Revelation X (2026) - After Action Report

A fortnight ago, we had the tenth Revelation, our annual roleplaying game convention themed around Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark games, and their derivatives.

I can't believe we've been doing this for a decade. But I'm glad we have.

Revelation is the smallest of our conventions, typically attracting 35-40 players. It's been blessed with playlists and visits from game creators over the years, something that happened again this year. As ever, it's held at the Garrison Hotel in Sheffield, UK.

This year I felt a bit semi-detached in my preparation, as various pressures at work meant that my January was somewhat distracted. I suspect that I was annoying Elaine (the games Tsarina) with my tardiness, but I just managed to scrape in my game submissions before the deadlines were reached. I went for my hardy perennial City of Mist and a return to last year's Comrades!, a game about revolutions. I did bottle running the New York 2025 option in the game's as I felt it was a bit close to the bone, and instead decided to run a sequel to my previous session.

However, things calmed down somewhat the week of the convention, and - aided by the smaller size - I soon had my games prepared and the badges and signs prepared.

I set off around 8am, stopping for a cheeky bacon butty at a local shop and managed to arrive just before Graham (the Con Chair). As I got there, I faced blue skies and bright sunshine, which was surreal after several weeks of rain. We quickly had to ask the hotel to put up the sun screens to make sure people weren't dazzled by the low winter sun. These days, the room is mostly set up for us; no more humping of furniture for us. They know how we set up the room.

The opening speech...

https://youtu.be/M_hX_g9TShg?si=hLdcNrPeaClzkuXn

As usual, Graham leapt into the opening speech without letting me get the video going, but he gracefully  started again. You can see and hear it above.

I'd planned to play for three sessions, and run for two, but things changed along the way.

Slot 1 - Nefas - Lord of Offspring

My first game was a playtest of Nefas, a PbtA game set in the Roman Empire with a Lovecraftian horror theme. The delightful thing about it was although it was billed a Lovecraftian horror, it didn't feel like Call of Cthulhu, it just felt like we were engaged in dealing with some nasty cultists of a (possibly) minor god who where trying to cause problems for the Empire in Antioch. The playbooks and settings were very flavourful and this was the highlight of the games that I played over the weekend. We had a party of four and found a credible way to be working across the social divides in Rome. We had mostly failed dice rolls throughout the game (despite me changing my dice), but somehow managed to succeed in thwarting the cult's plans.

Thanks to Hamish for running, and Amelia, Jamie and Simon for a fun game. I will be looking to get this when it is released.

I had an embarrassing fanboy moment immediately after the game. Hamish was wearing T-shirt from the excellent PbtA game, The Sprawl, and we'd got talking before the game (I was in a Blade Runner related Tee). I'd mentioned how much fun that I'd had running The Sprawl several times at Revelation. Halfway through the game, a thought struck me, and after a surreptitious check on DriveThruRPG, I realised that Hamish was the author of The Sprawl. It's a game whose design has made me think and change how I run games (especially the way that the Legwork/Action clocks that intertwine). At the end of the session, I had to thank him for work he'd done with this. I managed to keep the gushing to a minimum, but it was nice to meet one of the designers who I really respect.

If you've not got The Sprawl, I recommend it highly. I found Cyberpunk RED a lost opportunity, because there are aspects of the design in the Sprawl which support the genre and play much better. It's my go-to Cyberpunk game (although I'm also very fond of Sprawl Goons).

Lunch was the usual trip to Morrisons.

Slot 2 - Brindlewood Bay - Dad Overboard

I've heard a lot about Brindlewood Bay, which is a mystery game that channels Murder She Wrote but has the twist that there is no set solution to the mystery. The players collect clues and then have to thread them into a credible chain of evidence and succeed at a roll at the end in the "J'accuse" moment.

Phil ran a great game - we had lots of characters to interact with and a growing stack of clues, and a lot of fun digging at the dubious and dangerous rich yachting family whose patriarch had fallen off the boat, and drowned. I played Rosemary, a retiree who collected butterflies and flowers. We had fun investigating the family's background and built our case.

We came up with a credible story at the end, and had a lot of fun getting there, but I didn't get the joy I normally get from solving an investigative scenario. This was nothing to do with Phil's running of the game, as he's a superb GM/MC. I think that my issue with the game was explained by someone on the Gaming Tavern Discord. The meta game in this is that you're actually playing the writer's room for an ongoing show, and building the story. I'm not sure that this approach works for me, but I'm glad I tried it with a fun bunch of players (thanks to Jamie, Keary, Dave and Udo). 

Playing this game, I realised we need to do something about the noise levels on the Upper Jailhouse - the removal of the curtains has made the area noises (Jamie gave a great acoustic explanation) and the screens didn't do enough.

Dinner was KFC, with the regular meeting of the Garrison bookclub with only myself and Keary present this time. We had a good catch up, and then I was heading back to run my first game.

Slot 3 - Comrades!

I ran Comrades! last year and really enjoyed it. Written in response to the rise of Trump and other authoritarian right wing figures, it seeks to explore why the left has backed away from struggle against oppression. I decided to move the game on a month or so from the session that I ran last year, and it was great that two of the players returned to play again.

The first hour of the game is all about building your party and setting up the tensions between members, along with the reasons that they want to create a change. As I'd lost the party sheet from last time, they created a new party (Krescht Future, with the catchy slogan of 'Forward to a New Dawn'), and then they embarked on a path of direct action and force against the ruling regime. Despite different members of the organising committee having different takes on what the party was seeking to achieve (especially the patron and the brute) they carried out their acts of violence and resistance against an oppressive regime. Whether it was enough to tip the balance, we didn't play for long enough to find out, but they were as brave as they were violent, and carried out a false flag assassination at the Grand Opera House to try and drive a split between elements of the government who were aligned with the strongest fascist party. 

Running a game like this means that you're going to be dealing with uncomfortable themes, but it was flagged from the start and it was fascinating to explore what people were willing to do to resist oppression. I've just skimmed my notes from the game again as I write this, and I'm still astounded about both how much happened and the audacity of their plans. Thanks to Keary, Hamish, Jag, Udo and Phil for a great game. 

Then it was bed time - I didn't bother with a pint, as I was pretty tired, but actually it hard to get to sleep because I was still buzzing after the game.

Slot 4 & 5 - City of Mist - The Black Butterfly Murders (run twice back-to-back)

I was meant to be playing Keary's Candela Obscura ('If you prick us...') but events conspired against that. I woke to a WhatsApp from Elaine saying she'd been unwell all night and wasn't up to running, and another GM had also called in with sickness. Unfortunately, they were both running at the same slot. Cue hurried discussions between Graham and I over breakfast, and a plan was hatched. I'd run my City of Mist scenario twice in a row. We gathered the players together at the start and explained the options, and I had three people who wanted to play. Others ended up in some of the few spaces and sadly one or two folk decided to go home as they had long drives.

I've already written a post on the challenges from the structure of The Black Butterfly Murders here, so I won't duplicate that except to say that the issues were all GM-sided.

I had three players join me for the first run through; Hamish (Detective Enkiddu), Peanut (Lance Sullivan) and Phil (Mitosis). The team did a great job of investigating and leaning into their various character strengths. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture during that session.

When I got to the second run through at Slot 5, I realised that I was down from 5 players to 2 because of the illness and go homes. I had a good chat with the players and we decided to go on with the game with the options to bring in a couple of extra characters if they decided to 'phone a friend for help). Amelia played Flicker (always a challenging character to handle because of their abilities) and Udo played Salamander.  We switched to one of the cells rather than the upper jailhouse as the noise levels were too high, but then faced a lack of light at the table lamps in the cell had run out of juice. That was fixed with Udo's power pack, and we noted that we needed to get some lamps to ensure that we didn't have an issue like this next con.

Family reasons (a birthday) had led to Graham being away from the con for several hours, but he returned at exactly the right time to play Declan L'Estrange, and boost the team's numbers. He arrived in a break and the other two players found him there when they retired, which was fun!

In some ways, the second team were more successful as they actually prevented the fourth murder through some real cleverness where they disrupted the anchoring ritual and prevented the portal opening that would make the antagonist stronger. 

In between the sessions, I ran the raffle with the aid of Cillian, who has got better each year at pulling out the tickets for me. He was scrupulously fair, which left his mum missing out of the Golden Ticket she was after.

And then it was all over; Graham and I (with the help of some others) tidied up, and we headed off on our various ways home.

Another year playing a selection of games that I love to explore. My only reflection is that we had more multi-slot games than usual, which meant that if you were GMing you ended up with slightly less choice dependent upon when you ran. However, as a GM, you get the first bite at the cherry to book the games you're playing so that wasn't such an issue.

I didn't play any Forged in the Dark games this time, which has made me decide to run a|state at Longcon this year. I've a couple of GM player reservations left, so if you fancy playing an a|state mini-campaign over a weekend, reach out and let me know.

28 February 2026

Flowers of Algorab - Episode 2 - Into the Fissure

 

Our second session of play saw us down a player (Andy) and Hattie was delayed by work. Our session ran just over two hours, and was the second session where we've drawn on the introductory scenario "The Sky Machine". I started with a flashback to the meal that the explorers attended the night before and then we headed off into the delve. This meant that we got into mechanics of Delve resolution, which is a procedural approach in a similar way to how The One Ring handles Journeys. 

Put simply, the Delve starts with a scan, and then the Bird is used to find Blight. The next stage is for the Delver to make a roll to make progress down into the ruin, followed by seeing what hazards are faced (these escalate the deeper you go). Finally, if the crew are in a Blight area, they have to resist taking damage from that. Paul had a nightmare set of rolls as the crew headed deeper into the ruin, and it really was a grind with a high burn rate through supplies. Mechanically, this is what this segment of the game is about; one of the players observed that it is almost like a board game, but it also reminded me of OSR style procedural grind through a dungeon. The crew's resources are diminished, which makes it feel stressful, and acts against procrastination and complacency. Delves are meant to be dangerous. I do think that we will probably be more narrative on how we address this once we get more used to the system.

Through the session, Role and Owlbear Rodeo worked well, and the integration with OBR was seamless. I'm liking it more and more.

I managed to resolve the issues that I had with audio recording to allow me to capture the session and generate a transcript and summaries using tabletoprecorder.com's LLM tools. My session summary below draws in these, but they needed some tweaking, especially on names.

Our Crew

• Arda Qamar, a Guild Surveyor and Traveller who came from the Far Colonies from a Mining Combine operation. She’s the bird handler and Scout for the team. (Played by Hattie).
• Meristo Koulas, an Esoteric Coriolite Seer who grew up in the Fog of the Haze, and has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Paul).
• Lieto Miesma, a Scholar specialised in Builder Archeology who came from deep inside the Factory City of the Turbine Halls, with a background in the Machinist's Guild. (Played by Graham)
• Fassour Faradi, a roughneck deep miner who also came from somewhere the eternal fog of the Haze, and - like Merits - has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Simon)
• Rashid al-Masri, a scoundrel Hull Cutter who came from among the hulks and wrecks of Hull Town, and has connections to the Gardener's Guild. (Played by Andy).
• Corvus the Bird, a specter; cobalt blue, with a long beak, always observing. Usually handled by Arda.

The New Seekers (Corvus, Arda, Meristo, Fassour, Rashid and Lieto)

The Session

Source - Tabletoprecorder.com, lightly edited for names and brevity with some parts injected to explain or catch elements missed in the summarising.

Our intrepid explorers found themselves delving into the peculiarities of the moon Moubarra-4, a celestial body with a size and gravity anomaly that perplexed many. The peculiarities of this moon were discussed including its surprisingly high gravity for its minuscule size of about 48 kilometres across. 

Upon their arrival at the Gillen's Point complex on Moubarra 4, the group engaged in local hospitality as the moon moved into eclipse from its gas giant parent. They enjoyed exquisite Cira Cira dumplings and grass wine while Chief Kalvanetes toasted to their success. Meristo subtly interacted with a Coriolite known as Ytreppo, who was caught whispering about the beautiful, inexplicable things, hinting at ancient Builder technologies hidden on the moon.

Conversations at dinner revealed layers of tension and mystery surrounding the purpose of the group's mission and the intentions of their hosts. Fassour navigated a nuanced conversation with Zera Vandao, a leader who might be operating under the Black Toad's banner, delicately probing for her reasons for being there. Meanwhile, Lieto listened sympathetically to Chief Kalvanetes as she lamented the difficulties of her position and hinted at the Navigators' Guild Tech Team's suspect reasons for their sudden appearance on the moon. It was implied that something much more valuable than a routine inspection was at stake, involving the mysterious fissure and potential riches hidden within. 

Meristo took an opportunity to lighten the mood with a little indulgence, offering the Chief a spice that mixed well with the feast, while Lieto and Fassour continued to gauge the underlying currents of their company. As alliances formed and motives were discreetly questioned, the adventurers had to weigh their loyalties and the potential risks of betraying professional contracts for the promise of lucrative secrets hidden beneath the surface of Moubarra-4. 

As morning approached, with every intention set and potential alliances pondered, the group prepared themselves, donned their suits, and set off to face whatever lay in the depths of the moon, each step further entangling them in the complex interplay of power, greed, and the insatiable hunger for the unknown. 

In the starlit quiet of the asteroid, our brave explorers prepared themselves for the uncertainties ahead. Leto Miesma, Fassour Farada, Meristo Koulas, and Arda Qamar gathered their courage and gear to delve into unknown depths. As they readied their rover for departure, Lieto and Fassour meticulously checked every component of their transport, beginning with their suits and extending to the beleaguered rover itself. The teamwork shone as Lieto took up the role of checking the mechanical integrity of their vehicle, scrutinising it with his expert eyes. Even under the scrutiny of Fassours’s questioning, his checks confirmed the rover, though aged, was capable. 

This precautionary pause was insightful, revealing that vital emergency transponders and a mechanics toolkit were conspicuously absent—an unsettling discovery suggesting their expedition might not be intended to return. Resolved to navigate this subtle sabotage, they procured substitute transponders, albeit outdated ones from the mining combine, ensuring a lifeline back to civilisation. Meristo, skilled in medical and esoteric arts, subtly leveraged contacts to nudge circumstances in their favour, ensuring they had working equipment for emergencies. 

Before they left, a group of miners gifted them lucky charms and wished them all the best.

With preparations complete, Arda, the group’s enthusiastic yet inexperienced pilot, took the helm of the rover. The mood was contemplative as they embarked through the stark, stony expanses bathed in overhead starlight. However, tranquility was abruptly cut by the alarming tremor of cracking ground beneath them. Quick-witted and spurred by impending danger, Arda deftly maneuvered the rover around emerging chasms, her actions guided by the whisper of intuition and the weight of the medallion gifted by grateful locals—a symbol of faith and protection. 

Their arrival at the fissure marked the last known whereabouts of the lost explorers. As they peered into the abyss, the deep, unfathomable darkness stared back, whispering secrets of the unknown. It was here that the real journey began, as they prepared to descend into the bowels of the moonlet, unbeknownst to them what awaited in the silent darkness. The communal spirit of the team, solidified by their shared ordeal and the tokens of hope carried closely, readied them for the challenges down below. Thus, surrounded by the vacuum of space and the solidarity of their fellowship, they readied themselves to delve deep, driven by the raw promise of discovery and the unyielding human spirit of exploration. 

Arda carried out a successful deep scan then commanded the Bird, named Corvus, to scan ahead for blight, a hazardous contamination. As they advance, Meristo notes the significance of using their resources sparingly, as their supplies are limited to what they carry. Leto offered a suggestion for the Bird's usage, considering saving energy for possibly higher levels of blight deeper within. 

Amid their strategic planning, the group faces the immediate threat of blight contamination; Meristo, maintaining a stern focus, decides to push forward. The rover, their crucial vehicle amidst the hostile terrain, becomes a topic of concern. The team deliberates securing it against potential sabotage by other mysterious teams likely scouring the same depths. Despite lacking sophisticated defense mechanisms, they decide on basic preventive measures. 

Meanwhile, the descent grows more harrowing. The ground beneath them cracks, hazard begets caution, and mysterious purple dust disrupts visibility and equipment functionality, leading Meristo to abseil blindly with a climbing kit. The group encounters strong magnetic fields causing their tools to behave unpredictably, adding to the already stifling challenges. Managing resources becomes critical as they proceed, each action sapping their supplies and energy. The GM throws in unexpected twists—equipment malfunctions, supply losses, and the unsettling accumulation of blight. 

As tensions rise, Meristo suggests utilising the Bird again to clear the path ahead of blight, debating the best use of their dwindling energy reserves. Each decision carries weight, their survival balancing precariously on the edge of each choice in the unforgiving underground of Moubarra-4. 

In this session, every roll of the dice spells critical consequences, pushing the adventurers to their limits as they navigate through the mysterious and perilous moon's belly, driven by the faint hope of uncovering its ancient secrets. Through strategic thinking, resource management, and a bit of interstellar luck, the group presses on, each step echoing through the corridors of the unknown. As the adventurers delved deeper into the mysterious and hazardous corridors of the delve's depths, the GM guided their tactical discussion concerning their equipment and capabilities. Lieto pondered the weight of his fusillade pistol, ensuring it did not jeopardise his mobility, while the group prepared for the dangers ahead, including the pervasive blight. 

With the ever-threatening blight weighing heavily upon them,  an uneasy conversation about conserving their precious resources surfaced; they deliberated when to deploy their scanning bird, Corvus, to mitigate the blight, balancing the need for safety against their dwindling energy supplies. As the terrain’s challenges intensified, agility and handling checks became critical. The group faced losses—Lieto, struggling with his supply count, dropped a shovel and several packs of supplies were also lost.

Amidst mechanical and enigmatic obstacles, the adventurers managed a brief win, successfully clearing the immediate blight using Corvus while discussing the best path forward through the treacherous environment. Tension escalated with an unexpected magnetic anomaly affecting their equipment, leading to more rolls for agility. As they secured their immediate area, a tactical discussion ensued about the best use of their resources to proceed with relatively reduced risk. Lieto and the team’s focus remained vigilant against the looming threat of blight, knowing well that one misstep could deepen their peril. 

During a critical phase, they unearthed a disturbing discovery—a body encased in rubble in a side tunnel chamber. The entrance was initially blocked by rubble, but Fassour cleared this and then noticed that there were cracks in the floor ahead that could cause further rockfalls. The rest of the team took great care passing them. As Meristo expertly examined the corpse, noting signs of blight infection on the wounds, the team also noticed mysterious patterns on the walls, dark and possibly significant, raising more questions than answers about their surroundings. The body was one of the prospectors, Rob Anker, the mining crew's driller. They secured the body near the entrance to the tunnel to side chamber ready for retrieval.

Decisions about how to navigate the chambers became discussions on survival strategy, as they pondered whether to clear paths or explore side chambers potentially filled with riches or doom. Every choice was a gamble of resources and safety, underscoring the harsh reality of their expedition’s stakes. 

As the session drew to a close, the explorers, continued their cautious journey into the further depths of Moubarra-4, each step a blend of risk, calculation, and hope against the creeping, ominous threat of the blight and the eerie mysteries embedded in the moon’s heart. The final stretch to the main chamber they saw was beset with higher levels of blight. As they approached the second blight marker, Meristo Koulas, managing to secure two sixes for the first time in the delve, easing their passage slightly. He pushed forward, causing Fassour Faradi to question the strategic manoeuvre through the grid on their map. Eventually, Fassour pinpointed a specific location, which the GM validated, triggering a new course of action for the group. They proceeded through another blight zone, with everyone bracing to roll for blight protection. 

Lieto Miyazma, keenly aware of their dwindling supplies, suggested increased caution. Yet, Meristo remained determined to push through, despite the risk of losing more hope points. The uncertainty increased when Arda Qamar spotted what she believed to be red lamps—indications of another presence in the depths, perhaps following them. Her alarmed observations were met with skepticism by Fassour, perhaps because Arda thought she heard voices on the radio earlier. Fassour focused on advancing towards a more strategic position within the main chamber to set up a defensive posture. Maristo decided to delve deeper into whether to utilize their bird companion, Corvus, to scout ahead or suppress the blight surrounding them. 

As they debated, the team cooperated to share the burden of risky decisions. Amidst these tactical exchanges, the group encountered a surreal, perhaps hallucinatory experience. Suddenly transported to an ethereal city among the clouds, they were bewildered by golden hazes and tower-like structures piercing through cloud banks—only to snap back to the grim reality of the asteroid’s depths. This vision spurred an insight roll directed by the GM, where failing members lost hope points, adding to the group's psychological strain, and those succeeding gained them, marvelling at the wonders they'd seen.

The adventurers continued, navigating through blight-infected areas with increasing trepidation. The consequences of their choices became palpable as they encountered physical manifestations of the blight—oozing blisters causing direct harm to Fassour. Meristo, determined to mitigate the damage, administered a decontamination dose to Faso, providing a temporary reprieve from the blight's effects. 

As the session neared its conclusion, the GM hinted at a pause until their next gathering, leaving the adventurers at the brink of entering the main chamber—anticipating what mysteries or horrors might lurk within, marking a suspense-filled pause in their harrowing journey through the unforgiving depths of Moubarra-4.

The Sky Machine awaits...

25 February 2026

Flowers of Algorab - Episode 1 - The Funeral

 

The first session of play was delayed by a week because I had an unexpected work trip that would have seen me just about getting home at the right time for the session if the little gods of the A1, A17 and A47 were kind to me. Reflecting back, that was probably a good thing as I was somewhat rushed that week with Revelation being at the weekend.

I went in the session knowing that one player was feeling a bit ill, so I planned to end just after 10pm rather than 10.30pm. I think we ended up splitting the difference between the times. I spent Monday night, post convention, adding as much material into the VTT ready as possible.

Although we were kicking off the campaign, several of the players had asked if they could have a practice delve so they could understand how things work. It was a pretty split view in the group, and in the end Hattie proposed a solution; we’d start and then flashback to the previous delve. I had a look at two introductory scenarios and decided that The Sky Machine was probably a better fit than The Black Ziggurat. I have two players with Black Toad connections, and I think that the latter scenario would overly drive the spotlight at them in the first couple of sessions, whereas I wanted more of a balance as we started. I also felt that The Sky Machine was a more gentle delve to begin with. I played it at one of the Garricons and it was pretty straightforward.

The only issue that I encountered in the session was that for some reason the Audio Hijack feed was giving me echo of my own voice, and I was concerned that it would impact the session recording. So I chose not to record the session. However, reviewing the recording later on, I realised that the recording side had come through cleanly. I’ve made some tweaks and I hope that they’ll work okay next time.

Role and Owlbear Rodeo both performed flawlessly, and there was far less AV drop out than I’m used to in Roll20. However, the session was mainly using Role, as there was not much need for mappage.

Our Crew

• Arda Qamar, a Guild Surveyor and Traveller who came from the Far Colonies from a Mining Combine operation. She’s the bird handler and Scout for the team. (Played by Hattie).
• Meristo Koulas, an Esoteric Coriolite Seer who grew up in the Fog of the Haze, and has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Paul).
• Lieto Miesma, a Scholar specialised in Builder Archeology who came from deep inside the Factory City of the Turbine Halls, with a background in the Machinist's Guild. (Played by Graham)
• Fassour Faradi, a roughneck deep miner who also came from somewhere the eternal fog of the Haze, and - like Merits - has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Simon)
• Rashid al-Masri, a scoundrel Hull Cutter who came from among the hulks and wrecks of Hull Town, and has connections to the Gardener's Guild. (Played by Andy).
• Corvus the Bird, a specter; cobalt blue, with a long beak, always observing. Usually handled by Arda.

The New Seekers (Corvus, Arda, Meristo, Fassour, Rashid and Lieto)

The Session

I opened the campaign with the funeral sequence from The Flowers of Algorab when the crew were invited to attend the funeral of a retired Explorer’s Guild member, Levon Najjar, by Master Moska, their Guildmaster. As quite a junior crew, they were both surprised and honoured to attend the ceremony in the City of the Dead in the depths of Ship City’s asteroid heart.

The funeral was a symbolic and sombre affair, poorly attended and Master Moska gave the eulogy. After the body was committed to the deep, Moska invited the crew to take tea with her in the Hall of the Departed. They gathered around and as their Guildmaster started to explain that there was something about Najjar’s death - a suicide from falling from their balcony - that concerned her, the crew’s thoughts were drawn back to their previous mission and whether their actions there had led to this invite.

Cue the flashback…

The Grasshopper shuttle landed hard on the wings of a storm on the asteroid Moubarra-4, close enough the the Gilens Point mining complex to access it quickly, far enough that any accident during landing would minimise the risk of damage to the facility. Moubarra-4 was an enigma; the asteroid was only 48km across, yet it had a near-standard gravity and an atmosphere that - although thin and cold - was breathable with a compressor mask. The speculation was that it had been touched by the Builders in the past, but no evidence had been found despite the Navigator’s Guild having operated an observatory there for years. The moon was wracked with infrequent quakes, which had attracted the Mining Combine to take over the facility when the Navigators left, as there was easy access into rich seems of metals and minerals.

They’d discussed the mission on the way down; a team of miners had entered a newly opened fissure and only one had come back out, in a bad way, contaminated with Blight and deliriously rambling. Four of his team mates were still down in the fissure and potential ruins, their present status unknown. The Mining Combine had taken a few days to escalate this to the Explorer’s Guild, which probably didn’t bode well for it’s members.

The shear scale of the gas giant Moubarra over the small moon was enough leave the crew feeling very exposed and in awe of the scale of things; how small a human is in the face of the cosmos. Moubarra-4 was inhospitable, isolated and far from the warmth and comforts of Ship City. The journey, rushed and at speed in a shuttle usually used for shorter duration travel was uncomfortable and had left them fatigued.

They were met at the landing point with a rover, and the miner who was driving it soon warmed to the crew. He shared some of the news; the survivor was isolated in the hospital in isolation and he was genuinely worried about his colleague. The Mining Chief seemed to be agitated for some reason. 

As the rumbled across the surface, a sleek white vessel came into sight. Their driver identified it as a Coriolite Shuttle which had brought a new tech crew to the outpost on behalf of the Navigator’s Guild. He observed that it was a long time since they’d checked out the integrity of the Observatory; was it just coincidence that it happened just after a fissure opened with a potential Builder Ruin buried below?

They arrived and after disembarking decided that the best thing was to present their credentials to the Mining Chief, Lia Kalvenetes. They detected an undertone that she was holding back somewhat, but got a briefing of who was missing and how long they'd been gone (over three days now). They were told they'd get nothing from the survivor, Rez Autreb, the surveyor from the mining crew and that he was not expected to make it thanks to the level of blight contamination he had suffered. 

Of course, they didn't let that deter them, and most of the crew headed down to the medical facility bay to try and establish what had gone on, except for Fassour. Doctor Armaty, the overworked clinician whose care Autreb was under also discouraged them because of the risk of Blight, plus the patient's health. The bird, Corvus, used its powers to suppress the blight and - appropriately suited - they asked Rez about what had happened. He rambled somewhat:

Chamber down the fissure... beautiful patterns... I saw a city in the clouds of the gas giant(?) There were towers all around him. Something went wrong. City tilted. "We fell"(?)

When asked how he'd escaped, they got the following:

It was a deep shaft. At least one side chamber off it. And at the bottom was a place... enormous... almost like a cathedral covered in ice. But I left when I saw the vision because it didn't feel right, it felt like I was falling. I left the others and climbed. There were creatures there. I almost didn't make it out. It took me a day.

On his colleagues, when asked if they could have climbed up with him: 

No. I lost some of them. There was a rock fall. There were creatures. They could still be there. You're explorers, you could save them.

The strain of doing this was severe and he relapsed quickly back into unconsciousness.

Meanwhile Fassour was in the mess hall area, and discussions with the miners confirmed their concerns for their colleagues and that they were surprised about the presence of the Tech Team, especially arriving in a Coriolite Fast Picket. Fassour suggested that the Tech Team couldn't be trusted, and that he'd heard of false tech teams that jump claims. He suggested the miners keep an eye on them.

He already knew something was up as he'd talked to the 'tech team' on his arrival and recognised several of them as Black Toad members, especially their leader, Zera Vandao. He wasn't certain they'd recognised him but had took a drink with them, and got the story that they were there to check out the observatory shutters and systems, but they'd be delayed as the moon was about to go into darkness for the next few days.

The crew regrouped and were attended to the formal meal that the outpost held when the moon rotated fell into darkness as Moubarra's shadow falls across it. Held in the observatory, all the visitors were there. They met Ytreppo Ashur Mir-Mira, a very amiable and masked Coriolite he identified as a travelling scholar looking for things of beauty (aka Builder artefacts). He claims to be transporting the Navigator's Guild Team as a way of funding his lifestyle and fast picket. Lieto knew that this guy is really a rich dilettante who collects artefacts. Meritso figured Ytreppo had never actually done the masking ceremony. It's all for effect.

Later in the meal, the somewhat drunken supervisor talks to Arda. Offers to cut her in if she brings out whatever is down them. "Us mining girls should stick together." If it's a good artefact supervisor can sell it for 10,000 rukh. Arda is not interested, still believing the Explorer's Guild and Master Moskva, perhaps naively. Her rejection makes the supervisor annoyed and huffy and the conversation ends pretty quickly.

Once the Observatory is in darkness, and only the small lamps in the room prevail, Ytreppo starts a conversation with Meristo, recognising someone with a shared heritage. He offers generous compensation for artefacts, four times what the guild pays and a favour. There must be something unusual here because of the gravity effects. Ytreppo asks Meristo to think it over, but not to take too long as the offer is time limited.

The team retire for the night, planning to start the mission when they can. Meristo continues to offer his teammates access to narcotics that will help them rest and recuperate, but everyone is pretty skeptical of his motives, even though he's taking them himself and offering them for free.

To be continued...

22 February 2026

Flowers of Algorab - Session Zero

 

We’re underway with The Flowers of Algorab. We held a Session Zero a fortnight ago, and followed it up with the first session last night. I’m using Role as the VTT and Owlbear Rodeo for the mapping as it integrates nicely into Role. By nicely, I mean fully - you have OBR showing in the Role interface as if it was running in a browser. I’m still on a learning curve with it, but I think that I have enough understanding now to do the basics.

Session Zero

Session Zero went well, with everyone available (although one player was dangling at the end of a very dodgy 4G connection in a chalet at a gaming convention). We all met in Role, and took the time to introduce the VTT interface as several people hadn’t used it (certainly in recent times). I’d built sheets (which I shared in a previous post) and also a simple tracker. The idea behind that was that the player could use a form-filled PDF character sheet and only have essential tracking on Role. I think Role’s current sheet interface is like Marmite; it’s one long and narrow column and people either love it or hate it. The development roadmap does show a wider, pop-out-able sheet, but there have been no updates in recent months so it may never appear. 

I’m using Role as it puts the AV of the players front and centre. The OBR integration adds many of the missing native tools. I want the AV prioritised as my experience of playing other games (for example Eternal Lies) made me value that face-to-face contact above the ‘table’ part of the VTT.

I’m blessed with five players in this campaign, several of them regulars and others who I’ve met through the various gaming circles and conventions. They’re all great players so I’m certain that this should be a good experience so long as I deliver my end of this. 

Prior to the session, I shared key background information on the setting via our Discord channel, mainly drawing from the QuickStart released at the time of the crowdfunding. In effect, it was a set of teasers.

We worked our way through character, crew and bird generation during the session. 

We have:

• Arda Qamar, a Guild Surveyor and Traveller who came from the Far Colonies from a Mining Combine operation. She’s the bird handler and Scout for the team. (Played by Hattie).
• Meristo Koulas, an Esoteric Coriolite Seer who grew up in the Fog of the Haze, and has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Paul).
• Lieto Miesma, a Scholar specialised in Builder Archeology who came from deep inside the Factory City of the Turbine Halls, with a background in the Machinist's Guild. (Played by Graham)
• Fassour Faradi, a roughneck deep miner who also came from somewhere the eternal fog of the Haze, and - like Merits - has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Simon)
• Rashid al-Masri, a scoundrel Hull Cutter who came from among the hulks and wrecks of Hull Town, and has connections to the Gardener's Guild. (Played by Andy).

The New Seekers (Corvus, Arda, Meristo, Fassour, Rashid and Lieto)
Image by Hattie using a variety of LLM tools and more.

Together, they are The New Seekers crew. Yes, everyone liked the name when they were throwing ideas around, despite it being a late 1960s/1970s British pop group.

Their Bird is a specter called Corvus, cobalt blue, with a long beak, always observing.

The final thing covered in Session Zero was Owlbear Rodeo - I gave a quick tour of what it can do, but as I'm new to the tool, it was very superficial. I anticipate that my understanding will grow over the next few months!

19 February 2026

City of Mist - The Black Butterfly Murders - flawed but enjoyable

There shouldn’t be spoilers in this as I’m deliberately not covering the details and making this generic.

This past weekend, I ended up running ‘The Black Butterfly Murders’ from the City of Mist Local Legends book twice at Revelation. I’d only planned to do it once, but illness caused us to lose two of the GMs so I stepped in to make sure people had a game. I love City of Mist; it’s probably the game I’ve run most at conventions after Traveller. I have slowly worked my way through the various case files that are available and used them, and most of the time everything runs like clockwork.

I was a little nervous about running this scenario, because it risked being condensed down to ‘you find the murder victim’, ‘you do two chases and fights’, ‘you fight your way into a location’ and then ‘you fight the big bad’. It didn’t feel like your typical case, and there were elements about it that left me nervous about running it. However, it did have a much higher stake theme to it than a lot of the other cases that I’ve run, which made it quite attractive.

The case has a number of flaws: 

a) Two of the key non-player characters who could be aiding you or fighting against you don’t have danger stat blocks. A quick search of the internet and questions on the Son of Oak Discord didn’t find any that someone else had done. I winged it and fortunately, they didn’t get into conflict.

b) The main antagonist’s danger block assumes that everything has happened in the previous plot steps. This is significant as they are invulnerable to damage of certain types if this is the case. If you encounter the character before the plot steps, there’s nothing there to guide you. Again, I winged it.

c) The two introductory (Depth 0) steps in the case iceberg don’t really mesh well with scenes that follow deeper into the case. This was the point that the case’s logic broke in both the games that I ran.

d) The big bad is effectively immune to direct attack, and the Rifts (player characters) could foreseeably take significant damage statuses finding that out. If the crew is slanted for combat, it could go sideways for them. I had one character stop.holding.back. and fail the roll, which limited their options going forward. It would have been better if there had been some hint about how dangerous the confrontation would be. 

However, in both sessions, the players had a lot of fun!

The introductory scenes in a case will usually trigger Rifts  to start digging, even in the space between the initial call or voicemail, and the conversation with the client. In both runs through this, the players dug into news and contacts at this point so they were pulling clues from the depths below. This didn’t really matter and it was helpful that they were there. But I did have to improvise a fair few answers.

The introductory scenes would more naturally take place in day time. The key scene that follows - the first murder the characters interact with directly - happens at night. This means that in most realistic timescales there will be a gap between the characters initial steps and the murder, which will likely be used for investigation. In fact, if you don't do this, the scenario collapses down to a sequence of chase/chase/fight/fight/fight which loses the investigative flavour.

How did I approach it?

I had all the murders happening every two days apart, and effectively gave the Rifts just under 24 hours to find out what was happening. They did this with legwork and conversations with key characters. The first group pursued a Pokémon style approach and collected all the key non-player characters, and convinced them to work together. The second team carried out a more traditional investigation, but by the time that the fourth murder was due, they knew roughly where and when (as usual, Flicker showed her potential to derail scenarios), so they prevented it.

Preventing the murder took the scenario off-piste completely, as the danger stats for the antagonist assume that they are in the fullness of their power and the ritual completed. However, I improvised around the stats and that led to a confrontation in their lair in the City. 

Pretty much all the material needed for the investigation is there; you just have to be more flexible as the MC than usual. I did feel that the scenario could have done with more thought on how the various non-player characters may interact (perhaps with focus on what they want from each other and what they are ready to give in return) with guidance for the MC in playing out.

I've not going to suggest a rewrite of the iceberg for the case, but if you intend to run the scenario, I suggest you get really familiar with the available clues and relationships so you improvise how they work together.

Overall, I think this is an okay scenario; the scope is exciting with a significant threat level. However, I don't think that it is always clear to the Rifts that they are getting drawn into. We certainly had fun at the table.

Iceberg below the jump, minor spoilers.

Books in January 2026

The new year got off to a good start with 12 books and 2,594 pages read. Unusually, it was quite roleplaying heavy, although I read some fantastic novels, along with perhaps the best non-fiction book that I've read in a long time. This year I've set a target of 52 books again. I hope to beat that, of course.

The roleplaying books were driven by Cairn. This is a game by Yochai Gal that I've often heard of in cross references but never read or played. One of my friends mentioned it as a possible alternative system for a return to Dolmenwood and my ears pricked enough to pick up the core second edition books (Cairn Player's Guide, Cairn Warden's Guide and Cairn Bestiary). The game is very light but, like Mausrítter with which it shares some ancestry, it's surprisingly deep. I think I'll be rereading this and considering using it at some point.

After Cairn, I read both Coriolis: The Great Dark and its campaign set, Flowers of Algorab, in preparation for a campaign that I'll start in February. The fact that I'm planning to run it should tell you everything about my opinion of the game.

As part of my Clarkesworld catch up, I read Issue 226 and Issue 229, both of which were very enjoyable.

The non-fiction book I loved was Duncan Mackay's Echolands: A Journey in Search of Boudica. MacKay is an archaeologist who lives in East Anglia, and the story of Boudica's revolt has long fascinated him. He tells the tale well, sharing what we know of the culture of the Iceni, their Roman overlords, the nature of the Colchester Colonia and the ongoing military operations on the island by the Legions as the rebellion erupted. There's a fascinating exploration of the likely location of the final battle and then discussion of its aftermath, likely mass starvation. I listened to the audiobook which is read by the author and highly recommend this. Of course, growing up near Chester, I've long had a fascination with the Romans in Britain, so this was like catnip for me. It also touched on places I know and have passed through with work.

The Elle Cordova Bookclub pick this month was The Power by Naomi Alderman, which I found hard to put down. The book's caused a lot of discussion in the club Discord and has had mixed responses, but I found it compelling and read it very quickly. It talks about the overturn of the patriarchal nature of society when women start to develop the power to manipulate electrical fields. It's written from the perspective of several thousand years. Challenging but interesting.

I wanted a bit of change of tone after that, so I finally started reading James Ellroy's LA Quartet, starting with The Black Dahlia, which follows the lives of two LAPD cops, both ex-boxers, and the woman they both love as they are at the heart of the investigation of the Black Dahlia murder. Really well done, sunshine, grime, corruption and a fascinating mystery alongside.

The final book of the month was Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan, which tells the story of two friends from Scotland. The book is split into two parts, one in the 1980s around a mad trip to Manchester to see various bands over a weekend, and the second part set thirty years later when the protagonists are drawn together again by adversity. I found this sad and joyful and enjoyed it. Certainly made me feel reflective about the passing of time.

8 February 2026