'Fallen Stars' background information

[Perry Holley]

This thread is for providing background information, history, etc for the SF play-by-post RPG that I'm planning to run starting sometime next month. This is also the thread where the players can ask questions about the setting in general, the rules being used, that sort of thing. I'll be posting here periodically over the next month as we get closer to actually playing the game, which will be in a seperate thread.

(Note - I am not a professional writer. Reading the following should make that painfully obvious :( )

* * *

In the year 2089 (old Earth calendar), centuries of political, religious, and ethnic strife cumulated in the detonation of multiple nuclear devices combined with the release of various viral agents. Within one month, over 90% of humanity had died. By the end of the year, less than 10% of those original survivors were still alive. By the beginning of the 22nd century, there wasn’t a living human being left on Earth.

Fortunately, by the latter 21st century, humanity was not limited solely to Earth. Not only had Mars been colonized, but dozens of ‘sleeper’ ships had been sent out by various governments and other groups in hopes of colonizing new worlds. Not all of these sleeper ships successfully made it to their destination, and of those that did, not all of the colonies survived, but many did, and over time the stars were littered with people trying to adapt to their new homeworlds.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Mars had managed not only to survive, but had eventually begun explorations beyond their now partially-terraformed home. In the year 2568, a scientist by the name of Ursula Anderson successfully tested what would be later referred to as the Anderson Drive, allowing for faster-than-light travel via hyperspace. The first inhabited planet Anderson and her crew visited was Hornway, and it was a fortunate meeting. Mars had the scientific knowledge, Hornway had the natural resources. Their alliance was the beginning of what would be known as the Confederacy.

The Confederacy grew, slowly but surely. It was in the best interests of the other worlds contacted to ally with them, as the Confederacy had access to technology that no one else had. Over the next century, trade proved profitable enough that conflict tended to be a last resort, and was rarely a large-scale matter. This changed in 2691, when a war fleet from Tuller attacked and conquered its sister world New Taiwan. Although condemnation was universal, the resolve to do something about it was not. Other worlds realized that it was possible to do what Tuller had done, and that even if they didn’t want to conquer other worlds, their neighbors might not feel the same about them. By the mid-28th century, the Confederacy had effectively disintegrated, to be replaced by dozens of various feuding ‘pocket empires’.

In 2812, the three largest heirs to the Confederacy (the Tullerian Empire, the Theocracy of Kaile, and the Sivan Protectorate) met in what would be later known as the Eighty Years War. By the end of it, everyone had lost. Not only had all three combatants had their forces and resources decimated, but many other worlds had been ravaged, as well. As the technological infrastructure necessary for interstellar travel collapsed, the relatively few remaining starships became rarer and rarer, as the knowledge to repair them when they eventually malfunctioned was lost. Worlds became isolated from each other, as the Dark Years began.

It wasn’t until 3402 that the darkness began to end. The formerly insignificant world of Piper had escaped the worst of the War’s damage, and had spent the last several centuries quietly rebuilding, until it was again ready to venture out into the stars. When it did, it very carefully attacked and assimilated other worlds in a precise and methodical manner, making certain not to overextend themselves or expand too quickly. While many worlds fought futilely against the invaders (who now referred to themselves simply as The Empire), others offered only token resistance in exchange for the stability and prosperity that the Empire offered. Over the next two hundred years, the Empire re-absorbed those lost worlds that had not been completely destroyed, as well as exploring and colonizing entirely new worlds.

In the last fifty years, the Empire’s view has turned inward. Less emphasis is placed on exploration, and little effort is spent to build up the colonized Outer Worlds. Instead of looking toward the future, the Inner Worlds seem content with maintaining the current state of affairs as they stand. In fact, much time and energy is spent by the idle rich of the Inner Worlds studying and mimicking various eras of the past, most notably the different cultures of Old Earth. Some would say that this is an attempt to relieve the boredom of a safe, stagnant, and sterile culture. Despite the difficulties and dangers involved, there is a small but growing trickle of individuals migrating to the outer worlds; although the Outer Worlds lack many things the Inner Worlds take for granted, the Outer Worlds possess a certain amount of freedom that can not be found on the Inner Worlds. The current ruler of the Empire, Kasha IV, seems content to allow this to continue. As long as the various worlds pay their respective taxes, and don’t engage in open rebellion (which occasionally some planet tries, giving the Empire’s armies the opportunity to crush said rebellion in a quick and brutal fashion), the Empress seems willing to allow the Outer Worlds to handle their own affairs with only a minimum of administrative control from the Empire.

The year is now 3657.

* * *

Next: technology

[MatthewC]

So just how big is the Empire, anyway?

Are we talking about dozens of worlds? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? A significant portion of the entire galaxy?

[Perry Holley]

Without bothering to tie it down to a specific number, 'hundreds' is a good number. Large enough to be truly called an empire, not so large as to be too unwieldy.

[Perry Holley]

(the long-delayed next mini-essay on the SF setting I'm running)

Technology in the 37th century

Starships

Starship travel is, in many ways, the heart of the Empire.

When the Anderson drive was first invented, it was capable of traveling roughly 1 light year (LY) per week in hyperspace. Advances in technology have made it possible to travel as quickly as 2 LY per day. However, this is the high end of starship technology, and due to considerations of cost and other factors, is usually only commonly used in military and other government vessels. Far more commonly, most civilian starships have engines that can travel up to 1 LY per day. How long a ship can remain in hyperspace (sometimes referred to as “A-space”) depends in large part on how much fuel the ship can carry, as hyperspace travel burns up a lot of fuel, moreso than sublight travel (about x10, in fact). It should be noted that, even with sufficient fuel reserves, Anderson drives are very tricky and delicate mechanisms; it is usually recommended that you don’t keep a ship in hyperspace for more than 1-2 weeks (depending on how well the particular drive is built and maintained), and most engineers will want to give the drives some time to ‘rest a bit‘ (usually about 5-7 days) and will want to give the drives a thorough examination before going back into hyperspace again.

Fortunately, fuel for starship travel is relatively cheap and accessible: hydrogen. Most civilian vessels will prefer to purchase refined and purified hydrogen at the local star port; while unrefined fuel is available by skimming a local gas giant or dipping into a world’s ocean, it is also less efficient and more likely to cause a drive malfunction. Military vessels usually have a fuel purifier which can remove all the impurities from the raw fuel, civilian vessels rarely do.

Military vessels will often have some sort of ‘stealth’ technology, making them much more difficult to detect by another ship’s sensors. This technology is not legally available to civilian ships.

Private ownership of small civilian vessels by the wealthy is not uncommon on the Inner Worlds. It is, in comparison, much rarer on the Outer Worlds.

Communications

One of the technological inventions that has helped to keep the Empire together is the development of faster-than-light communication (FTLC). Most FTLCs can transmit information at a speed of 6 LY per day. However, this technology is not readily usable for most citizens, and is generally restricted to military and government communications of great importance. This is because FTLC is hideously expensive and requires an incredible amount of power. For starships, the use of FTLCs is usually restricted to the largest of military vessels (often the flagship of a given fleet), and using FTLCs will usually require enough energy that a ship will be mostly or completely drained of energy reserves, leaving its dangerously vulnerable. Most of the Inner World governments will have some sort of FTLC available, but again the use thereof requires a huge expenditure in energy and expense. Outer Worlds virtually never has access to FTLC capabilities, with the exception of ‘sector capitals’ (worlds which oversee the other worlds in the immediate vicinity), and the occasional military outpost. Given the lack of accessibility by the common citizen to FTLC, the vast majority of communication between planets is by courier via starship travel.

Contragravity

Contragravity exists, which allows for the reduction or increase of the effect of gravity in a localized area. However, the use of contra gravity becomes proportionally more difficult in relation to the actual gravity of a given environment. Therefore, contragravity is most commonly used in low or zero-gravity settings. The most common use of contragravity is to create an artificial gravity environment inside a starship when it is outside of the gravity well of a planet or star.

Medicine

General medical treatment in the 37th century is an amazing thing to behold. Extended lifespans, cellular regeneration, brain transplants, genetic engineering, cloned organ replacements, and other medical wonders are now commonplace on the Inner Worlds.

Cloning is common (but controversial) for those who can afford it. Clone banks maintain cloned bodies so that organs, body parts, or entire bodies can be replaced as necessary. While legal throughout the Empire, cloning is a polarizing issue for many citizens; a large segment of the Empire’s population feels that the use of clones in such a manner is unethical, even tantamount to murder.

Most of the old pre-spaceflight diseases have long been cured, although there are always some new strain of infection that threatens the unwary traveler. Space travelers know to “update their shots” before traveling to a new world, and most veteran spacers will have invested in a panimmunity (general immunity) treatment to help them resist unknown diseases.

Genetic engineering, or ‘gengineering’, while not uncommon, tends to be regarded with no small amount of caution. The uprising and attempted takeover by those who were genetically enhanced in the early 36th century has left the general populace wary of such things, and is now commonly limited to making sure a child will have no birth defects when born. Governments and wealthy corporations will occasionally grow their own gengineered agents, physically enhanced but with some sort of failsafe, such as a limited lifespan.

Note that cryogenic storage is commonplace (having been around since the time of the old colony ships), and most starships will have cryogenic berths for passengers and crew in case of emergencies.

All this, of course, is in relation to the Inner Worlds. Medical capabilities tends to be much more limited on the Outer Worlds, although this varies on a world-by-world basis.

Weaponry

Military starships have a wide array of weaponry available to them, including laser and particle beams, railguns, and various types of missiles. Civilian ships are usually legally restricted to a few laser turrets.

In terms of personal weaponry, laser rifles and pistols are common on the Inner Worlds for use by police and military personnel. On the Outer Worlds, firearms visually resemble guns from pre-spaceflight eras, although they are actually much more advanced (firing caseless rounds from a rotating cylinder like a revolver but storing ammunition like an automatic). The body armor used by police and military on the Inner Worlds is fairly resistant to non-laser weaponry; for obvious reasons ownership of such body armor is illegal for civilians.

Note that while a weapon may be available in terms of technology is not the same as whether or not it is available legally. The private ownership and use of guns is, as a rule, illegal on most of the Inner Worlds and legal on most of the Outer Worlds… but there are always exceptions.

Robots

For those who can afford them, robots are a common sight on the Inner Worlds. Their appearance may range from obviously non-human to a perfect visual duplicate of a human being. The range of capabilities available depends on what you are purchasing it for; a mining-bot on a desolate moon will be very different from a noble’s companion-bot.

An interesting side-effect of medical and robotic technology are ’ghosts’, which are the electronic recording of human brains stored in a robotic body. Usually, such electronic brain recordings (or ’braintapings’) are transferred to a clone when necessary. However, in cases when this isn’t always feasible, sometimes the braintaped information is instead transferred to a robotic body. This is usually a temporary measure, but occasionally due to circumstances becomes a more permanent home for an individual’s thoughts and memories.

Robots are less common on the Outer Worlds, and those that do exist there tend to be of a more functional and less social nature, usually owned by the government, military, or powerful corporations.

What Doesn’t Exist

Several devices common to science fiction are still out of reach of the Empire in the 37th century. Teleportation, time travel, practical force fields, Dyson spheres, ringworlds, matter replicators, planet-busters, use of antimatter as a fuel source, and disintegrators are all examples of technologies out of reach, that cannot be built… yet.

[Royal]

1.) What is the structure of Law in the way of enforcement? Can there be leeway so that independant enforcers & investigators can get involved?

2.) Can one travel to the out & inworlds as much as one pleases?

3.) how far primitive would an outworld be?

[Perry Holley]

1.) What is the structure of Law in the way of enforcement? Can there be leeway so that independant enforcers & investigators can get involved?The nature of Law Enforcement varies a bit from planet to planet, but it's usually not too far off from how LE functioned in the late 19th/early 20th century America. Technically, there's no equivalent of Miranda Rights, and how well a police officer treats a suspects depends on several factors, including how wealthy/affluent the suspect is, past criminal history (if any), how prevelant crime is in the general area, and what sort of mood the officer is in that day. On the Inner Worlds, it's reasonably efficient and well-organized, and suspects will (usually) see their day in a court, but of course, there are always rumors of corruption, and of lower-class suspects 'disappearing'. On the Outer Worlds, LE isn't quite so structured, and a lawman has a fair amount of discretion in how he or she interprets his duties (think of the Sean Connery character in Outland).

There's always room for private investigators in any large enough population. The police of the Inner Worlds tend to be very well-trained and effective, and the PI's of those worlds tend to make their living on civil matters (i.e. finding out if a husband is cheating on his wife). There are, of course, always exceptions. There's a lot more opportunity for a PI to get involved in 'the juicy stuff' on the Outer Worlds, but that's dependant on a OW having a high enough population to support that sort of thing.

2.) Can one travel to the out & inworlds as much as one pleases?As long as a citizen can afford to do so, yes (space travel isn't cheap). A new world may not be friendly to an outsider, but as long as you can earn your keep and not get thrown into debtor's prison, any Imperial world must recognize the citizenship of another Imperial citizen.

Edit: Travel to some worlds may be resticted, depending on the world in question. For example, if the world in question has just recently attempted a political uprising, then travel in and out of said world will be much more restricted than normal.

3.) how far primitive would an outworld be?Pre-electrical worlds aren't completely uncommon on the fringes of the Empire. It varies a lot, depending on how long the world has been colonized, as what sort of resources it has to exploit. Citizens on an otherwise primitive world may have high-tech devices, if those devices aren't dependant on a high-tech/industrialized infrastructure, and of course assuming the people in question can afford them. For example, farmers on a pre-electrical world woundn't have cel phones, but they might have walkie-talkies and some extra batteries that they traded for from some traveling starship merchant.

The local starport may be pretty high-tech, no matter how primitive the rest of the planet is.

And of course, no matter where you go, people will generally have some sort of firearm to defend themselves...

[Royal]

How goes it so far?

Need more questions?

[Perry Holley]

How goes it so far?

Need more questions?Just got back from DragonCon. Give me a little time to recover.

[shin_gouki]

Wait, we forgot the most important thing... money!

Is there a universal "unit", or does each world has it's own monetary "unit".

[Perry Holley]

Wait, we forgot the most important thing... money!

Is there a universal "unit", or does each world has it's own monetary "unit".Both.

Individual worlds are allowed to have their own monetary systems. However, there is also the 'Imperial Credit', which all worlds must also accept as currency. Some planets (ususally one of the Inner Worlds) use IC's as their base currency, many don't.

[Royal]

Soooo....a million LC would equal one IC?

[Perry Holley]

Soooo....a million LC would equal one IC?LC????????

[Royal]

LC????????

Local (or planetary) Credit.

[Perry Holley]

Local (or planetary) Credit.Ah, gotcha.

It actually depends on how strong the local economy of the planet is. For worlds with a robust economy, the exchange rate isn't too bad; the IC is still the stonger of the too, but not excessively so. It's the poorer worlds where a IC can go a long way, by comparison.

As an aside, something I forgot to mention earlier... while transactions on planets may often be electronic in nature (assuming the world in question is technologically advanced enough), financial transactions between planets tends to involve currency of a more physical nature, due to various factors (not the least of which being tradition). IOW, yes, paper money still exists.

[Perry Holley]

(While I'm (still) waiting for character sheets for a couple of my players, I thought I'd bore everybody with more useless info)

Slavery

Slavery in the Empire, while not statistically common, is nonetheless a legal and accepted (by many, although not all) practice. Unlike previous eras, slaves are rarely if ever used for manual labor; machines and technology can usually do these sorts of things cheaper and more efficiently. Slaves are usually kept more for interpersonal tasks, that the owner needs to have done on a daily basis. Also, owning a slave is something of an indicator of social status; only the wealthy can afford to maintain and provide upkeep for a slave.

People can find themselves becoming slaves for a variety of reasons, but the primary one is economics. Those who cannot afford to pay their debts (or have someone else pay them) usually find themselves losing their citizenship and becoming the property of the state. As the primary punishment for non-violent criminal acts are large fines, criminal punishment is a secondary source of citizens becoming slaves. Whatever the cause, the state then auctions off slaves to private individuals, who are then responsible for the slave. Depending on the size of the debt, the slavery may be considered a lifelong state, or may be for a set number of years (a form of indentured servitude), after which the slave becomes a citizen again. In the case of an especially large debt, the slavery may extend beyond the life of the slave into any children he or she has.

Virtually all of the noble house have slaves. Depending on one’s point of view, some would considered a servant of a noble house to be of higher status than a destitute freeman.

Ownership of slaves is much less common on the Outer Worlds, although it is not entirely unknown for a wealthy citizen on such worlds to own a few slaves.

Nobility

The Imperial nobility is a narrow class of persons at the upper strata of society who hold, either personally or through their family line, noble rank from the Emperor. Noble rank serves two purposes: it rewards individuals for significant achievements, and it provides social station for the political leaders within the government.

The lowest of the noble ranks is the knight, awarded by the Emperor or an archduke as an honorific rank in recognition of achievement or service. As such, a knighthood is coveted by non-nobles and is seen as more attainable than membership in the peerage. A knighthood entitles the recipient to be addressed as Sir or Dame before their name, and to suffix the initials of the order of knighthood after their name. An individual accorded a knighthood may receive a fief of land on a single world, generally not more than 10 square km. Knights are not members of the peerage, and thus are not subject to all the protocols. Instead, they belong to orders of knighthood and are awarded privileges according to the order. Each order has its own code, and knights are expected to abide by these codes. Members of the peerage generally consider knights to be "separate but equal" members of the nobility, and it is considered a breach of protocol for a member of the peerage to treat a knight with disrespect. Several dozen orders of knighthood exist in the Empire. Some are restricted to specific classes of individuals; others are awarded for specific achievements or service; still others are broad-based orders.

The next level of noble rank is the baron, and is the lowest level accorded membership in the peerage. Several styles of address are used, including attaching a prefix to the surname (such as von-, haut-, or hault-) or using the title Baron. When a barony includes a fief, the title is generally followed by the fief's name (such as Baron Taltos). An individual accorded a barony may receive a fief of land on a single world, generally not more than 100 square km. A variation of this rank is the baronet. This is a special form of baron awarded by an archduke (the Emperor can create baronets; in practice, they are only created by one of the Archdukes). They rank below barons in seniority and precedence, and do not generally receive fiefs of land. A baronetcy entitles the individual to use the prefix Baronet before one's name.

Above the rank of baron is the marquis, a noble associated with a large section of a single world (such as a continent). The title consists of the area name after the title, as in the Marquis of Kelenos (or alternatively, the Marquis Kelenos). An individual accorded a marquisate may receive a fief of land on a single world, generally not more than 1,000 square km.

Next is the count, a noble associated with a single world. Counts are referred to by their title, followed by their surname or the name of the world in question. A count may receive a fief of land on a single world, generally not more than 10,000 square km.

The duke is associated with a subsector, overseeing the running of multiple worlds. The noble is referred to by their title followed by "of" and then the subsector name (for example, Duke of Averynn). An individual accorded a duchy may receive a fief of land on a single world, generally not more than 100,000 square km.

The penultimate level of nobility is represented by the archdukes, who each exercise control over a different sector, which consists of various subsectors. They act as intermediaries between the Emperor and the other levels of nobility.

Above the range of noble ranks is the Emperor and the Imperial Family. The Emperor is the ultimate object of thousands of oaths of loyalty and fealty. The current Empress of the Empire is Lorelei Kasha IV.

[MatthewC]

Hmmm, this is all very feudal and I guess I had been thinking more in the Roman model up to this point.

Is there any sort of Senate balancing out the power of the Emperor and his/her appointed nobility?

[Perry Holley]

Hmmm, this is all very feudal and I guess I had been thinking more in the Roman model up to this point.

Is there any sort of Senate balancing out the power of the Emperor and his/her appointed nobility?Yes, there is a Senate. In days past, the Senate did most of the work, but in more recent years, the various nobles have been overriding the decress of the Senate with greater regularity.

I visualize the setting as a SF mix of (among other things) both Roman and British empire. Much of it is Roman in it's setup, but the titles for the nobility are feudal, and the economic system is more inspired by the British Empire (i.e. the whole 'age of sail' era).

[DrewTheXenocide]

Ah, gotcha.

It actually depends on how strong the local economy of the planet is. For worlds with a robust economy, the exchange rate isn't too bad; the IC is still the stonger of the too, but not excessively so. It's the poorer worlds where a IC can go a long way, by comparison.

As an aside, something I forgot to mention earlier... while transactions on planets may often be electronic in nature (assuming the world in question is technologically advanced enough), financial transactions between planets tends to involve currency of a more physical nature, due to various factors (not the least of which being tradition). IOW, yes, paper money still exists.

What's the norm? Does everyone use paper dough, 'cause that'd be a pain to change, or do the ICs run in credit cards, (a la the stuff they used in Batman Beyond) or osmething totally different?

[Perry Holley]

Given that the vast majority of people in the empire never leave their homeworld, tradition dictates that a star treveler bring his monies in a more tangible form (either cash, or valuables such as gold or gems). The reason is it isn't always practical to check the credit rating of someone from another world, due to the communication lag, so electronic funds from other worlds are considered suspect.

[Perry Holley]

After a whole lotta delays, I'm finally ready to start running this for my players. I'll be starting a new thread where the actual play goes on; background info, game questions, and comments by non-players should stay here in this thread.

(before anyone asks, I've got enough players - I like small groups - with two players in reserve should they be able to play)

Quick question for the players... how much 'secret' information are you comfortable with being played on the main thread, and how much do you want to discuss privately via PM? My though is that the players here can easily seperate in-character and out-of-charcter knowledgeand can roleplay that appropriately, but if players want to handle that sort of thing seperately, that's fine.

[Any OOC questions/comments in the game thread should be put in brackets, like this.]

In combat situations, players should phrase their responses to allow for multiple options. For example, instead of "I take a shot at the mobster", instead something like "I will fire at the mobster if he isn't hiding behind cover, but if he is, I'll try to make my way behind the furniture so I can get a better shot at him" (computer programmers can think of this as a IF-THEN-ELSE statement).



As soon as I get confirmation from the players that they are ready, we can get this started.

[MatthewC]

Hey Perry. I got your email, and I'm ready to play any time you are. Sorry to hear that Sam won't be playing... especially as I believe he was going to play our "break things and kill people" person.


Quick question for the players... how much 'secret' information are you comfortable with being played on the main thread, and how much do you want to discuss privately via PM? My though is that the players here can easily seperate in-character and out-of-charcter knowledgeand can roleplay that appropriately, but if players want to handle that sort of thing seperately, that's fine.

Put it all on the main thread, I don't care. Keeping things secret from players in RPG's is overrated, IMO.

[FBHthelizardmage]

yeah, I'm still intrested in this game. (finally read the email properly, assignments)

[BcAugust]

Hey. Finally got it. You might want to try my Gmail account. I'm ready to play when you are.

[Perry Holley]

Hey. Finally got it. You might want to try my Gmail account. I'm ready to play when you are.
And so it begins... (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=27641)

(No, not a lot is happening in the beginning - I want to give the players to role play their characters a bit before all hell breaks loose :evilsmile )

[Perry Holley]

(Not all of the characters would be aware of all of this information - Davis has been restricted to the upper deck, and while Glockton has been to the lower deck, she hasn't been to the wing level. I'll email you the deckplans, as they lost a lot of legibility when I tried to shrink them down to attachment-friendly size. If you don't get them in the next day or so, contact me via PM, and I'll resend them.)


The Moonshadow is a Norton-class free-trader merchant vessel. It masses 425 dtons*, has standard hyperdrive engines, and is streamlined for safe entry into a planet’s atmosphere. It has 13 staterooms for crew and passengers, as well as an equal number of emergency cryoberths, and can transport 85 dtons of cargo. It can generate an internal artificial gravity for the benefit of its crew and passengers, and also has a number of other basic amenities to make time upon the ship more pleasant. The Moonshadow is defended by three laser weapons (one controlled by the pilot on the bridge; the other two can either be controlled by the ship’s computer, or controlled manually from the gunner turrets).

The upper deck of the Moonshadow is the one that passengers are limited to; it includes staterooms, a medbay, a galley, and a lounge/common area. The lower deck includes the bridge, and the cargo hold. Both the upper and lower decks are 3 meters in height. The mid (wing) level includes the ship’s various engines and drives, an engineer’s workshop, fuel storage, thrusters, and two gunner’s turrets. The mid level is usually 4.5 meters high, but is as tall as 6 meters closer to the ship’s center. Below the lower deck is the ship’s landing/support base, about 0.75 meters high. Besides supporting the structure of the ship when on the ground, it also includes the ship’s fuel scoops, as well as bottom side thrusters. Above the upper deck is the top level, which tapers up as high as 1.5 meters. It includes various relays, secondary systems, etc, as well as topside thrusters.

The Moonshadow can carry 45 dtons of fuel (hydrogen). Standard fuel use of the maneuver drives is equal to .005 x the ship’s mass per day, which in this case is 2.125 dtons per day. Use of the Anderson (hyper) drives, traveling 1 light year per day, consumes .01 x ship’s mass, or 4.25 dtons on a daily basis. Both of these numbers also include the energies needed for the ship’s life support, and other necessary systems. Fuel for the Moonshadow, in most cases, can be acquired free by ‘skimming’ either a planet’s ocean or a nearby gas giant (usually taking about 15-20 minutes to do so). Fuel acquired in this manner is full of impurities, which may cause problems for the ship’s drives. The Moonshadow has fuel purification plants, which can separate any impurities from the ‘pure’ hydrogen. The plants can convert about 10 dtons per hour, and lose about 10% of the raw material in the process (thus, 40 dtons of raw fuel skimmed from a gas giant would result in 36 dtons of purified hydrogen). Should neither a gas giant or a convenient ocean be available, processed fuel would have to be purchased from a starport, or somehow otherwise acquired (some planets that depend heavily on starport revenue may have laws against acquired fuel from their oceans).


*dton - short for displacement ton, which is the volume of one metric ton (1,000 kg) of liquid hydrogen. In standard spatial terms, this is the equivalent of 14 cubic meters.

[MatthewC]

Well it took three days for me to notice, but now that I have, consider my amusement registered.

Name of Campaign - "Fallen Stars"

Current alias that my PC is using for a last name to obscure his sordid past - "Starfall"

Doubt if it means anything, but it is rather funny.

[Perry Holley]

Well it took three days for me to notice, but now that I have, consider my amusement registered.

Name of Campaign - "Fallen Stars"

Current alias that my PC is using for a last name to obscure his sordid past - "Starfall"

Doubt if it means anything, but it is rather funny.Heh, I hadn't noticed the connection either, to be honest. But you're right, it is amusing.

Completely unintentional, I should add. "Fallen Stars" has been bouncing around in my head as a title for a few years now, back when I originally wanted to write it as a comic book.

[Perry Holley]

I hope no one minds the slow start/buildup. Seeing how characters react during this time is giving me some idea how they might react when things go south.

[MatthewC]

I hope no one minds the slow start/buildup. Seeing how characters react during this time is giving me some idea how they might react when things go south.

Heck, it lets us players figure out the same thing for our PC's. No matter how great the backstory write-up, I maintain that it always takes some actual RPing to really breath life into a PC.

So no, I don't mind at all. As for being 'slow', once we get into some crisis situation where it becomes vital to track the round-by-round actions of our characters and it takes 5 weeks to play our five minutes, we're all going to look back fondly on the halcyon days of the 'slow' start.

Though I admit, I'm eagerly awaiting the 'twist' that's going to keep these disparate PC's together for the long-term.

[FBHthelizardmage]

OOC ermm.... whats happening with this?

[BcAugust]

(Was waiting for Perry to skip time till dinner)

[Perry Holley]

Sorry, guys. A couple of hellish workdays + fighting off some sort of stomach bug I picked up + water leaking from the roof from the apartment above us = Perry not being a happy boy for the last few days.

Will try to post later today. Apologies for the inconvience.

[MatthewC]

Comments so far....

Whew, that's a lot of NPC's on the ship! Thankfully play-by-post makes it fairly easy to go back and track who's who, but it's still going to take a while to sort them out. You packed 'em in like you were worried you wouldn't get to introduce any more for a while....

The dinner is helping flesh everybody out a little, but I'm not sure how much PC interaction you're going to get. Heather doesn't seem to feel like talking much right now (for perfectly good in-character reasons) and though Sam is happy enough to give everybody his opinion about everything and anything, he'd really rather just get the meal over with and get back to working on his projects. Only FBH's character could really be considered 'sociable'.

I'm trying to get a handle on Captain Janovich. What's he like as an employer?

Still waiting for the big axe to fall. I have some pretty good speculations, but I'll keep 'em to myself right now.

[Perry Holley]

Comments so far....

Whew, that's a lot of NPC's on the ship! Thankfully play-by-post makes it fairly easy to go back and track who's who, but it's still going to take a while to sort them out. You packed 'em in like you were worried you wouldn't get to introduce any more for a while....Heh, it is more NPCs than I would normally bother with, but one of the nice things about this format is that I can do things like have extended conversatins between multiple NPCs, something I wouldn't want to attempt in a fact-to-face game. I did want to give all the NPCs at least a little bit of screen time before everything goes to hell, so that the PCs have a better idea who and what they'll be dealing with.

The dinner is helping flesh everybody out a little, but I'm not sure how much PC interaction you're going to get. Heather doesn't seem to feel like talking much right now (for perfectly good in-character reasons) and though Sam is happy enough to give everybody his opinion about everything and anything, he'd really rather just get the meal over with and get back to working on his projects. Only FBH's character could really be considered 'sociable'.Yeah, after FBH respinds to the Baroness, I'll probably fast-forward to the next scene. I had hoped to play it out a bit more, but that's okay, live and learn.

I have to confess, Heather is the hardest one for me to figure out how to 'draw her out', so to speak. Which isn't BC's fault, just means I have to give it a bit more thought.

I'm trying to get a handle on Captain Janovich. What's he like as an employer?Efficient, but somewhat cold to the ship's crew, even to Isa (whom he shares quarters with). Not exactly known for his sense of humor (he has the Humorless drawback), which is why FBH's request came off to the rest of the crew as being so funny. That said, he's very loyal to his crew. Basically, he's stern but fair.

Still waiting for the big axe to fall. I have some pretty good speculations, but I'll keep 'em to myself right now.Heh heh heh... :evilsmile

[Royal]

Maybe a candid chat between Heather & the priest?

[Perry Holley]

First, wow people die easily in this game! Remind me to think twice before having my PC rush into combat.Well... don't forget that Sam has an obnoxiously high Strength. When using a club (or in this case, a wrench), that effectively doubles the base damage you would do in HTH combat.

Now, normally blunt trauma usually just knocks people out when their Life Points go to zero or less. However, in this case, that much damage to the back of the skull (and given the circumstances, that's what seemed to me to be the most logical place for Sam to swing at), I thought that a Survival check would be appropriate.

She failed her roll. Miserably.

That said, combat in Unisystem can certainly be deadly. Especially when dealing with guns. Don't forget, though, player characters (and some NPCs) have access to Drama Points, which can add to you lifespan greatly by reducing the damage you've absorbed.

[MatthewC]

Poor Sam, shot and stabbed, and then they twisted the knife.

Well, at least we've got two of their guns. Now if somebody could just slap the Baron back into awareness (SAM: I'll do it!) then we'd have four people on the upper decks against Galina, Konner, Motter, and.... whoever else they have (points finger at Teresia) on the lower decks.

Of course, we still don't know exactly what it is they're trying to do, but whatever it is, at least they no longer have their engineer to help them do it. (Yay!)

Now if we can just get to them before they figure out how to work the environmental controls....

[Perry Holley]

Sam, just wanted to let you know that it may be a day or two before I can respond properly to your stated actions in the main thread. I'll tell you right now that the trick with the intercomm will work... which means I'm gonna have to type up a fairly long response, as there's a lot of info you'll pick up on, and I want to give this some thought so I can do it properly. Also, the next couple of days are pretty busy for me work-wise - I barely have enough time to check up on the threads I need to - so again it may be a little bit before I can respond properly.

[Royal]

Would the tube system be acessable anywhere?

Are they for ventilation or structual matenance?

[Perry Holley]

Would the tube system be acessable anywhere?

Are they for ventilation or structual matenance?The ventilation tubes are too small to crawl though. However, as noted, there are some access panels that someone who knows what they're doing (like Sam) can use to get from level to level.

[Perry Holley]

Okay, so what *exactly* in terms of plans and preperations are being made? Who is going (or staying) where?

Sam, in case it wasn't clear, besides going down to the lower level, you could also use one of the access panels to go straigth to the wing/mid level. Give me an idea where you're trying to go (i.e. the antigrav generator? the life suport systems?) so I can figure out the logistics of what happens next.

[MatthewC]

Okay, so what *exactly* in terms of plans and preperations are being made? Who is going (or staying) where?

Sam, in case it wasn't clear, besides going down to the lower level, you could also use one of the access panels to go straigth to the wing/mid level. Give me an idea where you're trying to go (i.e. the antigrav generator? the life suport systems?) so I can figure out the logistics of what happens next.


I'm sorry for the delay Perry. I think it's just the typical problem of play-by-posts, where we're so afraid of doing the "wrong" thing that we endlessly consider the options.

Bc, FBH, and I are all on IM, so I am going to push for us to get posts up putting a plan into motion sometime tonight.

[Perry Holley]

I'm sorry for the delay Perry. I think it's just the typical problem of play-by-posts, where we're so afraid of doing the "wrong" thing that we endlessly consider the options.Don't sweat it. I didn't know if it was a) there were real-life delays on everybody's part, b) everyone was waiting for someone else to make the next move, or c) someone was waiting for clarification on something on my part that I had forgotten about.

[BcAugust]

I was actually waiting for FBH to post. I know I tend to run a bit heavy on people. so I like to give people a chance to respond.

[Jagatai_Khan]

Hey Perry,

Are you still running this? If so, I'm interested in joining. I didn't see a character creation rule set anywhere, so I assume that's part of the mysterious email everyone's mentioned.

I'll PM you my email, but I just wanted to post on the OOC thread as well.

[Perry Holley]

Are you still running this? Yeah. Been out-of-town for the last several days so that I could attend my father-in-law's memorial service. Will probably start back into it in the next few days or so.

Check your PM.

[Perry Holley]

Umm, Bc, I think Matthew and FBH are waiting for you to respond to Teresia's last statement.

[BcAugust]

Matthew's out of town, actually. And I need to talk. Will write the PM later.

[MatthewC]

Out of town, but I still have some internet access through my parents' computer. Enough to check the boards once a day, anyway. So don't let me hold anybody up.

(Was actually trying to think up something clever for Sam to do as preparations before descent, but my mind keeps blanking. Ready to go ahead regardless.)

[MatthewC]

So, um... what's going on? I figured in three days somebody would know something.

Is this game on hold for the holidays? Canceled? Is somebody waiting on something that is not coming for some reason?

FBH, Perry, Bc? Can any of you shed any light on the situation?

If no one wants to make a public response, feel free to dash off a quick message on the CBR PM system.

[BcAugust]

Sorry, stressed over holiday and other stuff. I'll probably post sometime next Tuesday or so, and will try to have my pm to Perry before then.

[FBHthelizardmage]

Perry is also away I believe.

[Perry Holley]

Perry is also away I believe.Actually I'm back now.

Been PMing with Bc and working out a couple of details, so we should be able to get started again soon.

[MatthewC]

!!!!!!!!!

Just to make sure, I take it that none of the rest of us heard the gunshot? I mean, I don't remember it being silenced or anything, and the sounds of gunshots alerted us before....

[Perry Holley]

OOC: !!!!!!!!!

Just to make sure, I take it that none of the rest of us heard the gunshot? I mean, I don't remember it being silenced or anything, and the sounds of gunshots alerted us before....OOC - Yes, the gun that the Doctor fired is silenced, as are all the ones you've acquired from the terorists. Your characters wouldn't necessarily know this, but the shots you heard were from the Captain's pistol when he tried to fight back on the bridge.

[MatthewC]

Quick rules question, Perry.

I know in standard Unisystem, if you have no ranks in a skill, you take a penalty on rolls to try to use that skill untrained. Is it the same way in Cinematic Unisystem?

In particular, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to have Sam take the intruder's gun. Sam has no ranks in Firearms, but if he still gets a straight dex roll to shoot the gun, it might be worth a shot (as it were). 3 + d10 would still get to 9 half the time, after all.

If he's taking a -2 penalty or something though, he'd probably be in more danger of shooting his own side than his opponents.

[Perry Holley]

Without looking at my books, there's usually no penalty in Cinematic Unisystem for unskilled use. I might impose a penalty for attempting something esoteric, but for something as common as gunplay, nah, no penalty.

[Perry Holley]

Apologies for the delay. My head go explodey the last few days.

Sorry if I'm being dense, but when you're heading for the bridge, are you going through the cargo bay, or back up through the upper passenger deck?

[MatthewC]

Apologies for the delay. My head go explodey the last few days.

Sorry if I'm being dense, but when you're heading for the bridge, are you going through the cargo bay, or back up through the upper passenger deck?

Well, first we are going after Galina Biris, who is supposed to be guarding the door to the upper passenger deck. We're going to go out through the cargo bay and approach the door to the upper passenger deck from the side she's on... being alert for anyone who might take a pot-shot at us, of course.

[Perry Holley]

Ah, so you're going from the cargo bay, through the bridge, and up the stairwell, then?

[MatthewC]

Ah, so you're going from the cargo bay, through the bridge, and up the stairwell, then?

I hadn't quite realized we had to go through the bridge to get up to the stairwell. If we do, then I guess that's what we do.

[Perry Holley]

Yeah. If you look at the map for the lower level, you'll see that the lower half of the stairwell is basically inside the bridge.

[MatthewC]

Okay, so what is the nearest inhabited star system and how many hundreds of years will it take the ship to get there using the sub-light engines?

[Perry Holley]

Someone would have to make an astrogation calculation for precise numbers, but given the ship's planned ETA, and how far along you were before everrything went kerblooey, you'd guess that you're about 2 1/4 light years from Rivendale. Unfortunately, you have neither the feul nor the provisions for that long a journey using sublight travel.

[Perry Holley]

As Matthew has already surmised, the current situation is the 'GM fiat' that I mentioned/warned about when initially pitching this. Under the 'when bad things happen to good people' rule, everyone takes 2 Drama Points (I don't have the numbers in front of me, but if memory serves, that should put Sam at 10, David at 11, and Heather at 12).

Experience points will be coming soon, as soon as we wrap up this particular part of the story.

[MatthewC]

So exactly what is the social status of a humaniform robot like Isa?

Are they just tools? Do they have any rights? Are they popularly considered to be 'people' in even a limited sense? Can they own property themselves?

Are they believed to be sapient, or do they just have clever programming that can mimic intelligence, but is incapable of growth or change?

I'm trying to get a sense of how Sam and the other characters should be reacting to Isa now that her secret is out. As well as what the implications are of Janovitch keeping her robotic status a secret.

[Perry Holley]

Robots (in whatever form) are generally considered tools/property, with no intrinsic rights of their own. They are not considered truly sentient, although their programming can often mimic intelligence to the point that someone not aware of their robotic nature often can't tell the difference. Advanced models do sometimes have a certain amount of capability to adapt to new data/situations, though.

[Perry Holley]

[OOC: You sure do know how to kick PCs when they're down, Perry. I like it.]Heh... maybe you should talk to some of the people who have been in my face-to-face games (Solaris, BubbaJoWants, Darkblade, Chibi Starjumper). They can tell you all sorts of horror stories about me tormenting their player characters... :rolleyes: :D

[Perry Holley]

Sam take another deep breath. "Now you'll be wantin' ta discuss this, an I hope one o' you has an idea I missed. Boot before ya do, I want ta' address tha subject of why the Baron Vasilokos innae here. Simply put, Dr. Glockton lost her mind n' killed him earlier, innae misguided attempt ta' stop tha hijackers from capturing him. He's dead. I dinnae think we should put tha' part in tha radio transmission. It might nae encourage a quick rescue."
ROTFLMAO!!!

Mathew, take an extra DP, just for giving the GM a giggle-fit. :D

[FBHthelizardmage]

OOC guys, I'd love to post, but I'm feeling really, really, crappy, so I'll try when I get a bit better. Sorry and all.

[MatthewC]

OOC guys, I'd love to post, but I'm feeling really, really, crappy, so I'll try when I get a bit better. Sorry and all.

In that case, I say we put the game on hold briefly until FBH is feeling better. David has been a bit short-changed on characterization as it is. I really want to give FBH a chance to have him react to all these events, so we can get a better idea of where the character is.

[Perry Holley]

Well, now that our first session is finished (or as I like to think of it, the first hour of our two-hour pilot)... any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Expletives?

Note that it will probably be a couple of days before I can get the next part up (work being annoyingly busy the next few days), although I will try to get out XP awards, and guidelines for spending XP for character improvement shortly.

[MatthewC]

Well, now that our first session is finished (or as I like to think of it, the first hour of our two-hour pilot)... any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Expletives?

I'm a little disappointed we never found out what the deal with Father Motter's mysterious means of gaining knowledge was. Or for that matter, what the Rebels thought they were actually going to do once they had seized control of the ship. Unless that's somehow going to come out in hour 2, I mean.

Overall, though, I enjoyed it. You certainly kept us on our toes with lots of twists and turns. I'm enjoying playing Sam, and I hope everyone else is enjoying playing their PCs.

I really like the complex motivations you give the NPCs and the moral ambiguities of some of what's going on. You do good cliffhangers too. The violence was really shocking and brutal, though to keep it that way I'd like to see it kept somewhat infrequent. (So that we can desperately try to find ways to squirm out of things before the guns come out.)

What about you? Have things been playing out as you expected? Are you disappointed that so few of your NPCs survived? Anything you'd like to see more/less of?

Also, is Sam Anderson (the player, not my character 'Sam') going to be coming on board in Act II?

[Perry Holley]

I'm a little disappointed we never found out what the deal with Father Motter's mysterious means of gaining knowledge was. Or for that matter, what the Rebels thought they were actually going to do once they had seized control of the ship. Unless that's somehow going to come out in hour 2, I mean.Part one I'll tell you, as it doesn't really effect things now... basically, each of the terrorosts had a small microchip enbedded along near their skulls. Motter's chip allowed him to monotor the basic condition of his fellow teroroists, enough so that he knew when one of them died. If Heather had done an autopsy, this would have came out. As Sam surmised, the bomb in the hyperdrive was cued to all of the chips being shut down.

Part two may become more apparent in time...

Overall, though, I enjoyed it. You certainly kept us on our toes with lots of twists and turns. I'm enjoying playing Sam, and I hope everyone else is enjoying playing their PCs.

I really like the complex motivations you give the NPCs and the moral ambiguities of some of what's going on. You do good cliffhangers too. The violence was really shocking and brutal, though to keep it that way I'd like to see it kept somewhat infrequent. (So that we can desperately try to find ways to squirm out of things before the guns come out.)Thanks. I'm not certain how common violence will be yet, overall, although if nothing else the threat of violence may well be common.

What about you? Have things been playing out as you expected? Are you disappointed that so few of your NPCs survived? Anything you'd like to see more/less of?I tried not to have too many preconceived notions going into this (although I didn't exactly expect the doctor to commit regicide! :eek: ). I will say that I was kinda working toward having most of the NPC's to take the celestial eternal dirt nap, as I wanted to streamline things down to where it's the player characters, and not the NPC's, that take center stage.

Also, is Sam Anderson (the player, not my character 'Sam') going to be coming on board in Act II?Last I heard from Sam, that was the plan, although I need to contact him and make sure things haven't changed for him again.

[FBHthelizardmage]

I enjoyed it, once I got into character.

Though, I'd kind have liked some more NPCs to survive.

[BcAugust]

I await the conquences with interest.

[BcAugust]

Go ahead and delet, Perry, my internet hiccuped.

[Perry Holley]

Okay, now that my jury duty is over, I can use what's left of the rest of my off-week to try to get the next part of our game started. For the moment, let's deal with experience.

While I may give individual awards in the future, for the moment, for the simplicity sake's I'm giving everyone 5 experience points for all-around excellent play.

EPs can be spent as follows:

Improving attributes Costs 5 points to increase any attribute one point, unless raising it from 5 to 6, in which case it costs 6 points. Note that a) attributes normally cannot be raised past 6, and b) adults can normally increase any given attribute by one level and no more (if any of your characters had the 'teenager' quality, they could increase any given attribute by up to two levels over time).

Skills Raising a skill costs double the new level of the skill (i.e. raising a skill from 2 to 3 would cost 6 points). Maximum skilll level is usually 10. Buying a brand-new skill at level one costs 5 points.

Qualities Increasing the level of a quality, or buying a new quality, costs the same cost that they would have cost during character generation. However, this also requires GM approval, as many qualities might not be able to be added once in play.

Drawbacks As per Qualities.

Drama Points Drama Points cn be purchased with EPs, as well as be granted during play. One DP costs 2 EPs.



Improvements can be noted either here, or via PM, whichever the players prefers.

[MatthewC]

I'm just going to bank my xp for the present. Might buy something with it later, but there's nothing I urgently want to buy right now.

[Perry Holley]

As soon as I find out how (or if) Bc and FBH want to spend their experience points, I'm ready to start the next chapter.

[BcAugust]

Actually, I pmed you. Not at the moment, no, other then what we talked over.

[Perry Holley]

I got the PM response about adding the addition drawback and the skill point in exchange for it, but nothing on how you wanted to otherwise spend your EPs.

[BcAugust]

Ah, then no. I'm banking them for the moment

[FBHthelizardmage]

Same here. Banking

[Perry Holley]

Well, alrighty then...

[Perry Holley]

Apologies to FBH and Bc for my delay in responding. The last week has been busy, stressful, and generally unfun.

(Suffice to say... debt management sucks)

[BcAugust]

Np. I've been having my own week from hell, so I understand.

[Perry Holley]

Any objections to all the characters (including Sam's new character) linking back up so we can move on? A few hours can pass while everyone's getting their individual errands done. Or is there anything else that anyone feels they need to play out?

[FBHthelizardmage]

Any objections to all the characters (including Sam's new character) linking back up so we can move on? A few hours can pass while everyone's getting their individual errands done. Or is there anything else that anyone feels they need to play out?

Nope. good to go.

[BcAugust]

Nope.

Though I'll note here I'll likely be offline for a bit starting Weds til a bit further on.

[Perry Holley]

Though I'll note here I'll likely be offline for a bit starting Weds til a bit further on.Not a problem.


















Although if Heather is wearing clown paint and a "vacuum sucks" t-shirt when you get back, it won't be my fault. Honest. :evilsmile ;)

[MatthewC]

Any objections to all the characters (including Sam's new character) linking back up so we can move on? A few hours can pass while everyone's getting their individual errands done. Or is there anything else that anyone feels they need to play out?

Okay by me.

I have a few ideas cooking, but they can wait until after we get the coil.

[Perry Holley]

Well, Starfall's nominally in charge, so it's up to him to get everyone together.

[MatthewC]

Perry, how much noise does it make and how visible is it when a ship takes off and lands?

Is landing near the camoflauged area going to alert everyone with 20 miles? Would doing it at night help? Etc.

[Perry Holley]

Not as much noise as, say, a modern jet taking off and landing, but still some noise (enough so to alert the town of Moriarity when you landed). About the equivalent of a helicopter, in terms of noise. The antigrav engines handle the majority of moving the ship, but the maneuver drives/thrusters are needed for the fine control of landing a ship (hence the burn marks at the landing zone in Moriarity).

The thrusters might actually be more visible at night than at day, due to the energies given off... and besides, if you wait for night, you'll be waiting a while, given the planet's rather long rotational period (amost 720 hours).

[Perry Holley]

"And I have to say, much as salvage might be useful, doesn't an imperial research facility and a missing crew sound rather like the lead in to some Horror Holo drama?"*snort*

*starts playing the theme from Halloween in the background*

FBH, take a Drama Point, just because I needed a good laugh right about now.

[MatthewC]

*bump*

ten characters

Don't look at me, my character is busy bleeding out.

[Perry Holley]

Don't look at me, my character is busy bleeding out.*snicker*

Bc, don't sweat it (re: delays), especially with dealing with a new job.

Which brings up the question... how long should I let things go without a response before sending out a reminder? Currently, I'm using three days as a rough guide, or if the thread dissappears off the front page. Does that work for everyone, or would you prefer something different?

[BcAugust]

Eh, three days is fine. I've just been a bit scurrying, you know. and it lets us know that you're watching.

[Perry Holley]

and it lets us know that you're watching.I'm always watching.

*foreboding music*

[FBHthelizardmage]

um.... anyone still doing this?

[MatthewC]

Well, I think the ball was in Sam-the-player's court at last check.

Hopefully now that he's back from his email game hiatus, he can update this game too.

[Sam]

Yeah. Things have been... interesting, lately, in terms of real life. But I'm back now.

[BcAugust]

Perry, can I get an idea about what Heather would know of these warbots? Even out of date info. I'm sort of stuck between two choices at the moment.

[Perry Holley]

NO! NO INFO FOR YOU!

Oh, okay, just kidding...

Warbots were never that common in the Empire, primarily due to expense, and were primarily used for 'special operations'. As one might expect, they are extremely strong, tough, and fast. They are highly resistant (although not completely so) to both small arms and laser fire. They often have a variety of internal weaponry, in addition to any other weapons they might be carrying. Although not truly intelligent, their programming covers a wide range of data, and they are not fooled by 'stupid robot tricks'.

As an aside... you heard some disturbing rumors in the medical community back in the day about the neural brain patterns of soldiers being superimposed onto a warbot's programming. While you know that this is possible (it was not completely uncommon for the brainwaves of the wealthy to be stored temporarily in electronic form - referred to as 'ghosts' in that form - until a clone could be prepared for the data transfer), the idea of doing this as anything more than a temporary thing, especially for combat purposes, probably strikes you as, at best, questionably ethical.

Probably just a rumor, though...

[MatthewC]

Now it's my turn.

Perry, what does Sam know about warbots? Has he ever had a chance to look at their designs, back in the day when he was getting his education?

Would he be able to create something capable of disabling one?

[Perry Holley]

Very quickly, because I need to get offline soon...

Sam know a bit about the basics of warbots, mainly from his more general knowledge of overall robotics. Since he wasn't military, he wasn't cleared for access to the actual schematics for a warbot.

Disabling one is gonna be tough. They're designed specifically to be resistant to any attempts to damage or impair them. That shell isn't just resistant against bullets and lasers, but EMP blasts, electronic hacking, etc. The only real override for these things is an electronically transmitted coded sequence, the exact coding of course being kept highly secret for security purposes.

Of course, inside the 'bot, it's probably a lot more vulnerable... the trick would be getting past it's outer form somehow, of course.

[FBHthelizardmage]

Ok, how is David secured to the table? (trying to think up a good bluff...)

[Perry Holley]

Basic restraints, probably of some sort of synthetic material, the type a hospital might use to restrain (for example) an epileptic patient.

[FBHthelizardmage]

Ok, my glasses are busted, so I'm wearing my crappy old ones. I'm going to need a little time to either get used to the lenses or get them fixed, so posting is a little dellayed.

Perry, how many Drama points can I spend at once? I'm looking for 1 for plot editing, and one to be really convincing.

[Perry Holley]

Perry, how many Drama points can I spend at once? I'm looking for 1 for plot editing, and one to be really convincing.Give me an idea what you have in mind (either here or via PM).

[Perry Holley]

While discussing with FBH via PM about David's current predicament, the thought struck me that perhaps when we first started this I didn't make clear just how much you could do with a DP by invoking a Plot Twist. Sure, that covers stuff like 'just happening to run across that lost manuscript with a vital clue' type of thing, but it can be used for a lot more than that. Just happen to have the precise technological doodad needed for the situation? Plot Twist. Just happen to run across an old buddy from 'the old days' on that planet you just landed on? Plot Twist. In essence, it can be used as a tool for the player to help shape the direction the stoty is going. As long as 1) it doesn't completely wreck the game, and 2) it's not completely inconceivable for your character, then I'll more likely than not allow it.

[MatthewC]

Just as Sam has made his way back to the area in the trees where Bill and Heather are, the doorway for the backside of the building opens. The robotic form that Sam and Heather saw earlier steps out, pausing to seemingly survey the surroundings, perhaps looking for any enemies to be disposed of...

Just so I'm clear, Sam hasn't actually had a chance to go on the ship and make his chemical concoction yet, has he?

I was assuming no, but you said that Sam had 'made his way back' to the area where Bill and Heather are.

[Perry Holley]

Just so I'm clear, Sam hasn't actually had a chance to go on the ship and make his chemical concoction yet, has he?Yes, he has. Take a look at post #420 on the main thread.

[FBHthelizardmage]

I won't be able to post till monday, exams, sorry

[Perry Holley]

No problem.

Good luck with the exams.

[MatthewC]

Just to let everybody know, my internet access will be very spotty for the next few days. I'll be back from my trip Tuesday and may post again Wednesday.

Don't let that keep everybody's PCs from exploring the complex, though.

[Perry Holley]

Okay, since no one has piped in with anything else, i'm going to assume the following:

1) The Moonshadow is moved next to the facility, to make moving stuff fromt he facility and from the Megan's Delight easier.

2) The Anderson coil is installed into the Moonshadow.

3) Spare parts are taken from the Megan's Delight.

4) Whatever you think is salvageable is taken from the facility. This brings up the question of where all this stuff is going. Some of it can go into the cargo hold, but for everything you might want to salvage from the facility, you may need to store some of it in the (currently) unused passenger facilities. Not a problem if you don't plan on taking passengers in the future... but that can be a source of income for the crew, especially in a shattered empire where transportation isn't that reliable anymore.

5) The backup files that Sam ran across in the facility and in the Megan's Delight are copied, so that they can be referred to as needed.

All of this will take a few days.

This also brings up the question of where you will be going. Are you still planning on going to Tesla (if nothing else, Teresia will want to go there, to return the bodies of the Baron and Baroness), or will you want to go somewhere else now?

Also, what will be done with Bill Cash's flesh-and-blood remains?

(oh, and I almost forgot... should have mentioned this earlier... the inside of the facility has a working air filtration system, so you don't have to wear your gas masks inside)

Anything else any of you will be doing before leaving Rivendale? Any questions?

[FBHthelizardmage]

hum... where did David's parents/family live?. I think several people are away at the moment, Mathew certainly was this week end, not sure about Sam and Bc. I've also been kinda busy with universities.

Sorry to dellay you

[Perry Holley]

Well, if everyone is busy (as appears to be the case), then we can only wait until people can post again. I was mainly posting the last message in case people had lost track of where we were, game-wise.

[MatthewC]

4) Whatever you think is salvageable is taken from the facility. This brings up the question of where all this stuff is going. Some of it can go into the cargo hold, but for everything you might want to salvage from the facility, you may need to store some of it in the (currently) unused passenger facilities. Not a problem if you don't plan on taking passengers in the future... but that can be a source of income for the crew, especially in a shattered empire where transportation isn't that reliable anymore.

5) The backup files that Sam ran across in the facility and in the Megan's Delight are copied, so that they can be referred to as needed.

All of this will take a few days.

This also brings up the question of where you will be going. Are you still planning on going to Tesla (if nothing else, Teresia will want to go there, to return the bodies of the Baron and Baroness), or will you want to go somewhere else now?

Also, what will be done with Bill Cash's flesh-and-blood remains?


Sorry for the delay. Things have kept coming up. Okay.

1. Where the salvage is going to go. I think we might fill up the passenger rooms temporarily till we get wherever we're going to go next, and attempt to sell some of it off at our next port to clear back up the passenger rooms. Because passengers = interesting.

2. So once Sam has had a chance to study them, what exactly are all those files about? What was being reasearched?

3. Tesla seems a not-unreasonable destination, but if you're interested in having this be a real decision, tell us the alternatives. Where else might we be tempted to try in this region of space?

4. I think we let Mr. Cash decide what he wants done with his remains, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt to see if Heather can freeze a good tissue sample, just on the off-chance Bill ever gets access to a cloning facility.

[FBHthelizardmage]

Ok, now I'm ill. sorry

[Perry Holley]

Guys, you don't have to keep apologizing for any delays.

Especially as I've been kinda tardy replying, as well.

[Perry Holley]

[Perry, which world did David’s Family live on?]
I'm pretty certain we never went into details on David's homeworld (not even a name), except for that it was in the Inner Worlds, and so a fair distance from your current location. Feel free to make up any details regarding David's homeworld as necessary.

[Perry Holley]

Okay, everybody gets 5 EPs. Bill Cash's points are already spent, to accomidate his new robotic form. Everyone banked their points last time, so Sam, David, and Heather each have 10 EPs to spend.

EPs can be spent as follows:

Improving attributes Costs 5 points to increase any attribute one point, unless raising it from 5 to 6, in which case it costs 6 points. Note that a) attributes normally cannot be raised past 6, and b) adults can normally increase any given attribute by one level and no more (if any of your characters had the 'teenager' quality, they could increase any given attribute by up to two levels over time).

Skills Raising a skill costs double the new level of the skill (i.e. raising a skill from 2 to 3 would cost 6 points). Maximum skilll level is usually 10. Buying a brand-new skill at level one costs 5 points.

Qualities Increasing the level of a quality, or buying a new quality, costs the same cost that they would have cost during character generation. However, this also requires GM approval, as many qualities might not be able to be added once in play.

Drawbacks As per Qualities.

Drama Points Drama Points cn be purchased with EPs, as well as be granted during play. One DP costs 2 EPs.



Improvements can be noted either here, or via PM, whichever the players prefers.

[MatthewC]

So are we waiting on somebody to post or something? I'd figured the next thing would be our arrival at the planet.

[Perry Holley]

Heh, I was just getting ready to post here regarding this.

While I did want to wait a little bit to see if anyone else wanted to post anything before landing on Tesla, the main delays on my part were two-fold; 1) my computer go hit with some sort of virus, which was causing it to have problems booting up; it eventually would, but my time online was limited. I think I've got it fixed now. 2) A couple of minor health problems which, while not major, were quite annoying (tendonitis and chest congestion, fun fun fun). On meds now, so that's helping.

Before getting to the next part, I do wanna discuss some stuff with you guys via PM, which will require me to get my head together enough to write something coherent.

[MatthewC]

Hey Perry,

Just as a comment on my last post on the game thread, the Moonshadow does seem a bit undermanned at the moment. Especially if Doc Glockton is gone for good. When we started this, there was a crew of six, if I'm counting right.

Seems like a good chance to introduce a new PC or NPC, as you like.

Also, parts are good, but I think Sam will spend the first night hitting a bar or two.

[Royal]

*shakes dice bag*

Point me to the right tomes & documentation & I'll probably be functional after next week. If you can give a crash on the...is it d20? If you can crash course the system, I'd be much oblidged to that as well.

[Perry Holley]

Hey Perry,

Just as a comment on my last post on the game thread, the Moonshadow does seem a bit undermanned at the moment. Especially if Doc Glockton is gone for good. When we started this, there was a crew of six, if I'm counting right.Five, IIRC. Jovanovich (captain), Talia (pilot), Konner (security/gunner), Sam (engineer), and Heather (doctor). Six, if you count Isa, who fills a number of roles.

Technically, the ship can get by with just a pilot and an engineer. Other positions that are useful but not absolutely essential include doctor, astrogator (usually the pilot doubles this role on smaller ships), steward (if you're going to be taking on passengers), security, cargo handler (not really essential for a ship this small, but useful if someone has the training), and a few gunners (the ship can do it automatically, but a trained human hand guiding the controls helps).

Isa is programmed to handle piloting, astrogation, steward, and gunner and can probably fake security and cargo handling as well. In other words, you don't absolutely need more crew members, but that's not to say you might not find them useful.

I'm still debating taking on any new players, and if so, who I want to invite in.

[Perry Holley]

While we're in a brief stand-by mode before figuring out what to do next (both in and out of game), feel free to create and subplots for your characters so as to get them into as much trouble as possible. ;)

Matthew, how long does Sam plan on staying on Tesla before leaving, and does he do any more work on his special project while in port?

[Perry Holley]

Apologies for the delay. Royal and I had some e-mail snags while working out his character.

Do you guys want to do anything while on Tesla (besides bringing in any PCs), or just move on to wherever Sam wants to go?

Also, Matthew, besides Royal's character, were you wanting NPCs to fill any of the ship's positions, or do you not want to bother with NPCs?

[Royal]

Out of curiousity, what are the game mechanics on gun arts like "Sniping" or "Gun Kata"?

[Perry Holley]

Out of curiousity, what are the game mechanics on gun arts like "Sniping" or "Gun Kata"?Sniping would be a skill roll on your Guns skill, but with bonuses for Aiming, and maybe for using a scope (to reduce range penalties).

Am I a bad person if I admit I have no idea what Gun Kata is?

[Royal]

Sniping would be a skill roll on your Guns skill, but with bonuses for Aiming, and maybe for using a scope (to reduce range penalties).

Am I a bad person if I admit I have no idea what Gun Kata is?

Heh.

Gunkata is a fictional close quarters gun-based martial art. It emphasises kata, or body positioning and movement excercises. This is important because each kata of Gunkata is designed for maximum effeciency in both lethal force and defense.

http://www.gunkatta.com/home.htm

[Perry Holley]

In that case, it would fall under the Melee skill.

As you may have noticed, skills in this system are very broad. You can always buy a speciality in a particular skill, which gives you a +1 to that particular subset of the skill, but a -1 otherwise.

[Royal]

In that case, it would fall under the Melee skill.

As you may have noticed, skills in this system are very broad. You can always buy a speciality in a particular skill, which gives you a +1 to that particular subset of the skill, but a -1 otherwise.

Ahhh. So if I had a "Gunkata" skill in my Wildcard spot, It will make my Melee skill rating go down?

[MatthewC]

Do you guys want to do anything while on Tesla (besides bringing in any PCs), or just move on to wherever Sam wants to go?

Also, Matthew, besides Royal's character, were you wanting NPCs to fill any of the ship's positions, or do you not want to bother with NPCs?

Well, I believe that FBH wanted to do some things. He may not have seen the resurgance of this thread, though. (I missed your 7/30 posting myself.)

I believe we were going to let FBH's character do our trading. That is, sell off some of that salvaged cargo for local currency, think about buying other trade goods, and such. (FBH also told me that David wanted to research what the heck happened to his father and his father's company, as far as any public databases might know of.)

Sam would certainly like to, as you suggested, look for useful parts that he needs or thinks he will need in the future.

In addition, since we've made an effort to clean out the passenger quarters, see if anybody is looking for passage in a direction we're interested in heading. (Regarding Isa's caution, Sam figures he can always test his invention after we drop whoever it is off.)

As far as NPC crewmembers, what position on the crew is Royal's character going to fill? It would be useful to have somebody with some medical knowledge, if Heather is really a goner.

[MatthewC]

Ahhh. So if I had a "Gunkata" skill in my Wildcard spot, It will make my Melee skill rating go down?

I think you're confusing Wildcards and Specialties. Wildcard is simply a skill that's not as broadly applicable as other skills, so it costs less.

Specialties are attached to regular skills. You're at +1 to any check with that skill that has to do with that specialty, and -1 to any check with that skill that doesn't have to do with that specialty.

For instance, Sam's specialty in Science is Physics.

[Royal]

gotcha!!!!

[FBHthelizardmage]

yeah, sorry, I totally missed it.

[FBHthelizardmage]

Do you guys want to do anything while on Tesla (besides bringing in any PCs), or just move on to wherever Sam wants to go?

Also, Matthew, besides Royal's character, were you wanting NPCs to fill any of the ship's positions, or do you not want to bother with NPCs?

Yeah, David wan't sto get drunk and make some friends, then once he's Sober consult a liberary to find out if the fate of his family is mentioned, and precisely what is going in the universe.

[Perry Holley]

Guys, sorry, a bit more of a delay from my part, at least for the next day or two (headaches with my credit couseling program that need to be straightened out).

[Perry Holley]

Wow, so that's what it's like to be able to get more than 3 hours of sleep a night. It's been so long, I had almost forgotten...

Oh, and actually not having to work on a Saturday, for once!



In other words, new FS posts coming up, for those who still care and haven't yet died of old age.

[Royal]

Could you tell us a little more about Nova?

[BlairH]

Could you tell us a little more about Nova?

Indeed. (lacks knowlage)

[Perry Holley]

Could you tell us a little more about Nova?Andy (of all the PCs) is the only one who would know this.

Nova is a steeet drug that has shown up on Tesla over the last couple of years. If reports are to be believed, it temporarily boosts the user's physical strength and reflexes, enhances the five senses, and created a mild sense of euphoria (not enough to inhibit thought processes, but just enough to make you 'feel good'). It is unclear whether or not it is physically addictive, but it would appear to be, if nothing else, psychologically addictive.

The local police have not had any luck tracking down who is responsible for this drug, although several dealers have been arrested. That said, it's not the highest priority for the police, as there are other drugs considered more dangerous on the streets of Tesla.

[Perry Holley]

Okay, I'll be away at DragonCon fo the next few days (as will MatthewC), so I won't be posting until then.

The main thing needed to wrap up is Sam and the new potential crewmwmber, so once we get that out of the way, we can get going with the next part of the story.

[MatthewC]

Andy smiles "Hey. You mind if I tag along? I'm still a bit iffy about knowing the ship & following you might help me better with response situtations."

So is Andy cockblocking on purpose, or is he just clueless about David's intentions?

(That was crude, I know. I'm so sorry.)

[Royal]

So is Andy cockblocking on purpose, or is he just clueless about David's intentions?

(That was crude, I know. I'm so sorry.)

I'm playing Andy clueless right now due to being "the rookie".

I'm also playing Andy as recognizing a fellow war compatriot in Mallory.

[Perry Holley]

Let's see if I can do the deckplans as attachments...

The attachments may not be terribly readable as attachments... try copying and saving them, then looking at them at full size.

[Perry Holley]

I'm a bad man.

That said, just for clarity's sake, Sam (the player, not the character) let me know he wasn't going to be able to continue playing, and he indicated that I should do with Bill as I wish, either to continue running him, or to kill him off. I considered the former, but a) that would have me running 3 in-party NPCs, b) two of which would be robots. After some consideration, I opted for the latter option.

That said, even if the characters don't consider it, there's a really obvious in-game method of bringing Bill back at any time, should Sam ever decide to play again (and if he does, he will always have a spot in the game).

[Perry Holley]

I'm going to be pretty busy with Darkblade's handfasting this weekend, so I probably won't be able to respond properly until Monday at the earliest.

[MatthewC]

So are we about ready to jump ahead timeline-wise? Anything anyone else wants to do?

I figure we finish messing with the Midnight Run, hold a wake for Bill, and then jump back to Anderson space.

Sam plans to keep our pirate prisoner/trusteee on a relatively short leash.

[FBHthelizardmage]

sure. Lets go for it

[Perry Holley]

Works for me. I'll post some more in the main thread later today.

[Perry Holley]

XP to follow shortly...

[Perry Holley]

Okay, everybody gets 5 XP. Sam had one XP banked from previous adventures, and David has yet to spend any of his XP (he had ten banked), so that gives the current total XP that can be spent as Andy 5 XP, Sam 6 XP, and David a whopping 15 XP.

EPs can be spent as follows:

Improving attributes Costs 5 points to increase any attribute one point, unless raising it from 5 to 6, in which case it costs 6 points. Note that a) attributes normally cannot be raised past 6, and b) adults can normally increase any given attribute by one level and no more (if any of your characters had the 'teenager' quality, they could increase any given attribute by up to two levels over time).

Skills Raising a skill costs double the new level of the skill (i.e. raising a skill from 2 to 3 would cost 6 points). Maximum skilll level is usually 10. Buying a brand-new skill at level one costs 5 points.

Qualities Increasing the level of a quality, or buying a new quality, costs the same cost that they would have cost during character generation. However, this also requires GM approval, as many qualities might not be able to be added once in play.

Drawbacks can be removed as per Qualities.

Drama Points Drama Points cn be purchased with EPs, as well as be granted during play. One DP costs 2 EPs. (in case people have lost track, I'll tally up the current DPs sometime this weekend)



Improvements can be noted either here, or via PM, whichever the players prefers.

[Royal]

I think I'll bank mine for now.

[Perry Holley]

I've been under the weather the last few says, fighting off the bug I picked up. It may be another couple of days before I can post anything re: the trip to Ashton.

[MatthewC]

I know FBH said he was feeling ill, but how come no posts for the past week or so?

Just everyone busy for the holidays?

Andy could react, or we could even cut scene on my last post and head towards the landing on Ashton.

[MatthewC]

You're not waiting on me, are you? I was going to wait for a response on FBH's and Royal's stuff and let the timeline catch up before posting anything on dealing with that hole.

[Perry Holley]

Ah, wasn't certain. Getting ready to crash in a few minutes, but will pick things up tomorrow.

[MatthewC]

Keeping this out of the IC thread since it's almost pure OOC stuff.

I'm not quite sure where to try and take this stuff next. I mean, the presence of burrowing creatures is interesting, but given that we haven't seen anything of them so far either they're not that numerous or they avoid people.

I always try to think of the most interesting thing to do, but at this point I don't see what motivation the characters have to do anything but go back to the original plan of salvaging whatever looks valuable and keeping a sharp eye out for dangers. I can't think of a good reason to spend time and effort tracking down the creatures, unless we think a laboratory would pay big credits for them or something.

FBH, Royal, Perry.... your thoughts?

[Perry Holley]

Hey, I'm just throwing stuff out there, to see what sticks. While I've got some ideas on what will happen if characters do X instead of Y, there's really no pre-set plot, so don't worry about whether you go off-script or not.

As an aside, one of the things I'm trying to do is build up some mood, which puts forth the choice of a) does the crew get out as quickly as possible to avoid something bad happening, possibly losing out on more intersting salvage in the process, or b) stick around for a couple more days, getting some more booty, but possibly have something bad happen. Either option is okay with me, there is no 'wrong' choice. To my mind, its now the players driving the plot forward, I'm just along for the ride.

Oh, and I want to apologize for being a bit late in responding. I've been rather tired and ragged-out of late; not certain why (got home from work last night and pretty much collapsed, slept for something like 14 hours straight).

[Royal]

Unless there's anything in the data from the computer and from Mal & Isa, I think the only thing we can do is either grab the marked loot and run or make an effort to fix the filtration system.

[Perry Holley]

Due to some computer access problems (not completely solved yet) and some other factors, I've been pretty lax in responding on the main thread. At this point, if Sam and co. want to make it back to the ship, they encounter no other problems. From there, everyone can discuss what they want to do next.

[MatthewC]

Andy thinks for a bit and then speaks. "Is there any way to get to an underground city? It's a bit safer and hey, we might get some more interesting stuff on the way."

Um, I'm pretty sure the city we've been exploring is underground. We landed the ship outside, popped open the air lock, and went inside. You might want to edit that post.

[Royal]

I thought we were abouve ground.

[Perry Holley]

The cities on Ashton are indeed underground, as mentioned here (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=2333799&postcount=747) and here (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=27641&page=19&pp=40).

[FBHthelizardmage]

just how bad is the storm?

[Perry Holley]

The winds are fairly gusty, around 25-33 kph (15-20 mph), with some scattered lightning. That said, the problem with piloting in a storm usually isn't taking off, but rather landing (in one piece). It may be bumpy, but David's reasonably sure he can lift off and get into orbit without anything going too haywire.

[Perry Holley]

*sigh*

Through no one's fault but my own, I'm kinda disappointed with the way things went game-wise on Ashton. It was a case of things being much cooler in my head than the way they actually played out. So if anyone felt disappointed by the way things played out, again, my fault, and I apologize.

XP to come shortly.

Just so everyone's clear, I believe the next step of events goes something like this:

Spend a couple of days of Troy, do some trading, get some R&R.

Leave for Tesla. Sam finally tries out his 'experiment'.

Drop Mousaki off at Tesla, completing the transaction. Get what spare parts can be acquired to rebuild (and eventually sell) the Midnight Wind.

Travel to Haightship, rebuild the Wind, return her to Tesla for resale.

Do I have the right of it, or have plans changed? What parts would people like to play out, and what parts do you want to gloss over? And what do you want to do after all that is done?

[MatthewC]

Just so everyone's clear, I believe the next step of events goes something like this:

Spend a couple of days of Troy, do some trading, get some R&R.

Leave for Tesla. Sam finally tries out his 'experiment'.

Drop Mousaki off at Tesla, completing the transaction. Get what spare parts can be acquired to rebuild (and eventually sell) the Midnight Wind.

Travel to Haightship, rebuild the Wind, return her to Tesla for resale.

Do I have the right of it, or have plans changed? What parts would people like to play out, and what parts do you want to gloss over? And what do you want to do after all that is done?

Sorry, I've been traveling and kind of busy the last week. Only had time to make very brief posts. (Don't know what's up with Royal and FBH.)

My opinion is that we can gloss over everything up to the testing of the experiment mid-flight. I'd kind of like to see reactions to that one.

Long-term, I Know that Andy will want to look around Tesla to get more leads on his uncle, and the next direction we take off in after that should take us in the direction of David's father's commercial empire so we can find out what happened to his family (and their resources, heh-heh).

Once the glow of a successful testing of his experiment fades, Sam will no doubt quest around for a new (probably slightly less galaxy-shattering) project. I'm going to play that kind of loose for now and see what events inspire.

Edit: Oh, and a private PM for you.

[Perry Holley]

Long-term, I Know that Andy will want to look around Tesla to get more leads on his uncle, and the next direction we take off in after that should take us in the direction of David's father's commercial empire so we can find out what happened to his family (and their resources, heh-heh).So you would be holding off on refitting and selling the Midnight Wind, then?

Edit: Oh, and a private PM for you.Received and noted.

[FBHthelizardmage]

yeah, I'll be out of town tuesday and wednesday. David however wants to look for his family.

[MatthewC]

Perry,

FBH and I have kind of been back and forth on this whole wormhole drive thing a lot. Mostly chatting on AIM.

We've never really been able to come to a satisfactory way of making this whole thing work out while still being a fun and relatively fast-moving adventure game where the crew toots around the galaxy in a battered spaceship. To be honest, my initial inclination had been for Sam to realize that he couldn't safely make any money off the thing and broad beam the design around to enough populated worlds that no one could possibly get a monopoly.

This kind of set FBH screaming "Nooooooo!" though, and I suppose he's got a point about there being some fun to be had in trying to exploit the thing.

The original idea in my head when I proposed this during character creation was that it would be cool if our ship and crew were caught up in a whole new wave of exploration. I guess I sort of pictured exisiting ships tooling up and suddenly exploiting this drive to reach places that had heretofore been too remote to bother with or even get to. Kind of a newly opening frontier effect.

Course I didn't know about your planned civil war at the time, but in a way that makes things better. Instead of a strong empire carefully exploiting the newly opened territory, it could turn into a real gold rush with all thse new competing powers eager to stake their claim and stabilize position.

Er, anyway that's what was in my head when I first thought of this. I'm kind of coming back to you now, though, and asking what kind of game you want to run and where your cool adventure ideas are.

If you have some fun ideas for David's family we can go there.

Or we could take a step from DC comics and go:

ONE YEAR LATER

And have Sam sitting on a doorstep complaining about how things have gotten twisted around so everybody is producing his invention, yet somehow he's not making any money out of the deal. And David comes up and explains that good news, he's scraped together the docking fees and gotten the Moonshadow out of hock....

:)

[Perry Holley]

Hmm...

A few semi-random thoughts:

It might be prudent to make a few more test jumps with the new drive (to work out any kinks) before trying to build more. The trip to David's homeworld would probably cover this, giving Sam the data he might need for fine-tuning his invention.

If you like the idea of the new drive being developed, but not wanting to waste a lot of 'screen time' doing so, perhaps having David's family handle that 'off-screen' might be the way to go (assuming he still has family... heh heh heh).

Honestly, I'm intersting in running what the players want to deal with. I hate to admit it, but I've been kinda second-guessing myself a lot with the last adventure. Having player-driven adventures (with the occasional monkey wrench thrown in every now and then for good measure, of course) at this point seems ideal, to my mind.

Part of the problem with FBH's master plan for taking over the universe [insert evil laugh here] is the format we're using. In a face-to-face game, you could conceivably play this, over the span of several sessions. In a play-by-post game, everything moves a lot slower, so it's gonna be hard to have resolution for long-term stuff. So realistically, we should probably concentrate, story-wise, on more short-term goals.

Let me know if this makes any sense whatsoever...

[Perry Holley]

Oh, and while I'm jabbering semi-coherently...

Part of the reason for the slow pacing is that I don't want to post a response too quickly, in case one of the players has something they want to say/do in response to whatever situation is happening. Usually, I'll give roughly a 3-day lag, to make sure I don't step on anyone's toes. Because, as GM, I need to wait for all the player's responses, this sometimes causes a bit of a delay, and the game drags.

So, as silly as it may sound, if a character isn't going to do anything noteworthy in a given scenario, it would be beneficial to me if there was a post saying something to the effect of, 'characer X really isn't doing anything important here, and waitng for the other characters and/or GM's responses'.

Err, did that make any sense? I know my head is fuzzy, because of this cold/flu crud I've got at the moment.

[MatthewC]

Okay, understood. Short term goals.

Incidentally, if you feel like