EOTE: Irfan Escapes Mos Shuuta

Edged by the Empire

Episode 01 Escape From Mos Shuuta

During the events of the previous blog entry, the GOKL gang also presented me with an early birthday: A Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginner Game boxed set.

At first the Star Wars RPG used the D6 system when it was licensed to West End Games. Then it used the d20 system when it was with Wizards of the Coast. The latest role-playing game to be adapted from Star Wars by Fantasy Flight Games now uses the special dice with symbols instead of numbers, much like the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 3rd edition.

You'd think it'd be complicated, but when I ran it the Beginner Game's scenario entitled "Escape From Mos Shuuta" for Irfan it felt easy enough after we both got the hang of the rules. At some points Irfan was interpreting the dice rolls faster than I was.

BareBones Fantasy: The First Quest

The night before we headed home to Kuala Lumpur from Pasir Mas, Irfan and I decided to try out the BareBones Fantasy RPG.

BareBones Fantasy (BBF) is a simple - but intrinsically complete and very customisable - role-playing game engine that allows gamemasters and players to run adventures in the vein of classic Tolkienesque fantasy worlds, with Elves and Dwarves and Halflings and Orcs. I was sent the beta version for my DwD Studios art commission job, so I had a copy printed out the week earlier.

It runs on DwD Studios' own D00dice system, which only uses the d10 dice either as percentile rolls or total-up rolls.

Note: The above is not the actual cover, but something I put together quickly and had printed! Click here to view the skilfully painted cover by Eric Quigley, and to read more about BareBones Fantasy at the DwD Studios' website.

Call of Cthulhu: Stark Raving Mad

For several weeks, Irfan was asking me if I could run the continuation of his first Call of Cthulhu game where he roleplays SFPD Detective D.J. Stark. Finally I had the time to sit down and write prep notes for a short session. Irfan got into Detective Stark's shoes, trench coat, shirt and tie, and then got right into it.

Episode 2

The game started out where the previous session ended: Captain Greta Hack gives the bruised and battered Stark a week's off after he shot his turncoat partner Lee Wilson and rescued Paige Riordan from the vicious underground creatures.

Returning to his apartment, he was ambushed by one of the fetid, muzzle-mouthed creatures in his kitchen. He felled it with a shot. The rest ran out the corridor and down the staircase. Stark pursued, but he was unsuccessful in tracking the beasts. When he returned to his apartment, the body of the creature he shot was gone.

Call of Cthulhu: The First Game Ever

I've had the Call of Cthulhu RPG for a decade now. I've never run it... til now. It was a gift from Gary before Irfan was born. We used to joke that if I couldn't find anyone to run it for, I should someday run it for Irfan - who was then still unborn. And at the time I had yet to discover GOKL.

Almost ten years later, I have refereed Irfan in a Call of Cthulhu game, who rolled up his character yesterday: a young detective in San Francisco named D.J. Stark.

Episode 1

Here follows the actual play report:

The Zombie Apocalypse with Microlite20

After three episodes of The Walking Dead on AMC, I thought I'd try a zombie game scenario with Irfan. I was itching to try out the free Microlite20 system, so I adapted it the M20 Modern plug-in to come up with a simple zombie apocalypse scenario.

Irfan wanted to play a sheriff, he rolled up his three characteristics, chose a Smart Hero class (which gives him +1 to Knowledge) and took a Law Enforcement starting occupation (which gives him another +1 to Knowledge and a +1 to Physical). The game began with Irfan coming back to town from a three-day campout in the woods. He had with him a sniper rifle.

As he walked up the road to town, he spotted a car at the roadside. Upon a closer look, he noticed a figure slumped back in the seat.

Irfan's Player Character Saves The Day

Irfan played his first complete Star Wars Role-Playing Game adventure today, as everyone's favourite intrepid astromech droid Artoo-Detoo. He was awesome at figuring out solutions to simple problems that were presented in the scenario that I cooked up. He even role-played Artoo well by having in-character conversations in regular robotic beeps. 

We played on the living room carpet and I used the gamemaster (GM) screen for the first time ever, with the D6 rules and stats inserts I made. My coterie of white D6 were arrayed on the floor, while the singe red D6 served as a Wild Die. 

The scenario was designed to be short and with minimal story twists.

Shortly after the Battle of Hypori that, Artoo-Detoo, the lone player character (PC), was sent by Clone Commander Cody for a mission. Orbiting the planet, say for story's sake, Eiattu 6, Artoo's task was to be flown from the Venator-class Star Destroyer Resolute to the surface of Eiattu.

There, Artoo will need to sneak into a Separatist safehouse containing a redundant tactical computer databank and hack into it to determine the position of Count Dooku and his fleet.

Artoo was supposed to be flown within a short distance of the safehouse in the hills, but the LAAT gunship he was in was shot by a ground-based missile. Before the gunship smashed into the landscape, I thought Irfan was going to get Artoo to attempt a controlled landing, but instead he did something I didn't count on. He jumped.

However, he failed his rocket operations roll and slammed down hard into a sand dune. Thankfully his Strength roll's Wild Die came up 6 twice! So Artoo shrugged off the damage which I attributed to sand absorbing the impact. 

Using his sensors, he tried to get a fix on the location of the hill and the safehouse. But this time his Wild Die turned up a 1. I ruled that he knows the direction of the safehouse - which is south - but he doesn't know how far it is. And it's all desert as far as he can see.