Defeating COVID-19 Through RPG Power

Well, we had our first COVID-19 game session, and it went well. We defeated "The Fear" and instead had a great time playing online instead of our usual around the living room table game. To do this we met on my Discord Elthos Server, where I created Text and Audio Channels for The Way of All Flesh Campaign. The chat channel and audio combined pretty well so that we could play a Theater of the Mind style game.  Elthos RPG Rules were used and that saved me from a lot of heavy lifting as the rules are nicely streamlined and the tiny math numbers making calculations really fast and easy for me. We played from 8pm to Midnight. It was a blast.

The Way of All Flesh, a Proto-World I am working on for the Mythos Machine World Marketplace, is a Cosmic Sci-Fi / Space Opera concerning the rise of the Ultimate AI and the ensuing results this gives rise to in relation to all organic life forms in the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. It starts in the year 2034 AD after the conclusion of the Ultra-War and during a period of optimism in the surviving human civilization, which adopts a Super-AI named Altissimus-X (aka Alt-X) as its Scientific and Sociological Adviser and Primary Analysis Tool. With Alt-X's help they rebuild Civilization, conduct rescue missions, and commence space exploration. Along the way they cultivate humanity's latent Mentarian Powers (think Psionics), and make surprising discoveries in the Solar System. Through successive Chapters I plan to extend each segment of the game to the next Era and ultimately the world should span something like a million years, with players playing successive generations of their own descendants.

There is a lot more to the picture than meets the eye, but that's the nutshell version. The title, "The Way of All Flesh" gives a hint as to the primary underlying theme of the world.

The adventure tonight centered on a Federation Command Rescue Team sent from Kitt Peak in Arizona to Boneville Utah to investigate a faint radio transmission that might indicate some survivors of the Ultra-War are located there. If so, they should be rescued. The team was given an Armored Ground Vehicle (AGV) outfitted with a gimbaled machine gun, and top mounted Plasma beam, Missile Deflecting Hull Armor, a Plasma Shell, and a variety of other equipment. 

Their first encounter was at the Space Port, north of Kitt Peak, where they spotted something climbing the side of a rocket.  Investigation ensued and they found that Skull Spiders could not only climb rockets, but leap, and bite with venomous fangs.  One member, Fred, the group Cybernaut, almost got killed by the horrible thing.

They headed along the North Eastern route, which would take them through Phoenix Arizona, a city that had not been investigated due to the Biological Weapons deployed there during the Ultra-War.  Federation Command had sent a team there a year ago, but they vanished without a trace.  Along the way, at Red Rock, they encountered rough terrain where a major battle had occurred.  The derelict and gigantic War-Bots were still strewn on the nearby hill sides.  The road had been demolished. While trying to maneuver the AGV onto the service road they spotted someone moving among the rocks.  Soon after they were peppered by small arms fire.  Lizard-Men, clever, ruthless and determined, attacked with Machine Guns, and Grenades.  They managed to wreck the AGV's tread, and blow up their Android Lexi while he tried to repair the vehicle.  It was a tough fight, but in the end they nailed all four of the Lizard-Men, going after the last one who had gone to get reinforcements.  They ambushed the creature by flying ahead of it with a two-man Rocket-Bike and then corralling it into "Guns" Gunderson's expert sites.  Lastly, Samwise picked up, at some danger, a surprising specimen... the branch of a red leafy plant that moved along the ground hunting rabbits.  A mutation of the new world, or a product of some dreadful biological weapon, perhaps.

And so, we beat back the dread of COVID-19 by having a fun evening online, risking no one's health, and enjoying each other's company.  Very good.  We'll do it again!

Peace Out.