Crystals of Chaos [session report #8]

 

Before diving right into this session report for the 2023 Cha'alt campaign known as Crystals of Chaos, I have a bonus session report to squeeze-in first.

The day before session #8, I ran a quick 90-minute game on Roll20.  It was in the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic world of Cha'alt using the same old Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 for both sessions (fuchsia burn was mentioned, but never used).

During the Roll20 one-shot, the 3 players (started with 4) were gamers I knew from social media.  So, after the game, I got to hear their positive feedback via Twitter...  

• "Rules light, loads of RP, and action packed."
• "His game might be the best of the OSR games. He throws out a lot of unnecessary bullshit and gets to playing."
• "After today's session, I definitely want to pick up a book or two."

After a 3-month break from running virtual games, glad I haven't lost my touch.  ;)

I posted a generic title for the session when advertising for players on Roll20, but now that it's "in the can," I'd call this one A'agrybah Has Fallen.  Basically, the Federation has had it up to here with the people of Cha'alt.  They just decided to invade and take the planet by force, starting with the most populist city - A'agrybah.

Simple set-up... the PCs' mentor is dying and asks the adventurers to take something special (in this case, it was a vial of tangerine zoth) to the mentor's priest friend who's currently holed-up inside the Temple of Yog-Soggoth.

I won't go into further detail as I'll probably run that particular scenario again, but obviously it was a crowd pleaser.  And that goes into something mentioned on Raven Wulfgar's Cha'alt part 2 video here.  It's a 2-hour beast featuring both the Red Room and my friend and Crystals of Chaos player, Colin.  In the video, the co-host (I think) mentions that Cha'alt can be run many different ways.  It doesn't have to be slap-stick sleazy gonzo... unless you want it to be.  You can run it like grim and dirty survival horror or a space opera quest to save the planet and/or galaxy a la Star Wars and Dune.

Anyways, it was loads of fun, and I'm looking forward to more Roll20 one-shots maybe this or next week.  Stay in touch with me via Twitter, the Conservative OSR facebook group(s), and this blog.

Need a recap?  This is session #7.

5 players, the only one missing was Zagreus the dwarven thief.  Everyone is 6th level now, except the latecomer Gath who is now 5th.

So, the PCs burst into the room looking to take out the generators that create the phase-shift around various planets, including Cha'alt, but find out a few unfortunate things... Ro-Robard's invisibility spell has worn off, there's an anti-magic zone in this room, and Commander Andrak is waiting for them with 10 Federation soldiers (the elite kind, not the ordinary stormtrooper scrubs) ready with blasters on stun.

I thought about springing the whole "Hey, relax, you were only stunned." thing after everyone went down (assuming they did), but didn't want to create a TPK panic attack when things went according to likely probability.  Of course, I had a contingency plan, too, in case the PCs somehow got out of that mess.

So, what I did was if the blasters (set to stun) hit, the PC would have to make a saving throw to stay conscious.  If they succeed, no damage is taken and really nothing happens.  But if they fail, they're effectively "stunned" for several turns.

The adventurers find themselves strapped to big circular tables set at a 45-degree angle, naked except for their underwear.  The Commander and a Federation doctor is there to administer a drug.  He injects the PCs in the neck, which makes them more susceptible to some horrible creature contained in this transparent tube.  The creature gives off these vibrational waves that make it more difficult to lie, and when you do, it floods your brain with unwanted thoughts.

There was a lot of funny scatological humor as lies caused a PC to feel like the creature was peeing on his head or shitting on his chest, gross stuff like that.  When I re-use this bit, I might go for less humor and, instead, go into darker nightmare territory.  I'm thinking of that "re-education torture" part of the V-miniseries where the blonde is being terrorized by a huge lizard, but it's only happening in her mind.

Ok, so the enhanced interrogation did a couple of things.  First, it evened the playing field because now the Federation knows more about the PCs and what they're up to, also the resistance, etc.  Second, it refreshed the players on what they'd been doing and how much they've overcome various obstacles. 

Additionally, I had the Commander ask the PCs about a set of three ancient stone tablets that were recovered on Cha'alt awhile ago.  The Federation encased the tablets inside transparent aluminum, which also displaced their weight.  I came up with that on the spot, but think it works well.

The sorcerer could read the tablets' glyphs - they described a defensive artifact buried underground, something that could save Cha'alt in the event of a planet-wide attack, and seemingly connected to the mystical rainbow-hued crystal keys they were given by the nightmare clown in weird space.  The stone tablets also gave the artifact's location - inside the carcass of Cara'akis (a Great Old One renowned for his gargantuan size).

Afterwards, the PCs were imprisoned on the Federation base, behind laser bars.  I had just seen Dude, Where's My Car? the night before, so Andy Dick as a fellow prisoner was firmly in my mind, and I did my best to do an impression of him.  Zik the disheveled prisoner with many, many personal problems.  "Why can't I be your robot cat?"

Long story short, Ro-Robard (being part cyborg) tried to seduce the detention-droid, but that didn't work.  However, the detention-droid (OZ-13) was interested in joining their gang.  He had been a justice-droid before his re-programing, and didn't like his daily life on the Federation base.

They got their stuff - the Federation cleaned everything and re-charged all the energy cells (which was very nice of them).  They sliced and diced some random troopers and I.T. guys, found where the anti-magic technology was being housed, destroyed that, freed, Garren Voy and Graaawl, and then went back to blow those generators.  Ro-Robard, realizing at the beginning of the session that he was practically useless in a fight without his magic or a blaster, had successfully disabled the forcefield around the generators.

So, when the PCs returned, they blasted the shit out of it, then the sorcerer fireballed a second wave of troopers, scorching the crap out of Commander Andrak, as well, who teleported away just as he was in Crandol's tentacled.

They rigged the base to blow before heading for the impound and getting their ship, Jefferson, back.  Once in the air, they destroyed the rest of the base that didn't get blown-up earlier, dropped Ro-Robard down a rope-ladder to retrieve the stone tablets of Cha'alt.  The transparent aluminum made them easy for the cyborg-crystalline-dwarf sorcerer to carry back up to the ship.

The PCs high-tailed it for Cha'alt.  They flew over A'agrybah to see the gigantic banana peeled and a thousand banana-men had taken over the city.  Jefferson was ordered to strafe the city (killing about 80 banana-men), and then the PCs devised a plan while the sorcerer's player had to take an emergency work call.  I decided that Ro-Robard was likely working out the finer details of the stone tablets as his companions plotted their own take-over of A'agrybah.

The others ordered the ship's A.I. to create a short-lived virus deadly to bananas.  Yes, they were prepared to commit fruiticide.  Luckily, only 10% of the population needed to be killed off before the banana-men leader gave up control of the city to the PCs.

Just as the PCs were celebrating, a message came through the palace throne room or wherever the adventurers currently were - the brains behind the banana-men brawn revealed himself.  It was a new antagonist (or is it?!?) calling himself The Black Skull.  After The Black Skull swore revenge, the PCs had Jefferson triangulate his position, far, far to the south.

And, that's where we ended it.  Ro-Robard, and his player, was surprised to learn the PCs took over A'agrybah so quickly.  Below are some funny things that came out of the session.

• Ludicrous speed - everyone's clothes went plaid (including the halfling's purple cloak).
• The PCs were grateful for the Federation's OCD, and even logged onto Zelp! after their escape and gave the Federation base and prison colony a 5-ztar review.  "Greatest prison ever!"
• I wanted to do a cut-scene at the very end of the session where we see a Federation guard / janitor refitting a fresh energy cell onto the PC's confiscated blaster, but I forgot all about it.
• In the prison cell, everyone got bathrobes - they even had terrycloth sheaths!
• Heighten Chancery Philthrop III proclaimed "I'm working for the glory of the next zoth hit," as he was asked what his function was on Cha'alt by Commander Andrak.
• We learned that the crystal part of Ro-Robard might be female.  I blame the current year!
• Sharp tang somehow goes well with dark taint... but don't ask me how.
• Lots of banana puns (not really puns, but names for stuff with banana at the beginning) and such, like banana-speeder, banana bones, banana organs, banana brains in their banana skull, banana zombie apocalypse, getting sand in their peels, bananenchmen (banana henchmen), banana-cution, etc.
• The PCs lured OZ-13 to their side with promises of taking him to Alpha Blue so he can get it on with female droids.  They were going to buy him a space station brothel multi-pass for not only Alpha Blue, but other space station brothels.
• Oh yeah, and they managed to steal 30 spice capsules of refined zoth (each capsule goes for about a thousand credits).
• Also, the PCs dropped Garren Voy and Graaawl off in the S'kbah desert and later picked-up both Karl and Sa'ab.

Ok, I think that's it.  Next game in just under two weeks.  I'm looking forward to it because it'll get everyone back to Cha'alt and back to a "normal" type of gameplay... possibly an all new megadungeon?

Thanks for reading!

VS

p.s.  If you want your own Cha'alt campaign toolkit, here you go.  They are signed, numbered, and personalized deluxe hardcovers that are so high-quality and well-built they should last you years and years and years.  Also, don't forget about VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo this July in Madison, WI.  It's just going to be me, 20 - 30 gamers and nothing but an entire weekend of old-school, OSR, and traditional roleplaying games (plus, eating, drinking, joking around, and talking about tabletop gaming).

Cha'alt Zine Madness

 

As this video states, I'm encouraging everyone to make their own Cha'alt zine.  

To put my money where my mouth is, I'm giving every publisher (the individual who actually puts it out, maybe that's the editor-in-chief or publisher, self-publisher, creator, whatever) a $100 subsidy via paypal after they've put out their first issue.

Ok, stipulations follow...

• The zine's content must be two-thirds Cha'alt related.
• The zine must come in at least 22 pages (and if I were you, I wouldn't go over 50).
• Venger Satanis (that's me) have to approve the title.
• The zine implies a one-year "Cha'alt game jam" license which is subject to Venger Satanis' approval before it may be renewed.
• Obviously, I'm not in favor of censorship or limiting creative freedom.  Nevertheless, I, Venger Satanis, have the right to disallow any content which goes against the values of Kort'thalis Publishing... mostly vile, illegal stuff you can imagine happening in the White House's basement (current administration) or Epstein Island... Epstein didn't kill himself.
• The first issue must be available for a reasonable sum (or free) by the first day of VENGER CON, July 21st, 2023.  Convention details here!

Ok, I think that's about it.  While I can't guarantee anything above and beyond the subsidy offered, I will try to be your support system, encouraging you, submitting at least one contribution for inclusion in your Cha'alt zine, providing a sounding-board for your ideas, and perhaps some light editing.  

Your zine could be weird colored cardstock and stapled with hand-made collage art, a fancy prestige quality artsy zine, or something that's totally digital.  It's your zine, do it however you want.  And feel free to create outside the box.  Have a question on whether it's legit or qualifies for whatever reason?  Just ask.

Also, I will announce your Cha'alt zine on my blog and YouTube channel at least once.  Here's my contact email: Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Feel free to comment below and we can bounce ideas around, brainstorm, etc.  Thanks!

VS

p.s. I'm running a sale on Cha'alt hardcovers right over here.  Enjoy!  Hey, if I know you and you want to use your $100 subsidy a little early to off-set the cost of the Cha'alt trilogy, just ask.

Fuchsia Ska'ai Insertion #2

 

So many Cha'alt related things happening now (such as a Cha'alt zine - first issue will be out by VENGER CON II in July)... and here's one more!

I'm loving the Under Fuchsia Ska'ai webcomic.  Will launch a Kickstarter next month to help pay for these monthly installments, as well as, the between-issue insertions.

Issue #1.  Here's the first insertion and issue #2.

The signed and numbered Cha'alt trilogy hardcover sale is still happening!

Lastly, VENGER CON will be this July in Madison, WI.  Just old-school, OSR, and traditional gaming!

Thanks, and Happy Easter, hoss!

VS

p.s. I updated Crimson Dragon Slayer D20.  So re-download it for the most recent version or get it FREE for the first time here.  A 5-star review would be appreciated!

Eldritch Power

 

This Cha'alt Game Jam product has a new back page, which I'm featuring here because it's both awesome and hilarious!

Here is his Cha'alt scenario, Vault of Cha'alt #1.

BTW, I'm planning to launch Cha'alt Game Jam II: The Wrath of Contributions (thanks for the title suggestion, Mr. Jones).  But don't worry, you still have lots of time.  That won't officially start until June 1st, and will continue until VENGER CON, July 21st.  

But start coming up with ideas now so you're not pressed for time.  Also, feel free to run anything you want by me.  I'm a good sounding board, and occasionally make halfway decent suggestions.  ;)

As long as I'm linking, this is where you can find all the Cha'alt Game Jam products.

Thanks,

VS

p.s. Cha'alt hardcovers for sale!  This fantastic sale price won't last forever, hoss. Do yourself a favor and order now.

Adventure Time + Cha'alt

 

Ok, as mentioned in my latest video, I'm creating a random table that can be used to juice-up your Cha'alt one-shots, linked adventures, and long-term campaign.  

Some of this stuff I'll be using on my own in Crystals of Chaos (see prior blog posts for details).  It's not my favorite animated TV show, but I do love Adventure Time.  Let's do this...

Adventure Time Your Cha'alt 

1. Strawberry flavored - some monster, NPC, or magical thing in the adventure tastes like strawberries!
2. Talking dogs that may or may not have been genetically spliced with Ka'arl's DNA (Karl from the show Workaholics). They also have elasticized limbs.
3. The ability to kill with sheer cuteness - unless one is actively averting one's eyes, save or die!
4. Rainicorns - Cha'alt doesn't get a lot of rain, and I don't know anyone on Cha'alt who's ever seen a rainbow... but it's possible.  And if you see one... what happens?  TBD
5. The slimy tentacled princess is at war with the candy colored clown princess, and for those getting in the way of their righteous fury, life is cheap.
6. Pieces of candy are actual people walking around whining about stupid shit.
7. Whenever something is stolen, there's a 2 in 6 chance that whatever it is gets immediately re-stolen away from the thief.  
8. ???

I want to hear from you... what else does this random table need?  And what else do you want me to riff-off of?  Vintage Doctor Who?  Blake's 7?  Thundarr the Barbarian?

Thanks,

VS

Crystals of Chaos [session report #7]

 

Before anything else, I just want to link a couple of Cha'alt reviews.  

This is more of a general appreciation for the first book and it's overall vibe.  Here is a fucking insane 2 and 1/2 hour detailed look at the entire Cha'alt trilogy.  Thanks to both YouTube channels for taking the time to appreciate my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign setting!

Ok, now to the session report...

You know when you look down at your notes and all you find are tantalizing fragments that leave you with little more than an aborted outline of what should be a fully fleshed-out game plan?  That's kind of what yesterday's game felt like.

Nevertheless, it was fun and I think, overall, successful.  One never really reaches the final goal endpoint that one might call "perfection" in roleplaying, game design, GMing, etc.  You just keep going.  Do your best and try to enjoy the moment.

The PCs, all but Gath the human priest whose player couldn't make it because of an out of town trip, were headed from Alpha Blue to Frigia, an icy penal planet where the Federation has a dude locked up that the resistance wants freed and set down on Cha'alt.  Which may or may not be a Federation trick or psy-op... which somehow involves the cunning machinations of actual cyclops... we're almost sure about that.

I asked the PCs what each of them was doing aboard their shag-carpeted leopard print starship.  Ro-Robard, being part crystalline now, was reading a magazine he got while on the space station of love "Crystalline Girls of Alpha Blue."  We spent about 5 minutes coming up with various aesthetics, concepts, and photoshoot pictorials of what might be in there.  Everything from crystals being rammed into hollow geode orifices to cross-dressing crystals to naked girls laying atop massive crystal shards. Pretty much the whole time we were laughing while coming up with wild and disturbing ideas.

 About 3 hours into their 8 hour flight to Frigia, the PC's starship (finally named Jefferson), came across a deserted medical and scientific research space lab named Quasar-7.  No life signs, but lots of tech, and a faint but strange energy signature.

The PCs went aboard and found out that the lab received a massive crystal containing a solidified emerald-green vapor that caused a severe case of space madness in one member of their crew.  The rest of their logs and whatnot were all wiped, and all escape pods flew the coop.  

Turns out that green gas within the crystal is evil and trying to possess humanoids - now, including the PCs.  Heighten Chancery Philthrop III and Crandol both tried to free the entity from the crystal.  The halfling thief blasted it with his laser (which bounced right off), but the half-orc warrior used his magical black sword to cleave the crystal in two.  

The gas escaped and started using its mojo.  It wanted the PCs to pilot the space lab to a heavily populated moon nearby so it could infect others.  I rolled a natural 20 for Ro-Robard the Red's saving throw at the very beginning, so he was instrumental in waking the remaining PCs to what was going on.  Someone had the brilliant idea of venting the emerald vapor out of an airlock hole and it froze in space.

Now that was over, the adventurers looted the place.  They got a medical droid, psychologist droid, physical therapy machine, the cure for venereal diseases (extra valuable due to its close proximity to Alpha Blue), a mineral sample rover, and salvage probe.

Frigia, they discovered, is protected by a phase-shift barrier, the same as around Cha'alt.  Put there by the Federation to control who goes in and out.  To get to the other side, Jefferson would need to open a rift into weird space... and so the ship's A.I. obliged.

The PCs found themselves in a purple maze of sharp angular corridors winding and weaving in confusing and endless directions.  Ro-Robard recognized the place from when he was zapped several sessions ago.  Heighten decided to pull out some spare zoth he had and wipe it on a purple wall, and a message appeared, in a handwritten scrawl "Wait for the sign, then all prisoners will be released."

They continued to walk around, then waved their special colored crystals around until a deep, resonant gong sounded.  They followed the sound as the purple hallway terminated into a circular opening.  Walking through it, the smooth artificial purple walls became a purple and violet organic flesh that led to a system of tunnels and caves.

The party's sorcerer wanted to cast invisibility, which struck me as the perfect time to roll on my fuchsia magic "chaos and mishap" random table found in book II of the Cha'alt trilogy.  A toxic ooze dripped out of the sorcerer's pours - pure zoth mixed with the sorcerer's own essence.  While everyone else thought it was disgusting, the sorcerer was being seduced by his own ichor and decided to drink it - three times the magical potency... if he survives.  After succeeding in a saving throw, Ro-Robard now had immense power.  

I won't go into all the "weird space" encounters, but there was the purple skull with tentacle, wallflower cave (the halfling got a +1 flower-shaped short sword out of that, as well as, his snazzy new purple robes containing Prince's weird purple sex symbol), tentacled worm (I don't mind repeating myself, but definitely could have used a unique monster here instead of staying firmly seated in my comfort zone), "These pretzels are making me thirsty" purple-elf watching Escape From New York - just like in The Black Pyramid, violet barrier, and subhuman creatures crawling around a purple-jade statue of an Old One or its spawn that was missing a tentacle.  The PCs had pepperoni pizza due to another roll on the weird magic table and threw that at the subhumans to distract them.  When the tentacle was attached, its mouth opened wide enough for the PCs to enter... which brought them out.

They woke up in planetary orbit of Frigia.  After landing, the PCs split up to find Garren Voy.  One group did while the other killed this carnivorous plant monster.

Garren Voy told them about a generator in Frigia's command center.  That's what's creating and maintaining the phase-shift barriers around various planets like Cha'alt.  For an extra 10,000 credits, the PCs decide to take on this mission - destroy those generators so the Federation can't block travel to and from Cha'alt.

Ro-Robard drinks what's left of his toxic, zoth distilled essence and almost dies, but doesn't thanks to several expenditures of Divine Favor.  Now, his sorcery is potent enough to cast invisibility on the entire party.  They sneak past multiple guards, sneak around a zedi laser-sword battle, and through a nature preserve.  As soon as they reach the generator room, they instantly become visible as an alarm goes off.  Only then do they notice a sign that reads, "Anti-magic zone!  Sorcery is forbidden here... we have the technology."

Because one of our players had to leave because of a family commitment, we decided to end things right there, a half-hour early, which suited me well as I need to plan the rest of that Federation facility adventure.  I have some ideas...

After the tentacled worm creature from that weird space cave was killed, Heighten decided to look inside the gutted abomination.  He asked, "Is it filled with little tentacles inside?"  I said, "Yeah."  He asked, "And teeth?"  "I said, "Yes, and..."  He responded with "Lasers."  I replied, "What else?"  "Jet packs?"  And I said "Yes."

Then we kind of all mutually agreed that only Heighten could see this (since he's usually on hallucinogenic drugs), everyone else just thought it was blood and intestines and such.  It was a small thing, but I found it hilarious, and that's the kind of thing I really, really like in my games and want more of.  Facilitating that can be tricky.  I don't think any mechanics can force it without making the whole exchange artificial.  But if I glean any insights, I'll let ya'll know.

What else?  I do have something in mind for the glowing crystals of rainbow hue they picked up their first time in weird space.  BTW, I think the party is divided on whether weird space is a thing they want to keep exploring or not.  Ro-Robard the Red would rather get back to Cha'alt without having to deal with weird space or the purple labyrinth again, whereas Jackal likes dealing with that place and would definitely keep exploring it.  

At the start of next session, I think everyone (except for Gath) will be 6th level.  Due to that and their new power armor, I need to come up with encounters that actually challenge them.

Alright, session 8 is happening in 2 weeks.  Looking forward to it.  In the meantime, I might run a virtual one-short (I meant to say one-shot, but that works since it'll probably top-out at 90 minutes) or eventual bi-weekly campaign for all the people who are liking what they read on this blog, but aren't liking that they're missing out on the Cha'alt action (I get asked all the time, believe me).  And there should be more Cha'alt webcomic awesomeness coming soon!

VS

p.s. Get your Cha'alt hardcovers now, before the Federation finds out what we're doing, confiscates them all, and then jacks up the price!  Also, get your ticket to VENGER CON before they're gone. We're just going to be roleplaying old-school, OSR, and traditional games all weekend.

Gary Con XV [convention report]

 

I got back from Gary Con 2023 yesterday afternoon.  It was a good time.

Having GPS or google whatever really helps getting around.  I believe my last Gary Con was back in 2019 (where I got lost on the way home) and I didn't realize you could just have your phone navigate you all the way to your destination.

But this time, I had a friend navigate and the phone technology working, so got back in an hour and twenty minutes, stopping in Milton for some delicious fast food Mexican... Taco John's.

Anyway, let's get down to business!

I ran 5 games.  All of them Cha'alt and all with Crimson Dragon Slayer D20.  I came up with an original scenario for the convention, which I like to do when there's time.  And I ran that thrice, along with a semi-original scenario that borrowed heavily from previously published material.

For those who want to hack Cremza'amirikza'am (or any megadungeon) and turn it into a convention game or one-shot, here's what I did - provide a reason for them to go, present some kind of encounter, complication, social interaction, or whatever on the way to getting there.  Then, I dug out one of my many hand-drawn cavern maps and cherry-picked rooms, encounters, and set-pieces on the way to the McGuffin at the other end of the map.

Yeah, I ran that twice, and it worked just as well as the original scenario.  I decided to go with a smaller player max of 6.  In the past, I wanted to meet, game with, and run adventures for as many players as I could at one time, so usually a max of 8.  And that's fun, but when you've been doing this as long as I have, you realize that with a group of 8, generally, you'll have 2 or 3 very active players who do most of the talking and decision making, then you have 1 or 2 players who perk-up occasionally, taking a secondary role on the action-scale, and finally everyone else stays in the background until it's their turn to roll dice and let me know the result.

With a smaller group of players, you pare that down.  Let's say you have a group of 4 players.  Usually, there will be 1 player who's the most active, 1 who's moderately active, and the other two are pretty much wallflowers.  That's... not ideal.

I mean, every group makeup and dynamic is different, so there's no telling for sure until you actually sit down and start playing.  By and large though, the bigger the group, the more active-players you'll have... and you really need active-players because they generate the fun and excitement, they drive the story and get the action rolling.

I asked one of my players in the Sunday game (Sunday mid-morning is always my lowest attended session of a convention) what the best game he played in was.  He didn't remember the system and barely remembered the scenario.  So, I asked him point-blank what made it so fun.  He said the players. The players were really engaged and into the game (usually preceded by a passionate GM), and their enthusiasm just made everything else better.

So, there you go.  I think I'll go back to max-8 player sessions because there's a better chance of getting 3 or 4 active players.  I still remember a couple of different Game Hole Con sessions with 7 or 8 players each and how wild and crazy things got.  Looking back, each table had 4 or 5 active players, and it just made everything about the game come alive... well, more alive.

Let's talk about the pre-gens, shall we?  So, this convention, I decided to make things easier on me and the players.  I came up with ten PCs that all fit on a single page.  They didn't have any numbers or mechanics, though.  Just name, class, race, something about who they are as people, and a significant moment in their background that intersected with another PC's background (sometimes 2 or 3 PCs).

I printed-out 50 of those sheets so every single time a player sat down, he'd get that sheet to have and look at the entire game (frequently, players would write down who their companions were playing in the margins of that PC roster for easier interactions), then keep after the session was over, if they wanted some kind of souvenir.  Once everyone had picked, I'd hand every player a simplified character sheet and we'd spend about 2 minutes filling in the numbers... level, armor class, hit-points, etc.

That was literally it.  Because it was always the same ten PCs, I pretty much knew them all, and there was enough variety that everyone had something cool to pick from - without so much choice that it took them forever to decide.  Best of all (though it happened to be completely unnecessary in all the games I ran this weekend), the remaining, unchosen PCs could be in the background yet at the ready.  So, if one PC died, that player could assume one of the other PCs on that sheet immediately, rather than waiting to create a new character and for me to find a way to jump them back in.

That is now something I'm going to do with every fucking convention for the rest of my days... unless I stumble upon something even better.  If you struggle with character generation or pre-gens, I suggest you give it a try.

My games being Cha'alt, the scenarios focused on the Federation, the Great Old Ones, zoth, the Loc-Na'ar, bizarre creatures, weird dimensional rifts and sacrificial altars.

What else?  Oh yeah, Crimson Escalation!  I've used that for every game I've run (except for a couple playtests of Obsidian Escalation) for the last year or so.  It's awesome, and I've never had a combat last more than 7 rounds.  The only downside, if you can even call it that, is that long boring battles won't pad your session.  So a standard 4-hour sessions will probably come out at about 3 hours because your players didn't waste time with, "I hit... 2 points of damage," on the 11th round.  

As a GM, I tried to narrate almost every single attack, which (most of the time) went well.  Every once in a while I was tongue-tied or flummoxed, but there was so much flavor text that it was like an all-you-can-eat buffet.  I even got to try out GM Ben Shapiro's "How do you do it?" or "Tell me how you do it?" to good effect!

If you haven't seen Ben Shapiro Game Master D&D, I recommend you watch this.  I never expected to take GMing cues from an A.I. Ben Shaprio Game Master... but here we are.

I bought a book on writing that I hope to use in my scenario design and GMing (will review that once I've read it), and 3 sets of dice.  I would have bought more at the con (other than food, which was fantastic, BTW - that chocolate croissant from the lobby coffee shop [warmed-up] changed my life), but I only sold 2 Cha'alt books and the dice merchants wouldn't budge on price.  $43 for three sets of dice - ouch!

My favorite of the new dice is called Blueberry Doom.  They have such a cool look.  I don't normally go in for opaque dice, but the weirdly marbled "blueberry squirt" coloration in these lavender dice with deep- purple numbering just tickles my whimsical bones, I guess.

If I had sold a couple trilogies, I would have sprung for a matching set of The Last Unicorn bookmarks for my girls or fantasy artwork for my game room.  The economy, at least among independent creators, is circular.

Oh, and the highlight of the convention (but only if you count Twitter likes) was sitting directly behind Vince Vaughn during one of my games.  When he was done, Vince stood up to leave and was swarmed by several people wanting pics and whatnot.  I didn't want to add to his fan-service burden, so waited until he had a free second and asked for a quick picture, which he graciously accommodated.  

Who else did I meet and take pictures with?  So many fine gamer folks, I can't name them all... but there are pics in my Twitter feed, if you go look through @VengerSatanis.  The most notable was running into "ShadowDark Kelsey" who knew my buddy Colin.  Kelsey was really nice, telling me how much she enjoyed my writing, said that she was a fan of mine, and that Kort'thalis Publishing books like How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss had inspired her.

Yes, if I had thought of it, I would have put a signed and numbered hardcover Cha'alt book in Vince Vaughn's hands before he exited, but it just never occurred to me.  Next time!

Speaking of next time, the next gaming convention I'll be attending just happens to be the one I'm organizing - VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo.  Grab your ticket today (limited to 100 attendees)!

And if you'd like some hardcover Cha'alt trilogy love, Here's your chance.

I believe the Crystals of Chaos campaign is picking up where it left off this coming weekend, so I've already got to start thinking about more GMing stuff... plus, finish revising the Advanced Game Mastering Like A Fucking Boss manuscript before it goes to layout.  

And here's a photo of me with my friend Griff from BlackMoor Film fame!

Feel free to comment down below.  I'd love to get your feedback (especially if you played in one of my sessions).  Alas, there's always room for improvement, so criticism is also welcome.  Well, not welcome, but I'm learning to tolerate it.  ;)

Make your next game the very best it can be, hoss!

VS

p.s.  On the drive back home I was talking to Colin about incentivizing players and their PCs to interact with stuff that has little or nothing to do with the main objective.  So many times, the players bypassed, ignored, or spent minimal time exploring aspects of the adventure that didn't intersect with the main objective.  I'm going to tackle that next!

Under Fuchsia Ska'ai & Gary Con

 

I'll be heading to Gary Con tomorrow morning!

Today, I'll be making preparations... just like I've been doing for the last few days (crafted an original adventure just for the con).  Creating this blog post has been on my mind for awhile, so let's get to it.

Below is issue #2 of Under Fuchsia Ska'aki, the Cha'alt webcomic I'm making with Jae Tanaka.  Here is issue #1 and a mid-issue insert.

What else?  Well, I'll be running Cha'alt at Gary Con.  I think all my sessions are full, but still say "Hi."  And if you want to buy some hardcover Cha'alt books direct from me, I'll have a few on-hand and ready to sign.

As a fun little bonus, I'm offering Encounter Critcial III for FREE all weekend!  If you liked Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, you'll definitely get a kick out of EC3, it's sister-game.

I'll blog about my experiences when I get back on Sunday (plus, there'll be a new episode of Inappropriate Characters to livestream on YouTube).  I will also be tweeting about the convention and might make a video or two, as well.

Until then, game well, hoss... game well!

VS

p.s.  Here's a link to VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo my own RPG convention happening this July in Madison, WI.  And if you want those gorgeous Cha'alt books, but won't be at Gary Con this weekend, prices and ordering info here.

Crystals of Chaos [session report #6]

 

Six sessions probably doesn't seem like much of a milestone, but still feels that way to me. 

This campaign is set in the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic world of Cha'alt.  And I've been using Crimson Dragon Slayer D20 to run it.

We had a full table of six players at the new space - the game room in my house.  Finally, after the pandemic and cleaning it (I had been using it as a storage room to house Cha'alt books, among other things), my gaming space was back in use.

• Jackal - dwarf warrior
• Crandol - half-orc warrior
• Zagreus - dwarf thief
• Gath - human priest
• Ro-Robard - dwarf sorcerer
• Heighten Chancery Philthrop III - halfling thief

Now, I'm just going to come out and say it... I don't think this session was as successful as previous ones.  I wanted to change things up and go for a different kind of adventure, which I think is a good thing.  

This session also comes after a two-week break due to our family vacation.

Session six was about going to Alpha Blue, the space station brothel, carousing, getting hired for a special mission, and then purchasing high-tech equipment.

Before they had a chance to leave the solar system in their weird tri-crystal artifact sentient starship, the ship detected a barrier that shifted this area of the galaxy out of phase with the rest of space.  The ship had a plan (they need to name that thing, but we know it's approximately the size of the Millennium Falcon and the interior is covered with leopard-print shag carpeting walls) - create a wormhole to break through the phase-shift.

They had to enter weird space... I don't know if this is something I invented or subconsciously latched onto and ripped off from somewhere else.  But this was the description I gave (with slight edit)...

You've just entered weird space... outside the ship you perceive rainbow slime, melting reality, ectoplasm vibrating, the sound of strange primitive drums, the smell of blue jellybeans, time-lapse of fruit decomposing... the bananas becoming sentient just before turning to a primordial soup... a leprechaun sprinkles shamrock gold dust over the primordial banana ooze, so that it now resembles the glowing chartreuse ichor known as zoth.  Llamas sit around a table playing D&D as they sip the ancient zoth from teacups.

Then, everyone blacked-out and entered some kind of dream state where they encountered a humanoid clown-worm with outstretched demon claw - each of seven fingers had a different colored string attached in a bow (according to the colors of the rainbow).  Everyone chose... and then the surgeon from Heighten Chancery Philthrop III's black urn ashes hallucination reappeared and swallowed the halfling into its torso-void.

When the PCs awoke, they each had a crystal the color they chose in the palm of their hand.  The clown worm-thing said something about this determining their destiny, remaking the universe, and extolling a terrible price.

How the crystals fit into the campaign might be revealed next session.  I'll put down what each adventurer chose so there's another record (besides my notes).  Incidentally, I had each player roll a d4 before the clown / string encounter, pairings meant that some PCs were together and others were alone.  That meant two or more PCs could conceivably choose the same color and have the same colored crystal at the end (which actually happened)...

Jackal chose indigo, Crandol also chose indigo (because he asked his demon sword and I rolled randomly), Zagreus chose orange, Gath chose violet, Ro-Robard the Red chose red (duh!), and Heighten Chancery Philthrop III chose yellow.

Ironically, I spent the most time preparing for this adventure than any other of the Crystals of Chaos campaign so far.  Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and everyone thought this session was one of the best.  Looking back, it's hard to pinpoint what did or didn't work.  Maybe the fish-out-of-water vibe I was going for took the players by surprise.  The format of revolving social interactions definitely kept everyone on their toes.  

There was a duel between Ro-Robard and an insect-humanoid that was fun.  Although, how it went was way different than how I anticipated it in my head... which is a good thing, but I switched lanes in my mind while crossing an imaginative intersection, and there was a disconnect.

The party's halfling thief got laid, but it kind of felt forced.  By that I mean, the reptilian prostitute I was roleplaying put in all the work, but maybe that was par for the course (again, I wrongly assumed it was going to go down differently than it did).  I was dimly recalling his liaisons with the tall woman from last session, but I should have laid more groundwork in the roleplaying.  It's possible I was rushing myself because I didn't want to neglect the rest of the group.

There was a bar fight between Zagreus, Crandol, and Gath against this VIP dude that Yogoo (this Yoda-like character with a massive dong) wanted to intimidate.  Even with disadvantage, I rolled a critical-hit with the VIP's bodyguard.  Zagreus nearly bought the moisture farm as he was brought down to -3 HP.

Jackal did some gambling, betting on a droid fight, as well as, placing a wager for some spacer who was banned from betting on such droid battles.  He won some credits.

Eventually, the entire party listened to Astra, a Draconian Princess, and her space-ape companion Graaawl.  Basically, they hired the PCs to transport a rebel leader named Garren Voy out of this prison facility on Frigia (an ice planet) and then transport him to Cha'alt.  Astra offered the PCs 10,000 credits, which they thought was a little low, so she upped it with a 2,500 signing bonus.  They gladly accepeted.

Graaawl was a professional assassin, so he went with the party to make sure the mission goes well and transfer funds when Garren Voy was safely transported to Cha'alt.

On the way out, Ro-Robard gets lured over to an exotic dancer.  A little tentacle squirmed out of her g-string.  The tentacle clutched a data-crystal in its suckers and deposited it in the palm of the crystalline cyborg dwarf sorcerer.

They had it scanned on the way to the high-tech equipment emporium.  Long story short, rescuing the resistance leader might be one big psy-op by the Federation, as the data-crystal revealed Federation plans to release undercover agents posing as resistance leaders on Cha'alt.  Eventually, the destabalization will lead to regime change.  During the civil unrest, the Federation plans to buy up strategic zoth reserves, continuing to drain the planet of its natural resources.

No names were given, but at the end of the hologram transmission, it warned to beware of the banana!

And we just about ran out of time as the PCs shopped for the upcoming mission.  Here's a breakdown of the gear, benefits, and prices I came up with...

• Power Armor; gets you to 20 AC; 500 credits
• Slow-Field Armor; gives you a 2 in 6 chance to dodge out of the way as the thing trying to kill you is slowed down as it enters your personal shielding zone; 200 credits
• Laser Shield; shield made out of pure energy that gives you a +2 to AC; 100 credits
• Disintegrator; on a successful attack, the target must make a successful saving throw or be disintegrated, but you have to wait at least 10 minutes per shot; 1000 credits.
• Plasma Cannon; 4d6 damage; 400 credits
• Thermal detonator; 8d6 damage, save for half; 50 credits
• Laser-Sword; 3d6 damage and 2 in 6 chance of severing a limb; 250 credits
• Blaster; 3d6 damage; 200 credits
• High-Tech Thieves Tools; gives you advantage on doing thief type stuff; 400 credits.
• Hoverboard; travels up to 20 miles per hour and it's fun / looks cool; 150 credits.
• Advanced Weapon Systems (starship upgrade); advantage on attacks with your starship; 5000 credits.

Perhaps my ever so slight disappointment with this session has to do with the fact that I haven't run Alpha Blue for a couple years, and that was a convention one-shot.  I'm out of practice.  Or maybe it's just me, and everything went great?  It's honestly hard to tell from this side of the screen.

Since this day was a different format that my wife actually suggested, gaming 2 - 6pm, then pizza, then watch a movie, instead of a movie on Friday night and then gaming noon - 4pm on either Saturday (or occasionally Sunday), I left to go get the pizza immediately after the session ended, so didn't get to hear any feedback.  So, it's possible that's contributing to my unsureness...

Regardless, I'm looking forward to session #7 (in two weeks) where the PCs travel to Frigia, attempt to complete their mission (which might include killing the dude they've been hired to rescue if he turns out to be a Federation agent), and then, presumably, back to Cha'alt.

As it happens, this coming weekend is Gary Con!  Ro-Robard the Red's player and I are traveling to Lake Geneva, WI to attend one of my favorite gaming conventions (2nd place in my affections would have to be Game Hole Con).  I will be running a series of Cha'alt adventures, and have to start preparing for that.

Thanks for reading,

VS

p.s. Want to purchase some gorgeous hardcover Cha'alt books?  They're signed, numbered, and include the PDFs.  Ordering details here!  And of course, there's my own convention happening again this July in Madison, WI.  Of course, I'm referring to VENGER CON II: Electric Boogaloo.  It's exclusively for old-school, OSR, and traditional roleplaying games.  Limited to 100 attendees - grab your ticket today!