT BONUS sub-clause in my contract."

Peter:
Peter franticly walks over to Manni, concern and worry clearly visible on his face, "What do you mean she's just lying there?! Is she dead?".

MUTHUR:
There is no hiding the obvious scar to Manni's exo face shield. Now that people are a little closer helping him, you can see that there is some form of Goo, over his suit.

Peter:
Pausing briefly to get a good look at Manni he turns his gaze toward Susan, and suspicious of her motives on this job he sternly asks "Do you know what the hell is going on?". His instincts tell him she knows something about this place, maybe something that can help Tammy. If she tries to withhold any information he feels confident he can convince her to talk, enlisting the help of his crew if needed.

Manni:
Manni looks at the Captain, "She wasn't moving, she was laying in a pipe not moving and the creature was crawling over her towards me! I wasn't able to check her body but if she's not dead it would be a miracle!"

Rebecca:
Dr. Delphine stares curiously at Manni and the substance on his suit. "Mr. Young, please remove your helmet and suit—carefully—and leave them here. I need to make sure this substance isn't toxic or contagious." She gestures to a table near where her equipment is being set up. "It's not ideal, but it'll have to do," she says quietly, more to herself than anything.

Seemingly unconcerned by the prospect of alien creatures, she stands and walks over to Manni, one hand on her hip, the other holding a pen and tapping her lips with it. "You do realize it's impossible for another organism to be on this rock without someone having brought it here. I am going to need you to describe to me exactly what you saw, including where you saw the pilot."

Manni:
Manni makes eye contact with the scientist, "It had a dark slender body with a large smooth head, with a long whipping tail, thin arms ending with long point razor sharp talons. It seemed like it's teeth glinted, like steel blades.""Tammy was about 50 meters away in what looked like some large surface pipes coming from the direction of where the station is located. They were  are about 6 feet in diameter, and were covered in some form of grating, one of which was damaged and bent outwards away from the entrance."

Rebecca:
"Interesting." Delphine purses her lips and stares at the man for an uncomfortable length of time. "You say this—animal—is exposed to the vacuum and still alive? Such a thing shouldn't be possible." She looks down to a clipboard and begins to hastily scribble some notes, followed by the rapid tapping of keys as she enters information into her computer station. Then she looks with distaste at the setup around her. "This setup is completely inadequate for these purposes," she mutters. "We will need the station online. Manni, focus: Was Tammy alive? Was her suit intact? Where did you see the creature last and what was it doing?"

Delphine's blue eyes are lit up with a furious energy. This sort of discovery, of what sounds to be a previously undiscovered species with deep sea dweller-like ability to survive zero-atmos conditions, is the thing scientists can only dream of. If she can pioneer the cataloguing and successful analysis of such a discovery, she would be set up for life. The look in her eyes speaks of the greatest scientific discovery since the invention of space travel.

Manni:
"All I saw was her legs in the pipe and the creature crawling over her to get to me. After it had grabbed me and tried to bite through my helmet I kicked it and it let loose of me. I took off running as fast as I could to get back here." Manni keeps thinking of his ordeal and not really want to relive it as he talks to Rebecca.

Matt:
The airlock connected to the station opens up with a hiss into the hanger.
Matt was able to see everyone standing around Manni, and Rebecca standing near by him talking.
What the heck is going on? Is everyone ok? he paused. Peter, where is your pilot?
He walks over and stands next to Bjorn.

Rebecca:
"We need to go out there right now and obtain that creature. Ah, lock it down. We'll see as well if Tammy is still alive." She taps the pen to her lips, then writes down a note and circles it on the clipboard.

alien? lab?
import, ICC quar.?
vacuum? data

Rebecca looks at her colleagues as if gauging them, studying their reactions. "It is imperative that we first capture this organism." She decides to try a tack that she knows will appeal to most of these roughnecks. "You want shares? This is either a company asset, or it will be, and this could be our discovery. Our paycheck. Shares? How about we all own our own little slice of interest, instead?"

Matt:
Matt waited for Rebecca to finish.
This could very well be the reason why we are here. We were told to investigate this area for a reason. This has to be it?
He looks over at Rebecca,
It is imperative that we get to the main frame and get what ever data we can, and secure it first. Stressing the importance of his mission.
Capturing this creature, is a high priority indeed. But I want to make sure, that we know what we are dealing with first, before we start looking for some space space monster.
Still looking at Rebecca.
While we were inside, we think the power to the station was turned off manually, and we should be able to get power up and running. And then I can get access to the mainframe.

Rebecca:
"Sounds like we simply need to restore power to whatever station was here first." Rebecca shrugs as though it's a simple matter. "But make no mistake, Mr. Leshainko, capturing this creature is top priority. Not only is it a threat, but its very existence could change our lives as we know it." She stands, clipboard in one hand, the other folded across her chest. "Weyland-Yutani wouldn't be out here without a reason. This asteroid offers no resources. They built that station to study or access something."

Matt: Matt replies solemnly.
I do not think you are wrong..
He quickly turns towards Peter..
Do you have status update for me?