maxwriter

Journalist and GM, presently writing freelance for Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine.

Expendables

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The First Galactic Empire, thought to be the creation of Terra, collapsed 6,000 years ago.  The Second Galactic Empire, started with the establishment of the Star Empire of Yorkin, formed some 2,000 years after the fall of the first.  But civil war and unrest caused first damage and then the destruction of the Second Empire almost 500 years ago.  Now The Company controlled all interstellar trade, ship drives, and fuel.  “The glue that binds the far flung outposts of humanity together,” The Company, so huge that its name had been lost and forgotten, now controls humanity in the galaxy.

Dacks McCool was mission leader of an inexperienced E Team in Fiscal Year 1390.  The “E” used to describe the Exploration Teams that The Company sent out to explore worlds heretofore only checked by deep space probe was also used for the other term for the teams: Expendables.  These small teams of specialists were dropped off at planets that had been deemed suitable for colonization by probes.  They stayed on the planet for 90 days, cataloging it and making sure it was suitable for a full colony.  Many of the teams didn’t survive, hence their nickname.

Gyr Tam was the mission’s security specialist.  Gaston Cayce was the group’s pilot.  Denn Pax was the medic.  This is the story of their exploration of one such far-flung planet.  No one knew exactly who assigned planetary code names except that whoever did didn’t admit it for personal safety reasons.  In this case, they had just cause.  The planet had been code-named “Kukamunga.”

On March 22, 2010, I ran a game of Expendables with Steve, Ken, and Erik as a one-shot to test out the game for a review in Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine. As there weren’t enough players, I ran the medic as an npc.

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Tomb of Horrors Part 3

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The adventurers Tallion the mage; Hastik Wasney, the priest of Rao; Hundar the Barbarian; and Generi, the thief continue their foray into the Tomb of Horrors.  One of them has died and been raised from the dead with powerful magic by this time.  Would they all survive?

On September 21, 2009, I ran the third and final session of the original Tomb of Horrors, using Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, for a group of players in Kernersville, N.C.  Jeff, R.J., Tim, and Bethany all played.  This is the third of three sessions that it took them to get through the tomb.

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Tomb of Horrors Part 2

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The adventurers Tallion the mage; Hastik Wasney, the priest of Rao; Hundar the Barbarian; and Generi, the thief continue their foray into the Tomb of Horrors.  None have yet died, though danger remains all around them.

On September 7, 2009, I ran the second session of the original Tomb of Horrors, using Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, for a group of players in Kernersville, N.C.  Jeff, R.J., Tim, and Bethany all played.  This is the second of three sessions that it took them to get through the tomb.

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Tomb of Horrors Part 1

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It all began with Tallion.  The mage had heard rumors, little more than children’s stories really, of a terrible place called by all the Tomb of Horrors, the last resting place of some great mage or priest of days gone by.   In the cold early months of 575 Common Year, he learned that it was rumored that the terrible Tomb was somewhere in the Vast Swamp south of the land of Sunndi.  All that remained was for him to assemble a fellowship of his old comrades and find the place.  It was mid-Reaping of that same year by the time Tallion had assembled three allies and their henchmen to raid the tomb: The priest of Rao, Hastik Wasney; Hundar the Barbarian; and Generi, the thief.

These four heroes and their henchmen entered the Tomb of Horrors.  Not all of them returned.

On August 31, 2009, I started running the original Tomb of Horrors, using Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, for a group of players in Kernersville, N.C.  Jeff, R.J., Tim, and Bethany all played.  This is the first of three sessions that it took them to get through the tomb.

Andy Miller aka Max_Writer

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Star Frontiers: Crash on Volturnus

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A small group of six had been hired by the government of Truane’s Star to carry out a preliminary exploration of a newly discovered planet.  The group included two Dralasites: short, rubbery aliens that had no bones nor hard body parts.  The one who called himself William the Dralasite was an environmentalist while the other, named Autobot, was a psycho-social specialist.  The lone Yazirian in the group, Cornelius, was a tall, thin biped with a simian face and two large flaps of skin growing on either side of his body.  He was the computer specialist.  A Vrusk named Schweppes, one of those centaur-like insects, was the robotics specialist in their party.  The group was rounded out by two humans, a male doctor named Sir Neville Butterfield, and a female technician who merely called herself Damsel.

The six had been hired to journey by Starliner to Volturnus in the frontier and map as much of the planet as possible.  The government was especially interested in contacting and studying any intelligent races living on the planet.  The group also had orders that if they were to meet any intelligent race, they were to make friendly contact and learn as much about them as possible.

They were also told that the first expedition to Volturnus had disappeared without a trace as soon as it entered the Zebulon system.  If possible, this secondary group was to locate and rescue any survivors of that mission.

They were the B-Team.

I ran a game of Star Frontiers on July 27, 2009, with friends Jeff, Tim, RJ, Derick, Ryan, and Bethany as a one-shot to test out the game for a review in Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine.  They didn’t (obviously) get through the entire adventure, but they had fun.

Andy Miller aka Max_Writer

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