Rolemaster <> StarFleet Commander

We didnt play Rolemaster on Sunday. Usual Summer holiday interruptions. 1 player at a Kung Fu summer camp and the other woke up nursing a hangover from hell.

2 players and a DM is a bit too hard to handle, so we had the choice to cancel or try something new. One of our group is a keen wargamer and boardgamer, and at short notice whipped out StarFleet Commander, a slightly simplified version of Star Fleet Battles and had a ton of fun all the same.

w00hoo (86.152.93.183)

13th Aug, 2007 14:58 (local)

Hmm, no that two player feeling, we're in the same boat with our fortnightly game in Tonbridge. About to give UKRoleplayers another hit with an 'any players' request. I've been running the Serenity with two players for it's length apart from the odd 'guest appearance' and it's do-able but not great, makes a lot more work for everyone and I prefer gaming not to feel like work too much! It'll not be enough for the Buffy game when the Serenity finishes though...

Link | Reply | Thread | Delete | Spam | Screen | Freeze | Track This Select:

lawbag (62.69.73.216)

13th Aug, 2007 16:34 (local)

I ran a Werewolf campaign for 8 players. Got the short end of the straw whilst running it during the summer months and in 4 sessions, I ran the campaign I had 4 different pairs of players. Keeping the story continuity going was a nightmare, and the end of game scenario was attended by two players who were clueless as to the events happening around them.

I ran a Victorian Age Werewolf story, and it was a mixture of Sherlock Holmes, Mage and Call of Cthulhu.

Serenity works only with multiple players, anything less than 4 and you are really struggling.

The golden rule is, the less players you have, the quicker you burn through the material.

Link | Reply | Parent | Thread | Edit | Delete | Screen | Freeze | Track This Select:

lawbag (62.69.73.216)

13th Aug, 2007 16:35 (local)

On a separate note, not really a Buffy fan, but I do understand the game has some interesting gaming concepts.

Link | Reply | Parent | Thread | Edit | Delete | Screen | Freeze | Track This Select:

Rolemaster Continues

I am really enjoying running my Rolemaster campaign. A straight up mixture of classic high and low fantasy, borrowing heavily from 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition (A)DND modules. I chose RM as it is a system I know and love, and enjoy the thrill of random combat, especially its legendary critical tables. But I choose the DND modules as it represents classic Dragons and Dungeon type adventures, neither of which ICE (publishers of RM) managed to encompass.

I have the Freeport trilogy well under way as I enjoy town based adventures, but as a short interlude we are going to be playing the Warlock or Firetop Mountain DND3.5 conversion by Myriador Games.

Once that is over, they will return to Freeport for the 2nd and subsequent parts, and I have an itch then to take them through either the Drow War Trilogy or the Temple of Elemental Evil. I believe Im up for running both with ease as I have a good group, albeit only 4 players, but no one has yet to have played in any of these adventures so far.

I wont be writing an actual play of the events as (a) it doesnt really matter what we do I doubt many people will be interested and (b) I dont think the events of the game are worthy of a write up. I tend to reserve write-ups to games I create out of my head and those developed by the players.

So I Started Gaming Again...

No this isnt a smoking story, but a great feeling akin to smoking, in that our group is back together again. After last weeks character generation session, this week we began our first full on session, which despite reading the adventure, turned into one long ad-lib session.

Its Rolemaster, but running classic ADND, DND and 3rd Edition DND adventures for that dungeon crawling, dragon-slaying feeling. After a couple of dodgy moments I feel in control and back in the swing of things again.

As always, now the adventure is underway, let the rule-reading begin.

News Update

Lots to say, both good and bad.

New job, better prospects and money, and more local so no commuting.

Back in the RPG saddle both running and playing (Im running Serenity for those that need to know, and gearing up for WHFRP2 playing).

The book was on hold anyhow because Im writing the RPG campaign and I wrote it while commuting on the train. So now that Im not commuting it means less time to write RPGs and my novel. Its not forgotten.

More at 10

Serenity Episode 1.02

o my second session of Serenity came and went. About half of the original players turned up, plus we had a new player. So first of all the group size was smaller and because of the players, the dynamics of the group were different too. I basically had 4 quiet gamers!

Heres hoping session 3 brings better rewards. My appraisal of the session, was great role-playing from the attended, but a serious lack of preparation on my part fucked the night up for me, and a couple fo the players, so sorry.

From the log of Capn Linlora, Ms

The Christeen V, my Ship, took off into the black, just as planned, but that's the only thing that happened as scheduled. Funny thing was that was the part I expected to go wrong. Still can't blame a woman for betting on a being in a bad place in good times.

Soon as Norm (our opera loving pilot) gave the all-clear, we dropped the seat-belts and got about our duties. Seems Agatha (our resident Shepherd Doctor) took it upon herself to start cleaning my ship. Never thought I'd say how nice disinfectant smells in the morning. Of course no one has any idea whether it is morning or day, unless we are on the clock. This is my first time in charge of a ship and a crew, so I needed to learn fast about what deals make money, and who to trust.

I'll be honest and say I'm not happy with the crew at the moment, seems they all have either too much or too little to do. Trouble is I'm too busy to do anything else. Hopefully that will all change soon. The moment our course for the mining belter colonies was set, Ewen reported that Jal (that womanising mechanic who along with Norm formed my first two crew) wasn't at his engineering post, and to make matters even worse, this new engine was pumping red oil out like a fire hydrant.

Jasper (an unfortunate punk with a penchant for knives), reported that someone had smashed the outer airlock glass. He noticed the damage on a routine tour of the cargo bay.

A sharp judder from the engine room had everyone on alarm and everyone was ordered to the engine room. Everyone excet of course Jal, but jasper it seemed had uncovered a stowaway!

For a man with enough weapons pointed at him to down a small army, the stowaway remained pretty cool. When I challenged him on his sudden appearance, it seemed it had been hiding in the cargo bay for a number of hours. Apparently he came about the job advert. According to him, we were in eager need of a troubleshooter, a gun for hire, and he felt he fitted the bill. He looked more like a trouble-maker than shooter. The young man who called himself Ash, also smoked like a trooper. Oh lord, why do you test me so.

I locked him in one of the defunct shuttles (one of Jal's many unfinished projects) minus his weapons and smokes and called a crew meeting in the mess hall. I had a question that only Jal could answer, and he aint anywhere, despite his bunk unmade, and his gear still lying around. I'm still hoping the kid turns up, not because I want him to fix the ship's engine, Ewen did a decent enough hack job, but because I need to flay the idiot alive for hiring a 3rd unwanted crew member. Do we really need a cook and a doctor? The food tastes the same, and I don't envisage us getting into too many sticky situations. And a shepherd doctor at that!

No one gave me a good reason to keep him, but only Jasper voice a desire to see the man eat a deathly dose of the 'verse. Because I don't rightly trust Jasper, I'll keep this Ash alive.

By the time I'd sorted this mess out, Norm informed me that we were about to be boarded by a bunch of Federal Cops. How they had managed to sneak up on when Norm was at his station I've no idea, but I didn't have long to find my paperwork, let alone get it in order. Seems these two federal goons were looking for a certain Captain Jacques Devlin, who was caught heading Coreward with a bunch of forged Independent Script. Guess that would be my fault, but a deal is a deal.

Norm, apart from practising a little helpful paranoia, called me up onto the flightdeck. Seems this police ship, aint what it appears to be saying. A little New Mexican standoff ensured these guys revealed they were just security goons hired by the Nyotenkyo corporation to keep tabs on who is and who isn't flying in their part of the 'verse. I don't blame em for trying, well not after I cleaned out their ship of the few supplies they had stored, kinda nice of them. There wasn't a lot. Maybe enough for two guys for a couple of weeks.

Norm worked some of his magic on their flight console. I'm not interested in knowing the details, just as long as we aint followed, which I was assured would would happen long after we left.

Things don't always go smooth, next time I hope the take off is the problem, not stowaways, missing engineers and bogus federal cops.

Serenity Episode 1.01

Writing has halted for now, partly because I need to get more material written up from notes onto my laptop. The other reason for it halting is we had a massive crash at work on our servers meaning I couldn't print anything for a week, and seeing as 90% of my printing of my book is done at work, that has held it up.

Also I am running a RPG game again, Serenity, carrying on from where I left off. I only ran 1 session but it spawned 2 write-ups, which I am giving you the link for here.

http://www.ukroleplayers.com/viewtopic.php?t=824

One write up is from the Engineer, the other from our resident Shepherd Doctor.

RuneQuest I Mongoose

Just managed to get hold of the new RuneQuest PDF from Mongoose, and the first thing that struck me was how empty the book was. Oh and the OGL license was a bit OTT. Its like Mongoose have hired WOTC lawyers and given the license to be mean.

Im a traditionalist, and believe RuneQuest is Glorantha. So we shall wait and see if this new RQ is any good.