Welcome to Concordia
Aussie Roleplaying and Good Times
While the BBQ's heating, pour the coke and grab the chips...
...A ripple broke against the shingle
And dark with blood it met the moon...
>>>>>So, you’ve made it back to Sydney. It was a pleasure to meet Black Dragon, Nightwraith, and The Associate in the flesh, although you never knew it. A good time all round. I’m glad you enjoyed the Satay Club and that islander bar out on the beach on Santosa. All the local brews and the sights. Singapore is my city. I have wandered around the globe, picked up an education, entered the shadows, and washed up in Singapore. I guess life ain’t so bad.<<<<<
- SkullSplitter (18:25:09/5-13-58)
© 1997 - 2015 Gurfateh Phil Singh @ Yahoo
My first role-playing game was out the back of Xavier's place (a swashbuckling old school mate) in his old man's caravan. A group of school kids back in '83. It was D&D with Xavier as DM, Steve as a human fighter, George the bricklayer's son as an elf (he rolled 18 dexterity on 3d6 in front of us all - wow!) and me as a dwarf (my highest stat was a 13 for strength, but I loved the guy and the game. Raise a cheer for old Balin the Strong!).
It was a magical afternoon of monsters and mayhem, traps and treasure in a dank and crumbling dungeon. George dodged a poisoned dart trap with raw dexterity - that was so cool! We defeated goblins, orcs, living statues and an evil wizard.
I was hooked.
The early group of regulars ran too Xavier and myself with Steve (now an accountant and family man), Arven (always good for a laugh), Shaun - Doctor Death (he'd always end up playing weird alchemists, grave robbers or exobiologists and was always a bit of a combat monster - offbeat and cheeky), Bruce (our local handyman), Dale from Adelaide, Peter E (smart and avant-garde, just a tad bohemian too) and Ray the mad gnome (right out of "The Never Ending Story" flick). George never played again. He left school in year 10 to work with his dad. He was a good guy with a down to earth sense of fun. I miss him.
Poor Arven, who was studying to be a doctor, was playing a goblin in an AD&D humanoids campaign early on and he was unfortunate enough to get caught sneaking about by the evil bugbear witchdoctor. A cheeky little bastard, he 'mooned' the witchdoctor, who finished casting a continual light spell at that precise instant (simultaneous initiative). Arven failed his save and his bum lit up the world for ever more.
D&D was the start, in and around the 'Keep on the Borderlands'. Brian, our Mad Monk, ran some Star Frontiers and I took over from him for a while. Bugs in the System was cool. Jardin Golden Fur was a Ripley-esque yazirian social scientist and great fun to play.
Glen (The Rocker), Raf (The Army Grunt), Ivan (The Italian Stallion), and Carlos (only he'd name a good aligned bard 'Nemesis' and a friendly wizard 'Chaos') joined the group, beginning with AD&D that flowed into Gamma World thanks to a pre-programmed escape shuttle found during the 'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks'. Xavier's mutant bear will always be fondly remembered - more feral and more loyal and more hairy than Chewbacca.
Later still came John Foster-Heath (The Wargamer), David Harrington (fun-loving and irreverent), Skeve (rider on the edge), Watson (the perpetual student), Anne (the psychology boffin), Phil A (crazy kiwi jack-of-all-trades), Sean - 'The Sheila' (I don't feel the need to explain that nickname), John M (Long Live ALUMINIUM MAN !!!), Chris (always a rough and tumble adventurer), Robert (always easy going), and Joe (with her psychedelic hobbit thieves).
Steve met Helen and they eventually married. They were always playing great striding Paladins and very urbane Rangers or occasionally teams of daring hobbit thieves with the wanderlust bad upon 'em.
We even founded a gaming club at the local Scout Hall for a time.
Concordia was a great venture and gave us all some fantastic times.
We tried good old Aftermath with the Sydney Campaign and then ended up in the Caribbean doing a series of adventures inspired by the film "Cyborg" and the novel "Hero".
We dealt with honour and conflict in Battle Tech as part of the Draconis Combine. Detailed and set-up the planetary map based upon Chinese Regions and Japanese Islands. Added some home-brewed martial arts rules and a touch of mystery. The classic old flick “Forbidden Planet” was adapted too.
And rode the roads in Car Wars. I had this Mexican bandit with a mean Chevy Ute with armour and hidden lasers in a pop turret. Skeve had the most awesome battle bus. I lost the ute in urban combat and ended up in a stolen gang trike with machine guns. I escaped down a narrow alley, where the pursuing cars couldn't follow, and the bus got razed. Trashed by gunfire, tried to speed away, crashed, rolled, and burned.
We even had a shot at Boot Hill in Australia. Misadventures in Dubbo and Wiseman's Ferry. Wild rides, sharp shooting, shady deals, droving, cattle rustling, black trackers, gold fever and paddle wheelers. Inspired by "Robbery Under Arms" (book and films from '85 & '57), "All The Rivers Run" (TV Mini-Series), The River Kings (TV Mini-Series), Writtings of Nan Chauncy, Works of Patricia Wrightson, and my own wanderings around outback Australia.
Call of Cthulhu (Xavier's take on Indiana Jones will live forever - Hail Ohio Smith!) and Ring World (why oh why is everyone into playing dolphins and other odd creatures??? What!!! You want to play a sperm whale?!?).
Star Trek from FASA. In the era of the Wrath of Khan with a touch of the Animated Series. “These are the voyages of the starship Ark Royal…” NCC 1791 - Constitution Class Cruiser. Commodore Biorg Thorsvenson !!! Captain Vijay Amritraj, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, Commander Vedama of the Federation Scouts, Caitian-Kzinti cross-breed mercenaries, Romulan biomechanical androids, dacronite slaves, prison-mines, shady firewine smugglers, trade and trouble in The Triangle, time warps, Captain Nu'Daq and Klingon intrigues, ice planets, Klingon cadets and Orion plots, wormholes and astronautical anomalies, Noft the Shistavanen wolfman mechanic. <;-}>
A mad Star Wars romp with the main character being a droid and the others being the crew of a luxury liner that frequently crossed the line from entertainment and gambling into smuggling and artful crimes.
Dabbled in Classic Traveller (doing a Blake's 7 thing with a touch of Aliens and some Cthulhu ideas from White Dwarf #56 - The Last Log), Robotech, Cyberpunk (atmosphere plus and great game mechanics), Judge Dredd (what's wrong with a Talking Ape Judge? Look, I even rolled Psi Immunity right in front of you!), Doctor Who (both with FASA and later with Time Lord - 3rd / 4th Doctor Era and with no one playing a time lord! Although the 3rd Doctor kept popping in...), Powers & Perils (dark Arthurian tales, earth dwarfs, Rogazini wizards, and Keltset the half-ogre), and Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Forgottem Realms (more dark age and spooky), Darksun, Al-Qadim ("Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And onto this, Tymar - The Silent Sword, destined to wear the jewelled crown of the Moonshae Isles upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!" - dwarf sea dog 'Maroof al-Sayf Ben Zundrin Ben Madryk al-Tajar'), Dragonlance, Maztika & Norworld. Xavier was the Maztika and Norworld master.
Aside from role-playing games, there was Talisman, Wizard’s Quest, Cluedo, Ghostly Galleon, Magic : The Gathering, and Star Trek CCG.
We started 1st Ed. AD&D in Greyhawk. Lucifer the Lightning Blue – Wizard of the Storm (Xavier) and St. George - Knight of Saint Cuthbert (Steve). They carved out a kingdom in the east, The Good Lands, over many memorable games. I even played a bit, Zenethar the Wise – Cleric of Ulaa (Lady of the Hills). Had the dreaded combination of a Hammer of Thunderbolts, Gauntlets of Ogre Power and a Girdle of Stone Giant Strength.
Then came Oriental Adventures, a birthday gift from Xavier to me. I loved and still love the game. Raf as the noble and loyal samurai with a dark past and a touch of elfin blood, Ivan as the ninja sorcerer haunted by dark dreams of gaining influence within the Celestial Bureaucracy, drifting ronin (Watson and Bruce), Glen's wandering monk from the Horse Plains, Anne's stylish kensai, Carlos' deadly anu bushi, Phil's reincarnated korobokuru wizard, Steve's wandering hobbit cartographer from the West, and Xavier's Iron Flute monk and then wu jen. There was high adventure in the service of the Shogun, intrigue within the Emperor's Court, daring ventures into ancient places of power, explorations of shadowy and mysterious monastic ruins, dark intrigues in the forgotten temples of Kozakura, Shou Lung merchant clans and deadly echoes of the past, dire plots in the Port Towns of Wa, and the discovery of Lo Chi (Valley of Wings) deep within the Wu Pi Te Shao (Roof of the World) Mountains. Encounters with sea people gypsies, Sato the Yakuza guide and shady contact, flame tigers, oriental hags, fox women, mischievous spirits, petty demons, various malevolent gaki and devilish ghosts, wayward monks and even Mad Monkey. "A Chinese Ghost Story" inspired my sohei korobokuru, Takatora of O-Kuni-Nushi. They were the best of times. Oriental Adventures was, and still is, great stuff. One arvo during our teenage years we even tried to do a 'Ninja & Samurai' home movie down the river parks in Rhodes and Concord. A mad bunch of young blokes running around with star knives, staves, and various swords. Filming ourselves on an old handy cam. Good memories and a really fun time.
When AD&D 2nd Ed. hit, I moved from Greyhawk to the Forgotten Realms, but I made it a more mysterious place mired in the Dark Ages. There were grand Celtic adventures with Viking marauders and devilish giant-kin, Byzantine intrigues and Eastern Wizards, Djinni haunted ruins and Rajput princes. Tymar - The Silent Sword (Xavier) strode across all the lands like a Celtic Conan with a liberal dash of Errol Flynn. He ended up lost in the Utter South, after a wild adventure against an immortal Lich King and his Mind Flayer vizier, where his only option for survival was to jump through an erratic teleportational gate. He was last seen sitting on a tropical beach, drinking fine Evermead wine, befriended by a sea elf beauty and honoured by a shark-kin duellist.
I used Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play to run a grand swashbuckling campaign in 1700s Europe. Toned down the Chaos aspects and added a good dose of Near Eastern mystery tempered with Musketeer flamboyance. I was inspired by "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" (1977), "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1974), "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), "Sinbad the Sailor" (1947), "The Changes" (1975), "Cutthroat Island" (1995), "The Adventures of Don Juan" (1948), "The Crimson Pirate" (1952), and "The Three Musketeers" (1993).
Throughout there was the odd game of Marvel Superheroes (Long Live Puck !!! Firelord, Wolverine, Spider Man, Doc Samson, Alpha Flight, Dastardly Neo-Nazis, The Tong, Master Mold, The Defenders, Web Slinger, The Phaser, Fornjotr of the Asgardian Trolls, Rurik {Jarl of the Storm, Son of Thor}, Freedom Fighter, Iridium Man, Frost Mote, Atomiser, Boulder, Sunastian Falconer, Aluminium Man, Humbug {“Buck” Mitty}, and the Savage Lands), Cyborg Commando (We had an old and experienced Type I cyborg, three rookie Type II cyborgs, and I had a non-cyborg African-American marine sergeant combat engineer with heaps of explosives skills, advanced metal gear armour, and lots of cool weapons), and even Rifts (and the less said about the latter the better we'll all be). Even a short DC Comics campaign with Batman and Wild Cards influences.
The dark intrigues of Shadowrun and Night Life kept us busy for a couple of campaigns. All of them tended to end up heavy on the magic though. I don't know why, but magic was always better than metal / kin powers in the end. Should have been the other way around. The Associate, Xavier's infamous former company man cum detective, was so cool. Started in Shadowrun and even crossed over into Cyberpunk 2020.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with David Harrington was fantastic and cool. I was the Berserk Badger, a kick-arse brawler and streetwise bastard. Later I got some ninja training from Splinter. I ran Heroes Unlimited when it came out, tied into David's TMNT campaign. Later on I brought in Beyond the Supernatural and Ninjas & Super Spies for additional depth. David had a mutant human, rolled two major powers and when rolled they both came up as Sonic Speed (running just like the Flash in DC). An experiment, courtesy of Dr. Feral, gave him some partial bionic body armour and a fully functional second pair of arms (mounted below the first) - also bionic. Splinter (Ancient Master) ended up training and mentoring a group of escaped NYC lab animals. They had their own secret lair in an abandoned subway station, there was even an old abandoned carnival train. Bundy Bear, Glen as Max Rocker (a bardic mutant horse), Skeve as the Killer Quokka, and Peter E as the Manic Moose rocked!
My good old mate Xavier always had such great characters with a really unique spin on 'em. They added so much flavour to the old games. Here's my top five X characters...
I'd had the game for years, but it was only in the late '90s when we got around to playing James Bond 007. Or should I say that I finally pushed them into it, and was myself nudged along by Graham Lowchoy. It was great fun. My 007 campaign ran as both a table-top game and a PBeM. I based it in Australia and the initial agents all worked for ASIO. Raise your glasses to Angel (Anjel Javier Salvador), Isis (Arietty Sarafina Davidson), Omega (Michael Sullivan), Lone Wolf (Bruce Wagner), Echidna (Bodvar Gustavson), Shadow Eagle (Victor Ivan Roberts), 1107 of MI6 (Liberty Fairweather), Outrider (John Ryan), Taipan (Alexander Wellington), Night Hawk (Yoli), Monkey (9th Para Commando Subedar Major Gupta Hanuman), Crouching Tiger (Lieutenant Chong Sun Hip), Crazy Horse (Kendrick Ryder), Aphrodite (Cassandra Amasova), Pan (John Gabko), and Zeus (James Wong) (AKA: Graham Lowchoy).
Graham was the good friend who pushed me to GM the game, helped me put the campaign together, brainstormed the starting characters, and then got called away by work commitments and never did get a chance to play. He moved inter-state shortly thereafter too. His good humour and wonderful Chinese cooking at BBQs was great. Thanks for the good times, mate. You were and always will be James Wong!
I first read Ian Fleming's JB 007 novels by mellow oil lamp light at our seaside holiday cottage between the mountains and the sea at Umina, two hours north of Sydney. I would have been 12-13. They were my father's old paperback Pan copies. They carried me away to exotic lands and filled me with wonder. The characters populating the pages were so uncanny too. The most memorable for me, and the most redolent with atmosphere, are Live and Let Die and Diamonds Are Forever. Particularly cool too was Risico, with it’s whiff of piratical fun and general high times.
I had some sort of a 007 JB action figure as a lad too. I don't know what on earth it was these days. It's long lost and gone. Possibly it was an Action Man figure with an espionage package. You know those cardboard-backed extras packs with guns and clothes and gadgets you could get for Action Man in the early 80s. It had some Scuba gear too. Back then Action man came as a figure on a cardboard-backing in just a singlet and boxer shorts, you had to buy an accessory pack or he was just some guy in white underwear.
I can remember many movies with Rodger Moore as JB 007 and Goldfinger and Thunderball on the old B&W TV at our home in Eastwood. Would have been the late 70s and early 80s.
I attended the Sydney premier of Octopussy, won a double ticket through a newspaper competition. I was a cheeky teenager and went with my old mate Bruce Gustavson. That ticket is still around.
A wonderful girl performed 'For Your Eyes Only' at the high school end of year concert in '85. She was fantastic, with shoulder-length wavy chestnut hair and a softly mellow voice. But I could never get her out on a date. Pity.
JB 007 locations I've wandered around run to Udaipur (Octopussy), Agra (Octopussy), Bangkok and the Floating Market (The Man with the Golden Gun), Hong Kong (The Man with the Golden Gun), Cairo and Egypt (The Spy Who Loved Me), New York City and Harlem (Live and Let Die), and Tokyo (You Only Live Twice). I've been out and about in London too.
