First time as ref

[Sigma Dragon]

What happened the first time you refed a game?

I lead the adventurers half way across the planet in an (open topped)air raft in the rain.
When they got to their destination they were attacked by a sea monster with glowing red eyes and 4 arms.
You should have seen their faces.

After they won the hard battle they discovered that it was a complete waste of time and the trip was a wild goose chase.

 

[Flynn]

The first actual Traveller session that I ref'ed was filled with an exciting effort to break into an office complex and substitute an encrypted chip with a false one. (The data contained therein was detrimental to certain intelligence agents in place on the planet.) Meanwhile, on the ground floor, another office was hosting a large fashion show, complete with high-tech jewelry on display.

The party planned and executed a jewelry heist to cover their intrusion into the hotel, and made off with the jewels and the encrypted data chip. Things of course didn't go as planned, but it was exciting nonetheless.

The highlight of the evening for me: One of the party members, the driver, was suddenly stranded without the getaway vehicle, and had to make do. So she stole the local grav-equivalent of an ice cream/Snappy Food truck, and the team raced away to safety, eventually joining traffic flow and blending in, while the local officials raced past in search of "suspicious vehicles."

We had a blast,
Flynn

 

[s-feige]

Let's see.

The first Traveller-Session I GMed involved my three PCs socializing with their surroundings and meeting each other. The highlight was the Ex-Marine (now Ship's Engineer) being bombed out of his Fix-All Repair-Shop at the Spaceport (needed a little 'kick-start' ). That was the first time, we tried the combat-rules and - don't ask...