Started a new game with new gamers

[narpet]

Hello all...

I haven't posted much... mostly a lurker. Been playing CRPGs for over 30 years... most of which I've spent acting as the game master. I really love Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future... and am waiting excitedly for Starships and Spacemen to arrive. So... on to my Mutant Future specific post...

Just played my first session of Mutant Future with some friends who have never played an RPG in their life (real RPG... not counting MMOs like World of Warcraft and all that online stuff... I don't consider those to be RPGs). It's safe to say that we've gained three new players into the hobby. We had a real blast. They played great... lots of imagination and creativity and they picked the game up quickly (a great thing about Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord).

So, after a 7 hour session they've decided they want to make it a monthly thing. I'll be ordering 3 new MF books so they can have them at home.

It's great to see the excitement of new players discovering roleplaying for the first time... especially in today's world where there is so much technology in online games. Computer/Console gamers don't have to use their imagination... and they don't experience the magic of shared storytelling. It was like watching their imaginations being reborn. There were great interactions... great combats... and some pretty funny situations as well.

Thanks Mutant Future for helping to bring 3 new gamers into the fold.

[bighara]

Awesome! SEVEN hours?? Session report,please!

[sniderman]

I'd also like to hear about the game! Tell us what happened!

[narpet]

Here's how our session went... I will try to condense it because it was 7 hours of play... We played Gimme Shelter (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx4gJKAyO5ALcDI4MU01NWRfVWs/edit?pli=1)... except I heavily modified it for our game (that's what I do with all published materials). So, if you never played or read it, there are some spoilers here. Forgive any spelling errors... I'm typing this as quickly as possible

First came character creation (three players). These players had never been through that process before and Mutant Future makes it very easy. I decided to make it even easier for their first game by only allowing pure strain humans. This alleviated the possible difficulty in understanding mutations or other "extra" stuff associated with non pure strain humans. They were okay with that. So we went through the process and they had a good time learning about stats, and all the other ins and outs of character creation. That took about an hour.

So, the village they started in was a very secluded, self contained society with basically no contacts with any other civilized areas. The PCs were "coming of age" and they had to go through a "trial" to reach adulthood. Their village knows almost nothing about the history of the world and only that a long time ago civilization was much more advanced and had amazing "magics" (technology). The only old world "magic" that the village has ever seen is a lantern. It's a self-contained modern lantern with a small nuclear power source that is still in working order. It's an amazing thing to the village because it provides light at night without the need to use torches and fire, and it can be turned on and off at will.

The village elder gathers the 3 PCs and tells them that their rite of passage will be to explore an area that has just been discovered when one of the villagers happened upon a tube containing an old map near a creek bed. The map seems to show the general area of the village, but it is much different because it is ancient (the map). It shows a place not far off marked with the symbols "C" and "D" (for Civil Defense, though the PCs don't know that).

The village has been attacked by unfriendly mutants in the past, so they know that there is the possibility that there could be friendly or unfriendly creatures out there. So, the elder supplies the PCs with what can be spared. They each get a backpack, 7 days rations, a filled waterskin, 50 foot of hemp rope, flint and steal and 2 torches. The party is also given 2 sets of fur armor, a set of leather armor, 2 clubs, 1 axe, 2 slings (with 20 bullets), 1 short bow (with 25 arrows) which they work together to decide who gets what.

Before heading out the PCs decide that the "magic" lantern would be a great asset in their journey. They know that the family that owns it covets it, so they don't think it will be given freely. They devise a plan to create a diversion during the busiest part of the day while one of them sneaks into the home of the family who owns it, to steal the lantern. The pull this off without a hitch and successfully become the first thieves in they small village (this village has a very family oriented, protective quality about it and crime and violence are non-existent). They are all teenagers and the players are playing the characters in the way they think that teenagers may think about the situation. They decide that once they are done with their quest they will return the lantern and explain themselves. They believe that the family who owns ti will understand once they realize that it helped them in their journey.

So... they head off into the unknown. The PCs follow the map for about a day (on foot... no vehicles and horses couldn't be spared). They make camp and other than realizing they are further away from home than they've ever been, everything goes smoothly. The next day they make it to the point on the map where they need to head east and try to follow an ancient road that turns off the main road. Minutes after making the turn they are surprised by 4 Pigmen who jump out of the forest to attack them. The PCs actually try to talk to them, hoping they would be friendly... this is not the case, and battle ensues. The Pigmen were armed with clubs, and one had a short bow (I took their energy ray mutation away to even the chances since the party starts our fairly poorly prepared). It was quite a brawl, with our heroes getting banged up pretty bad. In the end there were two Pigmen down and two left standing. They looked around and decided to run. The party wasn't having any of that and pursued them... taking them both down within minutes. The party searched the bodies and didn't find much... but they ended up with 3 extra clubs and a new short bow (so now 2 party members have bows instead of just slings). After the battle our heroes were tired and injured so they decided to go just a bit further then pull off into the trees and camp for the night.

After another night's sleep the group gets up and heads toward their goal. The day goes smoothly and they come to a place where they see what looks like a statue of some kind of mutant (I left the dog out). They see the vines growing all on and around the mutant (medusaweed) and instantly got suspicious. They were very careful and none of them were willing to touch it, even though it looked like a regular statue. The PCs were excited to see the shiny metal door with the control panel (though they didn't know what the heck it was).

They looked at the panel and noticed that it had symbols on it just like some symbols that were written on the ancient map. After some experimentation they hit on pushing the buttons on the panel in the exact sequence in which the symbols on the map were written. Slowly the ancient metal door began to open. The group backed up, in awe of what was happening. Once the door was open the party stood for a moment with their weapons in their hands, waiting for some unseen danger. Nothing happened, so they slowly entered.

Inside they found basically a cave that had once obviously held many supplies and cots for sleeping. The village that this group was born in and has lived in for all their lives is primitive and secluded... so our heroes have never seen boxes or cans. That's all that was left in this shelter... some overturned cots, empty boxes and empty cans. Since the cans were made of metal and shiny they decided to keep several... thinking they might be useful for storing things. They also decided to tear up the material on the cots into strips for use as bandages (or whatever else they could think of in the future). As they searched thoroughly (they had come here expecting to find old world magic... and didn't feel they had succeeded), one of our heroes saw that a portion of the wall seemed more like new construction... and noticed a few cracks. They tested it with their clubs and found that it was weak. Within a few minutes they had broken through to a new area.

(I will keep the rest brief in order to save time and reduce spoilers)...

After quite a bit of exciting and frightful adventure, the PCs found a room guarded by 2 Mants (that's what lives in this underground “cave” complex). The Mants did quite a bit of damage (especially since the party has no advanced ways of healing and depends on simple first aid and rest)... so much so, that one of the heroes had to turn and run for the exit after taking a serious bite to the face. But the other two were successful in defeating the 2 Mants. Another search after the battle revealed a false wall that was easily dispatched, and there sat what they had come hoping for... a pile of old world treasure. The 2 adventurers grabbed everything up and ran out of the complex to meet up with their friend.

Outside the injured hero waited. She had tended to her serious wound as much as she could, and she would survive. They spread the treasure out in front of them and began trying to figure out what in the world they were looking at. Though they didn't have the real names for these things, after quite a bit of trial and error the party figured out that they had gained some amazing new old world magic. They had acquired a laser rifle, 2 laser pistols, 5 powerclips, a hologram projector (more about that in a minute), a set of LazAb armor, a pair of infra-red goggles and a survival kit. The party was amazed by all they found and confused by a lot of it. The medi-spray in the survival kit was of special interest. They wasted one dose figuring out that it sprayed some type of mist. The PC who had been bitten in the face decided to spray some in her mouth to see what it tasted like (not generally a good idea)... and the entire party was surprised and delighted when they found that it healed the gaping hole in the side of her mouth.

The group accidentally found out what the hologram projector did by pushing a button. An image appeared in the air above it, initially scaring them. It showed the side of a mountain with 4 giant faces carved into it... and the voice of a man repeating the words, “Visit Mt. Rushmore... a great vacation for the entire family”. The image would alternate between showing the mountain and a map that showed how to get there. The party noticed that their ancient map seemed to match a part of the bigger map shown on the hologram.

After resting and talking, the party has come to an impasse. They know that when they return to their village, they will be praised and raised to the status of adult. They also know they will have to explain the theft of the magic lantern (that they did use quite a lot during their adventure). And, they know that the village elder is only going to allow them to keep one item from the treasure they've found. So, they are now deciding whether or not to even go back to the village. Their lust for adventure has been kindled, and they now have a map leading to another old world place. They realize that there may be other village, other people, and more treasure...

That's where we left off for the night. At the end of the evening... this group of people who had never played an RPG in their lives decided that they wanted to continue, and play every month. So, this one-time adventure is going to be an ongoing campaign... It's great to see the excitement and enthusiasm in new players...especially when they want to keep playing more and more.

That's my tale for the evening...

Take care Mutants

[sniderman]

Fantastic stuff and it sounds like you had a great time! When they're ready to visit Mount Rushmore, may I suggest "Gimme Shelter II?" (And I'm disappointed that they avoided the medusaweed. I ALWAYS catch someone with that!


And I have a bunch of Mutant Future micro-adventures at my blog as well. Any one of my Dangerous Encounters would work for a springboard to a larger adventure or an evening's one-shot.

[bighara]

Very cool. I like the way you handled the adventure with new gamers.

And I have a bunch of Mutant Future micro-adventures at my blog as well. Any one of my Dangerous Encounters would work for a springboard to a larger adventure or an evening's one-shot.

As long as we're pimping I have a couple MF modules you might check out, if so inclined: Re-Energizers & Realm of the Technomancer.

</pimp>

[Blood axe]

Fantastic stuff and it sounds like you had a great time! When they're ready to visit Mount Rushmore, may I suggest "Gimme Shelter II?" (And I'm disappointed that they avoided the medusaweed. I ALWAYS catch someone with that!


And I have a bunch of Mutant Future micro-adventures at my blog as well. Any one of my Dangerous Encounters would work for a springboard to a larger adventure or an evening's one-shot.

Sniderman , you are evil. Lol.

MF is a great game. Cool to hear how your game went.

[narpet]

Thanks everyone... we did have a great time...

And... I've already got Gimme Shelter II, Re-Energizers and Realm of the Technomancer (edit: meant that I have Re-Energizers and Realm of the Technomancer in my favorites.. getting ready to buy)... gonna work all those into the campaign. I haven't gotten Dangerous Encounters yet, but I will check it out.

It's a great game... easy to learn and a lot of fun!

[Blood axe]

I bought Re-Energizers.Its good. Its a fun scenario , that you should be able to finish a long session or two. (or 3) I havent had a chance to play it, but I want to.