EOW 2015 Recap (with helpful GM notes) Part Three
So, I've been gradually getting around to writing about my three-day gaming weekend, with particular interest in what went wrong and right with each session. And now the final entry.
Session Three
Genre: Traveller, or more correctly "Traveller" since their game universe has gotten pretty far afield
What went right: a tense, exciting plot
What needs work: There might be too many vorpal swords lying around
This was the "campaign" session, the latest installment in a Traveller game that has gone on for years, but only four sessions a year. It's important to know the campaign revolves between three GM's, each taking a single session then passing it on. Over the years the campaign has expanded from a merchant free trader to a fleet of ships belonging to a corporation headed up by the PC's. In the previous session, the GM of the day decided to take the campaign in a new direction and pare down the scale by having a single ship of the fleet try out an experimental "phase drive" engine which turned out to not move ships through jump space but instead have them move through parallel dimensions. Now the crew is basically "Lost in Space" moving from dimension to dimension randomly trying to get to home (or as I suggested, as close as possible, thinking of the Simpson's Halloween episode of the same vein).
In this session, the wandering ship encounters a planet where a millennium ago another starship drifted in and the crew, abandoning the ship, tried to survive on the planet. Turns out this was easy, because there is a microbiotic organism that reverses aging, so there are some of the original crew left, along with their descendants. It sounded a whole lot like a Star Trek original series episode in a lot of ways, but the upshot was that pirates showed up to pose a threat, and the PC's used the ship of the superannuated crew to bluff their way out.
But in the process, the PC's got a) a huge spaceship (given to them by the shipwrecked crew), b) a fountain of youth that can be cultured and grown in-house, and c) tacit approval to begin trying to develop a torpedo is a phase drive engine mounted on the end of it that they could arm, launch at a ship, and then trigger when it comes into contact, shifting the target into another dimension. When the GM sounded enthusiastic about the last one, I had to say "what do you do when there are no more dragons to slay?"
I not going to knock this too hard. They clearly have their style and like gaming it, and I appeared to be the only one complaining about the possibility of having a party driving around with a battleship full of insta-kill missiles and immortal PC's, so what do I know?
So that was the whole roster of games. Each one was enjoyable in its own right, and for a guy who doesn't get a chance to do much sci-fi gaming, not to mention just being a player, a real treat. Thanks for reading, and don't forget that comments are welcome.
Session Three
Genre: Traveller, or more correctly "Traveller" since their game universe has gotten pretty far afield
What went right: a tense, exciting plot
What needs work: There might be too many vorpal swords lying around
This was the "campaign" session, the latest installment in a Traveller game that has gone on for years, but only four sessions a year. It's important to know the campaign revolves between three GM's, each taking a single session then passing it on. Over the years the campaign has expanded from a merchant free trader to a fleet of ships belonging to a corporation headed up by the PC's. In the previous session, the GM of the day decided to take the campaign in a new direction and pare down the scale by having a single ship of the fleet try out an experimental "phase drive" engine which turned out to not move ships through jump space but instead have them move through parallel dimensions. Now the crew is basically "Lost in Space" moving from dimension to dimension randomly trying to get to home (or as I suggested, as close as possible, thinking of the Simpson's Halloween episode of the same vein).
In this session, the wandering ship encounters a planet where a millennium ago another starship drifted in and the crew, abandoning the ship, tried to survive on the planet. Turns out this was easy, because there is a microbiotic organism that reverses aging, so there are some of the original crew left, along with their descendants. It sounded a whole lot like a Star Trek original series episode in a lot of ways, but the upshot was that pirates showed up to pose a threat, and the PC's used the ship of the superannuated crew to bluff their way out.
But in the process, the PC's got a) a huge spaceship (given to them by the shipwrecked crew), b) a fountain of youth that can be cultured and grown in-house, and c) tacit approval to begin trying to develop a torpedo is a phase drive engine mounted on the end of it that they could arm, launch at a ship, and then trigger when it comes into contact, shifting the target into another dimension. When the GM sounded enthusiastic about the last one, I had to say "what do you do when there are no more dragons to slay?"
I not going to knock this too hard. They clearly have their style and like gaming it, and I appeared to be the only one complaining about the possibility of having a party driving around with a battleship full of insta-kill missiles and immortal PC's, so what do I know?
So that was the whole roster of games. Each one was enjoyable in its own right, and for a guy who doesn't get a chance to do much sci-fi gaming, not to mention just being a player, a real treat. Thanks for reading, and don't forget that comments are welcome.
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