Author: Luke Cartner

Chimera, a gang of bravos Session 1

Crew:

Alaka’i Kahananui aka The Kid; a hunter played by Chris

Ask Blindrson aka Ash, aka wanderer; a cutter played by Oskar

Emeline Comber, no known alias’s; a Slide played by Thomas

Faustulus Naqoahouna aka The Elder; a whisperer played by Matt

The Chimera were once a mighty Severosi mercenary crew. Ballads and plays have been written in their honor. As a result it is with great shame that the Silver Nails watched as the sad remnants of that once proud example of the Severosi Race limped into Doskvol driving out the Gondoliers from one of their grottoes, to setup a base of operations in si towers.

Due to a combination of pity and shame the Silver Nails gifted the Chimera a Severosi Sparring ring and recommended a blacksmith to the crew which knew of Severosi weapon smithing techniques.

Within days of arriving the had already upset the local’s raiding what they thought was an abandoned warehouse, finding quality weapons, they soon realised their mistake that they had in fact robbed a cache of weapons from the gray cloaks.

The Silver Nails also had problems with the gray cloaks, they were established in six towers as a base to raid into the lost district. However the Gray Cloaks want the district for themselves and frequently try to take Silver Nails turf.

The Silver Nails knew of a war chest being moved for safe keeping and offered to share half of it if Chimera would be willing to attack it enroute.

Emeline’s Contact was a tavern owner in six towers Emeline discussed with her contact how likely it would be that the Gray Cloaks would move their money and when. The tavern owner told her it was likely to happen in the next week.

Getting agreement from the Silver Nails to monitor the Gray Cloaks to give warning of when the shipment would move the Chimera attacked the shipment as it went under a bridge along the canals, The Kid and oskar, survivors from the Deathlands who were able to survive the miasma of the deathlands were unaffected by the corrupted water in the canal. With only the eels they saw swimming around them to fear. The plan was to swim onto the boat, something no sane person would do due to the toxic water and the eels and attack from behind while the rest of the crew attacked from above off the bridge.

With the eels swimming around them The Elder went to calm the beasts by attuning them (To which he failed the roll), resisting engaging the eels and waking up hungry ghosts.

The Kid and Ash swam on board the boat, avoiding taking bites from the eels.

From the front Emeline led the Crews thugs in an attack ordering them to attack the gang on the boat, unfortunately gaining the notice of the two riffle men on the boat who shot her in the head. Likely she had an armoured helm and a thick skull so rather than the shot splitting her head it left her with a nasty concussion.

Ash and the Kid along with the gang charged past the riflemen and the thugs the crew was fighting to the boat’s pilot killing him (accidentally mind you) with a punch to the throat that crushed his windpipe.

Emeline surveyed the area, the Gray Cloaks boat house was near by and they were readying to help their squad mates, Emeline also noted a group of around 10 silver nails who expected the attack, sitting across on the docks, watching a drinking beer as if it was a show.

Emeline (without any concern for cover) stood tall and drew on her experience from the actor’s college to deliver a great speech from the Play Gorlan the fourth. Raising the ire of the silver nails to start shooting at the boathouse of the Gray Coats, turning the reinforcements into a fine pink mist.

The hero speech was only marred but a single gunshot which would have taken off Emeline’s head if she hadn’t cut the speech short to duck. The realization that this is not a great play like she was used to playing Emeline starting to look off into the middle distance, shell shocked for the rest of the fight (Emeline traumaed out).

To help the boys on the boat the elder resisted the urge to reach out to the ghosts in the canal, his people believed those who consorted with ghosts were scum and worthy of no respect, he attuned to the thugs spirit, twisting their sense of reality, a desperate action which is by no means a good idea, the effect distracted the thugs but the psychic backlash knocked the elder out (Desperate/Limited, rolled a 5 and took level 3 harm).

Ash charged the riflemen taking them with him into the water, while The Kid and the gang subdued the remaining three thugs, then quickly before the eels turned to attack Ash reached out and pulled him out of the water.

A successful score, but at no small cost the crew of the Chimera has entered the six towers in and impressive display of force, although one they will need to recover from.

Lessons learned:

This was the first online session I have GMed. My main take away from this is in many ways despite it being with people I dont know I would strongly recommend the experience to those who are interested in GMing an online game.

While running a tabletop game with friends is great, they have less investment in the game. Playing with people heavily invested in the game system itself was an incredibly fun experience.

Session 3 of the Glitter Ponies

Fire in the deathlands

Cast:

Operant – Cutter – Terrence

Ghost – Lurk – Charlie

Grandma – Cutter – Patrick (only available for 30 minutes at the start)

Drake – Spider – Antonio

Crow – Whisper – Nicko (Away this week)

Professor – Leech – Nick (Away this week)

Shot opens on the glitter ponies lair, a boat house with the glitter ponies boat, a science vessel with a mural of the professor across it.

The Operator, drake and ghost are sitting together chatting.

Ghost continues “I’m just saying I want to get in with the leviathan hunters better”. Drake argues “Thats hard to do without the professor who is the only one who can pilot the boat.” “We need to start taking turf and kicking in heads” the operator speaks up. The group of 3 spent their time arguing about what their next score would be. A map of duskwall on the table. The talk about attack the grinders, then decide there isn’t much point until they have a gang to help them hold any turf. They talk about Captain

Smash cut to Lord Strangford’s quarter master his Sunday best, awkwardly knocking the mud off his boots and knocking on the door on a cozy looking cottage.

Grandma opens the door “Come in deary, would you like a nice cup of tea? The pots just come off the boil”. Grandma is the cutter of the glitter ponies, with countless interchangeable grandchildren and warm cookies always in the oven this sweet old lady has an iron core few would dare cross. The quarter master takes off his hat and comes in. “Yes you ma’m”.

The sit down and quartermaster gets down to business “The captain was hoping you could get something back for him”. Grandma looked concerned “oh what deary?”. The quarter master continues “when the lost district fell Lord Strangford’s family lost some important charts, we need your crew to get them back”. Grandma smiles “of course deary”. The quartermaster then looks uncomfortable and awkwardly goes on to say “The thing is his family were loaning them to the Clave family at the time”. Grandma has a knowing smile, “don’t worry my crew will be able to get it back no problem, I wont be able to go, our Sean’s birthday is tonight but we’ll be able to sort you”. The quarter looks relieved “What payment would you be after?”. Grandma waves it away “your such a good boy thinking of me in my old age but I wouldn’t dream of charging such a good friend as Lord Strangford”.

Fade in to the Operator, Drake and Ghost again. “So to be clear she agreed to go into the deathlands without our leech nor whisperer available at that, take the charts from Clave house and all for free” Drake asked, Shocked.

The operator nodded “you know grandma, plus you two wanted to get in with Lord Strangford”. Ghost sucks through his teeth thinking, “Hey Drake, you know whose family had a place near Clave house? Roslyn Kellis.” Roslyn had lured many Tycheros noble families to to Duskwall during the last political conflict in the Tycheros court of knives. Many families including both Ghost and Drake’s where lured to Duskwall by Roslyn by promises of a safe place, only to betrayed by her and their goods stolen when they arrived. Both of Ghost’s parents were killed at the hands of Roslyn’s thugs.

At that Drake looks thoughtful, “we’ll need some adepts, going into the deathlands without some protection is madness”. The operator, loads his guns and shrugs “I don’t see what the fuss is about it shouldn’t be difficult we go out, get the chart come back in, easy.”

Cut to Drake sitting down with his architect buddy again, and making him pay again. “The thing is that whole area is currently being surveyed for goods of the crown, they are watch anyone who looks up any of the blueprints, I can give you the address but thats about it”.

The carriage the crew obtained of the train scavenge/rescue which ended up not happening is heading into the death lands. Inside sit our crew and four big Tycherosi men in there mid 50’s they are lead by Uncle Gregori (Based of +Adam Koebel character from the west marches). The gang of adepts are fiercely loyal, old men who love women, wine and arguing. As the Carriage pulls up to Roslyn’s estate you can hear the four loudly sing Tycherosi folk songs.

(OOC, the crew rolled a 3 on their engagement roll, so things started pretty badly for them).

As they pulled up a group of five deathland savages turned from side of the house. “Now what do we have here, a bunch of pigeons ready for the pot?” The leader of the band sneered, Drake jumped out of the carriage, talking quickly hoping beyond hope (it was desperate/limited) he could sway the band away from a fight. “My good sirs, how pleased we are to see you, we are noblemen as you see and there are good we just must retrieve from our families house”. (He then crit his sway roll, ticking off 2 slices of the ‘savagers don’t kill you’ clock). The leader laughed and pranced as he imagined nobles to do, raising his tone to be nasal and toadying “Oh, how quaint, well I was just saying to lord SnotNose here and Duke GutterTrash that you carriage looked to be that of a noble house”. The thugs sniggering, although at least a fight hadn’t started. Drake smiled and pulled a fine bottle of whiskey from his coat “My lords, how happy I am to come across such fine gentlemen as yourself, would you care to share this fine bottle of whiskey with me” (And then he crit his sway a second time). Cut to Uncle Gregori drunkly teaching the deathland savages an out Tycherosi drinking song as the scavengers finished the last of the bottle. The leader looks at Drake I like you, I’ll tell my boys the glitter ponies ain’t bad (two crits on desperate rolls to sway them, I felt that deserved a +1 rep with the deathland scavengers if nothing else).

The crew ransacked Roslyn’s family house looking for anything to blackmail her with. With a grin Ghost found some documents and they took 2 coin with of art and such, the crew left onwards to clave house only to realize that Ghost had left a small fire burning when they left, as it slowly spread in the house, the crew started to hurry as they were worried it might spread.

The crew arrived at Clave house in a bit of a hurry. The crew tore through the house looking for the study with the charts. They found it upstairs, Ghost started the slow process of cracking the safe, when he was half way done 2 ghosts appeared, they were children, a little girl and a little boy. The crew looked pitying at them, that is until they removed the skill from there faces. The operator drew both his guns, firing electroplasm killing the little boy and boy, but only winging the girl who jumped on the Operator trying to posses him. While ghost continued to try and crack the safe, Drake lead the adepts in attempting to drive off the spirits and the operator fired another shot into the ghost, watching it fade away. The operator was left standing there, pale the blood drained from his face. Uncle Gregory laughed “Deathlands are easy? No? I don’t see what the fuss is about”, laughing and echoing the operator’s word’s back at him.

Finally the safe opened the crew grabbed the charts and whatever other treasure remained.

Cut to Lord Strangford talking to his quartermaster. “So the glitter ponies was it, so lucky they were able to get the Charts out before the fire struck” the lord drawled. The quartermaster looked woodenly “Yes sir”. “I trust you ensured they were well paid” Lord Strangford went on to ask. The quarter master shook his head, “I tried, but they refused they said it was an honor to do Lord Strangford a favor and that favors should not require coin when they are between friends”. Lord Strangford sat looking at his glass of red wine “Now that is interesting”.

Epilogue:

The Drake is returning to the lair, the light from his lamp retracts back to the lamp as if afraid of the darkness, a bestial form appears in the darkness and a sinister voice growls “I have need of your services”

Then we cut to black.

Session 2 of the Glitter Ponies – The fire of the dockers.

So I wanted to post the second session my group of smugglers, who decided to name themselves the Glitter Ponies had.

As with before its about a group of six, made up of various workmates working with me in the tech industry and due to that people are often late or cant make it.

Operant – Cutter – Terrence

Ghost – Lurk – Charlie

Grandma – Cutter – Patrick

Drake – Spider – ANtonio

Crow – Whisper – Nicko

Professor – Leech – Nick

The scene opens at the boat house, the crew boat (which is counted as a cohort with the flaw of distinct), the Millennium Dolphin clearly in shot with a mural across it of the professor along the theme of the mural on Kreigger’s van from archer (either like: http://simhq.com/forum/files/usergals/2015/06/full-93-105180-18emyuph3tmzwjpg.jpg or https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c1/30/e2/c130e2cd13a3b153b074f06c5fd46e17.jpg we are not sure). With the words “The Professor’s totally leggit science vessel” printed along the top.

We cut to the crew discussing the raid on the derailed train that they decided on last night. Crow and Professor are no where to be seen and the crew are worried.

Grandma, “Im not saying it’s a bad idea to go into the deathlands which are filled with ghosts and demons with no whisper or leech, but those dockers messed with us I want break some of their heads.”

Without the characters who do the spooky stuff the crew was starting to have second thoughts about heading into a wasteland filled with ghosts and demons. Also only the Professor could drive his boat as is was finicky and miss behaved without him at the wheel.

The crew remembered dockers trying to shake them down as the complication last session and decided they wanted to kick their heads in instead. They decided to knock over a docker import holding imports.

Ghost, “I know this Tycheros guy, another displaced noble with fled with us with us out of Tycheros to avoid the mob, good guy, he might be able to help us.”

Cut to Drake, “Yeah I can help you out I know just the guy.”

Drake and Ghost’s families fled Tychoros when their noble families ended on the wrong side of court politics, flying to duskvol for their lives. The two struck up a friendship and although side immigrating to duskvol their lives have taken different turns they have never lost contact.

Drake’s contact was August, a senior architect. years earlier August was competing with another architect Jonny. Drake used his connections with the other nobles to spread rumors that Jonny was a pediphile, making August a shoe in for the role. August has owned Drake ever since.

Drake met his August, in a fancy restaurant (for which he made August pay) to get information about the Dockers holding warehouses..

He crit his consort. so I asked him what kind of success he wanted from that. We decided the August not only had the blue prints, he also bitterly complained that they “Ruined the beautiful flow of my building by forcing those awful secret rooms into the floor above throwing the energy of the whole place off”.

Not happy with just the plans Ghost went to prowl to observe the ware house. He noticed that there are no standard guards just a group of dockers smoking and talking around each of the entrances. He also noted that where ever a shipment came in, there would be a rush of chaos as the dockers bring stock into the clear house.

The crew decided this would be the best time to strike.

Just as they were about to start the player who plays the whisper arrived, the crew decided to stick to the new plan.

The plan was to load up crates with false tops hidden in the bottoms, oily rags and over the top they spread a coin worth of treasure.

They would then enter we a shipment came in claiming to be sent it to put the treasure in the back room (as they knew exactly where the secret room was).

Setting up some kind of fire to cover their tracks.

The crew got inside the warehouse with no problems, However when they started heading up to restricted area at the top of the stairs. They were confronted by the overseer, who wanted to know who they were and why they were there. The crew told him that the ‘captain’ told them bring the stuff in. They convinced him, but I started a clock as they told a devils bargain that he would find this ‘captain’ and confirm their story.

From there they found the secret room quickly.

Crow wanted to atune to find any spirit essences, I made a fortune roll “where the bodies are buried”, to see if there are any angry ghosts as a result of the dealings. I got a six. So I said there were which would make the attune a desperate roll, if the desparate consequence being they would wake the angry ghosts who would try and posses the whisper. The spider, Drake used his foresight ability to give another dice saying that he had looked into the history of the place and found rumors that an entire crew of sailors had gone missing around here while the warehouse was being built and the rumors are they construction was used as cover for their mass grave.

Crow then made his atune roll and found a crate of spirit essences.

The crew grabbed the spirit essences and looted what coin they could find, starting a small fire.

Crow decided he wanted to ‘help’ the fire. He poured the entire contents of his oil lamp on the fire. Again I rolled a fortune roll, “burn baby burn” I got a six. The result was the fire flared out singeing (level 1 harm which the crew resisted) the entire crew and setting the fire to be out of control.

After than the crew started to try and sneak out. It all went well until they where noticed by a door guard. The Operant tried to bluff his way past, taking the devils bargain that the guard would remember him.

We succeeded with the consequences that after they got past that he would notice there was something strange with the crates and follow them to investigate (with a gang of thug in hand).

The Operant went to resist this, unfortunately maxing his stress. As mechanically he couldn’t be in the encounter, but the resist meaning they were free to go, I ruled he threw his create of treasure at the guard and ran off leading them on a chase.

As a result of this the Operant is now paranoid that people are after him. As an interesting side note after the score Terence, the player who plays the Operant then commented I’m starting to think this game is too easy (despite the fact that he all ready had one trauma by the second session)

To reduce heat the crew framed the guard (setup action prowl and then sway to convince the blue coats it was him). The dockers caught up with him, tortured him and his family to death. The guard couldn’t give up who his follow conspirators where (because he was framed) but as he recognized the Operant he gave him up before he died.

The blue coats then to questioned the Operant who broke down into a paranoid gibbering mess bribing them with three coin to just leave him be.

Conclusions:

Even though everyone is still learning the system I think everyone had fun.

The players started to show an interest in a wider story and getting to know more about the world.

I plan on starting faction clocks and added extra depth to the world to make it more of a breathing living thing that my players are interacting with.

Lessons learned:

If you dont care about trauma and just burn through stress apparently it is easy.

Stressing to the players that they are in control and I will respond to them leads to some fun roleplay.

First experiences of a GM running a game of BitD

Last week I posted a question on guidelines about running the game for 5 – 6 players.

In that I indicated I would provide a write up on how it went.

Well I ran the game on tuesday night and only now am I getting a chance to provide a write up.

It went well, the guys liked the system so much most of them went onto drive thru rpg to buy a copy.

The main issues arose because we all work in tech and there was a sev 2, meaning people could only slowing filter in requiring me to reiterate the system of play, due to my inexperience GMing this style of RP heavy play compared to more crunchy systems like d&d.

I will say that I was unprepared for the volume of things I needed to know, the crew want to setup in nightmarket, I need to know whose turf that is??

It took me ages to figure it out. Additionally I was completely unprepared for the crew’s decision to be smugglers, I mean what kind of score with the conflict and roles would smugglers even have.

I plan on watching lord of war, blow and narcos to get ideas but I mean have than getting stopped at the border by blue coats what challenges should the crew actually have?

I still have no idea how I can get 300 odd pages of the necessary lore into my head to run even the most basic of session, but I guess I’ll have to just make do.

Despite all of that it went well.

The crew decided they wanted to smuggle leviathan blood into the city, they had a buyer in the city and connections with leviathan hunters. So I made then negotiate a pickup outside the lightning barrier, smuggle it through as a ‘science vessel’ for the academy.

On the way from the docks in the nightmarket to their contact they stumbled across a patrol of bluecoats who the fighter of the crew (a 80 year old grandmother (think ma higgins)) crit her command role and made the patrol of blue coats carry the barrels of blood to the contact for her.

All in all it went well and Im looking forward playing again this tuesdays.

Lessons learnt. Break the D&D habit of requiring the player actions to be sane, rather than think of why not, answer yes but.

Get the players to tell me what they want to do, and what obstacles they expect to see, make them do that work for me.

Characters dont get rewarded for the amount of screen time they have, rather the quality of roleplay than the quality of the screen time.

It’s about hitting good answers to those questions at the rather than making rolls.

I feel like I should discuss role changes already with my players, the leech spent the entire time playing as a slide, my on of my cutters spent most of his time playing as a spider, my lurk played as a cutter.

I think it will take people time to get used to the system.

But it went well and was enjoyable.

My advice to anyone running a game of 5 – 6. Rather than making it like small ensemble shows like house, dark matter, x files, instead model it off larger ensemble shows like angel, firefly, or Hustle.

With one or two characters getting the spotlight that week and/score and other members getting to do cool support roles and weaving into the larger story.