Eagle Eyes c10s2

Claudius plans to get inside the house of the people's tribune Maemilius' household by posing as barber (which he actually is but no longer acknowledged as such), maybe he can get inside the senatrix Falernus house hold that way as well.

Paulla and Hostus plans to pose as sellers and decorators of festoons to be able to spy on the house of the senatrix Falernus. They also check prices for festoons to be able to tell prices to the Falernus household responsible and to know that they have enough money to buy the festoons they need until they get paid by Falernus' household.

When Hostus and Paulla returns to home that night after making all the plans and making preparations Hostus almost trips over a large box outside their apartment. They drag it inside and opens it (some effort is needed, it's sealed to be able to be transported. Inside is what looks like a simple but genuine greek vase. After all their greek vase scams they have learned at least something about how the genuine stuff usually looks and feels. Inside the vase is also a small papyrus with a short. "The person in question is graecophile. We assume this could come in handy". The note is very anonymous and the handwriting is very much like the halfway standardised handwriting scribes use. They guess this is a gift from The Eagle and that it could come in handy in making contact with and getting into the Falernus household.

Early in the morning they leave their only togas at the laundry. Claudius also leaves his barber tools for sharpening and polishing.

Hostus and Paulla also decide to stalk Falernus and her clientele after her patron reception of clients. Hostus follows her to a finer wine tavern where she sits down with her body slave, scribe and two body guards that stand guard in a somewhat discrete and relaxed but still obvious manner. She seems to be waiting for someone. Hostus has been standing on the other side of the street for a while, pretending to wait for someone, when a servant-like man comes jogging and rushes into the tavern directly to Falenernus' table a whispers things to her and she seems very surprised. The messenger gets a message back and rushes off and Paulla who has been waiting nearby follows him. He runs to another domus city house)and is gone inside a short while and then returns to the street and jogs off to yet another domus (Ligistinius' city house and is let in after some stressed clapping on the door. The messenger returns again and runs to a third domus (Manilius' city house) and is gone for a while. Paulla waits for a while but then she starts to feel uncomfortable hanging around in the same spot all the time and give up following the messenger further and returns to the tavern where she left Hostus.

After a while a rich citizen appears and meets up with Falernus. The arriving person presents himself as equites Livius and arrives with a scribe and a probable bodyguard. Falernus immediately starts to talk to Livius intensely. Hostus can't hear much but apparently someone has done something. One of the bodyguards seems unnecessarily interested in Hostus which should pass for just a plebeian waiting for someone. This makes Hostus draw the conclusion that they are talking about something important, maybe even secret.

Paulla walks up to Hostus who meets up with Paulla and the walk out of direct sight from the tavern and Hosuts and Paulla tells each other what has happened. Neither of the names is any of the most famous families. Paulla returns to the opposite side of the street of the taverna and continues to spy on Falernus and Livius which now seem to be discussing something. A few loose phrases reach her across the street. Several of the famous senators like Gaius Julius, Pompeius, Crassus, Cicero and Cato the elder is mentioned as is legions and "only one legion" and "playing hardball".

Claudius has been exercising and warming up his barber skills. He has a few customers among the neighbours but that doesn't pay well is only very basic haircuts. Now he wants to do some more advanced haircuts to be able to get into the finer households like Falernus and Maemilius.

Hostus spends some time around Forum romanum talking to people joining spontaneous conversions and gossiping. Seems like most of the names they have encountered lately is optimates or associated to optimates. The not so rich but still well off plebeians around Forum now also put very little faith in the patricians actually following the omen of the wolf on Forum. Most seem to think that the senate will hold their meeting, omen or not. He also manage to get a name of a senatrix that has approximately the same tax level as senatrix Falernus, senatrix Ofilius. Later on the day people suddenly start to talk about one and almost only one thing; Gaius Julius hasn't laid down his imperium (permissions and right to lead armed troops and punish criminals) to return to Rome as a regular senator. Instead he has crossed Rubicon, the border for the non-armed region around Rome which has been crossed by Roman troops during earlier civil wars and when Rome has had to defend the city itself agains Hannibal or the celts.

The characters throw some thoughts around and conclude that if Falernus is lying it's a favour she would only do for someone of higher status than her because it would be very uncommon if she would be a client to someone of lower status. They think that maybe it wasn't Falernus that noticed the wolf but someone else that doesn't want to disregard the omen but for some reason doesn't want to step forward themself, e g because they don't want it to be known that they were at the forum at that time. Since they only know about female members of the senate that has been at Forum that morning they assume that such a person would be a senatrix of higher status than senatrix Falernus. They guess that the archive a the senate could give them a list of female patricians of the same or higher tax level than Falernus, at least for pay.

Eagle Eyes c10s0b

Magneter och Mirakler rules

Magneter och mirakler is a Swedish rules set and game setting. We're using the rules of Magneter och mirakler with the game setting of Eagle Eyes. Rules-wise Magneter och mirakler is quite simple and the principle is that a character have a fixed amount of aspects. We added petitio videtur, the request each Eye makes to The Eagle when he or she assign themselves for service since this is significant both in the setting and in the rules for the original Eagle Eyes (Fate accelerated). Role-playing goes on until there's a conflict of interest regarding where the story goes. When there's a conflict an aspect is used to win the conflict. The conflict could be escalated though and in that case each player or game master rolls a six sided die and add aspects if they want to have an upper hand statistically. The aspect  Game setting is used to activate aspects of other player characters or non-player characters than your own. Each aspect has a limit for how many times it could be used in a positive aspect and how many times it could be used in a negative aspect. This is the +X/-Y noted by the aspect further down. Each gaming campaign also has a few themes that can be activated by anyone along with places and items in the story. There's a little more to the rules but that's the main principle. Magneter och mirakler can be found at Kaleidoskop's web site (in Swedish); Magneter och mirakler.

Characters

Claudius Piso Caesonius

• Game setting: -5/+5
• Petitio videtur: -3/+3
• Regain membership in collegia and and get back hos luxury barber shop
• Stubborn: -2/+1
• Distorts information: -1/+2
• Steady hands: -1/+2
• Used to seeing blood: -2/+1
• Social: -1/+3
• Vain: -2/+1
• Used to upper class people: -1/+1
• Runner: -3/+1
• Barber: -1/+2

Paulla Nynnia Lamia

• Game setting: -5/+5
• Petitio videtur: -3/+3
• Cancel banishment of her grandmother from Rome, falsely accused of bad magic
• Loyalty to Caecilii: -3/+1
• Business sense: -1/+2
• Nimble-fingered: -1/+1
• Non-squeamish: -1/+2
• Deviating morale: -2/+3
• Singer's voice: -1/+2
• Well-known in her home area: -2/+1
• Organised: -1/+1
• Forefathers' attention: -1/+1

Hostus Caecilii Nasus

• Game setting: -5/+5
• Petitio videtur: -3/+3
• Regain his family's farm
• Vendetta: -2/+2
• Acting: -1/+1
• Loyalty: -2/+3
• Observant: -2/+1
• Acting under pressure: -3/-2
• Fleet-footed: -1/+1
• Dominating: -2/+1
• Hunted: -1/+2
• Nimle-fingered: -1/+1

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s1

The session started with everything having been calm for a while, no startling things in The Cat Senate, territories respected and no urgent grave dangers for The Burdens. The four cats Grå, Tryggtass, Gast and Svansglidaren lies on the street roof covering the street between the insula where Tryggtass lives and the insula where Grå lives. Grå and Tryggtass are on good standing with each other and have devided the area between the insulas in the middle and don’t quarrel about the exact border (except maybe sometimes just to tease the other). Tryggtass has a territory of one side of her insula (including some other cats being content with their respective apartments as territories) and Grå has two sides of his insula (also including some other cats).

It’s sunny but slightly shady because of the high building and everything is cool when a sturdy cat suddenly walks up to them or more specifically up to Tryggtass catching her attention extra by blocking out the sun for her. The group greets the new cat lazily which they vaguely recognise and can put a name on, Skarpöra (Sharpear), but that haven't been noticeable in the cat senate and is no neighbour of any of them. Skarpöra presents herself and asks what they're doing on her territory.

The group doesn't repsond well to that and simply suggests that she should leave Tryggtass territory and be done with it. Skarpöra doesn't take that well and and insulting and provocation game, involving human everyday names, begins (no dice rolled). After a while Skarpöra who is a bully used to win standoffs and fights attacks Grå who is the most provocative of the cats. A fight breaks out and soon Tryggtass is also involved together with Svansglidaren and a companion to Skarpöra, Högertass (Right Paw). After a an exchange of hits and slashes and with Gast hiding in a window alcove Skarpöra and Högertass leaves quite quickly.

At the beginning of the fight Tryggtass jumped up to a window alcove one level up and there she heard steps she didn't recognise and smelled a cat she didn't recognise. When she looked into the apartment she saw an unfamiliar cat. A human in the apartment noticed them and grabbed a broom to get them out. The other cat ran out in the corridor outside the apartments and Tryggtass returned to the fight by jumping Skarpöra from above (stunt Death from above).

Later Tryggtass applied for audience to princeps, the leader of The Cat Senate, and when approved asked about this territory claim Skarpöra did. Princeps was unsure and had to check with other cat officials before saying too much but probably it would have to be solved either in court or by fight.

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s2

Tryggtass got some info on what was remembered officially about Skarpöra and her territory. To the cat group's surprise and not surprise Skarpöra's territory is several blocks away from theirs which means she is a long way from home claiming territory and if she actually had taken a territory that big, like biggest in Rome, they would have heard of it. Increasing the edges of one's territory would be the normal and accepted way of expanding a territory, weird behaviour indeed.

Here we had a minor milestone:

• Grå increased Territory to +3 and decreased Burglary to +2
• Svansglidaren increased Territory to +3 and decreased Burglary to +2
• Gast increases Deceive to +3 and decreases Physique to +2

A day later they return from having checked in with the consul of the day to see if there's any patrol missions for them to take on during their duty. Since it's been calm regarding the threats from lemures and such there's nothing coming up now. As they take the natural path back they arrive at the street roof between Grå's and Tryggtass's territories (usually they either split up here or take nap or rest in the sun or shade whichever preferred, it's a good spot). When they jump to the roof they stop, staring at her, Skarpöra's back. She's lying almost exactly at Tryggtass's favourite spot and being groomed by her underling Högertass as if to make it totally clear that she sees this a part of her home.

Tryggtass and Grå (the two having territory on the street roof) hiss at her but she ignores them and make herself, if possible, even more comfortable. After a short burst of words and insults between them Tryggtass jumps Skarpöra. Grå is just right behind her and Högertass joins in on Skarpöra's side. The cats jump around and slap and smack each other and the fight is even but Tryggtass maneuvers out of the fight and then Grå does that as well. Skarpöra confidently but obviously with pain returns to lying in the Sun after the four cats have stood for a while panting and staring at each other.

Grå runs off towards the areas around Skarpöra's expected territory and walks around finding a lot of her scent in the streets. He also talks with cats he meet and find that they overall seems bullied into more or less submission. At least the cats he meet talk of Skarpöra as someone to be submissive towards.

Tryggtass can't stand the invasion of her territory and hangs around with Gast at the street roof to mark that she's not given up although the fight wasn't definitive. She also declares to Skarpöra that she's gonna escalate this to the senate. Skarpöra just ignore her with a facial expression telling that she don't think Tryggtass has the guts or the social standing to pull off such a thing.

Svansglidaren also goes off on his own mission and seeks up a cat skilled in rethorics and convince her to speak for Tryggtass if it should come to a senate hearing and vote in the matter. She agrees with the condition that Svansglidaren becomes her client for a small favour. They both find the suggestion agreeable and tap paws in a gesture parallel to when the humans grabs each other hands to seal a deal.

When Grå returns he walks around the whole of his and Tryggtass territory to get into "her" insula without the cats on the street roof noticing him. He walks up the highest level and climbs up on the tiled roof and shove a tile off the roof to hit Skarpöra but in the process he almost tips himself over the edge as well and in the process several tiles follows the first one and almost hits Tryggtass as well. Skarpöra gets a partial hit on her loin. Having had enough of troubles here she walks off with her underling.

After sundown Tryggtass goes to princeps's secretary to  file a complaint regarding Skarpöra. After a short discussion where the secretary tries to find out if they can't solve it on their own, if they really have to take it to the senate. She says that a meeting will be called after sundown in three days. She also states that if Skarpöra wouldn't turn up it's Tryggtass's right to drag Skarpöra to court, literally, unless Skarpöra would be old or sick. In that case she, with help if needed, would have to carry Skarpöra.

Svansglidaren seeks out a well-off citizen living on top of his workshop on the side of Grå's insula facing the street roof. He reckons it from there would be a good view over the place where the fight and provocations have taken place. As so often when winter is over the window shutters are slightly open but blocked so that fresh air can enter but a burglar has to break it open and awaken the family inside. Unless it's a cat burglar of course, Svansglidaren sneaks through the gap between the shutters and walks up to the sleeping family head and lies down beside him, up close to his face. As Svansglidaren relaxes and start to feel drowsy he inhales some of the man's breath, sniffs it, feels it, atunes himself to the man. Svansglidaren falls to sleep and enters the dream world where all sentient beings souls during sleep partly let go of the body and roams more free than during awaken time. This means they can meet sprits close to the mundane world, good or bad spirits, lares or lemures and all kinds of spirits. Most humans don't remember this though and if they should remember something they usually mix it up with earlier experiences in the mundane world while trying to understand what happened during the dream. Svansglidaren seeks out the man and convinces him that the cat Skarpöra has to go. There's no place around here for such a cat. Luckily cats don't sleep so much during nights as humans do so Svansglidaren wakes up much earlier than the family and sneaks out the same way he came, convinced that he has created a new problem for Skarpöra, something that will benefit him and his friends.

Svansglidaren's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

Soon after the senator, Svansglidaren's burden, had moved into his domus (Domus exiguus) the slaves hadn't cared properly for the fire in the kitchen and some still glowing coal fell to the floor and set fire to the mat in front of the toilet. Svansglidaren toppled a bowl of soup and put out the fire.

Grå was in the vicinity to check out the new cat and noticed the incident. Afterwards Grå witnessed about Svansglidaren's readiness to protect his burden even if he would get punished in the process (for toppling the soup bowl and destroying the slaves's breakfast.

Tryggtass was in the house of the new "neighbour" (the domus is next to her insula) to see what the new cat of the house was up to. When she felt the smoke and ran to the kitchen and found Svansglidaren and the toppled soup bowl she showed Svansglidaren the best hiding place in the house so that Svansglidaren didn't get any blame for the toppled bowl. Tryggtass knew the previous cat in the house and thereby knew the house quite well.

Tryggtass's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

The insula that Tryggtass lives in was cheap build (as they often are in the rapidly expanding Rome) and fell together. Two young human siblings was caught and shut off in the rumble and wasn't found until Tryggtas heard them and led people there for their rescue.

Gast's burden, the senator, was on a walk through Rome with a few slaves when Gast managed to get a slave to follow him to the crumbled building and as the clever slave under guidance of Gast suggested to the senator to rebuild the house to gain popularity among the people and thereby Tryggtass's burdens was helped in a dire situation. The senator could also run a court process against the rival who built the cheap house and thereby get passed him in popularity and dignitas.

Svansglidaren influences his burden, senator Manuel, to support Gast's burden in the rebuilding of the house and thereby helping Tryggtass's burdens and getting both his own burden and Gast's burden a new ally.

Gast's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

When Gast's burden the senator returned to Rome from Alexandria (where Gast had his vision about the senator and that he was his burden) Gast followed him on the boat trip (properly cared for by the sailors, no one wants sto mistreat an Egyptian cat when leaving Egypt). When they arrived to Ostia and the luggage was reloaded to barges for the river trip to Rome the crate with the senators Nile crocodile was dropped and suddenly the senator faced an irritated and hungry crocodile. Gast jumped in between and drove back the crocodile long enough for the handlers to capture it again.

Svansglidaren notices that something supernatural is influencing the crocodile and making it more aggressive than normal but manage to hold it off with his Warding skills.

Since the senator seems to be in an exposed position Grå helps Gast with the protection of the seantor through the streets of Rome when the barges have landed in Rome.


Cat scares off alligator

Cat and alligator decides on who gets dinner

Grå's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

In the middle of a night a burglar climbed in the window of Julia's window (Grå's burden). A short and for the burglar painful struggle erupted and woke up the familia. Sadly the thief managed to escape the same way she came.

Tryggtass was nearby when the burglar and Grå started their fight. When the burglar climbed out the window she got another cat in her head when Tryggtass jumped her from above. When she fell down from the second floor she got delayed and Grå got time to run out and lead the family head to thief who got arrested.

The burglar brought and dropped a flask of poison and Gast finds this and brings it to his burden's slave and shows where it was found. Since the senator that's Gast's burden get most of his pastry from this specific pastry chef he got a valuable lesson on the political climate and the weapons used in the modern Rome (the new principate and the way people achieve they goals as opposed to the old glorious republic).

Gast, a player character for tSoC, c6

Updated 20150424, stunts

Chosen name: Gast/Ghost

Everyday name:  Leo/Leo

Kitten name:  Bruntass/Brownpaw

True name: ---

High concept:
Newly immigrated Egyptian Abyssinian cat shaper

Trouble aspect:
Greater than the rest of the Roman cats because of the Egyptian closer bond to Bastet

Character aspect 1:
Daring

Character aspect 2:
Scheming

Character aspect 3:
Suspicious of...

Description:
Sand coloured siames patterned Abyssinian cat with a brown front paw

Burden:
A lesser senator

Physical stress: 3

Mental stress: 3

Skills:
Shaping +4
Deceive +3
Stealth +3
Territory +2
Will +2
Physique +2
Warding +1
Naming +1
Seeking +1
Notice +1

Stunts:
Deceive, Ventriloquist, +2 at deceiving others that the voice is coming from another adjacent zone.
Stealth, Prowl, +2 to stealth when hearing is the main way to discover the cat.
Stealth, Surprise! Once per session, the cat can reveal itself in a scen where it wasn't participating in from the beginning.
Warding, Invisibility, the cat whispers it's true name backwards and creates an inverted ward around itself which makes it and eventually other animals invisible.
Shaping, Shadow form, by whispering it's true name to the darkness the cat obtains a shadowy form. The cat can see in total darkness, is invulnerable to physical attacks, can slip through a shadow wide cracks but must stay in the shadows and darkness.
Shaping, Disguise, the cat can change it's appearance or even look like another cat.

We also did the FATE Core Phase trio to connect the characters with each other. Those stories will be published separately.

Tryggtass, a player character for tSoC, c6

Chosen name: Tryggtass/Safepaw

Everyday name:  Sansan/Sansan

Kitten name:  Långöra/Longear

True name: ---

High concept:
Experienced and hungry for knowledge acrobat.

Trouble aspect:
Always curious

Character aspect 1:
Keen hearing

Character aspect 2:
Everybody has something good in them

Character aspect 3:
To be decided in early gaming

Description:


Burden:
All the children in her insula

Physical stress: 2

Mental stress: 3

Skills:
Athletics +4
Investigate +3
Stealth +3
Will +2
Notice +2
Burglary +2
Empathy +1
Rapport +1
Lore +1
Territory +1

Stunts:
Investigation: Insatiable curiosity, +2 Will when someone tries to persuade her to stop investigate
Lore: Literate, +2 when reading could help
Athletics: Death from above, Athletics instead of fight when jumping her enemy from above.

We also did the FATE Core Phase trio to connect the characters with each other. Those stories will be published separately.

Svansglidaren, a player character for tSoC, c6

Chosen name: Svansglidaren/Tailsurfer

Everyday name:  Oculus/Oculus

Kitten name:  Svanssnurran/Tailswivel

True name: ---

High concept:
Way too self-confident Warden of Cats. And humans.

Trouble aspect:
Promises the moon

Character aspect 1:
Quick-witted but incautious

Character aspect 2:
Generous

Character aspect 3:
To be decided in the first moments of play

Description:
Small black cat with a distinct white ring around one eye and with a very active tail.

Burden:
Senator Manuel and family, local impopular politicians, iberian, military career into civil office, married to a greek woman, lives in a small domus at Palantine's lowest level.

Physical stress: 2

Mental stress: 3

Skills:
Warding +4
Stealth +3
Burglary +3
Athletics +2
Territory +2
Notice +2
Empathy +1
Will +1
Fight +1
Seeking +1

Stunts:
Burglary: Getaway cat, use Burglary instead of Athletics when fleeing.
Stealth: Prowl, +2 Stealth when hearing is the main way to hear Tailsurfer
Notice: Preternatural awareness, +2 on noticing invisible beings, astral travellers and other subtle supernatural things.

Seeking: Invisible, become one with shadows and darkness and hard to spot.
Warding: Cat walk (exclusive): Become one with the air and create bridges to climb to get to places.
Seeking: Dreamwalking, attune yourself to a sleeping being and visit their dream.

We also did the FATE Core Phase trio to connect the characters with each other. Those stories will be published separately.

Grå, a player character for tSoC, c6

Chosen name: Grå / Grey

Everyday name: Tretass / Three-paw

Kitten name: Purr / Purr

True name: ---

High concept:
Ambitious hunter

Trouble aspect:
Has a very soft spot for good resting places

Character aspect 1:
Open windows must be guarded

Character aspect 2:
Trust associates

Character aspect 3:
Hit hard

Description:
Dappled in different nuances of grey except three paw which are of a reddish colour

Burden:
The daughter of a successful confectioner that lives and works in an insula close to lowest parts of The Palatine Hill. Grey's mother has the rest of the family as her burden.

Physical stress: 3

Mental stress: 3

Skills:
Athletics +4
Burglary +3
Stealth +3
Territory +2
Fight +2
Notice +2
Empathy +1
Will +1
Physique +1
Investigate +1

Stunts:
Burglary: Impossible entry, can get through very small holes.
Stealth: Prowl, +2 if hearing is the main possibility to discover Grey
Athletics: Leaper, +2 på hopp

We also did the FATE Core Phase trio to connect the characters with each other. Those stories will be published separately.

The Secrets of Cats Ancient Rome Edition, c6

So after a break with another gamemaster and some partly nostalgic science fiction role-playing in a 1980's that never was, partly inspired by Simon Stålenhag's pictures (http://www.simonstalenhag.se/ http://simonstalenhag.tumblr.com/) we're back in ancient Rome, sentient animals and me as gamemaster. It's not ferrets this time (which actually wasn't in ancient Rome) but cats, second best to ferrets. The setting was chosen by voting in a simple Google forms. Everyone put one to five points on all three ideas:

• Agon, Odysseus wasn't the only hero with a too big ego and therefore was misled on the way home from Troy.
• Tooth and Claw The Ancient Rome Edition, unknowingly by man many households are kept safe from many different dangers by the ferrets in the household. The sentient ferrets work under cover of an image of non-sentient careless pets and often by night. Some magical beings from Greco-Roman mythology exists but it's very low-key.
• The Secrets of Cats The Ancient Rome Edition, men and women doesn't know about it but many of the dangers for humankind is averted by the sentient cats who work under cover of an image of non-sentient non-caring egoistic pets. The whole ancient Mediterranean mythology, almost all of it at least is true; from Baal and Jahve to Zeus and Iupiter, from roman nature spirits, lemures, penates to greek heros. The magic i still quite low-key and the cats have to keep everything a secret but the magic is much more present and common. Humans don't have a full insight in this though.

The Secrets of Cats won so we made characters last night and I will present the characters here and try to blog some about the adventures here. The system chosen is FATE Accelerated with some additions from FATE Core.

Mouse Guard SPQM source material

Planning for some Mouse Guard SPQM work; illustrations and some guard related stuff.

Roma obscura session 5b (c2s5b)

After cleaning up after the battle with the pirates the two cohorts march on towards Delphi. The resources are used effectively and each day's march well planned. Since Atia has a good reputation among the legionaires they make an extra effort for her and they march on effectively like a roman troop should, even a little better than that and although they are short on resources they don't end (Check; Lead the march to Delphi effectively, Militarist, Passed). Everyone is looking forward to be stationed close to more civilised areas with a big city though.

As they are closing in to Delphi they send a message to the king of Delphi that they are coming and are gonna be stationed there to keep the order of Rome and when possible help Delphi with what they can. A few days later, close to Delphi The right hand of the king of Delphi met up and greet them. He is very polite, almost overly so, and tells them that they can camp about a half day's march from Delphi. That won't do according to Atia and Mettia and after some discussion they have to give them an area close to the city for a third of the troops. The two parts of the troops get one guide each and as The right hand of the king of Delphi leaves they march on. Atia take her cohort and Mettia's third maniple to the big camp further away and Mettia take her forst and second maniple to the area close to Delphi.

Mettia guide show them an area of dried out land, hard totaly dry land with cracks in it. As they stand there the wind blow some dust in their eyes. The area looks like something where factorys once were and strange experiments were carried out. Mettia and the guide exchange polite phrases in something that could be called greek and somewhere along the line the guide calls Mettia a cow, at least that's what Mettia hears. Now the discussion is finished, the greeks may treat their own women like second class humans without citizen rights but no greek shall stand here or anywhere else and call her a cow. She is firstborn, family head-to-be, tribune and lead for 600 legionaries and cavallry and auxilaries. She has the guide to show them another area close to the mountains where there will be shadows all the time instead of sun but that's better. The area is also actually possible to dig trenches in and there's wood for building and fire and grass for the donkies and oxens. It is a little close to The Inspired One's factories though but hopefullly no too bad smoke will blow on them (End of Player's Turn).

As Atia arrive to their area she send a messanger to the owner of the land, a Markos, to tell him why they're here and that his land was appointed to them by the king himself.

Roma obscura, a change of rules

So far we have in the Roma obscura campaign run the Mouse Guard rules but this doesn't fit well with one of the players that think it's to much rules and some strange effects as lingering Conditions or too much effects bound to rules rather than pure role playing. Therefore we decided to try the rules from the swedsih game Magneter och mirakler.



The rules in Magneter and mirakler are quite simple and very much based around everything important having aspects that can be used sometimes, quite often or often depending on the level of the aspect. To this is added a system for story conflict resolution where the antagonist and protagonist use an aspect if they like to. If one of them do, that one decides the outcome, if both do, it's a even call and the conflict is escalated. In an escalated conflict the two parties can use as many fitting aspects as they want and then they roll a six sided dice each and add their bonuses. The one with the highest result decides the outcome.



The rules has some more details as aspects having both negative and positvie sides and a rule for making the gamers use both negative and positive sides of their characters to make the game more interesting.



This is the characters we ended up with (Mouse Guard originals can be found earlier in the blog):



Mettia Equitus Hirrus:

Game setting: +5/-5

Rationally convincing: +2/-2

Social: +1/-1

Honestly outspoken: -+1/-3

Childhood in a senatorial family: +1/-1

Tactics-wise tribune: +2/-1

Has greek enemy: +1/-2

Cares for her own integrety: +2/-2

Intrigued by Inspired Ones and Meta-Physis: +1/-1

Trained fighter: +2/-1



Atia Lucius Quintilius:

Game setting: +5/-5

Seasoned legionary leader: +2/-1

Action takes precedence before status: +2/-2

Pedgogical retor: +1/1

Disciplined: +2/-1

Conscientious administrator: +1/-2

Conflict-filled order of duty*: +1-3

Military tactician: +1/-1

Cartographer with field experience: +1/-2

Doesn't waste time: +3/-1



* Rome -> Family -> Forefathers -> Me

Expected to be Rome -> Forefathers -> Family - Me



We also set some themes for the campaign, this part of the campaign:

- Roma's plan for Achaea

- Atia's and Mettia's mission

- Roman brats in Achaea

- The Inspired Ones

- Greek honour

- Greek conflicts



All aspects and themes are translated from swedish and might therefore differ some fom what's intended and will be used in the game.

Roma obscura session 5a (c2s5a)

As the weather gets better but the winter's not formally over competitions between the cohorts are held and in the end of the winter a winner is coroned. It's Atia's cohort that takes home the most victories and the final total victory. During the games the centurions have showed their well known engagement in their units and if they keep that spirit up when it comes to battle they might be as spoken wnd written about as Gaius Julius Caesar's famous centurions.

At the first day of Early Summer they celebrate the Rosalia signoris where the standars are decorated and honoured and then they march northwards toward Delphi. Atia resumes the correspondance with the brats and for someone being able to read between the lines it seems that she's actually trying to deceive them into behaving in the most brattish roman way one might imagine, probably to help spark the conflict in Sparta they think Rome wants.

As they march on they hear rumours about pirate fleets but reckon that they wont attack two full cohorts and also they are often marching not so close to the coast as to worry. Mettia also starts to have weekly meetings with all her centurions in addition to the regular meetings with her, Atia and the centurio senior (the leaders for the six maniples). Besides trying to get a better general contact with her cohorts she's trying to get some response on why her cohort didn't win the games.

Since the first harvests not been done yet the food is still taken from diminishing winter storages and is therefore a little expensive. They try to get as much fish as possible since that food isn't as dependent on the season as the otherwise used (and normally cheaper grains). They hold on to the existing money to make it last until they ge more funds from Rome via Athens. A part of this is to transfeer some money rewards to free time rewards and to not have too much effect on the security by not having enough guarding personell they also spread the free time out so it doesn't always come in direct connection to the action that led to the reward (Obstacle, Administrator, Passed).

The coast seems safe and quiet although the rumours about pirates.

They haven't been starting to feel safe a long time when scouts return like hunted and tell that they have seen an anchored war fleet, presumably pirates. As Atia and Mettia discuss the matter at hand more scouts arrive and tell them that the pirates has left the ships and is moving for an attack.

The attack is quite well prepared and well started but the good roman legionaries and Atia's and Mettia's leadership is holding them off and slowly pushing them backwards. Now the pirate start to retreat and actually do a mostly organized retreat and then flee which give them the possibility to get away from the legionaries and are only floowed by the quite few cavallerists in the troop which much minimizes their losses (Obstacle, Complex; Militarist for preparations for battle and Militarist for the actual battle, Passed).

The attack seemed to have been well prepared and obviously they have had good knowlegde of where the cohorts have been and that the weak point is the baggage train in the middle and it seemed they were specifically going for the part with the money for wages and supplies.

Neither the cohorts nor the pirates suffer any great losses but quite a bunch of pirates fell for the persuing cavallerists. They iterrogate villagers in the area but they dont seem to have cooperated with the pirates and seem quite scared for the pirates (and the romans).

After clearing up the area they march away some to get away from the good ambush area wich seem to be appreciated by the villagers (End of GM's Turn).

Roma obscura Winter session 1

The two cohorts dig in at Mountain-Pass and seem to be able to get food reasonably easy as long as they pay maybe a little too much. The area doesn't seem to fare too ill but the leaders and councils of the small cities around the area is talkative and kind of elusive in their talk and not to happy with the kings of Sparta guiding them there but hopefully they and the cohorts will get along.

Mettia tries to find out the relation between Mountain-Pass and Sparta and finds that they have a quite frozen relationship. Sparta has no real sway over Mountain-Pass but pretends to and of course guided the two cohorts there as if it was a noble gesture from the kings and an act of kindness towards their guests. In reality they managed to get the cohorts of their land and eating somebody else's food the whole winter.

Atia is still curious and confused about their diffuse mission description and some of the decisions made about their legion's reinforcement of the first legion in Graecia. She ponders the matter and and discusses with Mettia and the centurio senior primus of both cohorts. They come to the conclusion that the mad act of putting the two brats in Sparta probably is made to provoke the kings and the brats into something less controlled actions that will need invention and thereby give Rome an excuse to break down on Sparta.

As for their own mission they realize that not only is the praetor in Athens believing that the mad inventor in Delphi is onto something valuable but so does Rome. They might have landed in the middle of something big and probably Rome is watching. Their missions isn't simple though since they should protect the inventor AND keep the order in Delphi. That implies that there is some problems with the order and disorder is seldom good when someone should be protected. They can't just convince the inventor to come with them to Rome (or take him) because then they won't be upholding the order in Delphi as they're supposed to do.

After the winter's slower cadence and contemplation these characters have evolved:

Atia Lucius Quintilius

Age: 33

Title: tribunes (fourth year, wants to get to the next carreer step)

Belief: The right action is neither lessened nor amplified by the origin of the actor.

Instinct: Never waste time!

Traits: disciplina 1, legionary honour 2, prudentia 1

Nature: 3 Will: 5 Health: 4

Auctoritas (resources): 7 Dignitas (circles): 7

Friend: Atilius Marcus Qunitus, prosperous merchant that has sponsored Valerius Lucius Qunitilius' (Atia's father) election campaigns.

Enemy: Secundus Titus Aurelius, upcoming politician that has collided with Atia.

Skills and wises:

Fighter 3

Healer -

Hunter 2

Instructor 4

Pathfinder -

Scout 2

Survivalist -

Weather watcher -

Orator 3

Deceiver 2

Persuader 2 X out of 3 needed

Rider 2

Cartographer 2

Militarist 3

Adminstrator 3

Ceremony Master 1 X out of 3 needed

Mission-wise 1

War-wise 1

Mob-wise 1

Nobiles-wise 1

Mettia Equitus Hirrus

Age: 31

Title: tribunes (second year, wants to stay on practical levels of the army, no politics)

Belief: The world needs less politics.

Instinct: There is always a good tactic to the kill.

Traits: comititas 1, rational 1, honestas 1

Nature: 2 Will: 5 Health: 4

Auctoritas (resources): 7 Dignitas (circles): 6

Friend: Caelus Tuccius Pius, childhood friend. They were neighbours as childs. I many ways he's the opposite of Mettia, a real carreer politician. They meet sometimes and is good friends although their differences. They often have giving discussions about politics, strategy and how to make a carreer.

Enemy: Kiria av Delfi, the king of Ithaka's sister's daughter. Odros of Ithaka (the king's son) was held as Rome's guest to further the realationships between Rome and Ithaka (hostage). When the king appeared to give pirates harbour space on his island he was ordered to give up their names and force them out on the sea where they could be dealt with. The king refused and as a punishment as and as a mean to get him into other thoughts his son was killed. Mettia was the one carrying out the killing. The victim's cousin Kiria of Delphi was very much insulted and angry and grieved her cousin. She sought out who was involved and is thinking of how to carry out revenge.

Skills and wises:

Fighter 3

Healer 2

Hunter 3

Instructor -

Pathfinder 2

Scout -

Survivalist -

Weather watcher -

Orator 3

Deceiver 2

Persuader 3

Militarist 4

Baker 2

Rider 2

Strategy-wise 1

Tactics-wise 1

Sparks-wise 1

Cursus honoris-wise 1

Metaphysicist 2

Delphi-wise 2

Roma obscura session 3b (c2s3b)

The four cohorts led by Atia leave the village, the outpost and the crucified prisoners but march on on alert, ready to fight back a retaliation attack. It's slow but safe and no attack comes and a few days' marches from Sparta ten hoplites demand to meet the leader for the romans. Atia and Mettia meet up with them and meet king Arros of Sparta.

He asks questions and wonders how they're gonna solve the food question. He thinks they are ducking the questions and not really are answering and so they are. He leaves not satisfied. Atia and Mettia sees that as more his problem than theirs.

Mendros, second king of Sparta, meet them later and asks the same questions. Atia and Mettia explain that only half of the troop will stay in Sparta and the rest will march on nortwards. The king helps them with info about the road north and a tip on where they can spend the winter. The best way to march for them happen to not go to Sparta but rather leave Sparta's territory rather soon. Since Atia and Mettia wants to get as far as possible before winter they and the king aggrees on what is best (this way they eat as little as possible from the areas close to Sparta).

Atia and Mettia are a little worried about leaving the brats alone in Sparta but decide that they have to fulfill their own missions as soon as possible and can't spend all their time disciplining the youngsters. They march on.

But first Atia tries to instruct them as well as she can, about what the mission is exactly about and how to behave. She is distracted by a weird feeling stemming from her forefathers and can't get hold on what's it about. They're dissatisfied by something though, that's clear. Anyway, she and Mettia is convinced that the brats won't manage to start a war before they're out of the way in their winter camp to the west.

They are a bit in a hurry though but manage to get there in time to set up camp and a temporary fort for the winter and has to press on and keep the order tight to get there but they do (Obstacle; Pathfinder, succeed with Condition Sick). Finally they arrive at a place called Mountain-Pass, sick but there in time (End of GM's Turn).

Roma obscura session 3a (c2s3a)

A few days later a feast is held at the praetor's house together with two arkonts from Athens. The brats aren't behaving as usual but the rest of the tribunes manage to show their good side and partly cover the tribunes bad side - the brats - to not be coloured by them as a group (Obstacle: Persuader versus Deceiver 4, Passed). Mattia and Atia take the oppurtunity to ask the arkonts about Greece and mostly of southern Greece and Delphi specifically to show themselves as interested and to get information about hte area they will be travelling through and spend time fulfilling the mission in. The focus is mostly militarily and they get a good and informative conversation going with the arkonts (Obstacle Persuader versus Deceiver 4, Succeed with Condition Angry/Tired => Atia gets a Tool consisting of knowlege of southern Greece, +1D and Mettia get a check on her way to learn Delphi-wise). The arkonts are a little suspicius about these roman military leaders being so curious but not enough to not tell Mettia and Atia a lot as the evening passes on into late night and the praetor doesn't hold back on wine, dancers or lyricists (End of GM's Turn).

Shortly after they get the message that they shall march in two days. Four cohorts will move out to Sparta and two of them on to Delphi). They, Mettia and Atia, start to prepare their troops and get provisions. The brats mostly trust their centurio senior primus to do what's needed and doesn't really care whether it's gonna be any of them.

The next day they're told that the two brats will march with Mettia and Atia to Sparta where the brats will stay with their cohorts and Mettia and Atia march on to Delphi..

As they march westwards during the Dog Days they have troubles with stomach illness among the troops and food quickly becoming unusable and therefore some having a little too little of provisions. By keeping the discipline and paying good for the food they can get they manage to keep the cadence and reach the outskirts of spartan territory when expected (Check: Militarist, Succeed with Condition). It's mostly Atia, Mettia and the troops that make it possible. The brats spend much time among the greeks in the ''picturesque'' ''farming areas'' testing the wines and looking at the girls and boys dancing and probably comparing the loval plump lyrics with the ones of Athens.

As they enter spartan territory they are told that there has been crop failures and that there almost no food to sell. Atia and Mettia ride around and question the village leaders directly but get the same message everywhere. Atia is getting quite suspicious but find no evidence.

During the march Atia sends reports by the local runners back to the praetor in Athens about the progress.

As they march on the the brats are talking about that it's strange that they don't see any typical spartan architecture or other signs of Sparta except for some warriors here and there. Atia and Mettia mostly just let them chatter on and wonder what they are talking about. Farmers are farmers everywhre, or?

The brats start to get bored by the ''picturesque farming area'' and Mettia and Atia can't decide whether they should be amused or worried.  After a while the brts report that their troops and buyers that search south of the road has started to find more food and soon they are getting as mych food needed for their troops whil Atia's and Mettia's scouts and buyers still get too little food and have to spread ut over a wider area and therefore slow down the march. Atia is a little suspicius that the brats are squeezing the farmers but let it be since it will be the brats problem as they're the ones staying in the area. For that to be true though they have to get back to a normal cadence otherwise they will be stuck together with the brats in Sparta. Neither Atia or Mettia thinks high of that outcome.

Not much later they suddenly get a message from the front troops that there are some sort of guard standing in their way. Something like a hundred typical spartan soldiers in full armor standning attention in the middle of the road, actually all over the road. Atia brings her scribe, Mettia and her scribe to the front to speak to them hoping that with their total knowlege in greek should make it possible to communicate with them. At leat hte scribes are not that bad in greek.

They order the tropps to halt as they ride up to the front and stop just out of spear reach of the spartans and tell them that a roman troop under the lead of tribune Atia Lucius Quintilius needs to pass on the road. The soldier in the right front turns and shout something backwards and the soldier at the back left turns and run into a sturdy house on the side of the road, facing a big villiage on the other. Atia and Mettia assume he's telling some commander about the situation and in an attempt to be polite they wait. As an hours time is closing in they decide it has been enough time and they tell the spartans that they will pass no matter they are standing in the road or not and return to their place in the middle of the column. They have a short discussion on how to tackle the spartans and then send the orders for attack.

The furthermost cohort, Atia's, change from four to six files, the small roads hadn't given more room for marching. As Atia's cohort march out to the left, turn around and march back to the right to place themselve with about one half of the  cohort on eachside of the road Atia give the two brats order to take two decuria of cavallery each, one fourth each and ready them selves for encirclement. The brats, happy that something exciting is happening gladly ride away. Atia's cohort has placed itself as a six file snake crossing the road and everyone makes a left face and the six file marching order has become a six line battle line, ready to kill. All the time the spartans has just observed them like they were just clock work men that has run out of torsion power. Atiaäs centurio senior primus sends report back the some hundred meters along the rest of the front half of the troops and baggae train to the tribunes. Atia immediately orders attack.

As the legionaires march forward the spartans during silence form up for a battle line but being only a fifth as many they will have to do well to stop the romans, and that's just one out of four cohorts. On the other hand, everyone has heard about the 300 spartans at Thermopyle. The two front lines throw their spears and the spartans lift their big round shields and although some get hurt badly and fall down they are just silently replaced and the spartans big round shields do a good job to protect them from the spears and not many shields get pierced and weighted down by a pilum, rather the pilii slide off.

The jogging legionaires and spartans tackle each other with the shields and stab at each other, each with their pros and cons with spears or short swords. The spartans can't stand the four times as many romans and start to back down. The brats readies the cavallery.

The spartans fall and the romans slowly move forward driving the fewer and fewer standing spartans backwards. Their lines start to look thin and although the spartans aren't known for running away the cavallerists close up och each side of the legionaires, ready to encircle any escapers. THen suddenly the lines break and the spartans actually flee. The cavallery rides of, makes a circle and stab och ride down the fleeing spartans and drive the remaing ones into a circle of legionaries and cavallerists. Now the spartans surprise the romans again by giving themselves in. About a fifth of the spartans still stand and are disarmed and tied up. legionaries are sent to the house and Atia and Mettia themselves ride over to have a look. As expected it seems to be some sort of border post or inn for runners and marching soldiers. They find an office but someone has burnt some papers there lately. Atia and Mettia quickly go through the other paers and collect what seems to be inventories to be able to get a grip on troops in the area and maybe also food in the area. They then return to the troops and order them to be at war state since runner(s) presumably has lsipped away and if someone will try something they will know about them and what has happened.

The psartans are quesitoned but show some spartan traits and don't tell anything interesting and since there's no time for detailed questioning and they should anyhow be punished with the death so Atia orders them to be crucified. When that's done the column marches on but no prepared for battle or ambush.

Atia also decides to send a special report back to the legates and the praetor and because of the recent events she decide to use some of their own cavallery to fulfill the missions. Two pairs of riders are sent on different routes and at slightly different time to make it harder for any rebellious spartans to stop both messages (Check, give as good orders that at least one of the messages arrive: Militarist versus Militarist 3D, Passed). The riders later actually reach Athens and the praetor but that of course Atia doesn't know.

During their further travel Atia gets into a conflict with the eldest brat who almost, almost challenge her on a fight but she refuses to let private matters risk any of them or their ability to fullfill the mission during the mission. Private amtters has to wait until some other time. The brat feeling dishonoured storms off but there is no fight and the cohorts continue to march towards Sparta. Atia promises to record the events in one of her reports to the praetor (End of Player's Turn).