You're My Inspiration

Once a month or so I head to my local used book store. I love a good used book store.  They are great place to find old gaming manuals. Also the selection of fantasy and sci-fi novels are always solid. A few of my better scores include Conan, Tarzan and Princess of Mars novels.  

On my last trip, I came across an old mass market Elrick paperback novel. I hadn’t read any Moorcock but his work has come highly recommended so I figured what the hell.  The cover art was dope and the description seemed solid enough, so I bought it. Boy, am I glad I did. The book entitled “The Stormbringer,” is a collection of short stories of Elrick’s adventures.  If you aren’t familiar, Elrick is an albino elf that wields an evil runesword. Man, it’s soooooooo good.  

 I gotta tell ya, nothing gets my role playing engine running like reading great sword and sorcery.  My dicehand starts shaking and my mind begins to race. How my character would react to the situations presented in the stories? I ponder the stats of Elrick’s companions as well as the evil do-ers.  Man, I gotta play!!!

    

Where does it come from for you as a GM or as a player while creating a new PC?  Maybe you’re favorite film character, a novel perhaps? Share your inspiration here with us! 

Starfinder Campaign: The Defector part 2

The ship fights off the space goblin threat and continues uninterrupted to the rendezvous point. Another ship appears out of a nebula. This new ship is a light freighter and hails the PC’s ship. The two ships dock and the exchange is made. Willian orders his crew to the cargo hold. Once here we meet Obiang, the Vesk General and his entourage* (as well as any Vesk PC’s in the party. These PC’s are loyal to the general.)  Willain informs the PCs they are to accompany Obiang safely to the Station where he will brief the core world’s leaders and military personal on the info he knows regarding the Vesk supply chain, troop movements and other info.

Our ship is back underway heading toward the Station. While the vessel is navigating through the Diaspora , it is discovered by a Vesk battle cruiser. The Vesk ship hails the freighter and demands the ship’s manifest. Willian isn’t on the bridge ATM, so the PC captain will be forced to roll DC checks, which will fail, it’s just a matter of how bad. If the DC rolls are awful, the Vesk ship will open fire on the freighter. If the rolls go better, the Vesk will demand to send over an away team to inspect the vessel.    

No matter the outcome, be it inspection or a quick fire fight, Willian orders the PC’s to get Obiang on board an escape pod to avoid capture by the Vesk. As the escape pod drifts into the Diaspora, the freighter explodes, destroyed by the Vesk cruiser.     

My Starfinder Campaign: The Defector part 1

I thought this would be a cool place to brainstorm my Starfinder campaign. If you guys and gals dig it feel free to use the idea for your game. If you have questions or recommendations for the events feel free to use the comments section.

This campaign takes place during the Vesk invasion outlined in the players guide. The jist of the campaign is:  A Vesk general is defecting and it the PC’s job to deliver the defector safely to the station. (If  a member of your party that is playing a Vesk, no worries. I’ve got that covered.)

The opening setting is a freighter speeding through the galaxy. The PC’s are serving as the bride crew of a freighter commanded by Captian Willian. (I am not going to assign a race/class/theme for this or any of the NPC’s here on the blog. My thinking here is I would leave those decisions up to the individual GMs.)  The crew is aware they are on a mission that is militarist in nature though none are aware of the particulars. Willian orders the pilot to a heading for a rendezvous with another vessel.

During their travels to the rendezvous point, the ship is attacked by Space Goblins junkships.

This seems like a good place to end. Next week I will continue on with the campaign as well as providing stats for your freighter and the junkships.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts and subscribe. 

Dave Kizzia of Monkey Fun Studios

I have been singing the praises of Spirit of 77 since I started this blog about a month ago. I recently interviewed Dave Kizzia, co writer of the game on a podcast I co-host called Word Bros. I figured since there is a bit of cross over, you might want to take a look. If you've ever wanted to write your own game or have an interest in the process, give this a watch.

How Did Your Games Go This Weekend?

How did the rolls treat you this weekend? Did you pass all of your skill checks? Were you able to defeat all of your blood thirsty enemies? Have you started your Starfinder campaign? I would love to hear all about your games!

As for my weekend, Our 4th edition party was betrayed by a clan of Zain-Kin (ape men) to a powerful dragon that rules a lost city. A good old fashioned "sense motive" check might've helped...But no! 4th edition only has something called "insight." Insight??!? The hell does that mean? Thanks for nothing, 4th edition.

Tonight, we head back to Sea Side City for some further adventures in our Spirit of 77 campaign. Looking forward to all that madness!

So Many Games So Little Time

As for this very instant, I am currently playing in three games. I've compiled a list. See below.

4th Edition D&D
Pathfinder
Spirit of 77.

I'm planning to add a Stafinder game (or two) to this already crowded list. Some of you may be reading this thinking "Three games isn't that many! What is this dude talking about!" Factor in I am a stay at home father of two, a good husband, a professional comic book writer, a podcaster and now the author of this blog...What I'm saying is my time is I got a lot of stuff going on, but I want to play more games!I want to play ALL THE GAMES! These titles I find especially interesting!

Hollow Earth Expeditions: All the old school pulp action in on game! Sign me up. Hollow Earth was one of the books I presented to the Pathfinder group. We ended up going with Spirit of 77, which if you've read previous posts is a wonderful game. That being said, I'd being lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed in the group's choice. I LOVE the pulp genre. The character classes are ripped from the pages of King Solomon's Mines, The Lost World and A Princess of Mars. The settings presented for adventuring  range from the bustling concrete jungle of New York City to the actual uncharted jungles of Central and South America. I played a mod at GenCon and I was hooked.

Tales From the Loop: Speaking of mods at GenCon, I also spent a bit of time in the world presented in Tales from the Loop and I was impressed. Think Stand by Me meets District 9 but with robots. TFtL follows a group of pre-teen 80's kids exploring the strangeness of their town, which happens to reside in the shadow of a large particle accelerator. Pre-teens and large experimental science, what could go wrong?


Star Trek Adventures: I admit. I am a huge Star Trek fan. So much so I even gave The Orville a shot. Being a kid of the late 80's early 90's, my favorite era of Trek is TNG and DS9. This game lives and breathes in the Berman/Braga Trek universe. Want to play a Bajoran tactical officer fighting off the Dominion? Or maybe a Klingon security officer chasing a Ferengi arms dealer? Than this is the game for you. And me! Let me play too!

There you have it. My wish list of games. Tell me, what games are out there that you want to play but just can't seem to find the time?

A Starfinder Poem.

Two word.
Space Minotaur.
Let's make it happen.