Overpowered: Planar Compass #1
Here’s my detailed play report of Planar Compass #1. I used the latest version of Overpowered, my weird solo OSR game.
UPDATE: This playthrough used an old version of the Overpowered rules. We hope you still enjoy it.
Player notes are in italics. This zine has been on my shelf for a while, and I’ve been itching to explore the beautiful setting. This is my first time testing Overpowered with a more open-ended adventure, rather than a dungeon crawl. We’ll see how it goes.
Intro, The Slipstream Bar
After failing in their previous mission, False.Castor.1 is dredged up from the Astral Sea. After being dried out, repair, and recharged, Castor boots up.
The first thing she sees is a large man with an eyepatch and horns. He’s grinning in a slightly smug way. “I knew it!” he cries, and slams his fists down on the table. “I knew you was worth the investment. My smith says you’ve even got a soul of some kind.”
He leans down to look upon Castor’s small frame. “You owe me. Big time.”
Castor squirts a mist of pheromones directly into the large man’s face.
Palio One Eye (Onauk): AC 6 [13], HD 4 (15hp), Att 1 × axe (1d8 + 2), THAC0 18 [1], MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 75, NA 0 (1), TT D
- Spends 1d20, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 to overcome Palio’s Breath Save (B15), and influence him to be more friendly.
The man’s grin softens a bit, “You know…somehow I feel like I can trust you.” He walks back behind the bar. “Make yourself at home. Tonight I’ve got a job I could use some help with.” And he returns to doing a few chores and tidying up the tavern.
Castor rolls up next to him and extends a small needle, poking in his side. He spins around, and comes face to face with a version of himself.
- Gains 1d12 for sampling a strong creature. Castor uses her Mimic ability to take on Palio’s appearance.
He laughs, “Neat trick. You’ll be very hand indeed!” Castor spends an hour or two exploring the tavern and scanning items.
- Gains 3d4 for scanning the valuable bottles and drinks. Although there aren’t as many as a tavern should have stocked.
- Gains 1d20 for scanning the growler with an astral clipper inside.
- Gains 1d4 for scanning the scrimshaw.
- Gains 1d10 for scanning and sampling everything in this area.
The Warehouse
After closing up, Palio leads Castor down a few side streets towards the warehouse. “Oh! Please don’t look like me any more. It could confuse some folks.” Castor obliges with a soft beep and appears as a normal one-wheeled explorer bot.
He unlocks the door with his key and tells Cator of his troubles. “Someone or something is stealing my goods. I’ve tried replacing the locks, posting guards, nothing matters. I figure a mechanical soul such as yourself could keep a better eye on this than half-drunk guards. Stay inside and keep watch over the goods. I’ll check in on you tomorrow morning.”
With that he closes he warehouse door and locks Castor inside. Castor immediately sets about scanning and exploring the large building.
- Gains 1d8 for entering a new area.
- Gains 1d20 for scanning a small iridescent feather.
It was located on an out-of-place shelf. After bumping into the shelf, Castor is attacked by 5 Raz!
Raz: small vermin with the bodies and tails of rats, the heads of lizards, and the arms and hands of monkeys. AC 7 [12], HD 1/2 (2hp), Att 1 x bite (1d3 + paralysis), THAC0 19 [0], MV 120’ (40’) / 60’ (20’) swimming, SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 8, AL Any, XP 5, NA 3d6 (3d10), TT C
- Spends 1d20 to bundle up a raz, and samples it.
- Gains 1d6 for sampling a weak creature.
- Then spends 1d8, 1d4 for her mimic and pheromones to overcome the morale of the next raz.
- Gain 1d6 for sampling.
- Spends 1d4, 2d6 to overcome the morale of the third raz.
- Gain 1d6.
- Spends d20, 2d12, 1d10 to overcome the last 2.
- Gain 2d6 and 1d10 for cleaing the room.
Castor, now with the appearance of a dirty raz, picks up some food and follows them back through their secret entrance behind the shelves. The other raz are convinced that she’s one of them, as she descends down the steps.
Well, I guess we’re going to do a dungeon crawl after all!
Deepwarren 1
At the bottom of the staircase is a cold storage room with more food and alcohol.
- Gain 1d8 for entering a new area.
- Gain 4d4 for scanning the food, supplies, and treasure chest.
- Gain 1d10 for completing the room.
Castor follows the other raz as they approach a locked door. The lead raz glows with a strange energy, and the door unlocks itself and opens up. Castor is confused but curious; do these creatures possess some magical ability? She didn’t detect anything like that before…
Deepwarren 3
The raz continue down the runnel, crawling right under a tripwire. Although Castor appears as a small raz, she’s a little taller than 4 inches, and has to carefully hunch down to roll under the wire.
This wire only lists a duration of paralysis (1d8 hours) so we’ll use that at the Stat.
- Gain 1d8 for entering a new area.
- Spends 1d10, 1d4 to bend under the wire.
Deepwarren 8
The door into the room at the end of the tunnel is wedged open, allowing castor and the raz to walk right inside.
A dirty, smelly man towers over a bunch of raz swirling around him. He laughs maniacally, pointing to the new arrivals. “Well done, my children! We’ll be eating well tonight, haha!” He does a little dance and claps his hands together.
Thirkell, a mad mage. AC 9 [10], HD 1** (4hp), Att 1 x dagger (1d4) or 1 x spell, THAC0 19 [0], MV 120’ (40’), SV D13 W14 P13 B16 S15 (MU1), ML 7, AL Chaotic, XP 16, NA 1, TT None
- Gains 1d8 for entering a new area
With a wave of his hand he manifests a fuzzy image of Palio looking disheartened over the missing supplies. “Soon, my ol friend, your bar will run dry and you’ll be forced to move on. And you’ll never even know it was me who ruined you.”
- Gains 3d4 from scanning the food and stolen valuables in the room.
He turns a suspicious eye towards Castor. “Do you bring home a new friend, my children? This one smells…clean. Too clean.”
Castor quickly evaluates her options:
- Befriend this man? Maybe. He seems…unstable.
- Launch a net? Too dangerous, it could upset the dozens of raz in the room.
Retreat and tell Palio? This seems like the safest option. Too many unknowns to stick around.
- Spends 1d4 and 1d8 to maintain her mimic and pretend to be a confused raz. She even manages to sneak a sample and pretend it’s a panic-bite. The mage doesn’t pursue her as she flees.
- Gain 1d12 for sampling a strong creature.
The Warehouse
Castor zips back to the staircase, carefully hops up the steps, and runs right into Palio. “Oh ho! There you are. Did you get lost or—”
Castor interrupts him with a series of beeps and warbles. She struggles to communicate what she saw, and then remembers the sample she took. Palio jumps back when she suddenly appears as the mage.
“Thirkell! Wow I did not expect to see him again. I guess he’s still holding that grudge…” Palio turns and storms back to the Slipstream Bar. He grabs hold of a massive spear and starts strapping on some old but well-kept armor. “This is gonna be…a little dangerous. You stay here while I go take care of Thirkell. Try to tidy up whlie I’m gone. You still owe me!”
Before Castor can object, Palio storms out into the night. She spends a few hours cleaning the room, scanning some final tidbits, and is just getting bored when there’s a sudden pounding on the door.
- Gain 1d4 for scanning some tidbits.
Hangover
A male human and a short aldhelsi with pale skin and long silver hair burst through the door, nearly flattening Castor against the wall.
The are excitedly babbling about a “feather too small”, “sneaky sphinx”, and “another round of drinks”.
It’s almost 30 minutes of drinking and excited conversation before the two men look around the room and realize that Palio isn’t there. “Palio? You here? We found your feather-beast!”
Castor explains, once again taking the appearance of Palio and then the appearance of the mad mage; as if they are fighting one another. “Holy skiff! He’s finally gone to settle that score. Good for him.” the shorter one says. The taller human looks disappointed, “But we needed someone quick to help us catch the feather-beast. You’re too short, and I’m too drunk.”
They both look down at Castor. “Wanna help us catch a feather-beast, little techbot?” Castor warbles affirmatively. A mumbling cheer goes up from the two men and they stumble out of the tavern excitedly talking over one another.
The Docks
- Gains 1d8 for entering a new area.
Human: “I’ve been working on a tune to lure the beast, but—” Aldhelsi: “Of course I’ve caught glimpses of it, stealing me—” Human: “—missing a percussion element, and the sound doesn’t carry—” Aldhelsi: “—up in the crows nest, keeps stealing whatever isn’t—”
Eventually Castor understands what is happening. Some kind of “feather-beast” is prowling around the docs, stealing items. The human, named Lamorak, has found a tune that attracts the creature, and Erntar, the shorter one, identified it as a sphinx.
Lamorak settles down on the last pier and begins to pluck a pleasant melody. “I’m still missing some accampaniment” Lamorak mumbles. “Help me out?”
Castor tries to match the melody with some chirps, beeps, and boops.
- Spends 1d4, 2d6 to match the melody (DC 7)
A soft purring can be heard from the crows nest of a nearby ship. Little wings peek out from behind the mast and a tail sways to the beat of the music.
Sphinx: AC 9 [10], HD 4* (18hp), Att 2 × claw (1d6), 1 × bite (1d4), THAC0 16 [+3], MV 120’ (40’) / 180’ (60’) flying, SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (4), ML 4, AL Neutral, XP 125, NA 0 (1), TT None
Erntar tries to slowly creep up the rigging, but the sphinx hears him and takes off bounding down the pier. Castor takes off after the creature, igniting his boosters to keep up.
I was hoping for a speed stat or dexterity. Instead, I’ll take the 180’ move speed, divide by 10, and use that (18).
- Reroll all dice for 10 Overpower
- Spends 1d8, 1d12 to keep up with the sphinx
- Gains a d12 for snagging a feather from the running creature.
Eventually the sphinx bounds into a ship parked at the end of the pier. Castor flares the jet boosters and lands right in the middle of the deck.
3 racoon-like children are tossing stolen goods back and forth, including a few drinks from Palio’s bar. The sphinx joins the game and Castor is unsure how to proceed.
Belsorriso Child: AC 9 [10], HD 1* (4hp), Att 2 × claw (1d4), charming grin, THAC0 19 [0], MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (1), ML 5, AL Chaotic, XP 13, NA 1 (1d6), TT C
She decides to try and end the game by shooting nets at all 4 of the children. You can’t fault her for being direct.
- Gains 1d8 for entering a new area
- Spends 2d8, 1d10 to overcome the HP of the Belsorriso chilren
- Spends 2d4, 1d6 to overcome the sphinx’s armor.
- Gains 3d6 beacuse she can’t resist taking a tuft of fur from the 3.
- Gains 1d10 for completing the area.
A few minutes later a big mama raccoon comes storming up to the deck. She scolds the children for damaging the merchandise and apologizes to Castor. “Take whatever is yours, so long as you don’t tell anyone about this.” Castor warbles in a friendly way, picking up a beautiful crystal bottle of brandy.
She takes a few minute sto scan the entire stock, earning a bunch of power dice:
- Gains 10d4 for scanning all the treasure
- Gains 1d20 for scanning the crystal bottle
Castor wheels the bottle back to Lamorak and Erntar. “Guess the creature got away, huh? Oh well. At least you found a shiny bottle!” Erntar plucks the cork and takes a sniff, “OHHHHhhhhh, this is top quality stuff…maybe we should enjoy it here and keep this a secret from Palio.”
The two men spend the rest of the evening drinking and laughing and singing. Castor accompanies them back to the bar and listens to the strange beings slowly descend into sleep.
Palio returns as the sun is rising. His spear is bloody, and he is carrying a huge crate of recovered supplies. “Looks like you made some friends!” he smiles and motions to the two sleeping men. “And they found a bottle of something.” Palio reaches for the empty crystal bottle and sniffs the cork.
His eyes get wide and he looks at Castor. “What the heck happened last night?”
Castor gives a coy warble and rolls into the backroom. Maybe she’ll stick around here for a while, see what else there is to explore in this strange and wonderful place.
