Circle of Dar Janix

This is Part V in a series on how to get started as a GM in the world of Tekumel. Part I was on jumping right in, Part II was on picking a rule set, Part III was on some novels that you can use for inspiration, and Part V was on the Excellent Traveling Volume 'zine.  

I apologize for this entry coming a day late. I have been dealing with a water leak in our basement, where my office is. Since I use that office to work from home, as well as write this blog, I needed to address that first. I didn't even get to play Tekumel or MERP last week (although we did manage to get a Tekumel session in on Monday this week).

This is going to be a fairly short entry anyway, as it deals with the podcast, "The Hall of Blue Illumination". The Hall is hosted by Victor Raymond (of the Tekumel Foundation), James Maliszewski (of Grognardia and The Excellent Traveling Volume), and Scott (whose last name I cannot seem to find anywhere).

This podcast has episodes on a wide variety of interes…

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.
10 Norui F.A. 15
The fellowship had asked the Stablemaster if they could get a set of backup horses to allow them to travel to Tharbad faster. The Stablemaster returned and told them that not only had king Eomer allowed their request for more horses after learning of Sindawe's help, but he had asked to meet them personally.
During their meeting, Eomer confided in them that he hoped that they could help him with another problem. He was having issues arising out of a feud between Cenril, the Marshal of Westfold, and Feoril, the Warden of the Gap. Three years ago, Aerol, Cenril's cousin, killed Teomod, Feoril's nephew, in a fight over a horse. Cenril, always stubborn and cheap, refused to pay weregild to Teomod's family, claiming that Teomod had started the fight. Feoril, always one to hold a grudge, caught Aerol in the open right before last winter set in, and had him killed. There …

The spent some time exploring the various workshops, but decided that there was nothing here they could use immediately. After examining the elevator, they started to piece together that the symbols might be numbers, and developed a plan to determine what the numbers might be. They decided not to risk experimenting yet and that it would be safer to move between floors using the ladders and hatches.

Tom Major (I know) decided to try the hatch going up, reasoning that it led outside of the ship. He was correct, the hatch led to a manual airlock which he entered. When he emerged from the other side, he found himself in a small open area inside of the folded solar collector. He was able to identify it and its function though. He reasoned that, since the ship seemed to have engines on the nacelles, that it was not a solar sail for propulsion, but a solar collector for energy. He further reasoned that it must be to charge the jump drive since the engines did not seem to be of a type that c…

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of being a player in a one-shot set in Harn's Orbaal region using the  Apocalypse World rules. While I have been reading up on Harn for a while, this was my first chance to actually participate in a game set on Harn. I have never played core Apocalypse World before, but I have run Dungeon World several times, so I was familiar with the basic rules concepts.

The characters were:

Taebaal: the Valkhar
Bjaal: One of Taebaal's trusted men
Molvid: An extremely mercenary viking (Me)
Waede: A Jorin rebel against the Ivinian occupiers
Fester: A healer
Mycroft: An orphan who seems connected to Waede

Molvid's adventure started while out on a boar hunt with Taebaal and Bjaal. While walking in the woods, he came across Waede, Fester, and Mycroft standing over a dead body laying in the snow. They were armed and there was a crate of swords next to the body.

When questioned, they told Molvid that the dead man had jumped them and that the crate full of sw…

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.

The next portion of the campaign is an adaptation of the classic Traveller adventure "ANNIC NOVA". This is one of the oldest Traveller adventures, having appeared in the Journal of Travellers' Aid Society Issue 1. I have used the ANNIC NOVA ship several times over the years, both as written and in heavily modified forms. I was inspired to use it again after watching Seth Skorkowsky's excellent video on the adventure. He provides some great suggested changes and some additional handouts. I highly suggest checking out any of his videos. He will be coming up more on this blog, especially when we get to Call of Cthulhu. 

The characters made their way to Hermanville, which turned out to be much smaller than they were expecting. They decided to stay the night there before making their way to the nearest spaceport, Goldenwood. They asked around town about finding work and were directed t…

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 door's log…