Ape World: Part 2 - Beach Party

When last we saw our intrepid hero, astronaut Colonel Steven Landecker, he was paddling his way across the water from his crashed spaceship to a nearby beach.

Once on the beach he finds that the area appears deserted. About 100 yards inland the beach ends and a steep, rocky seawall blocks his path. Well, there doesn't seem to be any reason to hang around here, so he begins climbing. Landecker's DEX of 18 serves him well and he's able to clamber up the steep slope with little difficulty.

Once at the top of the seawall he can see that the hilly terrain ahead gradually changes from barren rocks to grassland. He also sees something else...

Some distance off he spies a large group of what appear to be primitive humans. There are about 50 of them and they haven't seen him yet, so he watches them for a bit. They're moving west to east, parallel to the seawall. Some carry spears. Landecker deduces that they must be a hunting party.

What to do? Well, Landecker is out of food and alone, so he makes a bold choice. He starts walking toward the humans, yelling "Hello!" and waving his arms. The startled humans turn and see him approaching, and their reaction is not exactly as expected.

The humans immediately charge at Landecker, yelling angrily with animal voices. Yikes! Landecker turns and runs back to the seawall cliff where he scrambles down (again, his exceptional DEX helped out).

On the beach he sees that the humans have stopped at the top of the cliff and are watching him. He heads back toward his lifeboat putting more distance between himself and the cliff. Looking back, he sees that the humans have not pursued and appear to have dispersed.

Landecker figures he should stick it out here for a while and let the humans get farther away before he presses on. He does a little foraging and finds some food... Some crabs creeping around the beach. It's better than nothing.

Exploring a bit more he finds a cave entrance at the base of the seawall. Checking iy out, it appears to be empty so he sets up a makeshift camp for the night, munches on some crab meat and goes to sleep.

The next morning Landecker awakes to find an unexpected development... The humans have come back and built a crude barricade across the cave entrance with boulders and timbers. He tries to muscle his way out, but the barricade is too strong for him to move. That, and the pair of spear armed humans outside the cave who poke at him when he gets too close, dissuade him from trying any harder.

Now, as the player in this game I have to ponder a bit. Remember, all these events are generated from Mythic questions and random events. So, I'm wondering, why are the humans doing this. Humanoids in Apes Victorious are described as generally non-aggressive. They would have no motive for capturing Landecker.

So I ask Mythic, "Are the humanoids being controlled by an outside force? "Yes"

Is it the Underdwellers? "Yes"

That explains alot. a few more Mythic answers reveal that the Underdwellers who live nearby are aware of the crash of Landeckers spacecraft and have used their psionic powers to get a local group of humanoids to locate and capture him. Landecker was right, it was a human hunting party... They were hunting for HIM!

Meanwhile, in the cave Landecker, searching for an alternate way out, finds what appears to be a natural fissure in the rock. He tries to muscle the fissure open, but fails. The Underdwellers solve that problem for him when the sun goes down, as they use telekinesis to open the fissure, allowing five of them to enter from the depths.

The Underdwellers start with the initiative and attack, using their illusion powers to make Landecker think he's being choked. Landekcker's no fool though, and he's able to shake off some of the psionic attacks by realising that the illusion isn't real. He gets in a few punches, but still, it's 5 to 1. The illusion of choking is just too great, and after a short struggle he falls into unconsciousness.

So, that ends this chapter. It certainly was an unusual turn of events to have our hero meet the Underworlders first, instead of Apes, but such is the magic of Mythic... Anything can happen.

Will Landecker escape his captors? What do they want with him? Are they friendly, seeking his help or enemies that want him dead? Stay tuned, for the next exciting episode of... Ape World!

Arrival on Ape World: Scene One

As we prepare to begin our adventures on Ape World, we have to gather a few things together. First we need our hero, Astronaut Colonel Steven Landecker.

Colonel Steven Landecker, A.N.S.A.
STRENGTH:           9           
CONSTITUTION:    9
DEXTERITY:          18
INTELLIGENCE:    12
CHARISMA:            7
PSIONICS:              9

As you can see, the Colonel isn't the toughest guy around, but he's definitely quick and agile. That should come in useful. His Charisma is a bit low, so I guess he's not the most personable fellow around. Maybe that's why ANSA sent him on this solo scouting mission.

Next I have to decide what the theme of this adventure is. Since I know it begins with Landecker waking up in his ship, crashed on an unknown planet, the initial theme will be; "Find out where I am."

So we set up the first scene, which will mostly be investigating our immediate surroundings. Using Mythic to answer some general questions, we get the following;

Waking up in the pilot seat of his ship, Colonel Landecker looks out the window and sees blue skies. Clearly he isn't in space anymore. Climbing out of his seat he takes a closer look. He finds that his ship has crash landed in the water near a coastline. To the south and west the water stretches as far as he can see. To the north and east, about half a mile from his ship is sandy beaches. Beyond the beaches he can see brown rocky cliffs. There is no sign of life anywhere.

The map so far. X marks the crash location.

His ship is not sinking at the moment, so he has some time to take stock of the situation. There's no power in the ship, so he can't activate the transmitter to try to contact anyone. Checking the computer, to see the flight data and figure out his position, he finds that it's smashed beyond repair. During the crash landing part of a bulkhead gave loose and crushed it. The flight recorder data is lost.

Seeing that there's nothing more he can learn from here, Landrcker decides to head for the beach and see what he can find there. He inflates his raft and gathers his equipment, which consists of the following;

Pistol (with 16 rounds in 2 clips) 

Knife, large

Backpack.

Blanket, Space

Canteen (gallon)

Medkit

Raft, Inflatable (and motor)

Transmitter

Rations (5 days)

But there's a problem. Mythic recommends that when setting up a first scene from scratch, add one random event to add flavor. Unfortunately I got a "PC Negative" event, which means something bad happens to the affected character. Then for the "Action" and "Subject" I initially got Intolerance of Trials.

Now, if there were multiple PC's, I could work with this... I'd interpret it that Landecker is losing patience with one of his fellow crewmen because of the 'trials' he feels they're putting him through. Perhaps he blamed them for the crash. Either way, it would lead to conflict.

But... There are no other PC's, so this result is no good. I decide to reroll and get Negligence of Possessions. Now, this one hurts, because I interpret it as, he loses his equipment. While he's getting his raft ready he lays the backpack, full of everything else, on the side of the ship. When he reaches back to get it the ship rocks in the water, and the backpack slides off the side and into the deep.

"Well, that's just great," Landecker thinks. "No food, no water, no anything. I'd better find some soon." With that, he gets in the raft and heads north, towards the shore.

So that ends our first scene. It was a short one, but worked as an intro. Updating the Mythic adventure log, I add a new theme, Find food, water and shelter and also update the Chaos Factor to 6. I think losing all his survival gear is a bad enough thing to justify that.

So, stay tuned for our next exciting scene on Ape World. Will Landecker find food and water? Will he encounter any life or civilization? I don't know any more than you do, so we'll find out together!

"It's a Madhouse!"

I think that people today forget what a big deal Planet of the Apes was back in the 1970's. No less than five theatrical movies, a TV series and an animated series. Nothing else was that big until Star Wars a few years later. I have many fond memories of playing Planet of the Apes as a kid with my friends.

It's not surprising then, that as a gamer, one would want to play a Planet of the Apes rpg. From what I understand there have been a few over the years, but I don't recall ever seeing them. I even started working on my own version once, back in the '90's but it never came together.

Then recently I found Apes Victorious by Goblinoid Games, the makers of Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future and Starships & Spacemen 2e. This one was just what I was looking for, being being an Old School game primarily influenced by the 60's and 70's franchise. Being cross-compatible with Starships & Spacemen and Mutant Future is certainly a plus as well.

Around the same time I found this, I also got a copy of the Mythic GM Emulator from World Mill. Mythic, and some other GM emulators have been around for a while now, but I had been skeptical of what they could do so I hadn't tried them. But after reading it and seeing a few examples of it in action via YouTube I decided it was worth a try.

So now I have a plan. More a test of Mythic than anything else, I plan to run a solo sandbox adventure using Apes Victorious. The only prep will be creating a single Human Astronaut (Colonel Steven Landecker) and placing him in his crashed spaceship, in the center of a blank hexmap. The hex he begins in will be a coastal one, half land and half water, but beyond that everything else begins unknown.

Colonel Landecker's mission will be not only to survive, but to try to find out where he is and how to get home... Or if he even CAN get home,

Stay tuned. It's sure to be "a madhouse! A MADHOUSE!"

Tales from the Dajina Cluster

Tales from the Dajina Cluster

A White Star campaign

Some 30 years ago while in high school me and a couple friends of mine played an RPG campaign set in a Sci-Fi setting of our own design. We mostly made it up as we went, and didn't use any one set of rules. A lot of it was free form. When we did use rules, it was mostly Classic Traveller and Gamescience's Star Patrol.

As I said, the campaign was of our own design, made up as we went. Not surprisingly the biggest inspiration was Star Wars, but other stuff got thrown into the pot as well. Roger Cormans Battle Beyond the Stars film was a huge inspiration. Bits and pieces of the original series of Star Trek, Frank Herbert's Dune novel, Doc Smith's Lensman stories and Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg novels were also a big part.

The campaign was set against the backdrop of a cold war between the evil Sadraukan Empire (based loosely on the Klingons from Star Trek) and the League of Planets, a mostly Human alliance of worlds. The Vulpan Union (who looked like Star Trek Romulans but had a society like Feudal Japan) was also a major power, allied with the League against the Sadraukans. There were space battle and ground battles, with the player characters getting involved more and more in the conflict as time went on.

After we all graduated from high school and began going our separate ways the campaign pretty much petered out. Over the intervening years I've brought it back a few times, playing a scenario or two with other gamers, but the biggest problem I've found in trying to recreate the campaign setting is rules. I have never found a set that quite fits the Dajina Cluster universe. Not until now.

I recently came across James Spahn's White Star and immediately fell in love with it. These rules fit the Dajina Cluster universe more closely than any other I've seen, and those few things that need to be modified are easily done so, as the rules are meant to be modified.

So now, thirty years after the original campaign ended I'm finally able to rebuild it properly. The old crew of characters will take to the stars once again....

Del Payton (Human pilot, smuggler, rogue, captain of the Effigy III)
Scot Rubel (Vulpan warrior, revolutionry anti-Sadraukan activist)
Danel "Donut Dan" Stemofski (Human man of action)
Robyn Jaris (Human soldier, Del Paytons gal)
Zade Lensman (Human spy, gambler, con-man)
Alek "Thunder" Storm (Human commander of the Lightning Brigade mercenary company)
4-Q2 (Del Paytons trusty robot sidekick)

Now I just have to put it all together..... Stay tuned!

These are the Voyages

I grew up with Star Trek: The Original Series. I was lucky in that my father was a science fiction fan (not many men of his generation were), so sci fi and Star Trek were big at my house. Throughout the 70's Star Trek was on TV pretty much every day and I watched it all, over and over. Then there was the Animated Series on Saturday mornings too. Of course, I've seen (and own) all the movies and pretty much all the episodes of the later series as well. Except for the new one, Star Trek Discovery. I won't touch that with a ten foot pole (no offense intended to those who like it but... I don't.

Anyway... The first Star Trek rpg that my dad and I played was Starships & Spacemen, the 1st edition. The author, Dr. Kanterman didn't have the official license for Star Trek, so the names of things were changed to avoid copyright infringement. Nonetheless, it was obviously a Star Trek game. My dad loved it.

And I didn't.

I was around 14 years old at the time and I was very literal. I had a hard time accepting the contrivances that Dr. Kanterman had used to avoid copyright troubles, and even more trouble with the humor he threw in. For example, here's the section on names for Tauran characters (Taurans are the S&S version of Vulcans):

"Taurans - Taurans have one, hyphenated name, each part of one syllable with the name ending in "k". We generated a whole family with the second syllable "nek" — Red'nek, Bottle'nek, etc. Taurans may also be given any Yiddish name — Shlock, Schlemiel, Schmendreck, Yente, Bubbele, etc., as they are the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes."

Of course as an adult I get it, but when I was 14 it seemed ridiculous to me. And being as literal as I was, I couldn't bring myself to just change it... Back then I felt that if the rules said it, that's the way it had to be.

Still, my dad and I played it. Then something else came along...

This was, of course, instantly our new favorite and I had many adventures with it throughout the years, first with my dad, then with high school friends, then with friends while I was in the military. I even still mess around with it occasionally, but I don't think I'd ever run a full game with it anymore. And thats because, in 2012 Golinoid Games released Starships & Spacemen 2nd Edition, a revised version of the first edition.

This is now without a doubt my favorite Star Trek rpg. Yes, I know there's a new, big licensed behemoth Star Trek rpg, but like the previous ones from Last Unicorn Games and Decipher Inc. it falls well within that "New School" rpg style I spoke about on the Introduction post. Starships &Spacemen 2e is an Old School game, with all the retro-goodness that I love.

So now, with Starships & Spacemen 2e I can finally bring my 80's FASA Trek crew members back to life and send them once again into the Final Frontier...

The crew of the S.F.S. Sagittarius;
Commanding Officer Abel Hernandez, Human Male
Executive Officer Susan Armstrong, Human Female
Science Officer Boolean Quincy Saxton, Human Male
Medical Officer Nancy Rizzo, Human Female
Chief Engineer Gaav, Porcini Male
Helmsman Corey Wisdom, Human Male
Navigator Shras Theln, Entirran Male
Communications Officer Zaxil, Dreiped Male

For them... The Adventure is just beginning!

"Who are you and what's this about?"

That's a fair question. Let me introduce myself. My name is David North, and I call myself the Retro Gamer (more on that later). This little blog is just a place for me to chronicle my varied adventures across my role-playing Multiverse.

This Multiverse is a collection of game universes that I play in. What I plan to do is have several pages dedicated to some game campaigns I'm running in those universes. So that's what this is about. Now a bit more about me, as a gamer.

As a kid in the 1970's I consider myself very lucky, in that my father was a gamer. Board wargames, like those of the Avalon Hill Game Company were popular at the time and he played them. When I was old enough to understand them I played them with him and became a gamer too. Well, the same stores that sold wargames also sold a new kind of game... Role Playing Games. I discovered these around 1978 or so, first with the most popular one, Dungeons and Dragons. But I was a sci fi fan, so it wasn't long before I found Traveller. My dad and I (and some school friends) played it alot.

I became a game junkie. Throughout the late 70's and early 80's I bought and played dozens of rpg's (and wargames too) set in all sorts of genres. In the mid 80's I served in the military and met gamers there too, where I continued to buy and play rpg's.

Then in the 90's, something changed. the 'focus' of rpg's shifted. Role Playing Games of that era (and continuing to today) began to put more emphasis on the Role Playing aspect, and less on the game aspect. Story telling became the main focus. The idea that your character could die due to random chance faded away. Main characters don't die, after all... Right? That would ruin the story!

In addition to, and complementary with the emphasis on story telling, was that character creation became more detailed and narrative based. Characters entered the game fully fleshed out... They were heroes from day one.

Now, I don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with this style of gaming, but to be perfectly blunt, it's not my style. From the time this "New School" style of gaming took widespread hold in the 90's until quite recently, I have had a hard time finding new rpg's that I liked. As a result I kept falling back on older ones... "Old School" games. 

You cannot possibly imagine how happy I was, then, when the Old School Revival happened. Suddenly I found that I wasn't alone after all in my love and preference for the older style of game play. Now, there are many new games coming out that use old school mechanics. It's truly a gaming renaissance.

So, that's why I call myself a Retro Gamer. I prefer to game in the old school style.

So now... Onward to adventure, old school style!