The Barbie Tie-Ins With Wargaming Are Off the Chain, Yo!

 

Embark on Adventures This Weekend at Historicon

Last night began the excitement which is Historicon, running 7/19 - 7/23 at the Lancaster Convention Center in beautiful, scenic Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

Hopefully, as this posts as scheduled, I'll be getting ready to take a jaunt down to La Dolce Vita for breakfast before setting up the first of three "Defense of Carf" games for Fistful of Lead.  Unit sheets and reference cards are ready, figures are painted, and hopefully we can convert the table from sci-fi, to gnomes, back to sci-fi for the evening. 

(Kickstarter) Star Schlock Battle Game: Miniatures and Skirmish Rules

Star Schlock has launched their second Kickstarter, this time for a Starter Set and more minis!

I don't think there's ever been a ruleset/starter box with landing party versus space gorillas, but this is a good one to start with.

(Star Wars d6) #98 - Infestation and Repair

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.  Currently missing after the Pretio's abrupt stop.

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.

Sqarl - Quarren ex-whaladon hunter, recently hired onto the crew.

Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, who has found his way back to the Pretio but caught back up in the nonsense of the Pretio.  Former lover and boy-toy to the feared Rebel terrorist (and former Pretio crewmember), Latorna Savvn.   

"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot.  Recent victim of a werewolf attack and (as of a few minutes)  below the knee amputee,  thanks to the ship's medical droid, Dr P3PP3R.  Still recovering from the procedure in her room. 

"Ship Tarrie" - With the recent catastrophic failure on the Pretio, the subsequent reboot has an awoken an AI to the ship that seems to believe it is previously MIA/KIA pilot, Tarrie Prolek

R2-H8(r) - "H8R"  Astromech with a confusing history, and harsh attitude towards most of the crew. 

"Cousin Rancor" - Social media guru, famous for foolish holo-vids across the galaxy.  Lone survivor of last failed expedition to obtain a 'werewolf'.  Currently detained and secured in the h

Multiplying Problems

Shocked by the Pretio suffering a catastrophic system failure, 

Falling out of hyperspace, and every nothing blowing up,

The crew is in a bit of a pickle trying to repair some 

Apparent reactor, all the while trying to figure

Out where their Captain and Employer, 

Ne'vets Aharo, was disappeared to. 

To make matters worse, it appears that some

Of the Bioxin Azure Rabbits from a previous

Mission had escaped into the walls of the ship, 

And have been procreating over the past few months

Damaging a number of other systems and supplies.

Duk'k continued to peer inside around the reactor of the Pretio, while trying to interpret a holo-schematic of the ship.  

"Kriff, these things are small enough to travel throughout the entire ship."

He chucked a doze grenade inside the panels.  After a few second, he popped a rebreather in his mouth and motioned at Squrl.  "Grab a cage, I'll anything I find in here."

Within second Duk'k tossed out his first Bioxin Azure Rabbit, then another, and another.

Ship Tarrie sensed something bad, but unspecific.

"Friends, there is still movement afoot that is not you...."

With the rabbits gone, Duk'k could finally take a good look at the potential damage. "Is it around here, Tarrie???"

Ship Tarrie did not answer.

Turning a corner, Duk'k found two more normal Bioxin Azures, and a larger one, breathing with great difficulty.  It didn't appear to be pregnant. 

"Sqarl, three more coming out.  They're pretty hefty."

A few tosses out of the reactor panel, Sqarl crammed the last rabbits into the crate and moved them to the open cargo hold.  He grabbed another crate and returned to the reactor. 

Duk'k reviewed the carnage outside of the reactor core, ".... and they've done some damage on these cables.   How are we not dead???  Sqarl toss in a spanner and some duct tape."

"You have your own tape?"

"Funny, toss that stuff in.  I'm trying not to die while while wearing just pants and a rebreather..."

"Friend Duk'k I can't see the damage, but I may be able to help you reroute the cables...   Hey R2, can you help with these guys?"

R2 was a bit curt. "I have three inches of protection when the ship goes nova.  Not going to risk it.  Tarrie, what have the meatbags done for you.  They wouldn't even come back to you...."

With no help from the astromech, Ship Tarrie, began to interpret the damage and offer assistance to Duk'k.  

A few mintues later, Tarrie stated from out of the blue, "Friends, explosion reported in Room 11, Cargo Bay A."

Sqarl was confused.  He had heard no noise and walked back over to the cargo bay door.  He could see nothing out of sorts through the port hole window in the door.

"No explosions here, we're safe."

Evus chimed in, "Not related to any explosions, but I'm going to need to bank hard to keep up with the hyperdrive."

Duk'k  acknowledged the maneuver, and the Pretio banked hard to the right.  

A half-hour later, Duk'k completed enough repairs to route more power to essential systems.  Gravity and environmental were at 100%, all lights were operational, even the shields and weapons were beginning to boot up.  He emerged from the reactor core, with two awake but complacent Bioxin Azure Rabbits his hands.

"Sqarl, did you see any damage from that reported explosion?"

"I didn't, but I'll take a closer look now."

"Good, I'll go look for equipment to try to lasso a hyperdrive floating in space."

The Sipsk'ud walked past the shackled Cousin Rancor in the lounge.  

"Hey Duk'k this is better, lights, oxygen.  It looks like we're not going to die quite yet."  

Duk'k rolled his eyes and proceeded to a supply closet.

Sqarl peaked through the port hole again, and no seeing any changes, decided to check on Sid.    Sid had been secured to her bunk after the surgery, so the ship failure and tumbling wouldn't send her flying across the room.  

He open the cabin door, and Sid was not there, replaced by a rabbit-like creature, covered in a black slimy exoskeleton, and a larger head filled with dozens of small, razor sharp teeth. 

Quite an alien-looking creature....

The creature turned its head, puzzled by the Quarren in the doorway.  The Quarren was less puzzled, unshouldering his rifle, and sending a silver harpoon screaming towards it.   To his surprise, the creature dodged the harpoon by leaping straight up and through an open vent on the ceiling. 

As the vent door bounced to a stop, Sqarl heard an odd thumping-walk down the hallway.  It was Sid, using an elaborate stick as a crutch.

Sid had woken up earlier, unstrapped herself from the bed, and after re-arming herself, struggled down the hall to Ne'vets cabin.    Ne'vets was not there, but there was an assortment of curios and collectibles strewn across the floor.  Sid did see the Kalamuuntu Walking Crutch, a perfect size walking crutch that was the traditional retirement reward of those who hunted the Narlaxian Drop Bear.   She had poked around the debris when the door shut, and Sqarl passed by in the corridor. 

Sid didn't believe what Sqarl had seen, so he decided to broadcast it over the coms.  

"Found a rabbit in Sid's room.  Probably mutated into something hideous.  It escaped into the vents."

Duk'k responded, "Not good, is Sid alright."

"Standing next to me right now, unharmed."  

"Good, keep her close."

The coms were interrupted by a panicked Evus, "Guys you don't hear Ne'vets screaming, he's shooting at something.  I just don't know where he is."

The crew fumbled with their coms, and Squarl found the exotic animal broker on a never used, non-universal channel.  

"HELP!!! HELP!!! Something's in the vents, I can't move.  ARRRRGGGH *BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM.... UGH...RRRR..."

Duk'k could hear the off-echo of the blaster shots emerging from a nearby vent, "How did he get in THERE?"   He readied his blaster and pulled himself into the vent.    After turning a corner, he could hear Nev'ets moaning, obviously in pain.  He somehow got himself lodged in the vent, and he had apparent injuries to his feet and legs.  

Ne'vets acknowledged Duk'k and tried to help pull himself loose and out of the vents.  His right foot has a bloody mess.  

Ne'vets explained he was asleep when the Pretio lost power and went dark.  He was getting bludgeoned by all his collectibles and trophies, and in a move he now realized was unwise, crawled into the vent on along the floor for any protection.  The ship may have been ready to explode, but he wanted a few seconds to recover in peace before it happened.  

When the ship didn't explode, or all cabin pressure was lost, he tried to find an unblocked passage, only to get lost a few minutes into his effort.  The vents were largely soundproof, and he must have knocked his coms a bit.  

It wasn't until those last few minutes when the rabbit-creature came down the vent.  Ne'vets was able to dislodge himself enough to rotate onto his back, pull out his blaster, and fire at the creature.  He may have missed entirely, blowing off his toes in the process.  The blaster shot proceeded to hit the creature and ricochet up and down the vent, until it fled.  

"It wasn't a direct shot, probably a ricochet that got your foot."

Duk'k got him up to speed, and questioned Sqarl, "So there was still nothing in regards to the explosion, right?" 

"Oops, let me check again."  

This time, Duk'k and Sqarl went into the cargo bay.  Everything looked okay, but upon further inspection, the crate holding the first seven rabbits had burst open away from the view of the port hole.  Two of the rabbits were still in the busted crate, quite dead, and the other normal sized ones were gone.  The crate itself was covered by the residue from the remains of the larger one they had obtained.  From the looks of things, it apparently exploded inside the crate, with tremendous force. 

"Alright, there might be more of these things, up to four total.  Let's secure what we can inside, grab that hyperdrive outside, and fix this problem.  Coming back to the cabins..."

Evus, "Oh yeah, I need to do something...." and with that he climbed up the ladder and back to the cockpit.  

Once Sqarl and Duk'k came back to Sid, she snorted in disgust, "Maybe I should hop up there.  Something might get accomplished.  Sqarl, check my six in the cockpit?"

"Will do."

"Great."  Sid hopped up the ladder to the cockpit, "Evus go help Duk'k for awhile..."

Ne'vets was sent to Dr P3PP3R to see the extent of his damages.  

"We could re-attach your toes, if you could find them in the air duct."

Cousins Rancor, quipped while Duk'k help Ne'vets to the sick bay. "I thought of a new holo-vid... how long can people stay in an air duct.  We put fifteen people in and watch them go crazy.   We throw in some of these rats."

With everything secured for the moment, and no screaming on the coms, Duk'k walked over to the other cargo hold, containing the Piscopo.  

There was no damage to vehicle or contents, at first glance.  However, looking at the grenade dispensers on the wall, the contents of the doze and frag grenades were empty.

Moving the dispenser off the wall revealed a pair of gaping holes, perfect for the grenades to fall through the wall, and into the sub-structure of the ship.

"It seems our entire supply of grenades is missing...   Let's hope our ship doesn't take a blaster shot.  Sid, work on powering on the shields between your maneuvers."

Peering into the hole, Duk'k  reached for his com again for more commentary.   The other crew members only heard blaster fire.  

Evus was the lone crew member to investigate.  He found Duk'k next to the hole, trying to find something to wipe something off his armor.  The sizzling sound of something eating away at parts of the armor could be heard under the constant cursing of the Sipsk'ud.  

"Damn thing surprised me.  I surprised them back.  By the way, they bleed acid when they explode."

GM Notes:   The problem with multiple GM ideas, and multiple sessions to resolve anything, is that when things culminate, it's not just one idea.  

Werewolf plotline?  Check!  Reticulant Parasite (aka xenomorphs)? Check!  Perfect timing to run an early Halloween session based on Episode 42 of the Star War Mynock campaign from the Campaign Podcast. 

Ne'vets player missed a session and thanks to grade school math homework, was late to this session, so he waked right into Ne'vets recovery.  Not as bad and Sid, but the creatures have shrunk considerably.

Next: #99 - A Reticulan Gambit

Cloud City Games in Their Newest Palmer Park Mall Digs

When I was of proper "kids on bikes" age, I had an actually shopping mall less than ten minutes away by bike ride. Way too many afternoons were wasted there.  While Waldenbooks had it's own sacred pilgrimage spot in it's weird corner location in the center of the mall, most of my time was spent at the holy trinity on the "new" side of the mall:  the arcade, Kay-Bee toys, and the Wall (or Wall to Wall Sound and Video beforehand... or was it Listening Booth, I honestly don't remember).  

By the late 90s, the arcade had closed up shop, and that Kay-Bee stumbled through the mid-2000's.   I believe I had officially moved out of the area by the time the Walls and their lifetime guarantee stickers on CDs converted over to great concept but horrible execution of f.y.e/FYE.  

On a trip to visit my mother this spring, I discovered that the FYE was closing for good at the end of April.  While it had mutated into something different, like the old trees in the neighborhood getting cut down for construction, or my old elementary school getting torn down, I lamented the loss of a piece of my childhood.

That loss was short-lived as Cloud City Games, which had a location at the other end of mall, took up the lease for FYE's old storefront and moved in after the 4th of July holiday. 

There's been a minor increase in inventory, most notably a hefty variety of 'zine RPGs, but the store is spacious and can have a dozen or so people playing Magic where I once stood at the newest album releases thirty years prior.  Comics also have a better dedicated section, where I always felt they were a buffer zone between the open gaming area and the rest of the retail space.  

I didn't go too crazy, as it was an impromptu visit to check on my Mom during this heat wave, but I did grab some paint agitators and color-coordinated dice for my Fistful of Lead game at Historicon this week. 

Cloud City Games - Easton is still in the Palmer Park Mall, now just outside the entrance to Boscov's.

A Contest for #RPGaDay2023!

The 10th Anniversary of #RPGaDay kicks off in just over two weeks!  Early years had a bit a stigma about doing them each day as they came along, but luckily that's gone by the wayside.  We got the list for #RPGaDay2023, allowed for more promotion, more time to craft responses, and now, a chance to submit entries for a contest!  

Nerd's RPG Variety Cast announced a contest in support of #RPGaDay, with just so many ways to enter, I'm a bit jealous.  

The concept is easy, complete one of the daily questions and submit to the podcast.  One lucky submission at random will win an RPG book directly off of the man's shelf.  Submissions are due by July 30, 2023. 

I love the concept of the contest, I enjoy to promotion of #RPGaDay2023, and after hearing a made record a short podcast in his car, I have a new podcast to try out.   With most episodes under an hour, it should be a fun investment of my time. 

The episode covering all this can be found here.

(Star Wars d6) #97 - Secrets Revealed!

 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.

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.

Sqarl - Quarren ex-whaladon hunter, recently hired onto the crew.

Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, who has found his way back to the Pretio but caught back up in the nonsense of the Pretio.  Former lover and boy-toy to the feared Rebel terrorist (and former Pretio crewmember), Latorna Savvn.   Recent victim of a werewolf attack and (as of a few minutes)  below the knee amputee,  thanks to the ship's medical droid, Dr P3PP3R.

"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot.  Recently injured from an attack by "werewolves," Sid has just had surgery to amputate a mangled leg and is recovering in her cabin. 

R2-H8(r) - "H8R"  Astromech with a confusing history, and harsh attitude towards most of the crew. 

"Cousin Rancor" - Social media guru, famous for foolish holo-vids across the galaxy.  Lone survivor of last failed expedition to obtain a 'werewolf'

Pitch Black

The crew of the Pretio, in the midst of

A contracted 'Werewolf Hunt", have left the planet 

Belkain with two additions, the head and spine 

Of one of these mythical creatures, 

and previously marooned social media and 

Holo-Vid star "Cousin Rancor."

They leave the planet with two things missing: one landing gear,

Although the part was recovered, and the injured

Leg of their pilot Sid, a victim of the en masse 

Werewolf attack.  

En route to the Kwenn Space Station for 

repairs to both the Pretio and Sid, 

The ship has gone completely black, and 

Has tumbled out of hyperspace.

In a matter of seconds, the Pretio was comfortably cruising in hyperspace, an hour or so out from a visit to the Kwenn Space Stationn, to the ship plunging into total darkness, falling out of hyperspace, and tumbling end of end in the darkness of space.  

Duk'k scrambled in the cockpit, pressing unresponsive buttons, trying to maintain himself in a new zero-gravity environment.  He fumbled for hit floating utility boat to grab some glow-sticks.  Once the blue glow enveloped the room, he began opening cabinets underneath the console to see what the problem.  

"Duk'k are we okay."

"Who's there"

"Evus and Sqarl.  We're okay."

Squarl bellowed up, "We need to secure Cousin Rancor.  I don't trust him at all, moving freely, while all these problems are happening."

Cousin Rancor yelled from over at the lounge. "I'm secure... don't feel safe."

"You have any experience with stuff like this?"

"Like the power company turning off your power... while your ship is in hyperspace?  Why aren't we dead?"

Squarl grunted, holding on for dear life, "Don't care, just don't move."

Evus, shook his head, "Fine, go secure him, Sqarl.  What do you need, Duk'k"

R2-H8(r) maneuvered with his thrusters to an interface port in the kitchen.

"Engines are off, power not routing through the circuit.  Even emergency power is off.  Look for a broken circuit."

With some tape, some luck, and some surprising ingenuity, Duk'k made some repairs beneath the console to fix the circuit, and enable flickering emergency light and basic life support functions. .

With some function of the ship returning, Sqarl finally managed to secure Cousin Rancor to the refridgerator, "This is for your own good."

"Sounds good, man, just make the ship stop spinning."

Both were too busy with the detainment to see R2-H8(r) continuing to run diagnostics on the ship, get a crackle of energy through his scomp link, forcing the astromech droid to disconnect.  

The console in the cockpit came back to life, and Duk'k was able to regain control of the ship, through a long series of thruster maneuvers.  

For a moment, things seemed better.  

Sqarl worked his way up to the cockpit.  Upon reaching the base of the ladder, he saw the main corridors light up with red flashing lights, in addition to two unfamiliar alarms.  One, similar to an alarm clock, the second a new voice that repeated, 

"WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED INTRUDER ACCESSING COCKPIT  WARNING"

Duk'k heard the warning, and was equally confused  He was still a new guy on aboard the Pretio, but he was quite certain a stock Ghtroc 720 did not have any computerized voice systems, and from his time with Ne'vets, they didn't go very flashy on the purchase.

Things elevated as the computer voices repeated the warning, and added:

"SHOULD I ENGAGE COUNTERMEASURES?"

Duk'k replied to the alert, "Identify list authorized personnel for cockpit."   .27:20

"You, Duk'k.  Evus, Frokazza, Me."

The voice seemed too familiar to Duk'k.  "Ummm...  Tarrie?"

"Yeah, where's Frokazza?  I'm not sure who these folks are on the ship."

Duk'k stood up and walked over to the ladder.  Looking down, he ask Sqarl, "You're hearing this too, right?"   Sqarl only gave a confused nod back up towards him.

"And what is THAT thing coming up the ladder... ?"

"That's Sqarl, he's cool."

"Haven't found Ne'vets, no Evus, definitely no Frokazza.   R2 stopped talking to me.   Can't you see me?"

"Uhhhh... nope."  

There was a long pause as Duk'k thought of the ramifications.

"Well, it's pretty obvious, you're a Force ghost, who has engaged into the machine which is the Pretio to save us all.  That's the only reason we aren't space dust right now.  Even my limited knowledge of interstellar travel tells me we should have vaporized upon the unplanned drop from hyperspace, especially with no shields to protect us."

Sqarl looked up the Sipsk'ud, "Force Ghost in the Machine? Sounds crazy, but you guys seem to attract crazy."

"I'm what???? I don't..."

"Tarrie, it's like you came from another plane of existence, Tarrie..." Duk'k tried to explain. 

"Wait, Tarrie came here on a plane? Tarrie, buddy, it's Evus, where are you?"

"Hey, Evus, I can sense you. Last thing I remember is we were running through the streets of Alderaan with Monkey Pants, and now I'm not sure where I am."

Evus nudged Sqarl aside "I'm authorized." and climbed the ladder.  He whispered in Duk'k's ear, "We didn't have Monkey Pants during Alderaan.  Only when we reunited on Naboo.  Is it not Force Tarrie, or is he just confused.  I know I am."

Duk'k tried to explain, "I think he's confused in his new state..."

"Like his new plane?  Is he just drunk again on his new plane?  We should open an airlock and help him out...  I want Sid to get better, but I'll take Tarrie in a heartbeat if he can fix everything."

Duk'k reassured Evus that that was not the case.

"Tarrie, your consciousness has merged with the Pretio."

"Weird, makes sense, it feels like I'm paging through files and folders, like a weird monitors everywhere there are sensors on the ship.  I could detect the dude, tied up next to the fridge, I saw the Calamari near the ladder, and I see Sid asleep in a cabin.  What happened to her?  Where's Frokazza?  How I know everything, I don't know."

"Where's Ne'vets?" 

"Ne'vets is trying to get....  actually I don't know."

Duk'k motioned to Sqarl to check Ne'vets cabin.  

"Duk'k you want me to just open the door for this thing?"

Ne'vets cabin door open to an absolute mess inside.  All the various curious, collectibles, and trophies had been tossed during the tumbling, most were laying on the floor.  No sign of Ne'vets could be found.  

"Anyway Tarrie, last time we saw you, we were on Naboo.  Now that you're a force ghost, I assume things didn't go as well as we hoped."

"I don't know what any of that means."

"Let's get to civilization first and we'll figure things out.  How bad is the ship?"

"We're drawing emergency power only.  The reactor appears to not distribute across the ship, and the hyperdrive is not responding."

A quick dash down the corridor, Duk'k confirmed Tarrie's report.  The hyperdrive was not responding... because it was disconnected, and possibly floating in space.  Thankfully that section of the ship auto-sealed.  

Heading towards the engineering console, R2 passed by Duk'k.

"The heck with you meatbags, I'm hiding in escape pods."

"Hey, that's your job!"

"Tell me once you figure out what's wrong with it."

"But that's your job!!!"

"Be lucky the life support is working,  If it's not, I'll give it twenty more minutes then work on it with you guys a lot quieter."  And with that, he headed towards the escape pods.

At the engineering console, Duk'k could confirm the hyperdrive was missing.  He reached out to Evus.

"Evus, set the sensors for this signature.  It's our hyperdrive,  use the thrusters to catch up to it. "

With Evus' confirmation, Duk'k heard rustling beneath the engineering console. Opening up the doors, he was met with a pair of red eyes hiding in the shadows.  Both Duk'k and the eyes stared at each other until the eyes turned to the left, revealing a profile of a Bioxin Azure.

"Rabbits, we haven't had rabbits on the ship in ages....  Tarrie?  Tarrie.  TARRIE?"

"I'm here."

"Can you get a bearing on these rabbits?"  

"I can't pinpoint anything that deep inside of me, but I think I know it's there."

"Sqarl, go to Cargo Bay A and grab an animal container and bring it to the engineering in the back of the ship.  Make sure it's big enough for a couple rabbits stuck in the reactor core."

Awaiting Sqarl's arrival, ran over to Tarrie's old belonging, and grabbed an extra job of Wookie salve he had been keeping for Frokazza.  He doffed his shirt, and lathered up, as a level of protection, and to be easier to squeeze into smaller spaces.  Getting back to the console, he checked up on Sqarl.

"Hey boss, still in the cargo hold, I've got the crate.  I'll be there in a few seconds, but I found a problem."

"What sort of a problem, Sqarl?"

"The werewolf head and spinal column.  Its container is open... and something was eating the remains."

"Lock up the container if you still can and come back in."

GM Notes:  Fun fact, Duk'k botched his religious training skill rolls, so the assumption of a Force Ghost in the Machine was adopted by everyone without question.  No one has a clue where Ne'vets is. 

Next: #98 - Infestation and Repair