First Session of After the Bomb

After the Bomb 2e is a stand-alone RPG that uses the core Palladium rules with the TMNT mutation rules added in.  In this game, I'm also allowing things from Ninjas and Superspies, and possibly something or other from Heroes Unlimited.

Basically, it's a post-apocalyptic RPG featuring mutant animals!  I'd forgotten how much I love TMNT characters.  That's what makes this system great.  Cause it sure ain't the over-complex, fiddly combat or the as-bad-as-3e antagonist generation or the "simple" (by GURPS standards) vehicle rules..

But I can houserule all that shit.  The characters...  so good.

Let's see - we have 4 characters in the game at this point.  Perry, the DM from our OD&D game, is playing a 7'3", 380 lb mutant sheep named Baab.  Baab is a trained Farrier (which presumably means he can shoe himself) and also knows Sumo.  He speaks both english and japanese with a scottish accent (lllolll's his lllll's).

Then we have Jennie's character - a currently unnamed mutant Marten (which is like a large, tree-dwelling ferret).  This character is ridiculously fast, knows Drunken Monkey kung-fu, can pilot military vehicles, and knows the Art of Hiding, which is the neat trick where you stand RIGHT BEHIND somebody and move around so fast they can't see you.  Which would be awesome but she took the Musk Gland: Strong and Stinky bit, so the character is basically a really Silent but Deadly fart.  Which is also kinda great.

Next is the brains of the operation: Dr. Cat. Dr Cat is called Dr. Cat because he is pretty much a large scottish fold cat, but with a few minor differences from the traditional cat.  Difference one: Dr. Cat is a medical doctor, with degrees in Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, Radiology and Dentistry.  Also Clinical Genetics, Anthropology, Botany, Analytical Chemistry (I don't even KNOW WHAT THAT IS) and Public Speaking.  Except he can't speak because he IS A CAT.

Oh, and Dr. Cat has ectoplasmic hands - for use in surgery, and a crippling catnip addiction.  And he can drive both motorcycles and trucks.  So he's pretty much Toonces the Driving Cat.

As if that wasn't enough, the final character is possibly the best of all.  He is a 14" tall mutant bat.  Who knows Ninjitsu.  Also he can talk to electronics, sees by ground-penetrating sonar, can fix mechanical objects by touching them, and eats only bugs. Which explains the "Breed and Control Insects" skill.  It does not explain the "Bolt-action rifle" and "WP Grappling hook" skills.  Man.  You can FLY - what do you need a grappling hook for?

Because you are a ninja, is the obvious answer.

The first session consisted of finishing the characters, waking up naked in a tube full of liquid, getting out of the tube, convincing the lab AI to download itself onto a memory crystal, convincing the elevator that it would be fun to release the brakes and plummet down the shaft in order to save electricity (reactor power in the complex is very low), searching through some labs for clothing (Baab is kinda body-shy).

The main feedback, "not enough stuff to kill".  Ah 4e-players, how simple things are in your little world.  I'm very excited - this is shaping up to be epic and silly and awesome, which is pretty much how I like my games to be.

More Details about the Khalik Vahr

I've fleshed out the culture and race I'm using for the Hill Cantons Domain Game. I present to you: 

The Khalik:

Although there are some physical similarities, the Khalik Vahr are not dwarves.  Physically, they appear more like large, stocky svirfneblin – almost totally hairless, with large ears and oversized eyes.

It’s rare that anyone see the face or body of a Khalik, though.  Most Khalik, men and women, wear woven garments that cover their bodies and hoods over their faces, especially when outside.  Silk cowls cover their features, dimming bright lights to a manageable level.  The natural color of the material they wear is stone-grey, but when they are on the surface they paint their clothing in vertical, irregular stripes in colors that match their surroundings, effectively camouflaging themselves.

Social Organization:
There are 2 main castes of the Khalik, the common, labourer caste and the noble, warrior caste.  Members of the warrior caste generally wear full-body armour with featureless, full-face helmets, made of a hardened insect chitin.  The natural color of the material is also stone-grey, but warriors also paint their armour when the caravans are moving above-ground.

Khalik warriors fight on both on foot and mounted.  Foot soldiers are generally encased in long hauberks made of overlapping disks of chitin, affixed to a flexible leather backing. They carry round shields made of the same material, and most carry long-bladed swords made of steel or chitin.  Their swords curve slightly and come to a wedge-shaped tip with a back-pointing hook.  Most Khalik also carry fighting picks, which double as tools, and iron flails.  Many Khalik also carry powerful crossbows along with their shields and hand weapons.  Polearms, mostly long-handled halberd or cleaver-like weapons, are also commonly used, especially when the Khalik are defending their Ways.

Mounted Khalik ride powerful lizards called Ehzak.  There are a number of different Ehzak breeds; the heavy-limbed Par’Ezhak that are used as small draft animals, the lighter Hur’Ezhak, used for riding and hunting, and the armoured, fanged Kla’Ezhak, which are trained for battle.  All Ezhak generally run on 4 legs, but can rise up to stand on their hind legs for periods of time.  Ezhak aren’t quite as fast as horses, but they are much lower to the ground, more stable and can easily scramble over rocks, up steep slopes and down banks.  Khalik riders tend to use webs of strapping to attach themselves to their agile mounts, and fight using light crossbows, lances, javelins, fighting picks, warhammers and flails.

Female Khalik of the noble classes are often fighters – it’s almost impossible to tell if most Khalik are male or female.   Some noble females belong to the Tannuth, who are the magic-users of the Khalik.  The Tannuth wear spidersilk robes and full-face masks, and are the only female members of the Khalik who are recognizable as such.  The Tannuth are effectively the educated class of the Khalik.  They are responsible for construction, engineering and scientific endeavours, in addition to being skilled users of magic, often specializing in illusions.

Religion:
The Khalik worship one god, Ohm’Khalik, Lord of the Paths Above and Below.  Ohm’Khalik is a god of exploration, trade and travel, but also of warfare, if necessary.  Many male members of the noble class are priests of Ohm’Khalik, and make up the religious caste of the Khalik.

Culture:
The Khalik are a semi-nomadic, tribal society that move between surface and underground sites in great armored caravans.  There are several major tribes of Khalik, and each tribe is composed of a number of semi-autonomous "Ways" or caravan-clan units that are tied together by treaties and kinship.  There are also a fair number of "Lesser Ways" that are not tied directly to the major tribes, but operate as intermediaries, allies or rivals of the larger tribes.

Wholks:
Khalik Ways move about the country using Wholks– these are giant beetles that have been bred to have holes and flat places on their carapace that allow wagons to be constructed on their backs.  The wagons have high sides and firing slots, allowing them to double as small fortifications.  All wagons have at least 5 dwarves, a driver, 2 crossbowman and 2 heavy infantry, aboard at all times.  They also each have 3 polearms (Halberds, basically) attached to hooks on the inside.  All Khalik are trained to move to the wagons at the first sign of attack, and to use the halberds to defend the wagons.

Wholks cost about as much as 4 draft horses, and can pull a similar amount.  The wagons carry as much weight as a standard wagon, and can be taken off the back of the Wholk and disassembled, allowing the caravan to move through fairly small spaces. Wholks-wagons can also be quickly broken down and rebuilt into a fortified laager.  Each wagon provides 50 feet of light fortification, and takes 2 people 1 hour to disassemble and set back up.  The Khalik often combine the laager fortifications with wooden stakes and a quickly-dug trench if expecting trouble.

The main advantage of the Wholk is that it eats damn near anything (although quite a bit of anything) and is effectively an ATV – it can easily navigate an underground or mountain environment that a horse cannot move through.  Downside is it’s a bit slower. moving at half as fast as a horse-drawn cart.

The other use of the Wholk is that it is a domesticated animal, used for food and materials.  A well-fed Wholk lays eggs regularly.  These eggs are round, tough-shelled and about the size of a basketball.  They are edible, and provide one of the major food sources for the Khalik.  In an area with ample forage, one Wholk produces enough eggs to feed 5-8 people.  The usual ratio of Khalik to Wholk in a caravan is between 5 and 10 to 1.  Wholks that die or are killed can be eaten as meat (food for 1 month for 25 people) and their shells are used as armor and building materials. Wholk also shed chitin regularly, and have to be “trimmed” in order to keep them useful for carrying wagons.  This shed chitin is used for tools, weapons and armor.

Wholk eggs are buried by the insect, and gestate for 6 months.  1-2 Wholk larvae hatch from each egg - the larvae are about 1 foot long and capable of defending themselves and burrowing to escape danger.  They eat plant material, insects, small animals and carrion ravenously, and grow to full-size in about 1 year.  A full-grown Wholk is about 18 feet long, 5 feet high, and moves on hundreds of small, powerful legs.  They are essentially giant millipedes.

Wayfinders:
The Wayfinders are small, detached groups, associated with the Ways, but travelling separately from them.  They act as scouts, skirmishers, foragers and warbands for the Ways.  Usually, Wayfinders are led and made up mainly of dwarven members of the Way they are associated with, but the dangerous, stealthy nature of the Wayfinder life means that outcasts and renegades from other races are often accepted into Wayfinder groups.  Some Wayfinders also work as mercenaries, selling their services to powerful Ways.  These groups are usually more highly-skilled and specialized than "regular" Wayfinders, and contain a high percentage of adventurers.

Worldgame Submission

ckutalik over at Hill Cantons has sent out invitations to a domain-style worldgame.  The post has the particulars, and I've always loved domain gaming - we used to do it a lot when I was a kid.  So without further ado, my submission for the game:

The Khalik Vahr:

"The only way that is certain is the road that runs from birth to death.  All other paths are shifting stone and flowing water."

The Khalik are a nomadic, tribal dwarven society that move between surface and underground sites in great armored caravans.  There are several major tribes of Khalik, and each tribe is composed of a number of semi-autonomous "Ways" or caravan-clan units that are tied together by treaties and kinship.  There are also a fair number of "Lesser Ways" that are not tied directly to the major tribes, but operate as intermediaries, allies or rivals of the larger tribes.

The Wayfinders are small, detached groups, associated with the Ways, but travelling separately from them.  They act as scouts, skirmishers, foragers and warbands for the Ways.  Usually, Wayfinders are led and made up mainly by dwarven members of the Way they are associated with, but the dangerous, stealthy nature of the Wayfinder life means that outcasts and renegades from other races are often accepted into Wayfinder groups.  Some Wayfinders also work as mercenaries, selling their services to powerful Ways.  These groups are usually more highly-skilled and specialized than "regular" Wayfinders, and contain a high percentage of adventurers.

The Vahr are a Lesser Way associated with the more powerful Uhr tribe as a confederate and trading partner.  The Uhr have recently suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Duergar warbands, leaving the Vahr without their traditional ally and "big brother".  With Duergar incursions into their traditional territories and the Uhr in disarray, the Vahr are being squeezed into less productive territories, or spending more time above-ground, which has it's own dangers.

The existence of certain caverns which lead to "Other Ways" has long been known to the Khalik, but the dangers of passing through them have always meant that they are rarely travelled.  However, straightened circumstances lead to different thinking, and the Khalik Vahr are desperate enough to risk supporting an expedition into other dimensions.

Terrik Vahr, Wayfinder Captain of the Khalik Vahr.

Dwarf

Lv 7

Alignment: Neutral

HP: 54

ST: 13

DX: 12

CN: 16

IN: 7

WI: 12

CH: 15

Equipment:

Chitin-Plate Armor (stats as plate mail)

Chitin Helmet

Heavy Pick

Terrik is one of the youngest Wayfinder Captains of the Khalik Vahr.  He wears the traditional armor of the Khalik - heavy plates of giant insect carapace, painted stone-grey for camouflage, complete with a featureless grey helmet. 

His skill in battle, matchless endurance and ability to recruit, motivate and delegate responsibility to his team brought Terrik to the position of Wayfinder Captain.  What Terrik lacks in imagination and ability to think laterally, he makes up for with his crafty advisors and his rock-solid tenacity in pursuing a course through to the end.  His Wayfinders are a motley crew, made up of members of several different races, but they work as an effective team, and have years of experience in the most brutal and pitiless environment imaginable.

The Elders of the Khalik Vahr saw Terrik as an excellent choice to lead the first expedition through the gate.  Once an initial outpost has been set up, they expect to send additional groups through, as opportunities present themselves.  Although the Khalik Vahr are not a large country, per-say, they make up for their relatively few numbers by being highly experienced travellers, self-sufficient, tough, and accustomed to living off of the land - both above and below the surface.  They will support Terrik's expedition with resources and dwarfpower as long as they see a return on their investment - they are a practical folk, after all.

The Wargame DNA of the RPG

A few years ago, I helped out a family friend, Craig Besinque, in designing and playtesting a block-based wargames, which ended up being called Hellenes: Campaigns of the Ancient World.

Craig is pretty well-know in a certain element of the wargaming community - which is like being well-known in the RPG community, except that wargamers tend to be a bit more community-oriented than most RPGer's.  He's designed games like WestFront and EastFront for Columbia Games, so it was really interesting to learn about board game/wargame design from him.

In brief, here are the things I learned working with Craig.

1) Designing wargames is unlikely to make you rich.  You are working in a niche market, with a fairly small customer base (as customer bases go).  They are a reliable base, though - willing to spend money on quality product.  This is presumably also true for RPG's - something anyone wanting to design RPG's should heed.

2) You had best be good at math.  Craig has a Masters Degree in Mathematics from (I believe) UCLA.  He can do fairly complex probability in his head.  I suspect that it's a good thing he's not into gambling, or he would be cleaning up on Pokerstars.net.

3) Game balance is all-important.  Moreso in this context than some others, since Hellenes was designed to be a fairly short 1v1 wargame.  Balance in this context is very similar to what balance means in chess - there should be no sure, or even preferred, route to victory.  If there is, the game is "broken" and considered by most people to be unworthy of being played.  Which will kill your sales (or even your chances of being published) - see point 1.

4) You can design whatever you want, but if you stick to certain material constraints, there is a much better chance that your game will be published.  In this case, Columbia games had certain pre-packaged numbers of blocks and decks of cards.  If you used a different number of blocks in your game, it meant the game cost more, which would be a factor in the publisher deciding to release it.  Likewise, if you use cards, try to stick with the same number of cards as a standard deck of cards, for the same reasons.

To further explain this point, we should examine a different game - Railroad Tycoon.  This game has a ton of different blocks, tiles, markers, plastic trains and whatnot with it.  It's a pretty good game, but now out of print.  I think that's probably because all the bells and whistles (hehe) cost more that it's worth to produce the thing.

5) You must playtest.  Then, playtest more.  Then put it out there and get others to playtest it.  That is the only way to get good game balance - see point 3.

6) If you want to design a historical boardgame, you must start with the historical part.

It's nice if the game can reflect historical realities, but you should pick what realities you reflect - they should be ones that create interesting possibilities and trade-offs.  Guns or butter decisions are what make wargames interesting.

Ideally, players should be making decisions that reflect those that the actual historical sides would have made - in the case of Hellenes, the Athenians need to decide how much of their fleet to take out of the city, whether to focus on attacking Spartan coastal provinces, how much effort to spend putting down revolts, and how many resources to apply to land armies vs the fleet.

7) Limiting resources is a good thing.  When you can't do everything, you have to make decisions about where to allocate a very limited pool of resources.  This makes each decision a difficult one, requiring much deliberation.  Combined with point 6 - it means you can never do everything you want, and you're always making interesting decisions about what you can do.

Many RPG's use one or more of these design principles.  Interestingly, older versions of games like D&D tend to use less of them, despite the fact that they are closer, genetically-speaking to those old wargames.  Specifically issues like game balance, playtesting and limiting resources don't seem to have been foremost in the minds of the designers of say, 1e Dungeons and Dragons.  It's a hybrid game system, and the designers seem to be focused more on the overall experience than applying the lessons of wargame design to the new system.

In more recent years, things have swung back around.  4e, for all it's flaws, pays much more attention to 2, 3 and 7.  It would have been nice if they spent more time on 5, though.  Curiously, it's frequently panned by fans of the older editions - which is kinda weird, since it owes much more to the initial inspiration for D&D than many of those old editions did.

Ultimately, helping to design a boardgame was a great experience - it's really changed how I look at both RPG's and computer games.  I feel like I have a much better view of the decisions that were probably made in the design phase that resulted in the game I'm playing, which makes it easier to mod games, and strangely, easier to like each system for it's own merits/flaws.  To understand something is to lose the fear of it, after all.

OD&D, Session 6

It's never a good idea to leave the person who plays the thief alone with the DM.  I'm just throwing that out there as a general RPG rule.  Never leave the thief alone.  With the GM.  Things will occur that most of the rest of the party probably don't want to occur.

As de-facto party leader, I suppose Fingolfin should have been surprised when we loaded up the cart for "Operation Get the Lazy Bitch Elves Their Magical Thingy Back" and found 2 large, unplanned barrels of wine in the back.

"I bought them", proudly announced Hanz, the resident thief (and ex-Black Eagle staffer).  "Why?"  I responded.  Then decided that I didn't really want to know, but figured we could work with it, and rolled.

Now, I'm not going to say that the decision for Alexi to pretend to be a prisoner was totally motivated by desire for revenge for his getting us involved in this merry cluster-frack, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a consideration.  So with a certain degree of relish, we had him strip down, inflicted a few cosmetic bruises, tied him up in the bottom of the cart, and headed south from Luln for Black Eagle Barony and sunny, friendly Fort Doom!

A travel video about Fort Doom would go something like this:

"Set like a festering sore in the reeking western marshes of Karameikos, the main industries of Fort Doom are fishing, slavery and incompetent plotting.  Tourist attractions include slums, hovels, and wretched masses cowering from their master's boot.  The friendly local inhabitants are mostly fisherfolk, who are kept roughly in line by hostages, held by the jackbooted thugs who make up the rest of the population.  If you're lucky, you'll see some of the exotic orcs, goblins or other horrendous monsters that the friendly and hospitable Baron uses to terrorize his subjects.  Truly, the holiday destination of the Duchy!"

So yeah - nice place.  We got into the city with no problems (guards at gate drunk, also apparently developmentally disabled), and approached the eponymous fort.  True to form, the sergeant of the guard proved to be fat and obnoxious, challenging us upon approaching the gates.  Some judicious display of the captured Iron Ring badge (a ring, made of... wait for it... iron.) and a properly arrogant attitude saw us through the gates.

Then operations really started.  We generously "donated" one of the wine barrels to the gate guards, which went over about how you'd expect - no drinking on duty issues here.  I informed the sergeant that we had magic items to put in the tower, and was told I needed a pass.  Apparently those are given out by a lieutenant Garand or somewhat.  So off we went, prisoner in tow, to see the Lt.

We'd also acquired a neat magic item, a Horn of Plenty - which makes... food.  Awesome.  But it looks magical, so into a sack it went.  Informing the Lt that we had a magical horn which "blows holes in walls" - which is what I wish we'd gotten, I expedited the pass process by offering to test it in his office.  Pass acquired, we headed to the tower.  Once inside the tower, we put the main evil cleric-guy (who lounges around in his boxers while on guard duty) to sleep, looted his stuff, then headed upstairs, where we encountered a complaining old man.

It quickly became apparent that the old fellow was an alchemist, and no fan of team Black Eagle, so we promised Nicholai that we'd help him escape, if he helped us find the magic whoosis.  He agreed fairly quickly and said that Lt. Demetrios (or something roman anyway, I wasn't taking notes) might have it in his office.  We burst into the Lt's office on the second floor, and discovered a bit of a scene.  The Lt and a fellow in tight black leather were sitting very close to each other - "discussing" something or other.  Whoops.

So we cast sleep on them.  Heheh.  I don't know how anyone makes any headway against the elves - that spell is pure murder in OD&D - 2d8 hd, area effect, no save.  Love it.  So they went to sleep, and we killed them, and discovered that the gem was already being moved - the mage Aurelius was planning on taking it out to the Baron, who is enroute here from someplace, and he's just waiting for an escort from the main keep.  This is just the gatehouse to the main keep - apparently.  Which explains that negligence, drunkeness and general slothful attitude.

There are 2 places this Aurelius might be - either the dungeon or the inner barbican, the entrance into the keep proper.  I figure it's easier to do a quick check of the barbican before we go to the dungeon, so we head off in that direction.  The barbican is closed, but there are guards up top on the wall, so I ask them if Aurelius is still waiting there for his escort.  They say "Yes, but it's a secret, so keep it quiet."  Smooth boys, smooth.  So I tell them to open up, as I have Aurelius' things.

They do - whoohoo!  Then we see that there are a lot of guards in here.  So we cast sleep on them.  Whoohoo!  Snoozing.  One of the other things that we found in the tower was an elven cloak, which Hanz the thief is now wearing.  This is an OD&D magic item, so none of this sissy, +5 to sneak rolls 3e crap.  This makes you totally invisible unless you roll a 1 on a d6.  So Hanz uses it to sneak into the barbican and finds Aurelius, some thief, the watch-commander and a bunch more mooks.  At this point, we're out of sleep spells, so we do it the old-fashioned way.

By backstabbing the wizard.  Who dies.  And then we burst into the room.  Didn't quite manage surprise, although I'd be pretty fucking surprised if the person I was having an argument with sprouted a spear point in mid-shout.  We carve down the guards, and after a few rounds of pretty rough rolling, get into the spirit of the thing and take out the watch-captain and the thief-guy.  We also find the gem, some magic rings and a few other nice things.

Then, downstairs and out the front.  At this point, we discover that an orc patrol has come in from the city, and is milling around the front gate.  We turn it into a party with the other barrel of wine, and I discover one of the reasons for the thief/dm rule.  Hanz poisoned the wine.  Not "keel over after drinking" poison.  No, giant ant venom apparently blisters the interior of the stomach/bowels, incapacitating the victims in a few hours.

Leaving everyone to their "party", we hurry out the gate.  But Hanz stays behind.  Once again, we log off and leave the thief alone with the DM...

I find out the next day that Hanz snuck into the dungeon, backstabbed the jailor, stole the keys, released and armed the prisoners, met a friendly ogre and gathered a handful of "followers", who all meet us just outside the city walls.

So, for our next session, I'll be figuring out how to get out the Black Eagle Barony with an ogre in tow.  Oh, and the magical geegaw lets us cast charm person, ESP and some other spells a few times a DAY.  That shouldn't be a game-breaker.

OD&D, Session 5

When a session starts off with a map of your campsite, and the DM casually mentions, "so you're sitting around the fire..."  NO GOOD CAN COME OF IT.  Things will be coming out of the bushes.  Horrible things.  With swords and teeth and biting and aaaayyyy.

And that is how our last session started.  Fortunately (I suppose) what came out of the darkness was a guy on horseback.   Shouting.  Shouting about "They're right behind me, they'll kill us all, AARRGH".  Upon reflection, it would have been smarter to just conk him over the head and give him to his pursuers, but instead we stupidly asked, "Who's after you?", like a bunch of dumbasses.

'Cause, it's obvious that whoever is after him is a Bad Person.  And will attack us.  So it was no surprise when he told us that he was pursued by agents of the Iron Ring, a bunch of slaver-assholes who would no doubt attempt to kill/enslave us just for being here at the same time he was.  He's pretty fucking lucky it was our camp he rode up to, and not, say, a travelling minstrel-show.  He'd have been screwed.

Immediately, aforementioned Bad Person and thugs showed up - surrounding our camp, conveniently.  The leader loudly instructing his men to "Kill them all".  Talk about lack of due diligence on his part.  Rule 1 for slaver/bandit: Identify potential threat level of target.

I won't say I didn't warn them though - my character, Fingolfin the elf, shouted loudly (at the darkness) "if you attack our camp, we'll put you all to sleep, and then I'll personally nail you to a tree."  It seemed like a reasonable threat.

So they did.  And we did.  I had a wooden mallet, and the thief had some iron spikes.  The slaver leader seemed... distressed when we woke him up by driving in the first spike.  He was also markedly uncooperative.  More so that I would expect someone to be when one is crucified, one's men have been hung, and a pair of wolves are sniffing hungrily around one's feet.  I'd be positively fucking loquacious at that point.  But he just cursed and spat and generally made an ass of himself.

Then somebody shot a crossbow at us from the bushes.  But the wolves ran him down pretty fast.  These guys aren't learning.  They're also not telling us WTF is happening, so we asked our "guest" Alexis why he was interrupting our evening with the shouting and the blood.

Apparently, the forces of the Black Eagle Barony, upon whose metaphorical doorstep we now trod, had stolen a magical gem doohickey from the elves in eastern Karameikos (presumably because the elves were busy snorting pixie-faerie dust off each other's naked backsides and having unprotected elf-sex - because really, what else is there to do when you're immortal).  The gem is REALLY important because you can do mind control with it - notwithstanding that Charm Person is basically mind control and a level 1 spell.

Alexis is part of a rescue mission sent to retrieve it before all manner of horror can befall the faire realme, but all his friends have been killed by the Iron Ring, and now he's on his own and wants OUR help.  There are apparently more slavers about, so we're "encouraged" to hurry along to Luln.  So we packed up the campsite and headed off down the road - we're all out of sleep spells, so no reason to push our luck.

Arriving in Luln in the morning, we hurry to a cobblers shop where Alexis has allies.  Walking in, we are immediately ambushed.  If I didn't know better, I'd say this nitwit was trying to get us killed.  2 ambushes in a row starts to stretch the bounds of credulity.  Fortunately, we'd had enough time to rest up, so most of the ambushers got unaccountably drowsy, and we didn't have much difficulty taking out the rest of them hand-to-hand.

There was a rough moment when a wizard popped out of a side room and cast magic missile, mainly because nobody in the party can survive a full-damage magic missile.  Luckily, he shot it at the NPC, who has a few more HP's, so everyone survived.  After some mourning over his friends, Alexis took us to yet another location, an inn.  There we meet another of his buddies, who explains more about the missing mcguffin, and gives a potential plan for retrieving it.

And boy, is the plan a doozy.  Amigo wants us to hide in a turnip cart, sneak into Fort Doom (great name - love that subtle, understated villainy), go through the dungeon, which they stock with monsters specifically to devour prisoners, and finally, break into a vault-tower where they store magical items.  Oh, and do it all in the middle of a garrison of soldiers and orcs.

A quick poll of the party reveals absolutely no interest in: a) the plan or b) retrieving the gem at all.  So we decide to go with our own plan.  Next time - breaking into Fort Doom.

Half-Made World: A Book Review

Wow.  This book came out of nowhere and blew me away.  It's without question the best new author pickup I've had since I randomly picked up Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville.  Half-Made World has a lot of Mieville-esque elements to it, in fact.  The novel is 1-part western, 1-part steampunk and 1-part horror, with a solid dash of fantasist, stirred just the right amount.

To an RPG gamer, especially one raised on the tradition of D&D, this book brings an interesting twist to the concepts of Law and Chaos.  The fantastic, "half-made" west of the novel is a place where many of the traditional ideas of the western are taken from the realm of the psychological and made real.  The world literally gets less real, less "formed" as one moves further west, and the western ocean is a sea of raw chaos from which gods, spirits and creatures form spontaneously.

Contesting for this potential country are the opposing forces of the Gun and the Line.  The Gun is represented by the Agents - criminals and anarchists with supernatural powers who rely on subversion, sabotage and stealth.  They prefer to avoid direct confrontation, and instead work through cats-paws and unknowing dupes.  The chaos and lawlessness of the old west is a clear influence on the Gun, and the fact that their powers are granted directly by the spirit-infused weapons they bear makes the metaphor even stronger.

The Line, on the other hand, is represented by the Engines - massive locomotives possessed of malign intelligence that plot and scheme to spread their railway tendrils and industrial-hell stations across the land.  Thousands of Men of the Line serve them - hammered into faceless cogs by the infernal sound of the engines.  Black-clad, gas-mask wearing and using steampunk weapons like motor-guns and heavier-than-air helicopters, the Line are methodical, unstoppable and terrifying forces of "progress".

The two forces clash in the "unfinished" west as they both try to capture an old man, once general of the fallen and near mythical Red River Republic - the Camelot of the west, that once defied and fought off both the Gun and the Line, until it was torn down by both Powers.  The main characters, a female doctor from the settled north and a rebellious Agent of the Gun, flee from the Line into the far west, where they encounter the last remnants of a fallen history, and things far worse cast up out of the chaos of the western oceans.

The book has great characters, a setting that manages to be both fresh and familiar, and a great mythic-horror-western feel.  Lots to recommend here - I haven't heard of Felix Gilman before this, but he's on my must-read list now.