Murdersoup: Aftermath - One-Shot

Today I had the pleasure of running a game again! It felt like forever since the last time. I wrote some kind of "advanced" murdersoup ruleset as a bit of a joke, making it a bit more fine-grained and essentially close to Classic Traveller or OD&D in terms of crunch, all with 2d6. I'll publish it sometime soon as the third volume of the Murdersoup micro-games series thing I've got going.

I had very little planned for this adventure, although one of my regulars provided me with a pretty cool location, and Post-Apocalypse stuff I can improvise somewhat comfortably. The setting is mainly inspired by Fallout 2, Road Warrior, Stalker and Lisa: The Painful.


Characters (henchmen/retainers in italics)
- Greg (always whispered) is a "Brainer", the Raiders' name for psions. He hides a pipe-bomb in his rags.
- Jim Normal is a Tiny Raider - his legs are misshapenly small and he wears a suit and hat.
- Big Tina is his man-servant, she wears an iron helmet and wears a sledgehammer. Might be a mute.
- Dolph'n Thunder used to be a Valet, or as he puts it - a gentleman's gentleman.
- Ernie is his eager servitor, armed with a cudgel.
- Ken, a Wise One from a Nomad tribe, needs no weapon as he has mastered the Fist of the North Star.
- Adam accompanies him on his journeys, wielding a spear.

What Went Down
- After a long journey through the Southern Wastes, the gang reached the outskirts of a rocky and broken region called the Jaggedlands, with New Angeles at its center. They shared a campfire and some disgusting barrow-mite meat with a Water-Merchant (Ishmael) and his Gunslinger companion (Gabriel Garcia). They heard about the Baron who rules over New Angeles, the Giovanni family and the Warrior-Knights who police and protect the outer ring of the city. They also learned of Freeman's Bane to the east and Jaimietown to the north about a day's walk away. That's where they'd go the next morning.

- Reaching Jaimietown, the party surrendered their weapons to a militia of spear-women, the leader of which, Beatrice, took them to an old crone and explained to them how to properly adress their God, Jaimie. Turns out the whole village is mostly women, and they all answer to this Jaimie cult figure who thinks he's God in the flesh. They worked with him and agreed to go get an artifact and proof as to what happened to his scouts in an ancient ruin in the hills to the north-east, under a massive satellite dish. In exchange, they would get water until their next stop on the route to New Angeles, as well as a feast.

- Beatrice also took Ken apart to ask him to look into the disappearances of three young women, hinting that the nearby eastern ruined building might hold a clue as to what happened, as figures fled this way one night. Nobody else acknowledges the disappearances and Jaimie refuses to hear of it.

- Most of the session was spent chatting with either the Water-Merchant, Beatrice, the Crone or Jaimie himself, as well as some in-party discussions as to what to do. They followed a young guide, Jessica, to go investigate the Satellite Dish. There, they found a cave entrance where the Brainer used his Sense Life ability to detect a pack of rabid Slack-Jawed mutant dogs. They ambushed them using Ernie as bait and crushed most of them under rocks.

Some Thoughts
- Almost no dicing this session. Mostly social interactions and some scene-setting. I wonder what the PCs want to do about the whole Cult Compound situation as it seems pretty creepy so far. Dolph's player was a new addition from the Free Kriegsspiel Revival server (hi!) - hopefully we can get Grandmother Mesha's player (couldn't make it in voice, last minute cancel) next week.

- Post-Apocalypse is pretty easy, turns out! The major hassle is figuring out how the barter economy works, as well as how to make food, water and other survival stuff interesting without making it too tedious. Right now I'm using 12 Inventory slots, with Thirst, Fatigue, Hunger etc. taking slots.