Call of Cthulhu Part One: Dead Man's Stomp

I'm running 7th edition Call of Cthulhu, and used the quickplay rules in order to generate characters with great speed and alacrity.

I should also note that this part, and likely the next one, are from before I started taking careful notes after game, so they'll both be a lot sparser on details.

I was originally going to run The Haunting, as it is not only a classic, but also a fun, claustrophobic tale set in a haunted house. However, I would up with a lot more players than I was expecting (definitely not a bad thing), and so decided that I needed to run a scenario that had a little more room for everyone to breathe. To that end, I decided to run my second favorite starter scenario, Dead Man's Stomp.

I have to say that Chaosium has stepped up their game for this edition. The scenario is still set in the 1920s (which is a bad time for a lot of racist/sexist/classist reasons), but the writers have fixed it up by setting it in Small's Paradise, a real nightclub in the 20s, as well as the only Black owned, integrated nightclub in Harlem at the time. So props for being awesome about history, folks.

The story begins in July, 1925, in the midst of a brutal heatwave. Despite Prohibition being in full effect, nightclubs like Small's Paradise have no difficulty acquiring top-shelf booze. The owner pays his taxes, as well as other fees, to keep NYC's mayor and the state's governor happy enough that nobody presses any charges or causes any problems.

The action begins with the players all deciding to go out to Small's Paradise one Friday evening. As luck would have it, they are all seated at the same table in the back of the main dining area, near the kitchen. Already seated at the table is Peter Mancuso, an accountant, who seems nervous and not terribly talkative.

Onstage is Charlie Johnson and the Paradise Orchestra, playing the hottest jazz licks for the assembled guests. People are dancing. Important people are pressing the flesh, and the governor and the mayor have just been announced at the door.

At about this point, Leroy Turner, a Black musician, sneaks in through the kitchen and tries to make his way up to the stage. No one is letting him past. Giannis (or Johnny), the judge's driver, respectfully makes way for the man and escorts him to the stage. As they go, everyone notices that Leroy has a strange, silver trumpet with an odd patina and four valves. Giannis also notes that Leroy is drunk, and overhears Charlie Johnson tell Leroy that he's late...again.

Leroy gets up on stage and starts playing the next song, a little ditty he wrote himself called "Dead Man's Stomp." He is on fire. The crowd loves it.

At this precise moment, a mobster named Joey Larson, who works for Boss Bonano, walks up to the players' table, draws his .45, and blows a hole in Peter Mancuso's head. Doctor Black, sitting across from the accountant, gets covered in innards. As people scream and panic, Larson flees out the kitchen door.

The players then realize that Mancuso is tapping his dead fingers in time with the music. They watch in horror as the corpse shambles to its feet and starts making its way for the exit. People scream in terror. It's chaos.

Things get a little hazy here. Some of the players stayed inside, trying to figure out what was happening, Giannis dragged the Judge through the kitchen door to the car, in the hopes of making a quick escape. One thing led to another and, several failed rolls later, Giannis had struck Mancuso's animate body as it was lumbering across the street, smashing it into a light pole and cutting it in half.

Vivian pursued Leroy backstage, only to discover that he had taken the fire escape. She did find a card about a funeral that Leroy (she assumed) was not only invited to, but hired to perform at. A handwritten note informed him that the funeral was in "New Orleans style," and that he needed to be on time.

The rest of the next day was spent gathering information about the victim, the shooter, Leroy Turner, and other strange things that were happening. Ron Deluca, a made guy for the Burnouse family, came into his own by tracking Larson to a Bonano Family front and casing it for evidence. He didn't find any, but he did beat the crap out of one guy and shove him in a rain barrel, so that's something!

Kane Eastman attended the funeral of Frederick Fayette, a prominent Black businessman who died of natural causes. Leroy Turner and Charlie Johnson are also there, along with hundreds of other mourners. The assemblage processes with Fayette's coffin through the streets, while Charlie and his band play some rousing New Orleans tunes.

When Leroy Turner launches into Dead Man's Stomp, however, the now animate Fred Fayette smashes his way out of his coffin and pummels his way through the crowd, to the shock and horror of everyone around. Fred only stops his rampage when he runs into his grieving wife. She calls him by his name and he quietly dies again, collapsing into the street.

Kane pursues a fleeing Leroy Turner, catches up with him, and demands answers. Leroy will only talk if alcohol is involved, so Kane buys him some and convinces him to tell him what he knows. Leroy says that the horn was a gift from Louis Armstrong, which Kane flat-out does not believe.

Leroy eventually leaves, insisting that his story is true, only to be picked up off the street by Joey Larson and some of Bonano's other guys. The players get to live out their fantasies of "following that car," tailing Larson up into Westchester County, to a small garage in the middle of nowhere. Those that have weapons draw them and approach.

Looking in through the garage windows, they see Bonano himself standing there, surrounded by several of his top lieutenants. Leroy Turner has his waist and legs securely bound to a chair, though his hands and arms are free. Bonano is in the middle of angrily questioning Larson, asking him how dragging him out into the middle of nowhere to listen to a jazz musician has any purpose or makes up for Larson shooting Mancuso in a crowded establishment.

"I told you to scare him, you idiot! Not shoot him!"

Larson goes on to plead his case, saying that he's been following Turner and that Turner's music can raise the dead. Bonano draws his pistol from his shoulder holster and says, "okay, let's see a little demonstration."

Larson draws his gun, but before he can clear leather, Bonano guns him down. He then puts the silver trumpet in Turner's hands and encourages him to play. To the shock and horror of everyone involved, Larson's corpse struggles to his feet.

At this moment, the cavalry charges in. Giannis uses his shotgun to blow the trumpet out of Turner's hands (critical success, by the way, so Turner wasn't harmed at all). They also mowed down Bonano's men and killed Joey Larson again.

In the midst of the battle, Ron Deluca, who is setting himself up as a force of unchecked id, knocks Bonano to the ground and smashes his head in with a sledgehammer.

The group is very careful to leave no witnesses. They take a now thoroughly rattled Leroy back to the city and Giannis buries the horn in an undisclosed location.

As they are driving away from the carnage, all of them briefly spot a figure in a hat and coat standing by the roadside. The figure smiles widely at them as they drive away.

My Call of Cthulhu Game

I have been running a tabletop Call of Cthulhu game for a while now. I initially ran the group through Dead Man's Stomp (a classic that I love) from the quickstart rules, before deciding to have them face off against the Order of the Silver Twilight from Shadows of Yog-Sothoth.

I'm actually using the sixth edition of SoYS, with conversions, because I don't believe that there's a current version of it for seventh edition Call of Cthulhu. It is not the greatest of the Call of Cthulhu campaigns (hello, Masks of Nyarlathotep), and it has quite a few rough spots. It is also not really designed for the beginner Keeper/game master. The first adventure has no rails to speak of and no real suggestions about what the players should do or how they are to find out about the Order's shenanigans and stop them.

The story of the game has gotten super intricate, in part because there are seven players, all with their own interests and baggage, and in part because, since there's no rails, I'm pretty much letting them  do whatever they want, even if they only ever tangentially blunder into the plot. It sounds like a mess, but it's really not. Everyone, including me, is having a great time, is loving the characters, and is really engaged with whatever story it is that we're telling.

Since so much happens each game, and since I am trapped at home due to the pandemic, I have been flexing my writing muscles to provide detailed recaps of each game session. I have also (as of the third game) started to allow the players to take one action between games. They tell me what they're doing and I write up a brief-ish response of what happened. Then they spend the first part of the next game speculating and worrying at one another.

The story told through these writings is a surprisingly fun and interesting one. Because I need validation, I have decided to share the story of my Call of Cthulhu game through blog posts. It is my hope that other people will enjoy these stories just as much as the players do.

But first, let us start off with our players. Starting with Dead Man's Stomp, we have:

Dr. Reese Black: A physician and surgeon in his mid-thirties. Has a private practice and sees patients at both New York Hospital and Bellevue. As is typical of most surgeons, he is somewhat socially incompetent.

Kane Eastman: An African-American jazz singer and musician. Leader of the Kane Eastman Quartet. Has a very deep and mysterious interest in the occult. Always has an interesting approach to get around even the most intractable-seeming problem.

Judge Ezekiel Putnam: An elderly, somewhat Puritanical judge in New York City. Lives on a large piece of private property in Staten Island. Cannot abide much in the way of excitement or spices, but is otherwise in excellent health. Will probably outlive us all, so long as no one sneaks anything outrageous (like pepper) into his food.

Giannis "Johnny" Dukas: Greco-American Great War veteran who has been hardened by his many experiences. He currently works for Judge Putnam as a driver, manservant, and cook. He lives on the judge's property, in the carriage house. He keeps a shotgun underneath the front seat of the judge's car.

Ronald "Ronnie" Deluca: An Italian-American who is also a mafioso in the Bernouse Family. Due to being mixed-ethnicity and having a little bit of an anger management problem, he has not risen very high in the ranks. However, he is a long-time friend of family head Vincenzo Bernouse, and is the godfather to Vincenzo's daughter, Vivian.

Vivian Bernouse: An Italian-American mob princess, who knows the ins and outs of the family business despite her father's best attempts to shelter her. She is college-educated and a skilled violinist. She has played a number of concerts in New York City and has gradually begun to make a life for herself outside of the family.

Their adventures begin...in an upcoming post!

The Final Flight of the de la Torre

GEOFF NOTE: This is the introductory text for the Invictus LARP, a rule book that I created for fun. It is meant to take place in the same world as the Mystwood LARP, but many thousands of years in the future, after Humanity has developed space travel and hyperdrive. It's a pastiche of Warhammer 40k and Traveller. 

This is the flight recording of the final moments of the Dreadnought de la Torre, whose heroic crew won an impossible victory for Humanity. Portions of this recording have been redacted or altered per New Terran Republic Governmental Protocol 1193-1A, for security and safety reasons.

COMANDER VAAL: We have a lock. The package has been picked up. Repeat—the package has been picked up!
CAPTAIN LUMIA: Excellent work. Energize stasis field.

Electrical discharge. Screams. The distant sound of tolling bells. Chanting in an unknown language.

VAAL: Captain, stasis field is collapsing! The Princes are breaking…
LUMIA: Divert all reactor power to the hold. Keep that field up!
BRIDGE CREW: Ma’am, the system’s overloading. It’s shorting out!
VAAL: They’re out! Marines! Ready weapons. Concentrate fire. Hold the line. HOLD THE LINE!

Sounds of battle, screaming, ritualistic chanting.

ALIEN VOICE: SUB-CREATURES! YOUR DOOM IS AT HAND!

INCOMING TRANSMISSION: De la Torre! This is the Arcada! The entire Chaos Fleet has changed course. Heading for your position.
LUMIA: Roger that, Arcada! It’s because we’ve captured their Princes. They’re confined to our hold right now.
ARCADA: What the [REDACTED]! How in the…
LUMIA: We can’t contain them with our stasis field. My marines are trying to take them out.
ARCADA: Understood, de la Torre! We are scrambling to assist. Hold out as long as you can.
INCOMING TRANSMISSION #2: This is the Nedeni. We are en route as well.
VAAL: Captain, we’re giving them hell, but they’re still advancing. We’ve sealed the hold, but they’re…

Interruption by screaming, explosions. 

VAAL: Captain! We can’t stop them! They’re carving their way to the bridge.
ARCADA: De la Torre! Be advised, we are taking heavy fire! Six Annihilators closing fast. Shields collapsing. Wall shields holding, but…
HELM: Captain, I read the six Annihilators and…a dozen other ships. They’ll be on us any second.
LUMIA: Damn it. Helm. Set course for local system point, mark zero-zero-zero.
HELM: Ma’am? That’ll take us into the…
LUMIA: That’s an order lieutenant. Vaal, can you still hear me?
VAAL: I hear you, captain!
LUMIA: You have my condolences. You know I wouldn’t waste…
VAAL: (chuckle) Forget it. I never wanted to live forever.

More explosions. Static. Screams.

ALIEN VOICE: WE ADMIRE YOUR HUBRIS, BUT YOUR RESISTANCE IS IN VAIN. YOUR FLESH IS OURS TO SCULPT. YOUR SOULS SHALL BE THE FUEL FOR…

VAAL: All units, advance! Slow them down! Put your hearts into it! Come on you [REDACTED]!
NEDENI: We’ve sent a general distress, de la Torre. The fleet’s mobilizing and moving to your position.
HELM: Captain…coordinates accepted. We are coming about.
LUMIA: Thank you, Nedeni, but that won’t be necessary. Tell the fleet to pull back and get out of here.
NEDENI: De la Torre, I don’t understand. Say…Oh [REDACTED]. What are you doing?!
LUMIA: What we have to, Nedeni! Tell the fleet to keep those Annihilators off of us just a little longer.
NEDENI: (unintelligible)
HELM: Captain, hyperwarp engines are cycling up, but the automatic safety interlocks just engaged. We can’t…
LUMIA: Disengage safety interlocks. Input override code [REDACTED].

ALIEN VOICE: YOUR DEATHS ARE INEVITABLE. YOUR WORLDS ARE OURS TO DEVOUR.

VAAL: Captain…are you there…We…lost…most of the company…our heavy primordials…I’m sorry…we…
HELM: Safety interlocks disengaged.
LUMIA: No apologies necessary, commander. You did well.
VAAL: Thank you…captain…
LUMIA: Helm, engage hyperwarp on my mark. Three…Two…
VAAL: You want some, you oozing, mutie [REDACTED]? Well, take THIS and THIS! AAAH!

Gunfire.

LUMIA: Mark.

Sisyphus and Tantalus

It was Sisyphus who discovered how to break the system, completely by accident.

Out of sheer, defeated boredom, he started pushing the terrible boulder along different approaches to the summit. The end result was always the same, as was foreordained by the gods, but at least the view sometimes varied.

One such variation saw him pushing the boulder over the loose and yielding scree on the steepest side of the mountain. This earned him taunts and heckling from his minders, but Sisyphus didn't particularly care. He had done this millions of times already, and knew that he would not succeed.

But then, oh, when he at last reached the summit, and the boulder slipped away from his careful grasp, it rolled and bounced zig-zag down the side of the mountain, crashing and scattering smaller stones, until it landed with a splash in Tantalus' pool.

This gave Tantalus a brief reprieve in two ways. The sudden injection of the stone caused the pool's water level to rise abruptly, so that it splashed into the old sinner's parched throat. The action of the water also carried Tantalus up and up, as if he were a ship on an angry sea. There was only one wave, and it was not very high, but it was just tall enough for Tantalus to knock some of the tantalizing fruits off of the bough above his head.

Sisyphus stood at the summit, mouth agape. He was happy that Tantalus had been given a respite, however brief, from his suffering, but he was jealous that no similar reprieve would ever fall upon him.

And then he smiled, because he realized that it had.

Their minders pointed and laughed at Sisyphus, mocking him for his foolishness. Then, when they had at last calmed themselves, they hoisted the dripping stone from Tantalus' pond and moved it over to the sandy field where Sisyphus was foreordained to begin his every ascent.

While they laughed, while they primed his eternal torture so that it could resume, Sisyphus stood upon the summit in the cool sunshine, no longer laboring.

Simple Questions From Playtesters

It's been a while!

*brushes off the dust*

Last weekend, I went to METATOPIA, a game designers' convention in Morristown, New Jersey. The convention has a simple, and wonderful, premise: designers show up with their games-in-progress; they show these games off to players and other designers; they get feedback.

I got a lot of very, very good feedback this weekend, both for games that I have been working on for quite a while, as well as for new games that are barely alpha-stage prototypes.

Many of my playtesters, as mentioned above, are game developers themselves, and these sorts of people come to the table with innate skills and insights that make their commentary both direct and valuable. To wit: they have played and made enough games so that they can look at yours and, without too much muss or fuss, cut to the heart of rules decisions and descriptions that you, who are too close to your project, didn't even know you were having trouble with!

Here's the big example from the weekend.

I brought the mid-beta rule book for A Distant Galaxy, my new role-playing game. This game uses the Traits System (featured in Boldly Go!), although the system is tweaked a bit for more Star Wars-y play. Vehicles are smaller and rustier. There are robots instead of synthoids. You can attune to the Source and wield the powers that were once the purview of the Solar Knights. And so on.

I knew that running A Distant Galaxy at METATOPIA was going to be a little tricky. There's a bit more crunch to it than there is in Boldly Go!, mostly having to do with the acquisition of money and stuff. I spent a long time creating equipment lists, a rudimentary trading system, some quick rules for vehicle design, and so on. I knew that buying stuff was a not-insignificant part of character creation, and I knew that I wanted to have my players go through character creation so that they could get a feel for the system. The problem, as I saw it, was that METATOPIA's game slots are only two hours long.

"Right," I said to myself. "Having them design vehicles is probably the most important part of the Equipment section, so I want them to test that. The rest of it I can just handwave. I'll tell them to pick some things and then they can be on their way."

That was not exactly how I phrased it when I was describing the process at the table, however.

See, the thing is that I hate making lists. As a game designer, I've gotten pretty good at doing them in a pinch, but they are the least appealing aspect of the design process for me. Skill lists? Spell lists? Monster lists? Augh! Many of the innovations in the Traits System were created solely so that I could circumvent the dull prospect of listing things as much as possible.

Because of that, I started my explanation of how we were mostly going to skip the Equipment part of character creation with the following:

"Okay, so, since equipment lists are boring and tedious, and since too much shopping will cut into the play time, I'm going to suggest that you just skip..."

At this point one of my players looked at me and said, "hang on. If you think equipment lists are boring or tedious, then why do you have them in your game?"

Ah! Touche! 

Based on that comment, and on other comments received at the playtest, I have decided to revise the Equipment section of A Distant Galaxy (and, likely, every other iteration of the Traits System that requires the players to pick equipment). Here's what I'm doing.

THE OLD WAY

• There's a list of a lot of different items.
• They all cost money. 
• You get a couple of items to start, based on your background.
• You get some money to start.
• You buy the rest of your items with that money.

THE NEW WAY

The new way is very similar to the old way, except.

• The item lists are simplified.
• You start with money and some items.
• You also start with equipment picks in various categories. For instance, Pilots get 6 picks under the Transport list. 
• Players also get Free picks, which can be used to buy equipment in the General lists.
• Instead of spending cash, players use their picks to get items. 
• You want a ray gun? That's 2 Weapon picks. 
• You want a bigger ray gun? That's 3.
• You don't actually spend your cash on your equipment. That just rattles around in your pocket until you need it during the game.
• During the game, items cost roughly an amount of money equal to 10^X, where X is the number of picks.
• That small ray gun is 100 credits. The bigger one is 1,000.

I know that this seems like functionally the same thing, but it feels a lot smoother and faster to me. Figuring out how to divide up your 10 picks to buy Equipment seems a lot easier than finding out you have 2,921 credits and then mathing all of your purchases. Smaller numbers and smaller lists, as well as players being sent to specific lists based on their backgrounds, means a much faster equipment loadout stage, which means everyone can start playing a lot faster.

Although, who knows, maybe it is functionally the same thing, and my writer brain is just confounded by any number larger than 20.

The important thing is that a player noticed something in the system that didn't work for me and pointed it out to me. As a result, I made a new system that I feel is more elegant and more in tune with the game system as a whole.

The moral of this story is: Listen to your playtesters!

RPG Character Library: Dungeon ADVENTURE! 2!

Quite a while ago, I began participating in an experiment during a very dry period in my creative life. The experiment was as follows: Go through the RPGs you own and make characters for each one.

This proved to be an interesting process, as it got me to painstakingly go through many of the systems that I owned. Making some of these characters revealed hidden gems, while others made me want to set things on fire. Because I am only an infrequent blogger at best (partly because "easily distracted" partly because "the writing style of my blog posts makes it seem like I have neurological processing issues") the grand majority of this blog is taken up with character portraits for games I will likely never run or play.

Early on in the process, I made characters for my trunked (to use an author term) game, Dungeon ADVENTURE! Inspired by Joe, of Monkeyden Games, I made a character with the earliest version of the rules I could find, and the same (or similar) character made using the latest iteration of the rules to that date. You can re-read the thrilling saga here.

Looking over the many, many iterations of rules for Dungeon ADVENTURE!, in preparation for making that post, caused a long dormant machine in the back of my brain to come chugging back to life. I realized that I had lost sight of the original appeal of the game--that being that it was streamlined, straightforward, and easy to make characters for. I also realized that there was nothing stopping me from going back through all the different versions of the rules, picking out the bits that actually worked, and cobbling them together into a new, better version of the game.

Which I did!

Earlier this year, I had Joe Blomquist design me a nice cover (featuring art by John Forish and Josh McGaw), formatted my Word document, inserted a bunch of appropriate clip art images, and published the current version of Dungeon ADVENTURE! thanks to the fine folks (and machines) at Lulu. Shortly thereafter, I was inspired to write more for the game, first a module, then a setting guide. If I can keep up this pace, I will have quite the line of products soon.

I'll probably be talking a lot more about the ins and outs of the Dungeon ADVENTURE! game, as well as details of its rapidly growing campaign world, in future updates. For right now, I though I'd circle back around to the beginning and make a character using the current version of the game.

Making a Character

The game has six stats, most of which should be familiar to people experienced with role-playing games. The stats, as well as what they do, are as follows.

Strength: How strong you are. Determines the types of armor and weapons you can use.
Agility: How dexterous you are. Determines the types of weapons you can use.
Mind: How smart you are. Important for wielding the eldritch powers of Sorcery.
Combat: How well you attack and evade in combat. Dump stat for the thinky characters.
Charisma: How likable you are and how commanding your presence is.
Health: How hardy you are. Double this stat to determine your Life Points (HP).

All stats are determined by a random roll of 2d6. Roll six times and place the results where you want them. I get the following results: 4, 7, 3, 8, 3, 10. Sub-par, but I feel like I can work with them. I also wonder if maybe there ought to be a new rule where players can roll 3d6 for each stat and drop the lowest.

No, no, Geoff. The game is already published. Move along, move along.

Next up, I have to determine my character's Kindred and his Class. I have decided to make this character as similar as I can to the characters that I made with the earlier versions of Dungeon ADVENTURE!, so, to that end, I decide that my character is a human sorcerer.

Each Kindred species gets bonuses to two stats and bonuses to three skills. Humans, being the most diverse, get +1 Combat, +1 to another stat, and +1 in any three skills of their choice. I put the other stat bonus in my Mind, because the Mind stat is of paramount importance to a sorcerer.

Each Class starts with some benefits, a +1 bonus to three skills, and a special ability at first level. As characters rise in level, they will gain access to additional abilities. My character gains a scene spell slot (I'll explain this in a minute), access to a school of Sorcery, and gains +1 Life Point at 3rd level and every other level thereafter. He also gets +1 to the Resist Magic, Lore (Any One), and Sorcery (Any One) skills. A sorcerer's first level ability is the gift of The Sight, which allows me to detect magic on people and objects if I make a successful Mind roll.

The next thing I must do is pick skills. I start out with the skills provided by my Kindred and Class, and also get 5 skill points to buy skills. Skills have multiple ranks, and each rank in a skill costs one skill point. I could dump all five of my points into one skill, split them evenly between five skills, or spend them however I want. Certain skills have (Any One) listed in their description, which means I have to specialize, so I also do that now. I decide that my character can cast Aquamancy spells, and that he knows the lore of Sorcery itself.

We're moving right along! The last thing I have to do before character creation is complete is buy equipment. I get (2d6+6)x10 gold to buy my starting equipment. I roll and get 120 gold, which is a nice cache of coin. I note that my character is agile but weak, which limits his weapon choices severely. I also note that heavy armor will not only impede my ability to pass Agility rolls, but it will also hamper my spell casting ability. I decide to go with the lightest possible armor, affording me nominal protection, a buckler, a sling, and a bit of basic equipment, which leaves me with 56 gold.

I could end it here, but before I do, I want to take a moment to discuss how magic works in Dungeon ADVENTURE! Is that self-aggrandizing? Yes! But so is the rest of this post. So...

Sorcery

The game has no spell lists. You are allowed to do just about anything--a) that you like b) within reason--with any of the spell schools you know. My character knows Aquamancy, so he can perform just about any sort of magic that he wants, so long as it involves water or ice.

He has a few limits to his powers, however. He can't do damage/restore Life Points with any spell more than 1d6 + half his skill rank. He also cannot buff or debuff stats, skills, or armor any more than half his skill rank. For my character, that means he gets 1d6+2 and + or -2 respectively.

He also has to determine the range of the spell when he casts it. He can target himself or one other person within 50' x his rank (200') at no penalty. He can attempt to cast a spell with a 10' radius AOE centered on himself at a -2 to his casting roll, or he may cast a ranged spell that has a 10' radius of effect at a -4 to his casting roll.

Lastly, and most importantly, he is limited to the number of spells that he can cast at a time. Spells have two duration in Dungeon ADVENTURE!: Instantaneous and Scene. Instantaneous spells take effect and then dissipate, having accomplished their effect. Scene spells remain in effect for the duration of the scene (or if the target breaks line of sight with the caster, goes out of the caster's range, or if the caster is rendered unconscious).

My character has one scene spell slot, which means that he can have one Scene spell active at a time, though he can also cast one Instantaneous spell each round. If he tries to cast a new Scene spell, the first one immediately stops working. Worry not, though, because my character will gain additional scene spell slots as he rises in level.

The Completed Character

With all that being said, here's my character, ready for adventures in dungeons, or elsewhere!

Navino the Blue, a Level 1 Human Sorcerer

Strength	3	Skills Awareness 2 Lore (Sorcery) 1 Resist Magic 1 Sorcery (Aquamancy) 4 Stealth 2 Survival (Coastal) 1
Agility	8
Mind	11
Combat	4
Charisma	7
Health	4
Life Points	8
Benefits and Abilities One Scene Spell Slot The Sight (detect magic on a Mind roll)			Magic Notes Damage and Healing: 1d6+2 Modify Stats/Skills/AP: 2 Range 200’

Equipment

Leather Armor 1 AP 20 gold

Buckler +1 Combat 10 gold

Sling (150’ +1 DB) 5 gold

Bullets (20) 2 gold

Basic Adventurer’s Kit 12 gold

Writing Kit 8 gold

Parchment (5) 1 gold

Bedroll 6 gold

56 gold remaining.

Even More Boldly Go Art: The SFS Oswego

I got yet another email from the fantabulous Dave Woodward of Badgerlord Studios, and...

(Do you remember who he is? If you don't, let me remind you! He's the guy who is doing all of the art for Boldly Go. You can see all of the hard work he's already done by clicking on this self-referential bit of text right here! If you want to hire him for things, I'm sure he would be both excited and gratified to work with you! Let him know I sent you!)

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I got an email from Dave that had more art in it. Specifically, the art of the sample ship, which is referenced quite frequently throughout the text of Boldly Go. That's right, I'm talking about the dauntless ship that is currently crewed by our dauntless sample characters. Put your hands/hand analogues together and give a warm welcome to the SFS Oswego!

I have to say, I'm really happy with how this turned out, especially since I gave Dave virtually no guidance at all beyond, "yeah, so I want something iconic-looking that's not so iconic that people, and large entertainment conglomerates, can sue me for it." He sent me a half-dozen drawings or so and this is the one that I liked the best. I really do love that giant viewing window in the center!

As is right and proper for a game set in this particular genre, the Oswego is every bit as much of a character as the ones who crew her. Part of this has to do with the fact that, during character creation, players get to assign a traits to their new ship. As with character traits, ship traits can be pretty much anything the players can imagine. In many cases, players try to make a "well-balanced" ship with traits that cover a wide variety of possible adventure scenarios. In other cases, however, I've had players make experimental ships, abandoned alien ships that they've found and barely know how to drive, medical ships, science ships, and the ever-popular, 'bristling with weaponry and heavy shielding' ships.

That last sub-category of ship probably doesn't have the giant viewing window. I'd imagine they replace the window with more guns.

Since the Oswego is a character, I thought I'd run through its traits. Keep in mind that this ship was designed organically by one of my long-suffering teams of playtesters, so it is, for all intents and purposes, a "real" ship made by "real" people.

THE SFS OSWEGO: SPECS

The Oswego is a part of Space Fleet's new line of deep-space exploratory vehicles. It rolls off the factory assembly line with the following customized traits and features:

• Upgraded Canteen (Featuring Robot Chef Pierre)
• Superior Maneuverability
• Advanced Shuttlecraft
• Reinforced Hull Plating
• State-of-the-Art Xenobiology Lab
• Upgraded Navigational Systems
• Point-to-Point Teleport Pods
• Enhanced Tractor Beam
• Well-Trained Security Personnel

The Oswego, and ships like it, can be yours for the low price of zero galactic credits, because we don't use money in the future, for some reason!