Frozen Skies Episode 10: Venture Edition

Last week, the crew of the Waylander headed to the Commonwealth's Home Isles to answer the summons of Reginald's father. The family reunion proved to be short and bitter sweet as Reginald found himself being disowned by his family in addition to their lodgings being burned down under somewhat hazy circumstances. It was finally decided to take care of some outstanding business and head back to Alyeska to get Herbert's court martial out of the way.

Back to the Frozen Skies

After the cottage fire saw the crew loose their accommodation for the night, and despite the offer of being put up at the local village inn, the crew decided to head back to their airship despite it being a two hour drive in the middle of the night. Upon arrival back at the Waylander, Tag announced that he wanted an early started and that everyone was to be up at 0700 Hours even though it meant every was going to get precious little sleep.

Scant few hours the crew are up again, groggy from the lack of sleep and drinking coffee like its going out of fashion. They contact the nearby military barracks via telephone and arrange for Herbert to be brought to the airship along with his provost escort. Final preparations are made before they get underway and attempt to cross the storm-wracked skies over the Great Ocean to Alyeska. Increasingly foul weather dogs the crew for three days until something is spotted in the clouds ahead, though the clouds part enough to reveal another airship directly in the Waylander's path. Tag managed to steer the Waylander and avoided a collision with the other airship, then circled back round so that they could get a better look at the unexpected company.

The other airship looked like it had taken a fair amount of damage; some of her engines had been blown off, her gasbags were ripped and signs of being shot up by aircraft. No name could be seen as it was obscured by the damage and there was no answer when the crew tried hailing the mysterious airship over the radio. Tag made the decision to have the other airship lashed to the Waylander so that they could board it, if anything to see what was worth salvaging.

Reginald went to check out the airship's electrical systems and generators in her engine room, only to discover that her electricals were all shorted out and the generators dead. With no electrical current to manipulate the Lift Gas, there was a bit of confusion over how the airship was still in the sky until it was realized that the Lift Gas was probably reacting to the electrical charge of the storm.If they took the airship out of the storm it would most likely fall out of the sky as the residual charge from the storm wore off, so getting the electrics back up and running was a priority. Initially Reginald had problems effecting repairs, though by the time Tag came to see what the matter was the problem had been dealt with by Sebastian stumbling across a storage cupboard marked 'Electrical Spares'.

After giving Reginald a chewing out, Tag headed back towards the crew area and the bridge to check up on how well Alex had gotten on. For his part Alex had been checking out the crew quarters and increasingly coming to the opinion that the airship had been attacked by raiders. He also found and disarmed a number of traps, though nothing of value. Alex also came to the rescue when Reginald found explosives in one of the electrical generators when he did his final checks before starting them back up. Having done all they could and, most importantly, got the power back on the crew were able to take the airship under tow.

Arriving in Gravenburg, Tag managed to secure an air dock for the airship by presenting a sealed letter from Lord Spitsworth and making a donation to the Widows and Orphans Fund. Alex spotted somebody who seemed to recognize him before hurrying off, Alex followed the man to a nearby warehouse used by a gang he'd worked with for a time before parting ways. Alex confronted the man, who was surprised to see Alex was alive (but wasn't aware of his new name) and gave the impression that the gang wasn't going to be happy about this state of affairs. Alex then showed the man the explosives he'd acquire earlier and convinced the man to keep their mouth shut until Alex had had a good head start.

Without further delay, it was off to Calharrow and Herbert's date with military justice.

Tag went with Herbert as his defence lawyer, also wore his air force officer's uniform and seemed to know at least one of the officers presiding as part of the judge's panel. The charges of absent without leave and desertion were read out, then the official version of events that Herbert's patrol had been attacked by Wulvers during which he went missing and was presumed dead. Herbert challenged this, claiming that his patrol had deliberately left him behind when they broke camp and that there had been difficulties between him and his comrades. Herbert also cited problems with his superior officer and Tag presented the court with a pile of evidence such as telephone logs that help collaborate Herbert's story. When asked why he didn't report in when he returned to civilisation, Herbert stated it was because he didn't trust the military and feared for his life if his survival was made known.The panel of officers asked a few more questions before they were satisfied, then gave their verdict.

"Not guilty!"

Herbert was cleared of any wrongdoing, given an honourable discharge with back pay and made exempt from further military service. A free man once more, the good doctor was able to join the crew in getting into further trouble...

Thoughts

It was little bit of an interesting game, we started incorporating elements from the new edition of Savage Worlds such as no XP and Bennies being able to do much more. The group also decided to stick with their characters as they currently are, which will limit what of the new rules we can use. The stuff we have included seemed to go down a hit and I'm trying to get into the habit of awarding Bennies.

So yeah, the crew have a potential new airship. I need to finish updating Frozen Skies for SWADE, though some of that will extend into doing some more airship stats.

As for Herbert's trail, part of why it went so well is that the players RPed it well and partially because of my bad dice rolling. We did it as a Social Conflict with three opposed rolls, I pretty much got a 1 on two of those rolls but decided not to spend a bennie to re-roll as I thought it was being RPed really well.

The Skywrights Guild

Since it featured in the most recent session of the Frozen Skies campaign has has already been mentioned a few times on the blog, figured its time to detail the Skywrights Guild. It is a powerful organisation, able to build and maintain a fleet of airships, and wields a fair amount of influence. Whilst it dominates the airship market, it isn't without rivals.

An Aerial Monopoly

The Skywrights Guild is recognized as the largest builder of air- and skyships in Darmonica, having control of aero-shipyards in various countries either directly or through front companies. Outside of national militarizes and trade consortiums, the Guild is also Darmonica's biggest user of skyships and has a network of facilities and support infrastructure to maintain them.

The Guild has its origins not long after the first appearance of airships in Darmonica, a group of inventors and merchants banded together to promote the airship as the future of shipping and trade. Over time they worked up their business and brought out competitors, though they received a huge boost in the fortunes when the skyship first came about. They mainly focused on civilian models, though they took on a large number of military contracts during the Great Darmonican War as the various combatants sought to rapidly build up their aero-fleets.

In the present day the Guild's focus is on skyships, though it still has a hand in the airship market as it licences designs to small companies to build. The Guild does have a second monopoly on Lift Gas, a vitally important component of making airships soar through the skies. The Guild has made sure its virtually the sole supplier of Lift Gas, typically by buying out the mines and refineries needed for its production. The Guild's monopoly on Lift Gas has resulted in a black market for it, though usually of Lift Gas that has been siphoned from someplace and typically of questionable quality.

There are currently attempts by the powers of Darmonica to try and break the Guild's monopolies, none of them are happy with the idea of a transnational entity holding the strings on their precious aero-fleets. The Commonwealth's own Royal Aero-Works is a prime example; a state corporation that builds and maintains the Commonwealth's military airships and skyships has recently started producing civilian models. These civilian air-vessels are primarily being built for the state-owned airline Commonwealth Airways, though there are plans to start offering airships to smaller operators. The biggest problem, however, is going to be breaking the Guild's stranglehold on Lift Gas.

Frozen Skies Episode 9: Home (Isles) Bound

After their tussle with the Dark Claws, the crew of the Waylander opt to head to the Commonwealth's Home Isles to answer the summons of Reginald's father. Did mean that Herbert's court martial was postponed again for another session, this was a necessity as one of the players was out of the country and had asked to be present for the court martial. Though it did mean that the players got to visit and learn more about the world outside of Alyeska.

Across the Great Ocean

The ocean that separates Alyeska from the 'Core' states of Darmonica has been racked by storms since the end of the Great Darmonican War, highly theorized to be part of the fallout from the event known as the 'Blast'. It means that travel across the ocean is difficult, possibly even resulting in damage to the aircraft attempting the trip. Normally the crew would have its Ace pilot Tag, though his player was the one who was absent and as GM I made his piloting rolls as required.I had to spend a couple of bennies right at the start of the game to stop the crew running afoul of certain doom.

So things were off to a good start already.

Thankfully the journey across the ocean proved to be eventual and after a couple of days the mist shrouded hills of the Home Isles came into sight. The crew were also confronted with considerable more shipping, both maritime and aerial, than they'd ever seen in Alyeska. As their airship drew near they soon more plenty of aircraft, ranging from light aeroplanes through to gigantic skyships. They were directed to the main aerodrome that served the Home Isles' capital, Lindun, and as they drifted down into their mooring berth they could see a noticeable military presence in the form of anti-aircraft guns and armed soldiers. Though Herbert also noted that there was a much greater civilian presence compared to when he'd last visited the aerodrome some years earlier.

A military jeep pulled up and a pair of provosts climbed out before approaching the airship, though they did introduce themselves and explained that Herbert was being put under house arrest at a nearby barracks for the duration of the crew's stay in the Home Isles. So, without any real objections from the crew, Herbert went with the provosts and found himself being put in an officer's quarters rather than a barrack block (because 'security'). Herbert received two visitors, the first was from the Army Service Corps to take his measurements for a new uniform to be worn at the court martial. The second visitor was a Lt. Williams from the Judge Advocate General's office to provide consul for the aforementioned court martial.

Lt, Williams explained how the proceedings of the court martial will work, then asked for Herbert's version of events prior to him being absent without leave. Herbert admitted that due to his big mouth he wasn't well liked by his fellow soldiers, plus may have incurred the wrath of a superior officer by talking about said officer's wife whilst within earshot of said officer. He also went onto explain that whilst out in the Wulflands on a patrol he woke up one morning feeling extremely groggy (he swore blindly that he hadn't had a drop of alcohol whilst on patrol) and that the rest of his patrol was gone. Lt. Williams explained that the official version of events was that the patrol had come under attack by wulvers and that Herbert had gone missing in the confusion, later to be listed as missing in action. Lt. Williams also explained that since Herbert was absent from his unit for more than 30 days he'll be tried as a deserter, so strongly suggested sticking to the official version of events in hope of gaining a favourable verdict.

Meanwhile...

The rest of the crew were picked up by a limbo and driven out of the city, noticing the scars still lingering from the war and the reconstruction effort. The city and its new suburbs gave away to the open countryside and after a couple of hours the car drew up in front of a large manor house. Servants ushered them inside to what was called the 'Cream Room' and told them to wait until his Lordship was ready, though a servant remained in the room to keep an eye on the crew. After half an hour, Reginald was called through to speak to his father in the room next door. Alex got close as he could to the door in an attempt to eavesdrop whilst Sebastian discreetly spoke to the house servant about answering the call of nature in order to get a tour of the house.

Reginald's father, Lord Charleston Spitsworth, effectively disowned his eldest child and had changed his will so that Reginald's younger brother Edmund would inherit the family fortune. Additionally, Reginald's access to the family's bank accounts had been blocked and various bank managers made aware of this development. Meanwhile Sebastian ran into and got talking to the youngest if the Spitsworth siblings, Reginald's sister Elisa (who got the Love Interest adventure card played on her). Elisa mentioned that she was going to diplomacy, mainly as a way of escaping house and seeing the world, plus she also mentioned about current tensions between the Commonwealth and the Artian Confederation.

Sebastian rejoined the others, with a silk item showing in the breast pocket of his jacket, just as Reginald comes out from speaking with his father. Tag then gets called into the other room with a letter of introduction, returning a short while later saying that he'd gotten them a job. The crew were then informed that they would not be spending the night in the house as lodgings had been made available elsewhere on the estate. This time they were given a lift in a different car driven by one of the groundsmen and taken to a cottage on the other side of the estate, though the cottage had been untouched for a number of years after its previous occupant died. The crew tidied up the place best they could and picked which room each of them were going to have.

Alex and Sebastian had decided to try and sneak back into the main house later that night, though for completely different reasons. Some night after it'd gotten dark, the pair of them tried sneaking out but were spotted by Reginald who decided to challenge them. Alex tried to persuade Reginald that he and Sebastian were just going out for some fresh air and perhaps a smoke, though Reginald remained unconvinced. Out of frustration, Alex went back into the cottage and set alight to the room that Reginald had claimed before managing to sneak back out of the cottage unnoticed. With Reginald distracted with trying to save his belongings, Alex and Sebastian made for the main house.

Alex went for Lord Spitsworth's office, specifically after any interesting paperwork (the Reveal adventure card was played here). Among the things Alex found was correspondence between Lord Spitsworth and another member of parliament about seeking justification for a military campaign against the pirate haven of Broken Spires. Also, since Lord Spitsworth has strong ties to them, there are papers and deeds relating to the Skywrights Guild. Sensing an opportunity, Alex pockets a couple of blank skyship deeds before sneaking back out the window.

Sebastian, on the other hand, sneaked into the main house in order to see Elisa once more. Alex, now back outside, starts raising the alarm about the fire at the cottage and rouses the entire household. Sebastian uses the commotion to sneak out of the house, then rejoins the others a while later back at the cottage which is now well and truly ablaze despite the efforts of the estate staff tackle the flames. The reunion coincides with the arrival of the local fire engine and Alex convincing the estate staff that the fire was probably caused by an oil lantern being blown over by a gust of wind or knocked over by Reginald's carelessness.

With the crew's lodgings having, quite literally, gone up in smoke arrangements were made for them to be put up for them to be put up for the night at the local village inn. One of the groundsmen was to give them a lift in another car which most of the crew accepted, though Reginald kicked up a fuss.

Thoughts

Admittedly, the opportunity for the characters to travel beyond the boundaries of Alyeska was always there....they took it a bit sooner than expected.

It was a role-play heavy session with no combat, certainly an interesting change of pace. Least I manage to tease some plot, hopefully the players will make a note of it so that it'll come in useful later when that plotline develops. But things are being setup quite nicely by the characters' own actions and in a better way than I'd originally planned.

Hopefully next session the whole group will be present so that we can get Herbert's court martial done and out of the way. Actually spent some time doing some research on court martials, including the old British tradition of using swords. Herbert will be tried as a deserter since he was absent from his unit for more than 30 days, though it'll be interesting to see whether he does as Lt. Williams said and go along with the official story or tries to get evidence that there was a conspiracy to have him killed.

Frozen Skies: SWADE Edition

So a new edition of Savage Worlds recently got announced, mostly consisting of tweaks here and there with new rules. Like a lot of people I've closely been following the previews that have been seen so far, but nothing that seems to majorly effect Frozen Skies. Though ultimately we'll have to wait until the release of the new rules after the Kickstarter later this month.

Frozen Skies: BLACK ICE

BLACK ICE is the codename I'm using for the SWADE update for Frozen Skies, a nod to how the edition was called 'Savage Worlds Black' for a while. Black Ice will be a PDF that will probably be released some point after the SWADE Kickstarter, least when I've had the chance to read through the new rules and see how they effect Frozen Skies. Whilst I cannot say for sure what will be changed, from the previews shown so far there are a couple of things;

*Re-done weapon stats.

*Reworked NPCs.

There may be other changes like, for example, to vehicle combat, etc. It depends what is featured in the new edition, though Black Ice may contain new content and errata for Frozen Skies.

Adventurer's Guild

Pinnacle's other recent announcement was the Savage Worlds Adventurer's Guild (SWAG), a program that will allow people to create and then sell their own Savage Worlds creations through the likes of DriveThruRPG without going through Pinnacle's normal official licensing program. SWAG is a platform for new creators to sell their work.

At present I can't really say much about it until Pinnacle releases more details, though Melior Via has already expressed interest for people to release content for Accursed as part of SWAG. Whilst it would be neat for that to happen with Frozen Skies I would rather wait until SWAG has been running for some quite and I've established more of the setting's framework before opening it up for SWAG.

Regardless, exciting times ahead for Savage Worlds!

Frozen Skies Episode 8: Tussle With The Dark Claws

The adventures of the Airship Waylander continue!

Last time the crew of the Waylander had been contracted by the Royal Alyeskan Air Police to transport a prisoner from the remote town of Prospector's Reach for trial in Gravenburgh. Things had gone well, too well for the characters' liking, least until they came under attack from some sky pirates. The scoundrels of the sky were fended off, though the characters' own fighters were almost wrecked.

This week we tried something a little different and used paper tokens for the aerial combat.

Riding The Clouds

After their previous encounter with the ruffians of the airways, the crew of the Waylander warily flew on southwards with one eye kept on the wild blue yonder. Reggie set to work patching up the airship's two escort fighters, though with assistance from a crewman that ended up being more of a hindrance than a help. Thankfully, Reggie just managed to fix the plane when a lookout called out...

A pair of pirate planes were rapidly closing on the Waylander, opening fire at long range for negligible effect. The Banshee plane was hastily launched and the pilot flew to the port (left) of the airship with the intention of circling around over the airship to take on the pirates. Return fire from the airship managed to hit one of the pirate planes, though with little perceived effect. Though nuisance fire from rifle armed crewmen did seem to give at leat one of the pirates pause for thought.

The pirates attempted to do a strafing run along the Waylander's starboard side to try to knock out her engines, but only seemed to succeed in putting a few holes in the airship's gasbag.Tag managed to swing the airship round so that the pirates received fire from both sides of the airship, in particular from the crew served 50-cal. machine guns that gave a good account of themselves. Both pirates ended up in twisted metal coffins half buried in the snow, at least one appeared to have took damage to their plane's control as they failed to pull out of a spiral.

In The Clear?

With the two pirate plane dealt with, the crew spoke to the police officers escorting the prisoner to find out who might've been attacking them. Turned out that the prisoner was one of the lieutenants for a rather bloodthirsty outfit of sky pirates known as the Dark Claws. This band of cold-blooded killers is known to be particularly ruthless, leaving very few survivors from their attacks and not taking any prisoners.

They had but a few minutes for this to sink before the lookout cried out again, "More bandits!"

The enemy airship opened up at long range with its forward turret, but again for negligible effect. The enemy fighters, on the other hand, shot forward and inflicted solid hits on the Waylander's own escorts. Tag gave orders for the escorts to re-dock with the Waylander before he took the airship down to tree-top level and opened the throttles on the engines with the intention of conducting a tactical withdrawal. Though the Waylander made one final and very impressive parting shot; the rear turret landed some very good hits on one of the pirate fighters and literally made its cockpit explode.

Eventually they reached Alyeska's southern coastline and swung round to approach Gravenburgh from the sea, mainly to reduce the chances of further ambushes. They managed to land without further trouble and were met by the police, who took the prisoner and handed over payment with a little extra on top. They also received a message from Andrei, the broker of secrets that Tag had met previously, that there were a few parties interested in the glimmer rock deposit the crew found and he wanted to know whether Tag had a price in mind or wished for a bidding contest. The crew also made plans to travel to the Commonwealth's Home Isles to resolve the summons from Reggie's father, thus postponing Herbert's court martial.

Thoughts

The paper tokens certainly helped make aerial combat easier as everyone could see what was happening rather than relying on guesswork. Will probably use them again in the future, though have included more pics below. 

Though whilst there wasn't much in the way or airship-to-airship combat, I've been mulling ideas for possible improvements and to add more depth. Airship construction is likely to be a combination of the old Pulp Gear Tookit and the Bombers & Zeppelin supplement for FASA's old Crimson Skies miniatures game. Also considering whether or not to adapt the Altitude system that existed in previous versions of Savage Worlds, it might add something to aerial combat or it might not.

With potential revisions (least far as airships are concerned), ideas for new gear and a new version of Savage Worlds on the horizon I may end up doing a Frozen Skies Companion to cover all of this.

The Gwentshire Chronicles: The Laine Collection

Sometimes, its amazing where you pick up ideas from.

Recently visited the Lynn Museum in Kings Lynn, which proved to be interesting and a gold mine for ideas. The museum had in display a collection of curiosities amassed by the artist and explorer Thomas Baines. The collections features curios from Africa, Australia and even South-East Asia. There was also some stuff on the English Civil War and the Siege of Kings Lynn, another source of ideas which I'll write about in the near future.

The Laine Collection

Officially, the so-called 'Laine Collection' had its genesis in the efforts of Sir Thomas Laine to preserve curios and other artefacts during the English Civil War. Various items were entrusted to Laine by various landowners to safeguard them as Parliamentarian and Royalist forces clashed with one another within the boundaries of the county. Sir Thomas is notable for organizing a wagon train to evacuate the collections during the Siege of Gwentford in 1644, then hid the collection on his estate until after the Restoration. The Collection continued to grow until it was eventually entrusted to the care of the Gwentshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, who later used the Collection for the founding of the 'Gwentford Museum' in 1889. The museum, renamed the Gwentshire County Museum in the early 1900s, still houses the Collection but only has a small part of it on display to the public.

The official story isn't that far off the truth, the Collection was the result of Sir Thomas attempting to safeguard certain artefacts during the English Civil War. It is generally unknown that Sir Thomas had a more secret motivation for doing so; he did it to help the Mist-Bound.

Sir Thomas first became aware of the Mist-Bound in the late 1620s, though at first he thought them to be little more than demons. It was only after an encounter in 1637 that he realised that they were the spiritual guardians of Gwentshire and quickly set about trying to help them however he could. With the outbreak of the English Civil War 1642, Sir Thomas realised that dark forces could use the conflict to strike at the source of the Mist-Bound in hope of critically weakening them. Sir Thomas soon raised a band of men and women to help him acquire artefacts he knew were important to the Mist-Bound so that he could safeguard them, though as a cover he offered protection for the valuables of the local nobility in the area.

The Collection would remain in the care of the Laine family for the next hundred years, though there were attempts by outside forces to destroy it (a fire in the 1760s came close to destroying the whole Collection). Eventually Sit Thomas' descendant, William Laine, would entrust the Collection to the Gwentshire Archaeological and Natural History Society after his son and sole heir was killed during the Crimean War in 1854. The Society set about cataloging the Collection, then decided to use it as the foundation of a museum which opened to the public in 1889. Attempts continued to steal or destroy parts of the Collection, leading the Society to decide to only put a small part of it on public display whilst moving the rest to safe storage. Occasionally, larger parts of the Collection have been put on display as part of some exhibition.

In the present day, the Collection is still housed at the Gwentshire County Museum. An air raid shelter, built during WW2 in the museum's basement, and later refurbished in the 1990s contains the bulk of the Collection. As mentioned previously, a small part is on public display but the items are periodically rotated between being in storage and on display. The museum grants access to the Collection for those who can prove a valid scholarly interest.

Using the Collection

There are a few options for GMs with regards to using the Collection in their games. 

The main option is using the Collection to aid the players, either to fight some supernatural foe or find out key information. The best way of using this is have a player roll Investigation and then add +1 for a success and each raise (to a max of +4) on either a Knowledge (Occult) roll or an attack on a supernatural foe. Other rolls for the bonus include Streetwise or other Knowledge skills, possibly even on Intimidation on certain characters.

Another option is to use the Collection to link campaigns set in different time periods. A 'past' campaign could see the player characters retrieving an item for the Collection and then needing that item in a campaign set years or even decades later. An example could see the characters being part of Sir Thomas' band in the 1640s collecting artefacts against the backdrop of the English Civil War, then having those some items show up in a 1930s era campaign either to stop a big bad or even being stolen by the characters.

Finally the characters could be out to destroy the collection, particularly if they are under the impression that the Mist-Bound are evil beings needing to be defeated. This option could result in the characters releasing a truly evil and powerful being which they'll have to somehow defeat, a task that could've been made more difficult if they have destroyed an item that could have been used to defeat said being.

Frozen Skies Session 7: This Is Fine

Last time we joined the crew of the airship Waylander, two of their fellows had ended up in a police cell as the law tried to get the entire crew booked for smuggling. Though the law would be frustrated in its efforts, it does have other tricks up its sleeves. One of the detained crew members has to face a court martial, the other had urgent summons from home to face an equally dreadful matter.

The Not So Long Arm Of The Law

Previously the crew attempted a smuggling run, though a chance encounter with a wrecked cargo ship gave them a bit of legality by amending the ship's cargo manifest. When they arrived to find the police waiting for them, they were able to claim that their cargo had been salvage. The only thing that the police were able to pin onto the crew that was one of them, the medic, was an army deserter. The newest arrival, the mad scientist Reginald Spitsworth, also got locked up as the police doubted that he was the son of a noble...which he also kicked up quite a fuss about.

Reginald was duly released, though the medic Herbert was held until a military provost arrived to escort him to a court-martial at Calharrow. The crew were also asked by the police to pick up a prisoner, a downed sky pirate, from Prospector's Reach and transport him to Gravenburgh. Both Herbert and Reginald got a chewing out by Tag, plus it was agreed to do the prisoner transport job and then take Herbert to his court-martial.

They flew out to pick up the prisoner without any encounters enroute, once in Prospector's Reach they rolled Vigor due to the cold and Sebastian burned through his bennies to avoid getting a level of Fatigue. Likewise, picking up the prisoner went without a hitch...though the characters were perhaps getting a little paranoid at this point with how well things had gone.

Things Never Go Smooth

Deciding to drop the prisoner off in Gravenburgh first, they flew south-east from Prospector's Reach rather than risk getting too close to Broken Spires. Things were going smoothly until a Spades face card was drawn, signifying enemies. Sure enough five aircraft, one 'Hornet' light fighter and four 'Kestral' medium fighters, launched an attack out of the clouds. Two of the Kestrals took on the crew's Blackforge Marauder, though only one of the enemy aircraft managed to do damage and admittedly that was three wounds in a single pass. The Hornet and other two Kestrals went after the crew's Banshee plane, but between them only managed a couple of wounds (the character had the adventure card that negated damage).

The Marauder limped back to the airship, whilst the Banshee plane took on the sky pirates. The Banshee's Siren was put to great effect, I ruled that making the enemy pilot Shaken granted a +2 bonus to Shooting rolls against them. My notoriously bad dice rolling kicked in and the sky pirates only managed to succeed in damaging the controls of the Banshee plane so that it couldn't turn right. The turrets on the Waylander proved their worth, helping to shoot down the enemies. Only two of the enemies managed to bail out, the rest ended up in a twisted metal coffin. Sebastian, in one of the turrets, took out the last sky pirate by doing an impressive 54 damage.

Thoughts

A high Piloting skill coupled with an agile aircraft (ie bonus to Handling), in the case of the Hornet with Evasion 8, didn't prove to be an issue. It was basically like a high Parry, though maneuvers and tricks can help counter this. I seem to be getting a better handle on range modifiers, it required the use of maneuvers by both sides to negate the penalties for shooting. All-in-all, very happy with how air combat is working out.

This week's post is shorter than I'd like, unfortunately I've struggle to get this written due to various factors but I hope I got the key points covered. 

Keep The Home Fires Burning

This week we're looking at another of the planned settings for Utherwald Press and, fittingly enough as I have a cold, its Keep The Home Fires Burning.

It'll pretty much be a few ideas I have in mind for the setting, concepts and possible rules. There will also be an insight in how character players interact with the setting along with a couple of adventure hooks.

The Flu

Central to the setting is going to be the Spanish Flu; at least a quarter of the British population was affected and over 50 million people died because of it worldwide (228,000 in Britain alone). Even Prime Minister David Lloyd George contracted it but survived.

The visual signs of the flu is going to be people coughing and sneezing in addition to overcrowded hospitals. Though there is other things such as theaters, dance halls, churches and other public-gathering places being closed in addition to people wearing anti-germ masks. Carts piled with the flu's victims would also be common.

In game terms the flu would be Long-Term Chronic, Majorly Debilitating. Edges and Hindrances could be used to represent immunity (or lack of) to the flu, also considering something like the Fear Levels from Deadlands but adapted for areas of greater or lesser risk of infection. These 'Infection Levels' would determine the penalty on a Vigor roll to contract the flu, the higher the Level the greater the penalty. Hospitals would have the highest, but something like a large park would have a pretty low Infection Level due to lack of people. Anti-germ masks could provide a bonus here.

The Characters

Decided not to go with any references to MI13, instead the characters will be part of a group known as 'Home Office Auxiliaries'. The characters will have been sworn-in as special constables (unless they're already members of the police) to work for the Home Office by investigating and containing the weirdness that is afflicting London in hopes of keeping it under wraps. Though whilst they are likely to face the weird and supernatural, they are just as likely to deal with more mundane affairs.

One task the characters could expect to do is being called to a hospital to investigate why the bodies in its morgue are being disturbed, only to discover a warren of ghouls under the building. On the other end of scale, the characters could have to deal with a criminal gang who have been peddling a false 'vaccine' for the flu.

Frozen Skies Session 6: Going Down To Grimsport

The adventures of the airship Waylander and its crew continue.

Combat proved to be surprisingly absent this session, though some critical plot development took place setting things up for other things to occur later on. Highlights include; the introduction of a new player character, visiting a town with an ill-reputation, meeting an NPC who'll become important later on...oh and the characters themselves being arrested.

A Sharp Dressed Inventor

After successfully resolving the Windryder problem at Taran's Bluffs, the crew return to Bowerstead Post. Alex sought out Ardan Gowan, mainly to collect some promised money and to get an update on the job Ardan had mentioned. The job was up for grabs as the pilot, Harris, had done a vanishing act. Tag meanwhile reported in with the company foreman, Dermot Hardwick, and said about some of the things that had happened. In return, Hardwick says theres some toff who claims to be one of 'em fancy inventors and a supposed dab hand with machines. Tag, reluctantly, agrees to have the toff sent over to the airship.

So a posh speaking and well dress gentleman present himself at the airship, introducing himself as 'Reginald Spitsworth the Fourth'. Reginald reveals that he's dabble with Glim Tech and has been amassing knowledge on Ancient devices, though he ends up making himself an unwelcomed guest amongst the crew. Later, some of the crewmen manage to coax him into a game of cards and fleece him for all he was worth. Reginald's wallet also ended up having an adventure of its own.

The crew accepts Ardan's job and fly to the decrepit fishing town of Grimsport, the most derelict and miserable town in all of Alyeska. Shortly after arriving they quickly learn that the locals are extremely unfriendly to strangers, though the two-man Air Police detachment and the store owner are the only friendly faces for miles around. Tag confronts one of the locals who's extremely rude back and the ruckus attracts attention from the other townsfolk, though both sides back down and Tag sends word back to the Waylander that all the airship's guns are to be manned round the clock.

Eventually their contact, a sea captain, sails into port and hands over the goods after a friendly exchange. The crew's job was to then take the goods to Gravenburgh where they would be delivered to another contact. En-route they spied a cargo ship that had floundered on the rocks and abandoned by its crew, so the characters scrambled aboard and took what they could get their hands on. They also took the ship's log, cargo manifest and associated paperwork. Alex amended the cargo manifest to include the goods they were transporting as part of Ardan's job, basically making them look like they were salvage.

They were met by the law when they arrive in Gravenburgh and asked to come back to the station to answer a few questions and to hand over any and all paperwork relating to the airship and cargo. They were asked about one of the towns they'd visited, their deceased crewmate (the ex-Aero-marine George Packer) and their reasons for being in Grimsport. Herbert was revealed to be an army deserter and held pending a response from the army. Reginald was also held as the officers didn't believe he was the son of a Commonwealth noble, though a message was sent to his supposed father.

The rest of the crew (Tag, Alex and Sebastian) were released on bail. Tag was met by a car waiting outside the police station and an invitation. Tag accepted the invitation and was driven to a rather plush house, the owner of which introduced himself as a broker of secrets called Andrei. He'd heard about the crew and basically offered them some work, in addition to his information services. Tag noticed a ticking noise but no clock in the room, though the sound stopped and Andrei revealed a mechanical arm which he pulled out a key for and winded it up. Though Andrei talked about "perception" and "what is truth and what is not".

Tag shared a few choice bits of information, in return Andrei revealed that Harris had 'turned Crown's evidence'.

Thoughts

The session has to be one of the few sessions I've seen where combat hasn't taken place, though it could've still happened depending on the characters' choices in Grimsport and checking for random encounters (they only got one which was Fortune). What should be noted is that they are selling the location of the glimmer rock deposit they found, though they'll approach a number of different interest parties to maximize their profit.

I had to applaud Alex's player for thinking of amending the cargo manifest to help, legally cover their tracks. Originally they were going to do what I'd expected them to do and land outside of the town and offload the goods, though the random chance of the ship wreck gave them an unexpected option and the players were clever enough to exploit it. Though it does mean they'll suffer a minor setback, granted nothing compared to the major issue thats going to arise (depends what's happened to a certain item). This will be on top of Herbert's potential court martial and the response from Reginald's father.

Though curious is that they discussed the idea of returning to Grimsport and turning it into a base of operations.

Setting Overview: Darkwatch

Darkwatch is the combination of two Setting Ideas; Forsaken and Deepwatch.

The core of Darkwatch is still the original idea for Forsaken, except I've decided to make subterranean elements a stronger part of the setting. Also envisioning Darkwatch to play as a reverse resistance campaign; the player characters are part of the occupation forces attempting to root out the resistance cells of the enemy forces still lurking in the city.

Welcome to the Darkwatch

As I said above, I view Darkwatch based games and campaigns to be the reverse of the typical resistance campaign. Though the city has been liberated, it is far from secure as enemy forces still lurk in the shadows. The player characters are part of a group called the Darkwatch, effectively the city watch and military garrison. Their job is to basically protect the city as it starts to rebuild and to secure it by hunting down the enemy remnants still within the city.

Also going with the idea that the war against the dark forces is still ongoing, so the characters will have to deal with sabotage and trouble from soldiers going to and from the 'front'. It could be as mundane as guarding a grain warehouse or as exciting as chasing across rooftops after an enemy spy. In addition to the military angle, the characters will be expected to deal with crime to help promote law and order in the city. From time to time they could also have to deal with deserters hiding out in the city or be sent to deal with bandits in the countryside surrounding the city.

The ultimate goal of a Darkwatch campaign would to be fully reclaim and secure parts of the city, whole campaign arcs could be set in a single district. There is the possibility of the characters finding treasure amidst the ruined buildings and tunnels of the city.