Hi all,
A while back I started writing a blog, but staying true to form quickly forgot about it. The following is one of the segments of that blog, it is the typed account of a "Dungeons and Dragons" style roleplaying game I have been hosting for a while now and the somewhat bizarre nature of what has been taking place within it along with our only casual knowledge of the rules I think makes for entertaining reading rather than just pure geek chat.
Anyway here's the first blog entry from ages back, read it and a link to the blog is at the bottom if you are curious but if interest is shown I might just starting posting it on here. Enjoy ...
Intro & Session One - Never Strikes Twice
This is a Rifts: New West campaign based around total freedom for the players. I mapped out an area, essential a safe zone (relatively speaking) in the desert where a number of towns can be found. I populated this county with a random assortment of characters that I am constantly adding to and then threw the player characters in, all with homes and lives of their own, associated with each other in so much as they all lived in the same very small town. Aside from the first session which was planned to force the players to reassess their simple lives my plan was to run the entire game by improvising and just running with whatever the players wanted to do.
The players had free reign of characters from across Rifts Earth, mostly because between us we own all of the books and there's always something from somewhere that we want to play as and everyones taste rarely lines up, so it's just easier to have free reign. Since the aim of the game is more about survival and the players will be able to get up to most anything they like everybody tended to go for more practical applications for character choices, albeit slightly strange uses.
Our Players:
Alan - publicly he's a farmer, lives on the edge of town and grows crops. Privately he's a reformed necromancer from eastern Europe trying to lead the nice normal life of a farmer, but it's not so easy to leave your old life behind you and rather than hire farmhands grave robbing and resurrecting a few zombie minions seemed a whole lot easier. Keeps to himself mostly to avoid people finding this out.
Andy - the town smith, originally from Russia, makes tools and basic metal supplies that famously never breaks. This is because he's a mage whose training is specifically in the forging of magical weapons, however, he has an oath to only ever provide weaponry to a worthy hero so relies on making basic supplies but instills them with magical energy making them stronger and more reliable than normal. Unfortunately is an alcoholic and also brews his own alcohol, though doesn't sell it as it's not entirely user friendly.
Dave - the town mechanic, originally from south America specialising in enhancements and modifications that push equipment to the max and beyond. The beyond element will often push a machine to it's breaking/exploding point, but until then it will run like it's never run before. This is due to a unique range of psychic abilities that he has which means he can create devices that mimic those psychic abilities.
Ian - professional driver, originally from Australia, who worked mostly on deliveries between his home town and the surrounding areas, however, his skill goes far beyond that and he is an extremely skilled stunt driver who is somewhat obsessed with car crashes, something he has a unique talent for surviving. All in all a slightly unhinged person.
Liam - the only local boy of the group, having grown up in the county itself. At some point in later life decided he wanted to become a gunslinger, but with no desire to undertake the years and years of training that requires decided to have a whole load of dangerous brain implants to simulate that training, becoming what is known as a "wired gunslinger". His brain implants give him heightened senses and allow him to always act first in any given situation making him nearly impossible to surprise. Unfortunately wired gunslingers advanced reactions mean they act before they actually know what's going on. This is just as likely to helpful as it is unhelpful and results in the accidental shooting of so many innocent people that suicide is quite high amongst wired gunslingers.
Session One - Never Strikes Twice:
Here's what you need to know, because this isn't technically on the New West map or in any of the Rifts books: the county the game takes place inside of is enclosed in a valley, essentially trapping the players as traveling outside of this area is far too dangerous. There are two ways out of the valley aside from up one of the many cliff sides to wander the surrounding desert, and those are a train line to the north or overland to the south but that territory is owned by the CS, the heavy military force that likes to think it owns the place. The only other option is the crater. You see the valley is just a crack that was created by something much larger, a massive crater several hundred miles across of unknown origin with a nexus point in the middle. It's best avoided but that doesn't stop people traveling there.
The players begin their lives living in a small town in the north-west corner of the county, a place simply called 'Valley Station' rather obviously because it's the valley's train station, the only secure connection to the rest of America. The train itself is of techno-wizard design and travels along ley lines linking up the various counties in the surrounding states.
We open on an average day in the lives of this oddball group with them all going to work, with the exception of our truck driver Ian who has just come back from an overnight delivery. As their day begins Liam is at the sheriffs office watching over some prisoners, David goes to his workshop, Andy is at home getting ready for the working day, Alan watches over his zombie farmhands and Ian arrives home and prepares to get some rest.
Liam has been left alone at the sheriffs office as the sheriff and his deputies have been called away to deal with a cranky old man chasing children off his lawn with a shotgun. This problem quickly turns into a hostage situation which turns worst when the cranky old man reveals that he has a home made tank in his garage and proceeds to have a dangerous shoot out with the sheriff until they manage to break into the tank and arrest him. David witnesses that arrest on his way to his shop.
Meanwhile a storm is rolling in, and I don't mean that metaphorically I mean an actual storm is coming. Heavy rain cloud, thunder and lightening are approaching fast, not a common occurrence around here but nothing too exciting, until it arrived overhead with surprising speed. Early bird Alan watches the storm as it arrives over his field until a bolt of lightening fires down from the sky and vaporises one of the several zombie workers he has out there. Before he has time to react two more bolts of lightening destroy the remaining two workers out in the field. Watching the field curiosity overcomes Alan and he orders one of the zombie workers currently in the house to go outside. As soon as the zombie exits the building it is struck down just like the others.
The rain comes down heavy and the rumbling of the storm drowns out all other noise.
The town can do little but watch as the storm increases in intensity until the lightening strikes, lightening that began tearing through buildings and blowing the townspeople into tiny pieces. The storm attacks the town ferociously sending its citizens and our unfortunate players running for cover.
The storm launches Alan's tractor through his kitchen, flattens David's workshop, throws a truck that crushes half of Andy's house and rips open the roof of the sheriffs office killing all the prisoners Liam was watching over.
Hearing the ruckus outside Ian runs out of his house and confronted by the chaos jumps in his car and attempts to flee town, but the roads are not safe. Going cross-country Ian heads north, skillfully avoiding the lightening he joins the train track and begins to follow it away from the town, down the narrow valley and tunnel it takes. This doesn't go entirely according to plan as he soon meets a train coming the other way. In a panic he attempts to drive up the wall and wedge himself between it and the train. It doesn't work. He flips his car and is now upside down in front of the train. He climbs out of the car and runs for cover as the train strikes it and smashes it aside.
Andy rushes out into the street to be greeted by the devastating arches of lightening that are tearing his hometown apart. He looks up into the abnormal cloud and senses a presence. He can make out some giant mass up there, hidden by the cloud itself.
David jumps clear of his workshop as it is destroyed by another lightening blast. He stands out in the street unsure what to do and with no immediate form of transport seems a little helpless. However, from his vantage point he can see the old mans homemade tank.
Unsure what to do without orders Liam waits for the Sheriff to return but as he and his deputies escort the old man down the street outside they are struck by a bolt of lightening that annihilates them. Liam watches on and suddenly realises he is the only remaining member of law enforcement in the town. He runs from the station seeing Andy wandering the street as he goes.
Alan makes his way through his farm to the barn on one side, jumps onto a horse and rides as fast as he can away from the scene.
Andy sees Dave down the street and makes his way towards him. Liam sees them and with no better idea follows too. Dave goes to the tank and he and Andy arrive there at the same time. Andy explains his thoughts about the cloud so being a rational human being and with few other options David jumps into the tank and begins firing wildly into the cloud.
The cloud seems to scream and darken. Suddenly there is a roar and clap of thunder, the ground shakes and as the sound fades and the players stabilise themselves they see the cloud dissipating and the sky is clear once again.
Our players look out over the devastated town, homeless and/or jobless and surrounded by a disaster zone life suddenly just became a little more complicated.
More to come ... Session Two - Accidents in the Workplace
http://theunsimpleliferiftscampaign.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-11-27T06%3A38%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7Please comment, thanks.
