Describe your last RPG session in more than 5 words.

[aramis erak]

Sun T2K....

Salvage of crashed airplanes.
More refugees.
Hunting turned up a fox and a rabbit.

They spotted a KGB scout patrol at night. (KGB botched the recon... so, in office uniforms...) They sniped it.

(Note: Lots of NPCs - 8 UK Army privates, 1 NPC USMC Gunny, 7 adult refugees, 8 children (ages 2-10), 1 Dutch expat dentist former US resident)... they've lost more than half the combatant NPCs they've accumulated.

A random encounter turned up a market-on-wheels. They got a plow with a tow-bar instead of horse rigging, some Deutschlandish Heer MRE-Equivalents, and some GP-Smalls. They paid with well-water, some vehicle spares, two "slightly worn" KGB office uniforms, a couple topo maps of a particular location a few days north...

 

[John Dallman]

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Pathfinder Kingmaker:
Soldiers, barbarians ran. Trolls died.

The first encounter of part 4 of Kingmaker. We were a bit worried about only two-thirds of the party going up against 25 soldiers, 10 barbarians and 6 trolls. Being outnumbered and mobbed is a lot worse in GURPS than in D&D-family combat systems. But we got our tactics right, and the enemy didn't seem to be amazingly motivated. When the first two soldiers into melee get their heads cut in half, and cut off respectively, and their leader dies of magic from a flying wizard whom they're unable to hit with bows, they tend to re-examine their plans.

 

[John Dallman]

Rescued one prince, two princesses.

The GURPS occult WWII campaign. We'd flown an Imperial Airways "Empire" class flying boat into a rural lake in Norway, in April 1940. Our job was to fly out royals, diplomats and some of the gold reserves. The GM, who is normally very knowledgeable, had got his research wrong, and was under the impression that the Crown Prince of Norway was unmarried and childless. Several of the players were aware this wasn't right, and there was a swift retcon. So we flew out the young boy who in the real world is the current King of Norway, his two sisters, the wife and children of the Danish ambassador, a couple of junior British diplomats and 160lb of gold.

We also won a sweepstake, run by the RAF officers at Lerwick in the Shetlands, on the number of extra holes in the aircraft when we got back, with "none" and spent the winnings on drinks for the RAF other ranks at Lerwick. This ensures we'll get good maintenance if we go back there.

There was no combat, apart from dodging anti-aircraft fire and vanishing into clouds, but a lot of tension. We planned the mission realistically, executed it effectively, and were very happy with it. We used magic for weather forecasts and to avoid fuel shortages; the mission could have been done by a mundane crew, but the margins would have been very tight.

 

[John Dallman]

After a bit more thought, it seems possible that Amber Dixon is a victim of the evil spirit that was in Yalazar's corpse and the demonic spirit in the gem. She was fool enough to seek out the tomb, but she may have been influenced from there onwards.

We caught Amber, and handed her into the authorities. Since then, we've been helping them investigate. We've looked at the isolated cottage where she was living undercover as a herbalist while training herself in necromancy, and found the 200-yard diameter pentacle that surrounded it, which she was not aware of.

Amnesiac lich nailed to city gates.

Lots of people were looking for Yalazar. He turned up: something incredibly evil appeared outside the city's south gate, nailed him to it, and vanished. Most of his memories have been wiped, and he's utterly insane. He only remembers the first ten years of his life. We're currently baffled.

 

[Voadam]

Failed dragon breath save. Twice.

So last game my 5e D&D valor paladin is claiming his deck of many things keep, The Shark's Tooth, which is ruled by an evil dragon who has cowed the ghost staff of the former necromancer lord.

We find ghosts in different rooms all ordered to stay there. They are former staff of the castle that were killed by the Necromancer and returned as his servants, neutral efficient castle staff who would love not to be under the thumb of the Dragon. The high charisma warlock and sorc-adin both stick their feet in their mouth in the interactions but I get them fully on our side as the rightful new lord, the closest blood relative of their original lord.

The dragon has been cursed by our ally the incredibly powerful preschool troll wizard with P is for Poison. So the big dragon is in his treasure room spiteful, but at a disadvantage.

First we go after the Warden, an evil wraith enforcer who joined the dragon and cows all the neutral ghost staff on behalf of the dragon. We don't want to fight two evils at once, better sequentially alone each.

The first fight goes amazing and my paladin shines with radiant smites on the wraith, the killing blow smite is narrated as my axe catches in part of the solarium, ripping open a hole to the outside where sunlight comes in to strike the Warden and burn him to nothing. This goes well with my nonmagical anime paladin theme of all my paladin powers are just me being that awesome.

We gather ghosts and pep rally and they agree to help, not really in attacking the dragon but in being there in support of me and disrupting his connection as lord of the castle. This knocks out his lair actions.

I am a 7th level paladin, I give everybody around me +10 movement, +3 on saves, and I have the intercept fighting style so I can prevent 1d10+3 damage on an adjacent ally a round with my reaction.

We go after the dragon and first round the dragon blasts everyone with his breath, I with my 8 dex fail the save and take 49 hp straight. We go around and everybody hammers on the dragon but I do a flying leap smite to the face on my turn with my highest level smite after laying on hands on myself for 30 so back up to 41. The dragon takes note and on another PC's turn uses its legendary action to tail swat me for 15 or so I am down to 26 or so and bloody again. Then the dragon's turn rolls around and recharge rolls with the dragon, and he decides that the rogue flanking him who evaded dragon breath is not the threat, me and the sorc-adin are so he blasts us, I again do not roll above a 5 on my save and take 49 more hp. So round two my 60 hp paladin has taken over 100 damage.

The rest of the party got him and saved me from dying.

There is a new Duke in Town.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Degenesis with T2k4e rules.

A brilliant, deeply roleplayed situation in which two players took opposing view on the subject of: execute a prisoner for brownie points with a patron, or honor a promise to release her if she told the group everything. Two other players had mixed emotions, and one player couldn't care less. It took the better part of an hour, but it was eventually resolved. Good stuff.

 

[Moonmover]

Running FGU's Bushido.

It is the month of Shimosuki in the 4th year of the Meiō Era. The Christians of the remote West would call this time December of 1500 AD.

The party consists of:
•Kurosawa, an itinerant vigilante
•Hashitsu Ryu, a samurai of the Uesugi Clan
•Matsura Rin, a friend and servant of Ryu with connections to Japan's criminal underworld
•Suiren, an agent of a secretive cultic order known as the Order.
•Hamato Yoshi, a samurai-born Shinto priest

The party had just completed several objectives around the coast of Echigo Province. Now, they had to return to the provincial capital of Ichikodai to report their successes.

The journey took about four days, but was uneventful. I rolled for random encounters and none came up.

When they arrived in Ichikodai, Suiren broke from the group and went to report to her master, who rewarded her and then gave her a new mission. The details of this new mission are secret and will not be shared here.

The rest of the party went to the palace of the shugo, Ichikodai no Uesugi Hanako, Ryu's father-in-law who had sent Ryu and Ren on their mission. They received congratulations on a job well done and an appropriate increase in reputation with the clan. It was also confirmed that in the upcoming battle against the perfiduous Hōjō Clan*, Ryu would command a small detachment of samurai (since said group's usual commander was severely ill). The clan would assemble for battle when the winter snow thawed.

Since Kurosawa had helped, Shugo Hanako offered her rewards as well. She requested a new weapon, so the shugo ordered one of his blacksmiths forge her a fine nōdachi. The blacksmith** was a short man with a long beard and a Scottich accent, who introduced himself as "a fellow Japanese human like you." Kurosawa chose to overlook this.

The entire party reunited and, at Yoshi's suggestion, went to visit the local shrine of Hachiman. There they learned that the head priest of the shrine** had gone missing. He had heard of a plague gripping the nearby village of Jarande and went to go help. He never returned, and travellers from Jarande have said that no such plague ever occurred. They also learned that yakuza*** had been harassing buisiness-owners in Ichikodai's 16th Ward.

---

Not the most eventful session. Hardly any dice even got rolled. But, the players now have lots of different directions in which they can head, and that is the essence of sandbox play.

*In reality, this war would be more than a decade off. But, 1500 is such a nice, round number you know?

**I need to get better about actually  naming new NPC's when I pull them out of thin air..

***In reality, the yakuza would not come into existence for more than a century relative to this campaign's time period. But, it's a character class in the game and someone wanted to play one, so they're here anyway.

 

[Moonmover]

 

Gave bathhouse to teenage gangster.

Bushido continues! This week, our one honorable samurai guy didn't show up, and the rest of the party descended into complete unfettered murderhoboism.

The party consists of:
•Mukuro Kurosawa, an itinerant vigilante
•Matsura Rin, a hardened criminal with connections to the powerful Uesugi samurai clan
•Suiren, an agent of a secretive cultic order known as the Order
•Hamato Yoshi, a samurai-born Shinto priest

NPC followers:
•Bakdo, a teenage thug from the mountains with big dreams. Rin's minion
•An adorable and deadly akita. Owned by Suiren
•A strangely aggressive and powerful shiba inu. Owned by Rin

Kurosawa, Rin, and Bakdo were interested in establishing their own criminal enterprise in the city of Ichikodai. So, they headed to the 16th Ward to preemptively deal with their competition.

Kurosawa approached the matter with her characteristic lack of subtlety, walking down the ward's main street and shouting "YAAAAKUZAAAA" at the top of her lungs. This resulted in a group of young men, armed with clubs, emerging from a dark alley and ready for a fight. Kurosawa let loose a battle cry and charged them. The rest of the party heard the men cry "You yakuza scum!" which seemed an odd thing for yakuza to say. Nevertheless they assisted Kurosawa in the ensuing fight and killed the men.

While Yoshi was tending to the party's resultant wounds, a burly man in a bathrobe, covered in gang tattoos, stepped out of a nearby building. He saw the dead club-wielders and declared, "Thank goodness, somebody finally took out that anti-yakuza militia!"

Embarrassed and still wanting to take down the 16th Ward's actual yakuza, the party attacked the man. He was much tougher than the militiamen had been, and before he went down he hollered a warning to his colleagues inside the building.

After he was dead, a young woman in a flowery kimono stepped out of the building. She informed the party that this bathhouse was closed for the night, and that they should return the next day. When the party made it clear that they would not leave, she tried to run. Rin tripped her and Kurosawa announced her intention to interrogate her.

Kurosawa began the interrogation by cutting the woman's arm off with a naginata. She instantly died, and the interrogation was a failure.

The party arranged the bodies of the yakuza and the woman to make it look like he killed her, then stormed the bathhouse.

It turned out to also have an illegal casino in the back, which the yakuza had now had time to quickly fortify. The party allowed the innocent bath-takers they found to get dressed and leave before fighting the yakuza room-to-room. The party was eventually victorious, and claimed the bathhouse/casino as their own.

Rin considered burning the place down, but then decided to let Bakdo run it as manager. Thus ended the session.
---
...
........
.............so yeah there's gonna be some consequences next time we play.

 

[aramis erak]

EO as Tetsu Ejiri
GD as Héctor Navarre
SB as Birger Hedenström
SA as Aloÿsia Lugar

NPCs: Noor Sajad; Lark 3637; Sezja Drabikowski; Grey 88-80; Douglas Stykes, Adrian


Spoilers for Published
Note: I started them a few hours early in setting; they're experienced ALIEN players, so to not start with maintenance would have been... unsettling. Plus, the "Get to know the Team over Coffee" scene... which took them over 30 minutes...

Spoiler

So, I slapped some gravity waves at them. AGL or Prone for the first one. One damage on the second, stronger, one. They also get hydrated, and make their first NDD rolls.

Big all hands message from Mr. Bishop. (The obligatory intro text)

Lugar, the skipper, and Grey, the mate, do maintenance. Kills the internal comms when they fail. 12d, no 6's...

Next shift, docking time. Lugar docks... then the gravity wave hits.... breaks the docking connector, and she gets the thing stashed in the #1 Plasma Maw.

They decide to go en mass... They cajole Drabinski into doing the EVA to string a cable from airlock to Airlock.

Once in, they contact Warden Stykes; he's sending some Joes to escort them.

They notice something from down the hall....Hedenström spots that it's a cat... with a squid-like thing almost its own size.
Navarre coaxes the critter from the cat, notes the station ID reading "Adrien"...

Squid-baby tries to flee... Heldenström grabs it!
Lugar shoots it, Navarre seizes the gun,, shoots it again.
It escapes into the vents. Adrien isn't exactly amused, and paws at the wall, wanting a lift up to the vent. The party are not obliging.
Navarre immediately calls Stykes, asking for ventilation shut-off.... a little whinging later, Stykes agrees... shutting all the airtights to their compartment just in time for Hedenström, who's headed down the hall, to hear squidbaby splat against the airtight within the vents...

Everyone rests for about 10 minutes, Navarre convincing them it's done for. (3! )
Everyone else recovers from a stress, and recovers a HP. (Ejiri needed to; those gravity waves cause him a fall...)

The critter, having recovered its hits as well, comes back for round two... the Joes aren't there yet.

So... second fight!

Navarre shoots it... graze!
Hedenström encourages the cat, "Go, Adrien! Get It! Go!"
Adrien goes. Adrien Hits. It loses its last hit point, and the crit is shredded... so adrien's bitten and front grabbed the cephalothorax, and uses his rear traction to dig off the tentacles...
They pop another short rest after praising Adrien and examining the corpse.

 

[John Dallman]

Erisian school students raise funds.

The Erisian School for Gifted Children is a GM's conceit: a school mostly populated by the children of player characters. There seems to be a lot of time travel involved, given that several of the PCs have never had any children, and in at least four cases, there are early-teens children of human PCs currently in their early twenties.

The actual operation of the school seems to be a cross between St Trinian's, Call of Cthulhu and WWE; the GM does a good impression of Alistair Sim's "comically sinister" drag headmistress. They're quite good at extracting money from wealthy PCs.

Obviously, this is a comedy game, played by pick-up parties at conventions, with a fine disregard for continuity. It also lacks a consistent game system, although most of the characters who have been involved are OD&D or AD&D1e.

On this occasion, the PCs were acting as chaperones to pupils who were going out to raise funds for the school, by selling baked goods and doing odd jobs. We retrieved a giant's lost golf ball from some Svartálfar whom he hadn't known were in his garden, found some post that a vampire had lost, and saved a wrestling promotion from underhanded rivals.