Castle-Crashing: WFRP Empire Campaign Sessions 22-24

Well, it's been a while since I wrote a session summary of our WFRP Campaign, so let's do some catching-up. I think this took place over 3 sessions, but life's been a little crazy lately, and this old brain of mine ain't gettin' any younger, so please excuse me if it was only 2 sessions.

So, the resistance reported that they knew of a path into Castle Von Wittgenstein via subterranean tunnels. Much dungeon delving was done, at the end of which we found a passage up into a ruined building full of sick Mutant villlagers, waiting for the Healing Expertise of Lady Somethingorother(Wittgenstein probably...)

Much chaos and destruction ensued, the horses were released from the stables, Siegwart ran away from a haunted tower, and a score of guardsmen got Elven arrows through the eye(WFRP 1e Elves are soooo unbalanced).

To throw fuel on the fire, our 20 resistance fighters also joined the fray and the castle was taken. BUUUUT it's essentially a two-part castle with a gatehouse surrounded by double drawbridges keeping us from the the more interesting part(see image above).

So, we equipped our rebels with the large amount of arms and armor that we won and left them in charge while we went back down into the ground. A subterranean river-ride later had the party under the unconquered section of the castle. After slaying some more guards, including an Ogre, the adventure turned from Pitched Battle to Travelling Freak Show Circus, interacting with strange Mutant servants and Nobility. The battles in this section included:

• Fighting an old lady's cats
• Murdering a Crazed Taxidermist(I wonder why he was so mad, it's not like we vandalized his precious...oh wait, yes we did)
• Feeding Ogre parts to a living room
• Sniping back and forth with annoying Poltergeists

Suddenly, the DM fell on a formula for what he'd been trying so hard to do for the past 10 sessions or so: a battle that actually challenged the party! We rounded the corner right into a Chaos Warrior and his Giant Slayer Dwarven friend. It was a rough battle, especially since the Dwarf had a magic axe and was nearly impossible to damage. Our Elven Archer, usually the MVP, got charged and chopped down with a vicious critical hit and our Dwarven Warrior also went down fighting. But we made it through, short a couple of fate points. Siegwart even landed the final blow! Oh how far that our scumbag Bawd has come!

A Narrow Escape: WFRP Empire Campaign Session 21

Session 21 was a bit rough--up late on G+ with a cold and killer sore throat. I don't think I followed all the details, but here's what happened in brief:

Seigwart and his Tunnel-Worshiping Dwarven friend indeed found a secret door to a subterranean tunnel complex in the Basement of the Doctor's roomy Manse, but how can they quickly get the rest of the party away from dinner and downstairs without alerting the guards(a few inside the Manse and many more congregating outside). Siegwart went for the old "Doctor, Doctor! The Dumb Dwarf Fell Down the Cellar Stairs and he Can't Get Up" ploy and the party quickly excused themselves to check on their companion. The Doctor knew something was up, but the party managed to crowd into the cellar and bolt the door behind them before weapons were drawn.

Then it was off through a maze of tunnels. We ended up meeting the local peasants' resistance. Seigwart gave a rather expensive looking potion bottle he had pinched to "Drugs'" inspection. Upon opening it, the alchemist was attacked by a tentacle of concentrated Warp-Stone. With the party unable to contain the tentacle, Sigyn telepathically convinced her chaos-powered sword to absorb the tentacle's power, which will presumably have some yet-to-be-observed effect.

The resistance agreed to lead us in to a secret entrance into Castle Von Wittgenstein, but on the way, the party ran into a patrol and they just couldn't overcome the temptation to ambush them. Much blood was shed, and we ended the session there...

WFRP Empire Campaign Sessions 18-20: Stuff Happens

Sessions 18-20 are a bit fuzzy in my mind due to bad Google Hangout audio, missing a session, and just being generally sleep-deprived.  That said, here is a summary, parts of which may have only happened in my mind:

Last time, our heroes were seeking the necromancer Italka. We had reason to believe she was tracking a large piece of warpstone that had fallen from the sky 100? years ago and been tracked down and acquired by the world's most evil astronomer(think the Anti-Carl Sagan).

you can find ANYTHING with image search

not just another pretty face

We followed her convoy to the ends of the earth, fought ghosts and Skaven in a chaos fever dream, and eventually caught up to her and her little Evil™ convoy.  Or rather, we walked into their ambush. But, after a hard fought battle blah blah blah...

Once defeated she revealed her secrets(her chaos spell seems to have wiped it from my memory though) and we were getting along just fine. Then she brought us into a little Faustian pact that neither of us would do harm to the other for a year and a day. And that kids is what we call "Foreshadowing"...

Then we went to some little dirt-hole of a town next to evil Castle Von Wittgenstein.  Everyone there is slowly turning into mutants and the crops are all dead or mutated. We visited the abandoned Temple, and it's gimpy subterranean denizens, and Germanic Jesus Sigmar Himself ordered us to deal the powers of Chaos a good swift kick in the nuts a mortal blow from him. One of the Elves or Dwarves got a holy sword(I couldn't tell due to choppy audio) and our herbalist poisoned this lady's baby just because it was turning into a spider, proving once again that Dwarves will use any excuse to spill Human blood.

Also there were these castle guards patrolling or something...then the town Doctor invited us for dinner and he was clean and had a nice house so it was clear he was, like, SUPER EVIL. Seigwart tried looking for evidence of his evilness while the party was waiting for dinner, but after pocketing anything gold and reading all his private correspondences, it seems like the Doctor really IS trying to help the locals. Though he is buddy-buddy with some Lady in Castle Wittgenstein(and he invited us into his house) so apparently he isn't a very good judge of character...

So the party finally went to eat with the doctor and our herbalist immediately noticed that all the food reeked of sleeping potion. Seigwart excused himself from the table and peeked out the window noticing large numbers of castle guards converging outside. He ducked downstairs to the cellar, hoping to find a subterranean tunnel out of here! And with that, I'll have to leave you in suspense till next time...

...and the map shows there is one. So much for suspense. I swear I didn't actually look at the map until now...

WFRP Empire Campaign Session 17: Halfling Boudoir Busters

Picking-up from last session, the party decided to send a few members up to the door of the reputed necromancer Italka's stronghold to request a parley.

Said door happened to be unlocked with two Goblin guards sleeping on the floor. The party first attempted to strong-arm them into taking us straight to Italka. But one of our Dwarves lost his cool and the cheeky bastards sounded the alarm before dying horribly.

The party decided to make their stand in the adjoining room, rather than in the hallway. We barricaded the doors with the room's tiny furniture, but when Seigwart smashed his way into the closet full of tiny ladies' frilly things, they heard a squeak from under the bed. A female halfling was hiding there, but much too terrified to converse. She indicated that Italka is away.

A wild melee ensued with goblins smashing down the barricaded door and pouring through the other. Well, things really heated-up when a fully armoured Chaos Warrior came running in. He and Sigyn took one look at each other and both went berserk(Sigyn as a result of her magic sword which is dedicated to some other Chaos god). Well, the party took some hits(especially my PCs) but made it through.

When the Chaos Warrior finally fell, Siegwart asked Sigyn if she was OK. She replied in a spooky voice "There is no Sigyn, there is only Midgarðsormr", continuing to insist on the new name even after the berserker rage has left her.

WFRP Empire Campaign: Sessions 15, 16

Continuing our journey to Nuln in hope of tracking down a not-so-wholesome sorceress by the name of Italka, the party followed-up on a lead that she has relocated to an abandoned Coal mine in the hills.

We ended up at some small-time village on the outskirts of Nuln, inundated with drunk/depressed Dwarves and townsfolk who are fed-up with them. Long story short, we ended up on a mission to save the local homesteads from the deadly raids that have been plaguing them because angry peasants+drunk dwarves+creepy necromancer = PROFIT or something like that. Basically an opportunity to murder things and not get in trouble...

Fresh Blood

I should mention, we have a new player, who has fielded a reasonably capable Cleric-type. He made some very creative use of his "create sound" spell, and should be even more effective once he has a bit more XP and can do battle magic.

Kobold Essen!

Anyway, we took the huge intellectual leap of staking-out the homestead closest to Italka's stronghold. This paid off in the form of a large force of about 60 goblins and 20 wargs attacking the place. The battle took the better part of two sessions, and when the smoke had cleared there was a bit of structural damage and one of the dwarves was a bit injured, but besides that, it didn't go too well for the goblins.

The first few waves were shot or chopped-down fairly quickly such that the real melee didn't start until the the third and largest wave. The goblins made their attack from 5 different locations and attempted to swarm the party and grapple them. Siegwart had to use a couple bombs, and our archer made a killing from the roof, and the other 5 PCs were running around trying not to get overwhelmed.

Anyway, another good session, and now the party is trying to decide whether to assault Italka's stronghold or attempt to parley.

A Wargaming Education

So I've had a lot of secondary exposure to Wargaming. When I was a kid, an older friend created a WWII boardgame for mass battles. In our current WFRP game, I've had to look-up rules in the WFB rulebook. And in general, you hear occasional wargame discussions in RPG sites.

But when I watched this video of a WFB game the other day, I was surprised by how relatively smoothly this big 100-troop battle ran.

1. No Grid

I remember hearing that ODnD movement is in inches like a wargame, but I didn't really get what that meant until I saw this video. They actually each have a tape-measure and you can move your troops along any diagonal axis you want. That's pretty cool!  And quicker than counting a ton of grid-squares.

2. Group Movement

The movement are per group, rather than per individual unit. That's a really good way of managing a ton of troops in a lightweight fashion. There's even a little rectangle underneath each group so you can move them together easily. I have to remember to do the movement by group next time I'm DMing and I run a big battle. Maybe that way it won't take all session.

3. Group Attacks

Attacks are also a lot quicker because they roll a handful of dice for each unit's attack. For WFRP, where it's a percentage, this might be a little unwieldy, but for d20 based systems it seems very do-able.  Like when the archers fire, you can just roll a handful of d20's and then divide them up between the PCs. Or if a group charges the party's front line, then you can roll a handful of d20's and divide them up between the PCs in the front line.

So in conclusion, I think there is what to learn from wargames about running big RPG battles smoothly, and I'm excited to try this out next time I DM a fairly big action.

WFRP Empire Campaign: Session 14

Dungeon Delving

Following up on last session, the party managed to open the door in the floor to the 3rd level of the dungeon(South of Castle Reikgard). Sigyn and the two elves were lowered down(by the Dwarves and Seigwart) and were immediately ambushed by a host of ghouls, who were duly slaughtered by the party, despite being at half-strength.

DM: "OK, I know what I'm going to do next time so the monsters put up more of a fight"

Player: "You said that last time!"

Anyway, the party found the musty remains of an impressive library, including some spells for the magic-user in training, as well as some information that may lead us to another 300-year-old meteor hit.

Stocking Up

The party continued South and docked their riverboat at the elevated city of Kemperbad.  They heard a few rumours while hanging around town.  They left with a few bombs, and a new stone-thrower installed on their boat. (Yes, Sigyn finally has enough XP to make the career change to Artillerist, as per her training a few sessions ago.

Drunk on My Power

So...funny thing about getting a small siege engine installed on your boat. It has a silly little way of changing your perspective on things. You suddenly find yourself, at every junction, asking:

Can my siege engine solve this problem?

And in the case of a negative response, the questions becomes:

OK, but can my siege engine improve the situation?  

Which devolves further, with terrifying speed, to:

How much trouble will I get in if I fire my siege engine at that thing?

 So, upon finding a surgically altered mutant corpse floating in the water and then passing the very disreputable Castle Wittgenstein, Sigyn convinced the party that we should check the place out discreetly. It was a tough sell, but the others eventually came around. At which point she started taking pot shots at the rather ill-maintained battlements, as the rest of the party, and the guards at Castle Wittgenstein, looked on in astonishment.

The party decided it might be time to move on, when the castle guard woke up and began returning fire with huge pieces of masonry.

I Vant to Suck Your Blood

The party was flagged down by another riverboat that came limping down the river. After Sigyn was persuaded to hold fire for the moment, the party parleyed with the captain. They had a couple sick crew-members and "Drugs" the party's doctor was sent on-board the other ship. The diagnosis was "vampires" and the ship's cargo was checked, the vampire incapacitated, and the ship towed and delivered to the Temple of Mor in Grissenwald. We may try to follow-up on where the vampire came from at a later session.

WFRP Empire Campaign: Session 13

Well, with the start of a new academic year, our group got back together after a couple solo sessions.

The Beginning of an Intrigue

After a bit more discussion of training and careers and equipment, the party left Altdorf and continued South, via riverboat.  The idea was to follow-up a lead in Nuln, really for lack of any other options. Along the way, we caught word of some significant current events:

• The Emperor(in Altdorf) has commissioned a signalling network between Altdorf and Nuln for better communication
• The elected Emperor has gone against the Democratic grain and declared his son(in Castle Reikgard) as his heir
• The Emperor has outlawed the persecution of mutants, as well as the term "Mutant"

The party was stopped by a couple dwarven engineers, just past Castle Reikgard.  Their signalling tower has been plagued by disappearances among the workers.  The party staked-out the location and found a hidden dwelling in the ancient base of the tower, full of undead.  They found:

• The place was apparently home most recently to a necromancer
• The necromancer was after large quantities of warpstone
• His lead on such was a prophecy about the moon, Morsleib, ejecting meteorites of pure warpstone
• The closest of three location of such a meteorite is apparently in the Barren Hills
• The zombies were wearing crystals that are used as magic keys.  One is still missing--who knows what they open once all are found...

Old School Magic Items

Sigyn got to try out the shield and sword she won from the Chaos Warrior.  After some experimentation, she found that the shield is unusually sturdy(+1) and the sword seems to contain a cold enchantment(failed toughness test does an extra 1d3 cold damage).

One of the players stated that this is a hallmark of Old-School gaming, not telling the player the bonuses from the magic weapon until their character has gained an intuitive understanding of such.  It seems to me that this makes magic weapons seem more special, as opposed to just giving a generic set of stats upon winning the weapon.

In any case, I was surprised, since WFRP states that magic items tend to be a double-edged sword, and I won the things off of a Warrior of Chaos, yet there didn't seem to be any deleterious effects.  Then the GM told me after the session "Now we need to roll to see if the sword takes control of your mind".  Oh boy...

A Nice WFRP 1e Character Sheet

One of our players put together a WFRP character sheet as a Google Doc.  It looks nice, especially on a tablet.  It's on this Blog's Resources Page, so feel free and copy and use...

WFRP Empire Campaign: Sessions 11,12

Well, due to summer vacations, Sessions 11, and 12 saw my two PCs Seigwart and Sigyn, wandering around Altdorf on their own.

Sigyn has been trying to make a name for herself as a singer, and Seigwart has agreed to represent her as her manager, for possibly dubious reasons.  They caught wind of a VIP who is supposed to arrive in Altdorf shortly, who has the connections and may have the will to help Sigyn get a gig in one of the more posh local venues.  BUT when his arrival is unexpectedly delayed, they agree to go out looking for his coach.

They actually managed to find his coach along the road, under attack by beastmen.  After saving the day and escorting the grateful gentleman back to town, they are forcefully conscripted by the authorities to join the force being sent-out to hunt down the remaining beastmen.

Seigwart, having recently changed careers to Seaman, occupied himself with learning how the military manages their riverboats, while Sigyn flirted with a gunner, trying unsuccessfully to persuade him to let her fire his Bombard.

They eventually disembarked with a platoon of militiamen, fought a pitched battle with a force of Chaos Beastmen, and defeated and captured their Chaos Warrior leader.  The fight with the Chaos Warrior was pretty brutal, with his first hit rolling a critical and bringing Sigyn down to 0 wounds.  She struck back however with an even more brutal critical hit, stunning the brute and allowing them to capture him.  As a prize, she took his sword and shield, which may or may not have been a good idea.

In Hero Quest, which we played obsessively as kids. Chaos Warriors were the baddest dudes around, so it was fun to take one on "for real".

NPC Tactics

So, looking back on a recent WFRP session I ran.  This was set-up to be a seriously epic-battle.  Lots of mutants, about to overrun Mother Brain's waning forces and the PCs have a chance to turn the tide. But it didn't turn out that way and I want to think about why...

Static Tactics

I had assumed that the party might succeed against the mutants at first, but that eventually their superior numbers would drive the party back into hiding within the caves.  This was not the case.  The party were mechanically better than the mutants, and they employed a number of tactical methods for furthering their advantage.

• Move party to within the passage so they can't be flanked
• Dwarf fighters up front
• Archers/magic users behind a chest-high barrier
• Set traps in front of the passage

My plan to counter this consisted of the following:

• Mutant groups 1, 2, 3 will charge together
• Mutant groups 4, 5 will attempt to enter the dungeon's Southern entrance

Both sides stuck to their plans, and Mutant groups 4, 5 did indeed achieve their objective, but much to my chagrin, groups 1, 2, and 3 got slaughtered without putting up much of a fight.  This made for a long, but not particularly interesting battle.

What makes an interesting battle?  One side makes a move.  The other side adjusts to counter the move. So the first group changes to a different tactic.  Their opponents respond in turn.  i.e. it's the chess game, the tactic and counter tactic, changing as the battle progresses that really makes things interesting.

So here are some potential tactics, in retrospect, that the mutants might have used to give the PCs a run for their money and made the battle a bit more dynamic and interesting.

Make them Flee Without a Fight

Rather than having mutant groups 1, 2, and 3 attack outright, I could have had them wait for 4 and 5.  At the same time, the mutants would taunt the PCs to try and intimidate them with their numbers.  If this didn't work, the mutants could also bluff and pretend they have some secret plan, like if they would start carrying timbers to the position above the PCs on the crater rim and start making a lot of noise and hamming, so that the PCs would think they are up to something and flee into the tunnels.

Archer Superiority

WFRP has a rule that if you fire into a group of tightly-packed opponents they you can use double your Ballistics Skill and determine the target randomly.  The mutants were spread out widely and had many short-bows among their ranks, so they could possibly have used this rule to chase the party out of their tightly-packed formation in the passage.

Height Advantage

In the initial ambush, the mutants were up above the crater's edge and the party was down below.  Also in the larger engagement, the mutants could have sent a party around to take up that same position.  Now I gave the party a 10% to hit the mutants up there, but I think I could have made it -20% according to the Target in Hard Cover Rule.

Also, rather than having some of the mutants scramble down the cliff to engage the party, the mutants with no ranged weapons could have thrown rocks or even rolled down boulders onto the party.  A good sized boulder(+5) has the potential to harm the toughest dwarf.

And if party members tried to climb up to the mutants, they could be attacked with a +20% WS(major advantage of ground).

Flank Rather than Charge

Instead of giving the party's archers several rounds of free shots on their charging opponents, I could have had a group of mutants go around and flank the cave entrance via the cliffs above.  That way the melee would start from close and the party wouldn't get all of those free shots to reduce the mutants' ranks.

Similarly, the flying beast man could have flown high enough so as not to give the party's archer an angle on him until he swooped down to engage them.

And finally, when the moving mutants engaged the static party, the DM could have remembered to use the charging rule and give them +10% to hit.

WFRP Empire Campaign: Session 10

Reikland

Session 10 picked up with the PC's fleeing Bogenhafen as passengers on a boat.  The decision was made to head to Weissbrook where "Drugs" could train as an Alchemist's Apprentice.

Quite fortuitously, the party came upon a riverboat that had just been captured by mutants.
The party defeated the mutants and took over the boat.  Seigwart had been learning Sailing and Riverlore so he took the helm until Weisbrook.  The lone survivor from the boat gave testimony that the boat was salvage, so that party can keep it unless the heirs make a claim on it.

In Weissbrook the local Alchemist's house was empty except for her terrified niece and a threatening note, with a symbol associated with Scaven.  After some quick detective work questioning the locals, the party found their way to an abandoned barn.

Siegwart knocked the sentry out cold with his brass knuckles, while the Elf archer shot the dagger from the hand of the hooligan threatening the alchemist.  The third scoundrel got away, but the party had earned the alchemist's trust enough for her to take "Drugs" as an apprentice.

Some guys wearing purple made some weird sign to Seigwart and left an ink stamp on his hand.

The session ended with an uneventful trip to the big city of Altdorf.  There the elves sought training and Seigwart and the dwarves ambushed a pair of purple-wearing knaves tailing them around town.  The knaves managed to give the party the slip, but they left a mysterious note.

Laser Rifles and Space Suits for WFRP

Well I did Phasers, so now some other equipment.

Laser Rifle(found in Session 7)

A laser rifle is a strength 5 missile weapon with very long range.  If a shot hits someone in the head, they must make a toughness test for each eye or be blinded in that eye.

To Hit is rolled with ballistics skill--no special skill is needed as long as the character has been instructed how to use the weapon.  Range as follows:

	Weapon	Short	Long	Extreme
Laser	Laser Rifle	64	128	600

Space Suit(found in Session 6)

A shiny metallic full-body suit with glass-like helmet. Allows the wearer to breath in the vacuum of space, under-water, in place with poison gas/spores.

Attacks to the wearer will usually damage the suit, ruining it.

New Tilia: Session 8

The battle to protect Mother-Brain's realm from the mutants, that was set-up in session 7, ended up taking the whole of session 8.  I printed out a map of the crater in advance to show a high-level view of the battlefield, and also pulled out my Flip-Mat for the zoomed-in view of the party's location.

The Roster:

• Sir Blathers A Lot- Elf Noble 
• "The Trapper"- Elf Gamekeeper who leaves a trail of traps and snares wherever he goes 
• Maria- Dwarf Mercenary 
• "Drugs" the Dwarf Pharmacist 
• Frizband the Fabulous- Wizard's Apprentice 
• Grim- Dwarf Pit Fighter

Initial Set-Up

The encounter started as the party looked across the crater(P) and saw two groups of mutants(M1,M2), each fighting a security robot.  The robots were in the process of disengaging, presumably to recharge their weapons.

Ambushed

The party decided to run and engage the closer mutants(M2), but as soon as they left the passage and entered the crater, they were ambushed.  A third group of mutants(4 mutants led by a Beast-Man) was on the edge of the crater above them and began firing short bows and spitting acid down on them.

Digging-In

After defeating the ambushers and chasing-off the survivers, the party decided to bunker-down inside the passage and wait for the invaders.  Maria and Grim took the front rank, with the elves, the wizard, and the pharmacist taking cover behind.

 Charge!

The two groups of mutants, as well as the surviving ambushers(M1,M2,M3) made a coordinated attack on the party.  They numbered 14 mutants and 2 beast-men.  Meanwhile, two other groups of mutants(M4, M5) showed up on the edge of the crater.

Divide and Conquer

Seeing the cramped melee going on in the main entrance to Mother Brain's realm, the rest of the mutants(M4, M5) disappeared into another cave to the South.  The party had seen this cave at the start of the encounter, but do not know where it leads.

In the end, the party's tactics paid-off.  At the end of the battle they had killed 3 Beastmen and 14 Mutants.  However, they did not manage to keep the invaders out of Mother-Brain's realm, since 2 Beastmen and 11 mutants entered the cave to the South.  Nevertheless, the party was elated, and they managed to restock their supply of arrows, as well as take from the mutants a good deal of Blue-Metal salvage and even a laser rifle, apparently John's from session 3.  Of course he won't be needing it any more, since the rocket launch blew his house to smithereens.

Overall it was an exciting session, although I was a bit disappointed that the battle took so long.  Ultimately, WFRP has a heavier rule-set than DnD, so things take a bit longer.

Alternate Wizardry Training for WFRP

So Frizband the Fabulous has enough XP to change careers from Wizard's Apprentice to Wizard.  The problem is that he doesn't know anyone in the Border Princes to train him.  His player asked me if I'm going to insist on him training by another wizard, so I came up with the following alternative:

The grimoire the players found in Session 4 is "The Trifold Codex of the Planar Flame", a treatise on a
particular type of Elemental Fire magic.  As a wizard's apprentice, you can't understand the spells inside, but you can possibly understand some of the theoretical discussions. For every 8 hours spent reading the book, make an INT-10% check. Success means you gained a greater theoretical understanding of Magic(can only succeed once).

You must now learn to apply that understanding by successfully performing the simplest ritual in the grimoire. For the ritual you need to gather solid manifestations of the 4 elements, and throw them together into a great fire, hot enough to melt them all. You must then perform the ritual, thus opening a temporary door to the Plane of Flame.

The material components you must gather in order to do this are:

• diamond(Earth)
• magnesium(Fire)
• ice(Water)
• gossamer(Air)

Once you have completed this ritual, you have attained a greater applied magical ability and you may spend the XP on becoming a wizard.

Of course, one of those cheeky players asked where they are going to be able to find a fire hot enough to melt a diamond.

I pointed out that in Session 2 they were explicitly warned to "Stay away from the Volcano".

Bwa ha ha!  Maybe he'll look for a Wizard to train him after all...

Phasers for WFRP

I owe my group some stats for the phasers they found last session, so here goes.

Phasers have a "battery" which can typically hold up to 10 charges before it needs to be recharged/replaced.  They also have a control which allows the user to select how many charges to use for a particular shot, typically with a maximum of 5.  Each charge used adds another +5 to damage.  So the damage per number of charges used is:

• 1 charge, the phaser does normal damage(1d6)
• 2 charges 1d6+5
• 3 charges 1d6+10
• 4 charges 1d6+15
• 5 charges 1d6+20

To Hit is rolled with ballistics skill--no special skill is needed as long as the character has been instructed how to use the weapon.  Range as follows:

	Weapon	Short	Long	Extreme
	Jimmy-Rigged Phaser	8	16	25
	Handheld Phaser	16	32	50
	Phaser with Electronic Sight	64	128	600

Personal Motivation in Mystery Games

One topic I've been thinking about a lot is how to run a mystery game.  There are two unique challenges that running mystery games present:

1. Player Agency- this is a problem of all adventures with a pre-determined plot, but it is especially acute with a mystery focussed adventure.  The DM wants to steer PC's towards a certain goal, but when the players want something else(as they often do) then he must step on the toes of Player Agency to do so.  When the DM drags PCs where their players don't want them to go, they get frustrated/bored with the game.
2. Player Skill- solving mysteries can be difficult, and additionally, what seems obvious to the DM may not be to the players.  So what does the DM do when the party is stuck, besides throw a tasteless Deus Ex Machina at them?

Motivation to the Rescue

When I ran Polish Resistance, I dealt with the Agency problem by making the mystery totally optional.  And it worked okay--some sessions the PCs focussed on solving the zombie problem, while others they spent running around the sandbox pursuing their own goals.  Dave Sokolowski, in the "Keeping" Section of the "Masks Companion"(thanks TotGaD for the link), takes a different approach.

"My motivation?  To stay away from tentacles."

The Story
Deciding the investigators’ introduction point is the most important decision relating to character generation the players will make—how do they know Jackson Elias? And how does his death suck them into the mysteries of the cult? While this is discussed elsewhere in this book, one point must be made here: the further your investigators get from their original relationship to Elias, the more difficult it will be to keep them engaged. All investigators need motivation, and Elias’ death is ultimately only one part of the puzzle.

The point is that players will be much more motivated to solve the mystery if their characters have a personal reason to.  As DM you should take the time to connect each PC to the mystery and as the investigation progresses, more work will be needed to keep them connected.  This doesn't force players to take the path you have laid for them, but in practice you will have less of a disconnect between the plans of the DM and the actions of the players.  And a smaller gap means that it will be easier for the DM to improvise when the players do choose a path that he hasn't prepared for.

Examples from Shadows Over Bogenhafen

As an exercise, I'm going to brainstorm a few examples of how a DM could connect PCs to the mystery in Shadows Over Bogenhafen as per Dave's recommendation.  I chose Shadows because I'm not the only player who has observed that it has this Agency Problem.

1. Murder of a Friend

Like "Masks", "Shadows" also pulls the PC's into the mystery with an NPC murder, that of an Dwarven drunkard that they meet at the festival.  So I would attempt to connect the PC's more meaningfully to that Dwarf, so that they are more motivated to investigate/avenge his death.  For our recent game that should be easy, given that 3 of 6 PCs were Dwarves.  Upon meeting the Dwarven drunk, it would turn out that he was a well-known Dwarven hero, fallen on hard times, whose service to his race is a well known tale.  Additionally, he was the personal friend of one of the PC's fathers and even saved his life once, etc.

2. Saving a Friend

One of our PC's was a noble, so in that case one could say that one of the lower-ranking cult members(all high-ranking personalities) is an old friend of his.  The cult member confides in him that he's gotten in over his head and needs help.  Then he disappears.

3. Getting Back What's Mine

Our party spent a long time getting the run-around from town officials, but never really encountered any harsher sanctions.  Why not have them fine the party so that the party will want to prove their innocence.  For instance:

The party has to check their weapons at the door upon entering the town hall.  When they compain to a clerk, he offers to file a report for them that the official story about the Goblin was false.  When they then go to collect their weapons, they are told that they are being fined 100GP for having filed a false report, and that their weapons are being kept as collateral against the payment of the fine.  The PC's may pay the fine or not, but either way they now have a motivation to solve the mystery and thus prove their innocence!

4. Let's Rob a Cult

Our party was more interested in making some cash than bringing down a cult.  So if I were to run this, I would slip some hints of riches to be gotten in bringing down the cult.  For instance, in the message about the new temple being ready, I might mentions something about the Jewels for the altar having been delivered or something like that.

New Tilia: Session 7

The Repair Robot

Session 7 started where Session 6 left-off: the party had taken a pod from a rusted, dilapidated room(I) and were bringing it to their "Safe Room"(L).  But in the main passage(M) they met a salvage robot bringing the parts of another broken robot somewhere.

They rode/followed the robot to a side passage(K) where it unloaded it's cargo.  Then they smashed it and picked up the blue-metal-based pieces of both robots.

They entered the side passage and met a repair robot.  It made an agreement with them: they should

Jimmy-Rigged Phaser

give it the two robots to repair, and it would make them a jimmy-rigged phaser.  In addition it gave them a blue metal breastplate that once belonged to the "First Masters" just to get them to leave.  It invited them to bring it more metal salvage from the surrounding badlands.  The party considered slaying the repair robot and raiding it's stores, but since they needed him to recharge the phaser in the future, they let him live for now.

They found a long, bulbous skull, presumably from the First Masters(D).  They also found a semi-submerged grate, from which could be heard a humming/pumping sound(C).

Salvage Workers

The party decided to return to the tank-robot(F) and turn it into "salvage" with their new phaser.  But on the way(E) they encountered two circular flying security robots, similar to the ones they have encountered before.  They downed one with the new phaser, showering the entire party in metal debris.  The other continued at high-speed to the East, ignoring the party.

They blasted the tank-like robot with a couple phaser shots while hiding behind the blue-metal door Grim has been lugging around.  It did manage to put a good sized hole in the door and in Grim's shield, before they dispatched it.

Mother Brain

Meet Mother Brain

Entering the room(G), a disembodied voice beckoned them to enter the passage to the South, and at last they met "Mother Brain".  The room is filled with blinking lights and strange technologies.  Mother Brain lamented the approach of her passing, 3000 years since the robots were freed from the First Masters.  The blundering party launched off the First Masters' rocket(last session), thus destroying the castle above.  Now a horde of mutants is fighting the security robots, trying to invade the Robots' realm.

Handheld Phaser

The party volunteered to fight the mutants if Mother Brain would arm them some more.  Mother Brain pointed out that even if they win, it will only be a temporary reprieve for the robots.  But she eventually consented and pointed them to two handheld phasers.  One of the Elves figured out how to recharge the Jimmy-
Rigged phaser there too.  The party headed East towards the subterranean lake(A).

Arriving at the passage(H) to the "lake", they saw that it is now almost completely dry, and the roof of the cavern(and house above it) have been blasted off completely.  As such, the party found themselves half way down a bowl-like crater(A), open to the sky, and the surrounding badlands.  Around the rim of the crater are visible the heads of a dozen mutants, skirmishing with two remaining security robots.  The hoots and jeers of more mutants, not visible to the party, can be heard from outside the crater.

New Tilia: Session 6

Thanks to Patrick Wetmore for the map(re-keyed for this adventure)

Ingress

Session 6 picked up where Session 5 left off: with Grim, the Dwarven Pitfighter in the Dungeon(J) and the rest of the party at the trapdoor above the subterranean lake(A) trying to get in.  They settled for emptying barrels from the cellar and lowering them down to the lake on a rope, together with the party members, and tying the barrels together while in the water so as not to get separated.

This went well for the first 4 party members, although the mysterious light-globe returned and began floating above party-members' heads on a stalk.  As Frizband the Fabulous was making his descent, one of the elves decided to poke the light globe with his spear.  He made his save so when the Giant Angler Fish snapped, it got his barrel instead of swallowing him whole.

Frizband suddenly saw the rest of the party and their chain of barrels take-off in a North-Westerly direction and he jumped down and managed to catch onto a barrel.  The party was dragged near a small subterranean beach(B) before the Angler released it's prey, leaving 5 of 6 party members floating with 3 barrels.  They managed to paddle back and rejoin Grim on the edge of the lake(J).

3...2...1...LIFTOFF!

The party headed North towards the source of the ankle-high water filling all the tube-like passages.  They explored the rooms in area D, found 4 medium-size crabs, a silver medallion with a sneaking 6-armed figure, an old fishing net, and a storage room full of flat, colored rocks for making mosaics.  

They dismantled a blue-metal security door(which one of the Dwarves decided to carry along for the remainder of the adventure) and then ended up in the star-shaped room(H) full of strange control panels.  They killed one of the small humanoid shaped robots there and chased-off the other and then managed to activate the controls, which resulted in a countdown, together with a vibration that turned into a rumbling and shaking coming from the East.  They followed a spiral passage(P), killed a rat-sized creature, collected it's green ichor in bottles, while the rumbling subsided.  Then they found the small robot that had fled and it agreed grudgingly to take them to Mother Brain.

Killer Robots

The robot took them to E(they noticed a smokey smell in the main passages that was not there before) and then ordered a large, intimidating robot to kill the intruders.  The party retreated through the door, which is too small for the large robot to fit through, and it missed a phaser-shot one of the elves.  Now these phasers can use 1, 2, 3, or 4 charges, so their nastiness varies.

The party decided to trace the water to it's source, but then encountered 3 small hovering disk robots with phasers(F).  The party took cover behind the security door and eventually destroyed one disk and chased-off the other two.  However, Maria took a maximum-strength phaser blast which proved fatal validating the age old axiom "Don't bring an axe to a phaser fight."  A fate-point was used and it was decided that she avoided the blast but knocked her head hard and fell unconscious.

Recouperation

The party found the source of the waters(G) and plugged-up one of the 8 pipes in the floor with the ruin of the disk robot.  They then locked themselves in a secluded room(H) for a full day, under the care of "Drugs" to heal and recuperate, eating crabs when they were hungy.  Upon leaving they found 3 metallic suits with glass helmets.  Two of the dwarves squeezed into one, standing upon one another's shoulders, while Frizband and one of the elves put on the other two.  They found they could breathe despite the suit being sealed.

The party made their way to some sealed rooms, rusty and full of organic muck(I).  They found some sort of organic pod in the muck of the ceiling and decided to take it back to their safe-room(H) to crack it open.  On the way there, they met a hovering metal slab carrying the battered remains of a robot.  The party members recognized it as the remains of the Hooked Lifter they had destroyed last session.

We decided to end the session there.