Don't Rest Your Anything

I ran my first game of Don't Rest Your Head last night. I've never played or run it before.

The characters are:

• Tom, an adrenaline junkie/meth head with the ability to jinx things.
• Henry, a construction worker on disability with the ability to break things. 
• Ami, a schizophrenic dog walker with telepathic powers. 

They're all recently awakened and don't know a whole lot about the Mad City.

As we started the game, the drug dealers that Tom stiffed showed up at his apartment looking for their money while some clockwork lieutenants came through the closet and tried to arrest him for murder of someone he's never heard of.

Henry's insurance was denied at the pharmacy, and without his medication he was starting to lose it. A splitting headache made it clear he had to let the "break" our of his head before it broke him.

Ami was caring for several neighboring animals when 2 giant, angry cats came out of her closet and started attacking her charges.

Tom leaped out of his 3rd floor apartment window and hit the fire escape. Unfortunately his shoe got stuck and he couldn't escape.

Henry released some of the pressure in his brain by breaking a car as it nearly hit him in the middle of the street. He noticed Tom and went to help.

Ami beat one of the giant cats back into the closet and locked it in there.

Tom freed his foot and leaped into a dumpster to get away from his trouble. Gunshots rang out above him in his apartment.

Henry came over to check on Tom and was surprised to see him not dead from the 3 story fall.

Meanwhile, the other giant cat grabbed Mr. Ruff, a chihuahua that Ami was caring for, and tossed him out the window. Ami leaped out the window to save him, but missed with pain dominant. However, Tom was able to vault out of the dumpster and catch Mr. Ruff like a football. Ami smashed into the concrete and bloodied herself pretty badly.

The large cat leaped out the window after Ami, but Henry shattered it into glitter. At about that time, one of the clockwork lieutenants ventured out onto the fire escape and shouted to his comrades that the "other two" were here with Tom and they were all under arrest. Tom used his madness power to collapse the fire escape and take out the lieutenant. They all them hopped into Tom's car and drove away.

They stopped at a convenience store and Tom got out for snacks. Henry and Ami debated who should drive  from now on (Tom wasn't in the running anymore) when a cop car pulled up next to them and asked if everything was ok and if Ami needed an ambulance. Tom recognized the cops and knew they didn't like him, so he hid in the store. As the cops put the pressure on Henry and Ami, Henry slid into the driver's seat and assured the cops they were going to the hospital now. Tom killed their radio as the cops tried to report in, and then killed the cop car when the cops tried to radio in that way. Henry and Ami pulled away, leaving Tom to fend for himself.

The cops headed into the store to use the phone there when they noticed Tom trying to sneak out. Tom ran, so they perused because they're bullies.

Henry pulled around back to wait for Tom, then traded seats with Ami (who was going to drive, even though she doesn't have a license anymore.) Tom circled the block before heading behind the store. He Bo Duke'd it over the hood and hopped into the passenger seat. He then smashed his foot on the gas. Ami lost the contest for control over the car, so she let go of the wheel and covered Mr. Ruff's eyes as they hit the two cops.

Tom stopped the car and got out to make sure the cops were ok. But as the cops got up, they pulled their guns. Ami crawled into the back seat with Henry. Tom jinxed their guns before they could shoot, but then 2 more cop cars of reinforcements showed up. Henry broke the car in front as Tom jumped into the driver's seat of his car. As they fled, the cops shot out both his back tired.

As only working cop car pursued, Henry tried to break it. But pain dominated and the cop car accelerated out of control. It bumped Tom's car into a spin and then headed straight for a playground full of kids. Ami tried to use her madness power to get the kids to flee, but madness dominated. She chose flight as her response, shut her eyes really tight, and hugged Mr. Ruff so hard he didn't make it. Henry tried to break the road to cause a sinkhole in front of the cop car and madness dominated again. He blew a wave of destruction down the street which created a sinkhole and also ruptured a gas main. The cop car was blasted 100' into the air and the cops weren't going to give Tom any problems any more. Fortunately, the kids were ok.

The group the fled into the Mad City and ended up in the Air Fort. They took a seat in an airplane where all the passengers were dead, but the flight attendants were just starting to serve dinner.

That session got really dark really crazy really quickly. Next session will be interesting.

Big, Big Universe

So, I'm running this epic, sci-fi, space faring mash up game for the Tuesday group. It's a game where all of the sci-fi universes exist together. I've got Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Dune, Predators, Aliens, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica all there right now.

I'm trying to keep it relatively serious, so I've excluded stuff from MIB, Mars Attacks, etc. I've also specifically excluded time travel, 'cause that's just too much of a headache. Sorry Whovians. 

I've also got a list of various alien encounters that don't have established universes, like the glowy aliens from cocoon, war of the worlds aliens, body snatchers, the bugs from starship troopers, etc. 

 

I ran the first session of the sci-fi mash up tuesday night. I'm doing it as a hex crawl, but I don't have an over all theme or plot yet. In the mean time, I figured I'd just do a sort of "day in the life" session to kick things off.

The PCs started in the Kobol system and had access to 3 different jobs - deliver food, diplomats, or building materials. The chose the diplomats and the building materials because they were close and fuel is a limited resource.

Each job comes with a complication, but the PCs don't know what it is to start (or if there is one.)

For the building materials, they picked up a stowaway - a bug, a la Starship Troopers. Between the Predator and the Jedi, they finished that off pretty quickly.

For the diplomats (a group of 4 Predators), the complication was they had no intention of paying. They raised a stink when the bug was found (they didn't get a single attack in), they continually complained about everything (there was nothing to hunt and they were very bored), and the Jedi, in his attempt to placate them, accidentally tried to mate with their female (it was an honest mistake).

When they arrived at their destination (a Predator city) they were met by a contingent of 6 other Predators. The "diplomats" made it clear they weren't paying. The captain created an electrical field blocking the door (splitting the Predators to 4 inside and 6 outside), and everyone drew weapons. Magnetic locks engaged to ground the ship. The Jedi attempted to use his mind trick to convince them to pay and leave. But he only got half of them (the female wasn't one of them), and got 2 complications on the roll (which is pretty severe). A quick roll on my part showed that the female knows what Jedi are and recognized the mind trick.

So we stopped in a tense situation that's about to get worse. I just have to figure out how. Do I slaughter the party with 10 Predators? Do I send in more reinforcements? Do I cripple the ship? The PCs (specifically the captain) don't really seem to be willing to leave without their fare. But they're not getting paid, unless it's in blood.

This may be a very short campaign...

Philly on Fire #3

The party heads back to Mike’s to find Mike isn’t there. A cryptic note says he went to the bank.

After the day they’ve had, they raid Mike’s fridge, drink all his beer, and eat what little food he has. Alvin tries to work Mike’s computer, but in his drunken state, he sets off the security designed to wipe the computers clean. Fearing it’s a bomb, the drunken party trashed the computers and some furniture trying to escape the blast radius. In her fear, Kara ends up accidentally hexing most of the electronics in the apartment.

While the group was out, Mike finished his patch to fix the economy collapse. But, he needs to run it on a computer hooked up to the secure financial servers. He heads to the Federal Reserve and fast talks his way in.

As he’s working on uploading the code, two building guards tell him he’s not supposed to be there and to get out. He tries to fast talk again, but they tell him they’re working for his aunt, the White Court vampire maven who told him to fix the problem in the first place. And they’re here to stop him.

A battle ensues and Mike kills the two guards, but not before they raise an alarm. When mortal guards find Mike, he’s hiding under a desk in the server room, feigning fear. They take him into a conference room for protection and lock him in there. He tries to force the door, but it won’t budge. He calls his aunt, who says she’ll send someone to take care of this.

Alvin’s police radio (which escaped hexing because it’s older and simpler) chirps news of the slayings at the Federal Reserve, and that it’s being blamed on James. Since James is in the room with everyone, they figure it’s Mike and head over to help.

James and Maeve stay in the car because they’re wanted. Alvin sees six FBI guys heading over to the building and Kara IDs them as White Court vampires. Alvin heads over to stop them and they get into an argument. One of the FBI goes and talks to the office in charge of the scene. The officer comes over and tells Alvin to let the FBI in. Alvin says no. The office smells beer on Alvin’s breath, tells him to go home, and threatens to have him fired. Alvin threatens to tear his arms and legs off.

The officer in charge leaves to get reinforcements. Kara casts a veil and she and Sean head inside to help Mike. Maeve creates a distraction by getting several cops to chase her. About a third of them do.

When the reinforcements arrive, Alvin tears the doors off the entrance to use as a shield/barricade, but accidentally shatters them. The cops taze him, but he only feigns incapacitation. As the FBI try to step past him, he grabs as many as possible and world walks to the NeverNever.

Three FBI and five cops all appear in a snow covered clearing where Alvin meets some dire wolf friends. The dire wolves are happy Alvin brought them some mortals to eat. Alvin offers them the vampires instead. They don’t like that trade, but Alvin’s bigger and meaner.

James, sensing that things aren’t going well and needing time to think, takes Alvin’s cop car and drives off unnoticed into the night.

Sean and Kara find Mike and break him out of the conference room. Mike needs to go back to the servers to finish up. Kara keeps watch while Sean stays with Mike. The FBI shows up and Kara blows them back down the hall with a blast of air. She raises the alarm to let Sean and Mike know trouble is here.

The vampires threaten Kara with their speed and strength, so she flees. Sean tries to hold them off, but they manage to start feeding on him. Since they’re phobophages, he’s scared into a moderate and severe consequence.

Mike finishes his fix and joins the fight, transforming and shredding his clothes. He kills one vampire and drives off the other with Sean’s help. But Sean isn’t in any shape to get out of there, since he just want to hide from the vampires. Mike tazes him, hides his sword in the drop ceiling of a conference room, and carries Sean out. Somehow the naked man, carrying another man, manage to sneak past a bunch of cops.

Mike steals a cop car and throws Sean in the back. Kara follows them and takes shotgun. Maeve circles back and hops in the car as Mike drives away. The cops follow in hot pursuit.

Philly on Fire #1

The morning after, Mike was in the process of setting up a new residence. His old place had been ransacked, so he couldn’t go back. There was a knock at the door and his aunt, a white court vampire, and 3 of her friends wanted to talk. Before he could bolt, they kicked the door in and told him to have a seat. She wanted her money back, with interest. And while he was working on that, she wanted him to take out a pack of lycanthropes, called the Rax, that was in her way.

Alvin heads into the police station and is called into a meeting with all of the other cops. They’re told that with all of the banking systems cleared out, they won’t be receiving a paycheck this week. They also called in all available officers to keep the peace in case people riot.

Kara is woken by her man-servant and given the newspaper, which clearly notes the global collapse. She’s loaded, so she’s got some cash laying around. But her fortunes are gone. She makes some inquiries, but no one’s got any answers yet. She decides to head into town to volunteer her time. As she’s leaving, 3 winter court soldiers stop her and declare the winter queen’s displeasure that she’s working with sorcerers. Kara’s involvement clearly means the white council is involved as well, jeopardizing any relations she’s been trying to foster between them. Though she disavows any involvement with the sorcerers, the soldiers don’t care. They’re following orders and the winter queen is not known for her mercy. Kara manages to buy herself some time before she has to turn herself in to the winter queen for punishment.

Maeve gives her report about the Denarian to church officials and then heads out to help people. She happens upon a man stealing money from a woman and her 3 children in their apartment. Maeve quickly subdues him and takes his gun. She lets him go, but as he leaves, a shen demon coming in the front door sets him on fire and attacks Maeve.

Sean is passing by, looking to help people, when he sees a shen demon land on the roof of an apartment building. He climbs the fire escape to investigate and finds Maeve fighting another. The hallway catches fire as Sean dispatches one of the demons with a single blow.

James is finally released from police custody (he was implicated in the chemical plant explosion) and learns that Reg, one of his team, is missing. He also hears of the economy collapse. But more importantly, a member of Charon has been implicated in the assassination of several Pennsylvanian politicians. Just then, the FBL come knocking on his door. James grabs his gun and heads out the fire escape as the FBI agents pursue. It takes considerable effort for him to lose them.

Mike, who was a pawn in the plot to collapse the economy, does some research and uncovers the news about Charon. He also finds that similar assassinations, occurring in every city with a U.S mint, and perpetrated by Charon, have occurred this morning. When Mike fails to get in touch with James, he takes matters into his own hands and begins erasing James’ identity from every database he can get access to.

Alvin and 2 other officers are assigned to protect a block with 3 banks. When people start congregating at one of the closed banks, Alvin knocks some heads together and sparks wave of terrified people (those knocks were pretty scary). As the panicked populace threatens to trample each other, a small, jesterly man gets Alvin’s attention and tells him the winter queen wants to speak with him. Alvin has no time and wades into the sea of people to rescue some children who were being trampled, He tosses the unconscious man (who got knocked), the children, and the jester into a bus to protect them. With the crowd dispersed, the jester offers Alvin some money to go with him to see the queen. Alvin agrees and soon the winter queen is offering to reward him if he seeks out some criminals and makes an example out of them. He agrees, she sends him after Kara and the sorcerers, and hands him a fat stack of cash to help him out, with the promise of a more reward when he is successful.

Maeve defeats the other shen as a bunch of small shen come down the stairs to face Sean. Sean tries to intimidate the smaller foes, but they merge together to form a much larger demon. Sean struggles to hurt it. Maeve works to put the fire out before it spreads throughout the apartment building. As Sean and the shen fight, the floor collapses, leaving Maeve stranded. The shen grabs Maeve and tries to leave with her, but she breaks free. Before they’re able to destroy the demon, it flees. They get the fire out and help the people evacuate. As the cops and fire department begin to arrive, Maeve flees and is immediately arrested for possession of a sword and firearm. Sean ponders whether he’s going to have to break her out of jail.

James gets in touch with Mike for help. They meet in Rittenhouse Park at dusk. Mike tells James the bad news about the other Charon attacks. He then comes clean about the hacking plot. Mike also gives James the intel on the Rax, who James has a history with (and has been tracking for years). They’ll need to work together to take care of the lycanthropes.

Session Report #12 & 13

It actually took us 2 sessions to finish up, since there was some real life stuff that cropped up. No biggie. And the conclusion was, I think, rather epic.

Pavel, Arkady, Felix and Olie (a soldier from a similar team) hunkered down in an old French castle while the rebels deciphered the books. As a week passed, they remembered their real lives, the horrible things Rocard had done, and the pitiful state of the world. They knew he had to be stopped.

They also still had lifetimes of memories from other people. They quickly found they had the skills and class abilities of all previous characters. 

The rebels learned where R'lyeh was sunken and that Rocard would be able to complete the ritual in 2 days time (when the stars were right). The PCs would be dropped into the ocean, swim to the city as it rose, and stop Rocard (and his wife, Maria) once and for all. The rebel forces would attack Rocard's forces in the ocean around the city and hopefully buy them time before they were overrun. 

In the fly over, Olie noticed a heat shimmer and Rocard and a strange lizard-woman appeared from nowhere. The team splashed down and hit the shore.

They encountered a patrol of lizardmen and confronted them, but at great cost. The majority were injured and Pavel gravely so. They opted for stealth to circumvent a shoggoth patrol, and that served them well.

When they made it to the city center, they found a ziggurat with Rocard and his wife atop it, already engaged in the ritual. There was resolve loss in seeing them both for the first time, as well as resolve loss from Maria's hauntingly alien song during the ritual. 

The party's plan was thus: split into two groups, approach by stealth, and use their skills as vicars to try to incapacitate Maria. They hoped that what would bolster the resolve of the mortal would be enough to shatter the resolve of the unknown. This they did with surprising effect, including an apology and promise from Pavel, aka Pepe, that while he was unable to save her 700 years ago, he wouldn't fail her now. 

As Maria fainted, Rocard spit a curse at Arkady that caused flesh-eating crabs to burst from his skin. The others wrested the idol and the book from Rocard with their attacks and severely injured him, but Pavel was mortally wounded. 

Rocard fled between dimensions, but Arkady grabbed hold and was able to follow. Through the formless twilight the two fled until they entered a columned gate into another realm. Arkady stuck swiftly, but Rocard struck truer. Arkady died on an unnamed alien planet.

So in the end, they apprehended Maria, drove off Rocard, recovered the book and idol, and stopped the end of the world. Their success was mixed with failure, but in the end, they won out.

The players surprised me with their tactics. I hadn't planned on them striking at Maria's resolve, but I thought it was such a good idea I let it work. They dropped her resolve to the point, without a physical attack being sent her way.

The dice were definitely against them again that night, and that least to some mishaps. But I had fun, and I think they had fun too. I really liked the idea behind the adventure and I loved the revelations given to the players in pieces. It was neat seeing them question and begin to realize the situation.

Next week is a new system (one I'm writing) and a new adventure. More fun to come!

Session Report #10 & 11

Pavel, Arkady, and Felix searched Chauvet to little effect, though they discovered that the people knew about Lord Rocard, they just weren’t talking.

While Arkady worked the inn, blessing each table and trying to suss out what was going on, Felix noticed some townsfolk who were watching them. When the townsfolk left, Felix followed them. Pavel headed up to his room to try to search the rest of the inn.

The townsfolk went to a well-appointed house. Felix was able to climb up to a window to overhear a discussion between the townsfolk and Lord Rocard. They told him that the inn keeper had done his job and the snooping outsiders would be dealt with tonight.

Felix headed back to report his findings. Arkady confronted the inn keeper while Felix went to check on Pavel. Arkady learned that the group had been poisoned. He puked up his food to minimize his exposure.

Felix found Pavel asleep in his room and was unable to rouse him. After several attempts, Felix grew tired and sat down. Arkady checked on them and forced them both to puke up the poisoned food. Felix was drowsy, but ok, and Pavel was roused with difficulty.

They all raced to the well-appointed house to find it empty, except for two caretakers. While Pavel and Arkady went upstairs to search, the caretakers attacked Felix. They inflicted some serious wounds on him before he received backup and the party dispatched their attackers.

While searching, Arkady found some books describing where the lost city of R’lyeh might be and what was required to summon the dark god. Pavel found a map of underground tunnels with a hidden chamber under the inn and a scrap of paper serving as a diary to a woman named Maria.

As a girl, she was hiding from the town monsters in the woods when she met some travelers who offered to help her. They took her to the church in Desport for safe keeping, but the priest there handed her over to Rocard (she’s convinced the travelers were working for Rocard and betrayed her). Rocard has been victimizing her since, slowly turning her into a monster. She is scheduled to become Rocard’s bride soon, and that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea anymore.

As the party left the building, they recognized the off-tune piping of a shoggoth. They chose to flee with the books, hoping to bury them for the future to find. They stole some horses and rode off. It became clear that the shoggoth was following them, and it seemed to be calling to another shoggoth in the distance (in Desport).

They wrapped the books in oil cloth, searched for a cave, found one, and rigged it to blow, hopefully burying the books. They left Felix to detonate the cave while Arkady and Pavel went to distract the shoggoth. The cave failed to detonate, Pavel fell in combat, and Arkady returned to the cave. Arkady was able to collapse the cave and he and Felix rode out to fight the second shoggoth. Felix fell in that combat, leaving only Arkady.

As he was disposing of the bodies, the ground shook in an earthquake.

*  *  *

The party woke in the traditional white room, though they could hear explosions outside. Dust filtered through the ceiling and an annoying, constant, high-pitched whine filled the room. Three other people were laying on beds, all of them were unresponsive.

The left the room, found that Rocard’s men were assaulting the base, and General McLaughlin’s soldiers were being routed. The remaining soldiers and the party were able to escape the base, located deep within a blasted, barren mountain, via aircraft. They were barely able to escape the enemy aircraft, some of which seemed to be airdropping shoggoths onto the base.

They gave the general their news and flew to France, where met up with more rebels. They were able to find the books. After two weeks of the rebels studying the books, they believe they know Lord Rocard’s plan. During this time, the party’s memories slowly came back and they remembered their true identities for the first time since this began.

Lord Rocard plans to raise the sunken lost city from the ocean and perform the ritual in 3 days’ time. The rebels will airdrop the party onto the city where they must stop Rocard. The rest of the rebel army will face Rocard’s army, hopefully buying them time to end the war.

Tonight should be the epic finale of the adventure arc.

Philly on Fire #2

Mike and James head back to Mike's place, knowing it's not really safe. But James needs to change his appearance and make some calls. He talks to one of his Charon peeps and finds out there's a "Mr. Stone" who wants to talk to him about the "situation." James wants some guns before any meetings.

Alvin hears about the manhunt for James and hops in the cop car with his 2 cop buddies. He also hears about Maeve being arrested. He convinces the cops to intercept the car with Maeve and offers to take her back to the station so the other cops can head back to the super exciting hunt for the terrorist (James). Alvin heads to the manhunt instead, with Maeve in tow.

He lets Maeve go while he joins the search. Maeve takes her sword and the gun and smashes the back window of the cop car before she leaves. She doesn't want Alvin to get in trouble for letting her go.

Alvin is told to search every building in an area. As he does, he finds Kara working in a soup kitchen trying to help the needy. He assumes she knows what's going on and where the book is. He convinces her that they need to find James and he's not letting her out of his sight. She suggests the best place to look for clues is James' apartment.

They head off and find Maeve trying very hard not to be noticed. They pick her up and then head over. On the way, they find Sean, so most of the band is back together (it's nice to have 2 players with "guide my hand").

James' place is swarming with FBI agents, who all outrank Alvin. But Maeve has an old friend with the FBI and he gets them inside. Kara finds some hair in James' bathroom and figures that'll make a good spell component. Alvin sees one of the FBI guys using a torch to cut into a safe. He manages to snatch some of the papers (client lists and personnel files) without drawing too much attention. But he tries for a larger distraction and ends up getting the lot of them escorted off the premise.

Kara casts her tracking spell and they find James and Mike still at Mike's place. NOW the band's back together.

They decide to split up. Mike does some internet research while everyone else heads to the local monster club for some ammo and then a meeting with Mr. Stone.

Mike gets a patch for the financial issues, but has to upload it into a secure banking system. Which is problematic.

James finds some heavy duty ammo for the lycanthropes, as well as some special "anti-fairy" rounds. He's good to go.

They head to the coffee shop where Mr. Stone is and Maeve is surprised to find it's the Denarian. He cordially offers them some coffee, which Alvin is happy to accept. Maeve and Sean take defensive stances with their backs to the wall as Mr. Stone calmly tells James he has evidence as to who set him up, where they are, and how he can get out of this whole mess without too much damage. In exchange he wants the last page of this book with 7 locks.

Suspicious, they ask him what's up with this book. He tells them that it's a history of everything that has and will come. He wants to know how the story ends. He doesn't want to know how to change it, just who wins the war. They're still suspicious, but it sounds like they may be able to appease Mr. Stone and the Winter Queen at the same time.

Before they leave, Mr. Stone tells James that when he finds the book, call a number written on the side of the pay phone on 22nd and Chestnut. Stone flips James a coin for the call. Alvin makes a lunge for it, but misses. James deftly catches it. But it's not a quarter. It's a silver coin...