Dark Matter Rising

[Starwolf]

This thread is for our dark Matter Rising campaign. It is a Dark Champions/Horror Hero style campaign. Think Supernatural, meets X-Files, meets Sanctuary. This is a modern campaign set in the current time frame. Aliens, Bigfoot, Ghosts, Psionics, Magic, and such are considered finge science at best and pure fantasy by most. :eg:

Characters are 100+50 Powerful Heroic figures. NCM is in play. Also I have decided to implement Normal Skill Maxima and set it at 16. What this means is that to raise a skill level to 17 or higher costs double the normal point cost. Of course this doesn't stop you from using SLs/CSLs/PSLs to raise levels. All Skill Enhancers are in play. Use the modern everyman skills from 5ER. Equipment is free but think Walmart, anything beyond the norm must be pre-approved. I will be giving each character a signature piece of equipment as a sort of "goodie", what you get will depend on your characters background, profession, primary skills, and perks (espcially contacts, access, and wealth). Range penalties will be in play IF we can get MT up and running (my preference). Attached is a campaign file (hdr) for use in HD. Enjoy! I am getting excited about Thursday :D

[Starwolf]

So as not to spoil any thing, I will not post character bios until after our first play session. But I now have 2 characters out of six ready for play

[Starwolf]

I have loaded up the MT server. The server name is Wolves Den. The player password is the same as used for Gemini Ascendant...

Hope to see you there :D

[Starwolf]

Ghost Angel, and I have successfully tested him on MT 1.3b45. I will definately be using it this Thursday. I will leave the server up and running as much as possible between now and then so you can login and work on tokens and macros.

[ghost-angel]

no bio... but I will post a picture of my character. . . :D

[Nolgroth]

Currently building my character. Basic bio is that he is a PI from Sacramento. No real skeletons in the closet or anything like that. His one regret is that his parents chose to name him Jack with his last name being Lantern.

Owner and chief (only) investigator for Lantern Private Investigations (Shining the Light on the Truth) Inc.

For physical appearance, I refer you to this pic

[ghost-angel]

Nice, I can already see we're going to have one of those Really Interesting part dynamics.

[Nolgroth]

Wouldn't be us if we didn't.

[Admiral C]

Does this have any connection to the Dark Matter setting that was published under the (ugh) Alternity rules by WotC?

[Nolgroth]

Does this have any connection to the Dark Matter setting that was published under the (ugh) Alternity rules by WotC?As I understand it, yes.

[Starwolf]

Does this have any connection to the Dark Matter setting that was published under the (ugh) Alternity rules by WotC?

Yes, using my Alternity Hero adaptation... :D

I have a PDF guide to converting Alternity to Hero if anyone is interested. It is currently 16 pages and only covers the basic character races from the StarDrive campaign setting. But the conversion tables and notes work just fine for Dark Matter as well.

Heh... I managed to say all that without a single hint as to what the characters are going to get mixed up in... :eg:

[Nolgroth]

Heh... I managed to say all that without a single hint as to what the characters are going to get mixed up in... :eg:I guess blood, death and fiery explosions. But that's just experience talking. ;)

[Starwolf]

The server is up :D

[ghost-angel]

Uh, I don't see it.

[Nolgroth]

I am also unable to connect.

[ghost-angel]

So . . . when do we panic?

[Nolgroth]

We would be knocking, but we can't find the door!

[Starwolf]

Dang let me reset the server

[Admiral C]

Yes, using my Alternity Hero adaptation... :D

I have a PDF guide to converting Alternity to Hero if anyone is interested. It is currently 16 pages and only covers the basic character races from the StarDrive campaign setting. But the conversion tables and notes work just fine for Dark Matter as well.


I'll keep it in mind that you have the conversion stuff. I have the main Dark Matter book, the Killing Jar module, and the equipment guide. I don't really know why I bought the last since I was just using the background, or planning too. I never had the stupid book handy whenever I ran a conspiracy game. But one day.....

[ghost-angel]

The basic bio . . . Special Agent Penny Tanner works for the Cyber Division of the FBI Criminal Investigation section.

and, I had a few hours to spare this morning. So I made a picture.

Admiral C - we're running through the Exit 23 intro adventure from the D20 book (I don't think it was included in the original Dark Matter release but I've never personally read either sourcebook). No Starwolf I don't know what's coming next, I just happened to know the super basic plot blurb from a discussion I had with someone at one point.

[ghost-angel]

first, a note: It took me several hours to name my character, I had originally come up with Agent Tanner, and made an FBI hacker. Then agonized for several hours over what a first name might be. In the end I chose Penny (by way of Inspector Gadget. . .).

It was pointed out to me today that Tanner is a slang term for sixpence. Her name is Penny Sixpenny.

Her parents, apparently, have a (bad) sense of humor.

[Starwolf]

Penny Sixpenny :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[solron915]

Bobby Joe Rains is a long haul trucker and viet nam vet. He believes the world is going down the gutter and the only person you can truly depend on is yourself. He has a few other ideas but I'm sure they'll come out in the game eventally.

[ghost-angel]

So we got an old Nam Vet, a middle aged grumpy PI and a pair of Feds.

Those monsters are sooooo screwed.

[Nolgroth]

So we got an old Nam Vet, a middle aged grumpy PI and a pair of Feds.

Those monsters are sooooo screwed.It's almost a Penny Dreadful. :D

[Starwolf]

On Terrie's behalf:

Kayla Brady is a true prodigy, educated at MIT, she speaks three languages fleuntly and understands most others, and has travelled the world extensivley. She has acted as a consultant for NASA, The NSA, the FBI, INTERPOL, Scotland Yard, The SETI Project, and the United Nations. She has particpated in several expeditions on behalf of both the Science Channel and the History Channel. Think of a cross between Indiana Jones, McGuyver, and Gill Grissom... :D

[Killer Shrike]

Is this a F2F or PBEM / PBP game?

[Nolgroth]

Is this a F2F or PBEM / PBP game?Online with MapTool. Our group alternates between MapTool and OpenRPG.

[Killer Shrike]

Any chance someone could pretend like I'm not familiar with this practice and explain it to me?

[ghost-angel]

Sure, the game play is chat based.

Both Map Tool (put out by RolePlay Tools) and OpenRPG have map functions, die rollers and the ability to create a form of character sheet within the game.

ORPG is no longer supported/developed. But the last version is stable despite its use of Python. It uses Character Nodes for the sheets, which can scripts for rolling dice, I developed a Hero Designer Export Template for use with the program that is serviceable. The main advantage ORPG has is the ability to send multiple Private Messages to players and GM.

MapTool is still being developed, comes with many more interesting features, and a more advanced Hero die roller. The Character Sheets are built into Tokens, which are on-line miniatures for your character. There are two separate ways of programming buttons to execute script commands. The advantage to MapTool is that it's Java based and has more useful features.

Both use a proxy server to connect clients (players) to the host (GM). Or you can direct connect to the GMs machine if you want.

Being a chat based game you lose the advantage of vocal inflection, but gain the advantage of not missing anything as no one's "voice" is lost if everyone types/talks at once.

[Killer Shrike]

What is the play schedule like? I mean, how to do you coordinate the time to get together for a group chat?

[ghost-angel]

We get together once a week, Thursday nights. It helps that most of us are in the same time zone. The original coordination was done through the Hero Boards. After that we just log onto the host server at game time.

If any changes are made they're either posted here or through email.

[Killer Shrike]

Bummer...I have my son every other Thursday night; otherwise I'd love to get in on this action if there were room for one more.

[solron915]

Starwolf, I sent you and email on Bobby Joe's wish list.

[Nolgroth]

Bummer...I have my son every other Thursday night; otherwise I'd love to get in on this action if there were room for one more.Bah, play the recurring support character. Sort of like Ruby or Bobby from Supernatural. Integral to the plot sometimes, but not necessary.

EDIT: And hanging with the little ones is cool too. :)

[Starwolf]

Shrike, if you would not mind me running your character as an NPC occasionally during your absence (if the story supports it he would just be busy doing somthing else most of time you aren't there), I can handle one more player. That way you could join us on your free Thursdays if you like. Nolgroth is our other, and more full time GM, and it sounds like he is OK with this as well.

If you are interested I would need you to download the HDR linked above and create a character, then send me the HDC file and either a PNG or JPG of what your character looks like. The art work is needed to create your token (the online miniature that GA mentioned). If you don't have artwork, give a good text description and I can create an Image for you. My e-mail is pmbruner@comcast.net

:D

[Starwolf]

Starwolf, I sent you and email on Bobby Joe's wish list.

I got it :D

I will tweak your token before game time to load the items...

Can you send me a copy of your HDC from hero designer. I got your character but it was the HTML export, and the HDC lends itself better to formatting for my new website.

I am rebuilding my website with a new URL. I dinked around too long and lost corsairslair.com. And once it expired they wanted me to pay an $80.00 fee in addition to the normal registration fee to get it back and renew for another year. My normal annual fee is $10.00, so there was no way I was going to fork over an 800% penalty :mad:

Instead I bought tritoncorsair.com, it will have a new look and I hope a better feel, with more content. And I hope to be energetic enough to update it more often than my old site.

[Killer Shrike]

Cool. I've got some ideas.

I've got my son tomorrow, but I'll get something going and aim for next Thursday. I'll start corresponding as I have ideas / material.

What is the game's timeframe on Thursdays? I'm on PST time.

[Starwolf]

We meet from 7 to 11 MST. We just went off of Daylight Savings, but I think PST is one hour behind us, so figure 6 to 10 PST. Nolgroth can confirm this, he is one of those west coast liberals :D

We will be skipping the week of Thanksgiving. Also, Nolgroth and I have worked out a rotation where we swap GMing/games between story arcs. He is due to pick up his game possibly sometime in early December. I beleive he is going to run the Gemini Ascendant campaign when we start that one up. it is an epic space opera using Star Hero. Swapping back and forth between story arcs will hopefully give both of us a chance to play and some breathing room to work on the details of the next story arc for our respective campaigns. The details and history of the Gemini Ascendant campaign can be found in the Star Hero forums...

[Starwolf]

Guys, I hate to do this, but I am gonna have to call tonights game. I am sick as a dog. I will see you all next week.

[ghost-angel]

well, dang. Hope you get better fast.

[Nolgroth]

Get better. Be well. I understand.

( Out of 2 word responses. :D )

[solron915]

Sorry to hear that Bro. You take care of yourself. I'll check in with you tommorrow.

[Nolgroth]

I could try to run some sort of one-off game. The only thing I sort of have ready would be a "dumbed down" Fantasy HERO game using the initial characters I used for my kids. If that is okay, let me know.

We'll have to make do with generic rolls, so I'll stick to OpenRPG.

[Nolgroth]

I will take the complete lack of response as a "No." ;)

[ghost-angel]

ah, sorry. I saw the no game message and immediately got a call to hang out with some friends before going to the midnight showing of the new James Bond movie.

[solron915]

Ah when I saw the no game message . I went and hung with my wife for the rest of the night.

[Starwolf]

Sorry again guys... :(

Once in a while I get these really intense migraines, nausea, blurred vision, intense pain, not very pleasant. I am feeling a bit better now, but for a while there I just wanted to be put out of my misery.

I am ready for this coming Thursday...

I have not heard anything further from KillerShrike, but if I do he might be joining our group.

[Nolgroth]

I kinda figured that the cancel message was cause for departure for greener pastures. It was an idea and a thought to offset the games I have had to cancel lately. No problems. Actually worked out rather nicely getting to hang out and watch episodes of NCIS and Destroyed in 30 Seconds with my kids. Later I got to catch up on Dexter so it was not a bad night for me. :)

[solron915]

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Did ya get my email? If I ned to work on it some more just let me know.

[Killer Shrike]

I've been jumping around like the one-legged man in the proverbial contest the last few days.

However, I noticed it mentioned that you are due to switch back over to a scifi game for a while and I must say that while I'm super interested in the Dark Matter Rising campaign, I'm not interested at all in a SciFi game. I'm really just not into star hero / the space genre in general.

When do you think you'd be switching back to Dark Champions?

[Nolgroth]

When do you think you'd be switching back to Dark Champions?Good question. I usually run in arcs of 4-6 sessions so I guess somewhen in January.

[Starwolf]

Glad to hear you're feeling better. Did ya get my email? If I ned to work on it some more just let me know.

I got your note about the weapons... did you send something else?

[Starwolf]

Good question. I usually run in arcs of 4-6 sessions so I guess somewhen in January.

What he said :)

[solron915]

I got your note about the weapons... did you send something else?

Nope that was it. Did not want to go to crazy on weapons. Ya know how them Feds are.:D

[Nolgroth]

Nope that was it. Did not want to go to crazy on weapons. Ya know how them Feds are.:DYou mean Mulder and Scully? :p

[solron915]

You mean Mulder and Scully? :p

Ya, they'd be the ones. The odd couple!:eek:

So are we going to have another player for dark matter or what?

[Starwolf]

I have not heard anything firm. From his posts I am assuming he is only interested in playing during the DM sessions and even then he is only available every other week. He has stated he iis not interested in GA, which is too bad, as I am looking forward to shooting a certain AI type robot in his metallic ding ding :ugly:

[solron915]

If he plays is he going to be like the smoking man. A dude who pops in and out of the game.

[solron915]

Just a heads up , Tim has to work tomorrow. So we will be short one FBI type person but he says he'll be back on schedule for the next session.

[solron915]

Starwolf, I have more bad news. Patti is in the hospital. She was admitted last night , She has an intestinal blockage, so I will be at the hospital with her tonight. I'll call ya later on the landline.

[Nolgroth]

Starwolf, I have more bad news. Patti is in the hospital. She was admitted last night , She has an intestinal blockage, so I will be at the hospital with her tonight. I'll call ya later on the landline.My thoughts are with you. Wish Patti the best of luck from us. Take care of her.

[solron915]

My thoughts are with you. Wish Patti the best of luck from us. Take care of her.

I will and thanks.

[Starwolf]

The server is up...

[Starwolf]

Here is Jane McDermott

[Nolgroth]

Sorry I had to bug out early. My head is still hurting, but at least the white from the monitor is not piercing through my head like barbed needles being inserted and pulled out of my eyeballs.

How many more sessions you got planned Starwolf?

[Starwolf]

We only ran for a short bit after you left. Then I did a quick.... Cliff Hanger :D

However I think we can wrap this arc in one more session if all goes well. 2 at the most.

A quick update, The fire is out, and Agent Tanner and Jack have re-joined the group, only to discover that at least 3 people have disappeared, Officer McDermott, One of the Truckers, and Kayla aren;t in the room with the group.

[Nolgroth]

And then there were none....

[Starwolf]

Brad finally cobbled together the macro tutorial videos. They show how to build you macros using his "builder" macros... which just tickles me, using macros to build macros Here are the links...

http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/random/genbuilders/genbuilders.html

http://www.rptoolstutorials.net/random/attackmacrosp/attackmacrosp.html

[Starwolf]

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving :D

[Nolgroth]

Bad news. My mother fell and hurt (broken hip) herself this evening. I am leaving town to visit her in the hospital. I won't be able to make it to Thursday's game. 'wolf, feel free to have my character gruesomely eviscerated or something cool if you like. I won't even tease you about it. ;)

[ghost-angel]

I hope she has a speedy recovery.

[Nolgroth]

I hope she has a speedy recovery.Update: Mom went into hip replacement surgery last night around midnight. She is doing well today and is very communicative and chatty. I can't tell you the stress that was relieved by her initial recovery. She still has a long way to go, especially since both of her hip joints are cybernetic (:D) now, but knowing that she is conscious and in good spirits is a relief.

Thanks for the well-wishes.

[solron915]

That's atleast some good news. I hope her recovery continues to be speedy as well.

[solron915]

Question, are we still playin' tonight?

[Starwolf]

First... I am glad your mom is on the road to recovery... I wish her well

Second... The server is up, as to whether we are playing, I plan on running :D

[Starwolf]

I am preparing to run tonight, in case Nol is either not able to play, or is not ready to run, however be warned that what I have ready may be sparse. I will open the server around 6-ish.

[solron915]

Patti says go ahead and play, so I'll be there tonight.

[ghost-angel]

I have no internet connection at my house because Qwest broke my line. I won't be gaming tonight.

[solron915]

I was connected then I got dumped now I can't reconnect. I keep getting a timed out message. So what are we going to do?

[solron915]

Starwolf we just tried Tim's computer and it timed out too. When he tried to connect to MT. So I'm guessing the problem is at your end.

[Starwolf]

I am not going to be able to run tomorrow night. I have some family business I need to take care of. So I guess our holiday break starts a week early. I will still put the server online each weekend so that anyone who wants to work on their tokens can do so. It is maptools build 1.3b48.