 May 12, 2011 - 11:27pm | We started last fall with SF0 using Jedion's new Serena Dawn map. We finished SF0 over the Christmas break and got as far as the fight in the trees fo SF1 before stalling for the past four and a half months. The players are: Daughter 15 Yazirian and Vrusk Son 13 Human Son 10 Human Daughter 8 Rolls dice for Dad (GM) when she finds enough interest to stay at the table. PC backgrounds to come in future post. -iggy |
January 2, 2012 - 2:42pm | Got to play during the holidays and finished the battle in the trees of SF1. The players now need to head to the Kurabanda village. Here is a run down of the play from SF0 to this point. Started SF0 with the kids last fall (2010). Four characters: Ashie (Yazirian, F), security specialists, melee weapons and martial arts Chi'Tah-Teh (Vrusk, F), environmental specialists, environmental and robotics Jhon Longstoking (Human, M), security specialist, beam weapons and demolitions Doctor Herb (Human, M), field medic, medical and projectile weapons. The players are fresh out of school and this is their first job. They are part of a larger team of more experienced NPCs (four others). They spent two weeks in training on Pale, company policies, planning with the expedition team, etc. This is where they learned that the initial team of four was never heard from again. They then traveled to Fortress Pale, spent three days there while the ship was being readied. Then a day aboard the ship with training about safety and void travel. Then five days pushing out to Zebulon followed by 5 days decelerating into Volturnus. For the taking of the ship by the pirates I used Jedion's Serena Dawn maps here: Refer to: Serena Dawn 2 When the alarms sounded the characters split up, Dr Herb went to the bridge to get their weapons and discovered that the ship was in pirate control and the weapons locker destroyed. The other three had gone to the cargo hold and ended up in a fight with the pirates. There were two pirates in the cargo hold and a pirate in each of the two halls that are adjacent to the cargo hold. One of these pirates had the shock gloves and Chi'Tah-Teh succeeded in defeating him and taking the shock gloves. Jhon Longstoking took to looting all the pirate chronocoms, ID cards, and sundries. He also had the players loaded with stuff from the cargo hold. After getting their gear in the cargo hold they high tailed it to the escape bay. They fought some pirates briefly as they opened the airlock to the escape bay. The pirates escaped in one of the escape pods and the fight damaged the remaining escape pod that the characters used to escape. The other four NPCs were not seen during this and their fates are unknown. After their crash on the planet Dr Herb was hurt and they were encumbered dragging all their loot so they wandered toward the North for 5 days, then they saw the pirate jet copter and got real nervous. Two days later, near death from dehydration they were found by the Ul-Mor. While they were alone they shot at a burrower and after they Ul-mor found them they encountered a funnel worm which they evaded and the Ul-Mor then drove off. Then they found the two young lopers and the Ul-Mor took this as a sign that the players were safe to deal with. They arrived at the oasis with the Ul-Mor on their 11th day on Volturnus. With Dr. Herb still hurt from the pirate battles and crash they rested for 12 days until he was ready to travel. Physician heal thy self does not work so well. They started their journey to the caverns on day 23 and went 5 days with the Ul-mor in the cavern before the cave-in separated them from the Ul-Mor and most of their gear which was strapped to lopers. They spent 12 days alone in the caves making their way through. During this time Jhon continued to demonstrate his skill at getting everyone in trouble. They encountered (in order) the droppers, the skeleton, the dead loper, the cave bear, the stampede, and discovered the spring. The desperately need the spring and thought all was now well so Jhon got uppity and when they ran into the small rastie pack he tangled with them. The players prevailed but Jhon needed major field surgery after the rasties. Continuing through the caverns they ran into the poison gas and avoided it only to spend a little time sleeping shortly there after. Then the found the lake of fire and turned back. So they wandered about looking for another way and encountered flitters and gathered up the broom, mop, and bucket. They found the salt cave and then determined that they had to go through the lake of fire. Back at the lake of fire Chi'Tah-Teh and Jhon proved quite ingenious in inventing bridges of fungus stalks and swings of ropes to cross. I played down the lava monster so they didn't get it. The lava monster is too D&D and doesn't fit in my mind. Continuing on they then ran from the lava flow, Dr. Herb almost fell in, and got pushed to the underground sea. They were climbing the sides of the walls toward the end. To cross the lake they made a boat of fungus stalks and traveled to the isle of fungus where they meet Throm. Throm desperately tried to get them to stay but they decided he was crazy and left him to enjoy the island. They battled the jaw fish on the way to the other side and then rested. They then found the rastie trap and later the robot. Chi'Tah-Teh tried unsuccessfully to repair the robot and ended up breaking it more so they left it. Jhon wanted a pack horse out of it and was disappointed. On their 17th day in the caves and on their way out they found the insane pirate, Phalen the Black. Dr. Herb took pity on Phalen and brought him forcefully along as his personal rehabilitation project. Jhon wanted him reformed to help carry loot but didn't trust him yet. After exiting the caves they rested for five days with the Ul-Mor to recover their stamina. The Ul-Mor then took them to the place of true warriors to test them. Phalen was denied the right to test because the Ul-Mor deemed him too unstable to test and they didn't trust him. During the battle with the quickdeath Jhon went after it with an ax and got shot with quickdeath barbs. Dr. Herb then tended him while Chi'Tah-Teh used a laser pistol on it. Ashie spent every turn unsuccessfully trying to go into battle rage while attacking with a machete. Then Dr. Herb started snipping it with Phalen's laser rifle. Slowly they whittled the beast down as it destroyed the dummies and worked on them a bit. The Ul-Mor then accepted them into the tribe and took them back to the Oasis where they fessed up that they had seen a human and a dralasite before. The players keyed on this and decided to go find the Kurabanda and the two aliens living with them. To this point they have been on Volturnus for 62 days. The Ul-Mor escorted the players and their unwilling friend Phalen to the shard plains for 10 days. At the shard plains Phalen didn't want to go in but the players prevail in getting him to come. He secretly wanted to escape but the Ul-Mor supported the players in getting him into the shard plains. They found a roller path after a day and followed it for another day. Then they bashed their way North-North-East to the lava beads and turned East to go through the hills where they followed a river going East. The river lead them to the bachanda forest and they encountered the pirates fighting the Kurabanda. At the start of the encounter Phalen took off into the trees screaming to the other pirates. He sees this as a way to become unbanished by delivering the players to the pirates. The players, especially Dr. Herb felt greatly betrayed by this and Dr. Herb just gave up on the guy at that moment. At this point the campaign took an almost one year break. The character had been on Volturnus for 79 days. The fight in the trees was being played on the forest map on the back of Port Loren and we were using paper chits for the counters. I lost my card board counters over 25 years ago. Well, storing this big map between sessions and not getting the counters knocked all over the place failed miserably so the game stalled. In the back of my mind I thought up magnet counters to solve the problem and my oldest son kept asking for a return to the game. He asked for it as a Christmas present this year so we got back on track. See the magnetic chit solution here: Refer to: Box Set Counters Replacement We agreed to just start the fight in the trees over from the start. Immediately Jhon wanted to tackle Phalen and tie him up. Dr. Herb wanted to shoot the guy. They rolled for initiative and the pirates won. They declared their moves and I had Phalen take off running into the shard grass. I had forgotten that the players had entered from the hills, the players had forgotten too. My thought was that the insane Phalen in this instance was afraid of the pirates because he was banished and would be perceived as helping the players. Immediately Jhon takes after him and over the course of the encounter he tackles Phalen three times and Phalen breaks free three times. Phalen has no gear and raggedy clothes so he cuts himself up. About the time that three of the five Kurabanda are dead the other players have convinced Jhon's player to give up and let Phalen run away and cut himself up more in the shard grass. I think I'll make this a couple acre patch of shard grass in the hills. The other three characters chased one pirate from the edge of the map to the tallest center tree of the map while the other pirates were pushing South toward the remaining two Kurabanda. The characters had entered from the East remember. They exchange laser shots with the pirate but none of them are skilled with beam weapons so they are all yelling for Jhon to leave the insane Phalen to cut himself up in the shard grass and come help. The pirate they chased meets up with the last two pirates of the group and spills the beans about the characters. The Dralasite pirate takes up position waiting for the characters to get close. The chased pirate was out of ammo. When Ashie and Chi'Tah-Teh get there he blasts them both. They each got hit twice in the encounter, but the Dralasite got two high damage rolls on Ashie and she goes unconscious. At this point the 20 reinforcement kurabanda show up and the tide turns. Dr. Herb gets to Ashie and fillers her with biocort to keep her from dieing. The pirates have already lost two guys previously and the reinforcements take out two more so the pirates start retreating. Swag the pirate leader who has been trying to get in for point blank shots now get his chance but not on his terms. The kurabanda surround him and he starts shattering them as he retreats. But the kurabanda pick off his companions and the mass cuts off his retreat and though he kills three they turn him into a pin cushion. After the fight the characters are being guarded by three kurabanda and Jhon is climbing back into the trees to rejoin the group. Now we have to role play the meeting and see how the characters get on with the kurabanda. When that is done I will post again so that the posts are shorter and more frequent. -iggy |
