Clarification on Charlottesville

Just to be clear:

If some Nazi wants to march at my side at a Free Speech rally, I'm no one to stop him. So long as he doesn't try to turn said march into a Nazi rally, obviously.

But if someone wants me to march with Nazis, in support of them, because we "must unite the right"?
Nope.

Fortunately, almost all the right feels exactly the same way. The New Right is a massive populist movement. It doesn't need to "unite" with about 2000 assholes who hate Jews and want to purge the impure for "blood and soil" bullshit.

You know who really needs that, though? The Left. If you watch the coverage of this shitty little rally at Charlottesville (dwarfed by 2nd Berkeley, and countless Free Speech rallies, or any Trump rally ever), they will desperately want you to think all the New Right endorses the gang of inbred cunts who were doing seig heils.

So remember that: don't fall for Fake News.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Neerup Diplomat + Burlington's Dublin

The Perils of Technology

I have a plane to catch.  I wake up with one hour till I have to be at the airport.

I usually make my coffee at home with an old fashioned hand grinder & a Vietnamese coffee filter. No electric parts.
But where I'm staying, there's one of these demonic capsule machines.  I have seen it used, & this one looks as straightforward as possible; put in capsule, press big button, coffee comes out.

I put in the capsule. I push the button. Nothing comes out.
There are no other buttons. The screen shows no errors. I figured I might have put the capsule in wrong. I try again. Nothing.
I unplug the machine, thinking maybe it hung & needs rebooting. No change.

Soon I'm thumping the sides of the damn thing like a Neanderthal, violently opening & closing it, howling at the damn beast to give me my fucking coffee! But it refuses, the fucking monstrosity just will not work.  So I head out to the patio overlooking the majestic woodland scene I've been enjoying these many days, trying to see if I can smoke my pipe, sans coffee, before we have to rush to the airport.

My travelling companion is up now, & comes out, & I warn her about the monstrous machine that fails to make coffee.

She tells me "did you press the touchscreen?"

TOUCHSCREEN?! Why on Kek's green Earth does a fucking One-Button coffee machine need a fucking touchscreen?!  What is this monstrous dystopia of first-world futurism I have stumbled into??!

She quickly makes me a coffee, and then as we head out, slightly late, to the airport, I thank Kek that back home I can still follow the simple ways, where so long as my arms don't fail me, & I have beans and hot water, I will always have coffee.

Seattle was lovely, by the way.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Neerup Billiard + Image Latakia

A boy & his dog

You may ask why I haven't been writing.


This is why:

This is Opal, who has been a constant companion these last few days.

She's pretty much the best dog in the world.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Neerup billiard + Image Latakia

DCC Campaign: The story so far

I've been posting my DCC updates here every couple of weeks for the last long while.  So much so that I got to thinking: there's probably regular readers of this blog now that weren't here when this campaign started, over 4 years ago.

It's also possible some of you newer readers also don't frequent the Pundit Subforum of theRPGsite. So, for all of you, and anyone else who wants a laugh, I give you the Whole Fucking Trainwreck.

That link goes to the official archive of all my hilarious DCC Last Sun campaign logs, dating from 2013 until August 2016 (the archive posts 1 year behind, so for all the more recent clusterfucks you'll still have to search here).  You can also see how both my campaign & my posts about it evolved, becoming more Gonzo and complex and hilarious and frankly spectacular as time goes on.

So, enjoy! And stay tuned for more!

RPGPundit


Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti half volcano + Burlington's October Morning

Gone Fishing

Back Later.

Wild West Campaign: The Arabians

Dodge City was especially cold, snowy, and barren that February, with little going on.  Until two old familiar faces rode into town.

First, Mysterious Dave Mather got back from his failed gold-mining expedition.  He'd gone to Colorado with ex-lawman Charlie Bassett. They'd found nothing, and Mather came back to Dodge; but Bassett just couldn't bring himself to return to the town he'd come to feel so embittered about.

(Mysterious Dave)


At around the same time, the long-missing psychopath John Joshua Webb came back too.

Webb had last been seen helping Miller fake the death of his horse (Brimstone), and taking said horse out of Dodge, on account that it had killed Miller's wife. Miller inquired of Brimstone, and at first Webb tried a white lie, but then admitted the horse was dead, saying only that "things got complicated" and that "it was him or me".  Then Webb asked Miller for a job, and Miller hired him on as a security man, much to the chagrin of Other Miller, who was already one of Miller's security men.

The next people to ride into town were all newcomers.  One was a guy calling himself "Big Jim" Davis, owner of a large Oklahoman ranch, who rode in with a bag full of money  he intended to spend in Dodge's saloons, and two stunning Arabian horses he intended to sell a bit further east.

He promptly started buying rounds of drinks for everyone at the Long Branch, becoming a quick favorite of the regulars.

Then came along a pair of young men who accused "big Jim" of being an impostor. The real Big Jim, they said, was their uncle, and this man had murdered him, stolen his money and his horses.  Both Big Jim and the two "nephews" seemed extremely convincing. It proved very hard to tell who was lying and who was telling the truth, and there was not a shred of definitive evidence between them. Everything Big Jim had to authenticate himself by was claimed to be stolen goods by the nephews; and they in turn had nothing to prove their uncle was dead and this man was not Big Jim.

Kid Taylor was the only lawman around, and he realized the nephews were trying to goad "Big Jim" into a shootout, though he wasn't sure which side was telling the truth.  He decided to take "Big Jim" into custody for his own protection. Then Other Miller figured out that they could send a telegram to the nearest town (where the nephews claimed they had left Big Jim's corpse) to confirm their story. They acted pleased about this, but so did Big Jim, so that solved nothing in the immediate sense.

Taking Big Jim into custody to avoid a gunfight was not as such a bad call, but it turned out to be a problem, when the "nephews" tricked the Mormon ex-Gambler (I should really start calling him the Mormon Concierge) to give away the number of the room where "Big Jim" had been staying in the Beattie Hotel. They broke in and stole Big Jim's carpetbag full of cash.

Miller, meanwhile, was in the Alhambra and ended up overhearing Dirty Dave Rudabaugh planning to steal the two Arabians.

He talked Dirty Dave out of robbing the Dodge stables, but Dave and his two sidekicks only shifted plans to hijack whoever ended up with the horses on their way out of town.

They didn't need to wait long. The Mormon Concierge and Kid Taylor discovered the break-in at the hotel, and rushed to check on the horses. Kid Taylor had made the dubious decision to leave the septuagenarian stable-master and his octogenarian rifle alone in the stable as the sole guardian of the Arabians.  The Kid rushed to the stables, but actually got there third. First, the nephews had gotten there, knocked the old stabler in the head, and fled with the Arabians. Second, Dirty Dave and his men who had been tipped off by a lookout. They rushed to their horses and chased after the fleeing 'nephews'.   And right behind Kid Taylor came Miller, accompanied by his new bodyguard Webb, who had both been following Dirty Dave.  Kid Taylor immediately set to ride after them with the two others.

They didn't quite catch up in time. Dirty Dave got to them first, knowing the local terrain better than the 'nephews'.  He and his men ambushed the nephews, unhorsed and unarmed them, and left them behind in the snow.  Kid Taylor's posse went after the footsteps first, and quickly found the two men, who he tricked into admitting they were criminals. Meanwhile, Taylor had sent John Joshua Webb after the horse thieves.

Along the way back they ran into a second posse, led by Wyatt Earp and including the Mormon Concierge and Other Miller.  Earp tonguelashed Kid Taylor for heading off with out a proper posse, and sent him back to Dodge with the two prisoners, while the rest of them went after the horses.

They found their way to a killing scene.

Though they couldn't be sure what had happened, it was in fact Webb, having caught up to Dirty Dave and his gang, who offered Rudabaugh his life if he double-crossed his former partners and he and Dave split the money for the horses. Dirty Dave naturally agreed.

What then followed was a manhunt of various days; only with a twist. In the night Webb actually doubled back and spoke to his "boss" Miller, asking for Miller's blessing. Miller agreed, in his usual half-assed way, saying he couldn't interfere and if Earp kept tracking them he wouldn't be able to help.

As it turns out, Webb and Rudabaugh were quite good at hiding their tracks. Earp also wasn't wearing a US Marshal's star, plus he realized that Miller had a kind of bond with Webb that wasn't entirely different from Wyatt's own toward Doc Holliday, so he gave Miller an out. He suggested they might not keep on searching. Both Millers agreed, and the Mormon Concierge, who has terrible luck, had already been forced to abandon the posse on account of his horse suffering a fall.

So the posse headed back to town without any luck. Of course, they knew Webb was involved, even if they couldn't prove it.

Other Miller confronted Miller directly, asking if Webb had done what he did on Miller's orders, or if he'd betrayed him.  Miller, too cowardly to admit he'd given Webb carte-blanche, told Other Miller that Webb hadn't been acting on his orders, leaving Other-Miller with the idea that Webb could not be trusted.

The telegram confirmed Big Jim's identity and he was set free. He proved quite forgiving of Kid Taylor and the lawmen, since he was mainly pleased the fake "nephews" had been caught and were bound to be hung for horse-thieving.

A couple of weeks later, John Joshua Webb and Dirty Dave came back into town.  No one knew Dirty Dave had anything to do with it, and Webb didn't give the lawmen any straight answers, but when speaking privately to Kid Taylor he ended up giving away the fact of Dirty Dave's involvement.
Kid Taylor wasn't interesting in arresting Dave or Webb though, he wanted the horses back to make up for his failing to Big Jim. So he spoke in Dave's language: he offered Dave immunity if he told him where they sold the horses. And of course, Dave snitched, as was his habit.

Kid was planning on heading out with Wyatt Earp to get the horses, but Earp suggested that they just wire Big Jim with the information, and offer to leave it up to him how to settle the score. Kid agreed. A couple of weeks later, they got a very thankful telegram from Big Jim, who'd recovered his Arabians, and a reward of $500 dollars that Kid and Earp split.

In the end, Kid happily declared that he hadn't learned a thing from all this. But he was $250 richer.


RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Poker + C&D's Bayou Evening

RPGPundit Reviews: The Space Patrol

This is a review of "The Space Patrol", written by Richard Hazlewood, published by Stellagama Publishing.  It is as always a review of the print edition, which is a hardcover, about 90 pages long. The cover has a full-color image of one starship in pursuit of another, near a saturn-like planet (possibly Saturn). The interior is black and white, relatively sparse of images, and these mostly consists of other images of starships.

The Space Patrol is a sourcebook/setting-book for the Cepheus Engine, which is a kind of OGL clone of the Traveller rules. This means that it is generally compatible with most of the standard Traveller rules.  At first glance, I thought it was possibly a sourcebook for the "These Stars are Ours" setting I reviewed previously, but that doesn't appear to exactly be the case, and this is in that sense a stand-alone book.

It must be noted that in another sense it's not a stand-alone book. You need either the Cepheus Engine rules or some other version of the Traveller rules to play.

I think the Space Patrol is meant to be Traveller hearkening back 10 or 20 years earlier than default-Traveller's 1970s style. Even the term "Space Patrol" sounds like the kind of thing out of Heinlein's juvenile novels, that early-60s sci fi that was a bit like cops-and-robbers in space. Even the artwork seems closer to the imagery of 1960s pre-hippie sci-fi than the slightly-grittier 1970s sci-fi; space-suits with big bubble helmets, etc.

The Space Patrol is an independent interstellar police force formed during the era of space exploration to help keep the peace and enforce interplanetary law.  Their job is mainly to deal with criminals and pirates.

The first chapter details the space patrol's mandate, the different levels of law they deal with and enforce, and their structure.  One note obviously there for the benefit of better campaigning is the awarding of prize money, where the patrol crews that capture wanted criminals get to keep the bounties on their heads, and captured illicit goods or pirate ships grant them a percentage of the monetary value of those confiscated goods.

There's also some other forces that have overlapping jurisdiction with the Space Patrol: the Imperial Navy, the Port Authority and local Planetary Law Enforcement are all other law-enforcement groups that the Space Patrolmen have to interact, deal, and maybe sometimes clash with.
There are some special new rules for adding more detail to the basic "law level" of a Traveller World profile, to make it more useful for a space patrolman campaign.
There's also material on gathering evidence, search warrants, courts and trials, and determining the result of trials.  Additionally, material on the different Space Patrol bureau offices you can find on different types of planets, space patrol ranks, medals and awards, and mustering-out benefits. There's career tables (for standard Traveller Character Creation) for various separate sections of the Space Patrol: Secretariat, Investigation, Marshal, and Operations. This is complete with survival/mishap tables and event tables.

Next up we get 11 pages of the Space Patrol's ship. These include information and deck plans.  I'm sure this is the sort of things some Traveller fans will find interesting, exciting, and useful. It's not something I've ever been too into though.

This is followed by 4 pages of Space Patrol standard equipment. This doesn't just include weapons and armor, but also information about their uniforms and badges. That's good detail.

After this, there's the chapter on Space Patrol Campaigns. Since the default background of the Space Patrol 'setting' is kept mostly vague, there's a lot of options provided here for the type of background you might want.  You can have the default, of a single galactic empire. Otherwise, you could have adventures along a frontier region, where space patrolmen can't count on a lot of help and it's all a bit more 'wild west'. Or you could have a "pocket empires" campaign: where there isn't a single unified interstellar government, but lots of different little polities and many independent worlds. In that kind of setting, the Space Patrol is the main trans-governmental authority, operating independently and able to work across borders to hunt interstellar criminals.

You also get models for different kinds of campaigns: the standard "patrolling the spacelanes" approach, the "CSI in Space" model, the wild-west style Travelling Justices model, or even a game where the Space Patrol isn't all lily-white but rather much more like an intergalactic protection racket.

None of these descriptions are given very much detail, just a paragraph or so each.


Next you get about 20 pages of NPC stat-blocks, for a variety of standard models for Space Patrolmen of different kinds as well as criminals of different kinds.

Finally, there's 8 different "adventure seed" scenarios. Each of these are written out as a template. You get a recommendation of the type of characters the adventure would be suitable for (eg. "Marshal and Operations Personnel"), the required equipment (eg. "Dragon-class corvette or other Space Patrol ship"), a paragraph of basic information detailing the setup of the adventure, a paragraph of referee information that explains what's going on in further detail (which may include things like planetary information or prize money offered for capture), and finally each has a random table of 6 'adventure hooks', which add a twist to the basic adventure.
It's a good format; it doesn't provide a complete and detailed adventure, but it provides more than enough for a capable GM to fill things out to create a detailed adventure that he can customize to taste. Adventure seeds include a murder mystery ("Murder on the Orient Star"), a manhunt for a fleeing suspect, a situation with a bio-terrorist organization threatening to release a deadly plague, a fight with pirates, and a protective-duty mission where the patrolmen have to protect a noble.

So how useful is this book?
If you wanted, I think you could use it as the foundation for a campaign, or at least its central theme. I could imagine someone running a campaign of this in the style of a 60s sci-fi TV show, where the rest of the setting wasn't really all that detailed.  You could have episodic adventures with worlds and material being added to the background of the setting as you went along; and of course, in 60s sci-fi style not all of it would really have to be all that consistent, and you could add weird stuff (gas entities, a planet whose inhabitants are nazis, space-mobsters, all the stuff that came from any of the corniest episodes of original-series Star Trek, basically).

You could also adapt it to fit into any existing sci-fi setting you were already running with Traveller; though I would think this would need some adaptation. Basically, the Space Patrol as it is presented seems a bit too white-hat and respectable for the Imperium, way too old-fashioned for Mindjammer Traveller, and it doesn't even match the more realpolitik style of Stellagama's own big setting "These Stars are Ours". In each case, I could imagine a slightly different, less four-color version of the Space Patrol that could in theory exist in those worlds. But it would require altering some of the fashion of the text.

On the whole, though, I can see this book being a worthwhile product for Traveller fans, especially those who may want to try something a bit different than what they've done before.

RPGpundit

Currently Smoking: Blatter Diplomat + C&D's Crowley's Best