The Black Campbell

13 December, 2010

Thrilling Action Stories

Started my new Hollow Earth Expedition series “Thrilling Action Stories” last week with the new characters involved in tomb robbing and espionage in “the Pearl of the Orient”, Shanghai. (I found some fantastic resources online, like Tales of Old Shanghai.)

The characters are a Steve mcQueen-esque tomb raiding scoundrel archeologist, a handsome, action oriented brick…with about that much in the brain trust adventurer, an 11 year old street urchin (think a female Short Round), and a half-Chinese Kuomintang-connected member of the Green Gang and nightclub owner.

The first issue of the series brought Dr. Hannibal Drake and Jack McMahon to Shanghai by way of Hong Kong. Drake has discovered the body of the famed admiral Zheng He — not buried at sea, but instead on the Malabar coast. He and Jack link up in Hong Kong, where a deal to sell the cadaver and his casket goes badly, so they take it to Shanghai to try and get the nationalist government to buy it.

Meanwhile, Roland Kessik — half-Chinese son of a Jardine, Matheson & Co. lawyer — has found a mole in the KMT structure that was getting his gun shipments intercepted by the Japanese squad of the Shanghai Municipal Police. Through the street urchin Shanghai Sally, Kessik stops Wen Wo — an archivist in the KMT offices in Nanjing — from selling more secrets, and an ancient book and court papers, to Japanese agents.

After Kessik has turned over the Japanese archeologist they nabbed and Wo to Du Yeushang, the Green Gang head and a KMT general, Kessik is back in the nationalist good graces. But he keeps the book and papers, intrigued by what the Japs wanted.

Enter Drake and McMahon — they have Kessik’s name as a contact to try and move the admiral’s remains to the KMT. He agrees to broker it, but aks Drake to have a look at the book. It is an original copy of the Bencao Gangmu — a famed medical treatise from the 1500s. More importantly, the court papers reveal that the Kangxi Emperor had used the techniques in the BG to punish a court official (or so they currently think) guilty of treason to the “Arabic process in the Bencao Gangmu“. Drake realizes that this is the holy grail for his gradute advisor back at Columbia, for this can only mean that the Kangxi Emperor made this felon into a mellified man!

12 December, 2010

New House Rule: James Bond: 007 RPG

I’ve started working on tweaking the James Bond: 007 rules set, starting with trying to make fields of experience and weaknesses more interesting mechanically (search the site, there’s a couple of posts but it’s Sunday morning and I’m to lazy to link to it this moment) and now turning my attention toward the combat system.

One of the more interesting and fun mechanics (but also a hard one for new gamers to grasp) is bidding on initiative in chases. It allows the players to craft more intense and dangerous chase sequences for their (and your) entertainment. I propose that bidding be streamlined (we’ve had bidding wars go from Ease Factor 8 all the way down to EF1/2…it gets a bit slow.) Here’s the idea: the GM sets a base bid for the NPCs, then the players respond (if there are multiple vehicles involved they may either agree to bid the same, or each bid themselves. The NPCs get a chance to stay on their original bid or try to best the players. The players get one last chance to underbid the NPCs.

Example: James and John are on motorcycles, trying to catch the villain in his Jaguar XK8. The villain has a fast car with good acceleration and decent cornering (PM: +1) He bids a 6 (with the PM he’ll test against EF7…almost certain make the test successfully.) James and John are on a Triumph Speed Triple and Yamaha R6 respectively — both get PM: +2 for the test — and John has a better skill in Driving (but has terrible luck rolling on tests like these.) James bids an EF4 — he’s gunning the Speed Triple for all she’s worth and dodging traffic to get in close. John decides to redline the R6 and wheelies the Yamaha through the traffic with an EF3. James doesn’t really want to go that low on a two-wheeled vehicle. The villain counters with an EF2 — he’s weaving through traffic and even goes into oncoming lanes, taking a hard left at the first light they approach. Bikes…they don’t turn so well at high speed…

John really wants this guy — he punches it and bids EF1, but James decides to back off and let the villain go first. John rolls his Driving with a PC18 at EF3 (thanks to the R6’s PM) and needs a 54. He rolls a 67 — he’s going to fail. He tests his safety roll since he failed (and would have since he was under the bike’s REDline.) He needs a 54 and true to form rolls 78. He weaves through traffic, guns the bike into a wheelie — and looks great! — then had to break hard for the turn as he gets alongside the Jaguar…and locks the breaks. The R6 throws him for a medium wound to him and bike!

The Jaguar takes the turn, the bad guy gets an acceptable success and slews the car around the turn in a screech of tires and plume of smoke as he burns rubber. James needs a total of EF6 to stay with him. His patience, backing off a bit, letting the others get stupid, allows him to hook the turn on the Speed Triple at EF8 on his Driving of 15 (90 to succeed) and gets a 32 — a good result! He’s closed the distance from long to close….

Now let’s extend this bidding system to initiative…there’s an old saying in the gun community: Better to be accurate than fast. In this case, the bidding is applied to your combat tests and allows us to ditch the pesky d6 that has always been (to my eye) out of character with the percentile nature of the system.

In this case, the villain decided to do the classic jump out from behind cover, snap off a few shots and jump back to cover. The GM decides this is an EF5 bid for the villain. He has a Speed of 2 — if he wins, it’s an EF7 to try and hit the boys — James and John — before applying dodging mods, etc.

James is going to do the knee slide behind the nearest cover — say, a 55 gallon drum (yeah, we’re in an abandoned warehouse for the denouement) — and bids EF4 (with his Speed, it’s EF6 if he succeeds). John on the other hand is going to haul ass into the fray, using a convenient set of pallets to leap into the air, double-guns blazing, screaming “aaah!” That’s an EF3 John decides. The villain isn’t going for it.

John goes first and with his Fire Combat PC18 rolls a 68 and 44 on his pair of 1911 .45s. One shot bangs off of the big industrial-looking circuit breaker box the baddie is hiding behind, the other clips him in the slightly exposed shoulder. James goes next — sliding across the floor to cover and rolls 90 and 81 on his Fire Combat PC17: with the cover knocking his EF to 4, he misses. It looked good, but was wholly ineffective.

The bad guy goes for it, jumping out from cover and snapping a few shots at the most obvious target — John sailing through the air and screaming “aaaah!” He has an EF7 before we apply dodging mods for John — EF5. He has a PC14 for his Fire Combat: 75 and 51. The first shot goes high and blows out a window on the second floor of the abandoned warehouse/steel mill/whereverthehell we’re shooting this movie and the second clips John with an acceptable success. On the DC: F of the baddie’s Glock 17, that’s a light wound. After the bike accident earlier in the session, John’s character is getting seriously tashed up…

This is a preliminary version of the combat bidding I’ve been working on, but a more mature version of it might be coming to a blog — or possibly a game book — near you.

8 December, 2010

A Good Night at the Table

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Ordinarily, i don’t tend to bring a lot of my personal life to the blog beyond the most basic bits. I’m a “don’t air your dirty laundry in public” sort — very Scottish. But tonight was a good night at the gaming table and represented a closure of sorts for me.

For 19 years, I’m had one constant at the gaming table — my ex-wife. Even after our divorce, she was back at the table for a few months before she finally wrote me off after the announcement of my impending fatherhood. Completely understandable, and completely expected. She took with her one of my friends of 17 years. He had been increasingly erratic in his behavior for a while before our divorce, and while I’m sure he would find a way to blame me, it was simply that he was a miserable bugger that wouldn’t shift himself to fix his life. It seeped into every aspect of his life, including gaming. He stopped being fun to hang out with years ago (but then again, so had I…) A few others picked sides, as well, which is also understandable and in one case expected.

This happens from time to time. You’re gaming group might collapse. It might not. In my case, three of the core players and friends — and that’s usually where the strength of a group lies…you have to be friends first — stuck it out. Tonight was our first gaming session without two people they’d played with for seven or so years, another that was with us for, on and off, three. Half the group gone. It could be sad, or we could move on.

We did the latter. My fiancee joined us as well, her third or fourth time playing. I crafted a new universe, a new campaign — in this case a Hollow Earth Expedition game set in Shanghai and revolving around a search for a mythical mellified man (google it, it’s a good McGuffin!) Characters included the unscrupulous archeologist/tomb raider, the vain and slightly stupid playboy adventurer, a mid-level lieutenant in the Green Gang with ties to the Kuomingtang and an 11 year old street urchin thief working for the gangster.

We had dinner (I made a killer pot roast), we chatted about things, then got down to play. My girl dropped into the group well and they treated her like she had always been there, and the rest of us continued to mess like nothing had happened. For me, it was a bittersweet to not have the usual gang around, but life changed you, your life, and your group.

This is shaping up to be an excellent campaign and group. Game on!

8 December, 2010

First joke of Christmas…

Posted by blackcampbell under General Ramblings
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…and its Scottish:

A man in Scotland calls his son in London the day before Christmas Eve and says, “I hate to ruin your day but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough”.

“Dad, what are you talking about?'” the son screams.

“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer”, the father says. “We’re sick of each other and I’m sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Leeds and tell her”.

Frantically, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone, “Like hell they’re getting divorced”, she shouts, “I’ll take care of this”.

She calls Scotland immediately and screams at her father, “You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?!”and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife. “Done! They’re coming for Christmas – and they’re paying their own way.”

Thanks to my committee chair, Dr. Andrew Sandoval-Strausz for this. Slainte!

4 December, 2010

More New Pending

Posted by blackcampbell under General Ramblings, Roleplaying Games
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Keep an eye on the blog: there’s likely to be big news pending regarding the Black Campbell — I’m thinking about getting back into games writing. First comes the business plan and ideas for how to write, hire talent, market, etc… With the new electronic media, it’s cheaper to dive in than ever before, and while I don’t expect to get rich, I do hope to be able to put out product people want.

More as it develops.

4 December, 2010

Quick Review: Finlaggan Old Reserve

Posted by blackcampbell under Whiskey | Tags: finlaggan old reserve |
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I found a $20 bottle of single malt scotch from Islay (my favorite region for scotch) — Finlaggan Old Reserve. It’s a 15 year single malt that has the peaty, salty flavor of most Islay single malts, but it’s much more mellow, with a strong heather honey flavor. The aftertaste gets more pungent and Islay-like, especially if you breath through your mouth. The nose is rich, honey with the undertones of the sea and peat. Color is golden in the glass, honey brown in the bottle.

It’s an excellent dram — not to medicinal, but a bit harder than the Speysides. Well worth $20, and would have been worth twice that.

4 December, 2010

James Bond: 007 RPG — Making Weaknesses Count

Posted by blackcampbell under Roleplaying Games | Tags: james bond role playing game |
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The James Bond system has the potential for modernization, bringing the mechanics up to date with other current rules sets, without losing the flavor of the original game. One of these things is making the weaknesses of a character more important to play.

There is very little incentive to play up weaknesses that a character is built with — for many players of JB:007 it’s simply a means to extract more points to construct the character with. But character isn’t the numbers — that’s a simulation. Character is in what the person is, what they do, how they react to things. You know that Bond is going to do something non-survival enhancing at some point in the story because of a woman…that’s who he is. You know Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead is going to try to treat people fairly and will not kill the living if he can avoid it…that’s who he is.

Weaknesses more than your attributes or skills, make the character. There are some mechanics for weakness in the original game, most involving “distraction”, but here’s a good way to get the players to use their weaknesses…

Bribery. Like most system, if the player has their character act to their weaknesses despite it causing them trouble, give them a hero point. Example: Jed is a bad ass. He’s not afraid of anything, it seems…except heights. So when the bad guy escapes up a rickety ladder to the top of the building, Jed is all fired up to go after him. But a few rungs up the ladder, his acrophobia hits him like a hammer. He gets a point if he looks for another way to chase the bad guy, or if he loses him, he gains two, perhaps. (It also allows you to design your action sequences with a “railroading” factor — where you can make sure the situation is such that the character doesn’t catch the bad guy to early…)

Clay from The Losers has a tendency to do stupid stuff because of women. He allows the team to be lead by the nose through Aisha’s hoops. Why? He likes her. It’s just Clay. albert Gibson in True Lies apparently blew a stakeout at some point because he was getting a blow job; once again, that’s an example of Attraction to Members of the Oppose Sex getting the better of you. In the first case, the weakness drives the adventure and could lead to multiple instances of gaining a hero point. Gibson’s screw up might have set the team back badly — that might be worth one or two points, depending on the impact.

Using hero point to play up weaknesses will make you Bond campaign much more rich and fun.

But that’s just my opinion…

4 December, 2010

Hollow Earth Expedition: Taking the Average

Posted by blackcampbell under Roleplaying Games | Tags: hollow earth expedition |
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One of the rules that my players like in particular from Hollow Earth Expedition is “taking the average” — where the character can take the average expected success of their die automatically.

Example: Jack is an athletics guy who needs to do some fast footwork across a crumbling stone wall to get to the heroine and rescue her. Jack’s Athletics is a 6…and average expected success of 3. The wall is wide but in sketchy condition — loose mortar, etc. — He need 3 successes to make it across. Taking the average, he’s done it but without aplomb.

Now for the average every day stuff — driving a car down a road at normal speeds in normal traffic — you shouldn’t need to roll a test. In some more important tests, taking the average allow you to succeed at more difficult tasks without risking a crappy die roll. But that, in itself, can be a problem for players…when you have a high average (remember, HEX difficulties generally range from 1-5), you don’t really fail at anything. That removes a certain sense of danger and chance from the equation.

So to address this, I propose a few tweaks to make taking the average not so pat. On tests where there is danger, or something at stake, the character taking the average still get their average benefit, but they roll their dice anyway. If they roll all failures they botch, even if they succeed.

Example: Jack takes the average and goes over the wall fast and without risk of falling to his death, but when he rolls his six dice and gets all failures. The GM decides that at the last moment, the wall collapses and he throws himself to safety on the altar platform that the damsel in distress is on. Now they are on the 18′ rickety platform, their initial means of escape gone, and the natives below have them surrounded.

Or the GM could have gone with the wall crumbles, even though Jack didn’t fall through any fault of his own.

2 December, 2010

Hello Hecate!

Posted by blackcampbell under Motorcycles | Tags: triumph street triple |
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Here’s Hecate, my new 2010 Triumph Street Triple 675cc — Two Brothers V.A.L.E. carbon fibre exhaust, Triumph bar end mirrors, Triumph tail pack that zip on & off…heated handgrips on the horizon. It was off the showroom floor 3 months and had 221 miles on it when I bought her:

$7100 w/ TTL…

Traded my 2007 Speed Triple 1050cc for her (got $5k for the S3.) The horsepower’s about 107 — 23hp less, torque about 58 ft/lbs. — about 20 less. The pipes knock off eight lbs. from the Street Triple’s weight.