Playtest Notes

[Methuslah]

Well, I convinced my group to give Starships and Spacemen a try, and we started our campaign last weekend. So without further ado:

Session One: “The Odyssey Begins...”

Introduction
The campaign is based around the command crew of the U.S.S. Polaris, a destroyer in the service of the Confederation Space Fleet. The general idea was to throw the crew into a 'Voyager' situation, stranding them a long way from home with the campaign being the 'long voyage back', with the idea being when they get back then they can potentially trade up to a bigger ship. To add to the setting, I threw in some races I found in an old issue of White Dwarf, the first of which made an appearance in the session, the Tislak Adapters. As it seemed odd to me that a fresh group of Ensigns would be wandering about in their own starship in the normal course of events, I thought I would be best served making that an element of the campaign itself...

Character Creation

“Who the hell are these kids?”
“We got reinforced. Most of them are straight out of boot.”

The campaign is going to have four players long-term, but one of them was unable to make it to the first session, so three characters to generate, and character creation itself was smooth and painless, but did throw up a few comments from the group. The three characters were:

Pete: Terran Military (Command)
Mark: Rigellian Military
Chris: Tauran Science

Two of the characters decided not to specialise for the XP bonus, especially when Mark realised that as a Rigellian he already had access to almost all of the specialist equipment he would get taking the Security specialisation, which was the original plan. Why to play a Terran was also the next point, in that it was noted with some justification that the abilities of all the other races were superior, their disadvantages not really balancing them out. I house ruled that Terrans get a 10% XP bonus due to their innate adaptability; perhaps a bonus to Contact would work in a similar way. However, everyone was more than satisfied with their characters, and character creation took about ten minutes a PC on average.

Into the Space Warp!

“Reverse Engines.”
“Sir, no-one has ever attempted to reverse engines at this velocity.”
“Because no-one has gone this fast! Reverse engines.”

Two weeks into the five-year mission of the Polaris, with the ship safely in Confederation space, when the three player characters – all occupying adjacent cabins – are woken by the ship going to Red Alert, and everything spiralling out of control. Pete's first thought was to run for the Bridge, with Mark hot on his heels; both discovered quite quickly that the Bridge simply wasn't there any more. The three characters split up; Chris ended up heading to Sickbay in search of the senior surviving officer, in critical condition, Pete headed for Engineering and Mark headed for Environmental Control.

Pete, in Engineering, found all the senior staff dead and a confused Communications Officer, Ensign Alden, trying to work out what to do. He sent him away, and the staff managed to re-establish attitude control so the ship would not break up, but it was still going much too fast. In Environmental Control, Mark locked down the ship to prevent further atmospheric leak, and Chris found the last senior officer dying in a bed, the dead Doctor at his feet. He was not a Medical type, and being a Tauran probably only had a vague idea of human anatomy, but nevertheless he made the attempt to revive him. It failed. Pete got there just in time to be placed in command.

Everyone made their way to Auxiliary Control. Chris' Science Officer quickly determined that they were in a Space Warp, flying blindly out of control, and Mark went in search of the only surviving Navigator, Ensign Kelso. The two people manning the control room when the PCs arrived were the other two surviving officers, Ensign Van Noon (Alien Contact) and Ensign 'Jacko' Hines (Biology). Despite a low Technical skill, Pete managed to get the console working, and Kelso arrived just in time to stop the ship.

Lost In Space

“There's a lot of space out there to get lost in.”

The first action was to find out where they were, and the answer was far from promising – behind Zangrid space. The only ways home were either through Zangrid territory, quickly ruled out as an option, through a narrow corridor between Zangrid and Videni space, or a long two-and-a-half year journey through unknown territory. They still hadn't really decided which at the end of the session – well, they certainly have plenty of time.

A 'stock check' followed. It turned out that half the officers were dead, killed on the Bridge during a staff meeting, and several key crewmen from the Engineering section. The ship was mostly undamaged, but the Warp Drive was badly strained, and needed urgent repairs. The ship's records knew of a long-ago-used trading world, but they instead opted to head for a warp-capable civilisation picked up on long-range sensors.

Three days of slow travel passed, before finally a ship was detected on long-range sensors, one which did not appear to match any known configuration or style of ship design. After a short debate, the PCs contacted the ship; fortunately they were speaking a Zangrid-accented form of Galactic Common, so there was no need to mess about with the Universal Translator. They saw an attractive, scantily-clad green woman with blue hair, who introduced herself as the commander of the ship, and offered to escort them to 'Tislak Beta', their local trading and supply depot, for repairs to their damaged warp drive.

Earth Males Are Easy

“Giggety-giggety-goo!”

The 'lure' to draw in the crew was a holoprojector, designed to display social situations that they could expect on Tislak Beta. The PCs – with their alien expert, Van Noon – were the first to try it out, only to find out that the native customs of this world mostly seemed to revolve around the 'orgy'. Naturally, there were numerous volunteers for landing party duty, though this dried up a bit when Chris started spreading rumours that the Tislak were carriers of some sort of strange alien bug. He was very convincing!

The landing party consisted of the PCs, Van Noon, Hines and a Redshirt. Then came selecting the equipment, and the party ended up with some...unconventional choices. Mark took a laser sword, jacket and rifle, Chris took a Medi-Kit and Analyzer, and Pete took a Jacket, Communicator and Translator. That's right, only one third of the PCs went down with any weapons.(A half-point weapon is sorely needed...and there was a general cry for 'more equipment', to the point that it was suggested at the table that an equipment splatbook would be a good thing...)

The landing party was not met by a group of friendly green alien women. They materialised outside a huge alien pyramid, and were met by a dozen guards with guns. Redshirt broke and ran, trying to get away, but was stunned by Mark – on the principle that the guards would have killed him if he didn't. This impressed the alien commander, who had him taken to her quarters, while the remainder of the landing party were stripped of weapons and taken to a holding cell.

Breakout

“There isn't a cell made yet that can hold Derek Custer!”

Mark's character was escorted to the quarters, where for a brief moment he waited before the alien captain walked in. She outlined what the Tislak wanted; the Confederation had superior engine and teleport technology, and they wanted to steal them – on their homeworld, such technology would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Mark was offered a stake in this if he would turn over the Polaris to the Tislak for them to scavenge...instead he attacked her with his laser sword! There followed the only slow battle of the session, as neither side seemed able to land a blow, before finally, Mark was stunned and dropped to the floor.

He woke up in the cell with the others. The captain came shortly thereafter and outlined a variant of the offer; she would offer them safe passage through Tislak space in exchange for access to the technology they wanted. Pete refused, somewhat forcefully, and they were then told that they would not receive food or water until they accepted – and that there was a dampening field in place preventing communication or teleport. Pete refused even more forcefully.

The escape plan was hatched. Mark used pieces of his uniform to block the cameras, and then went for the hinges of the door with a blunt knife, thrown into the room to permit them to eat each other. The guards heard the noise, but Mark had done enough to loosen the hinges, and with an almighty kick, they were free – the guards knocked cold, their weapons taken.

Hurriedly, Mark led the party to the Captain's bedchamber, where she was still resting after the fight; on the way they managed to obtain a few universal translators programmed with local languages, that would be of use later. She was in her room, alone and unarmed, and offered no resistance...even when Mark took a genetic sample. After a few tries, they managed to lower the force field that allowed them access to the upper level – though found out that the Captain had been under surveillance the whole time, and that their attack was therefore no secret.

Into the Catacombs

“Admit it, we're lost.”
“OK, we're lost. But we're making good time.”

The stairs led up to a great hall, with other doors leading off. Using his enhanced senses (joking that this seemed like a dungeon crawl, so he figured he'd check), Chris' Tauran spotted a secret door in the far wall, one that the Tislak – who it turned out had only been occupying this facility for a matter of weeks – had no idea existed. Exploring this part of the structure became a top priority, naturally. It was then that the real alien captain appeared, stunning Mark once again with his first shot. A 'Mexican Standoff' ensued briefly, before they arranged a trade – repairs for technology and safe passage. The repairs would be conducted at a facility the Tislak had recently discovered, an automated ship maintenance yard.

Then came the door. The whole party made to go through it, but the only ones to make it in before the doors closed behind them were the three PCs and the green woman, now revealed as the 'Vice-Commander'. Mark had by this time been revived, but his character still had an epic hangover. The first room contained a pair of guard robots – protecting an atmospheric monitoring system. The two sides rolled initiative – it was a tie, so actions would be simultaneous. Five weapons fired, and all of them hit! Mark used his pistol's entire charge to vaporise the target, and between them Pete and the Vice-Commander took down the other one. She shrugged off the stun shot from the robot; Mark went down again.

One revival later, they headed down the corridor, finding that a river had worked its way through the walls, flooding an area and giving them a large body of water to cross. Sensors indicated large mammals (sharks) in the water. The solution? Drain a charge of an electrostun pistol into the water, frying everything inside. They walked across the dead bodies.

At the bottom of the slope was another pair of rooms, one containing data monitoring records of the area for the last century. Notably including – recently – a Confederation Frigate heading this way. There are more Space Force types out here than they had expected. The other room had a staircase down, guarded by another pair of robots. The same result as before – both robots went down, Mark was stunned. For the fourth time in as many hours.

The prize was at the bottom – library data including technological information, and plans for a teleporter that could transport through jamming fields. Including the one they were trapped in. A short barter later, and they decided to continue with the deal as planned. The Tislak now getting rather more out of it, but the Space Fleet crew copying the data so the bright boys back home could make something of it.

There the session ended; all three PCs had enough experience to take them to 2nd level and the heady highs of 'Sub-Lieutenant'. More in two weeks!

Everyone enjoyed the game and thought that the rules were in general excellent, with just a few minor niggles thus far, mostly based on the equipment selection as much as anything else.

Notable Setting Information
Bits and pieces we came up with as the session went on...

Space Academy graduates classes of a hundred – the top one hundred that get through the courses. Like wines, some years are better than others. It is located in Ulan Bator, and aside from the Commandant, all the lecturers and staff are former senior NCOs. This is where NCOs go to finish out their careers and earn their pensions.
Rigellians are always interested in obtaining new genetic material to improve future generations; on Rigel there is a substantial genetic bank of such material that scientists use to add valuable dominant traits and abilities. This isn't much of a secret, but it is somewhat frowned upon.

Matters Arising from Playtesting
Terrans need to be better compared to the other races.
More equipment needed! Specifically, a half-point gun...though not a good one, of course.
The Medi-Kit...does it need any rolls to use it, or does it just work?

House Rules Thus Far
Terrans get a 10% experience bonus.
Destroyers carry only up to 'two-point' equipment as standard stowage. (Frigates would carry 'one-point', Cruisers three, et cetera.)

[Goblinoid Games]

Thank you for the playtest report!