B is for Bituminous Man!

At one point I decided I really liked a certain combination of costume & power sets in City of Heroes so I made a trio of them. The first was Bituminous Man, who was soon followed by Anthracite Man and Lignite Man, but Bituminous was the first!

Origin:
A terrible accident in a coal mine! Collapse! Fire! "No one could have survived" they said. After investigations, criminal proceedings, and memorial services the tragedy faded from the minds of many. At the site of the disaster, something emerged from the mine entrance - something shaped like a man, but clearly not a man.

In CoH terms he was a Fire Armor/Stone Melee Tanker. Since - conceptually - he is a burning man of living coal, some of the details will be a little different in a tabletop RPG.

Personality
Bituminous Man is quiet much of the time, but when he speaks it sounds like rocks grinding together mixed with a deep human voice. He knows he is intimidating to normal humans and tries not to abuse this when he is around friends. He does not have much of a sense of humor, does not pay much attention to pop culture or lighter news, and does not do small talk. He will quietly sit in the corner of a room seemingly oblivious to the discussion until it is time to go deal with a threat and then he will stand and voice his readiness.

Being a large man of flaming stone he is hard to miss. His flaming aura shrinks or burns brighter depending on his emotional state. Since he has no hope of stealth, he has a stand-up style of fighting, typically moving straight towards the enemy, burning bright and swinging his heavy stone mallet as he advances.

Bituminous Man for ICONS: 

Attributes:

Prowess: 6 (Remarkable) The man that emerged form the mine disaster has an instinctive grasp of melee

Coordination: 3 (Typical) Comparable to an average human, which is pretty good for a rock-man

Strength: 9 (Monstrous) He is quite strong, as befitting a large rock creature

Intellect: 3 (Typical) He's canny, but a little slower than some. It evens out.

Awareness: 4 (Good) He's not oblivious as one might suspect of a rock creature, and his experience helps

Willpower: 6 (Remarkable) He's been through an ordeal like few others and his mind works differently than most

Stamina: 15

Determination: 1

Origin: Transformed (one ability or power is at +2)

Specialties: Science (Geology), Science (Metallurgy)

Powers:

Invulnerability - 8 - He is a flaming rocky creature - all the way through

Life Support - 9 -  Cold, Breathing, Eating, Heat, Pathogens,  Pressure, Radiation, Toxins, Vacuum (he still needs to sleep)

Aura - 5 - Fiery body

Qualities:

"Flaming Rock Creature" - He's not really a normal human any more and while immune to much harm he sometimes has trouble with things like doorknobs and elevators. It also makes it difficult to sneak around.

"Unity of Purpose" - (motivation) He "burns" with the knowledge that there is evil in the world and it is now his job to purge it. It might be magical evil, it might be environmental damage, it might be evil from another dimension, but he knows it when he sees it and knows he must stand against it.

"Dreams of Another Life" - he has vague memories of his life before but they are blurry and shifting and unreliable. He does not even know what his name was before, though he's pretty sure he had one. It's all very dreamlike and it's what he dreams of when he sleeps. Those snippets sometimes help him see what he must do next -almost like a message from his prior self - or perhaps it is "selves"?

Challenges:

"Body of Stone" - this is a physical challenge as he weighs a lot more than a normal person, has trouble speaking quickly, and doesn't really bend in all of the same places, making life difficult sometimes

Notes: Well he's 52 points which is a little higher than the ICONS standard but not too much more. I think that's pretty reasonable for an existing character with a background and a known set of powers. His powers make him very tough and very dangerous at close range while his high strength will allow him to throw things for quite a distance when melee is not an option. I wanted to play up more of his fire powers with things like some regeneration - one of the signatures of a CoH fire tank was a strong self-healing capability, so I think of him that way - but I think adding Regen to a character with this level of Invuln and Life Support might be a little gratuitous for ICONS. Sometimes the system matters, and I'm fine going without it here.

PDF of his character sheet is here.

Bituminous Man for Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Edition:

Bituminous Man - PL 12

Strength 16, Stamina 16, Agility 0, Dexterity 0, Fighting 8, Intellect 0, Awareness 1, Presence 6

Advantages
Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Benefit, Ambidexterity, Fearless, Interpose, Power Attack, Takedown 2, Ultimate Effort: Toughness checks

Skills
Expertise: Geology & Metallurgy 6 (+6), Insight 6 (+7), Intimidation 6 (+12), Perception 6 (+7), Ranged Combat: Throwing 6 (+6)

Powers
Fiery Aura: Damage 6 (fire, DC 21; Reaction 3: reaction)
   Healing Flames: Regeneration 5 (Alternate; Every 2 rounds)
Shockwave: Burst Area Damage 10 (DC 25; Burst Area: 30 feet radius sphere; Limited: Hero and target must both be in contact with ground)
   Groundstrike: Burst Area Affliction 10 (Alternate; 1st degree: Vulnerable, 2nd degree: Defenseless, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 20; Burst Area: 30 feet radius sphere; Instant Recovery, Limited: Hero and target must both be in contact with ground, Limited Degree)
Stone Body
   Enhanced Ability: Enhanced Stamina 12 (+12 STA)
   Immunity: Immunity 12 (Damage Effect: Pressure, Environmental Condition: Cold, Environmental Condition: Heat, Fatigue Effects)
   Impervious Defense: Impervious Toughness 12
Super-Strength
   Enhanced Ability: Enhanced Strength 12 (+12 STR)
   Power-lifting: Power-lifting 4 (+4 STR for lifting)

Offense
Initiative +0
Fiery Aura: Damage 6, +8 (DC 21)
Grab, +8 (DC Spec 26)
Groundstrike: Burst Area Affliction 10 (DC Fort 20)
Shockwave: Burst Area Damage 10 (DC 25)
Throw, +6 (DC 31)
Unarmed, +8 (DC 31)

Complications
Altered Being: Bituminous Man was once a person or persons but has trouble remembering things from before. He is unaware of popular culture and sometimes seems surprised by the simple features of everyday life.
Motivation: Doing Good: He knows he has returned for a purpose, and he knows it is to oppose a force, call it evil, that he cannot allow to win.

Languages
Native Language

Defense
Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 16, Toughness 16, Will 8

Power Points
Abilities 46 + Powers 112 + Advantages 9 + Skills 15 (30 ranks) + Defenses 15 = 197

PDF of this character sheet is here.

Notes: Alright in M&M we can rearrange the details a little bit. He's still strong, tough, and surrounded by flames. I started with the Powerhouse template and modified it to reflect his particular powers. Making Regeneration an alternate power of the aura means he can shut down the fiery field around him to heal faster - I like that a lot. Think of it as re-channelling his internal heat to remain inside him rather than letting it out.

The accurate, all-out, and power attack Advantages give him a lot of options as far as adjusting his attack, defense, and damage numbers to account for who and what he is fighting. The groundstrike powers give him some area effect ability too.

His skills give him some usefulness outside of combat but he is clearly a classic "brick" and intended to be the anchor of a team, standing in the heart of any battle. I would expect his personality and origin to develop further during play, possibly exploring his past and the reasons he is driven to fight evil.

I built him as Power Level 12 to reflect his experience and capability as more than a beginning hero. The starting points total for PL12 is 180 so at 197 he would have some experience in at this level already. I could reduce his strength or defenses or drop the groundstrike to get him closer to 180 but I'm trying to show him as I see him, so I'm leaving it here for now.

A is for Aluminum Falcon!

Since I've already covered The Amazing Aluminum Man, Adamantium Man, and American Ironhead I decided to go with one of my favorite alternate Aluminum Family characters - Aluminum Falcon! Where did he come from? Well, it was a happy coincidence of several things:

• I had decided to go ahead and make an Aluminum character for every blaster power set on City of Heroes. 
• I needed a concept for the archery/bow guy type hero
• I watched this Robot Chicken Episode - I'm sure many of you know exactly what I'm referring to by now.

Inspiration struck and Aluminum Falcon was born!

In CoH terms he was actually a Trick Arrow/Archery Defender - my first in the game - which made him a lot of fun to play. Defenders tended to be more team support types so 90% or more of my time with him was spent on teams dropping net arrows or oil slick arrows or flaming arrows or gas arrows - lots of fun times.


RPG Background Notes:

Olympic archery champion, techie guy, and nephew of the famous Amazing Aluminum Man, Aluminum Falcon was inspired by his uncle's efforts to improve the world. With his uncle's help he crafted his own suit and weapons and took to the streets to pit his skill against the criminals of Paragon City.

• The wings are from an early effort by AAM to control his flight. As his powers matured he ended up not needing them but they gave his nephew the ability to control his flight despite his lack of similar innate powers. In some forms, they fold down into a cape when not in use.
• An aluminum suit could be dangerous around electrical foes so massive storage capacity is built into the suit to absorb electricity and channel it into melee attacks similar to Aluminum Man's. The storage is mainly concentrated in the legs which helps with stability and keeping the bow-side up while flying or hovering.
• The suit is a more conventional powered armor type suit. It grants protection from small-arms fire, environmental control, radio communications, enhanced vision, targeting aids, some enhanced strength and speed, and (with the wings) flight capability.
• The primary offensive capabilities comes from the bow, and the skill of the man who wields it.

Personality:

Aluminum Falcon is a competitor and has enough of an ego that he does not feel overshadowed by AAM - they look and fight differently enough that few people confuse the two. His motivation for becoming a hero was to find a way to use his considerable skill with a bow in some way that made a difference. He's not "born of tragedy", he's not a wealthy man, and he's not a scientific genius. He just happened to have a useful skill, a desire to make a difference, and an inside connection to the superhero community that made this possible. He has enough technical knowledge to maintain the suit and make small upgrades and enhancements but a major upgrade would require someone else's help, mainly knowledge, facilities, and funding. For a comic comparison, think Peter Parker - he can handle the web shooters and tracers, but ti took Tony Stark's help to make the iron spider suit. It's a comparable situation.

Aluminum Falcon for ICONS:

Character Folio Sheet

Click here for a PDF

Attributes:
Prowess: 4 (Good) He is not a melee guy, but has experienced enough of it to not be totally helpless
Coordination: 6 (Remarkable) He is one of the more coordinated people in the world, near the top of human capability
Strength: 5 (Excellent) He is an Olympic competitor and the suit boosts this a bit as well
Intellect: 5 (Excellent) He's smart enough to keep up with most people
Awareness: 4 (Good) He pays attention to what's going on around him
Willpower: 6 (Remarkable) The drive to compete has been re-channelled into his drive to excel as a hero

Stamina: 11
Determination:

Origin: Trained (3 bonus specialties, 2 fewer powers)

Specialties: Weapons - Bows (Master) +3, Athletics (Expert) +2, Electronics

Powers:
Bow (all are device-based):

• Hi-Tech Arrows - Blast 6
• Explosive Arrows - Explosive Blast 5
• Net Arrow - Binding 5
• Gas Arrow - Affliction 4, Burst, Ranged, Unconsciousness is max effect
• Flash Arrow - Blinding 6, Burst

Super-Senses - 2 (Typical) - Enhanced Vision +1, Extended Vision 1 (device-based - armor)
Invulnerability - 4 (Good) - Falcon Armor (device-based - armor)
Flight - 5 (Excellent) - Wings (device-based - armor)

Qualities:
"Competitive Champion" - Falcon was very good at something and was recognized for it before becoming a superhero. He has a drive and a will to excel that helps push him through challenging circumstances.

"What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?" - Catchphrase! A typical response or continuation is "I'm glad you asked" followed by an arrow shot.

"Aluminum Family" - connection

"Olympic Archer" - secret identity


Challenges:
"Aluminum Suit" - aluminum is a heck of a conductor and if you do not have powers that let you control it, well, electrical attacks can be a problem. This counts as a Weakness and could manifest as anything from blown out sensors to shorted-out wings to unconsciousness from a successful attack.

Notes: In ICONS terms his abilities and specialties add up to 35, which isn't bad. Then we get into "Powers" and there are a lot of ways to score those, but he's up into the 60's as shown here and he's not all that powerful IMO. ICONS as written is not really set up to show gadgeteer types with lots of small powers since you roll for number of powers, not number of points. The way I've composed him here is reflective of a more traditional point-buy approach and a more traditional thinking that devices should not cost the same as innate powers.

The suit is really a suite of powers based off of a single device. Protection, senses, flight are all pretty traditional battlesuit abilities and his are at the lower end of the scale - Iron Man he is not! Crunchier systems can reflect this more accurately than ICONS does but what we have here works.

The bow is really a separate suite of powers that you don't see tied to an armor guy much, one reason I liked the combination. Again, it's easier to show these kinds of powers in crunchier systems where you can use an array or a multipower to have multiple effects coming from a single power choice. The basic attack is "shooting an arrow" and everything else builds off of that. Even in ICONS the explosive arrow could be a stunt off of the regular blast power, forcing you to spend determination to use it. That said, I think he needs at least two other options to make him interesting - the flash arrow or the net arrow or the gas arrow. He doesn't have to be the primary attacker on a team, but he should have several ways to contribute to stay true to the original concept.

Hmm, lots of normal abilities, skills, and two main power sets. Let's see ...

Watching ...

Aluminum Falcon for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying:

Click here for a PDF

Creating the same character across different systems lets you emphasize different elements in new ways. Marvel Heroic lets some of the details come out a little more. I can emphasize his team player nature with affiliations and one of his XP sets. The energy absorption/battery thing shows up in one of the SFX for the suit too. The suit ends up being at least as useful as the bow and pretty versatile as well. His Powers, SFX, and Limits are a mix of Hawkeye, Falcon, Iron Man, and Punisher. His XP options come from Falcon and Invisible Woman, of all things. I think he would be fun to play though given our limited experience in the game I do not doubt there are revisions I would make after a few sessions.

Anyway that's it for "A" and for Aluminum Falcon.  Next up, the letter B!

Motivational Monday

Savage Swords of Impiltur - Session 6

Returning in triumph - and in a hurry as their ship melts beneath them - our heroes land in Fallcrest and announce their success! After high fives and salutes and raised tankards all around, Marko sneaks off into the crowd, glad to be done with the whole business. The following day, Lord Markelhay appears - accompanied by Lord Reinhardt himself! He announces rewards for the whole party. First up, each receives a 1,000 gold piece bonus. Then, as retainers of the House, Dar and Gravis receive land grants!

Dar is awarded the Tower of Waiting, a ruined tower on an island in the river. He will be the town's Lord Marshall, and the tower will be rebuilt. This will help protect the northern approaches to the town and serve as a staging area for efforts to civilize some of the surrounding wilderness.

Gravis is awarded Vraath Keep, an old holding of House Reinhardt in the nearby Elsir Vale region. It was attacked and destroyed many years ago but the House is on the rise and looking to reclaim its old lands. Gravis will be a big part of this effort, and he is given both the royal decree that endorses his claim and an old map to help him locate his new domain.

Our Heroes (now 5th level):

• Dar Bloodmane, Shifter Paladin
• Lt. Alex Gravis, Water Genasi Warlord
• Zarra, Drow Vampire
• Gartok, Dwarf Earth Warden
• Izenheim, Dwarf Cleric of Marthammor Duin
• No-Name, Elf Bow Ranger 

After several days of preparation most of the party heads out - Dar will remain behind to assume his new duties, while Izenheim has volunteered to help him survey the place to see just how bad it is. Traveling the Nentir Vale takes another few days - uneventful as it happens - and then they cross into the Elsir Vale. Heading for the closest village, Drellin's Ferry, trouble finds them almost immediately.

Moving along a sunken part of the trail, the group spots an abandoned farmhouse and quickly realizes they are in a prime spot for an ambush - the wrong end of an ambush. With a roar somethig throws a volley of javelins at the party, as a blast of flame reaches out from the foliage. Then a humanoid and a huge red hound appear at either end of the trail - hobgoblins! - and they appear to have some hell hounds.

In his element, the ranger with no name unloads a volley of his own, finding a target in the bushes and slaying one of the hobgoblins outright. The warlord, warden, and vampire charge the hidden mage who threw fire - they suspect he is the biggest threat. The hounds and other hobgoblins lope forward into a huge melee around the unfortunate spellcaster.

The warlord is caught in the fiery breath of both beasts as they rush in. The warmage goes on total defense as at least three people are trying to kill him, but is quickly overwhelmed. The ranger nails the hobgoblin commander with two arrows, seriously wounding him, then he scores with two more and slays the humanoid leader as well! The crispy warlord, deeming the hounds to be the next biggest threat lures one into a bad position and defends himself as the dwarf and the drow tear it apart.

Having turned the tide, the rest of the battle goes quickly. The ranger shoots down the hobgoblin spearmen while the melee trio of warlord-warden-vampire beat down the hobgoblin beast-trainer and the remaining hound. After the last enemy falls, the elf scouts the surrounding area and finds no other opposition. Our heroes inspect the farmhouse and decide to spend the night there. They will make for Drellin's ferry in the morning.

DM Notes - This session marked the end of the introductory adventure and the beginning of the meat of the campaign. Cairn of the WInter King is a perfect campaign starter as it has some interesting features but takes place in isolation and is a small 1-level dungeon. This allows the party to get a handle on how to work together and figure out their roles in the group. It also set up nicely to mark the PC"s as upcoming heroes in this part of the kingdom. The land grants served multiple purposes:

Steve was not thrilled with the way Dar was working out mechanically and wanted to try a new character. So, we "retired" him to the Tower of Waiting where he could be brought back in if needed as a replacement, or he could set up to be the first member of a new party if we decided to "fork" the campaign or if we wanted a backup group  - clearly the first adventure would be to explore and clear the tower! Also, in the long run, Dar and the rebuilt tower would make for a nice hook to a successor campaign if we ever ran one.

By granting Gravis a holding in the Elsir Vale I have both a reason for the party to go there AND a reason for them to care about the invasion that's about to happen. This is not subtle, but it makes sense within the campaign and the players liked it - plus it's fairly old school to have a keep at all and it's unusual to have one at 5th level in pretty much any version of D&D. Changing things up helps keep campaigns fresh and helps to distinguish them from one another. We had explored the idea of the party claiming an old keep in the previous campaign (at a higher level than this) but they were TPK'd in the process of doing it so we never saw the payoff for all of that setup. For this campaign I wanted it front and center and so here it was.

If you have played Red Hand of Doom then you probably recognize this first encounter. It starts a long road of adventure that we will be exploring all the way through the rest of that adventure and the rest of Heroic Tier play. We've had a lot of fun with it and writing up this first episode has me smiling as I write it. A lot of people thought it was one of the best 3rd edition D&D adventures - I can tell you it makes a pretty good 4th edition adventure too.

Picture Updates!

I have updated Impiltur sessions 4 and 5 with some pics of the mat and the minis etc so they are 2-3,000 times more interesting than they were before!

Gamers Seeking Gamers is Back Online

The site that went down in 2012 after a hack attack is back up. Lots of activity in my neck of the woods - if you're looking for a game, especially a D&D game, it's worth a look. I see a lot of Shadowrun, Star Wars, and Warhammer too so it's not ALL D&D.

Short and sweet but I thought it was worth a post!

Savage Swords of Impiltur - Session 5

Beginning in the forge room where they battled the tiefling and his friends our heroes start exploring, discovering a series of connected rooms with no obvious inhabitants. Guard rooms, a well, bedchambers, a secret staircase, and then, passing through a secret door, the party finds themselves in a large throne room, Atop a tall dais stands a massive throne, and upon it sits a skeletal figure, sheathed in ice, one hand outstretched as if reaching for something. The halfling Marko steps forward, unwrapping the Ice Scepter as he draws it from his pack and holding it out towards the Winter King. The frozen hand ... moves ...

Not so fast! Gravis steps up as well and begins speaking to the icy figure, trying to determine exactly what they are dealing with. The vampire and the ranger chime in as well in their own special ways. The ice falls away as the undead thing rises to its feet but his menace seems diminished as the party informs him of the vast amount of time that has passed since his day and of the many foes they have defeated.

The King has never dealt with this kind of arrogance! He lashes out with a blast of cold and the fight is on! The warden leaps into melee as the ranger unleashes a volley of shafts. The vampire unleashes her true nature and rips into the Winter King at the foot of his own throne and he staggers back! Then the warlord shouts instructions, moving the team into a perfect position and after another icy blast from the King the vampire strikes, tearing his frozen body asunder, ending the Winter King for all time.

Pausing to contemplate what just happened the adventuring band realizes that in addition to the Ice Scepter they possess there is an icy adornment on the King's head as well. They take it, adding the Crown of Winter to their growing list of magical items. Then the rumbling starts, and ice and water begin to fall from the ceiling - apparently the Winter King helped sustain this place and with his demise it is coming undone!

Urgently the party retraces their steps through a quaking, collapsing cavern, praying that their magical flying ship survives and still functions well enough to get them home. Emerging into the brilliant light of the snowy mountains, it takes a second for them to realize they are not alone - between them and the ship stand some rough-looking fur-clad humans and a monstrosity with two heads - an Ettin!

Our heroes now pause to consider their course of action. Aboard the ship stands Dar Bloodmane, "speechifying" and letting them know just how doomed they are if they dare lay a hand on his vessel while Izenheim loads a crossbow. Moving even more rapidly now, Gartok (the warden) charges the ettin with the intent of locking him down so that the rest of the party can reach the ship. Zarra (the vampire) charges the barbarians with the intent of taking them down before they can do any real damage. Gravis (the warlord) and No-Name (the ranger) move up to support.

One of the barbarians is already down and the dwarf has the ettin under control when an owlbear emerges from the rumbling Cairn, apparently fleeing the place. He rumbles right down the path towards the party, and as he does so, roaring and screeching and hooting, the party realizes this could be trouble.

Poster maps! Props! Pulling out all the stops here!

The vampire is ripping through the barbarians with a little help from the ranger as the dwarf and warlord keep the ettin tied up then the owlbear, moving faster than anticipated, thunders into the ranger, wounding him and forcing him to deal with something right up in his face - not his preferred scenario. Gravis gets too close in an attempt to lend his aid and takes a huge paw to the head for his troubles.

Look! A Bloodied Bow Ranger! This is an incredibly rare sight, so I wanted to memorialize it online!

Finally the ettin and then the last barbarian fall and Gartok and Zarra run back to their companions, leaping into the fray with the owlbear, which is wounded but still fighting mad. The great beast manages to grab the dwarf, nearly crushing him, and tearing into him with its beak, but the tough (and slippery) warden squirms free, just in time for the Zarra to tear into the beast and for No-Name to skewer the thing with twin arrows. As it falls lifeless to the hard-packed and red-stained snow our heroes spare it no further thought, running for the ship  which Dar and Izenheim (and Marko - not at all interested in fighting, but very interested in leaving) have ordered to lift off. Leaping aboard and settling in, the band takes to the oars, pulling the ship through the sky, hoping to make it back to Fallcrest before the ship's icy magic fails completely.

DM Notes: This was another good run, a little more serious than last time. The WInter King encounter has an interesting mechanical setup where the party can cause damage to the king - who is a fairly nasty solo - by succeeding in a skill challenge, making him easier to defeat in combat. Surprisingly my players initiated this with no prompting from me (as they themselves say, they're usually a "Plan A" kind of group) and no knowledge of what this would do, and had some pretty creative uses of Diplomacy, History, Bluff, and Nature to back it up. Things did eventually come to blows but in his weakened (though not THAT weakened) state they took him out in two rounds! 

The Warlord to Vampire connection was tremendous in this session, as she did something close to 100 points of damage in one round and killed the WInter King thanks to normal attack, warlord bonus attack, and warlord action point bonus attack. This was a hint of things to come. Mechanically the Tactical Warlord is extremely effective when paired with the more Essentials type classes that work mainly from a basic melee attack and can then stack damage boosting powers or attack boosting stances on top of it, and the Vamp is that style of character.

Once they killed the king I thought it would be really anticlimactic to have them clear out the last few rooms in this small dungeon, plus it was a pretty magical environment anyway, so I had the place start to collapse - this is not in the adventure as written. This is a DM sensing that it's time to close out the warmup adventure and move things along. That does not mean those unchecked room inhabitants go to waste though! The Ettin and Barbarians were part of an encounter that was not used, and the owlbear was form a different encounter and using the distance and his movement rate I determined he would still be moving out when the party emerged, which made for a more interesting encounter anyway. It made for an appropriately climactic 9-round fight that had everyone sweating but not complaining - not bad! 

Now I normally try to stay away from too much of the whole dramatic embellishment and keep my dungeons more of a sandboxy environment, but I knew that it would probably take at least one more session to finish exploring the place completely. I also felt like walking out the door and getting on the ship like nothing had happened seemed wrong in this case as well. So I went for the big movie ending with the collapsing, melting dungeon and the fleeing monsters fighting for an escape and all of that, Part of having a preference or a style is knowing when to violate it, and that's what I did here. The mission was accomplished, the dungeon was largely explored and cleared, and after 5 sessions it was time to get their pats on the back and move on to the main focus of the campaign. 

Next time: Back to Fallcrest, and the Red Hand of Doom invades 4th edition!

April A to Z 2013

I did this in 2011 and had a lot of fun with it. I skipped it in 2012 but for 2013 I am going to do it again. Here is the basic information:


The Who

Now that we have that out of the way...

The What

My original idea was to review and build a character in a different Superhero RPG each day. I started doing research and realized how badly that matches up with the whole alphabet thing - e.g. 2 entries for A, 5 entries for B, 1 for C, none for K or L, 4 for M, none for O-P-Q, etc. I may still do that, but not for the A to Z month.

Instead I am going to do superhero characters - namely converting a bunch of homegrown heroes (and maybe a few villains) into various superhero RPGs. Most of these will be from my files of late, lamented City of Heroes characters and I will not be doing repeats of ones I have done previously - this will be all new entries. I have multiple characters for each letter, lacking entries only for Q. 

My plan is to have a picture, an ICONS statblock, a Mutants and Masterminds statblock, and then stats for some other game, probably different for each one. I might do Champions for one, BASH for another, Marvel for another, just to keep it interesting. I chose ICONS because it's easy for me to adapt them to that system and it's easy to translate from there into other games. I chose M&M because it will give me a month of practice with building them in HeroLab which can only help and it takes them to a more detailed level. I'm still figuring out which other systems I want to try them in - it will probably vary by character. 

I have 10+ characters to choose from on some of these. Is anyone interested in helping to choose which ones are chosen? Not sure how I would do it but it could be fun. 

The When and The Where
Well it's in April. 2013. So, next week. On this blog. According to this calendar:

The Why
Like this whole blog, I'm doing this mainly for myself, but actual character stats are one of those things other people might be able to use as well. April will substantially increase the amount of hard numbers/drop-in useful content on this blog and that's a good thing too. Maybe you need an NPC on the fly and remember that blog guy had some stats online, or maybe the idea or image inspires a new character for someone out there. Regardless, they will be here.

Motivational Monday

Given the recent events in my campaign this seemed appropriate:

Somewhat 40K-Related Friday: Little Wars

The first published set of miniatures rules was released in 1913:

"Little Wars" was written by H.G. Wells and published 100 years ago this year. Now military people were running wargames on tables prior to this and for all we know there were gamers in basements doing this kind of thing prior to this as well but this is the first known occurrence where someone came up with the idea for a miniatures game, tested them out with friends, and published them commercially.

After some mention of previous fun with toy soldiers, It begins with a very open narrative of how the whole thing began with the notice of a spring-loaded gun:

The present writer had been lunching with a friend - let me veil his identity under the initials J. K. J. - in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a small boy's leasures. On a table near our own stood four or five soldiers and one of these guns. Mr J. K. J., his more urgent needs satisfied and the coffee imminent, drew a chair to this little table, sat down, examined the gun discreetly, loaded it warily, aimed, and hit his man. Thereupon he boasted of the deed, and issued challenges that were accepted with avidity. . . . 

Look - trash-talking among gamers one hundred years ago!

He fired that day a shot that still echoes round the world. An affair - let us parallel the Cannonade of Valmy and call it the Cannonade of Sandgate - occurred, a shooting between opposed ranks of soldiers, a shooting not very different in spirit - but how different in results! - from the prehistoric warfare of catapult and garter. " But suppose," said his antagonists, "suppose some-how one could move the men !" and therewith opened a new world of belligerence. 

I think I would have gotten along with these guys just fine.

Not sure I'm up for dressing like that though. A cosplay-miniatures crossover  theme party?

This is part of twenty pages or so that describe the development of the game and the experiences that shaped the rules - "we tried this and then discovered it was a problem in this way and so changed it to this new method" - more notes like this today would be a welcome development, even in this age of designer blogs.

As far as the rules, they are fairly abstract but oddly modern in the conscious choice of speed-of-play over detailed realism. In only 12 pages they cover all kinds of shooting, melee, taking prisoners, and area-effect weapons. They do not use dice - shooting is resolved by using small spring-loaded cannons, and melee begins with alternating removal of men and goes thru several iterations over the course of the book. For this kind of game they look pretty solid.

Pre-Heresy Imperial Guard!

The next chapter is a battle report - with maps, illustrations, and photographs! From 1913! It's amazing how some things have remained unchanged. "The Battle of Hook's Farm" actually takes up more space than the rules themselves and is an great way to see the rules in action.

There are some optional rules in the next chapter - trains, hidden units, and some general suggestions to try. Then we have some commentary on little wars vs. big wars, then finally some notes on integrating these rules with a Kriegspiel, the more abstract type of game developed in the Austrian military that had become used by most of the European militaries of the time.

"Here the Imperial Guard assault a traitor force" - tell me that doesn't look like a  40K melee scrum around a vital objective

If you're wondering how this kind of thing ties in with the roots of role-playing, read this excerpt from the beginning of the battle report:

And now, having given all the exact science of our war game, having told something of the development of this warfare,let me here set out the particulars of an exemplary game. And suddenly your author changes. He changes into what perhaps he might have been — under different circumstances. His inky ringers become large, manly hands, his drooping scholastic back stiffens, his elbows go out, his etiolated complexion corrugates and darkens, his moustaches increase and grow and spread, and curl up horribly ; a large,red scar, a sabre cut, grows lurid over one eye. He expands — all over he expands. He clears his throat startlingly, lugs at the still growing ends of his moustache, and says, with just a faint and fading doubt in his voice as to whether he can do it,  "Yas, Sir! "Now for a while you listen to General H. G. W., of the Blue Army. You hear tales of victory. The photographs of the battlefields are by a woman war-correspondent, A. C. W., a daring ornament of her sex. I vanish. I vanish, but I will return. Here, then, is the story of the battle of Hook's Farm.

If you're reading this I bet you understand exactly what he means here.

Hmmm, not sure I'm up for the straw-hat look, but other than that, put it indoors and throw a laser-pointer in there and this looks like any number of 40K tournaments I've seen.

If you have any interest in the roots of miniature gaming, and RPG'ing too, or if you are interested in H.G. Wells, it's definitely worth a read. My copy is all of 82 pages and contains all of the illustrations and photos from the original which are a lot of fun to see given the time that has passed. The open library copy is here so you don't even have to go buy it. The PDF is particularly nice with the illustrations done in red and the pictures as shown above.