User:Melonberg

About Me

I began gaming with Jason in the mid 90's. During that time I ran and played in some great games, some of which would positively influence my view of gaming for years to come. We parted ways after only a few short years, but after almost two decades got back in touch.

My favorite genres tend to be things like cyberpunk, sci-fi and post-apocalypse. Maybe it's a shortcoming, but anything with a dysfunctional or dystopian feel to it is right up my alley; it seems a lot easier as a GM to rationalize players getting away with all the crazy stuff they inevitably try if the world is somehow broken, you know? I tend to shy away from fantasy (swords and sorcery generally ain't my bag), but I had an excellent time playing Otto Von Stump when Jason ran WHFRP (my re-introduction to RPGs after many years of inactivity).

Games I've Run

• Cyberpunk Nomads--This was one of the first long-running games I ever ran. Players included Jason, Monica, Matt M. and Sid. It was set in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world where megacorps had usurped power and authority from the world governments and waged total corporate war. The result was a world almost unlivable, and bands of nomads and raiders struggled to gather what little resources were left in the blasted no-man's lands outside of small fortress-cities. Memorable quote: "Come to Fort Chamerlain, Pete".
  
• Space Opera--I was introduced to Space Opera by my older brother, and after I felt my britches were big enough, tried to run a campaign, myself. This is where I found out that the game mechanics were like logic that had been translated into English by lazy and spiteful Chinese factory workers. The system sucked, but through a heaping helping of player motivation and GM fiat, we all had a good time for a while. This began the adventures of Captain Braxton Gerrish and the other members of Triple-A Badass, Inc.
  
• XCOM: Gray Dawn--This is the first game I've run since returning to gaming after my long hiatus. Players included Jason, Rumi, Dieter, Anna, Scott and Nathan. The game was placed on hiatus after the beginning of "season 2," but there is the looming threat of it coming back to life...
• Phoenix's Last Rise--A Morrow Project campaign using Hero System rules. It takes place in the Shenandoah Valley (Or, "Shadow-Over Valley," according to the locals) long after the fires fell from the skies. As per usual in the Morrow project universe, something has gone awry, and the heroes have not woken up when they should have. TMP personnel ally with "Topsiders"--survivors in the wasteland to explore and try to learn more of the present and the past, and what they can and should do in this strange new world.

Characters

Jebediah Weez--Shotgun-toting, cigar-chewing unitarian minister in one of Matt M's 1920's Call of C'Thulhu games.
Stanley Spudowski--Night Janitor at Miskatonic University. Even before losing all his SAN from investigating the supernatural, he was a bit daft, and not the most reliable even under the best of circumstances. After being sentenced to an indefinite stay at Arkham Asylum, he managed to escape when Matt ran CoC again.
Cubby Grenade--A Gamma World character in Sid's campaign. Cubby was a mutant Bengal tiger. His character sketch looked suspiciously like Tony the Tiger, if Tony wore a bejeweled iridescent green turban and a leather biker jacket reinforced with old traffic signs for armor. Cubby had limited intelligence and barely functional hands, so he couldn't wield weapons. In combat, he and Jason's character (Some kind of fighty artifact hunter) tended to get in close while everybody else hung back sniping. This meant that the two CQB fighters often skimmed off the best loot before the others could close in and take their spoils. As it turned out, one of the few weapons Cubby could use were grenades, and since no one else wanted to use them, Cubby called dibs (and who was going to argue? Dude's a fucking tiger.) and eventually wound up with a huge sack o' grenades. He also started calling himself "Cubby Grenade." For some dumb reason, Cubby was one of my favorite characters for a long time.
Herb--In the same campaign as Cubby above, Herb was an animated deciduous tree. His bushy leaves looked like a giant afro, and he wore a white leather cowboy boot on each of his three "leg" roots. He also had some gaudy chains draped around his trunk ala Mr. T, and had the general demeanor of a pimp straight out of the ghetto. He was constantly looking for 'hos to press into service, but I don't think he ever found any.
Glacius--Computer programmer who had been turned into a living glob of liquid metal, like the T-1000 from T2. His real name was Richard MacDuff, and he was based on the character of the same name from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.
Ben--Gangrel Biker in a V:TM campaign run by Jason many moons ago. Based almost entirely on the main character Ben from the video game "Full Throttle."
Felix--A vampire gunman, with high levels of celerity and the ability to dual-wield pistols. I was min-maxing hard for this one. I can admit it now. His ability to take 10 attacks a round was kind of game-breaking, and not nearly as clever as the gamism I employed when running Glacius (which was more of getting to understand the HERO system and getting the most out of it rather than just being cheesy and OP). Felix was based on the character of the same name from the John Steakley novel, Vampire$, who was in turn a carbon copy of the character Felix from his first novel, Armor. This was the last in a long trend of characters I ran based almost entirely on characters from other media. Not the proudest time, but I can't change it, so I can only try and learn from it. (By the way, those two books by John Steakley are pretty freaking awesome. I have read them both, like, a bajillion times. I highly recommend them.)
Otto Von Stϋmp--Human Thug in a WHFRP game run by Jason.
Seamus "Blackjack" O'Reilly--A Riker's Island prison guard by day, vigilante by night in a 1920's pulp hero campaign.
Shillelagh
Harlan Fontenot
Maj. Hannibal Jung (SFSMC, Ret.)

Current Projects

I am currently working with Jason (and whichever other contributors might eventually come on board) to adapt a workable system to that ailing old war horse, Space Opera. Details can be found here: Future Imperfect