Jovian Chronicles Odyssey SEED - Part 4

On approach to Slumbering Eidolon.

We left our heroes just as they had helped uncovering a secret space station in close Jupiter orbit. Having spent some time at Joshua Station it was now time to recalibrate the linear frame and warm up those reactors! The time for blazing spaceships and darting exo armours has come...

SPOILERS for Odyssey SEED below!

En route to the secret space station, Slumbering Eidolon, the Thunderbolt class cruiser JSS Brave was joined by JSS Steadfast, another Thunderbolt, as well as one of the fleets newest ships - the Athena class destroyer JSS Sparta. The Athena class was commissioned by President Itangre herself just two years ago and the Sparta was the third, and latest, to slip out of drydock and into active duty. It was decided that a light escort would suffice with Angel flight taking on that duty. The actual boots-on-metal assault would be performed by specialist troops of the Skuld arm of the Jovian Intelligence Service. While regular JAF marines could no doubt do the job just as well, Takeshi wanted to keep actual physical access to the station to members within Nornor.

Dutronc's Pathfinder CT.

With the JIS presence already established aboard JSS Brave she was appointed as the taskforce flagship with Commander Bright at the helm. While the Thunderbolt class is not a spacious ship by any stretch of the word, there was just enough room to fit the 10 Skuld troopers, and their Decker suits, in the JSS Brave while Angel flight would make their way on their own power. The taskforce was given the name Torchbearer, as befits someone trying to shine a light at things lurking in shadows.

To try and retain the element of surprise the taskforce went into a close, but not abnormal, parking orbit around Jupiter. Being careful to keep it as close to the location of Slumbering Eidolon as possible while still not raising suspicion. After establishing an orbit the ships started doing many small but numerous course adjustments to slowly change the orbit so it would intersect with the target. Of course these were done with verniers only, to keep them from being spotted. The entire operation took almost 32 hours, but having surprise on their side, as all three ships came in on ballistic trajectories, made it worth it.

Spending 30+ hours in the linear frame of an exo armour can be tiring. Fortunately there's enough

Swede's Pathfinder.

room to detach for more natural movement in freefall while the onboard computer VI took over piloting duties. The three pilots shared stories and talked trash over tightbeam while slowly maneuvering for their attack run. Swede kept complaining that things weren't as they should as they hadn't had time to repair his personal exo armour in time and had issued a new one to him. He kept saying that it didn't smell right.

On a given signal thrusters burst to life and three warships and as many exo armours started the deacceleration to match the Slumbering Eidolon space station. The excellent thrust-to-weight ratio of the exos meant this wasn't really a problem for them, as they could come to relative stop in a matter of seconds. The larger ships, on the other hand, would overshoot the station and had to make their way back toward it. This was according to plan as the JIS troopers would launch from the JSS Brave as it buzzed the station. It also meant that the two Thunderbolt cruisers and the Athena could bring their main, forward firing, weapons to bear, should it be needed.

Taskforce Torchbearer arrive at Slumbering Eidolon.

Only a few seconds into the burn Slumbering Eidolon came alive with emissions across the spectrum to evaluate the approaching threat. Two Wyvern exo armours were outside near the station and they immediately raced to intercept the taskforce. Shortly after them another Wyvern made its way out of a hangar opening and followed them. A strong jamming signal had started broadcasting as soon as the burn started and a kinetic kill cannon mount gimbaled to face the approaching ships. As hundreds of different sensors tried to make sense of the scene, hundreds of others did what they could to jam and block them.

Sturmer's Retaliator.

As the Wyverns approached it seemed like they had various modifications compared to stock models. The most obvious being a large shoulder mounted cannon on one of them. Somewhat disconcerting, but at least there were only three of them. Commander Bright made the KKC a priority as it was the most obvious threat to the ships. The enemy exos could certainly be dangerous but as long as Angel flight were screening the taskforce they would have other things on their mind.

Ever the opportunist, Sturmer decided to take a potshot at the KKC with his railgun. Extreme range and a very hard target really made it a (literal) long shot, but sometimes lady luck smiles at you! Just as Commander Bright was about to open fire on the KKC a neat hole appeared at its base, severing not only a large cable truss but also parts of the mount itself. Even if the gun could still fire it couldn't move any more, rendering it for all practical purposes, useless! "I aim to please, sir" Sturmer commented to Commander Bright as he recalibrated for incoming targets.

Two of the Wyverns made passes on Sturmer and Swede while a third, the one with the shoulder mounted cannon, burned past and approached the incoming ships. Dutronc fired but couldn't penetrate the Wyvern's heavy armour while Swede and Sturmer couldn't get a hit in. All three of them commented on how well these machines flew. Sure, the Wyvern is a great CEGA engineering feat, but they usually didn't dance about like this! Suddenly a stabbing beam of energy dazzled across space as the lead Wyvern fired on the Steadfast with its shoulder cannon. The beam burned for a few seconds as it effortlessly sliced through the ships particle accelerator, resulting in a violent explosion as it detonated.

The beam cannon let loose!

"Angel flight, new priority target: take out that beam cannon Wyvern!", Commander Bright's voice was hard as steel as she issued issued orders in the CIC - that exo was packing capital ship class firepower. What should have been a routine operation, akin to chasing down pirates, had turned into an unkown. Were there other surprises waiting for them? More beam cannons?

While Dutronc and Sturmer had looped back to intercept the new priority target Swede had ended up in a furball with one of the other Wyverns. It was carrying a massdriver rifle, like the one which had turned his old exo to shreds a week ago. He should be able to out maneuver a Wyvern in his Pathfinder, but it just kept dodging in ways he couldn't anticipate. It took all of Swede's expertise and a fair amount of luck to finally catch the Wyvern in a bad position and get a shot at its thruster array which knocked it out of the fight. Just as it hit the Pathfinder was also hit by a round from the hypergolic bazooka of the other Wyvern!

"Swede!"

There was a sharp intake of breath as the icon for Swede's Pathfinder winked out but Dutronc calmed down a little when the icon for ejected pilot started flashing instead. "Don't worry guys, I'm fine. That missile blindsided me, but I'm out doing my daily stretches now". Didn't anything faze that man?! "Angel 3, see to it that Bogey Bravo doesn't blindside anyone else. Oh, and nice shot Swede. How is your situation? Do you need immediate pickup?"

The conversation was cut short as the beam cannon fired again, badly damaging one of the drive sections on the Sparta and burning a jagged line up one of the wings. Dutronc told his computer to fire missiles at the target while he lined up shots with the particle cannon. The second shot seemed to hit the Wyverns supply of R-mass when a cloud of white mist extended around it as it escaped into space. The Wyvern tried to speed away, using what time it had left to move, but two more hits from the particle cannon put it out of comission. Commander Bright's voice sounded relieved when she congratulated Dutronc on the well placed shots.

Sturmer's voice crackled over the coms, "Swede, you're heading towards the station. Couldn't you just land on it? I'm sure the boarding party could pick you up."
"Kid, have you seen my relative velocity? I could expend all the R-mass this puny space suit has to offer and I would still hit that station at 200m/s. I don't fancy becoming abstract art. I'll need a pickup or I'll simply sail past and continue orbiting. I would prefer a quick pickup as I don't think this suit can take the radiation levels here for very long. Come to think of it, perhaps abstract art is preferable to radiation poisoning."

Mopping up.

With only one enemy exo armour left the three ships could combine fire, giving plenty of time for Sturmer to line up a shot and take it out. Dutronc proceeded to pick up Swede just as the Skuld assault troops launched from Brave toward the Slumbering Eidolon. Commander Bright was worried that there might be more surprises inside the station, perhaps enemy exo suits, and ordered Angel flight to assist from the outside with surgical strikes as needed. However, control of the station was soon established with minimal resistance. The military personnel present seems to have been all aboard the exo armours, however most, if not all, of the datacorese had been purged and the ones saved from destruction were damaged. JIS data techs would have to dig deep to get anything from this mess.

Mop up proved easy and Taskforce Torchbearer could withdraw while a JIS transport vessel full of techs docked to the station. JSS Brave stayed behind to coordinate efforts while Angel flight returned to the anonymous space station for debriefing. Things would be quiet for a couple of days and the three pilots kept talkinga about the odd flight patterns of the enemy exos and that powerful beam cannon. Then they were suddenly called to one of the briefing rooms where they again met with Commander Bright, Agents Thomson and Takeshi as well as Admiral Thorsen. All four of them were involved in a heated debate but went quiet as the pilots entered the room.

"Gentlemen, we have good news and bad news. We also have a new mission for you."


Which we'll read about in part five! This session was basically a big board game. I was a little doubtfull in how well it would run and how my players would experience it. It ended up flowing fairly smoothly, as we'd have practiced with the transport, and both players and GM had fun with it! In fact, I feel more positive to breaking out minis for a "board game" session once in a while than I was before. While roleplaying does take a bit of a backseat, it's certainly still very present. The whole thing of Swede blowing up again gave me a great opportunity to put him at the station together with the assault troops, and play out a simultaneous corridor and space battle. Unfortunately it happened a bit late in the session so we glossed over the station fighting. Great fit for Swede though!

Start of the battle.

The great thing about pulling out all the stops and use the hex map is that you really get a very different feel for the combat. If you ran it all abstractly I think there's a risk that it would feel just like personal combat, as it's harder to visualize the space environment without the vector movement and detailed damage systems. Still, we won't do it every time, but I certainly think it's worth doing when the outcome is uncertain and there are real stakes involved. I should be receiving all the stuff from the recent Jovian Wars kickstarter any day now and I'm looking forward to have painted ships next time.

Alright, that's about it for this session. Next (and latest) should be up in a week or so...

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Jovian Chronicles Odyssey SEED - Part 3

Jovian vivarium style colony.

Time for part three of our space adventure saga! No cheesey drama this time around, just the cold hard facts. While fun to write now and then it makes an event that took 45 minutes to play take up an entire post.

Following from part two, let's see what happened next. As always SPOILERS for Odyssey SEED below.

Our three JAF pilots stayed with the now pacified Nighthawk freighter and her deadly cargo. Well, Swede had become Jupiter's latest artificial satellite and had to be collected several hours later by the escort when it arrived as command didn't allow Dutronc or Sturmer to leave the Nighthawk. The Thunderbolt-class cruiser JSS Brave soon arrived and a squad of marines outfitted in Decker suits proceeded to, more or less peacefully, secure the Nighthawk and her crew.

Instead of going back to their regular base of operations, in the Agrippa colony cylinder, JSS Brave laid in a course to a small, torus style space station that none of the pilots had been to before. Entering through the airlock they were immediately met by a young woman with asian features and a large bearded man, neither wearing regular uniforms but identifying themselves as Lisa Takeshi and Reginald Thomson of Nornor, the investigative branch of the Jovian Intelligence Service. Thomson, who seemed to do most of the talking, explained that things would soon be cleared up as he led them through the corridors to an anonymous looking briefing room.

Inside were their commanding officer, Noelle Bright, together with some unknown staffers and in the corner stood - holy shit - Admiral Avram Thorsen, commander of the entire Jovian Armed Forces! Not a man you meet very often as a lowly flyboy. During the following debriefing Dutronc spoke for the group with some additions or clarifications here and there from Sturmer and Swede. Commander Bright kept the pace brisk and when Dutronc had finished she nodded to Thomson to explain the situation.

The big and bearded, but soft spoken man, told the pilots about the ongoing investigation into a

Thunderbolt class cruiser JSS Brave.

possible espionage threat against the Jovian States. JIS had been tracking a small group based on Joshua Station who at times relayed odd information requests to coordinates in low Jupiter orbit. They were able to intercept and, through a man-in-the-middle attack, relay different requests meaning they were actually waiting for the Nighthawk to turn up. They couldn't be sure on the exact time it would arrive, which is why the same squadron kept patrolling the same orbit. Basically the player characters were used as guinea pigs to verify that the ruse worked and to see if the freighter actually contained contraband or compromising information. As it turned out the Nighthawk was up to its ears in both.

Thomson went on to explain that this was an extremely sensitive investigation as there were signs that the group on Joshua Station might have had inside help from a person or persons within the JAF command structure. Swede noticed how Admiral Thorsen's frown grew even more grim at this point of the briefing. In fact, he seemed very different from his official persona. Using this low key space station and only handpicked personel was an effort to avoid having the operation compromised as it moved into a more tactical phase.

[Here we took a break to talk about how to proceed. As I mentioned in part one we had discussed the possibility of each player having two characters - one pilot and one agent/journo/PI - to, in a more "realistic" way combine the different play styles of the campaign. My idea was to basically have all the characters represent one large group but have them be active at different times and different locations, as needed. While I think this would have been cool in many ways we also felt that it could detract from the character driven play that is needed to bring a bare bones plot like this to life.

Sometimes even Amuro Ray has to get his (non-mecha) hands dirty!

In the end we decided against it for those reasons, but also for reasons of verisimilitude to the source material. Look at Mobile Suits Gundam, or pretty much any other show in the genre, and the pilots are never only pilots, but fulfill all kinds of roles as required by the plot. Which, while not as "realistic", just seemed like more fun in a cinematic kind of way! So to not make them completely useless outside of mecha fighting I gave them a few extra skill points to spend on things like Investigation, Interrigation and Stealth. We simply retconned this as these particular pilots having had some cross-training and that was why they were handpicked for this mission in the first place. Anyway, back to the story!]

Still being in a delicate phase of the operation Thomson asked the three pilots of Angel Flight to travel with him and Agent Takeshi to Joshua Station where they would need assistance taking out the covert group directing the freighters into Jovian orbit. This was meant as a purely undercover op so a low key approach was needed rather than the mechanized boot of a marine assault squad.

After an uneventful trip to Joshua Station, together with Thomson and Takeshi, all five of them holed up in a small apartment located in in the central ares of The Cluster. If Joshua Station is the most lawless and cutthroat colony in the Jovian Federation (and it is!) then The Cluster is the most lawless and cutthroat area in Joshua Station. Wildly overbuilt and violating all kinds of safety codes The Cluster is a sprawl of urban development that seems to have grown organically over decades. The fringes are still fairly well lit with decent upkeep but the central parts are shrouded in a constant twilight as buildings and support structures block the light.

In the apartment on the sixth floor they were surveilling a small warehouse across the alleyway and a couple of stories down. The JIS would be able to delay the news of the captured freighter for another few of days, but time was of the essence and if it seemed like infiltration wouldn't be possible force might be the only option. The warehouse was the official locale of a small freight business, mainly doing business on Joshua Station and with private traders in the Belt and Venus.

The Cluster on Joshua Station (art by Chrislazzer on Deviant Art)

After two days, splitting the surveillance into shifts, the group had only ever seen three people come and go - two younger men and an older woman. There was always at least one person in the locale at any time and it seemed like the two men might actually live there. None of them were the actual owner of the company, a Venusian named Volondrius Ash, who even JIS hadn't been able to track down. It seemed apparent that a quiet infiltration to just get information was out of the question and plans to go in, guns drawn, were made.

They decided to go in when only the two men were inside and pick up the woman separately. It was all over in a matter of seconds as Thomson and Takeshi covered the back door, one storey down, while Swede put his considerable weight and muscle power into a kick that almost tore the door off its hinges. Swede was first through the door with his JAF issued laser pistol covering the to the right while Sturmer was behind him covering left. They found one of the men in front of a terminal, staring at them, mouth agape and hands in the air. Just as Sturmer went in to clear the kitchen there was a loud pop and he fell sideways into the doorframe. His laser pistol hummed and there was a shout and the clatter of dropped hardware. The other man had hid himself behind a refrigerator and managed to squeeze off a shot, but they were obviously taken by surprise.

A parked Decker suit.

Sturmer suffered a chest wound that would take a couple of weeks to heal properly. They picked up the woman the same day and all three were whisked away to the JSS Brave that had been assigned as a JIS and JAF joint base of operation during the investiagtion. Violent confrontations happens every day in The Cluster so even if there were witnesses it had seemed more like a "hostile takeover" than an actual police operation. Some things found in the warehouse proved disconcerting; the most apparent were the two military grade Decker suits located one storey down. They had evidently been served on a regular basis and were in good working order. Had any of the men had a little forewarning and reached one of the suits it would have been a very different ending to the assault.

The other thing, that would put a knot in the pit of the stomach on any JAF or JIS operative, was discovered when going through the computers and comlogs. The actual destination of The Nighthawk was a secret space station in an extremely tight orbit around Jupiter called the Slumbering Eidolon! Smuggled CEGA exo armours was bad, but this was starting to spin into a major solar crisis! The information on the station was very limited - it was a  Pleiades class research station and it got supply runs roughly every two or three weeks.

The time for subterfuge and sting operations was now over and Takeshi was discussing with commander Bright about how a full military assault on the station could look like. Sure, it might not be necessary, but when you have a secred research station to which a number of top-tier exo armours had been shipped to during the past year you didn't want to take any chances...


And it will be fun to read about how that turned out in part four! This session mostly revolved around cleaning up the fallout from the battle and hooking the player characters into the larger events that are starting to unfold in the solar system. It's not exactly logical to have some pilots join in as backup SWAT unit, but from a fun (and trope!) standpoint it simply felt like the best way to move forward. In part four we're back in space again!

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Jovian Chronicles Odyssey SEED - Part 2

Someone's in trouble.

I can't blame you for thinking our Jovian Chronicles campaign (or this blog, for that matter) was dead as a door nail, as the only session report so far was posted way back in March of 2016! Fear not though, we're just extremely slow burn players. In fact we played another three sessions over this past year which I'm just now getting around to chronicling. Thanks to Xander from the Jovian Chronicles group on FB for the kick in the butt to get on with this. :D

As you might remember our three pilot heroes(?), Pierre Dutronc, Leif "Swede" Ericsen and Harrison B. Sturmer had just interceptet an unscheduled cargo transport in Jupiter orbit, The Nighthawk. At first the captain blamed their current situation on reactor troubles, but when the ship suddenly started jamming the exos they knew something was wrong. Soon after two brand new Wyvern exos, seemingly of a CEGA design, broke their way out of two containers and started locking on to the Jovian exo armours...

Opening moves.

Pierre Dutronc barked orders into his comms,"Angel 3, get away from that container. Swede, cover him!". Before Harrison Sturmer could retreat, the emerging shape ignited thrusters and blasted past, knocking the Retaliator exo armour backwards and into a spin. The Wyvern was armed with a bazooka and fired several shots at Leif "Swede" Ericsen, who went into an evasion pattern.

"Are you ok, Angel 3?", Dutronc's voice was tense. "No worries, chief, was just taken by surprise. Returning fire now". The Wyvern had moved away from The Nighthawk at speed and put the cargo ship between itself and Swede's Pathfinder. Sturmer breathed out while his fingers danced across the command dials - a shot at this range would need his unfocused attention. Suddenly Dutronc's voice broke through his concentration, "They're still jamming my long range comms, but I'm pretty sure command would be angry at us if we wasted the pilots. Besides, I didn't become lieutenant to mindlessly blow stuff up. Go for engines or R-mass." Capturing an exo or two with pilots would certainly put his next promotion within reach, he thought.

Swede came out of his evasive maneuver and fired a couple of pot shots at the Wyvern while circling back to check what happened with the other container. "Angel 1, I can't see the vibro knife anymore, but there are large gashes near the hinges of the container. Please advice." Dutronc was intentionally keeping far back from The Nighthawk, trying to avoid the worst of the jamming and not wanting to be drawn in close to the heavier Wyvern, "Hopefully it stays quiet, but don't take any chances. If you see anything move out of there open fire." "You got it, chief".

Face off.

 Finally targteing lit up green and Sturmer triggered his entire missile load at the Wyvern. Back in flight school simulations he had a penchant for using his missiles at first opportunity in impressive, but often futile, displays of pyrotechnics. Every time he got yelled at by the instructors for wasting munitions that were, generally, meant for slower targets than exos. But the missile salvoes in the action shows he had watched as a teenager were just too cool! Still, this time he knew the chances of an actual impact were slim, especially if the Wyvern anti-missile equipment was as good as the one on the Syreen, but the missiles were a distraction. A lopsided grin spread across Sturmer's face as the Wyvern started blasting the missiles with it's head mounted laser array. It opted to detroy the missiles, rather than evading them, meaning it was travelling in a nice, predictable vector. Perfect. He squeezed the trigger and the Retaliator's arm mounted railgun spat two kilograms of tungsten carbide at the enemy machine.

There was no impressive explosion. No fire or smoke. There was just a bright flash and then the Wyvern's entire thruster assembly was a gaping hole with a debris cloud of shrapnel and R-mass around it. As if a vengeful god had simply snapped its fingers. "Whoa, great shot kid!", Swede's laconic voice sounded over the comms and Sturmer felt a surge of pride at the compliment from the older veteran. He opened comms to Dutronc in Angel 1, "It's drifting away from us, should I pursue?". "Negative Angel 3, I don't want Angel 2 alone with a potential bogey. Circle back and cover him as he approaches The Nighthawk. I'm joining you at 10 clicks out". "Ooh, I feel safer already", Sturmer muttered to himself while making sure the comms were off. Although he did like and respect his commanding officer, Dutronc could certainly be a little overly by-the-book at times.

Swede fired main thrusters once and slowly started his approach to The Nighthawk and the mystery container. That something was in there was clear, he was even positive that it was another Wyvern, question was why wasn't it moving. The big man streched and primed a plasma lance for potential close combat. "Still no movement. Did it malfu...", heavy automatic fire suddenly poured out of the container, giving the Pathfinder pilot no chance for evasion! Swede instinctively put his hands around his head as massdriver rounds shredded the machine around him.

"Swede! Answer! Leif!" Sturmer fired full thrust and could see the broken Pathfinder that was still drifting towards The Nighthawk. It looked crumpled and the right arm had been torn completely apart from a power relay detonation. The giant machine bumped into a container at an angle and started tumbling as it continued drifting, away from the ship. "Swede, are you ok?!" No answer. The heavily damaged container doors were pushed open and a second Wyvern emerged. This one carrying some kind of heavy massdriver rifle - nothing they had seen in the briefings on the new CEGA exo. More sensor equipment as well hinted at some kind of command version. 

Dutronc was on a steady, oblique approach towards the new threat, firing the particle cannon whenever he had a clear shot. "Er, Angel 3, keep your distance as I approach the target bilaterally for enfilade fire". But Sturmer wasn't listening. He had already ignited a plasma lance and using The Nighthawk as cover he maneuvered his Retaliator for a close combat strike in what he hoped would be the rear of the Wyvern. It almost worked. The plasma lance hit at an angle across the torso, but what would have cut a Syreen in two was not enough for the much more heavily armoured Wyvern. The enemy exo turned away from the blow as Sturmer flew past. The attack had exposed the flank of the Wyvern but it was still a non-disabling hit meaning it had no trouble levelling that big massdriver rifle and firing at almost point blank range at Sturmer's receding Retaliator .

As he pulled every evasive trick he had picked up during flight school, and some he had picked up through his favourite exo action show, Sturmer pushed the Retaliator to its limits. Fire kept pouring in from the Wyvern that trailed him and he had no time to line up a railgun shot. All the missiles were spent and one of the thruster cones was nearing critical temperature, a design flaw that the Retaliator was infamous for. "Pierre, I could really use a hand right now!", he shouted through the comms. "Er, yeah... just wait. Can you hold out just a few seconds?!". Suddenly a damage alarm started blaring as the Retaliator took a shoulder hit. No serious damage but the armour around the right shoulder was pretty much gone. "Make it quick, Pierre!" Sturmer shouted.

The end is near.

The overheating thruster cone finally gave out and the second one wasn't far behind. Two more hits. One of them more severe this time. With only a few seconds of any real maneuverability left Sturmer started preparing for ejection when the incoming massdriver fire suddenly stopped. He had to override a number of alarms and manually take control of the visual sensors to see what had happened. The Wyvern was still floating in space behind him, but there was a large hole through its chest and Dutronc's Pathfinder CT were behind it with a plasma lance still ignited in its hand. 

"Are you ok?", he asked with a hint of tremor in his voice. "Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, my manevuerability is shot, but I'm in one piece. What about Swede?!". "Don't worry about him. His comms were crippled and I could only pick him up thanks to the enhanced sensor suite on the CT. He's fine. Would you believe it? He says he's going to take a nap as it'll be a while until we can reach him anyway!"

Sturmer's laugh came out almost sounding maniacal, "Well, that's him alright!". He released the ejection levers he had been holding on to and watched his trembling hands. 

"That," he said, "was nothing like the simulations."

This was the first proper test of the full combat rules in Jovian Chronicles and for the most part it worked out well. We made some smaller mistakes here and there, and forgot about command points, which would have changed a lot of things I think. With all the rules explanations the battle went on for about 45 minutes, which I think was ok all things considered. In total i think it ran for about five rounds of actual combat with Swede being crippled in the third round.

Speaking of that, Swede is a lucky man! That massdriver scored six hits that took out pretty much every system except the pilot. The players also learned the power of armour piercing weapons (both the Retaliator railgun and the Wyvern massdriver), the unreliability of missiles (at least versus other exos) and the potential damage you can cause with a well placed plasma lance.

I didn't intend for this to be a little short story. The plan was to just have an opening, but it kind of kept on going. Well, hope you enjoyed it. The adventure continues in part three!

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Jovian Chronicles Odyssey Seed - Part 1

I only snapped one picture while we played but it really captures the session perfectly!

It finally happened! Before jetting off to Japan we managed to squeeze in our first session of Jovian Chronicles - a game that has sat on my shelf, unplayed but not unread, since 1997!

As you can see we're playing with the first edition rules, although I might steal a few things from Core Command when it feels like a better fit. I've said before that I quite like the basics of the Silhouette system and planning for the session, where we would be making characters, my only worry was the abundance of different skills. As a game from the nineties Jovian Chronicles do suffer from maybe too much granularity when it comes to skills and equipment. While I love that in one way, it's great for world building and getting into the setting, it can certainly put some stumbling blocks before actual play. Still, I didn't want to charge in swinging the axe of Houserulius before running for a bit with the original system.

So the first couple of hours went to an explanation of the setting and character generation. I have put together a shared Google Drive folder where I collect all kinds of stuff that can work well as inspiration for the game, mostly tv series like The Expanse and Mobile Suit Gundam, so that my players could get some groundwork done before the game. Naturally I've filled it with much more than I expected or even hoped anyone to consume, based on the idea that a smorgasbord where you can pick your fancy is better than a set menu. Or something. In the end people were more or less familiar with Gundam (mostly less) and while that is certainly a big part of JC there's just so much more to the setting! I think I ended up just talking about the history of the solar system, the Jovian colonies, CEGA and briefly the other solar nations for almost an hour.

A flight of Syreens screaming past a group of Uller missile cruisers.

Usually just "explaining" a setting like that ends up with your players asleep or with their eyes glued to their phones, but thanks to both the well written and real feeling history of the game and the wealth of details that perfectly captures your imagination ("the relatively cramped living conditions on Jovian colonies has lead to Jovian musicians often straining to create as rich music as possible while its still low key and personal") it actually got the players interested! Of course it wasn't just me talking either, but the players asking all kinds of questions about past events, every day life in space or their current situation as Jovian citizens.

Then it was time to get into actual character creation and although it looks like a quick process at first glance, what draws it out is the completely open choice in choosing attributes and skills, and players looking all of them up to see what they do. As I mentioned earlier the skill chapter really shows from what era the game is from and when you have Zero-G Maneuvering and Zero-G Combat it starts to feel a little redundant (yes, those are technically different skills, but why not shoot for brevity?). Still, we're starting out playing it rules as written.

For the start of the campaign each character is an exo pilot in the Jovian Armed Forces, but secondary/parallel characters will most likely be introduced once this particular episode is over. We ended up with Pierre Dutronc (left), a francofile smooth talker who ended up as the squad leader as well, Harrison B. Sturmer, famed for his sharpshooting rather than his sharp flying and Leif "Swede" Ericsen, the veteran who always seem to have the best tactical grasp of the situation at hand. The characters will need more fleshing out but as we start in media res and the players are still not all that familiar with the setting they are fairly blank slates personality wise at the moment.

The table decides that they should belong to the Black Cats squadron, meaning they have a very informal attitude and a penchant for hijinks, and the three pilots make up Angels 1-3 of Angel Flight (Dutronc claims that a girl once called him Angelface and decided, in a moment of self-aggrandizing, that this was something to name his flight after).

A Pathfinder CT and a standard Pathfinder.

What we will actually be playing is the Odyssey campaign from the first Green Book, or rather the updated version from 2004 called Odyssey Seed, that is a bit more fleshed out. In the first edition of the game the Odyssey is already history and incorporated into the background setting so we're actually turning the clock back two years when playing - meaning the Wyvern is a new exo-armor and the Valiant is still under construction.

Potential SPOILERS for Odyssey Seed below!

We open with the three pilots in their respective exo-armors - Dutronc in a Pathfinder CT, Swede in a standard Pathfinder Alpha and Sturmer in a Retaliator - patrolling a certain sector in close proximity to Jupiter. Oddly they've had this same assignment for the past few days now. We hear the usual chatter between the colleagues while Dutronc is piping some classic Edith Piaf through the comms (he owns three original vinyls, carefully sourced from Earth at great expense!).

Suddenly a blip appears on the scopes of the Pathfinder CT and after checking for scheduled ships in this sector at this time the squad moves to intercept. It turns out that the blip is an Ebiiru cargo hauler (see right) called Nighthawk and it claims to have some mechanical troubles. The captain seems evasive and while the transport complies with orders there are some strange power readings going on and Swede spots someone in a vacsuit actually welding on one of the containers attached to the hull. As Sturmer is trying to lock down where the odd power sources are emanating from the entire squad find their communications jammed. Something is afoot! While Dutronc can use the superior ECCM equipment of his Pathfinder CT to break through the jamming locally he's not able to contact command for advice.

Fearing the worst Sturmer moves in closer to the Nighthawk, and the welder specifically, while Swede hangs back to cover him. He has locked down the power readings as coming from inside two of the attached containers and he realizes that the signatures look awfully similar to the newest exo-armors from CEGA! Just a couple of klicks away the container that is being welded upon suddenly swings open and a large green shape can be seen moving inside. A second later another container is pierced from the inside by what looks like a hummer knife and a second Wyvern blasts out into space!


Aaaaand cliffhanger!!

Yepp, although we were all eager to at least play out the current scene, the prepp had taken a little longer than anticipated and real life made itself known as one of us had an early-ish deadline. Actually though, it was a perfect point for us to end the session at it allows me to read up a little extra on the combat rules and make sure the combat flows as smoothly as it should. Three against two seems like it should be an easy fight, but the Wyverns are tough and our three pilots aren't that skilled - Dutranc is better at seduction than firing a gun and Swede would rather meet his opponent on the judo mat than in space!

The date for the next session hasn't been set yet, but hopefully we'll be able to try out a game over roll20 or Skype and then continue when I'm back in Sweden. Oh, and I think we'll simply integrate our missing player in the next session and retcon that he was there or along. It's not that all that much has happened anyway. Hehe!

Well, that's about it for the first session. The adventure continues in part two!

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Mutant: Year Zero - English Release and Session Report Two

Mutant: Year Zero - Roleplaying at the End of Days.

Alright, now we're talking! As some of you might have heard Modiphius is publishing an English version of the excellent Swedish post-apocalyptic RPG Mutant: Year Zero later this year! After reading the game for the first time earlier this year it immediately felt like it would work perfectly well anywhere in the world as the setting is pretty much created as you explore. The whole idea is to start with a map of the city or area you live in yourself, put a grid over it and then simply start exploring its post-apocalyptic version! So I was hoping that it would someday be translated, and now here we are. The Free League has made a deal with Modiphius who will take care of the international distribution of the game.

For more discussions about Mutant: Year Zero there's a thread going over at RPG.net, one over att RPGeek, one on Reddit. Then there's of course Modiphius Facebook page and The Free League English language forum (which hasn't really taken off yet though).

The English version will not come in a box but as a hardback book with Zone maps of New York and London for $54.99/£34.99 or as a starter bundle (at left) with the book, maps, cards and custom dice for $79.99/£49.99. I'm sure the cards will be available as charts in the books and you could easily use regular D6 instead of the custom ones, but I still think the starter bundle is a no-brainer! :D


Now, after a long intermission let's check back in with our mutated friends living in the wasteland of former Stockholm...

Spoiler warning for some parts of the M:0 setting.

They had just completed a, more or less, successful zone expedition to bring some more of the old technology to the Ark to learn from. On their way they discovered some mysterious hooded individuals who left a healthy looking baby out in the wastes.

The old tech they had brought with them raised the Ark's tech level a few steps and during the community meeting they also decided to start working on growing some simple crops. After some discussion the Ark community leaders came to the conclusion that the people who had left the baby needed to be investigated. Who are they? How could they bear children when the mutants couldn't? Why leave them out to die? There were many questions...

Since the strangers had moved away to the northeast it was decided that another expedition would be mounted to discover their whereabouts and try and see how they lived and maybe make contact with them. This time Yorgos, Lorentz and Pommax chose to go out alone, hoping to move quickly with only the three of them setting out. They took the same route as last time going east, although going around a sector where they had discovered that the Rot was extra potent.

When they arrived in sector H16, which they had only seen from a distance last time, they explored for a bit as it was apparently Rot free. They found a large metal tube with many seats in it that lay broken in a clearing. Inside were many skeletons and once they realized that it had been an old vehicle of some kind they put a lot of effort into getting inside the control room. It took some doing, but they made their way in and found what Yorgos explained was some kind of miracle pills that you could eat instead of sleeping! As they started to move out they saw someone moving among the trees and immediately hid in the old vehicle wreck. It turned out to be another mutant, similar to themselves, called Skald. Except Skald moved around the Zone and traded water to other people. This was the first time they had met and spoke to another mutant and they spent the rest of the day talking to him about what he'd seen and experienced out there.

When Lorentz asked the water trader if he knew the strange robed people he said he did and had in fact just traded with them. Skald always met them at the shoreline just east of the wreck they were in but knew that they lived somewhere across the water. The mutants decided to tell Skald of their own Ark and invited him to add it to his trade route.

The next day they bid him farewell and continued east, toward the water. They passed another wreck later during the day that looked liked it had cannons sticking out of it. It sure looked interesting, but Pommax had spotted a number of Zone Spooks moving about in a nearby building and not wanting to tangle with them again they took the long way around. As they came to the shoreline there were obvious signs of activity, although there was no one around at the moment. After some discussion on how to proceed it as decided they were to construct a simple junk raft and use it to cross the greenish water. If the construction didn't take too long they would also try to explore the small island in sector F17/F18.

After scavenging for some good material Yorgos could quickly put a seaworthy raft together and as they set out he pulled out an impressive looking piece of headwear that he had taken from one of the skeletons in cockpit of the wrecked vehicle. He certainly looked like a man you should obey! At least while at sea...

They went to the small island first and discovered that although there were a couple of intriguing looking buildings further in there were many small floating bubbles randomly moving about around them. They looked kind of like some odd jellyfish with long slimy tendrils hanging beneath them. They didn't seem aggressive but when Lorentz decided to poke on of them with his great junk axe the tendrils quickly wrapped around it and smoke appeared where they touched and an loud hissing sound came from the metal as it dissolved! Lorentz quickly let it go as more of the hovering bubbles moved toward the axe and the party made a hasty retreat back to the raft, fearing the loss of more valuable equipment.

Arriving at the other side they again saw that the area was used by other people and they even found two small and old, but functional, boats pulled up on the beach. Further inland was a number of smaller wooden buildings and one large white building with a high tower - perfect for some scouting, thought Pommax! As the group moved toward the white building Lorentz spotted a person standing nearby it, with his back turned to them. They hid behind an overturned car and watched the stranger intently. He didn't seem to be doing anything though as he simply stood there. His position was slightly odd though as it looked a little bit like he was leaning, but they couldn't see anything to lean against. Pommax suggested they try to sneak up on him. After all three against one should be enough in case of a fight, right?

So the three mutants started to move cautiously forward and as they did something began feeling... wrong, and the further they moved the worse it got! Yorgos was the first to actually realize what it was and pointed to the shadow from the tower up ahead that had suddenly started moving fast enough for them to see; the sun overhead moved faster than they had ever seen before and suddenly they noticed that the man ahead was actually moving, just very slowly. He wasn't leaning, he was simply taking a step forwad in what looked like super slow motion! Yorgos wanted to get out of there but Lorentz and Pommax thought that they were already half way there and might as well go all the way.

They pressed on but the further they went the quicker the sun moved up ahead. After 20 meters the sun had set and risen for a new day, all in the space of seconds. Another few meters in and the world around them was blinking as the day turned to night at an ever increasing speed. The man ahead seemed to be moving faster and was turning around to face them. Although they could't understand his slowed down speech his arm gestures seem to indicate that they should go back and the look of desperation and horror on the strangers face made Pommax and Lorentz realize that pressing on further might doom them all. As they turned around and started moving back again the blinking slowed down as the sun started to return to its normal behaviour again. But they could now see people moving about further away at incredible speed! It was impossible to see what they were actually doing but it looked like the mysterious robed figures and the moved around the mutants, sometimes pointing at them.

The robed people didn't seem interested enough to wait around however and when the mutants had finally moved back far enough for time to reassert itself they were nowhere to be seen. They retreated to a nearby building to try and make sense of what had just happened. Although they had just experienced a few minutes it seemed like weeks or months had passed by! When they left it was early spring with drifts of snow still left here and there, yet now it was warm and the trees were green. Yorgos was the only one dared to guess what this was, and it seemed to him that the old people had probably tried to build time machines to stop the war or the plague or whatever it was that had caused all this. Except the machine had obviously broken down and was out of control. Best to give this place a wide berth...

After some deliberation they continued north-east through a forest of stunted yet very green trees. It was Pommax who first spotted movement in a clearing ahead and motioned for the others to get down. As they crawled forward they could see a small shanty with a pen next to it containing some kind of creatures. A large mutant walked among them and seemed to be feeding the noisy beasts. The group watched for half an hour as the mutant moved around the place and noticed that he had a collar around his neck that was attached to a long chain that disappeared into the small hut. As the warm summer sun started to set a group of five robed people approached the hut from a small footpatch coming from the opposite side of the clearing. They briefly exchanged words with the mutant, who bowed his head and seemed cowed by their presence, and then entered the hut and didn't come out again.

The hut was very small and when noone had emerged after a couple of hours it seemed obvious to Yorgos that there was some kind of hidden underground room beneath it. Lorentz wanted to simply walk up to the mutant and talk to him, but Pommax and Yorgos prefered a more stealthy approach. In the end they waited until the large man went to sleep among the beasts he was set to look after. "Fitting for a slave" Pommax commented as they approached the hut. The inside was filled with all kinds of junk and debris. Most of it consisted of gardening tools in various state of disrepair but Lorentz found a metal canister full of something Yorgos called petrol that could be used for fuel. Yorgos also soon spotted a large box that looked like it had been moved back and forth recently. Beneath it they found a small metal hatch that led straight down a concrete shaft. A metal ladder provided access and before the mutant in the pen outside could wakeup they had all entered the shaft and closed the hatch above them.

The immediate darkness around the three mutants was suffocating and they soon lit Pommax's lamp and continued down a concrete corridor that seemed to be angled further downwards. Having walked for a few minutes they could see that there was a little bit of light coming from around a curve in the tunnel ahead. Pommax quickly put out his lamp and stealthily snuck ahead to scout it out. The tunnel ended in a door further down that had some kind of old world lamp above it that washed the walls in a sharp blueish light. Next to the door stood a robed figure, leaning on an improvised spear. He didn't notice Pommax who retreated to update the others. What followed was a long, but hushed, conversation on how to proceed. Should they simply bum rush him? Or try to talk to the man? Or snipe him from afar? Could the simply kill the man in cold blood?!

Lorentz and Yorgos were still discussing the pros and cons of a surprise rush when Pommax simply muttered something under his breath, readied his bow and stepped around the corner. The man barely had time to react before an arrow buried itself in his eye and he toppled over, blood pooling beneath him. "There. Now let's go" Pommax said to a furious Yorgos and a stunned Lorentz. The dead man was perhaps thinner than most of the people in the Ark but he had no apparent mutations which seemed odd to the three mutants. Everyone in the Ark except the Elder had some kind of mutation, even though some of them were more easy to spot than others. He didn't have any possessions beside a flat round piece of old tech that Yorgos identified as an advanced key of some sort. After investigating the box next to the door and using the flat round piece the door cam open in a woosh and hot air blew in their faces.

In stunned silence they walked into a huge round chamber many meters high. They were walking on some kind of metal platform that ran along the wall of the chamber and in the middle was a large cylinder with a pointy top that reached almost all the way to the ceiling. Steam rose along the cylinder and here and there large tubes coming from the wall were connected to it. "Yorgos, what the hell is this thing" Lorentz asked but the Gearhead simply walked over to the railing and looked down. Below them the cylinder continued and there was at least one more platform like the one they were standing on below them before the chambers proper floor. Yorgos turned around, "this my friends, is what created the Zone. This is a terrible weapon of the old age that could wipe out entire cities. And it seems to be working".

Deciding that this needed further exploration and not seeing another living being they continued down a stairwell to the second platform and then down a ladder to another, smaller platform. Just as they were investigating the giant missile further the woosh of door was heard and three robed persons came through it, a tall imposing looking woman and two men. As the two groups spotted each other everyone froze for a couple of seconds. Then everything happened at once. As Pommax reached for his pistol the tall woman simply snapped her fingers and he suddenly burst into flames! Yorgos fired a quick shot at the woman but missed and then had a extremely strong feeling of passiveness come over him and he simply dropped the gun and lay down on the floor. With a shout of defiance Lorentz pulled up the petrol and threw it towards the trio but the container was heavy and the opponents far away and it simply landed with a loud clang at the bottom of the shaft. The big enforcer looked at his companions - Pommax was still smoking and lay motionless on the floor while Yorgos was slowly rocking back and forth, staring emptily ahead of himself.  The woman smiled as she started walking towards Lorentz...

And that's where we'll leave our intrepid trio until next time! Again, I really should try and shorten these things so I can get more of them out in a timely manner. Hehe! And don't forget to have a look over at Modiphius M:0 site!

Oh, and also, we're having a baby within the next day or two so if I don't respond prompty to emails or in the comments section that's why. :)

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Mutant: Year Zero

Second day. Yorgos managed to put together a decent fireplace for us using some large metal tubes he scavenged, but the night was still bitter cold and if all eight of us hadn't huddled together I don't think we would have made it. Still, it was a good place to stop at - the Rot didn't seem to be as strong in this sector.  

After a quick breakfast we made our way to what Pommax said was sector H15. We had seen the great tower from the old times all the way back from the Ark and were all eager to have a look at it up close. Me, Milix and a couple of the others stayed behind while Pommax, Yorgos and Lorentz scouted ahead. They went into the tower and were gone for a long time. When Yorgos finally returned and called us he talked about some robed strangers they had seen leaving something inside! That means there are others out there! Like us perhaps? 

Still the greatest prize was yet to come. Pommax and Lorentz stood looking at something lying on a table. We had planned this expedition to find technology from the old time. Things that we might use to survive and understand more of our surroundings, yet what we had found was far greater than this. On the table lay something I had never seen before - a baby.

-Astrina, Ark Chronicler

I've covered a number of roleplaying games here in the past, but I don't think I've talked about any Swedish games. Not all that surprising seeing as this is an international blog after all, and it has been many years since I played a Swedish rpg (although I grew up on a healthy diet of them!). Still, this month saw the release of the new rebooted version of the classic Swedish post-apocalyptic roleplaying game Mutant, now rebranded as Mutant: År Noll (Mutant: Year Zero) and created by Fria Ligan. The original, and its sequals, took place several hundred(?) years after a great apocalypse and the setting was fairly optimistic with the civilization slowly rebuilding itself. The technology level was roughly 19th century with the odd artefact from the old time lying around in one of the radiation ridden Forbidden Zones.

In Mutant: Year Zero (or simply M:0) you play in the very aftermath of the great apocalypse. Humanity has been decimated by plague and warfare and there is almost nothing left. Almost. You play as a mutated member of the Ark; a community of similarly aged people, all mutants, who have stayed hidden for as long as they can remember. Up until now the Elder have been the community leader and told them what to do, he's always been the heart of the Ark. But the Elder is dying, and food is starting to become a problem. The huge stockpiles of canned and powdered goods are finally starting to run dry and it has become clear that some exploration of the outside world has become a necessity.

The chapter on character creation.

This is where you start playing. You create your mutant, decide her job in the Ark and her relationship to the other characters and community members. Then you sit down with the entire group and create the Ark. Where is it located? What kind of Ark is it? A subway station that survived the blasts? A beached passenger liner? Or simply a collection of junk huts? The game also encourages you to play in your town and your own neighborhood. Just take a map of the area you live in, draw a grid on it and you're ready to go! We are, of course, playing in the post-apocalyptical remnants of Stockholm and the Ark is inside the old Pripps brewery in the northwest part of the city.

The characters we have are Yorgos who's a Junkhead and can fix or invent all kinds of useful stuff. You need a lamp or something to protect you against the Rot (radiation)? Or perhaps get that moped you found running on moonshine? Yorgos is your man. Then there's Lorentz, a great big brute who might not be the smartest of the bunch but someone that instills respect and know how to dish it out if it comes to that. Finally there's Pommax the Stalker. He's one of the few who has actually ventured outside the Ark for longer periods of time and knows some of the dangers out in the Zone. Pommax is the pathfinder and guide for everything Zone related.

With the characters and the Ark sorted we cranked up the mood music - the excellent retro soundtrack Krater by Christian Gabel (put it on as you continue reading for added atmosphere) - and got to playing!

At the start of every session the People of the Ark get together for a large public meeting where they try to decide on how to improve the state of the Ark. This is the players stepping out of their characters and taking more of a meta look at the situation and where they should commit their resources. The four categories you have to work with are Food, Culture, Technology and Defence and there are many different projects you can undertake to improve upon them. After some discussion they decided on trying to start growing some edible fungus and beets in the Ark to make sure everyone would be able to eat. But they were also eager to get the Technology level up so prepared to start an expedition out into the Zone - to an ancient building that the Elder thought might once have been a school.

Before they could head out though a loud boom and a crash was heard and they ran into the interior of the Ark to find a great hole in the floor! This event came from the Threat card that you also draw at the start of every session. These cards usually have some kind of threat to the Ark that needs sorting out one way or another, and can either be drawn randomly or chosen by the GM. This time it was a great hole that opened up in the Ark.

Yorgos quickly put together a kind of winch which allowed Lorentz and Pommax to easily get down into the gaping hole. Once they reached the bottom they realized that they were in a great man-made tunnel and that some kind of explosion had taken place which made the roof cave in. Pommax lit his lamp and they started to explore. To the west was another cave in so a dead end and when they went the other way they came across some organic looking weave that covered the walls. As they went further it became harder and harder to get through as the weave was everywhere. Lorentz got the urge to touch it and discovered his hand was stuck and as he pulled it off, loosing some skin, the thread vibrated wildly and they could hear... things moving further down in the dark! Not waiting to find out what, Pommax used his mutation to let out a great gout of flame, engulfing the entire area of the tunnel and burning the weave. They ran back to the winch and
just made it up as a large pale spider, the size of a bulldog, came creeping towards them.

Once out of the hole it was quickly decided that they needed to block it somehow and people were scrambling looking for suitable junk. In the meantime the characters watched the hole and had to battle a few spiders who made their way up. They had the advantage of height though and soon the hole could be blocked with planks of wood, parts of an old fence and quite a lot of rubble. There we go, no more horrible mutated spiders. Out of sight, out of mind! I'm sure that won't come back and bite us in the ass.

Having dealt with the spider problems the configuration of the Zone expedition was sorted out. Besides the three characters there were a number of other mutants who joined them. Some were simply curious of the world outside, like the Chronicler Astrina, while others went as representatives of the different Bosses who held sway in the Ark. The Crusher Buppe and the Fixer Milix represented the Boss Marlotte while the dog handler Leffo was known for running errands for Johammed. All in all seven of them started out, heading toward what might once have been a great school.

Moving through the Zone.

When you move through the Zone in M:0 you use the gridded map of the area you play in and when scouting a new sector the GM rolls a number of dice to decide what the it looks like, what kind of threats might be lurking and if there's any artefacts from the old tim there (also available as a web app). Naturally the more dangerous a sector might be the higher is the chance that there's still something valuable in it. Exploring the Zone like this is also what the Stalker does best and she has a special skill called Lead the Way that allows her to scout out a sector about to be entered to try and spot dangers and Rot level as well as scavenge for food, water and bullets. Which leads me into talking a little bit about the resource management aspect of the game...

There are four vital resources in the game: Mutation Points, Grub, Water and Bullets. Mutation Points are used for triggering your mutations and more often than not these will a character's strongest weapon, so keep them close! You earn more by Pushing a roll. You roll a dicepool and need sixes to succeed and if you want you can Push and re-roll them once, except if you do you will take damage from each hazard symbol rolled, but each will also net you a Mutation Point. Basically your mutant strain herself more than her body or mind can handle, but this kind of strain also fuels her mutations! Grub and Water is just that - food and drink - both which are needed to heal injuries and stress. You also need to eat and drink every day not to take damage. Finally there are the bullets that work both as ammunition and as currency in the game. You rarely have more than 4~5 of any of these resources and managing them wisely when out in the Zone is very important.

The box contents. Notice the special dice and the markers for Mutation Points, Grub, Water and Bullets.

As Pommax moved ahead and acted as the guide through the sectors ahead, the rest of the group looked around with equal parts fear and excitement, they'd never been this far away from the Ark before! The ruined landscape was a mixture of death and life - buildings smashed to bits by the terrible weapons of the old times but also trees and shrubs pushing their way through the cracks in the concrete to retake their old domain. To the immediate north they passed some huge cisterns, most of them in ruins but one or two still whole enough for Pommax to use as a makeshift lookout position. "There's a lot more standing buildings in the next sector!" he called down, "There's a big building with a clock on it that looks interesting...".

Closer to the clock building the others agreed that it looked promising. From a distant it looked like all the doors into the west wing were intact - a good sign said Pommax. On the other hand, the doors of the east wing were broken into pieces and there were many large, strange tracks coming and going from it. Had something made the building its lair? Not seeing anything for quite some time Lorentz, Pommax and Yorgos decided to try and sneak up to the west wing to try and make their way inside. As they came to the locked door a dark lumbering shape made it's way out of the hole at the other end of the building. It raised its shaggy head to the sky and seemed to sniff. While it first moved slowly, almost lazily, towards the mutants it soon picked up speed and what looked like two tonnes of muscles and fangs didn't make it any easier for Yorgos to try and pick the lock! He got it just in time and they could make their way inside and started throwing debris and old junk at the door as a makeshift barricade.

The thing outside seemed to give up after a few minutes and the trio continued to look around among the rubble. Most everything was junk, but Lorentz did find a corpse wearing some funny looking yellow suit. He simply laughed at it but after Yorgos explained that it might be something to ward of the Rot he looked at it more seriously and discovered that it could fit even his massive frame. Not finding anything else of value they decided to jump out a broken window in the back to avoid the thing outside. Meeting up with Astrina and the others they pushed on to the next sector.

Unless your Stalker use her Lead the Way skill to make it quicker, the normal time to make it through (and search!) a Zone sector is four hours. So by the time the group made it to the third sector, a ruined landscape but with a semi-standing police house, they decided it was as good a place as any to make camp. This was in early spring and nights were cold so Yorgos used some parts he found lying around to juryrig a chimney of sorts so they could light a fire inside. The early morning was bitter cold, but at least they were all still alive! The Rot did take its toll though and only Lorentz, who insisted on sleeping in his new yellow suit, seemed unaffected.

The next sector didn't have any standing buildings but consisted simply of a huge field of rubble. At least Pommax had found some drinkable water. Crossing the field Buppe was attacked by something coming out of the sand! Luckily Yorgos was walking right behind him and the shock of the attack triggered his Beast mutation and as the carnivorous sandworm came for it he broke it's jaws off and beat it to death with it. Yes, mutations are powerful, and they better be as you're going to be hit by every bad thing there is while out in the zone. The Rot in this sector was also unusually powerful and several of the mutants could feel it eating away at both their bodies and their minds!

They passed through another couple of sectors until they made it to one of the tall towers that can be seen far and wide in the Zone. There are four of them and this was the most northerly one. Again, the group split into and half of them went inside. For the first time they saw other... humans? Mutants? Humanoids? move about inside. They wore long dark robes and moved slowly through the ruined tower. Not daring to talk to them Yorgos, Pommax, Lorentz and Leffo simply kept quiet and watched them. The robed strangers lingered for a while around a large desk and then moved out through a side door. They had left something on the table though and as the mutants approached they were stunned to see the tiny shape of a baby, sleepily moving about in its blanket. This was of course huge news as none of the mutants in the Ark could bear children!

After having talked to the others it was decided that half the group should take the child with them back to the Ark while the rest pressed on as the school was very close now. Astrina and Leffo went back with the child. Passing through another sector of partially standing but overgrown ruins the group finally arrived at their destination, except what they were looking at certainly didn't look like any school they'd ever seen in the picture books the Elder had shown them. It looked more like some kind of strange factory, with many snaking pipes going in and out of different buildings. Still... it certainly looked like there could be some old technology inside.

Of course, beyond the first room the insides of the complex was pitch black. Yorgos had to pull out his lamp and they all stuck close together as they explored further inside. The stairs both up and down were blocked, but there were two large shafts next to them that seemed like they could be used for descending into the sublevels. Pulling down some wire from a fallen over post outside Yorgos attached it to a door handle and started climbing down to the floor below. After some discussion Buppe and Milix were posted at the top so no weird creature or hooded individuals came and released their only way up of the shaft.

Pommax, Lorentz and Yorgos continued on sublevel 1 and looked through the rooms in search for artefacts. Pommax did find something, a piece of flabby but tough cloth that could be inflated and made into a makeshift bed. Very comfortable! However it wasn't until they came to the end of a corridor and another short stairway down that they found the kind of technology they really were after. It was a large round room with a number of square consoles with screens on them. Sure, most of them were smashed or simply broken, but still. They started looking around when a loud bang was heard as the door was slammed shut behind them!

Raspy voices were heard and the sound of feet on the metal catwalk above them. Yorgos aimed his lamp up and saw that they were surrounded by a dozen stunted but vicious looking creatures! Humanoids dressed in rags and horrifying masks who readied their weapons and levelled them at the intruders. "Zone spooks", Pommax muttered as he ducked into cover behind one of the consoles.

What followed was a desparate battle of survival against the spooks in the cramped quarters of the computer room and it was only by using all their remaining Mutation Points and skills to the limit that allowed them to survive. Even so, by the end of the fight Pommax lay bleading on the floor with a jagged piece of carved metal in his side. Yorgos and Lorentz did the best they could and at least managed to get him on his feet but they knew they needed to get out and make a proper camp for Pommax to rest in. They took whatever parts and artefacts they could carry and with the help of Buppe and Milix made it outside.

They made their way back to the tower in the neighbouring sector where they spent the night. While mutant physiology is volatile and upredictable they at least also able to recover quickly! Having eaten most of their Grub the group felt ready to go home. Going back through already explored sectors is a lot faster and usually doesn't take more than 30 minutes so they could make it back by sundown (making sure to avoid the beast in the clock bulding!). Everyone was happy to see their safe return and that they brought with them technology from the old times, but what everyone was really interested in was the baby that Astrina and Leffo had carried home! Things were about to change in the Ark!


Here ended our first session. The Zone expedition was a success (barely) and they found a baby to boot! Except... who were those guys who left it there? And why? After having raised the Technology level of the Ark a little bit through handing in artefacts we doled out some Experience Points and called it a night. I'm very happy to say that we all had a great time, the players really couldn't stop going on about how fun they had and how well M:0 captured the core themes of the original Mutant while dressing it in a new grittier setting and giving it a lot more focus. The random way of generating sectors might seem a little, well... random at first glance, but it's actually very liberating for me as a GM. And of course, there's nothing saying I can't throw in some encounters or environments of my own here and there if I feel like it. Also, I modified the Zone map you get in the box to show the sectors the mutants have explored and which have stronger Rot than usual, and which are free from it. Here's what it looks like so far:

The cross to the left is the location of the Ark and they made their way west to their goal in sector H16.

I wanted to use the original image as a background in a spreadsheet made in Google docs and then use the cells as sectors so I could fill in information about them as the mutants moved through the zone, but that didn't work unfortunately. Might have better luck with Open Office. Anyway...

Certainly a great experience and we were all eager for more! The coming session reports won't be as detailed as this one, but I wanted to start out giving you a decent sense of what can happen during a session (we usually play about four, maybe five hours when we get together. Oh, and if you think this sounds like fun and you'd like to explore your own city as a group of mutants after the great apocalypse, get in touch with Fria Ligan and tell them! They did make translated quick start rules for their first roleplaying game Svavelvinter so perhaps we could see something similar for M:0 as well.

EDIT: Ok guys, perhaps it was those of you who got in touch with Fria Ligan or perhaps it was the plan all along, either way Mutant: Year Zero is being released in English by Modiphius this fall! You can read more about it and our next session report here.

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