#RPGaDay2021 Starts Tomorrow!

Tomorrow starts the 8th Annual #RPGaDay, 31 days of celebrating role-playing games in the month of August.

The concept hasn't changed after all these years.  Write something about this hobby that you love each day for a month.  Each day, the creators have provided a question or one-word concept to dwell upon. Whether you tweet, blog, vlog, or use some other medium, make sure to include #RPGaDay2021 with your submission (and feel free to use the RPGaDay Facebook group to promote your work.... as well as follow others' submissions.)

Two added bonuses this year.  First, the creators give FOUR options for each day.  Perfect for those who complain a prompt is too vague, or covers something you don't want to discuss.  Second,  the creators were nice enough to create individual graphics of each day, so I don't always need to grab an appropriate picture 

Check out David F Chapman's blog Autocratik for more details.

Another Month of Gaming (Aug '21)

Another month has passed and it's time for August releases, aka many of the GenCon releases. Yes GenCon is September 16-19, but even more reason to get the teases out a few weeks earlier 

Issue #258 of Game Trade Magazine can be found at your FLGS and in pdf form here.

ViscountEric's Want List

Nothing, and this is why I don't go to GenCon

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Object Want List

Catalyst Game Lab

Battletech - Map Pack - Alien Worlds .......................................................... $24.99

It's been tough enough over the years to find in-stock map sets, but alien worlds? Sign me up.

Wyvern Gaming

Stargate SG-1 RPG Core Rulebook ............................................... $59.99

Stargate SG-1 RPG Gate Master Screen ........................................ $14.99

Stargate SG-1 RPG Determination Points ...................................... $14.99

Stargate SG-1 RPG Dice ................................................................  $24.99

Stargate SG-1 RPG Item Cards ....................................................... $14.99

I wasn't a huge fan of the movie or the show, but the concept was intriguing well-written that I could catch an episode, follow the Stargate- of-the-Week, and follow allong with the ongoing plot.  In a world of online gaming, this feels like a great on-going filler game. 

The Imaginary Store List (The Pegleg Gnome)

AAW Games

Rise of the Drow Collectors Edition Pawn Set ................................. $59.99

My Pawn-Fu is pretty weak, but 200 pawns for sixty bucks seems like a good deal, and they're drow, so there's always a market for those guys (and even eviler gals).

Rise of the Drow Underworld Encounters Deck .............................. $19.99

Archona Games

Magna Roma .................................................... $59.00

Magna Roma Deluxe ....................................... $79.00

Magna Roma Dominus .................................... $35.00

Magna Roma Metal Coins ............................... $18.00

Ares Games

Last Friday - Revised Edition .......................... $49.90

The Army Painter 

Desert & Arid Wastes Terrain Kit...................... $45.00

Ruins & Cliffs Terrain Kit ................................ $45.00

Snow & Tundra Terrain Kit .............................. $45.00

Terrain Brush Kit .............................................. $29.99

Wilderness & Woodlands Terrain Kit ............... $45.00

Warpaints: Skin Tones Paint Set ........................ $57.50

Catalyst Game Lab

Battletech - Legends .......................................... $49.99

Battletech - Map Pack - Deserts ........................ $29.99

Battletech - Clan Fire Star ................................. $24.99

Battletech - Clan Support Star ........................... $24.99

Battletech - Heavy Battle Star ........................... $24.99

Battletech - Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance ..... $19.99 

Battletech - Inner Sphere Heavy Lance ............ $19.99

Battletech - Inner Sphere Striker Lance ............ $19.99

Cubicle 7

Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Soulbound RPG - Bestiary .................... $44.99

Warhammer Fantasy RPG - Altdorf - Crown of the Empire ................. $49.99

Warhammer 40k Wrath and Glory RPG: Litanies of the Lost .............. $39.99

Dietz Foundation 

Color the Cthulhu Book .................................... $12.00

Flying Frog Productions

Forbidden Fortress - Feudal Village Expansion ......................... $59.95

Forbidden Fortress - Odo Furo XXL Enemy Pack ..................... $49.95

Forbidden Fortress - Takobake Samurai Enemy Pack ................ $24.95

Free League Publishing

Alien RPG: Colonial Marines Operations Manual ..................... $44.99

Gale Force Nine

Dune - Betrayal .................................................. $25.00

Dune Board Game - Film Version ...................... $50.00

D&D - Wild Beyond the Witchlight - Agdon Longscarf & Haregon Brigands (3) ..... $25.00

D&D - Wild Beyond the Witchlight - DM Screen  .......................... $15.00

D&D - Wild Beyond the Witchlight - Map Set ................................ $40.00

D&D - Wild Beyond the Witchlight - Witch Queen & Iggwilv ....... $20.00

Goodman Games

Mutant Crawl Classic RPG SC ............................... $24.99

DCC:  Lankhmar- The Greatest Thieves in Lankhmar ............ $59.99

Grand Gamers Guild 

The Independence Incident ..................................... $ 9.99

The Kringle Caper ................................................... $ 9.99

Kobold Press

Completely anecdotal, but the number one role-playing accessory I always see deep-discounter online and in brick and mortar stores?  Spell Cards and the like.  Obviously they must sell, since everyone and their brother makes them, but outside of a handful of organized play guys at cons, I've rarely seen them used, much less in someone's collection.  

Konami Digital Entertainment  

Yu-Gi-Oh! Battles of Legend 2021 Boosters

Yu-Gi-Oh! Hidden Arsenal - Chapter 1 Box Display

Yu-Gi-Oh! Maximum Gold - El Dorado Box Display

Legendary Games

Battlemasters & Berserkers (5e) ............................................. $19.99

Cosmic Curses (Starfinder) ..................................................... $12.99

Cursed Space (Starfinder) ....................................................... $13.99

Modiphius

Conan: Kull of Atlantis ......................................................... $35.99

Osprey Games

Stargrave: Quarantine 37 ...................................................... $26.00

Paizo Publishing

Pathfinder RPG: Adv - Night of the Gray Death .................. $22.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip Mat - Night of the Gray Death ........... $14.99

Pathfinder RPG: AP - Strength of Thousands 4 - Secrets of the Temple-City .......... $24.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip Mat - Jungle Multi-Pack .................... $24.99

Pathfinder RPG: Guns & Gears HC ...................................... $49.99

Pathfinder RPG: Guns & Gears HC Special Editionn .......... $69.99

Pathfinder RPG: Guns & Gears Pocket Edition ................... $24.99

Pathfinder RPG: Secret of Magic Spell Cards ...................... $54.99

One exception I may find to my spell card rule might be larger collected editions, good for a sale or two in the store and not taking up too much display space for an extra copy. 

Starfinder RPG: Alien Archive 1 & 2 Battle Cards ............... $59.99

And just when I give an exception to my rule, I realize that there are multiple bulk card sets.  Just as bad, plus more expensive!

Starfinder RPG: Flip Tiles - City Alien Planet Ruins Expansion ................ $19.99

Starfinder RPG: Panws - Tech Revolution Pawn Collection ....................... $24.99

Pokemon USA

Pokemon CCG: Sword & Shield Evolving Skies 

Ravensburger

Alien: Fate of the Nostromo  ............................................. PI

Marvel Villainous: Mischief and Malice  .......................... PI

Restoration Games

Return to Dark Tower ...................................................... $190.00

Teeturtle

Reversible Octopus Plushies - Day/Night ......................... PI

My daughter got a normal colorful one.  They're adorable and great impulse buys. (Just ask her).

Ulisses- Spiele

Ulisses-Spiele knows over the top product launches.  The big item for GenCon appears to be yet another edition of the Fading Suns RPG.  Like the TORG releases, everything but Fading Suns: The Flamethrower is available.  Way to many softcover dossiers and accesories to list. 

Fading Suns RPG: Core Books Slipcase ............................ $120.00

Ultra-Pro 

D&D - D20 Dice Bag

D&D - D20 Jumbo Plush

D&D - Heavy Metal Dice D20 Dice Set

D&D - Heavy Metal Dice D6 Dice Set

D&D - Heavy Metal Dice Set 

The official D&D stuff seems to move everywhere.  Just don't overorder, folks.

D&D - Treasure Nest Dice Bags

Beholder, Lich, Fire Giant, Mind Flayer

Wizards of the Coast

D&D - Strixhaven - Curriculum of Chaos  ....................................... $49.95 each

HC and Alternate Cover HC Available

D&D - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight - A Feywild Adventure...... $49.95 each

HC and Alternate Cover HC Available

Wizkids

Orc Warband ............................................. $44.99

D&D Icons of the Realms - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Booster Brick .... $19.99 each

Warlock Tiles: Dripstone Bridge ............... $49.99

Warlock Tiles: Stalactites & Stalagmites  .. $49.99

Renegades of Kashgar by Pulp Figures

I've been slowly trying to assemble a reasonable shopping list for Historicon in November, plus give myself some time to catch up on the healthy wave after wave of Kickstarters that have arrived through the spring and summer.

Then Bob Murch from Pulp Figures has to sculpt new figures and throw me into a tizzy.  

PHP-27 Renegades of Kashgar is scheduled for release in August.  While it's tempting to assemble an order, it might be smarter for me to dip into the dealers hall budget and pick up a few packs, plus expand my Movember donation to qualify for this year's figure, and if any of the older figs are still available.

(Star Wars d6) #12 - Guests Upon the Imperial Star Destroyer Iron Fist

Our "Heroes"

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise

Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a tendency to shoot first.

Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" for the upcoming mission, whatever that is.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Recovered!

Having set out a distress call

before becoming captured by 

the Space Pirates on this moon 

Orbitting Dathomir,

Our heroes escape imminent execution

with the arrival of no mere "Space Cops," 

But an Imperial Star Destroyer 

With a full complement of destruction

Are our heroes saved,

or is it a case of out of the

Dathomirian Cooking Tray

and into the Imperial fire?

Whisked onto an imperial shuttle, the group couldn't see the carnage the Stormtroopers inflicted upon the pirate compound.  Thermal detonators were used to destroy the buildings.   TIE Fighters hunted down pirates escaping in vehicles.

From communications with the medics tending to their wounds, it could be ascertained that they were going to be visitors of the Imperial Victory Class Star Destroyer Iron Fist.  

As the shuttle neared the Star Destroyer, the relaxed atmosphere of their saviors began to tense.  Upon landing in the hanger an entire company of Stormtroopers met them at the bottom of the ramp.  There, they were escorted into the ship and separate holding cells...

After a number of hours the four were reassembled in a conference room and traded stories of their endeavors.

None of them were fans, much less allies of the Empire, but all could agree that the Imperials were extremely congenial to all of them.

Each one had been escorted to a separate room and spoke with a beady-eyed middle aged Lieutenant Coremar Torrruss for Imperial Intelligence.  Almost all questions were pertaining to the attack on the Hyrkania, 

Lt. Coremar Torruss - Imperial Intelligence

It appeared the Iron Fist was part of the initial investigation of the incident and was still in the same sector when their distress call was picked up.   The four survivors had been missing for almost three months and it was of great surprise to find survivors at that point.

The most disconcerting words that all four heard from a Imperial Officer, "What can we do for you?"

They were all amazed that after a simple debriefing, that they were being offered basic equipment and a drop-off at the Botajef starport.  No charges, neither criminal or financial, seemed to being amassed for any of them.

After another hour, the doors to the room finally open, and a contingent of low-ranking Imperial officers escort them for showers, a change of clothes, more food, and medical attention, if any was needed.

Upon completion, they were escorted to what appeared to be a non-commissioned officer lounge and left well alone... with two officers standing around the corner, and some sort of civilian staff taking and serving beverage requests.

Two drinks in, Lt Torruss made an appearance, dressed in officer dress grays.

"Everyone's here?"

They nodded.

"Everyone hungry?  The least we can do is celebrate your survival and rescue from this horrible event, in addition to all the vital information you all provided to fill in the holes of the investigation.  You will be dining with the Captain of the Iron Fist himself, Captain Zsinj!"

After discovering what Star Destroyer they were on, Ne'vets had already filled in the rest of the group to what knowledge he had heard about Captain Zsinj.  It wasn't much, only that the Captain came from a family of Naval Officers and was completely dedicated to peace and order to the Quelli Sector.

"After dinner, we will have proper individual quarters for all..."

In an obvious move to impress the group, Lt Torruss howled in Wookie.  Evus and Ne'vets made it out to be "The item you requested has been recovered.  It shall be in your quarters after dinner."

Tarrie, and obviously Frokazza, could pick up the subtle nuances.  The bowcaster Frokazza had "left" on the moon was recovered by the final team sweeping the pirate bases.

Torruss left them, and a few moments later, staff escorted them to a large dining room, with Captain Zsinj at the head and four officers at the sides...

Captain Zsinj

"Gentlemen, I am Captain Zsinj. Welcome to the Iron Fist.  Please be seated."

Captain Zsinj was quite appreciative of the information the group provided and before the wine was poured, promised them safe passage to Botajef.

With drink flowing and food served, the Captain and his men asked even friendlier versions of Lt Torruss' questions.

"I have been hunting the Devorian devil pirates for twelve years.  They're a motley group of smugglers, black-market operations, but until the Hyrkania, I've never seen destruction of vessels added to their repertoire."

Evus finally felt the courage to speak, "Are we the only survivors?"

"Yes, we didn't do a full sweep of the third moon of Dathomir, but we found no one else in our search."

Dinner and desert served and cleaned up, the staff officers (and Lt Torruss) were excused, and Captain Zsinj got a bit more personal...

"Ne'vets, this is your team?  Don't worry, all your paperwork was in order.  Nary a speck of anything questionable"

"Yes sir."

He proceeded to question him on his three "employees," including all the disciplinary records of Tarrie's four month stint in the academy.

Things went a bit uncomfortable when Zsinj inquired whether that had done any government work.

"If the Empire is in need of your services, they have access to an insane number of credits...."

"Are your offering me a job, Captain?"

"I don't have that sort of authority.  However, the Empire has a extensive Science Corps that does an variety of tasks around the galaxy.  They are quite knowledgeable in the their fields, but the lack in drive or physical prowess.... we lose an awful lot of new scientific recruits from getting mauled."

"The Empire would be remiss if we would not offer your opportunities not currently available, and keep your current business interests. I can make some contacts tonight.  It's the least I can do."

Tarrie spoke up, "We're going to need a ship!"

"I can't do that, but I can offer you the reward of certain individuals we knew were on that pirate vessel.... How's 15,000 credits as 'start-up' capital?'

Ne'vets contained his excitement as he nodded approvingly.

Frokazza finally spoke up,  "What's the catch?  Why are you being so nice?"

"All I can say is that I have been searching for certain individuals with rebellion contacts for quite some time, and those individuals were on the at ship.  Their reward was less than the amount I have provided.  Consider the remainder to be a personal thanks from myself."

"Well thank you, Captain,"  Ne'vets quickly replied.

Further negotiations procured them some basic weapons with proper registration, and Captain Zsinj bid them a good night.

"So, we're out of the Drop Bear business?" Tarrie asked Ne'vets.

"Not yet... but we do need to find a ship...."

GM Notes:  Due to some original hardware limitations, our initial online set-up was limited to Roll20 for character sheets and mapping, with Skype used for audio only.  We probably could adjust some formats nowadays, but this session was the first were I pulled away from the main call and did one-on-ones with each player to represent the interrogations.  It went quite smooth (the intelligence officer was a push-over, and the PCs rescue was positive news for that sector.  In fact, some of the opportunities offered to the Ne'vets/the group were thanks to Frokazza being quite open about the variety of life on the moon.

Captain Zsinj is part of the regular Star War canon, but I've changed some of the backstory.  Nothing ever survives first contact with PCs, why try to keep thing puritanical?

Oh yeah, that moon of Dathomir that they were stranded on?  Its name may have been mentioned in passing on the Star Destroyer....

Volturnus, Moon of Mystery

Pulled from the pages of the classic Star Frontiers modules SF-0 and SF-01

It's a product of its time, and after having owned them for decades and never playing them, it was high time to work them into Star Wars lore.

Minor spoiler: It won't be the last time Star Frontiers gets mixed into the fray, but there's plenty of other Sci-Fi RPGs to mix into Star Wars canon.

Next: #13 - Learning the Customs of Botajef

(Kickstarter) Necropolis: An Epic Adventure by Necromancer Games

Some things never entirely go away.  Necromancer Games has launched a Kickstarter for the 5e and Swords & Wizardry versions of the adventure Necropolis, originally written by Gary Gygax for Mythus/Dangerous Journeys waaaay back in 1992.

From the Kickstarter:

Based on the original work by the grandmaster himself, Gary Gygax, Necropolis is an epic desert adventure series for 5e D&D and Swords & Wizardry. Previously published by Necromancer Games as a d20 system adventure, it has been entirely updated and revised by Mark Greenberg, co-author of The World of the Lost Lands by Frog God Games. (D&D is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast; Necromancer Games and Frog God Games are not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or the Gygax estate.)

This grand adventure is set in the Triple Kingdom of Khemit, on the continent of Libynos in the Lost Lands, the world of Frog God Games and Necromancer Games. Necropolis is designed for a party of 6–8 seasoned characters starting between 7th and 9th level and will challenge even the most experienced players.

I Love a Parade

Time for Dancing Bees

Still not 100% (and definitely NOT Covid). It’s just been a crazy crazy week.

This picture ties in two odd events for this week. Today marks the first wedding my wife and I are going to in at least three years. It is an outdoor affair, so we’ll pack a classy umbrella.

This week I also had an employee attacked by yellow jackets while gardening during her lunch break.

And they say working from home is safer. HA!

Get Your Bug Out Bag Ready

Indisposed at the Moment

It's been a heckuva week already, probably as good a time as any to take a well-deserved break from life.  ...and the best chance to using this picture.  

(Star Wars d6) #11 - The Space Pirate Base

Our "Heroes"
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise
Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot for the upcoming mission.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Compounded!
Having arrived at a rogue facility,
our heroes attempt to determine
how friendly they can be if 
they can keep the ruse up,
how long they can confuse them, 
and where, oh where, is there a 
vehicle that can get them off-planet?

The late-night pirate guards at the gate let the group in and directed them into the large multi-bay garage directly ahead. 

Blackie, the lead pirate at the gate, gave them simple instructions, "Park your vehicle, grab some grub, and find a rack in the barracks.  We'll work on everything tomorrow morning."

They pulled into the garage, shut the double doors behind them. Inside was a landspeeder, and a large hover vehicle which looked like mining support equipment. 

Tarrie rummaged around, threw some power cells and technical kits into the Hover Hauler.  Once that was prepped, the group left out a back door and they certainly did NOT grab grub and a place to sleep. With only a few pirates milling about in the middle of the night, it was time to wander about.

The first positive was a large concrete landing pad for aircraft and possibly inter-stellar vehicles. 

Second was a far off building that Nevets identified as a mining colony support building that didn't match the other in the complex.  Somebody used to know of this moon's existence, before the pirates.

They moved over to a large complex of concrete buildings, converted storage containers, and a mix of other building materials.

A major surprise in this cluster of buildings was that most of the doors had signs written in Galactic Basic!

The first door they got open was labeled "MAINTENANCE."  They were hit with a stench from a burned recreational plant material and three old Trade Federation battle droids hung up in storage.

Securing the outside door, Nevets poked his head through the other door in the room.  Inside were rows of desk for some office function, with a lone, bored pirate yawning while guarded the room.

"Hey who are you guys?"

"Sorry, we're looking for food..."

"It's completely on the other side of the town."

"That's what I figured, we'll lock up on our way out..."

"Okay, whatever man, c'mon, you gotta be smarter than that... I hate guard duty."

While that was going on, Tarrie decided that re-programming and activating one or more battle droids might give them a little extra firepower. 

Battle Droid #1 becomes operational, descends from its hook, stated, "Ready to Patrol," and marched through the outside door. 

Battle Droid #2 was far easier, standing at attention with a statement, "Ready for your orders."

Battle Droid #3 seemed shorted out and inserting the technical kits caused the lights to flicker in the room.

"Roger, Roger" or "Ready to Work?"

Finally exiting the room back outside, there were more pirates being very loud.

"JoJo, what's going on, all the computers are flickering!"

"It's not the generator!  It's got to be something inside the buildings."

Meandering through the other doors in the complex, they uncovered a communications room. 

Nevets found the meticulously kept comm logs. These detailed the space pirates takeover of the mining operation.  The Star Devil pirates, the group running the moon, were one of four pirate factions who worked together to mine and smuggle the rare metals off planet and sold off.  Recent comms expressed concern over one of the factions completely disappearing. 

Locked in the room, it was finally determined to send out a distress signal to hopefully get "space cops" in the sector to rescue them.  Tarrie set up the comms and Nevets was able to cobble together enough info (Hyrkania hijacking, marooned on a moon in Dathomir).

They then proceeded to jam the planetary comms to prevent any outpost, particularly the one they had visited, from alerted the base of their status. 

Hours passed, and they finally decided to leave the Comm Room to sneak back and catch some winks before continuing the charade.  The group exited into a narrow alley filled with heavily armed and armored pirates.

"Hey, those are the guys Bononas sent!.... Freeze!"

The group dropped weapons and were tied up, the Battle Droid taken back and reprogrammed. 

"Blackie, you let these guys in?"

"Yeah, they had the Hover Hauler from the outpost."

"Have we even heard from that outpost in the past few days?"

The group was roughed up pretty good and transported in the pre-dawn hours to the landing pad.

A roused pirate Captain Buarts was still pulling up his pants when he arrived to interrogate the party.  Unfortunately, there was little they could offer, and most of the time seemed to be focused on not if they should kill them, but how.  

The pirates' discussion was cut short by an Imperial Star Destroyer coming out of hyperspace and just outside the atmosphere of the moon.  

Numerous TIE fighters and shuttlecraft could be seen emerging from the Star Destroyer and streaking towards the base.

The pirates went into full panic mode and rushed to escape, but with only three vehicles, those pirates were quickly blown up by the TIEs.  

Numerous shuttles landed inside the complex, but one set down on the landing pad.  Dozens of Stormtroopers poured out of that craft and mercilessly gunned down the pirates.  A Stormtrooper NCO found the party, still tied up, confirmed they were the missing passengers from the Hyrkania, untied them, and escorted them into the shuttle.  

GM Notes: The group got away with murder, without shooting anyone.  Most of that was due to the player for "Shoot first" Evus taking the night off. 

Next: #12 - Guests Upon the Imperial Star Destroyer Iron Fist

Upcoming Kickstarters at Brigade Games

 As I've stated in the past, I am a homer for miniatures from Brigade Games.  It might be that they're the manufacturer of figures for Gnome Wars, but they're quite renowned for great sculpts, fantastic casts, and an inventory that covers more than the rank and file troopers.

I do recommend signing up for their newsletter, covering new releases, sales, and other news.  It's free, and less intrusive than other companies which shall remain nameless.

Hidden among the plastic boxed sets announcements where three simple sentences that perked my ears up:

• Cthulhu and Pulp Characters range will get a second Kickstarter soon.
• AWI will get a second Kickstarter soon
• Apocalypse will get a second Kickstarter soon. 

 I'm down to pending delivery for eight outstanding Kickstarters.  Here's hoping a few more deliver before any of these go live.

What is This "Relax" Concept?

You would think during a summer heat wave, that I could squirrel away more time at the painting bench in the nice, cool basement, but no!

 It's felt weird to have two straight Fridays without any finished minis to post.   Sure, I've missed a week here or there, due to holidays, family events, *cough* hospitalized with COVID *cough*, but the last time I failed to post any painting for two weeks in a row was early November 2020.  It was a good run.  

I can honestly say I miss the COVID summer, where the kids slept in, swam, and stayed out of serious trouble.  At worst, we'd work with other parents for some sort of illegal meet-up, or even a practice.   With most general precautions removed, it's just running around like a constipated wiener dog.  

The sports camps draw my primary ire.  Half start at 8am, meaning I can drop them off and go into work.  However, they are only half-day practices, which means right when I'm comfortable at work, I need to drive 20 minutes to pick them up, followed by a half-hour ride home.  Luckily, I can still work from home, but after five days of this, it feels beyond ridiculous.  

Next week begins the all day camps, meaning my wife can pick them up, but in these cases, drop-off isn't until 9am, meaning I should be putting fires out at home before jumping in the car.  

Mix in birthday parties, special events, sleepovers, and other extravaganzas, and by the time I see my house I'm in full veg mode.

With all this ranting about activities, I guess a sport rant is required.  

I playfully made an aside in my last AAU post for the season that Maja's 7th grade core group of girls for middle school basketball that should rival most Freshman teams.  Since then, while overhearing  a conversation with the middle school and varsity coaches, it was confirmed that her team would beat the Freshman girls, if given a chance.   On a team dominated in numbers by 8th graders, Maja's crew is still responsible for 3/4 of the points, and they did not allow the opposing score to score for the 13 minutes they were on the court.  In fact, for the other 23 minutes, the other team outscored the 8th graders 12-10. 

There are three more games left this summer for the junior high league, one involving a top-ranked point guard amongst 7th graders (yes those things exist, even for girls).  All I can say is challenge accepted.

Meanwhile, Maja's also discovered volleyball, and just started to attend open practices for the middle school (Yes, this overlapping is allowed up until August 3rd, we checked).  I will give no boastful parenting for her here.  It's two practices in and no one is calling for state titles in 2027, heck I'd be happy for a win in 2027, but it has been tremendously fun, she's making new friends, and if I gloat about anything, it is that she's asking lots of questions about the rules, responding to coaching, and inquiring about what exercises she can do at home to improve her jumping.  I don't pretend to know how this will all pan out, but that level of passion (while maintaining fun), is necessary for all things in life.  

In a few short hours, both girls will begin playing in dual six-week summer leagues, one all girls, the other a co-ed leagues.  As usual, should be a hoot.

No rest for the parental units.  I guess that's a blessing.

Project 350 (Unofficial): Still on hiatus, thanks to the build-up and execution of #RPGaDay2021 throughout August    Working through and scheduling the first week of posts, the blog has swollen to 525 (337/185) from 486 (317/169) only two weeks ago.  Nine out of the thirty-one days are finished, and they're only a few that will require an hour or two, a beer, and perhaps skipping painting for a bit.  It's a normal summertime function, and I hope to be back to painting before I need to start travelling for work in September.  

... and if I can have fewer than four Star Wars Actual Play posts to still finish, life would be just peachy.

Historicon GM Registration Closes August 31, 2021

 A quick realization this weekend that GM Event registration for Historicon (November 10-14 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort, King of Prussia, PA) will not close until August 31, 2021.  You can register your 

The process for GM Event Registration should be found here.

Still trying to ponder what we're going to run, and when I'm actually going to be there.  The dates should catch in between fall and winter school sports, but the local rec league should be up and running at that point.   Plus, it's the same weekend as Mepacon right down the street from me.  If folks are still alive, we might make an appearance that Sunday.  

(Kickstarter) Gnomes - A Class of Their Own by Midlam Miniatures

Midlam Miniatures has another Kickstarter release for new figures, this time Gnomes - A Class of Their Own.

Sets of their previous Kickstarters for Common/Garden Gnomes and the Gnome Royal Court are also available in this campaign.

(Star Wars d6) #10 - The Great Pirate Outpost

Our "Heroes"
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise
Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot for the upcoming mission.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Civilization!
Our hard-rockin' heroes have made contact
with the Kurabana, yet another 
primitive race on the moon of Dathomir
Granted with the knowledge
of their King, the group
has found a fortified outpost.
Can our heroes infiltrate the facility,
Or do they forget the dangers of civilization?

By dusk, the two Kurabanda scouts, Bo'Non'as and Oopsa, led the group to the great pirate base of the "devils from the sky."  

Ne'vets was unimpressed.

Inside a rather high fence with barbed wire on top was a series of rectangluar concrete structures, connected by metal hallways.  Manuevering around the facility, they found a gate, leading to the only door leading out of the buildings.

Ne'vets and Tarrie spied some scanners, oddly looking away from the fence and that main door.   The gate had some complicated recognition panel.

Following Ne'vets' advice, the group hunkered down and decided to do some recon on the door.  They were rewarded within minutes of another repurposed Federation battle droid, with a bad sky blue paint job, emerging from the doors.

As the droid stepped out, the doors immediately closed behind it, and it made its way around the complex.

Debate came up as to what to do.  They convinced the Kurabanda to act as decoys to waylay the droid, but as they were still figuring out the details of the plan, the droid worked its way around the short end of the building, and going through the door.

Evus was able to spy into the hallway just for a second to see some sort of vehicle inside before the doors slammed shut.

Ne'vets and Frokazza tinkered with the security pad at the gate, only successfully setting off what sounded like an low-grade alarm for a landspeeder in Tatooine.  Everyone rushed into the scrubline to hide.

This time, two battledroids emerged from the doors, and opened the gate to investigate the security pad and the potential perimeter breach.

The group's potential ambush seemed to work.    Frokazza finally got the bowcaster working late and blew up one of the droids... and blew up the security pad.  It mattered little as the debris from the droid blocked the gates open.

Everyone rushed down to the open gate, opening fire.  Evus' shot distracted the second droid, and Tarrie's blew its head off.

Evus ran to the building's door and overrode the security pad to let them in.

In front of them was a beat up sky-blue airspeeder with a large open cargo hold. The cargo hold had a large elevated winch with a stencil of a dancing Devorian on it.

They had found the home of the creeps that had been shooting at them in middle of the desert.

The craft was situated in a garage bay, complete with lift and a retractable roof.  The vehicle had been through better times and from the look of tools, was in the middle of repairs.

Tarrie jumped into the front seat and within seconds, was under the hood, finishing the repairs.  He asked Evus for a nearby part, but Evus fired his blaster.... at the Transdosian coming through the door to the rest of the outpost.

starwars.fandom.com

The blaster shot hit the pirate in the shoulder and forced him to stagger back.  Ne'vets shots bounced off of his bounty hunter armor, and the grenade flew into the room and the door shut in front of him.

Gas expelled from the grenade, filling the room, but no one suffered any ill effects.

"The grenades on this planet are waaaay past their expiration date."

Realizing the alien was waiting for them to fall asleep so he could assemble his comrades, the group opened the roof, and with Tarrie connecting the last modules, he started the vehicle up.  Ne'vets, Evus, and Frokazza threw in some tools and techkits laying around and the others jumped in the back.  Tarrie engage the craft to lift out of the garage... and the system died.

Tarrie crawled back out, and with Frokazza's help, switching the wires around.  Ne'vets jumped out of the back to go to the control panel of the door and lock it.  Seconds after he succeeded, he could hear a group on the other side, trying to get in.   Ne'vets tried to shoot the panel but missed at point blank range, the shot reflecting off the walls.

Evus finished loading the nearby tools, and spied an intercom on the bench, turning it on and just saying, "Everything's fine here.  We just had a core leak.  Gotta lock it down."

Someone responded, "What sort of morons are you?"   and with the button still pressed they spoke to someone else, "Override the damn thing!  It's our building!"

Tarrue and Frokazza were making great headway fixing the initial repair work, if not for Evus.  In his effort to grab everything he could, the Twi'lek had picked up even the tools on the ground that Tarrie was regularly using, and threw them into the motley pile of tools and equipment in the back of the speeder.

That snafu slowed them down enough to have the outpost staff override the door.  Three humans with blaster and respirators and a pissed-off Transdosian holding two of grenades emerged into the room.

Frokazza rolled over to his bowcaster and shot over the heads of the group.  The Transdosian tossed both grenades in the room, promptly shutting the door.  The first filled the room with gas again, but again, had no other effect.  The second bounced about the room and landed in front of Ne'vets.

The explosion was more akin to a firecracker, a lot of noise, but very little concussion.  The small bit of debris did not affect the rest of the crew or the vehicle.

The second attack was enough to motivate Tarrie to finish the repairs and get the vehicle running the vertical take-off engaged. The "truck-speeder" flew out of the ceiling and into the wilderness.

There were questions as to what the next step.  "How high?"  "Stay low?"  "Does it even have headlights?"

With a few flicks of switches on the console, Tarrie and Evus found the navigation program.  There was an oft-repeated trip to a different location logged in, so they set that course.

Kilometres away from their destination, they could see the glow over the hills.  The first base was a mere outpost, this was a complex, if not a fortified town.  The walls of the complex were dotted with a mixture of gun towers and turrets, so it made sense to enter through the front gate.

Pulling up the main gate, a group of pirates approached, weapons drawn and aimed at them.

The eldest pirates, with a long shaggy mustache, moved up to the door, "What can I do you boys for?"

"We're new, we're not in the system yet.We're new hires"

"What the hell do you mean new hires.  Who hired you?"

Ne'vets looked down at the expired credentials in the damaged glove box and took a chance.

"Bonanas set us..."

"Bonanas?"

"That's the name he's using..."

"Bonanas? Heck, I haven't seen him in months.  I thought he was dead.  What are you guys doing?"

"I don't know, He told us to bring this speedertruck to get fixed."

"What the hell happened?  I know Willy and Truk are horrible drivers, but I've never seen that much damage to the craft.  Pull it into the garage. Open the gate..."

Meanwhile, back at the pirate outpost.  
With a roar, the hovertruck lifted out of the building and flew off into the sky.

Bo'Non'as and Oopsa, the Kurabanda guides, were still hiding in the scrub with the Loper steeds.

Oopsa

"Do you think those guys are coming back for us?"

"I don't think so.  Do you think their steeds are good eatin'?"

"They probably won't miss one..."

Leading the Lopers over the hill, they slayed one, made a fire and attempted to roast over a makeshift pit.

Settling down to dinner, Oopsa spied four figures coming over the hill.

Not one was the super-hairy over-sized Kurabanda.

It seemed like he was replaced by some creature with red gloaming eyes and a large space-gun.  It began firing wildly at them.

The two Kurabanda did the best thing they could, mounting the other Loper and zig-zagging through the scrubland, partly to avoid the blaster fire, partly because they had trouble controlling the beast.

Eventually the blaster fire stopped and the pushed the beast until they reached the tree-line to their forest.

Getting back to the village, Oopsa inquired how they were going to explain everything.

Bo'Non'as was stone faced, raising a single finger towards his friend.

"We tell no one."

GM Notes:   Lots of botches worked in their favor at the first outpost.  A Heroic level Con roll gets them in the Compound.

And what the chance that the old space pirate who owned the land speeder shared a name with their Kurabanda scout?  Weird? 

And *spoilers*, you may see those Kurabanda again... someday.

NEXT: #11 - The Great Space Base

(Kickstarter) The Scarlet Knights of Karlgoggen 28mm Metal Miniatures by Old School Miniatures

There's a first time for everything, and The Scarlet Knights of Karlgoggen 28mm Metal Miniatures by Old School Miniatures is the first time I've seen a short (7-day) Kickstarter referred to as a "Tock" Kickstarter.

Perhaps the creator made it up on their own (I don't see rampant use of it anywhere), but there's no reason to drag out a campaign for a month when most of the design is complete and you just need funds to guarantee an appropriately sized production run.  

(Kickstarter) Under Occupation! by John Kohn

 John Kohn was launched yet another Kickstarter for a game, this time Under Occupation!, a solo card game where you must keep control of a newly conquered people.

A $2 pledge gets you everything you need (besides tokens) to play, and a full production copy of the physical game is available for $30 plus shipping.

(Kickstarter) Steve Jackson Game's GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge

It's another quick Kickstarter for specific audience's product with the GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge from Steve Jackson Games.

Starting at $3, backers can get GURPS Action 8: Twists  by Sean Punch in PDF form, plus a host of stretch goal PDFs for GURPS.  Higher pledges allow to add the prior Pyramid scheme pdf issues, some the pdfs from the 2020 Challenge, while others add random new physical product.  

...and the stuff from last year, too!

The Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain started on this day, 71 years ago.

Let's appreciate the dedication of your enemy... and their incompetence. 

Who Needs LEDs When You Have This?

 

Twitter @TabletopInq

The #RPGaDay2021 List is Already Up!

I thought I had a month to clean up my projects before #RPGaDay2021 produce their list of daily prompts.  

Full details can be found on David F Chapman's Autocratik blog.

They still haven't returned to the original questions, as I've suggested for years, but I appreciate the single word prompts, with three alternatives!  You should be able to write something for each day in August.

RPGaDay on Facebook has offered graphics for each individual day "for the Youtubers and video bloggers," but I've already copied and pasted them onto a documented, printed it out, and will brainstorm for ideas (Yes, I take this a bit too serious compared to others). 

It makes sense that I focus on topics I can relate to with my Star Wars d6 Campaign, or even the Feraso or Gulluvia actual plays, but part of the fun of the this project is the nostalgic trip down memory lane I'm almost guaranteed to go on.

(Kickstarter) Call of Cthulhu Classics by Chaosium

 To help celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the debut of Call of Cthulhu, Chaosium is releasing a number of classic CoC items as reprints and in pdf.

The reprint of the classic 1" boxed set contains:

• Call of Cthulhu Rulebook
• A Sourcebook for the 1920's
• World Map
• Character Sheets
• Character Shilhouettes

A special reprint will be a classic 2" boxed set that contains:

• The contents of the 1" boxed set (save the box itself)
• Shadows of Yog Sothoth
• The Asylum and Other Tales
• Cthulhu Companion
• Trail of Tsathoggua
• Fragments of Fear

A History of Reaper's Random Love of the Mousling through 2016

After my rant earlier this week, I'm still hot as hell over the mouslings with Enlarge cast on them, but in my search to confirm dates, I feel upon an article from Pariedolia covering the early years of mice/rat-men with the company.  

Nostalgia soothes all modern wounds.

(Star Wars d6) #9 - Engaging the Kurabanda

Our "Heroes"
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise
Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot for the upcoming mission.
Frokazza -Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle.

Hostile Foliage! 

Leaving the the safety of the Ul-Mor,

Our heroes fight the flora and fauna 

Outside the desert to reach a tribe 

Of hairy mammals known as 
The Kurabanda.

But is this race friendly and helpful

Or just a bunch of morons 

Like the Ul-Mor suggested?

Moving through the razor grass of the plains, the party could spot the forest the Ul-Mor had warned them about.  As they entered a break between the tall grass and the trees, they were almost relieved to hear the civilized sound of blaster fire and scream of agony coming from above. 

Moving into the forest, they could see people about ten or fifteen meters above them, hopping from branch to branch, and in some instances, swinging from vines.   One of the smaller primate-like creature flew through the air to tackle what appeared to be a human, only for the human to shoot it and send it tumbling to forest floor.  

"Take that, you creepy little pest!"

Numerous humans seemed to be rounding up the smaller mammals for some nefarious purpose.  Picking up the maco-binoculars, Ne'vets could see one of the humans with the blaster had a with a full chest tattoo of a Devorian, the same design that was on the hovertruck they encountered in the desert.  

Suddenly the human flew back, hit a tree, and plummeted to his death. 

Evus was the first to spy a skinny, pale-skinned female in a grey cloak, very similar to the person they discovered in the caverns.  This one seemed different, however, as she wielded a sword rather than a light saber.  

"You fools, I want you to capture them so we can train them, not kill them outright!"

The group stayed hunkered down back on the ground.  "I don't think either group are going to get us off this rock," Ne'vets said out loud.

Scanning the tree canopy, the group could finally make out some camouflaged platforms, and out of those platforms another group of primates was charging in as reinforcements.

Ne'vets got a better look at the fallen primate and realized it was far closer to human than space ape.  They were wearing clothing and wielding bows and arrows and metal knives.  Ne'vets also spied some combination of vines and foot/handholds in trees that would allow them access into the trees.

The reinforcements were enough to kill five of the raiders and force the rest of them away, including the scary, sword-wielding woman before things go quiet.

The group argued their next course of action amid whispers, as to not avoid detection.  Ne'vets wondered aloud why the race built their village or outpost so high up.  What was down here?  But both he and an unlucky Wookie reinforced the significant fall that would occur if things went really bad.

Finally, the group came to a consensus that they would have to engage this race, and hopefully get information from them before moving on.  Resolved in that fact, they got up from their position to begin scaling the trees, to only be immediately met by one of the creatures standing right behind them, wielding a spear and huge grin on its face.

"It's okay, the pirates use the bridges too, we build pretty good!"

He extended his thumbs out and asked "Who you."

Ne'vets responded with his name.

"Why you come?"

"We're looking for a way home"

"Where you go to?"

"A different planet."

The creature shrugged his shoulders and began to walk off.

"Waitaminute," Ne'vets interrupted, "Who are you?"

"Lamanada," and with that, the creature extended his thumbs up again.

Ne'vets got a very vague scouting report of the pirates' locations and capabilities.

Lamanada found himself aloft, Frokazza had snuck up on the creature and picked it up with one hand.

"Why you have really big Kurabanda?" Lamanada asked them of the Wookie.

The group was beginning to wish of a tentacle based telepathic method of communication.

Lamanada agreed to show the group the nearby pirate lairs, but first they needed to meet the Big Chief.

Beneath the village proper, they were met by a squad of 20 Kurabanda with bows.   Lamanada briefed the group and offered a makeshift lift to take them to the upper village.

The group was corralled inside a single structure with ten guards, but looking out, they could see hundreds of these creatures milling amongst the trees.

After given food and water (in pottery), a very old village shaman of some sort looked in, discovered the injured members, applied a salve that did nothing, and only smiled and walked away.

In the middle of the night, a contingent of forty Kurabanda escorted them to an even higher platform with at least two hundred more of them in a military formation.  Some of the women and children to be seen trying to get a good look at the interlopers.

In the center of the platform was a very old and very fat Kurabanda sitting in a chair.  His headdress reached the floor, a dozen-odd amulets around his neck, and he was accompanied by at least a dozen female Kurabanda.

Ne'vets took the respectful lead but was quickly interrupted.

"Why you here?"

"You come from same place as demons from the sky?  We ignore each other until they began to take my people."

Tarrie attempted to convince the Chief to loan his forces to destroy the pirates, but the Chief disagreed. "Are you going to lead all my people to their deaths, Tarr-ray?"

Ne'vets took the conversation back and asked if they scope out the pirate outposts.  Again, the Chief was hesitant. but agreed to send two of his scouts, Bo'Non'as and Oopsa to guide them to their nearest location.

Bo'Non'as, Scout of the Kurabanda

The group agreed, but while they waited in their hut for the scouts to get prepared, there was great debate as to what should happen.  Tarrie and Evus were ardent to attempt to help the Kurabanda a bit to get rid of the pirates, while Ne'vets simply wanted a way to get off this rock they were stuck on.  The boss won out.

The next morning, the group and their two Kurabanda scouts left the village...

GM Notes: Trying to transcribe a recording of the gaming session to produce these Actual Plays is easier said than done, but I do end up with a few gems.  I definitely hacked part SF1 Volturnus, Planet of Mystery, to suit my own needs, but at some point after leaving the village, I needed to  "use the bathroom", i.e. review my options for the group.  The original Star Frontiers storyline was not my original intent, so to keep the objective of "getting off this rock" more direct, I needed to rewrite a scene or two.  I had left the recorder going, and I finally heard the conversation when I was transcribing.

Me: Give me five minutes, there's no way I can let that happen.

Steve: You're showering us with gold and riches?

Me: Not quite, be right back.

Jim:  What happened, something devasting was going to happen to us?

Steve: I've given Viscount to know that devasting isn't something that's going to stop him... Sure you're all level one, but here it comes.

Jim:  So it was going to kill us all.

Steve:  Or it could have been a dumb plot point that had to be rewritten.

Crap, they're finally onto me!

Next: #10 - The Mysterious Outpost.

(Kickstarter) Eurovillage 2021 by Miniature Building Authority

The most latest Kickstarter from Miniature Building Authority is their Eurovillage 2021 project.

From the Kickstarter directly:

This is our latest selection of buildings to add to our European line of 28-32mm buildings. We are focusing on the town businesses for this Kickstarter. We are bringing you a new Tavern, Cobbler Shop, Cooper Shop, Bakery, and Brewery. Also, there are highly detailed accessories for the buildings to make your gaming tables terrain pop in cool details.

While I'll always review the new product, the stuff that most interests me are the discounted deals for existing catalog items.  The Spanish Main Church might finally be in my future.