Fate Core : Campaign Write Up (Also please help with any of my questions)

[Earthwalker]

Hello this is to serve as part campaign log but also a place for me to ask lots of questions and make comments on how my Fate game is working. This is my first time playing Fate so please be gentle.

Game Name : Humanity (you can keep it) (Temp name till we can come up with better)
Genre : Space Opera
Issue (Current) : Many Factions Few Supplies
Issue (Long Term): Space Exploration / First Contact
Scale: Single Solar System (for now)

So we talked a while as a group on what we wanted. First thing to note is we had a bit of disagreement about what should be in the game and what we were after. I did go in with a existing idea which I think was a mistake.
We got caught up on aliens. One person wasn’t keen and another wanted aliens. We were then left going round in circles. We ended up with a situation where we didn’t have aliens but as a future issues we may have new tech to jump systems and the posibility of introducing first contact situations. (Space to grow into)
After the alein discussion we moved onto scale and everyone seemed happy with a single solar system with many factions fighting for resources. The place had been settled with a central government, but as time has gone by planets now seems to favour one faction, so a corporation might control a whole moon. The government is losing ground over the different factions for power but they still try to keep the peace.
Next section I will discuss characters. Anyone got any comments or advice please post it. I really aren’t sure about the long term issue of space exploration / first contact. Maybe there was a different way to deal with Aliens.

[Earthwalker]

Characters

Nova

Concept : Former Space Pirate
(We are making a space opera Nova’s player believed concepts had to have space in the title I aren’t sure I disagree with her)
Nova served as first mate on a pirate ship, part of a larger fleet. She was ships pilot and usually the first in any boarding party.
Possible Invokes
Can be used to help with knowledge of pirating and maybe ship security systems. Also used with skills like shooting and piloting space ships, you know pirate stuff.
Possible Compels
In her Pirate life Nova has picked up a few enemies, one or two factions may have been on the receiving end of her piracy. Some respected organizations or people may not wish to deal with pirate, possible reputation compels.
(It has been specifically stated that I am not allowed to compel to force her to do “The Pirate Voice” nor is this subject to compel to bury any treasure she finds)

Trouble : Used to the finer things
As first mate Nova had the best of life. A big cabin, all the finer she could steal. She also became well read and enjoyed the finest of wines.
Possible Invokes
Oddly may be used to fit into high society where knowledge of a good wine can go a long way.
Possible Compels
Considering the state of some of the planets and moons in the system there are going to be times where she is going to very uncomfortable. (I do need some help with ideas for compels here, the effects of them at least)

Aspect : I will get you Astrid
Nova was forced out of the pirate life when her captain died. After a battle for control of the fleet Nova lost and her junior Astrid took over. Astrid is now a space pirate with full fleet. Astrid left Nova for dead on the dark side of Gibbs Moon a mining moon with “Dirt Everywhere”.
Possible Invokes
Can serve as a drive for revenge. Can be invoked in tests used to get back at Astrid (maybe the whole pirate fleet) also means that Nova knows how Astrid thinks.
Possible Compels.
Astrid knows Nova is a threat to her business and continued existence. There is a very good chance she will take steps to deal with Nova permanently.

Aspect: I can talk people into anything.
<Help is this too general ? Is this just a way to get +2 on the talky skills ?>
In her back-story, Nova managed to convince the crew of her former pirate ship to spare her life and just leave her marooned. She certainly has the gift of the gab.
Possible Compels
When trying to make people do what they don’t want to.
Possible Invokes
It has become known that Nova knows how to talk people around. Could this be used against her to make it seem she is just trying to use her talky skills to cause problems ?

Aspect: My Pet Snake, Sally.
I left one space free for addition aspects. Made it so that the players could choose outside of the phase trio. Nova choose to have a pet snake that work as a spy and assist in burglary. (I really was hoping for a robot parrot, or a monkey)
Possible Compels
Sally can be used for spying or to assist in burglary she is an intelligent and possible robot snake (need to check on that)
Possible Invokes.
Well clearly where any NPC follower the possibility of snake napping is always a worry.

Main Skills: Shoot, Pilot, Rapport




Raquel

Concept : Rogue Self-aware Replicant
Replicants, or synthetic humans exist in the world. Replicants are not normally self aware and exist only to serve humanity. Raquel is unique in that she is self aware. She can think for herself and is no longer bound by the limits of her programming.
Possible Invokes
Replicants are faster, strong and tougher than humans. Compels can be offered to improve physical skills.
Possible Compels
Not being human often causes problems for Raquel where she does or says something not appropriate for the situation. She is only 4 years old after all.

Trouble
Dr Moria of Pinwheel wants me for study
As a replicant Raquel is a the property of the pinwheel corporation. Unfortunately one member of pinwheels staff, the head of AI research has heard of a self aware replicant and wants to find it, and cut it open to see how it works.
Possible Invokes
Well Raquel now has some idea how her enemy thinks and knows the ins and outs of Pinwheel corporation. So she can gain invokes when dealing with Pinwheel or Dr Moria.
Possible Compels
Well when Pinwheel gets involved things are going to get tricky for Raquel. It also means she needs to keep a low profile and remove traces of where she has been.
<GM Note - I think personalizing the enemy means that this is different enough from just being a rogue replicant>

Aspect: Be free to choose
After being a slave to her programming so long Raquel has developed very very strong opinions on all sentient life being allowed to choose.
Possible Invokes.
This will be most likely invoked when the story deals without getting people out of slaver or indentured service. Or where matters concerning the freedom of replicants appear.
Possible Compels.
The system is filled with people forced into situations. Seeing these is always going to get a reaction from Raquel.
<GM Note : At the moment I am having trouble knowing what this reaction show / will be>

Aspect: Leave no stone unturned.
Raquel always completes a job to the best of her abilities (maybe some forgotten code left running) this is habit and maybe replicant OCD.
Possible Invokes
Clearly can be called upon when the quality of a job down in question. Or where investigating is needed.
Possible Compels
If time becomes a factor in a task. The need to have it performed perfectly can cause trouble for Raquel.

Aspect: Find and help others of my kind
The free aspect I gave to players (This player always comes up with good hooks.)
Raquel was born alone and so far has not found anyone she can properly identify with. She lives in hope she is not the only one of her kind and is seeking out others.
Possible Invokes.
When Raquel starts her hunt in earnest I am sure this is going to see some use. It also covers the fact she is trawling the space interweb for news of odd stories that could be replicant related.
Possible Compels.
Maybe the hunt for others may lead her away from what the group are looking into. Or maybe this can be invoked to play up her feeling of not belonging.
Main Skills : Deceive, Will, Physique





Dusty
Concept : Eccentric Genius Engineer <GM Note: This caused us the most trouble for concept, Engineer seemed to broad and was covered by having a technology skill. We added in the genius and eccentric to flesh it out more>
Dusty is a genius from a young age he was building his own trans-phase micro fusers, or the odd warpifiers. If dusty doesn’t know how to build one, it’s not worth having.
Possible Invokes
When we need to deal with technology (mainly with building things) Dusty can invoke. The Genius part of the aspect also allows him to invoke for some other mental tasks as well.
Possible Compels.
Most compels will deal with the eccentric part of the aspect. Maybe Dusty does understand all the details of human interaction and as such comes over as a bit odd. Saying the wrong thing to the wrong person.

Trouble: I should add this to my collection
Dusty loves high tech items. He just has to collect one of every kind in the system. He needs to have them and study them.
Possible Invokes
There is a good chance if he is looking for a part, he may have it in his collection.
Possible Compels.
When he encounters new tech, he is going to want to take it. It should be his, he is after all better suited to keep it. Also if he is using up supplies he might not want to use up the last unique item in his collection.

Aspect: I don’t need academia I can find supplies on my own.
After the incident at Penton University, Dusty has been reluctant to contact people in academia, he can get by on his own.
Possible Invokes
Can be used in finding things or people that can help with his projects. People that work with or for academia.
Possible Compels
Well the incident certainly got Dusty a few enemies and more than one person from his university days would like to see him fail.

Aspect: Friends in low places
Dusty has managed to get himself connected with the criminal fraternity. He has done plenty of work for criminals and those south of the law.
Invokes
If it involves finding criminals or dealing with them, Dusty is the man for the job. It can be used when dealing with the darker side of life.
Compels
People are less likely to trust someone with these kind of friends. Also this might get Dusty one or two enemies within the law enforcement community.

Main Skills
Technology and Resources

[Earthwalker]

Characters in much shorter form.

Nova
Former Space Pirate
Used to the finer things in life
I will get you Astrid
I can talk people into anything
My pet snake, Sally
Main Skills - Pilot, Shoot, Rapport



Raquel
Rogue Replicant
Dr Moria of Pinwheel Corp wants me dead
Free to choose
Leave no stone unturned
Find others of my kind
Main Skills Will, Decieve, Fight



Dusty
Eccentric Genius Engineer
I have to add this to my collection
I don't need academia I can find the supplies on my own
Friends in low places
<Blank for now>
Main Skills: Technology, Resources, Contacts

[Earthwalker]

Session 1 – Part 1
We start with the Space Raptor parked in one of the many star ports of Tortuga.

Spoiler: Tortuga

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Tortuga
Small moon of Dorris-8 (Dorris being the main star in the system (some times its not worth asking the players to make up a name of a star)) It is a partially terraformed moon but when it was discovered how difficult it was going to be to mine the place the terraforming was canceled half complete. In recent years make shift star ports have spring up on the place and it has become home to pirate bands of different sorts.
Aspects
Only Law is the Law of the Gun
Too Many Spaceports
If you have the credits you can find anything on Tortuga
<I resisted the temptation to add in Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy>

The crew are here to look for work, they have a ship loan to pay off and so need to earn some money. At least to keep their boat flying. Its Dusty that manages to find something on the wire that might pay well. A middle man named Mamut is looking for a ship for a collection and delivery mission. After checking the posting the team agree to a meet with this middle man. And were sent a email confirming the time and place. 2 hours time in the Blue Planet Bar.

Spoiler: Mamut / Blue Planet

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The player asked me if they knew anything of the Blue Planet or Mamut.
I got Dusty (he had the best contacts skill) to roll a average contacts seeing what he knew about Mamut.
He succeeded and found out that Mamut is a professional middle man working for a few different corporations and acting as a discreet way to keep the corporations hands clean.
They also learned one of Mamuts aspects “Large Appetite” and a free invoke against it if it came up.
(Not normal as this was for the next scene but it made sense)
Dusty also checked to see if he knew about the Blue Planet and was told it was a regular meeting place for clandestine deals.
The Blue Planet
Aspects
Terrible Band
Cheap booze and cheaper partners
In both cases if his rolls went badly I was prepared to add in a aspect onto Mamut or Blue Planet that would work against him in some way.

The group make their way through the small shanty town that had built up around the spaceport. Deals were being struck out in the open and most of the populace seemed armed. They moved to an even lower class area (difficult to believe they could drop lower). Nova began to feel very uncomfortable with the mess and general squallier, she was used to the finer things after all. Raquel was enraged by the sight of a replicate brothel, her kind had a right to be free.

Spoiler: Compels

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I handled this badly I compiled the both of them but only handed out a mild consequence I could get a free invoke on in the next scene. This seemed very poor and I need something better for both of them. Certainly I should have told Raquel’s player about it and worked out what she would have done to cause trouble for the brothel and herself. I worry about the same for Nova as she would just not want to be there and I don’t want compels meaning a player doesn’t get to be in a scene

Once inside the bar the crew settle down to and wait for Mamut. They decide to skip the food as products labels “meat” complete with quotation marks is always a worry. It’s not long before Mamut arrives. He is a large man both in height and girth. He was a man of Arab decent and dressed in a white suit.
Mamut orders a massive plate for “meat” for himself and wine for the table. He spends some time making small talk over his meal.

Spoiler: Mamut

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I allow Mamut time to read the players (Empathy rolls) and vice versa. The players find out more about Mamut and uncover all his aspects
Mamut
Aspects
Large Appetite
Working for Prometheus Iniative
Get my cut from the crews credits
Mamut also gains a few aspects of the players. Raquel does all in her power to keep her secrets. Spending a fate point and explain the terrible band are clearly making it hard for Mamut to hear her

After the small talk Mamut explains the deal his clinet wants to help a couple of corporate scientist break their current contract with their employer and move to a new corp. The scientist are a married couple called Jenkins and are currently on Dorris 3 working for Weyung Mining Corp. Mamut needs a team to go in, get the jenkins and then move them off world to wait for a call to arrange a transfer point.
The crew agreed to go along with the plan and we got to a stage of argueing over credits. After a breif negotiation a price was set Mamut left leaving the group time to plan.

Spoiler: Money

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My bigest mistake of the night. Money was never mentioned and yeah the crew need to keep the ship flying but they were not concerned with how much they were getting paid. I need to come up with a system for this some how. A way for them to wipe out the Paying off the Loan aspect of their ship. The negotiation was helpful as the players used what they had learn (aspect wise) to increase their rapport against Mamut sweetening the deal by offering first a trans-phase bi-optimum gravaton coil to Dusty (I need to add this to my collection) and offering information on Astrid to Nova. Mamut learned nothing of Raquel

[Earthwalker]

Once the deal with Mamut is struck the players are on their way back the The Space Raptor and take off headed to Doris-3 and trying to come up with some way to deal with security. Doris-3 is one of the core planets and ships landing there need clearance and paperwork and all the kinds of things the crew don’t have.

Spoiler: Doris system Government

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All bark and no bite
High security Core Planets

Instead of worrying about getting the right credentials the crew decide to go with a the simple plan of crashing into the atmosphere near the facility the Jenkins are in. They will try to fake an engine failure and land. Once landed take their hover sled to the facility. Hack the security. Get the Jenkins, then get out before the law appears. They have data on the facility from Mamut, so they know where the Jenkins are and…

Spoiler: Weyung Corp Facility Doris-3

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Cliff side base
Cheap Robot Security
Outdated electronic security *(Dusty checked with some of his shady contacts about the place and created this advantage)

The Space Raptor breaks atmo and begins flying / falling to the ground. Nova does her best trying to make the ship look like it’s out of control. (Create advantage : Tail Spin). Meanwhile Dusty is over powering one of the engines making it appear broken (Create advantage: Smoking Engine).
Soon Raquel is on the wire speaking to space port Gemini, as they demand transmission of the Space Raptors landing clearance.
Raquel explains they can’t steer and the ship is going down.
(The air traffic controller has good empathy, I also add in +2 as this is a high security core planet. But with free invokes passed over from Dusty and Nova Raquel succeeds with style.)
Air traffic control is convinced and is despatching repair crews to the Space Raptor once it has touched down. With the wait on services and the distance from the space port it’s going to be a few hours before the repair / security teams can arrive.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I had no idea what I was doing with all this. It was all just falling off the top of my head. Something Fate helps with. I was imagining that the crew would get real landing permission and have time to scope out the facility. Now we were just flying by the seat of out pants.
It might be me pushing the group I have played a lot of shadowrun with Raquel’s player and as such I am used to the 3 hours of planning 1 hour of playing style of game. I wanted this to be all time playing.
The group did have an Aspect from the meeting with Mamut (I forgot to mention this in the last post)
“Plans of the building”
They can declare details of that and I am sure they will

The crew load into their hover raft and head to the facility. Now it’s on the side of a cliff (I thought they might climb up and sneak in from underneath, they decide to fly up and hit the main entrance). A few stealth rolls later the group were looking at the entrance to the building while hiding in the beautifully manicured shrubbery.

The entrance to the building was guarded by two robot sentries. It also had a keypad and camera watching over the robots. Dusty pointed out with the “outdated electrical security” was easily jammed and he could loop the camera feed.
Dusty used technology first to create an advantage “Link to security system” then looped the camera feed (Burglary roll). Nova steps out of cover and started shooting, shutting one of the robots down. At the same time Raquel ran the gap between her and the robot security, the punched its head off.
Two robots disabled, the bodies hidden in the shrubbery.
(This was the first “combat” and the players just found out about nameless NPCs and how quickly they go down)

The main entrance was quiet the only thing of note was the elevator to the other floors. The crew know where the Jenkins living quarters are. It’s on the elevator ride down do they realize how much they stand out. So they need a disguise. Dusty remembers a janitors locker room on the plans (After spending a fate point to declare it, and having “Plans of the Building”) so they head there and get changed.

Again I compel Nova as the over alls are simply terrible and she is used to the finer things. She turns her nose up but puts the overalls on. (I end up giving her a mild consequence again and she takes a fate point. Someone that knows fate needs to give me some suggestions here)

Once disguised the crew head to the Jenkins living quarters. They buzz the intercom and a male voice asks who is it and what do they want.

Raquel declares they are here to take the Jenkins away and they need to be quick. This confession was a shock to the bodyguard on the other side of the door that was hired to keep the Jenkins at Wayung. He calls a security alert. Gets his partner to secure the Jenkins and opens the door to start blasting.

On the outside of the door robot guards start appearing and the end of the corridor and all hell breaks loose.

We go through another combat. This one slightly more evenly matched. The robots using team work can be a serious problem. They were operating in groups of three. The two bodyguards had a good measure of skills and managed to knock off a lot of stress. Fate points were drained and no player managed to take a consequence.

After the fight, Nova convinces the Jenkins to come along. They seemed to already be packed. They dash through the building hacking security to get the elevator moving again.
(I throw out some compels here (They pass a room with a device that would go so well in Dusty’s collection, also Raquel may have left a trace of herself and should clear the security logs “She is hunted by Dr Moria”. The compels are a bit pointless as the session is ending soon I should have waited)

They get to their hover raft and Nova manages to lose any persute from the building.

This is where we ended the sesssion. Next post will be so many questions I have for Fate players / GMs looking for advice.

[Earthwalker]

Before the next session I am hoping I can get a bit of advice.

COMPELS

I need some kind of action to take on "Used to the finer things" something that will not take the player out of the action completely.
Also would like similar suggestions on "I should add this to my collection".

Its a difficult line to draw.



RESOURCES


Going forward I am going with driving the plot on the players aspects (I know DOH) and that will get the team moving I am sure. I did have the problem with being paid for work. My plan for this is at the end of a senario rolling to clear the debt on the ship. Then giving boosts if tey have taken paying work. This was negotiation for work is a thing.

Just wondered what people thought ?

[Beleriphon]

<I resisted the temptation to add in Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy>

Why man? Why?

As for the other questions, I think compels are easy to do, but they need to be used to push the characters forwards, or in different directions. So you might use the compels to create temporary aspects like I Don't Want to get Mud on My Boots or some such.

As for resources I'd keep them constantly poor and in debt until they have on big blow out that lets them get a The Ship is Free and Clear aspect. That seems to fit the style of game you're going for as well.

[Gravitron5000]

Before the next session I am hoping I can get a bit of advice.

COMPELS

I need some kind of action to take on "Used to the finer things" something that will not take the player out of the action completely.
Also would like similar suggestions on "I should add this to my collection".

Its a difficult line to draw.

RESOURCES

Going forward I am going with driving the plot on the players aspects (I know DOH) and that will get the team moving I am sure. I did have the problem with being paid for work. My plan for this is at the end of a senario rolling to clear the debt on the ship. Then giving boosts if tey have taken paying work. This was negotiation for work is a thing.

Just wondered what people thought ?

For compels, I wouldn't have used consequences at all. The compel should create a plot complication. So take this situation below.

Again I compel Nova as the over alls are simply terrible and she is used to the finer things. She turns her nose up but puts the overalls on. (I end up giving her a mild consequence again and she takes a fate point. Someone that knows fate needs to give me some suggestions here)

What I would have done was compel against the finer things aspect to not put on the disguise. This could be represented by tacking on an aspect like "Sticks out like a sore thumb" for the scene. Gain a Fate point for refusing to put on the disguise, pay a Fate point to put on the overalls anyway.

As to "I should add this to my collection", look for scenes that taking something could get noticed, which could make things more difficult.


For resources, I would give the ship a number of boxes representing debt payments left to clear the debt. Each job pays a number of boxes. One cross through represents payment in hand. A second one represents payment made (this box can be removed). This allows the players to trade off payment in hand for other things, if the story dictates. Don't forget to add in things like interest (Add a box each Arc if there is still debt remaining would be the easiest way to handle it), and story points if payments are not made at whatever interval makes sense.

[kyoryu]

In a disguise of janitor's clothes, I'd probably Compel when they encounter someone... Because you're used to the finer things, it would make sense that you'd be uncomfortable in these thick, scratchy clothes. This goes wrong when someone notices your discomfort and realizes you don't belong in them.

[Earthwalker]

Thank you all for your replies.
We are suppose to be playing the game weekly but since my first post we have not managed to arrange a date, the usual stuff. Here is hoping we start again soon.

I can see where I have been going wrong with compels I think in some ways I am worried that if I make compels difficult and they end up spending fate points to get back out of the trouble the compel got them into I am being too harsh.

In a disguise of janitor's clothes, I'd probably Compel when they encounter someone... Because you're used to the finer things, it would make sense that you'd be uncomfortable in these thick, scratchy clothes. This goes wrong when someone notices your discomfort and realizes you don't belong in them.

Yep thats another little switch in my head switched over. I don't have to compel at the time the action is taken, it is something that can crop up later. Very helpful tip and a much better way of handling things.

More to come on the campgin when I can get all my players together in one room.

[Earthwalker]

We had another session. YAY it’s about time. For a weekly meet a lot of weeks go between each session.
We started with a few people wanting to change their characters a little (I expected this as we weren’t sure about things and I had said the first few sessions things could be changed)
Dusty wanted to change his trouble from
“I must add this to my collection” to something more about not backing down from challenges or something similar. After a discussion we decided to go make the aspect more about him proving himself.
We got “I must prove I am better than my rivals” I like this as it has uses for not backing down from challenges and also introduces rivals Dusty may have.

Nova wanted to change her trouble as well currently she had “Used to the finer things” but it was not coming up much and shutting down the story when it did. At the start of the session we had nothing really to replace it with so we would play and see what came up.

Raquel did change around a few skills but she was happy with her aspects. The skill changes were minor, mainly due to not fully understanding what skills would be used for.


Session 2

(Question : How will the team deal with Mr Fixit and friends)

We join our “heroes” as they are flying there hover raft back to the Spare Raptor and about to head off planet with two stolen scientists. As they approach the space raptor they see a number of droids stood next to the cargo bay entrance. They land the craft and Nova and Raquel sneak up and look over their space ship to see what is happening. Dusty is left to look after the two scientists for now, a nice couple called Jenkins. They see a repair bot and half a dozen combat bots all from the Doris-7 central government. (They had landed on the planet by faking engine damage, it seems the government had sent a bot to fix their ship)

Nova and Raquel move out of cover and head over to the group of droids. They introduce themselves and one bot speaks for the droids

“This unit is designated Mr Fixit, we are here to repair your ship”…

The conversation goes on with Raquel trying to get the droids to report back everything is ok. Before she can make too much progress on this Nova opens the cargo bay and says that Mr Fixit can work on the engine. (I liked the look exchanged between Nova and Raquel’s players as they try to work out what going on)

Turns out Nova wants to keep Mr Fixit and this is all part of the plan.

Once its accepted that Mr Fixit is going on board Raquel changes track with her lies and gets them to believe that guns aren’t allowed on the ship and the combat droids should stay behind. Mr Fixit isn’t convinced. The deceive roll is a tie so only half they droids board with Mr Fixit and they leave their guns behind.

Nova convinces Mr Fixit that the main problem is in one of the crew quarters and not the engine, he should check there first. Off they go into a narrow corridor to the crew quarters. Nova traps Mr Fixit in the room and a fight break outs. Two droids are taken out quickly. The third checks his protocols for the situation, can’t find what action to take so defaults to “Run away” and starts to run off the ship.
While all this is going on Mr Fixit is running an override on the door trying to get out. Now it would be a simple technology roll for Mr Fixit (and he is good with technology) but Dusty declares he has worked on the internal security and has upgraded the system (this costs him a fate point) and I allow him to resist

Mr Fixits attempts to break out. The door holds out and Mr Fixit is trapped.
Nova runs to the pilots seat. Raquel runs after the fleeing droid and blocks its path. Dusty on the outside seeing all this happen decided to get the Jenkins on the hover raft and head towards the ship.
At this stage Nova announces she wants to reverse the ship into the droids outside, collect them into the cargo bay (hopefully grabbing Dusty as well) then make the burn to get off planet. This is of course too awesome not to try.

Nova needs a great pilot roll to pull the manoeuvre. Raquel needs to make a fair physic to stay in the ship, Dusty needs a fair pilot to get the hover raft onboard.
Rolls are made, fate points are spent (Nova used to be a space pirate, she can fly any ship and pull off manoeuvres like this all the time) and all the moves work perfectly. The droids are in the back, the cargo bay is closed and the Space Raptor is heading into space.
Dusty and Raquel keep fighting the droids in the cargo bay and Nova pilots. Opening the fight, Dusty tries to get the droids to surrender by saying the cargo bays ion cannons will vaporize them if they do not stand down. The droids don’t stand down but waste an action shooting what they think are the ion cannons (shooting random junk that’s in the cargo bay, including Dustys TV…. To quote Dusty. “no not the TV”)

The fight is over quick and the droids are dispatched. With no damage caused to the players only their stuff.

Spoiler: Mr Fixit

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Mr Fixit
Technology 3, Education 2, Fight 1, Emapthy 1, Will 1, Shoot 1
2 stress boxes.

Spoiler: Combat Droids

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Combat Droids (Normal work in packs of three using team work)
Technology 1, Fight 1, Shoot 1
1 Stress Box.

[Earthwalker]

(this was not a planned scene just filling in the blanks. A scene did form from it though)

In the space flight to Gibbs moon to hand over the Jenkins the team make themselves busy. Dusty engineer genius works on the droids. He manages to make two droids and wipes their memories (and skills). They get called Ebony and Ivory and turn into chess partners for Raquel to play against. (She likes chess its logical and makes sense)

Mr Fixit is more complicated than the combat droids. Dusty will need time to wipe his memory and get past some encryption. They also want to keep his skills intact. So as a temporary measure (thought up by Raquel’s player) is that they keep resetting his clock. So he thinks no time is passing. This means that the 6 hours he was assigned to fix the Space Raptor never run out, so for now he will fix the ship.

Spoiler: Gms thoughts

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I don’t want Dusty just reprogramming droids building a massive droid army. I will come up with more detailed rules for this if needed but as things stand so far I am quite happy for a couple of dumb chess droids to be in the background on the ship being comic relief. As for Mr Fixit I will jump off that bridge when I come to it.

Also on the trip the issue of the Jenkins came up. They were given quarters and the freedom of the ship, such as it is. It was also decided someone should speak with them and see what their deal was. Make sure they are ok.

Spoiler: OOC stuff

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Well the players did the ooc thing of who has skills to talk to them and what do we need. It turns out empathy would be useful, to find out some aspects and get to know them. Looking over the three characters it did provide me some amusement that the character with the best Empathy is the replicant who is only faking being human. She has empathy +1.
The other two the space pirate and the genius engineer have no empathy. Guess that kind of fits.

Raquel wanted to talk to the Jenkins anyway and make sure their new job offered them freedom (Aspect: People should be free to choose). She does talk to them for a while and learns their aspects. She also learns the new job is much better and has more freedom than the last. She learns that Neil Jenkins is (aspect) obsessed with the stone. She sees him staring at it in his quarters before one of their meetings. Once this information is passed onto the others in the crew a plan is formed. They need to look at this stone.

Raquel grabs the Jenkins and keeps them busy. She comes up with a few lies (thanks to lies upon lies she easily convinces them to spend time away from their quarters) Nova grabs Mr Fixit and heads to the Jenkins room. She orders him inside. He waits a second or two, the last time he was ordered into a room by Nova she shut him in, then he lost time.

“This unit detects no broken apparatus for this unit to fix” he says on the threshold of the door.

Nova walks past him, pulls a metal rail off the wall and starts beating on a machine in the corner before dropping the metal rail.

Now panicked as the machine in the corner is connected pipes from the engine (the exhaust fumes are used to heat the ship so they are pipes all over) Mr Fixit runs in and starts fixing the machine. All the time staring at Nova, secretly wishing he had facial expressions so he could show his disapproval.
Nova now had an excuse if she was found in the Jenkins room. She starts going through the bags and soon comes across a stone in a sealed locked beaker. Skilled in some areas of burglary she plays with the lock and soon gets the container open and looks at the stone. The stone is blue and red and hovers a few inches above her hand. It seems unique. So of course she must have it.

Spoiler: Gm Note

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We were looking for a new trouble for Nova. I think this summed her up perfectly. At the end of the session we decided on.
“See, Want, Take”
Similar to tempted by shiny things in the book. Of course this also has an element of impulsiveness thrown in for good measure. She is a former Space Pirate and this seems to fit really well

She called Dusty in to replicate the stone using some technical do-dad. He got to work. I had Raquel roll again on deceive to keep the Jenkins out of this making it difficult, they need to return to their quarters and Neil was “Obsessed with the stone” Still with her lies upon lies she was more than a match for the job and the Jenkins were kept busy.

Dusty manages to create a fake stone with a good technology roll.

All that was left was to see how it all worked. I was going to make Nova make a deceive roll but it’s going to be much more fun to find out how this set up has worked at a later date when there is more pressure. So for now we wait and move to the next scene….



Scene 2.1

Gibbs Moon Space Port
(Question: How will Dusty and crew deal with his rivals plot ?)

Spoiler: Gibbs Moon

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Gibbs moon is a terraformed mining moon two of the characters have spent some time here in their background it’s also a quiet out of the way place where the team can hand over The Jenkins and get their pay.
Aspects
Dirt Everywhere
We have to meet the quota

The Space Raptor lands and the crew head out into town to check on the local situation and get supplies for the ship. As the three crew members are walking down the ramp they are met by 5 men. They are all armed and pointing guns at the group.

The man in the middle has a shotgun in his hands and a sheriffs badge on his chest.
(Pause as the group think is this something to do with the Jenkins)

Sheriff West “Dusty Laravel, you are bound by law. Drop your gun and raise them hands”.

(Two of the players look relieved its only Dusty. Dusty looks less relieved, a fate chip heads his way)

Dusty is cuffed and dragged off to jail. His two partners accompany him. The sheriff’s office / jail is a simple affair. An outer room for the office with the cells in another room behind the sheriffs desk (basically every sheriff’s office I have ever seen in a western). Dusty is stripped of all his equipment (this takes some time, what with his neutron converter, his aeon phase scanner, his flux capacitor….. etc, etc, etc) and is put in a cell.

The sheriff gets the other two to sit down.

Raquel wants to try to get a read on the sheriff see if he is on the up and up.

Spoiler: Sheriff West

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Local Sheriff
I am the law around here, not Gibbs Corp
Getting too old for this
But first we drink

Raquel starts asking questions about why Dusty has been arrested and what’s going to happen next.
Sheriff West “Yeah we will get round to that but first we drink”

Whiskey and glasses are produced and large measures are poured, the sheriff downs his and tops up his glass before the others have a chance to react

Dusty from the cells “I want to drink”
Sherriff West “Quiet back there !”

The Sheriff lays out a load of paperwork in front of the team. The arrest warrant. The details of the investigation and a few other bits and pieces. It seems that a couple of mining robots went berserk and killed some 2 workers. The Sherriff had to shut down the mine while he investigates what happens. Gibbs Corp have the answer it’s a design flaw with the robot and it’s not their fault. More so a contact of Gibbs Corp has provided information on the bots designer (Dusty) and has named him culpable. Even better Dusty is expected on Gibbs Moon. This all seems like so much BS to the sheriff the corp. is just trying to pass on blame to someone else and get the mine started up again.

The contact is a professor Finch from the university on Doris-3 and of course an old rival of Dusty.

(Queue Dusty mumbling something in his cell)

There is some discussion. The Sherriff has no staff to deal with this (the deputies at the space port were lent to him from Gibbs Corp, they certainly won’t help him hold production up any more, we have a quota to meet) so he can’t spare the time to investigate. If some independents were to look into the matter it might clear things up.

Negotiations happen and Dusty is released into the custody of the crew and they have 24 hours to find out what really happened (for your trope drinking game, drink now, you should be very drunk by now).

Spoiler: GM Note

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I have been having trouble with compels but I like this one. It has moved the story somewhere new for the group. Dusty is still in play and has an element to the story all his own… What is Professor Finch up to. Also so far they have not had to spend more fate points getting out of the compel than they get. So far so good. Next note is what happens with the investigation and a compel for Raquel just to cause more problems.

[kyoryu]

For the Droid Army problem, I'd look at it this way - on a failure, the consequences can be that the Droid "phones home" about the hacking attempt, alerting the 'owners' of the droid of what's going on and who's responsible along with their location.

One or even two of these failures is probably not going to be a big deal (unless they're already being hunted). However, a pattern will certainly alert people to their existence and what they're up to.

Also, where are you going to keep your droid army?

Those are a few ways of dealing with this if it comes up.

[Earthwalker]

For the Droid Army problem, I'd look at it this way - on a failure, the consequences can be that the Droid "phones home" about the hacking attempt, alerting the 'owners' of the droid of what's going on and who's responsible along with their location.

One or even two of these failures is probably not going to be a big deal (unless they're already being hunted). However, a pattern will certainly alert people to their existence and what they're up to.

Also, where are you going to keep your droid army?

Those are a few ways of dealing with this if it comes up.

Thanks usful suggestions as always.
I was also thinking that it would be resonable to make the test get harder if he keeps hacking them as the corp involved would post upgrades to firewalls and such, if they keep losing droids.

[Earthwalker]

Gibbs Moon

Investigation (Can the crew prove Dusty innocent ?)

The crew Dusty included head out to investigate the deaths. Their first question is what has happened to the droids that malfunctioned. One is at the back of the sheriff’s station the other was completely destroyed and the parts are in the mine.
Starting with the droid at the Sheriff’s office Dusty starts to look over the droid and see if he can see any signs of tampering or an explanation as to what had gone wrong. Not only did Dusty not get any useful information he also managed to burn out the droids processor core.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I made this an Opposed roll against Professor Finch’s technology skill. Professor Finch thanks to a stun Professor Finch had. Dusty rolled really badly and decided against spending a fate point, the crew had other things to investigate. My main crime here was making the fail result dull. The fail should have triggered an alert to Professor Finch so he could despatch some robot-killers after the crew. Ahhh robot-killers is there any problem they can’t solve.

The investigation continues the crew decide they should take a look at the crime scene. This involves walking through town and looking at the various bars and brothels that line main street. Before too long Raquel is distracted seeing less free of her kind working in one of the brothels. A number of replicants (ones without free will or self-awareness) are on display in Briggs Bar.

This of course troubles Raquel and prompts some investigation. She makes the rest of the crew wait as she hires a girl and a room. A replaicant she hires is called Ruby. Raquel gets frustrated with Ruby’s repeating of the phrase “So do you want to have a good time”. She does it by rote when she encounters a question she doesn’t understand. Ruby is quiet complicated but it is annoying for Raquel to see her simpler form so restrained (Also I think Raquel’s player was getting annoyed with hearing the stock phrase). On a positive note Raquel does find out one of the replicants (Emerald) has gone missing. She has even sent a note to Ruby telling her to meet her in two days time (fortunately after the current mission for the crew is over)

Spoiler: GM Note

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One of the mistakes I made at the start was not getting the characters own aspects involved in creating the story. This is me moving towards solving that. Raquel has some goals and drives towards finding out how come she is self aware and also believes the rest of her kind should be treated right. This is also Raquel looking for her own adventure and I approve.
The scene between Raquel and Ruby was also extra fun, because repeating the phrase over and over did start to annoy Raquel’s player with the repetitiveness but also because it showed how broken Ruby was

On to the Mines

The crew arrive at the mines. It’s an odd mix of high tech droids and mining machines and horse drawn carts. Everything seems to be used to get as much out of the ground as possible. The main shaft is massive and with all the work going on no one seems to pay attention to three more people walking around.

It doesn’t take the crew long before they get to a taped off area where the murders happened. The second murder droid is here, it is laying under a massive filled mine cart. It has been completely destroyed. The crew look around to see what has happened. Raquel notices the security system that seems to run through the mine.

Once again Dusty putting his technology skills to use. Once again they fail him. He does not get recordings of what happened, instead he gets a taunting message from Professor Finch and then the system is wiped clean. At least they do know Professor Finch is directly involved with the crime and wasn’t just taking the opportunity to frame Dusty.
The crew decided to look around and see if they can see anything wrong with the scene.

Spoiler: Team Work

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I have used team work for the bad guys so I thought I better resolve this as a single roll. Investigation test. Raquel and Nova have the skill. I let Raquel roll and give +1 for Nova helping

Looking over the scene they discover the tracks of two people that seemed to be watching from the sidelines. People that clearly saw what did happen. They follow the tracks out of the mine and it leads to a small group of shacks. Playing it safe Raquel decides to sneak up and see who is in the shack. She hears two men arguing. After some discussion they decide that Dusty can make a bug that Raquel can plant to overhear the men and find more clues.

A technology roll and resource roll later Dusty has a bug that Raquel can plant. Once this is in place I call for a team work notice roll to see if they over hear anything important. After succeeding with style it turns out the men in the shack are the brothers Doyle and they are arguing over how they should have got more money for planting the code to make the droids kill. They basically incriminate themselves and even mention getting off planet on the next shuttle.

It doesn’t take long to convince the sheriff who the real guilty party are. So after a drink he rounds up some deputies and they take in the brothers Doyle. Again Dusty is a free man, he also has a score to settle with Professor Finch.

Spoiler: GM Notes

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We had a compel that didnt cost anyone any more fate points and took the story some where new. It also opened up some more of the world. We have Professor Finch out there somewhere. Maybe trying to hide in case of Dusty looking for retribution. I was happy with what was happening here.
I think I needed to change the investigation elements to get more imput from the players. Less a series of overcome rolls more having them proactivly trying to find advantages for themselves to make investigating eaier. I will have to think on that.

[Earthwalker]

Gibbs Moon

Handing over the Jenkins (Where will the Jenkins go)

Spoiler: GM Notes

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Well I have never played a system with an idea like social (mental) combat. I wanted to give it a try. I was going to have different people making offers for the Jenkins and thought combat was the best way to handle the scene. I of course was very wrong. I have now learnt enough for how to use it going forward so I think this was important.
My mistake was making different factions (only 2) fighting against each other as well as the PC’s next time it might have to be a situation where a couple of characters engage jointly in social combat against the PC. If the situation comes up I would be glad to see what I have learned.

A note comes through from Mamut. The meeting place is set, a place a bar called The White Star.

The White Star Bar

Spoiler: Aspects

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Quiet Lunch time Crowd

The crew and the Jenkins get to the met early. Neil keeping good hold of his bag. Of course he is still unaware this stone has been stolen. They get a quiet table and wait. Soon Mamut arrives. Takes a separate table near the crew and orders a couple of plates of turf and turf . (Mamut likes his food)
Not long after the next player in the story arrives. There people dressed in Prometheus imitative fight suits complete with tinted helmets. Two of the newcomers move to cover the door and the third sits at a table close to the crew. He introduces himself as ZuZu. He orders a glass of water though never takes off his helmet.

Spoiler: ZuZu

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Prometheus Initiative Trouble-shooter
Has seen the darkness
For Science !!
Education +3, Technology +3, Rapport +2, Will +2, Empathy +2, Deceive +2

Mamut handles some of the protocol and lets the team and ZuZu talk for a while. Giving each a chance to get some idea of the others aspects. This of course is problematic for the crews with their lack of Empathy. Before negotiations start a new unexpected player joins the game.

Spoiler: Robert Blake

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Corporate Shark
It’s all about winning
Education +2, Technology +1. Rapport +2, Provoke +3, deceive +2, Empathy +2
Stun – For the cost of a fate point can use provoke on all targets in a scene.
I am wanting Mr Blake to be a thorn in the crew’s side for a while.

Mr Blake announces he should be involved in the upcoming negotiations. Gibbs Corp has interest in all deals on this moon. The Jenkins should choose who to go with based on what people can offer. There is plenty of work for the Jenkins on Gibbs Moon.

I start up a brief explanation on social combat. I won’t give a blow by blow but each of the crew starts looking for advantages (unfortunately the no empathy thing comes up again. (Really I should think of other options to get advantages not from empathy….)

In the battle the Prometheans spent most of their time defending their position and sticking to the fact they had a deal. This left Mr Blake fighting the crew. He did use his stun to hit all the crew stating among other things, one of them was a former pirate and the other washed out of university. How could the Jenkins trust their opinion.

This hit the crew badly apart from Raquel who has nerves of steel (well it’s a composite carbon fibre stronger than steal and have the weight). I was expecting some of the crew to drop out of the fight. Nova had a filled in two consequences and dusty had a major consequence as well. They choose to fight on.

Raquel spent time trying to work out what both sides wanted. In the end the players stayed in and Mr Blake was forced to concede the battle. The Jenkins would go with the Prometheans and the crew would get paid.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Ok this would have been handled much better as a competition or in fact a series of overcome rolls. It has shown me what I can do in the future with having something handled as a conflict but next time I will have two sides, the crew versus the know enemy so that it runs smoother.
I should also work on allowing the creation of advantages on skills other than empathy. On one note Raquel does at least have a stun that allows her to use notice instead of empathy to create advantages.

We closed out the session here. I did one last thing. As the Jenkins were leaving I had Nova roll her deceive to see if Neil was fooled by her replacing the stone. She passed and the Jenkins went on their way. The crew (well Raquel) did managed to get an invite to the Jenkins when they were settled. She wanted to make sure that the contract was being kept.

[Earthwalker]

I feel I keep going on about the mistakes I am making but its all a good learning experiance. At the moment I am loving the Fate system and I am slowly adjusting to how it works and the ideas it brings up.

The next session is tomorrow night and I know we have a few threads to still look into.

What is going to happen with the stone that Nova has stolen. Also I am sure Raquel is going to be very keen to find out what happened to Emerald.

The next session is also the end of the trail run. by the end of the session I expect the characters skills and aspects only changed by events in the game. So I will look into character advancment and put some plans in place to mark milestones.

I think I need to read the milestones section again.

[kyoryu]

I was also thinking that it would be resonable to make the test get harder if he keeps hacking them as the corp involved would post upgrades to firewalls and such, if they keep losing droids.

Glad I could help!

And yeah, that's a good way of doing things, too. I mean, if there's vulnerabilities, they'll get patched eventually, right?

It sounds like you're getting the hang of things pretty well.

I end up using social *contests* much more than conflicts, but still. The point of them (as any contest/conflict) is generally to resolve some type of question - so figure out what question you're answering, and go from there. The last social conflict I ran was around "will they convince the UN agents to let the sheriff go?" as an example.

[Earthwalker]

Another week and thrilling instalment of Sppppaaaacccceeeee Raptttooorrrrr.

Last we we saw the noble crew of the space raptor cutting a deal and handing over some space scientist to the mysterious Prometheus Imitative. I knew this week the crew, well mainly Raquel would be interested in trying to find out what happened to the runaway replicant Emerald.

Spoiler: GMs note

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I did figure this was the direction the crew would head in so I had a few notes prepared for the replicants left in the bar, Ruby and Sapphire. I also statted up Briggs the owner of the bar.
Before I started I did go over some elements of healing and dealing with consequences. Something I think the players were not too aware of. Now Nova had a mild and moderate consequence from the battle last session and Dusty was sporting a mild consequence. As these were mental in nature I had Nova roll empathy on each to move it onto the healing. Fortunately she got lucky and managed to make each roll. We change the consequence to something more suitable.
My favourite was Nova who had
Regretting the choices I made (Her shady past came up in the meeting last week)
This got changed to
Time will prove me right…..

The crew decide to investigate the bar where the replicants worked and proceeded with operation steal some hookers.

The Gem
“Were not the best, but we are far from the worst”
“The customer is sometimes right”

They spend some time investigating the place. Looking around for anything that could help them. Also trying to make a note of the working girls patterns. The staff of the place was mainly human but Raquel was interested in the two replicants still working in the bar Ruby and Sapphire.

Spoiler: GMs note

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So this seems ideal for having a notice to create an advantage. See what weaknesses they can find.
Raquel ties her notice roll and sees that Ruby does sometimes leave the bar, when she does she is fitted with a tracking signal.
Lets add the aspect
“Hot stuff, to go”.

Raquel decides to follow Ruby and her swain back to his place. A dull concrete building on the outskirts of town. The place looked reasonably expensive compared to some of the shacks close to the mine, Raquel looked at the mail box and got a name for the own, John jon. The name meant nothing to her. Once she knew where Ruby was she choose to swap places with Dusty and Nova. She heads back to the Gem and then Dusty and Nova head over to John jons.

I can’t quiet remember the provocation but Nova and Dusty had enough of the whole investigation thing and decided it was time for action. (YAY go Team) First problem was the tracking bracelet. No problem Dusty is a “Engineering Genius” time to block the signal. Working with a few spare parts he tries to make a jammer. Something to knock out the signal. Dusty manages a tie on the roll and so he gets what he wants. His device shuts down the tracking bracelet. He also gets a complication, the device shuts down all power within 50 metres.

Aspect added “Power Outage”.

Nova and Dusty stand in the now dark street for a moment as things sink in. They soon workout the lack of power isn’t going to stop their “plan” and get to work with phase 2. They head to John Jons door and knock.

There is no answer. Dusty shouts through the door “Sorry sir there seems to be some problem with Roby’s bracelet its caused a power outage and we need to get her and the bracelet back to The Gem”.
A few moments later a young man in a state of undress comes to the door. He finishes fastening his belt back up and starts putting on a shirt. “What ?”

Dusty goes on to tell John jon (well John Jon Jr or triple J as people call him) that Ruby needs to get back to the Gem. They should be able to open the bracelet there and fix the problem. For a while John jon looks back into the house and then to Dusty trying to decided his best course of action. He looks wistfully at Ruby. Across the street some people start coming out of houses trying to work out what happened to the power.

This seems enough to goad John jon into action. “Fine” he states and gets Ruby ready to leave. A few moments later Ruby is with Nova and Dusty headed to the Gem. Ruby seems to be partially leading as she is just heading home.

To be Continued…

[Earthwalker]

Meanwhile back at the Gem. Raquel is busy looking out for signs of Sapphire. At the time I had no idea what Raquel was planning she was just “keeping an eye on things”. Sapphire was busy with a customer, but after a minuets she came downstairs. Before Raquel had a chance to talk to Sapphire she noticed a heavy set man in and ill fitting suit talking to Briggs. After a brief animated conversation the heavy set man picked up a baseball bat from behind the bar and headed out.

Figuring this had something to do with the Ruby situation Raquel gets on the coms to speak to the crew. Of course no signal gets though, it’s almost like the crew are in some power outage or something.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I have to say its situations like this that make Gming worthwhile, letting the players foil their own plans. I think it was the great Hannibal Smith that said… “I love it when a plan falls apart”. It was something like that.

Sapphire walks outside to the front of the bar, trying to lure in some more customers. Giving up on the comms Raquel heads out to talk to Sapphire. Sapphire opens with the standard “Do you want a good time” lines. Yet again demonstrating the difference between Raquel and these more primitive models.
After rebuffing the line Raquel starts asking questions about Ruby and Emerald. Sapphire gives stock non answers returning to trying to get Raquel to party. Before getting too far the comms come back to life the players have a brief chat about what has happened so far.

At the point where Raquel warns the others about the heavy set man with a bat heading their way it seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.

I tell Dusty and Nova that just as they are walking down the street with Ruby they see a heavy set man in an ill fitting suit round the corner ahead, stepping onto the same street as them. He seems to be carrying a base ball bat. What do they want to do.

Dusty says he will try to grab Ruby and pull her into cover, Nova is going to try to hide before being noticed.

Perfect we can handle this as a two step task, first we will roll Dusty using Physic to move Ruby into the alley and then Nova can make a stealth. Dusty goes first and surprisingly he manages to drag the replicant into the alley. Nova that rolls a stealth, (The dice come up with a -4) fortunately there is “Dirt Everywhere” perhaps some got into the gentleman’s eyes (fate point spent for a re-roll a -2). The gentleman with the bat spots the group, he shouts “Ruby come here” and then runs towards the group.
It seems like a combat is starting. Now Nova has a stunt that allows her to use Shoot as Notice for combat order as long as shooting is important. When working out the order for combat. Nova tells me that shooting is going to be important so she goes first.

Her first action is to shoot the bat out of their opponents hand. I ask what she is trying to achieve here. Her main plan is to scare him. So instead of trying to create an advantage we are going to try this as a provoke to scare him off. Now Nova has no stunt to use shoot in place of provoke so I adjust the resistance (I give +2 to resist). Nova manages to shoot and hits well. She does disarm the bat but doesn’t take out her opponent (you don’t take someone out of a fight, unless you take them out of the fight) he is a few stress boxes down.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Perhaps I was too generous here as I did make him “Disarmed” even if that’s not what she was going for. It was a nice looking action though so I went with it. I only caught myself in time for taking him out completely. He had stress boxes and consequences left.

At the same time Dusty was trying to convince Ruby to stay with them and not head over to the thug. Dusty about managed to rapport his way though and Ruby for the mean time was staying with the group. The Thug ran down the street towards them.

Then both Nova and Dusty surprised me by saying they were going to run away with Ruby. So the fight quickly changes into a chase. Before Ruby will run I warn them someone is going to have to convince her. Dusty uses his resources to convince her, she is a pleasure bot after all, she will follow the money.

Spoiler: Weird conversations

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I simplified the action there. The two players were talking for some time trying to come up with what they would say to Ruby to get her to move and run with them. They seemed to be over complicating things as they were trying to come up with credible reasons. I think it might have me that suggested shes a pleasure bot you can just pay her. Then they ran with the idea.
Contacts and Resources as skills diplomacy skills just as much as Deceive, Rapport and Provoke.
Of course I think the best part of this was Dusty’s resource stunt, called trust fund. He can gain a boost on a resource roll twice a session. It just lead to the idea of an accountant in the central core that manages Dusty’s account. As he reviews purchases, he has a line
Ruby: Pleasure Bot – 30,000 Credits.
I suspect I am going to keep a log of where the trust fund goes. Just to work out what the accountant thinks.

I explain the rules for a contest, which is how we are going to handle the chase scene so first to get 3 victories wins. What are you guys going to do ?

They decide to run but they are going to try to shout for help and try to turn the people on the street against the thug. I call for a Rapport roll the thug is going to use provoke to convince people not to mess with him (Thug has a better skill in Provoke than Report). First round to the crew. The crowd do seem to want help but only a few slow down the thug before he shakes them off.
Next they decide something different. (This makes me happy as they are just thinking of different things to spice it up instead of just defaulting to one action) Dusty wants to knock things over to slow him down and Nova and Ruby will keep running.

So Dusty uses Physique to knock over a convenient stack of barrels and Nova just keeps on running with Athletics. Dusty manages to create the advantage blocked path and gives the free invoke to Nova. She rolls opposed athletics and succeeds with style. Getting them the two victories they needed and free and clear.
Once this is resolved the begin discussing what next so I skip back to the Gem.

Meanwhile in the Gem.

Raquel is talking to Sapphire and hears the rest of the crew got away over the comms. Everything seems to be going swimmingly so Raquel tells Sapphire that she has just paid for the evening and she is ok to come along with her. After a successful deceive roll Sapphire buys this and says she needs to get a bracelet to track her before going.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I think this is a terrible lie but I think I will give Sapphire a bonus to resist. Raquel manages to get +3 on the dice and Sapphires fate is sealed.

Again Raquel starts telling Sapphire that’s all taken care of and she can head out with her right now. I call for another deceive roll, but thanks to the stun “Lies upon Lies” Raquel passes easily and they couple head out into the night.

Before they even get to the end of the street Briggs and two heavies are at the front of the bar telling them to stop. Briggs holds a shotgun in his hand. Raquel grabs Sapphire and starts to run. The two heavy’s give chase and Briggs just fires his shotgun at the fleeing Raquel. Raquel takes some stress but keeps running.

Again I handle the chase as a competition. The other two members of crew can hear what is happening over comms. The first action Raquel tries to run dragging Sapphire with her. We roll athletics and Raquel manages to lose, the things seem to be gaining on her. Raquel keeps running trying to dodge into more crowded areas. All the time asking for help over the comms. She manages to get a victory over the thugs chasing her.

The next action the rest of the crew arrives. The crew set up an ambush ahead and Raquel runs her pursuers into it. Dusty hides with Ruby, Nova creates a distraction by firing at the thugs. Raquel keeps running trying to get away.

Once the dice are rolled Raquel has got free and clear taking Sapphire with her. The crew sorts a few things out over comms. They arrange a meet up and hide in an alley trying to think of their next action. Now they have Ruby and Sapphire they need a new plan.

[Earthwalker]

After a brief conversation the crew decides the best plan is for Nova to get the Space Raptor from dock, then she can pick up the group replicants included and head out to the meeting place where hopefully Emerald is waiting to see her sisters, Ruby and Sapphire.

New Scene, Briggs Moon Space Port
(Question, can Nova get the Space Raptor ?)

Nova heads over the space dock while the other two keep Ruby and Sapphire entertained. Once she is inside and she notices a few of the dock workers seem to be armed. At least one of the workers seems to be keeping an eye on her. As she gets to her ship and begins opening the cargo hatch she hears a familiar voice
“Howdy Miss” says the Sherriff.
Unable to ignore him any longer Nova turned around to meet the Sherriff’s gaze.
“Evening Sherriff” She says.

They carry on talking out in the dock yard and the Sherriff points out the trouble in town and how ships are on lock down. He is currently trying to work out what is happening and looking for two escaped replicants. Nova comes up with a story about needing to recharge up the ships electrics and needing to get the solar panels into space. These old model ships don’t work to well what with Gibbs moon having dust everywhere.

She rolls a deceive and adds (Fate for, her own aspect. “I can talk people into anything”. Also getting more from a “Dirt Everywhere” aspect of Gibbs moon. The Sherriff knows something is wrong and has “Replicants on the loose”) once all the points are spent it turns out Nova has tied with the Sherriff.

She gets what she wants, the ship cleared to launch but has a complication.
The sheriff calls over one of the dock workers. A handsome young man called Lunk. Lunk is going to accompany her on her trip to charge the power cells. Nova accepts this and heads to the cockpit with Lunk in tow.

Lunk sits wide eyed looking at all the displays and even more looking out to the stars. He start pestering nova about going to space and asking what it’s like. How long will the pre-flight checks take. He for the first time is going to see the stars. Nova decides not to head to orbit but carry on with the original plan to pick up the rest of the group.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I was playing up Lunks need to see space and playing him as a simple kid. Someone that could be easily influenced. Of course this initially didn’t work as I expected. I think Nova just wanted help with the Lunk problem so she went straight to getting the group.

As soon as Lunk noticed he was not going to space he decided to call the sheriff on the comms unit.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I tell Nova what he is trying and ask, what do you want to do ?
I was expecting maybe tilting the ship back to knock him out of his chair (pilot roll) or trying to talk him out of it. What I didn’t expect was….

Nova grabbed a metal pipe from the side of the cockpit and began attacking….

The comms unit.

Nova did manage to put a few dents in the com unit but it seemed to be made of stronger stuff. Lunk manages to grab the mic and starts trying to contact the sheriff. Nova changes tack and swigs the pipe at Lunk’s head. One sharp blow later Lunk is on the floor quietly bleeding.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Well that was unexpected. Lunk had some stress and I always was going to make him concede a fight if he started taking consequences. As the blow from Nova got him a four point consequence I thought it was appropriate from him to just lay there and bleed.
I have to say the look on the face of Raquel’s player at this stage was priceless. A mixture of disappointment, shock and amusement.

Nova lands the ship in the rest of the crew board. Nova explains the Lunk situation. Raquel starts by telling Nova off (A dangerous proposition if you ask me, she did still have the pipe close by) Dusty start taking care of Lunk. Getting his head bandaged and taking him to one of the crew quarters. Dusty does so well on his education roll I even let him sedate Lunk living him resting in the bunk.

The crew seem to file the Lunk problem as something to sort later. With that they load up the girls and head out to the meeting point. Ruby and Sapphire are on board and seem excited to see Emerald again.

On to the next scene……

[Earthwalker]

The Lone Pine
(Will Raquel meet up with Emerald ?)
Aspects
Wide open prairie
Night-time

So here we are the crew debate for a while how they are going to handle the meeting. Should they all go. Should Ruby and Sapphire both go. This takes up some time. In the end Raquel, Sapphire and Ruby are going to the meet. The rest of the crew will stay aboard the Space Raptor and listen in over comms.

Spoiler: GM Note

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This discussion took too long for my liking. I was keen to get into the scene. I may need to take a break and let the players discuss things. I just find that jumping into a scene and play it by ear works perfectly in Fate. I also don’t mind a few things being re-conned as a plan once things get rolling

Raquel, Ruby and Sapphire head to the single tree and wait for the meeting. When the appointed time arrives the tree begins to beep. Raquel stands ready to defend the other replicants when the tree splits in half a load of technology rises out from the split trunk. Most of this is lost on Raquel (if only Dusty were here)

A holo projector sparks to life and it projects the simple form of Emerald. The last of the sisters. Once this image is in place a scanner beam sweeps the area. First recognizing Ruby, complete with little read out saying replicant and model number. The beam scans Sapphire and the same information is displayed. Finally the beam hits Raquel who gets a deceive roll to try not be correctly scanned. After spending a fate point (being a rogue replicant means covering your signal) she is identified as human.
Emerald says hello to her “sisters” and finds it odd that a human is there. Raquel starts explaining that she and her friends have rescued Ruby and Sapphire and they need to meet up. Emerald seems unsure what to do and seems to be talking to someone “off screen”. After a brief pause the image changes to a man dressed in a leather long coat and wearing sun glasses.

Looking with the ships sensors Dusty recognizes the man as McCabe a known hacker working for Space Book. Both Raquel and Dusty had some history with Space Book. It was a Space Book hack that unintentionally caused Raquel to go rogue and gain free will. Also Dusty has in the past made a few of the devices the hacker group uses. Neither of them know McCabe directly but Dusty did know a few bits and pieces about the man.

Raquel only had one objective, to meet with Emerald and find out if she was safe. McCabe didn’t want to give away the location of his lair and it soon became apparent that Raquel was going to have to do some fast talking to convince McCabe to help out Raquel and the other sisters.

Now it was a close run thing, with Raquel putting all she could on the roll (it was a close run thing) but she was victorious. She managed to get a place to meet and hand over the sisters. She would even be allowed some private time with Emerald.

Spoiler: GM Note

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This was too important I think to be one roll, I should have maybe handled it as a competition and see who would be first to three. With bargains been struck. Drawing it out would make it play out more like a bargaining session I feel.

McCabe gives the team the latitude and longitude of a location on Dorris 2.3. Of course the crew know the third moon of Dorris 2 by the more catchy name of. New Australia. Looks like the crew need to take a trip. First they better deal with the Lunk situation.


Gibbs Moon Star Port

Well the crew had a new destination in mine. They certainly sounded happy to be off Gibbs moon. Of course there is one problem to overcome. The Sherriff is expecting Lunk to report back and at the moment Lunk was “resting”.

Raquel did her best to convince Lunk not to say anything to the sheriff about his adventures. Lunk seemed to be taking all this in. Raquel did come up with some good lies but then lying seems to be what she does best. Of course it didn’t much matter how well Raquel could lie as she was going to have to stay hidden on the ship. The Sherriff saw the Space Raptor take off with only Nova and Lunk, the crew think it’s best if he believes that’s all that’s returned.

The other members of crew, Dusty and Raquel hide with the replicants in the many “Hidden Storage Compartments” of the Space Raptor.

Nova was once again waiting for the cargo bay doors to open. As soon as they did she saw the Sherriff looking back at her.

“Lunk I think you need to go see Doc Hoggins” he says “young lady you better come with me.”

Lunk manages to get out the line “I banged my head” before walking off in search of a doctor.

The Sherriff had turned his back on Nova and was walking towards his office. Nova could see a few armed men seemed to be working in the space port and they seemed to be keeping an eye on her.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I was prepared if Nova decided to shoot her way out of this. Or just head back into the ship and blast off. I was thinking at one moment that might just drop Lunk off outside town and head into space. Of course this didn’t happen.

Nova followed the sheriff back to his office. We have a brief back and forth about the power recharge Nova did in space and about Lunks head wound. Nova doing her best to lie to the Sherriff. Her best was not good enough (also the dice gods seemed to be against her). Changing track the Sherriff started talking about what had happened in town.

The girls from The Gem had been taken. He was looking into the matter and had collected a number of descriptions of the culprits. It was going to be a bad time in town if the girls were found. Lots of unhappy miners, which made for unhappy people at Gibbs Corp. Someone would have to pay for all that. Of course I guess if the Briggs had some of these new VR machines he could run entertainment for the miners without needing the girls. Seems like these machines are popular in the core. Shame a sheriff like him can’t leave to go and look into getting some of these machines.

If someone could go, they would have to be back in a week or the descriptions of the culprits would be sent to the central government. There ship might even get flagged on a no fly list.

Oddly the Sherriff even had the specs of the machines he was looking for already printed out. Perhaps Nova could take them and see if she knows anyone.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I was happy if Nova was going to come up with some good lies. Or if she managed a good Rapport but it all seemed to work against her. Fate points were spent but she still lost. This seemed like a good compromise. She now has some work to do. Also we have more Story to run at. YAY

[Earthwalker]

So the Sherriff is placated for now so the crew load up into the ship and fly off to meet MacAbe.
Dorris 6.2 – New Austrilia
Aspects
We have both biomes, desserts and swamps.
Its all vemon and teeth.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I dislike single biome planets and only having two biomes is also shockingly bad but with the idea of terraformed worlds it because more possible. It sets a nice theme of a world that I can make aspects for, so its not all bad.

The plan was simple they would land on New Austrilia, meet up with McCabe and finally Raquel would get to talk to one more of her kind. Of course things are never that simple. As the ship was scanning the planet Nova notice a familiar signal a couple of ships parked on the planets surface. Nova recognized the ships signatures, they belong to her old crew back in her pirate days. Two small attack craft meeting on a almost abandoned moon.

Spoiler: GM Note

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A compel on Nova’s former Pirate aspect. Adding in some complication using her old organization. I can calling them ravengers for now. Nova accepted the fate chip and choose to investigate. This is going to come up more with the Ravengers dealing on a moon in the central core

The crew choose to investigate the two ships and landed close to the meeting point and headed out on foot so they could sneak up and get a good view of the meeting. The group seemed to be filled with sneaks and they managed to get to a position to view what is going on. Two Ravenger ships were parked up and seemed to be conducting a deal swapping a load of technology for credits.

Spoiler: GM Notes

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Again I threw a fate chip Dusty’s way. He wanted that tech and needed to make sure the gun play was at a minimum. If shots start getting fired around the technology there was too high a chance it might get lost. This compel was against his genius engineer, I thought it was also good making this fight good old fashioned fisty cuffs.

The group decided to watch for a while, looking for an opening. They saw three ravengers in total. One that Nova recognized. Jean Du Lac. One of astrids trusted lietenants. I let the team make a single team work notice to create an advantage before the fight. Nova spots that Jean seems to be sporting a bad knee, a recuring injury Nova remembers even back in her days with the ravengers.
The fight starts with the crew charging in. Requeal heading towards Jean and Nova covering the other two pirates. Dusty headed straight to the cargo and worked on making a shield to stop them getting damaged.

Spoiler: Technology and Fate

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Well “Technology” the skill seems to be similar to having magic in a fantasy version of Fate. It seems to be able to do all. This all seems ok to me but I sometimes feel that more time should be spent. It is something I am going to have to think about.
I allowed Dusty to create an advantage “shielded” using his technology. This of course ment that he could again use his gun in the up coming fight.

Nova soon started cutting into the two ravengers she was facing. It turns out she is a dab hand using a sabre, I suppose she is a former pirate.

Raquel was having a tougther time with Jean Du Lac. Dusty helped create an opening and Raquel got a hit in, once Jean was hit it was a fast trip down the road to beat down. Raquel pressing the consequences Jean gained, even seeing his bad leg stuck in the mud. Soon Jean was conceeding the fight. (I love the idea of fighting until one side conceeds instead of everything being a blood bath)
The crew took the shinies and left Jean to explain to Astrid what had happened. One more small annoyance for Novas enemy.

With this small diversion dealt with the crew continued to the meeting place to finally find out what was happening with Emerald and her sisters and also workout what Space Book were doing with replicants. The coordinates they were given lead to a concrete bunker complete with sealed steal hatch way. As they approached the steal hatch opened and a ladder lead down into the darkness.

The crew crawled into the tunnels and began following a mass of wires that snaked through the underground complex. Most areas seemed empty apart from the odd set of cables and the place was clearly running on emergency power. Finally the crew arrived at a fully lit room. In the centre was a bank of computer monitors and sat before them a middle ages man wearing Kevlar armour and sun glasses.

The man introduced himself as McCabe and went on to ask questions about the replicants with the group. Raquel was worried here and wanted to keep her own status as a replicant a secret. I should have compelled this here to see if she wanted to lose the fate point. Lesson learned for the future. McCabe explained he and his team were trying to free replicants from their programming. He was going to take down Pinwheel and free all replicants. The crew seemed to approve of this. As McCabe spoke in the screens behind him the computers search on the areas he was talking about for people to see. Raquel noticed she was not currently marked as a replicant but Space book were looking for a rogue replicant called Andrew Locke (who seemed to be living on New Vegas), the name appearing when McCabe talked of replicants.

The meeting was over quickly, the crew had some more information and seemed convinced that Space Book meant no harm to the sisters. Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald were reunited. Raquel got to talk to Emerald alone and was overjoyed to see another like her. Emerald was like Raquel and felt very strongly that everyone should be free to choose. Space Book would help Ruby and Sapphire in the same way they helped Emerald.

This did mean that for a while the sisters would not be with the crew but all seemed fine. Raquel was happy that she had found more of her kind, she did not have all the answers she wanted but she did have another rogue replicant to look for, Andrew Locke.

At the last moment Emerald ask if she could travel with the crew. No one seemed to opject and the Space Raptor gained a new crew member. Emeralds main skill focus was on Empathy and she could at least help the crew deal with some of their mental issues.

Spoiler: GM Note

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We end the session there. It was late and I didn’t manage to get over the sinister vibe of Space Book. They were a brave resistance but they did seem to mine all the information they could on the crew. Something the crew should be worried about.
We will come back to Space Book and the sisters so it’s all good.
Raquel was happy to met with Emerald and see she was not alone. There was more digging to do, in terms of what were Space Book up to and who was Andrew Locke
Next session we are off to New Vegas baby, space Elvis may even be playing the Dunes

[Earthwalker]

Dorris 2.4
New Vegas
Aspects
The house always wins
Terraformed to perfection
Money Talks
This is also part of the central core of planets (Dorris 1, Dorris 2 and Dorris 3) so we also have the aspect “High Security Core”

The Space Raptor is heading to the central core, the crew are going over options of how they are going to deal with the security of the central core. Space between planets and moons with have security patrols and ships of the government fleet scanning system traffic. Added to that, they will need travel and landing permits for New Vegas.

In the end Dusty opened his wallet and managed to get some fake paperwork for the ship and even managed to get them some permits for landing at New Vegas itself.

Spoiler: Options and options and options

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Of course I had no idea what the crew were going to do about the security. Would they reach out to contacts to get them in, just fly in and play it by ear trying to avoid the scans, or maybe just try to lie their way thru. In the end they let Dusty use his resources.

After bagging themselves some hookey permits on popular website Spac-e-Bay the ship heads into the central core. The ship is scanned a few times but the crew flash the passes and is allowed on their way.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Would have been much more fun saving the resources roll until they showed the passes the first time

On the way into the system Dusty decides to see if he has any contacts on New Vegas, someone that can help them with the job. (one contacts roll later, a succeed with style no less) it turns out he does indeed have someone that can help. A old school friend called Mills. Someone that currently works for the Grand security company, a guy that help runs a security system Dusty himself helped design (Dusty has been around it seems)

Dusty gives Mills a call over the sub net. They chat for a while about old times before Dusty starts asking for help from Mills to steal a couple of machines. Mills panics a bit at this call going over the casinos phone line. Tries to laugh it off as a old college friend joking around, then cuts the connection. Sending Dusty a time and place to meet when he gets planet side.
With a meeting in place we fast forwarded to the space raptor docking in The Grand Casinos space port. With the ship parked up the crew filed out to be greeted by a young lady in a business suit. She smiled pleasantly at the group. Introducing herself as one of the casinos public relation staff. She began handing out room keys and some casino chips for them to use. She congratulated the group on winning the 2 week vacation and if there was anything they need they could contact her on a number on the card.
After a brief exchange of glances between the crew Raquel stepped forward and thanked the lady before they headed off to their rooms.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Turns out the passes that Dusty had bought were being sold by some people that won a holiday to New Vegas, guess they wanted the money more than the prize. I put this in hoping to find some good way to use it later

[Earthwalker]

Dorris 2.4
New Vegas
Aspects
The house always wins
Terraformed to perfection
Money Talks
This is also part of the central core of planets (Dorris 1, Dorris 2 and Dorris 3) so we also have the aspect “High Security Core”

The crew spend some time exploring the casino and its grounds. They check out the machines they need to steal (which are currently on the main floor of the casino) and check out the space port linked to the casino as well as the many parks and gardens around the place.

After giving the players some time to look around I thought it was about time to start getting on with the adventure. Mills (security expert contact of Dusty working in the Casino) contacts Dusty with an email giving him a place to meet, a quiet park near the Grand. The meeting is set for the afternoon.
While Dusty is sorting out the meeting with Mills I thought it was about time to mess with the group, so as Raquel is touring the casino floor she spots some VIP bustling through with security staff around him. Raquel recognized the uniform on the security, they work for Pinwheel, the corporation that made her. (This gets a groan from Raquel and a fate point for her trouble). Raquel decides to keep an eye on the group but does so from cover hoping not to be seen. She over hears that the main man is called Clarence and seems to be a man of some import.

As Raquel made herself busy looking into Clarence and spying on him the best she could the other two members of crew, Dusty and Nova decided to go jet skiing. It appeared they were on holiday so they decided to spend the time enjoying themselves. (I still have images of Nova falling back to Pirate roots and trying to ride people down on her jet ski, at the same time Dusty “improving” his jet ski to have more rocket launchers or something)

The time for the meeting with Mills arrives. The crew head to the park. When they get there they see Mills is being watched by a couple of people that look like Casino security. This is clearly not a good sign.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Dusty did say over Mills casino phone line that he wanted help stealing something. This got flagged by security and so Mills is being watched. No idea if my players knew this was the reason going into the meeting.

Once the crew saw security in place they decided to sneak up to Mills and get him to move, they then set about distracting security so that the meeting could be held in private. Once they were alone in a quiet area of the park. They got to business convincing Mills to help them out. A few moments of talking to Mills it was clear he was infatuated with Raquel (Mills Aspect : Thinks he’s a ladies’ man) After some carful negotiations they do get Mills to move 5 of the VR machines off the Casino floor and into a back repair department, this should make taking the machines easier. Raquel also gets a number from Mills and Mills agrees to look into the Pinwheel executive and find out who he is.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I love how the social side of Fate works. Looking for aspects to exploit and a back and forth to negotiations. The crew do have a lack of Empathy (for once I mean the skill here) but Raquel can lie and lie and lie, Nova can convince anyone of anything.
Of course I had a few things to hit on aspects here and so drained a few fate points. Things get harder when the house always wins and you are in a high security core.
The players finished the meeting with pretty much what they wanted. Help from inside and more information on Clarence

After getting back to his office Mills sent over some information on Clarence. He was a major player from Pinwheel and answered to Dr Moro (A man in Pinwheel that knows of the existence of sentient replicants and is trying to get his hands on one). Clarence had a corporate account and is staying on the 28th floor. He also has 4 security staff with him at all times.

The crew were in a casino on new Vegas, as such they felt it was about time they did some “gambling”. Raquel was already a proven chess wizard and was an expert at logic games (not too surprising for a AI replicant). So the crew decided to bet on Raquel playing some competition chess on the casinos system. Some nice easy money for them.

As predicted Raquel did well at the chess and they managed to make some money (I gave them a free boost on resources). It also meant that Raquel once again made contact with the chess player Drewcifer. Once again opening up a line of communication to this man that seemed to know something about self aware replicants and what space book were up to.

Raquel and Drewcifer communicated over chess chat channel. Drewcifer warned the group about trusting space book (great timing as they left two replicants with space book) and wanted to meet up to discuss things further. A meeting was arranged for three days time on a small island close to the grand casino.

(It seemed like I was handing out plot hooks like candy so I thought I may as well mess things up some more. The negotiations with Mills had left Dusty low on fate chips and I thought I would help the fellow out. I am a kind GM)

One of the security people that was trying and fail to watch the meeting with Dusty and Mills walked up to Dusty showed his security ID and said

“Mr. Laravel, we would like to have a word with you about your associate Mr Hooked Nose Dugan”.
(A fate point was offered as I compelled Dusty’s friends in low places aspect, he took the fate point and we were off)

I was planning on escorting Dusty away for a private conversation, before I could Nova decided to pick pocket the security guys ID. I had no idea what the plan was, I was thinking perhaps she thought it was shiny so needed it (Nova had changed one aspect to, “See, Want, Take” perhaps it was kicking in here) A few rolls later the security guy has lost his ID.

Spoiler: Hooked Nose Dugan

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Normally when someone new is introduced and if it’s part of someone’s skills / aspects I let the player sort out the new persons aspects, or at least have input. I liked the name Hooked Nose Dugan he sounded like a friend in low places. I handed the card for him over to Dusty and ask him to fill in a couple of aspects for him.
We were all drawing a blank, so I asked what criminal enterprise is he involved in…
Nova then shouts out Kitten Smuggling.
There is a brief pause as I regain my train of thought and decide to go with this.

Hooked Nose Dugan
Exotic Animal Smuggler

I decide that the rich folks on Dorris-1 and Dorris-2 like to have rare pets. Of which cats are very rare so there is a brisk trade in kittens to the core planets. Of course if there is good money in an enterprise there would also be crime.
Once you have an aspect as a Known Kitten Smuggler I don’t think you need anything else so we move on.

Dusty gets escorted away from the group. Placed in a room with no windows and a large mirror taking covering one wall. The security guy takes out a computer tablet and start reading over some information before laying out the deal to Dusty.

Security know Dusty isn’t Mr Miller and that he is in the casino under a fake ID. They don’t care about that as long as he doesn’t cause trouble. They do care that a known associate of Dustys, a Mr Hooked nose Dugan has been seen hanging around the casino and one of the main shows is Rinehart and Jon with their famous white tiger act. Security are concerned that Dugan is after the new litter of tiger cubs. If Dusty can get Dugan to move on then perhaps security will keep forgetting about Dusty being there with a fake ID.

With that Dusty is allowed to go back into the casino.

So many threads open now. Let’s see what a mess the crew can get themselves into.

[Earthwalker]

Dorris 2.4
New Vegas
Aspects
The house always wins
Terraformed to perfection
Money Talks
This is also part of the central core of planets (Dorris 1, Dorris 2 and Dorris 3) so we also have the aspect “High Security Core”

Currently open threads
Drewcifier – Seems to play chess as well as a replicant. Seems to know more about Space Book. Meeting in three days.
VR Machines – The crew need to steal three VR machines from the Casino. They have arranged for Mills to ship 5 of these machines from the casino floor to the repair area near the space dock.
Clarence – Pinwheel executive staying at the Casino, current motivations unknown.
Hooked Nose Dugan – Known kitten smuggler and contact of Dusty. Dusty has been tasked with somehow running him out of town.

Spoiler: Earthwalker Notes

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Well it was a while since this session and my memory and notes are not too good. I am going to try to hit on key points apologizes if my group are reading this and I get things wrong.

Going for what seems like the simplest task first Dusty calls up Dugan. (I know him and Dusty knew each other in the past (he is a contact after all) so I quickly decide for myself how they got in touch. Most likely Dusty built a few odds and ends that helped Dugan with his work)
Dugan answers “Oh erm hello Dusty, erm I am good for traps thanks, the last lot you made are still working fine”.

This prompted a shocked gasp from Nova. “You built kitten traps, you monster”. She didn’t say the you monster but it was implied by her tone of shock and disgust. (This of course is made all the better for the fact Nova’s back story she is a space pirate with all the terrible things that implies. Added to that, it was Nova’s idea that Dugan be a kitten smuggler !!)

Dusty wisely took his phone call away from the group at this stage. He arranged a meeting at a seedy bar close by but off casino property.

Skip to

Evil Eye Bar
Aspects
A quiet place for business
Tourists Beware
(Question, can Dusty get Dugan off planet)

Dusty spots Dugan in a small booth. He gets himself a beer and moves over. They spend some time getting to know each other again. Dusty rolls a empathy trying to create an advantage and succeeds a surprise considering Dugans skills at deceive. We talk a bit about what aspect Dugan might have that Dusty can use and come up with
“only cares about the bottom line”

Typical kitten smugglers these days, back when I was a lad kitten smugglers were men of honour.

Dusty and Dugan talk for a bit and Dusty finds out Dugan is here for a big pay out. Knowing he needs to get Dugan out of town Dusty says he can get Dugan a better deal. It would mean Dugan being off world for the next couple of weeks but it would be a big score. (Dusty explains to me as GM that he will set up some tasks for Dugan and basically pay for it out of his resources. This seems good to me) So we get down to the resources roll.

Dusty does ok at the roll but short of the great result I asked for (After all Dugan is already set for a big score here on New Vegas) he invokes the free invoke he got from Dugan only cares about the bottom line. He also gets a boost from his trust fund stunt.

When all is considered Dusty has managed to buy off Dugan. This at last should make casino security a little happier.

Spoiler: Trust Fund Baby

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Dusty has the stunt trust fund. It allows him twice a session to get a boost on resources. Basically dipping into his trust fund. As its trust fund money, I like to imagine a clerk in some accountants office on Doriss 3 filing away the records for Dusty’s trust fund.
Things purchased so far using the boost.
Hiring a Replicant Sex Bot (He bribed Ruby to follow him on Gibbs Moon. He basically paid her 10 times the going fee.)
Buying Competition winning tickets to New Vegas
Hiring a Kitten Smuggler (Again paying well over the normal cost)
What does this accountant on Dorris 3 think?

While Dusty is off in a seedy bar having “fun” the rest of the crew are spending time in the casino. Nova and Raquel take a look at the VR machines they are suppose to steal. It appears that it’s a VR gambling experience. You log into VR and are presented with challenges. You bet if you will win and make or lose money.

Lots of different programs seem to be available with different “Events” to choose from. Nova does notice a certain set of adult events that the machines can do. This might explain how these VR machines will do replacing the replicant sex bots the crew stole.

Raquel also finds out the machines won’t work on her as it can’t attune to her brain pattern. Also the machines mess around with brain chemistry helping to make them slightly addictive. All in all it’s the kind of use of technology you would expect from a casino.

After Dusty returns the crew start to discuss Clarence. Raquel would really like to know what he is up to. Perhaps search his room. The crew watch him for a while looking for an opening. It seems he is well guarded. No one seems to be able to get close to him as his security seems very good. He spends his time playing on some of the high stakes tables and seems to do well.

(Now I can’t remember how but) Dusty manages to follow Clarence in the lift (I think Dusty hacked the cameras or something similar) and he notices that the lift goes from floor 1 to 15, then stops. Clarence places his palm on a scanner and the lift starts again. Looks like you need a palm print to get past level 15 and onto Clarences floor.

So begins operation get palm print. Nova decides she will pretend to be a waitress and get a glass Clarence has drunk from. She can get this to Dusty who can make a copy palm print glove thing with technology.

Part one of the plan involves Nova pretending to be a waitress. She looks for a private staff only door and soon finds one. She heads over and when I start describing the locked nature of the door she tells me she will scan the security ID she stole earlier….

(I had forgotten about that)

This all seems fine so she gets into the staff only section and soon finds a locker room / changing area. The staff lockers are no match for her burglary skill and she has a staff uniform and another waitress ID. Out she goes to the Casino floor and start waitressing….

(erm wasn’t the plan something about Clarence)

So she does a good job waitressing, using rapport to get a few tips and manages to make a very good job of the situation. So much so some of the other staff are worried how well the new girl is doing.

Fortunately we get back to the plan and she takes a drinks order from Clarence and his security. She moves in and hands over the drinks and collects the empties.

She takes most back to the bar but steals Clarences glass and hands it over to Dusty. Oh she also keeps the uniform, ID and tips jar (see, want, take)

Dusty scans the glass and gets the print from it. He then fires up the device he built and gets a hand print. Should be good for an hour. Raquel keeps an eye on Clarence and Dusty heads to his room. Along the way to the lift Nova happens to find a large sun hat and hands it to Dusty.

Once in the lift the sun hat keeps his face hidden from the camera and he heads up to the 28th floor. The lift opens into a massive open plan suite that takes up the whole floor. The top five floors of the building are like this. Off the main living area are many bedrooms. Dusty begins a search of the place looking for clues as to what Clarence is up to.

(one investigation roll later, a tie with the target number meaning a complication)

Dusty finds a computer with plans for some Ariel that Clarence has designed and implemented for Dr Moro. It looks like some kind of communication array but after scanning the plans Dusty can tell it’s some kind of sensor. He takes a copy of the plans for further study. Then suddenly he hears a “WOOF” from behind him.

He turns to see a large black dog growling at him. (I love complications)

The dog blocks the path to the lifts. Dusty panicked dives into the bathroom and closes the door while he thinks of a plan. Looking around Dusty genius engineer that he is soon comes up with some McGivering and pulls some wires from the wall to make a shock stick. He opens the bathroom door and the dog tries to bit him, knocking him back a bit. He attacks back with his shock stick and hits the dog, knocking him back and leaving him a little stunned.

Seeing his chance Dusty runs to the lift. He pushes the button willing the lift to move faster. The dog stars shaking off the stun and runs towards the lift. Just as the doors are closing the dog gets into the lift.

The doors close and Dusty push floor 14. Trying to hold the dog at bay. The dog gets a couple more good attacks in (Fighting is not Dustys strong suit). Dusty picks up a couple of cuts one on his arm is bleeding quit badly.

The lift doors open on floor 14. Raquel drags Dusty out of the lift with one hand, with the other she punches the dog. The dog slumps unconscious, from one hit (Fighting is Raquel’s strong suit).
They leave the dog in the lift and send the lift to floor 28.

Spoiler: GM Notes

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Ahhh I loved this bit of the session. It all seemed to play out like a heist movie ala Oceans 11. (Which in some respects was my intention when adding in New Vegas). Complications arose not covered above like Nova couldn’t get to Clarences glass as one of his security people poured drinks from a bottle for him. A “mistake” and spilled drink got Nova around this.
Likewise the sudden thief of a sun hat to hide from the cameras.
The guard dog was driven by the add a complication from a tie rule. Dusty always ties his result it’s his gift

Dusty spends more time looking over the plans for the machine on the roof. It seems to be a scanner. It will detect all replicants in a 50 KM radius of the tower. With more power it might even cover half of the planet. Clearly Clarence is here for Drewcifier, seems like Pinwheel is onto him.

The machine will be complete in four days. There is good news. With some technology Dusty should be able to cause the machine to meltdown when switched on. Making the whole thing a failure. Of course it would mean getting to the machine in secret the night before it is powered up.

Spoiler: GM Note

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One problem here was Clarence was all about Raquel’s past but Raquel didn’t want to get involved or be seen as she is a rogue replicant and doesn’t want to draw attention. This is a shame. I have spoken to the player about this and we are both going to make sure Raquel is more involved with Raquel’s plots. It’s an odd situation where your aspects are secrets.
We have a step forward tho. Next session we are going to jump to the meeting with Drewcifer.

[Earthwalker]

Dorris 2.4

New Vegas
Aspects
The house always wins
Terraformed to perfection
Money Talks

This is also part of the central core of planets (Dorris 1, Dorris 2 and Dorris 3) so we also have the aspect “High Security Core”

Currently open threads
Drewcifier – Seems to play chess as well as a replicant. Seems to know more about Space Book. Meeting in three days.
VR Machines – The crew need to steal three VR machines from the Casino. They have arranged for Mills to ship 5 of these machines from the casino floor to the repair area near the space dock.
Clarence – Pinwheel are working on a Replicant detector. They are currently building one of these on the roof of The Grand Casino (where the crew are staying)


The day of the Drewcifier meeting dawns. The meeting place is a small island off the coast about 4 miles out from The Grands marina. Fortunatly for the crew Nova managed to “borrow” a sppedboat that would get them to the meeting. Before long she was piloting the craft up to the private dock at the island.
A protocol droid meet them on the docks and instructed them that its master was waiting for them inside. Going past the front door the crew notice the alarm system and dock lock have been hacked.
Clearly this wasn’t Drewcifiers real home.

Inside they met with Drewcifier himself, a tall imposing man dressed in black (in this heat ?) complete with a black leather mask covering his face. No part of his skin was showing under his black clothing. Despite his odd look he seemed perfectly at home and try his best to appear charming. Once introductions were done Drewcifier was down to business.
Drewcifier warned the crew against trusting Space Book, the group of hackers had an ulterior motives for their work with replicants. People high up hated Pinwheel and wanted to take them down no matter the cost. Every replicant they free is given hidden code in their syphetic brains allowing Space Book to control them.

This turned into a discussion on freedom and also on the nature of what it is to be alive. Something both Drewcifier and Raquel had strong feelings about.
After a while the crew began to question why Drewcifier hated Space Book so much and what proof he had. He did not have a lot of prof on how they alter minds, he himself was “freed” by space book and he suspects they have changed his mind as part of their programming. The reason he hates them is for what they did when he tried to leave the orgnaization.
A procedure to ensure his loyalty went terribly wrong. Now his synthetic skin appears burned and wasted…

To prove the point he took off his mask to show his scarred and burnt face.
(Well you introduce a man in a mask you have to do the grand reveal sometime)

Drewcifier gained some trust of the crew and they warned him about the scanner. He planned to move out of range but will help them if they need.
Raquel did try to get contact information from Drewcifier but her Rapport was not up to the task.In fact just the way the rolls went in this scene Drewcifier ended up trusting the Nova more than Raquel.
Once the meeting is over Raquel is concerned that they left Ruby and Saphire with Space Book. Things don’t seem to be as clear cut as she thought. Of course for now the crew have other problems. They make some plans, it appears that they are going to need to “fix” the device on the roof and steal the VR machines at the same time. That way they can load up and go if any plan goes south.

Spoiler: GM Note

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DON’T SPLIT THE PARTY !!.
Only joking this did seem to go well with me switching between the two groups. Of corse trying to time the switch at a tense moment just to build up more tension. I will simply write out here what happened I can’t remember the switches now.

Nova was waiting in the space port. Looking at the entrance to the repairs and service area. She knew the VR machines they needed had been moved into the repairs area thanks to Mills. She waited for a load to be headed into the repairs area, as soon as the gate staff were busy she quietly slipped past.
(I was expecting her to scan her security ID, I was already with a plan for it to have been disabled now but she was one step ahead of security it seems)
Nova looked around the large storage area with a few work bays off to the sides. Loads of different machines were stored here either awaiting shipping off planet, repair or maybe even return to the casino floor. Little automated forklifts scurried around carrying things from one place to another, they had no drivers but seemed to know what they were doing.
As she walked around Nova managed to find a hard hat to wear and a computer tablet. Its amazing what she is able to “borrow”. To speed things up in her search she sits in the driver seat of one of the fork lifts and hits the manual over ride (one burglary roll later) she is off wizing around the warehouse looking for her VR machines. She soon finds them and comes to the conclusion she isnt going to be able to sneak 5 of these machines out on her own.

A quick call over the comms
Nova – “Dusty you need to program these fork lift trucks to take stuff to my ship”
(An odd note here, the Space Raptor is a join owned ship. Nova is the pilot, Dusty handles the finances and the repairs, Raquel erm looks pretty… Yet Nova always calls it her ship)
Dusty – “Erm I am a little busy now, what controls have you got”.
Nova – “I have a computer thingy, that controls them. How does it work ?”
Dusty – “Erm what do you see on the pad ?”
Nova – “Words and numbers, also I can see colours too”.
Dusty – “…”
(It was at this stage I explained that Dusty was not going to be able to use Education or Technology here, if Nova wanted to do it, she would have to roll)
Dusty – “Not sure I can help you here… I am a little busy”.
Nova – “Ok I will deal with it”
(At this stage Nova smiled, ever since the Lunk incident its always worried me when Nov says she will deal with something, perfectly innocent NPCs end up getting beaten with pipes.)
Nova looks around for a couple of warehouse workers.
(Oh noes)
“Why aren’t those 5 VR machines loaded ?” she asks.

This sets the workers on the back foot and that’s all the opotunity Nova needs. She pulls out her (stolen) security ID and starts to go on about things getting processed on time. The workers say they haven’t got paper work. I call for a decieve and I am going to all ready give the workers a boost because they need paperwork.
Things don’t go too well but then Nova starts with the fate points. Nova “Can talk people into anything”, this is a security issue and we are in a “high security core” (I liked this one a lot, good switch on aan aspect to get advantage). By the time the fate points were spent Nova had succeeded with style.

Nova hands the computer thingy over to her new workers and gets them organized for loading the ship. Forklifts scurry about collecting them all and start loading them up on the space raptor.

Spoiler: GM Note

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Again I liked what happened here it was a few rolls as Nova found a way in and stole bits and bobs. Then her plan of decieving the workers seemed to go ok. She has no decieve skill and so it needed a lucky roll and some fate backup.
Of course I wasn’t letting her get away with one roll. I should make things complicated a bit

I let Nova watch the two workers get the VR machines loaded into her ship. Then just as the doors were closing to the cargo hold a man shouted over to her from the repairs section. I described the cargo door closing slowly. so slowly the man was going to get to her before she could move away.
Once he was there the man started asking questions. Why were his men loading some machines onto this ship, who was Nova. What was going on. It got to the stage of the man threatening to call his boss and get security involved.

It was at this stage Nova cuts in, telling them man to keep his voice down and flashing the security ID. she explains she is working undercover and this man needs to keep it quiet. Eveything is going to happen in the next 3 hours. There is a known kitten smuggler in the hotel and if the man keeps shouting he might ruin 3 months worth of undercover work. If he heads back to his office and keeps things running smoothly Nova would put in a good word for him. He might even get a raise if he plays along.
(I let Nova have a Rapport roll for this. She does very well and adds in a fate chip on her I can talk people into anything aspect)
With the VR machines in the hold and the warehouse people taken care of Nova gets on the comms and asks whats taking so long on the roof.

I will write up the roof adventures next time.

[Earthwalker]

Dorris 2.4
New Vegas
Aspects
The house always wins
Terraformed to perfection
Money Talks
This is also part of the central core of planets (Dorris 1, Dorris 2 and Dorris 3) so we also have the aspect “High Security Core”

While Nova had her fun stealing the rest of the crew, Dusty and Raquel were on a mission to break the machine on the roof of the hotel.

The start of the plan went simple. They put on big hats and headed into the lift. The lift does have a roof level button but of course it needs a hand scan. Dusty uses Clarence’s hand and heads to his floor. He then asks if the lift has one of the top maintenance hatch. I ask for a technology roll.
(Either way success or fail the hatch was going to be there, if it was a fail it was going to have some security on it. Dusty passed the test and so the hatch was there)

A quick climb later Raquel easily managed to open the doors at the top of the lift. Dusty needed to once again use technology to deal with security systems at the top of the lift and the pair sneaked out onto the roof.

(I set up a few aspects for the hotel roof.
Machines and Air Vents everywhere
Magnificent View)

Once the group was on the roof it was a simple matter to change the machine and get out of there, everything was going to plan.

Spoiler: GM Notes

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You know when everything is going to plan as a GM you only really have one responsibility. Mess with the plan. Of course this is Fate and I had the perfect opportunity.

The group got close to the workmen and could hear them talking. They were in some heated discussion about cooler coils and how the IX142 coil was a much better product than the Cx554. I mean who uses the Cx554 it was an over engineered nightmare. Yeah it could do the job but it was more complicated than it needed to be.

(As the players listen to me talking to myself. I pointed out to Dusty that the Cx554 was one of his inventions from back in the day. I think what I love about Fate can be summed up on the faces of the two players here. Dusty all up in arms, how dare they say bad things about his inventions. Also the resigned expression of Raquel, there was going to be trouble and there was nothing Raquel could do to stop it. Dusty took his fate chip and ran with it]

Coming out of his hiding spot Dusty began to rant at the workmen. Telling them the Cx554 isn’t over engineered its perfectly engineered the only trouble it has is idiots fitting it wrong.
And thus the great debate began. The Workmen began to argue back and both Dusty and the workmen got lost in proving who was write. I handled this as a competition in Technology, with each side creating advantages with social skills.

Of course half way thru this Nova got on Comms and managed to derail things for Dusty, making it harder as she needed help with a computer.

Once Nova disconnected the debate continued. A great deal of fun was had arguing over what was the best approach. It wasn’t until Dusty had won did the workmen begin to question what Dusty was doing on the roof.

Fortunately this Is where Raquel stepped in and did what she does best, lie. She explained how the professor was here to check their work. (The argument and demonstration of Dusty skill made this lie easier to swallow) there were doing an audit of all the work Pinwheel were doing and needed to check what had happened.

As always the lies flowed smoothly and the workmen were taken in. Dusty managed to look at the machine on the roof and even make a couple of changes as Raquel kept the workers distracted. By the end of the conversation the workmen swore secrecy on the whole visit, believing that Raquel and Dusty were going to perform similar secret tests on upper management so telling them would spoil things.
The perfect result. The machine has been sabotaged, the workmen are complicit in the affair and will keep Dusty’s mods in place.

With everything running smoothly (and me still laughing about the whole affair with Dusty going over the top to prove the workmen wrong) the crew meet up on the Space Raptor. They had managed to take everything they needed from Vegas and thought it best not to hang around for the fireworks.
They head out into space and towards Gibbs moon to drop off the VR machines. Halfway to Gibbs moon Raquel spots a news story from Space Vegas. Clarence has been arrested and charged with attempted murder. Seems a device he had constructed had causes the shutdown of several pace makers on the planet. This would not be so bad but one of the pace makers was in the owner of the Grand Casino. The owner had survived the ordeal but was throwing considerable political and financial pressure to see Clarence brought to justice. A statement from Pinwheel stated that they had no knowledge of Clarence’s activities and had basically hung him out to dry.

The trip to Gibbs moon was uneventful. The machines were handed over and the towns folk once again seemed happy.

It was a good trip to Space Vegas but Raquel was still worried about Ruby and Sapphire, they had been left in the care of Space Book so it seemed that they were going to have to go and get them back.

That’s perhaps a story for the next post….

[Novawaffles]

This is SUCH a great campaign!! I can't wait for the next post! xD

[Earthwalker]

Dorris 6.2 – New Australia
Aspects
We have both biomes, desserts and swamps.
It’s all venom and teeth.

The Space Raptor touched down on New Australia next to the entrance of Spaces Books secret lair. From the ship the crew could tell something was wrong, the steel door that covered the man hole entrance to the lair had been removed and was laying next to an open hole.

Leaving the ship and checking closer it looked like some animal had torn the door from its housing, the door was twisted and bent and claw marks were visible on the concrete. Drawing weapons the crew moved into the base.

Spoiler: Space Book Secret Lair

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Aspects
Many passageways
Dark
Wires hanging everywhere.
All technology Broken

The crew began to explore the base trying to remember the way back to the living quarters. As they moved through the dark abandoned passageways they saw the signs of struggle. It seemed like the base had been attack recently. They found signs of fresh blood patches but no bodies. All forms of technology had been smashed.

Spoiler: GM Note

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I described some of the sections the group found but didn’t want to handle this like a game of DnD doing a dungeon exploration. I instead gave the players a chance to find the control centre with an investigation roll. If they made the roll they found the centre safe and sound, if the roll failed then they would also find some trouble and the control centre.
Turns out the crew has very little investigation skills. A team work roll was made and failed. Time for action I guess

The crew found the control centre smashed like the rest of the base. While exploring the wreckage a large figure dropped from the roof. It stood about 7 foot tall and was covered in thick black fur. Among the fur was the glint of cybernetic implants. It appeared to be like a large ape but with a wolf like jaw.
The crew named it a Wolf-Ape.

Spoiler: Wolf-Ape

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Genetically engineered guard animal.
Aspects
Loyal to the Pack
Hates all technology
Great: Athletics
Good: Fight, Physique

The beast leap forward to attack, only to be forced to dodge to the side as Nova already had her gun in hand and was blasting away (Nova has a stunt that lets her use shoot in place of notice for turn order. She often ends up acting first). The beast rolls to the side before leaping forward at Dusty, the creature knocked Dusty back and caused some stress. In response Dusty threw one of his gadgets to the side and activated it. The flashing lights on this machine distracted the beast, giving Raquel a chance to punch it (Yep that’s right, when confronted with problems the brave replicant punches them). The blow knocked the beast back and meant that Raquel was between dusty and the beast (good news for Dusty).

Nova kept up the fire on the beast but it again dodge away swinging about on the wires from the ceiling. Whilst up their the monster threw a couple of kicks towards Raquel. (I even spent a fate point on its all venom and teeth from the New Australia aspect) Raquel managed to roll with the kicks (spending a couple of fate points herself, it was dark and the beast couldn’t see to hit properly, also she was a Replicant and not so easy to damage).

Desperate to help Dusty looked around for something to use (His notice managed to create an aspect, loose wires. Some on the creatures playground was not so safe). Also looking to help Raquel tried to use her Physique to contain the monster and drag it out of the wires in the roof. (Raquel managed to create an advantage and I put a “Held” aspect on the beast). Nova’s turn came up again. She carried on with plan Alpha “keep shooting till it stops moving”. With free invokes from Dusty and Raquel the beast did take a serious consequence. Bullets tearing into its side.

With a Yelp the beast fell to the ground then struggled to hobble away from the group.

Spoiler: GM Notes

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I had decided a serious consequence or more would be enough to get the monster to concede the fight. Its concession was to leave and not fight the group again.
This was an odd issue as Raquel in a way wanted to kill the thing and get a chance to study it. This is not the first time something like this has happened. In the end once they knew it would not come back the crew were happy to leave the beast to limp away

The crew were now a little beaten and short on Fate points (Which was how I wanted it, this was the first opponent they had fought that had athletics equal to their best fighter, it showed in how they had to group up to take it down)

Searching the command centre they managed to find a train of blood where some survivors had been dragged away from the command centre. Following the trail they managed to get to another exit out onto the planet’s surface.

Searching the area the crew soon came upon the Wolf-Apes home. In the trees above the swamp 7 or 8 Wolf-Apes had a settlement. Wood was added to branches to form walkways and a few simple nests had been built. The worst news for the crew was the existence of a Wolf-Ape alpha, it was a massive brute towering above the other Wolf-Apes. The crew saw a cage up in the trees and inside were the two replicants, Ruby and Sapphire as well as a couple of the space book hackers.
After looking over the situation the team started to plan. It didn’t long before they decided they could sneak into the base. Unlock the cage and then sneak back out with the hostages. In case of emergencies Dusty would set up a technological beacon he could use to distract the Wolf-Apes. Everything was in place and the group was off. They manage to sneak up to the cage without a problem.

(I made this a good stealth group test. Now each member of the group has stealth and so this wasn’t that difficult)

Next it was up to Nova to open the cage. She was more used to breaking into high tech cages but she didn’t seem to have any trouble and passed the test easy. The cage swinging open and Nova tried to convince the people trapped inside to leave and to keep them calm. (This was a fair rapport roll, Nova had bad luck on the dice and decided to spend the fate point on her “I can talk people into anything” aspect and passed the test)

Finally the group needed to sneak out, this was harder than getting in as they had extra people. Half way out one of the space book hackers stumbled alerting the Wolf-Apes. Fortunately Dusty was prepared, he set off the distraction and the Wolf-Apes were soon running after the source of the weird sound.

Now the Crew and hangers on were running, trying to get back to the ship as soon as possible. They ran through the dark passage ways of the former Space Book base, as they got close to the command centre they heard a howl in the distance.

They kept on running, another howl, this time closer maybe in the base. The crew were fit and healthy and could run all day, the replicants were also similarly made of iron. The space book hackers were slow and out of shape. Already they were slowing the group down.
It was decision time. Take the hackers and risk getting caught or leave them. The crew of course choose neither. Instead they decided to hold their ground.

The fight began and the Alpha was upon them. Despite its size it was quick and jumped around the darken corridors biting and clawing as it came. Raquel tried to hold it back from the Space Book hackers and was trying her best to punch the monster. Of course it was just too quick. The only person hitting the thing was Nova and she was only scoring a few glancing hits.

Spoiler: GM Note

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The Alpha was suppose to be a tough fight, but bad rolls and a lack of fate points was really hurting the crew. It was good in a way to see them not just steam roll over something (this was the first real tough fight the group had) Of course it was too similar to the earlier fight, I should have thought of something unique for the Alpha.

Raquel after taking a bad hit conceded the fight. The first time a player had done this. We talked over what was going to happen. For now I ruled she was knocked down and the monster would think she was dead. I (well we all) was stuck what to think bad to happen and moved on with the fight.
So the fight continued and as it was looking bad the group once again decided to run.
I let the group run, with Raquel stunned but able to follow. The only way they were going to get clear though was out distancing the space book hackers. One of the hackers was lost to the Alpha but the crew managed to escape. (The loss of space book hacker closed off some investigation for Raquel and was a price paid for conceding).

Back on the ship Dusty bandaged up the wounded. They had made it out alive but paid a cost. Raquel had managed to gather together 3 more of her people. Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby joined the crew. In the brief time on ship Emerald collapsed while the crew were discussing what to do with the sisters. After an examination by Dusty it appeared that the sisters all had the aspect “Twice as bright, half as long”. The fact they were self aware was a great strain on their replicant firmware. It was causing problems, when they get too emotionally involved they will black out.

I called Raquel gathering the sisters onto the ship a milestone for her. People updated character sheets. In light of finding company Raquel changed her aspect “I must find more of my kind” to “I will cure my friends”