Concluding the solo playthrough of Electric Bastionland, with aliens, flight, foes and a knight and a hippo. Following on from the Part 3 Scenes.
Electric Bastionland solo - intro | start | partway | finish | all rolling solo
Disclosure - I'm a DriveThru RPG affiliate
Thoughts on Electric Bastionland
electric bastionland thoughts | solo tools | scenes | char, extras, threads
Continuing on from last time's notes.
A solid game and a solid game for solo. One of my favourite RPGs now and one I look forward to playing with a group face to face.
It's a tight game with simple rules, a strong theme and easy to grasp game loop.
However I'm not sure how it would hold up for a campaign without any character progression rules. Beyond getting reduced to 0 wounds.
Now looking forward to exploring Mythic Bastionland, also by the same author.
Solo Tools - Conjecture CRGE
electric bastionland thoughts | solo tools | scenes | char, extras, threads
Building on previous Solo Tools notes.
CRGE continued to trundle along. I'm not sure it added much more than some other oracles. But I liked having one thread each time as the main thread, and the list of Unexpected events is great.
I wouldn't use it again, but will recommend it as a free option for people looking for a solo emulator.
Adventures of Gears, Lamp and Hatty
electric bastionland thoughts | solo tools | scenes | char, extras, threads
Continuing from Previous Scenes. And the ending Threads and Extras.
Scene 10 - Fort Lift
" I keep seeing this giant red hippo in every shadow. Lurking in every corner..."
(Scene Main Thread - Hunydd becoming an antagonist - to knowledge / conflict). [framing event - someone from previous job - rich patron]
The group reach the steep hill leading up to the fort that's their destination. At base they find Hunydd along with their former comrade Stones and his monkey. Escorting previous employer, an obese rich woman carried in a palanquin by four muscular men.
Hunydd accuses them of stealing job and warns them away. Lamp gives own warning and group go around the hill. Use their climbing gear to scale up another way, reaching top well before their rival group. At top meet an old soldier who knows Rupert (their guide) and drops a rope down for them.
Scene 11 - Knight and Dog
" Letia helped us into the fort and made us welcome. She and her husband are old soldiers who guard the fort. Not sure who for though. Rupert announced he won't go any further and will stay with his old friends at the perimeter. We're welcome to go in and poke around though!"
(Scene Main Thread - Get Vehicle - to Knowledge).
Minus a Rupert the group look around the ruins, finding a beacon and meeting an old knight. Sir Samwail has a bucket helm and has trouble training Sevi, a disobedient dog. Hatty takes the lead, introducing group as "Churls Chaps, Salvage Specialists" and gets on well with Sevi the dog.
Sir Samwail knows of the storage hanger they're searching for, but it's a haunted place. Everyone died there in a last supper and bones still remain. The knight is outraged when they tell him of the thieves coming up behind them, led by Hunydd.
More importantly Hatty names her elk puppet Sevi after her new friend.
Scene 12 - Into the Hangar
" How can people be so careless with machines? There's one in that hangar been left for years with just bones for company! Disgraceful and makes me think less and less of people."
(Scene Main Thread - finding vehicle - to conflict).
Leaving Sir Samwail and Hatty happily playing outside with the dog, Gears and Lamp open up the hangar. Inside they find many bones and a canvas, underneath which is a vehicle. It has a metal shell and blood-stained blades. Gears identifies it as some kind of 'coptor and falls in love straight away.
Lamp spots a few skulls around the base of the coptor and investigate bones further. Find two huge eerie snakes further into the hangar, wrapped around a pile of bones. They are slumbering and don't wake up even when Sevi comes in barking and investigating hangar.
Gears thinks she can fly the 'coptor and finds gears and pulleys to help pull it out of hangar.
Scene 13- Snake Bargain
" What a machine we've found. A flying machine that would give more freedom than anything else I've seen. It's tempting to take it off on my own and forget about what we owe in debt..."
(Scene Main Thread - finding vehicle - to conflict). [In distance, hippo curious about barking dog so tick second box of four on "Red Hippo comes for Gears"]
Gears has plan to pull out the coptor, and Sir Samwail offers his amazing horse to help. Karrier is a sturdy horse who can haul massive weights. As getting ready to haul out vehicle, spot rivals approaching. Hunydd is here with Stones and the four muscled servants, now armed.
As Sir Samwail and Hatty go to remonstrate with the "thieves", the snakes wake. Revealing themselves as alien, they telepathically offer the keys needed to fly the machine, in return for the horse to sate their hunger and being flown to Bastion. Lamp and Gears accept without hesitation.
Scene 14 - Harmful Hunydd
" Clearly these snake-beings are not to be trusted. But a horse is worth the sacrifice to unlock the secrets of machines. Any sacrifice is worth it to unlock the secrets of machines!"
(Scene Main Thread - Hunydd becoming an antagonist - to conflict).
Outside the hangar, Hunydd doesn't listen to delaying words, and a fight begins. Monkey and dog injure each other, as gunshots and clubs take down clubmen and Hatty.
Lamp and Gears run out to help, but the clubmen prove too strong. When Sir Samwail falls, Gears flees alone, only to be caught and made to surrender.
Scene 15 - in the Hangar
"We weren't strong enough. I've tried to work out something with Hunydd but he's not listening. He wants the machine that we've worked so hard for!"
(Scene Main Thread - Hunydd becoming an antagonist - to resolution).
Gears watches as companions patched up and become conscious but restrained and stripped of valuables. Watch as Hunydd makes a deal with the alien snakes, coptor is dragged outside and group locked in the hangar. They hear sounds of coptor flown away, taking away Hunydd, his employer Kateline and the two snakes.
(Unexpected - Upstaged - the Hippo)
A little after, group here screams and bellows outside the hangar. Sounds like the red hippo they saw on the approach to the fort.
Scene 16 - New Things
" The screams have all stopped and we think the thing outside is the hippo. It made a couple of dents in the hangar door, but seems to have given up. Maybe being trapped by our enemy in a hangar actually had an upside."
(Scene Main Thread - New Job - to Knowledge).
Sir Samwail was locked inside the hangar with Gears, Hatty and Lamp. Talks to them and reveals he has a manor in Deep Country and knows of a lead for treasure in an old haunted train station.
(Unexpected - Framing Event - Chellew)
Door to hangar opened by pale-looking Rupert, accompanied by familiar spider made of a metal lattice. The spider's name is Chellew, and it can smell the companion lizard Kateline had, and will pay them 2000 gp if they can get it back. Also agrees not to eat them.
(Unexpected - Montage)
Over next few days... group heal at Samwail Manor, a drunk Hatty performs for them with new puppets (Clank the Knight, Legs the Spider), Lamp makes cocktails, cares for an old sword, Gears puts together basic tools, group make plans and return to Bastion...
Ready for their next hunt for Treasure...
End.
Epilogue
Winds rustle old leaflets at the deserted railway station. There's not much movement but for the flickering of a lantern light. Gears, Lamp and Hatty prepare to enter and find the vault Sir Samwail has told them about.
Someway behind them lingers an alien spider, on the lookout for a lizard, confident these hapless beings are key to finding it again.
And in a nearby street, a mixologist by the name of Dervish readies his crew, hoping to locate the vault before his rival, while letting them deal with the dangerous ghosts within...
Characters and Adventure Notes
electric bastionland thoughts | solo tools | scenes | char, extras, threads
Ended last time with Gears,Lamp and Hatty.
"Gears" Jannifer
Ex-Machine Whisperer, doesn't like people so prefers machines, knows next to nothing about machines, rambling
STR 9, DEX 8, CHA 8, HP 6, £6
Equipment - Mallet (d6), set of screwdrivers and spanners, bag of marbles
"Lamp" Lill
Ex-Muddled Mixologist, cocky Scouser, scar on neck, from bar known for molecular mixology. Knows basic chemistry and making any liquid into jelly. Managed to bottle Golden Serpent - a hallucinogen.
STR 11, DEX 11, CHA 10, HP 3, £2
Equipment - Excellent bow tie, set of tiny syringes, specialised foamer, toy jacks, bulky sword (d6, heavy)
"Hatter" Maillie
Ex-Street Performer, forceful, listens to Churl, puppeteer, performance only really works when she's drunk.
STR 11, DEX 11, CHA 14, HP 4, £1
Equipment - Staff (d6, bulky), floppy cap, puppets (Clank the Knight, Hunnyd the Hippo, Legs the Spider)
Group Notes
- Group Debt of £9k, owed to Cracknuggle Marbles and Jacks
- have Lamps and batteries, climbing & camping equipment, food & water
- Accompanied by Rupert, a lackey / guide, ex-lamplighter, rude, stubborn - STR 6 DEX 11 CHA 3 HP 1, truncheon (d6), wick on a pole, old-style clothes
Threads
- B) Rivalry with Dervish - (stage - To Conflict)
- E) Loot the railway Vault for Sir Samwail (stage - To Knowledge)
- F) Get retribution on Hunydd (stage - To Knowledge)
NPCs
- Rival called Dervish (STR 17, DEX 12, CHA 13, HP 6, Muddled Mixologist, 2 Lackeys - Sian (alternative groomer, alley gun - d6, bulky) and 2 others. Allied to Chellew
- Asa, mine village leader, metal braids, slick, artist, metal jewellery
- Hunydd, Liberal Engineer, capable villain after wealth, ex-lackey of Dervish, After wealth, aggressive, duck pistol (d6, close), umbrella (d6)
- "Stones" Fourley, ex-member of group serving Hunydd, ex-lockholder, STR 13, DEX 9, CHA 4, HP 1, driven by wealth, detailed, pet monkey Rags (4 hp, d4)
- Feffle the Curious, vehicle sage, rides eccentric coptor, paying for vehicle in 2nd job.
- Sir Samwail, knight, rambling, has a manor and lots of badly-trained dogs
- Chellew, a Spider Hard Alien, metal lattice, god of mining village. Agreed to pay group if they find companion lizard
Finishing Up
Electric Bastionland is my last solo actual play for an RPG for a while. Taking a break after 11 games and two years.
But the actual plays continue on with other solo games. Next up is the Broken Cask, an inn & tavern solo game.
