Detroit Suck City: Episode 16

 

The crew recovers from the battle as dark starts to fall in the burn. The crew decides to check out one of the industry buildings to camp for the night. As they search the building, they find a bunch of burnt up equipment, engines, a communicator box, and some kind of wheeled chair. In one of the main doorways, the crew comes across an old man that looks like he was beat up pretty bad and after a paranoid standoff it was determined that the old man was not a threat. After  some continued conversation the old man asks for help and waves toward the shadows and out come some women, children, and a few other older adults. The leader of this new group explains how the Star People destroyed their village and they are all of the survivors. The crew decides that they should share the space and Wilhelm takes the first watch by jumping on his Po Dog and conducting an area check. 

Early the next morning the crew decides to continue their trek towards the river and 9s attached his hover bike to the busted hover van in an effort to conserve proof. As the day wears in the crew comes to an area that appears to be a sea of junk. The Po Dog growls and refuses to move forward. As the crew dismounts to investigate what is aggravating the Po Dog, large pseudo pods erupt from the sea of junk and start to swing wildly around before the main mass rises out of the ground which appears to be a gelatinous mound with a face that  looked like someone took a blowtorch to Spongebob. Wilhelm reacts first to this threat and throws one of the mysterious grenades that he has picked up. The grenade hits center mass and sinks into the bulk of the creatures body as it continues to swing its pseudo pods around to grab some of the crew members. Luckily for the nimble crew no one gets snatched up and as they prepare for another barrage they hear a muffled explosion and the gelatinous creature expands like a balloon before collapsing in on itself (and the newly created crater) which sends junk and chunks of go flying. Wilhelm quickly realized that the grenade he through was a Tor grenade which basically designated the creatures lower 2/3s. 

As Wilhelm is congratulating the Po Dog the crew hears engines in the distance and decides to set up an ambush. They barely have enough time to place their beat up van in the middle of the road to act as a block and find hiding places before it sounds like the engines are right on them. The crew witnesses a procession of motorcycles, some cars, a few trucks, and a tanker that all had the red death symbol painted on them. With a few quick glances from their respective ambush positions, the crew decides to lay low and them pass. 

The crew continues on without much incident until they come over a large rise and in the distance they see a tower with a blinking red light. As Wilhelm confirms this with his binoculars, the crew decides to mark its location for later investigation. They were hired for a job and need to see it through. The crew decides to camp in the brush of the ridge as it offers a good vantage point. 

The next day the crew continues the journey towards the river and decide to zig zag between the buildings for cover. As they are rounding one of these corners they run into some very large lizard like people riding six legged horsed that are pulling a cart. Both parties look surprised but Wilhelm raises his hand in an hello fashion and 9s explains that they do not look immediately hostile and we should just pass them slowly. As the two traveling parties gets closer, Wilhelm waves at them and asks, "How goes it"? The lizard people respond in a language that does not sound overly friendly as they grip their weapons but do not draw them. 9s whispers steady to the rest of the crew. Both sides keep an eye on each other until they are both are out of sight.

As few miles down the road the crew is able to see the river and they spot a boat in it as well. The crew halts and sends Wilhelm to scout ahead. After sometime Wilhelm returns and explains to the rest of the crew that just over the next hill there is a dock with a man that runs a ferry which appears to be a lucrative business as there is a small line of farmers and people trying to peddle their wares down there. Wilhelm goes on to explain that people have been vanishing and there is a factory where people go in but never come out.  The crew makes their way to the ferry and on their crossing they end up buying a goat from one of the farmers. By the time they trek up the bank it is getting dark and they decide to seek shelter in one of the partially collapsed buildings that line the river. As dark falls, the crew enjoys some fire roasted goat courtesy of 9s and does their best to relax.

Just another day in Detroit Suck City...

HAWT: Something Wicked This Way Comes

I have worked on many projects throughout my time as a gamer. Most of them have been various home brew projects but over the last ten years I have been listed as a play tester in numerous publications, been mentioned as a special consultant in others, I have done a decent amount of freelance work, and even published games under my own gaming company. Each project I have worked on I have been passionate about. 

Though, about six months ago I was working on another project but inspiration hit me from reading an old forum post. This project, Have Axe, Will Travel is probably the most excited I have been about a gaming project I have ever been.

Have Axe, Will Travel is a rules light fantasy game that has an implied setting through the art, magic, and various writings. It uses a 2d6 system for its core resolution because there is something about the primal simplicity of a couple of d6s. 

It will include the following:

• Free Form Character Creation
  
• Advantage/Disadvantage 
• Elemental Magic
• Inventory System
• Equipment Lists
• Bestiary
• Discourses on Gaming Theory 
• 9+ Art Pieces

 There are more updates and sneak peaks to come. Stay tuned!

 

Motley Crew: Session 1

The party has been recently hired into the famous mercenary band of the Flaming Fists that help the city guard of Baldur's Gate with the day to day operation of the city. They were placed in the same squad and have been working together for a couple of weeks. Though, recently the city is plagued by refuges from the outside that are fleeing a destroyed town and panic on the inside as people talk about how Baldur's Gate could be next. 

The party is standing with the rest of their comrades as they try to keep the peace because people in Baldur's Gate want out of the city and the refugees want in the city.  The party witnesses Capt. Zogg and a good number of Flaming Fists wade into the crowd to disperse it as it was starting to get agitated. Theren decides to stand back and watch the events unfold as Garrick and Tonic wades into the crowd throwing pushing, shoving, and cracks whips to get the populace to disperse. Merrick stands on an overturned cart and gives a moving speech on how people need to return to their homes and let the professionals work on the situation.

As the crows starts to disperse, one of the Flaming Fists knocks down a peasant and picks up his coin purse and mutters some obscenities mixed in with a thank you. Garrick sees this and summons a whip made out of water to ensnare the hand with the coin purse which causes the mercenary to drop it. Garrick tells the peasant to take his money and go home as Garrick starts giving a lecture on duty. As this is happening Uthar steps forward, Tonic drops his hood to reveal is Drow nature, and before the situation could escalate any further Capt. Zogg moves towards the situation and orders Garrick to release his the mercenary and Garrick complies begrudgingly. The party explains their side and Capt. Zogg yells back at there are bigger things to worry about and before the argument could get out of hand  Merrick explains that they were sent by some people in government to Capt. Zogg for a special assignment. 

Capt. Zogg shakes his head and takes a deep breath. He then goes on to explain that the Cult of the Dead Three have taken root in the city and that he has a person that is an undercover informant by the name of Tarina that could point is in the right direction.

Tonic explains to his fellow companions that he knows the place well and it is no place for the faint of heart. The party soon finds themselves in the smokey room of the Elfsong Tavern where all the furniture is bolted down and this is mean looking female half ogre and a suit of armor standing at opposite ends if the room (the main bouncers). Tonic blows the half ogre a kiss and slaps on the patrons on the shoulder and asks, "How is the arm healing?". 

After sometime the part finds Tarina upstairs playing some dice and Tonic eagerly joins the game. After a few games Uthar leans close to Tarina and whispers that Capt. Zogg sent them. Tarina and Zogg remove themselves from the circle of the dice players as Tonic continues to throw a few more rounds and the rest of the party spreads out to keep an eye on as much as the bar as possible. After some time Uthar returns from his meeting and passes the word around that Tarina will not give us the information we need until this evening. We are free to wait at the tavern or come back as long as we are back before sunset. The party grumbles and Tonic tells Merrick that he has some pending business he needs to take care of and will return before sunset. 

The rest of the part decides to wait at the tavern and enjoy some food and drink and take up various positions around the tavern to avoid any surprises as Garrick finds a place where he can look out one of the few windows (they tend to get broken). Late in the afternoon the pale figure of the ghost elf appears (where the tavern gets its namesake) and starts singing a dirge. After the ghost sings a few more songs she vanishes and the party listens to the political, conspiracy theory, and obscene stories from the patrons. 

Shortly after the sun starts to set eight people walk into the bar that are obviously pirates. The leader as an eye patch and offers a flagon of ale and some coin to anyone who can direct them to Tarina. Theren takes his flagon of ale and walks up the stairs without saying a word. One of the pirates with a peg leg slaps one of the patrons on the back to try to get information about Tarina and as the patron is about to speak Merrick takes a few steps forward and asks, "Isn't it a little early for the rats to be off their barges?". The pirates do not take kindly to this and send of their men with weapons drawn towards Merrick and Garrick responds by taking a few steps back and throwing an ice knife at one of the approaching pirates which explode on contact and shows some of the pirates with ice shrapnel. Merrick takes advantage of the distraction and trips one of the pirates that got to close to him with his halberd. The pirate with the eye patch yells, "so you want to do this the hard way?" and motions more of his men  to charge forward. Theren from the top floor drops one of the pirates with a Firebolt, Merrick catches one of the pirates with his halberd, Garrick exchanges blows with another one, and Uthar charges another pirate with his great sword and ends up cutting him in half. The pirate yells over the chaos, "I am Deadeye!" and charges into the fray swing his scimitar which bites deeply into Merrick, Garrick continues to tangle with his foe, and Merrick is able to break skin on Dead Eye to try to create some space between the two. Theren who still has the high ground, throws down some Magic Missile that makes some of the pirates yelp in pain. Dead Eye, continues his onslaught and drops Merrick and Garrick. 

Tonic kicks in the tavern door and fires some arrows into the pirate that was engaged with Uthar and says to his fellow friends, "How rude, starting a party without me!". Uthar cuts down another pirate before he is dropped by Dead Eye and Theren throws an ice knife which ends another pirates life. Tonic keeps up his barrage of arrows as Dead Eye quickly realizes that it is just him and one of his men left. The remaining pirate also realizes this and makes a run for it as Theren stands up on the balcony and starts waving his hands in the air and saying magic words. Dead Eye takes cover behind an upturned table and says, "I will pay you more then you can imagine for Tarina, bring her to me at the docks, I think you are the only one with any intelligence here". Dead Eye then sprints for the door and takes a partying shot from Tonic which the arrow bites deep into his hip and it does not slow Dead Eye down. 

Tonic decides to take chase of Dead Eye as the rest of the party tries to assess the situation that just unfolded. 

After sometime, Tonic returns dragging Dead Eyes body with him and places a handful of jewelry in Merricks hands. In the aftermath, the party realizes that Garrick did not survive his encounter with Dead Eye and the party pays for use of one of the private rooms to try to talk as the bar staff moves quickly to clean up the mess. Tonic passes some coin to the bartender and says he is sorry for the mess as he enters the room the rest of the party went in to. Merrick holding his head, quickly corners Tonic and an heated argument enures about his whereabouts and if he was around then Garrick might still be alive - Tonic during the lecture shrugs his shoulders and mouths "Scoundrel". During this argument, Theren notices a note slipped under the door and starts to read it. The note is signed by Tarina and explains that suspected members of the cult are seen going in and out of a certain bath house at night but it operates normally during the day. 

The party takes a few days to recover and one of those days, a bright eye recruit with papers from Capt. Zogg shows up at the Elfsong tavern and singles out Merrick who was eating breakfast. The young recruits name is Gabriel and in Zogg's letter, he offers his condolences at their loss but understands that they will need all the help the can get. After Gabriel is introduced to everyone over some ale and breakfast they decide to head to the spa in the morning and see what they can find. They have badges and writs of authority to act under Flaming Fist business even though they were advised to leave their uniforms behind. 

The party makes their way to the bathhouse and inspects the outside for any type of secret entrance as mentioned in Tarina's note. As they enter the bath house they see some people enjoying the baths and are approached by one of the workers asking if the need help. Uthar flashes his badge and explains they are on Flaming Fist business and are looking for someone that is wanted. The party continues their investigation and ends up corning two masseuses in the back rooms as Tonic gets a hint that one of his not being honest with their questions about the foot traffic they have seen. Tonic pulls out a rope and explains that we can do this the hard way or the easy way. Merrick sees this interaction and jumps to explain that the employees look sick and need to take the day off and offers them all some gold if they close early. During this interaction Theren finds a hidden door in one of the back rooms and announces that to the party. The guilty masseuse quickly says that all she knows is people at night come and go and their only task is to keep business running as normal. 

The party makes sure the everyone exits the building (who has not already) and locks up the place. After a quick conversation they decide to head down in the tunnels with Tonic taking a lead position to scout ahead. The party walks through the dark tunnels for awhile before coming to three doors, each of the doors depicts one of the Dead Three on them. Tonic opens the door to the left and finds that the path quickly descends into ankle deep muck and the path on the right does the same. Tonic with the rest of the party close behind him at this point opens the middle door to find three people in black robes laying on the ground in a triangle with a torch in the middle. Tonic does not hesitate and stabs two of them before anyone else can react. Merrick and some of the other party members are distracted by their shock as the third cultist in a black robe stands up and starts to cast a spell as the one of them on the ground tries to take a swing at Tonic from the ground with a spiked skull flail. The cultists fall quickly to Merricks and Tonics blades as Merrick turns to Tonic and yells, "What if they were disguised prisoners or something?". Tonic once again shrugs his shoulders and mouths "Scoundrel" before he explains out loud that he prefers to live to enjoy life.

___________________________________________________________________________________

PLAYERS THOUGHTS: There was a lot of good interaction in this session and it was great how the different players approached different problems. The bar fight was really interesting as I did not think my character would be gone that long on my unfinished business (which ended up being a assassination mission by a chance of the die that the DM rolled). The mission was successful with a few complications. What also made the bar fight interesting is that a few people forgot about certain class and racial abilities as well as the DMs dice were hot! I think our DM must have rolled about 5-7 criticals. 

The shrugging my shoulders and scoundrel joke came into play as one of the players joked out of character about how Jack would look at his fellows whenever he did something underhanded and he would shrug and say "pirate". The joke stuck and my character adopted that stand but replaced the word pirate with scoundrel. 

I was really impressed with the player that played Garrick in his RP and how he took his character's death on the chin even when the DM gave him out to survive. The player decided to keep the death and roll up a new character. 

Review: Mausritter

 

Mausritter is a game that popped up on the various Into the Odd fan groups/social media that I was interested in because I have been a long time fan of Redwall and Mouse Guard. Though, the timing was bad and it passed me by in the early stages. It started as a hack for Into the Odd but moved over to itch and quickly went from a handful of pages to having its own soul. I actually lost track of the game for awhile until someone brought it up and I found the community surrounding Mausritter. The community alone sold me on looking into the game. 

Disclaimer: A physical copy was provided to me for review/demo purposes. 

Presentation: Mausritter clocks in at a 43 page hardback book with mostly a two column layout. There are some areas (such as equipment, etc.) where the formatting becomes three columns. There is a generous amount of black and white pencil art, equipment drawings, and three pages of full page art. I think one of the more unique things about the this book is that the cover has a cutout into the interior page where you see an adventuring mouse. When you open the cover, you get a full black and white two page art spread. Another thing the formatting of Mausritter does is that the interior back cover has useful tables on it that actually starts on page 42. This trend (putting GM screen style information on the inside of the covers) is something I really appreciate and like. 

Character Creation: Character Creation follows these stews;

1. Roll 3d6 (keeping the highest two dice) in order for Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower
   
2. Roll d6 for your Hit Protection (HP)
   
3. Roll d6 for your Starting Pips (Currency)
4. Cross reference your starting HP with your starting Pips on the background table. This is what your mouse was before becoming an adventurer. This table provides 36 different options.
   
5. Record Starting Equipment: Start with Torches, Rations, Two Items from the background, and a Weapon of your choice. 
6. Roll or Choose birthsign, coat, and physical detail. 

Resolution: The core resolution system is a d20 roll under your attribute. If an action requires a roll or something your character is doing could result in something interesting happening, then roll a d20 and if it is equal to or under your attribute it is considered a success. During contested rolls, the lowest successful roll is the winner. 

Combat is resolved in the following steps:

1. If you are not attacking unsuspecting foes then make a Dex save to act before your opponents. This sets the the initiative order.
2. Attacks always hit
3. Calculate damage by amount rolled minus any damage reduction from armor. Damage is dealt first to HP and then dealt to the Str attribute after there is no more HP
4. Once Str damage is taken, the character must make an Str Attribute check with their current score (after damage). If this check fails, the character takes critical damage. This means that the character takes the injured condition and are incapacitated until tended to by an ally and take a short rest. If left unattended the character will die in 6 exploration turns. 

If an attack is hindered, then it does d4 damage (like firing through cover) and if an attack is enhanced (I have the high ground) it does d10 damage.

 Crunch: The core resolution mechanic covers most things but there are a few subsystems:

• Advantage/Disadvantage: When a character has advantage they roll 2d20 and choose which one they want. When they have disadvantage, they roll 2d20 and the GM chooses which result.
• Inventory: Each character has a right/left paw slots, two body slots, and what amounts to six backpack slots. Items fill in the various slots and some items require a certain slot to be used. Every items usually has three usage levels and when those three levels are marked off then the item is either broken or all used up. Some items such as ammo, weapons, and armor have a usage die to be rolled on a d6 after a combat or similar situation. On a 4+ mark a usage. Other items such as rations you automatically mark a use after every meal and torches/lanterns you mark a use after every 6 turns. 
• Spells: Runes are carved into clay tablets that house a spirit, these take an inventory slot.  TO cast a spell, the character holds the tablet and says the magic words. Then the player can choose how many dice to invest (up to the maximum amount of usage) for each dice that comes up a 4+, mark a usage. The effect of the spell is depends on the number of [Dice] invested and the [Sum] of the results. When a clay tablets last usage is marked, it becomes inert and must be recharged. Each spell has its own way that it needs to be recharged. Whenever one or more 6s are rolled, the caster takes d6 Wil for each 6 result - this is considered a miscast.
  
• Time: Time is broken up into three different segments. A round is used for combat and it is less then a minute. Turn is a timescale used for an adventuring site and is about 10 minutes. Each turn is enough time to explore a room or perform an action or two.Watch is a time scale used for wilderness travel. Each watch is 6 hours and there four watches in a day. It usually takes a sing watch to travel a single hex (or about a mile). 
• Conditions: There are various conditions that a mouse can gain. Conditions take up a slot in inventory and if your inventory is full then an item gets replaced with the condition. Each different condition has their own requirements for removal. 
  
• Rest and Healing: There a three ways to heal and recover. A short rest takes a turn and with a swig of water you can regain 1d6+1 HP. A Long rest takes a watch and with some sleep and a meal will restore all HP. If HP is full, heal d6 to an attribute. A Full rest takes a weak back in safety and will heal all attributes, HP, and remove long term conditions. 
• Pips: Are the currency of the realms. A mouse can carry 250 pips in their pockets etc. before they need a Pip Purse which takes up an inventory slot and allows an additional 250 pips to be carried. In most settlements, their are banks that can store pips (for a fee at withdrawal) and a lot of settlements are more then happy to barter.
  

Final Thoughts:  Mausritter is a fun game that really took the Into the Odd core mechanic/character creation and turned it into something unique. I am also a big fan of the theme of this game. Unlike other games the deal with woodland creatures, Mausritter is about mouse sized mice vs. the world and the world is a very big and dangerous place. This really adds a sense of wonder to the setting and the game play. 

I am also a very big fan of the inventory system. I think it is genius and really plays into the OSR idea of resource management. It is simple, intuitive, and is almost its own mini game inside the game. The PDF comes with item sheets that can cut out and used to save writing and the sheet itself. There are also blank tiles for people to make up their own items. 

I also enjoy how the magic works, it adds to the setting and helps keep the magic feeling well magical. 

Mausritter also has a very strong GM section with some great tools and advice. In the back there is a tables to generate hexes and you end up with a great adventuring area with plot hooks that could be easily expanded or you could have multiple of these sites over a large area. 

Now, for those that do not have any experience with Into the Odd or Electric Bastionland, the line about how attacks auto hit. Do not let this discourage you, it is a feature not a bug. Mausritter and other games that use this core mechanic really want you to think of more creative ways to solve problems or overcome obstacles then just trying to solve everything with a sword. Plus it makes drawing said sword serious business. It has really changed how I view HP. 

I think this game is good and fun for all ages. Though, with that being said it can be deadly and for younger children I would suggest after character creation adding some additional HP. 

One of the best things about this game is the community, they are all very supportive and there is a ton of fan content and 3rd party releases out there that the inspiration is limitless. I would highly recommend getting involved with community. 

The game can be found here:

• Core Website (has mouse, item, and hex generators. Downloadable resources, lists of 3rd party products, and digital table top resources)
• Losing Games Itch (PDF is PWYW but I highly suggest a donation)
  
• Exalted Funeral
• Games Omnivorous (Core Book) 
• Games Omnivorous (GM Screen)

The box set (which includes the core book, item sheets, Honey in the Rafters Adventure, character sheet pad, and the GM screen is currently sold out. There is rumors of more box sets being produced but it will not be for sometime.  

Community Links:

• Discord
  
• Twitter for News and Updates 
• Isaac Williams Twitter (Author)

These two Kickstarters funded recently but I highly suggest following them as I believe both are going to offer pre-order options through backerkit. 

• Keep it Together by Rich Hawkes
• The Vitacernis by Brian Stauffer