Ravings Of A Mad Gamer

Stone Age

2008-10-06T17:44:00.003+01:00

Well last week we decided to play a board game instead of playing Cthulhu. We gave one of my board games 'Stone Age' by Rio Grande games a go. It is for 2-4 players and should last around 90 minutes.

We gave it a go and we all liked it. there is nothing better than a game that has meeples to play with. The first turn took us nearly an hour to play through but after that we rattled through them. One of the actions in the game is to 'breed' your meeples by pacing two of them at the 'breeding hut'. Only one person per turn can do this. As you can gather this aspect of the game allowed us many a chance for adolescent humour. Nige visited the hut the most to various comments such as 'What thrice in one night?' and 'You're having an orgy'. Any game which allows us to make such comments is always a good game as far as we are concerned.

Hilarity aside, the game was very fun to play and even John, who originally was not enamoured by the games description really enjoyed it after playing it. I like it as much as I like 'Puerto Rico' although I am not sure yet which one I prefer most - we'll have to play more 'Stone Age' before I can make that decision.

I managed to eventually get Memoir '44 last week - every game shop I visited seemed to be out of stock. It look really good - I love the tanks, and any game with Shermans and Tigers in it must be good as far as I am concerned. I just have to persuade my wife Caroline to give it a go one evening. My son Connor would like to play but I think it is a bit too much for him - he's only 6 - but we will have to wait and see as he gives me a run for my money when we play Carcassonne.

You can see my baordgame collection at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/m0gb0y74?ff=1

Board Games

2008-09-17T20:05:00.002+01:00

We have taken to playing board games recently. Neill has been collecting them for quite a few years but we have only played board games sporadically. John and I have both recently been hooked and are going through a phase of buying numerous games, although I have taken to predominately choosing games which have a good 2 player possibility so that my wife and I can play them.

I first played Puerto Rico about six weeks ago and was hooked. It's a fantastic game. It's simple to learn, but challenging to play. I can see why it spent so long on the number one spot of Board Game Geek.

We have also played Metropolys, Ticket to Ride Europe, and Marvel Heroes. Metropolys and Ticket to Ride are both excellent games. Again both these games are quick to learn but provide numerous challenges. Marvel Heroes was fun but not a patch on the others. I have just bought Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride Switzerland.

I love Carcassonne, and my 6 year old son Connor and I play it fairly regularly. He is very good at the game and we are about even when it comes to wins. My wife is also a big fan. It is a game we all first got interested in via xbox Live. I am really interested in the 'New World' version and plan to purchase that soon.

Just in case anyone is interested in finding out more about board games then the following sites are of great use:

We plan on playing at least one board game between each different GMs game, and based on the list of games we have between us then we have a lot to choose from. John has just got Agricola and I know I am looking forward to trying that out.

On a roleplaying note I have managed to convince Nige to run Shadowrun so I can't wait.

2007 Review

2007-12-31T12:04:00.000Z

Well, this year has been a good year for gaming. Neill ran a game for the first time. I eventually managed to settle on a game that I am going to run. Nige, Willie, and John have all continued with their campaigns.

Neill ran Delta Green - the modern supplement for Call of Cthulhu. We all really enjoyed that game although I still to this day do not know exactly what we were facing. There were a lot of dead bodies though.

Willie continued running his DnD game which borrows heavily from the world of Kelewan for the setting. Metal is scarce, weapons and armour are made of a very hard and resiliant wood. Magic Users are all tightly controlled and members of a guild. I didn't know what I was going to play in this game. I usually play a thief/rogue type character. This time I decided to try something new and I tried a barabarian. I din't know how I was going to play the character but it sort of decided itself during the first couple of sessions. He quickly evolved into a 'Thrudd' type character who hacks first and asks questions later. The major driving forces in his life are fighting, beer, more fighting, more beer, and women in that order. He has a greatsword and he charges blingly into every combat hacking away making the best use of his rageing and cleaving abilities. At the moment his mimimum damage from his greatsword is somewhere in the region of 30 points per hit for the first strike and he then has another two with progressively lower mimimums per hit each turn.

Nige continued his Rolemaster campaign in which I am Nightblade. For anyone unfamiliar with Rolemaster this is a magically enhanced assassin. Unfortunately due to our parties composition he has ended up being the tank in the group which is not what he wants to be. The most memorable moment in the game this year is when we where guarding 3 artifacts on a cart in a procession through the city. We where attacked by magically aided thieves and the artifacts were taken. We chased them but couldn't find the artifacts when we caught them. It eventually turned out that the attack was to destract us while the driver ofthe cart and some of his other cooconspirators hid the artifacts inside the cabbages that were also on the cart - it was a harvest festival type procession with the cart full of produce with the artifacts in the center of the cart.

In Johns game we managed to defeat an evil villains plans and make our escape to South America. On the way we opened the book that we had taken and we now all change into big fluffy cats! This is important to the plot of the next aadventure that we are just starting, honest. The most important thing to happen though was that my Priest has had a crisis of faith and realsied that all he believes in is false - how can there be a god after all he has seen? He went on a bender of wine and women for about a week and he has now pulled himself back together. He has lost his faith, but he isn't telling mother church that as she has a lot of resources to call upon should we need them.

I never ran anything this year, but I have decided to run WFRP 2nd Edition in the new year. Let the battle against Chaos commence!

Browser-based MMORPGs

2007-08-23T10:18:00.000+01:00

Last week a friend of mine gave me the latest copy of PC Gamer to read. I came across an article on Omerta, a browser-based gangster MMORPG set in the 1930s. I gave it a go and it was quite fun. Bit of a bad move on my part though!

After voting for the game I found masses of these things. I started playing Bulfleet - a space empire game that is reminiscent of the classic 'Supremacy' game that those of you who had a Commodore 64 or Amiga might fondly remember. Boy, the amount of hours I wasted on that game, and I never did manage to win the 32 planet game. Oh well.

I didn't stop there. I am now also playing Imperia Online, which is similar in scope to Bulfleet, but is set in Medieval times. I like the resource gathering and empire building techniques in both of these games.

The latest one that I am completely hooked on is Gladiatus. This one is different from the rest in that it is more like an RPG in which you play a Gladiator and you train, fight, and adventure. Its not a resource/builder game.

If you want something to waste a few enjoyable days on then I would take a look at one of these. The best thing is that they are free.

Back to Rolemaster

2007-08-14T13:25:00.001+01:00

Well, we have been playing Rolemaster for at least 6 weeks now. Boy have we been having fun. At the start of this session, Johns character got a magical bow that was reminiscent of the one that you saw the Ranger with in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. That was a bit of a mistake on Nige's part. It totally unbalanced the game and we just walked through the following adventure. The next week it was nerfed!

The first mission that we undertook was to investigate what looked to be an abandoned keep in the desert. It wasn't quite abandoned. It was fully of undead. That caused lots of fun for us. It was during this adventure that my Nightblade decided that he was good at detecting traps, and that if he couldn't detect one, instead of telling his fellow party members that he coudln't find one, he categorically stated that there wasn't one there. This went fine for the first few times, and then bam! We set off a trap. Oops.

One of the most memorable encounters in the keep was when we opened a door and there was a room full of weapons in racks - obviously an armoury. Willies character detected a blanket magic field over the room. We threw an object in the room and one of the weapons animated and flew towards the door through which we had threw the object. It was easily dodged. Willie then crouched down and waved a staff or similar object into the room above his head. Another weapon flew through the open doorway aiming for the point where the tip of the staff entered the room. This task was repeated numerous times until the entire armoury was emptied. Nige's masterpiece encounter was ruined - absolutely no challenge to us whatsoever. Well, let me just say that this triumph on our part was to cost us dearly in later weeks when Nige wreaked his vengeance on our characters. Oh well, that will teach us to be smart!

In a later mission, we were travelling through a forest and my Nightblade was scouting ahead. I came across some fire elementals setting fire to the trees. It was at this point that my Pyromania kicked in and I just stood there watching these absolutely enchanting creatures torch everything in site. The rest of the party caught up and defeated the creatures and then put the fires out, to Corvuses disgust and sadness.

A screaming book

2007-06-12T08:28:00.000+01:00

Dr Leicester and Father Montalcini go to the library, where Dr Leicester casts a spell and notes there are a number of magical tomes. Father Montalcini goes to hold a book to take it down when he notices it’s made of human skin with veins that pulse with blood. He drops the book in shock and the book screams in pain when it hits the floor. Father Montalcini is freaked by the fact that the book cover is human skin, but not by the fact that the book screams. What gives?

Wooster and Captain Cullen investigate the basement and find their way into the lowest floor – the 3rd basement. The floor and walls of their floor are made of the same marble as the Temple in Egypt. They enter a room with 20 cloaks hanging around the room by their hoods. Embroidered on the cloaks is a half moon pattern similar to that on the book that Mogens has. Half the room is lit by a ‘moon lit’ glow and the other half is in darkness. This is caused by a half-moon hole in the ceiling. In the centre of the room is a rune carved altar. The plinth is made of red and white marble. The arrangement is half in the darkness and half in the moonlight. There are no chains to hold anyone down on the altar. Wooster notices that the red veins in the marble are actually veins filled with blood.

At this point Nige has rolled a natural 100 on his sanity role, and then rolls a max on his sanity loss. If this was Rolemaster that would be fantastic but as it’s Cthulhu!

Wooster recoils away from the altar uttering ‘I’m never going to get that clean!’ Captain Cullen starts casting a spell. As Captain Cullen starts to cast the spell, Wooster spots that the veins in the altar start to pulse faster and the pulsing increases the nearer the spell comes to being completed. Wooster spins around, walks away, and tries to ignore what he has seen. Captain Cullen finishes the spell and finds out that they have passed the book they are looking for.

Revenge of the Dog-Men

2007-05-31T14:08:00.000+01:00

I missed the previous two weeks but the following is a quick overview of what happened. When Father Montalcini visits Joshua in the asylum he is obviously mad. He talks about creatures coming out of the walls in the temple in South America – dogs that walk on their hind legs. While talking to him I notice that the tips of his fingers on this right hand are missing, obviously taken off by the ‘blades’ on the ‘lock’ for the book that Mogens currently has.

It turned out that Joshua Farnsworth is the lovechild of Penelope Farnsworth and Dr Jones (the curator). We believe that either Dr Jones or Penelope killed her husband. Dr Leicester, Captain Cullen, and Wooster go to Penelope’s house as they believe that she will be the next victim. They arrive and enter her corner apartment and they notice a ‘dodgy’ smell. In her house they encounter a ‘hell hound’ which looks like a were creature. It seems to be about to eat Penelope but after being disturbed it runs out of the apartment.

Fast forward to Mondays session. As the creature runs out of the apartment, Captain Cullen notices that when running in a straight line it runs on all fours, but when going around a corner it runs on two. It then jumps out of a window. As Penelope Farnsworth begins to stir Captain Cullen, Wooster, and Dr Leicester exit the scene. When entering the building where we are staying, Captain Cullen notices the ‘hell hound’ in the shadows across the road.

That night Captain Cullen enters the Dreamlands and goes to the Library. He is given a book called ‘The Divine Feast’ by Henry Hollowell written in 1914. This book describes a Grimoire call ‘Haze of Gowls’ which Hollowell claims was destroyed by the Church. It details a monastic order which practiced heretical rites and talks about fantastical creatures in the centre of the earth. Persecution by the Church drove them underground. They only rise to the surface to eat humans. This cannibalistic practice turned them into a human/canine hybrid whose lifespan is extended far beyond that of normal humans via the eating of their victims’ hearts. The victim’s souls are kept within the creature as a type of hell. These creatures believe that they are absorbing the sins of humanity by consuming their wrong-doers. The writing on the wall is part of the creatures prayer. We realise that not all demons are ‘evil’. This demon preys on the ‘guilty’ and not the innocent. We decide to do nothing about the ‘Hell Hounds’.

We head off to Mogens estate for his party. In the dining room of Mogens house Captain Cullen casts Detect Magic and detects a room under the house with what seems to be a sacrificial altar in the centre which is under a statue in the middle of the foyer which is under the centre of the domed roof. The book seems to be off to the side of the altar.

The dinner is a ten course informal affair. We mingle with the guests, with Dr Leicester and Father Montalcini being the more sociable and trying to draw attention away from Captain Cullen who is trying to investigate the grounds and house further to find a way into the room under the mansion. During the fifth course Mogens and a group of his guests disappear and then reappear some time later. It seems that they went down to the room under the Mansion.

Oops...

2007-05-09T12:17:00.000+01:00

The next day Wooster spends the morning looking into Mogans but he fails to turn up anything new. Father Montalcini looks into any folklore on heart-eating. He finds information on a lot of different beliefs including that it can extend life, increase your knowledge, or even that you are eating that person’s soul. Dr Leicester searches the curators’ office and finds a museum ledger which details substantial regular payments to a Mrs Penelope Farnsworth that started 18 months ago. There are also regular monthly payments to the Belview Asylum for a Joshua Farnsworth. The ledger also notes that Mrs Farnsworth lives at West 86th Street.

After lunch we all look through newspaper archives to see if there are any articles about Joshua Farnsworth. He turns out to be a promising archaeologist who was studying under Dr Jones (the curator) at the university. After an expedition to South America he contracted some sort of illness which caused him to degenerate to an almost animalistic nature. Nige, at this point rolls a 1 on his Gather Information roll, so all Wooster can seem to find out is that Joshua was the last President of America – too many Pink Gins I think!

The papers also list Dr Alcott, Dr Jones, Dr Graham and Dr Anderson as being on the same expedition. Alcott, Jones, and Graham worked for the museum. There are various stories about the ‘biggest museum dig of the century’ being on and off. Explorers attached to the museum believed that they had found a Mayan temple that predated any other temple found. Dr Anderson approached Dr Jones initially about the temple, and Mogans’ seems to have financed the current trip to the dig site. Mogans’ had made the first trip to the temple on his own. On the last expedition the y found a gold headdress and bracer set. They seem to be 95% gold, with the final 5% of the material being unidentifiable via laboratory analysis. They have tried to damage the items but have been unsuccessful. Stone embedded within the item cannot be chipped or crushed. These items seem to be over 10,000 years old, predating Mayan civilisation.

That evening Dr Leicester and Wooster enter the Dreamlands to talk to Sir Nicolas. Captain Cullen attempts to enter but fails. During their conversation with Sir Nicolas he reveals that he knows Mogans as he passed through the Dreamlands a few years ago. He went to regions where evil was more prevalent as this seemed to better suit his temperament. He also said that we need to make sure that Mogans should not get his hand on the key to the book. He sets out our mission, which is to locate the book, find a way to shield it so it can’t be tracked, return the book without delay, and then rebind it to the temple. Sir Nicolas says that he requires us all to be present, and summons Father Montalcini and Captain Cullen. They arrive in Sir Nicolas’ room wearing what they had been in their own dreams. Captain Cullen appears wearing an RAF uniform of a rather higher rank. Father Montalcini appears wearing leather shorts with cut-out sections across the bum cheeks and a leather chest harness. He seems to have red welts from a riding crop across his bare cheeks. His first words are ‘oops..’

After the initial stunned silence, Sir Nicolas proceeds to teach us a spell to Detect Magic and a Binding Ritual to aid us in our mission.

That stain is going to be a pig to get rid of...

2007-05-03T12:39:00.000+01:00

We spend the day sight-seeing and then go to the curators’ home. The curator was seen arriving home at 8.40pm the night before, and has not left the building. There was a dinner party at Mr & Mrs Pinkington’s on the 9th floor of the building so it was reasonably busy. People started arriving at 7.30pm and there was a steady stream of visitors until 8.15pm.

We go up and check curator Jones room with the doorman. The doorman enters while we wait outside and then we hear him vomiting loudly. We enter the apartment and in the study find a bloody stain going across the floor and then up the wall. The curator is slumped in the corner with his stomach and chest ripped open allowing to view his intestines. We can see that the heart has been torn out of the body. On the wall is writing in the curators’ blood:

‘Loetan riht onfindan aet scyldig he gear aet fyllo man hwa foloetan se leotit’

The curator was obviously dragged from the middle of the room to the corner. Father Montalcini and Dr Leicester are violently sick at the sight before them.

When searching the house we find some love letters written by ‘Penelope’ but nothing else of any interest apart from a partially written letter that seems very serious and basically says ‘it has been done, we can be together soon’.

The police arrive at the scene and then another guy arrives wearing an ill-fitting cheap suit, trilby hat, and long coat and takes charge. A coroner is called. Statements are taken from us and then we are released. We notice that when searching the room the detective takes no notice of the writing on the wall as though he expects it to be there. On quizzing the Detective he admits that the writing appears on the wall besides all the victims. We overhear the coroner say to the Detective that ‘it’s like all the others. All the ribs are broke, and it looks like someone has torn his chest open and the person who did this has more strength than I have seen in any man’.

I go to the ‘speak easy’ that evening with Harry. The talk is all about the murders. Some folk believe it is the work of a demon and this seems to be leading argument. The information about the victims chests’ being ripped apart is not in the papers but everybody is talking about it. There have been 31 known victims but only 16 have been reported in the papers.

Dr Leicester spends the evening analyzing the writing from the wall and determines that it is a pre-Latin European language. He enters into the Dreamlands in an attempt to gain further information from our patron, Sir Nicolas. Unfortunately he fails to remember the entire message so can only get help for small snippets. Sir Nicolas tells us that we should look at pre-Roman English languages for help deciphering the message. Dr Leicester eventually translates the first line of the message as:

‘Let justice discover the guilty’

The World is coming to and end and we go sight-seeing!

2007-05-02T10:37:00.000+01:00

It’s been a while since my last entry. To bring things up to speed, our bold investigators managed to stop the blasphemous rites that were to be performed by Kharkov in the desert. After saving the world, the tired and weary band travelled via London to New York with a side trip to the Dreamlands to meet with a dead person called Sir Nicolas. They are currently at the Smithsonian.

We are at the Smithsonian to look at finds and pictures from a Temple in South America. While looking at the pictures, everybody but Dr Leicester realises that the constellation in the picture is basically the same as the one we saw in Egypt, with the only difference being the position of the stars relative to the top of the temple. The constellation seems to be Orion with an extra star present.

We are brought a book which is similar to the one we found in the Middle East, but instead of having a Star of David on the front there is an eight-pointed star which is obviously the locking mechanism. We are also brought a ‘music box’. Unlike the first book, when we touch it we do not sense anything or get a ‘shock’. Wooster manages to open the ‘music box’ which we think is the key for the books lock. We try various ways of using it but fail to open the lock. The book was donated by Professor Morgan amongst a lot of other items, in return for ‘borrowing’ some items (which we believe are magical) of the Institutes for a private display. On closer inspection we determine that the book is a copy.

Meanwhile, a spate of murders has been occurring with the first reported cases being within Hooverville (a shanty town that exists within Central Park) but then they expanded to Harlem. The most recent murder occurred close to the 100 Street ‘barrier’ on Manhattan Island. These murders are reminiscent of the ‘Ripper’ murders of late 19th Century London, with the main difference being that the victim’s hearts are either missing or damaged.

Captain Cullen went into the Dreamlands to talk to Sir Nicolas, and while he was there he noticed that the Orion constellation was the pattern on the floor of his room. The ‘missing’ star from Orion was still missing in this pattern, but where is should have been was the exact centre of the floor. During that night the curator that we are working with at the Smithsonian also seems to have gone missing.

The next day Dr Leicester decides that he would like to spend the day sight-seeing. The world could be coming to a bloody end and the old fart want to go sight-seeing!!! He says that he would like to visit the Statue of Liberty and Captain Cullen mumbles that it is because ‘it’ll be the first woman he has entered in years’.

On to the Holy Land

2006-08-29T17:15:00.000+01:00

After we arrived at Cairo, Dr Leicester went to his contact for the British Museum and handed over the sceptre and told them about eth camp and what happened. Wooster went to the British Embassy and handed over the three Europeans. He told them that the camp had been overrun by Arabs and that the carnage must have driven the Europeans mad. When asked if he had seen the Arabs overrun the camp he admitted he hadn’t but that there were no Arabs in the camp when we returned, only the Europeans.

We spend the night in Cairo and then fly out the next morning. We meet at the plane at 6am. Wooster turns up with hot tea and sweet rolls for four. When we arrive we see an Arab that we have never seen before with Alish and Captain Cullen. The Arab is called Alim, and is a business associate of Captain Cullen’s who has acquired items that we need and is accompanying us on our trip to Jerusalem. During introductions, Dr Leicester notes that Alish talks with superiority to Alim, who responds with respect. I note that Alim treats Alish like a Bishop would treat a Cardinal and that when they first meet there is a look of shock on Alim’s face, which he hides quickly.

Captain Cullen and Dr Leicester board the plane. On board they open the strongbox retrieved from the camp. Within the box are documents which mean nothing to us and some cash bonds totalling about £3000. Within the documents, Dr Leicester is noted as one of the authorised signatories for the bonds. There are also maps of the dig, and notes of where things were found. Some of the finds have gone to Britain, others to France. The smaller and more expensive items went to Britain, while the larger and less expensive items went to France.

We leave Cairo and after refuelling on the way we arrive safely in Jerusalem late at night. Captain Cullen goes and finds a car to transport us to the hotel. Today is the 22nd December. Alim turns out to know Jerusalem and so we hire him as a guide for a few days. Once we arrive at the hotel, Alim disappears. Wooster sorts out our finances.

Captain Cullen believes we are looking for a bridge within Jerusalem – one that matches the one in the paintings on the wall of the chamber that we saw in Hamunaptra. Dr Leicester thinks he knows somebody in the city who might be able to help us search for the bridge. I note that the local Catholic priests may be able to help us and that I will seek their aid in the morning. Both Dr Leicester and I believe that the bridge is not a physical object, and that we should be looking for the ‘Gate Keeper’ and the ‘Key’. (Shades of Ghostbusters here I think...)

During our discussions I notice that the main topic of conversation amongst the other patrons of the hotel bar is about the disappearance of an unmarried European woman in her early 20’s. She was travelling with a maid/companion, who has not gone missing and is staying in another hotel in a distraught state.

Captain Cullen decides to head to the hotel that the companion is staying in while the rest of us retire for the night. He finds out the missing woman is called Lady Mariah, and the companion is the ‘Lady’ Caroline. They arrived in Jerusalem six days ago, as Lady Mariah felt the need to travel here. The day after she arrived she was enamoured by a gentleman called Kharkarov, a businessman from the Russian Steppes. He is mysterious and there are rumours that he was ousted from Russia and that he was sent here to administer trade between Jerusalem and Russia. Within the six months he has been here he has become one of the biggest trades in the city. He doesn’t attend church. The Lady Mariah is an English woman raised in India. Kharkarov has been very attentive to her. Since she went missing he hasn’t been seen. Captain Cullen tried to contact the ‘lady’ Caroline but she failed to respond.

Return of Cthulhu

2006-08-23T18:22:00.000+01:00

Last weeks session was the last Rolemaster one for a while. We have now returned to a Call of Cthulhu d20 campaign that is being run by John. It is set in the late December 1929 and we are currently in Egypt at a dig South South West of Cairo.

I am playing a Catholic Priest call Father Alessandro Montalcini. He is a Missionary/Exorcist. Nige is playing a ‘batman’ called Wooster. Willy is playing an ex-RAF pilot called Captain Harry Cullen, and Neill is playing an archaeologist called Dr Ambrose Leicester.

We ended the last session in this campaign in an amphitheatre which is under Hamunaptra, the legendary City of the Dead. We had travelled there with our guide, Alish, whose family held a key to enter the temple. When we arrived we found only the top of a buried temple. The city had been surrounded by unnatural sand storms for years and had only recently stopped. In this amphitheatre stands a plinth with a closed book on it. Above us, the vaulted ceiling rises into impenetrable darkness.

We opened a book and a spirit was released. I failed to dodge it and it passed right through me. I can now read the first few pages of the book, but the rest is gibberish. It’s of no language that any of us recognises, and Dr Leicester is a specialist in language evolution and construction. After reading the first few pages I learned the spells of Banishment and Sanity Protection +3.

Under part of one of the stairways around the amphitheatre was a secret entrance to a set of stairs that led down to a chamber underneath the amphitheatre. To open the secret entrance, Harry had to pour about a half pint of his blood into a channel.

On the wall of the secret chamber is a painting of a bridge with nine circles over it. At the base of the bridge is an altar with text around it mentioning the requirements of the gatekeeper and the key to open the bridge and the gate to a new dawn.

There are also pictures of nine monsters on the walls. These are bald, with absolutely no body hair, big teeth, ridges down their backs, and they are stooped. They have big bulbous eyes, long thin scaly arms and hands with long fingers. They have no visible ears. Eight of them are unclothed and one wears a set of elegant robes.

We leave Hamunaptra and return to the dig site. As we fly over it seems very quiet. Most of the vehicles are missing. We land and start to gather up whatever we can. While walking through the site and make a successful spot roll, rolling a natural 20. I spot a person who is obviously trying not to be seen and is trying to blend into the background. It turns out to be not one, but three people – an archaeologist, a European guard, and another European. They are covered in dirt, haven’t shaved in days, and have a feral glint in their eyes. Captain Cullen passes me a scimitar shaped short sword so I can defend myself should I need to.

Wooster approaches them saying ‘you look a fright, sirs’. As he does, a stone is thrown at him by one of them. He responds by whipping his cane against his boot, pointing to his side and says, ‘Sirs, the bath is this way’. He walks toward them and the people back away. Wooster says ‘this will not do at all sirs!’ They keep backing away; one of the Europeans backs up against a rock and starts groping around behind him. Wooster backs away and is in the head by a small rock. I luckily manage to dodge a very inept throw, all though how I managed it I’ll never know. I try to convince Wooster to leave them as we don’t have time to waste on them but he just won’t listen. Wooster goes of and finds some food and laces it with a strong sedative. He returns to the men and leaves it for them to eat. They pass out and Wooster and I start carrying them to the plane.

While all this is happening, Captain Cullen and Dr Leicester go to the headquarters tent. The tent has been rummage through, but it looks like it wasn’t done by people who knew what the most important items in it were. Evidence points to the strongbox lock having been struck repeatedly by the butt of a Colt Peacemaker that is lying close by. A search of the scattered papers reveals that the most obviously important documents have been removed but the less obvious ones remain e.g. authorisation from the Egyptian consulate to excavate is missing, but a writ from the British Museum remains. The missing papers were all written in Arabic, while those that remain are in English. At least we can still get our money from the British Museum…

As Captain Cullen returns to his plane, he notices a pair of boots sticking out from underneath the tent that the leader of the dig had lived. Dr Leicester joins him and they open the tent flap. They are hit by a stench and a swarm of flies. Lying on the floor is the leader of the dig with a close range gunshot wound to his chest. On the floor behind him is a sceptre which had been found at the dig. Captain Cullen retrieves it and leaves the tent. Dr Leicester identifies it as the Pharaohs sceptre.

We all meet at Captain Cullen’s plane, bundle the three unconscious Europeans on board and return to Cairo.

'You place a chill in my heart'

2006-08-16T16:25:00.000+01:00

Another synopsis of two weeks of gaming. I really should be more dilligent in keeping this up to date.

I start out the night of the first session with a Perception roll and make a natural 100. I thought great, hopefully this continues. Did it? Did it bugger. I spent the rest of the night with no roll above the mid fifties.

On our journey to the ruins we made camp and during the night Corvus, Orophin, and Breuonor were attacked by an oversized Yucca plant. Corvus had tendrils wrapped around his ankle and woke up in extreme pain. His ankle was freezing. He started to attack the plant but he couldn't even strike a plant tendril that was wrapped around his own ankle (see what I meant about my rolls!!). Orophin tried to damage it with a firebolt to no avail. He then tried an icebolt. Again no effect. He then cast a stun cloud over it. This had an effect. At this point the human successfully teleported Orophin and Corvus out of its clutches. Corvus was very close to death and Orophin had passed out. The stun cloud continued to damage the plant and eventually killed it.

The second fight of the evening was against Gargoyles in the ruins of a town that we had been heading for. This fight was vicious and Corvus had his arm completely shredded at the very start and he passed out with only the bone holding it together. Luckily after the fight the human healed it completely. Corvus did think that humans had to be useful for something. Orophin, the human, and the dragonette Nettie showered them with firebolts taking them all out bar one. Breuonor finished the last one with his bow.

On to last weeks game. We travelled further on our journey and reached a town that had been destroyed by an essence storm. We camped there for the night. Oromis and I went for a look at the surrounding area while camp was being set up. We found some tracks that led up to an abandoned mine. The next day we all went up to investigate. In the mine we were attacked by some shades. During this battle a shade stuck its hand into my chest and froze my heart. Again I had to rely on the damned human to save my sorry hide!

After exiting the mine and resting, we saw a shimmering portal near ariver. As we approached the portal were attacked by a group of zombies rising out of the river. I did actually manage to damage them, with tiny knicks here and there. Eventually I made a fantastic blow and caved the chest cavity of my opponent in. At long last a decent roll....

Devoured by the Horde

2006-08-03T08:39:00.000+01:00

As mentioned the other day, I played my first game of 40K in 7 years last night. I arrived to play to have my first big shock of the night. I was expecting to play against Blood Angels but I was facing Tyranids instead. Things didn't go much better from then on.

Turn 1

This was just normal maneuvering.

Turn 2

The Chaos Land Raider moved forward and came into contact with a genestealer squad. The Brood Lord blew up the engine, but the Chaos Lord and his retinue that were traveling within escaped unharmed and set about killing genestealers in retribution, losing a chosen in the process .

On the right flank a Night Lord squad led by an Aspiring Champion in Terminator armour were assaulted by hormagaunts losing two members. The Aspiring Champion took out three in return.

In the centre of the field the Chaos Predator opened up on a squad of winged warriors and turned two into a bloody pulp.

The Hive Tyrant opened up with his devourers and killed three death guard which where huddled in the ruins of a building to the left of the Predator.

Five Plague Bearers decide to make an appearance close to the Chaos Lord.

All in all, not a very good round with the loss of the Chaos forces hard hitting Land Raider.

Turn 3

This is where it all went wrong....

The Hive Tyrant turns his attention from the Death Guard to the newly appeared Plaguebearers and they disappear in their entirety under a withering hail of bioweaponry.

A Carnifex appears in front of the Chaos Predator and blows off a track and its turret mounted Lascannons. It then moves in for the assault and tears the engine out. The rest of the predator turns into a raging inferno.

The remaining winged warriors join in the assault on the Night Lords. They valiantly withstand the combined assault and take out an hormagaunt and a winged warrior. They later fall leaving on the Aspiring Champion who takes out he remaining winged warrior.

Over on the left flank, the Brood Lord kills the Chaos Lord. His remaining retinue of chosen withstand an assault of ten hormagaunts, killing six. The victorious Brood Lord, scythes his way through the remaining Chosen destroying them utterly.

The remaining Night Lords are consumed by the Hive Tyrant and his retinue.

Turn 4

At this point there is only the Night Lord Aspiring Champion left.

He valiantly withstands the assault of the hormagaunt horde and presses his attack on the Carnifex. His Lightning Claw bounces off of the Carnifexes body. The carnifex picks him up, rips him in half, throws his legs away and then proceeds to suck his innards out. How to turn an Aspiring Champion into an oversized crab claw....

As you can see this was an utter defeat for the powers of Chaos. The Chaos gods were definitely not smiling on their followers that day. The Aspiring Champion definitely earned his place as man of the match though.

Preparing for War

2006-07-31T15:55:00.000+01:00

I shall start out by noting that this is not related to the current Rolemaster game.

I have recently been building a new Tau army for Warhammer 40K and finishing off my Chaos Space Marines. The last time I played 40K was way back in 1999 and I only played one game using the 3rd edition rules. I recently bought the 4th edition of the rules as I have been meaning to get back into the game. As luck would have it, 3 weeks after I made this decision my local Games Workshop closed! Oh well.

Anyway, my original gaming partner from years ago moved back to Dumfries not long after I did and we had been meaning to get together for a game for months, but I had been dragging my heels. I saw the booklet for the Medusa V campaign that is being run this summer, and I decided I better get my act together as its looks like it could be good fun.

I have managed to put together 1200 points worth of Chaos Space Marines. I added some bits from the Chaos Vehicle sprue to a Predator Annihalator I have had for about 7 years and gave it a repaint. Those vehicle sprues are great for making vehicles look 'Chaosy'. I have eventually finished building and painting my Chaos Land Raider, which will look really good on the battlefield. These are all painted using the Black Legion colours. Eventually I want the ability to field either a Black Legion, Death Guard, or a Emperors Children force. I know it will cost a lot, but I will get there sometime.

My first game is arranged for Wednesday evening, and I hope that I don't get defeated too soundly. May Strike Force Acharon please the Chaos Powers and reign supreme over the battleground (and kill plenty of those deluded Blood Angels, especially those worthless Death Company).

Will I ever roll above 38?

2006-07-25T16:40:00.000+01:00

Again it’s been a while since I posted anything. Getting to be a bit of a habit…

After being attacked by the bandit we continued on our journey. We came across two people fighting in the road. As we approached them they turned round and attacked us. There were at least two other bandits and a wizard in the woods. The wizard threw a ball of cold which struck Orophin and took him down to ¼ hit points. Most of the battle is a haze, but Corvus charged on horseback towards the two bandits in the woods. I rolled an amazing double-open ended roll and was able to leap of the back of my horse with both my weapons drawn and engage them in combat. That was won of the few decent rolls I made that night. After a couple of rounds of not being able to hit them (due to the fact that I couldn’t roll above 40), I lucked out and made an open-ended roll on one of my attacks (it was a natural 100) and sliced the head off of one of the bandits.

What Corvus (and I) can remember about the rest of the battle is that Nettie, Orophin’s Dragonette, took care of the Wizard that had caused such harm to his owner.

I missed the next week, which was a shame as there was a massive fight with lots of Rock wolves. Bang goes 3500+ experience points for Corvus. I am led to believe it was the most exciting session to date…at least that’s what they tell me.

The next session was basically an uneventful travel to the next town. The only interesting thing that happened was that I botched one of my perception roles and I fell asleep on my watch. That pesky human woke me up complaining. Corvus’ defence was that I had woken him up and that he must have fell back to sleep on his watch. Nobody really believed me though. Would you believe it? The rest of the party of Elves believed the newbie human scum over their long term elf colleague…

Last nights session was a lot more exciting. While making camp in a mountain pass we were attacked by two giant scorpions. I made two fantastic rolls for my hide and stalk and sneaked right around the back of them. I was so good that nobody else noticed and I nearly got blasted by a shock bolt from the human. As I was surprising them from the rear my first attack was at +40 to hit and then every subsequent attack was at +20. I failed to hit the first four times and in the end I only struck one of the giant scorpions three times for a total of 16 damage. Could I roll above 38? Could I hell! While all this was going on the human attempted on at least two separate occasion to cast a spell and botched it, stunning himself. At least I wasn’t the only one with bad rolls.

A few nights later Corvus was on watch and he noticed a migration of an army ant colony so we were able to avoid it.

Just before reaching the next time we come across a wagon with two adult males torn apart and a woman and two children who were also dead, but bore the marks of humanoid bites. At least two humanoids had been feeding off of them. We put the remains into the wagon, which the beastmaster fixed and then took everything along to the next town and handed it over to the authorities.

During all this we have found out that Robert seems to take guides along various points of the route. He then seems to appear later on without anybody, and he seems to be aging. We have our suspicions that he is draining their life force to survive, and then raises them from the dead. It’s these undead that we think were eating the bodies.

p.s. It should be noted that Neill has managed to break his trend of rolling fumbles. Twice in last nights session he rolled a natural 100. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Tongue Swallowing

2006-06-28T13:37:00.000+01:00

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post so here's a quick catch up.

After the disposal of the spiders we decided to regroup and heal. We return and continue further into the cave complex. After a short while, and killing a few more undead spiders, we arrive at a much larger cavern covered with the same black goo as the spider cavern. We advance carefully into this cavern, having learned from our earlier mistakes.

We are half-way across when the goo 'bubbles' up around Bruenor, and begins to envelop him from the feet up. He reaches up and tries to pull himself up towards the roof (which is pretty low at this point in the cave). As this is going on Corvus and the Conjurer notice the outline of a person in the far wall of the cavern and continue on to take care of whatever it is.

As Bruenor is trying to pull himself away from the grasp of the goo, Orophin strikes the goo with his staff and manages to tear some of it. The damage is transferred through to the Beastmaster. Such is the price of help from your friends. Oromis, the ranger, sees what happens and starts hacking at the goo from the other side. Andy rolls for this strike and fumbles it. The ranger over extends himself on the attack and stumbles. In his misfortune he swallows his tongue and starts choking. All I can say in the corner is 'Cool, another fumble...'.

While the ranger is choking, Corvus and the Conjurer reach the figure and see that it is a mishaped humanoid. We pile straight in and attack. Corvus strikes it with his katana while Conjurer unleashes shock bolts. By the time we're finished there is not much left. The black goo disappears and Bruenor is freed. That put paid to the undead threat.

We get ourselves sorted and head back to the village. On arriving there we find that Robert, the son of one of the farm owners (and who was very interested in our group) has stolen a horse and did a disappearing act. Very suspicious if you ask me!

Fast forward to the next gaming session. Our group go to the guild hall. The Conjurer is presented with a note summoning him back to the main guild hall, and a replacement has been sent. The replacement turns out to be a short-arsed Common Man. There goes our elf-only members group. Well, at least it aint a dwarf. After the various introductions and the carrying out of mundane tasks such as restocking supplies we head out of the village on the road that we arrived on.

We arrive at the point on the road where we met the bandits on the way to the village when a cold blast hits us. Turns out that the bandit that got away the first time is attacking us. The Conjurer's replacement unleashes a fireball at him and turns him to a smoldering pile of ash. What follows is about 20 minutes worth of supposition on where the bandit got the arrow from and how Robert was involved. As you may have guessed it wasn't exactly our most productive session.

Will those spiders ever die?

2006-06-10T17:34:00.000+01:00

At last, we have actually worked out some of what is happening. With prompting from our GM we remember that the primary task of every guild member is to fight undead wherever we find it, regardless of what mission we are on. With this information fresh in our minds we decide to take a foray into the cave under the waterfall to see what is really in there.

Corvus initially takes a quick look into the cave and gets overwhelmed by the stench of rotting flesh and summarily empties the contents of his stomach all over the place. I guess we have found where all the chickens went to! The conjurer makes some masks from scarfs dipped into some sort of smelly liquid to protect us from the worse of the stench and so off we go.

Corvus takes the lead (as he should) to sneak ahead and scope out what the party is about to blunder into. As we descend into the cave Corvus (via the occurance of two open-ended perception rolls) notices that what seems to be the floor of the cave is actually moving as though it was a rug with something under it. What seems to be spider legs seem to be poking through the surface. We arrange ourselves into our combat positions as seven undead spiders charge us.

The ranger and the beastmaster loose their arrows and two spiders go down. Corvus and the bear dispatch another two. The final three are then quickly dealt with. While we are feeling pretty good with ourselves, Corvus decides to move further into the cavern. As he moves past some of the spider corpses the ground suddenly explodes and he gets hit in the chest by one of the supposedly destroyed spiders. He hits the floor stunned and in a very bad way. I'm sitting there thinking 'oh crap, there goes my character' when Willy suddenly says that his conjurer will attempt to teleport him out of there. My first thought is that it's definitely bye bye to this character as this spell is seriously difficult for his fledgling spellcaster. To my shock and delight he succeeds and Corvus finds himself at the feet of the conjurer who then very kindly heals him.

While this is going on the rest of the spiders come back to unlife and proceed to attack the rest of the party. It soon becomes apparent that normal weapons are no good as these bloody undead arachnids won't stay dead. It's at this point that it comes to our attention that Orophin is actually successful in destroying them. Could we believe it? Up until now Orophin had been about as much use as a wet paper bag, and now he's the most effective member of the party! It turns out he has a magic staff. Neill manages to not fumble (another big surprise) and we eventually destroy them all.

That's the last time I beleive that a squidged spider is trully dead....

Does anyone take any care?

2006-05-31T16:39:00.000+01:00

I missed the previous weeks game and by all accounts Neill rolled a couple of fumbles but no-one is willing to tell me what Orophin did!

So on to this weeks game. There are lots of bits of spiders lying all around us as we had just annihilated the group of spiders that the spider queen in the mine had sent us to dispose of. Orophin and Corvus agree to go back to the spider queen to inform her of our success and then to get the information that we require. The beastmaster and the conjurer return to the village. It turns out that an undead creature has been seen near the waterfall at the bottom exit of the mine.

On returning to the village Orophin and Corvus are introduced to a ranger (another elf) who has been sent by the guild to aid us in our mission. We inform the rest of the party about the presence of the undead creature(s) at the waterfall and so we decide to trek off and see what's up there.

As we approach the waterfall, the ranger says he's going to go slightly ahead to check for tracks. He finds some, and while he's trying to determine what's made them, the beastmaster, his bear, and the conjurer just barge right through pushing the ranger out of the way and obliterating the tracks! I should point out that a similar thing happened the last game I was at. We were in the mine and Corvus said that he would scout out ahead using his stealth abilities to see what was around the corner and then report back. The beastmaster totally ignores this, and him and his bear just barge ahead and walk straight into trouble. Seems like another pattern is emerging...

Anyway, back to Chickentopia. On learning that undead are involved, Corvus got the idea that maybe that is what Chickentopia was. It was the home for undead chickens and that the missing chickens have been turned into undead and went there to continue their unlife in undead fowl bliss. On hearing this, the rest of his party (led by the conjurer) start talking about the possibility of having to commit euthanasia for their own good rather than Corvuses.

We spend the next few days fruitlessly watching the chickens trying to see what is happening to them. As you may guess we are totally clueless about what is going on. Not much new there then.

Corvus Ravensclaw

2006-05-19T16:37:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post. I have just finished my portrait of Corvus so I thought I would post it here. I have called it 'Guardian of Chickentopia'. If you want to look at any of my other work you can see it at http://www.infinitedreamers.co.uk/cpg132/

Fun & Games with Rolemaster

2006-05-16T13:50:00.000+01:00

We’ve been playing a new Rolemaster (RM2) campaign for about 4 weeks now so this post will act as a synopsis of the mayhem to date. It should be noted that this is our first time playing RM2 as this group.

We all diligently spent anywhere between 3 and 5 hours to lovingly craft our new characters. My character is a Nightblade, which is effectively a legalised murderer, who is a little weird to say the least. His trusty companions are a Beastmaster, a Magician, and a Conjurer. We are all elves, and I am a raving Dwarf (stunty) hater.

We are all members of a guild and our first mission is to investigate a spate of chicken rustling (yes, CHICKEN rustling!!). On our journey to our destination we encounter a spot of highway robbery and decide to intervene and protect the poor merchant who is being robbed. Our trusty Mage (Orophin) stands aside and summons the forces of magic to cast a water bolt at an archer who was covering the other robbers. Nige (our GM) tells Neill (the Mage) to roll his dice to see if he is successful. On his first roll with his new character in our first ever RM2 game he fumbles it! Nige says you want to roll low, and he rolls high. The Mage starts to ooze blood from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, and subsequently collapses to a heap on the ground. What a wonderful start to his illustrious career. And this is only the beginning of a developing pattern for the unfortunate soul. After the rest of the players pick themselves up from the ground in fits of hysterics they get their characters to dispatch the nefarious highwaymen.

Fast forward to our second session. We are at the village and investigating the cause of the loss of hundreds of chickens. Willy comes up with loads of theories about what may have happened to them using the fact that they will generate a lot of chicken crap if they are still alive or a lot of bones or carcasses if they are being eaten to rule out various scenarios. Corvus (my Nightblade) comes up with the idea that they have all gone to Chickentopia led by a chicken called Moses who has freed them from slavery and taken them to the promised land. He believes that Chickentopia resides in the lower levels of the local abandoned mine. The rest of his party looks like he has gone mad but decides to humour him and investigate the mine.

Fast forward to last nights game. We are investigating the mine and wander amongst some giant spiders that ignore us. We find a small natural passage that leads down. Corvus takes the lead and nimbly slithers down to the cavern below. He has just stepped to the side of the exit to look around when he hears this cry, followed by the noise of something sliding uncontrollably down the passage. Orophin flies out of the bottom of the passage and lands face first into the 4 inch deep pool of water that is covering the end of the cavern. He is not moving! Corvus quickly grabs him from behind, yanks him up and drags him to dry ground. Orpohin is covered in bruises and is out cold. Neill has managed to fumble it again. It’s the second time that night. The first time was on a perception roll, where he banged himself on the head with his torch and singed his eyebrows. I told you it was a developing pattern.

In the end it turns out that the chickens have not set up Chickentopia in the mine. They are nowhere to be found. Corvus is distraught. He hatches the plan to get Bruenor (the Beastmaster) to talk to the chickens that are still at the village and persuade them to run away and set up Chickentopia.