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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 41

A few thoughts on Session 41…

As is often the case I was tired by the time we started at 7pm. I have learned that if I am tired I need to go ahead and run the game. The group will energize me. That is what happened. I sat down at my desk, somewhat grumpy because the cat was screaming at me for some attention and my office was a mess because I’ve been painting miniatures. I “found my center”, calmed myself, didn’t throw anything around, and holy smokes it was good to spend a couple of hours with the group. Good to hear everyone’s voices, good to have the laughing and interaction, good to use our imaginations. Gaming is just so – bloody – good.

It is always easier to prep for a session if the group is already in the middle of an adventure. This seems obvious. In that case you don’t have to “come up with an adventure,” you just have to continue what thy were already doing or add more stuff to what they were doing. “What might happen next?” Even so, after three weeks of delayed games due to my work imposing itself on my life, I have to admit that imposter syndrome and generalized worry about the game being “good enough” were both trying to crawl out of the dungeon I normally keep them in. I kept them there. I have learned to just tell them to shut the fuck up. I am an experienced GM and I can run a game for two hours. And that’s what I did. With the help of our group.

During their trip through the jungle I was having Roger, the navigator, make Nav rolls in each hex. If he made the roll, it took them only an hour to get through that hex and come out going the right direction. They would have a 1 in 6 chance of a random encounter in that hex. If he missed it, they would still get through, but they had to make two random encounter rolls. It’s not like they were going to go the wrong direction. The grav bikes have navigation programs and radar. The trick was to use the radar to figure out which paths to take.

I made two random encounter tables. One for the jungle in general, and another if they were within five kilometers of the rebel base.

I tried to balance the tables between 1)things that could and very well might kill them, 2)geographical challenges, and 3)non-aggressive/benign lifeforms.

During travel through about eight hexes they had two random encounters. The first was with the Jungle Floaters, which are little balloon-like creatures.

When I was creating and describing these creatures earlier that day my goal was to create something mysterious, possibly beautiful, that would take up the party’s time but was not aggressive.

When the encounter was happening, it occurred to me how “cinematic” it was. Five explorers on grav bikes, in a bioluminescent organic tunnel, encounter beautiful, weird, benign little creatures, and having to determine if they were actually a threat, and moving past them. When you envision it I think it is really a wondrous and beautiful scene that exemplifies the best part of science fiction/space opera.

If you try to do things like that all the time, just as with combat, I think it gets old. Wonder becomes less wondrous when it becomes common. Still, we can go through so many games, and even entire campaigns, without there being any real beauty.

As I have written here, I have spent the last three years immersing myself in the science fiction of the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and to a lesser extent the 90s. In particular, I’ve read a lot of the novels of Alan Dean Foster, set in the Humanx Commonweath. Foster is a master of creating vibrant worlds and ecologies, and I suspect all this reading has influenced me.

It may just be that the best thing you can do to improve your gamemastering is reading good inspirational material.

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ITV Session 41: Balloons

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SAFCO is in the jungle just outside the Samson Mining base on Uetonah. They’ve just encountered and killed three aggressive megabeetles. They are on their way to coordinates provided by a rebel operative at the spaceport, where they expect to find a rebel base. Their goal is to inform the rebels of the Sophont Liberation Front that Samson is gathering mercenaries and military gear and weapons with the goal of wiping them out.

They continue on their grav bikes through the twisting and branching Pachyderm trails. Roger and Flint are up front. Roger is navigating and Flint is monitoring his bike’s radar and otherwise on the alert for danger. Caliban is in the middle, with Lucky and Barney in the rear. They have at least several hours of travel ahead of them, as it is impossible to travel in a straight line through the thick and dangerous jungle.

Roger does a good job of navigating, but they do have a couple of random encounters.

First, while crusing through the Pachy tunnel, they encounter a swarm of what look like small floating balloons ahead. The things are of various shapes, about a foot in diameter. There is no breeze but the things are moving around, and the movement does not appear random. The party can see that each of the things has what look like sensory stalks distributed around their equators. The balloons are of various different bright colors, like most of the phosphorescent life in the otherwise dark jungle.

Lucky pulls out his binoculars to get a better look. The things do look like living creatures. He can see what look like rudimentary eyes on the ends of some of the stalks, while others are covered with unknown sensory organs. He also sees that the creatures have pores which open up and expel puffs of air, allowing them to move around in little jet-powered bursts.

The creatures are not moving any closer.

Caliban finds a broken tree branch and then moves his grav bike forward, toward the balloons. He reaches out gently with the branch to try to move one out of the way. As he moves the leafy branch near the creatures it quickly jets itself up out of reach.

Caliban now hears a “bubbling, cooing” sound coming from the creatures. They surround his grav bike and continue making the sounds. He is getting recordings on his hand-computer. He slowly moves his grav bike forward. The creatures move, letting him by.

The rest of the group slowly moves through the cloud of creatures.

They continue, Roger doing a great job navigating. About five kilometers from the desired coordinates Flint detects lots of movement surrounding them in the trees. They stop. Turns out to be a bunch of small monkey-like creatures. As they investigate, Flint’s radar detects some larger shapes coming down through the canopy. The monkeys scatter.

An amplified human voice calls out for them to put their hands up. A couple of rebels riding jungle crawlers come down out of the trees. The leader introduces himself as Ramirez. He recognizes them from their previous trip to this world, when they helped the rebels. Ramirez guides them to the base.

The base is essentially a huge treehouse, at least 100 feet up, above the first canopy, with at least 200 feet of canopy above it. It is built on a Togo tree, 60′ in diameter. They go inside a hollow part of the tree, up a ladder, and meeting Paula Masters, the leader of this base. SAFCO delivers the information. As they talk, out on a balcony overlooking the jungle, they inquire about the Pachyderms. What evidence is there that they are sentient? A voice from behind them says “I can assure you they are sentient. I have the evidence.”

They turn around to find Jason Slimjack, the biologist who was the reason for their first visit to Uetonah.

Jason explains that he’s spent time with the Pachyderms, and he has sent two information packages to the Office of Sophont Relations on Prometheus, but has gotten no support from the Imperium. The teams suspects that Samson Mining is somehow suppressing the information. Caliban tells them that there are many reasons that action may not have been taken yet, not all of them nefarious. He makes and Admin-4 roll, and he knows the head of that office.

Barney, Lucky, and Caliban go back to the grav bikes and inspect them for tracking devices. All three of them believe the bikes are clean.

Before retiring for the night, they ask Jason what the balloon creatures are. “Oh, Jungle Floaters” he replies. “They’re harmless, unless you pierce them. They have strong skins. You could hit one with a grav bike and it would just bounce off, but if you shot one it would explode like a hand grenade. They’re not sentient, though they are curious.”

The team retires for the night and discussed next moves.

End of session
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Elapsed time: 455 game days (1 year 81 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 40

First and foremost, SESSION 40! We have gotten to 40 sessions. It is now mid-September, and I hope to get to session 50 by the end of 2025!

This session was delayed by two or three weeks due to me finally getting Covid. After all these years the virus finally caught up with me. I wasn’t that sick, but I had ZERO energy for a couple of weeks. Though I honestly was tired last night I was more tired of not playing. So we played, and as always it was glorious because our group is glorious.

I didn’t have to do a massive amount of prep for this session as I had created maps, NPCS, situations, and “what is going on” weeks ago. Using the iPad to make maps for Roll20 is getting really easy. I love it. It’s actually fun.

desk with RPG gaming stuff and computerMy online GM setup has become are real mix of stuff. MacBook, two external monitors, iPad (I keep the Ref’s versions of the maps on the iPad), actual physical 6-sided dice  for doing quick rolls, and index cards. Yes, I’ve started using index cards to for NPCs, creatures, and general notes, even for online play. They are easy to handle, don’t get in the way at my desk, and frankly using them is easier than dicking around with flipping a bunch of screens around on the computer. My one recent addition to my gaming tech is some wireless bluetooth and outrageously expensive Apple AirPod Max headphones. I was just to tired of having the wire from my old headphones in my way all the time. We were at the Apple Store getting my wife a new computer and I tried them. They sound incredible and are of a very very high build-quality. So there – I am no officially a modern person.

So the PCs are on a journey through the jungle on grav bikes. A hex crawl. I had already prepared random encounter tables weeks ago, but realized as we were playing I’d not accounted for the confusion of traveling through the jungle in twisting, turning tunnels through the thick vegetation with lots of side paths and whatnot. Easy to get lost. Getting across a 5 km hex will take 3 or 4 times what it would normally. Impossible to even approximate a straight line. So quickly — the grav bikes have navigation and radar and a compass. One of the PCs has Navigation. So they agreed that he would take the lead (along with the tough guy, riding side by side) and use his Nav skill to guid them. So in each hex they enter, I have him make a Nav roll of 8+. If he makes the roll, they get one random encounter roll. A 1-in-6 chance of encountering something. If he misses the roll, that means it takes them twice as long to get through that hex, and I make two 1-in-6 random encounter rolls. Well, as luck would have it, he missed the roll in the first hex, got two random encounter rolls, and one resulted in the encounter with the three MegaBeetles and a fight. FUN!

I could have cobbled together a more complex way of handling all this, but that would get really old really fast. I am honestly kind of proud of myself for sorting this out in about 30 seconds as we played. I think I’m getting better at this. This is a lot easier than trying to map out hundreds of kilometers of crazy tunnels, and I think does a good job of representing the experience very simply.

I was also very happy they had a situation in which I could use the surprise rules and the PC Flint’s Leader and Tactics skills, and military experience, would be used to modify the rolls, as well as a negative modifier for the fact they were using vehicles. Another example of the simply elegance of Classic Traveller, the greatest RPG ever created.

Another small victory – we got the automatic fire rules right for the auto rifles and submachine gun first try, from memory!

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ITV Session 40: Beetle Battle

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SAFCO is on Uetonah. After some discussion of how to proceed, they meet the spaceport worker who Barney encountered  at Irma’s Imported Mooch Emporium, after chatting up a local about what’s happening on the planet. He suggests they meet again later at their ship (the Fortunate Son) as they might be watched here at the bar. Later they meet him at the ship.

The man says he recognizes them from their previous visit to the planet, when he fought alongside them in their last battle on the planet. He tells them he’s been unable to get a message to the Sophont Liberation Front rebels to warn them of the Samson Mining’s plans to wipe them out with mercenaries. Caliban asks him if he has proof the Pachyderms are sentient. He tells them that he rebel leader, Jason, has been studying them for well over a year and would likely have data. Barney is of course interested in this as well.

He has the latitude and longitude of one of the four rebel hideouts, about 40km away. SAFCO agrees to deliver his warning message to the rebels, as it will get them closer to Jason Slimjack, the leader, and perhaps they can help in some way to uncover the truth of the Pachyderms. He asks the PCs if they had EVER heard of the Pachyderms (amazing beings) before coming here? Especially the scouts! The would normally be aware of most major lifeforms. They admit they had never heard of them, and posit that knowledge of the Pachyderms has been intentionally kept secret.

The next day the team sets out to collect some supplies for the expedition. Flint tells Silvonius Janks they are going to scout out plants/herbs that perhaps would make good cargo, and they’ll be gone about five days. Fardt agrees to stay with Janks. Caliban goes to the rental shop where the team rented grav bikes on their previous trip. He finds them looking to sell ten grav bikes, as business is very slow due to the mine shutdown. He knows that they should probably sell for about 20,000cr each in good shape (he has Grav-1 and can evaluate them). He uses his Admin-4 skill to bargain, getting the price down to 11,000cr each, and convinces Silvonius Janks to bring them on as spec cargo. They should be able to sell them much higher elsewhere. Lucky, Barney, Roger, and Flint buy some insecticide spray bombs to deal with big bugs in the jungle. Barney and Lucky, together, use the day to build a flamethrower.  The group has brought 4 hand grenades each from their stash.

They will be ready to go the next morning.

Their contact gave them latitude and longitude, and said if they go there they’ll likely be found by patrols. This issue is that travel on Uetonah is difficult. The Jungle is so thick that the only good way to move through it is through the twisting and turning tunnels smashed through the jungle over the aeons by the Pachyderms. So traveling five kilometers in one direction as the crow flies is impossible. Flying over the jungle is possible, but the trees are 600-800 meters tall and form a dense canopy. In fact, there are multiple layers of canopy down to the ground, each its own ecosystem. So finding the rebels from the air would be impossible.

SAFCO leaves town, entering the jungle via one of the jungle tunnel entrances by the strip mine. As they enter the tunnel they again find it would be dark of not of the colorful bioluminescence the permeates the jungle.

Roger and Flint fly their bikes side by side in front, with Caliban in the middle, and Lucky and Barney side by side in the rear. Roger uses his skill as a Navigator along with his bike’s onboard radar and compass to weave them in the right general direction. In the first five kilometer hex he misses his Nav roll, which means they’ll spend twice as much time in that hex, resulting in two, rather than one, random encounter rolls.

As they fly through the twisting, glowing path, Flint signals to the group to come to a stop. Using his Tactics and Leader skill, as well as military experience, he has used his onboard radar and good old combat awareness to gain surprise against three MegaBeetles that are blocking the tunnel. The team knows from a previous encounter that these creatures are very tough and very dangerous, and aggressive. Flint and Lucky each throw a hand grenade, doing a lot of damage to the beasts – enough to make them mad. The rest of the team take gun shots at them. They manage to kill one of the beetles, but one rushes Flint on the ground and the one that was hanging from overhead rushes, upside down, to Roger. Both monsters attack and miss! The team blasts with autopistols, auto rifles, and Flint uses his submachine gun. After a couple of rounds they luck out and don’t get bitten or crushed and they kill the beetles.

WHEW! Uetonah is dangerous!

End of session
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Elapsed time: 454 game days (1 year 80 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 39

Another fun session.

Two hours of roleplaying got the PCs back out on a mission.

I was very happy with this session. A number of good things happened. Before I get into specific great incidents of play, I want to say that all five players were doing smart things, interacting with the setting, asking the right questions, seeking out NPCs to talk to without my prompting, etc.

Since they were likely heading back to the planet Uetonah I had suggested they re-read the previous sessions on that planet, but David went beyond that. When his character, Flint, said he was going to seek out their newest frenemy, Alro Rupalian, and ask for help keeping an eye on the ship, I was delighted! I love seeing a player taking advantage of existing relationships with NPCs. That is just really good playing that is totally unrelated to character stats, yet it’s a powerful resource. Super, super good. It’s the kind of thing that is really only possible in long-form campaigns where an in-game history really develops.

In all the years of this campaign, and all my previous years of playing Traveller, I have never once use the rules for trading. Adding a bureaucrat to the mix of PCs has opened up a lot of possibilities in the game. I was reading the rules for trade and commerce and saw that the Admin skill can be used as a positive modifier when selling good. Well, Caliban has Admin-4, so that is a huge modifier on a 2d6 roll.  I also like that he used his Recruit-1 skill not exactly to recruit dock workers into employment, but to sort of recruit them as allies. I always talk about how Traveller skills should be thought of as “big”. This was a great use of that skill.

Fardt, the alien Gluck NPC, has Streetwise-1. In the past he has used that skill to the party’s advantage, but in pretty obvious ways. “Locate a sketchy hacker to do some work for us? Sure.” Fardt was out with William’s character, Barney (the engineer). Barney suggested that Fardt go eavesdrop on the Samson mining recruiters. So that was a good use of the skill. Then Barney asked him to use his Streetwise to start a rumor in the city that the Samson guys were not being honest – that the mission they are recruiting for is certain death! I let William make the roll for Fardt. He made it. I decided on the fly that this brilliant and creative idea should bear fruit, so I had him roll 1d6 to find out what how long the Samson guys would be delayed due to the rumor creation. He rolled a 4. So that simple action set the Samson buys back four weeks, giving the PCs a massive lead on them. Awesome stuff.

The examples above, I think, demonstrate why Classic Traveller is simply a great system. It gives you just enough rules to make it work, but gives the Ref lots of room to work. It is flexible.

As usual, I used a flexible round-robin method of running the game. I make a list of the players, and I simply go through the list, in order, asking each player what they are doing. We can break out of it whenever we need, but I always go back to the round-robin to make sure each player is getting a chance to do stuff.

I’m finding that as each player does something inventive and fun it is spurring that same kind of play from the others. They are feeding off each other’s play in a way that’s improving everyone’s game.

I have to admit that this kind of game is a little harder to run than simpler stuff. And simple can be a hell of a lot of fun, but this is just really satisfying.

For the record, what is “going on” is really quite simple, but will take some time to sort out. It could involve action and fighting, but I can think of other ways to move forward. I have created a lot of the NPCs they may deal with, rough descriptions of places, and thought about possibilities, but the players will almost certain do something I’ve not thought of. I hope the players are having fun. They keep coming back.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a more “defined” way of letting them improve the characters through experience, but now I’m questioning if it is even necessary. I don’t think it will improve the game at all.

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ITV Session 39: Return to Uetonah

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The members of SAFCO spend some time doing various things as they wait for parts for the Rambler-II. Barney and Fardt have done all they can without the expensive drive components, and they have at least five weeks until the parts arrive.

They meet at the Happy Gluck that evening to discuss next moves. Barney has been interested in the Pachyderms of Uetonah for a while. As a former bureaucrat working in the diplomatic corps on the border of the Kresk Directorate, Caliban has some knowledge of such issues, and knows that the Imperial Office of Sophont Relations has at least a sub-office on each Subsector capital. Mylor’s subsector, of course, is not fully explored and the imperial presence is undeveloped. The nearest office would be the Prometheus subsector office, on planet Prometheus, one subsector rimward.

They see a man going from table to table chatting people up. He’s wearing a green velvet jack, black pants, and black boots. He’s about 5′ tall, heavy set, with gray goate. He approaches the table. Caliban notes that he’s wearing an antique wrist watch.

The man introduces himself as Silvonius Janks – Interstellar Commodities Trader. He has just landed his Far Trader, the Fortunate Son, and is in need of a crew. He tells him that his pilot, navigator, and engineer have been hired away by some guys doing recruiting.

He explains that he has a load of 1)polymer components he thinks he can sell on Overon, and that 2)he has crates of military fatigues made of cloth armor fabric he’s heard he might sell to Samson Mining, on Uetonah.

He offers the Scouts all standard crew contracts based on their skill levels, and offers Flint a position as Gunner for one of the craft’s two turrets. Lucky gets a bonus for serving not only as navigator but as gunner. Caliban negotiates a contract to represent Janks in upcoming business transactions, for a 5% commission on net sales.  They find out that his previous crew lacked a steward, so Fardt is able to take that position, insuring that they’ll not be eating rations of garblag haggis for the next few week. Janks informs them that he want to leave for Uetonah in two morning.

SAFCO spends day doing the following…

Barney and Fardt go out to purchase supplies. They see see the recruiters from Samson Mining working a booth in the market. Barney has Fardt go use his streetwise smarts (Streetwise-1) to approach the booth and listen, acting like he want to join up. They don’t take Fardt seriously, but he makes his Streetwise roll and overhears them telling the possible recruits that rebel kooks on Uetonah have come close to shutting down mining operations. He then instructs Fardt to talk to his underworld contacts and start a rumor that Samson is signing people up for a death mission — to a planet where everything will kill and eat you. Guaranteed death. Fardt again rolls and makes Streetwise check. Rolling 1d6, we determine that recruiting efforts will be delayed by four weeks.

Flint and Roger visit Alro Rupalian who agrees to have 2 goons guard the Rambler-II while they are gone, simply out of goodwill.

Caliban makes friends with doc workers – they will help watch the ship. Finds out they are union. They will send him the name of union leader for future representation for contracts. He gives them some drink vouchers to the Happy Gluck.

Janks takes onboard one more lot of product – spices – to sell on spec.

SAFCO boards the Fortunate Son and heads for Overon, 2 parsecs away. One week in Jump Space.

Caliban assists in selling the polymers there for a nice profit. He sells the spices as well, also for a good profit. Flint visits the head of RCMP on the plant, Robert Tilton. He tells him about a possible post-scrubbing claim on Chamax, should there be anything good there.

There are no available cargo lots that Janks can currently afford.

They jump to Uetonah, and are boarded for inspection by a system defense boat. It is clear to Roger that the FS would be no match for it in a fight, and says “we’d better play nice.” They are allowed to land at the Samson spaceport.

Caliban trades the cloth armor fatigues for 200% of their original cost ($100,000 total). Sadly there is no cargo to ship out at this point. Perhaps when they are ready to leave.

They talk around the spaceport and city. Flint and Roger in the city – lots more posters now than on their previous visit. Barney chats up a dock worker, finding out that rebels have mostly shut down mining operations, but that will soon be fixed. Samson has brought in military weapons, and will soon have a private army to wield them. They will wipe out the environmentalist kooks. Lucky explores the city, and sees more pro-rebel graffiti and flyers around. “Free the Pachyderms” and “All Sophont Lives Matter”. Caliban does a casual, informal intelligence test on a pachyderm, and gets confusing results.

Man in spaceport bumps into Barney, and whispers to him to meet him at Irma’s Imported Mooch Imporium at 7pm.

End of session
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Elapsed time: 452 game days (1 year, 78 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 38

The last couple of sessions have been post-Big-Adventure/Setup sessions. Giving the players a chance to do some housekeeping, pursue some loose ends, and fiddle around a bit in-character.

After opening up the Mongoose 2e Central Supply Catalog to the players, I have already “but the brakes on it” a bit. A lot of the stuff in the book is fine to add to Classic Traveller. Survival gear, tools, etc. All good. The weapons and armor? Not so much. For one thing, Mongoose uses a totally different system for to-hit and damage. The weapons assume this. One of the players discovered the section on buying finely made weapons that do higher minimum amounts of damage, give bonuses to hit, etc.  Initially I said fine, but after talking about it we decided against it. I do think having really nice weapons be a little better than a stock weapon is fine in CT, but I will have to come up with some suitable rules for it.

I feel like Mongoose 2e potentially really opens the floodgates for powerful weapons. Also, since Classic Traveller is nearly 50 years old, it is of course true that even the ideas involved in science fiction are a lot different now.

The guys found the Universal Translator program in the catalog. In my game, it was a big deal when the PCs found an alien artifact that functioned as a universal translator. Clearly, based on that, a UT would be at a very high tech level in my universe — beyond what the PCs have access to. So we backed that out too.

The Mongoose stuff is very cool. It is just not what our campaign is about. For the most part I want the PCs to stick to the Classic Traveller weapons and armor. I’ll just use the Mongoose stuff to embellish the game.

A couple of my players, running Caliban and Flint, have offered up some ideas that are helping make the setting seem a bit more fully realized. Very happy about that. I love it when players think about the game and their characters. Both are super cool about it — offering the ideas up but totally good if I change them a bit or say “no, that’s a bit too much collaboration.” But it is a big universe, and one Ref can’t possibly think of everything.

Back when they were dealing with the bugs on Chamax, Barney displayed evidence of arachnophobia. His player just came up with that, based on the many disgusting bug monsters they have encountered. It makes sense, and it’s cool. The character gets no points for it. There is no advantage. It’s just fun and good roleplaying. I liked it.

But yeah, I am threading the needle with regard to available tech and whatnot. So far we’ve had a good campaign without going hog wild about new tech, but I’d like them to have cool stuff available and to take the initiative. I liked it when they wanted a drone, so they built one. That was cool. We figured it out.

I have created character record sheets for each of the PCs grav bikes in Roll20. I’d love it if they each customize the bikes with software and whatever they want. Where you get into trouble is at higher tech levels onboard computers can be intelligent agents. Not sure about that. Not sure I like it. Probably won’t go there. But improving the control systems on the bikes, installing databases — that is all good.

I decide we’ll use the Cepheus Engine Vehicle Design Guide for vehicle design details and the very simple systems it contains for low-speed fights, dogfights, and chases. It seems to be very compatible with Classic Traveller, and I like the aesthetics of the vehicles.

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ITV Session 38: Gun Shopping

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Two weeks have passed. SAFCO is still waiting for word on the parts they need for the Rambler-II.

PC’s discuss what to do with info on Dr. Fawke.

Caliban transmits some message to the Scout Service, complimenting the Scouts he was a bit of a dick to in the last session, realizing he was in a different culture and he misread it. Well done.

PC’s take alien data disks to Tahm Slykk, who agrees to build them a device that will read them. They pay him 10,000cr as his 10% share of their earnings from the trip to Chamax. He’s going to buy a new molecular analyzer for his workshop.

PC’s go gun shopping. Lucky talks to a gunsmith about buying a higher quality autorifle. He puts down some money on a new one. (Note: we had talked about using the finely made weapons rules from Mongoose Traveller, but I have decided not to. I’ll come up with some advantage for the new gun that will not unbalance the game).

Barney and Fardt work on Rambler. See Sub Merch in port. Barney talks to Sam, one of the mechanics. Finds out that the ship came in with no cargo. Barney notices the Samson Mining logo on the ship. Samson is the company doing mining on Uetonah, and possibly exploiting the native Pachyderms.

PC’s to the Happy Gluck, meet Flint’s old comrade Capt. Lex from the RCMP Army, who the find out is working for Samson. Barney on lookout. Lex introduces them to the pilot, navigator, and engineer from that ship, and tells them he is there to recruit soldiers to wipe out the rebels from the Sophont Liberation Front who have become an increasing problem for Samson. He refers to them as “environmentalist kooks”.  Lex offers SAFCO the chance to join up and make some money, but they decline. Lex and his crew leave. Barney rejoins the rest of SAFCO at their table and they compare notes.

End of session
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Elapsed time: 436 game days (1 year, 62 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 37

I keep saying this with every new session, but I am really amazed we just finished Session 37. My D&D game is on session 36 in just over a year. Both of these campaigns are now much longer both in real time and in game sessions than anything I’ve done before.

I’ve been talking to people about the benefits of long-form campaigns, as well as listening to some podcasts about it. I am not averse to a good one-shot game. They can be super fun. But the stuff we’re doing in these two long-form campaigns with no defined end points is just so fun and so great, and really couldn’t happen in a shorter format.

Session 37 was perhaps the closest to a no-roll roleplaying session I’ve run. Most of the two hours was spent with the characters in conversation with each other or interacting with NPCs. Other than a few Gunnery rolls practicing with the laser turrets on the ship and two Admin rolls, it was all talk and roleplaying. I feel like the players are getting better at the in-character roleplaying part of the game. No, they aren’t acting like voice actors or entertainers. They are just playing their characters. Maybe I’m affording them more opportunities for this? I’m not sure, but it was fun.

This was still a very busy 2-hour session. I had considered throwing some action into it, or working in the start of a new adventure, but decided not to rush it. Everyone seemed engaged, so I decided to take my time and let things play out. The game will be better for it.

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ITV Session 37: Sharp Dressed Man

Still IY6026.306

SAFCO and Caliban Tisk have made it back to the Rambler-II. A few of the alien bug fur balls were blown out into space. Everyone is feeling the need for some revenge on the ugly bastards, so the team takes turns locating the 4 fur balls on the turret scanners and frying them with the ship’s lasers. Even Caliban takes a turn, and his Jack-of-all-trades skill comes in handy. He fries one!

After a brief discussion, SAFCO decides it is time to return to Mylor. Not a hard decision, really. Barney informs the team that the ship is overdue for annual maintenance. As a miracle-worker he’s kept them safe, but it is getting too sketchy. Among other things, the ship needs a new Jump Drive B modulator as well as a replacement for the Jump Field Control Matrix. This will likely have to be brought in from a Type-A starport a subsector away. They are looking at 7 weeks downtime and about $400,000 credits. Luckily the company has enough in the bank to cover it. A course is set and they jump, managing to avoid a mis-jump.

During jump they discuss plans going forward.

Caliban prepares insurance claim documents for SAFCO, as well as forms to reinstate life insurance on each member (owed them by the Scouts). He also files on Lucky’s behalf for compensation from the Scout Service for the disfigurement and trauma he underwent during his service (this one will be had to justify. Being a Scout is inherently dangerous!). Caliban also prepares instructions for his tailor on Mylor for a new suit, as well as instructions for fabriation of new field clothing and dress duds for SAFCO. He also prepare the proper forms, to be submitted to the Scout base on Mylor, suggesting that Chamax be immediately quaranteened. Caliban make a couple of Admin-4 rolls to start the process on a couple of these projects.

SAFCO and Caliban prepare a suggested plan for dealing with any other Chamax colony ships that might float into an inhabited parsec.

The Rambler-II arrives back on Mylor. The various claim transmissions are made.

The entire group heads to the Scout base once Caliban has picked up and donned his sweet new suit. He’ll be taken seriously wearing this!  Walking in, the Scouts and Flint see some familiar faces. Caliban tries to take charge, barking orders at a scout. The man asks Lucky “Hey who is this guy”. After a response from Caliban, the scout says “You should settle down, Slick.” Barney smooths things over, and they meet with Scout Admin Billy Zoom.

After showing Zoom their footage and documentation of their harrowing experience on Chamax as well as in the alien ship, and the survey data, he agrees that quarantine will likely be instituted (if not a planetary scrubbing), and he will tranmit data to the Quarantine Agency. In the meantime the Scout base on nearby Zerix will put in provisional interdiction satellites at Chamax. He thanks them and they leave.

Roger and Fardt go relax at the Happy Gluck.

Next they visit InStarSpec, to meet with Sevor Halin. Caliban has a plan. Barney is wearing a nice new uniform, while Lucky remains “badass” looking. While he initially scoffs at request for payment to the team for completing the survey (Caliban has the original contract, stating whoever completes it gets paid), he eventually decides it’s not his money after all and pays them the 100,000 cr specified in the contract, as well as the 100,000 cr he owes SAFCO for their work sorting out the situation. They show him the footage. He offers them a contract to go back and capture one of the Chamax bugs, saying such a life form must be valuable. They decline.

Caliban’s tablet pings, indicating payment received.

A vote is taken, and SAFCO agrees to accept Caliban into the company. He brings a useful skillset that none of the others possess.

SAFCO goes over its financials and other resources. They decide to take the data disks recovered from the Chamax ship to their hacker associate, Tahm Slykk, to have them copied.  Lucky begins compiling a list of useful gear they might want to procure for their future endeavors.

End of session
IY6026.314
Elapsed time: 422 game days (1 year, 62 days)