Idea!

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So I came up with a campaign idea for Five Parsecs From Home.

Mando’s Mission.

With just a crew (clan) of 2, I’ll have the Mandalorian go after Imperial warlords in the Outer Rim.

Though technically I can have Zeb along for missions.

Colonel Ward and the New Republic will be his patron, giving him missions.  I’m hoping Skullforge Studios will create some new character minis from the movie.

And of course I’ll use my Star Wars Legion miniatures, though I did just print up another Zeb, I’ll paint him like he is in the movie.

Stand by!

Guards! Guards!

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Yet another game joins the ranks of the Soon to be Played™

1-4 player skirmish game where you control a Guard captain and his squad, while attempting to keep the peace in a medieval town.

Ahead of receiving the game from overseas (England) I’ve ordered an extra set of guards from the miniatures manufacturer, Wargames Atlantic, so I can assemble and paint up some guards.

Some of the paint schemes I’ve seen have inspired me to simply use team colors from various English football (soccer) squads, like there’s a blue/white scheme that can represent Tottenham, or gold/black for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

And there’s like 20+ civilian miniatures in the game who can be suspects for crimes from the plot cards played during a scenario.

Stand by!

This Is The Way

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“I swear on my name and the names of the ancestors… That I shall walk the Way of the Mand’alor… And the words of the Creed shall be forever forged in my heart. This is the Way.“

The real reason I’m getting back into Star Wars Legion?

Along with choosing from 4 clans (Clan Wren, Clan Kryze, Deathwatch/Super Commandos, Children of the Watch) there’s an option where you can create YOUR OWN CLAN.

Clan Pepsi and the Pepsimandalorians will live!

Stand by!

Legion

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As I printed up a squad of Security Troops from “Maul: Shadow Lord” (or ‘Maul Cops’ as I call them), I thought about what it would cost to dive back into Star Wars Legion, now in it’s 2.0 format.

I’ve been very reluctant to do this since I have a smaller area to play in my apartment, along with the cost of a new army or armies.

After reviewing a couple of videos on YouTube, I discovered that it wouldn’t cost me anything except color printer ink.

I was afraid that I’d have to grab a new Starter Box, but since I have all of my Legion miniatures (Rebellion and Empire) in a few boxes/cases, the only things missing were the unit/command cards and the measuring/movement tools and dice.

Past me must have anticipated this, because I found that I had downloaded all the updated print and play unit cards from the Atomic Mass Games site, even for units I don’t have (but could 3D print proxies for, like Daimyo Boba Fett).

I also found that I there are ‘Recon’ rules for play in a smaller area, 3ft x 3ft instead of 6ft x 3ft.  And I do have a double sided 3ft x 3ft play mat.

I’ll need to grab some stuff out of storage soon, specifically the 3D terrain I had printed, and the core box with the measuring/movement tools and dice.

Stand by!

Star Wars

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… Nothing but Star Wars, Give me those Star Wars, Dont let them end. Oh Star Wars, If they should bar wars, Please let these Star Wars Stay.

I gotta say, I am a sucker for most Star Wars tabletop games.

I got into X-Wing, Armada and Imperial Assault, al of which have been discontinued.

And now I hear that Star Wars Shatterpoint is the next in line to go that way.

To be fair, I did like the look of the Shatterpoint miniatures more than Star Wars Legion, and I believe I only bought a couple of expansions (Clone Wars Era) before shelving that game in storage.

For Legion, on the other hand, I bought more than a few extra squad boxes for both the Rebellion and the Empire.  And then the main game went into storage, while the miniatures found their way to my apartment.

I have a couple of miniature agnostic games that allow me to use them, A Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes Edition and Five Parsecs from Home.

It does make me wonder if I should get a new Starter Set for Legion, since it appears that they pivoted toward Shatterpoint for a while and left Legion to flounder and then shifting back to Legion, but looking at the contents of the Rebellion Starter Set, I have pretty much all the miniatures it includes except for the Wookiees.

Now if they came out with a Scum and Villainy Starter set…

31 Days of RPG Characters

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I went and did the 31 Days of RPG Characters challenge and posted the results on Facebook.

The question now is, what do I do with them?

And what about the other systems where I *didn’t* create characters, there were so many?

Hopefully I’ll find time to revisit a few of these characters over time.

For now I just want to get something to the table for a session or two, RPG, wargame, skirmish, or sports.

This challenge took me away from that, though I did have fun doing it.

Let’s see what pulls at me the most over the next few days.

Don’t touch that dial!

Play

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If there’s one thing I’ve picked up from watching more Solo RPG videos, especially from The Grouch Couch, it’s that I should be playing more, not trying to write a novel.

There should be more dice rolling and less treating the play session as a creative writing exercise.

And that goes for any other tabletop games I’m trying to play, like Five Leagues and Five Parsecs.

I’ve found myself lost in simple things like trying to hard to come up with background details for a character I may or may not ever play, or trying to come up with names for regions/cities for my Five Leagues map.

And that’s probably one of the things that subconsciously prevents me from delving more into any of the Solo RPGs that i’ve already set up, all three of them.

I have one campaign underway (Star Trek Adventures/Captain’s Log), and two ready to start (Dragonbane, D&D 5E) but  now I believe that the issue I was having was trying to describe events THAT HAVE NOT HAPPENED YET.

You can’t write a good story without an outline, so how can I describe how my adventure is going without playing out the situation?

For Star Trek: Excalibur, we’re about to continue our mission of exploration.

Irony: the last bit of storytelling for Star Trek: Excalibur was *totally* a creative writing exercise, no dice were rolled, just trying to advance the plot.

For Dragonbane, my character is about to delve into the unknown catacombs.

For D&D, my two-man party is about to enter the forest in search of a lost scouting party from a local town.

Other games will have some sort of after action report as they are played.

Don’t touch that dial!

Star Trek: Excalibur, S01E03

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Ship’s Log, August 3rd, 2154.

The Excalibur has returned us back to our original position prior to our little trip through the spatial rift.  We have resumed course to explore the unknown space before us, and have run smack dab into an Andorian patrol.

The Andorians have not acknowledged our hails and appear to have their weapons trained on the Excalibur.

Commander Saguisag orders the hull polarized and to continue hailing the Andorians.

“Charge cannons?”

“No, let’s keep a defensive posture for now.”

The gambit worked, the Andorians do not fire on the Excalibur.  The Andorian ships power down their weapons.

“We’re being hailed by the lead ship.”

“On screen.”

A male Andorian appears.

“I am Captain Shabaav of the Andorian Empire.”

“Commander Saguisag, Starfleet.  What’s your business here, Captain?”

The Andorian captain furrows his brow.

“You should have received a transmission from your superiors, Commander.”

At that very moment, the communications officer reports a message from Earth, recalling Lt. Commander Riordan back to Earth while the Andorians transfer a member of their race to join the Excalibur crew as an observer and first officer.  This crew change is meant to strengthen relations between Earth and the Andorian Empire.

The message is checked and double checked for authenticity, while the Columbia NX-02 arrives to bring Riordan back to Earth.

As Riordan was a popular shipmate aboard Excalibur, some of the crew are not happy with him leaving, nor the idea of an Andorian taking his place.

A goodbye party/welcome ceremony is held aboard Columbia, where Excalibur‘s new XO, Threvak, is introduced.  He seems less aggressive than the typical Andorians we’ve encountered in Star Trek.

The Andorian and Earth ship crews say their goodbyes, the Andorians go back to their patrol route, Columbia heads back to Earth, and Excalibur continues on her mission of exploration.

“Ready to resume our mission?”

Looking around the bridge, Commander Saguisag gets nods from his crew.

“Let’s Go!”

And the ship goes into warp.

[end credits]

—

Far too long between these sessions, and this wasn’t even a proper session, just an exercise inmoving the plot along.

I wanted to go back to having an Andorian aboard that I had originally rolled up for this crew, oh so many months ago.

I hoping to find the time to expand this campaign, either through actual play or through just simple writing, even if it looks like an outline more than an actual story.

And yes, “Let’s Go!” is Commander Saguisag’s “Engage!” or “Hit it!” or “I would like the ship to go.  Now.”

Beginnings Revisited

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Star Trek Adventures has a new sourcebook, The 23rd Century Campaign Guide, and per usual, they included a new career path option:

NOW I can recreate my original FASA Trek trader captain, Mackenzie Decker, if I so choose.

I’m actually thinking of having Decker as an NPC, and maybe pull a nuBSG and do a gender swap on Mackenzie Decker?

File:Big Wow 2013 - Indiana Jones (8845876192).jpg

I’ve met this cosplayer, Abby Darkstar, and her partner, Keith Zen, both are really nice people.

Anyways.

Decisions, decisions.