Your security clearance may not be high enough to read this post.
SPOILER ALERT TO Troubleshooters! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming one shot. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
The introductory adventure [YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE] really does hold your hand. It’s been a joy to reread it.
I’ve dug out the cards I’ll require for this introductory adventure. Which as far as I can tell reading through the adventure just the four item cards that it lists. Plus the action card deck. Oh and the all important “Number One Troubleshooter” card.
As the photo above shows I’ve also located and put to one side the rather lovely chunky computer dice that I got in the last Paranoia Kickstarter. These are so much more nicer than the original puny red computer die that came in the original Paranoia Kickstarter.
I had entertained for a day or two the idea of creating characters for the players at the start of the session. With a longer session I very well might have gone with it. I love how the whole process is a group activity giving each player the chance to influence the creation of the other players characters, creating tension and links that hopefully carry over into the game in a safe, healthy way!
So instead I’m going with the pregens from the Mission Book. There are five in the book. Naturally I’m going to have to nip into the library to print these off. I will give the players the opportunity to spend some moxie and/or clones to improve the stats of their character.
Sorry no great insights or anything interesting. My security clearance doesn’t allow me to share anything more!
I know it’s not as if this blog has a huge readership that I can afford to have some go away and read something else. But I have to say the following. I don’t want to spoil the Rise of Fenris campaign for anyone.
SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for the Rise of Fenris campaign for Scythe. If you haven’t played the expansion and wish to avoid any spoilers you may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Right if you are still here and read previous posts in this campaign log,I think it’s a log, you know what’s coming up next.
It was unlikely that Ben was going to turn up. His major life event was having complications. So I set up for three players but had Ben’s stuff to hand if he felt able to come along.
Sadly
Episode 7
The special setup rules for this episode saw the twelfth encounter token being used. This went on the factory space.
We also used the side of the Triumph Track not used in episode 2. Which meant this time it was…
This also meant we could have Rivals in this game too!
Setting up rivals was simple you “…declare “rivals” by placing 1 or more of your stars on other players’ home bases. You may place up to 4 of your stars this way, and you may place multiple stars on the same home base. All players do this simultaneously.”
I placed 2 stars on both Jeff and Shane’s home bases. Sharing the “love”.
This meant while Jeff and Shane had one of my stars on their home base they were a rival. Which also meant if I defeated them in combat I’d not only place one of those stars on the triumph but also get $5. The draw back for me was I could only place these stars on the triumph track by winning a combat.
Our goals were to win the game or find Tesla.
To find Tesla one player had to collect five encounter tokens (the number required changes with the player count).
The question I had was if I the Fenris player found Tesla did that mean he had been recaptured?
Our faction/player board match ups for this episode were as follows after randomly drawing the player boards.
Vesna & Voltan/Mechanical (Cyan) – Jeff
Rusviet Union/Innovative (Red) – Shane
Fenris/Patriotic (Orange) – Me
Once again we were given the option to use the Wind Gambit expansion, and the Backup Plan resolution tile. So naturally they were going to be in play.
Airship Rules, structure bonus, and resolution tile used in episode 7
Opening turns saw us utilising our infrastructure mods to get that initial boost. I obviously unlocked my mech leap ability, and built my windmill, and doubled my initial produce action. Followed by an early recruit to get me three combat cards.
Naturally I wanted to get a good hand of combat cards to go with the soon to be unlocked death ray (ULAH!).
I did get the eight combat cards star on the Triumph track, and was now ready to start being aggressive and winning those combats.
Whilst I was doing all this slowly Jeff and Shane were getting encounter tokens.
I needed to start moving and getting rid of those influence tokens.
Slowly I started placing them around the board to try and slow down the other two. Whilst doing so I was able to win a combat or two and gather an encounter token or two.
Then I got my dream encounter card. I had just won a combat against Shane, and got $5 for my spoils. So I had the money (I did anyway) to pay for the option to copy an opponent’s faction ability for the rest of the game. This was in addition to my own.
As you can see I did a short Instagram video of my reaction to getting the Rusviet faction ability.
How how I miss this ability. It was time to abuse the move action to get out my remaining influence tokens.
If I hadn’t tied up four of my stars for rivals and combat I had got to the point where I had five stars out, and a possibility to get a sixth out without combat. However I had no option but to build up some bolster points to attack the weakest of my opponents to get that final star out.
With a 5 value combat card in hand, I got a single bolster point more than Shane. It was all I needed. Getting to this point had been costly. I had lost a combat against both of them. I had been hoping to keep their stars on the Triumph track to a lower count.
The end of the game was triggered. Then that Backup Plan resolution tile bit me in the butt. I hadn’t won. However that extra round enabled Shane and Jeff to knock me off two tiles and reduce my final score.
However I earnt enough to buy a mod at the end. Which was the important bit.
Final scores for episode 7
I also had three wild card stars to use on the triumph log. So I was able to complete more columns and rows putting me in a good end of game position for episode 8.
Ok Jeff has been winning the battles (well most of them) but the war/campaign is won at the end of episode 8.
Tesla wasn’t found. So we still got to open the last box, revealing a rather cool Tesla mini. But boy is he pissed apparently that we didn’t.
I can’t wait until our final game and find out what Tesla brings to the game.
Tradition and D&D law states that the following disclaimer has to be said. If it doesn’t apply just ignore it, skim read my ramblings and go find some more compelling, nay interesting content to read.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
A wise and clever DM/GM would schedule playing a completely new RPG system the week between their regular D&D session. Not the night before!
In my defence… no I have no defence I didn’t check before arranging. I just knew any new session couldn’t be on a Saturday. Which meant it could only in reality be a Wednesday or a Friday there is no gaming.
Luckily this next session is the continuation of exploring the haunted house. So not a great deal of session planning to do for it.
However there is a bit of house keeping to do, such as make a list of what the party found or could find.
Plus I need to start thinking of hooks to start hinting at. I quite like the one Mike Shea came up with for the Second Rise district.
“Hook. The back walls of one of the villas collapsed into a series of chambers appearing to have once been a temple to a dark bestial god. The family owning the villa has gone missing and the Silver Talons seek discreet investigators to enter the temple and find any survivors from the collapse.” City of Arches by Michael E. Shea
I can see a patrol of Silver Talons approaching the party as they exit the haunted house. Or even contact them via Adel.
I still need to decide how much Adel will reward the party for investigating the haunted house. What will her standard rate be?
While I’m pondering that I’ll end this post and see you next time.
In two weeks, well more like a week and a half time, if all goes to plan, I should be playing my first game of Paranoia as the GM.
But before I go any further I need to say the following.
SPOILER ALERT TO Troubleshooters! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming one shot. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
For this one shot session I’ll be running the introductory adventure [YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE] from the Mission book that makes up my copy of the Ultraviolet edition of the Paranoia RPG Kickstarter I backed.
Part of my prep for the one shot will be to rewatch the MCDM YouTube video of them playing the introductory adventure.
MCDM plays Paranoia
Followed by rereading the adventure itself.
I have read the adventure.
But it was many moons ago.
The one thing I will say about it (from memory) was how “friendly” it was towards new GMs. It really does hold your hands and talks you through the rules at the appropriate spots. I really do wish other systems had something like this. However will I feel this way about the adventure once I’ve run it in anger?
The adventures woke up to find a note left for them by Adel, asking them to investigate strange goings on at a villa in the Second Rise district.
So led by Vas they made their way to the exclusive part of the City of Arches. The party stopped and asked a member of the Silver Talons (a private mercenary security force employed by the residents of the Second Rise) for directions.
Once at the villa the party made their way in, discovering foot prints in the hallway. Following the foot prints led them to a trap door.
Upon descending into the cellar the party is attacked by a mummy. After an epic battle they needed a rest to recover.
After an uneventful rest the party discovered they had been in a room next to some skeletons. Which they soon dispatched. During the brief combat a secret room was revealed.
Inside the secret room these dark figures attacked the group. Only to be repelled by Jeb, forcing the group to grab and thing not nailed down and run.
Back on the ground floor the group started exploring the rest of the house.
And that is where we left the party.
Post Mortem
And here is the necessary bit to tell my players to basically stop, and go do something less boring. Otherwise their future fun might be ruined.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one.
It was requested that we use two of the bigger tables for our D&D session. Which I’m glad we did. It gave me and the players more space to spread out.
Before the session started I made some quick last minute notes based on the Lazy DM Workbook (page 7, Quick Encounter Building) about how many of each creature I could use in an encounter. I’m glad I did this. Otherwise I might have thrown all 4 mummy minis at the party!
I again started the session with inspiration being given to the players. I think it worked reasonably well again.
My session 4 notes
Wow the mummy nearly took out the party by itself. Although to be fair I was willing on the party to defeat it. I did have to bite my tongue during the combat. They had identified how to do lots of damage to the mummy using a torch they had dropped into the cellar. But no-one picked it up and used it. Lizzy even suggested it a couple of times during the combat. I just wanted to say “just listen to Lizzy”.
The encounter with two shadows was over very quickly with the cleric successfully using turn undead on them. But this will not be the last time they will encounter shadows. And there will be no turn undead to get them out of the tight spot!
I’m glad I printed out the maps from Ghosts of Saltmarsh and it’s version of the The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh adventure. It made keeping the room descriptions and map together a lot easier for referencing during the session.
One thing I need to look up is how to handle information about a creature like if a player asks “is it undead?” I provided the information this session but should I be?
I do need to go through the adventure and make a note of everything found and likely to be found by the party.
The following is for a small, select group of people. For everyone else just ignore it and read on if so inclined.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
After searching Dyson Logos for a suitable haunted house map I narrowed it down to one, his Blackhall Haunt map. However there was a nagging feeling I was making a compromise somehow.
I then looked at the map for the Witch Cat Inn from the introductory adventure The Dance of Dreams in the Vaesen core rule book. I felt happier about the map. Maybe because it was a multi level building. I could definitely make it work plot/story wise.
For some reason I decided to do one final image search and my results took me to the haunted house map in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. Wait I have that map already! I have the adventure twice in fact. I have the DriveThruRPG 1e printing, and it’s in the 5e Ghosts of Saltmarsh. How did I not remember this?
The haunted house map in The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh needs to be annotated with where the planned monsters are located. What makes sense story, location wise on the map.
I’ll be adding the two monsters of giant weasels, and giant poisonous snakes, that the The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh has hidden outside the house to the possible encounters for the party. I hadn’t planned on having anything happen before the party enter the house. But this seems a good (ok good may not be the right word here) little surprise for them.
I finished the note that will be given to the players at the start of the session. Which is basically the plot hook for the session.
The finished note
Whilst I was on the page with the Blackhall Haunt map on it, there was a second map also, which did inspire me. The map was called Prior’s Hill. Truth be told I can see myself using this with either group (once the other groups sessions start up again).
Prior’s Hill map by Dyson Logos (link above)
“On the right nights, with the right rituals, you can open the portal on Prior’s Hill and climb down the stairs to the black dungeons below.” Or with the right relic I’m thinking. Maybe Adel already has that relic and needs the adventurers to go retrieve another more powerful and dangerous relic for her.
After listening to a recent Tomb Show podcast where they started going chapter by chapter through Izirion’s Enchiridion of the West Marches, I ordered a physical copy of the book.
I’m not sure where the practice of putting in a thematic disclaimer came from. But I know WotC do it with their books. This one continues the trend with one I found funny, and a very true warning. I may use it as small print on a note from Adel at some point.
Izirion’s Enchiridion of the West Marches Disclaimer
Ever since way back when I watched the Matt Colville video on West Marches I thought they sounded pretty cool. And most definitely thought I’d like to run one.
Maybe with two groups, and interest from others I could finally run a West Marches campaign.
But until that day arrives I’m pretty sure there is stuff in here I can make use of in both campaigns.
Right I have some miniatures to finish painting before this Saturday’s session. Laters.
With UKGE just under a month away I thought I’d share my board gaming con plans for the rest of the year.
This year I’m only going for a single day to UKGE. I don’t think I can justify more than that. Renegade aren’t doing any Vampire the Masquerade Rivals tournament there (I did ask them). Plus I missed the window for cheap accommodation. Which swung it.
Tabletop Gaming Live has moved from its initial home of London to Manchester. Which is an even bigger pain to get to than London. Plus it was barely worth the effort when it was in London. Not convinced it’s improved enough to warrant another visit, and the associated costs that’d go along with it.
Currently I’m undecided about (I think it’s fair to call it this) the UK’s premier, and largest RPG con, Dragonmeet. It’s in London which I hate. However it is just a day! I’ve been curious about it for a year or two now. Maybe this year curiosity will get the better of me.
SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for the Rise of Fenris campaign for Scythe. If you haven’t played the expansion and wish to avoid any spoilers you may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
Ben messaged me saying he was not up to joining us today. I called him to check he was ok. But his life event is taking it out of him at the moment.
You know the drill by now. I get there early and set up.
Episode 5
I setup the changes for episode 5 which saw box D being placed on the Factory. An amazing bit of theatre. Then some influence tokens were placed on each tunnel and on each of the three land territories adjacent to the Factory. These would be worth -$1 for each one collected at the end of the game.
Our faction/player board match ups for episode 5 were as follows after randomly drawing the player boards. (I remembered to record them this session.)
Vesna & Voltan/Industrial (Cyan) – Jeff
Nordic Kingdoms/Militant (Blue) – Shane
Rusviet Union/Engineering (Red) – Me
We were allowed the Wind Gambit expansion again so airships were back on the map. This episode we went with the Backup Plan resolution tile. I’ve never played with this resolution tile. It looked interesting with its extra turn if the player triggering the end of the game does not have the highest score.
The two airship tiles drawn were Bombard and Reap. Reap was going to be especially useful for ramping up production.
My beloved Rusviet were having to use the alternative Township mech tile this game.
True to form I made a dash to the Factory, whilst the other two did their “going to complete achievements and get points thing”!
Getting to the Factory got me two influence tokens for my efforts. Aka -$2 at the end of the episode. Was it worth it?
However once there I got to open the mysterious box D.
Inside the box was an Annihilator mini that I had to fight. Victory would trigger the end of the game. Defeat, a major set back and humiliation.
I rolled the two dice.
Double 3.
I had a total combat score of 17.
The Annihilator had a base power of 3, plus the total of the top 3 cards from the combat deck. Well that’s what the expansion rule book said. However the complete rule book said it was the top 4. After a quick debate I went to the Scythe FAQ. It was indeed the top 4 cards. Bugger. There was a misprint in the expansion rule book.
Any card 4 or less and I win. I drew the fourth card, it was a 3. I had defeated the Annihilator and triggered the end of the game.
Sadly I hadn’t won.
So there was one more round. Which saw Shane steal the Factory from me and reduce my score even more. Jeff was the run away victor.
Episode 5 Final Scores
My reward for defeating the Annihilator was to get to play a new faction Fenris, lead by Rasputin.
Episode 6
After moving to another part of the community centre (there was a booking that evening, and they needed to setup where we were). We commenced with episode 6 considering the previous episode had been over so quickly.
Our faction/player board match ups for episode 6 were as follows after randomly drawing the player boards.
Vesna & Voltan/Innovative (Cyan) – Jeff
Nordic Kingdoms/Industrial (Blue) – Shane
Fenris/Agricultural (Orange) – Me
The Wind Gambit was still in play, and we decided to stay with the Backup Plan resolution tile. Our airship tiles for this episode were Negotiate and Toll.
There were no special rules this episode. It was to be just a “normal” game of Scythe!
It was so odd playing without the Rusviet faction ability. How do others do it?
The Annihilator mech has such a War of the Worlds Martian vibe.
I need a sound board app to play that ulah next episode.
No river walk needed with the Annihilator mech, it gets leap! Plus a really cool mech ability called Death Ray! ULAH!
Death Ray is sooooo cool. It allows you to play as many combat cards as you want in combat as long as they are all the same value. So amassing combat cards is a necessary thing to do. Which I did.
One drawback of Fenris is it starts with -$16! However Rasputin (the Fenris Commander) gets to place one influence token on the tile he moves to. Plus one more on an unoccupied tile. These are great fun as they mean -$1 to an opponent if they land on a tile with one on.
I did trigger the end of the game. And I won by a single point much to Jeff’s annoyance. That one point was the influence token he had to take! Plus there was extra salt in his fresh wounds because he might have won if he’d remembered to collect the oil resource at the start of his turns.
Episode 6 Final Scores
Afterwards players were given the chance to swap faction. I decided to stay with Rasputin and Fenris. It was a hard decision. Jeff decided to keep the “broken“ Vesna faction. But Shane couldn’t wait to abandon the Nordic faction, who let’s remember had fought tooth and nail for him in this campaign. Shane wanted to take my beloved Rusviet.
I’m so looking forward to the penultimate episode, episode 7.
Hey if you are part of the adventuring party and don’t heed the following warning. Just don’t blame me for any disappointment from knowing too much!
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
This should be a very short post. A bit like the previous one really.
I actually had a moment of madness this morning and primed the new minis that arrived the other day. Plus also the four new minis I picked up last night from Colin at club night.
I now have four mummies. So super chuffed about that. Plus a mystery mini that inspired me when I was shown it.
I’m not sure what or who this humanoid is, but I think they will be the owner of the haunted house. Possessed probably and extremely dangerous with that meat cleaver(?).
The shadows I’ll finish first. They will get a dry brush finish similar to the one I did on the Alien figures to give them some highlights.
After that it’s a little research into how to paint mummies!
To whom it may concern, the following is for you. If you decide to ignore those words then so be it. But your enjoyment of the next D&D session is liable to be diminished. Even spoiled for want of a better word.
SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.
The gap between session 3 and 4 has been increased to 4 weeks! Mainly due to a little confusion about when the next session will be.
However that’s given me time to do very little except order some miniatures! Which arrived today.
As you can see these were mentioned in the previous post for the haunted house idea. I’ve not been able to find any mummies, or ones I like. I already have zombies, and oozes. Not been able to find any giant bats or swarm of bats miniatures that are in stock or affordable! Etsy is so flippin expensive, especially the postage.
That’s one thing that doesn’t get mentioned about being a DM, the cost. Between printing out stuff at the library (cheaper than buying ink cartridges for my printer, that just acts as a scanner these days), miniatures, books, and various accessories. The cost mounts up.
Granted much of that stuff isn’t needed to play the game. However some of it does make life easier whilst running the game.
Cost is one of the factors in why I’m moving to using a battle map with the room drawn on it, odd bits of scatter terrain, and minis. It’s also quicker to setup during the session.
You hope that the players appreciate the efforts that go on behind the scenes to give them a fun time.
Now I have to get motivated into painting those minis. Especially the shadows.
