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Post by raikenclw on Mar 23, 2021 21:17:52 GMT -5
Just a note: Tok has notified the bridge that among her three guests "one is a gunner." Actually, none of the three characters has that skill.  |
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Post by Terry Mixon on Mar 23, 2021 21:22:33 GMT -5
Just a note: Tok has notified the bridge that among her three guests "one is a gunner." Actually, none of the three characters has that skill. Now Peng is gonna be mad. |
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Aarav
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Post by Aarav on Mar 24, 2021 8:36:29 GMT -5
So far as Peng knows, Sand Slinger (who he's pretty sure is the same individual as Escaped Vargr) is the only non-authorized individual aboard. Seems like there is a discussion about what it means to be "authorized"--and who is able to provide "authorization" (and perhaps under what conditions and in which circumstances)--in the PCs future.
Aarav will insist that Takheal invited him aboard and it seems like Casca can reasonably claim to have been invited by Blackjack. (Don't know about the "Escaped Vargr.")
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Post by joertexas on Mar 24, 2021 9:48:11 GMT -5
So far as Peng knows, Sand Slinger (who he's pretty sure is the same individual as Escaped Vargr) is the only non-authorized individual aboard. Seems like there is a discussion about what it means to be "authorized"--and who is able to provide "authorization" (and perhaps under what conditions and in which circumstances)--in the PCs future.
Aarav will insist that Takheal invited him aboard and it seems like Casca can reasonably claim to have been invited by Blackjack. (Don't know about the "Escaped Vargr.")
I'm sure it will work out just fine  |
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Post by Terry Mixon on Mar 24, 2021 11:08:22 GMT -5
Seems like there is a discussion about what it means to be "authorized"--and who is able to provide "authorization" (and perhaps under what conditions and in which circumstances)--in the PCs future.
Aarav will insist that Takheal invited him aboard and it seems like Casca can reasonably claim to have been invited by Blackjack. (Don't know about the "Escaped Vargr.")
I'm sure it will work out just fine Truth. We haven’t spaced anyone in weeks. |
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Post by erisred on Mar 24, 2021 16:25:12 GMT -5
As a new player, I am looking for signs that we are going to work together to tell a fun story. I really like this characterization of what we're trying to do here. Yeah, yeah! Blame me. Yes, I put you all in an ambiguous situation, mainly because I thought it would be fun on the player side to work it out on the PC side. Everything you've ALL said in this thread is true and so far everything I've seen in the IG thread has seemed true to character. Keep in mind though, I'm a few days behind reading the threads in this forum. RL keeps intruding, but I'm doing my best to make my absences a lot shorter than in the past...trying. IAC, I want to read the new posts all at once and react to them all at once. So I didn't know just what has been happening IG or OG. I've just read the OG thread and will read the IG thread next. What do I expect to find? Hum, I expect: Ekhunoz to somewhat explain to Charlie, Tak and Tol (and maybe the 2 new guys) why he was stowed away..."I was escaping Slavers, I had to take some chances, what do you expect?"; Casca to recognize that the two women are part of *this* crew and it was the other side that was holding/threatening/shooting them, so maybe they are the bad guys and maybe these are the good guys, just starting to think maybe he tackled the wrong guy; Aarav to be more worried about "stealing" the air/raft and that somebody on that other ship is shooting at him than anything else. I don't expect any of the 3 to immediately want to join this crew, nor for the current crew to want them to join, but if you are getting shot at by the other side I sort of expect you to help out...maybe grudgingly. I do think it's quite possible that Tol will want to just lock all three of you in a cabin until it can all be sorted out, but I'm hoping not as I want everyone to have some fun and being locked up (unless you're trying to escape) isn't a lot of fun. However! Players always surprise me, so I'll be interested to see if my guesses are right, wrong, or VERY wrong. |
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Post by Terry Mixon on Mar 24, 2021 16:31:13 GMT -5
I really like this characterization of what we're trying to do here. Yeah, yeah! Blame me. Yes, I put you all in an ambiguous situation, mainly because I thought it would be fun on the player side to work it out on the PC side. Everything you've ALL said in this thread is true and so far everything I've seen in the IG thread has seemed true to character. Keep in mind though, I'm a few days behind reading the threads in this forum. RL keeps intruding, but I'm doing my best to make my absences a lot shorter than in the past...trying. IAC, I want to read the new posts all at once and react to them all at once. So I didn't know just what has been happening IG or OG. I've just read the OG thread and will read the IG thread next. What do I expect to find? Hum, I expect: Ekhunoz to somewhat explain to Charlie, Tak and Tol (and maybe the 2 new guys) why he was stowed away..."I was escaping Slavers, I had to take some chances, what do you expect?"; Casca to recognize that the two women are part of *this* crew and it was the other side that was holding/threatening/shooting them, so maybe they are the bad guys and maybe these are the good guys, just starting to think maybe he tackled the wrong guy; Aarav to be more worried about "stealing" the air/raft and that somebody on that other ship is shooting at him than anything else. I don't expect any of the 3 to immediately want to join this crew, nor for the current crew to want them to join, but if you are getting shot at by the other side I sort of expect you to help out...maybe grudgingly. I do think it's quite possible that Tol will want to just lock all three of you in a cabin until it can all be sorted out, but I'm hoping not as I want everyone to have some fun and being locked up (unless you're trying to escape) isn't a lot of fun. However! Players always surprise me, so I'll be interested to see if my guesses are right, wrong, or VERY wrong. So the gunfight on the bridge while the pirates shoot at us is bad? Whoops. |
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Post by erisred on Mar 24, 2021 17:07:22 GMT -5
So the gunfight on the bridge while the pirates shoot at us is bad? Whoops. LOL! No, not bad, but it might lead to a different game beginning. I don't think any of you were in the Star Trek game I was playing in many years ago. I was XO on a merchant ship and the Captain (and frankly the guy playing him) was IMO a real jerk and worse was walking our ship into a no win get killed or put in prison situation and nothing any of the crew said to him (nor hints from the Ref) would get him to change how he was playing things out. I got so frustrated with him that I eventually walked up behind him, pulled my phaser and blew his head off. Boy, did that explode that game! That's not the only time my PC has killed another PC either, but I always felt justified IG when I did it...not that the player of the dead PC always agreed. Geeze, that must have been back in the early 90's. FidoNet BBS Echomail games. I played Star Trek, Star Wars, TW2k, D&D, Champions Supers, even Traveller (but that was on Vervan's Wargaming Network, not FidoNet). I ended up becoming the SysOp for Fido and Vervan for the Pensacola Node. I wanted to ensure the mail moved quickly and efficiently...because I wanted the games I was in to run as quickly and efficiently as possible. I made a daily long distance phone call from my computer to a server in New Orleans, sending out mail from the local BBS's and their users and receiving incoming mail. I charged, I think it was $2 a month to each local BBS (there were over 20 at the peak) to cover my operating expenses and threw a yearly party with any left over money...there always was a party even if I ran in the red. After the Internet became available, I used it to forward and receive batch mail through New Orleans to make the games (and mail) even quicker. The Internet dropped turnaround time for a message to almost anywhere in the world from 1 to 2 days to 1 to 2 hours, but otherwise the games were the same. Okay, I'm going to go read IG mail now! Don't distract me. |
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Aarav
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Post by Aarav on Mar 24, 2021 17:41:11 GMT -5
Yes, I put you all in an ambiguous situation, mainly because I thought it would be fun on the player side to work it out on the PC side. It has been fun! Not always easy, but fun.  |
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Aarav
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Post by Aarav on Mar 24, 2021 17:50:02 GMT -5
Aarav to be more worried about "stealing" the air/raft and that somebody on that other ship is shooting at him than anything else. The security personnel standing by while someone was enaged in "wrong-doing" on their tarmac really undercut their legitimacy with Aarav. He has a strong moral code and upholding one's responsibilities is a key element of it. He may be troubled about the potential ramifications of having stolen the air/raft but he's not troubled by the theft itself. Getting off ShiraLea would seem to resolve the first part of that. . . .
Aarav's also not too troubled by the shooting from the other ship. He is a bit more brave--foolhardy?--than that. If he wanted a life of safety and security he'd be back wherever his [Soc A] was relevant--how did Dominic Flandry put it?-- "sitting in the Everest House with a bucket of champagne, lying to some beautiful wench about my exploits . . . but no, I had to come out here and do 'em!" |
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Post by raikenclw on Mar 24, 2021 20:15:15 GMT -5
got so frustrated with him that I eventually walked up behind him, pulled my phaser and blew his head off. I've never killed a fellow PC as a player, but as Referee I *did* once engineer the demise of a certain obsessively-grandstanding a**hole PC [whose player was exactly the same type of person]. Said PC insulted a noble male Aslan but kept ducking the required honor duel. Eventually, said Aslan hired a female Human blademaster - along with a Bwap administrator and three Human snipers - to force said PC to fight the duel. All they had to do was wait for the PC to head off by himself, as he was wont to do in order to arrange private smuggling deals . . . Why this specific team? Well, the snipers were important for putting three (3) visible kill dots onto the PC - so that he wouldn't decide to run AGAIN. The female Human was a calculated insult by the Aslan, reflecting his opinion of this dastardly PC who had repeatedly eluded justice. Finally, the Bwap was there as a neutral referee, to adjudicate the duel as well as explain the special rules. The Bwap also had a special role involving a certain chrome-plated cubical case "about the size of a hat box" which he carried with him (about which case the player evidenced no curiosity whatsoever). Through the good offices of the Bwap, Aslan noble actually gave the PC a chance to survive. As the Bwap explained it, if the PC managed to draw blood from his opponent, he would be given the opportunity to sincerely apologize IC. [NOTE: This was a FtF game.] After taking several hits, the PC's player rolled boxcars and actually managed a hit on the bladesmith . . . Bwap (Me): "Halt! Ser Maddox, you now have the opportunity to apologize." Player: "Yeah. Whatever . . ." I wordlessly stared across the table for several seconds, until . . . Player, in a sneering tone: "I'm reaaallll sorry, okay?" Bwap (Me): "Apology insufficient. Resume." A few combat rounds later, the PC expired. The Bwap then promptly fulfilled his "special role:" calmly pulling out a laser scalpel, he severed the PC's head, placed this in the hat-box-sized cryo unit and (after pausing to pay off the rest of the team in cash) left for the starport, to send the cryo unit to the Aslan noble via X-boat. The player in question did not create another PC. Nobody regretted this at all. Okay, I'm going to go read IG mail now! Don't distract me. Sorry! Hopefully you've already addressed whatever needs addressing IG! |
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Post by raikenclw on Mar 24, 2021 21:18:54 GMT -5
“ . . . I need to resume the navigation console. . . .” Does Navigation also cover Sensors? I ask, because the current situation seems to require the latter much more urgently than the former. This close to the surface - and presumably without our having access to real-time sensor data from satellites - the pirate might be hoping to stay low enough that ground clutter can hide him from our ship sensors. Since our sensors are presumably standard commercial sensors optimized for use at extreme range in the vacuum of space, hoping for this would not be unreasonable. |
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Post by joertexas on Mar 24, 2021 21:20:50 GMT -5
I still have a standing policy to gag and handcuff the mage before a melee battle...
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Post by Terry Mixon on Mar 24, 2021 21:36:28 GMT -5
“ . . . I need to resume the navigation console. . . .” Does Navigation also cover Sensors? I ask, because the current situation seems to require the latter much more urgently than the former. This close to the surface - and presumably without our having access to real-time sensor data from satellites - the pirate might be hoping to stay low enough that ground clutter can hide him from our ship sensors. Since our sensors are presumably standard commercial sensors optimized for use at extreme range in the vacuum of space, hoping for this would not be unreasonable. OOC: If not, I bet Charlie can manage. Charlie will coordinate the sensors and help the gunners and pilot as much as he can. |
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Post by raikenclw on Mar 24, 2021 21:37:15 GMT -5
I still have a standing policy to gag and handcuff the mage before a melee battle... Handcuffing probably wouldn't be sufficient. You'd want to tie each finger and thumb to a splint, to prevent use of minor cantrips. |
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Post by raikenclw on Mar 24, 2021 21:40:49 GMT -5
Does Navigation also cover Sensors? OOC: If not, I bet Charlie can manage. Charlie will coordinate the sensors and help the gunners and pilot as much as he can. I googled my above question and it seems that while many house rules include the ability to use Sensors as part of Navigation, it's not actually in the RAW. Still, I agree. With Navigation-4, Charlie can suffer some serious negatives and still come through. |
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Post by joertexas on Mar 24, 2021 21:42:36 GMT -5
I still have a standing policy to gag and handcuff the mage before a melee battle... Handcuffing probably wouldn't be sufficient. You'd want to tie each finger and thumb to a splint, to prevent use of minor cantrips. Cantrips don't worry me. Fireball spells worry me. Terry, Bruce, and Eris remember this incident, I'm sure. |
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Post by raikenclw on Mar 24, 2021 21:49:41 GMT -5
Handcuffing probably wouldn't be sufficient. You'd want to tie each finger and thumb to a splint, to prevent use of minor cantrips. Cantrips don't worry me. Fireball spells worry me. Terry, Bruce, and Eris remember this incident, I'm sure. For some reason, I'm flashing on the Justice League Snyder Cut scene immediately following Wonder Woman's riposte to that final Nattily-Dressed Terrorist . . . his untouched fedora drifting down from high above, to settle oh-so-gently upon the hood of a patrol car surrounded by stony rubble. |
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Post by joertexas on Mar 24, 2021 21:54:39 GMT -5
Cantrips don't worry me. Fireball spells worry me. Terry, Bruce, and Eris remember this incident, I'm sure. For some reason, I'm flashing on the Justice League Snyder Cut scene immediately following Wonder Woman's riposte to that final Nattily-Dressed Terrorist . . . his untouched fedora drifting down from high above, to settle oh-so-gently upon the hood of a patrol car surrounded by stony rubble. Oh, no, not at all. I found the original game post: Eris - GM. Terry - E Me - Draen Bruce - Dominic The mage - Khaira |
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Aarav
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Posts: 173
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Post by Aarav on Mar 24, 2021 23:02:49 GMT -5
OOC: Is it? Earlier someone said it was a nav function. Excerpt from the Clear Sails deck plans:
Upper Deck Key
8. Bridge
- 3 Workstations: Pilot, Co-Pilot/Astrogator, Electronics (Comm/Sensors/Computer)
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Post by erisred on Mar 24, 2021 23:16:34 GMT -5
“ . . . I need to resume the navigation console. . . .” Does Navigation also cover Sensors? I ask, because the current situation seems to require the latter much more urgently than the former. This close to the surface - and presumably without our having access to real-time sensor data from satellites - the pirate might be hoping to stay low enough that ground clutter can hide him from our ship sensors. Since our sensors are presumably standard commercial sensors optimized for use at extreme range in the vacuum of space, hoping for this would not be unreasonable. Addressed in the IG thread...I think. Oh, and Clear Sails has upgraded sensors from your standard merchant. She can't move very fast, but she can hit whatever she aims at. Peng has just never had the need to find this out until now. |
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Aarav
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Post by Aarav on Mar 24, 2021 23:16:51 GMT -5
I still have a standing policy to gag and handcuff the mage before a melee battle... Huh? Have we fallen into an interdimensional vortex?  |
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Post by erisred on Mar 24, 2021 23:17:23 GMT -5
I still have a standing policy to gag and handcuff the mage before a melee battle... Fireball in enclosed spaces! |
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Post by joertexas on Mar 24, 2021 23:19:22 GMT -5
I still have a standing policy to gag and handcuff the mage before a melee battle... Huh? Have we fallen into an interdimensional vortex? Read up a few posts... |
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Aarav
Traveler
Posts: 173
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Post by Aarav on Mar 24, 2021 23:21:12 GMT -5
Oh, no, not at all. I found the original game post: Oh. My. Goodness! You folks have been playing together for nearly two decades! [There is no smiley for this!] |
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Post by Terry Mixon on Mar 25, 2021 0:04:53 GMT -5
Oh, no, not at all. I found the original game post: Oh. My. Goodness! You folks have been playing together for nearly two decades! [There is no smiley for this!]A few of us, yep. |
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Post by joertexas on Mar 25, 2021 0:14:53 GMT -5
Oh. My. Goodness! You folks have been playing together for nearly two decades! [There is no smiley for this!]A few of us, yep. Yabbut, they're the old guys. I'm still as svelte as ever... |
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Post by Terry Mixon on Mar 25, 2021 0:16:32 GMT -5
Yabbut, they're the old guys. I'm still as svelte as ever... If that’s what helps you sleep at night... |
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Aarav
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Post by Aarav on Mar 25, 2021 0:29:13 GMT -5
Yabbut, they're the old guys. I'm still as svelte as ever... I resemble half of this remark. |
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Post by erisred on Mar 25, 2021 1:33:55 GMT -5
Oh, no, not at all. I found the original game post: Oh. My. Goodness! You folks have been playing together for nearly two decades! [There is no smiley for this!]No nearly about it! I've been playing with Joe and Terry for 20+ years. Matt and Eric for almost as long! Akus Moby (Traveller) started in the late 90's and although it is on hiatus (since 2019) it isn't dead yet. Akus always ran by email, never on a forum. Silverband (D&D-ish fantasy) started in 2000, I think, and although it's in it's 3rd or 4th iteration it's still going strong. It's shifted from email to the Unseen Servant forum! In both those games we had players I'd played with all the way back to the FidoNet days in the middle/mid 90's. I miss playing with Jera, Paul, Suz, Keven, Greg, John and many others from over the years.  I particularly remember Suz and Greg's characters spending a full month of posts playing a round of golf somewhere in Reaver's Deep. Dang it! Now I've got the hankering to get Akus Moby back up and running! And Bruce is playing in both my games on Unseen Servant, so maybe I could lure him over to this one, too. ------- Let's see, Akus Moby is set in a totally homebrewed Sector where the Imperium, AI/Virus/Robotic wars, and the Ancients are all the stuff of legend and myth from thousands of years ago. The sector is only a couple of hundred years away from being planted bound, jump drives came from archeology, so finding and exploring ruins is still a big deal here. The starting area (parts of 4 subsectors) is home to several competing multi-system and single system governments that compete with each other. The PC's started off as strangers invited to a lawyer's office on Argent where they discovered that they were all distant cousins of Akus Moby and that he left them a Starship in the Mark system. They have to travel to Mark to get it and keep and work it for at least a full year, before they can sell it. So off they go and have adventures along the way: finding an "ancients" site, having someone make an assassination attempt on Joxe followed by a small nuclear explosion that killed the assassins, "fishing" for some alien "fish" in the rings of a gas giant...things like that. Finally, they arrive on Mark and discover their new ship is in bad shape. For one thing, someone ripped out the computer and all the programs for it and all the weapons that were in the turrets are missing. Eventually, they are able to buy a replacement computer and after much tinkering get the ship working. While working on the ship they discover a strange Jump Drive hidden inside what looks like a normal J-Drive. It is unlike any jump drive they have encountered before and clearly was built by an advanced technology. They also find that Akus left multiple Transponders, passports, weapons, videos of some sort of surveillance, and some very illegal drugs in a secure storage locker at the Starport. They are told by their local lawyer that Akus had been working as a part-time, unofficial, agent for Mark Security (The Black Marble). They learn that someone from Montrose wants to buy their ship, but the will won't let them sell, even if they want to. A shake down cruise leads to an adventure with non-canon Aslan on a nearby system. Pretty tame, but they sign an agreement to come back at least once a year in exchange for really good trade deals. They also sell that very illegal drug to the Aslan as it isn't illegal there and is actually an important therapeutic for aging Aslan males. The party is flush with cash now, although, almost all of it disappears into ship repairs and the addition of a couple of laser cannons and sand casters. Upon returning to Mark they are approached by a group wanting to charter the ship to take some machinery to a pretty distant system. It is good money, the Black Marble makes contact and encourages them to accept, and so they do. Then just before they leave a group of commandos make an attack in the middle of Mark's biggest city...and Brent and Joxe just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time eating lunch at a cafe. They survive, but the Black Marble strongly encourages the party to Up-Ship and get off Mark ASAP! This is where we left off: The ship is in Jump Space on the way to from Mark (home base) to Kurzu two parsecs away. They hope! They haven't tried that strange drive at a J2 and they haven't tried using the J2 program they wrote for it before this jump. The PC's Joxe and Brent have just gotten married, but no honeymoon due to the latest ?terrorist? attack against the group. You've figured out that the attacks are aimed at Joxe and the pendant her first husband gave her that she always wears. Investigation shows that the pendant holds some sort of secret message that everyone is trying to decipher...something to do with a J3 drive (which no one in known space has), you think. The Zeristu Empire, the Confederacy, the Montrose Hegemony and the Mark/Sequi government...and all the other small states would kill to get their hands on a J3 drive and a J3 program to make it work. State of the art in this sector is J2 and only a few ships have that, most have to do with J1. Randall, Hendrick and Magda have cobbled up a J2 program for the strange alien drive you have found on your ship. You don't know how or where Akus got it, but it appears to be capable of doing J2...maybe J3 even. He had it hidden inside the shell of a standard J1 drive console. The drive works fine with the standard J1 program, but you don't have access to a J2 program so you're writing your own. There seems to be problems with it and the Pc's are pulling their hair out trying to figure out why their program doesn't seem to work right...there might have been a misjump when they just used it and that's where Paris was badly injured when a Grav Module failed and cargo containers fell on her head down in the hold. You are on a mission to get to <can't remember system name, but I have notes> with machine tools and plans to upgrade a B Starport to A. Mark's Government is all for this and you are sort of un-official agents for them. The Montrose Hegemony is out to stop that from happening, as they have a monopoly on Jump capable ships in that area of their subsector and they don't like competitors. You think you have gotten away with the cargo without them knowing where you were going, but you aren't sure as a Montrose flagged ship lifted not long before you did, and saw that you jumped, but of course not where. You're going to have to travel far out of your way to get where you need to go to avoid Montrose controlled systems which is why you're heading for Kurzu a jump 2 away. You really need that J2 program to work for later jumps, too, as you're going by a route requiring a couple of J2's to bridge gaps in systems! Second day into a jump that might be a misjump... Doctor Tamaki/Bob is working on Paris’/ John injuries in Sickbay. Magda/Derek is eating breakfast and looking at the jump data on her computer unaware anything is wrong yet. She has bad jump sickness and takes pills to knock her out, so she slept through the bad jump and is unaware of Paris' injury. Hendrick/Bruce is on bridge watch, but is thinking about the encrypted data from Joxe's pendant. Brent/Matt is checking the cargo tiedowns and grav modules in the cargo hold after Paris' injury. Joxe/Joe and Adrian/Eric are tearing down the damaged grav module in Engineering. Lilly/Terry is investigating the video footage from the ?terrorist? attack the other day. Magda got it by hacking Mark's traffic and security cameras. They probably know, but you weren't challenged about it. Sir Randall/Greg never answered this post, but he should be thinking about that encrypted data, too. Tres/NPC is in Engineering monitoring systems...being an unobtrusive NPC, sigh! I think Terry, Joe, Eric and Bruce would be game to crank it up. I'd love for Matt to come back and play here and in Akus as Joxe has lost one husband already, hasn't she? I don't know if Derek or Bob would still be up to play, but I bet they would. We'd need someone to take over playing Paris and Sir Randle because John and Greg appear to have left gaming. Both those characters are important to the game. Tres was an NPC at the end, but as the ship's main Engineer, he really should be a PC not an NPC. Well, anyway, we'd need replacements for a few characters, but it could be done. It is so tempting! |
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I particularly remember Suz and Greg's characters spending a full month of posts playing a round of golf somewhere in Reaver's Deep.