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BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#51: Apr 28th 2019 at 11:43:27 PM

First session was today!

So, the players - two of my regular gaming buddies; my wife; my teenager; an old navy buddy who works at the same job site as me now; and our roommate. Character creation took longer than I thought, partly because I wasn't expecting my wife or our roommate to play, but thankfully I had set up extra cyphers and oddities ahead of time.

Instead of the book-recommended Connections, I had everyone pass their character sheet to the left, then write a sentence describing "how is your character known to this person."note  I collected them, made notes, and then passed the sheets back out to different people to do the same thing. note also note  I then asked different questions of everyonenote  and started them off in the coffins/stasis pods. Hilariously, we got two 1's rolled trying to get out of the stasis pods, but while my plan was for that to slowly turn it into a vacuum-sealed pod, the rest of the party managed to get both of them out first.

The water rising surprised everyone, and they kept expecting me to throw monsters at them as they worked frantically to get out of this flooding facility. With some creative use of their cyphersnote  I let them get away from the water and high enough to look for an exit. They then accidentally pissed off a group of Kalyptein Crabs, and damaged them enough to make them flee, except for the biggest one which they killed. Then they got high enough to run into NP Cs, but the session took long enough (and started late enough) that I ended there instead of introducing them to the village at the top of the facility.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#52: May 18th 2019 at 9:35:16 AM

Heh. Kalyptein crabs are a good intro to the weird of Numenera.

The idea that they all think they know each other, but they all think the others are wrong — combined with them waking up in cryopods — makes me think of a group Planescape: Torment sort of situation where they were all actually stored in cryo at different times and places, and the fact that they all look like someone the others know is — well, not a coincidence. But they don't know each other as well as they think, and there are larger forces at work, etc, etc. I have no idea if that's at all what you had in mind, but it's what it made me think of, heh.

Big sinking ancient facilities off the coast of a tiny Ninth World village is a very Numenera beginning, too.

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#53: May 27th 2019 at 8:43:11 PM

Session yesterday!

So apparently the favorite line I said yesterday was "6 legs, feathers, purrs when it curls up in your lap. Perfectly normal cat." Was trying to get across how weird the Ninth Age is supposed to be, got everyone at the table laughing except my teenager.

I recapped the last session, and started them off in the village at the top of the ruined, half-flooded facility. Named the place Topek, and decided last second that the leader was an octopus (with that weird dog-like-creature-with-a-fish-tank-for-a-head) who the humans called the Fisher King.note  They did learn about the Synthidel, but with how far away it was, decided to faff about for a bit looking for a missing merchant and a tree whose fruit makes you remember a promise you didn't keep.note 

Anyway, they managed not to annoy the scutimorphs in the trees while getting the fruit, and I gave them all some vague promises they couldn't remember specifics ofnote .

Tracking down the missing merchant, I pitted them against a Moilt (from the 2nd Bestiary). Managed to take out half the party with failed Int rolls; I swear that as a party, they roll 1's more than any other number on the die. Managed to kill the Moilt, rescue the merchant and his guard, and only robbed them a little bit. note 

They decided, after helping the merchant get to Topek, that they were going to head out on the road and risk the Iron Wind on their travel towards the Synthidel. Called the session end there because I was expecting them to take longer on their side quests. Then we played some Pandemic (lost) and Legendary (lost one, won one) before everyone went home.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#54: Aug 4th 2019 at 4:50:04 PM

Two month break due to various life issues.

So we recapped, and they set out along the road. At the first village they went to, after some talking around they followed a rumor of an ice house that is out in the gulleys and washes nearby, and decided to explore the place. After some poor attempts to get inside, they climbed onto the roof, dropped several items through the hole in the roof, and discovered that the ice house was actually a fish tank with a trio of glittergar inside. They killed one, and one of the party dove inside to try and check out the bottom ... in the dark ... and managed (with a good perception roll) to come out with a cipher.

They continued down the road, coming uncomfortably close to the iron wind as it paralleled the road. They watched a group of olion but stayed well away from them and kept going to the next village.

At the next place, I borrowed one of the weird stuffs from the core book. The tower was just outside of a trading village, and I made it an escher-like maze for them to explore One tough puzzle when I tried to get them to open a double door by having two characters pull on the handles at the same time, but that was it.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#55: Aug 7th 2019 at 11:26:17 AM

Nice :D

And yeah surprisingly how often players can be stumped by simple puzzles

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#56: Oct 20th 2019 at 8:31:21 PM

Long break again between sessions ... one of my players succumbed to cancer around what would have been our last game session. RIP, Thorin, a Graceful Jack who Moves Like a Cat.

On top of that, my teenager refused to play with us so he could play Minecraft with friends his age, and another player's work schedule left them out, but we added a new player, now that he's returned from deployment. So I retconned a little bit, that the missing three characters never appeared when the other trio exited the bird tower. The new character was arriving in the same town, so they naturally and with no hesitation became best buddies and traveled together.

After a short stop at a village with a strange metal egg in the town square, a side trip to a forest that supposedly granted strange dreams, they finally reached their destination - the Synthidel!

They were brought inside and explained the laws (don't kill, steal, or otherwise mess with the Pickers), they made a detour to the Stacks. Sold off a cypher, and stopped at the Memory Bar, where memories are on tap. One Glaive sold off the memory of the fish in the ice house from last session; the other Glaive asked if the bartender could retrieve lost memories, and then promptly rolled the first 1 of the game session. They left the bar after this, went to the inn recommended by the person at the gate.

The next day, they were given a job (of sorts) to explore a strange jade statue that had suddenly appeared south of the Synthidel, that the Pickers would not get near. Took inspiration from the Jade Colossus book, though didn't use anything directly. They took the entire content of a shelf of random stuff, without even checking, and waiting until they were back in town to sort out the ciphers, oddities, shins, and random trash. One of them took quite a bit of damage from a strange growth, all because it had a shin. And they bounced off a few walls as the gravity changed in different places. They left to report back before exploring the entire place.

Next session should be more exploration of the Jade thing, hopefully with an excuse to bring the other two characters back in, and some other task for them before the Lord of the Synthidel decides to meet with them.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Unsung it's a living from a tenement of clay Since: Jun, 2016
it's a living
#57: Feb 12th 2020 at 4:53:15 PM

Cypher System Humble Bundle

Got all the Numenera stuff in the last bundle? Here's everything else.

Actually I have no idea how much they've released for these settings other than The Strange. I never really even got around to looking at Gods of the Fall or Unmasked.

SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#58: Feb 13th 2020 at 12:48:00 AM

They have had several kickstarters. I think Monte Cook Games has them as their regular modus operandi [lol]

That said, settings other than Numenera seem to be bit of one off deals. The Strange did get some new content, but lately only Numenera has gotten new content(though regardless all new content are funded by kickstarters)

Edited by SpookyMask on Feb 13th 2020 at 10:52:03 PM

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#59: Mar 7th 2020 at 8:31:51 PM

... It's really been this long since last game sessions. The holidays suck, and today's session almost got cancelled by me taking too long doing paperwork to buy a house.

Ok, so ... my son has said he no longer wants to play. Boo. But the other five were all there today, so yay!

The sesblewsion was kind of a mashup of different parts of the Jade Colossus book, with a healthy dose of gravity play. Only one player successfully managed to climb down a 30' hallway; the others all fell . They found the jade mouth, which spit out the missing player from last time; blew up some floating crystal eye spheres; carved their way through the meat-maze of the red labyrinth; and made their way back outside with some unidentified cyphers, some shins, and one player making it to tier 2.

Next session, they'll have a meeting with the Lord of the Synthidel. Assuming we make it to another session without a 5 month wait. sad

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#60: Mar 7th 2020 at 10:17:45 PM

Hopefully not, its hard to play with multiple month breaks D:

SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#61: Mar 6th 2021 at 11:52:18 AM

I'm happy I got to run cypher system oneshot today after so many years :3 Hopefully I inspired some of players to run it as well so i get chance to play in one

SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#62: Aug 29th 2023 at 11:53:12 PM

Kinda sad cypher system is still obscure :p where else I can comment on weirdness on monte cook gaming adapting two different horror podcasts as cypher system games?

Edited by SpookyMask on Aug 29th 2023 at 11:53:20 AM

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#63: Aug 29th 2023 at 11:53:58 PM

Oh boy, the Cypher system. I couldn't get into it in Torment: Tides of Numenera, and I still don't get it.

Disgusted, but not surprised
SpookyMask Since: Jan, 2011
#64: Aug 30th 2023 at 1:25:07 PM

I mean, Cypher system is just "roll d20, try to hit target number, target number is lowere if you have skill"

But yeah old gods of appalachia and magnus archive are both getting/got cypher system game by monte cook games

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