GamernationCon 4: A New Hope

GM’s Log, 40317.11; I find myself at the end of yet another GamerNation Con. This was the 4^th such con in existence, my 3^rd.  All and all, travel to the convention was uneventful which is how I prefer it.

Andrew accompanied the away team on this expedition. Dono and Eric would join the party at Ten 50 BBQ down in Texas. We rented an intermediate-sized SUV, since there would be four of us getting back to the airport on Monday. We were almost given a Jeep Cherokee when I noticed a Nissan Rouge waiting in line.

We elected to “go rogue”.

Ten 50 BBQ was a great place to start the adventure. I’m not much of a BBQ guy, I like grilling but ribs and most other traditional barbeque is lost to me (much like beer), but Ten 50 BBQ had many things for me to enjoy; especially the Angry Orchard on tap. Greetings, handshakes, and hugs were had with the Gamer Nation in attendance. We ate, we talked, and then broke to the hotel.

GNC 2017 was hours away.

Thursday

I elected to run The Justice League of the Republic module first; an 8 hour epic with the Justice League reimagined as Jedi knights. The module went well, the PCs were appreciative and enjoyed the story. A rousing success for a first run (live Beta, if you will). I found that the first scene lasted way too long (almost 3 hours), so some changes would need to be made. The big reveal of Darkseid as the final villain fell flat, but that was due to some errors I made in storytelling. Even so, two members of the Norwegian Delegation were able to get seats at my table, and told me later that the module set a high bar for them for the rest of the convention. I finished off by playing in Wes Goodwin’s module as a Heavy (IHC-187) in a story involving an Imperial Commando Team and a bio-weapon.  Good times.  Total Hours GM’d; 8 

Friday

I was able to get in on a Savage Rifts game run by Darren West. Because I just happened to bring my old Glitter Boy mini from 1994, I got to play a Glitter Boy in the module. They play so much better in Savage Rifts than Palladium Rifts; much more balanced.  I took a short break, and got in a game of Artemis; the Starship Bridge Simulator. I state once again; I need to get some friends with laptops and get this game.  At 4pm I ran the JLR a second time, ending a little after midnight.  This run went much smoother.  Total Hours GM’d: 16

Saturday

IF you can only make it to one day of GamernationCon, Saturday is the day to come. I started off with a follow up to last year’s Fallout: Edge of the Wasteland module, titled “Fratricidal Tendencies”. Last year’s module was a showcase of the Fallout hack of Edge of the Empire I wrote. This module was a lot truer to the theme of Fallout, where there are rarely good choices, only a series of gradually worse choices. The players enjoyed the module, especially Burt who got to play Percy the Super-Mutant again.

I had to end Fallout quickly, because as soon as it ended I was on tap with GM Chris and GM Dave for the premiere of “The Black Nova Gambit” using the FFG Star Wars RPG system. The Gambit is a delve; 3 GMs, 18 PCs, 3 teams, 3 scenarios each 1 hour long real-time. The premise is a group of Jedi, Commandos, and Pilots simultaneously assaulting Darth Revan’s super battleship before it can attack the Republic. Finish the objective within an hour, success or failure will affect later scenarios in not only your group, but other groups as well. Running the Gambit was IN-SANE fun. After scenario one, where the Jedi squad finished their objective in 28 minutes, one of my players asked with some concern “are these going to get harder as they go on?”  Two hours later, those same Jedi are shouting “ROLL THE DICE!” as they are within 3 minutes of failing the objective of the whole damn delve. After 4 hours of frantic action and daring saves, the Republic scored a total success against the Sith, only suffering the loss of one valiant jedi who got sucked out an airlock after grappling with one of the villains.

At 8pm, GamerNation After Dark beings; which is the alcoholic gaming portion of the Con. I purposefully set aside time during After Dark to get a game in with players I wanted; GM Chris, GM Dave, GM Hooly, Andrew, Keith Kappel, and GNC2017 Guest of Honor Kat Ostrander from FFG. I was looking forward to this after getting my party together a couple days before; I’ve never GM’d GM Chris or Dave in all the years we’ve been friends (or maybe Dave once?), and Kat was very excited to get the chance to play after hearing about the game from Sam Stewart’s experience at last year’s con. Hooly is too fun to game with, I’ve been trying to get Keith at my table for a couple years, and Andrew would pick up on all the in-jokes of running a game set in the post-apocalyptic Hoosac Valley. GM Dave valiantly gave up his seat at my table for another con attendee Andy (Ross?) who had two games he pre-reg’d for blow up on him as the GM cancelled their events. Dave wanted Andy to have a good experience, and gaming with the celebrities and “celebrities” of the con in my module seemed to hit the spot. The game couldn’t have gone better; good people, good game, good RP, and good drinks (the apple moonshine Sarah sent me down with was throat singeing candy, lovely lovely burn-y candy).

After an hour or so of sobering up, and talking with some good friends like Chris Bradshaw, we headed back to the hotel at 2am. Total GM’d hours; 28.

Sunday

After about 4 hours of sleep and a meal, I was back at the con for my final run of “Fratricidal Tendencies”. I had to be done by 2pm for the closing auction to the Con, and we finished with about 15 minutes to spare. It was a glorious run, and a great way to end my GNC2017 gaming experience. Total Hours GM’d; 32; 2 over the 30 necessary for “Iron GM’, which was my third so I earned the “Titanium GM” badge (90 hours of GMing at multiple GNCs).

The auction was great; every hour of gaming earns you “xp” to bid on items at the end of con auction. Andrew and I pooled our resources, and received a few more donations from others who didn’t need their XP. I got a mini painted by Darren West, and Andrew got a few cool games. As I posted in another post, Sarah’s quilt was highly sought after by a few bidders, the person who won confided in me that her quilt was the one item THEY WERE GOING TO GO HOME WITH. Fortunately, they had the 520 xp needed to win it.

Final Thoughts

The 8 hour JLR module was a success, but I’ll be very unlikely to run it in the future.  8 hours in one sitting is too much, both from a stamina perspective and a “give more players a chance to play” perspective. I run 8 games (basically) at GNC, that’s 48 slots that 12 folks got to double up on, locking out another 12 attendees from gaming in a game with me. That’s not fair, and something I should have considered. Seven so, it was fun, and folks enjoyed being super-heroes in Star Wars.  (“I’m Hawk-Batman…”)

Fratricidal Tendencies was a nigh-total success; folks really enjoyed the story, the plot twist, and the final encounter. I say “nigh” total because I would have been happier if I had finished painting one of the important minis in the way I described him. Ah well.

The Black Nova Gambit was BRILLIANT, and big kudos to GM Chris for adapting his Saga Module to FFG. It can REALLY only be run at a Convention, you need that space and player pool to draw from. There were ideas from GM Dave to head up to Minneapolis and run it at FFG’s Gaming Center. 

Now there’s a thought…

I’ve really fallen in love with this con; it’s a trip I look forward to every year for the past few years 

now. I miss my wife, horribly, but my family in Texas do a real good job at distracting me. 😉

Final shout outs to my cohosts Chris and Dave, Krista who runs a mean Con, Hudson, Hooly, Keith, and Brev, Darren and his gaming crew, Larry and Will on Artemis, Jegergryte and the Norwegian crew, and all the pcs at my table as players under me or fellow players. Bonus shout-outs to Kat Ostrander (you have my card 😉), and Andrew, Dono, and Eric as my glorious away team companions.

Until next year at GNC 5 and The Order of Gamers; May the Dice be with you!

2017: A Better Year

Welcome to 2017 people.

It's going to be a weird year, I can tell that already. I'll take a weird year after last year. I could use a year of self improvement and upward progress. A year of learning from past mistakes and making whole new ones.

I'm still in a creative slump, for a number of reasons. Oddly, I'm role-playing as a player more than I am as a GM of late. I'm trying to bring Another Longshot to a close but am having difficulty scheduling the last few sessions between the two parties. But there's light and hope that I may be able to get these lined up to finish by the end of Spring.

Once that game sets, the question of "what next?" arises.  I've had a few campaign ideas kicking around my head:

• Trinity, or Whatever I'm Calling It -  I'd really hate for all the World Building work I did last October be for naught, but I'm having a hard time and little motivation to continue working on the setting. There are a few contributing factors, but ultimately it comes down to feeling rather unoriginal. I know that "there are no more original stories" and "every story under the sun has been told already" but that doesn't change the fact that it still feels like I took the parts of Starcraft, Babylon 5, Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, and a couple RPGs and tried to mash them together. And because of that, probably, it feels fake to me.

•  Earth 43 - I have ideas kicking around to run a game, maybe a year-long one, that the players are DC heroes but reimagined. Their own versions.  Or, maybe they don't get to choose and session one is the PCs suddenly discovering meta abilities of my choosing. Or something else entirely.  Again, it's only in the proto "this could be fun" stage.

• Justice Council (or "The Jedi League of the Republic") - Along a similar vein, I'm writing a module for GamernationCon 2017 where the Player Characters are all Jedi versions of the Justice League on a mission against a Sith "Legion of Doom".  The module is going to take 6-8 hours to play, but I'm somewhat inspired to run something with more depth. Have it be a few sessions, or maybe a bi-weekly endeavor over Roll20. Total "beer and pretzels" level of involvement, but it could be entertaining for a few sessions.

Not my artwork, but I like it...

• A Squadron of Rogues - Rogue One really got to me on a nostalgic level; it was everything I enjoyed about the Rebellion Era stories that didn't involve The Big Three (Luke, Han, and Leia). It reminded me of all the old WEG D6 Star Wars games I ran in High School and college. It reminded me of the "Special Forces Squadron" game I ran from 2005-2007. It tag-teamed with Fantasy Flight Games and the Rebels cartoon to triple body slam me into wanting to run a Rebellion game again. I really want to do something like a Rogue Squadron or Wraith Squadron game; the players are all pilots "and something else" (con men, mechanics, slicers, saboteurs, melee experts, etc).  Maybe that feels a little too much like "Team B" in my Another Longshot game, but hey the urge is there.
• Renegades - I also want to run a game where the PCs start off as Imperials. I've never run such a game, at least successfully. I think I made an attempt once or twice, but it never came to fruition. This could be that game, but then comes the problem of "everyone's a human".  With the exception of Thrawn, the occasional Inquisitor, and a few spies the Empire is all about the humans. My main issue here is whether or not to run it as a strict Imperial game or as a game where the Imperials will eventually go rogue and join the Rebellion. But if I have them go into it knowing that the point is for them to join the Rebellion, does that take away some of the fun and character development?
• Alternately, the game could start off "how far will you go", and have it be up to the PCs to decide how far they're willing to support the Empire in their iron grip of the galaxy. To make that work and be compelling, there would have to be some sort of benefit vs. consequences conflict going on; the longer they stay in the Empire the more they get "n", but the Consequences for that is a lot higher when they do eventually defect to the Alliance.
• This game could, of course, dovetail in to the aforementioned Rebel SpecOps Squadron game.

Next up is Convention madness! GamernationCon 2017 is coming, and I've got a few things lined up for that. I might be running games for FFG at Pax East this year, which may hopefully segue into more of the same at Gen Con 50 this year in Indianapolis. I may also try to get out to one of the local cons this year, TotalConfusion, but we'll have to see if that's in the cards.

That's pretty much it for now; back to working on the Justice Council module for GNC 2017.  Maybe I'll start posting up my thoughts and builds for the PCs.

May the dice be with you!

Oh; and thanks, Obama.

Interludes

 No, I haven't forgotten about this thing.

I've been taking a few days off between projects, and then got steamrolled into a few things which ate up a lot of my writing time. Things seem to be stabilizing, so I can finally get back to writing.

Most recently, I've been putting the polish on my Fallout: Edge of the Wasteland rules and adventure. It's mostly set...mostly. I'm finishing up the equipment rules, and putting some final stat blocks together.  Once that's done, it'll be added to the upcoming GamerNationCon 2017 Kickstarter as a reward for backing it.  So if you want a copy of that early, go back that Kickstarter when it begins at the end of the month.

This makes me start to think about what I want to do for GNC 2017, and what I need to do. Because of a gorgeous miniature I won thanks to help from Sam Stewart, I have to write a module that features a dual-wielding female Dark Sider as the villain. I can do that. I also promised that I'd be bringing the third chapter of my Knights of the Rebellion series; Revenge of the Jedi. Can I work the two of them together?  Probably, I've already got ideas spinning.

But what else do I bring?  A Better Man, the same Fallout module I brought last year?  Do I write a new Fallout module? I've also been kicking around the idea of a Transformers-themed module, either using FFG's D20 OGL rules called Metamorphosis, or Chris West's Saga Edition based rules. Bringing something for Savage Rifts is appealing, too.  Do I write and bring a module for Trinary? The problem with that is context; if folks don't know the world, will they really care about the story? Plus I'd have to decide what system to run it in...

So many choices.

Then I have to figure out what to do about the first two chapters of the Knights of the Rebellion trilogy. Do I bring them?  There's only so much of me to go around, figure I've got 7 sessions in me to run; maybe 8. I have to figure that each game should get on the table twice, so unless I got someone else running the module, I can only have four modules max, three being a more likely number.

One thing I'm going to be doing, definitely; I will be running a "High Gamer Cred" session and a "Con Newbie".  Not sure what will qualify for High Gamer Cred as a limit, but I know the Con Newbie will only be open to folks who have almost no Gamer Cred; maybe 50 or less. I'll have to run it early in the Con; maybe the first session of the first day; you can rack up Cred really quickly if you try to.

Lots to ponder, lots to think about.

4DoGG; Because 3DoGG Wasn't Awesome Enough

Well now...one week ago I was kicking off the first module in my schedule at GamerNationCon. I had a wonderful time down in Denton, gaming with the Gamer Nation at Dallas Games Marathon for what may be the last time (not as ominous as that statement sounds, but more on that later). The con was exciting, exhilarating, exhausting, and exceptional. Everyone brought their "A Game", their best attitude, and their awesomeness. Attending was a great way to cap off my "March Vacation" and made me feel like all the work I'd done for it for the last few months were worthwhile.

The Con

I said this last year, and I'm going to say it again; this con is the best gaming con I've ever been to.  Small, intimate, with a lot of gaming to be had. RPGs, board games, dice games, panels; you name it, they got it. And with 150 people attending you feel like you know everyone within a day and that they rate at the very least as "drinking buddy" by the end of the con. All of the alumni of Gamer Nation Studios and their comrades threw an awesome con; GM Chris, GM Dave, TG, Brev, Bradshaw, Tim, Kat, Hudson; hats off to all of them for knocking this con out of the park.

It was great to get to talk with Star Wars Saga Edition and D&D 5E Developer Rodney Thompson (and welcome him into the Rebel Legion for those efforts), and to hang with Christopher West from Maps of Mastery; both of them were the Convention Guests of Honor. Chris got to sit in on my Hunt for the White Spring module, and saw how much his maps make running my con-modules a snap.

Con Friends are odd friends; guys and gals that you see once a year, maybe twice if you're lucky. I had a few come back, like Sam, Keith, and Sterling; it was awesome seeing those guys again and hanging with them. I made a few new ones this year, and hope we're all able to make it back in 2017.

Knights of the Rebellion (or Cliffhangers Rule)

I ran two modules at GNC2016 for Star Wars; the Guns of Nova Rain and The Hunt for the White Spring. Each got run once, back to back on Thursday and Saturday. Both modules have "Knight-level" PCs; they have +150 earned XP for Nova Rain, and +180XP for White Spring.

In the Guns of Nova Rain, the PCs are an elite Rebel Strike team sent to Makeb to climb a 2km tall mesa and disable or destroy a trio of cannons that prevent the Rebel's 5th Army from being extracted. This was the 5th and 6th times this module was run, and in both instances the PCs did something no previous team had done. The 5th run utilized the vehicles in the base to take out the guns, and the 6th run blew the entire goddamn mesa apart "somehow" (there's a chance you may play it in the future, so I'm not going to give away how that can be accomplished).

In the sequel, The Hunt for the White Spring, the PCs are racing against the clock to find a lost Jedi Cruiser from the Clone Wars laden with lost treasures from the Jedi Order. Three of the PCs from the Nova Rain team return (well, four actually, but one is an NPC in this module), along with 3 new ones; two Force Sensitives built from Force and Destiny careers and an Ace Pilot who used to fly Consular-class Jedi Cruisers during the war (not Force Sensitive, just a damn good pilot). The adventure has twists, turns, a Mad Max style chase, and a seemingly fun encounter at the end where half the group has to deal with a stowaway while the rest try to outrun an Imperial Light Cruiser.  I only got to run this one twice, and both times the groups highly enjoyed the experience.

And I even teased next year's module and left my White Springs players in a cliffhanger.  Coming to Gamer Nation Con 4 in 2017; Revenge of the Jedi, the final chapter of the Knights of the Rebellion story arc.

Edge of the Wasteland (or Did The Minutemen Send You?)

I ran my Edge of the Wasteland module four times during the con; three scheduled times and one late night run from 10pm to 2am. Everyone...EVERYONE played their character masterfully. Gotta admit that the Saturday night run was my favorite; it was for the five Patreon backers of D20 Radio with Sam Stewart from FFG as the sixth. Even so, not a single run went poorl, everyone had a good time, and I hope I gave Sam a different perspective on the potential of the system he helped create.

Nod to my Local Legion(s) CO Erich who recorded the audio interludes and news reports for Vault 20 Radio, they worked well, my friend. 

Artemis (or Why the Hell Haven't We Done This Before?)

Okay, local peoples; why the hell haven't we done this before?! Artemis Bridge Simulator; you get together with 5+ friends with laptops, a big TV and a computer to act as a server, and frikkin' BE A BRIDGE CREW. Captain, helmsman, fire control, engineering, comms, science, engineering, even fighters! Go blow up attacking fleets, protect freighters and space stations, mind the black holes and asteroids, HAVE FUN!  I finally got to do two hour-long missions, and it was a blast. 

And it's fun having Rodney Thompson and Sam Stewart as members of your bridge crew.

(And for the love of god and the last time; HEADING ZERO THREE ZERO, NOT THREE ZERO ZERO...you know who you are)  ;)

Fallout - The RPG (or Please Don't Sue Me, Bethesda & FFG...)

Folks have asked me (many folks have asked me) if I'll be making the house rules I used available for the general populace. Yes, I will be; the only question is "when?" I need to get some stuff done in April, so May is looking like the soonest I'll have time to get the stuff down into some decent, shareable pdf format. Races, career recommendations, equipment, scavenging, crafting, and adversaries; these are all things I want to refine before release. Come to think of it, I might release in sections; section one will be character creation and some basic gear. Section two will be Adversaries. Section three will be advanced gear, crafting, and scavenging. Yeah, that's a good sequence to do it in.

I just want to make sure I do it right so I (nor anyone else) gets into any trouble.

GamerCred (or GamerNationCon Merit Badges)

GamerNationCon has a "game within a game" that runs from convention to convention, the accumulation of GamerCred pins for various feats of nerdity and geeky milestones.  You can see the entire list here, at least the most recent "active" list.  Many pins have retired, and assuredly some of these will retire too.

You can use GamerCred for a variety of things; the most common is to get early access to event registration. But even at the Con folks are able to get stuff or participate in certain events. I think this year was the first time GamerCred could get you free bottled water.

The one goal I set for myself when I got to GNC this year was to finally earn the Iron GM pin. To earn it, you have to run 30+ hours of RPGs. This was feasible this year. Last year when GNC was only 3 days, it was much less so. The con opens at noon on Day 1, 9am to 2pm every other day, and the last day you only have until 2pm because the con ends and the auction starts. To earn it last year, you would pretty much be running games from open to close and have to have someone bring you food.

 

This year, they added an extra day and didn't increase the hours needed to earn Iron GM. Thursday and Friday I ran two games, ran three on Saturday, and one on Sunday. They were 4 hours each. 8x4=32.  30+ hours of running role playing games = Iron GM Phil. Achievement Unlocked, pin earned.

I actually ended up with something like +80 GamerCred over last year, meaning up at about 140 GamerCred. I don't really have to worry about needing early event registration; I think I'm one of the largest  contributors to the Event list. Still, it's all about your cred, right?

The GNC Auction (or The First Hit is "Free")

During GamernationCon, you earn XP for playing in events. Usual rate is 10xp per hour of gaming. The reason you want XP is to use that XP to bid and buy things during the GamerNationCon Auction, held at the end of the con. Many, many folks will pool XP to be able to bid on some highly-sought-after items, like the special GamerCred pin that's worth 100 GamerCred. Bidding can get pretty intense and fun

The swag someone can walk away with is not insignificant. Game Companies have donated a swath of product to the Con. Rodney donated a 5th Edition Players Handbook and a copy of his Waterdeep game. FFG sent down a bunch of books and games, including the newly released Special Modifications and a core set for Armada. Chris West donated his entire printed collection as one item up for bid, and I think it went for over 800 xp. A Professional painter from Reaper Miniatures who loves doing Star Wars conversions of his company's minis.

Thanks to Jon Steven and Eric Benders, my brother an I were able to snag all three converted minis and the Armada core set. Sam Stewart helped us get the last of the three painted minis; the Miralukan Sith Marauder. He had a caveat for me though; I have to bring a module next year that features her as the BBEG.

Challenge Accepted.

GNC Episode 4: A New Hope

Sadly, the Boys gave us some bad news at the end of the con. Dallas Games Marathon is losing it's lease at the end of the year. They're not sure where or even if they'll be able to move to another location that would allow them to continue their business model. At this time, the fate of Gamer Nation Con 2017 is uncertain, but the Event Organizers have Hope that it will work out. So in about a year, we'll be descending on the Dallas Forth Worth area somewhere to get together and game with the great Gamer Nation at GamernationCon 4: A New Hope.

Hopefully.

I'll miss DGM. It's a hell of a place.  A hundred foot wall of boardgames, practically everything a board game geek would want to play, all for free. Massive rooms for table games and rpgs. A back room fit for an Artemis bridge and allows folks to watch the fun. And a 7/11 right out front. It was perfect. If I never play there again, I'll pour one out for DGM next year.

If you can make it to GNC 2017, go. Please. You won't have a bad time. You'll game the most you've ever gamed at any con; yes, even GenCon. You'll hang out with folks from the industry.

Big thanks to my buddy and Legionnaire Brother, GM Chance, for allowing my brother and I to crash at his place.  Thanks, Chris!

Finishing Moves

So, what now, now that GNC 3: Beyond Thunderdome is in the bag.  I'm back to working on Another Longshot as my main game. The house that hosts one of the groups just made a table insert that's a 32" flatscreen TV, so we can throw pdfs of maps onto it and scale it up for 1" minis. That should be fun to play with. I'm also working on my Roll20 game's first story arc, the Swords of Tython. I've got some special interest in the Swords of Tython story because I might turn that into the next adventure arc for my GamerNationCon modules after I finish up the Knights of the Rebellion storyline.

April is also going to be a month where I refine and finish up my preparations for my return to LARPing. Getting my character Gatewalker ready for Crossover will be high on my mind; I've got some armor detail to finish, several blasters to paint, and I have to learn how to use an airbrush for doing my make up.

It'll be fun, and I'll be sharing it all here.

Oh, and I'll be finishing off Year 40 this month. It wasn't a bad year.  Let's hope Year 41 will be even better. 

May the dice be with you.

Rebel Legion Members and Honorary Members at GNC 2016

Gamer Nation Con: The Pre-Game - Fallout: Edge of the Wasteland

My third and final module this week, Fallout: Edge of the Wasteland.   I got to playtest this module and have made some changes to it, but for the most part I think it's ready to go. 

Here are the PCs that are wandering this particular corner of the Wasteland.


Artie Drake, Male Vaultdweller from Vault 66 
Smuggler/Charmer

Charismatic, talkative, personable, but his big mouth got him assigned to a Wasteland Scouting Mission by the Overseer. Cunning and agile, he’s almost as good with a laser pistol as he is with his silver tongue. He was told not to come back until he “made contact with another vault” or “found something really useful”.

Hearing about Vault 20 on his Pipboy’s radio, he and his sister traveled south in hopes of finding it.

Features: Artie's talents lie in his natural Charm. When that fails, he's pretty handy with a laser pistol. Be sure to use Inspiring Rhetoric to help allies and Disarming Smile to hinder foes.

Gwen Drake, Female Vaultdweller from Vault 66\ 
Technician/Outlaw Tech

Rough and burly in spite of her size, always looking out for her younger brother. Smart and strong, she’ll use her wrench to fix a generator or to bash the head of a feral ghoul. She elected to be exiled with her brother because “there’s no way he’d survive out there by himself, nevermind find something useful…”

She is reluctant to go investigate a vault that is supposedly a refuge for ghouls and super mutants, but if this means she can keep her brother safe as he completes his “quest”, she has little choice in the matter.

Features: With her mechanics as high as it is, look for opportunities to utilize it in any given encounter. Scrounge for parts or items when you can. She's a good melee combatant, and could really ring someone's bell if she's able to hit with both her wrench and her Ripper chain-sword.

Natasha Stone, Female Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel 
Bounty Hunter/Gadgeteer

A part of Paladin Danse’s expeditionary recon team to the Commonwealth. Her squad was sent west to investigate the ruins of two of the largest universities outside of Boston; Worcester Polytechnical College and the Commonwealth University at Amherst. Her team found that Worcester received a direct strike from a nuclear bomb and was reduced to a radioactive crater.  As they left the ruins of Worcester, the team was attacked by a mated pair of deathclaws. Only the Paladin and the team scribe survived, and the Paladin did not leave unscathed. One of the Deathclaws breached her helmet and put out her right eye.

Determined to continue their mission, they elected to soldier on.  Hearing about the broadcast from Vault 20, they proceeded north to investigate. Stone is agile and has an intimidating presence. She operates a T-45b suit of Power Armor with a compromised helmet, damaged in the same attack that took her eye. 

Features: Stone's greatest asset is her power armor, but her strong will and ability to intimidate others is an asset too. She is absolutely deadly with her laser rifle, and would be more so if she wasn't suffering a setback to most checks thanks to losing her eye.

Marvin Wright, Male Scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel 
Colonist/Scholar

One of the more brilliant minds in the Archive House, Marvin has a very detached view of the world.  Everything is a puzzle or something to be studied, even if doing so is likely to get him killed.  Smart and strong willed, he has a tendency to state interesting, useful, or annoying facts at any given moment in spite of any danger he or his allies may be in.

He was sent along on Knight Stone’s mission in hopes that actual field work would impress some sense of responsibility and restraint on his clinical nature.

Features: Marvin's Intellect can be a great boon in any given encounter, look for ways to leverage Knowledge skills to place the party in a stronger position. He's good with his Auto Pistol, but there are likely better weapons out there to find. Finally, his skill with computers is rather high, keep an eye out of opportunities to affect encounters in your favor with it.

 

Morgan Fisk, Female Ghoul Wastelander 
Explorer/Scout

A wandering trader from the mid-west. Her home town was destroyed by a radicalized faction of the Children of the Atom who set off a bomb in a nearby silo.  She was the only survivor, and transformed into a ghoul as a result of the blast. Setting out on her own, she believed she could only rely on herself. Agile and sharp, she eventually found companionship with a similar social outcast and elected a begrudging, yet deepening partnership (and friendship) with Percival. The two of them were moving east towards Boston when they heard the radio transmission from Vault 20 and decided to go and investigate. Maybe they could trade for some supplies at least.

Unable to fully cope with her new condition, Morgan has become addicted to alcohol since becoming a ghoul.

Features: While not really skilled at stealth, Morgan is rather good at it thanks to her gear and her talents. With a high Cunning, she is naturally good at Deception, Perception, and Survival. She's also skilled with most weapons one can find in the wasteland. Due to her ghoulish nature, Morgan can actually heal wounds from one Radiation source, if need be.

Percival, Male Super Mutant 
Hired Gun/Marauder

Once a servant of The Master until his downfall, Percy escaped the battles against his kind in the west. Traveling alone, he happened across a comic book store and a tale about King Arthur in the year 3000 A.D. In that book, the character Percival was a human who was mutated into a giant, monstrous humanoid brute. Simple minded but still possessing a noble heart, the comic book Percival fought valiantly alongside King Arthur. Percy, feeling      an undeniable connection with the character, devoted himself to that           cause; to be a noble knight and fight against the evils of the world.  

Meeting up with the ghoul, Morgan Fisk in his travels, the two of them have wandered near the area of Vault 20 to investigate its seeming sanctuary for all outcasts.

Features: Percival is a melee monster and a walking tank, he should be up front drawing as much attention as possible. Remember that the shield he carries is a weapon too, and using two-weapon fighting to shield bash an opponent can be quite a handy seat up to a bumper sword strike. Look out for challenges that are bested physically.