Friday Links 1/24/2025

Friday has come.

- I finally got around to getting & reading Lyorn (Amazon.com link), by Steven Brust. He dedicated it to John M. "Mike" Ford, with regrets that Mike wouldn't be able to see it.

It involves a musical, with based-on-real-world-music songs in the text.

I mostly bring this up because, yeah, John M. Ford would have loved it.

I interacted with him on the Pyramid message boards back in the day, as I mentioned here. Knowing his taste, as soon as I saw the first music, I thought, oh, yeah, he would have loved this book. I'm not a musical guy, but I can read along and grin and bear it because of the dedication.

- I think our next game is Sunday. I hope so, because I'm planning on it.

- Yexil from Gamma World mini. I had no idea they made that. We met one of them, once.

Random Bits for 1/12/2024

Random stuff for Friday

- Fun quote from Keith Ammann, over on a page about the origin of Daemons, er, Yugoloth:

And finally, Dungeon Masters get to make this stuff work however they want to. [. . .] All of this is made-up, and you’re at liberty to make stuff up as well.

Yep. I enjoy a debate now and again, and I'll quote rules and pages to people who say X is actually Y instead, but it's your game and you can do things how you please, so long as your players will put up with it.

- There is an Ogre Miniatures Backerkit crowdfunding campaign going on. I'm good - I kept the only ones I want, which is basically one of every Ogre, from Ogre I to VI and the Paneuropean Fencer in there, too. So I'm not seeing anything better by getting the plastic . . . but it's a better deal than the metal ones, were. It's already funded, if that helps you decide.

- These looks at Polyhedron are pretty interesting . . . I disliked most of the contents of Polyhedron when I finally got it as an RPGA member. I have to look and see if these are available anywhere - I'd like to read James M. Ward's articles on Gamma World. I especially thought this was interesting:

Ward begins the article by explaining that "90% of all the adventure that goes on in the GAMMA WORLD game" is instigated by cryptic alliances

Interesting. That's now how we played . . . but I think that's probably how I'd run it now. You'd get the usual "Rites of Adulthood" travels . . . but most of the game would be Cryptic Alliance vs. Cryptic Alliance fought out in the borderlands between that that no one has real control over.

Here are some thoughts I had:

Rise of the Belief State

More Thoughts on Cryptic Alliances

I really miss andi jones running 20th Homeland / Gamma Terra. He ran a truly outstanding Gamma World campaign. I was quite invested in it, and I'd play again in a heartbeat.

- What's Doug up to? He reveals it here.

- $18 for 38 Pratchett books. I'm debating this one. I like several of these books a lot - Small Gods, Reaper Man, the Colour of Magic - and the others are often a bit too British for me. And that's coming from someone who has early memories of watching the Unexploded Scotsman Disposal Squad in action as a kid. It's a good deal, though . . . might be too good to pass up. And they're all good, even if I'm not always in the mood for them. Just $1 for Colour of Magic is worth it, and that deal comes with two extras.

- Fifty Years of D&D. Interesting, as always.

I miss playing

I played in a few games in the past decade or so. Mostly, I GM'ed. But I played in a few games.

That I recall, I played in:

- Monteporte

- Vic's Felltower Adjacent DF game

- Tenkar's B-Team

- Gamma Terra

- Doug's Alien Menace

- GURPS Midgard

- Vlaclavs' GURPS Martial Arts: Gladiators

I don't think I missed any. I really don't get to play in a lot of games.

I enjoyed getting to play in them all to some extent or another.

This post is occasioned by the fact that I was thinking about what we left unfinished in Gamma Terra. I really enjoyed that game. Hillbilly is just a ST 17 exaggerated version of me, in so, so many ways. That made him a lot of fun to run . . . and often left me with regrets because Hillbilly did things that I would do, which aren't always the best things to do.

I'd like to play that game again, but I'm not sure andi jones is up for it at this point. He may have moved on. It's too bad.

We might get to play Vic's game again, because surely there will be days we can play but I'm not up to running game. Handsome is ready to lead whatever B-Teamers show up for those sessions.

The actual B-Team is likely over . . . but I had so much fun playing with Tenkar GMing, and usually Doug, Joe the Lawyer, and Tim "I roll 1s" Shorts playing alongside me. Such a fun, fun time. The dungeon was so goofy but Tenkar added a lot of charm to it, and the S&W rules made for simple fun.

The other games . . . I don't miss them so much. They were fun but didn't last long enough to really get a bite into. I liked my PC for Doug's Alien Menace game, because who wouldn't like to play Animal Mother? But like some other games, we didn't play that much. It's okay, I'm sure I'll get to play a game GM'ed by Doug using lots of guns.


I really would like to play more but I dedicate so many nights to non-gaming things that I can't fit too much in. But I'd enjoy getting to take Hillbilly or Mirado out for a ride again.

Friday Random Links & Thoughts 4/7/2023

The usual roundup for a Friday.

- My cousin distracted me with a book series, damn him. The First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. Good stuff. People say I like gritty fantasy books. But it's more that I like fantasy books with adult characters with adult problems and adult responses. No offense to every young kid waiting to be whisked off by a wizard on a mysterious quest to save the world, but I'm not interested. The audience for a lot of those books are young kids, anyway, and I haven't been one for a while. I'd rather have flawed adults to read about. Not as much flawless heroes, or heroes with flaws that somehow always work in their favor. That kind of stuff. But with magic, and occasionally spaceships - although with sci-fi I'm even pickier.

Anyway so I'm reading them quickly so I haven't been doing gaming stuff as much.

- I read this post about XP and Murder Hobos of Athony Huso's with interest. I disagree with a bit, here - and I think the plain language of the DMG quote on treasure agrees with me on why that gem should count for XP - but I do like the thoughtful approach to the game as a whole. I tinkered a lot with my XP rules until we found ones that drive the game the way we want it driven. And which drive the choices I want made.

- A friend of mine is doing some nutrition coaching with me, to accomplish a difficult challenge*, and we got to dicussing the psychology of success and failure. To quote him, "When we discuss a plan, you execute. And I mean flawlessly. No one does that. Why is that?"

Ultimately it comes down to knowing my actual emotional need to succeed at it. I know why the goal is important, rationally. I know why executing the plan is important to me emotionally. But it's not the first that matters. I know why learning to be a good manager or learning to fly a helicopter or jumping on a 40" box again would be important, too, rationally, but emotionally they don't matter to me. I know what matters to me emotionally. I bring this up here because I think that's a hugely important hook to have for a PC or NPC. If you know what really drives that person - he's still trying to show his dad he's a real man, she's insecure about her wizardry, etc. That's a useful hook. It's why "I'll show my former colleagues at the University - they called me mad!" is a cliche but works. You know what someone will sacrifice if you know what their emotional need to succeed is.

Sorry if this seems like a humble brag of some kind. It's not meant to be. I wrote this and almost didn't post it because it can sound like it that way, since there is some praise in that question. But it's just a great way to think about characters and their character. It's why the card-based system of personality for Twilight:2000 was sooooo good. It was just two cards, telling you the two whys that drove that NPC.

- James Mal is doing a whole series on Gamma World. Start here.
I love Gamma World, and you can see by the number of posts using that post label tag.



* Basically to cut body fat while retaining muscle while not sacrificing my endurance and strength on the mat or while striking. I'd tried before but it's tricky to know what to do next once the current plan needs revision. Yes, even though I do it for other people professional. Coaches need coaches.

Thoughts & Links for 8/12/2022

Busy week, again.

- Feel free to opine in on what I need to focus on writing for publication from Felltower.

- Oooh, new DF game afoot?

DF Novices

- andi jones would like this:

Gamma Eats

One of my favorite Japanese foods would be good Gamma World food - cheese flavor Calorie Mate!

- News about Bat in the Attic games that I'd missed earlier.

- I still have people work to review . . . I'll do that this weekend.

Links & Thoughts for 5/27/2022

Here is some fun for Friday.

- I like house rules posts, and roundups of house rules even more so. Rules I Don’t Use, Replace, or Revise is a good one. I especially like to know what people have tried and then abandoned - that's how rules systems get better, as you cut away what's not working.

- Here is a rules post from Chris Rice, as well.

- And from Kalazz.

- And Cole Jenkins.

- I love me some Gamma World, even if our GM is too busy to play GURPS, nevermind run Gamma World. So here is some musing on a Gamma World campaign.

- I still want to run a Gamma World-DF crossover. But I want to play more AD&D first.

- Commanding armies back in the day, from acoup.

Jim Ward on Converting D&D and Met Alpha (The Dragon #18)

So you want to bring your D&D guys to Metamorphosis Alpha, or vice-versa? Jim Ward had some suggestions in The Dragon #18.

Guidelines for Mixing Campaigns:
Androids, Wizards, Several
Mutants, and Liberal Doses of
Imagination, Well Blended
by James M. Ward

I have great respect for James Ward and his works. But man . . . reading this article made me away of a lot of lessons about what not to do when making rulings and conversions. I think looking back, it's easy to see where a different approach to rules application would be a better long-term solution to the problem at hand.

Let's start with something good.

Magic and its effects are immense on the starship. Those MA crea-
tures have no resistance to magic so they take full effect without a sav-
ing throw.

I like this approach, to a degree. It's a good basic idea - those unused to magic can't resist it well. And (you'll see later), D&D characters won't have much resistance to radiation. I think a blanket "no saving throw" leaves out things that should warrant a save - versus a fireball or lightning bolt spell, say, which aren't much different than any other attack form in a mutants-shooting-lasers-from-eyes kind of world.

But it's a good start.

Takeaway: You can make for a clear distinction with a flat ruling, but you can also make it a little more nuanced so the underlying logic adds verisimilitude even if it costs a little simplicity.

I don't feel the same about this next bit.

There are many ways to handle the different D&D character
classes. For every two levels over the tenth a fighter has, allow a plus
one to hit with any weapon. Magic users over the tenth level should
have a plus per level to figure out any type of technical item. Since
clerics get their spells renewed everyday (and I never liked them any-
way) they don’t need any special powers or plusses. Bards over the
tenth level act like Singing Vines. Monks on the other hand are at one-
half their normal level because of the extreme quickness of the MA species.
Thieves don’t have their special attack bonus when attacking
the backs of mutants (everyone is always trying to zap them from be-
hind).

Ouch.

Fighters? Fine, get bonuses at high levels.
Magic-users? Fine, get bonuses at high levels.
Bards? Fine, get bonuses at high levels.
Clerics? Get nothing, out of personal spite.
Monks? Get their level halved for . . . combat, presumably. MA species are so damn quick that Monks have trouble defending against them or attacking them. No one else does.
Thieves? Lose their best offensive ability, because appparantly unlike any species in D&D worlds, MA mutants are wary of back shots. All of them are.

The issue here? It lacks an even-handed approach. Not that all classes need to be treated equally, but rather that the underlying logic must be applied equally. Here, it is not. Clerics get nothing, just because. Thieves lose out on a major ability because of a shaky rationale. You simply cannot gain a bonus to backstab anything in Metamorphosis Alpha, even though creatures that live in a world with characters with the ability to attack from behind do not. In other worlds, thieves are only able to backstab because their targets are suckers. And unlike the logic of specific familiarity breeding resistance, here specific familiarity breeds weakness.

The same logic that cuts monks in half for combat purposes is not applied to other classes. Fighters are unaffected, even though the "extreme quickness of the MA species" should apply right back to them. Monks haven't, for some reason, learned to hit quick targets, but fighters have. So has everyone else - no one else suffers a combat penalty from the "extreme quickness" of the MA creatures.

A consistent ruling would leave Monks alone. Some creatures might ignore backstabs . . . but they should be few and far between and have an in-game logic beyond their familarity with being attacked from behind as if it's less novel on a radiation-warped spaceship than in a world full of magic and invisible foes.

And if some classes get a bonus at high levels, it seems reasonable that others should, too, if only to help preserve their niche protection in a game built on niche protection.

Takeaway for me? Be fair, overall, and enforce logical evenly.

If any of you are wondering what possible harm De-evolu-
tion could do to a non-mutant let me list a few things. In magic users it
could take away all the ability to use spells of any type. Fighters could
lose a level or two of experience for every attack. Clerics could lose one
level of spells forever starting from their lowest level. Normal humans
could be transformed into cro-magnon man or even apes (but a few
have argued that this skips several generations of evolution).

Ooh, that seems fair. Magic-users become unable to use spells, period. Presumably forever - how do you recover from de-evolution? It doesn't say. And even scrolls are "spells of [a] type" so you're basically just a weak fighter, now. Fighters lose a level or two, which sucks, but spectres and vampires do that, too. Clerics lose spells permanently - so even the gods cannot overcome De-evolution. DEVO would be proud.

A better approach would be to allow for a way to fix such things, without just leaving it to "Wish" spells. Also, it's probably better, as above, to make the effect logically flat. If "de-evolution" reduces you to a previous version of yourself, then everyone should lose levels. Or turn into apes. It shouldn't affect classes in such widely different (and differently harsh) ways.

Takeway: Again, applying logic and game effects consistently seems to be the best approach.

Overall, I liked the article - and Jim Ward is just as harsh back (poor Iron Golems get it badly here). Logically, though, different effects for the same situation and explanation on different classes that otherwise should be in similar states seems like a bad idea. It's not a best practice you'd expect to see carried forward.

Still fun reading fodder, though, and a situation I plan to game out with different rules.

Finally, I just need to get this in here:

That covers all the character abilities for both sides except for
Radiation Resistance. The D&D player has had no former generations
to give them immunity so they have a resistance of 3.

Emphasis mine - see, people tell me there was "always" a clear distinction between "player" and "character." Here we see them used one sentence after another to mean "character." Just saying.

2020 in Gaming

Out with the old year, in with the new. 2020 is over. How was it for gaming?

Running Dungeon Fantasy

We had 20 sessions of DF this past year, from session 125 - session 144. That's up from 12 the previous year, and it's one of the best.

Honestly, COVID-19 is what gave us the Felltower-20. It was easier to ensure we had enough people to play with a Zoom and Roll20 based game. Roll20 made it possible, but not easy, and we've had issues with that VTT the whole time. But it did make it possible to play.

We had 10 or 11 different people play this year . . . and we've had multiple sessions with 10 people. Oddly Roll20 allowed for our more casual players to make a commitment to continous play, which is why Wyatt went from "drop in" to "mainstay," for example.

The PCs fought the draugr, again, and lost, again. They had a few empty delves. But they also found the second Bell of D'Abo, and rang its luscious, globular form and penetrated the dark . . . secret of Princess Olivia . . . and had an excellent fight made worse by common delver thoroughness. They also engaged and banished the Lord of Spite in another epic battle featuring things like a "plan" and "tactics" and "staying on target." Varmus, like Porkins, was a casualty, but the job was done.

Playing Gamma Terra

One reason we had so much DF is that we had only one session of Gamma Terra. Our GM is too busy to prep for game, so no game. That sucks, because I really enjoy getting to play.

AD&D

We kept up what's now a tradition of playing some old AD&D modules, too.

We had two sessions of AD&D - two sessions finishing Part I of A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade. This was fun, although the PCs really killed themselves with two moves - standing and fighting in bad circumstances, which might work for superior fighters vs. inferior ones in GURPS DF, but costs resources you can't afford to lose in AD&D, and trying to avoid an "obvious trap" by wasting a lot of time and resources. Still fun, but it was tough to GM at times.

I hope to get in part II of A2 very soon.

Other Games & Gaming

Not a lot. I played some video games - I started and finished Conan: The Cimmerian. I made significant progress on Ultima IV but stalled out because the final dungeon is like a day's worth of work. I finished Might & Magic I and started Might & Magic II but quickly stalled.

I didn't get any books published but I did write an article that'll see publication in the latest iteration of Pyramid. Ironically I had plenty of time to write, but SJG's change in writing policies made it less lucrative for me to do so . . . and then I started working full time and part time again, simultaneously, and that put paid to doing more writing.

I painted pretty close to 0 minis this year. I just couldn't get up the enthusiasm, and some issues with my glasses and hands meant paiting was difficult. Plus, Roll20 made painting a mini and then uploading a picture of it harder still.

I did try to get a short, weekly game going, too. But half the group seemed interested, all had different ideas of what to play, and everyone shot down the ones I could run. Someone else volunteered to run something, got busy . . . and it didn't happen. Oh well.

My goal from 2019 was more gaming and more painting. I got in a lot more gaming, but less painting. So it goes. I hope to keep up the pace of gaming in 2021! It's been enjoyable getting to spend more time gaming with my friends.

Random Links for 10/30/2020

Over at Lich Van Winkle, the whole issue of sexual material in gaming comes up. When I was a kid, what I liked about Basic D&D was that it treated you like an adult . . . and what my mom probably appreciated that it didn't have a bunch of adult-aimed sexual material. The DMG, less so. As a teacher who used RPGs for ESL, being able to put something in your student's hands knowing there isn't a shred of anything off-color in the material was critical. It was simply a bar to usefulness in the classroom if it was there. So I get it - and it's helpful to have material that isn't "kiddie" without being "adult."

Are OSR authors against kids playing their games?

- You can't go wrong in Twilight: 2000 by shooting from a skyscraper, unless there is a taller one nearby:

Metropolis: Circling the Wagons

- Negotiations are fun in Gamma Terra. And yes, we go have a person with Diplomacy. It also helps to be dealing with generally more reasonably diplomacy targets in Gamma Terra - other intelligent beings who want to make a deal.

"So when he talks about Tomorrow Men “territory” he’s probably imagining an area of Midden controlled by thousands of pure-strain human soldiers with a functional bunker. Would his demeanor and negotiations been different if he’d known he was dealing with a small group of soldiers with a swindling ammo supply?"

Me, I suspect he might have driven a harder bargain, but otherwise? He's giving up a moderate amount to gain a lot, at best. And he only had to give up things he didn't have yet, in return for certainty in getting those things. It was a good deal all around. And staying out of territory he didn't even want to be in? He probably felt it was a gimme, like a snowman agreeing to stay out of the furnace room.


- Ah, yes, Dragonlance, where dragons are finally front-and-center but pretty much die constantly and easily: "The ensuing battle must have involved about 50 dragons--black, blue, white, red, and green--but as I've already covered, dragons are nothing to this party. I could kill eight at a time with "Delayed Blast Fireball" and at least another five or six with melee attacks. That's without even bothering to buff and "Haste." Plus, we had a bunch of gnome allies during the battle. Not only were we victorious, I'm not sure we even took any damage."

Androids, Gamma Terra, and GURPS

Our Gamma Terra GM posted a few things about the Tomorrow Men over on his blog, Black Ray Gun.

General posts about our game is under the Tomorrow Men tag.

He put up a long post on Androids.

"Close up, they were still artificial: there was something not quite right. But from a distance – even across the room – you could easily mistake them for real people. Think Star Trek’s Data, or Gary Numan circa 1978."

Hah. Or circa 2020. I saw Gary Numan a few years back in NYC. He is pretty easy to mistake for a human!

I don't know if our GM ran point totals on his androids, but I think having point totals really does help when you're designing mass foes, wether human, android, orc, or whatever. It keeps you in check. The Gamma World androids are pretty over the top - Warrior has physical strength 18, constitution 18, dexterity 18, intelligence 18, charisma 18, and only mental strength is rolled randomly (3d6.) Thinkers have 18 and 18 in intelligence and mental strength and then 3d6 in the others. The warriors are all pretty much Roy Batty, which is an interesting parallel thought given the game predates the movie.

If you did the same with androids in GURPS, your Mark VII warriors would potentially be ST 20, DX 20, IQ 20, HT 20 . . . and just sell back some Will (but not too much.) Or you could say, no, 18s aren't really 18s . . . but we're talking human max (and in 2e, they could have 21s, as could humans.) But in GURPS this is way, way too effective. Going simply off of the idea of "perfect human maxima" comes up with a crazy-expensive foe that most PCs couldn't touch. You'd need to scale it down . . . but to what?

This is where point buy is useful for NPCs. Or at least having a budget. If you suddenly think, well, yeah, warrior androids should have ST 18 or so, DX 15 or so, IQ 13 (at least), HT 16+, plus Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, Combat Reflexes, maybe even Enhanced Time Sense due to their reflexes, some natural DR, Doesn't Eat or Drink, Doesn't Breathe, oh, maybe Pressure Support for underwater and space, etc. etc. you get a staggeringly expensive package. So much so that it's still hard to be a useful foe for PCs unless you use them sparingly, and what's the point of a whole Cryptic Alliance of human-hating androids if you use them sparingly?

I've found it is a little better to set your sights a bit lower, and have a rough budget in mind - or a least, an dea of when too much is too much.

We haven't fought any Mark VIII androids in Gamma Terra yet, but I bet when we do we'll be impressed by their abilities but not automatically run down quite like a literally translated android from Gamma World would would do to us. It's how it should be, and fit how androids were in GW in actual play.

Still, there are other things that GW androids make me wonder. Do they all know everything about pre-Apocalypse tech? Do they automatically know how to use any artifact? Seems reasonable. Are they all of The Created? Did they have a connection with the Apocalypse itself in some way? They don't seem to type to have help back . . . so they might have been (effective) slaves who became free as a result of the fall of civilization.

Do they have incept dates and lifespans? Are they immortal? If so, are all of them from before the war? Can they reproduce? So many questions are really left open by them. Back in the day we just had them show up and fight, because they hate humans and my cousin's mutant armadillo was human enough for them because, why not? But these days . . . I wonder about them. And feel for them, if they hate humans because humans made them self-aware but crippled them in a way the're painfully aware of. It's terrinble to live in fear, but it's also terrible to live without hope . . . and that might be what humans did by making self-aware androids all too human but still not equal to humans.

Hillbilly would sympathize with them. Barbie will just shoot them, though. Barbie is like that . . .

Tomorrow Men - Buy Our Playsets and Toys!

So our GURPS Gamma Terra GM put up this post about our characters:

Gammatober Day 22: Tomorrow Men

Here we are, in a very accurate depiction:





The sad part, or perhaps the awesome part, is that we look remarkably like an alternative LEGO version of The Cheat Commandos:



I'm pretty sure Hillbilly is Fightgar, and Barbie is Gunhaver. I think Oinker is Reinforcements. Princess is Silent Rip. Fatbox is Ripberger, Short Bus is Firebert. I'm really unsure on the rest. I'll need to re-watch them.

I personally can't wait for Sean Punch to break down and do Action Heroes 1: The Cheat Commandoes. Those guys need stats, dammit!

Gamma Beholder

Our GM put this up:



And said this:

If you scan my Beholder tag you’ll find a bunch of fun things, such as playing off AD&D Beholder abilities and recasting them in Gamma World terms, or complaining that my GURPS Dungeon Fantasy cleric died at the hands of a Beholder on his very first adventure. (I spent four times as much time Photoshopping his character portrait as I did playing him.)

The players in my Tomorrow Men game probably suspect there’s a Beholder somewhere in their corner of Gamma Terra, given how I go on about them. But Midden is a big place; he could be anywhere.

Hypothetically.

Yeah, we'll need to stock up on Beholder-killing rounds. Or just torc grenade it.

Gamma World defined by our Gamma Terra GM

Over on Black Ray Gun, andi jones put up a post defining Gamma World:

So What is Gamma World?

It's a good look at Gamma World and has links to a lot of official images . . . and ones andi has found on the web that represent Gamma World elements well.

GT: Off to Ottawa

We've been talking about our inevitable downtime, and our next plan of action for Gamma Terra.

About a year back, we'd been trying to decide between these two options:

The Arsenal (Detroit)

• Amy visited it on her way to Ohio all those years ago, said it's bleak
• ruled by a humanoid chieftain called 6Mile who has a humanoid army
• there is the belief that he wants to leave the city and conquer parts of Midden
• Softie detected an "advanced energy bloom" there, seemingly higher TL than usual pre-War tech

Ottawa

• less destroyed than other big cities such as Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Detroit et al
• curiously in Softie's operational footprint
• was capital of the United North American States before the War
• Caveman has suggested that the Tomorrow Men's chips can be modified there


Back then we decided Ottawa.

Now, it looks like we'll go there next. I'm deeply tempted by The Arsenal and a lot of other things, but Ottawa is going to nag at me until we go. We'll never feel ready, so why not just say the heck with it and go soon?

Post-downtime, we'll head up to Ottawa. I suggested some possible actions when we get there:

- find out what we can about our chips;
- sell off some of our junk;
- find stuff we can buy, especially weaponry, medical tech, and information tech;
- find potential allies;
- learn as much as we can about the world, the Purists, and other groups.

Also, we'll try to catch an Ottawa Senators game. Surely the NHL survived the apocalypse, right?


We'll need to up some of our social skills before we go - Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Leadership, Merchant . . . we'll have to set up a list and see who improves what.

Random Gamma Terra Facts & Notes II

This is an addendum to Random Gamma Terra Facts & Notes, published back in February of 2019.

Dates

The original five have been out of the bunker for 156 or 157 days now.

Technology

More Highlights:

- Permium (TM) - an alloy of Kaskium. It's not as strong and vibration-absorbing as duralloy, but it's the second-best material we've found. The "bank vault" in Muskegeon was a form of Permium (TM).

- There is at least one sub-type of the 8 generations of androids. The Mark VIIIi is a different variation. It's not clear yet what makes it so. Combat variation, perhaps?

- We've found another variation of the idiot-proof medical pens - the purple pens are a massive stimulant with a lot of really negative effects.

- Robots with genuine people personalities.

Groups

We discovered a number of new groups:

- Red Death aka Friends of Entropy. A group of warrior-priests who call themselves a "cancer" on the world, and find that glorious. Dedicated to the cessation of all, eventually . . . but who practice resurrection! Based in Green Bay.

- Radiants - a group of radiation-worshippers.

- League of Free Men - a pre=war group of pro-world government folks.

- Autonomists - a pre-war group of anti-world government folks.

Turning Purists into Tomorrow Men

The Gamma Terra crew picked up some new recruits the old fashioned way - by recruiting NPCs.

We have about 16 new folks in the group - 11 mutated humans, 4 "pure strain" humans, and 1 scientist "pure strain" human.

All of them are ex-Purists. Some very, very recently ex-Purists, although clearly they'd made some kind of decision internally that it took just our offer to get them to switch.

But it's a big issue for us. We're now outnumbered almost 2:1 by new recruits of dubious upbringing. Heh.

Also, of different rank - many of them outrank us, two of them very badly (two Majors.) We already made it clear they can keep their rank titles but it's not coming with any command authority in our group. Surely within their group it will, which is its own issue. We need to avoid parallel command structures.

We need to figure out a way to integrate them into our group and into our goals.

I have a couple of ideas.

We Do Solemnly Swear . . .

We all have an oath on our character sheets. We're O.G. 20th Homeland, as the new recruits called us. Did they take the same oath?

I think they probably did not. They should take the one we took. We know it by heart, otherwise we wouldn't be bound by it now with no one to enforce it.

Time Off Together

They've been trapped for two year with just each other. We've got a medical base with reading materials of sorts, people who aren't them, proper facilities, and plenty of time to relax.

And safety. No one will shoot at them.

It's possible that hanging around with the crew might help us all get a little more friendly and familiar. Hillbilly's already done his part by befriending Lynne.

Team Building Field Trip!

It's trust fall time. We can take them out on a mission. Non-Purist related. Maybe visiting the Citadel at Greenbay would be touchy right now, but maybe going to the Proving Grounds wouldn't be Or going somewhere none of us have been - not Angel Hill, too much temptation to split off - and seeing what we can find. That big Pyramid to the west, maybe the wandering forest, the AFB? Something where we have to work together and get to know each other. Even just some maneuvers would help. And they know the world better than we do, so it's a good chance for them to feel like they're showing us their worth and bringing something to the table.

Code Names

We might have to consider giving them nicknames. No one calls Hillbilly Arnold. Maybe we need 15-16 more nicknames? That might help with the rank issues. If we call Major Cho "Major Cho" it implies that she's, say, a Major of some kind. If we call her "Notorious" or "Hardass" or something like that, she might feel like one of us.*

Plus it's easier than remembering their full names and old rank.


Something to think about . . .


* This isn't crazy. I know a guy named John, but no one calls him that. Not even him. His nickname is Mother****er. He introduces himself that way. It's a good part of why he's a guy everyone knows. His story is here, at the 43 minute mark of the podcast.

GURPS Gamma World, 20th Homeland - Session 21 - Unknown #1 = A2O

We played Gamma Terra on Sunday, heading off to hit the last of the "Unknown" markers on our area map.

Characters:
"Barbie" - demo/EOD
"Fatbox" - demo/EOD
"Hillbilly" - medical specialist
"Love Handles" - demo/EOD
"Oinker" - demo/EOD
"Short Bus" - computer programmer

In reserve:
"Caveman" - demo/EOD
"Momma's Boy" - computer programmer
"Princess" - cryptographer/sniper

We took about a week off between our Grand Island adventure and this one - we're rapidly hitting targets before the black snows come. Then we'll decide if we want to hunker down for the winter or venture outside of the snow area. Both have strong positives and some negatives as well.

Our last target of opportunity was Unknown #1, a drilling platform out in the great lakes that seems to be drilling up rare metals. On the way, though, Hillbilly insisted we stop at Grand Island to bury the dead Purists we found. We did so. The dead VIP, too. Respect the dead.

We left Softie there, and headed out in a high-tech inflatable raft onto the oil-like waters of Lake Whatever They Call It Now, toward Unknown #1. Short Bus was worried about sinking in his armor, so we strapped a inflatable raft to his back and rigged a pulley for him.

It took about 12 hours of paddling to reach our destination, with each of us taking shifts.

What we saw ahead was this:


(The image orients with the stem of the inverted T facing north.)

We could get a solid look at it with the Bunny Scope and with a TL10 spyglass that Hillbilly owns.

The west side was overgrown, badly so. It was patrolled by birds - actually, when we got closer, fish. We'd later learn those were fleshens and terls - the former flying mola molas and the second feathered barracuda. The south central section was guarded by some humanoid figures we'd later make out to be t-shirted bullpup-gun carrying humans, and the east section was patrolled by drones. That section flew a flag:



After some quick discussion, we decided the best way to go in was right to the guarded middle. We could board a ship then climb up a scaffolding to the top. The other way up was a crane in the fish-patrolled and deserted section. We'd have to bushwhack our way from there and it would seem hostile - and the environment might be very hostile.

So we headed right for the nearest container ship. We were spotted, and waved and saluted. The sentry was joined by two more figures. We tied up our boat at the container ship, which rode very low in the oily water. We climbed up onto it and found it was full of dirt - it had been turned into a farm. We climbed up the scaffolding to the top.

There we were greeted by the three we spotted. They had 20th Homeland tattoos but we couldn't see any Purist tattoos. We saluted and they saluted back. Their leader, Major Loeb, wanted to know what the hell we were and where we came from. We said, "20th Homeland, Van Buren Bunker." He was suitably impressed. He was 20th Homeland, 5th generation. His companions included a green-skinned woman named Diedre. (I said, "She's from Orion. That's hot." Fatbox's player agreed that's how it goes.) We had a chat with them. They said they weren't Purists but were from the east. Er, Purist territory.

We spoke more and found they were actually former Purists. They had been there maybe 2 years? They were closed-mouthed about it but eventually it came out that there were four groups on the platform, which was called A2O - Advanced Alloys Operations - back in the day. They were:

- Purists, in the form of the Corvus Corporation, the science arm of the Purists. They have a suit of LEONIDAS power armor but it's in bad condition, and isn't radiation sealed. They need the Kaskium-269 for Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Station (NPS). They expected relief but it hadn't come.
- these Purist outcasts, who had become "contaminated."
- black-robed white-skinned mutants, who have unknown motives and seem non-hostile to the outcasts but hostility to the Purists.
- Frogmen over by the drilling cylinder called "the Pit."

Loeb was really reluctant to give us information. He'd come around later, but he didn't tell us a lot that we'd have to find out on our own. It was pretty clear we'd need to do that.

But it was late when we arrived, and they nicely offered to let us bunk with them in the building they were in. It was an old medical building with 11 of the outcasts in it.

Fatbox started to be very friendly to the green-skinned woman. Hillbilly picked out the most attractive one - Lynne Ren - and went right for her. He wasn't subtle about it - I rolled a 7 on a default 12 Sex Appeal. She was game to chat Hillbilly right back up but wasn't that quick about deciding.

We had a nice meal of vegetables from their floating garden and fleshen flesh. It was pretty good.

We quickly concluded that we had the armored suit to get into "the Pit," and potentially could resolve this conflict.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed out. Oinker spied on them with his scope. He saw two, marked on their white faces with painted symbols. ("Post-Apocalypic Kiss" - the Kiss Army cannot be destroyed by the apocalypse!) He reported this to us. Hillbilly joked that he should shoot at them in a friendly way, mind you, to attract their attention. Fatbox said, "Standard greeting fire." He watched them slinging something towards the Purist area. That would turn out to be Kaskium-269.

We walked over and spoke to them. One was waiting to see us - Eleventyseven. He said they were warrior-priests of the Red Death aka Friends of Entropy. They had been brought to the rig - summoned - by a group called the Radiants. Those were the frogmen. They'd been summoned to fight the Purists, who wanted the "manna" down in the Pit that the Radiants worship. The Radiants wanted the conflict won without harming anyone, if possible. So the Red Death were attacking the Purists by throwing radioactive material at them, and slowly irradiating the platform, to contaminate them and force them into exile. The Red Death see themselves as a cancer to destroy the world. And they find that glorious.

We spoke to them for a bit. They were immune to radiation and - if we're willing to come to the Citadel of Greenbay and join them - we could become so, too.

Love Handles handled the negotiations to this point.

We headed to the frogmen next, having told the Red Death we might be able to resolve this conflict.

We told the frogmen the same - one of them, we'd been told, could speak some Ancient. We asked for him - a frogman named Fracker Bravo. We spoke to him. He was a real peace-loving hippie type who worshipped radiation. But he was friendly. Hillbilly told him we could end the war. We could get rid of the Purists - and we promised to try talking first. We would want some manna in return, though. He wasn't happy but that's how he's paying the Red Death, and so he was willing. But he offered metal, instead. He showed us some - a 40-pound lump of Kaskium. Hillbilly etched an "H" in it when FB told us we could keep it.

Even better.

He let us see the Pit.

The Pit was an elevator down 20 miles. Halfway down is a Kaskium-269 storage area with the "manna." At the bottom were friendly metal monsters with lots of metal. They were "friendly." Okay.

We set up a morse code routine for Short Bus, who can't speak but can use radio in his armor. He went down 10 miles and checked out the radiation - lots of boxes of Kaskium-269, maybe 15-20? - and three open boxes.

He went down to the bottom. It was so hot he had to leave his gear behind. At the bottom it was over 200 degrees C. He met a six-legged mining robot standing in the middle of a bunch of tunnels sideways into the mantle. He asked its status.

"Standby. Doing crossword puzzles."

The robot had three full hoppers - one with osmium, one with Kaskium-269, one with Kaskium. Short Bus explored and found the tunnels had striations of non-mantle rock-material. What? He couldn't tell. He returned.

We went back to Loeb. On the way, we discussed our options.

The Purists needed to go. We could make a deal, Hillbilly suggested. Give them some of the Kaskium in return for them leaving and not coming back. But first we'd just offer them a way home, with their gear but nothing else.

Still, this was sub-optimal for us. They'd leave with excellent gear - Loeb told us they'd enchanced their armor with Kaskium-alloy known as Permium(TM). And they'd know about us. Also something Hillbilly wished to avoid. We also wanted to avoid the Purists seizing Short Bus and his armor to allow them to mine.

We met back up with Loeb and told him we had a plan to end it all. They could come home with us. Or just hitch a ride, whatever. They'd get off. We wanted to talk to the Purists. If that failed, we'd kill the hardcore resisters.

We headed out towards them, after sending a concealed Oinker to watch the negotiations. Loeb told us about a sniper. Oinker spotted him, on the platform on the connecting bridge, and aimed at his face. Hillbilly said that if he said, "So, I guess that's it then" that Oinker should kill the sniper. It was combat time.

Hillbilly handed his max-area preset torc grenade to Short Bus to put in a holster in his armor. If they threatened to take us prisoner to seize his suit, he'd pull it out and say he'd set it off with zero delay and take the suit to his grave with him. Short Bus was onboard with this plan. Short Bus ran off to the Red Death to tell them to come if they heard gunfire, because we were ending it violently in that case.

We walked over, helmets off, MOPP gear off, etc. and weapons slung or carried casually. The sniper spotted us, and people came out to meet us - a guy in a badly battered LEONIDAS suit carrying a shield padded with pillows (to deflect those radiation grenades, I opined, correctly) and a gauss cannon on a back harness mount. We faced them and saluted. He saluted back, and eventually took off his head gear. Sgt. Tauruson was impressed that were were "O.G" 20th Homeland. We talked about going home. We're here to take you HOME. This mission can be over, Sergeant. We could make a deal. He wasn't ranked high enough, so he went to get the military commander.

He did, as we waited. He instructed us to take out magazines and rounds first. Some of us complied, but Fatbox quietly did not. It didn't matter.

We'd been warned that the commander was a "total hardass" named Major Geraldine Cho, who Hillbilly mentally tagged as Maragaret. The Notorious C.H.O. came out to talk. She was equally disarmed and was a tough-looking woman with acne scars.

We spoke again about home. Hillbilly said our offer was this:

- they go home, or elsewhere if they prefer.
- they take their personal gear and weapons and such.
- That's it.

Hillbilly made it clear that this was somewhat negotiable, but that we didn't have the transport for them to take Kaskium, etc. with them. The "hardass" wasn't. She wanted to go home. The science staff and mission was headed by a Dr. Culp, and he was hardcore Purist and a diehard. She said she'd take our offer and send a trusted person to Loeb to let us know how it went.

We parted and headed back.

We ate with Loeb and company, and left Oinker in position. It got dark.

Then it got friendly - Hillbilly made another pass at Lynne. I made Sex Appeal by 7, she rolled a 17 on her Will. And we were off.

Hours later, around 3:30 am, Oinker radio'ed that four Purists were heading our way. Four messengers?

No, four defectors. Lt. Ellen Colon, Neil Dunne, Sarah Ligari, and Major Cho. The sniper didn't notice them in the dark as he was looking out for Red Death folks.

Hillbilly came down from his room pulling his shirt on and asked them to disarm. They weren't willing. We didn't press it. Loeb trusted them, and Cho offered to have them held by Loeb at gunpoint. Bah. We just let them keep their guns. But they were it. The others wanted to finish the mission.

We told them we'd kill anyone who didn't surrender pretty thoroughly.

And that's pretty much what we did. We moved out right away. Hillbilly got his torc grenade back. We moved out in a wedge, with Short Bus in the middle. As we approached, Oinker shot the sniper in the unprotected face.

We advanced to the base of the platform. We started to shoot down the drones - half of them were armed drones, half spotters, so we shot down the armed ones. They were fragile and Short Bus saw them easily with his enhanced senses. Fatbox and Hillbilly shot them down.

The Red Death sent a couple of guys running up. Love Handles met them and accompanied them, protected by a forcefield generated by one. The other had a bow. The forcefield one had a backpack full of "manna." Great, suicide bomber with a nuclear weapon.

The LEONIDAS suited Sgt. Tauruson came out with his gauss gun. Oinker had been waiting for that. He put two rounds into it, wrecking it. Tauruson instead drew an oversized auto-pistol and ran towards us. He shot at the charging Red Death who passed up. Meanwhile, Barbie climbed up to the sniper roost. Someone on the helipad shot at him. He flipped them the middle finger without looking back and kept climbing ("I climb serpentine.")

Tauruson shot at the forcefield-protected Red Death and mostly bounced rounds off, but eventually killed the longbowman with gunfire and then ditched his empty pistol. He then killed the other one with a force sword of some kind. Short Bus was going to engage with his ninja-to, but then Hillbilly handed him Hoopslayer.

That was a good move.

Short Bus ran up and the two power armored guys fought in melee. Short Bus was hit with the sword, but his duralloy-coated shield bounced it. The LEONIDAS suit on his opponent, though, didn't stop Hoopslayer. In a series of attacks, Short Bus cut his chest apart and left him a bloody, dead mess in seconds.

Oinker kept up fire on two more, killing one and keeping the other pinned.

At this point, Hillbilly had gotten out his bullhorn and told them to surrender, it was over, give up and they wouldn't die, they'd get to go home. All true, if they had. Not on the same terms - "with me before Chicago" rules apply. Not stated, but true.

Barbie reached the sniper station and found his Barrett (!) He used it to shoot one of the two guys on the helipad shooting him. He killed him. The other shot back and some of his suppressing fire raked Barbie, wounding him. Barbie rolled over and red pen'ed himself, and then rolled back. When the gunfire died down, he popped up, sighted his target - out in a well-lit area, the fool - and killed him, too.

With those guys down, we stopped asking for surrender. Short Bus went ahead and killed the other two. We'd finished the combatants off.

The three scientists had locked themselves in the main building with a device called the gamma lathe - a tool to make Permium(TM) equipment. We'd been warned Dr. Culp was a true believer. He'd been contaminated from using the lathe, but saw that as a price he paid to help the cause.

The place was shielded with big blast doors, but not on the upper levels. Love Handles climbed up and smashed out a window. Hillbilly and Fatbox followed. We found the lobby, found the location of the lab (and found we couldn't open the doors from the lobby), and headed to the lab.

At the lab we found Dr. Lennin holding a gun on us, terrified and unable to fire. Hiding behind her was Dr. Vanessa Hodges. Dr. Culp was looking crafty and trying to do something, anything, with his computer console. We told them to disarm. They didn't. We gave them directions to lay down. They didn't.

Fatbox just walked up and took away her gun. "We're done here."

Culp surrendered, too, but Hillbilly didn't trust him. He took aim. Fatbox went to duct tape his hands. Culp lashed out with a vibrodagger!

And Hillbilly fire full auto into him. Nine rounds, six hit. He died. Dr. Hodges went catatonic.

We asked questions to Dr. Lennin. She said she'd never tell us anything. Okay. Hillbilly showed her his eyes. "Do you have a problem with this?" he said, and pointed at them. She was scared but seemed firm.

We brought them back and left them outside and went to talk to Cho and Loeb. They said Lennin was a true believer. Hodges we brought inside. Hillbilly went outside to talk to Dr. Lennin. He tried to reason with her but she kept saying she'd tell us nothing. Hillbilly made it clear this was her life on the line. She got stubborn.

So Hillbilly shot her in the face.

Ugh. Not where I wanted that to go.

We did some talking - the whole group of them will come with us and try our life. A post on that tomorrow, I think. The Red Death will leave, taking their dead with them - dead? Love Handles spoke to them. "They'll be fine." "Oh, you mean their souls will be fine." "No, they'd be up and around."

Turns out the Red Death can come back from the dead. A little weaker, sure, a little "smaller," but back. Wow.

We left it there - the hard-core Purists killed, peace restored. We had a bit meal of flying mola mola and we'll resolve the way off and the resolution by email. We need to manufacture some stuff for us, and decide how to leave it. Sadly, we probably need to disable the gamma lathe so the conflict doesn't re-start. We're not strong enough to garrison it.

Notes

We had an exchange by email during which Barbie's player mentioned how attractive Barbie was. The GM pointed out he wasn't. So Barbie's player invested 5 points in Attractive. Hah.

We rolled to level up - at least most of us, who had previous played a multiple of 5 sessions. IIRC Barbie rolled +2 Striking ST, Fatbox +1 IQ to bring him into a tie with Hillbilly at 13, Oinker and Hillbilly both got +1 HT. I can't recall what Love Handles got, if he in fact leveled up. With the +1 HT Hillbilly has HT 15 and Very Fit, which helped immensely in the session to follow.

So it turns out I'm the player who wants to know if there are any cute girls in the bar to hit on. Hey, Hillbilly probably didn't get any action the day he was frozen and it's been 155 days since then. The Restorationists weren't interested for some reason, so he was going to keep trying. Momma's Boy has his porn, but Hillbilly has a solid Sex Appeal default.

Omnium is actually a cycling race term.

Kaskium, I assume, is named for Tim Kask. We need some Wardium. It's bound to be really powerful but not enough to counter the DM's machinations.

We took turns as speakers today - Love Handles did some of it, we did some as a group, and Hillbilly took over in the end for the direct negotiations. I'm most interest, and my best, when I'm focused on a goal and negotiating. Hillbilly and Love Handles had some differences about the utility of white lies. Hillbilly prefers not to lie, so people believe his facts. Love Handles likes to spin things a little differently so we don't let on what we know until we've fished out some from the others. Interesting contrast I think. He's at his best just being conversational and asking for general information, in my opinion.

We used the map above as a handout. The GM didn't have this much clearer map ready. Honestly, it makes a big difference - seeing this I have a different idea of where I was. Less Zaxxon and more habitable platform.


When the LEONIDAS suit-wearing Purist readied his force sword and attacked the Red Death warrior-priests, I asked Fatbox's player for sound effects. "A Wilhem scream?" I said yes, but I meant a light saber effect. Oinker's player jumped in with that. So every time he hit a warrior-priest they played the sound effects. Woooosh. AAAAAAAH! Fatbox's player kept up the screams with each killed Purist combatant. We don't do MVP but they were MVP.

That's just one of the funny things in game. We had so, so many. Some of us - especially including me - just kept laughing really hard for big chunks of the session. "Standard greeting fire" was a classic Fatbox line - that player is the same one who came up with "Wizard Court" and "Wizard Jury Duty" in our DF campaign.

After the session, I thought of some ways we could have potentially turned or used Dr. Lenin. Ways we could have appealed to her, and made her convince herself that helping us really helped the Purists, too. They might not have worked, but it was late and I was in a rush so I just didn't think of them. Oh well. Great game. Very satisfying, even if Hillbilly ended up doing something I'd rather not have had Hillbilly do. I'd personally have felt as bad about it if I'd just handed her over to Fatbox, who'd cheerfully have cut her into pieces with his chainsword. Not a good way to end. At least it's a new beginning - we have our first new recruits!

Gamma Pre-Summary

We played Gamma Terra today, with a good crowd - six players.

We:

- Buried the dead at our last exploration point

- traveled to Unknown #1 by rowing our inflatable Zodiacs

- saw flying fish, drones, and a habitable drilling platform

- met splitters from the Purists

- met Red Death warrior-priests

- met the Radiant - frogmen who worship radiation

- tested the rad-proofing of our LEONIDAS suit

- met hard-core Purists

- negotiated, for real

- negotiated, in the "bullet in the head" sense

- made some amazing discoveries

- and got Hillbilly some action, boo-yah.

Detailed summary tomorrow!

Notes from the Post-Apocalypse - GM info dump for Gamma Terra

We've been dealing with lots of little things from our last Gamma Terra session.

Here are andi's notes on the android we shot for booting up near firearms, because we're a little jumpy:

In one of the suites in the Echo-Tower, the PCs destroyed a female Mark VIII Bodyguard Android by shooting her in the head, and using Oinker’s “bunny scope” they found her memory modules in the torso and extracted them. Once home, the PCs were able — with Short Bus’ knowledge of computing and android engineering — to connect her to a terminal and get her online. Doing that, they learned that she was a Mark VIIIi A-Level Bodyguard Android called Nike (pronounced NEE-kay) and had been assigned to protect a man (whose corpse the PCs found in a bed in the same suite) named Manny Ferraro. Ferraro was a wealthy and influential friend (and former University of Michigan classmate) of John Morrow’s, and an “expert consultant” to the UNAS’ United Intelligence Services. He lived in a fortified brownstone in Detroit and was buying a unit in the Echo-Tower (as well as a room in the Survival City). In the year before the War, Ferraro split his time between his home in Detroit and the starport at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Nike was always with him, but he could turn her long-term memory circuits off when he was doing “classified” things, so she doesn’t know much about what he did, exactly.

Our additional questions told us the following:

The Mark VIIIi is "high-end human" -- better than a Bishop-from-Aliens-style Mark VIII which is basically a baseline human in terms of physical abilities.

Talking to Nike, you ask about her capabilities -- I'll just translate what she says into GURPS terms to save me saying it all in words, which would be vague and take more time than I have.

The Mark VIIIi would have ST and DX in high human range (maybe 16-18 depending on how much you spend) with above-average processing power (IQ 12-ish, lower than Mark 8's "genius grade" IQ 14+ brain) and a HT score (plus Hard to Subdue and Kill) that makes it hard to put her down short of destroying her. Her reactions are impressive; she would have a higher Basic Speed (and thus Move) than her DX and HT scores would normally come out to, as well as Combat Reflexes. She has subdermal armor plating (DR capable of deflecting up to rifle rounds, so call it 4d or 5d of DR). She doesn't eat, drink, tire, breathe and so on. Her power source is in the form of an atomic battery which lasts more or less indefinitely. She had the juice to boot up when you found her, despite having been sitting there for centuries.

And of course all the Machine Body advantages like Injury Tolerances like No Blood and so on. That's in Basic.

Skills are what you would been for VIP protection detail, all at professional (or greater, 17-18+) levels. In her case, melee and unarmed were better (Level 20?) than guns (because people were really prickly about firearms during the shadow years).

Her gear is pretty simple. Mono-edge hyperdense ninja-to with an armor divisor, a (5mm?) needler pistol like the one you found on the dead security guard in the nuclear power plant (but slightly better) and those are "shock shurikens" which have very sharp micro-barbed points that stick in flesh/clothing/armor and deliver a taser-like incapacitating jolt of electricity.

Her needler ammo?

Single magazine (22 rounds) of disintegrating (as in dissolving, not "disintegration ray") poison. One or two hits is non-lethal, more rounds deliver more poison and increase lethality (ie require multiple HT rolls, or HT rolls at penalties, that kind of thing).

And here is what she looked like - Bridgitte Nielson. I called it by email without the GM saying so . . . she sounded like Bridgitte Nielson looked in Beverly Hill Cop II sans .44 Automag.

My Large Gaming Group - How did we get here & the effects of size

My current crop of regular gamers - in DF Felltower and in AD&D, and in andi's GT game as well - consists of a lot of people.

How did this happen?

We started with five, only four of whom could make the first session. They were guys from my previous gaming group and a friend who'd popped in and out of my games for years.

Over time, we added two more online acquaintances. We lost a couple of the originals over time. Then we added back in two guys from my previous game. Then the son of one of the players began to play, at the same time as a new acquaintance tried the game. Then his sons joined in. We lost one to "occasional only" status due to work, and another dropped out after the big Beholder fight, coincidentally or not. One guy who popped in for GT became a semi-regular in DF and in GT, and plays AD&D with us sometimes, too.

This has left us with nine regular players not including me, and a couple of occasional players.

It's why I'm reluctant to add players even when people have asked. Returnees are always welcome, though. Potentially, we could have a session with 14 players if everyone came back.

The benefits and difficulties of size have really been apparent, recently.

The sheer physical size of the group means that if a lot of people can come to game, we need a lot of room. A table with a folding table on the end, with the GM trapped in a corner, is standard these days.

We can't easily run games balanced for a smaller group. Have a D&D5 adventure set for five gamers? We're going to double that.

But we can run really old-school tournament adventures no problem. Nine PCs like in the A-series and G-series? No problem. We can take a solid crack at the 20-man roster from Tom of Horrors or Barrier Peaks with only one or two people needing run a third character. Maybe with some running only one if we get an especially full house.

It's bad for my love of henchmen and hirelings. I wrote DF15 and it gets less of a workout in my GURPS games when people show up with 8-9 PCs to explore 3-yard wide dungeon corridors.

It's good for running games in general, because we only need 3-4 people to play the game with a solid base of adventurers, and that means any day we choose is good enough.

It's bad when we have no idea if we'll have four or eight on a given day, though.

Games can be slow - and combats even slower. If everyone takes 1 minute to resolve their turn, a 9-player roster takes an hour for a 6-turn fight - and that assumes the GM can get through all of the NPCs in 1 minute! I've needed to offload some of the responsibilities to coordinate big fights to the players just to keep up.

Overall, it's a plus. I get to run big games, and there is no one in my group that I'd be happy to see leave. I'd be even happier if the ones who can't come regularly or who quit long ago were able to come back. But it's not without complications and benefits.