The TEK - January 2020 Stats

Despite having a massive update to Kobold's Folly and The Compass Rose Inn Minisetting, sales and downloads were bad. However, as a bright spot, up to 250 people potentially received brand new files this month. One thing that probably hurt me was the fact that I replaced ads for my own products with DriveThruRPG's charity bundles for the wildfires down under. They need it more than I do. 

January 2020 Downloads via DriveThruRPG:
AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 1
Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 3
Kobold Folly Minisetting - 5
Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 3
Swashbucklers Character Class - 6

Webstats were much better.

Webstats (Updated):
Google Analytics Pageviews - 1,608
Google Analytics Sessions - 1,034
Pageviews per Session - 1.56

Pageviews were up by 19.55% over last month. That's amazing.

What did I do last month? I started a daily post format for Strictly (Duke) Springer, a play through of Dwarfstar's Star Smuggler solo game. I implemented different ads, which doesn't seem to be working as intended. I also joined minds.com which is another outlet for communication. Earlier this month, feedmegames.com folded. So, I lost one and gained one.

You would think that the code used for my ads would attract bots, and you may be right. However, I can't see them in my statistics. I was looking for a sudden and unexplained uptick in visitors from off signal countries like China or Russia, but that hasn't happened, for which I am grateful.

What is on the agenda for February? Not much. Fewer but better ads. I would like continue working with Matt Jackson on his Collaborative Dungeon Project. My D&D campaign has been on hiatus due to me returning to school this semester. I expect to be back on it soon enough, but maybe not before February ends.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 031

We get our full five rolls today. On the very first roll, I get status units.

Status units are interesting devices. They take up one CU plus the size of the area protected. The one in the cockpit was a 2 CU unit, which actually took up 3 CU, which is why I didn’t need to dump stuff to remove it. The space got bigger, I held a heavy side arm and a was wearing a U-Suit.

They are cheap for what they do. They are 50 secs. per CU in size. I need one that is 3 CU to recover Emily. I also need to replace the one she was in.

Here’s what I am going to do. I have 7 crew. The crew quarters are 16 CU in size. I could purchase a giant Status unit for the whole thing, but instead, I will purchase 8 single CU Status units. That costs 50 times 8, or 400 secs. 

Next, I will purchase an additional 2 CU unit to replace the one that saved Emily in the cockpit. That is another 100. I will also get one 1 CU unit for the ships gun turrets. And of course, a 3 CU units, one to recover Emily. Plus a 2 CU unit will go in Engineering for additional coverage. Now every crew area of the ship is covered.

The cost is staggering. It’s 900 secs. Bur that isn’t the true cost. My crew quarters now only have 8 CU of space. Engineering is down to 2 CU inside the status unit itself plus one CU outside of the unit. The turret has 2 CU, one for the gunner and one for the Status Unit. I am running low on space.

Now there is a trick question in all of this. Can I renegotiate salaries based on providing Status Units? Most NPC will work for less if their area is covered by a Status Unit. The rules don’t say I can renegotiate, but they sort of imply that you can. 

I’m not doing that, it makes record keeping a nightmare. Plus I have two gunners, who gives a discount, the one in the turret or the one outside the turret? If I didn’t have a replacement unit in the cockpit, would that increase Emily’s pay? It seems fair to count only increases, not decreases.

On my very next roll, I get a 3 – No more rolls.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and one 1 CU unit for Gunnery.
2 Repair units,
4 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
210 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 3 hypercharges. 
1 Boat guns, TL-3,
5 U-suits.

I have 6,081 secs.

What I need is more storage space.

Area 12, Demented Distraction

I am still playing along with Matt Jackson and his amazing Collaboration Dungeons. In Dungeon #2, I have populated a room with an great trick Statue. Check out the full post on MSJX.com.

12. Demented Distraction.

The long passageway is lit from above, in a soft orange light when viewed from the hallway. As the characters progress down the stairs, the light shifts to a strong blueish white. The light emanates from a long central beam in the ceiling.

The alcoves are not lit at all and have deep shadows. The characters will find searching for traps or secret doors to be very difficult without their own bright light source. Torches and lanterns are insufficient to remove the penalty, but a magical light spell or a magic weapon’s glow will help. Waiting a round for one’s eyes to adjust also is beneficial.

At the far end of the chamber is a titanic statue of a man with eight arms. Each arm holds bowl like mirror. The statue is made of steel, but show signs of distress.

When the characters step off the last stair and on to the floor of the hallway, a bolt of energy will lance out from one of the mirrors striking a finger’s breadth in front the lead character’s foot. Every time the characters step forward, the statue fires.

There is a pattern to the bolts, the top two left hands, the right bottom two hands, the upper right two hands, and then finally, the lower left hands. The statue responds instantly to any motion forwards, and can fire as often as necessary to lash out any and all members of the party. It can detect people that are astral, invisible, out of phase, etc. unerringly.

If a character contrives to place an item between their foot and the bolt, the item will be vaporized without a saving throw. The character will be blown backwards 5 feet and take 1d4 points of damage.

Likewise, firing missiles or spells at the statue causes a bolt to vaporize the missile or in the case of magic, negate the spell. There is no saving throw for this, it is automatic. Once the attack has been dealt with, the statue does not fire on the players unless they move forward again.

Characters can step into the alcoves to avoid fire, which will likely confuse the issue.

Retreating or moving left or right does not receive a response, so long as the person doesn’t advance towards the statue.

There is no way to prevent the statue from firing, no way to reflect, block or deflect the bolts or hide from them. There is no solution to this puzzle. The statue unerringly fires bolts one finger’s breadth IN FRONT an advancing person’s foot.

The statue will stop firing at a character as soon as they advance past the last alcove. Players who figure out the puzzle will find the statue to be quite inscrutable. It is resistant to all attacks of any kind, and ignores any brute force attack made on it. It will also ignore people searching or climbing on it.

However, if someone attempts to vandalize the statue, all eight mirrors will fire on them for 1d4 points each. This requires a normal attack roll and happens 8 times per round. Bolts that miss the vandal will NOT hit or injure other people. It will not stop firing on the vandal until they have been vaporized or they escape up the stairs leading to area 8 or around the corner to area 7. If the character returns, the statue will start firing again. In fact, it will fire on vandal as soon as they enter it’s line of sight.

The statue is unaware of speech and will only attack the people that attempt to harm it. If the party waits 3 rounds after the vandal leaves or dies, the statue will glow bright red for 10 rounds, after which, vandal’s handiwork will be burned away.

Behind the statue is a corpse wearing +2 chainmail, holding a wax crayon in one hand. There is also a Mace of Disruption under the corpse and in it’s Bag of Holding are three potions, to be randomly determined. If the characters are having a rough time of it, there is also map to this point showing the hidden doorways in the alcoves.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 030

We need to get home in a flash, so we are making a double jump. It burns 3 hypercharges. On entry to Regari, we see a ship under repair. There is no encounter.

We need a lot of different things, so we are going to an Industrial area. It takes 4 hours to get there.

We buy 200 Tech Level 1 Side Arms at a cost of 1000. We get no other good rolls.

I pay the crew, which is 80 secs., including Emily who is still trapped in status.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)

2 Repair units,

4 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

7 PS-bots,

2 U-suit,

10 Heavy Hand Weapons,

210 Side Arms,

and the ship is fueled with 3 hypercharges.

1 Boat guns, TL-3,

5 U-suits.

I have 6,981 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 029

We continue making rolls here in the spaceport.

We sell the ship’s boat, sans it’s guns. Those are nice guns. We make 6,000 secs. off of this one transaction.

We can sell FU at 5 each. We dump all 30 of them as we have no device that uses them. 150 secs. We can sell LSU for 10 each, so we also dump all but 4. Another 250 secs.

We have just enough time to pay on the ship and get to orbit.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)

2 Repair units,

4 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

7 PS-bots,

2 U-suit,

10 Heavy Hand Weapons,

10 Side Arms,

and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

1 Boat guns, TL-3,

5 U-suits.

I have 8,061 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 028

We have a pair of options, the spaceport or the space station. Things tend to cost at the space station and sell for less. We move to the spaceport. We need hypercharges.

It takes 3 hours to get the hypercharges. We buy a full load. That takes the rest of the day.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)
15 Fuel Units,
2 Repair units,
24 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
10 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
15 Fuel Units,
5 Life Support Units.
5 U-suits.

I have 1,961 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 027

We are off to Imperia again, via Palatek. On arrival at Palatek, we are ordered to stop and wait for an escort to take us into the space station or spaceport. Not a chance. We jump.

And get into more trouble. The ship is hit by a mirco asteroid right in the pilot’s compartment. If it wasn’t for the Status Unit, Emily would be dead. We use a RU for the patch but now have a secondary problem. We can’t recover Emily without a 3 CU status unit. She is stuck in there.

It takes an hour to patch up and start moving again. It takes 4 more hours to get to the surface. Our first priority is to make money. I want to sell these guns, so we are off to the slums. We aren’t detected on entry.


We can sell RU, FU and LSU. We can sell RU at ten times their normal cost, so we unload 20 of them for 200 secs. We also can sell side arms at 40 each. We get rid of 90 of them for a return of 3600.
Our day is done. What a rotten day.

Our assets are:
1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU, (In use, holding Emily.)
15 Fuel Units,
2 Repair units,
24 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
10 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 2 hypercharges. 
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
15 Fuel Units,
5 Life Support Units.
5 U-suits.

I have 3,961 secs.

Matt Jackson's CollaboDungeon #2

Here we are, round two! I picked room 22, a forested room in a dungeon. Click here to read Matt's full post and see all three maps.

22. The Faerie Queen’s Thicket

Small animals frolic among all the trees. Under the largest tree is a white brocade blanket, upon which sits a elderly woman. On noticing the party, she sings out:

“Come out, come out,
“I am the mistress of scrying.”

As the characters approach her, she issues a warning:

“Come and sit,
“There is a place for all here,
“But don’t drink the water.”

The reference to water refers to room 15. She offers the characters food and drink. Consuming the food and drink of the Faerie Queen will restore 1d6 hit points and remove any curses or poisons. Characters may be reluctant to partake of the Faerie Queen’s provisions, but it is safe.

If asked about other rooms, the Faerie Queen will produce a crystal ball and describe them. The only limitation to scrying is if the characters have not be there, they might not understand. If characters look at the crystal ball, they see nothing but cloudiness.

The woman is reluctant to leave room 22, but the party can convince her to leave if they promise to take her out by the shortest route. If the party deviates from the shortest route, she will teleport back to her seat in room 22.

If they return to her, she will sing:

“This is my home,
“And you have been banished.”

No food or drink will be offered this time, and if the characters consume it, they will die in 24 hours. There will be no pain, only a sudden feeling of certain doom.

If any character takes the crystal ball, the Queen will vanish and that character will take her place.

The Goblin’s Henchmen’s rule is in effect, 300 words, less 1 for fun. This post draws on DMB’s song Don’t Drink the Water.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 026

It will take 5 hours to get to the jump point. I’m gonna make my 5 rolls and hope for the best. I would like a couple of more items.

I buy two hypercharges then fill the ship with Fuel Units and Life Support Units. Every single area of the ship is packed with stuff, to the point that I need to play Russian stacking dolls and fill the Hopper with crap.

We break for orbit and arrive at the jump point in the 10th hour.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
23 Repair units,
24 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
2 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
100 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges.
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
15 Fuel Units,
5 Life Support Units.
5 U-suits.

I have 161 secs. I’m broke.

The Best Module Ever - SES-01 - The One With The Killer Hook

Incredibly, everyone gamer in the WORLD owns the best module ever. It's called SES-01, The One With The Killer Hook. Who knows where you got it, but you have it. We all have it. Where it came from doesn't matter. 

What is SES-01?

Remember your first game session? All of the excitement and adventure, with dozens of mistakes and missteps? Yeah, of course you do. 

It's X years later. Your players have returned to the place where it all began to relive their early days, to see what has become of that place and the inhabitants. Everything is exactly as they remember it. Nothing has changed in all this time... except one thing. The denizens of where ever are somber, saddened by an incredible loss. And they need the Party to help them. 

Help them with what? 

Bury the dead. There are x numbers of caskets in need of pallbearers and escorts. There are graves to be filled and prayed over. One for each brave party member who participated in Session 01. They didn't make it. The locals are not so much holding out for heroes but burying their past. They are honored, loved, and respected, but gone. So much tragedy.  

What happened? This is all on you and your players to discover when you go back and play SES-01. 

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 025

Ratchet, the
Engineer

We move back to the spaceport and roll for detection. Being in a spaceship, we are detected. The result is holdup men, but because I have more than 2 companions, there is no encounter.

It takes an hour per contact attempt here, so nine rolls. I pretty much want one of everything offered here, so rolling should be easy. Unless I get a 3, which means no more rolls.

I buy a hopper (ship’s boat) for 900. I buy 20 RU at a cost of 1 each. I hire a second medic at a cost of 10. I buy 5 PS bots at a cost of 120 each for a total of 600. I buy some hopper guns, Tech Level 3, for 80 secs.

I still don’t have my hypercharges and I am out of daylight for today. Time to move on soon.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Hopper, with TL-3 guns,
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
23 Repair units,
20 Life Support Units
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots,
7 U-suit,
10 Heavy Hand Weapons,
100 Side Arms,
and the ship is fueled with 2 hypercharges.

I have 1,185 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 024

I posted this as a "the Demon Core", but it could just as easily
be a hypercharge.

We are on our way back to Regari. I am down to 2 charges at the end of today. I need to purchase 4 more hypercharges once I get there… If I get there. Palatek is really a bad place.

I’m approached by two ships, which heavily out gun me. I have the option to jump away, so I do that. I enter the Regari system and I am not detected. I descend to the planet. I spent two hours jumping and then 4 more landing. I have 4 hours of daylight left.

Let’s talk about economic cost of space travel. Hypercharges cannot be stored, the can only be installed in empty slots. I have four empty slots. Hypercharges have a standard cost of 500 secs. As a standard cost, they are not modified by wealth codes. This is so you can’t get stuck in a bad system for a want of 500 secs. times a ridiculous number. Another cost of installing hypercharges is, it takes the rest of the day, which WILL screw you an the most inopportune time.

In my last run, I made 4600 secs. I used up 7 skimmers, 20 RU and two hypercharges. The skimmers were free. The RU were not, but didn’t cost that much. The hypercharges cost 2000 secs. for four replacements, which I currently don’t have yet. I really spent several weeks digging in the dirt for less than 3000 secs. It would take forty, forty! runs like this to pay off the ship. That’s not a fun game.

I need those hypercharges and something else to sell. The ruins are right out. I’ve had weeks of that. The Industrial, Mining, Colony and Rural are secondary objectives as they have a lot of good opportunities. I need weapons and I need crew, so we are off to the Slums.

We are detected. We have a contact that wants to buy all kinds of illegal stuff I don’t have. It takes no time.

My very next roll yields something great, heavy hand weapons for 23 secs. each for Tech Level 5 weapon. They also take up 1 CU. My ship can hold me, plus 15 other people in cramped conditions. I want those heavy hand weapons, and a lot of them. I buy ten, one for every crewman, plus 4 extras.

My next roll, I get regular side arms. They cost 4 each, are tech level 4 and take up no space. I purchase 100 of them. Again, one for every crew member. I can’t get hypercharges here, so tomorrow, we will move on to the spaceport.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.

1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

3 Repair units,

20 Life Support Units,

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

7 U-suit,

10 Heavy Hand Weapons,\

100 Side Arms,

and the ship is fueled with 2 hypercharges.

I have 2,795 secs. 

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 023

We are still in the city. We have 7 skimmers to sell and I can roll once an hour.

I get another 10 right off the bat. But then roll a 1 which means these skimmers are worth 30 each. No deal. Roll again.

I get a 5 then a 10. I finally get that luck six, which means the Skimmers are worth 20 times more than their base price. That’s a total of 4200 secs.

Before I leave, I pay the crew early and pay that ship payment. I throw an extra 1000 at the principle. That works out to 70 secs. salary for the crew, 1,300 for the interest and to pay down the principle owed on the ship. Remember, there is no adjustment in the interest payment. I read that rule wrong the first time I played and won rather easily by counting the 300 secs. of interest against the principle.

I boost for orbit and then 4 steps out where I will pause for the rest of the day. Technically, I don’t have to pause, but it makes record keeping easier when you are blogging the results. I could back at Regari today, but I want a fresh start in the morning.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
3 Repair units,
20 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
2 PS-bots,
7 U-suit,
and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 to get here.

I have 3,425 secs. in my pocket. And I feel great!

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 022

This is Deadeye, with a Heavy Side Arm
and an armored U-suit. 

Strategy time. We are in the big city. I have a lot of things to sell, but no ready cash to purchase items. While base prices remain the same, the Wealth code of this planet is 100. Everything is more expensive. I can sell a skimmer at a base price of 30, but due to that wealth code, the price will be double to 20 times it’s normal price, or 600 secs. Each.

The crew is fully healed. We have 7 skimmers to sell and I can roll once an hour.

Guess what? I get a 10 on the first roll which is exactly what I want, sell a skimmer. However, my next roll is 2 on the Base Price Multiplier Table. I can sell each for 90 secs. I’m not doing it, so lets roll again.

I get a 5, a 7 and 11. 7 is Fuel Units, which I could sell but I hardly have any. Five is repair units. I get a six, so they are selling for 20 each. I’ll sell 20 for a total of 400 secs.

The next series is 12, 5 and 7. I’ll check the prices on the Fuel Units (7) and on Repair Units (5). I roll a five for FU and 4 for Repair. Too expensive.

Three more rolls. 5, 5, and 9. I check the prices on each. 3, 5 and 2. Three is x5, five is X10 but 2 is simply twice as much. I will buy those Life Support Units. I’ll buy 20, which keeps my record keeping easy. The total price was 20x2 base price times 2 again. 80 secs.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,
15 Fuel Units,
3 Repair units,
30 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
2 PS-bots,
7 Skimmers,
7 U-suit,
and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 to get here. 

I have 595 secs. in my pocket. And I feel good.

Sketching With a Heavy Hand Tonight

I'm doing a series of sketches based on my game play of Star Smuggler. Click the link to read the review and download a copy. 

I am sick of the vector art right now. My hand has gotten heavy from a lack of practice plus I am using a mechanical pencil which requires a very light touch. This is probably not helped by the fact that I have been using a Wacom Bamboo for a few days in a row.

Many of these characters are based on what I have seen the TV show Rebels on Disney+, plus a bit of Robotech and reality thrown in. This woman is what I think Emily, the Pilot/Navigator of the Antelope looks like.

Her uniform is sort of based off of a British Submariner's fire fighting kit, mixed with a police officer's bullet proof vest. 

As a pilot/navigator, she doesn't often carry a weapon, therefore doesn't have any holsters. By the Star Smuggler rules, there is barely enough room for her and one other person in the cockpit, therefore she very little in the way of gear that might hang up on something. This is inline with real world tankers.

This guy on the right is also a pilot. He is wearing the minimum amount of kit for flying in space. He is wearing a dress uniform which does have the capacity to accept a helmet on the neck ring, but while one duty, he would be completely suited up in a space suit. He holds his glasses in his left hand. His helmet does have a prescription visor and a HUD, but in his dress uniform, the helmet is mostly for show.

He has a logo on his chest for his unit. The armor like piece on his chest is merely a high-tech unit sash for easy identification, plus it pulls his neckring down tight. Notice that he is fully gloved like Emily above. Unlike Maverick and Han Solo, pilots don't like freeze or fry their hands off while flying.

I will likely add some sort of ceremonial pauldron to one or both shoulders. This guy's outfit is for show, so he'll need to be reworked in mission ready suit.

Deadeye on the right is dressed for combat. He carries a heavy side arm, with some sort of explosive rounds. Unlike the two characters above, he is mission ready.

The cap that he wears over his helmet is cloth, meant to deaden the sound of his gun should his high-tech "ears" fail him. He has heavy body armor plainly visible, but also wears a bulky fabric vest for storage on top of it.

The backpack contains a very limited amount of air and re-breathing apparatus, an evaporative cooling unit and a small short range radio like the Apollo astronauts.

Unlike an astronaut, he has only limited capabilities in a vacuum. This armor is mean for planets with low atmospheric pressure or extremely polluted air. The fabric portions of his suit would probably be a hindrance in a vacuum. Exiting an airlock would probably cause frost to form and perhaps particles of ice to drift around him in a cloud. His undergarment is skin tight to prevent it from balloon in low pressure.

The next person only has a nickname: "Delta Vee". This is my motorcycle's name. Yes, I named it. Like the motorcycle, her clothes are going to be black, teal and purple.

She has three different logos on her uniform. The larger of the two is based on Kingdom Hearts. When I redraw her, this heart area will be more padded or quilted keeping with the idea of softgoods. I think the center will be black, the striping purple and the rest of the outfit, teal.

Zoom in a bit closer, you can make out the second heart on her shoulder. Emily has a braid of some sort on her shoulder, while this woman has embroidery. Between her neck and chest is her knickname: δV or Delta V. This should be an upper case Delta, Δ, to match the Rocket Equation, but I like to soft lines of the lower case δ. I might use a more scripty V to match the δ.

She is probably a mercenary or pirate, with a military background. She carries a light side arm, with a sideways magazine owing to the fact that she is pilot. Should she be trapped behind or worse, in a downed fighter, her pistol needs to clear obstructions like Sten type gun. She is probably not the best shot with a pistol, so she carries a lot of ammo with an extended mag. She might not carry many magazines, but what she has is enough for a slow shooting pistol.

In this iteration, she has a cape. I am not sure if that will stay with her in subsequent drawings. Perhaps she wears in when traveling, but not in the cockpit.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 021

Sorry gang, Day 21 is boring. One of those skimmers is down for repair and I need it fixed before we sell it. So we need a day of RRR.

We roll for contacts today, which would really be unwanted. Nothing comes of it, so we proceed to RRR. The Ship's Engineer rule has a quirk, which I don't see anyway of fixing. On a RRR day, we can regain health and he can fix equipment. But does he regain health while fixing equipment? Maybe? I have to check the rules again.

Anyway, we must have that skimmer fixed plus back on day 014, everyone took a hit of damage. RRR will heal that.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

23 Repair units,

10 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

7 Skimmers,

7 U-suit,

and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 to get here.  

I have 275 secs. in my pocket. 

I promised ads on every day of RRR, so here it is.

I saw a few people post on some charity bundles over at DriveThruRPG for the fires down under. 100% of your purchase goes to the following organizations:

Disaster Relief and Recovery - Australia Red Cross
Bushfire Emergency - World Wildlife Fund of Australia

DriveThruRPG and it's publishers have really stepped up, here. There are 5 bundles for every type of interest. I didn't bother to count the number of great titles included with each. All of them appear to have more than a dozen books each.

EDIT January 22nd, 2020: The folks at DrivethruRPG have added 3 more at $9.99 price point for an even better value. Here is a link to the whole category. I'd also like to thank Jeremy over at Thought Eater Blog, host of The Frothcast podcast and all of the others who reshared this post. What a great community we have.

Fantasy Core & Settings $19.95
Starships & Posthumanity $29.95
Modern & Urban Horror $19.95
Fantasy Supplements $29.95
Capes, Grit, and Gunsmoke $19.95

Personally, I'm going for the Fantasy and Core Settings bundle. What a great way to celebrate gaming, a birthday or whatever while helping out those in the awesome but beleaguered OZ.

It's Been a While Since a Plug...

The logo and covers for my products on DriveThruRPG are reminiscent of Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man. Sometimes, we are not as flexible, adaptable or available as we feel we should be. We can't possibly have all of the resources we need, when we need them.

It will be ok. We just do our best.

Today's plug is for DriveThruRPG's charity bundles. 100% of your purchase goes to the following organizations:

Disaster Relief and Recovery - Australia Red Cross
Bushfire Emergency - World Wildlife Fund of Australia

Fantasy Core & Settings $19.95
Starships & Posthumanity $29.95
Modern & Urban Horror $19.95
Fantasy Supplements $29.95
Capes, Grit, and Gunsmoke $19.95

EDIT January 22nd, 2020: The folks at DrivethruRPG have added 3 more at $9.99 price point for an even better value. Here is a link to the whole category. I'd also like to thank Jeremy over at Thought Eater Blog, host of The Frothcast podcast and all of the others who reshared this post. What a great community we have.

I haven't counted how many products or how much money you'd save, but just the Fantasy Core & Setting bundle took a heck of a lot of time to download. All five of them could take hours, depending on your internet speed. And playing them could last years.

If you still have extra money and time, you could also "buy" one of my products. They are priced at pay what you want. Don't be afraid to download them for free to get an idea if they will fit with your campaign.

Swashbuckler Character Class

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners

Character Sheet for Use with Unearthed Arcana

The Compass Rose Inn Minisetting

Kobold's Folly

Clicking the links above will take you to DriveThruRPG for purchasing.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 020

Let’s talk about the big picture. There is a starmap below.

Moving down one yellow line costs 1 hypercharge and is done relatively risk free. I have to roll for an encounter when I arrive, but that is all. 

If I want to hop two worlds without stopping at the intervening planet, I can burn 3 hypercharges and immediately move from one planet to another. I risk damage to ship by skipping steps and I will also have to roll for entry contacts in a possibly damaged ship.

Additionally, to safely jump, I need to move to orbit (1 hour) then several distances out from orbit. Each step burns an hour. I can, if I am lucky, jump two systems in a day, at a cost of 2 hypercharges. That is my intent.

Why am I skipping a planet? Each system has a tech level and wealth code. The next system over, Palatek, is no better than where I am so I want to go to Imperia. Imperia has a wealth code of 100, the best in the game. This means sold items are worth more. Buying items is also more expensive, so if I can sell the Skimmers at a premium, I can return to Regari or Palatek to buy hypercharges at a much reduced price. They have a base price of 500, so I need to score big. 

My first jump is to Palatek. This takes 5 hours just to get to the jump point and go. Half a day is gone. On entry, I get a 1 which is e93. That event describes a deserted area, nothing happens. I can immediately jump again, so I do so. On entry, I roll a three. This happens to be the same event above, so I can move to a landing area on the planet.

Unfortunately, I roll a six while entering a city space. This gives me a System result, which is a result specific to the System I am in. This one is very bad... depending on how evil I am. The ship is swarmed by beggars. We can fight or pay them to leave. 2D6x5 secs. will cause them to walk away. I mentioned that I could be evil. They have rocks and I have a starship guns. Guess how that is going to go?

Realistically, there are zero consequences to gunning them down. I can't pick them over for cash, because they event says they have none. However, I could spend all day long rolling up number of combatants then rolling massively effective weapon fire on dozens of unarmed people.

It isn’t worth my time as a player and sort of follows the ethic of a smuggler not a criminal. We pay them off with 45 secs.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

24 Repair units,

10 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

6 Skimmers,

1 Damaged Skimmer,

7 U-suit,

and the ship is fueled with 4 hypercharges, having used 2 today. 

I have 275 secs. in my pocket. I might have made a bad financial call on paying off the beggars, but it saved a bunch of time in addition to not being nutjob insane. 

Matt Jackson's CollaboDungeon... Number 1?

Over on MeWe, Matt Jackson kicked off a Dungeon Collaboration. He posted a map over on his blog, MSJx.org and invited us to pick a room to describe. You can follow the conversation over on mewe with the hashtag #collabodungeon and the results on Matt's blog.

Matt declared a free for all while Goblin’s Henchman through out an idea for 300 word description limit, which I ran with.

I picked area 7. Unlucky number 7.

The 300 word description:

Location Seven. The Twins.

There are two women, twins, in the pit. They are identical in all ways save one. One women wears a lead ring. When they become aware of the characters, they will both shout out for help. When the characters look in the pit, they will hear the following orders:

Twin with the ring: "Kill her! She's a demon!"
Twin without the ring: "Kill her! She's an idiot!"

They are both at the bottom of the pit and represent no threat to the characters in this state. They are both bloodied and bruised from the fall and each has a blacken right eye.

If the party rescues them, they will find out the following information. Twin One, the one with the ring is named Meredith. She entered the dungeon with her friends in search of treasure. She found a gold ring in area 8 and after discerning no purpose to it, put it on. She was pushed by a monster into the pit.

Twin Two, without the ring, was a doppelganger hiding in area 8. To take on Meredith's form, she ambushed her by pushing her into the pit. Unfortunately for the monster, Meredith grabbed it's wrist as she fell and both ended up at the bottom. As the doppelganger took her form, Meredith shouted "Begone!" which the ring of wishes interpreted as a command against the monster. Since the doppelganger was in mid-transformation into Meredith, the ring fixed it in that form before turning to lead. The doppelganger is now an exact copy of Meredith.

The twins have found combat against each to be profoundly lethal, as they mirror each other's moves perfectly, hence the matching black eyes. They will not fight each other. They will join the party to escape the dungeon.

I'll probably make up stats for Meredith someday, but she is presented as rule set agnostic here.

No one said anything about a follow up, but I'd love to see #1, #2, #3...

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 019

Emily reporting for duty. 

We get things done quickly today. I make some great rolls and get my Life Support Units and U-Suits by mid-day. Annoyingly, I also get a roll for a ship and a boat again… I can’t afford those. I buy 10 Life Support Units and 5 suits. More than what I need at a price of 60 secs. I have 690 left.

Since it’s mid-day, I am going to take on some financial tasks. I pay the crew for the week early, leaving 620. I also make an early payment on the ship so I have 320 credits left.

If I don’t change things, I will either become wanted for not paying on the ship next week or lose most or all of my crew.

Our assets are:

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 119,300 secs. in principle.
1 Stasis pod 2 CU,

15 Fuel Units,

24 Repair units,

10 Life Support Units

1 U-bot,

2 PS-bots,

6 Skimmers,

1 Damaged Skimmer,

7 U-suit,

and the ship is fully fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 320 secs. in my pocket.