New print: The Age of Steel has arrived!

Say hello to the latest print of the Core Rule Book! At roughly 400 pages it is a solid piece with mostly text but a number of maps, short stories and item sketches to lighten things up. Hopefully more art can be added later on, but as that is not my area of expertise it will have to do for now.

It has been a lot of work and there are still two more books to go, but it feels very solid to finally have this in hand. The result was better than expected - particularly the hardback cover with many thanks to Sissela Lewitzki Andersson for the artwork!

As the author of these I can't say anything else than that I'm quite proud. For the achievement of actually getting this delivered to my doorstep, but also for all that last minute work put in to correct spelling mistakes (oh, there were lots of those), bad mathematics (don't ask) and the overall layout of the book. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm sure there are plenty of errors in there still - but at least they had to fight for survival.

So, I'll enjoy this milestone for a few days and then its back to work on the Age of Information rulebook!

Interested?

If you're interested in getting your hands on one of these books please leave a note at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CenturiaRPG/.

Kragor the Merc: In Service of the Enemy

I know you listen to my stories because you find them amusing. Well, this time there's nothing to be amused about I can guarantee.

The big plan had been set in motion. The Falcons had given us instructions and a high-tech biomod - supposedly to protect against some mind-controlling stuff GERO was employing. We had accepted GERO's offer for work and after getting Charles to baby-sit us we were to be picked up. The whole thing was just like some boot-camp scene from a B-grade virex. Big truck rolled up and we climbed into an almost full transport compartment. Seemed GERO had managed to lay their hands on almost every merc in town...

It was a short journey to the assembly area where we watched the suits make up some plans. Also we spotted a familiar face from GERO's grand opening on the news channel - one of the high execs who apparently came down to relay some orders to the suits. Abriel's bodyguard was also there but it now became clear who she was really working for. The plot thickens.

There was a long drive to take us from the city out to the research facility. There wasn't much else to do, so I observed as much as I could. This continued until we reached  GERO's little paradise installation out in the middle of nowhere. We were taken on an outside walk to reach our quarters, which were at the rear of the facility. Every step sickened me more and more as I saw more of this facade. Inside the less flattering merc quarters we were called up and sorted into cells. I say cells for that's what it were. The facility was a blend between a prison complex and a damn storage tank for lab rats. It would soon be clear that was exactly what we were considered to be as we were put through some psychological evaluation, suspicious medical exam and fitness tests. I played the stupid orc - people generally didn't question you being a stupid orc - and continued to observe. Unsurprisingly, we were observed in return - but Ed managed to find what he believed to be a blind spot for the facility cameras. Certainly something to keep in mind.

We were also introduced to the less pleasant elements of the place; the team leaders were with all certainty the very same escaped criminals we'd spent some time looking for a few months ago. Seemed some had survived the Falcon's sabotage of their facility. Whether because of this or if it was just a personal trait I didn't know, but they didn't hesitate to kill people. Saw it happen right in front of our eyes and the mercs accepted it like a bunch of school kids.

It was nothing compared to our first job though. It was late and most others seemed to be sick from a biomod administered during the medical exams. For us it was more like a serious itch and we did everything we could to keep us from scratching out skin off. Apparently something important had happened and our elated team leaders noticed we were still up and going, so we were chosen. At that time I was glad to get something to think about and also an opportunity to learn more about what was going on. I were quickly to regret those thoughts.

We were lead by a total psychopath called Boyan and the mission was to eradicate some overdue settlers on what was claimed to be GERO's land. I knew there was little to do but to look professional and get things done - if I didn't do it someone else would. I just hoped the rest of the team had learned enough of ethics in the Fringe to get through this with their wits intact. Or at least not sustain more damage than they already had...

Juron and Charles were designated to sweep the ground while Lucas were to put down any stragglers. Me and Ed were simply to provide backup if necessary. For my part I would be keeping an eye on Boyan.

I won't go into details. People were murdered that night, but I learned some lessons. Juron is like a child when it comes to boundaries - whenever someone pushes he'll get interested and pulled along. Must learn to do that; it seems the only way to affect his actions in a profound way. Then there was Boyan. He was, what I can only assume, genetically improved to a level only comparable to his level of mental degradation. I had always kept myself professional in such matters - with a few exceptions - but this guy quickly made it to my list of people who need to die a horrible death. The toughest decision in the coming weeks would be if that should happen sooner or later. The Falcons might have hired us but this job was for a good cause after all...

Kragor the Merc: Grand Opening

If someone would have asked me if I believed in fate a week ago I'd say 'no'.

Well, I ought to keep to the timeline, right? We were leaving the undercity with three truckloads of gold, driving like crazy past - and sometimes through - gatherings of subdwellers, trying to navigate our way out. The fire and explosions from the robbery - for that was all it really was - felt very close. Then we left the tunnels behind...

And it was still daylight. A few blocks later we hit normal traffic and instead of the mad driving we just flowed with it. The heart was pumping and screaming while the world seemed to go in slow-motion. I guess this is what Juron craves - at least at times. It was oddly comforting.

We left the vehicles at the designated drop-point and then headed out. Joline was nice enough to select a meeting place nearby, so we collected our payment, paid off on some debts, and then headed back home. Someone was watching and I wondered who. It seemed a bit low-profile for the arbitrators and from Joline's reaction I figured it wasn't she. Was it one of GERO's assassins keeping us under surveillance? Little did I know...

Juron was left at the medbay in what seemed a routine part of any mission. He'd taken a gunshot wound to one eye but fortunately it didn't look critical. The rest of us just headed back to base where we went through the pickings Hawk had collected. Coupled with 24k in cash it was a good pay. But the question kept coming back: what was our purpose, why were we doing this? I guess I wanted a reason for the killing. Old man problem.

I didn't get any answers of course - not even after a night out with too much drink, which for once felt like the right thing to do. The following day was back to the question of what would we do next? And there it was on the news: GERO opening some new research facility out in the wilds. Promised to make everything good and bring us all to happy-land. In my experience if you heard shit like that on the prime channel you ran for it. But I'd grown tired of running. But it was about time we learned what the fuck was going on. Time to contact my good friend mr Blackbourne and hope he kept up with things. Indeed he said we should meet and discuss - which probably indicated major shit was going on. This state of affairs was confirmed by job offers being at an all-time low.

I learned a lot from mr Blackbourne a few hours later. GERO was taking over town, more or less. Slowly, over time, they've bought themselves a majority in most major corps in the region. Then there was the rumors of the encampment for escaped criminals, the assassinations by Abriel's "body guard" and of course the defector K... yeah, it looked serious. I tried to leave a hook with Blackbourne - his family was rich and influential and they probably wanted GERO cut down to size.


Back at base I... well its hard to describe really. There was a grill. And then... there was fire. From a top-floor window in the Freelance building. With his heavy flamer Juron turned a dead cow (or whatever it was) into a meal faster than the damn breakfast machine could deliver a bowl of snot. It was hard not to have a party after something like that, but sometime during the evening I shared what I've learned. I don't know exactly how things played out after that, but at some point I noticed Hawk taking Erza outside. There was definitely something fishy about her so I followed. It turned out she was working for Sam - our mystery savior from the fucked-up weapons high-jacking. And Sam had a job for us which involved taking on GERO somehow. For the job itself we would have a meeting with someone up the ranks, which seemed reasonable. But also we would have to make sure that the Demon's Head were too occupied to take any job offers from GERO. It was definitely a selling point for me.


The following morning was spent on an evil plan. The only sort of job offers worth doing which was still coming in was for Dukkha. So for that reason - and some more - it seemed natural to send the Demon's Head there to earn some creds. For a couple of weeks. He. Listening to Erza giving the news to Krelik would keep me warm inside for many a cold night.

Later that evening it was time for our meeting with Sam's mystery organization. We were lead to an odd, hidden away roof-top installation in the blocks. Clearly someone had both cash and the connections to get hold of some advanced tech. Keria would have drooled at the sight. So we got an introduction, a slight show-off as the bastards had hacked my tracking dots to keep us all under surveillance - and also news that they had already found and taken care of that rumored prisoner encampment we've heard about. So what did they want from us? I almost laughed myself to death when I heard it: we were to infiltrate GERO and wait for further orders. The irony being we had ourselves discussed exactly such a course of action not too long ago, and here we were. It was going to be difficult. It was going to make a difference if indeed these guys were bent on taking down GERO as they claimed to be. And it would by all hells be damned well paid - of that I would make sure.

So suddenly we were doing something. Something that mattered. And there was someone to pay us for it. I had looked forward to this for some time. And it seemed I've been led to this place even when I seemed to choose otherwise. If someone would've asked me if I believed in fate now I'd still say bloody 'no'. But it had me thinking alright...

Kragor the Merc: A truckload of gold

Did we break it or make it? By all standards we must have made it, but why doesn't it feel like it? Let's back up a couple of days...

When you're about do go up against professional killers and there's 200k in the magic pot you prepare yourself. Thus the week leading up to the job kindly offered by the Clans was spent doing just that. We arranged maps and route details from a contact given us by Silence. The cargo: 5 tons of gold bullion painstakingly mined and now being transported from the central bank to the harbor by train, then to be offloaded to a ship heading for the mainland.

We spent the next couple of days staking out the vast part of the city hidden beneath street level where old and new tracks ran among the foundations of the massive skyscrapers. Also it was shopping time. I had no problems taking a loan from the Clans to fund this mission: if all went well we would pay it back within a week, and if it didn't... well then a debt would be the least of my troubles, regardless who expected it. I enjoyed fooling Joline into believing I was giving in to her manipulations and committing myself to the Clans. It probably wasn't necessary given she knew what job we were doing but... yeah, fuckit, she deserved a bit of disappointment later on.

We bought guns and explosives and a shitload of other stuff... rented autos and recruited some people. We had a hacker but we needed someone who could handle tech on the ground - so I got around to see Keria... It was some time since and she'd must have had a small shock when I showed up and asked for help. But I knew she still had a bit of adventure inside and the lure of gold works on most people. As an extra treat I offered to buy some cool model headsets and other stuff for the mission through her. She agreed to lend a hand. Second target was Kronaug... I'd done him one too many favors to have him dodge this one, so I decided to eliminate that possibility altogether. As further reinforcement, Ed recruited a smacker named Charles through grandpa the dwarf and Erza recruited Hawk from Freelance. Erza herself however would remain back at Freelance - providing a plausible cover story and if necessary coordinate with us once we made our escape.

Surveying the expected route we learned that there were several complications. Firstly, the place was a maze and very hard to navigate. Secondly there were lots of unfortunates living down there and thirdly the open terrain did not fit in with our expectations and tactical planning. We would have to pick a spot for our assault with care. We found one in a narrow tunnel section located next to a side track in which we could hide our vehicles and prepare ourselves. We waited for as long as we dared to allow any surveying units to pass unhindered before we got to work. The far side of the track we rigged with mines, then be blew up the tracks themselves and built a small wall of rubble a bit further ahead to prevent the whole train from crashing at max speed. After all, we needed to be able to offload the cargo with ease.

The upcoming battle was now only minutes away. Juron had handed us some stereo packs and together with a bit of vitagel it made me feel prepared. That familiar nervousness came about and I went through the battle in my head. Ed, Hawk and Kronaug had been fitted with ballistic shields and would form the front line. Me, Juron and Charles would supply the heavy fire, with Lucas providing sniper support with his brand new magrail and Keria being prepared to handle any difficulties of a technical nature that might arise. I expected a battle similar to last time we tried something like this; well-trained combators with shotguns or automated rifles moving in formation. They would face a moving wall and the wrath of the shining heavy flamer firmly held by Juron. It looked outright evil. I had also prepared a little surprise in the shape of some electrified bolts for my crossbow. Hopefully they would be effective even against blokes in heavy armor.

Then was the sound of an approaching train. It was about to begin...

The train stopped pretty much as we had wanted it to and we advanced forward. But rather than the doors opening there were slids and hidden hatches... the train was a damn fortress. Being the one charged with the explosives I realized we must act fast or get bogged down here for far too long. So I left the relative safety of the shield wall and rushed forward, placing a micro bomb at the nearest steel door. I just managed to take cover under the train as bullets started flying and combators advanced out of the train.
From that point it was pure madness. Ed and Lucas kept communications tight over the radio in a fashion that would have warmed the frozen heart of any combator commander. Meanwhile Juron and Charles sprayed the train with fire and bullets while a mine detonated on the other side of the train. From my somewhat complicated position I managed to put a bolt in the leg of one of the attackers. Next a flashbang landed among us and broke the shield wall as Kronaug staggered. I detonated the explosive, which opened the door to the inside and while more attackers pushed forward from the back of the train I grabbed a grenade. Somehow it bounced and landed next to me beneath the train... I threw myself out just as a big brute in fiberplate brought down hell against us. I saw Ed being thrown to the ground despite his shield - apparently from the sheer force of the blow. On the ground lay Kronaug, bleeding from a wound in the chest he must have taken after suffering the flashbang - I saw little choice but to take cover behind him as shotgun shrapnel flew all around...

Then happened the strangest of things. As I dived in behind Kronaug and turned around I could swear I saw the fire from the gun pointed in my direction, I felt the sting in my chest and looked down as blood was pouring out of my chest, the world moved in slow motion... but in the blink of an eye it wasn't there. I was covered in blood, yes, but it was Kronaug's blood as his body had taken the blast for me. I pulled out my shotgun and blasted away at the advancing combator. Ed was somehow also back in the fight - which soon ended when Hawk with icy precision blew the head off of two enemies and Charles sprayed the rest with his assault gun. Somewhere in the back of the head was also a memory of Lucas' regular reports of enemies down. So we'd won...

Juron had taken a bad hit to one of his eyes and Kronaug was dead. Otherwise we were unharmed. Juron had left two people alive inside the train: the driver and some corp holding a case. Hawk took the corp aside and made him reveal any codes and intel he had before killing him. I shot the driver, though Ed tried to get in the way. He looked at me disappointedly but said nothing. It wasn't the time for a lecture on Fringe ethics so I didn't either.

I didn't look much at the rest of the carnage; I just wanted to get it all done. We started mounting our improvised cableway on which we placed small bags which we used to slide the gold back to the waiting cars. Hawk noted that there was a lot of top grade equipment to be looted from the guards. As we were one orc short with the loading we left her to it.

A couple of minutes later we were leaving to collect a full 200k. Any evidence left on the site was torn apart by a compression bomb. There had been a terrible price and Kronaug's death was on my hands. Yet I couldn't help but think that without a doubt the others who had died had been far better people than he had. He was a scum after all and though it was my fault he had died today I had saved his hide on several occasions - a death like this was to be expected for an orc like him. The others... they need not have died at all had I not come along. I could just hope that if the gods, provided they exist, really had watched they had been pleased by the spectacle.

Kragor the Merc: New Beginnings

I've learned not to be surprised in situations like this. Ok, Freelance's boss was heading out - now what? Both Demon's Head, Silence and Hawk where there. Keys and passcodes lay on the table and Erza moved towards them - only to be intercepted by Krelik. So that was how it was going to be.

About 30 seconds later Ed and Joshua where pointing guns, me and Jiang-Pfengh were holding grenades. Oh, and Silence had somehow slipped out of the building. Given this it was slightly unexpected to find ourselves in Elizah's office a few minutes later, going through the paperwork. Less unexpected was that Erza had apparently gone for the position of chief not so much because of her great managerial skills but more out of pride. I'm no paper-pusher but I know there's more to this business than meets the eye. Fortunately the common opinion seemed to be we should hire someone for the administrative stuff. Ed contacted his hacker/love-interest to get some suggestions.

Next thing on the schedule was to find some work. I lay forth my theory of GERO negotiator Abriel's "bodyguard" being involved in the fishy business we've been investigating. Yes, it would be a big gamble - but you couldn't go far without taking big risks. Particularly Ed seemed reluctant to commit without knowing the possible gain - a statement that in my opinion would get us no further than standard escort jobs until the end of time. A middle approach was decided when it turned out Juron had been contacted by Joline again; we'd check if Erza's contact Ruben would be prepared to pay us on learning the assassin's identity and then go speak to the Clans on the following day.

Me, Erza and Ed went to speak with Ruben that same evening. In hindsight it would have been better if it had been just me and Erza - just saying. As we had hoped to get a bounty offer on the assassin we were disappointed when Ruben decided it was too big for him with GERO involved. To see what we could get out of it I put forth the suggestion that we might know someone who could handle it - the assassin known simply as K. Ruben agreed it was worth investigating so we set up a meeting early the next morning and were offered to stay over the night as guests. As we were practically heading next door for our visit with the Clans we sent a message to Lucas and Juron, informing them of the situation.

The following morning K showed and even in an indoor setting it was immediately apparent he wasn't anyone to trifle with. He was prepared to kill Abriel's bodyguard for Ruben, but the price was 28k. I suggested I go talk to him as I didn't think we could handle the negotiation through Ruben anymore. I think K recognized me and I asked if we could think the offer over but he seemed to consider this a waste of his time. Given I came here to gain money - not spend it - I decided to decline. I knew this would lead to some discussion but I couldn't see how we would benefit from the deed in the long run. After all, the bodyguard was just one piece in our investigation - her death would not mean check mate.

After K had left we rested until Juron and Lucas arrived in the Blocks. The meeting with Joline was, as expected, more of a forced recruitment as it would appear she now had a hook on Ed as well. At least she gave us a number of jobs to choose from. Though dismissed at first due to our last experience, we eventually settled for an armed transport robbery. It had the best opportunity for cash - 200k in a best case scenario - and the guards would be armed and prepared for combat. Apparently this meant killing them were more ethical than killing some politician who probably kept hundreds starving and dying due to a lack of medical care. Well, I made it no secret I don't like working for the Clans but given the situation we're in it seems stupid not to go all the way. Either we make it or break it and I must say I enjoy the opportunity of finding out.

But the day hadn't given up all its opportunities yet - as we returned to Freelance we soon found Abriel (and that bodyguard...) knocking on the door. She wasn't offering us a mission this time but rather a full-time employment for several months. With so much options I couldn't help but wondering: how soon would things start to go bad again?

Adventures: Age of Steel

Print order for the revised Core Rule Book is drawing near so I thought I'd post some pre-written adventures for the Age of Steel!

First out is The Blood Maze, which is set in the northern country of Gwendellor. Here the players take on the roles as novices in the Order of the Falcon, preparing for a final test to earn full membership status in the order.

A rather classical dungeon-crawl it is intended to be played through in about 4 hours. It comes with prewritten characters but if a GM and players prefer to make their own the rest of the adventure will still work fine. The adventure can even work as a introduction to a longer campaign (though there are some plot twists the GM should consider beforehand if that is the case).

Characters, adventure description and maps (zip-file) can be downloaded here (3742 kB).

There is also a follow-up adventure called 'Adventurers All' which can be downloaded as a PDF (876 kB).

The second adventure is a war campaign scenario called The Commanders. The players will assume the roles as commanders in the Imperial Army which are given the task to quell a rebellion in the Imperial province of Pantoria.

The adventure contains a good deal of custom mechanics to aid the GM with abstracting the technical details. So as a GM it is a good idea to read it a couple of times before playing to get the idea - and perhaps skip some parts if they seem needlessly complicated.

The adventure itself is intended to be more political than strategic with each character given a secret set of goals to strive for. The adventure can be downloaded as a ZIP folder (4362 kB).

Kragor the Merc: A Way In, A Way Out

All in all its a fucked-up world. I don't know where to begin; the last few hours have just been insane.

So... did I mention I negotiated my first business agreement from an improvised medrack wearing no pants? Can't say it went according to plan because I didn't have a plan. This corp guy, calling himself "Sam", had shown up with no warning or invitation. Cocky and confident and damn near suicidal in pointing out how much we needed him. Somehow I wanted the world to know that this half-orc is on the edge now - push him and something big is going to happen. But another part of me cut in and did what it was supposed to do: get a job. So, long story short, Sam offered to clean up our records in return for a small favor, which was to take a job as escort but then track the final destination of one of those secret GERO transports. He talked about being a little morally flexible - but I couldn't see what the fuck he meant by that. As far as I could tell it looked like we could do the job for GERO and then get about our second task. No contract broken so no moral problem. We took his offer.

Erza and Juron showed up a while later with visible patching done by Rosina. Me, I was still laying half naked with Ed working on getting shrapnel out of my butt. There were questions but I hadn't got the strength for any more talk until that surgery was done. It would be a long night.

Once finally done it was very late, but I'd rather talk things through now than later - much owing to the fact that lying down wasn't the least bit tempting but I was still very tired and needed something to keep me awake. Grandpa's soup could only do so much. We talked for a while, first about what had happened and then about what was going to happen, or at least what we thought was. Ed also shared a note Angeline apparently had left in his pocket at some point. It seemed her sacrifice was more of a suicide. I couldn't make head or tail of it - why would she go through all this shit only to then kill herself? In the end we didn't find any answers to anything really, apart from that we'd do Sam's job and then take it from there. It felt strangely good to get it out though.

As Sam had predicted GERO turned up with a short-notice offer on an escort job. We did get premium payment so if we could only finish our little side quest it seemed as we could be getting back into the game after all. There isn't much details I'd care to share - but we managed to do everything which were required.

Payment in hand we returned to Freelance only to learn Elizah was heading out. For what purpose or how long she didn't say. So the future remains uncertain - that's the only thing I remain certain about.