[Scene Snapshots] Smoke on the Water

If you run some sort of Fantasy Game and you'd like a nasty little random encounter/story thread, why not give this a try? (Stats provided for Dungeon World)
When does this Scene take place?: The Party is travelling by ship either at the start or near the end of an adventure.

Who are the Antagonists?: A Great White Selachii (Shark Man) and a shoal of his Remoran servants.

Why should the Party Care?: Because they are about to be Boarded.

The Party are travelling on a ship to (or from) adventure when off in the distance they spot another ship... and fire in the sky. The player ships crew (There should be enough to sail a ship, but not enough that they can suffer losses and safely continue their journey) attempt to signal the other ship.

Players attempting to Discern Reality at this point might notice a few silvery glimmers fall off of the ship into the water with small splashes and no crew on the other. Players who ask 'What is about to happen' might suspect some sort of ambush ahead.

Wether the players attempt to avoid the ship or get close to it, the only warning of what is about to happen is a crewmember (or party member) spotting silvery shapes moving below the waves...

Followed by the ship hitting something.

That something is a Great White Selachii. Unlucky for the players, it's still hungry.

There will be enough Remorans to keep the entire crew busy in the background, the only number that's important are the ones fighting the players. You wont need many because the Selachii is going to be a significant danger for the players - use the Remorans to make hard moves against players who fail rolls.

The Deep Lungs quality is to represent that the Beast-Men are having to essentially hold their breath to fight the players, and whilst they can stay above water for a good 5 minutes before needing a quick dunk to refresh, they can't stay out indefinitely without beginning to suffocate.

Play up on some of the tropes of sharks when describing the Selachii's actions - have him charge towards a player with his eyes rolled back into his skull and if the players dodge, have him go straight through the guard rail in an explosion of splinters and into the water. If a player gets seriously injured and someone fails a roll, have the Selachii go into a horrific blood frenzy where it loses its caution and is only interested in killing.

Don't be afraid to have him bulldoze someone into the water and attempt to drown them.

All whilst this is happening, describe how in the background the Remorans are Injuring/Killing the crew and, in turn are being injured and killed. When all the Remorans fighting the players die, have the ones in the background driven off victoriously by the crew.

When the Selachii dies, have the Remorans attempt to abandon ship quickly, dragging corpses with them.

And then, when everything has gone quiet and the characters have had a chance to catch their breath, point out that the ship is about to run aground on a tropical island or in known but dangerous territory.
Who knows. They might even find out why the Selachii have suddenly started attacking ships.

Does Sir David Bowie have only one suit of funky Platemail...

... Or does he have a couple of Ch-ch-ch-changes?

A few things will be changing about the blog over the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed i'll be able to keep it up.

Firstly: I'm going to try to be posting more art. Cheifly stuff I have drawn, but also more stuff that's indicative of what i'm talking about to help set the mood.

Much of the Art that isn't mine isn't likely to have a name attached to it unless the artist has put it on the artwork there...

(This one totally is mine, though)

Secondly: Little things that people can snag for various games, like random encounters, story seeds to spark things off and NPC statblocks and descriptions that can be used for various games.

Y'know... actual content.

Thirdly: Reviews, Session Notes, ETC.

Finally: More craft stuff. Whilst we're in the process of getting ready to move, we've not been doing a lot but I have plans.

(Oh such plans I have!)

Alien Hunter X: The Insurgent

A new class for Alien Hunter X...

The Insurgent

The Insurgent has an entirely different play style to the Soldier, whilst retaining a fairly similar front-line fighter feel to it. Instead of military expertise, the Insurgent fights with cunning and the occasional vicious ambush.

Just a quickie... (Ooh Err?)

Thought I might share today's project, a Military Badge for a fictional military group, the Constantinus Military College. I'm currently waiting for a quote from an badge embroidering group about how much it'll cost me to have a limited run produced.

I'm honestly fairly chuffed about the design, its a solid, distinct and borderline professional looking piece!

Alien Hunter X: The Soldier (Finalised Sheet)

Yeah, that's right. I'm still alive.

My previous post **Coughsixmonthago** had a preview of the Soldier sheet!

After getting back into wanting to get this done, I finished off the sheet to a level that's ready to be play tested.

The Soldier Playbook

Tonight, i'm going to see about grabbing a bunch of people for some IRC gaming to playtest the current pile of nonsense I have in front of me.

I also tidied up some of the other stuff I've done, which you can find at the following links...

Mission Selection

Basic Moves

I... I think that without any long term plans for the moment that's all a player needs for the game, since it is a cribbing of the Powered by the Apocalypse system.

Now I just need to work out some sample invaders and I basically have all I need to...

Alien Hunter X: The Soldier Class Sneak Preview

Heres a little look at the start of the basic class "The Soldier."

The Soldier

Unlike most Powered by the Apocalypse games, theres no planned limitations on how many people can play any particular class. The soldier is your average X-Com Rookie!

Alien Hunter X: Missions

One thing that has always stuck in my mind when I've been thinking about AHX: I want a way to replicate the mission select options from the newer X-com games.

For those of you who havn't played, it roughly boils down to the following concepts:

Alien Abductions - Where the aliens are attempting to kidnap people and you have to kill/capture them
Terror Missions - Where the aliens are causing widespread destruction and mayhem in a small town in order to prove how useless the organization is at stopping them (to try and cut funding).
Landed UFO - Where the aliens are conducting some sort of mission of their own and the Organisation has snuck up on them.
Crashed UFO - Where the aliens were going to conduct some sort of mission of their own and The Organisation snuck up on them with high yield rockets fired from fighter craft.
Base Assault - The Organisation raids an Alien Base.
Base Defence - The Organisation's base is raided!
Target Escort/Extraction - An invididual of high importance needs to be Transported/Collected for The Organisation's purposes.
Asset Recovery - An object/supplies important to The Organisation need to be recovered.
Bomb Disposal - The aliens have planted a bomb in a built up settlement - you must disable it.
Covert Mission - A covert operative has infiltrated an opposing organisation and must now be extracted

So, in light of this - At the beginning of the game session, the players should work together to answer the following:

The Organisation have discovered alien activity... (Choose One)
The Invaders have landed troops in a town and are abducting them for unknown purposes
The Invaders have landed troops in a capital city and are wreaking bloody havoc
The Invaders have landed a ship for an unknown purpose - We should capitalise on the opportunity
Our fighters have splashed an enemy ship - We should capitalise on the opportunity
We've discovered an Invader stronghold - We cannot allow it to grow unimpeded
A high profile civilian is believed to be in danger and we need to make sure they don't get attacked
An important civilian is in hiding during an Invader attack - We must extract them immediately.
Civilians have reported strange sightings in their local area. We should investigate.

The operation takes place in...
The local civilian response to The Organisation is...
The Operations name is...

Once The Squad has decided on which troops they are taking and which equipment, the Alien Commander should answer the following:

But when they got there, there was an unexpected complication... (Choose One)
A new type of Invader was present and it was incredibly dangerous
A new type of Invader was present and it was capable of hiding itself
A new type of Invader was present and it had a strange power
The Invaders had planted a bomb at the mission site and it was soon to go off
The Invaders were merely feinting and had an entirely different reason for their activity

So for example, the players might choose:
The Organisation has discovered alien activity... The Invaders have landed a ship for an unknown purpose - We should capitalise on the opportunity
The Operation takes place in London
The local response to The Organisation is Desperate
The Operation's name is Merciful Pelican

So yeah!