November 9, 2011 · 9:52 pm

ePub GM Referance

Here and there I’ve mentioned to people that eInk readers just are not well suited for RPGs because the page turn time does not suit looking up information in a rule book. Then it hit me, I had just set up almost all the reference material I would need on three pages of a GM Screen. Turning back and forth on that few pages would not be time consuming at all.

I knew an ePub with the same information would take more pages but it would still be relatively little (it turns out to be 8 pages).

So here it is, a GM reference with nearly anything you’d need to look up during the game.

(Right click or option-click the link and choose “Save As…” to download this file.)

The Artifact ePub GM Reference

I had to hand code a bulk of the HTML for this, which is why I’m posting this so late in the day. Wrestling with the ePub format is not easy it’s essentially raw HTML and CSS. I tried exporting it from Pages a few different ways and eventually had to strip all the formatting out to make it behave itself. Layout and tables are time consuming to hand write and that’s mostly what this is.

I’ve tried it on my Kobo, if you’ve got a different eReader and want to take a look, let me know how it works for you.

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November 8, 2011 · 6:19 pm

Points of Disinterest: Episode 10

Whoh! Double digits! Anyway, today I’m going to talk about Gecko tape. Scientists over at the university of Kiel have made some tape that mimics the foot of a Gecko. This is something that I wrote about for The Artifact directly in The Fringe but hint at the technology being used by the Kerdi.

So why a gecko’s foot? Are they interested in low rates for car insurance? No, they’re interested in the gecko’s other super power. They can walk on walls and even hang upside down on flat surfaces. They can do this on smooth surfaces like glass even when wet. For decades this puzzled scientists. How could the gecko do this with no sticky substance on their toes? How was no glue left behind? Their feet were sticky without having anything that would make them sticky. The gecko can walk over dirt and dust and not have it affect their ability to walk on walls. Something funny was going on.

Studying the foot pads under an electron microscope revealed tiny hairs that split into even smaller hairs called setae. The number of these setae and the increase in surface area allows the electromechanical Van der Waals force, which is normally very weak at large scales exert a much stronger attraction. It also allows the pads to be pulled away and then re-attached many times. Geckos probably grow more setae as theirs wear out.

I seriously thought this “gecko tape” had already been made. Maybe it was in very small quantities before now. There have been some robots that used “gecko pads” to climb walls so I’m not sure why this is big news. The Kiel group seem to be the first to produce a patch of tape big enough to hang the weight of a human from 400 square cm of tape. If you wanted to make a Spiderman suit, a patch of tape 10 cm x 13 cm on all four limbs (allowing one limb to be moved) would keep you up. That’s a workable proposition.

I’m waiting for my gecko suit.

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November 7, 2011 · 10:50 am

Stop Fighting On Their Terms

There seems to be an unwritten code among GMs that they can only challenge a PC with a scenario that they should be good at. A fighter fights and a thief sneaks around and that’s all you can challenge them on. My question is why? When I was playing more than GMing, I would min/max a character to death and I was always surprised that no GM ever hit me on my min side. I mean my characters were great at what they were meant to do and I had fun being great at it but I almost never saw the downside of min/maxing.

Almost all characters are min/maxers to one extent or the other. They’re usually geared to do one job and do it well. A GM struggles to keep up with the player’s ability to trounce their opponent. So why fight on their terms? Why not hit a techie with a social conflict? Why not make a thug have to pick a lock? If you are having a hard time challenging an advanced character, you’re not looking in the right place.

I’m not saying you should always hit their soft underbelly. To keep things fun, let them trounce a few challenges and then hit them with a blindside. Or go the classic route and have them get beaten twice before giving them the tools they need to set up the last challenge on their own terms. They’ll really savor that victory.

Have you ever done something similar? Is this ‘Breaking the rules?’

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November 4, 2011 · 8:00 am

Where Do They Come From?

The Lesser Seed (Chezbah Hounds) have baffled earth forces for some time. Early on special operations groups were sent out to try and find production facilities that made them but found nothing. Then earth forces would occasionally corner a small group of Chezbah, only to have a the Chezbah backed up by Lesser Seed ready for them. The Kelrath also comment on this in their writings, saying that the Lesser Seed spring up from nowhere. This fueled the suspicion that they were teleported in to an area from some remote site, possibly in the Collector Wells.

Recently a an I-CA scientist published a report on an autopsy of a Chezbah Warrior that described a series of five nodules embedded in the arms of the Warrior. He also reported that these nodules slowly dissolved over the course of several hours. These nodes are embedded just under the skin but after further autopsies he discovered a set of muscles that push the nodes to the surface of the skin.

Seeking to prevent the nodes from decaying so they could be studied, he placed them in a nutrient bath but they still decayed into masses of fibrous filaments. Thinking that they were now useless he dumped them in a trash can only to find that the fibers had spread through some discarded food that was in the can. However the fibers slowly degraded and would not grow anymore.

It wasn’t until later when he had fresh specimens to study that he discovered their real purpose. After three abortive attempts with larger and larger quantities of food, he finally saw the fibers grow into a more substantial form. The fibers consumed the food matter and began to take the form of a Lesser Seed (Chezbah Hound).

After this experimentation was published others have followed up in studying the nodes and have found that any biomass of sufficient size will grow the Lesser Seed. It would seem that these nodes are in fact the “seed” that grows into the Hound.

This would seem to explain why the Lesser Seed seem to appear or go with Warriors in groups of five. Each arm with five nodes can grow into five of the creatures. However, it has been found that the nodes can form more than a single creature if they have enough biomass. The seed will spread to the entire mass and produce many of the Lesser Seed from a single node but the mass must be all in one pile.

This seems to substantiate the Kelrath name “Dead Stealers” as Warriors may seed the dead with these nodes to create reinforcements.

 

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November 3, 2011 · 8:00 am

Simple Tools

Have you ever had a player just decide they were going to build a raft? What about make a fire bow (the kind you use to start a fire by friction, not some +2 weapon)? How about making a spear to take down that bear?

These are “simple” tools that some players have announced that they were going to put together spur of the moment, with no experience. The thing is that they seem simple. Take a stick and sharpen it an you’ve got a spear right? Well maybe, but is the wood hard enough to stand up to being jammed through a bear’s hide without breaking? That’s not even touching the idea of throwing the sharpened stick and actually having it fly true.

And what about that raft? First of all where are you going to get straight and evenly sized logs? From driftwood? Okay I’ll concede that might be possible at the right time of year but it would help if one of the players have an axe or at least a hatchet. Once the logs are collected, how will they be attached? The most common response is vines if the characters aren’t carrying rope. Vines are not easy to work with and are not strong at all. Stone age cultures tend to make canoes before they’ll make rafts and if they were going to lash a raft together they’d probably use sinew. I remember trying to make a raft when I was young. Admittedly I’m quite confident I could do a better job as an adult but I don’t know if I could make a river worthy vehicle that would endure a trip of more than a mile. That’s even if I could run home and grab a tool or two when I needed one.

Making a fire bow is not as easy as it might sound. There are parts of the fire making kit that aren’t commonly thought of but are necessary to have it work. Even people that have made these in the past find getting one to actually start a fire a frustrating experience.

The point is that even seemingly simple tools are not as simple as they seem. They take a good deal of skill to work right and even when functionally made, they are difficult to use and probably will break after a use or two. It is usually the player that has never tried to make anything that would expect these things to be easy.

Making Simple Tools

So does that mean that a PC should never be able to make tools from primitive sources? No but it should take a lot longer to do than the player may be expecting.

If an inexperienced person started with very little specific knowledge of the task they’re setting out to do, they should expect to fail a few times before they’ve learned enough to get it right. After trying to use their first few failures they’d get a better idea of how to gather materials they’d need. They also will improve their designs as they go.

All told it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that after seven or eight days of consistent labor a character may be able to produce a working tool. I’d structure this by giving the character a skill at the lowest level available and let them develop it if they wish. Each time they want to start flint knapping (assuming that was the skill they previously learned) treat it like a regular skill check.

Some things like making a raft might take the form of a lashing skill or knots and ropes skill instead of a ‘Make Raft’ skill. Then the skill they learned will come in handy when they try to make a shelter by lashing poles together.

The point is that it’s not impossible but it’s still not simple. If the characters are stuck somewhere and need the tool, this is a good time for them to pick up a new skill and test out their survival abilities while they’re trying to learn.

What about you? Has a player ever said they were going to put something together that their character didn’t have any experience with and expected it to be easy?

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Filed under Survival RPG

November 2, 2011 · 8:00 am

In The Dark of Night – I-CA Startup Game

Beginning I-CA characters are teleported from Earth to the outskirts of Gadios but teleported to a colony that is being constructed. The colony is starting a food supply in an agri hex but they will be dependent on the teleporter for months. They also have work of gathering materials for construction projects and are trying to get Hosent up and running for manufacturing. To do all this they need a civilian leader, the India faction of the group has insisted on a democratically elected governor for the settlement to coordinate the projects. There are slightly less than four thousand settlers and some Scimrahn. There are two platoons assigned to the camp.

Background

The colony is brand new and is only a tent city. There is razor wire strung along the perimeter to keep out animals. The whole setup is very basic and the colonists are making improvements every day. The lights are cycled on and off for day and night.

Give the characters appropriate responsibilities as they arrive. If the players are footsoldiers or pilots they could be stationed as police and guards etc. Scouts could be sent out to survey the local area or look for Hosent that may have parts they need. Scientists and Engineers may be employed in the agriculture or the manufacturing process. Comm Officers can be busy coordinating the garrison. However don’t spend a lot of time discussing the particulars of their jobs, they are mundane. If a player wants to get into their daily tasks describe them and then repeat it every day.

While the players are doing their jobs they hear of the heated election between four factions in the colony from casual gossip. Give them a little information at a time and let them ask for more. The India faction is united around one candidate named Daruka and so is the China faction on their candidate named Geming. These are the two major factions but it seems that the Indian candidate will win as there are more colonist from India in this settlement. There is also a coalition faction from the arab countries and a very small Korean faction that may just end up supporting the China faction but they are split on a few issues that they are holding out on. If the Korean faction joins the Chinese faction the race will be very close.

The election is to be held in two weeks. The players will have little to do with it other than learn about it, so don’t spend a lot of time on it after they get the basic idea.

Scene 1 – An Abduction

The action starts when Daruka and his wife go missing. The players are new so they wouldn’t likely be heading the investigation but they should be involved in it. Scientists and medics are especially useful at this stage.

Daruka’s tent shows obvious signs of struggle there are even small drops of blood found around the tent. If the players make a Int roll they will see that two bodies (obviously Daruka and his wife) were dragged away. Tracking is very difficult because of all the people that have gathered around the tent already and so any attempt at tracking gets a 80% Impairment. If the player does make the roll they can follow the drag marks toward the edge of the settlement but the marks are quickly erased as they go along a heavily walked path at the perimeter of the settlement.

The India faction immediately blames the China faction for Daruka’s disappearance and hostility becomes very high. If there are footsoldier players, they will be called in to police the settlers and might have to break up fights in the streets.

Scene 2 – Chaos Spreads

Over the next few nights there are more people taken from the camp in the same way. Most are Indian but some are Chinese. Two are taken each night for the first two nights. The GM can break up the ethnicity of the victims as is desired. The players should have the same chance for tracking with each victim.

If one of the players is an Engineer or has Structural Recognition they have a chance to notice that the razor wire perimeter has been modified so that it can be opened and closed by simply pushing on a section of it. A Int roll with a 40% Impairment will notice some blood by the razor wire here and a simple Intuition roll will notice wheelbarrow traffic away from the camp.

The players can now either repair the fence, follow the wheelbarrow tracks or set up a stake out to watch the fence. They may also come up with any number of other courses of action.

If they repair the fence or set up a stake out, the abductions happen in a different section of camp. On investigation they find the fence altered similarly.

If they follow the wheelbarrow tracks they find a pile of human manure around the corner of a small doorway just out of sight of the camp. If the players investigate by waiting by the pile they will find that a chinese colonist has been hauling manure from the latrines here. He knows about the break in the fence and says that there are many of them that the colonist made to more easily move in and out of the camp. He says he has noticed that some of the fences were opened in the mornings and just assumed someone was sloppy about closing them.

In the meantime the camp is erupting into chaos and policing work is becoming more and more difficult. Violence is becoming worse and worse as retribution killings start to take place on the third day. However the colonist organize their own armed garrisons and begin guarding at night. There are accusations that the military are trying to influence the elections.

Scene 3 – Monsters!

On the fourth night, an Egyptian man is found crying out in the street, bloody and badly injured. He is babbling about some kind of monsters that got into his tent and dragged him away. He is badly wounded in his head arms and legs by some kind of animal bites. A scientist with a biology roll will be able to find that the teeth marks are from an animal that is about the size of a dog but the teeth marks are more like that of a sharks teeth. The head wounds are likely why the previous victims did not cry out at night. The animal makes a killing bite crushing the skull and then drags the victim off. If the players consult a knowledgeable Scimrahn in the camp, he will name the animal as Seeter. Only reveal this if the players ask for the help of the Scimrahn.

At this point a scout arrives and reports that he is seeing movement all over in the next hex but he his having difficulty seeing what it is. If they players go out in vehicles to investigate they will find hundreds of Seeters moving toward the camp. The hex is a dark Residential Hex. They are spread out in and around the buildings and some of them are in adjoining hexes. This is a Seeter migration to their nesting grounds they spread out to better find food. The group is far larger than the average swarm as many swarms have joined together on the trip. There are near two thousand Seeter. The last few nights have only been the advanced scouts. At the sight or sound of a vehicle they will hide in buildings if they are nearby. The players should have plenty of chances to kill a few Seeter here and there but soon realize they are very close to the settlement already.

Not all the colonist are in the razor wire perimeter. Many are out farming and many are working on Hosent. If the players spend too much time killing Seeter these will be the first to be attacked without warning and there will be many casualties. It’s up to the GM to decide wether or not to warn the players of this or let them make the mistake of taking too much time before reporting back.

If the Seeters get to the camp en mass they will frenzy and charge the fence. Many will get stuck in the razor wire but more will charge over them and into the camp. The colonists should actually be able to make a stand against the Seeter inside the fence since they have already started a garrison.

Evacuating the colonist by teleporter is not an option as it is too slow.

It may be useful to the GM to have infantry rules for the Seeter and the colonists or the GM can play it by ear. There are no starting Agility modifiers for either the Colonists or the Seeter so start their Modifier Hits/Act at zero. Tracer rounds are distributed to the platoons. If the players help out the colonists by giving them help picking targets and coordinating them the group of one hundred the player is helping gets modifiers based on the player’s rolls. The player character rolls to hit normally and the Fraction Column is noted as this will decide the bonus to the colonists. Then the player makes a Charisma roll plus their Command skill if the character has it. If the Command roll passes, then follow the chart below for a Modifier Hits/Act for the colonists.

Fail Full 1/2 1/4 1/8
-15 +10 +15 +20 +30

Colonists
Nearly 60% of the colonists are capable of fighting. That leaves 2400 Colonists to fight and two I-CA Platoons.

Colonists 24 groups of 100
Psy 20
AR 0
HP 1000
Act 100
Speed 5 Km/h

Act/Turn Weapon
100/Turn Shotgun

Shotgun
Modifier Hits/Act
+80 1/1
+20:+70 1/2
+10 1/3
0 1/4
-10 1/5
-20 0

Seeter 40 groups of 50

50 Seeter
Psy 30
AR 0
HP 450
Act 200
Speed 20 Km/h

Act/Turn Weapon
50/Turn Bite
150/Turn Claw

Claw or Bite
Modifier Hits/Act
+60 1/1
+50:0 1/2
-10 1/3
-20 1/4
-30 0

Vehicles like tanks and E-suits have mixed effectiveness because the Seeter are spread over a wide area. Each artillery attack from these vehicles will kill 1D10 Seeters.

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Filed under Civilian, Military, Transmissions

November 1, 2011 · 8:00 am

Shelter and Hypothermia

One of the first things that a human needs to do when in a survival situation is find shelter, but why?

The main reason is warmth and so by extension, keeping dry. I’m not aware of any RPGs that make being out in a drizzling rain a dangerous situation. This is probably because most RPGs only use hit points do track detrimental effects to the character and taking off hp because it’s raining is just silly.

What a GM needs to do is not to tell the players their characters need shelter, he needs to start simulating hypothermia. The players will figure out the need shelter on their own.  So how can you do that?

Hypothermia can happen at any temperature below 26 degrees Celsius (about 80 degrees F) but the person would have to be sweating or naked and it would have to be windy (70 km/H winds). Even then, at those temperatures it’s not likely to progress any further than the first stages of hypothermia which is shivering and a loss of dexterity.

Once it drops to about 15 degrees C (60 degrees F) is when hypothermia is more likely to progress to severe stages. At these temperatures it will still require a person to be wet or naked and wind will have a strong influence. In most RPGs I don’t expect most characters to be running around naked but wet is another story. Even sweating is a danger in these temperatures if a person is not going to find shelter any time soon.

But how long would it take to become hypothermic? That is to reach the first stages of hypothermia. There is no one answer so I’ll give some conditions. These are for a person in only light clothing. I know that players are likely heavily armored but that would probably have only minor if dubious insulation value.

Disclaimer: There are a lot of factors for hypothermia, don’t try using these numbers in a real survival situation! They’re good enough for an RPG but are on the generous side so that players have less to complain about.

15 degrees C – about 24 hours

0 degrees C – about 2 hours

15 C with sweat or rain or strong wind – about 12 hours

0 degrees with sweat or strong wind  – less than 1 hour

15 C soaking wet – about 2 hours

0 C soaking wet  – 2-5 minutes

There are three stages of hypothermia before unconsciousness. The first is shivering and a loss of dexterity, this usually lasts for about ten minutes to a half hour depending on how fast hypothermia set in. (-10 Dex -5 Agi)

Next, severe shivering and loss of coordination is likely to set in an twenty minutes to an hour after this. Again depending on how fast hypothermia set in. (-20 Dex -15 Agi)

Shivering stops and confusion and irrational behavior then sets in after another twenty minutes to an hour. (-15 IQ -20 Dex -15 Agi)

Lastly unconsiousness sets in after another twenty minutes to an hour. Death occurs in another after another twenty minutes to an hour.

So that’s hypothermia and why the characters should seek shelter.

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Filed under GM Advice, Survival RPG

October 31, 2011 · 8:00 am

Example Mission – Are We Enemies?

The characters, may be new or experienced. If they are new, the GM may want to introduce them through Gadios or they could be teleported out immediately although this is not necessary for this game and urgency may actually hinder the story.

The characters are sent out to aid a Scimrahn industry tribe called the Foetsh. Their commanding officer is given a strange bit of information before leaving. The Foetsh very reluctantly agreed to be helped. Usually Scimrahn quickly accept any help offered. The Commanding Officer has orders to stay with the tribe for two weeks to take care of any medical or defense issues they may need. A Platoon of footsoldiers, a TF-2394 and a tank is sent with the group. If any of the player characters are Footsoldiers, E-Suit pilots or Tank Pilots, then they are part of the platoon sent.

Scene One – Needs Of The People

The characters are teleported in to a small outpost and then loaded onto transports (or trucks if I-CA) and then drive for seven hours to the Foetsh tribe’s location. There are no encounters during the trip.

The Foetsh tribe manufactures Sensor Spikes. The tribe is located on the top of thirty Hosent in an industry hex on the fifth floor of the hex. This is a poor tactical site since it is very difficult to escape from but they players may not notice this unless they make a successful military intelligence roll. There are two hundred men and three hundred women and about six hundred young children.

When the players arrive they are greeted by the children of the tribe who look healthy but their clothing is very worn. Beginning characters may not recognize anything odd but these children are unusually noisy and rambunctious for Scimrahn children who are usually taught to be silent at all times. Any Scimrahn characters will immediately recognize this and are likely to be appalled by the noise. A character with Scimrahn Culture and makes a successful roll against it will also recognize this.

The children mob the player characters and those with them. Unless they make an Int roll some small item will be pick pocketed from them.

The Matriarch and Enforcer are very young and come out to meet the PCs next. They are pleasant but will occasionally ask why the players have come. If the PCs say to help them they will reply “But we’re doing fine.”

If there are Engineers in the PC group they will notice that the poor defensive location the tribe is in but that they are in a good position to maintain the Hosent on top.

The first job that the Earth forces are to carry out is to give the Fotesh medical attention. The players may be called on in getting people to come to the clinic set up by medics. If there is a medic character, the PCs are tasked with going to the Scimrahn that will not go to the clinic. Otherwise the players will need to deal with trying to persuade the Scimrahn to come. This could be used by the GM to explain Scimrahn culture to new players or if the players are experienced and already know the basics of Scimrahn culture, then this could be a time to have some lighthearted fun with odd situations.

Once the primary job of taking care of immunizations and medical treatment is over with, the task of the commanding officer is to assess the needs of the tribe when it comes to protection.

Scene 2 – Protection

The players may ask at some point why the Fotesh are unconcerned with protection. The question is likely to be avoided if they can avoid it. If the players are too forceful the Fotesh will act offended and remind the PCs that they are only there as guests and that the tribe did not ask for them to come.

After several days of rounding up tribe members for medical attention an alarm is sounded by an ASO E-Suit Pilot. There are sonar contacts approaching. Further investigating will reveal the sonar contacts are Kelrath and are headed directly for the tribe. There are eight Rall 4s and a cargo Zemot. The commander will scramble combat personnel to set up defensive positions. The players should be brought up to the point where they think they will be engaging the Kelrath in combat but at the last moment are told to stand down. The Kelrath will arrive soon after and the PCs will not have time to flee. Any fleeing characters will be fired on. The Rall 4 loudspeakers will boom out orders in the Kelrath language. Without a successful Speak Kelrath roll the players will not know what the orders are. The order is of course to put down their weapons and surrender. The Players have been told to stand down, so they should surrender. In addition, it should be stressed to them that they cannot do much damage to a Rall 4 on their own, unless they happen to be a tank pilot in which case, tell them that there are friendly forces too close to the Kelrath to safely engage them with their cannon or missiles.

The Commanding Officer (CO) gave the order to stand down because the Enforcer and the Matriarch insisted that they could talk the Kelrath into letting the Earthers go. In reality, they were only hoping that they could. This may factor into the discussion on the Scimrahn helping as things progress.

In a short amount of time the Enforcer will come out and meet the Kelrath. He will speak in the Kelrath language. PCs will have to make a successful Speak Kelrath roll to understand him. He will say “They are passing through and will leave soon! You do not have to concern yourselves with them!” A Rall 4 will respond over the loudspeaker “They are not allowed here! You have violated our boundaries!” Again a Speak Kelrath roll is required to understand him. Each time someone speaks in Kelrath a roll must be made to understand them. The Enforcer will then say “We had to allow them here for a short time, they have medical supplies that you can take with you!”

The Kelrath will pause for a few moments at this. If there is a Comm officer PC they will intercept a communication that has a low grade encryption (5 BP). It is unlikely that a single Comm Officer will be able to crack the encryption in the given time but there should be three of them in the platoon. For the GM however, the Kelrath are discussing what to do about the medicine and how to take any medical personnel with them. They will also decide that the rest of the Earthers should be sent to a CCC quarry for slave labor.

The Scimrahn will be told to separate any medicine and medical personnel from the group. The GM may have the players be identified as medical personnel since they were rounding up Scimrahn for treatment. Further they are told to strip the Earthers of any weapons and keep them from escaping. The Scimrahn will reluctantly follow these directions.

Scene 3 – Escape

The Kelrath do not have the ability to move the whole platoon. Two of the Rall4s will leave to get more vehicles to bring the Earthers back to the Quarry. At this point the PCs will have the opportunity to try and win the Scimrahn over to their side. The primary concern is that the Kelrath have been protecting this tribe and the tribe sells to them. They will be afraid of loosing the Kelrath protection and their food that they bring to trade.

This is a prison break/hostage escape situation. The primary danger is the six Rall 4’s that are left. The players have 14 hours before the Rall 4s that left return with cargo vehicles.

The Rall 4 pilots are all Gjorn. The Driver of the Zemot is a Kaloord. The Kaloord will drive away as soon as the the stand off starts and will remain outside the camp until he is given the all clear. The Rall 4s will alternate duties every two hours. Two will circle the area in opposite directions. It takes fifteen minutes for them to make one circle around the camp. Two will stand guard over the Earthers and the other two will leave to where the Kaloord is and get out of the E-Suit and rest. Scimrahn will also stand guard over the Earthers but they are reluctant guards and will be sympathetic.

The Rall 4 Pilots will not get out of the E-Suits while in proximity to the Earthers. They view the risk of infection as too great.

The PCs would be held in a open space between the Hosent. Since the Gjorn won’t get out of their Rall 4s they will rely on the Scimrahn to guard the Earthers and so they can talk. The PCs will have to be cautious about talking so that the Gjorn do not notice. It’s unlikely that the Gjorn can speak Scimrahn.

There are likely to be many ways to get out of the situation, the players should be left to explore any ideas of escape they may come up with however if there is an obvious revolt or attempt to run the Gjorn will not hesitate to fire.

The main point now is to convince the Scimrahn that the ASO or I-CA (dependent on who the players are) are able to protect them. Even at that, the Scimrahn’s way of life will drastically change. This is mostly a battle of the mind so Charisma and Psy will play a large part. The Scimrahn will at this point feel that they want to help but can’t anger the Kelrath

The PCs will have to convince the Scimrahn that they can give protection from the Chezbah and the now angered Kelrath. This will likely involve the idea of moving the entire tribe to a distant location.

This will require all new contacts and customers for their goods. This will have to be negotiated with the Matriarch. There would have to be assurances that a certain percentage of their goods (sensor spikes) would be purchased regularly. A successful bartering roll may be made to make this happen.

There should be one tank and one E-suit for the platoon. If the Scimrahn help, the player’s or NPCs can get back into the tank and E-Suit. However they would be hopelessly outmatched by six Rall 4s but could make a stand against two at a time if they time things right. In addition the Kelrath may surrender if they are isolated in twos (Psy roll). If they can group up in four or six they will fight.

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Filed under Military, Transmissions

October 28, 2011 · 7:53 pm

Lost And Found

The things my characters left behind

Players have their characters to boast about, GMs usually boast about the great games that they officiated over. What about those games that you had something great planned and you knew it was going to be a legendary story arc and then the characters lose the trail or there’s a TPK?

This is a picture of some of ours. Some of them were really something that I planned to do something with, others were the results of stupid things I said as GM but the players latched onto and wouldn’t let go of.

First we have good ol’ Votusk. A brilliant scientist that was driven to make a sword for his ruler, made a device that contained all his hate for the ruler and imprinted on anyone that used the sword, then put his consciousness into a robot (Kerdi) to prevent anyone from using it. It’s even more complicated than that, my players destroyed the sword instead of ever trying to use it and took Votusk along with them.

Then we have the cure for cancer, the players couldn’t figure out what the device did (since none of them had cancer) and because it was taking up cargo space, left it in an uninhabited wilderness. It’s not like they didn’t know it was important, they were offered a lot of money to bring it back but their other loot was viewed as more valuable.

There’s the Chocari, or what’s left of the Chocari. A massive building sized creature that literally crashed into the surface of the planet, was mostly vaporized by a Chezbah orbital cannon except for a few chunks that rearranged it’s cells to make an autonomous creature. It kept asking the PCs where it’s brain was (after learning english), meaning it’s main brain mass that was blown to bits. They didn’t have the heart to break the news to it. Or maybe it was that it had six limbs that had rows of razor sharp teeth and they didn’t know if it would freak out.

There’s the super computer, far more advanced than anything they had ever seen except they couldn’t get it to do anything except sing what sounded like whale song. Well they did get it to do one thing. They got a Chezbah Hound to connect to it and the hound became intelligent. They named her Sandy.

They found a legendary sword of Lee. And cut up a lot of stuff with it.

The other things are weird little things that I said something goofy and it stuck.

One time the character’s were requesting extra equipment and the CO told them he didn’t have anything else he could give them. They pressed him over and over “Nothing? You don’t have anything?” So he responded “Look, I have this broken half of a lawnmower wheel, you can have that.” They carried that broken lawnmower wheel around with them everywhere.

One time the PCs were ransacking a Kelrath home and I was struggling to come up with things they would find. I told them they found a vial that was labeled “Burn bumps.” They didn’t know if the stuff in the vial caused or cured burn bumps. Or even what burn bumps was that it should be cured or caused.

Then there was the Bucket O’ Rocks. The PCs chased off some Geetin workers and they left a shovel and a bucket of rocks. One of the players said “I’m going to dump out the rocks.”  I responded “OK.” To which he asked “Does the bucket empty?” It was such an odd question (why wouldn’t it) I answered “No, for as long as you tip the bucket over, pebbles and rocks keep falling out. It’s an infinite bucket of rocks.” They hung onto that bucket for forever, never finding a good use for it (open a gravel pit?).

Anyway, those are some of mine, do you have any great/weird story threads that were abandoned?

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October 27, 2011 · 6:35 pm

Starting Mission – Investigating the Ruins of Hef-elek-meser

This setting is for ASO or I-CA characters with some Scimrahn and Corporate characters if desired but could be modified to be played with an all Corporate group.

The characters can be new to The Artifact for this setting. It’s up to the GM if they want to go into detail on the character’s arrival. Starting characters would have arrived by teleporter some time before this mission and gone through several days of medical checks and waiting for an assignment but may not have been allowed to leave base due to medical orders. Possibly one character in the group or even an NPC tested positive for some common disease, was given a heavy round of antibiotics and now is clear. The other characters were in the same teleport batch and the group was locked down.

Introduction

The characters are brought in for a mission briefing. They are being attached to a platoon that is present at the briefing. A Captain is giving the briefing.

Three days ago we received this transmission from the 139th platoon’s Commander Lieutenant Gary MacDonald. He plays an audio recording “Status report on the titan. It is still moving in a random pattern and stopping periodically. It’s course may bring it in contact with the Chezbah town of Hef-elek-meser. There have been two brief encounters with Hunter E-Suits that attacked the titan but we were not able to do any damage from what we can tell. The titan destroyed the E-Suits once with an energy blast and crushed another. We’ve kept our distance as it seems hostile to anything it encounters. Our engineers estimate that it’s mass is in the area of half of a million Kilograms from the ground impressions it has made and their displacement.We will continue to observe the titan and keep you informed.”

The Captain continues by explaining that the Chezbah town of Hef-elek-meser was destroyed by this “titan” an unknown class of vehicle. Lieutenant MacDonald’s platoon is still observing the vehicle and it continues to move away from the town. Command wants to investigate the ruins. Two platoons are being sent in. Your objectives are to rescue any survivors and to recover any intel on the Chezbah or their technology you can in the process. So far the Chezbah have not responded to the disaster but it is expected that they eventually will. If any substantial force arrives the platoons are instructed to retreat.

The two platoons being sent consist of 2 lieutenants 48 Footsoldiers 6 Medics 6 Comm Officers 6 Scouts (and motorcycles for ASO scouts) 2 E-suits and 2 Tanks and various transport vehicles. If the players made characters that are in this list, they make up one of the numbers here. If they made characters that are not on the list like Engineers or Scientists they are added to the list.

The characters are teleported out to a remote operations station that has been set up just for this mission. If there are any Comm Officers in the group it will be their responsibility to report in every two hours with the remote station. If they miss two reports in a row the remote ops crew will pack up and leave the area. The rest of the way they will drive in on Transports or trucks dependent on if they’re ASO or I-CA for another 300 km.

Scene No. 1 – The Rescue

The Town was comprised of two city blocks (See page 87 of The Artifact RPG for maps or Scout Maps for larger city block maps) next to each other. One was leveled, the other suffered heavy damage. The city block that suffered the most damage is mostly impassable. If there is a PC with the tracking skill (Scouts) they can figure that the leveled part of the town was used less. On a 1/4 or 1/8th roll the tracker will be able to guess that it seems like the garrison that was in the town, lead the titan vehicle away from the main habitation. The lesser used block is impassable. Every building is crushed, even the huge walls of the block have been cracked and portions of them melted. Any attempt to investigate it are futile.

The main habitation is also heavily damaged but not leveled. There is rubble everywhere and many buildings are cracked or melted but it is passable.

Every two hours of searching each character gets to roll a Intuition roll. Each character that passes can roll once on the three tables below. Each time the Comm Officer must report back to base and any rescued Chezbah must be prepared for transport. Medics can give first aid to Chezbah in shock or with minor wounds. Survivors with mortal wounds need surgery.

Survivors roll 1d100

1-50 No one found
51-55 Child found with mortal wounds
56-60 Child found with minor wounds
61-65 Child found in shock
66-70 Child found hiding
71-75 Teen found with mortal wounds
76-80 Teen found with minor wounds
81-85 Teen found in shock
86-90 Teen found hiding
91-93 Adult found with mortal wounds
94-97 Adult found with minor wounds
98-100 Adult found in shock

Minor Loot roll 1d100

1-30 Nothing found
31-40 Hand woven and dyed blanket
41-50 Tunic (Chezbah size)
51-60 Medium sized cooking pot
61-70 Hand carved totem
71-75 Warm Cloak
76-80 Small toolkit of hand tools
81-85 Hammered silver hat (worn by prominent Chezbah)
86-90 Woman’s silver & gold necklace (¥6,000)
91-93 Stash of Food (5 days of food)
94-97 Spices (¥12,000)
98-100 Chezbah Plasma Rifle(s) (roll 1D10)

Major Loot roll 1d100

1-50 Nothing found
51-60 Staff with a Brugha Gastrolith headpiece (¥400,000)
61-70 Food store house (20 days of food)
71-80 Big game hunter’s trophy room with many unknown specimens (pictures alone are of great scientific value)
81-85 Chezbah Plasma Pistols (roll 2D100)
86-90 Undocumented pet animal in a cage
91-93 Pouch of Chezbah medicine
94-97 Trained Pettok in pen unharmed but spooked.
98-100 Builder 42576 C-Suit (See The Fringe Sourcebook)

The GM should role play the rescues. Many of the injuries will be from survivors being pinned or buried in rubble. The Chezbah are likely to be frightened if they are conscious and will have to be coaxed to come with the characters (Charisma rolls). If there are characters with E-Suits or Tanks involve them in the rescues by using the vehicles to move large pieces of rubble out of the way. Engineers can be used to great effect here also, making sure that there aren’t cave ins.

The characters will search for ten hours before moving to scene 2.

Scene No. 2 – The Sniper

After long hours of searching the PCs will be tired and dusty. All should take INT rolls to start to notice that there are things moving around in the shadows. There are a group of Chezbah Hounds moving to encircle the characters. There are two for every character on foot and five for each in a vehicle. They will not attack right away but will draw the character’s attention. There is a Chezbah Warrior up in one of the buildings 400 meters away (long range 40% Impairment to hit and 20 points of damage with a Chezbah Warrior’s plasma gun) that will fire down at the characters. Since plasma fire is visible once he fires his position is given away.  Once he fires he will retreat and attempt to take up position in another building. The Hounds will attempt to distract the characters from pursuing him but will only attack if given an open opportunity.

This scene ends when the Sniper is dead or captured.

Scene No. 3 – The Kelrath Warband

A group of Kelrath have followed after the titan looking for spoil in its wake. The band consists of two Rall 4s four Kerdi and thirty Geetin in a skiff. If the war band is too much for the two platoons, then have small groups of Chezbah Hounds attack. The Kerdi and Ralls are not threatened by them but they will turn their attention to the hounds to protect the Geetin.

Once the players are winning against the Kelrath, they will receive a transmission from the remote ops station. A group of five Chezbah Demolishers are on their way to the ruins and will arrive in fifteen minutes. They are advised to evacuate back to the remote ops station with any survivors.

The Wrap Up

On returning, the characters will not be allowed to keep the items they have found (unless the characters can hide items with the Conceal Object Skill). They are to be turned over for study, as a reward for turning Major Loot items over, they receive an extra XP up to three for the session representing honor medals and rank increases.

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