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ITV Session 53: In Listo

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SAFCO has arrived at Listo. The starliner moves inside the giant hollowed-out asteroid through a huge entrance. They have 2 full days there before the liner continues on for their destination, Prometheus. Jinx is excited to be home, and anxious to go see his grandmother, to give her some of the money he’s made.

As the group exits the ship the are immediately impressed by the disorienting nature of the environment. Walking on the street on the interior surface of the asteroid, if they look up they can see the tops of buildings on the other side. There are grav vehicles going every which way. Flint and Roger realize (make an INT roll) that piloting any sort of ship or grav vehicles in this place, for a non-native, would be challenging and reduce their effectiveness as pilot.

The group follows Jinx to his grandma’s house/store, which is located in the ultra-chaotic Central Market. Listo, being fairly low law-level, has become a destination for merchants of all sorts. The market is on a massive skyway that crosses the interior of the asteroid and has it’s own artificial gravity. They enter, and find a shop of various curiosities and oddities. Jinx introduces them. Caliban buys a fine made from the silk of Pelucidarian spiders. Lucky, Roger, and Flint each by nice leather belts with fancy silver buckles. Grandma demonstrates that the buckles open up, concealing a cutting blade.

Being flush with cash now, the group roams the market. Lucky manages to buy doses of Fast, Slow, Combat, and Medical Slow drugs. They also find a weapons dealer and each purchase a targeting attachment and ocular overlay that can be fitted to any gun. Effectively giving a +1 to hit. NOT a laser sight.  Barney visits a books store, and buys the owner’s robot companion, a 2″ long metal robot bird that flies via anti-grav and responds to whistle commands. He makes an engineering roll realizes it is more than the toy the store owner thinks it is — it is at least a TL12 device. He will have to explore it’s abilities. The bird hovers in front of his face, “bonds” with him, and he leaves with it on his shoulder.

Jinx suggests that they go to a tavern called Spuurie’s. It’s a larger tavern, right in front of a Mag-Lev train station. There are a lot of grav bikes parked in front. Inside they enjoy some drinks. A woman walks by their table. Flint and Barney make their INT rolls and each recognize her. She continues through the crowd, out of site. They both realize she was on of the rebels they fought with on their first trip to Uetonah. They find her sitting at a table with 3 men – also rebels. What are they doing here? As they approach, she make her INT roll and recognizes them as the people who got their laser turret working and helped them defeat the Samson security forces. She waves them over to have a seat.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 476game days (1 year 101 days)

 

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 52

Session 52 was almost all roleplaying, with a few dice rolls here and there. The PCs had some decisions to make. I was ready to deal with whatever they decided.  That is one advantage of running a long campaign. I know the motivations of the NPCs, I know the undercurrents of what is happening, I have NPCs and encounters in reserve, and have a good idea how long any particular encounter will take.

I think I’ve talked about this a bit with Jeff on SAFCOcast, but I’ll say it again here. As a gamemaster, you have to get used to the idea of a quiet table. You have to get over the idea that YOU personally have entertain the players 100% of the time. If they are taking a long time to make a decision, sometimes you need to just let it play out. Of course, decision paralysis does happen, and sometimes you have to do something to break that. That is a challenge in a more open-ended sandbox style campaign. I think I’ve heard it said that with regard to prepping for such a game you need to “be prepared to improvise.” I think there’s a lot truth to that.

I think the hollowed-out crazy asteroid world I’ve come up with will be a fun setting for a session or two.

 

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ITV Session 52: High Passage

asteroid base

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SAFCO and associates are still at the post-race party. All eyes are on Flint, who has just knocked out local sleezebag Cruncher Block with one punch. Caliban hears people talking about it and casually sidles up to eavesdrop. He talks to them, finding out that Block is potentially a dangerous person. Flint drags the unconscious dirtbag over to the door where security takes him, followed by his goons.

The party ends. The baroness joins SAFCO aboard the Fortunate Son to talk privately about their recent activities. Barney tells her about the Pachyderms of Uetonah and their mission to get proof of their sentience the Office of Sophont Relations, on Prometheus. She inquires about simply sending the information package, but Caliban explains that apparently someone is blocking the information, so they are going in-person. The baroness is delighted with their stories. Barney in particular regales her with tales of engineering wizardry. Before leaving, the baroness tells them to not leave before they have seen her again.

Following her departure the team has a long discussion. It is decided they will take the Jumpliner (Jump=4) directly to Listo and then Prometheus, cutting at least two weeks off their travel time. In order to not screw over Silvonius, they will find him some excellent cargo, with Caliban negotiating a price for it virtually insuring a huge profit when he sells it. They also hire a good temporary crew for him. They will travel to Prometheus. By the time he gets to Listo, they will have finished their business on Prometheus and will meet him on Listo. Silvonius is happy with the arrangement when they tell him the next morning.

The next day they get Sil a cargo of mechanical and computer parts. Before they leave the Fortunate Son, the baroness returns. She hands a message capsule to Roger, telling the group it contains her digital seal and a message that may help them in their mission and possibly in future endeavors. They are to use it if needed on Prometheus, but are to retain it! Don’t leave it behind. They thank her.

The group goes to buy high-passage on the Jump Liner. Barney is wearing his First Place medallion from the race, and let’s it be seen. The ticket agent talks to the manager, who talks to the captain of the liner, and then informs SAFCO that the captain wishes to comp their high-passage all the way to Prometheus, as they are now celebrities aboard the ship of rich race fans and gamblers.

The group boards the liner.  The mercenaries and battle dress are also on board, but the mercs are in mid-passage. Each PC enters the raffle to guess the Breakout Time – the number of hours they’ll be in Jump Space before break out in the Listo system. They spend a week in Jump Space, eating at the captains table, being adored by race fans, and enjoying the good life. Caliban seeks to make some good connections while on board. With his Social Standin of 9, the Ref has him roll against it. He succeeds, and makes at least one good connection that might benefit him in the future. Barney gets a tour of the Engineering section, and plays a little joke on Caliban. One evening he bribes a steward to bring Caliban a plate of much-hated Garblag Haggis from the ship’s emergency rations supply. Even a Steward-4 cook can’t make it taste good (needs an 11, rolls a 3). Caliban puts on a brave face, but is unable to stomach it. Barney gets him a plate of proper food.

After a week the ship breaks out of Jump Space, but none of SAFCO guessed the right time.

The screens in the High Passage lounge show a short video about Listo. The world is actually a massive hollowed-out asteroid. No one know who hollowed it out. It was discovered by the initial Scout surveys of the system. Listo Commercial Consortium keeps everything working and life support up.  The video shows the topsy-turvey interior of the asteroid. Habitation covers the interior walls. While there is artificial gravity there is no obvious up or down. Transportation tubes run along the sides and criss-cross the interior, which is also fully built-out with what appears to be no plan at all.  Law Level is a low 3. Listo has a reputation of being a wild place. Jinx is home, and excited to show the team around in the two days they’ll have here.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 476game days (1 year 101 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 51

Our previous session, while it did involve some quality roleplaying, had a lot of dice-rolling. The ship race was fun, but mechanical. It was a great chance for the PCs with great ship-related skills to practice ship combat, and a great chance for me as the ref to get some practice running ship combat, without actually destroying or damaging their ship. But those 3 of the 5 PCs didn’t really do much roleplaying that game.

This session was a balance to that. Almost all roleplaying. A chance to get their winnings, discuss as a team where they are, what their goals are, and think about tactics for achieving those goals. So they had a good 30 minutes of just discussing, in character, the challenges facing them.

With just a little help from the Ref – in the form of what I would call a “passive” Leader-1 skill roll, they came up with a great way of solving the mercenary problem. Honestly, Flint’s player David was about to come to the same conclusion without the roll. Caliban’s player, Todd, was out, so I ran Caliban as an NPC thinking I’d need to give them a bit of help, but I didn’t. Caliban’s recruiting skill was pivotal. A success really helped him and Flint hire away the mercs. Frankly I’d have made it succeed anyway, because David played Flint so smoothly during those interactions.

It was fun to have the 3 race crew members become minor celebrities after winning the race. The post-race party was a great way to introduce some new NPCs and complications, and the players used it to solidify some alliances as well. The party, however, isn’t over. More to come…

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ITV Session 51: Party Time!

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Barney, Lucky, and Roger have just won the Overon Grand Prix asteroid belt race. On Overon, the casino at the Mooch Mine reacts to the win. Caliban wins a lot of money on the race. Flint wins even more. Silvonius, Fardt, and Jinx all come out well, as does SAFCO friend Mergatroyd.

The race crews are shuttled back in from the asteroid belt. SAFCO meets up back onboard the Fortunate Son for a brief meeting. They’ve won a lot of money. They are on a mission to take important data on the Pachyderms of Uetonah to the Imperial Office of Sophont Relations 6 parsecs away on Prometheus. They are also concerned about the mercenaries, now here on Overon and delayed, but who will eventually end up on Uetonah to wipe out the rebels there. They have the option of boarding the Jump-4 starliner in orbit and taking it to Prometheus via Listo, thus cutting several weeks of the time required to get there. Or they can stay as the crew on the Favorite Son and take the long way. They feel some obligation to Silvonius.

Flint also mentions that he is splitting his race winnings – about 1.2 million credits – 6 ways. One for each member of SAFCO.

They discuss the option of hiring a new crew for Silvonius, as there must be people now on Overon who’d like a new gig. They also discuss various options for dealing with the mercenaries. The paperwork delays caused by Barney and Caliban will only hold the mercenaries on Overon for so long. They discuss simply hiring the mercs away. Caliban overheard the merc leader discussing his concerns that his group will fall apart if he can’t continue paying them, which appears to be a problem. He must also pay the ship that is transporting them. He seems to be in a bind.

The next day, Barney goes researches nearly worlds that might need some hired muscle. He finds none. He also looks into the difficulty of returning to Mylor from Prometheus if they don’t have their own ship, but realizes it will be easy, but time consuming.

Caliban and Flint meet with Admin Tilton of the RCMP. Tilton is in a great mood, having won by betting on the team in the race, and many of the RCMP employees did well. Flint and Caliban ask him about hiring the mercs away from their Uetonah gig. Tilton feels he owes SAFCO a favor, and tells them to sent the merc leader to talk.

They find the merc leader at the troop transport ship, at the spaceport. They approach him. Flint does a nice soft-sell. Caliban makes his recruiting roll. The leader realizes that by signing on with RCMP on contract, his problems are solved. He meets with Tilton and they come to an agreement. They’ll travel about the starliner, along with the battle dress armor and fusion guns that RCMP has bought from SAFCO, and go to Listo to fight the pirates who’ve been making things tough on the company.

That night at the casino SAFCO and associates attend the party. Upon entering, the 3 race crew members are cheered, and then interviewed by the media. Flint makes contact with the Baroness, who is having a table set up for them. Flint encounters the monk he and Caliban have met before. As they mingle, a businessman strikes up a conversation with Barney, eventually giving him a business card that says “Samson Lux – Samson Mining Company”.

They all sit down at the table. They are joined by Mergatroyd and Tilton. The Baroness inquires about their recent adventures. Eventually the awards ceremony happens. The crew gets its BIG CHECK.  Applause and cheers. As the rest of the gang watches this, a stocky man approaches Tilton. The man is drunk on mooch, and accuses Tilton of cheating at the race! He is drunk and raging. Flint punches him out – one punch – unconscious. The man’s fellow goons drag him away. All eyes are on the altercation.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 468 game days (1 year 93 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Sessions 49 and 50

Sessions 49 and 50 were important to our campaign for a couple of reason, but primarily because SESSION 50! I never ran a campaign nearly this long in terms of number of game sessions or years played in my youth. In the last week both this campaign and my D&D campaign reached session 50. I am very happy about that.

It’s not just the fact that we’ve played a lot of session now. We started this campaign in April of 2018. So we’ve been playing, in just a few days, for 8 years. In those 8 years we have, as a group of friends, endured job losses, severe illnesses, loss of parents, a global pandemic, and other challenges, but we have kept it going. This past year, after 7 years of play, we added a great player and friend to the group. I could not be happier with all of this. It’s about more than the game. It’s the friendships.

As I have gone on and on about before, the long-form campaign has allowed the player characters to be developed in a way that you just can’t do with limited (but fun) campaigns. The players have taken these very on-paper-simple characters and breathed life into them. In a game in which the characters don’t really change very much mechanically (not “levels” and not much skill improvement), I feel like the PCs are all valuable and irreplaceable. One might look at Classic Traveller and say “oh, if my character dies I can just roll one up who is just or good if not better”, but I think that misses the value that a real in-game history brings to the character. It’s more valuable than “character improvement” because it requires real world time to create. It’s just so cool and amazing, and over time it’s made my job as referee easier as well.

I wrote about this over on my 2d6SF blog a while back. 

OK, the last two sessions the PCs were split up into two groups. One group was the crew of a ship involved in a race through an asteroid belt. The other was back on-world in a casino, interacting with NPCs.

The race was challenging to run. Even just concentrating on 4 ships (including the PCs), there was a lot to keep track of as the Ref. In session 49 we played the first 2 rounds. I thought I was ready for the complexity but I wasn’t. So before session 50 I created some “control sheets” for each round, that would help me keep track of the happenings as well as make the whole thing run faster. It worked. I thought session 50 ran really well. I probably made a few mistakes, but overall it was good. Bopping back and forth between sets of PCs kept things lively and for the most part everyone engages. With the race happening I’ll admit the PCs in the casino probably got less of my attention, but what they did get was put to good use.

We used the ship combat rules from Cepheus Light (in a simplified form) for this race. They worked really well. I am going to play with creating a Ship Combat Round Control Sheet for normal ship and vehicle fights that takes into account all the possible crew actions. However, I don’t really want to dwell on ship combat. It is a fun thing to happen, but I want to make sure the roleplaying stays the center of our game.

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ITV Session 50: Asteroid Race!

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SAFCO begins where we left off, with Lucky, Barney, and Roger aboard their race ship out in the system’s asteroid belt, 2 rounds into the race. Caliban, Flint, Fardt, and Jinx are in the casino watching the simulated (and delayed) race displays.

Out in the asteroid belt, the ships are piloted skillfully around the rocks, pilots seeking advantageous positions in relation to each other while moving toward the next beacon. Note: a lot happened. I’m not going to try to remember every single move.

In the Casino, Caliban notices the leader of the mercenaries having a drink. He sees another merc come up, whisper something to him. The leader looks upset. Caliban gets up and starts moving the bar to a refill, conveniently very close to the merc’s table.

Flint has been keeping an eye on Jinx and Fardt. He notices an entourage coming through the casino. 4 serious-looking people in nice black suits, and in the middle of them Baroness Galaxia Hood-Raxon, of Zapata. He keeps on eye on her, as she is an ally of the team and also prone to getting into trouble.

Meanwhile, the ships have made it to Beacon #3. Roger’s pilot skill is proving pivotal, as SAFCO manages to almost always gain advantage on the other 3 nearby ships. Combined with evasive maneuvers, Barney redlining the engines when in-transit to the next beacon, and Lucky’s level 3 Gunnery skill, SAFCO is doing well.

At beacon #4, all four ships miss their sensor roll, so none are able to immediately pinpoint the beacon and fire a shot. So they shoot at each other. In the next round, all but one ship find the beacon and hit it, and begin moving to beacon 5.

In the casino, Caliban eavesdrops on the mercenaries. Apparently the spaceport authorities have discovered their ship’s horrible maintenance records (planted in the last game by Caliban), and it looks like they will be delayed by quite a while before they can leave for Uetonah. The leader is worried that he’ll not be able to pay the troops, and will lose them to other ventures. Caliban is pleased to hear this.

Caliban sees the Baroness and her group. He makes a Social Standing roll and picks a nice, sophisticated drink to bring to her. He does not know her — he just wants to meet the noble. Her guards stop Caliban. Flint comes up behind him. The Baroness lets them through. Introductions are made. They find out that after their last parting, Professor Zal Twist continued on to Zapata, but the Baroness decided to see what other excitement the frontier offered, and lagged behind. She’s spend the last 3 months enjoying herself rather then returning to her boring noble life.

At beacon #5, SAFCO and the yellow ship find the beacon and hit it, moving on. The red ship is still trying to find beacon #4, and green is unable to find #5. In transit to #6, Lucky fires on the yellow ship, scoring a hit. When they both arrive at #6, yellow’s sensor are out — they have no way to find the beacon. Barney scores a massive success in finding the beacon, and Lucky fires the deciding shot, hitting the final beacon and winning the race!

Back on Overon the casino erupts in excitement. Caliban calculates that he’s won – GASP – 600,000 credits. Flint has won over 100,000! The Baroness, not winning but having been made aware of the crew of the winning ship, congratulates them and says she is looking forward to being reunited with the rest of the team! Mergatroyd is also quite happy.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 467 game days (1 year 92 days)

 

 

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ITV Session 49: Get Set, GO!

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SAFCO is still on Overon, getting ready for the race.

The team goes to the Mooch Mine’s casino and places bets. Barney, Lucky, and Roger get details of the race ship and spend the evening prepping for the race.

The next day. The team notes that the spaceport is not well staffed, as everyone is preoccupied by the race. Caliban finds an insecure computer terminal and plants some incriminating information about the mercenary ship’s maintenance records.  Flint and Caliban, along with Fardt and Jinx, go back to the casino to watch the race. They see their old associates Mergatroyd, from Mylar, and Persius Pringle, the salvage dealer from Overon. Flint chats with them, and confides that SAFCO has replaced the RCMP team, but to keep it quiet. Mergatroyd place a bet on SAFCO to win. Fardt keeps Jinx from getting his ass kicked after he starts winning a bit too much at roulette. Caliban places a bet on SAFCO’s ship, playing the rube.

The race teams are taken out to the asteroid field, where the 16 identical 4G race ships are docked and ready,  and have an hour in their ships before time to start. The team prepares for some antics. Barney preps the ship to divert power to the sensors if needed for a +1 to their sensor roll, and gets the engines prepped for redlining as well.

The race starts. SAFCO is one of the 4 ships with a chance to win.

Action goes back and forth between the race and the PCs in the Casino.

In the casino, holographic displays render the ships positions and progress, though with time lag due to the distance. The idle interplanetary rich of the subsector mingle with loud mercenaries and gamblers. Ships must find and hit with data-stream laser turret beacons placed on 6 asteroid surfaces. Only with a successful hit may they move to the next beacon. They can target each other, hits resulting in simulated temporary damage, such as sensors down, reduction in the normal 4G thrust, etc. The beacon must be located with a sensor (Computer) roll of 8+, and then can be targeted.

All ships make it to Beacon 1. SAFCO and one ship miss the sensor roll. Ships fire at each other and begin moving to next beacon if they can. We leave the session moving into Round 3.

More to come.

End of Session:
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Elapsed time: 467 game days (1 year 92 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 48

Well, we are closing in on Session 50. We are already way beyond any campaign I’ve ever run in the past. My current D&D campaign is at session 48.  But in the old days, probably because our group rotated DMs, I probably never got past 15.

I’ve decided to move both of my campaigns to alternating weeks. I can’t keep up the weekly pace on both, and the truth is I haven’t anyway, so I’m making the schedule I can actually maintain official.

This session went well.  I think we have set up some very fun situations. It’s always interesting to me how much we can get done in about 2 hours. This session was really all roleplaying, sneaking around, information gathering, and interacting with NPCs. I’m always pleased that my players seem happy with such a game, and don’t require constant shooting and fighting.

 

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ITV Session 48: SAFCO to the Rescue!

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SAFCO is still on Overon. They’ve been back less than a day. They notice that the city is crowded with tourists. They talk around, and find out that they have returned just a few days before the Overon Gran Prix, a space ship race through the asteroid field in the system. While at the starport they see what appears to be a troop transport.

Barney and Caliban seek out some information and business. Caliban manages to get a great price (50% of base price) on 48 tons of industrial polymers, which he thinks they can turn a profit on at their next stop. The crew has found out there’s a Jump-4 starliner in orbit. Barney sees the landers at the starport. He inquires about job openings on the ship, as it is going to return to Prometheus via Listo after the race. That would cut at least two weeks off their projected transit time to Prometheus. At the union hall he finds that yes, they are looking for a better pilot, gunner, steward, and engineer. He tells the lady he’ll be back regarding the jobs. She says “don’t wait too long, sweetie.”

The rest of the crew has gone to the Mooch Mine to chat people up about the race and relax. As they approach the tavern they see three men being tended by medics on the sidewalk, and four burly-looking guys in custody of the local authorities.  Roger sees a pilots pin on one of the hurt guy’s collar. Flint gets a good look at the other guys, and decides they are mercenaries. He’s seen plenty like this before.  Roger speaks to the injured pilot, and finds out he and his two friends were to be the crew of RCMP-Overon’s ship in the Gin Prix. Roger asks if he thinks they might want to hire a new crew, and the guy says sure, he should speak to RCMP administrator Robert Tilton. Roger, Flint, Lucky, Fardt, and Jinx enter the tavern and see a bunch more of the mercenaries. They chat with locals and learn a bit more about the race.

Barney and Caliban, at the starport, make some inquiries about the troop transport ship. They find out it has come, after a couple of jumps, from Pelucidar, a notorious tough and criminal planet that is interdicted (poorly). They also find out it has filed a flight plan for Uetonah. Not surprising.

Flint and Roger go to RCMP headquarters to find Admin. Tilton yelling about the injury of his race team! Flint says he may have a solution. Tilton’s jaw drops when he finds out that Roger is rated as Pilot level 4. With Barney ranked at Engineering 3 and Computer 2, and Lucky at Gunner-3 (the ships shoot “data streams” as mock combat), Tilton agrees to split any prize money they might win — the purse for the winner is 200,000 cr.  They make the deal.

Back at the ship, they inform Silvonius of the great cargo deal they have made for the ship, discuss the race, and begin discussing possible ways to delay the mercenaries who, after they see the race and gamble their last paychecks away, will be heading to Uetonah to cause problems.

End of session
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Elapsed time: 466 game days (1 year 91 days)