 June 19, 2013 - 8:37am | Its almost a cliche of fantasy gaming but I've not heard it used much in sci fi gaming. Sure the Dramune Run module opens with it but in all my SF setting activity I've encountered it almost not at all. In a fantasy genre its alway there to explain why this particular group of adventurers got together because it seems I guess that it would be unusual for a theif, and elf, a fighter, a magic user and a cleric to be hanging together. On the other hand a lot of sci fi adventures start with, "You've been hired by X to do Y." No need to explain why a diverse group is gotten together or how. Their chronocom beeped or they responded to an add and now they are doing this job. But wait a minute, I like taverns. I love bar food and a little bit of liquid refreshment even if its soda water because I'm going to get behind the wheel of a car shortly. So why is my sci fi character being defrauded of his opportunity to chow on space sliders and quaff some yazirian ale? What uses have you made of the iconic tavern in the SF setting or sci fi gaming in general? Do we need elaborate set ups for groups to be together? In what ways would you work a spacer bar into regular gaming? Could the spacer bar become the place to pick up rumors [good for sand box gaming], adventure clues, NPC aid, etc. Can it be worked in without the players saying, "I guess we're in for a bar fight, since we're in a bar."? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 19, 2013 - 8:39am | I was introducing people to the SF rules and I used a bar fight where bikers turned up and started nastiness for no other reason than "because" to one introduce everyone to the combat rules then transition to a vehicle chase on the highway. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 19, 2013 - 9:35am | Oooh I like this one: You all meet at the reading of a will. Found here: http://www.dangermouse.net/gurps/reject/tavern.html I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 June 19, 2013 - 9:44am | I always thought the meeting in the bar was both unrealistic and demonstrated a lack of immagination. It works for old west, but is unrealistic for just about every other setting. What is realistic in a old world setting? People gathering around to listen to the town crier, or a mob of villagers pulling together to chase a suspected criminal, or being shackled together in a caged prisoner transport wagon, or a borgeouise tracking down each member at their home, work and the bar. The bar is where you track down the one guy you're looking for, ala Stryder, not an entire party. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 June 19, 2013 - 10:24am | Taverns are kind of campy, I could like such a start to a space adventure. I was thinking the other day of a modern analog of meeting in a tavern: Looking around the room there are 3 other downtrodden souls. You all avoid eye contact with each other. It's bad enough you are here. The receptionist sits behind her desk, happily applying yet another coat of nail color. How long have you sat here? A standard hour? Is this the end of the line? Days of adventuring over and a long dull future of night watchman or restaurant work ahead? |
 June 19, 2013 - 10:58am | I generally use a bar/tavern/club - for any non-fantasy game - as a hangout for the PCs. It would be a place to wind-down and relax, and maybe puck-up someone for a one-night stand. Otherwise, their are a lot of entertainment to choose form, and like in real life, most people with a professional relationship meet on the job. In a fantasy setting, the tavern as a place of importance to a community, as about every adult male (and maybe some single women care little for their reputation) hangs out in one. It would be a place where friendships are made, stores spread like wildfire, and plot-hooks go around like cheap ale! Is SF, the PCs would usually meet when they are coming on board a ship, ether by being assigned the same quarters, or chatting at a common area. With how crewmen jump around from ship-to-ship, a spacer is always meeting new people and bumping into old crew-mates. Then again, space stations usually have a single bar catering to just spacers, so it would not be unusual for a group to meet each other even before they step aboard a ship. If they not serving on a ship at creation, then they might have just meet during the assignment, or they (some if not all) have already meet before. All-and-all, the whole we-just-meet-for-the-first-time trope is just a means to help introduce the characters to the players in a natural way. |
June 19, 2013 - 12:26pm | You all meet in a star port lounge... Edit: that should have been a space port security screening area, lounge sounds too much like bar These guys met in a tavern but ended up somewhere else entirely:  I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 19, 2013 - 1:14pm | They ended up in the Frontier. That's a mock of the Alpha Dawn cover. Cool. I wonder how those guys survived the system conversion process? They should be inside out at that point.  View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 19, 2013 - 2:21pm | Oooo. All the new characters find themselves in a conference room within a glittering steel and glass tower. A pointy hair corporate manager type, wearing an impeccable suit with PanGal lapel pins glittering brighter than the polished corporate logo on the back wall. PHCMT stands and opens the meeting, "Okay, you've all ready the brief. What say we go around the table and introduce ourselves and give a summary of what you bring to the project team? Let's start with {points a finger} you, shall we?" At which point each player spends 5 minutes on their characters background while PHCMT takes notes. Very corporate start. Actually, that might be fun to throw at some AD&D players (except in a keep rather than corporate tower). |
June 19, 2013 - 4:23pm | Although, if you go by the into characetrs in the basic AD booklet, the PCs would meet a PanGal suit - incognito - in a dive bar to find goons for some "off-the-record" work. Basically, stuff they can't get their hands dirty with, much like the "Mr. Johnsons" from Shadowrun. |
June 19, 2013 - 5:37pm | @Malcadon That would depend on the nature of the adventure. Maybe it starts off as an innocent survey mission - with muscle in case the natives get restless - and turns into something that should have been more...covert? Powerful corp types would not necesarily want to 'go slumming' to find talent for their important side projects. Kind of influenced by Robocop, what with Dick Jones and Clarence Bodiker(sp) and their meetings. I tend to gravitate toward Cyberpunk 2020 for my "corporate" influence. Or real life at my day job. :-) |
June 19, 2013 - 6:27pm | I did have an idea to put together a mini adventure (1 session) that would be a mega corp interview. Instruct the PCs to not talk to each other or have an NPC interrup if they are doing the "What do you think is going on?" The whole interview is not really about who gets the job (everyone did a PC for this game so its expected that the PC developed will be the PC in the adventure) but rather the stakes at the interview is for position and pay grade. I was hoping to find interview questions on the internet or get some from a budy who was a state cop (he once told a story that sort of inspired the whole interview adventure) or form a budy that is a federal agent but none of those sources gave up any interview questions that i could use. I had envisioned it as a writen questionaire for the interview -scored based on answers and what the interviewer would be looking for, a skill challenge that involved multiple dice rolls score is the number of succeeding rolls, and a kill house tactical encounter preferably done in pairs. 3 grades of starting pay highest pay for the highest score lowest pay for lowest score and middle grade for everyone else after a day of testing you could send the PCs to their hotel suites and they could meet in the hotel bar that night to talk. Might even arrange for an NPC that was at the testing to take a "call girl" up stairs except the call girl is not all that she seems and said NPC is discovered dead later on. [note to self- call girl is an operative for the opposition]. PCs can further talk when brought back for follow up interview which is a pro-forma "Hey, you get the job" they assemble in a briefing room and are brief and the adventure begins . I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 June 19, 2013 - 7:02pm | I did recently put together a game that takes place on a frontier planet, in a mining town called Jackettsville. It opened in a bar or tavern, with some frantic dude trying to dump a suitcase off on them to get 'off planet' and to Star Law. He's being followed by some other off-word dudes, and things go south from there. The group I was playing with was a mixed bag of veteran of Star Frontiers and new recruits from other games, and I found that the opening in a tavern was much more familiar to real life for them than a conference room (we're all in our 40s, work corporate jobs, and hate going to meetings in conference rooms...we unwind over dinner, usually in a pub, in real life...). Malcadon has some good points about the tavern as a center of community. Works good in a mining town..and in Bristol, Connecticut... |
 June 29, 2013 - 12:45pm | Bar-room meets are cliched. It makes me think of The Human League song - "You were working as a waitress in a starport bar, when I met you..."  I began one campaign with the three PCs waking up from doze gas to find themselves in an apartment and manacled to one attache case. It came about through the actions of a confused robot. Instructed by its criminal mastermind boss to KO and chain just the one character who'd offended her before he escaped, the 'bot gassed and chained up everyone who'd been nearby. It was tricky for the PCs to move around. It got even trickier when the reluctant courier panicked and shot out the window. The apartment was located near the top of a five mile high starscraper... |
 June 29, 2013 - 2:45pm | The bar/tavern and "you wake up with no memory" starts I find are used in alot of premade adventures where the writer had no idea where the PCs were coming from. If you are running a regular group then you can create any starting point you need to. This can also be the return point and finishing point and restart point. Point is BACKGROUND should determine the starting point. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 29, 2013 - 3:43pm | That's a good point, traveller. All the same, the adventure should always assume that the characters are meeting for the first time, unless it's a sequel. It's the GM who is responsible for changing it otherwise. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 29, 2013 - 4:03pm | The bar/tavern and "you wake up with no memory" starts I find are used in alot of premade adventures where the writer had no idea where the PCs were coming from. If you are running a regular group then you can create any starting point you need to. This can also be the return point and finishing point and restart point.
I would tend to agree and would adjust the campaign to suit the background, especially if a player clearly gave me a well tgought out background. I think I would have handled the start of tge classic run thru PBP game differently if I had started as referee for that and not been a "take up the slack" referee- without a doubt i would have trolled clues for the in the party cop character in the party to investigate even prior to arriving in Zebulon. Point is BACKGROUND should determine the starting point. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
