So I found some players via MeetUp here in Singapore.
After a couple of weeks discussing what to play I got bored and instead just said I would run something.

Ran my own heartbreaker and it worked fine.
I used pregen characters which let me select a subset of the rules and write them out on the character sheets to help everyone out.

Combat with a giant squid monster got a bit dragged out as I pitched it's defense a bit high but aside from that all worked as planned.
A playtest for the heartbreaker with a new group of players.

The group was interesting too.
Singapore is very much a melange of cultures.
3 players. 2 had never played RPGs before, 1 had played some 4e with his friends in the states but felt they didn't really know what was going on.

Anyway 1 Chinese girl from Australia, 1 Indian guy from Singapore and one guy from the US. All under 22.

They were a bit daunted when I presented the scenario and then just said - right what do you do now ? and they relalised that they could do anything including getting in their ship and sailing away all together. But the American guy got them back on track as they investigated a diplomatic murder.

They want to finish off the game (it was built for a two session game) and they were keen to create their own PCs which is a good sign. Follow up next weekend .....

Awesome, jibbajabba! make sure you try some Indian Mee Goreng while you are there!

-clash

Great stuff Hope it continues going well.

Great to read the good positive news jibbajibba!  Sounds like a fun international crew.

Singapore game session  Part 2

Got through part 2 of the quick political scenario I knocked up. This one became something of a dungeon delve which is ironic if you are aware of my tastes in regard to such things.

The party had been investigating some caves at the end of the last session looking for a power source that had been reported to the one that selected the Spy role.

They had ended last session with a fight against a giant squid this time they had to navigate some arcane alarm systems and a number o guardian Golems. .

This is my own system and the golems were ad-libbed. They worked in general but I hit an issue I had not envisaged. Because one of the party had very high defense and I had made the golems (actually large Brass and crystal guardians with a distinctly Steampunk vibe). I had not envisaged they would activate them all and their combination of tough armour and relatively weak attack, though with high damage, meant they were quite a dull opponent.

The players cleverly used magic to drain one or two of their mana but having been told they were linked back to a mana source left them to recharge and become a big problem later.
In retrospect I should have not used the Golems and stuck with the mechanical dogs, similar design, but lower armour faster and with better to him and defense so less of a slog to wear away and me of an immediate threat.

Good play-test for me.

The party did better with a a wizard they beat quite cleverly using their items and skills.

Lots of face time for everyone. The wizard would have been more prepared but they dispatched the dog-golem he had on hand very quickly with their wizard blowing his whole wad of mana in one Shadow Blast so he had no time to ready mage armour.

I added in some of the advanced combat options and the Wizard spell casting system from elements I mentions in the divine magic thread and that was very good and worked well in play. The Wizard PC was very flexible outside combat able to construct spells on the fly but taking 5 minutes to do it and using a lot of precious mana. In combat he had to rely on premade spells he had practiced and the difference was very great as the wizard was powerful with prep and usable without but in a combat situation had to retreat and hide. I think it had the right mix of resource management, flexibility and power.

Combat still needs a bit of a tweak as it feels cumbersome and the tactical options didn't come through strongly but I was dealing with 2 total newbies and someone with little experience so ...

No problem with getting the players in character just talking to them as NPCs in character achieved that and the setting and NPCs popped so that was good.

Now there is half a session of this game left then we will start a proper campaign. One of the players was agitating for SciFi using the same system. I think it will tweak fairly well I just need to revise the skill lists. and create new archetypes.
Maybe looking at using a strontium Dog setting as I have already done work on that for a SW mod I did and all the background and weapons etc would be easily portable.

Interestingly one of the guys bought round Fiasco which I ahve never even looked at so mayhaps we will give that a go as well.

So our introductory game has finished off.

A perfect example of how Newbie players can find themselves in increasingly hot water as they dig themselves into a deeper hole.

So the guys did examply that and had to fall back on plan B which was a coup d etat. They had funds to recruit 2 mercenary cadres and the local rebels sided with them.
One PC didn't make it as he was captured and chained up. Another was all but dead but I let them run the final battle as a group with their best tactician still around.
I used my mass combat system which is part of the heartbreaker and it ran really smoothly. 2,800 gaurds and mercs versus the PCs force of their own 200 + 500 mercenaries + 1000 rebels.  The system abstracts terrain, information, fortification etc into a tactic pool that can be used to alter range, damge etc

The whole battle took 7 rounds about 50 minutes and whilst it had all been abstracted it felt like a battle. the Party won, sacrficing the rebels and using their gunpower to get advantage. The locals surrendered when the Pcs managed to swing the 4th mercenary candre over to their side with a diplomacy check.

The whole thing ran really well.

We will be starting a fully fledged campaign next week. The guys seem to want to try a sci fi setting so I have modded the heartbreaker to run with Strontium Dogs which I am really familiar with having written a SW mod a couple of years ago (and having grown up with the comics since I was a kid)