More Musings about Black Star RPG

      As I was convalescing from this unpleasant respiratory illness I've had for a month, I watched Solo: A Star Wars Story again.  I found I actually enjoyed it.  Especially the "things" hinted at in the background.

     Like the Cloud Riders, these guys look really cool, and I'd like to have seen more done with them. This got me to thinking about running a Star Wars Sci Fi RPG.  I realized I don't want to really run a game IN the Star Wars Universe, but Star Wars adjacent with the serial numbers filed off would be pretty cool.  I remembered I had picked up the Black Star RPG recently, even did several posts about it, but never got a change to run/play it.  Maybe I need to dust-off my notes and rectify that situation? 

                                                                   

     Oh and I love the digest size of Black Star, perfect to place in your GM kit and take on the road or whatever. Doesn't take up much room, so if you end up not being able to run your regular D&D Campaign or whatever, you can quickly and easily run a Black Star One shot, with minimal fuss or prep. The Black Star Companion adds a bit of extra coolness that make the game even better! 

     That's all for now, hope you all are well and healthy and have a safe and Happy New Year!

-B.B. 

Simian Santa

 

For those who celebrate it, I wish you all a Merry Christmas! May God Bless you and your friends and family. Peace on Earth Good Will to Men.

Simian Samurai

 Happy Simian Saturday,

Hope you all are well. I've been quite sick of late. Negative for Covid but been rough.  Anyways, here is a bit of AI generated art for your Simian Saturday. 

Happy Simian Saturday

 Haven't done a Simian Saturday in ages, so to make up for that, I thought I would post some A.I. generated images I worked up recently for your enjoyment!

Need Lego to actually do these for real, I'm a sucker for Lego Minifigs!  Have a great Simian Saturday!! 

Faster Than Light: NOMAD

 

I'm a big fan of Stellagama Publishing's products.  Omer Golan-Joel does great work. So, when I saw he recently posted about a new upcoming Sci Fi RPG, my interest was immediately sparked! I find myself drawn to lighter rules systems these days. I just don't have the freetime I used to have to work up detailed stat blocks for NPCs etc. What Omer describes for FTL:Nomad sounds right up my alley.  More to come!!

Troopers RedHack

 

     I've been on a bit of a Military Sci Fi kick lately.  Gaming-wise, I was recently posting about and looking at BlackStar, which is a fun rules lite Space Opera Sci Fi RPG, but it is very much a Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off game/setting.  Not that I consider that a bad thing, but those of you who know me, know that I love post-apocalyptic RPG's and I recently found a OSR game that allows me to run a Military Sci Fi game with P.A. elements or whatever else I want to throw into the mix! I'm talking about:  Troopers RedHack!  You can easily see the B/X elements of this one, and author Pertros Moros designed the game to allow you to use modules and adventures from your gaming library. Petros has used Mutant Crawl Classics adventures along with OSE adventures and other systems, just tweaking some things to fit into the Troopers setting. 

     Troopers RedHack, is a classless system, allowing players to create the kind of character (Trooper) that they want to play.  Wanna be a Combat Medic skilled in Guerilla Fighting or even a Psionic Trooper? easy peasy! The game is humancentric, although you can be an android and working up an alien pc looks pretty easy if you wanted to houserule some into the game.  There is a default setting loosely baked into the game, but you can easily tweak/adjust or do your own thing, which I love. The print book is even digest sized which is awesome!  

     Troopers RedHack has a nice Appendix N, and while I had read many of the books listed many I have not, so I've been picking those up and reading them to get me in the Military Sci Fi mindset. 

Some of my resent reading material, some are from recommendations from the book, others I just wanted to reread that seemed to fit the vibe I was interested in right now. 

      I also recently picked up the Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual! This should be a nice resource for my campaign. Not that I am planning to go full blown ALIENS, but the Colonial Marines gear, general info, etc. should be a cool resource to help me fill in a few details to the Troopers Campaign. 

Well, that's all for now, I hope to post more about this game soon.  Work has kept me pretty busy of late, hope you can get some gaming time in, enjoy time with friends and family!

-Good Gaming  B.B. 

A Challenge!

 Happy Saturday everyone!

I was surprised to see how many hits I got on my recent Nightbane post.  More than double, maybe triple my usual traffic.  Nice to see folks are still interested in good ole Palladium Books games.  

     Today's post is a different bit of nostalgia, a good buddy of mine recently gifted me a huge collection of old Challenge Magazines from back in the day. 

Wow, remember when magazines were $3!! this was late 80's era or so.  Challenge was a gaming (rpg) magazine that featured articles for Traveller, Twilight 2000, Star Wars, etc.  I only had one or two issues for it when it actually came out, back then we mostly played D&D, Gamma World (a little Classic Traveller, and then later Rifts in early 90s) and the magazines weren't easily available in my neck of the woods (really I lived in the country so my backyard was woods, it was a 30 minute drive to get milk and if it was after 800 at night forget it). Anyways, I digress, My buddy gifted me with this stack and I started going through it, just skimming the pages and wow, these magazines are loaded with ideas and content, I've been on a sci fi kick for awhile now. D&D is fun and all, but I'm jonesing to play/run some Sci Fi gaming.  I've posted some solo stuff here,and done some sci fi solo gaming that I haven't posted about yet, but I want to run some sci fi for a group.  I think these Challenge magazines are going to be a wonderful resource. The Challenge, see what I did there? is I want to take adventures and ideas from different settings and systems in the magazines (say Twilight 2000 and Traveller, maybe some Star Wars without the obvious Star Wars) and mesh them into a series of adventures.  I think that would be fun. Mix and match and be creative. Hopefully my schedule will give me some time to make this happen.  More to come on this hopefully.  Meanwhile check out the image below by Tim Bradstreet from Challenge Magazine #37 fantastic Undead Space Marines for Warhammer 40K! WOW! The article was for having Undead Space marines in your 40K tabletop miniatures skirmish games, but I can see an awesome RPG encounter, wherein maybe a Marine ship goes through some radioactive/mutagenic cloud and turns the marines into undead horrors, the marines eventually crash onto a planet or space station or some such and now the players have a squad (or more) of Undead Space Marines to deal with!! FUN! 

  I hope you all have a blessed weekend and get to spend time with friends and family, try to get some gaming in if you can!  

Remembering Nightbane RPG

 

     I happened to come across my old Palladium Books Nightbane book from back in the day.  Guess it was during the early to mid 90's, that I was an avid buyer/player of all things Palladium.  When Nightbane came out (was originally Nightspawn but Mcfarlane....)

Never heard of Nightbane? Here's a snippet from Wiki:     "On March 6, 2000, at 6:02 am, the world was shrouded in unnatural darkness caused by an extra dimensional race of demonic beings known as the Nightlords. Thousands of people suddenly transformed into monsters, but when the darkness left, they returned to human form. These shape-changers, called the Nightbane, have the ability to change to their monstrous form.

Players create and play Nightbanes, Guardians or even Vampires in order to battle the Nightlords and hopefully defeat them. Characters take on normal human form (called "The Facade") until they want to transform into their horrific monstrous form. The Nightbanes are organized into various underground factions all battling the Nightlords in their own way."

   I jumped at the change to play/run it.  Unfortunately, due to scheduling (many of us were in college and working full time jobs, circa 95 or so) I only managed to get one player for my Nightbane Campaign. 

     However, we both had a blast!! Not having a ton of prep time, I set the campaign in a city I was very familiary with: Memphis, Tennessee.  Plenty of opportunities for things to happen.  I made a few tweaks to Memphis, for one, I turned Mud Island (in real life a park/museum) into a maximum-security prison wherein Nightbane, and other troublesome folks (troublesome for the corrupt authorities and their masters the Nightlords) were kept in extreme lockdown.  

     The player was a nightbane, had randomly rolled up all kinds of cool crazy features, Nightbane characters are like supernatural mutants. that can take normal human form.  The player was trying to make contact with the local underground movement, the leaders had been taken out in a raid recently and were either killed or locked up.  The remaining underground members were laying very low.  Using local real-life bars, night clubs and even some local politicians in the campaign was loads of fun.  I also had Palladium's Beyond the Supernatural RPG.

     Palladium's books are mostly directly compatible with each other, this was before the OGL was a thing and Palladium's Megaversal system was a big appeal for GMs like me that loved to mix and match settings and things.  The player, learned (via a weird bookstore owner, based on a real person) about the local museum (also real) getting a rare tome of arcane knowledge.  Having the player's character sneak (break) into the museum, that we both had been to many times, to acquire the magical tome was loads of fun.  When the character had to run for their lives through the local park (now with supernatural elements lurking behind the old trees) it had a really authentic feel to it. 

     Another tool I used to help with my prep time, was comic books.  I had been reading Dr. Strange from Marvel, and my player was not familiar with the Sorcerer Supreme, thus I was able to pull in interesting characters, names, and refer to arcana that was pulled right out of the Dr. Strange comics. This was way before any Marvel movies came out so, my stack of comics was fertile ground to loot from.  As a GM use what you have available to make the most of your time and your campaign.  I had an issue of the Werewolf by Night comic that I pulled from as well. 

     Another thing I used to good effect in the campaign, was that it was hard to sometimes tell the good guys from the bad guys.  My player, even though he was a Nightbane, would default to D&D mode and assume all the "monsters" he encountered were villains, this led to some misdirection and at one point he even took out a leading member of the very Underground he was trying to join.  The rest of the campaign was spent with the player's character trying to undo the damage he had accidentally done and undermine the corrupt politicians that were working for the Nightlords.  He eventually restored the Underground to an even bigger role than it had been, and they were able to stage a breakout at the Mud Island (renamed Blud Island) Penitentiary.  That was the close of the Campaign.  Loads of fun! 

Black Star RPG - The Crew: Wyatt

Wyatt

Name: Wyatt Cole

Species: Human

Archetypes: Tech, Fringer

Resolve 7

Wealth 0

Blasting 2                   Brawling 2

Diplomacy 1              Discipline 3

Instinct 2                    Intellect 2

Speed 1                      Strength 2

Tools 3                       Transports 2

 

Talents

● Tech

Upgrades

● Fringer

Scavenger

Arsenal

Flaw: Heartbroken: Grieving the loss of his wife and daughter, he has not yet found a way to fully move on with his life

Bonus Talent: Improvise

Gear:

Link: A personal communicator, computer, and holoviewer.

Pulse Pistol

Bonding Tape

Deck of Cards

Backpack

Flashlight

Toolkit

     Wyatt lived out on the Fringe of settled space his entire life. He never aspired of being anything other than a hard worker, a husband, and a father.  From an early age he found he had a knack with tools and tech. Being able to jury rig functioning gear from what others considered junk, never made him rich but it made him a living. He was content, with his small home, his wife and his young daughter, life was not too bad.  That all changed when the local crime baron learned of his talents. The baron seized his humble shop and demanded he work for the baron, at first, he managed it, but as the demands grew and he realized they were hurting innocent people, he quietly rebelled, he began to sabotage the gear and equipment he was charged with working on and repairing, this worked for a while, but eventually his actions were discovered. The baron decided to make an example of Wyatt, things went awry and in the aftermath Wyatt’s wife and daughter were killed, along with several of the baron’s enforcers sent to make an example of this willful Fringer.  Wyatt was locked up and was basically waiting to die.  Cyrha was in the cell next to him and sensed his grief and despair, she worked to convince him he still had a purpose and a reason to exist.  When Kasra freed Cyrha, she insisted they free Wyatt as well, reluctantly Kasra agreed.  While Wyatt is still wracked with grief over the loss of his family, he is trying to find a new purpose in his existence and to do something that would make his wife and daughter proud of him. While not always sure about Kasra, Wyatt is protective of Cyrha, and while nothing could ever replace his family, he does feel an almost familial bond with her and a growing respect for Kasra. 

Black Star RPG - The Crew: Cyrha

 

Cyrha

Name: Cyrha Genesee

Species: Ohlani

Archetypes: Fringer, Psychic

Resolve 7

Psi Points 6

Wealth 0

Blasting 1                  Brawling 1  

Diplomacy 3              Discipline 3

Instinct 2                    Intellect 3

Speed 2                      Strength 1

Tools 1                        Transports 1

Talents

● Fringer

Beneath Notice

● Psychic

  Psychic Powers:

                Telepathy 2

                Tamper 2

                Mind Blast

*Flaw: Flashbacks: She has flashbacks of the destruction of her village and the murder of her parents. They were destroyed due to their innate Psychic abilities.

Stealth

Gear:

Link: A personal communicator, computer, and holoviewer.

Pulse Pistol

Link Jammer

Backpack

Flashlight

          Cyrha was born on the temperate world of Ohlan. Ohlan was a garden world of temperate climes, captivating landscapes, and beautiful forests.  That all changed when the Imperials came.  Most Ohlani possess innate psychic powers, and while they practiced a life of peace and harmony with their environment, the Imperials considered them a threat.  The assault on the Ohlani homeworld was quick and brutal.  Only a few thousand Ohlani escaped and now live as refugees on other worlds.  Cyrha, was 8 years old when the Imperials came.  She still has flashbacks of the death of her parents and total annihilation of her village. Ohlan is an uninhabitable wasteworld now.  Cyrha grew up to join the Resistance, using her psychic abilities to spy on and subvert the tyrannical regime, but when her rebel cell was destroyed and she was captured by a corrupt Crime Baron, she thought her life was over. While locked up she befriended a fellow prisoner, another Fringer named Wyatt, she sensed the grief and despair within him and realized she could still help others. Then unexpectedly, Kasra, one of her captors freed her, she insisted they free Wyatt as well, and the small group have been on the run ever since.  Cyrha does not necessarliy want to feel a bond with Kasra, but she has seen into his mind and knows deep down he is not evil. She sees Wyatt as a dear uncle like figure that she thinks the world of, although she worries about his deep moments of melancholy and sadness. 

*Note: I used the Flaw rules in the companion and allow characters that select a Flaw to gain a Bonus Talent. 

Black Star RPG - The Crew: Kasra Voth

 One of the first things I do when learning/studying a new RPG, even a rules lite one is to make up a character.  Thus, Kasra Voth came into existence, I also made up his alien race kind of on the fly, the Xaeksians, a race of humanoid aliens, from a stormy, cloud heavy moon, giving them the innate Talent of Night Vision.  

Kasra

Name: Kasra Voth

Species: Xaeksian

Archetypes: Outlaw, Soldier

Resolve 7

Wealth 0

Blasting 3                   Brawling 2  

Diplomacy 1              Discipline 1

Instinct 2                    Intellect 2

Speed 3                      Strength 2

Tools 2                        Transports 2

 Talents

Outlaw

Underworld

Soldier

Quick Draw

(Species Talent) Night Vision

Flaw: Secret- Kasra once provided information to the Authorities, betraying certain Underworld elements to save his own hide, he hopes this betrayal never comes to light.

(Bonus Talent) Thief

Gear:

Link: A personal communicator, computer, and holo-viewer.

Pulse Pistol

Lighter

Backpack

Pulse Rifle

Survival Kit

      Kasra is from the polluted, dark and storm clouded moon of Xaeksa 4. He grew up in the urban underbelly of the moon’s main starport, and was orphaned at an early age (his parents were allegedly Rebel sympathizers and were taken away by Imperial Authorities never to be seen again).  He turned to a life of crime to support himself, and grew up hating the Imperials, his parents, and the Rebels.   He was a decent enough thief, and outlaw, and found he had a talent for fighting as well.  Working as an enforcer in the criminal underworld, he was on a job that went sideways, that led to his capture by the authorities. Rather than face a lifetime of working the mines, he ratted out some high-level criminal elements, and in exchange was given a reduced sentence that allowed him to escape and flee to the Black Star Sector.  His deep fear is that the Underworld elements that he betrayed will one day learn of his betrayal and come to seek vengeance.  He spent time working as a soldier in a local baron’s garrison for a time, but when the baron captured and was going to hand over Cyrha, a suspected Resistance Operative to the Imperium, he found himself having a crisis of conscious and helped Cyrha escape, now they have fled Baron’s forces and find themselves out on their own, unlikely partners trying to survive.   

Note- I'm considering using Wretched Space as Campaign Inspiration, Black Star has a "not" Star Wars vibe, which is cool, but I may end up using some of the options from the Wretched Space setting.  May change this moving forward, we shall see...

Oh, and the image is AI art that I generated.  I'm no artist, but I like having visual representations when I can. 

Have a Black Star Weekend!

 Happy Friday Everyone!!

I got an unexpected treat in the mail this week.  

My buddy Matt sent me the print version of Black Star, you can't tell from the picture, but it is a digest sized book, could just about fit in your pocket! Fun!  Thanks Matt you rock!  

It's been a busy week so haven't had time to do anything gaming related, but hopefully this weekend!

I wish you all a great and blessed weekend! Do something fun! play some games, hang out with friends and family! Enjoy the weekend! You earned it! 

Black Star RPG

 

     Thanks to a friend, I recently became aware of the Black Star RPG from LakeSide Game. This is a rules lite Space Opera RPG, with a good bit of a certain "War in the Stars" with the serial numbers filed off thrown into the very loose setting.  Those who read my blog know I've been on a Sci Fi kick for a bit, even though up until recently I had an active 5E Campaign going, I still want to play some Sci Fi!  With my work/life schedule, I've had to put my face-to-face game on hiatus, so I've been looking at trying more Solo, especially Sci Fi Solo.  Given that rolls in Black Star are player facing, this system seems perfectly suited for Solo play, although it looks like it will work just fine for group play as well.  

Here is the official blurb about the game,"Darkness has fallen over the galaxy. The once-noble Galactic Imperium now serves only the Grand Imperator and his inner circle. But the galaxy is vast. While the core worlds may be caught in the Imperium’s grip, many more exist beyond the galactic core, in the barely charted expanse of space known as the black star sector. A haven for criminals and unsavory characters of every stripe, the black star sector is also where the resistance against the Imperium is strongest. If there is any hope of overthrowing the Imperium, the galaxy will need heroes, and those heroes will come from under a Black Star.

Black Star is a rules light sci-fi roleplaying game you can carry around in your pocket. Using the latest version of the Furious Games Engine first used in Magnum Fury and refined in Six-Gun Fury, Black Star is designed for fast play and high-flying action, perfect for classic space opera and heroic science fantasy.

While not a big PDF guy, I prefer book in hand, there is now a print version of the core rules available via lulu. There is also a companion book that was recently released adding more options to the game.

As time permits, I'm going to be trying out this ruleset in Solo mode and maybe even try some Online play?  I don't usually do online, but with this rules lite system, I may just have to take the system for a spin. More to come! 

Conan The Barbarian new comic series

 

Picked up the first issue of the new Conan the Barbarian series from Titan Comics today.  Good stuff! The art reminds me of the classic Conan art from back in the day.  A great read for Conan fans and loaded with ideas to use in my Hyperborea Campaign! 

SURVIVE THIS!! War for the Wasteland

 Happy Sunday everyone!  Hope you all are all doing well.  We've had a series of bad storms here that have made life a bit hectic (loss of power, internet, even water at times), but we are good.  I just wanted to do a quick post about a product I literally just picked up this morning.  It is from Bloat Games.  It is the Ashcan version of Survive This!! War for the Wasteland. I've only just skimmed it so far, but wow I love it!  This is the Ashcan version, and even though it is not complete, it is loaded with cool stuff.  If the Ashcan version gets enough support, Bloat Games will do a full version with new art etc.  I wanted to post about it here to share the love! With the Christmas in July Sale, its just a few bucks, and in my opinion well worth it.  I love Post Apocalyptic gaming and have always been a big fan of the Rifts setting, and this reminds me a lot of Rifts, but in a much more playable OSR way.  I'll be posting more about this one soon. Hoping I can get my group to try it out, been running alot of 5E Fantasy and I have a hankerin' to get back to my Post Apoclyptic roots!  

Grizzly Devils; Adventures in Wretched Space Part 4

 Continuing where we left off... Grizzly Devil Squad had made the risky decision to try to cross Crustacean Caverns as a short cut to get to the location of the MIA Iron Badger squad.  What they had not expected was to run into a massive territorial brawl between giant crustaceans and giant cave mollusks. The things were all around them!  Skitters advanced sensors helped them avoid some of the beasts, but a fight was unavoidable. 

Simply Clawful!

Skitter and Heath were hit hard, being on point, but no one was left unscathed during this awful fight.  The things were everywhere, on the walls the floors. It was a brutal fight.  

     Unfortunately, many of the creatures stopped fighting each other to go after these new, soft targets.  Shalonna found a way out of this awful situation, but it would require them to run down the dangerous Toxic Tunnels.

     Once again Skitters sensors found the best way through the toxic waste, but the vile chemicals corroded the little droid and finished off what the crustaceans hadn't.  Heath bravely used his cyber eye to get them the rest of the way through the polluted tunnel, but he too succumbed to this awful place. Kadin tried to help him, but she was sick from the toxins as well, and there was nothing to be done for him.  

    Then they realized they were turned around and lost, only the way finding skills of Shalonna got them back on track, but this long detour proved to be too much for Druce and he died from his injuries. 

     Grimly they knew they were finally at their destination. Bits of broken gear and blood, signs of a fight, and a dead rebel, one of the lost Iron Badgers. Shalonna found signs of Bone Apes in the area. Stealthily approaching the signs of a Bone Ape camp. They spotted their quarry, a group of Bone Apes and two captive Iron Badger Rebels, beaten and hurt but alive! 

The Grizzly Devils, hurt and worn, they knew what they had to do, they jumped the Bone Apes and a fierce fight ensued!

Thats when they lost Kadin, they thought they'd killed all the Bone Apes, but one rose up just long enough to get a kill shot at Kadin while she tried to stop Mungo from bleeding out.  Mungo and Kadin died right there.  Shalonna bloody as hell, sliced off the Bone Apes head with one blow, before nearly collapsing herself.  

That left just Rogue One and Shalonna left alive of the Grizzly Devils, and the two Iron Badgers could barely walk. Shalonna was moving on willpower alone.  Trying to find some healing supplies in the Bone Ape camp, one of the Iron Badgers triggered a trap which cost him his life and severely injured Shalonna.  

     Rogue One basically carrying Shalonna and dragging the only surviving Iron Badger started the slow crawl back to the Vault.  However, the Bone Apes weren't done yet.  A small group of Bone Apes attacked.  Rogue One went into a frenzy. 

   Shalonna was killed in the first round of their attack, but somehow, someway the Rogue Clone Trooper defeated them.  Rogue One took Shalonna's necklace, slung the barely conscious Iron Badger rebel over his shoulder and made the long walk back to the Vault.  Grizzly Devil Squad...was no more.   

Grizzly Devils - R.I.P. 

Grizzly Devil Squad Part 3 Adventures in Wretched Space

                                                             

                                        

Continuing the Adventures of The Grizzly Devils.

For this one I tapped into using Mythic Game Master Emulator, to add some interesting elements to the game. Where mechanics were required, I utilized the Wretched Space RPG. 

Reporting in from their last mission. Our crew was debriefed by base Commander Abrams and thoroughly checked over by Dr. Goodwin. The Commander had lots of questions about the psychic attack they had endured, as well as the eerie blue glowing structures they had found. Dr. Goodwin ran several strange tests on the squad. Eventually both seemed satisfied that the squad weren't under the influence of some "other" force or influence, and after they had healed up, they were cleared to return to duty.  

Commander Abrams - No nonsense, tough, and determined leader. The unsaid rumor is he is actually a transhuman cloned from the DNA of the real Abraham Lincoln...but that's impossible right?? 

Doctor Goodwin- Odd and eccentric, has a interest in psychic forces and energies. More of a (mad) scientist than a medical doctor, although he has some medical skill. He has been able to reverse engineer some of the alien tech found in the reaches of the massive alien Vault.

     The team had been barely cleared for duty, when Commander Abrams gave them a new assignment.  Bone Apes had ambushed two other teams (The Black Salamanders and The Iron Badgers), on the fringes of their territory. One rebel had been killed and several rebel fighters were seriously injured, with three members of The Iron Badgers MIA. 

     Any further explorations of the glowing blue ruins would have to wait until this latest threat was dealt with and any surviving Iron Badgers rescued/recovered. Doc Eldred would be pulled from the squad to assist with the wounded that had been brought in. While Doc Eldred was a skilled doctor and a veteran of many conflicts, his age was making it harder for him to crawl around in the dark and dangerous tunnels that connected the different vaults found in this ancient ruined underworld, his skill set would be better suited to working in the medical ward of the Vault. Combat Nurse Kadin would need to cover the combat medic needs of the squad for now. To replace the losses of Hector and Simon Luther, and the reassignment of Doc Eldred. The Grizzly Devils would be getting three new members.  Rogue One a combat clone that had been able to overcome its mental conditioning and had joined the rebel cause.  Druce, skilled forager, hunter and scrounger (finding supplies and resources had been a problem last mission, and Commander Abrams intended to quickly fix this deficit on the squad). The last new member to be assigned to the team was Heath, a veteran rebel and skilled tunnel fighter. 

Rogue One -Clone Trooper, he beat his mental conditioning/programming and has joined the Rebel Resistance Forces. Tough as Nails! 

Druce- One of the best foragers and scroungers within the rebel forces.  Not a people person, but when you are low on food and supplies he has a knack for turning up things just when they are needed the most. 

Heath- Ex-Galactic Federation Soldier, skilled scout and point man, lost his right eye to Bone Apes, now has a Cyber Eye, that's particularly useful to see in the darkened tunnels that connect the vaults (that is when it works properly). 

They would also be taking a SearchMaster Droid with them, while the rebels only have a limited number of droids, bots and special vehicles, Commander Abrams deemed this mission important enough to risk the use of one of their Special Droids. 

SearchMaster-9000  aka "Skitter"- A versatile rescue/exploration droid, equipped with a plethora of cameras and sensors. It can navigate through rubble and debris and squeeze into tight spaces. 

Leaving the main part of the Rebel controlled vault, they noted that even old Granny and her War Poodle Gladys were on alert and stationed to help secure the vault's access points to the main Tunnels. 

Granny- Veteran Rebel, she's forgotten more about fighting against Galactic Federation tyranny and corruption than most rebels will ever know. 

Gladys - War Poodle, while not fearsome or scary in any way, she has a keen sense of smell, that has saved many a rebel from a Bone Ape ambush and has carried much needed ammo and supplies to tunnel fighters in need. 

     With a final clack, the vault door locked into place behind them.  The Grizzly Devils moved out; time was of the essence.  If any of the Iron Badgers were still alive, they'd need to get to them quickly. Bone Apes were known to eat their captives alive!  

     To make better time, it was decided to cut through the Crustacean Caves... a group of very large caverns just outside of rebel-controlled territory.  The caves had unusual subterranean flora and fauna. Weird tentacled plant life and giant crustaceans and mollusks that fed upon them and each other....

Heath and Skitter were on point, Shalonna was up next, followed by Mungo, Combat Nurse Kadin and Duce (who was quite interested in seeing if any of this weird flora could be harvested), Rogue One was keeping a careful watch on their 6, Bone Apes could and would attack from behind whenever possible. 

Skitter's sensors went into overdrive, something big was moving in the large cave up ahead, actually a lot of somethings...Heath's cybernetic eye, picked it up as well.

Gigantic Cave Crustaceans were battling it out with Giant Cave Mollusks!  Could the squad find a safe way through this critter war?...backtracking would cost them a lot of valuable time? There were too many of these things to fight right?... 

To be continued...

Solo Gaming; Adventures of Grizzly Devil Squad Part 2

 This post continues the adventures of the Rebel Tunnel Fighters.  Part One is available here

Our Squad, The Grizzly Devils, had made it to the outskirts of their territory (a day's journey, in and of itself). Being especially careful and watchful, they made their way to the newly discovered tunnels. Hector, ever sure of his abilities, took point and following the directions the scouts had provided to Simon Luther, after a few hours trek, they found the newly discovered tunnels and cautiously entered. 

                                                Hector

The Caverns of the Pustulent Slime Shrooms

After a day's journey down this newly discovered dark tunnel, they started to see an eerie blue glow emanating from somewhere further down the tunnel.  Soon they noticed a disgusting, yellow, almost pus like slime dripping from the ceiling. Hector noted it even had a foul odor like pus.  

The tunnel continued on for hours. as the glow seemed to be ever ahead. Meanwhile the slime thickened and increased starting to drip and ooze more on the floors and ceiling, this made travel take even longer. Several times Hector would scout an area ahead only to have to double back and retrace his route.  Hours into this disgusting mess, the group realized the slime had managed to permeate their rations and much of their water supply.  They'd have to forage for food and drinking water to have enough and stopping to rest here was impossible. Eventually the tunnels opened into large chamber with massive mushrooms towering from the muck. All dripping that same foul pus-like slime.  They had to make camp here, everyone was exhausted. No one got any rest and what water they had left that wasn't contaminated wasn't going to last long. 

Continuing on their journey through the Slime Fungi caves was difficult and challenging.  Hector on point, took the worst of it, trying to find a safe route through the slimy caves, backtracking and trying again, others offered to take point, but Hector took it as a point of pride to be Point man on this expedition. The slime caves took a toll on everyone, but impacted Hector the most. Hector used up all his water and food rations and the rest of the squad all had to go deeply into their resources to get through this challenge. Once through this foul system of tunnels and caves, everyone was extremely low on rations and almost out of clean drinking water. 

The source of the blue glow seems to be up ahead...

Hector could make out some type of ruined structures ahead, the bluish glow was still emanating from…somewhere up ahead, and yet was all around the chamber at the same time…what was he seeing...?  Ancient stone carvings? Were those Sarcophagi? Then movement from a side passage...

What is that thing?!!

While our squad had no name for it, the official name of the beast would become Eldritch Mind Warper! Only partially existing in a physical form, the monster emanated powerful waves of negative psychic energy and it was aggressive, very aggressive!  The squad had prepped for a fight with Bone Ape Tunnel Fighters! Not Psychic Warp Beasts! No one in the squad was trained in the methods to defend against such a monster!                                                                                                                                                                                    

     Hector was killed immediately, already weakened from the difficult route through the Slime Fungi Caves, The Eldritch Mind Warper ripped Hector’s mind to shreds, killing him instantly.  The entire squad was mentally attacked all at once by powerful waves of psychic force. Simon Luther went down next, and Mungo came close to death’s door! Only by expending what reserves they had left did they manage to survive. They threw everything they had at the beast engaging in a running fight with it in the large cavern. Even with that they only just barely managed to defeat the creature. At the end of the fight, Hector and Simon Luther were dead. Mungo severely injured and the remaining squad members were all injured, weak and dangerously low on resources. 

R.I.P. Hector and Simon Luther

     They paused to bury their two fallen comrades; it was too far back to attempt to carry the bodies all that way. Doc Eldred said a few words, and what could pass as a prayer.  Kadin said Amen in a quiet voice, while Mungo and Shalonna stood in grim silence.

     The fight with the Mind Warper had diverted the squad from their previous trail, less skilled individuals would have become hopelessly lost and died out there. Fortunately, Shalonna’s skills as a Way Finder allowed the squad to find their way and make it back to safety.  Their home territory had never looked so good. Tired, and dehydrated, they trudged onward. 

     On the edge of the rebel controlled tunnels they encountered a rebel patrol, Gilbert and Brone along with a trusty AT3. Gilbert told the squad they looked like hell, while sharing his water and rations. Brone said they'd heard scouts report of Bone Ape sightings in the Western Tunnels but the patrol hadn't seen anything.  The patrol escorted the exhausted team back to the Rebel Vault. They said little during the journey. 

                                                 Gilbert

                                                  Brone

                         AT3 (All Terrain Tunnel Tractor)

     The mission had been challenging and difficult in unexpected ways.  They had lost two members of the squad. But in fighting the Eldritch Mind Warper, Mungo and Shalonna had learned ways to enhance their mental defenses, which would hopefully help them be better equipped for psychic attacks in the future.  And as Simon Luther (R.I.P.) had suspected the Caves of the Slime Fungi did in fact provide a route around the Bone Ape territories, but risking an encounter with another Mind Warper, might not be worth the risk. That would be for the chain of command to decide. Along with whether or not the risk of investigating those strange glowing "coffins"  was worth it.

     Under the care of Doc Eldred and Kadin, everyone healed up.  A somber service was held for their two fallen comrades, and they pondered their next mission. Healed up back at Hecate's Pub, they said a toast to Hector and Simon Luther.