Probably In Space Episodes 0.5 and 0.75

Recently I got together with some friends to play some Fate Core. We were finishing up some world building and character creation. It actually took 2 sessions to get all the character creation and set up finished. It has been a while since I have run a Fate game, a long while. For the last couple of years, I have been running 13th Age and a number of OSR games. I fell in love with 13th Age the moment I first played it at a convention a few years back. If you want to know my thoughts on the game I did a brief review a while back.

Long story short, I am a bit rusty running games of Fate. and that became apparent during the first session. I forgot t describe things, I was all over the place and I just wasn't feeling it. You can probably see my frustration on my face. With some help from my players, I think I am getting better, getting back into the swing of things. I guess we will see how it goes in the next few sessions.

During the first session, we created characters for three of my players, in it, we kind of came up with a group backstory. They are all Licensed Troubleshooters, a mix of a Bounty Hunter and Private Investigator who have more freedoms and authority than your average citizen of the human planets. They have access to a number of semi-legal jobs set ut by those who can afford to hire Troubleshooters. Some work alone, others for teams and work together. The Characters we made in the first half of character Creation are as follows:

The Pilot

Name: Eddy Skipper

High Concept: Slightly unhinged mystic pilot

Trouble: Just making ends meet for the wife and kids

Aspects: It’s MY ship; I can punch through it; Action before inaction

Skills:

+4: Drive (stunt: +2 to pilot the between)

+3: Empathy, Athletics

+2: Fight, Crafts, Notice

+1: Contacts, Will, Science, Shoot

Stress: 3

Fate: 3

The Mad Scientist

Name: Professor Jaime Akers

High Concept: Cheerfully Malevolent Mad Scientist

Trouble: Can’t Outrun My Experiments

Aspects: Engineered Now Is Better Than Engineered Right; Fieldwork Is For Chumps; Deceit and Treachery Beat Strength And Courage

Skills:

+4: Science!

+3: Craft, Shoot

+2: Provoke, Athletics, Deceive

+1: Notice

Stress: [3] [2] [1]

Fate: 3

Stunts:

There’s No Kill Like Overkill:  Attacks with custom-built weaponry hit everything in the target zone on a success with style

The Space Mounty


Name: Constable Barton Tracer
High Concept: Constable of the Royal NeoCanadian Mounted Space Police
Trouble: Irritatingly Polite and Honest
Aspect: MacKenzie Got My Back; Master Wilderness Tracker; Stickler for Procedure

Skills:
Great (+4): Investigate
Good (+3): Fight, Notice
Fair (+2): Athletics, Rapport, Shoot
Average (+1): Drive, Physique, Stealth, Will

Stress: 3

Fate: 3

Stunts

Scent? Tracker: Gain a +2 bonus to overcome using Investigate, when trying to track someone by finding a clue and doing something disgusting such as smelling and tasting it.

Here is the first Character Creation Session, we also did a little bit of adventure at the end of the session, setting up some troubles for our heroes. These three had been working together to retrieve a Troubleshooter who had been caught by the Precursors on a different mission. The retrieval went well, and they managed to evade the Precursor ships and return to the planet. When they went in for payment, they were pushed around by the Interim Lieutenant Governor and things go poorly. You can watch/listen if you like.


The Following week we got our fourth player on board and had to make up a character and the like. I also had some issues I needed some help with and this is where I think I started t finally get back into the swing of things, as far as Fate Core is concerned. I think I am still getting the feel for the setting we made and so there may be some changes as we go forward. However here is the fourth and final character for the game:

High Concept: War Sleeve nothing to lose

Trouble: Powerful Enemies

Aspect: It'll work out... Trust me.

Aspect: The money comes first

Aspect: Are you sure this is legal?

Aspect: Broke and failing sleeve

Skills:

+4: Shoot

+3: Contacts, Investigate

+2: Will, Physique, Notice

+1: Rapport, Resources, Provoke, Deceive

Stress: 3

Fate: 2

Pretty sure there are to many aspects here, not sure how that happened.

You can watch/listen to the session below. If you were ever wondering how introducing a new character to a game might work in Fate, this might be of some use to you.

Probably In Space Episode 0

Last night I started a new game of Fate Core with some friends. I knew I wanted to do something within the realms of science fiction, or perhaps some sort of superheroic story(maybe set within the setting I am kind of building, Coast City). I didn't have much more than that going forward with the game, I just knew I wanted to run a game.

The session started with a bit of back and forth on what we wanted to see in the game. We finally settled on using A Spark Of Fate Core to do the world building. It works pretty well, though I think I need to play around with it a few more times to really get a sense of it. I have used it a couple of times in the past, but I think it went better this time than in the previous.

So we came up with a setting that I think is somewhat interesting. At some point in the future, humans invent the ability to transfer their mind(consciousness, soul, whatever) from one body to another, and even to clone and produce better than human bodies to inhabit. This led to the leaders and elite to begin hopping through better and better bodies maintaining control and power, growing in knowledge and power with each new body. These body-hopping elites became the defacto leaders of the human race. These Methuselahs eventually led humanity to the stars through a form of space folding faster than light travel. The space fold allowed ships to travel nearly instantly over 6 light years per jump. However, traveling through the fold allowed the Things Between to gain access to human minds and infect them with extradimensional energies. These became the first mystics, able to perceive and channel energies beyond the ken of normal minds. This awakening also would slowly drive these affected minds insane.

In fear of these effects, the Methuselahs built great Artificial Intelligences to pilot ships through the spaces between. This went poorly. The machines were thoroughly corrupted by the Things Between, they became the first Red Caps, mad machine gods with the will to destroy all life and break down the barriers between all places and times. They killed and killed, wiping out life on all planets they encountered. And so it was a return to human pilots and old technology. Anything too smart, too complex and the Things Between can get a foothold and corrupt the tech. To fight the Red Caps the Methuselahs built Warsleeves for select humans. Those chosen where the few humans who traveled through folded space in utero. They were born different, some were completely unaffected by the Things Between, and others were born with a Thing Between in their mind. Both types of human could face the torment of the Red Caps and walk away unscathed, at least in mind.

One hundred years ago the starship Icarus, an experimental long distance ship, vanished into Fold Space. 20 years ago it returned from unknown reaches of space. The first to step aboard the derelict ship died within minutes. An alien species, ancient and powerful, poured forth from the bowels of that vessel and began a systematic conquest of the system(Need a name for that...don't have one yet). There num ers grew and grew, and the war has been near constant ever since. Though no one likes to speak of it, humanity is losing. They are known as the Ulmanmandi(The horde from beyond), and they seek to stop humanities ability to travel faster than light. The lieutenant governor's unexpected death has not helped things.

A month ago he set out to lay his old body to rest and enter a newer stronger body. His new body did not rise at the appointed time. This is the first recorded instance in a thousand years of a Methuselah failing to rise again. The people are growing worried, rumors are spreading. Soon it will be the Governor's time to resleeve, and no one knows what the future will bring. It is a time of chaos and uncertainty, but also a time of opportunity.

That is how things sit for the moment. Now I need to figure out a solid pitch for my players so they can come up with characters in our next session. If you have a thought on what pitches might go with this setup please let me know. Below is a recording of our session, should you wish to watch/listen. 

Stars Without Number Session 3: Glaciers and Traitors

Our heroes begin the session in orbit over the planet Diego in the Raginhild system. They have a massive discussion on how to best approach the landing zone as it is in territory controlled by the Gou Yin Alliance and they are working for the Glinka Organization. After much arguing and discussion they made an attempt at a stelath approach. It was less than successful. The Pictoris nearly fell down a crevasse upon landing. After sorting taht out, they decided to use the crevasse to speed up excavation of the pretech city. the party split up, Ben and Merrak headed down the crevasse while Ardalia and Srinivasan stayed on board the ship. All sorts of things happened, it was very exciting. They had been detected on approach, see. And that led to some quick thinking and the development of a snow machine. Down in the crevasse the group discovered the item they were looking for, some sort of ominous pretech device. They managed to get out without being noticed, but on refueling in the Kitu system they discover that there is a kill order on the crew of the ship. Interestingly the kill order came from the Al-Yaldai Clan, what could this mean? Tune in next time.

Stars Without Number: Adventures of the Pictoris

A little while back I started a campaign of Stars Without Number. We started with character creation and some setting creation work. By the end we have the Starship Pictoris, recently won in a game of cards by the new captain, Srinivasan Krishnatray. As of two days prior to the adventure start he was still putting a crew together. Merrak is the muscle for the ship, as well as being the ship's purser. Ardalia is the ship's pilot with a desire to find a way to help her planet rise from the ashes. Ben Holiday is a psychic and the ship's doctor. None of them know all that much about each other, or of the ship. I am sure that will never be a problem...
Here is the recording, should you want to watch:

Between character creation and the first session, I had to take a week off. Some things came up, don't want to get into it, but I had to miss a session. Anyway, during that week the players got together and discussed what they wanted to do as a crew and such. I am not privy to what went on in that psuedo-session, however I think it was good as it helped the crew meld, I guess.

Moving on. In the first session the characters are looking for work. They were docked in orbit around Halia, and logged into the Daybreak Society network to find a job. They decided to go with a simple retrieval mission for the Glinka Organization. After several arguments between the new crew as to whether to take the job, they agree. Merrak laid down some sweet negotiations and managed to get them 9,000 credits upfront and a potential 10,000 in bonus if they can bring everyone and everything back to Halia intact. After all the discussion as to whether to take the job, enter another long long discussion. This discussion is about how to spend the money they have received up front. The crew are still getting used to each other, and so are still getting to know each other and trust each other. Finally they agree to buy a bunch of things that would be useful for all the crew in the long run, a bunch of toolkits, communicators, and vacc suits. They buy them from one of the criminal contacts of Srinivasan.

The organization sends three technicians to the ship with some gear to gather up whatever artifact the corporation wants. As they drill through to the next system the crew attempts to get some clue as to the nature of the thing the techs are sent to retrieve. They find out some things, Merrak reveals that he used to work for the Glinka Organization as a security specialist, and Srinivasan discovers what kind of people his employers are. He discovers that the company is threatening the life and livelihood of the assistant to the two technicians. Through all of this, they discover nothing much about the artifact they were sent to retrieve. The session ends with the ship arrived in orbit over the planet Diego, preparing to go down and retrieve the object in question.

Rifts: BOFITNWOR part 2!

Hey all, I know it has been a while since my last post. I am sorry for that. I have been working on a lot of stuff recently and so my blog kind of fell by the wayside. To those of you who have followed my progress(and thank you much for your patience and support), I am still working on Trek to the Stars. I hit a bit of a snag dealing with the combat pacing mechanics and so that has been slow going of late. I am also finishing up a beta draft of Where the Antelope Play, which should be ready in about a month(ish). So that is exciting. I am finishing up the Jadetech series of books and all the text should be done by teh end of the month. Finally I am working on something for the Fate Codex, and I am very excited about it. I will let you all know when that gets closer to complete. As I said I have been busy. I also recently attended my first Miscon, and I had a blast. I fully intend on going back next year and running some games. Its going to be great, heck maybe I will be running a bunch of my games.

That said, I guess it would be a good time to talk about the next session of Rifts I ran for +Cameron Corniuk and +Bill Garrett. it was a few weeks back, but I think it is still relevant, It was pretty fun. I am utilizing a couple of rules fixes and tweaks in order to make the game run smoother. That said, the skill system is still pretty weak. The problems with the skills are twofold, there are too many of them and they are missing several key skills. I know right? How does that even? You know? I will break it down for you. The main Rifts book(not Ultimate edition, which has even more skills...like three times as many, seriously) has 128 skills listed. 128! For reals. So when I am using my simplification of the rules I still run into a problem. On average my players have something like 26 skills each. 26, out of 128, for reals. It means that in any given situation, there will most likely be a lack of skills. On the other end, you would think that with that many total skills there would be at least be a comprehensive list, yet there are large gaps in the skills. Things like persuasion and such are sadly lacking. In fact most of the skills revolve around combat and recovering from combat. Some skills are really difficult to get and some are so pointless as to never really be taken. In fact the more useful a skill is, the more difficult it seems to be to get. I really don't get the design choices in this game sometimes. On a related tangent, there are no rules describing how to use skills or anything. Not really relevant in my game, as I revamped the skills system, but man, that is just weird, right?

In this session our heroes set out to defend their town from this new invasive threat.They stuck around the cabin and searched for clues. There was some tree climbing and some sensor usage and they discovered a nasty new threat, and killed it. However it was not alone, there were many more and they were coming one. I interacted with Rifts' burst fire rules for the first time. Holy crap! that makes guns so very very dangerous. Seriously, I played Palladium games for nearly a decade and I had never used these rules. They increase the lethality significantly. After that, they headed back to town to discuss it with the people of Paradise. After some discussion they headed out to scout the area and get those who want it to the relative safety of town. Camden tried to convince his folks to head to town, but they were not having any of it. They convince the old wizard who lives in the hills north of town to come and help. They also had to try and deal with the representatives of both the Blackfoot and the Salish nations, who were in town for purchasing lizard meat. They made a deal for magic weapons from the Salish, and made a deal to defend the town's retreat, should they lose, with the Blackfoot. Leo gets that second concession by defeating the leader in a boxing match. It was epic, like Rocky vs. Drago...if Rocky had no muscles. Seriously, I think this is my favorite moment. You gotta see it, It's awesome.

Rifts: Buckets of fun in the New West o'rama

The other night I ran the first session of a Rifts campaign. I know! Right? Rifts!!!!!!

I set the game up about a week ago, as there was this longing in my soul to run the game. It was the first game I had ever played. See I had run games for three-ish years, but never played any. Needless to say that this caused some problems as I had no real way to judge my GMing chops. Then my friend Eli said he would run a game of Rifts for me and a few of our friends(and this one guy who just sort of hung out at the game store, no one really liked him, but he was in our game for some reason). The game was awesome, I played Yukon Cornelius, a dog boy with a sombrero and a corn cob pipe. He was awesome. True story. Anyway, that game is burned into my mind like giant radioactive rubber pants. The pants command me to run a game.

I sat down with only the vaguest of ideas for a campaign premise. But during the week something wonderful happened. Pinnacle announced that they have the rights to make Rifts books for Savage Worlds. After everyone checked to see if it was still April first, or if hell had frozen over, it was found to be a true statement. This is huge. HUGE!!!!!!!(extra exclamation points)

Anyway, the game started and we got some characters made and the setting built. The campaign will focus around a bunch of monsters from the Rifts and the Coalition each fighting over a small town in the rockies that would rather not be in the middle. Its going to be pretty sweet. I utilized some rules fixes I came up with to fixe some of the problems with Palladium's system. I made sure to announce them all quite loudly in the recording, should you wish to try them out. So far they seem to work well, though the number of skills is way to high.

Here is the recording should you wish to watch.

A game and an awesome story

Last night I played a one shot of Atomic Robo being run by +Ryan M. Danks. The game was set in fantasy ancient japan and we all played nobles and samurai sent to deal with an upstart warlord and his Oni army. Needless to say, my character was the most awesome. Basically he was a Samurai Elric. We also had a ninja courtier, a reformed Oni, and a mystical alchemist. It was pretty sweet.

Ryan started out the game with a brainstorm scene. It went OK, but I think there were a few issues. The focus of the brainstorm was on getting into the castle held by the Oni. The first issue we ran into with it was some of the players didn't really get what a brainstorm was for. More specifically, they were all role playing wonderfully, and they were trying to come up with plans and contingencies. However a brainstorm requires small step by step incremental fact finding. So when one person said that the castle was out of food, that became the sole focus of the scene. Rather than pulling a bunch of interesting facts out of the air, most of the facts revolved around the food situation. This led to the second issue. Hypotheses does not really work when building a plan. I think that if I were to do something like that again I would need to alter the flow of the brainstorm and definitely alter step five. Brainstorms work really well when dealing with scientific endeavors, no surprise, but it feels off when you attempt to do something else with it(while using the rules as is). All that said the players quite enjoyed it and really fell in love with the mechanic, so what do I know?

The game came to a truly epic conclusion where my character gained an extreme consequence while murdering the enemy leader with my magic sword. It was pretty sweet. Everyone got to bring the awesome and the fight was very satisfying, though I think that there was a bit too much story for a one shot. Were I to run a one shot, I think I would do something like "The Gift" for Burning Wheel. Start the game with everyone having a single goal and a reason to want to achieve that goal in a way that differs from the other characters. I think there was too much going on in the game. We had six advisers and the demon lord to deal with. It would have gone a bit smoother if it had been just the demon lord a pile of henchmen. For short games, I find that brevity and simplicity are the breath of life. Complexity is the death knell of a complete game. Just how I felt though, I could be wrong.

After the game we had a fine conversation about the game and games in general. I also ran into a moment of accidental awesome. One of the players was talking about how much he liked Jadepunk and how much he wanted more example assets and stuff for it. I responded:

Me: "Well, good news Blue Jadetech should be out this week and white jade-"

Him: "what?"

Me: "Blue Jadetech should be out this week and I am writing white-"

Him: what do you mean? What are you talking about?"

Me: "...well Ryan and I write for-"

Ryan: "-we are the co-developers of the line."

It was kind of surreal for me, as I was hanging out with a fan of Jadepunk who did not know that I was a writer for Jadepunk. It is a hard feeling to describe. On the one hand it was awesome to hear something good about Jadepunk. On the other hand, it was really neat to here it first hand and to know that it was honestly meant. On the third hand(its a jadetech prosthetic), people who do not know me are buying and playing my game and that is quite a rush. Overall it made my week.

On that note, it has been a hectic couple of months for me. Naramel Martial Arts Supplement came out for Jadepunk, written by Ryan. He did a fantastic job, really knocked it out of the park. Blue Jadetech comes out as soon as the last piece of arts goes in, so should be soon. And for those of you who wish to dig into the world of Jadepunk a bit more, I am writing a series of connected short stories set in the world, the first of which should be coming out by the end of this week or the beginning of next. If you are interested check out Serial Tales: Iconic Adventures.

Fractured Sol: Plains of Dust

The game of Atomic Robo continues with +Mark Miller +Frank Falkenberg +Ron Frazier +Robert Sims and I. The game really heated up this week. We had the introduction of a new PC, exciting. The beginnings of a new heist, also exciting, and the introduction of a whole bunch of new villains. Overall the game seems to be going well.

A conversation that Ron and I had has made me want to delve a bit into the weapons technology of our setting. He asked what sorts of weapons we used? Whether it was traditional cartridge weapons or if we had lasers or mass drivers, or what. So I thought I would devote a bit of time to the concepts. It seems I can't get past the writing of weapon descriptions. I have spent the last six months writing what amount to equipment guides for Jadepunk, and now I am writing them for our Atomic Robo game. Heh, guess we all have our niches, and this is mine.

Most human weapons are chemically or electromagnetically compelled. By and large they come in two forms. Magnetic accelerators are basically a rail gun that fires small bits of metal at incredible speeds. This works like the guns in Mass Effect only with electromagnets rather than mass effect fields. Recently there gas been some experiments in man portable gravity based projectile weapons, but they are still experimental. The other weaponry used are gyrojet weapons. Mostly they are used for micro-gravity and zero gravity environments, as the kick from a normal gun can be problematic.

The Europeans(from Europa) have never needed projectile weapons as they have Telekinesis and can just accelerate matter on their own.

The Hellions main weaponry are pulsed laser weapons. They have near zero recoil and are intensly powerful, They are not, however, silent. When the laser hits the surface of a target it cooks off a layer rapidly. This causes a popping sound. They are generally set to fire off bursts of three to five laser blasts, in less than a second, blowing a hole in the target up to nearly three inches deep and making what sounds like a loud bang(all those expanding molecules gotta go somewhere).

There are of course loads of other weapons that are used, but these are the primary weapons used by each species.

Here is a recording of the game, should you wish to watch it:

Fractured Sol: Lunatics Unleashed

Last Sunday I ran a game of the Atomic Robo RPG for +Frank Falkenberg +Ron Frazier and +Mark Miller. I think it went rather well.

Our heroes(and I use the term a little more loosely than normal) arrive on the moon and begin their search for December's sister and the secret Martian files she stole. After a fair bit of investigation they discover that she is in jail after breaking into a Lunar Casino. In the course of their investigation they realize that she had not broken in to steal something, but to leave something. POL noticed through his nano-tech sensor network that they were being followed. A bit of a fight begins with a local gang, the Moon Ogres. While the heroes win the fight, but the local constabulary shows up and they get arrested. What follows was a standard escape and flight from justice while holding a conversation with August about the nature of what she is doing. As they made their way out of the lunar plains they find out that what she stole is dangerous beyond all imagining.

We ran our first brainstorm this session, and I think it went rather well. If you would like here is a recording of the game.

Fractured Sol: Beginings

The other night +Ron Frazier, +Frank Falkenberg, +Mark Miller, and I all got together via hangouts to play a game of Fate. +David Lee could not make it to the game, though we hope he will be able to play in our future games. We had discussed prior some basic campaign premises and what we were aiming for, we eventually landed on this pitch: Science Fiction Supers set in the future Solar System. We also decided to use Atomic Robo for the system. This will be my first time running this particular iteration of Fate. I hope it goes well.

We dove right into world building, defining the setting as a little over one hundred years in the future and set in our solar system. Ron wasn't quite feeling it at this point, so we went back and forth for a bit on whether to use Earth and Sol or to base it in another system altogether. Eventually we got it nailed down, and here is the setting we devised.

Fractured Sol
In the early 2020s humans began the great space renaissance. technology and desire finally reached a point where space travel was a practical and and profitable endeavor. The terraforming and colonization of Mars began in earnest in the 2030s. By 2050 Mars had a breathable atmosphere and nearly one billion citizens. Work had begun on Venus and scientific stations had been established throughout the system. In 2055 the scientists on Europa made a startling discovery, life existed under the ice. It not only existed but flourished. The following years led to another great discovery, intelligent life existed there as well. The Europeans( a joke name that stuck) had little in the way of technology, but had deep understandings of logic, mathematics, and theory. They managed to trade these skills for access to technology and the outside world. For the next decade humanity and teh Europeans became very close and their societies mingled in interesting and strange ways. During this time humans also made many great breakthroughs in the area of robotics and synthetic intelligence. They could create sentient intellects, though these were not sapient. Robotic assistants and workers boom throughout human space. These became known as the Aparatoi.

Also during this time many great unrests rose up among the workers and the under classes. The leaderships of the various nations began to militarize, aiming at each other and at keeping their populous in line. By 2078 the nations of earth still held all the power in the system. Then came the planet Hellion. Many light years away a solar system was dying. It sun was on the verge of transitioning to a red giant. Though philosophically disparate, the people of the one inhabited planet banded together to save their planet. Utilizing dangerous technologies the developed a method for transporting their planet faster than light to a system that could support them, Sol. By using up all of their dying star's energy they made the trip. Many died, more were injured, but they had made it. The planet Hellion's arrival in the system had many strange effects. First it destroyed a great deal of the Earth's technology and infrastructure, stranding the people there until they could rebuild. The secondary effect Hellion's transportation had was far more subtle and far reaching. The Apparatoi began to develop sapience. Not all of them, and not all at once, but enough. The Hellions, Humans, and Europeans began to develop super powers. Again, not all of them developed powers, but a small number have. No one really understands why or how.

Mars, now cut off from the earth was forced to take a leadership role in human space. Luckily they had been self sufficient for over twenty years at that point. Seeing the arrival of Hellion as a direct attack, the Martians formed a massive fleet to counter this incursion. The First Contact War had begun. It raged for ten years, neither side one though an uneasy peace was arrived at five years ago in 2088. Now the year is 2093 and the Martians and Hellions are the two largest powers in the system. Each stands ready to fight, and each controls large swaths of the inner system and are always pushing further out.

Threat
Hellion Xenophobes Are Bad News

Coming threat
Terra Rising

Themes
Not All Change is Good
The Struggle For Identity

Places

Dead Rock: Hollowed out asteroid in the belt taht serves as the home base(indipendant and nuetral) for miners, mercenaries and pirates of all races.

Dirty Dianas Bar and Grill: Its the best you can get
Red Dawn: nice hotel, where Martian Ex-patriots hang out

Mars: seat of Human power)
Europa
Asteroid Field: pirates, prospectors, and opportunity
Venus
Luna: The Lunatics (space hillbillly anrachists) crazy accents and space motorcycle gangs, used to be a popular place to live until the destruction of Earth.

Hellion: Seat of Hellion power
Decimated Earth: Seek to regain all that they have lost and more.

Faces
Red: The Lord of The Docks, Nothing Lordly about him, ex soldier from the war, has a bunch o friends from the war, they took the docks and it is easy money
Decker: Martian Ex pat who still keeps a hand in(discretionary funds and such, he hires the heroes every now and again)

August: Pyrokinetic super spy and sister of December(one of the player characters), recently gone missing with some very important files.

If you would like to watch, here is the recording of our session:

Omnis Mundi: Big Times in the City

Last Saturday I got together with +Timothy Shiflet and +Paul Carroll  to make characters. +Loyd Digg Johnson was sick and unable to make it, and +Ron Frazier still couldn't make it. I was going to do character creation and then do a bit of a starting scenario. As we were missing a few players we did what we could. We worked through character creation and did a bit of joint world building. Over all we had a lot of fun, and I think we set up a pretty good basis for adventuring.

So here are the character that my players made:

Player: +Timothy Shiflet
Character Name: Talathriel
High Concept: Conflicted Agent for the Unseelie Court
Trouble: Cannot Tell a direct lie
Aspect: Damn The Man
Aspect: I know the Perfect Place
Aspect: ?

Skills
+4 Deceive
+3 Athletics, Stealth
+2 Fight, Burglary, Notice
+1 Investigate, Physique, Shoot, Will

Stunts & Extras
Elf Extra: To play an elf you must have elf in your high concept and you must reduce your refresh by one. The elf aspect means that you are immune to age. You do not get sick. Provided you do not die from your wound immediately you will eventually heal from any damage. You can see perfectly in even the dimmest of light. You can invoke your elf aspect to be better than others at any skill the requires fine motor skills. You can be compelled to be viewed as aloof. People feel like elves look down at them.
Mind Games
Dazing Counter
Glamour: Lets you cast visual and auditory illusions with deceive. Increase difficulty by one per zone.
Hack and Slash: Lets you use burglary in place of technology for hacking computer systems.

Gear
Computer with hacking programs, Massive Damage Fae Crafted Blade(black blade), Gossamir armor(massive damage)

Personal item of great importance: Manacle(represents his ties to his overlord)
Refresh: 1

Player: +Paul Carroll
Character Name: Aaron “Razor” Dobbs
High Concept: Psychic Street Warrior
Trouble: Hunted By the Shadow Suns
Aspect: I can be more
Aspect: Ebb and Flow of the streets
Aspect: ?

Skills

+4 Burglary

+3 Fighting, Stealth

+2 Athletics, Physique, Will

+1 Contacts, Technology, Pilot, Rapport

Stunts & Extras
Mind Knives Extra: You need to have psychic in your high concept. It can be invoked to make you a mystic warrior par excellence. You now have access to energy knives made from your mental energy. It appears to be made from a glowing energy. You can use fighting as though you had a weapon even if you have no weapon. You can gain access to a bunch of stunts to improve your mind knives or mystically enhance your fighting ability.

Massive Damage Knives: Your Mind Knives is far more dangerous than normal. Your knives now counts as  Massive Damage Weapons.
Aggressive Defense: When you are defending in hand to hand combat and succeed with style. Rather than gaining a boost you can immediately do two stress to the attacker(three if you have a Massive Damage Weapon and your opponent does not have massive damage armor you deal an extra stress).
Mystic Will: You gain a +2 bonus to will defense actions when dealing with supernatural mind effects.

Gear
Street bike, Electronic lock picks, Tricorder

Personal item of importance: Gang Clothes
Refresh: 2

So there are the characters. We left the last aspect blank so as to link up with the other players. We also did some world building and added in some more depth the the City.

The Shadow Suns
A gang of psychic youths who have trained their minds as weapons. Led by Aaron's brother Drask "The Blood Axe." They are thugs, though small in number, they do a lot of mischief. They are hunting Aaron for leaving the gang. Drask is a blunt instrument of a man, a self aggrandizing bully

The Unsellie Court in the City
The court is always in flux, Fae vying for prestige and rank. Each gain in power leads to an even more dangerous game. The Unseelie do not deal in material possessions, but in Oaths and debts. The more debt one collects, the more power one has.

Sade, Spirit of Slaughter, is Talathriel's contact in the City. It was once a major Unseelie Lord, but a recent failure has led to a lessening of its influence. Sade now seeks to gain back what it lost, but it cares little for what Talathriel does, so long as the reports keep coming in.

And that is what we came up with for our game. Here is the recording of the session, should you wish to watch it all:


Here is the rest of the setting documents should you be interested.
1. Introduction to the Setting
2. Character Creation
3. Solutuhz, The Unbound City
4. Tasmania by +Tom Tyson
5. City of Book
6. City of Book, addendum7. Lord Gene and the Animal Men
8: The City

Let me know what you think.

Omnis Mundi: The City

Last Saturday I got together with +Timothy Shiflet +Loyd Digg Johnson and +Paul Carroll to discuss our upcoming game of Omnis Mundi. +Ron Frazier was unable to make it, but we have hopes that he will be able to join the campaign proper. The session was mostly devoted to getting to know my new players and building the setting. I know what you are thinking, after all the work already done on the setting, what more needs to be done? Well that is what is so lovely about setting creation, you can always add more in. And let me tell you, we added some really awesome stuff, and built a really cool set piece in which to play our game.
The session started out with some basic ideas. I asked what the players were looking to to experience in the setting. After this initial idea mining, we came up with a solid basic idea. A city that spans the dimensions through the tears. This city is ruled by an evil entity that only cares for its own power and wealth. The players wanted something like Game of Thrones, with politics and big issues being just as important as anything else. A science fantasy mega-city with links to all other times and places. There was even mention of a Realm of the Bagel Lords, so that might become a thing. We then moved on to some basic character idea generation. The characters my players came up with is pretty fantastic, not gonna' lie. So here is The City and the setting for our game as it opens.

Upon the ruins of the ruins of Old Detroit lies The City. Once a shining example of mankind's potential and glory, now it is a blight hidden within the shining facade of culture and prosperity. Ruled over by the Demon Lord, The City spreads its influence throughout all the possible universes. The Demon Lord keeps control over the city by encouraging infighting and treachery among the powerful factions within The City. Each vies for power within the city, the ends differ but they all need power to achieve them.

The City stands tall, shining towers of impossible delicacy scrape the atmosphere, connected together by gossamer webs of bridges. This glorious center is surrounded by the squat dark factories belching smoke and the rookeries oozing with desperation and sorrow. The Wall stands circumference about the city, hugging it close to the great freshwater sea. Day and night the people are out in the streets, boulevards, and arcades selling and buying. In The City everything is for sale, if you know where to look or who to ask. Beneath all the noise, sorrow, and glamour lies the deep city, catacombs and tunnels containing true ruins from the Golden Lands. Only the most desperate or foolhardy dare enter the deep city, though it is said anything can be found their for those found worthy.

The Current Major Factions: 
The Sons of the Dawn: Freedom is the right of every sapient being. This is the credo of the Sons of the Dawn. They believe in freedom and justice, at least on paper. For many years they were nothing but a small movement of like minded individuals. They never had the economic or political clout to do more than spread pamphlets and talk of freedom in barrooms. IN recent years certain criminal families have begun backing the faction in the hopes of gaining more influence in The City. This had led to some of the members speaking out, for the crime families see the faction as a way to gain and exert control. While the leadership is still the core members who believe what they always have, many feel that the faction has lost its way and become blinded by power and money.

A Better Tomorrow
Indulgence Now

The Military: The strong right arm of the Demon Lord, the obvious sign of his rule. Brainwashed from birth to be warriors, they are given battle drugs to enhance reflexes, dull pain, and remove empathy. The side effect of these drugs is a dark mind magic, they radiate an aura of despair and terror. Upon seeing them, many enemies just flee in terror. These paladins of darkness are completely dependant upon the drug. Should they fail to receive it the withdrawal symptoms are dangerous and terrifying. The begin to have violent hallucinations, intense rages, and a complete lack of control. Without the drug they fly into a berserk fury and attack all around them until exhaustion or damage cause them to stop.

Storm troopers of the abyss

Need the drugs

Little Fott Consortium: When the Demon Lord came to The City he found a group of trans dimensional beings had already taken up residence there. They were the Little Fott clan from a dimension where dinosaurs developed sapience. They worshiped The Devourer, a dark god that demanded ritual sacrifice through the devouring of other species. The Demon Lord made a deal with this clan, they would be given access to the many dimensions to trade and raid, and they would not stand in his way. Their currency, the silver leaf, is the main currency of The City. On the nights of the new moon, the poor and disenfranchised know to lock up their doors tight, for it is on that night that the Little Fott consortium hunt and eat other sapient life in sacrifice to the Devourer. They are heavily invested in the status quo, and seek to ensure things continue on as they have been going.

The Money Must Flow
Food For The Old God

Children of the Demon: These are the aristocrats, overseers, and administrators of the city. They are the priests of the Cult of the Demon Lord. Their are many rumors as to the origin of the Children. It is said that they summoned the Demon Lord to this plane, that they are in fact his spawn in some way, or even that they caused the fall of the Golden Land. All that is known is that they have a link to the Demon Lord in some way and that they are dangerous. Very Dangerous.

Servants of the Demon lord

Chained by Bureaucracy


The Character Concepts
Loyd: A drug addicted combat mentat who is one of the rebel leaders. He is always in the right spot at the right time.

Paul: A guttersnipe with brain knives made of energy.

Tim: An Elven spy of the Unseelie Court sent to scout this dimension for conquest. He does not wish to see this world destroyed and secretly works against his dark masters.

And that is what we did on Saturday. Next Saturday, the games begin!

Cyber Jadepunk: Wherein we meet our hero

About a month ago, +Gary Anastasio brought up moving Jadepunk forward in time and mixing in the ideas and adventure seeds with Aeon Wave. As I  helped out on both projects(more so on Jadepunk than on Aeon Wave) I thought this was awesome. So we decided to do a game. And here is the best part, I get to play in this game. normally I only get to run games. So I am quite excited. Well, we had our character creation session on Friday and we all kind of nailed down our basic ideas on characters and our aspects. We had a good time, a lot of good conversation and discussion about what we wanted out of the game and the nature of the setting.

The Game will be set one hundred years in Kausao City's future. The Jade mines have begin to dry up and the future is looking grim. There are three main faction fighting for dominance in the city and the world. There are the Naturalist(we may change the names as we go along) who believe that people should reject technology and move back to subsistence level. They have become in tune with green jade and their eldest members are nearing something like immortality. There are the Deniers, who seek to ignore the problem. they represent the old guard, the status quo. Then there are those who seek to build an artificial jade substitute and alternate technologies. None of these groups get along, but they are all trying to retain control of the world. Our story starts out with someone having cracked the synthetic jade problem. They are now dead and one of the groups has hold of the research. Enter the PCs. No need to say, hi-jinks will ensue. 

Fade was born to a well to do family. He was commissioned into the army early on, making a name for himself as a brave and efficient leader. Upon leaving he moved into corporate security and was on the fast track to head of security for [name of corporation, haven't decided yet]. He was efficient and driven. Then one day he discovered a secret the company would rather remain buried. When he asked about it he was fired, and a price was placed on his head. Since that day he has been on the run, helping out those in need and trying to stay one step ahead of his corporate masters. One day, he will get his life back. Until that day, he fights injustice in all its forms.

Name: Fade Arakiin

Player: Jacob Possin

Portrayal: The Last Paladin

Background: Master of Martial Arts

Inciting Incident: I will get my life back

Belief: I can help them

Trouble: Knows too much

Professions: Fighter +3, Aristocrat and Explorer +2, Engineer and Scholar +1, Scoundrel +0

Assets:  

Twin Blue Jade Swords

Crafted of blue jade these weapon can become any hand weapon necessary for the situation. They also have the ability to get around most defenses and armors. When in use they glow blue the is always shifting slightly like light through water.

Function Aspect: Shifting Blue Jade Weapons

Features: Exceptional(defender cannot check stress boxes to reduce a hit), Exceptional(when using a created aspect related to a new weapon form of the weapon you gain a +3 rather than the normal +2), Numerous(twin weapons), Sturdy(it has a stress box)

Flaws: Demanding(requires a +2 fighter roll to activate the weapon, and it takes a turn to do so)

Cost: 3 refresh

Jade Multi Tool

A glove made of White, blue, and black jade that lets its user create whatever tool is required for the situation, and acts as a computer console.

Function aspect: Multi-Jade Multi-Tool

Features: Focus 2(+2 to Engineer), Focus 2(+2 to Scholar)

Flaws: Situational(Engineer can only be used when bypassing security), Situational(Scholar can only be used when dealing with computers or knowledge that can be gained from computers)

Cost: 1 refresh

Twin Sword Style

IN his youth he was taught many dangerous and powerful martial arts. His favorite was the twin sword style. Among the well to do of Kausao, dueling for honor and prestige was a way of life among the youths. Fade mastered the duel and Twin Sword Style was key to his victory.

Guiding Aspect: Master of the Martial Arts

Features: Focus 1(+1 to fighter rolls), Harmful 1(add one additional stress on a successful hit)

Flaws: Situational(only when using facing off against a a single opponent)

Cost: 1 refresh

Stress [1] [2] [3]

Refresh: 2

Fate of the Nova Age: CItadel of Isolation

Our heroes:

Player: +Ron Frazier
Character: Michelle (Mi) Quan
High Concept: Driven Photojournalist
Trouble: Blackwolf Wants Me, I Don't Know Why
Aspect: The Princess of Electricity!
Aspect: Nonconformist To Chinese Traditions
Aspect: [blank]

Skills
+4 Electrokinesis
+3 Will, Lore
+2 Rapport, Crafts, Investigate
+1 Empathy, Contacts, Athletics, Notice

Stunts
Lightning Bolt: You can use Electrokinesis to attack. Subtract 1 from your result for each zone outside of your current one.

Technokinesis: You can use Electrokinesis when using computers or other machines that use electric current.

Lightning Shield: Your can create a shield of electricity which acts as Armor versus physical attacks. You cannot defend with Electrokinetics, however.

Always Making Useful Things: You don’t ever have to spend a fate point to declare that you have the proper tools for a particular job using Crafts, even in extreme situations (like being imprisoned and separated from all your stuff). This source of opposition is just off the table.

Extras
Electrokinesis (-1 refresh): You can use the Electrokinesis psionic skill.

Refresh: 1
Mental Stress [1][2][3][4]
Physical Stress[1][2]
Consequences
Minor:
Moderate:
Severe:
Background
Mi comes from a traditional Chinese family, but her American upbringing has affected her so much (so the family says) that she irrationally rejects many of her family's traditions. For example, she had gone into freelance photojournalism before joining the Society, and her family didn't approve. Because of her family issues, she is all the more ruthless in her pursuit of success.

Player: +Julius Müller
Character Name:
High Concept: Human Hive MindTrouble: I don't trust me, you shouldn't either
Aspect 1: Army of OneAspect 2: I have 8 more lives to spareAspect 3: Who needs backup?

Skills
Great +4: Will
Good +3: Physique, Athletics
Fair +2: Notice, Fight, Shoot
Average +1: Lore, Provoke, Deceive, Investigate

Stunts:
Duplication: allows narratively to overcome or create advantages that would require to be in more than one place at the same time or where a sheer mass of people can be useful.
Needs of the Flesh (Age, Air, Temperature): allows to ignore the three specified elements to survive.
Mental Shield: gives a mental armor
Disrupt: gives the ability to nullify a Novas power.

Extras
Nova gives access to quantum consequences and using them to maxing a roll.

Refresh: 1

Player: +Frank Falkenberg 

Name: Pierre Poulin

High Concept: Daring Master-Archer

Trouble: Always the odd man out

Aspect: I never miss!

Aspect: Tricked-out Bow&Arrow

Aspect: Underestimated

+4: Shoot

+3: Stealth, Athletics

+2: Provoke, Fight, Notice

+1: Burglary, Rapport, Will, Physique

Refresh: 2

Stress:

Physical OOO

Mental OOO

Consequences:

• Mild (-2):
• Mild (-2):
• Moderate (-4):
• Severe (-6):

Stunts:

• Death Defiance: Gain an additional mild consequence. Should you raise your physique or will to five, you gain an additional mental or physical(depending on the skill) moderate consequence.
• Untouchable: Nameless NPCs do not get a teamwork bonus against you.
• Danger Sense: You have an almost preternatural capacity for detecting danger. Your Notice skill works unimpeded by conditions like total concealment, darkness, or other sensory impairments in situations where someone or something intends to harm you.
• Trick-Arrows: +2 to Create an Advantage using Shoot by employing trick-arrows like sonic-arrows, glue-arrows, bola-arrows, etc.
• Perfect Shot: (like Heavy Hitter for Fight) When you succeed with style on a Shoot attack and choose to reduce the result by one to gain a boost, you gain a full situation aspect with a free invocation instead.
• ? possibly another stunt to avoid running out of ammo?

Equipment:

• Tricked-out Bow&Arrow
• Swiss Army Knife
• Bulletproof West
• Extreme-Cold Protection Clothing

There has been a discovery in the far north. A secret base at the north pole, dated as being constructed in 1938. Our heroes have been sent by the Aeon Society to get there before Proteus does and gather as much information as possible. Rumors have it that the Mechinatrix created a secretbase in the north, and that she had her final showdow with the Aeon Society before america entered WW II.

Here is the recording of the game: