AP17

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The Fog Hound Job

In which the Fog Hound gang is disbanded, troubling details about the Hive are uncovered and the Wobeggong Crew (almost) joins the ranks of Doskvol’s official tier 1 gangs.

Part 1

There was screen freeze-up and my volume was way down. My apologies, that is on me.

Part 2

Part 1 on Twitch

Part 2 on Twitch (same game, had to restart at the break)

The Gang

Pete and Sean were out, so it was Rob and Jay playing Charming and Willoughby. I’ve been gaming with these guys since I was 12 years old. They were both there when I first gamed.

Good times.

I like the structure of Blades in the Dark because when people can’t show up I can just say, “It is the day of the job and 2 members of the gang don’t show up. This is normal; this is what happens when you work with criminals and scoundrels. Everyone is notoriously unreliable.” Easy-peasy to explain away absences.

Rob posted his thoughts on his Public G+ Feed and over in the G+ Blades Community.

Duskwall again

The Fog Hound Gang: A moment of silence for Margette Vale, the gang’s fearless leader and Bear, former Imperial Marine turned smuggler. The only survivor was Goldie, a navigator with a head full of gold teeth who took a liking to Willoughby.

I pulled the info for this gang from the book. The details included there made it easy for me to incorporate them into the Hive’s newfound patronage.

Brill: We got to meet Willoughby’s drug dealer and rival – one of those social drug dealers who makes his living by providing a nice atmosphere and welcoming people into his apartment/warehouse home. He makes his house the party.

Worth noting that it is now agreed that Willoughby will go talk to the Billhooks to get them off of Brill’s back.

Kross Pritchard: This smug bastard Hive-agent was back as the gang’s handler for this job.

Hix Comber: Ink Rake who the Fog Hounds were watching, deciding if they could trust her or not.

They heard some background noise about the Lampblacks and Red Sashes going to war but from the word on the street, no bodies had been dropped just yet but word was it was about to turn into Barghast Beach in the city streets of Doskvol.

The Job with text

Rob had Willoughby make a Gather Information roll to find out about the Fog Hound and it just kept escalating. Rob and Jay definitely go by the Player’s Best Practice mentioned in the book, GO INTO DANGER, FALL IN LOVE WITH TROUBLE. Shit, Jay is driving Charming as if he’s a stolen car.

At the end of Rob’s string of escalating rolls, we went from a party at a drug-dealer’s house to Willoughby and Goldie in the hold of the Fog Hound ready to make out but due to a failed roll, Goldie knew something was up and drew a knife.

I hit pause there and went to Jay.

Realizing this was about to pop off, I got Jay involved quickly, not wanting Charming to miss the whole job. Charming was on his way back from the Pig Pit, where he trained during his downtime when he saw Willoughby, dressed as a rich tart, walk by with the Fog Hound Gang. Charming followed them there before launching a frontal assault on the steamship.

After that, it was a blur of rage essence and sleep dust and slaughter. In the end, Willoughby had Goldie drugged asleep and Charming was gut-shot on the deck, covered in blood, surrounded by bodies.

Goldie told them that the Hive is selling Skovlander kids. The Fog Hound Gang was going to get that information out and expose them. That didn’t sit right with Charming or Willoughby but in the end, they delivered the goods and lied about everyone being dead.

Upon being set free, Goldie said he was going to go out into the Void Sea, get a gig and get away from land to clear his head. Willoughby told him to seek them out and work for them when he returned and she intimated that they’d finish the make-outs they had begun before knives and sleep-dust started to get drawn.

They got a good 6 Coin haul off this gig and they are now officially a Tier 1 gang. Their Heat is way up there after this job but frontally assaulting a gang on a public dock will do that.

The Mechanics in White

tom hardy gif

Due to the way rolls escalated, we missed the Engagement Roll, which is fine. That mechanic is there to set the scene and start the job from an action packed scene. We did that fine on our own this time out.

I got to rock out and dish out some harm. As a matter of fact, I didn’t use clocks once in this job. It was honestly moving just too damned fast. We got a resistance roll and lots of stress. I laid off the clocks tonight. None were advanced tonight.

I upped Harm, dealt out Heat and put characters into Desperate rolls as parts of Devil’s Bargains. It felt like I was dealing out lots of Desperate rolls tonight.

When we stopped at 11 I kind of wanted to do the Downtime and keep going but Rob wisely got us to bed by ending the game. 2 hour sessions, one game for a job, another for downtime seems like it is going to work really well for us.

I’m getting the hang out the Desperate/Risky/Controlled position and the Great/Standard/Little effect. We’re hitting our stride and the time spent in-character is increasing as our system mastery get’s better and we understand the short-hand of what is going on. Interesting and really fun.

NOTE: I messed up the way the crew increases it’s tier. They have to pay coin to go up to tier 1. Noted! Lots of moving parts all spinning to put pressure on them.

Twitch blog category

I had a really rocky start because I felt like I was having to concentrate on so many things all at once.

Pete had to cancel last minute, so I had to do a bunch of technical and boring things to make Jay and Rob’s faces fit where they were supposed to on the damned screen. Basically, this meant I spent 45 minutes on the computer before the game with Rob and Jay signed in, cussing at the computer as I re-set the entire set-up of the game’s back end in a bunch of fiddly ways.

Once we got moving, I didn’t hit the record button. Does the channel record ? Do I have to hit the record button on my end?

I have no idea.

The stream’s image froze up, according to chat. We re-set at the break but how long was it frozen?

Juggling this stuff while running a game is really difficult. Respect to the RPG twitch-streamers out there doing this every day.

That said, I like streaming games and I dig getting to interact with chat but there will definitely be a feeling out period for a while.

Art

Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <” rel=”nofollow”>https://www.loc.gov/item/90707285/>;.
The Corliss Bevel-Gear-Cutting Machine. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <” rel=”nofollow”>https://www.loc.gov/item/2004678678/>;.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Grand View, City and Canal, Syracuse, N.Y.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1880. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-5eee-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Wm. Hawes in front of jewelry store with intricate clock.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-69ca-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Le port aux mouettes.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1886. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-4263-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Camera notes”The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1901-10-01. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a9185640-2289-0132-f854-58d385a7bbd0

Check out this design and more in the TTRPG collection…

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/collections/tabletop-role-playing-games
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The Wobeggong Crew between jobs: “Leave the bottle; take the hook.”

In which the gang lets off steam, trains in the Pig Pit, studies a demon-goddess’ altar, gets some artifact trinkets back from the Billhooks, and made contact with a barrister representing mercantile interests (and stole his watch).

Link to the Twitch Video on the Actual Play channel

The Gang

Muade, the gang’s Whisper joined the group; Charming knew her from the Unity War; they fought together on Barghast Beach, one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. I’ve known Sean for years and I’m excited to finally be able to game with him.

Skannon’s nickname is The Crow and that is what we called him for most of the game.

Charming hasn’t met a problem that a proper assault wouldn’t solve.

Willoughby was out indulging in her vice (as Rob couldn’t make it due to work responsibilities).

Duskwall again

I was surprised at how many places and people we generated through downtime.

  • Bug – Billhook, saved by Wobeggong Crew from prison barge who keister’d one of the Goat-Matron’s idol children
  • The Goat Matron, Saint of Witches, and her 13 Young – altar/engine, connected to an ancient demon-goddess and her brood
  • Grine – pub-owner being tortured by Coran after having stolen from the Billhooks
  • House of 11 Pleasures – brothel and tea-house owned by The Hive
  • The Pig Pit – a fighting pit run by the Billhooks where Charming works out
  • Phin Rowan, Barrister with Rowan, Dunvil and Welker – property and acquisitions lawyer
  • Queen Bee’s Nest – pub in Nightmarket where the gang dropped off a message to The Hive.

clock
Clocks are hitting the table and I’m also looking at the clocks in the book that go with each faction, particularly clocks for The Hive, the Bluecoats and the Billhooks but also thinking about the coming gang-war between the Red Sashes and the Lampblacks as fun background noise.

Cog 4

Blue Coats Hunt Down Shannon, 0 of 4

Cog 8 complete

Learn the True Nature of the Artifacts, 8 of 8

Maude completed the clock, letting her know all about the Goat-Matron’s altar and the names of the Saint of Witches’ children.

attune 666

11128959846_b2fdde9c9f_o

Three 6’s on the attune role when learning about the blood altar to a goat-headed witch-saint. LOVE IT.

Cog 1 of 6

Maud Becomes High Priestess of the Goat Matron, 1 of 6

Cog 3 of 4

The Hive Seeks Recompense from Charming, 3 of 4

This last one is like throwing a grenade into the game after the fuse is just about gone. Charming got his time-piece by menacing the mercantile conglomerate’s barrister but he’ll have to pay the price for it eventually. See below for more on this interaction.

The Mechanics in White

Jay had asked that we spend more time in-character this game and get to know our characters a bit. I welcomed that suggestion and tried to step sideways to the mechanics and encourage free play as much as possible. This meant that Downtime took a while and we didn’t get to the Job but that is okay. I feel like we fleshed out the gang and breathed some life into our Duskwall.

Sean joined us and he knows this game backwards and forwards. We would’ve done fine with downtime on our own but he helped us realize the importance of teamwork, even during downtime along with a thousand other details he informed us of quickly, rather us looking it up.

Sean gave us good pointers. I think we used a bit more teamwork than we would have in our downtime.

I’m going to read up on Stress & Trauma and Consequences & Harm. I feel like I’m not comfortable with the link between those mechanics and Action Rolls. I need to refresh.

I’ d like to look at one scene in particular:

[I’ll have the youtube video set to this scene later]

Charming wanted the barrister’s time-piece. Crow wanted Charming to chill so that the gang could secure The Hive as a source of lucrative jobs. It was a tense moment. Sean jumped in as a rules moderator, letting us know our options. Jay and Pete checked in one with another throughout. It was good stuff and a clock was created out of it. I liked how they both stayed respectful towards each other’s characters; there was affection between Charming and Crow even as they disagreed that was nice.

Those moments are tricky. I don’t want a fractured gang messed up by infighting but some friction is fun.

Streaming

twitch
It is an odd thing to have a video record of a game. It was surprisingly fun having a dozen or so folks (mostly friends and online friendly acquaintances) in chat, cheering the game on. Thank you to everyone who watched, thanks to the Actual Play Team for hosting our game and thanks to Sean for walking us through this process.

Art

Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/90707285/>;.
The Corliss Bevel-Gear-Cutting Machine. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/2004678678/>;.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Grand View, City and Canal, Syracuse, N.Y.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1880. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-5eee-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Wm. Hawes in front of jewelry store with intricate clock.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-69ca-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Le port aux mouettes.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1886. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-4263-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Allen, Grant. Mr. Grant Allen’s New Story “Michael’s Crag.” With … Marginal Illustrations in Silhouette, Etc. London: Leadenhall, 1893.
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The Wobbegong Crew and the Prison Barge Job

The Gang

The Wobbegong Crew is a group of veterans from the Unity War who have turned to crime. Named after a breed of shark that settles on the bottom of Duskwall’s canals and hides in the mud while stalking its prey.

Charming, played by Jay – a former marine with an eye for fashion (why are all Cutter’s dandies?), the gang’s Cutter

Skannon, played by Pete – former Leviathan ship captain – ran cargo during the war, known as The Crow, last son of a fallen noble house of Walund, the gang’s Lurk

Willoughby, played by Rob – former Imperial spy during the war, the gang’s Slide

They’ve also got an engineer named Kyle, who keeps their boat running. Kyle lost an army during the war in an explosion during a naval battle.

The Mechanics in White I didn’t expect this game to be as mechanically robust as it turned out to be. It didn’t dawn on me until I was looking up rules and thinking about  how one locks into another and cycles of Stress, Vice and XP… It is intense.

I wanted to make sure I GMed so that we weren’t just talking about playing but spending some time in the character’s shoes. Blades is an engine designed to start a conversation about play, getting everyone ready for that fiction first style of game and I love it. I think the danger for me is that I want to make sure I use solid techniques so that we aren’t just getting the fiction right but getting into our character’s skins and free playing. Free Play is part of the cycle mentioned in the book but one has to use the techniques in GM Best Practices and use them well to get there.

It wasn’t perfect in this first session. When I’m running a game that is dense, we have to step back and figure out the mechanics. It will get better as we go on and it was still a fun game. In baseball terms, it was a solid double, which is a fine hit for a first session.

The density comes with lots of tools and inspiration. The character sheets have a rival and an ally. The structure comes with all of these elements that will be putting pressure on the players, causing friction and fun.

Next week we’ll sort out XP and then go through Downtime. I’m hoping to get through a Job every time we get together. We’ll see how realistic that is.

clock

Clocks are interesting tech. I’m still wrapping my head around how to best use them. When they got aboard the boat I had a clock for someone sounding the alarm. It created some sense of foreboding but I wonder if I should have had a clock for the players gaining control of the boat…not sure. Would that have made them less likely to explore the boat a bit? I started a clock for arriving at the Ironhook Prison that was too little too late.

Only one lasting clock was created this game. I made a clock for Skannon as part of a Devil’s Bargain for a roll in which he stepped out of the shadows and grabbed a pistol in each hand off of a table while some Bluecoat guards were playing cards. “Yeah, you do it but they remember you…” This clock’s creation get’s interesting and complicated later when every Bluecoat who saw Skannon ends up dead.

Cog 4 The Blue Coats hunt down Skannon 

The Job with text

I rolled on the Opportunity tables but nothing really spoke to me, so I made up some fast on-the-spot jobs. They had a choice between

  • Stealing some prisoners being moved from the Deadlands to the Ironhook Prison by the Bluecoats on a City Watch Prison Barge for their allies, the Billhooks (but still a paying gig).
  • Stealing whiskey out of a warehouse from a merchant who recently stopped paying protection to anyone, making him an easy target.
  • Stealing arms from a boat being held outside the bay for inspect – a good haul as a gang war between the Red Sashes and the Lampblacks heats up.

They chose the prison barge.

I didn’t save the map I drew, which vexes me but basically, they wanted to stealth onto the ship, even though Charming wanted to drop flaming oil into the canal and assault the City Watch’s Prison Barge – cooler heads prevailed.

I drew a crossroads in the canal system, putting a war memorial on one side, a manicured walking path on the Brightstone corner, a shanty town on the Dock’s corner and a construction crane on another. They lowered themselves onto the boat via the crane and we were off to the races with a solid first roll to set them up in a Risky but not Desperate starting situation.

We played on Google Hangouts and so I shared my screen and used my Surface Pro’s pen. It made making a game map easy and satisfying.

In the end, they grabbed the Billhooks and Kross Pritchard, who claimed to be an agent of The Hive. They also grabbed a crate of artifacts taken out of the Badlands.

Skannon and Willoughby marched their 3 Bluecoat guards through the ship to the engine room and shot them in front of the engine room workers, telling them to run. And run they did. They also made a solid Command roll to get the rest of the Blue Coats to run, all but one. NOTE: Willoughby sent up her command with a Skovlander accent…rumors of Skov terrorists being behind this job have hit the street.

But wait, I had already written down a clock for Skannon about the Bluecoats hunting him down. How can they do that when everyone who saw him was shot dead outside the engine room? We’re in a fantasy world with ghosts and people who talk to ghosts. I’m not too worried. The clock makes sense.

Charming went up to deal with the remaining guards and Holtz was all that was left (oddly, Holtz is also the name of Skannon’s father…odd coincidence is all). Charming tried to recruit him and rolled a 5.

“I’ll join ya but only if you can whup me.”

So, Charming whupped him. Holtz threw his jacket and club into the canal and now they have some muscle.

The job was solid. They spent some Stress in order to push themselves and get an extra die and helping one another. No Trauma was acquired.

Post-Game E-mail

boat.png

The artifacts and Kross Pritchard, an agent representing The Hive are beyond the JOB. We can talk about what you want to do with them next game when we do DOWNTIME. Anything you make from those things will be separate.
For this JOB, you get 4 COIN.
You also get 2 HEAT + 1 HEAT for a High Profile Target another +2 HEAT for Killing.
Total: 5 HEAT
Also, I realize that Ironhook Prison is its own FACTION, so I’m going to say that this operation that you interrupted was the Bluecoats working a job for the Ironhook Prison.
Skannon has a CLOCK from a DEVIL’s BARGAIN because the Bluecoats have a beef with him now and are super-pissed. How do they know? Good question.
Holtz is now a member of your gang. He’s played by Russell Crowe.
That was fun! Thanks for playing!

Art

Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/90707285/>;.
The Corliss Bevel-Gear-Cutting Machine. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/2004678678/>;.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Wm. Hawes in front of jewelry store with intricate clock.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-69ca-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Grand View, City and Canal, Syracuse, N.Y.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1880. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-5eee-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
 The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “The transportation problem. The Baxter boat “City of New York,” the fastest steamer tried on the Erie Canal” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1825. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-7e54-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

https://shopofjudd.threadless.com/collections/tabletop-role-playing-games

Check out this design and more in the Tabletop Role-Playing Game collection…

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Burning Greyhawk, Comic Strip AP, Episode 6

archer-and-hawk

MP3

After Session Thoughts

I was hoping for some time to let the Range & Cover mechanics breath a bit, have some arrows and fireballs flying around the back-alleys of Greyhawk but the dice decided and death was swift.

Accererak is in the mix! I was excited when I heard that the Tomb of Horror‘s demi-lich was back in action in Tomb of Annihilation. This episode pre-dated that announcement by a few weeks.

Thanks again, Rich for the wonderful editing and playing.

What is Comic Strip AP?

Comic Strip AP started as a short, 10-15 minute actual play of Dungeon World at the end of every episode of Discern Realities. It is like sprint training for GM’s, really making me think about how I manage a 15 minute time range.

I wouldn’t want to play every game like this but it is a fun weekly exercise.

If you like this, you might like the Sorcerer game Rich and I played, where demons are buildings in New York City.

20151025_215411

 

Art

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Buteo Cooperii, California Hawk.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1860. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-5741-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Franc-archer, archer de la garde : 1460.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1910. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-4971-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Burning Greyhawk, Comic Strip AP, Episode 5
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Burning Greyhawk, Comic Strip AP, Episode 5

gloam circle

Episode 5

MP3

greyhawk-castle-border

Threads

Reading about Greyhawk in old school forums is kind of like reading about a religion with many different sects. I have found it fascinating and often inspiring.

Dragonsfoot: Talk to me about Gloams

In the Gord the Rogue books, specifically in City of Hawks, Gord travels to the Shadowplane and encounters evil beings known as “gloams”. The leader of these monsters, called Imprimus, is referred to as a vampire lich.

Does anyone know anything more definitive about Gloams and specifically Imprimus, such as a monster description and/or stats?

Dragonsfoot: About Vecna

Vecna’s not from Greyhawk.

Reddit: Greyhawk synopsis from the upcoming Tales of the Yawning Portal

Greyhawk, the pinnacle of D&D settings, is reduced to a few blurbs here and there in WotC’s new supplements.

Sad state of affairs, really.

greyhawk-castle-border

NPC’s

Mavis, Tanday the Gloam-walker’s apprentice

Harkhim, Tanday the Gloam-walker’s lost apprentice

greyhawk-castle-border

Art

Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. “Diagram of an eclipse of the sun, with the moon casting a shadow cone.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1260. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-e574-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
British Library. “Castles and their Heroes…With Illustrations, etc” British Library Flickr. 1891. https://flic.kr/p/hWA5wk
Burning Greyhawk, Comic Strip AP, episodes 3 & 4
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Burning Greyhawk, Comic Strip AP, episodes 3 & 4

Copy of Greyhawk

Episode 3

MP3

greyhawk-castle-border

Episode 4

MP3

greyhawk-castle-border

NPC’s

Gazer of Homlet is played by Felicia Pearson

Kieren Jalucian is played by Rami Malek

Tanday the Gloam-walker is played by Forest Whitaker

greyhawk-castle-border

Thoughts

One thing I’m looking for in between episodes is how much freedom I have as a GM to frame the scene. Did we end on a cliffhanger that means we have to start in the very next moment? Was Rich taking his character into motion, going about the next item on his task list? Is there a way I can prod at a bunch of beliefs all at once? Is there a consequence to an action that should hit the table?

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Traditions of the Swordlords: Faith and Taxes

Back in the Riverlands

It was difficult getting back into the groove. It has been so very long.

The session itself was solid. We rolled some dice, earned some personna artha and got to see each other’s faces once again – a lovely way to spend any evening.

Red Apple and Silver Bells. A book of verse for children ... Illustrated by A. B. Woodward

Lifestyle and Taxes

The last game was a long, long time ago. So the snow is thawing and it is time to think about the Lifestyle Resources roll and taxes from the various towns.

They made their ob 9 role for a ducal lifestyle with plenty of cash dice from taxes to spare. Drew brought me back to the Riverlands with descriptions of the tax montage scene; it is a good reminder that we have to link these rolls to in-game, in-world descriptions. Especially after long times away from a world, I find that I still forget that.

We talked about wax tablets and the gold vault’s walls being made of slate that the accountants use to keep tally of where various payments come from. They suspect Jiri, the pimp-knight in charge of the prostitution in the Riverlands, is holding out on them.

Red Apple and Silver Bells. A book of verse for children ... Illustrated by A. B. Woodward

River Tolls

A detail that came up was that the rivers were being used by merchants without tax nor tariff going into the High Swordlord’s coffers. Rachel circled up a Swordlord and a knight to deal with the situation. The Swordlord was Lom Godina; I had very little written about him and everyone else’s notes didn’t amount to much. I picked a picture for him from the Swordlords Pinterest page and played him with some swagger – a general who got captured early in the war and who had said the way they were fighting the Brevosi wouldn’t work but did his best to make it work until he was taken.

The knight was the warden of a debtor’s prison named Mihaly Warden; he had a pinterest pic already and was known as a humble knight, having led the debtors into the Riverlands due to a letter written by Ivo way back in the day.

Lom was all about sticking it to Mivon and making war on their soft, merchant-princes. Mihaly suggested setting their tolls at a price point that specifically would not start a war. They were sent off to do their work, to set the prices at a reasonable sum, fortifying a bridge already build on the Thorn River.

Red Apple and Silver Bells. A book of verse for children ... Illustrated by A. B. Woodward

The Priest and the The Bishop

Drew had a belief about unburdening Ivo of a book filled with the names of Drajnov’s dead that needed to be read out loud in a ritual meant to put the dead to rest. He wanted to discharge this list to the Church of 1000 Saints. It was an old summoning debt. The Sorcerer and the Swordlord called on Brother Johd, who was now a priest but in the old days of the uncivilized Riverlands he was a wanderer with faith in the Sword Saints. Now he is a priest, and apparently, a priest who had attempted to become a Bishop of the Riverlands in the recent elections but had fallen short.

Johd seemed out of place. He was comfortable in the old Riverlands, on the fringe of civilization and now civilization had come to him. The church had politics that were outside of his comfort zone. Johd was sad. I didn’t realize he was so until Ivo and Zora tracked him down.

But who was the bishop? I thought about that for a second. The older Sword-Matron had been dismissed by the High Swordlord. The priesthood wasn’t sure of its place in the Riverlands. The High Swordlord was not interested in giving them power or access to ways of making money that they had in Olde Rostland. The priests were scared and so the bishops who had been elected to serve throughout the Charterlands were the priests who had offered solutions, humble solutions.

And there was Bishop Ayub, an older priest who lost his sight late in life, a stone-carver who makes statues of the Sword Saints and sells them out of a barn. After the encounter, Drew said, “I liked your rabbi, Judd.” That was apt. I don’t think Ayub was any rabbi I’ve ever known. Maybe he was the rabbit I’d always wanted.

Ivo suggested that they give the remaining bits of taxes to the church to loan out at fair rates to the Riverlanders. And so the church became a bank.

Interesting times.

Red Apple and Silver Bells. A book of verse for children ... Illustrated by A. B. Woodward

Why the blog post?

The Burning Wheel forum is slowly closing its doors. I thought it was a good idea to start putting all of my Actual Play posts here.

 

British Library. “Red Apple and Silver Bells. A book of verse for children … Illustrated by A. B. Woodward.” British Library Flickr Collections.
LINK
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SWN 13: Laser Rifles vs. Monoblade Spears

Screen Shot 2017-04-02 at 11.46.44 PM

That tweet kind of says it all.

They took a bit of a beating from the space marines and their monoblades turned into spears. Some of debate on how a genocidale unbraked AI got stranded on this planet and when they looked at the data they saw that it wasn’t destroyed because of a political breakdown in the AI-hunting Perimeter organizations

In the next game, they’ll figure out how to get 0r10n off-planet, past the nanite curtain made to hold unbraked AI’s on the surface.

Will they use the planetary kill-switch that will take the planet back to the stone age, destroying all tempered metal and synthetic compounds?

Will Arkady’s mentor teleport 0r10n off-planet, past the curtain?

Burning Greyhawk, Episode 1
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Burning Greyhawk, Episode 1

archer-and-hawk

MP3 link

Gauntlet Patreon Link

Burning Wheel

Locien Wester (played by an older John Cho)

Belief 1

I will recover the eye and hand of Vecna to resolve this cold war, reuniting The Circle of Eight and maintaining stability in Flanaess.

Belief 2

I will ensure that my archers are hired as city guards.

Belief 3

???

Locien Wester’s Character Sheet and Google Doc notes

greyhawk-castle-border

Greyhawk Resources

World of Greyhawk by Gary Gygax

The Free City of Greyhawk map

Flanaess names

Dragonsfoot Greyhawk Links

 

NPC’s

Jallarzi is played by Issa Rae.

Gazer of Hommlet is played by Felicia Pearson.

greyhawk-castle-border

Art

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Buteo Cooperii, California Hawk.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1860. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-5741-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Franc-archer, archer de la garde : 1460.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1910. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-4971-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Title: “Castles and their Heroes … With illustrations, etc”
Author: HUTTON, afterwards ALEXANDER, Barbara.
Contributor: BOWERS, Georgina.
Shelfmark: “British Library HMNTS 10349.cc.17.”
Place of Publishing: London
Date of Publishing: 1891
Identifier: 001778831

 

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SWN: E-Missive from 0R10N

orion

Greetings Astral Dragon LLC Board of Directors,

I believe Dr. Galvani is prolonging my development on the surface of Kaprianou because it is only through this part of the process that he is going to be of true active use to your company. We have temporarily disarmed the space marines but they have access to AR3S, who could have access to TL5 weapons in storage here since before the Scream.

As to the Bruxelles Class Battlecruiser, I have narrowed down its placement into 6 hexes of the Sector Hades Zeta.

Or we could hunt AR3S down. I was born to destroy genocidal unbreaked A.I. like him. If put into a network with him, I could disassemble his sapience.

I leave the decision to you.

What would you like to do?

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Art

Title: “Aide-mémoire du Voyageur; notions générales de géographie mathématique, de géographie physique, de géographie politique, de géologie, de biologie et d’anthropologie à l’usage des voyageurs, des étudiants et des gens du monde”
Author: KALTBRUNNER, D.
Shelfmark: “British Library HMNTS 10024.f.9.”
Page: 46
Place of Publishing: Zurich<
Date of Publishing: 1881
Issuance: monographic
Identifier: 001923157