Thanks for letting me jump in and run. I had fun.
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Game note: Thanks for being patient with me at the beginning and allowing me to run for you. I am still not sure how I missed part of the game but I am glad I had a chance to GM as part of GM school. Starship combat is challenge on both sides of the screen. I hope I made it fun for you. That 4th Clue: Lawblight Barrage. It was hard to earn as it was basically a science contest. I know my group failed to earn it. It would have made the first torpedo that should have hit become a miss. Already you outgunned, had much better shields, was faster, etc. I think you would have won with none of the clues but it would have taken twice as long.
And I shall return the favor of preparing GM Valen's chronicle. Name: Skorn
Blibdoolpoolp has heard a good bluff before, and this one is good, but she sees through it. But she must be thinking too much about the enemy captain as her shot allows too much lead and passes over the enemy bow. But Eleeta's sensor lock is a good one and her second to last torpedo leaves its tube on target. The strike is true. The kinetic strike is nearly enough to pierce the gossamer like shield that is left the Lawblight and the explosion causes a cacophony of smaller blasts and vents. The lawblight is disabled and dead in the water. Its routine textbook work to capture the wreck and the enemy crew has no where to go as the Lawblight carried no escape pods. The Odyssey has earned a few battle scars but is hardly worse for the wear. Your engineering skill should have it mostly repaired by the time you get back to Absalom Station. Well fought Starfinders!
Lawblight Engineering Phase:
You are sure that you took out the enemy ship's engins but their engineer is a miracle worker and your sensors show the engines coming back on line. They seem to be malfunctioning though. Lawblight Helm Phase:
Fail! Balancing shields. The Lawblight limps away, lucky to still be in one piece. Over the Com the enemy captain stammers Ya've spunk, ya have. And ya've earned your right ta be travelin through the space we patrol. We release ya from the command to stand down. Be about your business, an don't ya be worryin none about the nuclear space mine we carry fer self defense.
A final torpedo strikes the full side shield of the Lawblight, bringing down the shield and glitching another system. Little structural integrity remains with the ship. Perhaps Blibdoolpoolp can finish her.
The lawblight only has one gun in arc to bring to bear. Her turret mounted coilgun fires lazer energy through your down forward shield. Energy plays havoc with your ship's systems and the structure audibly groans from its loss of integrity.
Their gunner must have waited for just such a maneuver as you made and catches you dead on.
She posted Thursday afternoon and some folks have a hard time over the weekend so I have not given up yet. I'll PM her.
Engineering Phase:
Your ship's scanners show that the Lawblight's engines after that last torpedo strike are now wrecked! They are dead in the water!. But as you watch some heroic action on the part of their engineer seems to bring their engines back on-line. The are malfunctioning but delivering energy to the rest of the ship's systems Helm Phase:
Had the enemy pilot not been dealing with a malfunctioning engine this round he would have outflown the Odyssey, but only just barely. As it is he is lucky to get his ship to respond at all. Still he manages to fly evasively once again. He pulls along side an asteroid showing his enemy a new shield.
Blibdoolpoolp's lack of gunnery experience shows again as both her (its?) shots miss. Eleeta however sees an opening and fires a heavy torpedo up the tailpipe of the Lawblight. The explosion is quite satisfying. It brings down the rear shield with ease and you count at least two additional ship system explosions.
Lawblight Status: Shields - Forward repaired to 6 Hull Point Damage: 53 Wrecked - Engines
With a good shield facing the Odyssey the Lawblight is far from helpless as it attacks in its aft ark. The Gyrolaser brushes just past the shields of the Odyssey; a missed caused by your pilot's evasive flying. But the turret gunner is more patient and strikes true.
Domak has won piloting this round. Lawblight has moved. Domak needs to move the ship and then we can go into Gunnery, Take you shots as soon as Domak moves you. No need to wait on me. But also don't forget your engineering, captain and/or science rolls. And that intimidate during Helm phase is finally over.
Lawblight Engineering:
Your ship's scanners show that the Lawblight's engines, malfunctioning for a moment after the torpedo strike, return to glitching. The enemy must have a competent engineer indeed. Their forward shield remains down, for the moment. Lawblight Piloting:
The enemy pilot is good; damn good. But Domak seems to finally have his measure and out-flies him this round in near perfect handling of the Odyssey. Your sensors once again pick up the tale tell sines of an active science scan of your ship's systems as the enemy ship moves away evasively.
While the laser shots go wide Eleeta manages a solid lock on and the crew is satisfied you watch the Lawblight's forward shield buckle and fail. Energy from the heavy torpedo dances over the hull of the enemy ship further damaging it. [ooc]But I think you successfully targeted it anway. Lawblight Status: Shields - Forward repaired to 6 Hull Point Damage: 30 Malfunctioning - Engines
The Lawblight moves forward 3 and in a display of piloting skill manages to turn 180 degrees to bring forward weapons to bear.
Brilliant energy lances out again from the the Lawblight's forward coilgun but does not find a target. But a heavy torpedo flashes from the a forward firing tube and closes collides with the rear shields but fails to bring them down completely.
This is my first try at running either PBP OR SFS so I know I have plenty to learn. :)
I'll almost always be posting in the helm phase before the PCs. So if you are the pilot and you can tell you need to move first, by all means go ahead and move as soon as you know the piloting results. I could roll both piloting rolls but am hesitant to do so as I am not sure what modifies might be in play. Did your captain inspire you? Intimidate you? Did you take one of the three +1s from the ship's computer? etc.
Blibdoolpoolp shows unexpected expertise on the forward arc weapons. Her first shot nearly rips down the considerable front shield of your attackers. Her second shot tears through the remaining energy of the shield like paper and does considerable hull damage. Eleeta is able to capitalize on the down ship pumping coil gun damage into the unprotected hull. As the energy permeates into the Lawblight a brihg flash can be seen initiating from the interior of the ship. Perhaps the pirates have underestimated their prey.
Engineering Phase:
Helm Phase:
Lawblight Status: Shields - Forward repaired to 6 Hull Point Damage: 20 Glitching - Egnines
There are considerration. In this case which guns or missile launchers to fire come into play and its hard to know that until you know what distances and facings have resulted from the helm phase. Still its a good attempt to do the near impossible of a full round per day.
since this is a learning exercise for me and I am still learning how to add maps I added a link to the combat roles for ship combat and an additional slide in the maps to show data for the Odyssey.
As the odyssey moves around one side of an asteroid their ship's sensors re-lock onto the Lawblight. The ship has close considerably closer.
Brilliant energy lances out from the the Lawblight's forward coilgun but does not find a target. But a heavy torpedo flashes from the a forward firing tube and closes too fast to avoid. It smashes into your forward shield taking it down exactly.
Luck remains with the pirates and the Odyssey must move first.
As the Odyssey moves around the large asteroids gaining cover and concealment the crew is nearly sure that their enemy has moved in pursuit but the sensors of the Odyssey are blocked for the moment. You have lost the exact location of the Lawblight.
Lawblight Engineering:
Lawblight Helm Phase:
It seems the pirate advantage continues as their pilot out-flies Domak, at least for this round.
Your ship's com system comes live as a cracking voice speaks out. Ahoy! This be captain Longreach of the pirate ship Lawblight. You be plunder! Iffin you don't idle your ship and prepare for boarding I'll take three weeks to kill each of you and working hard at it the whole time!
Your ship's computer passively informs you that your ship is being actively scanned.
I concur. Of course the enemy may have similar advantages. >:) When I play we usually let the captain assign these bonuses. I am fine however you want to do it as long as its consistent. Also I am by no means an expert on the starship combat rules so please advise and gently correct as needed. For Instance I am unsure how easy it is to move from say Engineering to Gunnery. Can a PC act as engineer one round and gunner the next with no issues? I think so but am not sure. And I'd appreciate it if your gunners can make sure of their ranges and add in any applicable range penalties. I have plenty to worry about already making this a good fight. :)
Lawblight Engineering:
As sensors re-calibrate the situation becomes more clear. the Odyssey is not completely out of the asteroid swarm and a number of large bodies float slowly around you in space. You find yourselves adjacent to one of these large asteroids and an adversary ship 18 hexes away has just come around the corner of another and fired weapons at you. It must have been laying in wait. Two brilliant beams of energy lance from the enemy ship. The first seems to be right on target but your pilot manages an amazing last second evasion maneuver which causes the shot to miss. With the second shot the enemy has seemed to find their range and the Odyssey takes 11 points of damage to its rear shields.
Before you can even act passive science routines activate long term scanners and data about the enemy ship populates your data screens. << ENEMY VESSEL: LAWBLIGHT - MEDIUM CLASS TRANSPORT>>
Morvruul skillfully manipulates his console calling up stored subroutines that must have been coded for just such situations and executes a command. Domak's control screen suddenly become more clear. Obstacles are color coded and grouped based on vector and speed and an optimum path is plotted through the swirling cloud that seems almost like child's play compared to his earlier efforts. As Domak pilots the Odyssey out of the cloud in a sigh of collective relive klaxons begin to sound and the red lights of "Battle Stations" being to flash. Somehow, from somewhere, the Odyssey is being fired upon!
Domak sweats over the controls in frantic motion. He is doing well for a moment but nearly gives up in despair when two huge asteroids close on the Odyssey from opposite sides. All seems lost but Jchak-Chtal begins to encourage the pilot, professing faith in the Vesk's skills and Domak redoubles his efforts, narrowly avoiding a near certain death collision. Shields scrape and perhaps paint is lost but the ship squeaks through. Breathing a sigh of relief Domak crests the larger of the asteroids and moves into a sea of swirling ice and stone. There is simply too much to track. No pilot could manage to fly though this hailstorm unscathed without help. In a near panic he calls for aid from his science officer.
I could do that but I am not sure how hard of a fight this will be with no boxes checked off and each box makes it easier. Unless someone can confirm that they have earned Lawblight Barrage I'll proceed with three of the four advantages. This "clue was actually hard to earn so its likely that it was not earned. It required a contest of computer skills from into the Unknown. I am happy for you guys to look though.
While only two people have checked in here four have posted to the gameplay thread. How many players do we expect? There is a 4 player adjustment available for this scenario so I need to know if I should enact it.
To properly set up the threat for this encounter I need to know if any of you have earned the following chronicle sheet boons. I suspect you do not yet have your chronicles but hope you know what you might have earned for each phase. Lawblight Assault
Asteroids obscure both sensors and vision. Small debris strike the shields of your ship and your pilot, perhaps aided by other crew at their stations works the controls to try to avoid the larger threats.
Starting Distance, no peeking.:
Greetings all. Its been more that a few days but both Thanksgiving and house hunting is behind me and I now have the time to try my hand at running. I had somehow missed my invite to the earlier parts of this game and had initially planned to run and had prepped Salvage, but that is all behind me now and GM Redelia has given me the chance to complete my GM training by running the last part of this scenario. I hope everyone is still on board and I invite you to dot the gameplay thread and post in the discussion thread to report in.
Well, I hope you did have a good time with Salvage, but now this is Lawblight. Lets roll! Crewing the Odyssey the crew departs the planet Ulmarid. Asteroids fill the immediate space surrounding the desert world, making any sort of starship navigation exceptionally hazardous. So hazardous that I need a piloting check from your pilot. Others, like the captain and science officer might be able to assist with this check.
Hmm. The last post I got was July 6. I am here and active. Not sure what happened. It looks like that is the quest I was to run. I am a little bummed about this.
Hmm. The last post I got was July 6. I am here and active. Not sure what happened.
So, are we gonna finish up our game? I was scolded for trying to play Rig in this school game and in the interactive. So I dropped the interactive. If we do not finish this game then I guess I would not get a chronicle sheet for it or the interactive. Also I'd sorta like my first try at GMing...
Thanks Redelia!
1. Players who don't post often enough to keep the game moving. This one bothers me and is a primary reason I have not jumped into running PBPs sooner. I do not understand players just vanishing without a word. That seems astoundingly rude to me yet it happens routinely. And while I believe most players have good intentions initially about posting it seems from observation that many never intended to meet the posting requirements. I have toyed with ideas like getting real life email addresses for people so I could remind them in a "stronger" manner than an PM. And even some type of stronger, almost covenant-like commitment to posting. I doubt either would work. I know real life happens but its not that hard to pop in and explain what is going on. 2. Players who are overly argumentative about rules GMs get things wrong about the rules all the time. The rule set is just too complicated for everyone to be an expert all the time about everything. So I strongly believe an avenue must be maintained to discuss (not argue) rule calls. Maybe its fine in the discussion thread. Maybe its better by PM. When I disagree with an important call from a GM I usually PM them and explain why I believe the RAW means what it does. The goal is to be respectful and not argumentative and then be ready to accept table variations on those rules where RAW is not clear. So for me its would be best to spell out the path to discuss rules differences before the game begins. 3. Players who seems to try to 'derail' the adventure I have not seen this as much. At table games I usually have little trouble getting things back on track; sometime with RP, in game hints, or guiding NPCs. But sometimes I am fine just stating that the mod does not go in that direction. This is important when time is a constraint. I know as a player I appreciate this as opposed to GMs that let the group wander pointlessly until there is noo more time. 4. Players who have made characters that make other players uncomfortable. I've only experienced this as a fellow player and wish the GM had done a better job at reeling the other player in. I have left two games because of this and I think those two were the only active games I have quit while the game was in progress. In one cast a player was playing a male prostitute and wanted to get extremely graphic about his "day job" for no plot related reason and constantly tried to seduce the other players. I found it over the limit and quite offensive. Multiple PMs to the GM did not curtail the behavior so I left. A month later the GM PMed me saying the game had fallen apart and he wished he had curtailed the behavior. The other case was likely more me not knowing how to handle the situation. One player at the table was playing a rude dwarven wizard. I mean he was constantly belittling to all the other players in character. Out of character the guy was fine and even apologetic about his PC but maintain that was his personality and that was how he was gonna play him. When I tried to "defend myself" in character I simply became the primary target of this belittling banter. It was constant. I guess in a way this was also a derailing as it made the game about him versus everyone else. I argued that IC no group of adventurers would put up with his company and the only reason he was allowed to be with us was the out of character convention of an adventuring party. GM was silent. I never asked for his help in a PM but did state that unless it got better I would have leave. When I announced I felt I needed to leave the game the player of the dwarf apologized and offered to leave himself, but did not offer to change the way he was playing. But without any GM backing I figured it was more my problem so I left.
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