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 ...

Born Poppy Susan Fields in 1986, in Gravesend England, she had her name changed to Susan Fields before attending Oxford University where she studied languages and psychology. She immigrated to the US in 2013 and joined the FBI National Security Branch (NSB) as a field agent, her fluency in Arabic, Russian and Chinese being seen as a considerable benefit at that time. Though English, she generally uses an American accent, only returning to her original when annoyed or drunk. In 2015 she was involved in a field operation on-board the Russian freighter, the Ivan Makarin that directly exposed her to events of an extremely unusual nature. Delta Green got involved at the clean up stage of the operation (which was later classified as RED KATANA). Given her successful handling of the situation, and her willingness to cooperate  with Delta Green operatives, she was co-opted into the organisation later that year. In 2017 she was involved in operation SHALE OIL in Montana. In 2019 s...

Diary of Costian Raduva, Part 17 - The Isle of Arenway The day passed uneventfully on the Sellen Starling as we sailed down to the Isle of Arenway , a refuge of the Green Faith. Our captain noted that there were fewer trading ships here than usual, but the docks were heaving with people in either tattered well worn robes, or travel stained and battle hardened leathers and hides. It seemed that we had visited in the middle of a convocation of druids and rangers. The Isle of Arenway Disembarking, we were presented with two important options - either the Heron and Eel , or the Woodsman's Friend . Hoping for a meal of meat rather than fish, we headed to the latter where an ever-cooking stew of meat was on offer. Neither the inn keeper nor clientele knew much about the gathering of druids though. Druids were common here, but there were a lot more here than would normally be the case. As far as they knew, there was some important meeting going on, but the nature of tha...

The next stage of Worldgen is to flesh out the framework for generating settlements in a Traveller-like game setting. I'm starting with some simple options - low population settlements with relatively simple economic structures. Broadly, these are classed as Hermits - colonists who have sought out a quiet place where they can be alone, or at least left alone by the rest of civilisation. They generally have small space ports, and are relatively self sufficient. Commonly, they tend to be space hippies, libertarian anarchists or religious zealots. Sometimes their societies work out, sometimes they can fail spectacularly. Rock Hermits A Rock Hermit station, from Oolite Rock Hermits are small groups of people who want to cut themselves off from the rest of the galaxy. To do this, they find a small asteroid in an uninhabited star system, and build their homes into it. Populations tend to run from dozens to hundreds or at most thousands. Such large Rock Hermit settlements...