Diaspora: Session 1
Last night was the first session of play proper in our Diaspora game. There are three players: Beau playing Momoko, a jaded, psychotic alien from a planet so warlike and naturally dangerously that it has been blockaded by the Xay; Julie playing Dora Maxxon, a backstabbing archaeologist looking for the next big score, run off her planet after a fatal mining accident; John playing Z004, a damaged pre-collapse android investigating his past (and the proximal cause of the fatal mining accident).
The game started on the bazaar-island of Qyywyyn (pronounced Kee-Ween) on the planet of Qyyaph (Keeaff) with a phone call from a contact. I had the players roll whatever social skill they wished. The highest roller made as many statements about the NPC as they had result levels over the next highest and everyone who scored at least one point got to make one statement. Beau and Julie players rolled, +3 and +1 respectively. Two statements from Beau: A street urchin; Momoko had caught him pickpocketing two days ago and forced him into his service by violence. Julie added that the urchin (whom I named Percy) had an eyepatch (prior to Momoko's beating). I liked that touch; I had him later use the empty socket as a hiding place.
Percy told them about a guy selling pre-collapse technology (this was highly likely to be relevant to Dora's greed and Z004's investigation). Dora talked to him, arranged a meeting and left. Just before they left the bar, Beau offered John a compel to have Z004 have a psychotic break. John accepted.
After the meeting, they decided that they would track the seller (Karl) if he left the bar. At some point in what followed, someone offered Julie a compel on Dora's "Backstabber" aspect. Z004 and Momoko followed him to a hangar where they were ambushed by two gunmen. They took out their attackers pretty handily with the physically removed Dora assisting by shouting orders into their comnetwork. Thinking that these men were in the employ of Karl, all three assaulted the hangar, mostly using psychological warfare: Intimidation and using a hand flamer to attack the defenders' morale. To some extent this was because of a devastating opening intimidation area attack by Z004 over the hangar's hacked com system, and because none of the three characters had enough agility to move fast enough to engage prepared defenders behind obstacles.
They trapped Karl in a large internal storage area, killed one henchman in a failed attempt to draw him out, and persuaded a second henchman (Raul) to join them (with an amazing charm roll from Dora!). Eventually they caught the belligerent and ballsy Karl, obtained the rest of the pre-collapse tech, offered to pay him, didn't, then left.
Karl has now been statted up as a character with a full (PC level) skill pyramid and including two new aspects: "Betrayed by Dora" and "I will take it out of your hide!"
Later discussion with Raul over noodles (not my idea Mash!) revealed that Karl and his crew found the tech in a dispersing wreckage cloud just within range of the trigger-happy Flotilla in the T85 system, providing an obvious hook for next session.
This was my first outing with Diaspora, my first time GMing FATE 3.0, and my first running of a game of any sort for a while, so there was rust shearing off everywhere! Combat (physical and social) definitely could have been a lot smoother, and I wasn't as prepared as I could have been as far as having a list of player aspects and ideas of things to compel. I definitely need to work on both of those for next time.
81
The game started on the bazaar-island of Qyywyyn (pronounced Kee-Ween) on the planet of Qyyaph (Keeaff) with a phone call from a contact. I had the players roll whatever social skill they wished. The highest roller made as many statements about the NPC as they had result levels over the next highest and everyone who scored at least one point got to make one statement. Beau and Julie players rolled, +3 and +1 respectively. Two statements from Beau: A street urchin; Momoko had caught him pickpocketing two days ago and forced him into his service by violence. Julie added that the urchin (whom I named Percy) had an eyepatch (prior to Momoko's beating). I liked that touch; I had him later use the empty socket as a hiding place.
Percy told them about a guy selling pre-collapse technology (this was highly likely to be relevant to Dora's greed and Z004's investigation). Dora talked to him, arranged a meeting and left. Just before they left the bar, Beau offered John a compel to have Z004 have a psychotic break. John accepted.
After the meeting, they decided that they would track the seller (Karl) if he left the bar. At some point in what followed, someone offered Julie a compel on Dora's "Backstabber" aspect. Z004 and Momoko followed him to a hangar where they were ambushed by two gunmen. They took out their attackers pretty handily with the physically removed Dora assisting by shouting orders into their comnetwork. Thinking that these men were in the employ of Karl, all three assaulted the hangar, mostly using psychological warfare: Intimidation and using a hand flamer to attack the defenders' morale. To some extent this was because of a devastating opening intimidation area attack by Z004 over the hangar's hacked com system, and because none of the three characters had enough agility to move fast enough to engage prepared defenders behind obstacles.
They trapped Karl in a large internal storage area, killed one henchman in a failed attempt to draw him out, and persuaded a second henchman (Raul) to join them (with an amazing charm roll from Dora!). Eventually they caught the belligerent and ballsy Karl, obtained the rest of the pre-collapse tech, offered to pay him, didn't, then left.
Karl has now been statted up as a character with a full (PC level) skill pyramid and including two new aspects: "Betrayed by Dora" and "I will take it out of your hide!"
Later discussion with Raul over noodles (not my idea Mash!) revealed that Karl and his crew found the tech in a dispersing wreckage cloud just within range of the trigger-happy Flotilla in the T85 system, providing an obvious hook for next session.
This was my first outing with Diaspora, my first time GMing FATE 3.0, and my first running of a game of any sort for a while, so there was rust shearing off everywhere! Combat (physical and social) definitely could have been a lot smoother, and I wasn't as prepared as I could have been as far as having a list of player aspects and ideas of things to compel. I definitely need to work on both of those for next time.
81