Friday, December 11, 2015

Wordslingin'

Look north. Look waaaaayyyy north. This week, Our Heroes (tm) find themselves in the arctic town of Pioneer, and thankfully have reestablished tracking on a webble. Sadly, it’s not the webble we really wanted, but you’ve gotta start somewhere.


[Georges the GM reads out some book information on the town of Pioneer.]
Georges the GM: “That’s enough for the fluff text. Now let’s give you…”
Julie: “The game-related fluff text?”
Georges the GM: “Uh-huh.”

[We have multiple reasons for choosing our destination.]
Georges the GM: “Mark Kim is going to Pioneer.”
Julie: “And us without our beta-bel killing guns.”
Brock: “Fennec can whip us up another one.”

[Also going to Pioneer is Colonel Gustafson, attaché to Katerina Kazzov and one of the Gear pilots from our battle at Nazarene.]
Zac: “So you’re saying the last time Col. Gustafson and Kazzov were involved, they led you into a trap and you were almost killed.”
Georges the GM: “That’s what I just said.”
Brock: “But we won!”

[More of the same.]
Zac: (deadpan) “I’m sure she wouldn’t do that again: dangling the carrot and leading you into a trap with a heavy military presence…”

[We head up to Pioneer.]
Georges the GM: “How discreetly are you travelling?”
Brock: “Discreetly.”

[Given that our foes know our travelling profile, we consider swapping out our Bobcat for a different Gear.]
Georges the GM: “Fifteen thousand to upgrade from the Bobcat to a Hunter.”
Julie: “Ouch.”
Zac: “Eh, it’s all just numbers on paper.”

[We consider alternatives to spending fifteen thousand marks.]
Brock: “When we want Gears, we’ll go to the army base and steal them.”

[As we’re in town, we triangulate the presence of a webble to 50-100 m. We’re just not sure whose webble it is.]
Brock: “I’d like to be 500 m away and get it down to 5-10 m accuracy.”
Zac: “To send in the air strike?”
Brock: “Yes. You laugh, but…”

[Note that we’re not sure which webble it is that we’re tracking at this point.]
Brock: “Air strike!”
Julie: “Sure. We have a 3/4 chance of not killing Jonas.”

[Ti has given us the name of a contact, Cyril Marsh. We consider setting up a meeting.]
Zac: “I don’t want to make trouble for him just yet. The trouble will come later.”

[Of course, you can’t just walk into a contact’s office without a cover story.]
Zac: “He’s a product incentivisation specialist. So what’s my cover?”
Julie: “You want your products incentivized?”

[Fennec prudently disguises herself before the meeting.]
Georges the GM: “You’re wearing a wig.”
Julie: “What color is it?”
Georges the GM: “Red!”
Zac: “But it’s really obviously a wig.”

[Fennec meets with Cyril Marsh. She tries to obliquely mention that Ti sent him. Perhaps too obliquely.]
Fennec: “Yeah. T.I. like the periodic table…”
Brock: “Usually I say I regret nothing, but I regret not being there.”

[Fennec isn’t quite getting her point across.]
Brock: “Roll to see if that conversation went the way you imagined it going and not the way you roleplayed it going.”

[Cyril is not convinced. So when Fennec asks for a price for the various fancy items we want, Cyril gives her the market rate. The exorbitant market rate.]
Fennec: “You leave a few extra zeroes on that by mistake?”
Cyril Marsh: “Hey, Pioneer is expensive, my friend.”

[Among the things we’re asking for is a chalet overlooking where the webble is.]
Brock: “We only need the keys for one night, and when they come to evict us, we’ll shoot them.”

[Ultimately everything works out with Cyril and we get the keys to the chalet. Recall, however, that Torgath is among the most wanted criminals in the North right now.]
Ariel: “Am I endangering the mission?”
Julie: “Yes.”
Brock: “You shouldn’t have come.”

[The webble – and by extension whoever it is installed in – is at the Torsen Lodge, an extremely exclusive alpine resort.]
Brock: “I expect the word ‘charm’ appears in every ad for this place.”
Ariel: “’Elegant.’ Charm is for lower-class places.”

[We’re still not sure which webble we’re tracking.]
Georges the GM: “A webbled pet would be a ridiculous novelty here, but it’s not impossible.”

[More of the same.]
Ariel: “Are you saying that in this game we could get a robot-brained monkey with a fez?”
Georges the GM: “Yes. Have you not been paying attention for the last year?”
Ariel: “The fez was unclear.”

[Fennec arranges with Cyril for us to have dinner reservations at the Torsen Lodge.]
Julie: “Someone disguise me if I’m going in.”
Brock: “You’re not – I’m taking Fennec.”

[Because of the location, there’s a fairly large Brotherhood presence at the Torsen.]
Georges the GM: “You do… *rolls*… not spot Tatsugoro…”

[While Lukas and Fennec don’t see Tatsugoro, they do see Mark Kim, accompanied by a half-dozen Gemeinsen Guard members.]
Georges the GM: “If you want to use your impromptu ‘walk up and assassinate someone’ tactics, now’s a great opportunity!”
Zac: “We didn’t bring our beta-bel gun!”

[More of the same.]
Zac: “I assume ‘kill Mark Kim’ is somewhere on our list of priorities.”

[After dinner, Lukas speaks with a hotel representative to try to get more information about the lodge.]
Brock: “I do my thing.”
Julie: “Where he does another job better than his real job.”
Zac: “That’s how I’m gonna do it from now on: ‘I do my thing.’”

[More about Lukas’ tactics.]
Brock: “For the whole evening, I make sure to give Fennec the full VIP treatment.”
Zac: “I am completely bamboozled by this show of respect.”

[Lyta, posing as Lukas and Fennec’s driver, takes a walk around the grounds. She spots six Zelanis Security vehicles and a dozen Gemeinsen Guard Jaguar Gears.]
Georges the GM: “The Gears are evil, matte-grey looking.”

[More about the Gears.]
Ariel: “First plan: get four Jaguars, ‘cause they’re clearly there for us to get.”
Zac: “And then use them to fight the other eight.”

[We haven’t seen the Zelanis Gears, but we assume they’re somewhere.]
Brock: “Given that Kim just had lunch with someone we assassinated in front of the restaurant, he’s probably keeping his Gear inside.”
Georges the GM: “He sleeps with it under his pillow.”

[Meanwhile, Cyril has arrived at our chalet to bring the vehicles Fennec requested. Sadly for him, the only one home is Torgath.]
Cyril Marsh: “Is there anything else I can do for you tonight?”
Torgath: “Hot chocolate? Extra pillows?”
Cyril Marsh: *leaves*

[The next day, we follow the Zelanis and Gemeinsen people about 20 km out of town, where they appear to be conducting war games. Torgath observes. Recall that we’re in the snowy arctic circle at this point.]
Ariel: “I don’t know how to deal with snow. It’s a lot colder than the desert.”

[Torgath isn’t doing so well in the snowy cold.]
Georges the GM: “A Gear crouches down near you, shoots out a number of rounds in one direction, and takes off again.”
Ariel: “I cradle a spent shell for warmth.”

[Fennec replaces Torgath in observation. We realize she’s pretty good at it.]
Brock: “So Fennec’s got Torgath’s stealth and Lyta’s acrobatics. It’s good she can’t talk to people or I’d be worried.”

[Zac has a ridiculous idea.]
Zac: “While we’re here this whole time, why don’t we pay attention to these war game tactics?”

[After returning from observing the war games, Torgath places trackers on the Zelanis vehicles that are still in the hotel’s parking lot.]
Brock: “Remember as you’re placing the trackers that these guys are probably checking for bombs on a regular basis.”
Ariel: “I’ve read novels.”
Zac: “I love how you cite novels and not your actual experience.”

[Torgath places some bugs.]
Ariel: “How many do we want to place?”
Julie: “All of them?”

[After the war games are over, we review what we’ve seen.]
Georges the GM: “You’re not on a level to beat these guys in Gears.”
Ariel: “That just makes it more enticing to steal the ones we can and blow up the others.”

[The game ends for the evening.]
Georges the GM: “It’s a 2-xp night.”
Zac: “See, we should have killed someone tonight. For the xp.”





Heavy Gear Roleplaying Game

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