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Serenity Articles : Revealing a Bit More of the ‘Verse

(Since this article was written, we’ve seen beautiful ~official cosmologies of the Whedon ‘Verse which purport to identify all the planets and moons in the multi-star system known as the ‘Verse. Well, that is all shiny and good, but as a game master I love the option of creating my own worlds outside of canon to house whatever adventures or ideas I want to spring on my players. So I don’t hold to canon in this instance so enjoy using the planets presented below. – Jim)

(Originally published on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on October 5, 2006)

In the core Serenity RPG rulebook, we detail 30 planets or moons, drawn from the television show or the movie. Sure you get the highlights, but there are a lot more worlds in the ‘Verse so I’ve decided to detail them for the Dragonlaird Gaming readership. Enjoy!

Columbiana

Location: Rim, Away from Reaver Territory

Status: Red-zoned

Common Knowledge: To the man on the street, Columbiana is practically a fable. For decades its been off-limits, ‘red-zoned’, as the Terraforming Consortium continued to work on making it suitable for human habitation. Periodically, rumors spring up that Columbiana is about to be opened for settlement, creating an ‘Oklahoma Land Rush’ atmosphere, but its never been opened. Nothing else is known about it except the conjectures that its either a blackrock (uninhabitable) or a lush garden the Alliance is keeping from ‘average folk’.

Adventure Suggestions: Lots of adventures can be hooked on Columbiana, whether she’s actually opened up or not. Plenty of people would kill to get their first, to get a hold of planetary survey data to see where the best claims would be, even just to find out the secret. A strong rumor of opening would have a ripple affect on other planets as people geared up to settle or speculate or explore the virgin world.

Gamemaster Knowledge: It is up to individual GMs if Columbiana is ready for settlement and if so, why it hasn’t been opened yet. Never-the-less, it does have a strong Alliance naval presence to interdict ships before they reach the planet. It also has a large Terraforming Consortium presence consisting of scientists, guards, and a small cadre of isolated workers. Massive TC machines sit in orbit and at various places on the planet: atmospheric generators, water transfer stations, biological seeding arrays, etc.

Elsine

Location: Border Worlds

Status: Unrestricted

Common Knowledge: Elsine is the poor brother to Hera, once thought to be a second agricultural breadbasket for the expanding population of the ‘Verse. Rumors have it that the Terraforming Consortium tried too hard to convert the planet and ruined it. Conspiracy theorists believe the attempt was made to break the near monopoly that Hera held to exporting foodstuffs. For whatever reason, it is now clear that Elsine is a large, fairly barren world, prone to dust storms, and hard-bitten settlers tending crops on the edges of the wastelands. For a planet as large as Elsine, the population is minute and it is a great place to get lost. The Alliance Penal Colony Hellsgate resides on a large island on Elsine.

Adventure Suggestions: If a person were sent to Hellsgate, it’d be an adventure escaping. Or coming to Elsine intent on breaking someone or a group out of the colony. Loners and hermits can be found, hiding from their pasts and the PCs may be involved in their past coming back to haunt them. Elsine is a great place to hide things as well, even huge things like spacecraft.

Gamemaster Knowledge: Only the penal colony brings Alliance to the planet and the administrative station on its second moon (Oroyos) is continually understaffed. The Alliance might have other facilities on the planet or the first moon (Charon). They might be running experiments or have secret programs there or on the planet.

Serenity Articles : Interview with Floyd C. Wesel

(Originally published on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on October 4, 2006)

The release of the Serenity RPG at the 2005 Gen-Con in Indianapolis created a wave of interest in the game and a need to have a community for fans. Stepping into this gap, Floyd C. Wesel created Waves in the Black, an unofficial fan and support site for Serenity RPG. The site has grown into the premiere, fan-created support site for the Serenity RPG.

Floyd Wesel has been gaming for 25+ years, pretty much 23 of them spent running games. In between games and gaming events he’s been in the military (US Army) and is currently returned to school in the hopes of getting a degree in education. He’s married (near 11 years) with 3 dogs (about 230 pounds worth of canine). In the late 1980’s he stepped into the industry pond while working with WEG’s Star Wars D6 license. Later he also worked with WEG on several of their game lines. In later years Floyd has worked with AEG (7th Sea) and EDEN (Buffy, Angel, and Ghosts of Albion) as well as having playtested WOTC’s “Star Wars d20” and, of course, Serenity RPG by MWP, among others. Floyd prefers RPGs over beer’n’pretzel games, board games and tactical games and he pretty much HATES collectible-anything-games. “But hey, it takes all kinds and I’m glad that folks can find a game that makes them happy. That’s what I love about the ‘gaming’ hobby.” When you get right down to it, Floyd is a storyteller via almost any medium.

We sat down, virtually, with Floyd to talk about Firefly, Serenity, and the website.

Discovering Firefly

Running only 13 episodes in the U.S. in 2002 before getting cancelled by Fox Television, Firefly became a cult hit when it was released on DVD with all 16 shot episodes included, in the order they were meant to air. Much has been made of how Firefly was mishandled by Fox (running episodes out of order, changing when it would air, tossing it around with World Series coverage), but somehow the word got out and loyal Browncoats were born.

JD: When did you first see Firefly/Serenity?

FW: I watched most of the series when it first ran on FOX, from the first episode that aired. (Though it was a bit of a challenge due to the way they aired them to watch all of them at that time. Stupid Fox.)

JD: Do you have a favorite episode?

FW: I love “Out of Gas”. I know most folk say Jaynestown and Our Mrs. Reynolds, and they are great episodes, but “Out of Gas” is just special to me because of the nature of the story and HOW it’s told. It uses a current problem to show off the most obvious and overlooked character of the show, “Serenity” herself, and how Malcolm simply won’t leave ANYONE behind, especially her. And in the course of the episode, shows how the rest of the cast got on board Serenity. It’s a masterpiece, in my mind.

JD: What did you think of Firefly at first?

FW: I was a fan from the get go. (Oddly, it was Firefly that got me later to really look at Angel & Buffy; shows I wasn’t a fan of at the time, though now I am a huge fan. Which is ironic because it was in a Angel/Buffy playtest project that got me into the Serenity RPG playtest.)

JD: What do you like about the show?

FW: Everything. (Boring answer, I know.) I specifically loved the language of the show.

Serenity RPG

Floyd and I participated in the playtesting of the Serenity RPG from November 2004 through its final, frantic stages before Gen Con 2005 when MWP was getting the last bits of ‘cargo stored on the ship’. It was a large community of active playtesters (more than 20 people made serious contributions at one time or another) along with the comments and opinions of their home gaming groups who served as guinea pigs.

JD: How did you first learn that the RPG was being made?

FW: I was doing a playtest for EDEN for Buffy and Angel and was asked to contact MWP about playtesting Serenity.

JD: Have you been involved in many playtests?

FW: I think the number of playtests is around 12 or so, maybe a bit more or less.

JD: Something obviously keeps you coming back. What is it?

FW: Well, seeing games as they come into being is always cool. Working with folks to solve this or that problem is always interesting. And let’s face it, seeing and playing a game before everyone else is not too shabby a thing. Mainly though it’s a matter of just being a part of something.

JD: What did you think of your experience in helping create Serenity RPG?

FW: It was interesting. I wished we could have had another month or two though to be honest.

JD: I’m sure that’s true of all games, creative drive vs. business deadlines. If you could change one or two things about the Serenity RPG engine, what would they be?

FW: Well, while I love the spirit of the game and the system, the book needed some solid clarifications. Something that would have helped the game would have been some good, straight-up examples of how MWP and Jamie envisioned the game running during a session. We have talked about that and I believe that we’ll see something along those lines coming out at some point. (Though it might be more BSG focused, rather than Serenity. Let’s face it, as a game company you want to support all your games, but to make money and stay in business you HAVE to focus on where your money will be coming from.)

JD: What do you think the future of the game is?

FW: Officially, Bleak. Unless Jamie Chambers and MWP can figure out a way around Universal’s unwillingness to go further with the license; which i hope they can. Unofficially however, I think Serenity will have some solid life for the next few years and then slowly it’ll fade to the very hard core players…unless, of course, there’s another movie or a TV show to shoot some life into it. I’d love to say that it’ll be strong forever, but let’s face it, other interests come along, etc., etc. Ultimately EVERY game has life and longevity that pulses with the fan-base.

JD: Are you (still) the informal errata-keeper for Serenity RPG?

FW: Yes. (Unless Jamie reads this interview. Kidding.)

JD: Where can fans find the Serenity errata?

FW: The Errata is in the busy hands of Jamie. He and MWP will release it as soon as they can. I believe the latest printing of the Serenity RPG has the corrections already within it, though obviously, that doesn’t help the folks who bought one of the other print runs.

JD: Do you run Serenity/Firefly campaigns? If so, do you use the RPG rules? Describe the campaigns.

FW: I have done a few mini-campaigns. One was set during the Unification War, the other was set about the time of Firefly. Usually I run Serenity games for Game Days at the local game store or at conventions like GEN CON, where this year I wrote (3 adventures) and managed MWPs Serenity Games at the Con. BTW, you can download those adventures for free from WAVES.

JD: How successful have you or your players been incorporating Chinese phrases to recreate the Firefly-esque dialogue? Any tips?

FW: The players usually scribble one or two to throw in now and again, but really it has not been a major part of our games. I suggest making a pool of phrases on slips of paper and having a player each pick 1-3 slips. If they can somehow manage to use that phrase in game, in character, then give the player a Plot Point.

JD: Do you use music when you live-game? What do you like for Serenity games?

FW: Yes. I even make soundtracks for many of my games. I don’t mean I record my own music for I am a music idiot. What I mean is I simply take tracks of various CDs and make my own compilation CDs. For Serenity? Hmm, well, there’s the FIREFLY and SERENITY soundtracks themselves. As for other CDs, there’s a lot out there, too many to mention.

JD: There are many Play-by-Post Serenity games active on the net these days. Using the web to bring niche gamers together for a game like Serenity is becoming more and more common. Are you or have you ever participated in a PbP Serenity game?

FW: I have never been involved in any PBP. I don’t think I would like them a fraction as to how much I like table-top RPGs. I am not into computer games for the most part. I love the “people connect” aspect of RPGs and since we communicate 90% of the time in a non-verbal sense, I think too much is lost via email and chat and post. (Hell, someone had to invent “emot-icons” just so people could try and understand HOW someone said something not what or why.)

Waves in the Black

As the most popular fan site for the Serenity RPG, Waves in the Black was created in September 2005 to be a home for discussions on rules, adventure ideas, NPCs, ship designs, and much more. Free to join and worth its weight in platinum to GMs and players alike. A “Best Of” PDF is now available with most popular fan contributions. You can talk to Floyd by his WitB-ID: Ravenshadow.

JD: What is Waves in the Black?

FW: Basically it is a Message Board devoted mainly to the Serenity RPG, but there are sections for all things Firefly and Joss Whedon.

JD: Why did you start it?

FW: Basically, I wanted a place to talk about the RPG and there wasn’t any. This was due to the fact that the game was not out at the time. But then at that GEN CON the game was released, so when I got home, I started WAVES. (I also own REVENANT’S, a MB devoted to the 7th Sea RPG.)

JD: How successful do you think its been?

FW: I think it’s been very successful for a niche game in a niche hobby. I think the community is outstanding, there’s a huge willingness to share at WAVES; from story ideas to art to ship layouts and so on.

JD: What are your plans for the future of the site?

FW: Really, to be honest, the only plans are to “keep flying”. WAVES isn’t trying to be fancy or ultra-modern, it’s just trying to be a place to share within the RPG niche. If anything I might expand it to make some space for the new BSG game that’s coming out next year. It’ll be the same base system as Serenity, so it makes sense. I am going to approach Jamie Chambers to see if I might be able to do a “After Action Report” type thing for BSG during the playtest, telling folks about the game as we playtest it, though obviously I won’t be giving out any real secrets. We’ll see.

JD: Is there something you wish you’d see more of on Waves?

FW: No, not really. I mean I love seeing Ship Plans on the site, and folks love having more options for such things.

JD: Have you considered compiling the best material from Waves (with all attribution and ownership clearly established) and making it available in a PDF? It would be nice to see the rule variants and content in one place. Might help establish the “brand” of Waves further.

FW: Something like that would be possible, and some folks have put together a few PDFs already, but such things take time and my free time these days is a bit thin. UPDATE: Such a PDF is now available: HERE!

Battlestar Galactica

Running with their success with Serenity RPG, Margaret Weis Productions (MWP) bid on and won the license to produce an RPG based on the new Battlestar Galactica television show. They intend to use the popular Serenity RPG rules engine with enhancements to address the particular needs of the new genre. Current estimates put a “quick-start” rule set out later this year with a full book to come in 2007. From the start, MWP secured the rights to 6 BSG-RPG product releases, double the 3 they were permitted under the Serenity license.

JD: Any thoughts on the rumored development of BSG-RPG using the ‘serenity’ engine?

FW: Well, it’s not a rumor, MWP is making the game, though the true playtesting hasn’t quite started yet. While Serenity is stalled, it should benefit from BSG, if for no other reason then that any improvements to the game system will be applicable to Serenity. As for BSG, I think there’s plenty of RP potential, and I look forward to being a part of it, so long as MWP is willing to let me.

JD: True, we’re out of the rumor stage, although development has been postponed a couple times so far. Do you anticipate that MWP will embrace changes to the system that would make it not fully compatible with the original Serenity RPG version? What would you like to see changed/expanded/removed?

FW: No, I don’t think so. The game is fairly open within itself. They’d have to make SERIOUS changes to the basic nature of the game and I don’t think that’s needed. As for expanded, well, obviously it’s going to need more hard-written ship combat rules, given the nature of BSG. I am really interested in how the Lords of Kobol and the Cylon faiths and the “mysteries of the universe” are going to play out in the game.

JD: Do you have a set of Serenity “house rules” that you’re hoping will make it into BSG?

FW: No. I have not seriously worked on anything yet. We won’t start at my table until MWP is ready to start. I did make a BSG PC sheet several months back for the playtesters and gave it to MWP, which actually became the template that MWP used for the Serenity pc sheet, which is cool.

JD: Thanks very much for your time.

FW: You’re welcome.

Serenity Articles : Serenity Mood Music

(Originally published on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on August 24, 2006)

Back before the movie was announced, before the TV soundtrack was released, I put together three CDs of music I thought was Firefly-esque. I find it fascinating that in looking at a couple other lists like this that others have posted, there isn’t any overlap. Firefly has some touchstones musically (western guitar, soaring solo violin) but can really adopt many different flavors. Different moods can be set with music that is more modern (core worlds) vs. more throwback to Civil War era (the Rim). Action sequences can be punctuated by judicious use of electric guitars. All sort of possibilities. I hope this list is helpful to your Serenity game.

NOTE: Any tracks not attributed were dubbed off of the DVD set of the Firefly TV series. Most of these have been made available in better forms on the official TV series soundtrack.

Disc One

Firefly Theme Song (with vocals)

A Unification Bar

Aberdeen – David Goodrich

Inara is Leaving

Hunger – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Love Scene

Iguazu – HBO’s Deadwood Soundtrack

Wayfaring Stranger – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

Loved I not Honor More – Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

Arriving in Deadwood – HBO’s Deadwood Soundtrack

Leave No Man Behind – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Still – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Heart of Gold Segue

Smoke N’Oakum – Master and Commander Soundtrack

I Wish My Baby Was Born – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

Into the Fog – Master and Commander Soundtrack

Wounded Button – Open Range Soundtrack

Card Game – Open Range Soundtrack

In Time – Punisher Soundtrack

Last of the Mohicans – Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

Face Off – Open Range Soundtrack

Laudanum Dream – Open Range Soundtrack

Chase Into Atmosphere

Hovercraft Approach

Still Reprise – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

The Man’s Too Strong – Dire Straits

Revenge – Legends of the Fall Soundtrack

Disc Two

Firefly Theme Song (end credits, no vocal)

Vale of Plenty – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Ashokan Farewell – Ken Burns’ Civil War Soundtrack

Ashes to Ashes – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Of the Earth – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Neil Gows Lament – Pete Clark

DVD Montage

Barra Barra – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Jim & Geoffrey’s Visit to the Highlands – Christine Fraser Ramsey

J’attends – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Mogadishu Blues – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

The Cuckold Comes out of the Amery – Master and Commander Soundtrack

Moody Interlude

Synchrotone – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Tribal War – Blackhawk Down Soundtrack

Am I Born to Die – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

Strathgarry Set – Pete Clark

Christmas Time Will Soon Be Over – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

The Doldrums – Master and Commander Soundtrack

Great High Mountain – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

Man of Constant Sorrow – Oh Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack

Disc Three

Firefly Pilot End Credits

Far Side of the World – Master and Commander Soundtrack

Theme from Deadwood – HBO’s Deadwood Soundtrack

You Will Be My Ain True Love – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

The Battle – Master and Commander Soundtrack

The Cuckoo – Cold Mountain Soundtrack

Native Funeral – HBO’s Deadwood Soundtrack

Accidentals of the West – David Goodrich

Ride Across the River – Dire Straits

The Courier – Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

I Will Find You – Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

New Old Joe – David Goodrich

Promentory – Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

Going Home – Gods and Generals Soundtrack

Folk Medley – Master and Commander Soundtrack

The Phasmid – Master and Commander Soundtrack

Lonesome Valley – Oh Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack

Spooks on the Hill – Open Range Soundtrack

Wagon Wheel – Open Range Soundtrack

The Kiss – Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack

Man of Constant Sorrow (instrumental) – Oh Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack

Serenity Articles : Ezekial T. Jonah, Frontier Newspaperman

(Originally posted on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on August 23, 2006)

I think a really strong NPC can create all sorts of new situations for an established group of characters. Imagine if the following fellow had booked passage on Serenity for awhile…

First Impressions

Ezekial cuts a striking figure with his long black coat and top hat. He holds himself like an important person and dresses more for appearance than convenience. His voice is strong and really carries in a crowd. When you talk to him or even listen to him, you can sense the energy he has. He makes you wonder why he isn’t a politician.

World View

Ezekial T. Jonah believes that the ‘Verse needs strong voices willing to say the things that ought to be said. Somewhat of a history buff, he became fascinated by tales of newspapers and heroic reporters back on the Earth-That-Was. And that is how he has modeled his life, seeking truth wherever it lies, speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves, dedicating himself to the greater good.

None of this has made him beloved by the Alliance or anyone with a stake in ‘the ways things are’. He craves to be accepted and respected by the very social upper crust that his investigations endanger. But he’d rather tell the truth once than accept a life membership at the Ting Lao Club on Londinum.

Ezekial is also a skeptic. He fervently believes in verifying things and getting multiple sources. Better yet, he’d rather see things for himself. So he has little patience for conspiracy theorists unless they have strong proof.

His belief in the power of the written word is unusual in an age of flimsies and tri-plex video. ‘Tri-plex can be faked,’ he’ll say, ‘But true words penetrate.’ So he will have a small camera with him to capture evidence but his missives to the ‘Verse are either spoken or written.

Gamemaster Advice

Ezekial should be a fun NPC to play. He’ll always have an opinion about something, invariably tying it back to a scandal people haven’t heard of, or some secret he’s trying to uncover. If neither of those fit, he’ll gladly impart ‘advice’ to just about anyone who will listen, coaching the crack engineer on how to care for ball joints, or explaining the defects in the gun-bunny’s favorite rifle.

Adventure Ideas

Good old Ezekial has a great way of stirring up trouble. He’ll gladly pay passage on a ship-for-hire under false pretenses if it gets him to a story. He’s also not one put off by danger, so he could easily drag PCs into quite dangerous situations. And even being associated with him will bring a new cast of friends and enemies to the PCs for being associated with him.

Some of the truths Ezekial would typically try to uncover are: worker slavery, covered up murders, corrupt Alliance officials, neglected settlements, hushed-up plagues, unpublished Alliance ‘programs’.

Game Statistics

ATTRIBUTES

Agl: d6, Str: d4, Vital: d6, Alert: d10, Intel: d8, Will: d12

Life: 18, Init/React: d6+d10, BurstStr: d4+d4

Memorize: d10+d8, Resist: d6+d6

SKILLS

• Covert d6 (Stealth d10)
• Guns d4
• Influence d6 (Conversation d8, Persuasion d12, d8 Streetwise)
• Knowledge d6 (learned)
• Linguist d6 (smattering of many languages)
• Melee Weapon Combat d4
• Perception d6 (Intuition d8 Investigation d10)
• Performance d6 (Stringed Instruments d10)

ASSETS

• Allure (charismatic speaker/writer) (M): +2StepSkill for persuasion with words, spoken or written. Plot Points count double spent on such checks.
• Sharp Sense: Hearing (m): +2StepAlert when trying to eavesdrop.
• Trustworthy Face (m): +2StepWill getting folks to trust him. Better to get the truth.

COMPLICATIONS

• All Preened Up (m): This concern with appearance is focused on social status. Fusses on appearing ‘proper’ even in the worst places.
• Allergy (grasses) (m): Minor reaction (sneezes, rash), -2StepPhysicalAttribute in its presence or until take medication.
• Hyper-Focused (m): Hard to distract when he’s focused on a story.

POSSESSIONS

• Customized Datapad: A ubiquitous possession in the Core as a work tool and communications hub, Ezekial uses his primarily for data storage and for drafting up his Missives to the ‘Verse. He prefers to use anonymous cortex terminals for research, downloading results or data to the datapad. He’s removed the networking card from it and has to transfer information using a short, old-fashioned cable. He keeps the datapad with him at all times. It has been stolen inthe past by people who didn’t want the truth to come out.
• Clothes of Status/Cherry Trunk: Ezekial travels with a large cherry-wood trunk in which he keeps several changes of clothes, all proper for social occasions, though tending toward black. He has almost no working clothes or gear that others would think obvious for a traveller on the Rim.
• Pencil and Pad: A sort of throwback to his Earth-that-Was idols, he can be seen taking notes on the paper pad with the pencil. He keeps the pad with him at all times. It has been stolen in the past by people who didn’t want the truth to come out.

NOTE: Some traits reference Nathan Rockwood’s ‘New Traits’ list available at Cortex System RPG, the best fan-run Serenity RPG site on the net!

Serenity Articles : The Long Reach

(originally published at www.dragonlairdgaming.com on August 22, 2006)

The Serenity RPG provides several large organizations for Gamemasters to use but they aren’t described in as much detail as I would prefer. The following organization is a prototype for the style and depth of description I think a Gamemaster would appreciate. Comments welcome.

Common View

“The Long Reach? That’s them doctors, right? Good folk, I guess. Kinda like priests who know how to save more than your soul and that’s mighty valuable out here. Never had to go ’em myself, but they saved my cousin’s leg back in the miner riots of ’06. Not many folk are willin’ to cause trouble for good folk like that.” – Festus Wright, Street Interview, Eavesdown Docks.

Alliance View

Long Reach Inc is a registered charitable organization within the Alliance and receives the appropriate tax considerations. They have no other formal standing within the Alliance.

Gamemaster View

The Long Reach is a loose association of doctors and other people willing to sacrifice everything to bring medicine and hope to the most destitute and hopeless holes in the ‘Verse. They are primarily a group of doctors who travel the Rim visiting small colonies, settlements, mining towns, and the like, tending to the people as best they can. They struggle to fill one of the Alliance’s most notorious gaps in serving its people.

The Alliance has no official relationship with the Long Reach and usually they have to make their own way in the ‘Verse. (There are rumors of sympathetic Alliance officers leaking supplies to LR groups or giving them unregistered travel to hot spots.) Usually the LR have to hire vessels to ship their gear, medicines, and doctors. They have a few ships that they own, with the crew of each ship counting as Long Reach members.

Adventure Ideas

While initially conceived as a non-player organization, the Long Reach would serve well as a more altruistic campaign theme with characters being all members. They could still have Browncoat or Alliance sympathies, but you would avoid the pattern of “ship for hire” set by the TV show and movie. The PCs could begin as a Long Reach team, catching rides with whatever ships they could, eventually graduating to their own ship either through salvage, a wealthy benefactor, or the like. Their “missions” could be directed or suggested by Long Reach headquarters, or they could be self-directed.

The Long Reach can stick its nose in places where people might otherwise not get involved. Whether the PCs are members or just a hired ship, the LR can get entangled in all sorts of adventures: discovering corporate oppression of workers, uncovering Alliance secret operations or ‘experiments’, even facing down evil men on the smallest scale.

Membership Has Its Privileges

One of the nice aspects of a Long Reach-oriented campaign is that the PCs aren’t alone in the ‘Verse. They can meet fellow Reachers for comaraderie, cooperation, and aid. A Long Reach member can be identified by the leather jackets (bomber-style) with the Long Reach logo on the shoulder. Members can usually find the local clinic and crash for the night, get some fresh supplies, hear the latest rumors, connect with old friends, get a hot meal, etc.

More Details

The Long Reach is technically headquartered on Ariel where it was founded. The offices there are primarily a fund-raising and recruiting face to the organization, snagging young, idealistic medical professionals as they graduate from Ariel’s prestigious universities. They are a fairly successful charitable organization, letting Core worlders assuage their guilt over the plight of the Rim worlders with a small donation. The Ariel offices also house a residential facility for ailing or aged members of the organization (their retirement plan).

On the Border and Rim planets, there is usually a Long Reach clinic or office in the major and even minor cities. Towns and smaller settlements get visited as often as personnel, supplies, and money permit.

Total Membership of the Long Reach is quite fluid, but averages about 100 men and women. There are about twenty staff in the Ariel offices. There are core teams of 3-4 people in the major cities of the Border and Rim planet. The rest are mobile teams, working their way in long circuits across the settled planets.

Design Diary: Azell Valley Campaign 1

(Originally posted on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on May 15, 2009)

At the beginning of 2009, my home group has lost momentum with our Serenity campaign due to nearly two months of cancelled sessions, holidays, etc. It seemed like a good time to start a new campaign. Huzzah!

I was ready to get back to helming a fantasy campaign and after consultation with the group, we decided to return to my Esterra Campaign World. This was done because everyone at the table had played in at least some games set in Esterra and they wanted to leverage their familiarity with the world. I chose to set the campaign about 300 years after the last “Big Thing” when the Dragon Throne was resurrected from underneath Ramal and the era of the Dragon Empire began anew. This kept it close to what they expected, eliminated the meddling of other player characters in the world and let me reset a lot of things.

One thing that I’m always working on is keeping the game focused, tight, and moving. Too often, my players will not maintain a good vision of what needs to be done, what the quest is, etc. Certainly you could blame that on our growing collective senility or the fact that gaming night occurs after a hard day’s work for all of us when we aren’t our freshest. We did finally move from a once every three weeks schedule to a once every two weeks schedule which seems to be helping continuity in the game.

The setup began like this. Each player character was a former apprentice of a scholar-wizard named Vells Gilroth in the Azell Valley. The Valley is in the same nation as most of the other games have been set but far away from Ramal, the capital and most visited location. They came from all different classes but seemed to be dwarves and elves. Each had spent some time at Vells’ manor house, learning all sorts of things like philosophy, history, ecology of monsters, etc. They’d each left Vells in the last year or so but now, based on a message from him, they have been summoned back to the valley.

Vells is important as he is the brother of Erik Gilroth, Lord of Azell Valley and resident of the small castle overlooking the town. Erik and Vells do not get along although both speak with their sister, Anna Gilroth, high priestess of the local temple.

Upon arriving in the valley, they run into two sets of monsters attacking travelers and locals, each set burdened with 300 crowns of gold minted in the Dragon Empire. When they reach the one town in the valley, Shammelvot, they find it draped in mourning banners. Vells Gilroth is dead. (FADE TO BLACK)

Further inquiry tells them that Vells was killed only the night before, his headless body appearing out of nowhere to crash down on his brother’s feast table. Vells’ manor is sealed in stone and covered in dangerous runes. His manservant was sent to Shammelvot a few hours before his death but the groundskeeper is missing.

Here I take the time to describe the death rituals of the predominant religion. One of the player characters also died in those early monster melees. He was dwarven, brother to the other dwarf, so we played out the dwarven rituals as well (somewhat modeled on Jewish traditions). The PCs attend the funeral and the wake being held at the town tavern, the Scarlet Fox.

Soon there is a reading of Vells’ will . The manservant also slipped each PC a piece of vellum, torn from the bottom of the will. Each piece is a symbol. A big hint in the will is that Vells lets slip that he has three siblings (Erik, Anna, and ???). His only inheritance to the PCs is the reference to a working song that he taught them back in their apprenticeship day called “The Pieces Will Go”. He ends the phrase with “99 days and not a moment more”.

Design Diary: Azell Valley Campaign 2

(Originally posted on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on June 12, 2009)

Four sessions in, the jury is still out about the 4e rule system, but we haven’t abandoned it yet. I think it will probably work out okay. Time will tell if we convert all future campaigns over to it. Momentum will probably get us there.

So I signed up for Wizards of the Coast’s D&D Insider service. It comes with a nice character creator, online encounter generation tool, all the rules online, and access to the online versions of Dragon and Dungeon magazine. We used the character builder (MUCH better than the 3e piece-o-feces) and I’ve been using the encounter tool. The encounters have ended up being very tough, usually with one PC getting knocked below zero. By the encounter tool, I was making standard encounter strengths, so we’re thinking its just inexperience with the system. We also have a little bit different mix of players so they are sort of going back to basics, tactics-wise. We’ll see how they do going forward.

I decided to weave Keep on the Shadowfell into the game so the players and I would experience a supposedly balanced module. It didn’t take me long to determine that Dar Hvrenna, the groundskeeper who fled Vells’ death, fled to Winterhaven. That’s the hook that will draw them out of Azell Valley.

I encouraged the players to start their “Plot Map”. Since we only game once every two weeks, after we get off work, remembering what is going on can be a challenge. We do have one player keeping a log but that gets kind of thick to review. The Plot Map will let them see at a glance who the key characters are, the possible clues, and their goals. With that consistent reinforcement, I think their game consistency will improve.

I’ve started a Wiki for my Esterra Campaign world (sorry, it’s private hosted so I can’t share the site, at least yet). The site covers details of all the campaigns and Ohio Games I’ve run in Esterra. It’s under construction (duh) but I’m trying to add things about the current campaign first, then relevant world details, then covering past campaigns and campaign world eras. Since we run our game with some laptops around, people can access the wiki in the game and have done so.

I created a secret GM-only page on the wiki to help me organize all my campaign details (always a struggle since I’m never happy with the tool I use). Going through all the information to put it in the main wiki has really helped my thought process, enabling me to develop my plots and adventures more completely. So here’s the breakdown.

Vells was murdered by his brother, Cyrus. Vells has some ability to see the future so he knew it was coming. He set up his own return, setting his manor house to seal after his death, covered in explosive runes but also some clues. He had a will and parts of it were given to the PCs (all former apprentices). The will sends them to five places around Esterra. Each place will help fill in the story and help them assemble the item that will open the manor house once again. If they don’t have it open within 99 days of his death, he’ll be lost forever. Vells hid all the information in cryptic clues and different places to try to prevent his brother from learning that he’ll come back.

Cyrus was one of the Gilroth brothers, sent away after the death of their father under murky circumstances. He has harbored a BIG grudge, plotting and planning for his day of revenge. He became a fearsome warrior and started a knightly order, pledged to honorable works though he uses them for his own schemes from time to time. He paid orc tribes in the region of Azell Valley to invade with 8 raiding parties to keep everyone’s attention misdirected while he killed Vells and learned what he could about the state of the valley.

Our heroes helped drive off or kill the orc raiders and they got a glimpse of Cyrus, hidden inside a suit of silver full plate armor. They have already guessed that the Silver Knight is Cyrus, which means that Cyrus has taken notice of them too.

With the orc threat gone, next they will pursue the missing groundskeeper, Dar Hvrenna, off to Winterhaven and the module will begin.

That’s it for now. I’ve got a Serenity/Horror one-day game I’m prepping for August and we’ll see how the 4e campaign fares in the next installment of the Dragonlaird Gaming Design Diaries.

Design Diary: Reach for the Sky Episode 2

(Originally posted on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on July 29, 2008)

After about 14 months spent in the first episode of my play-by-post game, Reach for the Sky, we’ve almost reached the end of Episode 1. About 42 hours of game time passed. That always amazes me how long things take to resolve in a PbP game, but it’s fairly typical for a high-action/disaster-movie type adventure.

To summarize, Episode 1 is set at the end of the War on a moon orbiting Hera. The major battles which will bring the war to an end are about to ignite. Skirmishes in space have been going on for weeks. In a Independent surprise attack, one of the massive Alliance cruisers gets very badly damaged. Part of the superstructure actually breaks away and plummets to the surface of Howell’s Moon. The impact and resulting disaster form the backdrop of the adventure.

Each character begins at the moment of disaster. Some are Browncoats taking cover in bunkers as they see the disaster coming. Others are prisoners trapped in spacecraft downed on Howell’s Moon before the disaster. Some are crew members of ships sitting on airfields on the moon’s largest town of Ferguson. The idea is that as each character survives, they encounter the others and end up working together to survive. Ideally, bonds form in the cauldron of such dire circumstance.

I won’t get into the details of Episode 1 since I intend to use it as a basis for a module called “Reach for the Sky”, but let’s just say that some survived and made it off the moon in a ship. They are headed out of the war zone with all manner of refugees aboard. This is where I’m starting in my design of Episode 2.

The Approach

Many interesting characters and events were covered in Episode 1. Potential enemies were created as well as potential allies. We cycled through several player characters as players came and went or PCs were killed. My first step to approaching the second episode is to review the first episode and catalogue all the things that I might want to draw in as threads into the new adventure.

I started reading the first episode from the beginning and I really covered a lot of ground in a small sandbox. Being trapped on the moon, they didn’t travel to other locations and until the end didn’t step on to a spaceship. It ran well, but I think my players and I are ready to see some more of the ‘Verse.

We’ve got three players continuing from Episode 1 and 2-4 players joining the group. It is really important to analyze the Traits and background the new characters are bringing to things so they get incorporated quickly. Don’t want a character whose concept is wrapped around running from the Alliance to never have to actually run from the Alliance.

Adding things to the list and shaking it out, I realize that I have a lot of possible non-player characters and some will never see the light of gameplay. Just too many. I’m going to make a limited list of at least one background-based NPC/encounter for each character and try to work them in over the Episode. If they can factor into the real plot, all the better.

Once I get all that squared away, I’ll need to establish some strong quick hooks to bring the action in. I like to start following the general stages of writing a play: Inciting Action, Rising Action (with Exposition, Complications, and Revelations), and the Climax.

The Details

Alright, the Long Reach has become pretty central to the future of the campaign. One of the three characters from Episode 1 was neck-deep with them earlier in life. One of the new characters is a doctor looking for a job. That should be enough to pull them in. Since the rest of the characters are drifters or not picky about what jobs they take, I don’t see anyone competing to take things a different direction.

I really want to keep things simple. Since my players are all over the country (and international) and many have never played together before, they will be creating much of their own turmoil as they stretch their acting legs. I’ll keep the inciting action simple and direct.

A straight job offer to work for the Long Reach could engage the existing LR member and the potential new member (doctor). The others would just be help for hire which is fairly common with the Long Reach. So they need to take medicines to a remote community on Persephone. For some reason the boss of the community ordered his men to shoot at the LR’s hovercraft that they usually use for such jobs ‘on planet’. But the workers still need the medicine if a disaster will be avoided. Basic job with a complication.

That’s enough to oriented the pre-game threads I’ve got going (new PCs meeting each other and striking up connections). But too often, I just GM by the seat of my pants and end up driving the game into doldrums because I’m not focused on where the possible plot paths are going. So I need to know more than that.

Who’s the Boss?

The remote community is a primarily a farming community centered on a town called Hobbville. The lands around Hobbville are fertile but still too broken up to be easily corporate farmed. Give ’em a decade or so of peace and they might be bought out, but for now, they are the backwater of Persephone.

In charge of Hobbville is Cletus Hobb, sixty years old and meaner every year. He claimed about 20,000 acres during the last land rush on Persephone, getting a mixture of rough hills, pasture, and rich till-land. He’s been growing it ever since, slowly bringing in field hands and hired guns until he’s shipping a lot of the produce eaten in Eavesdown each day.

Logical questions abound. That big? How does he ship it to Eavesdown?

The Hobbes Railroad was built twenty years ago. The train takes three hours to steam its way over the 160-odd miles to Eavesdown and unload the produce. It travels to Eavesdown at night and back to Hobbville in the daytime. (For the theft-minded, that means she’s ridin’ light on the return trip but has the money). That gets the produce there in time for the dawn markets and gets the train back in time to be loaded late in the day and evening.

How many field hands and hired guns does he have?

Well, it should be enough guns to make the PCs think twice about just barging in like they own the place. Since the gunhands are more like minons than full NPCs, I’d say a 3-1 ratio would work. We’ve got 7 PCs right now so about 20 gunhands. Normal operations has 6-7 of them asleep, maybe 6-7 riding the fields managing the business, and 6-7 in town protecting Hobb or just enjoying the life of a “lawed man.”

For the field hands, I’m thinking hundreds of indentured workers. There should be evidence of families of workers (workers marry, have kids, kids grow up as workers). That means a lot of barracks, big mess hall, should be a doctor around but let’s say the Hobb skimped on that. For accuracy, I’ll say 800 field hands plus 100 non-working dependents (the aged, young children, injured).

Really, we’re aiming for that Company Town atmosphere where one man’s word is Holy Write and the people are no better off than slaves. Lots of juicy indignation and moral quandries for the PCs that like chewing that sort of scenery.

Why does Hobb not want the free help of Long Reach?

Ah, now here’s the rub. Hobb is a greedy, calculating bastard so there must be something in it for him to give up free medical care for his workforce. Just not wanting the interference, or fearing that his slave plantation will be uncovered isn’t enough in my opinion.

Enter the Right Reverend Hezekiah Lawkins! Holier-than-thou master of Parson City, the Right Reverend might be interested in locking up Hobb’s produce, bringing it into the canneries and processing plants in Parson City, and profiting handsomely for selling nutrient-depleted and chemically-stunned foods to Eavesdown. Yes, it is time to have the hand of the Right Reverend affect play.

So fine, Hobb’s is considering this deal. Maybe he thinks he can get more money out of Lawkins or maybe he thinks he’ll lose out overall if he gives up his own link to Eavesdown. Lawkins should definitely be pressuring him and one of the ways is having his own people, the Sisters of Mercy, there treating the ailing workers. Perhaps Lawkins and the Long Reach have a history of hostility. I should plant a seed about that early on as the characters get to know the Long Reach and get pitched the job.

So you’ve got a hostile plantation owner and outside influencers in the Right Reverend’s Sisters of Mercy. The heroes are being paid to do the right thing in addition to the fact that it is the right thing to do.

We’ve got a minor powder-keg set up. Will the players start shooting? How will they get the medicine to the workers? Do they just have to drop it off and get out alive or do they need to administer it as well? The easier I make it, the less time they will spend here.

Let’s say that Hobbville has a doctor, but he’s a poor excuse for one. Dr. Emmett Lukens is content to sit back and… just being a drunk is too cliche’… sit back and play with hybridizing plants. There we go. He’s got a greenhouse and makes the right noises if any government man comes around asking about the welfare of the workers. He actually doesn’t like people that much and only incidentally has a medical license. He’s actually a doctor of botany.

The key to success in Hobbville will be getting everyone innoculated with the medicine. So what is ailing the good workers of Hobbville? The scourge of the 26th century, polio. (Here is where I do a brief amount of research so the science sounds like it would hang together… Wiki Polio Entry.) Officially Type 5 Polio, the origin of the disease is a mystery, though rumors run rampant that it came from an Alliance experiment or accident. The fact that it is only appearing on Rim and some Border worlds fuels the conspiracy theories.

So the Long Reach is trying to get a vaccine to outbreak zones. (Side note, they will ask all the PCs to be vaccinated for their own protection.) The Polio vaccine is expensive and difficult to come by. The LR will not accept just dumping the vaccine on the edge of Hobbville and hoping someone uses it instead of re-selling it. (Good time to see if any characters are going to go “Jayne” on me and explore how much selling it would be worth… let’s say 4 credits/dose (~$100) but it only takes one dose. To vaccinate all of Hobbville will take 1,000 doses or 4,000 credits worth of medicine.)

So they have to find a way in and a way to get all the workers vaccinated. I’ll rely on my player’s creativity to think of a way: by subterfuge, force, bribery, etc. And it wouldn’t do to get too far ahead of myself. That’s enough for now.

Stay tuned for the next diary after we see how things progress a bit.

Design Diary: Atalban 1

(Originally posted on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on Oct 7, 2007)

So where have I been for months? Well, various projects have kept me away from DLG but here is one of several new postings. I just completed a campaign started two and a half years ago (Jan 2005). It all started with a few particular concepts that I’ll outline, and then my post-campaign thoughts. Perhaps this will be helpful for other gamemasters considering a similar campaign.

The Record

I started creating the campaign by brainstorming ways to make the typical fantasy races a little more interesting. I found real-world inspirations for each race, changed their names, and determined how I would present them. I guessed that at some point in the campaign, the players would figure it out but, in fact, they never really tried to. They just treated the races as I presented them.

The second concept that I folded in was to start the characters in a remote, isolated village, cut off from the rest of the world. To achieve this, I told them that the old human kingdom had been destroyed and that they were the only survivors, the last of humanity. To support this, I decided that I would restrict the opening classes somewhat, since the village only had a representative sample of original races.

The third twist of the campaign (that’s three major twists, remember that) was a change of rules system. I picked up Monte Cooke’s Arcana Unearthed. I’d always chafed a little at d20’s magic system and I liked the things Monte did in that regard. I didn’t use the other races, but took the classes as required to support the system.

The campaign lasted two and half years and 34 individual sessions. The characters began at 1st level and ended the game at 11th (earning enough in the final battle to level to 12th). Feedback on the campaign was rough early, but the players persevered and I think earned one of the best campaign ends I’ve done.

The Analysis

Overall the campaign was a success. The players eventually fell in love with their characters (or at least “in like” with them). We adventured up more levels in a single contiguous campaign than I’ve done in a long time. We got a climactic ending with the option to adventure more with them some day.

I’d say that the number of twists I put in the campaign, made it harder than it needed to be. If I’d dropped the switch to a different version of d20, it would have gone better. I don’t think I’ll be running anything in Arcana Unearthed in the future.

I learned a lot from the experience (or hope I did), and after the campaign wrapped I let someone else take the GM’s chair for awhile. I’m getting a chance to be a player for an extended time, something I’ve not done in a long time, so that’s a nice change of pace. When I start putting together the next campaign, I’ll start a new diary.

Design Diary: Flying Pig Campaign 6

(Originally posted on www.dragonlairdgaming.com on Jan 21, 2007)

Well, we ended the mini-campaign on the 8th of January in pretty good style. The long arc of the opening of a new planet, Columbiana, came to fruition. I’d prepared to use the “El Dorado” from the core rulebook as the place where Bruno Franco had hidden his last bank haul. The idea was that the PCs would wake Bruno up, get him to deal, and they’d all go “liberate” the loot and Vinnie would be off the hook for the promise of C50,000 he made to the others to rescue Bruno.

Yes, I’d actually prepared. I knew the rough stats of the people on the El Dorado, I knew where the loot was hidden, etc. etc. What did they do? They kept Bruno sedated for days to keep him “out of the way” while they picked up the original thread of Columbiana and ran with that. Okay, cool, it wasn’t off in a completely unprepared direction.

Anyway, in the December session they made their way back to Persephone (where criminals were waiting to get revenge on the doctor), cut deals, and looked for another job. Persephone by this point looked like the Oklahoma border right before the Land Rush of 1889. They easily picked up several sets of passengers.

Unbeknowst to them, Adelei Niska was having trouble with the Columbiana data and code key they’d gotten for him. Two of his techs had stolen the code key and some unencrypted mineral surveys of Columbiana and were off to make their own fortune. So when the Flying Pig lifted off to sneak its way to Columbiana, another ship started tailing them.

On to the last session in January. The tailing ship was catching up to them and it turned out to be a gunship for bounty hunters. The hunters demanded that the PCs hand over Niska’s techs and the codekey. At the same time, two criminals after Dr. Jones’ head emerged from the “passengers”. With a masterstroke idea from the PCs, they took the codekey from the techs, and told the hunters they could have it back if the hunters would come on and “take care of” the criminals. Gun stand-offs, gun battles, screaming settlers in the cargo hold, all sorts of fun! In the middle of it, the PCs sniper had a leaky brainpan episode after seeing a spider (major phobia). He decided to depressurize the ship in order to get all the spiders out. Always conservative in his use of energy, Vinnie simply shot the sniper until the sniper was down (instead of wrestling him from the controls or something a little less potentially lethal).

The hunters left with the codekey, the techs were alive hiding in the settlers, the criminals were dead, and the pilot made some great rolls (with PP) to get on to Columbiana before the Alliance declared the planet open. The settlers jumped off at the first possible stop (to get away from these madmen), the techs went to their claim areas, and the PCs made their own quiet claims to three areas they’d ID’d before giving up the Columbiana data.

I wrote an epilogue for them to set the scene for whenever we would revisit the campaign.

Riley opened her eyes and smiled at the tall drink of water standing over her. A 'hard' worker sounded like just the thing!