#huntsman josiah hugo

[trpg-dingusmaster]

3 hours of NOTHING then suddenly a rooster and some mustard

the last dnd game I played was two weeks ago? 

it was 90lbs FineCoal and we had a full group +2, I brought a friend who is supposed to be in my online group to give her maybe not a good example of how dnd can be played but an easily met and exceeded example of it-- and I’m not sure where the other guy came from, I think he knows the DarkSun dm? or maybe they just have the same shitty attitude I dunno.

not much happened in the game we spent several hours arguing and debating what things are possible in the setting (I shit you not it took 3 hours), and the DarkSun dm and new guy put an unreasonable amount of effort into going out of their way to break this dms game and ruin/derail his story (she literally told us this was exactly what she was doing and it was her intention to do anything and everything that would lead away from the dms story). I recognized the look of despair, frustration, and resignation in the dms face when no one would liten to him and tried as I try to in any game we play get it back on track.

but apparently I’m an asshole for suggesting that a group of characters who are almost entirely illiterate and have no understanding of life outside of the forest or the city slums, some being of severely discriminated against races or only recently liberated from child labor factories... MAYBE these characters would not be so concerned about WHY the country is walled off from the rest of the world **just yet**, MAYBE they wouldnt have the understanding that its weird the nation has cotton when cotton isnt native to the area especially since they’ve had access to it REGARDLESS for longer than most of them have been alive. MAYBE they’d be more concerned about immediate issues that will directly impact their lives right away and possibly determine if they will survive another week more than the more meta issue of international economics? MAYBE the dm is going to get to that LATER but we need to go through some plot first? Yes we should be curious about all that BUT do our CHARACTERS have any reason to be right now when they have all of these other issues? I’m not saying lets not investigate that ever but maybe we are supposed to find out about it later or in a different way? its not like we havnt been offered quests that take us to say, the wall? before so maybe next time lets do that quest instead of the one that liberates another factory? 

but no, I’m just an asshole and was quickly silenced because obviously I’m wrong, how could I be right? I don’t have a degree in anything unlike the DarkSun dm? The current dm seemed to appreciate my attempt and all of my non combat rolls (all of the rolls I made that day) were auto success- gathering supplies, building things for the group, repairing things. OR it was just to speed things along because we spent 3 hours doing nothing so there was no time to waste on bullshit rolls.

the gnome with the chicken, that guy, got bored of paying attention to and trying to participate in the argument and noticed the dm wasnt paying attention to anything asked if he could go back to the casino for some combat. the dm perked up again. most of the arguing parts of the group didn’t even notice right away this was starting. once they did three left until it was over and made a big show of doing so. it was a fun sequence and that gnome has now decided to become an animal rights activist and rescue the animals from the pit fighting rings. Also we have a monster rooster to go with out monster chicken, and we who stayed and paid attention got a look at some possibly important npcs for later.

when it was over, both the pit fights and the arguing, it was decided that mustard gas is a thing we can make and use and a couple other questionable explosives and we fucked up what had to be a city block. I’m not sure why? but I’m pretty sure it wasnt any of the things the dm had laid out for us though he did try to reel it into the plot. this included the only blacksmith that the one handed girl had a real shot at apprenticing with but the building was mostly intact just... full of poison right now... so later she can try and work with it. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

The plot was actually furthered! And a new character joins the party.

I missed a few sessions, not sure how many. Time isnt real.

anyway. a week or so ago, maybe two? The dm for the evening was running 90lbs FineCoal, though nobody knows I call it that.

a few things happened since I was there for this campaign.

- the new guy in the group (who I met during Bassun on the Sea) is playing a gnome pyrotechnic in this game

- the gang/faction we are most at odds with blew up a children’s hospital in what I assume was retaliation for liberating their sweatshop and stealing the rights to the land it was on but I’m not sure.

-new things were added to our base of operations but none of those were new bedrooms or a kitchen upgrade so its still cramped and weird like theres like 6-9 people living there but only 2 bedrooms? I assume this is what my character was doing while I was gone. 

this session, as we went into town to restock things and sell stuff we noticed a new faction running around putting up fliers and standing on corners looking official while giving an announcement.

“By the decree of the Templars in one week all citizens will be reporting for a mandatory community meeting. We will be patrolling the streets until then to be certain that everyone attends and that no trouble is caused. Nonattendance is punishable by law.”

we did some investigating on who these people are and found out that they’re pretty basically the military police? they are I think supposed to answer only to the highest authorities but its possible they may not be in full cooperation but maybe thats just me thinking too far ahead. They may also have, or at least at one time had, some kind of agreement with the gang the party is against the most. Rumors say they are probably the reason magic no longer exists in the walled up nation.

time passes and we head to the meeting, the gnome is dressed up and disguised to look more like a child in hopes he’d be able to sneak around and investigate further. Hugo supplies him with some booze, coal, and sawdust/wood scrap to assist in any explodey shenanigans he might need to get up to.

He is however captured, somehow they know right away that he was in disguise. Based on how the dm described the encounter its not clear  if its because of the rolls the gnome and healer made to craft the disguise OR if they had some other means, perhaps some magical means, to see through the disguise. 

they load him up in an armored wagon to pick up other stragglers to the meeting and he gets a view of just how numerous and well armed the templars are. the gnome, wanting to stall some of them from being at the meeting or maybe bringing them to a trap says that he knows of a factory where the children are still working and are being withheld from the meeting.  The templars say theres no time but would like to go there later and arrest the factory workers or something so he did the only reasonable thing and set the wagon on fire from the inside, eventually the wagon stopped and the doors were opened and he weaseled away to rejoin the party at the meeting.

mean while the oh so important address the templars wanted to give was a strange one.

-several books are now banned possession and reading of these books is punishable to the full extent of the law. some of these books were: the complete writing of alexander graham bell, the notes and diaries of nikola tesla, the legions, the crystal eye, history books from this year to this year, historical writings from these authors,  

-all crystals, precious, and semi precious gems are now outlawed, ownership and use of any is punishable to the full extent of the law

-immediate search and seizure would begin, no back aly, mine, sewer, or forest would go unchecked

this was an odd because most of the citizens and even the players themselves are unable to read in the first place and are much too poor to own any crystals or gems.

never the less how dare they and Hugo threw a bottle at the speaker. the gnome caught the tail end of this and he, the healer, and the healers sibling set to starting a riot. claiming that these new regulations were going to raise taxes and the seizure of the gems was literal out right theft from people too poor to probably have any of worth anyway, it would disrupt businesses and the searching would be more like ransacking and vandalism. 

hugo, the one handed girl, jamie, and the gnome then head off to the library once the riot seems to be getting going and the templars were all distracted. the healer- wearing a stolen high ranking gang uniform meets up with some lower ranking members if that gang  and convinces them that increased templar activity would mean without a doubt a crack down on their criminal activity. Sooner or later whatever hold the street gangs have over the people would no longer suit the forces that allowed them to gain so much power. these people spread that word. the people are in a full on frenzy now. 

Its also worth noting that a particular new npc was pointed out to us more than once during all of this: a very burly bald and beardless man well over seven feet tall but has otherwise only human features.

the group at the library find several books to steal but not quite enough and certainly not all the right ones. with further searching a secret door doubling as a book self hiding a spiral stair case is found and the one handed girl- being the one who can read the best of the lot is sent down to investigate. the rest stay upstairs waiting to hear her scream for help and to defend their position. the one handed girl finds several more books that the templars had listed as illegal but ALSO one that had a solid black binding and hundreds of blank black pages. upon picking it up she feels a powerful connection to it.

several templars enter the library and a fight begins, but it is quickly ended by the new oddly specific but unnamed npc. the group escapes, calling bruce the cabby to gather the party, drop three of members, healer, healers sibling and gnome head to the ruins hospital to loot. since there would be no one around to stop them what with the mayhem and murder happening. on the way the healers sibling witnesses and exchange between a templar and a higher ranking gang member, an exchange that suggested if the the two factions had any sort of agreement it was probably over/off the table now... but another interpretation could be: shut mouth don’t talk about that where someone could hear/see you. we don’t know yet. 

heres where I got confused because the prty split up, at some point during the looting the healer found a strage door that the bombing had uncovered? or made easier to access because it wasnt hidden anymore? with the gnomes help they enter leaving the sibling to continue to loot. there was a long tunnel? and then a strange chamber with strange device that when described was probably a tesla coil. There was also an unusually large person guarding the room about 8 feet tall and very burly. there was also a book in there. I’m pretty sure he was guarding the book, which I assume was the writings of tesla based on context. they gnome and healer question the guardian trying to figure out what he was and why he was there. for some reason a fight begins? the tesla coil is part of some kind of trap system that does some clever stuff but I didn’t catch it. the two kill him and loot his body we didn’t get a description of his face i’m pretty sure it was too messed up from the fight? or maybe I just missed it, but I cant help but wonder if he too was bald and beardless? 

when the group that headed to the cabin arrived, the one handed girl had begun investigating the books and discovered a note: unfortunately the note was a prop and the only one who could actually read all of the dms handwriting was me but HUGO cant read for shit, I’m not even sure he knew what books were until that day. but I don’t think the bits I picked out that others couldnt read were that important. 

what it amounted to seemed to be that, something happened and it might happen again and they- the templars we assume -could not let that happen. I’m pretty sure I read a bit that said like- ‘we cannot allow ‘them’ to rise again,” but I wont know if that particular bit is important until the rest of the books are examined but even if it is I think think the group will be fine.

there was also a very old bank note worth over 200 coppers but probably needs to be appraised, at least to figure out how old those books are/how long they were in that secret room? idk but I’m sure theres something important there... surely its not just because the dm is concerned the party will starve to death in winter and thought to give us extra money to survive with.

the three who went to the hospital got back to the cabin, I’m pretty sure they stole a wagon.

the plan is, to examine the books a bit, then wrap them in leather and seal the leather in wax to bury them where we will be building something, then also having some decoy holes dug/filled in? and if a templar is like wtf is all this- we explain that were in the middle of construction or something and thats where we’re building stuff? 

but I sort of suspect that have some magical or supernatural means of detecting things? so it might not matter... but if winters coming we probably need to have some weapons and defenses anyway because hungry wildlife is an issue we’ve been told.

the only book not getting buried is the black one- that is staying with the one handed girl. to what end? I’m sure we’ll find out.

Hugo is down to 44lbs FineCoal- the cabby requested payment in furs and meat instead of coal and copper this time around. 

the ruffian, the noble, and the nobles guard were not present again, I’m pretty sure they just don’t like showing up to these campaigns with the weird rules. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

NEVERMIND- where the plot was replaced by a chicken

Everything, more or less, that happened in the last adventure in 90lbs FineCoal was retconned. 

I’m not sure why though, I’m pretty sure he wanted these things to happen later and but the parties antics screwed up the time table, but what I do know is that the dm of OfficialEvent was just eating up the utter chaos that ensued. “Now you know what it feels like!” he exclaimed quite joyously at one point.

So, what the event was replaced with was this:

-a town meeting meeting but not mandatory, rather than outlawing this that and the other it was just a royal decree that that a curfew would be put in place starting at the end of the week, giving enough time for everyone to make arrangements to comply with that. 

---what about people who work late? they better call a cab or their employer better have a room set a side for people to crash in until the morning/designated time

---what if you are a cab driver? you’ll have a licence to be out late which will be checked and you better have it.

---what is all of this for? because the party and also their rival gang have blown up A LOT of things, nobody knows it was us for sure but thats probably part of the problem. we’ve had lots of opportunity to have stealth missions but so far have turned all of them into a bloodbath, turns out that has repercussions. and also i guess those feral children that we released from a textile mill we never did go round them up. so who knows what they got up to

after the meeting bruce the cabby came up to the party and asked us to do him a favor: get schematics for a ‘battle wagon’ and bring them to him. He told us where to go- some sort of  wainwright factory? and we were hoping for a smash and grab but the dude we met at the who I’m pretty sure was a templar? I never saw the insignia that the party leader was shown so I only have the reaction she gave when she saw it. but I’m like, 99% sure based on that, and also the fact that they knew a bunch of stuff they had no reason to know.

once the party leader realized that the people we were dealing with were out of our league they tried a different approach.

“we want schematics for a battle wagon, how can we make this happen?”,very civilized and straight forward, novel for us. 

the probably templar gave us these choices: buy it for 400 coppers, buy it for 100 coppers and the deed to some land we stole from another gang, buy it for the deed and manual labor assistance when they build... whatever they are going to build there.

mind you- my character didn’t go to the town meeting and probably didn’t go to this either, Hugo stayed home and worked on gathering supplies and materials for the various things everyone wants to do but cant because I have yet to build the things they need so I probably should have stayed quiet, and mostly I did, but when the party leaders player asked the group for thoughts out of character I chimed in a bit.

mostly nobody wanted to take part of any of it beyond, A- steal it anyway even though BAD IDEA, or B- do other jobs and get the money to pay for it because the deed is probably worth more than this offer for some reason.

however some of us reasoned that if they really wanted that deed they would get it and maybe we shouldnt make an enemy of these guys just yet. 

the leader reasoned we should take the third offer- help build the thing the templars want to build and pay nothing, because were poor and need money to survive. 

the one handed girls player complained about the disussion because none of it mattered, that faction was getting the deed no matter what so why bother discusing? this interaction was meaningless and served only to fix something the dm did wrong. I think he was just being a weenie because his character wasnt getting any spotlight and he and the dm had gotten into an argument earlier that day or something. He didn’t really have a preference to which offer we took just was salty in general about everything and seemed to really want everyone to know he wasn’t into any of this.

I agreed with the party leader: we should take the third offer, but for different reasons, if we help build the thing we’ll know more about it. well have seen the blue prints have walked the rooms and hallways and that should give us a pretty good idea about what its for and how to get in and out later. the gnome/new guy agreed.

the one handed girl player, argued? but wasnt really arguing? they were just restating what I said but really passive aggressively? as if what I said was wrong and different from what they were saying? but it was the same thing? I dunno, dude was just being a weenie I think because he didn’t think of that first? but also kept saying how this whole thing was pointless and dumb? but party leader is a face character they pretty much were built for healing and talking, they can fight but thats not what theyre good at so... come on let them have some action.

I dunno if the party leader or anyone else heard any of this exchange but either way, thats what the offer we took. it was descided that the two characters whos players dont show up because they dont like these rules loose games will be doing the construction mostly. the rubble from that property would be delivered to the cabin within the week because they dont want it anyway and we were going gather it off screen ourselves anyway to build shit with.

after, the gnome and... jamie? went to sneak into a casino to rob the place, but it didn’t really go down like that. gnome got on jamies shoulders and I gave them one of hugos long coats so they looked like one normal sized but terribly proportioned person and they went off. which begs the question, what IS jamie? we just don’t know.

they learned the layout of the first (slots and roulette), second (cards ad dice) and seventh floors of the casino and discovered that floor seven had dog fighting.... which lead to the gnome- who had his ears cut much like elves do- arranging an agreement for a child to fight the dog champion Mama Fluffy, win or loose payment would be given to jamie to bring back to the party (there was concern that gnome might die either from the dog or from the casino security) because “holy shit this gnomes gotta fight that dog and win thats my goal”, said the new guy. 

the contract was signed and he and jamie revealed their selves, gnome successfully passed himself off as a child, and the fight commenced, mostly naked gnome vs angry hungry dog. it went pretty well but he lost the fight he did get a whole gold piece for the effort though. as a joke the dm mentioned that if they had stopped on the fifth or sixth floor  (I forget) there would have been a chicken fight. so the gnome player10000x more excited about this encounter payed to get himself healed and signed up to fight a “monstrous chicken”. which may have been more like a cassowary but with coloration like a chicken? the party leader ooc commented that a chicken matching the description the dm gave wasnt a thing and was probably not possible  so what is it doing in this setting? just comic relief? why was this happening? his only explanation was a that look dms give, “hush pls I know what I’m doing, just go with it in time you may understand” and just carrying on with the encounter. we suspect comic relief but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was some sort of mad science-ing. we may or may not find out.

the gnome tamed the chicken, during the course of the glorious battle and rode it home, he didn’t pick up his winnings though he just left right way and they may have been forfeited because of that. it has taken over our kitchen table. if his character dies the chicken is to be willed to Hugo because I agreed to build it its own house.

the dm had actual plot for after the deed was signed over but we never got to it.

the one handed girl went to the library all day to learn about black smithing? instead of trying to apprentice at a black smith? where actual interactions and things could happen? or trying to find ways to take advantage of the skills he already has for his character? and the player left the table but stayed at the shop when gnome and jamie went to the casino figuring I guess his character wasnt getting any screen time this adventure? i dunno. he sure did miss a pretty great series of events. 

[trpg-dingusmaster]

the guy with an INT score of 7 tries to tinker and start a child labor revolution

So, Huntsman Josiah Hugo and friends? Were at the cabin he and… Jamie? Live in when everyone realizes this is probably the best safe house for the group- so far only the cabbie knows its location, but it’s too small. So construction must be done. Supplies are gathered over the course of a few days and we begin building a workshop. Extra bedrooms or a kitchen upgrade is what everyone else wanted but i knew that everyone wants to also do a lot of potentially dangerous or at least delicate crafting. And Hugo just really wanted one and as one of the only ones able to build stuff like this no one argued much. The one handed girl who has requested that Hugo make her a new hand, if possible one with a hidden compartment or weapon. Without a workshop I doubt even as a professional woodworker he with his Int of 7 could do that. Even with the shop it was difficult and some pieces were broken now and then in the work but it did get done… it’s not great but it more or less does what it’s supposed to. Vaguely able to grip and there is a hidden blade in it though the spring mechanism is probably wood and not exactly reliable for long term use.

I kept asking the dm during the planing and various checks- this is a great idea but are you sure I can do this? Like? Hugo isn’t exactly… smart. He knows wood I guess but? im guessing that’s all? So I guess based on what I observed this means the difficulty of the check is adjusted based on whether or not you can argue the check falls within your skills in general rather than modifying your roll with with skill and proficiency points, I’m not sure if stat mods are calculated into the roll but don’t think they are either. So, about 6 days went by and the hand and workshop were completed. There were some trips back into town to scavenge for extra supplies, buy some things, sell some things. Pretty uneventful. Jamie went out and hunted for a lot if that time. 

 Day 6 one of the characters, who is learning to be a healer officially and on the side is working to destroy the child labour/slavery racket is approached by a friend and buisness associate. They have the blue prints to a mill, one that the one handed girl in the party used to work in before she escaped, and the security rotation schedule for the rest of the week. They also have a ‘delicate package’ (bomb). These things are left with the would be healer and the one handed girl to do with as they please. Another party member is approached in with the transport route of a carriage full of supplies headed derp into a powerful gangs territory- the same gang we had a poor encounter with on day 1. The informant didn’t want anything but to inconvenience the gang and a cut of the supplies so they said. The group gets back together at the cabin and on the way the cabbie sells the party a box of misc parts, scrap, and old tools that was cluttering up his house. everyone discussed the options and it was decided that. We’d rescue the children at the mill. The likelihood of the enemy following the stolen carriage and the group back to the cabin was too much. There was a third option but I font remember what it was. Hugo and Jamie take positions at high ground in a nearby building stealth killing a couple guards who were there first. The one handed girl has the bomb. The healer hired the cabbie to pretend to be her personal chauffeur/body guard as she pretends to be a potential buyer for the mills product and services. It goes reasonably well. Once the bomb goes off dropping a chunk of the ceiling onto some of the machinery in the work room the jig is up and combat begins. Even this goes reasonably well, until suddenly the dwarf falls for no reason anyone on the ground can see. Was it another gtoup of guards over seeing the mill from another building? 

No. It was an unfamiliar hooded figure, so not the same as the previous suspicious characher, that only Hugo saw. Jamie went down to join melee and Hugo stayed to keep up ranged combat and watch for the arrival of any reinforcements. However when the cabbie Bruce suddenly got up and started wildly swinging his axes at anything within reach Hugo thought it best to head down. During the chaos of the berserk dwarf the healer and the one handed girl pilfered some bodies and checked around for the keys needed to set free some of the children and gave them the keys to free the rest. These two did take some damage from Bruce. Jamie and Hugo were not much help in that situation but the healers friend showed up in time to help knock him out and free the rest of the children who made short work of their captors. The friend dropped came by with a card and some back up and said we had only so much time before the property was getting leveled. Just enough time for both our group and the healers friends to loot though the friend got first run. The children ran off armed and angry. We assume this will end badly but arguable only for whoever sent those children to the mill, we hope. We plan to deal with that later maybe. 

 As Hugo loads Bruce and the spoils of victory into Bruces carriage we assume the police are on their way but what arrives instead are the real owners of the mill, the same gang from day 1. While there are three or four total it seems this one is the most wide spread. The healers friend says time is running out and they leave as flames bread out all over the mill and an explosion is head from tge other side of tge building. we stay to kill off the arriving gang members because… why not go the extra mile? When we kill them we find a blood stained deed to the land covering the mill and the building next to it. It’s pretty substantial lot for the party but hopefully not so much to its former owners. The witnesses who know we were there are the healers friends, Bruce if he remembers any of it, the now wild children, and the hooded figure. The healer examines what Bruce was attacked with and recognized what it was and possibly where it came from but was unable to fully identify it and what was needed to cure it. While the rest of the group took everything back to the Bruces shop because they aren’t great at driving a carriage, the healer went off to do research and came back with the cure later that night. When Bruce recovered we explained what happened. 

Evidence suggests the attack was about Bruce and not the mill. Huntsman Josiah Hugo has 45/90 lbs fine coal remaining. If I remember correctly. I don’t have his sheet on me today. Typed this up on mobile I'll edit more of the spelling and grammar later. The noble, his body guard, and the ruffian were not at this session.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

Day 1: first day in town is the best day to make powerful enemies

(Minus most of the derailing and the attempted inter-party murders and things that made the 1/2 hour of actual play take nearly 3 hours?) Huntsman Josiah Hugo was looking to sell some of the small adorable animals he trapped out in the woods he calls home, maybe get drunk, maybe start some fights? Maybe get a better paying job, when suddenly the shop keeper starts arguing with Jamie, the person? Sibling? Friend? Hugo lives with and came to town with. Hugo starts chanting for a fight to break out, a one handed girl comes in and joins the chanting. A gnome comes in and steals some shit, the shop keeper ignores Jamie and fires some warning shots at the gnome- it's the shop keepers "brother". This happens now and then. The three leave, Hugo looking for the cheapest bar in the area the other two just following. The girl talks to the bar tender asking about work bad if there's any scrap/ junk/trash outside she can remove/clean up for him (collect and sell). On the way a ruffian who was told to leave pushes and injurs her breaking the only valuable objects she had: clean glass bottles. A child helps the bar tender clean the girl up. Across the room an out of place noble and his body guard are speaking to a suspicious hooded figure seated at a table. Hugo and Jamie know that suspicious characters often have work that needs to be done, preferably by big burly strangers with no attachment to the locals, so they go over and get in on the job. Beat up this dude on a boat. Cool. Punching people is Hugos second favorite thing. The hooded figure also employees for this endeavor the child and one handed girl- to sneak in during the ruckus, and the ruffian. The party hires a cabby- who turns out to be the shop keeper from before, who seems have hands in many things, to take them to the marina. There they find out the "guy on a boat" is a wealthy tycoon of some sort on a well guarded (casino?) steamship. The group poses as the new cleaning crew. A street urchin sneaks on and tries to rob a party member? Hugo grabs the child and brings them to the guards hoping to gain further entry with the offering, like- hey i caught this thief sneaking in, reward me. the guards just toss the kid into the river. One handed girl forgets she can't swim and dives in to save the urchin. Party child and Nobles guard try to save them and narrowly succeed. Hugo furiously mops the deck, Jamie also mops. The noble is standing around trying to think of a better plan, the ruffian just stands around. The guards come out and say their boss wants to talk to some of the party. Hugo, the body guard, and the ruffian go in. the boss is totally shit faced and made a boozy mess of his cabin. They beat the piss out of him, but he's probably alive? and loot everything. Hugo finds a fancy watch and when he hears the guards coming to check on everything he crit fails jumping out a window and so it turns out it wasn't a window but a realistic painting of a window. The group says nothing is wrong and the boss just passed out but the guards aren't buying it so Hugo charges the door and knocks out one of the guards. The group gets the other and all three bodies are hidden behind the desk and the door closed. Mean while the one handed girl and the child have unmoored the boat and are sneaking into the storage room where the coal is kept and are working out how to steal it. They decide they need the group and stop by the kitchen for supplies. The child finds several vials of the tomato seasoning arsenic and knows a few better uses for it. Noble over hears that a buyer for the boat is on the way and intends to pose as him but chaos has already broken out by the time he greets the guard. The party reunites and makes their way to the coal room? And it's divided equally only because that's convenient for carrying. Each takes 45-50lbs of FineCoal. On the way out the party sees a strangely familiar suspicious characher sneaking off the ship with a paper in his hand. The party realized no one could steer the ship and they too just left. Abandoning it and tge left over crew to the tide and heading to cab to take them to the bar to collect what was due. The child asks if anyone found a watch, Hugo offers but the one handed girl steals it right out of his hand mid transaction. The suspicious characher shows up with some thugs and the girl hands it over to him when asked. Hugo tries to stop her, demanding payment first but the girl doesn't listen ( "I just want to test a theory I have!" "With OUR copper on the line as well as yours?" "Yes!"). Suspicious character then demands the coal and money on every character in exchange for their lives. ("I KNEW IT." said the player who lost the party 550copper.) It turns out the suspicious character is a member of one of the larger gangs in the city though I cannot recall his position, it was enough to cause the party some concern about their choices. Hugo notices the one hand girl trying to put her coppers and sack of coal onto him ( "I rolled a 19 +3 I definitely notice this, its 45lbs. what are you even doing this for?") , telling the suspicious character she has nothing and should be let go on those grounds. Hugo and everyone else, villain included stares in awe at the audacity of the girl trying to be "sneaky" about putting on someone a literal 45 lb sack. Hugo is insulted but mostly confused at the betrayal and intends to keep as much of those 90lbs FineCoal as possible. The girl is denied her request. She tries to take back the coal. Hugo threatens her, but the villain shoots her in the good arm. The child actually snuck off soon after the one hand girl took the watch, figuring the loyalty of the group was dissolved and their safety with the group no longer viable. The ruffian wasn't allowed in the bar again to begin with and just waited awkwardly outside. ("Hey? Bar keep? Can I come in? I need to get paid? Hey?? Can? Can I just come in my party is kinda?? Can you hear me? Can he hear me?") What's left of the group tries to negotiate, Hugo also attempted but ends up just hurling an ax at the biggest dude there. A fight begins but is shortly ended when the cabby/shop keeper comes in having heard the ruckus from outside. He makes a bold statement "you know who I am, you know what I can do. You sure you wanna do this?" And he tossed Hugo a gun. They don't, and the whole ordeal took long enough that the police were on the way. Everyone leaves. The police try to stop the party- abloody ax and gun was kind of a tip off that maybe they're involved. The group loads up on the carriage trying to be casual but the guards start attacking and Hugo and Jamie take some shots at the guards killing some and their horses. They are taken to the woods some distance from where Hugo and Jamie live. They give t h e cabby payment in coal for services rendered, and also for saving them from that gang, because h o ly cow there's a lot of coal. Why did they need all of that? Hugo didn't know and never asked. He still has 75 lbs. After paying (extra to) the unusual cabby, thinking it best to make a good friend of him.

[trpg-dingusmaster]

I got to be a player!

i joined a dnd group at the game shop in my town, it has rotating dms as well as rotating campaigns.

I have gone twice now, but it was the same campaign and dm both times, I guess this is unusual but I’m not clear on why, it seems like everyone else knows something about it? but honestly I don’t care, if I need to know I’ll find out easy enough because:

my older brother is dating that dms older sister and we hang out as a group every week/every other week. (or used to until my work schedule changed)

I was hesitant to join because I was concerned I’d feel weird about being the oldest one there? but one is probably close-ish to my age and theres two others who are much older, though they didn’t show up to this game.

this campaign is vaguely dnd 5e, for the purposes of organization I’ll tag posts about this campaign “90lbs FineCoal”, its very homebrewed- which is fine but I wasnt told shit about the campaign before starting. Like when I made my character I wasnt even given a full explanation about what my homebrewed “huntsman” class is. I’ve just been playing it like a magicless-druid/rageless-barbarian? I’m only 55% sure my character is human, they might be a dwarf? idk.

what I now know is, the setting is fantasy victorian/edwardian “london”? but like, nobody ever bothered to actually look up a map of that? so??? anyway... There is no magic either, at least none in england that is any common knowledge though there may be some in other parts of the world. A giant wall has for some reason been built around england, cutting it off from the rest of the world- even its ties to ireland and especially scottland, presumably any and all foreign nation where england should have connection to in this time- there is none. At least none that any of our lowly characters would know about- who are all like, street urchins (4 of the characters) or simple simple trades folk just trying to get by- (my character Josiah Hugo and his? sister? brother? roommate? idk Jamie?) theres also a disgraced noble and his body guard. but I assume they werent important enough to know any of that stuff.

theres very little in the way of group cohesion, but one of the more antagonistic players didn’t show up this time so it was better than the first time I went. though theres still a problem with players not knowing the difference between being in character and being disruptive and derailing... or like.... actively hurting the party. again, it was better this time. and hopefully, when players behave badly the dm will manage them better or at least continue making them actually roll or do opposed rolls to do the thing they were trying to do. something that didn’t happen at all last time, resulting in a near tpk but deus ex machina dwarf rolled up and saved the day.

one of the stranger things about this campaign and why its only vagely 5e is that some checks and saves and whatever seem to function like the call of cthulhu set up where you must roll under a number seemingly arbitrarily picked by the dm not above, but I have yet to figure out how to tell what distinguishes when the roll is for one or the other. I don’t think anyone else knows yet either? I suspect ts an attempt to keep the players honest? But I have trouble imagining what could have happened where that’s needed.

Theres also a really big focus on resource management and base/territory construction and expansion. I think probably to help illustrate how poor the characters are and how desperate the state of the country is or its to make up for the near entire lack of roleplaying, which probably a good thing for now. Or its both I guess

and going back to the lack of magic in the setting, theres also in england anyway only 4 races- humans and dwarves being most common and pretty much as they usually are, gnomes- who are probably less common and more like how I see goblins portrayed as usually or maybe like gully-dwarves?  I cant really explain it that well, but I’m sure somebody gets it. theres also elves- no half elves, just elves, probably because they are very much looked down on and face extreme discrimination to the point where most of them must cut and reshape their ears to go through their day with any reasonable amount of peace. 

one of the players who rotates as dm is planing on starting a 2e dark sun game? the other runs a 5e high seas based game which had some extra rules but nothing major, I’ll tag posts about this game as Bassun on the Sea. another mentioned he wanted to run like... some sort of official event/game? but I wasnt really sure what that meant and didn’t bother asking. I’ll tag those posts as OfficialEvent.

I considered offering to join the dm rotation but I’m really not sure I’d be prepaired to handle a group that could be between 4 and 9 and I’d have no idea the exact number until I got there. I’ll have to think about it. its weird though that it seems like most of the players actually WANT to have a turn at dungeon mastering, I’ve never heard of that happening before.