Actual Play – The 3 Skov Ghost Job (1/7/2018)

GM: Judd Karlman
Players: Jason Bowell and Sean Nittner
System: Blades in the Dark
Crew: The Wobbegong Crew

Judd wrote up a great AP report here.

Here’s a copy of the post:

In which the gang smuggles 3 patriotic Skovlander ghosts from the Lost District to Ulf Ironborn.

t was Jay and Sean – Charming and Maud. The timing for them to be in a mission together was kind of perfect, as they had a disagreement last game and Maud had stormed off.

Duskwall again

Taking lead from Jay who continues to name background Skovlander children as Charming acts as a babysitter, I mentioned a child gets back late one night with his blazer torn. He boasts that Ulf Ironborn paid him a bushel of apples to sneak under a fence and open a door so Ulf’s gang could murder a city councilor.

The child goes on to say that Ulf has a smuggling job for them if they want it.

Before deciding on jobs Maud and Charming visit Lord Scurlock to ask about demons. They tried to get Scurlock to commit to saying that he was dead against demons but he was non-committal. The vampire lord of Doskovol says that he could help them but his best book on demonology was stolen by the Dimmer Sisters.

They decided to wait for Skannon whose skills would be necessary when infiltrate the Dimmer Sisters and took Ulf’s smuggling job.

The Job with text

The 3 Skov Ghost job was given to them by Ulf’s second-in-command, Havid. They were to take the Blackjack out past the Lightning Barrier into the Lost District and an agent would be waiting for them there with 3 ghosts. They were to smuggle the 3 ghosts past the Lightning Barrier to Ulf and his crew who would be waiting in the basement of a public house on the docks.

Maud and Charming was not pleased with the unknowns and they pushed, using dice to find out more. It caused them some stress but in the end they found out that the ghosts were going to be put into Skovlander War Frames, as used on Barghast Beach, the bloodiest engagement of the War and the battle that forged his gang. Ulf was planning on using the warframes to cement his gang’s place.

As jobs go it went smoothly but there were hitches. The ghosts weren’t ghosts; they were people – members of a Skov special forces unit who were hit with a location spell by an Imperial War Whisper. If they entered the city they’d be located by the Imperial Army; it was in their blood. When Maud tried to cut the spell it nearly attached itself to her but she fought it off.

After discussing it, they decided that Charming could kill them quickly with a knife, which he did and then they’d wait for the ghosts to separate with some help from Maude. This was represented by a 6-count clock along with a second 6-count clock to represent a pack of ghosts finding the crew. Given the bad rep of the Deathlands and the Lost District, I should’ve made the pack of ghosts finding the crew clock a 4-count but that is alright.

Charming killed the Skov patriots with a knife. They held hands and sang Skovlander soldier songs while he did it.

Another hitch, Ironhook convicts came down the beach towards the crew. Charming confronted them while Maud dealt with peeling the ghosts away from the newly dead’s bodies.

Smuggling jobs, like stealth jobs, are tricky as a GM. I want complications but I don’t want the players to feel like their employer effed them over. I want the players to be cool but I don’t want the job to be too easy. I want ways for the job to get complicated without the players being bad at smuggling. I felt like I found a good balance. There was a bunch of stress but it didn’t go entirely pear-shaped. Nothing caught on fire or exploded.

There were ghosts and lots of danger; the Deathlands felt dangerous, even if it was just across the river, within sight of the Lightning Barrier.

The Mechanics in White

At the end of this game the Wobbegong Crew became Tier 2.

Ulf Ironborn is in play. The Skovlander refugees are a good link to him and he thinks well of the Wobbegong Crew because of their anti-trafficking efforts despite the side they took during the war. Also, he is the first gang of a lower tier than the players, which is cool. They get to be mentors.

There was word around town that the Lampblacks thought the Hive looked weak when their warehouse got taken so easily by the Wobbegong Crew, so they tried to take some Hive turf for their own. Since then, the Lampblacks have entirely disappeared. No one has heard anything about them.

Blades on Air

Actual Play – Autumn of the Ancients Episode 03 (12/21/2017)

Players: Banana Chan, Jahmal Brown, Jenn Martin, and Sean Nittner
System: Autumn of the Ancients

It took some time to get our schedules to line up, but I’m so excited we were able to make it happen.

Autumn of the Ancients is a collaborative storytelling game where we play a group of spacefarers, accompanying an ancient alien being known only as “The Liminal”. The journey will place us in the company of alien cultures, fantastic vistas, and force us to make difficult decisions about who our characters are, how they relate, and how our journey will change them.

This game is based on Ross Cowman’s Fall of Magic.

Ancients on Air

Actual Play – Bladesmas (12/17/2017)

GM: Judd Karlman
Players: Pete Cornell, Jason Bowell, and Sean Nittner
System: Blades in the Dark
Crew: The Wobbegong Crew

Judd made a great write up here: https://githyankidiaspora.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/wobbegong-crew-the-haunted-warehouse-job/

Here’s a copy of hos post:

In which the gang takes turf from the Hive.

On the first day of Bladesmas my scoundrels gave to me a spectre in a dead tree….

We had Maude, Charming and Skannon tonight. With 3 PC’s, we are tending to wait until we’ve got a full crew before playing lately. I liked the way having different characters in different jobs changed the way we’d approach each job or which job we’d take when offered a few.

Duskwall again

The Five Faces of the Moon – The teahouse Skannon often frequents when he pays for company.

Liz Lomond – reporter who brought the Hive’s human trafficking into the light.

Edlund – the “kindly” Bluecoat who always comes to talk the gang into taking a less bloody route.

Jol – the Bluecoat who took a crowbar to the Blackjack, the crew’s main boat.

Djera Maha and Karth Orris – leaders of The Hiven, NPC’s named in the book.

Narcus Comber – Hive’s Lawyer – the man Charming stole a watch from back in the early days, back before their HQ had a door and the barrister just walked in

Azin, Kimiya, Orkiden, Yass – Whispers with the Red Sashes – ladies who can go from frightening witches to doting grandmothers in the spin of a penny.

Barghast Bay – the bloodiest engagement in the War is where this gang was forged and is mentioned often.

Jonah – a mischievous Skovlander child who mistreated Skannon’s dining room table. Jason is often dropping the names of children during the game as we see Charming trying to be a baby-sitter.

The Job with text

As per their peace agreement with the Red Sashes, they returned the Upper Deck, turf taken during the war, but the Red Sashes had to aid them in taking a warehouse from the Hive. They took it using magic, knowing that the arcane arts and ectoplasmic sciences are weak points in the Hive’s arsenal.

The sent the fermenting mass of ghosts from the bilge of the Upper Deck, which had been used by some long gone gang as a place to stow bodies, into the Hive’s warehouse and managed to control it, keeping the situation from becoming a cannibalistic mess. The group made their rolls for the most part and utilized a weakness in the Hive, an unwillingness to utilize ghosts and sorcery. A roll demanded a complication, and so the warehouse is now forever haunted.

As a result, the Hive offered Maud and Skannon jobs and had a talk with Charming about why they did what they did. They offered Maud an estate in Six Towers with a view of the Scurlock Manor and offered Skannon his family’s ancestral ship, now docked just within the Lightning Barrier.

Now the group has a haunted warehouse full of Skovlander refugees as turf. Good stuff.

The Mechanics in White

The mechanics brought an entanglement in which the Bluecoats took out their anger on the Blackjack. I also consider the NPC’s mentioned in the faction section as part of the mechanics. The personalities and links between gangs and factions is well wrought.  Pluck one string and it causes ripples throughout Doskovol.

Blades on Air

Actual Play – Autumn of the Ancients Episode 02 (12/14/2017)

Players: Banana Chan, Jenn Martin, and Sean Nittner
System: Autumn of the Ancients

It took some time to get our schedules to line up, but I’m so excited we were able to make it happen.

Autumn of the Ancients is a collaborative storytelling game where we play a group of spacefarers, accompanying an ancient alien being known only as “The Liminal”. The journey will place us in the company of alien cultures, fantastic vistas, and force us to make difficult decisions about who our characters are, how they relate, and how our journey will change them.

This game is based on Ross Cowman’s Fall of Magic.

Ancients on Air

Actual Play – Autumn of the Ancients Episode 01 (11/30/2017)

Players: Banana Chan, Jahmal Brown, Jenn Martin, and Sean Nittner
System: Autumn of the Ancients

It took some time to get our schedules to line up, but I’m so excited we were able to make it happen.

Autumn of the Ancients is a collaborative storytelling game where we play a group of spacefarers, accompanying an ancient alien being known only as “The Liminal”. The journey will place us in the company of alien cultures, fantastic vistas, and force us to make difficult decisions about who our characters are, how they relate, and how our journey will change them.

This game is based on Ross Cowman’s Fall of Magic.

Ancients on Air

Actual Play – Unworthy Meat – Episode 04 (11/15/2017)

GM: Eric “Vulgaris” Levanduski
Players: Sage La Torra, Epidiah Ravachol, Virgil Levinger, and Sean Nittner
System: Torchbearer

Yay, I’m so excited that I get to play Torchbearer. Not only that but I get to play in Keep of the Borderlands, a classic D&D adventure that I’ve never had the chance to play before. Not only that, but I get to play with this rad, rad folks. I’ve never gamed with any of them and I’m very, very excited to!

Torchbearer on Air

Actual Play – Unworthy Meat – Episode 03 (11/8/2017)

GM: Eric “Vulgaris” Levanduski
Players: Sage La Torra, Epidiah Ravachol, Virgil Levinger, and Sean Nittner
System: Torchbearer

Yay, I’m so excited that I get to play Torchbearer. Not only that but I get to play in Keep of the Borderlands, a classic D&D adventure that I’ve never had the chance to play before. Not only that, but I get to play with this rad, rad folks. I’ve never gamed with any of them and I’m very, very excited to!

Torchbearer on Air

Actual Play – After the Demon Disaster (11/5/2017)

GM: Judd Karlman
Players: Pete Cornell, Jason Bowell, and Sean Nittner
System: Blades in the Dark
Crew: The Wobbegong Crew

In which the team deals with the fallout from failing the Coalridge Demon job…starting in the stark white cells of the Spirit Wardens. Judd made a great write up here: https://githyankidiaspora.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/wobbengong-crew-downtime-after-the-coalridge-demon-disaster/.

Judd’s Write up

It was fun starting the game off with Maude and Charming being held by the Spirit Wardens while Skannon was at the HQ, having entirely missed the Coalridge Demon job. Cutting between these 3 different points of view for the first hour was satisfying.

I liked how those opening minutes colored the downtime – from Charming adopting a demonic persona in his fight career, taking on the name Atreus (the demon they failed to kill in last session’s job), how Maude is suspected of being a snitch because she was caught by the Spirit Wardens and Skannon getting invited to the Doskvol University to hear Professor “Bakoros” speak.

We only got to some downtime but it was great to be back in Duskwall with these scoundrels.

The Mechanics in White

I’m getting a better and better grasp on the way limited success and failures work and how to best deal with them in a given situation.

Something I love about the Blades in the Dark book is whenever I look at it I come away inspired. I had to glance at it today when I wanted the Spirit Wardens to knock on the Wobbegong Crew’s door. Would it be a masked Spirit Warden? Do they have a mouth-piece, someone who is seen without a mask? Professor “Bakoros” was there waiting for me.

Right there in the NPC’s section on page 296 was Bakoros, the pseudonym of their academic face. I loved the idea of this kindly old professor knocking on the door of this Imperial SWAT Ghostbusters. Skannon, with his noble family background, suave air and scientific curiosity was the perfect scoundrel to meet him. When Pete told me that he almost stabbed the professor and sacrificed him to the Witch Matron on her altar, I was in shock. He decided not to do that but what a shockingly different game that would’ve been.

Duskwall again We saw the inside of the Doskvol Academy, a Spirit Warden safehouse/interrogation chamber and the manor of a group of rich cultists whose members include the prestigious Rowan family (and who knows how many others?).

We know that the Hive are at war with the Unseen, who are trying to infiltrate the Spirit Wardens. We’re getting embroiled in rivalries way above the Crows, Lampblacks, Red Sashes and Billhooks. Good stuff!

There is an odd, almost grudging respect towards the Spirit Wardens from the crew that I found fascinating.

Quess, the maid in service to the Witch Matron’s Brightstone Temple.

I picture Quess as being played by Lydia Night, lead singer of the Regrettes, shown below in their video for Seashore.

Quess

Timoth Rowan, the teacher’s assistant Skannon took out for drinks to get more information about why ghosts attach themselves to a certain place from their lives, gaining 5 ticks on that long-term project.

Timoth is going to be a blend of every beleaguered grad student Pete and I knew from our days in Ithaca, N.Y.

Atreus, up and coming Pankration heavyweight who moves like a middle-weight and is drawing strange uptown high society folk to his fights. He wears a demon mask and totally isn’t Thaddeus “Charming” Thimbleford, Cutter for the Wobbegong Crew. That idea is just preposterous!

Art

Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/90707285/>;.
The Corliss Bevel-Gear-Cutting Machine. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/2004678678/>;.
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Wm. Hawes in front of jewelry store with intricate clock.” The New York Public Library Digital Collectionshttp://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-69ca-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Grand View, City and Canal, Syracuse, N.Y.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1880. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e1-5eee-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
 The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “The transportation problem. The Baxter boat “City of New York,” the fastest steamer tried on the Erie Canal” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1825. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-7e54-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Actual Play – Unworthy Meat – Episode 02 (11/1/2017)

GM: Eric “Vulgaris” Levanduski
Players: Sage La Torra, Epidiah Ravachol, Virgil Levinger, and Sean Nittner
System: Torchbearer

Yay, I’m so excited that I get to play Torchbearer. Not only that but I get to play in Keep of the Borderlands, a classic D&D adventure that I’ve never had the chance to play before. Not only that, but I get to play with this rad, rad folks. I’ve never gamed with any of them and I’m very, very excited to!

Torchbearer on Air

Actual Play – Unworthy Meat – Episode 01 (10/25/2017)

GM: Eric “Vulgaris” Levanduski
Players: Sage La Torra, Epidiah Ravachol, Virgil Levinger, and Sean Nittner
System: Torchbearer

Yay, I’m so excited that I get to play Torchbearer. Not only that but I get to play in Keep of the Borderlands, a classic D&D adventure that I’ve never had the chance to play before. Not only that, but I get to play with this rad, rad folks. I’ve never gamed with any of them and I’m very, very excited to!

Torchbearer on Air

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