update to the Rocket ship

I went back to the project and came up with this.

 This works much better. The old version will be changed to become a grav-sled.

 

Well it looks like the Moon Men are set to invade the Earth...

 looks like we will need a rocket ship to hold them off. cue Dr Zarkoff...

This is my test to see what Inkarnate can do with something less fantasy, I think it worked out well.

It is a cutaway image of mans first rocket ship to take them to the Moon!

First attempt at translation of RPG session into a comic

 

Next roleplaying distraction...

 On my night stand...

With the Pulp Fantastic campaign going well, I have foolishly started looking at running a fantasy campaign...

Pulp Fantastic/Vortex system it is!

 So as of December of 2020 me and three mates have been playing Pulp Fantastic on Roll20.

Our game is set in 1937 and features three separate adventurers exploring the world, uncovering plots, and foiling villain of every stripe. One players character is a lord in London England while the other two characters call NYC their home. So far each player has had individual adventures, with no hint about the other characters, even though the plot line in NYC has had a tenuous connection to both adventurers located there.

So far it has been a slow build up of otherworldly encounters.The Lord has become the most involved as he has uncovered a plot by ancient creatures bent on global conquest and the destruction of humanity. Meanwhile in NYC Mac the knife, has become embroiled in a double homicide investigation, after having run to ground a kidnapper and murderer. Our other New Yorker, is slowly unraveling a mystery at the docks but at this stage we do not know what is at the heart of the mystery.

It has been great to get back into role playing, currently host 3 sessions a week, of around 2-3 hours. It has been providing me with hours of fun prepping adventures, researching the 1920's, reading pulp books to get the flavour and scouring the net for NPC pictures to invoke the mood and nature of those who pass through the lives of the adventurers. 

Pulp Fantastic meets the Cthulhu universe, all on Roll20

 SO, I have got to say, I love this Roll20 system, and gaming with an open computer, with two screens! Who would have thought it!!!!

I am not one to embrace technology, and yet, I seem to all to often, a truly strange thing. First off ROLL20 is a great little system. It allows me to upload images that I can reveal to my players as they progress through an adventure. I can show them maps of where they are, or images of what they see, the characters that they meet, etc, etc. Now true all this could be done in person, either with handouts or computer display, but for me, it allows me to be better organizes for a turn. My games are free flowing, limited set scenarios or fixed schedules. So what I do between sessions, is to create pages upon pages of images that might come up in any given session. Better than flipping through papers. With the internet in use the players and I can each look up information related to the game. As we are playing a game set in 1920's England, simple questions can be looked up and answered without the players realizing what I am doing, so less of an interruption to the game play.

We do not use Roll20 to show tactical maps, to allow players to move their avatars through thr floor plans etc. We never gamed that way, and I see no reason to change this late in life. Old school quick sketch battle maps and maybe tokens to represent general position (more likely just an X) is all we ever did. A description of the area, indicating targets and objectives works fine. So nice though many of the battle maps, scenery tiles etc might be, not required by me.

However the biggest thing about Roll20 is that it actually makes/allows me to run games. As I grow older I seem to be less inclined to travel beyond my house to run a game. My players, some at least, have busy schedules, so travel back and forth for a game session can be problematic. Often I am tired or anxious before a game, sometimes life is a little hectic before we 'get' together. With Roll20, somehow those issues do not dominate me. Twice now I started a session thinking it will be a quick session because I was beat, or not certain what to do in the turn. But, the ability to flick a switch rather than do all the social pre-game activities, means that I have been able to power through and get the game turns going. Somehow, the not in person aspect is working for me! 

I like the distance from my players, but I like the video presence in front of me. We may chat non gaming stuff for a while, but we quickly get down to playing the game and rarely fall out of it. It suits our style of play, so far. Now I have 2-3 more player joining in, this time as a group, something we rarely do. Time will tell if it will still work for me, but I am optimistic!

So, a base of the Vortex system, add in a helping of Timewatch, and dash of various other time games...

 

Yet another game that uses the Gumshoe system, a system that I kind of like. However in this case I plan to use it as a source book, along with any number of other games that have a time component.

So now I am leaning towards the Vortex system

 

The what system? Yeah, I had never heard of it until recently, but it has been in use for a number of years, without an actual title. It is the system that powers the Dr Who game and Rocket Age.

So, what game will I play...

 

So maybe, it will be Top Secret SI, with the fine Agent 13 supplement. It could still be Call of Cthulhu, or even a FATE type game, like Spirit of the Century, or simply Fate, who can say...

A slip of the tongue, a misunderstanding, and now we are looking at playing a time travel game!

Recently I started pondering the running of an historical based game, Napoleonic to be precise. In broaching this idea to my long term player, our conversation got a little skewed. as I also brought up the idea of running an anthology style C&S game, in which we would play quick one off games, exploring areas of the world that we have not made it to, and maybe even exploring past events. Well somehow these two separate game ideas (historical, and C&S) conflated into an overall 'real world' time travel game.

Hornblower novels have inspired me to look at this...

 

This game and the land based Duty and Honour look interesting. A certain amount of abstract gaming, with a nice feel to it. 

I also looked at Privateers and Gentlemen, a game from the 80's by FGU and still available. It certainly shows its age, and while it has some nice flavour aspects, I am not certain there is a good game in the convoluted rule books. The companion rules, Hearts of Oak do look good, should work for players who want to control a ship, but do not want to take up sailing.

While not the same time period, I will also be reading Pirates of Legend, to see what ideas are contained therein.