Cancelled Class Actual Play Report: Kids of the Borderlands

 Yesterday there was a storm called Eunice rampaging through the country.

Nothing as bad as storms in the USA seem to get, but enough that parents went to pick up kids from school before school was out. It made it so that I had only one pupil left of the three I normally had. This means that I skipped the normally planned lessons and we played a game.

She liked the weird games with the dice I sometimes play with kids, so I opened B2-Keep on the Borderlands and ran it for her using RISUS. I helped her make a character, which ended up being the following the following one:

The picture the girl chose
for her character.

Eliza-B

Huntress (4)
Sweet Danser (3)
Make-up Artist (2)
Lumberjack (1)

Asking her what she wanted to do and pointing out the areas on the map, she decided to head into the forest to look for friends to do a make-over with. Not what I was going for, but I like it. We did some encounter rolls, but none of them were pretty enough for her. 

As if it was a story about a girl with golden lock in a house owned by bears, she found some dwarves, but they were too old. Then she found some priests, but they were too male, and then she found some bandits, but they were too ugly.

The bandits —besides being too ugly— also tried to steal the goat she had hunted after giving up on finding friends for a while and take some time to eat. I feel ya, sometimes when things get rough, you just need a little snack. There was a chase as she hunted the bandits and shot them in the back until they dropped her food and ran off.

By then, we had to wrap things up for the game since the bell was going to ring, marking the start of the weekend.

She seemed happy with the game, but there were some points in the game that were kind of disappointing. For one she tried and tried and couldn't find a friend. Next time I should get her a friend and the random encounter roll might tell what trouble that friend was in. She had some bad luck rolling, and playing RISUS with a single PC is kind of hard, since some of the ways you could influence enemies with cliches that are equal or higher than yours are not available. So next time I might give her a friend that was visiting to help. Something like that.

All in all, it was a successful little session.

Kingdoms of Pegolia 2022: Actual Play Report #2

Year one resolves in the kingdoms of Pegolia as the kids gave their reactions to what happened.

There's two kids — who happen to be neighbors on the map — that want to play this as a game of Fortnite and immediately geared up for war. So there's a war in the mountains. For one of them (King Vili of Vil) it's reasonable, since he wants to take the volcano on the map to build a lair in. It just so happens that Johny King's capitol city is located there. Johny King though, seems to have only skimmed the information given and payed no heed to his citizens disappearing in the north, before going to wage war in the south, so he now finds flying pirate ships abducting his citizens from the actual city now that his armies are away. But at least he won the first bout of the war. He's going to need to make some decisions. King Vili will also need to make some decisions, but he has a war-hungry general (General Moustache) who is feeding him ideas.

Others immediately started sending out feelers to see who's around. De Adder (The Viper) already questioned Rita Van Dieren (Rita of the Animals) wether or not they can make a deal. He didn't specify, so he's going to have to spend a whole other year to work this out with Rita Van Dieren.

Rita seems to be the hub for that area, having made contact with all the players as Sofia De Beste came visiting her as well. To her only the two War Bro's in the mountain are unknown and all of the NPC kingdoms. Rita seems a bit concerned as well, (perhaps of hearing the boys talking about war) and started training hunters and fighters. 

Pasteur Clara seems to be the only one taking any interest in the disappearing parents plot and keeps investigating how to find and free her parents. So far she has been able to find evidence of her mom in the swamps up north (they found her jacket in piles of waste) and had a vision of her parents being able to slip their bonds and jump over the edge of a flying pirate ship. She doesn't know where they are now though.

That's it for now!

Kingdoms of Pegolia 2022 - Actual play report #1

With my fifth graders (10-11 year olds) in religion class we learn about what a good leader does or what leadership is supposed to be with King David as an example (both a good example and a bad one). To make this more fun and to test what the kids understand of it, I devised a game to play with them. They all got to make a ruler of some kind and name their kingdom. They are all living in the World of Pegolia (PEGO is the acronym for protestant an evangelical religion education in Dutch) and they were allowed to go wild with their imagination. 

I based the rules off of RISUS since that's my go to with older kids. Going all Pendragon-y each turn will be a year, but today was the starting event, which I kind of based off of their cliches. (I wasn't a stickler for how to define a cliche here. I've only got 50 minutes twice a week and have to give the actual lessons.) They had to put one cliche at 4 (being the best at), one at 3 (being good at), one at 2 (beging normal at) and one at 1 (being bad at it).

Now every week they can tell me what they want to do for the year and I will roll all relevant dice to see if it works. I've also have some rulers of my own in the mix, but plan to only use them as they come up (I might make some countdown clocks for them, I dunno yet. I've got a week to decide.)

But anyway. Meet the players:

Vili from the Kingdom of Vil. Dark-blond hair, brownish green eyes and looking cool, wearing normal clothes and known for being lazy. This kid just described himself.

• Highjumper (4)
• Guy who can grab a shield quickly (3)
• Prison breaker (2)
• Fast Runner (1)

Rita van Dieren (of the animals) from De Frisse Bergen (The Fresh/Cool Mountains). She is environmentally conscious and always polite to her subjects. While she can be bossy, she remains respectful and is good in playing chess. (none of this is reflected in her cliches, lol)

• Gardener (4)
• Guitarist (3)
• Ruler (2)
• Not a nosy person (1)

Johny Koning (King) from the kingdom of Justice. He's dumb, beautiful, drinks a lot and is very strong.

• Fighter (4)
• Handsome One (3)
• Justice! (2)
• Drinker (1)

The Viper from The Snakewoods. He's a giant red snake that can talk. He can easily be recognized because there's snakes all around him.

• Snake Whisperer (4)
• Poison Resistant Snake (3)
• Snake Caretaker (2)
• Anger Manager (1)

Sofia De Beste (The Best) uit De Beste Land (The Best Country, but with a wrong article). She's friendly with the entire kingdom and has curly black hair and black eyes. (I think another self-description, though this time with a name that is more different than the other kid's)

• Helping Hand (4)
• Female Athlete (3)
• Cook (2)
• Calm and Collected Person (1)

Pasteur (Pastor, in French) Clara from Brakka. (description missing? I think she did it, but I haven't written it down yet.)

• Prayer Warrior (4)
• Person That Is Good At Doing Meetings (3)
• Athlete (2)
• Fashion Icon (1)

This one is inspired by a gender swap with her dad (Who's a pastor), if I'm not mistaken. Also, some strategy here, being like "This is a game for religion class, so I'm going to be best at praying". Also, it might say something about what she thinks of her father's fashion choices.

Then I'm having three other kingdoms as NPC's to add to the mix:

Robotbrein (Robot Brain) from Robotstad (Robot City).

Robotbrein is a big computer that kind of looks like a brain, but made out of electric wires. Robotbrein always talks about us/we, never about I/me. Robotbrein rules all robots in Robot City and controls them directly.

• Many Robots, One Brain (4)
• Inventor (3)
• Builder (2)
• Person with Empathy (1)

De Grote Stinker (The Big Stinker) from De Zwavelputten (The Sulfuric Pits).

De Grote Stinker is the boss over the Sulfuric Pits in the swamp. He loves trash, stank and unhealthy food. The more things stink, the more comfortable he feels.

• Stinkers (4)
• Tamed Swamp Animals (3)
• Cook (2)
• Cleaning Person (1)

Scheurbek de Luchtpiraat (Rip Maw The Air Pirate) from Het Woestijnland (The Desert Lands).

Scheurbek is an air pirate that ambushes and robs people from the desert with her airships. The airships look like pirate ships combined with hot air balloons. She only allows girls to join. Boys get taken prisoner.

• Tough Pirate (4)
• Strong Girl (3)
• Airship Captain (2)
• Prinses (1)

TROIKA! Character Set #2 (Version 1)

More Troika!, since that's where my mind's at! Who knows, maybe I'll get to my own d66 table? Probably not. Trying some fancy stuff with specials and new spells. Let me know what you think of it!

1. Angel Amnesiac

You are like a human, but with wings. You have a golden band floating above your head. It’s cracked. You don’t remember anything but your name and what you can do, but not why you can, or why others can’t. Time to find out I guess.

Possessions:

• Cracked Aureole

• Flaming Sword (how do special weapons?)

• Billowing White Robes
• Strangely Melodious Robes

Advanced Skills:

4 - Sword Fighting

3 - Singing

1 - Language: Celestial
1 - Angelic Spell: Fear (Assume frightening presence with loads more wings and loads more eyes and smoke and lightning and holy choruses)
1 - Angelic Spell: Random

1 - Angelic Spell: Random

Special:

Angelic spells and memories are locked until a way is found to repair the aureole. A fun option might be to wait with rolling the random Angelic Spells until this is managed, discovering them together with the character.

Spell List: 1d3 (tens) + 1d6 (singles)

11. Babble
12. Banish Spirit
13. Befuddle (hearing heavenly chorusses in the mind)
14. Coal Resolve
15. Ember
16. Exorcism
21. Fear (so many wings and eyes etc.)
22. Fire Bolt
23. Flash
24. Invisibility
25. Light
26. Peace

31. Presence
32. Sleep
33. Teleport
34. Thunder
35. True Seeing
36. Undo 

2. Initiate in the Mystical Order of Janitors

You look like a normal janitor, but you hold the keys to secret knowledge granted to you by Janus.

Possessions:

• A Mop and Bucket OR A Toolbox

• Blue Coveralls.

• A keychain with 20 keys of different sizes and materials.

Advanced Skills:

2 - Secret Signs (Mystical Order of Janitors)

2 - Small Repairs

3 - Cleaning

1 - Janitorial Magic: Looking Through the Door (Looking into the now, the past, or the future, either here or elsewhere, as long as there is a door or window to look through.
1 - Janitorial Magic: Skeleton Key - The key used can open any lock, if the spell succeeds.

Choose One: 1 - Pole arm Fighting // 1 - Maul Fighting // 1 - Knife Fighting 

Spells:

11. Astral Reach,
12. Breach,
13. Find,
14. Grow,
15. Helping Hands, 

16. Ironhand, 

21. Levitate, 

22. Light, 

23. Lock, 

24. Open, 

25. Protection from Rain, 

26. Quench, 

31. See Through, 

32. Sentry, 

33. Shatter, 

34. True Seeing, 

35. Undo, 

36. Ward.

Special:

Mystical Janitors can use keys to enhance certain spells, if they can be somehow be used as a normal key should in the casting of the spell. 

Roll on each table for each key:

1. Iron: substitutes 1 stamina

2. Iron: substitutes 1 stamina

3. Iron: substitutes 1 stamina

4. Silver: adds +1 to spell skill level

5. Gold: substitute 1d6 stamina

6. Ivory: opens hidden knowledge

1. Small: +2 to spell level, but lesser effect of the spell.

2. Large: Fills a small slot on its own.

3. Antique: opens to the past, but not farther back then the age of the key.

4. Found: looks/opens to another location, on the same sphere.

5. Found in the Humpbacked Skies: looks/opens to to another location, regardless of sphere.

6. Heavy: fills a small slot on its own.

Other keys might be used to different effects, based on the GM’s discretion.

3. Simian Bass Player

You’re a primate that plays the bass.

Possessions:

• Either an Electric Bass or a Contrabass

• A fancy suit with a floral shirt.

• A Knife

Advanced Skills:

3 - Play the Bass

2 - Climb

2 - Etiquette

1 - Knife Fighting

1 - Brawling

1 - Acrobatics

4. Unwilling Messiah

People believe you are the Messiah, and you actually might be, but you just want to sleep in and play video games. You wish they all would just leave you alone. They don’t. Will you get away from your calling or will you succumb?

Possessions:

• Portable Video Game System

• Nondescript Trench Coat

• Soft, Downy Sleeping Pillow

• Cozy Blanket

• A Baseball Bat

Advanced Skills:

3 - Playing Video Games

2 - Sneak

2 - Sleep

2 - Spell: Mystical Visions

1 - Being Pursued by Devoted Followers

New Spell: Mystical Visions:

Every Time the Unwilling Messiah has an exceptional experience, test Mystical Visions. 

Exceptional Experiences include but are not limited to: A Good Night’s Sleep, A Very Fine Meal, Falling in Love, Being Knocked Out, Being Dumped, Receiving a Compliment from Someone You Look Up too, Being Robbed, Watching a Cat Video, …
The Visions might be of things to come, that have already happened or that are happening right now. They might also be a calling by a god or demon or other mystical entity (like the mystical three eyed goat on the top of Mount Granola.)

Special: 

Every time you enter a new location, roll Being Pursued by Devoted Followers to see if you’ve been found out. The GM might include bonuses or negatives for the locations, like if it’s crowded, or if you are not in civilized lands, or …
Remind your GM about is at the start of the first session. After that, it’s their responsibility.

5. Infernal Bureaucrat

You are a devil that likes contracts very much and are traveling the spheres for someone wanting a hellish contract made. You can use the souls gained with these to power your magic.

Possessions:

• A Jar containing 1d6 floating Souls

• Form Fill Contracts (5)

• Parchment (5) and Blood Red Quill

• A shadowy, black cloak

Advanced Skills:

2 - Bureaucracy

2 - Etiquette

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random 

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random

Special:

Infernal Magic can be used by substituting a soul for the cost of stamina. Each regular, human soul used counts as 1d6 stamina (roll when used). Some special souls might give more, some might less.

6. Royal Beautician

Your customers might already be kings, queens and emperors, but you make them look the part.

Possessions:

• A beautycase filled with the tools of your trade (Large)

• Either a Brick Filled Handbag (damage as club) or Brass Knuckles (damage as club)
• A Taser (as Pistolet, but non lethal)

• 100 Business Cards (Small Item)

Advanced Skills:

4 - Trade: Beautician

2 - Gossip

2 - Etiquette

1 - Brawling or Fist Fighting

1 - Pistolet Fighting

TROIKA! Character Set #1 (version 1)

So, recently I've been thinking about Troika a lot again, and I've gotten back into creating characters for it.  This time I'm going about it, thinking how interesting it would be if they showed up at the Blancmange & Thistle Hotel (the adventure in the back of the book). So I've been treating it a bit as a psychedelic version of the joke where some people walk into a bar. Thinking which types of characters would be fun to play in that adventure. I'm grouping them in sets of six (because you can roll a d6 for them in that way).

Anyway, here they are:

1. Forest Wild Man

Dressed in leaves and your own hair, covered in dirt and rippling muscles, you are a man or woman of the woods. Civilization is confusing, but intriguing. Will you endure the strangeness of it or will you flee back to the trees?

Possessions:

• A Wooden Maul
• Clothing made of leaves

• A small animal friend that lives in your hair. (tell us which animal and give it a name)

Advanced Skills:
3 - Animal Friend 

3 - Wrestling

2 - Maul Fighting

2- Surviving Nature

2. Misplaced Teenager

You were just minding your business, trying not to get bullied while also catching the eye of that classmate you find pretty and cool. You should’ve never walked into that new curio shop and bought that mystical book. Somehow now, you are in the book. Will you ever get out? Do you want to? You never finished binging that series! 

Possessions:

• Backpack full of school supplies

• Packed Lunch

• 1d6 of loose change

• Weird book. (Describe it)

• School Uniform or Leisurely Teen Clothing.

• Choose One: A) A football, B) Glasses, C) A Sketchbook and pencil or D) A Skateboard.

Advanced Skills:
3 - Hormones

1 - Sports

1 - Maths

1 - Foreign Language of Choice (limit: normal school taught languages. French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, German, …)

1 - History

1 - Science

1 - Social Studies

1 - Arts

Special:
• Add +1 to one of the school subjects and -1 to another. If you want another language, you can add that as well.

• Change one of the subjects to Hate [Subject]. For example: 2 - Hate Maths.

3. Blob

You are a gelatinous blob. You have no bones, no face, no pockets. You are a simple life form. 

Possessions:

• Half digested skeleton

Advanced Skills:

4 - Absorb

2 - Assume Shape

2 - Sticking to things

2 - Digest

4. Intergalactic Junkyard Scrounger

These vagabonds scour the multiverse, scrounging in the garbage left behind by all civilizations, looking for treasure. 

Possessions:

• A bundle of trash-treasure (heavy)

• Knife for prying

• Lead Pipe for bashing (as Maul)

Advanced Skills:

3 - Scrounge

2 - Wayfinding

2 - Repurposing

1 - Awareness

1 - Climb

1 - Acrobatics

1 - Secret Signs: Junkyard Scroungers

1 - Maul Fighting

Special:
You may Test your Luck to just so happen to have exactly the (common) discarded tchotchke, bauble, or gewgaw the situation requires.

5. Traveling Door to Door Salesman

Traveling door to door and sphere to sphere to sell your goods, you can be encountered practically anywhere.

Possessions:

• A cheap suit

• A suitcase of novelty snow globes (or pots and pans, screwdrivers, encyclopedias, pocket gods, …)

• A crumpled picture of their family

• A cheap, rundown car

Advanced Skills:

3 - Sales Pitches

2 - Fist Fighting

2 - Smiling

2 - Driving

6. Snail Pilgrim

Bound by mystic contract to carry a small giant snail on their back until it finds a place it is satisfied with to live these poor souls can be seen carrying their large burden throughout the spheres. When more than one of them is in the same spot in the same time, things can get sticky, as a battle of dominance over potential spawning grounds commences. Once a spot is claimed and approved by the snail, it will be terraformed for them to inhabit.

Possessions:

• Small Giant Snail (heavy)

• Walking Stick

• Good Walking Shoes

• A terraforming starter kit.

Advanced Skills:

4 - Hiking

2 - Localized Terraforming

2 - Stick fighting

2 - Following Directions

Adventure Idea: A Dragon's Tears

Recently, through some talk on a roleplaying games forum about violence in games, my brain started thinking. One of the tracks it rode upon was the one where a lot of the quests, problems and assignments the player characters in roleplaying games get are clearly and easily solvable with violence. Then, at one point during walking from the station to school, a thought struck me. Potion ingredients. You see, me and my wife are reading through the Harry Potter books together (I've never read them before, and it has been a while for her) and I guess the end of the second book (The Chamber of Secrets) had stuck with me. I'm not gonna spoil it, but those that know, know how it applies.

I was thinking how tears are not an easily harvestable ingredient from mystical creatures. You can't gather them by killing and skinning, like they are dragon scales or something. You have to go about it another way. And that made me think about why people might cry. It might be by telling it a sad story (like a thief's tragic backstory) or listening to a beautiful song (Bards and Disney Princesses, you're up!) or Priests and Prophets trying to instill guilt of some kind. (Clerics, Paladins, ... it's your chance). It's also a delightful chance for the roguish prankster players to think outside the box, like buying carts full of onions and start cutting them in front of the dragon. (Like many fairy-tale heroes.) There might still be those who might to use pain to make the dragon cry, but that gets into torture and X-card material and is clearly non-heroic behavior.

Anyway, I wanted to put these thoughts to words and get them out, so here are two ideas or story seeds to get this problem to your characters.

Story Seed: The Anchorage of Amontillado

DISCLAIMER: This contains grim and dark material, which is unusual for me (I mean, I made a game where kids play Carebears, for crying out loud.). If you do not like grim and dark material, you should skip this post.

I’ve been reading up on hermits lately, because it’s an NPC trope I like and I’ve got some hermits in the Dreamwoods that I want to flesh out. I went to Wikipedia, looked up Hermits and got reading. While not applicable to my setting right now, I came upon a strange idea that spoke to me and gave me an idea for a horror story/ horror game idea. Now, I myself don’t like to play horror. Reading it, sure, fine, but playing it (or even sometimes watching it) is a bit much for me, but I thought some of the readers might like it.

Anchorages, according to Wikipedia are a specific kind of religious hermits that seek seclusion in a drastic way. They get sealed in to something ranging from a cottage to a single cell. Sometimes outside of society but mostly in the city, sometimes built against the church. Sometimes the sealing-in happens by bricking up the door. The anchorage gets their food and other essentials delivered by people and gets to devote their entire life to prayer and devotion. They might be called upon to give advice or being asked to pray for something by people, but otherwise they don’t really have a social life. They can come from any station, clergy or not, and often are people who have nothing to lose, like elderly people, or widows, but not always.

Now, I think you understand the title of this post by now, being a not very subtle reference to the Poem: The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. Let me tell you this story seed.

1) In the town of Amontillado (do feel free to change it up to any town in your current world that fits for the story) a certain young widow has taken the vow of the Anchorage. She takes place in a cell built against the church and is bricked in. People provide food and she gets her time to devote herself to her Lord.

2) People come to ask for her prayers, which she gladly does. In time she starts giving advice as well. The people appreciate it and they start to love her greatly. She starts receiving visions, which she records in her cell and sometimes shares. Specifically when it’s about the person coming to ask for advice.

3) People come more and more and listen to her advice and teachings. They believe to be in the presence of a living saint. There might even be some miracles that happen because of her. Finding lost livestock, healing of sickness, etc.

4) At one point a local noble or other person of import comes to her for prayer. He asks her to pray for forgiveness for him as he has killed his wife and buried her secretly. Overflowing in divine grace, she prays for his forgiveness, and becomes concerned for him.

5) A year later he comes to her again, and asks for the same thing. He had remarried and in a bout of jealous rage, killed his wife again. Again, she forgives, but is concerned and asks him to change his ways.

6) A year after that, the same thing happens again. He got married again, but oops, he got angry again and killed another wife. “Please pray for my forgiveness.” But this time she refuses. The lord will not forgive the unrepentant. He must first change his ways.

7) A young woman comes to her, asking her to pray a blessing over her upcoming marriage. It is with the local noble. The Anchorage warns her not to do it, that he is not a good man, but has evil in his heart. The young woman takes the advice to heart and breaks off the engagement. She is never seen again.

8) The local noble, furious about the Anchorage, starts spreading lies about her. That she’s a witch, and that her visions and miracles are witchcraft, given to her by the devil himself. He starts spreading rumors that he’s seen her talking to a snake. That she’s in her cell naked. That at the night of the full moon she escapes in the form of a bat to go dance naked in the moonlight in a witches cabal.

9) People start doubting her, and many things that would be normal are seen as suspicious now. The food is dwindling, people start spreading rumors, exaggerating former rumors, etc. In the end, they brick up even her windows and let her starve to death.

10) Recently, a big crash was heard, and the sealed door has burst open. Her ghostly appearance has been seen, taking vengeance upon the people, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of the killed wives. The target? The noble and his household specifically, and the town in general.

You could start at the end and have a ghost-haunted town to have an adventure in, but you could also use this as an impending doom, starting from the top, kind of like Dungeon World and its fronts.