Savage Worlds: The Wild Hunt

Game Date: 10/13/2012
DM: Rusty

The Players :
Bobby Thompson (Matt) - Runaway Runner
Morgan Stevens (Star) - Psychotic Psychic
R.H. Milsten (Cliff) - Paranoid Paranormalist

The Session:
Today we played a one-shot of Savage Worlds. This was my first time playing the system.

The story began with our characters on a bus, headed for Edinburgh, Wisconsin.  We each had our own reasons for being on this bus, and out of boredom we got to know each other.  This was done in the form of an "Interlude", a Savage Worlds mechanic which rewards roleplay.  In this interlude, Bobby introduced herself to the other two characters and tried to get them talking.  Both Morgan and RH kind of creeped her out for various reasons.

After a while the bus driver started having vehicle troubles.  We arrived at the tiny little town, and the bus pulled up to a mini-mart, where we did a little shopping.  Later, the driver told us that the bus couldn't be repaired tonight, and we would have to sleep on the bus.  Then he left to use the restroom, and never came back.  Soon the store kicked us out so they could close, and we noticed just how dark this town really was. 

Outside the mart, we tried knocking on the bathroom door, but there was no answer.  Luckily Morgan was good at picking locks.  Once she got the door open, we found that the bathroom was empty.  Having no place else to go, we returned to the bus.  Then we saw some shapes moving in the darkness, which turned out to be undead dogs.  One approached the bus door, the other tried to get in through one of the windows.

We spent a round or two fighting the dogs, when three undead humans emerged from the darkness as well.  RH fended them off at the doorway, while Morgan used her psychic abilities to attack from the distance.  Bobby, armed only with a switchblade, didn't contribute quite as much as the others.  Late in the battle, Morgan used an action card to make one of the dogs flee, and eventually we killed the rest of the monsters.  It was a difficult fight, and Bobby was at -3 wounds for the rest of the session.

We decided a building would be safer than the bus, so Morgan picked the mini-mart's lock and got us back inside.  We stocked up on whatever we could, including flashlights, food, guns, and ammo.  Then we hid in the back room for a while.  We rested a bit, which allowed RH and Morgan to recover some power points, but nobody could heal any damage.

After a while we heard something scratching at the back, and a crash as the front door was pushed open.  Two more undead dogs managed to chew a hole in the back door, as three zombies made their way through the store towards the back room.  Morgan blocked the doorway to the back, while RH and Bobby dealt with the dogs who were now sticking their heads through the hole in the back door.

Trapped like rats.

Morgan did a good job of rolling high numbers, often triggering the game's "exploding dice" feature (max die rolls allow for additional die rolls).  Bobby, meanwhile, kept rolling 1's and 2's.  During the fight, RH was bitten in the leg, which made him permanently lame.  Not wanting to waste a round reloading his shotgun, RH finished the dog off with the butt of his gun.

My standard rolls for pretty much the entire session.

We had a brief respite, until another wave of enemies came through the shop's front door.  It was four more undead and the boss, the "Huntsman", who had large antlers on his helmet.  At first it looked impossible to harm the Huntsman.  RH hit him with a powerful shotgun blast that ended up doing no damage.  But Morgan eventually took him out with an impressive series of exploding die rolls.  The Huntsman dissipated, not truly defeated but temporarily unable to maintain his corporal form.  But we still faced a few undead.

The Huntsman approaches.

One of the undead did some brain damage to Morgan, leaving her unconscious.  RH jammed his gun, and rolled double 1's trying to unjam it.  This caused the gun to backfire, taking him out of the fight as well.  It finally came down to Bobby and one undead, and it could have gone either way.  Bobby just barely managed to finish off her foe.  She tried to heal her friends, but without heal training she didn't have much luck.  She rolled double 1's while trying to fix Morgan, which only made things worse.

And that's how we left off:  The three of us injured and bleeding in the back room, alive for now but knowing we might not survive the night.  The Huntsman was still out there, and would probably reform within the next couple of hours.  I suggested that Bobby run out of town to find help (running was her only real specialty), and the DM ruled that she continued to run for a few hours, only to arrive at the same town again.

Afterthoughts:
"Savage" is right.  Although nobody technically died during the session, it was a real bloodbath.  I liked the story a lot - it's the first time I've really played that kind of spooky/horror story in an RPG, and I'd like to do that again sometime.  It was the perfect October one-shot.  But the system itself would not be my first choice.

Things I liked:
The exploding dice was fun.  Even when it was being used on us by a monster, it was oddly fascinating to see just how many additional die rolls we were going to end up taking.

The Interludes were fun, even if I didn't really do well on mine.  Anything you can do to encourage roleplay is all right by me.  It makes the characters more real to me if I can see their personalities in action.

I liked how skills had us rolling different types of dice, instead of rolling a d20 and adding a bonus.  Note, I don't actually like it better than d20, I just like the novelty of doing it different. 

This isn't really about the system, but I thought it was a nice touch how all the pregens had unisex names, so you could play the male or female version of each.

Things I disliked:
When you take damage, you take a penalty to your die rolls.  So if you're wounded, the game gets harder.  I hate games that do that.  It's just like Monopoly, where the person to get an advantage early on often ends up keeping the other players down for the rest of the game.  Yes, it's more realistic, but I think it's pretty obvious by now I don't care for realism.  If you really need an in-game explanation for why your stats don't get worse as you get injured in D&D, I'd just chalk it up to adrenaline. 

The lack of healing was also a big issue.  If I'd known in advance how necessary having a medic is in the game, I definitely would have chosen a different pregen.  My character's one big skill was running, but I never really used it because I didn't want to abandon my teammates.  My fault picking a pregen based on their fluff rather than looking closely at their skills.

Things I'm on the fence about: 
You use standard playing cards for initiative.  It was interesting, and easy to track, but I don't know if I like the idea of mixing dice and cards.  It's just one too many things to bring to the table.

I also thought the wounds system was interesting.  While I didn't like the negative modifiers, I did think it was neat how the final blow would have you roll on an injury table.  I don't care for it in a high combat game, but I think it would be cool in a game that's mostly roleplay.

And that's really the bottom line for me.  I think I might enjoy Savage Worlds if I only had to slay a few monsters a day, rather than having to face a continuous onslaught of zombies.  It's probably unfair to judge it without having played a more combat-ready character, or without playing in a party that has a proper doctor, but from the little bit I've seen it looks like a pretty deadly system.  And that's never been my preference.

D&DNext Playtest: August 2012 Update

I was going to wait I'd had a chance to run the newest playtest packet before I commented on it, but I just can't seem to get a game together.  Oh well, I can still give my impressions from what I've read in the packet itself.  Here's a rundown on some of the more significant changes in the August 2012 update:

Character Creation
The newest packet includes the ability to create your own character, rather than just using the pregens.  To do this, you roll up stats, then mix-and-match your race, class, background, and specialization.  It reminds me of one of those flip books, where you make different monsters by matching up heads, bodies, and legs.  I really hope they keep it this simple; it looks like it's going to be a lot faster rolling up characters in this edition.

Backgrounds
The packet includes several backgrounds to flesh out your character.  Primarily this is a way of giving your character a set of skills bonuses, but some of them give you a few other random benefits as well.  Optimizers will pick the background that most  closely matches their class - Rogues will often pick the Thief background, Fighters will pick Soldier, etc.  But there's also some cool roleplay-related backgrounds as well, like Artisan or Commoner.  This really sets the tone for the system, in my opinion.  I never agreed with the critics who accused 4e of discouraging roleplay, but even so it looks like 5e is going to be better in that regard.

Specialties
The "Themes" in the last playtest are now called "Specialties".  I really like where they're going with them.  Themed builds you used to put together yourself (such as two-weapon fighter or hard-to-kill damage sponge), you now just pick as a package and get the feats automatically as you level.  Since you no longer cherry-pick your own feats, you won't have powergamers finding magical combinations of feats that do infinite damage.  I'm sure the final product (or at least one of the later splat books) will have optional rules that let you pick your own feats, but for now it looks like you have to stick to an archetype.

While certain specialties are recommended for certain classes, so far it looks like any class can pick any specialty.  However, a couple of the feats did list prerequisites.  I wonder if this means you can still pick the specialty, but just don't gain the benefits of that feat.  I do hope they don't go overboard with the prerequisites, because I like this mix-and-match system.  I want the freedom to build quirky characters who are more interesting than useful.  If I want my Cleric to specialize in two-weapon fighting, don't judge me.  Not all campaigns are about having optimum stats.

They recently announced that 5e's multiclassing would be like it was in 3e, where every time you level you get to pick which class to level in.  This decision did not meet with universal acclaim.  Personally I think it's fine to have that system as an option, but I also think they should look into the specializations as a multiclass option as well. 

For example, they could make a specialization that grants non-magic classes one Wizard spell per level.  A Fighter could use that specialization to be a Fighter/Wizard.  Of course that Fighter would be sacrificing a more fighter-y specialization that could have given him better damage or more hit points, but multiclassing is always a trade-off. This version of multiclassing wouldn't be as 50/50 (or 33/33/33) as 3e's multiclassing; it would be more like "Fighter who dabbles in Wizard" than "Fighter/Wizard".  But that's okay with me.

Hit Points
Last time, people (myself included) complained that there wasn't enough healing.  To "fix" it, they lowered the max hit points of all characters, both PCs and monsters.  But they kept the healing rates the same, so you would end up healing a greater percentage.  Personally, I wasn't complaining about the amount healed so much as the number of times per day you can heal.  At first level you can only heal by resting once per day (using a healing kit, which I still think are an unnecessary complication), and 1st-level Clerics can only cast "Cure Light Wounds" twice a day (using spell slots they could have saved for other spells).  Still, that's just level 1.  It looks like by level 5 it all starts to seem more reasonable.

Last year I played a few sessions of Pathfinder before we switched our campaign to 4e.  One of our biggest gripes was Pathfinder's slow healing, which really slowed the game down.  But to be fair, it all depends on how much combat you're going to have in your campaign.  If your game is mostly fighting, then you're going to need access to a lot of healing just to keep the story moving.  But if your group tends to do things like scout ahead, avoid monsters, set traps, seal doors shut to control enemy movement, parlay, wear disguises, sneak into enemy kitchens and poison the food, or even avoid dungeons altogether in favor of business endeavors... then healing's not as much of an issue for you.

This version of the playtest also has variant rules for long rests.  The basic rules still have you healing to full, but it also has options for DMs who want to make healing a bit slower.   This is a good example of how the final product might treat optional rules, in their effort to please fans of every edition.

Surprise Rounds
Instead of the clunky system from the last playtest, where surprised characters got -20 to their initiative rolls, the new playtest treats surprise a bit more rationally.  Now you just roll initiative normally, and if you're surprised you can't act on your first turn.

Opportunity Attacks
In the last version of the playtest, they had not yet put in Opportunity Attacks.  They're back in this version, but a little bit different.  Instead of triggering when you leave a threatened square, now it triggers when you leave an opponent's reach.  So you can run circles around your enemy without provoking.  The downside is there's still no shift/five-foot-step.  Instead you can disengage, which lets you move 10 feet without provoking.  But that's an Action instead of a Move, so you can't attack and disengage on the same turn.  But you could disengage and still move further away, if all you're trying to do is escape.  (Note that some Fighters have a shift-like ability they can use once per round; see "Combat Expertise Die" below).

I'm not crazy about these OA rules, but I've never been a fan of OAs in the first place.  I like to keep rules as simple as possible, and avoid the ones that restrict your options.  I realize lack of OAs can make certain combat strategies too easy, but whatever rules are in effect for the players are also in effect for the monsters, so it's an even playing field.  In the movies, you often see the hero gliding through the battlefield, taking a swipe here and a slash there, deftly avoiding counterattacks while stabbing random opponents.  It's all very fluid and dynamic.  D&D, however, seems to think combat should be more robotic.  Walk up to target, roll d20s until it dies, walk up to next target, etc.

Yes, I understand the guy in the movie is probably a seasoned veteran, while my level 1 fighter shouldn't be as good at dancing her way through a battlefield.  But that just proves it can be done eventually.  So here's my suggestion:  Keep OAs like they were in 4e, but you get a +1 per level bonus to AC against them.  So a level 1 character might still have trouble jumping from enemy to enemy, but by level 10 you're so good at it that the DM might not even bother attempting the rolls.

Monster Format
This is more a presentation change than a mechanical one, but the bestiary in this version is much easier-to-read than in the last playtest.  This is a good sign; it means they're not just thinking about the crunch.

Fighter Expertise Die
The fighter now has several maneuvers it can use instead of just whacking away with his sword.  Depending on his level and his fighting style, he can spend an expertise die to perform extra actions like cleave, knockdown, shift, and so on.  Some actions require you roll the die, others don't, but either way you spend the die like it was a 4e Action Point.  You get your die back at the start of your next turn, so basically fighters can do one extra thing every turn.  The size and number of the dice goes up as you level.  It reminds me a little bit of the Stunts system in the Dragon Age RPG.

New Classes
The Sorcerer and Warlock were a late edition to the Playtest, and they're a good example of just how different the classes can get.  The Sorcerer uses a "Willpower point" system for casting instead of Vancian, and has more melee presence than the Wizard.  The Warlock's spellcasting is sort of similar to the Sorcerer, except it's INT-based and calls the points "favors".  Like the Wizard, both of these classes have some spells that don't cost anything, similar to 4e's At-Wills. 

Bottom Line
On the various boards I read, people are predicting Next is going to crash and burn.  I guess they just don't have faith in WOTC any more.  They're still catching flak for mistakes they made years ago.  A typical example:

I remember that just within ONE WEEK before the release of 4.0, WOTC announced in VERY terse terms that there was NO plan for a new edition and NO plans for researching a new edition and there was NOT going to be a new edition... and to drive the point home, I recall that they released either two or three new 3.5 supplements to show their "good faith."  Seven days later, there's a new edition.  This time they are giving the public notice.  To heck with them. I'm sticking with Paizo and Pathfinder. (source)

Talk about an Unreleasable Fanbase.  It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.  I see a company that has learned its lesson from past mistakes, but others will never forgive them.  Oh well, they're going to miss a lot of cool gaming sessions.

I'm not psychic or anything, but as a general trend-watcher, so far 5e reminds me of those reboots that ends up being big hits.  5e looks like the "Batman Begins" to 4e's "Batman and Robin".  The "Star Trek 2009" to 4e's "Star Trek Nemesis".  The "Mortal Kombat 9" to... well, you get the idea.  (And this comes from someone who really liked 4e.) 

It really looks like they're taking all the right steps this time.  Rather than surprising people out of the blue with the new edition's mechanics, this time they're having public playtests out the wazoo, and getting feedback after every step.  Heck, they even had us vote on whether Minotaurs have tails.  The end product is going to be something we all had a hand in making  So if you don't like the final version... it's your fault.  Actually, that would be a great new slogan:  "Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition... It's not our fault!"

WOTC thinks it will be two years before 5e is officially released.  Ouch!  So while I really like the direction they're going, there's a lot of time for things to change.  It's quite possible that the final product won't have any of the stuff I liked best about these early playtests.  Heck, there's already been a couple of changes that bothered me between the first playtest and this one.  I have to admit, a small part of me wants to sit out the playtests and wait until the final product is released, so I don't get attached to rules that get changed later.  But if everyone did that, the playtest would be pointless.  Besides, a much larger part of me wants to see and experience every single step of the development process.

Overall, I like what I'm seeing so far, and can't wait to see how it turns out.  It's going to be a long couple of years.

Books: The Tomb of Horrors

This is the third "Greyhawk Classics" novelization I have read, the other two being The Temple of Elemental Evil and Against the Giants.  Like the others, this is what I call "disposable fiction", but that's really not a bad thing.  In fact, I'm really starting to prefer the genre.  I don't have to commit myself to reading an entire series, I don't have to worry about anyone spoiling the ending for me, and I don't have to remember any of the characters' names after I'm done reading it.  Sure it's the literary equivalent of Cool Whip on a Honey Bun, but sometimes that's just what I'm in the mood for.  (Figuratively speaking.)

The writing style is just okay. Like the other Greyhawk Classics, there's nothing really memorable about the prose, but it gets the job done. I didn't see as many typos in this one as in Against the Giants, though I did see some missing punctuation here and there.  Some sentences were repetitive in a way that annoyed me. Such as: "Tears continued to roll down Kaerion's face, and he, powerless to stop it, let them fall unchallenged down his face." See, the problem with that kind of sentence is you never know if it was under-edited, or meant to sound artsy. Personally I would have eliminated the last three words, or maybe broken the whole thing up into two sentences. But then, I'm not a professional writer.

The main character is a former paladin, filled with self-loathing after his fall from grace.  The rest of the party consists of a pompous fighter, a venerable wizard, an elf ranger, a cleric of Heironeous, a multi-talented bard, and a gaggle of generic guards who serve as the book's red shirts.  Wait, you're going into one of the most trapped-filled dungeons ever devised without a rogue?  Luckily the bard has some decent rogue skills, and the wizard also keeps some appropriate spells prepared.

The ex-paladin's name is Kaerion. I'm not sure how the author intended it to be pronounced, though I'm wondering if it's an allusion to "carrion". But whenever I saw the name, I got a song stuck in my head: "Kaerion my wayward son... there'll be peas when you are done..." (True paladins always finish their peas.)  I suppose there's worse earworms; I should be thankful his name wasn't "Kallmemaybe." He was a pretty deep character, at least for this genre, with a tragic backstory gradually revealed over the course of the novel. If his character had been more shallow, the book probably would have been half the length. I've yet to play through the ToH module, but I'm guessing it must be fairly light on plot, since the book's author to felt the need to devote so many pages to characterization. But it works.

My favorite member of the party was the bard, Majandra. She was well-written and I could always relate to her motivations. Or maybe I just have a thing for red-haired, female, half-elf bards. Unfortunately, the rest of the group wasn't as fleshed-out.  Some characters were more developed than others, but few of them were much deeper than the description you'd see on a typical character sheet.  Well, one of my character sheets, anyway.

One thing Against the Giants was lacking was a decent villain. But Tomb of Horrors has an entire party of interesting baddies. We have an evil cleric, a monk (and his young apprentice), a rogue/assassin, a sorceress, a golem, and a small army of cultist minions (a.k.a. evil red shirts). The enemy party is what made this book interesting to me. The ToEE and AtG novels played out like D&D modules - the party learns of an evil, investigates the temple/dungeon/fortress, has a lot of fights, defeats a final boss, and saves the day. But in Tomb of Horrors, we follow two rival parties, both intent on facing the dungeon for different reasons.  This really makes the book more interesting, and I could easily see some readers rooting for the evil team.

It took the story a long time to get to the titular Tomb.  The party spent a large number of pages getting ready and even more time trudging through the swamp. It was an interesting journey, but I found myself wondering if the actual module also includes so much travel time, or if the author just couldn't find enough interesting things in the tomb itself to flesh out a full book.  If I remember correctly I had some similar criticisms about The Temple of Elemental Evil novelization.

But once they actually reached the tomb, I understood pretty quickly why it didn't take up more pages.  This type of dungeon might be fun as a D&D module, but as a book it would get kind of repetitive.  Constantly checking for and disabling traps does not make for an interesting read.  Still, the author managed to throw in just enough trap-wrangling to capture the feel of D&D without bogging down the story.  Fans of the module will appreciate all the gory deaths these traps cause.

I spotted a lot of the tropes you see in a typical D&D campaign.  Sometimes the characters were so genre savvy it almost broke the fourth wall.  For example, they used 10-foot poles to search for pit traps, which is something I've always heard about in classic D&D, but I'd never seen in a novel.  One of my favorite passages involved one character suggesting they all split up, and another explaining to him why you should never split the party.

For the most part, the action scenes are exciting and well done. However, there are times when the sequence of events doesn't seem to fit together right. Like when two things are happening at once, but one of the things should be taking a lot longer than the other. There's one scene in particular that really flaunts the "Talking is a Free Action" trope.  To paraphrase: "The monster is coming right at me! I only have seconds before it gets here! It's only inches away! Quick, throw me my sword! Hurry, it's almost upon me!" I'm exagerrating, but you get the idea. And not long afterwards, there's a death scene that takes the "Final Speech" trope to an almost humorous extreme. Sometimes I think reading tropes has ruined fiction for me.

The climax was predicable, and the falling action almost nonexistent, but I don't care.  The book has its flaws, but it's my favorite Greyhawk novel so far.  It's not real literature, but these books aren't meant to be true art. Let's face it, it's a novelization of a D&D module. Heck, that's probably lower on the totem pole than the comic book adaptations of movies based on video games. So I really appreciate that these authors worked as hard as they did, when they could have just transcribed the original module into a more book-like format and collected their paycheck.

Thumbs up.

Dragon*Con 2012

Well, we finally did it.  We went to the DragonCon parade without actually going to DragonCon.  The last couple of times we went, we discussed whether the con itself was worth it, since most of our fun comes from taking pictures.  We just never got our money's worth out of the con itself.  We usually only attend one or two symposiums, and most of the members-only areas are so crowded they're just not fun.  So this year we decided up front, we were either going to spend a lot of money (like by getting our pictures taken with celebrities) or none at all.  Being fairly close to broke, we picked none at all.

Unfortunately, the freeloading potential wasn't as good as it used to be.  Most years, the hotel lobbies didn't check for badges.  Sure, you needed a badge to go into the vendor areas, symposiums, or other con event areas, but pretty much anybody could walk through the hotels.  I don't know if this was intentional or the security had just gotten lax, but we'd often mosey through the lobbies in the morning before finally buying our badges.  But this year, every possible hotel entrance (the more important hotels, anyway) was blocked by the con police, demanding badges or room keys to enter.  This is sad, because it's so hot, that a lot of the better costumed characters congregate in the hotel lobbies.  So I wasn't able to take as many cool pictures as I used to.  All my pictures were pretty much from the parade and the sidewalks.

It was a lot more crowded this year than last year.  I don't know if it means the con is getting more popular, or if it was just because there's so many events going on in Atlanta this weekend.  Usually we get to the parade an hour early, and have no problem finding a good spot on the curb to sit while the crowds form around us.  This time, we got there just as early as usual, but it was already standing room only all the way up and down the street.  Eventually we did manage to find a nice spot to sit, but it wasn't easy.  So now I wonder if I should start getting to the parade two hours early.  My back is not going to thank me for that.

So, is it worth going to DragonCon without buying passes?  Well, not as much as it used to be.  The only free thing is the parade, and you'll be spending so much time outside you're going to get very hot.  If you do go just for the parade, don't get a hotel room.  Instead, assuming you live close enough, just make a day trip of it.  Maybe try to find cheap overnight bus fare.  Or if you do get a hotel, make sure you also do some other touristy stuff in Atlanta like the aquarium or something, and make a full vacation of it.

Anyway, after going two years in a row, we're probably not going to go back for a few years.  This is not a reflection on the con itself; we'd just like to spend our vacation budget on other places for a while.  Next time we go to DragonCon, I want to save up so I can spend lots of money on stupid things.

I've got more pictures up on Facebook.

Character: Malta

This is my character in the Ozcroft campaign.  I already went over her stats and career path in an earlier blog, so this is just extra details.

Full Name:
Malta Klonk

Home Planet:
Tanoose

Race:
Human

Gender:
Female

Age:
30

Crew Position:
Chief Engineer & Ship's Steward

Associates:
Baron Ozwald Haff (Employer), Dr. Melinda Warren (Personal Doctor), Dreya D'Nalor (Crewmate), Lord Kendrick Meadowcroft (Employer), M.C. "Jester" Slate (Crewmate)

Background:
Malta was once a really good student who showed a lot of promise, but her adult life has been filled with career-ending clumsy mistakes.  Her job as a field researcher ended when she almost crashed a research vessel into a moon.  A few years later she lost a job and her eye simultaneously, while running with scissors to help her boss on whom she had spilled coffee... let's just say it was a bad day.  (More specific details in the "Character Creation" blog.)  She is now the engineer for a trading ship called the "Unchaste Harlot", where she hopes to never run into anyone from her past.

Fixing the Jump Drive

Personality, Mannerisms, and Appearance:
Malta has a petite build.  She has black hair, which she keeps cut short (with her propensity for accidents, having long hair around engines would be asking for trouble).  She is missing her left eye, and wears an eye patch.  He has a tribal tattoo on her right bicep from her drifter years.  Malta is clumsy, and can often be seen tripping over her own feet or dropping things.  Despite her past failures, she has an optimistic personality.  When she think she is alone in the engine room, she often talks to the engines, which she considers to be her only true friends.

Nicole De Boer (I added the eye patch)

Creating the Character:
No beating around the bush here:  I rolled horribly.  I crashed and burned on three careers.  Major disaster, minor disaster, major disaster.  After losing an eye in the third career, I figured I would quit while I still had all my fingers.

We were asked to pick a TV celebrity to inspire our character, in order to flesh them out and give each other something to picture.  I had trouble finding one at first.  Someone in the group suggested Molly Shannon, but she wasn't quite what I was looking for.  Being the ship's engineer and picturing a somewhat bubbly personality, I was wanting something closer to Firefly's Kaylee... but I dismissed that for being a little too "on the nose" (many people already consider Traveller the "Firefly RPG").  It was my wife who finally suggested Nicole De Boer, and it clicked the second she said it.  Personality-wise, she's still probably a little bit Kaylee, or maybe Amy Wong from Futurama.

Miniature: Human Engineer (Star Wars - Dark Times #29)

About This Blog

For those just tuning in, I thought I'd take a moment to explain who I am, why this blog is here, and how to navigate the silly thing.  As it says in the upper right, this blog is where I post the recaps of all the gaming sessions I play in.  Additionally, this is where I express my own crazy thoughts about gaming in general.

About Me

Hi, I'm Matt, but my friends call me Maqtt (the q is silent).  I'm a gender-bending Sci-Fi geek who prefers technology to exercise. In other words, I'm every high school bully's greatest fantasy. I enjoy role-playing games, video games (RPGs, Action, Adventure, Fighting), reading (mostly science-fiction and fantasy), drawing, writing, watching bad movies, and generally messing around on the computer. I'm both a Starwoid and a Trekkie (that's Trekkie, not Trekker; don't make me hurt you).  I have a three cats, one spouse, and a corny sense of humor.

I came late to the RPG party.  I was more into video games when I was a kid, and I mostly favored action games.  I didn't even try computer RPGs until college.  The first actual "Dungeons & Dragons" brand product I played for any length of time was NeverWinter Nights for the PC.  I never beat the single player campaigns, but I really got into the online persistent worlds.  Eventually I built my own world called "Itropa", and hosted it for a couple of years.  While I had played a couple of random D&D games in my youth, I didn't get into an actual "pencil and paper" D&D campaign until 2008.  I have been enjoying D&D 4e since it was released, as both a player and a DM.  In addition to 4e, I've played small amounts of Traveller, Pathfinder, Gamma World, a few random sessions of older D&D editions, and the occasional odd game like Dungeon Crawl Classics.  But I still consider myself an RPG newbie - there's so much out there I want to try!

I maintain a more general blog here, where I rant about non-RPG-related things like movies, comic books, and political beliefs.  It doesn't get updated as often as this one, since most of my blogging energy is now spent recapping D&D sessions.

Navigating This Blog

The Two Main Categories:
Most of my blogs have either the "Game Sessions" tag or the "Metapost" tag.  "Game Sessions" are the gameplay recaps, and these posts are probably only going to interest those in my group.  I use the label "Metapost" for pretty much everything else.  So if you just want to read my crazy opinions and reviews without having to scroll past the game sessions, just click "Metapost".

Other Sub-Categories:
Rants and Ramblings - Like most people on the internet, I enjoy shouting my deeply-held opinions on subjects I don't really understand.  These are my favorite blogs to write, and the ones most people seem to enjoy reading.

Reviews - What I think of specific RPG products I've played or looked at.  Not to be confused with useful information.

Characters - The backstories and other data for characters I've played or would like to play. 

Miniatures and Tokens - Mostly pictures of miniatures, and a couple of reviews of miniature products.

My Modules - One-shot modules I have written.

My Rants, Ramblings, and Reviews

My Thoughts on D&D Fourth Edition - My first impressions of 4e.

My D&D History - An in-depth explanation of my D&D credentials.

A Year-And-A-Half Later - A look back on my 4e first impressions blog, to see how much my opinions changed.

The Philosophy of the Healing Surge - My response to the critics who think healing is too easy in 4e.

The New Character Builder - WOTC changed the character builder to an online version, and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Perfect Game - What I would want out of an RPG.

Sins of the Dungeon Master - We all make mistakes; these are some I made when I was a DM.

Token Storage - I had a problem storing my tokens, and later reposted when I found a solution.

Are We Having Fun Yet? - Halfway through the ToEE campaign, I started to question a few things.

Part-Time Players - In-game explanations for players who miss a lot of sessions.

I Need A Hero - Should RPGs focus on heroic superhumans, or average people who just happen to get caught up in an adventure?

Essentials, Edition Wars, and Whiny People - My thoughts on Essentials, a controversial addition to D&D 4e.

ToEE: Afterthoughts - A wrap-up to our unfinished Temple of Elemental Evil campaign.

D&D 4e vs Pathfinder - Comparing things I like and hate about the two systems.

If I Designed An RPG - What I would do if I were to build an RPG from scratch.

Being a Little Too Elf Conscious - I whine about Elf life spans.

D&D 5e: What's Next? - My hopes for the next edition of D&D.

You're Having Fun Wrong -  I reminisce about hosting a NeverWinter Nights server, and complain about jerks who criticize other players' roleplay.  Also has screenshots of my Itropa module.

Other Reviews and Ramblings: Against the Giants (Novel) , Drizzt Thoughts, Alternative Miniatures, The Legend of Drizzt Board Game, Castles & Crusades / Central Casting: Heroes of Legend,  Race/Class Build List, Beholder Minis, Horse Minis, Exotic Mounts, More Exotic Mounts, Dragon Age, D&D Character Builder, Player's Handbook 2, Player's Handbook 3, Hybrids, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Zombie Dice, Beholder Minis, Gamma World, Wrath of Ashardalon and Zombies!!!

My Modules and Campaign Settings

So far I've posted three (well, two-and-a-half) modules, and a campaign setting.  But I am working on more.

Death By Chocolate - This is a fun little one-shot best run on Easter or Halloween.  It's about an old candy factory filled with chocolate-covered monsters.  The fun part is that it uses candy instead of miniatures, and players get to eat what they kill.  It's not designed with any particular campaign setting in mind.  I eventually ran the module using Gamma World, and posted a blog about the session here.

Zombie Cyborgs From Outer Space - Robots!  Aliens!  Flying Sharks!  This module takes place in a cheesy sci-fi world.  It was designed for my Itropa campaign setting, but it would work just as well in Gamma World, Shadowrun, or any other futuristic/cyberpunk setting.  If nothing else, check out this blog entry just for the pictures.  I love using 3D terrain and props in my modules.  When I finally ran the module, we only got about halfway through it, but I posted a recap here.

Itropa Campaign Setting - This is a cheesy sci-fi setting, based on the NeverWinter Nights module I made.  It basically involves taking D&D and reflavoring all the magic elements to be bad science, without changing any of the math.

The Sunken Temple of Pelor - This was a Forgotten Realms module that I intended to run for my Praktas campaign, but never got around to it.  Eventually I rewrote it as Zombie Cyborgs From Outer Space.  Don't bother reading this module if you've already read the other one; it's pretty much the same story but in a fantasy setting.

Praktas Campaign Setting - Set in the Forgotten Realms, this is the area I used during the sessions I ran.  The location names and map layout are very similar to the Itropa setting.  Deal with it.

My Miniatures and Dice

I'm not a professional photographer, but I do enjoy taking pictures of my miniatures.  I don't sculpt or paint my own minis, so it's a little weird for me to be photographing them - you can see the same things in a WOTC product catalog.  But I do like showing off my collections, so here's some of the pics I've taken.

D&D Minis - A huge post with lots of pictures of my miniature collection.  Unfortunately I was still getting used to a new camera at the time, so some of the pictures didn't come out as well as they could have.

Star Wars Miniatures - Another large post, focusing on my Star Wars minis this time.  I had found the right settings on the camera by then, and I took a lot of the pictures outside where I had better light.

HeroClix and HorrorClix - I haven't played much of these, but I love the minis.

Dice - Pictures of my dice.

More miniature photography can be found in my posts about Maynard the Minotaur, Undead In Their Natural Habitat, Alternative Miniatures, Orcus, Horse Miniatures, Exotic Mounts, More Exotic Mounts, and Beholder Minis.  There's also some neat pics in my Modules blogs.

My Characters

Every time I roll up a new character, I write a backstory for them.  Most of these backstories are pretty light; after all, it wouldn't make sense for a character with no XP to be an experienced dragonslayer.  But at the very least I like to explain what sort of family they came from, how they came to be whatever class they are, and what made them leave home to start adventuring.

My Characters: Past, Present, and Future - A list of characters I'd played on NeverWinter Nights and D&D, and characters I hope to play in the future.

Dervish - Human Weapon Master, NeverWinter Nights

Sillia Aylomein - Human Bard, NeverWinter Nights.

Brynwyn Elswyth - Elf Arcane Archer, NeverWinter Nights.  This is one of my favorite backstories.

Aria Thatcher - Half-Elf Bard, Scarred Lands campaign.

Talindra Seryth - Razorclaw Shifter Avenger, Artifact Hunters campaign.

Kryla Bloodfang - Dragonborn Sorceror, ToEE campaign.

Calla Noble - Human Knight, ToEE campaign.

Vex Corman - Half-Elf Monk, Unlikely Heroes campaign.

Dalia Lockwood - Human Ardent, Unlikely Heroes campaign.

Flora Oakwillow - Hamadryad Seeker, Unlikely Heroes campaign.

Malta Klonk - Human Engineer, Traveller campaign.

Terri Bolton - Human Mechanic, Rifts 2112 campaign.

Danica Branford - Human Inventor, Gurps campaign.

My Campaigns 

Here are all the campaigns I've played in, though I'm leaving out a lot of one-shots and such.

Looking For A Group
6/22/2013 - Now
System: D&D Next / 5e Playtest
DM: Rusty

Party:
Barad (Jeremy) - Dwarf Paladin
Flip (Trevor) - Halfling Rogue
Golag Bonesmasher (Bryan) - Half-Orc Ranger
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Keyleth Siannodel (Matt) - Elf Druid
Tamel (Andrew) - Elf Ranger
Zuul (Graham) - Half-Orc Paladin

Rifts 2112
11/24/2012 - 3/23/2013
System: Savage Worlds
DM: Rusty

Party:
Emma Snow (Star): Medic
Jim Bagg (Cliff): Military Reserves
Sgt. Malcolm Reynolds (Ted): Active Military
Terri Bolton (Matt): Mechanic

Ozcroft
7/14/2012 - 8/18/2012
A sci-fi game using the Traveller system.  This is the first pencil-and-paper campaign I've gotten to play in that wasn't in a medieval fantasy setting.

System: Traveller
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Baron Ozwald Haff (Greg): Pilot, Navigator
Dr. Melinda Warren (Star): Medical Officer
Dreya D'Nalor (Chere): Pilot
Lord Kendrick Meadowcroft (Ted): Purser
M.C. "Jester" Slate (Cliff): Pilot
Malta Klonk (Matt): Engineer/Cook

Ship: The Unchaste Harlot

Unlikely Heroes of Darkmoon Vale
7/16/2011 - 7/7/2012
This began as a Pathfinder campaign, but later turned into a D&D 4e campaign. It follows a group of adventurers in the town of Falcon's Hollow.  The story is over for now, but we might revisit these characters again in a future campaign.

System: Pathfinder/D&D 4e

DM: Rusty

Final Party:
Derp DuDerp (Cliff): Long-Surviving Half-Elf Bard
Flora Oakwillow (Matt): Fire-Fearing Hamadryad Seeker
Keyanna (Chere): Scantily-Clad Half-Elf SorcererLo-Kang (Ted): Frequently-Immobilized Warforged Barbarian
Marrick (Greg): Dwarf Knight and Big Bag of Hit Points
Star (Starr): Undead-Smitin' Eladrin Paladin

Previous Party Members:
Adrilar (Greg): Elf Sorcerer - Killed in Kobold Ambush
Dalia Lockwood (Matt): Human Ardent - Killed by a Cold Rider
Davor (Ted): Half-Orc Sorcerer - Killed in Kobold Ambush
Glynnyn (Tamara): Elf Druid - Must have gotten lost in the woods
Moxie (Michael): Half-Orc Fighter - Killed by Snidely
Nementah (Ted): Wilden Druid - Killed by scythe trap, ghouls, and festrogs
Ranell (Michael): Halfling Barbarian - Left to pursue a music career
Teddi (Ted): Dwarf Warlock - Murdered by opium dealers
Snidely (Greg): Halfling Rogue - Killed by Durp
Vex (Matt): Half-Elf Monk - Killed in Kobold Ambush

Important NPCs:
Thuldrin Kreed - Vile leader of Lumber Consortium.
Payden “Pay Day” Teedum - Kreed's right-hand man.
Kabran Bloodeye - Noseless Half-Orc, head of the Thieves Guild.
Laurel - The town herbalist.
Druingar the Glintaxe - A long-dead Dwarven hero.
Merlokrep - Kobold King who has trouble staying dead.
Jevra - Our group's ward, she is a teenage orphan and werewolf. Now deceased.
The Kids (Kimi, Mikra, Jurin, Savram, Hollin, and Ralla) - Spunky children/teenagers who have helped us out of a few scrapes.

The Temple of Elemental Evil
3/19/2011 - 7/9/2011
This was a 4e conversion of the classic Greyhawk module.  We managed to get more than halfway through temple, when our gaming group disbanded due to time constraints.

System: D&D 4e

DM: Rusty

Final Party:
Artimus a.k.a. "Artie" (Rick): Revenant Hexblade
Balthazar a.k.a. "Phredd" (Ted): Half-Elf Bard
Calla Noble (Matt): Human Knight
Inphy (Star): Half-Orc Slayer
Joanna Winters (Jesse): Human Archer Ranger
Jerry (Nick): Human Cleric
Kossack (Cliff): Minotaur Fighter
Malagar (Bryan): Drow Thief

Previous Party Members (Living):
Durbin (Jesse): Dwarf Battlerager Fighter
Kryla Bloodfang (Matt): Dragonborn Cosmic Sorcerer
Nyx (Bryan): Halfling Thief
Pixie (Leigha): Gnome Wizard

Previous Party Members (Dead):
Ashira (Jesse): Dragonborn Battlemind - Death by Ghast
Krusk (Rick): Half-Orc Monk - Killed by Ghouls
Razz of the Three Moons (Jesse): Githzerai Swordmage - Gnawed to death by Gnolls

Artifact Hunters: The Avatar of Torm
10/2/2010 - 3/12/2011
While we considered which system to use for our next long-term game, we changed DMs and played through this short Forgotten Realms campaign.  It lasted 11 sessions.  We were on a mission from the church of Torm, and worked to eradicate followers of Bane.

System: D&D 4e

DM: Nick

The Party:
Amarat (Tamara): Elf Rogue
Anna Bella (Leigha): Halfling Monk
Gavail Pontiff (Ted): Eladrin Wizard
Julien (Dane): Kalashtar Cleric
Marek the Silver (Rusty): Dragonborn Paladin
Morigan McBane (Jesse): Human Artificer
Talindra Seryth (Matt): Razorclaw Shifter Avenger

The Scarred Lands
5/22/2010 - 9/25/2010
As Praktas petered out, I had to find a way to get my D&D fix.  I used Pen And Paper Games to find a new group.  This campaign used D&D 4e's rules, but was set in the Scarred Lands, a third-party setting where the Gods fought a war with their children.  This campaign lasted about 10 sessions.  After the last two original party members were killed, the group felt it was time for a change.

System: D&D 4e
DM: Rusty

Final Party:
Aria Thatcher (Matt): Half-Elf Bard
Blast Flashing, Jr. (Nick): Gnome Warlock
Cecil (Dane): Githzerai Swordmage
Shade (Jesse): Drow Rogue
Thorfin (Ted): Goliath Fighter

Previous Party Members:
Alek Corman (Ted): Half-Elf Paladin
Dornn (Adam): Minotaur Cleric
Gorn (Jesse): Half-Orc Ranger
Paige (Leigha): Half-Elf Sorcerer
Pyro (Daniel): Changeling Sorcerer

Important NPCs:
Captain Garret - Dwarven Captain from Burok Torn.
Duvall - Dwarven Runepriest who hosted us in Burok Torn.
Elmore - Bandit who owes us a favor for letting him live.
Goran - Dwarven God, with scars on half his face.
Horiza - Merchant, friend of Blast.
King Thane - Dwarven leader of Burok Torn.
King Virduk - King of Calasta, is besieging Burok Torn.

Important Locations:
Bareth Marn - Failed Dwarven Kingdom.
Burok Torn - Dwarven Kingdom.
Calasta - The kind-of-evil kingdom where we started.
Hedrad - Home of the worlds second largest library.
Lave - Capital of Vesh.
Mansk - Fishing village on the way to Skykeep.
Trela - Small village where we attended the carnival.
Vesh - Where we took the Amphora.

Praktas
2/21/2009 - 3/6/2010
This is the first campaign I ran as a DM.  It started out as a practice game (hence the name) to teach us how to play 4e.  It continued as an alternate game for the nights that our Tantris DM had to cancel.  Once Tantris ended, I ran a few more Praktas sessions until too many complications kept the group from meeting.  I tried to give Praktas an overall continuity, but a lot of our sessions were months apart, so it's really more like a series of loosely-connected one-shots.

System: D&D 4e

DM: Matt

Final Party:
Drew Baker (Bryan): Human Tempest Fighter
Damakos Redhorn (Rick): Tiefling Rogue
Tirah (Misty): Deva Wizard.
Dorath (Bryan): Goliath Fighter.

Previous Party Members:
Daalan Raan (Bryan): Elf Ranger - Killed by Nathar's Henchmen
Ghargoff Bloodmaster (Rick): Dragonborn Barbarian - Died fighting alongside Daalan

Tantris
3/7/2009 - 10/10/2009
This was the first continuous campaign I played in.  Even though we were using 4e rules, it was very different from the average 4e campaign.  We didn't use miniatures or battle grids.  We usually only had about one battle per session, and those rarely took more than ten minutes.  It was very roleplay-heavy, and we really got into our characters.  Unfortunately it only lasted 9 sessions before the DM had to move to another state, but we did manage to leave it at a good stopping place.

System: D&D 4e (no miniatures)

DM: Matt 2

The Party:
Nara Cavell (Matt 1): Human Cleric of Pelor
Rolan Daan (Bryan): Elf Rogue
Rhogar Burnscale (Rick): Dragonborn Fighter
Lia Moon (Misty): Elf Wizard

Important NPCs:
Astor Josel - High Priest of Temple of Pelor in Tantris.
Thram Hammerfist - Bartender, Rolan's contact for jobs.
Drake Ironbreaker - Barkeep of the Bleeting Goat, Rhogar's favorite fighting venue.
Lord De Rais - Head of the "House of De Rais". Deceased.
Thordius - Lia's master.

Books: Against the Giants

Last year when I was playing in the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign, I decided to go all-out by playing the computer game and reading the novel as well.  The book was a bit forgettable, but it was nice to read something that felt like an actual D&D game.  Previously the only D&D books I'd read were the first 20 or so Drizzt books.  Those were fun and all, but lets face it, they don't really feel like D&D.  Drizzt is more like a super hero than a character you'd roll up in D&D, and I can see why many gamers don't like the influence he's had on munchkin players.

But the ToEE novelization was different.  It didn't have any break-out characters who had abilities beyond their class, just the normal RPG mainstays you might see in any tabletop party.  I wouldn't call it an important work of fiction, but there are worse ways to pass the time.  So with that attitude in mind, I recently picked up "Against the Giants" by Ru Emerson.  I was actually impressed.  Okay, it still wasn't a masterpiece by any standards, but it really captured the feel of D&D and I enjoyed that a lot.  It was also a light read - I don't get to read often so books usually take me forever, but I managed to finish this one in about two weeks.

I think it was the little details that enthralled me the most.  While the action scenes were adequate, I preferred all the dungeoneering aspects - searching for traps, using noise-blocking spells to keep the fights from attracting reinforcements, preparing food, finding spots to hide for long rests, choosing spells to prepare, and so on.  There are varying motivations among the party members - vengeance, duty, treasure - which results in the occasional in-party conflict.  For example (slight spoiler), at one point the party has a huge disagreement over whether to kill a helpless enemy, and it reminded me of some of the best moments I've had in my own groups.  So while Ru Emerson might not be one of the best writers I've ever read, I'd love to have her as my DM.

My only real gripes with the story came when I start to think of it in terms of game mechanics.  I kept trying to figure out what level the group was.  They definitely weren't newbies:  They were able to take out a lot of giants with little difficulty, and the party wizard had a wide variety of decent spells.  But the main character, Lhors, was a farmboy with some training but no real combat experience.  He had the background of a level 1 character, but he managed to take out a giant with one hit fairly early in the book.  (Must have rolled a crit.)  It was believable enough in the book, but it shows exactly why it's problematic to think in gameplay rules.  Even when playing the actual game, a good DM will nudge the rules aside now and then for the sake of a good story, so I have no problem with the author taking these dramatic liberties.

Also, I hate to nitpick, but the book also had a lot of typos.  Sometimes I think I should have been a proofreader, because typos just really stand out to me.  So it's a personal beef; knowing that I'm catching things that other people were paid to catch (and still failed).  But that's just me.

Anyway, if you like D&D fiction and want a quick read, there's worse books you could try.  It might not be particularly memorable, but I found it more entertaining than any of the Drizzt books.  Next up, I'm reading the Tomb of Horrors.  I think I could get addicted to the novelizations of classic Greyhawk modules.

Ozcroft: Interrogation

Stardate: 2012.08.18
GM: Rusty

The Crew:
Baron Ozwald Haff (Greg): Captain, Navigator
Dr. Melinda Warren (Star): Medical Officer
Dreya D'Nalor (Chere): Pilot
Lord Kendrick Meadowcroft (Ted): Purser
M.C. "Jester" Slate (Cliff): Pilot
Malta Klonk (Matt): Engineer, Steward

The Session:
Short session today.  When we left off, Jester was in the forest being chased by pygmies, and his professor companion had been eaten by a giant venus flytrap.  Jester managed to cut down the flytrap and free the professor, who fell unconscious from his injuries.  Jester then fired his weapon at the pygmies until the survivors fled.

Elsewhere in the forest, Kendrick and Ozwald called Jester again on the communicator.  They asked him to fire off a flare, and saw that Jester was about six miles away.  One long hike later, the foursome prepared to leave this strange jungle.  Ozwald opened the jack-in-the-box portal generator, and allowed the others to go through first.  As Ozwald tried to jump through the portal, a vine grabbed his leg.  He spent a few minutes cutting through the vines as the entire forest seemed to come alive.  Finally he freed himself and jumped through the portal.

The party finally reunited in the underwater dome, where we licked our wounds and headed back to the submarine.  On the way, we asked the professor more about this ancient research lab, the "toys" we saw, and the jungle.  He believed that the jungle was on Pscias 3, a planet 4 sectors away.  Jester in particular was very angry with the professor for all the trouble we'd been through, but the professor admonished us by saying, "Any idiot knows not to mess around with ancient technology."  Just for that, we charged him 100 credits for the sub ride back.

We reached the docks, and found our ship's boat surrounded by constables.  We were taken in to custody by the Malorative Society (the planet's colonizers) for a debriefing. Our interrogations required a few diplomacy rolls, and when those went badly we had to make endurance checks to resist torture.  Kendrick rolled so well that he was treated like royalty, while Jester had electric eels attached to places where eels should not be.  Malta proved surprisingly resistant to torture, to the point that we wonder what she does for fun in her spare time.

Finally they let us go.  We sold our submarine, making a tidy profit, and left the planet.  Next up, the Knorbes system.

Ozcroft: The Missing Jester

Stardate: 2012.08.11
GM: Rusty

The Crew:
Baron Ozwald Haff (Greg): Captain, Navigator
Dr. Melinda Warren (Star): Medical Officer
Dreya D'Nalor (Chere): Pilot
Lord Kendrick Meadowcroft (Ted): Purser
M.C. "Jester" Slate (Cliff): Pilot
Malta Klonk (Matt): Engineer, Steward

The Session:
The session began in the Heffry sector, where we bought some small vehicles to sell elsewhere.  Next we jumped to Forboldn, sold the vehicles, and bought a submarine (again to hopefully sell in the next sector).

Ozwald and Jester went out drinking, and were approached by a man offering them a moving job.  They were hired to deliver some lab equipment for a professor named Scrafandapalous Stephanopoulos Snuffaluffagus something-or-another.  Ozwald, being a bit of a layabout, paid some beggars to do his portion of the work.  When Jester, the professor, and the beggars reached the lab, Jester dropped a box.  The box started to vibrate, someone yelled "No!", and everything went black.

Ozwald went to the lab, but found the entire floor was empty.  He then started asking around town about Jester's whereabouts.  He found some of the beggars' friends, but they didn't have any useful information.  Meanwhile, Jester woke up to the sounds of chanting.  He was tied up, along with the professor and the beggars.  It appeared that they were about to get cooked by a primitive tribe.  He asked how they got here, and the professor answered, "You must have dropped the teleporter."

Ozwald let the rest of the crew know about Jester's disappearance.  We tried to contact Jester's communicator, but got no answer.  Then we took the ship's boat out to try contacting Jester from other points around the planet.  Still no luck.  We went and alerted the officials, who deputized Kendrick and modified our ship with some better sensors.  (We're supposed to give the sensors back once we find them.  We'll see.)  Unfortunately, the new equipment still couldn't locate Jester.

Next we went to the professor's apartment, raided his safe, and started reading his notes.  Apparently he had discovered some alien tech in the ocean.  So we unpacked our submarine, hired a sub pilot, and took it to the area the professor had indicated.  There, we found a large underwater dome.  After we docked, we found that gravity was reversed inside the dome.  The dome's corridors went in multiple directions, and gravity would orient itself based on the direction of the hallway.  There were several doors to choose from, which would open in an iris-pattern as we approached them.

Meanwhile, in the jungle, Jester untied himself and fired a warning shot at the tribal chief.  While the natives pondered his boomstick, Jester and the other prisoners ran for their lives. 

Back in the dome, we explored some of the rooms.  In one room we found some round mats on the walls, which we could sit on due to the room's manipulation of gravity.  In another room we saw some holes on the wall.  We theorized this might be some sort of alien restroom, and left quickly before Ozwald could experiment with them.  (Given Greg's tendency to discover perversity potential in the most innocuous of places, we didn't want to give him any obvious ammo.)

Down another corridor we saw a door that was wedged open.  The room was in shambles, with what looked like alien toys scattered on the floor.  Ozwald picked up what looked like a jack-in-the-box, and turned the crank.  When the lid opened, a bubble floated out.  Inside the bubble we could see a jungle.  We decided to check out one more room before examining the bubble box further.  In the final room we saw a large chair set in a gyroscope, with an attached helmet.  The helmet looked like it was designed to read brainwaves, but the sensors weren't located where they would be for a human.

Back in the toy room, we made the bubble appear again.  Wanting to see if it was a portal or just a viewscreen, Ozwald picked up a toy off the floor - a small "army man" shaped like a centaur - and threw it at the bubble.  The toy landed in the jungle, then turned into a real centaur, who ran off into the forest.  While Ozwald pondered this, Kendrick shoved him into the bubble.

Ozwald found himself standing in the jungle.  They threw in another centaur, and Ozwald tried to talk to it.  It wouldn't listen, and attacked Ozwald.  Ozzy drew his gun and blew the centaur's head off.  When it died, it turned back into a centaur, but with its head still gone.  Kendrick joined Ozwald in the jungle, while the rest of us stayed in the toy room.  They found that they could now reach Jester on the communicator, but they weren't close enough to hear each other's gunshots.

Meanwhile, Jester and the professor were still on the run from the natives.  The beggars had already been picked off, and the professor ran into a giant venus flytrap.  Jester started cutting the flytrap's stalk in hopes of freeing the professor.  And that's where we ended the session.