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tonydowler — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:47:56 CDT

Welcome to the wiki of the gaming blog Attacks of Opportunity.
Check out our gaming convention, Go Play Northwest, to be held June 23-24, 2007!

Campaigns we've Played

Tales from the Aether (ongoing pulp sci-fi series)
1) The Thought Lords of Mars (The Shadow of Yesterday)

Actual play report for "The Thought Lords of Mars" on The Forge

2) The Jovian Enigma (The Shadow of Yesterday)
3) Kai-Shira-Kai and the Doom Equation (Spirit of the Century)

The world of Moroth (In a Wicked Age)
Venice is Sinking (Principia)
The Line (Prime Time Adventures)
The Cloud of Woe (Sorcerer / Dictionary of Mu)
Apas Invasion (Burning Empires)
Azure Pearl (Burning Sands: Jyhad / Burning Wheel)
The Job (aka Firefly in the 'verse) (Dogs in the Vineyard Firefly Hack)

One Shots

Desert City 1 (Contenders)
Desert City 2 (Contenders)
The Equipment (The Shadow of Yesterday / Mathematica)
Revenge of the Eyrines (The Shadow of Yesterday / Mathematica)
Wolves of the North (Dogs in the Vineyard Norse hack)
Castor and Pollux (Nine Worlds)
Saga of the Star Kraken(Nine Worlds)

Freebooters (The Shadow of Yesterday)
The Sword (Burning Wheel)

Other Campaigns by Members of this Group

The Man from Zanzibar- Tony's writeups on the Pulp Project 1557 wiki (Pulp D20 from Polyhedron Magazine)

The Man from Zanzibar - additional material here under Campaigns

Who Are We

John Harper
Brandon Amancio
Phil LaRose
Tony Dowler
Wilhelm Fitzpatrick (retired)

TSOY Psychic Secrets & Keys for TftA

philaros — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 02:15:11 CDT

These presume that your character has TSOY abilities "ESP", "Telepathy" and "Telekinesis". We never really defined the abilities explicitly, we were willing to go with ability rolls whenever it seemed reasonable or appropriate to us.

Secret of Mind Control: Succeed at a resisted Telepathy roll, then spend 3 Reason to issue a command that must be obeyed (within typical restraints about suicidal/extremely contrary commands). Cost: 3 Reason

Secret of Implanted Command: Works as Mind Control (succeed at resisted Telepathy rol), but the command takes effect at a later time, either conditionally or after a set duration. The subject gets a new resist roll after 2 weeks (or perhaps a different length). Cost: 3 Reason

Secret of Severing Psychic Hook: Succeed at a resisted Telepathy roll to remove an implanted command or other form of psychic tether. Cost: 2 Reason

Secret of Combat Telekinesis: +1 Harm to damage when using Telekinesis in Bringing Down the Pain. Cost: 1 Reason

Secret of Psychic Invisibility: Succeed at a resisted ESP roll to conceal things psychically or reveal psychically-hidden things. Cost: 1 Reason per target (including self)

Secret of Psychic Armor: Screen out mental interference from powerful psychic forces, canceling 1 penalty die for 1 scene. Cost: 1 Reason

Secret of Levitation: Overcome the effects of gravity through Telekinesis. Cost: 1 Reason

Key of the Theosophist:
Gain 1 XP for investigating psychic/mystical phenomena.
Gain 3 XP for experimenting with mystical powers.
Buyoff: Refuse to investigate an obviously mystical phenomenon.

Key of Wondrous Arcana:
Gain 1 XP when performing a cool stunt with your mystical powers.
Gain 2 XP when performing a cool stunt with your mystical powers in a dangerous situation.
Gain 5 XP when performing a cool stunt with your mystical powers that puts you in danger and helps someone else.
Buyoff: Choose a mundane solution to a mystical problem.

Thought Lords of Mars

philaros — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 01:33:45 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

The Cloud of Woe

philaros — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:28:01 CDT

"The Cloud of Woe" was a short series of the Sorcerer RPG, using The Dictionary of Mu setting.

New Dictionary Entries

Compass

Finding that which is lost is the Compass's purpose. So much is lost. So much is obscured by the present. Fire is the best clensing of the present and once all is clean the Compass will know where everything is.

(submitted by Brandon)

Severed Heads

Sometimes people's heads get cut off, and that mostly sucks. But a severed head can be a useful thing. Mmmm... severed head. That's where the memories are. For some bizarre reason, most severed heads are from Urd. At least the demon ones are. No one knows why. Except the heads. And they're not talking. Their mouths are sewn shut. Leave them that way.

(submitted by Tony)

The Job (Firefly in the 'verse)

philaros — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:13:05 CDT

Session 0 Actual Play report on The Forge

Claire Tremont - background

philaros — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:06:23 CDT

Daughter/only child of Prof. Claude Tremont, French Anthropologist and Angela Lowell (American). Born 1896, raised in Boston - her father was a Harvard professor at the time. Dad was in his early 30s (at least 30) when she was born. Learned French and English from infancy.

In 1904, Prof. Tremont returned to France with his family. Worked in Paris for a year, then began period of months-long trips to do field studies. Mom & Claire lived with Grand-mere Tremont, who has occasional fainting spells and claims to be able to see ghosts. Claire learned German in school at this time, in addition to continuing French & English.

Tired of long absences from his family, Prof. Tremont decides in 1909 to bring them with him on his next expedition, a study of certain cultural groups in northern India. During this time Claire grows into a young woman who seems to have the two peculiar but complimentary knacks of finding trouble yet avoiding actual harm. Claire is not actually a rebellious teen, partly because her parents (dad in particular) tend to be laissez-faire and encouraging, but she definitely shows a wild streak. As her dad is an anthropologist, she is frequently among the "natives" and learns both Hindi and Sanskrit. Claire befriends an old Hindu who helps her learn to focus her youthful energy, observe the world around her, calm her mind and open it through meditation.

When the war begins, the Tremonts return to Boston and Claire enrolls in Radcliffe College. Claire studies writing and learns Latin. She also learns of the Theosophical Society, which is eager to welcome her as a member due to her years of experience in India. Claire in turn has some peculiar experiences during her college years hinting at untapped powers in her mind, and finds the Society offers her the opportunity to explore this further.

Claire graduates from Radcliffe in spring 1918. She moves to NYC to start working as a freelance magazine writer. However, she has not given up her determination to learn more about her possible psychic powers, and after the war ends she decides to return to India, going to the international headquarters of the Society in Madras [established in 1882 by the founders of Theosophy, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott].

- Supports self as freelance journalist, writing for a few magazines.

- Studies at Society headquarters, but also with some locals. Learns to focus her psychic potential into specific abilities.

- Some time in 1921 (?) discovers the manipulations of the sinister Indian mystic K'tallah Singh, and puts a stop to his machinations with the help of American pilot Nick Timber.

-Returns to NYC early in 1923 and is invited to join the World Explorer's Club. Discovers Nick in town and invites him to join as well.

The Man from Zanzibar

philaros — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:32:45 CDT

"The Man from Zanzibar" was a d20 campaign run by Tony, using the "Pulp Heroes" rules published in Polyhedron. It was one of the first, if not the first, games to involve Tony, John, and myself (Philip). Additional players included Will, Patrick, and John P. Tony began organizing the game around the beginning of May 2002, and the series ran for 13 episodes to the beginning of December 2002. It was intended from the start to be a limited series, and succeeded admirably.

Tony's writeups are currently available in the Pulp Project 1557 wiki, under the alternate title "The Hand of Ankhnaten". This page features additional material.

Episodes 1-3: Claire Tremont's story

Claire Tremont - background

Episodes 1-3: Claire Tremont's story

philaros — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 20:12:00 CDT

I, Philip, was the player of Claire Tremont, erstwhile reporter and mistress of psychic powers. I wrote the following summary of episodes 1-3 for a friend of mine in Boston.

Previously in Pulp Heroes... we were hired in Episode 1 by Achmed, "the Man from Zanzibar," to attend an auction and acquire an ancient mummified hand wearing a jeweled bracelet, both possibly invested with occult powers, in a lead box. Chinese goons working for the inscrutable master criminal Doctor Wu attacked us during our restaurant meeting with Achmed, and we barely escaped.

Episode 2 opened with a harrowing car chase through the streets of Manhattan which ended with the bad guys' truck crashing due to the combination of a sharp turn, Claire Tremont's [me] mystic power to daze the driver into inaction, and oil spread on the road courtesy of scientist Fenton Westinghouse's [Wil] tricked-up roadster. After spending a couple days recuperating and researching the item up for auction, and pursuing leads on Doctor Wu, we were surprised at our hotel by his minions (led by his henchman Chu, the fat Chinaman) and brought to Wu's airship for a discussion. The doctor claimed to be interested only in the bracelet, while our employer expressly desired the hand, so we seemed to reach a cordial understanding with Wu about splitting the items. Immediate disaster was narrowly avoided when Miss Tremont used mystic mindspeak to warn the impetuous ace pilot Nick Timber [John H] from making any rash moves against Wu. However, on leaving Wu's airship, the elevator went below ground level and began filling with water...

As tonight's episode opened, our heroes were trapped in an elevator slowly filling with water. Via loudspeaker Doctor Wu explained he could not trust us and as we did not reveal to him the location of the auction, he would have to take other measures. Fortunately, Westinghouse had once worked as an elevator repairman, and was able to hotwire the elevator to return to the warehouse on the surface. Ex-British army officer Thomas Keefe [Pat] had brought with him a satchel full of dynamite, and so he left a dozen sticks with a lit fuse in the elevator and sent it back up to the airship before we hurried out of the warehouse. We reached the door just as the dynamite blew, and discovered henchman Chu and a couple goons were down here on the ground waiting for us. After a brief struggle our heroes put down the minions and narrowly avoided the falling wreckage of the airship's docking tower, which seemingly buried the vile Chu. However, we also saw the badly damaged but still flying airship limping towards New Jersey.

Regrouping at another hotel, we made our final plans for the auction the next morning. Mr. Keefe would take Westinghouse's car, hire three other people, and drive for a while heading out of the city, in an attempt to mislead Wu's minions, while the rest of us headed as circumspectly as possible to the auction site. [Pat had to leave early, and this is how we decided to proceed. Incidentally, our fifth player, John P, has been out of town on business the past two sessions so his detective character is still missing, last known to be pursuing a lead.] At the auction, who should appear but our erstwhile employer Mr. Achmed! Judging by his alarmed reaction, we suspected he was no longer vying with Doctor Wu for possession of the items, a suspicion he soon confirmed. Fortunately we still had the funds he had provided us for the auction, and we were now determined to prevent these artifacts from falling into the hands of either Achmed or Doctor Wu. We were concerned whether Achmed had greater funds available, but then Miss Tremont had a thought and assured her companions she could take care of Achmed, so long as we sat behind him, which we did.

Several other buyers were present for the auction, which featured ten items, including an alchemical treatise by Roger Bacon, a mystical Tibetan carving, and the mummified hand and bracelet which was the last item up for bid. Westinghouse handled our bidding, and deliberately drove up the bidding on some of the early items in hope of preventing other attendees from being able to bid successfully on the artifacts we sought. Using our own resources, he also won the bids on Bacon's treatise for himself and the Tibetan carving for Miss Tremont. Finally the last item came up for bid. Westinghouse made the first bid and exchanged a couple small ones before Achmed jumped to a considerably higher figure. Then Miss Tremont put her plan into action. After Westinghouse made the next bid, she summoned her psychic power and tried to *daze* Achmed, preventing him from being able to bid again. Achmed almost hesitated but bid again. Westinghouse topped him, and Miss Tremont tried to *daze* Achmed again. But again he shook it off, though visibly disturbed, and raised the bid. We had now bid all of the funds Achmed had provided us, and only had our limited resources to add. Westinghouse raised the bid again, and Miss Tremont concentrated hard... going once... going twice, Achmed struggled... sold! Sold to us! And Achmed's hand finally shot up, too late to bid! Achmed jumped up and stared at us, deeply dismayed, before fleeing the auction house. Jubilantly, we collected the items we'd won...

Meanwhile, across town, a pudgy hand broke free from the rubble of a warehouse and airship docking tower...

The best thing was realizing I had the power to hinder Achmed from bidding, and it was just a zero-level power. Tony didn't expect that, and I didn't tell the other players what I was going to do, I just told them in character that I'd take care of him. (Of course the problem with that is, although Harper's character has some idea that I've got occult powers, Wil's character doesn't, so he has no idea I really did anything -- since he was bidding he wouldn't have really noticed me staring at Achmed.) I realized afterwards that I had forgotten the main limitation of the power, which is that it only affects beings of 5 HD or less (we players don't know Achmed's level of course but it's probably higher than 5). Tony doesn't know all the powers by heart of course, and didn't think of checking the details -- I'd used it successfully on a few minions so we weren't thinking of that limitation. But the target does get a save, and for psionics the difficulty is a d20 roll plus power level and (psion's) ability modifier -- which means sometimes it'll be easy to resist and sometimes hard. And Achmed's first two save rolls exactly matched the difficulty, so it was a close thing.

Resources

tonydowler — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:28:42 CDT

Pulp Project 1557: a compendium of information related to pulp campaigns

[PTA] The Line

tonydowler — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:08:05 CDT

The Line actual play report on Story Games
Large version of John's image at the top of this page

SENTRAL Rules of Conduct

Operators on are expected to:

Arrive at their destination on time and without incident.
Maintain a calm and professional demeanor at all times.
Encourage passengers to maintain their calm at all time.
While the train is in motion, Operators are required to keep their eyes on the track.
Operators may only pickup and drop off passengers at their designated stops.

It is a violation for Operators to:

Operate the train while intoxicated.
Eat while Operating the train.
Smoke while Operating the train.
Report non-operational incidents to SENTRAL.
Engage in unauthorized commercial activity.
Exit the Operation Chamber except in an emergency.

SENTRAL Publication 2432.6151.84

The Characters

Henry "Hank" Jakoby the Subway Driver

Player: Brandon
Issue: Temptation for what is out in the unknown
Traits

Alice, his videographer daughter
The Collector (played by Tom Waits)
Old Timer

Personal Set: His Subway Car
Nemesis: Doris, his ex-wife and SENTRAL Management

Chrysostom "Chris" Niklaus

Concept: Hipster looking for God
Player: Tony
Issue: Looking for God (and my Mom, and the Lost Station)
Story Arc: pilot:2 Season: 1, 2, 3, 2, 1
Traits

Theology student
Hipster
My dead mother

Personal Set: Staff breakroom on The Line
Nemesis: The aborigonee

Morgan

Concept: punk-rock busker chick
Player: Phil
Issue: Self-worth - prove that I can make it big without selling out
Edge/Connections

Punk rocker
Alex, record label employee
Charlie, newsstand guy

Personal Set: Central Square Station
Nemesis: Officer Stankowski, "Stan The Man" - The Line police

Image Archive

Langoroth — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:43:51 CDT

Mathmatica

Link Archive

Langoroth — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:41:17 CDT

Name	Category	Note
Archetype List	Resource	Useful for making Keys
Steampunk Star Wars	Cool	Just Kind of Cool
Nick Timber SotC Sheet	Character, SotC
SkyFall RPG	RPG, Fate	Fate Implementation
SotC/LotR Actual Play / Part II	SotC, Actual Play	Example of how it all works

Campaigns

Langoroth — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 03:05:11 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.