The crew of the Hypatia come back for another round of stories, this time all prequels! Laura relates Tema's first encounter with Libi, while Kai is followed by Libi with a ton of questions. A bit closer to the beginning of the campaign, Kyrt is called out for a Genepal battle during a mission.
In the latest Agents of ALIS Story, Kai has to deal with a wide range of emotions and memories during the events of episode 10 in The Firestarter.
For the next batch of Agents of ALIS stories, Greg has Kyrt try to practice meditating (in a story from after episode 6), and Laura has Kai and Tema connect through violence in a story from their past...
After some talk in our Discord, as a means of supplementing our OOC activity most of us have been crafting playlists for our PCs, and Adam has a few songs in mind as GM. All of the Spotify links are live, please enjoy! We might be revisiting them as the campaign proceeds, so check back in from time to time for more music reflective of the cast.
Adam - GM - Spotify
Dan - Roscoe - Spotify
Greg - Kyrt - Spotify
Jared - Kai - Spotify
Laura - Tema - Spotify
Our second batch of Nagalisitu stories is available! For the sixth episode Jared and Greg wrote some in character fiction. Jared told a story of Kai and Kyrt walking through the jungles during part 6, while Greg dipped into the past to tell of how Kai and Kyrt's mistrust came through building some walls between them...
Reign tackles experience points in a fairly unique way. Everyone is guaranteed one point for playing. Another can be earned for leaning into your Problem aspects or by those being tapped by the GM. Yet another fashion is for something major happening in the campaign as spurred by the PCs. Still another point can be earned for great roleplaying. Greg gets a bonus point for his infamously meticulous note taking.
And, finally, there is one for "Out of Character Enhancement". This can be as simple as bringing beer and pizza if you are blessed to be playing in a physical space. It can be as complex as drawing art of the PCs or events in session. Or, you can write, either an in character journal, or an out of character story.
Knowing us, we've been doing some writing. We'd like to share those along with the Agents of ALIS campaign. For Episode 5, Greg and Jared each wrote a story, Greg writing an expansion of his interaction with a member of ALAS, while Jared went through Kai's headspace prior to landing back on the planet.
The stories are available to enjoy in PDF format. We've continued writing along with the campaign once (we realized we could do that) I MEAN decided the time was right, so further stories and writings will be added along with the campaign. Enjoy!
One thing we've wanted to start doing is getting art for the podcast. After a group discussion we've opted to get art done of Greg's Eclipse Phase: Into the Black PC, Templeton. Aided by friend of the podcast Gauntes, he produced an amazing piece for the beloved Neo-Pig! You can follow his art on Twitter @Gauntes. We hope you enjoy!
Hi, it’s Ethan, with the long promised (and long delayed, sorry) recap of my time at Moon City Con 2019! Two months isn’t too late for a blog post, right…?
This is a local tabletop game convention in Springfield, Missouri, home of our fine Role Playing Public Radio and The Mixed Six podcasting friends. It’s also home of my own brother, Neil Cordray, proprietor of his own podcast, Geek Fanthology! I also met up with long-time friend of the podcast -- and long-time name-sharing nemesis -- Ethan Fiset, who was working a booth promoting his OWN podcast, The Adventurers’ Vault. There’s some sort of trend here…
It was a wonderful three days. The con itself focused on board games and card games, and we also squeezed in some late-night RPG sessions at Ross Payton’s house, AKA RPPR headquarters.
The con had an extensive game library, so we were never at a loss for options. Every single game I played was new to me, so it was a real banquet of new games! A few highlights/capsule reviews:
Century Spice Road - played 2-player, with Neil. A good deck/engine builder, like a faster-paced Dominion. Very good, even with just 2 players.
Point Salad - played with Neil, Ross, and Ethan Fiset. This deserved the buzz it got at Gen Con. A very elegant card drafting game. We played it like three times in rapid succession, and it was interesting every time.
Heaven and Ale - played with Ross, Neil, and a friendly stranger, helpfully taught/game mastered by Spencer of The Mixed Six. This worker/resource placement game was not quite my cup of tea. Apparently I played very well and scored highly, but my board still felt kind of cramped and sub-optimized the whole time. If I feel frustrated even when I’m winning, that’s not a great sign. Also, no way could we have learned it without Spencer’s expert help.
Wingspan - played with Ross, Neil, and two friendly strangers. This one lived up to the hype, big time. Fun engine building, cool bird cards and egg tokens, and a surprisingly elegant engine design once I finally understood how it worked. Highly recommended, everyone is right. Also, I won.
Giant Killer Robots: GKR Heavy Hitters - this was our final Sunday morning game, played with Caleb, Ross, and Neil. Wowie, what a great free-for-all wargame! And those awesome robot figures! I did not come anywhere close to winning, but it was a great time.
For RPGs, the first night I got to play Eclipse Phase 2nd Edition run by Ross. Good times with a pre-published criminal scenario, we impersonated Triad goons and infiltrated a pachinko parlor while a Firewall Erasure Squad conveniently distracted their guards.
The second night was the main event for me, though: running Red Markets: Black Death for Neil, Ethan Fiset, Ross, and Caleb Stokes himself. They were tracking down an undead Bishop, which led them to a suspiciously friendly monastery of Black Leper monks. Things did not go as anyone had planned -- or even as I had planned. But it was a fantastic game, full of memorable monets and great playtest feedback. Ross is going to release it on RPPR. But that might have to wait until we’re ready to have a little RMBD Kickstarter down the line a ways…
In sum, Moon City Con 2019 was wonderful. I’ll certainly be back next year, and I hope some of you might be able to join in!
As we draw near to another season of 10K Lakes, let's dip back in a bit with this story by Ian about his character Vapor...
Vapor's Nightmares
He’s in a dream...or maybe it’s a memory? He can’t be sure; it’s all hazy. He knows who he is, though. He’s Gale again, back before Vapor. Back before the Crash, and the monsters that ate everyone around him.
He’s in his dorm room with his sister Sabrina and his best friend James. Their faces were blurry, but he can tell it’s them. They were all laughing, about what he can’t remember. Sabrina turns to him, her lips moving, but all that comes out is garbled noise. They’re safe and happy, though, and that’s all that matters.
Suddenly the room begins to shift and Gale realizes he’s no longer sitting on his bed, but instead he’s standing outside in the dorm hallway. Everything was colored in a dull gray, the pictures on the wall distorted and blurry. A terrifying scream came from the end of the hall and came closer. A figure burst from around the corner and Gale’s breath caught in his throat. It resembled a man, but only barely. His eyes were red, and black veins covered his face. He looked directly at Gale and began sprinting towards him. The man screamed something but Gale didn’t hear what he was saying, instead focusing on the blood on the man’s mouth, hands, shirt, everything.
Gale needed to move, but his legs wouldn’t budge. He felt his chest tighten and he couldn’t breathe. He saw the man run at him full tilt, his voice full of panic as he begged Gale to run away.
This was it, he was going to die here.
A door to his right opened up just then, a curious student wondering what the commotion was all about. The charging man’s attention shifted towards the unfortunate youngster and he leapt at the student, crashing into him and sending them both tumbling into the dorm room. That was enough to break Gale out of his trance and he turned and bolted with the sounds of tearing flesh and screaming echoing after him.
The walls around him shift again and he’s now standing in a dark room. He’s different now, still Gale, but only partially. A heavy pistol hung from his hip, his clothes were dirty and tattered, his hair had been cut short, and his stomach growled, the hunger ever present. The darkness faded away to reveal the daycare center that he’d worked at for a time. In front of him was a pantry full of various rations. A heavy bag appeared in his right hand and he remembered what he had been doing. Marie, the owner, was always the kind of person who liked to keep a surplus of supplies in case of emergencies, including food, and Gale definitely considered this an emergency.
He took a step forward only for a blinding light to erupt from the darkness. He put his hand up to shield his eyes and through his fingers he could make out the figure of Marie. She tells him to drop the bag and just leave. His hand tightens around the bag, his eyes never leaving hers. He wouldn’t give it up, not now. She screams and leaps at him. He didn’t even remember grabbing the gun and pulling the trigger but he felt something wet hitting his face as Marie’s head snaps backwards and her body hits the floor, unmoving.
The smoking gun fell from Gale’s hand and he stared at the now dead Marie, blood pooling around her. He should be feeling something now. Some kind of regret or disgust for the act of murder he just committed but the only thing he felt was gnawing hunger. It would be alright, he thought as he gathered up the bag, as long long as I get the food. As long as I have the food everything would turn out okay- his was interrupted as he felt a small tug at his shirttail. He twisted around violently, ready to fight, when he saw a small girl standing there, her features blurry except for the brown eyes staring up at him. Behind her were even more children, all looking at him with various expressions ranging from sadness, to fear, to anger, to confusion. Marie must have been taking care of them, God knows she was a bleeding heart, feeding them the food he now held in his hand.
A thought struck Gale at that very moment and the feelings he had been waiting for finally burst forth as he realized he had just killed the only hope these children had to survive. His chest suddenly tightened and he fell to his knees as he started to dry heave, his stomach so empty he couldn’t even produce bile to throw back up. They began to encircle him, asking him what the loud noise was. Would the monsters come get them now? Why wasn’t Marie moving, did he hurt her? What was he doing with the bag? “Stop it!” He screamed at them. They ignored him, continuing to come ever closer. “It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault. Why are you even here?” He held his head in his hands as salty tears fell to mix with the blood now covering the floor. His breathing became heavier as the children came ever closer, as if they meant to crush him into nothingness. He couldn’t handle this, couldn’t deal with the pressure, couldn’t…
He felt something snap inside him and he stood abruptly. A sense of numbness washed over him and he turned slowly to face the children. Their eyes didn’t bother him anymore, they weren’t really looking at him but something else that just looked like him. Lies that he didn’t even know he could weave together spilled forth, telling the children that he was there to take care of them and that Marie was fine and would be joining them soon, but first they had to leave or else the monsters would find them. It was the most bullshit thing he’s ever said, but he was protecting them and what little innocence they had left, so isn’t that the more important thing? Slowly, but surely, the children filed in behind him as he faced towards the door, turning the knob and swinging it open.
It was snowing now and Vapor stood atop a hill, the bag of food was gone but the children still remained. There were fewer of them now, but still enough to interest the three men standing in front of him. Their faces were marred with mathematical symbols. The man in the middle approached him and handed Vapor a large bag of food, water, medicine, everything they would need to make it east. As Vapor took hold of the bag, the man smiled at him, and Vapor saw that three of his front teeth were rotted black. The man’s companions began to corral the children and lead them away back down the hill. The children wave goodbye to Vapor, some even smiling at him. He did not smile back. The lies he had told them about the men with scarred faces would be revealed soon enough and the hope he had given them would be crushed away. It wasn’t his problem anymore, though. He finished watching the last of the group recede into the treeline and then hoisted bag over his shoulder as he made his way back to camp.
The bag felt heavy as he trudged through the woods back to camp. That was good, it meant that Belladonna and J would be able to get a decent meal for once. Maybe his sister wouldn’t look at him with such hateful eyes. He shifted the bag to his left shoulder only to feel it shift back. That was strange, bags don’t usually do that. It was then that he noticed it was no longer snowing. Indeed, it was quite hot out and Vapor remembered what he was doing. That’s right; the bag had gotten them as far as western Minnesota. He was thinking of joining up with a Taker crew near the eastern part of the state, but first he had to get some food for the group before the journey. So why was there something heavy on his-
He screamed out as something bit down on him and ripped the skin from his shoulder. He jammed the barrel of his gun into whatever it was and pulled the trigger. He felt the weight slide off his back and turned to see a headless casualty now laying on the ground. He felt light-headed. His legs gave out from under him as his back struck a tree and he slid down to the ground. He thought it was strange that he didn’t feel any pain, only the sensation that pain was there.
Something dripped down his arm and he raised it up to see golden blood fall from his fingers. That’s right, he was Immune. Why had he forgotten that? What was happening? He felt so tired. He wanted to close his eyes, but he needed to get back to camp before his companions began to worry.
He had barely managed to pick himself up when a drone suddenly appeared before him, the camera reflection showing a man he did not recognize. It turned abruptly, and when he followed its gaze he saw several dark figures charging towards him. He didn’t know who or what they were but he knew that he didn’t want to find out. The drone made a whirring sound and took off in the opposite direction.
Without knowing what else to do, Vapor took off after it. He ran despite the bleeding wound, despite the pounding in his ears, and despite the ever-growing darkness that seemed to be consuming everything around him. He ran so fast that everything became a blur and all he could see was the drone zooming in front of him. He saw a light then, just ahead of the little machine. A safe haven, maybe? He could almost feel the hands reaching out from behind him, threatening to drag him back, but still he ran on. The light was so close now, the drone beeping in celebration. He stretched out his hand towards it, almost grazing it, when a figure appeared in front of him. It was a woman with a pointed hat and wicked grin. The drone came to a stop beside her and she petted it, letting out a cackle. It was enough to make Vapor pause for only a second, but that’s all it took for the cacophony of hands to latch on to him and drag him screaming into the darkness. The drone continued to beep as Vapor watched the woman smile as hands clawed and beat at him.
She opened her mouth and, to his surprise, Belladonna’s voice came out. “Gale, wake the fuck up! Your Goddamn specs won’t stop beeping.”
Vapor’s eyes shot open as his sister drove her fist into his stomach. He coughed violently and rolled off the flea-ridden couch he called a bed, landing on his face. His head was pounding from the alcohol and he could hear Belladonna snort in disgust before walking away. His Ubiq specs were going off, every beep like a car horn ringing in his skull. He groaned, fumbling for the glasses, and saw that a few new job offers had come up. Apparently Low-End had broken up with 0perator and wanted to know if anyone was in for scoring some Bounty.
Vapor focused his eyes enough to message back that he was interested. After getting the location of the meetup, he tossed the glasses on to the couch before heading outside.
The blinding sunlight was a welcome sight. It meant he’s still alive. His stomach churned, however, as his mind recalled bits about the dream, about the children who still believed his lies all the way till the end. The guilt still clung to him as strong as the Blight clung to a Latent. It was inside of him and he was afraid it would never go away. Still, he had to keep moving onwards. Maybe this time the job wouldn’t be so bad, and he’d be one step closer to getting everyone out of the hellscape they called the Loss. Maybe, just maybe, everything would turn out all right and the nightmares would finally stop. He smiled at that thought, before quickly grimacing as his stomach churned again and he proceeded to vomit in front of the entire enclave.
Recently, if you are an iTunes user, and not downloading episodes directly from the website or Patreon you might have noticed that we're having some... Technical Difficulties getting the episodes to post. They seem to play just fine on our website, on Android, and other podcasting apps, but the official iTunes app has been making it hard to listen to certain episodes. Even after deleting the original post, making brand new posts, or even re-ripping the audio into new files, it's been difficult to make some episodes play, including our most recent episode. Since it's hitting different episodes and not all of them, at this time we will continue to post at our normal rate. We are currently looking for new avenues for hosting, as this would hopefully fix the problem and allow more of our backlog to appear in iTunes. We will keep you updated as best we can. We thank you for your support of Technical Difficulties.
With the upcoming US holiday and other behind the scenes events a new episode will not be posted this Wednesday. Our apologies. Feel free to peruse the back catalog, such as the temporally appropriate National Slamthem PPV from World Wide Wrestling.
by TechDiff's own Laura B
Stepping out the door, Woodsman took a deep breath of the chill air. The crabapple pollen was down from yesterday, there was a hint of Red Lake currants beginning to blossom on the air, and no more than 13 Casualties on the Valentino fence this morning—the tang of death and Blight juice was just about right for that many. There’d probably be a drive to the fence before Friday’s phys. ed. practicum.
Woodsman (he barely ever thought of himself as Erik anymore) scanned the crowd of children running around the yard as he left the dorms. He still wasn’t used to how muted children playing tag at Valentino was. His head snapped left; just a puff of dust kicked up by one of the youngest’s sandals. Smelled dry; they needed rain soon for the barrels. Made sense the enclave had abandoned this courtyard to recess/training though—the dirt here wouldn’t even support a grass variety. Woodsman paused as the smell of kicked dirt intensified from his right; two girls in 5th rank uniformed pants ran past him, the one in the lead suddenly juking behind him and evading the second. It wasn’t enough and, a bit past Woodsman, the longer-legged second caught up and tagged the first.
Still weaving his way through the courtyard, Toto alternating between chasing a child and following at his heels, Woodsman made his way to the edge. Jane looked up from the roots of a sambucus candensis she was digging around. Kelev thumped his tail once and went back to wiggling around in the dirt Jane was turning up; Toto bounced into Kelev. A waft of elderberry juice mixed with bone-dry dirt wafted up as the two dogs wrestled. Woodsman nodded towards the former soccer field and Jane stood up. Woodsman whistled the follow signal and turned towards the field.
Roger the Nurse was walking through the children towards the dorms Woodsman had just come from. A lumpy, brown haired chubby infant stared at Woodsman over her shoulder.
Woodsman blinked and dug his fingernails into his right palm; the smell of hot copper was in his nostrils. He blinked, hard, but the skin sloughing off Nurse’s should remained. He closed his eyes, squeezing them tight. He could hear his breath ratcheting up.
A small hand slipped into his left hand. Woodsman looked down; Jane was watching Roger the Nurse too. She looked up at Woodsman; her eyes blank but her lips were twisted in a pinch of sadness. She squeezed Woodsman hand and he squeezed back.
“Right,” Woodsman said with a sigh, “let's work on teaching Kelev the right distance from Casualties for kiting.
by special guest author Chris Hamann of the Roleplaying Exchange, check out his other stuff on Tumblr!
The drone went down at 8:09 pm on April 23rd. This sounds like a piece of needless minutiae, but the person we’re following is detail oriented, and she took note of this particular fact. She still thinks of herself as ‘Madeline’ even if that name is unknown to anyone else. Madeline found the timing curious because the drone stopped responding exactly at sunset. To the best of her knowledge, the drone landed in the center of a field in an area with very few casualties. If she remembered correctly, which she believed she always did, Valentino used that field as practice for dealing with casualties.
Madeline was not right in the head. She pushed people away and responded to any critique with aggression. She was there to do a job, what did it matter that she was rough around the edges? This made her superiors treat her as an acceptable loss, but she didn’t realize that. Instead, she had the ire of her coworkers to deal with. They hated her, but she was used to it. She would tell them what to do, and berate them until they did it. When they went with her plans, the work was so much easier. Why couldn’t they just fucking listen to her? Some day, Madeline will realize that this isn’t a healthy thought pattern.
Madeline did not fit in at corporate training. She was brittle and egotistical - smart enough to realize that she was smarter than everyone else, but not empathetic enough to mask that intelligence or use it as a means of ingratiating herself. She was the gear that ground down the less well-made cogs. If you couldn’t work to her standards, you deserved the punishment she dealt you. She thought of it as the crucible that created better tools.
There were logistical issues in reaching that field, of course — Madeline only had her dronkey, which was little more than a shotgun mounted on a robot — but she was resourceful. With the right planning, it was very easy to travel through the Loss as a solo traveler. There were raiders in the area, of course, but for some reason those raiders liked one of Madeline’s coworkers, so she spoofed his signal on Ubiq. The occasional friendly message from “420TimberwolfLyfe” was summarily ignored. Madeline wanted to figure out what happened to her drone then get back to work.
Sometimes she thought about when she left Seattle. She was in training then, and her superiors actually flew in a helicopter for some of them as a way out. The corporate campus was in shambles—geeks in short sleeved button downs bolted like someone came up with another competitor to Bitcoin or Netflix for pet supplies—they were more interested in spreading the Blight than the next big tech disruption. In private, Madeline thought this gave them more meaning than their previous lives.
It was after dark by the time she reached the field. By all rights, Madeline should have been scared, but Madeline was not right in the head. She was more worried about invisible threats—attacks on her tools, the things that made her useful—than her own life. This made her take risks when those tools were in danger. She found her drone, a surprisingly up to date model for someone living in the Loss. Her superiors had sent it to her, but she maintained to her coworkers that she stole it from an agricultural enclave.
Madeline didn’t understand why her superiors dropped her off in the Loss. Everyone else in the helicopter got to go to the Recession but her. “We need someone to act as an agent in this area, and we think you’re the best at it, Madeline. You’re the best operator we have when it comes to new technology, and you have that killer instinct that the other corporate types lack.” Madeline thought about that almost every day—couldn’t everyone else see the best course of action in an instant? Most problems were so easy to solve. There were the hard problems, but that had more to do with putting in effort—Madeline could tell the code in her drone caused it to malfunction, so she’d be spending the next few nights debugging it. That was a hard problem. She packed her supplies up, slung it back on the dronkey, and hoofed it back to Split Rock.
The defect caused the drone to land at sundown. Madeline was detail-oriented, and sometimes, the devil is found in the details, which is where she found the offer. A subroutine had been corrupted—rogue code placed into a weather app designed by government meteorologists.
“Your escapades have come to my attention, I have therefore looked into your situation. I believe it is your best interest to know that your parent company, Pear, has intentions of securing loose ends and removing you from service. The DHQS has need of personnel of your caliber and capability. I can offer you an alternative form of retirement than the bullet that your current employer has planned. I obviously must have viable proof of your willingness to forsake your current situation and join the right side of the efforts of mankind. “
She weighed her options. Everyone was out to kill her. No one liked her. Her relationships had eroded like the Rocky mountains. The one place where she had loyalty, the company that had specifically saved her life, had her in their sights as a target. Madeline always found it very easy to make decisions; the trick was figuring who would be the best pawns. Maybe the kid who hated her and the man who was afraid of her...
Occasionally, I, Laura B, can be a complete doofus. To the tune of misplacing a Kickstarted RPG book (Ki Khanga), thinking I never received it, contacting the publisher, saying I think I never got it, getting a new copy no questions asked, and then… finding my original copy of the RPG.
Sorry MVMedia…
But the error on my part is y’all’s gain! Because now, for our anniversary celebration, Technical Difficulties is giving away this copy of Ki Khanga: The Sword and Soul Roleplaying Game for free! And when I say free, I’m including shipping (within the United States — folks in the rest of the world, we’ll work something out. Also, we’re sorry that using the US Postal system to ship things out of the country is a disaster.)
How can you enter this raffle giveaway? Just leave us a rating and/or review on iTunes! Everyone who helps us reach more listeners this way from now until the end of April gets one entry in the raffle. Also, if you’re a patron of the podcast, you’ll get one entry in the raffle. Both a patron and leave us a review? You get TWO entries!
Help out the podcast and get a chance to own Ki Khanga, the African-inspired epic and heroic fantasy roleplaying game with a playing cards resolution mechanic — sounds like a win-win to me.
Also, go check out MVMedia’s other amazing offerings.
And now for a character study of Martin Luther, from the 10K Lakes world, written by special guest author Lonnie
He stepped on the box.
It was a clear day, the sky a bluish white that stole what heat was in the air and replaced it with light that hurt the eyes if you raised them too high or looked too long at the snowdrifts beyond the camp. Everything man-made touched by it turned the brown of dried mud or the gray of an elephant, leached of color by the brightness.
He cleared his throat.
"A moment of your time, brothers and sisters, before you go." His voice was soft, but clear in the chill air, seemingly carried on the light. A student of music or voice would call it dynamics, but he didn't have that vocabulary, only the lessons of the listening to a thousand sermons, the rhythms, the pacing.
You don't need to be loud to be heard.
"I'd like to thank Sister Rose and her family for preparing that fine meal. Hopefully the supplies the church has brought can ease this winter, as this meal has eased our hunger."
Sometimes, he hated the looks he got as the archaic forms came from his lips. He's just a kid, talking like an old man, was the unspoken reproach of people twice his age who'd survived on hard measures and God's mercy, even if they didn't believe it.
But he was his father's son, raised for just this duty in just this way. In the cold light of his self-reflection in the quiet moments, he decided that talking like a teenager wouldn't make things better, either.
"However, I also came to give you the good news that the church is almost built. Our work is almost done, friends."
"So what?" This came from a man who shouldered through the small crowd to stand in front of the young man on the box. Even with the extra height, the man's eyes were level, such was his height. He was a huge frame, with the black veins bulging in his exposed face, running into the rough growth of beard. He raised a hand where the dark merged with the dirt to point a mottled finger. "Another miniature Enclave, with yourself as boss, I take it. Won't be any better than here. Thanks for the food, but no thanks."
The boy shook his head. "No, I'm not here to be Caesar. I am only here to tend the flock. I - "
"Then why don't you go back to Covenant and run your precious church there?" The man interrupted.
"Because even in Covenant, there are walls." The bitter tone behind the answer even surprised the young man, now that he actually verbalized it—but he realized it's truth the moment it left his lips.
The large man was brought up short by that. He looked mutely at the young man, or maybe the brown red wall behind him, tall and menacing.
"Have you ever wondered why the church hasn't tried to invite you all to Covenant? Why you're here, among those who haven't received judgement, instead of safe behind their walls?" He let the question sink in to a suddenly unmoving crowd. "It's because the men who run it fear what would happen if the church became too large. If people could come freely."
He lifted his hands. "Friends, you know who I am. Doubtless you've heard what I do. And what I've done. But know this," his voice rose. "I don't do it for myself. I have no home in the Recession to go to. Everywhere on Earth, there's a wall to keep out the faithful. They fear God's judgement. And so it falls to me to build a place—the ONE place—where the wall will keep us all safe, instead of keeping us all out."
"I don't come asking for Bounty. The work is almost done. Hopefully, in a short while—" After I've finished committing all the sins I can stand, his brain added unhelpfully, if silently— "we'll be able to open the gates, and all are welcome. That's all." He made a helpless gesture with his left hand and stepped down from the box.
"Even if we don't believe?" came a woman's voice from his right side. He'd turned, so he hadn't seen her. He turned back around, but didn't bother to meet her eyes. He was so tired.
"The Lord's reach is not shortened for sinners. It's not even shortened for them." He waved a hand at the wall where the hint of rifles behind slots in the wall loomed, fencemen watching. "They haven't been judged yet. That's God's work. But they will be."
He left in silence that felt like defeat. Always the same at every Enclave. The work of the Lord is hard, his father had told him over and over. Walking away from the small camp, he hoped it would be worth it.
He took out his Ubiqs and put them on. Time to go find Toss Up. His work was almost done.
Taxey kisses Shardonae, tucks the sheet around her, and creeps out the door without waking the baby. He's getting good at that, finally. Outside the shack he slides the Bounty cards into the rent slot, and just like every month, thinks about how easy it would be to pop the lock off (but they'd know it was him, better wait on that shit 'til it's time to leave this enclave anyway). He climbs the cliff ladder up to the streets that ring the Split Rock lighthouse.
Then he puts the earbud in, hits play on the worklist. Same first track as always - M.O.P. feat. Busta Rhymes, Teflon, Remy Martin - Ante Up (Remix).
"Attention please, attention please...this shit here feels like a whole entire world collapsed...motherfuckaaaaaaa..."
Just 15 seconds, then switch it off to save battery. That's all he needs, the rest plays in his head. Soundtrack to the everyday hustle.
Today's hustle: debt collection. Yesterday a kid named Alex showed up here in Split Rock flashing around a shiny new AK -- and a stack of Bounty cards that looked way too thick for somebody who'd just made that kind of purchase. Sure enough, a quick check on Ubiq of the New Hamar gun market shitlist showed Alex as a credit customer in arrears. Nice little contract for anybody who could settle him up.
Second track. Gang Starr - Just to Get a Rep.
"Stick up kids is out to tax -- and this is how the story goes..."
One Bounty to the morning fenceman gets Taxey the Alex’s location: the Bassboat Brothel. Two Bounty to the desk girl gets him Alex's room number and a key. Third floor, too high to jump out the window, nice. Climb up the steps, check the clock. 7:30 am, perfect timing to do this Pulp Fiction-style.
Play track three. Notorious B.I.G. - Gimme the Loot.
"You ain't got to explain shit,
I been robbin' motherfuckers since the slave ships
With the same clip, and the same .45
Two point blank, a motherfucker sure to die..."
Take off the shirt, the tats help for this kind of job. Pull the Glock 18, turn the key, kick the door, find Alex sprawled naked in bed next to last night's lady friend.
"Wake up call for Alex! Rise and shine, motherfucker." Taxey jerks the sheet off the bed and dumps Alex on the floor. He turns to the girl. "Hey, Carallina, sorry you ain't gonna get to serve him breakfast this morning. Here's something for your troubles." Taxey flips her a Bounty and she bolts out the door.
Alex is not coming around very fast, understandable after what must have been a long night. His eyes sweep blearily between the pistol in Taxey's hand and the darkness underneath the bed. Taxey kicks him in the face, flips the bed over, and grabs up the AK.
"Alex, this ain't ya gun, son. My boy T-Crit up in Somaliland says you ain't paid the bill on this chopper. So they gonna have to repossess it."
Alex mumbles something through the blood in his mouth.
"And also you gotta pay some penalty fees."
Alex inches toward the door. Taxey puts the Glock away and levels the assault rifle on him.
"Now A-Lay, I don't wanna have to test this chopper out, make sure it's still in working condition. So you just sit right there and we'll talk this through. New Hamar wants five Bounty for the trouble you gave 'em, and then I'm gonna need five more to cover my expenses in hunting your punk ass down. So that's ten Bounty. Ante that up, and you can bounce up on out of here, all square."
Alex indicates that he does not have ten Bounty.
"But you had it yesterday, I saw you flashing the stack around down by the pier. You had twenty, easy. You gotta learn to keep that shit on the downlow, bruh. Now the Bassboat's a nice place, and Carallina's a nice girl, but they ain't ten Bounty worth of nice. Now are you gonna pay up, motherfucker, or am I gonna be putting another dot on my knuckles?"
Alex eventually manages to explain that last night at some yacht party he bought some pre-crash molly and bottle service, besides the bed with Carallina. There’s only five left over. Taxey fishes them out of the pocket of the crumpled up pants on the floor.
"Five, okay, that's enough for the Muslims, but we got a little problem with my end still. That's bad news for Mister Alex. I'ma have to tax ya son, old school style. Take off that fuckin' watch."
As Alex shakily removes a cheap-looking fake gold watch, Taxey drops the rifle on the upturned mattress and pulls the pistol back out. It's tricky to toss a room one-handed while keeping a gun on a guy, but Taxey has had some practice. And Alex's stuff isn't too hard to collect. Find his backpack, throw the watch and the five Bounty in it, a half-smoked blunt, an unused DHQS-issued condom, and the clothes on the floor -- everything, shirt, pants, underwear, socks, boots.
"No hat, man? Thought you had a hat. Stylish kid like you should have a hat. Oh wait, there it is on the door hanger. Stand up and toss me that hat, homie."
The ballcap goes on Taxey's head with a jaunty tilt. The backpack goes over one shoulder. Alex, awkwardly standing naked, seems to suddenly realize the implication of Taxey packing up all of his clothes.
"Oh shit is right, Alex my boy. Next time maybe trying living within your means when the Tax Man's in town. Ayo, talk nice to Carallina, maybe she'll let ya borrow one of her see-through dresses or something. Now if you'll kindly step aside...oh wait, don't wanna forget this thing."
Taxey slings the AK over his other shoulder and saunters out the door past the cowering Alex, snatches up his own shirt from the banister and walks back down the stairs.
Track four. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg - Nuthin' But a G Thang.
"One, two, three and to tha four
Snoop Doggy Dog and Dr. Dre is at tha door..."
Blow a kiss to Carallina and the desk girl, and stroll out into the morning sunshine.
Taxey messages T-Crit in New Hamar with a photo of the gun and a photo of Alex naked on the floor. He sits on a bench by the lighthouse, checks his new watch -- 8:00 am, good work for half an hour. Might have some time to kill. Put on Run the Jewels 2, the full album, and light up the blunt.
His Ubiq rings four minutes later. The Muslims must be early risers, too.
"Ayo T-Crit, I found ya boy Alex. And as you can see, your property has been repossessed."
"Good morning, Taxey. Please, once again, call me Abdullahi now. But thank you for fulfilling our contract. Did you also secure the Bounty that Alex owes us?"
"Sure did, bruh. Five B for you. It was close, though, that shit was all he had left. Motherfucker was livin' large. I always told ya, man, never sell guns or drugs on credit."
"Yes, I recall. And I also recall that you personally demonstrated to us why that is. Your payment for this contract covers the remainder of your debt to New Hamar."
"Plus what?"
"Plus nothing. A drone will come for the rifle and Bounty this afternoon. Meet it at the lighthouse. When it returns, we'll take your name off the repayment list. You're welcome."
"Come on, T-Crit, I told you that shit wasn't me."
"Right, you just found that Glock 18 you're always waving around. You should really learn to keep that stuff on the downlow."
"Fuck you, T-Crit."
"Assalamu alaykum, Mike. Hey, congratulations on the baby."
Click. Motherfucker.
It'll be good to be off the New Hamar shitlist before he ends up like Alex, but Taxey is still down four Bounty from this morning, and all of Alex's stuff put together isn't going to be worth more than two. And baby Shampane needs diapers and bottles.
Still no Freelance jobs on the Lifelines group either. It’s been like four weeks now, did the whole crew just fall off? Lazy-ass fucking Takers.
Fuck it, it's not even 9:00 am yet. He's got at least three hours before the drone arrives. That's time enough to put in work. And shit, all of Alex's money ended up somewhere in this town. Maybe his molly dealer is still slipping after that crazy yacht party. Might as well find out.
Finish the blunt and put on the next track. Wiz Khalifa, Big Bang & Big Bake - Hustlin' Everyday.
"I’ve been hustling like everyday
Doin' time on my grind tryna make a pay.
Hey, I’m still postin’ on the same block,
The same hood, still duckin' from the same cops.
I try hard, but the life that I live, man, ain't all it's seemin',
Sometimes I pray to God I’m dreamin’,
But I ain’t. Try to get out, but I can’t. Damn."
NRG peeked through the window of the bus garage. He could see Roger Arnold and Roger Martinez yelling at the two armed men outside the gate. He ducked back down, clutching Block and Sparky, praying they hadn’t seen him. Nitro stood at the door, growling. NRG appreciated his canine friend's courage, but knew he'd be no match for the armed coyotes. Mercifully, three minutes later, the roar of a motorcycle signaled that the bastards were gone. The two men breathed a sigh of relief.
"I think they're gone."
"Yeah Le--... NRG. I think they're flown da coop."
NRG helped Block up. Together, they lifted up Sparky onto Block's shoulders. The boy's giggles helped ease their tension.
"The bad men are gone?"
"Yeah, but they're only gone for now. They'll come back."
"But Roger and Roger won't let them in, right?"
"Yeah." NRG could only manage a half hearted reassurance for his son, worried for the day the coyotes had the money to buy or the balls to fight their way into Valentino.
A sudden knock at the door startled the family from their reverie. Block dashed with Sparky behind a bus while NRG drew his gun. Nitro, however, gave a playful bark at the door. A quiet voice came from behind the door.
“Sparky! Wanna play?”
“Left Shark!” The adults softened their stances as Sparky ran to the door. Left Shark stood behind the door, a rail thin Latino boy, his Valentino uniform hanging off his frame. Sparky waved to his dads as he ran out into the playground, his terror gone.
As NRG holstered his gun, he tensed as Block grabbed his shoulders, massaging them.
“Block-”
“God, Len, ya shoulders are so tense. Yer wound so tight I think yer about to pop.”
“Bl- Tom, can you blame me? The Coyotes at the gates, Freelance… god. I’ve barely been able to go out on jobs. I’ve had to stay here. We’re barely scraping by, I don’t know how we’re gonna-”
NRG couldn’t finish as Block spun him around and kissed him. Block, having an extra foot in height and a hundred pounds in weight, enveloped NRG with his body. NRG sank into his husband’s body, returning the kiss. Block pulled them to the ground as they made out. After a few minutes of passion they pulled back to face each other. Block had a giant shit eating grin on his face.
“Huh. Ya a’int so tense now.”
“... dammit, Tom.”
“Look, Len, I didn’t traipse half the Goddamn…”
“Goddamn United States for you to quit on me. I know, Tom.”
“Do you?” Block’s face nuzzled NRG’s. Block reached up to the table and grabbed the Ubiq Specs. He handed them to NRG.
“I’ll be fine. Sparky will be fine. Call them. Get us out of here.”
NRG kissed Block one more time, and stood up. He stared at the Specs. He donned them, and turned them on. His welcome screen showed his family, smiling on a Valentino bus. He wiped away a tear.
“Hey Ubiq, check messages.”
“Message from Freelance: Open Job Posting. Please notify Woodsman on availability.”
“Hey Ubiq, call Woodsman…”
Technical Difficulties wouldn’t exist without playtesting. We all joined up to playtest Red Markets. Between the games Laura edits and Ethan's historical scenarios, we have playtested quite a bit, which can be a great way to add something new to your game night.
The first thing for playtesting is to be honest about it. These are unfinished games that need to be tested. It isn’t helpful for the designer or the people at your table to pick something just to do it. Look for something that you’d want to play, or go into the game knowing it’s out of your wheelhouse.
Second, you have to actually read the book. It should go without saying, but there are times it’s been hard to find the time to read the playtest packet. But you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t. You might misinterpret something, which will affect how everyone views the game. Even if it’s in a familiar system, like Powered by the Apocalypse or Fate, the author might have added extra rules. You won’t know if you don’t read it.
At the table, remember to give it a chance and room to breathe. Play the game as you would any other. Treat the scenario like you would any other game. Don’t do a stale reading, get into character and invested in the setting. When the game is over, reflect on the game, and think about what you liked and didn’t. Remember to fill out any packets for the author and be honest. Lavishing praise is not helpful, especially if you are covering up a fatal flaw in the rules.
We recently did a couple of playtests. The first was Infinite Galaxies, the episode for which is already up and the Kickstarter is still going as of this writing. We were able to build our characters for this, so I was able to choose a class and build my character how I wanted. By having investment in W31RD with the bits I could add, I bought more into the game. By being mindful at the table, I was able to see what I liked and didn’t, and let the author know.
Second, we ran a playtest of a rules hack of Red Markets' Profit System, GM’d by Ethan. For this he has a specific setting in mind and made pregens for us to play. While this might have been restrictive, I used the spots he had created and the character’s former job to get in the mindset. I combined it with a funny voice and some characterization. By doing this, I got into character and made the game my own. In doing this I could focus on the rules, letting me give Ethan my genuine opinion.
Playtesting is an important part of RPGs. With the right mindset and preparation, it can also be an important part of your table. Have you had any experience in playtesting? Any stories or missteps? Let us know in the comments!
Due to the timing of the holidays there is no blog post for this week. We hope you and yours have a very happy holiday season! Thanks to all our fans from all of us at Technical Difficulties!
While we’ve been having a lot of fun with No Soul Left Behind, we’ve also been having some problems. Namely, remembering what our characters can do in game. While this is an ORE game and we’ve played games in that system before, the unique aspects to Better Angels are tripping us up. Since there are moves related to being another player’s demon, there’s actions you can with them. But we never remember that we can do them. When we do remember, we want to use them, which crashes the game into chaos. With our PCs, it’s hard to remember our powers and aspects, as they are usually long sections with specific rules. In this case, and in other systems, a cheat sheet would help us to better remember what we can and cannot do.
When designing a cheat sheet, it might be helpful to first take stock of everything you need as a player. Most character sheets are designed well and have what you need. Yet, there might be rules that affect your character that are hard to remember. If you’re playing a wizard with a lot of spells, having the spell names written down might not be enough. Perhaps a one to two sentence description of what it can do would help you choose better spells.
Some games, like Better Angels, already have a cheat sheet. There's a two sided player aid that has a lot of the info you need to play. However, shifting between pages or PDFs make it harder to keep stock of what you need at a given time. This is part of what made it hard me to remember what I can do. For NSLB, I use a word doc as my character sheet, and have everything on one page. I also have another page with the descriptions of my demonic powers and aspects. I copied all the text for them, so it is hard to read and contains flavor text I don't need. I can’t waste time reading a six paragraph description on the ‘Soulless Materialism’ power. I've realized I need to shorten it to a few lines that I can read quickly and know what I need to do. I also highlighted the Tactics used to activate my powers, so I know what to roll. Finally, I updated it for what my demon, Mammon from Accounting, can do, and what buttons I can use to push Angelina.
Another example would be Eclipse Phase. EP has an intimidating amount of stats, skills, abilities, and gear. In spite of my love for the game, I shudder to think about the task of filling out a sheet by hand. For our games I’ve used a fan generated Excel spreadsheet for character generation. There’s also a character generator program we all used for Into the Black, Singularity. You enter the information for your character, and it creates a couple page character sheet with everything you need. In spite of this, there’s so much gear I tend to forget, in addition to my skills. A cheat sheet with my gear and a short descriptions has helped me remember what Templeton can use.
For tabletop RPGs, knowing how to organize your character sheet is vital to using you character to the best of your ability. A cheat sheet in conjunction with your character sheet can make the game much easier. You won’t have to fumble around with the book or a tablet, stumbling to find stats or gear. Instead you can focus on the adventure at hand. Do you use cheat sheets? Any tips you use to remember what your character can do? Mention it in the comments
© 2016 Technical Difficulties Gaming Podcast. All Rights Reserved.