Giorgio3025
Banded Mongoose
This past weekend (April 7-9th) I was able to run the Death Station one-shot at a local Florida TTRPG Convention, and no matter how much I read or prepared, there was a lot of things I forgot, didn’t know how to handle, and had to improvise (see below). Five out of Six players showed up, and they all stayed the full 4 hours of the demo session. It is hard to measure the reactions of the players I have never met, yet everyone was engaged, active, and with minimal staring at their cellphone, so that is a good sign?
.
Note that none of the players were familiar with the rules of this game system, and I had told them beforehand that I emphasized “story over rules accuracy”, we would make a reasonable attempt to locate a rule, but if we could not find it, we would roll an appropriate skill check and keep the story flowing (they all were onboard with that). However, as a GM, I want to go back, re-read the full rulebook, and see what I did right, wrong, and close enough, so I can do better next time.
.
Q. How long does it take us to put on our Vac Suits, grab repair gear, cycle through the airlock, and reach the outer hull (Type S/Courier) where the fuel leak is?
A. … about 5 minutes to gear up, and 5 minutes or so to reach the fuel leak and begin repairs.
.
Q. How long does it take to power up the jump drive and jump the 1 parsec needed to reach our destination?
A. …after about 24 hours doing ship repairs, finding the stealth tracking device attached to your ship, and setting up a trap for your unknown enemy, you are good to start a jump and arrive in a few hours to your destination.
.
Q. Since the Vac Suits are bulky and don’t allow for fine manipulation of tools or sensors, can we shoot with our Snub Pistols?
A. … your Snub Pistol is not designed for use with a Vacc Suit, you need specialized weapons for that, which you don’t have.
.
Q. Can we transfer control of the ships Sensors to the Vacc Suit wrist mounted terminal?
A. … yes, yet as it is not design for that level of integration, you have a +1 step penalty on your Electronics (Sensors) rolls.
.
Q. What is the law like in this system?
A. … it is a low law level, low tech level (marginally hospitable small planet used for mining), backwater hellhole, the Deneb Sector police don’t want nothing to do with the laboratory ship as it is Corporate Property, and you can equip your Snub Pistol as a defensive weapon as you have a legal license to do so. Might want to leave the cutlass and laser carbine in the ship’s locker though.
.
Q. Are they legally able to stop and board us?
A. … your ships computer informs you that this is a Lancer Class Police Cruiser of the Deneb Sector Police, they are a legitimate legal authority, and they have jurisdiction to stop and board your ship. A police boarding team is headed your way.
.
Q. We reach out to our patron and inform him that we found a body locked in orbit with the laboratory space station and there is visible sign of damage to the exterior, the comms array is intact, and the station has power. No one responds to our hailing, we did not sign up for this, we need backup to investigate this, how does he respond?
A… after listening to your report, he asks why are you bothering him over a dead body, and no we are not going to involve the police, go do you job, that is what I am paying you for.
.
Q. Are the weapon turrets on your ship manned (Star War’s Millennium Falcon style) or unmanned (The Expanse's Rocinante style)?
A. … they are unmanned and can be activated from any of the ships three consoles.
(I had previously established that my visual/aesthetic baseline was Amazon's The Expanse, so I ruled on the spot that we would go with the Rosinante model and have any system control be useable from any console. Since the PCs were on a Type S/Courier, I had the PC take over the "Sensor Operator/Engineer" console in the back (in what looks like a small room), with the front two consoles being "Pilot" and "Ship Captain".)
.
This what I remember so far, I will add more as I check my notes and prepare for my second run of this one-shot.
.
Note that none of the players were familiar with the rules of this game system, and I had told them beforehand that I emphasized “story over rules accuracy”, we would make a reasonable attempt to locate a rule, but if we could not find it, we would roll an appropriate skill check and keep the story flowing (they all were onboard with that). However, as a GM, I want to go back, re-read the full rulebook, and see what I did right, wrong, and close enough, so I can do better next time.
.
Q. How long does it take us to put on our Vac Suits, grab repair gear, cycle through the airlock, and reach the outer hull (Type S/Courier) where the fuel leak is?
A. … about 5 minutes to gear up, and 5 minutes or so to reach the fuel leak and begin repairs.
.
Q. How long does it take to power up the jump drive and jump the 1 parsec needed to reach our destination?
A. …after about 24 hours doing ship repairs, finding the stealth tracking device attached to your ship, and setting up a trap for your unknown enemy, you are good to start a jump and arrive in a few hours to your destination.
.
Q. Since the Vac Suits are bulky and don’t allow for fine manipulation of tools or sensors, can we shoot with our Snub Pistols?
A. … your Snub Pistol is not designed for use with a Vacc Suit, you need specialized weapons for that, which you don’t have.
.
Q. Can we transfer control of the ships Sensors to the Vacc Suit wrist mounted terminal?
A. … yes, yet as it is not design for that level of integration, you have a +1 step penalty on your Electronics (Sensors) rolls.
.
Q. What is the law like in this system?
A. … it is a low law level, low tech level (marginally hospitable small planet used for mining), backwater hellhole, the Deneb Sector police don’t want nothing to do with the laboratory ship as it is Corporate Property, and you can equip your Snub Pistol as a defensive weapon as you have a legal license to do so. Might want to leave the cutlass and laser carbine in the ship’s locker though.
.
Q. Are they legally able to stop and board us?
A. … your ships computer informs you that this is a Lancer Class Police Cruiser of the Deneb Sector Police, they are a legitimate legal authority, and they have jurisdiction to stop and board your ship. A police boarding team is headed your way.
.
Q. We reach out to our patron and inform him that we found a body locked in orbit with the laboratory space station and there is visible sign of damage to the exterior, the comms array is intact, and the station has power. No one responds to our hailing, we did not sign up for this, we need backup to investigate this, how does he respond?
A… after listening to your report, he asks why are you bothering him over a dead body, and no we are not going to involve the police, go do you job, that is what I am paying you for.
.
Q. Are the weapon turrets on your ship manned (Star War’s Millennium Falcon style) or unmanned (The Expanse's Rocinante style)?
A. … they are unmanned and can be activated from any of the ships three consoles.
(I had previously established that my visual/aesthetic baseline was Amazon's The Expanse, so I ruled on the spot that we would go with the Rosinante model and have any system control be useable from any console. Since the PCs were on a Type S/Courier, I had the PC take over the "Sensor Operator/Engineer" console in the back (in what looks like a small room), with the front two consoles being "Pilot" and "Ship Captain".)
.
This what I remember so far, I will add more as I check my notes and prepare for my second run of this one-shot.
