Thursday, March 30, 2006
Babylon 5 CGS
Although the number of Babylon 5 Component Game System players was supposed to be four last night, the Minbari never quite made it to the game, so Dave B. (Earth), Xavier (Centauri) and myself (Narn) sat down for a few hours to play out a three-player game.
Xavier and I arrived at Dave's place by around 7:30. After some 'za and drinks, we settled in to play. Since Xavier does the best Londo imitation, he got the Centauri (yes, seriously, I swear that's how we decided what Xavier was going to play). We divvied up our own tokens, set our homeworlds in position and then randomly drew tiles and placed them face down on the board.
The first problem appeared rather quickly. As we spread out ships out to start exploring, Xavier ended up right beside Ragesh 3 (how appropriate) and Dave ended up right beside another planet he could colonize. I found an asteroid field and the slipstream tile, which mean by the second turn, Dave and Xavier had pulled way ahead of me in gross economy. As they both discovered other planets to colonize, I discovered a wormhole.
Let's just say that Narn space kept my empire quite small. That said, though, I built up my military forces and sent freighters towards Babylon 5 so I could at least boost my gross revenue by four points (two for each freighter docked with B5 -- although it took a few turns for them to get there).
As the Earthers and the Centauri spread out and started to come into contact with each, they started fighting over colonies. Meanwhile, since I was weakened by my lack of revenue-generated colonies, I used treachery as my means. I tried to make the game resemble the series a bit. As soon as Xavier's Centauri had built a base on Ragesh 3, I played the Ravaged Colony card on that base, forcing Xavier to spend some cash. Another turn later, I played the Death Blossom card on poor President Santiago, nixing one of Dave's people. Then I set to work sending Tu'Pari in to kill off Dr. Franklin. Unfortunately, that was the first and last assassination Tu'Pari was able to complete, as Xavier and Dave had both developed a means to block Tu'Pari shortly after Franklin's much-deserved death. ;)
As we neared midnight, Dave had managed to get enough power on Babylon 5 to swing any vote in any direction he chose, so the few diplomatic cards that were coming out were being decided by the Earthers by that point. There was very little Xavier and I could do to stop Dave's political power, unfortunately.
Of course, this showed another flaw in the game. The game really wasn't written to take advantage of voting and diplomacy, so the rules for such seemed tacked on. Quite frankly, the poor diplomatic rules force the game to play more as an economic and military game rather than an economic and diplomacy game. This really detracts from the feel of the game, unfortunately.
Shortly after midnight, we finally called the game. Nobody was even close to winning, although I had certainly lost. The game is won by having twice as much gross economy as each other player. I had a gross economy of 14, whereas Dave had something like 41 or 43 and Xavier had about 37 or 39. While the Narn were right out of the race (even my brief military attacks on Earth's first colony failed miserably), Dave and Xavier were still so close in points that the game would have probably taken several more hours of play to declare a winner.
As Xavier and I were heading out, the three of us chatted about how the game could be fixed. While there are certainly some elements of the game that are pretty neat, the rulebook is an unreadable mess and many of the rules don't seem to make sense. Additionally, the game seems to be unwinnable in a short period of time, and I really don't think the fun of it lasts all that many hours.
There was some talk about rewriting the rules, making up more voting/diplomatic cards and setting a turn limit to the game (with winning conditions based on who had the best economy at the end of X number of turns), but now that I've had a few more hours to think about it, I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Dave and Xavier may still feel otherwise.
Still, I'd like to give the B5 CGS one more try, preferably with a full four players.
Xavier and I arrived at Dave's place by around 7:30. After some 'za and drinks, we settled in to play. Since Xavier does the best Londo imitation, he got the Centauri (yes, seriously, I swear that's how we decided what Xavier was going to play). We divvied up our own tokens, set our homeworlds in position and then randomly drew tiles and placed them face down on the board.
The first problem appeared rather quickly. As we spread out ships out to start exploring, Xavier ended up right beside Ragesh 3 (how appropriate) and Dave ended up right beside another planet he could colonize. I found an asteroid field and the slipstream tile, which mean by the second turn, Dave and Xavier had pulled way ahead of me in gross economy. As they both discovered other planets to colonize, I discovered a wormhole.
Let's just say that Narn space kept my empire quite small. That said, though, I built up my military forces and sent freighters towards Babylon 5 so I could at least boost my gross revenue by four points (two for each freighter docked with B5 -- although it took a few turns for them to get there).
As the Earthers and the Centauri spread out and started to come into contact with each, they started fighting over colonies. Meanwhile, since I was weakened by my lack of revenue-generated colonies, I used treachery as my means. I tried to make the game resemble the series a bit. As soon as Xavier's Centauri had built a base on Ragesh 3, I played the Ravaged Colony card on that base, forcing Xavier to spend some cash. Another turn later, I played the Death Blossom card on poor President Santiago, nixing one of Dave's people. Then I set to work sending Tu'Pari in to kill off Dr. Franklin. Unfortunately, that was the first and last assassination Tu'Pari was able to complete, as Xavier and Dave had both developed a means to block Tu'Pari shortly after Franklin's much-deserved death. ;)
As we neared midnight, Dave had managed to get enough power on Babylon 5 to swing any vote in any direction he chose, so the few diplomatic cards that were coming out were being decided by the Earthers by that point. There was very little Xavier and I could do to stop Dave's political power, unfortunately.
Of course, this showed another flaw in the game. The game really wasn't written to take advantage of voting and diplomacy, so the rules for such seemed tacked on. Quite frankly, the poor diplomatic rules force the game to play more as an economic and military game rather than an economic and diplomacy game. This really detracts from the feel of the game, unfortunately.
Shortly after midnight, we finally called the game. Nobody was even close to winning, although I had certainly lost. The game is won by having twice as much gross economy as each other player. I had a gross economy of 14, whereas Dave had something like 41 or 43 and Xavier had about 37 or 39. While the Narn were right out of the race (even my brief military attacks on Earth's first colony failed miserably), Dave and Xavier were still so close in points that the game would have probably taken several more hours of play to declare a winner.
As Xavier and I were heading out, the three of us chatted about how the game could be fixed. While there are certainly some elements of the game that are pretty neat, the rulebook is an unreadable mess and many of the rules don't seem to make sense. Additionally, the game seems to be unwinnable in a short period of time, and I really don't think the fun of it lasts all that many hours.
There was some talk about rewriting the rules, making up more voting/diplomatic cards and setting a turn limit to the game (with winning conditions based on who had the best economy at the end of X number of turns), but now that I've had a few more hours to think about it, I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Dave and Xavier may still feel otherwise.
Still, I'd like to give the B5 CGS one more try, preferably with a full four players.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Surfing for Maddox's upcoming book on Amazon, The Law and I came across I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, the book from blogger Tucker Max. Is it just me or does this sound like a book/blog of stories that begin with "I was sooooo drunk...?"
Loveless
Many of my friends probably know I'm a big fan of westerns. I love western movies, I've read a handful of western novels and I've been waiting for a chance to find a western comic book for quite some time.
Enter Vertigo's Loveless, which I discovered right after the fifth issue was released. I picked up all the issues currently available on Friday, and last night, I sat down and read through them. It's certainly not a title for kids, and a few of the characters are downright unsavory types.
Issue five ended the first story arc, but I still have no idea in which direction the comic is going. Still, it's an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to the next issue.
Enter Vertigo's Loveless, which I discovered right after the fifth issue was released. I picked up all the issues currently available on Friday, and last night, I sat down and read through them. It's certainly not a title for kids, and a few of the characters are downright unsavory types.
Issue five ended the first story arc, but I still have no idea in which direction the comic is going. Still, it's an enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to the next issue.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
The TABS CondoCon VI brawl
On Saturday morning, as the TABS CondoCon VI got going, a whole bunch of us (nine, as I recall) grabbed the big board room-style table in the room and set up for a planned auto duel. While a good portion of the players were newbies, a few of us were familiar with the game. I'd say about half the players took cars generated by the host of the game, George. A few of us built our own vehicles. Just about everybody was running a car, except for two people running trikes (George and Logan), and one person (me) running a cycle.
After George explained the rules to those who weren't familiar with the game, we got going. We set up on the edge of the arena (technically, the town double-map) and chose starting speeds between 30 and 50 mph. My cycle (built by Logan; I didn't get around to building one, unfortunately) was built for speed (top speed of 205 mph and an acceleration of 15 mph), and I knew I had to kick it up into high gear really quickly.
Everyone started moving along in the first turn, with no shots being taken. On turn two, my cycle had Logan's left side in front of him by about eight inches, so I took a shot, missing completely. Since Logan built my bike, he was pretty sure he couldn't hit me, so he turned his attention to Thor's car (with a turret-mounted vulcan machinegun) and opened up with a flamethrower, doing some damage but not igniting Thor's car. The only other car in our area of the arena was Jeffrey's, and he started gunning it ahead to take on Thor.
On the other side of the arena, George decided to cross towards Logan and myself, firing at Logan's front tire and doing some damage (but not taking the tire out). Meanwhile, Chris N. had moved around to head after Steve, John and a kid (I never did find out his name :(). I wasn't paying all that much attention to that side of the arena, but I seem to recall Steve, the kid and John got into a skirmish really quickly.
On turn three, two rams occurred. Logan's trike crashed into the right-hand side of George's trike at a speed fast enough to total both trikes and kill both drivers. While unfortunate that they were both out so early, it allowed George to act more as a GM and help everyone out with rules questions.
At the same time, John's and the kid's cars hit head-on, utterly destroying the kid's front armour and doing some serious damage to John's car, as well. Meanwhile, Steve and Chris N. went head-to-head as I cruised around my side of the arena, taking pot shots and Thor and Jeffrey.
By turn four or five, I'd got up over 100 mph and was heading passed Jeffrey to swing around to do battle with the other side of the arena. By this time, Steve's car had gone into a spin and he'd pretty much been taken out. Jeffrey had fired on Thor, reducing his armour to practically nothing. The kid that John collided with had taken so much damage that his car wasn't really moving all that quickly. Of course, neither was John's car moving very quickly. :)
That's when I swung around to open fire on the kid. I knew I only had one shot before I'd have to swerve, as I was doing upwards of about 115 mph by that point. I took the shot, did some damage to his engine and then swerved to avoid a collision and focus on taking shots at Chris N.
When we called the game at around noon, my cycle was doing upwards of 145 mph and coming in behind Chris N. We'd allowed Thor and the kid (apologies for not getting your name) to limp out of the arena. Steve was out of it (shot down by Chris N.). George and Logan were long gone. John was crippled, and Chris N. was lining up a shot. While I hadn't taken a scratch, I also hadn't succeeded in getting a kill.
As we were hungry, we called the game and gave the win to Chris N., who not only survived but also got a confirmed kill.
After George explained the rules to those who weren't familiar with the game, we got going. We set up on the edge of the arena (technically, the town double-map) and chose starting speeds between 30 and 50 mph. My cycle (built by Logan; I didn't get around to building one, unfortunately) was built for speed (top speed of 205 mph and an acceleration of 15 mph), and I knew I had to kick it up into high gear really quickly.
Everyone started moving along in the first turn, with no shots being taken. On turn two, my cycle had Logan's left side in front of him by about eight inches, so I took a shot, missing completely. Since Logan built my bike, he was pretty sure he couldn't hit me, so he turned his attention to Thor's car (with a turret-mounted vulcan machinegun) and opened up with a flamethrower, doing some damage but not igniting Thor's car. The only other car in our area of the arena was Jeffrey's, and he started gunning it ahead to take on Thor.
On the other side of the arena, George decided to cross towards Logan and myself, firing at Logan's front tire and doing some damage (but not taking the tire out). Meanwhile, Chris N. had moved around to head after Steve, John and a kid (I never did find out his name :(). I wasn't paying all that much attention to that side of the arena, but I seem to recall Steve, the kid and John got into a skirmish really quickly.
On turn three, two rams occurred. Logan's trike crashed into the right-hand side of George's trike at a speed fast enough to total both trikes and kill both drivers. While unfortunate that they were both out so early, it allowed George to act more as a GM and help everyone out with rules questions.
At the same time, John's and the kid's cars hit head-on, utterly destroying the kid's front armour and doing some serious damage to John's car, as well. Meanwhile, Steve and Chris N. went head-to-head as I cruised around my side of the arena, taking pot shots and Thor and Jeffrey.
By turn four or five, I'd got up over 100 mph and was heading passed Jeffrey to swing around to do battle with the other side of the arena. By this time, Steve's car had gone into a spin and he'd pretty much been taken out. Jeffrey had fired on Thor, reducing his armour to practically nothing. The kid that John collided with had taken so much damage that his car wasn't really moving all that quickly. Of course, neither was John's car moving very quickly. :)
That's when I swung around to open fire on the kid. I knew I only had one shot before I'd have to swerve, as I was doing upwards of about 115 mph by that point. I took the shot, did some damage to his engine and then swerved to avoid a collision and focus on taking shots at Chris N.
When we called the game at around noon, my cycle was doing upwards of 145 mph and coming in behind Chris N. We'd allowed Thor and the kid (apologies for not getting your name) to limp out of the arena. Steve was out of it (shot down by Chris N.). George and Logan were long gone. John was crippled, and Chris N. was lining up a shot. While I hadn't taken a scratch, I also hadn't succeeded in getting a kill.
As we were hungry, we called the game and gave the win to Chris N., who not only survived but also got a confirmed kill.
Monday, March 27, 2006
TABS CondoCon VI went quite well on Saturday, and I had a lot of fun. In the morning, eight or nine of us played Car Wars. My suicide cycle ended up not taking a scratch throughout the entire game, but I also was unable to get in a kill, so I didn't win.
Sadly, the Circus Minimus game that was supposed to happen didn't get going, so after Car Wars finished (and after I ate lunch), I jumped into a pick-up game of El Grande. George had that one tied up by the first scoring round, so the rest of us played for second (and it was mine at the end!). I played a game of Mutiny with Logan, Rich and Christine after that. Now that I've played it a couple of times, I think I'll just shelve it for awhile. It's not a bad game, but there are far better auction games -- like Modern Art, which I think is an awesome game.
Logan, Rich and Christine took off not long after that, and eventually I jumped into a game of Space 1889: Temple of the Beastmen and then Groo, which is based on the comic of the same name (I've never read it, but now I'm thinking I need to go back and pick up some back issues of it).
It was a great day. Now I just need to write up some session reports. :)
Sadly, the Circus Minimus game that was supposed to happen didn't get going, so after Car Wars finished (and after I ate lunch), I jumped into a pick-up game of El Grande. George had that one tied up by the first scoring round, so the rest of us played for second (and it was mine at the end!). I played a game of Mutiny with Logan, Rich and Christine after that. Now that I've played it a couple of times, I think I'll just shelve it for awhile. It's not a bad game, but there are far better auction games -- like Modern Art, which I think is an awesome game.
Logan, Rich and Christine took off not long after that, and eventually I jumped into a game of Space 1889: Temple of the Beastmen and then Groo, which is based on the comic of the same name (I've never read it, but now I'm thinking I need to go back and pick up some back issues of it).
It was a great day. Now I just need to write up some session reports. :)
Friday, March 24, 2006
God of War: Race To Oblivion
Art (drneuro at TABS) and I got together last night to finally play the first scenario in the Star Fleet Battles God of War campaign. We'd been talking about doing this for a few weeks, and last night was the big kick-off night.
Prior to starting the campaign, we had decided that I would play the Federation in this campaign and Art would play ... well, everything else. I forget exactly how many scenarios the entire campaign is, but I seem to recall that it's about six or so.
Last night's scenario was Race To Oblivion, which pits a Federation ship (a DNH) versus a Klingon ship (a C8K) in a race through a minefield to be the first to a stranded frigate. The first one to get to the frigate, transport the crew off and then flee the area would win the scenario.
Things started out fairly well for both of us. We started with a rather large section of minefield between us, and we knew that we were likely to meet somewhere in the middle of it. I don't think either of us quite expected how quickly we would meet and start exchanging fire, though. We both shot ahead into the minefield, maneuvered our way through and met right at the end of the first turn near an open intersection.
I let him have it with some phaser fire right at his front shield. Art opened up with disruptors and phasers, and he also dropped some drones that would get to me in the first few phases of the second turn. Both of our shields took beatings, and my front-left shield pretty much went down right then and there.
In turn two, Art slowed down only a little bit, but as I wasn't sure about how well I'd be able to maneuver the minefield, I slammed on the brakes (so to speak). The drones got a little too close for comfort, but some anti-drones and some phaser fire took care of them. And then Art went zooming by me. I followed him with fully-loaded torpedoes, and just as he got far enough way that I could fire (can't fire them at range zero or one), I let him have a volley right in the tail section, cutting that shield to ribbons.
With our vast differences in speed, Art maneuvered his way through the minefield first, leaving me far behind. Then we hit the next section, where we had each placed three secret minefields. Art made his way across that section before I even got to it, but then he slowed down a bit while I cranked the speed right up. Art didn't know it, but he skirted the edge of one of my minefields as I took off after him (he was one hex away from taking damage :D).
As it turned out, the secretly-placed minefields didn't come into play, as I guess neither of us got close enough to hit them. As we neared the edge of that area, I was firing at Art's tail section, causing internal damage. Deciding to make a fight of it, Art chose not to floor it and head for the freighter. Instead, he did a 180 with a HET and opened up with everything he could spare, knocking down my front shield and blowing up some internal systems. It wasn't enough to slow me down much, though. I had my eye on the prize. Reloading torps and phasers, I slowed down a bit, but I tried to go as quickly as possible towards the frigate.
Art turned around and came after me, firing at my rear and knocking down that shield. My poor ship was hit with more internal damage, but that big sucker could take a hell of a beating.
Around turn five, we started to get within sight of the frigate. I kept my speed up while throwing some specific reinforcement into my rear shield, as I knew Art would just keep on shooting in the hopes that I'd either blow up or lose the ability to complete my mission. Now several hexes behind me, Art kicked up his speed to try to catch me before I could reach the frigate, but it just wasn't enough. He slowly gained on me, but I had enough speed to get to the frigate before he could get there.
With my front shield already down, I aimed at the frigate. Once I was within about three hexes, I triggered my transporters, beamed everyone on board and headed for the map's edge. Art did a couple of quick calculations. He was shooting at a fresh shield, and he'd lost some good weaponry. He simply couldn't do enough damage to that shield to have any hope of taking me down.
As the Klingons gave up, the Federation ship made off with the crew of the frigate. Somehow I have a feeling the Klingons will swear revenge on the captain that kept them from their prize. :D
Prior to starting the campaign, we had decided that I would play the Federation in this campaign and Art would play ... well, everything else. I forget exactly how many scenarios the entire campaign is, but I seem to recall that it's about six or so.
Last night's scenario was Race To Oblivion, which pits a Federation ship (a DNH) versus a Klingon ship (a C8K) in a race through a minefield to be the first to a stranded frigate. The first one to get to the frigate, transport the crew off and then flee the area would win the scenario.
Things started out fairly well for both of us. We started with a rather large section of minefield between us, and we knew that we were likely to meet somewhere in the middle of it. I don't think either of us quite expected how quickly we would meet and start exchanging fire, though. We both shot ahead into the minefield, maneuvered our way through and met right at the end of the first turn near an open intersection.
I let him have it with some phaser fire right at his front shield. Art opened up with disruptors and phasers, and he also dropped some drones that would get to me in the first few phases of the second turn. Both of our shields took beatings, and my front-left shield pretty much went down right then and there.
In turn two, Art slowed down only a little bit, but as I wasn't sure about how well I'd be able to maneuver the minefield, I slammed on the brakes (so to speak). The drones got a little too close for comfort, but some anti-drones and some phaser fire took care of them. And then Art went zooming by me. I followed him with fully-loaded torpedoes, and just as he got far enough way that I could fire (can't fire them at range zero or one), I let him have a volley right in the tail section, cutting that shield to ribbons.
With our vast differences in speed, Art maneuvered his way through the minefield first, leaving me far behind. Then we hit the next section, where we had each placed three secret minefields. Art made his way across that section before I even got to it, but then he slowed down a bit while I cranked the speed right up. Art didn't know it, but he skirted the edge of one of my minefields as I took off after him (he was one hex away from taking damage :D).
As it turned out, the secretly-placed minefields didn't come into play, as I guess neither of us got close enough to hit them. As we neared the edge of that area, I was firing at Art's tail section, causing internal damage. Deciding to make a fight of it, Art chose not to floor it and head for the freighter. Instead, he did a 180 with a HET and opened up with everything he could spare, knocking down my front shield and blowing up some internal systems. It wasn't enough to slow me down much, though. I had my eye on the prize. Reloading torps and phasers, I slowed down a bit, but I tried to go as quickly as possible towards the frigate.
Art turned around and came after me, firing at my rear and knocking down that shield. My poor ship was hit with more internal damage, but that big sucker could take a hell of a beating.
Around turn five, we started to get within sight of the frigate. I kept my speed up while throwing some specific reinforcement into my rear shield, as I knew Art would just keep on shooting in the hopes that I'd either blow up or lose the ability to complete my mission. Now several hexes behind me, Art kicked up his speed to try to catch me before I could reach the frigate, but it just wasn't enough. He slowly gained on me, but I had enough speed to get to the frigate before he could get there.
With my front shield already down, I aimed at the frigate. Once I was within about three hexes, I triggered my transporters, beamed everyone on board and headed for the map's edge. Art did a couple of quick calculations. He was shooting at a fresh shield, and he'd lost some good weaponry. He simply couldn't do enough damage to that shield to have any hope of taking me down.
As the Klingons gave up, the Federation ship made off with the crew of the frigate. Somehow I have a feeling the Klingons will swear revenge on the captain that kept them from their prize. :D
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Doug Brunell's most recent Film Threat column is so mean ... but oh so funny. :D
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Computer viruses to affect cats?
A PR person brought this story to my attention. There's a report out now that examines the idea of a virus that affects RFID tags (like the ones on the microchips embedded in pets).
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Ugh. I'm breaking in new eyeglasses today. It's been a long time since I've had new glasses -- or even new lenses, for that matter. And now I have to deal with both at once.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Too funny. Now there's a GURPS For Dummies book out. First Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies, and now this. What's next?
Friday, March 17, 2006
I did the unthinkable last night. I bought back into Magic: The Gathering.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Mocked in an insensitive way? What the fuck? Has Isaac Hayes never watched a South Park episode before? Has he just been recording voiceovers and never actually turning on the show itself?
Supremacy
I'm hoping to get a Saturday or Sunday afternoon vanilla Supremacy game going sometime in April or May. Any local buddies interested in joining the game?
This announcement will tell me whether Steve still reads my blog or not. ;)
This announcement will tell me whether Steve still reads my blog or not. ;)
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Google Mars looks kind of cool. I think it's all satellite imagery.
Maybe I really should buy a shredder. Apparently credit companies will take a torn-up-and-put-back-together credit card application.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Paranoia: Dead clones everywhere
On Sunday evening, the Paranoia session I've been trying to get off the ground for months finally happened. There was supposed to be me and five players, but one of the players got sick and had to cancel. So we ended up with four very trigger-happy Troubleshooters.
The only other time I ran Paranoia via tabletop was back when I was still in the Freak Show. At that time, I ran the Into The Outdoors With Gun And Camera adventure that's found in the back of the Paranoia 2E core book. Well, I chose that adventure this time. It has some good hose jobs and some pretty funny predicaments. Additionally, it lets the PCs get all crazy without having to worry about The Computer gunning them down for treason every five minutes (of course, they have to worry about each other still).
The game kicked off, and the first thing they discovered was they had to get a Briefing Room IOGC. However, the map provided by The Computer was nothing but a scrawl. They wandered aimlessly, and eventually Rawl's character said something that convinced the others he was a traitor. Calls of "Commie mutant traitor!" went out, but nobody yet had a laser pistol or rifle to fire. Rich's character had a big, heavy wrench, though. As he started to beat on Rawl's character, Rawl (a registered mutant) tried to use his pyrokinesis. It didn't work and Rawl ended up getting splattered.
However, the Troubleshooters weren't done. More charges of treason, and the next thing they know, The Computer had decided to terminate them all. Lasers dropped from the ceiling and vaporized them all. It was their second clones that made it to the briefing room.
The briefing went a bit better for the Troubleshooters (but was probably less fun for the players). They were being sent into the Outdoors on a recon mission. I grilled them a bit, but because of time constraints, I opted not to get into the long interrogation the adventure had planned. I also moved the next few bits quickly (ignoring the autoshuttle incident entirely).
R&D was where things got out of hand again. I chose only to offer the PCs the rocket boots rather than going through the long list of insane R&D devices. I seem to recall only the NPC, Grund-G-GUY-3, turning down the rocket boots. And Xavier's character took two sets. He put one set on, and then Rawl decided to get all pyrokinetic again.
Just for fun, Rawl's character's set Xavier's character's shoes on fire. So we had fire ... mixed with rocket fuel. Everyone ducked for cover. Boom! It wiped out the jackobot and the docbot the Troubleshooters had been assigned, as well as all three Infrared labourers, Rich's character's recording device, both of Xavier's sets of rocket boots and all his gear.
I can't remember how Rawl lost his second clone, but I'm pretty sure it happened by the time they got to the Multi-Terrtain Vehicle (MTV) (piloted by the all-too-happy autopilot, Lucky). Everyone loaded themselves into the MTV, and Lucky started walking (with his six legs) across the landscape. Eventually, Lucky came to the water and then dove down a couple dozen feet.
Leaks in the canopy worried the Troubleshooters. More worrisome was when Lucky flipped out and went into a slow, whirling dive towards the bottom of the body of water. They started pushing buttons, pulling knobs, etc. That's when Xavier decided he was going to get the hell out of there. He made a check, found the knob that opened the canopy, pulled it and fired his rocket boots. He held his breath and soon found himself above the water.
The others were all in spacesuits (in place of environmental suits) they'd been assigned at PLC & Outfitting. They all got their oxygen working, and then they found the knob to close the canopy. Unfortunately, they also then found the dive button. The MTV dove quickly towards the bottom of the body of water, and they figured the only safe thing to do was to find the canopy open knob again.
Meanwhile, Rawl had decided to blame their mission leader for the mess and pulled his weapon. He fired at Grund-G, who fired back (stunning Rawl's character). He ordered the other Troubleshooters to kill the traitor, but they failed to comply (they were too busy trying to save their own asses). Grund-G eliminated Rawl's character, and then the others found the knob to open the canopy. They jumped out ... and found their spacesuits didn't float. As they all started sinking, they all started opening fire on each other.
In this adventure, clones are replaced by what is essentially a cannon. And it fires replacement clones towards the body of the previous clones. Clones are encases in shells and fired -- and in this case, they were fired directly into the body of water. More dead clones.
At this point, Xavier's clone had started swimming back to shore (no more rocket fuel). When he got to the shore, The Computer aborted his mission and Xavier's character (the sole survivor -- lucky him) was debriefed. He told his superiors all about the Commie traitors on his team and how they'd killed each other while sinking towards oblivion. End of adventure.
Technically speaking, we only got about halfway through the adventure, so I could easily run this again with the same group at some point in the future. They didn't get to all of the neat stuff.
Even with the mission a complete failure, I think everybody had fun (Xavier still isn't convinced that Paranoia is for him, though; but I think he got some entertainment out of it). Everyone got into the spirit of declaring someone a traitor and then opening fire, so I have to say I was impressed and entertained by the players.
In two weeks, we'll have another one-shot. It'll either be Call of Cthulhu or Ironclaw.
The only other time I ran Paranoia via tabletop was back when I was still in the Freak Show. At that time, I ran the Into The Outdoors With Gun And Camera adventure that's found in the back of the Paranoia 2E core book. Well, I chose that adventure this time. It has some good hose jobs and some pretty funny predicaments. Additionally, it lets the PCs get all crazy without having to worry about The Computer gunning them down for treason every five minutes (of course, they have to worry about each other still).
The game kicked off, and the first thing they discovered was they had to get a Briefing Room IOGC. However, the map provided by The Computer was nothing but a scrawl. They wandered aimlessly, and eventually Rawl's character said something that convinced the others he was a traitor. Calls of "Commie mutant traitor!" went out, but nobody yet had a laser pistol or rifle to fire. Rich's character had a big, heavy wrench, though. As he started to beat on Rawl's character, Rawl (a registered mutant) tried to use his pyrokinesis. It didn't work and Rawl ended up getting splattered.
However, the Troubleshooters weren't done. More charges of treason, and the next thing they know, The Computer had decided to terminate them all. Lasers dropped from the ceiling and vaporized them all. It was their second clones that made it to the briefing room.
The briefing went a bit better for the Troubleshooters (but was probably less fun for the players). They were being sent into the Outdoors on a recon mission. I grilled them a bit, but because of time constraints, I opted not to get into the long interrogation the adventure had planned. I also moved the next few bits quickly (ignoring the autoshuttle incident entirely).
R&D was where things got out of hand again. I chose only to offer the PCs the rocket boots rather than going through the long list of insane R&D devices. I seem to recall only the NPC, Grund-G-GUY-3, turning down the rocket boots. And Xavier's character took two sets. He put one set on, and then Rawl decided to get all pyrokinetic again.
Just for fun, Rawl's character's set Xavier's character's shoes on fire. So we had fire ... mixed with rocket fuel. Everyone ducked for cover. Boom! It wiped out the jackobot and the docbot the Troubleshooters had been assigned, as well as all three Infrared labourers, Rich's character's recording device, both of Xavier's sets of rocket boots and all his gear.
I can't remember how Rawl lost his second clone, but I'm pretty sure it happened by the time they got to the Multi-Terrtain Vehicle (MTV) (piloted by the all-too-happy autopilot, Lucky). Everyone loaded themselves into the MTV, and Lucky started walking (with his six legs) across the landscape. Eventually, Lucky came to the water and then dove down a couple dozen feet.
Leaks in the canopy worried the Troubleshooters. More worrisome was when Lucky flipped out and went into a slow, whirling dive towards the bottom of the body of water. They started pushing buttons, pulling knobs, etc. That's when Xavier decided he was going to get the hell out of there. He made a check, found the knob that opened the canopy, pulled it and fired his rocket boots. He held his breath and soon found himself above the water.
The others were all in spacesuits (in place of environmental suits) they'd been assigned at PLC & Outfitting. They all got their oxygen working, and then they found the knob to close the canopy. Unfortunately, they also then found the dive button. The MTV dove quickly towards the bottom of the body of water, and they figured the only safe thing to do was to find the canopy open knob again.
Meanwhile, Rawl had decided to blame their mission leader for the mess and pulled his weapon. He fired at Grund-G, who fired back (stunning Rawl's character). He ordered the other Troubleshooters to kill the traitor, but they failed to comply (they were too busy trying to save their own asses). Grund-G eliminated Rawl's character, and then the others found the knob to open the canopy. They jumped out ... and found their spacesuits didn't float. As they all started sinking, they all started opening fire on each other.
In this adventure, clones are replaced by what is essentially a cannon. And it fires replacement clones towards the body of the previous clones. Clones are encases in shells and fired -- and in this case, they were fired directly into the body of water. More dead clones.
At this point, Xavier's clone had started swimming back to shore (no more rocket fuel). When he got to the shore, The Computer aborted his mission and Xavier's character (the sole survivor -- lucky him) was debriefed. He told his superiors all about the Commie traitors on his team and how they'd killed each other while sinking towards oblivion. End of adventure.
Technically speaking, we only got about halfway through the adventure, so I could easily run this again with the same group at some point in the future. They didn't get to all of the neat stuff.
Even with the mission a complete failure, I think everybody had fun (Xavier still isn't convinced that Paranoia is for him, though; but I think he got some entertainment out of it). Everyone got into the spirit of declaring someone a traitor and then opening fire, so I have to say I was impressed and entertained by the players.
In two weeks, we'll have another one-shot. It'll either be Call of Cthulhu or Ironclaw.
Friday, March 10, 2006
I'm finally going to get a chance to try Paths of Glory tonight. It'll take a couple of weeks to get through the whole game. I'm really looking forward to it, though. I've been hearing good things about PoG (an unfortunate acronym) for quite some time now. It'll be good to finally see what all the hype is about.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
On my birthday, I made a silent promise to myself to make the twelve months I spend as a thirty-year-old the year I would re-learn how to play the guitar. Tonight, nearly a month after my birthday, I finally dragged my dusty guitar case out of my closet, opened it up, breathed in that scent that only musical instruments can have and then started fiddling with my guitar.
I haven't played in so many years that my fingers are mush and any callouses I may have developed in my short stint as a (rather crappy) guitar student are long gone. So I simply started pushing down on the strings and playing notes while I watched a couple of episodes of Lost on DVD.
I don't really have the money or time to learn from a real teacher, so I'm going to have to take the self-learning method. I know there's software out there that helps to teach you how to play various musical instruments. I'll have to look around to see if I can find a good one.
I haven't played in so many years that my fingers are mush and any callouses I may have developed in my short stint as a (rather crappy) guitar student are long gone. So I simply started pushing down on the strings and playing notes while I watched a couple of episodes of Lost on DVD.
I don't really have the money or time to learn from a real teacher, so I'm going to have to take the self-learning method. I know there's software out there that helps to teach you how to play various musical instruments. I'll have to look around to see if I can find a good one.
Monday, March 06, 2006
I should probably feel embarrassed about telling this story, as it was a complete and utter defeat of my forces. ... No, that's an understatement. It was a slaughter ... a massacre ... such an enormous win for Thor that I shudder to think about how bad my forces were decimated.
As other TABS members dove into various Euro game at the March 2nd game night at the Two-Headed Dragon, we set up the Ceasefire Collapse scenario, which involves 18 points of infantry and 16 points of armour on each side. I set up on the east side of the map while Thor took the west side.
The backstory to the scenario is that the peace talks have just broken down, and each side's forces are swaming over the DMZ to engage the enemy. Well, in hindsight, I wish my diplomats had stayed at the table, as a lot of men were lost that day. :P
Thor set up his units to protect his town, while I scattered my units about a bit more. I chose not to do much stacking at first, as I figured I was just asking for trouble if there were too many units in close quarters. That choice didn't really do me much good, as Thor swarmed across the DMZ and started opening fire on my troops.
Outgunned and outmaneuvered, many of my troops were obliterated. I lost heavy tanks, GEVs (regular, light and PC) and light tanks. My infantry miraculously survived until I realized I was getting my butt kicked really badly (it still hurts to sit down). I retreated as many units across the bridges as possible, but my slow infantry just weren't going to make it. My armour units blew the south-east bridge, but my other units proved incapable of destroying the bridge further north (I didn't even bother trying to blow the rail bridge, as Thor's units were more in a position to cross the road bridges).
With all but one unit of my infantry on the other side of the bridges and definitely not able to move quick enough to join in the cowardly fleeing of the battlefield, Thor opened fire on my infantry as my armour units started retreating off board.
I conceded victory to Thor ... and it was a grand victory. If not for my missile tanks and my mobile howitzer, I wouldn't have been able to destroy any of Thor's units, but I managed to wipe out three armour units. How many of my units did Thor wipe out? Being the gentleman that he is, he chose not to count; but let's just say it was a lot. ;)
As other TABS members dove into various Euro game at the March 2nd game night at the Two-Headed Dragon, we set up the Ceasefire Collapse scenario, which involves 18 points of infantry and 16 points of armour on each side. I set up on the east side of the map while Thor took the west side.
The backstory to the scenario is that the peace talks have just broken down, and each side's forces are swaming over the DMZ to engage the enemy. Well, in hindsight, I wish my diplomats had stayed at the table, as a lot of men were lost that day. :P
Thor set up his units to protect his town, while I scattered my units about a bit more. I chose not to do much stacking at first, as I figured I was just asking for trouble if there were too many units in close quarters. That choice didn't really do me much good, as Thor swarmed across the DMZ and started opening fire on my troops.
Outgunned and outmaneuvered, many of my troops were obliterated. I lost heavy tanks, GEVs (regular, light and PC) and light tanks. My infantry miraculously survived until I realized I was getting my butt kicked really badly (it still hurts to sit down). I retreated as many units across the bridges as possible, but my slow infantry just weren't going to make it. My armour units blew the south-east bridge, but my other units proved incapable of destroying the bridge further north (I didn't even bother trying to blow the rail bridge, as Thor's units were more in a position to cross the road bridges).
With all but one unit of my infantry on the other side of the bridges and definitely not able to move quick enough to join in the cowardly fleeing of the battlefield, Thor opened fire on my infantry as my armour units started retreating off board.
I conceded victory to Thor ... and it was a grand victory. If not for my missile tanks and my mobile howitzer, I wouldn't have been able to destroy any of Thor's units, but I managed to wipe out three armour units. How many of my units did Thor wipe out? Being the gentleman that he is, he chose not to count; but let's just say it was a lot. ;)
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Klingons go "boom!" again...
Last night, Dave B. and I got together at my place for a friendly game of Star Fleet Battles. The goal was to continue my education and get me more familiar and comfortable with the game. While my commanding skills are somewhat weak, I think I put forth a much better effort than in the other two games I've been involved in. However, in the end, my E7 Klingon heavy cruiser fell before the might of the Federation (DB, what was the ship you were using?).
We used the small, standard starmap, and we started off opposite each other on the long sides. As I had been given some tips at the last game (and afterwards) regarding how to best play the Klingons, I tried to keep in mind that I needed to do hit-and-run tactics. I needed to keep my distance from the Fed ship, and I needed to whittle him down.
From the get-go, I pumped 21 points into my movement and headed off towards the Feds. I figured I'd try my luck with keeping him busy with drones and firing my disruptors and phasers from a distance. As Dave would point out to me through the game, it makes sense to try to stagger the drone launches in a way that I'd get more than two on the map at any given time, but for the first few turns, I was trying to take advantage of the 32 movement. Basically, I was firing drones off on the first or second phase and hoping for the best.
At the outset, Dave set a slow movement rate. He told me that when the Feds are moving slowly, it usually means they're powering up their photon torpedoes. This is a lesson I still need to learn, as I took a pounding later on by those torps.
As the game progressed, I tried to keep my distance, circling Dave's ship like a vulture waiting for his meal to die. I whittled down a couple of shields, but at the same time, Dave nixed the shields on my entire left side -- and then I had a difficult time keeping those shields away from him.
We settled into a dogfight, with me trying to maneuver so Dave couldn't shoot at my ship's innards but I could still fire at him. Dave did a great job of hiding his downed shields from me, and he gladly pumped all kinds of specific shield reinforcement into those downed shields to keep me from punching through easily.
Still, I managed to do a little bit of internal damage, although as the encounter wore on, my circles started getting smaller and smaller. I knew two of his shields were down, and my Klingon crew was smelling blood. Little did they know, it was their blood. :P As I circled in closer and fired disruptor burst after disruptor burst, Dave powered up his phasers and photon torpedoes and fired them right into my hull, doing some serious damage to the innards and cutting my power down significantly.
I didn't feel I was licked yet, as I still had three of my four disruptors and two phaser threes, so I moved in again and crossed my fingers. My maneuvering slipped up here, and I found myself cutting right in front of Dave's bow (one hex range). Dave opened up with everything he had and did enough damage to blow my ship out of the sky.
Lessons learned: When a Fed ship loses a couple of shields, it doesn't mean it's in trouble. When a Fed ship slows down, run the hell away. Keep track of when the Fed ship's photon torpedoes are fired, as it will dictate what the Klingons need to each turn (I think I should jot a note down in the future when the torps are fired). Firing all weapon systems at once is much better than firing one or two here and one or two there; concentrated fire is my friend.
And finally... This game is too much fun. :P
EDIT: Turns out the Fed ship was the NCL+.
We used the small, standard starmap, and we started off opposite each other on the long sides. As I had been given some tips at the last game (and afterwards) regarding how to best play the Klingons, I tried to keep in mind that I needed to do hit-and-run tactics. I needed to keep my distance from the Fed ship, and I needed to whittle him down.
From the get-go, I pumped 21 points into my movement and headed off towards the Feds. I figured I'd try my luck with keeping him busy with drones and firing my disruptors and phasers from a distance. As Dave would point out to me through the game, it makes sense to try to stagger the drone launches in a way that I'd get more than two on the map at any given time, but for the first few turns, I was trying to take advantage of the 32 movement. Basically, I was firing drones off on the first or second phase and hoping for the best.
At the outset, Dave set a slow movement rate. He told me that when the Feds are moving slowly, it usually means they're powering up their photon torpedoes. This is a lesson I still need to learn, as I took a pounding later on by those torps.
As the game progressed, I tried to keep my distance, circling Dave's ship like a vulture waiting for his meal to die. I whittled down a couple of shields, but at the same time, Dave nixed the shields on my entire left side -- and then I had a difficult time keeping those shields away from him.
We settled into a dogfight, with me trying to maneuver so Dave couldn't shoot at my ship's innards but I could still fire at him. Dave did a great job of hiding his downed shields from me, and he gladly pumped all kinds of specific shield reinforcement into those downed shields to keep me from punching through easily.
Still, I managed to do a little bit of internal damage, although as the encounter wore on, my circles started getting smaller and smaller. I knew two of his shields were down, and my Klingon crew was smelling blood. Little did they know, it was their blood. :P As I circled in closer and fired disruptor burst after disruptor burst, Dave powered up his phasers and photon torpedoes and fired them right into my hull, doing some serious damage to the innards and cutting my power down significantly.
I didn't feel I was licked yet, as I still had three of my four disruptors and two phaser threes, so I moved in again and crossed my fingers. My maneuvering slipped up here, and I found myself cutting right in front of Dave's bow (one hex range). Dave opened up with everything he had and did enough damage to blow my ship out of the sky.
Lessons learned: When a Fed ship loses a couple of shields, it doesn't mean it's in trouble. When a Fed ship slows down, run the hell away. Keep track of when the Fed ship's photon torpedoes are fired, as it will dictate what the Klingons need to each turn (I think I should jot a note down in the future when the torps are fired). Firing all weapon systems at once is much better than firing one or two here and one or two there; concentrated fire is my friend.
And finally... This game is too much fun. :P
EDIT: Turns out the Fed ship was the NCL+.
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