Is there a Santa Claus on Cha'alt?

 I actually don't want to find out the answer to that question. Darrick Dishaw and I bonded way back when on Santa Claus Versus the Martians long before the movie was hip dorky to the sexy world. Back when the gamer hordes were learning how to become cancellers or alt-right kermits, we libertines knew that joy in your hobby should be a thing.

I have, though, just finished reading reading Cha'alt: Chartreuse Shandows about ten days ago. Now when I say read, I don't mean, I bought a book and skimmed through it to write a review to get hits on my podqod page or something or another. No. I've read it. I've also read the first two books in this trilogy not just bought them. Back in like Spetember, the author was demanding that his fans review his book. While I can't be counted as a fan, I can be counted as a Fantasist that likes to read weird stuff. So my timing is neither expected by most OSR sorts, nor a bit of fan script.

 The work is, well complicated, and not for reasons of moral ambiguity on the part of the reader. It is proclaimed to be a series of scenarios that build the world of Cha'alt as a campaign setting. What is actually is a collection of scenario seeds that the reader must read then sort through to decide what Dishaw tale that they want to present to their players. I will pay cash money to the GM that I find that will run from page 30 through 35 as it's written on those pages in any of the books.

Of the three books, Cha'alt, Cha'alt: Fushia Malaise, and Cha'alt (green shade), the last work, Venger Satanis is the most comfortable in his skin. That is as he is writing, because he as an artist, in my opinion, is going places beyond this RPG campaign setting. He's been exploring himself versus the folks around him. 

For the person that is looking for an RPG world worth jumping into, as long as your taste are leaning towards being shocking, I recommend the work. More ambitious GMs should look at it for its flowing prose and not look for rigid ideas. No really. More than a few authors could gather a few minutes of inspiration about how to be spontaneous for their own writings. The whole trilogy is a Loch Ness of a work.

Drakkenhall: City of Monsters Would Be Better with More Gaming

 So like the hard shoals of hotel living are over. While my finances have freed up somewhat, my willpower has went on a vacation. There hasn't really been a noticeable lull in the Peryton Publishing releases, except Halloween 2022 didn't happen. I guess that should give me a bit of perspective. Elder Tunnels didn't happen from 2012 until 2019. And things are brewing as much as ever, just authors of weird fiction follow astrologies not our mortal publishers' ken.

While roleplaying groups have been going on, I just haven't been running them. Iron Curtis with his take on RavenLoft, "Curtisloft" has been awesome. He's been teaching me how 5th Edition D&D runs-- I never have thought that there was such a rift between OSR and 5E, nor that it really mattered. I am still not convinced that it matters, but now I know. Hey many a GM feels that it is important as well, I've noticed. 

So I read this... and now?

I could say that I have been catching up on reading, but I'd be lying. I've read almost everything I want to have read this year. One of the purchases I made at GenCon last Summer, Drakkenfall: City of Monsters. I really feel that I have should have a lot of analysis of the setting, but mostly what I get is disappointment. The various authors do go out of their way to provide many chapters of work, but somewhere from there being no orks and how everything is about non-Monster races from the 13th Age RPG, I read it like homework. There's a bit about kolbolds, molds, and dragons undercover; it all made me sleepy too often. My write-up will not be homework. I do cities in this much detail on drunken afternoons without seven other authors helping me out. This Smurf of a book has high publication standards.  I really want to blame reading this book on why I haven't published at least three projects of my own. I was a dumber GM having read it.

Everytime At the Table: September's Wobble

 Yes, dear message-sender in August, I know it should be every time but hey, there was a clever reason for the title 80 years ago or so.

So Friday night, on the 2nd of September, we had a Wobbling session. Curtis and Peryton brought Professor Viggo and Daisy Adair to life in the farthest reaches of TAU Verse. Finding Alejandro, who just happened to be a leader of a band of pirates hired by the Mondroms to cause problems for a political entity known as Xylon Space, specifically a planet called Inasfar. Alejandro, was in the process of convincing his fellow pirates not to attack the Dodo just as a Xylon patrol ship entered the region. The vessel was twenty times bigger than the pirate craft and the Wobble-Boat all combined. It released a form of an electromagnetic pulse disabling all the ships around itself, then leisurely scooped them up.

The Xylon patrol ship. The "x" is the Dodo.

Inasfar is controlled by the human-like but damn-near immortal species known as the Xylons. They have been waging a millennium long war on the Skwid, and this planet is newly acquired territory. Only occupied about three centuries ago. Because of the warring between the skwids and the xylon, only about a third of the world is not radioactive wasteland. Those areas are controlled by a species of simian humanoids known as Planet Apes and very human-like Cylons (humans but stronger). While there may or may not be a link between the xylons and cylons, there is a definite link between cylons and humans. Cylons were on Earth during the bronze age, hence the Cylonic Affair of 630 BC or so. A third species known as Wasters, are basically, humans and whatnot living out in the apocalypse ravaged lands.
Xylons live on a levitating city/realm, about as big as Delaware and 500 meters deep, known as Wonderhome. The Cylons control only bits of territories with about three city-states. Two that are sketched out are Athena City and Award. The Planeters, another name for Planet Apes, control most of the continent of Junta. Meanwhile the Wasters live out in the wastes and are blamed for their mutations and ailments, greatly considered to be morally deficient by the Cylons and Xylons-- and the apes don't want any ugly human-like beings hanging out in their parts.

The nicer parts of Inasfar

Alejandro, is the brother to Cyclon XVI, known as The Dude of Athena City. He has disagreed with the predujice of the cylons towards their fellow human-like beings, the Wasters. He sent himself into exile as a protest and then ran out of money. He was searching for a sugar daddy when he and Viggo met. Being separated from his new lover during the Art Show wobble (two, three, maybe four years ago?), he fell in with pirates. Most of the pirates being Pyramid-Heads, he became a captain quickly. Being from the Q, the part of the TAU Verse where Xylons and Skwids are fighting, the Mondrom wanted him to act as their scout for their own territorial incursions there. And he was captured on the first attack of his first mission. The guy has no luck.

And next comes the trial of Ajahando (Cylonese for Alejandro).

Review: Jorune Thirty-eight Years Too Late

 This game was been lauded as one of the biggest divergences from Tolkien-based fantasy back when Runequest was considered radical for being set in a Bronze Age style world. It was rumored to have the ever profound quality of immersiveness built into the very game mechanics themselves. Its cover itself was reminiscent of paintings by Reuben or Rembrandt. No elves or dwarves would be found in any of its 200 plus pages. At the time of its publication, like in the 80s, I said "meh" and bought other things.  I thought that I had first seen it around 1980, but according to the interwebs, it was 1984. In any case, I didn't buy it until this year. I bought it on a lark while walking past the Chessex dice dealers at GenCOn, at that.



So giving it a read and a look through. I can see it has been so influential a work in the RPG cottage while never selling that much. The work with its high standards of art for D&D campaigns like Dark Sun and its tone is more narrative-driven than most of its contemporaries. Only later works like Vampire: the Masquerade get as thematic as and un-dungeon crawl-based as it. It has no problem mimicking works like Edgar Rice Burroughs with making up words to give itself an alien feel. The GM is called Sholari and magic is called Isho, along with dozens of other terms. Not to mention it speaks of sky-realms and there are near-naked people on even the cover itself.  

As far as completeness goes, this work is a gem. It really tries to get combat as an acted out event. It's got more than a few kewl gadgets. Its magical system works readily, if a bit clunky. 

Still, I am unmoved by it. Even despite the gorgeous art both the color cover and the B&W inside. Maybe I've spent too many years, like since 1980, of doing my own nonTolkien-Based fantasy settings using a rule system that I already knew. Many of these settings were house-ruled into works by ERB, or Den from Heavy Metal. Dealing with the Monsters! Monsters! philosophy from Tunnels and Trolls I am used to creating my own major species that were not dwarves or elves.  The maps are laid out like any traditional D&D world and if the creature descriptions don't bite you in the imagination, it's just another "Joobs and Bahoobs" sort of world, without its author/creator selling it to me with their energy.

So while reading the book, I find its big selling point of the aliens and humans being not found anywhere else, there just isn't enough "sky realm" in the pieces. The title is click bait. There are mentions of this or that floating place, but no serious consideration of how this world is different than any other FFRPG setting with ray guns scattered around the place. Overall, I'd rate it a Bigfoot on the scale.

This as a race is better than an elf?

Everytime at the Table: Wobbling Around Midnights 1-3

 Running Wobble on Friday nights has been one of the easiest things I've done in a few years. Peryton and Iron Curtis indulge my particularly idiosyncratic obsession when it comes to this setting. Fridays just work for me as well. I get off of work in the evening, I am relaxed, just heading into my weekends of soccer, beer, and writing coming up. These Wobbles, the campaigns, help me revisit the published stuff as well as explore the newer ideas that pop into my head (always) set in these universes (or Verses). A couple of hours, stories told and notes made, WALLAH (not viola).

Viggo needs a shave

The Characters are Rudolpho Viggo, of the Primrose Corporation of Mu-Soufrik (Our World but Charlie Jade influenced), and Daisy Adair, pilot extraordinaire of Mu-1920 (Our world but the roaring 20s). I retconned the end of "the Art Show" from about three, maybe four, years to where the Professor (Rudy) had a lover aboard the insectoid space station. They were separated by the rush of people running for the escape pods just before the big bang that concluded that campaign's finale. Starting back on Soufrik, his supervisors task him with continuing his explorations of the Tau Verse. Daisy Adair had been hanging out on that world as well, working as a contract pilot of various flying craft for smugglers and whatnot. Since Viggo was pining for his boyfriend and Adair was getting bored with "the Future," it wasn't too hard to get them wobbling again. Taking charge of the Albatross-class "float" (Wobble-boat) christened The Dodo, by its crew, our two protagonists headed off into the wide, Tau yonder.


Though the species of pirates that attacked The Dodo were named Galareans, I couldn't stop calling them Onion-heads. Their rather radish-looking spacecrafts didn't help. Though the float took plenty of damage, being unarmed and all, a patrol of Strike-crafts ("bananas") representing the Radio-Apes controlling the area drove them off. Our players did have to make an emergency landing on the Overmind-63 (the Radio-Apes' home). 63 is a ring biosphere connected to a hub increasing its gravity with centrifugal spinning.

The primary purpose of Overmind-63 is to house the massive organic computer (known as Overmind-63) which is floating in the upper reaches of the contained atmosphere. The space station is big enough, rather huge, to where the speed of the spin isn't uncomfortable for its denizens. The hub of this wheel is not only the control centers of the platform its reflective exteriors provided daylight to most parts of the habitation areas when not facing the local star. Along the rims of the wheel are thousands of miles of farmlands. Floating "collecters" harvest various parts when their produce comes into maximum nutritional stage, and float up to the brain-ish looking Overmind. Smaller beings, mostly radio-apes, live in settlements, some as big as major cities. In these population centers, tens of thousands of beings live, work, and play. Space commerce and even tourism is a significant part of life here.

Helped by the Akkerbarick (Goat-head) Jax Biznez, lawyer at Law, the crew of the Dodo would be able to sue their now apprehended pirate attackers for damages to their ship. This lead to some court room drama. Of course, the Galarians didn't have enough money to make amends, but their ships' insurance company, the Gyyko Clan, had plenty of liability coverage. Viggo and Adair played up their emotional distress for the Monitors (video camera headed-baboons). So once the Galarians were put to death, on the spot, in the middle of the court room, our daytime TV stars where awarded plenty of Zed (dollars) to fix and improve their wobble-boat.
Of course, our Wobblers weren't able to leave the space station, because it was theirs _and_ the Overmind's. So they left illegally. A quick spaceship battle session, Daisy Adair made pretty quick work of their pursuing Strike-craft (Bananas), even without a weapon aboard the Dodo, with amazing pilot skills (Robin rolled really well). Afterwards, they were able to salvage wreckage from one of the strikers and get a Phazer Cannon, a weapon of their own, with Viggo's Fixer skills.

Back to the Search for Alejandro (Viggo's boyfriend), the Professor, using Technobabble, discovered "communitrons." These are sub-atomic molecules released by Faster-than-Light transmissions, that can be traced "for a certain amount of time" across the depths of interstellar space. This led our PCs to Planet Mondrom.

This world, though not really that well known, is one of the better spots in the multiverse for Wobblers to come across. The planet has two indigenous species, the Mon and the Drom. The drom are human-like beings that tend towards blue to gray skin and very similar hair to humans. The mon are intelligent mineral collections that form into rectangular blocks of very hard stone. Mons get larger and larger as they become more psychically powerful. Folks also call them "monoliths" for fun. The junior partner in the symbiotic relationship between the two, the Drom are monitored and mentored by the Mon, into becoming very capable psychics, and Wobblers as a side product. Now this relationship has a price. The drom of the planet are very stratified. Differing castes of them are identified by their "development level" as defined by the Mon. This is indicated on an adaptive tattoo of a number on the left side of the humanoid's neck.

Viggo and Adair tracked Alejandro from a crash landed escape pod into a Mon nursery-- the species is made of rocks so don't sweat the crash landing. They then were directed to the city of Population Center 47. As you all know, Center-47 is one of the best places to be when one is on Planet Mondrom. Know for its Really Big Decorative Bridge over the Salt-Water Inlet over the Western Side of the Planet Ocean, and great dance club scene. Here the PC's met the Triangles. The triangles are mons that have chosen to divde themselves into triangles of various sizes to lead various differing lives to one day come back together about ten thousand years later, to be Elders among the Mon. They tend to be skilled technicians of the rocks' society, while also providing the fastfood workers and gas station attendants for the metropolises over the world.
Viggo would meet the triangle Trixar. Trixi had taken a particular interest in the elusive Alejandro. Meanwhile Adair would be doing the Luke Skywalker on Dagoba thing, with a triangle on her back, ultimately dueling a clone of 14 y/o Amelia Earhart with light-sabers. After the Professor would take a particular interest in the triangle, our players would have their next lead as to where their quest would take them. Sex with the geometric block of stone was a matter of finding "the right angle." Afterwards, the Professor would hear the Warden (Trixar) mutter, "I only deal with criminals, usually."
Most of this last session was me getting the players to clean up their Roll-Playing XP tallies, through the "leveling" of the Mondroms. It also helped me continue to refine my Wobble rules as to how to, you know, wobble. If only I had done this before I published the source book.

So with Daisy Adair ready at the helm, Professor Rudolph Viggo wobbled them to the last known location of his GM-imposed love interest. Surprisingly, I am sure, had pirates awaiting them. But this was not because of rote script writing. Viggo would do an open channel hail to the attacking ships. The attack would come to a halt. On the Dodo's vid screen, Alejandro flanked by two pirate-looking Pyramid-heads would appear.

"Hello Rudolph." The dread-pirate Ajahando of Inasfar would say with a little chagrin.

GenCon 22: Back to Big Blue

On Saturday night at GenCon during my Crawlspace scenario "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps" someone found a reason for everyone at the table to identify their pronouns. I was beginning to think it was not going to happen. For all the warnings from many about "the wokists" being all over the convention, supposedly as ubiquitous as police informers at an antifa get-together. I came face to face with the advent that so many of the more, well, reactionary gamers warned me about. There it was, right in front of me. I could only say "Finally." I was so damned proud. The cool kids are showing up at my games! 

It's not like I wasn't busy before then though. There I was at GenCon. Thrown into the indy game ghetto of the third floor suites of the JW Marriott, Suite 313 to be exact. There was only one other official event in my room all four days of the convention. I was either at the end of the world or had finally gotten my corner office. Folks would come in the late evening to do open gaming and some partying as my evening games were finishing up, but for six out of my seven games I had a private setting with a great view.

Thursday's morning event was a Monsters! Monsters!/Tunnels & Trolls session called "Off the Rez." I had not prepared the pregenerated Characters for the session, so we did a quick roll up. The group were a band of goblins, but I forgot modify their Stats because, you know, GM busy-ness. Most of my listed encounters were pretty much overpowered, but we concentrated antics and storyline instead. The players were downright rebellious in disregarding my leads, but were being hilarious. The ten or so players were a pleasant mix of teenagers, folks, in their 20s, and a couple of guys close to my age, which happens to have been my target audience for this event. I met Todd Petersen the author "Raganrok Tunnels" for DT&T as well. Awarding the copy of M!M! signed by Ken St Andre to one of the players was only a part of my salesmanship. I hoped to be spreading some sales of all things Tunnels-ish. Of course, I'd find out an hour later that Flying Buffalo did not show up to Indy-- typical luck me.

My Thursday night game "Night of the Cryptids II: Bigfoot Babies" was surprisingly a wash. But I demoed the Crawlspace system to three guys from Peoria, Illinois. I'd run into them throughout the week. We have plans for the Wednesday night party next year.  I'd get the email from the folks that had bought the tickets telling me that they couldn't show up later in the night.

On Friday I ran my homebrew Gotham City PD Major Crimes "Two Jokers in the Deck" to a full house. Major Crimes is a whole lot of fun for me. This group of players was especially creative. The plot developed nicely as well as the climax of session being a really big bang. Because of their antics during the course of play, I have some ideas for next year. It's going to quite a production. This will be because of these guys. 

"The Horrible Fate of the Haunted House Hunters" went great. This repeat of a favorite Crawlspace event, just goes great every running. This year the Deputy's Player, Brennan would get the killing started early. My NPC, pervy-douchy Tom died from an accidental shotgun blast, though the PCs would not know this for a few scenes yet. Oh that Delaney Mansion gets 'em every time.

Crawlspace's "The Sleep Study" was not only full, but Mister Geiger from previous years graced the scenario. I felt like I was struggling, the gang around me seemed to be enjoying themselves. While I was pretty much railroading everybody, I did keep things creepy. Nose bleeds to incest, it stayed interesting. I'd end up having beers with a new bru named Ryan and his twin brother.  Of course when I was trying to have dinner and drink with the boys, Robin would phone me. She had finally showed up and would not leave the car. It was time to go.

Saturday noon, I'd run Peryton's Crawlspace scenario "TerrorHog". Luckily there were only four players, but what players they were. One was a perfect voice actor, another was indeed a professor, the other played the indolent technician too well, and being a diva came natural to our anchorman character. The author herself would show up and play as well. I think my choices made the session as interesting as the movie (Hogzilla) that it is based off of, but Robin was there to point out everything that she thought I missed. She'd also go on to post her thoughts online. Godshead woman, no pressure or anything, eh?

The previously mentioned "Scary Monsters, Super Creeps" was awesome. Despite my weariness, I kept the players in a perpetual state of creep out. Not to brag, but I would love to see the movie that I constructed in everyone's mind on TV. It was that good of a UFO horror story.



Peryton and I would spend the rest of Saturday and Sunday, leisurely enjoying the small city of dorks that downtown Indianapolis was. And pizza. We enjoyed all sorts of pizza. She'd stay on until Monday morning. It was a wonderful culmination to my "Convention Season" this year.

VengerCon 2022: Running the Blockades

 So to my mother, dog, and clowns, I went to VengerCon. Apparently I not only supported it, I became a sponsor. Sadly, there were no goosestepping parades and burning of books by Tranny authors for me to wring my hands over and clutch my pearls. JerryTel, one of my token conservative friends, showed up as we like to do micro-cons every now and then. I had a great time.

 
On Friday, I was a little drunk by the time I started hanging out. This was more from doing pre-gen Characters for my scheduled events than needing liquid courage-- still, it was helpful. After a dinner with Venger Satanis (Darrick Dishaw) and Jerry, we jumped into the host's Friday night session of Cha'alt. I recognized the setup from the first book, I think, as we were inside a giant worm. For all the players that were there (like 11 or 12), it wasn't hard to jump in and participate in the action. I found myself sitting next to a fellow that struck me as awfully familiar. I just couldn't say where.
Afterwards, I stuck around to imbibe more drink and partake in my once-a-week-smoke with company. I met fellow gamers named Greg, Phillip, Collin, and Matt. We had a rollicking debate party, I couldn't tell you the details but it was fun.



As there were only like thirty participants, on Saturday there was no one to play in my Gangbusters scenario. Yes, the one where I worked so hard to create PCs the day before. So Jerry and I brainstormed on his unnamed game (J.U.G.) for a bit before we jumped into Ivan Richmond's Dream of the Dragon scenario. Greg and Phillip, buds from the night before, joined in. I really enjoyed how Ivan's (Eye-Man for fun) game had classic fairy-tale elements while being a hardcore dungeon crawl. As an added benefit, I loved watching the traditional D&D players, including Jerry, get frustrated over Charm spells that broke the rules so to speak.

At dinner, I invited Oakes Spalding, a fellow I'd been chatting with on Friday night as well, to jump in my Crawlspace premier of "Florida Man" . That means test run from incomplete notes by the way. JerryTel and Ivan showed up as well and we did a quick take. Worked nicely and the players felt the roleplaying drug hit their bloodstreams, my game generally does. Though it only lasted about three hours, I had a chance to sit back as a GM and watch the players move things along for almost twenty minutes. GM popcorn time, as I call these instances. I do need to work on the transitions, ties, and clues of the scenario though.

Sunday, at breakfast I finally figured out that the fellow I kept thinking I knew was James Jeffers, whom I had gamed with at North Texas Con in 2021. Our breakfasting area would turn into a gaggle of folks attending VengerCon and the restaurant staff would have to lecture us about putting chairs in their aisles. It was a fun brunch. I left early as no one was going to attending my T&T session. JerryTel left around the same time. There were though sixteen people staying to play up until the six PM closing time to the convention. It was a good time overall.

To my mother, dog, and clowns... that means to all gay, commie-ish, tranny, Christian, BLM-identifying, feministic, and pinko players that I have gamed with for years, I am especially tired of watching the RPG market just get juvenile. I am sick of gamers ostracizing people that they don't like. I am tired of the corporate type of folks doing dickish things to the creatives they work with politics being the excuse.  This does not mean that I am turning conservative the older I get. I still want single-pay healthcare, less police authority, and a decent USMNT in the World Cup one day.

I noticed, by being the open-minded liberal that I am, that Dishaw does work that is worth reading, even if it might offend you. His game-mastering is practiced. He is something of a GMs' GM. He's funny when he's being a gadfly with his "social commentary" scenarios provoking One Bookshelf. His personal politics as with a lot of his gaming colleagues which get a little delusional about some sort of day of retribution on the Cultural Marxists that tried to ban their games, gets kind of scary. Hey, though, I've watched the cottage industry veer from one pointless controversy to another, and they're actually never the same. The day of reckoning of Right V. Left isn't going to happen, sorry to both sides of the schism here. Nope no civil war, just a changing market. I am for more indy games, so I don't people who think they know better than me, telling me who to game with and who not to.

To paraphrase myself (the original quote is, "If you don't watch Santa Claus Versus the Martians the Communists win"), if I didn't support Venger, the corporates win.

Memphis For a Bit

Outside of the vendors' area, it was a typical trip to the South. Great food, dismal accommodations, all served up with exaggerated manners. But that was not the case when dealing with the Joe Bob Brigg's 2022 Jamboree managing team, Humble Enterprises. Peryton had sent me a link in late May to this TV show fans get-together. We hadn't had a date in a while and she had just released Crawlspace: 21 and Over, so I suggested we do a booth. She tried to play hard to get for about fifteen minutes. Next thing I know she was purchasing tee-shirts, baseball caps, and carry bags all with TerrorHog plastered all over them. We were able to get Charlie Flemming's film producer friend Daniel to send us a couple DVDs of Blood Freak and another movie, which I haven't watched yet so its name slips my mind, to sell. Tee-shirts and cheesy movies, we were all set up to sell roleplaying games at convention for horror movie fans.

Because of brush fires along Interstate 40, from Little Rock to Memphis, we showed up about fifteen minutes before the hordes of fandom were allowed to rush into the venue. I set up stuff in a very organized fashion, but didn't put much creativity into it-- I had been driving since 10pm EST the night before from Indianapolis with only a nap between Northwest Arkansas and Mississippi Valley. Things were a little slow but Peryton and I had some catching up to do. Sales, though, weren't bad.

Throughout the rest of the weekend, we made friends and sold product.  Peryton spent a good bit of Saturday being a fan girl and getting photos and autographs. Chants of "Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla!" would tend to break out when she was in an area. The movies and merchandise were there to attract the non-roleplayers, I mean the ones that play with dice. A common joke at the table all weekend went like this,

Me: Do you roleplay?
(Customer, dressed like Vampira/Spike, raises an eyebrow)
Me: I mean on a table.
(Customer raises both eyebrows)
Me: ...with pencils and dice.
Customer: Oh that kind...
Me: (Leering) Well, we don't use dice.
Still plenty of RPG buffs showed up for demonstrations of Crawlspace. Plenty just walked up and asked which books should they buy. Sales were good. Both the lady and I were surprised at how helpful the people running the event were.

This was one of the few conventions where I stayed longer than I should've on Sunday. Chatting up neighboring vendors and a couple celebrities, I was sad to leave a couple of hours early to start the six hour drive back to the abode. Showing up at work Monday morning, I had to admit I was refreshed despite the long drives and the work of selling product.
Next year, I am going to try and set up a couple Crawlspace events though. I'll call them "Improvs". Get my real game on.

As Time Goes By, July 2 2022

 The T&T campaign for Wizards is still ongoing
It's at the halfway point according to my paperwork. Not that that means anything in terms of the tabletopping. After being attacked by yet again another gug and then a batch of what can only be described as dream goblins and a pumpkin-head beast, I have been able to start dropping clues as to the great mystery of the scenario. The PCs Max Kitch, Zel (short for zomething or anozer), and Jazon have started to climb the Starry Tower and have discovered eleven Stargazer adepts trapped within the walls of their living areas.
Looking at my notes, once again, I down with the normal stuff. Not that much of what has happened has been very typical.

The Spacers games might be alternating with Wobble
I always have a lot of notes that I make that I can apply to the Wobble settings. Ben was not able to make it to the last Sci-Fi Saturday session, so Iron Curtis and Peryton agreed to jump back into the Tau Verse with their Characters, Professor Rudy and Daisy Adair. Their albatross-class wobble-boat was attacked by pirates but saved by Banana-boat fighters patrolling the area that they were in.
The Spacers is still going on, but spacefaring sci-fi and gonzo sci-fi just makes life so much richer to me.

Venger Satanists Defeats Abortion for OSR Gamers
To be flip, I've watched the GM/Author Darrick Dishaw do Provocateur Publishing with some adeptness over the last month, maybe six weeks-- my real counting is focused elsewhere on matters of money concerning me. 

Talks about Family-Values after mass shootings, but a GM/Author that understands working

He's taken the advice from many of self-assumed betters in the OSR telling him to not be so... well, topical and said "fuck off." Venger, as he's colloquially known, has taken events from the headlines of the real world and produced scenarios pretty much to meant to be stricken down by the main provider of roleplaying PDFs, One Bookshelf (often called OBS(WTF?) ). True to Kortthalis Publishing standards, Christian values, as pedaled by a guy with the name Satan in his nickname, were referenced in two works. And guess what? They were taken down. The controversy continued along its manufactured vector with a bag-gas collection of commentators calling themselves OSR complaining about OBS's "editorial policies".
The folks at OBS, much easier to type than One Bookshelf P (Publishing, PDF-providing, Productions... et al), err onebookshelf.com, went into reactionary mode and came up with contributing authors' guidelines about not doing what Venger is doing. They called it "Hostile Marketing." They also went on to include author's blog posts and other media presence to be a basis for exclusion from their sales outlet. Which gave more voice to many more artists of the RPG field to raise their voice, and rekindle their media presence, to the controversy. As it stands to date, Venger's second inflammatory work, something about Gay Pride month, was accepted, as long as there were some edits. I can't wait to read print copies of both works. I'm not downloading that sort of shit onto my PC though.
For the cottage industry of RPG what does it all mean?
Hell, it's sales. But does it sell?

Meanwhile, this happened

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/401229/Crawlspace-21-and-Over

Robin, that's Peryton, has worked with Beckett, Beckett Warren, to take a lot of material and make the sexiest version of the Crawlspace game to date. A lot of that a lot has been by me. This stuss has built up for the years of Crawlspacing at tabletops with me as the Producer/Director of many of the gigs. I think that is why she included me as a coauthor. You all should buy about 20 print copies each.

Remember this Independence Day folks, that you have nine more fingers after too much alcohol and access to gunpowder has led to a slight malfunction. Don't be a wuss, but this time have someone hold your beer.

A World a Week, or so: Frog Bog (first glimpse)

 

So, before titles...

If only campaigns formed like yarns coming together to make a Christmas sweater. Instead they usually come from something on the outside world, that Real one, getting my attention to suddenly granting a cool image in my head. This one started coming to me while driving past a temporary bog along a highly industrial area in late April. Because of some very warm temperatures, the frogs were out in enough numbers to overcome the noise of the area as well as my work van. The trees and the water from snow melt and rain in the near 90 degree weather had a fresh smell that for a couple days overcame the oily smell of the neighborhood. And then the words "frogs" and "bog" popped into my head and now Frog Bog is on my mind.

At least since the late 80s, I suppose, I have been always doing Monsters! Monsters! writing. This has gone from animal-headed humanoids as beat up monsters, to the inclusion, these more recent days, of talking animals. Of course, coming from a Tunnels & Trolls and Runequest perspective of the Old School Gamer (an OG of the OSG, hee hee), having some ready notes for the Player-Character that someone just had to play has lead to some long notebooks filled with Monsterkin (Monster-Kin) cultures and liked environments.

When it comes to amphibious species, I've been making scribbles in my "Surf and Turf" file for years now anyway. But most of the Kin involved have been either the undersea sorts or the avian and crustaceans along the cliffs and beaches along seas and shores of really big lakes. Believe it or not, I never had my head around frog-heads beyond one shot monsters here and there. So inspired by their beautiful voices singing away the winter residue, I came up with "Boggers."

A month later, once again at work, I came across two hatchling birds that survived their nest tumbling into a parking lot. This prompted me to use my floppy hat as an improvised replacement. They then had to survive on a mixture of coffee creamer and crushed crackers through a pipette every fifteen to twenty minutes as I continued my job, until I could buy some puppy chow and dissolve it into water to make a proper gruel for them. They fell asleep at sundown. A couple of hours after sunrise and many feedings the next day I was able to get them to avian sanctuary. So now the human-like "The Grackles" worked their way into this world.
So I had a bog and needed very, very big trees. Plus a climate suited for the survival of frogs and little birds that pulled at my heart-strings and instinctive life saving skills. Hot and steamy-- I sweated forever with those grackles, but keeping them alive was worth every second-- this new place where Frog Bog was to be. Down south near the Gulf is where I can think of.

So this last weekend during my soccer games, I got tired of typing and did this map. Don't let the trees fool you. They're bigger than redwoods and the map scale is roughly eighteen by thirty miles. There also being a sea gives me some room for some saltwater baddies like Clawdads and Kuda. Heck throw in some polluting humans and hungry Hissers (crocodile-heads) to keep things balanced in a savage sort of way. So my delicate Monsterkin have a little space to begin their sagas. Just need to finish up my Wizards campaign first...

More time to get a few more notes for Frog Bog.

Times At the Table: More Arshoon T&T

 In part four, Zeluria, Max Kitch, and Jazen encountered not only the Lying Fish but the Truthful Goat. During this session, I was paying homage to all the times while playing D&D the GM would throw in "important" encounters with clues as to the Player-Characters' upcoming adventure. Given the open ended nature of real RPG sessions, outside of giving away the scoops of the campaign, I couched everything in cryptic uttering by the fish and then later the goat would give a more direct interpretation that was still vague. It was like slathering a VHS pachage with peanut butter and calling it a mystery box. I had to introduce Itchy the retired Goblin for the players to finally catch on that the water coming down from the stream where the tower is to the village of Sturach was tainted with a substance that even the fish in it were waiting to be netted to be lifted to the tributary where Lying Fish made his home. One of the Players thought to maybe drain their water skins-- I about had a heart attack.

This last session, the trio of Wizards and their Warrior escort made it to the tower itself. There was no one to greet the caravan at the gates of the compound, indeed they were open and the guard booth empty. They found the grounds around the structure in disarray. The horses and donkeys from the stables were all roaming around and foraging from stacks of hay and local foliage. While work tools were placed where they would at the end of the day, many had fallen over, as happens due to wind, and not been replaced.  

The banged on the double doors to the Tower's ground floor many times, before Ziv "Radnik" Radovsky the Wizard that is the quartermaster opened the door. Of course his demeanor was abnormal and he seemed distracted. When Max asked him, where should they put the supplies that they had brought, the NPC replied, with obvious fear in his voice, "They must go into THE CELLAR!" And with that he fled up the stairs going into the higher reaches of the Starry Tower.

Our intrepid heroes looked at one another and shrugged. They then shed their peasant clothing to get back into their wizard attire--these things are important when you're a spellcaster. Kitch stayed upstairs with  the guards, while Brock (NPC), Zel and Jazon checked out the mentioned cellar. And they found a whole lot of nothing but they did find a SUB-Cellar. Opening the trapdoor to it, they knocked over a glass vial But I didn't the two Players think much of it. Instead I focused their attention on the marvelous library of books, parchments, and other things that was in there.

Zel would find a treatise explaining the form of the universe itself. Jazon would learn a spell. Meanwhile Brock would be running upstairs yelling about how the two mages were unconscious downstairs. Kitch quickly got there to see what the heck was happening.

 After waking up both of the wizards that went downstairs, apparently having been gassed by a sleeping potion, Kitch listened to their tales. They group would have concluded that Zel and Jazon were merely dreaming, until the shadrakar (handsome furry), performed the spell that he learned in his "dream". Casting a Detect Magic, the Boyar saw, some epic GM flourish, that the subcellar was a junction of many mystical portals.

It was getting late in the day. The group back to the upstairs entrance level and decided to start resting for the night. Wun and Tree were left downstairs to keep an eye on the subcellar. Everybody in the "lobby" was just getting comfortable, Brock was making awkward passes at Zel just as the yells started coming from the cellars...

Must We "Background"?

 A popular selling point of late is for the GM to try to sell their game playing to their player's preconceived notions about their Character. The GM promises to highlight the player-character (the PC) through a series of events forthcoming based off of what the Player has written down as a background. The rooms and crags where the PCs encounter this or that cool beast are secondary to what should be a Player's two sentence entry on the back of the Character Sheet, mostly indicating, in my opinion, the trope of what the Character might be. This to me is an awesome approach for the person that separates being a Game Master from being a person that wants to tell a story. Instead they are an impromptu script-provider for folks that want a little bit of attention and therefore will give some attention to the guy running the game session. Thinking about it fully, it really kinds of kills the glory of roleplaying to me.

Sure tabletopping is about spending time together, but we've all sat through that one GM that makes it up as she goes along. She's being clever taking her ques from the players around her. Still more often then not, the lack of a structure in her mind leads to problems with pacing or any visceral exploration required to ease things into a decent yarn by anyone at the table. Ironically "sandboxxers" might tend to agree that a story destroys their sense of what an RPG session is supposed to be like. So the "all-me" players and the guys that want to LARP being a miniature on a table both frame narrative as the enemy of them having a good time. Now try getting them at the same table. For the folks trying to have a roleplaying experience, though, going places where your mind hasn't gone to before and having things not drag along really makes for a good session or campaign.

I might be a little spoiled here. I run for about two dozen new players almost every year, either at conventions or mini-campaigns on-line. We don't have a lot of time besides getting a couple of sentences for the background. Even when time is not a constraint, my long term players are rather set in our exploration mode of roleplaying that we, I play in their games too, like to fill out our Characters as we go along.

That doesn't mean I don't indulge backgrounds. I have ran prequel campaigns for players that had PCs that they really liked. Want to talk about player satisfaction? Work out a detailed history with the Character at the table for even one session, if not three to six, in between big story frames of your ongoing campaign. That player will not just stay involved, they will show up early and buy the pizza for months.

That is my take.

Final Exam Re-Release for TROTT

 So like 100 year ago back in 2009, W. Scott Grant released a Tunnels & Trolls solo for the Wizard Type called Final Exam. Well this year, because him and I were two of the whole sixteen ppl that showed up to GenCon last year AND I am producing T&T compatible stuff again because of Thessaly Chance-Tracy, we decided that Peryton Publishing would re-release it.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/392516/Final-Exam

Everytime At the Table: Arshoon Part III

 It was a short session, but we actually covered everything in my notes for the sitting. So when JerryTel pulled up the USA VS. Panama World Cup Qualifier, I just had to end the game until our next time. Now that I have been able to read my campaign outline, I am glad that did.

So as you already now from the last entry, the newly graduated Wizards Jazon, Zel, and Max Kitsh had arrived at the village of Starach. This village is at the bottom of the small mountain where the Stargazers' College Starry Tower was atop. The group's objective was at least a full day's travel and it was late afternoon as their small caravan pulled in. 

This actually did not happen at all

The town's folk had to check out some big city folk pulling up into their berg. Of course the strongest ones tended towards the folk. Weapons were visible, but none were brandished.

"Perhaps we should keep going." My NPC Grock said not too loud.

Realizing that Brock pretty much always has bad ideas, Max came forward looking very in charge, like a Boyar some might say. This prompted the Boyar of the village to come forward. Gergori Starachovich, he liked to be called Gary, also owned the local tavern and inn. This meant that literally the party went inside. Throughout the course of the evening, they learned that while the village was still sending up supplies and whatnot every so often, the Starry Tower seemed rather subdued. Even the guy in charge of paying for the groceries was a little off.

So the group got rooms after the feasting and drinking. With a LUCK save it was determined that Jazen was the only PC that didn't drink the water. In the middle of the night, an eerie gonging sound started filling the area. Max and Zel felt themselves under the control of something and started stumbling outside. Zel was able to resist but was very physically spent after doing so.

Max found himself among all the town's inhabitants standing outside and staring at the tower. With each gong a silvery light illuminated higher and higher up it. In the sky around the tower two zipping lights circled it. The Wizard then made an IQ save and taught himself our campaign's version of magic resistance.

Fizz Wizz
WIZ Cost: Variable
Range: Self
Duration: One Spell
Power Up: Y
Description: This second level spell allows the caster to resist when someone else cast a spell on them. The Player decides how many WZ points they will resist with. With a successful SR and enough points spent to overcome the other caster's WZ being spent, the person is not effected by that spell.

When the whole tower was lit, there was a large pop of sorts. One of the lights flittering around shot directly upwards. The other shot towards the town, just over the rooftops. It was of course a saucer-shaped object about the size of a small house, Everyone, except Jazen and Zel lost one Wizardry point permanently. Then everybody shambled back to bed.

Next morning everyone was a little groggy but had forgotten about what happend the night before. Max took aside Gregori and basically psychoanalyzed him and helped him remember. JerryTel was in one good roleplaying mood. After the big Russian guy stopped crying, the group came up with a plan to get to the Tower innocuously by delivering supplies a couple days early.

Then Jerry turned on the USA versus Panama soccer game and I had to go and watch it myself.

So the 2022 Take on TROTT

 As mentioned earlier everybody in the current campaign, the Arshoon Saga, are doing versions of T&T 7th edition. Much to frustration or mild chagrin we share, many things just are not spelled out-- In fact doesn't just pretend. I think all three of the players are using the 7.5 edition. Meanwhile I, through luck of Peryton having grabbed the version closest to the door of my office to mail to me, am using the unadulterated 7th edition. Through the perspective of our group, we're identifying the spots that need to be clarified for our uses and coming to decisions as to work things out.

At the same time, I am now involved again with the game from other perspectives as well. I am working on publishing a work written for 7.5 by Sligo but with Deluxe T&T in mind, but edited by a dude (one of the Sniper Ork brothers from high Trollhalla days) that uses the beautiful 5th Edition as his basis. This is after I fell in love with Thessaly Chance Tracy's mind and her DT&T-influenced Monsters! Monsters! campaign setting and started publishing that. Having asked Sniper Ork to help complete that Herculean task.

Mixing up the editions, we delvers have a common dialect as well as a matrix of mathematics. There are various specifications within the differing editions, but that it is all about-- getting the various players (including GMs) recognizing the process over the details. In short it's about getting folks at the table.

Everytime At the Table: Arshoon II

So the gang assembled tonight and we got down to some FRPG nitty-gritty this evening. Though we had a brief session it was a rather productive one. Besides having some narrative fun, three of us are refining our usage of T&T rules while the fourth is seeing what the hubbub is all about.

Our three mages gathered; Max Kitch (really it's not kitsch) the human from a Boyar family, Jazen, our gorgeous furry from a leading pride of his Kin, and the alluring Zeluria from the elven family that runs a lot of lumber and agriculture in and around the city of Moonash. Along with their warrior escort, led by the dashing, if a bit dim, Grock the Warrior, the group is making their way to the Star Tower temple in the Lower Nels. They have been commissioned by the Astrology School of their Wizards Guild. 

The PCs are going to the dot just above the mountains

 The delvers have moved westward away from the Boz River making their way into the cold highlands of Hill Country. Using a Tunnelhack matrix set for this campaign, their travels had definitely made a wrong turn. they walked past a perfect spot for an ambush. Sure enough everybody missed their perception checks so nobody saw the three Gakk, four-armed green Martians, up in the outcrops around them. But as the Hack roll was really bad, the four bandit-warriors weren't there for them. They were more concerned about what was in the cave at the end of the passage that the players had just ambled up to.

Grokk bravely put himself in front of the two wizards, Zeluria and Max and the gakks as best he could. Zell, Z-girl's nickname, initiated peace with the would-be ambushers, who were holding up flintlock rifles, in the the party's general direction, by using her vast vocabulary of their language. According to her Luck Roll, her vocabulary was just enough to order a beer and ask where the bathroom was, So the sorceress held up her hand to sign and speak the word, "Beer?" to them. One of the gakk's then fired its rifle.

It was Jazen that was looking in the right direction to see what was being fired at. Unfortunately for the three swordarms, they were paying attention to the gakks and not seeing the Gug, yes, the Lovecraftian kind, emerging from the cave just behind them. The different kind of four-armed creature knocked two of them back and scooped up the third. The third, in this case, guard's name was Tue, by the way. The fired flintlock's bullet went wide of the mark slamming the rock wall behind the horrible creature.

The Ambush over, we had fun doing combat T&T 7th edition style. You know, with Sequence and all that. That sequence is Ambush, Magic/Missile (Speed goes first), Hand-to-Hand, then Spite.

Max K being the speediest, decided his Wizard being the conniving sort would want to be tactical about the situation so he cast Know Your Foe. But as he is young and inexperienced, he forgot about the range of the spell. I didn't make him expend WZ (Wizardry) maybe I am getting too soft. Zel, went for good old Take That You Fiend, the Player declaring that her PC's spell resembled a swarm of wasp-sized fairies carrying razor-sharp swords, and we coined the phrase "Razor-Pixies." Meanwhile, Jazen bravely rolled out of the carriage. All three of the Gakk's fired their rifles again, only one hit its target, which that target barely noticed.  Once again, the other two swordarms, with their captain Grock this time, engaged in hand-to-hand with the Gug, and taking the brunt of its damage. Poor Tue was used effectively as a flesh club, but his Armor was holding up even if it was increasing the Monster's damage points, I ruled. The creature itself rolled no Sixes so there was no Spite to randomly spread around the group.

In the next round, Max did his own TTYF, which JerryTel described as "basic Sith lightning", but Zel changed up tactics and did a Hold That Pose. The Gug suddenly stopped what it was doing, which was about to slam Tue into Max. Jazen held his action. Then the gakk's fired their volley again. One gakk Crit Failed its shot and got Tue in the forehead. Jazen did a Call Fire not having to worry about friendly fire, pun unintended, anymore. That wrapped up the fight.

While Zel, Grock, and Max shared the universal peace drink of Beer, namely some of the Party's beer reserves, with the three gakks, Jazen and the two remaining swordarms examined the entrance to the cave. Along its mouth there was a smooth area, like a pillar carved into the earthen rock. Strange hieroglyphs adorned it. Something about dark and eyes, but Curtis missed his IQ SR, so he did not learn the spell Cat Eyes.  

The gakks noticed it was getting dark and were not shy about showing that they were afraid to stay near the cave any longer. Jazen wanted to make camp there, just knowing there was something interesting about the place. Max and Zel overruled him and the group got their horses and donkeys moving out of the cul de sac.

The night would not be too restful. Even far away from the cave, unearthly howls could be heard and lights glowing into the clouds above the dark rocks around them. Zel and Max would insist that they were safe and if not they'd just handle it when the trouble came to them-- they need to get some rest (Make a CN SR) to get back their WZ spent earlier. The shadrakar and the swordarms would spend the night keeping watch.

In the morning, Max and Zel would once again overrule Jazen and insist that their little troupe get on the road. The group would meet many bands of gakk now and though they did not speak a word of trade, the word "Beer" would be bandied about until a peace cup could be had. One hunting party of gakk, even traded fresh provisions with our delvers for some of their beer.

After six, maybe seven days, the PCs have arrived at the village of Starach, which is below the small mountain where the Star Tower looms.

Quotes from the Game

"Razor-Pixies" Robin and Me
"Beer." Curtis, "It's the Rosetta Stone of drinks"
Jerry, "My Character has a Teddy Bear. It's Vlad the Impaler."

Everytime At the Tabletop: The Return to T&T

And so begins the Arshoon Saga

 Middle of the night and writing sober because the soccer this weekend was so good, the beer was drank by the end of the last game. The RPG game with the usual gang, Peryton, JerryTel, and Iron Curtis, has been even better. We're doing T&T. I think they are using the 7.5 edition while I am using the 7th edition. But frankly it tends to be the same rule conventions which we already agree upon so any wrinkles are ironed over by us, the whole philosophy of TROTT (technically referencing older T&T), even if a numerical sum here and there might be different. I felt I should a T&T campaign for a couple reasons. I am working with people that are publishing Monsters! Monsters! material so the rules are running across my desk. The game(s) itself is also a group favorite taking back to our youthful days when we 80 to 90 years-old. Iron Curtis is new to the rules and our traditions around it, but he is such an elite gamer so he's caught all the nuances even before he seen them demonstrated.

 So Arshoon is an island area in the farther north portions of my T&T world of Elder. It is about the size of Texas and has the climate of southern Alaska. Inspired by the image above, I have been working my Sphere Romance (space fantasy) elements as well as my pseudo 1500-1600 AD historical fantasy elements.  The world has three moons. The European-based cultures call them Big Cheese, Cat, and Mouse. Cat is actually a Mars-sized world looked in a lagging orbit with Elder but far enough away to look like a moon. It's call Marzoon by its inhabitants.

For the most part the campaign is going to be straight cheese T&T sword and sorcery, but there will be space fantasy as well.

As of right now, and for the remainder of the campaign, which will get the Wizard PCs up to 7th level XP-wise, everyone is a newly minted sorcerer from the Wizards Guild of the city of Moonash. Robin is playing a an elf, which I made a "halfling" because true elves haven't been seen for about a millennia, same Stats as a regular Elf per the rules. Jerry is playing the conniving Wizard from a notorious family that has betrayed almost every other big named family in Moonash, but always betrayed them for the winners of whatever conflict. Curtis is playing one of the alien Kin, a species from his D&D campaigns called Shadrakar, from Marzoon which were actually some of the first settlers of Arshoom centuries ago but treated as newcomers by the humans dominating the land.

This week we had hi-jinks at their graduation ceremony, before they were recruited to investigate some problems at a Star Gazers' faction of the Guild sanctuary in the mountains known as the Nels. Then I made the gang do Gygax-crunchy provision buying and planning to bring back that 11-14 y/o feeling that we used to get playing RPGs back in the 1880s. We got to a breaking point when the players started to notice that what could only be described as a flying saucer was following them...

To be continued.

The other inspiration for Arshoon

A World a Week: Zwaza Station

 Stumbled across some notes from 2014 which started a ripple that has stuck around in my works since then. Parts of this locale just very well may appear in some published material. I mostly have mentioned the setting during a few Wobble campaigns and another universe slipping thing that keep on the back burner called "Ork Quest" as of right now.

 

It is in the NU Verse, where the Canadian Space Guard are making themselves known on the Earth that is called the Nu World. Farther out in this solar system is the planet Nimbiru settled by Sumerians from our Verse, the MU one BTW, some three thousand years ago. As I am sure you recall these Sumerian Wobblers are a prominent faction in the closer Verses to MU.
Orbiting around the half-way point for about four to nine months every year between Earth and Nimbiru is the TNO (trans-Neptunian Object) known as Pomme. This a planetoid that is not quite a small moon because it is a little lumpy and not round. Most of its interior though is a highly developed space colony, the Zwaza Station. Controlled by the Sumerians and the native Nimbiru, the Hand-Heads, this colony is home to various spacefaring species of the Nu Verse and even a larger number of Wobblers.
Zwaza Station with its Zef Guard is the largest deterrence against Grey raiding ships that plague the asteroids of the outer belts of the system.

Two other smaller asteroids orbit around Pomme forming its moon-like satellites. One is Apfel the other is Potato. Potato is a trans-versial world, as in that wobbles. For about three years out of Pomme's eleven year and five week orbit around the sun, this asteroid is inhabited by the species known as "The Potato-People" and what can only be described as spells and magic are their technology basis. The rest of the time the moons are cold and lifeless, except for maybe Grey bases.

Zef Guard Warship: the Yonder Don
Captained by the Hand-Head, Nock Mor-Ehd, the ship is mostly manned by Pyramid-head mercenaries hired by the Zef Guard to fill its rather diminutive ranks. It is about the size of a large cargo vessel but it is the flagship of the self-defense forces of the planetoid.
MASS 14
MANEUVER 19

SPEED 13
DEFENSE 29
OFFENSE 19
EFFICIENCY 32
RANGE 600
CREW 20-35