Wednesday, October 31, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 12

Princes in the Tower, Issue 12 Issue 12 of Princes in the Tower is the final issue and includes a monster the PCs faced during the adventure and a write-up of the campaign.

Monday, October 29, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 11

Princes in the Tower, Issue 11 Issue 11 of Princes in the Tower contains the last two PCs from the Savage Fringeworthy campaign, Ezra and Marcus.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 9

Princes in the Tower, Issue 9 Issue 9 of Princes in the Tower outlines a bunch of minor Fringe Pirate companies and a new aspect to the Fringepaths - Fringetowns!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 7

Princes in the Tower, Issue 7 Issue 7 of Princes in the Tower covers a new Edge that allows a non-spellcaster to cast a spell, a new alien race and house rule (post #8 on the RPG.net forum thread) from a kind fellow Savage Worlds fan.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 5

Princes in the Tower, Issue 5 Issue 5 of Princes in the Tower continues the various Fringe Pirate companies that the PCs may encounter.

Monday, October 15, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 4

Princes in the Tower, Issue 4 Issue 4 of Princes in the Tower is all about the Fringe Pirates, presenting a bunch of different companies of these evil-doers, their abilities, and their trade-in-theft specialties.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 3

Princes in the Tower, Issue 3 Issue 3 of Princes in the Tower is all about the campaign idea - rather than use the Mellor, a shapeshifting race that is pretty tough, I chose a little known Fringeworthy foe for the PCs to fight.

A Fringeworthy foe that are pretty rough and tumble.

Friday, October 12, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 2

Princes in the Tower, Issue 2 Issue 2 of Princes in the Tower outlines the Fringeworthy setting and my PC in the game that the first GM ran.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower, Issue 1

Princes in the Tower, Issue 1 Issue 1 of Princes in the Tower outlines the tone over twelve issues of this 'zine, including a bit on sharing a campaign among various GMs.


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

[Auld Lang 'Zine] Princes in the Tower 'zine

Right after I finished my Old War Horses 'zine in 2009, I started another 'zine called Princes in the Tower.

This 'zine, in fact, was part of a shared Savage Worlds Fringeworthy campaign that I ran for my old group, the Corvis Monkey Troupe.

Now, three years after I wrote them, the 12 issues of Princes in the Tower will be presented

Sunday, October 7, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Werewolves of Londinium, Session 3

Session 3: August 10, 2012

The third session continued with character generation (using the Leverage rules and mixing in the Serenity rules as necessary).
  • L played Tobias Bunt, The Merry Old Gentleman (Mastermind/Thief)
  • X played Gunther Mason, The Road Warrior (Wheelman/Hitter)
  • E played Ella James, The Mechanic (Hitter/Hacker)
  • C played Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer III, The Actor (Grifter/Thief)
Planet: Persephone
System: White Sun
Year: 2515

The session started with the PCs looking to break up the Zanzibar Marketplace auction run by a shady company called United Spaceship Works (USW). 

Chaucer and Tobias were at the auction location, somewhere in the Eavesdown Docks, watching a vid screen with the extender kit on it, in a different shipping container, also somewhere in the Eavesdown Docks, while Ella and Gunther were outside, gathering resources and closing off avenues for their marks. 


Yet the crew was facing a number of dangerous obstacles, which included, but was not limited to, surplus USW guards and an interested party that had tracked the kit over the Cortex that they had nicknamed The Eye of Sauron.


Chaucer took the opportunity to look very much the rich guy and verbally downgraded the kit, saying it had blood all over it (C created that as an asset). Some of the bidders hesitated, thinking that this auction wasn't quite kosher.


Meanwhile, Gunther stole one of the USW trucks to haul the kit away but was caught by a security guard, in the form of "Hash Browns," an ex-lover from his past who thought he was the "One who Got Away." Gunther proceeded to charm and bed her in the back of the stolen truck, leaving her asleep there as he stole her master keys to an even larger truck and drove off.

Back in the auction, Tobias, acting drunk, started making a scene, saying the kit was well worth the price, whatever was asked for, which caused even more of the bidders to balk. On his way out of the auction, he lifted a radio off of one of the guards.

Ella had tracked the kit down to a shipping container a good mile away and noted that there were a bunch more USW guards around the container.


With the auction in an uproar due to Chaucer and Tobias, the crew quickly assembled and raced off in the large truck to steal the kit, listening to the radio for any signs that they'd been discovered. Along for the ride was a bucket of chicken that they dowsed with knock-out sauce.


The night before, Tobias had met the USW security chief, the one in charge of the group guarding the kit, while out drinking. He remembered that that guy really liked his fried chicken and the bucket of chicken could prove handy.


Chaucer was currently on the outs with his family, a rich Osiris merchant house that was a front for the Tongs. For the past few months, Chaucer had avoided them and rarely accessed his bank accounts (they'd be able to track him if he did). Knowing that his Tong had major dealings on the Eavesdown Docks, Chaucer had Ella break into the Tong server over the Cortex to find out exactly what stolen goods they had on Persephone.


Ella found that the kit's hiding place was right next to a shipping container owned by Chaucer's Tong. So she switched some things around, including some vid feeds, so it made it look like the USW security were guarding the Tong container, with intent to steal. 


While in the Cortex, Ella also discovered that the Eye of Sauron was the Tong looking for the extender kit that had been stolen from them in the first place. They wanted it back. Ella called up the Alliance military, tipping them off to a bunch of stolen goods. With Alliance on the way, they didn't have much time.


Then Tobias stumbled around the corner in front of the kit's hiding place and "recognized" his old drinking buddy from the night before and brought out the chicken, which the guards greedily devoured and promptly passed out.


Gunther backed up to the other side of the shipping container and unlocked it with the Unknown Key (X defined as an asset). They quickly loaded the extender kit into the truck, along with some of the Tong's stolen merchandise, then moved the rest of the Tong's goods into the USW shipping container. Slamming the doors as the Tong and Alliance descended on the location, they hauled ass out of there, giving the Tongs, the Alliance and USW security the slip.


All told, the PCs escaped with the extender kit, which they promptly flew off of Persephone and installed on their Firefly, while leaving United Spaceship Works and their security detail to deal with the Alliance and the Tongs. It would take each of these groups a long while to figure out what had really happened, yet Chaucer was convinced that his family would figure it out first. Best to leave the system for a while!

Assets defined:
The One who got away D6
Jonny the Red (Info Broker) D6
Intimidatin' Phone Call D6
Unknown Key D6
Looks trashy with all the blood on it D6
Radio D6
Bucket of Chicken with Knock-Out Sauce D6

Complications defined:
More guards D6, raised to D8

The Bucket of Chicken with Knock-Out Sauce started as a response to my rolling a 1, which allowed one of the players to define a free asset. When he was stumped, L called out "How about a bucket of chicken?" And off we went - first by defining it as a Bucket of Chicken with High Explosives Hidden Within but the others realized that would cause more trouble than it was worth, so it was changed to knock-out sauce. The Bucket completely made the session snap and the plan came together really well after that.


I also talked with C after the game, pointing out, rightly, that the Tongs were going to figure it all out sooner than later, to which C completely understood and expected. When that particular issue bites them in the ass, as it will, is something I plan to hang over their heads like the Sword of Damocles until the thread snaps at just the wrong (for them) moment. Fun!

Friday, October 5, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Werewolves of Londinium, Session 2

Session 2: July 27, 2012

The second session continued with character generation (using the Leverage rules and mixing in the Serenity rules as necessary).
  • L played Tobias Bunt, The Merry Old Gentleman (Mastermind/Thief)
  • X played Gunther Mason, The Road Warrior (Wheelman/Hitter)
  • E played Ella James, The Mechanic (Hitter/Hacker)
  • C played Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer III, The Actor (Grifter/Thief)
Planet: Persephone
System: White Sun
Year: 2515

The session started with the PCs trapped in the same shipping container and no farther on their individual quests to steal the Firefly Aught Two extender kit, a very valuable commodity.

Tobias used some knowledge of thievin' to break out of the shipping container and the combined group made off, to work on a way to disrupt the Zanzibar Marketplace auction and steal the extender kit.


Just out of the shipping container, the group ran into USW guards, one of whom was an old flame of Gunther that ended tragically (in fact, Gunther has the "Disastrous Love Life" distinction and X was playing it to the hilt).

But it turned out that "Hash Browns" (his pet name for her) actually thought of Gunther as "The One who Got Away" (I had rolled a 1 in the dice-off and that allowed X to declare an asset) and managed to sweet talk her from turning them in.


After escaping the guards, the crew then worked to get more info on the auction. Chaucer met up with an old "friend," an info broker named Jonny the Red. Using an Intimidatin' Phone Call to Chaucer's former kick-ass bodyguard (who promised to break Jonny's fingers, one by one, the next time they met), they got an invite to the auction and learned where to meet.


Tobias and Chaucer went to the meet and once there, noted that the extender kit was not present (much to their displeasure). The bidders could see the kit over a video feed. Chaucer contacted Ella, who quickly tracked down the video feed and found out where in the Evesdown Dock the vid was coming from.


Tobias was playing a drunk bidder and Chaucer a rich man, each pretending that they didn't know each other. As the bidding started, they each asked for proof that the kit was actually there and that the vid wasn't just a tape.


The session ended with the PCs split up, each trying to work the auction or find the kit.

Assets defined:
The One who Got Away D6
Jonny the Red (Info Broker) D6
Intimidatin' Phone Call D6
Unknown Key D6

Complications defined:
More guards D6

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Werewolves of Londinium, Session 1

Session 1: May 11, 2012

The first session started with character generation (using the Leverage rules and mixing in the Serenity rules as necessary).
  • L played Tobias Bunt, The Merry Old Gentleman (Mastermind/Thief)
  • X played Gunther Mason, The Road Warrior (Wheelman/Hitter)
  • E played Ella James, The Mechanic (Hitter/Hacker)
  • C played Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer III, The Actor (Grifter/Thief)
Planet: Persephone
System: White Sun
Year: 2515

The session started with the PCs in two separate groups, Gunther and Chaucer together and Tobias and Ella together.

Gunther was flying an old Firefly Aught Two called The Erciyes owned by Chaucer. Chaucer is a rich playboy with a shady, criminal past from a shady, criminal family. The two of them heard of an extender kit for an Aught Two to convert it into a Firefly Aught Three available for sale on Persephone. 

The value of this ultra-rare extender kit is fairly high as they are very much sought after for the wide variety of Fireflies around the 'Verse. The crew of the Erciyes want the kit for the ship, 'cause it tends to shake a lot during landings.

Flying into the Evesdown Docks, Gunther and Chaucer did a search on the local Cortex to find out where the extender kit was being sold. Chaucer found out that it was being sold in a Zanzibar Marketplace (a secret auction where bidders give in their top bids and the winner gets info of where to pick up the package).

Tobias and Ella arrive at the Evesdown Docks looking for the extender kit themselves to steal and then sell. Searching around the docks, they come up with some leads: seems the folks selling it are from a company called United Spaceship Works and there is someone named Chuck Findley looking for the kit as well. 

While searching on the Cortex, they also come across a program watching for the extender kit that they call The Eye of Sauron.

While searching for the United Spaceship Works, Ella and Tobias follow a guy eating Kung Po chicken and find a shipping container that looks to be the storage place of the kit. However, they can't locate the Kung Po chicken guy (though they do find his food, on a table outside the shipping container). They enter the dark container, hoping to make a quick score.

Chaucer and Gunther also found out about the United Spaceship Works and find their shipping container (the same one the others found, yet on the other side of the container).

And the session ends with both groups trapped together in a dark shipping container.

Assets defined:
Kung Po chicken lunch D6

Complications defined:
Suspicious worker D6
The Eye of Sauron D6

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

[Leveraged Serenity] Werewolves of Londinium

In addition to running a Leveraged Serenity game for one group (the Wretches on the Provenance), I also am running Leveraged Serenity for my other group, this one I'm calling the Werewolves of Londinium.

So I'm going to present the write-ups for those games as well. Enjoy!