Post by Ghul on Jul 24, 2013 14:47:29 GMT -6
Fred, a new patron of the AS&SH game, sent me the following email, which he subsequently gave me permission to post here, for public entertainment:
Hi, Jeff,
You sent me a note with my last order asking about my game and giving your email address. Thanks for your interest in our game. My group and I are regular Pathfinder players who have been talking and comparing stories about how the game has changed over the years and I have been wanting to DM an older style game for them for some time now. I looked at a lot of systems and found yours the most inspiring! I wanted to run something derived from the old pulp literature.
We started play by me telling my players, “It’s the 1880’s earth as we know it and you are aboard a new steam powered ship sailing in the arctic ocean. You decide who you are and why you are on the ship. Your character can be anyone, so create a bit of background.” The players came up with everything from a Vanderbelt heiress to a Chinese cooley and rolled their basic stats (each of my 8 players had 3 characters). I tell them the voyage has been uneventful, except the brilliant aurora borealis, until the fresh water condenser breaks down. The captain assigns the PCs to go ashore and collect some snow for fresh water.
When the life boats return to the ship with the 1st load of snow leaving the PCs on shore, then doesn’t return, the PCs are stranded. Slowly freezing, they are “rescued” by a group of Esquimeaux on dog sleds. They awake some time later in cozy beds in the City of Apollo. At first bewildered by the strange folk who care for them wearing odd clothes and speaking an unintelligible tongue, they quickly pick up the language by listening and find that they were found by the Esquimeaux from upriver who brought them to the city.
From the citizens they learn they are not the first people to come from beyond the borealis. Any nonliving material such as clothes and weapons the PCs brought with them quickly deteriorates to dust. They are told about Apollo and also hear about Helios. The PCs find they have an accelerated ability to learn and train and quickly acquire the abilities of a warrior, wizard or cleric (Apollo which is main-stream or Helios which is underground). Near the end of their training, the PCs enter their favorite tavern and overhear a farmer trying to get someone to save his daughters who have gone missing among some haunted hills. The PCs volunteer to help the farmer and set off for his village a few hours away.
After questioning the villagers and learning of the legends of the haunted hills, the PCs follow the farmer up into the hill country where they find a group of seven hills arranged as if created by humans. There is a standing stone on one hill which glows in the moonlight and acts as a “gate” into the interior of the mounds (when the moon and stars are right). The farmer is convinced this is where his daughters have gone and the PCs enter the “seven mounds” through the stone. They find themselves in an underground complex inhabited by “hairy ape-men”, encounter traps, a magic fountain, vampire dirt and a cold spirit, finally stumbling on some sort of sacrifice under the central mound. The children are of course the sacrifice and an evil stick-figure of a high-priest summons forth a tentacled monster from the black alter as a mob of hairy ape-men chant. The PCs disrupt the ritual and stage a rescue of the children, the stick-figure priest flees, and the PCs run for the exit.
Exiting the stone “gateway” the PCs return the children to their waiting father who informs the PCs that a stick-figure emerged from the stone minutes before the PCs and flew off into the night sky. The PCs return to the village with the farmer and are celebrated as local heroes. Word comes from the City of Apollo (folks there have heard of their heroic deed) that their help is needed to find the cause of missing townfolk…
And that’s where we are. The cast of characters will change a bit for the next chapter as native Hyperboreans will join the party. This will open up the races and rest of the character classes from AS&SH.
hoping you find this amusing,
Fred
You sent me a note with my last order asking about my game and giving your email address. Thanks for your interest in our game. My group and I are regular Pathfinder players who have been talking and comparing stories about how the game has changed over the years and I have been wanting to DM an older style game for them for some time now. I looked at a lot of systems and found yours the most inspiring! I wanted to run something derived from the old pulp literature.
We started play by me telling my players, “It’s the 1880’s earth as we know it and you are aboard a new steam powered ship sailing in the arctic ocean. You decide who you are and why you are on the ship. Your character can be anyone, so create a bit of background.” The players came up with everything from a Vanderbelt heiress to a Chinese cooley and rolled their basic stats (each of my 8 players had 3 characters). I tell them the voyage has been uneventful, except the brilliant aurora borealis, until the fresh water condenser breaks down. The captain assigns the PCs to go ashore and collect some snow for fresh water.
When the life boats return to the ship with the 1st load of snow leaving the PCs on shore, then doesn’t return, the PCs are stranded. Slowly freezing, they are “rescued” by a group of Esquimeaux on dog sleds. They awake some time later in cozy beds in the City of Apollo. At first bewildered by the strange folk who care for them wearing odd clothes and speaking an unintelligible tongue, they quickly pick up the language by listening and find that they were found by the Esquimeaux from upriver who brought them to the city.
From the citizens they learn they are not the first people to come from beyond the borealis. Any nonliving material such as clothes and weapons the PCs brought with them quickly deteriorates to dust. They are told about Apollo and also hear about Helios. The PCs find they have an accelerated ability to learn and train and quickly acquire the abilities of a warrior, wizard or cleric (Apollo which is main-stream or Helios which is underground). Near the end of their training, the PCs enter their favorite tavern and overhear a farmer trying to get someone to save his daughters who have gone missing among some haunted hills. The PCs volunteer to help the farmer and set off for his village a few hours away.
After questioning the villagers and learning of the legends of the haunted hills, the PCs follow the farmer up into the hill country where they find a group of seven hills arranged as if created by humans. There is a standing stone on one hill which glows in the moonlight and acts as a “gate” into the interior of the mounds (when the moon and stars are right). The farmer is convinced this is where his daughters have gone and the PCs enter the “seven mounds” through the stone. They find themselves in an underground complex inhabited by “hairy ape-men”, encounter traps, a magic fountain, vampire dirt and a cold spirit, finally stumbling on some sort of sacrifice under the central mound. The children are of course the sacrifice and an evil stick-figure of a high-priest summons forth a tentacled monster from the black alter as a mob of hairy ape-men chant. The PCs disrupt the ritual and stage a rescue of the children, the stick-figure priest flees, and the PCs run for the exit.
Exiting the stone “gateway” the PCs return the children to their waiting father who informs the PCs that a stick-figure emerged from the stone minutes before the PCs and flew off into the night sky. The PCs return to the village with the farmer and are celebrated as local heroes. Word comes from the City of Apollo (folks there have heard of their heroic deed) that their help is needed to find the cause of missing townfolk…
And that’s where we are. The cast of characters will change a bit for the next chapter as native Hyperboreans will join the party. This will open up the races and rest of the character classes from AS&SH.
hoping you find this amusing,
Fred
