Starship Fantasies Playtest (Inactive)

Game Master Brian Minhinnick

" Yeah, I've been working at the hospital on this dust ball for a while now. It's been good for me but I'm ready to move on. I asked Auriel for a transfer about a month ago, heh, I guess this is his way of giving it to me "

Sir Leo salutes the capt. as he enters the room. We're ready to debrief at your convenience.

Ageera nods to Leo, "Let me finish up with these new people first, and then we'll get to the debriefing Lt."

"That's correct. Auriel apparently assigned me a bit more than I usually do for this one. Sounds like fun though. So, will I be flying this behemoth?" she asks with a grin.

"Large she may be, but she's quick and nimble for her size. You'll be flying her for the foreseeable future, yes. Well, since you've worked for the Guild already, I'm sure you understand hierarchy and chain of command. I grew up in the guild, so I know what it's like. 'Round here it's not much different, except that a big part of our job is kicking ass. Do you two swear to serve the Federation Exploratory Fleet until you are discharged by command or you meet your death?" The Captain asks the newbies.

"Let me see. Hmm, I have to think about that one....YES!" she exclaims happily.

"Ahem, I do."

Grimwold stands and thumps his chest with his right hand, in the manner common for dwarves taking an oath. " I swear it. " he says slowly in his deep gravely voice.

"Good, then you'll be needing these. The positions your filling are commissioned officer level, taking your past experience into consideration I think it's perfectly appropriate. You'll be needing these." He says, pulling two small black velvet jewelry cases from his pockets. He hands one to both Grimwold and Mordanna. Inside is the single hollow golden pip of an Ensign. "Welcome to the FEF, hope you work out better than our last people to fill your positions." He says with a smirk. "Now, on to the business at hand. Gotrum, debrief me!" He snaps suddenly all business. "Where the f*ck is my Chief of Operations? My Engineer?" he looks around angrily for the Tiefling and Orc.

"Yes sir. I believe one of the conference room 2 is available. Ensigns with me. Time to chit chat with your crew later on."

Leo walks to the teleporter. "Deck 3." He walks up to the conference room and begins to prepare the debriefing.

When everyone is seeded he begins: "Upon arrival we were greeted by the seneschal to headsman Wrathvine, Botarr Cinderbeard and guild liason Auriel. After a brief introduction we meat with the headsman. Horus would you elaborate?

And so the debriefing begins.

I've been lurking in the shadows...

"Long story short captain, the guild representative believes that there is a mole feeding the Bloodclaws information possibly the Headman himself. The chief constable is also a prime suspect, but from our interactions with him, he strikes me as too obvious to be the real culprit.. Obviously, this is all on the word of Auriel, the guild liaison. Whether or not that information is trustworthy is open for debate."

"When we went to an establishment known to be frequented by members of the Bloodclaws, we were attacked by a bloodclaw assassin who seemed to be waiting for us. It would seem that our likenesses have been provided to the enemy by our mole. At present, we have obtained the co-ordinates of where this assassin was supposed to rendezvous with other members of the gang. It's in the local asteroid belt, but whether or not that represents the location of the carrier ship, is unknown."

"I think that sums it up. Anyone have anything else to add?"

Nice concise summary.

"I see..." the Captain says, stroking his chin. "What about Bigfix?"

Come to think of it, none of you have seen him since the bar. He was helping the security and then he just never caught up.

"Thank you Hightower." Leo nods to Hours as he finishes, clearly satisfied with the tieflings account of events.

At the captains question he turns his head towards Kimefe: "Kimefe your turn."

Swearing under her breath, Kimefe tries to remember the last time she saw the orc.

INT check: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

She recalls Leo ordering him to help the bouncers get the civilians out of the bar, right after the battle. He did so, but then the Constable's arrival distracted all of you and you never saw him come out of the bar.

Swearing in greater volume, Kimefe turns on her communicator. "Bigfix, this is Kimefe. Where are you?"

The comm remains ominously silent.

Grimwold shifts a little uncomfortably in his chair.

"If this crew doesn't stop going AWOL, we're all gonna get court martialed." the Captain says, closing his eyes and sighing. "Well, not much we can do about it. If any of you see him again, do me a favor and shoot the prick." The Captains stands up and rests his fingertips on the long conference table, leaning in slightly. "So we have the coordinates of their meeting place. Good work on that folks. I'd like to hear any suggestions you all have on how to approach this before I issue my orders. The floor is open."

Leo leans back in his chair indicating he is willing to wait with his suggestions if anyone else wants to suggest an approach.

"My question is do we want stealth or the front door approach?"

The Dwarf leans towards the table to put his two creds in and says gruffly" I don't know how we'd work stealth after a certain point, we don't know what kind of ship that Bugbear used... I say we go in heavy and we should move quickly too incase it's only a temporary meeting place! "

"That seems like it is probably the best idea. Perhaps give everyone a few hours rest and then head out with all the stations manned and ready for combat."

" I'm not even sure about a few hours ma'am. What if whoever's out there has contacts planet side? It wouldn't take long for 'em ta get wind o what happened down there. If they find out their assassins dead there's no point waitin' around ta pay 'im... "

"Well, OPS tells me that the asteroids in this system are laced with enough radium to make communication and sensors useless at distance. But that doesn't mean that this meeting has no expiration date. Our new Doctor makes a good point. The background radiation should mask us until we're right up on them. We're still a little damaged from our fight with those spikeships though. Lets get this bird underway at impulse speeds, and finish the repairs up on the way." He grins at the thought of combat, turning to Kimefe "Unfortunately there's no rest for the wicked. Hightower, you're on repairs. Na'tal go fly this thing. The rest of you get an hour of sack time, and then make sure the ship is combat ready. Unless I messed up my calculations, we should be there in around 10 hours. Questions?"

"Nope."

Mord stands and heads to the teleporter.

"Bridge."

One there she gets settled in and plots a course to the other side of the system and gets the ship underway.

Pilot: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

"Aye, Aye Captain."

Horus will go and oversee the remaining repairs.

Knowledge(engineering): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
Craft(ships): 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

" I'll check out the medical facilities if its all the same ta you Sir. It'll give me a chance ta pack a field kit too. " Grimwold half tells and half asks Ageera, hopping down from his chair he makes his way to the teleporter and says " Medical Bay. "

"Kimefe I need the files on all ensigns and what ever we might have on Starforge and Na'Tal. If you would have someone bring them to my quaters." Leo says before he leaves for an hour of sleep.

"Will do Sir." As Kimefe heads to her room, she speaks to the ceiling, "Excelsior, tell my team to get some sleep--It's the last they'll get for awhile."

The crew goes about their various tasks, getting the ship ready for combat. There are no problems, and everyone is able to accomplish what they are trying to do.

Grimwold - Looking for anything specific?

Leo - You know the information contained in Grimwold and Mordanna's profiles.

Horus - Repairs go smoothly, your crew are professionals and they've been working hard while you were on planet.

Grimwold/Mordanna - You've inherited some crewmembers that you're in charge of.

Grimwold spends the hour familiarising himself with the medical suite, working out what's where so that he can work efficiently when the time comes. He introduces himself to his crew members who are on duty and watches them work for around ten minutes, assessing their skills. He takes the time to pack a small bag of medical supplies to carry with him to replace the one he'd checked in at the bar and left behind in the rush to get out. If he has any time left he retires to his office and browses the crews medical files starting from the top of the command chain and working his way down.

Introduction: " Listen up, Grimwold Starforge is my name, you may call me Doc... No saluting. No Sirs. Just Doc. We're headed in ta a possible confrontation so lets be ready. Make sure you got everything you'll need ta treat any wounded "

The medical supplies I'm looking for is just a healers kit...

You can find a healer's kit no problem. There is a wand of cure light wounds as well, with 40 charges left on it.

Grimwold finds his staff to be competent, if junior. They follow his orders readily and are eager to please. The CWOs (chief warrant officers, highest NCO rank) under him are Tancorix an elderly mustachioed goblin and Jycla a young red haired tiefling woman with a long prehensile tail.

"Yes, Ensign Kimefe. I will do so." the ship's voice acknowledges the CSO's command.

The Exclesior is capable of nearly 450 times the speed of light. The problem is acceleration. Mordanna is only able to bring it up to about an eighth the speed of light in the two or so hours it takes them to cross the Cygnuss system to the designated coordinates. Even so, he handles like a quicksilver dream. The AI-Integrated telepathic controls allow her to react at the speed of thought and instinct aided by long distance proximity warnings beamed directly into her brain's neocortex.

As the destination nears, she slows the ship and the Captain brings the ship to orange alert, all crew to battle stations. He's got Kimefe and Leo on the guns, and Horus on Torpedoes, near Engineering. Grimwold is on ops, and Mordanna is at the helm.

"Mordanna bring us in slow, Gromwold what've we got on sensors?"

Grimwold scans the sensors searching for anything out of the ordinary.

Perception check 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

He finds a faint carrier signal, and amplifies it. It leads him straight to the electronic silhouette of the Blood Claw Heavy Carrier hiding behind a nearby asteroid. As soon as he spots the enemy, he realizes that he's also alerted them to the Excelsior's presence.

Initiative:
Mordanna 27
Kimefe 25
Horus 20
Leo 16
Pirates 15+
Grimwold 15-
Ageera 10

Mordanna please roll a pilot check for upper hand. Current speed is 0.

Map

Green is you.

Starship rules

The Excelsior's stats are on the campaign info tab.

Kimefe aims her gun at the carrier's propulsion and fires.

Attack: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
Damage: 12d8 ⇒ (4, 2, 4, 2, 8, 4, 7, 4, 2, 8, 5, 3) = 53

Pilot: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (1) + 13 = 14

Ugh, horrible roll. Maybe next one.

Upper hand 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Okay, so they have upper hand. Go ahead and take your action Mordanna. Horus and Leo can also act.

Mordanna begins maneuvering the Excelsior around the rear of the carrier to keep out of their optimum field of fire.

Pilot: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (15) + 13 = 28

Round 1
Initiative 27

The ship accelerates to 400m/Rnd as Mordanna maneuvers it around an asteroid.

Initiative 25

Kimefe catching her first glimpse of the enemy ship emerging from behind an asteroid, squeezes off a long distance shot at their thrusters. The twisting ropes of lightning barely miss one of the carrier's four thrusters, singeing the hull.

Map

The distance to the enemy ship is 2400 meters.

out of curiosity what are you using to make your maps? Also can Grimwold aid another from the ops station?

I use MapTool. Yeah, he can aid anyone from there. That's why I put him there. He's also within one move action of a teleporter in case s~@@ hits the fan.

Horus will prepare the torpedos for firing and wait until the enemy is in range.

Leo tries to get an aim with from his weapons control but the starboard weapons aren't within an arc of fire so he use what little time he has to try and trim the flow of navigational data to Mordanna.

Aiding with pilot: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

Mordanna adjusts her approach to aid in getting an optimal field of fire while keeping the carrier from getting around them.

Pilot: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30

"Let's see how well you handle this."

Round 1
Initiative 20

Horus readies a torpedo to fire if an enemy comes within range.

Technically you could fire now, but at 6 range increments that's -12 to hit. How close counts as "within range" for your readied action?

Initiative 16

Leo assists Mordanna with her piloting.

Initiative 15+

Pilot check 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

The heavy carrier spews forth several smaller craft from it's launching bays, but fails to out maneuver the asteroid. The smaller ships streak towards the Excelsior, moving much more quickly than the Carrier.

Everyone give me Knowledge (Engineering) rolls

Grimwold tries to track the small ships and the cruiser on the ops screen and sends targeting information to Kimefe

Attack to assist: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12

Kn Eng untrained: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

Knowledge Engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27

Horus will wait until the range is no more than 2 range increments

Know(Eng): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14