RPPR Actual Play

I'm on a trip right now but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy some fine Actual Play episodes. The Slender Man campaign continues. In case you don't remember, the characters from Candle Cove were reused for a campaign I never finished about Slender Man. In this episode, they start to pick up the pieces and figure out how to deal with Tom's character and other threats. Enjoy!

After World War 2, the Allied Powers split Berlin into the East and West sides. Policing a ruined city after the most devastating war in history was no easy task. Black marketeering ran rampant. Opportunists exploited the German people when possible. In this chaotic mix, two women are murdered, both apparently by the same killer. Three groups of investigators find themselves forced to deal with the mystery; a pair of American military police, two Russian officers, and a few German criminals. Each have their own secret motives and few actually want to do the right thing for the victims. Can justice prevail in such a dirty world? Find out in this double length episode!

In this episode, the Firewall team must regroup after barely surviving a deadly battle with a powerful group of exsurgents but they will have little time before they must continue their mission. Gerrad finally rejoins the group with a new agent, an ultimate named Maxwell. They are in Nectar, a lunar city divided by morph type. Biomorphs are the elite while the poor must use robotic bodies to work and get around. These class distinctions have created an incendiary atmosphere and it's only a matter of time before someone lights the fuse. Can the team stop the riots and find out the next clue to Know Evil?

After our recent episode about the World of Darkness, I decided to return to it for a one shot. What I originally planned as a 2 to 3 hour game became a 5 hour epic and possible start of an episodic campaign A group of writers and artists have traveled to Anderson Island, Washington in October 1980 for a retreat and workshop. A place where they can work and study in peace. Little do they know of the evil buried on the island. After a night of shared nightmares, the first murder convinces a small group of writers to look into the secrets of the island, namely the secretive Christensen family and the ancient myths of Raven and Xelas. But can these temperamental creatives actually work together and solve the mystery or will they perish to the curse of Anderson Island?

While the Heroes of New Arcadia have defeated the Syndicate, there are still other threats and challenges to overcome. Chirop must work through the legal consequences of his crimes without compromising himself. Even after dealing with that, the heroes learn of a secret prison built with technology from the Ideal. What's going on? Who is behind this secret base and what does it mean for the rest of the world? Plus, Ross gets to play as new hero Wayfarer.

Support Pagan Publishing's Kickstarter for their newest book: Bumps in the Night! Have Scott Glancy run a game of Call of Cthulhu for you over Skype! Scott Glancy of Pagan Publishing ran an epic Delta Green game at PAX 2011, based on material from our very own Tom Church's Divine Fire scenario. In this case, the secrets of occult nuclear technology first developed by the Nazis were eventually acquired by the Libyans. Now a group of specialists must retrieve the scientists behind it and stop the program while the Libyan civil war rages on! Of course, things don't go according to plan. Find out exactly what goes wrong and how the team reacts, especially when they meet a familiar face...

The Firewall team has taken one step closer to the machinations of the organization behind Know Evil. On the Argonaut station Miter, the team uncovers a plot to ruin the reputation of an important media personality and put to a stop to it. They also find a link to research into TITANs, including a mission to retrieve new specimens from an active TITAN site. The team tracks down the researcher but isn't prepared for what they find...

The final battle between the Syndicate and the Heroes of New Arcadia begins! Deep in the Ideal Particle Collider known as Big Wheel, the heroes and their allies must fight a group of trained and dangerous superhumans, led by a powerful telepathic super-scientist known as Paragon. The heroes have cornered their foes and no quarter will be given to either side. This epic battle had 17 combatants (6 PCs, 5 NPC allies and 6 NPC villains) and lasted two entire sessions. Enjoy this double length episode and finale of the street level tier of the campaign!

A group of intrepid Roman adventurers has been ordered to investigate a supernatural threat endangering the Roman cities of Britannia. When they arrive, the heroes must first deal with the hidden dangers inside the walls of Roman settlements before venturing out to a farm afflicted with the unnatural. Underground cities, hidden cultists, enslaved mystics and more confront our heroes! Will they survive? Find out in this episode!

The intrepid band of Firewall agents have learned that trail of Know Evil leads to the Moon. In order to continue their investigation, they must farcast - that is to transmit their digitized minds into a new body waiting for them on Luna. This process is disconcerting for many but also provides a new opportunity to pick a better morph. As they acclimate to their new bodies and the restrictive policies of Luna, the agents must pick up the trail and figure out where to go next. However, they also have some personal time to explore their new surroundings. What do Firewall agents do to maintain their cover? Find out in this episode!

The Heroes of New Arcadia have made contact with the mysterious and powerful leader of the Syndicate, a telepathic scientist named Paragon. She wishes to deal with the heroes but will they accept a compromise or not? Furthermore, the hero Chirop must pay for his crimes but what will the federal government demand of him? As the seconds count down, can our heroes come up with a suitable plan to stop the threat of the Syndicate once and for all?

The threat of the Cthulhu Mythos is eternal but long before the heroic investigators of the 1920s and conspiracies like Delta Green, there were defenders of humanity from horrors beyond time and space. In ancient Rome, a group of skilled and cunning citizens has been charged with stopping a group of kidnappers. These criminals have taken many women from all walks of life, including the wife of a powerful man. But when these unlikely heroes delve into the mystery, they uncover a far greater threat to Rome than they ever could have imagined.

The Firewall team has found the secret base of the sky pirates but now comes the most dangerous part of their mission - infiltration. They must pose as the real sky pirates they killed and find the captured hacker they need to rescue. Of course, between them and their target lies dozens of armed and paranoid pirates. To make matters worse, the hacker turns out to be more than they initially thought...

In this episode, the heroes must stop the Syndicate's latest plot to destabilize the state! Fortunately, they have a new ally as guest player RJ joins the band in one session. In the second half, the Syndicate takes action against the heroes. Find out how in this episode!

A group of kids on summer vacation have found an unusual arcade game called Polybius. While its graphics are old, its gameplay is second to none. Unfortunately, it seems that those who play it are tampering with forces Man Was Not Meant To Know. Find out what happens when the spirits of dead video game enemies haunt the players that killed them! This was a ransom request game from the Killsplosion Kickstarter. Enjoy! Also Little Fears is a fun RPG.

In the post-war streets of Hiroshima, 1952, two Yakuza clans battle for control of the lucrative black markets and drug trade. The dominant clan is losing their hold because of the lack of leadership from their boss. He sends his two sons and two loyal enforcers on strange errands that have nothing to do with running the business. Soon, the Yakuza find themselves embroiled in a strange battle between the supernatural and their rival clan. Find out who lives and who dies in this one shot game!

The Firewall team must rescue a kidnapped hacker currently held prisoner by the sky pirates of Venus. In order to find the pirates' hidden base, they must lure in one of their raiding ships, take out the pirates and capture the ship. The best bait happens to be a luxury zeppelin filled with the idle rich. What better place could there be for a gunfight? Of course, there will be more than a few complications, including smuggling weapons on board, dealing with the ship's security and the other guests themselves...

When Ed Healy came to Springfield to visit Meta Games, I stopped by to run a one shot of Cthulhu Dark based on the video game Dead Island. Of course, this happened before the game came out so I basically with zombies at a vacation resort and made it up from there. We had quite a few players for this game including RPPR listeners, Ed Healy, Mike from Bear Swarm and some of the RPPR crew. Enjoy the mayhem! Also, BUY MY BOOK

This image comes from the hilarious webcomic, Wonderella. In this episode, the heroes of New Arcadia face a seemingly invincible foe - the leader of the Crystal Children cult. His powers stop anyone from attacking him directly or indirectly so he cannot be assassinated or captured. Can our heroes devise a means to stop this powerful psychic cult leader? Aside from that, the heroes have to secure the Hellmirror, a powerful and evil magical artifact but this isn't as easy as it seems, even though it resides in the police evidence locker.

This episode brought to you by Kyle Moss, a Killsplosion Kickstarter contributor. After the Firewall agents return to Octavia, the major aerostat city, they decide to track down the pirates holding their target captive. The team splits up to learn more about the mysterious neo-synergist hacker, research the route the pirates will take and maintain their cover as an XP show. The plot has several twists and turns in this episode so listen in to find out what complications will arise!

This episode brought to you by Viktor Engvall, a RPPR fan and Killsplosion contributor. The intrepid Firewall team has made their way to a secret aerostat on Venus called Cloud 9. A war has broken out on the station between Pax Familia and the owners of Cloud 9. The Firewall agents must navigate the unstable station, armed psychopaths at every corner, deadly traps and other threats in order to learn the secrets of the station.

In this episode the heroes of New Arcadia face two challenges: the Crystal Children and the occult mystery in Fiddler's Green. The cult known as the Crystal Children is led by a powerful metahuman with a unique ability that makes direct confrontations with him impossible. How will they bring this elusive foe to justice? When the other heroes delve into the mystery of the ghost lights of Fiddler's Green, they find a dire plot that must be stopped. However, this is easier said than done.

This scenario was played with the excellent ultra-rules-light game, Cthulhu Dark. Download the free PDF and try it out yourself! In a small town in the Midwest, things are about to change. A priest has turned to desperate measures to see his wish come true: to see the bible brought to life. Unfortunately, when the priest resorts to using a ritual in a book of the occult to make his wish come to life, bad things happen. Find out in this scenario what happens when the bible is literally made true as interpreted by Yog Sothoth!

News: Support the Killsplosion Kickstarter and get access to 10 preview RPPR AP episodes including the entire Slender Man World of Darkness Campaign! The Firewall agents have learned where the Nine Lives Syndicate operative is and how to get to her but she won't be there long. The team rushes forward to defeat her guards and capture her before she escapes. Once captured, she reveals her destination, a hidden aerostat on Venus called Cloud Nine. The team decides to venture to the aerostat in hopes of learning more about the conspiracy. What secrets are hidden on the station?

News: Support the Killsplosion Kickstarter and get access to 10 preview RPPR AP episodes including the entire Slender Man World of Darkness Campaign! No one knows what the mysterious entity known as Slender Man really is or what it does with the victims it abducts. Until now. A park ranger that survived the events of Candle Cove was later taken by the Slender Man. After a year, he returns a changed man. Other mysteries arise as the forces of darkness threaten the ranger and his friends. Can these mortals uncover survive? Find out in episode 1 of the Slender Man mini-campaign!

News: Support the Killsplosion Kickstarter and get access to 10 preview RPPR AP episodes! In this episode, the heroes of New Arcadia continue their war against the Syndicate. They discover a weapons manufacturing facility hidden in the city controlled by the Syndicate. The heroes must figure out a way to get inside the facility and destroy the machinery before the Syndicate thugs stop them. They also learn more of the Syndicate's structure, leadership and plans. What dark mysteries will they uncover? Find out in this double length episode!

News: Support RPPR with the new ransom game, Killsplosion! Get 10 preview AP episodes! Two office workers check into a banal hotel as a winter storm hits the city. Little do they suspect that the hotel is a nexus for unspeakable evil. This evil is not a man or an entity but the hotel itself. Brace yourself for a blast of architectural horror from RPPR!

News: Support RPPR with the new ransom game, Killsplosion! Get 10 preview AP episodes! The Firewall team barely escapes the hellish space station known as Thought, only to find themselves at the edge of a massive conspiracy. In order to learn more, they must make connections with the criminal underworld in order to track down the human trafficker that led them into Thought in the first place. There are two ways to gain the favor they need - to win an underground gladiatorial fight or win at Mahjong vs powerful criminal bosses. The crew decides to try both. Find out if their luck holds out in this episode!

This episode is sponsored by Audible Books. Sign up today and get a free 14 day trial and audiobook. In the conclusion of the RPPR Dark Sun campaign, our heroes find themselves under siege. Desperate villagers attack them while their erstwhile allies are as dangerous as ever. How will they get out of the antlion's pit? Find out in this last episode of Dark Sun! A note: We stopped playing Dark Sun shortly after this session for various reasons - one of them being burned out on fantasy. So, we switched to Wild Talents. I find it unfortunate that there will be no resolution but perhaps that is fitting given the nature of Dark Sun itself.

Three Harvard college students find themselves stranded in the wilderness of Maine. A man lurches in front of their car as they travel through the forest. The man is injured and their only shelter is a house near the road. Little do they know of the ancient evil that dwells in the house. This one shot is from the magazine Worlds of Cthulhu issue #4. I ran the scenario back in 2009 and I've never had a chance to post it until now. Enjoy!

In a grimdark post-apocalyptic future, where the earth has been devastated by nuclear war, dimensional rifts and Nazi cos-players, only a few gritty heroes stand between a new apocalypse, a post-post apocalypse or a meta apocalypse or an apocalypse squared or a neo-apocalypse or an epic apocalypse or a mega damage apocalypse or a dragon cyborg juicer apocalypse wielding a rune blade with Atlantean tattoos. Yeah. HARDCORE. In other words, I ripped off the plot of a movie called The Eliminators and forced the players into a game of Rifts. Deal with it.

Learn more about the campaign on the RPPR forums. In the future, only 5% of humanity remains after rogue AIs known as the TITANs turned Earth into a hellish wasteland and then disappeared. The remainder lives throughout the solar system. Only a secret vigilante organization known as Firewall protects humanity from the remnants of the TITANs and any other existential threats. One team of low level Firewall sentinels has been assigned to investigate Thought, a space station owned by the hypercorpration Cognite in orbit over Venus after an undercover agent assigned to the station went missing. More disturbingly, the backup of her mind is corrupt - something that should be impossible. The team consists of Bartleby: A lost generation brinker, Preston: an uplifted octopus socialite, SAIRAC, an argonaut AGI, Fayun, a Lunar criminal and Gerrad a Fall Evacuee anarchist. Infiltrating a secret orbital research facility will be hard to accomplish to say the least. How will they get in and what will they discover? Find out in this first double length episode of Eclipse Phase: Know Evil!

The war against crime continues! In this double length episode, our heroes first encounter a fellow metahuman, Raoul - a skilled underground fighting champion. He has a problem though - a death cult has kidnapped his child. He needs the help of a few heroes to rescue his kid and stop the cult. In the second half of this episode, the heroes encounter two lieutenants in the Syndicate and their henchmen. The battle that ensues will be the hardest one they have fought yet. Listen to find out who gets set on fire and more!

At Gencon this year, Caleb and I sat down for a chance to play in one of Adam Scott Glancy's WW1 Call of Cthulhu games. This time, we were pilots for British Army on a night time bombing mission. 3 de Havilland DH4 planes, each with a pilot and gunner. Unfortunately, one of the bombs was dropped on the wrong place and certain seals are broken. Find out what the hapless pilots awaken and if they make it back to friendly territory!

I finally got a chance to try out the indie RPG, Fiasco at Gencon this year. I played with several people from the Arc Dream crew, including Shane Ivey and Greg Stolze. We used the Transatlantic playset: The time is 1932, the place? Somewhere in the mid-Atlantic aboard the luxury cruise ship Leviathan, a week out of Southampton en route to New York. On this flagship cruiser’s maiden voyage, the Captain has been directed to quietly contend for the glorious Blue Riband — the accolade awarded to the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Topside, you enjoy a salty Gibson while pulling the heavy double wool of your coat closer to your body. Friends make merry with lively talk amongst themselves — it’s a din barely overheard above the hammering engine and thresh of the ship’s mighty propellers. Spray from the bow’s cleave manages to catch your cheek even this far aft. Your gaze draws across the dull, slate waters wondering at the marvel of it all: New beginnings? Maybe this time things will be different? Perhaps your dreams are within reach? What could possibly go wrong?

An Eclipse Phase Scenario written by Anders Sandberg and available as a free PDF. "We call it the gorgon-in-a-box problem. There is a gorgon inside the box, and we want to figure out what it is doing. Unfortunately we will turn to stone if we see her face, and she might try to make us see it. Dr Toshiro Driscoll-Toyoda, presentation to Naos Planning Board

In this episode of the New Arcadia campaign, our heroes have begun the fight against the Syndicate - a powerful criminal organization dedicated to consolidating its control over all organized crime in the state. It achieves this through the use of illegal super-soldier technology. Their enforcers are capable of taking down dozens of normal thugs in a battle so they have taken most of the city's criminal underworld. But our heroes have a lead on the tech used to make the super soldiers. Find out what the lead uncovers in this episode!

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Ennie-award winner Kirin Robinson at this year's Gencon and talk him into running a session of his game, Old School Hack. It's a free, rules-light game of adventuring and dungeon crawling. Characters can be fighters or dwarves but not dwarven fighters. Caleb and I joined Simeon and Meg from the Arc Dream crew with the Angry DM as we went on a quest of liberation and adventure!

We played these games a while ago. Funny story about this. I thought we played 3 sessions but in fact, Tom ran 4 sessions of this mini campaign. I scheduled these games to be posted while I was away at Gencon 2011. I did not think that there was a fourth game until a listener commented about it to me. So, I checked the archives and found the ACTUAL conclusion of the game. So, uh, enjoy the dramatic finale of Tom's action extravaganza!

The battle between the Terminator and the League reach an epic conclusion. The terminator has one last gambit - to storm NORAD and trigger Judgment Day. In order to stop him, our heroes and their allies have to confront the deadly cyborg and his personal army. All this and more in the dramatic conclusion of The Modern League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Judgment Day!

The unlikely heroes of the modern league have discovered that a T-800 Terminator has been secretly planning to cause Judgment Day. In order to stop him, they must find and destroy a secret weapon factory. Of course that factory is heavily guarded - including a certain mecha made by the OCP Corporation...

In a world seemingly like ours, many secrets lie hidden in the secrets. Aliens walk among us. Magic is real. Angels kill mortals on orders from heaven. In this world, the future is very much in jeopardy. Time travel tends to upset the natural order of things after all. Only a small band of experts can save our future. They are the modern league of extraordinary gentlemen.

What happens to a world whose heroes disappear overnight? One year ago, every major superhero and supervillain disappeared in an event now called Ragnarok. Since then, thousands of normal humans have acquired means to empower themselves. Spell books float around on the Internet. Technology stolen from abandoned bases and secret headquarters has been reverse engineered for countless knock offs. In a city on the West Coast called New Arcadia, a group of ragtag civilians with new superpowers has arisen to take the place of the missing superheroes. In the first episode, these amateur heroes meet at the site of a terrorist attack on a federal courthouse. They must rescue hostages and defeat heavily armed killers. Can they pass this trial by fire?But that isn't all! This episode combines the first two sessions of the campaign. After their first skirmish, some of the heroes take their first step into becoming a super team. Can they overcome their personal problems or will bickering and infighting doom their efforts? Read more about the Heroes of New Arcadia here.

Since the last episode of Dark Sun, our protagonists have been stranded in a remote corner of Athas: The Silt Sea. They are surrounded by foes and untrustworthy rivals but they must work together with a group of NPC adventurers in order to survive. In this small island on the silt sea, a buried secret reveals itself...a secret that promises great rewards but only the strong will live long enough to claim it. Can the cursed bearers of the artifact survive this most dangerous ordeal yet?

Once upon a time before the light had been born, there was a great darkness that covered the world. Our people could not yet see and we were helpless against the things that did crawl in the darkness. From the cold, hard ground the Great King fashioned guardians and explorers. They were crude and callous nor did they have proper souls like you or I. Yet our Great King made them so they would help us in this time of darkness. These earthen men did not respond, except for a small band. They were infused with water so they were far greater than the other earthen men, almost as great as us. The Great King set great tasks upon them to bring about the birth of light. With gentle guidance from the first king, highest servant of the Great King, these brave and simple creatures eventually brought forth the light that created our world. The eyes of our people could now see the glory and splendor of everything! The other earthen creatures displeased Great King for their failure and moved to destroy them all yet first king begged for their lives. A few of them had gone above and beyond their limitations. Surely, the others might also transcend their base nature! Great King saw this and spared the lives of all the lesser species you see today. As for the heroic earthen men, they were granted titles of nobility and became true Grippli, transformed by Great King as a reward for their heroism. They were the first Water Barons and all the heroic water barons you hear of defending our kingdom strive to emulate them. What's that? You want to know how the Water Barons saved the light and fought back the darkness? Well, it is a very long story but it all began with a journey to an unexplored continent. You see, the kingdom of the earthen men wanted to colonize a savage land far from their own shores... -old Grippli creation myth, as transcribed from the stories of an old Grippli king (The Ruins of Lemuria PDF is now available!)

Zombies of the World is now shipping! Buy your copy today! The final playtest for the upcoming Gencon 2011 Wild Talents game introduces a new group. Tim, Wes and Adam join Caleb and Mike as the newly empowered civilian survivors in the New Arcadia zombie outbreak. With the same basic scenario, what different decisions will they make and how will they respond to the challenges of undead hordes, flesh eating superheroes and a looming nuclear apocalypse? Find out in this episode!

The Great Armada of the Old World has reached the shores of the New World. Can the forces of New Arcadia, led by the heroic Water Barons, defeat the vast forces arrayed against them? While they are outnumbered, the adventurers have more than a few tricks up their sleeves...Only one episode of the New World Campaign remains!

After seeing the film, Daybreakers, I was inspired to run a one shot based on it. Instead of following the main story of the movie though, I based it on a simple premise: the players are vampire citizens in the big city on the night when the blood riots break out. Using the All Flesh Must Be Eaten rules to model the horrific blood-starved subsiders, I let the players come up with their own plans for surviving the night. It was a short but entertaining game.

The Armada of the Old World draws near to the rebelling colonies of the New World. It is up to the Water Barons to prepare the defenses in order to repel the Armada. To accomplish this, they must recruit as many allies as possible, including the unpredictable nature spirits. Only two episodes remain in the New World Campaign!

In the Great Depression, millions turned to religion to ease their suffering. A preacher in Louisiana ran a tent revival to help the masses and spread the good word. However, on one dark night the preacher is shot in his own home with his own gun. A private eye from New Orleans is hired by his family to get to the truth...or at least a convenient truth that will ignore a few secrets. A jazz musician is also brought into the intrigues as everyone involved finds out that the wages of sin...must be paid.