I was really happy and grateful for all the input for my last thread on great beginnings. I wish to thank everyone for giving me some very good ideas and discussion. We had our first rp session last week and the following statement made by everyone, including my wife:
it was fun
tells me it was a success. And I'm happy. Really cool things happened in CHARGEN too. My wife wanted to keep using her character, a scholar (physician)/scout (exploration) in the new campaign. So I ran a solo session when she and the Vargr hacker NPC from Tripwire were picking up supplies in the down port as the far trader was raided by starport authority based on imperial arrest warrants. She ended up getting another scout to smuggle her and Ghakha off planet and on to Denotam, where the scout commander was to decide what should be done.
Then we had chargen. Unfortunately, two players decided they just didn't have the time (we play late because it takes awhile to get my 2 1/2 year old asleep) so we ended up with 3 players total. And also ended up perfect for me as referee, to be perfectly honest.
So, what was the great beginning I was trying to put together? Well one new player wanted to play a scout. So his character had a connection in CHARGEN who just so happened to become the scout helping my wife's character. He also rolled a Type S, so he has to go pick it up and he does his contact a favor by taking my wife's character along to get her and the NPC out-of-sight-out-of-mind for a while.
The second player, without knowing my wife's character's background or problems, wanted to play a discredited scout turned bounty hunter who made an enemy of a crime boss who got him discredited (and got a bounty for turning in his son.) That's cool, a player who comes with a detailed background and knows who his character is! In any case, I sent him a note by email: that an old contact from his scout days thought he'd like to know, for a cut, that there were two fugitives at the base at Denotam and that they may have a pretty good bounty on their heads. He doesn't know that the names I sent him were of my wife and the NPC.
So we come together to play and on the 271st day of 1105 they, with many other passengers, start by going through security to board the Starliner Herzogin Selene. I introduce crew and passengers, describing them, without differentiating between PCs and NPCs. A tip from the other diary. So this is when the bounty hunter PC learns his bounty is another PC but the other players do not know his character is a bounty hunter. He just kinda looked at me for a moment, then shook his head in acknowledgement.
This should be fun. But first...
My laptop and speakers sound-off with a klaxon and I had a red strobe light start. There is a misjump. All the PCs missed their END rolls and puked up. The ship takes serious damage and I won't spoil it as they are in the disaster adventure One Crowded Hour. However, I will say that they pretty much played most of the adventure and I ended it with the ship's computer on the speaker box saying:
Impact in 15 seconds...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2... ok, that is a good place to stop, we'll pick up there next time.
Oh, how the groans were audible. The players were really into it, role-played, and everyone had fun. I thought the beginning was indeed good and consistent and weaved the characters and their backgrounds together fairly well without having to have them all meet in the starport dive.
Now, I'm rolling ideas around because they are pretty much at the end of the pre-made adventure. I needed to get them to Flammarion to run the Type S adventure. The players thought their eventual destination was Lunion.
I had them mis-jump to Enos in the Sword Worlds for various reasons but I had to add a gas giant there. I hope that doesn't mess up the canon too much regarding the secret base between Enos and Orcrist in the FFW.
They will be stuck there, at the hospitality of the Swordies on Enos (who in MTU I am modeling on South African Boers of the 1960s but without the racist baggage) until the Starliner company/Imperium gets word of where they are and can arrange to bring them to Imperial territory (i.e. Flammarion.) I doubt they would have too many problems as imperials seeing how they were victims of an accident in space. I imagine they would be pretty generous and adhere to the galactic version of the international law of the sea.
I am mulling around what they can do for a few weeks on a low tech desert world. Good ideas from GURPsn Sword Worlds: I'm thinking something with a "seeress" in the wilderness, maybe she disappears, maybe a psionics institute is set up there. There is also an Aesir terrorist organization, that perhaps is involved. I don't know yet but I am not satisfied with any of the pre-made adventure hooks I've seen so far and Gamelords Dune Raiders or FASAs 7 Pillars just don't seem to fit.
But first things first, if they survive, they'll have to deal with their Swordie belter rescuers and the Swordie Patrol Cruiser answering the Signal GK.
it was fun
tells me it was a success. And I'm happy. Really cool things happened in CHARGEN too. My wife wanted to keep using her character, a scholar (physician)/scout (exploration) in the new campaign. So I ran a solo session when she and the Vargr hacker NPC from Tripwire were picking up supplies in the down port as the far trader was raided by starport authority based on imperial arrest warrants. She ended up getting another scout to smuggle her and Ghakha off planet and on to Denotam, where the scout commander was to decide what should be done.
Then we had chargen. Unfortunately, two players decided they just didn't have the time (we play late because it takes awhile to get my 2 1/2 year old asleep) so we ended up with 3 players total. And also ended up perfect for me as referee, to be perfectly honest.
So, what was the great beginning I was trying to put together? Well one new player wanted to play a scout. So his character had a connection in CHARGEN who just so happened to become the scout helping my wife's character. He also rolled a Type S, so he has to go pick it up and he does his contact a favor by taking my wife's character along to get her and the NPC out-of-sight-out-of-mind for a while.
The second player, without knowing my wife's character's background or problems, wanted to play a discredited scout turned bounty hunter who made an enemy of a crime boss who got him discredited (and got a bounty for turning in his son.) That's cool, a player who comes with a detailed background and knows who his character is! In any case, I sent him a note by email: that an old contact from his scout days thought he'd like to know, for a cut, that there were two fugitives at the base at Denotam and that they may have a pretty good bounty on their heads. He doesn't know that the names I sent him were of my wife and the NPC.
So we come together to play and on the 271st day of 1105 they, with many other passengers, start by going through security to board the Starliner Herzogin Selene. I introduce crew and passengers, describing them, without differentiating between PCs and NPCs. A tip from the other diary. So this is when the bounty hunter PC learns his bounty is another PC but the other players do not know his character is a bounty hunter. He just kinda looked at me for a moment, then shook his head in acknowledgement.
This should be fun. But first...
My laptop and speakers sound-off with a klaxon and I had a red strobe light start. There is a misjump. All the PCs missed their END rolls and puked up. The ship takes serious damage and I won't spoil it as they are in the disaster adventure One Crowded Hour. However, I will say that they pretty much played most of the adventure and I ended it with the ship's computer on the speaker box saying:
Impact in 15 seconds...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2... ok, that is a good place to stop, we'll pick up there next time.
Oh, how the groans were audible. The players were really into it, role-played, and everyone had fun. I thought the beginning was indeed good and consistent and weaved the characters and their backgrounds together fairly well without having to have them all meet in the starport dive.
Now, I'm rolling ideas around because they are pretty much at the end of the pre-made adventure. I needed to get them to Flammarion to run the Type S adventure. The players thought their eventual destination was Lunion.
I had them mis-jump to Enos in the Sword Worlds for various reasons but I had to add a gas giant there. I hope that doesn't mess up the canon too much regarding the secret base between Enos and Orcrist in the FFW.
They will be stuck there, at the hospitality of the Swordies on Enos (who in MTU I am modeling on South African Boers of the 1960s but without the racist baggage) until the Starliner company/Imperium gets word of where they are and can arrange to bring them to Imperial territory (i.e. Flammarion.) I doubt they would have too many problems as imperials seeing how they were victims of an accident in space. I imagine they would be pretty generous and adhere to the galactic version of the international law of the sea.
I am mulling around what they can do for a few weeks on a low tech desert world. Good ideas from GURPsn Sword Worlds: I'm thinking something with a "seeress" in the wilderness, maybe she disappears, maybe a psionics institute is set up there. There is also an Aesir terrorist organization, that perhaps is involved. I don't know yet but I am not satisfied with any of the pre-made adventure hooks I've seen so far and Gamelords Dune Raiders or FASAs 7 Pillars just don't seem to fit.
But first things first, if they survive, they'll have to deal with their Swordie belter rescuers and the Swordie Patrol Cruiser answering the Signal GK.
