Strange Aeons Meets Bureau 13 (2nd AAR added, p. 1)

[ZenWired]

I ran/played in the same campaign of Tri Tac Game's Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic RPG from 1990 to just a few years ago. The core group stayed the same throughout that entire time, and we enjoyed many great game sessions. Alas, the campaign ended a few years ago due to life getting in the way, and last year one of the core members passed away. It doesn't seem like the campaign will be coming back, at least not in the form it existed for almost three decades.

I wanted to do something on the tabletop as an homage to that group, and it felt like Strange Aeons was the perfect vehicle for translating B13 to miniature gameplay. I cooked up a rescue scenario involving heroes that were tabletop reflections of the core players in the campaign, some "celebrity" allies, and a bunch of hillbilly cultists (or, perhaps more appropriately, as one of my fellow players/gamemasters described his cultists in a B13 game he ran: "trailer park karcists"  ).

First up, here are the heroes:

The Furnace Brothers, freelance trouble shooters, literally (representing two of my very old friends, including the one who passed):



Chester Bookman Carter Bankes, investigator for the Stilman Institute for Psychical Research (my tabletop avatar):


Lilith LeStrange, freelance witch (my wife's tabletop avatar):


In the next post, I'll share the Bad Guys!

[ZenWired]

And here are The Family, a bunch of "trailer park karcists" who are just minding their business, carrying out a diabolical ritual, when the heroes so rudely interrupt:

"Pa" Tucker, the high priest:


"Ma" Tucker, cultist leader:


Jethro Tucker, cultist:


Jubal Tucker, cultist:


Jeb Tucker, cultist:


And, last but not least, Jim-Bob Tucker, cultist:


Here are a few of their "hired hands":


And The Big Bad they're trying to summon when the heroes arrive:


In the next post, we'll look at the celebrity guests who show up to help and a couple other "extras."

[ZenWired]

Finally, as promised, here are the celebrity guest stars and a couple of extras. See if you can guess who these folks are:

A pair of monster Hunters (only their '67 Impala, "Baby," is missing):



A professional occultist (known for blazing his way through Hell):


And a bunch of meddling "kids" and their dog:






Here are the extras - first up, Sheriff Dingle (not sure yet whose side he's on):


And The Victim - can the heroes rescue her before the Tucker family completes their ritual? Stay tuned and see!

[diehard]

Hey Zen, first, my condolences on the loss of your friend, to have gamed together for almost 3 decades is awesome and am sure you have many great memories. I would imagine your tribute would have put a smile on his face. Never really got into RPG's but mostly because I never had any friends that were interested (but luckily did find a couple that liked skirmish games and rolling dice. But that was a long time ago and now my Solo Deck is one of my prized possessions.)

Your Strange Aeons tribute game is an inspired idea and another example of the versatility of the game. And your painting skills shine through, very nice looking models all the way around and some great choices for the Winchesters and Constantine and of course who doesn't love the Scooby Gang. Couple years ago read a Cthulhu/ Scooby type group with a "meddling kids" kind of title that was pretty enjoyable, will look through the bookshelves later and get you the author and title if you're interested.

As I continue to gather things for my own planned SA campaign I look forward to seeing how your own game comes together and as always thanks for sharing.

[ZenWired]

Thanks for the comments, diehard! And yes, I'm absolutely interested in the Scooby/Cthulhu mash-up. If it's anything like the old "Insects from Shaggy, or the Doom that Came to the Mystery Machine" story that used to be floating around the internet, I'm sure it'll be a hoot.

As for painting, I'm a passable painter. Truthfully, it's something I seldom derive joy from, and now that my eyes are so bad I struggle to see the smaller details or have enough depth perception to paint them the situation's a million times worse. (I'm sure you get where I'm coming from!) Which is why I have so much unpainted lead, pewter and plastic lurking in the dark corners of my home. Thank goodness for Citadel shades (especially Agrax Earthshade!) and Contrast paints - they're a blessing for those of us who are concerned less with finely painted minis and more with getting okay paint jobs on them so we can play games.

(It's too bad you didn't have any friends that were into roleplaying games. As frustrating as they sometimes were, I count myself blessed to have had the friends I did and enjoyed all the great (and even many not-nearly-so-great ) games we shared over the years.)

I hope to get the table laid out tonight or tomorrow - pics of that soon to come!

[Gun bunny]

  did you know that "ainsty" has a resin van miniature that would look perfect for transporting "dang kids"

[diehard]

Hey ZenWired, happy to be able to comment, since my surgery and coming back to SA it seems that there are only a few commenting on this board these days. Doesn't discourage me though, I'm still psyched about this and still have a lot of things I plan on sharing, even if it's only for a handful of readers.

As to painting I fully understand where you're coming from. I myself like painting and it's what got me into the gaming aspect. So not being able to before the cataract surgery was pretty depressing for me. And while I won't be able to match my work of years ago I myself am happy with being able to do a passable job these days. Notice that I'm getting a little better at eyes and other small details. Am really enjoying it though and that's what counts. And don't sell yourself short, I think you have nice above average paint fu. Will always be looking forward to seeing your work.

And my memory wasn't bad here, the title of the book I was talking about is "Meddling Kids" by Edgar Cantero. I am attaching a pic of the cover (and one of my cat pictures that shows most of my bookshelves in the background. They are all Mythos/ Lovecraft titles.

Meanwhile I look forward to your future posts and as always thanks for sharing.

[Sterling Moose]

Thanks to Zen and Diehard for keeping this board alive!!  I'm in a similar situation, moved from an area where we were gaming 2 nights a week to a desolate wasteland where I'm very lucky to get 4 games a year.  Still slowly plodding through my lead pile, though seem to be in a rut of painting Deep Ones and their kin and cultists!  Just how many do you need, countless millions of minions apparently.  Thanks again for your posts, love the fluff and the imagination, keep them coming.

[diehard]

Why thank you for the compliment Mr. Moose, it's sincerely appreciated. Although I haven't been around for a long time I plan on making up for it now. As a super long time fan of Lovecraft/ Mythos literature and Tabletop Gaming the Strange Aeons skirmish game is like a gift from the Great Old Ones. So expect more painted miniatures, Battle Reports and background for the MARS Protocol going forward. Am happy to hear that you enjoy it.

Living in a small town in the Northeast I was lucky to get a couple friends interested over the years but spent way more time painting than playing. My present plan is to Ebay all the GW, Privateer Press and everything else aside from the Mythos, Dark Future and Zombicide (a fun game you can also play solo but am also hoping might be a gateway game to SA) and to use the proceeds to expand my scenery collection and some of the gaps in my Hybrid/Deep Ones collection. You're entirely correct, you can never have enough of them and the Dagonites play a major roll in the MARS Protocol saga.

My only major hope right now is that Uncle Mike returns to the fold and that these wonderful miniatures and rulebooks don't end up in gaming limbo. Thanks again and have a fhatagn day.

[ZenWired]

@Sterling Moose: I'm more than happy to help inject a little life back into this board. It saddens me to see this and the Call of Cthulhu board so quiet. And I agree with diehard, you can never have enough Deep Ones (and hybrids)! I seem to keep adding to my collection, in the back of my mind working toward that day when I finally get the Raid on Innsmouth on the game table...  (And now with the 7TV Pulp "Lurkers from the Deep" expansion having just arrived, I'm thinking that may happen sooner rather than later...)

@diehard: Thanks! I'll have to check out Meddling Kids! And I'm envious of your Mythos book collection. My own currently takes up half a shelf (not including all of my many, many Call of Cthulhu RPG books). It was once larger, but - alas - I lost most of my library many years ago and am now down to a single book case. Even back in the day, though, my collection paled in comparison!

Anyway, I have a heap of photos from this weekend's game to prep and an AAR to write up. Suppose I'd better get to work!

(Here's a sneak preview:)

[ZenWired]

The disappearances had been going on for months, and the local and state police had no leads. Not that they were trying very hard - it was Dunwich, after all. Strange things just happened there. And it was often best, they'd found, not too dig too deeply. But when the daughter of a powerful Boston businessman became one of the missing, the case suddenly became big news. Not only were the authorities more keen to solve the mystery, but the case had attracted the attention of outsiders who were drawn to just such odd occurrences, especially when they took place in a locale with the occult notoriety of Dunwich.

Sheriff Dingle usually turned a blind eye to the oddball cases, but when the state boys and Boston money started breathing down his neck, he knew he couldn't just ignore this girl's disappearance. And he knew exactly who "the usual suspects" were: the Tucker family. They were, undoubtedly, the oddest of the town's oddballs. Having bought the old Whately property at auction (for far more than any reasonable person would have paid for it) back in the '90s, they'd since been a weird presence in the town, their odd mannerisms and antiquated speech being the tip of the weirdness iceberg. Their apparent worship of a strange deity didn't help. (They'd often be seen driving around in their black Volkswagen minibus with "Jimbo Saves!" and "You've got a friend in Jimbo" bumper stickers plastered all over it.) They'd been implicated in the disappearance of pets and the mutilation of neighbors' livestock, but no one wanted a confrontation with them. The memory of old Wizard Whately and the troubles of the 1920s still hung over the town like a pall, and most folks were too afraid to confront such weirdness head-on.

He knew something was wrong as soon as he arrived at the Tucker farm - the air was almost electrified, and the whippoorwills were downright frantic. He would normally have called the state boys, but the feds were on the case now - Agents Shaw and Young had shown up in town just that morning, asking about the details of the case. (They had a Brit with them, some sort of "consultant.") So he got on the radio (cell phones being useless in this part of the Miskatonic Valley) and had Margie relay his whereabouts to them. He was surprised when they showed up with those paranormal investigators from the Stilman Institute (one of whom looked like an '80s Goth chick, and two of whom looked a lot like mafia muscle). But given how much the Tuckers unnerved him, he was glad for the back-up...

We had three players, so two players played a "Threshold team" each (Sam and Dean's team and the group from the Stilman Institute) and I played a 30-point Lurker group (the Tucker family). The scenario was The Fight with the variant The Raid. The Lurkers also had a Damned Altar, although the rules were modified slightly to represent a dark ritual that had to be performed. The Tuckers were trying to summon a daemon, and instead of getting blessings from the Altar, they were trying to complete the ritual. The Tuckers got victory points for taking out the heroes, for completing the ritual, and for summoning the daemon. The heroes earned victory points for taking out the cultists, stopping the ritual, or - failing that - defeating the summoned daemon.

Here are some pictures from the pre-game set-up (I apologize in advance for any out-of-focus pics - my old eyes have trouble seeing the details on the screen of my phone, so I can't tell if they're in focus or not until I get them on my PC):

The whole table:


The heroes assemble:



Business as usual at the Tucker farm - Ma sends the boys to town...



...While Pa heads to The Grove to perform the ritual.



The heroes prepare:


The Lurkers prepare:


The first few rounds of the game featured everyone jockeying for position. The Stilman team went toward the barn, carefully moving behind the bushes on the river's edge to avoid drawing Alert fire from the eldest Tucker sons (Jethro and Jubal) by the minibus. Sam and Dean took their team behind the fence/stone wall toward the house. Ma sent her youngest boys (Jeb and Jim-Bob) toward the edge of The Grove to defend Pa, while Ma herself tried to get into a better position to help direct the family's actions. (The family started very spread out, so organizing nominations was a bit tricky for the first few turns, much to the heroes' benefit.)

The action was kicked off by the Tuckers, when Jim-Bob got Sam and Dean's team in his sights and took a shot - which hit the stone wall to no effect.

Then, Constantine used Bless Characteristic on Sam's DEX, and Sam - armed with a sawed-off shotgun, stepped out into the open and fired with both barrels...


...Hitting Jim-Bob, Jeb, and Jethro (who'd moved to support his little brothers)...



...Taking out all three!


Behind the barn, Jubal fell to Ezra Furnace's two-gun shooting. In one turn, all of the Tucker boys had been laid low, leaving only their elderly parents to hold down the farm.

The heroes moved up as the chanting from the wood grew louder, accompanied by the manic cries of the whippoorwills.

(The skull tokens represent the number of consecutive actions Pa has spent performing the ritual. After any ritual action, the Lurker may choose to complete the ritual at which point they roll a d6 and add the number of actions to the result. On 11+, the daemon is summoned.)

But then those sounds were drowned out by the roar of a chainsaw as Ma stepped forward to exact her revenge! Carter and Axle fell to the octogenarian's wrath...


But Ma was soon laid low by Sam's shotgun, and he and Dean quickly advanced on Pa. Unable to draw his ritual out any longer (two more actions and summoning the daemon would have been a certainty, but it was time Pa no longer had), Pa brought down the blade of his sacred shovel on the bound victim's neck. The cries of the whippoorwills suddenly ceased, and a peel of thunder rumbled from the Altar. No daemon appeared (the Lurker, me, missing the roll by 1 point) but Pa's body contorted and writhed as eldritch energy coursed through him. The daemon had possessed him! He roared at Sam - whose shotgun roared in return - and Pa's daemon-infested body fell limp behind the Altar (because the Lurker player, me, missed rolling his cover save by 1 point):

(Pa actually had 8 tokens by this time - we were just too excited to follow proper form and lay down the last two. He only needed a 3+ to summon the daemon - and I rolled a 2!)

Because of the Lurkers' fragmented set-up, it took several turns to get everyone in position to properly do a nomination chain. This gave the heroes plenty of time to move up and prepare, and the combination of Sam Winchester, improved DEX, and a sawed-off shotgun proved to be an amazingly effective daemon-summoning-cultist deterrent. Still, it was a fun game - a couple of better die rolls on my part, or one more action to perform the ritual, and the outcome may have looked very different.

In the end, the heroes won, 9 VP to 7 VP, and their two injured characters made full recoveries.

Just in time, as Fate would have it, as the sounds of gurgling growls drifted across the field. The heroes stood and watched in horror as a pair of massive, shambling forms loomed out of the darkness behind the barn...

Next time: Monster Attack! (In which we learn that the only thing deadlier than a shotgun-wielding Sam Winchester is a knife-wielding Dean Winchester!)

[Sterling Moose]

Bravo!!

[diehard]

Most awesome. I really liked your prose introduction it set the scene perfectly. And am super envious of your great scenery collection. Looking forward to the next installment and thanks for sharing.

[ZenWired]

Thank you, gentle sirs!

@diehard: I've been gathering minis and scenery, bit by bit, for a little over 10 years (I lost most of my old scenery - mostly homemade and not very good - the same time I lost my book collection around a decade ago). Having spent a very long time playing with half-finished scenery or on half-empty tables, it's nice to finally be at a point where I have enough to lay out a nice table for everyone to enjoy!

[ZenWired]

Sheriff Dingle knew the Tucker family was weird, but until this night he had no clue how crazy they really were. They'd opened fire on Agents Shaw and Young before they'd announced that they were law enforcement. But even after he shouted "Police! Hold your fire!" they continued their assault. Nor was he prepared when, in response, the "consultant" pointed at Agent Shaw and shouted a litany of strange words at him, causing a bizarre rippling effect in the air between them. Dingle could swear, just for a moment, he saw a faint glow surround the FBI agent, who then hopped the fence and stepped confidently toward the three shotgun-wielding Tucker boys and laid them low with a blast from his sawed-off shotgun.

The Feds were definitely employing some new level of law enforcement tactics, the likes of which he'd never seen.

Everything after that was a blur. There was the roar of a chainsaw, screams, more shotgun blasts, and underneath it all, from the creepy woods, the cries of uncounted whippoorwills and a chanting voice that made his skin crawl. He rushed to help two allies after they fell to Ma and her chainsaw (before she, herself, fell to Agent Shaw's shotgun). He was loathe to follow the agents into the woods, so he contented himself with aiding the bleeding men as the two Feds disappeared into the trees. He was wrapping a tourniquet around the Brit's arm when the chanting reached a crescendo, then it and the deafening cries of the whippoorwills suddenly stopped.

What followed was a sound Dingle knew he'd never forget - a voice like a crack of thunder, uttering words he didn't understand but which made every fiber of his being want to flee pell-mell from this accursed farm.

The voice was answered by the familiar double report of the sawed off shotgun, and instantly the whippoorwills' cries filled the air again. He looked up and watched as the birds jetted from the trees, a swirling, writhing mass of black cacophony rising into the sky as if in pursuit of some invisible prey. Then the night fell silent. When the agents appeared at the head of the path leading into the woods, he could tell from their stony expressions that they'd arrived too late to save the girl.

But the night's weirdness wasn't over, despite all of the Tuckers having been silenced. The thinner of the gray-suited Stilman Institute men pushed him aside and laid his hand on the bloody gash in the paranormal investigator's shoulder. He closed his eyes and was still for a moment, then moved to the other fallen man in gray and did the same. Dingle watched in amazement as the two fallen men, whose wounds he knew had to be fatal, opened their eyes and sat up. They shook their heads as the color returned to their previously deathly pale faces. The others helped them up, and he followed in disbelief as the two groups all gathered in front of the Tucker farmhouse, everyone seemingly health and strong.

He was just about to put his disbelief and wonder into words when a sound stopped them all in their tracks. A croaking, like a group of giant bullfrogs with throats full of mud, sounded from the field behind the ramshackle barn. They all stood and watched as a pair of shadows hove into view. They were giant, formless masses of flesh, undulating across the ground toward them with preternatural speed.

Cries of alarm went up and everyone ran for cover as Dingle stood and stared - he felt like he might pass out...

We started the second game right where we left off after the raid scenario. Again, the other two players each played their not-Threshold teams, while I played a double-value group of Lurkers. As we were playing the scenario Monster Attack, I opted for two 16-point monsters. (It felt more correct than playing a single, 32-point monster - although that might have been fun, too!)

The players decided to call the beasts El Monstro Negro and El Monstro Rojo to tell them apart. I affectionately dubbed them Blackie and Rose.



Rose moves up...



As does Blackie...




Fortunately, Constantine was able to use Compel Beast early on to prevent one of the creatures from acting for a couple of turns, allowing the teams to focus their actions against the other.

Unfortunately, the Sam and Dean player made a mistake in his first turn, leaving Dean too far from the rest of the group to use his Command skill and causing the group to be unable to activate effectively. He also neglected to have Constantine use the Bless Characteristic spell on Sam before sending him to wield his shotgun against one of the monsters. The first few rounds, as a result, were utter chaos, as the two groups discovered quickly that their firearms were nearly useless against the formless things.

Before long, the creatures got into range. Ezra's 9mm handgun had been blessed by Lilith, giving it +2 damage and making it their best chance to injure the beasts. But his first shot was a misfire, and the gun jammed! Rose seized the opportunity and charged him. He went down in an instant...



...And the beast charged Sam, knocking him unconscious!



Meanwhile, Blackie - finally breaking free of Constantine's Compel - charged the sorcerer...



...And laid him low!



Sheriff Dingle rushed in to save the fallen Brit...



...Only to fall in combat, as well!



Things were really looking grim for the heroes at this point. The monsters seemed nigh invulnerable. In a mad effort to save Sam, who, unconscious, would get taken out if Rose got another action against him, the remaining members of the Stilman group drew their knives and rushed the monstrosity.



And Dean, desperate to give his brother a fighting chance, fool-hardily charged Blackie.



Armed with just a hunting knife, Dean survived three rounds of combat against the gurgling Hell-spawn, and Lilith's group held Rose at bay long enough for Sammie to regain his senses and get to his feet.



They all struggled against their respective opponents, Lilith's group using their numbers to at least hold the beast at bay, and Dean withstanding three more rounds of combat despite the beast's advantage.



Finally, Lilith's team and Sam overwhelmed Rose, their greater numbers allowing them to chip away at its wounds. They knew Dean couldn't last much longer against Blackie - he was on borrowed time. Unfortunately, they had no actions left to get to his side as another three rounds of combat loomed. But Dean proved to be a better fighter than anyone expected, and he put his knife to good use, carving the beast's jelly-like flesh from its non-existent bones in a single round of combat!




(Note the pair of sixes - Dean's critical melee roll, which was followed by a three-hit damage roll: a four and two fives, which - added to the +1, AP 1 from his knife and +2 from his critical hit - equaled the formless thing's CON + Armor and removed its remaining three wounds.)

The game was exciting right up to the last stab of Dean's knife. Not only did we all expect the heroes to lose after losing Ezra, Constantine, and Dingle, but we were all sure that Dean would fall at any moment. The fact that he held out as long as he did in single combat with the formless thing amazed everyone, and we were all downright shocked when he managed to get three wounds against it in that final round of combat. Dean definitely earned himself some pie!



Of course, the heroes aren't out of the woods yet. They now know that even with the Tuckers gone, they're in hostile territory. They need to get back to their cars and high-tail it out of here before something else shows up to try to kill them.

Next time: Escape... Into Danger!