FATE 3e “Spelljammer” Update 5 — Someone’s looking to get flogged

Fellow role-players, here are my notes for Session 5 of Josh C.’s Spelljammer: “the Show Must Go On” space fantasy miniseries. We met on Sunday, 13 May 2012, and have been using Skype, Google+/Tabletop Forge, an online dice roller, and Cubicle 7’s Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment (FATE) 3rd Ed. Starblazer Adventures — Legends of Anglerre.

>> From the “Grand Show,” a port shaped like a top hat floating in the Hysgeu sphere, the performers of “Le battant elephant” and the “Dragon Fly” workers joined the crew of the Drowned Swan as it departed for Prince Andru’s birthday celebration at the Rock of Bral. However, our heroes soon encountered a potential mutiny, mysteries deep within the huge ship, Undead pirates, and more ….

-“Oner Walek” [Gene D.]-male Wolfen sky pirate, romantic swashbuckler, prestidigitator and deck hand hailing from the “Vanished Lands” now aboard the Drowned Swan

-“Scylla” [Sara F.]-young female Amethyst Dragon fortuneteller, raised by Gypsies and devoted to protecting the weak

-“Samael Muckblood” [Geoffrey C.]-male Hill Dwarf hunter, sniper, and “bad cop” serving in ship’s security; has a steam-powered crossbow “Guinevere”

-“Zanzibar” [Robin H.]-female Lizard Wizard, pyromaniac mistress of time and space (Spelljammer)

-“The Amazing Lorenzo Le May” [Byron V.O./absent]-male human Thief-Acrobat, juggler, and sometime cat burglar in ” Le battant éléphant ” circus troupe

>>Upon returning to the Drowned Swan’s top decks to be reprimanded for unauthorized exploration of its inner hold, a rogue band helped the regular crew avoid mops and rigging wielded by ghosts that a former captain had summoned.

Capt. Andraimon Ianthe berates Winston Reisel III for neglecting to find Druids to tend to the “Ship Mother” before leaving port. The huge vessel continues on its way to the Rock of Bral.

Still curious about secrets hidden below, Oner helps the sailors and “Dragon Fly” workers. Sam eyes the animated buckets suspiciously and brandishes Guinevere before going off to down more grog.

Scylla finds Zanzibar in the cabin/library of lead Spelljammer Nonius Vatinius. They continue their research and determine that the ghostly crew can be dispelled, but the dragon and lizard wizard agree that it’s best to wait until the Drowned Swan is safely in port.

After an exciting week’s journey, all are relieved to arrive at the Rock of Bral, a bustling spaceport. The Drowned Swan passes sky piers and goes to the lower docks, near a huge cave mouth. Oner helps Vangar make sure that no unauthorized personnel come aboard.

The Wolfen on deck also asks Lorenzo to keep an eye on the performers in ” Le battant elephant ” as the troupe joins the throngs gathered for Prince Andru’s birthday. Winston asks Sam for an armed escort as he goes ashore, and the crossbowman goes to get his fellows.

Zanzibar scrubs the ship of Undead and goes to sun herself on a rock. When the reptilian mage awakens, she finds herself surrounded by others of her kind! They are angered to learn that Zanzibar isn’t part of their crew, but she dismisses them.

Oner helps Scylla stow and secure her possessions, and they then meet Sam and Winston. Sam talks with fellow Dwarf Raknog. Winston posts a sign offering three days’ wages in silver to anyone who can find a Druid for hire.

The away team chats with Bob… a talkative Tinker Gnome who runs an elevator to the floating city’s upper tiers. Winston tries to haggle for stage space, and Oner helps by mentioning diva Vermella Rogili. “Le battant elephant” gets permission to set up near a road and to seek smaller, “more intimate” venues.

Winston admits that he asked for Sam and company to accompany him as an “entourage” to help with the initial round of negotiations. Scylla and Oner realize that the man is in over his head, so they offer to split up to help look for Druids.

While Winston goes to the Elvish District to drum up business for the carnival, the wanderers go to a quiet neighborhood on the Rock of Bral. Zanzibar, Sam, Scylla, and Oner find the Pantheist University, the House of the Path and the Way, the Polygot Shrine, and students of various races and worlds.

In the Polygot Shrine, they see bear worshippers of various pantheons, and in a nearby grove, Zanzibar meets a laid-back group of Elves. Silvermoon Lunawalker languidly says that he’ll consider her offer to serve as the “Ship Mother’s” caretaker aboard the Drowned Swan.

Sam is distracted by something and wanders away, so Zanzibar telekinetically grabs his hat. The Dwarf crossbowman ignores the Lizard Wizard, who then reaches for “Guinevere.” Oner ducks behind Scylla as Sam turns back to Zanzibar.

Three Dwarven thugs emerge from a shadowy alcove and greet Sam as a long-lost kinsman, but all present feel the tension between them. Fortunately, dragon Scylla’s size is enough to scare them off, but they promise to find Sam again later.

Unruffled, Sam retrieves his hat, glares at Zanzibar, and pays his respects at a shrine to Derin, the beggar god. Scylla divines the way to an orchard near the campus, where a group of people deny being Druids to blunt Zanzibar.

Oner asks another Elf about good places to eat. Farrelly recommends the “Enchanted Butterfly” in the Elven district and “Eat Like a Halfling” in “the Burrows” (the Halfling district). The travelers opt for the latter and see a sign with an overflowing cauldron.

The Lizard Woman, Dwarf, Wolfen, and dragon enjoy a long and hearty meal, and Oner recognizes and greets some shipmates. Sated, Sam and Scylla return to the Drowned Swan for a nap, but Zanzibar wants to go drinking in the Lower Market, so Oner follows her to keep her out of trouble.

In the thieves’ district, Zanzibar finds a sauna run by an Orc accustomed to reptile folk. He shows her to some heated rocks and strong alcohol. Periwinkle mentions a “Lizard Folk scene,” while Oner tries to stay cool with strange, frozen beverages.

Zanzibar falls asleep, and furry Oner worries about spending the night in the sweltering sauna. The swashbuckler hears a commotion overhead and wakes the assistant Spelljammer — winged Scylla is taking Sam flying! Those on the ground are amused by the Dwarf’s misadventure, and Oner and Zanzibar go to meet them back at their ship….

I’m glad that we were able to play, despite the latest technical difficulties with Google+/Tabletop Forge and Skype. Byron, we missed you at this past weekend’s game!

I look forward to Jason’s “Glassworks” superhero scenario using Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, as well as whatever Rich, Bruce, and others run on alternating Monday nights. I expect to eventually return to my own long-running Pathfinder: the Vanished Lands” and “Vortex” campaigns.

If I remember correctly, we won’t be meeting this coming Sunday, 20 May 2012, and I won’t be available during Memorial Day weekend. I hope to see all of you virtually in June!

Game changes

A few weeks ago, between Free Comic Book Day and seeing The Avengers, Janice and I went to Lanes & Games in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for fellow blogger and former co-worker Ken G.‘s annual Cinco de Mayo party.

Ken G.'s party at Lanes & Games — Cinco de Mayo 2012

We met other IDG/CW alumni Michele L.D. and Bob R. and their respective spouses Paul D. and Sheila K.R. Just a month before, I had dinner with Ken, Michele, and Bob at the Met Bar & Grill in the Natick Mall for “The Escapists” book club. We discussed Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize winner, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which we mostly enjoyed. As a longtime comic book fan and onetime New Yorker, I found the novel very evocative.

We played a few rounds of billiards/pool as munchies and Ken’s other friends arrived, including a few I remembered from previous shindigs. None of the friends I’ve introduced Ken to made it. We then tried candlepin bowling, which both Bob and Ken were good at. I lobbed gutter ball after gutter ball (I’m not as bad with regular bowling or its Wii equivalent). Janice’s game improved significantly, though.

I did slightly better with air hockey, which I won a tournament in back in the early 1990s in Queens, New York. Overall, we had a good time, and it was nice to have an excuse to socialize. I get along well with most of my current co-workers, but the copy desk crew had a decade for its chemistry to develop.

In other games, my role-playing groups are in transition. On Monday nights, I have been running my “Vortex” space opera for two face-to-face teams of about six people each, using FATE 3e Starblazer Adventures/Mindjammer and Bulldogs. I haven’t heard from Team 2 (the grifters on the Appomattox) since my recent move from Needham to Waltham, Mass. I know those guys are busy with other things, including Greg D.C.’s FATE 3e Dresden Files modern supernatural game.

“Vortex” Team 1 (the explorers aboard the Blackbird, for which I owe an update) has chosen to take a break for Jason E.R.‘s “Glassworks” superhero miniseries. The fictional city of Hamilton, Delaware, is the same setting that Jason ran with his DarkPages noir one-shot, but we’ll be using the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying system.

So far, these Cortex-based rules have gotten mixed reviews (I do like the Leverage adaptation). Marvel Heroic Roleplaying‘s dice-pool mechanic reminds some of us of the “FASERIP” Marvel Super Heroes, and its Power Points are similar to FATE, but the core book’s organization could be better. A good alternative might be D20/OGL Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Ed./DC Adventures or Icons. I trust that Jason will come up with interesting scenarios for our street-level vigilantes.

On the weeks when Jason isn’t running, we’re looking at various ideas, including Bruce K.’s Pathfinder: “Conan” and Rich C.G.’s fantasy and horror proposals. Brian W. has graciously offered to host the Monday games. I don’t mind the break from Game Mastering, but I’m sure I’ll want to be back behind the screen soon enough.

On Sunday nights, my “Vanished Lands: the Uncommon Companions” fantasy campaign (using Pathfinder, Skype, and an online dice roller) is again on hiatus because of scheduling conflicts for half of that teleconferencing group. So in the meantime, Josh C. has been running his “Spelljammer: the Show Must Go On” space fantasy miniseries (using FATE 3e Legends of Anglerre and Google+/Tabletop Forge).

Last for now, but not least, my historical weapons class at Guard Up! in Burlington, Mass., has continued to be interesting. Each Wednesday night, I and about 10 other students spend half an hour practicing our moves with wooden or resin weapons and half an hour sparring with foam ones. It’s good exercise.

Our instructor, Karl, has shown us the basics of the quarterstaff, longsword, and warhammer. We’re currently learning about the naginata (a Japanese pole arm) and will eventually get to the great sword and fencing.

Our continuing mission…

As some of you may know from my report of this past weekend’s successful steampunk festival, I collect costumes, among other things. As a longtime “Trekker/Trekkie,” I already have the boots, phaser pistol, and gold command tunics for the classic 1960s television series. In addition, I recently ordered a shirt and jacket in the style of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Nemesis uniforms. The space opera garb arrived from China less than two weeks after I ordered it.

Star Trek garb — These are the voyages....

The materials and stitching are good, especially for the gray yoke. I’ll have to be careful with the small zippers. I may eventually replace the red mock turtleneck with one of a heavier material and use my metal rank pips and comm badge pin rather than the plastic ones that were Velcroed or sewn on. The jacket’s sleeves are a bit short, and the cuffs are a bit wide, but that’s because of my personal proportions and can be altered by a tailor (paging Elim Garak).

This costume resembles my image for “Capt. Tzu Tien Lung,” the commander of the U.S.S. Tempest in a homebrew GURPS 3e Space game that Steve M.R. ran in Virginia back in the mid-1990s. Although J.J. Abrams has rebooted the movie franchise and is working on a sequel, as the Star Trek Online MMO and some tabletop campaigns have shown, many fans are interested in continuing the universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While I don’t have a Blu-Ray player, I am curious about the latest remastered episodes of Star Trek. I also hope that we can recover and build on real-world human spaceflight capabilities. Live long and prosper!

Watch City Festival 2012

On Saturday, 12 May 2012, Janice and I met Thomas K.Y. & Kai-Yin H. at the Waltham Common for the third annual Watch City Festival. Before exploring the steampunk fair, we walked to Carl’s for a filling steak sub lunch. (I’ve also recently eaten with co-workers at nearby Baan Thai and Bombay Mahal.)

Customized vintage vehicle — At the Watch City Festival 2012

We enjoyed perusing the tents and shops of the farmer’s market and assorted vendors, watching some performances, and seeing fellow steampunk fans in costume. We also went to the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation and associated galleries and workshops.

Janice and I went to last year’s International Steampunk City, and we were glad to see strong attendance, including many young people. We didn’t get to any of the panel discussions, but I did get to chat with some authors and artists in a variety of media.

The weather was warm and pleasant, so even though I’ve been fighting a cold and allergies, it was good to be outside after another week of rain. I admire the energy of steampunk enthusiasts, who are more open to creative experimentation than fans of other subgenres. Janice and I later walked up Waltham’s Moody Street, where we stopped by some bookstores and got ice cream at Lizzie’s.

Blast from the past: What is steampunk?

In preparation for this coming weekend’s third annual Watch City Festival, here’s a look back at a post that didn’t get transferred from my previous blogs. Janice and I enjoyed last year’s International Steampunk City in downtown Waltham, Massachusetts, and we plan to check out this year’s events with friends.

It is a period of incredible progress and terrible destruction. Communications and transportation grow ever faster, but they also hasten the spread of wars and disease. Old tribal rivalries and nascent social consciousness challenge vast aristocratic and mercantile empires, and urbanization and industrialization make life easier for millions but condemn millions more to seemingly inescapable poverty. The arts blossom as alliances tighten and harden, leading to what many believe will be a “war to end all wars.” It is the Victorian era, the setting for most steampunk.

MVS-Whitby-3-Wallpaper800 — Gears and gadgets

Steampunk is a style of speculative fiction that has been growing in popularity in the past few years. It has literary roots, readily incorporates elements of other subgenres, and is well-represented across media.

–Steampunk is alternate history. Much steampunk starts with the premise of “What if everything that authors Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about was true?” From a North America where the Union didn’t win, to humans hunting dinosaurs (and vice versa), to trips through the ether to a verdant Mars, steampunk combines their wildest dreams.

Examples: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, graphic novels by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill; Deadlands (role-playing game)

-Steampunk is romance. The novel, classical and revived folk music (the opera, waltz, and polka), Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist painting, and modern theater all took shape during the 18th and 19th centuries. The swashbuckling stories of Walter Scott and Alexandre Dumas reflect this era as much as the ones they were set in, as does the “noble savage” described by James Fenimore Cooper or Rudyard Kipling. International cuisine, celebrity fashion, and travel for pleasure (and the first amusement parks) are all things we now take for granted that started during that period.

Examples: Diamond Age, novel by Neal Stephenson; Castle Falkenstein and Lady Blackbird (RPGs)

-Steampunk is science fiction. Just as its sibling cyberpunk examines the relationship of humanity with technology (specifically cybernetics, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology), steampunk looks at how the Industrial Revolution reshaped the world. The railroad and the telegraph are only the beginning, with anachronistic conveniences such as personal computers, televisions, and jet packs weighed down by clockwork gears, levers, and dials. Real-world advances in engineering are exaggerated for dramatic effect. Getting there is half the fun, with dirigibles the signature conveyance of the genre.

Examples: The Difference Engine, a novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling; Etherscope (RPG)

-Steampunk is fantasy. Like its sibling gothic horror — another product of this era — steampunk often includes elements of the supernatural, just as spiritualism (the forerunner of the modern New Age movement), religious revivals, and utopian experiments were part of the real-world reaction to scientific advancement. Edgar Allen Poe, Lord Dunsanay, L. Frank Baum, and Lewis Carroll inspired J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and other seminal fantasy authors. Lost civilizations still seemed possible.

Examples: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, anime by Hayao Miyazaki; D20 Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death (RPG)

-Steampunk is socially conscious. Labor unions, waves of migration, the long struggle for civil rights including women’s sufferage, and the polemics of Charles Dickens and Karl Marx are parts of the wrenching social change underlying steampunk. Unlike the real world, where racism and sexism were at their peak, people of color and women are often found among steampunk‘s protagonists.

Examples: Girl Genius, graphic novels by Phil Foglio et al.; Victoriana (RPG)

-Steampunk is idealistic. Like its cousins space opera, pulp cliffhangers, and comic book superheroes, steampunk roots for the little guy to become the big hero. The American West is full of legends and antiheroes. It’s all about attitude. Anyone can put on a pair of goggles, a bowler hat, and suspenders and attend a steampunk convention. Anyone can be a mad scientist, brave archaeologist, laconic gunslinger, or alluring spy. It’s a century and a half ago as many authors and we wish it could have been.

Examples: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (television show); Space 1889 (RPG)

-Steampunk is multimedia. In the actual 19th century, wide literacy made possible the rise of newspapers and “penny dreadfuls,” the forerunners of pulps, current mass-market paperbacks, and online fan fiction. Steampunk has taken advantage of modern media, as demonstrated by numerous Web sites, games, sculptures, and graphic novels.

Examples: Rasputina (musical band); Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (video game); GURPS Steampunk (RPG)

-Steampunk is punk. Like cyberpunk, which looks at the disenfranchised in dystopian near futures, steampunk celebrates individualism and defiance of the established order. The 1960s weren’t the first or last time a bohemian counterculture was fueled by artistic license, sexual experimentation, and drug addiction. The chaotic mashup of genres, a loose approach to history and science, and an emphasis on fun have attracted numerous fans. Many goth enthusiasts have also embraced the retro styles of steampunk. The apparent contradictions or ambivalence reflected in the idealist/punk or fantasy/science fiction strains are just fine in this genre.

Examples: Wild, Wild West (TV show), D&D4e Eberron (RPG)

-Steampunk is (pre)apocalyptic. The steampunk era roughly coincides with the growth of the U.S. after the Louisiana Purchase to the outbreak of World War I. The so-called Manifest Destiny, the growth of democracy, and the “Gilded Age” would all come to a close as Europe’s dynasties and colonial domination came crashing down after Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination. War machines loom on the horizon.

Just as we today look back at the Cold War or the 1990s with a nostalgia born of post-9/11 fears of terrorism, recession, and ecological catastrophe (floods, epidemics, earthquakes; with the attendant resurgence of zombies and other horror monsters), so too does steampunk look back at the 1800s through rosy lenses. In the 20th century, steampunk gives way to the pulps, noir, and dieselpunk. Who knows what else the 21st century will bring?

Examples: Sherlock Holmes (2009 Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. films); Forgotten Futures (RPG)

Note: This post originally ran on the “Vanished Lands” Yahoo/eGroup Web club in preparation for the Boston-area group‘s return to my “Gaslight Grimoire” steampunk/fantasy campaign.