[Vids] Sleepers

I've been watching the BBC program Sleepers. It's about two deep-cover Soviet KGB agents who realize they don't want to return to Russia after 25 years in England.

With only 4 episodes, it's pretty short but it packs the British-style humor as well as some drama into it fairly well. We got our copies from Netflix and have enjoyed watching it.

It's got me thinking of running a sleeper cell style modern espionage game. Yes, yet another short campaign to figure out. For the comedy, should I use Toon or Teenagers from Outerspace?

[My Collection] Agone

Agone was originally a French game, based on books by Mathieu Gaborit. At least 30 game books were published by Multisim, and 5 were translated into English, before the company went out of buisness.

There are a bunch of reviews on RPG.net (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), one for each of the English products. The reviews are mostly positive.

I recently picked up 4 out of 5 English books used, I'm only missing The Grimoire Volume 1. I got them at a very good price, so I'm happy about that.

[Alignment] Lawful Neutral

Lawful Neutral, "Judge"

A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs her. Order and organization are paramount to her. She may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or she may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government.

Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot.

[In The Game] I Reserve The Right To Kill Your Character

Next time I run a game, I'm going to read the following statement:

Good evening. I am your game master and I reserve the right to kill your character, or not, as I see fit. Your opponents will try their best to kill, maim or capture you, as their preferences allow. They are not your friends and I will run them as deadly as I am able. Rest assured, I will not kill your character in a capricious or ill-conceived manner. I will attempt to have your consent on this but not always. In the event that an opponent scores enough damage to actually kill your character, I will choose whether to keep him alive in order to screw him later or let the death stand. The odds, however, favor neither choice, but I will admit an opportunity to mess with you in the future is more appealing. In fact, the rule will be that the each time I chose not to kill the character despite the roll, the fates will be unkind to them sometime in the future, in order to balance the scales. Their cheating death will translate to a complete and utter failure that I can bestow on any action your character takes. He wants to impress the king? Sorry, that's a failure. He succeeds in taking out the Big Bad with one blow? Sorry, no, it didn't happen. I believe this is an equitable solution to character immunity on one side or total party kills on the other side of the spectrum. This announcement allows you, the player, an opportunity to play knowing the full choice available to you and allows me the ability to change the results as I see fit and have the ruling in the open, rather than behind the scenes fudging rolls.

['Zines] Switching to Guns #23 and #24 available now!

Issues #23 and #24 of my Switching to Guns 'zine are available now. I'm continuing with the Ashford Valley setting in these issues.

Issue #23 is all about Ashford (the town) and #24 is all about Clifton. Maps of each town are included, as well as information of the town's quarters.

[How To Play] Savage Worlds, Part 3: Advancement

During our second session, Charley and I talked over advancement for his character and I explained how Savage Worlds advancement works. Every 5 experience points is considered an advance and every advance allows the character to improve skills or attributes or gain edges. Sir Nicholas is currently a Novice character and will remain so until he earns 20 experience points, then he'll be a Seasoned character. Another 20 experience points will bring him to Veteran, and another 20 to Heroic. At 80 experience points, Sir Nicholas will be Legendary, that's 16 advances during the game.

For every advance, the player can choose to improve his character by:

• gaining a new edge, or
• buying a new skill at d4, or
• once every rank (Novice, Seasoned, etc) increase an attribute by a die, or
• increase two skills that are less then their linked attribute by a die, or
• increase one skill that is greater than or equal to it's linked attribute by a die.

Charley thought this through and came up with a rough list of how he's going to advance Sir Nick, barring any unforeseen problems:

0 XP: Novice - starting out.
5: Agility to d10.
10: Increase Fighting and Riding to d10.
15: Brawny (Toughness +1).
20: Seasoned - Smarts to d6.
25: Quick.
30:
35: Great Luck (+1 Bennie).
40: Veteran - Spirit to d8.
45: Hard to Kill.
50:
55: Block (Parry +1).
60: Heroic - Strength to d10.
65:
70:
75: Harder to Kill.
80: Legendary - Vigor to d8.

Charley leaves four of the advances blank to allow for any changes he might want to make (or be forced to make by circumstances) to his character. With that partially completed, we moved on to some of the other bits about the system.

[Aftermath!] The D.C. Campaign: Patton's National Guard

Patton's National Guard ("The Patties")

Location: Andrews Airforce Base. Bounded by Allentown Road (State Route 337) and Suitland Parkway in the north and Old Alexandria Ferry Road and Woodyard Road (State Route 223) in the south, between Branch Avenue (State Route 5) to Woodyard Road (State Route 223).

Population: 2500
Military Strength: 750
Military Resources: 5 M60A3 Main Battle Tanks, 15 Huey Helicopter Gunships, 25 General Purpose Huey Helicopters. Plenty of aviation fuel and gasoline. Top-of-the-line military hardware and weapons.

Treaties: Treaty Hospital. Currently on friendly relations with the Pentagon but that may end soon.

Enemies: after tonight, maybe everyone!

Resources: Extensive military hardware, from airplane parts and fuel to MREs, uniforms and ammunition. The stockpiles in the base are well documented and accounted for, leading to years of useable equipment. Several successful Free Companies are based here that salvage all around the District.

Trade: Trade with other communities as dropped of lately and while some traders are allowed entrance to the base, the security is very tight. On the most recent occasions, several merchants were stripped of their goods and threatened with bodily harm and thrown out, with the claim that they were spies for the other communities. Only the most brave now try to trade with the base.

General Reaction: -10 (due to the paranoid leader)

Background: Made up of survivors from the various branches of the military on the other side of the Potomac, including police and federal marshals, and their families. Their leader really is named Patton who began the days after the war building a viable community. The loss of his family in New York as well as the city he loved descending into madness has lately unhinged his mind, leading to an isolationist policy when dealing with the rest of the city. What event could tip him over the edge into a full-on dictatorship?

[Resources] The Blue Boy

The Blue Boy is a famous painting from the 1770s by artist Thomas Gainsborough. It can be used as a character sketch for a game set in the 17th century, a view of an NPC the characters encounter in a swashbuckling campaign, a stolen painting in a modern master-thief game, a clue in a globe-trotting two-fisted adventure (the artist used an already used canvas to paint over - what was that obscured painting?),or a centerpiece for a 1920s thriller (What cryptic words did National Gallery director Charles Holmes write on the back of the painting?).

The internet has a whole gallery of wonderful art that can also be shoe-horned into a game for a variety of reasons. Do you have a favorite painting or piece of art you can do the same with?

[My Collection] Warhammer Fantasy 1st edition

I've been collecting Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for years, even though I've only played one game of it, ever. Why do I get it, then? Simple: the world is evocative, the art is wonderful and I really like the take of it.

I've got a bunch of the first edition books, but I'm missing about 15 books. I do have a few of the Enemy Within series and only have to find three in order to complete that adventure path: #1 The Enemy Within, #5 Something Rotten is Kislev and #6 Empire in Flames. Anyone who has a lead on these items at a decent price will be amply rewarded with my thanks!

[Magic Items] University of Washington Mace

During my recent graduation, the University Marshal lead the faculty procession into the ceremony carrying the University Mace, a five pound and three foot long representation of the University's governing authority.

To me, it looked like a pretty cool weapon and symbol of sovereignty.

The shaft of the mace is made from dark rosewood. Though they won't admit it, it comes from the Middle East, maybe even Jerusalem. And it's an old, old piece of wood. Maybe even 2000 years old. The gold for the decoration could be from stolen Aztec gold, possibly from one of the 11 sunken Spanish Galleons of the 1715 Treasure Fleet, but no-one has really verified that.

So, what happens to this ceremonial mace, made of these very special materials, when it's not in use? Where is it stored and what eldritch powers does it gather to only be used twice a year or so? Why does only the University Marshal have the authority to carry the mace? What would happen if the mace was used as a weapon?

And why, this year, has it gone missing? And who took it?

When in the Course of human events ....

I'll be with my family today, celebrating the independence of the United States of America.

[Resources] Gunkanjima

Hashima Island, also known as Gunkanjima (Battleship Island), is one of over 500 islands off the coast of Nagasaki. The island is completely empty of people and the buildings are falling into ruin. Lots of pics are available online from various sites that cater to urban ruins enthusiasts. Recently, tours have started going to the island but for the most part, access is restricted. The pics are pretty cool to look at and may be useful for you.

[How To Play] Savage Worlds, Part 2: Campaign Discussion

Charley and I got together for a second session. We had Charley's character, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Torpington, a young knight seeking adventure all ready to go. Before we started in on the game, I asked Charley what he'd like to see during the campaign. He said he wanted a steady stream of jousting, bandits in the forest, political intrigue, rival knights, captures and escapes, chaste Chivalric romances, and mysteries like castles full of ogres and witches in the fens.

We hammered out the following campaign: 16 sessions long, enough for Sir Nicholas to go from Novice to Legendary ranks. Eight sessions would involve jousting, with at least 6 being official tournament jousts. The official jousts would take place in Nottingham, Lincoln, York, Lancaster, Coventry, and end in London. This will give Sir Nick the opportunity to travel around the country in a spiral and see lots of different areas.

We figured that rival knights would be easy to develop in-play and that the other stuff, like bandits, intrigue and escapes, would fill out the rest of the sessions, as Sir Nick has to travel between the tournaments, encountering a myriad of dangers in the process.

With this campaign roughly outlined, we moved on to starting the game, giving me enough to start the adventures and Charley enough to know the theme of the game.

[Aftermath!] The D.C. Campaign: The Skinheads

Skinheads ("Them")

Location: Alexandria, Virginia. Bounded by W and E Braddock Road in the north and Interstate 95 in the south, between N Quaker Lane (State Route 402) to S Patrick Street (US Highway 1). Includes Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria National Cemetery and the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.

Population: 550 (plus approximately 1000 slaves)
Military Strength: 255
Military Resources: 26 commercial armored vans, in various states of repair, and a bunch of civilian trucks. They are armed with pistols, deer rifles and knives, plenty of knives.

Treaties: None.

Enemies: Nearly everyone.

Resources: Mostly small industry, including chemical explosives and a crude hand grenade. Expert salvage teams made up of slaves directed by guards, ranging all around the District.

Trade: They trade rarely, usually taking what they can using force. Sometimes they trade slaves. If they do trade, meeting them may (50% chance) lead to a shoot-out, a snatch-and-grab (25%), a con (15%) or an honest trade (10%).

General Reaction: -25 (did you expect anything different?)

Background: A combination of hard-core criminals, biker gangs, Weiss und stolz groups and neo-Nazis. They are currently held in check by the Pentagon survivors to the north and the Mennonites west of them. Both groups are in a perpetual state of brush-wars with this community. They don't take kindly to strangers and only value strength - best to deal with them rarely or with might on your side and watch your back.