RPG Campaign Tour: Day 7 - What's the Weather Like Today?

Day 7 of our RPGCampaignTour and it's a question any visitor might have, "What's the weather like today?"

The entire Big River Valley is temperate, with one or two months where the snow stays on the ground in the winter, and a few weeks where it gets unbearably hot and humid in the summer.   Leaves change colors, flowers bloom in the spring, all four seasons can be witnessed at the right time.  

Yes, there are areas in and around the GlowZones that haven't fully recovered, that are dust bowls.  And yes, the more mountainous regions upriver by the Catacombs are rumored to have more snow...  but campaign hasn't witnessed any of that, first-hand.

In our current storyline in the campaign, the leaves are just starting to change colors,  But no one‘s truly home to appreciate them.

Our De Facto Explorers are currently traveling down the banks of the big river, hopefully finding a decent crossing and attempt to find Lathar's long-lost father, Harkonn.   They left in what could be early September, and since then, have been habitually distracted by side-quests, government meetings, murder investigations, and top-secret research.  It's nearing a month on the road and there’s still not quite sure how much further they have to go

Eventually, it’s going to be cold, eventually it is going to snow significantly like it did last year. They have prepped with some cold weather gear, but not a full onset of winter.

I may have to mention the colors of the trees and the earlier evenings a bit more. 

Destination: The Black Reeds of the Wildlands

Your Best Friend Is Your Game Store Shopkeeper

It is Cold Wars weekend.  Amongst the twenty or so vendors there in the Lampeter, I would hope this conversation happens in English.   

The translation of the cartoon is "Your friend Robert Villepreux came yesterday. It is my duty to inform you that he has ordered two infantry regiments and three motorized assault divisions."

What a good guy!

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 6 - Where Shall We Start?

Day 6 of the #RPGCampaignTour Challenge and we finally finish the session zero of questions and work towards the baby steps of the campaign with "Where Shall We Start?"

Of course, we start in Riverbend. 

Fun fact: Four years and 129 sessions later, and I didn't have a picture of anything in town until I ran a couple dozen different attempts in Nightcafe to generate the picture above.  

Riverbend is a large village, a meeting place for the surrounding farmers. In this corner of Gamma World, I picture a lot of Enlightenment era tech, with a smattering of Ancient tech treasures. 

There is a business district. Oddly enough there’s no true River District as shipping commerce up and down is a rare sight on the water. The Big River is not a huge enterprise for some reason.

Riverbend is not without its problems.  There appear to be more inns and taverns than what the town should support.   Up until the last year or so there was very little in defensive measures, most relied on a poorly trained militia.   Now at least  some of the buildings within the business district are now protected by a 7 foot tall wooden palisade

There is also an entire neighborhood on the outskirts of town further away from the big river that is run by ne'er do wells, but it's more likely to find black market or random Ancient tech there than anywhere else.

The most notable secret society, of course are the Restorationists, who keep a very high profile headquarters in Aspiration Hall. This is the largest concentration of Restorationists in the region, yet despite their leader having a spot with the town elders, it's quite that the actions of the town conflict wit the vision of the group.  

(Painting) A Werewolf, a Duck, and a Road Cone: The Musical

After a month of fooling around with role-playing characters, I'm still cleaning things off the painting bench. 

The Werewolf is from the original Reaper Bones line (77009).  It's honestly one of the better Original Bones sculpts, and at $3.99, was quite affordable.  It looks like they've transitioned it to the Bones USA grey plastic and the price has doubled.  

The Duck is a leftover from the ones Millie printed up in class for me.   God help me if more start showing up.

And after a thorough cleaning, I finally recovered the road cone from the Reaper Modern Accessories pack that I dropped off the painting bench and it vanished.  

In fun news, I finally found employment.  It's a step up from entry level, I like my coworkers, and I shouldn't have any issues coming forward with Mepacon or Historicon.  Being a single guy on a limited budget means my evenings are getting focused on RPG sessions, painting sessions, and working through the back catalog of games, particularly Gnome skirmish, Mousling campaign, and prepping for more Egypt games with the girls. 

In the Queue - Teddy Bears (and another "fun with paint colors"), Death Planet Iota characters

Project: 350 -  441 (283/156  from 466 (282 /184) 

RPG Campaign Tour: Day 5 - Can You Tell Us About the Campaign's History?

Day 5 of the #RPGCampaignTourChallenge, and I've been cornered: "Can you tell us about the campaign's history."  

Of course, the overarching history that is Gamma World:  Our future civilization is destroyed in some atomic power apocalypse.  Hundreds(?) of years later, humanity and all of mutant-kind are emerging from the wreckage. 

Or are they?

Because Riverbend is fully established, yet very early American Colonial, with muskets and primitive farming.  

And just a few days walk, KIA Academy is the paragon of technology, if by technology you simply focused on road construction technology for some reason.

And in-between there's Fair-Town, if Dickensian London was hidden in the trappings of a full-time Renaissance Faire, and the tabard-wearing guardsman do a poor job of hiding the laser rifles they've procured somehow. 

Within the confines of our game sessions, one can sense that the Restorationists of Riverbend are looking to expand their knowledge base into the wilderness, especially across the Big River.  Our campaign's heroes, the De Facto Explorers can't be the only group they've hired to investigate Ancient facilities, engage with mutant races, and bring back technology and knowledge... can they? 

As our friends, the Explorers travel, they've engaged with Hissers and Hoppers, befriending many, outright crippling a secret society of mutant supremacists, all the while detonating at least three mini-tac-nukes.  Across the big river, they've encountered agents of the Overlord of Bon-Parr and the Ranks of the Fit, expanding their power quietly and trying to peacefully absorb the settlements.  Things have not always been friendly, groups have not seen eye to eye, but everyone seems to be focused on achieving the same goals through different, but usually peaceful means.

Below KIA Academy, a series of storms are brewing.  Multiple unknown groups, the two largest denoted as "living metal skeletons" and "wizards" have been clashing.   KIA has been in a state of panic for the past year, raising their army, and awakening past sins of their technology-focused culture, bringing the mutant dregs that live in their sub-levels back up to the light to fight as conscripts. 

But the question remains, where exactly did the living metal skeletons and "wizards" come from?  Does it have anything to do with the recent increase in the famed "Southern Lights," fabulous blue glowing light shows that usually appear beyond the foothills, far away from the towns?  It simply can't be a coincidence that rumors of demons appearing.... or an entire community of blue-skinned, pointy eared humanoids known as the Kirothians emerged out of the woods after one of the light shows.  

Of course, as the Gamemaster, and the only one with a solid history of Gamma World, I'm the only one amused by the concept, "What if we aren't in Gamma World"  or perhaps, "What if we're not WHEN Gamma World takes place?"

One of the Kirothians....

After 129 sessions, the story continues to unfold.

The Back-Dated RPG Campaign Tour Challenge for 2026

The dust from January's #CharacterCreationChallenge has barely settled.  The backlog of other posts is finally catching up.

And I entirely blame Ken Newquist's Nuketown for casually pulling me into another RPG Challenge.  

Ken post about the #RPGCampaignTourChallenge drew me in and the concept for the Barking Alien blog is beautifully simple and executable: 

The concept is simple; give your readers/viewers a tour of your current (or favorite or in-development) campaign setting using the prompts provided below by yours truly. Imagine the Challenge as a kind of 'travel guide' to the setting of your game.

I know Ken started on Thursday 2/4 and started knocking out the first two days then.  I'll rely more on social media, but I'll back date the first couple, and hopefully the rest of the prompts will take less than an hour or two every day.  

The Gamma World "Not a Test" Campaign loves its self-promotion, especially since the Actual Play post started this week, after a long holiday and #CCC hiatus. 

Glorious Adventures in the Age of Steam for Fistful of Lead

One thing I've realized about Fistful of Lead... What seemed to start as a $20 set of rules you can cobble together your own version of the fantastic.. or the realistic, is becoming a lifestyle, if one wants to spend the coin.

Straight from TMP to this blog: 

It is truly a wondrous age! It seems a new invention destined to change the world is created every day. Babbage's Analytical Engine has transformed modern mathematics and made complex calculations capable of changing the world. Edison's Aether ships ply the space ways making interplanetary travel a daily occurrence. Tesla has made electric power plentiful, and advances in steam technology have made the impossible possible.

Of course, none of these advances in science would be possible without the discovery of X-Matter in 1869. When this miracle element is combined with other substances it can make metals lighter and stronger, and make fuels burn hotter. Even members of the occult societies claim X-Matter has a mystical effect on reality itself.

All this new technology has quickly found its way to the battlefield. Soldiers march to war resplendent in their colorful uniforms, armed with the newest, deadliest weapons. And the march to war beside monstrous, steam belching machines; airships, armored walkers, submersibles and landships.

Glorious Adventures in the Age of Steam is a stand-alone game. People who already own a Fistful of Lead game will notice the core mechanics are unchanged. In this book, you'll find new equipment, weapons and exotic new locations with lists of inhabitants both friend and foe. Your adventures may take you from the haunted back alleys of London to the majestic canals of Mars. Or are you more in the mood for a dinosaur hunt at the center of the Earth? It's all right here.

To be completely fair, Glorious Adventures is available directly at Wiley Games, but is, of course, stocked to at Brigade Games.  The printed edition is $40 with the Glorious Adventures card deck for $20.