SGA 2005 Archive

The following SGA games took place in 2005:

St. Dymphna Confidential

Game System

Primetime Adventures

Pitch

Game Master

Alan Barclay

Players

4

Characters

Date

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Masquerade

Game System

Castle Falkenstein

Pitch

It's two years after the incident on the brand new Orient Express and Lady Cecilia Wentworth has invited the other players to a Masquerade Ball on her estate...

Game Master

Laura Mortensen

Players

Characters

Lady Cecilia Wentworth (Sophie)

Date

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Title

Game System

Serenity RPG

Pitch

Serenity, on its way to Sihnon to disembark Inara, has detoured to Persephone after the events in "Objects In Space" in order to make arrangements for salvaging Jubal Early's ship. After a long, difficult negotiation with Badger Mal sells him the location of the ship in exchange for a good downpayment and a cut of the profits.

Simon, having been shot and generally beaten up by Jubal Early, comes down with a severe case of the flu due to his weakened immune system and opts to stay aboard Serenity and be sick while the remainder of the crew heads out to take care of a very important event - Kaylee's birthday!

Game Master

Edmund Metheny

Players

6

Characters

Captain Mal Reynolds (John Powell)

Pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburn (Johnny Bliss)

First Mate Zoe Warren (Sophie)

Mechanic Kaylee Frye (Laura)

Public relation agent Jayne Cobb (John Reiher)

Shepherd Book (Ed Freeman)

Date

October 10 & 17, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Savage World Spellslinger: Adventures in the Fantastic West

Game System

Savage Worlds

Pitch

"Seeking young adventurous riders, for dangerous but good paying and exciting work as part of the Fortune Rangers. Must be an expert rider, shooter and able to live off the land if need be. Must own yer own guns, but will be provided horses. Orphans and youths preferred. Iffin' ye haven't heard of us, we provide express package and mail delivery service throughout the Territories. We also take on the tough jobs that no one else wants and this work includes, but is not limited to – bounty hunting, undead and vermin pest extermination, monster clearing, investigation, treasure seeking, and protection services. We do the jobs no one else can or is a willing to do. Iffin' yer interested and think ye are qualified, then report to Fortune Station #72 in the town of Skull Creek on 12th of Coldeven at noon sharp. Remember our motto – 'Fortune Favors the Bold'!"

Game Master

Karl Hubbs

Players

5

Characters

Gideon (Wilhelm)

Shalahazel Lightbringer, Elf shootist (Edmund Metheny - 2nd game only)

C.M Folbert, Half-Orc investigator (Sophie - 2nd game only)

(Manu - 1st game only)

Halfling (Laura - 2nd game only)

Date

September 26 & October 3, 2005

Technical Notes

Set in a Wild West somewhere in the future of Greyhawk. Some house rules on character creation (see Files section of the Yahoo Group.)

Recaps

Well when the group made it back behind the Sheriff's office, and the unnatural silence fell down on the group, the Halfling saw the gray cat on the roof of the barn, almost smiling at her. Then a slot on the back door opened and a shotgun shot at the Halfling but missed. A silent gun-battle with the Deputies quickly ended.

When sound returned to the area they went looking for the Sheriff but he was not in office, but they found some strange fur and stuff in his desk. About then they heard some screaming and went out to the main street, when there was a crowd gathering. There were two headless bodies on the ground and the Elf found a trail of blood. Him and the half-elf and halfling followed trail, while the half-orc examined the bodies.

Inside the General Store, the bloody trail led to the storeowner and his wife's bodies, also headless! The trail then lead out the back door and straight to the church!!! They started going that way, when the half-orc saw some strange people walking down the road… staggering and walking funny – Zombies from the local graveyard!

Another battle, with zombies this time, hurts the half-elf but they kill all the walking dead!

So into the Church they go, following the trail, and find a stairwell down into the earth. The halfling went down first and was surprised by a spider webs that wrapped her up tight… and a half-giant spider, half-gray cat came up and bite her. They killed it, but the halfling was hurt really bad and down for the count.

So the half-orc and the elf went down deeper, while the half-elf carried the halfling out… thinking he would sit the fight out as he was badly hurt. But one brave town-folk name Gus (Laura playing an extra), decided to go down also.

Downstairs, the half-orc and elf saw the a big pit that was spouting fire and a strange steel frame over it… with 9 heads stuck into the ironwork! The priest Otto started taunting them and the elf shot him… only to discover that he had some big barrier in front of him.

Then about as the half-orc was going to shot him also, the sheriff, dressed in a huge robe of elk-skins, wearing antlers and carrying a big, mean looking scythe slashed at her.

After many bad rolls by the party, and great rolls by the priest, the party was all killed!

What was really going on?

Well the priest, Otto, was trying to open a hell-gate to release Orcus from his prison. This "Doomgate" as it was called needed heads to fuel it, and he was killing off people to fuel it. When the party arrived it forced him to move up his plans. The sheriff was his main follower, and the gray-cat was a type of Imp-daemon familiar of his.

Player Thoughts

Edmund Metheny:First a disclaimer - I'm only discussing the Savage Worlds system here, so any critical comments I make should in no way be construed as critical of Karl, his game mastering, or the scenario. I had a good time at the game and that's really all I ask of any roleplaying experience.

That having been said, here are the things I liked about the system:

1. It is pretty fast and furious, with very little of the system drag that Deadlands suffered from. There was one exception to this (which I will discuss below) but overall the game kept moving at a good clip without getting bogged down in the rules.
2. Skill resolution was simple and straightforward - most of the time you have only one target number to worry about (4) so it is pretty easy to determine whether you succeed or fail.
3. Character creation is simple, and the rules seem to allow for a wide variety of character types.
4. Combat is tense - one bad die roll and you can be pushing up daisies.
5. While I am not sure that the system is infinitely customizable (I don't think it would be a good system to port "Skyreams of Jorune" to, for example) it seems to be reasonably customizable to a wide variety of settings.
6. Bennies are a nice addition, that can save your bacon six ways from Sunday and help take a bit of the bite out of an otherwise lethal system.

Sadly we didn't use the magic system much, so I can't talk much about it - except to curse the evil priest who killed poor Shalahazel!!!! It seemed to work smoothly for the GM anyway.

Some things I didn't like about Savage Worlds

1. Initiative was a little too random. On several occasions during one fight I was out-initiatived by a bunch of zombies. It seems a bit strange that having high Agility does not help your initiative.
2. The rules for Knockout Blow seem cumbersome, particularly by the fast, furious standards of Savage Worlds. Rolling for location, effect, permanance, and possibly continuing effect each round is the slowest activity I found in the game
3. When fighting Wildcard characters, bennies become extremely important - perhaps too important. The ability to reroll is huge, and any party going up against Wildcard characters with less bennies than the Wildcards they are facing are likely in for a serious kicking.
4. Injured characters quickly lose most of their effectiveness, and are reduced to rolling dice each round and hoping for a lucky shot. Having someone with healing abilities in any party is essential, since without healing a single lucky shot by even a low level henchman in a minor encounter can take a character out of the action for the remainder of the evening.

Overall I would certainly play the system again, and might even try to run it some time.

Additional GM Thoughts

In the Name of The Father

Game System

Paladin

Pitch

Our world. Now. God looks upon his creation, and weeps. Atrocities committed in His name tear at His heart. Misery blankets His creation. People despair; they have lost Faith, and Hope, and Charity.

For thousands of years, God has stood by as his people made war in his name; as they committed all manner of unspeakable horror, only to justify it by invoking the word of God. As men destroyed, raped, killed, ravaged the land under the guise of spreading His word, God wept silently. After thousands of years, on His throne in Heaven, His angels hear God cry: “ENOUGH!”

God is not the omnipotent being many believe him to be. His power is Vast, beyond mortal imagining, but not without limit. God cannot undertake to fix every wrong while still preserving the order of the universe. God must concern Himself with the larger workings of the universe, leaving other concerns to others.

Unto creation, God sends His three Archangels. As Angels were once mistaken in days past for gods themselves (leading to the rise of many pantheons), the three Archangels have elected to manifest only to those few they deem most worthy. These few become God’s Messengers on Earth. To the vast majority, the Messengers will carry word of God’s Love and Hope. To those who commit foul deeds in His name, and those who incite such misdeeds, there is a different message: God is Angry.

Game Master

John Poole

Players

3

Characters

Miriam Smith - Social Worker and Messenger of Faith

Elijah "Ham Bone" - Exotic Dancer and Messenger of Charity

Holly - Librarian and Messenger of Hope

Date

August 15, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Rune Soldier: Child's Play

Game System

Big Eyes, Small Mouth

Pitch

Louie and his gang of adventure (as well as many others) are off to the Grand Conjuction. When they come across this tiny town with a special little festival all their own. But thing are not always what they seem and when all the fun and games stop it becomes a mad house for everyone.

Game Master

Abraham Torres

Players

Characters

Date

July 11, 2005

Technical Notes

Playtest for a game Abraham planned to run at Dragonflight 2005.

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Amber

Game System

Amber Diceless RPG

Pitch

Game Master

Jack (Cat)

Players

Characters

Date

June 13, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

For Love or Money

Game System

Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play

Pitch

Game Master

Karl Hubbs

Players

6

Characters

Edgar Burrows, Halfling Bounty Hunter / Vampire hunter (Ed Freeman)

Yuviel Huir, Elven journeyman wizard (Ed Freeman)

Philippe de Moche, Halfling Bounty Hunter (John Reiher)

Max Warmfeet, Halfling Rogue (John Reiher)

Silma Hayfooot, Halfling Tomb Robber (Laura)

Human squire (Brenna)

Human Apprentice wizard (Brenna)

Maruviel endil, Elf Apprentice Wizard

Imrak Mousebane (Wilhelm)

Date

May 9 & 23, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Part 1:

Six unlikely heroes, heeding the call of the Emperor himself, decided to travel to the northlands. In the wake of the Storm of Chaos, main cities and towns and villages were destroyed, and bandits and beastmen raiders abound. For those brave enough to seek it out, the rewards are said to be great indeed!

Traveling towards the Great Dwarf Road, south of the River Stir, the party of unlikely companions was hoping to make the next town before nightfall, with darkness less then an hour away. Most of them were walking, except the young squire Regina Durer, whom had left her masters service to seek out glory for herself. Trailing along besides the horse were two Halfling, one male one female. The male spoke with an odd accent, and called himself Phillip de Moche, a very non-hobbit name indeed! But then he also claimed to be a bounty hunter, a Halfling bounty hunter? What? The other called herself Marie Goold and was a bit secretive… the others had heard rumors that she was a tomb raider by trade and not a very honest sort… a fact that would be proven wrong later that evening. An tall, rail- thin woman almost glided along nearby, a hood concealing her pointed ears. She has an almost unworldly alien look about her, no less for the fact that she had no eyebrows. She claimed to be a wizard, but then who would want to claim that around the suspicious who would like nothing better then to burn a witch at the stake… and an elf to boot! She called herself Maruviel endil, and was for the most part a quite sort. Last in line tailed two dwarves… and if there could be as different from one another they were. The first wore a cloak and hat made of rat skins and carried a long pole with more fresh ones dangled. Imrak Mousebane was his name, and hunting and killing rats was his trade. Claimed to have seen a man sized rat that walked on two feet once, but no one believed him. The other, called Karnak Flamebeard, with red eyes and a spiky red Mohawk, was a Slayer it seemed. No one knows what deed had caused him to seek a glorious and gory death, but from the size of his axe he carried few would ask.

As the shadows of the dying day stretched towards night, Squire Regina, Marie and Phillip hears screaming and cries for help around the bend in the road! Racing forward Maries little legs could not carry her fast enough and Regina scooped her up to race to the rise to see what was happening. Phillip pulled his large crossbow and tried to run and winch it up at the same time, and succeed at neither. The others, figuring something was up, raced after their more alert allies. At the rise, Squire Regina and Marie come upon a horrible scene… a Coach has been turned over, the horsed dead and full of arrows, and a group of seven raiders feasting on the horses and the Coach Driver! One of them had tentacles instead of arms! Mutants!! Dropping off the horse, Marie raced to some bushes and readied her sling to attack, while Squire Regina charged down the hill and stabbed one of the mutants in the leg with her lance. It screamed and turned on her… causes her to draw back for a second as the skin on the "man's" arms and face were transparent!

She also got a better look at the rest of the mutant raiders, there was one on the over turned Coach, trying to pry the door open. A female voice inside was screaming, causing the monster to giggle with glee. On the horses, three mutants were feasting on their remains and ignoring the young Squire. The first was insanely fat and covered with fur. The second had a goat like head with horns, while the last hand a pig like face and the powerful muscles of a blacksmith. The mutant feasting on the dead Coachmen was also covered with fur but his face was that of a dog's or wolf's.

The rest of the party then arrived at the hill rise and saw the horrors below… Phillip, thinking of the bounty these mutants would bring, loaded his crossbow with renewed vigor, while Marie tried to hit the one on the Coach but missed. The two mutants in front of the Coach attacked young Squire Regina, the tentacle mutant with a spear striking her a glancing blow on the side of her head… luckily her mail coif defected much of the damage. The other misses and almost falling over as it over extended itself. Regina dropped her lance into the saddle catch and drew out a battle axe to swing at the pair, while Imrak raced down the hill and slashed at the Wolf-headed mutant. His scored only a glancing blow as the creature leapt up and slashed back at him but missed distracted by a small, but viscous dog barking at his hells. Maruviel touch fast and cast a spell that caused weird shouting behind the mutant the Coach… it worked somewhat as the beast started looking in the opposite direction of the party thinking they were being attacked from two sides. Almost lazily, Karnak looped down the hill to attack the three mutants feasting on the horses.

In the terrible battle that ensued, many arms where destroyed, major arteries cut open and much mutant death was had. They also learned that while the dwarfs claim to be the best melee fighters, they were distracted or something and failed far more then they connected with mutant flesh. Squire Regina was seriously wounded, while the Halfling Marie killed a mutant with her small short sword! Maruviel gained one of the mutants discharged bows and killed one of the mutants with an arrow from his own quiver (he was stunned at the time).

Phillip and Imrak then had a small competition on who could chop the heads off of mutants the best, while Squire Regina, Marie and Maruviel tried to calm the woman inside the Coach down. It seems she and her brother (the dainty looking man with some blood his head and out of it right then) were traveling to see their auntie in the big city when the mutants attacked! Finally awaking the young man and getting them out of the Coach, the young mistress ordered the dwarfs to recover their luggage. When they did not jump too, she asked Squire Regina why she employed such rude servants, and muttered something about giving them a good trashing to keep them in line. Karnak, hearing finally that there might be a reward for carrying the chest and bags, started looking inside, to which the young mistress and master screamed (in equally feminine voices) about their "delicates". Marie found the Coached lockbox and picking the massive lock, found a bag of letters and the Coaches money bag that seemed quite full.

In the end, the dwarfs did carry them and off to Mittleredorf (opps last night I got the name of the town wrong… sorry about that) arrived after nightfall. Squire Regina, Karnak and Imrak headed to the young mistress' and masters' house to return the two and claim their promised rewards, while Phillip, Marie and Maruviel headed towards the Burgermeisers house to collect the bounty on mutant heads and any reward from the Coach on returning their letters. Little did they suspect the honesty of Marie when she also turned over the full money bag! The owner of the Coach serves, the "Horse and Stag Coaches", said that for there great honesty he might have another job for them if they were interested, and that he would send someone to fetch them in the morning.

After some talk, haggling and a trip to the Apothecary for the wounded, the party meet back up at the Merry Halfling, one of the largest, best inn in the city. Rooms where secured and at least one keg of beer was ordered (by Karnak) as the party settled in for the eve…

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Overall, loved the Warhammer RPGv2 system, its' fast and easy and crits are REALLY deadly. It did seem that at least HALF of the hits were against the right arm, which was weird but funny. The Dwarfs with the two best melee scores in the group, had a hard time hitting but they seemed to be able do dodge and parry a lot of blows. Halflings with short swords can be deadly! Weird noises can be very distracting, never leave bows lying around for elves to pick up and shot at your bad guys with.

Gettin' Doggy

Game System

Dogs in the Vinyard

Pitch

The players are Dogs (more properly, "Order Set Apart to the Preservation of Faith and the Faithful") of the Faith (more properly, "Faith of All Things of the King of Life") in the 1850's American West. The community of the Faithful is isolated, times are terribly hard, and communities can fall apart.

That's where the Dogs come in. The Dogs will travel from town to town, healing the spiritual wounds that can afflict the faithful. Cancers do happen, and the Dogs are authorized to remove cancers by any means necessary-- but the purpose isn't to kill the bad guys but heal a community.

You do get big guns, though :-)

Game Master

Ed Freeman

Players

2

Characters

Sister Abigail (Laura)

Brother Caleb (John Reiher)

Date

April 7 & 21, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Missing in Seattle

Game System

Call of Cthulhu

Pitch

James Blake a police detective in Seattle is a fellow graduate of St Joans. He participated in the interesting party back at Elsinore. Now he's called on his fellow graduates, Father Drake and Norman Peabody to come help him with strange happenings on the Seattle waterfront. It seems that a number of tourists have gone missing and he suspects that something of an occult nature is going on. He can't really explain this to any of his fellow officers.

Game Master

Laura Mortensen

Players

Characters

Date

March 10, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Bureau 13

Game System

Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic

Pitch

Seattle, the Emerald City, a city of a thousand stories, stories about life and death, and sometimes, what happens after you die. That's my beat, I'm Seth Green, I'm the editor for the alternative newspaper The Fremont Low Tide Review. I'm also the publisher and head reporter as well. I wear many hats in this job.

So here I am, trying to get this week's issue to bed when Susie, my "administrative assistant", AKA receptionist, knocked on my door. "Seth, this just came in," she said, waving a manilla envelope.

"Fed Ex?" I asked, taking the proffered envelope. It had the Low Tide's address and the word Private stamped on it.

"Bicycle messenger," she replied. "He wouldn't say who sent it." She hovered a bit, curious as to what was in the envelope.

"Susie," I said, looking for my letter opener, "don't you have some advertisers to call up and demand payments from?"

She looked sheepish and said, "Yes boss." She only called me "boss" as a way to reprimand me.

When the door closed, I pushed a button and locked it. I set down my letter opener and turned around to my work space behind my desk. I pulled out my ID card and swiped it over a nondescript portion of the workspace. The top rolled back and the document scanner rose up.

I picked up the pair of sunglasses nestled in their holder, charging. I put them on and looked at the envelope and picked up Kirilian scanner. Swiping the envelope with the scanner, spectral images glowed along portions of the brown paper. Someone not of this world sent this to me. Well, not of the living world anyway. I was friends with many a dead person. I didn't know who sent this, as ghosts tended not to sign things.

I popped it into the doc scanner and ran the ultrasound scanner. Inside the envelope were four cardboard rectangles. Tickets by the looks of them. And a small square piece of paper.

Nothing evil or dark came up from scanner or my sunglasses, so I pulled the envelope from the scanner and carefully opened the envelope, then dumped the contents onto the workspace top.

Four tickets for something called "Doctor Dan's Den of Darkness Freakshow" and the paper square was blank.

Great. The tickets were for tonight, and I knew who to invite along with my girlfriend Katherine. Plato and Stefano. Two members of Team Fremont.

Who are we? We work for the most secret government agency you have never heard of:

We are agents of Bureau 13, and we Stalk the Night Fantastic...

Game Master

John Reiher

Players

3

Characters

Seth Green

Plato Ferris

Stefano Renault

Date

February 24 & March 3, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Part 1: Seth Green, Plato Ferris, and Stefano Renault discovered a large, magical bear from the land of Faerie at Dr Dan's Den of Darkness Freakshow near Southcenter. They made a deal with the White Witch of Fremont to help send "Antoine" the bear back to Faerie. Only now, it seems that trouble is a brewing in Southcenter, and starts with T and that rhymes with "B" and that stands for bear...

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

The Cold Heart of Distant Stars

Game System

G.A.M.E.

Pitch

G.A.M.E. Trailer

[Opening: a pure white room with a brunette woman in a silver jumpsuit walking towards the camera. She smiles ...]

Woman: Welcome to 2246 ..

[and unzips her jumpsuit and then opens her chest, revealing a screen showing a slowly revolving green planet with a grey steel spaceship ]

Woman: A universe of limitless frontiers ...

[the camera suddenly zooms into the screen and then around the spaceship which then blasts off ]

Woman: technological miracles ...

[cut shot to a darkened couch with a blue and white helmet. A man is lying down on the couch talking to another man in a lab suit.]

Standing Man: You're going to be experiencing virtual flying experiences. From your autonomic reactions we can extrapolate your ultimate flightsuit and our manufacturing-on-demand facilities can have it ready when you wake up.

Woman: and endless opportunities.

[cut shot to asteroids covered with domes growing plantlife. The camera slowly flies over the domes and connecting tunnels.]

Woman: But no matter how far humans go, they bring with them ...

[Suddenly zoom into one of the domes. A few hundred men are at a rally with a spotlight on one of them]

Woman: hatred ...

Man in Spotlight: The White Race will be oppressed no longer! [crowd roars]

[cut to an blond woman and a man kissing on a balcony.]

Woman: greed ...

Blond Woman: You'll do anything for me?

[cut to a dark interrogation room. A man is tied to a chair. Standing above him is an Asian man holding a pair of pliers next to his face.]

Woman: and violence.

Asian Man: Time for Dr. Picasso, plastic surgeon.

Woman: It all happens here ...

[cut shot to a man in his 50's in a black suit with a white stripe down the middle]

Man: Welcome to Poisonside.

[zoom out of the screen to see the woman narrator again. She flicks a switch and her chest picture and the trailer picture blank out simultaneously]

G.A.M.E.: The Cold Heart of Distant Stars

Adapted from "Red Harvest" by Dashell Hammett.

Soundtrack by Bebop & Destruction and King Crimson.

Game Master

Ed Freeman

Players

Characters

Max Braeber, a grunt working for the Confederated Planets Investigative Agency (John Reiher, first game, and Erik, 2nd game)

Jackson (Laura)

Date

January 27 & February 3, 2005

Technical Notes

Background and sample characters

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Mutants in Seattle

Game System

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Palladium)

Pitch

Will the terror bears be tamed? Will master Yoshi recover compeletely from his ordeal? Who are these bad humans? Where are they? Will our heros find them? Do they really want to?

Game Master

Laura Mortensen

Players

2

Characters

Date

January 10, 2005

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

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