Designers Notes: Secret Masters (Pyramid Scheme: Modern Action Issue)

 With the latest GURPS Kickstarter coming to a close and currently shy just $515 and 96 backers to unlock the final streatch goals I thought it a good time to do my designers notes for one of the things you can get as an add-on.

Edit: That is now just $253 and 77 backers to go as I finish and submit this post to the internet.

The Pyramid Scheme was three issues of a dozen articles and is available again at the $15 pledge value, getting you 36 great articles plus all the new supplements!

Secret Masters

This was my article for the Modern Action issue of the Pyramid Scheme Kickstarter.

GURPS Conspiracy Resources

Steve Jackson Games has long been know for a fondness of conspiracy and behind the scenes games, board games, card games, and RPGs all have had their share of fun conspiracy related themes.

GURPS Illuminati was for GURPS Third Edition and this article was a way to adapt some of it to Fourth Edition and add a fresh twist.  Instead of just being aware and part of a conspiracy the character can be in charge of one!

GURPS Fourth Edition includes the advantage Illuminated which I think we first saw in GURPS Illuminati but was also included in GURPS Voodoo another great conspiracy setting. This advantage lets you be aware of the conspiracy and grants some nice benefits.  GURPS Social Engineering (pretty much the entire series). GURPS Boardroom and Curia helps give simple stat sheets to organizations and GURPS Realm Management helps with running a country or town.  Supported by some Pyramid articles as seen here.

This is all great for players running organizations or player characters being pawns or members of such, but what I felt was lacking was being a mover and shaker.

Illuminated Master

The core idea behind this article was using existing resources and rules as much as possible. I created one new advantage, though its essentially just an Unusual Background.

This allows the player to buy Rank in an organization without actually being a member of it. The advantage includes some other stuff and the article a lot of suggestions I wont go into here (Buy it) but the concept and gist is that Rank gives you limited authority in an organization but typically requires a Duty, and required skills or other advantages and significantly accountability! However when your not the CEO or General but have them in your pocket (or at least can call in favors) you can get stuff done. I also briefly suggest options for non-supernatural advantages. After all you dont need magical powers to manipulate people!

And some genre ideas for existing advantages, skills, and techniques as well as book recommendations.

What is Left?

Articles are very tight word count and I left out a lot of potential ideas that could have been done in a supplement.  Recently I started in a campaign where I am playing a godling with Business as a domain and Businessman! for a wildcard. Manipulating corporations seemed a good for him so I proposed this advantage and article to the GM (Christopher Rice). He countered with buying Rank with Cosmic which is a good option, especially for controlling one or just a few organizations. I'll add my proposed ideas to that response here. Mind you these are proposed and have not yet been submitted or accepted and he may have differing opinions or ideas.

• Cosmic (Rank (Organization Name, Unattached), +50%): Your Rank is unofficial and does not require you to have a Duty or obligation to the organization. Your a known associate, perhaps retired or a benefactor and people will know about your relationship.
• Cosmic (Rank Organization Name, Stealth), +100%: You have effective Rank in the organization but your orders and requests are effectively "Black Box" and not traceable directly to you or even a specific associate.  This cinematic capability can represent the work of a department that can issue commands or requests without accountability or people desiring to look into the directives. It can also represent fake identities, shell companies holding assets, or simply a network of contacts through which requests can be made without holding a single valued asset responsible. Includes the Unattached level and commands can be obviously from your or untraceable at your discretion.
• Cosmic (Rank, (Organization Name, Illuminated), +300%: This godlike tricks level has all the advantages of Stealth above, but extraordinary access as well. Orders can be issued with absurdly fast reaction times as you bypass normal channels and procedure and no one really knows who or why such directives were made. While the organization may be held accountable by others, internally no one can be properly assigned responsibility. Its up to the effects and GM to see if this results in finger pointing a scapegoat (personal rivals for example) or closing ranks to present a unified front.

Rank can be normal, Informal, -50% (GURPS Power-Ups 8: Limitations, p. 15), or Courtesy - though the limitations of Courtesy Rank (p. B29) still apply in that most non trivial requests will be denied as you have respect, but without authority.

The GM's other suggestion was Rank! a wildcard version. That could look something like this.

Rank! (20/level)

You have extraordinary leadership and social presence and people tend to listen to you even when they probably shouldn't. This can come from extreme social skills such as Talker! or knowledge within various fields and about organizations.  This could allow any 5 point power (per level) the GM approves, including different types of Rank. The powers must be plausible uses of Rank and if they are limited use traits (Contact, Serendipity, etc.) that trait is unavailable for the normal duration. This is similar to how traits like Blessed work under Divine Favor.

* Compare to alternative abilities which would get you up to 16 instances of Rank per level for the same 20 points. Though you could have different levels of Rank in differing organizations, instead of the same in 16 organizations. Its more expensive (that is a LOT of organizations!) but more versatile and certainly easier bookkeeping!

Mitzadu would likely take it with Aspected (Merchant), -20% and Costs CP as an aspect of his godly Domain (Business), though if he had Domain (Leadership) or something similar it would be without the Aspected modifier.

Anyhow I hope you found this useful or at least interesting and even better if you like the concept enough to add that Pyramid to your pledge.  And there is more material I could add, including many more examples should a full supplement be requested,

ATTG Season 1, Session 6 Die Spartans!

 GMs Recap

Casting

• Adelphin "Adel" Jean-Baptiste (Laurie) Domains (Death and Magic), child of  Werethekau and Baron Samedi. Machiavellian meddler. Power unto herself. Adelphin can kill with a glance, manipulate magic as if she were born to it (she was), and doesn't seem to be able to actually die. Tagline: "I'm not the devil, but betray me and I will show you hell".
• Siv (NPC) Child of Odin, handed to Adelphin for protection.
• Cosmos aka Management (Ally), an unusual cat that is her hotel manager.
• Rui Qui (Ally) Theogenic demigod, hacker, magician.
• Liam O'Shea (Randy) Domain (Strength) and child of Dagda. A huge, powerful, and deadly warrior. A druid and generally a likeable guy. Taught the old ways but is comfortable with the modern. He's traveled much of the world and is looking to see even more. Tagline: "I told you I wouldn't fit."
• Mitzidu Ito (Rory) Domains (Business, Hearth/kitchen), child of Inari and Kojin. The teams business guru, event planner and entertainer. Taglines: "Life never tasted this good before!" and "The Hearth is the heart of the home, but food is the soul of a community"
• Suveer Patel (Christian) Domain (Clearing Obstructions), child of Ganesh.  Martial artist and student of a thousand styles, Suveer is one of the teams upfront fighters with fists or his gauda (mace). He can get past any obstacle put before him. Tagline: "You are in front of me and no obstacle can stop me. Find a better place to be."
• Yannis Papadopoulos aka The Courier (Chris D.) Domains (Communication, Secrets, Rainbows), child of Harpocrates and Arke. Team sneaker and postman. If you see him, its already too late, your package has been delivered. Tagline: "The thirty minutes or less policy is for those that like to live dangerously."
• Chad (NPC), child of Cupid

 Ready, Set, Fight!

After having rescued Maki the group opted to finish the kidnappers off to keep them from trying again and passing along a message to others who might be considering going after the group.

Awaiting a signal from Yanninis everyone but Liam is on the roof preparing to jump in through a skylight. 

Unfortunately the group showed its newness in working together and communication pus several tactical errors were made.

Rui breaks into the skylight over the far end of the boxing ring and jumps down, followed by Adelphin. Liam busts down the door (Hey big guy, it was unlocked!) with a dramatic "Oh, Yeah!" Garret (one of the three enemy demigods) activates a power (dont think we ever noticed what it was). Suveer drops down from the skylight over the near side of the boxing ring and middle of the building, landing on a cultist. Mitzidu realizes that its a pretty far jump (25 feet) onto concrete and heads towards the next skylight where Suveer went in. Yannis stalls trying to figure out the best action.

The cultists let loose with automatic weapons and enchanted guns, taking out Liam and Chad and crippling Suveers leg.  Yannis shoots Paul (the mage demigod) through the heart with a deadly rainbow and is overloaded by absorbing the godlings power. Mitzidu notes that someone (likely he or Adellphin) should have made sure the younger godlings new about that backlash from permanently killing another godling. Adelphin uses her deathgaze on Garret, killing him. Mitzadu leaps down into the ring, opting to land on Chad to break his fall (apprentices are supposed to be abused right?) and with his Acrobatics takes no damage. Suveer scuttles under the ring to avoid all the gunfire. The cultists shoot more, the group avoids most of the bullets, though only Mitzidu and Adelphin are unscathed. Apparently the cultist near Liam really liked that door as he continues to empty his gun into the already dead Liam, reloads and does it again. And again.

Rui heads upstairs to the office to eliminate the snipers while Adelphin raise dead cultists as zombies then decides to finish off the godling she already took out. She knocks herself out in the process. Mitzadu wondered why, maybe shes too obsessed with death? Surely shes not trying to ascend and in any case would have trusted the others not to take her kill.

At this point only Rui, a crippled Suveer, and Mitzadu are in the fight and several cultists are still shooting at us, along with Mary the remaining demigod who trades sword blows with Mitzadu.

Mitzadu is actually disarmed by Mary who easily saw through his feint and leaps back to avoid her blow while getting closer to the two remaining cultists shooting at him. Suveer finishes off the cultist who went after him, Liam bleeds more, Adelphin and Yannis take a nap, and Mitzadu summons his sword from the ground and beheads the two cultists just as he had the first one to shoot at him. As he turns to face Mary in hopes of a solid sword duel Suveer throws his cultist at her and then leaps and slams into her breaking her legs. Rui slept the guy unloading into Liam (He really had a mad on about that door!) and Mitzadu shakes the blood off his sword before sheathing it and stepping past Mary to go heal the wounded comrades.

Aftermath

We searched the building and questioned the survivors but aside from learning they were Spartans (Greek black Ops group) nothing much seemed to be had.

Suveer finished off Mary, though he asked the group first which Mitzadu appreciated but there was no honor in him taking her head.

The group called in cleaners to take care of the mess and noted that as no police had arrived, despite all the gunfire they had probably bribed the locals.

Mitzadu used a lot of his mana reserves, including that in his sword to heal everyone up and with her help Gated Maki back to Tokyo. The rest headed back to the hotel to clean up, stopping for fast food on the way.

AfterThoughts

We had a tense fight and the GM made some very lucky die rolls and the players (except for Adelphin) also made several critical failures. We also made some very poor tactical choices.

1. I think Mitzadu was the only one who had prepared charms ahead of time and used them (Lesser Celerity and Safeguard) and they helped keep him alive.
2. Liam, Adelphin, and Mitzadu should have had some combat charms prepared in advance and handed out.  If not we still had time before the fight to cast at least a couple of spells.
3. Relying on the infiltrator/stealth guy to give your signal has some drawbacks.
4. We should have positioned ourselves better, primarily Mitzadu. The player forgot Jumping did not reduce fall damage, only Acrobatics and he had to be in human form to use that. That cost him two turns once the fight started.
5. Finishing off the enemy godlings in the fight was a really bad idea. No fault to Yannis who didnt know, and the rest of us should have not assumed he knew.  I think I was the only player who anticipated a Highlander type Quickening and distraction and even I didnt anticipate you would go unconscious, figured Mental Stun which would still allow active defense, albeit at -4.  Not sure why Adelphin went for the kill. Both our character's should have known what was going on, the players should have thought to ask the GM and then tell the younger ones who had not gone through a harrowing yet. OTH the GM wanted it to be a dramatic reveal.
6. Liam opting to not take a reroll was a bad tactical choice but a respected role-playing choice. His foe crit hit him and he crit failed the HT check and could have used a wildcard point for the latter but figured the Fates or Norns were telling him something.

So lessons hopefully learned. The group needs to communicate better and be proactive with spells and charms.  Some body armor wouldn't hurt either. Ironically the only one not hurt was Mitzadu who had DR 0, but a bad Dodge roll and that would have changed.

The group is getting a powerup to spend saved experience from the last 6 games and 3 players also got a boost from killing demigods.  Armed with that and our battle experience hopefully were better prepared for4 the next fight.

It was a fun game though!

A Thousand Tiny Gods, Session 5: Save the Maiden!

 GM Recap

Casting

• Adelphin "Adel" Jean-Baptiste (Laurie) Domains (Death and Magic), child of  Werethekau and Baron Samedi. Machiavellian meddler. Power unto herself. Adelphin can kill with a glance, manipulate magic as if she were born to it (she was), and doesn't seem to be able to actually die. Tagline: "I'm not the devil, but betray me and I will show you hell".
• Liam O'Shea (Randy) Domain (Strength) and child of Dagda. A huge, powerful, and deadly warrior. A druid and generally a likeable guy. Taught the old ways but is comfortable with the modern. He's traveled much of the world and is looking to see even more. Tagline: "I told you I wouldn't fit."
• Mitzidu Ito (Rory) Domains (Business, Hearth/kitchen), child of Inari and Kojin. The teams business guru, event planner and entertainer. Taglines: "Life never tasted this good before!" and "The Hearth is the heart of the home, but food is the soul of a community"
• Suveer Patel (Christian) Domain (Clearing Obstructions), child of Ganesh.  Martial artist and student of a thousand styles, Suveer is one of the teams upfront fighters with fists or his gauda (mace). He can get past any obstacle put before him. Tagline: "You are in front of me and no obstacle can stop me. Find a better place to be."
• Yannis Papadopoulos aka The Courier (Chris D.) Domains (Communication, Secrets, Rainbows), child of Harpocrates and Arke. Team sneaker and postman. If you see him, its already too late, your package has been delivered. Tagline: "The thirty minutes or less policy is for those that like to live dangerously."
• Siv (NPC) Child of Odin, handed to Adelphin for protection.
• Chad (NPC), child of Cupid

Save Maki!

Everyone came to help Mitzidu save Maki, for which he was grateful. He rode his bike, following the foxfire and the rest followed him in one of Adelphins cars.

She was apparently captured and being held in a closed boxing gym. The group scattered to scout, each in their own way.

• Mitzidu turned into a fox and Liam threw him on the roof.
• Liam and Yannis went to the back door.
• Adelphin, Suveer, and an employee also went for the roof.

Yannis hid herself and went in to explore while the rest waited for a signal.  Than he decided to just rescue Mika and get her out of the building with an illusion covering her absence. Having her safe the group decided to send a message and dispatch the members of what is presumably a black lodge and the two demigods present.  Also its possible they are part of a larger plot rather than just a standard sacrificial ritual.  Finding out what was going on could be just as important as sending a message.

Break

We ended the session there for personal reasons and will picvk up the fight next time.

A Thousand Tiny Gods: Session 4 A Meeting

 GM Recap

Casting

• Adelphin "Adel" Jean-Baptiste (Laurie) Domains (Death and Magic), child of  Werethekau and Baron Samedi. Machiavellian meddler. Power unto herself. Adelphin can kill with a glance, manipulate magic as if she were born to it (she was), and doesn't seem to be able to actually die. Tagline: "I'm not the devil, but betray me and I will show you hell".
• Liam O'Shea (Randy) Domain (Strength) and child of Dagda. A huge, powerful, and deadly warrior. A druid and generally a likeable guy. Taught the old ways but is comfortable with the modern. He's traveled much of the world and is looking to see even more. Tagline: "I told you I wouldn't fit."
• Mitzidu Ito (Rory) Domains (Business, Hearth/kitchen), child of Inari and Kojin. The teams business guru, event planner and entertainer. Taglines: "Life never tasted this good before!" and "The Hearth is the heart of the home, but food is the soul of a community"
• Suveer Patel (Christian) Domain (Clearing Obstructions), child of Ganesh.  Martial artist and student of a thousand styles, Suveer is one of the teams upfront fighters with fists or his gauda (mace). He can get past any obstacle put before him. Tagline: "You are in front of me and no obstacle can stop me. Find a better place to be."
• Yannis Papadopoulos aka The Courier (Chris D.) Domains (Communication, Secrets, Rainbows), child of Harpocrates and Arke. Team sneaker and postman. If you see him, its already too late, your package has been delivered. Tagline: "The thirty minutes or less policy is for those that like to live dangerously."
• Siv (NPC) Child of Odin, handed to Adelphin for protection.
• Chad (NPC), child of Cupid

The Breakfast Club

Adelphin called for a breakfast meeting, Mitzidu and Liam decided to attend out of curiosity. Notes were shared, though not much new was to be had. Adelphin had one of her employees brief everyone on his research and he had found three groups, probably lodges operating in the area. Poseidon had retrieved his child and it appeared the Greek pantheon was up to something.  Also someone, likely a black lodge had cast a city wide spell that made people feel anxious which could be to help them draw energy.

Adelphin was asked to go outside and check on the spell and Mitzidu went to initate some research on new leases and purchases to help find out where groups might be operating out of.

As Mitzidu walked to his bike a foxfire buzzed his head and Maki Enko whispered in his head that she had been captured and to follow it to where she was.  He called the others to see if they would help.

Afterthoughts

Most of the game was us chatting around the breakfast table, the info was pretty quick but it felt like things had gone on too long so I had Mitzidu leave to get us to the next phase. We also had a shortened game.

ATTG Session 3: The Mystery Deepens

 GM Recap

Casting

• Adelphin "Adel" Jean-Baptiste (Laurie) Domains (Death and Magic), child of  Werethekau and Baron Samedi. Machiavellian meddler. Power unto herself. Adelphin can kill with a glance, manipulate magic as if she were born to it (she was), and doesn't seem to be able to actually die. Tagline: "I'm not the devil, but betray me and I will show you hell".
• Liam O'Shea (Randy) Domain (Strength) and child of Dagda. A huge, powerful, and deadly warrior. A druid and generally a likeable guy. Taught the old ways but is comfortable with the modern. He's traveled much of the world and is looking to see even more. Tagline: "I told you I wouldn't fit."
• Mitzidu Ito (Rory) Domains (Business, Hearth/kitchen), child of Inari and Kojin. The teams business guru, event planner and entertainer. Taglines: "Life never tasted this good before!" and "The Hearth is the heart of the home, but food is the soul of a community"
• Suveer Patel (Christian) Domain (Clearing Obstructions), child of Ganesh.  Martial artist and student of a thousand styles, Suveer is one of the teams upfront fighters with fists or his gauda (mace). He can get past any obstacle put before him. Tagline: "You are in front of me and no obstacle can stop me. Find a better place to be."
• Yannis Papadopoulos aka The Courier (Chris D.) Domains (Communication, Secrets, Rainbows), child of Harpocrates and Arke. Team sneaker and postman. If you see him, its already too late, your package has been delivered. Tagline: "The thirty minutes or less policy is for those that like to live dangerously."
• Siv (NPC) Child of Odin, handed to Adelphin for protection.
• Chad (NPC), child of Cupid

This session pretty much started with dinner. We briefly introduced Chad to the others and talked about the party the night before and that the Thule Society was in town and watching godlings to kidnap them for sacrifice. Yannis excused himself early to do some private stuff.

Liam announced he wanted to see casinos since this was his first time in Vegas and invited others to come. Mitzadu, Suveer, and Chad joined him while Adelphin had business to take care of.

The group started at the Luxor, because Pyramid! Suveer hit the roulette wheel, Mitzadu played Blackjack, and Liam and Chad played the slots.

Chad won a car and $50k early on then strutted around. As the group left for the next casino they noticed they were being followed by presumed Thule Society goons. Suveer turned them in at the casino where they were detained for carrying firearms and threatening patrons. Liam won 100K in pennies, hes not sure how but had fun sorting it out. Mitzidu blessed a down on his luck patron, giving him a card with some hastily jotted down stock tips and using his divine powers to grant the guy Filthy Rich and Independent Income 20 for the next month and a half. Th

e rest of the night was uneventful and not played through, though Suveer was called back early for work.

Yannis retraced the drive trying to get more info, none acquired.

Adelphin checked on the Lady in Red and found a locket in her effects she could not open so called Suveer to do it for her.  Inside was a picture of the patients daughter, unfortunately breaking the seal also broke a concealment spell.  As Adelphin was using a scrying spell she saw someone knock on the door and then shoot the lady taking care of the daughter then kidnap her. Yannis portaled the three over but as they appeared he created a portal and left. They jumped through before it could close, arriving in Olympus.

A lightning bolt hit the ground in front of them, followed shortly by Zeus who told them they were not welcome before spotting Adelphin and then flirting with her. Poseidon also showed up and took custody of the daughter who apparently was his? Poseidon made dagger eyes at Yannis and the group was told to depart, Zeus opened a portal to the street in front of the Karnival hotel and they left.

The casino hoppers were coming back at the same time, spotted the group coming out of the portal and asked what was going on. Adelphin was in a bad mood at what happened and told them she would tell them later.

Thats when the session ended (had gone over about an hour already).

Afterthoughts

This was the second session where the group was mostly separated and hopefully it starts to work together soon.  However the setting strongly encourages self-reliance as the godlings and demigods are all in competition for a small number  of ascension slots, or just to not lose their heads. Few people seek help for things they can do themselves, even if someone else can do it better.  As long as its "good enough" why get help?

Adelphin is crazy powerful, a multimillionaire, powerful mage, and has numerous connections. For example Odin just assigned his ward to her for safekeeping. Her "good enough" covers just about everything and she has two player characters in her employ, a strong warrior and a courier who can find out just about anything. Asking Liam or Mitzadu for help is pretty much playing out of character, at least if she can do it herself. 

Yannis is a godling of secrets so keeping things to himself also seems in character and outside of combat he is unlikely to need help with much of anything.

Liam is the strongest demigod in the campaign and a druid, but also new to town so is out of the loop on the plt hooks thrown out so far.

Mitzadu heard some information about the Thule Society and shared it but is largely unaware of things and so far totally unaware of the Poseidon or Lady in Red plots (this might change next session) and so far thinks things are normal and is just trying too help the new godlings get properly prepared for the Harrowing.

Everyone seems to be playing their characters well, but the GM is a bit frustrated and having to do extra work because not everyone is together much of each session. I expect this to change soon, however the setting and power level encourage self-reliance are obstacles that need to be overcome. The current plots (that I know of at least) may not be enough to do this as the situation appears to be something the outsiders can offer little to help with (though if given the opportunity I do have a few ideas) so it would be in character for the Karnival group to try and work out for themselves. Again, the very setting itself (think Highlander) encourages independence. If this plotline does not work right away hopefully another will.

ATTG Season 1 Session 2: The Plot Thickens

 GM Recap

Casting

• Adelphin "Adel" Jean-Baptiste (Laurie) Domains (Death and Magic), child of  Werethekau and Baron Samedi. Machiavellian meddler. Power unto herself. Adelphin can kill with a glance, manipulate magic as if she were born to it (she was), and doesn't seem to be able to actually die. Tagline: "I'm not the devil, but betray me and I will show you hell".
• Liam O'Shea (Randy) Domain (Strength) and child of Dagda. A huge, powerful, and deadly warrior. A druid and generally a likeable guy. Taught the old ways but is comfortable with the modern. He's traveled much of the world and is looking to see even more. Tagline: "I told you I wouldn't fit."
• Mitzidu Ito (Rory) Domains (Business, Hearth/kitchen), child of Inari and Kojin. The teams business guru, event planner and entertainer. Taglines: "Life never tasted this good before!" and "The Hearth is the heart of the home, but food is the soul of a community"
• Suveer Patel (Christian) Domain (Clearing Obstructions), child of Ganesh.  Martial artist and student of a thousand styles, Suveer is one of the teams upfront fighters with fists or his gauda (mace). He can get past any obstacle put before him. Tagline: "You are in front of me and no obstacle can stop me. Find a better place to be."
• Yannis Papadopoulos aka The Courier (Chris D.) Domains (Communication, Secrets, Rainbows), child of Harpocrates and Arke. Team sneaker and postman. If you see him, its already too late, your package has been delivered. Tagline: "The thirty minutes or less policy is for those that like to live dangerously."
• Siv (NPC) Child of Odin, handed to Adelphin for protection.

The day after the big into party the team had several ideas and wound up splitting off to do their own thing for the day. 

• Mitzidu decided to see what his friends might be like in a fight and see if any could use his help or advice and asked Adelphin if any of her staff, wards or friends would be interested in some friendly sparring.  He also specifically asked his new friend Liam to come along. Adelphin then pout out a call to the whole hotel, though only one taker showed up.
• Adelphin decided to get to know her new ward (Siv) and help get her setup and acclimated.
• Yannis opted to continue stalking the Lady in Red and simply could not resist the mystery of "what was in that package"

Mitzidu, Liam, and Chad Ramierez (son of Cupid) got in a limo and headed to Mitzidu's place in Sumerlin.

Mitzidu fixed a nice lunch with Liam pitching in and the group got to know each other over lunch, with Suveer joining up a little late. Mitzidu informed the group that a friend emailed him to say the Thule Society was in town and as all the others had not yet been through a harrowing he tried to tell them what to expect and things to watch for. After that they practiced sparring for about 4 hours, learning that Chad is very very bad with a sword - though excellent with a bow.  Chad became somewhat enamored of the group (possibly a family weakness) and especially with Mitzadu. They headed back to the Karnival hotel where they were told to come to dinner in a few hours.

Adelphin took Siv out shopping for clothes with Yannis as luggage bearer. Turns out Siv is really really new and has a sweet tooth. Siv doesnt speak English so Adelphin used a spell to translate.

Yannis, finally freed from  his concierge/butler duties went to check on his "lady friend" who apparently hadn't left her apt since he dropped her off.  He decided to break into the room, neatly avoid the deadly spell trap on the door to find her tied up on a chair. He quickly determined she had been poisoned and portaled her to the Karnival hotel for medical treatment then finished using his powers to scour the room for clues. It appeared she was attacked by a very powerful being with sea related powers just after he left her and tortured for information on where she got the item and who she was going to deliver it to. She refused to reveal the info and they left with the package after poisoning her with a spell that overdosed her on salt.

Afterthoughts

Even though the party spent most of the session split up each group managed to be entertaining which is important to keep everyone involved in a campaign and at least somewhat paying attention. Essentially you may only be on screen part of the time but as long as the whole show is fun its all good.

Delvers to Go!

 The latest project for GURPS from Gaming Ballistic Delvers to Go! has just 4 days to go. Its met its opening goal but ity would be great if it hits some stretch goals.  So what is it?

Well its basically a quickstart supplement for creating dungeon fantasy characters in just a few minutes. The author has explained and listed some great examples on the kickstarter and his blog over at Gaming Ballistic.  Creating charecters in GURPS can be slow, especially when your new to the system and need to read the books to be sure you grabbed everything you wanted and could afford. Likewise, even for a GM creating a NPC on the fly because the players did something unexpected can pause the game.

This is a great help for both those situations, and for teaching or introducing new players to your games.

Go back it now!