Yeah yeah yeah, the last thing you want to hear about is more Kickstarter projects. Well . . . tough noogies. :)
Two projects are on my mind today - both having to do with art. Both projects are by people who actually deliver - Jeff Dee and Kevin Crawford.
First up is Jeff Dee's new project, "Revisiting my Legions of the Petal Throne Art." Jeff has been redrawing art from his from the early days at TSR. It's kind of like he's been taking your childhood and bringing it into sharper focus, with more detail and and a higher pixel count. This time he's redoing work from an Empire of the Petal Throne article originally published in Dragon Magazine #6. How cool is that? Very cool. Go get some prints!
Secondly, Kevin Crawford's Spears of Dawn RPG project is moving along swimmingly in the funding arena. It's all funded and everything. Except . . . there is this stretch goal. It's a stretch goal that doesn't give you a box full of minis or your name emblazoned inside the cover or anything. It's a stretch goal that gives back to the community - and it's a hair's breadth away from getting funded - and it's soo annoying that it's not there yet. From the page:
"Moreover, there's now a new $10,000 stretch goal- hit it, and the art for the bonus module The House of Bone and Amber will be full-color and designed to be suitable for cover use by other publishers. With your help, we can provide other creative souls with every bit of the art assets they need to make their own take on an African-flavored gaming creation."
Uh uh uh.
Now, I have no plans to make any modules or anything. That would take FOCUS and DRIVE. But I would love for that art to be available for other people to use in glorious color as module covers or what have you. I mean, really, how cool it that? Very cool. Go throw money at Kevin.
I'll shut up now.
- Ark
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Redshirts: Banyan Trees of Mars
The inspiration for last week's Stars Without Number's game came from photos beamed back from the Mars Global Surveyor. They caused quite an uproar a decade ago, as they appeared to show gigantic trees thriving at the Martian poles.
The images looked very much like banyan trees. Whatever they were, the shapes looked very organic. It caused quite a stir. Even venerable Arthur C. Clarke thought he was looking at a new life form. NASA disagreed. New World Order conspiracy nutjobs came out of the woodwork, proclaiming that NASA was hiding the BIG SECRET from us all, and the Banyan Trees of Mars were final proof.
Alas, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with it's much better imaging system, showed the Trees to actually be cracks in the polar ice. Bummer.
The image of gigantic black trees contrasting against an icy, white landscape on an alien world has been burning in my mind for over a decade now. So, in my mind, I made that planet. I populated it with strange creatures that fit into the ecology of the Trees. Then I sent the Redshirt crew to the planet and tried to kill them with it. Ahh - good times. :)
Our intrepid documentarian Adelaide took notes on the adventure, as it happened:
Next session is tomorrow. :)
- Ark
- Six months have passed since more hell went down; some of the crew is still in the sleep pods - Nick Scryer and “Doc” Davies to be specific.
- The rest are left on an asteroid to mine out a base before kicking the crew off so they can use it for pirating.
- While the group was mining Lt. Commander Gonzales and the ship received a signal from an indigenous species that contacted them and asked for assistance getting off the Skorpios invaded planet. In return they will assist in destroying the Skorpios.
- The group is to take a gun printer to the world and they will be dropped off there. They each need to drop most all of their items to do so. (the party must walk for two days with a heavy load. -ark)
- The planet is very shiny white except for around the equator, which is black. There is very strange plant life around this planet.
- Doctor Daktan scans the trees and thinks they are elephants, and Professor Ramapudi thinks it is actually aardvarks. Owlicious knows they are alive and that they are made of graphite and they are very efficient at surviving. She also sees no animal life just plant life.
- Professor Ramapudi uses his drill to grab some DNA from the trees and see’s that they will work well as raw materials for the gun printer. Owlicious cuts down a bush and notices it starts to bleed a tar like substance.
- The group continues on and the sun finally sets, the planet cools down.
- Lt. Five gets attacked at night by a black mass and tries to attack it with a butt of his gun. He fails and whacks himself instead. The black mass rips out his intestines while he screams in pain.
- Everyone wakes up suddenly; Kal Kek rushes out to search for Lt. Five. He only see’s the shadow moving away and a bloody trail but nothing else. He fires his thermal pistol at the shadow and see’s he’s shot what looks like a four legged, eight foot tall “bush” and Lt. Five dangling from its “mouth.”
- Professor Ramapudi bioscans the creature and see’s that is it an animal.
- Owlicious fires at the creature but misses, Loranzo also misses, but luckily Doctor Daktan teleports Lt. Five safely into the snow in the group.
- Lt. Taylor rushes out and angrily runs up to the monster and punches it into the ground. In his boxers. Holy shit.
- Doctor Daktan Laz patches Lt. Five successfully bringing him back from the dead. For the third time in Lt. Mark Fives existence.
- Professor Ramapudi and Owlicious gleefully dissect the creature. Professor Ramapudi programs the bioscanner to detect these creatures (FOR SCIENCE) and Doctor Daktan notices it’s registering 35 different once surrounding them.
- Lt. Taylor orders everyone to reenter the campsite and no one is allowed to leave, they also close off the opening.
- The next morning Doctor Daktan’s bioscanner detects 5 creatures following from behind.
- The group decimates them and then Lt. Taylor sets up his compad to constantly signal Russian chatter to him so he always attempts to know where they are.
- They find a domestic “dog” just sitting in the street and the group waits to see what it’s going to do. It leaves and they continue.
- As it starts getting dark the group starts to see something shiny under the canopy and they find that it is a building. There are 12 foot monsters under the canopy as well.
- These creatures look like thorny silverbacks. It has a belt and a sword on its side. Lt. Taylor has a staring fight with it and 19 others come out of the canopy.
- Lt. Taylor opens his compad to try to communicate with it but the voice over the compad says he is not the gorilla creature and to stay calm.
- Another gorilla comes out and says thanks for bringing the “medicine” and to come with him.
- The group proceeds to show the gorillas the gun printer and then follow the gorillas into an underground tunnel.
- In a room the group sees that there are lots of random human items there but also a dissected human on the wall.
- Everyone proceeds to talk some bullshit until they ask for some medicine and they find out Lt. Mark Five is infected with a toxin that he is then given an antidote. It makes him puke a bunch but he feels better.
- Everyone decides to test out the gun printer to make sure it works and Owlicious suddenly screams “WE USE MY BUSH” while excitedly holding up the bush she slaughtered earlier. The men whole-heartedly agree.
- Lt. Taylor manages to talk what seems to be the main priest into letting the group into the silver temple. While the rest of the group gets carried (Especially Owlicious because she offered up her bush and deserves to be treated like a fucking princess) Lt. Taylor gracefully climbs the steps much to the gorilla’s amazement. At the bottom they see an altar and everyone offers up their branches.
- Professor Ramapudi does a scan and can see that the alter will move and there are areas underneath it.
- Lt. Taylor bullshits with the priest some more trying to get him to leave them there alone. It works and he stomps off but then dogleader speaks up and seems nervous about the group setting off explosives.
- Loranzo finds a switch and tells Lt. Taylor while he stupidly attempts to force it open. They open the altar and see stairs leading down and near the stairs there is a bowl.
- As they go down all the signals jam, at 50 meters they get to a platform that is held in place by the stairs and then there is a drop. Kal Kek drops a glow bug down there and it lights up the walls slightly. They see more drawings on the walls and see that there are three legged creatures that seem to be much larger than the gorillas that are petting them like they are just dogs.
- At the very bottom there are four disks about forty meters across a piece and look a lot like flying saucers.
- Lt. Taylor presses a button and the platform disconnects from the stairs and starts going down.
- They open a ship and stand on a slab that came out of the ship and the group goes into the ship except Kal Kek and Doctor Daktan who stayed behind.
- Lt. Five sits in a large uncomfortable seat and sees a button near him which he presses and it lights up the entire inside and the inside group can see outside the ship now and a camera narrows in on Doctor Daktan and Kal Kek with red squares around their image. Doctor Daktan wanders off down a hallway as Kal Kek enters the space ship.
- The group inside the ship realize once they need to go find Doctor Daktan that they are stuck inside until Loranzo finds a picture button to open the ship again.
- Doctor Daktan encounters a giant robot hand grasping for him when he opens a random door down the hallway and screams.
- Lt. Taylor, Kal Kek, and Loranzo left the saucer to try and save Doctor Daktan but Loranzo runs back to warn the rest of the group to leave.
- Owlicious presses a button and the three left in the ship as well as the ship shoot upwards and stay stuck against the ceiling as Professor Ramapudi hacks into the wifi system.
- Doctor Daktan, though he ran, gets captured by the robot.
- Lt. Five points at the red circle that was on the robot and the image got much bigger with data charts coming up that seem to be about the robot.
- The robot shoots a beam of light straight into Doctor Daktan ‘s head but doesn’t seem to be in pain.
- The three in the ship see the red circle on the robot flashing as the robots light grows brighter and Doctor Daktan passes out and his eyebrows and hair light up.
- Lt. Five makes a gun symbol with his fingers at the robot on the ship and the ship fires a light beam at the robot hitting it. It drops jimmy and Loranzo hides in another ship. It makes a fist motion at the ship with the scientists and Lt. Five.
- Owlicious decides it would be a good idea to make the fist action back at the robot. Lt. Taylor drops unconscious but Kal Kek stays standing. The robot bursts into flames. Doctor Daktan is dead.
- Kal Kek picks Lt. Taylor up and brings him to the lift where they ascend.
- Professor Ramapudi finally hacks the space ship and is able to drive it out with no problem.
So, after escaping from the giant three legged robots, the scouts ran all the way back to the shuttle and high-tailed it off the planet.
Next session is tomorrow. :)
- Ark
Monday, November 5, 2012
SWN Faction Game: Movement and Geography
There is something about the design philosophy of Stars Without Numbers were categories are sharp. Starship levels go from Fighter, Frigate, and Cruiser; each one much bigger and more powerful than another. The Faction game is no different. At one ability level, it may be possible to hold together a small stellar empire - but probably not much bigger. With another power level - wham - you can march across the sky with your jack boots.
When setting up your factions in a sector, it's important to have an idea of scale. Stars are arranged in hex patterns, and each level of distance away is strategically huge. A clump of stars together at zero hexes apart would be relatively easy to control, as long as you had the right amount of Force, Cunning, or Wealth. Move outside that cluster, and it becomes almost impossible to affect anything without a great deal of effort. Inter-cluster invasions are nearly impossible without the right combination of sneaking in, establishing bases, moving more covert forces in, and then blasting away. Strategery, or something like that.
Want to have influence on a system more than three hexes away? Impossible in the Faction game. That's where the PCs come in, of course.
Below is a list of Faction Assets from that game that I've worked up, describing assets with movement abilities - either itself of hauling other assets. Its' probably important to have a grasp of this chart before finalizing the factions in your sector. Intergalactic domination can be difficult and expensive. And yeah, you may notice that your big shiny Strike Fleet can't make it from cluster to cluster. You'll have to invade a cluster, gain a foothold, and buy a whole new Strike Fleet for operations in the new cluster. What is an evil overlord to do?
- Ark
When setting up your factions in a sector, it's important to have an idea of scale. Stars are arranged in hex patterns, and each level of distance away is strategically huge. A clump of stars together at zero hexes apart would be relatively easy to control, as long as you had the right amount of Force, Cunning, or Wealth. Move outside that cluster, and it becomes almost impossible to affect anything without a great deal of effort. Inter-cluster invasions are nearly impossible without the right combination of sneaking in, establishing bases, moving more covert forces in, and then blasting away. Strategery, or something like that.
Want to have influence on a system more than three hexes away? Impossible in the Faction game. That's where the PCs come in, of course.
Below is a list of Faction Assets from that game that I've worked up, describing assets with movement abilities - either itself of hauling other assets. Its' probably important to have a grasp of this chart before finalizing the factions in your sector. Intergalactic domination can be difficult and expensive. And yeah, you may notice that your big shiny Strike Fleet can't make it from cluster to cluster. You'll have to invade a cluster, gain a foothold, and buy a whole new Strike Fleet for operations in the new cluster. What is an evil overlord to do?
| Force | Level | Tech | Can Move? | Distance | Move Cost |
| Beachhead Lander | 4 | 4 | Any (multiple) | 1 | 1 |
| Blockade Fleet | 5 | 4 | Self | 1 | 0 |
| Capital Fleet | 8 | 5 | Self | 3 | 0(2 upkeep) |
| Deep Strike Landers | 7 | 5 | Non-Starship, Self | 3 | 2 |
| Extended Theater | 4 | 4 | Non-Starship, Self | 2 | 1 |
| Heavy Drop Assets | 2 | 4 | Non-Starship, Self | 1 | 1 |
| Space Marines | 7 | 5 | Self | 1 | 0 |
| Strike Fleet | 4 | 4 | Self | 1 | 0 |
| Cunning | Level | Tech | Can Move? | Distance | Move Cost |
| Covert Shipping | 3 | 4 | Special Forces | 3 | 1 |
| Covert Transit Net | 6 | 4 | Special Forces (multiple) | 3 | 0 |
| Smugglers | 1 | 4 | Special Forces, Self | 2 | 0 |
| Wealth | Level | Tech | Can Move? | Distance | Move Cost |
| Blockade Runners | 5 | 4 | Military Units, Special Forces, Self | 3 | 0 |
| Freighter Contract | 2 | 4 | Non-Force, Self | 2 | 1 |
| Mercenaries | 3 | 4 | Self | 1 | 0 |
| Scavenger Fleets | 8 | 5 | Self | 3 | 0(2 upkeep) |
| Shipping Combine | 4 | 4 | Non-Force, Self | 2 | 1 |
| Surveyors | 2 | 4 | Self | 2 | 0 |
| Transit Web | 7 | 5 | Non-Starship, Non-Force (multiple) | 3 | 1 |
- Ark
Sunday, November 4, 2012
SWN Factions: The Begining
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
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
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
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| 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
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