Worlds Enough and Time: An Urutskan Travel Log-

I was thinking of all of the adventures I can remember gaming on Urutsk, as well as fiction I have written for it, and came up with these locations and time periods:

The Marnharnnan Continent: From the Fall of the Ancients, through the Vrun Colonial period, and the years of play in Latter Autumn, and into the surrealistic dark-fantasy of the Winter Era.

The Vrun Continent: Pre-history, Spring Era, Summer, Autumn, and bits of Winter (7,000 years of history). From the Crystal Pyramid through hunter-gatherers; from the standard fare of 'mediaeval fantasy' through Sci-Fantasy of the war against the Aelbaan; Late Summer and Early Autumn's mass-warfare campaigns, cults, disease and famine; The Humanoid and Frontier Campaigns; the pseudo Napoleonic gatling-gun and cannon period of Consolidation; the rise of the Vrun Continental Authority and highlights of the First Tyrrhean War with its necroborgs and gas-masked cavalry sorties; Latter Autumn's Second Tyrrhean War and the urban malaise of capitulation to the People's Automatic Union; all the way into Winter's madness and desperate subterranean scramble.

The Black Crown / Marnharnnan Yirinn Empire of Bereme Oykh: Autumn and the Departure, and Winter's Discontent.

The Chaos Isles: Scattered incidents throughout Autumn.

Tuliri / Lhoman Border region: Late Summer and throughout the Autumn Era, especially during the Second Tyrrhean War. Hours and hours of miniatures wargaming took place in this region, as well as a religious insurgency on the Tuliri side of the border. Martial Arts action, Pulp adventure involving serpent men, and the rise of an Immortal.

The Durn Continent: Early Autumn's visitation by the contemporary Playtest Party as well as a one-off with a Big Game Hunter, his trusty sidekick, and a powerful Durn Holy Warrior versus Guild Council slavers; Latter Autumn's challenge to modernise, and the Durn Maximist Covenant's polite refusal of the PAU's invitation.

All of the above is but a small percentage of the total gaming done in the milieu, and fails to touch upon the exploration and colonisation of Aqmlk, the Red Planet, and its latter eras; the entire span of the Space Age with its Hyperspace Shunt Network and Dragon Wars; Alien worlds crawling with unspeakable horrors and confounding alien technology; and the actual Sphere of Stars built around the galactic core; and other bits and bobs throughout these past 26+ years of my cultivating this wild and wending garden.

What adventures will you have here?

[Playtest Campaign] January 29th-

After a dinner of Indian/Pakistani food, the SO and I arrived at the store to meet a 'new' player who joined the game, although he had played in my wacky Pathfinderish-Beta mashup game in 2008/2009.

Said player chose to play a Durn-Western Isles Vrun Gentleman Adventurer. This character's father was a native-born Durnsman who had excelled in Mathematics and was scouted by a WI university to attend; after completing his advanced studies, Pops became a Physics professor (full honours, citizenship, and married a very Aelbaanesque (i.e., pale, tall, and eccentric) noblewoman, daughter to Admiral Kinsdem. From that union, Devlyn MqKullyn was born.
--Devlyn had been born on Doran, where he was schooled and grew up before travelling to the Western Isles to complete his higher education, to broaden his horizons, and to round-out his moral character. While his mixed ancestry was a bit controversial in the WI, it was/is tamer than in the New World (although Doran has a fair population of various mixed-bloods of all sorts).

Devlyn had been away (back in the WI) during the time of the pirate attack, and returned to find the place worse for wear. While still on the ship, he had engaged in some gambling with two sharpes who had intended on swindling him, but his successes deterred them, and they excused themselves separately and departed. He was then spoken to by an old man who had appeared to have been asleep during the game, and was suggested by this fellow to speak with the Governors when he made land. Devlyn thanked him for that odd tidbit, and upon disembarking, made his way to the walled community where his let flat is located, and met Qwyl, the gardener/grounds keeper for the three elegant apartment buildings within the confines. Through Devyn's somewhat less than tactful suggestion that Qwyl's assessment that his, 'black god warned you of danger, right?', was in fact correct, Qwyl was understandably hurt that he had not been warned, considering that the man had lost an eye during the fighting. Qwyl then suggested that to make up for that Devyn could treat him to lunch at the new drinking establishment (an overturned pirate hulk dragged onto shore). Devyn agreed and went upstairs to unpack.
--He was met by a woman who claimed to be his cousin, Ylnel, from the WI. She had been on Doran for a week or so, and was encountering terrible difficulty locating and securing her 15 pieces of baggage. She hoped that her cousin could help her sort that and had been allowed by the landlady to sleep in the hallway at Devlyn's door during that time. With the opportunity to wash up Ylnel and Devyn entered the flat, where she then set herself up in the guest room while he unpacked. A furred snake (he didn't think it was poisonous) extricated itself from his larger carry-on. Qwyl picked up the snake and draped it across his shoulders like a living stole. Ylnel, Qwyl, and he had a brief intro and set out to eat lunch.

On the way there Qwyl noticed movement in the bushes and set about determining its nature: folk rising up from a covered tunnel entrance. The furred snake dissuaded them from exiting, and Qwyl began to blow on his signal whistle until both House Ahzinbakh dog handlers and the local militia both converged on the spot. The dog handlers attempted to dismiss the event, but the partisan woman leading the militia would hear none of it and called for additional backup. Devlyn took that opportunity to ditch Qwyl, and tried doing the same with Ylnel, but she clung to his arm and they set off to the Governors' Estate.
>>
---Introductions were mde; Ylnel was explained to be a University-level investigator in Fae Sciences, and her 15 pieces of kit being lab gear and the like; the Govs and secondary characters were involved; the Sphere was shown to Devlyn once his WI (Aelbaan) ancestry was disclosed; the ship reacted oddly to his presence and the feedback was unsettling to Ashta (!), but they went for a flight as Mela Mela and Ylnel trotted off with a guard and Ahnni to Mela's alchemical lab (guarded by her Fae friends who had warned her of the very large 'Bunk-Bunk' creatures who came out at night and stood around the other PCs and ate either their exhaled breath, or their dreams; the Fae were not certain of which), but along the way, they were almost ambushed by pirates flushed out from the jungly vegetation. Ahnni had Jaunted with one of the pirates, but was struck-ill by a charm the man was wearing (it was a stylised 'A' in some sort of silvery alloy and the Black Metal); House A dog-handlers then set their dogs on the girls but they held their own until the Sphere came to the rescue and squashed the dogs in a TK field; one handler fled into the swamp which is known to hold pirates; Ahnni was cured of an extra-planar poisoning effect generated by something emitting radiations from deep within the island; the dog handler was pursued by a TK probe and was harassed by the PCs until we wrapped it up around 11 PM.

The 'new' player was interested in downloading the .pdfs, and reading this blog (as is Tyb's player), so we may be hearing from them in the comments in the coming days/weeks.

[Milieu][Wargaming] R'Tshen Skirmish/Tactical Rules-

Badelaire said...

Unless I missed it in an earlier post, any chance of a summary of these skirmish rules, perhaps what sort of troop level they work at, any comparable rules sets you're coming close to? I'm always interested in new skirmish/wargaming rules sets.

Badelaire, et al.,

(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

R'Tshen, which, when translated into English, means, "Ranks -- Exceedingly-Subtle, (Dedicated), Ready", is a miniatures combat training game for the Duhen Shes Wied'am warriors of the Durn Holy Kingdom.

The Duhen Shes Wied'am are folk (male and female) who have lived their life, and want to give back to the Community with the rest of the time allotted to them. To do this, they exile themselves outside the massive circular wall which surrounds the Holy Kingdom, into the profane world, where they build, maintain, and man fortifications. Their task is to try and persuade raiders/invaders/miscreants to turn away before Wrath rain down upon them from On High.

Barring the abandonment of their opponent's folly, the Duhen Shes Wied'am swarm from under-sand corridors to isolate small units of the enemy, so as to make their holy work more efficient (and reduce the DSW casualties, naturally). Even when their foes are at their mercy, the DSW attempt to pacify the attackers.

To train for combat, the DSW utilise R'Tshen to illustrate both squad (Draslin) tactics, and the consequences of defeat. Players take their figures (Zaul) and place them, with the DSW generally given first-go, and the attackers positions randomly determined based on the outter ranks of the DSW set-up.

The R'Tshen rules exclusively use lots and markers/tags to indicate the Zaul's status, as well as conducting all Actions. Figures generally represent either a Draslin, made up of five Dras, or its leader, a Drasl. If a Draslin is damaged, survivors may rally and form a new Draslin. If not, they will usually be attached directly to a Drasl. If this is the case, they are known as Endras. Dras without either a Draslin, or a Drasl are still capable of individual action, but lose a great deal of effectiveness.

It is a 1 Hit = 1 Trooper scale, but allows for 'dodges' that either outright negate the Hit, or reduce them to half-Hits, which do not affect Combat Actions, but do penalise Movement and non-Combat Actions (Correcting Machinery, Item Use, etc.).

Penalties and Bonuses use multiple Lots per Action, with the worse/worst, or better/best of them determining the result. All Lots have one of six colours, as do each of the Zaul. Only on a Draw of their Colour does a Zaul meet with Full Success. Partial Success is generated by associated Colours, and are further delineated by Like and unLike Lots.

Drasl are 5-Hit figures capable of any-, and everything that Dras, Draslin, or Endras can accomplish. Their prowess and Divine favour also manifests in their ability to automatically detect Ambush and Traps, but even still, Draws are necessary to warn their Dras in time.

Since most scenarios outside of League-play are not connected, healing is generally not a major feature, but is addressed. Drasl can contribute 3x as many Lots toward Healing.