Christmas with Gethsemane Games. Ho Ho Ho

This year, here at Gethsemane Games, we have decided to get into the Christmas spirit for a change (We are usually more the Haloween spirit sort of folks, to be strictly honest!).

We were a bit dubious about the whole idea at first.  All this jollity and whimsy, we weren't certain about that at all.  We are more your grumpy little gothic Goblins with our ghost stories and heartwarming tales of post-apocalyptic dystopia, but, we have to admit, we are converts.  It's all quite fun really.   So we set about creating a few Christmas themed (sort of) adventures.  Here is one of them for you!  Play it as a one-off or, if you are so inclined, try integrating it into an ongoing campaign.

And Another Thing! (By M R McGowan)
When the air traffic control Elf Dewey Landum began picking up a strange airborne signal he started tracking it and trying to contact the suspect aircraft but to no avail.  The 'Aircraft' fell to earth in the Arctic desolation.  Assuming that there were people in need of his help, Santa rounded up several of his more adventurous Elves and they set out in the Reindeer sleigh to see if they could help.

What they found though wasn't a downed aircraft - at least not one of Earthly origin, anyway.  The UFO had buried itself in the ice and was terribly twisted and damaged - much like the bodies of what were presumably aliens that they found inside.

That was far from the end of it, however.  Without realising it, somehow the expedition seems to have brought some*THING* back to Santa's Hideout with them and it can mimic other life forms.  Whatever it is, it isn't friendly and before long the sense of isolation and paranoia has the Elves, Reindeer and Krumpus all suspicious of one another.  No one is quite sure who is actually an alien monster capable of growing stomach mouths or spidery legs and scuttling off at any moment.  Oh, and Santa is acting a bit oddly.

(Apologies to John Carpenter)


This charming little Christmas adventure is ideal for use in a cold, isolated environment with a village full of Elves and a jolly supernatural present giver.  Use your own setting or try our 'Santa's Hideout' map (GM's Map #71) which was the inspiration for the scenario idea.

Pick it up for just $1.50 if you use this discount link:-

https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?discount=9defa1ec1c

Assault on Kar-Duin

The Following Scenario was designed for our FoE Fantasy wargame rules but can be used with any set of fantasy miniature rules you like.  The Background assumes that the battle is set during one of the 'Mage Wars' of Elizium, but again there is no reason why you can't adjust that if you wish, it will have no effect on the game itself.

Background
As the Forces of the demon Magog prepare to lay siege to the mighty fortress of Durn-Garan their encampments and supply lines are repeatedly harried by the allied forces who are slipping out of sally ports hidden all across the mountains.

Frustrated Magog has ordered a strike against the hill fort at Kar-Duin which protects one of the Durn-Garan sally ports. Realising that their best chance is to assault the position under cover of darkness the forces of Magog send a Goblin force to try and scale the walls at night and open the gates for a much larger follow-up force to enter the following day.

The Goblins, under Unterwalpurg Grom, are to assault the fortress, scale the walls, open the gates and hold the position against all comers until reinforced the following day.

Early reports suggest that the hill fort of Kar-Duin is only lightly defended by a small force of Dwarves, and if the Goblins can reach the walls before being detected they should be able to skip over and capture the gatehouse with minimal losses.

The risk is that the defenders may be reinforced by alliance troops through the sally port which leads into Durn-Garan.

Suggested Forces
Dwarves
1 Unit of Dwarf Axemen (Regulars) with medium armour and shield
2 Unit's of Dwarf Crossbows (Regulars) Light or medium armour
3 Ballistae with Dwarf Crew Clothing or light armour
Garrison Commander Ather Black beard (Potential Hero) in Medium or heavy armour with shield and axe
Every round after the first roll a d10.  On a 10 an additional unit of Dwarf infantry or crossbows arrives via the sally port.

Goblins
3 Units of Goblin Archers/Skirmishers Skyclad or clothing, Shortbows and daggers, ropes and grappling hooks
3 Units of Goblin light infantry with shields, spears and clothing, siege ladders (1 per 5 models)
2 units of Goblin Light Infantry Skyclad or clothing only with Swords and shields Ropes and Grappling hooks
1 Goblin Battle Witch (Lesser Hero) with Minor Arcanum 6
1 Goblin UnterWalperg (Lesser Hero) with sword, shield and medium armour.


Terrain

A - Sallyport
B - Gatehouse
C - Bastion
D - Goblin Table Edge

At the rear of the table is the cliff face containing the sally port to Durn-Garan (A). This is protected by a sturdy stone tower (C) on a promontory which has a good field of fire over both the sally port and the gatehouse (B).

The sally port is protected by a sturdy gatehouse (B) which has been constructed in a natural defile between two cliffs.  A courtyard is formed between the gatehouse and its cliffs on one side, and the cliffs containing the sally port behind.

The Gatehouse
The Gate (Medium Construction): DV 6 HITS: 3
Gatehouse (Medium Construction) DV 6 HITS: 3
The gatehouse walls are topped by  crenelations which provide defenders with 'Heavy Cover'
The Gatehouse walls are TN 15 to climb

Bastion
Medium Construction DV 6 HITS 3 TN 15 to climb

Cliffs
The Cliffs are easier to climb than the gatehouse wall, but are still treacherous and have a TN 10

Promontory
The rocky promontory upon which the tower/bastion stands is TN 10 to climb

The rest of the table is littered with rocky outcroppings, hills and stones. A clear field of fire/killing zone exists in-front of the walls which the dwarves cleared long ago. This reaches 50 GSU from the wall and is intended to prevent exactly the sort of stealth attack that the Goblins are hoping to mount.

Deployment
The Dwarves ay deploy anywhere between the gatehouse and the sally port, on the top of the cliffs, in the gatehouse or on the bastion.

The Goblins deploy on the table up to one walking move from table edge D.


Objectives
Goblins
Your forces must take and hold the gatehouse and bastion, holding it against all comers until you are reinforced the following day. To this end, you have been sent with a force primarily consisting of light, fast-moving troops that can approach relatively quietly, and a small holding force in your rear that should be brought up once the alarm is raised.

Dwarves
You must either repulse the Goblin attack or, failing that, re-capture the bastion and gatehouse when reinforced via the sally port.

Battlefield Conditions
Unterwalperg (under war-chief) Grom is fully aware that his forces see better in the dark than do the alliance forces. As a consequence, he has chosen to attack under the cover of darkness in the hopes of maximising the chances of getting to the wall before the defenders spot the sneak attack.

The Dwarves, therefore, suffer the effects of 'Poor Visibility' while the Goblins do not.

This scenario was originally written for our FoE Fantasy Battle rules, releases on November 30th 2018.  You can purchase FoE as a PDF for $10 HERE

New Map

I spent Sunday of this week re-designing the map of the imperial hinterlands and frontier from Spelldancer.

This map was the first part of the Elizium setting I ever mapped, back when I was at 6th form college.  My then girlfriend would be the first person to ever play in Elzium with her Elf mage who would later lend her name to the game - Pandora Spelldancer.  That version was done by hand.

When I got my first copy of Campaign Cartographer by Profantasy Software I remade the map with that.  At the time it seemed great but technology - and expectations - have come a long way since then.  The version in the current edition of Spelldancer was remade using Campaign Cartographer 2 and again, how great it looked when I made it but once again the state of the art has moved on since then.

This version was made with CC3+ by Profantasy Software.  How far things have come since the pencil drawn then inked version on an artists pad!

FREEBIE: Small Local Community Centre Map

This is a small map I have been wanting to do for some time, it's a little too small for one of our 'GM's Maps' products so I thought I'd do it anyway and give it away free to readers of the blog.

Enjoy, and feel free to email me at gethsemanegames@gmail.com with any unusual or interesting uses you come up with for it, I'd love to hear about it.

The 20^th and 21^st century saw a rise in the number of 'Community Centre's'–community or charity run establishments providing activities and social events, information and support for members of the local community. While some community centres are in purpose-built buildings, many others take over buildings that originally had other purposes such as churches or libraries, or are incorporated into civic buildings like town halls.

The one presented here is a small community centre intended to support a village or small town and is based upon the St. Stephens Community Centre in the village where the author lives. This community centre, like so many others, is in a former church which was taken over and repurposed once the congregation dwindled and the Diocese decommissioned it as a church.

Key

1/. Property boundary wall

2/. Steps and ramp to main entrance

3/. Ramp to fire escape

4/. Entrance Vestibule

5/. Kitchenette

6/. Women's WC

7/. Men's WC

8/. Admin Office

9/. Storage

10/. Easy Aces WC

11/. Board/meeting room on what used to be the stage. The door between here and area 12 opens several feet above the floor of area #12

12/. Main hall. There is a door to the board/meeting room which is several feet above the floor of this room. Beneath that is a hatch leading to the understate area which is used for storage and occupies an area beneath area #11

13/. Folding doors which can be used to turn the main hall into two chambers. The doors are sound insulated.

14/. Main Hall

15/. Computer suite

16/. Enclosed yard

17/. Boiler room

18/. Storage

New 'Entropy Effect' Fiction published by OMNI media.

OMNI magazine online has published 'Chimera: The Entropy Effect,' a short story by B F Irving based on our upcoming 'Entropy Effect RPG.

When reality is damaged the Entropy Stalkers are sent to repair it and to eliminate the cause, but in the tunnels under a bustling city one such 'Reality Repair Team' are forced to confront an uncomfortable realization.

Read the full story for FREE on OMNI 

https://omni.media/chimera-the-entropy-effect

Cooper's Creek (Fiction)

OMNI online magazine has published my short story 'Cooper's Creek' which you can read for FREE at  https://omni.media/cooper-s-creek

Cooper's Creek is based on our upcoming RPG 'The Entropy Effect' and is set several years before the adventure 'Number Station' (Working title) which will be published for the RPG.

In the story we hear the tale of what happend at Cooper's Creek when the Alaskan park rangers sent a 4 man team to rescue a missing expedition fro the MacReady spring expedition - told in the form of a diary entry form ranger Don Smith.

Don will appear in the adventure module as an NPC for the PCs to interview and during playtesting I even used the short story as a handout for the players to read, although that wasn't it's original purpose.

Cooper's Creek is a creepy, SF-Horror story that should send shivers up your spine, here is a sample form the story:

'I wish I had never heard of that place.

The name will haunt me till the day I die, and that's a day that can't come soon enough. I can't even bring myself to write it down. It's as if just writing that damned name will make it real again. If it ever was real; maybe they are right, maybe it was just a psychotic episode.

If it was though, we all shared it.

Three forest rangers and a cop.

Oh and if it was just a psychotic episode, why did they seal the files? Why did they swear us to secrecy? Tell us we could never talk about it to anyone? For that matter, just who exactly were they? In their black suits and sunglasses, all of them with the same haircut. All made to look as much like one another as possible so you couldn't pick them out of a line up if you tried. 'Agents' they said, but from which agency exactly? I don't think they ever told me, but they had the boss rattled sure enough, and the cops.

It's strange the things that trigger the memories and the fear. You always hear people in the movies or in books talking about how they can't sleep at nights. How “It still haunts their dreams.” It's not really like that. Not for me anyway and not for Mitch or Jack either I don't think. Not that I've spoken to them for a while now. Mitch blew his brains out last year and Jack, well I don't know what happened to Jack. I haven't heard from him since the funeral.'

Read the rest at OMNI online Here