Category Archives: Roleplay

Deathwatch : Session Report – Part One

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For each week in March one of our players will taking over the role of DM and run a single 3 hour session to see what they can do with any system of their choice.  This was the first session and everybody was up for trying out the new Deathwatch system.  So when the time came Chef boldly volunteered for the first session and stepped behind the DM screen.

Deathwatch is the next power level in the Warhammer 40k role-play system based on the IP from Games Workshop.  The Fantasy Flight Games books started with the low level Dark Heresy which allowed the players to play lowly initiates in the Inquisition.  You are assigned missions and travel from planet to planet looking for corruption wherever it rears its head, which it does often.

The system then moved into the middle tier with Rogue Trader.  This system added ship-to-ship combat and the ability to trade in the huge expanses of space.  The new system allowed for a more open feel and moved away from the mission based story elements as Dark Heresy.

Deathwatch now moves into the higher level allowing players to don the power armour of a space marine and kick some Xenos ass.  But only if the dice rolls are right, which in this session seemed to be a problem for the players, damn those unlucky die.


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Starship Troopers – Do I Have To Fight It?

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Well from my last session of starship troopers rpg the guys seemed to have picked up the basics quite easily. Then this session we had another player turn up who missed the first session, so I thought to myself there’s four of them, that should make it a bit easier so lets give them a real mission they can work towards or not as they decided.

Operation : FARM LIFE

“Right apes this should be simple enough . We got a small group of colonists planetside that are right in the path of a bug swarm . We need you to go in there and pull them out (as I explained to the guys not literally cus that would be, silly didn’t stop them coming up with ideas tho, moving on ) Get them all grouped together for the viking to come and take them away.  But I forget ,this planet ain’t part of the UCF , and those ingrates got no love for troopers . keep an eye out.”

Much moaning from group about babysitting and why the hell are we helping people that don’t like us etc., but then onto the mission and once I start I cant stop….

So the guys travel down in a Viking and as they approach the landing site they see the small village through their viewing holes.  The building are like concrete prefab houses in the middle of a dessert,  the viking touches down and the guys exit out, the ship takes off and says to give them a call when their ready to evac.  So Newton (the newbie) decides the scout around the village.  The other  guys decide to start knocking on doors  and asking people to leave, well this is how it went .

Steve knocks on door :

“Who is it?”

“Troopers to help you leave.”

old man opens the door : “Oh, your the nice fellows they sent down to keep us safe.”

Steve : “Yes sir, will you come with me” (Steve rolls and gets a really good score on his DC)

Old man : “How about this I’ll come out and give a hand to round up the rest of the villagers.”

Steve : “Yes, that would be nice. Thank you”

Well this was a very good attempt from Steve, so how did the others get on……well here goes

Pigeon knocks on door

Villager : “Go away!“

Pidgeon : “OK !” just walks off

Next

Chris knocks on door

“Go away! We don’t want your help.”

Chris : “I’m here to help and I need you out the building so we can get you somewhere safe.” (throws his DC and fails)

Citizen : “Don’t care!”

Chris : “Well if ya don’t open up, ill have to break down the door.”

citizen : “Go on, try hard boy.”

Chris:  “Fine, bring up the grenades and I’ll blow the door in.” (this was a good solution for my group cus they don’t have grenades, but as the guys pointed out the citizens don’t know that)

Citizen : “OK! OK!, We are going out just don’t kill any of us.”

Well they got the job done but not quite the diplomatic route.  Newton, after scouting for a bit, decides to try a door

Newton knocks on door

Citizen : “Go away!”

Newton screams at the top of his voice : “Oh my god, the bugs are everywhere, they have just taking your next door neighbours and you got ten seconds or I’m leaving”

Citizens couldn’t run any faster out there door

Job done but now the citizens need a new home and change of underwear .

As this is going on pigeon decides to try his jet pack to get up on one of the neighbouring houses at the end of the street.  He takes a perception test and passes.  In the distance he spots three BUGS heading their way from the east.  He radios all the guys and informs them that bugs are on the way, but finds out not all the citizens have left their homes and 20 are missing. So are we ready for a dramatic fight to the death to save the citizens and not let the bugs thru?

Well, in my groups case the first thing they do is call for evac.  I said “What about the citizens still trying to get on the shuttle?”  they all just looked at me. OK! OK!  I got my answer but as fate happens their evac couldn’t land due to the amount of air traffic picking up the citizens. WHAT A SHAME, WA HA HA HA!

This is where it got interesting because they couldn’t run they had to fight.  So Pigeon, Newton and Steve take positions on the nearest building where the bugs are going to come in. Chris stood between the bugs and the citizens if it came to that.  So that’s the plan, all good, but I know my group.  Here goes nothing!  So everyone rolls initiative, the guys get really good rolls except one, my bugs go second to last.  The bugs are currently 400 meters away. Pigeon holds his turn until they are within 300m Steve does the same but at a distance of 200m. Chris is down with the citizens so cant see that far, then its the bugs go.  They run full pelt and when they close to within 300m Pigeon lines up and fires but the bullet bounces off the bugs armour.  So then the bugs reach the 200m mark and Steve shoots and gets a hit straight thru the armour.  So now the bugs are within 200m its Newtons turn. With another hit things are going well so far .

New round, Pigeon lines up…fires putting a bullet thru the bug ouch!  Steve and Newton both fire and miss oops!  Again Chris cant see anything but now the bugs can run which puts them right on the outskirts of the city. In the next round they they would be inside the town . The guys decide to go full auto on the bugs to see if they can really do some damage.  A nice couple of hits but nothing that’s really going to kill the bugs.  Now the bugs run in to town.  One runs to the rooftop Steve is on while the other two run towards the feast down the other end of the street, the only person in their way is CHRIS .

This round is where things got interesting.  Chris decides he doesn’t like bugs and jet packs up vertical and hovers there and unloads into the bugs running towards him.  This causes a couple of wounds HU RA.  Now there is no one in the way to stop the bugs getting the civilians but have no fear pigeon is here and jet packs in front of them shooting all the way causing another wound and then swings his rifle round to his back and pulls out his combat knife and pistol ready for the onslaught.  Newton comes screaming in on a trail of  fire and lands next to pigeon and fires but misses . They both look at each other and a understanding crosses between them THIS IS THE DUMBEST THING WE HAVE EVER DONE, KISS YA ASS GOODBYE. As this is happening Steve shoots at the bug looking lost on the other side of the building.  It was wondering where his meal went and Steve shoots him and wounds. The bug on the roof turns round and chases Steve to the other building, maybe this time he will get him the other two charge in and attack Pigeon and Newton but do no damage.

Pidgeon  stabs the bug , problem is his knife went in to far and he cant pull it out, its stuck.  DAMN but have no fear pigeon is here whilst  holding onto his knife he leaps over the bug and lands onto its back riding it like a cowboy, YEE HA .  He then fires his pistol point blank range into the bugs head and finally the bug slumps to the floor dead.  Chris decides if Pigeon can do it, so can I, so drops down and attempts to ride the bug while shooting all at the same time but well……he’s just not that good and misses, fires his weapon and shoots poor Newton in the shin and cracks his armours.  He then  falls flat on his face at the feet of Newton  OOPS! Well newton is thinking ow what the hell was that and then looks down at Chris at his feet with a smoking pistol in his hand.  With a sly smile and a wink in his eye he fires at the bug to distract it but bends down and as he was a car thief in his younger age he knows how to hot wire things, just cross these two wires, simple.  So he crosses two wires on the back of Chris’s jet pack and fires him off bumping along the ground heading for a house. Steve jet packs in the air and shoots the bug below him on the roof top and the bullet passes straight thru him , the bug doesn’t quite know what happened but his legs don’t work, then everything goes black and it dies. Well the last bug has just seen this tasty meal fly off without even getting a nibble so chases Chris.

So after dismounting his ride pigeon decides to shoot the bug chasing Chris and wounds, Newton does the same and wounds (bugs nearly dead) so Chris decides flying at a rate of knots across the ground with your face eating dirt ain’t nice so tries to get his legs under himself to push off the ground . But fails so he pushes and starts to roll, then takes off and flys straight thru a window and hits a wall and slumps to the ground moaning .

Steve lines up aims and fires at the last bug and hits clean thru the nerve point and the bugs falls over and skids until it hits the wall of the building that Chris is in, it then dies, what a way to go. Chris at this moment isn’t feeling to well then he hears a voice its saying ” Rocket come in can you hear me Rocket ” Chris releases that’s Newtons voice and responds with ” What what did you just call me ?” Newton says ” Well Rocket you flew just like one so you deserve it, HA HA HA ”

AS the guys are HU RAin and generally laughing at Chrisy’s new nickname Rocket I make Steve take a perception test and as he turns his head round he sees another two bugs heading in OH-CRAP.

A Gem Of An App In A Grimm World

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GM toolkit - Title ScreenSo last night I decided to give the new iphone / ipod app from Fantasy Flight Games a try in our Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) session.

Its called the WFRP Toolkit and acts as a virtual tray that you use to roll virtual dice for your checks.

After the annoying & un-skippable WFRP, FFG and Games Workshop logos have finally decide to bugger off your left at the front screen which has a nice graphic at the top and a current news section from FFG. Now I could go into the whole issue of “Why do I have to look at ads, I have paid for the app and WAAaaa WAAaa WAAaa”, but being a FFG fan I feel its a great little feature and every time it loads I excited to check it to see what’s new.

What can I say, FFG has part of my soul in their back pocked along with my pay packet.

So prodding the start button that rotates the screen and a virtual dice tray is presented with a nice chaos symbol etched onto the background. Along the top of the tray is a small bar containing the Characteristic (blue), Conservative (green), Reckless (red) and Skill (yellow) dice. Touching any of these makes the dice pop off the bar and appear in the tray in the centre of the screen. You can tap on the dice in the bar multiple times for more of the same dice. Swiping a finger across the bar makes it slide off the screen and another bar appears with the Challenge (purple), Misfortune (black) and Fortune (white) dice. These can then be added to the virtual tray in the same manner as the other dice.

Across the bottom of the screen is another bar containing a large red cross to remove dice from the pool, a reverse selected dice button and the menu button.

To roll the dice just a quick shake of the ipod set the dice dancing in tray with some very satisfying dice on wood sound effects. Now at this point last night I had not told the guys that I was using the ipod to roll the dice just in case the app was not as good as I hoped. With the sound effects off and being a bit shifty I got a couple of strange looks as I started jiggling behind the GM screen and had to explain very quickly what I was up to. OK FFG please for the next version can we have a option for a button to roll the dice as I quickly got frustrated with the snigger’s from the other players.

When the dice start to roll both the top and bottom bars retract to give the full view of the tray and reading the dice is exactly like checking for successes with the real dice. A nice feature is that you tap the screen with two fingers it will bring up a summary of the dice rolled which I found a lot easier to read than counting the symbols. This is a brilliant idea! When you are the GM and have to read the dice it can be like reading tea leaves, it takes a while and sometimes its not clear , but with the summary screen it obvious and it speed up your turn, getting your focus back into the game. The summary screen also gives you the chance to save the dice roll to the log or to see the results of only selected dice.

Holding one finger on the screen for a few seconds brings the dice and option bars back onto the screen to make a new dice pool or add more dice.

Under the menu screen you have a log page to see what dice rolls have been saved along with a page of statistics. There is a option screen allowing you to clear the dice roll logs, turn off the sounds / shadows, turn off the FFG Movie that displays when the app first launches (to be replaced by the FFG logo!…?). A page to read the instruction manual and the credits for the app are also available.

All in all I love this app. I think that for the cost of £1.79 it’s a bargain and cheaper than having to buy a load more dice.

One of my issues with the new dice mechanic of WFRP is having to reach over the GM screen to retrieve dice scattered all over the table. This App lets the players use the core set dice and I don’t have to bother looking all over for those elusive purple dice which I’m sure the players hide.

So is this App worth the £1.79 asking price?

Oh Yes! Especially if you are the GM. Though I must admit I will miss rolling that two hands worth of dice.

P.S.    The gaming session was wicked last night and there was a brilliant twist in the story that I set up but the players executed. I love roleplaying sometimes!

GM toolkit - Dice TrayGM toolkit - Dice Tray 2GM toolkit - Roll DescriptionGM toolkit - Rool Log


A world I want to Roleplay – INCEPTION

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IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD, SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I want to give my readers a quick review of a film I saw this weekend.

“GASP…… a non gaming post, how can he do this to us?”

Well yes technically its not a gaming post as such……but I have just seen a whole new world that I would love to roleplay in.

“OK……let you off this time!”

Thanks.

First check out the third film trailer here and then the review by Angry Joe here.

Inception has to one of the best ideas for a roleplaying world ever.  Going deep inside peoples dreams to steal secrets, fighting with their subconscious  and with power over the world…..Oh boy!  During the whole film I was thinking this would make an brilliant idea for a roleplay and it even made me start thinking about which system to use.

And there’s the rub, which system can be used to control a world where anything is possible?  Not held in check by a genera but by what the person is dreaming.  A system where everything can change.

Inception was written and directed by Christopher Nolan of Batman Begin’s and Dark Knight fame.  I think it was also inspired by a film I loved from my childhood in the 80′s called Dreamscape.

I am going to have to give this some thought and will get back to you if I can find a system.  By the way SEE THE FILM. Angry Joe is SOOO right it has to be seen on the big screen.

Also does anyone have any suggestions on a system to use, I have been looking at Savage Worlds….Darn it, a Matrix roleplay would be almost perfect.

The Tomb of Curses – Up & Running

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This is just a quick post to let my readers know that the YouTube roleplay adventure – The Tomb of Curses has started and is looking fantastic.

Are you interested?  Well here is the first video to wet your appitite:

This is looking to be an interesting project and here is the follow up from Sean Connors.

If you interested in entering the Tomb then visit Seans channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOutsiders68

And I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Sean as this is a lot of work.

SEAN! THANK YOU SO MUCH…

Ouch! Total Party Kill (TPK)

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Well our group finished a 4th edition campaign last night, when I say finish it what I mean to say is that we left our characters dead lifeless bodies cooling next to a river after being ambushed.

Total party kills (TPK) happens, its part of the game, but I have never been on the player side of the screen before. After running into some potential allies who decided to ambushed us and then started consistently dealing 20 to 30 points of damage with sling shots, we were knackered before we even began. Our party was also split on two sides of a fast running river, divide an conquer was the name of the game and the NPC’s conquered alright.

It was one of those situations where we could see what was going to happen but could do nothing about it.

My wizard had a frantic swim and was one of the first to drag his ass onto the muddy river bank, where he was met by three 8 foot tall lion looking humanoids with the look of wanting my testicles for their mantle piece.

Next out of the river was our ranger who ran straight into combat with the biggest creature. Now the thing about my wizard is that most of my spells effect all creatures, whether friend or foe, within an large area. Quickly all the players got into close combat and I’m pretty much stuck with a crappy magic missile trying to stay out of harms way.

The worst thing that can happen to a wizard is getting into close combat and that’s what happened to me almost immediately. Every time I tried to cast a spell they had an attack of opportunity and after two rounds I was down, quickly followed by everyone else.

So that was how our game ended last night and my group has decided to move on and try something else. Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition has not been a huge success with my gaming group and I think it will be quite a while before we go back. We were altenating between Dark Heresy and D&D every week and the diffrence between the two sustems is like night and day. Dark Heresy has been a fun ride with plenty of laughs along the way. While D&D has been very mechanical without any soul. If fact I would go as far as saying it’s very much like playing Descent: journeys in the Dark without all the fun.

So we are moving on to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd edition and starting the Gathering Storm campaign. I am going back to where I belong behind the screen, I have even been practising my sneaky looking eye action over the top of the GM screen.