Halfway Station 3.0

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Dracula Dossier 44: Boatyard Ambush

2024-02-28

Previously, on the Dracula Dossier: Hopkins tracks down Varkony’s bus fleet and discovers they are all heading to Sevastopol and are organised by a Lisky Bratva fixer called Kiselev. Ritter reaches out to him, and learns when and where they will arrive; the team’s old friend Kostya gets them into the city no questions asked for a crate of vodka. They confirm Varkony and her Renfields are coming and set up an ambush at the boatyard where they are being dropped off. It’s midnight in Sevastopol, they’ve got automatic weapons, night vision goggles, SLR camera gunsights, magnetised iron rounds, and a werewolf. Showtime…

Sevastopol, February 2024

The fun begins when Renfields simultaneously advance around both sides of a building on the roadside. Renfield 1 is advancing along the north of the building when Vincent introduces him to a claymore mine, which severely wounds him; then Emilia (in wolf form) leaps out on him while he is still staggered and rips him to pieces. Smyth backtracks that Renfield onto the street, where he sees Natalya, Christina and Varkony flattened against the wall, still processing the noise of the claymore blast. He fires his AK47 at Varkony, seriously wounding her and lightly wounding Christina, who is in the way.

Christina turns at bay to hold off Smyth, while Natalya grabs Varkony and hustles her towards the waterfront. Christina fires multiple times but misses Smyth due to her own wounds and the difficulty of aiming at him in the poor light. And maybe because of some residual sentiment.

It is at this point that Smyth realises that even if he does rescue Natalya (his sister) and Christina (his ex) from vampiric domination, things can never return to the way they were in what now seems like an idyllic youth, however much he daydreams of that. None of them are the people they were back then anymore. Smyth is Ruthless, however, and his thoughts quickly return to the matter at hand.

Meanwhile, Vincent, Cartwright, and Ritter, up on the roof, all open fire on Renfield 1 before he can duck back around the corner of the building. All of them hit, but he shrugs off the bullets and pellets and readies his SMG. Lonely eschews the claymore detonator in his hand, draws his vampire-killing blades, leaps on the Renfield and hacks at him in a frenzy. His flurry of blows is parried with contemptuous ease, then the Renfield slams him, using the SMG as an improvised club, shaking and wounding him.

Smyth steps out into traffic to get a better angle on Varkony, reasoning that if any of the cars fail to dodge him, he can just shoot them. While the horns blare, he puts another burst into Varkony, incapacitating her and wounding Natalya. Varkony and Natalya continue to hobble towards the water.

Ritter reaches out to touch Renfield 1 with his AK, and appears to hit him, but causes no injury, and Cartwright fares no better with his shotgun. Vincent gets ready to throw a CS gas grenade into the boat but fumbles the throw and drops it at Ritter’s feet, where it hisses merrily to itself as it covers Vincent, Ritter, and Cartwright with tear gas.

Lonely and Renfield 1 continue to trade blows; Lonely’s frenzied stabbing does the Renfield no harm, but the Renfield brains him again with the clubbed SMG, shaking and wounding him.

Those on the roof emerge from the tear gas cloud, choking and spluttering, and fire into the melee before them, to no avail. Lonely and Renfield 1 continue to trade blows, both are about equally damaged now, lending credence to Lilith’s assertion that Lonely is about as good as a Renfield.

Smyth closes on Varkony and fires again, this time at Natalya, reasoning that with Varkony incapacitated already, the best thing he can do is bring Natalya down, as this will stop their escape. Natalya is seriously wounded but manages to stagger to the edge of the jetty and fall into the water, dragging Varkony in with her. Renfield 1 notices this even in the middle of the fight with Lonely.

Emilia (who thinks she is Smyth’s current girlfriend) and Christina (who is definitely Smyth’s former girlfriend) glare at each other. The werewolf charges Christina, who is backing up to cover Varkony’s retreat, and switches target to fire an aimed shot at Christina. This does no real damage, but later, when they see it isn’t healing, they realise Varkony’s Renfields also have magnetised iron rounds.

Lonely’s frenzied stabs continue to miss Renfield 1, and the gunfire from the roof does no better. Ritter lobs a CS grenade into the boat, discomforting the crew somewhat.

Emilia closes to claw range with Christina.

Smyth drops his AK and sprints after Varkony and Natalya, drawing a knife as he goes. Grabbing the blade between his teeth, he makes a perfect dive into the dark waters of the Black Sea and disappears from view.

Roll credits.

GM Notes

You couldn’t ask for a better place to end the session than that.

This whole session was one long combat, and I struggled with it. Twelve Legendary Wild Cards with automatic weapons, explosives, and supernatural powers means there is so much going on that I easily lose track of it, which is not something that happens with a herd of Extras. In particular, I did not make good use of the vampire’s powers; she should have tried to mentally dominate Smyth and Emilia, summoned the boatyard rats to swarm the nearby PCs, and if she was going to run, she should have sped herself up. Next combat, fewer Wild Cards, more Extras. Next campaign, fewer powers for the bad guys; combats rarely last long enough for them to use more than 2-3.

The combat lasted four turns over a two hour session (late start due to train troubles for Ritter’s player), so on average 2.5 minutes per character turn; a little higher than usual, but in my experience you can’t get it below two minutes per player whatever you do, and the combat system in SWADE is complex enough that each turn required a lot of Q&A on the combat rules; this session, that was mostly about how best to use assault rifles to put maximum damage on target with minimal penalties on to-hit rolls.

It feels like we are only a couple of episodes from the finale now. I hope I can do it justice.

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Review: Stargrave

2024-02-24

In a Nutshell: It’s Frostgrave in spa-a-a-ace. SF skirmish wargame from Osprey Games, written by Joseph A McCullough.

Introduction (4 pages). This is a two-player competitive skirmish game, focused on campaign play. Individual games should be two hours or less, and survivors accrue experience, loot and cool toys which improve their performance in later games. You’ll need a table 2′ x 2′ to 3′ x 3′, tape measure, pencil, crew sheets, a couple of dozen figures, lots of terrain or things to stand in for it (I often use books), a few d20s, and some loot tokens.

Assembling a Crew (24 pages). The premise of the game is that a great interstellar war destroyed the star empires, and now the galaxy is a ruined wasteland, populated by pirate fleets preying on the survivors, and individual ships with small crews (that’s you, that is) looking for loot, revenge, or whatever else motivates them. The crew consists of 10 beings; a captain, the most capable figure and one which represents the player on the table; the first mate; and up to 8 soldiers, of whom up to 4 can be specialists. You begin with Cr 400 to hire soldiers; they cost from nothing to Cr 150, depending on their stats and equipment.

Each has a statline listing their Move, Fight, Shoot, Armour, Will and Health; high is good, and for captains and first mates, the values may be adjusted from the baseline values, depending on which of 8 backgrounds they choose. The captain and first mate also have access to powers (see below). The captain begins with 5 powers, of which 3-4 must be core powers for his background; the first mate has 4, of which 2-3 must be background core powers. Captains begin at level 15 and have 6 slots for carrying items; first mates start at level 0 and have 5 gear slots. Both can advance by gaining experience, which soldiers cannot. Soldiers don’t have powers, and only have one gear slot. Weapons and armour take up 1-3 gear slots according to type.

Aliens look like they look, but use the same statlines and powers as humans. Soldiers start with a fixed set of gear, and while it is replaced between games, they pretty much never get better toys. There are only 10 different kinds of weapons, and 4 kinds of armour; a pistol is a pistol, and has the same stats whether it’s a flintlock, a Glock, or a blaster. So there. I approve all of these messages.

Rules (31 pages). This chapter covers setting up the table, movement, combat, and controlling random NPCs and monsters who might turn up. Table setup depends on the scenario chosen to an extent, but to encourage movement, you’re advised to have tables with a lot of terrain. Figures are placed within 2″ of their starting edge or corner, but 6″ away from any other edge. Your objective in a game, as with Frostgrave, is to acquire loot tokens, and these are now scattered around the table; loot comes in two flavours, physical and data.

Each player rolls a d20 for initiative, and players then act in descending order of initiative. First, everyone moves their captain and up to three nearby soldiers; then, all the first mates act, again each with up to three soldiers; then, all the remaining soldiers act; and finally, any NPC monsters or pirates activate. When a figure acts, it can make one move, and do one other thing – fight, shoot, use a power, open a loot token, or move again (this move is only half the first, though). There is a simple checklist to determine what NPC figures do when activated.

To do something, roll 1d20, add the appropriate stat, and meet or beat a target number; this will either be listed, or be the enemy’s Fight roll – itself a d20 plus the Fight stat; a natural 20 always succeeds, a natural 1 always fails. If fighting or shooting, beating the target’s Fight roll means you hit; now deduct the target’s armour from your attack roll, and if the result is positive, that’s how much Health the target loses. If it loses at least 4, it is stunned (“miss a turn”); at 4 Health, it is wounded (and can only do one thing per turn); at 0 Health, the figure is out of the game.

The game ends either when one side has no live crew left on the table, or every loot token has been carried off the table.

Campaigns (35 pages, most of them about loot). In campaign play, after each game, you check how badly injured your 0 Health crew are, use out of game powers, check for experience points and levelling up, and appraise and spend your loot. Captains and first mates are more likely to survive their injuries, but may suffer other consequences such as losing gear or acquiring a permanent injury; experience can level up the captain or first mate, and give them a stat or power activation boost, or maybe even a new power. Loot once appraised is either a cool toy to add to your loadout, or sold for Credits that can be used to hire soldiers, buy cool toys, or improve the crew’s ship. (The ship takes no direct part in games, but once upgraded can give you benefits between games in a campaign in several ways.)

Powers (16 pages). There are about 50 different powers, which can be mystical or psychic abilities or just plain dirty tricks. Most are used during a game, though some are used before it starts or after it finishes. In game terms, they function like spells; you roll to cast them, pay power points to use them, they have a range, they might inflict damage on the caster (who might also deliberately take damage to improve casting chances), armour might interfere with using them.

Scenarios (21 pages). Here we find ten basic scenarios; the author’s intention is that these should inspire you to create your own. Each gives an explanation of how your crew got there, how to set up the table, any special rules, and what loot and experience can be expected. This, incidentally, is something that McCullough does well; all of his scenarios have some interesting twist or special rule that make them stand out. Often, this involves something from the bestiary.

Bestiary (24 pages). This chapter lists a couple of dozen creatures and NPCs you might bump into either because they’re part of a scenario, or because the included random encounter tables dropped one on the table in front of you. There are two tables, one for creatures and one for sentients with guns, be they police, pirates, or local militia. Creatures appear when you open a loot token; blokes with guns turn up if a roll of 1d20 + game turn number is 15+, and the higher the score, the worse the problem. There are a range of special abilities that these random enemies might have, and you’re encouraged to build your own using the things in the book as examples.

…and we close with a crew sheet, power cards, templates and quick reference, all of them available as free downloads on Osprey’s website, along with the crew creation chapter and the solo bounty hunting scenarios. Props for that, lasses and lads.

Format

176 page Kindle book. Also available in dead tree and PDF, if you’re that way inclined. I went for the Kindle version because it’s quite a bit cheaper than the others, and experience teaches me that most of the games I buy don’t get used, so…

The layout is very basic, I suspect to simplify creating the ebooks for Kindle and whatnot, but that has the avantage that it adapts to tablets or even cellphones easily. I am extremely jealous of the figures and terrain in the photos scattered through the book.

What I Think

Obviously, I’d want to play this solo. That’s possible in three ways; play against random creatures and pirates (probably too easy), the supplements Dead or Alive (solo bounty hunting missions) or Quarantine 37 (bugs or aliens, with two competitive and one solo campaigns).

There’s not much in the way of things to do between fights, but first, this is a skirmish wargame, not an RPG; and second, us grognards played for years when actual RPGs didn’t have much in the way of rules outside combat.

I’m really taken with this game, although I suspect that’s due to dreaming about playing it with a pile of well-painted minis on a table with great looking terrain, none of which I will ever have, although tokens on Roll20 are still an option. Even so, it looks like a fast, simple game I would enjoy playing.

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Reviews

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Dracula Dossier 43: Midnight in Sevastopol

2024-02-21

Previously, on The Dracula Dossier: The team escape from the underwater base in Lake Bicaz, moments ahead of Dracula, Varkony, and sundry werewolves, Renfields and Romanian Special Forces operators. Later, by reviewing documents stolen from the base and talking to EDOM, the team discovers that the SOE mission to Romania in 1940 reanimated Vlad the Impaler and restarted a dormant vampire civil war between him and Count John Dracula of Hungary. As Cartwright observes, they have already picked a side. Later, Lilith tells Lonely it’s time he met her father…

Location Unknown, January 2014

Lilith takes Lonely to meet her sire in both the biological and vampiric senses of the word, Vlad Tepes.

Lonely’s pitch is:

He is on Lilith’s side.
He is dedicated to supporting the fight against Count Dracula
He has helped deliver the deaths of two brides plus about six of the vampiric servants of John Dracula.
Like the Voivode, he prefers the blade to modern ways of killing.
He and his friends want to finish the job. “We have shown our ability to do so,” he says.
Lonely commits to pursuing this war to the end – of Count Dracula or himself.

Vlad likes the cut of Lonely’s jib, and agrees they have a shared objective, destroying Count John Dracula. Lonely and his friends will be richly rewarded for success, but failure will bring impalement. Lonely agrees this is fair, and escapes with a whole skin.

Lonely discerns that Vlad is not interested in global domination, although he would like Wallachia back, and still holds a grudge against the Ottoman Empire, although someone else seems to have dealt with that for him.

When he rejoins the team, Emilia sniffs him carefully and pronounces him as human as he was before.

Tel Aviv, February 2014

The team’s next move is to find and neutralise Ida Varkony. Neutralising her probably means a firefight as she is unlikely to come quietly. That means facing off against her, Natalya and Christina, and an unknown number of Lisky Bratva thugs and subordinate vampires and Renfields.

Hopkins tracks down Varkony’s bus fleet and discovers they are all heading to Sevastopol and are organised by a Lisky Bratva fixer called Kiselev. This strikes everyone as suspicious, especially as Dracula has constructive possession of a Russian nuclear submarine, and it is currently in Sevastopol – not Vladivostok which is where it’s supposed to be. Has the ratline been activated?

Sevastpol, February 2014

Ritter reaches out to Kiselev, and arranges a meeting; the team’s old friend Kostya the Russian navy bo’sun gets them into the city no questions asked in exchange for a crate of vodka.

When the team meets Kiselev, for a few dollars more they learn when and where the buses will arrive. There’s really only one way into Sevastopol in a tour bus, the H06, which is conveniently overlooked by the Otel Markur, and while the rest of the team work through the traditional arming topos, Cartwright and Vincent rent a room there and keep an eye out for buses. Late one night, they confirm to the others that Varkony and her Renfields are coming, then pile into a car and make for the city to join the team.

Ritter hands the Lisky Bratva a wad of notes and suggests that they take an interest in the bars and restaurants downtown for a few hours; the scheduler tells him that a few passengers are being dropped off at a boatyard opposite the navy docks.

Rightly deducing that Varkony and her Renfields are going to catch a boat over to the sub, the team hustles over there and sets up an ambush. Smyth reminds them that they have to kill Varkony but two of the Renfields are of sentimental value to him and need to be taken alive. Someone mutters at the back that it may not be as easy as all that.

It’s midnight in Sevastopol, they’ve got automatic weapons, night vision goggles, SLR camera gunsights, magnetised iron rounds, a maniac with special vampire-slaying blades, and a werewolf.

Showtime…

GM Notes

This was a short session as several of us had internet connectivity problems and those had to be sorted out before we could move on.

As a backdrop to vampire hunting, since November 2013 things have been heating up in Sevastopol and in-game there are now armed pro-Russian militias roaming the streets looking for trouble. (A few days after the events above, unknown to the PCs, the Russian military will invade the Crimea.) This allows me to have men with guns barge in if things appear to be slowing down or becoming unbalanced.

The team’s SLR camera gunsights are an innovation they’ve acquired from Sayaret Aluka; in this game, vampires can mess with human vision but are still visible in mirrors, so if you can see it through the gunsight but not otherwise, it’s a vampire and you can shoot it with a clear conscience.

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Arion 164: Trolley Problem

2024-02-17

Previously, on the Arioniad: Arion, Cori and Mr Osheen are reunited aboard the Dolphin. They must find out what Korkut is up to; but how?

New Hope Spaceport, Day 025

SWADE encounter draws: 3D, JD. So on day 25, the team encounters something of value; I switch to Mythic and ask: Is this information about Korkut? 11, Yes – and a random event, Remote Event Struggle Freedom.

“I’ve been digging into the spaceport databases,” Dolphin announces, “And I think I have something. He was on Inwah during the revolt. So was Karagoz. Both attached to the Hegemony Consulate as cultural attache and commercial advisor, respectively.” They all know either of those could have been a cover for espionage.

“Does it say what they were doing there?” Cori asks.

“The Hegemony suppressed a lot of that. There’s speculation in public domain reporting from the time that the Hegemony was trying to talk the rebels down, but the Star Army decided to go in hard. You can also find people who think the Hegemony started the revolt itself to give the Army an excuse, or that some external power was behind the revolt.”

Arion chimes in. “So what do we think? Karagoz hangs Korkut’s team out to dry and he wants revenge? One of them finds out something about the other and uses it for leverage?”

“Something like that,” Cori agrees.

New Hope Spaceport, Day 026

Ace of Clubs: Obstacle.

“Impounded, you say?” says Arion to the smiling face on the extracom screen, which he strongly suspects is a computer graphic.

“Yes, captain.”

“May I ask why?”

“Hegemony business,” the face smiles. “I am not at liberty to say more.”

Arion cuts the connection and stomps aft to the crew lounge where he explains the ship is now impounded to the others.

“Wherever it is Karagoz wants us to go,” he says, “Korkut figured it out and doesn’t want us going there.”

“Either that,” Cori says, “Or he thinks I’m on board and wants to search the ship.”

“No, in this port they won’t empty the ship. We just can’t leave port or disembark. That’s going to make things awkward.” Cori shrugs.

“I’m not supposed to be here anyway.”

“Perhaps Korkut thinks Karagoz will try to leave New Hope on this ship?” asks Mr Osheen.

Arion sighs. “I wouldn’t blame him. I know I’d like to.”

The team look at each other with some concern as planetary militia surround the ship about 25 metres out.

“Out of range for me,” Cori says. “D’you think they know I’m here?” Arion shakes his head.

“No, they’re just staying back as a precaution, they can’t be sure you’re not aboard,” the Dolphin says. “Notice that they’re slightly out of the greatest recorded range for a psion. A psi hunter would have access to your records, he’d know what your tested range was. This looks more like some kind of standard operating procedure.”

New Hope Spaceport, Day 027

Ace of Diamonds – treasure…

“Hey Cori, someone’s coming up to the ship… can you scan him or something?”

“If he comes close enough I can read his basic emotions without letting him know.”

Cori rolls a 9 on her Psionics, the ground crew rolls 3 on Spirit – success with a raise, and I roll Character Conversation to see what he’s thinking about. Inform Excited. I also use a SWN One Roll NPC (page 244); upper class, trader, romantic failure, in his prime, wants to leave current life, ambitious.

“Hmm. He’s looking for something, and excited he might find it… he can picture himself as the hero of the hour, impressing Korkut, impressing a girl…” She looks sharply at Arion. “Do guys think like that all the time?”

Arion shrugs. “We’re simple creatures,” he admits. She purses her lips but, perhaps wisely, does not reply.

“What’s he looking for?” Arion asks.

“Not sure. I’m only getting the emotions, remember. The strong ones are about Korkut and the girl… now I’m getting satisfaction. Whatever he was looking for, it’s there. And I can’t put my finger on it, but he doesn’t read like a mechanic. There’s something more calculating, more ambitious, deeper down.”

“He’s accessing waste management,” Dolphin says. “Not unusual; the Port would want to check whether we’re OK in here, or developing some kind of alien infection with a long incubation period. That might be the excuse Korkut used to ground us.”

New Hope Spaceport, Day 031

More draws; 8D, 2C, 4H, KS (Enemy).

The team has been on the Dolphin for almost a week now, and living that close together for that long has tempers a little frayed around the edges; Dolphin is not a big ship.

So, it’s almost a relief when Arion, looking idly out the bridge viewport, sees a group marching over to him; a squad of planetary militia led by Korkut, backed up by the not-a-mechanic from a few days ago. They stop a dozen metres away. Arion waves at Korkut, who taps his earpiece and is connected to the ship’s comms.

“Arion,” he says.

“Mr Korkut.”

“My friend here…” he gestures at not-a-mechanic “has been sampling the waste output from your ship. Unless you’ve developed an unusually high level of estrogen, there’s a woman in there with you, and judging by the other chemical markers, a grath too. I’m willing to bet that’s Coriander Ganzfeld and Osheen. I’ve got nothing against you, Arion, or Osheen; all I want is Ms Ganzfeld, and I can promise her a fair hearing. You’ve got five minutes to come out peacefully, all of you, or my colleagues here will designate the ship for tac missiles.” Dolphin swivels the laser turret onto the group.

“Dolphin, even if you’ve managed to bypass the portside safety interlocks, you can’t traverse fast enough to get us and the squads in cover before the missiles hit, and you know it. That’s just cost you four minutes, so stop screwing around. One minute left. I’m asking you to give up one passenger to save everyone else; that should be an easy decision for an AI. I’d rather not mess up the landing bay or kill anyone I don’t have to.”

Inside, Arion and Cori look at each other.

“I notice he said he could promise me a fair hearing,” Cori muses. “He didn’t say I’d get one, or even that he did actually promise one.”

“I’ll get my gun,” says Mr Osheen, with evident satisfaction.

The Usual Suspects

Here are the SWADE statblocks for our band of adventurers, including Dmitri for when or if he returns; the derived stats are left as an exercise for the interested student, and all of them have Wealth d6.

Arion: Ag d8, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d6, Vi d6. Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d6, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Piloting d8, Repair d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d4, Survival d4. Hindrances: Heroic, Impulsive. Edges: Ace, Alertness.
Cori: Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d6, Vi d6. Academics d6, Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d10, Psionics d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4, Taunt d4. Hindrances: Loyal, Ruthless, Secret (Major). Edges: AB: Psionics, Attractive. Powers: Boost/lower trait, empathy, healing.
Dmitri: Ag d6, Sm d8, Sp d6, St d6, Vi d6. Athletics d4, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Repair d6, Research d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d4. Hindrances: Curious, Loyal, Secret. Edges: Connections, Investigator.
Mr Osheen: Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d8, Vi d6. Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d4. Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Code of Honour. Edges: Berserk, Brawny. Android ancestry: Habit (Major), Outsider (Major), Vow (Major), Construct.

The most complex conversion is Mr Osheen, who replaces Pacifist (Major) with Habit (Major): Liquidise and consume fallen enemies.

GM Notes

That went more easily than last time. The broader range of input from Mythic 2E and SWN help me with the story, and I’ve now indulged myself in the Mythic 2E app, which removes all page-flipping. I might still want to do something about the random encounter mechanism, though; Classic Traveller’s approach still feels more natural to me, and as it’s a solo game I can use whatever mixture of tools I want, and change them up when I feel like it.

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Dracula Dossier 42: Bring Me the Head of Vlad the Impaler!

2024-02-14

Previously, on the Dracula Dossier: The team prepares for, and executes, an infiltration of the secret underwater base in Lake Bicaz, liquidating a couple of deaf-mute servants, several Ruvai Szgany thugs, and a werewolf. As they creep further into the complex, they hear someone practising Romanian below them. Meanwhile, unseen by the dead gypsy monitoring the CCTV, several black SUVs pull up in the gypsy camp…

Lake Bicaz Underwater Base, January 2014

Cartwright doesn’t think that it is likely that anything left in the complex is going to give Smyth, Emilia, and Lonely trouble, so he heads back upstairs with Vincent. Vincent has questions, such as “How long have you known Emilia was a werewolf?” Cartwright briefs him in on the full horror of the situation. While on the top level, he notices the SUVs in the car park. And the tour bus. And a squad of Special Forces operators, some in SCUBA gear. And some Renfields. And werewolves. And Varkony. And most of all, Count John Dracula, who grins wolfishly at the cameras – he knows exactly where they are.

There’s a storm brewing. Not unusual for the Carpathians in January, but could Dracula have anything to do with it?

Sending Vincent to start up the sub, Cartwright hurtles downstairs to level 3, where he finds the rest of the team has met Morales and is discussing with him what actions they can take without triggering his compulsions towards mayhem. Morales has been set to guard a library and trophy room, which contains an empty glass case labelled “Vlad Țepeș”. The bottom level, they tell him, is full of coffins and dirt.

“Time to go,” says Cartwright, quickly explaining what they’re up against. Smyth, Lonely and Emilia look at each other, then pounce on Morales and subdue him so that Cartwright can sedate him. Cartwright and Ritter sweep documents into bags from the library, then everyone hustles back to the sub, and they flee the site moments before SCUBA divers arrive to foul the propellers and plant bombs on the hull.

Abandoning the sub at the first lakeside restaurant they find with cars in the car park, they steal a van in the rising winds and head for Israel via Moldova, Odessa, the Black Sea, Turkey, and a number of charges of Grand Theft Auto.

Tel Aviv, January 2014

Holing up in Tel Aviv, the team hands over Morales to Sayaret Aluka with the warning that the CIA are compromised. Hopkins manages to trace Varkony’s tour bus and says she has a small fleet of them and is running a shell game; which one she’s in at any given moment is anybody’s guess.

The books they stole are all about Vlad Tepes, AKA Vlad the Impaler, and between reading through those and a pointed discussion with EDOM, the group works out that the SOE mission into Romania in 1940 reanimated the wrong vampire – Vlad the Impaler – and accidentally restarted a long-dormant vampire civil war between him and Count John Dracula, his great-grandson. This happened partly because of information EDOM received from Gertrude Bell after World War I. EDOM has lost track of Vlad at the moment, but they think he had a daughter who became a vampire herself. (The team knows this to be true, since she is currently Lonely’s paramour, Lilith.)

“There’s a vampire civil war going on,” Cartwright says, “And we’ve already picked a side.”

Later, when they are alone together, Lilith tells Lonely: “It’s time you met my father.”

GM Notes

I’m leaning into Mythic 2E now. Is Dracula in one of the SUVs? Yes. Does he have Varkony with him? Yes – random event, move away from a thread, repulse weather.

It’s a real shame Vincent couldn’t have stayed naive, but that’s hard to maintain once you see a werewolf transform in front of you and the rest of the team yelling about incoming vampires.

I am somewhat distracted by babysitting grandchildren this week, and Valentine’s Day today, so this was a bit rushed both in execution and writeup; but we’re not ending world hunger here, we’re just having a laugh among friends. The team has now uncovered the final plot twist, so we should now move rapidly to a denouement.

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Arion 163: Drone Riders in the Sky

2024-02-10

Previously, on the Arioniad: Arion has found Mr Osheen and Cori, who knows about the psi hunter looking for her and she is on a mission so secret it cannot be mentioned internally. Now read on…

Little Hisha, Day 023.

“Presumably Karagoz knows you’re on this mission,” Arion says.

“Of course,” Cori replies. “It was his idea. He must’ve thought you could be helpful, and sent you after me so we could work together.” Arion starts to ask why Karagoz couldn’t just tell him that, then realises the Hegemony has mind-readers; after all, he’s talking to one. Sensitive information is on a need-to-know basis, even more so than usual in this business. The pieces start to come together for him.

“That must mean you’re investigating someone who works for Karagoz.”

“Correct. I already told him it couldn’t be you. I would’ve known if you had that in you.”

“Thanks… I think. He sent me away for a few months anyway, that was probably to see if whatever he’s worried about carried on while I was fighting zombies, razors and vampires.” Karagoz will have reasoned that Cori knows Arion well enough to detect any treason, but might have lied to him about what she knows.

“Zombies?”

“Some other time. What now?”

“Well, what do you bring to the party? A ship, and being able to fly it. Karagoz must think that will be useful somehow, so we’d better relocate to the ship. Why do you have that look on your face? I know that look. It never ends well.” But Arion is already activating his encrypted commlink.

“Dolphin, do you have a drone nearby? Good. How much excess mass can it carry in this gravity? Yeah, that should be enough. Can you move it to the roof of this building, quietly? Good. Then you need to recover it while flying over the lake.” Pause. “I don’t know, test the rudder bias or something.” Pause. “I know you don’t have any rudders. That’s no excuse for letting standards slip.” Pause. “I’ll be right back.” He turns apologetically to the others.

“I have to go. It’ll look strange if I’m not at the controls for takeoff. Don’t look at me like that.”

And so it is that shortly afterwards, an overloaded drone heads out over the lake with Mr Osheen and Cori dangling beneath it on field-expedient slings.

An hour or two later, while the repair swarm is disentangling the drone and stowing it, the three are in the crew mess drinking Green.

“You might as well tell me,” Arion points out. “Anyone looking for you will assume you have, so it doesn’t protect me to keep it from me.”

“No,” Cori agrees. “It protects me. It doesn’t matter what people do to you, they can’t find out what you don’t know. Basic operational security.”

“That’s cold.” She shrugs. He mulls things over for a moment.

“It’s Korkut,” he says. “Has to be. Something this secret, he wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it for him, in case they find out and use it against him. It’s not about you; no disrespect, but you’re not that important to the Hegemony. He wants to discredit Karagoz by showing the Hegemony he can’t control his own agents.”

“That’s no more than the truth,” Mr Osheen says.

“You did that on remarkably little information,” Cori says, relenting. “And no, I don’t know how that benefits Korkut. That’s what I’m supposed to find out. Going missing was the best way to draw him out, it gave him a reason to visit New Hope. Once we know what he wants, and why, Karagoz can decide what to do next.”

“Ship,” Mr Osheen asks innocently while the others are tidying things away, “Did you find any bias in the rudders?”

“No. But I’m developing one.”

GM Notes

The plot development comes from Mythic again, with a “Yes” answer to “Is it Korkut?” and Discover Meaning results of Competition Decrease.

I’m not really sure where this is going, but that’s sort of the point with solo games. We play to find out.

However, One Page Mythic and SWADE on their own aren’t giving me enough to work with, which probably says more about me than it does about them; I think the story is suffering though, so for the next episode I’ll step up to full fat Mythic 2E and some GM tools from Stars Without Number.

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Dracula Dossier 41: The Obligatory Secret Underwater Base

2024-02-07

Previously, on The Dracula Dossier: The team narrow down the location of Dracula’s castle to six possibilities and begin by investigating Bicaz Gorge. Here, they find a gypsy camp infested with werewolves on the lake shore, and a hikers’ refuge not marked on the map, which conceals a hidden shaft with a ladder leading a long way down into darkness. They retire to a nearby town, Târgu Mureș, to think things over. Now read on…

Târgu Mureș, January 2014

Extensive planning is torpedoed (so to speak) when Cartwright builds a field-expedient underwater camera drone and the team scouts the lake near the gypsy camp, pretending to be fishing. About 40 metres offshore and 60 metres down, they find a structure of hexagonal concrete prisms rising from the ruins of a castle on a small hill. Pruning away other options, the team decide to steal a submersible from the nearby marine biology station and enter via the structure’s moon pool.

For the price of a dollar apiece, they get a tour of the station and make more detailed plans. Vincent notes that the sub is perfect, and might have been designed specifically for the job.

“Doesn’t that strike anyone as suspicious?” asks Lonely.

Realising the base might have sonar, the team decides to create a distraction by having a speedboat zoom past repeatedly to hide the noise of their approach. McKinney could drive it… but then they remember McKinney might be compromised.

McKinney has pals in the SRI (Romanian secret police). Does anyone really think Dracula hasn’t got tentacles in the SRI? They decide not to bet their lives on it.

Smyth remembers that Dracula turned Rojas, and Rojas is a friend of Bewler, and Bewler is now acting funny. Coincidence? Lonely reminds him that Cyclops was assigned to them by Bewler, and they sent him to brief McKinney. Can Cyclops be trusted? In fact, who can they trust?

“Says the man sleeping with a vampire,” someone scoffs.

While Ritter contacts the local underworld and sources the harder-to-find parts of the loadout, Cartwright tricks out a speedboat for remote control and manufactures a few other goodies, such as a magnetised iron knife for Smyth. Smyth and Emilia go shopping and buy or rent the legally available items they need. Meanwhile, Lonely is casing the joint in Potoci. Ritter then bones up on field trauma surgery in case Cartwright gets taken out by raging vampires or werewolves. Better to have two medics.

Staţiunea Biologică „Petre Jitariu”, Potoci, January 2014

At first light one Sunday, which Lonely has determined is the best time to hit the lab, the team drive past it and hide the car in the woods before sneaking back to the submarine pen. With Ritter on overwatch and Smyth ready to beat up any security guards who might be awake and active at dawn in the freezing Carpathians, Lonely defeats the locks and security systems (such as they are) and Cartwright and Vincent commit Grand Theft Submarine, driving it off with no problems.

Lake Bicaz, January 2014

The team approach and enter the obligatory Secret Underwater Base without incident, marred only by Lonely’s traditional critical failure – in this case, his attempt to check a door for alarms and traps resulted in a deaf mute servant slamming it open onto his nose. The servant asks if they are here to prepare for the Master, and Smyth – who we now know can ‘talk’ in Romanian Sign Language – evades the question.

The team manages to clear the top two levels of the base without being detected, in the process killing nine Ruvari Szgany thugs, two deaf mute servants minding their own business (several of the party are Ruthless), and one Wild Card werewolf.

As they descend to level three, they can hear someone learning Romanian on Duolingo. Perhaps this is the “foreigner” that one of the deaf mutes told them about before Smyth knifed him.

Meanwhile, unnoticed by the dead gypsy in the monitoring room, the CCTV cameras show several black SUVs pulling into the gypsy camp.

GM Notes

Paranoia about who, exactly, they can still trust is ramping up nicely, as it should at this stage of the campaign.

There really is a marine biology lab at Potoci, and it really has a submersible, and a visitor’s ticket is really $1. Or so the internet says. One of the things I love about this campaign is the way the real world and the game blur seamlessly together. However, I can neither confirm nor deny any connection between the lab and a global vampire conspiracy.

Cartwright’s player proposed a plan a few days in advance, and no-one objected, so I prepped for that. I realised partway through that the moon pool as shown wouldn’t work in reality because physics, but decided it was too much fun to worry about that and left it in.

Tooling up was handled using Networking for stuff they could find, the same rules but swapping Repair for Persuasion for stuff they had to build, and the same but using Thievery for stuff they had to steal.

The Secret Underwater Base was created in stages. First, I used The Scheme Pyramid to identify the challenges in general terms, then the Mythic 2e Dungeon Descriptors and a glass of Speyside single malt to work out what kind of room each challenge was in, and finally I treated each level of the pyramid as a level of the base, inserted suitable graphics into a word processor document, and typed everything up. That all took a bit over an hour, then I printed out the final document so I could scribble on it at the table. The Scheme Pyramid wasn’t used in play this time, but it was very helpful in setting up the adventure site.

I think Cartwright’s player was joking when he suggested that as they moved deeper into the complex, the CCTV should show black SUVs pulling up outside; but it leans into the genre so hard that I couldn’t resist. I wonder who’s inside?

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Arion 162: Reunion

2024-02-03

Previously, on the Arioniad: Arion is looking for his ex and rogue psion Cori, and hoping to find her before the Hegemony’s psi hunters do. Now read on…

NHC Spaceport, Day 023

Drawing travel encounter cards is working well enough, so let’s keep doing that. Starting from 017 we get 10C, 9C, 2D, 5H, 6D, 7D, KD; it’s 023 before we get a significant encounter, which is treasure. What kind of treasure? Here we turn to One Page Mythic and its Descriptions. 17 – Dangerous, 61 – Mysterious. As the card is a diamond, it is a useful thing, not a person; and what Arion most needs is information. Is the information about Cori? Exceptional yes…

“Although the survey drones are neither designed for this task, nor strictly legal under local traffic regulations, they have proved effective,” the Dolphin‘s AI announces, displaying some overhead footage on the main bridge screen. “Observe.”

Arion observes as a couple pass below the drone’s cameras. The footage is taken on a low-light imager, late at night. The muscular fellow is clearly Mr Osheen, and the smaller cloaked figure with him affects a limp, but he spent enough time with Cori to recognise her despite her disguise; and if he can do it, the Hegemony’s surveillance algorithms can.

“How recent is that footage?”

“Last night, about 2300 local.”

“Couldn’t you get any closer?”

“This is a three metre drone on grav drive. I was fortunate to get the sensor head poking over the edge of the roof without being detected.”

“Is it still there?”

“No. I had to bring it back before dawn; our stealth is adequate for the local traffic sensors, but anyone looking up at the roof would’ve seen it.”

“Score one for the Mark I Eyeball.”

“If you say so. What is your plan now?” Arion grins up at the bridge camera.

“Well, blundering around Little Hisha like a hellbeast in heat worked so well, I think I’ll try it again.”

Cue networking (SWADE p. 133). Arion spends the evening wandering around the area where Mr Osheen and Cori were spotted, but his Wealth die is not up to bribes. Straight Persuasion; a 3 fails, but by spending a Benny he gets that up to 7 on a reroll.

Arion’s cash flow problem prevents him from greasing palms, but he can’t give up on Cori now. Asking around for the people in a screenshot from the drone eventually brings him to a No-Tell Motel on the edge of Little Hisha, and when he catches a glimpse of Mr Osheen, he is able to tail him to the relevant room; he is terrible at surveillance, but Mr Osheen is even worse at counter-surveillance, however good he is at breaking things and hurting people.

He leans on the doorbell, and after a short delay Mr Osheen’s face appears through a crack in the door. It splits into Osheen’s best imitation of a human smile, which is frankly terrifying if you don’t know what he means by it. He calls back over his shoulder.

“Ma’am, it’s Arion!”

“Hurt him until he goes away. Then we’ll have to move.”

“I’m sorry ma’am, he has prior claim on my services, so I can only hurt him if he wants me to.” He turns back to Arion. “Do you want me to?” he asks, earnestly. Arion shakes his head.

“Would you like me to hurt her for you?”

“No thank you. But could you let me in? We need to talk, and anyone could see me out here.” Mr Osheen stands back and lets him in.

Time for a reaction test from Cori. 7; neutral. Arion tries a roll on Persuasion d4 to shift that as per page 33; Cori will resist with Spirit d8. Arion rolls 5, spends a second Benny to gain a 7; the odds are against his last Benny doing better so he saves it. Cori rolls 11, so she resists his blandishments and stays neutral.

“Cori. Hi.” Momentarily overcome with the joy of seeing her again, it takes Arion a few seconds to pull himself together.

“What do you want?” she asks in a flat voice, which he recognises means he’d better get to the point.

“Karagoz sent me to bring you in… no wait, that didn’t come out right. Karagoz has been covering for you, but it’s reached the point where he has to look like he’s trying to find you. So he asked me to find you, because he thought you might listen to me rather than spraying my brains across the wall.” He remembers the scene a moment ago; it seems that’s only because she’d rather keep her cloak clean and have someone else do it for her.

“There’s a Hegemony psi hunter after you, he’s using the name Korkut and he took over an office at the Port Authority.”

“I know.”

“Oh. Well, if you didn’t, that would be useful information for you. I don’t suppose you’d consider coming in? I’m sure we could come up with some story about a covert mission, something that we had to keep secret even internally… you’re laughing. Why are you laughing?”

“Because that’s exactly what I’m doing, you idiot.”

GM Notes

Much of the narrative here was driven by percentile rolls using One Page Mythic, but I try not to break up the flow of the story by inserting too many dice rolls.

I’m surprised how much – and how quickly – I missed this game. Welcome back, Arion, you maniac.

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Dracula Dossier 40: Bicaz Gorge

2024-01-24

Previously, on The Dracula Dossier… The team track Rojas to a motel in Lyon, kill her bodyguards, incapacitate her, and take her to Israel for interrogation, where she confirms what they already thought. Things are moving into the endgame now, and they have to find and kill Dracula before he does that to them. Now read on…

Black Site Khoshekh, Judean Desert, December 2013

Leveraging their frenemies in EDOM and their friends in the CIA and Sayaret Aluka, the team narrow down the options for Dracula’s crib to six:

Bicaz Gorge. Matches Harker’s description in the book, no castle on the map, currently a national park. Smyth’s Romanian contacts tell him the Ruvari Sgzany (“wolf gypsies”) are unusually active in this area.
Borgo Pass. Literary critics think this is the place Stoker wrote about. There’s a ruined castle nearby, and after the 1894 earthquake Castle Dracula might well be in ruins.
Bran Castle. The official Castle Dracula according to the Romanian Ministry of Tourism; discarded as the Ministry picked it for its looks and not needing many repairs. Of course, that could be what Dracula wants them to think…
Calimani Pass. A protected national park, a good fit for the descriptions and directions in the novel.
Craciuna. This draws Cartwright’s attention as it is near the epicentre for all the earthquakes they have associated with Dracula going in and out of hibernation over the centuries.
Hunedoara, which might be John Dracula’s castle, but not the one he was using in 1894 as it was then being restored after a fire. Of course, he might have several castles.

It looks like a hiking holiday in the Carpathian Mountains is their next move. Sayaret Aluka agrees to smuggle their weapons into the country for them, but Bewler is strangely uncooperative when asked for satellite photos of Romania. Cartwright uses the down time to build some home-made claymore mines with magnetised iron shot.

Bucharest, December 2013

The team remember they previously met the CIA’s Head of Station Bucharest, and arrange a meeting with him under cover of setting up a trade deal. He is happy to help them track down terrorists so long as he gets some of the credit, as he is angling for a better post in a more luxurious city. He sets off alarm bells by mentioning his contacts in the Romanian secret police, as the team assume Dracula has penetrated that organisation thoroughly. All the same, they get their satellite photos – not that they are any help.

Romanian nationals are allowed to own licensed hunting rifles and shotguns, so Smyth and Emilia (who actually are Romanian, and have suitable if fake IDs) register as the owners of an unusual number of guns.

Bicaz Gorge, December 2013

Realising they are going to have to do this on the ground in person, the team decides to start with a hiking trip through Bicaz Gorge, which Ritter spins to the park rangers as a corporate expedition to build resilience, teamwork and initiative among managers. The rangers think they’re mad to be hiking through the Carpathians in the dead of winter, but Ritter’s charm and a fistful of Romanian Leu get them inside.

Smyth points out that the Ruvari Sgzany support themselves by stealing cars and selling them in other countries, but the team decides their beat-up second-hand van is probably safe, and the search begins.

Cartwright plans a search pattern using their quadcopter drone, which is conducted by Vincent, who has superior piloting skills. Ritter talks to the few remaining food and souvenir vendors, who warn him the Gorge is not safe at night due to wandering criminals and wolf packs, whose unearthly howling can be heard soon after sunset. Smyth racks his brains for what he knows about the Gorge from his youth and gives useful pointers on likely camping sites, and Emilia shifts into wolf form while nobody is looking and scouts around, reporting that there is a gypsy camp near the shore of Lake Bicaz, flooded as part of a hydroelectric project in 1960, and it smells like there are a lot of werewolves in it.

Reviewing the drone footage of that area, Lonely notices the tracks of someone wearing hiking boots walking in and out of the lake itself, and a hikers’ refuge which is not shown on any of the maps the park rangers helpfully marked up for Ritter.

This is too tempting, and Lonely sneaks into the refuge, managing to avoid the werewolves guarding it. Inside, he searches the place; the iron stove slides aside to reveal a shaft with a ladder, made of 50-year-old concrete, and going down a long way into the darkness. After debating his next move, the team decides to pull out and think things over, retiring to the nearest sizeable town, Târgu Mureș, for the night.

There they discover that when the Romanian government returned confiscated lands to the surviving original owners in 1989, one Dragos Ilionescu gained ownership of the area now covered by the lake…

GM Notes

We’re out of the published adventures now, but the Director’s Handbook has a wealth of people, places, and subplots I can dip into more or less on the fly. All I did in preparation for this session was decide which Romanian location(s) Dracula has a presence in, and respond to player questions as they searched for him. Lonely got a Benny for realising that although Count John Dracula is Hungarian, the border has moved since his time, and his native soil is probably in Romania now.

Ritter used his Jack-of-All-Trades to speed-learn Survival and pass himself off as a corporate tour guide in the Gorge; he’s getting a lot of mileage out of that Edge. Cartwright’s player is enjoying himself as the team’s wire rat, using his McGyver and burgeoning Repair skill to make various contraptions.

The search for the secret underwater base was run as a Quick Encounter, then we shifted into more detailed coverage of investigating the refuge.

The team now suspects that Bewler and Head of Station Bucharest are both working for Dracula, probably involuntarily, and that EDOM leaks like a sieve because their resident vampire, Lucy Westenra, was originally turned by Dracula.

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