New year has begun, and we have a host of new RPG content recorded over the holidays. Still lacking a bit of battle report action, since most of the focus has been on large group activities.
The big effort was the second major installment of our Two-Headed Serpent Pulp Cthulhu campaign, with the story finally continuing. This game is configured as a series of one-shot adventures – we start early and play late, attempting to finish the entire chapter in a single session. So far, this has worked well – it turns into a longer evening, but everyone has fun and it keeps us focused on the mysteries. The current one is the Borneo mission, following shortly on after the prior Bolivia excursion. Our group has returned to New York, were after a bit of downtime and recovery – much needed for a few investigators – they are called in to formally be introduced to Caduceus. Unfortunately, after the paperwork and contracts are completed, they are immediately rushed off to Borneo to deal with a growing pandemic outbreak, believed to be created by the Inner Night cult. Many plans go off the rails, but the group had a bit of fun dealing with the strange creatures and events of the scenario, and we managed to finish the chapter in about 12 hours of gaming time. The video has already been posted as a 2-part series.
Overall, I was satisfied with the scenario and how it was layed out, but I do share some of the group feedback that it was far less “mystery”, and more a matter of deal with a ticking clock while mostly unexpected things happened. We keep expecting much more Scooby Doo or X-Files, but finding a different style. The other big challenge facing our group is the time frame – the 1930’s, though traditional for Cthulhu – is now nearly 100 years out of date. This makes the frame of reference very hard to understand and roleplay, at least for our teams. I am considering a time shift to move the entire campaign to a modern day storyline of 2026, though with an attempt to avoid most of the real-world politics and unrelated reality.
Our Pathfinder Kingmaker campaign continued, with the group attempting a daring rescue to save their fallen party members. This worked well enough, though some of the plan started to fall apart, but the group had managed to learn much from the prior combats. From there, they retreated to their capital to rest and re-equip, returning to the cave with a much more solid plan. Thus the third fight with the giant plant was much more organized, and ended up a complete shift in tone, but ultimately managed to wrap up the chapter. Victorious, and excited to see the end of the curse, they returned again to their capital heroes this time. But all was not sunny at Raventhorn, as a messenger had arrived a few days earlier with dire news from the neighboring country – the town of Varnhold was claimed to have vanished mysteriously. Thus the group began to prepare for the long journey, and new challenges in the other lands.
For our Warhammer Enemy Within campaign, there was much exploration. The prior session ended with the group facing down a 3-headed demonic dog, whom they quickly referred to as Cerberus. True to that mythical creature, it promptly thrashed the group well, its sheer size and power sending most of the group running. The few that managed to hold their group were no match for it, and soon the entire group was fleeing. This lead to further exploration of the tunnels, a few new mysteries addressed and answered, and then unexpectedly the group found themselves back outside at the start, with the tunnel layout somewhat changed when they returned. Eventually, we ended the session next to the repaired raft, at the side of the river of blood that had previously blocked the group – none were eager to risk the journey across the river.
As a note, over the last month or so, I had started to live-stream the sessions on Twitch, if you care to listen in that format. I still publish the videos on YouTube on schedule, but it gives a different avenue. I am still adjusting the format slightly – the audio is solid, but the last time or two has been drowned out by the background music, so bear with us as that improves.
In the queue, we have a Bolt Action battle report I have been working on, and a couple of Mordheim sessions still to do, and it is looking like we might record some more Mordheim on Sunday. I need to get a few more Legion games in the process as well, so we can continue either traditional battles or more Tours of Duty.
