Gaming Chronicles

// CHOPSTICK HEADCOUNT // Authored By: Special Agent Susan Fields (code name HARKONEN) Date: 12th March 2019 Special Agent Nick Daniels (HEFFALUMP), Lilia Fox (HORUS) and myself were briefed in New York by our usual contact, Supervisory Special Agent Marcus Neil on operation CHOPSTICK HEADCOUNT. This operation had come out of FBI investigations into the involvement of foreign powers into our voting system. Suspicious packages have been sent via the US postal service to a PO Box belonging to a former member of a group of occult criminals known as Fate. Fate is thought to have been shutdown by 2003 or so, but some of its old members are still Persons Of Interest. The packages were metal cubes, similar to a puzzle box that opens into two halves, with a spherical space within about large enough to hold a bowling ball. Unfortunately, the people who intercepted these boxes only examined them briefly before allowing them to be sent on to their destination, so we didn't have...

Previously I looked at building an ego for a  new character for Eclipse Phase 2nd edition, and now I'm moving on to selecting a morph for her. Alice Langston is an information broker, an ex reporter on the glitterati who since the Fall has turned her talents to seeking out more serious threats than slipped nipples or bad hairstyles. She still makes heavy use of her contacts amongst the wealthy and famous though, and needs a body that fits in with that social set. Eclipse Phase is all about (well, apart from the existential risks to the existence of humanity) your body (morph) being something you wear. Many people are stuck in the morphs they were given - either the one they were born with, or the one provided to to them for 'free' when they were downloaded from backups after losing their bodies during the Fall. Such morphs are cheap and plentiful, but also rather boring and cookie-cutter same. You're unlikely to get into a posh restaurant wearing such a morp...

The Fathomless Sleep One of the RPG books I picked up as part of the Bundle of Two back in February was Cthulhu Confidential . This is a game published by Pelgrane Press and written by Robin D Laws, designed specifically for a game involving one player and one GM. First of all a disclaimer: I'm not a huge fan of Cthulhu. However, my other half is and she doesn't get to actually play as a player very often since she generally ends up having to run a game if she wants to experience some Cthulhu. I decided to give this a go as a one shot to see how it worked, and give her an opportunity to actually play for once. This isn't the first time I've run a one on one game. In my experience, you don't really need a special set of rules for this - most recently I've done it with Pathfinder , but I've also done it with other systems. You just need to be aware that one character has a limited range of skills and abilities compared to a group of four or more,...

Dreams of the Yellow King, Part 19 - The Terrors of the Dreamlands I write this whilst cowering in the desert some distance from the Caravanserai where we hoped to meet with the Yellow King again. My sister has been driven from me, banished to the ethereal by the terrors that dwelt within until she can gather herself back together and reform at my side. Most of us fled from the things that now dwell in that place, but fortunately none of us were lost entirely. This morning, things began as normal. We left the Isle of Arenway with the blessing of the druids, and continued our journey down river. That evening, we settled down to begin the ritual to enter the Dreamlands, falling into a slumber as our dream-selves descended the stairs to the desert. It was night, with a full moon and a clear sky of stars. Before us was the Caravanserai we last visited when we first entered the Dreamlands all those nights ago. The buildings were lit with torches, and fearing that the place had bee...

Diary of Costian Raduva, Part 18 - The Green Idol Our final quest was to find a green stone idol of a water lizard. Our reading of Lowls' notes provided us with the information that the lizard in question was actually Bokrug , a Great Old One that was venerated by the amphibians of the city of Ib. That city though was destroyed by the Kingdom of Mnar a thousand years ago, and the victors took the idol back to their capital of Sarnath, where it was held in the temple of Zokalar. Though the people of Sarnath also worship the Great Old Ones, they have a hatred of all things non-human and have been conquering their neighbours for generations. According to the information we found, Sarnath was famed for its marble city walls over 300ft tall, and wide enough for two chariots to pass each other on top. Every year they celebrate their victory over the creatures of Ib. We decided to enter the dreamlands whilst still at the Isle of Arenway, in order to benefit from the poss...

Eclipse Phase is a science fiction RPG by Posthuman Studios about playing agents in a secret organisation (called Firewall ) trying to save the remnants of humanity from destruction after the fall of Earth (due to rogue AIs known as TITANs ). Humans have colonised the solar system, and through the use of alien gates also started exploring other worlds. In this sense, the setting is a little bit like The Expanse . Most of the action is limited to our solar system, you have nations and corporations in the Belt and around the various worlds, and you are limited to slower than light travel. The unique selling point of the setting though is that your mind is software - it can be backed up, restored, copied into other bodies (known as morphs ) and transmitted across the solar system so you can download into a new (or rented) body at the far end without having to mess around with spaceships. You can even fork of betas (partial copies) of your mind (or ego ), so you can do more than one ...