Easily distracted

So, during the holidays I opened once more the good old Kalevala and read it. And it got me thinking; this would do nice DCC setting, and moderately familiar to my crew. In addition to Kalevala itself, I'd draw inspiration from brilliant CRPG UnReal World, and Ontot Kukkulat by Petri Hiltunen. Also listening to Amorphis' great albums has had some influence. 

The rough-and-tumble conversion for system would go as follows;

- Mages would not learn spells only from tomes or books (barring exotic spells from foreign countries), instead main way of learning the words of Power that Väinämöinen and Louhi left behind as they departed the World is from other shamans, witches and mages. Also spirits and patrons teach supplicant, and some books have powers, but as all ways are expensive and arduous, the books are particularily so due to there being two-three witches for every book.

- Instead of elves and halflings, there'd be two types of fey; trolls and goblins. These'd function mechanically identically to the book, but instead of alien and intelligent elves one would play gifted and primal trolls (man sized, slightly more animalistic and exotic skin/hair colourations like blue/purple hues), and instead of small comfort-seeking halflings you get mischevious and curious goblins (same size, grey/green skin and wide range of hairstyles).

- Dwarves are unchanged, but their story is slightly different; the dwarves that reside in the lands of Kalevala are refugees now residing in the abandoned stone cathedrals of trolls, cast out from their lands in Danmark and Sweden by the coming of Church and clergy. In Norway the old ways still hold sway, but the clans have been at odds since times of old and as such refused shelter. Hence, they travelled over the sea, and have somewhat integrated into Kalevan societies with their impeccable smithing skills.

- The tribe/clan of human character counts; one tribe has knowledge on old runes (necessary for learning true magic from old texts), one has good relations to Swedes, one knows the secrets of swamps, one has fought decades against the Njerpez (eastern raider tribe)... So forth.

- Gods are real and thus give power to clerics. Although only the missionary characters may become literal clerics; others are called shamans and wise-men, even witches.

- Mage and cleric classes have little less difference in this setting, mainly the fact that deity-given power is not hampered by armor whereas using words of Power draws raw strength of the Tuonela (Netherworld), or the Taivas (Sky), or even the Linnunrata (Milky Way) and thus is more incident-prone when channeler is clad in metal.

- The Pohjola is abandoned, a sprawling ruin left to rot, and adventurerers to explore. I've always seen the land of the Pohjan Akka as industrous place where magic is used to augment the natural, as later on the LoTR trilogy showed Saruman doing (my first reading to Kalevala was, what 25 years ago? I was really impressed by the scene when the movie came out). I think this might be good choice to introduce a place of urban ruin exploration, since most Kalevan towns are small (100-500 people tops) hill forts where no considerable riches are about. Also it would introduce a mystery, i.e. what happened to Pohjolans after Akka left?

More to come about this later, I hope.

Busy

Too much to do during Christmastime... Gonna take a little break.

Trying to gonzo up

Initially I began the Fallout campaign with 3, NV and 4 in mind. As in previous post I said, I'll try to move more towards 1 and 2 in the future.

This naturally requires some gonzoing (yeah, not a real word)! I want my players to experience the "wtf" of random encounters, like the Black Knight and the splattered whale. I'm looking at DCC rulebook and those few OSR modules I own, and mining the forums of various sorts. There are so much nice ideas around. Luckily the FO world is so flexible and filled with anachronisms as is, so for instace the following isn't too much a stretch to encounter:

4- A troop (9+ squad leader) of gray-uniformed gangers are pestering a family of molerat farmers. The father is heard shouting that there are no mutants around, that they would not dare to shelter such monsters. The cap-headed leader isn't buying any, and barks orders to half of his men to search the ramshackle hut and outbuildings. He keeps the wife and 2 children at gunpoint while his men perform the search. They aren't out to kill anyone, but will be very strict about not letting anyone hinder the search, and if threatened, will fight a retreating fight.

Squaddies and leader have standard ganger statline, and are armed with 7.62 military rifles x4, 7.62 light machine guns x2, 9mm smgs (squad leader has one) x2, and 7.62 AK47s x2, having 1 stimpack each, AK and smg wielders holding 2 grenades each, and squad leader has a 9mm pistol. All weapons are full and have 2 reloads worth of ammo. The uniforms do not give any DT/DR, but they have steel helmets. They have taken positions so that there's no long way to hard cover, making this a hard fight even for more experienced PCs.

5- A wreck of a destroyer has been wedged upside down in between two skyscrapers at the height of 30ft. There will be loot inside, but getting there will be hard, as the vines that now hold it securely in place have also weakened the structure of the tall buildings.

6- Wild hooting surrounds the PCs from all around. 4d6 mutated howling monkeys have surrounded them, as they've gotten into their territory. The monkeys are dog-sized and have extra pair of arms, and they'll throw dung (2x round per monkey) and miscancellous junk at them unless they vacate the area soon. This'll risk disease and radiation.

DCC sidetrack

The first real rpg experience for my kids was, hopefully, a nice one. They were a little confused by the fact that they had to use funky dice and try to describe actions of their characters. Elder first responded to my queries about what will they (PCs) do by saying "running in circles", and I responded "The 4 of you start running in circles, trying to get their blood up and running" (she had 4 characters). Younger claimed that one of his character goes to "punch trees". I allowed that, but described how it is very hard to dent a tree without real tools. They laughed at my descriptions and relaxed a little, and it went quite well afterwards, considering that younger had no experience barring Minecraft and elder had lately began narrative storytelling, that seems dubiously more like shipping experimentation rather than anything else.


DCC in itself was good system, and at such low level I didn't even need to glaze over more descriptive materiel. They are old enough (and have played Minecraft, at the very least) to know such fantasy deaths as what D&D-based games have (ran out of hit points, even if not described as such). They even showed some tactical sense as the ratlings had prepared an ambush- some of their characters had taken rear and side positions thus foiling the ratling's plans. And bribing the bridge guards, who were better armed and armored than them, with cheese dip (thanks to the random background of DCC characters). Speaking with the apparent foes was little clunky and hard to initiate, but otherwise as they began it went well, especially as no strict IC/OOC was enforced. The characters gained even some "character", in that some were more braver or brash than others, and some perferred ranged combat (ironically though most effective ranged fighter had dex of 4...). I tried to encourage them to think of more characteristics to each of their PCs, as they now rise a level and should think of a career.


But age shows clearly; elder was very concious of her sayings and tried to jest, although I didn't faze at her anecdotal actions but described how they seemed in the game world, she tuned it down a little. Younger grew more restless as evening progressed and had very hard time to concentrate on the game in the later phases. Hopefully such game nights allow them to learn to focus on tasks at hand, as we try to teach that in all works and plays anyways.


In all, I think we all had fun, and that's all that matters in the end.

Some random thoughts about Fallout

Disclaimer; this blogpost contains my personal observations. I'm open to different interpretations but this is how I will roll my campaign.


The old Fallout PnP ruleset is d100 roll under with other dices for damage etc., and occasional d10 stat check and rapid fire. I decided to use it as written; meaning that it's based on Interplay's Fallouts' (1, 2, and Tactics) S.P.E.C.I.A.L. rules. The PCs are at 3rd-ish level and are deadly at combat, probably because players remember their walkthroughs of 2 (that, despite being very good game, didn't really require other skills than combat skills), but have managed to get some useful secondaries. That is both good and bad in equal measure, because violent conflic tends to be useful in directing the intrest of characters; but in the end, trusting only your guns to solve problems will take the PCs into situation where they cannot survive.


And I'm not going to pull punches there. I've already established that pissing the Outcasts is very bad idea. The objective is in the hands of the Outcasts. If the players decide to kill themselves off by trying to get it by force, fine with me.


That brought to my mind, that we talked about critical rolls during last session, as mostly they're very unforgiving, but contain only one d10 table. That can be solved by descriptions, but keeping track of such stuff is a challenge. Additionally the crits and combat doesn't really have rules for crippled limbs etc effects, but have for instance light level table. So I adopted more "on the fly" ruleset, trying to adhere to Fallout feeling; critical hits may shatter bones, causing "crippled" effects, or even sever the whole part. But it also requires some tweaking, as the Luck score is almost useless dumpstat unless it's houseruled. We initially decided to use it as base for critical rolls (Luck 3 = 01-03 roll crits, Luck 8 = 01-08 roll crits), but it became very powerful that way with criticals being powerful effects. Additionally it didn't initially accomodate the increasing skill at all, and ruling that 1/10th of skill is too much, especially coupled with high Luck score... Well, we will return to this later.


The crapsack world of Fallout used to be about rebuilding and recovering in face of adversity (1, 2). I see earlier Fallouts as "post-apocalyptic (spaghetti) westerns", since player may, if so chooses, be morally more like Eastwood than Cooper or Wayne, or other way around. The later Fallouts (3, NV, 4) are... different, more concentrated on war over leftovers and the concept of struggle for evolution (of both society and biology). Hence, I will try to offer the players an more "frontiery" feel, with less focus on ruins of old and more on the civilization striving to succeed and thrive. Slavery and cannibalism will feature, but will be overall more muted than in F3-4. I'd love to expand the campaign into (re-)settlement led by PCs, although I cannot see current characters being the "leadery" types.


We will see, as I tackle the next hooks. I will try to advance the timeline taking players actions into account, so that there will be "living" feel to the world.
- The Outcasts will continue their strikes on known caches of old world tech. They haven't been affected by player actions at all. This means PCs perhaps seeing Veribirds overhead, or being confronted by a patrol.
- Blood Axe is furious at losing half of his gang to some random vaulters. He'll start negotiations with other raider bosses in order to track down these fools.
- The Old Church posse tries to seek a safe way south. Desmond is livid by the flooding and considering abandoning the others, so that he may get in time to his destination.
- Clowns are pretty much ignorant about PCs actions, and concentrate on probing on southern communities for added profits and checking the Outcasts positions. As soon as they realistically might start worrying about one of their probing teams gone missing, they might start sending more serious bands southwards.
- Friend has noticed one functional Pip-Boy of Vault 48 transmitting position outside the vault but is distracted by "dissident actions" inside. It has also finally deducted that the transmission loop originating from old naval base in Keys is not a communist plot, and that there is high possibility that there is U.S. government officials alive who may relieve it from goading the unruly bunch of meatbags.
- Bonville is currently ongoing a small scale siege by super mutants. They're high on supplies but are trying to send a messenger to seek the heroes who killed the giant centaur.
- Super mutants have been driven out from the swamp by the aggressive slaver operation. They're pissed and hurting, and lash out against any human settlement. They do not know or care that most folks aren't affiliated with slavers.
- Slaver excavations are progressing slowly, especially as they try not to attract attention by Clowns or Outcasts. The leader is contemplating an diversionary action to press the Clown-Outcast relations to a breaking point. Small hunting parties have been dispatched to capture more slaves from Green Hell, as the operation in the Keys has suffered casualties by automated defences.

Additional Attention Needed

The kids want to play too.

Really. They've bugged me about my game nights for a year or so now. I've thought about it before but I had no system to use for fast and easy to handle game. Now, I got Dungeon Crawl Classics (from Goodman Games) for birthday, and after little reading it might be correct combination of ease of understanding and still moddable enough to allow for young folks.

For initial one-shot, I'm going to abuse the Isle of the Rat Wizard for Far Away Land RPG. It gives me easy enough initial point for 0-level funnel with shipwreck and all, and has nice combination of RP, potential combat, and sorcery (that no initial DCC PCs have). Ratlings are easy to convert into DCC monsters, the hairpies- not so easy, but doable. I'm thinking to change the epynomyous Rat Wizard into a human magic-user to avoid balancing issues, although balance isn't my prime concern.

As to DCC itself, I might reduce the criticals to less descriptive... and overall lessen the grimdark feel. But the system itself is about as good as it goes, since if the kids want to play more I'd like them to consider magic dangerous (and hence keep it in the corner for villains and mysterious helpers) and consider more mundane careers. I'm also going to keep magic items more Disney-like for starters to give them something to attach themselves.

We'll see how it goes, if we ever get to it.


Fallout campaign has somewhat advanced in planning. I decided to further take more abstract route, more close to F2 than FNV. In the future the places are roughly located in the map (using google maps), and use more description in the locations than the routes. Random encounters are incoming, still to decide wether to use broad areas based on factions or more locale based on enviroment.

Bleagh

Not much of a post today, sick.

Maybe a little rehash what the players know about different places and factions of the Florida area.

- Brotherhood of Steel; bunch of high-tech equipped self-styled preservators of old America. Don't wave your newly found laser rifle around too much or risk a visit from them. They paint their armor black and red, and call themselves Outcasts for some reason.

- Clowns; a tribe of former raiders, who paint their faces and gear colourfully. Collect protection money and indeed protect small scattered communities from predations of raiders. Are in state of cold war with Outcasts. Little better armed and equipped than raider clans in the area, but cannot win in direct conflict with BoS- at least without unacceptable losses.

- Slavers; slavers have always existed in the Florida area, but couple of years ago a very powerful individual came from west and subdued most of slavers under his heel. He now dominates the region's slave trade and rumors say that he has a mining operations, using slaves, ongoing around Florida's old world military and government bases.

- Bonville; led by a grizzled mayor, this small community of 24 adults are in problematic place, as their village is smack middle of disputed territories. Blood Axe's raiders harassed them until the "big greens" drove them back; Super mutants have begun to patrol the neighborhood, and have brought pets; and Clowns tend to send occasional "emissary", trying to get Bonville to pay. The folks are tough wastelanders, but have become worried that mayor's continuos refusals may end up endangering their children.

- Boater's Coast; Unvisited location, but there's rumors that the people there are trading by fixing and selling old boats, and giving rides up and down the coast. Also rumored is that they do business with the slavers.

- Vault 47; PCs vault. Built by Vault-tec to accommodate 1000 people, it was crammed to double capacity during the Final Day. Vault is overseen by an exeedingly paranoid AI, Friend, whose madness has somewhat rubbed on the inhabitants. The overcrowded vault manages, but populace have long since abandoned the lofty ideals and drugs, violence, and petty crime are common. Friend doesn't really help the matters, as it upkeeps somewhat draconian set of laws that ignores almost all of above, but occasionally causes "purges" that are focused on dissidents and terrorists. The Head of Security is convinced that AI could be reset with a correct chipset, but such things were a rarity in days of Great War, and only the real backups have certainly existed.

- Desmond; an old ghoul who speaks profanities with foreign-sounding accent, wears a suit and carries a well-kept assault rifle. PCs managed to piss him off, and he scooted southwards muttering about idiots and things to do.

- Blood Axe; the unseen leader of the raider tribe, that carries his name. His boys and girls are pretty much equipped poorly, and lately have been cut down to size. The players managed to mess up some meeting with Blood Axes and currently unknown group, that uses a shield-shaped patch on a sleeve band with initials "NC" as their insignia.

- Subways; mostly flooded, as the old pump system failed. Too much radiation leaking from the seawater that anyone in their right mind would use it to travel.

- Sewers; in slightly better shape than subways, as the whole system was made of more robust materiel and pumps were upgraded to fusion power just before the Last Day. Ghouls tend to use these to travel from hunting ground to another.

- Old Field Hospital; Set up by National Guard Medical corps after the Last Day, it still stands thanks to exellent design of tents and equipment. 200 years have made everything immediately needful useless, though. Still a good shelter from radioactive downpour.

- Green Hell; the ruins of Miami metropolitan area are collectively called Green Hell. And for a good reason, as everywhere mutated plants and vines are slowly grinding metal and concrete into dust. Some ruins are very much untraversable, some are dangerous to cross, and even when structural integrity is safe the plants themselves may be poisonous or otherwise hostile. The PCs have met animals, mostly rats the size of a cat, roaming hordes of roaches the size of a rat, and others likewise mutated things.

Progress? The Campaign notes.

I spent rest of the evening writing the next episode of the Fallout Florida. The PCs are to head towards Keys, or seek out an audience with the Brotherhood splinter faction. Knowing my players they might as well head out to kill one of two gang leaders whose gang have caused them trouble. So, there are many a lead I need to keep up, big fault of mine though.


Initial setup for PCs was that they were banished from AI-led Vault. The Head of Security had other plans, as he has grown disgruntled with the AI controlling all of overcrowded vault, his security detail being understaffed and underarmed for daily enforcement (as robots and AI giving 0 f**ks about drug problem and proliferation of weapons). He also would like to open the vault for trade with outside to line his pockets; this would require reset of vault's AI, but the circuits to do so were not delivered in time to vault. So PCs were set up and condemned to Death by Exposure, given discreetly info about the last known stop of the circuits, and pushed into the collapsed section of the vault. They clambered to the surface and saw vast ruins, overgrown with plants. Their only lead how to survive was HoS:s radio contact, who they met in a ruined hotel surrounded by an abandoned minefield. The contact was an ghoul ranger, who after an initial shock provided the PCs with some basic weaponry and supplies, as well as general info about life in the "green hell" and directions to the airfield that should have the circuits they seek.


PCs needed to circle a little to avoid heavy radiation areas. During the detour they had to cross Blood Axes territory, a raider gang that has holed into the area between three big players and belt of bomb hits. They meet and get into a fight, afterwards the whole process turns into a running battle where players manage few precious rests amidst gunfire and scavenging. In the end they have killed almost half of raiders who decide to cut their losses and regroup, as the players enter the irradiated airfield with the help of some hazmat suits and plenty of rad-away, courtesy of Blood Axes collection of loot.


Things do not go any easier there. There are plenty of mindless feral ghouls roaming about, and they are very happy to get food by the poolside. In the end, the PCs find out that they're too late, as another crew has just finished looting the storehouse, and swerve away, alerting all the ghouls in the area. PCs swiftly check the old manifests and indeed the crate with the circuits is among those taken by those with yellow van. They fight their way into the old sewers as their rad readings start to climb, and use the relative shelter of sewers to exit the hot spot, all the way expending precious ammo against hungry ferals.


They exit the sewers and search the trail of the van. Managing to find the trail they sneak among the overgrown ruins to avoid patrols of big, green brutes, as they're running low on ammo. Eventually they lose the tracks and get lost. They find a small settlement of Bonville, built among few old suburban buildings and walled with overturned buses and vans. Trading some of stuff they've accumulated to ammunition, they decide to take a small break there; meeting with local mercenaries and befriending some, gaining insight to area, and hearing about giant mutant that bothers the community. PCs also find out that the van is property of slaver gang on the rise, whose leader has some big ideas about future of the region. They head out to check the tip on the van's path, but run into the gigantic centaur- and manage to kill it, although they get pretty banged up in process. They retreat back to Bonville, and get a hero's reception- they get good amount of prize equipment and free lodgings.


After this they return to trail. They find the van shot to hell by heavy automatics, stuff looted. There's a trail of blood, though, and PCs follow it to a scared woman. His husband is wounded badly, and she asks the PCs to retrieve a doctor's bag from their little hidey-hole. The team's doctor manages to stabilize poor husband without it, though, and PCs interrogate (gently) the suspected slaver. Turns out that the driver and his crew are not affiliated with the slavers, but thought that they worked for someone else. He tells that their crew was betrayed by a bum who frequents to the waystation "nearby". He also tells that the ambush was by Brotherhood of Steel, and advises the PCs to forget about their prize; BoS never gives back the tech they take, but hoard it rarely using it even themselves. He gives the PCs directions to the Old Church, where the bum likely is currently.


At the church the PCs stumble into a small group of Clowns; a gang seemingly as bad as any although after they kill all but one they find out that the denizens of Old Church see Clowns less bad than Blood Axes. They extort money but rarely kill anyone outright; they were searching for the bum the PCs look for. The characters are pretty miffed by the rebuttal, understandably as they almost got shredded by a grenade. The good folks of Old Church gather their belongings and head south, but not before telling the PCs that the Hobo-Bill- as the bum was called- headed northeast. Not having much to do, PCs head that way too. Their tracker manages to catch someone's route in the floodmuds, although the radioactive drizzle threatens to de-track them. Not to mention their rad-aways are almost at end. Nevertheless they find a subway entrance amongst the ruins, and in there lies a recently opened doorway to a vault; there, a shotgun blast and loud curses alert them to someone having a little disagreement. The other party is a group of Clowns, whose leader alerts the PCs to mind their own business.


The most talky of the group manages to pry information from the leader; Hobo-Bill is actually a Brotherhood scout, and the Clowns' leader wants him dead or alive. The Clowns will not give in to group's demands and eventually, the death jester grows bored and orders his crew to attack. In ensuing firefight the player group defeats the clowns soundly, and manage to restock with the Clowns' gear. In the vault's primary cargo elevator, Hobo-Bill is wounded and desperate. The doc offers his help and talker manages to convince Bill that they don't mean any harm, just want to know some things. Bill reclutantly gives in and allows doc to treat him, and eventually gives PCs info about Brotherhood activities in the area. They are part of Outcasts, east coast splinter group, and led by someone called Protector Greymarch. She has the Clowns by the balls as her well-armed and power-armored crew has taken residence in the old Miami Airport, squarely at the west flank of Clown's territory and in the way to the old Interstate, that used to be their main income (by the way of "tolls" and merc/caravan guard jobs). He warns the PCs that Greymarch isn't too intrested in bargaining with outsiders, but she has been known to trade with those she deems trustworthy; although to get their hands on old world tech might need a bigger favor, i.e. solving the problem of the slavers who are all too keen on getting their hands on high tech gear. Bill also tells the curious vaulters that this vault has been long forgotten, as it is said to be haunted; many a brave scavenger has gone in but never come out. PCs offer Bill job as their guide, but he refuses, as he needs to return and report; he will out of gratitude leave PCs activity out of the report. After Bill limps into the tunnels PCs decide to rest and repair their worn stuff.


Their little peace is shattered by familiar screams from deeper vault; Feral ghouls. They brave up enough to enter the vault, thinking that the ferals have gotten drop on the previous explorers, leading to haunted fame for the vault. They decide to rest and then enter deeper vault; but their rest is disturbed by static bursts from the vault P.A. system. They go, tired but determined, and search the vault. It is far different, made for 200-300 people rather than their 2000-3000, and according to found recordings used to have populace of high IQ. They meet and kill ghouls, and manage to rescue a wastelander from the ghouls' meat locker, who joins the group for time being. They eventually realize that the vault's denizens have fought and died in there, retreating slowly into the upper floors welding and disabling doors shut as they retreated, and players have no way to enter lower levels. The ghouls have no such problems, using air shafts to climb upwards. The PCs deem the vault to be unconquerable, especially after they read the Overseers notes- and they gain a small glimpse upon the ultimate social experiment nature of the vaults. They retreat, exhausted and low on right ammo, and close the door behind them- the huge cogwheel blast door scatters rust and dust everywhere as it settles back to the place it held for century...