Circle of Dar Janix

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar. Having secured permission to use Spiros's compound for themselves at the end of the last session, the former Terminators set about exploring it. It was small, with only two buildings of note (an office that doubled as Spiros's bedroom, and a cramped barracks). The compound also had an outhouse, a utility shed, and a helipad.  Their search of Spiros's office turned up an easily hacked laptop. The contents of the laptop showed that Spiros was obsessed with a famous outlaw/rebel named Spiros (a relation) that had plagued the system 80 years ago. They also found a software key that they strongly suspected would open the door Kasama found. They convinced Wood to lend them a truck and let Kasama lead them to the door in exchange for providing security while Kasama finished his mine surveys in the area. The key did, in fact, open the door, and they were able to determine from the do...

  Since I wrote this, new information has come to light about M.A.R. Barker, he was a Nazi . I no longer support playing Tekumel. I will keep these posts up, because I believe in preserving the past, even when it is ugly. There may be a time when sufficient time has passed that Tekumel has been examined and can be played in the right context (like Lovecraft), but that time is probably very far in the future. Due to the intricate interconnections between the setting, the religious themes in it, and the non-western derivations of its societies, I believe that a thorough examination by people far smarter than me will be required before I am comfortable that I understand which parts of it might be harmful. Like many, I was drawn to Tekumel because it seemed more open than other fantasy worlds, with greater representation of the diversity of humanity. Obviously, it is horrifying to learn this. I encourage others to seek out other fantasy worlds that have involved people o...

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar. 22 Lothron F.A. 15 The fellowship set out for Tharbad, with the plan to stop in Edoras on the way. They were joined by Leowyn, a female Rider of Rohan, played by Zach ( Zenopus ).  Leowyn, as a native of Rohan, agreed to serve as their guide for the first part of the journey. They set out on a cool, clear mid-Spring morning. 27 Lothron F.A. 15 After several days of clear weather, they felt a cold wind off the White Mountains in the afternoon of the 27th. The temperature starting dropping quickly, and storm clouds began to move in. They decided to seek shelter and Leowyn remembered a nearby cave she had seen on previous journeys. She gleefully pointed out that it seemed ripe for exploration, which some of the fellowship found a little ominous.  As they approached the cave, they walked up an extremely old path. While it was still sound, the stones marking the side ...

Moldy Oldies The players wanted to continue the MERP game, so I ran another session on Sunday . This session saw them going back into the vault of Osgiliath to "liberate" some of the magic items there for their use in the service of King Aragorn. At the end of that session, they decided they wanted to take on the whole campaign and started making their plans to leave Minas Tirith and travel to the North. Tekumel I managed to get another session of my weekly Tekumel game in on Monday night (I promise that those recaps will get caught up with the game over the next few weeks). I posted a recap of the first part of the campaign , and the next part of my series about getting started as a Tekumel GM. Stars Without Number The Stars Without Number campaign continued and the team started on the first section of the classic Traveller module "The Annic Nova". I am looking forward to seeing how they handle that. Other Gaming I read through the Ha...

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar. 4 Lothron F.A. 15 At the end of the last session, the characters decided that they wanted to go back into the vault in Osgiliath to retrieve some of the magical items they saw there. They discussed this with the High Seer, who cautioned that magical items always have a bit of the will of their creator and notable previous owners in them and can be a corrupting influence. The characters indicated that they understood this, but thought they would need all the help they could get if they were going to take on the quest to explore the other vaults. The High Seer agreed to spend the time that Dirdan was resting to heal his leg researching the inventory list to see if there was anything he could determine would be safe. 19 Lothron F.A. 15 Once Dirdan was fully mobile again, they returned to the High Seers chambers to discuss the possibility of taking some of the magical items from...

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar. The players decided to raid Spiros's compound to free Kasama. They quietly moved out of the camp and circled around to a high tower on the same side of the camp as Spiros's compound. Derby Pope climbed the tower and could see over the wall that the small compound consisted of two buildings, two small shed-like outbuildings, and a heli-pad. One of the outbuildings seemed to be an outhouse. After he reported back in, they slipped around the back of the compound and scaled the rear wall. They decided that the larger outbuilding was the holding cell that Marcus had described and made their way to the door. They took out the guard standing by the door and GB used his teleport ability to phase into the outbuilding while Derby Pope opened the door. As soon as the door was opened, an alarm went off. GB pulled Kasama out of view behind the outbuilding as Pope pulled himself up onto the roo...

  Since I wrote this, new information has come to light about M.A.R. Barker, he was a Nazi . I no longer support playing Tekumel. I will keep these posts up, because I believe in preserving the past, even when it is ugly. There may be a time when sufficient time has passed that Tekumel has been examined and can be played in the right context (like Lovecraft), but that time is probably very far in the future. Due to the intricate interconnections between the setting, the religious themes in it, and the non-western derivations of its societies, I believe that a thorough examination by people far smarter than me will be required before I am comfortable that I understand which parts of it might be harmful. Like many, I was drawn to Tekumel because it seemed more open than other fantasy worlds, with greater representation of the diversity of humanity. Obviously, it is horrifying to learn this. I encourage others to seek out other fantasy worlds that have involved people o...

As I have mentioned in the past, I am preparing a Harn campaign as party of my Moldy Oldies project. Originally my plan was to run a very short MERP game (a session of two) and then move on to other games that have sat on the shelf for too long. Harn was actually the only one that I had any plan to try for something long term. The MERP game has proved popular with the players (and me), so it will continue for a while. This is not a problem, as it gives me more time to do Harn justice in my game prep. Not only do I plan to run it for a while, I also plan to make it part of my con efforts along with Tekumel, Cypher System, and Castles & Crusades. My hope would be to be at full speed with it by GaryCon next year where I would endeavor to run three to four sessions of each. When I did my first pass research for Harn, the module "On the Edge" caught my eye. I like kicking campaigns off with a mystery adventure because it forces the players to engage with the setting in ...

Empire of the Petal Throne   Since I wrote this, new information has come to light about M.A.R. Barker, he was a Nazi . I no longer support playing Tekumel. I will keep these posts up, because I believe in preserving the past, even when it is ugly. There may be a time when sufficient time has passed that Tekumel has been examined and can be played in the right context (like Lovecraft), but that time is probably very far in the future. Due to the intricate interconnections between the setting, the religious themes in it, and the non-western derivations of its societies, I believe that a thorough examination by people far smarter than me will be required before I am comfortable that I understand which parts of it might be harmful. Like many, I was drawn to Tekumel because it seemed more open than other fantasy worlds, with greater representation of the diversity of humanity. Obviously, it is horrifying to learn this. I encourage others to seek out other fantasy wor...

  Since I wrote this, new information has come to light about M.A.R. Barker, he was a Nazi . I no longer support playing Tekumel. I will keep these posts up, because I believe in preserving the past, even when it is ugly. There may be a time when sufficient time has passed that Tekumel has been examined and can be played in the right context (like Lovecraft), but that time is probably very far in the future. Due to the intricate interconnections between the setting, the religious themes in it, and the non-western derivations of its societies, I believe that a thorough examination by people far smarter than me will be required before I am comfortable that I understand which parts of it might be harmful. Like many, I was drawn to Tekumel because it seemed more open than other fantasy worlds, with greater representation of the diversity of humanity. Obviously, it is horrifying to learn this. I encourage others to seek out other fantasy worlds that have involved peop...

My friend, and occasional player in my Tekumal game, Zach has a post up on his blog , Zenopus Archives, about the never-published Tekumel board game, Quest. There are links to some informative articles and some cool art.

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar. Sgt. Derby Pope reached out to his contact, Kri'ish, in order to arrange transportation off the ringworld. They met Kri'ish in the spaceport, just across the alien exclusion line. All nonhumans had been excluded from entering the ringworld for several years. Aliens were permitted to land on the ringworld aboard a vessel, but their access was limited to portions of the spaceport that were outside the alien exclusion line. Kri'ish, a Pecha, was tall, slender, mantis-like, with four arms. He nervously awaited the (former) Imperial Terminators, constantly aware that they, or someone like them, had ejected his family from the ringworld just a few years ago. Following his exile from Dar Janix, Kri'ish and his family made their way to Reynold's World. Its fortunes had followed those of the Empire, the former resort world and playground for the rich had decayed over the centur...

Moldy Oldies I started the week off with Sunday's MERP game. This session finished off my original, planned adventure. As the players seem to enjoy MERP, we will be continuing the game. This is not really a problem, since I designed the adventure to have a natural expansion path. They decided that they want to raid the vault again this week, so I spent some time pulling together some encounters to facilitate that. I also completed the planning stages for the follow on adventure, which I suspect will be overland travel. Fortunately, MERP has a pretty good baked-in system for this. Because my MERP planning needs were light, I managed to get a significant amount of research done for my over-the-horizon Moldy Oldie, Harn. I selected a mod that I plan to use as the first adventure, and along with it the appropriate setting modules. I also lucked in to a good sized lot of Harn stuff on eBay for a reasonable price. Like, Tekumel, Harn has very dense lore (more dense in somew...

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar. Escape from the Ring A few weeks ago, I started my second Stars Without Number campaign on Roll20. I will be playing with the same group as the first campaign. I thoroughly enjoyed running the last campaign, it started in September of 2018 and ran until February of this year.  The campaign takes place in the final days of the Humanspace Empire. The jump gates have been collapsing for centuries, cutting more and more systems off from the rest of the galaxy. The Empire, if it can still be called that, holds only the Dar Janix system, the historical seat of the Empire. Even in this system, only the Ringworld Dar Janix remains completely under their power. The other worlds and asteroids in the system do little more than pay lip service to their authority.  Only one jump gate still functions to allow interstellar travel out of the system, and there is constant fear that it too ...

I bought a lot of Harn material from ebay. Inside one of the books, I found an interesting letter.

  Since I wrote this, new information has come to light about M.A.R. Barker, he was a Nazi . I no longer support playing Tekumel. I will keep these posts up, because I believe in preserving the past, even when it is ugly. There may be a time when sufficient time has passed that Tekumel has been examined and can be played in the right context (like Lovecraft), but that time is probably very far in the future. Due to the intricate interconnections between the setting, the religious themes in it, and the non-western derivations of its societies, I believe that a thorough examination by people far smarter than me will be required before I am comfortable that I understand which parts of it might be harmful. Like many, I was drawn to Tekumel because it seemed more open than other fantasy worlds, with greater representation of the diversity of humanity. Obviously, it is horrifying to learn this. I encourage others to seek out other fantasy worlds that have involved peopl...

We met again this weekend to continue our MERP Fourth Age game. You can read a recap of the first session here . In addition to my recaps, a recap by one of my players can be found on his blog, 3PoS . We had a couple of players that could not make it this weekend, but we added a new player. The group make up was: Banrim: Dwarf Animist Dirdan: Sindar Elf Mage Tulip Mugwort: Fallowhide Hobbit Burglar Sindawe: Haradan Bard Elyanis: Half-Elf Ranger