Harrigan's Games on Offer

Let's Play! Gaming Moot
#1

Thanks to @sean for setting this up and getting it organized, and to @digitalhobbit for whipping up the Google Sheet at the heart of all this.

I have a bunch of ideas for things I can run at the moment (as of 2021.02.18), which I’ll whittle down once I determine if there’s interest in any of these. Schedule-wise, I’m looking at running the first of these games in March, ideally on a Thursday night or Saturday morning.

Here are the slots I’m thinking I can accommodate (all times Mountain):

  • Saturday, March 6th, 8am-12pm MST
  • Thursday, March 11, 7pm-11pm MST
  • Saturday, March 20th, 8am-12pm MST
  • Thursday, March 25th, 7pm-11pm MST
  • Saturday, April 3rd, 8am-12pm MST
  • Thursday, April 8th, 7pm-12pm MST

For the Saturday dates, I could also make the following Sundays work as well, at the same time.

And here’s some detail on the games:

Game Name: Two-Fisted Fate

  • System / Setting: Fate Accelerated
  • Sessions: 1
  • Concept: High-Octane Pulp Adventure in the 1930s
  • Aim: Make characters, learn Fate. Punch Nazis, mummies, intelligent apes, robots, crocodile-men and the like
  • Tone: Cinematic and fun. Evil is evil, heroes always win.
  • Subject Matter: Punch-ups, chases, duels of wits, cartoon violence – all of it PG-13
  • Touchstones: Indiana Jones, The Mummy
  • This game might be for you if you like Fate, Savage Worlds, or 1930s pulp games generally
  • This game might not be for you if don’t like Fate, narrative-heavy games, pulp, or stories with strong-jawed protagonists and evil, cackling villains

Game Name: Mork Borg!

  • System / Setting: Mork Fucking Borg, the Ennie-winning Swedish RPG!
  • Sessions: 1
  • Concept: Art Punk Doom Metal Fantasy – a spiked flail to the face, the book says
  • Aim: Make characters who will get maimed and likely die as they struggle against a brutal, dying world
  • Tone: Pitch black. Gallows humor. Grim horror. Absurd grossness.
  • Subject Matter: Brutal violence, gore, death, the occult, bleakness, futility, corruption, misery
  • Touchstones: Darkest Dungeon, Warhammer, Shadow of the Demon Lord
  • This game might be for you if you love leaning into all the themes above
  • This game might not be for you if your face scrunched up while reading any of this

Game Name: Delta Green One-Shot

  • System / Setting: Delta Green
  • Sessions: 1-2
  • Concept: Join ‘The Program,’ a secret government group charged with investigating, fighting, and covering up the terrible and often cosmic horrors that lurk in the dark
  • Aim: Make characters in session 0, run through a simple scenario that will likely flow into a second session.
  • Tone: Very dark and serious. Creepy, sinister.
  • Subject Matter: Horror. Mental Illness. Sacrifice. Futility. Hope. Teamwork.
  • Touchstones: Lovecraft’s stories, Season One of True Detective, X-Files
  • This game might be for you if you like Call of Cthulhu but want it themed more tightly, or if you like the idea of playing government agents who have to make hard decisions to protect the public, themselves, and their loved ones.
  • This game might not be for you if you don’t like horror games, the fact that your character might die, low-action adventures, being forced to make terrible decisions, or tough outcomes.

Game Name: Operation White Box

  • System / Setting: Operation White Box (WWII game based on Swords & Wizardry)
  • Sessions: 1
  • Concept: WWII Commandos fight behind enemy lines in Europe to disrupt, delay, and otherwise harry the Germans.
  • Aim: Make characters, complete a mission – think blowing a bridge, a dam, a munitions, dump, a weapons facility.
  • Tone: Gritty – fighting is dangerous and you’ll need to take every precaution you can.
  • Subject Matter: War. Loss. Violence and blood, but not too over the top.
  • Touchstones: Saving Private Ryan, A Bridge too Far, The Guns of Navarone, The Dirty Dozen
  • This game might be for you if *you like the idea of WWII action, or of quasi sandbox play where you set your own objectives and then make and execute your own plans.
  • This game might not be for you if *you don’t like games set during a war, dangerous combat, or the fact that it’s unlikely everyone will make it out alive.

Game Name: Twilight 2000

  • System / Setting: Twilight 2000 Alpha from Free League (full version not out yet, but this is very playable)
  • Sessions: 1-2
  • Concept: Make a soldier or civilian fighting for survival in a ruined Europe after a WWIII that never was.
  • Aim: Make characters in session 0, play through a few desperate days as you come to realize your unit is no more and there’s no help coming – you’re on your own. Might stretch to a second session.
  • Tone: Hard-nosed military fiction. Hope and desperation.
  • Subject Matter: Conflict, the dark side of humanity, travel, exploration, starvation, sickness, resource management, scavenging, generosity, protectiveness, camaraderie.
  • Touchstones: Full Metal Jacket, Platoon
  • This game might be for you if you like grounded post-apoc settings where you’re on your own and need to get to safety, relying only on what you have and what you can scavenge.
  • This game might not be for you if you don’t like the idea of risky, dangerous combat, realistic situations involving desperate people in dire straights, or being on your own without a clear set of orders.

Game Name: White Lies: Bureau 19

  • System / Setting: White Lies (Swords & Wizardry-powered espionage)
  • Sessions: 1
  • Concept: Operatives working for a secret agency who do bad things for good reasons
  • Aim: Make characters and complete a mission / assignment
  • Tone: Smooth, sexy, suave, stylish
  • Subject Matter: Covert action, high stakes, chases, fights, seduction, stealth, intrigue
  • Touchstones: The Bourne Movies, The American, Modern Bond films
  • This game might be for you if you dig the idea of playing a badass secret agent – but one who is -not- a superhero
  • This game might not be for you if you don’t like the idea of playing a badass secret agent, or one that -isn’t- a superhero

Game Name: The Black Hack

  • System / Setting: The Black Hack 2e
  • Sessions: 1
  • Concept: A streamlined, post-modern OSR experience with player-facing rolls, roll-under attribute mechanics, and the wonderful usage die
  • Aim: Make characters and complete a simple OSR module / adventure
  • Tone: Fairly low fantasy – humans are afraid of magic and don’t often see monsters, but they believe they are real.
  • Subject Matter: Classic OSR stuff – exploration, resource management, fighting foes, finding treasure, leveling up
  • Touchstones: Early versions of D&D, modern game theory
  • This game might be for you if want to play an OSR game but don’t love descending armor class, loads of saving throws, or other fiddly bits from back in the day that never quite struck your fancy
  • This game might not be for you if you don’t like rulings over rules or not having access to highly differentiated and detailed character classes
All of my games will use Lines and Veils and the X-Card for safety tools. If you've never used those before don't sweat it -- I'll explain them. They're in place to make sure we all have a good experience at the table and have fun without getting stressed out.

Fire away if you have questions.

1 Like
#2

I’m in for White Lies, shoot for Saturday, March 6th. Please. I will get another person to play with me…I hope. :thinking:

1 Like
#3

Aight. First date pitched to me, so it’s doable. See if we can brew up another agent or if it’ll be Agent Sean vs. the world… =]

#4

I mean, do you really want that? Do you?!

Yeah, it would be kinda cool.

#5

I’m confirming with @Hobbs if he can make 3/6 game. If so, it’s on like Donkey Kong.

#6

Tell him it’s all OSR and shit!

#7

I know what it is you BSers! I’ll make it happen.

#8

Sweet! We’re good to go then, locking in March 6th, 8am MST start – 9am for you jokers. Probably shoot for 3.5hrs, but it might be as short as 3, as long as 4 if that works. Flexible.

Making characters in advance would be helpful. Let me know if you want help with that, or if you straight-up want to do it together here or in Discord. If we get them done in advance, I can bend the game a bit in their direction. I haven’t decided on a level yet – but it won’t be level 1. Thinking probably 3 or perhaps 5.

#9

Whatever you want to do. I’m fine with a pregen

#10

I’d actually prefer for the players to make PCs with my help, unless you would rather use a pregen, which I can absolutely provide.

I’ve been thinking about creating a one page primer for the game which would include more on the premise, the organization you work for, the character types, house rules, etc. I’ll try to work on that tomorrow.

#11

@sean and @Hobbs, you probably saw from the ‘touchstones’ I mentioned for White Lies that I prefer a kind of grounded espionage game – more like Bourne than Mission Impossible or older Bond films. But I’m open to your ideas. Are you hoping, for example, for fancy gadgets and custom-equipped vehicles and such? (Staples of the genre, and WL does have rules for them.)

Let me know what you think. For really high-flying spy action I’d use a different system entirely; WL has a lot of grittiness in it so I figured I’d lean into that.

#12

Sounds great to me!

#13

And right after I wrote that I used the random tables in the book to brew up a mission / plot, and it’s a touch far-fetched. But nothing too crazy, no more out there than most Mission Impossible plots.

It looks to me like a sweet two-person team would be an Infiltrator and an Eliminator, an Infiltrator and a Confiscator, or a Confiscator and an Eliminator.

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#14

I’m open to whatever. But, I think I’d prefer Eliminator or Confiscator?

#15

Alrighty. I’m getting a vibe from Sean he thinks pre-gens are the way to go as well, so I’ll likely have a couple to choose from.

#16

Up for Black Hack, White Lies or Mork Borg on March 6th or March 20th.

1 Like
#17

Sounds good, Blake – that makes three (you, Hobbs, Sean). Are you on the G&BS Discord by any chance? I just set up an Apollo event over there…

Oh – and the game is March 6th, 8am MDT. Four hours long, I’ll provide pregens.

#18

Pick a lane Hubbs @Hobbs

#19

Now you are supposed to add something to the conversation. Such as, these are my choices, or id like to play this…

#20

Here’s what I had in mind, all subject to discussion of course

Director - Clever
Virtues - Resolve
Agency Assets - Medical Wing and COMINT
Aspects - Red Dot Diplomancy / Friends in the Dark / Teamwork
Reputation - Best at Snatch and Grabs.

For me - Agent - Counter Intelligence or Hitter
Charisma 2, Resolve 2, Perception 4, Athletics 3, Intellect 3, Athletics 1
Background - Espionage, Insight
Advantage - Planning for the Future