The World According to Gurps

On Wednesday night I went to the wake of the dad of one of my players, Vannie Tan.

She told me our decision to run our game last Sunday, April 23, 2006 did a lot of good insofar as her family was concerned. She says her dad had suffered a heart attack in December 2005. He celebrated his birthday recently and the family was deciding when to hold the party. Vannie arranged to have the party on Saturday, April 22, 2006, partly because of our scheduled game the next day. She said the party pushed through and the whole family, as well as her dad had a great time.

Shortly after that, her dad suffered a heart attack sometime in the wee hours of the Sunday morning. He passed away peacefully the next day.

As I write this, my prayers go out for the repose of the soul of Mr. Vicente J. Tan. I also pray for his family. I know Mr. Tan is now in the presence of our Almighty Father. He's in a better place and having a blast enjoying himself.

Vannie said if the game was not set for Sunday, the party would have probably be set on Sunday night. The way things turned out, if the party was set on Sunday night, her family would not have had a chance to have a great time with their dad.

I guess everything really happens for a reason.

I've been getting feedback from Kurtz. In true Engineer style, he suggests using a pair of webcams and running a game with De Grasse on the other end.

I say its sounds good. We'll give this a shot.

Slightly before 2:00 p.m. last Sunday, I was pulling out of my parking slot and heading towards Doc Ben-g's place to referee our game. My cellphone chimes and I get a text message. It's from Emmanuel, a long time die hard role player who is now based in the United States. Emmanuel's been playing in my games since 1990, when I ran Twilight 2000 for his group from DLSU. Earlier on, Emmanuel's been complaining of the lack of gaming he now experiences in the states. I ran a Gurps Traveller play be email (PBEM) RPG earlier this year but it petered out because of many reasons, amongst others, player fatigue.

Emmanuel texted me from another time zone to ask how the Gurps:Fading Suns (G:FS) game was coming along. It's times like these when I wish we had things like stepping discs from Larry Niven's Ringworld to allow us to teleport instantly into another continent. In this way, Emmanuel could just drop in, game with us, and 'port back to the U.S. in time for supper. Alas, this is only a dream.

Emmanuel was part of my original Fading Suns group, back in 1998 when we started with the FS first edition of rules (I recall it was based on a softback edition by HDI- my copy is still around but almost disintigrating already). Doc Ben-g and JY were also in that original group. He played the Revered Brother Battle Charles de Grasse, an idealistic yet battle-hardened warrior of the faith. I'd describe Rev. de Grasse as being like your favorite spiritual adviser meets the Jedi. Oh, and he always described him as someone who looked like Jeremy Irons in the movie The Mission.

Emmanuel played de Grasse with a passion. I wish he were here in Byz II with the current cast of characters. I'd have liked to see how de Grasse would turn out in Gurps.

HAving all this in mind, I ran the game up to this scene:

Sir Damien Hawkwood strides into the sumptuous dining chamber of the Seabreeze Club along southern the coast of Harmony City and meets up with Sir Arthur Conolly. The two friends exchange pleasantries and admire the view of the Caspian Ocean as the mist lifts slowly. Above, the fading suns glow faintly.

A tall man in a black suit strides in. He is wrapped in a rather worn grey cloak and leans on a short staff. He is seated at a table on the room's far side and is served a heaping plate of the day's special. He has that faraway look, as if he is contemplating something; like he is constantly struggling to ease the burdens weighing heavily upon his soul.

The noblemen glance sideways at the tall man who pays them scant notice. As Sir Damien looks away, his eye falls upon the tall man's pendant, which shines briefly as it catches the light. It is the jumpgate cross with an upright sword blade.

"Ah, he is a church warrior, a Brother Battle."

I recall describing him as someone who looks like Jeremy Irons. I guess Ben-g and JY had their minds set on something else so they failed to make the connection. Ah, well, next time then...

Emmanuel, if you are reading this, rest assured that the Revered Brother Battle Charles de Grasse is alive and well and walks the paths 'twixit the Dark Between the Stars".

5002-267 1947H

Alive! Now I know how those old bikers felt. I'm really glad I got a hold of this old "Rattlesnake". Definitely worth the investment I put into it. And considering it was in poor condition when I first found it. Now it growls like the meanest metaapuma.

Ought to thank Azim for introducing me to Artie. He's really the best when it comes to reconditioning these babies. Nice enough to also teach me his tricks. I hope he can teach me more.

As I drift through this seldom used highways and look at the sun as it settles below the horizon, it really gives one a feeling of what Harmony should truly be or can be. Everyone should get a bike. This is great therapy. With all the crap I have to take in at work, I really need this kind of break. I never knew how much I lost when I left home. Then again, I remember what I did gain when I decided to pack up and leave.

Now at least with Rattler I can have a chance to enjoy the simpler pleasures in life again. To feel the wind and smell the good clean air. To be free, even for just a few hours, of the drury repetitiveness of my work.

We're gonna go places, Rattler.

Vroom vrooooooooom!!!!

I just knew working for Nobles would be a hassle. They just don't know how to do business with the real world. Darned babies.

What do they think? That information on this Weller guy will just be handed out on a silver platter when they snap their fingers? 250 firebirds for information AND a "service" provider?

Ah well, they were lucky Drakar was under the influence of one of his exotic "dragon-breath" again. He would have scalped them for more. Heh. Speaking of which, I ought remind him of the money he owes me.

This Gareth fellow seems to be a kindered spirit. Kind of hyper but he knows his stuff. I'm hoping it's not a one night thing.

Much more interesting though is this Anunnaki gargoyle we've been sent to "recover". It is quite an artifact. Have to remember to gather more info on it. That the Baroness wants it means it's very valuable indeed. Wonder if the Boss has any other instructions for me? I'll ask him in the morning.

Oh shoot, speaking of which, I should tell whatzhizname about what I've done to the Reeve program and make sure he doesn't sniff too much on certain parts of it. The Boss might get angry that his little pet project for the Reeves might be discovered.

Anyway, I do hope these pampered babies get their act together so Drakar and I can get down to the business of locating this Weller fellow.

If they want to party with their snooty pals, that's fine for me and Drakar. We know where the real party will be.

That's day 103 of the year 5006AD, using the Gregorian Calendar of Holy Terra. Our characters are on Byzantium Secundus, the Imperial capital planet. Byz II is a little smaller than Earth, its seas cover about 80% of the planet and it has a population of 6 billion people. Calling it overcrowded is a understating matters a bit too much. Its always raining on Byz II, as the ancient terrforming engines of the fallen Republic have begun to give up. The weather, as with everything else is slowly going haywire.

The drama starts with the introduction of the dramatis personae:

Sir Damien Hawkwood - a rebellious 23 year old nobleman, scion of the powerful Hawkwood family. Sir Damien is rich, powerful and smart. He also is very ambitious - he wants to carve out a name for himself. Played by Dr. Benjamin Perez.

Sir Arthur Conolly - at 26, Sir Arthur is a brooding, humorless nobleman who is thoroughly competent with the blade as he is with the blaster. He manages part of his family's sprawling fiefdom in Harmony City. Played by JY Perez.

Entered Engineer De Shawn Kurtz - Engineer Kurtz is a bright young Guildsman, member of the elite Order of Engineers. As such he is a redeemer of all things technological and arcane. Played by Dick Sy.

Scraver Genin Drakar - Being a Scraver manager is not for the fainthearted. Manager Drakar lives by his wits: he's moneyed, urban and very, very sleazy. Played by Henry Vargas

Gareth - No known first name. He's a commoner who's always lurking in the shadows. Rumored to be an agent of the Imperial Eye, his Imperial Majesty's Intelligence Service. Played by Russell Tomas.

Baroness Sincerity Decados - filthy rich and very deadly. The Baroness presently conducts her business in the megasprawl of Harmony on Byz II. Played by Vannie Tan.

The story so far:

Sir Damien received a personal request for assistance from his liege Baroness Patricia Hawkwood. As she owns a majority share in a Think Machine foundry of which he is a part owner, Sir Damien heeds the Baroness's summons and meets with her at the foundry's main office.

Therein he is introduced to Gareth and Engineer Kurtz, whom the Baroness' secretary say could be of assistance to him. The Baroness requests Sir Damien and his party to retrieve an mysterious artifact in the form of a silver gargoyle. The Baroness' sources claim that the artifact is in the possession of a retired veteran called Weller. Weller, it seems now lives near the more unsavory part of Harmony City called The Slum, catering to his many vices.

When Sir Damien agrees, Engineer Kurtz suggests they avail of the extensive streetwise contacts of his fellow guildsman, one Master Drakar. Sir Damien agrees and details are hammered out over a sumptuous dinner al fresco on the terrace of Sir Damien's penthouse suite of the Pointspire Arcology. There, they are joined by Sir Arthur and Master Drakar.

The discussion becomes lengthy and tempers flare: Sir Arthur has to be calmed down by Gareth before he takes it upon himself to run Master Drakar for his impudence. It appears things will liven up before the party members learn to work together....


In the real world

We started pretty late, as Doc Ben-g had to help out his fiancee with medical duties. Henry thought he could not make it, but as usual, he managed to come in right before the game. We did not have Russell and Vannie as Vannie's dad was hospitalized in the morning. Nikos did not have a prepared character but he still showed up. He ended up playing Gareth in place of Russell. He played real well.

This is the first time we really took the Gurps job tables and social rank, wealth and reaction rules seriously. We like them! It only shows that these rules really work well with a social status-intensive game setting like Fading Suns. We didn't really do much dice rolling and for once: no combat this game session, but no one was complaining.

I think we did something right.

So we finally got it going. My players and I finally got back into one of our common passions: Role Playing Games.

Remember when you were a little kid and played cowboys and indians (or cops and robbers to the more urban oriented crowd)? One group of kids would pretend they were the cowboys and the other crowd would pretend they were the indians. They we'd all hop on our imaginary horses, ride off into the imaginary mesa, seek out our opponents and for the cowboys, draw imaginary peacemakers and let fly at the indians while the otherside ran around them whooping their warcries and firing away imaginary arrows at the cowboys. That was noisy, frantic and a truckload of fun.

Well, today, we grew up into adulthood. Much that it is still fun to go running around the park pretending at cowboys and indians we found another way to do this. There are games today that allow you to take the part of a cowboy or an indian and live out your part in a story in the old wild west. Sort of like a more technically oriented version of 'let's pretend...' (which is essentially what cowboys and indians was all about). These games carried the whole thing further and came up with entire worlds (and universes!) wherein you could play 'let's pretend' in. Instead of just cowboys and indians, you could now play the part of a knight, a wizard, a spaceman, a soldier, a vampire, or a superhero. The permutations are now virtually enless and truly, it is only the player's imagination which is the limit.

This is essentially what a Role Playing Game is. There are computer-based RPGs and there are pen and paper and dice versions. My friends and I are more into the second variety.

There's been so much said about RPGs, much of it, bad. I guess there was a time they associated RPGs with devil-woshipping-angst-driven nutcases. So if you are one of the Jack Chick bible humping crowd, feel free to move on... you may not like what's written here (but then again, who knows? keep reading... you might learn something new and change your ways). These days, people appear to be getting more civilized. Nowadays, my RPG playing kindred are not so much looked at as devil worshipping misfits but rather as people of a more, er, cerebral inclination. Anyhow, who knows, maybe in 10 years or so, the public will grow to accept us even more. Either that or pen and paper RPGs will be so obsolete because every tom, dick and his mother will be plugged into a Virtual Reality environment for fun.

After a month long effort of typing, re-typing, and reading old sourcebooks, I finally finished my gamers' notes for Gurps: Fading Suns. So what is this?

First, the Gurps part - this stands for Generic Universal Role Playing Game Sytem. Gurps is a versatile RPG set of rules that allows you to play 'let's pretend' in any time and any place. If you want to know more about Gurps, check out this link: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/ This is our system of choice and we're using the rules for our game here.

Secondly, there's the Fading Suns part. Fading Suns is a setting for a science fantasy RPG by Holistic Design Inc. Their link is here: http://www.holistic-design.com/introFS.htm. As you can see from the link, Fading Suns is set in the 50th millenium, humanity lives in a dark age after a powerful, enlightened, technologically oriented civilization has collapsed. Worse, the suns are fading away (if you guessed that this has something to do with the game's title, you guessed right).

The result: Gurps Fading Suns. I got to playing and pretty much buying up most of the Fading Suns game books in the early 2000s and ran a few games using their system. I loved the milleiu. I'm a big fan of Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer and Frank Herbert's Dune. So I could really relate to the setting of Fading Suns which took a lot of elements from these books. The thing is, I was never satisfied with the game system. So I decided to do what I almost always invariably ended up doing in the past: getting a great gaming setting and plunking it down into the Gurps rules.

It took some effort but heck,looks like its working.

Henceforth, this blog is a record of our intrepid party's story in the endtimes of the Fading Suns.