The Story So Far
After participating in Operation: AJAX by deposing Mossadegh in Iran and cementing the Shah's grip on power, CIA agents Felix Leiter and Richard Loubeau are stationed in 1954 Berlin.

There (along with some support staff from the CIA, MI6, and the West Gernman Gehlen Org of recycled SS officers) they are part of an operation to construct a tunnel from the American Sector into the Soviet Sector and tap some underground phone lines. Their cover story is that they are eccentric artistic-photographers. Off hours, they spend a lot of time in an artist colony-night club-casino run by the motherly Frau Elodie Besse.

Their tunnel operation is soon compromised when the British engineering nerd responsible for its construction falls for an East German bombshell. When the nerd can't be talked out of the relationship, Leiter follows the girl back into East Germany, and observes her meeting an East German or Soviet official, "the toad woman."

Meanwhile, Richard Loubeau decides to help Frau Besse, who is worried about one of her pet artists, a heroin addicted painter named Gabi. Richard trails her on the way to her dealer, tries to chat her up, is told to get lost, and is just about to trail her again, when he gets hit on the head by a brick from a four-story building. He is seriously injured.

The next day, the men compare notes, chat with co-worker and Nazi war criminal Franz Cadavus who claims to have a new an important lead which he forbids anyone from investigating. The duo then introduce James Bond to Berlin. (Bond has been dispatched by MI6 to ensure their engineering nerd doesn't give any secrets to the East Germans, ideally by seducing the bombshell spy away from the engineer.)

Bond mingles with the cast at Frau Besse's, beats up a Turkish waiter-assassin with the aid of a urinal, half-seduces the East German agent, follows her over the border into the Soviet Sector, and gets attacked by the toad woman (Rosa Klebb!) who Bond beats half to death with his bare hands. He then finishes his seduction of the girl, and learns that she would have defected to the West long before, except that her mother is being held prisoner in a Stasi prison.

Leiter meanwhile lies to the artistic addict Gabi that Richard is suicidal, and he needs a beautiful German muse to inspire him to artistic glory. After receiving a large amount of cash, Gabi agrees, and divulges that she is a Communist sympathizer for artistic-ideological reasons.

Meanwhile, Richard learns from Frau Besse that the guy who dropped a brick on his head was probably "Metzger," an enforcer for Juergen Fisch, a West German gangster, drug dealer, numbers racketeer, blackmarket guy, and gambler - likely Gabi's heroin supplier.

Leiter and Loubeau resolve to pay Fisch a visit once Loubeau's wound has healed. Loubeau is also babbling about creating a photo collage in the style of Man Ray.

You need only sleep and wish it to awaken in the Dreaming City, a sprawling, infinite expanse. Hovering close to your home planet, Earth swallows most of the night sky with it's glow, a constant reminder to dreamers of the world they have left. Wizards discovered and named the trans-planar shadow planet housing the city Layman-Dunn B-4, and have left numerous dimensional portals, skyships and chutes of return throughout the city. A month in the Dreaming City is only an hour of slumber in your world, you miss nothing, you gain—-everything!

Plan: I want feedback on my DMing, revealing where I need improvement and where I might be stepping on player options or not properly facilitating them.

I'm aiming to run a gonzo setting for my remedial DMing skills using B/X (to heighten allure of trying this out), so I'm looking for a few players to get some XP as I either run a dungeon or let you explore the infinite expanse of the city online as you carouse, or maybe PBP, depending on my tolerance.

I will post when I have something prepared/ready, then solicit requests for the specific session. You will not be RPing the 'getting there' (unless you want to).

1 day/week— start times will be 9pm, going no further than 10:30-11pm, on googleplus, using a whiteboard and a dieroller. I will post requests for availability as content is generated/found/stolen.

In the unlikely event that you wish to start fresh with new characters, we can set up a quick mutual googleplus session with a dieroller and have you roll a quick 18d6.
I'm also entertaining the idea that slain PCs can play in this world, but it's a one way trip for them, your realm is forever the world of LD B-4. In this regard, all manner of heroes can be present and create new legends.

Thanks for the fun game Charlatan.

Also, I love the spell lists idea. Now a wizard should need his own spell book/reference. Great idea! again, I want to cockpunch naysayers on grognardia about this.

The art piece on Law/Chaos and reading about consorting with different denizens in later levels gave me a full on erection for gaming.

I forgot the link for the free beta download, but if you're here and haven't seen it, you're missing out, bud.

We've ordered copies of Erol Otus covered Basic and Expert rules for now, and are watching for cheap copies of the Rules Cyclopedia on ebay, etc.

The plan is to circumvent the whole original names problem and to name our characters as complete ripoffs, so our party could consist of:

King Arthur, Shazam, Tarzan, Gandalf, Montezuma, Friar Tuck, Alexander the Great, Ronnie James Dio, Bilbo Baggins, Elric, etc.. I can always use 'Son of' or 's cousin' if I get a bit attached.

Quick Question: I really don't understand Carousing examples at all between Glantri and Tavis' Sandbox. I understand intents stated, but the rolling system and the outcomes seem a bit strange. Any chance this can be explained for an idiot such as myself? But only if it involves experience in addition to that earned from treasure. If it is in lieu of treasure XP, count me out!

Hearken to my tale, or do not (only need to watch first 30 seconds)

I took my hack ruleset on a maiden voyage. My friend rolled up Calcaneus, an NCO in the Lunar Empire running a tent group (Contubernium). Calcaneus wishes to excise himself from the empire and free his children. He serves on the Emperor's guard. Lacking any significant grounding in Glorantha or the Lunar Empire we created a splinter empire that involved (with inspiration from Dark Sun, Flash Gordon, Archer & The Sorceress):

Emperor Ignominious X, once a council to Gods, had grown senile and now(!!) craves immortality. He began appropriating all the slaves from the land to build the tomb for his inevitable ascension with the Seven Mothers. This left Citadel without production, which angered the various noble houses under the Emperor as they were now hemorrhaging money for this folly. The noble houses consisted of various subjugated races who were typically ruled by those countrymen willing to sell their brethren out. One such ruler is Calcaneus' uncle. Calcaneus has two children and a deceased wife, his children are kept under the care of the noble house so long as he pays (often) for such privilege. The slaves of his house are his own people. Houses typically treat slaves of their own people slightly better, perhaps just well enough for them to be really angry about the situation. His uncle reveals a plot to murder the emperor, with 5 out of 6 nobles houses supporting it, and to reward the heroes who aid this endeavor. Calcaneus doesn't trust his uncle at all, but agrees to advance his uncle's plans.

Calcaneus is intercepted by the brother of a girl who is promised to him once he retires (soldiers are not permitted to marry while serving). Urged to follow, Calcaneus painfully watches as the girl shyly admires a slave boy who she speaks with while he cares for her horse. The slave boy is known as one of Calcaneus' people. Calcaneus tells the girl's brother to summon her to greet him, saying nothing. The boy admires Calcaneus (and hates his sister) so he does so. After a tense RP experience, Calcaneus is unable to divine if the girl has any genuine feelings for him beyond normal sympathy. She tells him that her house has the Emperor's ear (they are the only loyal house) and that they know of a rebellion plot by a couple of noble houses—and most certainly they know his house will be one of those involved. He assures her that these are rumors, and is shocked to find her a fervent believer in the Emperor's ascension.

We then cut to a scene where Calcaneus gets his orders from his rival and superior, the Centurion Hallux. My friend uses a Snidley Whiplash voice which I decide is hilarious enough to adopt. Hallux hints that there is knowledge of various plans afoot, and Calcaneus' contingent is sent to the edge of the borders, to a town which has likely never seen Lunar presence to establish a garrison. He has the power to recruit to maintain his number as needed, though they have likely never seen a Lunar soldier. Hallux dances around seeming to know more than he is letting on of Calcaneus before dismissing him, claiming he will come in a few seasons to appraise the progress made in this border town, Drommgardt. Is Calcaneus being sent out of the picture for a reason? He certainly thinks so.

The Contubernium sets out for Drommgardt, a border town, and is intercepted by bandits who try to extort tribute as the true guardians of this area. Calcaneus manages to talk them down while simultaneously offering a token tribute that earns their trust. Their leader tells him that his father is the town elder. From there, they find the town small, lacking in able bodied adults and very poor. There is a small tribute temple to the Seven Mothers, and a priest, however. Calcaneus sets his soldiers up as the town's guard and immediately starts helping. His first job is to retake the old, abandoned watch tower taken over by the Barbarians recently.

For this base I used a convenient dungeon to go from dungeonslayers, The Brigands of Lyrkenfenn -Calcaneus approaches with 3 of his men and searches for the trap door to the tower below. According to my rules, I get a chance to roll for wandering monsters. I succeed, he fails, so I describe 4 brigands popping up the trap door then immediately falling back down after they see the searching soldiers. Calcaneus and team charge down with shields forward. What follows was a 20 minute Tarantino blood bath of screaming men doubled over in pools of their own viscera. The Brigands attack is 12, the soldiers 14, Calcaneus' is 13. The Brigands wear only 2 points of armor per location. All advantages point to the soldiers. At one point, two of the brigands are slain (mainly due to some horrible fumbles, including a 100 rolled on the parry fumble table), the remaining two ask to just leave and never return. Calcaneus wants them to drop their weapons, they refuse. Calcaneus assures them they will die. The last man alive, on what is certain to be his final attack, crits Calcaneus, severing his arm. His remaining men dispatch the rest and rush him back to the temple priest. At this point, the player and I talk about what options should Calcaneus have. He doesn't have a heal 6 guy on his team, so I offer one alternative and the player offers another. One is, the arm is re-attached, but permanently one or two hit points lower for that location. Another is that he loses the hand, but gains a D4 mace. It's a shield arm, but it means he can never fire a normal bow or swing a normal 2 handed weapon. The players likes this second option better, so he chooses the allotments of the table 1-5 his choice, 6 mine. He rolls his choice—and that's where we left it.

Was combat fun? hell yes. Would missile combat or spells have helped him some? Hell yes. Did I laugh hysterically at that last crit? You bet your ass I did. Since I use a d20 instead of percentile for 95% of the game, Fumbles happen 3-4% more often than in RQ.

One conscious situational thing I did in the game was make everyone, and I mean everyone, money hungry. They took coin and thanked for coin and wished for more coin. The idea for me was to create the empty kind of money sinks that you have in games like Contenders, where you wonder why in the hell should the character let themselves be tortured so. Fortunately my friend was laughing most of the time. I hope he returns to Doomquest, but perhaps a bit more willing to consider the tactical advantages of magic and missile combat in the game.

One thing I enjoyed about this game: transparency of play. I was able to play with what I knew or didn't know openly and without much embarrassment. He added information that he found interesting and we were both laughing often. We bargained for things that were not covered by the rules, though I have lingering questions of whether I sacrificed immersion for such openness of play.

If anyone else also wants to run RQ and say that we're in the same iteration of Glorantha, I would be delighted! But if so, I'd strongly prefer that we not break up the world into dominions, like Skat-tay runs Prax and IO runs Dragon Pass. The messiness of RQ is part of its charm!

That said, I wonder if we could agree on some procedures for making characters. I made a one page summary with many GM calls about skills, weapons, magic, and equipment available to starting characters that Scott, Jeff, and ET have used to make young barbarians from Sartar relatively quickly, along with a short description of how to make non-human characters by adapting the monster description, and humans from other cultures by modifying the Sartarite procedure on the fly, subject to GM approval. Id like to develop this a little more, adding in a guideline about starting with some level of cult affiliation, but I think it would be a cool standard. I'll either post it or put it on a wiki page. Would you use it if you ran? Comments welcome.

Maybe for now scheduling of games should stay mostly in the Autumn Abrupt Gaming thread.

The theoretical advantages of a PSH are that computers and robots treat you well, you have Leadership Potential so that you can attract followers, and you have an advantage in figuring out technology.

In MA you roll 1d4 for how many mental mutations, and another 1d4 for physical. I gave everyone (4 - mental) draws from a deck of ancient artifacts (i.e. tech), and (4 - physical) from a deck of tribal artifacts (like poison glands from a mutant fish). Since PSH humans had no mutations, they got 4 draws from each category. They could also choose to take a follower instead of a draw.

I could easily re-create these decks, although many of the results were likely too powerful for our purposes. I do think it's good for each PC to start with at least one randomly generated bit of cool gear - I think Jeff Rients has a table for this. IIRC, starting equipment is undefined (at least it is in MA) so we should give 'what does my guy have' some thought.

I liked the distinction that pure humans were the ones with henchmen - this gave immediate cachet to balance their lack of followers. In my MA game, the followers had mutations of their own, so the PSH had mutant powers by proxy.

That seems to have been the default assumption of the three Traveller games I've played in, and I didn't come into the game knowing this. In hindsight, coupled with the fact that the game is based on 1940's and 1950's "galactic empire" fiction, that seems like what I was missing.

It's kind of a big deal because Viet Nam (for a lot of people) really did some damage to a romanticized view of the military and its place in the world.

I'm thinking that The Forever War isn't the reference point I was hoping it was. So what takes its place?

Sorry for my lackluster RP skillz in the form of British affected Zhodani and my lack of convincing Hiver mannerisms.

I had no idea of the extensive notes that Quendalon has been keeping. Or the arcana that Travis has provided.

I feel foolish. Is there a master contents page for both of these games that we could link to in the menu bar? Or should I just check the Tag listings?
This all started with my wanting to make pages for my characters. Are there set procedures for doing this?

Burning Necropolis: Session 1