[Galactic] Denver Playtest: Session One

[Doyce]

Okay, so the group got together for our first 'real' session of Galactic, since our first session (also detailed here in the forum) was pretty much nothing but the prep work outlined in section two (Captains, Crew, Factions, Galaxy, setting up the first planets, etc.).

We got sat back down, and thanks to Matt sending me "The Emergency Doyce Edit Update", we had some more prep-type work to do, which actually took us some time.  I don't' want to steal Matt's thunder on these updates, but there's some stuff that we had to work on that requires I at least mention the changes, if not explain them.

Mission Goals
Matt has already said: "A very likely change will be to set two goals for each adventure."  Matt actually sent me the current version of the Adversity Dice table that goes along with this rule.  I went back to each of the planets, wrote down the new adversity dice, and then went back to each player and asked them which of their three Goals they thought was pretty dump-able (everyone had rolled high enough to get three goals in the first run).  This took awhile, with some folks.

Personality Traits
Umm... basically Captains have five personality traits to list, instead of Vice and Virtue, and instead of giving you different dice to roll, playing to said traits in a scene nets you one Fortune, per session, per trait.  It's very slick.  It took, again, some time to get everyone set up with five good traits, but I was happy with what we ended up with.  Good stuff, and added some nice depth for the captains.

Crew and their related stuff
Crew get one personality trait and a "desire," instead of secrets, and they both do stuff.  Folks had fun putting all these together, and one player in particular was amused to put the same desire on BOTH of the crew members she was playing, but having it mean two totally different things.

Crew "Appeal":
I'm not going to explain this, but here's a note from game play for Matt:  (highlight below, assuming this formatting code works)

In a campaign with a duration of ~5 sessions... even 9, with the number of tokens per player that you're talking about, it's seems mathematically improbable that any single crew member is going to get their dice size up to even a d8, let alone a d10 or higher -- there just aren't enough chips moving around for that.  Also, I need to look at PTA and see if I can explain to folks when to use chips, based on those rules -- none of us have every played it, so it was a little difficult to see when to award tokens.  In play, this session, no one awarded any.


Ship Dice
This is a simple, quick addition to the rules that the players really liked.  The feedback was that it provided a really nice bit of additional color and depth to the 'setting' that the crew and captain are interacting in.  Very cool.  Some folks set their ships up in about three minutes -- others took a bit longer.

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You can see the resulted changes to the Captains, Crew, and starting planets here: http://random.average-bear.com/GalacticPlaytest/DenverPlaytest

All in all, between a snafu where several folks had to run back home for their character sheets, I was fighting some kind of stomach affliction, and just doing these updates, about two hours had passed from our starting point before we could actually get playing. 

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The scenes themselves took a bit longer to play through, also, than Matt's estimate. I attribute this to
# I was doing a few foreshadowing scenes.
# We spent extra time just letting the PCs play off against one another, to help establish character.
# When the diced conflicts came, we took our time with them, discussing attributes, gear and whatnot that could be rolled into the conflicts, rather than just going through at full speed.

As a result, we ended up with just a few scenes with each captain.

'''Scene Zero: New Eden'''
We're shown a city square near the center of Nod Skyport, one of the larger urban complexes on New Eden.  It's about the middle of the day, and folks are going about their business, some stepping around the decrepit homeless begging from the edges of the square ("victim of the Plague, please help"), some being entertained by an older fellow near the central squares memorial obelisk, who's performing monologues from famous plays, using only a few simple props.  The crowd is amused, except for the armed and be-turbaned pack of eight quasi-military folks who come marching up to the guy and tell him to desist and submit to arrest for 'terrorist activities.'  He nods affably, making a few jokes to the assembled onlookers (who are also dispersing, as though embarrassed or scared to be seen enjoying the performance), picks up his little satchel, tosses his props inside, and pulls out an incendiary grenade which he lobs at the soldiers before being gunned down.

'''Scene One: New Eden'''
In the Nod Starport, the ''Walkabout'' is landing.  There's some complaining from the pilot (Viktor) about how long it took to get to Eden, due to the failing Quantum Array on the U-drive (something that actually keeps the ship IN u-space for the full jump -- the Quantum Array is failing, which means many many more short jumps to get the same distance -- not critical, but a hassle, and potentially very bad if the Array completely fails).  Viktor manages to make the failing mechanical part sound like a problem of Bad Leadership.  Boyd reminds Viktor with a saccharine-sweet smile that the U-drive problems are, in fact, why they're ON New Eden.

The crew debarks, with Tovarra and Viktor both coming along with Boyd to meet with an old friend of Boyd's from the alma mater -- Hiram Blake, a local rep for the ColonialMerchantsGuild -- to arrange procuring a Quantum Array at a good price.  The customs agent (from the ConcordanceNavy) advises the crew on the vagaries of local dress (cover your head, Caliban traditionalist-style), customs, and health issues ('breath masks might be advisable if your stay is going to be long").

'''Scene Two: Chatura'''
The comm officer on the ''Barbarosa'', (Captain: AnseSchmalkalden) reports that he's picking up a distress signal from the wrist comm of the ship's 'morally unburdened' quartermaster, Tam.  The ship has some very good sensors, and with a few tweaks to the readouts, Anse determines that Tam is still in the city where the ship is currently docked, but is moving at good clip, accelerating, and rising in altitude.  This is interesting, as Tam was just supposed to be picking up standard supplies.

Anse heads for one of the short-range shuttles with Sheila and a red shirt in tow.

'''Scene Three: Selawik''
The ''CSV Tenebrae'' is being maneuvered into docking pattern by the Naval traffic control for "Platform 13", the most recently completed space dock/equatorial sky hook/mining platform for the planet Selawik -- twenty-six of the platforms are proposed for the frozen planet, but there've been problems with that.  Captain Tillotson is monitoring the docking from the bridge, alternately critiquing and micro-managing Juan, the ship's pilot (and crew member).  The chatter over the traffic-control channel is fierce, but as they close with the platform, one specific voice overrides the others: demanding that Shuttle 217 come about and return to standard docking routes.  The Captain checks the Short Range Sensor Display to make sure the problem ship isn't about to plow into them, and picks up the ship in question, about one-third of the way around to the other side of the station, hurtling toward the platform, but not out of control -- the ship is actively avoiding and weaving past intervening craft.

The traffic control fails to shut down his main mic pickup when he calls for intercept fighters to scramble, so the ship picks it up (also, the Captain's decommissioned military-class ship ''might'' still be able to monitor military frequencies...) -- there is a pause, then the controller says, "what do you mean, their still refueling from patrol?"

Tillotson considers the situation: Local naval cruisers are too far away to deploy intercept craft in time, the platform itself is apparently ''shamefully'' undermanned, and really, someone has to do something.

"Number Juan," she says, relishing one of the few public jokes she allows herself, "let's go see if we can help the platform out... and transfer weapons control to me."

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So up to this point it's just been general RP and setting scenes.  Per normal, I have trouble figuring out how to get a good scene going with Boyd's player -- one of my recurring issues as a GM. :(  Otherwise, pretty straightforward stuff.

From here, it's on to some conflicts!

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'''Scene Four: New Eden'''
Boyd and crew enter a sort of 'gentlemen's club' often frequented by members of the CMG and are directed to a table where Hiram, the head of the Concordance Navy division in this sector, and the local leader of the Knights of Isabel (a quasi-religious group with a lot of sway in the Navy) are in discussion.  Hiram (now the head of the CMG in this area, not just running a "used luxury ship" dealership) makes introductions and the three who were already there confirm in very vague terms that they are 'in agreement' over what they were talking about, at which point the head of the Knights makes her excuses and leaves.

Boyd reminds Hiram why he's here, but Hiram regretfully informs him that with 'the current political climate', any 'key' ship parts can only be sold to naval personnel, or those working on Naval projects... but perhaps the Commander here can help us out on that front?

The commander is reluctant; he does need someone to try to determine the source of the current 'plague' (think a more lethal West Nile virus), explaining that some portions of the planet are already suffering a laundry list of health problems due to issues arising from brutal agricultural practices common on Caliban, but unnecessary on New Eden.  He's unsure that Boyd and crew are up to the task, and double concerned that Boyd has no history of working with the Navy in any capacity.

Still, he does need someone to check things out...

The Conflict:  If Boyd wins, the navy dispatches him to check out the plague sources on his own.  If Boyd looses, the Commander sends along a babysitter.

Per Matt's suggestion, I didn't use any specific NPCs; just using 3d6, plus the planet adversity dice (2d8 in this case, the worst adversity of the three planets), plus any other dice I wanted to 'buy' for the conflict, using Hazard.   Margie (Boyd's player) was only going to be rolling her Professor Archetype, plus the crew wasn't helping on either side, and no gear or ship dice were being used, so that left me with 3d6+2d8 vs her 3d6 -- I didn't see any need to buy more dice for the conflict.

As it was, I got a total victory; all three of Boyd's dice were eliminated, I lost no dice.  This netted Margie 3 fortune points (plus some more for using a few of her personality traits, and for working toward a Goal), but the Impairment roll took two of her Professor dice out of play.  With Matt's new rules for Hazard, I got five Hazard added to my pool (one for each die I had left after the conflict), plus I got narration rights for Boyd's next scene.

Result: the contest felt kind of lopsided -- Margie didn't have any good way to pull out more dice, and the high adversity on the planet gave me some meaty dice to roll.

'''Scene Five: Chatura'''
This one was nice and easy:  Anse wants his crew member back.  He's chasing an air car that heading away from the island the city is on, and is flying an armed shuttle. 

Conflict: If Anse wins, he gets Tam back unharmed.  If he loses, the Mob goons make off with his quartermaster.

He's rolling his Astronaut 4d6, plus a die for his ship's 'overgunned' attribute, plus a die from Tam's player (who's sitting in the back seat of the car Anse is chasing and basically helping with the intimidation of the Captain firing across the front of the bow), and I think the player called up a Gear dice, just to show that the shuttle was 'way more ship' than the air car.

I was rolling 1d4, 1d8, and 3d6.  I didn't pay hazard for any more dice.

Result: total victory for Anse (we need to figure out how he's going to get even more than he wanted from this Conflict), feeling a bit lopsided the OTHER way. :)  I got every single dice eliminated from the table due to some good rolls on Randy's part, and realized I should have spent a few hazard to even up my chances.  It also helped out Randy to be able to use his ship a bit, and for Dave to help him out with a die.

Just before I cut scene, the local Concordance Navy law enforcement radios that they have a report of shots fired -- please stand to and prepare to be boarded.

'''Scene Six: Selawik'''
Again, this was a pretty simple scene.  Captain Tillotson wants to protect the platform (somewhat for the good of humanity, somewhat just as embarrassed 'cover' for the Navy screwing up here).

Conflict: Platform is protected from the attacker vs. umm... it isn't. :)

Captain Tillotson, manning the weapons, is rolling her 4d6 Warrior archetype. She's also using a few ship attributes for extra dice, PLUS both crew members (pilot and head engineer) are adding their dice on his side of the conflict, so he's got... 8d6 hitting the table.

I'm rolling 3d6, plus the 1d6 and 1d8 for planet adversity.  This time, I drop 3 hazard to get another 1d8 to roll (using 3 of my meager 6 hazard that rolled for this world), in the hopes of saving a bit of face in this conflict.

Result: Things worked out pretty well for both sides, actually:  First, there were a LOT of ties.  I eliminated one of the player's dice (which did NOT end up getting impaired), giving him 1 fortune for that.  He knocked out two of my dice...

... so at the end of the first 'turn' of conflict, he had 7d6 still on the table, and I had four dice left.  I conceded the conflict, since it was fairly clear I was GOING to lose.  This gave Tillotson a good solid 'win', and earned me 4 hazard for the 4 dice I still had left on the table, which meant a net gain of Hazard for me on the conflict.  Sweet.

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We paused here, tallying things up.  Between all the players, all the conflicts, and points earned by everyone for both their Captain's scenes and their crew member participation in other scenes:

* I had a net gain of about 6 hazard (5 from Boyd, 1 from Tillotson).
* Boyd was up to 10 fortune or so, but had two impaired dice in Professor.  The bad luck on the impairment and the lopsided conflict did seem to frustrate the player a bit.
* Anse has about 6 fortune, with no impairments.
* Tillotson had 7 fortune, with no impairments.

The conflict resolution is very interesting.  It reminds me a bit of HeroQuest (in 'trying to pull in all your relevant attributes'), and a quite reminiscent of Sorcerer (in the 'what's your high die?' then 'what's the next one?' -- for all that the resolution mechanic really isn't otherwise similar).

In general, Fortune tended to "earn" a lot more quickly and often than I'd expected, and keeping track of how much and 'to whom' slowed me down a bit -- I'm going to have to adopt (and I suggest using) an 'award yourself' method, in TSoY-like fashion, because the GM has enough going on.

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At that point, we opted to call it for the night and pick things up on Sunday, same time, to finish up the planets.  Unfortunately, this didn't work out, due to the loss of a pet in the Boyd/Tillotson household, but everyone seemed eager to keep going, and I'm looking forward to our next session, where things should be much more intuitive.

[Matt Wilson]

Hey Doyce:

Thanks for posting this. I posted some inline comments at the Wiki, but for this forum, I'll just repeat one bit.

Why, in Boyd's conflict, did it feel one-sided? The player could have used a connection for a re-roll, and could have 'spent' redshirts to keep from losing dice. Then the player could have paid one fortune to bring in a new archetype and totally go to town.

Just didn't want to?

You can dump a ton of adversity at a player, but unless their resources are totally drained, they should be able to avoid a total defeat.

[Doyce]

Hey Doyce:

Thanks for posting this. I posted some inline comments at the Wiki, but for this forum, I'll just repeat one bit.

Why, in Boyd's conflict, did it feel one-sided? The player could have used a connection for a re-roll, and could have 'spent' redshirts to keep from losing dice. Then the player could have paid one fortune to bring in a new archetype and totally go to town.

Just didn't want to?

You can dump a ton of adversity at a player, but unless their resources are totally drained, they should be able to avoid a total defeat.

All excellent points -- mostly because it didn't occur to us, as we'll still groking the system.  The reroll would have been a good idea, since there was a member of his alma mater RIGHT there... red shirt sacrifices would have been hard to manage, since Boyd didn't bring one along, though.  Still, a good point.

[Matt Wilson]

red shirt sacrifices would have been hard to manage, since Boyd didn't bring one along, though.

There's always redshirts around waiting to take punishment. Either they were never on camera, or Boyd forgot they were there. All resources are always available, no matter what.

As for forgetting the rules, I do it too, and I wrote the thing, so it's not like I'm chastising or anything. Just wondering was all.

[Doyce]

Yeah, it was pretty much just 'not thinking of it.'

I think it would have been a pretty cool thing to remember, though, even if all it did was save Margie from Total victory on my part and one less impairment die: they way I set the stakes (both in that conflict and generally) conceding just meant things were a bit more... interesting.  Margie likes the idea of having a Navy spy along. :)

((Thing is... what neither she or the navy commander knows is: the babysitter isn't just a Navy spy :) ))

[Matt Wilson]

By the way, the adventure you guys are making is really cool so far.

[Doyce]

I sure as heck hope so.  I thought I'd post all my specific GMC's for the game up here, with the planet issues and stuff, but... well, no more of those guys. :)  We'll see how it all comes out. :)

[Pyromancer]

We got sat back down, and thanks to Matt sending me "The Emergency Doyce Edit Update", we had some more prep-type work to do, which actually took us some time.  I don't' want to steal Matt's thunder on these updates, but there's some stuff that we had to work on that requires I at least mention the changes, if not explain them.

I wish I had this "Emergency Update" too.
We did a first playtest session yesterday (only character and galaxy creation), and it seems that the few "problems" we came up with are gone in the new version. Players especially wanted a place to put their ships' names in on the character sheet. Is there a chance that this new version will be availabe soon? We are going to play again in two weeks or so, and I'd like to start the action with the updated version.

[Doyce]

Players especially wanted a place to put their ships' names in on the character sheet. Is there a chance that this new version will be availabe soon? We are going to play again in two weeks or so, and I'd like to start the action with the updated version.

Well, if it's any consolation, even the new sheet didn't have a space to note the Ship Dice/Attributes stuff, because the rule was so new -- I had take over some white space and stick it in there with an ugly little text block. ANYthing Mat gives you will be better'n that :)