The key thing about Factions in Stars Without Number is they need to be pissed at one another. It doesn't really matter if they are a gang in control of a inner city block, or a star spanning empire - they just need the desire to do harm to ANOTHER faction. The harm could be physical, logistical, or financial. Someone is threatening their turf, and that somebody must be taken DOWN.
I'm going to go through the steps to create and run a Stars Without Number Faction Game here on the blog, using my Redshirts campaign as a basis. Now, the factions and the PCs in Redshirts are typically very far from one another. The main factions are active in the home sector. The PCs are off in other sectors, exploring and such. But the two are closely linked, because the PCs are searching for assets that their home faction can use to survive and destroy it's enemies.
First off, it's handy to have a place where these factions can fight. Chapter Seven: World Creation, has a really nifty sector generation system. Yeah, it's like Traveller, except where Traveller's sub-sector generation mainly deals with the physical placement and attributes of star systems, Star's Without Number focuses on the adventure potential of said star systems. Actually, you could probably use the creation systems of both, in concert, and have some pretty nifty results.
But whatever . . .
So, after the dust settles, I stare at the sector map and try to understand the relationship of the worlds I just created, physically and ideologically. Empires and Federations morph into my head, and a rough history develops. it's the kind of creation that's hard to quantify, as it just happens in my head. Call it a Gedankenexperiment. But if I see the potential for a group to dislike another group, I try to turn up the amp to ELEVEN and make them loath one another.
I'm not going to get into the specifics of each world. Actually, there are a lot of nifty secrets about the systems that come up in sector creation that the players definitely do not need to know (yet,) and besides, the Faction Game is rather abstract, and we don't need to know too many specifics other than where worlds exist in relation to one another.
I decided that the Ptolemy Sector had four major factions, two being superpowers, two being minor players. I felt that would be enough to get the ball rolling. Those factions are the Aquila Union, Skorpios Empire, the Alliance of Independent Systems, and Almagest Rebellion.
Aquila Union - During the Silence, the inhabitants of Aquila fashioned a government using the long gone United States of America as a template. This was successful, and as they rebuilt and explored the sector, they offered the denizens of other planets egress into their union. Due to the sheer power and reach of Aquila, it was hard for other systems to say no. The influence of Aquila continued to expand until the Skorpios Empire entered the stage.
Skorpios Empire - Russian speaking researchers on the fugus infested planet of Skorpios Prime began horrific experiments after the Terran Mandate fell, eventually creating a race of vat-bred neo-humans infused with alien fungal DNA. Assured by their Scientist-Emperor that theirs was a better way, the Skorpios Legions spread into the Ptolemy Sector to proselytize at the trigger end of a gun barrel. Needless to say, everyone loves the Skorpions.
Alliance of Independent Systems - Tired of the endless war between Aquila and Skorpios, the systems on the fringe rallied together to break from the warring superpowers and create a haven of peace and economic freedom. In reality, the Alliance devolved quickly into an area controlled by greedy warlords intent on squeezing wealth from the weak. The green flag with yellow circle replaced the skull and crossbones within the Ptolemy Sector.
Almagest Rebellion - The quiet planet of Almagest was recovering nicely from the Scream, rebuilding its government, infrastructure, and social institutions. Then the Skorpios Empire invaded, labeling all inhabitants as slaves and test subject for the greater good of science. No one on Almagest felt really good about the turn of events, and they have been fighting underground ever since. The rebellion is tenacious, if not well armed or funded. They consider the Skorpions insects to squash, and anyone who reminds them that scorpions are arthropods, not insects, gets punched in the nose.
The war between Aquila and Skorpios went on for a hundred years, sometimes hot, sometime cold, but stable, for the most part. Both sides were equally matched, and brought every world in the sector into the fray. Neutrality was not an option. But then the system of Talus lead a unilateral revolt against the two superpowers, forming the Alliance of Independent Systems. Talus had been allies with Aquila, and it's loss was devastating.
Realizing that they didn't have much time on their hands. Aquila spearheaded an invasion of a system rumored to have stores of advanced technology, discovered an ancient spike drive capable of a 4 hex jump, and launched the Void Expeditionary Force to secure more technology in a previously unreachable sector of space.
So, that is sector situation for the Redshirt Faction Game. I'll be getting into the nitty-gritty in later posts.
- Ark
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Galactic End Game
The players in my first Star Frontiers campaign had big dreams. They wanted to eradicate the evil Sathar from the universe, and poured their time and effort into they endeavor. Trade brought them money; money built them a mega-corp; and with the mega-corp, they built armadas of warships of find and obliterate the Sathar homeworld.
Of course, there were no rules of game framework for any of that, but as a GM, I evolved a game about being a star cop into a giant game of stellar Axis and Allies. Or, in today's terminology, we created an end game.
One of the things I like about Stars Without Numbers is that it has the end game built in it right from the start. In creating sectors full of stars, a GM can set up interplanetary chess matches. Each entity is a faction, with stats and assets similar to a PC, and these groups battle for dominance. It's secret and behind the scenes as far as the players are concerned, but produces events that the PCs can become involved in.
When the PCs gain enough power and influence, they can from their own faction, step onto the galactic stage, and vie for power.
In previous Stars Without Number campaigns, I've kinda half-assed the faction game - paid lip services to it but just decided what was happening in interplanetary politics as if I was writing a novel. While that is a completely valid way to play, the faction system offers an interesting and simple game to play that can produce results outside of my comfort zone of creativity.
I really like that idea, and am implementing it for the Redshirts campaign. I don't know if the players will ever reach that level of power, but it's a game I can play with myself and generate new ideas with.
I'm also thinking of documenting the behind the curtains action on the blog here, if anyone is interested.
- Ark
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Redshirts: Failure
![]() |
| Manna 'Doc' Davies - played by Skipper |
The first time I saw an RPG run with more than ten players
was only a couple of years ago. Matt
Finch, of Swords & Wizardry, was running 14 of us through Mythrus Tower at
NTPRG Con. Matt's DM methodology
included standing on top of a chair and yelling, as well as using a giant, schoolroom
sized white board for combat diagramming - all to wonderful effect.
There were nine players in the Stars Without Number game last
session. I'm still trying to get use to
such a large party. I think I need a nice, stable chair to stand
on – but things have been working out anyway.
Merwyn, the in-game CO, acts as caller – which helps a lot. And Adelaide has this habit of raising her
hand and staring at me with an undying glare until I acknowledge her.
This session saw Kaye with his new psychic combat character –
Nick Scryer the grenade teleportist. A
new lady gamer, Skipper, showed up to play as well. She sketched
her warrior, Manna ‘Doc’ Davies, up above.
The title of this blog includes 'Failure,' and so did the game session. The party was supposed to deposit a flight team onto an ancient starship and leave, but the complications became too great - the main complication being an enemy fleet attempting to secure the ancient ship for themselves.
Lessons learned:
- Infiltrating a star system in a snail-slow shuttle is folly, no matter how well cloaked it is.
- Grenade teleportation is effective and sneaky.
- Resource poor star faring nations would most likely mount Reaper Battery on any of their Patrol Boats.
- Calling a Reaper Battery an Ion Cannon saves a lot of time in-game, because everyone has seen Empire.
- Kaye has not seen Empire.
- Using the terms 'Scotty,' 'Chekov,' and 'Uhura' to describe enemy crew members is a quick and efficient way to get descriptive data to the characters during a loud and hectic combat sequence.
- Kaye has not seen Trek.
- Kaye will be voted off the island.
- Throwing in an electrified bridge floor is a fun way to knock out half the party.
- Having a violent fire-fight on a ship's bridge will destroy the controls on said bridge.
- All players will violently argue that if a ship's bridge is destroyed, one can easily reroute the piloting controls to engineering because that is how all starships are designed and that everyone knows that, even if they have never watched Star Wars or Star Trek.
Our dear Adelaide has documented the fun below in glorious purple:
Stars Without Number (Bullet Points :D)
- The team awakes from cryosleep again, lots of vomiting is going on. Again
- They are joined by a new psychic named Nick Scryer
- The group swears they see metallic scorpions on the floor with tiny people chasing them but eventually that goes away and they are asked to go to the mess hall.
- As they are eating lt. Commander Gonzales tells everyone “good job” for the last mission but that Newt, the child that they rescued, is not going under for cryosleep and that she is “creepy.” However, she is also able to operate the ship which is helpful.
- He also assigns them, excuse me, Lt. Taylor volunteers the group to go back to the hellspawn-Biotonics ship because the commander is interested in the tech on it.
- They are to drop off two specialists named Brick and Brack
- There are self-replicating scorpions being taken off the ship the group is about to get on. Yay.
- Lt. Nathienal Taylor attempts to hack the scorpions and destroys them.
- Newt tells the ship she’s actually a brain in a jar and the group bolts for the ship quickly and it takes 4 days to reach the main planet.
- Lt. Taylor finds a frigate floating around in barren space, which seems to be 600 years old, that they choose to ignore.
- They continue to encounter ships randomly. I think the DM is attempting to bait us onto one of these ships. It’s not working very well.
- Slices of the ark are missing and seem to have made home on this new Russian planet.
- Suddenly every scanning system on the planet turns towards their ship and “see’s” them, but they manage to seem nonthreatening.
- The lieutenants decide it would be best to attempt to fly into the ark and are detected, ship battle starts.
- They get hit by ion cannons twice and are about to be boarded by the enemy.
- The enemy ship attaches a “rope” and what seems to be a walking tube to the side of their ship and everyone prepares for battle.
- Loranzo and Kal Kek fires at the enemy Russians but only Kek hits, it does little damage however.
- Scryer attempts to teleport one of the men outside of his suit but it fails.
- Marina “Doc” Davies eviscerated one of the armor suits in the doorway.
- Everyone else fails at killing things.
- Owlicious continues to hide in the back because she has learned from previous missions she is NOT a good tank. Survival of the smartest, bitches.
- Lt. Mark Five gets knocked flat.
- Three people come in behind the power-armored suits but they are only in normal suits.
- Scryer shuts down all the power suits and the three guys behind them are dead.
- There is chatter coming over the groups helmets, they decide to look down the tube to the other ship. They see there is another man down the tube and Professor Ramapudi shoots and kills him.
- Everyone rushes like Han Solo down the tube to the new ship with the power armored people in the front.
- Loranzo fires some spikes down the hall and turns it into a bloody mist.
- “Doc” Davies throws a grenade down the hall at the enemies. Two of them go SPLAT and one guy looks stunned but still has his gun.
- Kal Kek fires at one of the remaining men after he witnesses “Doc” Davies throw a grenade.
- Scryer teleports a grenade to the last guys and blows them to pieces.
- Owlicious is pretty sure she’s found a toilet.
- Everyone else attempts to kill everyone not friendly on the ship that they come into contact with and one lone man flees for his life.
- Owlicious makes it past as a door closes but Doctor Daktan and Mark Five get locked out before teleporting in.
- Loranzo climbs up a ladder and sticks his head in to look around and “Doc” Davies gets impatient and moves him forcibly out of her way to get through.
- Lt. Taylor and Professor Ramapudi attempt to hack the ship, but it doesn't go so well.
- Kal Kek pushes “Doc” Davies out of the way much like she did to Loranzo but she quickly recovers and opens fire at the men shooting at Loranzo. She splats another against the wall.
- Kal Kek fires at the other guy shooting and blows his head clean off.
- Scryer finally managed to get through the ladder shoot and fires with his spike thrower at the captain and misses, destroying lots of valuable equipment.
- Professor Ramapudi heads to the engineering room and the rest of the group hears shooting.
- Lt. Taylor bolts for the engineering room quickly and Owlicious makes it just in time to blow Scotties brains out leaving Doctor Daktan alone in the hallway. He then begins skulking around the ship before heading for the med bay.
- Kal Kek, Scryer, and “Doc” Davies get shocked unconscious but Loranzo stays standing. The captain and the other guy also get knocked out but Uhura is completely untouched. He opens fire at her with a spike thrower that rips her into a thousand tiny pieces. Angry Loranzo is angry.
- Professor Ramapudi attempts to halt the detonation but messes up and the time goes quickly down to just ten seconds. Luckily Lt. Taylor manages to turn the computer off before it counts down much more.
- Everybody in the bridge wakes up and “Doc” Davies can smell her hair burning. She see’s Doctor Daktan slit someone’s throat. She then ties up the unconscious captain and prepares to react if he wakes up. You know, hovers over him ready to bash his brains in with the butt of her gun and all that.
- Professor Ramapudi loots Scotty's body and finds commands that allows him to give Mark Five control to fly the ship.
- They decide it is best to just bail as fast as possible out of the area using this new ship.
- Mark Five attempts to jump the ship back to the three sisters and he nails it with the help of Professor Ramapudi and “Doc” Davies. His “jumping virginity” is now gone.
…to be continued <3
:)
- Ark
Monday, October 29, 2012
NSFW
In case you've been wondering what I've been drawing lately - instead of the comic - here is an example. :)
- Ark
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Spears Without Number . . . No . . . Wait . . .
I've been looking over the shoulder of a friend who already has downloaded his alpha copy of Spears of the Dawn, and I must say, I'm very excited. Kevin Crawford certainly seems to know how to do a Kickstarter right. And what's more, he's releasing all of the artwork into the public domain. I'm tickled pink.
It bugs me that mega-corporations go around squeezing drawings of anthropomorphic mice until they've wrung out all the money that they can, long after their creators of the images are dead, instead of letting that intellectual property go back to the culture that helped spawn it and become folklore instead of a cash cow for people who are already rich. Call me a communist if you want, but companies are not people and information wants to be free, baby.
Oops, sorry, I appear to be on a soapbox. Let me climb down . . .
So Kevin Crawford's Spears of the Dawn - yeah - awesome.
A couple of friends and I were sitting around the table last week playing Thunderstone (awesome card game, btw,) and the discussion moved towards Spears of the Dawn. I'm very interested in it - and so is Merwyn. I see it as a great opportunity to role play in types of cultures that are rarely explored in RPGs.
Crazy-Ass Tim worried that playing an African culture based RPG would lead to stereotypes - unpleasant ones - popping out all over the place. Kaye - our resident African-American - had similar fears. We are all in The South, after all, and our stream-of-consciousness role playing style amplifies ugliness sometimes.
Perhaps I have more faith in humanity. Perhaps I have studied more, as a person who once wanted to be a history professor, about the rich history and culture of the peoples of Africa, and see a wealth of gaming and role playing opportunities. Perhaps I am huffing paint. But I think it would be very fun, and could be done in a non-offensive manner.
The stereotype issue - well yeah, RPGs have stereotypes, though the term archetype is used more often. D&D uses European stereotypes, but it's so ingrained that most of us don't even notice. Take the ideas of elves, dwarves, orcs, and goblins and move them back in time through D&D and Tolkien into mythology, and I'm sure they represented particular groups and cultures that the people telling the original stories didn't like, or didn't understand. James Raggi tends to talk about that a lot, if you've ever noticed. :)
What I'm seeing from the alpha of Spears of the Dawn is a concerted effort to avoid negative stereotypes, and to educate gamers on broad facets of medieval African-ish culture, so that players understand their place in the game setting, and so that GMs know how to run the thing. He's condensed what that players need to know about their chosen culture (of which there are five to choose from,) into a single page. Okay, yeah, that is simplifying to the extreme - but it's a heck of a lot more information than you get from Basic D&D about Elf culture. The GM gets a lot more data.
So, while I haven't delved deeply into it, the culture and setting look great. Almost all of the game mechanics are the same ones from Stars Without Number. There are some twists to the Death and Dying rules that I actually prefer, and I have been kind of soft-house ruling something similar myself in the Redshirts campaign - in that a stabilized but unconscious character is very boring to play - so why not have them be awake, just not able to do much. I like his mechanic for that a lot.
The spell system appears to be a whole 'nother beast than the Psychic powers in SWN. I haven't really read any of it, so I don't know. Skimming it, I did see some casting times listed that were very long indeed, so looks like we have ritual based magic here as well as regular combat stuff. I like that kind of spell diversity.
A while back I did a mini-review of a book called Essential African Mythology: Stories That Changed the World in this blog post. I think the book would be an excellent companion piece to Spears of the Dawn for GMs and players alike.
So, I'm really pleased with what I've seen from Spears of the Dawn, and I'm sure it will illicit more discussion around the gaming table soon.
- Ark
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Redshirts: Choose the Form of the Destructor!
I make cranky players.
Apparently, I am not fast enough at posting, nor detailed enough in my game play session reports.
They are probably right.
So, Adelaide, our resident gamer grrrrl, has decided to write up the session for last Wednesday. It's a lot different than the way I approach reports. For instance, where I might spend a paragraph describing the intricate patterns on the alien wallpaper, Adelaide goes straight for the action.
Go figure . . . :)
She has done an excellent job, giving a good feeling of the psychosis, chaos, frustration, and helplessness that I try to imbue in gaming sessions. You know, stuff that you might have to go talk to your psychologist about later in the week.
Oh, and before you ask - Spark Notes are apparently this century's answer to Cliff Notes. I had to Google that.
So without further ado . . . say hello to Adelaide - she's in purple:
Stars Without Number (Spark Notes :D)
Everyone was in the shuttle. The ship’s hold was full of giant crab meat and the A3-500 Transducer that they had been searching for. All of the scouts felt good, but there seemed to be something off. Professor Ramapudi was missing from the rest of the group.
It was also kind of odd and disconcerting, because no one remembered getting on the shuttle, or leaving the ark, for that matter.
Lt.Taylor and Spaceman Slate checked Slate’s helmet cam, only to get fuzz. The cam had been wiped completely clean. Undaunted by his inability to find shit the easy way, Lt. Taylor searched for a wifi signal, found one, and heard the haunting voice of GAIA whisper the words, “Help me help them,” again. He asked GAIA what was going on and the call for help was repeated, only this time much louder.
While trying to figure out what was going on, Petty Officer James Loranzo, Lt.Taylor, and Doctor Daktan woke up to hear a drilling noise.
The whole party was actually in the air lock where they had last left off, under the influence of enforced dreaming.
Petty Officer Loranzo saw Spaceman Kek lying on the ground with a drill about to dig straight into his head, while all the others were still lying around unconscious with strange blue alien balls with tentacles floating around them. One of the aliens seemed to be operating the drill aimed for Kek’s brain.
Loranzo quickly decided that it would be wiser to release Prof. Ramapudi, who was frozen in place by some psychic force, instead of stopping the drill. Luckily for Kek, the newly freed Ramapudi blasted the drill with a laser pistol, making it grind to a halt. But the blue alien things that had been floating around turned toward the Professor and one of them attached itself to his face visor. Another blue alien went for Dr. Daktan’s face, shattering his visor in the process, and yet another raced for Lieutenant Taylor’s visor, also shattering it. Two aimed for Loranzo and managed to rip his entire helmet off.
Lieutenant Taylor yelled an order to wake the rest of the sleeping members, which succeeded. Doctor Daktan tried to teleport one of the blue aliens away but failed. Loranzo ripped the alien off of the Professor’s visor before going after his own and Kal Kek walked over to stab at the alien on Lieutenant Taylor’s face with a mono-blade, which unfortunately ended up slicing the Lieutenant’s face.
After waking, Jack Slate fired a shotgun at a nearby alien and missed horribly, which caused Lieutenant Taylor to take shrapnel to the thigh - enraging him further. Doctor Daktan pulled the alien from his face by pure willpower, while Professor Ramapudi shot at the alien on Loranzo’s face but missed. Luckily for Loranzo it didn’t hit him instead.
The blue alien that had attached itself to Lieutenant Taylor’s head appeared to “melt” into it. All the team saw were glowing blue eyes as Lieutenant Taylor turned towards Doctor Dakton in a zombie-like fashion.
Upon waking and further inspecting the aliens, Petty Officer Owlicious decided that she knew of these creatures. They were actually animals from the main planet and had much lower levels of intelligence than what the team had already encountered. But they were trainable and controllable by psychic means, and she let the Professor know.
Possessed Lt. Taylor knocked Doctor Daktan unconscious before anyone could react, bringing Doctor Daktan close to death but Taylor managed to break the mind control after it happened.
Yet another alien aimed for Lt. Mark Five’s visor and managed to attach itself, but did not break it. Petty Officer Loranzo began to roll around on the floor, almost like he was on fire. Everyone was unsure as to what he was doing. Undaunted by his inability to remove the creature last time, Kal Kek attempted again to stab at Lieutenant Taylor’s face, this time artfully the slicing the alien in half without harming Lt. Taylor.
Jack Slate shot at one of the aliens on Petty Officer Loranzo’s face with a shotgun and managed to blow one off while somehow not causing any damage to Loranzo himself. Then Professor Ramapudi laz-patched Doctor Daktan in an attempt to stabilize him - but it unfortunately did nothing.
Another creature attached itself to Lt. Taylor’s face, only this time instead of it taking a while his eyes instantly started to glow blue once more. Petty Officer Owlicious also got an alien attached to her face and her eyes turned blue as well. She then attacked the Professor, but luckily for him, she missed.
Petty Officer Loranzo stabbed at the other alien on him and succeeded in freeing himself finally, while Kal Kek punched at the creature on his head which did nothing.
Professor Ramapudi then attempted to cut the alien from Petty Officer Owlicious’ face and beautifully sliced it in two. Petty Officer Owlicious became free of the zombie-like embrace, but all the aliens, including Lieutenant Taylor who was still under their influence, scampered up a wall in an attempt to flee.
Lt. Five stabilized Doctor Daktan with a laz patch, while the others attempted to quickly think of a way to halt the fleeing Taylor. Petty Officer Owlicious fires at the wall in front of him to scare the scurrying Lt., but the bullet misses its target and ricocheted around the hall. Luckily for the team Lieutenant Taylor slipped and fell on his face and the alien lost its power over him.
Petty Officer Loranzo attempted to pull the alien off Lt. Taylor’s face and managed instead to get it stuck on his own face. Jack Slate then fired another shotgun blast - point blank - at Petty Officer Loranzo but somehow missed. Doctor Daktan finally managed to become conscious once again and shot at the alien on Petty Officer Loranzo’s face and epically removed it, killing it in the process.
Once all the immediate danger had passed, Professor Ramapudi and Lieutenant Taylor teamed up to hack into the drill’s control panels and so they could control it as they wished. Everyone then took stock of the situation and paused to make a decision as to which door to go into first.
The Professor and Lt. Taylor argued over which door would be best, but they somehow are able to overcome their differences and hacked into the data center to attempt to figure out what was in each room. They found that the center door seemed to hold the most promise.
Jack Slate stood in front of Lt. Taylor as he opened the center door. (The DM goes on to describe the room – filled with a gigantic glowing ball forming an AI core and various other components - with something about a machine that goes ping. ;D)
Loranzo and Taylor made their way inside stealthfully to find the A3-500 Transducer before everyone else. Once inside, Taylor attempted to remove the Transducer, but set off an alarm in the process. He quickly hacked the security measures that will turn off the power to the whole ship, and instead rewired it to allow XC-OM, the shuttle’s computer, to control the reactor core. Everybody celebrated - silently - of course.
The two scouts then took the man-sized transducer out of its compartment completely. The sphere in the center in the room powered down, and a breeze gusts through the room. They realize that the AI core had been covered in black, hand shaped, feathery creatures that had begun to bob up and down like a colony of daddy-long-legs on a hot summer day. Then the things disconnected from the sphere and shot into the air.
The rest of the group saw a cloud of black creatures rush out of the room and they all heard an alarm shouting, “Prepare for jump - moving to spike launch point NOW.” Lt. Taylor saw that GAIA had suddenly taken control of all the systems and that there was plotting going on astronomically.
Lt. Taylor ordered Slate to open another door in the airlock they see nothing but darkness. Slate and Kal Kek turn on their lights and everyone heard a strange, girlish giggle.
Startled Kal Kek threw a glowbug towards the back of the room and there was a humanoid shaped creature that everyone could see. It seemed to be a small girl covered completely in a midnight black color with white star patterns running along her body and she had strangely glowing yellow eyes. Behind her was an external window where the Three Sisters’ pulsars could be seen flashing fast and asynchronously, creating a strange strobe-light effect in the room.
She suddenly blinked out of existence and then reappeared right in front of Kal Kek, reaching out to touch him with the tentacles protruding from her back. The batteries from his suit began to drain. Kal Kek fired with his laser rifle, dead center, at the childlike creature, but it only giggled again.
Professor Ramapudi and Petty Officer Owlicious fired their weapons as well, but both miss.
Doctor Dakton attempts to light the black tentacles on fire with his omnitool and failed.
Jack Slate fired at her with spikes, doing lots of potential damage but she simply shrugged it off much to everyone’s shock.
Lt. Taylor rushed to the back of the room to close the windows to see if having direct access to the sister suns had any effect but nothing changed.
The girl then grabbed for Kal Kek’s face and her hands fazed through his visor, causing him to duck quickly in reaction. Then the mysterious black flying feathered hand things descended from nowhere almost instantaneously, attached to his power armor, and ripped it pieces just as quickly.
Kal Kek, in his anger, fired again with his laser rifle, this time at her head and she actually hissed, reacting as though that hurt her.
She then climbed into Kal Kek like some sort of body stealer. Petty Officer Owlicious attempted to communicate with it, causing it to attack her gleefully using Kal Kek’s body.
Everyone kind of mentally spazzed. Petty Officer Loranzo, perhaps freaking out, was pretty sure there was chocolate somewhere. Doctor Daktan quickly rummaged through a medpack, Lieutenant Mark five got undressed, and Lieutenant Taylor and Professor Ramapudi search the room for major science equipment.
Accessing the equipment uncovered data fragments detailing the horrendous experiments undertaken on the ark - before and after the Scream. The last experiment, implement over 400 years before, used the power of the combined supernovas of the Three Sisters to vacuum a ultra-dimensional creature from a higher plane of existence and imprison it inside a young psychic girl. Then the girl proceeded to kill every crew member. You know - that old story.
Petty Officer Owlicious’ vacc-suit was ripped from her, much like Kal Kek’s had been, and the creature using Kal Kek’s body backhanded her - knocking her several feet away. Petty Officer Owlicious noticed she was pretty much on her own for the time being and desperately started singing lullabies to distract the psychic child.
It worked. For a brief, brief time.
Doctor Daktan, finally done with his looting, teleported Kal Kek a few feet away, which caused the child to be forced from his body and left her standing there entranced but Petty Officer Owlicious’ singing.
Lieutenant Taylor then tried to hack into the main commands and GAIA fried his data slab completely….
….and then my computer had about 1% battery life left so I had to close it and of course we miss the best part of the night.
Doctor Daktan, with his telepathy ability managed to separate the child – a more or less normal human girl, from the other-worldy, hyper-dimensional being that had possessed her. The thing had 14 legs, 23 arms, 37 tentacles, 92 eyes, and it’s entire body was simply a giant mouth with so many teeth that it seized up a human’s brain if they tried to count that high.
Everyone ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, thinking of making a run for it. The little girl was screaming incessantly, making it really hard to think.
Then Chonga, playing as the psychic doctor Daktan, attempted to jump into the monsters mouth– thus guaranteeing a touch - to teleport it elsewhere, but failed and only managed to slide “elegantly” underneath the beast.
The beasts’ tentacles grappled just about everyone. Before it could eat everyone, Kaye, playing as Jack Slate, once again sacrificed his character for the greater good and manages to destroy the beast. He jumped artfully into the monsters mouth, detonating the six rockets h was carrying all at the same time, killing the creature. He died in the process but everyone else lived, even the child! Yay Kaye!
The party then rushed as fast as they could to their shuttle and left the ark, which was mysteriously bound for parts unknown. They did stop and get some crab legs on the way, though.
- Ark
Apparently, I am not fast enough at posting, nor detailed enough in my game play session reports.
They are probably right.
So, Adelaide, our resident gamer grrrrl, has decided to write up the session for last Wednesday. It's a lot different than the way I approach reports. For instance, where I might spend a paragraph describing the intricate patterns on the alien wallpaper, Adelaide goes straight for the action.
Go figure . . . :)
She has done an excellent job, giving a good feeling of the psychosis, chaos, frustration, and helplessness that I try to imbue in gaming sessions. You know, stuff that you might have to go talk to your psychologist about later in the week.
Oh, and before you ask - Spark Notes are apparently this century's answer to Cliff Notes. I had to Google that.
So without further ado . . . say hello to Adelaide - she's in purple:
Stars Without Number (Spark Notes :D)
Everyone was in the shuttle. The ship’s hold was full of giant crab meat and the A3-500 Transducer that they had been searching for. All of the scouts felt good, but there seemed to be something off. Professor Ramapudi was missing from the rest of the group.
It was also kind of odd and disconcerting, because no one remembered getting on the shuttle, or leaving the ark, for that matter.
Lt.Taylor and Spaceman Slate checked Slate’s helmet cam, only to get fuzz. The cam had been wiped completely clean. Undaunted by his inability to find shit the easy way, Lt. Taylor searched for a wifi signal, found one, and heard the haunting voice of GAIA whisper the words, “Help me help them,” again. He asked GAIA what was going on and the call for help was repeated, only this time much louder.
While trying to figure out what was going on, Petty Officer James Loranzo, Lt.Taylor, and Doctor Daktan woke up to hear a drilling noise.
The whole party was actually in the air lock where they had last left off, under the influence of enforced dreaming.
Petty Officer Loranzo saw Spaceman Kek lying on the ground with a drill about to dig straight into his head, while all the others were still lying around unconscious with strange blue alien balls with tentacles floating around them. One of the aliens seemed to be operating the drill aimed for Kek’s brain.
Loranzo quickly decided that it would be wiser to release Prof. Ramapudi, who was frozen in place by some psychic force, instead of stopping the drill. Luckily for Kek, the newly freed Ramapudi blasted the drill with a laser pistol, making it grind to a halt. But the blue alien things that had been floating around turned toward the Professor and one of them attached itself to his face visor. Another blue alien went for Dr. Daktan’s face, shattering his visor in the process, and yet another raced for Lieutenant Taylor’s visor, also shattering it. Two aimed for Loranzo and managed to rip his entire helmet off.
Lieutenant Taylor yelled an order to wake the rest of the sleeping members, which succeeded. Doctor Daktan tried to teleport one of the blue aliens away but failed. Loranzo ripped the alien off of the Professor’s visor before going after his own and Kal Kek walked over to stab at the alien on Lieutenant Taylor’s face with a mono-blade, which unfortunately ended up slicing the Lieutenant’s face.
After waking, Jack Slate fired a shotgun at a nearby alien and missed horribly, which caused Lieutenant Taylor to take shrapnel to the thigh - enraging him further. Doctor Daktan pulled the alien from his face by pure willpower, while Professor Ramapudi shot at the alien on Loranzo’s face but missed. Luckily for Loranzo it didn’t hit him instead.
The blue alien that had attached itself to Lieutenant Taylor’s head appeared to “melt” into it. All the team saw were glowing blue eyes as Lieutenant Taylor turned towards Doctor Dakton in a zombie-like fashion.
Upon waking and further inspecting the aliens, Petty Officer Owlicious decided that she knew of these creatures. They were actually animals from the main planet and had much lower levels of intelligence than what the team had already encountered. But they were trainable and controllable by psychic means, and she let the Professor know.
Possessed Lt. Taylor knocked Doctor Daktan unconscious before anyone could react, bringing Doctor Daktan close to death but Taylor managed to break the mind control after it happened.
Yet another alien aimed for Lt. Mark Five’s visor and managed to attach itself, but did not break it. Petty Officer Loranzo began to roll around on the floor, almost like he was on fire. Everyone was unsure as to what he was doing. Undaunted by his inability to remove the creature last time, Kal Kek attempted again to stab at Lieutenant Taylor’s face, this time artfully the slicing the alien in half without harming Lt. Taylor.
Jack Slate shot at one of the aliens on Petty Officer Loranzo’s face with a shotgun and managed to blow one off while somehow not causing any damage to Loranzo himself. Then Professor Ramapudi laz-patched Doctor Daktan in an attempt to stabilize him - but it unfortunately did nothing.
Another creature attached itself to Lt. Taylor’s face, only this time instead of it taking a while his eyes instantly started to glow blue once more. Petty Officer Owlicious also got an alien attached to her face and her eyes turned blue as well. She then attacked the Professor, but luckily for him, she missed.
Petty Officer Loranzo stabbed at the other alien on him and succeeded in freeing himself finally, while Kal Kek punched at the creature on his head which did nothing.
Professor Ramapudi then attempted to cut the alien from Petty Officer Owlicious’ face and beautifully sliced it in two. Petty Officer Owlicious became free of the zombie-like embrace, but all the aliens, including Lieutenant Taylor who was still under their influence, scampered up a wall in an attempt to flee.
Lt. Five stabilized Doctor Daktan with a laz patch, while the others attempted to quickly think of a way to halt the fleeing Taylor. Petty Officer Owlicious fires at the wall in front of him to scare the scurrying Lt., but the bullet misses its target and ricocheted around the hall. Luckily for the team Lieutenant Taylor slipped and fell on his face and the alien lost its power over him.
Petty Officer Loranzo attempted to pull the alien off Lt. Taylor’s face and managed instead to get it stuck on his own face. Jack Slate then fired another shotgun blast - point blank - at Petty Officer Loranzo but somehow missed. Doctor Daktan finally managed to become conscious once again and shot at the alien on Petty Officer Loranzo’s face and epically removed it, killing it in the process.
Once all the immediate danger had passed, Professor Ramapudi and Lieutenant Taylor teamed up to hack into the drill’s control panels and so they could control it as they wished. Everyone then took stock of the situation and paused to make a decision as to which door to go into first.
The Professor and Lt. Taylor argued over which door would be best, but they somehow are able to overcome their differences and hacked into the data center to attempt to figure out what was in each room. They found that the center door seemed to hold the most promise.
Jack Slate stood in front of Lt. Taylor as he opened the center door. (The DM goes on to describe the room – filled with a gigantic glowing ball forming an AI core and various other components - with something about a machine that goes ping. ;D)
Loranzo and Taylor made their way inside stealthfully to find the A3-500 Transducer before everyone else. Once inside, Taylor attempted to remove the Transducer, but set off an alarm in the process. He quickly hacked the security measures that will turn off the power to the whole ship, and instead rewired it to allow XC-OM, the shuttle’s computer, to control the reactor core. Everybody celebrated - silently - of course.
The two scouts then took the man-sized transducer out of its compartment completely. The sphere in the center in the room powered down, and a breeze gusts through the room. They realize that the AI core had been covered in black, hand shaped, feathery creatures that had begun to bob up and down like a colony of daddy-long-legs on a hot summer day. Then the things disconnected from the sphere and shot into the air.
The rest of the group saw a cloud of black creatures rush out of the room and they all heard an alarm shouting, “Prepare for jump - moving to spike launch point NOW.” Lt. Taylor saw that GAIA had suddenly taken control of all the systems and that there was plotting going on astronomically.
Lt. Taylor ordered Slate to open another door in the airlock they see nothing but darkness. Slate and Kal Kek turn on their lights and everyone heard a strange, girlish giggle.
Startled Kal Kek threw a glowbug towards the back of the room and there was a humanoid shaped creature that everyone could see. It seemed to be a small girl covered completely in a midnight black color with white star patterns running along her body and she had strangely glowing yellow eyes. Behind her was an external window where the Three Sisters’ pulsars could be seen flashing fast and asynchronously, creating a strange strobe-light effect in the room.
She suddenly blinked out of existence and then reappeared right in front of Kal Kek, reaching out to touch him with the tentacles protruding from her back. The batteries from his suit began to drain. Kal Kek fired with his laser rifle, dead center, at the childlike creature, but it only giggled again.
Professor Ramapudi and Petty Officer Owlicious fired their weapons as well, but both miss.
Doctor Dakton attempts to light the black tentacles on fire with his omnitool and failed.
Jack Slate fired at her with spikes, doing lots of potential damage but she simply shrugged it off much to everyone’s shock.
Lt. Taylor rushed to the back of the room to close the windows to see if having direct access to the sister suns had any effect but nothing changed.
The girl then grabbed for Kal Kek’s face and her hands fazed through his visor, causing him to duck quickly in reaction. Then the mysterious black flying feathered hand things descended from nowhere almost instantaneously, attached to his power armor, and ripped it pieces just as quickly.
Kal Kek, in his anger, fired again with his laser rifle, this time at her head and she actually hissed, reacting as though that hurt her.
She then climbed into Kal Kek like some sort of body stealer. Petty Officer Owlicious attempted to communicate with it, causing it to attack her gleefully using Kal Kek’s body.
Everyone kind of mentally spazzed. Petty Officer Loranzo, perhaps freaking out, was pretty sure there was chocolate somewhere. Doctor Daktan quickly rummaged through a medpack, Lieutenant Mark five got undressed, and Lieutenant Taylor and Professor Ramapudi search the room for major science equipment.
Accessing the equipment uncovered data fragments detailing the horrendous experiments undertaken on the ark - before and after the Scream. The last experiment, implement over 400 years before, used the power of the combined supernovas of the Three Sisters to vacuum a ultra-dimensional creature from a higher plane of existence and imprison it inside a young psychic girl. Then the girl proceeded to kill every crew member. You know - that old story.
Petty Officer Owlicious’ vacc-suit was ripped from her, much like Kal Kek’s had been, and the creature using Kal Kek’s body backhanded her - knocking her several feet away. Petty Officer Owlicious noticed she was pretty much on her own for the time being and desperately started singing lullabies to distract the psychic child.
It worked. For a brief, brief time.
Doctor Daktan, finally done with his looting, teleported Kal Kek a few feet away, which caused the child to be forced from his body and left her standing there entranced but Petty Officer Owlicious’ singing.
Lieutenant Taylor then tried to hack into the main commands and GAIA fried his data slab completely….
….and then my computer had about 1% battery life left so I had to close it and of course we miss the best part of the night.
Doctor Daktan, with his telepathy ability managed to separate the child – a more or less normal human girl, from the other-worldy, hyper-dimensional being that had possessed her. The thing had 14 legs, 23 arms, 37 tentacles, 92 eyes, and it’s entire body was simply a giant mouth with so many teeth that it seized up a human’s brain if they tried to count that high.
Everyone ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, thinking of making a run for it. The little girl was screaming incessantly, making it really hard to think.
Then Chonga, playing as the psychic doctor Daktan, attempted to jump into the monsters mouth– thus guaranteeing a touch - to teleport it elsewhere, but failed and only managed to slide “elegantly” underneath the beast.
The beasts’ tentacles grappled just about everyone. Before it could eat everyone, Kaye, playing as Jack Slate, once again sacrificed his character for the greater good and manages to destroy the beast. He jumped artfully into the monsters mouth, detonating the six rockets h was carrying all at the same time, killing the creature. He died in the process but everyone else lived, even the child! Yay Kaye!
The party then rushed as fast as they could to their shuttle and left the ark, which was mysteriously bound for parts unknown. They did stop and get some crab legs on the way, though.
So, that's it from Adelaide. Like I said, she did an excellent job. Oh, and you can see Crazy-Ass Tim's take on the adventure over here.
And the crew has a new member - a blonde haired little girl. And like any little girl who survives for a ridiculously long time amidst an alien infestation and lives to tell the tale - her name shall be Newt.
:)
And the crew has a new member - a blonde haired little girl. And like any little girl who survives for a ridiculously long time amidst an alien infestation and lives to tell the tale - her name shall be Newt.
:)
- Ark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)











