Cypher System Fantasy - A Shark at the Finish Line

A Shark at the Finish Line

This is it, the end of the road for this Cypher System Fantasy meets The Strange campaign.  This whole thing started off last summer as a way to test-drive the new Cypher System Rulebook, and get an idea of how it handles traditional fantasy.  Of course I had to go and break that "test-drive" and completely "jump the shark" a few months later after revealing that everything had been part of The Strange all along.  

I'm going to toot my own horn a little, as I think the big plot twist was a success.  With the exception of Frank, the only other player who was "in" on the twist, everyone seemed surprised when their Ardeyn characters ended up on Earth.  This all happened at the end of a climactic scene on a ziggurat located at the heart of a Starless Sea.  One minute the player characters and battling evil, and the next they are checking into a Hampton Inn.  Since I knew this was coming, I essentially built the entire campaign up for this single moment.

In hindsight I wish that I had been better prepared for everything that came after this game master jumped the shark.  

"My life was perfectly fine until Sister Sariety dragged my ass over here!" - Shenuesh.  

The first ten adventures of the campaign were certainly lighthearted, especially when it came to "player character-to-player character" interaction.  Zamani was needled constantly about whether or not he was a wizard, and for some reason Sister Sariety had terrible luck when it came to wells.  But most of this originated at the game table, and not in the campaign setting itself.  The players made the jokes, but the campaign was relatively sincere when it came to the story.  Up until the end of Sailors on the Starless Sea (session 10), we were enjoying the typical fantasy campaign.

At one point I made a comparison about how our transition to The Strange was inspired by "Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time".  Little did I know that the analogy was spot on, even before I experienced the campy mess that I created post-session 10.  The last three adventures of this campaign were straight out of a terrible late '80's, early 90's B-movie.  Let's review some of the scenes:

• Fantasy characters trashed a Hampton Inn hotel room.
• Zamani experienced bacon for the first time, and became an addict.
• The entire party played D&D "in game" with two local, truck-driving, hunters.  
• The super secret evil organization owned a golf course.
• The PC's infiltrated the aforementioned golf course, and did battle with golf-club cyphers.  
• The entire final scene...

While I'm being critical of myself, I should also note that I'm a little torn on how I ended the campaign.  I don't think I did a very good job as game master and storyteller.  What seemed to be a fairly fun inter-party dilemma could've been executed in a much better fashion.  You'll see soon enough, but Marc really put this in perspective when he said this:

"That was easily the strangest ending to any adventure I've ever been in." 

Perhaps I'm being overly critical, as it seemed like everyone had a good time.  But I think I learned some valuable lessons running this campaign, and I'll carry them through as I move forward to the next.

I need to spend more time listening to what the players want from their characters.  Looking back, there were so many opportunities to explore Shenuesh's backstory, and while I touched on them a few times, I never went deeper.  I should have, and regret not doing so.  The same goes for the potential relationship between Verrenn and his grandson Yaren.  

I also turned the bad guys into idiots.  Seriously, I had the Bradley Cooperative running a golf course.  Why?  At this point I had gone so far off the rails, that I was delving into "gonzo nuts", DCCRPG Crawling Under a Broken Moon style antics.  

So that's it.  That's my rant.  Lessons learned, and at least my players stuck with me through the end.  I think they may even be staying through for the next campaign!

Living 4 Crits Presents

A Cypher System Fantasy/The Strange Campaign

Gabriella Winter and the Dragon Curse of Ardeyn

Cast

• Zamani, a Spiritual (Ugallu*) Explorer (Magic) who Masters Foot and Fist**, played by Andy
• Shenuesh, a Rugged Adept (Combat) who Wields Two Weapons at Once, played by Jeremy
• Yaren, a Foolish Warrior who Stands Like a Bastion, played by Craig
• Verrenn, a Spectral*** Adept who Casts Spells, played by Marc
• Gabriella****, a Charming Spinner who Works the System, played by Frank

* Ugallu is a race option from Broken Immersion by Ryan Chaddock Games
** Masters Foot and Fist is from Worlds Numberless and Strange by Monte Cook Games
*** Spectral is a new and original focus written by Marc Plourde and featured on his blog, Inspiration Strikes
**** Formerly a Charming Speaker who Works Miracles on Ardeyn

Our Story So Far… 

• Episode 1:  Dream Patrol
• Episode 2:  Ribs
• Episode 3:  Skull
• Episode 4:  Glitch
• Episode 5:  Starfall in Ardeyn, Part One
• Episode 6:  Starfall in Ardeyn, Part Two
• Episode 7:  Starfall in Ardeyn, Part Three
• Episode 8:  Through the Night
• Episode 9:  Sailors on the Starless Sea, Part One
• Episode 10:  Sailors on the Starless Sea, Part Two
• Episode 11:  Welcome to The Strange
• Episode 12:  Dragon Hunt

Episode 12: Dragon Hunt, Part Two

Summary

The fantasy characters from Ardeyn, along with their handler from the Estate, fled the scene of the helicopter attack by hot wiring an RV.  Rather than fleeing town, the party figured that the Bradley Cooperative would never expect them to return.  So Gabriella drove the RV to a parking lot located a half mile away from the Bradley Cooperative's super-secret, golf course base of operations as part of a stakeout.  

While observing the Bradley Cooperative from a distance, the party heard something strange underneath the RV.  After investigating, they noticed a still-drunk woman exit the storage compartment, looking for "Steve."  The woman entered the RV, and Verrenn locked her in a stasis field.  Gabriella had the idea to use the drunk as a distraction.  Using her suggestion twist, Gabriella convinced the woman to crash the RV into the side of the golf course clubhouse.  Everyone climbed out of the RV for this scene, except for Yaren, who accidentally got left on board.  Fortunately he escaped before the crash.

While everyone at the Bradley Cooperative dealt with the RV crash, the party sneaked into the largest building on the complex.  From the outside, the building appeared to be a seventy foot wide storage shed, but once inside, the team found a feathered dragon monitoring an iMac.  

Verrenn was the first to the dragon, and let loose with an arcane flare against the dragon's Baezedaar Bracer.  Thee attack missed, as the dragon appeared to be a hologram.  After chiding the party for thinking a full-grown monster would be sitting in the middle of a storage locker, the dragon requested a parlay.  

The dragon wanted to make a deal.  It admitted that it needed the four visitors from Ardeyn to stay on Earth so that the combined power of the remaining bracers could finish summoning the World's Scale, a massive draconic planetovore.  Once the World's Scale arrived, it would devour Earth, freeing Ardeyn forever, and then the dragon would help the Ardynians return home.  The dragon believed that the people of Earth, especially the Estate, would eventually turn on Ardeyn, after raiding it for magic and resources over time.  The dragon also informed the Ardynians that they were all just "stories" and "NPC"s being used by The Estate.  Unlike Gabriella or even himself, the dragon told the four fantasy characters that they lacked the "spark", and should they take off the bracers, they would become mindless minions.  He said that Gabriella knew this, but was not sharing the information with her team.    

Given that the characters from Ardeyn were not happy to be on Earth, and Gabbie was looking to be somewhat dishonest, the deal was sounding pretty good.  

While searching the room, Zamani broke the hologram projector, causing the dragon's image to disappear.  Gabriella was able to detect the surface thoughts of the dragon, and noted to the party that it was less than fifty feet away.  Shenuesh's sharp perception led the werecreature to the corner of the room, in an area surrounded by boxes.  Using his shatter spell, Verrenn blasted the boxes away one by one, finally revealing a small drainpipe, where an eight inch tall dragon sat in front of an iPhone sized iMac.  

The dragon popped out of the drain and continued his plea to have the Ardynians help him in his cause, and for quite a long time the entire party was deadlocked.  The Ardynians didn't trust Gabriella and the Estate, and at least the dragon was from their home recursion.  It soon became apparent that half of the party might turn on the other half.  Out of nowhere, Zamani attacked Gabriella, just before Yaren attacked the dragon.  

Yaren used his powerful katana for a razor sharp slice against a tiny, thimble-sized Baezedaar bracer.  Once the blade connected, the bracer, exploded, and the dragon fell to the floor.  With the laws of magic no longer governing the dragon, the creature's shrunken lungs could not support it's mass.  Even though it looked small, it still weighed as much as a full sized dragon.  Eventually the poor creature died.  

The party left the golf course and returned to the Estate.  After a brief debriefing, the four Ardynians returned home.  Yaren, Zamani, and Shenuesh all destroyed their bracers, but Verrenn kept his.  Perhaps it would be the secret to returning the undead to life.  

Notable Moments

• I used an image of "Ke$ha for the drunken woman locked into the lower part of the RV.  When she tried climbing into the vehicle, Zamani, in all his furry glory, tried stopping her.  She just called him "Jeff" and pushed past, grabbing a cold baconator out of the fridge.  Zamani went nuts for the baconator, and there was much inner party conflict over the sandwich, especially when Verrenn locked it within the woman's stasis field.

• Most campaigns end with a "big bad", but I wanted this one to end differently... hence the tiny dragon.  The dragon became tiny through magic, so that it could stay hidden and out of sight.  The amount of effort spent on searching for the dragon and trying to ascertain the truth of the creature's "deal", was almost as much as the party could've sustained during a battle.  

• The scene where the party parlayed with a dragon took nearly an hour from start to finish.  The dragon pressed for the party (at least those of Ardeyn) to join his side, and there was a short time when I thought this would happen.  

• In the last moments before Yaren attacked the dragon's Baezedaar Bracer, everyone started powering up.  Spells were cast, cyphers used, and I really thought there was going to be a conflict, but wasn't sure who was going to be attacking who.  When Zamani punched Gabriella I thought the campaign had imploded.  I was close to being right.

• I big question throughout the end of the game was what would happen if one of the Ardynians took off their bracer?  Frank's character actually knew the truth: those from Ardeyn were lacked the "Spark", and would become mindless NPC's on Earth.  But originally, I was going to have the characters "translate" into the players.  Zamani would become Andrew Lyon, and Shenuesh would become Jeremy Land, and so on.  

Quotes

"I wanna get to Shop n'Save!" - Craig saw a grocery store on Google Maps, right near the Bradley Cooperative headquarters.

"Yeah sister!  How does this thing work?" - Zamani wanted to hot wire the RV.

"I look like a freakin' green ghost person... BOO!" - Marc describes his character for Ke$ha.

"I could cast ray of confusion, but I don't think it would do anything to her." - Marc, regarding Ke$ha.

"I don't care about the girl, I just want the Baconator!" - Zamani was really ticked off that Verrenn's stasis field kept his beloved Wendy's sandwich trapped in Ke$ha's hand.

"My life was perfectly fine until Sister Sariety dragged my ass over here!" - Shenuesh to the rest of the party.

"We got tons of experience points to use until someone rolls a nineteen or twenty." - Frank justifying one final attack against the level 9 bracer.

"The Schlieffen Plan!" - Jim exclaimed, as everyone powered up for combat.

"Who's attacking who?  Is it every many for himself?" - Craig started to panic.

Agents of The Estate - Project ESPER

A Strange Birthday

To celebrate my thirty-seventh birthday I told my family that all I really wanted was to play a role-playing game.  I've had a lot of ideas brewing, and this would give me an opportunity to test them out on some willing participants.  Using a vacation day, I spent the morning and early afternoon finalizing my Strange Cinematic Universe, and by evening I was ready to bring everyone to the table. 

This blog entry broken down into several sections.  

• First, I'll cover ESPER's, the super heroes that exist in my campaign for The Strange.  
• Second, you'll find an adventure outline for Pittsburgh Pulp, allowing you to run this very same adventure with your own Strange or Cypher System Super Heroes groups.  
• Finally I give the summary of what happened at our table, along with some of the quotes.

Lawbreaker Serum

Following the events of my current Cypher System Fantasy meets The Strange campaign, there becomes a way for recursors from worlds other than Earth to retain their powers.  The Estate R&D division learned how to synthesize the power of the Baezedaar Bracers of Ardeyn  creating a special serum (in the form of a cypher) that grants users the ability to permanently retain  recursion laws while undergoing inapposite gate travel.  

Official Estate designation for the serum is LB-X3, which stands for "Legendary Baezedaar Experiment #3", however most agents refer to it as "Lawbreaker".  Typically when someone (or something) travels through an inapposite gate, they lose their native laws (magic, mad-science, super powers) in a few days.  But with the Lawbreaker, they can keep any powers and abilities as they travel from recursion to recursion.

Unfortunately, it didn't take the Estate long to learn that they weren't the first to figure out how to engineer Lawbreaker serum.  The shadowy Bradley Cooperative had access to a Baezedaar bracer, worn by the Dragon-God Rhilan.  They created their own serum, and the Estate believes it was released onto the black market to the most powerful criminal organizations in the world.

New Cypher:  LB-X3 or Lawbreaker Serum

• Level:  1d6+3
• Earth:  A vile of purple-tinged liquid, often delivered via syringe 
• Arden:  A thin, ceramic replica of a Baezedaar Bracer
• Ruk:  A canister filled with a purple jelly
• Effect:  Lawbreaker Serum permanently grants the user the ability to retain their native recursion laws indefinitely.  World to world, recursion to recursion, their foci and any special abilities never fade.  This has the most effect for recursors traveling from recursions where super powers or godlike abilities are available.  Power shifts are covered under this effect as well.  A significant drawback to the Lawbreaker Serum is that it cannot be used by someone who is Quickened.  While the original Baezedaar Bracers granted anyone this power, it did so at the risk of alerting Planetovores to the Earth's presence.  The Lawbreaker Serum's power is more limited, and only works on those who have strong connections to their own home recursion.   

E.S.P.E.R.

Faced with this new threat of wizards, dragons, super villains, and mad scientists coming to Earth to take up residence, the Estate decided to start recruiting super heroes.  This new division would be called E.S.P.E.R., or "Estate Supernatural Paranormal Extraordinary Ranger."  Lead Operative Katherine Manners placed star agent Lily "Dance Tank" Hayes (as played by +Darcy Ross in my second playtest of The Strange) as the new chief of ESPER.  Potential ESPER agents and operatives (often just called "ESPER's") were located in their home recursions, given the LB-X3 serum, and brought back to Earth.

ESPER's are specially trained and equipped to deal with the strongest threats that face the Earth.  While the program was created as a direct counter to other super-power wielding forces, ESPER's are often dispatched against threats traveling through inapposite gates, as they wield special abilities for a few days.

The Pittsburgh ESPER's

Our family created the following characters for this new adventure:

My wife Jennifer played Megara Parr, once a villain and now trying to become a hero.

• Clever Speaker who Commands Mental Powers
• Native to the Metroville recursion (The Incredibles)
• Power Shifts:  Erase Memories 3, Spin Identity 2

Cooper, my five year old, played Ciron Man, his homage to "Iron Man," but with a letter "C" for "Cooper"

• Swift Explorer who Fuses Flesh and Steel
• Native to a Marvel recursion
• Power Shifts:  Recovery Rolls 2, Melee Damage (Spiked Glove) 2, Ranged Damage (Palm Blaster) 2

Evie, nine, played Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom

• Noble Warrior who Carries a Quiver
• Native to Mount Olympus
• Power Shifts:  Ranged Damage (Athena's Bow) 2, Ranged Attack (Athena's Bow) 1, Armor 2

Finally Carrie, twelve, came up with The Doodler, a young girl who can bring art and animation to life

• Creative Adept who Exists in Two Places at Once
• Native to a Marvel recursion
• Power Shifts:  Duplicate 3, Onslaught 2, 

Adventure Outline - Pittsburgh Pulp

I threw together a quick adventure for my wife and kids, so I thought I'd share the full adventure outline.  Feel free to expand on this skeleton and turn it into something much bigger for your own home game!  I may even give this a shot with a grownup group, or at a future convention.

• The player characters are ESPER's, members of a special arm of the Estate
• Recent ESPER recruits, have not been sent on a mission yet.
• Working out of a small office park in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, just east of Pittsburgh.  
• The ESPER's receive word from Chief Hayes that something terrible has happened at the Carnegie Science Center on Pittsburgh's North Side.
• The call comes through very early in the morning, around 7am.
• Chief Hayes says that a madman has taken over the Carnegie Science Center, along with a force of mechanized soldiers in some kind of weird power armor.  
• The ESPER's are to travel to the Carnegie Science Center, clear the area of civilians, infiltrate, and bring the maniac to justice.  
• The villain is needed for questioning, and is not to be killed.
• The ESPER's are to operate undercover, and not openly reveal their abilities unless absolutely necessary.
• Pittsburgh Traffic
• Once the ESPER's get the information, they will find out that the road's are jammed.  Parkway East traffic is at a standstill due to activity around the city.  
• Estate orders mean that the ESPER's will need to come up with creative ways to get to the other side of the Squirrel Hill Tunnels fast. 
• Driving with a car is next to impossible, unless the ESPER's plan to drive through backroads at speeds that will most certainly be dangerous.
• Getting to the Carnegie Science Center in less than an hour will be a level 5 driving difficulty, and a level 6 difficulty in less than a half hour. 
• A similar test for evading the police will be necessary, at a level 6, should the half-hour attempt be made. 
• GM Intrusion!  Flat tire, difficulty 3 repair skill to change.
• Unwelcome Visitors of the Eleventh Reich
• The Eleventh Reich is featured in Worlds Numberless and Strange
• Doctor Walther Goering is a recursor from the Eleventh Reich who stumbled upon an inapposite gate connecting his home recursion with Heinz Field (where the Steelers play). 
• For Doctor Goering I just reskinned the "Mystereon" from The Strange Bestiary.
• Instead of Stealth at a level 6, Doctor Goering gets Mad Science at a level 7.
• Along with a group of super soldiers, Doctor Goering traveled to Earth hoping to learn about any potential technological advances that could help the Fuhrer.  A "science center" seemed like the perfect place to start.
• Doctor Goering's super soldiers have the following stats:
• Level 4
• Health 12
• Speed Defense at Level 5
• Armor 3
• Long Range Machine Gun attack, 5 damage
• These boosts are due to the War Walker artifacts each are wearing, from page 63 of Worlds Numberless and Strange
• Dr. Goering is a mad scientist, capable of creating incredible pieces of pulp technology with limited resources.  He carried enough spare parts with him to build new equipment if necessary.  
• After learning everything he could of this modern Earth at the science center, the Doctor planned to convert the USS Requin into a fully-functioning super-submarine.  Then he could make his escape!
• Arrival at the Carnegie Science Center
• A map to the Carnegie Science Center can be found here
• 2 Nazi armored soldiers guard the front of the building, and 5 the are between the building and the U.S.S. Requin display.  
• The U.S.S. Requin a previously functional World War 2 era submarine.
• There is a lot of commotion happening inside of the submarine, and the 5 guards here are keeping a close eye on anyone approaching.
• There will be a crowd on the eastern edge of the building, held back by a row of police cars.  
• Several small boats are creeping towards the scene via as well, and the police do not notice.  If not dealt with quickly, machine gun fire will erupt from the 1st floor windows, shooting up the civilian boats.  
• Entering the Carnegie Science Center
• Doctor Goering is only interested in the 1st level of the science center right now, and has assembled a work space in the River View Cafe.
• Doctor Goering is protected by 5 of his super soldiers.  At any time 2 are standing near him, and the other 3 patrol the 1st level.
• GM Intrusion!  A custodian arrives on the scene inside the building, and starts up a conversation with the ESPER's, oblivious to what is going on, potentially blowing everyone's cover.
• Chased!
• If Doctor Goering believes that he is at risk of getting overtaken by either the ESPER's or the police, he will run to the Requin carrying a large case (with the help of two of his super soldiers).
• Once inside the Requin, he unleashes the mad science fury, powering up the submarine.  The Requin is a Level 7 submarine, and will dive after 2 rounds.
• GM Intrusion!  The submarine dives early, and a player character gets dragged under water.  
• Reward!
• If the player characters capture Doctor Goering alive they each receive 2 experience points.
• If the player characters manage to capture Doctor Goering without giving away their own abilities they gain an additional experience point.  

Session Summary

Our local team of Pittsburgh based ESPER's were sent in to capture Dr. Goering and bring him back for questioning.  After braving Parkway East traffic, the team arrived at the scene and tried sneaking into the school bus entrance of the Carnegie Science Center.  The Doodler and Megara Parr made it past easily, but Athena and Ciron Man were stopped by the police, even after The Doodler created a pair of sentient pillows (her duplicate) to soften the cyborg's steps.  Megara tried sweet talking the cop, but he became infuriated and tried to arrest the Clever Speaker.  The Doodler was able to glue the police officer's hand to his cuffs, and the team ran inside the science center.

Once inside, the ESPER's found Dr. Goering working on a strange suitcase while laughing maniacally.  Although a nearby janitor, unaware of the situation, made shooting difficult, Megara Parr fired off some stun gas bullets, taking two of Dr. Goering's guards out of action temporarily.  Since they wanted the Dr. Alive, The Doodler convinced Althena to put an arrow in Dr. Goering's knee.  

Megara tried reasoning with Dr. Goering, asking him to come quietly for questioning.  The Doctor explained that he wanted to go to the submarine, but Megara kept him from doing so.  Everything was going fine until the psychic admitted that they weren't planning on killing the Nazi scientist.  Dr. Goering injected himself with a healing syringe and ran off.  Megara, accompanied by The Doodler's pillow-based alter ego, chased down Dr. Goering, and knocked him to the ground.

A firefight opened up, with Megara and the Doodler's duplicate getting blasted by power-armor clad soldiers.  Athena, Ciron Man, and The Doodler made short work of the ones inside the Carnegie Science Center, and by the time they joined Megara, the psychic had the situation under control.  Megara zapped Dr. Goering's mind and made him forget the entire incident.  She even implanted a memory, suggesting that he wanted to accompany the party back to headquarters.  

The team was almost done, but they stopped to let Dr. Goering hand off his briefcase.  One of the guards took the case and put it in the USS Requin, causing the submarine to gain power and speed off out of control towards the city of Pittsburgh!  Dr. Goering warned that if the sub impacted a building there would be a great explosion.  Quickly The Doodler drew some jump boots on her feet while Athena fired an arrow, tied off to a rope, at the sub.  The two heroes boarded the craft, and Athena used a shield cypher as a blade to destroy the briefcase powerplant.  

Quotes

The Doodler:  "Bow and Arrow girl, let's go."

Athena:  "Excuse me?  Call me by my goddess name!"

"Aww, he's gonna take an arrow to the knee!"  - Carrie

"Take him down, Pillow Fort!" - Jen

"Have you met my buddy Ciron Man?  He takes care of those who shoot."  - Megara 

Carrie's gift to me, a portrait!

My Strange Cinematic Universe

I spent some time last week writing about a potential shift in my regular, grown-up gaming group, but I didn't even consider that my kiddos would have some input.  We've been on a bit of a super-hero binge here at the Walls residence, blasting through the Marvel Cinematic Universe one flick at a time.  While my wife and I have seen several of the movies (Iron Man, The Avengers, and Captain America: The First Avenger), the kids had only seen bits and pieces of these, all when they were younger.  So my daughter Evie and I made a trip over to the local CD Warehouse and grabbed up Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant Man.  

Adding these to our existing collection we started watching one movie a day.  It's been a lot of fun exploring these films with the family, especially those that I hadn't seen yet.  Each child's reaction has been different, and somewhat surprising.  

Cooper's favorite super hero is Spider Man... wait, now he says Batman... wait, he just said his "pretty close favorite one is Iron Man."  I think it's safe to say that my five year old isn't quite ready to commit to a favorite yet.  Further confusing is how both Spider Man and Batman came into our conversation just now, considering they were not in the Marvel movies we watched recently.  

Quite surprising is that neither Evie nor Carrie listed a favorite "super hero" from the movies, but instead rattled off the names of villains.  Evie's favorite character was Loki from the Avengers, and Carrie's was Bucky from Captain America: Winter Soldier.  Perhaps I should fear these dark streaks.  

My favorite character from this week's super hero lineup was Hellboy... 

... because he's my favorite super hero of all time, and I sneaked in a viewing late one night while sick.  If Nick Fury really wanted to be rid of Hydra quickly he should've just called his friends over at the BPRD.  

The topic of role-playing games came up last night just after finishing Avengers: Age of Ultron.  I told the girls that I was interested in playing an RPG on my birthday Friday, and Carrie turned to me, bright eyed, exclaiming "super heroes!"  I've spent a lot of time formulating ideas for a supers game with my online group, but it didn't really cross my mind for the kiddos.  

I delayed bedtime last night, and Carrie, Evie, and I drafted some initial thoughts for something we are going to call...

Agents of The Estate

Fans of the The Strange, a Cypher System powered campaign setting by Monte Cook Games, will recognize "The Estate" as a secretive organization that protects the Earth from the dangers of an alien dark energy network.  Estate agents travel across many new worlds and pocket universes, called "Recursions", often spawned from myth and legend.  

Regular readers of this blog may note my love of The Strange, and how easy it is to create incredible mash-up adventures using the setting.    

My daughters are also fans of The Strange, and each have Estate agent characters from previous games.  Together we noted a few parallels between S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Estate while watching the Marvel movies together, although in The Strange the only way (supposedly) to have super powers is to gain them by traveling to recursions.  But still, we could see heroes like Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Falcon working for the Estate.  I plan on using The Estate in a similar manner as the BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense) from Hellboy, with our heroes being more secretive and undercover wherever possible.  

The three of us all agreed that a super hero style campaign set in The Strange's multiverse would be a lot of fun, but there was one problem:

The girls wanted to be super heroes even on Earth.

They weren't talking Black Widow or Hawkeye super-spies either; both girls had some very well thought out super hero concepts requiring magic or super-science.

Evie wants to play a young goddess (like Thor or Loki) who wields a magic bow.  

Carrie wants to play a super creative artist who can draw pictures and then animate them into reality.  

Neither of these fit a world with standard physics (a concept from The Strange), but there is no way I'm telling anyone "no."  I just need to figure out how to make this work...

... so I'm open to suggestions.  

Right now I'm thinking about having something occur at the end of my current Cypher System Fantasy/The Strange adventure series that will make this all possible.  I'm just not sure "what" yet.  I've already allowed characters from the recursion of Ardeyn to come to Earth along with their types and foci, so perhaps I've already left this door open and am just now coming to the realization.  

SCU

Marvel fans have their Marvel Cinematic Universe, or "MCU", and my players in The Strange have the same.  Since kicking off my very first playtest of The Strange in December of 2013, I've always considered each adventure and campaign as taking place in the same universe.  As we've moved from one game to another, previous characters have made cameos, either as Estate agents, or of Hoffman Institute operatives (an organization from Alternity: Dark Matter that I used in some early playtests.)

My Marvel fan friends have been very clear that I need to watch the movies in proper order, so I thought I'd come up with my own version of this chronology... but for my games in The Strange.

• The Strange Playtest #1 [Classified, but it involved Norse mythology]
• The Strange Playtest #2 [Classified, but it involved fantasy video games and a U-Haul Golem]
• The Dark Spiral Playtest [Classified, but GM'd by +Jeremy Land.  Characters from this game, especially my paradox Conrad Merrick, have made cameos in later sessions.]
• Dingo & The Cosmos, sessions 1-4 [A short series of adventures with my wife and daughters.]
• Eschatology Code
• All Gobbled Up [A Thanksgiving-themed one-shot]
• Granite Mountain Prison [A D&D Adventure converted to The Strange]
• Under Strange Suns, sessions 1-5 [A Dark Sun/Star Wars/Sherlock Holmes mash-up campaign]
• Cypher System Fantasy, sessions 1-4 [Actually a campaign of The Strange, but Ardeyn-native]
• Gobbler Road: Beyond Gravy Dome [Strange Thanksgiving Special #2, featuring Dingo & the Cosmos]
• Cypher System Fantasy, sessions 5-12 
• Agents of The Estate [Starting this Friday, May 13th, which is my birthday!]

Cypher System Fantasy - Dragon Hunt

Now With 50% Less Verbiage!

Regular readers of Living 4 Crits, especially those who have been following our Cypher System Fantasy campaign, take note.  

What you have before you is my "new and improved" session report blog format.  A few days ago I asked for, and received, some feedback from the community regarding my blog format.  While I enjoy going back to read my old adventure summaries and play reports, actually writing these documents became incredibly time consuming.  On a good day it would only take one hour of writing for every hour spent in game.  Often that ratio would balloon out of proportion.  

Skipping these recaps was not an option.  This blog started out as a home for my play reports, and it will remain as such... until the end of time.  

But I needed to do some trimming.  

I have adopted a format similar to what I've been using for my Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG World Tour 2016 events: some play notes and a bunch of interesting bullets.  In addition, and by popular request, I've kept the "Quotes" section, and expanded that content.  

So read on and let me know what you think.  

Living 4 Crits Presents

A Cypher System Fantasy/The Strange Campaign

Gabriella Winter and the Dragon Curse of Ardeyn

Cast

• Zamani, a Spiritual (Ugallu*) Explorer (Magic) who Masters Foot and Fist**, played by Andy
• Shenuesh, a Rugged Adept (Combat) who Wields Two Weapons at Once, played by Jeremy
• Yaren, a Foolish Warrior who Stands Like a Bastion, played by Craig
• Verrenn, a Spectral*** Adept who Casts Spells, played by Marc
• Gabriella****, a Charming Spinner who Works the System, played by Frank

* Ugallu is a race option from Broken Immersion by Ryan Chaddock Games
** Masters Foot and Fist is from Worlds Numberless and Strange by Monte Cook Games
*** Spectral is a new and original focus written by Marc Plourde and featured on his blog, Inspiration Strikes
**** Formerly a Charming Speaker who Works Miracles on Ardeyn

Our Story So Far… 

• Episode 1:  Dream Patrol
• Episode 2:  Ribs
• Episode 3:  Skull
• Episode 4:  Glitch
• Episode 5:  Starfall in Ardeyn, Part One
• Episode 6:  Starfall in Ardeyn, Part Two
• Episode 7:  Starfall in Ardeyn, Part Three
• Episode 8:  Through the Night
• Episode 9:  Sailors on the Starless Sea, Part One
• Episode 10:  Sailors on the Starless Sea, Part Two
• Episode 11:  Welcome to The Strange

Episode 12: Dragon Hunt

Summary

Gabriella Winter and her associates from the fantasy recursion of Ardeyn travel to Western Maryland to investigate the Bradley Cooperative.  Unable to truly integrate themselves into modern Earth society, the party has some strange interactions with the locals.  They even had the opportunity to participate in a fantasy roleplaying game in their hotel room with some country-folk.  After locating the Bradley Cooperative's headquarters at Wisp Golf Course, the party showed up looking to play a round of golf.  Verrenn used his ability to turn invisible to locate Verity Bradley's secret office.  

The Bradley Cooperative staff asked the party to leave, and ended up overhearing some of the comments between Zamani, Shenuesh, Yaren, and Gabriella.  The staff pulled their weapons, and a brutal combat opened up in the clubhouse.  At the end of the fight, four staff members were dead, as well as a Golf-Pro Ninja, and Verity Bradley.  Grabbing Verity's tablet computer, the party quickly fled the scene in a stolen SUV and were pursued by a Bradley Initiative helicopter.  Gabriella drove the vehicle into the garage of a rental property, and the party took refuge until Verrenn could use a paralysis ray cypher to incapacitate the helicopter pilot, causing him to crash.  

Notable Moments

• At the start of the adventure I asked all of the players to describe what their characters were wearing.  Andy noted that Zamani was dressed in an outfit resembling a burka that one could purchase at Hot Topic (my words, his description).  When the party arrived in Deep Creek, I brought out the GM Intrusion.  Zamani had become obsessed with the concept of "bacon" and wandered over to a nearby McDonalds, finding himself in line for a breakfast sandwich.  I didn't realize that Zamani's social skills were spectacular, as the cat-man talked his way out of the restaurant with a full belly.

• After getting his food, Zamani was accosted by a townie outside the McDonalds.  The guy mistook Zamani for a foreigner, and followed him back to the Motel 23.  Zamani told the rest of the party that he had been followed, and the townies eventually knocked up for the group.  Somehow the discussion of "dragon hunting" was mentioned, and I decided to make these townies a bit interesting.  The two guys talked their way into the party's hotel room, and started setting up for something involving dragons.  The exact term "chasing the dragon" kept coming up, and there was a briefcase involved, so the players thought this was going to be some kind of drug operation.  They were all surprised when the one townie (Jeff) started handing out character sheets for a pickup game of Dragonlance.  The characters played D&D into the early hours of the morning with these two guys, and then they left.  

• After a game of D&D, why not some golf?  When the characters learned that the Bradley Cooperative had a base of operations at a local golf course, there was a lot of debate on whether or not to lead a daylight assault or a night mission.  The group voted for a daylight reconnaissance, including at least one round of golf.  If we had more time I would've allowed this to be role-played, but I kept with my original adventure design that the golf course only appeared to be in operation, and wasn't actually a working business.  

• During the combat scene there were three types of combatants:
• Bradley Operatives Masquerading as Golfers:  Level 4
• Titleist Hat Wearing Pro-Golf Ninja:  Level 6, Katana (6 Damage), 18 Health, 2 Armor
• Verity Bradley:  Level 7, 25 Health, Crippling Wu Tang Strike (8 damage, reduces opponent movement by one level for next round)

• The image of a golf pro ninja guy in a sword fight against Zamani was pretty wicked!  I really wish I could've had that scene captured on video somehow... maybe get it animated.  Cat-Monk versus Golf Ninja!

• The Pro-Golfer's sword was a Hattori Hanzo blade (from Kill Bill, obviously):  Level 5 Artifact, Heavy Weapon, 7 damage instead of 6, 1d20 depletion (on the roll of a 1 the blade needs to be resharpened, a difficulty 7 task).   He also had a golf club cypher with an explosive blast (Level 7).

• That paralyzing ray emitter cypher used by Verrenn on the helicopter pilot?  It was a putter!  The party found it in the golf pro shop and put it to good use.

Quotes

"Wait, are there wizards in DC now?" - Andy wasn't sure if he would translate into a wizard should he take his bracer of.

"I do not understand this ride.  Why am I moist?" - Marc as if he were Verrenn in Disneyland... because the party discussed going to Disneyland.

"We're all in trench coats.  Trench coats and hats."  -  Craig's outfit description.

"I already look like the Big Lebowski anyway.  I'm walking around in an arcane bathrobe." - Marc had the perfect gear.

"I'm here for bacon... I'm gonna get some!" - Zamani.

"So Andy is playing Zamani who is playing a girl in a burka who is playing Tasslehoff Burrfoot?" - Frank had a pretty accurate understanding of where this game was going.

"Do we go back to the Estate now and report that we won?" - Zamani thought that the D&D game was the entire purpose of the mission.

"The problem is that every single person playing golf may be a member of the Bradley Cooperative." - Frank, in a phrase I've never imagined hearing uttered in a game.

"Yeah, let's go play golf, that would be awesome." - Gabriella

"I'm assuming I couldn't carry a sword into a golf course." - Craig

"What strange form the dragon has taken!" - Verrenn describes a helicopter.

"I would hope to god that the police have better than a one hour response time for a helicopter machine-gunning a house." - Jeremy, after someone in the group figured that the local police couldn't get to the scene any sooner than the Estate.

"I think we drive away with the exploding thing behind us." - Andy