Friday, August 31, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Old War Horses

Old War Horses is my latest 'zine. And by latest, it's actually several years late.

I wrote the 22 issues of Old War Horses in 2009, while I was still in graduate school. I had planned on publishing them in 2010, but it seems that time and tide wait for no man, and life got in the way.

This series was based on a campaign I wanted to run at some point, a game set in the Serenity 'Verse, using Deadlands Reloaded. Yep, spaceships, manitou and hucksters, oh, my!

You're probably wondering why I didn't run this instead of the Leveraged Serenity game? Well, time has changed and I recently played in a Deadlands Reloaded game. And, hey, I'll still have a chance to run this sometime in the future.

So, over the month of September, I'm going to present you with all the issues of Old War Horses.

I hope you enjoy them.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance: Thomas Harding

J is playing Thomas Harding in my Leveraged Serenity game: Wretches on The Provenance.

Thomas Harding
Archetype: The Ninja
Primary Role: Hitter
Secondary Role: Thief
Quote: "I am not a bad guy!"

Plot Points: 2

Roles:
Grifter D6
Hacker (to be defined in play)
Hitter D10
Mastermind (to be defined in play)
Thief D8
Wheelman (to be defined in play)

Attributes:
Agility D10
Alertness D8
Intelligence D6
Strength D8
Vitality D10
Willpower D6

Life Points: 14
-2 penalty: 7

Specialties:
1. I did a guy from a thousand yards out. It was a rifle shot in high wind. (Guns) (Hitter)
2. (to be defined in play)

Distinctions:
1. Ex-military
2. (to be defined in play)
3. (to be defined in play)

Talents:
1. Urban Camouflage
2. (to be defined in play)

Weapons:
Service Pistol [Attack D10 (Agility) +D10 (Hitter), Damage D6W]
Auto Rifle [Attack D10 (Agility) +D10 (Hitter), Damage D8W]
Ballistic Mesh Armor (1W/8W, Torso)


Thomas Harding served with the Alliance during the war and participated in the Battle of Sturgis as a ship's marine. He traveled for a time with Col. Nathan, with whom he joined the rest of the crew of The Provenance.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance: Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest XII

P is playing Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest XII in my Leveraged Serenity game: Wretches on The Provenance.
Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest XII
Archetype: The Director
Primary Role: Mastermind
Secondary Role: Grifter
Quote: "Honour demands it!"

Plot Points: 9

Roles:
Grifter D8
Hacker (to be defined in play)
Hitter D6
Mastermind D10
Thief (to be defined in play)
Wheelman (to be defined in play)

Attributes:
Agility D6
Alertness D8
Intelligence D10
Strength D6
Vitality D8
Willpower D10

Life Points: 18
-2 penalty: 9

Specialties:
1. (to be defined in play)
2. (to be defined in play)

Distinctions:
1. The fix is in
2. (to be defined in play)
3. (to be defined in play)

Talents:
1. Absent-minded Professional
2. (to be defined in play)

Weapons:
Callahan Ceramic Special (Service Pistol) [Attack D6 (Agility) +D6 (Hitter), Damage D6W]
Heavy SMG [Attack D6 (Agility) + D6 (Hitter), Damage D8W]
Sabre [Attack D6 (Strength) + D6 (Hitter), Damage D6W]

Ballistic Mesh Armor (1W/8W, Torso)


Colonel Nathan Forrest served in the 1188th Lift Infantry Regiment on the Independent side during the war. The 1188th was responsible for covering a vital retreat in the closing days of the Battle of Serenity Valley. Since the war, he's wandered around the Verse, lately with the crew of The Provenance.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance: Herr Heufensteaffer

D is playing Herr Heufensteaffer aka “The Hoff”, in my Leveraged Serenity game: Wretches on The Provenance.

Herr Heufensteaffer aka “The Hoff”
Archetype: The Safecracker
Primary Role: Thief
Secondary Role: Hacker
Quote:

Plot Points: 2

Roles:
Grifter D4
Hacker D8
Hitter D6
Mastermind D6
Thief D10
Wheelman D4

Attributes:
Agility D10
Alertness D8
Intelligence D10
Strength D8
Vitality D6
Willpower D6

Life Points: 12
-2 penalty: 6

Specialties:
1. 48 hours lying on my belly in no-man's land (Thief)
2. Army Contacts (Hacker)

Distinctions:
1. Ridiculously German
2. (to be defined in play)
3. (to be defined in play)

Talents:
1. Safecracker
2. (to be defined in play)

Weapons:
Pistol [Attack D10 (Agility) +D6 (Hitter), Damage D6W]


"The Hoff" is an old business associate of Marcus Devereaux. At the beginning of the session, he's found at the Serenity Valley cemetery, standing in front of a grave that turns out to be his real grave.

Monday, August 27, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance, Session 4

Session 4: August 3, 2012

The fourth session continued with the character generation (using the Leverage rules and mixing in the Serenity rules as necessary).
  • S played Marcus Devereaux, The Road Warrior (Wheelman/Hitter)
  • X played Lance Fielding, The Confidence Man (Grifter/Mastermind)
  • C played Shannon “Mandy” Fielding, The Gadgeteer (Hacker/Thief)
  • P played Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest XII, The Director (Mastermind/Grifter)
  • J played Thomas Harding, The Ninja (Hitter/Thief)
  • D played Herr Heufensteaffer aka “The Hoff”, The Safecracker (Thief/Hacker)
Planet: Hera
System: Georgia
Year: 2515

While the crew were at the Serenity Valley cemetery, Marcus spotted Heufensteafer, “The Hoff,” standing in front of a grave in the 11th Londinium section of the graveyard and called out to him. Marcus knew “The Hoff” during the war, when Marcus was a wheeler-dealer of “goods of questionable provenance.” During those exchanges, “The Hoff” used his (current fake) name.

The grave, unbeknownst to Marcus, turns out to be “The Hoff’s” “official” grave, listing his real name. “The Hoff” spent the war in the 11th Londinium as a scout and recognized Colonel Nathan Forrest, as the enemy (Independent) commander of the 1188th Lift Brigade, standing with the rest of the crew a few yards away.

Marcus called the rest of the crew over and introduced them to “The Hoff” and offered him a ride off Hera. They all returned to Medford and their ship and Lance, Nathan and Thomas went off to gamble with the crew of the Free Wheelin’.

While they were gambling, Marcus and “The Hoff” went looking for work. Using his UFM Membership card, Marcus managed to get a shipment of grain to go to Newhall. While Marcus was making the deal, “The Hoff” noticed that the guy giving them the job was looking at him strangely. As they left the office, he saw the guy pick up a comm, call someone and say “Yeah, he was here. With that Devereaux guy. Yeah. OK. They’re shipping grain to Newhall.”

After playing poker with the crew of the Free Wheelin’ and agreeing to take the shipping containers that belonged to the crime lord Ho Van Tian, Nathan and Thomas went looking for work as well, while Shannon went back to the ship to see what she could do about changing the history/electronic tracking info on the shipping containers.

Nathan found two prospectors and their families who were interested in travelling to New Kasmir and arranged passage for them, their families and their equipment on The Provenance. Thomas looked up an old buddy (who turned out to be a fence) and got a job delivering a small wooden box to New Hope. “Don’t open it. Just deliver it.” Thomas promised not to open it.

Back on the ship, “The Hoff” called one of his army contacts, a fellow over at the Custer Alliance Base. He described the man in the grain office and wanted to know if he was right about knowing him. The contact recognized the man and told him he’d give a wave back in 5 minutes. Twenty-five minutes later, he got a call back. Before the line went dead, he saw his friend, bleeding profusely from his mouth and eyes, look at him and say “Arcanis” before expiring.

“The Hoff” was immediately concerned and asked when they could leave Hera. The grain silo wasn’t ready for them to pick up the grain yet but The Provenance received the shipping containers from the Free Wheelin’.

Shannon proceeded to change the electronic tracker on the shipping containers and repainted them, one for Zarconium Products Incorporated (a company that recently went bankrupt) and the other for United Spaceship Shipping.

Nathan included the shipping containers in with the deal for the prospectors and gathered them and their gear on board while Thomas tried to figure out what was in the small wooden box.

Shannon rigged up a detection machine and got a good view of the contents of the box - turns out to be a solid block of something, about the same consistency as C4 explosives. The package in the small wooden box was vacuum sealed and there are some explosives in the Verse that do explode when exposed to air.

With all that in mind, Thomas stenciled “Emergency Foodstuffs” on the wooden box and hid it in plain sight in the ship’s galley.

The Provenance picked up the grain and took off, with Marcus talking to Hera’s starport ground control. Starport ground control asked for the flight plan. Marcus decided to lie and said that the ship was heading to Meridian. As he’s signing off, he hears a woman’s voice in the background of starport ground control say “They’re lying.”

"The Hoff" was about to check on the Cortex about "Arcanis" but remembered it was a bio-weapons program during the war and knew that if he actually tried to search for it, it would probably be flagged and he'd be linked. He did check the local news feeds and found out two bits of info: there was a small outbreak of influenza that killed two people in Custer (one of them, presumably, his army contact, and this was the news cover-up) and a grave had been emptied at the Serenity Valley cemetery, the grave that "The Hoff" was visiting.

As they leave the gravity well of Hera, they spot the I.A.V. Dortmunder, an Alliance cruiser, in orbit and they move to put the planet in between them and the cruiser. Once out of sight, Marcus deployed a starship decoy to Meridian to throw off any pursuers and then plotted a course to New Hope.

Jobs defined:
Deliver package to New Hope, Georgia System (Thomas) D4
Deliver grain to Newhall, Kalidasa System (Crew) D8
Deliver Prospectors to New Kasmir, Kalidasa System (Crew) D8

Assets defined:
Old buddy (a Fence, Thomas) D6
UFM Membership (Marcus) D6
Parts Kit (Shannon, permanent for the job) D6
Spot something hinky (Hoff, permanent for the job) D6
Spaceship Decoy D6
Detection Machine (permanent for the job) D6
Military Remembrance (Hoff) D6

Complications defined:
Disturbed Grave D6, raised to D8

Sunday, August 26, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance: Shannon Fielding

C is playing Shannon “Mandy” Fielding in my Leveraged Serenity game: Wretches on The Provenance.

Shannon "Mandy" Fielding
Archetype: The Gadgeteer
Primary Role: Hacker
Secondary Role: Thief
Quote: "What? Is that a problem?"

Plot Points: 1

Roles:
Grifter D6
Hacker D10
Hitter (to be defined in play)
Mastermind D4
Thief D8
Wheelman (to be defined in play)

Attributes:
Agility D8
Alertness D10
Intelligence D10
Strength D6
Vitality D6
Willpower D8

Life Points: 14
-2 penalty: 7

Specialties:
1. Hardware Store MacGyver (Thief)
2. (to be defined in play)

Distinctions:
1. No such thing as overkill
2. Fireworks celebrity
3. No fear

Talents:
1. Look at the size of that distraction
2. PDQ Rembrant

Weapons:
Pistol [Attack D8 (Agility) +D__ (Hitter), Damage D6W]
Ballistic Mesh Armor (1W/8W, Torso)


Shannon is from Persephone and her brother is Lance. She's responsible for the shipyard exploding on their escape from Persephone and is currently working on the ship as mechanic. She has a penchant for fire and hates that her brother calls her Mandy.

Friday, August 24, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance, Session 3

Session 3: July 20, 2012

The third session continued with the character generation (using the Leverage rules and mixing in the Serenity rules as necessary).
  • S played Marcus Devereaux, The Road Warrior (Wheelman/Hitter)
  • X played Lance Fielding, The Confidence Man (Grifter/Mastermind)
  • C played Shannon “Mandy” Fielding, The Gadgeteer (Hacker/Thief)
  • P played Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest XII, The Director (Mastermind/Grifter)
  • J played Thomas Harding, The Ninja (Hitter/Thief)
Planet: Hera
System: Georgia
Year: 2515

After making some cash selling the genetically-engineered animals, the crew find themselves on Hera, in the city of Medford.

Medford is the grain shipping capital of Hera, as Hera is the breadbasket of the Verse, and is close to Serenity Valley. (There is one other major city on the planet, called Custer, built up around the Alliance base General George Armstrong Custer. The base was built on the other side of the planet from Serenity Valley during the Battle of Serenity Valley for use as a staging area and remained there after the war.)

Medford is a large city, with major food corporations holding offices there, a variety of ship yards spread around the city (but mostly around the star port) and a large warehouse district. The crossroads of commerce and spaceships lead to a rather active business day and a very exciting nightlife.

The crew were enjoying the fresh food available in town while their battered old Firefly Aught Three was getting fixed up, with Shannon helping out the repair crews.

Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest XII was in the Battle of Serenity Valley, on the Independent side, in charge of the 1188th Lift Infantry Brigade (“The Aces and Eights”). Four years after the battle and finding himself on the planet for the first time since then, the Colonel took an opportunity to visit the Serenity Valley Memorial and Cemetery. The other crew joined him and they flew one of the ship’s shuttles over to the Valley.

While wandering through the 1188th’s section of the cemetery, they noticed a group of people looking through the section and the overlap of the graves of the Alliance’s 11th Londinium and the Osiris Brigade. This group of people were not acting like the usual mourners, instead they were mapping the graveyard in an attempt to find a specific grave.

Lance approached one of them, a man called Dylan Kelly, and managed to “fake out” the man into thinking they were old friends. Turns out the group was from an organization called the Truth Foundation.

Lance found out from Dylan that during the war, the Alliance built a prototype cruiser called the Lord Nelson. The Nelson was lost on it’s first patrol and the Alliance scrubbed the ship and it’s crew from the official record. According to the official records, the crew of the Nelson were killed in Serenity Valley (it's pretty easy to hide 10,000 deaths among half a million dead). The Truth Foundation was formed by the families of the missing crew, some of them very rich, to find out what happened to the Lord Nelson.

The rest of this group from the Truth Foundation were engineers John Pettigrew and Elizabeth Appleton and the project head, Thaddeus Withers. They where at the cemetery looking for the grave of the commanding officer of the 11th Londinium. The CO was the brother of the captain of the Lord Nelson and they believed that if they found out where he was buried, they could get a lead on his family, which may lead to further clues.

Withers was also interested in whether Lance had a ship, as the Truth Foundation is creating a network of ships on the Rim that are on the lookout for the Nelson and would be paid a retainer for possible trips that intensify the search. Would Lance and his crew be interested?

After Lance told the rest of the crew what he’d learned, they found out that Thomas was a marine on an Alliance ship and had some friends on the Lord Nelson. He even had a bunch of illegal captures (pictures that would have been top secret at the time) of his friends standing in front of a viewport with the Lord Nelson in the background in spacedock.

Colonel Forrest also had information on the 11th Londinium’s CO. In fact, during the Battle, Forrest was the fellow responsible for shooting him in the head. Forrest knew where the CO was buried and actually had contact information with the CO’s family. After the war, Forrest had written to them to let them know what had happened during the battle and offered his condolences. The relationship was strained (obviously) but polite.

Sharing all this information, including the first pictures of the Lord Nelson that the Truth Foundation had ever seen, the crew gained a new job with a retainer fee from the Truth Foundation and returned to Medford to continue with their ship repairs.

That night, Lance, Thomas and Nathan end up playing cards with the crew of the Free Wheelin’, a pilot named Jack Shaw, a doctor named Polanger and the Free Wheelin’s captain, Logan D’Root.

During the cardgame, Jack asked Lance to do him a favor. The Free Wheelin’ had a few shipping containers that … well, they needed to get rid of. Turns out that the shipping containers contained “livestock” (aka slaves, actually) bound for a medical experimentation station owned by a company called Pharmacorp and run by a crime lord named Ho Van Tian. If Lance wouldn’t mind, the crew of the Free Wheelin’ were willing to give them to our noble heroes for free, just to get rid of them. “Dump them in space, for all I care,” said Jack, “or sell them on some backwater.”

The session ended with Lance agreeing to the deal, while simultaneously ignoring the fact that the shipping containers were owned by a crime lord! Yep, that’s gonna come back to bite them in the ass.

Assets defined:
History with Dylan Kelly (Lance and Shannon, permanent for the job) D6
Knowledge of Lord Nelson (Thomas, permanent for the job) D6
Knows 11th Londinium COs Family (Nathan, permanent for the job) D6

Complications defined:
Suspicious (Truth Foundation) D6


(Many thanks to the old Rolemonkeys Podcast, specifically the Serenity sessions from which I've shamelessly stolen the crew of the Free Wheelin' and the Truth Foundation plot. If you can find copies of these sessions, much less any of the Rolemonkeys Podcast, count yourself fortunate)

Thursday, August 23, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance: Marcus Devereaux


S is playing Marcus Devereaux in my Leveraged Serenity game: Wretches on The Provenance.

Marcus Devereaux
Archetype: The Road Warrior
Primary Role: Wheelman
Secondary Role: Hitter
Quote: "Crazy Ivan is my co-pilot."

Plot Points: 6

Roles:
Grifter D4
Hacker (to be defined in play)
Hitter D8
Mastermind (to be defined in play)
Thief (to be defined in play)
Wheelman D10

Attributes:
Agility D10
Alertness D8
Intelligence D6
Strength D10
Vitality D8
Willpower D6

Life Points: 14
-2 penalty: 7

Specialties:
1. Intimidatin' Manner (Hitter)
2. (to be defined in play)

Distinctions:
1. Never leave a man behind
2. That much of a dick
3. Family scars

Talents:
1. (to be defined in play)
2. (to be defined in play)

Weapons:
Heavy Pistol [Attack D10 (Agility) +D8 (Hitter), Damage D8W]
Shotgun [Attack D10 (Agility) + D8 (Hitter), Damage D10W]

Ballistic Mesh Armor (1W/8W, Torso)


Marcus Devereaux is a hot-shot pilot who smuggled stuff during the war, selling to both sides of the conflict with the provenance of the goods in question. He's on the crew because Shannon blew up his mule while escaping Persephone.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Wretches on The Provenance: Lance Fielding

X is playing Lance Fielding in my Leveraged Serenity game: Wretches on The Provenance.

Lance Fielding
Archetype: The Confidence Man
Primary Role: Grifter
Secondary Role: Mastermind
Quote: "This problem is going to solve itself."

Plot Points: 6

Roles:
Grifter D10
Hacker (to be defined in play)
Hitter (to be defined in play)
Mastermind D8
Thief (to be defined in play)
Wheelman (to be defined in play)

Attributes:
Agility D8
Alertness D8
Intelligence D10
Strength D6
Vitality D6
Willpower D10

Life Points: 16
-2 penalty: 8

Specialties:
1. (to be defined in play)
2. (to be defined in play)

Distinctions:
1. Trying to go straight
2. Unfazed
3. (to be defined in play)

Talents:
1. Old Friend
2. Don't Question Me, You Peon!

Weapons:
Pistol [Attack D8 (Agility) +D__ (Hitter), Damage D6W]
Shotgun [Attack D8 (Agility) + D__ (Hitter), Damage D10W]
Derringer [Attack D8 (Agility) + D__ (Hitter), Damage D4W]

Ballistic Mesh Armor (1W/8W, Torso)


Lance Fielding is a grifter from Persephone and was a fine used spaceship salesman. But he's gone on the run, with his sister Shannon (who he calls Mandy), after accidentally informing on some smugglers to an Alliance police officer.