(Art by Sam Mameli)

Have been deathly ill for most of this month, with barely the focus to do anything. So I've been in the dumps.

Last Wednesday I ran a one-shot for my regular TTRPG group, just to feel like I could do something---anything. I didn't have much of a voice. Just a low rasp. So all my characters that night were kinda husky, sultry folks, the kind you might find in a bar.

Apopros to the game, I suppose. I ran the Whirling Mummy, a dance-hall adventure I created for Prismatic Wastelands' ENNIE-winning bar-crawl campaign setting, Barkeep On The Borderlands:

THE WHIRLING MUMMY Madam Smiling is the never-seen proprietress of The Whirling Mummy, an undead-themed dance hall, named after Madam Smiling's ancient, still-animate consort. + Before the Keep, before goblins lived in caves – a goddess cursed a king to dance. He danced all night, he danced all season. He danced and he died. They buried him dancing. He danced in his tomb of jade mosaic. A quake split the Iron Fens, and cracked his tomb, and spat him out dancing. Tonight, in the mummy's honour: a dance-off! Various crews compete to win their hearts' desire. There has never been a wish Madam Smiling could not grant.

+++

Got my players to make characters using Barkeep's evocative background packages. The party:

Frederick the Foppish Dandy, with a big hat, dueling pistol, and a wealthy fiance called Giorgio ("Georgie!");

Alejandra the Ebullient Dancer, with a tambourine, vial of poison, and her patron the noble chanteuse Lady Gaga;

Melan the Troubled Musician, with a flute, a cymbal-playing pet monkey, and a broken heart.

Serendipitously appropriate, for an adventure featuring a dance contest!

Melan decides they have history with Kril Mouser, leader of the club's musicians.

Ironically, Alejandra spends her whole night off the podium, gassing up the crowd to win over their support.

Frederick ("Freddie!") plays out a rivalry with one of competing dance crews: a trio of voguing toffs.

Freddie ends up being the night's star dancer. "This is the kind of music Frederick plays in his room," his player says:

+++

I rolled a new event for every turn / round of the dance-off, for maximum shenanigans:

A skeleton flapper loses her head on the dance floor. The Dancer turns that skull into a ball the cheering crowd can bounce around. Poor skelly!

A gang of electric-lute-wielding bards storm Kril Mouser's band stage in an attempt to take it over. Melan spends the round fighting them off, earning the musicians' favour. (Alejandra throws her skeleton skull, knocking a bard out.)

A paladin raid on the club for illegal necromancy. This coincides with the last round of the dance-off; Freddie is too drunk to continue, so Melan takes the stage, and duels Master Mocking Of A Million Eyes, the peacock demon and final boss.

Melan's player describes their dance as "Lizzo with a flute, but while performing a Celine-Dion-like ballad".

This means they beat an eldritch horror with a combination of this:

and this:

Nice.

+++

So the party won the dance-off. They are entitled to wishes from Madam Smiling.

Frederick asks to be the richest person in the world;

Alejandra wants to retroactively swap places with her patron Lady Gaga;

Melan selflessly asks for land back for the indigenous lizardfolk. (The industrial district in which the Whirling Mummy sits used to belong to the lizard-people; there were lizard nuns handing out pins outside the club.)

I was very pleased with this game. I think it was my first successful, self-contained one-shot? We played for about three hours, and I felt buoyed by endorphins after.

I love my players. Thank you Am, Ai and Vesha for playing with me; you have kept my love for this game stuff alive.

I lost my voice again, the next day.

+++

Final scene, one year later:

Melan is the opening act for a concert by Lady Alejandra, in a city ruled by Prince Frederick the First.

All of this happens a continent away; the city in which Barkeep is set has been totally erased. A trade agreement has been signed with the lizardfolk queendoms, however---and ambassadors report an incongruous-looking dance hall, in the middle of the marsh.

a secret organization of villains… I mean An open grouping of well known oligarchs are taking over… Your mission is to overthrow… I mean survive. The three branches of government agree not so stop hunger, or war, or genocide, or the senseless slaughter of schoolchildren, but to ban a piece of social media, while the remaining outlets suddenly become welcoming to the kind of people who the…

Session Play Report for Manhattan Minicon Beneath the Fallen Tower using 75pt GURPS Dungeon Fantasy

I cut down on startup time by assembling a stack of illustrated pregens using my stock art. We had seven players, one of whom was in the InfiWorlds game I participated in earlier this summer. He built an elf using my template (I will be eventually attaching a pdf of the pregens and his character) and there were a couple of people with prior DF experience.

Noah Green, who had played a cleric of…

[Last Update] 08.08 09:00]

The first hands-on event (private) is going on today and yesterday media got to play and write articles. Here is what we have learned about the aerial style so far, much more to come which I'll update this.

Your B button evade is now a forward air evade

If you touch a monster you'll jump off them even higher

You can do all sorts of attacks in the air

(unconfirmed) you can equip 1 super skill

(unconfirmed) you can hop off Palicos bombs and small monsters too

Lost Moves:

Since you can spam aerial moves over and over, you lose power on the ground. For example, with GS you do not get to use charge attacks on the ground at all, for Hammer even if you charge it up you do not get the stomp move. However you can air evade after just about any move so they felt it made up for it.

There are also reports that for LS you cannot do a spirit combo on ground, only in the air. They did make it easier and faster to pull off though and with the idea that you are an air hunter not ground, this makes sense.

Mounting is Harder:

Famitsu was unsure if it was mounting in general (I doubt it) or the aerial style only, but mounting too simnifically longer with the aerial style. This makes sense as the point of aerial is not to mount, but to command the air.

Other Notes:

You can evade tail swipes and stuff easy since you are in the air but they noted that if you are right up against a monster doing air jumps, you can find that you lose sight of them and can get smacked around, so it will take some skill to control things.

Our Setting: The Trüng-Holt, a stronghold bordering on the Baltic Sea that defends a harbour and port and is threatened by a raiders from the sea, an unlawful crown (seized by a tyrant, Miklos of the Zsolt), and a local warlord, ambitious and bold. Its fortifications include a hilltop position, a bottleneck approach up the side of the cliffs, an outer palisade wall, and a deep well; its armoury includes spears, round shields, hide coats and leather helmets, and bows, enough for 10 warriors.

For more setting detail, please see the Set-up Session write-up. 

Our Cast (thus far):

Amai the Touched, Wicker-Wise of the Trüng. She is wyrd, wary, and strong, but goodness yet evades her. She is wise in poison-craft and whispers to ghosts. She can enchant someone or something, and is sometimes overcome by oracular visions.

With one hand in each world, Healer, counselor, Bloody to both elbows.

Hilda the Right, Peasant Beauty of the Caymbre and Zsolt. She is bold, good, and strong, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She is breathtaking and fell when she appears on the battlefield, and her foremothers were queens of the Old Blood. She is radiant and stunning, and receives gifts and offerings on behalf of the summer, the earth, and the river.

Born free, feet upon the earth, But in my birth are secret things, And in my future, fire.

Ritva the Certain, Blacksmith of the Kekkonen. She is strong, wary, and good, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She speaks wisdom to those who come to her for counsel, and has the right to take on a student as her apprentice. Were she wronged, she could muster champions to demand blood recompense and they would come; were danger near, she could rally warriors from among her peers to the defense of all and they would listen.

Scorched and roaring, Fearless, indomitable, Sanctified by crucible and forge.

Soku the Swift, Court Wizard of the Laung and Trüng. She is wyrd, good, and wary, but her spirit shudders away from boldness. She is literate in Persian and Arabic and has the right to seek the truth in any troubling situation, unhindered by any. She is able to step out of her earthly life and journey in other places, and can see into the heart of unnatural creatures.

Astrologer, necromancer, Scientist and sage Trembling before God

(Players, feel free to point out anywhere I may have forgotten things.)

The Setting: Drawing, a large forested country town in New South Wales around an hour from the coast, at Saint Valentine’s Academy, a Catholic high-school.

Our Cast (this session):

Brittany – an icy Queen with captivating eyes who leads a cultic clique who perform rituals they don’t understand at an old ritual site near the coast. (UPDATE: They pronouns) [Played by Kat]

Kafka – a striking Ghoul with hollow eyes who was killed in a car-accident a month ago, bare days into the school year, but woke up afterwards confused and hungry. (He pronouns) [Played by Kaj]

Sabrina – a brooding Witch with calculating eyes whose sanctuary from the stupidity of her classmates (an old and abandoned bathroom) is full of occult paraphernalia. (She pronouns) [Played by Jacqui]

Mika – a distant Infernal with calculating eyes chosen to receive power and influence by an unknown patron who asks only the smallest things in return. (They pronouns) [Played by Liv]

Floris – a dainty Fae with mesmerizing eyes who dreams of the King in the Greenwood from whom she stole her glamour and power. (They pronouns) [Played by Liska]

Eva – a stiff Hollow with soulless eyes who was once a beast of the forest before gaining a new furless and two-legged form (She pronouns) [Played by Kettu]

Our Setting: The Trüng-Holt, a stronghold bordering on the Baltic Sea that defends a harbour and port and is threatened by a raiders from the sea, an unlawful crown (seized by a tyrant, Miklos of the Zsolt), and a local warlord, ambitious and bold. Its fortifications include a hilltop position, a bottleneck approach up the side of the cliffs, an outer palisade wall, and a deep well; its armoury includes spears, round shields, hide coats and leather helmets, and bows, enough for 10 warriors. 

Its People:

The Trüng, bone-white, stout, and angular-faced, who first lived and thrived in this place. They are a village of 50 souls living in 6 households with 8 warriors among their number. They are known for their elaborate cosmology, their sorcery and enchantments, their mercy to their defeated enemies, their craft and skill as shipwrights and sailors, and their far-reaching trade routes.

The Caymbre, wiry, tale, and white-blond, who are a single family by birth and marriage. They are a clan of 30 souls living in 4 households with 8 warriors among their number. They are known for their generous hospitality, their great beauty, their craft and skill at fortification and construction, their archers, and their devotion to law.

The Kekkonen, black-brown, hulking, and blue-eyed, who are bound by a single common experience – being enchanted to attack the Trüng-Holt and then freed by sorcery. They are an enclave of 20 souls living in 4 households with 5 warriors among their number. They are known for their subtle fashions, their superb metalwork, their veneration of the priests and priestesses of the Trüng, their physical prowess, and their implacable blood-vengeance against those who ensorcelled them.

The Tearwyn, wiry, lithe, ginger-haired and freckled, who are bound by a single common experience – they were born with their eyes already open. They are a band of 16 souls who live in 16 households with 16 warriors among their number. They are known for their individual skill at arms, their strategy and tactics, their loyalty, their spicy cosmopolitan cuisine, and their vigilance against sorcery.

The Aluki, barrel-chested, round-faced, and golden-creamy skinned, who speak the same language while others around them do not. They are a band of 12 souls living in 1 household with 8 warriors among their number. They are known for their brutal raids, their loyalty, their insularity, their towering monuments, and their superb metalwork.

The Laung, black-brown, blond-haired, and painted in red and white, who worship the same god and were displaced from their homeland by the Empire of Eagles. They are an enclave of 20 souls who live in 4 households with 5 warriors among their number. They are known for their celebrations, the might of their god(s), their fearlessness in the face of death, the garishly-dyed wolf-pelts they wear, and their loyalty.

Our Cast (thus far):

Amai the Touched, Wicker-Wise of the Trüng. She is wyrd, wary, and strong, but goodness yet evades her. She is wise in poison-craft and whispers to ghosts. She can enchant someone or something, and is sometimes overcome by oracular visions. 

With one hand in each world, Healer, counselor, Bloody to both elbows. 

Hilda the Right, Peasant Beauty of the Caymbre. She is bold, good, and strong, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She is breathtaking and fell when she appears on the battlefield, and her foremothers were queens of the Old Blood. She is radiant and stunning, and receives gifts and offerings on behalf of the summer, the earth, and the river.

Born free, feet upon the earth, But in my birth are secret things, And in my future, fire.

Ritva the Certain, Blacksmith of the Kekkonen. She is strong, wary, and good, but the ways of wyrd elude her. She speaks wisdom to those who come to her for counsel, and has taken a student as her apprentice. Were she wronged, she could muster champions to demand blood recompense and they would come; were danger near, she could rally warriors from among her peers to the defense of all and they would listen. 

Scorched and roaring, Fearless, indomitable, Sanctified by crucible and forge.

Soku the Swift, Court Wizard of the Laung. She is wyrd, good, and wary, but her spirit shudders away from boldness. She is literate in Persian and Arabic and has the right to seek the truth in any troubling situation, unhindered by any. She is able to step out of her earthly life and journey in other places, and can see into the heart of unnatural creatures. 

Astrologer, necromancer, Scientist and sage Trembling before God

Others: