Eternal Lies - Saving the world at a cost (Significant Spoilers in final part)

 

After 48 sessions, our run through of the Trail of Cthulhu roleplaying game's Eternal Lies campaign came to an end. This was a journey we started in February 2021, and we had one hiatus during that flow. Sessions were all played out using Zoom, with character sheets on Google Docs. I mostly used Dice by pCalc and other folk used real dice. As a group we had a high degree of trust, having played together for a long time, and also knowing just how good a set of hands we were in with our GM, Rich. We're all GMs, and we all have a love for this kind of game and setting.

Inherently, there's no way I can write this without some degree of spoilers, so please be warned. That said, both Paul (my fellow player) and I had read the campaign before we played, but it didn't reduce the enjoyment and by the time we got the one of the big reveals we'd pretty much forgotten what it was. I'll flag when the big spoilers are going to land in the text below. 

Eternal Lies is an epic, sprawling campaign that travels from (in our case) the area around New York. to Savannah, Georgia, to LA, and then on to Mexico, Malta, Ethiopia (Abyssinia), Thailand (Siam), and Tibet. It is purist noir in style (the horror is genuinely bleak and terrifying) but we found ourselves having to adopt a pulp approach in some situations to get through, partly has we had two players. Although Gumshoe's investigative and general abilities scale reasonably well to a party size of two, the physical pools (health, athletics, fighting skills) are a little less well scaled, probably as we (as players) focused on getting hold of as many skills to investigate with as we could.

The ending came about a fortnight ago, but I didn't feel up to writing this post until now, as the ending came with a sting in the tail. It all happened in character and was incredibly good, but I - and I think Paul - were left feeling somewhat shocked. It was a stark reminder of why we use dice to randomise outcomes, and how they can flavour the feeling of the game. We'd had so many lucky escapes in the past, but this time it wasn't to be, despite us trying to stack the odds as much as we could in our favour.

Playing the game

I've mentioned to tools we used above, but it's probably worth discussing how the sessions and campaign played out. Our sessions were nominally 1945 through to about 2215 in an evening, so around two and a half hours. In practice, we usually played for around two hours as real life tended to mean that one or other of us arrived around 8pm. We didn't have a set day for the game, and organised ad hoc each time we met. I've played at home, from hotels and outside in the garden. Because we used Zoom rather than a VTT, it meant it was as easy to use my iPad as my MacBook. It kept you very focused on the other people in the game.

We tended to play through a chapter, then have a break for Rich to plan the next steps, then go again. There was a period in 2022 when things got a bit hairy, and twice Paul and I managed to have real life things mean we both missed the same day and told Rich late, and the game went on pause for a bit. I'm so pleased that we returned to it. 

The best campaign reference point I could give is Chaosium's Masks of Nyarlathotep (which I've part run twice), but that is much more epic pulp. This was epic noir for me. The flavour of each chapter was very different, and shades of other genres seeped in. Savannah felt Southern Gothic, LA terribly impersonal like you could be chewed up and spat out, and you could feel the heat as we headed out into the desert in Ethiopia to the hottest place on earth.

Having two players made it very intense, but it was one of the best roleplaying experiences that I've had. Paul had an antiques dealer called Ben, and I had a reporter turned society wife called Lotte, a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Our characters became Yin and Yang, and fiercely protective about each other. I think that there was probably a degree of love that built, but didn't really go anywhere because Lotte was married (albeit the events of the campaign were forcing that relationship into slow path of self-destruction) and Ben was too much of a gentleman. It would have been interesting to have seen how the fast forward scenes at the end may have changed if Lotte had survived the climax of the scenario.

Yes, Lotte died. Off screen. Quietly. In the company of someone she detested yet realised was as much a victim as a villain. 

The campaign is epic and sprawling with a huge number of clues and connections to be made. Gumshoe gives you the clues but you need to piece it together. I started by using Miro (Scapple as out as this was the period when I was using a Chromebook before I returned to macOS) but I rapidly realised that this was becoming too complex to map out easily so I reverted to taking just taking notes on my reMarkable. Looking at the app version as I write this, I have 105 pages of notes, some of it a travelogue, and some of it an attempt to make connections. 

In the last three chapters of the game (Thailand, India, the return home) both Paul and I extensively went back through our notes, as if our characters were going over the case. We were searching back to the start of the campaign to find out what we had missed. It was there, but there was real route back to it until we learned some things later on and made connections. On reflection, part of me wishes that I had continued to use Miro, but by the time I had those regrets it was too late (especially as I accidentally erased the shown flow above).

I'll move into spoiler territory following the next picture, be warned. 

 

The story.

From the start, the campaign doesn't pull any punches. We saw creeping horror and the consequences of becoming involved in this story in Savannah when we met people whose minds had been broken by the previous attempt to stop what was happening, including a mathematically gifted cultist. We were attacked on a road as we tried to leave by a group of Asian men whose significance we only realised when we reach Thailand.

This immediately made our characters realise that there was more to this than the simple challenge of 'find out what happened to my father and why he changed' that our patron, a Chemical Industry Magnate called Janet Winston-Rodgers had set us.

Los Angeles followed. We moved from the heat and languid humidity of the South to a clearer, sunnier place, but the horror was there just as much, touching into the glamour of Hollywood and corrupting it with sex and drugs. Lotte came very close to dying when a hoodlum was waiting for her with a gun in her hotel room (Gumshoe's point blank gun rules are pretty brutal if you're at their mercy). This prompted a change in her, a hardening and reversion of her character into what she used to be. Ben saw something horrifying and corrupting that wouldn't leave him. We found paths on across the world, and realised that something very big was happening. We met people with regrets and half stories. We killed for the first time, in defence, but it was a line passed.

Well, the sensible thing would have been to walk away, but with characters that have drives of curiosity and duty, we couldn't. 

Mexico City initially felt a bit like LA but more Latin America. This heat and light shifted again in my head from the descriptions Rich gave as our aircraft landed and we headed into town. We were tailed by a local private detective who later joined us (for a brief spell, we had a third player, Nigel, but health and the challenges of slipping into such an established game meant he dropped back out). A break in and search of an apartment again found traces of occultism and then were were horrifically attacked by birds. That was pretty terrifying. Shades of Hitchcock but worse.

We had confrontations with gangsters, as we discovered that a new drug being sold was intimately linked to this cult we had discovered, and then we saw the costs on those that embraced this icky decadent corruption. And killed again. 

We ended up in the Yucatan peninsula, not knowing who to trust, but finding an ancient religion, betrayal and hypergeometry. No, that's not the term that the scenario or Trail of Cthulhu used, but my character started with science education and it felt apt for a gate between space and time. I've loved the way that Delta Green uses that kind of terminology for years. We met an entity/god that told us the name of our enemy, Y******c. We had little reason to doubt the truth of this, but remained skeptical. We nearly died, several times. Someone tried to bomb our aircraft too. 

Returning to Boston and New York, we were faced with decisions. Lotte realised that she could lose her marriage if she continued with this. Her husband, Jack, wasn't taking it well that she was travelling the world with another man. What would it look like. But the need to follow the story consumed her.

Getting home showed what could be lost. Ben faced similar challenges.

We took a liner across the Atlantic to Liverpool, then a train to London. Ben looked up the entity that we had met at the British Library, I followed up details of the contact that we were looking for. Another liner to Sicily, then a ferry to Valletta in Malta. A photo for posterity of the two of us as we arrived. Lotte was ill when we arrived for a few days*, but it didn't stop us trying to find our path. Ben sketched details of what we saw, as he often did, and Lotte used her Leica to take a record. Both had journals that left details of what they'd found and both had left photographed copies with Janet Winston-Rodgers. 

*There was a point when I was toying for Lotte to have become pregnant with Jack when they met up but events ensued and I never really followed that through. However, as the time between the next few chapters isn't huge, she could have been pregnant when we came to the end game. 

We tail the suspect to his wife's tomb and find his child in hospital. We meet a Knight Templar, dedicate to fighting an entity called N***********. For some time we wonder if this is the entity that the cult is actual worshiping as we remained skeptical. A journey through catacombs underneath the city, and Lotte ends up with a ritual to open a hyperspace gate installed in her head after an encounter. Her mind becomes increasingly addicted to connecting these lines in her head to the hypergeometric principles she me before. If she ever does, a gate will open.

We destroy the cult's warehouse and source of the drug, at cost. Both of us get shot. We capture the person of interest and interrogate him. We realise the source of the drug is still there so return with dynamite. Ben feeds a thug with explosives into the source, narrowly escaping being consumed himself. We escape, scarred, scared and injured and the Knight Templar heals us although Ben does need a hospital. We let the person of interest live, hoping he will focus on his son, but partly fearing the worst.

We take a ship from Malta to Alexandria, where we spend some time recovering and studying. We discover that the potential contact in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) is likely at the hottest place on earth, Dallol. It also has a volcano that erupted in 1926. We take a boat through the Suez Canal to Abyssinia and disembark. The place is full of Italian troops and we pretend to be Spanish. We spend a night at the Hotel Internationale posing as a couple, sharing a bed but not touching each other. Lotte finds herself regretting that the day after but not saying anything to Ben. Transport is secured with an Italian NCO, and we meet an archaeologist who was involved in the earlier expedition, which the volcano destroyed.

A Dhow to Mersa Fatma, more photos. It was a potash port but mostly the trade is gone. We take a train to the end of the line, having found out that the professor we seek still lives. The railway hasn't run in years but we persuade the owners to let us use it, and get attacked on the way by raiders. We meet a native whose people have focused on containing what the expedition disturbed. There are suggestions they cause the eruption. We travel to the village and beyond to Dallol. Ben is not himself; Lotte doesn't know it but the connection that he has established to the entity is playing out. What we see there is best not repeated, but we have to turn back as we realise that the two of us cannot solve what we see here. The brutal heat, the beating sun just drains the life from the place and us. This is not a place for humanity.

Another boat, this time to Aden. Ben meets a strange old man who gives him and book and tells him "G*******h is a buffoon". That was the name of the entity that told us of our opponent. Passage booked five days hence. Ben reads the book. Horrific images. Lotte starts to doubt Benjamin. We burn the book and it corrupts the very room we are in. We sleep together again, but nothing happens.  On the boat to Siam, we see the Mexican who joined us. He has drowned. He wasn't really there. Was he?

Arriving in Siam (Thailand) we are met by a guide, arranged by our patron. We break into the house of the contact we know and find evidence of the cult, albeit with a slightly different form. The contact arrives home and we interrogate and intimidate him. We arrange to meet the head of the local organisation. I reach out to an old friend who lives here; Charles "Charlie Boy" Pierce. He gives us a safe haven. We head into the labyrinth around the club we are to meet at. Rich gives us a fantastic impression of the complexity, noise and feel of the area; I am lost before I know it. 

It's a fight club. We realise our contact has betrayed us, and we are taken behind, stripped and searched. Ben is beaten unconscious, Lotte pretends to faint, but is then drugged.

...

We wake, alone, naked in sandy pits with grates above to the sound of the sea and clear skies. Ben escapes, and manages to free Lotte. We find our clothes and items, including weapons. There's an old woman on a porch in a house on this island. She seems broken but we cannot speak Thai. At least, we think it's Thai. We realise we are being hunted. Our contact kept his promise, in a way. The woman were were to meet is here, but she has changed and is hunting us. We will be the menu.

Ben acts as the sacrificial lamb, just outside the library in the house. I shoot her in the back of the head. Ben makes sure she is dead. We burn the body.

...

We are on an Island in the Indian Ocean, the mainland of Siam isn't far off. 

Time is strange here and Lotte starts to obsess about Ben as he tries to build a boat, topless. There's a raw hunger here. Is it sexual? Is it cannibalistic? 

Lotte reads the tomes in the library. We need to go to Tibet, to a sacred mountain no-one has climbed. There are hints at N*********** again, and claims there is a lie at the heart of the ritual. Lotte skims a book called 'The Revelations of Glaaki', which points at 'Y*******'. There's more. The ritual was multilayered. Not everything was clear. Possibly the cult leader was the only one who knew what was happening.

...

Charlie Boy arrives in a boat and rescues us. He brought a policeman. We suspect him initially, but it seems genuine that he found out where we'd been taken. He translates the woman's notes. Ben sleeps on the couch. Lotte sleeps in the spare room. The notes reveal more doubts.

We return to our initial contact's house, toss a coin, and Ben shoots him dead. Lotte and Ben go for a meal as we are done here. The cult organisation is broken and there is no way we can practically get to the source of the drug here. On balance, more of a win than a loss. 

Then we leave for Tibet, via India. We aren't who we were. Lotte doubts that a return to normality is possible, even if we succeed.

We arrived in Calcutta and send letters home. Plus a set of films that have been developed with our journal notes in. We get first class train tickets to Delhi. Lotte feels strangely detached from the bustle, colours and noise of India. There's a focus here, find a guide, get to the mountain. We know that a team from Siam came here, climbed but couldn't find what they wanted. They came at the wrong time...

The only guide who will help us is a drunken man, broken by his past. 

We drive slowly through the countryside, but somehow the pressing deadline of getting there when the stars are right takes away all the curiosity and joy that we'd get from this pilgrim tale. Time presses. We reach the mountain, and the holy lake at the bottom. We all have a moment, bathing in the lake. For Lotte, it's a moment of peace, memories of hope and lightness. For Ben, it's a return of his curiosity and sense of beauty and wonder. Our guide finds his way again, turning from the addiction and rejection of life that his lost family triggered. He can go no more with us, just gives us advice, and we prepare for the climb ourselves.

We slip off the path early the next morning, loosing the rest of the pilgrims as we prepare to trespass on the mountain. The climb is arduous, but Lotte's experience of climbing and trekking from her youth helps, along with the advice she soaked up from our guide. As we reach to top, the earth moves, shaking as if to register the sacrilege.

We see signs of Y*******, and then face an awakening vision. Ben sees his sister betraying him with his rival, running his shop. His rival kills his sister. Lotte sees her husband Jack throw himself off a skyscraper in a geometrically wrong - and yet so right - New York.

A ravine opens and the scent of the drug wafts up, carried on an unnatural heat haze. We start to abseil down, but Lotte slips, only saved by Ben's second rope that she'd almost chided him for insisting on because they were hurrying. We are attacked, and fall. The spell is triggered to summon G*******. Toad-like it manifests, in shards of glass. Lotte falls to her knees and time stops.

The pretender is vanquished but the gaze of another has turned upon the world, a ritual worked through, and G******* flees. The earthquake starts again, Lotte freezes. Ben runs. Then falls. Awakens, looks for Lotte.

Back on the mountain summit. a strange sickly green tinted aurora covers the sky. Ashes begin to fall. Ben finds Lotte's hand buried in rubble, rescues her and somehow revives her. Was it the coffee from the campaign stove? We descend safely.

Below, chaos reigns. Dead pilgrims. Violence. Ashfall. Ben and Lotte at the end of the world.

We dream badly as we struggle back towards home, we see bad things happening at home. There is panic. There is violence. Unnatural lightning strikes. We manage to get a boat down river and then a ship that will take us across the Pacific to Long Beach, California. The journey is fraught.

Los Angeles is quiet, deserted streets, echoing to distance sounds of gunfire. Bodies and abandoned cars lie in the streets. We make it to mansion of the man who led what was left of the Hollywood sex and drugs rituals. We find him dead by his own hand, and the aspects of Y****** that had manifested ossified. We find a painting that we'd remembered while on the mountain top. It matches what we saw.  The library lets us know that the world is going to end. A paired ritual was cast. The mathematician in Savannah was the key; the focus of the coming apocalypse was him. 

Our patron does not answer calls, and nor do our family members.

We steal a small aircraft and Lotte flies low across America, heading for Savannah. Ben guides using a road map as we follow the interstates. Somehow we get there and land.

It's worse and we can feel the Gaze. Lightning, refugees, bodies. Things slipping through the angles of reality. We'd dosed on iodine, and covered with sunglasses and scarves against the radiation. In an old truck we finally reach the burned out Joy Grove Sanatorium. The mathematician is within, the last of the nurses describing him as 'Satan himself' before she died with a mercy killing from Lotte.

We find him in the operating theatre. Insane with understanding what has been done to him. Wanting revenge on the world. We need him beyond it to avert the Gaze and what will follow. He can't be convinced. He is terrified about going to a dark, cold, lonely place. Arguments failing, Lotte offers to go with him because he can only cross the gate willingly. Ben plans to grab her as the other steps though, but fails, left with the ghost of a hand fading away and a cry of "I need her more than you" from the mathematician.

Lotte, mind blasted, finds herself in the landscape of the painting. Cold, desolate, alone with a madman who reveals he cannot die. She will. There is no hope of recovering enough of herself to reopen the hyperspace gate. She can still grasp the theory but her will and resolve are gone.

Ben considers ending it all but realises that Lotte will kill him if he did.

...

A month later, Ben has talked to Jack, who hung up on him. There are food shortages, but perhaps normality will return. He survives day-to-day by himself.

...

A year later, he is still isolated from society, working as a gas-pump attendant. He is staying away, not reconnecting with his past life. He's trying to make sense of the notes so he can publish the story that initially motivated Lotte. Returning to his room, he finds Lotte's compact mirror on his side table. He looks around, calls out for her, but nothing. He opens it, looks at himself and cries, breaking down.

...

A decade later, he is back in New York, running his business again. The story has been published as a piece of genre fiction. He has told Janet Winston-Rodgers what happened. 

Reflections

The ending was bitter-sweet. Paul had to roll a '9' for Ben to grab Lotte on a D6. That may sound crazy, but he had enough adds left to give the roll a +7 modifier, which meant that he could only fail on a '1'.

He rolled a '1'. He later said that for a moment he considered cheating.

I'm glad he didn't. Although this stunned and shocked us, I think that it felt apt. Lotte should have died on the mountain top, but Ben just managed to save her. She followed her drive of Duty to the end. Between them, they both cheated death many times. It was a victory at a cost, a cost that both of them were always willing to pay.

Apparently, we were one argument away from convincing the mathematician to step through the gate on his own, but at the point Lotte made her offer I could see no other way.

This is the best mythos campaign I have ever played or run. The beauty is that the mythos is on the edge, never front and centre. It was easy to separate player and character knowledge. The NPCs and locations felt very real, and very different. It felt lived in and dangerous. There were moments of beauty.

Playing as a duo enhanced this. It probably meant that when Nigel joined us for a while, it was hard for him to break into the game. By the end, we knew how each of our characters would reach. I loved the hint of tension between them; something I doubt that either would act on, but it felt real. 

I'm missing the campaign, but so glad that I played it. Thank you Rich and Paul!

The End?

21 June 2025

  

Traveller - The Jägermeister Adventure - Ep 2 - Hunting around Star Town! (Spoilers, AI)

Last night we had the second play session of the Jägermeister Adventure, a short bounty hunter campaign for Traveller from Moon Toad Publishing. I was away with work, but planned to run from my hotel room. Unfortunately, there were complications.

Characters.

Saul Emzer (Graham) - the only professional bounty hunter in the group, a guild member well aware of his own shortcomings. Saul knows his aptitude is the down and dirty part of the missions. He isn't the brains, and he certainly can't fly a ship, but when the trouble goes down, he's a man of action, and of stealth when needed. Saul has brought the rest of the team together to support him and fill out the skill gaps. He doesn't like to think of himself as the leader, but he's the one with the official guild membership. He's made some big scores in the past.

Gibert Chang (Andy) - hailing from the Meriden system's Harmony habitat, the home of an obscure religious sect, Gilbert sought freedom by joining the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. He grew up with good understanding of space construction and has supplemented this with a wide range of technical skills, becoming a professional spacer. He describes himself as the potential getaway driver, but is officially the ship's engineer,  and he comes with a broad (but not deep) range of experience and a well-used but cared for vacuum suit called Nadia.

Arturo "Lucky" Javed - Lucky's life has been a lot of ups and downs, probably more of the latter than the former. He aspired to be an intelligent agent but was kicked out of that career early on following a serious injury. He then took to a life of petty crime, struggling to make do and stay out of trouble. Eventually, a role came up on a Merchant vessel, but he kept his hand in with the underworld to try and make some money on the side. He knows Gil of old following a job that went sideways. Lucky is the one who is likely to make contact with any criminal elements that the group may need to deal with.

Pen Gata (Neil) - has spent his life in space, with a broad range of spacer skills that means he's the pilot and astrogator. Once again, he's a broad specialist rather than a deep expert. (The character was built with package generation so has a less developed life path).

The Jägermeister - a 100dT Jump-2 streamlined courier capable of 6G thrust, the ship is also their home and Assured Courier's GmbH's main asset. The crew mostly live aboard, as it's a lot more pleasant than the desert world of Ikeran where they're officially based (and have a rented office). The ship is usually located in one of the downport's long-term parkways. She's armed with a single triple turret with beam lasers and a missile rack. 

Session notes.

I was well prepared for the session, having read both of the first two episodes in the campaign and made sure the assets were set up on Roll20. I'd planned to run for perhaps two and a half hours, but we ended up only playing for a single hour thanks to the ropey internet at the hotel. 

Unfortunately, I was booked into a different hotel than usual, and the end result was that the connection kept on dropping out, which is not a good thing. Everyone was there, but I felt like I was mostly absent. We managed to play enough to close out the remaining threads in the first part of the campaign, but I called a close when I realised it probably wasn't going to get any better. We switched to Discord midway through, which meant I had to splice two recordings together for the session for Tabletop Audio. Unfortunately, Discord didn't solve the problem.

Some great roleplaying and analysis from the players, a lot of which I missed.

Next section is from Tabletop Recorder. The tech issues mean that it mostly lost track of names for the characters and the summary is written from the perspective of the group. However, it's a pretty fair summary of what went on.

Summary of the Session (lightly edited AI synthesis of the transcript).

In the fervor of their second session, our intrepid adventurers delved deeper into the complex quandary surrounding Edric Voss, a scheming fugitive whose plots led them on a chase across the galaxy. The Grand Library of Kahn, wronged by Voss's theft, employed the party to track him down, leading them to the bustling hubs of Ikeran in the mysterious byways of Star Town.

The clues were convoluted, with Voss's movements cryptic, picking up various items – potentially as decoys or essential to his unknown endeavors. A suspect was marked to have assisted Voss, inciting desires of revenge and legality among the party, though concrete actions on this front were still pending. Utilizing advanced disguise drugs, Voss had manipulated his appearance, complicating the pursuit further. Only through skilled medical analysis, provided by the expedition's resourceful medic (Pen), the group ascertained the nature of these cosmetic subterfuges, though their results remained uncertain and impermanent.

Amidst technical surveillance strategizing and considering various pathways, the team contemplated the implications of Voss's choices of transport—was it the liner he arrived on - The Angel of Kahn - or the Free Trader he'd bought the ticket for that he planned to exit with. Debates unfolded on whether to intercept the fugitive at his alleged hotel hideout or at the spaceport, musing over the potentiality of him misleading them with false leads. What they did know was that the liner was leaving that evening, and the Free Trader in two days time.

Finesse and strategy filled their planning, considering the interactions with legal authorities, the use of deception or coercion with the liner's captain, and even the extreme measure of a bomb threat to delay departures. The risk of confronting an altered Voss and the implications of his potential destinations – possibly hinting at his allegiances or intentions – peppered their discourse.

Real-time decisions took on urgency as their quarry's departure loomed imminent. The crew struggled against time and bureaucracy, wrestling with the options of false alarms to delay the liner, negotiating under pretenses of greater security, and deciding on the lawful path to follow depending on intergalactic jurisdictions and ethical margins.

Each step offered a myriad of possibilities, with the stakes high and the pathways muddled with legalese and the pressure of fleeting time. In the end, the resolution remained uncertain, their moves shaping future encounters and potentially steering the fate of the pursuit. With cautious optimism and a readiness to adapt, the party closed another chapter of their galactic odyssey, ready to face the unfolding cosmos with resilience and keen wit.

In a bustling session filled with strategic manoeuvring and technical huddles, our valiant adventurers continue their relentless pursuit of the elusive Edric Voss. The party, divided in their tasks, finds themselves entangled in a mix of virtual and physical hurdles.

As the session recommenced after changing to Discord, the Referee sets the scene with Pen, a diligent member of the crew, racing on an e-scooter along the starport as the massive liner, The Angel of Kahn, soars into the boundless skies, leaving a sonic boom in its wake. The rest of the team, stationed around the town,  decides to scrutinize a hotel where Voss was suspected to have stayed. 

As they consider their approach to uncovering Voss's room, they contemplate whether to sneak in or acquire permission. Opting for legitimacy, they approach the hotel’s reception, leveraging their semi-official status. Information about Voss's stay remains elusive, and further conversation reveals that Voss skillfully booked the room under a different identity, complicating their search.

Upon convincing the nervous hotel clerk and obtaining a key card inadvertently dropped, the group makes their way stealthily to the suspected room. They discover telltale signs of rapid and strategic use of the space - a used disguise kit and hair dye in the sink, but no personal belongings indicating a hasty exit. The window lock unscrewed suggests Voss might have slipped out unnoticed.

Determined, the adventurers comb through the room but find no additional evidence of Voss’s whereabouts or intentions. The discovery that the window had been tampered to allow an inconspicuous escape aligns with their theory that Voss has potentially shifted his disguise and location. Their investigation at the hotel concludes with suspicions but no concrete results about Voss’s current whereabouts.

The session transitions to discussing the necessity of tailing Voss’s next anticipated move, possibly involving heading towards Bulari, the Angel of Kahn's next stop, before he can further obfuscate his trail. The realization dawns that these minor clues pile up to a broader picture of a cunning adversary continually staying a few steps ahead.

Ending due to uncertain connectivity and plans to regroup, the players coordinate their next meeting, hopeful that refreshed strategies and improved logistics will aid them in their galactic chase in the next session. The adventure’s complexity thickens, woven with the threads of urgency and the elusive nature of their quarry, leaving our heroes poised on the brink of pivotal decisions. 

Fortunately, Pen has prepared the Jägermeister for fight, and they plan to race and try to get ahead of the Angel of Kahn.

18 June 2025

Traveller - The Jägermeister Adventure - Ep1 - Chasing the Librarian (Spoilers, AI)

Last night we had the first play session of the Jägermeister Adventure, a short bounty hunter campaign for Traveller from Moon Toad Publishing. We'd had a separate session zero where characters had been generated. We were using Roll20 with the integrated Traveller compendium and the official Mongoose sheets. I was recording the audio as part of an ongoing test to see how Tabletop Recorder works, hence the AI warning above as the summary at the end of the post is drawn from that test.

Characters.

Saul Emzer (Graham) - the only professional bounty hunter in the group, a guild member well aware of his own shortcomings. Saul knows his aptitude is the down and dirty part of the missions. He isn't the brains, and he certainly can't fly a ship, but when the trouble goes down, he's a man of action, and of stealth when needed. Saul has brought the rest of the team together to support him and fill out the skill gaps. He doesn't like to think of himself as the leader, but he's the one with the official guild membership. He's made some big scores in the past.

Gibert Chang (Andy) - hailing from the Meriden system's Harmony habitat, the home of an obscure religious sect, Gilbert sought freedom by joining the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. He grew up with good understanding of space construction and has supplemented this with a wide range of technical skills, becoming a professional spacer. He describes himself as the potential getaway driver, but is officially the ship's engineer,  and he comes with a broad (but not deep) range of experience and a well-used but cared for vacuum suit called Nadia.

Arturo "Lucky" Javed - Lucky's life has been a lot of ups and downs, probably more of the latter than the former. He aspired to be an intelligent agent but was kicked out of that career early on following a serious injury. He then took to a life of petty crime, struggling to make do and stay out of trouble. Eventually, a role came up on a Merchant vessel, but he kept his hand in with the underworld to try and make some money on the side. He knows Gil of old following a job that went sideways. Lucky is the one who is likely to make contact with any criminal elements that the group may need to deal with.

Pen Gata (Neil) - has spent his life in space, with a broad range of spacer skills that means he's the pilot and astrogator. Once again, he's a broad specialist rather than a deep expert. (The character was built with package generation so has a less developed life path).

The Jägermeister - a 100dT Jump-2 streamlined courier capable of 6G thrust, the ship is also their home and Assured Courier's GmbH's main asset. The crew mostly live aboard, as it's a lot more pleasant than the desert world of Ikeran where they're officially based (and have a rented office). The ship is usually located in one of the downport's long-term parkways. She's armed with a single triple turret with beam lasers and a missile rack. 

Session notes.

This was a little rushed for me. I had to be in London for work and the train was delayed on the way back (stuck behind another train that had issues). I did re-read the scenario on my iPad, but I was very conscious that I was late to my own party. Fortunately, Graham let the others know that we'd be starting around 20:30 not 20:00.

Roll20 behaved, as did Audio Hijack, although there was an annoying fractional lag for me with my voice coming out of the speakers a fraction of a second after I said it out loud. Need to work that one out a bit more.

Tabletop Recorder seemed to work well. The language it generated is a bit flowery for me, but there's a decent summary and the transcript is accurate. It did get confused and decided that Graham was a character along with Saul. The summary below is only very lightly edited.

The session is the opener for the campaign. The characters end up in pursuit of Edric Voss, a wanted former librarian from the Grand Imperial Library on Kahn. A scramble across the starport and Star Town followed, with each of the characters leaning into their own skills. The session should have been doable had we had the full time, but we cut it with a choice of investigating the hotel were Voss may be or checking out the Liner he'd arrived on.

This episode needed some extra preparation up front. I ended up taking the Ikeran Down star town map and annotating the PDF on my reMarkable with all the location names. I also had to sort out some numbering gaps for the buildings (ie no purpose) which included making some closed businesses or relocated ones. Finally, I sketched out the route that Edric Voss would take through town and made a note of the likely times he'd be at each location.

The challenge with this episode is that it is designed to play out as a chase; there's every risk that the players could end up feeling frustrated if it isn't done right as this is an opener. There is some proper investigation to be done, and overall they did really well, but the prize isn't Voss at this time. This is the hook.

Next section is from Tabletop Recorder. It's a bit flowery for me, but it does give a decent feel for the session.

Summary of the Session (lightly edited AI synthesis of the transcript).

Deep within the cosmic tendrils of the Ikeran system, aboard the Jägermeister, our band of spacefarers prepped for the unknown. Gil, a man whose youth among the stars birthed a habit of meticulous precaution, roamed the vessel's corridors, checklist in hand, ensuring every bolt, panel, and system was locked, loaded, and logged. His method, the Point-and-Call system, might have grated on his crewmates' nerves, but efficiency was a sacrifice none could afford to scorn. 

Meanwhile, Saul was busy personalizing his stateroom, an arsenal of varied weapons neatly mounted on the wall, his treasured real potted plant placed just so, creating a small sanctuary amid the sterility of space. With his expertise leaning more towards terrestrial tactics than celestial navigation, Saul busied himself with essentials like scouting the whiskey reserves and ship exits. 

Arturo, not quite as productive, found himself lost in the digital sea of local celebrity gossip, an amusing though admittedly unprofitable way to pass time. Far from his realm lay the intricate mechanics that Pen, the hired engineer, checked with devout concentration, ensuring the ship remained a bastion of readiness, prepared at a moment’s notice to leap across the starlit void. 

The symphony of their tasks was underscored by the Gregorian chants favored by Gil, a choice that set the ship’s ambient mood somewhere between solemnity and reverence. But peace was punctuated by the chime of a new bounty notification on the ship’s AI. Saul, somewhat reluctantly positioned as the makeshift captain, and Arturo were the first to glimpse the alert through the complex web of the ship's terminals. The bounty? Edric Voss, a librarian wanted for absconding with priceless data from the Grand Imperial Kahn Library. The price on his head was hefty, promising a handsome payout of 500,000 credits, with a potential bonus if the data returned remained pristine and unaccessed. 

The crew weighed the dangers against the financial windfall. Gil pondered the librarian's capability for danger, while Saul entertained the bounty’s challenges with a mix of excitement and tactical forethought. Pen and Arturo speculated on Edric's potential routes and hideouts, considering the capabilities of interstellar transit and the archives' influential reach. 

As they deliberated, they navigated the layers of information, piecing together Edric's last known movements and the intricate politics at play, uncovering a tapestry of celestial intrigue and high stakes that extended beyond the confines of their ship and into the dark, starry yonder. Each brought their unique perspective, skills, and quirks to the table, assembling a plan, not just to capture a rogue librarian, but to possibly unravel a cosmic mystery that could set them against the very stars themselves. 

In the bustling confines of the Jagermeister, the crew deliberated on the whereabouts of Edric Voss, the elusive librarian with a bounty on his head. Saul mused over the various ships Edric could have taken, to which Arturo agreed, pondering why he was particularly fixated on the Angel of Kahn. Gil, ever the strategist, opined that Edric was likely not aboard any ship they suspected, including their own. Pen confirmed with assurance that a stowaway would have been noticed given Gil's thorough checks. This triggered a deeper analysis of their situation. Amid discussions, Pen took on the task of verifying ships logs, gleaning that no jump-capable vessels had arrived since the warrant's issuance — this narrowed down their options and provided a clearer direction. Saul suggested the potential of searching a recently arrived liner, theorizing that Edric could be aboard or possibly heading to Minerva, known for its discreet ports and shadow markets. 

While Gil delved into the bounty's data packet, Arturo raised the importance of understanding what Edric potentially stole. The type of data could reveal the likely buyers: would they be weapon manufacturers, political brokers, or scientific entities? Gil proposed that the data might contain compromising material on someone from the aristocracy. 

As the crew formulated their approach, an unexpected sonic boom signaled a new vessel's arrival. Could it be carrying Edric? Gil, while examining the library data, suggested that if they understood what motivated Edric's theft, it might guide them more accurately towards his whereabouts. 

With the assumption that Edric was disguised, Saul communicated with starport authorities using his contacts. He aimed to access passenger manifests and surveillance footage to identify anyone matching Edric's description. However, ensuring discreet operations, he opted for tactical stunners over lethal weapons, anticipating close quarters interaction should Edric be found in a crowd. 

Through their competent teamwork and the blend of each member's expertise — from Gil's methodical data analysis to Saul's street-wise interactions and Pen's sharp piloting skills — the crew of the Jägermeister closed in on the fugitive librarian, their minds as sharp as their resolve in the vast and unforgiving cosmos. This meticulous pursuit through both digital landscapes and physical realms accentuated the blend of intrigue and adventure that awaited them at every turn of their cosmic journey. 

In the bustling starport, Saul and his crew strategize their next steps in pursuit of the elusive Edric. Pen offers his driving skills, referring humorously to his potential recklessness, sparking a light banter among the crew. Pen and Saul opt to utilize the scanning system at the starport, comparing incoming passengers to their target's description, hoping to spot Edric discreetly blending in. 

Gil, tucked away behind his screens, assists remotely, navigating systems and offering tactical guidance, suggesting Saul and Pen might have better luck scrutinizing new arrivals from an overlook. This digital vigilance pays off, and through the surveillance feeds, Saul spots an individual matching their target's description, draped in a distinctive long black coat. Eager to pursue, they take their air/raft, a flying vehicle, with Pen at the helm despite his self-professed lack of driving finesse. 

A high-speed chase ensues through the dusty, pressurized streets of the frontier-like Star Town, with Arturo monitoring from the starport. Gil, keen on precision, assesses and plans behind the scenes, messaging tactical suggestions as the pursuit intensifies. Saul, ready for confrontation, mistakenly confronts a decoy, a local draped in the same black coat as Edric, who reveals he was paid to misdirect pursuers. 

Chagrined but undeterred, Saul and his team regroup, sifting through further surveillance to pick up the trail. Arturo spots Edric boarding a shuttle bus to Star Town in a lighter, reversible jacket – a clue to his intentional misdirection. This discovery narrows their focus to Star Town, leading Saul, guided by Gil's tactical insights and Pen's logistical support, to continue their hunt on the bustling, arid streets, pivoting their strategy towards stealth and deduction in the urban sprawl. 

The team's coordination, blending ground operations with strategic surveillance, reflects their adaptability and the high stakes of their cosmic chase. They grapple with the deceptive and elusive tactics of their quarry, each member playing a pivotal role in the thickening plot, navigating through layers of deception to stay hot on Edric's trail in a challenging and unpredictable environment. In the bustling starport of Star Town, the crew of the Jagermeister, led by Saul, had their hands full. After discussing their pursuit of Edric Voss and identifying their roles, the crew ventured forth with distinct tasks at hand. Gil, trusting his religious upbringing, opted to visit the Lady Luck Chapel, while Pen subtly observed the locale from a nearby bar. Meanwhile, Saul and Arturo energetically navigated the crowded streets and businesses, striving to gather any information that could lead them to their elusive quarry, Edric. 

The crew, working collaboratively, strategized their next moves in precision. Saul and Arturo, adept in their familiar domain, employed their investigative instincts and street savvy to trace Edric's steps, discovering his attempts to veil his movements through various changes in appearance and travel plans. 

Their investigation revealed Edric's clever strategies, noting his hire of an e-scooter, alterations in attire, and even a booked high-passage trip on a ship leaving in two days, possibly as a decoy. The team's persistence paid off as they gathered crucial leads from local businesses and surveillance, all the while pondering the broader implications of the secrets Edric harbored and the motives behind his actions. 

This cosmic game of cat and mouse intensified as the crew pieced together Edric's trail, navigating through the chaotic waves of the starport's society and industry. Each member leveraged their unique abilities, tapping into local contacts and digital networks to close in on the target. The expedition through Star Town was not just a chase but a complex operation requiring finesse and guile, drawing upon the profound capabilities and sharp wits of Saul, Arturo, Gil, and Pen. As the pursuit continued, the mysteries surrounding Edric Voss slowly unraveled, offering glimpses into what could be a much larger and possibly dangerous revelation. 

In the bustling atmosphere of Star Town's starport, Saul and the clerk at 'We Will Fix You' have a vital exchange about Edric Voss, the elusive target of their pursuit. Saul, carefully considering the cost, agrees to a payment of 100 credits to gather more details on Edric's plans and whereabouts. The payment equates to the potential benefit they could gain from the crucial information. 

Saul finds out that Edric has procured a sophisticated disguise kit from a local shop—this kit includes potions and gadgets for altering skin tone, hair color, and even eye color without undergoing cosmetic surgery. Despite its legality, the existence of such a pre-packaged kit is concerning due to its potential use in evading facial recognition systems. The kit is popular at fancy dress parties, emphasizing its effectiveness in changing a person's appearance significantly. 

The conversation turns strategic as Gil analyzes the implications of Edric's purchases. They know he's trying to change his appearance, but crucially, Arturo observes that his biometric data remains unchanged, implying that despite cosmetic alterations, features related to his biological makeup, like DNA and fingerprints, remain the same. This information is crucial since, as long as biometric security measures are involved, Edric's real identity can still be confirmed. 

Pen, contributing to the team's analysis, ponders the practicality of Edric's actions, considering the extensive measures he has taken to disguise his identity and movement, including booking a high-passage trip under his own name, a move that might be intended to mislead or misdirect them. 

The team learns that Edric has also visited various other establishments for additional resources - business centers, scooter rentals, and clothing stores, suggesting he is preparing for complex travel plans or further disguise. They weigh the possibility that Edric might use his altered appearance strategically while retaining his original ID for specific purposes, deepening the mystery surrounding his endgame. 

As the session winds down, the crew decides to focus their investigation on two main leads: the hotel where Edric booked a room and the potential use of the high-passage liner. They acknowledge the challenge ahead, recognizing that while they have pieced together significant insights into Edric's tactics, his next moves remain unpredictable. 

The discussion closes with plans to reconvene the following week, leaving the crew poised on the edge of a crucial breakthrough in their high-stakes spacefaring chase. As they part, they agree to discuss their next steps online, ensuring they are coordinated in their continued pursuit of Edric Voss.

11 June 2025

Books in May 2025

May saw me read less books than the previous month, but as I was deep in administration for the North Star convention for the first two weeks on the month, I think that wasn't unexpected. I did manage to read 10 books and 2,003 pages, which brings the year-to-date figures to 57 books and 13,075 pages. That means I've hit the target for the year (52 books, one a week) which I expected to as it was set as a baseline.

I read four roleplaying related books, three novels, a short story and two non-fiction books.

The roleplaying books were a re-read of Deepnight Legacy for Traveller in preparation for running it at North Star, and then the Solemn Vale roleplaying game line (the Wyrd Abacus engine). I covered the main Solemn Vale book in a first impressions post here, and then followed that up with Tales from the Wyrd (a collection of adventures set in Solemn Vale, which seemed very useful) and Summer of Strange. The latter is set in the USA in the 1980s, and is a blend of the young adult based genre that was popular in films at the time. It's set in small town America, and the players will take the characters of young adults (17 to early 20s) who encounter strange and horrifying things. Eventually, the town is doomed by some kind of event (three examples are given) and the only chance of stopping it is the actions of the players. Nasty things can and will happen. Overall, I prefer Solemn Vale to the Summer of Strange, but they're both very good.

The non-fiction were both audiobooks. First up was Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum. This was a (quite depressing) look at the rise of autocracies and oligarchs across the world, and how democracies are failing to react to prevent themselves being vulnerable to them. The second was How Democracies Die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky. This was written in the shadow of Trump's first presidency and discussed how democratic norms could be dismantled in the USA, especially as many of them are unwritten conventions rather than codified in law or the constitution. It's scary to see much of what these books warned against happening now.

The fiction books started with the second of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May mysteries, The Water Room. This is a slow-paced and fascinating investigation into the murder of a woman who appears to have drowned in a dry room. I enjoyed how this twisted and turned.

I followed this with A Spy at War, by Charles Beaumont. This was a sequel to A Spy Alone which I read back in September. Both of these novels are dealing with the influence of Russia on the UK government and institutions. This novel is a sequel and is mostly set in Ukraine during the current war. Overall, I enjoyed this and will keep an eye out for any more books by the author.

Mickey7, by Edward Ashton, was the final novel that I read. This has recently been turned into a film, but I'd had the novel in the to-read digital stack for a while. It's a slightly darkly-humorous story of a man (Mickey) who has volunteered to join a colony expedition as the 'expendable'. This means that they have scanned his brain and memories and can create a new clone-body when he dies. Hence Mickey7. We're seeing the story from the perspective of the seventh iteration of Mickey, as the colony struggles to survive at its new home. There are also tensions, as the religious beliefs of some of the crew and the captain are that this technology is an abomination and that Mickey is a soulless monster. The pages turned easily in this, and I've just started the sequel.

Finally, I read one short story, Human Resources, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is set in the same world as Service Model, albeit slightly earlier. The protagonist is a Human Resources officer in a company that has shed most of its workforce because of the use of near sentient robots. It's a creepy view of the slide towards the collapse of society as the character knows it.

Overall, a good month. I'd probably rate The Water Room as the best of the fiction (Mickey7 came close) and How Democracies Die as the best of the non-fiction (if only because it taught me a lot about how the US governs itself).

1 June 2025

The Jägermeister Adventure begins... (Traveller)

 

Back in January I teased a new Traveller campaign which will kick off tomorrow evening. I'm running Moon Toad Publishing's The Jägermeister Adventure for some friends using the Roll20 VTT. This a short bounty-hunting based campaign which I think will take 9-12 sessions to complete, based on the book saying six sessions and my typical VTT based gaming session being around 2 hours.

Much of the build preparation has been snipping out the relevant graphics. I'm using a base splash screen which I will add to as the adventure progresses. I've also acquired the Traveller Compendium (Core Rules, Central Supply Catalogue, High Guard and Companion) from Mongoose on Roll20 which look great and will hopefully be worth the purchase.

I've four players, so it should be a good mix. There are long standing gaming friends (Graham, Paul), along with Andy (whose writings in White Dwarf about Traveller helped inspire my passion for it) and Neil (who was one of the people I first played online with, using Skype with Hot War).

Tomorrow's session will be character generation and preparation for the campaign.

I am planning to test Tabletop Recorder with this campaign. After backing the recent crowdfunding, I've three months of trial time to see if it adds any value. This is an AI supported tool that will convert audio into a transcript and allegedly produce effective summaries. It was certainly trying to butter me up with the analysis of the 30-seconds that I trial recorded, although I'm not certain about being called "Dungeon Master" in the context of a Traveller game.

“The Dungeon Master meticulously tested the recording setup for the upcoming Jaegermeister Adventure, making sure all technical aspects were ready for the session. With everything operational, they surveyed the extensive display of maps and character sheets, strategizing how to guide the unfolding narrative and create a challenging yet engaging scenario for the players.”

I am quite interested in exploring AI tools where they help me GM (for example the recent exploration of NotebookLM), but I'm also very conscious that some of these tools are putting creatives out of jobs. It's an uneasy balance. It will be interesting to see how things work out and if they're any real benefit.

26 May 2025

First Impressions - Solemn Vale (Folk Horror RPG)

Solemn Vale is a gorgeously presented 352-page full-colour roleplaying game that presents a folk horror roleplaying game firmly set in 1970s Britain. A reference would be 'The Wicker Man' and other of its ilk. It is beautifully (and sometimes disturbingly) illustrated, with a simple clean layout. The game uses its own engine, which aims to give light narrative resolution either at a scene level or close to it. That means it's not designed to go 'blow by blow', but usually resolve a conflict with a single roll. It uses six-sided dice. It is published by Dirty Vortex. It is likely that characters will suffer terrible fates as they become entangled in the influence of Solemn Vale, so the game focuses on the journey to those consequences.

It is worth saying that this book is dark; nasty things are explored and will happen, just like the genre it is focused on. This would be an 18-rated film if it was a movie. 

TL;DR: I'm impressed with Solemn Vale. It has a light and effective game engine linked to a layered and complex sandbox that perfectly evokes that 1970s British Folk Horror vibe. The setting lends itself well to exploring stories within that space, across a number of different themes, and the example scenarios are good examples of how to hit those different notes. 

Beyond the subject, the thing that really hooked me into this game when it went into crowdfunding was the cover of the standard edition softback and the use of an Ordnance Survey style map for one of the add-ons. It's kind of ironic that I ended up opting for the hardcover (which has a different image) and I'm still waiting for the map (after a shipping issue meant that they went missing and subsequent illness from the creator) but I'm really happy with the material that I have received.

The book opens with some fiction where a young lad and his father are driving to Solemn Vale, moving into the old home of a relative who has died. They encounter a young girl in trauma by the roadside, and as they meet the police you get the feeling that something is very off about the place. 

The game engine (Wyrd Abacus) is very simple. Characters are defined by a concept three abilities - Body, Mind and Soul. They will have a minimum value of 3, with a maximum of 9. Each ability has two facets associated with it that help build a picture of how the character is and should be played. Each facet has pros and cons listed. There is an extensive list of facets in the book, but you aren't limited to these. 

There are a set of online tools for the game, so you can easily see how characters feel by using the random generator on the website. There are also other random generators for the GM there.

Abilities are used to overcome challenges. Challenges are rated between 2 and 10 typically and will focus on a specific ability area. Each ability covers three different types of challenge; the different types have no real mechanical effect and are there to provide clarity on which ability is in play. 

Body has Obstruction, Pursuit and Threat challenges.

Mind has Logic, Pressure and Wits challenges.

Soul has Foreboding, Invocation and Taint challenges. 

You resolve a challenge by describing what you are going to do and rolling a D6 to try and equal or exceed the challenge rating. For higher ratings, you will want to spend ability points, which one-for-one increase the dice roll. Spending points removes them from the pool associated with that ability, so there is a degree of resource management to think about, similar to Gumshoe. If you run out of points in an ability, it drops to zero, meaning you cannot influence a challenge outcome beyond the whims of fate from the dice roll. In most challenges, a single character will take a lead and make the roll, with any others involved being able to spend points to boost the result. 

Failed challenge rolls often cause additional damage to abilities, reducing them further. If they would be reduced to zero or less, they are 'scratched out'. The next time that ability would be reduced your character will be defeated and taken out of action (killed, driven insane or some other appropriate narrative ending). There are rules for keeping a player involved should this happen and there isn't an appropriate way to introduce a new character. 

Instead of damage, a character could suffer a narrative consequence (for example turning a faction against them). Alternatively, the 'stage rules' related to the challenge could require a character to  immediately scratch out an ability or suffer some other kind of effect. Consequences to groups are spread between them at the discretion of the players involved.

You can recover ability points. If you have faced a challenge in a scene, you can recover a single point in an ability of your choice between scenes. There is an optional rule that allows you to recover an additional point between scenes if you have strongly role-played a facet. Finally, if you rest and recover in an appropriate way, you can make an influence roll (see later) and restore a number of points. However, you can only recover points in a scratched out ability with an appropriate narrative means (such as visiting a hospital, having a witch's blessing, having therapy). 

In the event that you don't have enough points in an ability to boost a roll to pass a challenge, you can draw a Wyrd point from the Wyrd Pool to use a different ability to spend from, so long as it makes narrative sense. If your character isn't present in a scene, they can draw a Wyrd point to allow them to have done something that helps those present (usually addressed with a flashback) and add points to a roll. If you've failed a challenge, you can also opt to draw Wyrd points, one-for-one, to increase the roll you made so it is successful. All these points go into your own personal Wyrd pool. 

Each scene has a Wyrd Pool, the level set by the number of characters involved. This represents the entanglement of the character's fate with what is happening in Solemn Vale.  Players draw from it, and the points go into their personal pool. As well as using the points to use alternative abilities or boost the end result of a challenge roll, Wyrd points can be sent to introduce an allied or friendly denizen of the Vale into a scene, or to affect the outcome of a Wyrd roll. The Wyrd Pool regenerates at the end of a scene, but the character's personal pools remain.

Influence rolls are used to resolve minor contests or to see who is affected by a twist in the tale (for example, who is targeted as a victim). You get a number of dice equal to your ability pool maximum, and roll them, and take the highest value scored as your result. If the ability is scratched out or at zero, your result is set to a '1'. Bad things will usually happen to the character with the lowest score. Some influence rolls will look for a roll of '6' or '1' to trigger something, for example a countdown clock.

Wyrd rolls work in a similar way, but the number of dice is based upon a character's Personal Wyrd Pool. However, as this represents the entanglement of the character in the influence of Solemn Vale, a high roll may not be a good thing, as it means the focus is upon the character. 

Magic is real in Solemn Vale, and usually handled abstractly through a Soul (Invocation) challenge. However, there are some more detailed rules for creating wards, charms, casting spells or making a conjuration to summon something. The text is clear that these are only there for special circumstances.

Overall, the rules are quite light (and are expressed in two pages in sister game Summer of Strange). Immediately after they're presented, a scenario is presented, where a BBC TV crew arrive to do a surprised visit with a child who has written in to them and find the house abandoned with bloody footprints and a compelling reason to follow up. The scenario - "Footprints" - showcases the Vale and the way that scenarios are constructed. They begin with an overview of the scenes, then the denizens involved, then specific 'stage rules'. Stage rules are elements that tailor the scenario from the baseline, and may escalate or drop away depending on where and when the characters are in on their story. Finally, each scene has example challenges and consequences listed, followed by suggestions for handling the outcome of the final scene and any epilogue. Overall, this is a great introductory scenario and serves to demonstrate the rules well.

This is followed by an essay on the decay of 1970s Britain and how it will change as the 1980s arrive. It's a good overview, but some reading around could easily supplement it if you didn't live through parts of it! The book then moves into describing the heart of Solemn Vale.

Solemn Vale is a remote town set on a valley near the coast in Cornwall. It is surrounded by hills and forest. The town itself is surrounded by smaller hamlets and farms, and it seems stuck in the past. The first area described is the heart of the town, beginning with the Green and the Bowler's Arms and including such places as the local nightclub. Each location has the background, secrets, agenda, appearance, allies and enemies described, followed by potential challenges, stage rules and key denizens at that location. Denizens, for example, the pub landlord, are described in a similar manner. These are all evocatively illustrated, and the writing starts to trigger ideas and thoughts for how you could run a game. Although any given scenario will have a plot behind it, the setting is very much a sandbox with lots of levers to pull. 

After the town, the book moves onto 'The Manors', the powerful families that hold land and control the Vale. These include Lord Lowen Wellman's Guiding Star Commune, the Moore-Hollow family (whose wealth comes from mining) and the Blythes (established farmers). These families have been here a long time and have a number of simmering feuds. A number of locations where these may play out are described for the Gm to draw upon. 

After 'The Manors' come 'The Estates'; the council housing and civic centre built to the north of the town. This is where you'll find the Library, Pharmacy, and Sports & Community Centre. There's the ice cream van, which does a roaring trade with specials. These are the places where you'll meet the Browns, Brownes and Brownlees, an intertwined and interrelated set of families who have lived in the Vale for a long time. If you have time, you could join the Bridge Club, or the Paranormal Investigation Club, meet local artist Mark Robinson and his 'Tea Party', the Masoods, Arkwrights or the Taylors. In much the same way as the early chapters, some key locations are described.

The book then moves to the second scenario, 'The Crisis of Father Aloysius'. Whereas 'Footprints' is focused around nature spirits, this scenario shows a different aspect, exploring a tortured Christian priest facing threat from pagan beliefs, and having a crisis of faith that could go very darkly. Again, a very effective exposition of the themes within the game.

The next chapter, 'The Meat of the Earth' starts a deep dive into the true nature and dangers of Solemn Vale, along with the farms, mines and families who could make life very uncomfortable for the characters. We get to meet Old Blood like the Holloways (traditional farmers with a tendency to violence and intimidation, linked to the Omega Cult), the Havers (again traditional, but with strong pagan beliefs), the Sykes (scrap merchants, petty thieves & criminals and sometime agents of the Holloways) and the Fenmoors (fiercely independent and self-sufficient). We also get to meet New Blood like the Walcotts (who returned from London in the 1800s), the Leightons (the latest tenants in a farm with a dark reputation) and the Crowes (hated once the collapse of the local Quarry was attributed to run-off from their farm). There are also independent families like the Rhodes (whose heritage goes back to Norman times) and the Gardeners (a family with roots from Nigeria who came to Britain with the Empire Windrush in 1948). The chapters rounds out describing locations like the local quarry, the defunct Moore Tin Mine, the abandoned Vale Copper Mine, and the local abattoir.

The next chapter explores the boundaries of the Vale, the woodlands, cliffs and caves and fields, along with key locations like the Stack (an old, abandoned brick chimney), the lonely Ere Rock, the Old Train Station, St Roch's Lighthouse, the Atlas Tin Mine, the old Courthouse, the perilous but beautiful river by the Ryswell Straight, the Witch's House, the old Bunker and tourist locations like the Shrike Hotel and Happy Acres Lumber Mills. There's also places of potential occult significance like the Druid's Circle, Skal's Folly and the Menehary Campgrounds where a brutal crime occurred in the past. 

A short chapter describes the Omega Cult and how to use it in play. I won't describe more because of the potential spoilers, but it is a very different kind of horror.

This is followed by the final scenario; 'The Hounds Unleashed". This puts the characters in a situation where one of their party has gone to get supplies but not returned, and they are stuck in a caravan in the middle of bleak cold and frozen moorland. The plot riffs on a traditional folklore threat in such locations and again leaves plenty of opportunities for roleplaying and peril. It draws on several threads established in the chapters after the previous scenario. Overall, I liked this, but I think that it could be messy. 

The book rounds out with some fiction from the perspective of a young Police Constable who has been assigned to Solemn Vale. This, like the opening piece, does a good job of giving the oppressive feel that the place gives off if you're a stranger. 

The book has several appendices with lists of facets and example stage rules for challenges, denizens, locations and encounters. The latter four lists are also available as decks of cards. I have them, and they're nicely done on good quality card.

Overall, I'm impressed with Solemn Vale. It has a light and effective game engine linked to a layered and complex sandbox that perfectly evokes that 1970s British Folk Horror vibe. The setting lends itself well to exploring stories within that space, across a number of different themes, and the example scenarios are good examples of how to hit those different notes. 

Recommended

25 May 2025

Edit: Video of a flick through of the book:

First Impressions - Dungeon Scrawl (simple VTT dungeon mapper)

I was preparing my next Traveller campaign on the Roll20 VTT and got sidetracked into Roll20's Dungeon Scrawl product. The map above is the output of perhaps 20 minutes messing around and I have to say that I'm impressed with the flexibility in the system. I was using the free version of the tool which includes the ability to export PNG, import your own images and .ds files and even create isometric maps. You can create an unlimited number of maps. There are multiple styles; above is one very similar to Dyson Logos house style, the one below in the TSR blueprint style.

The 'Pro' version costs $5 a month and adds the ability to export in PDF, add lighting and permission to use the output commercially. 

As it stands, this is a fantastic tool for creating maps. If I was running VTT a dungeon-based campaign then it would be really useful. Certainly, it would allow for live mapping with one of the VTTs that allows screen sharing, but also simple preparation of maps. It would have definitely helped when I ran OSE some time back!

Worth a look. It won't replace Dungeondraft or Campaign Cartographer's Dungeon Designer but in its own niche it's pretty impressive.

Edit - just noticed you can now easily use Dungeon Scrawl live in Roll20 too. 

More details here: https://blog.roll20.net/posts/build-epic-vtt-maps-in-minutes-dungeon-scrawl-connects-with-roll20/

24 May 2025

Coping with the Blurring within Game Engines

I've had a lot of fun over the last few years playing both 2d20 engined games from Modiphius, and Year Zero Engine (YZE) games from Fria Ligan. However, this does present a challenge. I find that the more of the games that I've played, the more confusing I find them (especially if I am playing they in close proximity). This is particularly bad with 2d20.

I find that the problem is that the core of the game remains the same (roll 2d20 under an attribute and skill, build & spend momentum or roll a pool of D6s looking for at least a single '6' for success) but all the parts around it have been heavily tweaked to tailor the game to the setting in use. You can have similar mechanics in different versions of the same system that are driven by different meta currencies which are called different things and work in subtly different ways.

I know that this isn't just my issue; I've had the same conversation at conventions with folks, most recently during John Carter of Mars (2d20) at North Star. The YZE game I played at the same convention - The Electric State - was less of an challenge, as the mechanics were very stripped back.

I've reached the point that I'm actively ignoring any new 2d20 games that come out because I just don't want to deal with this blurring of mechanics between systems. I suspect that the copy of Cohors Cthulhu which is due to march into my house sometime this year may just be sold on unplayed.

I think that there could be a simple solution; one that could easily be done by the publishers or the fan community. Both of these engines have SRDs (system reference documents). I'd find a simple one page overview of how each of the games differs from that SRD really useful. It doesn't have to detail all the mechanics, just the key changes. That would make it a lot easier as a player and as a GM who needs to guide players through the differences in the game they're running.

Anyone else think this is a good idea? How do you cope with playing multiple variants of the same system?

20 May 2025

Postscript

As I took the picture that heads this post, I realised that I've quietly got rid of a lot of my 2d20, whereas I still have all YZE games I've ever bought. The only 2d20 game I'm missing above is Conan (which is in the to-sell pile, to be replaced by Barbarians of Lemuria). I've sold off Homeworld, Achtung! Cthulhu, the first edition of Star Trek Adventures (twice) and John Carter of Mars. I actually have more YZE games, but they aren't as quickly accessible; Vaesen, Coriolis, Things from the Flood, Twilight 2000, MYZ: Mechatron and Forbidden Lands. It looks like I've subconsciously made that decision between the two engines. Strange, as I do like the way that 2d20 plays.

North Star 8 (2025) - After Action Report

As ever, the first thing I'm going to say here is that I'm one of the organisers of this convention, so my opinions are going to be biased. However, once I get there, I'm playing or running games in every slot like the rest of the people attending. I just get to do other things around the day!

North Star is our annual roleplaying game convention focused on science-fiction games. This was the ninth convention, and the seventh face-to-face, as two of the conventions ended up being online during the COVID-19 lockdowns. It has a special place in my heart, as it is something that Graham and I conceived of after attending one of the TravCons. Initially, we were looking at a northern Traveller based convention, but there wasn't an appetite from BITS, so we decided to do a more general science fiction based convention, which has proved popular. This ranges from science fantasy like John Carter of Mars, through to horror (form example Delta Green) through classics like Traveller and Cyberpunk, and on to post-Singularity based games.

PREPARATION

We started planning for North Star straight after the last convention in 2024. As a convention, sits in the middle of attendance levels between Furnace and Revelation. We had 52 sign ups this year, up six on the previous year. However, we continued to see the challenge that we've had with very late decisions to attend and respond to things like game pre-booking. That can be pretty challenging; we have four different channels we use for communications; the email address people provide when signing up, and then the Discord Server, the Facebook Group, and the Gaming Tavern. All key updates get sent out across all channels. However, some folks we only realised weren't coming because they didn't reply to anything. That makes things very difficult when doing game allocations. 

Of course, we always assume that we'll get some drop outs, usually around 10%. That's real life. People get sick, family events happen and life intervenes. If we know this, it's manageable. Throughout the process, we're trying to balance number of seats at gaming tables offered (ie the GM + players) against the number of attendees in that slot during the convention. I say in that slot, because one of the changes we've seen increasingly is that some slots (for example, Saturday night) get less player demand. We now ask a question during sign-up to try and manage this. I try not to have GMs preparing for games that won't run.

If a player drops out, it's usually simple to address, provided it doesn't take us below three players in a game. When that happens, we initially check if the GM is happy to run with two people. If they are, we then check if the players are happy to play with two players. If anyone says 'no', then we're trying to find all three of the people involved spaces in another game.

If a GM drops out, it's more challenging. We do have some people who will act as reserve GMs or offer to run twice, but the numbers involved and complexity jumps in getting people into another game. We used not to care so much about this; I'd bring a big bag of board games, and the sign up was a free-for-all at boards (well, this was Furnace's original method). If you didn't get into a game, there was space to play and enjoy yourself. However, this also meant people didn't get into games they wanted to, hence we moved to pre-booking, which Elaine championed (despite the extra work), something that North Star adopted from the start.

During the preparation, we all have different tasks. Hattie (who joined the team a couple of years ago) is preparing marketing material to pitch the convention, I'm doing the forms for registration and managing games, and Graham is handling most of the comms and the liaison with the hotel. It generally works smoothly.

Hattie did a fantastic job with the new marketing material and finding alternative spaces. It was nice to have some variety, and to try new channels for people to find the convention. We haven't asked people how they found us in the registration process, so we don't know how effective it was, but the numbers were up, which helped. It was a real shame that she couldn't attend as she had to be in the USA with work the week of the convention.

The numbers meant we opened up a second space in the bowels of the hotel (the main space handles around 38 easily, and can go to 45 at a push), which meant we ended up with a feeling of space on the Upper Jailhouse and the alternative area. That's great, because it means that noise from other games doesn't tend to impact the adjacent tables. 

The fortnight before North Star was pretty crazy for me; working had moved some reporting periods forward, so it was pretty full on. At the same time I was juggling preparing two Traveller scenarios to run and trying to finalise the game allocation. I think I had to redo it three times in the last week. I took Friday off and dedicated to preparation. Fortunately, I'd bought extra paper 'just in case' as I ran out (it's either that or toner usually) while printing the badges for attendees. The main annoyance was that I couldn't find my 'stationary bag', the Furnace con bag with my dice and lots of different goodies from All Rolled Up and others.

I finally finished all the prep after midnight; not what I planned, but the various changes and work had put my on a back foot. However, I felt ready to run and I knew that the material for the convention was ready, and that Graham had checked the venue the night before so that we had minimal effort to do in the morning.

SLOT 1 - THE ELECTRIC STATE - INTO THE BLACKWELT

I arrived early enough that it wasn't a problem, and immediately found out that another player had dropped out due to illness. That pushed three games below two players, so there was some shenanigans that went on past the opening speech while I made sure everyone had something to play in.

The strangest part of the preparation on the day is standing on a chair taping baking paper to the window. When the hotel refurbished, the hotel got rid of the curtains upstairs, and sometimes the sun will come in quite strongly. We have improved with baking paper to let light through but take the brightness and heat down. By Furnace this year we should have some proper coverings sorted.

Badges, X-Cards, signs and everything was out, and we were off, with Graham opening the event with his well-trained patter.

https://youtu.be/mOYc3RToVts?si=G0MJLod4Xmod3t3y

My first game was Robin's The Electric State, which I was really looking forward to. I've read the Simon Stålenhag artbook that it's based upon, and have the roleplaying game. However, I'd not had a chance to read or run it, so this was an opportunity to explore the game and the setting. I played a Nevadan Veteran of the War that tore the United States apart. We were a group of misfits with past history who didn't really know each other, but were on a road trip to try to get out of Pacifica to Tonopah, Nevada. Each of us had troubles that were pursuing us, and the journey became an exploration of our back histories. Robin kept on throwing in things that hooked to our stories. We managed to reach Tonopah, and also to resolve a few character's goals, but for me the journey was the thing. I loved the way we got to find out about each other and the interactions as we crossed this very broken USA. This version of the Year Zero Engine just faded into the background. A fun game with great players.

If you're interested in seeing the background to the scenario, Robin has shared it on his Substack here. 

After the game, I nipped to Morrisons for lunch, and spent a bit of time reading my scenario for the evening.

SLOT 2 - FADING SUNS 4e - A ROAD SO DARK

The next slot brought Fading Suns, run by Graham. We've both got history with this game, and ended up inadvertently going for the same bundle of books for the current edition on eBay. I won that, but Graham beat me to the table. The fourth edition rules read as quite complicated, but in play they're really smooth and easy to use. At the heart of the engine, you're rolling a D20 to get under a target number, but you want to score as high as possible because that gains you action points that allow you to overcome resistances to your action and get better results. 

The setting is very Dune-like*; in the future, humanity expanded using alien jump gates but the representative democracy of the Second Republic collapsed a long time ago. The stars are fading, and darkness threatens. The Prophet brought worship of the Pancreator, the source of light. Worlds are dominated by major and minor houses, counterbalanced by the Guilds. Society is balanced on a tripod of Guild, Nobility and Church, and the Emperor tries to keep it all in balance. The Emperor Wars only ended recently. Into this, our party was a group of House Decados nobles and their retinue. Decados are the sneaky but decadent house. They aren't quite as bad as the Harkonnens but there is an edge to the game that they play.

*Also shades of the set up in Dan Simmon's Hyperion books.

It started with a party (don't all the best adventures?) where the Decados had been invited to the 'coming out' party for the daughter of a minor noble house. Tom played a metro-sexual Decados noble to the hilt, with intrigue, flirtation and little sharp daggers. John played his much more 'honourable' cousin, a questing knight, but still underneath a Decados. Tim had the noble's personal cleric, a Sanctuary Aeon healer, and Guy and myself playing the Guild representatives. I was the Charioteer (responsible for starships and piloting, and some mercantile aspects) and Guy was the Muster mercenary. I had to pick that character as it had the same name as I do!

We ended up with a great dynamic, and chewed the scenery between us for the first hour or so. I could see Graham starting to think that the scenario may not actually happen, but to be honest, that wouldn't have mattered from the player's perspective as we were loving it. However, somehow we managed to get back on track and broadly achieve success. I really enjoyed it, and if Graham had offered to carry on a mini-campaign then I would have been up for it.

After the game, Keary, John and myself set off for our usual Garricon bookclub meet up at the local KFC. Increasingly, we've other folk joining us for this, which makes it a great opportunity to share what we've read that we've enjoyed. Of course, part of this was ambushed by discussions about Andor, partly spoiler free as some people hadn't seen the new series.

SLOT 3 - TRAVELLER - THE HUNT FOR SABRE IV

This was the first of two Traveller scenarios that I was running at the convention; it was the first that I'd settled on and comes from the recent Mongoose Traveller revamp of the Classic Traveller scenario. Murder on Arcturus Station. The updated version has two scenarios; the first one was a prequel that sets the scene, in which a team run by the players gets brought in to investigate a missing mining ore carrier.

I'd turned the entire scenario into a mind map for easy reference using Scapple, and also extracted a timeline (the mindmap is above and obviously includes spoilers). The other key preparation was getting all the handouts and pictures of people available for the players to have in hand, and generating characters. 

I used the alternative package based character generation from the Traveller Companion 2024 Update. That was really useful and allowed me to half the time I usually spend building characters. It does this by having you create the ability scores for the character's UPP, after which you choose a background (eg Belter) that may modify the abilities and give you some initial skills. You then choose a career package (for example Agent) which give you more skills and some benefits. Finally, there are some options to tweak your skills at the end, either to give a high score or to boost across a number of skills. It works really smoothly.   The characters were set up a franchise Hortalez et Cie audit team who were delayed in systems while a part was delivered for their starship.

I created the character sheet as half an A4-page, then went on 'thispersondoesnotexist.com' to generate a set of random images for character portraits. I turned them black and white. While doing it, I realised that there seemed to be an unconscious bias in the way that the model had been built. If I remember correctly, it had been done by analysing images of people on the net for patterns, enabling it to produce random portraits. The model's training clearly didn't have a large number of black subjects as the output was predominantly White, Asian and Hispanic. This may well reflect the source data used but it took about thirty refreshes before a black person's face appeared. However, after lots of refreshes, I had a decent selection of images.

The reason I did this was to slip the two items into an A5-menu stand - one site with the character sheet, the other with the image. I also created a random table of names for inspiration. I gave each character a short paragraph bio, but I wanted to have the players own what their character looked like, and what they were called. Implicitly, they also got to choose their own age, which works quite well with the package character generation as it doesn't define the number of terms served. I let the players choose anything between late twenties to early fifties, pretty much in line with the character images I'd generated.

I'd gone with an already published scenario as it minimised the amount of work that I needed to do before the convention. The main plot was there and it was all about becoming familiar with it. I had a really engaged group of players, and they successfully navigated their way through the plot, pretty much uncovering the whole conspiracy. It was great to see how they approached it. As I had five players, the party did end up split, but it worked along the niches that the characters had on their character sheets, with the generalists backing up the specialists. We had a forensics team, an interview team and an undercover agent (Steven leaned hard into using his character's backstory of 'Profession (Belter) 2' to fit in with the asteroid mining workforce. I really enjoyed watching them crack the case and avoid some of the potential problems that would have meant that they didn't get paid. Thanks to Steve H, Steven P, Paul, Dr Mitch and Eugene for an enjoyable evening!

I only regret that I forgot to take a picture with all the bling on the table during the game, which is why you got the mind map above.

Initially, I was going to head straight to bed, but then I decided to nip up to the bar to be sociable and have a good natter with Dr Mitch, amongst others. We play regularly but rarely get to meet face-to-face. I did get to sleep at a reasonable time.

SLOT 4 - JOHN CARTER OF MARS - YOU ARE THE HEROES. YOU?

Morning came around quickly enough and I enjoyed the usual fantastic Garrison cooked breakfast. Perhaps my only disappointment was the lack of tinned grapefruit! That may sound weird, but they've always had it before and it reminds me of visiting my grandparents back in the 1970s. I think it has gone with the modernisation. I nipped back to my room and read the whole of the Traveller scenario that I was running in Slot 5 to make sure it was fresh in my head, as I knew that the lunch break would be pressed for time.

I owned John Carter of Mars for a while, but never got it to the table. I sold it at the bring and buy stand at another Garricon to Keary. Keary brought it back to run at North Star and a thought it would be rude not to. It was a simple pulp tale of derring do. Our characters were co-opted into trying to rescue a young princess who had disappeared, potentially abducted by Green Martians. As a Green Martian myself, my character was very concerned about this. We investigated and quickly found a trail, and then we had an exciting air ship chase followed by a rescue that the young lady wasn't that impressed with and then we managed to survive being shot down. We drove off or killed our attackers, realising that this was in fact an evil Zodangan false flag operation to drive division between the races of Mars!

Overall, it was a fun game, with 2d20 doing its thing. I was suffering from bleed between the various different versions of 2d20 that I've played, but enjoyed it all the same. My conclusion was that I was glad to play, and would happily do so again, but I was also content in my decision to sell.

Lunch was from Morrisons again, and then we had the raffle (for Patriot Games vouchers) and a birthday cake. We'd had an attendee contact us to let us know that it was Tim's 60th birthday the next day, and asking if we could do a cake. We arranged that with the hotel, much to his surprise. Tim is an absolute stalwart of the Traveller community and has some great scenarios and other supplements that he's published. It was nice to be able to do this; it's the second time we've been approached like this for members of our community, and it's lovely to see the care.

SLOT 5 - TRAVELLER - DEEPNIGHT LEGACY

My final scenario was Deepnight Legacy, one of the two published scenarios that lead into the epic Deepnight Revelation campaign that I've reviewed previously.

Deepnight Legacy is a sandbox with the potential to kill the whole party. The set up is that they are a crew that's been flung together to travel into the Great Rift to an Imperial outpost as a ship is overdue. The outpost needs resupply and they're also tasked with checking for any news of their sister vessel. There are potential elements of body horror and links to the Ancients. 

I actually used the same initial builds for all the characters (attributes and background package) and then selected different career packages. It was amazing how much difference that it made. Graham had the resupply ship's captain, Keary had one of the engineers, as did Tom. They were backed up by Tim's Scout who was working passage, and an academic who had a twelve month sabbatical at the Outpost was played by M. 

I loved the way that the players leaned into their roles, and despite knowing the type of scenario that they faced, they acted with a realistic level of ignorance until they had evidence that something was not right. After that, they took the right decisions and managed to rescue the remaining survivors of Candling Station, before turning tail and heading back to report the disaster to their home naval base. There was some nice interplay with the characters, but this was very much a game of cautious exploration and information gathering followed by some dramatic rescues.

I'd prepared maps (strangely missing from the scenario as published), using the Travellermap.com site, plus the linked T5 world generator. Characters were presented in a similar way to the previous scenario, and again it seemed to work quite well. Overall, a good scenario which would definitely be an opener to a campaign if you wanted it to be.

With that, the convention was over, and after some tidying up, I headed home to the family.

North Star will return on 9th-10th May 2026.

18 May 2026