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Oh, you really want to open up that can of worms?
I'm no francophone, so I don't know exactly what Citizen Piaf is singing, but one version runs so:
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
aristocrats to the lamp-post
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
the aristocrats, we'll hang them!
If we don't hang them
We'll break them
If we don't break them
We'll burn them
Ah! It'll be fine, It'll be fine, It'll be fine
But, in other news, I have been formulating the beginning of my Galtan Gulag campaign, but I'm not ready yet to bother Paizonians with questions.
From my half-remembered school French I'd say a better translation of "Ça ira" would be "It'll work."
Also - adding the cedilla to the c is way too complicated even when you don't have to remember weird numerical codes to do it.
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Yeah, I'm no polyglot. I stole that translation off wikipedia.
Speaking of various translations, me and my comrades used to sing The Internationale thusly:
Arise, ye prisoners of starvation
Arise, ye wretched of the earth
For justice thunders condemnation
A better world's in birth
No more tradition's chains shall bind us
Arise, ye slaves, no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundation
We have been naught, we shall be all!
'Tis the final conflict,
Let each stand where he may
The international soviet shall be the human race
[Raise left fist]
So, comrades, come rally
And the final fight we'll face (Duh duh de-duh!)
The international soviet will be the human race
The Billy Bragg version makes me want to puke.
Vive le Galt!
SPOILERS!!!
So, if there is any chance that you may be playing in my game, get out!!!
So, I've spent the morning looking at blueprints for Auschwitz and Sokoloski and it hasn't been much fun at all.
BUT:
I've been brainstorming things to steal (mostly from movies). Here's what I've got so far. Please help me out:
Prison Gangs:
Savage Nation--a collection of thugs who prey on other prisoners like in the Civil War film Andersonville
Dwarves--Easy enough; probably working on a Great Escape tunnel system
Evil Cult--Followers of Mestama the Hag Demoness; they stay secret though
Conspiracy of Equals--led by Doodlebug Anklebiter
Scarzni
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Guards and Shiznit:
The camp commandant is making money out of convict labor like in The Shawshank Redemption
One of the camp captains is running pit fights
The camp chaplin, Father Ludovico, is putting the finishing touches on a technique to rehabilitate violent offenders through psychotropic drugs and Beethoven
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Other things to be worked in:
Bridge on the River Kwai sweatbox
Cool Hand Luke "Boy, what's your dirt doing in my hole?"
Jailhouse lawyer
Snitches
Sadistic lesbian kapo (totally un-pc, but a "women in prison" staple, gotta have it)
Torture--Darkness at Noon, 1984, etc., etc.
Juliet from Lost bringing people sandwiches
The Squirrel-Master from Half Baked
The Man in the Iron Mask
I'm thinking of making the camp as much of a sandbox as the camp could possibly be, with different factions planning escape, or murder and then letting the players decide who they want to hang out with until I decide it is time to overthrow the government.
So far, I've got one PC, an elf magus who's been in prison ever since Hosseter got executed 35 years ago who's smuggling a spellbook up his ass.
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Well, that's one way to keep other wizards from wanting to steal your spellbook.
I also pity the Loremaster who does Legend Lore on that book.
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Lots of good ideas here.
Though the gulag is a later soviet addition to revolutionary tactics. At the time of the French revolution, there were classic sordic prisons. And more permanent solutions, like the Guillotine, which was considered by some a "humaner improvement".
Have you considered looking into Cayenne, Les Baumettes, or rereading the first chapters of "Le Comte de Monte-Christo" as research subject ? Also, La Bastille.
Also, the infamous prison-galleys (won't work in Galt as ts is landlocked, but still).
The whole war in the Vendée tends to get overlooked as well. Some real nasty stuff going on there.
Thank you for more stuff.
There's definitely going to be a Final Blade at the camp, more to control problem players than problem characters.
I've decided to base it on the camp from The Great Escape because I don't think they let prisoners wander around in the Bastille and also because you can find tons of pictures and blueprints.
(There was an awesome interactive map of the tunnel on a site that I saw yesterday, but I don't remember where it was.)
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You need to look up Port Arthur in Tasmania and Alexander Pierce and his is a song about Alexander's exploits Weddings Parties Anything - A Tale They Won't Believe .
Having an unknown cannibal in the party as they escape and he is the only one with an axe could be terrifying and fun.
As they start to run out of food the party could split up to look for food and Alex coul come back with some pork but one of the NPCs who escaped with the party fails to return.
Norfolk island was also a nasty place to end up.
It's too early in the morning to be rocking out yet here (grumpy housemates), but I am already intrigued...
And I notice it has other pertinent history, you cheeky monkey.
It also inspired me, stream-of-consciousness style, to remember the machine in Kafka's "In the Penal Colony."
Thanks!
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A new revolution in Galt could easily make things go from bad to worse.
Instead of France, you could wind-up with Somalia (minus the lucrative pirate trade). Galt ends up being lead by dozens of warlords and the place becomes a living hell for its citizens.
On the other hand, that sounds just nifty for an RPG setting. :P
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"Yes, yes, kill him. In fact, kill him in such an inhumane manner that the throngs of fired militiamen from Cheliax and Andoran might place merit in the political upheaval ever-present and bring their tender...hearted knights (at least, Andoran) and plump, waddling horses across the sacred Sellen wherein the fields will be stained with the meat of the politically righteous...
And we, the Grey Gardeners of Galt will be there to instill Order as that pesky human quality intervenes to shift naturally the structure of anarchy to one of intolerable tyranny or democracy...
And the Orderkeepers you do not see will clean the fields of the unrighteous dead, and fat will be the hidden chambers beneath Litran, but fat they will not remain when the grey veils and mittens are removed and the feast begins...
My apologies. I seem to have gone into quite the fantastical rant there, citizen. I have been spending much time reading old Galtan prose, especially The Charnel God and The Burrows Beneath The Old Yard. Now move along, citizen, there is much Revolution to sustain, else the plump nobility sink their claws into an altogether perfect Eden of constant carnality.
Meep.
Reactionary stooge!
Vive le Revolution in permanence!
[Motions for the Gray Gardenenrs to lead Citizen X away]
Well, it's getting close to the day.
So far, our valiant party consists of:
an elf magus (see above)
a half-orc demagogue (bard archetype)
a halfing rogue
and either a halfling monk or a necromancer
In addition to that, I've got a pool of between 2 and 4 invited guests who haven't responded...I have no idea what I'm going to do if all 8 people want to play--maybe two parties in different parts of the concentration camp?!? The mind boggles!!
In the meantime, am furiously adapting Forced March rules to being worked to death.
Vive le Galt!
Party:
Ausk Daggertongue, Half-orc demagogue, Campaign Trait: Communist Orator; in prison for being a g~~!#&n pinko;
Dalcasta Took, Halfling sorcerer, Campaign Trait: Poor Little Rich Girl; in prison for being a bloody aristo;
Kormackr Ogdubbin (or something I don't remember), Dwarf cleric, Campaign Trait: Eco-Terrorist; in prison for waging a one-dwarf war against mountaintop leveling;
Luke Ivorhwesta, Elf magus, Campaign Trait: Samizdat; in prison for 35 years! (he has his spellbook up his ass);
Pieter Smith, Human fighter, Campaign Trait: Waterfront Thug; in prison for assault and murder;
Samuel "Sheogorath" Mertzenberger, Elf necromancer, Campaign Trait: Friend of the Dead; in prison for handing out leaflets for undead rights;
Vermelio, Gnome druid, Campaign Trait: Fey Liberation Front; in prison for liberating test fairies;
Unnamed halfling rogue, who doesn't have a campaign trait because the guy didn't show up; in prison for trying to assassinate a gendarme who was mean to his family.
Vive le Galt!
Looks like a perfect mess! Great guns for RP!
You might also waddle through the Spanish Civil War for fodder, just finished 'They shall not pass' from Osprey press about the British battalion that fought at Jarama and their subsequent existence. Amusing and apropos with the disillusionment with the revolution by the soldiers and subsequent treatment of the fighters by the leadership of the party.
Personally, a AP for Galt would have to be two sided, at least. The valiant freedom fighter that war on the counterrevolutionary forces on one side and the protectors of the old ways that war upon the unthinking mob that destroys anything it cannot understand.
In short, a great place to RP!
Well, I wanted to write this up campaign log-style, but it's already been most of a week, so:
Five characters (Dalcasta, Pieter, Luke, Sheogorath, Kormackr) started out in a transport wagon. In the delousing center, Kormackr refused to let them shave his beard. He grabbed a sword from one of the guards and attempted to fight his way free (Luke, who's been in prison for 35 years, hilariously counselled the rest of the party not to get involved). The guards beat the shiznit out of him. I should have had Kormackr executed on the Scalpel, but I am a soft-hearted DM and it had only been, like, 10 minutes of game time and couldn't bring myself to do it.
Instead, they got welcomed to Camp Vyshinsky by Commandant Bergeron. He explained how they had to work to earn chits in order to purchase supplies at the canteen and laid down the other camp rules. Then he introduced Father Ludovico, the prison chaplin of Abadar.
Then he asked for a prisoner to lead them to Cell Block 4. A halfling member of the Savage Nation prison gang named Bert volunteered, but the PCs were suspicious of him, which I had anticipated, so I had another Savage Nation member (a half-elf with a higher Charisma, named Cutty) there to warn them about Bert, so that he could lead them into the Savage Nation ambush, which he did.
There were 2 1st-level warriors for each PC, plus the two NPCs named above, but Dalcasta Took kicked their ass with hypnotism. I didn't foresee this at all, so, after they gathered the fallen dudes' chits, they ran into one of the camp teamsters, Alonso Quijano, and his donkey, who knew Dalcasta's family from outside of the camp. He gave them a ride to Cell Block 4.
Alonso explained to the party that they were being assigned to work on a road-construction crew through the middle of nowhere. He also warned them that there were a bunch of evil fairies out there who liked to enlarge insects and have them attack prisoners.
Sheogorath's player easily saw the flaws in this plan and asked Alonso why they were building a road into the middle of nowhere. I hadn't really thought about that (I'm never going to win RPG Superstar), but, thankfully, the [bubble bubble bubble] had been flowing and I improv-ed an awesome bit (if I may toot my own horn) where Alonso denounced the government as a bunch of liberal Keynsians who were investing in useless infrastructure and paying the rabble to count paving stones. He then toasted the old king of Galt, which led to a political argument with Luke, who was an old comrade of Hosseter's. Sheogorath tried to defuse the situation by advocating for using undead to build useless infrastructure, but that just made Alonso even more angry and he denounced the party as a bunch of Bolsheviks and necrophiliacs. He then told Dalcasta if she ever needed his help, he'd be around and left in a huff.
They also met their bunkmates, a halfling couple named Tammi and Dutch, a Vudrani monk named Panjeer and two other dudes named Martin and Dellas.
The party didn't realize that since they already had chits from Savage Nation, they didn't need to go to work, so they went to the canteen the next morning and met Rose, the chain-smoking Scarzni who makes chicken salad sandwiches. She tried to get them to purchase styrofoam bottles of water. She said that they should drink the water and then litter the styrofoam all over the worksite, as everyone knows that styrofoam has anti-fairy properties. This upset Kormackr, who is in prison for eco-terrorism.
They were lining up to go to work and saw Ilsa, the Harem Keeper of the Gray Gardeners, and I was prepared to work the sadistic lesbian kapo angle, but then, suddenly, the party realized that they, in fact, didn't have to go to work. So they just hung around the camp, meeting more prisoners and learning about The Squirrel Master, the Savage Nation gang leader in Cell Block 4 who was illegally charging a toll for prisoners to pass into the rest of the camp.
At this point, I was getting frustrated trying to improv all of this stuff (players never do what you expect them to), so when Sheogorath noticed that Tammi was tending to a herb garden and started asking her about it, she told him that anyone could sign up for a community garden plot over at the rec center. So, he went there, and promptly got ambushed amidst the pool tables and video games by Cutty and other Savage Nation members. Shay got his ass kicked, but not before he had set the place on fire with burning hands. The rest of the party came to his aid, Dalcasta used hypnotism again, but then the camp guards showed up and dragged an unconscious Shay away to the hospital.
He woke up shackled to a gurney, frightened because he had heard unsettling rumors that Father Ludovico was running experiments on prisoners and that children's corpses had been seen with grafted lobster hands. Anyway, he nat 20ed his Escape Artist roll, ransacked the doctor's office for medical supplies and scalpels, heard approaching footsteps, put all the stuff in a pillow case and hung it out the window. Father Ludovico came in, tended to him, didn't graft on lobster hands, and let him go. Later, Dalcasta persuaded Alonso to help her retrieve the medical supplies, and now the party is rich.
I don't remember where it happened in the game, but at one point, Pieter and Kormackr did go out to work on the road (they were running low on chits) and, of course, their chain gang got attacked by giant ants. It turns out the rules for breaking manacles are wicked hard, but they were able to kill the giant ants and even saved the life of Werner, the prison guard, who later rewarded them with chocolate and cigarettes.
I'm probably leaving some things out, but at the end of the game, the party had amassed a small treasure in shivs, cigarettes, chocolate and chits, and had come up with a plan to unite all of the other prisoners in Cell Block 4 against the Squirrel Master.
More to come.
Well, I wanted to write this up campaign log-style, but it's already been most of a week, so:
Maybe players should do so?
Maybe, but they won't. I don't think any of them visit Paizo.com. Certainly not everyday, like me. I guess they have lives or something...
Btw, Alonso the Reactionary Teamster Cavalier has quickly become my favorite character. I certainly hope he survives until they get out of the camp. Mostly so I can have them run into Sancho Panza somewhere down the road, as a Stalinist apparatchik...
It sounds super cool. I wish it was a PbP.
Thank you!
We're not playing this weekend, hopefully next, but I will try to write it up better and with it fresher in my mind next time.
Well, Comrade Gruumash., although I am still sore at you from all of that demeaning stuff you made me do in the packie, as a fellow member of the New England Paizonian Guild, you can play in the campaign.
Or at least show up for a game once. Real easy to introduce new characters in a concentration camp!
Wheeeeeeee
{Runs through thread without pants, waving a blazing torch in one hand and giant "trees" in the other}
"I'm a revolution!"
So, on the third morning of the party's stay in Camp Vyshinsky, it was raining. Luke was late to work (the chain-smoking chicken salad lady has been renamed Louise after Luke's player's boss, to further irk Luke's player) and when Shay tried to start Diplomatizing the other prisoners in the canteen, he crit failed twice in a row on his Diplomacy checks (!!!) and was loudly denounced by Alonzo the Reactionary Teamster as a pervert and a consorter with the dead. So, the party decided that today was going to be a bad day, and decided to stay inside. It turns out, they have quite a few chits.
Oh, I forgot to mention that my irl Buddhist monk friend made up with my alcoholic anarcho-syndicalist friend (long story, never mind) and he showed up with no advance word 15 minutes before the game. I assigned him Brother Panjeer, the already existing Vudrani monk NPC. Serendipity, I guess.
Anyway, there was long, boring role-play stuff: Shay helped Tammi the Matronly Halfling NPC deliver meals on wheels to the Widows and Orphans (TM) in the next cabin; they couldn't sign up for a garden plot because the rec center was closed due to fire; Luke set up a meeting with Louise's Scarzni family, and, in particular, her grandmother, Constantina; Alonzo arrived in an impeccable suit and offered to take Dalscata around the camp in his wagon; while driving around with her, he defended her honor from Savage Nation thugs, took her to a cafe where she could take a shower and change into a blue dress with gloves, and take tea; she plumbed him for info and learned a dark secret!
Anyway, other shiznit probably happened that I can't remember, but Cormac, Panjeer and Piter got bored and decided they would try to see if they could get through the Squirrel Master's gate and into General Population. They did but [grumble grumble] it was because they successfully irl bluffed the (inebriated) Dungeon Master, but Cutty and Bert yelled curses at them once they realized they'd been tricked.
They didn't accomplish much out in GP, though. Their attempts to successfully contact the dwarves were foiled because a) the dwarves would refuse to speak with the beardless Cormac and b) Piter's character had refused to take advantage of the rain and shower and stank to high heavens--the dwarves called him "Stinky" and passed out when he came too close.
So, then they had to get back into Cell Block 4, through the Squirrel Master's gate, and this time they had pissed off the DM! So, Brother Panjeer rolled some awesome Acrobatics and Stealth rolls, but then totally blew his last Stealth roll. The party moaned in dread as I described the squawking, chittering, red squirrel that was making a terrible racket and pointing at Panjeer! Piter and Cormac rushed Bert and Cutty and a grand melee broke out between the Savage Nation thugs and half of the party. The half of the party that was still in Cell Block 4 (of course) just happened to be lingering in the vicinity of the gate and showed up in a few rounds, but even that was hardly enough when the Squirrel Master arrived. There was an epic spell battle, the Squirrel Master versus Dalscata, Piter and Cormac kicked the crap out Cutty and Bert and Brother Panjeer grappled manfully with the red squirrel. Luke, looking for loot, was able to dodge past the Squirrel Master and get into his cabin/nest, where he found a motherf#!~ing dire badger!! Thankfully, none of the players questioned why the druid got 2 animal companions...
Anyway, it was a terrible fight, but the party kicked everybody's ass and successfully drove the dire badger into it's nest when the guards showed up.
Some more roleplaying stuff about Piter trying to take a shower in peace (he ended up getting spied upon by a red-headed, pig-tailed girl who tee hee!ed appropriately) and they made their plans and went to bed.
Three hours later, Colonel Klink arrived with a squad of guards and got everybody out of bed. He singled out Piter, Cormac, Luke and Panjeer, had hoods placed over their heads, and had them taken out of the cabin. They got into a wagon for travelled for quite a while before the wagon stopped. They could hear roars and terrible sounds and they were led through some tunnels and into an antechamber. There, it was revealed by Colonel Klink that they had been selected to fight in gladiatorial games for a smart set of decadent Galtan folk, corrupt prison officials, and, horror!, Savage himself, leader of the Savage Nation prison gang, a hulking, scarred, Frankenstein-looking 4th-level half-orc barbarian (who is very closely modelled on this crazy dude we all know named Gary Savage).
Anyway, Panjeer told Colonel Klink that he was morally opposed to pit fights, and Colonel Klink beat him unconscious. Then Luke went out into the ring and there he faced (dark secret revealed!!) Alonzo the Reactionary Teamster who pummelled Luke with his mastery of Marquess of Queensbury style boxing. Then Piter faced Brother Wu-Tang, a Tien halfling monk who almost defeated Piter with his stunning ball punch, but Piter rallied late and vanquished his foe with a haymaker that knocked the little friar into next week. Then, finally, beardless Cormac found himself face to face against Tregar the Foamer, a dwarf barbarian who couldn't control his laughter when they met. Cormac became enraged and bull rushed Tregar while the latter was bent over, catching his breath. A terrible dwarf fight then broke out, with eye gouging, and beard-pulling (well, Cormac didn't have a beard) and Cormac got his nose bitten off!! But Cormac, through his superior knowledge of professional wrestling moves, finally ended the combat by piledriving Tregar into the ground repeatedly. You'll be happy to hear that an on-hand cleric was able to reattach Cormac's nose.
Well, the crowd, and Colonel Klink, were well pleased with the party. They were showered with chits and cigarettes and Colonel Klink even arranged for them to have female companionship. The female dwarf had a thicker beard than Cormac, which is apparently a big libido suppressant for dwarves, and Piter got the little red-headed girl who again tee hee!-ed at him, making Piter flee in terror.
When the next day finally came, it was learned that Savage Nation had pulled out of Cell Block 4 entirely. The Widows and Orphans (TM) pledged their allegiance to the party, and they gained some followers in one of the other cabins (in particular, three young men named Vlad, Dimir and Nabokov). The Scarzni in the Block were still a little stand-offish and mentioned the problems they were having with Ilsa, the Harem Keeper of the Gray Gardeners.
The party went and examined the Squirrel Master's cabin but didn't find much, although they did find a 100 gp golden ring in a bunch of giant rodent poop.
Here ends Game Session #2 of Comrade Anklebiter's Fun-Timey Reeducantion Through Labor Supercenter Campaign
You need to watch Prisoner: Cell Block H you can find episodes on YouTube.
I feel terrible. Cormac's name is supposed to be spelled "Kormackr" (with a second, silent "r").
My apologies, Comrade Kormackr.
As a french student in history, more particulary on the end of the monarchy, Revolution and all this staff, it'll be a great idea to make an AP in Galt.
I've got an idea of a Bad NPC guy Alchimist, who will be inspired by the Doctor Guillotin, the guy who invented the final blade, or the guillotine in french. And yes, he was a doctor... Who tried to pick up some corpse who weren't destroyed to see what's was inside...
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I've got an idea of a Bad NPC guy Alchimist, who will be inspired by the Doctor Guillotin, the guy who invented the final blade, or the guillotine in french. And yes, he was a doctor... Who tried to pick up some corpse who weren't destroyed to see what's was inside...
For more Guillotine trivia, Doctor Guillotin invented it as a means of cleaner and more humane execution because beheadings with the axe tended to be messy gory things when the axe was dulled (for example with many executions in a row) or the executioner's hand was not as strong as usual.
He showed his invention to the king (Louis XVI) a few years before the Revolution. The king was a big fan of engineering and all things mechanical. He was very interested in this contraption and even improved on it. The blade of Doctor Guillotin's invention was crescent shaped, like that of the executioner's blade. Louis XVI proposed that a triangular blade would be more efficient at cutting the neck quickly.
A few years later, both Louis XVI and Doctor Guillotin had the opportunity to test their common invention first hand (or rather first head).
Yes, those were good times...
Vive le Galt!
So, Comrade Anklebiter's Fun-Timey Reeducation Through Labor Supercenter Campaign, Pt. III
Kind of an uninspired session, I fear:
The players spent a good three hours or so role-playing through three days of bringing Cell Block 4 together. Suffice to say, it was rather boring, and ended with the party serving Stone Soup to all of their fellow Cell Blockees and everybody uniting in feel-good cumbayahism. It didn't last long, but first:
Boring list of stuff they accomplished: bought paper from the Scarzni, learned their dark secret (their womenfolk are being terrorized by Ilsa, start of optional quest); Dalscata got a job working with Alonzo, picked up general rumors about Camp; Kormackr fretted about his beard, drank a lot from his holy symbol and helped Shay clean out the Squirrel Master's filthy hut; inside, they found a tunnel dug by the dire badger, that appears to lead out of camp; Piter was taken to a deluxe training facility by Colonel Klink to make him the very best pit fighter ever; Camp Guard Werner approached Shay secretly and asked if he could teach him magic; maybe other stuff.
Anyway, they were so successful at uniting the Cell Block into a self-sufficient (well, thereabouts) anarcho-syndicalist commune, that nobody bothered showing up to work for Ilsa out on the chain-gang. In fact, one day, it was only Shay, Piter and Panjeer, and the guard was Werner, so they didn't do any work, just sat around reading and practicing hand gestures.
So, Ilsa put the kibosh on that and locked the Gate to General Population and said that now everybody had to go out and work on the road because she was behind on her weekly quotas. So the party went out to work, and they got attacked by giant scorpions. During the melee, Luke went to attack one of the guards, but luckily for the party the scorpion knocked him unconscious, and the other guard was Werner, who decided to overlook this gross violation of Camp rules.
[So, here's a weird thing. After two sessions, I learned from players, that they don't want to ever leave the concentration camp. They don't want to escape, they want to take it over, and turn it into their base of operations from which to build a mercenary legion. I know, I know, they're only 2nd level, but they dream big. Anyway, it's led to a lot of sloppy metagaming on my part, I'm afraid. Knowing that the party doesn't want to leave means I don't have to worry about them trying to escape, which means I can run with clearly implausible shiznit like a guard handing over an unconscious comrade's repeating light crossbow to a prisoner. Otoh, Assault on Precinct 13.]
So, then they fought the giant scorpion, without armor or many real weapons, and they got bruised badly. Wener organized the survivors of the scorpion attack and herded them to where the next group of chain gangees were working and found them beseiged by two giant scorpions and three mites! A mighty melee broke out, with much use of prestidigitation (a spell which I don't understand, I discovered, and probably used it wrong many times during the fight) and many PCs were dropped (not to mention NPCs), but finally, after snatching up the weapons of dead guards and firing off almost all of their spells, they finally slew the giant arachnids, killed one of the mites, and drove the other two off. They were too late, however, to save the life of the poor girl Analisa, who had been savaged and decapitated by the murderous mites. :(
Anyway, this larger group of survivors then went to regroup with the other survivors--turns out that they, too, have been attacked by giant insects and evil fey--only to discover the mites had managed to kidnap two people--Dutch (halfling NPC, Tammi's husband, vital to the party) and Ilsa!
By this time, the party has resuscitated one of the guards, Goodwin, and they somehow convinced Werner and Goodwin that this was the best plan: Goodwin would escort all of the other prisoners back to Camp Vyshinsky while the party, armed from the dead guards' equipment, and escorted by Werner, will follow the mites' trail and rescue Ilsa and Dutch. I think, though, that they are, instead, planning on murdering Ilsa. I don't think, however, that they are planning on escaping.
I keep reading Werner instead of Wener...
Recap
It sounds like your players want to be, I don't know, Kapos or something. You should turn it into a social game with a lot of alignment issues, I guess? (That's the sort of junk I live for.)
I keep reading Werner instead of Wener...
So you don't want to be guarded by the former lead singer of Sleeper?
Fair enough.
For those keeping track at home, Werner the Pliant Prison Guard was stolen from The Great Escape.
As for alignment issues, so far they have had to decide whether they were going to accept the assistance of pedophiles (yup) and whether they were going save the Sadistic Sexually-Harrassing Lesbian Corrections Officer, or kill her (jury's still out).
As for Dalscata (my bad--not Dalcasta) Took's family associations: she's a fey-touched sorcerer and chose the family name in hommage to Bilbo's fairy ancestress. But, I've been thinking of some devious shiznit for later and
Alternate Galt History Spoiler--Players Stay Out!!
Anyway, hopefully, one day, Dalscata's aristocratic roots and her claim to the throne will tear the party apart.
Comrade Anklebiter's Fun-Timey Reeducation Through Labor Supercenter Campaign, Pt. IV
Last weekend's game was all action, all the time. None of that wussy roleplaying our feelings bullcrap, un-uh, not this time.
(And here I must thank Comrade Tim Hitchock, whose The Old Sycamore, Part Four of Kingmaker 1: Stolen Lands, I ripped off for this exciting game session. I dropped all the awesome kobold stuff, alas, but the mite-infested giant tree was the shiznit. Bravo!)
Kormackr made all his Survival roles, so he was able to follow the mite-and-giant scorpion trail, saw where the false trail was laid and thereby avoided the mite-and-giant praying mantis ambush, and found the Old Sycamore Tree, from which all the spellcasters could detect but not identify a great spiritual power emanating from the tree.
Like all unscrupulous DMs, I just took all the monsters from the avoided mite-and-giant praying mantis ambush and moved them over to be in between a wall of boulders and the Old Tree. Sheogorath, elven necromancer, was sneaking up ahead, but he wasn't that sneaky, was spotted by mites and game on, m$$%+$*~!@~&!
The details are a blur, but the jist is: my players suck and refuse to learn even the most basic tactical or strategic thinking. This was first exhibited when Pieter Smith, human fighter, armed in meager studded leather armor scavenged from a dead guard and with a Dexterity of 10, charged the giant praying mantis. Yes, he hit and did some decent damage, but then the giant praying mantis took a full-round attack, dropped him to -7 hp and bit off the lower half of his left arm.
Nevertheless, the party won and revived Pieter (who didn't seem terribly put out at the loss of one of his limbs) and rushed down the root-strewn passage ways of the mite nest.
To sum up quickly, the party slew a dozen or so mites, three giant centipedes, a giant whiptail centipede, the mite leader, and a giant f~%*ing tick. There was much more poor tactical judgements, dropping of party members, and a wide array of Str and Dex drainage. Pieter even caught lyme's disease, but he doesn't know it yet.
Yada, yada, yada, like in the AP, EXCEPT, the kobold statue was replaced by a statue of the hag demoness, Mestama (possible plot point?) and the map of the Stolen Lands was replaced by a very detailed map of the environs of Camp Vyshinsky in relation to both the Fog Peaks and the Boarwood, with an interesting and highly technical layout for the construction of a highway printed by a mysterious cartel known by the suspicious acronym LUMBCO (plot point?).
Oh yeah and, instead of the kobold prisoner, they found Dutch and Ilsa. I am very sad to report that Sheogorath, elven necromancer, and former victim of Ilsa's perverted lusts, murdered Ilsa in cold blood by strangling her to death with her own +1 whip while the other party members were out of the room.
It was a very chilling moment. Shay's player has never commit an evil act in his entire D&D playing experience, but I guess he figured, what the hell, I'm a necromancer, why not? Either way, a hush fell over the table as Ilsa's life was squeezed out of her pretty white neck. On the plus side, though, killing Ilsa will give the party a +10 to their Diplomacy rolls with all of the Sczarni in the Camp and there are quite a few, so, it was probably the smart thing to do. But at what cost to his immortal soul?
Anyway, they were on the way out, and there was time left for another fight, so I threw at them the rest of the mites and giant scorpions. This was a pretty epic battle and the party, for once, had a plan. They knew the mites and the scorps were waiting outside the root tunnel, so they formed ranks: tanks, archers, Dalscata with a scroll they found in the Squirrel Master's man-cave. It was a good plan, but instantly went to shiznit when one of the firepower (the crossbow-wielding former prisoner of the mites, Dutch) failed his Climb roll, knocked the other archer off as well (but not Dalscata), fell 30 feet and broke his neck.
Oh shiznit. The party, its glorious plan ruined by a terrible NPC skill check, reverted back to norm and made many bad decisions. One of the few good ones was when Dalscata read the Squirrel Master's scroll of entangle which was very powerful with Old Sycamore roots shooting up out of the ground all over the frickin' place!! and very annoying indeed. (I hate entangle. It drags out combat so much, I want to DM fiat it away!) One of the more typical bad ones was when Luke Ivorhwesta, elven magus, decided that even though rushing a giant bug with multiple attacks hadn't been particularly effective in the past, he would try it again.
Well, kiddies, Luke Ivorhwesta is dead now, torn to pieces by a giant scorpion. Do you get it yet, my players? Do you? Galt isn't a land of jokes about concentration camps and politically incorrect lesbian cliches, it's a land of death and doom for the unwary and particularly for those who refuse to stop charging monsters with multiple attacks that you obviously can't defeat in one hit.
[Dm-wise, the death of Luke is tragic because he was one of the main architects of the take over the camp and turn it into the future homebase of a mercenary company plan. If he makes a new character with a new vision, the party will go in an entirely different way, and then I might have to start worrying about them trying to escape again. Shiznit. I should have killed someone else...]
And to end on two entirely different random points:
1) Not once during the whole adventure, did a single party member fall victim to the mites' doom attack. It was very annoying.
2) Pieter Smith's player performed his first unprompted act of actual roleplaying when he decorated the grave of Luke Ivorhwesta with the flowers that he had won in the pit fight. I'm not really sure why he brought the flowers to the chain gang, but I didn't want to discourage his budding roleplaying efforts and rewarded him with an extra 100 xp.
It was a pretty good game, I think. I have very little idea what I'm going to do next...
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Comrade Anklebiter's Fun-Timey Reeducation Through Labor Supercenter Campaign, Pt. IV
Nevertheless, the party won and revived Pieter (who didn't seem terribly put out at the loss of one of his limbs)
Yeah, you definitely need a sanity/trauma mechanic . . .
It was a very chilling moment.
. . . Or maybe you don't.
Y'know Doodlebug, once upon a time I was thinking about making an adventure based on Chicken Run (Yes, the claymation movie), but it sounds like you've outdone me before I ever got there.
Thank you, Lord Dice.
[Blushes]
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It was a pretty good game, I think. I have very little idea what I'm going to do next...
"I have never had a plan of operations."
~Napoleon (Vive Le Empire Galtaise!)
Spoilered for spoilered sake: ** spoiler omitted **
You know, if we planned far enough ahead (and we've got the rest of our lives--or at least, the rest of the PC's lives) to arrange a guest appearance.
I'm thinking, though, that you'd make a good Burgomeister.
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[singing] It's a difficult responsibility
That you accept from the number one lawmaker, me
Let it known across the land from sea to sea
There'll be no more hemp growers to the king! [/singing]
{squints suspiciously at BM} Das ist a mighty fancy song du bist singing there, Mein Herr. So fancy, that it sounds like it might hab come right outta... eine buche!. {ignites flamethrower in anticipation}