Reapercon Bites the Dust

Okay, maybe not in its entirety, but this year's analog version of Reapercon has succumbed to the same global pandemic as many other conventions. 

Posted to Twitter yesterday:

So, there will be a virtual con Labor Day weekend, you can still register and get a swag bag (or a VIP bag) and a few TBD optional items, but it will be free to absorb some of the massive painting and sculpting knowledge that the folks at Reaper (and the their many many friends) possess.

My Biggest Fear of COVID-19

(Risus) Bigg Melons in the Time of COVID

Last week marked at big accomplishment for our Monday night online gaming group.

For the first time in MONTHS, we actually gamed.

Adding special guest, the renowned Gnome Guy himself, Jim Stanton, the usual suspects had another go at James D'Amato's Coffee Shop to engineer a retail setting for a one-shot using Risus.

Using my only guidelines, a modern electronics store... and it couldn't be the last Radio Shack, the guys created Shockers Electronics... and Kegerators.  It's decor (and employees) stuck in the last 80's, it was the best spot in the Quad Counties for all your battery needs, particularly 9-volts.  Unfortunately those days were numbered, because if Grunge and the 90s didn't kill them off, eminent domain for a new interstate would make that happen any day now.

The PC Employees

• Steve (Played by Sean) The repair guy who drove around a white van to do repairs.  His family ran a small candy company, so he was known to stop and give kids candy out of the van.
• Terry Decimal (Jim) - The quintessential customer service guy at the store.. and the only one who could talk to chicks.   A beer league hockey goalie and secret alcholic.
• Jeff (Jeff) - The high-powered, high pressure salesman in the stereo department.  Power suits, power ties, shoulder pads, with the Wall Street attitude to match.  
• Shawn (Steve) - That one disgruntled customer who simply never goes home, and is always complaining, even if it didn't matter to him.

The big twist? Shocker Electronics immediately went out of business the moment the state was shut down due to COVID-19.   Instead of the uncertainty of unemployment in these bleak times, the three employees got new jobs working at the Bigg Melon Market. 

• Steve the Repair Guy - Got a job in Produce.  He essentially squeezes the melons all day long.
• Terry - Working in the Meat Department and his drinking might be catching up to him.
• Jeff - Tries to hard sell people on milk, bread, and eggs, but his only known duty is to maintain and repair the self-cleaning robot.  Funny thing, no one has ever seen the self-cleaning robot.
• Shawn - The nagging customer is actually the manager of the Supermarket.

It's 6:55am and everyone is prepping things for the 7-8 Early Bird Senior Citizen Shoppers plaguing the world of COVID.  Everyone's ready, except Jeff, who staggers in the store through the employee entrance.  He's dressed like a bad reject from Miami Vice, save the large coffee stain.

7:00am - Shawn opens the doors to 98 seniors, most in scooters, pushing walkers, or wielding weapons, correction, canes... and zero masks or gloves.  Shawn performs some acrobatics jumping from one register to the next, finally reaching lane 17 and the only working microphone to announce a special on toilet paper.

Only problem, no one restocked the TP from the overnight.    

Things devolve further, as Manfred Lickbottom, county health inspector, makes his way through the front doors for a scheduled inspection.

Shawn blocks the few of his illogical carnage from Manfred as Steve from Produce dashes over and frees come Vietnam Vets on scooters from the TP Pile-Up and sends to in the direction of the bread.  Craig the Bread Guy, never same the slow moving vets coming and quickly succumbed to injuries.

#RIPCraig

On top of that, he hastily pulled a women with a walker out of the fray.  The tennis ball covering the legs fell off and the legs impaled Steve in the foot.

Terry finally left the meat department, where he was displaying the meat alphabetically by type, then by size, and came over the the TP aisle.  Jeff had been trapped in the TP aisle and was trying to soothe the elderly with his Melodica.   Terry used his customer service savvy to distract the seniors from panicking.

Using electronic store sign language Terry told Jeff to steal all the batteries out of the scooters, where the trapped old timers could be pulled out one by one.

As he completed removing the batteries, Jeff came face to face with dozens of snakes pouring out from under shelves.  He held his cool, but with the first woman's screams, mobility challenged geezers staggered in every direction.   Terry narrowly missed getting crushed by an endcap of canned hams, but the display managed to crush poor Gladys Runger of Rosecrest Gardens.  In a rather dark turn of events, Terry pulled out his meat cleaver and chopped off Gladys' legs poking out from under the endcap.

"Blood's a demerit, visible meat on the ground is an automatic fine..."

As to be expected, things got a little bit... fuzzy, at that point. 

Shawn managed to escort Manfred to the doors of the meat department/back storeroom, with only a few odd glances of snakes in the deli counter.   They met Terry, who was given demerits for his blood streaked face (use a face shield next time!) but no one question the women's lower legs he was holding (wearing gloves, way to go!)

Shawn had Steve grab the forklight and grab the pickle barrel that hadn't been on display since 1978... and also hadn't been emptied at that time either.  Now, Jeff had concocted a device out of all of the batteries he stole to electrocute most of the snakes, but prehistoric pickle juice and smoke bombs were the company policy for snakes.

The problem?  Steve had already lost his forklift operator certification and the quickly reminded everyone why that happened. 

The pickle juice barrel blocking his sight, Steve crashed through the stockroom doors with the lift up, ripping apart the wall, and having the debris knock him unconscious.  The forklift steamed it's way towards frozen food with Steve out like a light.

There were many heroes, but none greater than Terry and Shawn, who convinced the health inspector the social distancing taboos were happening the parking lot, and only Manfred had the authority to stop them.  Once he was out the door, Shawn saw the runaway forklift, crashing through the frozen food cases, dove over to a display of Pepsi Max shaped like a football and started chucking footballs to block the wheels of the machine. 

He did succeed in stopping it, but with one final lurch, the pickle juice tipped over onto the scooter-riding vets. 

... at least this opening was better than yesterday's Early Bird Hour. 

The Grand Gala That Was 2019 for D&D

One of the parts of my job is to apparently to argue with statistics and data with the marketing company we used.  They announce glorious gains and improvements from their campaigns, and it's my job to drill huge holes into their claims, somewhat to argue against contractual increases, but personally, to tell them that they're full of it.  It's nice to celebrate a million phone calls, web leads, or even pieces of mail, but if half of them are blank or garbage, that should affect the success of the program.

I'm quite open to the fact that I'm no longer (and usually never was) part of the mainstream gamer demographic.

With the latest promotion by Wizard of the Coast for their market research, I didn't orginally exist as part of their research...

 The original pie chart stopped at 40-45, not including anyone truly middle-aged or beyond.

Those over 45 must be playing the special "Carousel" Edition.....

As I pace back to their last reported marketing survey in 1999, they claimed that there were 5.5 million active gamers in the US alone, and to make matters worse, they only included gamers 12-35 in the survey.  Back then, I was a spry 25 year old, so I didn't review the data much, but after twenty years, all of those now end up in the two oldest categories for 2019.

Now, considering they project 40 million fans of D&D, including folks who just listen to D&D podcasts or watch Critical Role, what are the actual number of active gamers in that pie chart?  I'd love to know how many of the 8-17 group are finding it on their own, or all they led in by the demographic WotC wants to ignore.

Some impressive numbers there, but additional questions are raised?  How many introductory boxed sets were the less than stellar Stranger Things boxed sets?  What's the comparison of gimic vs intrigue?  Are they counting worldwide sales for the 46 years, because my research shows Paizo overwhelming them in the US, and Amazon wasn't the dominant force yet in RPGS than it is now.

And is increased Sales is Europe unit sales, is Amazon.eu active in distribution, what's really going on?

It's great for self-promotion, but Hasbo shareholders might like more tangible financials.  A quick review of Twitter aside, how exactly is the exposure translating into players, then customers, than a consistent revenue stream?

And 4.3 billion minutes of passive viewership in Twitch sounds impressive, and I think it still is, but to put it into perspective the last season of Game of Thrones (since they bring it up), had 5.1 billion minutes of passive viewership, crammed together in six episodes.  Entire first season of the Big Band Theory (when it was 68th in viewership?)  2.8 billion minutes watch of the first run over 17 half hours in  year.  Far better than me going Facebook Live, but giving the data context is always important.  

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #74 - Tale of the Lancers

6th of OctDec,  1147 Village of Eding, Kingdom of Crosedes

I headed back to the Blue Wizard for breakfast and more conversation, but Angalm was actually busy at work, brokering deals with many villagers for grain, fresh vegetables, and whatever trinkets made his eyes twinkle.

By evening, he finally returned, but demanded a multiple course supper and most of the fine wine left at the Inn before he turned to storytelling.  But alas, all were his best tales of Nevskia and The Weissmach, old sort for me, but prime attention grabbers for a new audience.

7th of OctDec,  1147
...Nothing of the sorts...

8th of OctDec, 1147
Again I caught Caton lurking at the bend in the Hydincall River near the Witch's hut, except this time it was early morning as I took a stroll of my own.  I will need to confront him on these odd forays into the Nightwood, if to only allay my fears of one of my dear friends in Eding.

Angalm finally exhausted his normal trove of stories, plus a few zingers from his time around Barthey.

I asked about his travel through Markovia, and he had little, but when I mentioned Verbobonc, his eyes grew twice as big.

"Well... back in the Winter of '46..."

"Winters can be harsh at times in Verbobonc, but the whole territory was alarmed by a week-long storm that only affected the Kron Hills."

"Viscount Eger summoned a double patrol of the Verbobonc Lancers to assist with recovery in the region.  Now, the Kron Hills are known for villages and towns of gnomes and dwarves that can burrow into and below the hillside, but with that much snow, it was certainly a search for survivors... and finding the bodies of those who didn't make it before the wolves out."

"But as soon as the Lancers started trudging throw the snowpack, they were beset by another storm of snow and ice..."

"The swirling and blinding snow made them confused and they quickly lost their place."



"The storm raged for four days, and the only way any survived was the Yarbay mage Feraydoon.  The friend and ally of the Viscount constantly used his Horn of the Desert to keep the men from freezing to death."

"Once the storm subsided, they barely had the energy to escape the hills and report their failure back to Verbobonc City.  "

"By the time of my arrival, the popular rumor around town was that something or someone has turned the winter into a savage beast, intentionally punishing the lands of the Kron Hills.  The mage-advisor to the Viscount, Igrushan, searched within his Crystal of Farseeing and found the vision of an icy cave with the shadowed figure of someone who radiated a dark power silhouetted at its entrance. He could not pinpoint its source except to say that this is where the cold and ice was worst."

"Igrushan had, with the help of the Verbobonc mages' guild, created powerful amulets of unmelting ice that should protect the wearers from the worst of the summoned cold. The Viscount will provide these amulets and a suitable reward to any adventurers willing to brave this unknown power and bring it to an end."

I was tempted right there to call false this tale of the Viscount's wizard.  As far back as I've been granted tomes for research has the Viscount of Verbobonc has never had a wizard, but a mere two years out from my death and Eger has some third-rate mage from Feraso City, with his own tower just outside of Verbobonc City.  I truly wish Andrei was still alive to witness this insufferable display of ineptitude!

I'm deeply troubled that Lord Eger, Viscount of Verbobonc, has completely fallen under the sway of Eastern magicks and faiths.  The returning crusaders and protectors of Barthey against the Parthian Empire may have presented themselves as heroes, but they're failed charlatans, taking advantage of the good grace of nobles for their own unnecessary charity, and with it taint the masses with the wonders of the East.

The Lords of Myridius to the East need to stay in the East.

DM Notes: An amusing tale from a reunited friend about the old homeland.  It is Angalm, so it could be complete bunk, but it could also be the influence of the Myridius Crusaders spreading westward

The Fereasean Mythos is a polytheistic religion with one very dominant god, Akana, God of the Law and Order.  Almost every nation has established Akana as their state religion, so it wields tremendous power.  

When that power needs to be flexed, and the vast nobility is relatively behaving themselves, a crusade or a simple expedition is called to vanquish the dreaded Parthian Empire.  

However these assembled campaigns usually melt away at the first resistance from the first Parthian outpost along the border.   Survivors have taken to plundering the Yarbay peoples and numerous tribes near the Khemmet Empire.  With these riches, they have built great fortresses in this land, which is collectively called the Myridius City-States.  

Except that most of these warriors were horrible managers of their own fortunes, and even worse with spending the ill-gotten gains on managing a domain far from home with a combative climate at times.  Many a noble has gone broke and returned to Ras-Prythax to exchanged their tales of glory for food and a place to lay their head.  And despite the initial crusade's intention to eradicate the Parthians, their returning nobles always bring back a piece of the culture, or that of Yarbay, or Khemmet.  These influences are usually more noticeable in closer places like Vranios, or lingering in Feraso City, not to a distant western land like Verbobonc.   The Krugraf usually quelled such taint, but perhaps the new Krugraf, Theuderic III is either unaware of the Parthian culture, or oddly welcoming to it?

Yes, this one I lifted entirely from Hall of the Mountain King.  I'm never going to get the chance to design, much less play such a scenario, but someday, if I run a campaign that happens to revisit Verbobonc, I'll need to figure out what caused it, and the ramifications of the environment and how long it long a group of adventurers to solve the curse.

Next: #75 - The Second Tale

The New Reality of Historicon

Just in case you just emerged from hibernating in a cave, COVID-19 has made a mess of living as we know it. 

Ever since Cold Wars barely snuck around the Pennsylvania governor's ban on large gatherings, conventions all over the world have either cancelled (Adepticon), gone virtual (Mepacon), "postponed for a year" (Salute), or rescheduled for the Fall (Origins).

Two big names not mentioned above?  GenCon and Historicon.  

Both conventions are in July, which could be a whole new world, good or bad, so the organizers are playing it by ear.

The Historicon convention team did release an e-mail to HMGS members, vendors, and prior attendees, detailing the contingencies in a world controlled by "The Big 'Rona."

For Vendors:

1. If Historicon is cancelled due to government restrictions, all Exhibitors will receive a full refund.
2. If Historicon proceeds but a registered Exhibitor cannot attend due to restrictions local to the Exhibitor, they will receive a full refund.
3. If Historicon proceeds but a registered Exhibitor chooses not to attend due to medical concerns regarding COVID 19, they will receive a full refund.
4. If Historicon proceeds but attendance is substantially reduced due to ongoing COVID-19 issues, the Board will discuss and implement an appropriate, pro-rated refund/credit for attending Exhibitors – as they did for Cold Wars 2020.

For Paying Attendees:

1. If Historicon is cancelled due to government restrictions, all pre-paid Attendees will receive a full refund.
2. If Historicon proceeds but a pre-paid Attendee cannot attend due to restrictions local to the exhibitor, they will receive a full refund.
3. If Historicon proceeds but a pre-paid Attendee chooses not to attend due to medical concerns regarding COVID 19, they will receive a full refund.

For GMs, the deadline for events in the Preliminary Event List (PEL) has been pushed back to May 13th.  They're also recognizing the time, money, and effort spent by the GMs in this precarious time by offering Con Vouchers (usually reserved for volunteers) to GMs for every 5 hours of games they run (after the games are run.)  

Of course, they're looking for volunteers too.   I don't know about specific volunteer demographics, but some of those folks appear to be in the critical categories of people susceptible to COVID-19.   A few fresh face helping out might let the alleged graying of the hobby continue unabated.  

And for the record, my wife told me that I should go.  I don't know if she upped my life insurance, she realizes I'll need some fun and excitement by then, or if she's just sick of me being around the house all the time. 

(Pulp Alley) #3.8 An Unorthodox Egg Hunt

As COVID, mandatory work from home, and the cancellation of the kids' extracariculars has allowed me a bit more time to paint, it's getting through the backlog of games I've wanted to play since late Summer 2019 that's proving trying.  

• Mousling Game?  Got it set up and run beautifully.
• Easter Game?  Together, but haven't gotten the kids to the table.
• Medieval Games with Maja and while everything is out...
• Medieval Zombies using Last Days
• The Maja Millie Pulp Egypt Game?  With the cliffhanger last episode, I'm still finalizing the details for 3.8.

So, to kill two birds with one stone, the Easter Game with become Episode #3.8 of the Pulp Game, as we attempt a Lost Worlds version of an Easter Egg Hunt, using Pulp Alley again!

Maja and Millie made up two new "leagues" earlier in the month (Cultists vs Explorers), and we put them aside until we finally had a chance to play.  Some of the figures got misplaced somewhere in the dining, so we've adapted and overcome.

Set-Up:  Six Potential plot points were set up on the board as potential dinosaur nests.  Each figure could pass a challenge to search, but eggs were only found on a 4+ on d6 on a subsequent roll.  Only one egg per location, and only three eggs could be found.   Hills with Easter Island heads were Perilous Terrain to move into, as well as the monolithic stones and the nearby volcano.

Turn One: The girls gingerly moved most of the figures.

Cult Leader Bartholomew was the first to encounter (and pass) a terrain peril.

Prehistoric allergies?  Not this guy!

"The Cheetah" from the explorers dashed madly into the fray, reaching the nearest egg nest, but being unable to search yet.

Turn Two:

But he did find an egg.

The cultists tried a different technique,.  Starting with their second-in-command, Cap'n Snake, they all risked the perilous hill with the strange heads.

And in a bucket brigade style, kept handing off the egg to the next cultist. ..

They were walking, and everyone walked up and passed their peril checks, so I allowed it.

Rose, leader of the explorers, passed two peril checks to scale a volcano for a better view/shot.

In the first round, the dinosaurs paid little attention to the small mammals scurrying around, but when they started stealing eggs, all the reptiles got worried.

This might be a problem.

Lady Meow-Meow of the Explores (not pictured) was caught unaware by a Brontosaurus and luckily only got knocked around for one hit.

Turn Three:  Deciding that Cheetah could use his speediness to get to another nest, Bob Franks dashed over to him, and like a halfback taking a hand-off from the quarterback, took the egg.

In the background, Doc Bush spotted the Cult Leader and fired, to no effect, and then realized he was stranded in the open ground.  The Cult Leader lowered his staff and with a mighty *ZOT*, Doc was a charred corpse.

The other cultists had conducted their egg brigade perfectly.  The last cultist narrowly avoided one of the heads falling on top of him (Millie played a Fortune card requiring yet another Peril.  These cultists are good, even the minions).

The dinosaurs were fooled for a moment by the egg handoff, but Bob had bigger issues.  He could hear the cracking in his arms!!! Moments later, he was holding an adorable baby dinosaur!

.... and the adult dinos went berserk!

Turn Four: Deciding one egg was enough for their nefarious plans, the cultists retreated.  This left the explorers with some free time to search nests unmolested (by humans at least).

Bob exited the board with the baby dino.

Turn Five:  Cheetah had reached another nest, but failed the initial test before he could search for anything... and those dinos' roars sounded like they were getting closer.

Turn Six:  Lady Meow-Meow had failed at her first attempt to search and had finally reached a second location.  Unfortunately the next around the deadly Wafflesaurus was treacherous, and she was injured... ultimately succumbing to her wounds.

RIP Lady Meow-Meow

With Millie's lucky egg roll, the bady dino netted the explorers enough points to win the scenario, only losing two teammates in the process.

When Episode #3.9 is finally run, I'll be running it with Savage Showdown/Worlds.   Everything that Showdown is missing, Pulp has in spades, but I prefer the Showdown base mechanics, initiative, die rolls, bennies.  Perhaps everyone just rolled well, but even the minions had no problems with the challenges and perils.  They succeeded even easier than the Savage Showdown characters. After two games now, I see the appeal, and I think after we finally complete this season of the Pulp campaign, I can see going into Season 4 running Perilous Island, Adventures in Lemuria, or Tomb of the Serpent.

This was inspired by "Egg Hunt" from Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist.. Outside of thinking up dinosaur stats on the fly, it was great resource. 

(Kickstarter) Charlie Foxtrot for Battlelords of the 23rd Century

After much hullabaloo, the new edition of the traditionally over the top and proud of it Battlelords of the 23rd Century is in the hands of those who pledged for it on Kickstarter, all 540 fabulous pages of carnage and crunch. 

In celebration of that, 23rd Century Productions has launched a second Kickstarter, Charlie Foxtrot, containing five one-shot adventures for the game.

Charlie Foxtrot will contain five one-shot adventures for Battlelords, including pre-generated characters. In addition, there are several short fiction stories to help flesh out the Battlelords' universe. It will also include a small planetary atlas detailing the worlds and locations where these adventures and stories take place. As a whole, Charlie Foxtrot fleshes out this little corner of the Battlelords' universe, creating a sandbox for you to play in... before you blow it up with your shenanigans.

If you missed out the latest edition of Battlelords, or just want more swag, numerous add-ons are available for the campaign. 

Marco Pecota Interview on Board Game Design Lab

Prior to the completion of Raybox Games' successful Legions of Steel Kickstarter, Board Game Design Lab got an opportunity to discuss miniature wargame design with Raybox President, and one of the original designers of L.O.S., Marco Pecota.

The interview can be found here.

Some new artwork for the upcoming 2nd Edition of Legions of Steel

(Kickstarter) Anubis Dice and Dice Holder

I'm not one to usually hearken to luxury accessories with Kickstarter.  Just from casual experience, many of these items never get completed in full, or are outright flops.  

But after browsing Amazon for Maja's birthday presents, the Anubis Dice and Dice Holder piques my interests, specifically for Maja's Christmas present.

Gamer Fashion Wear for the Summer Convention Circuit

(Kickstarter) Torchbearer 2nd Edition by Burning Wheel

After years of plotting, writing, and playtesting the Kickstarter for the Second Edition of the Torchbearer RPG by Burning Wheel has been launched!

The rules have expanded into two hardcover rulebooks ($40 pledge for both, plus the pdfs) with a third book of optional stuff available at higher pledge levels.

Mepacon 38 Lives on Virtually!

The gods were going to deny another trip to Mepacon this year, but they may have relinquished a sliver of hope.

I had planned on making Mepacon 38this spring.  It was right down the road from my house, it was going to be my birthday weekend celebration, and even bringing the girls there (Maja's first con that wasn't as a "free child) it would be a raucous time. 

And then the AAU  schedule came out for the girls.  I think we were going to be in Delaware or Central Jersey the whole weekend, not even a chance of a quick stop Friday before we left. 

Then the Coronavirus showed up in all its glory.  Basketball was put on hiatus, but so was Mepacon.  They scheduled another date of May 15-17, with the hope that it wouldn't be as bad as some projections showed, but even in that perfect scenario, we would be on our cruise that week, returning mid-day Sunday. 

And then Corona knocked everybody for a loop.  Mepacon (and my cruise) were scrapped. 

Except Mepacon wishes to try things a bit differently, hosting an online convention.  Details are still evolving a week after the original announcement, so check the website, check the Mepacon group on Facebook, and if you join, you might see me running a game. 

Recreational Conflict Offers Free US Shipping in Lieu of Little Wars

With the cancellation of Little Wars being added to the conventions succumbing to COVID-19, Recreational Conflict is offering a free US Shipping on order $25 or more placed between April 20th and April 30th.

The Mike Lung Gallery #70 - The Gug Family!

Somehow I forgot to post these Gug pics Mike sent me last year....

For fun…some pics of my Gug family to use in Cthulhu Xothic Wars…the gugs are plastic Pathfinder figs plus a RAFM one.

(Kickstarter) Deadlands: The Weird West by Shane Hensley/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

With all the other successful campaigns for Savage Worlds, it's about damn time Shane Hensley and PEG got around to producing a new edition of Deadlands, specifically compatible with the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition.

Gunslinger (Core Boxed Set) $100

$

The High Roller Level  $220

(SAVAGE MICE) #1 - A Giant Problem in the Center of Town

Thanks to a quarantine canceling all our functions on my birthday weekend, I actually played a miniatures games!  After four years since our last foray into the topic, "Savage Mice" are back!

Mousetown, with the loitering giant in the center and the gentrified gnome neighborhood to the south.

Mousetown has an unwelcome guest!  One morning a giant strolled into town, and for some reason, he doesn't want to leave.  Mouse-folk are terrified to leave their house, can someone save them from their large pest?

Our Mousling heroes:

Robin's Band of Merry Mice:  Robin and Lady Mouse are the two heroes, with the other four being minions armed only with swords... and musical instruments.  (Played by Millie)

The Snakes: an edgy band of Mousling brigands, they'll steal from the rich or the poor, and give to themselves.  Saving villages isn't their vibe, but there might be a handsome reward for this saving the town gig.  Pinky and Wakanda are the heroes.  Run by the "edgy" 10-year old Maja, who didn't want to play the "bad guy goblins," but didn't want true-blue good guys.  I dig that.

The Blue Goblins of G'ba:  G'ba is a power-hungry shaman, and convincing to the giant to join his tribe would shift the balance of power in the area to him.  G'ba and Patch are the heroes and all the minions are armed with poor bows (d4) and shoddy shortswords (d6-1)

Set-Up/Objectives:  Maja and Milllie set up their bands in the open area to the east of the giant.   That left me on the west side, with plenty of cover, but fewer immediate objectives.  

The other four objectives (in addition to the giant):  

 A:  Friar Buck - a mysterious Mousling in sackcloth is the only other Mousling brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to wander the town.

B - The arguing treefolk.  Two treefolk are arguing loudly that the new mushroom in town by the gnome homes doesn't match with the "Cultural History" of the community.

C - A talking frog.  What's he got to say?

 D - The Outhouse.  Is someone inside?  Did they wash their hands?

Main Objective: The Giant

Turn One:  The Snakes and the Goblins cautiously maneuvered over towards objectives.  The Merry Mice, however were full of intensity, scattering to the winds, Lady Mouse dashing towards the Giant, the Merry Mice running in-line towards the strange Mousling, and Robin holding up the rear.

Turn Two: The Snakes' hench-mice walked up with trepidation towards the giant in a single-file line.  They would take a deep breath and engage next round, but then a *zot* could be heard through the air and lead mousling was DEAD!

 The shaman G'ba has hustled out from the buildings and leveled his magic staff.  One down, hopefully many more to go, and the giant was simply ignoring all of this.

Turn Three:  Patch the goblin waited patiently for the person to exit the outhouse.  It was a hulking troll, who was surprised by the small-skinned man, and even more taken aback by his proposal.

 Meanwhile, Wakana reached the Talking Frog, and after a short conversation about the weather, picked up some legends and lore that would be useful for another day.

Back by the giant, the Snake's leader, Pinky was shocked that the Shaman had killed one of their hench-mice, but pleasantly surprised to fine the Shaman in the middle of the field.  One quick arrow lodged into the goblin's heart so fast, that he could do nothing but die....

The death(?) of G'ba

Turn Four:  Robin finally meandered over to the Treefolk and engaged in a long conversation over the merits of magical mushrooms, even if they were so bright and colorful that some could deemed them obnoxious.  The Treekfolk agreed to disagree.

Patch might had lost his leader, but recruiting Nelson Privy as the new muscle of the goblins might help him became the new leader.  Plus the Troll had keen sense of personal hygiene, that might take the goblins even further...

The surviving hench-mice inched up toward the giant the tried a polite greeting.

*WHAM*

Even in his superior armor, the Mousling was no match for the giant club.  And the giant appeared perturbed.

The Merry Mice finally reached the strange Mousling walking around.  He introduced himself as Friar Buck, and was willing to tag along with the group.

Turn Five:  The Snakes fled from the giant, but not as fast as some would suspect.  The giant seemed flummoxed from noises from around the town.   

Once Friar Buck became an honorary Merry Mouse, the remaining minion goblins started firing upon them, killing the mouseling he was just talking two.  Lady Mouse returned fire and ordered them to flee.

Of course the Merry Mice fled right into the direction of the giant, who squashed one quickly, and completely forgot about the Snakes.

Turn Six:  As fast as they appeared, the other Merry Mice sprinted away from the giant, but not too far away.

 The goblins charged Friar Buck, but no one could land a blow.

 The Snakes picked up speed and sped off the board, with only some new knowledge as their treasure.

Turn Seven:  Lady Mouse picked off the last goblin not engaged in combat, and Friar Buck escaped melee with a scratch.  Down to two, and without a leader, the goblins would most certainly route and catch up to Patch.

The other Merry Mice came out of hiding and engaged the giant.... with a playful tune.

And by some magic, these musical hangers-on of the Merry Mice managed to modulate the machismo of this massive man.  In return for a few watermelons for the road, the giant would leave Mousetown, in the opposite direction of the goblins.

Final Score:  Merry Mice (Millie) 23,  Snakes (Maja) 9,  Goblins (Me) 8.

A fun game, I finally got to use my gnome/mouse village, plus it used a lot of what we've painted up recently.  We'll be using Pulp Alley in its full form in the near future, but using a part of the PA cards for objectives always seems to work.  Might, Finesse, and Cunning don't match up perfectly with Agility, Strength, and Heart, and I might avoid/adapt the use of Bennies/Wild Dice on the checks, but it was a great time for all.

Next Up:  Some Pulp Alley, Last Days, and Medieval possibly before we officially return to the Egypt Pulp game.

A lot of the inspiration for expanding the Mousling game came from the numerous awesome AARs from The REALM of JiNNai.   I'll link all the cool scenarios they ran with each one of my write-ups.  Not all are direct inspiration for games ("The Fugitive" was not).

Next for Savage Mice: #2 - The Olde Farm