Adore the Immortals, for they are Ours!

 "Aye lads, gather 'round. Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the Sump Sea. This sad tale begins on the edge of the Great Sump, near a huge drainage tunnel that just happens to be the most direct route from the Underhive to what lies beyond the Wall. The twin settlements of Sumptown and Port Imperiale sprang up on either side of the tunnel, growing wealthy on the trade between the hivers and Ash Nomads, Sludge Sea sailors, and even smugglers from the spaceports outside the hive. The shops and bazaars were stocked with exotic items unavailable anywhere else. The taverns were teaming with wanted men, desperadoes, and strange offworlders. Port Imperiale was a shining boomtown of vice and false promises, while Sumptown was a lawless sprawl of shanties and thieves dens. Mayor Norton I of Port Imperiale, though a mere figurehead, was much beloved by the citizens and visitors. A sort of peace and order was maintained through a truce between the three largest gangs, the Orphans, the Savages, and the Spuggs.
 This fragile peace was shattered by a series of bombings and assassinations which decimated the three gangs and left the cities and surrounding settlements dark and smouldering. The Immortals, a large gang from a distant part of the hive have moved in to fill this power vacuum and attempt to restore order. 
 So, what will it be lads? Try to rebuild Port Imperiale to it's lost glory, join up with the foreign upstarts, or sit here drowning your sorrows in another tankard of fungale? 

 At the game day on the 1st, I have a list of 5 scenarios written up for us to play, some can be replayed several times, a record of the results will be kept that will determine the disposition of forces for the big game at KublaCon, which will be a Siege scenario from the Outlanders book, representing the Immortals final assault on the defenders of Port Imperiale.

Should the player choose to ally with the Immortals, the following rules will apply:
 1. Due to the Immortals' control of the Spook trade, the gang can hire a Wyrd for free.
 2. For the cost of 25 credits per game, D3 Immortals will fight with the gang. Standard ganger stats, 2 random Ferocity skills, armed with either an Autogun or Autopistol, and knife.
 3. If the gang has a Settlement territory, any "free juves" must be given to the Immortals in exchange for D3 Immortals, as above.
 4. If the Immortals gain control of Port Imperiale, the gang may choose any one new territory.

Should the player choose to side with the independent gangs and the mayor, the following rules apply:
 1. Dispossessed civilians are eager to help. The gang may hire Scummers for 5 credits, or 1 independent ganger or d3 Scavvies for free.
 2. Refugees looking for a new start are plentiful. The gang may hire new Juves for 15 credits.
 3. If the Mayor and the Independent gangs maintain control of Port Imperiale, the gang will receive D3 randomly determined new territories.

In the comments below, please post before Saturday morning which side you are backing. First come first serve, but if you guys bunch up on one side, I may have to either sweeten the other deal, or bump some of you over to the opposition. Now back to the painting table for me.
Thanks, good luck, remember if the bad guys are "the Boot" and the good guys are "the Neck," it's better to be the bad guy, and always check those corners.

Kublacon 2014: The Op-For Velvet Rope Game Experience

I intended to make this announcement some weeks ago, but better late than never. Our shadowy Op-For Overlord and several others of us have sprung for a "Corner King" room at the Hyatt this weekend, 5/23-5/26 for KublaCon 2014. What's special about it is it's got a table that seats 8, some other amenities, and I'm thinking it may have a parlor area. Half-jokingly we're calling it the Op-For Velvet Rope VIP Game Area. Really, though, we're just thinking it's going to be a great place to run games and hang out.

I know, I know, KublaCon offers lots of places to play, but honestly if you know KublaCon you know free gaming space is at a high premium (as in if you haven't camped on a spot early morning forget about it) and signing up for RPG games is an utter and complete crapshoot. And even if you're lucky enough to get choice seats in games it can mean not getting to spend enough time with friends you don't get to see often (i.e. there's little chance the games you get into are going to match up with those your friends get, even when you enter the exact same priorities).

So, our hope is this is going to be the silver bullet, a great game annex and possibly an opportunity for a centerpiece game or two as well.

In my case I've got the following I'll be ready to pull out wherever we find the space in the schedule. First up, AD&D 1e / OSRIC. My style is old school, pretty much by-the-book, with some nascent sandbox elements and with a focus on dungeons, treasure, monsters, and life-and-death logistics. I've got several modules at different power levels (either character levels 1-2 or 4-7) we can do, sampling some of the finest of the OSR crop of modules. No prior experience needed and we can make characters on the spot. I was going to put the AD&D into the lottery offerings but I've been busy at work and besides, I get so few opportunities to meet up with the Op-For extended crew that I decided to run it for us. Also, this is something we can pull out at any stop in the action. While I realize the goal of many con games is to pull out the stops in terms of high production and fanfare, there's an appeal all it's own to fitting in low key sessions whenever time allows. It seems to me more in the spirit of old school gaming, too. You hear about olden-day marathon sessions and continuous campaigns. Yes, you also hear about tournament style con games from early on, but they seem to be remembered less fondly. Oh, and this is part of the reason I'm not going to be bringing my miniatures collection or Dwarven Forge. That and I guess I'm lazy. One year or another I'll bring it and do the whole nine yards, and we'll be able to compare the experiences. But this time I have a new and elegant "schematic" way to represent the dungeon environment and characters that I'm eager to try out.

My second offering is a stack of Games Workshop boardgames from the golden age circa 1985-88. I'll have Dungeon Quest, Chaos Marauders, Warrior Knights and Warlock of Firetop Mountain, all original, no remakes. Some of these I just picked up on ebay this year and haven't played yet, or only once. Really excited about these, especially Warlock of Firetop Mountain! In case you're not familiar with them, these games have an unmatched beauty in terms of art, component style and graphic design, and the mechanics embody a spirit of high-risk, high-luck, and high adventure. They're mostly beer and pretzels fair in terms of crunchiness, except for Warrior Knights, which is fairly complex.

So, if we know each other consider dropping us a comment or otherwise dropping us a line or finding us at the con, and if you're an Op-For member and you've got an offering go ahead and edit this post with your update at the bottom here.

Kubla! Con! 2013

Memorial Day Weekend means a lot to many people. But to many gamers (around 1,000) in the North Bay it means 4 days of non-stop gaming at KublaCon! This year marked my 3rd KublaCon and it was my best one yet. Went with great friends, meet up with familiar faces, tried new games, and scored at the flea market.

Friday:

Two things are important on Friday. The first is getting your name on the lists of miniature games that will be run that weekend. It's pretty old school still, hope you get there soon enough to write your on the sheet. Secondly, is getting to the flea market early. This one we nailed. SECOND IN LINE!!

The Flea Market line: This doesn't show that the line wrapped itself left around the corner, down the hall, then back up around, up the stairs and down that hall. And we were second in line. Once inside it was a mad dash to anything interesting. Mario scored Spooktalker a seriously cool bag of old lead minis.

Saturday:

My gaming started with Star Wars Pod Racing. (Thanks to the first 4 people on the signup list who didn't show up) GM made up some fun pod racers and had nice looking table and 10 eager players. I was the small brown colored racer, 3rd row back in the center. I say "was" because I was blasted out of the game before we even arrived at the first corner. Those are my smoldering remains in the picture below. yay. I left the game for around 45 minutes and came back to see that the players still hadn't made it out of corner one yet. Great concept of a game, but far too slow.

 

 

Next up, was running my Axles & Alloys game. This would be my second year, and plenty of folks signed up. To my surprise Kevin, George and Steve names were on my list, and they all were returning players from last year. Matter of fact, Steve & George had brought their own cars they kit bashed up. So cool. Also joining us was Anthony, Spooktalker, OpFor, Mario, plus Theo and Reid. It was great to see the support.

Game one, we had a classic deathmatch scenario. Good old death and destruction ensued.

Game two: Escort the semi mission. I gave the attacking team an additional car and I secretly gave the semi an extra car in it's trailer (which it never deployed). The two teams charged forward into each other, taking turns destroying one other. The funniest chain of events happened at the end, when the semi was on a collision course with some terrain and in a last ditch attempt to evade it, played a Chance card. The card let the vehicle leap into the air, but unfortunately didn't get enough clearance over the terrain. Causing him to crash into the terrain. Giving the last remaining opponent a chance to t-bone him. In doing so, destroying himself and the semi. A dramatic and hilarious end to the game. Victory went to the attacking team.

Mario and I played a round of Dreadball afterwards. Dwarves vs Rats. It ended up being quite a close game. Mario's last rush gave him the lead, and I followed up on my last rush, countering with a 4 point score to steal the win away. Quite a fun game.

Also got the chance to play a beta version of a card game by Steve. Check his blog here http://www.stevebeangames.com. Probably won't say too much since they are still developing it. But it did win an award at the game design competition that weekend. And I know our gaming group was impressed by the game's mechanics and how well they were tied to the theme. Great job guys.

Sunday:

Got in a game of Desperados, Dudes & Deputies by Steve and George. 54mm weird wild west zombie shootout game. I shot it out at the local saloon. My partner was pushing up daisies, but I managed to enact revenge. They ran a second game with zombie hordes, but unfortunately, I had to leave before then.

 Steve even dressed the part. Well played sir.

  Other Fun Things:

 

 Giant Jurassic Park board!

 

 This won the gamer's choice award in the painting contest.

 

 Aliens vs Marines game with lots of kids. I was told it might play as a SpaceHulk game.





 

My score from the flea market and vendor hall. BloodBowl to the max, including 4 plastic teams, one metal team, standard and foam pitches, plus misc BB mags. And PC game Planescape Torment that I have been hunting for. Thank you Damon for the Rezolution figs! Found some Hero Quest figs too. Dice. And some cute bunny minis from ZombieSmith.

Here's to next KublaCon.....

Overall, I had a great time. Not sure if I will run Axles & Alloys again. But if I do, I will need to think of something special to take it to the next level.

What I learned:

1. Arrive (real) early to the flea market 
2. Good Scotch won't go to waste here
3. Never mention you listen to Matchbox 20
4. Let the Wookie win

But I'm the Dragonborn...

This is too nerdy for Facebook, but I thought you guys might find it funny. I spent 45 levels "Sandboxing" in Skyrim, mostly buffing out my Smithing and Enchanting skills, and killing bandits and taking their stuff. Moral questions about stealing from stealers aside, I just started getting into some of the campaign quests. The ones intended for lower levels are now quite funny, as the characters question your prowess, and equipment. They gave me a steel sword that does 70 damage, to replace "whatever that is." "THAT" is a dragon bone sword that does 206... oh, and it siphons health and fills soulgems. They challenge me to a fist fight after I just saved their village from an Elder Dragon. Calling me names and trying to intimidate as we are literally fighting amongst the bones of a dragon I killed before their eyes.
I wouldn't deign to give Spooktalker tips on using inks as I'm helping him carry his painting contest trophies out to the car, nor would I, with my bum knee and vans try to go long distance running with Skywatcher (during a Con mind you, the guy is kind of a badass). I do sometimes try to match wits with DoomsDay, but only to keep my Daedric Sarcasm (Epic) sharp.
Pretty stinkin' nerdy.

Axles & Alloys 2 at KublaCon 2012

KublaCon 2012 has come and gone, and with it much gaming was had. On Saturday, Spooktalker hosted a story telling based RPG, then our Op-For Overlord ran an awesome Necromunda scenario game in the evening. I hope he posts some shots and the low down on the game. I placed second of the starting 8 players. (so close, it came down to a couple last shots that could have turned the tide) Be sure to chalk it up to my noob status. This post will cover the game I ran on Sunday.

Axles & Alloys 2
@ KublaCon May 27, 2012

Download Quick Rules Sheet | Download Car Sheets

Download Full Rule Set (I changed up & removed some of the rules for the con)

We had a full turnout with 8 players signed up. I setup the board with terrain and briefly gave a run down of the rules. Everyone seemed ready, grabbed a car and we were off. (Mental note for next time, bring a tan/brown sheet to lay over the white table for better visuals)

Game 1
Scenario: Speed Bumps

I picked a scenario called "Speed Bumps" pitching everyone against each other with pedestrians that randomly spawned around the table each turn that awarded bonus points for killing. One point for each car kill and 2 points for each pedestrian taken out. At the beginning of each round, I rolled and randomly spawned 3 new pedestrians at 6 different possible points around the board. It was great fun to watch everyones plans adjust to were the people showed up. A few times right in front of an oncoming car. Once the game got underway, everyone quickly realized that it was best to go after the pedestrians than the other cars. But we did have, I think, 2 cars destroyed during the 8 round game. Victor picked a winner Kubla Pin and second place got $10 KublaBucks. After the game wrapped, we still had plenty of time and everyone wanted to go again (cool!), so we took a break and got ready for another game.

The rules are light, but tactics are still king

Cars dance around the table

Game 2
Scenario: Ambush!

For change of pace, I picked a scenario that would form 2 teams and pit them against each other. One team was in charge of escorting a semi truck (Semi with two escort vehicles), their victory condition was to drive the semi from one end of the table to the other. The attacking team of 4 cars drove in with the sole purpose of destroying the semi. Each team deliberated over tactics, then charged into the fight. With the escorting team being alittle too aggressive and over taking the semi and driving to the other side of the board, leaving the truck to fend for itself. With a huge deluge of well placed dropped weapons (spikes, mines and napalm) the semi was left in a pickle of a situation. It narrowly avoided the deadly path left by their adversaries, but was plinked away round after round until it eventually was destroyed before reaching the half way mark on the table. Victory and $5 KublaBucks went to the attackers. All to easy.

2nd turn of game 2

Escorting vehicle drives by semi

Witness the impending path of this semi through napalm, spike stripes, and then mines to finish the job!

By luck (or terrain adjustment) the semi cranks the wheel enough to detour from disaster

Final Thoughts

All but two players had never played the game before. Everyone unanimously agreed that it was a great game to run at the con, with easy to learn rules and quick turns, plus fun cars. From the feedback, the truck was both underarmed and should have used the same targeting method as the cars for taking fire. I personally had a great time running the games. I can also say that the game ran very smoothly because we had a great group of people at the table. Thanks for those who came to play!

Be sure to visit the creator of this rule set at axlesalloys2.blogspot.com

Vehicular Combat at KublaCon 2012

Join us at KublaCon in Burlingame, CA on May 25-28, 2012. I have scheduled to run the vehicular combat game of Axles & Alloys 2 on Sunday at 10:00am.

"Come focus your pent up road rage in our radioactive desert landscape. Axles & Alloys 2 is fast paced and easy to learn car combat miniatures game. Rules are a homebrew adaptation of Full Thrust, with cars rather than Spacecraft. Rules are quick to learn (fit on 1 page) and don’t take themselves too seriously, and are designed for jumping in and playing. Free for all battle and scenarios planned."

I will be bringing my custom modified hotwheels/matchbox car miniatures. I have some scenarios we can try or just royale rumble style. Join us at the Khan of Cons!