5th Edition Dragonlance Kender

TRUE KENDER

In addition to the generic Halfling Traits found in the PHB, True Kender have the following traits:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Charisma +1

SPEED: 30 feet. Kender are faster than their size otherwise suggests.

FEARLESS: Kender are immune to Fear.

HANDLER: Kender are Proficient in the Sleight of Hand skill.

ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER: Kender have disadvantage on all Constitution checks to maintain concentration. In addition, kender are required to make a Constitution check to maintain concentration whether or not an attack does damage (DC 10), though Constitution checks made when an attack misses are made normally, not at disadvantage. In addition, once per long rest, the DM may impose disadvantage on any attack, saving throw or ability check you make. A kender spellcaster with the War Caster feat makes Constitution checks imposed by damage normally and is not required to make concentration checks when an attack misses.

POUCH GRAB: Once per short or long rest the Kender may look through his pouch and "discover" something he didn't know he had. Note for DMs: Kender are not thieves, they are handlers. It is bad practice to allow party or other players' items to be stolen or "found" in the pouch. When the Kender decides to look through his pouch, he may roll on the Kender Pouch Interesting Items table below, or the DM may decide what the Kender found. Note that while the Kender do not consider themselves thieves, everything in their pouch does in fact belong to someone else, who most likely will not be pleased if he discovers the Kender has it; the more valuable or rare the item, the more distraught the owner will be at its absence. Also note that once an item is "discovered" and then put back in the pouch, there is no guarantee that the item will be found again. Kender are not only notorious for "finding" things, but also for losing them.

KENDER WEAPON FAMILIARITY: True Kender are Proficient in all Kender Exotic Weapons, including the Battak, Bollik, Chapak, Hachak, Hoopak, Polpak, Sashik, Sithak, and Whippik. True Kender are not Proficient in any other weapons, regardless of class choice.

AFFLICTED KENDER

In addition to the generic Halfling Traits found in the PHB, Afflicted Kender have the following traits:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Wisdom +1

SPEED: 30 feet. Kender are faster than their size otherwise suggests.

NATURALLY STEALTHY: Kender are Proficient in the Stealth skill. Additionally, the Afflicted Kender may attempt to hide even when only obscured by a creature, provided the creature is at least Medium size.

KENDER WEAPON FAMILIARITY: Afflicted Kender are Proficient in all Kender Exotic Weapons, including the Battak, Bollik, Chapak, Hachak, Hoopak, Polpak, Sashik, Sithak, and Whippik.

HALF KENDER

Half Kender have the following traits:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: The Half Kender may increase three Attributes of his choice by 1

SIZE: Medium

SPEED: 30 feet

BRAVE: Half Kender gain Advantage on all Saving Throws against Fear.

FIVE FINGERS: Half Kender are Proficient in the Sleight of Hand skill.

KENDER WEAPON FAMILIARITY: Half Kender are Proficient in all Kender Exotic Weapons, including the Battak, Bollik, Chapak, Hachak, Hoopak, Polpak, Sashik, Sithak, and Whippik.

KENDER WEAPONS

BATTAK: A battak is a club-shaped walking stick favored by Kender. Its grip can be unscrewed to reveal a hollow cavity where small items may be stored. Its end is sharpened and metal-clad, useful for prying or, if necessary, stabbing. The Battak can be used either as a Club or a Spear, depending on its owner's whim.

HOOPAK: A hoopak is a staff-sling favored by Kender. It is made of hardwood, one end forked and the other clad in a metal spike. The forked end can be used as a sling, or to gather fruit from trees that are too high for the Kender to normally reach. The spiked end can be used for prying or as a spear, and the entire assembly may be thrown as a spear. The hoopak can also be used as a staff. How the hoopak is used in combat is entirely up to the owner.

WHIPPIK: A whippik is a foot-long length of handle that ends in a coil of braided leather, much like a riding whip. It can be used as a whip with a 5-foot reach, or a trained user can use it to throw darts with greater force and range than normal; darts thrown like this are 1d6 piercing damage with a range of 30/120.

POUCH GRAB TABLE

Interesting Items

d%	Result	d%	Result	d%	Result
1	Wooden teeth	34	Gnomish collapsible binoculars	66	Whistle
2	Glass eye	35	Gnomish padlock without key	67	Bell
3	Archaic coin	36	Small key	69	Wooden figurine
4	Coin with two heads	37	Bowstring	70	Piece of colored chalk
5	Single gambling die	38	Slingshot	71	Quill
6	Single playing or tarot card with erotic picture	39	Sling	72	Stoppered inkwell
7	Painted rock that obviously needs to be protected. And walked. And let outside every now and then. And spoken to in a gentle soothing voice because it has feelings too	40	Slingstone	73	Stoppered inkwell filled with invisible ink
8	Nugget of pyrite	41	Arrowhead	74	Piece of parchment
9	Unfinished quartz	42	Spearhead	75	Leather bookmark
10	Brightly colored uncut crystal	43	Ladies' concealable dagger	76	Colored wax
11	Lump of coal	44	Masterwork eating knife	77	Roll of very useful-looking twine
12	Ferrocerium rod	45	Old pitted single piece of silverware	78	Roll of brightly colored yarn
13	Small clay pot filled with gunpowder	46	Single piece of Elvenmake silverware	79	Silver needle
14	Lodestone	47	Single piece of Dwarfmake silverware	80	Silver thimble
15	Gnomish collapsible compass	48	Bizarre Gnomish eating contraption	81	Seven-leaf clover
16	Hairpin	49	Dwarfmake beerstein	82	Single Gnomish firework
17	Single brightly colored button	50	Elvenmake wineglass	83	Gnomish clockwork gear
18	Single spur	51	Gnomish beerhat	84	Incomplete page from a spellbook
19	Kender sheriff's badge	52	Piece of fruit	85	Reptilian scale
20	Signet ring	53	Trail ration	86	Unbreakable egg
21	Engraved belt buckle	54	Elven trail ration	87	Reptilian tooth
22	Single fine leather glove	55	Cheese	88	Gnomish schematics for a clockwork toy
23	Brightly colored handkerchief	56	Small pouch of tea leaves	89	Map with a prominent X on it that says "Dragon Here"
24	Brightly colored headscarf	57	Red hot chili pepper	90	Half of a map
25	Brightly colored knit cap	58	Small bottle of Dwarven spirits	91	Silver coin
26	Single brightly colored stocking	59	Corncob pipe	92	Gnomish clockwork clacking teeth
27	Single brightly colored garter	60	Fine wooden pipe	93	Gnomish hand buzzer
28	Brightly colored breaststrap	61	Small pouch of tobacco	94	Itching powder
29	Gnomish codpiece	62	Wooden holy symbol	95	Finger trap: make an immediate DC 10 Wisdom check to get out of it
30	Kender-sized facemask	63	Wooden prayer beads	96	Tiny sailing ship in a bottle
31	Spectacles	64	Page from a Cleric's prayerbook	97	Inflatable love-gnome
32	Monocle	65	Small vial of holy water	98-99	Roll on Extraordinary Items table
33	Gnomish telescoping spyglass	66	Incense	00	Roll on Amazing Items table

Extraordinary Items*

d%	Result
1-15	Single 10gp Gemstone
16-25	Single 50gp Gemstone
26-35	Single 100gp Gemstone
36-45	Single 500gp Gemstone
46-60	Piece of 25gp Art
61-70	Piece of 250gp Art
71-80	Table A Magic Item
81-90	Table B Magic Item
91-00	Table F Magic Item

Amazing Items*

d%	Result
1-15	Single 1000gp Gemstone
16-30	Single 5000gp Gemstone
31-45	Piece of 2500gp Art
46-60	Piece of 7500gp Art
61-70	Table C Magic Item
71-80	Table D Magic Item
81-90	Table G Magic Item
91-00	Table H Magic Item

* All of these Items are found in the Treasure Tables of the DMG.

5th Edition Dragonlance Dwarves

HYLAR / DAEWAR / KLAR DWARF

As Mountain Dwarf in PHB.

NEIDAR DWARF

As Hill Dwarf in PHB.

THEIWAR / DAERGAR / ZHAKAR DWARF

In addition to the generic Dwarf Traits described in the PHB, these Dwarves gain these Subrace Traits as well:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Intelligence +1

SUNLIGHT SENSITIVITY: These Dwarves have Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when they, the target of their attack, or whatever they are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

SUPERIOR DARKVISION: These Dwarves have a Darkvision radius of 120 feet.

SKULK: These Dwarves are Proficient in Stealth.

AGHAR DWARF

The following replaces the generic and subrace Dwarf Traits in the PHB:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Constitution +2, Charisma +2

SIZE: Small. Gully Dwarves average 3 1/2 to 4 feet in height.

SPEED: 20 feet

SURVIVAL INSTINCT: Gully Dwarves are Proficient in Stealth and Survival.

PITIABLE: Gully Dwarves are Proficient in Persuasion, when attempting to convince another creature not to hurt them.

DWARVEN RESILIENCE: Gully Dwarves have Advantage on Saving Throws against Poison, and are Resistant to Poison Damage.

COWARDLY: Gully Dwarves have Disadvantage on Saving Throws against Fear.

HALF-DWARF / MUL

The following replaces the generic and subrace Dwarf Traits in the PHB:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Constitution +1, +1 to Choice of Two other Attributes

SIZE: 4 1/2 to 6 feet tall. Medium

SPEED: 30 feet

DWARVEN WEAPON TRAINING: Half-Dwarves are Proficient in Battleaxe, Handaxe, Throwing Hammer, Warhammer

RESILIENT: Half-Dwarves are considered Proficient in Constitution Saving Throws. If they pick a Class that also has Constitution as a Proficiency, then they are Doubly Proficient.

INEXHAUSTIBLE: When spending Hit Dice during a Short Rest to regain Hit Points, the Half-Dwarf has Advantage on the roll.

TOOL PROFICIENCY: The Half-Dwarf is Proficient in the Artisan's Tools of his choice.

CRAFTSMAN'S CRITIQUE: Whenever the Half-Dwarf makes an Intelligence check to determine the value of an item, he is considered proficient, and adds double his Proficiency Bonus to the roll.

FATHERLESS DWARF

A Fatherless Dwarf is a Dwarf who for some reason, usually a horrendous crime such as murder, is outcast from Dwarven society. Rules-wise, a Fatherless Dwarf is no different from the subrace he was born into. The only difference is found in gameplay and character motive. Additionally, Fatherless Dwarves are the only Dwarves from the Hylar, Daewar, Klar, Daergar, Zhakar and Neidar clans that practice any sort of Arcane Magic, as typical Dwarf society does not abide magic. Note that it is possible to become a Fatherless Dwarf during gameplay.

5th Edition Dragonlance Elves

SILVANESTI ELF

As High Elf in the PHB.

KAGONESTI ELF

As Wood Elf in the PHB, with the following exception, which replaces the Elf Weapon Training entry:

KAGONESTI WEAPON TRAINING: Spear, Shortbow, Longbow, Shortsword

QUALINESTI ELF

In addition to the generic Elf Traits described in the PHB, the Qualinesti Elf gains these Subrace Traits as well:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Charisma +1

ELF WEAPON TRAINING: Shortsword, Longsword, Shortbow, Longbow

DIPLOMATIC PROFICIENCY: Insight, Persuasion

DARGONESTI ELF

In addition to the generic Elf Traits described in the PHB, the Dargonesti Elf gains these Subrace Traits as well:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Strength +1

CANTRIP: The Dargonesti Elf knows one Cantrip of his choice.

AQUATIC: The Dargonesti Elf is equally at home in the water as on land; perhaps even moreso. The Dargonesti Elf can breathe underwater.

ALTERNATE FORM: The Dargonesti Elf may change his shape into that of a Porpoise. He may only do this once before a long rest.

SEASENSE: The Dargonesti Elf has Advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) rolls to notice details and peculiarities about water.

SURFACE SENSITIVITY: The Dargonesti Elf must spend at least one hour of every day underwater. If he fails to do so, he gains Disadvantage on all Attack Rolls, Skill Checks, and Saving Throws.

DARGONESTI WEAPON TRAINING: Spear, Trident, Net

DIMERNESTI ELF

In addition to the generic Elf Traits described in the PHB, the Dimernesti Elf gains these Subrace Traits as well:

ABILITY SCORE INCREASE: Intelligence +1

AQUATIC: The Dimernesti Elf is equally at home in the water as on land; perhaps even moreso. The Dargonesti Elf can breathe underwater.

ALTERNATE FORM: The Dimernesti Elf may change his shape into that of a Sea Otter. He may only do this once before a long rest.

SEASENSE: The Dimernesti Elf has Advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) rolls to notice details and peculiarities about water.

SURFACE SENSITIVITY: The Dimernesti Elf must spend at least one hour of every day underwater. If he fails to do so, he gains Disadvantage on all Attack Rolls, Skill Checks, and Saving Throws.

DIMERNESTI WEAPON TRAINING: Spear, Trident, Net

HALF ELF

As Half Elf in the PHB.

DARK ELF

Dark Elves in Dragonlance are not like Dark Elves in other campaign settings. A Dark Elf is an elf who for some reason, usually a horrendous crime such as murder, is outcast from Elven society. Rules-wise, a Dark Elf is no different from the subrace he was born into. The only difference is found in gameplay and character motive. Additionally, only Dark Elves may be Black Robe Wizards or Warlocks. Not even Fey-Pact Warlocks are exempt from this. Elvish society does not abide either form of magic. Note that it is possible to become a Dark Elf during gameplay. The Dargonesti and Dimernesti have their own Dark Elves, known as Mahkwahb. Mahkwahb no longer take the form of Porpoises or Sea Otters, but rather Sharks and Manta Rays. There is speculation as to whether Mahkwahb are identical to, or related to, the Sahuagin Malenti.

Restarting the Blog

I have decided to restart this blog. It's been about a year since I last posted anything, but what the hell. Maybe this time it'll work. And it'll be nice to start writing again.

In the interim, the time since we last spoke, I GMed a couple GURPS campaigns, and decided that I really really don't like skills-based systems. What I discovered was that they're great for single-shot adventures or short campaigns where the characters are fairly static, but that when it comes to actual character growth through gameplay, it is way way too easy for a character to become incredibly good at doing a thing in a short amount of time, whether that thing is shooting rifles or seducing the ladies or whatever. I know, I as a GM could easily put the brakes on that by only allowing a single point in any skill to be purchased at a time, and maybe that's what I should have done. But playing GURPS got me thinking about D&D, and about how they really do have the character progression mechanic worked out.

I still don't like Hit Points. And I still think classes are restrictive. But I'm willing to live with it.

So I convinced my group to try D&D 5th Edition again, with me as DM, running a modified Dragonlance campaign. But there aren't Dragonlance 5th Edition rules, I hear you say. Yeah, that's true. So here comes the kitbash, the homebrew, the make-it-up-as-you-go-along and hope it's fun.

And of course the drinks. Drinks all around for everyone. And then they can just get fuzzy-headed and never know when their DM makes a mistake. Because drunk gaming is the best gaming.

D&D Next

I know it's been a while since I posted anything. Sorry about that. I haven't felt like there was much to write, actually. To catch the readers up to speed, we never fixed the Redshirts rules issues. The core of the game has potential, but I think that there's just way too much work involved there to get it into a state that I'm happy with, and for too little return.

And then we played a bunch of board games. And then there was a tank game that I came up with rules for, which was pretty fun, but that won't go anywhere because I don't have money for prototyping. And Munchkin. Munchkin, in case you didn't know, is brilliant. And alcohol. Lots of copious amounts of alcohol.

So then it was last week, and in the middle of our weekly Munchkin game we decided to do a D&D game next, provided that I wasn't the DM, as I just have too much going on in my life right now to run a campaign. Marty volunteered to be the DM, and the crowd grew excited and hushed itself in anticipation of what was to come. Then we decided to theme the game, because regular old D&D just isn't enough. We would be anti-magic religious zealots. So the only allowed player classes were Cleric, Paladin and Monk. And we would be using the D&D 5th Edition rules, also known as D&D Next. The only problem with that is those particular rules aren't out yet. So we're using the playtest rules, at least until such time as the official rules are released.

And then it was this week, and we went to Jonny's house, and drank much booze, and created characters. I chose to play a Paladin, Jonny went with a Cleric, and Nathan created a Monk. I kind of figured that Nathan would choose a Monk, as he was an Adept in our last Shadowrun game (years ago), and it's pretty much the same thing. And at the end of the creation process, which consisted of a lot of page-turning and "where's the rules for this thing and that thing?" questions because none of us had actually looked at the 5E rules before last night, we had Nathan as Tuck the yodeling Shao-Lin Friar, myself as Fitzroy "Take Me To Your Witches" Barbarossa, a bookworm who discovered the joys of the Way of the Maul and became a crusading Paladin, and the study in contradictions himself, Jonny as Thair the Thug Priest, servant of the sock-puppet god Glycon, who chose Life as his spell domain, and is loaded up on Heals. Because he's a thug who refuses to be typecast. He's helpy like that.

And then we played. But that's another post.

Last Post as GM

It sucks being told that you're a bad GM. To be fair, however, my heart really wasn't into the story-aspect of the game anyway, and nobody seems to have minded my GMing before now, and I've run quite a few campaigns. But my main concern for this last little while has been the rules. And there are a lot of things about/in the rules that need to be addressed. But those issues will be addressed, I'm sure, in the upcoming weeks and months, as we are still playing, just with Jonny moving into the GM chair. It'll be good, too. He's a story guy, and he's been begging for something to do for a while now.

So, this blog will continue, and with full-color commentary, but from a player's perspective as opposed to a GM's.

And I'm considering re-naming the system to Redshirts, because it appears that there is a Red Shirt Games company out there, and I don't want there to be any confusion. Besides which, it's such a small change I doubt anybody would even notice. And, by taking the game from the character level to the company level, it makes more sense to pluralize it anyway.

Consider "Redshirts" and "Redshirts the Game" copyrighted, as of now.

Redshirt, Game Session 3

Wow. What an interesting game this is becoming. First of all, we had to finish up the two "away missions" from last week, which I hadn't had time to get to during the proper phase, which would have been during the post-game session last week. So we did it this week. There were two of these missions that the company had decided to take. The first was a "clean up the sewer rats" that were living in the sewers downtown. The name Sewer Rats was, of course, a euphemism for "undesirable people living in the sewers." Jonny had sent two of his people on the mission. I decided that it really shouldn't be too difficult, as my idea of these folk was that they were dirt poor, unarmed, &c. So I had Jonny roll against a T.N. of 11, which is an average task. He succeeded. That's a quick 5 marks for the company. Then the other mission, in which two characters, Jick the legless and Marty's seductress Kas attempted to get to the bottom of who those actors were who were out front performing really bad plays all day and night forever. Because each of them had gone their own separate ways to do the investigation, I let both Marty and Jonny roll. Marty's seductress came up empty, but Jick the legless managed to figure out that the black-clad bodyguards were from a company named Hamlet, which company specialized in personal protection &c.

Now, this did beg several questions about away missions, namely, how to determine the mission's difficulty, and then how to go about figuring out Target Numbers vs numbers of people involved, &c. This is going to be an ongoing issue, because quite frankly, I don't have it nailed down yet. These first couple were incredibly easy, because there really wasn't a chance of character injury involved, so we could conveniently ignore that part for now, and I had just given them basic Target Numbers. I will probably continue to do something like this from now on, the idea being that each "away mission" has a target number that must be beat, in order to succeed. The characters who go on said mission have a number of skills. I take the highest skill that seems (or that the player determines is how his character is proceeding) reasonable, and add that bonus to the roll. If there are any other characters that also have appropriate skills, then I figure add 1 for each additional character beyond the first. This way the bonuses to the roll don't balloon out of hand and get unmanageable too fast. That seems like a good way to proceed, at least for now, so we can get something testing. The real trouble comes with devising an "away mission combat mechanic." That will require some thought.

At any rate, we talked for quite a while about the game, and didn't get started playing until 730 or so, which left us with only about an hour and a half. Jonny was obviously anxious to get started, because he kept looking at the clock and pushing us to get going. So, we got the post-game from last week wrapped up, then moved on to the pre-game, in which Jonny decided to let 1 of his legless employees go (he had 2). I think it was Jick, but I'm not entirely sure. He then decided to hire another employee, and rolled up a character quick, and got a witch-doctor. Sweet. Somebody with Medicine, finally. Note that after all of this, Jonny had 5 characters (one of them legless), and Marty had 3 (remember that last session one of his characters received spinal damage and was paralyzed, and thus unemployable) because he opted not to hire anybody. The Company then had 5 marks left over, which was not enough to last another session without income, so they went looking for work.

At this point, I need to talk about something that, quite frankly, really surprised me. That was the reaction of both Jonny and Marty to the paralysis result on the Death&Dismemberment table. I mentioned it in my last post, but I think I stated it wrong and made it seem like Marty was upset at the loss of his character, when in reality it wasn't that his character was lost, but rather that he was paralyzed, which, according to both Jonny and Marty, raised a host of moral/ethical questions. Such as: this guy was an employee, now he's crippled and unable to take care of himself, what does the company do with him? Kill him? Leave him on the side of the road somewhere? What? I hadn't thought about that when coming up with the table, simply concerning myself with semi-realistic possible injuries, and let's face it, the possibility of sustaining spinal damage in a fight is very real. Marty and Jonny both made it seem like they would perhaps even prefer it if that were not a part of the table, as it was "too real," and dragged down the game-feeling. I'm not so sure. I can see where they're coming from, but at the same time, that's the entire point of the Death&Dismemberment, right? Is to give danger to combat, and personality to characters who survive? Like Jonny's legless people. I had honestly thought, when coming up with the table, that such characters would be little less than useless to the company. But Jonny decided to keep them, and made good use of Jick (granted, only for a session, before letting him go, but still), and I'm sure will make good use of the other guy. So now the character's still there, the company's still using him; it's color, it's personality. It's the same thing with the paralyzed character. What will the company do with him? I, as the GM, simply do not care. The company can do whatever they like with him. If they want to be stone-hearted bastards, then they can kill him or whatever. If they want to be a little more compassionate, then they can take care of him, as it was an injury suffered during the course of work. Of course, this second option would end up costing the company money (a bed in their facility/base, plus wages for the caretaker, plus food, &c), but that's the choice we make, right? Which are you, light-side or dark-side? I don't care. Just do it, and if it makes sense that there might be repercussions from the action, then I'll think about it. Just like I, as the GM, didn't care when in game session 1 the players killed/injured an innocent family in the Southland Downs. Just like I, as the GM, didn't care that the company took a job clearing homeless people (the Sewer Rats) out of their makeshift homes in the sewers (which plenty of people would consider to be entirely a-moral and bastardly). It's not my place to judge (at least not in an ethical capacity). It's my place to provide a game, and give the company opportunities.

Moving on; there were essentially 3 routes that the company could go: there was still the business with the Bad Actors, there was the Investigation&Vengeance Carswell mission, and there was the continuing bounty on the RVs in the Southland Downs. Jonny sent his legless character to go do research & investigate the Carswell business, and the rest of the characters went to apologize to Frank for beating him up in the first session. When they got to Frank's Place, they saw some Hamlet employees standing guard. That was the final piece they needed to definitively say that Frank was the source of the Bad Actors. Jonny's new Witch Doctor intimidated the guard at the door with his shrunken heads and incredibly racist witch-doctory antics, and they entered the building. Frank, upon seeing them, bolted for the back door, and the two Hamlet employees inside blocked the characters from going any further. To which they left a note, apologizing. And maybe some flowers. I don't know.

It was the intimidation part of this encounter that was fun, because it was the first time that we had actually used the social combat rules, which worked really well, I thought.

Then they went to the Downs, and found the Bonsai burning. They went to some bars and did some asking around, and it turned out that the RVs were in a turf-war with the Lone Rangers, and getting their asses kicked. They witness a couple of RVs gun down a Lone Ranger in the street with a crossbow and run off, and the characters take the dead Lone Ranger's mask and Marty's noble puts it on. They walk down the streets begging to get shot at, and eventually they do. The bolt misses, and most of the characters move to the door. Trell takes cover across the street and watches for the crossbowman to show his head again. He does, and Trell takes the shot. He rolls a 15, and even with a cover bonus the crossbowman takes a bolt and falls, dropping his crossbow out the window, which one of Marty's characters picks up. They move inside and intimidate the last opponent in there into giving up, which he does. They then interrogate him about the situation and offer to work for the RVs, to which the fellow takes them back to the RV base so they can talk to Big John. They convince Big John to hear their story, and Big John makes an offer of them taking over any of the money-making ventures that they can wrest away from the Lone Rangers, and moving 50% up the ladder to him. Marty and Jonny hesitate at this one, as they don't particularly want to be somebody else's employees.

And here's where it got really fun. Jonny wants to accept the deal but double-cross them later, and Marty decides that's not his cuppa, and fires a crossbow bolt point-blank into Big John's chest. It's fight time, and the characters are surrounded. They have 6 characters, and the RVs have 7 inside (6 troops and Big John) plus the 6 on watch outside. After the surprise round, the characters finish off Big John in the first real round, and proceed to butcher sundry RVs. After about the end of turn 2 or 3 I was thinking that if it continued, the RVs would have to start making morale rolls, because several of their number were down, and they were about to be outnumbered by the characters, even with their reinforcements. But then the table turned, and within 2 rounds or so both of Marty's characters were down, and one of Jonny's, leaving only 3, with 5 RVs in the warehouse and a couple yet outside. It really was amazing how fast the fight shifted, from the characters looking like they had it in the bag, to everybody going down like wheat and Jonny making the hard decision to abandon everybody who was already down, plus sacrifice one of his remaining standing characters, in order to give Trell the diminutive pig-herder/crossbowman and Malik the Witch Doctor the chance to hightail it out of there.

And then, when they all got back home, they were arrested. All of them, with the exception of the legless fellow of Jonny's who was doing investigations. The charge was Murder most foul, Attempted Murder most foul, Assault, Disturbing the city's peace, &c &c.

All in all, this was not a good session for the company. They ended up losing (as in, dead, no chance to roll on the Death&Dismemberment table) 4 characters, plus those characters' equipment, plus not making any money, plus now 3 of the remaining 4 are in jail. The company's tally is now 5 marks. Granted, the company doesn't actually have to pay their employees while they're in jail, but one would expect that the proper back-wages were there once they got out.

The jail-time was because the street-fight right in front of their place of business from last week. But now I need to be careful, because it feels like I'm railroading, and that's not what I want to do. There must be options given to the players, even while most of their company is in jail.

Man, I can't wait for next week.