The Shape of Games to Come.

Stardate- Monday 12th December

Place-Somewhere in the Garvaldian Solar System.

             Tonight’s thrilling(okay slightly) Garvald Film Studios Production found us out in the outer reaches of the black and white sci-fi solar system of some 1930’s type serial that we were all still watching in the 1960’s matinees of our youth with a delve into Rick Rhodes and the Pirates of Luna City.

The Spouse in question.

The Crimson Pirates.

The Palace.

             This was the first instalment of the scenarios in the episode guide so expect some more in the near future. The drive out to the far reaches of the Garvald Film Studios proved to be rather festive with the ground and trees covered in the white stuff we usually see in April when we are thinking about summer so it was good to see the game set in some leafy paradise on Titan,one of Saturn’s moons. The table had been set out as though it was perched on the roof of this realm with plenty of opportunities to push the unwary from a great height.Alas it was not to be this evening but I’m sure there will be some unfortunate souls in future games.

Commander Zann making a point.

Encircling the Palace.

My Radium Launcher equipped guard looking for targets.

      This evening’s episode was based on the pretext of some prince who was about to indulge in an arranged marriage but before he could indulge in set ball and chain affair he was kidnapped by Captain Vana and the Crimson Sky Pirates and hurried towards their Skyrocket obviously to claim some ransom or more likely paid by him to get him out of the marriage.My money is on the latter.Everything was set up with Prince Leon being huckled by Vana towards the waiting spaceship whilst the remainder of the pirates and rebels ran interference.

The Lion sleeps tonight-permanently!

At a bit of a cost though!

          My Pirates quickly done away with the three Lionmen especially as the Lionmen were only armed with sword and shield and they were wasted before they even got within striking distance of the pirates.Once again a false confidence came over me but that was shot down by ray gun fire from the Royal Guards who proceeded to whittle my pirates down with their weapons which included some sort of rocket launcher.Ah C’est La Vie(in Saturnian).

Hand to hand!

Zann leading from the rear.

          My rebel team were running interference for Vana taking on the other Royal Guard in order for their boss to abscond with the prince.The Royal Guard stood off and took pot shots at my rebel girls and even when I caused casualties they reappeared as reinforcements.My rebels were all but wasted leaving only one Crimson Pirate to help Vana but at least they didn’t incur any cast axing.My only assistance came in the form of a tiger like figure who appeared due to the turning over of a random card.This beast quickly drew the attention of the Royal Guard but it still watched the back of Vana helping her to escape to the safety off her spaceship complete with “hostage”.

Here comes my Sabre Tooth Slinker(for all you Victor comic fans of a certain age).

          Just a small report as it was a pretty quick game even with it being the first game of the series.We played a second game which ended even quicker.

A couple of shots from the second game.

          Still a good evening’s gaming with the second part being played on Wednesday.All figs and scenery provided by El Presidente from his vast collection.Also thanks to the Duchess of Garvald for providing an excellent repast. 

Vana is aff!

                  See You All When I See You!

         This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.

       

         

     

G

The Final Massacre of the Fishy Folk

 Time-Wednesday 30th November.

Place -The Last Bastion of The Garvaldian Fishy Folk.

The Mount with the obelisk and the two not so obelisks.

The OSG agents flapping.

    Out to frosty Garvald this evening on the pretext that we were indulging in VBCW but on arriving the playing numbers had dwindled therefore the last part of the Lurkers of the Deep scenarios was on the menu.As you can see by the included pictures the VBCW game had been set up so a bit of scene shifting was done and lo and behold the scenery for our game miraculously appeared albeit with a few abstract obelisks.

Three pictures of the “should have been game”

      The scenario involved the Fishy folks last bastion with the OSR agents having the agenda of breaking up this ritual and saving society from Professor Plum and his fish evolving retinue blah blah blah.My obelisks and their stand ins were the key to the ritual and the more acolytes who were in contact with it the quicker the ritual could be performed so it looked as they were going to be gun -fodder for El Presidente’s gunslingers and that they were from the off with hails of bullets flying out against my innocent acolytes.Boo Hiss!.

Professor Plum putting in his thumb.

Perty Potts calling for order.

“I’m back -Superglue and all!”

              As the acolytes basically had to stand their ground the rest of the professor’s minions had to run interference so made(or should I say slithered)their way towards the interlopers.Once again my large fishy devil suitably rearmed with the help of some superglue headed straight for the enemy and once again headed for an early bath as El Presidente’s agents shot him before he could swing his superglued club leaving the remainder to look after themselves again.I did have one bonus in that El Presidente graciously afforded me a fishy high priestess who got straight into the fight targeting the opposition’s head honchess  Lady Fortesque Pimpleton who was shielded by Doctor Foster from Gloucester and his own personal bodyguards who literally put their life on the line for him.

Lady Fortesque shows her pointy sticks.

The Fishy priestess arrives.

Lady Fortesque urges on her minions from away in the rear.

         El Presidente started his incursion by directing a hail of gunfire against my poor acolytes downing two  immediately as well as doing away with my fishy devil this gave him Dutch courage to have one of his female sword armed females to charge right into the middle of my shambling Dagites giving them the chance to inflict revenge for their fallen shoal mates.Maybe the tide had turned for my fishy folk-not on your nelly.This just made El Presidente get more avid with his gunfire. In the nick of time the steak pie and ale break had arrived so we trooped of to the local hostelry for some sustenance .

Now you see him,

Now you don’t!

  Play resumed on the other side of the mount where my fishy priestess was leading from the front and leading her fishy folk headlong towards the interlopers hoping to do away with at least Doctor Foster and his bodyguard before targeting Lady Fortesque and her pointy sticks.By this time Lady Fortesque was definitely leading from the rear obviously hoping to take the credit whilst her party diminished in size.

The reincarnated arrive,

The big scrap begins.

The reincarnated depart.

        There now followed the usual skirmishes between both parties whilst Professor Plum who had actually been hiding since the first scenario where his main contribution to that scenario was throwing a flask of halucinogenic liquid over Shir Shaun then bolting for his present hideout where he went undiscovered for six months.He spent most of this game hiding in the shadows waiting for the chance to throw some of his Professor Plum’s Old Peculiar potion over some of the opposition in order to turn them into fishy folk but alas the enemy were made of sterner stuff.     My numbers were rapidly dwindling but lo and behold through the use of a ‘Maguffin’card they rapidly increased albeit for short time as El Presidente’s agents just reloaded and indulged in over fish farming my folk but at least it extended the game.   One of El Presidente’s band Telegram Samantha had broken away and tried to head for the centre of the mount in order to get some brownie points by doing away with Professor Plum but only succeeded in raising the ire of my fishy priestess who bounded after her saving Plum’s bacon in the process.

One on one.

One on two.

Telegram Sam is not getting away.

     Across the other side of mount the second group led by Perty Polly had mopped up the last of the stragglers and was preparing to have the remnants of her group move out and assist the other group who were indulging in some towing and froing on the other side of the mount.They were stopped in their tracks by the sound of an enormous explosion which rocked  the mount and on investigation found that the navy had sent a salvo of explosives which landed amongst the fisticuffs that was going on resulting in the demise of various figures including Doctor Foster who returned to Gloucester,my diminutive Fishy priestess and a few flunkies .Professor Plum seeing this demise of his faithful followers headed back into the sanctuary of the mount never to be seen again at least not till the next series providing it’s not axed.

The Big Bang arrives!

Leaving just the three.

The Marker on the Mount.

         The Lurkers of the Deep scenarios have come to an end at least for now but I’m sure the call of Cithilu will be renewed.Watch this space!

           All figures and scenery provided by El Presidente although he couldn’t find all his obelisks so we had to improvise as you can see.

       See You All When I See You.

      This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.

               

       

Catch A Few Waves-Lurkers of the Deep Style

Date- Wednesday 16th November 

Place-Some Garvaldian Rocky Outcrop.

            Tonight’s adventure was a continuation of the Lurkers of the Deep scenarios that we have been ploughing through and was to feature the arrival of General Jumbo and his band of Rangers(and I don’t mean the Follow Follow kind)with a mission to either relight the light in the lighthouse or destroy it in order to ward off the navy destroyer who for some reason was going to torpedo the reef/rocks underneath the lighthouse.The locals had put the light out in order to draw the destroyer on to the rocks.Who makes up these scenarios and hopefully they are now in locks and chains?

My Eldritch horror showing how armless he was to prove.

The Rangers getting all tucked in.

The Lighthouse in question.

           Anyhoo enough of my ranting.El Presidente had placed his Rangers around the lighthouse and their task was to defend it and occasionally delegate some poor soul to go and collect explosives from a nearby shed in order to barbecue the lighthouse.All myself  and the fishy type locals had to do was turn the Rangers into shark bait-easy I thought until the random rules were mentioned and this came in the form of randomly dice generated weather rules and believe me it was four seasons in one hour ranging from Tsunamis to Tsunamis.These were diced for after the random event card was drawn usually adding insult to injury.

The first tidal wave hits.

General Jumbo doing his fair share.

“We’ll try that again!”

           El Presidente dug in and awaited my onslaught and my figures being wet and slithery things with not very many plot points it was going to be a long night especially getting periodically hit by a tidal wave and thrown back into the ocean.We played the first act with El Presidente’s Rangers cowering behind a wall giving cover to the poor squaddies delegated to bringing the explosives from the shed.I’ll give General Jumbo his due he done his fair share of humphing the barrels.

Fighting a lost cause.

Sniper in the tower.

Once again boys!

        My Eldritch demon led the way up the cliff paths hoping to get up close and personal with the Rangers but half way up the path he lost his big stick and not finding any superglue to stick it back on he just had a kiddy-on one which didn’t do him much good for as usual my dice rolls were c**p and he ended up being my first casualty as the Rangers were spot on with their rifle fire helped by a sniper who had been placed conveniently on the top of the lighthouse.Luckily steak pie and ale break had arrived so I could wail in my ale about the demise of my fishy hero.Luckily I wasn’t having him with chips.

Finally climbing the cliff.

The Eldritch not so horror goes down.

A wee bit revenge.

       The Second Act of the game saw the arrival of the other Garvaldian yokel-sorry local!Young Andrew had arrived after forsaking the company of the family Spaniel pup and was given charge of the Rangers although it seemed to be a joint effort between himself and El Presidente.Since the demise of my not so demonic Eldritch horror the plot points were few and far between so I had to ration them and just as I had slithered to the top of the cliff paths another tidal wave would come and throw my fishy folk back into the sea.My only saving grace were the pistol armed humanoid fishy folk armed with revolvers who had originally been armed with sub machine guns had made it by hook and crook to the top of the cliffs and started to fire willy nilly at the Rangers causing a few scratches and eventually a casualty of one of the barrel fetchers.That was to be my only success of the evening.

One of my fish devils plays peek a boo with the Rangers.

“And you are?”

“Sergeant Rock is coming to get you!”

               The gunfire from the Rangers was beginning to take effect and my poor fishy folk were beginning to be filleted out.One of my fish devils did get into fisticuffs with one of the Rangers but he was ganged up on by some more of the bullying Rangers and was turned into pot bait.Finally the random card was drawn to signify the lighthouse blowing up but alas the only damage done to the Rangers was the sniper falling on his butt from a high height but not incurring any damage except to his pride.Alas the  destroyer was saved and everybody went home happy except the fishy folk but they will be back for a last hurrah when I am told it will be a cast of thousands.See You Then.

General Jumbo peruses the opposition.

Boom!Up goes the Lighthouse.

          All figs and scenery provided from El Presidente’s vast collection.

          See You All When I See You-hopefully with a stack of seasonal games.

          

          This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.