Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Gazing Into The Navel of RPG Blogging
Well, at least *my own* navel.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled onto blogs such as Grognardia, Playing D&D With Porn Stars, and The Tao of D&D, and thought - gee - you know, a large part of my very soul is tied up in role playing games, I love to write, and these guys are writing about RPGs - so why don't I do the same thing?
So I did. The blog sputtered along for a while. At that point, it felt like talking into a echo chamber. I was all alone, talking to myself, and I really wasn't digging it. Then, one day, I started getting blog followers. Somehow I had gotten hooked into the OSR blog zeitgeist. Well, I think it was primarily due to Cyclopeatron and Tim of Gothridge Manor, but for whatever reason, I was in, BABY, and people were reading and responding.
Ah, the halcyon days.
I did a lot of stuff to try to get attention back in those days. I came up with outrageous blog titles. I hunted down pictures to specifically get geeks like me to click while looking at other blog rolls. I dug through other blogs' follower lists and went and followed everything even vaguely on the same topic as my blog.
And the stats. Oh yes, the stats. Refresh refresh refresh. Who is reading? Who is linking? When are they reading? Stalk stalk stalk.
If page hits were down, I obviously did something wrong. Did I post on the wrong day? At the wrong time of day? Was the title not interesting enough? Was I competing with too many of the 'big boys' at that time slot? Was I not topical enough? Was I too topical? Was I on a boat that had already sailed?
Low post responses were also an issue. Obviously, I was not interesting enough. And if no one responded to a post? ACK! Well, that was like the worst. I was a nobody for that day.
Over time, things changed. Google Plus came on the scene, taking most of the blog chatter with it. Some important blogs closed their doors. Others wasted away into nothingness. For a while, there were more blog posts about reduced traffic than there were posts about actual gaming.
Then I got horribly sick and stared death in the face. I hallucinated that my cat was Smaug. And over time, my gaming interests and posting topics have shifted away from fantasy to science fiction. Old D&D is the center of the OSR universe, and always will be. Lowest common denominator, if you'll remember from your old math classes.
The stats crashed. Page hits are way down. I think most hits come from Russian Mafia Server Farms scraping content to add to their slowly growing artificial intelligence emulators anyway. Or whatever they are doing with the data. Building the Singularity, I guess.
But you know what? I don't care.
Okay, maybe a little. But nowadays, I write the blog to write the blog. To me, it's performance art. It's not the end product, it's the DOING. I write. I write for my own pleasure. If people are reading it - that's just peachy. If no one sees it - if no one posts - well - someone might one day. It's not a big deal to me anymore.
So to all you other bloggers who are writing out there, feeling like you are yelling into an echo chamber - I hear you. And I probably read your blog. And no, I didn't respond to that post where you said the thing about the thing. I'm lazy and I read too many blogs.
And if you are not enjoying stringing words together for the sake of stringing words together, maybe you need a new hobby. But if you do like to string words together - keep on doing that. I'll probably read it. And no, I probably won't respond. But I do wish you the best of luck in blogging.
- Ark
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Redshirts: The Three Sisters (And Broken SCIENCE)
Wednesday's Stars Without Numbers game began with the scouts being woken up from hypersleep in the Three Sisters' system. Lieutenant Commander Gonzales informed them that they had not intended on drilling to the Three Sisters, but there had been a misjump because a forklift had been attached to the outer hull at the time. Because of the misjump, the Reprieve had burnt out an A3-500 Transducer. While the ship could jump without one, there was a high risk of burning out the spike drive while doing so, which would end the mission and their chances of ever getting back home.
There was another problem - the ship had been forced to leave Perimeter Station Nine before it was fully stocked. Thus, while the Reprieve was looking for hydrogen to fill it's tanks, the scouts would take a Blue Ghost Reconnaissance Shuttle out and reconnoiter the system for an A3-500 Transducer and a food source.
Before leaving, the party discovered that 1) Commodore Halberta Clarke had found a tiny metallic scorpion in one of the ship's corridors and was freaking out about it, and 2) the deceased AI named XC-OM was less than deceased because his AI matrix had been stored in an AI phylactery and had been installed into the party's shuttle. Neither boded well.
Lieutenant Taylor (played by Merwyn) was assigned as the CO and the party jetted off into the Three Sisters' system. It was immediately apparent that something very wrong. Sometime after the Scream, the three red giants comprising the system had gone supernova, leaving vast nebulae of gas strewn about the system, and at its heart spun three pulsars emitting copious amounts of gamma radiation.
The party knew there had been a habitable planet in the system from charts created 600 years before, so they continued on. Suddenly the sensors indicated an object close by, so they approached. It turned out to be a frozen, desicated creature, bigger than the ship. It looked like a brontosaurus with the head of a donkey, and XC-OM identified it as a native species to the system's habitable planet, Three Sisters Prime.
(This is where I SCREWED UP THE SCIENCE. No, not the whole animal floating in space thing. But timewise, it's off. Per SCIENCE, a supergiant's lifespan is about 14 million years. That is not nearly enough time for complex life to develop on a planet. Or heck, for a planet to even cool down from the formation stage. And I was looking for a planet that had had 10 billion years of evolution on it, creating a rich web of diversity and intelligence. But nooo. After the game, I was doing some research and realized that I had confused the lifecycle of a red giant with that of a red supergiant. Damn my faulty remembering of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram! So you can't have pulsars with a 10 billion year old planetary evolution cycle. Well, unless you do something weird. I guess I'll have to do something weird.)
The party continued on through the wisps of gas, finally arriving at Prime to find a cracked and scorched world with its atmosphere blown off and its oceans boiled away. But in orbit around the blasted planet was an ancient spacecraft with the words BIOTONICS ARK 3 emblazoned on its side.
Now, some of the players know Biotonics Amalgamated as some sort of unholy union between the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Aperture Science, and the Umbrella Corporation. And they are right. But the current characters don't know anything about it, except that records indicate that Biotonics Amalgamated was a altruistic, galactic-wide organization devoted to the betterment of humanity through biotechnology and clean living. Well, that is what the Biotonics pamphlets say, at least.
They were a bit nervous. :)
The hull of the spacecraft was scorched and melted, but from deep within, power fluctuations could be detected. A huge hole was visible on the side of the craft - the only discernible way in.
So, imagine this - a tiny shuttle, crammed full of sweating scouts, lit by three pulsars flashing asynchronously in purple patterns that would set off epileptic patients, flying in orbit around a cracked, dead world, and approaching a battered, ancient ship, slowing, and entering a dark, gaping maw ringed with rended metal teeth on it's side, going towards signs of activity in a ship that has been abandoned for 600 years, labeled a space ark by an extinct biowarfare company.
BOO.
- Ark
There was another problem - the ship had been forced to leave Perimeter Station Nine before it was fully stocked. Thus, while the Reprieve was looking for hydrogen to fill it's tanks, the scouts would take a Blue Ghost Reconnaissance Shuttle out and reconnoiter the system for an A3-500 Transducer and a food source.
Before leaving, the party discovered that 1) Commodore Halberta Clarke had found a tiny metallic scorpion in one of the ship's corridors and was freaking out about it, and 2) the deceased AI named XC-OM was less than deceased because his AI matrix had been stored in an AI phylactery and had been installed into the party's shuttle. Neither boded well.
Lieutenant Taylor (played by Merwyn) was assigned as the CO and the party jetted off into the Three Sisters' system. It was immediately apparent that something very wrong. Sometime after the Scream, the three red giants comprising the system had gone supernova, leaving vast nebulae of gas strewn about the system, and at its heart spun three pulsars emitting copious amounts of gamma radiation.
The party knew there had been a habitable planet in the system from charts created 600 years before, so they continued on. Suddenly the sensors indicated an object close by, so they approached. It turned out to be a frozen, desicated creature, bigger than the ship. It looked like a brontosaurus with the head of a donkey, and XC-OM identified it as a native species to the system's habitable planet, Three Sisters Prime.
(This is where I SCREWED UP THE SCIENCE. No, not the whole animal floating in space thing. But timewise, it's off. Per SCIENCE, a supergiant's lifespan is about 14 million years. That is not nearly enough time for complex life to develop on a planet. Or heck, for a planet to even cool down from the formation stage. And I was looking for a planet that had had 10 billion years of evolution on it, creating a rich web of diversity and intelligence. But nooo. After the game, I was doing some research and realized that I had confused the lifecycle of a red giant with that of a red supergiant. Damn my faulty remembering of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram! So you can't have pulsars with a 10 billion year old planetary evolution cycle. Well, unless you do something weird. I guess I'll have to do something weird.)
The party continued on through the wisps of gas, finally arriving at Prime to find a cracked and scorched world with its atmosphere blown off and its oceans boiled away. But in orbit around the blasted planet was an ancient spacecraft with the words BIOTONICS ARK 3 emblazoned on its side.
Now, some of the players know Biotonics Amalgamated as some sort of unholy union between the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Aperture Science, and the Umbrella Corporation. And they are right. But the current characters don't know anything about it, except that records indicate that Biotonics Amalgamated was a altruistic, galactic-wide organization devoted to the betterment of humanity through biotechnology and clean living. Well, that is what the Biotonics pamphlets say, at least.
They were a bit nervous. :)
The hull of the spacecraft was scorched and melted, but from deep within, power fluctuations could be detected. A huge hole was visible on the side of the craft - the only discernible way in.
So, imagine this - a tiny shuttle, crammed full of sweating scouts, lit by three pulsars flashing asynchronously in purple patterns that would set off epileptic patients, flying in orbit around a cracked, dead world, and approaching a battered, ancient ship, slowing, and entering a dark, gaping maw ringed with rended metal teeth on it's side, going towards signs of activity in a ship that has been abandoned for 600 years, labeled a space ark by an extinct biowarfare company.
BOO.
- Ark
Friday, October 12, 2012
Freeze-Dried Astronaut Roster
It's time for another Character Matrix for your favorite freeze-dried scouts!
I'm running the Redshirts Stars Without Numbers game on Wednesday nights at the FLGS. This week's adventure was quite fun, but the actual play report will be in a later blog post. This post is just about the characters.
We had eight players this time around - up from 6. We attempted using a caller - which worked - sort of. I think it deflected a bit of the chaos - but none of us is used to working with a caller, so it will take some time.
Four of the players, Adelaide, Seamus, Felipe, and The Boy, had the same characters. Kaye the robot didn't make it out alive last time, so he made a warrior named Jack Slate. I threatened to rub chalk against him. Merwyn didn't quite understand how I was dealing with the security and computer skills, so he built a fresh character to be an expert hacker named Nathaniel Taylor. I was somewhat worried about the new player, Chonga. I've heard stories about the guy. Scary stories. But Chonga was well behaved, made a Psychic Medic, and played him really well. So much for stories. :) And Crazy-Ass Tim finally showed up to play. He kept on whining and making excuses about not being able to play for a while. Something about getting married. Geez.
So - remember that random officer rank chart that I adjusted to make lieutenants be rare? Well, two of the players rolled lieutenants. UGH. Okay, back to the drawing board. Maybe instead of a 1 in 6 chance, it should be revved up to a 12 on a 2d6. Or something. Now we've got THREE lieutenants. Double-Geez.
Next time we could have ten players, so a matrix like this won't fit on the blog in the same manner. Not that many people care, I don't think, but showing the party composition is at least fun to me. So here they are, your Redshirts for October 10th, 2012:
- Ark
I'm running the Redshirts Stars Without Numbers game on Wednesday nights at the FLGS. This week's adventure was quite fun, but the actual play report will be in a later blog post. This post is just about the characters.
We had eight players this time around - up from 6. We attempted using a caller - which worked - sort of. I think it deflected a bit of the chaos - but none of us is used to working with a caller, so it will take some time.
Four of the players, Adelaide, Seamus, Felipe, and The Boy, had the same characters. Kaye the robot didn't make it out alive last time, so he made a warrior named Jack Slate. I threatened to rub chalk against him. Merwyn didn't quite understand how I was dealing with the security and computer skills, so he built a fresh character to be an expert hacker named Nathaniel Taylor. I was somewhat worried about the new player, Chonga. I've heard stories about the guy. Scary stories. But Chonga was well behaved, made a Psychic Medic, and played him really well. So much for stories. :) And Crazy-Ass Tim finally showed up to play. He kept on whining and making excuses about not being able to play for a while. Something about getting married. Geez.
So - remember that random officer rank chart that I adjusted to make lieutenants be rare? Well, two of the players rolled lieutenants. UGH. Okay, back to the drawing board. Maybe instead of a 1 in 6 chance, it should be revved up to a 12 on a 2d6. Or something. Now we've got THREE lieutenants. Double-Geez.
Next time we could have ten players, so a matrix like this won't fit on the blog in the same manner. Not that many people care, I don't think, but showing the party composition is at least fun to me. So here they are, your Redshirts for October 10th, 2012:
Name
|
James Loranzo
|
Mark Five
|
Kal Kek
|
Owl icious
|
Engel Daktan
|
Nathaniel Taylor
|
Jack Slate
|
Ramesh Ramapudi
|
|
Player
|
The Boy
|
Felipe
|
Seamus
|
Adelaide
|
Chonga
|
Merwyn
|
Kaye
|
Crazy Ass Tim
|
|
Rank/Rate
|
E-6 Petty Officer 1st Class
|
O-3 Lieutenant
|
E-2 Spacer Apprentice
|
E-4 Petty Officer 3rd Class
|
O-1 Midshipman
|
O-3 Lieutenant
|
E-2 Spacer Apprentice
|
O-3 Lieutenant
|
|
Class
|
Warrior
|
Expert
|
Warrior
|
Expert
|
Psychic
|
Expert
|
Warrior
|
Expert
|
|
Level
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
HP
|
9
|
2
|
7
|
3
|
3
|
5
|
7
|
6
|
|
STR
|
14
|
8
|
12
|
9
|
8
|
10
|
14
|
6
|
|
INT
|
12
|
14
|
12
|
14
|
15
|
14
|
10
|
17
|
|
DEX
|
14
|
12
|
14
|
13
|
13
|
13
|
14
|
9
|
|
WIS
|
10
|
10
|
11
|
13
|
11
|
12
|
12
|
13
|
|
CON
|
14
|
10
|
17
|
8
|
14
|
10
|
8
|
10
|
|
CHA
|
8
|
17
|
11
|
8
|
14
|
15
|
10
|
14
|
|
Background
|
Soldier
|
Midshipman
|
Naval Marine
|
Researcher
|
Adventurer
|
Adventurer
|
Adventurer |
Researcher
|
|
Training
|
Commando
|
Aviator (Naval)
|
Marine Officer
|
Xeno Archaeologist
|
Rogue Psychic
|
Adventuring Expert
|
Adventuring Expert |
Scientist
|
|
Artist
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Athletics
|
0
|
||||||||
Bureaucracy
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||
Business
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Combat/
|
Energy
|
1
|
0
|
||||||
Gunnery
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||
Primitive
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Projectile
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|||||
Psitech
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
0
|
||||
Unarmed
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
||||||
Computer
|
0
|
||||||||
Culture/
|
Alien
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
||||
Criminal
|
|||||||||
Spacer
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||
Traveller
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
0
|
|||
World
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||||
Exosuit
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||
Gambling
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
History
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||||||
Instructor
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Language/
|
English
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Gaelic
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
||||||
German
|
Native
|
||||||||
Russian
|
Native
|
||||||||
Arabic
|
Native
|
||||||||
Hindi
|
Native
|
||||||||
Leadership
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
||||||
Navigation
|
0
|
||||||||
Perception
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
|||||
Persuade
|
0
|
1
|
|||||||
Profession/
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
0
|
||||
Religion
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
0
|
||||
Science
|
1
|
1
|
|||||||
Security
|
0
|
||||||||
Stealth
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
||||||
Steward
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Survival
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||
Tactics
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
||||||
Tech/
|
Astronautic
|
0
|
|||||||
Maltech
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Medical
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
0
|
0
|
|||
Postech
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
||||||
Pretech
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
||||
Psitech
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
0
|
||||
Vehicle/
|
Air
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
||||
Grav
|
0
|
||||||||
Land
|
|||||||||
Space
|
0
|
0
|
|||||||
Water
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|||||
Disciplines
|
Biopsionics
|
||||||||
Teleportation
|
- Ark
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Redshirts: Race to the Reprieve!
The new Stars Without Number campaign kicked off last Wednesday, with six players showing up at the FLGS to participate. While Kaye had already used the point buy system to create his AI character, everyone else sat down and generated their PCs from scratch with rolls of the dice, 3d6 straight down the line. It's not such a big deal since you characters get to put a 14 in one of their class' prime requisites, so they don't completely suck.
I was feeling particularly menace-ful that day, so I had everyone roll their hit points, rather that have them start off at max for first level. Well, Felipe rolled a 1, so I let him re-roll He got a 2. Merwyn got another 2. Adelaide got a 3. It just wasn't looking good for anyone.
The game began with the characters groggily waking up from medical experiments in Infirmary 47 aboard Perimeter Station Nine. They were all in hospital gowns and somewhat disoriented, but remembered that they were the last of the scouts to be going through cold sleep checkups before the mission began. Doctor Bengani and Nurse Tendai were looking after them. Their ship was far away in Hangar 18, being prepped for launch.
That's when the explosions happened.
Nurse Tendai stuck her head out into the hall and suddenly slumped to the ground, headless.
"The nurse is dead. The doctor is freaking out. You hear more explosions and gunfire. The draught you feel up the slit in your hospital gown makes you uncomfortably aware that you are bare-assed and weaponless. What do you do?"
I love my job.
Well, of course they freaked out as well, trying to understand the situation and wanting to know what they needed to do and where they needed to go.
Before the game I had sketched out the space station and decided to give areas names so that it would be easier to describe to the players. That sketch is over there to the right. I divided the station up concentrically into the outer ring, the inner ring, and the hub, then sliced the whole thing up into Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta Quadrants. There were four spars, which were the standard areas for people and freight to move through, as well as four spokes, which were primarily for structural strength but also acted as conduits for pipes, cables, etc.
I explained the layout and that they were in the outer rim of the Delta Quadrant, mid decks, and needed to get to their ship in Hanger 18. (I don't think any of them got those references, but that's okay - I'm really just entertaining myself.) I was rather amazed at how fast they took to the description and how they began using the terminology as they made their battle plans.
Lt. McManus pulled up schematics of the station and found a nearby armory. Petty Officer Owlicious poked her head out the door (like the ill-fated nurse) and saw rubble and twisted metal down the corridor to the right, with a hole in the ceiling. Hidden in the rubble was a laser rifle wielding man in armor with scorpions emblazoned on it.
Aha! A soldier of the Skorpios Empire. The bad guys must have found out about the Reprieve and had decided to act against it. Spaceman XC-OM (the android) ran out after the armored soldier, dove at him, and tripped over the rubble. Oops.
Spaceman Kek rushed out in his beautifully flower patterned hospital gown and grappled the heavily armored Skorpios soldier. Thus ensued a bizarrely homoerotic wrestling match.
With things getting all Greco-Roman, the rest of the scouts hustled down the hallway to the nearest armory and began to grab weapons. Another Skorpios soldier from the level began shooting at Spaceman Kek through the hole in the ceiling and hit him.
The newly armed scouts, with Petty Officer Loranzo, then jumped out from the armory and blasted the soldiers to bits. Lt. McManus dug through the local Net and found the CCTV feeds. Investigation showed Skorpios soldiers marching down the Alpha Spar towards the Hub, and twisted metal being all that remained of the Delta Spar between the Outer and Inner Rings.
Hacking away, Lt McManus took control over the environmental systems in the Delta Spar and vented the atmosphere This did not deter the soldier as they were in EVA capable armor. The party then discussed using the maintenance conduits in the Alpha-Delta spoke, but instead decided to perform their own EVA through what was left of the Delta Spar.
Past a few bulkheads, Petty Officer Owlicious found a Gravitation Propulsion Manned Maneuverability Unit, which I like to call a Grav Ski-Doo. She mounted it while everyone else connected tether lines, and away they flew through the airless void of twisted metal through what had once been the Delta Spar. While en route to the Inner Ring, a pair of soldiers having lunch on an exposed beam felt it would be funny to snipe at them.
The return fire from Lt. Five's heavy machine gun make short work of the soldiers, but the recoil in zero G almost smashed the whole party into the incredibly sharp, twisted wreckage - but - yanno - TPKs are just part of the adventure, right? Well, Petty Officer Owlicious' piloting skills saved the day - but I would have other chances.
While Spaceman XC-OM was using his blowtorch to open up the Inner Ring airlock, the party noticed a sizable enemy fleet battling their own defenses, and saw that a large troop transport was approaching. Lt. McMannus began to hack the Transport's Wi-Fi in order to take control of the ship. Regretfully, the ship's crew noticed and fighter squadron was dispatched to bombard the party's position.
Lots of shrapnel later, and Lt. Five's colon was exposed to the vacuum of space and decided to take a little EVA of it's own. The party busted into the Ring proper, carrying the poor Lt. Five, and got him to Infirmary 34, where a Happy Brand Med-Bot-1000 cheerfully stitched the officer up.
Eventually they made it to the hub and Petty Officer Owlicious hot-wired a fork lift and the party raced off to Hangar 18. They went to the control room and found Drago there. Drago was a big, muscular, mean, cigar smoking vat born Skorpios soldier ready to stomp the PCs into tomorrow evening.
However, much like that scene in Indiana Jones, they all opened fire, shredding him to pieces. In the control room, they could see down into the hangar. Twenty soldiers were inside, all around the Reprieve. They were operating a laser drill, trying to carefully bore their way into the players ride.
Hatching a plan, they secretly contacted the crew of the Reprieve, left Spaceman XC-OM in the control room to coordinate, boarded the forklift, and charged the twenty soldiers.
It was a bloody and short battle, aided by the fact that the crew of the ship ignited their thrusters, charring many of the soldiers to cinders. However, in order to pull it off, the safety clamps had to be removed and the hanger doors open. The crew of the ship decided to leave without securing their wayward scouts. Luckily, the party engaged the forklift's magnet, which slammed and locked it against the outside of the Reprieve.
Spaceman XC-OM tried valiantly to jump from the control room to the ship before it left. Regretfully, he missed, was hit by the backwash from the engines, and was slammed into the hangar wall, shattering into a million pieces.
So, imagine this - a slightly damaged an wobbly experimental spacecraft racing through the area where two naval fleets are trying to pummel one another, dodging rockets, explosions, shrapnel from blown up spacecraft, and an occasional screaming, spaceshipless fighter pilot on fire. And image a forklift magnetized to the side of that spacecraft, with five screaming scouts hanging on for dear life, hoping that their tethers are not shredded by the G forces.
That kind of thing makes players really nervous. :)
Eventually they got inside the ship, where Lt. Mcmanus beat the first Lieutenant he saw down to zero hit point. Then the ship's marines forced the scouts into jump seats, and the Reprieve rode out of Dodge of a metadimensional spike.
In the end, I had killed one character and reduced everyone else to 1 hit point, or had hit them so hard they needed Lazarus patches to stay alive. So, all in all, a good little short intro adventure, to get the players used to what will be happening on a weekly basis. Nine people want to play now, so I'll try to accommodate. Fun - no?
- Ark
I was feeling particularly menace-ful that day, so I had everyone roll their hit points, rather that have them start off at max for first level. Well, Felipe rolled a 1, so I let him re-roll He got a 2. Merwyn got another 2. Adelaide got a 3. It just wasn't looking good for anyone.
The game began with the characters groggily waking up from medical experiments in Infirmary 47 aboard Perimeter Station Nine. They were all in hospital gowns and somewhat disoriented, but remembered that they were the last of the scouts to be going through cold sleep checkups before the mission began. Doctor Bengani and Nurse Tendai were looking after them. Their ship was far away in Hangar 18, being prepped for launch.
That's when the explosions happened.
Nurse Tendai stuck her head out into the hall and suddenly slumped to the ground, headless.
"The nurse is dead. The doctor is freaking out. You hear more explosions and gunfire. The draught you feel up the slit in your hospital gown makes you uncomfortably aware that you are bare-assed and weaponless. What do you do?"
![]() |
| Feel free to click for a bigger picture. |
I love my job.
Well, of course they freaked out as well, trying to understand the situation and wanting to know what they needed to do and where they needed to go.
Before the game I had sketched out the space station and decided to give areas names so that it would be easier to describe to the players. That sketch is over there to the right. I divided the station up concentrically into the outer ring, the inner ring, and the hub, then sliced the whole thing up into Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta Quadrants. There were four spars, which were the standard areas for people and freight to move through, as well as four spokes, which were primarily for structural strength but also acted as conduits for pipes, cables, etc.
I explained the layout and that they were in the outer rim of the Delta Quadrant, mid decks, and needed to get to their ship in Hanger 18. (I don't think any of them got those references, but that's okay - I'm really just entertaining myself.) I was rather amazed at how fast they took to the description and how they began using the terminology as they made their battle plans.
Lt. McManus pulled up schematics of the station and found a nearby armory. Petty Officer Owlicious poked her head out the door (like the ill-fated nurse) and saw rubble and twisted metal down the corridor to the right, with a hole in the ceiling. Hidden in the rubble was a laser rifle wielding man in armor with scorpions emblazoned on it.
Aha! A soldier of the Skorpios Empire. The bad guys must have found out about the Reprieve and had decided to act against it. Spaceman XC-OM (the android) ran out after the armored soldier, dove at him, and tripped over the rubble. Oops.
Spaceman Kek rushed out in his beautifully flower patterned hospital gown and grappled the heavily armored Skorpios soldier. Thus ensued a bizarrely homoerotic wrestling match.With things getting all Greco-Roman, the rest of the scouts hustled down the hallway to the nearest armory and began to grab weapons. Another Skorpios soldier from the level began shooting at Spaceman Kek through the hole in the ceiling and hit him.
The newly armed scouts, with Petty Officer Loranzo, then jumped out from the armory and blasted the soldiers to bits. Lt. McManus dug through the local Net and found the CCTV feeds. Investigation showed Skorpios soldiers marching down the Alpha Spar towards the Hub, and twisted metal being all that remained of the Delta Spar between the Outer and Inner Rings.
Hacking away, Lt McManus took control over the environmental systems in the Delta Spar and vented the atmosphere This did not deter the soldier as they were in EVA capable armor. The party then discussed using the maintenance conduits in the Alpha-Delta spoke, but instead decided to perform their own EVA through what was left of the Delta Spar.
Past a few bulkheads, Petty Officer Owlicious found a Gravitation Propulsion Manned Maneuverability Unit, which I like to call a Grav Ski-Doo. She mounted it while everyone else connected tether lines, and away they flew through the airless void of twisted metal through what had once been the Delta Spar. While en route to the Inner Ring, a pair of soldiers having lunch on an exposed beam felt it would be funny to snipe at them.
The return fire from Lt. Five's heavy machine gun make short work of the soldiers, but the recoil in zero G almost smashed the whole party into the incredibly sharp, twisted wreckage - but - yanno - TPKs are just part of the adventure, right? Well, Petty Officer Owlicious' piloting skills saved the day - but I would have other chances.
While Spaceman XC-OM was using his blowtorch to open up the Inner Ring airlock, the party noticed a sizable enemy fleet battling their own defenses, and saw that a large troop transport was approaching. Lt. McMannus began to hack the Transport's Wi-Fi in order to take control of the ship. Regretfully, the ship's crew noticed and fighter squadron was dispatched to bombard the party's position.
Lots of shrapnel later, and Lt. Five's colon was exposed to the vacuum of space and decided to take a little EVA of it's own. The party busted into the Ring proper, carrying the poor Lt. Five, and got him to Infirmary 34, where a Happy Brand Med-Bot-1000 cheerfully stitched the officer up.
Eventually they made it to the hub and Petty Officer Owlicious hot-wired a fork lift and the party raced off to Hangar 18. They went to the control room and found Drago there. Drago was a big, muscular, mean, cigar smoking vat born Skorpios soldier ready to stomp the PCs into tomorrow evening.
However, much like that scene in Indiana Jones, they all opened fire, shredding him to pieces. In the control room, they could see down into the hangar. Twenty soldiers were inside, all around the Reprieve. They were operating a laser drill, trying to carefully bore their way into the players ride.
Hatching a plan, they secretly contacted the crew of the Reprieve, left Spaceman XC-OM in the control room to coordinate, boarded the forklift, and charged the twenty soldiers.
It was a bloody and short battle, aided by the fact that the crew of the ship ignited their thrusters, charring many of the soldiers to cinders. However, in order to pull it off, the safety clamps had to be removed and the hanger doors open. The crew of the ship decided to leave without securing their wayward scouts. Luckily, the party engaged the forklift's magnet, which slammed and locked it against the outside of the Reprieve.
Spaceman XC-OM tried valiantly to jump from the control room to the ship before it left. Regretfully, he missed, was hit by the backwash from the engines, and was slammed into the hangar wall, shattering into a million pieces.
So, imagine this - a slightly damaged an wobbly experimental spacecraft racing through the area where two naval fleets are trying to pummel one another, dodging rockets, explosions, shrapnel from blown up spacecraft, and an occasional screaming, spaceshipless fighter pilot on fire. And image a forklift magnetized to the side of that spacecraft, with five screaming scouts hanging on for dear life, hoping that their tethers are not shredded by the G forces.
That kind of thing makes players really nervous. :)
Eventually they got inside the ship, where Lt. Mcmanus beat the first Lieutenant he saw down to zero hit point. Then the ship's marines forced the scouts into jump seats, and the Reprieve rode out of Dodge of a metadimensional spike.
In the end, I had killed one character and reduced everyone else to 1 hit point, or had hit them so hard they needed Lazarus patches to stay alive. So, all in all, a good little short intro adventure, to get the players used to what will be happening on a weekly basis. Nine people want to play now, so I'll try to accommodate. Fun - no?
- Ark
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Redshirt Roll Call! (and Ranks and Ratings)
I do love a good character creation system. Recently, we played the HERO system, which takes years to fashion a character with, but they are quite awesome characters. Then we played Twilight 2000. Okay, yeah, so it is reminiscent of filling out a 1040-EZ tax form. But geez - that is no excuse for the players to start sobbing and rush to their calculators. I swear, kids these days. How do they do their taxes now? Magic 8 ball? I feel old. But the character that come out of Twilight 2000 are very gritty and realistic. Apocalypse realistic, that is and I quite like them.
But we are back to Stars Without Number now, and everything is right with the world. Roll up a D&D character, select a background skill package and a training skill package - and WHAM - you are done. No multiplication or division even.
Here are the members of the Aquila Scout Service so far:
So, those of you who have played Stars Without Number may be asking yourself where I came up with the ranks. Well, that's random. Take the 'Summary of Naval Ranks, Rating and Pay Grades' on page 9 of Skyward Steel: Naval Campaigns for Stars Without Number, and do this:
If you are a Psychic, you are automatically an officer. If you have at least a 14 in Intelligence or Charisma, you can choose to either be enlisted or officer. Otherwise, you are enlisted.
If enlisted, roll 2d4-2. If you have an Intelligence or Charisma adjustment, apply it to the roll:
Enlisted Chart
Officer Chart
But we are back to Stars Without Number now, and everything is right with the world. Roll up a D&D character, select a background skill package and a training skill package - and WHAM - you are done. No multiplication or division even.
Here are the members of the Aquila Scout Service so far:
- Lieutenant Holt McManus - Lt. McManus shot up the ranks quickly to become a detective in the Aquila Naval Police Corp before being transferred to the Aquila Scout Service. Played by Merwin.
- Lieutenant Mark Five - Lt. Five was a hot shot fighter pilot when he was approached about joining the Scouts. Played by Felipe.
- Petty Officer 1st Class James Loranzo - PO 1st Class Loranzo is a hard core soldier, having seen action in several backwater ground assaults before he was selected for the Scout Service. Played by The Boy.
- Petty Officer 3rd Class Owlicious - PO 3rd Class Owlicious was hand selected for this mission because of her focus in xenoarchaelogy. Played by Adelaide.
- Spacer Apprentice Kal Kek - Apprentice Kal Kek is not your ordinary jar head marine, as he has ambitions of being an officer one day. Played by Seamus.
- Spacer Apprentice XC-OM - Apprentice XC-OM is a 600 year old artificial intelligence, manufactured before the Scream and interested in exploration. Played by Kaye.
So, those of you who have played Stars Without Number may be asking yourself where I came up with the ranks. Well, that's random. Take the 'Summary of Naval Ranks, Rating and Pay Grades' on page 9 of Skyward Steel: Naval Campaigns for Stars Without Number, and do this:
If you are a Psychic, you are automatically an officer. If you have at least a 14 in Intelligence or Charisma, you can choose to either be enlisted or officer. Otherwise, you are enlisted.
If enlisted, roll 2d4-2. If you have an Intelligence or Charisma adjustment, apply it to the roll:
Enlisted Chart
| Roll | Code | Rate |
| 1- | E-1 | Spacer Recruit |
2
|
E-2 | Spacer Apprentice |
3
|
E-3 | Spacer |
4
|
E-4 | Petty Officer Third Class |
5
|
E-5 | Petty Officer Second Class |
| 6+ | E-6 | Petty Officer Third Class |
Officers just roll a d6, regardless of Intelligence of Charisma:
Officer Chart
| Roll | Code | Rank |
| 1-2 | O-1 | Midshipman |
| 3-4 | O-2 | Ensign |
| 5-6 | O-3 | Lieutenant |
I had thought this set up would have given a nice spread of ranks and a clear leader. Of course, we ended up with two Lieutenants. So, in hindsight, the Officer Chart should go something like this:
| Roll | Code | Rank |
| 1-3 | O-1 | Midshipman |
| 4-5 | O-2 | Ensign |
| 6 | O-3 | Lieutenant |
Regarding class and rating/rank, if you do the math on the attributes, Warriors will almost always end up being enlisted. Expert will always get the choice of being enlisted or officer (but with bonuses, they'll almost always be a higher rating than the warriors if they choose enlisted, on average.) And those Psychics will always be officers. Why? Because people are scared of Psychics. Best to put them in charge.
I had thought about making AIs automatic officers as well, but society doesn't trust them much. Psychics are feared, yes, but AIs are less feared and more . . . held in contempt. I mean, the Psychic dude over there can read your mind. Be on your best behavior. But taking orders from a toaster? Not gonna happen unless that toaster proves itself.
Now that I think of it, I should probably increase the requirements for becoming an officer. Ah. One of their packages must have the Leadership skill in it. Makes sense. Otherwise, officers without leadership skills tend to get fragged.
Oh, and one more little rule that we used - if you make a character without an combat ability whatsoever, your rank immediately becomes E-1 Spacer Recruit. 'Nuff said?
I guess that is it for this post. I was going to do the play report, but looks like I'll do that next post. I blab too much. :)
- Ark
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Stars Without Numbers Skill Matrix
We had our first game of Redshirts last night. It was great fun and I'll be posting a play report later. In the meantime, I wanted to share the skill matrix.
In role playing games with skills, I like to create a matrix so I can see where the party's strengths and weaknesses lie. It's been said that players pick skills that they want to use. I think also that they pick skills that they fear that they will have to use. Scaring the shit out of the players before character creation is a great way to make them get strange skills. "Are you SURE you'll never have to perform an alien autopsy?"
The top skill selected is Tactics, with 5 out of 6 characters getting that skill. Wow. Looks like they are expecting the GM to put them in a lot of difficult combat situations. How odd.
Combat skill are popular as well. Half of them appear to be convinced that they are going to end up in fighting situations with no weapons. Hilarious. I'd NEVER do such a thing. Much.
Interestingly, 3 of the 6 picked Leadership. That is a heck of a lot of cooks spoiling the soup there. :)
The players spread out skills pretty well. I see one horrible, glaring omission. Tech: Medical
Everyone expects to be in combat. No one expects to have to apply a band-aid. They are Redshirts, after all. Makes sense, I guess.
Other skills that NO ONE picked: Artist, Business, Combat: Psitech, Culture: Alien, Gambling, Instructor, Profession, Religion, Steward, Tech: Maltech, , Tech: Psitech, Vehicle:Air, Vehicle: Water.
So, judging from this list, I should create a scenario where the characters must enter a religious debate while playing Texas Hold-em with a alien millionaire sculptor, on a flying boat about to be eaten by a nano-bot plague.
These adventures just write themselves. :)
Enjoy the MATRIX:
In role playing games with skills, I like to create a matrix so I can see where the party's strengths and weaknesses lie. It's been said that players pick skills that they want to use. I think also that they pick skills that they fear that they will have to use. Scaring the shit out of the players before character creation is a great way to make them get strange skills. "Are you SURE you'll never have to perform an alien autopsy?"
The top skill selected is Tactics, with 5 out of 6 characters getting that skill. Wow. Looks like they are expecting the GM to put them in a lot of difficult combat situations. How odd.
Combat skill are popular as well. Half of them appear to be convinced that they are going to end up in fighting situations with no weapons. Hilarious. I'd NEVER do such a thing. Much.
Interestingly, 3 of the 6 picked Leadership. That is a heck of a lot of cooks spoiling the soup there. :)
The players spread out skills pretty well. I see one horrible, glaring omission. Tech: Medical
Everyone expects to be in combat. No one expects to have to apply a band-aid. They are Redshirts, after all. Makes sense, I guess.
Other skills that NO ONE picked: Artist, Business, Combat: Psitech, Culture: Alien, Gambling, Instructor, Profession, Religion, Steward, Tech: Maltech, , Tech: Psitech, Vehicle:Air, Vehicle: Water.
So, judging from this list, I should create a scenario where the characters must enter a religious debate while playing Texas Hold-em with a alien millionaire sculptor, on a flying boat about to be eaten by a nano-bot plague.
These adventures just write themselves. :)
Enjoy the MATRIX:
| Name |
James Loranzo
|
Mark Five
|
Kal Kek
|
Holt McManus
|
Owlicious
|
XC-OM
|
|
| Rank/Rate |
E-6 Petty Officer 1st Class
|
O-3 Lieutenant
|
E-2 Spacer Apprentice
|
O-3 Lieutenant
|
E-4 Petty Officer 3rd Class
|
E-2 Spacer Apprentice
|
|
| Class |
Warrior
|
Expert
|
Warrior
|
Expert
|
Expert
|
AI
|
|
| Level |
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
|
| Background |
Soldier
|
Midshipman
|
Naval Marine
|
Security Crew
|
Researcher
|
-
|
|
| Training |
Commando
|
Aviator (Naval)
|
Marine Officer
|
Bounty Hunter
|
Xeno- archaeologist
|
-
|
|
| Artist |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Athletics |
0
|
||||||
| Bureaucracy | 0 | ||||||
| Business |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Combat | Energy |
1
|
1
|
||||
| Gunnery |
0
|
||||||
| Primitive |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
|
| Projectile |
1
|
1
|
0
|
||||
| Psitech |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Unarmed |
0
|
1
|
0
|
||||
| Computer |
1
|
||||||
| Culture | Alien |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
| Criminal |
0
|
||||||
| Spacer |
0
|
0
|
0
|
||||
| Traveller |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| World |
1
|
1
|
1
|
||||
| Exosuit |
0
|
||||||
| Gambling |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| History |
0
|
||||||
| Instructor |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Language | English |
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
| Gaelic |
Native
|
Native
|
Native
|
||||
| German |
Native
|
||||||
| Russian |
Native
|
||||||
| Leadership |
0
|
0
|
1
|
||||
| Navigation |
0
|
||||||
| Perception |
1
|
1
|
|||||
| Persuade |
0
|
0
|
|||||
| Profession |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Religion |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Science |
1
|
||||||
| Security |
0
|
||||||
| Stealth |
0
|
0
|
|||||
| Steward |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Survival |
0
|
0
|
|||||
| Tactics |
0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
||
| Tech | Astronautic |
0
|
|||||
| Maltech |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Medical |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Postech |
1
|
1
|
|||||
| Pretech |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
|
| Psitech |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
| Vehicle | Air |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
| Grav |
0
|
||||||
| Land |
0
|
||||||
| Space |
0
|
||||||
| Water |
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
- Ark
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