Monday, July 16, 2012

Gaming Stories, Part 2

So, this past Friday we got to play a new game with a new set of rules.  We were scheduled to play the Savage Worlds: Space 1889 game but two of the core players had conflicts, so we opted to try out Stan's newly written rules called Rarescape.  Stan wanted a play test and said that things will probably be changing as he worked out the bugs that we found in his rules.  I have to say, I really like the simplicity of the ruleset as well as the ease of making up a character.  We had characters within 10 minutes, most of that time was spent arguing over who had which Bane (similar to a Hindrance in Savage Worlds). 

The setting was Firefly/Serenity, a few years after the end of the Serenity movie.  So, the word is out that the Alliance created the Reavers but not everyone got the initial broadcast.  So there are groups now which don't believe the replayed films as well as those who do.  I can even see some NPCs we'll encounter who think it was some sort of greater conspiracy.  As for our start, I was picked by Stan to be the Captain/Owner of the ship purely because I'll always be present for the game (since it's at my house).  Basically, I bought the ship through a broker and was delighted to find it was the infamous Serenity.  On board was a note which just read, "Take good care of her.  She's a mighty fine ship."  I had gathered a crew which consisted of a swordsmaster & gambler, a warrior (like Jayne), a hacker, an engineer, and a medical doctor.  And of course, each person has their foibles.  The doctor has Tourrette's.  The engineer is the sidekick of the warrior, who has a deathwish.  The hacker is intensely curious.  The swordsmaster/gambler is Wanted.  And my character is Disowned.

So, we're on Persephone and we get contacted by Badger to meet with a guy who needs to get out to the Rim quickly and quietly.  The meetup is at a bar.  The guy is described as gray-haired with spectacles and should be wearing a red scarf.  We get there and find two grayheaded guys but no red scarves.  One is by himself and the other has a girl hanging on him.  Both are gambling.  I talk with the barkeep, asking if he's seen either of these guys with red scarves or handkerchiefs.  Just then, we figure out that the one with the girl is our contact.  We get him away from the gambling table after he has won a considerable pot.  The girl was not part of the contract.  He cannot extricate himself from her, so we tell her how much it is to book passage.  This is above and separate from the cut Badger wants.  The guy wants us to pick up a large crate and bring it on the trip.  The warrior gets that while our gambler tries to find any other cargo to fill up our hold.  The only lead he finds is a group of musicians who cannot afford passage.  So, we head out once everyone is aboard.  Shortly after entering Rim space, we detect an Alliance cruiser coming up fast.  We do a little move to slowly change course for another planet and it changes with us.  Once in radio range, it hails us and demands to board and inspect us.  We try three different ways to discourage them, finally having to pull a high security code to disentangle us.  At the same time, our hacker figures out that the device is some sort of cloaking system.  Now, we're out in the black with a serious dilemma.  If we allow the client to give the device to his contact, someone will be after us because we know too much.  If we hand him over to the Alliance, they might do us in because we know too much.  If we off the client and steal the device, we have no one who can fix it if it breaks. 

And that's where we stopped.....I want to play this some more!

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