Last night I joined in my second session of Pendragon of Mars (noisms' homebrew mash-up of Pendragon and Mekton on Mars) on G+. We had a lot of fun, particularly when we got out into the Martian wilderness and were hunting down a fugitive knight
The story picked up a few months after the winter phase of the previous session, at the Easter Festival. Earl Roderick tasked the noble knights - Owain (me), Xyre (Zak) and Wiglaf (Patrick) to hunt down Sir Michael, a knight who had lost his honour when he slept with another man's wife. The other man is a rival lord from the south, and if Michael is not presented to him soon he may start a war with the Pendragons as he seeks justice. Not good.
Showing posts with label mechs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mechs. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 April 2013
Monday, 15 April 2013
The Man and his Mechs
Sir Owain the Red's family are fourth generation Mars-worshippers. As a child he listened to the stories of when the planet was lifeless and red; he heard the legends and absorbed all the myths. Mars is much changed from those old days, but Owain thinks he remembers them... Before he came of age he took a tattoo of the old, red planet on his back, an artwork that spans his torso. It shows ley-lines that are talked of in the ancient stories, the old passages of rivers and streams. It is on his back but Owain can trace it from memory.
Sir Owain is the master of his household now, and the controls to the family's mechs have been passed to him. All but one of them has been in the family for a very long time; he has read the family history of them, as well as his great-grandfather's more fanciful tales from when the family converted to Mars-worship. He likes both accounts.
The greatest of the mechs is Dyn Gleddyf Mawr; this colossal metal man has been in the family since before there was a family. It is the champion, the power. The family have poured love and care into its upkeep. A bipedal armoured man, criss-crossing patterns of artwork covering the skin. Mawr has many ranged weapons systems, and a phased plasma blade which Owain delights in using.
There is a strong design similarity between Mawr and Ryfel Bychan, which is much smaller but carries a heavy arsenal. Owain's grandfather told him that Ryfel Bychan was Dyn Gleddyf Mawr's baby brother. As a child he believed him. Ryfel Bychan is small but strong. The family has not tested it in battle for many seasons. There is some hope that it could hold it's own, but in Owain's life he has never seen the red eyes alight.
Marchog Deircoes was added to the family's mech arsenal only in the last fifty years. It was a wedding present given on the occasion of Owain's father's first marriage. Deircoes carries traits and markings from several different elder design schools. Almost impossibly it seems as if it were put together more recently than the old times. Which must be impossible. But how else to explain the three legs that it walks on, coupled with the radically different torso and head? No matter, it has weapons and moves, and that is to be valued.
Poor little Cofamhir... He is so small compared to the other mechs and now used only to carry things around the estate. But as grandfather used to say to Owain, "Cofamhir is old, so very old. He did great and mighty things in the past - look at where his left arm should be, eh? Yes, so old... But he must have seen so much..."
And then: it was the winter of Owain's 22nd year, a week or so after his birthday. Judgement had been carried out on the case of the farmer and the tradesmen. Owain hoped that it had been wise. Would father have done the same? Father was dead. A knock at the study door. So sorry to intrude. So sorry to disturb. In cataloguing your father's possessions we found this...
A small chest. A control crystal. A letter. A location. Of another family mech. Stored in secret, twenty feet underground, out under the old stables. His birthright. Owain called for his horse, changed his mind and asked that Cofamhir be brought to him. A new sight perhaps, for the little mech's old eyes...
Sir Owain is the master of his household now, and the controls to the family's mechs have been passed to him. All but one of them has been in the family for a very long time; he has read the family history of them, as well as his great-grandfather's more fanciful tales from when the family converted to Mars-worship. He likes both accounts.
The greatest of the mechs is Dyn Gleddyf Mawr; this colossal metal man has been in the family since before there was a family. It is the champion, the power. The family have poured love and care into its upkeep. A bipedal armoured man, criss-crossing patterns of artwork covering the skin. Mawr has many ranged weapons systems, and a phased plasma blade which Owain delights in using.
There is a strong design similarity between Mawr and Ryfel Bychan, which is much smaller but carries a heavy arsenal. Owain's grandfather told him that Ryfel Bychan was Dyn Gleddyf Mawr's baby brother. As a child he believed him. Ryfel Bychan is small but strong. The family has not tested it in battle for many seasons. There is some hope that it could hold it's own, but in Owain's life he has never seen the red eyes alight.
Marchog Deircoes was added to the family's mech arsenal only in the last fifty years. It was a wedding present given on the occasion of Owain's father's first marriage. Deircoes carries traits and markings from several different elder design schools. Almost impossibly it seems as if it were put together more recently than the old times. Which must be impossible. But how else to explain the three legs that it walks on, coupled with the radically different torso and head? No matter, it has weapons and moves, and that is to be valued.
Poor little Cofamhir... He is so small compared to the other mechs and now used only to carry things around the estate. But as grandfather used to say to Owain, "Cofamhir is old, so very old. He did great and mighty things in the past - look at where his left arm should be, eh? Yes, so old... But he must have seen so much..."
And then: it was the winter of Owain's 22nd year, a week or so after his birthday. Judgement had been carried out on the case of the farmer and the tradesmen. Owain hoped that it had been wise. Would father have done the same? Father was dead. A knock at the study door. So sorry to intrude. So sorry to disturb. In cataloguing your father's possessions we found this...
A small chest. A control crystal. A letter. A location. Of another family mech. Stored in secret, twenty feet underground, out under the old stables. His birthright. Owain called for his horse, changed his mind and asked that Cofamhir be brought to him. A new sight perhaps, for the little mech's old eyes...
Sunday, 14 April 2013
AP: Pendragon of Mars
It's been a crazy topsy-turvy sort of week, but I couldn't let it end without talking about one of the highlights for me: my first chance to join noisms' game, Pendragon of Mars, which was also my first time playing anything over a G+ Hangout.
I'll talk about my character, Sir Owain the Red, and his mechs in another post, I just want to focus on what happened and what it was like playing with noisms, Patrick (Sir Wiglaf), David W (Sir Elias) and Zak (Sir Xyre).
The other guys had already had a couple of sessions to get used to things; I'd done most of the statting up beforehand, but there were a few things I didn't know about my character. As ever, as soon as the questions started flowing - What does he look like? What sort of family is he from? - the few details I had already brought together started mating like crazy.
A lot and a little happened in the session. So far, Pendragon of Mars is really unlike anything else I've played in the last two years: we spent ninety minutes playing through the events of a formal-ish ball, full of court intrigue, flirting with the Ladies of the court, being knighted, passing initiations and sometimes making asses of ourselves as we tried to impress women with knife skills or back tattoos (both techniques I tried, both of which failed). Finally we were formally knighted by the Earl (including being punched in the face and jumping over a sword to mount our steeds; that's how we roll on Mars).
And then the night of our knighting over noisms said "OK, so now it is winter and you are back at home. Here is what happens..." and each of us had some scenes back at our manors for the winter (passing judgement on commoner disputes, finding out what happened with our families, and just generally getting older).
Where things really got fun was seeing what the other players' characters were like, and how they interacted.We weren't trying to tag team fighting Martians or performing some mission. We were trying to help each other out at court. Brothers in arms!
The experience of playing over G+ Hangout was interesting. It was a lot of fun to be playing from home, and playing with people not just in different parts of the UK but different parts of the world. It also made me wonder about playing ViewScream, a game which I've read about and intrigues me...
Anyway! Lots of fun, and looking forward to this week's session. I have to stat up another mech! One final part of the character gen was rolling for an important family belonging. I got another charger, which in Pendragon of Mars means designing another 150 construction point mech under the Mekton Zeta rules...
Roll on Wednesday.
I'll talk about my character, Sir Owain the Red, and his mechs in another post, I just want to focus on what happened and what it was like playing with noisms, Patrick (Sir Wiglaf), David W (Sir Elias) and Zak (Sir Xyre).
The other guys had already had a couple of sessions to get used to things; I'd done most of the statting up beforehand, but there were a few things I didn't know about my character. As ever, as soon as the questions started flowing - What does he look like? What sort of family is he from? - the few details I had already brought together started mating like crazy.
A lot and a little happened in the session. So far, Pendragon of Mars is really unlike anything else I've played in the last two years: we spent ninety minutes playing through the events of a formal-ish ball, full of court intrigue, flirting with the Ladies of the court, being knighted, passing initiations and sometimes making asses of ourselves as we tried to impress women with knife skills or back tattoos (both techniques I tried, both of which failed). Finally we were formally knighted by the Earl (including being punched in the face and jumping over a sword to mount our steeds; that's how we roll on Mars).
And then the night of our knighting over noisms said "OK, so now it is winter and you are back at home. Here is what happens..." and each of us had some scenes back at our manors for the winter (passing judgement on commoner disputes, finding out what happened with our families, and just generally getting older).
Where things really got fun was seeing what the other players' characters were like, and how they interacted.We weren't trying to tag team fighting Martians or performing some mission. We were trying to help each other out at court. Brothers in arms!
The experience of playing over G+ Hangout was interesting. It was a lot of fun to be playing from home, and playing with people not just in different parts of the UK but different parts of the world. It also made me wonder about playing ViewScream, a game which I've read about and intrigues me...
Anyway! Lots of fun, and looking forward to this week's session. I have to stat up another mech! One final part of the character gen was rolling for an important family belonging. I got another charger, which in Pendragon of Mars means designing another 150 construction point mech under the Mekton Zeta rules...
Roll on Wednesday.
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