Knave Solo Part 3

      

     The stinging crimson rain continued to fall, the wind whipping the drops about, even getting past Raze's Hazard Wrap.  Reepr burrowed deeper into Raze's backpack, as Raze continued to look about for shelter. He passed a wheeled cart of trade goods, it was knocked over, various small tools, bits and bobs, littered the ground, it's owner no doubt panicked by the dangerous storm had knocked over his cart, and abandoned it, seeking shelter.  Probably some decent loot there, but no time to stop and if the acidic rain continued the goods would be likely rendered worthless before all was said and done. 

     Rounding a side street he spies a little girl crying, she has fallen down in the street and crawled under a small, overturned wagon to try to get out of the stinging rain, a few drops were still splattering on her and burning her skin. Raze spied the girl's mother from the doorway of a shack across the way, frantically calling to the girl to come to her. The mother clearly had a lame leg and couldn't run. The girl was terrified. Raze ran over picked up the terrified child, sheltered her under his hazard wrap, which caused more drops to hit him, and ran to the girl's mother, the grateful mother took the child from Raze's arms, then promptly slammed the door in his face, and he could clearly hear the door being triple barricaded and locked from the other side. He paused in the stinging rain for only a second then kept running, looking for shelter...What's the old saying? No good deed goes unpunished?...

     Quickly moving down the streets, trying to use the nearby buildings to give him some measure of cover from the biting rain, Raze ponders his situation...some scout he is.. on the run from an acid rain storm while still in the city.. Idiot! Raze finds a slight overhang from an old building that gives him slight cover but not much, the wind is still whipping the stinging rain into his face, he covers himself with his hazard wrap as best he can. Its raining hard now, he catches his breath and looks about.  Down the nearby alley he sees a heavy-duty tarp flapping over what looks like a big hole in the side of an old building. He sees the flap move and a gloved hand pops out, motioning him to come that way..to come inside?!

     The rain slackens just a bit and Raze makes a run for it.  He has no idea who this is, but if he stays out here his gear will be ruined at best, at worse... well better get moving... Stinging, acrid rain bites his face as he races for the flapping tarp on the side of the old building. He ducks inside, just as the rain starts to pour down even harder.  Darting inside, it is dark, musty and he smells something...something that smells like...an animal of some sort?!!!! 

To be continued....

Knave Solo Part 2

           

         Now out of coin, but happy with his new "pet" Hunting Eel, Raze Harrow realizes he needs to earn some coin.  Thankfully he bought provisions for his Wasteland scouting mission before he blew the last of his coin on his new pet. He wonders if he should also try to recruit an adventuring companion or two to accompany him? All he could offer them at this point is an equal share of any loot they might find. He could definitely use some extra muscle on this adventure, the wastelands were nothing to trifle with... 

         He passes the Temple of the Wondrous Worm...that odd religion that worships the massive carnivorous sandworms that live in the wastelands...odd folk, seems like a good way to get eaten to him. Raze picks up his pace to quickly move past the strange cultists proselytizing out in front of their temple. 

         Rounding the corner Raze smells something delicious, "Reepurrr" his Hunting Eel sniffs the air from its hiding place in his backpack. "Yeah, that smells good, sadly its rations for us until we can get some more coin." Raze spots the source of the smell, a little food vendor stall tucked in the alley by the temple. "Two Cheesy Rats" was the name of the place, although their attempt to provide a drawing/image of what two cheesy rats looked like left much to be desired.  Hmmm... cheese fried rats...Not a combo he would have thought of. Didn't matter he was broke so keeps walking. 

        While passing the food vendor, Raze overhears some merchants talking. He catches them mention problems with caravans reaching the city.  Apparently, bandit activity is a real issue. The Twisted Teeth Bandits were causing a lot of problems, more so than normal. They were hitting caravans heading through one of the few "safe" passages across the wastes that avoids Sand Worm territory. And to make matters worse the Zebra Gnolls were moving into the area as well. Not to mention The Jackals! Their raids though sporadic, only makes things worse... Raze would file that information away, good to know what factions are out there stirring up trouble. 

        Raze notices storm clouds moving in...a breeze stirs up, it has a strange acrid taste to it...It generally doesn't rain here, especially this time of year,, and those storm clouds don't look good. they have a strange dark red hue to them.. his recruiting efforts would have to wait, Raze needed to get to shelter and by the looks of the clouds and winds picking up...soon!  

          Raze had been staying at the Sleeping Hog Inn, wasn't the best place to stay, but by far it wasn't the worst. Now that he is broke, he can't even afford to stay at The Loathsome Fingerbone, its claim to fame was flea ridden beds, roach stew, backed up latrines, and a foul looking weird fingerbone kept in a jar of green goo behind the counter. Hmmm...storm was moving in pretty quick now, folk were clearing out of the streets and alleys, heading to shelter, wind was picking up, the acrid smell increased, even the air had a acrid taste about it...and why did the clouds have that strange reddish tint to them? This wasn't good...not good at all. 

         Raze gets concerned and looks about for some sort of shelter.  The wind whips up more, bits of gravel and sand are blown about, a misty rain begins to fall, but it isn't a normal rain, it has a reddish tint to it. And as it rains harder the drops get thicker and start to smoke where they hit the ground, where they hit Raze's bare skin it stings and burns. Raze realizes his hazard wrap, while shabby, is giving him some protection, but he can't stay out here indefinitely....  The streets are empty now, doors closed, windows shuttered... stinging crimson rain starts to come down hard, his hazard wrap helps, but he has to find shelter and soon.....         

To be continued...

                                             Crimson Rain

     I used Knave 2nd ed. tables for much of this process. With some inspiration from The Weird Wastelands (yeah it is 5E) book. 

I'm also incorporating things from Vaults of Vaarn, because..Why Not? 

     I'm enjoying solo play more and more. I'm able to squeeze in a quick session here and there. Oh, and for anyone paying attention, yes, I updated Raze's picture and tweaked his name a bit, included some additional rolls out of Vaarn for some extra gear and stuff. I like the character much better now.  Stay tuned for more!

Knave 2nd Ed. (starting a Solo Campaign)

      Being a sucker for random tables and generators, I backed the Knave 2nd Edition Kickstarter, having a little downtime today, I took the tables for a spin.  Just using the plethora of random tables you can have a ton of fun with this!  I also recently watched a Youtube video about using Knave 2nd ed to develop a campaign (great video).        

     First, I need a character.  Fortunately creating characters in Knave is super quick.  A few rolls later and I had a character. First level characters are dubbed Wretches!  Love it! Behold Raze Harrow! Oh and I added a few things from Vaults of Vaarn, why not, its cool!

Raze Harrow

Background:  Trapper, Scout

Str 0  Dex 0  Con 2 Int 0 Wis 1 Cha 0

Armor : Shield 1 Ap       5 Hit Points

Shabby Hazard Wrap (Immunity from radiation and toxins, AC 12 for OSR games, Vaults of Vaarn)

Basher (Mace)   1d6 damage

Plinker (Short Bow)  1d6 damage  

Equipment: Quiver 20 arrows, 2 torches, 130 coins, 2 rations, 50’ rope, Bear trap, Bear pelt, 300’ twine, signal flags, black grease, dice

Additional Gear (Vaults of Vaarn): Cast Iron Skillet, Skin of Wine, 

Crystalline Knife (Vaults of Vaarn): 1d6+1 damage (razor sharp) +d6 damage on mineral-based creatures or automatons and on a critical hit inflicts an extra d6 damage and the blade snaps off into the wound and a new blade "grows" from the hilt 

Exotica (Vaults of Vaarn): Mirror Ring - Projects a hologram copy of the wearer that mimics their actions.

     So that took me to the next step... where would Raze be adventuring?  

     I rolled on the Wilderness Region table and was excited to roll Wasteland!  Long time blog readers will know that I LOVE wasteland settings!  So very cool.  I decided that given Raze's background as a Scout and Trapper he has been hired to scout out and explore the Wasteland! Maybe he may try to trap some of the exotic beasts he encounters during his explorations, rare pelts and strange beast partscould fetch a nice price in certain markets...markets like those found in Bethmoora! 

     I've become rather intrigued by Matt's Bethmoora Campaign idea. So maybe Raze is setting out from Bethmoora to scout the wastes near Bethmoora, 

     I'll expound more on this concept in future posts.. I've not really done "true" Solo play, so that's where the next book comes into play.  The Mythic Gamemaster Emulator Deluxe, 2nd Edition will be the next resource I use.  Matt Jackson has been posting about Solo play over on his blog,   I'm trying to decide if I want to go with the full Mythic GME, or maybe just the Mythic One Page option instead. More to come!

Update: added some additional gear and things using the random tables from Vaults of Vaarn, great game by the way! 

P.A./Sci-Fi Random Inspiration Generator

    I Love random generators. As a GM I have found over the years that making use of various generators can really take my imagination and my games into some fun directions that I wouldn't have otherwise gone in.  Over the holidays I was reading a a gaming blog post (sorry I honestly don't remember which one) about suggesting going through your Sci Fi book collection and randomly opening to a page, taking the first word that jumps out at you on that page and jot it down.  Then after you have a nice list to work with voila a Random Inspiration Generator is born!  

     So I did just that I grabbed a stack of my Sci-Fi (many P.A. related) books and the below list was created. Unfortunately in a cleaning binge, I put the books back up on the shelves before I wrote down which ones I used. * Doh*, I know I used Hiero's Journey, a random Deathlands book, Ensign Flandry and several others. I think it was 6-7 books in all.  Some of the words may initially seem bland, but don't be surprised they can spark some unexpected creativity when you are stuck for an adventure theme, or suggestion for an NPC or contents of a vault chamber!    

P.A./Sci-Fi Random Inspiration Generator

 1 Wrinkled

2 Other

3 Tangled

4 Monsters

5 Starless

6 Rust

7 Rustling

8 Run

9 Corroded

10 Survivors

11 Ruined

12 Howl

13 Cache

14 Map

15 Scorching'

16 Fury

17 Boss

18 Outpost

19 Empty

20 Family

21 Artifact

22 Engine

23 Dark

24 Underground

25 Vanish

26 Poison

27 Traitors

28 Cautious

29 Worn

30 Flicker

31 Sand

32 Abandoned

33 Attack

34 Shunted

35 Deep

36 Scent

37 Stolen

38 Strange

39 Watching

40 Violent

41 Power

42 Love

43 Blessing

44 Silent

45 Lured

46 Desert

47 Brute

48 Distant

49 Death

50 Harm

51 Shredded

52 Old

53 Bones

54 Acid

55 Attack

56 Resupply

57 Kick-Ass

58 Awesome

59 Road

60 Traders

61 Hollow

62 Repair

63 Ally

64 Tomorrow

65 Painful

66 Smoke

67 Beacon

68 Sun

69 Irradiated

70 Mutation

71 Secure

72 Claws

73 Teeth

74 Terrors

75 Blaze

76 Glass

77 Carnivores

78 Slime

79 Concealed

80 Feared

81 Books

82 Guards

83 Pipe

84 Wounded

85 Dissolve

86 Strike

87 Marauder

88 Frozen

89 Metal

90 Screech

91 Cover

92 Vanished

93 Masks

94 Territory

95 Profane

96 Stuck

97 Deathtrap

98 Rocks

99 Charts

100 Exterminate

     

 So lets see if this idea generator works...

Testing it out, I have no preconceived notions...  First question how many rolls on the table do I make?

I'll roll a d6 to determine that... I get a "6" ...so six rolls.

First I roll "84 - Wounded" - so someone or something is wounded...interesting..

Roll 2 is " 87 - Marauder" - seems we are dealing with a wounded marauder encounter...

Roll 3 is "8 - Run" - A wounded marauder on the run? wonder why they are on the run?  Are the local authorities after them??  Lets keep rolling...

Roll 4 is " 42- Love" - Ok now we are definitely getting a theme here, a wounded marauder on the run, and love is involved? They fall in love with the wrong person?...lets do our next roll...

Roll 5 is "27-Traitors" - So I'm starting to see a Romeo and Juliet type of scenario here. A Marauder falls in love with someone from outside their group, this person is maybe part of a group that the marauders prey upon or is their beloved part of the local Establishment/Authority?, are viewed as Traitors by both sides perhaps?  One last roll to go...

Roll 6 is "93 - Masks"- At this point I'm thinking we are dealing with a couple of lovers on the run, one is wounded, one is a Marauder and the other is not, they are considered traitors by both sides and while on the run are hiding out under some sort of covert/masked means.  Maybe pretending to be someone other than who they really are...

     Lets take these ideas just a bit further... Starting with the Marauder....who are they?  

For me a great resource for additional ideas is Pinterest.. I have several collections of different images I have saved over the years, filed under different boards.   Looking around I quickly find one that jumps out at me!

I know this is a cosplay image of Jack from Mass Effect (image by Sabi Noir) but it really inspires me with some ideas.. So I'm thinking the Marauder is a female.  Now I need a name.... how about Jax or Jaxs? I like the sound of that...My google fu finds a few more cosplay images of this character..

This is the cosplay actress Anna Moleva

     Great I like this, so what about her beloved?  I think this person will be a member of the "Authorities" Going through my Pinterest boards, I find the below image.  He looks like he has been through some rough times, ragged uniform, some possible injuries and a cornered look in his eyes. So lets tweak the above narrative a bit, the Marauder isn't the one that is injured, instead it is this guy. Maybe he is some sort of scout or pilot? He could have crashed on the planet and/or been captured by the Marauders. Jaxs and he are on the run and he is injured. Maybe she helped him escape? Due to his injuries, he can't travel far without frequents rests?

     I could keep going with this, work on his background some more, he needs a good name, but I think the list has proved it can work with some imagination.  When used with a campaign, I'd plug in my campaign factions and regions to flesh things out more.  This took a bit more of a Sci Fi direction than gritty P.A., but with some tweaks the above could readily work in P.A. Campaign. For a Gamma World Type Campaign Jaxs could be a member of the Knights of Genetic Purity or Red Death, her lover could be from a Hi Tech Enclave of Restorationists or Maybe he is a member of the KGP and she is a member of the Friends of Entropy. Lots of options.  

     Working this into a campaign the party could stumble upon these two hiding out in some ruin or under disguise in a village or town, or the party could be hired by rival factions/Cryptic Alliances to hunt down and kill/capture these two...lots of possibilities. Maybe he has valuable information on secret vaults or tech? I may have to revisit these concepts again in another post.

Have a great weekend!

Good Gaming-B.B.

 

Vaults of Vaarn #3

Time to post about Vaults of Vaarn issue #3

 

To date, Vaults of Vaarn consists of three zines. Although more issues are said to be in the works.  

Here's the official blurb about this issue:

"Vaults of Vaarn returns for a third issue of science-fantasy RPG content, providing further support for referees who wish to set their game in the blue deserts at the very end of time. Issue three focuses on the Vaarnish Interior, the endless sand-sea that intimidates even the hardy souls who live in the dry and dangerous badlands. 

No accurate map has ever been drawn of the Vaarnish Interior: the territory seems to defy rational organisation. This is a place without borders, the horizon between blue sand and blue sky no longer a stark dividing line but rather a molten membrane that swims and drifts woozily in the sun’s wine-red heat, the land making and remaking itself just as a lizard sheds its skin. The blue sands retreat from the wind, revealing structures that have lain dry and deathless and undisturbed for aeons, and then those same restless dunes shroud the ruins once again, before a living soul can name them. This is a country vast and blue, as deep with secrets as the ocean and twice as capricious. 

Included in Issue 3:

• Information on three of the cultures that exist in the deepest of Vaarn's deserts: the nomadic Faa, the raucous Cacklemaw, and the motile crystal scholars of the Lithic Lyceum. 
• Playable ancestries for each of these cultures, allowing you to embody a Faa nomad, Cacklemaw exile, or Lithling scholar at your gaming table. 
• Travel procedures, a dynamic weather generator, and an extensive regional map generator, allowing you to create huge areas of the desert for your players to explore.
• More than twenty random tables, allowing referees to quickly create desert ruins, settlements, anomalies, underground vaults, holy sites, Vaarnish graves,  Cacklemaw dens, Hegemony outposts, Faa nomad campsites, and more. 
• New science-fantasy monsters to stalk the wastes, including the Argent Shepherd, the Lambent Lynx, the Quill Spider, and the majestic Vaarnish Sandworm.
• Four new vehicles and a selection of powerful and mysterious exotica."

 You can get it HERE as a pay what you want!!

So with that said, let me say I love this issue! It is loaded with random tables allowing you to create your own unique and interesting version of Vaarn.  I got one of those massive notepads, you know the ones you use when doing a big presentation? well back when we did big presentations in front of a group, and before Power Point? Ok , showing my age... Anyways, following the steps in Zine #3 I rolled up a fun area for a party of adventurers to explore, I may post the map area I worked up down the road.  It has Campaign spoilers on it, so want to keep some things a mystery for when I get to run this game.

Zine Issue #1  gives basic rules of the game, basic character types and some cool random tables to get you started

Zine Issue #2 is a urban themed issue (based around Gnomon the big trade hub city of the setting) with random urban themed tables to help you flesh out the setting

Zine Issue #3 takes things to the next level and allows you to go wild randomly rolling up your own region of Vaarn!  Good Stuff!

Even if the author doesn't produce anymore Vaarn Content, there is enough in these three issues to have a full campaign. However, he has more planned, so can't wait to see what's next!  

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is safe and healthy!

Good Gaming- B.B.

Vaults of Vaarn #2

 My second blog post regarding the Vaults of Vaarn zine. My first post can be found HERE

Here is the official blurb about issue #2

"When a traveller is adrift in the blue dunes of Vaarn’s desert, he dreams of a city. When the camel’s hump sways beneath him, he dreams of a cushioned alcove in a tavern, with learned conversation and hookah smoke coiling languidly in the air; when Vaarn’s red sun beats upon his head he dreams of cool avenues shaded by demure and welcoming lemon trees. Oppressed by his loneliness, the traveller dreams of a city where the crowds embrace him and strangers greet him as brother; when he swills the last dregs of water around blistered gums he dreams of a a fountain in a public courtyard, where the daughters of the neighbourhood arrive to draw water and eye a handsome stranger.

Gnomon, the city of shaded markets, at first appears to be this dream made solid. There are taverns with cushioned alcoves, as the traveller sought; also he will find learned conversation and hookah smoke, wide avenues flanked by lemon trees, public fountains and smiling maidens and strangers who greet him as brother. There are many sights in Gnomon, sights beyond the traveller’s dreams: glittering mezzanine gardens and parades of masked hierophants, guild halls where cone-hatted clerks ponder their ledgers of debt, babbling souks where the merchants mutter their bargains like mantras and even memories may be bought for the right price. Truly this was what he sought in a city. 

So bewitched is our traveller, he scarcely notices that the merchants’ smiles do not reach their eyes, that the women who wave from passion-house windows have faces brittle as porcelain, that each stranger calling him brother has an accomplice reaching into his pocket. It is only as he leaves under cover of darkness, with a head ringing from cheap wine and a purse empty as his stomach, that the traveller begins to curse Gnomon, the undreamed-of city, the gilded trap."

     If you want to run your game in or around Gnomon, then this zine is right up your alley (pun intended)! It has a nice assortment of random tables to help you flesh out the city on the fly. My players are always going off in a different direction than what I had expected and having some random tables to determine what they bump into is most helpful. This issue has tables for such things as street hassles, mercenaries, merchants, trade cartels (Gnomon is a trade hub), urban shrines (all kinds of strange religions exist in Vaarn), pit fighters, gangs, taverns and more! 

Here's the link for the pay what you want version of Issue #2

 

Vaults of Vaarn

     For me personally the roots of RPG gaming are firmly in the realm of Post Apocalyptic (P.A.) RPGs.  Specifically Gamma World, my online handle "Brutorz Bill" is named after my first Gamma World character.  I've been a fan of P.A. Gaming ever since I found first edition Gamma World at the Mall (remember those?) back in 1979! While we played a ton of D&D, we always came back to Gamma World. Always enjoyed GMing Gamma World and many of the P.A. RPGs that followed.  The early days of this blog were heavily focused on the OSR game Mutant Future, had a blast running that one, with friends and even at a few local Cons. I have a stack of P.A. RPG's.  Gamma World (many editions), Mutant Future, The Mutant Epoch, Rifts (Original Rifts was more P.A. than in later supplements), Other Dust and a whole hoard of independent P.A. RPG's.  Even my recent Hyperborea RPG interests have a bit of P.A. in them.  Whew, I'm rambling...so what's the point of this blog post?

I want to talk about a fun RPG that I have discovered called Vaults of Vaarn!

Here is a blurb about it,

"The sun is dying and the wreckage of countless eons litters the parched wastes of Vaarn, the desolate country that common folk call the blue ruin. It is said that these sky-coloured sands hide the graves of the Autarchs; have swallowed the buried arcologies in which the true seed of humankind was preserved through the Great Collapse; conceal forgotten crypts of memory, decaying crystalline lattices of ancient ego-engines upon which the dusk-blue dunes encroach without pity. From the New Hegemony to the south come drifters and dreamers, desecraters of the tech-tombs that lie sunken beneath the azure wastes. Light-years overhead, aurum-hulled craft ply their tender routes between the spheres, and miles below a pilgrim’s feet, strange wombs are kindled once more with life undreamed of.

These are the hinterlands, where humanity’s great works have fallen to everlasting decay, where machine and animal and fungus think to crown themselves our equal. The phthalo-sands, where newbeasts hunt proudly with boots upon their hind paws and chromepriests chant unending binary devotions to their nameless synthetic god. Only the desperate or the mad would seek to make a life here, to roam the blue desert in search of the secret VAULTS OF VAARN."

Very cool setting, that evokes Dune (we just got the new movie on DVD, but still love the 80's film), Gamma World, a bit of Numenera with a Mobius vibe to tie it all up in an amazing package. 

Currently Vaults of Vaarn consists of three zine sized books.  More are in the works per the author.

Issue #1 Includes: 

• Full rules for play, based on the light, easy-to-learn Knave system.
• Five player ancestries with detailed character generation tables. Play as a haughty true-kin, a mutated cacogen, a mechanical synth, a feral newbeast, or a fungal mycomorph.
• Twisted mutations, psychic gifts, and cybernetic implants to further augment your character.
• 120 Exotica, the strange and valuable far-future relics that can be discovered in the vaults beneath Vaarn.
• A bestiary of 28 ferocious science-fantasy monsters that lurk in the blue wastes.
• Nine pages of content generation tables that allow a referee to spark ideas for their own vision of Vaarn. Generate desert ruins, NPCs, trading caravans, nomadic clans, arcology domes, esoteric drugs, forgotten gods, and more.
  

You can get the PDF for free HERE and it is pay what you want!!! What a deal!

The creator's blog is HERE with more about the setting, game and session logs from his home games. 

I'll be posting more about this one!