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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