Journal of the Wayfarers – Interlude 3

In Kularni
John set out to investigate making potions, in the market he ran into Pulan, the stammering servant of the reclusive mage Gennaro.
Smily and Fluff, anxious to get back into the Duke’s good books, hired on as guards. They were ordered to guard the north tower; the Sergeant told them it was a test to see how they shaped up.

=====================
Experience Awards: 31.08.08
Smily 2100 Level 2
Jack 3601 Level 2
Whistler 3150 Level 2
John 2250 Level 1
Fluff 2300 Level 2

Italics = already adjusted. All other HP, abilities etc. will be done start of next session.

Edit: 19.12.08. There has been a change in the way that Hit Points are calculated for starting characters. All characters have been updated.

Journal of the Wayfarers 5

Return to the Hall of the Gargoyle
5th Tor, Year of the Wolf
Whistler, Shadow (who announced he had changed his name to Jack), Smily and Fluff received a message summoning them to meet Ortho, Duke of Kularni. John joined then at the keep, where the Duke, having heard of their adverts boasting of their prowess, charged them with hunting down and returning with Toorkman, alive if possible, for the 10,000 gp reward. They assured him that they were capable of the job (!)
Setting off along the East road, Fluff and Whistler riding their warhorses, at Axbridge they met two hot bloods looking for adventure. Called Tone and Brone, they offered to come along and help. Jack seemed to have some premonition concerning them.
At the end of the day, near to the Hall of the Gargoyle, without warning a hail of arrows came from the woods to the left – they had been ambushed by bandits! A brief fight ensued, during which they established that Tone and Brone really hadn’t got a clue about adventuring, fighting, or what even time of day it was. But they were eager to help. Brone, when told to stay and cover John, looked around for a blanket or something to keep him warm.
One bandit was captured whilst escaping, brought down and subdued right next to the Hall; subsequently died whilst being questioned without revealing anything useful. There were a few ominous rumbles of thunder at this time, which the PC’s ignored. They made camp overnight outside the Hall. During the night, Smily heard “something” large passing through the forest nearby.
Entering the Hall, some (obvious) prior knowledge by Jack and Whistler prompted questions by Fluff along the lines of “Perhaps you had better tell us everything….”
Opening the trapdoor by means of the rope still attached to the gargoyle’s arm, they descended down the stairs to the first room. Whistler immediately noticed that the human skulls over the right passage had been removed and replaced with orc skulls; also they remarked on the number of orc bodies in the room. A cursory search of the bodies revealed that they had died from stab and arrow wounds. Moving on to the drawbridge hall, they found more bodies; they didn’t bother examining these too closely. Into the pillared hall, there were more bodies, these too were ignored. They avoided the archway leading to the slope down to the slug lair and headed off towards the room where they had fought the orcs. Brone triggered the tripwire but nothing happened; obviously the trap had not been reset (or there had been no need to...?) Moving on into a larger hall that they had not been in before; they found a dead Dwarf (hacked by orc scimitars), before they could investigate further they were attacked by a large ogre. John’s Sleep spell failed to affect it, however Jack was caught in it and slept (yes, even Elves are not 100% immune to Sleep spells). The rest attacked, trying to subdue the ogre; Smily and Tone were wounded and knocked out but finally the ogre was taken down and securely tied up. A search found some potions and gems hidden away. Believing they had captured Toorkman, they headed back to the surface, dragging the bound ogre. Tone and Brone left at Axbridge, Jack paid them a 100gp gem each.
At Kularni, they presented their prisoner to the Duke. He was not amused. “Does this look like a fallen Knight of the Realm?”, he roared. “Take this…thing out and get rid of it. Then come back when you can do the job properly.” They disposed of the ogre into Blackwater lake.
John asked Janis about Toorkman. He was a member of Family Torhouse, a noble house of The Great Kingdom, betrothed to a lady Meroe of Family Andhouse. She broke off the engagement and returned his ring to him; he had sworn that her ring would never leave his finger. Therefore, he cut off the third finger of his left hand and returned it to her, with the ring still worn. Always somewhat unbalanced, this sent him over the edge and he became a bandit. Any noble ladies he captures, he cuts off the third finger of their left hand, so that they can never betray anyone the way that he was.

Journal of the Wayfarers – Interlude 2

In Kularni
27th Pretor, Year of the Wolf
John the Wizard was approached by Janis the Scribe, with a view to setting up a partnership in reading and writing scrolls and books. She can read Elvish (yLvYsH), but John can read Magic. John agreed, Janis said she would work out the details and be in touch.
Fluff and Whistler each bought a warhorse, despite warnings that they lacked the skills to ride one in combat effectively. They each handed over a sum of money to Tomas the Honest to find someone to train them in mounted combat.
A rumour was heard that Orrando the Merchant’s daughter Kally was missing.

Journal of the Wayfarers 4

The Hall of the Gargoyle

22nd Pretor, Year of the Wolf
Seven days after the Ides, Fluff, Smily and John had gone to spend some time fishing. Shadow and Whistler were joined by three new adventurers, a fighter named Asumel (Alec), a Korslander barbarian named Jim (!) and a wizardess called Bobita ( played by James and Charlotte respectively). Kularni was buzzing, a 10,000 gold reward was on offer for the notorious bandit Toorkman. His latest outrage was to raid a caravan belonging to the Red Cardinal, but he is also notorious for cutting off the third finger from the left hand of any noble lady he captures. After some asking around, they learnt that Toorkman raided along the east road. Working out that the reward was worth 2000 gold each, they decided to capture him. They bought some equipment, Bobita bought a scarf out of the market.
Setting off along the east road, passing through Axbridge they crossed the bridge and followed the road . After an hour or so they heard strange, fey music coming from out of the woods to their left. Climbing a tree, Shadow saw a ring of toadstools with several merry pixies dancing round, drunk on elderberry wine. Bobita tried talking to them, all was going well ( although the conversation was somewhat giggly and random) until Shadow tried to grab one of them. The pixies got annoyed, handed over all their treasure (3 blood rubies), then vanished. Asumel, Bobita and Jim took a ruby each. Bobita glimpsed a stone building deeper in the wood, square with a domed roof and four entrances, one in each wall. Inside was a 12’ stone pillar with a gargoyle on top, staring at a spot on the floor. Shadow shot an arrow at the gargoyle, they decided it was probably a statue. Asumel found that by pulling the right arm, a hatch slid back in the floor where the gargoyle was staring, revealing steps down.
At the foot of the stairs there was a choice of passages, The right passage had a human skull nailed over it, the left hand passage had three orc skulls nailed over it. The centre passage had nothing. They found a lever on the wall that opened and closed the sliding hatch. They chose to investigate the right hand passage. All, that is except Bobita, who chose to go it alone along the centre passage…

The right-hand passage led to a guard post with 2 orcs. These were easily taken down but not before one yelled an alarm. More orcs came from the west passage, again after a brief fight the party won through to a larger room where they found some treasure and evidence that it was a larger guardroom.

Meanwhile, Bobita found a large hall with an artificial ditch crossed by a drawbridge; the bridge was down and the winding mechanism was on the far side of the ditch. She continued through into another hall with four supporting pillars. An archway led to a sloping passage down, there was a rank, sewer-like smell. A further slippery slope dumped her into a water-filled passage. Wading along this, suddenly a huge shape reared up in front of her…

Having cleaned their weapons, Asumel, Jim, Whistler and Shadow headed through the south passage. Turning left at a crossroads they came to a large hall with an artificial ditch, crossed by a drawbridge. Over the ditch the hall stretched away, with passages to the left and right. The bridge was down and the winding mechanism was on their side. They raised the drawbridge; as they did so a party of orcs came out of the left passage, stopped in confusion and then, in guttural Common, asked to be let in. There was some argument and eventually the orc leader smelt a rat and told his men to go round the other way. Shadow then confirmed their intentions by shooting an arrow at the leader ( which missed). The Wayfarers chose to stand their ground and ambushed the orcs as they came charging down the passage. Shadow took out the leader with a superb shot though the eye, Jim and Whistler took out two and Asumel leapt forward to protect Shadow from the last orc. After a brief rest, they lowered the bridge and ran across, heading right.. They passed into the pillared hall but ran straight through the archway (unknowingly following in Bobita’s footsteps). Turning left, they found a dank-smelling room with a set of manacles and chains fastened to an iron peg in the wall. They surmised that this was a prison cell. Investigating a sloping ramp, Whistler, Jim and Asumel lost their footing and slid down it into a flooded passage. Jim landed head-first and swallowed some water; he spent some time retching and throwing up. Shadow managed to keep his balance at the top of the ramp. The water surged and suddenly a huge, slug-like creature reared up in front of Whistler, a hideous sucking maw had traces of Bobita’s scarf stuck in it. Whistler hit it, but then took a serious wound from the creature. They retreated down the passage; Asumel struck his foot on something under the water. It was a sword in a scabbard; the blade was bright and had runes of power inscribed on it. Telling the others to escape, he faced the slug-creature alone. The sword dealt it a serious injury, bits of dissolved bone spewed out of the wound and it retreated. They managed to get out and back to the pillared hall. Investigating one of the passages, they triggered a spear trap that hit Whistler in the back, nearly KO’ing him. Asumel led the way and narrowly avoided falling into a pit trap. Two orcs across the pit entered into a brief shooting match but were taken out, but there was no way of crossing the pit. As Whistler was hurt, and with no way of healing him, they headed back to the surface; meeting nothing en-route. They made it back to Axbridge by nightfall.

“So, what happened to Bobita?”
“I think we found what was left of her”

Journal of the Wayfarers – Interlude 1

In Kularni, the Ides of Pretor
Having escaped the slurping grey ooze, back in Kularni, the Wayfarers amused themselves by advertising various services and items. On the Ides of Pretor the following adverts appeared on the information post at the Four Gates: -
“Are you no good at archery? Want to kill forces unknown? Come to Fluff’s archery place. We will help”

“Whistler’s Heads. I’ve got five heads, 10 gold per head. Useful balls”

“Need an adventurer or a bodyguard? Ask Shadow Blast (Shadow) TODAY!!!”

“Fish! Fish! Fish!. Learn the art of fishing. Contact John the wizard. ‘Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he will eat a lifetime’”

“Whistler’s Fighting Lessons. Only 5gp a session. Work on self-defence and help annihilate killers”

“Fighting Lessons! Destroy the dark forces of evil. Contact Smily”

“John’s writing lessons. All equipment provided. 10 gp per hour session. Look for the wizard named John”

“Need to track an animal? Lessons 5 gp a lesson. See Shadow”

"Have you found a treasure map recently, but can't go to get it? Employ us. Look for the Ranger called Fluff"

Whistler and Shadow started making plans to travel to the Far Isles, to seek out the Tomb of Karian.

Journal of the Wayfarers 3

14th Pretor, Year of the Wolf
Following the Ogre Hunt, the Wayfarers spent some time in Kularni, buying stuff and waiting for Smily and Shadow to heal fully. Fluff hired a warehouse from Orrando the Merchant for 15 weeks, John bought a mule and saddlebags to transport stuff. During a talk over drinks one evening, Shadow and Whisper mentioned the goblin lair, after some discussion they decided to pay it a visit.. They set off on the 10th Pretor, reaching the ruined house by midday. There was a brief encounter with a wild-eyed fighter called Sturm who was seeking the wizard Karalyon; Sturm claimed Karalyon had ripped him off and that he was going to put such a cleft in his pointy hat when he caught him. No-one knew who or what he was referring to, so Sturm headed towards Axbridge.
Descending the steps, they ignored the old guard room (where Lorn and Dorn had died) and headed into the ‘L’ shaped room. Major lesson to be learned – do not assume the room will still be empty.. A brief battle with the goblins left the goblins all dead. Exploring south, the passage led to a large hall, lit by a central fire pit, it’s flickering light revealing a hall full of leaping, cavorting goblins. Fluff and Shadow shot arrows at the nearest two, Fluff’s shot failed to take out the goblin, who screamed for help. The rest charged in and attacked. The hobgoblin Skluff, who was sitting on a throne at the far end, recognised Shadow and Whistler, he opened a compartment in the arm of the throne, took out a pottery sphere of some kind and threw it at the party. A cloud of grey dust enveloped Fluff, John and Shadow. Skluff then ran to the corner of the room but a Sleep spell from John took him out. Eventually all of the goblins were killed. A search turned up some loose change, Skluff was carrying an iron key, a map (“to some big blokes wiv lotsa cash”) and some gold (actually what he took off Whistler and Shadow earlier). Smily experimented with the throne and found that pulling up the left arm opened a secret door in the wall. Heading through into a narrow 5’ wide passage, Shadow had to leap backwards as a pit opened under his feet. This was crossed by climbing down it and up the other side, as it was judges too dangerous to try and jump it. On the other side a lever in the wall opened a secret panel into a bedroom. Searching this they found two potions (of Healing) that Fluff took possession of. The door out led back into the ‘L’ shaped room, although at first they didn’t recognise it and decided that something else was going around the dungeon. Heading back to the Goblin Hall, at the T –Junction, a huge spider dropped from the ceiling onto Whisper. He was bitten and poisoned before the creature was killed but fortunately the poison had little effect. However, they had to use one of the healing potions to cure him. Moving through the hall of dead goblins they went down a short flight of steps to a strange temple – an altar block and a round plinth with a demon-like statue ( which John recognised as being Demon-Lord Firakh, Servitor of Gorthan, Lord of Evil). This knowledge, perhaps, should have warned them not to mess. The statue eyes were gems, looked like fire opals, Whisper and Shadow set about prising these out. Smily investigated the altar, he tried to open it, the top would not move but he did find a series of small holes just under the rim. As the last eye came out a horrible gurgling noise came from the altar and a grey gunge began to flow from out of the holes. This formed into an amoeba-like creature. Fluff hit it with his axe, only to see in horror that the axe-head dissolved. The thing spat out an impossibly long tendril and hit Shadow, causing some nasty acid burns. They ran out of the temple, looking back Shadow saw and heard the thing pursuing them, albeit somewhat slowly. Back at the corridor junction, another spider landed on and poisoned John, he nearly died but the last of the healing potions was used to cure him. The grey ooze was nearly upon them so they ran out of the dungeon, found that John’s mule was still where he’d tied it up (and hadn’t been eaten!) and returned to Kularni.

Journal of the Wayfarers 2

2nd Pretor, Year of the Wolf
Stopping overnight in the village, the following morning they were joined by three other adventurers, a Ranger called Fluff (Daniel), a Fighting man called Smily (Ben) and a Wizard named John (John). The village Reeve (for such he was) promised them a reward for proof of the ogre’s death; then led them through the fields, passing a burnt-out farm, to the edge of the False Forest. Stepping-stones crossed a small stream, on the far bank, in the mud, was the imprint of a large clawed foot. Heading into the woods, after some time they found a hut with and old man sitting by an open fire. Talking to him, they found out that to find the ogre they “…must travel north. Where the path divides, use your common sense. At the Stone Pool, throw in a sprig of hazel and a coin at midnight; then follow what you see.” He also gave then a handful of Goodberries; advising that they be used before the next of the full moons (there are two moons in this world). John asked him to describe what hazel looked like.
Travelling north, they came to a fork in the path. The left-hand path was straight, smooth grass, lined with flowers, whereas the right-hand path was twisting, boggy and choked with briars and thorns. Remembering that they were in the False Forest; where all is not what it seems, they chose the right-hand path. All except Shadow, who marched off down the left-hand path?

The right-hand path was difficult going and brambles and thorns sorely scratched them. At one point, in the distance, they heard thudding hooves and the ‘thwack!’ of a bowstring, followed by a long drawn-out scream. “Oh dear”, they thought, before continuing. Eventually the path joined another coming in from the left, passed through some thick gorse bushes and emerged back at a muddy clearing they had found earlier.

Meanwhile, Shadow headed along the path, all his Elven senses alert for danger. Without any warning, he was attacked from behind by a huge wild boar. He managed to loose off a shot, but was badly gored and knocked out.

Leaving the clearing and heading north, the track climbed up into the hills, eventually ending in a hollow with a huge standing stone archway. The trail ended just beyond in a grove of trees. A suggestion was made to burn the trees, fortunately, as shall be seen, they did not pursue this course of action. The old man had told them to seek a stone pool, but finding nothing they returned through the gathering dusk to the inscrutable wise old coot to seek clarification. However, when they got there, they found the garden overgrown, the hut ruined and no signs that anyone had lived there for years. Puzzled and at a loss, they went north again; at the Straight Path they were amazed to see Shadow calling to them. It transpired that he had only been knocked out (true! – BJ). Night was falling; lighting torches they hurried up the path to join him. Suddenly, Fluff was charged from behind by a wild boar. He and Smily were unhurt and John felled it with a Sleep spell. To their amazement the boar shimmered blue and disappeared.

Back at the standing stones, it finally dawned on them to climb up and look on top. In a hollow on the upper surface was a pool of rainwater. Cutting a sprig of hazel from the grove of trees, Fluff threw it and a coin in at midnight. The image of a cave mouth appeared, followed by a constellation of seven stars, and then faded. Looking in the sky, the constellation was seen, low in the west. Heading west along the hill line, after about three miles they came to a cave; the lair of a mean one-eyed wolf that dealt Smily a grievous wound before being killed. Trying to heal Smily they found out what the Goodberries did (provide healing and nourishment).

After a short rest they continued along the hills, the forest a dark brooding mass below and to their left. After about four miles they came across another cave. There they found the outlaw Rogar and his female companion Kira. Kira was badly wounded and dying. Rogar offered to help them find the ogre, but only if they first help Kira. It used their entire supply of Goodberries to help her; she was still not cured but at least she now had a chance. When asked how it had happened, Rogar simply replied that it had happened during their escape from the prisons of the Red Cardinal. At dawn, he pointed out a ruined tower jutting up like a broken tooth about four miles to the south, the lair of the ogre.

Approaching the tower, the ogre appeared to be asleep, judging by the noise. Shadow crept forward and woke it up by shooting an arrow at it. The ogre grabbed a club and came out fighting but a concerted attack soon killed it.. A search uncovered some treasure, plus a fragment from a diary making reference to “…the Tomb of Karian, somewhere on the Far Isles.”

Returning to Axbridge, they collected the reward for the ogre’s head, then returned to Kularni.

Journal of the Wayfarers 1

1st Pretor, Year of the Wolf
It was the on the calends of Pretor when Whistler, a fighting man (played by Joe Wallace) and Shadow Blast (!), an Elven Ranger (played by Ben C), set out from Kularni to investigate a ruined building just off the disused North road, in the False Forest. Approaching the ruin they met two fighters, locals out to seek adventure. They were brothers, called Lorn and Dorn, and they readily agreed to accompany them. Investigating the burnt-out ruin, they found lots of cobwebs, a spider-like carving on the wall and a flight of steps down. Investigating the steps, they were ambushed by some goblins, these were killed but Lorn (or Dorn) was badly wounded. Dorn (or Lorn) stayed with his brother whilst Whistler and Shadow Blast pressed on. A large ‘L’ shaped room held more goblins, these too were taken out. Returning to check on Lorn and Dorn, it appeared that something had snuck in and killed both of them, leaving only drained husks.
An ill-advised attempt to burn a large tapestry revealed another door, but resulted in clouds of smoke that attracted a crowd of goblins led by a hobgoblin. The situation looked hopeless but Skluff, the Hobgoblin, made a deal as he was planning something and “don’t want none of my boys killed.” They had to pay over all the gold they were carrying, but at least they escaped alive.

Returning via the village of Axbridge, they were stopped by a panic-stricken villager. An ogre has been raiding the northern farms… they must help…

Rebuilding the Known World

I decided to restart the campaign world, again using a campaign system I found on the Net as a base (of course, by the time I’d finished messing with it, it has ‘evolved’ somewhat). The system is called the Microlite Campaign System. Basically, you design what you need and no more, add to it as you need and as the games are played. Using a hex map, pick a hex and this is the start ( in my case, the town of Kularni). Then, in each of the surrounding hexes, place an encounter of a suitable level to the campaign ( so mine are fairly low-level). I then ran an adventure for Ben C and Joe, to get used to the system and then did some more design work on Kularni (so there were a few NPC’s to meet and places to spend money). I then ran a further adventure (the Ogre Hunt) that Daniel, Ben and John joined in; meanwhile I went back and revised the first adventure, building on some leads they had found. I also (provisionally) located a couple of other places on the map that had been mentioned; these were further away and as of yet I have no idea what lies in between. Map travel is simple; each hex is about 4 hours travel, so two hexes is a normal days travel. Should the PC’s all get horses (or something) I may revise this, but it’ll do for now. Because Ben C and Joe and talked about the first adventure; they all decided to head back there. During that adventure they found a map to another adventure; I now located this on the main map and finalised the design work so that this is now ready to play. Meanwhile, Ben and Joe had expressed an interest to seek out the Tomb of Karian, which is on the Far Isles; so I have now started developing that area. Also, back in Kularni, more work is going on, there is now a more detailed map of the place.
So, the campaign world evolves as the games are played, reacting to meet the needs and wants of the players; rather than the more ‘traditional’ method of creating the world and history, then dumping the players in the middle of it. I do have some idea of how things came to be, but at the moment I’m keeping an open mind.

Introducing Castles & Crusades

Returning to fantasy RPG’s, introducing Castles & Crusades. This almost a remake of the ‘original’ Dungeons and Dragons from back in the 70’s, but with the benefit of 30 yrs + development. Very rules light; a task resolution system that doesn’t involve lists and lists of skills and feats, shortened spell lists and some rationales behind the rules ( wizards can’t wear armour? Well, yes they can wear any they like, but cannot use any class abilities (eg: cast spells) unless they take it off). A lot is left open to the ref to customise; again something that the Great Old Ones amongst us, who grew up with the original, will appreciate. It was also endorsed by the late EGG himself (RIP Gary), who rewrote the entire Castle Greyhawk campaign for it.

Paranoia 02.04.08

Following the fun we had playing Citadels and Munchkin the week before, and also following the chaos that most of the RPG’s I had run began to descend into; I decided to run a session of Paranoia. This was Second Ed. as my copy of the new Mongoose one hadn’t arrived. The players were Ben C, Charlotte H, James H and Richard ? (Matthew ? was on holiday; a pity as I think it would have been right up his street).Paranoia, for those new to it, was the game that turned the basic concept of RPG’ing (teamwork, loyalty, explore and get the treasure etc.) on it’s head. Paranoia is set in an underground complex called Alpha Complex, controlled by a well-meaning but deranged Computer [Serve the Computer. The Computer is your Friend.] The Computer wants you to be happy and so employs teams of Troubleshooters to go out, find trouble, and shoot it. The main object is to survive; usually at the expense of others. Of course, they have the same goal. Imagine a film of 1984 made by the Marx Brothers and you’ll get something of the idea. I pregenned the Troubleshooters so I could arrange a secret mission for each one, gave them a brief overview of what they knew of their world (i.e.: basically nothing) and they started in a red-painted room with a button and a blank panel on the wall.Of course, someone pressed the button and the panel lit up, counting down from 60….59….58….57… A search for doors proved futile so they cowered in the corner of the room. When the counter reached zero a slip of paper slid out of a slot beneath the screen. On it were instructions to report to the Equipment Room. A panel slid open, revealing a corridor. A conveyor belt took them through a series of chemical sprays that first dissolved all their clothing to sludge, then dissolved the sludge to another kind of sludge, then baked it hard with infrared lamps and finally sprayed them with jets of warm water., before depositing them in a room containing some red clearance jumpsuits, reflec armour and laser pistols with red barrels.Richard used an unauthorised colour (blue, way above his security clearance) to write on his PID (Personal Information Document = Character sheet) and was questioned by his Friend, the Computer. Appearing to be deaf, he was restrained whilst the Personal Hygiene Auditory Exploratory Cleaning Module cleaned out his ears. He survived with only a few bubbles down the nose. The briefing screen ordered them to report to the Equipment Room to collect mission equipment; again Richard said he couldn’t hear properly. The PHAECM came into use again but this time….ah well, his head exploded.Shortly after, his replacement clone arrived out of the corridor and, with Ben finally elected Team Leader they set off along another corridor; emerging onto a balcony part way up on the edge of a huge warehouse about five miles across by four miles deep. Some argu…. discussion ensued about what to do next; it was then they discovered they were standing on rail tracks, with a huge cargobot rumbling towards them. They ran off down the tracks; but Charlotte resolutely stood her ground; stating that she liked ‘bots (? – news to me!) The cargobot got to within a few feet, then with a “Warning! Warning! Activate anti-Vermin Removal System”, lasered her into little pieces, then carried on. (Memo: in Paranoia, if something looks like it might carry weapons; it probably does).Further on, the others had reached a platform off the tracks and the ‘bot rumbled past. Charlottes replacement clone arrived by flybot carryall and they all examined the platform. A control panel with a dial, some levers and a large button. Some fiddling around led to the platform rapidly heading downwards at terminal velocity. Pressing the button applied the emergency brakes, resulting in them slamming into the floor of the platform. James tried to climb over the edge of it; when it began to move again he tried to climb back, landed on the control panel and yet again they were heading floorwards at high speed. This time, they got it to stop at the level of the Equipment Room, to be met by Muzz-Y-HED and fined for being late.Whilst being outfitted (all carrying two backpacks each!), Ben asked if could write on the back of his PID as there wasn’t enough room on the front. Not a good idea. He was awarded some Treason Points for questioning the design of the PID which was done by CPU Service Group under Computer Directive B1123/24/678/B.2. Maybe Richard really was deaf, because shortly afterwards, he asked the same question, with the same results. They also got their Mission Briefing: - go to Room A – here and take item from it to Room B.With the jackobot leading the way, they headed off to Room A. The ‘bot tried to take a shortcut through a Blue corridor; obviously they had all learnt by now as they all refused to follow and the ‘bot had to be ordered back. Going the long way, after about 10 miles they reached some food vats ( a long hall; they were on a catwalk with bubbling vats criss-crossed by pipes – a cross between Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and a sewage plant). Realising that the ‘bot could not cross the pipes; Ben ordered it to go back and meet them on the other side. Charlotte did not want to sent the ‘bot away; accusations of being a treasonous Commie ‘bot lover flew, and first Ben, then Richard shot her; she fell into the food vat, where she quickly dissolved, (quite amusing as Charlotte had made this up; it wasn’t in her pre-generated character).Eventually getting across a slippery pipe to a balcony on the other side, they found a Cruncheetyme Algae Chip Dispenser and got some food ( the kids broke here to get some food and a drink; they ALL came back with ready salted crisps – a Red packet, cleared for their security level, and Mars bars, again red and black. Surely they didn’t think that their Friend the Computer would penalise them for eating Salt ‘n’ Vinegar (Green) or Cheese ‘n’ Onion (Blue))? Charlotte’s new clone met them and eventually they arrived at Room A, along with the jackobot.. They found that the object was a large metal thing that practically filled the room. Despairing at this, Richard appeared to express a deathwish, The Computer showed concern that Richard was unhappy and suggested he took a Happiness Pill. This put a slight smile on his face. Ben took two of them and got such a beaming grin that his head cracked in two. His new clone arrived by elevator shortly afterwards.Charlottes and Richard were sent to find Room B; they found it on the level below, directly below Room A. Charlotte had some fun trying to get the lift to work to get back; at one point she was heading upwards at escape velocity; then downwards, then sideways etc. Finally she pressed the button for Level 42 and got back to Room A. There was discussion going on about cutting through the floor when the game was called due to time.Thus ended the game. It was great fun and produced a lot of laughs. Paranoia is true free-form improvisational theatre; other that the basic mission and the starting room and corridor, everything else was improvised and extrapolated from what was being said and done at the time. Also, at one point, the game of Power Grid on the next table was disrupted by Matt laughing at what was going on.Yesterday, my copy of the new Mongoose printing arrived. Still reading it, but it has been totally revised to bring it up to date with the 21st Century. Alpha Complex is now an economy and you can even sell stuff on C-Bay! The game system has been overhauled and streamlined and looks good. I’ll be running some games in the summer. Ben loved it and said it was the best RPG session he’d played..

Long absence

Hmm..has been quite a while since I posted anything. There hasn't been a lot of RPG'ing going on recently at the club or at home.

Around Oct 07 I ran a short 2nd Ed AD&D adventure at Halesowen Boardgamers; it was a bit of a mess and didn't play very well. I can't find the notes for it so it'll have to fade into obscurity.