After Action Report: Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt Part II: Welcome to the Belt

We join our heroes on the Heirophant, the Arcana-Pattern Carrier of the Grand Dame.  Lady Talia Sabine greets her new wingman, the Viscontess Shay Sabine and they walk together to the briefing.  They briefly discuss their philosophy of war, and Talia reveals that she fights this war out of a sense of duty to the people: that the Alliance was meant to protect the Galaxy and have hidden behind the protection of Caliban too long, and that she wants to finally step forward and do her duty as a noblewoman.

This has been important for me to establish.  Talia thus far hasn't had much of a chance to make an appearance or reveal herself as a character, and I wanted to let her breath a little.  More importantly, I want to lampshade one of the major themes of the campaign: how will you rule? Talia represents the idealism of noblesse oblige.  She believes that Maradonians like herself are a cut above the rest and have a right to rule, but this is a responsibility and a duty to use their gifts to rule well.  This will contrast with the Grand Dame, who has a more cynical view of power, Callister Lee, who doesn't believe in the nobility of the aristocracy, and Sawyer Septum, who both believes in the power of the common man and has a rather cynical view on power.

The Briefing 

Then they gather to attend the briefing, which Talia herself must give.  The plan is revealed as thus:

• The Alliance has reports of three imperial dreadnoughts (the Victor's Gambit, the Resolute and the Sovereign Triumphant) and 5 Dominion-Class heavy cruisers.  Their reports also indicate that the Victor's Gambit and an escort of 2 cruisers often go on patrols to other, nearby systems and might be cut-off by the hyperstorms.
• This garrison is focused on Beauregard Station, near the gas giant Goldstrike.
• The plan is for the fleet to fly to the third of the stars of the Orochi Belt.  They will use the star as cover from imperial sensors, thus arriving at its far side.  They will secure the area ("the Veridian Field")
• Once secure, they will branch off and try to infiltrate deeper into the system, acquiring allies and activating rebel cells, and then bring out their fleet from behind "Jolly Green" and reveal their presence in a coordinated effort with the rest to strike at the Imperial Fleet.
• They must do all of this before the Hyperstorms subside, so they can mount a proper defense against the inevitable retaliation of the 137th Imperial Fleet off of Zaine.

Nobody has any real questions, but the Orochi Belters mutter among one another that that's the part of the Orochi Belt most infested with the Orochi.  This means there will be less of an Imperial presence there, but that's because there will be lots of Orochi. This makes it a dangerous, desperate gamble.  Lynwood Voss comments that he likes it.

During this scene, we also introduce a few new characters and arrange for everyone's place in the organizational structure:

• Captain Tyro Pavonis (Played by Nemoricus) will command one wing of Harlquin Squadron, including Lieutenant Kobayahi "Femme Fatale" Zero, Lieutenant Lynwood "Belter's Brag" Voss, the feisty Flight Officer Sienna "Red" Sky and the regulation-driven Flight Officer Livius "Blue" Kyne. These latter two are introduced for the first time bickering about who won in a fighter simulator contest. Tyro's mechanic will be Arietta Lee.
• Shay Sabine (played by Shinanoki) will be Talia Sabine's wingman and her mechanic will be the Ranathim Kerin Kethim.
• Baron Mallus Grimshaw (Gentleman Gamer) will fly with Malachi Harrow and will have Tadashi "Prime" as his mechanic (though he was unable to attend).
• Sir Axton Kain, who commands a full Lancer, and whose highest ranked Regular is an irrascible old cus, Sergeant Wick Rayburn, is asked by Talia to integrate Sabine soldiers into his Lancer, including the handsome and naive parade-regular, Lieutenant Lance Highguard.  Axton makes sure Wick is willing to babysit Lance.  Callister Lee and Nubbins also join them aboard their ship as engineers.

One of my struggles with the campaign concept of Tall Tales is how to bring across the scale of their operation.  This is not a group of five heroes in a single corvette, but several high level officers in the part of a huge fleet.  How do we bring across the scale of that fleet?  To do this, I've introduced a lot of minor NPCs, little more than named mooks who have a name, a snippet of description, and a single RP quirk.  I can expand them if necessary, but the idea is just to have some characters I can pull up at the drop of a hat to give a sense of a huge community in the fleet.  The big risk here, though, is that by calling out a name, already overloaded players might feel like they can't remember all these names, but they don't need to remember these, unless they interest them.

I also felt like Tyro didn't get much chance to do anything last session; setting him up with his wing gave him more to do and play with. 

After Action Report: Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt, Session 1

Part 1: Introductions

Our session starts with the Calico, Xerxes' Tigershark-Class Assault Corvette. As Xerxes pilots it into Caliban, we get treated to a view of the mountainous planet below, the distant red sun, and the majestic and terrifying view of the Hammer of Caliban and the Orochi Liberation fleet docked with it.  I introduce his crew:

• Persia Purasinga, an Asrathi med student turned pirate (by accident!). She seems quite pleased to be moving away from piracy and towards "mercenary work," especially against the Empire, who pushed her into piracy to begin with.  She's small and cute, with red, tabby fur and large green eyes with a pair of glasses.
• Sylvar Ro, a terrifying and religiously fanatical Jagarathi assassin with "siberian tiger" markings and cold blue eyes.  He argues that they shouldn't get involved and "let humans kill one another.
• Born Riksen, a native "Belter" to the Orochi Belt, heavy set and half-drunk, who loudly announces his excitement to be part of the liberation fleet, and reminds Persia that they won't be engaged in piracy, but they might engage in the "legitimate salvage" of Imperial ships they defeat.
• Winner Chau, a Denjuku native Shinjurai punk girl with a white face, black make-up, straight black hair, chunky boots and purple-and-black striped hose who rolls her eyes at everyone and gets back to work on the engine (with her kleptomaniacal robot, Ripper), while listening to tunes via her earphones.

Next, Walker Lee lands his Nomad-Class Modular Corvette, the Bad Penny, on the Heirophant, the flagship carrier of the liberation fleet. As he and his "Pilgrim" companion, a young man named Jethro Page, depart from the corvette, Walker gets tackle-hugged by Arietta Lee (No relation), one of mechanics of the liberation fleet, and daughter to the head mechanic, Callister Lee. They discuss his heroism in the resistance against the Empire in the Orochi Belt, and whether he'll need any help maintaining his corvette.  The Calico also lands, and Xerxes' pirate crew interacts roughly with the group.

Then, aboard the Hammer of Caliban, Baron Mallus Grimshaw enjoys one last holo-call with his wife, princess Dani Shinjurai, who instructs him to wear a specific outfit to the gala aboard the Heirophant, cut after the style of the Shinjurai, but appropriate to a Maradonian noble like Mallus, with an orchid motiff.

As an ally, Dani has Fashion Sense, so this allows him to claim his bonus

In a dueling gym aboard the Hammer, Talos spars with Axton Kain, trying to teach him the basics of the Destructive Form, as Axton's own Knightly Form is unsuited to dueling. Talos makes quick work of Axton, proving his point, when they are joined by Asura Kain, the white-haired, golden-armed daughter to the Archbaron, who complains about the coming party, and the Elegans brothers, Enzo and Arthus. Enzo is a space knight with a thick braid of dreadlocks and a quick and easy grin and Aspect with the Avatar of a lion, who immediately wins Axton over with his smile, and then joins in to perform a quick practice duel, wherein they fight to a standstill.

Then they are joined by the belle of the ball, Lady Thalia Sabine and her handmaiden, Lady Peony Pavonis; the latter, dark-eyed with long, curly hair and Mediterranean features, fetching but betraying a low blood purity, cannot stand to not be the center of attention and thus inserts herself right into the middle of the duel, announces her intention to participate, and then realizes how outclassed she is, and is saved by Thalia reminding everyone of the need to attend the gala.

The group leaves to go to the Gala, where they are joined by the Baron, and walk the promenade, the great ring constructed around the ancient artifact of the Hammer of Caliban. While walking, they encounter Kerin Kethim, a Ranathim mechanic.  She crouches over her son, the toddler Caliban Kethim, as both gaze upon the world of Caliban through the window.  Enzo Elegans approaches, and greets her in Lithian.  After a brief exchange, she reveals she works under Callister Lee on the Heirophant and hopes that her service in the liberation fleet will earn her Alliance citizenship.  Enzo invites her to attend the gala as his date, but she demures.  Mallus is offended by Enzo inviting someone who is clearly not noble to a noble event and says so, to which Enzo retorts by questioning exactly how noble Mallus actually is, to which Mallus responds by drawing his force sword.  Before Enzo can do the same, Arthus intervenes, notes that a formal challenge has been issued, and that the duel can be fought after the gala.  All parties agree and move on.

Kerin is a bit of a relic from my original conception of the Tall Tales, where the players would be serving on a station in the Orochi Belt and have to deal with a sudden Imperial incursion.  The mechanic Callister Lee had a reputation with the station's... ladies of the night as employing only beautiful women (Kerin and Arietta) whom the women referred to as "Callister's Whores."  All of this has had to go to the wayside, but I like the idea of an outsider alien trying to become an insider, and so she's stuck around, as have Callister and Arietta, and the idea of an "all female mechanic crew" from the "Orochi" side of the mechanics team. 

Note that Mallus has 2-4 points total in his force sword skill, while Enzo is a full-on space knight skilled in not one, but two force sword forms.  Mallus' player was playing his disadvantages, particularly Code of Honor (Gentleman) and Overconfidence.  Should be an interesting, and quick, fight. But something for another session.

Finally, Viscontess Shay Sabine finds herself in a fighter simulator flying a Valiant against a Javelin. She quickly loses, as she's more familiar with her own Devil-Pattern interceptor. The opposing pilot, an old veteran of the Alliance navy who stands ready to retire soon, Captain Quentin Scott, steps out of his simulator and explains the need to expand her flexibility into other fighters, because of the limitations of the Devil-Pattern Interceptor.  Then they both notice the time and that she needs to attend the Gala. He says he won't be going ("It's by invite only,") and that some of the mechanics and Orochi pilots are having a small get-together that he wants to attend, because he fears that the combination of Orochi pilots and Maradonian pilots in Harlequin squadron will cause friction and he wants to overcome it.

When it comes to introductions, I tend to let the characters and their background seep over me as I picture what their introduction might be like.  Tyro Pavonis and Shay Sabine came quite late, so I didn't have much time to introduce them.  I had this idea for a generic "Fighter simulator" intro for SOME pilot, which I gave to Shay because Tyro is blind and thus can only fly a Devil-Patter interceptor. As a consequence of this, plus some unfortunate Will rolls later, Tyro got very little "screen time."

Playtest: The Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt

I've wanted to explore the Action Vehicular combat rules for awhile, and there's no better way to do that than to use the actual rules that we've built up and run a game with them.  Furthermore, actually running a game helps me focus on what I actually need, and what actually matters.  A great deal of material comes from run games.  Finally, I've not put enough time into running games of late, as my family and work have been eating into what time I have, but with luck, I'll manage to schedule enough time to do this.

The Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt will be a (roughly) episodic mini-campaign.  I have three to five arcs planned, all episodic.  They follow in an obvious sequence, more or less, but it should be relatively easy to have players drop in and out as necessary.  The premise will be the liberation of a star system, the Orochi Belt, that features no planets to speak of, and thus all "space" action, ideal for testing out space combat rules.

The first session will be January 4th, and we already have 5 players.  As I get more details (such as who the characters are, other than one Kainian Space Knight and one Asrathi Witch-Cat Pirate), I'll tell more.  In the meantime, enjoy this introductory snippet:

A Psi-Wars Round-Up

I should pay better attention.

I wrote Psi-Wars for people to use, so when I see people using it, that warms my heart.  I also believe in the Death of the Author, in the sense that I do not believe my way is the only way to run Psi-Wars, or even that it's my own setting (that's why Iteration 5 was a very good stopping point, because it gives GMs the tools they need to write their own material).  Thus, when someone creates new material or goes in a new direction, I feel that adds to Psi-Wars.  It can also highlight weaknesses and things I need to shore up, which makes it good feedback for me as well.

Today, I've got two blogs for you, both of which have been delving into Psi-Wars.  The first is adding lots of optional rules to everyone's favorite mechanic: Communion. The second is actually using Psi-Wars for a campaign. Fun!