Sunday, November 11, 2012

SWN Factions: Almagest Rebellion

The third, and weakest, of the factions in the Ptolemy sector is a covert military organization.  The rebellion on Almagest has been taking place ever since ships from the Skorpios Empire invasion force landed there a generation ago.  The empire has enslaved the population, ravaged the landscape, and pillaged the planets natural resources, but it has not broken the will of the people.  The conquered populace has a tradition of giving one child per family over to the rebellion to be trained in the ways of combat and sabotage.

The Almaghest Rebellion has no visible leaders.  It is divided up into small cells that commit covert acts of violence to the Skorpios Empire whenever they get a chance.  In between one fifth and one sixth of the world's population goes to the movement, but in actuality, the empire finds and kills half of the cell members on a regular basis, leaving a very small and scattered organization left in operation.

Faction Almagest Rebellion
Attributes
Force
3
Cunning
4
Wealth
1
Hit Points
15
Systems/Assets
Almagest
Homeworld
Base of Influence HP:15
Vanguard Cadres/Cunning 4
Zealots/Force 3
Tags Secretive
FacCredits/Turn
2
Goal Seize Planet

- Ark

Saturday, November 10, 2012

SWN Factions: Aquila Union

The next faction, alphabetically speaking, is the Aquila Union.  It is an federation of two major systems, three average systems, and four weaker ones - founded and dominated by the Aquila System.  Currently, the Union is led by two people.  First is President General Moira Muldoon, instated by the Union's Congress of Planets as the Supreme Commander in Chief under the long standing Temporary Defense Initiative.  The second is Prime Minister Charles Shaw, elected by popular vote and charged with keeping the Union strong economically.

The Muldoon-Shaw Administration is only three years old, forged out of the seven years of political chaos caused by the succession of Talus and the other members of the Alliance of Independent Systems.  Shaw is desperate to stabilize the economy of the union and balance the budgets, knowing full well that Mulddon will need the wealth of the nation to combat the eventual invasion of the Skorpios empire.

The capital, Aquila, is well defended and hosts the bulk of the union's industry and market activity.  The union's military is positioned towards Skorpios, ready to defend when needed.

Faction Aquila Union
Attributes
Force
7
Cunning
4
Wealth
6
Hit Points
38
Systems/Assets
Aquila
Homeworld
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:38
Planetary Defenses/Force 6
PostTech Industry/Wealth 3
Venture Capital/Wealth 6
Arachne
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:3
Cicada
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:3
Corvus
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:3
Postech Infantry/Force 4
Tripwire Cell/Cunning 4
Locust
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:22
Patton
Planetary Government
Base of Influence: 18
Postech Infantry/Force 4
Pershing
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:18
Ridgway
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:3
Strike Fleet/Force 4
Blockade Runners/Wealth 5
Schwarzkopf
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:18
Talus
Base of Influence HP:1
Tags Warlike
FacCredits/Turn
5
Goal Peacable Kingdom

- Ark

Friday, November 9, 2012

Player Portraits: Crazy Ass Tim

In my games, I not only subject my players to horrors beyond space and time, but I also torture them by attempting to draw them.  This one is Crazy Ass Tim.  I think I should start calling him Cray-Cray.  Anyway, here he is, staring incredulously at a fellow player who just opened a closet and began digging through a sock drawer while the rest of the party fought off Cthullu's personal demonic guard dog Sparky-Of-The-Thousand-Eyes.


- Ark

SWN Factions: The Alliance of Independent States

I am going to start outlining the four big players in the Stars Without Number factions game, starting with the Alliance of Independent States.  As said before, this is a loose alliance of worlds that were wrested from the Aquila Union and the Skorpios Empire by regional warlords.   The AIS is situated in the Wilds, far away from the travelled space lanes in the Ptolemy Sector, so it was easy to escape retribution for the rebellion.  However, that distance also makes it difficult for the Alliance to bring much force to bear against their former friends.

The leader of the Alliance, Magistrate Popova, has decided to continue his already successful campaign of coercion, sabotage, and shit-stirring to disrupt the trade in both Aquila and Skorpios controlled space.  He has built a covert transit net, giving him easy access to most of the planets of Aquila and a piece of Skorpios.    Now he is prepared to send a wave of spies, assassins, and loud mouthed trouble makers out into the galaxy and make a base of operations where he can cause even more trouble and profit as much as possible.

The stats for Magistrate Popova's political machine are below:

Faction Alliance of Independent States
Attributes
Force
5
Cunning
6
Wealth
3
Hit Points
29
Systems/Assets
Atlas
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:5
Covert Transit Net/Cunning 6
Demagogue/Cunning 6
Psychic Assassins/Force 5
Surveyors/Wealth 2
Geographia
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:1
Novikov
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:1
Smirnova
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:1
Talus
Homeworld
Planetary Government
Base of Influence HP:29
Tags Pirates
FacCredits/Turn
4
Goal Expand Influence

- Ark

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Redshirts: UFO Invasion!

In last night's Stars Without Number game, the scouts awoke to learn that they were going to an isolated human planet named Tunguska, with a technology approximating Earth around 1940-1970.  Black and white TV, check.  Radar, check.  Sonar, check. Disneyland, check.  Computers that could calculate PI to the 12th place that filled up a garage, check.  Given the fact they would be going there in an ancient alien spacecraft that resembled a flying saucer, the session had The Day the Earth Stood Still written all over it.  But strangely, it devolved into The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

I added a pack of rival scouts called the Omega team, headed by Lt. Chad Tarkinson.  Lt. Chad was, of course, blonde, square-chinned, and arrogant.  The crew found out that Omega Team had been going behind them and cleaning up the messes that they had left on various planets, and that Omega Team was jockeying for their jobs.

The players were PISSED.  Plans of how to destroy the Omega Team immediately began to take shape.

Omega team took the Northern Hemisphere of Tunguska, and '"Alpha' Team took the south.  A flyby revealed a huge structure sticking out of the sea near the only southern continent.  Quickly they determined it was what was left of a kilometer wide Jump gate.  What was above the water resembled the top of a giant "C."  Along the ocean, boardwalk, piers, and even hotels had been built by the natives.  The coral reef that had formed made the area excellent for fishing - which made stealth a bit more difficult for our intrepid crew.

Anyway, here are our dear Adelaide's notes for the night's festivities, the the traditional purple:


Stars Without Number (Bullet Points)
The newest player, Skipper again drew
her character - Manna 'Doc' Davies

  • The group awakes from the freeze sleep once again with Lt. Commander Gonzales is standing creepily over them.
  • Ken arrives with his band of plastic Barbie dolls (she's talking about Omega Team here - see how pissed off she is? -ark) and the dick measuring begins. Owlicious will forever be looking for an excuse to fire upon them.
  • The group is given a crappy beat-up version of the UFOs from last time, pissing the group off further, and they leave.
  • The group, while scanning their tiny part of the world, find part of a ship (pretech jump gate) sticking out of the ocean and they decide to investigate.
  • The native people of the world have mined out a lot of the ship and are using it for like a Disney vacation spot. 
  • They go down deeper into the ship and they discover a giant eel the size of the UFO. It attacks the ship so they decide it would be best to fire at it with the heat cannon even though Owlicious advised against it. The heat kills the eel but also wounds the UFO and probably alerts the people up above them that something has happened.
  • Doc Davies artfully awakens Kal Kek but Miles Obrian only manages to dissect Professor Ramapudi and Doc Davies is forced to try and stabilize him. She manages to keep him alive but he is now in a vegetative state.
  • The group leaves Kal Kek and Professor Ramapudi behind and head on to the door leading into the giant ship. (jump gate)
  • They come across a giant room that has a bar and dance floor as well as a giant window where the group can see sea creatures outside it. The tank, Titus Leandros, instantly runs to go get plastered and then loses himself on the dance floor. (Break dancing, strangely enough.)
  • Lt. Taylor calls for a guide to take the group to the jump gate's barracks using the wifi he’s found and the guide takes the group to an elevator that then opens to water, wounding several of the members. The team then splits up, with the power-armored people leaving to go find any items that might still be okay.
  • Owlicious, Lt. Taylor, and Desmond leave and return to the bar/dance floor area. The other party members manage to find some guns that they then load up on. Titus takes 22 stun-guns and 3 grav-harnesses. Doc Davies picks up 19 lifeboat survival packs. 
  • They then meet back up with the rest of the group and Owlicious casually lets Lt. Taylor know that Titus had consumed Methyl alcohol instead of alcohol. Doc Davies then is ordered to heal him and succeeds only in getting the toxins out of his body.
  • Fish people suddenly come out into the bar and fire upon Titus and Lt. Taylor and they go down. Miles slaps a laz patch onto Titus and he comes back to consciousness.  Doc Davies then laz patches Lt. Taylor and he is also up.
  • Lt. Taylor hits one of the guns that knocks them all, except one, unconscious. Everyone else had missed with their guns. The last fish person then disappears into a grass door that opened underneath them.
  • Lt. Taylor then gets angry and destroys all of them and Owlicious collects samples for SCIENCE. 
  • Lt. Taylor then makes the ship play the sonic sound all over the intercoms, which makes all the life signs on the scanners slowly disappear.
  • They find jewelry and the females go crazy! Then they find a box with a little sphere in it. It opens up to show a small AI and Owlicious tells it she is a princess and claims him as her new companion. She names him Teddy.
  • The group then leaves, Owlicious taking Teddy with her, and head to the hangar; which isn’t looking too well.
  • They find pieces of great ships but no full ships themselves. Owlicious and Titus decide to test Teddy’s healing abilities and he cuts Titus open, then re-closes him and actually managed to not kill him.
  • The group decides to attach a beacon to the spike drive so that they will know if it moves.
  • They wake up Professor Ramapudi using Teddy, which surprisingly it works.
  • The group decides then to stay for an extra month to build their own ship instead of trying to look for another one and lets Omega team know.
  • They take off in their new ship but it has no cloaking which terrifies the natives and causes them to react badly. The team fires their ships gun as a warning and also to test it out, cause why the fuck not?
  • They manage to make it back to the main planet with the ship and everyone is promoted! Yay! 
Adelaide drew her character's new AI friend, Teddy the floating eyeball

So, the team made some pretty good choices - and because they were so pissed off with the Omega Team - they stayed on task and completed one of the most important parts of the entire mission into the Void; obtaining a ship - other than the Reprieve - that could make a 4 hex jump.

Meanwhile, Omega Team found a museum, which they broke into, and only recovered some pretech walkie-talkies.  Alpha Team rubbed their noses in it. :)

- Ark

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Kickstarter Art

Yeah yeah yeah, the last thing you want to hear about is more Kickstarter projects.  Well . . . tough noogies. :)

Two projects are on my mind today - both having to do with art.  Both projects are by people who actually deliver - Jeff Dee and Kevin Crawford.

First up is Jeff Dee's new project, "Revisiting my Legions of the Petal Throne Art."  Jeff has been redrawing art from his from the early days at TSR.  It's kind of like he's been taking your childhood and bringing it into sharper focus, with more detail and and a higher pixel count.  This time he's redoing work from an Empire of the Petal Throne article originally published in Dragon Magazine #6.  How cool is that?  Very cool.  Go get some prints!

Secondly, Kevin Crawford's Spears of Dawn RPG project is moving along swimmingly in the funding arena. It's all funded and everything.  Except . . . there is this stretch goal.  It's a stretch goal that doesn't give you a box full of minis or your name emblazoned inside the cover or anything.  It's a stretch goal that gives back to the community - and it's a hair's breadth away from getting funded - and it's soo annoying that it's not there yet.  From the page:

"Moreover, there's now a new $10,000 stretch goal- hit it, and the art for the bonus module The House of Bone and Amber will be full-color and designed to be suitable for cover use by other publishers. With your help, we can provide other creative souls with every bit of the art assets they need to make their own take on an African-flavored gaming creation."

Uh uh uh.

Now, I have no plans to make any modules or anything.  That would take FOCUS and DRIVE.  But I would love for that art to be available for other people to use in glorious color as module covers or what have you.  I mean, really, how cool it that?  Very cool.  Go throw money at Kevin.

I'll shut up now.

- Ark

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Redshirts: Banyan Trees of Mars

The inspiration for last week's Stars Without Number's game came from photos beamed back from the Mars Global Surveyor.  They caused quite an uproar a decade ago, as they appeared to show gigantic trees thriving at the Martian poles.

The images looked very much like banyan trees.  Whatever they were, the shapes looked very organic.  It caused quite a stir.  Even venerable Arthur C. Clarke thought he was looking at a new life form.  NASA disagreed.  New World Order conspiracy nutjobs came out of the woodwork, proclaiming that NASA was hiding the BIG SECRET from us all, and the Banyan Trees of Mars were final proof.

Alas, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with it's much better imaging system, showed the Trees to actually be cracks in the polar ice.  Bummer.  

The image of gigantic black trees contrasting against an icy, white landscape on an alien world has been burning in my mind for over a decade now.  So, in my mind, I made that planet.  I populated it with strange creatures that fit into the ecology of the Trees.  Then I sent the Redshirt crew to the planet and tried to kill them with it.  Ahh - good times. :)

Our intrepid documentarian Adelaide took notes on the adventure, as it happened:


  • Six months have passed since more hell went down; some of the crew is still in the sleep pods - Nick Scryer and “Doc” Davies to be specific.
  • The rest are left on an asteroid to mine out a base before kicking the crew off so they can use it for pirating.
  • While the group was mining Lt. Commander Gonzales and the ship received a signal from an indigenous species that contacted them and asked for assistance getting off the Skorpios invaded planet. In return they will assist in destroying the Skorpios.
  • The group is to take a gun printer to the world and they will be dropped off there. They each need to drop most all of their items to do so. (the party must walk for two days with a heavy load. -ark)
  • The planet is very shiny white except for around the equator, which is black. There is very strange plant life around this planet.
  • Doctor Daktan scans the trees and thinks they are elephants, and Professor Ramapudi thinks it is actually aardvarks. Owlicious knows they are alive and that they are made of graphite and they are very efficient at surviving. She also sees no animal life just plant life.
  • Professor Ramapudi uses his drill to grab some DNA from the trees and see’s that they will work well as raw materials for the gun printer. Owlicious cuts down a bush and notices it starts to bleed a tar like substance.  
  • The group continues on and the sun finally sets, the planet cools down.
  • Lt. Five gets attacked at night by a black mass and tries to attack it with a butt of his gun. He fails and whacks himself instead. The black mass rips out his intestines while he screams in pain.
  • Everyone wakes up suddenly; Kal Kek rushes out to search for Lt. Five. He only see’s the shadow moving away and a bloody trail but nothing else. He fires his thermal pistol at the shadow and see’s he’s shot what looks like a four legged, eight foot tall “bush” and Lt. Five dangling from its “mouth.”
  • Professor Ramapudi bioscans the creature and see’s that is it an animal.
  • Owlicious fires at the creature but misses, Loranzo also misses, but luckily Doctor Daktan teleports Lt. Five safely into the snow in the group. 
  • Lt. Taylor rushes out and angrily runs up to the monster and punches it into the ground. In his boxers. Holy shit.
  • Doctor Daktan Laz patches Lt. Five successfully bringing him back from the dead. For the third time in Lt. Mark Fives existence.
  • Professor Ramapudi and Owlicious gleefully dissect the creature. Professor Ramapudi programs the bioscanner to detect these creatures (FOR SCIENCE) and Doctor Daktan notices it’s registering 35 different once surrounding them.
  • Lt. Taylor orders everyone to reenter the campsite and no one is allowed to leave, they also close off the opening. 
  • The next morning Doctor Daktan’s bioscanner detects 5 creatures following from behind.
  • The group decimates them and then Lt. Taylor sets up his compad to constantly signal Russian chatter to him so he always attempts to know where they are.
  • They find a domestic “dog” just sitting in the street and the group waits to see what it’s going to do. It leaves and they continue.
  • As it starts getting dark the group starts to see something shiny under the canopy and they find that it is a building. There are 12 foot monsters under the canopy as well.
  • These creatures look like thorny silverbacks. It has a belt and a sword on its side. Lt. Taylor has a staring fight with it and 19 others come out of the canopy.
  • Lt. Taylor opens his compad to try to communicate with it but the voice over the compad says he is not the gorilla creature and to stay calm.
  • Another gorilla comes out and says thanks for bringing the “medicine” and to come with him.
  • The group proceeds to show the gorillas the gun printer and then follow the gorillas into an underground tunnel.
  • In a room the group sees that there are lots of random human items there but also a dissected human on the wall.
  • Everyone proceeds to talk some bullshit until they ask for some medicine and they find out Lt. Mark Five is infected with a toxin that he is then given an antidote. It makes him puke a bunch but he feels better.
  • Everyone decides to test out the gun printer to make sure it works and Owlicious suddenly screams “WE USE MY BUSH” while excitedly holding up the bush she slaughtered earlier. The men whole-heartedly agree.
  • Lt. Taylor manages to talk what seems to be the main priest into letting the group into the silver temple. While the rest of the group gets carried (Especially Owlicious because she offered up her bush and deserves to be treated like a fucking princess) Lt. Taylor gracefully climbs the steps much to the gorilla’s amazement. At the bottom they see an altar and everyone offers up their branches.
  • Professor Ramapudi does a scan and can see that the alter will move and there are areas underneath it.
  • Lt. Taylor bullshits with the priest some more trying to get him to leave them there alone. It works and he stomps off but then dogleader speaks up and seems nervous about the group setting off explosives.
  • Loranzo finds a switch and tells Lt. Taylor while he stupidly attempts to force it open. They open the altar and see stairs leading down and near the stairs there is a bowl.
  • As they go down all the signals jam, at 50 meters they get to a platform that is held in place by the stairs and then there is a drop. Kal Kek drops a glow bug down there and it lights up the walls slightly. They see more drawings on the walls and see that there are three legged creatures that seem to be much larger than the gorillas that are petting them like they are just dogs.
  • At the very bottom there are four disks about forty meters across a piece and look a lot like flying saucers.
  • Lt. Taylor presses a button and the platform disconnects from the stairs and starts going down.
  • They open a ship and stand on a slab that came out of the ship and the group goes into the ship except Kal Kek and Doctor Daktan who stayed behind.
  • Lt. Five sits in a large uncomfortable seat and sees a button near him which he presses and it lights up the entire inside and the inside group can see outside the ship now and a camera narrows in on Doctor Daktan and Kal Kek with red squares around their image. Doctor Daktan wanders off down a hallway as Kal Kek enters the space ship.
  • The group inside the ship realize once they need to go find Doctor Daktan that they are stuck inside until Loranzo finds a picture button to open the ship again. 
  • Doctor Daktan encounters a giant robot hand grasping for him when he opens a random door down the hallway and screams.
  • Lt. Taylor, Kal Kek, and Loranzo left the saucer to try and save Doctor Daktan but Loranzo runs back to warn the rest of the group to leave.
  • Owlicious presses a button and the three left in the ship as well as the ship shoot upwards and stay stuck against the ceiling as Professor Ramapudi hacks into the wifi system.
  • Doctor Daktan, though he ran, gets captured by the robot.
  • Lt. Five points at the red circle that was on the robot and the image got much bigger with data charts coming up that seem to be about the robot.
  • The robot shoots a beam of light straight into Doctor Daktan ‘s head but doesn’t seem to be in pain.
  • The three in the ship see the red circle on the robot flashing as the robots light grows brighter and Doctor Daktan passes out and his eyebrows and hair light up. 
  • Lt. Five makes a gun symbol with his fingers at the robot on the ship and the ship fires a light beam at the robot hitting it. It drops jimmy and Loranzo hides in another ship. It makes a fist motion at the ship with the scientists and Lt. Five.
  • Owlicious decides it would be a good idea to make the fist action back at the robot. Lt. Taylor drops unconscious but Kal Kek stays standing. The robot bursts into flames. Doctor Daktan is dead.
  • Kal Kek picks Lt. Taylor up and brings him to the lift where they ascend. 
  • Professor Ramapudi finally hacks the space ship and is able to drive it out with no problem.

So, after escaping from the giant three legged robots, the scouts ran all the way back to the shuttle and high-tailed it off the planet.


Next session is tomorrow. :)

- Ark