So, here's where I'll put all the stories from my various roleplaying campaigns, and if I ever get monies, my wargaming batreps.

So, I'm starting a Rogue Trader campaign after spring break with my friends, so until then..nothing.

So, first session today. One of the players didn't show, but whatever. We spent the majority of the session on character generation, which was...eh.

PCs so far:

Lord Captain Rex Fortunas (Rogue Trader)

Doreth Zephyr (Seneschal)

Regius Siegmund (Explorator)

Whooooo! It begins! SO, as I said above, about 75% of the session was character creation. But what we did play was pretty cool.

So the PCs start off in Port Wander, in the main marketplace, The Court of the Dead. It is not long before they notice the presence of some Arbites, who look on edge. Regius passes Logic and deduces that there's probably a riot in imminence. The PCs see Rogue Trader Aspyce Chorda, surrounded by shock-weapon wielding guards, move through the crowd before sever members of the crowd start getting violent. Two miscreants attack the party, and combat begins.

So, Doreth takes out her hellpistol and hits one of the rioters in the leg, dealing 5 wounds (out of 12), and everyone else misses their attacks. One renegade blasts the Lord Captain in the face with a shotgun, and reduces him to 3 wounds.* One walks up to Regius, and tries to stab him, but his stopped by a plate of armor. The tech-priest proceeds to blam him with his bolter, severely wounding him. Before long, Arbitrators kill the shotgun wielder and carry the wounded one off for interrogation. After the Arbites check on the party's health, they walk off.

Highlights: The Lord-Captain almost dying. That was really quite hilarious, as his character was really arrogant.
When the Arbites asked the LC is he was alright, his player simply responded with a wet cough.
Regius' player's reaction after I told him that the rioter he jsut shot was coughing up blood onto his face and robes, and his indignation when the Arbites didn't inquire after his health.

*We later realized that due to the shotgun's low penetration, he probably wouldn't have taken damage, but I left it because reasons.

I figured I better post the last two sessions before this Saturday rolls around. So, second sesh, not much happened, The Lord Captain had to make an emergency trip to Virginia, and our tech-priest was on a camping trip. We got our new player though! Jak Danger O'Serge, a Voidmaster. (Cuz danger is his middle name, geddit?)

So not much happened, our Seneschal bought a sniper rifle, Jak won a hellpistol in a game of blackjack, and also managed to find a venom ring in a jewelry shop, which he used to poison the owner of a local bar and make off with a bagful of amasec. Seriously, I think his player is out to derail my campaign, in the best way possible.

So we went back to the ship, met all the crew, which the players enjoyed, and got an invitation to a feast/hunt by the LC's old friend and war buddy, the now-Planetary Governor Hymns Biggins.

Write up of session 3 coming later this morning, stuff to do.

So I finally got around to playing some tabletop 40k, I borrowed the game store's army (Tyranids) and me and a Necron player played a little 500 point game. Pretty cool, looking to kick ass with Chaos Space Marines tomorrow.

Sounds fun! I'm glad you're finding a few players to help keep things going.

Please tell me there's more of this, the 40K-based RPGs are always hilarious. Lethal, too, but mainly hilarious.

Also, this thread will become the updating point for the Pathfinder Campaign I'm going to start running. There is nothing you can do to stop this. Brace yourselves. Campain updates are coming.

I'm actually playing a new campaign now, as a player. I'll see if I can find some of the GM writeups, they're quite good.

Here's our lovable crew:

Valentine Greysen (Rogue Trader): Once a heroic naval officer, a scandal early in his career forever stained him. Now, he is free to seek glory, to serve the god-emperor, and yes, to win gold on his own terms. Which usually follow this form, "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

Nathin Veche (Arch-Militant): Retired from the Imperial Guard, he was raised into the nobility for his actions saving the life of an imperial scion. A career soldier, he is disciplined and severe.

Jeremiah Sullivan (Missionary): Itinerant preacher and fanatic, he follows a quest for justice against a Nurgle cult. His faith is his foundation, and he trusts in The Emperor to guide him to his quarry.

Ergonomics Q. Smith (Explorator)[And your's truly! ]: Newly promoted tech-priest, his enthusiasm for exploration and learning often results in outbursts of emotion uncommon for the Mechanicus.

Cassilda Kalmar (Navigator): Her drive and ambition, the source of past troubles, must serve her now most of all. She seeks to regain her former position, and to make sure that this time, her grasp does not exceed her reach.

Absalom Angevin (Void Master): The mysterious pilot holds his cards close to his vest. What is evident, however, is his professionalism and superior flying skills.

One thing Greysen is all about is action. He charges before he is sure he can win, because he is sure that force of action IS the way to victory. His crew, by luck or Imperial provenance, shares his aggressiveness and drive. Some rogue Traders parlay, some strike deals, some sneak about. House Greysen comes to act

SESSION NUMERO UNO (which I was not in)

"If the sacred tone of approval is given after the panel lights under your left hand, bless the key once with your lips, and insert into the sacred slot lit by holy lumen glow." - Catechism of the Mechanicus



With a gentle sensation, Imperial Vengeance dropped into realspace right on target: Port Wander. The Rogue Trader, Valentin Greysen, had arrived to take on supplies, star charts, and crew before heading out into the Koronus Expanse.

As the cutter approached the docking bay, an unknown Imperial vessel, roughly strike cruiser size, translated into the system and began bearing in to PW at high speed. The only identifying mark an Inquisitorial "I", the ship broadcast an order for everyone in the local area to power down engines and hold stationary position. Greysen ordered a halt, as all communications in the area came under a jamming signal. One ship, a destroyer, began to flee. Two system monitors attempted to halt it by shooting shots across its bow before two missiles from the mystery ship blew it to pieces.

A swarm of shuttles began to attend the Inquisitorial ship, and after appearing to load up many shuttles worth of goods(?), the ship returned to the horizon and translated back into the warp. The normal communications were established and the air was filled with an explosion of chatter. The mysterious event had shaken up the whole area, and no one had any answers.

With his Seneschal, Cadbury (NPC), he decided to go straight to the top in his quest for a map of the KE, and headed to the 'VIP only' Admiralty Club. After a grating encounter with Sage Logister Vir, Administratum head on PW, Greysen convinced Warp Master Pal, head of the Navis Nobilite faction on PW, to bestow upon him a best quality map of The Maw and a general map of the Koronus Expanse.

Cadbury, in a move designed to test both the new Master of Whispers, had the former marauder known as Torque, and the candidate for Arch-Militant, Nathin Veche, meet quickly and then head off to procure a lead from a contact. With little to go on, the pair found their contact in an illegal casino, and observed him having a bit of trouble with some crooked looking characters. He, a naval officer and Harbormaster on PW, was in gambling debt with the notorious Malfi family crime syndicate. Seeing an opportunity, Torque paid off the man's debts in return for his loyalty to House Greysen. He also made sure to get the lead, the coordinates in space of a derelict ship called The Forsaken Bounty.

Upon exiting, the shock tactics of an Arbites raid caught them unaware. Following the directions of an insistent woman, they managed to escape the Arbites, but ended up in a clandestine meeting with said Malfi representatives. As they seemed to be negotiating a mutually beneficial agreement, persons unknown opened fire upon the whole group, in the form of an autogun-armed servitor, and killed most of the Malfians.

Ditching down an access hatch, the duo plus one Malfian entered into the lower decks. This area of the ship, seldom visited by the regular staff of PW, is home to misfits and mutants, AWOL sailors and the mentally ill. The detritus of humanity, like so much cast off trash, gather here to hide and to live. As cautious as they were, they were tracked by a group of Hullghasts, mutated spawn of mutant parents, on the hunt for meat. Although the mutants got the drop on them, they were able to grant the Hullghasts the full embrace of the Emperor's mercy.

Finally back above ground, the duo found themselves cementing another relationship; the Malfian, an important family member, had escaped alive. And now the Malfians owe House Greysen a debt.


SESSION NUMERO DOS (which I was in, as with all sessions from this point one)

You carry the Emperor's will as your torch, with it destroy the shadows.


With his usual brusque manner, Greysen cut through the Admiralty Club like a storm. He could not suffer the foolishness of neither Sage Logister Vir nor Bishop Court. No missionary help would be coming his way, but that was prefferable to pandering to idiots.

His run-in with two fellow RTs was no different. Hadarak Fel had been plundering the Koronus Expanse for four decades in his ship, The Fell Hand. Having had success, he jealously guards his interests, and let Greysen know that he was warned to steer clear of Fel's endeavours. Roland Alexius, patriarch of a family boasting five Warrants, bared his contempt of Greysen, and made as thinly veiled a threat as possible. Both were met with defiance and scorn. Outmatched in this battle of wits, Alexius stupidly bragged that his son, Simon, was in possession of something Greysen thought was his alone, the location of The Forsaken Bounty. Further, he bragged that Simon would be ready to cast off within 24 hours, a full day ahead of Greysen.

Armed with this information, Greysen hurried to his ship, and in a rousing speech, pushed his men to great speed in its resupply. Cadbury sent Torque and Veche to gather what info they could about the mysterious Inquisitorial visit the station experienced. They uncovered a man named Thrann Finn, a roguish fellow, well-known on Port Wander as a source of information. His claim to be a lookout for a pirate gang being unproven, he nevertheless is an info-broker, and Torque worked out a mutually beneficial agreement with him. Through this he learned that the visit of the Inquisitorial ship may have been a ruse to sneak someone aboard, for a ship with unknown imperial heraldry left PW during the re-supply and delivered a mysterious person there.

Meanwhile, an itinerant preacher named Sullivan wandered the dock area, mingling with the lowliest crew members and sharing their sufferings. When the Captain's speech rallied his men to work, they swept up this preacher, adopted as their spiritual good-luck charm, and brought him aboard. Always drifting, trusting in The Emperor to guide him to his destiny, he felt His hand and joined with the crew. His exhortations spurred them on even further and, gradually, the crew of the Imperial Vengeance began to catch up to that of Alexius' ship, the frigate The Emperor's Mercy.

Launching only minutes behind Alexius, Greysen and his men raced the other ship to the horizon, gaining ground, inching ever closer right up till the end. Less than a minute behind now, the Imperial Vengeance translated into the Warp, betting on their navis prima, the skills of their navigator, and The Emperor's blessings to bring them to victory!

SESSION NUMERO TRES (in which I get mentioned)

Preserve us from the Perils of the Warp, that we may serve the Domain of Man!

With the help of the navis Prima, Navigator Kalmar shepherded the Imperial Vemgeance through a mostly uneventful trip into the Immaterium. Her skill was proven in the very swift arrival of the ship at The Battlegrounds Station of Passage, a mere 19 hours subjective time and only 13 hours real-time journey!

While in-transit, a report of a missionary operating below decks, and having a strong positive influence on the crew, reached Cadbury. Greysen summoned this stowaway to a meeting of his Captain's Party, and suitably impressed with his piety he absorbed him into the crew. At the meeting, Cadbury explained the history and the facts of the derelict ship, The Forssaken Bounty. A millenia ago, a chartist captain by the name of Thomas Oregon regularly ran this ship on supply runs between Port Wander and Footfall. On a trip ferrying settlers and foodstuff into the Koronus Expanse, his ship became stuck on a warp reef, a shard of false reality. When it did not arrive at its destination, it was eventually listed as missing in the warp.

Several months ago, a passing ship of Battlefleet Koronus picked up its distress signal. Noting the location, the ship moved on. Lacking the assets to do salvaging, the Navy ignored this information, allowing it to be passed on to private interests. And so Cadbury, through connections of his own in the Navy, learned of this and made arrangements to secure the location. So too did Alexius.

Now, they knew they had a rival, and the first Rogue trader to set foot aboard her would have the legal rights to her. If he could hold it. The Captain's Party began to make plans and issue orders pursuant to the salvaging, each according to their area of expertise.

Sooner then expected, the Imperial Vengeance translated smoothly out of the warp. Noting Alexius had not yet arrived, Lord-Captain Greysen took the ship close in to the floating graveyard, tasking his Master of Etherics to actively scan for the signal of The Forsaken Bounty.

Suddenly, several plasma drives came to life as a squadron of fighters, bombers, and torpedo bombers, hidden amongst the derelict ships, ambushed the Rogue Trader. Pulling away from their initial assault, Greysen called for a situation report from all stations. Nine smaller ships approaching quickly on attack vectors, and behind them: their carrier rising from the debris field. A large cruiser, larger then his own, it seemed to be completely un-spaceworthy. The plasma drive should not have been functioning, except to overload and explode. Compromising rents in the superstructure were clearly visible, as was the ship's heraldry, the eight-pointed star of chaos! Further, colors flowed and transformed about her exterior, like a chameleon changing its skin. A sign of the influence of the foul Chaos God Tzeentch! A ship held together with vile sorcery...

Refusing an incoming transmission, Greysen ordered a quick turn around. Master Helmsman Angenvin executed a suprisingly tight maneuver, catching the fighters and bombers off-guard. Nonetheless, they regrouped and dealt a damaging blow to the Gellar Field generator. Ergonomics raced to begin the repair, as the missionary Sullivan exhorted the gun crews to do their best, raising their spirits and strengthening their faith as they hammered the incoming fighters, driving them away. Veche himself operated the macrocannon batteries as the two capital ships closed, dealing heavy blow after heavy blow, tearing through their void shields, pulverizing their armor, and visiting the Emperor's justice upon them!

Forward, Greysen ordered, flank speed! Forward, continue to fire! Pound them! Attack! Onward he drove his crew, his vigor and aggressiveness mirrored and embraced by their own actions!

Taken aback by the speed of Angevin's maneuver, the enemy ship could not pull away as Veche ultimately dealt the killing blow. Trailing smoke, debris, and bodies, the Chaos vessel began to list and drift, all aboard dead and dying as it was engulfed in explosions.

Greysen, putting the Imperial Vengeance at a distance from the danger, began to take stock of his damage reports and direct repairs. Time was short, Alexius was on his way, and now his fire had been lit.

Hehe, that sounds like a fun campaign so far. Ship battle ahoy!

I'm also ridiculously pleased that you picked a techpriest to play; I did that for an Only War campaign I played in a few months ago, and the amount of insane nonsense you can get away with under the guise of 'Mad Science' and a few talents is absolutely hilarious. For example, the Maglev Transcendence one I picked, which allowed me to hover in place and move at twice my normal running speed (and avoid falling damage, handily). And then the Luminen Shock Talent, which allowed me to turn my hands into tasers. Combined with the Martial Artist talent, a few more points into my Weapon Skill stat and some extensive modifying of my techpriest's two bionic arms, and I became THE MAN WITH THE ELECTRIC FISTS!! I basically spent every fight flying around punching people to death with lightning.

That entire campaign was absolutely ridiculous. I loved it.

First session of my Pathfinder campaign has just wrapped up, and I must say that it was quite a success. We're playing the mix of Pathfinder's traditional high-fantasy (the game is basically D&D 3.5 with some polish) mashed up with the Wild West (my insanely extensive background document for the setting can be found here). Characters were:

- Ace Calhoun, a charming human rogue whose player is still smarting from the jokes we made about his last character having a Charisma of just 10
- Wirran, an elf monk framed for the murder of his wife, recently escaped from jail
- Rosalyn Brindinas, a half-elf druid with her trusty Ankylosaurus companion, Buttercup. Her player picked a half-elf because she thought the race's sample portrait was the prettiest, and she wanted to be a druid just to get an animal companion. Considering Buttercup spent the session as a nigh-invulnerable ass-kicker, those choices seemed legit.
- 'Demon Eyes', a tiefling gunslinger who spent most of the gaming session being generated due to her player being a late arrival and thus spent a good chunk of the session napping

The heroes were on an overnight train between the game setting's two major cities, Yular and Austis (leaving Yular, going to Austis), which pulled in to the town of Red Creek in order to restock on water and coal. The town is quiet, with most locals in bed, but the passengers are informed that the saloon should be open and serving drinks if any of them fancied anything while the train refilled.

Upon entering the small town, it appears to be deserted, and Wirran, the monk, finds the saloon completely empty. Ace investigated the upstairs rooms, to find one of them with a broken down door and showing signs of a struggle. When the pair went to the sheriff's office, they found it was deserted aside from the town's drunk, who, when woken, raves in incoherent fear. When they unlock his cell, he attacks them out of sheer panic, only for Wirran to knock him unconscious with a headbutt. With that done, they headed back to the train to tell the driver about it.

Meanwhile, Rosalynd investigated the town's barber shop and general store. The barber's was devoid of life and locked up, but the general store's door was open, though there was nobody about. As she entered the street, she saw a group of people approaching the town from its road, though in the dark she could make out no more details. She told the others, who were puzzling over the town's emptiness, and as they approached they made out a group of skeletons were approaching fast.

Ace lead the defence against the undead, aided by Karris Albert, one of the passengers, and the train's shovel-wielding half-orc stoker, Big Johnny Brahg. Rosalynd and Buttercup joined the defense not long afterwards as Ace, Big Johnny and Karris clashed with the undead, and Buttercup proved his effectiveness in a fight by killing a good deal fo the undead and me realising the skeletons would have to roll criticals to actually harm him. Wirran, the monk, decided to be an arsehole watched proceedings from the train, but intervened when several of the undead made to attack the passengers. Towards the end of the combat, Demon Eyes finally woke up long enough to shoot at the final skeleton and miss.

The defense was short and spirited, but in the confusion of combat Big Johnny Brahg and Ace were badly injured, the train was sabotaged and two of the passengers were kidnapped. One of the other passengers was a trainee cleric and managed to heal the heroes back to full health, while Ace sent off a telegram to call for help. He got a reply from the Order of the Shield and Star (basically a knightly order working across the game's continent of Ternis) telling them that help would be there in a few hours, and hold tight on the train until they got there. Realising that nobody would be coming to rescue the kidnapped passengers and that there was no garuantee of them surviving until the Order of the Shield and Star arrived, the heroes resolved to set out on the trail of the undead and deal with the problem themselves.

Demon Eyes did a quick round of looting before they went, nabbing a bottle of whiskey from the saloon and getting a masterwork dagger and two healing potions from the general store. She also tried to use some of her musket's gunpowder to blow open the general store's safe, but her player's role of a 4 ended up gutting the safe and rewarding her with just $1.52 and some severely singed eyebrows.

Aided by Karris, who worked as a tracker, the group followed the skeleton's trail across the nighttime wilderness until they found them camped out in a gully, along with a huge glowing green crystal and the kidnapped passengers and townsfolk. Along with the regular undead, there was also a skeleton wearing an ancient suit of armour, who appeared to be more powerful than the other skeletons.

Wirran decided to make a dynamic entry and jumped off the side of the gully to smash a skeleton to bits on landing, and at the same time Karris drew her sword, declared "Death to the heretics!" and stabbed Ace in the kidneys.

Rosalynd cast Magic Fang on Wirran, improving his unarmed attacks so he had a better chance against the mob of skeletons, while Buttercup, Demon Eyes and Ace turned on Karris. In Wirran's next turn, he parkoured/frontflipped over the skeletons to go toe-to-toe with their leader in an act of insane badassitude and extremely lucky rolling, while Rosalynd cast Summon Nature's ally and called forth an eagle that she dubbed Mr Snugglesworth, who she promptly sicced on the lead skeleton to give Wirran a hand. Meanwhile, Buttercup, Demon Eyes and Ace attacked Karris.

In the next turn, as the lead skeleton took a good chunk of Wirran's hitpoints off, Ace half-climbed, half-jumped down the gully's side to deal with the skeleton mob who were advancing on the rest of the group (obviously confident in their leader's ability to deal with Wirran). Demon Eyes hit Karris in the gut with a bullet, Rosalynd set her eagle on Karris and knocked her down to zero hp with a good eye-gouging, letting Buttercup finish her off with a thorough trampling. Before she died, Karris managed to grab Rosalynd's ankle and gasp out "The stone rises."

Assisted by Mr Snugglesworth, Wirran continued his duel with the skeleton leader while the rest of the party dealt with the main force of the undead, Buttercup proving himself an unstoppable avatar of asskickery when it became clear that he was too heavily armoured for the skeletons to actually harm him. Demon Eyes sniped at the enemy mob while Ace, Rosalynd and Buttercup dealt with them up close, quickly dispatching them before moving to assist against big boss skeleton. Outnumbered, he took several hits before Demon Eyes finished him off with a critical hit and a damage roll of 24 (the critical multipliers for firearms are insane).

They freed the townsfolk, and Rosalynd recognised the crystal they were fighting around as a Wyrdstone, one of the stones of power that dot Ternis. Normally they are inert and magically passive, and as far as she was aware this was the first time one had ever been active like this. Demon Eyes looted the skeleton's armour and sword, realising they were surprisingly ancient things to find on a continent that had only been accessible for a century, and decided to sell them on to a collector (a normal merchant would refuse to buy them, as the breastplate was made of corroded bronze and thus of no real resale value).

A few hours later, a heavily armoured war train from the Order of the Shield and Star arrived. The sheriffs and marshals who dismounted took an account of what happened and promised to investigate the stone, and towed the train onwards to Austis.

I'm so glad I get to see a Ternis campaign, I loved that setting when I first saw it on the boards as a wee posting lad.

It's nice to finally be running a game in it, I'm really looking forward to some of the stuff I'm going to do in the campaign concerning its background.

I've hopefully got my first GM session of Only War in about ten minutes. Wish me luck, Chorrolites!

Good luck, Rohirrim!

For the God Emperor!

*Makes sign of the aquila*

Good luck out there.

First session of OGL Ancients, was expecting tales of legendary valor and cunning politics.

My players made a tank.

Sigh

Tanks are legendary and they require a great deal of politics to make. Be proud of them.

It returns! A lot has transpired in the gaming life of the far-off horseman. For starters, I've significantly (at least, I like to think so) improved my game mastering, and also now run D&D 5E, a fantastic game, for the local game/hobby store with a new, bigger group of former strangers. Our latest campaign, after trying out a published adventure, is a dark setting inspired by the Witcher and Dragon Age, as well as medieval history. The current players are (mostly) as follows:

Brecken: Human Paladin, former witchunter, werewolf.

Senitor: Elf Wizard, liscensed. Played by an adorable 10 year old.

Tahyang: Air Genasi Ranger. Has the voice of Kronk from "The Emperor's New Groove"

Amara and Theren Ithillokte: Elf and Half-Elf Druid and unlicensed Sorceror, respectively.

Dr. Xavier StoneGavel, Attorney at Law: Elf(?) licensed Wizard, Defense Attorney.

Now I know most of y'all don't play tabletop RPGS, but I'd love to run some Chorrolite D&D online if anyone's interested.

Sign me up. I have a Roll20 account already let's do this.

Also, can I put in a request for D&D 5th edition, or Pathfinder if not that; 5th Ed is by far my favourite edition of D&D, and Pathfinder is superior to 3.5 and 4 by a long shot (I'd say 5th Ed and Pathfinder are on equal footing).

Believe me, dude, I'm a 5E purist. PM me your account and I'll get this party started.