Tag Archives: Space

Space Cowboys

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Friday night I came across an RPG website, selling mainstream and independent role playing games.

I found one called Orbital Blues, a space western that I remember from Kickstarter that for some reason I didn’t pledge back in the day.

I discovered that a solo play system was added so I took the plunge and ordered the game, which included digital copies in addition to the physical books.

I skimmed though about 50 pages and found it a pretty straight forward game system, one that could be used in a Firefly or Cowboy Bebop like setting.

Which is when I remembered that I already had a Cowboy Bebop Role Playing Game, which I did get from Kickstarter, delivered about a month before I moved from the house to the apartment.

I rummaged through some of the storage tubs that I had brought from the house last year, and found the main book and other accessories (dice, GM screen, woolong poker chips).

After flipping though the Cowboy Bebop book, I reckon I can eventually play/not play (heh) both, along side every other system that I have sitting around here, awaiting my attention.

Had I not stored it away and out of sight, I probably would have had another solo campaign all set to not play.

To be fair, I’m sure I still have the Serenity Role Playing Game somewhere in my offsite storage.

Beginnings

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The first character that I created in the old FASA Star Trek RPG was Mackenzie Decker, son of Matt Decker, brother of Will Decker.  He was ex-Starfleet,  resigning his commission after the disappearance of Will Decker after the V’Ger incident.  He became an independent freighter captain, and was known by his leather jacket and whip, looking much like Jake Cutter from Tales of the Gold Monkey but without the hat, and Indiana Jones without the fedora.

In the new Star Trek Adventures Exploration Guide, there are two new character creation options, Outpost Scientist (ex: David Marcus) and…

Independent Archaeologist (ex: Vash)

I’m not sure I’ll recreate Mac Decker as this new character option, or just make a new Indy-type character.  One of the example Values listed is ‘These artifacts belong in a museum!’ and one of the new Talents listed is ‘Make Your Own Luck’.

Steam コミュニティ :: ガイド :: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle • Achievement Guide

Don’t touch that dial!

Friday Rumblings

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Bolt Action: so I did end up getting the starter set and a couple of other army boxes:

The main US Army list book has an entry for Philippine Scouts, so guess what I found and ordered online?

—

Meanwhile, I got a notification that a Kickstarter reward was shipping, and this one is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while.

Back in the glory days of FASA Corporation, there was the Renegade Legion series of games, which I never got into because I was already into their Battletech series, and we were still doing RPGs more than tabletop wargaming.

Flashforward to around 2020 or so, when FASA Games (a new company working with the original FASA Corporation) came out with a new iteration of FASA Corp’s Interceptor game, which didn’t catch my eye until a few years later when they had a Kickstarter for their Aetherstream: Leviathan game.

Both Interceptor and Leviathan can find their roots in the old Renegade Legion universe, but this new incarnation of FASA Games doesn’t appear to have full rights to that world, so these are under a sub brand called Aetherstream, which appears to be a continuation/offshoot of the original Renegade Legion source material.

Older fans of these games appeared to dislike the fact that it’s not in the same universe as before, but since I never got into it back then, this new version appears to be fine with me.

So next week I should be getting both the Interceptor core set and the Leviathan Academy starter set.  The Kickstarter itself was for the launch of Leviathan into FASA Games product line, but I decided to finally pick up Interceptor as well, as an add on.

The main difference between the two games (both then and now) is that Interceptor is about fighter combat while Leviathan is about capital ship combat.

So of course I dragged out some other space games to fiddle with and play until the Aetherstream stuff comes in.

Stand by!

Revision to the Revised Revision

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So I fire up an episode of Enterprise, and was immediately reminded that yes, Phlox is another alien aboard the ship, so I reinstated Botta, the Denobulan Engineer.

I thought about restoring the Andorian XO, but that still didn’t make sense to me, though it could have played into where we are in the current adventure, as the Andorian fleet is hailing the Excalibur.

Nah, too tropey for what came to mind for that possible interaction.  Maybe a tweak on that in a later installment.

Don’t touch that dial!

Revised Revision

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As I was reviewing the bridge crew of the Excalibur, I realized that I may have made a mistake by including non-humans, specifically an Andorian first officer and Aenar security chief.  So I swapped out all the non-humans.

Again, I may not be as well versed in Enterprise lore, so maybe there eventually are non-humans (besides Vulcans) serving aboard Earth ships by this time (2154).

I also figured that a majority of the crew should be from Earth or Luna, and not colony worlds.

Stay tuned!

Wait a minute….

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I’m thinking too big.

I’m thinking that Solo RPGs should be this big grand adventure similar to what happens when a group gets together.

It shouldn’t be that at all.

It *can* be, but I may have to work my way up to that.

I have ideas all the time of what should happen next, but I don’t have to set up the whole game on my tabletop in order to run with it.

It’s about the journey and what happens next, no matter how big or small or whether or not dice are rolled.

It’s story telling.  I’m trying to tell a story.  And I should not let the tools hamper me, they should help or enhance the experience.

—

So, as I had noted back in November, the Excalibur had run into an Andorian blockade, with hails being ignored and weapons being trained on the ship.

Commander Saguisag orders the shields raised hull polarized and to continue hailing the Andorians.

“Charge cannons?”

“No, let’s keep a defensive posture for now.”

The gambit worked, the Andorians do not fire on the Excalibur.

“We’re being hailed by the lead ship.”

“On screen.”

—

See?  Was that so hard?  I can do this, I just need to adapt my playstyle to something simpler.

DON’T TOUCH THAT MF DIAL!

SWADE Characters

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Concepts:

Captain George, or just George, a character for the inevitable non-Star Trek sci-fi campaign that I’ll end up running.

Or some guy that the Pulp Heroes stumble upon.  Man of Tomorrow, or just some crackpot?

The Baron, who will more than likely be the big bad who The Tiger Beetle and Jazz Bungo test their mettle against in the coming days.

Don’t touch that dial!

The Plot

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I’m relying too heavily on the random tables in my Captain’s Log campaign.

I need to set up some plot points or even a story arc that I want my character to follow.

And I’ll need to do something similar for any of the other solo RPGs that I start playing, too.

For now, I’ll have Excalibur return though the spatial rift and have them encounter a…

Now that would be telling.

Meanwhile, I’m coming up with ideas for Savage Worlds Pulp, including the big bad that The Tiger Beetle and Jazz Bungo will be fighting throughout the campaign.

Don’t touch that dial!

Systems Recap

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Remember when I said I was going to shelve Savage Worlds and focus on Dragonbane, Captain’s Log, and Dungeons & Dragons with the Mythic Game Master Emulator?

Well, 1 out of 3 was accomplished.

And while I still do plan on starting Dragonbane and Dungeons and Dragons, I’m re-adding Savage Worlds Adventure Edition to the mix, using Pulp Fantastic as the setting.

Along with The One Ring.

In the last month or so I’ve been delving into reaction videos for The Lord of the Rings, and *tried* to continue watching Rings of Power.  The latter never got done, and after reviewing the game system, I’m going to play The One Ring with Strider Mode, the solo system for TOR.

Don’t touch that dial!