Playtest Journal: Lucas Rustbelt

[PsionNovastar]

Below is the character sheet for Lucas Rustbelt and the journal I kept of my first two test sessions of Stoneburner.

Character Sheet

Name- Lucas Rustbelt
Class Kit- Sinker
Gender- Male
Description- Average height (for a dwarf,) Lean but sinewy, Green Eyes, rust red hair worn short, pale skin, no beard.
Personality: Protective and Determined.
Background (Homebrewed Background)- Dwarf Hold: You were an upstanding but unremarkable member of of a dwarf hold, suddenly sent to the Longbelt on the adventure and opportunity of a lifetime.
• What was your hold/homeworld? What does your hold do? Lucas and the rest of the Rustbelt house come from the Planet Nepa in the Appalachia sector. Master engineers and smiths, they chaffed under a long and mentally abusive relationship with the miners of the Coalbreaker house.
• Do you have any friends outside of your hold? Lucas has a surprisingly deep interest in Halfling culture and has several good friends in the halfling communities on Nepa, a fascination that has often closed as many doors as it opened. Especially with the Coalbreakers...
• What is your connection to House Grand Rock? To say that Brokur Longneck was a very distant uncle of Lucas’s was an understatement and even as he sets foot on the cursed asteroid mines of the Long Belt, he suspects that the Coalbreakers pulled a few favors in order to get him sent to Brokur’s infamous deathtrap instead of one of their sons. Still, for the chance to build a new home for both his house and himself, Lucas would gladly fight the forces of Hell itself...
Skills- Strength d6, Dexterity d6, Willpower d8
Lasting Items- Emberwing Rune d6 (my turret/robot turns into a flying drone)
Facets- Toolkit, medkit, very large wrench, and “Dumpling” (custom combat robot, has a paint scheme similar to old A-10 Warthogs and some Halfling icongraphy scrawled on the chassis)
Abilities- Fixer (gain the UPPER HAND when repairing or modifying technology,) Healer (Roll a d10, gain 1 to 3 Resilience back at the cost of one “power”. acquired 6/2/2023)
Resilience- 3 HP
Credits- 600 credits
Loot:

Mine Level 1 (6/2/2023)

The first wave of pioneers and scouts arrived at the beachhead to Kazab Baram to be greeted by the rusted remains of a small mining town and a single landing pad barely big enough to support their shuttle. The town would need to be renovated and the space port considerably expanded before the rest of the settlers and equipment could be brought over from the Rustbelt clan’s colony ship. Despite the rough state of the facilities, the extensive infrastructure and equipment salvage in Kazab Baram made it a good choice to claim the rest of the Long Belt in the name of House Rustbelt.

Lucas Rustbelt exhaled and tried to keep the tremble out of his hand as he brushed back his short hair and shouldered his equipment. Following the other Rustbelt dwarves out of the shuttle and into the cavern of the asteroid colony proper; Lucas looked at the ruined buildings of the town ahead of him, the space port he currently stood in, and the asteroid cavern containing it all. This was it? This was all that remained of Brokur Longneck’s estate? This was his inheritance?

He shook his head and followed the others into town, his mind full of conflicting emotions. Part of him had hoped that Longneck’s estates would have been in better shape then this but then there were the possibilities. Even hit with the reality that it would take a lot of repair work to bring this settlement to its former glory, he was still enamoured by the possibilities and the reality that this was all his. He was the named heir of this hold and its adjacent mines, he was the lord of this hold. Then the engineer in him immediately pushed those romantic frivolities out of his head and started making a mental list of all the repairs that needed to be made and started prioritizing them.

Ahead of him, the squad of Strikers under the command of Lieutenant Ironbeard had already secured the area around the mine and began barking orders as he organized a search of the mines. “Alright you lot! The settlement is secure, let’s begin scouting the mines. Search nice and slow, leave no stone unturned. For the glory of House Rustbelt and Grandrock!”

Seeing Ironbeard had the settlement security in hand, Lucas focused on assembling work groups to see to the most urgent repairs and make the settlement livable. They wouldn’t have enough resources to start any major building projects but maybe that would change depending on what Ironbeard and the others found in the mines…

A week passed, Sinker Lucas Rustbelt and the dwarf mechanics with him finished their initial repairs. The living quarters and basic life support are fully operational and waiting for colonists to arrive. But Lieutenant Ironbeard and his squad have not returned. Worried, Lucas readies his gear and activates his combat drone “Dumpling.” “Send the shuttle back to the colony ship. Tell them we need reinforcements. I’ll go see what became of Ironbeard and his band.” He ordered over his shoulder as he descends into the mines below…

Now that the preamble is out of the way, the run begins. For solo play, the rules say to roll one d20 to determine the level “event” and roll the other dice (1d12 to 1d4) as you play and move through the map. It does not say anything about what order to roll them in or if you use the dice to draw a rough map of the dungeon level similar to how you roll for group play. Since there is no specific ruling one way or another, I will roll the dice in descending order to determine location similar as that’s how the Breathless system works for everything else. Lucas enters the mine with two visions of glory, find Ironbeard’s Warband and find something that can help the settlement.

Roll result: 1 on a d20, the die landed on the left bottom corner of my dice tray so that’s the mine entrance. The Event Table reads “A group of bounty hunters are on the hunt for someone hiding out in the mines. Fully armed, they are determined to catch their target. Who are they hunting? Why are they hunting them?” Well now, haven’t been here more then a week and already Lucas has murder hobos in HIS mine.

Lucas steps into the mine entrance, the natural cave reinforced with sturdy pillars of dwarf craftmanship and flickering electric lights was ominous but otherwise typical of dwarven asteroid mines that had seen better days. No sooner had he stepped in then a band of heavily armed and armored strangers emerged from deeper in the mines and stopped to look at him.

“Who are you?” The apparent leader of the band asked with an electronically masked voice.

Lucas looked back, they were all “tall folk” but that was the most he could figure out from their armored body suits and cloaks. None of them seemed to have any uniform or common form of identification except for their excessive shared arsenal and a symbol of a white sword wreathed in chains. A symbol of one of the bounty hunter clans and not one of the more noble ones if Lucas remembered correctly. “I am Lucas Rustbelt, Sinker and lord of this mine. And I could ask you the same question.” He replied firmly, hoping they wouldn’t start looking for a bodyguard he didn’t have…

“The hell? Brief said these guys wouldn’t be here for another month.” One of the others mumbled a little too audibly for the leader’s taste.

“Can it, this changes nothing.” The leader barked back before turning to Lucas. “Sorry, we’re just looking for a mark named Fremar Ironpick. Have you seen him? He has the death sentence in twelve systems. We’ll leave as soon as we have him.”

A being with a dwarf name apparently wanted for dead in twelve systems… “I honestly can’t say that I have. If I do find him, I’ll make sure to let you know.” Lucas replied truthfully.

Fortunately the bounty hunters apparently weren’t interested in a confrontation either. Not unusual but still curious. The leader tapped the side of his helmet and flashed a communication frequency to Lucas’s own computer bracer. “Alright then, call us if you find him. Good luck with your mine Lord Rustbelt.” And with that, the band disappeared into the town behind Lucas before slipping back into one of the many other tunnels in the Long Belt.

That strange encounter behind him, Lucas turned back to focus on his explorations.

Roll Result: 7 on a D12. It’s an odd number and landed right next to the d20 so it’s part of the same room per the map generating rules. 7 is a “Corrupted Greathall”. Well I’m definitely getting all the fun places on this run.

Returning to his explorations with renewed purpose, Lucas opened the ornate heavy metal doors at the far end of the mine entrance and found himself in a right and proper dwarven great hall. Or at least it was at one time. Between the long tables and benches where dwarf hosts would hold feasts to celebrate the prosperity of the mines and the hold, Lucas found signs that something wasn’t quite right. Was this part of Longneck’s personal manor and if so why was it directly connected to the mines? And then there were the other things he found in this massive room.

The stench of dust and old rot mixed with the smell of burnt ozone from dwarven plasma weapons as Lucas walked through the stone hall. Bizarre glowing glyphs appeared burnt into the floor and walls, sending a chill down Lucas’s spine as he continues to search through the room. “Uncle Longneck, what had you gotten yourself into before you died?” He asked the empty great hall as he continued to look for an exit.

The corpse was lying on the floor near the exit when Lucas found it. A short, spindly creature with yellowish tan skin, beak-like face, and pupil-less red eyes. A demon if the old stories were true. A recently slain one too… Ironbeard and the others were here. Tightening his grip on his wrench, he walked through the far door and slowly continued his descent into the mine...

Roll Result: 7 on a D10, “Signs of Explosions.” There’s a bit of distance on where this one landed so I’m going to say it’s the start of a new cave. Rolled a 3 on a d6 on the risk oracle so I need to make a check here.

Walking along, Dumpling and the light of his fusion lamp his only companions, Lucas came to a partially collapsed stretch of tunnel. Blackened scorch marks eat into the stone wall as the metal fragments of grenade casings crunch under his boot heels. There was a battle here but he couldn’t tell between who or who won. Halfway down the tunnel, there’s an audible crack and roar as rocks began to fall on the Sinker. Lucas attempts to roll out of the way and…

Roll Result: Dexterity check against a d6… rolled a 2 so I either fail or I succeed at major cost. I’m going to say I just take one point of damage out of my three HP getting clear… ouch.

Lucas attempts to roll out of the way and gets hit in the shoulder by a particularly large rock before getting clear of the rock slide. The pain courses through his body before subsiding and he continues onward…

Roll Result: 7 on a d8, “Gas leak.” Well… that explains the previous roll. And possibly explains why Ironbeard’s squad didn’t return. We’re going to say that this is part of the same large cave...

The blast-scorched tunnel soon opened up to a sprawling cavern and Lucas was immediately hit by the burnt smell of something foul. Throughout the cave, geysers periodically erupted and the one closest to him was illuminating their surroundings with a bright green flame. Immediately Lucas put a gasmask on. Ammonia gas… On the positive this could be a huge find for the settlement if they could devise a way to extract it. On the other, it explained so much about the tunnel leading here. Ironbeard’s Strikers were fighting something and fired a grenade at it. The resulting explosion ignited one of the geysers and made the tunnel unstable and possibly wounded the entire warband. Still… there was treasure here.

Roll Result: Rolled a 4 on a d12 loot die. Got a 1d4 canister of ammonia gas and lowered my loot die to d10. Not the most dwarfy mining haul but got to start somewhere.

Fashioning a gas canister and a siphon out of the bits and bobs he kept in his tool kit, Lucas was able to harvest a small canister of ammonia gas. Time to move on…

Roll Result: Rolled a 4 on a d6, “Red Glowing Tunnel.” Well this isn’t ominous at all. Rolled a 2 on a d6 for the Risk Oracle who says “perilous check sucka, roll and face harsh consequences for failure.” Wait… red glowing rock...

The cave walls began to glow an eerie red as Lucas continued down this particular tunnel, the hairs on his head and the back of his neck began to stand on end. Dumpling continued to dutifully trundle behind him. At first, nothing happened which only added to Lucas’s unease. Then, near the end of the tunnel, it happened. Dumpling brushed against a particularly bright patch of rock then convulsed violently as electricity arced out of the walls and through the drone. The robot staggers then collapses in a heap mere inches from the end of the tunnel. Turning around and slowly dragging his mechanical friend out of danger, Lucas grabbed his tool kit…

Roll Result: d8 Willpower Roll with Upperhand for mechanical repair but Lucas pushes himself twice as hard. Second roll gives me a 4, a success at a minor cost. I’ll take another hit to my HP...

Lucas repairs Dumpling but residual electricity shocks him. Groaning after he’s been thrown to the floor, the dwarf Sinker climbs to his feet and slowly walks on…

Roll Result: 2 on a d4, “Decrepit Mining Shaft”

The red glow of the electric stone subsides as Lucas arrived at the end of this level of the mine. The tunnel opens up to a large room with a rickety old mine shaft in the middle leading down into the inky depths below. The lift machinery creaks violently as the elevator car comes up from the next level and comes to a stop. Brokker Hammer, one of Ironbeard’s Strikers groans and staggers out before stopping to look at Lucas. “By the Stone, am I glad to see you!” the armored dwarf fighter exclaimed.

“What happened? Where have you been?” Lucas asked, trying to stay focused. The other dwarf’s fatigue was contagious after what Lucas had gone through trying to get here.

“We’re down in the next level. Ironbeard and the others are trapped, I came back to get help. Please milord, you have to help them!”

“I will, you have my word on that. But first we need to get you back to town.” Rustbelt replied, wondering just what did Ironbeard get himself into…

Expedition Complete: Lucas returns to town to rest and rearm so he’s a little better prepared to descend further into the mines. Upon returning, Lucas sells the 1d4 canister of ammonia for $100 credits (rolled a 2 on the die for $50, credit value doubled for solo play.) He successfully completed or progressed both of his visions of glory (find out what happened to Ironbeard’s warband and find something that can help the settlement) so I will roll twice on the advancement table. 5, “the settlement is in danger of an external force” (Looks like those bounty hunters might be trouble after all) and 18, I unlock a new ability. And after that expedition, I am DEFINITELY taking the “Healer” ability. Down to one Resilience and I didn’t even have any combat yet.
And yes, I misread when and where the event can occur and did not consult the Question Oracle before writing the bounty hunter encounter. Still learning the rules and wrapping my head around solo play but I think it came out better this way…. At the very least it gives me a reoccurring vision of glory that I might not be able to make progress on at every level of the mine.

House rule for following mine levels: For the sake of testing and because I am literally both the GM and the only player in this game, I am going to reserve the right to veto dice results that cause a room or event to appear too frequently. I am not encountering a new group of bounty hunters (or the same group) for every damn level of the mine. Yes the odds of that happening are low but they’re still higher then zero...

Observation: Did I do the map generation backwards? I’m reviewing the room table for the d4 again and most of those entries look like good mine entrances.

Mine Level 2 (6/16/2023)

Backtracking to the settlement, Lucas Rustbelt lead Brokker home before quickly resupplying and heading back into the mine. As he started to make his way back to the mines, the village quartermaster called out to him. “Young lord! Please take this, you or Ironbeard may need it.” The quartermaster explained as he handed Rustbelt a medkit. Lucas groaned slightly, as a Sinker he was trained in field medicine and it would be wise to not be as careless as he was the first time.
Carefully navigating the first level, mindful of the dangers he faced the first time, he returned to the elevator. With Dumpling in tow, he boarded the rickety lift and made his way down to the second level. Once more into the mines of Kazab Baram…

Here we go again, down into the second level with the following visions of glory: Rescue Ironbeard, Find something that can help the colony grow, and investigate Ironpick and the bounty hunters after them. First I roll my d20 for the sector/level event, landing in the top right corner of the dice tray with a 6. “A mining corp has recently arrived in the sector and has begun extracting resources without permission. Why did they choose to mine in this area? What resources are they so eager to extract?” Looks like Lucas might have less time then he thought before the Coalbreakers tried to jump on his claim….

Arriving down at the base of the elevator, Lucas raised his fusion lamp and checked his surroundings for signs of Ironbeard’s squad….

Rolled an 8 on a d12 that landed right next to the d20 marking my starting location. “Door with Glowing Runes.” Well this looks slightly less ominous then my first run… slightly.

The only other object of interest was a massive stone door adorned with runes that glowed with a golden light as he shined his lamp on them. Boot prints in the asteroid dust made it clear that Ironbeard’s band went with this way. But how did they open it…

Consulting the Risk Oracle, a 3 on a d6. The situation is risky/challenging, I need to make a skill check. Since these are glowing runes inscribed on a door, I can assume this is not common Dwarven script. Looks like this will be a Wits check with a d8. Rolled a 1 on a d8, stepping my Wits down to d6. I fail or succeed at a major cost…

Racking his brains and wishing he paid more attention to his classes on ancient dwarven runes, Lucas gently strokes a particularly promising combination of runes and caused them to glow brighter. The door opens with a slow, rumbling groan that can be felt as well as heard through out the entire mine level and Lucas found himself beginning to glow with the same golden light as the runes. Not bright enough to see without his lamp but bright enough that stealth would be completely impossible for the remainder of his explorations of this floor. He could only hope that stealth would not be necessary as he made his way through the door and down the corridor…

Rolled a 9 on a d10 that landed a long corridor away. “Fully Equipped Miner’s Camp”. Had a feeling I’d get that….

Walking down a long, long corridor of hewed asteroid stone, Lucas immediately noticed that the further down he went, the more angular the tunnel looked. Almost like it was recently dug out. A few more meters and he had his answer why. The tunnel opened up into an abandoned mining camp, fully equipped and set up fairly recently, with the banner of House Coalbreaker everywhere he looked. Lucas’s blood boiled as he stepped into the camp almost without thinking about it, eyes darting from one side to the other as he looked for the camp’s owners. Behind him, Dumpling’s rotary cannon whirred threateningly. Of all the disgraceful… still, why were they here? What was here that made them change their minds about sending their own. At least it looked like there was signs of a fight, perhaps Ironbeard came this way and had the same thoughts that Lucas did…

Consulting with the Question Oracle, “Was Ironbeard here?” I’m going to say it was Very Likely that he was. 10 on a d10. “Yes and…”

“So you finally found us laddy?” A familiar voice called out. Ironbeard was one of the few pioneers that called Lucas “laddy.”

With a smile on his face, he turned towards the sound of Ironbeard’s voice and soon found the Striker and the rest of his warband. “Yes, and it’s good to see you again. Especially with this unwelcome sight.” Lucas replied. “What happened here?”

“Coalbreaker claim jumpers set up camp here. We stopped exploring to drive them off, spent most of our supplies in the process so we should probably head back. Glad you’re here though, maybe you can identify the machinery here so we can figure out what they were looking for?”

Lucas turned his head and found smelting and processing machinery for base metals and turning hydrocarbons into polymers. Yet he also saw a radiation detector… the Coalbreakers were finally mining uranium or some other radioactive element? “Looks like base metals, hydrocarbons, and some kind of radioactive mineral.”

“Radioactives? Why the Stone are they interested in those all of a sudden?”

“I have no idea. I might have to keep looking to see if they found anything.”

“Very well milord. Be careful, we’re going to head back to the settlement.”

Lucas nodded and began to look through the equipment the Coalbreakers left behind. Perhaps there was something that the Rustbelts could use…

Rolling my loot die for the first time since the start of the run. 5 on a d12 so I get a d6 item. Going to say that Lucas, using his tech know-how, acquires a d6 of random surveying equipment for detecting mineral deposits. Nothing that would be directly useful to him but definitely has a resale value.

Pocketing a few odds and ends of surveying equipment that the colony could use, he takes a promising looking tunnel at the far end of the camp deeper into the mines...

Rolled a 5 on the d8 right next to the previous die. A “Rusted Mining Cart”

On his way into the tunnel, Lucas stopped by a rusted mining cart once used by the original miners. On a whim he looked inside, perhaps the Coalbreakers hid something…

Rolled a 7 on my d10 loot die. I get a d8 item… Guess the Coalbreakers had a stash of minerals hidden here.

Lucas’s eyes went wide as he found an unlocked strongbox full of mineral samples. Yes, the Coalbreakers did indeed hid something here. Just from sight alone, he found samples of iron, titanium, gold, and silver. There were also several samples he couldn’t identify without laboratory equipment back at the settlement. The samples alone were worth a fortune. The deposits they were from could be worth even more.

Putting the box in his backpack, he continued down a short tunnel until the tunnel opened up into another room.

Rolled a 2 on my d6. “Decommissioned mining bots”

This rough hewed room was in the process of being carved out or at least it was at one point. Now it was full of decommissioned mining bots in various positions and states of disrepair. Carefully stepping in and looking around…

Rolled a 4 on my d4. “Crashed Space Ship”

Looking around, Lucas found that the room was much larger then he originally though, extending out to his left for roughly a kilometer. Roughly large enough to crash a space ship in like the dwarven ship that currently occupied the far end of the room. Well that was one mystery solved, he realized as he spotted the Coalbreaker clan insignia beneath the ship’s bridge. The Coalbreakers always were terrible pilots. Though as he looked around again, he realized he didn’t see where they had gone. On the positive, some of these mining robots looked like all they needed was a good once-over and they could be put back to work…

**Expedition Complete: Lucas has mapped this branch of the mine to it’s logical end. Upon returning to town, he sells the d6 of surveying equipment for $100 credits and the d8 strongbox of mineral samples for $100 credits as well and I need to send some dice to dice jail.
Lucas successfully completed two of his three starting visions of glory (finding Ironbeard and something that will help the colony, rolling a 9 (step up one of his skills) and a 6 (settlement is in danger from an internal force.) So not only will the bounty hunters come back to haunt us at some point, perhaps the Coalbreakers are closer then Lucas thinks or there is some other threat he will need to worry about… I will buff his strength to a d6 so he can hit harder with his wrench. As I am still short for everything but the Library, I will not purchase any buildings at this time…
Unresolved plots are Ironpick/Bounty Hunters and the Coalbreaker Arrival. Will probably deal with both of those next time.

Thoughts: Session went well, getting better at knowing when to consult the oracle or not. Had a bit of fun figuring out the results of various dice rolls and how to employ them. Wish my die results for selling and salvage weren’t so swingy though….**