יומן המסע של ראת’אריאל – יום 27
אני ופראנץ, לאחר שעזרתי לו מול יחידה קטנה של הטופר ולאחר ששכנענו אחד מהם להגיד לנו איפה אנחנו יכולים למצוא יותר מידע על המפלצת, עלינו על רכבת שתביא אותנו אל עיר ממנה נוכל לקחת סוסים אל היעד הבא שלנו. וכרגיל, גם עם הברדס על הראש, אנשים נדחו ממני כמו ממצורעת. זנב, אני מניחה, הרבה יותר קשה להסתיר. אז אולי טוב שפראנץ התעקש על כך שניקח תא לעצמנו. לא ציפיתי שיקרה הרבה במסע משעמם של 10 שעות אל העיר הבאה אבל לא עבר הרבה זמן עד שהתחילה המהומה. לי לא ממש היה אכפת כל עוד הרכבת ממשיכה בדרכה אבל פראנץ רצה ללכת לבדוק מה קורה והרבה יותר משעמם להישאר לבד. הגענו אל אחד הקרונות האחרונים, כזה עם מושב שהוא ספסל פשוט ותו לא ושם מצאנו איזה אביר משוריין שמנסה להשתלט על ילדה קטנה ואלף שבקושי הגיב למה שקורה סביבו. נעמדנו בפינת הקרון בניסיון להבין מה בדיוק קורה. ואז פתאום האביר הסתובב לאחור והחל ללכת אל מחוץ לקרון כשראה אותנו והחל לתחקר אותנו. הוא יצא אל מחוץ לקרון, עשה שם משהו לא ברור ואז חזר. הילדה קפצה עליו וחיבקה אותו והוא לקח אותה החוצה. בזמן הזה, ניסיתי להבין מה לא בסדר עם האלף אבל הוא רק נהם אליי. וברגע שניסיתי לנפנף מולו קצת אוכל, הוא זינק ממקומו וניסה לדחוף את האביר מעבר למעקה של הגשר המחבר בין הקרונות. אני קפצתי עליו וריסנתי אותו אבל לא לפני שהוא הצליח להעיף את האביר והילדה מהרכבת. הוא ניסה להשתחרר מהאחיזה שלי ובתגובה לזה פשוט ריתקתי אותו לצד הקרון. לפחות שלא יגרום לעוד נזק. לא ציפיתי Continue Reading →
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
I Watch Roleplaying Shows
Currently, I follow ‘Rollplay – Mirrorshades‘, ‘Rollplay – Swan Song‘ and ‘Critical Role‘, I watch the Acquisitions Inc. PAX games every year, I tried ‘Turn Order – Edge Runners‘ but didn’t quite like it, I, of course, watch the RPGs on TableTop when they happen and I just finished watching ‘Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana‘. Why? Well, it’s fun. That’s the first thing. Secondly, I think there is a benefit to roleplayers from watching others play. Whether it is to get a different perspective, see what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong and probably change your style accordingly, especially if you enjoy what you see. I started watching Mirrorshades because it’s Shadowrun and I love Shadowrun. Even if it’s first edition (which is weird) and I stayed because the players are very engaged, the GM is incredible, in preparation and performance, and it’s touching at times, has good action and mostly just funny and fun. I stopped watching Edge Runners because that was almost the complete opposite. The GM was new and inexperienced. While I might fault the language use of the Mirrorshades crew, they know what they want and what they mean. They don’t fumble. That was not the case here. The players seem not that engaged and not that interesting and everyone seemed like they were trying too hard. And the story itself didn’t hook me. Watching Critical Role is like watching the X-Games. The cast is all engaged with the story, they care about what happens. Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, No Category, Practice, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
The Old Retreat of Breakneck Politics
After some time taken to rest and resupply, Throutek crashes down on the bed in their new accommodations. The Deep Dark is a very nice ship but they really need to scrub out any markings if not completely repaint her or they’ll be on the Empire’s radar in no time flat. He still had his commpad and access to his holonet account and encrypted files so the log was still intact. Jax went to get himself fixed and, apparently, ran an exclusive interview with the local technician. In the morning, the wake up call was the sound of drums. Went out to see the captain. Apparently, the Eyahr guys took down a sentry droid, took his weapon and escaped back to their ship. Harsol organized a party to go after them and requested we go back to our tent. Asked him about grandfather but he just got more upset. He went off. We went to the lab tent. Met a techie – Tekbah – that is responsible for all the Nexu teeth augmentations. He felt really proud until we told him the wild cats tried to eat us several times. We saw that he also monitored them and there are several of them roaming the jungle. Discussed whether we should just cut our losses and get out of here, tell Rohm what we found and that there are no valuables. Suddenly, everything went quiet and dark. We went to check it out and found two Rodians messing with the generator. Killed Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
Status Update
So… What’s up with me? Well, obviously, I’ve been busy. So busy that I was working 10-12 hour days and was so tired coming home that I barely had the strength to do the things I wanted, let alone the things I needed to do. But we’re officially world wide now. The game is open on all territories. Which means, sans marketing, our server load doubled and tripled. Which means, bugs came out that are only relevant under heavy load. Also, the stress is on, we are officially competing now. And we haven’t even rolled out our more competitive features. So, before any of the big ones notice us and pull out the big guns, we have to roll out our secret weapons. This means, everyone onboard, working as hard as they can, to deliver those feature ASAP. And after those days, I’m tired. Even writing this, the weekend after an iteration is finished. I can barely muster enough brain power to write more than 200 words. On top of this, the 2016 Global Game Jam is almost upon us and this time, I want to try to write something all on my own. So, I’ve been catching up on Twine knowledge as much as I can. And I’ve been roped into a Secret Santa game which I am so very bad it. I’m also still trying to work on my personal projects; I’m running two games in the Pundak forums, one of them is already using THF, and I’m Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Me, No Category, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud, Work by Eran with comments disabled.
In the Tomb of the Forgotten Spaceship
Throutek sat on his bunk in their provided accommodations in the survivors’ retreat. It was spartan but serviceable. After all, it has been of service to the people here for going on twenty years. At the current time, he simply didn’t care. His mind was occupied. He never expected finding his grandfather will be easy. But he also never expected that when he did, it would be a grave. He lay down, commpad in hand and recorded the happenings of the last day in the captain’s log. After Zimir and Jax investigated the engine piece, flew up to the bridge section further north. It was sunk in a river bed off the side of a small village punctuated by a tower. Found a graveyard with grandfather’s tombstone in it. Decided that he might be buried but the quest is not done. Still need to find out who he was and why he left. Spotted movement in the village. Went there and found a big cat-looking thing called a Nexu. Fought it off and it ran away. Started exploring the village. It seemed to have been built quickly and abandoned years ago. Continued to the main ship’s body. It was quite disassembled for parts. Climbed the ship and approached the bridge. Inside was dark but Jax provided light. Heard gut wrenching grinding noise from inside the bowls. Continued to the bridge. There were some B1 Battle Droid remains on the way. Found a well maintained toolbox in the entrance to the Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
In the Midst of a Tropical Shitstorm
Came into the Cholganna system and nearly ran into an asteroid field but got ahead of it. Found some energy signatures on the surface and floating droid craft debris. Ancient things, Clone Wars age fighters and bombers. Which make me wonder what really happened to the Sa Nalaor. She obviously didn’t just run aground. Sensors detected the planet was about to be eaten by a nebula so we buttoned down the hatches and headed down. Landed on a beach in the equator. Tasted the atmosphere, squashed the sand and then took off in search of energy signatures. Found a downed escape pod and something else on the other side of the planet. Took it down next to the escape pod. Trimmed the trees a bit but nothing too bad. Found a cloud of green insects outside. As they started biting, I ran for the escape pod. Trip lit up a stick and started waving it about. Naritt lip up the canopy. Jax fired into the cloud. Zimir ran back to the ship. Green things annoyed me but I went in. Found the pod’s designation: 34-BESH. Zimir came up with the great idea to fire up the ship’s thrusters to burn all the insects. It worked, they all blew away. We found glowing green things stuck to the inside of the pod. Because of the hurry, I tried to pull the memory core but couldn’t get it. But it did become obvious that this fits the description of a Sa Nalaor Continue Reading →
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
Space Station Lives of Others
Jax decided to check the public records for any info on the Sa Nalaor. Naritt went looking for rumors and scuttlebutt about the Sa Nalaor. An Isotech message pod hit an Yiyar clan ship. Went to dig some info on the ship that got damaged. It’s the Nightflyer, the Yiyar ship. Apparently, an Isotech ship snatched up the damaging message pod and flew away. Saw Rodian spying, gave chase, caught him and engaged. Naritt joined. Subdued Rodian. Cops showed up. Everyone escorted away. Rodian was covered by a bunch of other questionable folks and we had to let it go. Went to meet Shira, Reom’s sister, and escort her to the Isotech offices. Found some data on where the Sa Nalaor is. Reom asked us to find it and grab the tech on it as it was worth a lot. Jax tried to hack the pod but it didn’t work out so well for him. Got an advance on the mission payment of 1500 to use for supplies. Called to the hanger to pick up the droid. Went there and found the droid and four Rodians that didn’t really want to leave the bot alone. We shot them up expertly and rescued the droid, and some equipment too. Got the coordinates from the droid and started flying towards the target. Took a misstep on the final jump but made it alright to Cholganna, one final stop before final destination. “20 minutes to destination…” The computer notification beeped and Throutek closed Continue Reading →
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
The House of Ill Gotten Gains and Disrepute
After much deliberation I had not much say in because of my injuries, I managed to actually fly the ship back to Mos Entha where Naritt and Zamir found a local Hutt to sell the water rights to. After some back and forth that I’m glad I didn’t have to do myself, we agreed on a price, the Hutt took off to see his new acquisitions — we threw in the location of the abandoned research lab for free — while we took off back to our original employer. We docked at the wheel a couple of days later and met with our Isotech contact. He schlepped something out about not fulfilling our contract completely because we let the laboratory and the water mine get taken over by a Hutt. We bit the bullet because the Hutt paid a lot for it. Then, when we asked what is next on the agenda, he told us he is waiting on his sister to come back with some information on an old Republic ship that went missing, something very valuable. So, of course, we couldn’t just sit our asses down. We went to investigate.
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
First Encounters and the Screams of Dying Plans
We flew over to where the blip showed on the map. What we found was a Sand People encampment around a small mountain. We surveyed the area and decided to land a bit farther away, I still prefer to keep the Badger as safe as possible, at least as long as it’s not paid for. So we walked. And what we found from the ground level was lots of buildings but few people and an entrance into the mountain from which people exited, looking not very happy. At the entrance to the mine we found the object of our search, Jaa Adik. We explained that we meant no harm and just wanted to see what the fuss was all about add our mission was to ascertain what happened. Inside the mine we found containers of water and crates of explosives. That was the point I started to think that maybe we should just go away. But before we could leave, an explosion buried us in, causing a boulder to mangle my arm. After everyone was excavated from the rubble, I called it quits and headed outside, hoping to reach safe ground before passing out. But outside the cave, Jaa Adik was waiting with open guns. I drew my own but he managed to shoot first, burning my side and thoroughly disabling my left arm. I managed to duck out of the way and then the rest came and battled him out. At the end, I was saved from unconsciousness by Continue Reading →
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.
Blasted Droids and Flashing Lights
Throutek lost balance for a second and almost sent the white paste down the wrong hole. He quickly put down the bowl next to the console and coughed, causing his side to sting and burn. He lifted up his shirt and looked at the bandages with the tiny red smudge covering his left waist. At least it’s not as bad as Naritt got. He spat at the nearby bin and tried to swallow the rest before he continued typing. As we were scouring the operations room’s computers and electronics, a previously locked door opened and a bunch of worker droids filed out. I wasn’t expecting them to, but not really surprised, when they started to attack us. With welding tools, of all things. Me and Naritt engaged with blasters after the droids started advancing. We managed to take out three of the four droids, even after Zimir wanted to keep one for himself. Then a proper security droid showed up and blasted Naritt and me before I got the luckiest shot of my life and hit his central power source or something, making it explode. We quickly bandaged what we could and started scouring the rest of the facility. We found a couple of stimpacks which Naritt needed more than me. Then we found a report saying the goal of the whole facility was moot. And the map in the operations room displayed a coordinate which was probably where our target was headed, the next stage of this search. As Continue Reading →
Posted in From the Writing Desk, Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.