BESM 5e Solo, Part 7 - Scarlet Hero, Urban Adventure, Part 6 - And the game is on...

Now, before rolling on this scene, I found out a small rule that I didn’t figure was existing, when I was quite far in the story. The antagonist, as it turns out, also have a chance to move his plot forward, which means, he has to roll d10 after each scene and if he rolls equals or less than the overall amount of scenes that happened during adventure, he gets one extra Victory point.

Scene 1 vs d10 = 2

Scene 2 vs d10 = 10

Scene 3 vs d10 = 3 (+1 Point)

Scene 4 was a Conflict scene, which denies the Antagonist his right to roll

Scene 5 (which is technically Scene 4 now) vs d10 = 5

+ extra roll for the following Scene, because otherwise, I would forget.
Scene 6 (which is now Scene 5) vs d10 = 5 (+1 Point)

This is also an episode where I start to use techniques for solo gaming that are more in line with 5e game structure

[Roll for Urban Adventure Investigation Scenes: 1 - Hunt up an actor whom you have reason to suspect can give you a clue]

[Clue: 2 Heat: 0

Victory Points: 5

Antagonist Points: 1 + 2 points for pushing the plot forward]

Shan opened the door leading to the backyard, mercilessly. The kitchen staff yelled at him something about kicking the doors, but the gang boss didn’t care. He showed what he thought about the rules of the staff by slamming the door behind, again without remorse.

All his body language, his mood could tell anyone that he wanted to be alone. That’s the reason why he was now on the backyard. Well… that and he wanted to have a smoke.

The brand he was smoking was a crappy one, but there was some enjoyment in inhaling something that disgusting. In a way, it balanced the crap inside, granting some balance, the tranquility of soul and peace of a mind.

That’s exactly what Shan needed at the moment, witch a stick of dried leaves wrapped in thin paper he started to pat his jacket. If only he could find those damn’ matches.

[Harold’s Stealth roll d20+2 vs Shan’s Perception = 17 vs 12]

That’s when fire appeared. A small flickering bonfire, smelling of gasoline, popped close enough to give the gang leader a scare

The flame came from the lighter. The lighter that was not Shan’s and held by the stranger.

Or was he a stranger?

‘You?!’ Shan knew this guy, even though he saw that grey hair and the scar across the face only once. But those were exactly the features that made him remember the person standing right now. And besides, they’ve met not so long ago.

[Roll on General Oracle - Did the gang told Shan about Harold? Likely: roll with Advantage d20/d20 = 9/19 – Oh, heck yeh they told, alright…]

‘Thought you might want some light’ As amusing as Harold tried to sound, his eyes betrayed him. His gaze was that of a cold blue steel…

‘What are you doing here?’

[Harold’s Intimidation roll d20+0 vs Shan’s Insight = 15 + 0 vs 12]

‘I did promise to find responsible for your sister’s condition, didn’t I? Well, that I just did’ Harold spoke calmly, but the tension in his voice… Shan didn’t feel like uttering even a single syllable.         

‘A tall thin guy in black. Yeah, I know, nothing even remotely close to what you were hunting whole day. But you knew that well enough, didn’t you?’

‘The hell you’re talking about?’ Shan spit the cigarette out without lighting it up. ‘It was a red haired bastard!’

‘That bastard’s name is Ardet Kleid. I bet that guy in black promised you that Thana will get better once you find this pulhe who is responsible.

‘He told me that once I find the red haired, Thana would get better’

‘Really? Did he sic’ you like a bloodhound on this wild goose chase before or after you let him in the club?’

This little remark from Harold made Shan lose all his cool.

[Roll on General Oracle – Does Shan know the ‘Gaunt” man in black? = Yes, but… He is not a friend, he introduced himself as a client who wanted to see Thana as a ‘fixer’

Under which recommendations did Shan let the ‘Gaunt’ inside?

Roll on General Oracle - Does Shan owns ‘Gaunt’ his life? – No, but…

Roll on General Oracle - Did ‘Gaunt’ introduced himself as a friend of Shan’s savior? = 16 – Yes

Roll on General Oracle – Was it a ‘blooddebt’? Likely: roll with advantage d20/d20 – 18/19 – Yes and oh, so much, Yes!]

‘I had no choice! I’m… I’m indebted to them.’

‘Them? Who are “them”?‘

‘Those who saved my life. It’s a long story. The point is I owed them a big one and they’ve come to collect through the agent.’

‘Uh-huh… And he…’

‘All he wanted is to speak with my sister, I thought no harm could be done. That’s what she does for the living. She… fixes the problems’

‘So the club is a decoy.’

‘No, the club does function to entertain the public. But she has to cover her spends somehow. Look! That guy sounded legit. He knew about my sister, her job he had the passwords and…’

‘He knew her true name as well’

‘What?!’ That came as a real shock to him. He genially didn’t know. All this time and he didn't have even a speck of suspicion.  

‘But you didn’t have to know it. All you had to do is to let him in and then believe that your sister losing her name was a fault of a certain red haired bastard who slept with her last night. And you believed him, because no harm could have been done by someone who saved your life before. I want his name, Shan. He should have told you THAT MUCH at least!’

[Roll on General Oracle – Does Shan knows Gaunt’s name? – Likely, roll with Advantage: d20/d20 = 7/7 - No, but… ]

‘He… he didn’t tell me. All he told me, that he was from… our mutual friend’

‘Your “savior”, I presume’

‘Yes’

"Great!" Thought Harold to himself "You people expect me to find this one guy on a goddamn’ asteroid and yet you can’t give me anything worth of the lead."

[Roll on General Oracle – Does Shan know where to find the guy? 16 - Yes]

‘But I think, I know where to look for him’

Finally! Something that Harold wanted to hear...

BESM 5e Solo, Part 5 - Scarlet Hero, Urban Adventure, Part 4 - Resolve of a few

 Scene 4

[Choose Urban Adventure Conflict Scenes: 2 - Intimidate or Put a social pressure on the Actor]

Ever heard this saying “no room for an apple to fall”?

Da’liysh is not among such places, exactly, even if it’s just a rock floating in the void. But for some reason, which I don’t know exactly, most of the smithies… well, all of them actually, are situated in one place. The “smoke district” as the locals call it. That would make my job both easy and harder, at the same time, since I don’t have to run around the rock looking for this one particular Mrakor but still, there are more than enough workshops in the area. I would have a hard time finding him. And even harder still after losing too much time spending in the company of the bikers. He may have been long gone since Scarlet told me about him. I mean how long it was since she told me to look for him? Three? Four hours according to the riders? Can I be sure that he is still out there among smiths and tinkerers.

This trail of thought was scared away by the noises of hammers. I found myself on the outskirts of the district. And the sounds of hammering and tinkering were my welcoming committee… of sort.

[Harold’s Investigation roll d20 + 1, with advantage for Bai Lei being a human = favored enemy = 12 / 11]

Any workshop was as good as any I thought, so I decided to visit the nearest… and the loudest one, the two-storied workshop with a wooden sign above the door, depicting a hammer and a quill. Quite an odd combination but there was a meaning behind it. A master craftsman was working under the sign.

Nobody reacted to me entering the shop. I could hear hammering sounds somewhere deep in the building, didn’t skip even a beat when the door screeched under my lousy touch. Kind of ironic to see and hear not properly oiled door in the shop like this. Another weird thing was that shop’s counter was empty so anyone could just take the merchandize from it shelves. Of course, I’d like to see someone stupid or desperate enough to steal from master craftsman.

Well, there was always me, but I wasn’t that desperate… yet.

My first and only instinct was to go and look for a source of all that clanking. Which wasn’t that difficult…

[Roll on General Oracle - Does Harold finds a Mrakor? – No, but… Mrakor’s boss is in the shop]

Turned out that there was a yard deep inside the building with its own smithy, and it was occupied at the moment. The weaponsmith was busy as ever, his hammer was hitting on the chunk of metal loudly, rhythmically… and ruthlessly.

It may had been not very wise to interrupt him, but…

“May the strikes of your hammer always bring you profit, meister”

The hammering stopped, upon hearing my words. The hammer itself didn’t fly in my face, though.

I thought it was a good sign.

“And may you always find which is to your liking. Can I help you with something?”

“Yeh, I’m looking for someone”

“Don’t we all… At some point in our lives?” But that’s not that sort of establishment, kid. The petal district is on the other side of the rock”

“I may visit it later. No, I’m looking for someone working around these parts”

“You should be more specific”

“His name is…” And that’s when I realized something. Does the smith know any guy by the name Bai Lei? I mean, sure, Scarlet did give me a name, but the name is something precious to any Mrakor as well as the face. And who am I to spit out other’s secrets?

“He is a Mrakor”

A heavy sigh escaped smith’s chest, a tell that he knew who I was talking about.

“What did he do this time?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary I assure you. Is he here?”

[Roll Harold’s Persuasion d20 = 10 + 0 vs Weaponsmith’s Passive Insight = 10.  Again a draw and again equal to the standard difficulty of 10 in Scarlet Heroes for level 1 character]

[Stranger NPC reaction 1 + 1 = 2; Roll on Unfriendly NPC table 3 + 1 = Reasonable refusal]

“I don’t think I need to remind you that this is a smithy. Not a teashop” Why he had to use this word exactly? Now my limbs are aching. “We sell in metal not in conversations. So, unless you are here to buy anything…”

I saw where this was going, and it’s not like I had much of a choice here…

“Got any tools to go up close and personal in your collection?”

Now that was the language that he understood

“How “close” are we talking about?”

* * *

“There you go…” The smith put a few items from his collection on the counter in front of me. “Stainless steel. Three and a half inch blades, perfect for throwing. Sting worse than the words of former wife. Six of those would definitely end anyone’s day. If you know how to throw those. But I would prefer not to see any blood on my beauties” I give him a dirty look. One that just screamed: “Are you kidding me?! Why would you craft weapons if you wince about the blood that much?”

A small canvas sack appeared next to the half of dozen of throwing daggers. “And then there this. It’s not often that I get an order for one of those. You’re one cruel person to buy something like this”

“Life can be cruel to some of us. Need to be prepared for anything.”

“I can see that…” He was definitely referring biker’s artwork on my face. “That will be thirty three silver”

“Thirty three?! For a sack of nails?”

“No, for melting the nails together.”

I decided against haggling with this guy, not because he still had the hammer in his hand, but because I still needed his help.

I laid the payment on the counter. Four rings. One that of gold and three of silver.

“Isn’t it a bit troublesome? Working both behind the counter and the forge, at the same time, I mean?”

[Roll Harold’s Persuasion: d20 + 0 vs Craftsman Insight = 11 vs 10. Reaction roll on Stranger chart 2d6: 5+4 (+1 for a small bribe) = 10 (Full Agreement)]

“That doesn’t happen often. In fact, that maybe the first time ever, when this happened”

“How so?”

“I was hoping you could tell me, since that’s you who was looking for him. He was… kind of edgy this morning”

Bingo! As the say on Shakor.

“He may have seen something he shouldn’t have. I’ve come here to ask about it. Now, is he here?”

The smith silently looked at the staircase that led to upper floor. That was his answer.

“Second door to the right. I’ll… look after those…” He gave the sack a gentle pat, not strong enough to pinch himself, but enough to make it sing. “You won’t need it… if you are here just to talk.”

“Fair enough.” I walked up the ladder, towards my answers and destiny. One might have been dumbfounded how easily the smith let me pass. That’s only because he was certain that Mrakor could handle someone like me…

* * *

The smith wasn’t lying. After climbing the staircase I found myself in the corridor and a set of doors to the right. Three at least.

The craftsman said that I needed the second door. He also said something about the guy being on edge. Guess that leaves me with trying a polite approach first. The key word here is “trying”, courtesy was never my strong suit.

I knocked three times, slowly so that the guy on the other side would register the sound and realize that it wasn’t his just him hearing things.

“What is it?” The voice on the other side was not the voice one would use to talk to one’s boss, but definitely a voice of someone being cornered.

“Bai Lei? We need to talk.” Maybe starting the conversation using his real name was not the best move but at least I had his attention.

I heard a sound of lock being fiddled with and a few moment later the door opened. Just a little, enough for Mrakor to see the intruder that throws around names that he shouldn’t know about.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Someone who get involved in the mess he didn’t want to be in. Just like you.”

“I have no idea what you are blabbing about.” And yet he didn’t shut the door in front of me. That’s a good sign.

“I think you do. And I also think that you regret your decision” It may have been far-fetched, but judging by his reaction…

“Why would she utter her name to me, at first place” … I truly touched the nerve. Shaking his head he then entered the door wide enough for me to slip into.

Mrakor had short red hair and the body that one would have by working day and night at the forge.

His pair of auburn eyes sized me suspiciously.

“Who are you to her?” No need to be a scholar or an investigator to figure out who he was speaking about.

“Nobody, really. I haven’t known about her existence until today. The man she was with, however… he’s my brother.”

“Is he still alive?” There was oh so little empathy in his voice, as you could imagine. He truly wanted to see Ardet dead in all that chaos that he brought upon us… and my head especially. Can’t blame him though, I have the same wish from time to time as well.

“He’s fine for now. Unlike the girl. But you know that, don’t you?”

He didn’t answer to that, instead the Mrakor just stepped back, further into the room.

“How bad is it?”

“Exactly how you would expect when someone literally steals your soul. I’m sure she told you all about it right before entrusting you with her name”

“If she trusted me that much why would she…”

Why would she bed with some bastard like your brother? That’s what he wanted to say. He wouldn’t be the first one to have similar thoughts nor would he be the first to do something that stupid and regret later.

“But is it worth the suffering of the one you truly care for?”

“Ugh, you won’t understand” A typical answer of someone who lived less than twenty, or never wised up. And this is where he was wrong.

[Roll Harold’s History d20 + 1 = 14; Since 5^th edition of D&D rules doesn’t have a skill that govern culture etiquette and anthropology, I’ll use History skill as a substitute]

“Won’t understand what exactly? That she gifted you that one thing that is sacred to her while not knowing your customs? And you not realizing her mistake you happily obliged her by giving your name. An exchange of truth , a tradition of exchanging names among Mrakors and not those of your kin to build a future together. But she didn’t know that, did she? And when you saw her with the other, you felt betrayed, your trust shattered and your love ripped out of your chest.  You found yourself holding a burden of the whole damn world on your shoulders and it was a torment to keep her secret, her name any further. And when the chance to ease the pain appeared, you took it. Maybe out of bitterness, maybe out of revenge, maybe you hesitated for a bit. But not long enough to stop and think about the consequences”

I had no intention in preaching. Really, that was not my intention. But when I finished, he looked at me with eyes wide open.

There was something else in his gaze. Some sort of understanding. Of a mutual sort.

“Sounds like you are talking from experience” It was not sarcasm, not a taunt, nor anything in between. But those were the words of a person who was slowly realizing that his troubles were not so unique. Mine had vibrant green eyes.

“Trust me, that happens to a lot of people who ends up being entangled in conduits’ crap.” I tried to give him a smile. Of a knowing kind. I think he might have interpreted it wrongly.

“Is that why you are here? To torment my conscience or to punish me for what I did?”

“The only reason I’m here is to deal with all that mess you got us all into”

“And why would I care?”

“Because while the girl keeps being nameless, she won’t hear you explaining yourself. And you have no hope to earn her forgiveness “

Again, I didn’t expect much from my little speech, but it sure did shatter his act of defiance. I could see that judging by how he grabbed the table firmly and putting down the hammer.

Now it was time to ask some uncomfortable questions.

“‘How did you manage to pull it off?” I asked referring to the whole ‘stealing the name’ shtick.

“There was this man” Of course, there’s always one. “He promised to deal with the red-haired… ba… I mean, pal of yours”

“And in return all he wanted is to give up her name”

Bai nod slowly.

“And this guy delivered. But not the way you’ve expected. Rendering her to vegetative state and letting her brother loose”

Another nod from him. And more solemn than previous one.

“Who was he?”

“Someone I’ve never met before. Tall and gaunt, silver hair and wearing all black. He knew a lot about me.”

A real charmer. That leads me to question: ‘why would he agree to the deal with someone like this at first place? ’ But I knew answer to that question.

Love truly makes an idiot of a man.

“What was his name?”

[Roll on General Oracle d20 - Did 'Gaunt' gave Bai his name? (Unlikely) = 5, No)

“He didn’t give me one”

“And you didn’t think about asking him for one?”

“I wasn’t in the right mood to ask”

Or rather not in the sound mind, for that matter.

“What was that?”

Did I say that out loud? Damnit!

“I ask if you can recognize him when you see him?”

“Yeh… Yeh, I think I can.”

[Roll on General Oracle d20 - Is Bai willing to follow Harold? – 13 Yes, but… ]

“Then I guess you will be my tour guide around the rock for the next few hours”

“I guess… But make no mistake. Should we face him, I won’t help you. I have no intention to fight him.”

“So I’ll have to do all the work here, huh?” That may have sounded cowardly on his side, but… “Fair enough.”

For all we know, that gaunt guy was Bai’s only hope to return the girl to her former self. And if things go sour Bai could use me as a bargaining chip, somehow, and plead to return the girl’s name. Sounds like a horrible plan, I know. But Bai was desperate enough to try something like that.

And as for me… it’s not the first time when I play the role of a leverage.

Anyhow, what should I do now?

“Say, how long is it till your smoke break?”

[Clue: 1 Heat: 0
Victory Points: 4
Antagonist Points: 0]

BESM 5e Solo, Part 4 - Scarlet Hero, Urban Adventure, Part 3 - A handfull of revelations

Next part was tricky to decide. I didn't want the adventure to stop on its tracks. 4 hours rest is a lot when you got an investigation and a race against time, so I decided the next segment to chose rather than to roll.

[Choose on Scarlet Hero Table of Urban Adventure Scenes of Investigation d10: 8 – An allied Actor can get you a Clue at a personal risk. Roll a die; on even number make a skill check to help to succeed. On even number, Fight to protect the Actor]

Roll d6 on Odd or Even= 5 – Odd number

It also gave me an idea to work on as well as introduce someone from the character's backstory.

Scene 2

[Clues: 0 Heat: 0

Victory Points Harold: 0

Victory Points Antagonist: 1]

“You know, I honestly expected that you would visit me later” The voice belonged to a young and pretty creature. I should have said lady, but I knew her too well. Her pair of azure eyes was watching me amusingly, while she, herself, was sitting on a floating piece of rock. That was the only visible piece of the scenery from the way I saw it. The rest was covered in fog, the one that comes during the night. Something like this was not part of a usual Da’liysh scenery.

“Expected, you say, huh? Guess that means that you do have little faith in me, after all.”

“Not true. If I actually doubted you I would have brought my scythe. Long time ago”

“Fair point”

Her name was Scarlet Rieper and she was… well… a Reaper, an agent of Celestial Bureaucracy. She herself prefers the term Harbinger. Like many other of her colleagues. She was appointed to me to… you guessed it! To collect my soul when the right time would come. Thing is though, she had a lot of opportunities to do it in the past years. And yet, here I am. Breathing and cussing.

A little side-note though. The Bureaucracy does not approve their agents mingling with the mortals and being all buddy-buddy with the… potential clients. While Scarlet herself is quite vocal about her existence.

“So, is there a reason for you to visit me in my dream?”

“Who said anything about this being your dream? But yeh, I’ve got a reason to be here.”

“Which is?”

“Looks like your brother is in some serious trouble.”

“Tell me something I don’t know”

“But they never were as serious as they are now. He slept with an actual conduit this time.”

“I gathered that much. And it won’t be the first time, really.”

“Sleeping with the girl?”

“No, sleeping with the conduit, I mean. Her name is Xia, or something.”

“‘Or something?’ You don’t sound that certain.”

“Nor does Ardet. And before you say anything, he claims not to steal her name.”

“And you believe him?”

“He’s many things, but ruining other’s lives is not his style”

“Oh?” She raised her brow with an expression which I could describe only as “knowing disbelief”.

“Well, alright… I mean ruining other’s lives by ripping their souls out that’s not his style.”

“Now that sounds about right.”

“But tell me, why all those questions? You know him as good as I do.”

And that was an absolute truth. After all, Kleid was her first client fron the very first day of his life. That until I showed up.

“I guess I just wanted to see how strong your resolve is”

“Oh?” Now it was my turn to raise a brow I was starting to think that she was here just to have a laugh at my expense. “And here I thought that you may have  something useful to share.”

“I may have. What exactly do you want to know?”

A ridiculous question if I ever heard one. Of course I wanted an answer to this damn mystery! To know the name of the one responsible and not running around getting punched in the face. But that’s not how it works with her. Oh, no. She’s an epitome of cat on the prowl. She would like nothing more than toy around and mess with her clients. Especially when the clients can see her. That’s one of the reason why I’ve never seen her wearing anything non-provocative.

“That girl, Xia… Who is she, anyway?”

“Now what’s the fun if I tell you that?”

See?! See what I mean?! This is all a damn game to her! Alright, Harold, stay calm. Just stay calm, damn it!

“Hey, I’m not asking you to give me everything you have on her. Her true name won’t be of any help to me anyway. I’m only asking to tell me what she actually is.” My plea may have sounded weird, but the way the girl back in the tea shop referred to “Xia” as Lady... There should be something to it.

“Well… you were right, both of you. Xia, is not her real name.”

“Great. Happy that mystery is finally resolved. Fantastic.” I tried to sound not sarcastic at all. “Anything else?”

[Roll Scarlet’s Investigation: d20 + 0  = 12] 

She passed the default difficulty of 10, but I decided to play on her playful nature. So I rolled on the reaction chart.

[Roll on Friendly NPC reaction 2d6: 7 Hesitant Agreement ]

“Hmm… not sure if I should give that sort of information for free.”

Seriously?!

“Oh, come on! Aren’t we all friends here?”

[Roll Harold’s persuasion: d20 + 0 = 10 vs Scarlet’s Passive Insight = 14]

“Yeh, but your friendship is steap.” Oh, that’s funny. I keep telling Ardet the same thing all the time. I couldn’t help but sigh.

“All right, out of it then. What do you want?”

[Roll on General Oracle d20 – Should she give him a task to perform as a price for information? = 18 - Yes]

To see what Scarlet would wish from Harold I rolled on the chart of Immediate Desires

[Roll on Immediate Desires d100 = 47]

“Well there’s a particular book I’m interested in…”

“The one you’re not allowed to have, I take it?”

“You’re quick as ever, but yeh, literary I’m not allowed to look for it. Not a word about touching it. But it doesn’t really matter since I can’t get my hands on it. You however…”

“Uh-huh… I’ll see what I can do. Now about our problem…”

“Our problem?”

Suddenly I had this chilly feeling of.. what’s the word in Shakor for that again?

Dreja..?

Deva..?

‘Déjà vu’, that’s it!

Not the most pleasant feeling in the universe

“Well, alright… My problem”

And here I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to roll the Motivation of the "antagonist" using the same chart.

[Roll on Desire Table d20 / d20 = 1 / 14 - Love]

“Right-right. So, you might find it interesting. It appears that there was someone who saw your brother’s girlfriend… Right after she left him, snoring alone.”

“Who exactly?”

“Someone who was not pleased to see her with another.”

It’s always the same with Kleid. He either pisses off the father, the brother, the lover or the girl herself by calling her the wrong name.

“And this guy has something to do with all this?”

[Roll on General Oracle d20 – Is this the love of the Antagonist? = 6, No, but…  ]

[Roll on "But... chart"  d6 = 6 – Sublimely good or bad timing]

“He might know something about all this”

That was better than nothing, but still not enough.

“Where can I find him?”

She hesitated to give me the answer. For a moment she looked at the horizon all the way through the fog, searching nothing in particular and yet, looking at something that only she could see. She had a look of a person that was listening to someone whisper in her ear.

[Roll on Location d6 / d20 – 2 / 2 Location Common; Blacksmithy]

[Roll on the People Chart d20: 8 – Human Ethnicity]

[Roll on the name d10 / d10: 1 / 4]

“You’ll find him among Blacksmiths. Ask for Bai Lei”

[Roll on the Tribe 2d6: 6 - Mrakor]

“Bai Lei? That’s a Mrakor’s name”

“Worry about that later. You’ve got more pressing matters”

“Such as?”

“You might want to wake up for what comes next.”

And in that very moment, the fog devoured her, leaving only slightly visible silhouette. Which started to slide away, further and further. As if some unseen force pushed her away... Or rather, pulled me back, faster and harder. The fog disappeared, so did a cozy floating rock which Scarlet invited me to visit. Only the darkness left. And that one was of a natural kind. The one that you could expect after closing your eyes shut.

I was back in my body.

Every nerve in my body was sore but, at least, I could breath and think without pain. Guess Scarlett actually did something to me while I was at her place.

Can't say I was greeted warmly, though...

[Scarlet cast “Healing Word” on Harold: 1d4 + 2 Wisdom = 6 Health restored]

I'll admit that I may have cheated a bit using the NPC as sourse of information and a healer. But since I run an adventure that is a bit more difficult than the default Scarlet Heroes advise. I though that the character need a fighting chance. In the next scene. 

And here's another thing, Loomes Grity rules suggest to use Magical Healing as a mean to restore Health, but not Stamina. However, all this scene was basically in Harold's head, and all they did was talking. The description of Healing Word reads like the words of encouragment, rather than an actual Healing spell, so in this adventure it recivers Stamina  

[Harold’s Health: 1/5

Harold's Stamina: 6/6]

Scene 3

[Clues: 1 Heat: 0

Victory Points Harold: 1

Victory Points Antagonist: 1]

“He’s been like that four hours already.”

I remember that gruff voice from not so long ago. The one that will definitely laugh in a nasty way after piercing your leg from the back.

“Then wake him up!” That voice I remember too.

The bikers idea of waking up though was to kick me bellow the ribs.

[Attack Roll d20+3 = Unarmed Strike: 16+3 = 19)

Oof, just got the Stamina back and now losing it again?! Time to spend another Hero Point. Drats!

1d4 + 1 = 4 HP (1 Hero Point Spent); 4HP – roll d6 = 4 - 6 = -2; No damage]

That hurt like heck. That’s what you get for not waking up in time, I guess. When I opened my eyes and blinked enough for tears to dry out I saw the sunless dark sky adorned with the crumbs of cold lights. I tried to get up. But the key word here was tried for I was tied up. Both legs and arms.

And it was a solid knot, from what I could see. Luckily they’ve decided against blindfolding me or anything. What’s more, the rope was quite long, going all the way to the cloud bike which was slumbering for a moment.

That was not good. I bet the same thing they did with my arms. In fact, I could hear a low hum of the metal beast behind me, awaken and hovering above the ground ready to dash forward with a ferocious roar.

I was quite familiar with the torture that I was about to experience. Though I was familiar with that one kind that used real horses, but I guess the bikes could do as well.

“Not a very good sight to wake up to”

I had an idea of what I want in the next scene, so I decided against rolling and instead chose one.

[Choose on Scarlet Heroes Urban Adventures Action Scene: 7 – Rally an Actor and their comrades to oppose the foe – 1 Clue Spent]

Action scenes unlike Investigation or Conflict scene need Clues. One of the resourses that character gathers if the Investigation is succesful.

“Should have told us what we want to know from the start. But you chose pain in a little game of ours.” The biker fondly patted his loyal steed. “So try to enjoy what will come next. I know I will…”

With that said he lifted the bike and activated it. I expected to hear the beast like roar on ignition but instead it purred like a kitten.  A kitten that was ready to tear of my legs out of sockets.

“Where’s that redhead pal of yours? ”

“You should be more specific. I know lots of reds. Take your sister for example.”

[Roll Harold’s Persuasion vs. Biker’s Passive Insight = 11 vs 11]

This part was a bit tricky to handle. Technically it’s a hit and miss, not a full success, because Persuasion is equal opponent's Passive Insight. But the rating of challenge in Scarlet Heroes equals 9 + Character Level, so it's 10. Thus I treated that roll as a draw, but not a fail though. That is, until the next check roll

[Roll on Unfriendly Reaction 2d6 = 6 – flat rejection]

I could see that he appreciated the joke he went so far as to nod to his pal and turn the handle on the bike ever so slightly. But the pull was real.

[Roll 2d4 Force damage = 4. Harold’s Health: 1/2 ]

I could feel both my legs and arms almost popped out. Almost…

“You’re a brave man, grey. Not anyone would dare to sleep with that ugly hag. Now anything else to tell us, smartass?”

Well since I have a tough crowd today, guess I had no choice but to try another approach.

“Look guys, it’s true. I am looking for someone who might look like someone you are after. But are we sure that it’s the same guy?”

[Roll Harold’s Bluff d20+0 vs Biker’s Insight  = 18 vs 11]

“Last night the redhead  had fun with the boss’ little sister. And now she’s in some sort of comma.”

“Yep, that’s something he would do… except for the comma part.” Bit of truth, bit of lie and I got myself something genuinely believable. “What did he do to her anyway?”

“Don’t know. She breaths, but doesn’t react to anything. Just sit there staring at the wall in front of her. ”

Yeh, that’s definitely sounds like something a conduit with his name stolen would act like. But it looks like that they have no idea what’s happened to her, so they did not have a talk with their boss. Even after dealing with me. Which is weird since they had all the time in the world to do so.

“Look guys, I’m sorry about what have happened to your boss sister but tearing me to pieces won’t cure her or anything. Unless I help you find him and what he did with the girl.”

No reason to defend Ardet now since they all believe him to be guilty, so I may as well play along… There was silence for a moment. I could have heard the gears turning in their heads if it wasn’t for the low-key humphs of their bikes. And that was one of those rare moments of eternal silence which I waited anxiously, fearing to hear another roar of the bikes.

This didn’t happen, quite the contrary, actually. The purr of engines died out. Right after that I heard some commotion behind and some clinging of the metal.

I registered that ‘bear’ stood next to me holding a knife in his hand. Though a sheer size of it reminded me more of a machete. And the blade of this machete was dangerously close to my face.

“And what makes you think that you have any chance at this at all?” Obviously he was referring to my poor performance way back in the alley.

“Well, I did land a few good ones on your face, didn’t I?”

“You did. But you still ended up here. About to be torn to pieces.”

“The thing is, that back in the alley I was not motivated enough”

“And now?”

“And now, I think I am”

He knelled taking the knife even closer. Closer than I’d like to…

“I’m taking a big risk here and lots of faith releasing you. Don’t screw this up for me”

His pal was not so keen about all that exchange.

“And just like that? You are letting him go?”

The blade in bear’s hand made quick work of the ropes.

“Only if he knows where to look!”

“Trust me, I do…”  I assured him rubbing my wrists.

Confession about Big Eyes Small Mouth

All right so, first of all, I need to confess. I like BESM d20 a d20 incarnation of Big Eyes Small Mouth (a game ruleset that emulates the tropes and narrative that are custom in Japanese animation). It's my.... what's the word, again? Guilty pleasure.

The hero of an hour

I like the idea of weapons and combat expertice being treated as just another set of skills that you can increase using skill points, like any other skill in 3.0 and 3.5. It's kind of made sense to me. I like the intergrated idea of multi-classing the characters from the start in the book, since most of the  characters in the stories of this particular style of animation are highly versatile, survivor-savy, skillful in everything or too damn lucky. Even the dynamic magic that involved draining spell points made sense because it was part of JRPG legacy and the Mana Points. Of course, there was thing as a floating difficulty that included many variables (some spells and tasks could easily have difficulty of "40") but that was an overall problem of 3.0 and 3.5 ruleset.

What really stood out for me was a character sheet that came inside the book. And it stood so much for me that I've actually made a character sheet that would be 5-e compatible.
And this very sheet is the one that I'm using alongside "Scarlet Hero" ruleset.

Oh yeh, I mayhap forgot to mention that alongside random charts, oracles and adventure creation rules of "Scarlet Heroes" I'll use the rules of creation and engagment that can be found in 5e ruleset. You may notice that unlike the typical 5e character sheet this one has a few deviations.

Allow me to elaborate on those...

First of all the number of stats has been increased. Now as a GM, I often found myself being asked by one of the players the same question: "How 'hot' is this NPC?". More than enough times. So, soon enough, 'hotness' became one of the core stats in our D&D games under the name 'Comeliness' coresponding to the beauty of the body while 'Charisma' being all about beauty of a character and personality. And that also lead to the addition of the 7th saving throw. Speaking of which...

Well, I did mention that I've grown to appreciate the hobby during the 3.0-3.5 era, so I am used to the set of 3 saving throws: Fortitude, Reflexes and Will. But then came 5e/next ruleset and I found myself refering to Wisdom as Will save and Dexterity saving throw as Reflexes. A slip of a tongue but led to some amusement among the players. Since this is the sheet that I'll use mostly for my own games I decided to use the terms that I'm okay with and renamed the saving throws with Strength now being Might, Dexterity - the good old Reflexes, Constitution is back at being Fortitude, Intelect save - Sanity (in honor of Cthulhu), Wisdom - Will and Charisma as Resolve. While introducing the seventh stat Comeliness I also had to include the seventh saving throw "Honor" which could be rolled to protect the characters dignity and keep his face while being pressured by Morale Corruption.

You may also notice that list of skills also includes such entries as driving and piloting. Well, the reason for that is being that both militaristic and heroic versions of Mecha genre in Japanese animation tend to put kids and teeneagers with little to none experience in the cockpit of bipedal armored juggernaughts, so in terms of both narratives and game mechanics everyone can try and pilot a transport no matter how sophisticated it is with enough luck and positive enough modifier. That also includes such bizare types of transportation as jet boots, brooms and umbrellas. Same goes to the driving skills, with enough points in skill, characters may move up and down the walls and buildings using something like blade-rollers. Which, I'm not a fan of, but for the sake of fairness and for the spirit of "cool insanity"...

The most significant derivative is the Hit Die. Though I decided to use the traditional classes from 5e gameset, the 'Scarlet Heroes' rules use more vulnerable options to choose from. So, in order to compromise I decided to divide the standard Hit Points to Health and Stamina.
The Unearthed Arcana Variant Rules for 5e ruleset introduce the option of using Vitality to setermine the characters wellbeing. This suggestion was close to the idea of Wounds in Warhammer Fantasy RPG and unlike the standard Hit Points this Vitality rarely increased unless the Constitution score itself was modified in any way. Using this option, Hit Points became an abstract measure of luck, a karma meter if you like, a mental shield and pain tollerance. Something like that was used in Starfinder set of rules that had both Hit Points and Endurance Points and furthermore it was used as Gritty Healh rules in game of Red Hand of Doom by Benjamin Loomes

During the combat when my character gets hit, the Stamina will be the first to deplete and only after that the Health will be lost due to successful attacks. The grittier aspect comes in form of Stamina being restored as usual by taking the option of taking the rest (both short or long). Health can be restored only by magical or surgical means or taking a full day rest (just like in 3.0-3.5 edition of ruleset)

Furthermore, using the suggestion from the Dungeonmaster Guide Book, I will include the idea of Spell points to be used to cast spells, something that you would expect to be used in videogames. No offence to Vance and the legacy of the Vancian magic that he built, but this set of rules is not exactly what I had in mind for a setting. And besides, I do like the idea of magic-users burning their inner strength, their lifeforce to fuel the spells. And that will be the second use of Stamina. Of course with that in mind, magic users would have a bigger amount of Stamina than solely martial classes.

As for the rest of the character sheet is not that drastically different from what players used to... Well besides the additional Passive Insight and Passive Investigation alongside standard Passive Perception, but it's such a small tweak, that I don't think need a lot of explanation.

All right, that's enough for now. The post is long as it is. Next time we will talk about character creation and the setting...

P.S. Below I attach the links to the sheet on my google drive that you can have a better look at and print it if you want to

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hq446DAWobYGARvgU2atsRGWp3uWTrBw

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QYawHlcuGYHbFy0IM9jV1UdWfrIWq3TH

As well as the look at the Variant Rules published on the official Wizards of the Coast site

https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/UA5_VariantRules.pdf

And the example of Benjamin Loomes' Gritty Health rules in action during The Red Hand of Doom run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ck1AJy2c0w&list=PLaweBRvpqqNAAoJmPNbMYrnwFm1yX3hN5

P.S.S. Almost slipped my mind, you may also notice the label called Discretionary Points. This is something I took straight from BESM d20 and used in Play Manga version of rules. But for the game I had in mind this label is irrelevent. As for Bloodtype and Zodiak... well every anime character must have those, right? Sadly I still didn't figure out what effect those would have on gameplay.     

All thing have a beginning part II

And I return one month later, jeesh...

Now then, when I mentioned "gamming" as part of my interests I probably should have mentioned that this includes both digital and more tradititional game with physical supplements. And yes, that also includes tabletop roleplaying games, though this part of my hobby and interest is relatively new. And yes, it also includes "Dungeons and Dragons" games.

The first version that I've ever been acquanted with was 3.0 and 3.5 version of the games in the form of videogames like Icewind Dale II and Pool of Radiance, but I've never actually gone far in those games. Neverwinter Nights, however... that is one of those games that I return to from time to time. Well, I, actually, replaying right now, but I digrace...

and the Holy Spirit

... The Son

The Father...

The point is, that I was introduced to a particular part of the hobby during the 3.0-3.5 era, but since I lived in the area where this hobby wass not known at all I was left with playing only the digital solo manifestations of this gameset and rules.
Years later I had a few good runs paying the the later incarnations of the gameset as it intented with a party. But, sadly, it didn't sttuck for long. And to be honest, I'm not a very good teamplayer or an interesting gamemaster. Though I got to say that I've foun myself GM'ing more than playing. Life and work never alowed me to indulge with this game in its full. And as such I started to look at the today's incarnations of the hobby from the point of solo gaming and trying to build the coherent game experience for this one party-less guy. The only problem I had was that the gameset's modules and adventures of late incarnations of the hobby (Pathfinder and D&D 5, specifically) are not exactly intented for the solo playthrough where the player is also a gamemaster, the experience leads to a lot of spoilers which could kill the mood. Sure there are also a lot of gamebooks around, but the problem is with me loving them they are all pre-programmed and tend to have a lot of "rock falls every dies" entries, which I tend to stumble upon while reading-playing such books... A lot. They don't have this chaos and the crazy shenanigans that players can come up with changing the flow of the game in a new direction.

A few years back I've found a few good suggestions about how to deal with Lone Wolf gaming experience fruitfully and soon enough the book "Scarlet Heroes" appeared in my life.

A wonderfull book to someone who has no permanent group or lot's of time to play. And though the book was rather compelling and the generators were exactly what I needed and a step forward from the ordinary charts of random (and sometimes awkward) encounters. But the setting of Red Tides didn't grab my attention back then.

So, I started tinkering. I'll tell you how "well" it went next time.