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ITV Session 55: Some Trickery

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Recap of previous session:

After arriving at Listo, visiting Jinx’s grandmother’s house and then spending the day in the Central Market, SAFCO spent some time relaxing in a bar, where they saw and spoke with some disillusioned rebels they fought with on Uetonah. The Rebels have quit, and are on their way to Prometheus, to work in a family business. Upon leaving the tavern to go hear some music, some ruffians pull Jinx on to a single-car Mag-Lev transport what is leaving. As it is leaving Roger leaps for it, managing to hang on to the outside as it gains speed, moving over open air on its track, heading for the inner surface of the asteroid. Barney follows on a quickly purchased grav bike, and with Roger he saves Jinx. The team reassembles at the next Mag-Lev stop, in the now slumbering industrial sector. They drag the 3 unconscious thugs, the unconscious Barney and the grav bike off the Mag-Lev before it leaves. Flint is formulating a plan…

With the team all still at the Mag-Lev stop Roger uses his Medic skill to attend to Barney, who regains consciousness in 10 minutes. The 3 tied-up enemies also wake up and begin grumbling. Barney’s first words are “Is the kid OK?”, to which Jinx replies that he is fine, and thanks Barney and Roger for their amazing heroics.

Flint wants to find out what these guys were up to. Why were they trying to abduct Jinx. He picks one of the thugs and holds them out over the Mag-Lev line – not a great place to be. The guy says “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Just don’t throw me in front of the train.”

Flint pulls him back. Before the guy can talk a bright red laser beam burns a hole in his cranium from the upper right side of his head and exiting down through the left jaw. His brains superheat and vaporize, and his body drops to the floor of the station.

Making an INT roll, Lucky saw that the beam likely came from a 2-story manufacturing building across the street and a short distance away. He tells the team.

Roger, Fardt, Lucky, Barney, Caliban, and Jinx all run for cover (while using the Evade combat action).

Flint jumps on Barney’s grav bike. Barney yells “You break it, you pay for it!”. Flint takes off.

While all of this is happening there is another laser shot at one of the 2 remaining thugs, but incredibly it misses.

Flint takes the bike above the manufacturing building and sees a man with a laser carbine on the roof. Lucky, seeing that Flint is providing distraction, runs over to the building and flattens himself against the wall.

Flint blasts the assassin with submachine gun fire, hitting twice and knocking him out. The assassin simultaneously shoots the laser, but doesn’t have good shot at Flint, aiming instead at the grav bike! He hits. Using Omer Golan Joel’s “Quick and Dirty Vehicle Combat for Classic Traveller” we determine that there is minor damage to the bike’s antenna, but it is not badly damaged.

Flint lands and secures the roof. He takes the laser carbine and finds an employee badge in the assassin’s pocket. The badge has someone else’s picture on it.

Caliban moves over to the building next to Lucky. Flint flies the bike down and joins them. Roger joins them as well. Jinx, Fardt, and Barney carefully move over too. The group drags the 2 remaining thugs and their dead friend over as well. They enter the building using the key card, and find the rightful owner of the key card with a laser wound to the noggin. Dead.

Flint and Caliban play good cop/bad cop with the 2 live thugs. The goons, having seen their friend killed to shut him up, are in no mood to stick around and begin talking. They were simply hired to abduct the kid and deliver him to a hydraulics utility substation nearby. Their employer is anonymous.

The thugs tell them where the entry to the substation is. Jinx and Fardt will remain in the current building with the wounded Barney while the others investigate, knowing that they need to find out who is after Jinx and why. They don’t want to leave Listo with Jinx in trouble.

Caliban is the shortest of the group. They put a bag over his head, prisoner/hostage-style, and find the entry. It’s in a small building a couple of blocks way — a hatch in the floor leading to a ladder. They go down the ladder and find themselves in a concrete hallway with stairs. It is dimly lit with safety lights. They go down the stairs and find themselves in a large chamber carved out to the rock of the asteroid. While they are actually moving toward the surface of the asteroid, artificial gravity is still providing the same direction of pull.

hydro station mapThe roof of the chamber is 40′ high. There’s a lot of big pump machinery in there and massive hyrdo pipes from floor to ceiling. It is dimly lit, and the group hears the constant drone of the pumps and pipes and machinery. Across the chamber, 30′ up, is an observation window. A bald-headed man can be seen in the window. He leans forward to a microphone and says “It took you a long time. Bring the boy over here in front of the door. Your payment is over here too.”

The group moves over there, where they find a door, a box with the thugs’ payment, and two 1′ diameter metal spheres floating 5′ off the floor. The spheres each have on red eye, and they are watching the PCs.

Flint moves over the the box with the loot. Roger takes the disguised Caliban over to the door with Lucky. Suddently Caliban begins running toward one of the drones, as if he is Jinx trying to escape his captors. He rips off the sack over his head, makes a good roll, and captures the floating drown inside the sack!

Roger pulls his auto pistol and fires at the other drone. He hits easily, and shoots it in the red laser eye, and the drone drops to the floor, dead.

Flint turns, pulls out the laser carbine they took from the assassin, and fires at the guy up in the window. Taking into account the effects of the glass, he hits, burning a hole in the guy’s shoulder and dropping him!

We end the session with Lucky still having an action to take and with Caliban holding a sack with an anti-grav drone floating inside it!

End of sesssion
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Elapsed time: 476 game days (1 year 101 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 54

Session 54 was a classic example of the primary and most important principle in RPGs: Player will always do the unexpected.

The happenings in Scuuries Tavern were nice. A good chance for some roleplaying and information gathering. Lucky’s player, Jeff, did the unexpected by taking up a spot to watch the group from a distance. That had important effects on the rest of the game. Then of course when Roger (played by Randy) clung to the outside of a speeding Mag-Lev train I also was not expecting that. As Ref I had to decide on the fly how to go about this. Was it possible? And could he succeed. I set a level for a DEX roll and had him jump, and he managed to cling on to the train as it was leaving. I had really expected several of the PCs to commandeer grav bikes parked in front of the tavern, but they didn’t. Barney quickly bought one and took off after the train alone. Then he and Roger fought 3 thugs in the train. We’ve been playing long enough that the know getting shot in Traveller is likely to render you unconscious. They were quite daring.

Flint (David’s character) is proving to be quite important in the game. He has leadership and tactics. Davis is naturally a very tactical gamer, so he’s playing the character really well.

The session was fast-moving and crazy.

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ITV Session 54: A Train Ride

mag lev train concept by Dan Parsons

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SAFCO begins where they left off, in Scuurie’s Tavern. Flint and Barney sit down at the table with a woman who introduces herself as Syla. She and the three men she is with recognize Barney and Flint as part of the group who saved their rebel SLA unit on Uetonah, where Barney repaired and powered the laser turret on the wrecked freighter they were using as a base.

Back at the table, Lucky, Caliban, Roger, and Fardt continue to enjoy some beverages. Flint waves them over, and Caliban and Roger move over to the rebels’ table. Cautious, Lucky gets up and moves over nearer the bar to keep an eye on things. He sees Fardt and Jinx talking. Jinx gets up and moves over to a gambling table.

Barney and Flint introduce their friends to the rebels and find out they are heading to Prometheus to work on Syla’s family’s business, as they have grown disillustioned with the efforts to gain rights for the Pachyderms.

Fardt moves over to Lucky. He says that Jinx wanted to gamble. They agree that it is probably OK. This is Jinx’s home tavern. (Fardt succeeds in a streetwise roll). Fardt asks Lucky if he has noticed the guy in the black overcoat who is watching Jinx. Lucky had not. Lucky gives Fardt some instructions, then moves being the overcoated man to keep an eye on him. Fardt speaks to Jinx, and then let’s Lucky know that Jinx things the man is simply a tavern employee trying to make sure he’s not cheating. Lucky has observed the man speaking into a small communicator.

All the group but Lucky reconvene at their table, including Jinx. Lucky notes that the trenchcoat man is still stealthily watching Jinx.

Jinx suggests that the group go to a different club to hear some music. He gets up and leaves the bar, with the group trailing behind. Lucky still stays back. He sees the man in the trenchcoat use his radio as the group leaves.

Seeing that the MagLev train is about to leave the station in front of the tavern, the very excited Jinx dashes forward to hold the door open for the group. Roger is close behind him. Flint makes a surprise roll and sees what is happening, but has no knife and it is too crowded to throw one or shoot anyway.

As Jinx gets to the door of the train 3 large men surround him, push him onboard, and the doors slam shut as the train leaves. Roger leaps (makes a Dex roll) and manages to hang on with one hand on trim around the door, and a foot wedged into a gap in the metal plating!

Barney quickly has Caliban buy a grav bike from a biker just outside the tavern, gets on it, and takes off after the train. Flint considers using his sword to try to short circuit the rail or otherwise de-power the system, but Lucky realizes he’s about to electrocute himself and stops him (the Ref makes a roll to see it it is possible and safe — it is not). They look that the map and schedule. No other train for 5 minutes.

The train leaves the central skyway and begins to cross over to the inside wall of the asteroid with Roger dangling on the side. He looks in the window and sees Jinx surrounded by 3 kidnappers. He slams an “Open Door” button with his free hand but it doesn’t work.

A new train pulls up and the rest of SAFCO boards it.

Barney catches the train on the grav bike. He pulls up by the window of the cockpit and signals to the driver, who makes an INT roll, uses some cameras, and sees Roger. The stops the train (which is one big car with six doors) and opens the doors. Roger swings in, with Jinx and the kidnappers about 10 feet from him. Barney is happy to see the door is large enough and flies the grav bikes in, landing inside.

Barney evaluates the situation, pulls his auto pistol, and shoots the closest of the kidnappers. The shot knocks the kidnapper out. Roger attacks one of the others bar handed and lands a blow, taking a cudgel blow himself. The other shoots Barney, knocking him out! With the kidnappers distracted, Jinx pulls his dagger out of his boot and stabs the one who shot Barney. More combat. Roger shoots the one who just hit him, knocking him out. The other shoots at Roger but misses, as Jinx stabs him again, rendering him unconscious!

The other train car arrives, and both cars move to the next stop, in an industrial area on the inside surface of Listo. Roger makes a Med-1 roll and makes sure Barney is OK. The group drags the scumbags out of the train, ties them up, and searches them. They find a radio on one of them. Caliban finds a small clear cylinder with a bunch of 4″ long leach-like creatures in it. The Scouts recognize them as Grav Leaches – annoying but potentially problematic creatures that fly using biological anti-gravity and suck blood.

Flint formulates a plan…

End of sesssion
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Elapsed time: 476 game days (1 year 101 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 53

So, we had a good session. After everyone signing on and a little chat we played got in about 1 hour 40 minutes of roleplaying. It thought it went well. The players all had a chance to spend a little bit of their wealth on some cool stuff, an interesting new world was introduced, and potential complications to their mission came up. I expect the next session will have some action. Should be fun. But I never just assume out players will do any one specific thing.

The night after our game I was on the way to my aikido practice and I was listening to a gaming podcast. As usual my mind kind of wandered, and suddenly I have a “revelation” about the direction our campaign was going, and how some elements that were introduced over these first 53 sessions tie together. That’s right. I introduced stuff with no idea how it would fit together. Because this is a long form campaign though it all fell into place in my cranium that night. I feel really good about the campaign going forward. No need to railroad the players, force things, or so forth. I just have a clear idea of how some big trends fit together, and how that might affect the PCs, and it’s going to be really fun exploring this.

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ITV Session 53: In Listo

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SAFCO has arrived at Listo. The starliner moves inside the giant hollowed-out asteroid through a huge entrance. They have 2 full days there before the liner continues on for their destination, Prometheus. Jinx is excited to be home, and anxious to go see his grandmother, to give her some of the money he’s made.

As the group exits the ship the are immediately impressed by the disorienting nature of the environment. Walking on the street on the interior surface of the asteroid, if they look up they can see the tops of buildings on the other side. There are grav vehicles going every which way. Flint and Roger realize (make an INT roll) that piloting any sort of ship or grav vehicles in this place, for a non-native, would be challenging and reduce their effectiveness as pilot.

The group follows Jinx to his grandma’s house/store, which is located in the ultra-chaotic Central Market. Listo, being fairly low law-level, has become a destination for merchants of all sorts. The market is on a massive skyway that crosses the interior of the asteroid and has it’s own artificial gravity. They enter, and find a shop of various curiosities and oddities. Jinx introduces them. Caliban buys a fine made from the silk of Pelucidarian spiders. Lucky, Roger, and Flint each by nice leather belts with fancy silver buckles. Grandma demonstrates that the buckles open up, concealing a cutting blade.

Being flush with cash now, the group roams the market. Lucky manages to buy doses of Fast, Slow, Combat, and Medical Slow drugs. They also find a weapons dealer and each purchase a targeting attachment and ocular overlay that can be fitted to any gun. Effectively giving a +1 to hit. NOT a laser sight.  Barney visits a books store, and buys the owner’s robot companion, a 2″ long metal robot bird that flies via anti-grav and responds to whistle commands. He makes an engineering roll realizes it is more than the toy the store owner thinks it is — it is at least a TL12 device. He will have to explore it’s abilities. The bird hovers in front of his face, “bonds” with him, and he leaves with it on his shoulder.

Jinx suggests that they go to a tavern called Spuurie’s. It’s a larger tavern, right in front of a Mag-Lev train station. There are a lot of grav bikes parked in front. Inside they enjoy some drinks. A woman walks by their table. Flint and Barney make their INT rolls and each recognize her. She continues through the crowd, out of site. They both realize she was on of the rebels they fought with on their first trip to Uetonah. They find her sitting at a table with 3 men – also rebels. What are they doing here? As they approach, she make her INT roll and recognizes them as the people who got their laser turret working and helped them defeat the Samson security forces. She waves them over to have a seat.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 476game days (1 year 101 days)

 

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 52

Session 52 was almost all roleplaying, with a few dice rolls here and there. The PCs had some decisions to make. I was ready to deal with whatever they decided.  That is one advantage of running a long campaign. I know the motivations of the NPCs, I know the undercurrents of what is happening, I have NPCs and encounters in reserve, and have a good idea how long any particular encounter will take.

I think I’ve talked about this a bit with Jeff on SAFCOcast, but I’ll say it again here. As a gamemaster, you have to get used to the idea of a quiet table. You have to get over the idea that YOU personally have entertain the players 100% of the time. If they are taking a long time to make a decision, sometimes you need to just let it play out. Of course, decision paralysis does happen, and sometimes you have to do something to break that. That is a challenge in a more open-ended sandbox style campaign. I think I’ve heard it said that with regard to prepping for such a game you need to “be prepared to improvise.” I think there’s a lot truth to that.

I think the hollowed-out crazy asteroid world I’ve come up with will be a fun setting for a session or two.

 

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ITV Session 52: High Passage

asteroid base

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SAFCO and associates are still at the post-race party. All eyes are on Flint, who has just knocked out local sleezebag Cruncher Block with one punch. Caliban hears people talking about it and casually sidles up to eavesdrop. He talks to them, finding out that Block is potentially a dangerous person. Flint drags the unconscious dirtbag over to the door where security takes him, followed by his goons.

The party ends. The baroness joins SAFCO aboard the Fortunate Son to talk privately about their recent activities. Barney tells her about the Pachyderms of Uetonah and their mission to get proof of their sentience the Office of Sophont Relations, on Prometheus. She inquires about simply sending the information package, but Caliban explains that apparently someone is blocking the information, so they are going in-person. The baroness is delighted with their stories. Barney in particular regales her with tales of engineering wizardry. Before leaving, the baroness tells them to not leave before they have seen her again.

Following her departure the team has a long discussion. It is decided they will take the Jumpliner (Jump=4) directly to Listo and then Prometheus, cutting at least two weeks off their travel time. In order to not screw over Silvonius, they will find him some excellent cargo, with Caliban negotiating a price for it virtually insuring a huge profit when he sells it. They also hire a good temporary crew for him. They will travel to Prometheus. By the time he gets to Listo, they will have finished their business on Prometheus and will meet him on Listo. Silvonius is happy with the arrangement when they tell him the next morning.

The next day they get Sil a cargo of mechanical and computer parts. Before they leave the Fortunate Son, the baroness returns. She hands a message capsule to Roger, telling the group it contains her digital seal and a message that may help them in their mission and possibly in future endeavors. They are to use it if needed on Prometheus, but are to retain it! Don’t leave it behind. They thank her.

The group goes to buy high-passage on the Jump Liner. Barney is wearing his First Place medallion from the race, and let’s it be seen. The ticket agent talks to the manager, who talks to the captain of the liner, and then informs SAFCO that the captain wishes to comp their high-passage all the way to Prometheus, as they are now celebrities aboard the ship of rich race fans and gamblers.

The group boards the liner.  The mercenaries and battle dress are also on board, but the mercs are in mid-passage. Each PC enters the raffle to guess the Breakout Time – the number of hours they’ll be in Jump Space before break out in the Listo system. They spend a week in Jump Space, eating at the captains table, being adored by race fans, and enjoying the good life. Caliban seeks to make some good connections while on board. With his Social Standin of 9, the Ref has him roll against it. He succeeds, and makes at least one good connection that might benefit him in the future. Barney gets a tour of the Engineering section, and plays a little joke on Caliban. One evening he bribes a steward to bring Caliban a plate of much-hated Garblag Haggis from the ship’s emergency rations supply. Even a Steward-4 cook can’t make it taste good (needs an 11, rolls a 3). Caliban puts on a brave face, but is unable to stomach it. Barney gets him a plate of proper food.

After a week the ship breaks out of Jump Space, but none of SAFCO guessed the right time.

The screens in the High Passage lounge show a short video about Listo. The world is actually a massive hollowed-out asteroid. No one know who hollowed it out. It was discovered by the initial Scout surveys of the system. Listo Commercial Consortium keeps everything working and life support up.  The video shows the topsy-turvey interior of the asteroid. Habitation covers the interior walls. While there is artificial gravity there is no obvious up or down. Transportation tubes run along the sides and criss-cross the interior, which is also fully built-out with what appears to be no plan at all.  Law Level is a low 3. Listo has a reputation of being a wild place. Jinx is home, and excited to show the team around in the two days they’ll have here.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 476game days (1 year 101 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Session 51

Our previous session, while it did involve some quality roleplaying, had a lot of dice-rolling. The ship race was fun, but mechanical. It was a great chance for the PCs with great ship-related skills to practice ship combat, and a great chance for me as the ref to get some practice running ship combat, without actually destroying or damaging their ship. But those 3 of the 5 PCs didn’t really do much roleplaying that game.

This session was a balance to that. Almost all roleplaying. A chance to get their winnings, discuss as a team where they are, what their goals are, and think about tactics for achieving those goals. So they had a good 30 minutes of just discussing, in character, the challenges facing them.

With just a little help from the Ref – in the form of what I would call a “passive” Leader-1 skill roll, they came up with a great way of solving the mercenary problem. Honestly, Flint’s player David was about to come to the same conclusion without the roll. Caliban’s player, Todd, was out, so I ran Caliban as an NPC thinking I’d need to give them a bit of help, but I didn’t. Caliban’s recruiting skill was pivotal. A success really helped him and Flint hire away the mercs. Frankly I’d have made it succeed anyway, because David played Flint so smoothly during those interactions.

It was fun to have the 3 race crew members become minor celebrities after winning the race. The post-race party was a great way to introduce some new NPCs and complications, and the players used it to solidify some alliances as well. The party, however, isn’t over. More to come…

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ITV Session 51: Party Time!

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Barney, Lucky, and Roger have just won the Overon Grand Prix asteroid belt race. On Overon, the casino at the Mooch Mine reacts to the win. Caliban wins a lot of money on the race. Flint wins even more. Silvonius, Fardt, and Jinx all come out well, as does SAFCO friend Mergatroyd.

The race crews are shuttled back in from the asteroid belt. SAFCO meets up back onboard the Fortunate Son for a brief meeting. They’ve won a lot of money. They are on a mission to take important data on the Pachyderms of Uetonah to the Imperial Office of Sophont Relations 6 parsecs away on Prometheus. They are also concerned about the mercenaries, now here on Overon and delayed, but who will eventually end up on Uetonah to wipe out the rebels there. They have the option of boarding the Jump-4 starliner in orbit and taking it to Prometheus via Listo, thus cutting several weeks of the time required to get there. Or they can stay as the crew on the Favorite Son and take the long way. They feel some obligation to Silvonius.

Flint also mentions that he is splitting his race winnings – about 1.2 million credits – 6 ways. One for each member of SAFCO.

They discuss the option of hiring a new crew for Silvonius, as there must be people now on Overon who’d like a new gig. They also discuss various options for dealing with the mercenaries. The paperwork delays caused by Barney and Caliban will only hold the mercenaries on Overon for so long. They discuss simply hiring the mercs away. Caliban overheard the merc leader discussing his concerns that his group will fall apart if he can’t continue paying them, which appears to be a problem. He must also pay the ship that is transporting them. He seems to be in a bind.

The next day, Barney goes researches nearly worlds that might need some hired muscle. He finds none. He also looks into the difficulty of returning to Mylor from Prometheus if they don’t have their own ship, but realizes it will be easy, but time consuming.

Caliban and Flint meet with Admin Tilton of the RCMP. Tilton is in a great mood, having won by betting on the team in the race, and many of the RCMP employees did well. Flint and Caliban ask him about hiring the mercs away from their Uetonah gig. Tilton feels he owes SAFCO a favor, and tells them to sent the merc leader to talk.

They find the merc leader at the troop transport ship, at the spaceport. They approach him. Flint does a nice soft-sell. Caliban makes his recruiting roll. The leader realizes that by signing on with RCMP on contract, his problems are solved. He meets with Tilton and they come to an agreement. They’ll travel about the starliner, along with the battle dress armor and fusion guns that RCMP has bought from SAFCO, and go to Listo to fight the pirates who’ve been making things tough on the company.

That night at the casino SAFCO and associates attend the party. Upon entering, the 3 race crew members are cheered, and then interviewed by the media. Flint makes contact with the Baroness, who is having a table set up for them. Flint encounters the monk he and Caliban have met before. As they mingle, a businessman strikes up a conversation with Barney, eventually giving him a business card that says “Samson Lux – Samson Mining Company”.

They all sit down at the table. They are joined by Mergatroyd and Tilton. The Baroness inquires about their recent adventures. Eventually the awards ceremony happens. The crew gets its BIG CHECK.  Applause and cheers. As the rest of the gang watches this, a stocky man approaches Tilton. The man is drunk on mooch, and accuses Tilton of cheating at the race! He is drunk and raging. Flint punches him out – one punch – unconscious. The man’s fellow goons drag him away. All eyes are on the altercation.

End of Session
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Elapsed time: 468 game days (1 year 93 days)

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Into the Void Ref’s Notes Sessions 49 and 50

Sessions 49 and 50 were important to our campaign for a couple of reason, but primarily because SESSION 50! I never ran a campaign nearly this long in terms of number of game sessions or years played in my youth. In the last week both this campaign and my D&D campaign reached session 50. I am very happy about that.

It’s not just the fact that we’ve played a lot of session now. We started this campaign in April of 2018. So we’ve been playing, in just a few days, for 8 years. In those 8 years we have, as a group of friends, endured job losses, severe illnesses, loss of parents, a global pandemic, and other challenges, but we have kept it going. This past year, after 7 years of play, we added a great player and friend to the group. I could not be happier with all of this. It’s about more than the game. It’s the friendships.

As I have gone on and on about before, the long-form campaign has allowed the player characters to be developed in a way that you just can’t do with limited (but fun) campaigns. The players have taken these very on-paper-simple characters and breathed life into them. In a game in which the characters don’t really change very much mechanically (not “levels” and not much skill improvement), I feel like the PCs are all valuable and irreplaceable. One might look at Classic Traveller and say “oh, if my character dies I can just roll one up who is just or good if not better”, but I think that misses the value that a real in-game history brings to the character. It’s more valuable than “character improvement” because it requires real world time to create. It’s just so cool and amazing, and over time it’s made my job as referee easier as well.

I wrote about this over on my 2d6SF blog a while back. 

OK, the last two sessions the PCs were split up into two groups. One group was the crew of a ship involved in a race through an asteroid belt. The other was back on-world in a casino, interacting with NPCs.

The race was challenging to run. Even just concentrating on 4 ships (including the PCs), there was a lot to keep track of as the Ref. In session 49 we played the first 2 rounds. I thought I was ready for the complexity but I wasn’t. So before session 50 I created some “control sheets” for each round, that would help me keep track of the happenings as well as make the whole thing run faster. It worked. I thought session 50 ran really well. I probably made a few mistakes, but overall it was good. Bopping back and forth between sets of PCs kept things lively and for the most part everyone engages. With the race happening I’ll admit the PCs in the casino probably got less of my attention, but what they did get was put to good use.

We used the ship combat rules from Cepheus Light (in a simplified form) for this race. They worked really well. I am going to play with creating a Ship Combat Round Control Sheet for normal ship and vehicle fights that takes into account all the possible crew actions. However, I don’t really want to dwell on ship combat. It is a fun thing to happen, but I want to make sure the roleplaying stays the center of our game.