Thinking of running a game at WashingCon again this year.

They seem interested enough, and I need to get out more.  As for the game; Green Ronin is a sponsor this year, and it turns out that they do the Dragon Age RPG.  I’m not committing to running a game in that, but I ordered the core book because I’ve been looking for an excuse to pick it up. But I could also run 7th Sea, Unknown Armies, or Delta Green. Or, shoot, GURPS or In Nomine. I can easily run adventures in those last two systems without any prep time at all. I will have to think about it.

All of this means, by the way, that if I do run a game for WashingCon I’m going to probably do an online playtest.

Item/Creature Seed: Mummified Spitfires.

Mummified Spitfires – Google Docs

 

Mummified Spitfires

 

The legend has it that, after World War 2, the British government buried a number of Spitfire airplanes in Burma (after prepping them for long-term storage underground).  This legend has been investigated several times, over the years; most recently in 2013.  It’s pretty clear by now that, in fact, no Spitfires were ever actually buried in that country.

 

Well, of course not.  The British buried the blessed things in Australia.  Even in 1945 it was becoming clear that decolonization was looming on the horizon. God only knows who would rule Burma after the land left the Empire; probably would end up being some military junta, or something equally obnoxious.  Better to put the planes out in the Outback, where it was dryer, handy to various friendly magical communities, and under the oversight of, well, yes, Australians, but they were good chaps. Underneath it all.

Continue reading Item/Creature Seed: Mummified Spitfires.

Adventure Seed: Runetrails.

Runetrails – Google Docs

Runetrails

It will probably shock people to hear that the entire ‘chemtrails’ thing has a fragment of a flicker of a technicality of a smidgen of a basis in reality. Sort of.  Well, not really, but there is a tiny grit of truth out there that was later turned into a nacreous sphere of conspiracy theory.  And this was encouraged, too, on the sensible grounds that there’s nothing like a conspiracy theory to hide an almost, but not quite, unrelated actual conspiracy.

Continue reading Adventure Seed: Runetrails.

GURPS Revisited: Padway-3. [GURPS 4e]

I’m putting this up because somebody was interested in using some of this material, so I figured the least I could do would be to make it a little easier to access.  I mean, why not, right?

Padway-3 (Quantum 5) – Google Docs

 

 

Padway-3 (Quantum 5)

 

The Secret is thoroughly compromised on Padway-3, and there is little consolation to Infinity that this is due to no fault of theirs. The blame instead rests with Jerry Moore, an involuntary crosstime filibusterer who appeared on Padway-3 over sixty local years ago, and who wasted no time in fomenting revolution among recently-conquered and definitely oppressed American colonists. By the time Moore died of old age in 1800, he had recreated a USA that promises to challenge the Ottoman and Chinese empires for supremacy of the globe; and as Moore had shown no interest in hiding his origins, the entire timeline now knows that crosstime travel is at least possible. Homeline is still trying to determine how to proceed.

Continue reading GURPS Revisited: Padway-3. [GURPS 4e]

Item Seed: Relikvii.

Because Commies make my [expletive deleted] teeth ache and I’m trying to not be That Guy, that’s why.

Relikvii – Google Docs

 

Relikvii

 

Well, that’s the Russian slang term for the stuff; God forbid that the old Soviet Union ever use such a superstition-drenched name to describe True Proper Soviet Proletarian Scien — sorry. Old habits die hard, you know? Relikvii are your standard Unholy Artifacts, Demonology edition: they’re a single-shot aid for summoning demons. You can imagine how Stalin-era internal propagandists had to come up with new and unique ways to talk their way around that.

Continue reading Item Seed: Relikvii.

Hobart (Quantum 6) [GURPS 4e]

Hobart (Quantum 6) – Google Docs

Hobart (Quantum 6)

 

This timeline is on the front lines of the Infinity-Centrum war: it is a former echo that was shifted into Quantum 7 in 1899 when covert Centran operatives intervened to save the life of Vice President Garret Hobart.  Hobart went on to duly succeed President McKinley (instead of Theodore Roosevelt) when McKinley was assassinated in 1901; his policies as President allowed for easier Centran infiltration of the timeline.  However, in late 1903 holdout Infinity agents managed to disrupt Centrum’s ongoing secret medical treatment of Hobart; the President has already had one heart attack, and has just announced that he will not be seeking election in 1904.  This shifted the timeline back to Quantum 6, thus allowing Infinity to make contact with its operatives and recommit to taking back the timeline completely.

 

The fight continues.

 

Hobart, 1904 AD

 

Current Affairs

The United States of America is about to have an election cycle unlike anything it has ever seen.

 

Divergence Point

1899: Centran agents save the life of Vice President Hobart, thus preventing Teddy Roosevelt’s Presidency.

 

Major Civilizations

Western (Diffuse), Chinese (Empire), Orthodox (Diffuse)

 

Great Powers

Substantively identical to Homeline’s, circa 1904

 

Worldline Data

TL: 5

Quantum: 6 (unstable)

Mana Level: None

Centrum Zone: Red

Infinity Level: P3

 

Outworld Involvement

 

While most local political observers in Hobart may suspect that the 1904 election promises to be extremely exciting — after all, there will be no incumbent President, no Vice President at all, and the nomination for both parties appears to be wide open — the full lengths that both Centrum and Infinity will go through to make sure the ‘right’ candidate wins have yet to be determined.  The Centrans have the simpler task: they want both parties to nominate internationalists who support partnering government with industry in order to efficiently develop the country. Centrum also wants the next President to be an isolationist who will let the Europeans destroy themselves, but that’s a long-term goal.  The problem for Centrum is that they’re remarkably bad at rigging elections; usually that doesn’t matter, but Infinity is now back in the picture, so it does.

 

Infinity’s problem is the inverse of Centrum’s: they know how to fix an election, but there’s no consensus on who to throw it to.  The easiest solution is to get Roosevelt the nomination and the election, but he’d unquestionably serve until 1912 in that scenario and when that happened the timeline would probably shift quantum levels again. Unfortunately, every other possibility is a giant unknown; the timeline is sensitive to quantum shifts, and even Centrum apparently has difficulty predicting the results of any one act of changing history.  And, of course, everybody with an informed opinion on the subject also has a pet academic theory to flog.

 

It may all end in barely-disguised shootouts between Centran and Infinity personnel — Centrum has already made two attempts on the life of Princeton University President Woodrow Wilson, which has forced Infinity to take the unpleasant duty of keeping him alive — while the timeline hops around the Quantums like a water drop hops around a griddle.  There are agents on both sides that might welcome such a scenario, in fact.  The constant having to try to second-guess which action might blow up in one’s face today has been extremely tiring, for everybody involved. Simply shooting the Bad Guys and going home has its appeal.

 

 

The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.

GURPS is a registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

Lewiston, Idaho [The Day After Ragnarok]

Lewiston, Idaho – Google Docs

Lewiston, Idaho

Gateway to the Poisoned Lands

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

It’s not the safest gateway, of course.  But with the Utahns taxing the best roads, and what with both the Canadians’ and the Texans’ obtrusive oversight over their own paths to the Poisoned Lands, the caravan route from Lewiston to Minneapolis is the best way to get across the High Plains without official notice being taken. It also helps that Lewiston is at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, and much more that seismic aftereffects from the Serpentfall created a series of natural dams that made the city accessible by sea, with a little help from engineers.

Continue reading Lewiston, Idaho [The Day After Ragnarok]