CHA: New Thaumatology

Hello, humans!

It's time to test out some new Chrome Hammer rules!

Chrome Hammer: Ascension - R&D

Hello, Humans!

Sorry about the blog lag (blag?)  It's been a while since I've made a post, and even longer since I've done one about minis gaming.  Sometimes hobbies just get "used up" for me and I struggle to find an angle to get back into it.  I'm also in a bit of a creative slump.  But enough about me!

Today, I'm eating my own (soy) dog food and trying out some rules changes that I'm batting around.

Today's Job is what I'm going to call "Smash and Grab".

Chrome Hammer: Ascension - Campaign Turns 2 & 3 (Rescue & Astral Pain)

 

Hoi, Humans (and Meta-Humans)!

Last mission was successful, but Sarge (the Ork Shadow) was captured by the Corporation!  Technically, Sarge can sit in limbo until I get around to trying to set up a rescue, but I'm impatient and want my cool Ork back, so despite not getting paid, I'm setting out to rescue our captured Crew member!

There's also a follow up Astral Pain mission.  We'll see how Shuffle does on his own.

So let's get to it!

Chrome Hammer: Ascension - Campaign Turn 1 (Wetwork)

Hoi, Humans (and Meta-Humans)!

It's time to start a Chrome Hammer: Ascension campaign!

I've been building this thing and testing it and laying it out, but I haven't had a chance to approach it like a player, starting from scratch.  Well, no more waiting!  It's time to eat my own (soy-)dog-food.

I've already got the table set up, so let's go!

Remember Tomorrow: Welcome to Somewhere

Hello, humans!  In an effort to entertain myself, I  thought I'd try soloing Gregor Hutton's "Remember Tomorrow: Near Future Role-Playing".  This is one of those where it's GM-less and the story and characters are shared between the players.  Is that better for a solo game or worse?  Who knows?

In the city of Somewhere, things are all cyberpunky, with corporations and gangs and cybernetic implants and humanoid robots and such.  This game tells the story of some characters trying to get what they want, but to do that, they'll need to be ready, willing, and able when the opportunity comes along.

Chrome Hammer: Ascension Beta (Severance Package)

 

Chrome•Hammer: //Grid Lock

Another Chrome•Hammer playtest!  This time it's a VR mission, with the goal of controlling all four Stacks on the table.  Forgive me for not being particularly clever here.  I'm just trying to log this for posterity. :)

The Department: Seventh Mission

Mission Seven: The Nightclub

Sorry.  I've been sitting on this one for quite a while now because I didn't have the "nightclub" terrain I needed.  Sure, I could have faked it, but I was also looking for an excuse to do some crafting.  So, after a long time, I finally built my nightclub set, and I'm using it for this mission.  It's not perfect, but it's pretty good, I think.

Ok.  Let's get on with The Nightclub.

Chrome•Hammer: //Virus Upload

This weekend I had a chance to playtest some cyberpunk minis beta rules.  Welcome to:

In the first mission, FOZ Pictures Corporation fought Meyerdyne Corporation over a resource extraction site.  Despite Meyerdyne's ED-2099 droid turning more than once on its own units, the pharmaceutical corporation came out on top, dropping FOZ's stock.

The Department FAQ/Errata

Ludanto: Ok, not a really interesting post.  The site that used to host the FAQ/Errata for "The Department" seems to have gone away, taking with it this pretty important list.  Shaun Travers found it in the Wayback Machine (Clever.  I should have thought of that.) so I'm re-posting it here for my convenience and for posterity.  I claim no rights to the text that follows.

The Department - Sixth Mission

Mission Six: Murder Sweep!

Hey! Didn't you already do one of these?

Well, yes, but that's part of the game. There are only six different missions, plus the unique "boss" missions, so there's going to be some back-tracking in an effort to earn the required evidence. Actually, I would have rather have had a go at the Nightclub or Bust the Lab missions, but I don't currently have a 25+ cm nightclub interior, or 6(!) such interiors to represent the floors of an abandoned building. It's something to work towards, though. :)

For now, we get Murder Sweep again.

The Department of Fabricant Management - Fifth Mission

Mission Five: Bust the Dealer!

Wait!  What happened to the fourth mission?

Well, I wanted to do this mission, but I didn't have enough People Evidence to afford it, so I had to do "Grass the Neighborhood" again.  You've already seen that sort of mission, and not much happened anyway.  I spent 5 Budget, and came away with 1 People Evidence and 1 Place Evidence.  Good enough.  This mission is pretty short, too.

Drug dealers, at least the better ones, have tons of contacts.  Sure, they're probably not tied directly into what you're investigating, but they might know somebody who knows somebody who is.

So, Agent M decides to look up Vinnie Verdun, and ask him a few questions.  The mission costs 5 Budget, plus one of my People Evidence, that I guess lead me to this drug dealer in particular.

Hardwired: Cyberpunk Mayhem!

It seems like skirmishy solo games are all the rage lately, and that works for me, since I don't have a lot of victims friends to try new 15mm games on.  I also, for some reason, like the cyberpunk genre for these sorts of things (witness the terrain).

So, eventually I picked up Hardwired, with the hope that it would be a cool solo cyberpunk game experience.  (Unfortunately, the awesome cover didn't actually come as part of the PDF.  I am sad.) 

Anyway, here's how it turned out:

The Department of Fabricant Management - Third Mission

Mission Three: The Murder Sweep!

There's been a murder downtown.  No, not that one. No, not that one.  Yes, I know there are a lot of murders.  But we think this one might have a connection to our case.  It's time to go in there and examine the crime scene itself.  Maybe ask around.  The murder is probably still nearby...

This mission costs 2 Budget, and might provide People and Place evidence.  I'm also spending 2 Budget to bring a Lab Technician, hoping to improve my odds of getting good evidence from the scene.

Komrades in Arms: Satellite Reign with FiveCore

A little something different.  Here's a thing I did a few years ago, but hosted elsewhere.  I thought I'd add it here just to make it easier to find, and to generally consolidate things.  This is actually the second mission in this series, but I've lost the images for the first mission.

This uses Nordic Weasel Games' "FiveCore" rules, with custom advancement and a "Satellite Reign" theme.

Republishing this also gives me a chance to spell "satellite" correctly.

This is an escort mission: Get the former corp guy into the UZYKORP lab to steal a prototype weapon.  We gave our charge an empty pistol.  Don't want him getting himself hurt.  I should note that I'm not using random events, because there's too much to keep track of in a solo game as it is.  Also, since I've only got four figures, the activation level (figures activated on a normal turn) is "2".

Beginning mission... GO!

The Department of Fabricant Management - Second Mission

The previous mission, "Grassing the Neighborhood", wasn't particularly fruitful.  Agent M managed to pull a rogue Fabricant off of the streets, but that's about it.  It's time to draw on the Department's resources and talk to one of their paid informants, a "snitch".  "Meeting the Snitch" costs 5 Budget.

The meet is set in a rough part of town.  Tensions are high, and violence could erupt at any moment, so Agent M is bringing along some backup (at the cost of 3 Budget) in the form of Officer Nolan, a specialist Riot Officer, armed with a blaster rifle (on stun) and stun grenades.  Officer Nolan is in full uniform, but even if he wasn't, the residents can smell bacon from 60cm away, and neither officer starts out hidden.

Squad-Hammer Core: Great Mountain Corporate SWAT vs Bloo's Gang

Nordic Weasel Games recently came out with a trimmed-down and updated version of their Squad-Hammer rules, called Squad-Hammer Core, just in time for my weekend gaming.  It's supposed to be a solid beer & pretzels framework for some fast fun with friends, but with enough structure to build your own house-rules or setting-specific information into.

The Department of Fabricant Management - First Mission

The Department is a game that I like to describe as "Bladerunner: The Skirmish Game".  You play (alone or with friends) special detectives in the Department of Fabricant Management.  Your job is to hunt down renegade fabricants (ie "replicants" or "androids").  You can just play any random mission, but the fun is in the campaign rules.

...of Fabricant Management

Sci-Fi Billboard Images

I've been asked to share the images that I used to make the billboards for my terrain.  And so, here you go.  This is a good idea, right?  I think you should be able to copy them at full resolution (300 ppi).  If not, I guess I'll have to think of something else.

Mi esperas, ke vi ĝuu tiujn ĉi.

Mmm! Savory!

Unsavory!

Big Brother is watching!
(But at least murders are down this week.)

- Jason "Ludanto" Smith C;E

Satellite Reign Inspired Barricades -or- Look, I Got a New Proxxon!

For Christmas, I got a Proxxon hot wire foam cutting table.  It's pretty sweet, and it's opened up my crafting options quite a bit.  I'm still getting the hang of it, so for starters I tried something small.

Here's just a photo I took as I was playing around.  You can see the wire and the guide and the table and the scale.