Lair of the Frog King

One of the first Mythic Game Master Emulator adventures that I attempted was a follow-up to an example combat that I wrote for Silverlode 1908. Specifically, it involved the continuation of the story of J. Robert Hinkley and Sylvia Franco as they infiltrate "The Lair of the Frog King" (presumably to acquire some kind of artifact). Unfortunately, I misplaced the files and wasn't able to complete the adventure... until now.

I've been looking for a good story that I could use to play-test Tom Pigeon's proposed rule variants (detailed in this post at the Mythic Yahoo Group), as well as a good scenario to post here on the Risus Monkey. Instead of trying to reconstruct the missing files, I'm going to pick up the story in medias res, with Hinkley's rattled brain*  accounting for my imperfect memory of the story thus far.

* The result of a severe beating at the hands of the Frog Men as well as his Hook.

***

Character: J. Robert Hinkley

J. Robert Hinkley
Clichés: Compulsive Consumer of "Mail Order Miracles" (3), Nice Young Man Who Is Going Places (3), Unflappable Self-Improvement Success Story (3), Teen-Age Casanova (2).
Lucky Shots: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Hook: Short-attention span
Tools: Kayak (discarded). Cheap revolver. Big knife. A mail-order map of the Lair of the Frog King, as well as at small collection of unspecified gadgets.

Risus Conventions: Hinkley was created as a 10 die Risus character. Hooks, Tales, and Lucky Shots were employed. During play, I'll use the rules described on the Silverlode 1908 site, along with Critical Hits (doubling the opponent's roll means 1d6 dice of damage).

Mythic Conventions: Since we are picking up the story in medias res, I'll be seeding the Character List and Thread List ahead of time (some will reflect events known to have happened off-screen). The theme will be Action, so the Action events table from Mythic Variations will be used. The minimum Chaos/Action Factor is 5.

Additionally, I'll be play-testing Tom Pigeon's 2d10 Fate Chart as well as the "pressure-valve" method for determining how the Chaos/Action Factor changes. I don't think this blog is the proper forum for play-testing these rules specifically, so I'll move any discussion of these to the Mythic Yahoo Group instead. Again, please see this post for details on the new rules variants.

The Story Thus Far: The events of the sample combat on the Silverlode 1908 site are assumed to have happened exactly as described. After that, Hinkley and Sylvia were immediately attacked by a large party of Frog Men guards. Hinkley was knocked out and captured while Sylvia was going berserk as a werewolf. Hinkley was brought to the Hall of the Frog King himself, who was found to be a week leader dominated by the immortal occultist Heinrich Von Loaph and his cohort of mercenary archaeologists.

Off camera, Sylvia interrogated a captured From Man and discovered that his beloved (the Frog King's daughter) was being used as a hostage to dominate the King. The Frog Man promised to assist in rescuing Hinkley if Sylvia would help rescue the Frog Princess first.

Expected Adventures: The point of the adventure for Hinkley is to a) escape, b) find Sylvia, c) recover whatever artifact Sylvia is looking for, and d) return to the material world.

Character List
1. Sylvia Franco
2. Frog Men
3. Frog Romeo
4. From Princess
5. Frog King
6. Heinrich Von Loaph (Immortal Occultist)
7. Eva Schneider (Von Loaph's Matronly Henchwoman)
8. Mercenaries

Thread List
1. Escape
2. Find Sylvia
3. (Save the Frog King/Princess)
4. Acquire the "Artifact"
5. Return to the material world

Daily Monster: Skeletons

In what I hope will become a semi-regular feature, today I will take a classic D&D monster and give it the Risus treatment. Given that my attention is focused on my monster-themed Pirates vs. Vampire game, I'm going to start things off with the lowly but time-honored skeleton.

[SPOILER WARNING: Players of Pirates vs. Vampires may want to skip this post until our current adventure has been concluded]

Skeletal Remnant: Disembodied Skeletal Appendage (1). 

Notes: Not really a threat in combat, unless it attacks an already weakened character. Useful mainly for establishing a mood by making the players roll dice. Such minor threats can often be represented by a simple TN roll. Failure at the TN roll would still mean the monster was destroyed but that the character was slightly wounded or lost some valuable resource in the process (or simply looked clumsy while doing it).

Skeleton Minion: Mindless Skeletal Fighter (2).

Notes: Like all skeletons, they require bashing or at least swung weapons to be engaged properly. Characters attacking skeletons with stabbing or piercing weapons would operate at half-dice for lacking proper tools. Lacking minds, skeletons are immune to mental attacks, unless those "attacks" are dirty tricks or attempts to outsmart them in some way (in which case the skeletons are going to be a real pushovers).

Skeleton Warrior: Tenacious But Mindless Skeletal Fighter (3).

Notes: A good foe to throw individually at competent fighters in the party.

Skeletal Champion: Agile Skeletal Fighter (4), Elite Undead Swordsman (5)

Notes: A worthy foe that should be able to avoid the Risus death spiral for a while and serve as a very challenging opponent for either a single highly-skilled combatant or a team of slightly less skilled fighters.

Minotaur Skeleton: Hulking Skeletal Bruiser (7), Undead Minotaur (5).

Notes: A great example of a tough boss fight where the party members will almost certainly have to team up or employ special resources or tactics. An alternate approach would be to use Funky Dice: Hulking Skeletal Bruiser (4d10), Undead Minotaur (3d10).

Bone Golem: Well-preserved and Reinforced Skeleton Animated With Kabbalistic Magic (3), Semi-Intelligent Automaton (3).

Notes: A potential Sidekick for player character Kabbalists (inspired by a discussion we had during play last Sunday).

Gang of 3 Skeletons: Grunt Squad of Skeletal Minions (3).
Squad of 10 Skeletons: Grunt Squad of Skeletal Minions (4).
Horde of 30 Skeletons: Grunt Squad of Skeletal Minions (5).

Notes: Illustrates my *rough* rule-of-thumb on handling Grunt Squads: I generally add a die for every threefold increase in numbers. Usually, I don't even bother specifying the exact number and resort to generalities (handful, dozen, dozens) instead.

Pirates vs. Vampires: Alaric Anchorman

I've had a couple of insanely busy days and I have several lengthy posts that require a little more thought before uploading them. In the mean time, I present one of the players characters from my Sunday Pirates vs. Vampire game...

Alaric Anchorman
Description: Think Jean Luc Picard meets Jesse Ventura: bald and bold with a strong passion for military might and discipline. Unlike Piccard, Anchorman is ready to mix-it-up with his crew. He uses persuasion to achieve discipline, not the whip (i.e. not like Capt. Bligh of "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame)

Cliches: Swashbuckling Lieutenant of the Royal Navy (4); Extreme Conditions Survivalist (3); Entertainer Specializing in Song and Accordion (3).

Hook: Strict disciplinarian (may snap or operate at a penalty when discipline fails). He also has a sense of duty to his crew.

Languages: English and Spanish.

Lore: Versed heavily in Royal Navy doctrine. After the Royal Navy comes a strong dedication to God. Having seen superstition nearly turn to mutiny, he is very opposed to the occult.

Tools & Gear: Multiple rapiers, several dozen pistols, a dozen finely crafted rifles, several throwing knives, two waterproof cases for his prized weapons. He also has access to various ship-board equipment.

History: Alaric Anchorman was born in Antigua to a very large family that produced tobacco, ginger, and indigo. He sailed on several trips to England and became obsessed with the sea. His family found it tough to control him, so the Royal Navy was deemed a good place to introduce order & discipline into an unruly child. His uncle, Capt. Allan Anchorman, is a captain of a Royal Navy sloop and oversaw Alaric's upbringing. At 12 he was a midshipman. At 17, he passed his lieutenant's exam. He has been eagerly awaiting the chance to command his own vessel. He is adapt sailor and fighter. He runs a tight
ship, but is respected by his crews.

Weekend Update

Word of advice to GMs who are also parents: do not schedule back-to-back games following hours of wrangling attention-starved two and four-year-olds. This is especially true if you are sleep-deprived and don't have your adventures totally mapped out ahead of time. Young children can easily suck the creative juices right out of you and therefor make it very difficult to come up with interesting encounters on the fly.

I learned this yesterday while attempting to run my latest Gurps 4e Knights of the Astral Sea session followed by out inaugural of Pirates vs. Vampire online Risus game. It's not that Knights was a bad session. I think we had a good time and there were definitely some memorable moments (including a running joke about owlbears). But I had been running this game for about six months with the express purpose of getting to the events of this session. I just don't think I lived up to my own hype.

A brief digressions...

Knights of the Astral Sea is a steampunk/pulp/dimension-hopping game inspired by such varied sources as the recently re-imagined Battlestar Galactica and Joss Whedon's Firefly. On a alternate 1930s-era earth in which the Great Powers have discovered inter-dimensional travel via specially modified airships, an off-world enemy initiates a cataclysmic ritual that brings about the end of the world. The player characters, lead by a swashbuckling cheese tycoon, manage to escape the devastation and find themselves racing through the Multiverse in attempt to regroup with survivors of their Homeworld empire.

Yesterday, my players finally reached the rallying point for Homeworld's survivors. It was a key moment in the campaign and I can't help but think that I fumbled the ball a little bit. There just wasn't enough tension or conflict. Hopefully, it's not too late to make up for it. Next time we play, the players will be venturing into Faerie to find the Once And Future Queen (who should then unite the people, take the fight to their enemies, and build a glorious new society in exile).

Back to Risus...

Last night's Pirates vs. Vampires game was really about testing the waters. Two other players showed  up and we played with full video for the first time. Not much to say about the session as we were mainly trying to relearn how to do play-by-chat. We did have fun, though, and I am definitely looking forward to beginning the game in earnest next week.