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

Silverlode on the Risusiverse

Silverlode 1908 now has a vacation home on the Risusiverse. The new site is a slightly revised and stripped-down version suitable for people who are more interested in stealing the setting for their own use. Silverlode 1908 will always have a home on the Risus Monkey and that site is due for some revisions soon.

Introducing Tornado Kate

While digging around for "Dances With Werewolves" notes that seemed to have gone missing (they should be around here somewhere), I stumbled across a player's original proposal for a Silverlode character, back when it was going to be GURPS Silverlode 1876. Well, since I really enjoyed the character concept I thought I'd convert her to Risus and post her on the site. Her name's Tornado Kate, and she's the rootin'ist, tootin'ist werewolf hunter in the west. I don't have an image for her, but the player informed me that she should be voiced by Joan Cusack (from Toy Story 2).

Gameday Quotes

Thanks to NCSUCodeMonkey (who played Lionel Joseph) for writing down the following quotes:

Nakia (playing Arturo): "Exploding vampire midget clowns killed my character!"

Lionel Joseph: "Never underestimate the powers of a drunk." (refering to Roger Zane)

Wild Jack Carson:"Domo Arigoto..."
Max-23: "...Mr. Roboto".

Wild Jack: "Dark energy makes everthing better."

Lionel: "We need to keep her a VIRGIN. I know that word doesn't mean anything to you."
Roger: "Most don't!"

Gameday Report

I'm pleased to report that this weekend's NC Gameday episode of Silverlode 1908: Dances With Werewolves went very well. I had a group of five excellent players and everyone really got into the spirit of Weird West Risus adventure. Of the available characters, Arturo Ramirez, Wild Jack Carson, Lionel Joseph, Roger Zane, and Max-23 were selected. All were played with style and panache.

Now that Dances With Werewolves is out of the rotation (so to speak), I can finally post a summary of what happened in both the official campaign version and the Gameday (alternate universe?) version. The official version is mostly written and just needs editing. The Gameday version might be a little shorter since I wasn't taking as many notes during the session and thus will have to be written completely from memory. Alas, I'm also hoping that somebody wrote down at least few of the many hilarious quotes.

Gameday Characters

For this weekend's Game Day session of Silverlode: Dances with Werewolves, players will have their choice of the following characters:

Mathilda Yvonne Hattrack
A charming adventuress and intprepid photographer of nature (who just happens to be a secret government agent).

Jackson "Wild Jack" Carson
A world-famous two-fisted archaeologist and master of dangerous occult rituals.

J. Robert Hinkley
An ethusiastic and unflappable student of Science! with a near-endless supply of ACME gadgets.

Lionel Joseph
A Buffalo Soldier who wanders the land on his unusually intelligent cavalry horse, accompanied by the ghost of a fallen comrade.

Boris Makarov
An aging Dwarven Mad Scientist and Professor of Engineering, long since retired from the Imperial Russian Army.

Max-23
A steam-powered Autonomous Mechanical Marvel!

Roger Zane
A scruffy and maloderous prospector who has "seen strange sights".

The following character is already spoken for (by Nakia):

Arturo Sebastian Ramirez
A gunslinging musician and Hunter of the Dead.

Note that while most of these characters are based on existing characters from the regular campaign, certain modifications have been made to make them more suitable for convention play.

Today's Character

Ack, I have been busy of late. In addition to all my regular obligations to work and family, I've been working on getting a face-to-face Dragonspire campaign organized, a convention Silverlode adventure planned, and episode of Slaying Solomon. I've been neglecting the new Risus webzine, so I need to spend time on that as well. All this has made getting entries up this blog tough. But I'm persisting. Today's item is a new Silverlode character, named Alejandro Bardesano. He hasn't actually shown up in play yet, but he's been hiding in the background for a while. I'm curious to see if any of my regular players recognize the character that he is based on.