Magic the Gathering Campaign System

The Pitch
In standard Magic games, players take the role of planeswalkers who encounter one another and duel. The assumptions are that each competitor arrives fresh to the fight, fights for nothing, and fights to the death (0 life). That's fine for a tournament environment that has to be equivocal, but I'd rather have someone show up bloody to a fight, victory mean more than just winning, and close matches carry more weight than a one-sided beating.

Overview
Linked Campaigns use two teams of three decks (whether that's three decks with three players or three decks with one player on each team is up to you). Each Round, both teams put up a deck that will be playing while its other two decks Recover from their previous Beatings. The players for each playing deck prepare for the game, but lose life or mill cards according to their previous Beatings before they mulligan. At the end of the duel, each player totals up the beatings for their deck and the winner takes a Location card for their team's Command Zone. Location cards have points (some have abilities) and the first team to 20+ points wins.

Making a Minecraft Adventure World

As they often do, my thoughts have tuned to Minecraft. Specificlly, what it would take to make a Minecraft Adventure world. For those of you who've never used the dangerous "/gamemode 2" command, Adventure mode is a version of Minecraft where your ability to gather blocks and otherwise manipulate your environment is severely limited, at least in comparison to other Minecraft modes where your only real limits to block manipulation are knowledge and time.

Adventure mode, as the name suggests, is a mode based more around conventional video game interaction rather than the self-motivated, directionless motif of Minecraft. Unlike the remainder of Minecraft, it requires a conscious architect. So what kind of challenges can you pose with a Minecraft Adventure World? 

Coup D'etat - Session 06 - "Silver Leaves"

The market of the capitol city of Upbow is bright and vibrant. HiveBots man the street, working alongside biological workers to keep the city's basic services running. Tourists, travelers, and shoppers walk the streets lined with open-air cafes. It's at one of these cafes that The Infiltrator is meeting one of his contacts with The Infuser's Alliance.

The Infiltrator's contact within The Infuser's Alliance tells him that his father was taken to be recruited for a scientific project. They can't discuss what he worked on, but during a routine transfer of material and personnel for security reasons, his ship was attacked by the KAMATA-Sci, an organization within the KAMTAS which focuses on advanced scientific research. As the two dominant scientific powers in the galaxy, The Infusers' Alliance and the KAMATAS have a long-running shadow war to stay on the forefront of technological progress. The contact can't tell Al much more because the Infusers believe that KAMATA-Sci is on the verge of a major discovery. One that could shift the balance of power in the galaxy. He says they're preparing an op on the base within a few weeks and information is at a premium. After a suspiciously small amount of prodding, he mentions they'd rather send a small, specialized force instead of the Aarenst Wing, but there isn't a unit familiar enough with the technology or the area.

Coup D'etat - Session 05 Prelude - Echoes of Thunder

Massert NoSve Alliance

While the Slemmgraise have pulled back their front-line contributions to their military and trade guild, it's rumored that they are working on a new offensive. Because the power of the Massert NoSve counter is less effective when used defensively, rumors of hidden Slemmgraise fleets and ghost stories about missing ships run rampant in the Massert NoSve underclasses.

The Massert NoSve Sixth Fleet reports no sign of an invasion force on the Sur-Et Rim other than an unusually high amount of local unrest. They've investigated new social movements based on silver leaves, tracking down one such strange tree from beyond the rim. It showed evidence of genetic alteration to reproduce via aggressive, asexual, rapid-growing spores and in other ways, though their science teams haven't determined that yet. The Sixth Fleet has lead several planets in creating an effective quarantine.

Coup D'etat - Session 05 Prelude - The Oncoming Storm

Part one of two for a general update of the galaxy.

Free Alliance

The Pris have deployed two task forces to destroy the rebels once and for all. The FA has protested and there have been shots fired between the two sides. With the datacore destroyed on board the Malice, the odds are slim they could ever find the rebel base.

Meanwhile, reports of revolution are coming in from the inhabited moon of Kastulas V. According to a Pris intelligence report, the common people of the planet have risen up and toppled the ruling power. The actions are described as peaceful and centered around a rapid growth of never before seen trees with silver leaves. The reports cease shortly thereafter.

Coup D'etat - Session 04, "Ships Aflame"

So The Disciples of the Voice of the Deep arrived in the Katsulas System within The Free Alliance, looking for a PROTECT science and research outpost. It was missing, but The Voice of the Deep suggested they search on the inhabited moon of the Katsulas system. It once housed an PROTECT ground support station for the outpost and its memory core could lead the troupe to their prize.

No sooner had they recovered the memory core from the ruins than they were engaged by local law enforcement, charged with tombraiding (a catchall term for people stealing local artifacts that belong in a museum.). 

They're escorted to comfortable prison quarters, to face trial by "The Commander." A quick search of the local information network reveals that The Commander is a Commander Meltha, a renegade commander in the Free Alliance Civil War now a freelance rebel fighting against the neighboring Pris Alliance. 

Coup D'etat - Session 02, "TAGCX"

In this session, the party looks into a PROTECT intelligence base in the Deforest system. When they arrive, they come across a Monlith gunship firing on the base, having arrived shortly before them. They engage with Cass' ship, the Celestial Wind, and the monoliths withdrawal. Their sensors tell them it's the same ship that waylaid Al back on Ma-Tourel.

Cass and Al give chase, while Major Luke Princeton and Pron Gatar take a shuttle to check out the station. There, they restore power and Luke, finally back at home in the Massert NoSve Alliance, calls to report in to his superiors in The Council. Meanwhile, Al and Cass shoot down the Monolith gunship and investigate its crash site on Deforest Six. They find a Monolith memory core and a book rapidly decaying in the harsh environment. More importantly, Al recovers the information stolen by The Scarred, Silver Monolith and recovers some of that monlith's remains. The harsh wind of Deforest Six picks up as they return to the Celestial Wind, and make their way to the station.