Gaming Year in Review 2021-22

I've always tracked my gaming progress like the US Federal fiscal calendar (October through September). Don't ask why, it's always been like that, I'm not going to change now.

One new thing I haven't done before is write-up this a year-in-review, which is an on-going projects throughout the year, with the links, pictures, etc, only to lose it thanks to a Google Chrome snafu.  I enjoy reading prior years' reports from time to time.  What I do not like it typing up a review twice in the same year.

Minor kvetching aside... and away we go!

The Blog:  
The Top Ten Blog Posts Over the Past Twelve Months

#1  Historicon 2021 Has Finally Occurred (Conventions)

#2  Historicon 2022 I Came, I Saw, I Need a Nap (Conventions)

#3  #ZineQuest2022 - Fixers from the Floorboards (Kickstarter)

#4  Recycled Sci-Fi Buildings  (Scenery/Terrain)

#5  Venusian Pond Scum (Scenery/Terrain)

#6  X4 Turrets for the Gnomish Space Marines (Painting)

#7  Terror of the Loc-Nar (Planet 28)

#8  Valley of the Peeps (Gnome Wars)

#9  Run While the Inn is Closed (Gnome Wars)

#10  For Honor and Glory - The Grand Tourney (Kickstarter)

It makes sense to have double Historicons dominate the blog.  Two Gnome Wars-related posts make perfect sense, given the name of the blog, and that Planet 28 AAR and the two related painting posts enthuses me to play more games.

It's been a sleepy year....

The one big omission from the usual suspects on the Top Ten?  Anything Pulp, and I'll cover that further. 

#RPGaDay2022 is a continuation of the exercise I've done for the past nine years.  It's rather insular, and needs a boast from some higher profile folks, but at the end of the day, I enjoy the work I put into it. 

Seriously, any social media experiment that allows me to post this picture and relive my childhood can't be all that bad.

#CharacterCreationChallenge is something I decided to do December 31st for the entirety of January.  Nothing like taking the time to make up different characters in different game systems.  I honestly forgot how hard something like this could be, much less a character with a decent backstory.  I probably will NOT revisit this for January 2023, but who knows.  For now, I did create an index of the characters for the whole month.

I also learned that games like Pew-Pew are great to stat out GI Joe characters. Maybe I don't need the new RPG.

#ZineQuest/#ZineMonth - Kickstarter screwed the pooch and tried to move the popular #ZineQuest campaign of small, unique RPG projects, from its traditional February slot. with much complaint.  Many publishers continued to launch their products in February under the #ZineMonth.  Blog-wise, I mentioned a lot more cool blogs in February than in August, and personally, I supported 5 projects in February, and only one in August. 

Historicon 2021 - A wide view of Mike Lung's Underwater Paleo Diet game.

Triumphs

Double Historicon -  COVID isn't gone, but thanks to vaccines, mutations, and a large swath of the population getting a weaker version, conventions are back and working towards being better than ever.  We had great games all weekend, which a plethora of pics, a coming out party for my Mormon Navoo Legion, and the insertion into the Gnome Wars vernacular of the term "Mormon Alamo."

Historicon 2022 - The Don Quixote of War Elephants

Mepacon Fall 2021 - Coming home Saturday night from Historicon, allowed me to take Maja down the road to the local Mepacon on Sunday morning.  A relaxing breakfast, light shopping, catching up with friends, and a Monster of the Week game with Maja formed a near perfect gaming day.

Historicon 2022 - Every game had a figure-versus-train moment. This picture might be my favorite all year.

Star Wars D6 - The crew of the Pretio is most of my gaming life right now.  A ship full of exotic animal broker/hunters a few years before the original Star Wars should not be this fun. We did complete and publish the side-campaign, "Bo'Nonas and Oopsa", and we've recently started prep on another side campaign involving Jedi.

Run While the Inn is Closed for Gnome Wars

All About the Monkeys  - I know I missed this on my first write-up that disappeared, so here's a positive from that!   I ran an impromptu session of Apocalypse World due to some Monday night no-shows.   Nothing was as polished as the game of Monster of the Week that Maja and I played at Mepacon, but I was able to use the classic In Media Res trope and force the players to realize they were playing medical testing monkeys who had escaped during a traffic accident, ripped from the headlines.

Historicon 2021 - The Mormons hunker down outside the castle.

Burning Trogs Redux - Another project I failed to mention on my first write-up, I started my gaming year pausing the Star Wars actual plays, and completing the Hackmaster actual play from 2007-2008, which I've lumped into my Burning Trogs Redux, and eight-episode between my old Hackmaster campaign and the pipe dream of a relaunch.  Any chance to use and re-tool parts of B10 - Night's Dark Terror is welcome in my book.  With the exception of a few Star Wars Actual Plays from this month, every campaign I've cared about is listed on the blog.

Historicon 2021

Catastrophes

Mepacon Spring 2022 - Well, not a catastrophe, per se, rather a victim of the girls' AAU schedule.  Disappointing, as I believe I've only made three of the cons when they've been a 20 minute leisurely drive from my house.  They move an hour away to Bethlehem starting this November, so I'll see what we can pull off.

Historicon 2022:  Nomepoleon on a War Elephant happened.  And it was glorious.

Pulp Alley - Season 4 of my regular Pulp campaign was meant to be a transition from Savage Showdown to Pulp Alley, with a big episode 1 extravaganza, but despite some progress, we haven't come close to launching Tomb of the Serpent, or even setting up leagues to play.

Historicon 2022

Kid's Painting - Outside of a few minor items, basketball, basketball, and a bit of real life have really stifled gaming and painting.  I haven't gotten 

General Muckery

Basketball - I would label Basketball for the girls to be a triumph, if it didn't affect everything we do gaming-related.  Heck, it effectively cancelled a long string of Father's Day game,  even if this year's game was eventually played after Father Day.  

Millie's local team is pretty darn good, getting second place in the winter league, including a first-ever win against the "hated" Freeland Wolfpack.  They followed up with a 3rd place in the ultra-competitive Freeland YMCA Tournament, and an impressive upset win over Freeland in the much-vaunted Back Mountain Tournament.  Considering the limited practice time, and that our tall center (see first picture below) only started playing basketball five months prior, I say this is a group to watch out for in junior high. 

Mountain Top - 2022 Back Mountain 5th Grade Champs

Transitioning to AAU is kind of crazy, especially since the Wolfpack decided against fielding a team in the tournament circuit, and their two best girls joined the same team as Millie!  Millie went from primary ball handler for local team to the possibly the 6th best point guard for AAU.

That's okay, Millie has a particular set of skills that keeps her on the court..... 

A regular game...

With enough experience as a parent/fan, I went a little crazy this year and started tracking tournament results throughout the Northeast to determine who exactly was playing who, and setting up a Power Index to determine who really was the best team, based on record, opponents win percentage, and even the win percentage of the other teams' opponents. 

Playing back-up center

With a few enough games were entered, Millie's team was arguably the top program in the northeast.  Even with two losses to quality opponents, there strength of schedule was so far superior than the other programs, the numbers weren't even close.  

There was also the invention of "Millie Rock" her AAU persona. 

Maja made it to junior high ball, and got to play on the 7th, 8th, and Freshman teams.  

Collectively the teams went something like 42-5 over the season, winning each of their league championships.  

Maja got plenty of playing time between 47-some odd games, never scored more than 10, but making everyone around her better.

Her AAU team was still solid, as technically seven of her teammates joined the same AAU program (some different grade levels), and two played elsewhere.  I'll almost say in passing that Maja's AAU team was only #12 in the Northeast, being one of two teams in the top ten hardest schedules with a winning record.   Not national acclaim, but when they finished the Spring AAU season and went to the local rec center for a junior high league, they demolished teams much faster and even had a quality loss (20-19) against a school team that held national renown for their Spring AAU schedule.

The Gnomish Space Marines - Painting and gaming for the GSM took a general hit this year, but my interest has not waned.   I do have an Order of Battle and other organizational charts set up for them, even if certain sections were directly pulled form Laserburn and Forces of the Imperium.  

Kinda surprised I got as many support vehicles as I do.

Planet 28 - Tying directly into the GSM, I did finally get figures on a table for a game or two of Planet 28.  The rules work for skirmish storytelling, which is fine until I paint up all the Space Dwarves.  Since it will never happen, I'll be happy with this game and the setting-neutral rules.

The Georic Gazetteer - The idea to compile data from the countries in my long-running campaign world was well-intentioned, but I knew the schedule I put together was much to ambitious..  Markovia and Argivia were completed, but before I progress any further (three more are at various stages) I need to finish one vital piece to each entry: maps.  More to come on that!

Mike's "real" Paleo Diet game

Project 350 - My usual pipe-dream, to get my drafts and scheduled posts under 350 combined.    After letting the backlog and #RPGaDay and #ZineQuest work it's way through, I'm at 457 (293/164), way down from 482 (312/170), which was a significant decrease from the year before that.  

More Historicon 2021

Kickstarter Status

KS: Attack from Space - July '22 

KS: Batteries Low, Getting Dark - ARRIVED

KS: The Banshee of Billfort - Duckquest RPG Zine - ARRIVED

KS: Blackvale  - July '21 - C'mon Man!

KS: Children of Uma - September '22

KS: Cthulhu and Pulp Characters - Wave 2 - July '22

KS: Cthulhu Wars Cataclysm - I still don't think this will ever show up.

KS: Delta Green: The Conspiracy - April '22

KS: Escape from Stalingrad Z - November '22

KS: For the Honor and the Glory - The Grand Tournament - ARRIVED

KS: In Soviet Russia, Spy Are You! - March '22

KS: The Last Sentinels - ARRIVED

KS: Macrocosm Sci-Fi Dwarves High Command - ARRIVED

KS: Macrocosm Chaos Space Dwarves - Wave 1 - ARRIVED

KS: Macrocosm Chaos Space Dwarves - Wave 2 - August '22

KS: Pew-Pew, A Complicated Profession - ARRIVED

KS; Planet 28, 2nd Edition - September  '22   - PDF Arrived, Book in the mail from the UK.

KS: Reaper Bones 6 -  April '24

KS: Star Schlock Astroguards - ARRIVED

KS: Super Tiny Giant Battles - ARRIVED

KS: Thorgrim & Company - ARRIVED

KS: Twilight 2000 Physical Rewards - ARRIVED

KS: War for the Wasteland - ARRIVED 

KS: War of Orcs and Dwarves - September '22

Painting - I certainly can be upset with such lackluster performance after a phenomenal year in 2020-21, but looking back I realize I only painted four figures in the year prior to COVID.  

Recycled Sci-Fi Buildings

Venusian Pond Scum

Yet Another "Blue Martian"

A 15mm mouse figure, with some like-scaled paint jobs from last year.

Holy crap, a Space Marine!

Hultr Half-Track #3 from Mantic

Ukranian Anti-Armor

Mech-Nasty and Americ-Ann

Killer Teddy Bear

Astral Searcher from Hackmaster (via Iron Wind Metals)

Mongrels from the Stuffed Fables board games

Mordant - Fusilier Dragon Knights

California Imperial Guard Spotter

X4 Mobile Turrets FROM DOLLAR TREE!

2022 Gaming with the Gnomies Awards

Best Kickstarter:  It feels like a Lifetime Achievement Award this time, but Macrocosm Miniatures processed not one, but three Kickstarters over the last 12 months.  

Space Dwarf High Command

Chaos Space Dwarf, Wave One

Worst Kickstarter: Cthulhu Wars: Cataclysm takes the cake for everything that could go wrong and did.  Out of all my Kickstarters, this is the one I realized I should have never pledged for (and will not purse any other Petersen Games products in the future, Kickstarter, Retail, or Garage Sale.)

Best Game: Monkey Pants for Fun and Profit is coming out in two weeks (Episode #59), but it was the most surreal bout of comedy combat I have overseen in a long time.  In certain universes within the Star Wars multiverse, Tarrie Prollek is still waiting for the light to change.

Best RPG Purchase:  The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book has been a life-saver over a number of sessions where we were short essential players for the regular campaign.  Heartily recommended.

Best Minis: Macrocosm's Sci-Fi Dwarves High Command.  Super clean, very expressive.

Best Other Purchase:  A LED magnifier which was very helpful as I was still recovering from my previous illnesses.  I've put it away since I got an update eyeglass prescription, but it's nearby if and when I'll need it again.

Next: My Plans for 2022-23

Another Month of Gaming Solicitations (Oct '22)

 Issue #272 of Game Trade Magazine can be found in pdf here, or at your FLGS.

ViscountEric's Want List

Nothing

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Object Want List
Nothing

The Imaginary Store List (The Pegleg Gnome)

Alderac Entertainment Group

Smash Up: 10th Anniversary Set ......................................  $49.99

Catalyst Game Labs

Battletech - Battle Force - Counters Pack ....................... $19.99

Shadowrun - 16 Month Calendar .................................... $19.99

Shadowrun - Art Portfolio ............................................... $49.99

Shadowrun - Hack and Slash .......................................... $49.99

Compass Games

Brothers at War ................................................. $99.00

American Tank Ace .......................................... $69.00

Schnell Boats - Scourge of the English Channel ............ $69.00

Compound Fun

Hive Mind - 2nd Edition ................................ $15.00

Crowd Games

City of the Great Machine .............................. $65.00

City of the Great Machine - The Escalation Expansion ..... $35.00

City of the Great Machine - Stand In Heroes Expansion .... $25.00

Dire Wolf Digital

Dune - Imperium: Immortality Expansion .......................... $30.00

Free League Publishing

Alien RPG: Heart of Darkness Expansion .......................... $34.99

Into the Odd RPG Remastered ............................................ $39.99

The One Ring RPG: Ruins of the Lost Realm .................... $39.99

Gale Force Nine 

Enola Holmes: Finder of Lost Souls ................................... $40.00

Games Workshop

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine Heroes 2022 - Blood Angels 

Gamey 

Mean Robo ............................... $18.99

Rayracers .................................. $22.99

Genius Games 

Ecosystem Coral Reef ................ $14.99

Goodman Games

5th Edition Fantasy #23: The Sunless Garden .................... $9.99

Goodman Games 2022 Yearbook ........................................ $19.99

Mutant Crawl Classics RPG - Peter Mullen Cover ............. $59.99

Hit Point Press

I guess I needed a rant in this month's edition.  I've mentioned Hit Point Press in these gaming solicitations before.  Usually I'm referencing some stand-alone 5e product, or a slowly developed 5e setting with a book or two being solicited at a time.  I've tried to avoid anything referencing a spell deck, a treasure deck, a monster, or any accessory like that.   A few mainstream varieties seem to be successful,  I've seen too many of these accessories hit the clearance section of store and online, even while the core game is still selling. 

I've avoid Hit Point Press' Deck of Many series for that very reason. They've continued to solicit new ones, month over month, so they much have a successful business model and fan base, but as the owner of a small to mid-sized imaginary store, I have trouble justifying a pre-order... unless my customers pre-order particular decks.  And if I were an owner of a large imaginary store, I'd have trouble justifying multiple copies of these items at $29.99 MSRP a pop, when that money could go to other stock I'm certain will turnover... and faster at that.  

Their other source of my rant is the relatively recent concept of the complete game merchandising campaign.  Successful Kickstarters can suffer this, as stretch goals are reached and their is a host of product available cheaply to the pledges, and those items ultimately become available at wholesale/retail. 

Heckna! is a dark carnival campaign for 5e that was a successful Kickstarter back in 2020.  Checking the comments on the Kickstarter, the pdfs have been delivered and the physical copies are inching closer to reality (red flag for retail, especially when 6,500 folks already pledged towards this.  How much more or a market is there for a cool but niche product?)  The stretch goals the built up during the campaign, but in a solicitation, everything is dumped all at once.  The $100 box set, the GM Screen, reference cards, tickets, tart cards, even popcorn colored dice and a separate popcorn container dice bag.  And let's not talk about the custom minis, which are reasonably priced for resin(?) but are too unique for other uses.  And while the campaign seems to be reusable, it's a 5e campaign for levels 1-10, kind of limited when compared to the "real" 5e campaign books from WotC, and all the third party support they offer.  

As I continue to scroll through their product, I do see Humblewood items (the campaign I've listed in dribs and drabs) solicit similar items to Heckna.  I probably wouldn't pre-order those particular items either, but I wasn't overwhelmed with the sheer volume of product. 

Kobold Press

Zobeck - Clockwork City  Collector's Edition (5e) ............ $49.99

Konami Digital Enterainment

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: Dark World Structure Decks

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: Sala of Blue-Eyes White Dragon Structure Decks

Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: Speed Duel GX  - Duelists of Shadows Box (2023) ............. $29.99

Looney Labs 

Fluxx: More Actions Expansion Deck .............. $5.00

Fluxx: More Rules Expansion Deck ................. $5.00

Fluxx: More Surprises Expansion Deck ........... $5.00

Monster Fight Club

Two words:  Witcher Minis.  Not obscenely priced, but if Game of Thrones (aka Song of Fire and Ice) minis met a lukewarm reaction, what's yet another $20 blister of three figures going to fare?

NG Tradings

Select 5 .............................................. $13.49

Paizo Publishing 

Pathfinder RPG: AP - Blood Lords Part 6 - Ghost King's Rage  ................... $26.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip Mat - Swamp Ruins

Pathfinder RPG: Lost Omens Pathfinder Society Guide HC ......................... $59.99

Starfinder RPG: AP - Drift Hackers 1 - A Light in the Dark .......................... $24.99

Palladium Books

Beyond the Supernatural RPG Sourcebook - Creature Feature ...................... $22.99

Palladium Fantasy RPG Bonus Edition HC .................................................... $55.00

Splicers RPG Special Edition HC ................................................................... $45.00

Rifts Antarctica .............................................. $22.99

Rifts Titan Robotics Sourcebook ................... $22.99

That's a LOT of Palladium solicitations.  Is it 1995 all over again?  And even with all the mocking... they .. will ... sell.

Rio Grande Games

Race for the Galaxy: Expansion and Brinkmanship Arc 1 ............... $39.95

Sinister Fish Games

Honk! ........................... $29.99

Trick or Treat Studios

Halloween Party ............................ $9.95

A ten dollar holiday-themed game?  Sign me up.... for November release?  Good to see the holiday game curse doesn't just affect Christmas. 

Wizards of the Coast

Magic the Gathering 2022 Land Station

Magic the Gathering Jumpstart 2022 Draft Boosters

Magic the Gathering : The Brothers 

Everything is listed as "War" versions of regular products.  Bundles, Gift Bundles, Collector Boosters, Draft Booster, Jumpstart Booster, Set Boosters, and Commander Decks.

Wizkids

D&D NOLZUR’S MARVELOUS UNPAINTED MINIATURES: ADULT GOLD DRAGON

D&D ICONS OF THE REALMS MAGIC ARMOR TOKENS..... $49.99

D&D ICONS OF THE REALMS TOMB OF ANNIHILATION BOX 1 ... $49.99

D&D ICONS OF THE REALMS TOMB OF ANNIHILATION BOX 1 ... $49.99

Marvel Dice Masters - Secret Wars Origins Packs ................ $6.99

(Star Wars d6) # 57 Delivery Delays

The Crew of the Pretio in This Week's Episode
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.
Tarrie Prolek - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo. Brother of potential terrorist, rebel Latorna Savvn. His climbing skills are suspect, but his dance moves are above par. Edging a dangerous lifestyle of drugs, booze, and loose women.

Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot and friend of Tarrie, with a rare Wookie skin condition, but the strength of ten banthas.
Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew. Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud. His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots.
"Sid" - A peculiar woman with some knowledge of their missing ally, Evus, Sid has been allowed to tag along for now...

Disoriented

After a delivery of glowrods goes down

Too easily, our heroes find themselves

Deep within the 

Great Migration of Sulo.  

With the worst possible timing, 

The crew of the Pretio must 

Regroup, find a purpose, 

And still maintain the elusive Tree Kraken 

For its delivery... six weeks from now.

After realizing a scheduling snafu on the delivery of the Tree Kraken, and subsequent warning shots from the Sulo Planetary Defense Force, Ne'vets was a bit confused as to what the next move was.

"What's up boss," Duk'k asked Ne'vets, "thankfully those warning shots are more gentle than ours."

Trying to find a safe haven to access space mail, refuel, and lay low for a few days, Ne'vets directed Tarrie to take the Pretio to the planet Quellor.

Sid asked to be co-pilot on the journey, but a very annoyed Frokazza barged into the cockpit, with smoothies and snacks for the trip. R2-H8(r) plugged in the astrogation coordinates and away they went.

Quellor's only starport was primitive, but far more populated than the towns on Sulo. The crew was surprised to see only one dock open, and a bit more shocked to see a heavily modified Old Republic gunship in bedecked in fresh tan/desert camo.

Not to be expected on a backwater colonial world...

Sid and R2-H8(r) took a quick jaunt to pay for docking and refueling fees while Tarrie, Frokazza, and Duk'k debated their course of action.  Despite concern for Ne'vets' well-being, and a healthy dose of paranoia, it was decided that the trio would take Sid and walk into the main town.  

Passing by Batu's Droid Emporium and Smoke Shop, the crew reached the town's biggest cantina, The Purple Cat. 

They expected a few locals, maybe a lost traveler, but none expected to see the bar lined with eight obviously combat veterans in body armor, drinking and singing songs.  Outside of some scratched and worn-out orange armor panels, there was no regalia to distinguish them as pro-Imperial or pro-Rebellion, so a good guess was that they were mercs.

The crew grabbed a table, ordered drinks, and settled in.  As the first round of drinks were leading to refills, quieted talk grew about engaging the mercenaries.

"Sid, go over there and use your feminine wiles with the mercs." Tarrie ordered the awkward pilot. 

Duk'k quickly appraised their plan, "That's a terrible idea, let's just buy them drink instead..."

Duk'k walked up to the bar to pick up the next rounds for his crew, and a to order a round to the mercenaries.  Not surprisingly, the mercs thanked the Sipsk'ud for gesture, and after a few pleasantries, went back to singing and swapping tall tales.

Duk'k walked back to the Pretio's table, but not before ordering two Giant Nebula Onion Blooms for the fellas at the bar.

Once those items hit the bartop, a ninth merc figure appeared.  A small-ish Lepi male approached the table...

"It's good to see we're not the only group that's lost."

After thanking the table for the drinks and their favorite appetizer, the alien introduced himself as Rinni, and the crew as his band of rangers.  

Captain Rinni the Ranger

Rinni and Duk'k dominated the conversation, focusing on each other's hatred of Imperial's flexing their muscles in the Outer Rim and beyond, an appreciation for weapons, and quiet regret that the planet had no need for work escorts, killing, or simply blowing stuff up. 

While those two compared notes, Sid wandered off to the nearby general store to inquire about Frozen Lac.  He hopped up on the elevated sidewalk towards the entrance to the store, and narrowly collided with a figure rushing out of the store, four gallons of paint flailing in all directions. Frozen Lac was obtained adequately and the encounter quickly forgotten.

Rinni and his crew finished their drinks and food and left in good spirits.  A few minutes later the crew decided that back to the ship sounded like a good location, once they searched for the "skinny girl," Sid.

Sid was in the middle of the road, completely focused on eating the Frozen Lac on a cone. Gathering her, they returned to the ship to find a healthy tree kraken still locked up, and a focused Ne'vets still pouring over his notes, his messages, and numerous maps.

Outside of a few new collegues, there was no advancement on any type to the mission.  

Duk'k gave a quick, but non-imperative statement, "This place seems frightfully boring, but Ne'vets is so pre-occupied that I feel obligated what kind of exotic animals are on this planet or nearby ones. Worst case, I'll look up some near-system bounties."

GM Notes: A super-quick session (without Steve/Ne'vets) turned a short hand-waving session (to allow for a 4am wake-up for a work flight) into a fully fleshed out world. Quellor is a vaguely referenced planet, and a few random rolls from The Donjon gave more options than some of the planets they've previously visited.  

Next: #58 - Dr Pammi and the Beaked Monkeys of Quellor

White Russians at Spoils of Wargames

Nothing like a nice Friday surprise of Gnome Wars on the internet.  

Spoils of Wargames posted a random assortment Russians they had purchased at Historicon in July.  

Three comments:

1.)  Congrats on painting your minis mere weeks after the convention.  You have my admiration.  

2.)  Great job painting!  Those Russians are a little wonky.

3.)  They used the "other GW (Games Workshop)" product with the Citadel Contrast paints.  I'm not a particular fan of how they look, but it fits the bunch of White Russians, ready to slop around the Russian countryside.  

(9/27 Edit: They're painting much faster than me and posted a Russian Priest as well!)

Fall Is Here!

 

(Star Wars d6) #56 - Abandoned Sulo

The Crew of the Pretio in This Week's Episode

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.
Tarrie Prolek- Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo. Brother of potential terrorist, rebel Latorna Savvn. His climbing skills are suspect, but his dance moves are above par. Edging a dangerous lifestyle of drugs, booze, and loose women.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot and friend of Tarrie, with a rare Wookie skin condition, but the strength of ten banthas.

Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew. Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud. His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots.
R2-H8(r) - A "new" astromech droid recently purchased by the crew.
"Sid" - A peculiar woman with some knowledge of their missing ally, Evus, Sid has been allowed to tag along for now...

Kraken a Smile

Heading the the planet Sulo with 

A much-prized Tree Kraken, 

Sid, a new traveling companion,

and thirty metric tons of glow-rods, 

The crew of the Pretio are ready for anything...

...except for what's about to come.

The trip to Sulo was relatively uneventful.  Their new associate, "Sid" performed chores in the care and maintenance of the Tree Kraken, as well as a much-needing cleaning of the space fridge.  

Frokazza shocked everyone by bringing the Pretio out of hyperspace within Sulo's system without any issue. 

Ne'vets wandered around the ship, checking on the crew.  Everyone but Sid was accounted for.  

"Anyone see the new gal/guy/person?"  Ne'vet inquired over the coms. 

"I last saw her trying to pet the product." Tarrie chimed in.  "She also thinks Dr P3PP3R is a Vet Droid, so I don't know what's going on."

"Let's go find her...."

It took quite a bit of searching, but the duo found the unconscious body of Sid in the Tree Kraken habitat

Tarrie pulled his blaster, although Ne'vets was not amused.

"Why are you drawing your blaster?"

"If she's out, I believe the Kraken might be near."

Coming closer, they realized the Tree Kraken was wrapped around Sid's head.  Staring at Tarrie like a scared squirrel, it scurried off Sid and scrambled up into his habitat.

"Tarrie, hold off on shooting, let's see what's going on."

"So don't shoot?"

"Yes, don't shoot, trust me, I've got the special training for these matters."

The Tree Kraken crawled up through a hole in the cargo netting and back into it's makeshift den.  

Outside of a number of sucker marks on her face, Sid looked unharmed.  Ne'vets tried to patch Sid up with a concoction of a bacta pak, space gin, and a citrus fruit, but it required a quick trip to Dr P3PP3R to properly revive her.  

Ne'vets surveyed the apparent damage of the Tree Kraken's "cage."  It appeared the Tree Kraken made a hole in the netting, waylayed an unsuspecting Sid and proceeded to eat a bag of Kraken Chow before resting on Sid's face. 

Climbing back up to the cockpit, Tarrie found a proud Frokazza.  

"We've reached the planet, I submitted the clearance codes and got permission to land..."

"Good job, buddy!"

Ne'vets and Sid clamored up the cockpit as well and tried planetary communication with the Quarren Dallin Wallof without success.

Tarrie order Frokazza to scan the planet for a better location to land than the generic coordinates space traffic control provided.   The only settlements were on the coast of large bodies of water.  

"This planet seems primitive.." Sid quipped.

"They were able to use space mail to contact me, and the payment pre-confirmation was legit.  Let's land something closer to where this Quarren would be."  

Tarrie parked the Pretio in a landing bay within the largest city on the planet.   Things seemed really, really... quiet. 

Tarrie looked over to Ne'vets... "Should we go out in a group... or set up teams?"

"First thing first... let's get rid of these glowrods!"

Sid, with the help of a repulsor pallet jack, unloaded all thirty metric tons of glowrods right along the wall of the bay.  He heard nothing of the outside world, neither people, or other craft. 

Business finished, Ne'vets, Frokazza, and Sid wandered the deserted starport to find an information kiosk/databank.   The power appeared turned off all around, and everything shut down and locked up tight.  They even wandered into a nearby cantina and found it devoid of liquor and with an empty till, not even change.  He eventually found a small databank built into a building, and after flipping a power switch, it booted up and it only was able to bring up an address book.   Wallin's domicile was found closer to the docks.  

Walking through the empty city, the shops were all closed, but some of them still had basic, non-perishable products on racks and shelves.  

They reached Wallin's domicile, among the shanty buildings around the docks.  Ne'vets reached the front door and knocked the approved three times.  There was no response.  They then wandered around calling out his name, and with that not working, any possible sign of intelligent life. 

Even among these lower-class hovels, the surroundings were oddly clean, like a fake set on a movie production.  

Looking through the windows, of Wallin's home and others, everyone was neat and tidy.  Not one looked liked the inhabitants left in a hurry or under duress. 

Further investigation of Wallin's door showed it was barricaded from the inside.  Sid openly debated with Ne'vets if they should break in, and what the proper technique should be.  Frokazza quickly grew tired of this deep analysis and the Wookied pushed the door in with a slight shove.

Sid secured the premises, popping off unnecessary combat maneuvers in an empty house, rolling across hallways, making hand gestures no one else was looking for..

Moving the rug in the bedroom, they uncovered a trap door.  

"Hello, we have your Tree Kraken!"  Ne'vets yelled into the hole.   The shout reverberated down an obvious tunnel.   The crew descended down a five meter ladder, into a rock and dirt carved passageway to investigate further. 

The tunnel descended a number of meters before opening in a large chamber at the water with a carved stone dock that could be a berth for a small, low ship into the harbor.  

Could this be a summer residence and they all lived somewhere else, maybe via submarine?

Larger ropes were tied to the dock and sunk into the water.  Sid jumped deep into the water to investigate the rope.   She climbed down the rope to the harbor floor and discovered a large metallic docking mechanism to lock a vessel into place.  There were no handles or controls above water, so something on the boat must be used to release it .  

Ne'vets remained puzzled, "Perhaps I should re-read the request and see if there was supposed to be a seasonal delivery.  Does anyone want to break into another house?"

The group believed that the town didn't vanish in a panicked evacuation, but why would everyone simply vanish? 

"Maybe I should read the special instructions on the initial order request... when we get back to the ship.... But let's look over at the other side of the planet, maybe it's a seasonal migration!"

The group agreed and returned to the empty starport. Frokazza broke into a small stockpile of fuel to top off the tank, and Tarrie took off, keeping low to the group.  

Sid took over the comms and continued to attempt to raise anyone.  

A weak signal finally came through the system.  "Who is on this frequency?  "Why are you on planet?  I repeat, why are you on planet?"

Ne'vets was quite direct, "We have a delivery."

"Delivery?  No you don't.  We have two more months until deliveries can commence!!!  Wait... you aren't the ones leaving Lauroc and flying 20 meters over the water?  May Kokad crush your skulls in the depths of the oceans!

Ne'vets was just a bit concerned, "That sounds unfortunate."

The voice at the other end of the comms was beside themselves, "You're ruining the migration.  Set your sensors to 91.7.2.q7" 

With the ship's sensors adjusted, the crew could see there ship leaving Lauroc, and a blob extending out of the city, the majority of it following the Pretio.

Still unsure of the chaos occurring, Ne'vets took command, ordering Tarrie to pull up to 2,000 feet and sending Duk'k up to the turret, just in case.

Ne'vets took over the comms, "What is that?"

"You don't even know, do you.  Change your sensors setting to Q-Delta."

The further refinement logged the sensors onto a local array.  A video feed could be pulled.  it showed a quarter-mile wide swath of the ocean. A mass of furry, aquatic mammals were swimming violently, all shoulder to shoulder, in the direction of the Pretio.  

Ne'vets was aghast, "This planet has a unhealthy population of Sea Bear, Suloan Sea Bears, obviously.  

"Oh crap, we didn't do so well..."   Sea Bears were a large, violent creature, who tended to be loners, except when they mating season rolled around.    The creatures would congregate, attempt to mate for week, and hibernated right after.  They had been hiding used the city as the breeding grounds, and probably the larger buildings for their hibernation.  The Pretio had awoken many of them.  

Tarrie asked for permission to bank back towards the city.  Ne'vets allowed it.  

Sea appears to be boiling....  the Pretio opened fire, without much reaction to the mass of Sea Bears.

Ne'vets had had enough, "Do not kill the Sea Bears, they're either hungry or horny... punch it!"

And with that, the Pretio left the atmosphere and flew up into orbit.

"We did get to get rid of 30 metric tons of glow rods."

Sensors indicated that just prior to flying full-speed into space, the ship missed a a missile fired by the planetary defense force.  The last few rumbles of chatter on the lower frequency comms mentioned something about mass evacuations.  

Delivering the Tree Kraken in two months might be prove... difficult.

GM Notes:   Off screen, Ne'vets reviewed the vague descriptions on the order about holding off delivery to avoid certain migratory patterns were completed.  Botched rolls early meant some  miscalculations of the Quarren calendar for Sulo versus the Empire's.  All the Sea Bears would congregate en masse in two or three locations, namely the cities on the planet.  The Quarren would escape the migration, and fish the waters of the Sear Bears unmolested.  

In-game, Tarrie dove into the water, but upon further listening of the actual play recording, he emphatically stated he was with the Pretio, just in case problems arose.   He started giving suggestions to the search party, first via coms, and ultimately, everyone just assume he was there with them.  Given the potential for disaster, I'll keep the pilot with the ship, even if I ruined a perfectly good opportunity for the character to doff his shirt.

The Sea Bear was from The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society #3.   

Next: #57 - Delivery Delays

Talk Like a Pirate Day

 You're not talking like a true pirate unless you're Peter Cushing, playing a pirate game, circa 1958.

(Kickstarter) Planet Builder Zine + Planet Design Book

The 'zines won't go away!  Thank goodness.

Marco Serrano has launched a Kickstarter for the Planet Builder Zine + Planet Design Book. 

The Planet Builder Zine is chock full a charts and prompts to construct area and detail sandboxes for new planets/moons/worlds to explore. 

The Planet Design Book, is a notebook to organize you designs into something complete.